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NY TIMES: "As he wrapped up his remarks (during a breakfast in Boston), Mr. Romney became uncharacteristically emotional, according to attendees. He choked up as he talked about the friendships he made on the campaign trail and thanked his campaign staff members by name. A few of them wiped back tears of their own. When he was finished, Mr. Romney lingered for a long time, shaking hands and delivering hugs. He waxed nostalgic, telling some staff members what positions he had envisioned for them in a Romney administration. It seemed, those in the room said, like he did not want to leave. 'He stayed until the last person left,' said an attendee." »

inothernews: Dilan Samo, 13, attended a vigil outside Libya’s Consulate in New York on Thursday for J. Christopher Stevens, the United States ambassador who died in Libya. From the New York Times: J. Christopher Stevens, the American ambassador to Libya who was killed in an assault on a diplomatic mission there last week, was happy to gossip, but was revered for listening. A northern Californian with a toothy grin, he had a passion for the Arab world and its language, and he went out of his way to use it, whether with officials or shopkeepers, in an effort to show respect. In his willingness to allow others to be heard, even when he had an important message to impart, Mr. Stevens was an unusual American diplomat, friends and colleagues say. He allowed himself to be governed by the habits, proprieties and slower pace of the Arab world. With the State Department on high alert for security threats, especially since the Sept. 11 attacks, and many American diplomats consigned to embassies that resemble fortresses and armored motorcades that do not make unscheduled stops, Mr. Stevens plunged into Arab social life. He traded personal risk for personal contact. His comfort with his environment and his distaste for displays of security, some quietly suggest, may have led to a touch of overconfidence that cost him his life. His lonely death in Benghazi, a city he knew well, along with those of three other Americans, came during a Libyan militia attack on the American diplomatic mission there, where his presence had not been advertised. What the United States lost was not only one of its foremost Arabists, a man who built a bridge to the tribes and militias that toppled the Libyan dictator Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi. It also may be losing, in the unrest sweeping a conflict-prone crescent of Muslim countries from Pakistan to Sudan, a style of diplomacy already on the decline: the street-smart, low-key negotiator who gets things done by building personal relationships. Mr. Stevens, 52, was known as Chris, but he often signed letters and e-mails to friends as Krees, the way many Arabs pronounced his name. His affection for Arab culture and street life, whether in Syria, Libya or the Palestinian territories, made him many friends and impressive networks of contacts. Precisely what happened the night he was killed is unclear. But for an American ambassador to have so little security on the anniversary of Sept. 11, especially in a part of Libya known for its radicalism, is bound to raise questions, and in some sense, only adds to the irony of his death in a country he loved, and that for the most part, loved him back as an ally and a friend. (Photo: John Minchillo / AP via the Times)

inothernews:

Dilan Samo, 13, attended a vigil outside Libya’s Consulate in New York on Thursday for J. Christopher Stevens, the United States ambassador who died in Libya.

From the New York Times:

J. Christopher Stevens, the American ambassador to Libya who was killed in an assault on a diplomatic mission there last week, was happy to gossip, but was revered for listening. A northern Californian with a toothy grin, he had a passion for the Arab world and its language, and he went out of his way to use it, whether with officials or shopkeepers, in an effort to show respect.

In his willingness to allow others to be heard, even when he had an important message to impart, Mr. Stevens was an unusual American diplomat, friends and colleagues say. He allowed himself to be governed by the habits, proprieties and slower pace of the Arab world.

With the State Department on high alert for security threats, especially since the Sept. 11 attacks, and many American diplomats consigned to embassies that resemble fortresses and armored motorcades that do not make unscheduled stops, Mr. Stevens plunged into Arab social life. He traded personal risk for personal contact.

His comfort with his environment and his distaste for displays of security, some quietly suggest, may have led to a touch of overconfidence that cost him his life. His lonely death in Benghazi, a city he knew well, along with those of three other Americans, came during a Libyan militia attack on the American diplomatic mission there, where his presence had not been advertised.

What the United States lost was not only one of its foremost Arabists, a man who built a bridge to the tribes and militias that toppled the Libyan dictator Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi. It also may be losing, in the unrest sweeping a conflict-prone crescent of Muslim countries from Pakistan to Sudan, a style of diplomacy already on the decline: the street-smart, low-key negotiator who gets things done by building personal relationships.

Mr. Stevens, 52, was known as Chris, but he often signed letters and e-mails to friends as Krees, the way many Arabs pronounced his name. His affection for Arab culture and street life, whether in Syria, Libya or the Palestinian territories, made him many friends and impressive networks of contacts.

Precisely what happened the night he was killed is unclear. But for an American ambassador to have so little security on the anniversary of Sept. 11, especially in a part of Libya known for its radicalism, is bound to raise questions, and in some sense, only adds to the irony of his death in a country he loved, and that for the most part, loved him back as an ally and a friend.

(Photo: John Minchillo / AP via the Times)

ihopericksantorum: nickastig: Samsung Pays Apple $1 Billion Sending 30 Trucks Full of 5 Cents Coins More than 30 trucks filled with 5-cent coins arrived at Apple’s headquarters in California. Initially,  the security company that protects the facility said the trucks were in the wrong place, but minutes later, Tim Cook (Apple CEO) received a call from Samsung CEO explaining that  they will pay $1 billion dollars for the fine recently ruled against the South Korean company in this way. the funny part is that the signed document does not specify a single payment method, so Samsung is entitled to send the creators of the iPhone their billion dollars in the way they deem best.  This dirty but genius geek troll play is a new headache to Apple executives as they will need to put in long hours counting all that money, to check if it is all there and to try to deposit it crossing fingers to hope a bank will accept all the coins. Lee Kun-hee, Chairman of Samsung Electronics, told the media that his company is not going to be intimidated by a group of “geeks with style” and that if they want to play dirty, they also know how to do it. You can use your coins to buy refreshments at the little machine for life or melt the coins to make computers, that’s not my problem, I already paid them and fulfilled the law. A total of 20 billion coins, delivery hope to finish this week. Let’s see how Apple will respond to this. how’s that for a penny for your thoughts

ihopericksantorum:

nickastig:

Samsung Pays Apple $1 Billion Sending 30 Trucks Full of 5 Cents Coins

More than 30 trucks filled with 5-cent coins arrived at Apple’s headquarters in California. Initially,  the security company that protects the facility said the trucks were in the wrong place, but minutes later, Tim Cook (Apple CEO) received a call from Samsung CEO explaining that  they will pay $1 billion dollars for the fine recently ruled against the South Korean company in this way.

the funny part is that the signed document does not specify a single payment method, so Samsung is entitled to send the creators of the iPhone their billion dollars in the way they deem best. 

This dirty but genius geek troll play is a new headache to Apple executives as they will need to put in long hours counting all that money, to check if it is all there and to try to deposit it crossing fingers to hope a bank will accept all the coins.

Lee Kun-hee, Chairman of Samsung Electronics, told the media that his company is not going to be intimidated by a group of “geeks with style” and that if they want to play dirty, they also know how to do it.

You can use your coins to buy refreshments at the little machine for life or melt the coins to make computers, that’s not my problem, I already paid them and fulfilled the law.

A total of 20 billion coins, delivery hope to finish this week.

Let’s see how Apple will respond to this.

how’s that for a penny for your thoughts

“

On the eve of the seventh anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, which brought widespread devastation after the colossal failure of the system built to protect the city, New Orleans on Tuesday night once again found itself facing the impending arrival of a huge and deadly storm.

Isaac, which was upgraded Tuesday morning to a Category 1 hurricane from a tropical storm, churned slowly but with intensifying force toward the mouth of the Mississippi River. The storm made landfall at 7:45 p.m. Eastern time just southwest of the river, about 95 miles from New Orleans, with sustained winds of 80 miles per hour.

In a conference call shortly after the system was upgraded to hurricane status, federal officials warned again and again that the storm, which killed 29 people in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, would generate high seas, intense rain and serious flooding in coastal and inland areas for days.

The hurricane will be the first test of the $14.5 billion, 133-mile ring of levees, flood walls, gates and pumps put in place after Hurricane Katrina by the Army Corps of Engineers, the agency that built the defenses that failed this city catastrophically in 2005.

On Tuesday morning, with the blare of a warning buzzer and the rumble of big motors moving tons of steel, two halves of a massive butterfly gate started moving toward each other to close off New Orleans from the anticipated 12-foot storm surge — making history. With the closing of the new gates, this corner of Lake Borgne, which allowed waters into the city that brought down flood walls and destroyed neighborhoods seven years ago, is now cut off with a barrier nearly two miles long, and the city’s first line of defense begins 13 miles farther out than when Katrina hit.

“We are ready for this,” said Tim Doody, the president of the regional levee board covering much of the New Orleans metropolitan area, which takes over the operation of the hurricane defenses once the corps has completed them.

”

–

The New York Times, “Hurricane Isaac Makes Landfall Along Gulf Coast.”

Thoughts and prayers for everyone down there.

(via inothernews)

inothernews: A teddy bear lay covered in mud on the floor of a house on Sunday after Tropical Storm Isaac passed through Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Haiti’s death toll from the weekend storm rose to at least 19 on Monday. (Photo: Dieu Nalio Chery / AP via The Wall Street Journal)

inothernews:

A teddy bear lay covered in mud on the floor of a house on Sunday after Tropical Storm Isaac passed through Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Haiti’s death toll from the weekend storm rose to at least 19 on Monday. (Photo: Dieu Nalio Chery / AP via The Wall Street Journal)

BBC News - Two police shot dead and two injured in Louisiana »

shooting4myownhand:

I don’t give a damn how you view police, shooting police is not okay. Shooting period is not okay. We are not going to end gun violence in the US by killing cops. We are not going to end police brutality by killing cops. From what I can tell this killing had no motive what so ever. I cannot even figure out why these two officers were killed and two more were wounded. 

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