Final curtain for the kimbo show

SUNRISE, Fla. – The legend of Kimbo Slice was built by beating bums in boat yards and back alleys not far from here. It came crashing down Saturday courtesy of a quick punch from a pink-haired journeyman giving up two inches in height, four in reach and 30 pounds in muscle and might.

One simple shot sent Slice to the canvas and from there some guy named Seth Petruzelli needed just 12 punches and 14 seconds to put an end (we hope) to one of the great sporting charades of all time.

It was just a matter of time before Kimbo got exposed. He was little more than a character out of central casting, a bunch of addictive YouTube videos and a lot of insane hype by CBS, which made him a headliner before he made himself a fighter.

He was the Kimbo the Cash Machine, everyone lining up to exploit the lie that this was the baddest man on earth as long as he could walk through hand-picked tomato cans.

Only this time his match with 44-year-old Ken Shamrock, who hadn’t won a fight in over four years, fell apart when Shamrock cut his eye in a light training session Saturday and was deemed unfit to fight by state officials.

In the scramble to find a suitable replacement that Slice couldn’t possibly lose to, EliteXC considered Shamrock’s brother, Frank, who was there to be CBS’s color commentator, hadn’t fought lately due to a broken arm and would have given up around 45 pounds. Despite all this, Frank likely would have submitted Kimbo in the first round.

When that matchup couldn’t happen (EliteXC said state officials wouldn’t clear him, Frank said they did but CBS blocked it), EliteXC promoters turned to Petruzelli. The Fort Myers, Fla., native had been dumped by the big-league UFC, was just 2-2 since 2004, had recently taken a year off to start a business, weighed just 205 (to Kimbo’s 235) and was so lightly regarded he was competing in the non-televised undercard.
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Despite the oft-repeated propaganda that Slice was a man of “courage” for taking a fight with this smaller guy who was likely to stand and trade punches anyway, EliteXC paid Kimbo a cash bonus just to get him to step into the cage.

“We made it up to him,” said Jeremy Lappen, EliteXC’s head of fight operations. He wouldn’t disclose the amount.

For the myth of Slice, the matchup may not be a 44-year-old on a losing streak or someone from the broadcast booth, but really, what was the worst thing that could happen?

“It didn’t feel too flush,” Petruzelli said of the first punch that apparently didn’t even need to land squarely to fell Kimbo.

Make no mistake – or listen to the EliteXC spin – this was a disaster for Slice and the company. “This is MMA, all the best have lost,” said Lappen. True, but Kimbo wasn’t defeated by a crafty Brazilian jiu-jitsu master. He wasn’t caught in a submission by an experienced wrestler. He didn’t lose a decision after a three-round brawl.

Those would be understandable considering his novice status.

Kimbo was KTFO by a guy he absolutely towered over yet was willing to bang with him anyway. Not that Kimbo did any banging. Slice charged him (“He was like a truck,” Petruzelli said) but he never actually landed a punch.

In the end, Kimbo’s hand speed, defense and chin proved incapable against even an average mixed martial artist. Which was pretty much what every hardcore fan had predicted.

Not that CBS didn’t keep up with the Slice willing to fight, “anyone, anywhere, at anytime.” This was a 100 percent true statement if “anyone, anywhere, at anytime” means “no one any good, anywhere, ever.”

Slice seemed stunned and a bit saddened at the turn of events. After it was over, he initially began wrestling the referee. Whether that was a protest for the decision or because he was dazed isn’t certain. Then he walked around the cage complaining to fans about the stoppage.

Later he walked out on his CBS interview (“Kimbo?” asked a stunned Gus Johnson), although not before inviting America to an after party at a local nightclub. Then he showed up 45 minutes late for the main press conference, where he gave a quick statement and bailed.

“I got my first black eye,” he laughed. He later turned to Petruzelli and joked, “You knocked me out in front of my family; that’s (expletive) up.”

Through it all Slice remained the only likable character of this foolish farce. He wasn’t the one claiming he was the best in the world. He was just a working-class dude who figured out how to beat the system and cash in on his 15 minutes of fleeting fame.

He’s got kids to feed and bills to pay and right to the end, he was milking bonuses out of the promotion, a one-time homeless man holding the Tiffany Network’s prime-time programming hostage. Only in America.

He was the grand actor in the middle of a three-ring circus, a tall tale that would eventually come tumbling down under the bright glare of reality.

Where Slice goes from here is anyone’s guess. He can’t rebuild his reputation without stepping up in competition from the guy who just beat him in seconds. He can’t headline a card and have anyone believe he’s legit. He can’t claim he, “just got caught” when it wasn’t some wild, roundhouse right or sneaky arm-bar that did him in.

The truth was always coming for Kimbo. Saturday it arrived sooner rather than later, the money train grinding to a halt courtesy of a smaller, less heralded fighter that no one can claim is some elite champion.

No, this was it. It’ll never be the same, not for the fighter and not, perhaps, for his entire promotion that just lost its signature star on top of the $58 million it’s burned the past two years.

Afterward, EliteXC execs tried to paint a bright future but admitted they needed a drink. Lower-level employees used gallows humor about finding new jobs.

Kimbo just said he was going home to see his kids.

In 14 seconds flat, the whole mirage was gone.

Bailout bill gains momentum on House floor

WASHINGTON - After a week of tumult, an unprecedented government bailout of the financial industry gained ground in the House on Friday and leaders in both political parties expressed optimism the $700 billion measure would clear Congress by day's end for President Bush's signature.

With the election-year economy showing fresh signs of weakness on several fronts, the measure advanced past a key hurdle on a 223-205 vote.

An Associated Press tally showed 29 lawmakers who sent an earlier bailout bill to unexpected defeat on Monday had changed their minds and would vote in favor of the revised legislation, far more than the dozen needed. Officials said changes made to the measure had sparked a far smaller number of defections among previous supporters.

"I'm optimistic about today. We're not going to take anything for granted but it's time to act," said House Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio.

"I think it will pass," agreed Rep. Jim Clyburn, the chief Democratic vote-counter, as debate unfolded in the House chamber.

On Wall Street, stocks surged ahead of the vote as the Dow Jones industrial averate rose nearly 150 points.

The Senate passed the measure earlier in the week on a bipartisan vote of 74-25, and Bush has repeatedly urged Congress to send the bailout to him swiftly to prevent even further economic deterioration.

"No matter what we do or what we pass, there are still tough times out there. People are mad — I'm mad," said Republican Rep. J. Gresham Barrett of South Carolina, who opposed the measure the first time it came to a vote. Now, he said, "We have to act. We have to act now."

Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., another convert, said, "I have decided that the cost of doing nothing is greater than the cost of doing something."

Critics were unrelenting.

"How can we have capitalism on the way up and socialism on the way down," said Rep. Jeb Hensarling of Texas, a leader among conservative Republicans who oppose the central thrust of the legislation — an unprecedented federal intervention into the private capital markets.

It was little more than two weeks ago that Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke concluded that the economy was in such danger that a massive government intervention in the private markets was essential.

The core of the plan remains little changed from its inception — the Treasury Department would have $700 billion at its disposal to purchase bad mortage-related securities that are weighing down the balance sheets of institutions that hold them. The flow of credit has slowed, in some cases drying up, threatening the ability of businesses to conduct routine operations or expand.

At the same time, lawmakers have dramatically changed the measure, insisting on greater congressional supervision over the $700 billion, taking measures to protect taxpayers, and insisting on steps to crack down on so-called "golden parachutes" that go to corporate executives whose companies fail.

Earlier in the week, the legislation was altered to expand the federal insurance program for individual bank deposits, and the Securities and Exchange Commission took steps to ease the impact of the questionable mortgage-backed securities on financial institutions.

In the moments before the vote, Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, pledged "serious surgery" next year to address the underlying causes of the crisis.

If anything, the economic news added to the sense of urgency.

The Labor Department said initial claims for jobless benefits had increased last week to the highest level since the gloomy days after the 2001 terror attacks. Employers slashed 159,000 jobs from their payrolls, the most in five years. That came on top of Thursday's Commerce Department report that factory orders in August plunged by 4 percent.

Typifying arguments the problem no longer is just a Wall Street issue but also one for Main Street, lawmakers from California and Florida said their state governments were beginning to experience trouble borrowing funds for their own operations.

One month before election day, the drama unfolded in an intensely political atmosphere.

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, a supporter of the bill, made calls to members of the Congressional Black Caucus, who publicly credited him with changing their minds.

Rep. Elijah Cummings and Donna Edwards, both Maryland Democrats, were among them. They said Obama had pledged if he wins the White House that he would help homeowners facing foreclosure on their mortgages. He also pledged to support changes in the bankruptcy law to make it less burdensome on consumers.

"It's not too often you get the future president telling you that his priority matches your priority," said Cummings.

Obama's rival, Sen. John McCain, who announced a brief suspension in his campaign more than a week ago to try and help solve the financial crisis, made calls to Republicans. His impact was not immediately clear.

Republican Rep. Sue Myrick of North Carolina, who said she was switching her vote to favor the measure, said of McCain: "They told me he was going to call me. He didn't."

Looking ahead to election day, she added, "I may lose this race over this vote, but that's OK with me. This is the right vote for the country."

The White House issued the latest in a series of grim warnings of the risks of defeat. "If the financial markets fail to function, American families will face great difficulty in getting loans to purchase a home, buy a family car or finance a child's education," it said in a written statement.

The vote on Monday staggered the congressional leadership and contributed to the largest one-day stock market drop in history, 778 points as measured by the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

Across the Capitol, Senate leaders reacted quickly, deciding to sweeten the bill with a series of popular tax breaks as well as spending on rural schools and disaster aid. They also grafted on a bill to expand mental health coverage under private insurance plans.

At the same time, the change in federal deposit insurance and the action by the SEC on an obscure accounting rule helped produce a steady trickle of converts.

Finals

Finals na!waaa!Next week will be our finals. Di pa ako naka pag study!I really need to study but the thing is, I can’t seem to open my notes, books and other materials that I can use for study. I’m so lazy when it comes to studying , my mind tends to wonder off somewhere when I try to study.

Clearance! I need to finish my clearance before exams so that I can take the exam. Dalawa pa lang sign ko. I havenn’t finished my requirements yet. Oh well, After the exam will be our sem break. Yehey! No more classes! I could stay home all day. Till here.

Birthday

Today is the birthday of my two friends!


Gerardo Dado
&
Kenneth Caayon

Happy birthday guys!

Wish you all the best!


Coming home from school!God!I'm so tired!Oh well!Malapit na rin ang sem break!WEEE!
I'm so excited for our sem break!no more school for two weeks!

I plan to stay home and sit beside the computer!BUAHAHHAAHHA!I want to earn kasi i need money to buy myself a PSP!WHOAAA!well anyways, I'll be able to update my blog more frequently now. So keep in touch guys. till here.

How Much is $700 Billion?

The short answer: a lot. The long answer: depends on how you look at it.

Whatever your viewpoint, here's how $700 billion - the figure inked in the initial dead-in-the-water government bailout bill for Wall Street - compares to other vast sums.

NASA in fiscal year 2009 will launch several missions into space and pay for hundreds of people to operate a host of space telescopes and even remote robots on Mars and run a PR and media department that puts most large corporations to shame. The agency's budget: $17.6 billion, or 2.5 percent of the bailout sum.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has an annual budget of $6.06 billion to support research and education on astronomy, chemistry, materials science, computing, engineering, earth sciences, nanoscience and physics (among others) at more than 1,900 universities and institutions across the United States.

You have to turn to much bigger initiatives, like war and defense, to get beyond this chump change and approach the bailout figure.

From 2003 through the end of fiscal year 2009, Congress has appropriated $606 billion for military operations and other activities associated with the war in Iraq, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). The entire military budget for fiscal 2008 is $481.4 billion.

Social Security is a $608 billion annual program.

Many analysts fear the bailout because the cost must ultimately be borne by taxpayers.

Based on the U.S. Census Bureau's estimate of the current population of about 305 million people, each person would have to pay $2,300 to fund the $700,000,000,000. If each American (including children) paid a dollar a day, it would take more than six years to pay the money in full. One might argue, however, that this $700 billion would be a modest splash in the bucket of national debt, which already stands at well over $9 trillion (which means you already owe $31,642 each).

Even the New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez would lose sleep over all those zeroes. Currently the top paid major league baseball player, Rodriguez takes home $28 million a year, meaning it would take 25,000 A-Rod salaries to carry the $700 billion.

Nobody is rich enough to pay back this $700 billion by himself. In fact, the Forbes 400 richest list recently came out. It would take most of what these 400 people collectively have - a combined net worth of $1.57 trillion - to dig out of this mess.

Fading Shadows

Somewhere between Marble Madness and Myst there is Fading Shadows. In it, you must roll a sphere through a fantasy world, solving puzzles and avoiding hazards all the while. It's a fresh combination of tried-and-true gaming elements that, when it works, is very absorbing. Unfortunately, a few significant issues prevent Fading Shadows from being the magical adventure it could have been.

The game tells its tale through a series of images unaccompanied by any text or narration. The admittedly lovely artwork isn't capable of telling the story on its own, so if understanding why you're rolling an orb through a fantastical world is important to you, you'd best read the manual. Fortunately, understanding that the kingdom is on the brink of ruin and that all hope rests on a young boy whose coming was foretold ages ago isn't necessary to enjoy the game. Nor is wrapping your head around the idea that said boy's soul has been encased in a protective sphere that you must guide to the Castle of Heaven to save the land.

A tightly focused beam will help you maintain control of the orb in dangerous locations such as this one.

Don't expect to encounter Master Gardal or any of his vile minions on your journey, though. There are no enemies to contend with, nor friends to aid you on your quest. This is a pleasantly solitary adventure--just you, the orb, and the environmental puzzles and hazards provided by each of the game's levels. In navigating those hazards, you don't actually control the orb itself. Instead, you control a pillar of light that the orb follows around. You can focus the light into a beam of scorching intensity or diffuse it to a gentle glow. The more focused the beam, the stronger its pull on the orb will be; if the beam is fully focused, the orb will follow it directly and rapidly, while a less intense beam will exert a gentler pull on the orb, or no pull at all. It's an unusual control scheme that takes a little time to get used to, but it soon starts to feel natural. It comes into play in many of the game's puzzles and hazards, and it works well, most of the time.

There's a kind of rock-paper-scissors aspect to the game in that the orb can assume three different states. The orb begins in a metallic state, in which it can withstand even the most focused beam and can be made to jump with a blast from the beam. However, it rusts quickly in water. At any time, you can push the triangle button to turn the orb to glass. A glass orb will not rust in water but will be quickly shattered by a focused beam or a long fall. Lastly, there are platforms in many levels that will transmute the orb into wood, in which state it can float in water but will be burned if the beam of light is too focused. These simple elements provide the building blocks for the bulk of the game's puzzles, which are usually intricate enough to make you stop and think, but reasonable enough so as not to utterly frustrate you. It's about figuring out how the pieces fit together, and you can take as much time as you want to work out what needs to be done in a given level.

When all of Fading Shadows' best elements click, it becomes an adventure you can really lose yourself in. Unfortunately, the game doesn't always play to its strengths, and the frustrations pile on until they all but destroy the serene, compelling spell the game casts when it's at its best. Many of the game's levels involve a bit of tricky maneuvering, which is usually fine. It can be fun to roll the orb along a precarious precipice or make a daring leap. But on occasion the game presents you with diabolical platform-jumping sequences that require more speed and precision than the unorthodox control scheme allows for. These terrible sections feel out of place and are totally contrary to the relaxing vibe the game sometimes manages to establish. In the later stages, the game also starts placing more of an emphasis on timed elements--gates that stay open only for a brief period, platforms that quickly retract--and this, too, ruins the magic. This game works best when you can relax and lose yourself in it, so it's unfortunate that the pressure created by the timed aspects pulls you right out of it. Perhaps worst of all, the game's camera is a near-constant source of difficulty. You'll frequently have to wrestle with it to get it into a decent position, and there are times when, try as you might, you just can't get a good angle on the action, which can prevent you from spotting a vital environmental clue or send your orb plummeting to its demise.

Fading Shadows is no technical showpiece, but the visuals nonetheless have a certain beauty to them. The game's varied environments, ranging from crumbling villages to elegant castle interiors, create a melancholy mood of a fantasy world on the brink of ruin. The ethereal music suits the overall tone of the game quite well, but there are only a scant few tunes that repeat endlessly, so what starts out as soothing winds up being maddening.

What clever fiend could have come up with this diabolical pattern?

The game's 40 levels will take most players around five hours or so to complete. There's not much replay value here; there are hidden puzzle pieces to collect as you progress, but you can easily grab most of those on your first play-through, and all you get for collecting them is the ability to view three pieces of artwork. There's also a wireless multiplayer mode in which you and your opponent race through a level to see who can complete it first, but it's not very interesting. Perhaps if you could interact directly with your opponent, colliding your orb into your opponent's to slow it down, there may have been some excitement to it, but as it is, your opponent's orb appears only as a transparent ghost, so it's rather dull.

There's a good deal to appreciate in Fading Shadows. It's an unusual concept that, at its best, is compelling. Unfortunately, camera issues and poor level design choices pop up too frequently, upsetting the delicate balance of simple yet absorbing puzzle adventure gameplay that the game occasionally manages to achieve.

Banner

I got this idea to make this banner when i saw the pics of bob marley(my idol!)

I made this banner with PS CS3(Photoshop CS3). This banner is a photo manipulation. Photo manipulation is the application of image editing techniques to photographs in order to create an illusion or deception (in contrast to mere enhancement or correction), through analog or digital means. Its uses, cultural impact, and ethical concerns have made it a subject of interest beyond the technical process and skills involved.

Well hoped you like the banner