Are you smarter than a 5th grader ?

All must have been seeing this show right? I personally love this show because of the concept and the eye opener that most americans are too weak at their basics. There are people who have reached but the last step But that still means that you are not smarter than a 5th grader is nt it ? To spice up the show and to make it more interesting, guess who is taking part in the show now ?

Kathy Ireland

Supermodel Kathy Ireland and the State Superintendent from Georgia attempt to graduate toward the top prize of $1 million in this atypical quiz show that tests adults’ lack of knowledge as revealed by how much they’ve forgotten since elementary school. These notable contestants find themselves in a classroom setting, revisiting their youth, as they tackle subjects ranging from art to geography and math to social studies. Players are not alone, however; there is a way for them to “cheat” in this classroom. The adults have the opportunity to get help from real grade-schoolers who will offer what they think is the correct a-n-s-w-e-r on the two-hour season premiere of Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? airing Friday, Sept. 5 (8:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX.

Just dont miss the show !! It sure should be fun. Lets see if the super model is smart or if she is just like another blonde !

Happy Birthday Google

Guess who is sharing the birthday with popular celebrities like Queen Elizabeth I, Shannon Elizabeth, Hugh Mitchell, Paul Mc Coy and the likes ? Its our favorite Search engine GOOGLE !!

Google is stepping into its 10th year this weekend ( September 7th). The distance they’ve come since Larry Page and Sergey Brin incorporated a company called ‘Google’ whilst attending Stanford University, California as undergraduates is stunning.

Today, Google employs over 17,000 employees and is still hiring at a rate of 100 new employees a week. They are known in every country across the world, and are currently generating $1.25 billion in clear profit every three months!

I seriously doubt that the two students ever imagined things would be quite as successful as this - however, it is reassuring to know that they are (or at least appear to be) refreshingly non-corporate. They have often stated their belief that the big G “can make money without doing evil”.

This is at least in part borne out by how their money making system works - they allow publishers to advertise in their search results, or on pages using their Google Adsense system. However, they have resisted the urge to simply give the top advertising spot to the highest bidder - instead, it goes to the most relevant advertiser (with money being a bit of a factor of course.) This policy means that their customer base (who are the people who use Google to search the internet - or to ‘Google’ it, given that the term has now officially entered the dictionary as a verb), get a quality experience, not one that is ‘bought’ - and this is what Google have always been about.

With a mission statement to “… organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful”, they have arguably the best search algorithm out there. And despite the attempts of black hat SEOs, the search engine does usually return the best site for the search terms you have entered.

We’ve got at least another decade to look forward to as well, with Larry and Sergey, along with CEO Eric Schmidt who keeps the business side of things ticking over, having made an unofficial pact to work together for at least 20 years!

Lets all wish our favorite search engine google a very happy birthday !! Happy birthday mate !

McCain's speech

Looks like McCain did well tonight by speaking well. I accept he is not the best of prepared speakers but I dont think any one can be worse. Puttting the past behind and rating against his previous performances, this speech was the best according to me. He did not mention his experience ( which he did use as a key point in his first of speeches) but just told what he would do to help the people !

He said many things I agree with, and a lot of things I liked. For example, energy. While I think the Republicans are more right on it, that we need the smorgasbord of options developed, I still think they focus too much on drilling. Yes, we need more domestic drilling. The problem is that they emphasize it too much. Drilling is not a magic wand that is going to end all of our energy problems for a while so that we can defer the other options to the next generation. If you really are for everything, please show it. The Democrats similarly have a problem with emphasizing too much on alternatives and completely ignoring oil.

I also liked his attacks against his own party. Now, while the conventioneers were going wild, I think a lot were shaking their heads, because they don’t want to admit the party needs reform. McCain realizes the problem and is calling his party on it. *cough*Barack Obama could take a few lessons from McCain on this.*cough*

Another place I think conservatives, or at least some conservatives, were shaking their heads, is education reforms. McCain talked a lot about school choice, but largely framed it in terms of public school. No talk of vouchers for private schools (though he has talked about them in the past) or homeschooling. I know more than a few conservative bloggers are going to call him out on homeschooling. I don’t really have an opinion one way or another on the issue. I did public school and while it had problems, it largely worked for me. If someone wants to homeschool children, more power to them.

There was a two second moment when he mentioned all about Sarah Palin’s executive experience. So much for cringing whenever he hears someone mention it. He didn’t dwell on it, though, like some of his colleagues, which is probably a good thing. I don’t think he wants people to start making the comparisons.

Finally, defense. Here I’m a little disappointed. Just as I’ve been disappointed with Barack Obama’s “4 more years of Bush” meme, I’m disappointed with the “he puts country second” meme. But, it looks like this race will defined in those terms for the next two months. And neither candidate should let the other just get away with saying these things. They both have an excellent opportunity to say why what the other says is wrong.

On aesthetics, I liked the crowd surrounding McCain thing. He does best at town hall meetings, so trying to make it more comfortable for him is only a good thing. But, that screen! His speech was in danger of losing the speech with the puke green screen that accompanied the first part of the speech. The screen, while okay for when you’re at a huge convention hall, doesn’t work when aired on TV. I think the Republicans got it after a while, sort of. They changed to a less puke green screen, that, while still distracting somewhat, made it easier to focus on McCain.

I thought they had it down, until they changed to a screen with a flag to the right side, and sky blue on the rest! It was just as distracting! I highly expect Stephen Colbert to make a new green screen challenge tomorrow night or next week, where you can pick from your choice of green or blue chroma keying. Oh, and the “voice of God thing” and then switch to a spotlight of McCain coming out…awkward!

So, I think they speech was good, for a man who doesn’t usually do well with prepared speeches. It was pretty exciting and all. He had a tough act to follow with Gov. Palin. Do I think he surpassed it? No. It could have been somewhat better. The problem was that McCain spent a lot of time explaining things in great detail. Now, explanation is a good thing, but dwelling on a subject for too long can make your audience lose attention. Basically, he should have used this kind of stump speech at Saddleback, and that one here.

Yet, in the end, I think it was an okay end to the convention.

Watch the video here

And this is exactly what Voters feel about the speech delivered. Do check it out

"What an incredible speech. He clearly explained who he was, what he has done, and what he fights for. He seems to honestly care about the individuals of this country, not whether they belong to a blue state or red state. … I may not agree with all of his stands, but I trust the guy to make an honest decision -- and to make sure we, the American people, know why he made it."
-- Diane Murphy, 42, Sterling Heights independent

"I suppose that, if anyone was going to win based on biography alone, it'd be McCain. That story is compelling, even if it doesn't go a long way toward fixing health care or the housing crisis. And I was moved by hearing him talk about it. However, I know McCain's biography already. Tonight, I really wanted specifics about what he would do as president -- and didn't get much. The calls for bipartisanship and mutual respect were good. But they rang hollow after all the non-stop Obama bashing from the rest of the convention speakers (Palin in particular) and the tone of the McCain campaign so far. I found all the saber rattling to be disturbing. And all the yelling of ‘fight with me’ at the end was creepy. We don't need that kind of militaristic rhetoric at such a dangerous time."
-- James Melton, 45, Detroit Democrat

"Was this Palin’s vice president speaking tonight? This was not the John McCain that I have heard speak in the past; this was his speechwriter’s words and his awkward motion at delivering them. The first 20 minutes were about country and USA chants. … McCain did not address or seem to understand the fact that our pride in country also comes with bringing home a paycheck at the end of the week. McCain did not seem genuine in his speech last night, he seemed rehearsed. I think that he will lose points in the polls after this speech; McCain needs Palin to take the lead in his campaign for president."
-- Dustin Waugh, 36, Westland Democrat

"I get it, McCain wants to work for us, but I still didn’t see a substantive economic plan. He talked about education and equal opportunity but didn’t address the fact that more and more Americans are coming up short when it comes to sending their kids to college. … There is no question that he is the right guy when it comes to defense, but I think someone should remind him, it’s the economy."
-- Walter Capers, 41, Highland Republican

"I am not sure if I was watching the Republican National Convention or True Hollywood Story tonight. I had this feeling John McCain was trying to hoodwink the American people with his promises and stories of war in his speech this evening. Sure he has been through hell and back, a lovely family and the experience behind him, but I am still not certain that makes him the right choice."
-- Nicole Perry, 34, Wyandotte Democrat

Fantasy football - Win big bucks

If you were a follower of cricket and had played the cricket fantasy earlier introduced by ESPN, this game is nothing but a similar one played with Footballers. You will be selecting players that you think will perform the best in the football leaguethats going to begin soon and everyday specialists team analyses the players performance and awards points to the players that perform well. If your "Virtual" team got the highest points , you are to win grand prizes.

What is new, however, is the growing number of pay-to-play leagues. According to market-research firm comScore Media Metrix, as many as 20 million people are paying to play fantasy sports in the United States, and most are vying for cash prizes if they win.

One of these leagues, the inaugural Fantasy Football Open Championship ( www.ffoc.com), has recruited former San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Jerry Rice to be its commissioner and will award a $1 million grand prize for fantasy football. Buy-in for this league is $125; the top 15 finalists will receive a trip to Las Vegas to attend the event finale and compete for additional cash prizes.

Other leagues, many of which are run by individual players using engines on Yahoo Sports, CBSsportsline.com and ESPN.com, are doling out much smaller potatoes - anywhere from $500 to $5,000.

Marcus Njissang, a student who lives in Oakland, recently paid $113 to join a 10-team fantasy league that includes family and friends.

The league is run on CBSsportsline.com; at the end of the season, the owner who comes out on top earns about $800. While Njissang says he doesn't consider his activities in the fantasy league to be gambling, the payout is an extra incentive to do well.

"It's like poker, in a way, since everyone thinks that they can beat the other and they're willing to put money on that belief," he says. "The money aspect is more of an extra incentive."

Mike Tannenbaum, an investment analyst who lives in the Oakland hills, recently forked over $50 to compete in a 10-team league run through Yahoo. The league will pay the winner somewhere around $400.

While Tannenbaum says the prospect of pocketing this cash is nice, he notes that he really joined the league for the chance to "talk smack" with his wife's cousins.

"The sum is insignificant to me," he says. "I am only doing it to have some laughs with family members."

Whatever the motivation, fantasy football could end up being a lucrative endeavor. One caveat: Manage your team wisely. Success in these competitions requires a significant investment of time and energy. Take it from one who has learned the hard way; I have never finished higher than seventh, and that was in an eight-team league.

McCain's grand finale speech

After all his attempts at succeeding went in vain, McCain is now trying to beat Obama at his own speciality, Speech. We all know how good a speaker , Obama is and to turn ears to himself , McCain is trying to speak better than Obama which I suppose is going to a herculean job.

John McCain embarks on his final drive for the White House Thursday night, accepting the Republican presidential nomination and addressing the party's national convention from a stage that workers hastily rebuilt to fit his "town hall" approach.

McCain checked out the setup in midafternoon, chatting on stage with his wife, Cindy, and Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Joe Lieberman of Connecticut. Graham speaks Thursday night; Lieberman spoke on Tuesday.

Elsewhere, on the final day of the convention, a lot of the talk was still about Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the vice presidential nominee who gave her big introductory speech Wednesday night, less than a week after being chosen for the ticket.

Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama shrugged off the speech as a rehashing of McCain's policies and suggested Democrats would not slacken their criticism.

"I think she's got a compelling story, but I assume she wants to be treated the same way that guys want to be treated," he told reporters during a campaign stop in York, Pa. "I've been through this 19 months, she's been through it — what — four days so far?"

He said he would focus his attention on McCain and "who's got a better agenda to move this country forward."

Cindy McCain suggested in one interview that she doesn't agree with Palin's support for a nearly total ban on abortions.

And Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Biden declared that some news coverage of his Republican counterpart had been sexist.

Parts of the platform at the Xcel Energy Center were removed by construction workers on Thursday to bring delegates closer to where McCain will give his acceptance speech, giving the stage a T-shape. Organizers said the change reflected the town hall-type forums in which McCain has campaigned.

"The extended podium will serve as a fitting complement to John McCain's preference for direct interaction with his fellow citizens," said Maria Cino, a convention official.

Meanwhile, party leaders added two speakers to the night's lineup. Former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., will speak prior to Cindy McCain. Both are close to McCain. Ridge was considered a finalist for the No. 2 spot before McCain picked the Alaska governor. And Graham has appeared frequently with McCain on the campaign trail.

Delegates will also vote Thursday night to make the convention's nomination of Palin official. And McCain himself will close out the activities with his prime-time acceptance speech.

Democrats struck back on Thursday, dismissing rave GOP reviews of Palin's speech and asserting that the Alaska governor had misrepresented Obama's record. "There wasn't one thing that she said about Obama or what he's proposing that is true," top Obama strategist David Axelrod told reporters in Pennsylvania.

Axelrod also questioned her claim to be an outsider, given her sharp attacks on the Democratic nominee. "For someone who makes that point that she's not from Washington, she looked very much like she would fit in very well there."

Biden, campaigning in Virginia, said he would challenge Palin on issues "as strongly as I can" — but would refrain from personal attacks.

"I'm not good at one-line zingers. That's not my deal," he said at a forum in Virginia Beach. He said he believed Palin was "going to be an incredibly competent debater." The two face off on Oct. 2 in St. Louis.

Obama's lead over McCain was virtually unchanged since the GOP convention began, according to a Gallup Poll. The Democrat led 49 percent to 42 percent, based on interviews conducted Monday through Wednesday. All but a few of the interviews were conducted before Palin gave her Wednesday night speech.

In a Gallup survey covering last Friday through Sunday — before the Republican gathering began — Obama led by a similar 6 percentage points.

McCain's speech was expected to provide the climax to the four-day convention. His wife, Cindy, admitted that she was nervous about addressing delegates herself.

Cindy McCain told ABC's "Good Morning America" she doesn't agree with Palin's opposition to abortion in cases of rape and incest. And they also part ways on sex education. "I don't agree with that aspect, but I do respect her for her views," she said.

Palin opposes abortion and rejects the view that pregnancies caused by rape and incest should be exceptions. The Alaska governor's only exception would be when a doctor determines that continuing a pregnancy would lead to the death of the mother. Palin has also opposed government financing of sex-education programs in Alaska. Cindy McCain told ABC that she advocated abstinence as a part of sex education at her children's school, but "I believe that it's twofold and I think all of it should be taught."

Palin and her husband, Todd, announced this week that their 17-year-old unmarried daughter was pregnant and would be marrying her boyfriend, saying they were making a private matter public because of Internet rumors.

Biden said the Democratic campaign was not criticizing Palin over her family.

"It is off limits to talk about her family," the Delaware senator said in an interview with "Fox and Friends" on Fox News Channel. "Every family has difficulty as they're raising their children. I think the way she's handled it has been absolutely exemplary."

Asked if some of the criticism aimed at Palin has been sexist, Biden said: "Yes, by you guys in the media."

The McCain camp expressed satisfaction with the generally positive reception that Palin's speech had received from the public.

"I have no doubt that Gov. Sarah Palin today is a household name," McCain campaign manager Rick Davis told reporters in a conference call.

In his acceptance speech, McCain is expected to review his career in public service — first as a Naval Academy midshipman and wartime pilot and then as a 26-year veteran of Congress — while drawing stark policy differences with Democratic candidate Barack Obama.

Democratic critics have questioned Palin's political experience as a small-town mayor and her brief tenure as Alaska's governor. Wednesday night she offered a searing, sometimes sarcastic attack on the opposing ticket.

Palin joined other Republican speakers Wednesday night in praising McCain as a man of character, a former Vietnam prisoner of war who had spent his early career in the military and had sought to change the ways of politics in Washington.

In downtown Minneapolis, police arrested 102 protesters early Thursday after a rock concert. Since Saturday, more than 400 people have been arrested for convention-related protests in both St. Paul and neighboring Minneapolis.

Chloroform could have been used in the Kidnap of Caylee Anthony

Why is that some people have a great heart and most people dont ? How could people kidnap a cute lilttle baby as caylee anthony. And its told by the FBI that chloroform, a chemical used in operations has been used to put the girl unconcious.

Preliminary FBI lab results show that there were traces of chloroform in the car of the mother of a missing Florida girl, according to a law enforcement source with knowledge of the investigation.
Caylee Anthony, shown in an undated photo, went missing in early June.

Caylee Anthony, shown in an undated photo, went missing in early June.

Casey Anthony's computer, confiscated within hours of her arrest in July on charges of child neglect, making false official statements and obstruction of justice, also showed visits to Web sites with information about chloroform.

The discovery of chloroform, a chemical compound that can be used to incapacitate crime victims, is a piece of evidence prosecutors will use in building the case of missing 3-year-old Caylee Anthony.

Earlier, investigators said they had found evidence of human decomposition in the trunk of Casey Anthony's car.

Law enforcement sources also suggested that a strand of hair found in the trunk of the car was Caylee's.

Casey Anthony reported Caylee missing in July, a month after the last known sighting of her.
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Police jailed Anthony at that time, but a bounty hunter paid the bond that let her out of jail until the charges against her were resolved. Video Is a dumpster part of the case? »

The bounty hunter said he was going to revoke the bond after threats against his workers, but Casey Anthony was arrested again August 29, this time on charges of forgery, fraudulent use of personal information and petty theft, before he could do so

David spade is now Dad Spade - Jillian Grace is the mother

Actor David Spade and his ex, Playboy Playmate Jillian Grace, have welcomed a daughter, David's rep confirms. The baby girl was born Tuesday, August 26th in Missouri; however, further details have not been released. Jillian, 22, announced her pregnancy in January, identifying David as the father; in turn, the 45-year-old actor promised to accept responsibility. His rep confirms that David is the biological father, explaining that "David and Jillian have been in close contact throughout her pregnancy and he plans to go see the baby during his first break from shooting Rules of Engagement."

The baby girl is the first child for both David and Jillian.

Well all I can say now is
"Congrats David and family! Since David is busy with his job right *now*, perhap he went the route some military families go and he saw her through a webcam. We don't know, at least give the guy the benefit of the doubt before deeming him a horrific father"

Warren Zevon is remembered - David Letterman

While David Letterman only has a year and a half left on his contract, the Late Show host wants to extend his hosting duties beyond that, according to a Rolling Stone interview featured in the latest issue. Letterman remembered his memorable guests including musician Warren Zevon in a moving presentation.

“The way I feel now, I would like to go beyond 2010, not much beyond, but you know, enough to go beyond,” David Letterman tells Rolling Stone. “You always like to be able to excuse yourself on your own terms. If the network is happy with that, great. If they wanna make a change in 2010, you know, I’m fine with that, too.”

The late night landscape is about to get a bit of a shakeup in the coming year - Jay Leno steps down from the Tonight Show on May 29, 2009, when he’ll be replaced by Conan O’Brien. Jimmy Fallon will take over the seat Conan O’Brien leaves behind.

David Letterman has something to say about Jay Leno leaving his post too, saying, “Unless I’m misunderstanding something, I don’t know why, after the job Jay has done for them, why they would relinquish that. I guess they thought it was a less messy way to handle what happened to me at NBC. I don’t know.”

And what about Letterman’s new competition, Conan O’Brien? “It will be weird to see Conan at 11:30, don’t you think? Which is not to say he can’t succeed, but, no, I don’t know what the competition will be like. I hope we’re able to do okay.”

The Rolling Stone article also has David Letterman reminiscing about some of the memorable guests he’s had on the show, like Madonna, Oprah Winfrey and Howard Stern. His memory of musician Warren Zevon, who appeared on the Late Show shortly before his 2003 death from cancer, was particularly moving.

David Letterman says of meeting Warren Zevon in a dressing room after the show:

“Here’s a guy who had months to live and we’re making small talk. And as we’re talking, he’s taking his guitar strap and hooking it, wrapping it around, then he puts the guitar into the case and he flips the snaps on the case and says, ‘Here, I want you to have this, take good care of it.’ And I just started sobbing. He was giving me the guitar that he always used on the show. I felt like, ‘I can’t be in this movie, I didn’t get my lines.’ That was very tough.”

La fontaine passes away, RIP Don Lafontaine

Don LaFontaine, the man whose resonant voice read the trailers of thousands of movies over the past three decades, died Monday in Los Angeles. He was 68.

LaFontaine, who did voiceover work in more than 5,000 trailers during his 33-year career, turned the "In a world where ..." opening line into an industry standard for studios promoting movies and TV shows.

"We have to very rapidly establish the world we are transporting [viewers] to," LaFontaine told the Associated Press last year, explaining the tactic. "That's very easily done by saying, 'In a world where ... violence rules.' 'In a world where ... men are slaves and women are the conquerors.' You very rapidly set the scene."

The voiceover legend remained active until recently, booming through seven to 10 voiceover sessions a day from his home studio. LaFontaine died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center from complications in the treatment of an ongoing illness, according to his agent.

LaFontaine discusses his career and his craft in the embedded clip.

The tiger family expecting another cub

Tiger woods, the golfing great and his hot wife elin woods are expecting another baby this winter. The season started off well for the daddy tiger but then he had to undergo a knee surgery and rest at home.

Tiger woods just announced that a new tiger is on it’s way. Apparently Tiger and Elin woods have sealed the deal so to speak on baby #2. Elin Woods is due sometime this winter.

Tiger woods made the announcement via his website.

Tiger Woods wrote: “This has been a year of contrasts. I had a solid start to the season, won the US Open in an exciting playoff, and then unfortunately had to shut it down after successful knee surgery.”

Apparently unable to Golf, Tiger and Elin woods have most certainly played some other games sitting back at home

I’d like to congratulate the couple, I’m sure their first child Sam Woods will be excited to learn she is going to be a big sister.

Hollywood star and Guitarist Jerry Reed passes away

Hollywood has produced so many great actors and till date one person whom I love not only for his acting , but for his passion for music, his heart and his ways is the famous singer andguitarist Jerry Read. I personally am feeling down because I share my birthday with him anlso i grew up listening to his music and watching his movies.

Jerry Reed, a singer who became a good ol' boy actor in car chase movies like "Smokey and the Bandit," has died of complications from emphysema at 71.

His longtime booking agent, Carrie Moore-Reed, no relation to the star, said Reed died early Monday.

"He's one of the greatest entertainers in the world. That's the way I feel about him," Moore-Reed said.

Reed was a gifted guitarist who later became a songwriter, singer and actor.

As a singer in the 1970s and early 1980s, he had a string of hits that included "Amos Moses," "When You're Hot, You're Hot," "East Bound and Down" and "The Bird."

In the mid-1970s, he began acting in movies such as "Smokey and the Bandit" with Burt Reynolds, usually as a good ol' boy. But he was an ornery heavy in "Gator," directed by Reynolds, and a hateful coach in 1998's "The Waterboy," starring Adam Sandler.

Reynolds gave him a shiny black 1980 Trans Am like the one they used in "Smokey and the Bandit."

Reed and Kris Kristofferson paved the way for Nashville music personalities to make inroads into films. Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson and Kenny Rogers (TV movies) followed their lead.

"I went around the corner to motion pictures," he said in a 1992 AP interview.

Reed had quadruple bypass surgery in June 1999.

Born in Atlanta, Reed learned to play guitar at age 8 when his mother bought him a $2 guitar and showed him how to play a G-chord.

He dropped out of high school to tour with Ernest Tubb and Faron Young.

At 17, he signed his first recording contract, with Capitol Records.

He moved to Nashville in the mid-1960s where he caught the eye of Chet Atkins.

He first established himself as a songwriter. Elvis Presley recorded two of his songs, "U.S. Male" and "Guitar Man" (both in 1968). He also wrote the hit "A Thing Called Love," which was recorded in 1972 by Johnny Cash. He also wrote songs for Brenda Lee, Tom Jones, Dean Martin, Nat King Cole and the Oak Ridge Boys.

Reed was voted instrumentalist of the year in 1970 by the Country Music Association.

He won a Grammy Award for "When You're Hot, You're Hot" in 1971. A year earlier, he shared a Grammy with Chet Atkins for their collaboration, "Me and Jerry." In 1992, Atkins and Reed won a Grammy for "Sneakin' Around."

Reed continued performing on the road into the late 1990s, doing about 80 shows a year.

"I'm proud of the songs, I'm proud of things that I did with Chet (Atkins), I'm proud that I played guitar and was accepted by musicians and guitar players," he told the AP in 1992.

In a 1998 interview with The Tennessean, he admitted that his acting ability was questionable.

"I used to watch people like Richard Burton and Mel Gibson and think, `I could never do that.'

"When people ask me what my motivation is, I have a simple answer: Money."

Horace Grant - The general

Horace Junior Grant (The General)

Position: Forward-Center
Height: 6-10 Weight: 215 lbs.
Born: July 4, 1965 in Augusta, Georgia
High School: Hancock Central in Sparta, Georgia
College: Clemson University

Drafted by the Chicago Bulls in the 1st round (10th pick, 10th overall) of the 1987 NBA draft.

Horace Grant (born July 4, 1965) is an American retired basketball player. He attended and played college basketball at Clemson University, before playing professionally in the National Basketball Association (NBA), where he became a 4-time NBA champion. Horace Grant is the twin brother of Harvey Grant, who also played in the NBA.

Grant was born in Augusta, Georgia. He was selected by the Chicago Bulls with the 10th overall pick of the 1987 NBA Draft. The 6' 10" power forward immediately teamed with Scottie Pippen to form the Bulls' forward tandem of the future, although he initially backed up Charles Oakley, one of the league's premier rebounders and post defenders.

In 1989, Grant moved into the starting lineup when Oakley was traded to the New York Knicks for center Bill Cartwright. He immediately became the Bulls' main rebounder, and established himself as the Bulls' third scoring option after Michael Jordan and Pippen, forming one of the league's best trios. Grant was a notably good defensive player which is witnessed by his four NBA All-Defensive Team selections.[1] He helped Chicago win three consecutive NBA championships (1990-91, 1991-92, and 1992-93).

After Jordan's first retirement following the 1992-93 season, Grant became the number two star behind Pippen, and helped the Bulls push the Knicks to seven games in the second-round playoff series before being defeated. Grant played in the 1994 NBA All-Star Game in Minneapolis, posting four points and eight rebounds in 17 minutes. In the offseason, however, he left the Bulls as a free agent and joined the young and rising Orlando Magic, led by young phenoms Shaquille O'Neal and Anfernee 'Penny' Hardaway. Grant helped the Magic reach the 1995 NBA Finals, where they were swept in four games by the more experienced Houston Rockets. Grant spent the next several seasons with the Magic, until he was traded to the Seattle SuperSonics just before start of the 1999-2000 season.

After one year with the Sonics, he was involved in a three-way trade in which Glen Rice of the Los Angeles Lakers was sent to New York, Patrick Ewing of the Knicks was sent to Seattle, and Grant to the defending champion Lakers. He helped them win another championship in 2000-01, but in the offseason decided to leave Los Angeles and sign back with the Magic. Grant was cut by the Magic after being called a "cancer" to the team by then-coach Doc Rivers.[2] He retired at the beginning of the 2002-03 season, but decided to return for another run with the Lakers for the 2003-04 season as a backup for Lakers forward Karl Malone. He retired following the Lakers' loss to the Detroit Pistons in the 2004 finals.

Grant was known as a strong defender and rebounder who could also provide a consistent source of points. He was easily recognizable by many NBA fans because of his trademark wraparound protective eyeglasses, commonly known as Rec Specs.

I'd often ask myself, "What's the difference between bull and bear?" in terms of economy and market talk. I never realized the answer was so clear to me than just parallel it to Chicago sports. When you think of the Bulls, you think of good things. 6 championships, etc. But the Bears?? Horrible. Kyle Orton or Rex Grossman?

'Bull' is an optimistic outlook while 'bear' refers to a pessimistic market viewpoint.

The Chicago Bulls of the mid 1990's. Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, Horace Grant, The Shot, Steve Kerr, et cetera. Good thoughts.

Trivia

* His nickname was "The General", alluding to American Union general Ulysses S. Grant.
* Grant was a member of Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity at Clemson.
* Grant is alluded to in the 1998 Puff Daddy song "It's All About the Benjamins."
* In 1995, when the Magic made their run to the NBA Finals, a giant replica of Grant's trademark goggles was placed on the dome of City Hall in downtown Orlando.

Jaguars tackle takes several gun shots, critically ill

Jaguars player Richard Collier was shot several times outside a Riverside apartment early Tuesday and police said his injuries were life-threatening.

If you are a fan of the game of the Jaguars in foot ball then this news is going to be tough on you as their talented tackle, Richard Collier has been shot several times by an unidentified man. Collier and his friends were waiting in Colliers car for a woman they met at a bar and thas how the tragic episode got a start.

Collier and former Jaguars defensive end Kenneth Pettway were outside an apartment in the 2300 block of Riverside Avenue about 2:45 a.m. waiting for two women they met at a San Marco club. Jacksonville Sheriff's Office spokesman Ken Jefferson said a gunman approached and shot into their car.

Collier, 26, who was in the driver's seat of the Cadillac Escalade, was struck several times. He was transported to Shands-Jacksonville Medical Center, where he was listed in critical condition.Pettway was not injured in the attack.

"We're not clear at this point as to the motive, as to the suspect," Jefferson said early Tuesday. "This is all open right now, all fluid, and we are investigating as we speak."

Collier is an offensive tackle out of Valdosta State. The Jaguars picked him up as an undrafted free agent in 2006.

During training camp this summer, Collier battled for the starting job at left tackle but was beat out by Khalif Barnes.

Earlier this year, Collier pleaded no contest to a drunken driving charge, avoiding trial and accepting six months of probation.

The 6-foot-7, 350-pound linemen was arrested Nov. 3 after officers said they found him asleep behind the wheel of his sports utility vehicle at a McDonald's drive-thru window. Collier failed field sobriety tests and had a blood-alcohol level of .096. In Florida, it is illegal to drive when a person's blood-alcohol level reaches .08.

Collier's attorney, Hank Coxe, disputed the police report and recommended that his client go to trial, but Collier didn't want the team to have to deal with the negative attention that would generate.

Pettway, 25, a defensive end out of Grambling State, was picked up from the practice squad in 2006 and played 10 games in 2007. He was the seventh-round draft pick of the Houston Texans in 2005.

Pettway was one of 19 players the Jaguars cut from the roster on Saturday.

The reason behind the attack is unclear. The sheriff's office continues to investigate.

Foolball recruitments - UCLA games

You go to a game of football for fun, thats understandable, but how about your going there gets you selected into a football team and changes your career around. thats fantastic isntit ? Thats exactly what happened to Rick Neuheiselas he has a career in football right now


UCLA's football season opener Monday at the Rose Bowl against Tennessee has brought out lots of high school players.

Quarterback commit Richard Brehaut of Los Osos is here, along with Upland quarterback Josh Nunes, who has committed to Tennessee.

Two USC commits, Byron Moore of Narbonne and Morrell Presley of Carson, are supposed to attend the game.

The Bruins' sideline is swarming with potential recruits and their parents before the game.

Making a good first impression would be helpful for Coach Rick Neuheisel.

And this is what our columns have to say about this budding star.



Chris Foster writes in today's LA Times:

Rick Neuheisel makes his UCLA coaching debut tonight. Since World War II, Bruins coaches are 2-7-1 in their first games. The only ones to come away with a victory were Red Sanders, who beat Oregon State in 1949, and Terry Donahue, who beat third-ranked Arizona State in 1976.

Coach Donahue had a pretty good night on that Saturday in September. As described by Bob Oates in the Los Angeles Times after the game:

Under their 32-year-old new coach, Terry Donahue, UCLA's Bruins picked up where they left off in the Rose Bowl last year, surprising and overpowering the favored Arizona State Sun Devils, 28-10, in the nationally televised season's opener here Thursday night ...
A capacity crowd of 50,876 saw this happen to the Sun Devils adter a 12-0 season in which they had finished second in the Associated Press' national poll.
Ranked third (AP) and seventh (UPI) this summer in the preseason charts, they were an 8-point favorite over UCLA, which had been lightly regarded in the same preseason polls, making 14th in AP and 17th in the other.
This infuriated the Bruins and upset Donahue. They decided to do something about it if they could, and it turned out that they could.

From another LA Times scribe:

UCLA, the Rose Bowl champion, won rather easily, 28-10, and made a prophet of USC coach John Robinson, who had said that UCLA should not be an underdog (ASU was favored by 7 points) to anyone until it loses.
"Perhaps people will recognize that we're a good team," [Manu] Tuiasosopo said. "I don't know why we're not highly regarded. Maybe it's because we're in the same town as USC."

Sally Quinn's saturday night

Sally Quinn , a reporter with te washington post never is scared and she posts what she feels is good or true or what would be the best news for her paper. Those are the quality traits of a true journalist and the recent news with which she is involved is another mark of her journalism...

From her On Faith column:

By the time McCain finished his interview with pastor Rick Warren at the Saddleback Church in Orange County, California, Saturday night, part of a forum that also featured Barack Obama, I was curled up in a fetal position in my chair, wrapped in a mohair throw, practically sucking my thumb.

That comes right after Quinn has confessed that McCain reminds her of her father as he existed in her childhood dreams:

a horse with wings [who] swooped down from the sky, kneeled so I could jump on his back and flew away just as the earth cracked open beneath me.

And yet Quinn still seems to have come away from the Saddleback Summit more taken with Obama! (Does that make Obama a horse who not only has wings but also breathes fire?) Maybe Noam was on to something.

Mail revenge - Sally Quinn

Sally Quinn , a reporter with te washington post never is scared and she posts what she feels is good or true or what would be the best news for her paper. Those are the quality traits of a true journalist and the recent news with which she is involved is another mark of her journalism...

Sally Quinn, a reporter with the Washington Post, posted her thoughts on the John Edward's affair and its ramifications. Her report was a bit different than others as she wrote about Elizabeth Edwards, along with other politicians' wives who stood beside their husbands as they confessed their various sins and peccadilloes. She said that these women were enablers in the worst way and how she wished they would just "slap those men" instead of "letting them do whatever they wanted to."
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Remember the wife of the New Jersey governor, James McGreevey, standing there like a deer caught in the headlights as her husband confessed to be openly gay? I wanted to slap him, but even more I wanted to slap her and say, "Wake up, woman and say something."

Then there was Eliot Spitzer, the governor of New York, who confessed to his involvement with a prostitution ring while his wife stood behind him looking supportive and concerned. I wanted to shake her until her teeth rattled.

Closer to home, we have David Vitter and his confession involving a prostitute. There was this collective gasp when we all said, His wife forgave him and, for the most part, enabled him.

Then comes the John Edwards saga with Elizabeth Edwards doing her best to hold things together in this difficult time. Quinn labels her an enabler because she let him do it.

Most women of the South were taught to look the other way while their husbands are dallying. We are taught to keep our business private, to keep our homes running smoothly and to protect our children from the gossip and scrutiny that wandering husbands may generate.

But we are not necessarily enablers. I refer you to the Sacred Southern Belle Handbook, page 8, section 4. There we are instructed to exact our revenge in small ways, even when we may be the only ones who are aware of what we did. We are taught to "exact our pound of flesh" after our hearts have been broken, vows torn asunder, and all the money is funneled into trashy women.

Yes, we may look the other way until our necks are frozen in that position, but we do not take this lightly or meekly. We just take our particular brand of retribution in private.

During the times of the Old South, men like Edwards, Spitzer, McGreevy and the granddaddy of all modern sex scandals, Bill Clinton, would have been shot or at the very least, injured in parts of their bodies that they dearly cherished. This was done out of respect and concern for our other Southern Belles as we would not want these men thrust upon their lives. This also applied to cheating hypocrites, lying fornicators and men who dismissed us as if we had cotton candy for brains.

Elizabeth Edwards may not be out in public speaking her mind, slapping her husband's pretty face, or even throwing his behind out of the house, but believe me, she is no fool and she has performed like a lady. I admire her fortitude and courage in the face of this glaring and intrusive look into her private life, but private it should remain ... just like her forgiveness that is surely tempered with a bit of revenge.

In fact, I asked someone the other day what did they think Eliot Spitzer was doing these days and they answered "Without." I rest my case.

Google chrome beta release today

The much awaited release of the google chrome bar is scheduled for a later day but the sneak peek as of what it does, how it looks etc should be seen and appreciated in the beta version thats coming out today. Just download the browser and check it out for yourselves

Google announced on Monday plans to unveil a version of its own Web browser, challenging Microsoft's dominance over Web browsing.

On Tuesday, a beta version of the browser, called "Google Chrome,'' will debut in more than 100 countries and offer features that make it easier and faster to browse the Web.

Monday's move escalates the rivalry between the Mountain View company and Microsoft, which recently released an updated version of Internet Explorer, used by a majority of Web surfers.

Google would not comment Monday on the launch, instead pointing to its blog posting.

"We believe we can add value for users, and, at the same time, help drive innovation on the web...this is just the beginning — Google Chrome is far from done,'' wrote Sundar Pichai, vice president of product management and Linus Upson, engineering director.

Microsoft, however, reiterated confidence in its product despite its rival's attempts to alter the Internet playing field.

"The browser landscape is highly competitive, but people will choose Internet Explorer 8 for the way it puts the services they want right at their fingertips, respects their personal choices about how they want to browse and, more than any other browsing technology, puts them in control of their personal data online,'' said Dean Hachamovitch, general manager of Internet Explorer.

Google, meanwhile, touted a "more powerful JavaScript engine, V8, to power the next generation
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of Web applications that aren't even possible in today's browsers.''

The Internet powerhouse's free new browser will be open source, allowing others to modify the code, and the company is still working on versions compatible with Apple's Mac, and the Linux operating system.

News about the browser came after Google prematurely sent a comic book to Google Blogoscoped that illustrated the browser — a gaffe acknowledged in the blog posting by the search company.

The browser could possibly thwart the increasingly popular Mozilla Foundation, the organization that runs Firefox Web browser and which has benefited from engineering help and money from Google. However, Google and Mozilla last week extended their agreement through 2011.

Check out more on google chrome here

Download google chrome here

Google Chrome bar

Our best search engine is out again with the best browser of the century probably, Google Chrome. The apperances seem to be awsome and the features implanted in it, tremendously awesome I should say.

Google, the sometime darling, sometime oligarchic scourge of the Internet "accidentally" let slip--via a 30-plus-page online comic book no less--that it has its own browser, "Google Chrome", in the works, and then later fessed up on its official blog that Chrome will launch in 100 countries tomorrow. Open source and, thanks to "Gears" integration, primed to work with Google's cloud computing suite, Chrome has the web buzzing.

I think everyone ought to calm down.

Yes a browser, which many people consider a substitute operating system --incorrectly by the way--is definitely a better move than the once rumored "Google OS". However it's not worth getting crazy about.

Already pundits are predicting the downfall of IE and even Firefox. Yes, I too like the sound of this browser. The detachable tabs sound sweet. The walled garden (or "sandbox") processes that shut down discretely and that prevent accidentally sharing damaging code sounds smart. Yet, for today at least, this is still vaporware with zero users.

Also, there seems to be the assumption that just because Google steps into the space it can own it. Must I remind you all of Google Talk? Does anyone use that AOL Instant Messenger competitor? Google obviously imagines that a popular browser product will float its chat, mail, cloud computing, and other offerings. Call me a skeptic

Overall, Chrome doesn't sound like it'll beak any new ground. The anti-phishing technology is important, but our testing shows that Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox are already pretty good front-line defenders for phishing attacks.

The customizability of tabs, allowing site and app developers to hide and show certain features sounds like a good idea, too, until you consider how average users will respond to the inconsistencies. Remember how users squawked when Microsoft moved the Home, Refresh, and Stop buttons on IE 7?

Innovation (or the lack thereof) aside, this is clearly a smart move for Google. The synergy among all its services is obvious. But, please folks, let's not throw a parade because Google is promising an open source approach. We do, in FireFox, have a very, very good open source browser today.

Here's how I see this all playing out.

Google releases Google Chrome beta tomorrow in 100 countries and people like it, but they like Firefox 3 more, which they've been using most of the year. The initial rush to get the browser should make it incredibly difficult for many people to actually try out Chrome, but even after the hoopla has had time to settle down, it'll be Firefox's market share that grows, not Chrome's.

Google Chrome, does however, gain instant popularity and notoriety among the web cognoscenti, but average users are still with the IE 7 that came with their Vista desktops or the Firefox browser their somewhat techier friends downloaded for them.
Firefox's market share reaches 30 percent by May 2009.

Meanwhile IE 8 Beta 2 (in my experience, a buggier beta than the developer edition) goes full release later this year, but does not inspire. The Firefox "Awesome bar" still beats IE's updated address bar and Google's Omnibox address bar's promise of more fluid response is no head-turner.

By May 2009 Google Chrome has a whopping 1 percent of the market. By mid 2010 Firefox has 50 percent of the market, IE 45 percent, and Google Chrome and Opera are fighting over the scraps.

In Google Chrome big news? Sure. Any time the world's leading search engine company exhales or develops a hangnail, it's news. A full-blown-product in a key, albeit free, category is important. Yet this one won't be a game changer.

Like I said, don't get too excited about Google Chrome.

Check out more on google chrome here

Download google chrome here

Hurricane Gutsav claims 7 lives

Though the extent of the damage caused is not measured yet, the hurricane has claimed 7 lives and the re is expected to be more losses. Hurricane did not have a full impact on the coast of new orleans. Authorities are reporting seven deaths related to Hurricane Gustav.

They include four people fleeing the storm who were killed in Georgia when their car struck a tree. A couple in their 70s died when a tree struck their relatives' home in Baton Rouge. Another woman died in an accident driving between Baton Rouge and New Orleans.



Before arriving in the U.S., Gustav was blamed for at least 94 deaths in the Caribbean.

Gustav slammed into the heart of Louisiana's fishing and oil industries with 110 mile-an-hour winds today. It delivered only a glancing blow to New Orleans, three years after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.

There was damage elsewhere in Louisiana. A levee in the southeast part of the state is on the verge of collapse. As many as 300 homes in Plaquemines (PLAK'-uh-minz) Parish are threatened. Officials are scrambling to fortify the levee.

At 8 p.m. Eastern time, Gustav had top sustained winds of 75 miles-an-hour. The National Hurricane Center says it's expected to weaken further during the next 24 hours.

More storeis on Gutsav the hurricane

"We are seeing some overtopping waves," said Col. Jeff Bedey, commander of the Army Corps of Engineers' hurricane protection office. "We are cautiously optimistic and confident that we won't see catastrophic wall failure."

Hurricane warnings remained in effect from east of High Island, Texas, to the Mississippi-Alabama border.

"The coordination on this storm is a lot better than during Katrina," President Bush said during a briefing in Texas. "A lot of it had to do with the governors."

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said search and rescue would be the top priority once the storm passed: high-water vehicles, helicopters and fixed-wing planes, Coast Guard cutters and a Navy vessel that is essentially a floating emergency room were posted around the strike zone.

Click here to read about the threat to Cajun country.

Click here to read about those who chose to stay.

Chertoff told FOX News that a storm surge would provide "both a water and wind challenge" to New Orleans.

"Certain of the levees, for example the 17th Street Canal, are now protected by a barrier," he told FOX News. "So they’re much more secure that it did three years ago, but there are for example levees in the West Bank which were not tested by Katrina, which have not been fully brought to the level that they would be in 2011, so there’s a potential vulnerability there."

While New Orleans avoided a direct hit, the storm could be devastating where it did strike. For most of the past half century, the bayou communities that thrived in the Barataria basin have watched their land literally disappear. A combination of factors — oil drilling, hurricanes, river levees, damming of rivers — have destroyed marshes and swamps that once flourished in this river delta.

Entire towns in the basin of the Mississippi delta have disappeared because of land loss. The rates of loss are among the highest in the world; erosion has left it with virtually no natural buffer.

The nation was nervously watching to see how New Orleans would weather Gustav three years after Katrina flooded 80 percent of the city. Roughly 1,600 people were killed across the unprepared Gulf Coast. Federal, state and local officials took a never-again stance after the storm, and set to work planning and upgrading infrastructure in the below sea-level city.

"There's no indication of any walls in distress," said Robert Turner, the regional levee director for the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East. "No trenches are being cut that will destabilize the walls. No indication of walls deflecting or anything being washed out. No evidence of major seepage."

For all their seeming similarities, Hurricanes Gustav and Katrina were different in one critical respect: Katrina smashed the Gulf Coast with an epic storm surge that topped 27 feet, a far higher wall of water than Gustav hauled ashore.

"We don't expect the loss of life, certainly, that we saw in Katrina," Federal Emergency Management Agency Deputy Director Harvey E. Johnson told The Associated Press. "But we are expecting a lot of homes to be damaged, a lot of infrastructure to be flooded, and damaged severely."

Katrina was a bigger storm when it made landfall in August 2005, and it made a direct hit on the Mississippi coast. Gustav skirted along Louisiana's shoreline at "a more gentle angle," said National Weather Service storm surge specialist Will Shaffer.

Initial reports indicated storm surge of about 8 feet above normal tides, but forecasts indicated up to 14 feet in surge was possible.

"Right now, we feel we're not going to have a true inundation," said Karen Durham-Aguilera, director of the $15 billion project to rebuild the U.S. Army Corps of Engineer's levee and floodwalls in the New Orleans-area.

Still, Mayor Ray Nagin urged everyone to "resist the temptation to say we're out of the woods." He said Gustav's heavy rainfall could still flood the saucer-shaped city over the next 24 hours as tropical storm-force winds blast through the city. Winds were about 36 mph near City Hall Monday morning, with higher gusts.

Nagin's emergency preparedness director, Lt. Col. Jerry Sneed, said it's possible residents could return 24 hours after tropical-force winds die down. The city would first need to assess damage and determine if any neighborhoods were unsafe. A city-wide curfew would run through at least through the end of Monday.

The only storm-related death in Louisiana reported by state police involved a woman who drove off eastbound Interstate 10 and hit a tree between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. That brings Gustav's death toll to 95, and police urged those in the storm's path to stay sheltered and off the road.

Gusts snapped large branches from the majestic oak trees that form a canopy over St. Charles Avenue. Half the city was without power at midday, but officials said backup generators were keeping city drainage pumps in service.

On the high ground in the French Quarter, nasty winds whipped signs and the purple, green and gold Mardi Gras flags hanging from cast-iron balconies. Like the rest of the city, the Quarter's normally boisterous streets were deserted save for a police officer standing watch every few blocks and a few early morning drinkers in the city's famous bars.

"We wanted to be part of a historic event," said Benton Love, 30, stood outside Johnny White's Sports Bar with a whiskey and Diet Coke. "We knew Johnny White's would be the place to be. We'll probably switch to water about 10 o'clock, sober up, and see if we can help out."

New Orleans police superintendent Warren Riley said there had been no reports of looting or calls for rescue. The Superdome was locked up and city officials stuck to their pledge not to open a shelter of last resort. Public officials sternly warned in the days leading up to the storm that anyone leaving their homes after a dawn-to-dusk curfew was imposed would be swiftly thrown behind bars.

Evacuees watched television coverage from shelters and hotel rooms hundreds of miles away, praying the powerful Category 2 storm and its 115-mph winds would pass without the exacting Katrina's toll.

Harmonica player J.D. Hill said he was standing in line Monday morning to get into a public shelter in Bossier City in northwest Louisiana after waiting on a state-provided evacuation bus that carried him to safety.

He described a frustrating scene outside the shelter, where elderly evacuees and young children had to wait to be searched and processed before going inside.

"There's the funky bus bathrooms, people can't sleep, we're not being told anything. We're at their mercy," he said.

Hill was the first resident of the Musicians' Village, a cluster of homes Harry Connick Jr. and fellow New Orleans musician Branford Marsalis built through Habitat for Humanity after Hurricane Katrina. The village provides affordable housing for musicians and others who lost their homes in Katrina's flooding.

In coastal Mississippi, officials said a 15-foot storm surge flooded homes and inundated the only highways to coastal towns devastated by Katrina three years ago. There were no immediate reports of injuries, but officials said at least three people near the Jordan River in Hancock County had to be rescued from flood waters. Elsewhere in the state, an abandoned building in Gulfport collapsed and there were a few flooded homes in Biloxi.

Officials promised they were ready to respond to the storm, unlike Katrina. Johnson said FEMA had stockpiled enough food, water, ice and other supplies to take care of 1 million victims for three days. Also in place for rescues after the storm passes were high-water vehicles, helicopters and fixed-wing planes, plus Coast Guard cutters and a Navy vessel that is essentially a floating emergency room.

Gustav was the seventh named storm in the Atlantic hurricane season. The eighth, Tropical Storm Hanna, was strengthening about 40 miles north of the Bahamas. Though a storm's track and intensity are difficult to predict days in advance, long-term projections showed the storm could come ashore along the border of Georgia and South Carolina late in the week. The National Hurricane Center also was watching another tropical depression that formed Monday in the open Atlantic.

Hurricane Gustav hits Louisiana, now C2, Port Fourchon cut from the outside world

Hurricane Gustav made landfall on the Louisiana coast on Monday, while it appeared that the brunt of the storm was passing to the west of New Orleans, making officials optimistic that the city would be spared destruction on the scale of Hurricane Katrina three years ago.
While still powerful, and lashing the Gulf Coast with strong winds and rain, the storm was downgraded from category 3 to category 2, on a scale of 1 to 5, because its winds had slowed to 110 miles an hour from 115 m.p.h., according to the National Weather Service.

Port Fourchon is inaccessible.

Hurricane Gustav has already pushed about three feet of water on Louisiana 1, the only access road to Port Fourchon, the port's director Ted Falgout said.

By 7 a.m. this morning, wind gusts at the port, a major intersection for the offshore petroleum industry and oil imports, had reached 105 mph.

Port Fourchon houses the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, through which about 15 percent of the nation's oil imports. Oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico is currently shut-in.

With the only inland road leading to the port flooded, Port Fourchon is inaccessible by land, however, there is no way to tell if the road is damaged.

MSNBC is reporting that waters from Hurricane Gustav, now a Category 2 storm, have overtopped the Industrial Canal barrier in New Orleans.

Track of the hurricane Gutsav

Hurricanes track, Gutsav's foot prints all around

With Gutsav messing around hither and thither and leaving his foot prints everywhere , wouldnt we love to know the exact track so that we , at least in our hearts be clear that there is nothing thats coming our way. Down below is a link that should lead you to just that place that shows the tracks of the hurricane.



Gustav causing all sorts of issues in and around New Orleans. We are in New Iberia awaiting the eyewall of the hurricane which should arrive within the next couple of hours. No major problems here that we have seen. We have spoken to several law enforcement officials who also report very little in the way of problems or damage in the area. This could change as the eye wall passes within the next few hours. We have a wind tower set up here and are recording and transmitting data every 60 seconds. We realize also that our site has been massively overwhelmed with traffic from all over the world. We are glad so many people are intersted in the site and will do our best to keep it up under stress for future events. In any case, we are working the hurricane and will post a full report tonight as to what we saw, measured and observed. This is the top story right now but it will soon change to Hanna and TD9. Things are about as busy in the tropics as they could ever be. People need to make sure they pay attention to the next two systems- Hanna and possibly Ike-to-be. I will have more info on these developing situations later today.

Live weather data and web cam from hurricanetrack.com 5 meter tower in New Iberia, LA

New orleans under hurricane strike, levees under danger

Gutsy gustav is making his presense felt I guess, throwing around ships and trying to break canals and walls surrounding it. If such a thing does happen, we'll be in more danger as the canals would take considerable time to be mended and we will have another financial attcak staring at us.

Hurricane Gustav has made landfall south-west of New Orleans as waves lapped over a levee and three vessels broke dangerously loose of their moorings in a city canal, officials said.

"This is the biggest challenge we have at the moment: that those ships and barges that have broken free don't do any damage to the canal walls," New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said, fearing a repeat of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

The eye of the massive storm crossed land just west-south-west of Cocodrie, Louisiana, about 110 kilometres south-west of New Orleans, the National Hurricane Centre said.

"The storm is weakening, but it is slowing. That is bad news," National Weather Service meteorologist Jody James said.

The region faces "several more hours of rain" and "serious flooding" is possible, he said.

Asked if Gustav could be as bad as Katrina, which struck New Orleans nearly exactly three years ago, James said: "It's a little early to say. Katrina was a category four downgraded to three just before landfall. Gustav is a little bit weaker."

The expert added "We are watching the levees."

Gustav weakened to a category two storm on a five-level scale as it neared colder coastal waters, but forecasters warned of an "extremely dangerous" water surge of up to 4.2 meters, enough to worry officials after Katrina burst New Orleans' levees in 2005 and flooded the city for days.

Water was nearly up to the lip of an earthen levee protecting the Upper Ninth Ward of New Orleans. Intense winds were blowing waves over the top of the wall even as the strongest part of the storm was yet to hit shore.

"We are not out of the woods," Mr Nagin said. "We still have some critical time between now and tonight."

Two boats and a barge had broken free in the Industrial Canal, triggering fears that the vessels may crash through the waterway's wall in a repeat of what happened during Katrina three years ago.

Boats and barges were supposed to be cleared from the canals as a precaution against them becoming battering rams that could breach canal walls.

"I just don't get it," mr Nagin said. "One report I have is that one of these vessels was moved in just yesterday, which just blows me away. I don't know if it is illegal, but it should be."

'No excuses'

Meanwhile, a top aide to US President George W Bush warned of "weaknesses" in New Orleans' levee system and said anyone who stayed in the city in the face of Hurricane Gustav had "no excuses."

"There should not be any excuses. If people stayed in New Orleans, it was their choice," Federal Emergency Management Agency director David Paulison said as Mr Bush travelled there to assess the Government response to Gustav.

Mr Paulison cited "unprecedented cooperation" among Government agencies and the private sector, saying disaster response officials had learned tough lessons from their botched response to killer Hurricane Katrina.

"What it allows us to do is share information of what's going on, so we don't end up with what happened in Katrina, with different agencies doing things and others not knowing what's happening," he told reporters.

Mr Paulison, speaking aboard Bush's Air Force One presidential airplane, said authorities had pre-deployed disaster response teams and equipment instead of waiting until after the storm passes, as was the case in 2005.

"That made a tremendous difference in the evacuation process. This was one of the most successful and coordinated evacuations that I've seen," said Mr Paulison, who briefed Mr Bush for one hour aboard the airplane.

Asked about New Orleans's levee system, Mr Paulison said the US Army Corps of Engineers "is saying the levees are much stronger, they've raised them a lot, much higher than they were during Katrina. However, there's still weaknesses in that levee system. It's not where it needs to be."

Asked whether the US President, whose popularity nose-dived after Katrina, was satisfied with the Government response to Gustav, White House press secretary Dana Perino replied "Yes, so far."

Gutsav strikes Lousiana, misses new orleans by a thread

GUTSY gutsave for thats what I call this hurricane thats reached the coast of USA is wreaking havoc at Lousiana. with huge waves breaking at the shores. The best hope for us is to beieve that it would not be as bad as the Katrina but still, somekind of a natural disaster is always feared and lets pray to the mighty God Almighty that his hand be there forever to safeguard us from these disasters

A huge storm surge has struck the Louisiana coast with 14-ft waves breaking against protective levees as Hurricane Gustav made landfall southwest of New Orleans.

Tornadoes whirled around the outskirts of the deserted city after the hurricane ploughed into the low-lying Louisiana coast, driving high waves across the levees and threatening dangerous floods.

New Orleans is still reeling from the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina in autumn 2005 - sending tens of thousands of people to live in nearby parts of Louisiana and Texas.

At least three critically ill people are now reported to have died while they were being evacuated from the danger zone by National Guard troops, who were moving into the city with rescue workers.

Spray and high waves whipped over the top of the Industrial Canal levee, one of those that burst three years ago, destroying the city's Ninth Ward.

As the storm moved into land, it weakened to a category 2 storm, but with winds of about 110mph and a large surge of water flowing in from the Gulf of Mexico, it was poised to do more damage.

"We are concerned about any of this overtopping," said Major Tim Kurgan of the Army Corps of Engineers.

"These walls are all safe to the top," he stressed, with the levees still undergoing a 15-billion-dollar rebuilding program after Katrina's enormous damage.

However, officials said they expected a new wave of water to hit the coast later today, sending flood water across the protective barriers.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, who has ordered a curfew and vowed to throw looters into prison, told local television the city had become a "ghost town" after a mandatory evacuation forced nearly two million people to flee.

Bobby Jindal, Louisiana's governor, early issued a plea to the roughly 100,000 people still left on the coast, telling them: "If you've not evacuated, please do so. There are still a few hours left."

In New Orleans, a dawn to dusk curfew was enforced by police and National Guardsmen roaring through the deserted streets in Humvee vehicles.

Gustav, which has already killed at least 94 people in the Caribbean, appeared to have claimed the lives of another three following unconfirmed reports that three patients in critical care had died during the evacuation of Louisiana hospitals.

Something good in a bad - oil prices fall due to the hurricane

As always, something good is sure to happen when some bad befalls, and this time the good following the new orleans hurricane event is the fall in the oil prices,. At least now we'll be able to afford the price per gallon. Though the market is still unstable as a result of the hurricane's out come, its expected to stabilize very soon.

Crude oil fell, reversing earlier gains, after Hurricane Gustav weakened, easing concern of widespread damage to drilling rigs and refineries.

Gustav has been downgraded to a Category 2 storm, the second-weakest of the five levels of hurricane strength, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said in its latest advisory. Preparations for the storm closed 96 percent of offshore oil production and about 10 percent of U.S. refining capacity.

``The latest forecast shows that while Gustav is perfectly aimed at the heart of U.S. oil and gas production it's not quite as strong as was initially feared,'' said Mike Wittner, Societe Generale's London-based head of oil research. ``The refining system is not as stretched this time round compared with Rita and Katrina.''

Crude oil for October delivery fell as much as $3.01, or 2.6 percent, to $112.45 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, and traded at $113.19 at 2:32 p.m. London time. It earlier rose as much as 2.2 percent to $118.

Gulf Coast refineries have cut at least 1.56 million barrels a day of production, about 9.8 percent of the U.S. total. Gustav, packing winds of 115 miles an hour (240 kilometers an hour) was 85 miles south of New Orleans at 6 a.m. Miami time, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Still, Gustav is two categories below the peak strength reached by Hurricane Katrina, which sent oil prices to records after wrecking refineries around New Orleans three years ago. Katrina's intensity was greatest over the gulf, where it damaged rigs, platforms and undersea oil and gas pipelines. It then weakened to a Category 3 hurricane before reaching land.

Workers Evacuated

Workers from more than 70 percent of the platforms and rigs in the gulf have been evacuated as Gustav approaches, the U.S. Minerals Management Service said in a statement on its Web site yesterday. About 1.25 million barrels a day of oil and 6.09 billion cubic feet of gas have been shut, or more than 96 percent of offshore oil output and 82 percent of gas production.

The Gulf of Mexico normally produces about 1.3 million barrels of oil and an estimated 7.4 billion cubic feet of gas a day, according to the Minerals Management Service, part of the U.S. Interior Department.

Nymex electronic trading opened early today to allow traders to respond to Gustav. Trades will be recorded as part of the Sept. 2 session because of today's U.S. Labor Day holiday.

Brent crude oil for October settlement was down $2.46, or 2.2 percent at $111.59 barrel on the ICE Futures Europe Exchange.

Networks shift their attention towards hurricane

With the race to the president still hot and few twists and turns happening all around, there cam e nature's fury right down hard and the TV network personnels thought it was their duty to convey the hot news to the public and ring the bell beofre it was too late. New orleans and the neighbouring states just missed a hurricane coming down hard at them and at the right moment , TV channels turned their cameras to it . Here is what they all have to say about it.

TV networks rapidly shifted focus and personnel away from the Republican national convention to Gulf Coast communities in the path of Hurricane Gustav on Sunday, wondering how much of their political planning will be for naught.

Anchors Katie Couric, Charles Gibson, Brian Williams, Anderson Cooper and Shepard Smith were all going to the New Orleans area for the storm instead of being with Republicans in St. Paul, Minn.

Whether they will be heading north at all depends on the strength of the storm at Monday's expected landfall. President Bush and Vice President Cheney both canceled plans to be at the convention, where they were to be featured Monday, and the GOP was considering other changes to its program.

"We're going to go with the biggest story of the day tomorrow," said Jay Wallace, a news vice president at Fox News Channel, "and right now the biggest story of the day is the storm."

Along with Smith, Fox was sending Geraldo Rivera and at least a dozen crews to the Gulf. Fox had been anticipating a big week in St. Paul; its ratings topped every broadcast and cable network at the 2004 GOP convention.

It's unclear how viewers will respond this time if the storm eclipses the convention as a story.

Wolf Blitzer was anchoring CNN on Sunday from the nearly empty convention floor, yet he was talking mostly about the hurricane. Sunday on the cable networks would have otherwise been dominated by political stories - as it was the day before the Democratic convention last week in Denver - but much of the political talk this week concerned the storm's impact on Republicans.

"These two stories are obviously interwoven right now," said Sam Feist, CNN's political director.

Even in the few times politics came up, the cable news networks usually kept an angry orange satellite picture of Gustav in the corner. At one point when Karl Rove was discussing Republican vice presidential choice Sarah Palin on Fox News Channel, his picture was crowded into one-fourth of the screen.

A bright red hurricane insignia spun into the picture, complete with whooshing noise, when MSNBC moved between stories.

ABC's Gibson decided to anchor "World News" on Sunday from New Orleans. George Stephanopoulos was staying in St. Paul, but Chris Cuomo of "Good Morning America" will be in the Gulf Monday. Diane Sawyer, who went to the Democratic convention, will be in New York Monday and her future travel plans were uncertain.

CBS pulled two crews from the convention and sent them south. Harry Smith of "The Early Show" planned to join Couric and several correspondents in the Gulf region.

Williams was going to stop to interview GOP candidate John McCain before he arrives in New Orleans, said NBC News President Steve Capus. Anchor emeritus Tom Brokaw will anchor the network's GOP coverage.

Keith Olbermann, who has been sharply critical of the GOP, was pulled from St. Paul to anchor MSNBC's storm coverage from New York. Capus said political considerations had nothing to do with that move. Chris Matthews will anchor from an outdoor studio in St. Paul and David Gregory will report from the convention hall.

With NBC Universal's purchase of The Weather Channel, all of The Weather Channel's meteorologists and correspondents dispatched to cover the storm will appear on NBC and MSNBC, Capus said.

Each of the broadcast networks had set aside one hour in prime-time Monday through Thursday for convention coverage. It's uncertain whether that hour will now be used to report on the hurricane or politics.

"The Republican National Committee has done a good job at being sensitive to not wanting to throw a party at a time the Gulf Coast is under siege," Capus said. "We're trying to approach the convention with the same degree of sensitivity."

Actions by the news organizations could have political repercussions. It could be the worst possible time for Republicans to share the spotlight, reminding viewers of Bush administration failures three years ago with Hurricane Katrina. Yet focusing on a politically unpopular president on the opening night of the convention could have been inconvenient for the Republicans, and now that issue has gone away.

News executives had more immediate concerns.

"My thumbs are numb from the Blackberry exchanges between yesterday and today in terms of shifting our coverage," Fox's Wallace said.