I FEEL PRIVILEGED TO HAVE BEEN BORN DURING THE TIME OF MICHAEL JACKSON.
MUSIC HAS ALWAYS HAD A SPECIAL PLACE IN MY LIFE AND I FIRMLY BELIEVE THAT MUSIC SHOULD BE THE TRUE RELIGION OF THE WORLD, AND IF SO, MICHAEL JACKSON WOULD BE THE GOD.
HIS LEGACY WILL LIVE FOREVER.
AND LASTLY, IT AINT NO MATTER IF YOU ARE BLACK OR WHITE. AINT IT?
Every June for centuries, Pisa and its leaning tower have been illuminated by thousands of candles and oil lamps to celebrate its patron saint, Ranieri, in one of the most atmospheric festivals in Tuscany.
But tomorrow night, for the first time, participation in the Luminara festival will be compulsory under a new city law, with police set to roam the twinkling city to slap fines of up to €500 [£420] on anyone caught without a candle in their window.
The city council insists the new law is essential to prevent "black holes" of darkness ruining the overall effect of the 80,000-candle festival.
"Unfortunately black holes in the buildings along the river are a real offence to the city's beauty," Federico Eligi, the council's celebrations chief, told the Corriere della Sera newspaper. "There's also a security issue, since the public lighting system is completely shut off and the candles are the only things illuminating the streets."
But some Pisans are furious, especially since the law requires non-Christians to take part in the Luminara. "You can't require people to celebrate a saint with a candle, and you can't deny people the freedom not to participate in a festival," said Alfonso Maurizio Iacono, head of literature and philosophy at Pisa University.
Remo Bodei, another philosophy professor, disagreed: "St Ranieri is no longer a religious festival but a celebration of the city, and an ugly Luminara isn't decorous. Now it will be even more charming."
Cash is accelerating down the path to extinction as new technologies threaten to mark the end of loose change within a decade.
Bank and credit union bosses say cash won't be alone, with wallets and credit cards also likely to disappear too.
They told The Advertiser's round table forum that cash and cards will be replaced by computer chips embedded in mobile phones, watches or other portable devices.
Australian Central chief executive Peter Evers believes cash will be replaced for most transactions in five-to-seven years.
"Cash will disappear as there will be other forms of carrying cash, stored value in your phone or whatever it might be. It will transfer automatically," he said.
"We're very close in countries around the world. If you go in to Hong Kong or Singapore, the low-value transactions have already disappeared. You can't go anywhere, like on public transport, without pre-purchasing a card.
Dutch Supermarkets Set to Refuse Cash
Dutch supermarkets are hoping to phase out the use of cash by 2014, the Financieele Dagblad reports on Thursday, quoting the retail board CBL.The aim of the ban on cash is to make supermarkets less vulnerable to armed robberies, the paper says.
According to CBL research, 87% of customers support moves to stimulate the use of direct debit cards.
The Telegraaf reports that €10bn of supermarket total turnover of over €30bn last year was in cash. Supermarkets had to deal with 200 'incidents', ranging from a grab at the cash register to armed robbery, the paper said.
Other solutions will be found for customers who do not want to use direct debit cards, a CBL spokesman said. 'Technology is making enormous advances. Trials are also being done with payment by mobile phone, but you can also pay with a finger print or iris scan,' the spokesman said.
The Dutch consumers association said the move was 'going too far'.
More than 300 elite Scotland Yard detectives are suspected of defrauding the taxpayer of millions of pounds by abusing their corporate credit cards.
Auditors who have examined the American Express accounts of 3,500 officers involved in countering terrorism and organised Crime have reported almost one in 11 detectives to the Metropolitan Police's internal investigators.
A senior officer appears to have spent £40,000 on his Amex card in one year, without authorisation. Items bought by others without permission include suits, women's clothing and fishing rods.
The scale of the suspected fraud, disclosed in an internal Metropolitan Police Authority report, will send shock waves through the force. Until now, the investigation into expenses fraud was thought to have focused on fewer than 40 officers. It comes days after Sir Paul Stephenson, the Met Commissioner, faced the potentially damaging disclosure that six officers face investigation over claims that a drug suspect's head was forced into a lavatory that was flushed repeatedly.
On June 1 2009 General Motors filed for bankruptcy, forcing the 100 year old automaker once seen as a symbol of American economic might and dynamism into a new and uncertain era of government ownership.
When a company goes bankrupt, everyone takes a hit: fair or not, workers lose some contract wages, stockholders get wiped out and creditors get fragments of what's left. That's the law. What workers don't lose are their pensions (including old-age health funds) already taken from their wages and held in their name.
But this time I smell a rat!!
Steven Rattner (Barack Obama’s Car Czar- the man who essentially ordered GM into bankruptcy) has a different plan for GM: grab the pension funds to pay off Morgan and Citi.
While workers are losing their retirement health benefits, their jobs, their life savings; while shareholders are getting zilch and many creditors getting hosed, a few privileged GM-lenders led by Jamie Dimon’s (Class A director of the Board of Directors of the New York Federal Reserve, a three year term which started January 2007 and CEO JP Morgan Chase) JP Morgan and Pandit’s Citibank expect to get back 100% of their loans to GM, a stunning $6 billion.
The number of bankruptcies has increased relative to April. In May a total of 10 major bankruptcies took place which is 2 less than the annual average of 12 so far. But it has more than doubled since April, which is a startling a fact and a challenge to the recovery rhetoric. Now the total figure stands at 58 bankruptcies since Jan’09. Now the average stands at 11.6.
List of bankruptcies in May’09
1. Central Park Media (USA)
2. Filene’s Basement (USA)
3. Firedog (USA)
4. Joe’s Sports, Outdoor and More (USA)
5. Journal Register Company (USA)
6. KB Toys (USA)
7. Peanut Corporation of America (USA)
8. SETA Corporation (JPN)
9. Steve & Barry’s (USA)
10. Visteon (USA)
