http://www.ars-psue.ru/ ru Entertainment, news portal is a lot of articles, movies, games, news DataLife Engine http://www.ars-psue.ru/news/88-why-perry-is-beating-romney.html http://www.ars-psue.ru/news/88-why-perry-is-beating-romney.html

Editor's note: Erick Erickson is a CNN contributor and editor of Redstate.com

(CNN) -- There is a lot of buzz about CNN's new poll that shows Rick Perry seemingly solidifying his lead among Republican in the primary contest. Forty-two percent of Republicans think Rick Perry has the best shot at beating Barack Obama. Forty-five percent of seniors support Perry compared to 21% for Mitt Romney.

There is one question that is not getting as much attention, though in my mind it explains every other question. CNN asked, "Which Republican candidate is most likely to fight for their beliefs?" The winner? Rick Perry with 29%, followed by Sarah Palin at 23%. Mitt Romney? Michele Bachmann? They tied at 11%.

The answer to the question really says very little about Rick Perry and a great deal about Mitt Romney. It plays into the "opportunist" critique that many primary voters have of Romney.]]> Administrator007 Tue, 13 Sep 2011 10:58:42 +0400 http://www.ars-psue.ru/news/87-your-thoughts-on-evolution.html http://www.ars-psue.ru/news/87-your-thoughts-on-evolution.html
The post generated some pretty intense discussions involving readers who do not believe these new findings - or any evidence of human evolution, for that matter - because of their religious beliefs.

blake

Maybe your ancestor, not mine. I was created in the image of God, not evolved from from some lifeless goo over billions of years. The accident of time and chance. I don't have enough faith to believe those kind of fantastical fairy tales.

Religious sentiments such as this received a lot of backlash from readers such as gary, who writes:

Evolution is fact. Deities and demons are pretend. Bible is folklore, myth, superstition and legend.

There's also a large contingent of readers who don't see a contradiction between accepting the facts of science and having religious faith. Judas Priest writes:

Excuse me, but why does believing in god mean denying the wonders of creation that you can see and touch and evaluate? How does accepting that the world is billions of years old, and the universe billions of years older still, deny god? How does observing that things change over time refute god in any way? Why must god, and god's creation, be small enough to be encompassed by your tiny little mind and your tiny little book?]]> Administrator007 Tue, 13 Sep 2011 10:48:11 +0400 http://www.ars-psue.ru/news/86-the-death-and-life-of-a-great.html http://www.ars-psue.ru/news/86-the-death-and-life-of-a-great.html
Especially "It was love at first sight."

After 40 years in business, Borders No. 1, the company's original Ann Arbor store, is scheduled to close on Monday. By late August, posters on the windows declared, "NOTHING HELD BACK!" -- and that meant the fixtures and furniture as well. The goods -- books, but also games and puzzles and teddy bears and throw rugs -- gave off the sour tang of a picked-over flea market.

A lonely security guard stood watch; he was added just recently, an employee said, after a shoplifting incident.

Borders Rewards customers have been receiving e-mails for some time now, ever since the chain declared bankruptcy and announced it was closing its 399 remaining stores. A month ago it was "30 to 50 percent off!" Now it's "60 to 80 percent off!"

There was recently a sign taped to No. 1's front door. It said, "Now Hiring: Apply Online at Borders.com." It was serious -- the liquidators needed to hire part-time help -- but it seemed like a sick joke.

What happened to the love?

"Borders used to be chockablock with books," said Jonathan Marwil, a University of Michigan history professor and author of a history of Ann Arbor. "It has increasingly looked less like a bookstore than a bowling alley, with its wide-open spaces. Now they're selling children's dolls on the front counter. It's really pretty grim."

It was a place where employees were devoted to their jobs. They prided themselves on their knowledge of their assigned sections -- and everybody else's. It was a gathering place and community center, just up the street from the university's main campus.

"We worked when we didn't have to work because we didn't know we were working. We would go into the store when it was closed to do more work," said Sharon Gambin, who arrived for the 1982 holiday season and went on to hold several positions during a three-decade career. "That's how much we loved what we did."

It's an odd thing to mourn for a store. Mourn for the employees who have lost their jobs, yes, but the store? Just another box on the roadside. Hundreds more like it. Move it along, capitalism.

Woolworth is long gone; few were saddened at its passing. Circuit City went belly up; silence. Great downtown department stores have vanished, changed names, disappeared to that Great Retailer in the Sky. (Jacobson's, the upscale department store that once occupied Borders' East Liberty Street storefront, is but one example.) With rare exceptions -- the late Atlanta newspaper columnist Celestine Sibley once wrote a valentine, "Dear Store," to the city's now-defunct retailer, Rich's -- the public yawns.

They'll probably soon forget about Borders as well. To most of the country, it's just another big-box chain, another in a series of disappearing strip-mall storefronts. Indeed, there's an irony in its demise, for as Borders is blamed for killing off some local independents, now it has been done in by Amazon and the Internet. The circle may go 'round again: Former customers may turn to independents, if their towns have them. Or, if they rule out their local chain, maybe they'll just go back to browsing on Amazon.

A shame, because when done right, there's something about a bookstore.

It's a library, a gathering spot, a refuge, a journey. Often it's small, maybe an 800-square-foot storefront jammed into a city street. Or it's idiosyncratic: an old house or converted barn, a rambling lobby or strip-mall space. It may not even be in your neighborhood, but that's where you go.

At its best, it's crowded: sometimes with people, always with books -- books stacked to the ceiling. Books lined up in bookcases. Books spread out on tables, highlighted on platforms, displayed in twirling, 5-foot-high wire racks.

Don't know what you're looking for? That's part of the adventure. A bookstore is governed by serendipity. You walk in and the world falls away. There's no rush. It's just you and the books, these pockets of words and paper that somehow transport you to a different place.

The best bookstores have a certain feel, a certain comfort to them. They're stately but not forbidding. The employees are a mix of the young and the eccentric, college students and lifers. The front of the store features their recommendations, a little offbeat, a little intriguing. If you're looking for something specific, they know where to find it; if you don't know what you're looking for, they can be your Virgil and Beatrice, guiding you through the world.

It is a place with a soul.

For much of its 40-year history, that was Borders. Though it was a chain, with hundreds of locations around the world, during its best years it maintained the feel of a great, expansive local bookstore, the 800-foot space multiplied by 10 or 20 (and much better organized). The choices were manifold, the employees passionate, the adventure always beginning.

In some towns and cities, Borders was it.

"I find in books a comfort and a companionship, a refuge from an urgently insistent world," wrote Ann Miller in the Longmont (Colorado) Weekly about the closing of that town's Borders, its only new-book bookstore. "I am worried about the folding of bookstores like Borders and the lost opportunity for browsing. ... There was no better place for grazing the written word and for meeting the best of friends."

Joe Gable, who managed Store No. 1 from the mid-'70s to the mid-'90s, puts it more simply.
]]> Administrator007 Tue, 13 Sep 2011 10:47:06 +0400 http://www.ars-psue.ru/news/85-the-new-face-of-the.html http://www.ars-psue.ru/news/85-the-new-face-of-the.html
The Malone location is what the U.S. Postal Service has dubbed a "village" post office. It's inside Red's Hop N' Market, the town mini-mart where locals like to buy lottery tickets and a case of beer before the weekend.

It's the only village post office in the country, but soon a similar hybrid may be coming to a town near you.

As the Postal Service buckles under a $9 billion debt, the mail agency has looked for ways to slash operating costs.

"The primary thing we look at is how much revenue they (post offices) generate (and) has that revenue been going down," said Ernie Swanson, a spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service in Seattle.

"(At) a lot of these offices, there's a postmaster and no other employee. So do they have an hour or two of work a day, and we are paying them for eight hours?"

Some 3,700 post offices may soon face being turned into village post offices, according to the Postal Service. Last week, Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe testified at a Senate hearing that as many as 220,000 post office employees could lose their jobs in the restructuring.

Postmaster general's warning to Congress

For Malone -- the test ground for the first village post office -- having mail service quite literally put the town on the map.

Search for Malone on Google Maps, and the only landmark that comes up for the entire town is the original, now closed, post office.

Cheryl Kim and her husband, Johnny, own the Red's Hop N' Market, where the village post office is located.

When the couple received a letter last year from the Postal Service inquiring whether they would incorporate the post office into their store, Cheryl Kim said they were confused.]]> Administrator007 Tue, 13 Sep 2011 10:45:05 +0400 http://www.ars-psue.ru/news/84-tenth-anniversary-in-new-york.html http://www.ars-psue.ru/news/84-tenth-anniversary-in-new-york.html The tenth anniversary of 9/11 was a relatively quiet one, from what I saw. Starting off at St. Paul's Chapel, in lower Manhattan, I met up with my friend and fellow photographer Brenna around 11am. We saw a group of protestors holding signs and wearing T-shirts that said "The Bush Regime Engineered 9-11" and "9/11 Was An Inside Job". They were standing across the street from the Chapel, where visitors came to tie a ribbon and pay their respects to the victims of 9/11. The entire area around City Hall and Ground Zero was cordoned off and under heavy security. Apart from some heated exchanges, the inside-jobbers were allowed to stage their protest.



After St. Paul's Chapel, we visited the Madina Masjid, a mosque in the East Village, which is overseen by Imam Hafiz Choudhury. Imam Choudhury has been at the Masjid for thirty-five years. He and his fourteen-year-old son Ahsan showed us around. My colleague Brenna, an Irish-American woman, was allowed access to all areas of the mosque, and Imam Choudhury took the time to patiently explain some prayer rituals to her, including where the women sit during prayer (in the back, behind a curtain). I asked if the Masjid had faced any trouble in the neighborhood, and Imam Choudhury waved away my concerns, saying that they never had any problems as a mosque in the East Village of New York City. His friendliness and openness probably had a lot to do with the mosque's peaceful relationship with its neighbours. Outside the Masjid, seventeen-year-old Shumon was selling perfumes and other Muslim knicknacks from a sidewalk table -- a business that he inherited from his grandfather. Shumon arrived in the US one and half years ago, from Sylhet, Bangladesh. His English is rapidly improving, and he is in school taking extra lessons. We were welcomed warmly by everyone at the mosque, and spoke to our hosts at length. We thanked everyone for their time, and moved on to our next event, the ICP.]]> Administrator007 Tue, 13 Sep 2011 10:43:40 +0400 http://www.ars-psue.ru/news/83-september-11-memorial.html http://www.ars-psue.ru/news/83-september-11-memorial.html
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, members of the city council and some 9/11 victims' family members welcomed the first visitors to the 9/11 memorial plaza that opened on schedule Monday.

"The opening fulfills a promise we made to the families on the 10-year anniversary and keep it open for them and the rest of the world forever to reflect on what happened and to honor the 9/11 victims and heroes," said Bloomberg, who is also the 9/11 Memorial chairman.

Families of victims were able to visit the memorial Sunday during ceremonies honoring those who were killed in the September 11, 2001, attacks that brought down the twin towers.

"We're so proud of this memorial," said Monica Iken, who lost her husband, Michael, in the attacks and was able to visit the memorial, along with other victims' families Sunday. "I can go see Michael. He's home."
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Monday's visitors passed through metal detectors and surveillance cameras as they began making their way to the the two huge, square fountains that mark the footprints of the World Trade Center towers.

The fountains' water flows into granite reflecting pools at the center of the eight-acre, tree-lined plaza. Bronze plates surround the fountains and bear the names of the nearly 3,000 people killed in the 2001 attacks, as well as the six who were killed when a terrorist truck bomb exploded in the parking garage beneath the towers in 1993.

Some of the visitors were visibly emotional as they walked into the plaza Monday. Some rubbed their fingers across the etched names of those who died. One man took out a paper and stenciled over a name and carefully rolled up the paper to take with him.

The names forming the perimeter where the North Tower stood are those who died in the building and the passengers on American Airlines Flight 11, which was crashed into it, as well as the six dead from the 1993 bombing.

The South Tower site includes the names of dead who were in that building and United Flight 175, as well as the names of the first responders who were killed, the dead from the crash of American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon, and the dead of United Flight 93, which crashed in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.]]> Administrator007 Tue, 13 Sep 2011 10:42:15 +0400 http://www.ars-psue.ru/news/82-americans-going-to-canada-to-find-work.html http://www.ars-psue.ru/news/82-americans-going-to-canada-to-find-work.html
But the jittery state of the U.S. economy is driving an increasing number of its citizens to seek better prospects north of the border.

Americans are the latest economic refugees, and they’re heading to Canada.

As he prepares to campaign for re-election, U.S. President Barack Obama is expected to make a speech Thursday night that calls for immediate stimulus spending to create jobs and improve infrastructure.

But those reforms will be difficult to make. Republicans, who control the House of Representatives, have resisted any efforts to boost the economy through additional spending.

As life in the U.S. worsens, prospects in Canada seem all the brighter.

Canadian officials say the number of Americans applying for temporary work visas doubled between 2008 and 2010.

Read: Pension debate heats up.

Immigration lawyers in Toronto and the border city of Windsor, right across from job-starved Detroit, say they’re seeing a dramatic growth in clients seeking to come to Canada to work, or even as permanent residents.

So, is this a reversal of fortunes on an historic scale? Has Canada become "el Norte"?

Well, not quite. The number of U.S. citizens working in Canada is, at least by global migration standards, relatively small with some 30,000 at the beginning of last year.

Still, Americans make up the second-largest group of temporary workers in Canada, behind only Filipinos, most of whom work as nannies.

Canada was one of the few to escape the 2008 financial meltdown relatively unscathed, a turn of events largely attributed to Ottawa’s long-standing refusal to deregulate the banking sector.

“I’m looking for a quiet, calm, sane, civilized society to start the next phase of my life,” said Michael, an out-of-work, white-collar professional from Michigan who is seeking a temporary visa to come to Canada.

Like several others interviewed for this article, he did not want his full name used for fear of drawing unwanted scrutiny to his application.

Though he describes himself as both patriotic and a conservative, Michael says he’s lost faith in U.S. leadership — “on both sides of the aisle” — for failing to stem the excesses that led to the collapse of Wall Street, and for the current political brinkmanship over the debt ceiling.

“I’m looking for a country where the first role of the government is to protect its citizens,” he said. “It looks to me like all [of Canada’s] three major political parties seem to have proven that they are much more responsible than our leadership.”

Workers like Michael are drawn to Canada’s lower unemployment rate — 7 percent in July compared to 9.1 in the U.S. — and sustained economic strength in major centers such as Toronto, which alone attracts an estimated 100,000 new arrivals a year.]]> Administrator007 Sun, 11 Sep 2011 00:53:19 +0400 http://www.ars-psue.ru/news/81-reporter-killed-in-afghanistan-in-case-of-mistaken-identity.html http://www.ars-psue.ru/news/81-reporter-killed-in-afghanistan-in-case-of-mistaken-identity.html

(CNN) -- A reporter was killed by a U.S. service member last July in southern Afghanistan in a case of mistaken identity, according to the results of an investigation by NATO's International Security Assistance Force.

Ahmad Omid Khpalwak -- a free-lancer for the BBC and Pajhwok News Agency in Afghanistan -- was killed during an insurgent attack in the Uruzgan province city of Tarin Kowt on July 28. He was 25 and joined the BBC in May 2008 as a stringer, the network said.

"Mr. Khpalwak was shot by an ISAF member who believed he was an insurgent that posed a threat and was about to detonate a suicide vest improvised explosive device," the NATO-led force said in a statement Thursday. ISAF identified the soldiers at the scene as Americans.

"The investigating officer found that the ISAF member involved in this incident complied with the laws of armed conflict and rules of engagement and acted reasonably under the circumstances."

Peter Horrocks, director BBC Global News, said the death is "a tragedy for his family and friends as well as his colleagues at the BBC."

It "further highlights the great dangers facing journalists who put their lives on the line to provide vital news from around the world," he said. "It is essential that journalists are given the best possible protection whilst reporting in dangerous situations so that the world can hear their stories."

Insurgents staged what ISAF said was a "complex attack" on a number of targets, including the provincial governor's compound and the Radio Television Afghanistan compound. The Committee to Protect Journalists said at least 22 people were killed and 37 people were injured.

Gen. John R. Allen, commander of ISAF, appointed an independent investigating officer to examine the circumstances of the death.

The report said two insurgents gained entry to the RTA compound when they used a car bomb to destroy a gate and a section of the wall.

From inside the building they traded fire with uniformed Afghan forces and shot at U.S. soldiers arriving at the scene. The firing from the insurgents eventually stopped amid escalating force by the Americans.

Afghan leadership told the forces that two suicide bombers were in the RTA building and that they "were not aware of any civilians present," ISAF said.]]> Administrator007 Sun, 11 Sep 2011 00:52:03 +0400 http://www.ars-psue.ru/news/80-police-investigating-apple-house-search.html http://www.ars-psue.ru/news/80-police-investigating-apple-house-search.html
San Francisco police were flooded with inquiries and barraged with criticism after releasing a statement on Friday saying four officers had aided Apple, which sent two of its security officials to search a man's home for a "lost item."

At the time of the search last month, Apple declined to file a formal report with the police. Apple did not find the device at the man's home, police said.

The item they were looking for was a prototype for the next iPhone that was lost in a bar, according to CNET, making this the second time in as many years that an Apple employee has lost a prototype while out for drinks. CNET reported earlier Wednesday that the police had opened an investigation.

Lt. Troy Dangerfield confirmed that police are now investigating the case, but he declined to comment further, citing a policy that prohibits officials from discussing open investigations.]]> Administrator007 Sun, 11 Sep 2011 00:50:22 +0400 http://www.ars-psue.ru/news/79-elephants-and-livestock-battle-for-water-in-east-africa.html http://www.ars-psue.ru/news/79-elephants-and-livestock-battle-for-water-in-east-africa.html
Conservationists say that in Kenya livestock herders and their animals are encroaching on water sources in protected areas, which is having a potentially devastating impact on the wildlife there -- particularly elephants.

With the region getting hotter and dryer the battle for water is going to become even more of a problem in the future, says Angela Sheldrick, director of the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust (DSWT), an organization that protects animals in Kenya.

"The incursion of livestock into Kenya's protected areas in search of pasture has in recent years put additional strain on the wildlife numbers," Sheldrick said.

"Areas that in the past might have sustained the wildlife through the tougher years no longer can, with the added impact of domestic stock," she continued.

One group that has traditionally lived in harmony with wildlife is Kenya's semi-nomadic Maasai people. But even that relationship is shifting.

Uneasy truce between Maasai and nature

Sheldrick says that in recent years the Maasai have sold much of their land to other tribes who are now cultivating and irrigating strategic water points that have been on elephants' migratory routes for millions of years.
In drought conditions, when water points are few and possessively guarded, the Maasai and wildlife do come into regular conflict.
Angela Sheldrick, director DSWT

She points out that farming and elephants are never a good mix, with the mammal capable of destroying a farmer's crop in just a few hours.

"In drought conditions, when water points are few and possessively guarded, the Maasai and wildlife do come into regular conflict -- particularly elephants," she said.

Jan de Leeuw, from the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), says during periods of drought people get desperate.

"Herders have animals which are thirsty and because these are areas which have very few water points if wells don't have water they might have to walk 50-100 kilometers to find another," he said.

Leeuw says that Ethiopian herders have told him that during times of drought rules about certain areas being protected for livestock in their opinion can be broken.

'Green drought' hides hunger in Ethiopia

But it's not just the livestock that's using areas it shouldn't says Leeuw.

"Based on aerial surveys in Kenya we see that two thirds of the wildlife wanders out of the protected areas during dry seasons in search of water," he said.

"In areas with crops elephants tend to eat these, which is leading to reactions of people," he continued.

In the Tsavo conservation area, home to the country's largest population of elephants, the DSWT has helped the Kenyan Wildlife Service set up some artificial water points.

The new water sources, in the form of boreholes and windmills that pump water, are intended to provide much-needed relief to the herds of elephants.

But Sheldrick says water issues need to be dealt with carefully as what seems like a quick fix can actually become damaging in the longer term.

"For example, when considering water points in a national park, this can attract more livestock and more human pressure to the area, and ultimately be more detrimental than beneficial," she said.

"However, with many rivers that used to flow all year round now drying up for months at a time this has had to be addressed," she continued.

The DSWT is famous in particular for hand rearing orphaned elephants and it runs what has been described as the world's most successful rescue and rehabilitation center for orphaned elephants.
Kenya cannot afford to lose more elephants, as already our elephant populations are significantly less than they were years ago.
Edwin Lusichi, Nairobi Elephant Orphanage

But these are difficult times for Kenya's elephants.

"They are always first to feel the effects of drought, due to their inefficient digestive system, with much passing straight through them, and because they impact the vegetation as they do," explained Sheldrick. "Nature has made them fragile."

Edwin Lusichi is head keeper of the Nairobi Elephant Orphanage; he's concerned that if the drought persists the land will no longer be able to sustain the elephant population that's already dwindling under threat from loss of habitat and human pressures.]]> Administrator007 Sun, 11 Sep 2011 00:49:00 +0400