The magnolia cloister was been chosen to arrange this Uberti work, all realized by neon lamps.

This photo shows how it appears during the daylight, but it should be viewed at the sunset.

I have never and could never have said that I was, or am, poor.  The thought of lacking anything never crossed my mind; I had a place to live, food to eat, and a family.  I had, in a sense, everything a child needs, albeit lacking some social experience.  This was the first part of my life.  As I grew older, however, I became exposed to the ever-present and immortal influence of the word "more".  More space, more stuff, more money, more "as seen on TV", more everything.  Now, I'm not saying that more is bad.  It is our nature to desire a comfortable and, if lucky, luxurious life.  My parents had already been exposed and convinced by the influence of "more" through their experiences with the love-hate relationship we have with life.  Following in their footsteps - and those of the multitudes that have lived and died in this world - I, past my naivety, was enlightened and began to desire.  Desire is a craving - a craving for the physical.  Having opened my eyes to the reality of life, as well as the struggle of the people that live within that reality (which would be everyone), I desire anything and everything.  I desire money.  I desire power.  I desire big estates, businesses, and the world, even.  The thing is, I desire because I am afraid.  I am afraid of a less than comfortable life.

Since starting to desire anything and everything, I have moved on to other things.  I admit that my fear of life and desire for the physical were cultivated by international media, Western culture, and the environments I lived in, in which everyone else had "more".  Frankly, I am still about waist-deep in desire, but I have pulled myself partially into the realm of want.  Want is different from desire in that it is not necessarily associated with the physical.  Want is what we often call "dreams" or "aspirations" - our "calling"; the subject of the want is often attainable.  That is, if circumstances allow and one works hard enough.  I've gone through several wants.  I wanted to become a doctor.  I wanted to start a business.  I wanted to take over the world.  These wants, however, are still tied to the physical desire of money and power, which is perfectly acceptable; many people aspire to become or do things that will improve their lives.  This is not good enough for me.  I want to know.  How ever was I influenced to "want to know"?  Existence influenced - and influences - me.  Every single waking moment, most of us learn something.  But with every one of those moments, we learn that we don't know much at all.  Existence mocks us and leads us on, allowing us a glimpse of hope that we might know everything.  This. Frustrates. Me.

What do I long for?  The impossible.  Longing is the desire, the want, the craving; it is what you find yourself seeking after you have attained everything you ever wanted and desired.  I feel the longing deep within me - in my soul, if you will.  Experience.  You may have never imagined it, but what if you could experience everything the world - no, existence itself - had to offer?  Fly, swim, jump, fall, and fight.  Not just as a human being, but as other animals, bugs, plants, extraterrestrials even, if you believe in such things.  Be black, white, Asian, Latino, your choice.  You can stick with those if you want, though.  As for me, I long for anything and everything.  I long for the experience of sickness, immunity, insanity, nirvana, soul-shattering sorrow, indescribable joy, loneliness, and community.  I long for contact with aliens, travel across universes, time, and dimensions, discovery of other forms of life, and - the finale of existence - death.

The Hubble space telescope has revealed the goings-on of the universe since 1990. The plan was to maintain and upgrade it for many years but now all service flights have been descheduled.

Hubble was to be visited as needed by the Space Shuttle but since the loss of the Columbia those high-orbital flights are considered too dangerous. As it stands, orbit decaying, the telescope will strike the atmosphere and be obliterated.

I have created desktop wallpaper of my favorite Hubble images. They are highest-quality and without signature or logos. You are welcome to visit my pbase and collect them for your own noncommercial use. Be sure to select the ‘original' size.
Peace,
P.

In essence, if we want to find life on alien planets, we have to study a planet known to host life to determine what clues to look for, scientists say.

The researchers are using the European Space Agency's Venus Express satellite, in orbit around our neighbor planet, to study Earth from afar, where it appears smaller than a pixel in the spacecraft's cameras, with no surface details visible. ...

So far, the project has learned that tracking down signs of life and livability is not as easy as it sounds.

"We see water and molecular oxygen in Earth's atmosphere, but Venus also shows these signatures," Piccioni said. "So looking at these molecules is not enough."

A more subtle signal that could differentiate the two types of worlds is the so-called red edge – the infrared signal caused by photosynthetic life. "Green plants are bright in the near infrared," Grinspoon said.

The Venus Express team is only beginning to analyze the Earth data to see if our planet's red edge is detectable from a distance. ...

The study could prove vital in scientists' ongoing quest to learn more about the ever-growing catalog of distant worlds we've found in the galaxy.

It's those newly discovered planets that makes the discovery so potentially promising:

Since 1995, astronomers have discovered more than 300 extrasolar planets. And two new satellite missions — the ESA/French Space Agency COROT satellite currently in orbit and NASA's Kepler Mission spacecraft set to launch in March 2009 — bring us closer to the holy grail of exoplanet research: finding Earth-sized worlds around other stars.

A website is hosted on a computer system known as a web server/web hosting, also called an HTTP server, and these terms can also refer to the software that runs on these system and that retrieves and delivers the Web pages in response to requests from the website users. Apache is the most commonly used Web server software (according to Netcraft statistics) and Microsoft's Internet Information Server (IIS) is also commonly used.

In information technology, Website is one of important thing as a promotion tools, everyone can have a website, like personal website (blog), commercial website (.com, .biz, etc), government website (.go.xx), and non-profit organization (.org).

A website is a collection of Web pages, images, videos or other digital assets that is hosted on one or more web servers/web hosting , usually accessible via the Internet.

A web hosting service is a type of Internet hosting service that allows individuals and organizations to provide their own website accessible via the World Wide Web.

Web hosts are companies that provide space on a server they own for use by their clients as well as providing Internet connectivity, typically in a data center.

Web hosts can also provide data center space and connectivity to the Internet for servers they do not own to be located in their data center, called colocation.

Hosting uptime refers to the percentage of time the host is accessible via the internet. Many providers state that they aim for a 99.9% uptime, but there may be server restarts and planned (or unplanned) maintenance in any hosting environment.

Web hosting customer need information about web hosting service perfomances. One of website that give the guide about to choose the best web hosting is Web Hosting Pal, this site give you information about Best Web Hosting and Best Web Hosting Reviews (This is Web Hosting Pal's top ten web hosting list).

Most Recommended Web Host in Web Hosting Pal is: BLUEHOST. BlueHost is offering an Unlimited Domain Hosting plan which allows you to host as many different websites as you need with the same hosting account! It comes with an unlimited amount of disk space & bandwidth, 2,500 email accounts, FTP accounts, MySQL databases, 1 click Wordpress installations, FREE Domain for LIFE and a lot more!

Be a smart costumer to chose best Web Hosting just visit Web Hosting Pal now and Find the Best Web Host for You. Happy Hosting :-)

Study: Vitamin D Insufficiency Often Accompanies Parkinson's Disease

Oy Vey! Israeli-Jewish historian breaks cultural taboo by publishing book saying most of today's Jews have no connection to Holy Land

Peru names new Prime Minister after cabinet's resignation

New machine has capability to print sheets that can be hung up on wall and used to light rooms

UK House of Lords deals fatal blow to 42-day terror detention plans

Thai farmers opinion on the government and their former PM who got coup'd shortly after introducing measures that helped poor rural farmers

Britain buys up stakes in two of their biggest banks, and Sarkozy goes candid - bailout comes with strings attatched

Iraqi Prez Nouri Al-Maliki to Britain: Time to pack it up

North Korea allows back UN nuke inspectors - Shortly after the Jong got that mysterious stroke too. What is going on in there?

US Game designer jets into space with DNA cargo - What is this, some Noah's Ark deal or something? First a seed vault in the Arctic, and now this?

Continuing to reform itself, Goldman Sachs seeks exclusive New York bank charter

AJ.

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It is time for me to introduce you to another interesting member of the allvoices community: Bronco! Bronco is from Littleton CO, and has been a member of the site since July  27, 2008. He writes for the site, but also provides lots of images as well. He likes to track international relations issues. He travels quite a bit. (Speaking of which: Bronco - you should share some on your travels!)

When I asked Bronco my standard community interview questions, his answers were just like him: Thought provoking. What would he like to see on allvoices? "…unique perspectives on interesting or breaking news."  He also commented that he wishes that people appreciated that "… mass media many a times does not provide realistic perspectives." He went on to express his wish that people would come to "...sites like allvoices to learn about what is really happening in USA and around the world."

When asked what he would like to see more of on allvoices, his opinion was clear - more on the context of the news and how it impacts you. Concentrating on the context might just bring you more connection with the rest of the world - it would definitely help you to get the page view rates that Bronco gets!

Bronco's pieces almost always get a reaction out of me. Some of his pieces have caused me to rise to anger, some to laugh, some to think, and some to worry. One of my favorite of his images is the Temporarily Shutdown one from earlier this month. If you haven't read his piece of the day, you want to check it out. (Today, that piece is Should McCain take Anger Management Classes?

When I go to the site, it surprises me how few members of the community respond to Bronco's pieces.  As thought provoking as they are, I would have expected everyone to be reading and talking about them. He is definitely a voice you should be hearing!

It seems that Blossom Goodchild, a psychic from Australia, has channeled this information and posted it onto her site, which can be found HERE.

The reason I tell you this... is because it is bad news for some people.... if you are an environmentalist, I am sure with the addition of being pure at heart about it, then no worries. But if not.... well:

"Friends of earth. Do not be afraid. We beseech you to TRUST that we come to bring the downfall of those who have misintentions for the well being of your planet."

Here is a few pictures of the show :

Outside:

Inside:

Catalogue:

Thanks for reading dudes!

-Noltosmot

SPECIAL THANKS TO VH1 FOR SUCH AN EXCELLENT ARTICLE. PLEASE VISIT THE ORIGINAL BLOG POSTING HERE! Also, more contestant interviews, pictures and inside scoop about The PickUp Artist 2 can be found at PickUpTara.com

Last season on The Pickup Artist, International Man named Mystery turned a gaggle of lovable but lady-challenged boys into set-opening men who could bounce with the girl of their choice.  It warmed our cockles to see eight underdogs all have a chance at love, not just with the ladies, but also by learning to love themselves. And as Ms. Whitney once said, that’s the greatest love of all. The winner of last season, Kosmo, has traveled the world as one of Mystery’s wingmen, teaching other down-on-their-lady-luck men how a pluck of the eyebrows can make all the difference.
This season, Mystery is joined once again by his wingman Matador, and kissing instructor Tara takes a role as wing woman. From the get-go I decide it’s my own personal mission to figure out what all the text behind Mystery actually says in the opening credits - perhaps they are transcripts of his teachings.

I was trying to read all the scrolling words but was distracted when a cocoon of butterflies exploded from Mystery’s palm.

Next time, I won’t let myself get off target.

Unlike last year, Mystery gets tough from the start and this first episode will mean elimination for one of our contestants. First off, we’re introduced to Todd, 26, the “every gal’s best friend” guy and Rian, a 28-year-old virgin from Portland…

…before cutting back to Tara who’s sitting at the pool at the guys’ new house in Phoenix. Tara tells them to pick rooms in the house and get ready - the guys will be meeting Mystery soon.

Next up we meet Simeon, a 27-year-old poetry-slammer who lived on a boat.

In Simeon’s interview, he professes his desire to have someone to sleep next to and take away his loneliness. At the house, we cut to him jumping on the bed yelling “Bounce test!” which only reinforces that. You want to make sure you’re providing your sleeping lover the firmness she needs, he’s clearly just being sensitive.

Karl, 21 and brokenhearted, stayed with a cheating girlfriend for three months and was the only guy in the group to not have a rolling suitcase as they walked along the blazing Arizona pavement.

Judgement will be reserved once we see how he is around women. Immediately we’re loving Matt who calls himself a mix of Austin Powers and Lauren Hutton (how many 26-year-old guys make Lauren Hutton references?) and in his audition tape he pulls up his shirt to display a small throw rug of chest hair that adds to his insecurity.

Greg is the resident long-haired guy whose makeover (spoiler alert!) features the Coming to America braid-chop.

Brian wins us over by telling us that the only place he’s ever planted his lips is on his mom’s forehead.

We do wish someone would show Brian Crocodile Dundee, though, doesn’t every kid learn what a bidet is from that movie? Kevin, 21, is the VH1 online winner who is sick of being shot down by the ladies.

And rounding out the bunch is gold-chain wearing Alex, who women assume is gay.

At this point, Mystery calls the house and, bless these guys for never working in a soulless corporate office, they can’t figure out where the conference phone is when it’s ringing. Once they realize that it’s the thing that looks vaguely like a Cylon Raider sitting on the counter, they cool out and answer it.

Mystery tells them to hop the Bus of Destiny and meet him and his wings downtown where they’ll be released into the wild so Mystery can assess their skills. Brian, at a loss for well, common phrases, tells us that his first impression of Mystery is that he’s “smokin’ balls tonight”. Is Mystery even into that?

Over at the Acme Bar and Grill, the guys prove to a bundle of nerves and failure, with Kevin asking a group of girls if he can go deeper with them (ew) and Matt asking girls the price of their drinks. Hirsute Simeon gets told he looks like Osama Bin Laden.

When Alex fails to act on the attention he receives for his gold chains, Mystery throws his hands up in frustration and decides to show the boys how it’s done (without wearing his signature hat or goggles as conversation pieces). Mystery and Matador work the room while the guys watch from the Surveillance Truck of Watching and Learning. The M and M’s hug and kiss their way through the club with such smoothness that the guys nearly pee with excitement.

The next day is makeover day! Man, do we love a good makeover, and when Mystery asks “Do you look like the type of men who are sexually active?” and the resounding answer is “No”, the boys start to love a good makeover too. They learn that accessories are sexual and that all white suits make you look a touch Miami Vice.

Hair and makeup (and in Matt’s case, dental and waxing) are endured and in all honesty, these boys clean up nice.

Back at the ranch, Alex throws his gold chain into the bulk-metal recycling bin…

…and the fashion show begins for the rest.

Simeon struts his clean-shaven self and Tara calls him Osama Bin Sexy. Rian, who has a slight breakdown at the clothing store looks preppy-pimpy and totally adorable. While there was no official winner of the episode, our vote goes to Greg, whose braid was ceremonially chopped and he became unrecognizable and flat-out hot.

The guys are grilling up hot dogs to celebrate their nicely fitting pants when dun dun DUN! Mystery arrives to ruin the fun by telling the guys that one of them will be going home. Ultimately, like a parent trying to teach his children, Mystery explains that the one contestant he was most disappointed in at the bar the previous night was the one who was actually approached and hit on and couldn’t even respond - it’s game over for Alex. Like his gold chain before him, Alex is out of the house, but it’s only the beginning for the rest of our future pickup artists.

]]> http://pickuptara.wordpress.com/2008/10/13/138/ Mon, 13 Oct 2008 15:54:23 +0000 pickuptara http://blog.pickuptara.com/2008/10/13/138/ Tara of PickUpTara.com Interviews Alex from VH1's The Pickup Artist 2 PART 1

Tara from PickUpTara.com and VH1's The PickUp Artist 2 interviews Alex about his experience on the show, what changes he has made in his life and how it felt being the first person kicked off of the show. Make sure to check out part 2 of the interview and visit www.pickuptara.com. Go talk with Alex now on his PickUpTara.com profile page: http://www.pickuptara.com/profile/Alex

Becky Anderson | BIO
CNN International anchor

This was one of those moments in any journalist’s career when you realize just how lucky you are to do your job. What wouldn’t anyone give to get the chance to interview Isaac Newton or Albert Einstein? Professor Stephen Hawking is arguably our generation’s most important scientist and this was my Eureka moment.

Aside from the rather vacuous fact that I’d get a chance to get my photo taken with this great man, getting to spend time in the presence of such a brilliant thinker was one of those rare opportunities in life when u sit back and think… wow.

He first achieved international fame with the publication of the scientific bestseller “A Brief History of Time 2 decades ago.

I have to admit that it’s not easy to sit down with a man whose only means of communication is a sort of vague blinking of the eye. It’s with a slight muscle twitch that he activates his voice synthesizer rigged up to a computer that’s pre-loaded with the answers to my submitted questions. He is disabled by a condition that has left him almost completely paralyzed.

It was a humbling experience. And a real learning experience in life for me.

Just consider what he said: “I see great dangers for the human race. There have been a number of times in the past when its survival has been a question of touch and go. The Cuban missile crisis in 1963 was one of these. The frequency of such occasions is likely to increase in the future. We shall need great care and judgment to negotiate them all successfully. But I’m an optimist. If we can avoid disaster for the next two centuries, our species should be safe, as we spread into space.”

“I don’t think the human race has a moral obligation to learn about space, but it would be foolish and short sighted not to do so. It may hold the key to our survival,” he told me.
I asked how his beliefs have shifted in the last 2 decades, to which he noted that the one major development that was not anticipated, was the discovery that the expansion of the universe is accelerating now, rather than slowing down.

Last year, Hawking took the skies above Florida and experienced zero-gravity onboard a commercial jet especially converted for weightless flights.

Now he is looking forward to a space flight of his own next year.

“The Zero G flight last year was wonderful. After 40 years in a wheelchair, it was so good to be floating free. But the flight was just a warm up for space. The real thing should be much better, and last much longer. The sky will be black, and the stars will shine brightly”.

Thank you Professor Hawking.

click video

My first 'babe' on this list is not even an alien, such is the sauciness of this particular human. Everyone makes a big fuss about Uhura being the first 'black woman' on tv, but I argue she is more significant than that; she was the first WOMAN on the screen.

Imagine coming home from school in the sixties, switching on the tv and seeing this fit as hell lady o the screen in her skin tight miniskirt and with that sexy-minx-like voice purring away at you. It is enough to make any adolescent swell. And she kept up with the times. In the seventies she was the ultimate in Blaxploitation Cool and in her later years, aged better than her other trek compatriots. While TOS had its fair share of hotties from around the galaxy, it was always Uhura who stood out, week after week and in all six film adventures that she starred in. COmpare this with te rest of the telly shows. She revolutionised the way we guys watched tv. Suddenly, sports were no longer the only distraction in our lives...

And what was her best moment on screen? Well, it simply as to be the Fan Dance in Star Trek V, the best moment of that film. Not even the most hard-hearted alien could resist her charms...

---

(NOTE: This week, I will probably hemorrhage readers. So for something far more educational, read the CWP Blog.

The objective of Chandrayaan-1 according to ISRO is:

The Chandrayaan-1 mission is aimed at high-resolution remote sensing of the moon in visible, near infrared(NIR), low energy X-rays and high-energy X-ray regions.

Why do they want to do this? What do we achieve from such a mission costing 386 crore rupees? Mapping of the moon surface and research on water on its surface. I totally agree to the point that we learn a lot in harnessing the payload, space craft or rather lunar craft with ground support systems. There is a lot of learning, no doubt. But the question is whether such a learning worth the cost? ISRO says 386 crore is not a big sum. May be it is not when you compare it to the kind of money NASA blows on space missions, but for a developing country it sure is a big amount.

India is a country which still imports outdated fighter jets to fight the enemies, lacks good intelligence services to curb the terrorist activities, lacks the funds to provide good education, lacks funds to help the flood and other natural calamity affected citizens, fails to defend its border from infiltrating and encroaching neighbors, doesn't pay enough for the jawans guarding it's borders day and night without caring for their life. Amidst all these issues, that never gets addressed, a mission to Moon to showcase the capabilities of ISRO and Indian space technology is considered more important.

Why don't we build better defense systems than build Satellite Launch Vehicles? Why don't we spend money in teaching geography to underprivileged children than shell out millions on mapping the surface of Moon? Why don't we pay better salaries to army jawans than handling bigger payloads?

Let's leave the space research to the American organizations, there is no need for our Indian organizations to take up such missions. Brilliant Indian scientists can go to a rich and developed nation like USA or France or Russia for flexing their brain muscles for research in space. For the love of our motherland, lets solve problems at grass root levels if possible. There is no need for India to compete for pride in space missions with communistic principled China, where citizens' opinions are no better than that of animals, as US did with USSR a few decades ago. US can afford to look for water in Mars or a spec of dirt on any heavenly body, contentious to be called a planet, but not a country like India where bare minimum essentials are not met.

I wish the Chandrayaan-1 mission is a success, and hope our government does not encourage any future endeavors with such magnanimity.