Those long dark stretches of highway out in the middle of nowhere without any streetlights might soon be a thing of the past thanks to the engineers and designers at the Netherlands-based Kaal Masten. They've created the Spirit, a standalone solar-powered streetlight that gets all the energy it needs from the sun, so it can be installed and provide lighting anywhere—even remote locations without access to power grids.
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We guess Nori's staying with a nanny on October 25! LOLz!
Kim Kardashian is ready to party, especially after being out of the public eye for so long!
The newly svelte Atkins obsessed momma is ringing in 33 years of life at the exclusive Tao nightclub in Las Vegas, and wants YOU to be there!
Kimmy previously celebrated her 30th birthday at the same venue with sisters Kourtney and Khloé Kardashian and mom Kris Jenner, along with celeb gal pals Kelly Rowland and La La Anthony—so she knows it's going to be an amaze lavish event!
K Dash made the announcement via Instagram on Monday revealing the (above) poster with the caption:
"Vegas…you ready?"
OMG, we can't wait to see this doll back in the club FLAUNTING her killer post-baby kurves!
No word on what Kanye West plans on getting his lady for her special day, but we know it's going to be flossy and fierce!
[Image via Instagram.]
Tags: 33, birthday, instagram, kim kardashian, las vegas, party poppin', sin city, tao
A Bay Area Rapid Transit train leaves the station Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2013, in Oakland, Calif. A recipe for gridlock was brewing in the San Francisco Bay Area, as two of the region's major transit agencies teetered on the brink of commute-crippling strikes. While talks between the Bay Area Rapid Transit agency and its unions to avoid the second walk-off in four months were set to resume on Tuesday, workers at a major regional bus line said they would go on strike in 72 hours. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)
A Bay Area Rapid Transit train leaves the station Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2013, in Oakland, Calif. A recipe for gridlock was brewing in the San Francisco Bay Area, as two of the region's major transit agencies teetered on the brink of commute-crippling strikes. While talks between the Bay Area Rapid Transit agency and its unions to avoid the second walk-off in four months were set to resume on Tuesday, workers at a major regional bus line said they would go on strike in 72 hours. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)
Bay Area Rapid Transit passengers wait to board a train Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2013, in Oakland, Calif. A recipe for gridlock was brewing in the San Francisco Bay Area, as two of the region's major transit agencies teetered on the brink of commute-crippling strikes. While talks between the Bay Area Rapid Transit agency and its unions to avoid the second walk-off in four months were set to resume on Tuesday, workers at a major regional bus line said they would go on strike in 72 hours. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)
A Bay Area Rapid Transit train arrives at a station Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2013, in Oakland, Calif. A recipe for gridlock was brewing in the San Francisco Bay Area, as two of the region's major transit agencies teetered on the brink of commute-crippling strikes. While talks between the Bay Area Rapid Transit agency and its unions to avoid the second walk-off in four months were set to resume on Tuesday, workers at a major regional bus line said they would go on strike in 72 hours. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)
A passenger rides a Bay Area Rapid Transit train Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2013, in Oakland, Calif. A recipe for gridlock was brewing in the San Francisco Bay Area, as two of the region's major transit agencies teetered on the brink of commute-crippling strikes. While talks between the Bay Area Rapid Transit agency and its unions to avoid the second walk-off in four months were set to resume on Tuesday, workers at a major regional bus line said they would go on strike in 72 hours. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)
A Bay Area Rapid Transit train leaves the station Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2013, in Oakland, Calif. A recipe for gridlock was brewing in the San Francisco Bay Area, as two of the region's major transit agencies teetered on the brink of commute-crippling strikes. While talks between the Bay Area Rapid Transit agency and its unions to avoid the second walk-off in four months were set to resume on Tuesday, workers at a major regional bus line said they would go on strike in 72 hours. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — The San Francisco Bay Area's main commuter rail line was up and running Wednesday as a potential transit strike was averted for the third straight day.
The Bay Area Rapid Transit agency and two of its largest unions have made some progress in the intense negotiations to avoid a second strike in more than three months, Federal mediator George Cohen said late Tuesday.
Negotiations will resume Wednesday, just hours after another marathon session Tuesday ended shortly after midnight, the Service Employees International Union Local 1021 said Wednesday.
"We truly understand the riders' frustration, because we share the same frustration that we've not yet reached an agreement," SEIU 1021 president Roxanne Sanchez said. "We are encouraged by the progress we've achieved, and at the request of the federal mediators, we will continue to bargain."
BART is the nation's fifth-largest rail system and the threat of another strike would likely cripple the morning commute has been looming over riders who have already endured at least a half-dozen strike deadlines from the SEIU and the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1555.
Meanwhile, workers at the Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District, a major regional bus line, have also threatened to strike this week if their conditions for a new contract aren't met.
Hundreds of thousands of commuters in cities like Oakland and Berkeley depend on the two transit systems and roadways would be further congested if the strikes coincide.
AC Transit which serves about 100,000 riders mostly across the East Bay also has buses shuttling to and from San Francisco. The buses served as an alternative for many BART train riders during a nearly five-day strike in July.
Both BART and AC Transit's contracts expired in June. The bus workers issued a 72-hour strike notice Monday with plans to walk off on Thursday.
On Tuesday, the AC Transit board requested that Gov. Jerry Brown impose a 60-day cooling off period. The board said a bus strike would significantly endanger the public's health, safety and welfare.
AC Transit workers have rejected two contract proposals that would have given workers a 9.5 percent raise over three years as they would also have to contribute more toward their health plans.
AC Transit and BART union officials deny any coordination. Still, the specter of both transit agencies striking simultaneously could give them leverage if the governor doesn't delay the bus workers strike.
Sticking points in the 6-month-old BART negotiations include salaries and workers' contributions to their health and pension plans. BART officials confirmed Tuesday that some progress has been made but economic issues still need to be hammered out.
BART General Manager Grace Crunican presented a "last, best and final offer" Sunday that includes an annual 3 percent raise over four years and requires workers to contribute 4 percent toward their pension and 9.5 percent toward medical benefits. The value of BART's proposal is $57 million over four years and that figure also includes money for smaller unions and nonunion workers, BART spokeswoman Alicia Trost said.
BART is looking at the unions' counterproposal and trying to see how they could possibly fit into management's final offer, Trost said.
"Everyone's working very hard," Trost told reporters Tuesday. "The general manager's there, she's meeting with the federal mediator. He's still going between both (parties) floors to see if we can come to a deal."
SEIU Local 1021 executive director Pete Castelli said Monday the parties were somewhere between $6 million to $10 million apart over four years.
Workers from the two unions, which represent more than 2,300 mechanics, custodians, station agents, train operators and clerical staff, now average about $71,000 in base salary and $11,000 in overtime annually, the transit agency said. BART workers currently pay $92 a month for health care and contribute nothing toward their pensions.
ATU President Antonette Bryant told reporters Tuesday the union would not discuss any details of the talks because of a gag order imposed by the mediator.
"We're not trying to avoid, mislead or keep information to ourselves," Bryant said. "We are diligently working trying to get a contract for our members and to get the riding public held off hostage."
Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-10-16-BART%20Strike/id-d2e7aff0f65b4897ab32d1aab30058f1Afghan police and officials examine the mosque in Puli Alam, Logar Province, Afghanistan, where a bomb hidden in the base of a microphone killed Afghan Governor Arsallah Jamal, Tuesday, Oct 15, 2013. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack but the Taliban have been targeting Afghan officials, military and NATO troops as part of a campaign to retake territory as international troops draw down ahead of a full pullout at the end of 2014. (AP Photo/Ahsanullah Majuze)
Afghan police and officials examine the mosque in Puli Alam, Logar Province, Afghanistan, where a bomb hidden in the base of a microphone killed Afghan Governor Arsallah Jamal, Tuesday, Oct 15, 2013. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack but the Taliban have been targeting Afghan officials, military and NATO troops as part of a campaign to retake territory as international troops draw down ahead of a full pullout at the end of 2014. (AP Photo/Ahsanullah Majuze)
In this Saturday, Oct. 12, 2013 photo, Governor Arsallah Jamal smiles to attend an opening ceremony of a school in Muhammad Agha, Logar province, Afghanistan. A bomb planted inside a mosque killed the governor of Afghanistan's eastern Logar province as he was delivering a speech Tuesday morning, Oct. 15, 2013 to mark the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, officials said. (AP Photo/Ahsanullah Majuze)
In this Saturday, Oct. 12, 2013 photo, Governor Arsallah Jamal, left, attends an opening ceremony of a school in Muhammad Agha, Logar province, Afghanistan. A bomb planted inside a mosque killed the governor of Afghanistan's eastern Logar province as he was delivering a speech Tuesday morning, Oct. 15, 2013 to mark the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, officials said. (AP Photo/Ahsanullah Majuze)
FILE - In this Dec. 7, 2007 file photo, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, right, talks with Khowst Province Gov. Arsallah Jamal at the Tirazye District Center in Khowst Province, Afghanistan. Afghan officials say a bomb placed inside a mosque in the country’s east has killed Jamal, now the governor of Logar province. They say the explosion took place as Jamal was delivering a speech on Tuesday morning, Oct. 15, 2013 to mark the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari, Pool, File)
FILE - In this Dec. 4, 2007 file photo, then Khowst Province Gov. Arsallah Jamal meets with Defense Secretary Robert Gates in Khowst Province, Afghanistan. Afghan officials say a bomb placed inside a mosque in the country’s east has killed Jamal, currently the governor of Logar province. They say the explosion took place as Jamal was delivering a speech on Tuesday morning, Oct. 15, 2013 to mark the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari, Pool, File)
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A bomb in a mosque killed a provincial governor Tuesday in the highest profile assassination in recent months, part of an intensified campaign to intimidate Afghanistan's administration as it prepares for elections and the withdrawal of foreign troops after 12 years of war.
The bomb killed Gov. Arsallah Jamal of eastern Logar province as he delivered a speech at the main mosque in the provincial capital of Puli Alam to mark the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha. The attack also wounded 15 people, five of them critically, said his spokesman, Din Mohammad Darwesh.
Jamal was a close confidant and adviser to President Hamid Karzai, who strongly condemned that bombing, saying it was an attack "against Islam."
"Terrorists and the Taliban working in the name of Islam carry out attacks that result in the killing of innocent Muslims. Surely it is not the act of Muslims, but those who have been hired to kill Muslims," Karzai said.
He did not elaborate, but he has often blamed foreign interests, mostly in neighboring Pakistan, of being behind many of the high profile attacks against members of his administration in recent years.
No group has claimed responsibility, but it bore the hallmarks of the Taliban, which has been fighting Karzai's administration and the foreign military presence in Afghanistan since the U.S. invasion in late 2001. The group has made attacking government officials a key part of its official military campaign this year.
In a message Monday timed for the Eid al-Adha holiday, the secretive leader of the Afghan Taliban, Mullah Mohammad Omar, called for his fighters to intensify their campaign against Afghan and NATO forces, and he urged all Afghans to boycott the April 5 election that will elect Karzai's successor. All foreign military combat forces are to withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of 2014.
Logar, which is located just south of Kabul, was once a mostly calm province. But it has recently seen an influx of Taliban fighters and increased attacks against government forces.
Jamal, 47, was Karzai's campaign manager during the 2009 presidential elections. He also was governor of Khost province until he was appointed to his current post in Logar in April.
A high-profile target, Jamal had survived a number of assassination attempts, including suicide bombings against his office in Khost in May and July 2009, and a suicide car bomb attack that targeted his convoy in August 2007.
At the scene of Tuesday's mosque bombing, debris was scattered on the green prayer carpets where worshippers had knelt in prayer hours earlier. Blood spattered the gray marble walls.
Although details of the bomb have not been released, numerous officials have said it was planted somewhere inside a microphone stand in front of Jamal. Logar's deputy police chief, Rais Khan Abbul Rahimzai, said an investigation was underway.
Sophisticated explosives have been used to kill government officials, including bombs in turbans and even inside people's bodies.
Former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani, the leader of a government-appointed peace council, was killed in his home in September 2011 by an insurgent posing as a Taliban peace envoy. The militant detonated a bomb in his turban as he kissed Rabbani in a traditional greeting.
The killing of Jamal was the highest profile attack against a Karzai confidant since December, when a suicide bomber posing as a peace messenger from the Taliban severely wounded Afghanistan's intelligence chief, Asadullah Khalid. Karzai said both attacks were planned by insurgents in Pakistan.
The Taliban, believed to be based in Pakistan's lawless tribal regions, have intensified attacks on government officials and members of Karzai's administration.
In June, a Taliban suicide bomber struck outside Afghanistan's Supreme Court, killing 17 people. In April, insurgents attacked a courthouse and government offices in Farah province, killing 46 people, including two judges, six prosecutors, administration officers and other working.
Jan Kubis, the U.N. special representative to Afghanistan, condemned the attack and said such bombings violate international humanitarian law.
"The U.N. mission reiterates its call for such attacks to cease immediately and for respect of the sanctity of protected religious places such as mosques," Kubis said.
The wave of attacks since the NATO handover of security responsibilities to Afghan forces has led to a spike in casualties, both among Afghan forces and civilians. The U.N. has blamed insurgents for most of them.
Eid al-Adha is one of Islam's most important holidays. Muslims around the world slaughter sheep, cows and goats during the four-day celebration, giving much of the meat to the poor. The holiday commemorates the readiness of the Prophet Ibrahim, known to Christians and Jews as Abraham, to sacrifice his son, Ismail, on God's command.
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Associated Press writer Rahim Faiez contributed.
Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-10-15-Afghanistan/id-ce7042c04bd248b0a5f3cd0fa1eddd4cThe roleplay will not be like most, as only what appear on the screen of each character will be shown, from their digital diary to the news of the world. It will be set in the near future, in a era where truly everything can be done on the internet. I seek for a few players, from three to six including myself, that would be interested in such a project, as it will span our character's lives from their early childhood to their deaths, whenever it may be.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RolePlayGateway/~3/BP4jJPbdHv8/viewtopic.phpThe man the U.S. alleges is the top al-Qaida operative who orchestrated the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania pleaded not guilty to the charges on Tuesday at a Federal Court in Manhattan.
The Wall Street Journal reports:
This image from the FBI website shows Abu Anas al-Libi, who was captured in a U.S. operation on Saturday in Libya.
This image from the FBI website shows Abu Anas al-Libi, who was captured in a U.S. operation on Saturday in Libya.
"Nazih Abdul-Hamed al-Ruqai, also known as Abu Anas al-Libi, made his first court appearance in the U.S. Tuesday afternoon after being charged by federal prosecutors more than a decade ago.
"Mr. Ruqai, 49, whose long, reddish-gray beard dipped over his black shirt, sat silently through the arraignment, which lasted less than an hour. The proceedings were translated into Arabic by a court translator for Mr. Ruqai, who doesn't speak English. U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan said he would appoint a lawyer for Mr. Ruqai because the suspect couldn't afford to hire his own counsel.
"Mr. Ruqai was indicted along with Osama bin Laden and more than a dozen other suspects accused of running a global terrorist conspiracy under the name of al Qaeda."
As we reported, al-Libi was captured during a U.S. commando raid in Libya earlier this month. He was, according to eyewitnesses, "taken peacefully" in Tripoli.
As ABC News reports, after al-Libi was captured he was interrogated aboard a Navy ship in the mediterranean. After that, he was brought into the United States to face trial.
Crowds gather on Aug. 30, 1931, at the site of the Quiet Dell murders. Evidence of the killings was found in and around murderer Harry Powers' garage (center).
Crowds gather on Aug. 30, 1931, at the site of the Quiet Dell murders. Evidence of the killings was found in and around murderer Harry Powers' garage (center).
The Quiet Dell murders were among the first big, sensational crime stories of the Depression: A serial killer corresponded with vulnerable widows he met through lonely hearts clubs, then lured them to their deaths.
As a child, writer Jayne Anne Phillips learned about the murders from her mother, who was a child in 1931, when the murders took place. Phillips says she didn't talk a lot about the tragedy, but whenever they drove close to where the crime occurred — near Clarksburg, W.Va. — her mother would say, "There's the road to Quiet Dell."
Phillips' new novel, Quiet Dell, revisits the murders. She says that after hearing her mother's recollections, she developed a strong connection to the sensory details of the story.
"The long, dusty road; the heat of August; cars lined up as far as she could see; being very small and huge crowds of people; hearing the sound of them taking apart the murder garage for souvenirs — the whole experience was something that stayed with me," she says.
Writing The Eichers Back To Life
Murderer Harry Powers killed two women — Dorothy Lemke and Asta Eicher — at Quiet Dell, along with Eicher's three children. Phillips opens the book with a vivid portrait of the Eicher family, imagining what their lives might have been like in the weeks before they were killed. She says she felt a responsibility to the children.
"The tragedy of their loss was somehow answered for me in the process of writing them," Phillips says. "They became real to me and alive and saved, in a sense."
Phillips uses the character of Emily Thornhill to fill in the details of the investigation into the murders and the trial that follows. Emily, a young woman from Chicago, is one of hundreds of reporters who descend on Quiet Dell in the weeks after the murders. She is determined to find out as much as she can about the children and the man who killed them.
"She wants justice for the family," Phillips says. "She wants it known what happened to them. And in her own life, which is rather separate from her job, she remembers them. And of course the reader comes to see that having been involved in this case changes her life forever in ways that she could not have expected or predicted."
What Comes After A Sudden Death
Perhaps the most vividly drawn character in the book is Annabel, the youngest member of the Eicher family. A fanciful child who lives in her imagination, Annabel bursts with energy and ideas. She remains a presence in the book even after her death. In this passage, she hovers over the site where she and her family were held captive before they were killed:
"Quiet Dell is beautiful, the trees at once gently riffling their great canopies, leading like stair steps up the sides of densely scented hills, ridge over ridge, as far as she can see. She looks back to find the others, but the garage building is a black hole. She hovers there and sees grasses and roots grow toward it at lightning speed, rushing and meeting and growing up, a fountain of green, for years are passing and the urgent land hums and flows, erasing the harrowing dark."
When Annabel enters the picture, Phillips' writing becomes lyrical; the child's spirit is felt, but not seen. Even so, Phillips says, Annabel is not a ghost
Jayne Anne Phillips' previous novel, Lark and Termite, was selected as a finalist for the National Book Award in fiction in 2009.
Jayne Anne Phillips' previous novel, Lark and Termite, was selected as a finalist for the National Book Award in fiction in 2009.
"She doesn't appear to anyone," she says. "She can turn in the breath of a thought, she can move in and out of time. She sees things that may be, or things that will be, so it's more almost a physics problem, you know: Where does all this energy go, especially in the case of very sudden deaths?"
But it's Emily's story that dominates the narrative. Through her involvement in the case, her world expands: She finds new friends and new people to love — people who help in her quest for justice for a family she never even knew.
"We do know that in desperate circumstances people are bound together so deeply," Phillips says. "And, in a sense, all these lives that are sort of pulled together by the tragedy are a testament to these children, because everything going forward for all of these characters is marked by the goodness of these children and the fact that these characters protected and defended them when they could not do that for themselves."
Asta Eicher and her children could not be saved, but Phillips hopes that by remembering them, by imagining the lives they lived and the people who were their champions, she has played her own small part in shedding light on a dark corner of history.
