Funny Video Forex Gadget Hi-tech

It’s almost impossible to translate Lil Wayne’s lyrics into the written word. With nearly every syllable on every one of his nearly 1000 songs of this past decade, Weezy is surly and snarly, croaking and crawling, urgent and erstwhile. But there are no accent marks for ” Someone should’ve warned you/R-E-L-A-X like fuckin’ California/Or get cornered, or get tortured, or get slaughtered/In that order .” The words out of Wayne’s mouth somehow sound like an artist beyond his time, even if the words on a page are about as non-sensical as they come. In the thrillingly intimate documentary, “Tha Carter” (DVD in stores today), director Adam Bhala Lough however finds a way to make Lil Wayne’s lyrics translate into actual words. By subtitling entire mixtape verses–DJ drops sometimes included–the New Orleans lyricist is put on a pedestal that was once reserved only for Bob Dylan and John Lennon. And why not? Lil Wayne was one of the three most important rappers of the ’00s, a decade where hip-hop inherited and then maintained its place atop the music world. It’s a lofty declaration, but the Quincy “QD3″ Jones III-produced film has the artistic and integrity-filled chops to make the premise a compelling one. Whether Wayne’s lyricism is spelled out over grainy black and white photographs from live performances or in a quiet hotel room like the video below, “The Carter” keeps the focus on the music and away from the scandals and constantly retold…kind of. The “kind of” comes about because of the honest way in which Wayne’s surreally serious addictions–drugs, recording and himself–are shown in the film, and in turn will be the easiest to sensationalize. (No doubt, the very reason why Lil Wayne pulled his support from the project at the last minute.) Lough’s camera is given an unparalleled pass into Wayne’s guarded world, one that the many journalists shown interviewing him can only hope to glimpse in 15 minutes slots. But Lough, and certainly with the aid of DVD-Mixtape luminary QD3’s co-sign, gets weeks with Wayne in at least a dozen locations. The camera gets a guided tour through backstage worlds, tour bus sleeping quarters, endless press junkets, and sleepy-eyed viewings of “Sports Center.” Even more impressive, is the tour through Wayne’s omnipresent Louis Vuitton bag, whose contents include a six inch stack of cash, a container of liquid codeine cleverly camouflaged in a grape Vitamin Water bottle, and a coffee-table book praising the form of the naked female body. It’s the most physical example of the trust Lil Wayne bestowed upon the process, but perhaps not the most telling. That example isn’t even allowing his daughter to be interviewed–and her rap about “stuntin like her daddy” may be one of the film’s most precious moments–but it’s the access to the New Orleans rapper’s recording process. While it’s not discussed at any length in “The Carter,” it’s hard not to think about Wayne’s impending prison sentence when watching the film. The only time that Lil Wayne doesn’t seem to be recording in his travel studio–which literally goes everywhere he goes–is when he’s in a proper studio. He sets it up in hotel rooms and on the tour bus and puts in hours and hours every single night. It’s what the man does. And while he has an affinity for the liquid codeine charmingly known as “syrup,” it’s easy to imagine that he’ll be okay without it when he serves his time. And a little infliction of the real world might help tame his ghastly addiction to self…but this man is going to go insane without a studio. His passion for the process borders on a physical addiction and he says in the film that he has to record so often just to release the pressure in his head from all the rhymes building up throughout the day. While the quotables and memorable scenes in “The Carter” are endless–from grouchily ending an interview after only 90 seconds to Cortez Bryant’s tears recounting the story that got the embittered manager kicked off the tour bus–it’s Lil Wayne’s commitment to his art that truly resonates. And that “The Carter” found a way to translate that beyond the headphones makes it one of the top-five greatest hip-hop documentaries of all-time.

Originally posted here:
Brandon Perkins: New Lil Wayne Documentary: One of Hip-Hop’s Best

Best Music Gadget 2009 nominations – And the nominees are…

Read this article:
Best Music Gadget 2009 nominations – Pocket-lint

%excerpt%

Follow this link:
Beyonce Sweet Dreams Live at MTV Europe Music Awards 2009 Berlin HQ

MTV Europe Music Awards 2009 Beyonce Sweet Dreams Live Performance MTV Europe Music Awards 2009 Beyonce Sweet Dreams Live Performance MTV Europe Music Awards 2009 Beyonce Sweet Dreams Live Performance MTV Europe Music Awards 2009 Beyonce Sweet Dreams Live Performance MTV Europe Music Awards 2009 Beyonce Sweet Dreams Live Performance MTV Europe Music Awards 2009 Beyonce Sweet Dreams Live Performance MTV Europe Music Awards 2009 Beyonce Sweet Dreams Live Performance…

Read more here:
MTV Europe Music Awards 2009 Beyonce Sweet Dreams Live Performance

Music video by 50 Cent performing Baby By Me: MTV Version, Closed Captioned with Chris Robinson [Video Director], Billy Parks [Video Producer] (C) 2009 Shady Records/Aftermath Records/Interscope Records

Original post:
50 Cent – Baby By Me: MTV Version, Closed Captioned

Jay Z & Alicia Keys perform Empire State Of Mind live at the World Series 2009 Game 2 in the Yankee Stadium on October 29, 2009. Watch it in HD! … jay z. alicia keys empire state of mind live world series 2009 game 02 yankee stadium new york philiadelphia phillies baseball mlb music concert duet rap pop derek jeter funny

Read the original:
[HD] Jay Z & Alicia Keys – Empire State Of Mind (Live At World Series 2009 Game 2 Yankee Stadium)

Music video by Paul Weller performing Town Called Malice: Video MTV Edit (C) 1982 Polydor Ltd. (UK)

Read more from the original source:
Paul Weller – Town Called Malice: Video MTV Edit

You can vote this way: – www.mtvema.com – Click on Vote – Click on “Best European” – You can vote now MTV awards 2009

More:
European MTV awards. Nominated

After stalking the MTV channel for 8 hours, I finally got it! Enjoy!

The rest is here:
David Archuleta CFTH MTV Promotion

Today at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco, News Corp. Chief Digital Officer Jonathan Miller sat down to talk with Federated Media’s John Battelle. Miller oversees a lot of projects for News Corp., most notably MySpace. Miller reiterated some of what MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta said yesterday at the conference . They have a plan to move forward focusing on what they believe they’re good at, socializing content, which will be music-heavy thanks to their deals with the music labels. In the audience question part at the end, TechCrunch editor Michael Arrington got up to ask Miller specifically about the sale of Photobucket, which we first reported on , but News Corp. has yet to confirm. Miller laughed, but said “ No, I can’t make that announcement here. ” That of course implies that they will make the announcement at some point. Miller acknowledged that Photobucket is right in the middle of an important business decision for News Corp.: Are some of their assets stand-alone products, or part of the bigger picture? “ It will be resolved shortly, but not today ,” Miller said. From what we’ve heard, MySpace is going to sell Photobucket to Ontela for a deal valued at $60 million , which is a huge markdown from the $250 million (plus a $50 million earn-out) that MySpace paid for the company in 2007. Below find my live notes from the Q&A (paraphrased): JB: What do you make of this whole rodeo around Twitter? JM: I think it’s great. Search had been out of the socialization of the web thing, now it’s in it. It’s also clear that we have a lot of competition. It’s great. It’s not a one-horse race. Microsoft is hanging in there (in search). JB: What’s it like to work with Rupert Murdoch? JM: It’s fascinating. He’s so curious. He wants to know everything about everything. No matter what it is. He retains his ambition. He’s as ambitious as anyone I’ve ever met. JB: What’s your job? What does it involve? JM: I’m Chairman and CEO of the Digital Media group. I do two things really: One, I’m the executive in charge of a lot of businesses like MySpace. The other role is to provide strategy and guidance for the entire corporation. JB: How do you split your time between those two? Thoughts on all this media stuff? JM: Rupert feels there needs to be a paid content model – that doesn’t mean there won’t be free as well, but that’s our stance. There will be free and paid, but there will be paid. I spend half my time in that world trying to figure it out. JB: It is just a pay wall? JM: That’s a hard way to do it. You have to offer value to the users. It has to be different from the free area. It’s not just throwing a pay wall. Wall Street Journal is working with that model. You can walk and chew gum at the same time. JB: So that works for the WSJ, but they have a fat wallet audience. JM: Well I think they offer value. JB: Why leave what you were doing? JM: I was having a good time and we were investing in a few key areas. One big one was online video. That was fun and focused. But I was given the opportunity to work on a larger scale with more difficulty. I’m a glutten for punishment. JB: The idea was that you were going to have to “fix MySpace,” right? Owen was here yesterday laying out the plan. How is it going? How do you know it’s working? JM: Fix isn’t the right word. Nothing was broken that we’re putting it back. You have to think ahead. I don’t want to be in the catch up game. We need to get the essence of what MySpace is. It’s about making contacts, we’re getting back to that. The social part. Look at the big picture, then focus it down. Music announcements are core. There was some stuff that needed to be fixed. You need to stablize loss of traffic. It’s been a combination of organic loss of traffic and cleaning up the service. We’re stablizing it, but it’s not the fix game. We need to do new and different. JB: Rupert got a lot of credit for making that investment at the time. Is he upset for how it has gone? JM: You know you have to keep moving forward. But MySpace didn’t keep going. There have been competitiors in the general space, Facebook and Twitter that came along. We’re upset that we didn’t keep going. It’s hard to regain momentum. JB: Is Twitter overhyped? JM: It’s fascinating. I didn’t think it would have been what it is now. But the question is: Where does it go? They’re smart to be an open platform. The money question is easier, I think. Their new deals are interesting, but it doesn’t take you to a billion valuation. Are you your own thing or are you a sub-category of what Facebook is doing? That’s the question. JB: Is News Corp. a buyer in this space right now? JM: We did just buy iLike. It’s strategic. We’re not just trying to go after cool businesses, it has to be about our strategy. That’s a music focus with iLike. We’re not just investing. JB: What are the key strategies? JM: Generally I’m obsessed with realtime. I have been for a long time, even when I was with AOL. I didn’t know it back then, but now you can really see it. Twitter is one level, but it’s beyond that. Another interest is global. I just returned from Asia – it was really eye-opening. As we heard from Mary Meeker, the mobile world over there is amazing. They have things over there that compete with the iPhone. The mobile Internet is huge over there. We’re actually behind over here. It’s a huge transformation. For MySpace music and games. It needs to start with an “M” a “G” or an “E”. We need to open our platform more with MySpace, like Twitter is doing. JB: Talk about FAN (Fox Audience Network). JM: Most people in the audience would know the biggest ad networks, but not the #5 one, which is us. We’re moving up. We want to be #4. A deal with Omnicom helps us big time. It’s a real-time bidding network, advertisers can buy directly in to this huge network. They can buy a huge audience. It’s giving that power over to the buy side. It’s the beginning of a coming out part for FAN. Display advertising is coming. JB: In display publishers feel threatened right? You can reach through the brand and grab an audience. Is that a problem? JM: Yep. I think it’s a real change. There will be a premium world that will command high CPMs. Hulu can do that. It’s a true premium buy and a great expereience. Then there is the cheap inventory that can go to a broad audience. I think FAN can help with that. But the middle will get squeezed. You have to be premium or bulk. It’s hard in the middle. JB: FAN is an exchange network right? JM: Yeah directionally exchange. JB: How’s it different from what’s out there. JM: Along with a move to display, it’s a move to exchange. FAN uses the social networking environment. People tell you stuff freely through these networks. We’re not doing profiles, but it’s audience, to be clear. JB: So if I declare what I’m interested in on MySpace, but then I go to another FAN network, and I see an ad for what I’m interested in. JM: You can spread that across the web. JB: Let’s go back in time a bit. As the former CEO of AOL, the new CEO TIm Armstrong – what should I ask him? JM: That’s a good one. I’m thrilled he’s there. They need to get their freedom. I know they’re on track, but are they really. The freedom from Time Warner. That’s #1. It’s mutually felt, both want it. Is it on track. Number two is how does the new content focus scale? Can you make enough of it in the model they have. The portal-based model. The third, what’s happening in ad sales? Revenue is kind of important and AOL has a declining revenue and subscription base. So you need accelerating ads. It’s so key to that company. Audience Q&A Q: Is there a big opportunity for brands to do new things with all these social networking communities and sites? JM: Absolutely. That’s what AOL has been doing with TMZ, leveraging the AOL platform. We need to start new brands, not just extend networks. Q: Is authentication big? JM: Yes, it’s a big thing. Q: (From Mike) Did you sell Photobucket ? JM: (Laughs). I’m confident that is Mike Arrington. No I can’t make that announcement here. But look, we’re going over all our assets, is it a stand-alone or does it fit? Photobucket is right in the middle of that. It will be resolved shortly, but not today. Q: Talk about MySpace versus Facebook and Twitter. JM: Twitter is about the assymettic relationship. Facebook is symmetric. MySpace is in between. We’ve had both in our history. We need to declare a major. Facebook is trying to be everything it seems. We’re more about interests of our users going forward, more than just the friend thing. I think we’re closer to Twitter. But we can be richer, I think. I don’t know if Twitter with change, but that’s how it is today. Q: Talk about copyrights. JM: We need to have copyrights that are expected. Even in China they realize that. They have a budding content industry too. They’re very interested in copyright and piracy. I think we’ll have an Internet that respects copyright. That’s a wrap. Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors

Follow this link:
Web 2 Summit: Jonathan Miller Is Obsessed With Realtime, Wont Talk Photobucket

LOS ANGELES — Court records show Avril Lavigne has filed for divorce from her musician husband after three years of marriage. Lavigne filed for divorce from Sum 41 singer Deryck Jason Whibley on Friday in Los Angeles. The couple were married in July 2006 and have no children together. Lavigne cited “irreconcilable differences.” The 25-year-old punk-pop singer burst to fame with her 2002 debut album “Let’s Go.” Lavigne is asking a ruling to block Whibley from receiving spousal support. Court records show Whibley was granted a request to add Lavigne’s last name to his name in December 2007. More on Celebrity Splits

Read the original post:
Avril Lavigne DIVORCE: Singer Files Papers In Rocker Split

The launch of a new book signals the culmination of an intense period of work–one punctuated by the deadlines, disappointments, delays, and other landmines that are all too common along the road to publication. For an author, a book’s publication also marks the end of the long period of solitude during which time an author has been thinking, writing, mulling, editing, and revising–over and over and over again. Writing a book is tedious and lonely, especially if (like most writers) you’re obsessive. Thus, the book launch offers an excellent excuse to pause, breathe a sigh of relief, and throw a party, almost like the christening of a new ship before its maiden voyage. So when Overlook Press released my book Best Friends Forever: Surviving a Breakup with Your Best Friend last month, I was ecstatic to tack in another direction. My immediate breakout plan was twofold: to get the word out about the book and to resurrect old friendships that had admittedly become somewhat frayed by neglect. My book extols the benefits of face-to-face friendships, but it was no secret to everyone who knew me that I had been glued to my laptop for what seemed like forever. I know I’m not the only author who feels a little desperate at the end to show her family and friends how much their patience and support has meant along the way. Launch parties aren’t only for authors! Although many people were surprised before I explained why, deciding to have my launch party at Donna Hair Design in Chappaqua was a no-brainer (and let’s face it, I was fairly brain dead at that point). For one thing, the salon is right next door to the vacant storefront that once housed Second Story Books, the indie bookstore my town lost last spring. That was the place where Bill and Hillary had their book-signings and where I might have had the party. But independent bookstores are dwindling in number. According to the American Booksellers Association , as of April 2009, there were only 1401 indies nationwide, compared to 1524 the year before, and Second Story Books was, unfortunately, one of those casualties. Aside from my lost bookstore nostalgia, though, there were other reasons Donna Hair Design was the perfect place for my book launch. Hair salons are some of the last bastions where women can literally let their hair down to “tend and befriend” in a unisex environment. Donna’s is a grand salon in the broader sense of the word, an inviting living room where women gather to support one another. While, ostensibly, its raison d’tre is focused on appearances, it provides busy multi-tasking women with a much-needed respite from responsibility: a place where women come to be pampered and nurtured, and reciprocate in kind. Women go for “cut and color” as they celebrate the passages in their lives and milestones for their loved ones–sweet sixteens, graduations, weddings, bar mitzvahs, and other special occasions. Salons also offer women unfettered time to talk about politics, books, movies, health and relationships as they wait their turns or for their hair dye to take root. If you’re fortunate enough (as I am), the stylist herself is part of the draw. A special bond develops between her and the client in her chair. It’s intimate, trusting, and involves the laying on of hands, almost like a relationship with a family doctor. A good hairdresser is a good listener; she comes to know our innermost thoughts and secrets and instinctively knows how to make us feel better about ourselves. For Donna and me, the boundaries between a professional relationship and a friendship have long since blurred. She’s one of my BFFs and the salon staff have become like an extended family. For the launch, the entire team was mobilized and emerged as highly talented, motivated, and creative event planners, taking on responsibility for the invitations, menu, wine, flowers, Tiffany-blue color theme (to match my book cover), music, photography, and coordination of book sales with the staff of Borders in Mount Kisco. The pice de rsistance: Donna’s sister, Mary, baked heart-shaped cookies iced in blue with a yellow crack down the center, depicting fractured friendships. What a wonderful day it was! The date of the book launch coincided with National Women’s Friendship Day and the weather was glorious–perhaps the most beautiful day of the year. I was overwhelmed when more than 150 celebrants (including my editor and agent) began piling in the door. The room was filled with well-wishers from every slice of my life: college friends, neighbors, relatives, colleagues who had morphed into real friends, my son’s first babysitter, the realtor who sold us our house–well, you get the drift. It was awesome to be together with them all in one place that celebrates women’s friendships every day–the perfect setting for a book launch. Every author deserves a launch party that feels as perfect to him or her as mine felt to me. Here are a few tips to help authors achieve that goal: Keep it local – Plan your gala in your own neighborhood. That’s where you’ll find your strongest cheerleaders and best be able to tap local resources including the media. Find a theme – Whether it is the topic of your book or the color of its cover, carry through with invitations, decorations, and refreshments that complement the theme. It will become your brand that people will remember. Partner creatively – Find ways to help someone else promote their business as they promote your book. At my party, the salon opened on a Sunday afternoon and all the salon’s clients were invited to drop in. Everyone loved the swag bags with donated hair products. Make it fun – Don’t forget it’s a party, not a signing. It’s your time to celebrate with everyone who helped bring you to this day. Immediate book sales are secondary to building friendships and long-term word-of-mouth interest in your book. Irene S. Levine, PhD is a freelance journalist and author. She holds an appointment as a professor of psychiatry at the New York University School of Medicine. Her new book about female friendships, Best Friends Forever: Surviving a Breakup with Your Best Friend was recently published by Overlook Press . She also blogs about female friendships at The Friendship Blog and at PsychologyToday.com .

See the original post:
Dr. Irene S. Levine: Why I held my book launch party in a hair salon

NEW YORK — If he chose to listen, Najibullah Zazi could hear the calls for violence all around him. The Afghan immigrant accused of plotting a terror attack on New York City spent his earliest years in his wartorn homeland, a center of strife and fighting against a Soviet invasion and, after the occupiers left, clashing warlords. When Zazi was a teenager, his family shared a Queens apartment building and worshipped with an imam linked to a former Afghan warlord later identified by the U.S. as a global terrorist. And as a young man, Zazi traveled to a region of Pakistan known for training terrorists and visited camps where al-Qaida teaches how to kill with horrific bombs made from household ingredients like hair dye and flour. Along the way, Zazi was transformed from a snappily dressed young man with a taste for computer games and basketball to a bearded devotee of Islamic traditionalism – while also selling coffee from a cart at the epicenter of American capitalism, Wall Street. Zazi’s friends and relatives say he never chose to listen to others urging violence, instead working long days and spending his little free time with his family. “He was a very normal, very life-loving guy,” said Naiz Khan, who befriended Zazi nearly 10 years ago when the two teenagers attended the same mosque and high school in Queens. Federal prosecutors offer a different view. They say the 24-year-old Denver airport shuttle driver eagerly heeded the call to kill, maim and terrorize Americans. Zazi is being held without bail after pleading not guilty to conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction. Prosecutors claim Zazi, who returned to New York to stay with his friend Kahn days before the eighth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack, had been planning his own terror, possibly a deadly subway bombing. “The whole family right now is stunned,” said Habib Rasooli, an uncle to Zazi’s father and one of the few relatives willing to talk about the case. “I could never believe in 1,000 years that something would happen to the family.” The family, from a large tribal clan with hundreds of relatives living in the U.S., left Afghanistan to live across the border in Pakistan when Zazi was 7. At 14, he, two brothers, a sister and his mother moved to Queens, where his father drove a cab. Another brother and sister were born after the family moved to the U.S. A tall, skinny boy who could eat anything and never worry about his weight, Zazi struggled as a student at Flushing High School before dropping out. With friends who called him Najib for short, he practiced his English and adapted to life as a jeans-wearing American teen, playing basketball, pool and computer games. “He wore very nice, expensive shirts and boots,” Khan said. “He liked American life. He liked all the brand names. He never complained.” Zazi was also surrounded by his Afghan culture, living with others from his country. His family’s apartment was in the same small building as that of Saifur Rahman Halimi, an imam who was a chief representative for top Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. Halimi attended the same mosque as the Zazi family. Hekmatyar, one of three main U.S. enemies in Afghanistan, was a major figure in that country’s civil war and was briefly installed as prime minister. The U.S. declared Hekmatyar a global terrorist in 2003, and forces loyal to Hekmatyar openly fight American and international forces in Afghanistan. In Queens, Halimi became a trusted voice for Hekmatyar’s cause and a vocal supporter of the global jihad. A video from one of Halimi’s speeches in 1992 captures his zeal for a “pure Islamic system” in Afghanistan and denunciations of Western intervention. “In the very near future, we will liberate all human beings from these devils,” he said then. “They know the power of Islam. Halimi and the Zazi family joined others who split from their Queens mosque during a leadership dispute. They also gathered at times with a close-knit group that prayed, ate and socialized together, said Mohammad Sherzad, the imam on the other side of the schism. Halimi, 61, now imam of a Philadelphia mosque, told The Associated Press he was stunned by Zazi’s arrest. “He was not such a person,” he said. “He was busy with his work.” Halimi said he hasn’t spoken to the Zazi family in six years. Zazi worked a coffee cart on Wall Street, getting his license in 2004. Mohammed Yousufzai, who operated his own cart, said he marveled at how, after five months working in the area, Zazi was running his own. “He was a nice guy when he first came in,” Yousufzai said. Zazi began making trips back to Pakistan, his first in 2006 for an arranged marriage. His wife stayed there, and cares for their two children. Zazi began to change in appearance, Yousufzai said. He gave up his clean-shaven look for a bushy black beard. After a second trip to Pakistan, Yousufzai said, Zazi grew his beard longer and gave up American fashion for tunics and more modest traditional clothing. He began playing holy music in the garage he shared with other food cart vendors, and grew irritated when Yousufzai rolled in playing modern dance music, calling it “dishonest to your religion.” “People tried to avoid him,” he said. “They figured out he was kind of cuckoo.” Zazi’s finances changed, too, finally plunging him into bankruptcy with $51,500 in debt. From April to June in 2008, Zazi opened six credit cards. He opened several other credit accounts in about the same period, including with Best Buy and Sony electronics, according to bankruptcy records. This was all done before he left Queens in August 2008 for Pakistan, where prosecutors say he visited al-Qaida camps for explosives training. Zazi told reporters before his arrest that he was not aligned with terrorists and never planned an attack. He said he went to Pakistan to see his wife and children. Zazi returned from his latest trip on Jan. 15 and quickly picked up his life in Queens to move to Aurora, Colo., a suburb of nearly 300,000 people on the eastern edge of Denver. Like his taxi-driving father in New York, Zazi turned to driving an airport shuttle. He passed a criminal background check and signed up with ABC Airport Shuttle. Dispatcher Tony Gonzales described Zazi as a “hardworking guy.” “No trouble, no problem whatsoever,” Gonzales said. “Very quiet guy. He’s always on time. When we give him a pickup, he always does it.” Zazi’s aunt and uncle offered him a place to stay in Aurora. Rabia Zazi, his aunt, said her nephew had little time for anything other than work, not even an interest in finishing his high school education. “He skipped school and he’s helping his father,” she said, sitting on the front porch of a building with several children and wearing a traditional veil and dress. Rabia Zazi described her nephew as a serious man, an avid soccer fan. Seven or eight members of Zazi’s extended family moved to Aurora over the past several years, including his aunt and uncle. Abdulrahman Jalili, president of the family’s Queens mosque, said Zazi’s father told him a month before Ramadan that he was moving to Colorado, but didn’t say why. The father, Mohammed Wali Zazi, faces a charge of lying to federal agents, accused of withholding information when he was questioned after a series of raids in Queens last month. The emerging federal case against Zazi and others surprised Jalili, who said the FBI interviewed him recently about Zazi. “I never saw any wrong acts,” Jalili said. “He wasn’t acting strangely or anything. I never suspected him of doing anything like that.” But there are unknowns, Jalili admitted, things he wouldn’t see in those like Zazi who worshipped alongside him or others he wouldn’t know who may have influenced Zazi. “The government knows better than us,” Jalili said. “The FBI knows better than us. They did the investigation. They know something about him. That’s why they arrested him.” ___ Associated Press writers Brett J. Blackledge in Washington, Patrick Walters in Philadelphia, and Dan Elliott and P. Solomon Banda in Denver contributed to this report. More on Afghanistan

Here is the original post:
Najibullah Zazi: Terror Suspect Worshipped With Radical Imam

Today, Brazilians partied on Copacabana beach like it was 2016. The cariocas (natives of Rio de Janeiro) samba-ed on the sand, Brazilians everywhere celebrated deliriously, and President Luiz Incio Lula da Silva (Lula) was overcome with tears at a televised press conference. The International Olympic Committee awarded Rio the Summer Games of 2016, which will be the first time a South American city has hosted the event. It will be a coming-of-age ceremony for Brazil, a budding superpower, much as the 2008 Beijing Games were for China. Brazil is no longer “the country of the future,” as it has been described ad nauseam for decades; it has arrived in the present. It has a diversified economy, one of the top ten in the world, and it has emerged relatively unscathed from the global economic crisis. The land of soccer and samba is an agricultural giant, competing with the U.S. to be the world’s bread basket. It is a biofuel dynamo and the world’s leading exporter of ethanol; half its cars run on pure alcohol. Already self-sufficient in petroleum, Brazil recently discovered massive off-shore oil reserves. It is also a cultural superpower; its television novelas are popular internationally and its rich variety of music (samba, bossa nova, and other styles) has influenced global popular music for decades. Alas, Brazil is also near the top in the global corruption competition, a serious problem among all the BRICs (the growing powers of Brazil, Russia, India and China). Brazilians would be far better off, and the country a vastly different place, if its populace refused to tolerate the rogues’ gallery that populates its federal, state, and city governments. The Congress in Braslia is known for a total lack of ethics, lavish benefits for senators and deputies; secret votes; shameless appointing of family members to federal jobs; and, ingenious diversions of money for personal or political ends. Lula’s political allies have been tainted by one corruption scandal after another since he was first elected. Yet, nothing much sticks; charges are dismissed or never followed up; and, no guilty career politician gets more than a slap on the wrist, no matter how extreme the vote buying or money laundering. Lula embraces anyone as long as they serve his political ends. He has supported the senators Jos Sarney and Renan Calheiros, who have allegedly been embroiled in some of Brazil’s worst corruption scandals, and he was photographed hugging his former enemy, the notorious senator Fernando Collor de Mello. The latter resigned as president of Brazil in 1992 just before he was to be impeached, accused of influence peddling. Brazil is still plagued by widespread poverty, high murder and crime rates, oppressive taxes, a gargantuan bureaucracy, an ineffective legal system, and serious environmental problems (the deforestation of the Amazon and devastation of the Cerrado savanna are two of the biggest). Yet things are getting better for most, thanks to a stable economy, the taming of inflation, and Lula’s welfare program for the poorest families (the bolsa famlia ), which is labeled a progressive social program by his admirers and blatant patronage by his detractors. Rio’s preparation for the Olympics could stimulate significant improvements in the city. The athletes will not suffer from smog as much as they did in Beijing, but Rio needs to improve its air quality, especially in terms of particulates, the worst form of air pollution. And participants and spectators will need to reach events on time, which will be a challenge given the city’s growing gridlock. Expanding mass transit will help both with transportation and air problems. The existing subway system, which is a good one, needs to be extended, especially to the Barra da Tijuca area. Rio’s mayor Eduardo Paes would be smart to begin replacing the thousands of city buses that spew sooty exhaust with clean-fuel vehicles. In addition, the industrial air pollution in the cities north of Rio is an urgent problem. Perhaps the Games will also spark much needed change in terms of providing full social services and police protection to the city’s poor neighborhoods, and dismantling the drug gangs and police militias that now are de facto local governments of the favelas . That’s a lot to hope for, but let’s see what progress can be made over the next seven years. The whole world will be watching Rio de Janeiro during the Games; perhaps Brazil’s politicians will stop lining their pockets long enough to give the “Marvelous City” the support it deserves. Despite its social problems, Rio is still one of the most popular cities in the world, with cariocas enjoying a well-deserved reputation for gregariousness and joie de vivre . Brazilians everywhere are proud and overjoyed to have been awarded the 2016 event. Beijing put on a brilliant show, but it was all choreographed, with zero spontaneity and heavy police-state supervision. In Rio, improvisation and interaction will be at the forefront. And nobody parties like the cariocas. The Rio Olympics may well be the most entertaining Games ever, taking place in a city that has spectacular natural scenery, is the home of Carnaval , and is the world capital of celebration. More on Brazil

View original post here:
Chris McGowan: Rio and the 2016 Summer Olympics: Reflections on Brazil and the Marvelous City

This is HuffPost World’s regular feature that highlights interesting musicians and musical trends around the world. Know of a great musician doing ground-breaking work outside the United States? Send us your ideas for bands to profile or up-and-coming musicians to follow.

Go here to see the original:
Modiba: Huun Huur Tu Enters The Electronic Age With Newest Album Eternal With Carmen Rizzo

Music video by Alien Ant Farm performing Smooth Criminal: MTV Mask Version with Marc Klasfeld [Video Director], Amanda Eads [Video Producer] (C) 2001 Geffen Records

Follow this link:
Alien Ant Farm – Smooth Criminal: MTV Mask Version

Music video by Eminem performing Stan: MTV Long Version with Phil Atwell [Video Director], Dr. Dre [Video Director], Chris Palladino [Video Producer] (C) 2002 Aftermath Entertainment/Interscope Records

Go here to see the original:
Eminem – Stan: MTV Long Version

Music video by Nelly performing Body On Me: MTV Version – Closed Captioned with Benny Boom [Video Director], Scott Kalvert [Video Producer] (C) 2008 Universal Records a division of UMG Recordings Inc.

Read the rest here:
Nelly – Body On Me: MTV Version – Closed Captioned

Music video by Nirvana performing About A Girl: 1993/Live On MTV Unplugged with Beth McCarthy [Video Director], Alex Coletti [Video Producer] (C) 1994 Geffen Records

View post:
Nirvana – About A Girl: 1993/Live On MTV Unplugged

Music video by Eminem performing Without Me: MTV Version with Joseph Kahn [Video Director], Greg Tharp [Video Producer] (C) 2002 Aftermath Records

Excerpt from:
Eminem – Without Me: MTV Version