Luke_Wilbur

Synopsis Priscilla Chase (Parker Posey), a young Cleveland woman, seems to have it all – the perfect job, the perfect house, the perfect husband (Paul Rudd) – except for in bed, where sex has always left her a bit short of the finish line. When the problem drives her husband to leave her suddenly for one of his high school students (Mischa Barton), Priscilla’s idyllic world is shattered. She sets out on a quest to become just as good at sex as she is at everything else in life, embarking on a wild journey that leads her into the arms of the man she least expected and to the discovery that happiness is sometimes found in the most unlikely places. Written by Adam Wierzbianski and directed by Billy Kent in his feature debut, THE OH IN OHIO co-stars Danny DeVito, Liza Minnelli, Miranda Bailey (DEAD & BREAKFAST), Keith David (CRASH) and Robert John Burke (GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK). Following its premiere earlier this year at the South by Southwest Film Festival, THE OH IN OHIO was honored with the Best Comedy award at the 2006 Vail Film Festival and was named the Santa Monica Centerpiece at the 2006 Malibu Film Festival. Check out the trailer. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5...53&q=oh+in+ohio

Can you give us an example of how one can hear and see God?

Here is a military 'Stars and Stripes' news article where Robert is being interviewed. ******************************************************************* FORWARD OPERATING BASE LANE, Afghanistan — U.S. forces in the Chalcor Valley on Thursday faced their largest assault since the start of Operation Mountain Thrust, with more than 100 Taliban fighters blasting their defenses for more than two hours. Still, officials from the 2nd Brigade, 4th Infantry said American and Afghan forces suffered only one minor casualty — a richocheted bullet passed through a U.S. soldier’s leg — and managed to force back the militants. First Lt. Ryan Edwards, 1st Platoon leader for the 2-4, said Taliban fighters advanced within yards of defensive positions in this northern section of Zabul province. At one point, U.S. soldiers were taking fire from five directions. Pvt. Robert Bobbin of the 4th Infantry’s Company A, said the unit has seen firefights in the area before, “but never this intense.” The area has become dangerous in recent months, according to base officials, with local villagers recently announcing a jihad against coalition forces. Edwards said patrols routinely search nearby villages and find few people left living there. But at night, Taliban forces often take control of those areas, leading coalition commanders to believe they are receiving help from locals. Thursday’s Taliban attack force was larger, better armed and better equipped than past fighters, Edwards said. The province shares a border with Pakistan on the south, and U.S. forces have been monitoring that line to prevent reinforcements from that country to Taliban forces in Afghanistan. The 2-4 is scheduled to pull out of Zabul province later this month, but unit commanders said plans for a continued U.S. presence here are still up in the air. http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?sectio...4&article=38821

I hope you do not die Marc. You should probably move out of the area. "There are serious obstacles to the achievement of a comprehensive ceasefire in Lebanon and northern Israel in the immediate future", Vijay Nambiar, Special Advisor to the Secretary-General, told the Security Council today. Briefing on a senior-level mission to the region, comprised also of Terje Roed-Larsen and Alvaro de Soto, he said the mission saw two vital political goals for the international community. The first one was to secure, urgently, some form of cessation of hostilities. The second goal was to quickly develop elements of a political framework that would pave the way for a full and durable ceasefire. A political package to that end should include the end of the Hizbollah threat against Israel and the full respect by all Lebanese parties and all Lebanon’s neighbours of the Government of Lebanon’s sovereignty and control. He said both Lebanon’s Prime Minister Fouad Siniora of and the Speaker of the Parliament, Nabih Berri, had expressed great pain and frustration over the scope of Israel’s military actions, and were almost incredulous that Israel had carried out actions that would, in their view, inevitably help Hizbollah in the long run. Israel’s Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and other interlocutors had stressed Hizbollah’s responsibility for initiating the conflict. They had made clear that Israel had decided that military operations would continue until Hizbollah was seriously weakened. After that, Israel would welcome a political framework that ensured no return to the status quo ante and would facilitate implementation of Council resolution 1559. In responding to the mission’s ideas, Lebanon’s Prime Minister had stressed that, any process to reassert the sovereignty of the Government of Lebanon over the entire country, must address what he termed the “core issues”, such as the issue of Shebaa Farms. Israel’s Prime Minister Olmert and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni had been adamant that the captured Israeli soldiers must be returned unconditionally. They would consider any proposal that would help guarantee that Israel would not be vulnerable to terrorist rocket attacks along its northern border, through the Government of Lebanon deploying in the south and the disarmament of Hizbollah and other militant groups. Regarding his consultations with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Gaza, he said the President had expressed particular concern that the current crisis in Lebanon involved an attempt by non-Palestinian extremists to hijack leadership on the Palestinian issue. He felt it was important to de-link the crises, and for the Palestinian issue to be addressed on its merits. Briefing the Council on the humanitarian situation, Jan Egeland, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, also appealed for an immediate cessation of hostilities, as it was the only way humanitarian work could become effective. As a result of targeting of fuel facilities, Beirut had only days of fuel remaining. It was believed that there were sufficient food supplies, including wheat stocks, to cover national consumption for one to three months. The primary concern was the destruction to food supply chains. Hospitals were functioning, but were overwhelmed. With the number of people in shelters increasing, access to safe drinking water was also a concern. He said he had called on all parties to live up to their obligations under humanitarian law and grant access to humanitarian workers. Yesterday, he had handed over to Israel’s Permanent Representative a formal request to the Government of Israel, which called for safe passage routes for humanitarian corridors in and out of Lebanon. He had also requested the parties to identify focal points in their Governments and forces to discuss modalities. A country team was currently in Beirut working to produce a flash appeal that would address the most pressing humanitarian concerns for a period of three months. He asked for immediate contributions to that appeal, which would be launched on Monday. Opening today’s debate, in which nearly 50 speakers participated, the Permanent Observer of Palestine said the Council’s inaction last week regarding a “reasonable and balanced resolution” on the Palestinian question had further bolstered Israel’s perception that it was immune from the law and that it would not be held accountable for its illegal actions. “As the international community stands idly by, with the Security Council nearly paralyzed, Israel, the occupying Power, continues to kill, wound and maim defenceless Palestinian civilians,” he said. He said it was the duty of the Council to act immediately. It must begin by condemning the most recent Israeli aggression and call for the immediate cessation of hostilities. The Council must also call for the immediate withdrawal of Israeli occupying forces to their original positions before the aggression against the Gaza Strip began. Moreover, the Council must call on Israel to immediately release all democratically elected Palestinian officials being detained since 28 June. The representative of Lebanon said that, once again, Israel was betting on its excessive military force to settle problems with its neighbours. Hiding behind the right to self-defence revealed Israel’s twisted understanding of international law. He reiterated his country’s call for an immediate and comprehensive ceasefire under the auspices of the United Nations, and the full responsibility of the Lebanese Government to preserve and provide safety to the country and its citizens, by extending its authority over all its territory, including in the area of the Shebaa Farms. He appealed to the international community, and to the Council, to protect the achievements of the Lebanese people, by supporting their Government in facing the aggression and continuing on the path of democracy. Israel’s representative said that, during the last week, the world had learned of the enormous arsenal of missiles that Hizbollah had been amassing in Lebanon, and how deeply Hizbollah had penetrated Lebanese society. The Council had learned how right it had been in repeatedly demanding the disarming of that terrorist monster. Terrorism had occupied, ravaged and pillaged Lebanon. Terror was the true occupying power of Lebanon. Lebanon’s Government, for its own political reasons, had chosen conflict with Israel, instead of battling the cancer that occupied the body and soul of its country. That cancer must be excised, not partially removed and allowed to fester again. Israel grieved for each civilian casualty, he said. The world had also heard how difficult it was to distinguish between Hizbollah and civilians. Before a cessation of hostilities could be contemplated, however, the cessation of terror must be insisted on. A temporary and artificial ceasefire would only result in an illusionary lull, which would allow that disease to kill again. The international community must finally address the terrorism that occupied Lebanon. The international community must also address the sponsors of terrorism, Syria and Iran, the axis of terror. He welcomed the declaration of the Group of Eight (G-8) leaders, whose 16 July statement provided a basis for progress towards a sustainable peace, he said. The representative of the United States said his Government was studying several proposals on how best to secure implementation of resolution 1559, including the insertion of an international stabilization force. However, the key goal should be to disarm and “defang” Hizbollah. An immediate and unconditional ceasefire would only allow Hizbollah time to regroup and plan its next wave of kidnappings and attacks against Israel. As for a stabilization force, the questions were how to empower it to deal with Hizbollah, and how it would relate to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). Another question was how such a force could contribute to fully implementing resolution 1559, which called for disarmament of militias and extending control by the Government of Lebanon of all of its territory. There was no moral equivalence between acts of terrorism and Israel’s exercise of its legitimate right to self-defence, he said. The civilian deaths were a tragedy, and the United States had urged the Government of Israel to exercise the greatest possible care in its use of force. It was, however, a mistake to ascribe a moral equivalence to civilians who died as the direct result of malicious terrorist acts, the very purpose of which was to kill civilians, and the tragic and unfortunate consequence of civilian deaths, as a result of military action taken in self-defence. France’s representative, speaking in his national capacity and echoing many speakers’ sentiments, condemned in the strongest possible terms the continued firing of rockets into Israel. He also condemned Israel’s disproportionate response, which was holding the Lebanese people hostage, killing large numbers of civilians and causing substantial material damage in Lebanon. While Israeli military operations were weakening Hizbollah’s military capabilities, they were also fuelling hate. By systematically destroying the country’s infrastructure, Israel was greatly weakening the Lebanese State. The Secretary-General’s proposals provided the basis for developing a coherent solution. The Council must face up to its responsibilities and begin, as soon as possible, finalizing a resolution that would offer the framework for a lasting settlement of the crisis.

The Bush administration is rushing a delivery of precision-guided bombs to Israel, according to The New York Times. The munitions are part of a sales package approved last year, the officials said. But some military officers said the request for expedited delivery was unusual and indicated that Israel has many targets it plans to hit in Lebanon.

Next Generation Awareness Foundation, Inc. (501©(3)) (NGAF), producers of the Black History Month Film & Discussion Series and the Urban Film Series Tour, announced today that Landmark Theatre's E Street Cinema will host two highly anticipated world premieres on July 27, 2006 in Washington, DC as a part of NGAF's First Annual Black Docs Film Series. Filmmakers and producers Mel Devonne and Jam Donaldson will be on hand for the world premiere of Steppin: A Way of Life (Devonne) and Hot Ghetto Mess (Donaldson). Screenings will begin at 7:30pm (sharp) and ticket prices are $9.75 ($9 if purchased in advance at InsiderEntertainment.com or UrbanFilmSeries.com). Attendees will witness Chicago's popular ballroom dance style up close and see what it has meant to many communities for decades. Attendees will also witness DC's own, Lazy Lamont, former co-host of the Russ Parr Morning Show, as he narrates the work of one of America's most popular websites which challenges the African American community with how it is looking and acting, including some of the most hilarious and suddenly shameful presentations. About Black Docs: The four-month fundraising event will benefit NGAF's upcoming community programming and help send its 2007 Urban Film Series Tour to underserved communities in the United States. Sticking true to the motto of Connecting Communities with History and Progressive Cinema, Black Docs is the only program of its kind in that it focuses exclusively on documentaries related to urban lifestyles and issues. Press/Media Privileges and Credentials: Members of the press should contact us at press@urbanfilmseries.com or (202) 409-7240. Please include your media credentials (media source, circulation/viewership, title/affiliation, and complete contact information). Please also state your request(s) as exact as possible (interview, article, pictures, attendance). If attendance, please include the names and number of persons in your party. ----------------------------- Who: Next Generation Awareness Foundation, Inc. What: World Premiere of Steppin: A Way of Life and Hot Ghetto Mess Where: Landmark Theatre's E Street Cinema When: June 29th, from 7:30pm - 9:30pm Tickets: $7.00. ----------------------------- Official Black Docs Schedule May 25 – Basketball ~ The Official Public Premiere Harlem Globetrotters: The Team That Changed The World (2005) Website: www.HarlemGlobeTrotters.com June 29 – Down Low ~ The Official Premiere Screening Project W.O.W.: A Look Into the Lives of Men on The DL (2005) Website: www.LisaDurden.com July 27 – Ways of Life ~ Two World Premieres Steppin: A Way of Life About the Documentary: As popularly recognized from R. Kelly's Step to the Name of Love, a Chicago ballroom dance that is more than a style, but a way of life for many. Hot Ghetto Mess About the Documentary: A documentary narrated by DC's own Lazy Lamont, former co-host of the Russ Parr Morning Show. Featuring the work of one of America's most popular websites which challenges the African American community with how it is looking and acting, including some of the most hilarious and suddenly shameful presentations. You have seen America's Funniest Home Videos, now see Hot Ghetto Mess and you will never, ever forget this program. Website: www.HotGhettoMess.com Featuring a Brief Q&A with filmmakers Mel Devonne (Steppin: A Way of Life) and Jam Donaldson (Hot Ghetto Mess). August 24 – Perseverance ~ Mid-Atlantic Premiere The Pact: Three Young Men Make A Promise And Fulfill A Dream (2006) Featuring a Q&A with The Doctors and The Spark Media and Duke Media (Bill Duke) Team, including filmmaker Andrea Kalin. About the Documentary: From the NY Times Bestseller, comes a gritty, provocative true-life story of three friends from the 'hood, Rameck Hunt, Sampson Davis, and George Jenkins, who made a pact in high school to find a way to go to college and then medical school. They not only accomplished this, but they're now spreading the word to inspire other inner-city kids to stay off of drugs, out of gangs and to take the educational route to a better life. THE PACT captures the pathos of the men's individual journeys, the integrity of their voices and the power of their rare friendship. Their stories affirm the values that ultimately sustained and drove them: courage, tenacity, and faith. And they give tribute to the life of the mind and its power to turn dreams into reality. Website: www.thepactthemovie.com

Adams Morgan Main Street host Summer Spruce-Up on Saturday, July 22. Tree Care & fertilizing, Illegal flyer and graffiti removal, Re-stake trees & place gator bags, Deliver tree care handouts, or assist at the sign-in table. Something for everyone! Enjoy refreshments & meet neighbors Meet up at Marie Reed school 9:30 - 2:00 pm

Apparently the US is giving Israel a window of a week to inflict maximum damage on Hizbullah before weighing in behind international calls for a ceasefire in Lebanon, according to British, European and Israeli sources. http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1823817,00.html

Have you experienced the energetic form of God?

I think families of soldiers and all government workers should not have to pay a death tax if the person lost their life in the line of duty. I also agree that families of victims of any declared catastrophe should not have to pay a death tax. But, I do think that our leaders deserve a pay status according to the value of leading our country.

Let's hope it does not come to that. Hezbollah or Hizbollah/Hizbullah or Hezb'Allah (Arabic: حزب الله‎, meaning Party of God) is a governmental and military Lebanese Shia Islamic group, with a military arm and a civilian arm, founded in 1982 to fight the Israeli Defense Forces who occupied southern Lebanon until the year 2000. Its leader is Hassan Nasrallah. Hezbollah is considered a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States the United Kingdom and Canada. Hezbollah was "inspired by the success of the Iranian Revolution" and was formed primarily to combat Israel following the 1982 Lebanon War. The United States and Israel say that Hezbollah has received financial and political assistance, as well as weapons and training, from Iran and Syria. The 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict is a series of ongoing military actions and clashes in northern Israel and Lebanon involving Hezbollah's armed wing and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). On 12 July 2006 Hezbollah initiated Operation Truthful Promise,named for a "promise" by its leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah to capture Israeli soldiers and swap them for the remaining three Lebanese prisoners held by Israel. The early morning raid into Israeli territory resulted in eight Israeli soldiers killed and two captured. Israel then responded with Operation Just Reward, later renamed Operation Change of Direction. This retaliatory strike has thus far encompassed a barrage of rockets fired into Lebanon and bombing raids by the Israeli Air Force (IAF), an Air and Naval blockade as well as some small raids into southern Lebanon by IDF ground troops.

Joe, Your dad is old. You have to be the man now and take care of him.

That is quite scary.

Here the list released by the Defense Department in May http://www.defenselink.mil/news/May2006/d20060515%20List.pdf

I asked Carolyn Steptoe what what separates her from the other candidates? What will be her major focus to improve Ward 5? Here is Carolyn Steptoe's response:

Angelo, According to the police and witnesses, there has been a raid on a large fuel storage tank at a power station. Moreover, the impact of at least seven missiles was heard in the attack on south Beirut in the hours before dawn on Friday. Anti-aircraft fire from the ground echoed in other suburbs of Beirut as the planes roared over the Lebanese capital. In retaliation, Hezbollah has also hit Israeli towns with rocket attacks and Israeli sources said the group had fired on the northern port city of Haifa. The fighting continues as Israel launches a fresh wave of attacks on Lebanese targets Friday, striking Beirut's International airport, the road from Lebanon to Damascus and a power plant. Since Wednesday, Hezbollah have fired over 300 rockets into towns in northern Israel according to Israeli website YnetNews. The Israeli attacks focused on the southern suburb of Beirut where Israel says Hezbollah has a stronghold. Most roads and bridges leading to the southern suburb of Beirut have been shelled isolating the suburb from the rest of the country. The bombing came after Israeli planes dropped leaflets, on the evening of July 13, warning residents in the mainly Shiite south suburb of impending attacks to Hezbollah property. "The targets chosen are connected either directly or indirectly with terrorism," Israeli Air Force General Ido Nehushtan, said. Israel says Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, the Hezbollah leader, is also a target. "Nasrallah has issued his own sentence." said Ronnie Bar-On, the Israeli interior minister. The Israeli military later said that the rockets fired into Haifa on Thursday by Hezbollah were manufactured in Iran. The Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said that it was puzzling for Hezbollah to perform the attacks unsupported. States worldwide have called for the release of the prisoners and for Israel to exercise restraint, while Lebanon has urged the UN Security Council, which is having a emergency meeting on Friday, to pass a ceasefire resolution. The tarmac on Beirut International Airport was patched up after being hit several times by the Israeli airforce on Thursday. Four or five airplanes belonging to Middle East Airlines then took off from the airport. However, the runways were hit again on Friday some time after the airplanes had taken off. A parking lot near the terminal building was also hit. Other targets hit in Lebanon was a fuel tank at the power plant in Jiyyeh. Power shortages have been reported. The Hezbollah radio station al-Nour was targeted by an Israeli strike, but continued broadcasting. Also, a road between Haboush and Iqlion el Tufah was hit. A total of 18 targets claimed by Israel to be Hezbollah sites has been hit by air and sea launched missiles. Five civilians were killed and at least 50 have been wounded in Lebanon on Friday after Israeli attacks which were part of the Israeli mission called "Operation Just Reward". According to Lebanon, 73 people have been killed and 167 wounded in the country since the raids commenced on Wednesday. In related news, Hezbollah fired several rockets in five separate attacks into northern Israel, Friday. Packs of Katyusha rockets hit Nahariya, Safed, Hatzor, Pqui'in and Kiryat Shmona and Yesod Hamaalah. There were reports of casualties. Israel claimed it had hit the Hezbollah security headquarters in Jerusalem, but eyewitnesses said the airstrike had missed and hit a nearby appartment building instead. This was the second day of violence after July 11 when Hezbollah attacked Israeli army patrols and captured two Israeli soldiers in a mission Hezbollah called "Truthful Promise". Israel said the soldiers were kidnapped. On July 12 Israel set up a blockade of Lebanon and attacked Beirut International Airport and other areas in Lebanon, while Hezbollah fired rockets at towns in northern Israel. Israel is continuing its offensive in the Gaza strip against Hamas after a soldier named Gilad Shalit was kidnapped in a raid, June 2006. http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/275...8C31FD616C1.htm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/5179862.stm http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/07...east/index.html http://www.voanews.com/english/2006-07-14-voa6.cfm http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3275609,00.html

Eight soldiers were killed and two kidnapped, following an attack of the Hizbullah terror organization on the border with Lebanon. The kidnapped soldiers are: Ehud Goldwasser, 31, of Nahariya, and Eldad Regev, 26, of Kiryat Motzkin. Summary of Events July 12: Hizbullah terrorists infiltrated into Israeli territory and attacked two IDF armored jeeps patrolling the border with Lebanon, killing three soldiers and kidnapping two. Ground forces entered Lebanon in the area of the attack. A large explosive device was detonated underneath an Israeli tank, killing all four of the tank crew. An eighth soldier was killed when IDF troops entered Lebanon to try to retrieve the bodies of the tank crew. Throughout the day, Hizbullah terror organization fired Katyusha rockets and mortar shells at Israel's northern borders' communities and IDF posts. July 13: Monica Seidman (Lehrer), 40, of Nahariya was killed in her home by a Katyusha rocket Thursday morning. In the evening, Nitzan Roseban, 33, was killed in Safed by a direct rocket hit. Hizbullah continued to fire at towns and cities in northern Israel throughout the day, wounding more than 100. On Thursday evening Katyushas landed in Haifa.

Do you think Carolyn Graham has what it takes to fix our schools?

Congressman Moran will hold roving town hall meetings on Monday, July 17th to discuss pertinent issues, including the Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Program, which affect senior citizens in Northern Virginia. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- When and Where: 10:00AM-11:00AM: Pimmit Hills Senior Center 7510 Lisle Avenue Falls Church, VA 22043 11:15AM-12:15PM: The Washington House 5100 Fillmore Ave, Alexandria, 22311 12:30PM-1:15PM: Groveton Senior Center 8350 Richmond Highway, Suite 325 Alexandria, VA 22309 1:30PM-2:30PM: Hollin Hall Senior Center 1500 Shenandoah Road Alexandria, VA 22308

Here is another story from bernie... Yahoo! Introduced a new Web site that does not sell plane tickets or hotel rooms. Instead, the new site integrates pay-per-click ads that charge a fee to companies such as Orbitz when users leave Yahoo's travel pages. Yahoo has also arranged a sponsorship deal for Trip Planner with MasterCard. "Yahoo hopes to lure surfers to the site using Silicon Valley's favorite gambit of the moment -- user-generated content, this time in the form of user-generated travelogues and photos," wrote Forbes.com. Jasper Malcolmson, director of Yahoo! Travel, said: "I don't know about any premium brand being associated with a 100% user-generated content product. Advertisers tend to feel uncomfortable with user-generated content because it is unpredictable." He said he thought Trip Planner will help Yahoo! grow its traffic and revenues in the face of a maturing on-line market. http://travel.yahoo.com/trip

How does Professor Cheh plan to modernize and bring all of our school buildings up to code differ from the other candidates? Is it true that Professor Cheh plans to work as a law professor and be a city council member?

Honey, I do not mind you posting on our boards, but you will need to discuss health related topics here. Luke Wilbur

Bernie forwarded me this... If you think you're reading the news, be warned that this story -- and any other on the web -- will be barely read by anyone 36 hours after it was first posted. That's the message from a team of statistical physicists who have analysed how people access information online. Albert-László Barabási of the University of Notre Dame in the US and colleagues in Hungary have calculated that the number of people who read news stories on the web decays with time in a power law, and not exponentially as commonly thought. Most news becomes old hat within a day and a half of being posted -- a finding that could help website designers or people trying to understand how information gets transferred in biological cells and social networks (Phys. Rev. E 73 066132). The web portal Physicists like Barabási are interested in studying the World Wide Web because it is an example of a "complex network", with a topology that changes as new documents and links are continually added. His team pictures a typical news web site as a series of circular blobs, or "nodes", each of which corresponds to an individual news story, with a line joining each node if the two stories are connected by a hyperlink (see figure). The area of each blob is proportional to the logarithm of the number of visits to each document. Their model reveals that a typical news site has a relatively stable "skeleton" -- corresponding to the overall organization of the site -- along with nodes (that is, actual stories) that are only temporarily linked to the main structure before being deleted from the site or not linked any more. In this sense, the network resembles a biological cell's regulatory network, whose "wiring" can change rapidly during a cell cycle. It is also a bit like social networks: we each have a relatively stable core network of friends and acquaintances but the number of people we interact with can vary drastically from one day to the next. To get a fuller understanding of such networks, Barabási and colleagues decided to study the visiting patterns on a popular Hungarian news and entertainment portal (origo.hu). Thanks to automatically assigned "cookies", the scientists were able to reconstruct the browsing history of about 250,000 visitors to the site over the course of a month. The researchers found that the documents belonging to the skeleton of the website receive an approximately constant stream of visitors, which means that the cumulative number of visitors accessing these documents increases linearly in time. In contrast, the news documents receive the most hits directly after their release, and decrease with time. Thus, the cumulative numbers of visits here reach saturation after just a few days. Barabasi's team calculated the "half-life" of a news document, which corresponds to the period in which half of all visitors that eventually access it have visited. The researchers found that the overall half-life distribution follows a power law, which indicates that most news items have a very short lifetime, although a few continue to be accessed well beyond this period. The average half-life of a news item is just 36 hours, or one and a half days after it is released. While this is short, it is longer than predicted by simple exponential models, which assume that web page browsing is less random than it actually is. The short life of a news item -- combined with random visiting patterns of readers -- implies that people could miss a significant fraction of news by not visiting the portal when a new document is first displayed, which is why publishers like to provide e-mail news alerts. The results also show that people read a particular web page not just because it looks interesting but because it can be accessed easily. Although the average half-life varies for different types of sites, the decay laws identified are likely to be generic because they do not depend on content, but are manly determined by a user's visiting and browsing patterns. "Such quantitative approaches to online media not only offer a better understanding of information access, but could have important commercial applications as well – from better portal design to understanding information diffusion, flow, and marketing in the online world," say the researchers.

It looks like Robert is involved in Operation Mountain Thrust, now under way in southern Afghanistan. Afghan and coalition forces are putting pressure on insurgents in areas where they haven't previously operated, Rumsfeld said. The coalition forces conducted a raid on a known extremist compound July 10, killing more than 40 extremists. This could explain the surge in violence, because terrorists see the success of democracy in the country and can sense their demise, he said.

CHEHforWARD3!!!, What Does Professor Cheh promise to do for Ward3?