IBGerm

I cant believe what I just learned. A New York City teen, more specifically a Staten Island teen fell down a uncovered manhole to a sewer line while texting. She and her family are planning on sueing? What the heck.

The teen fell down and only suffered some minor scrapes on her arms back after she dropped into the man-hole on Victory Boulevard. "It was four or five feet, it  was very painful. I kind of crawled out and the DEP guys came running and helped me," Longueria told the Staten Island Advance.. "They were just, like, ‘I’m sorry! I’m sorry!" "Oh my God, it was putrid," she said. "One of her sneakers is still down there"

"We regret that this happened and wish the young woman a speedy recovery," DEP spokeswoman Mercedes Padilla said in a statement. She added that crews were flushing a high-pressure sewer line at the time. Sewer line workers are supposed to cut off pedestrian access to work sites or at least mark them with warning signs.

The family said they will file a lawsuit — for what, though, is not immediately clear. Her mother, Kim Longueira, said it doesn’t matter that her daughter was walking and texting, and also, the ‘gross’ factor that can’t be ignored.

Honestly, do we need to just go ahead and Nerf pad the entire world now. Nobody takes any responsibly for themselves now. I know it sucks that she fell into a hole, but she wasn’t paying any attention to where she was. If she had been texting and walked out into oncoming traffic and got hit, what are they going to sue the driver of the car, because they didn’t see her, or didn’t avoid her. What is next, sue the car company because they didn’t equipe the car with stupid person avoidance system? Sorry, I was ranting.

I was struggling with the idea on whether to write this one up or not, but here we go

Javier Aguirre’s stated…Panamanian player kept on playing outside the pitch." (course all coaches teach their players to play until the whistle)

"I wanted to stop the ball, there is contact with the player, inevitably because of the momentum that the player had. I lifted my foot too much and I regret that."
So, incidentally, does "the Panamanian player":

I can honestly say I’ve never seen this in international play let alone in league play but then again maybe I haven’t watched enough soccer (football, futbal)

AP describe the action:
Referee Joel Aguilar ejected Aguirre and whipped out a red card to give to Phillips as fans littered the field with cups of beer and other objects. Phillips was escorted off the field by a swarm of police — and pelted with beer as he ran into a tunnel — and after about 15 wild minutes, play resumed.

A fight then broke out between two fans in the front row across the field from the benches and Houston police officers moved in to separate them. Police handcuffed at least two fans in the area.

…Perez was injured on the field in the 90th minute and medical staff brought out a stretcher. As Perez was carried off the field, Mexican fans unleashed another barrage of cups and beer bottles and Perez fell off the stretcher.

The game ended about five minutes later and the Panamanian team lingered on the field to let stadium officials drive off the fans.
In other words, this was just another day in the life of the Mexican National team. Hey, it’s all in the spirit of sportsmanship right?

Why do we have to allow this type of play let alone the type of fans like this. I know this incident happens to be down in Houston with the Mexican national team, but it shouldn’t matter race color creed or what national team;these type of fans and play should not be allowed. I don’t care whether the coach said he was trying to stop the ball. The point being he made contact with a player on the field or sideline. Granted a red card was issued but FIFA needs to act accordingly on this issue. If you are going to give a red card to a US national team player for arguing a call walking off the field and suspend him for three games with a possible fourth,the same punishment needs to apply here if not more harshly. I am not defending what the US player did (which was stupid and immature) but it seems to be peanuts compared to this.

Now for the fans. I still don’t understand why the game was allowed to continue after several times in the waning minutes of the game beer bottles, water bottles and various trash projectiles not only were launched to the field but also to several Panamanian players. Once again it does not matter what nationality the fans are or where the games happen to be played; this type of trash in the fans should not be allowed. This is simply classless. In my opinion this has been occurring way too often recently. I love the idea that soccer (footbal, futbal), Is getting more popular in this country, but please let’s not import the thugs and hooligans and truly classless fans. I certainly hope we do import the passion however, but without the trash.

These are just my opinions.

Raja Gosnell, best known for bringing "Scooby Doo" to the big screen, has signed on to direct a live-action movie based on the "Smurfs", a popular cartoon created by Belgium’s Peyo. 

The plot of the movie is being kept a secret, and the film is being produced by Jordan   Kerner (Charlotte’s Web). The screenplay is being written by J. David Stern and D avid N. Weiss, as well as Audrey Wells.

The "Smurfs" movie is due to be released on the 17th of December next year and is being distributed by Columbia Pictures/Sony Animation.

Source: news.yahoo.com

Please for the love of….no!!!

The mobile edition of IBGerm.com is online and working. It is supposed to auto-detect if you are on a mobile browser and change the theme to be more efficient for mobile devices.

Currenly supporting these mobile devices: iPhone, iPod, Android, BlackBerry9530, LG-TU915 Obigo, LGE VX, webOS, Nokia5800

Currently supporting these mobile browsers: 2.0 MMP, 240×320, 400X240, AvantGo, BlackBerry, Blazer, Cellphone, Danger, DoCoMo, Elaine/3.0, EudoraWeb, Googlebot-Mobile, hiptop, IEMobile,
KYOCERA/WX310K, LG/U990, MIDP-2., MMEF20, MOT-V, NetFront, Newt, Nintendo Wii, Nitro, Nokia, Opera Mini, Palm, PlayStation Portable, portalmmm, Proxinet,
ProxiNet, SHARP-TQ-GX10, SHG-i900, Small, SonyEricsson, Symbian OS, SymbianOS, TS21i-10, UP.Browser, UP.Link, webOS, Windows CE, WinWAP, YahooSeeker/M1A1-R2D2

Drop me a line, let me know…

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Fans of Knob Creek bourbon may find their favorite whiskey in short supply this summer as the brand’s bottle warehouses near Clermont, Ky., are empty and the next batch of aged whiskey won’t be ready until November. 

Bourbon experts say the looming shortage is somewhat unusual, although brands such as Knob Creek, which is aged for nine years, are more susceptible because their distillers must predict demand far in advance.

“It’s very difficult to forecast out nine-year demand,” said Kelly Doss, senior director of U.S. bourbon and whiskey at Beam Global Spirits & Wine, which makes Knob Creek. “We can only sell what we can bottle and ship.”

Beam Global, itself part of Fortune Brands, sells about 150,000 cases of Knob Creek annually, putting it at the top of the company’s small batch collection, but well below Maker’s Mark, and its flagship Jim Beam bourbon which is aged four years.. Doss said none of those brands are expected to face a shortage this summer.

Beam recently sent T-shirts emblazoned with “The drought of 2009″ to 16,000 Knob Creek fans who registered on the brand’s Web site.

The company also plans to use the shortage as a marketing tool in the months ahead, playing on the notion that the lack of Knob Creek is connected to its popularity. A recent company statement announcing the shortage carried the headline “thanks for nothing” and said the brand will be “even more popular and profitable once supply is restored.”

Tom Pirko, president of industry consulting firm Bevmark, said the promotion probably will boost the brand’s image in the short-term. But if it lasts longer than a few months, he said it could prompt customers to switch.

The next batch of Knob Creek will be dumped from barrels in October, and ready for retailers the next month. Areas that could see tight supplies first include southern California, and the eastern United States. Beam raised the price of Knob Creek earlier this year, she said, but the move was unrelated to the shortage and there are no more planned price hikes.

“They’re getting some publicity out of a real situation,” Cowdery said. “I expect that with Knob, they’ll come back in November right before Christmas with a lot of new supply, and they’ll make a lot of noise about it, and price it to move.”

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SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) –

***UPDATE***  The vulnerability that sent Microsoft scrambling yesterday and is being used by hackers now to attack Internet Explorer (IE) users may have been reported 18 months ago or more.

In the security advisory it issued yesterday, Microsoft credited a pair of researchers — Ryan Smith and Alex Wheeler — with reporting the bug. Smith and Wheeler once worked together at IBM’s ISS X-Force, although Wheeler now is at Texas-based 3Com’s TippingPoint DVLabs.

Microsoft Corp. has taken the rare step of warning about a serious computer security vulnerability it hasn’t fixed yet.

The vulnerability disclosed Monday affects Internet Explorer users whose computer s run the Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 operating software.

It can allow hackers to remotely take control of victims’ machines. The victims don’t need to do anything to get infected except visit a Web site that’s been hacked.

Security experts say criminals have been attacking the vulnerability for nearly a week. Thousands of sites have been hacked to serve up malicious software that exploits the vulnerability. People are drawn to these sites by clicking a link in spam e-mail.

The so-called "zero day" vulnerability disclosed by Microsoft affects a part of its software used to play video. The problem arises from the way the software interacts with Internet Explorer, which opens a hole for hackers to tunnel into.

Microsoft urged vulnerable users to disable the problematic part of its software, which can be done from Microsoft’s Web site, while the company works on a "patch" – or software fix – for the problem.

Microsoft rarely departs from its practice of issuing security updates the second Tuesday of each month. When the Redmond, Wash.-based company does issue security reminders at other times, it’s because the vulnerabilities are very serious.

A recent example was the emergency patch Microsoft issued in October for a vulnerability that criminals exploited to infect millions of PCs with the Conficker worm. While initially feared as an all-powerful doomsday device, that network of infected machines was eventually used for mundane moneymaking schemes like sending spam and pushing fake antivirus software.

Credit: JORDAN ROBERTSON (AP)

Once again, this is why you use Firefox and not IE, ever….

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I love Linux and have Ububtu off and on for a bit now. I have some small gripes with it but have found these three tips to be a great way around my issues.

SuperUser run box.  Press Alt-F2, this opens up the Run programs dialogue box, type in the program name and it launches it. (old way gconf-editor). Use GKSU in the terminal box you get a simliar dialage box, but this time you are running the program as root. If you want to ‘bind’ the gksu command to a keyboard short cut to produce a superuser Run Programs box, go to System>Preference>Keyboard Shortcuts

Install Packages. Get those linux install packages installed quick and easy with GDEBI. Gdebi is a GUI application that lets you easily and quickly install packages under Linux that you have downloaded. It is said to use the Linux library to resolve or at least try and resolve dependencies. From what I understand this does the same function that the dpkg command used to do as well. Gdebi can also be run command line for you more advanced users out there and still gives you the ability to resolve the dependencies.

Faster OpenOffice. Want to speed up the start of OpenOffice? Open the Sessions program , Startup Manager, and add a new entry. (find it System>Preferences>Startup Applications.) Add the new entry , openoffice –nodefault –nologo in the command line field, then reboot. This basically moves the programs to the systems initial boot up sequence. Since Linux is a faster boot up, it shouldn’t be noticed at all. This will cache the program so it launches much quicker.

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RYANAIR boss Michael O’Leary wants passengers to STAND on the budget airline’s flights — in a bid to pack in more people and boost profits.

Passengers would pay less to huddle next to what have been described as “bar stools”, with seatbelts around their waists. O’Leary has already held talks with US plane manufacturer Boeing about designing a jet with standing room. He is now hoping to get the go-ahead from the Irish Aviation Authority before ordering a new fleet. A Ryanair spokesman said: “If they approve it, we’ll be doing it.” O’Leary got the idea from Chinese airline Spring, which put forward similar plans — estimating they could pack in up to 50 per cent more passengers and slash costs by 20 per cent. The controversial Ryanair boss is always looking for ways of saving money. Earlier this year he announced that he intended to charge passengers a pound to spend a penny on board. He also unveiled plans for planes with just one toilet instead of three, which he said would allow six extra seats to be crammed in.  There was more outrage when O’Leary considered introducing a “fat tax” for overweight passengers.

And you thought US domestic air travel was bad!! This guy is crazy!!

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In American history, we learn about the heroes of the Revolutionary War, the discovery of the American continent, and other stories that illuminate the courageous people who contributed to the formation of the United States. In learning about Christopher Columbus, Benjamin Franklin, and George Washington, we’re regaled with stories of their personal valor—how Washington chopped down his cherry tree, how Columbus proved the world wasn’t flat, and how Franklin discovered electricity in a lightning storm.

We seem to have also learned some quaint stories, despite the fact that not one of them is true. George Washington never chopped down a cherry tree;  geological evidence from his boyhood home shows that no cherry trees have ever grown there. A preacher looking to sell books propagated the story. These stories sold as historical fact would be better categorized as sheer fiction.

Columbus Proved the Earth Was Round
Contrary to the popular wisdom, no one in 1492 thought that the earth was flat. Navigators knew that the earth had a curvature since at least the fourth century B.C. Washington Irving, writing 450 years later, started the myth when he misrepresented the truth in his book On the Cosmographical Ideas of the Church Fathers. Columbus only wanted to prove that Asia was closer than previously thought. He did run into land, all right, but it wasn’t Asia or America. Columbus made landfall in the Bahamas, and never actually set foot on the North American continent. Furthermore, Columbus can hardly be credited with discovering a continent that Europeans had been exploring and trading on ever since the Vikings landed circa 1,000 A.D.

Pilgrims Founded the First American Settlements
The Pilgrims arrived in Plymouth on the Mayflower in 1620. The Puritans, a completely different group of settlers, also arrived in 1620, and started their colony in Massachusetts Bay. Many people, and even historical sources, confuse these two separate groups of people, and claim that they were the first settlers to reach the New World. But they weren’t. King James I sanctioned the Jamestown colony and settled in Virginia in 1607 as an investment to find new trade routes. Even before that, the “Lost Colony” of Roanoke was settled in North Carolina in 1587, organized by Sir Walter Raleigh to enrich the coffers of Elizabeth I. The Spanish may still take offense to Roanoke being labeled the first colony, since they settled the city of St. Augustine, Florida, twenty-two years earlier in 1565.

The Ride of Paul Revere
This Boston silversmith was virtually unknown until Henry Wadsworth Longfellow immortalized him in his 1863 poem “Paul Revere’s Ride.” Actually, Revere didn’t make that trip alone. He rode from Boston to Lexington and then Concord, MA with two other men, William Dawes and Samuel Prescott, to warn Samuel Adams and John Hancock of the British army’s impending arrival. They never would have shouted, “The British are coming!” because it would have alerted the king’s patrols. Besides, most of the colonists at the time still considered themselves British, too. The poem turned Revere into a hero when in reality, he was arrested along the way and forced to walk home horseless. Prescott was the only man who actually completed the journey.

Benjamin Franklin’s Kite Experiment
Ben Franklin was a true renaissance man … statesman, writer, and inventor. Therefore, we can assume that he was smart enough not to intentionally get himself struck by lightning. Scientists have known of electricity since the 1600s, and Franklin himself only wanted to know if our atmosphere carried a charge. He theorized an experiment wherein he could fly a kite with a key attached to try to collect ions and generate static. The idea of flying the kite in a thunderstorm is a dramatic exaggeration, and luckily, there’s no evidence that he ever performed either version of the experiment. If he did ever try to fly the kite in a thunderstorm, he would probably have died, as that kind of strike would most likely have been fatal. Modern-day scientists who attempt to re-create the experiment can vouch that it’s a decidedly bad idea.

Funny huh?

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I am not one to cry chicken little that the sky is falling but people need to stop and take warning about what they post on the social networking sites like   MySpace(people still use that one?) as well as Tweeter and Facebook. At the very least limit correctly those that can see your post, tweets etc… I have read two funny articles in the past few weeks about a gut that tweeted he was going on vacation and didn’t secure all his personal information. Guess what!, he got robbed while he was away. Read here.  Now I just read that the newly appointed head of Britain’s Secret Service (MI6) had to step down because his wife posted vacation pictures of them as well as didn’t limited who could see the posts and who her friends were. Everyone in the world knew this guys friends and some higher level stuff. Big security breach. Read here. People wise up! Take heed now! Just my two and a half cents!!.

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