Parveen Shakir be Remembered

KARACHI, Pakistan news update: 24th November, is the birthday of legendary Urdu poet, Parveen Shakir. She started writing at an early age, initially under the pen name of Beena, and published her first volume of poetry, Khushbu, to great acclaim, in 1976 and won Pakistan’s Adamjee Award.

She received two undergraduate degrees in English literature and linguistics.

She was Urdu poet, teacher and a civil servant of the Government of Pakistan. Shakir was born on 24th November, 1952 in Karachi.

She was a teacher for 9 years before joining the Pakistan Civil Service, where she served in the Customs department.

In 1986, she was appointed second secretary, CBR in Islamabad.

In 1990, she taught at Trinity College, Connecticut, USA, and then did her masters in public administration at Harvard University in 1991.

She married Naseer Ali, a doctor by profession, whom she later divorced. Parveen was killed in a car-truck collision in Islamabad on December 26, 1994, when she was only 42. With the premature end of her poetic career, Urdu poetry suffered an irreparable loss. She is survived by her son, Syed Murad Ali.

Her poetry was a breath of fresh air in Urdu poetry. She used the first-person feminine pronoun, which is rarely used in Urdu poetry even by female poets. The feminine perspective of love and the associated social problems were her theme. Critics compare her poetry to that of Iranian poet Forough Farrokhzad.

Her first book, Khushboo, won the Adamjee Award. Later she was awarded the Pride of Performance.

She subsequently published Sad-barg (Marsh Marigold), Khud kalami (Conversing with the Self), Inkaar (Refusal), Maah-e-Tamam (Full Moon) and Kaf-e-Aa’ina (The Edge of the Mirror), all to great acclaim.

U.S. Against Unilateral Offer of a Palestinian State

WASHINGTON : The United States voiced opposition Monday to unilateral Palestinian moves to seek recognition for an independent state, saying negotiations with Israel were the best way forward.

A State Department spokesman reiterated US commitment to a future Palestinian state but poured cold water on an initiative to ask the United Nations Security Council to recognize a state unilaterally.

“We support the creation of a Palestinian state that is contiguous. We are convinced that has to be achieved through negotiations between two parties,” said spokesman Ian Kelly.

On Sunday, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said they would “go to the UN Security Council to ask for recognition of an independent Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital and with June 1967 borders.”

This in turn drew a warning from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that “any unilateral action will undo the framework of past accords and lead to unilateral actions from Israel.”

Kelly said he was not aware the Palestinians had sought American support for their initiative and refused to be drawn on whether the US, if it had to, would veto any bid at the Security Council.

“I think that the thing we have to do is get the two parties to sit down and that is what we’re putting all of our efforts behind,” he said.

US Senator Joe Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut, said Washington was likely to veto such a proposal, which he said would be “a waste of time.

“I hope and presume that the United States would veto such an attempt when and if it ever came to the Security Council,” he told a press conference in Jerusalem.

The move for UN recognition is the latest in a series of options the Palestinians have warned they could take if the Middle East peace process remained stalled.

Others include unilaterally declaring independence, asking the UN to determine final borders of their promised state, dissolving the Palestinian Authority and seeking equal rights within Israel.

The administration of US President Barack Obama has so far been unable to convince Israelis and Palestinians to resume their peace talks amid deep disagreements on the issue of Israeli settlements on Palestinian land.

The Palestinians insist on a freeze of all settlement activity before talks restart, while Israel is offering a temporary and limited ease on construction, saying the issue will be resolved during the negotiations.

Oldest College Football Stadium

Oldest College Football Stadium: The essence of college football is found in three stadiums that stand as the clocks in a maze around 300-miles of Interstate 95 between Philadelphia and Boston.

No longer attract the country’s largest and rarely its participants will play in the NFL on Sundays, but Penn’s Franklin Field, home of Harvard and Yale Bowl stand as monuments to the past.

Photos yellowish allusion to their history, but only tell part of the story. What those photos do not reveal is how visionaries turned a bloody mess of a game in the most popular sport in the nation.

The NCAA deems Franklin Field (33rd Street at South Street, Philadelphia, Web site), which organized the University of Pennsylvania sports since 1895, as his old football stadium. The facility is believed to have hosted the most games of any team in college football – Penn No. 800 is scheduled Saturday against Dartmouth – although the NCAA does not have official records in this category.

Harvard Stadium (95 N. Harvard St., Boston, Massachusetts, Web site), opened in 1903, is the oldest permanent concrete structure in the country.

The cup of Yale (276 Derby Ave, West Haven, Connecticut, website) hosted its first tilt, against Harvard University on 21 November 1914.

Together they represent three of the four oldest Division I stadiums in the country, Bobby Dodd Stadium at Georgia Tech opened in 1913.

Ed Mahan / Penn Athletic CommunicationsBack in the day, Quakers fans actually could raise a glass to toast “dear, old Penn.” Now throw toast instead. Industrial toasters provide toast before games, and a “toast Zamboni” invented by a Penn engineering student cleans up after.
The basic elements of the game began at three schools and three stadiums, essentially setting up football and college athletics as we know.

Almost every aspect of modern game has its roots in the stadiums – the number of casualties and the game being broadcast on radio and television pet band, the halftime entertainment and shouting from upstairs.

To be sure, Franklin Field, home of Harvard and Yale Bowl have undergone renovations – the latter two only in recent years. But essentially remain unchanged, mostly through carefully planned projects.

The first night game in Harvard Stadium’s history, for example, last September was played before 18,898 fans as Harvard beat Brown 24-17. Renewal of Harvard, also gave a bubble dome for year-round use. The playing field was named Yale Bowl 1954 class field last year after a generous donation. Fortunately, through the best lines of all stages “have been excellent unobstructed view.

In its beginnings, football epic in these areas was more like going to a mosh pit – a mass of pushing and shoving, sometimes with 40 players on the field at the same time.

Walter Camp, a Yale graduate of 1880, with letters in all sports offered by the school, helped revolutionize football and away from this rugby scrum. Among his many contributions were the line of scrimmage; low and patios-To-Go, 11 players per side, the quarterback position, and the standard formation of seven linemen and four players in the line of scrimmage.

He is credited with starting All American teams and wrote over 30 books on football and amateur athletics. He also coached Yale to a 67-2 record from 1888 through 1892.

American football in 1900 was a brutal game popular, but in which serious injuries, broken bones and even deaths were not uncommon. In 1904, 21 players were killed and over 200 were seriously injured, the following year players with 18 dead and 149 seriously injured, according to reports a day. Football was so rugged that even the original Rough Rider, President Teddy Roosevelt, a Harvard graduate himself, considered banning the nation.

In late 1905, Harvard coach Bill Reid – chosen by the opposing football at Harvard and president Charles Eliot – was part of group of representatives who later became the NCAA.

Reid, Roosevelt and others, worked with the newly formed committee to establish standardized rules for football, with an eye toward eliminating roughhousing. Reid informed his constituents that unless new rules were adopted Harvard not play football in the future. The rules were adopted, making the game more consistent and put to rest its rudimentary beginnings.

Sometimes, as in the case of Harvard Stadium, the game has changed literally by design.

When colleges were discussing how to make football less bloody, Camp proposed the field was expanded from 40 feet out to play and reduce the risk.

One problem: Harvard concrete structure standing Stadium to ensure that the field can not be extended. Instead, the step was legalized, although its use was limited due in part to an incomplete pass led to a 15-yard penalty. Finally, the rules were relaxed and the forward pass led to the safest aspect many schools had sought.

In addition to hosting one of the floors of the nation rivalries – Harvard against Yale – the stadiums have held numerous civic and sporting events from football and ice hockey to presidential speeches.

Indeed, Franklin Field debuted the Penn Relays in 1895 and has hosted the competition since then (making a record 113,000 spectators for three days in 2006). Franklin Field also produced one of the runs more miles in history, when Marty Liquori beat Jim Ryun by a few steps in the Dream Mile on May 16, 1971.

Gail Zachary, who has served in many capacities with Penn athletics, said he remembers when the Cornell-Penn game on Thanksgiving was the highlight of the year.

The three stages have been home to professional football teams – the Eagles at Franklin Field from 1958 to 1970, the Patriots at Harvard Stadium in 1970 and the New York Giants at the Yale Bowl in 1973-74. The likes of Jim Thorpe, Red Grange and Chuck Bednarik famous have left their mark on the lawn – where Grange, through mud ankle Franklin Field in 1925 in an amount of 363 total yards.
Source: apakistannews.com

Maine Gay Marriage Vote

Latest updates about Maine Gay marriage vote, Maine Gay Marriage Vote: Too Close To Call, Gay marriage vote in Maine on Tuesday, was closely followed by a referendum, that gay-rights activists around the country wanted to demonstrate for the first time, that their cause can not win at the ballot box.
Voters had to decide to repeal or adopt the state law that would allow gay couples-Wed. Adoption of a law by the legislature in May, but never force, since the petition drive conservatives.

An early return was close to the competition, as expected. With 229 608 pedestrian precincts reporting, each side was 50 percent.

The vote to respect the law should mark the first time that the voters of any state support for gay marriage. This could energize activists nationwide and the blunt conservative claims that same-sex marriage has been foisted on state judges and legislators in the course is public.

However, repeal – New England, the region supports the country’s largest gay couples – would be another heartbreaking loss for the marriage equality movement, then opposed gay marriage in California a year ago.

It would also mark the first time voters had torpedoed the gay marriage law enacted by the legislature. When Californians rejected same-sex marriage, it was a response to the court’s decision, not legislation.

Maine Secretary of State, Matthew Dunlap, said turnout appeared higher than expected in the off-year elections, and voter interest came out strong. Even before Tuesday, more than 100,000 people – out of about 1 million registered voters – had voted absentee voting or polling.

Five other states have legalized gay marriage – Iowa, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and Connecticut – but it was all so by law or court decision, not popular vote. Instead, constitutional amendments to ban gay marriage has been approved in all 30 Member States, where they have been in the vote. Source

Imperious, Bill O Reilly

Latest News Udpated, Imperious, Bill O Reilly: Newsbusters, the love child of Fox Fave Brent Bozell (but in a Christian, chaste, and heterosexual way) frequently whines about how librul interviewers on librul TV don’t tell the audience about their guests’ librul connections. Their position is rather hypocritical seeing that their favorite network, Fox Opinion News, does the same thing.

Last week, I did a thread about how Dr. Jason Fodeman wasn’t just a fresh faced young medical school graduate without an axe to grind; but rather, a right wing partisan whose right wing partisanship began with a book, written when he was 17, which attacked the Clinton’s.

Last week, Bill O’Reilly attacked the city of Kent, Connecticut for denying the request of a local man, whose son was killed on 9-11, to have the words “murdered by Muslim terrorists,” engraved on the public memorial on town property. Bill was outraged and asserted that he will harass the town until they say “uncle” and get that incendiary wording on that memorial.

But like Fox&Friends, Bill didn’t provide any background information on Peter Gadiel apart from the 9-11 connection. Turns out that Gadiel is no stranger to right wing politics and no stranger to Fox News. And that’s fine. But shouldn’t O’Reilly have said something. Just saying….

Peter Gadiel is on the Board of “9/11 Famlies For A Secure America Foundation” which is a spin off from the anti-immigration group “Federation for American Immigration Reform.” The first person named to the 9/11 Families Board was former Colorado Governor Richard Lamm who has said that “new cultures” in the U.S. are “diluting what we are and who we are.”

According to Mr. Gadiel’s description on the 9/11 website “He has volunteered full time since 2002 to help persuade government to secure America’s borders, and for eliminating the magnets which draw illegal aliens to the United States including amnesty, the ability to work in the U.S., ‘free’ public education, ‘free’ health care, welfare, drivers’ licenses, government guaranteed mortgages, etc.”

He was a speaker at a 2007 “Hold Their Feet To The Fire” rally which consisted of right wing radio hosts, led by Roger Hedgecock, to “expose illegal alien amnesty.” He is also quoted as saying “Americans must sleep with loaded pistols at their bedsides because so many of them have been attacked by illegal aliens [who were] ‘just going to America for a job.’”

And a search of You Tube finds Gadiel appearing on Neil Cavuto’s show (speaking about granting drivers licenses to illegals) and being interviewed by Greg Jarrett about a billboard in North Carolina which claimed that giving licenses to illegals was giving licenses to terrorists.

He also appeared on Hannity & Colmes where he discussed the life sentence of Zacarias Moussaoui. Not surprisingly, he has appeard on CNN”s Lou Dobbs show during which Dobbs said that Gadiel was being investigated by Mexico over Gadiel’s statement regarding a Mexican identification card.
Source: newshounds.us

French Branch of Scientology Convicted of Fraud

The French branch of the Church of Scientology was fined nearly $900,000 on Tuesday by a Paris court. But the judges did not ban the church entirely.

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French Branch of Scientology Convicted of Fraud

Karzai’s brother said to be on CIA payroll: report (Reuters)

Reuters – The brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai has been getting regular payments from the Central Intelligence Agency, The New York Times reported on Tuesday, citing current and former U.S. officials.

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Karzai’s brother said to be on CIA payroll: report (Reuters)

Did Lieberman Just Kill the Public Option?

Don’t bet on Connecticut’s junior senator showing independence from the insurance lobby.

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Did Lieberman Just Kill the Public Option?

Meteor Shower October 2009

Meteor Shower October 2009: The discovery of the Orionid meteor shower should be credited to E. C. Herrick (Connecticut, USA). In 1839, he made the ambiguous statement that activity seemed to be present during October 8 to 15. A similar statement was made in 1840, when he commented that the “precise date of the greatest meteoric frequency in October is still less definitely known, but it will in all probability be found to occur between the 8th and 25th of the month.”

The first precise observation of this shower was made by A. S. Herschel on 1864 October 18, when fourteen meteors were found to radiate from the constellation of Orion. Herschel confirmed that a shower originated from Orion on 1865 October 20. Thereafter, interest in this stream increased very rapidly—with the Orionids becoming one of best observed annual showers.

The Orionids were frequently observed during the latter years of the 19th century and became the focus of debate during the first quarter of the 20th century. The British amateur astronomer W. F. Denning and the American astronomer C. P. Olivier began using the pages of two astronomical periodicals to debate whether the Orionid radiant, the point from which the meteors seemed to radiate in the sky, moved from one day to the next: Denning argued that it did not, while Olivier argued that it did. Each astronomer had supporters that chimed in, but the argument remained essentially theirs. The problem was that the Orionid radiant was more diffuse than the other well-observed annual meteor showers. Thanks to the use of photography and the very precise plotting of meteors by several amateur and professional astronomers, Oliver was eventually proven correct.

One very unusual feature the Orionids tend to display is an unpredictable maximum. In 1981, observers reported very low rates of less than 10 meteors per hour during the period of October 18 to 21 (maximum predicted for October 21), but high rates of near 20 per hour were noted on the morning of October 23. Interestingly, a study published in Czechoslovakia during 1982, revealed the Orionids generally exhibited a double maximum. The finding was based on observations made during the period spanning 1944 to 1950. Shortly thereafter, several visual studies indicated the presence of a “plateau effect” or a long period of maximum devoid of any sharp decline of activity, instead of a double peak. Most notably, the 1984 observations of the Western Australia Meteor Section, show a nearly flat maximum lasting from October 21 to 24, while N. W. McLeod, III (Florida, USA), has frequently noted it to stretch up to 6 days.

The variation in activity levels around the time of maximum has been attributed to the presence of filaments within the Orionid stream orbit. Each of these filaments represents a previous orbit that comet Halley has followed in the past. Since observations indicate that comet Halley has been around for over 2200 years and since the comet orbits the sun in about 76 years, there are quite a few filaments making up the Orionid stream.
Source: meteorshowersonline.com/orionids.html

Dick Vitale

Dick Vitale: I know, I know. The college basketball season doesn’t start for several months. But I am so excited about the 2009-10 season. People come up to me and ask if I think their favorite team will do well.

So I sat down and drafted my early rankings for the upcoming campaign. Here’s the list, the elite class that I consider the top in the land. Disagree with some of my choices? It’s college basketball, baby, so let the exciting debates begin!

DICK VITALE: PRESEASON TOP 40 FOR 2009-10 SEASON

1. Kansas: Bill Self’s team is led by Cole Aldrich and Sherron Collins, two members of my All-Rolls-Royce first team. The Jayhawks are loaded with the Morris twins, Tyshawn Taylor and newcomer Xavier Henry.

2. Kentucky: John Calipari has made a major difference and his first season in Lexington should be special. The Wildcats were aided with the return of Patrick Patterson. Then check out diaper dandies like John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins. Fans of Big Blue will be jumping with joy.

3. Michigan State: Tom Izzo’s squad made it to the finals last season, creating excitement galore in Detroit. Kalin Lucas is arguably the premier player in the Big Ten. Look for big things from Delvon Roe, while Raymar Morgan needs to return to earlier form.

4. Texas: AJ Abrams is gone, but Rick Barnes still has reason for optimism. Damion James pulled out of the NBA draft to return to Austin. The Longhorn recruiting class, led by Avery Bradley, is outstanding. The Big 12 will have a great battle between Kansas and Texas.

5. Duke: Gerald Henderson is gone, but Coach K has the dynamic duo of Kyle Singler and Jon Scheyer back. The Blue Devils will also miss Elliot Williams, who transferred to Memphis.

6. Purdue: If Robbie Hummel can stay healthy, watch out. Matt Painter has a lot of returning talent to challenge the Spartans in the Big Ten.

7. Villanova: Jay Wright had to be thrilled when Scottie Reynolds said no to the NBA and came back to the Big East. Wright has a super class coming in, plus Corey Fisher and Corey Stokes among the returning talent.

8. North Carolina: The Tar Heels will not have to rebuild; they will simply reload. Most schools would fall way down after losing Tyler Hansbrough, Ty Lawson, Wayne Ellington and Danny Green. Roy Williams has one of the best recruiting classes coming in, while players like Ed Davis will step up big time.

9. West Virginia: Devin Ebanks and Da’Sean Butler lead a tough Mountaineer squad. Bob Huggins believes he can contend for a Big East title.

10. Illinois: Bruce Weber has a solid nucleus returning, plus a fine recruiting class. Most look at Michigan State and Purdue as the top threats in the Big Ten. Don’t sleep on the Illini as a challenger.

11. Michigan: John Beilein has rebuilt the Wolverines. Manny Harris and DeShawn Sims are back as Michigan will be dancing again.

12. Tennessee: Tyler Smith decided pull out of the NBA draft to come back to school. Bruce Pearl was happy with that decision.

13. Connecticut: Jim Calhoun lost the likes of Hasheem Thabeet and A.J. Price. The Huskies will remain a solid team with Jerome Dyson and Stanley Robinson leading the way.

14. California: The Golden Bears will have one of the best backcourts in America in Jerome Randle and Patrick Christopher. Mike Montgomery’s team is capable of winning the Pac-10.

15. Florida State: Leonard Hamilton lost star guard Toney Douglas, but he has depth and talent. Solomon Alabi has a world of potential up front.

16. Washington: Lorenzo Romar’s club bounced back last season. Even without Jon Brockman, the Huskies will make noise this season.
Source: sports.espn.go.com

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