Toilet of the Future

This is good news:

SEATTLE, Washington—These aren’t your typical toilets. One uses microwave energy to transform human waste into electricity. Another captures urine and uses it for flushing. And still another turns excrement into charcoal.

They are part of a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation competition to reinvent the toilet for the 2.5 billion people around the world who don’t have access to modern sanitation systems for handling the basic and vital need in disposing of bodily waste.

Scientists from around the world have taken up the challenge, and the foundation announced some projects on Tuesday that would be getting more money to take their ideas from the lab to the cities.  There, local entrepreneurs are expected to use the newtechnology to turn pollution into cash.

“Toilets are extremely important for public health and, when you think of it, even human dignity,” Gates, the Microsoft cofounder turned global philanthropist, said in a statement launching the “Reinvent the Toilet Fair” in Seattle.

“The flush toilets we use in the wealthy world are irrelevant, impractical and impossible for 40 percent of the global population, because they often don’t have access to water, and sewers, electricity, and sewage treatment systems,” he added.

The toilet fair was described as a swirl of about 200 inventors, designers, investors, partners and others passionate about creating safe, effective, and inexpensive waste management systems.

“We couldn’t be happier with the response that we’ve gotten,” Bill Gates said.

US Immigration Change

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services began accepting requests Wednesday for consideration of deferred actionfor young undocumented immigrants who arrived in America as children.

Here are five things you should know about the bold change announced by President Barack Obama in June:

1. What is it?

The policy is a "temporary" measure that allows eligible immigrants to apply for work permits and deportation deferral for a two-year period. Supporters stress it does not grant immunity or a provide a shortcut to citizenship but affords undocumented immigrant children a chance to be productive workers -- with a promise they won't be deported for two years. Opponents see the policy as granting backdoor amnesty to people who came to America illegally and tightening an already poor job market for young Americans.

2. Who is eligible?

Rolito Go is missing

Did he escape or is a victim of kidnap ransom syndicate? Rolito Go is missing. Here is the news:

Another high-profile prisoner at the state penitentiary has given prison officials the slip.

Rolito Go, a convicted road rage killer, was reported missing from the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) in Muntinlupa City on Tuesday night. But his relatives claimed Wednesday that he was kidnapped along with his nephew.

Three Philippine Daily Inquirer sources supported the claim of Go’s family, saying this was not the first time that a rich prisoner at the NBP or their relatives had fallen prey to a kidnap-for-ransom syndicate.

In a briefing for reporters, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima sounded unconvinced it was kidnapping.

“Imagine, kidnapped right in the NBP. Only in the Philippines,” De Lima said.

De Lima said Go was reported to have been last seen at the Ina ng Awa church at the prison compound where he was assigned as a church worker with his nephew, Clemence Yu, a registered nurse.

Go is suffering from colon cancer, and has had surgery.

De Lima said Yu came every day to dress Go’s surgical wounds and give him medicine.

Obama and Romney on MEDICARE

The focus of the debate of Obama ad Romney is MEDICARE, the health care plan for senior citizens.

Here is the news: 

President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney battled over Medicare and energy policy Tuesday as the November election campaign reached out to battleground states crucial to both sides' chances for victory.

In an escalating struggle to seize the advantage on the contentious Medicare issue, the Romney campaign counterpunched with a new ad accusing Obama of cutting more than $700 billion from the government-run health care plan for senior citizens.

Romney made the same claim at two Ohio campaign appearances, three days after his selection of House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan brought the issue to the forefront of the campaign spotlight.

Ryan is best-known for a conservative budget plan passed by the U.S. House that includes reforms to partially privatize Medicare, which Democrats say will kill the popular entitlement program.

To counter consistent Democratic attacks in recent days against Ryan's Medicare proposals, the new Romney ad sought to turn the tables by contending the money senior citizens have paid into Medicare for years will instead fund Obama's 2010 health care reform bill.

At a campaign event Tuesday in Ohio, Romney beat the same drum.

"When he ran for office he said he'd protect Medicare, but did you know that he has taken $716 billion out of the Medicare trust fund -- he's raided that trust fund -- and you know what he did with it?" Romney said of Obama. "He's used it to pay for Obamacare -- a risky, unproven, federal government takeover of health care -- and if I'm president of the United States we're putting the $716 billion back."

A July 24 Congressional Budget Office report said that repealing the health care law, as called for by Romney and Ryan, would increase spending on Medicare by $716 billion through 2022. At the same time, the CBO letter said keeping Obamacare in place would not mean a $716 billion decrease in Medicare spending as claimed by Romney and his ad.

The Obama campaign called Romney's claim "dishonest and "hypocritical."

"The savings his ad attacks do not cut a single guaranteed Medicare benefit, and Mitt Romney embraced the very same savings when he promised he'd sign Paul Ryan's budget," said Obama campaign spokeswoman Lis Smith.

David Axelrod, Obama's senior campaign adviser, told CNN earlier Tuesday that Medicare reforms in the president's health care law "took away subsidies, unwarranted subsidies, to insurance companies, and he used that money to help lengthen the life of Medicare by nearly a decade."

Steve Job's Home Robbed

Steve Job's home in Palo Alto was burglarized.

Here is the news: 

More than $60,000 worth of computers and personal items have been stolen from the Palo Alto, California, home of the late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.

Kariem McFarlin, 35, of Alameda was arrested and charged with residential burglary and selling stolen property, according to Scott Tsui, supervising deputy district attorney for Santa Clara County. McFarlin remains in the Santa Clara County jail on $500,000 bail pending a court hearing on Monday, Tsui said.

The break-in occurred July 17, although details of the burglary and McFarlin's August 2 arrest are now just becoming public. The house was being renovated last month, and nobody was home at the time, Tsui said.

SLums to be Relocated or Blasted ?

The flooding in Metro Manila was found out to have been caused by garbage especially from informal settlers. Now the government is planningg AGAIN to relocate the,.Let us see if the plan to remove these squatters will be more successful compared to the previous administrations,

Here is the news: 

The squatters’ colonies blocking major waterways in Metro Manila will soon be but a bad memory.

Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo said on Tuesday the national government was planning to relocate some 100,000 informal settlers living near danger zones in Metro Manila.

He said shanties and other illegal structures built along creeks, canals and other waterways would be dismantled to allow the construction of flood-mitigating systems.

Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson said as much on Monday, saying government would “blast” the houses of informal settlers and other blockages that worsen flooding. He was blasted by urban poor groups.

Blast the shanties? Not even the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos issued such a threat, bristled the leader of Urban Poor Associates (UPA).

“Did you hear the language used about poor people? Singson said he’d blow up homes. Did you ever hear that before, even during the Marcos’ years?” UPA executive director Denis Murphy said in a phone interview.

The poor would be “shocked” to hear this, added Murphy, a former Jesuit priest who had been working with the urban poor in Metro Manila since cofounding the UPA.

“Blow up the houses of people, as if they were bandits, crooks or robbers, and the government has to go in, and bomb them? I think the poor would be shocked to hear those words,” he said.

Faced with the furor, Singson said that when he talked about blasting structures, he was referring to the blasting of illegal fish pens in the Pampanga delta during the watch of then President Fidel V. Ramos.

“There will be no blasting of illegal occupants in Metro Manila,” he said by phone. “I’m not that violent.”

Robredo said “we have actually taken the first step when we started the inventory of informal settlers (in Metro Manila) and where we could locate them.”

Robredo also said the target is to complete relocation within five years.

Vidal Sasson dies

Los Angeles (CNN) -- Vidal Sassoon, the legendary hairstylist, died of "apparent natural causes" at his Los Angeles home Wednesday morning, a Los Angeles police spokesman said. He was 84.

Police were called to Sassoon's Bel Air home on Mulholland Drive at 10:30 a.m., spokesman Kevin Maiberger said.

"When officers arrived, there were family members at the residence," Maiberger said.

Sassoon, a British native, spent several years as a young boy in a London orphanage after his father left and his mother could not afford to care for him.

Later, after his mother dreamed of her son being in a barbershop, she apprenticed him to a local barber. That began a career that saw him develop two classic hairstyles of the 1960s, the bob and the even shorter five-point cut, along with an eponymous hair care line, a range of hair care tools and a chain of salons.

source:http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/09/showbiz/vidal-sassoon-obit/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

Russian Plane Disappears in Indonesia

 source: 
http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/09/world/asia/indonesia-plane/index.html?hpt=hp_t2Jakarta, Indonesia (CNN) -- A Russian passenger airliner went missing Wednesday after it disappeared from radar screens over a mountainous region of Indonesia.

The Sukhoi Superjet 100, Russia's newest civilian airliner, was carrying 42 passengers and eight Russian crew members, said Sunaryo, an official with Sukhoi's Indonesian agent, Trimarga Rekatama.

However, the number was in dispute. The Indonesian National Search and Rescue Agency said only 37 of the 42 invited passengers were on board. Russian state-run news agencies reported 44 people were on the plane.

The plane was on its second demonstration flight Wednesday when it lost contact with air controllers at Jakarta's Halim Perdanakusuma Airport.

"The first demonstration flight in the morning went smoothly," said Sunaryo, who uses only one name. "There were no problems."

Kinkade died of accidental overdose of alcohol and valium

Los Angeles (CNN) -- Artist Thomas Kinkade's death last month was from an accidental overdose of alcohol and Valium, according to the Santa Clara County, California, medical examiner.

Kinkade, 54, also suffered from hypertensive and atherosclerotic heart disease, said the autopsy report released Monday.

The report cited "acute ethanol and diazepam intoxication" as the cause of death and "accidental" as the manner of death.

Diazepam is a prescription anti-anxiety drug also known as Valium.

Kinkade, one of the most popular artists in America, painted more than 1,000 pieces on various topics, including cabins, nature scenes, seascapes and classic Americana.

Los Angeles (CNN) -- Artist Thomas Kinkade's death last month was from an accidental overdose of alcohol and Valium, according to the Santa Clara County, California, medical examiner.

Kinkade, 54, also suffered from hypertensive and atherosclerotic heart disease, said the autopsy report released Monday.

The report cited "acute ethanol and diazepam intoxication" as the cause of death and "accidental" as the manner of death.

Diazepam is a prescription anti-anxiety drug also known as Valium.

Related: Alcohol and Valium together can shut down the the brain

Kinkade, one of the most popular artists in America, painted more than 1,000 pieces on various topics, including cabins, nature scenes, seascapes and classic Americana.

Art from the self-described "painter of light," adorns many living rooms in America. It emphasizes simple pleasures and warm, positive images of idyllic cottages, lighthouses and colorful gardens.

"He had a rare ability to exude a sense of warmth, a transcendent light," said Robert Goodwin, who wrote the book "Points of Light: A Celebration of the American Spirit of Giving," with Kinkade.

"He had a great commitment to inspire others -- one who was nurtured in his early life by family and friends and church to really be an example of selfless acts of service," he said Saturday.

"My mission as an artist is to capture those special moments in life adorned with beauty and light," Kinkade said in a message on his website. "I work to create images that project a serene simplicity that can be appreciated and enjoyed by everyone. That's what I mean by sharing the light."

In 2006, the artist recalled one of his earliest lessons during an interview with CNN's Larry King.

"When I was a young boy, my mother told me, 'Your talents are God's gifts to you, and what you do with those talents are your gift to God,'" he said.

Art from the self-described "painter of light," adorns many living rooms in America. It emphasizes simple pleasures and warm, positive images of idyllic cottages, lighthouses and colorful gardens.

"He had a rare ability to exude a sense of warmth, a transcendent light," said Robert Goodwin, who wrote the book "Points of Light: A Celebration of the American Spirit of Giving," with Kinkade.

"He had a great commitment to inspire others -- one who was nurtured in his early life by family and friends and church to really be an example of selfless acts of service," he said Saturday.

"My mission as an artist is to capture those special moments in life adorned with beauty and light," Kinkade said in a message on his website. "I work to create images that project a serene simplicity that can be appreciated and enjoyed by everyone. That's what I mean by sharing the light."

In 2006, the artist recalled one of his earliest lessons during an interview with CNN's Larry King.

"When I was a young boy, my mother told me, 'Your talents are God's gifts to you, and what you do with those talents are your gift to God,'" he said.

Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson apologized

SAN FRANCISCO — Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson says he’s sorry for allowing an inaccuracy about his education to appear in his official bio, but not remorseful enough to heed calls for his resignation.

In a memo sent Monday to the troubled Internet company’s employees, Thompson apologized for the uproar caused by the misinformation. Yahoo Inc. provided a copy of the memo to The Associated Press.

The memo didn’t offer any explanation why Thompson’s bio has periodically listed a bachelor’s degree in computer science that he never received.

Thompson’s note of contrition came on the same day that an activist hedge fund that owns a 5.8 stake in Yahoo escalated its effort to oust the CEO for unethical conduct.

Yahoo’s board is investigating the circumstances that led to the exaggeration about Thompson’s education.

CIA Foiled US bound airliner attack

 The CIA foiled a plot by al-Qaida's affiliate in Yemen to bomb a U.S.-bound airliner around the one-year anniversary of the killing of its former leader Osama bin Laden, senior U.S. officials told NBC News.

Officials said the plot involved a bomb with a design that upgraded the underwear bomb taken aboard a jetliner over Detroit on Christmas 2009. That explosive device failed to detonate.

The improved bomb had a more refined detonation mechanism, but was still intended to be hidden in a passenger's underwear. Officials told NBC News the device was "totally non-metallic," which would have made it more difficult to detect by traditional screening processes,

An official told NBC News no airlines were ever at risk. The plot was disrupted well before it threatened Americans or U.S. allies, the official added.

Counter-terror officials deem the thwarted plot a "success story," NBC News reported. The FBI said in a statement the successful operation was the "result of close cooperation with our security and intelligence partners overseas."

The FBI is currently in possession of the device and is conducting technical and forensics analyses on it, according to a statement released Monday. 

Corruption over?

 source:http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/187763/aquino-tells-adb-corruption-over
Saying the days of corruption that flourished under Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo were over, President Aquino on Friday gave his word to international lenders that he would put to good use the money they would lend to the Philippines—and they could check this out later.
“You will continue to see results. You will continue to see a Philippines that is finally living up to its potential,” Mr. Aquino said in his speech that capped the annual meeting of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) board of governors.
“We are prepared to follow through on our commitments, and you are by all means welcome to see if we’re living up to our word,” he declared.
“Investors and Filipinos alike see what is happening: Here is a country determined to turn the corner by instituting genuine, wide-ranging, meaningful reform, and acting on its belief that good governance is the bedrock of equitable progress,” the President said.
“We have had six positive ratings actions since we took over government a little less than two years ago—a stark contrast to the single upgrade and six downgrades in the nine years of the previous administration,” he added.

Number of Poor Families on the rise- SWS

An estimated 11.1 million Filipino households considered themselves poor in March, up from 9.1 million households in December, a recent survey by Social Weather Stations found.

The results of the survey, first published in BusinessWorld, found 55 percent of respondents rating their households poor, 10 points higher than the 45 percent three months earlier.

Those who said they were poor in terms of food accounted for 45 percent, which translates to approximately 9.1 million families, a rise of nine points from the 36 percent or 7.2 million families recorded in the previous quarter.

The figures are the highest so far under the Aquino administration.

Vanessa Williams on Toddlers and Tiaras

Maybe now would be a good time for the folks behind "Toddlers & Tiaras" to wish for world peace. The controversial show is no stranger to coming under fire for its provocative presentation of young girls, having been slammed by everyone from JonBenet Ramsey's father to media outlets who've labeled its contestants as "prosti-tots."

But now, no less than former Miss America Vanessa Williams has come forward to criticize the show, and she's got some ugly things to say about "T&T's" treatment of its pretty little ladies ...