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Thai court strips ex-Prime Minister of $1.4 billion

Posted on December 27, 2018December 27, 2018 by

Friday, February 26, 2010

Thailand’s Supreme Court today ruled that the family of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra be stripped of 46.3 billion baht (US$1.4 billion) in frozen assets, more than half of a contested $2.3 billion fortune. According to the court, the seized assets were illegally gained while Thaksin was Prime Minister; specifically, his familial involvement and connections with Shin Corporation.

In a statement released by the court, the judges said that Thaksin had adjusted government policies to favor telecommunications businesses, including Shin Corporation, a large telecommunications company owned by Thaksin, and his family, and sold to a Singapore investment firm in 2006. Additionally, Thaksin was alleged to have deposited shares held in Shin Corporation with family members whilst in office – a move to avoid, under Thai law, illegally holding any company stock while Prime Minister. Additionally, he was found to have unfairly promoted a $127 million loan to Burma – benefiting a satellite communications firm controlled by his family.

In a response from an undisclosed location outside Thailand, Thaksin contested the ruling, claiming the case was politically motivated and that, “the court was used to get rid of a politician.” In his remarks, he said that he came by his wealth legally, and he would continue his fight against both the ruling and the party that ousted him in 2008. In Thailand, Thaksin’s red-shirted supporters publicly opposed the verdict; although, no significant disturbances have been reported despite government warnings over the possibility violence. Instead, protesters say they plan a mass demonstration against the ruling sometime in March.

Ozzy Osbourne’s personal possessions fetch $800,000 for charity

Posted on December 27, 2018December 27, 2018 by

Sunday, December 2, 2007

American heavy metal performer Ozzy Osbourne, who became famous as the lead vocalist for Black Sabbath and later as a solo act, has raised more than US$800,000 for The Sharon Osbourne Colon Cancer Program, founded by his spouse Sharon Osbourne at the Cedars Sinai Hospital, by auctioning off personal items.

A number of the items that he auctioned off over the two day period have been seen on his reality TV show The Osbournes, which featured home life with Sharon, Ozzy and their two children. Amongst some of the higher-priced items were a carved walnut Victorian-style custom built pool table which raised $11,250, a painting from Edourad Drouot which fetched $10,500, a pair of Ozzy’s famous round glasses which raised $5,250 and a dog bed given to Sharon by Elton John which sold for $2,375.

Some more famous items were also amongst the 500 lots offered. Ozzy’s black satin coat, complete with bat-wing cape, raised $3,300 and a hand-painted floral cup used regularly on The Osbournes made $1,625. A bronze plaque of a demon’s head that was regularly seen in its position adorning the front door of their house had been expected to go for $800 to $1,200instead raised $8,750. A wire model of the Eiffel Tower from on the kitchen table sold for $10,000, while skull-covered trainers Ozzy had worn reached $2,625. Bidders came from as far away as Germany to buy what they could from his mansion in Beverly Hills, California.

However, three cars included in the auction failed to attract bidders and did not sell. They were a 2006 Bentley Continental Flying Spur, estimated at $160,000 to $180,000, a 2005 Cadillac CTS-V sedan estimated at $30,000 to $40,000 and a 1950 Oldsmobile Futuramic 88 Club Coupe previously owned by author Danielle Steel estimated at $40,000 to $50,000. Sharon had earlier said of the cars “We’re not great car people. They really don’t do a lot for us.

Darren Julien, president of Julien’s Auctions, which organised the two-day sale, said “It did very well. It raised some good money for a very worthy cause.”

“For a celebrity garage sale, it was pretty spectacular.,” he went on. He also commented on the fact that there was fierce competition for the many artworks included. “We had Ozzy fans bidding against these sophisticated fine art buyers, which you don’t see every day. For the most part the metalheads were outbidding the art crowd.”

Baltimore Ravens’ Deion Sanders announces retirement

Posted on December 26, 2018December 26, 2018 by

Thursday, February 16, 2006

On February 13, Baltimore Ravens cornerback Deion Sanders announced his re-retirement from the NFL. Last January, many assumed Sanders would be leaving the league after spending 14 years in it.

Sanders won back-to-back Super Bowls with the San Francisco 49ers and Dallas Cowboys. Sanders is the first professional athlete to win a World Series and Super Bowl in his pro career. The All-Pro Cornerback had 53 interceptions, was selected to the Pro Bowl eight times and was once Defensive Player of the Year.

Reports speculate Sanders, who broadcast with CBS after his first retirement, may go back into news broadcasting, possibly on the [w:Fox Broadcasting Company|Fox]] NFL Pre-Game Show.

After his retirement, current Ravens Cornerback Chris McAlister stated, “I’ll miss Deion, just as the rest of the Ravens organization will. I learned a lot from him.”

Conditions in the womb determine male sexuality

Posted on December 26, 2018December 26, 2018 by

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Research published in the journal the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) suggests a link between male sexuality and conditions in the womb.

Initial research by Dr. Anthony F. Bogaert and his colleagues at Brock University, Ontario revealed a possible link between the number of elder brothers a boy has and the likelihood he is to be gay. Whether this correlation be attributed to nature through the prenatal effects of the womb or to nurture through the psychosocial effects of growing up with elder siblings, however, remained unclear.

To further his research Bogaert studied 944 heterosexual and homosexual men. The men were either “biological” brothers and shared the same mother or “non-biological” brothers through adoption or as half or step siblings. Boegart reasoned that if the link between homosexuality and elder brothers was due to the nurturing effects of the family environment it would show regardless of any biological relationship.

The study showed, however, that the link was found only in biological brothers. The amount of time an individual spent being raised with elder brothers had no bearing on sexual orientation; the relationship was even found to be true in brothers who were raised apart from one another.

Bogaert writes in this month’s PNAS: “These results support a prenatal origin to sexual orientation development in men and indicate that the fraternal birth-order effect is probably the result of a maternal ‘memory’ for male gestations or births.”

He suggests that each male foetus prompts a progressively stronger immune reaction in the mother’s body. The antibodies that are produced by this reaction may account for sexual differentiation of the brain.

Scientists from Michigan State University added in an accompanying article: “These data strengthen the notion that the common denominator between biological brothers, the mother, provides a prenatal environment that fosters homosexuality in her younger sons.”

“Increasingly, credible evidence appears to indicate that being gay is genetically determined rather than being a so-called lifestyle choice. It adds further weight to the argument that lesbian and gay people should be treated equally in society and not discriminated against for something that’s just as inherent as skin colour,” said Andy Forrest, a spokesman for gay rights group Stonewall. However; Dr. Bogaert’s study made no explanation for the origin of lesbianism.

Satanism: An interview with Church of Satan High Priest Peter Gilmore

Posted on December 25, 2018December 25, 2018 by

Monday, November 5, 2007

In the 1980’s and the 1990’s there were multiple allegations of sexual abuse of children or non-consenting adults in the context of Satanic rituals that has come to be known as The Satanic Panic. In the United States, the Kern County child abuse cases, McMartin preschool trial and the West Memphis 3 cases garnered worldwide media coverage. One case took place in Jordan, Minnesota, when children made allegations of manufacturing child pornography, ritualistic animal sacrifice, coprophagia, urophagia and infanticide, at which point the Federal Bureau of Investigation was alerted. Twenty-four adults were arrested and charged with acts of sexual abuse, child pornography and other crimes related to satanic ritual abuse; only three went to trial with two acquittals and one conviction. Supreme Court Justice Scalia noted in a discussion of the case, “[t]here is no doubt that some sexual abuse took place in Jordan; but there is no reason to believe it was as widespread as charged,” and cited the repeated, coercive techniques used by the investigators as damaging to the investigation.

One of the most visible Satanic organizations—though one that was never a suspect or charged in any of the Satanic Panic cases—is the Church of Satan, founded by Anton LaVey. Members of the Church, such as Peter H. Gilmore, Peggy Nadramia, Boyd Rice, Adam Parfrey, Diabolos Rex, and musician King Diamond, were active in media appearances to refute allegations of criminal activity and the FBI would later issue an official report debunking the criminal conspiracy theories of this time.

Gilmore feels Satanists are often misunderstood or misrepresented. LaVey’s teachings are based on individualism, self-indulgence, and “eye for an eye” morality, with influence from Friedrich Nietzsche and Ayn Rand; while its rituals and magic draw heavily from occultists such as Aleister Crowley. They do not worship—nor believe in—the Devil or a Christian notion of Satan. The word “Satan” comes from the Hebrew word for “adversary” and originated from the Abrahamic faiths, being traditionally applied to an angel. Church of Satan adherents see themselves as truth-seekers, adversaries and skeptics of the religious world around them.

On a windy October day in Central Park, Wikinews reporter David Shankbone sat down with the High Priest of the Church, Peter H. Gilmore, who has led LaVey’s congregation of Satanists since his passing in 1997 (he became the High Priest in 2001). They discussed the beliefs of the Church, current events, LaVey’s children and how Satanism applies to life and the world.

1 Theistic Satanism (‘devil worship’)
2 Church of Satan 101
3 On current events and politics
4 Religious and Satanic symbols
5 The Iraq War: A Satanic perspective
6 On New York City
7 Marilyn Manson
8 On the church after Anton LaVey
9 Anton LaVey’s children and estate
10 Sources

MetLife to acquire Travelers Life and Annuity from Citigroup

Posted on December 24, 2018December 24, 2018 by

Monday, January 31, 2005

Metlife announced on 01/31/05 that they were going to acquire Travelers Life and Annuity from Citigroup. Travelers Life and Annuity is an insurance underwriter. MetLife is a large life insurance and annuities underwriter. MetLife will have to borrow a lot of money to pay for the company, so rating agencies like S&P warn that the AA credit rating of MetLife might be lowered. This would cause the interest rates at which all of MetLife’s debt must be repaid to increase.

Citigroup committed to continue distributing Travelers life insurance and annuities through its Smith Barney stock brokers, Primerica agents, and Citibank branches.

Citigroup was previously known as Travelers Insurance before it bought Citicorp. First the Property and Casualty business of Travelers was spun off, and now the life insurance division has been sold off. This is primarily because insurance underwriters get a lower price to earnings multiple from the stock market because of the cycles and uncertainty associated with the insurance business. Also, having an insurance underwriter and a bank together does not usually create “cross-sell” opportunities, because consumers and businesses almost always buy life insurance and annuities through brokers who have a duty to give them other options. Citigroup will continue to sell insurance through its brokers as before.

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This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable.

Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators.

Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.

Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.

Top 10 Free Online Advertising Campaigns That Really Work!

Posted on December 24, 2018December 24, 2018 by

Here’s An Opinion On:

By S.L. Stapylton

Have you ever wondered how you could advertise your website, product, or business entirely for free? There is no real need to be paying huge amounts of money to pay per click advertising companies when there are so much free advertising opportunities available on the internet.

Aside from submitting your website URL to search engines and implementing your Meta tags correctly, you will need to apply successful advertising strategies to generate quality traffic to your website. Below are some of the most popular options I recommend for successful traffic generation;

1. Write Articles.

Write short articles and post them on free article directories (like this one) or www.isnare.com. For a few dollars you can purchase distribution credits and once your article has been approved; isnare will submit your article to hundreds of article directories saving you a lot of time.

2. Get other people to become affiliates for your website or product.

There are many people around the world who want to make money online and a popular way of doing so is to become an affiliate for other online businesses. The affiliate will advertise your product/s on their website and you decide the commission rate you wish to offer to your affiliates. Affiliates are paid only for actual sales, so your marketing expense is 100% effective. You can either set up your own affiliate program or simply use a specialized company such as Clickbank. There is a $50 once off joining fee, but all of your affiliates will advertise your product/s free of any costs to you. You don’t need to worry about keeping track of sales your affiliates make because Clickbank handles all the tracking, accounting, and payouts automatically. Selling your digital products via ClickBank is a great way to increase your online sales. If you sell products that are not digitally delivered, you can use a popular company called Commission Junction. Commission Junction is a global leader in the online advertising channels of affiliate marketing and they are free to join.

3. You Tube (free video posting site).

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5r7haVfZXek[/youtube]

Advertising correctly is essential for the success of an online business. YouTube.com is one of the best ways to receive high quality traffic to your website and it is completely free! YouTube is currently the 3rd most visited site on the internet today closely behind Google and Yahoo search engines! If you do not have a video camera, you can simply use your regular digital camera (if it takes video footage) or the video camera on your mobile phone! If you are a little more experienced, you can also use a flash player to create your videos. You would be missing out massively if you did not take advantage of You Tube as it is literally a free search engine in itself!

4. Sell Advertising space on your website.

Banner ads are one of the most effective forms of advertising online. Selling advertising space on your website can in-turn pay for your Google AdWords completely; practically making your pay per click advertising free if done correctly! You need to make sure that you sell the space on your website to companies that relate to your business and that they are not your competitors. For more information on ‘banner advertising’ you can visit: http://computer.howstuffworks.com/banner-ad8.htm or http://www.bannerreport.com/html/resources_tutorials.php.

5. MySpace and Facebook.

Free popular social networking websites such as Facebook and MySpace offer an interactive, user-submitted network of friends, blogs, personal profiles, photos, groups, music and videos for people internationally. Millions of people use these social networking websites everyday to keep up with friends, advertise their business or product/s, or to establish an expert authority on certain subjects.

6. Create a Squidoo lens.

A lens is basically a fancy word for webpage. You can create a lens to promote your business, website or product at Squidoo.com for free.

7. Post an ad on Craigslist.

Posting an ad on Craigslist.org is completely free. The only downside to this option is that you may need to resubmit it every two weeks or so but it is well worth it!

8. Advertise in blogs and forums.

The important thing is to choose blogs or forums that relate to your product. This may take a little time to get accustomed to the different forums. It is important to follow the rules; failure to follow rules can result in entries being removed or you could even be terminated from writing anymore entries by the blog administrator. Doing this successfully can inturn increase your web traffic greatly and best of all, it’s all for free and only people looking for that type of product will come to your site. This will give you a higher chance of a greater sales conversion rate.

9. Write a Press Release.

Submitting an online press release will be one of the most important marketing strategies you can do to improve the quality of traffic to your website. At Free-Press-Release.com they will distribute your press release to news engines and search engines immediately for free!

10. Free Online Business Directories.

You can advertise your business or website on free online business directories. The more directories you can list your business on; the more likely people will find your website.

If you apply all of the above free advertising strategies together, you will then be well on your way to dramatically increasing the amount of quality traffic to your website in no time. The more traffic directed to your website; the more converted sales, leading to more money in your bank account. There is no need to waste your time and money on pay per click advertising, when you can be receiving loads of traffic to your website for free.

If you would like more information on advertising your business or website for free, I highly recommend ‘How To Use The Internet To Advertise, Promote, And Market Your Business Or Website With Little Or No Money’ by Bruce C. Brown. This book is a must have resource for all webmasters and online business owners.

About the Author: S.L. Stapylton is a young mother of two, entrepreneur, online business owner, and self published author of ‘How to Build a Website Fast’. Discover for yourself the safest and most lucrative ways to make money online by visiting

TheUltimateInternetMillionaire.com

or email her at

support@theultimateinternetmillionaire.com

Source:

isnare.com

Permanent Link:

isnare.com/?aid=319846&ca=Marketing

Wikimania 2007 begins in Taipei, Taiwan

Posted on December 24, 2018December 24, 2018 by

Friday, August 3, 2007

This article mentions the Wikimedia Foundation, one of its projects, or people related to it. Wikinews is a project of the Wikimedia Foundation.

The third annual conference for users of the Wikimedia Foundation projects, Wikimania, began today in Taipei, Taiwan. Over 1,100 people registered from 98 countries. Fifty-five percent of attendees were from Taiwan. There are over 100 presenters holding a total of 65 sessions.

Florence Devouard, Chair of the Wikimedia Foundation, in the opening to the conference, reviewed what has been accomplished in the past year. Among the accomplishments are the creation of the Wikimedia Taiwan chapter, and the creation of Wikiversity. Florence also said that the Russian Wikipedia was the fastest growing Wikipedia, with the Chinese Wikipedia coming second. There still is huge disparity in language though, with projects such as the Afrikaans Wikipedia having 6 million native speakers, but less than 8,000 articles

An estimation of the current total assets of the foundation was stated to be around $3.5 million. Florence Devouard also discussed the need for scalable sources of revenue for the foundation. These sources, she stressed, must be consistent with the foundation’s non profit status, with the open/free content movement and with community wishes. Potential revenue sources include the continued sale of live datafeeds, a print on demand service, board games, puzzles and other merchandising. She stated that the foundation will not sell DVDs or paper versions due to legal risks.

Also, Jimmy Wales, in the press conference, mentioned that in mainland China, lots of media or information is still unfree or not to be unveiled, such as Baido.com, so that may restrict the development or providing of freely contents and correct information, and is surely not a good example. And then he’ll come to visit mainland China to solve those problems of freely contents developments.

Other speakers included Benjamin Mako Hill discussing the definition of free culture, Kat Walsh on Wikimedia foundation use of free content, Samuel Klein on the one laptop per child and addressing systemic bias, Jimmy Wales, Angela Beesley and Gil Penchina on Wikia.

Space Shuttle Discovery launches

Posted on December 23, 2018December 23, 2018 by

Tuesday, July 26, 2005

The NASA Space Shuttle Discovery roared into the Florida sky at 10:39AM ET (14:39 UTC), 2 weeks after the launch was scrubbed due to a faulty sensor. The launch was the start of the STS-114 mission, which is planned to be completed on August 7, 2005.

Solid rocket booster separation was triggered two minutes and five seconds into the flight after burnout of the putty-like fuel packed inside each rocket. The firing of explosive bolts freed the twin boosters from the side of the external tank, allowing them to peel away from the space shuttle. Parachutes were then automatically deployed from the boosters, allowing them to slowly descend into the Atlantic Ocean where they will be towed back to shore.

Discovery initiated the command for main engine cutoff, or MECO, at the 8-minute, 23-second mark. MECO shuts down the orbiter’s three powerful engines in the rear of Discovery after completing the “uphill” climb into space.

With the ascent into space complete and fuel in the external tank exhausted, Discovery jettisoned the orange canister. Following jettison, Commander Eileen Collins pitched the orbiter up until the tank could be sighted through the orbiter´s upper windows. Mission Specialist Soichi Noguchi then took digital photographs and video of the external tank from a distance of just 1,500 feet.

Volkswagen emissions scandal may affect thousands more cars

Posted on December 23, 2018December 23, 2018 by

Wednesday, November 4, 2015

The Volkswagen emissions scandal continued yesterday with the company announcing 800,000 mainly diesel vehicles may also be affected by carbon dioxide emissions problems.

The company stated “the safety of the vehicles is in no way compromised”. They estimated potentially this could cost them €2bn on top of the €6.7bn set aside to pay for the cost of correcting 11 million cars affected when the scandal broke, in addition to fines by regulators.

	the safety of the vehicles is in no way compromised

This follows Monday’s revelation that the emissions scandal has affected up to 10,000 vehicles sold in the USA by brands in the Volkswagen group, although the company refutes the allegation. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the regulatory body which has been investigating Volkswagen, claims the company fitted a number of recent Audi, Porsche, and Volkswagen models with technology that initiates secret components during emission tests to ensure the results are favourable.

The scandal began with damaging revelations that the car manufacturer has been using illegal software to enable diesel cars to cheat on mandatory emissions tests. This lead to a public apology on September 20 by then-chief executive Martin Winterkorn and the promise of an outside inquiry. He then resigned on September 23, and was replaced by Matthias Müller. The new allegation about Porsche is of particular concern for Müller, because he had previously been in charge of Porsche.

The company is expected to foot the bill for the recall of close to 500,000 VW and Audi cars affected at the time. There is also the possibility of Volkswagen having to pay federal fines of up to US$18 billion dollars because the US Clean Air Act sets a maximum fine of US$37,500 for each vehicle that contravenes the requirements of the Act.

An investigation into alleged breaches of environmental law was originally initiated on the advice of the International Council on Clean Transportation, a European non-governmental organisation. The EPA requested tests be carried out by West Virginia University, where the secret software was discovered.

The software, known as a “defeat device”, enabled cars to identify when they were being tested and to switch on the emission control system. The devices may have been adding urea to the car exhaust because that would reduce the amount of nitrogen dioxide. The car would release a fraction of the nitrogen oxide compared to when they were being driven normally. Emissions of nitrogen oxide contribute to smog and are thought to have caused a rise in respiratory illnesses like asthma.

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