know this pilot! he is definitely grace under pressure defined.

Chris Brown beat up Rihanna? scannnndal!

R&B singer Chris Brown, one of the biggest-selling performers in pop music, was booked tonight in Los Angeles on charges stemming from an alleged assault on his girlfriend, pop singer Rihanna, according to police and other sources familiar with the investigation.

An official police statement did not name Rihanna, but said the woman in the incident “suffered visible injuries.”

Details of what took place between the two were sketchy, but authorities and sources said that about 12:30 a.m. Sunday, Brown and a woman got into an argument in a rented Lamborghini on North June Street in Hancock Park. Brown stopped the car, the two got out, and the argument escalated. A witness called 911, but police said Brown was gone by the time officers arrived at the scene. The woman identified Brown as her assailant.

Authorities did not describe her injuries or whether she was treated for them.

The sources said the woman was Rihanna, whose full name is Robyn Rihanna Fenty.

Brown was booked on a charge of making criminal threats, and police said he remained under investigation for felony charges of domestic violence. “The exact charge was criminal threats and it is going to be investigated as a criminal threats investigation,” said Police Sgt. Bridget Pickett, who spoke to reporters at the Wilshire Division police station, where Brown was booked. “There may be domestic violence charges added later, but that will be up to the district attorney’s office.”

Pickett defined a criminal threat as “a threat that is made to a person with the likelihood that it may occur.” She said that Brown arrived at the police station about 6:30 p.m. dressed in a T-shirt and jeans. “He was very professional,” she said. Brown was joined at the station by his lawyer, Mark Geragos, and Geragos’ investigator, Scott Ross.

After posting $50,000 bail, Brown left the station before 9 p.m.

Both Brown and Rihanna had been scheduled to perform at the Grammy Awards, which began at 5 p.m. at Staples Center. Neither appeared, and Grammy officials issued a statement just before the show saying, "We have just been informed Rihanna will not be attending tonight’s 51st Grammy Awards. Rihanna will not be performing. We are sorry to see she is unable to join us this evening.”

A publicist for the Barbados-born star, who sold more digital song downloads than any other in 2008, with nearly 10 million tracks, said Sunday night, “Rihanna is well. Thank you for your concern and support.”

Her song “Disturbia,” which she’d been scheduled to perform at the ceremony, was the sixth best-selling digital track of the year. She was replaced by veteran soul singer Al Green, who was accompanied by country singer-guitarist Keith Urban.

Brown and Rihanna had appeared together Saturday night at producer Clive Davis’ pre-Grammy gala in Beverly Hills.

A spokesman for Brown’s record label did not respond to The Times’ request for comment. Brown finished 2008 as the fourth-best-selling artist in the digital realm, posting 6.8 million tracks sold, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

--Andrew Blankstein, Randy Lewis, Ari Bloomekatz, Mitchell Landsberg

Photograher says Mugabe's wife punched him

HONG KONG – A British photographer said Sunday that the wife ofZimbabwean President Robert Mugabe punched him repeatedly in the face after he tried to take pictures of her near a luxury hotel in Hong Kong.

Richard Jones told The Associated Press that Grace Mugabe, 43, ordered a bodyguard to hold him down and then attacked him herself on Thursday near the Shangri-La hotel on Hong Kong's Kowloon peninsula.

"She directed several punches into my face," Jones said. "She was wearing diamond-encrusted rings, which caused a lot of lacerations."

Jones, 42, from Machen in South Wales, was on a freelance assignment for London's The Sunday Times.

He said he suffered at least 10 cuts to his face but did not require hospitalization.

"She was screaming, completely crazy," The Sunday Times quoted a witness, Austrian tourist Werner Zapletal, as saying in a report Sunday.

Police spokeswoman Odelia Tam said police are investigating the alleged attack but have not made any arrests. She said she did not know the identity of the alleged attacker.

Calls seeking comment Sunday from the Zimbabwean embassy in Beijing went unanswered.

The Sunday Times condemned the attack.

"We take very seriously the freedom of journalists to operate abiding by the law in Hong Kong and we look to the Hong Kong authorities to uphold those rights at all times," said Michael Sheridan, the paper's Far East correspondent.

Zimbabwe's first lady was vacationing in Hong Kong and visiting her daughter Bona, who is studying in the Chinese-ruled former British colony, The Sunday Times said.

Grace Mugabe has left Hong Kong since the alleged attack, the report said.

Sheridan said he and Jones had been staking out the Shangri-La on Thursday, where Mugabe was believed to be staying.

Sheridan told the AP he approached Mugabe in the lobby of the Shangri-La shortly before the alleged attack, but a female companion denied her identity.

About 10 minutes later, he found Jones nearby "with his face streaming blood."

Sheridan said The Sunday Times wanted to "draw a contrast between her lifestyle and the plight of the people in Zimbabwe."

Zimbabwe is suffering from a cholera crisis that has killed 2,200 people and an economic meltdown that has seen inflation officially put at 231 million percent.

Despite the country's political and economic difficulties, Grace Mugabe went ahead with a vacation in Asia, spending time in the Malaysian island resort Langkawi and Singapore before arriving in Hong Kong, The Sunday Times said. Robert Mugabe joined his wife in Singapore for a few days, the newspaper said.

Meanwhile, the country's main opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, returned home Saturday for talks Monday with Robert Mugabe about a power-sharing agreement that was reached in September but never implemented.

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classy. now compare her to michelle obama.

BART Police shoot Oscar Grant

A transit cop shooting a New Year's Eve rowdy, face down, in Oakland, Calif. turned into a national story thanks to YouTube, long before local newspapers and TV stations caught up to it.

On New Year's Day, after a fight on a BART train, police pulled Oscar Grant and others off the train at the Fruitvale station near Oakland's airport. Witnesses with cell phones and videocameras capturedJohannes Mehserle, a police officer for the BART rail system, in the act of shooting Grant. A local TV station ran one of these clips Sunday. But Grant's death wasn't widely reported until cameraphone footage was posted until Tuesday, sparking protests in downtown Oakland Wednesday night which turned into a riot.

The reason why is clear: Another death by cop in America's inner cities, rendered in bloodless black-and-white text, would go unremarked by readers. But the video, which shows Mehserle, seemingly unprompted, reaching for his gun and shooting Grant, is chilling. Mehserle resigned Wednesday.

BART officials first claimed there was no surveillance tape — then said they'd discovered one that didn't show the shooting incident. Even that evidence was impounded as part of the investigation, leaving the witnesses' YouTube clips as the only record.

Was Mehserle reaching for his Taser, as some suggest? We still don't know that and other key facts.. A vibrant local news industry might have done more on the story before the Internet made it big news. But Oakland, which has one local paper, the Oakland Tribune, run by a chain known for cost-cutting, is emblematic of the increasingly wide swathes of America which go uncovered by proper journalism.

It's easy to celebrate mediarogue, the YouTube poster who some might call a "citizen journalist." But isn't it disturbing to think that, as easily as it became a national scandal, Grant's shooting might well have disappeared into the morass of mind-numbing clips offered on Google's online-video schlock factory — a death unnoted by our fickle, impatient minds?

On so many levels, there are so many things wrong with this situation. the article has a point, that there is so much that doesn't get printed by conventional media, and that makes me happy that technology has gotten (ironically) more invasive. sure, cameraphones and liveblogging seem intrusive, but at the same time, it covers a lot that doesn't get shown. it means that the possibility of getting hacked or having your privacy invaded is a lot more likely, but i'd much rather have my privacy invaded than to have someone shot in the head and have his death go unreported. 

and police brutality. i recently watched the ending of this french movie, la haine, and it stunned me so much, i just sat there. this video (search for it in youtube with the same title) gave me the same reaction. there are moments in people's lives when you get so offended by someone, so upset or so angered, but to be human, i think is to learn how to check your emotions before you go too far. Mehserle passed the point where he should be called human. i hope he can figure out how to justify that to himself. if i were in his position, i wouldn't know how to.

2008 will be a second longer

On Dec. 31 this year, your day will be just a second longer.

Like the more well-known time adjustment, the leap year, a "leap second" is tacked on to clocks every so often to keep them correct.

A"leap second" is added on to our clocks every so often to keep them in synch with the somewhat unpredictable nature of our planet's rotation, the roughly 24-hour whirl that brings the sun into the sky each morning.

Historically, time was based on the mean rotation of the Earth relative to celestial bodies and the second was defined from this frame of reference. But the invention of atomic clocks brought about a definition of a second that is independent of the Earth's rotation and based on a regular signal emitted by electrons changing energy state within an atom.

In 1970, an international agreement established two timescales: one based on the rotation of the Earth and one based on atomic time.

The problem is that the Earth is very gradually slowing down, continually throwing the two timescales out of synch, so every so often, a "leap second" has to be tacked on to the atomic clock.

The International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service is the organization that monitors the difference in the two timescales and calls for leap seconds to be inserted or removed when necessary. Since 1972, leap seconds have been added at intervals varying from six months to seven years - the most recent was inserted on Dec. 31, 2005.

The new extra second will be added on the last day of this year at 23 hours, 59 minutes and 59 seconds Coordinated Universal Time - 6:59:59 pm Eastern Standard Time.

Mechanisms such as the Internet-based Network Time Protocol and the satellite-based Global Positioning System (GPS) depend on the accurate time kept by atomic clocks.

Palin Conducts TV Interview While Turkey is Slaughtered

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin officially pardoned a turkey for Thanksgiving at a farm in Wasilla, Alaska on Thursday, then conducted a television interview as another bird was clearly seen being slaughtered in the background.

As the former Republican vice presidential nominee spoke with a KTUU-TV reporter about returning to work in Alaska, just a few feet behind her a Triple D Farms worker is seen feeding a turkey into a grinder, periodically turning around to watch the on-going interview.

Click to watch the Palin interview (Warning: Content may be disturbing to some)

Palin, who called the pardoning experience "neat" was reportedly told by the station videographer what was going on behind her, but allowed the interview to continue.

Pardoning a turkey is tradition for governors in the days leading up to Thanksgiving, following a White House custom that began in 1947.

whoa, siopao baby

or obesity baby? that can't be right...

the other man at the podium. wow.

When Tommie Smith and John Carlos gave a gloved Black Power salute on the Olympic podium in October 1968 it sent a shockwave through sport. But what happened to the other man on the platform?

Forty years ago, two black Americans, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, won gold and bronze medals in the 200m final at the Mexico Olympics, and used their time on the victory podium to protest with a Black Power salute.

The photograph of the two men with their heads bowed, each of them with an arm raised in the air and a fist clothed in a black leather glove, is one of the most striking images of the 20th Century.

Their actions caused havoc at the Games, ensuring the pair were ejected from the US Olympic team. But three men won medals in that race, and the consequences for the third athlete on the podium would be every bit as significant.

The silver medallist was a laid-back Australian, an up-and-coming runner called Peter Norman who, in the words of his coach, "blossomed like a cactus" when he got to Mexico. While observers expected the Americans to make a clean sweep of the 200m medals, Norman kept them interested by breaking the world record in the heats.

BLACK POWER SALUTE Raised fist traditionally used as salute by left-wingers and radicals Origins of gesture's adoption unknown Fist symbols adopted by Black Panthers in the 1960s

An apprentice butcher from Melbourne, he had learned to run in a pair of borrowed spikes. More significantly, he had grown up in a Salvation Army family, with a set of simple but strong values instilled from an early age.

As his nephew Matt Norman, director of the new film, Salute, remembers: "The whole Norman family were brought up in the Salvos, so we knew we had to look after our fellow man, but that was about it."

In Mexico, that was enough for Norman, who felt compelled to join forces with his fellow athletes in their stand against racial inequality.

Norman was one of Australia's foremost athletes but was ostracised

The three were waiting for the victory ceremony when Norman discovered what was about to happen. It was Norman who, when John Carlos found he'd forgotten his black gloves, suggested the two runners shared Smith's pair, wearing one each on the podium.

And when, to the crowd's astonishment, they flung their fists in the air, the Australian joined the protest in his own way, wearing a badge from the Olympic Project for Human Rights that they had given him.

The repercussions for Norman were immediate. Seen as a trouble-maker who had lent a hand to those desecrators of the Olympic flag, he was ostracised by the Australian establishment. Despite qualifying 13 times over and being ranked fifth in the world, he was not sent to the following Munich games, where Australia had no sprinter for the first time in the Olympics. Norman retired soon afterwards without winning another title.

Sydney hope

Divorce and ill health all weighed down on him over the next few years. He suffered depression, drank heavily and grew addicted to painkillers after a lengthy hospital stay. During that time, he used his silver medal as a door-stop.

One of the things that kept him going was the hope that he would be welcomed and recognised at the Sydney Olympics. As his nephew puts it: "Then his life would have come full circle."

The US monument to the protest has an empty space

He was to be disappointed. In 2000, Peter Norman found himself the only Australian Olympian to be excluded from making a VIP lap of honour at the Games, despite his status as one of the best sprinters in the home country's history.

But the US athletics team were not going to ignore this omission. They invited Norman to stay at their own lodgings during the games, and welcomed him as one of their own. In an extraordinary turn of events, it was hurdling legend Ed Moses who greeted him at the door, and that year's 200m champion Michael Johnson who hugged him, saying: "You are my hero."

In 2004, Peter's nephew Matt started work on Salute, a documentary that, for the first time, brought all three athletes together in a room to tell their story of that day in Mexico.

Two years later, Peter had just seen the film for the first time and was about to embark on a publicity tour to the US when he had a heart attack and died. Tommie Smith and John Carlos, to whom he had always stayed close, travelled to Melbourne to act as pallbearers at his funeral, and remember their friend.

Empty place

"Peter didn't have to take that button [badge], Peter wasn't from the United States, Peter was not a black man, Peter didn't have to feel what I felt, but he was a man," says Carlos.

"He was that committed, and I didn't know that," adds Smith.

In 2004, a 23ft statue honouring Smith and Carlos was erected in San Jose State University. This huge replica shows each of them with their fists in the air, just as they stood four decades ago in Mexico.

Smith and Carlos were pallbearers at Norman's funeral

The place for the silver medallist is empty. It is where students and tourists stand to have their picture taken, when they want to take their place in sporting history.

In the film now being shown all over Australia, the absent athlete reflects on his legacy.

"I'm a firm believer that in a victory ceremony for the Olympics, there's three guys that stand up there, each one's been given about a square metre of God's earth to stand on, and what any one of the three choose to do with his little square metre at that stage is entirely up to him.

"If it hadn't been for that demonstration on that day, it would have just been another silver medal that Australia picked up along the line. No one would ever have heard of Peter Norman."

'Meh': Apathetic expression enters dictionary

LONDON – At least someone is excited about "meh."

The expression of indifference or boredom has gained a place in the Collins English Dictionary after generating a surprising amount of enthusiasm among lexicographers.

Publisher HarperCollins announced Monday the word had been chosen from terms suggested by the public for inclusion in the dictionary's 30th anniversary edition, to be published next year.

The origins of "meh" are murky, but the term grew in popularity after being used in a 2001 episode of "The Simpsons" in which Homer suggests a day trip to his children Bart and Lisa.

"They both just reply 'meh' and keep watching TV," said Cormac McKeown, head of content at Collins Dictionaries.

The dictionary defines "meh" as an expression of indifference or boredom, or an adjective meaning mediocre or boring. Examples given by the dictionary include "the Canadian election was so meh."

The dictionary's compilers said the word originated in North America, spread through the Internet and was now entering British spoken English.

"This is a new interjection from the U.S. that seems to have inveigled its way into common speech over here," McKeown said. "Internet forums and e-mail are playing a big part in formalizing the spellings of vocal interjections like these. A couple of other examples would be 'hmm' and 'heh.'

"Meh" was selected by Collins after it asked people to submit words they use in conversation that are not in the dictionary. Other suggestions included jargonaut, a fan of jargon; frenemy, an enemy disguised as a friend; and huggles, a hybrid of hugs and snuggles.

an ironic little picture to capture the u.s. recession

Nepal appoints 3 yr old as newest living goddess

KATMANDU, Nepal - Hindu and Buddhist priests chanted sacred hymns and cascaded flowers and grains of rice over a 3-year-old girl who was appointed a living goddess inNepal on Tuesday.

Wrapped in red silk and adorned with red flowers in her hair, Matani Shakya received approval from the priests and President Ram Baran Yadav in a centuries-old tradition with deep ties to Nepal's monarchy, which was abolished in May.

The new "kumari" or living goddess, was carried from her parents' home to an ancient palatial temple in the heart of the Nepali capital, Katmandu, where she will live until she reaches puberty and loses her divine status.

She will be worshipped by Hindus and Buddhists as an incarnation of the powerful Hindu deity Taleju.

A panel of judges conducted a series of ancient ceremonies to select the goddess from several 2- to 4-year-old girls who are all members of the impoverished Shakya goldsmith caste.

The judges read the candidates' horoscopes and check each one for physical imperfections. The living goddess must have perfect hair, eyes, teeth and skin with no scars, and should not be afraid of the dark.

As a final test, the living goddess must spend a night alone in a room among the heads of ritually slaughtered goats and buffaloes without showing fear.

Having passed all the tests, the child will stay in almost complete isolation at the temple, and will be allowed to return to her family only at the onset of menstruation when a new goddess will be named to replace her.

"I feel a bit sad, but since my child has become a living goddess I feel proud," said her father Pratap Man Shakya.

During her time as a goddess, she will always wear red, pin up her hair in topknots, and have a "third eye" painted on her forehead.

Devotees touch the girls' feet with their foreheads, the highest sign of respect among Hindus in Nepal. During religious festivals the goddesses are wheeled around on a chariot pulled by devotees.

Critics say the tradition violates both international and Nepalese laws on child rights. The girls often struggle to readjust to normal lives after they return home.

Nepalese folklore holds that men who marry a former kumari will die young, and so many girls remain unmarried and face a life of hardship.

China revokes visa of gold medalist, Darfur activist Cheek

Olympic gold medalist and outspoken Darfur activist Joey Cheek has had his visa revoked by the Chinese embassy, hours before the speedskating champion was set to fly to China. And he wasn't even planning on wearing a mask when he got there.

Chinese officials don't need a reason to revoke anyone's visa but, in their eyes, they had plenty of reasons to snatch Cheek's. He is the founder of Team Darfur, a group of 70 athletes whose goal it is to raise global awareness of the human-rights violations taking part in the Darfur region of Sudan. China's military, economic and diplomatic ties to Sudan have been well-publicized in the lead-up to the Games.

Said Cheek of his ban in a prepared statement:
"I am saddened not to be able to attend the Games. The Olympic Games represent something powerful: that people can come together from around the world and do things that no one thought were possible. However, the denial of my visa is a part of a systemic effort by the Chinese government to coerce and threaten athletes who are speaking out on behalf of the innocent people of Darfur.

Cheek was going to China to support the athletes on Team Darfur -- including soccer player Abby Wambach -- and to promote the cause, one that he has championed for years. After winning gold in the Torino Games, Cheek announced he was donating his $25,000 USOC bonus to Darfur and implored his sponsors to do the same. It seems that Joey Cheek is truly one of the good guys.

And now he's out of China before he even got there. With the Games getting closer (just two days away now), the world seemed ready to forget about all the Chinese issues in order to focus on the Games themselves. Unfortunately, China's actions make that impossible. In a time when we should be wondering who will light the Olympic cauldron, whether Michael Phelps can break an all-time record and how Liu Xiang will react to the pressure of 1.3 billion of his countrymen hanging on his every step, we're instead left to discuss the Chinese government's reluctance to allow any dissension in their country, despite repeated promises that they'd clean up their act when the Olympics came to town.
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i hate it when politics gets dragged into competition. what happened to pure sportsmanship? the olympics wasn't meant to be dirtied like this.