The Michael Jackson event: memorial service or requiem for a pedophile?

The event at the Staples Center on Tuesday is described as a memorial service for the King of Pop.

As a result of his child molestation accusations and subsequent trial some of his detractors claim the event is a requiem for a pedophile.

Others are calling it a circus and, as if right on cue, elephants from the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus began arriving. The circus will begin on Wednesday at the Staples Center - the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus.


The Michael Jackson circus was held today.

The report at the first link below says:

The true extent of the media hype surrounding the death of Michael Jackson has been exposed.

Fox News reports on air that as the Michael Jackson memorial was starting, tickets were being handed out to bystanders, as embarrassingly empty seats inside the Staples Center signaled reality refusing to conform to media-generated expectations.

The report at the second link describes the arrival of the elephants for the circus that doesn’t begin until tomorrow.

Link here and here.

Mountain rescue dogs

Two Saint Bernard dogs sit in the snow on the Great St. Bernard Pass after returning from their winter quarters in Martigny, Switzerland. The dogs will spend the summer on the pass and return to Martigny towards the end of the year.

From Russia with love (with apologies to Ian Fleming and Sean Connery)

It didn’t take long for Barack Obama to misspeak during his appearance in Russia.

Obama described Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as president.

Putin surrendered the presidency to protege (and puppet) Dmitry Medvedev last May to take the lesser post of prime minister.

Until Obama’s visit, world leaders have been able to deal with the dual leadership in Russia with little difficulty.

At a news conference Obama gave a carefully worded reply about the effectiveness of the leadership tandem when a U.S. journalist bluntly asked "who is really in charge here in Russia?"

But minutes later, speaking about Medvedev's objections to a controversial missile defense system planned for central Europe, Obama slipped: "I suspect when I speak to President..eh.. Prime Minister Putin tomorrow, he will say the same thing."

Mr. Obama would be well advised to stick to the script written for him and projected on his teleprompters.

Mr. Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev agreed to seek a new agreement on reducing their respective nuclear arsenals. While the American media will spin this as watershed diplomacy, reality reminds us that this is a repeat of what was done decades ago.

And the United States president also announced that he reads the poetry of Pushkin. Really? If he were in Athens would he say he reads Zorba the Greek?

Mr. Obama seems more and more to be a combination of Al Gore's grandiosity and Jimmy Carter's cluelessness.


We were given advance warning when the Temple of Obama (pictured) was set up in the Broncos football stadium for his victory speech at the Democratic National Convention.

Bright idea street lighting on demand in Germany

Street lights are just a call away in many German towns. They call it “Dial4Light.”

Every night at 11 p.m. the village of Dörentrup in central Germany is thrown into total darkness. For the past few years, the village's cash-strapped local council has been switching off all the streetlights in the village each evening until 6 a.m. the following morning.

No street lights would have residents stumbling around in the dark. But in Dörentrup they have seen the light (pun intended).

They have a program that allows residents to turn on streetlights on demand using their cell phones.

In the first project of its kind in Europe, the residents of Dörentrup can now switch on the lights on a specific street whenever they like.


All they have to do is register for the scheme online and provide a phone number. Then each time anyone needs to see in the dark, they call the Dial4Light number, enter the six-digit code that corresponds to the stretch of road they want lit, and within seconds the lights are on.

After a resident uses the Dial4Light scheme, the street lights in that area stay on for 15 minutes.

Link

A fragment of the Statue of Liberty is pictured in front of the Bodensee lake during a rehearsal for AIDA at the sea stage on June 17, 2009 in Bregenz, Austria.

New glass balconies on Sears Tower 103rd floor

Visitors to the Sears Tower in Chicago are now treated to unobstructed views of the city from the building's west side and a heart-stopping vista of the street and Chicago River below – for those brave enough to look straight down.

These balconies are not for the faint of heart. Don’t go near them if your are petrified of heights.

The balconies are suspended 1,353 feet (412 meters) in the air and jut out 4 feet (1.22 meters) from the building's 103rd floor Skydeck. They're actually more like boxes than balconies, with transparent walls, floor and ceiling.

The box shaped balconies are made of glass 1.4 inches thick and can hold five tons.

Sears Tower officials have said the inspiration for the balconies came from the hundreds of forehead prints visitors left behind on Skydeck windows every week. Now, staff will have a new glass surface to clean: floors.




The balconies are just one of the big changes coming to the Sears Tower in Chicago. The building's name will also. Later this summer the building will become the Willis Tower.

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Obama assured of chilly reception in Russian

The Obamamania that has swept much of the rest of the world will it be absent when Mr.Obama meets with Russian president Dmitri Medvedev for a summit meeting.

A recent poll by Russia's Levada Centre found only 23 per cent of citizens believe the US president will "do the right thing in world affairs", with many doubting his promise of change will heal antagonisms between Russia and the West.

Makes a difference when the Russian media doesn’t swoon all over him as the US media does.

A long list of issues – from Nato's eastward expansion, to missile defence, to human rights, to the contest for oil and gas in Central Asia – continue to poison relations between the former Cold War superpowers.

Obama will need to have his teleprompters working as they never have before because the Russians see him for what he is.

Russian news agency Pravda was less than subtle in an editorial summing up the Obama administration, headlined: "Obama: Deceiver, cheat, swindler, liar, fraudster, con-artist."

Yes, Pravda gets it!

Link

Independence Day 2009

...testing remote advance posting

Ain’t comin’ out ‘till the firecrackers stop

British comedy actress Mollie Sugden dies at 86

Mollie Sugden was one of a select group of British performers to achieve national treasure status. She was noted for her portrayal of fearsome battleaxes.

Sugden was best known for playing the bossy sales lady Mrs. Slocombe (pictured) in the long-running BBC sitcom Are You Being Served.

The innuendo-laden television comedy was successfully exported for several years and is still being shown on public broadcasting stations in America.


Mollie Sugden is shown above at the funeral of her Are You Being Served co-star Wendy Richard earlier this year. Richard lost her long battle with cancer at age 65.

Link

Minnesotan’s must be sooo proud

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Watchful eye

A man vacuums near a replica of the face of the Statue of Liberty in the statue's visitor center in New York City.

Tourists will be allowed to visit the top of the statue again beginning July 4th.

Baby gorilla at Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha

This 12-day-old gorilla was born to Timu, the world’s first test tube gorilla.

Go after ACORN says judge

A judge in Pennsylvania says somebody has to go after ACORN.

A district judge in southwestern Pennsylvania, who held another ACORN worker for trial on election law violations, urged prosecutors to go after the real culprit, the organization that employed him - ACORN.

"Somebody has to go after ACORN," Senior District Judge Richard H. Zoller said about the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN)

The judge said it's happening all over the country. “All you have to do is turn on the television," he said, referring to voter registration fraud charges brought recently against ACORN and its workers in Nevada.

More of the story here.

Worlds longest yard sale

This gigantic four-day yard sale is held every year beginning on the first Thursday of the month of August (this year it will be August 6-9)

This sale is 654 miles long - from West Unity, Ohio to Gadsden, Alabama - along the highway 127 corridor.

One of the photos below shows a life-size Darth Vadar - just the thing for your front entry hall.

Link

Franken declared winner giving Democrats filibuster proof Senate majority

Al Franken (pictured) was given a Senate victory in Minnesota giving the Democrats their magic 60-vote majority.

The Franken win in Minnesota is reminiscent of an election in the Pacific Northwest five years ago.

Remember the 2004 gubernatorial election in the state of Washington? That’s when Christine Gregoire was declared the winner after three recounts. She was behind in the first two recounts until additional ballots were mysteriously discovered in King County.

Al Franken has followed the same path in his Minnesota Senate race against Norm Coleman. After recounts that even produced ballots mysteriously found in the trunk of an election workers car. In on county there were more votes for Franken than registered voters in on the county.

Mr. Franken has managed to pull a “Gregoire” in Minnesota.

As Joseph Stalin once said - elections are not decided by the people who cast the ballots - elections are decided by the people who count the ballots.

One blogger suggested it may be appropriate for Al Franken to publicly thank ACORN for his win.

We reported on the Al Franken saga four times in the past. Two of those reports can be found here and here.

More on the Franken win here and here.

Meet Al Franken the new Minnesota Senator

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Senator Al Franken, Democrat from Minnesota