August 2009

Allen Stanford taken to hospital: report (Reuters)

Posted Thu, 08/27/2009 - 06:34 by admin

(Reuters) –
CNBC on Thursday reported that accused swindler Allen Stanford was taken to hospital.

Musical Greeting Cards

Posted Thu, 08/27/2009 - 04:07 by admin

The technique of chiptunes with samples synthesized at runtime continued to be popular even on machines with full sample playback capability; because the description of an instrument takes much less space than a raw sample, these formats created very small files, and because the parameters of synthesis could be varied over the course of a composition, they could contain deeper musical expression than a purely sample-based format. Also, even with purely sample-based formats, such as the MOD format, chip sounds created by looping very small samples still could take up much less space.

Chiptune music is relatively unknown in North America, and most of the chiptune artists are European, Australian or Japanese. Due to Myspace, chiptune artists have gained some notoriety. There has however been a small amount of artists coming out of the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

Link

Wood Fence Dallas

Posted Wed, 08/26/2009 - 17:15 by admin

In the United States, the earliest settlers claimed land by simply fencing it in. Later, as the American government formed, unsettled land became technically owned by the government and programs to register land ownership developed, usually making raw land available for low prices or for free, if the owner improved the property, including the construction of fences.

Five foot high fences (over which many people can see and talk) are increasingly being superseded by six-foot fences giving the impression of complete privacy.

Wood Fence Dallas

Broncos sign QB Martin after injury to Simms (AP)

Posted Wed, 08/26/2009 - 17:12 by admin

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. – With backup Chris Simms hobbled by an ankle injury, the Denver Broncos moved to bolster their depth at quarterback Wednesday by signing free agent Ingle Martin.
Simms suffered a high ankle sprain when Seahawks pass rusher Nick Reed fell on his left ankle during the third quarter of Saturday's 27-13 loss at Seattle, and the Broncos have not said how long Simms is expected to be sidelined.
The loss of Simms left starter Kyle Orton and rookie Tom Brandstater as the only healthy quarterbacks on the Broncos roster.
"Under our current situation, with only two quarterbacks that can come out and practice, it felt like it was better for us to do that," add Martin, coach Josh McDaniels said. "He's got good size, a decent arm. He's a smart kid. He's a guy that we felt like could come in and help us compete right now and see what happens."
Martin joined the Broncos in time to take part in Wednesday's practice, though he went through the workout in a numberless orange quarterback's jersey.
"Hopefully, the equipment guys will hook me up tomorrow," Martin said with a smile.
The Broncos are the fourth NFL team for Martin, who was released earlier this month by the Kansas City Chiefs after splitting time last season between their active roster and practice squad. Martin came into the league in 2006 as a fifth-round draft choice of the Green Bay Packers. He also spent two years with the Tennessee Titans.
"When you're a guy like me, you just want an opportunity and that's what I've got here," Martin said. "Hopefully, I can come in and show them a little bit of what I can do and make myself stick."
Martin said he's taking a crash course on the Broncos' offensive scheme in hopes of being able to function in the system as quickly as possible. It was uncertain whether he would see any playing time in Sunday night's exhibition against Chicago.
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NOTES: To make room on the roster for Martin, the Broncos waived running back Marcus Thigpen. ... Running back Lamont Jordan, apparently banged up in the Seattle game, missed a second consecutive day of practice. ... Lost in the hoopla over Bears' quarterback Jay Cutler's return to Denver is Orton's first opportunity to play against his old team. Said Orton, "I look forward to every game that we play, and this is certainly one more chance to face a good defense. They've got a great defense over there and they've been that way for years."

Hooded men slay 12 Indians in Colombia (AP)

Posted Wed, 08/26/2009 - 17:03 by admin

BOGOTA – Hooded men in uniforms without insignias on Wednesday killed 12 members of the Awa indigenous group, including five children, on a reserve in a region plagued by the cocaine trade, authorities said.
Indigenous leaders said the killings took place at 5 a.m on the Gran Rosario reserve about 50 miles (80 kilometers) inland from the Pacific port of Tumaco. The reserve has about 1,500 Awa.
The state governor, Antonio Navarro, told The Associated Press that the victims were all related. The attack killed five men, two women, two boys, two girls and a baby. He said two males, a 10-year-old and a 20-year-old, were wounded in the gunfire but fled and survived.
The identity of the killers was not immediately known.
In February, Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia rebels acknowledged killing eight Awa Indians at a different but nearby reservation for allegedly working as informants for the army.
The area is rife with coca plantations and illegal armed groups — leftist rebels as well as far-right militias — that process the leaf into cocaine and smuggle it out of Colombia, typically down rivers that are the region's main highways.
Navarro said he could not remember a massacre of so many people in Narino state. He said the survivors described the killers as tall, fair-haired men with mustaches, ruling out local Indians.
The director of operations of Colombia's national police, Gen. Orlando Paez, announced a reward for information leading to the arrest of the killers.
Massacres of the magnitude of Wednesday's have been rare since President Alvaro Uribe first took office in 2002 and far-right militias demobilized in a peace deal with his conservative government.
Some 20,000 Awa live in Narino state, Navarro said.
Colombia is home to more than 1 million members of more than 80 indigenous communities. Indians have suffered disproportionately in Colombia's half century-old conflict. So far this year, at least 75 have been killed.
In a recent interview with the AP, the president of the National Organization of Indigenous Colombians, Luis Evelis Andrade, complained that native groups are routinely caught in the crossfire of a conflict that is not theirs.
They represent a disproportionate part of the Colombians forced to flee their homes and villages to escape fighting.
"The lands they gave us — which are the most inhospitable — are today in dispute by armed groups," he said. The same remote reserves also tend to be prime cultivation spots for coca, he said.
___
Associated Press Writer Frank Bajak contributed to this report.

Kuznetsova claws into New Haven quarter-finals (AFP)

Posted Wed, 08/26/2009 - 16:54 by admin

NEW HAVEN, Connecticut (AFP) –
Top-seeded Russians Nikolay Davydenko and Svetlana Kuznetsova booked their quarter-final berths Wednesday at the Pilot Pen hardcourt tournament, last tune-up for the US Open.

Davydenko, who heads the men's field, defeated France's Fabrice Santoro 7-5, 6-3 to advance.

French Open champion Kuznetsova clawed her way past Belgian teenager Yanina Wickmayer 6-4, 5-7, 7-6 (7/2).

Defending women's champion and second seed Caroline Wozniacki also advanced to the quarter-finals, defeating rising Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-1, 6-4.

Kuznetsova, who won here two years ago, will play eighth-seeded Amelie Mauresmo of France in the quarter-finals on Thursday.

Kuznetsova admitted she lost focus at times, and said she knows she'll need to do better if she wants a shot at another Grand Slam title in New York.

"I still have it, so I appreciate that I have it, but I have to work on closing out things when I have the chance to," she said.

Wickmayer earned a break in the third set to give herself a chance to serve for the match, but Kuznetsova broke her back and went on to force the tiebreaker.

"I knew at five-all that if I wanted to win the match, I would have to play perfect," Wickmayer said. "And I almost played perfectly, but I guess in the tiebreaker she was just too good for me."

Denmark's Wozniacki will play unseeded Frenchwoman Virginie Razzano, who advanced when fifth-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland retired. Radwanska won the first set 6-3 but had dropped the second 6-4 when she retired with a hand injury.

In other men's action, seventh-seeded Russian Igor Andreev beat Portuguese qualifier Frederico Gil 6-4, 6-4 and Austrian Jurgen Melzer toppled eighth-seeded Romanian Victor Hanescu 7-6 (7/5), 4-6, 6-1.