Protesters across Egypt call for Mohamed Morsi to go

Protesters across Egypt call for Mohamed Morsi to go http://gu.com/p/3hxd3

what a funny receipt

bye sydney monorail....

When I was in Sydney, I used to ride monorail and now it's gone forever...

On its final run after 25 years of operating, Sydney's monorail will finally be of benefit to some.

Described by the NSW Transport Minister Gladys Berejiklian as a "fad" and a "white elephant," the monorail will at 9.30pm (AEST) Sunday depart on its final loop between Darling Harbour, Chinatown and the city's centre.

Forty eight special ballot winners will be allocated a ticket for the monorail's last loop.

A Transport for NSW spokesman says the ballot system is due to the "record crowd numbers" waiting to ride the monorail.

"The queues are crazy at the moment," he said late on Sunday.

It's never had so much interest before and after all these years it seems the monorail may actually assist the community it was built to serve.

All proceeds from ticket sales over the weekend will go to five children's charities.

Camp Quality, CanTeen, Make-A-Wish Australia, The Children's Hospital at Westmead and Youth Off The Streets are expecting to receive $10,000 each.

In August work will begin to dismantle the monorail's infrastructure.

After it's been de-rigged two monorail carriages and 10 metres of the track will be preserved in Sydney's Powerhouse Museum.

Most of the 1,500 tonnes of steel and 400 cubic metres of concrete involved will be recycled.

Obama on China in Africa: "I want everybody playing in Africa. The more the merrier."

PRETORIA (Reuters) - The United States does not feel threatened by the growth of trade and investment in Africa by China and other emerging powers, U.S. President Barack Obama said on Saturday.

Suggestions that he has allowed China to steal a march over the United States in doing business with Africa have dogged Obama's three-nation swing through the continent, but he said the increased Chinese engagement was beneficial for all.

"I don't feel threatened by it. I feel it's a good thing," Obama told a news conference during a visit to South Africa.

The more countries invest in Africa, the more the world's least developed continent can be integrated into the global economy, the first African-American U.S. president said.

"I want everybody playing in Africa. The more the merrier."

China has greatly expanded its reach in Africa since the start of the new century. It overtook the United States as Africa's largest trading partner in 2009, a February report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) showed.

China's advantage in trade stems mostly from how much it sells to Africa. Chinese exports to the continent in 2011 were almost triple the level of U.S. exports.

When it comes to investment flows, however, the picture is different. Data for 2007-2011 suggest U.S. foreign investment flows to the region were larger than China's, the GAO said.

"China's role as an investor, aid donor and financier is not outsized," Johns Hopkins University China scholar Deborah Brautigam wrote recently.

"Although Western countries fret about China's growing role in Africa, the United States alone disbursed more official finance to African countries than China did in 2010."

Still, China's influence looms large over the continent, partly because it has been so aggressive in its courtship.

Beijing and Washington should be partners in Africa to foster development and peace, said an official Chinese commentary after Obama's made his remarks.

Obama's stops in South Africa and Tanzania mirror a visit in March by then newly named Chinese President Xi Jinping, which could be seen as rivalry between the two superpowers on the African continent, state-run news agency Xinhua said.

"This mentality belongs to the past. It results from the West's biased perception of China's role in Africa," Xinhua said. "It also misses the bigger picture in which Beijing and Washington, instead of being competitors undermining each other's efforts, can actually work as partners in promoting Africa's development."

RESTING ON ITS LAURELS?

Obama's visit to Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania will bring to four the number of countries in sub-Saharan Africa that the U.S. president has visited in the last four years. He stopped briefly in Ghana in his first term.

In contrast, Chinese presidents and vice presidents have visited 30 African countries over the same period, said Mwangi Kimenyi, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington.

There is also a sense that the United States may be resting on its laurels.

"There hasn't really been a presence of U.S. companies since 1994, taking advantage of the new opportunities," Haroon Bhorat, a professor at the University of Cape Town said recently, speaking of South Africa.

"So, you've seen new emerging markets entering into other emerging markets like South Africa and taking advantage of economic opportunities in a way where the U.S., already with a foothold, arguably hasn't done enough."

Obama's aides have argued that he has had two wars and a deep economic crisis to deal with since he took office in 2009.

Obama has also said that U.S. interactions with Africa have included goals of social and political development, unlike those of China, which he said were more narrowly focused on commercial benefits.

"A lot of people are pleased that China is involved in Africa," he told reporters travelling with him on Friday.

"On the other hand, they recognize that China's primary interest is being able to obtain access for natural resources in Africa to feed the manufacturers in export-driven policies of the Chinese economy."

That relationship makes Africa an exporter of raw materials but does not create jobs in Africa and is not a sustainable model over the long-term, he added.

In Pretoria on Saturday, Obama urged African nations to be tougher negotiators in accepting investments from abroad.

"You produce the raw materials, sold cheap and then all the way up the chain somebody else is making the money and creating the jobs and the value," he said.

"Make sure that whoever you're dealing with ... you're getting a good deal that's benefiting the people here and that can help to spur on broad-based development."

(Additional reporting by Terrill Yue Jones in Beijing, Writing by Pascal Fletcher and Mark Felsenthal, Editing by Gareth Jones and Michael Perry)

Unveiling America’s First Public Monument to Atheism | TIME.com

http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/06/28/unveiling-americas-first-public-monument-to-atheism/

Should Governments Use Technology to Watch Our Every Move? - TIME

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2146453,00.html

Odd Thomas

Just watched this movie , odd by name , a hero by nature Sent from Yahoo! Mail on Android

what a cute pug

As if they weren't ugly enough already: English student starts new 'pugs in balaclava' trend by knitting headwear for dogs

Jessica Furtado set up company after knitting hat for her adopted pug

Hats are designed to look like characters including an alien and Batman

There is also a range of bow ties, French berets and neck warmers

Entrepreneur Jessica Furtado has set tails wagging after launching her own fashion line for pug dogs.

The 22-year-old's hand knitted hats and costumes have been designed for those wishing to dress the dogs up as characters such as a ladybird, an alien, an aviator, Batman and even Minnie Mouse.

The English student has also launched a range of stylish knitted bow ties, French berets and neck warmers.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2348957/English-student-Jessica-Furtado-starts-new-pugs-balaclava-trend-knitting-headwear-dogs.html#ixzz2XP9Fkhfb 

Julia Gillard: where did it all go wrong?

Julia Gillard: where did it all go wrong? http://gu.com/p/3gpgn

Kimberly McCarthy: Texas executes 500th inmate

Kimberly McCarthy: Texas executes 500th inmate http://gu.com/p/3gqaz

Top five regrets of the dying

Top five regrets of the dying http://gu.com/p/356tg

Pope Francis : bishops should be "close to the people" and not have "the mentality of a prince".

By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - A last-minute no-show by Pope Francis at a concert where he was to have been the guest of honor has sent another clear signal that he is going to do things his way and does not like the Vatican high life.

The gala classical concert on Saturday was scheduled before his election in March. But the white papal armchair set up in the presumption that he would be there remained empty.

Minutes before the concert was due to start, an archbishop told the crowd of cardinals and Italian dignitaries that an "urgent commitment that cannot be postponed" would prevent Francis from attending.

The prelates, assured that health was not the reason for the no-show, looked disoriented, realizing that the message he wanted to send was that, with the Church in crisis, he - and perhaps they - had too much pastoral work to do to attend social events.

"It took us by surprise," said one Vatican source on Monday. "We are still in a period of growing pains. He is still learning how to be pope and we are still learning how he wants to do it."

"In Argentina, they probably knew not to arrange social events like concerts for him because he probably wouldn't go," said the source, who spoke anonymously because he is not authorized to discuss the issue.

The picture of the empty chair was used in many Italian papers, with Monday's Corriere della Sera newspaper calling his decision "a show of force" to illustrate the simple style he wants Church officials to embrace.

Since his election on March 13, Francis, the former cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina, has not spent a single night in the opulent and spacious papal apartments.

He has preferred to live in a small suite in a busy Vatican guest house, where he takes most meals in a communal dining room and says Mass every morning in the house chapel rather than the private papal chapel in the Apostolic Palace.

The day before the concert, Francis said bishops should be "close to the people" and not have "the mentality of a prince".

On Saturday, while the concert was in progress in an auditorium just meters (yards) away, Francis was believed to be working on new appointments for the Curia, the Vatican's troubled central administration.

The administration was held responsible for some of the mishaps and scandals that plagued the eight-year reign of Pope Benedict before he resigned in February.

Francis inherited a Church struggling to deal with priests' sexual abuse of children, the alleged corruption and infighting in the Curia, and conflict over the running of the Vatican's scandal-ridden bank.

Benedict left a secret report for Francis on the problems in the administration, which came to light when sensitive documents were stolen from the pope's desk and leaked by his butler in what became known as the "Vatileaks" scandal.

The Vatican source said he expected Francis to make major changes to Curia personnel by the end of the summer.

Anger at the mostly Italian prelates who run the Curia was one of the reasons why cardinals chose the first non-European pope for 1,300 years.

The key appointment will be the next secretary of state, sometimes referred to as the Vatican's prime minister, to succeed the Italian Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, who has been widely blamed for the failings of the Curia.

(Reporting By Philip Pullella; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

Why China has a 'one dog policy'

Nothing goes unregulated in China. Even China's 'one child policy' has a little known canine equivalent: Only one dog per household in cities like Beijing and Shanghai.

By Peter Ford

Western human rights activists have never made much of a fuss about it, but China's "one child policy" has a little known canine equivalent.

The "one dog policy" means what it says. In cities such as Beijingand Shanghai, each household is allowed only one canis lupus familiaris. Nor are urban pet lovers allowed just any kind of dog.

"Vicious" dogs are outlawed. But so is every other dog that is likely to stand more than 14 inches high when it is fully grown.

That means no Rottweilers, St. Bernards or Great Danes, of course. But it also rules out keeping a Dalmatian, a Bloodhound, or a Chow.

RECOMMENDED: How much do you know about China? Take our quiz.

Officials say the law is a public health measure, aimed at protecting citizens from strays. More people die of rabies in China than anywhere else in the world save India, they point out.

This being China, nothing goes unregulated. (Though this being China, the regulations are by no means always enforced: The number of outsized Tibetan Mastiffs you see being paraded around town as status symbols is testimony to that.) So each dog must, like his or her owner, have a "residence permit."

The plastic permits look very like Chinese ID cards, with the dog's photo, name, sex, and type printed on it. The reverse of a Beijing resident-dog-license is decorated with – what else? – a Pekinese. And it doesn't come cheap: $160 the first year and $80 a year after that.

Failure to register your dog risks an even costlier punishment – an $800 fine.

Keeping dogs as pets is not really a Chinese tradition, though in the countryside farmers may keep guard dogs or hunting dogs. In fact, pooches are as often eaten than pampered in this part of the world, despite the best efforts of nascent animal rights groups.

Last week, for example, residents of Yulin in the southern province of Guangxi, got through about 10,000 dogs at their annual summer solstice dog meat festival, according to activists. Most of them were served in a traditional hotpot with lychees and grain liquor.

The Other Snowden Drama: Impugning the Messenger - NYTimes.com

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2013/06/25/business/media/the-other-snowden-drama-impugning-the-messenger.html

The Okinawa diet – could it help you live to 100?

The Okinawa diet – could it help you live to 100? http://gu.com/p/3gya4 I dont need this

The secret life of Jason Statham

The secret life of Jason Statham http://gu.com/p/3gy6e

Viewpoint: The Middle East's Misconceptions About U.S. Politics - TIME

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2145947,00.html

The Buddhist Monks Advocating Intolerance in Asia - TIME

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2146000,00.html

Breaking News, Analysis, Politics, Blogs, News Photos, Video, Tech Reviews - TIME.com

http://world.time.com/2013/06/23/with-apparent-help-from-wikileaks-snowden-leaves-hong-kong/

John Galt Speech

http://amberandchaos.com/?page_id=106