All Global News on One Page

Introducing Hickory, the 135th Best in Show winner at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show and arguably the most famous Scottish Deerhound in the world. Hickory has won over the hearts of Americans after beating out 2,500 other eager canine contestants.
Foxcliffe Hickory Wind (better known as Hickory) is five years old, which, in the dog show world, makes her no spring chicken, but as an impressive and fierce competitor, Hickory proved that age is nothing but a number. And with age comes Grace. As the name implies, the Scottish Deerhound hails from Scotland! If you’re not familiar with the breed, imagine a greyhound wearing a wiry furry

The Dartmouth College Republicans and the Dartmouth College Democrats have teamed up to fight a New Hampshire bill that seeks to disenfranchise students who attend college outside of their hometown. The bill, sponsored by Gregory Sorg (R-Grafton) specifically prohibits students attending “institutions of higher learning” from acquiring residency for voting purposes in their college community unless they lived there prior to matriculating.
The new speaker of the House, William O’Brien (R-Mont Vernon) made public comments supporting the bill. He explained that he does not think the constitution allows for anyone to have “instantaneous” residence in the state or a particular community. He continued, “That’s what kids

Strangely enough, the one thing that most people know about giving to nonprofits is wrong. Most people believe that the percentage one nonprofit spends on administration costs is an indication of how effective they are.
Unfortunately, this percentage is often more a result of accounting practices than of the efficiency of the nonprofit. To understand how this works, take the recent controversy over the 100,000 misprinted shirts the NFL donated to World Vision.
In their press release, World Vision states that the 100,000 pieces of donated clothing are valued at

Less than two weeks ago, the Green Bay Packers — the only fan-owned, non-profit franchise in major American sports — won the Super Bowl, bringing the Lombardi trophy back to Wisconsin. But now, past and present members of the “People’s Team” are girding up for one more fight and this time, it’s against their own Governor, Scott Walker.
Walker, after the Super Bowl victory, bathed himself sensuously in the team’s triumph, declaring at a public ceremony that February was now Packers Month. He oozed praise for the franchise named in honor of the state’s packing workers. But just days later, the Governor offered cutbacks, contempt, and even the threat of violence for actual state workers.
Walker has unveiled plans to strip all public workers of collective bargaining rights and dramatically slash the wages and health benefits of every nurse, teacher and state

Prague. Venice. Rome.

The prime example of a bubble that really hurt was the parabolic ascent of the NASDAQ Composite Index from a rational level of 2200 in early 1999 to the rediculously irrational 5000 15 months later. That was vertical mania by investors out of their mind.-
By the end of 2002 the value of these mostly technology issues had collapsed in panic selling that was more extreme than the buying.That was a bubble worth trillions popping.
So, too was the mania in housing, where all reasonable expectations were obliterated by leverage upon leverage in mortgage-backed securities and derivative contracts.
This bubble was a systematic and dangerous departure from economic fundamentals into the chaos of evaporating home prices.. We are still suffering 4 years later from that extinguishment of household wealth. A massive damaging loss for ordinary Americans quite soon after the Nasdaq stock market bubble.
Get the idea? Bubbles are serious when they are massive.The rule for spotting bubbles before they destroy you, says Harvard economist Ken Rogoff is to “look for large rapid surges in leverage and asset prices, surges that can suddenly implode if confidence fades.”
By this measure, then, the deterioration in Treasury bond prices, in tax-free muni bond prices and fright from the anxiety about some European sovereign bonds, like Greece and Portugal, are more signs of a rationally proceeding bear market than a panicky

“So be it,” House Speaker John Boehner said at a briefing yesterday, dismissing job losses as collateral damage in the funding proposal currently before the House of Representatives. Today the House continues to debate the proposed, draconian cuts in critical programs for children for this fiscal year. Under no circumstances should children be collateral damage in a rush to cut the budget and reduce the deficit. The House Republican proposal is short sighted, will do little to balance the federal budget, will cut life and hope giving supports and will have a devastating impact not only on our children but our nation’s future ability to compete in the world

A lot of people got very worked up last year over the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision. In it, the Court decided that corporations were just like regular people and thus deserved the right of free speech. The more I read the news these days, the more I think those justices might be on to something.
Take for instance the latest news that the Entergy’s Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant is still leaking. This has been an ongoing issue with the plant, one that the company initially

This is the first, and hopefully last article I’ll be writing about Mr. Bieber that doesn’t involve his present and future film projects. I have nothing against the kid, but I have no more business discussing Bieber’s worth as a musician than I do discussing LeBron James’s first year on the Miami Heat. But there is much huffing and/or puffing about released excerpts of his Rolling Stone interview, including one bit that deserves a bit of

Borders revealed their ebook self-publishing platform, BookBrewer, touting it as the place where authors can get started in this world of digital publishing. Aside from the company’s serious financial trouble casting into doubt whether or not anyone would actually ever see royalty payments from them until cleared, years later, through a Bankruptcy Court; this is the worst major deal being offered to writers.
The deal looks simple: you provide content, they’ll put the book up through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, the iBookstore and Borders’ own Kobobooks — as other services will do. Where they get really nasty is in offering their “package” for publishing. The author will pay $89.99 for each book, plus 25% of the take from any

This week marks the release of Joyce Carol Oates’ memoir A Widow’s Story. However, the prolific author herself shies away from categorizing it as such. I had the opportunity to ask her a few questions about the book and her husbands, Ray Smith and Charlie Gross.
Louise McCready: You’ve called this memoir a “pilgrimage.” Can you elaborate on that?

Joyce Carol Oates: The memoir was assembled rather than “written,” as it is comprised of journal entries from Feb. 11, 2008

On her inspiring e-zine, The Prosperous Writer, Christina Katz has a great post this week about the need for writers to be enterprising. Christina defines enterprising as “ready to undertake projects of importance or difficulty or characterized by great imagination or initiative.”
For her, it’s about undertaking projects that will change you and cause you to grow. It’s about getting inspired. And it’s definitely not about being passive, timid or cautious.
Especially in today’s economy, freelancing is an inherently unstable

All-Star Superman
2011
75 minutes
rated PG (violence, action, sensuality, language, and brief innuendo)
Available from WHV on February 22nd on DVD, Blu Ray, iTunes, and OnDemand
by Scott Mendelson
If you ask most casual comic book fans to name their favorite Superman story, they are likely to choose one of the countless origin stories (A Superman For All Seasons, Superman: Birthright, Superman: Red Son, etc) or the handful of stories that deal with ‘the end of Superman’ (The Death of Superman, Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?, etc). Frank Miller would tell you that it’s because Superman is such a godlike character, that the only story worth telling is his origin, since most other tales inevitably deal with how a god deals with the puny problems of mankind. But, without knocking many of the fine stories that take place in the middle of Superman’s career (Superman: Peace On Earth, Lost Souls, etc), the character is such a primal piece of American myth-making that it makes sense that the most powerful narratives would be the two distinctive Campellian archetypes: the hero’s journey and the old man coming to terms with death. All-Star Superman is a solid example of the latter, even if it loses much of the impact of the original source material.
A token amount of plot: Superman (James Denton) is

The pillars of American middle classdom keep tumbling down. Supports have been giving out like trees in an empty forest. Few seem to hear the thud. The quiet crash of supports is lost in a din of partisan bickering, celebrity and sports

Events every day in every corner of the world remind us that America’s economic future and our ability to compete globally demand that we wake up to this reality: we must produce and consume energy in a fundamentally different way than ever before. President Obama’s call in the State of the Union address for a new goal that 80 percent of our electricity must come from clean energy sources by 2035 is absolutely achievable, but not without changes in policy, in our habits, in our very way of thinking about energy.
The stakes are high with increasing pressure to spark economic growth, wean the U.S. off its dependence on foreign oil, and comply with federal air quality standards. As Washington debates a path forward, the states are where we should be looking for viable

I Am Pure Joy
Transforming a negative experience into Joy
I had the honor of attending Mariska Hargitay’s Joyful Heart Foundation annual celebration last week. This organization that Mariska started works to heal, educate and empower victims of sexual assault, domestic violence and child abuse. They also have a strong focus to shed light into the darkness that surrounds these issues.
I had an even greater honor in that my company, AZIAM, partnered with Joyful Heart by creating a “Wife Lover” tank top with the words, “I Am Pure Joy” printed center front. AZIAM is donating 10 percent of all sales of this shirt to the Joyful Heart Foundation.
The evening was

“Would you rather be buried or cremated?” is a question some of us are asked more frequently than “Want to get it on?” so I’ve been reflecting on it. The problem was less about the how than the what. The truth is I want to stick around, which isn’t an option. The closest one gets is being the last one standing on “American Idol.”
In a recent special, Barbara Walters and other A-listers who’d had open heart surgery — David Letterman, Charlie Rose, Bill Clinton and Regis Philbin — admitted the experience had forced them to confront their mortality and recognize that the good table reserved for them will one day be on the other side, where Elaine Kaufman has probably edged out

We are a long wink of an eye from the kickoff of the Apocalypse, and so far, I must say, “It’s not so bad.” Sure, the headlines are unnerving. Civil is not resting well. Circulation problems are stifling every system. Elections

“All around us, the past is vanishing” reads a statement from Heritage Preservation: The National Institute for Conservation. On its website, the organization which works to preserve art and artifacts, informs that a gross neglect of collectibles is a conundrum that doesn’t just affect the obvious suspects like the many bronze and marble statues decaying in town squares as a result of acid rain and other neglect. But that because of a lack of awareness and education about proper storage and the effects of temperature and light, affected also are family photos and heirlooms rotting away in garages and attics, as well as valuable books, paintings and prints housed in outdated repositories and private collections.
An appreciation for visual art tends to be a matter of the heart — purchasing because one feels a direct connection to an object they deem special. Yet if one is to cherish a work of art for years to come, the process of long-term preservation can quickly become a tricky game.
In the first comprehensive study ever done, conducted in 2004-05, Heritage Preservation surveyed 30,000 organizations — archives, historical societies, libraries, museums, research collections and archaeological repositories–finding that 29% of collecting institutions have no environmental controls to protect collections from the damaging effects of temperature, humidity and light, that 53% of all collecting institutions have had their collections damaged by moisture, and that 59% have had their collections damaged by light.
The figures are alarming on their

In today’s world of rapid climate change, mass pollution and ever-increasing diminishment of species, thankfully there are still remarkable individuals out there on the front lines who somehow manage to see the light at the end of the dismal tunnel of despair and destruction. Through their extraordinary work and personal example, they are able to offer tangible evidence of genuine hope for the future. Marine biologist, researcher, lecturer, ocean ambassador and founder of several initiatives far too numerous to list in one breath, Dr. Wallace

Pictured: Two sides of Betsey Johnson at NYFW: the Black Tag line on left, and the Pink Patch line on right, plus Betsey’s new Steve Madden Lizzzy-L booties (photo courtesy of Steve Madden, photo credit: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images.)
Betsey Johnson’s eccentric style was in full force at New York Fashion Week with her playful and sometimes over-the-top runway show. Think 1920s silent star Louise Brooks on acid, and that’s a bit how Betsey Johnson’s models looked in either their black or blonde blunt, bob-styled wigs. The styles ran the gamut from whimsical prints and flowery hippy chick dresses to loud animal prints, and poppy fabric flowers worn on one shoulder. Betsey showed two lines today at NYFW, a higher-priced line called her “Black Tag” line (worn by the models in the black wigs) and her new, lower-priced recessionista style “Pink Patch ” line (worn by the models in the blonde wigs.) I’m not sure about the looks from the “Black Tag”