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SANTIAGO (Reuters) – A prominent fashion designer has sparked outrage in Chile by dressing up models like the Virgin Mary — in some cases with ample, near-naked breasts.
The Roman Catholic Church condemned Ricardo Oyarzun’s plans for a show featuring the models, and a conservative group tried unsuccessfully to block it in court.
Oyarzun said he had received telephone threats and had excrement smeared on his doorstep.
“There is no pornography here, there’s no sex, there are no virgins menstruating or feeling each other up,” Oyarzun said ahead of the catwalk show set to be held at a Santiago nightclub later on Thursday. “This is artistic expression.”
He said his designs — which include halos, look as though they come from a nativity scene and include religious icons — were inspired by the Virgin Mary but not intended to represent her.
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WASHINGTON, Jan 16 (Reuters) – Osama bin Laden’s son Sa’ad, a prominent figure in the murky relationship between Iran and al Qaeda, has left that country and is believed to be in Pakistan, U.S. intelligence said.
“The person you are talking about (Sa’ad bin Laden) has left Iran. He’s not there. He’s probably in Pakistan,” Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell told reporters on Friday.
Sa’ad bin Laden, who is believed to have played a role in several al Qaeda attacks, was reported to have been living in Iran since the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 that ousted the Taliban government shielding al Qaeda.
He is believed to have been under house arrest in recent years, but some reports say he also may have acted as an intermediary with Iran. The U.S. government lists him as having been born in 1982.
The United States and Saudi Arabia have sought the repatriation of al Qaeda members in Iran.
A U.S. counterterrorism official described the younger bin Laden as “a very well-connected apprentice terrorist.”
McConnell declined to say whether there was any deal that led to Sa’ad bin Laden’s relocation, and the counterterrorism official said the circumstances of his departure from Iran were unclear.
But McConnell suggested bin Laden’s relocation to Pakistan was promising for U.S. counterterrorism efforts. “It’s better for my world if any of these players are in places that we have access,” he said.
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Courtesy of Fox
“American Idol” hopeful Casey Carlson is a real-life bikini model.
Becker/AP
Katrina Darrell caused a stir when she showed up for her audition in a teeny orange bikini.
Meet the real “American Idol” bikini girl: Casey Carlson.
Contestant Katrina Darrell made headlines and became a YouTube star after she showed up for “Idol’s” Phoenix, Ariz. auditions wearing an itsy-bitsy bikini and planted a big kiss on host Ryan Seacrest.
But Kansas City contender Carlson is the real deal.
The singer models in swimsuit calendars for Campus Girls USA [see here]. The company’s Web site features a gallery of Carlson – who is identified as a representative of the University of Minnesota.
Fans can purchase a calendar that features Carlson in a different sexy bikini for every month of the year. Carlson is also featured in a special edition “Girls of the Big 10” calendar, from which all proceeds are donated to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. It sells for $14.95
And she doesn’t just look good – she sounds pretty good too.
Carlson sang Vanessa Carlton‘s “A Thousand Miles” in her audition and earned unanimous praise from four “Idol” judges.
After the singing-songwriting judge belted out a few bars to demonstrate how it should be done, Darrell shot back that her version “wasn’t any better.”
Judge Paula Abdul intervened and defused a potential faceoff.
And speaking of faceoffs – we’re wondering what will happen when the two bikini girls meet and compete.
They both made it to the next round: Hollywood.
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Google Blog: Building engineers
Posted on: January 17, 2009
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We believe great ideas can come from anywhere and everyone. And we aspire to be an organization that reflects global diversity, because we know that a world’s worth of perspectives, ideas and cultures leads to the creation of better products and services. We have more than a dozen employee-driven resource groups, from Gayglers to GWE (Google Women Engineers), that actively participate around the world in building community and driving policy at Google. This is the next post in our Interface series, which takes a look at valuing people’s similarities and differences in the workplace. For more information on how Google fosters an inclusive work environment, visit Life at Google on our Jobs site. – Ed.
As someone who has been building technology for more than 15 years, I know firsthand what a positive impact building hardware or software with a small team in an agile environment can have. I was only exposed to this type of work during grad school, and have since been actively involved in getting young people interested in science and technology. This year Google has enthusiastically supported my initiative to bring a local group of girls closer to technology through the FIRST Robotics Competition.
“People claim that only with the perspective of years can you know how much influence a particular event has had on you,” Tal Tzangen says and proceeds to explain how she is convinced her participation in the FIRST Robotics Competition last year has significantly changed the course of her life. Tal, a 17 year old girl from a rural part of Israel, was taking technology courses at her school, not because she was particularly interested in technology but because the other options seemed even less appealing to her. Although Israel is also known as “Silicon Wadi,” Tal thought technology was “just for geeks.” Last year she agreed to be a member of a newly forming FIRST team, not knowing what she was letting herself in for.
The competition involves 1,686 teams from more than 42,000 high schools spanning the U.S., Brazil, Canada, Chile, Germany, Israel, Mexico, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Turkey, and the U.K. Each team has six weeks to build a robot from a common kit of parts provided by FIRST. Then, they compete with other robots in a new game devised each year.
Before Tal knew it, she was “bit by the bug.” During the weeks of preparation, she spent days and nights at school learning about robotics and teamwork with her peers and mentors. Her team had won the regional competitions and were seeking funding for the finals in Atlanta when I met her.
This year Tal is the captain of the Google-sponsored Thunderbolts team, and one of her goals has been to get as many girls involved as possible. As she puts it, “I certainly don’t mind the company of my male peers, but I know that girls also have a lot to contribute in this domain.” The current team includes 24 students, eight of them girls (last year there were only two). Recruiting girls has been challenging since there are very few in the technical track in high school. She has enlisted some pre-high school girls with the hope of serving as a role model to them. Likewise, she has encouraged the forming of a FIRST LEGO team (9-14 year olds) to ensure the “next generation” for the Robotics Competition.
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Google Blog: Building engineers
Posted on: January 17, 2009
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- Leave a Comment
We believe great ideas can come from anywhere and everyone. And we aspire to be an organization that reflects global diversity, because we know that a world’s worth of perspectives, ideas and cultures leads to the creation of better products and services. We have more than a dozen employee-driven resource groups, from Gayglers to GWE (Google Women Engineers), that actively participate around the world in building community and driving policy at Google. This is the next post in our Interface series, which takes a look at valuing people’s similarities and differences in the workplace. For more information on how Google fosters an inclusive work environment, visit Life at Google on our Jobs site. – Ed.
As someone who has been building technology for more than 15 years, I know firsthand what a positive impact building hardware or software with a small team in an agile environment can have. I was only exposed to this type of work during grad school, and have since been actively involved in getting young people interested in science and technology. This year Google has enthusiastically supported my initiative to bring a local group of girls closer to technology through the FIRST Robotics Competition.
“People claim that only with the perspective of years can you know how much influence a particular event has had on you,” Tal Tzangen says and proceeds to explain how she is convinced her participation in the FIRST Robotics Competition last year has significantly changed the course of her life. Tal, a 17 year old girl from a rural part of Israel, was taking technology courses at her school, not because she was particularly interested in technology but because the other options seemed even less appealing to her. Although Israel is also known as “Silicon Wadi,” Tal thought technology was “just for geeks.” Last year she agreed to be a member of a newly forming FIRST team, not knowing what she was letting herself in for.
The competition involves 1,686 teams from more than 42,000 high schools spanning the U.S., Brazil, Canada, Chile, Germany, Israel, Mexico, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Turkey, and the U.K. Each team has six weeks to build a robot from a common kit of parts provided by FIRST. Then, they compete with other robots in a new game devised each year.
Before Tal knew it, she was “bit by the bug.” During the weeks of preparation, she spent days and nights at school learning about robotics and teamwork with her peers and mentors. Her team had won the regional competitions and were seeking funding for the finals in Atlanta when I met her.
This year Tal is the captain of the Google-sponsored Thunderbolts team, and one of her goals has been to get as many girls involved as possible. As she puts it, “I certainly don’t mind the company of my male peers, but I know that girls also have a lot to contribute in this domain.” The current team includes 24 students, eight of them girls (last year there were only two). Recruiting girls has been challenging since there are very few in the technical track in high school. She has enlisted some pre-high school girls with the hope of serving as a role model to them. Likewise, she has encouraged the forming of a FIRST LEGO team (9-14 year olds) to ensure the “next generation” for the Robotics Competition.
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A few weeks ago the 100,000th knol was published, and we figured now is an excellent time to reflect on the first five months of Knol’s existence.
Knols are authoritative articles about specific topics, written by people who know about those subjects. Since the start of the project, we’ve seen articles written on everything from sinus infections and Arctic exploration to long distance motorcycle riding and the Amphilinidea.
The Knol interface is now available in eight languages (Arabic, English, French, German, Italian, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish) and we are excited that our users are helping us translate it into many more languages using the Google in Your Language console. Encouraging people to contribute their knowledge online is particularly important for languages with limited web content, and we are glad to see that knols have been written in 59 different languages to date. It has been very exciting to have people all over the world come forward to help improve online content in their language.
We have worked quickly to incorporate the features most requested by our early authors, such as usage stats showing reader activity on knols and rich media embedding (videos, spreadsheets, forms, slideshows, etc.). All of these improvements are tracked in our Announcement and Release Notes.
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Zimbabwe is introducing a Z$100 trillion note, currently worth about US$30 (£20), state media reports.
Other notes in trillion-dollar denominations of 10, 20 and 50 are also being released to help Zimbabweans cope with hyperinflation.
However, the dollarisation of the economy means that few products are available in the local currency.
On Thursday, the opposition leader said he was still committed to power-sharing intended to rescue the failing economy.
Since September, when the deal was signed, talks have stalled over who should control key ministries.
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai said he was due to hold talks with President Robert Mugabe “within this coming week” to try to resolve the political crisis.
He described Mr Mugabe as “part of the problem but also part of the solution”.
The latest annual figure for inflation, estimated in July last year, was 231m% – the world’s highest.
High prices
“In a move meant to ensure that the public has access to their money from banks, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has introduced a new family of banknotes which will gradually come into circulation, starting with the Z$10 trillion,” Zimbabwe’s state-run Herald newspaper quotes a bank statement as saying.
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Zimbabwe is introducing a Z$100 trillion note, currently worth about US$30 (£20), state media reports.
Other notes in trillion-dollar denominations of 10, 20 and 50 are also being released to help Zimbabweans cope with hyperinflation.
However, the dollarisation of the economy means that few products are available in the local currency.
On Thursday, the opposition leader said he was still committed to power-sharing intended to rescue the failing economy.
Since September, when the deal was signed, talks have stalled over who should control key ministries.
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai said he was due to hold talks with President Robert Mugabe “within this coming week” to try to resolve the political crisis.
He described Mr Mugabe as “part of the problem but also part of the solution”.
The latest annual figure for inflation, estimated in July last year, was 231m% – the world’s highest.
High prices
“In a move meant to ensure that the public has access to their money from banks, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has introduced a new family of banknotes which will gradually come into circulation, starting with the Z$10 trillion,” Zimbabwe’s state-run Herald newspaper quotes a bank statement as saying.
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