Landon Donovan tests positive for H1N1 virus
(BizJournal.com)
Los Angeles Galaxy Forward Landon Donovan has tested positive for H1N1 flu virus, the athlete told SI.com on Thursday evening.
The player said he wasn’t feeling well when he arrived in Miami on Sunday and went to the doctor who performed a swab-test and confirmed the illness. Donovan learned of the illness Thursday afternoon – a day after playing for 90 minutes in a World Cup qualifying match in Mexico. Mexico has been the epicenter of the ongoing H1N1 flu pandemic began.
Donovan will have to rest.
He told the Web site that he contracted the virus – also known as swine flu – in the U.S. He also told the site that he is unsure whether he will play in Saturday’s Los Angeles Galaxy game against the Seattle Sounders.
He said that he doesn’t see why he cannot play, but that he will have to see how he feels. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta reports that persons infected with H1N1 may no longer be contagious a week after illness onset, providing their symptoms have resolved.
http://www.bizjournals.com/losangeles/stories/2009/08/10/daily33.html
What is Love – Baby don’t hurt me, don’t hurt me, no more
David Beckham’s return to Lalaland has certainly been a traumatizing experience. For a man whose entire career has been an object or praise, admiration and loads and -yes- loads of Marketing, Becks can only hope to cope with the whining fans dismay, honour his contract and pack his bags and leave.
"No smile for you just yet", explains Victoria.
For good? Nah, we don’t think so. Victoria Beckham, has had the hardest time in the States…professionally. She is still trying to break through the Hollywood scene, either by landing a role in a box-office movie, or even becoming a spokesperson for a non-profit org. We believe that is keeping the Beckham’s in Southern California. They want to make it.
David Robert Joseph wants to be part of the England team on the upcoming World Cup. England’s boss, Fabio Capello, has told him several times that he could only have chances to play if he performed at a higher level. The MLS is somewhat of an irrelevant football -aka soccer- league. Despite their efforts, the US can’t keep bringing in finger food to their guests. At some point, they will get sick.
"Ah yeah...whatever".
In the meantime, Beckham and angry Galaxy fans might want to ignore each other.
Turbulence slams Continental jet, at least 26 hurt
(AP)
MIAMI – A Continental Airlines jet carrying 179 people from Brazil to Texas hit severe turbulence over the Atlantic early Monday, injuring at least 26 — including four seriously — and forcing an emergency landing in Miami, officials said.
One passenger said he felt Continental Flight 128 drop without warning while flight attendants were in the aisles. Some were thrown against the roof.
Houston-based Continental said there were 168 people and 11 crew on the Boeing 767. The airline released a statement that said the fasten seat belt sign was illuminated at the time and that about 28 passengers were treated in Miami.
Miami-Dade Fire Rescue spokesman Elkin Sierra said four people were seriously injured and another 22 had bumps and bruises. A total of 14 people were taken to hospitals.
The plane was on an overnight flight from Rio de Janeiro to Houston. Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said the turbulence struck about halfway between Puerto Rico and Grand Turk island, north of the Dominican Republic.
The plane reported hitting severe turbulence at 4:30 a.m. and landed safely at 5:30 a.m, at Miami International Airport, Bergen said.
Passenger Fabio Ottolini of Houston said it was about six hours into the flight when he felt the aircraft suddenly drop.
“People didn’t have time to do anything,” he said.
Ottolini said flight attendants were serving items in the aisles when the turbulence hit. He said some flight attendants were thrown against the roof of the cabin and may have been among those injured.
Carolina Portella, 18, was on the flight and headed to college in San Francisco. She said the plane hit a little turbulence and then suddenly dropped severely. The oxygen masks popped out.
“The plane just dropped,” she said. “I just grabbed the hand of the person next to me and held on.”
The rest of the flight, she said, was smooth.
Rio de Janeiro was also the departure airport for Air France Flight 447, which crashed amid thunderstorms June 1 in the mid-Atlantic more than 900 miles off Brazil’s northeastern coast, killing all 228 people on board.
The FAA’s Bergen cautioned against drawing any parallels and said the cause and severity of the turbulence in the Continental case was still being investigated. “I wouldn’t draw any conclusions and comparisons,” Bergen said.
Airport officials say some passengers were going on to Houston on various Continental flights about midday. He did not know when the remaining passengers would be expected to arrive in Houston.
(Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090803/ap_on_re_us/us_flight_diverted_miami)
Top Party Schools 2009 – Majoring in “Keggering” Across America
The Princeton Review ’s top party school list for 2009 is out, and what a surprise was to see Penn State leading America’s top partying schools. Now, top Disputant contributors, as former UCLA undergrad and postgrad students, were surprised to see their beloved Joe Bruin escape the boozefest ranking. Not that is a good thing to be listed on America’s most BYOB Universities, but facts are facts, and Westwood residents do have a good time.
Thanks to the L.A. Times for sharing their video of UCLA’s Undie Run 2009. Here at the office we sure feel old.
Rarity of the day: Bee’s knees?
Meaning
Excellent – the highest quality.
Origin
Hard to tell if we need an etymologist or an entomologist for this one.
Bees carry pollen back to the hive in sacks on their legs. It is tempting to explain this phrase as alluding to the concentrated goodness to be found around the bee’s knee. There’s no evidence for this explanation though. It is sometimes said to be a corruption of ‘business’, but there’s no evidence to support that either.
Nor is there any connection with another phrase, ‘a bee’s knee’. In the 18th century this was used as a synonym for smallness, but has since disappeared from the language:
Mrs. Townley Ward - Letters, June 1797 in N. & Q. “It cannot be as big as a bee’s knee.”
There’s no definitive origin for ‘the bee’s knees’, but it appears to have been coined in 1920s America. The first printed reference to it I can find is in the Ohio newspaper The Newark Advocate, April 1922, under the heading ‘What Does It Mean?’:
“That’s what you wonder when you hear a flapper chatter in typical flapper language. ‘Apple Knocker,’ for instance. And ‘Bees Knees.’ That’s flapper talk. This lingo will be explained in the woman’s page under the head of Flapper Dictionary.” [an 'apple knocker' is a rustic]
Clearly the phrase must have been new then for the paper to plan to take the trouble to define it. Disappointingly, they didn’t follow up on their promise and ‘the lingo’ wasn’t subsequently explained. Several U.S. newspapers did feature lists of phrases under ‘Flapper Dictionary’ headings. Although ‘bee’s knees’ isn’t featured, they do show the time as being a period of quirky linguistic coinage. For example, from one such Flapper Dictionary:
- Kluck – dumb person.
- Dumb kluck – worse than a kluck.
- Pollywoppus – meaningless stuff.
- Fly-paper – a guy who sticks around.
There’s no profound reason to relate bees and knees other than the jaunty-sounding rhyme. In the 1920s it was fashionable to devise nonsense terms for excellence – ‘the snake’s hips’, ‘the kipper’s knickers”, ‘the cat’s pyjamas’, ‘the sardine’s whiskers’ etc. Of these, the bee’s knees and the cat’s pyjamas are the only ones that have stood the test of time. More recently, we see the same thing – the ‘dog’s bollocks‘.
(Note: knickers weren’t underwear then – even for kippers. At least, one would hope not – the edition of the Newark Advocate above also had the headline ‘Bride Wears Knickers To Wedding’.)
One possible connection between the phrase and an actual bee relates to Bee Jackson. Ms. Jackson was a dancer in 1920s New York and is credited with introducing the dance to Broadway in February, 1924, when she appeared at the Silver Slipper nightclub. She went on to become the World Champion Charleston dancer and was quite celebrated at the time.
It’s not beyond the bounds of possibility that the expression was coined in reference to her (and her very active knees).
Whatever the derivation, the 1920s date look’s right – so long as we ignore this bizarre cartoon. It is from the May 5th 1914 edition of the Fort Wayne Sentinel. Make of it what you will.
(Source: http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/the-bees-knees.html)
California hopes to end IOUs with budget agreement
(Associated Press, Yahoo!News)
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – California may soon be able to stop printing IOUs now that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders have agreed on a compromise plan to close the state’s $26 billion shortfall without tax increases.
The governor and lawmakers announced the compromise late Monday, nearly three weeks after the state began issuing pay-you-later warrants to thousands of state contractors and vendors. Many recipients had trouble finding someone to take them after several major banks stopped accepting IOUs.
The four legislative leaders will begin selling the plan to other lawmakers Tuesday as the best way to get the state back on firm financial ground and prevent further sinking of the state’s credit rating, already the lowest in the nation. A contentious vote is expected Thursday.
The agreement composed of cuts, borrowing and fund shifts was not expected to resolve California’s financial problems as the economy continues to struggle and tax revenue lags far behind the level of the boom years.
“This is, of course, one of the most difficult economic times to face our state since the Great Depression, so none of these were easy choices,” said Assembly Minority Leader Sam Blakeslee, R-San Luis Obispo. “I think we selected a path which will lead the state back to the point where we will be strong.”
Personal income fell this year in California for the first time in 70 years, leading to a 34 percent plunge in income tax revenue during the first half of the year.
The $26.3 billion shortfall amounts to nearly 30 percent of the state’s general fund, the account that pays for day-to-day state services. The sheer size of the deficit meant that any effort to balance the state’s books would be felt throughout the state, from college students seeing a sharp increase in fees to local police and fire departments that face cuts as the state takes about $4 billion from city and county governments.
Monday’s agreement reduced general fund spending from $92 billion to $88 billion, taking California back to 2005 levels.
The compromise includes billions in cuts to education, health care, prisons, welfare and other programs. The rest of the deficit will be made up by a combination of borrowing from local governments, shifting money from other government accounts and accelerating the collection of certain taxes.
The cuts include $6 billion to K-12 schools and community colleges. Nearly $3 billion will be cut from the California State University and University of California systems, while the state prison system will be cut by $1.2 billion.
Medi-Cal, the state’s health program for the poor, will be cut by $1.3 billion.
Welfare, in-home support services and a health care program for low-income children also would suffer cuts but would not be eliminated as Schwarzenegger had originally proposed.
In exchange, the budget includes some of the reforms to social programs Schwarzenegger desired, including changing the duration that welfare recipients can continuously receive benefits.
Schwarzenegger also succeeded in having a proposal to expand oil drilling off the Southern California coast included in the budget agreement.
Under that plan, drilling would be allowed from an existing rig off the Santa Barbara coast, generating about $1.8 billion in revenue over time. The proposal, opposed by many conservation groups, would be the state’s first new offshore oil project in more than 40 years.
The governor will get authority to sell some state assets, such as the Orange County Fairgrounds and state office buildings. He initially proposed selling high-profile properties such as San Quentin State Prison and the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, but those sites were not included in the agreement.
Some state parks also will have to close, but the majority of the 220 initially scheduled to be shut down will remain open.
“This is a sober time because there isn’t a lot of good news in this budget,” said Senate Majority Leader Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento. “We have cut in many areas that matter to real people but I think we have done so responsibly.”
Small business owner Linda Rhodes praised Schwarzenegger for holding out for a budget that didn’t raise her taxes, even though her business is staying afloat with state-issued IOUs.
“I do not want them to raise taxes. I will take vouchers over them raising our taxes,” said the owner of Rhodes Consolidated Inc. in Galt, 30 miles south of Sacramento.
The family firm has just four employees: Rhodes, her husband, Fred, and their two adult daughters. It supplies state agencies with plumbing and electrical equipment like air conditioners, along with other hardware.
Vendors were not the only ones affected by the cash crisis.
"We will be fine", explains T-800.
Some 200,000 state government employees already have been ordered to take three days off a month without pay, the equivalent of a 14 percent pay cut. Those furloughs will continue through next June, shutting many government offices for three Fridays a month.
The leader of the largest state employees union declared the furloughs “just plain wrong,” and criticized Schwarzenegger and lawmakers for refusing to include tobacco and oil taxes in the plan.
“We’re furious about the failed leadership in Sacramento,” said Yvonne Walker, president of the Service Employees International Union Local 1000. “Their decision shows a lack of political courage to stand up to corporate giants and wealthy special interests.”
Capitol Police shoot, kill man near Capitol campus
(CNN)
Washington.- U.S. Capitol Police shot and killed a man Wednesday afternoon, near the Capitol campus, a Capitol Hill Police spokeswoman said.
After Capitol Police stopped him for a routine traffic stop, the unidentified man fled in his vehicle, spokeswoman Kimberly Schneider said.
As he drove away, the man struck an officer, who was injured, she said.
The man then drove the wrong way down a one-way street. At some point, he produced a weapon and ignored police commands to drop it, according to Schneider.
Police then shot the suspect, killing him, she said.
Visit CNN.com for more details.
The shooting, which occurred shortly after 5 p.m., drew emergency vehicles to the area around the
Capitol building and caused police to temporarily seal some entrances to the complex.
An e-mail from Capitol police to all staff members of the House of Representatives said the incident was “isolated” and was “unrelated to the security of the Capitol Complex.”
“All buildings are open under normal operations.”
Disclaimer statement from the Editor
All through July, The Disputant will be posting breaking news and events that we consider relevant to the day to day routine. The Disputant is still recruiting contributors and writers that will make this blog an important tool for those who crave information, which will lead to knowledge.
Loads of planning and implementing still.
All articles and news posted before August 1st are taken from other websites and sources. We are getting familiar with the system and building our database.
We apologize for any confusion that the posting of external articles may have caused.
The Editor.
Getty Center, college evacuates due to L.A. fire
(Los Angeles, AP)
The world-famous Getty Center art complex and nearby Mount St. Mary’s College were evacuated Wednesday as a fire burned in thick brush on the steep slopes of the Santa Monica Mountains.
The fire erupted at 12:44 p.m. and quickly grew to 80 acres above parking facilities for the Getty, which has a collection ranging from European paintings to illuminated manuscripts and photographs, including works by Claude Monet and Vincent Van Gogh.
About 350 firefighters worked on rugged slopes and seven helicopters pounded flames with repeated water drops. Some of the helicopters were able to reload from nearby Stone Canyon Reservoir.
Fire Chief Douglas Barry said the fire began about three-quarters of a mile from the Getty and was moving away to the east as winds blew out of the west. The country club community of Mountaingate was notified of potential evacuations, but officials were optimistic.
“We feel very confident we’ll have this fire under control very shortly,” Barry said.
The fire was 20 percent contained shortly after 5 p.m. and officials expected increasingly favorable conditions because of rising humidity.
The origin of the blaze was not known, said Battalion Chief Patrick Butler.
About 800 employees and 1,600 visitors to the J. Paul Getty Museum and other parts of the hilltop complex were shuttled to the center’s south building as a precaution, Getty Center spokesman Ron Hartwig said.
A tram took people down the hill to parking lots so they could drive out the south gate, he said.
The center would be closed for the rest of the day, he said.
Scary day for SoCalifornians.
The Getty’s ventilation systems also were shut down to prevent smoke from damaging the priceless artwork, he said.
“The Getty Center was built with a great deal of safeguard,” Hartwig said. “You can never be overly confident, but we’re certainly prepared to handle fires in this area.”
To the north, Mount St. Mary’s College was evacuated as a precaution even though the fire was a mile away and a canyon lay between it and the school, spokeswoman Sarah Scopio said.
College was not in session but 100 staff members were being evacuated along with about 200 other people attending a conference, Scopio said.
The school used campus shuttles to take them out until the all-clear was given, Scopio said.
“Right now the fire is not threatening the college directly,” she said.
City Fire Department spokesman Erik Scott said residents of the area also were being urged to leave, but no homes were immediately threatened.
The Getty and Mount St. Mary’s are prominent landmarks on the rugged mountains above Los Angeles’ tony western neighborhoods.
The 100-acre blaze in October burned up to the backyard patios of multimillion-dollar homes before it was extinguished seven hours later.
The Getty Center opened in 1997 on ridges above Interstate 405, which runs through the Sepulveda Pass. It is world-famous for its gardens, conservation and research work and its museum, which holds a number of famous works, including Vincent Van Gogh’s painting “Irises.”
Mount St. Mary’s campus was damaged by the disastrous Bel Air-Brentwood wildfire of November 1961, which destroyed 484 homes and 21 other buildings.
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