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Raam Emami, who looks like the Iranian Buddy Holly because of his glasses and cropped hair, is the lead singer of the punk band, Hypernova. His look may be influenced by Brooklyn, where he now lives. It’s a far cry from his hometown of Tehran, Iran.
Raam skipped back and forth between Tehran and Eugene, Ore., growing up. In Iran, his parents are a professor and a

An old song says, “Accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative.” The advice in this song is simple. Focus on the positive elements of your life. Don’t dwell on negative things that have happened. Is that the key to your future happiness?
A fascinating paper in the September, 2011 issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology by Erin O’Mara, James McNulty, and Benjamin Karney suggests that it isn’t as simple as

I was a smoker for 28 years. This month I celebrated one year smoke free. Even though I tried to quit many times before — probably 20 to 30 times in the last 10 years — this time felt different. This time it

Source:Associated Press
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WACO, Texas — Aaron Jones kicked a 37-yard field goal with 1:04 left and Baylor averted a monumental collapse to pull out a 50-48 season-opening victory over 14th-ranked TCU on Friday night.TCU, which had won an FBS-best 25 consecutive regular-season games, overcome a 47-23 deficit in the fourth quarter to briefly take the lead. New starting quarterback Casey Pachall threw three touchdowns passes in the rally and a fumble by Bears quarterback Robert Griffin set up a go-ahead 27-yard field goal by Ross Evans, who earlier missed twice from behind 40 yards.But Baylor, which hadn’t beaten a ranked team since 2004, then went 60 yards in 11 plays — including Griffin’s 15-yard catch from Kendall Wright on a third-and-10 — to set up Jones.The Frogs had one more chance, but Pachall’s last pass was intercepted by Mike Hicks and he ran the clock down to 2 seconds in Baylor’s most-anticipated opener in a long time.Griffin took one more snap, knelt down and immediately the field was swarming in gold as students and fans rushed out to celebrate. Many of those in purple sat in the stands staring out in shock.Wright threw for a score of his own before catching two of Robert Griffin’s career-high five touchdown passes as Baylor avoided another crushing loss to the defending Rose Bowl champion and its old Southwest Conference rival.This would have certainly hurt more than the Bears’ 45-10 loss in Fort Worth a year ago because Baylor was never in that game.Griffin hit 21 of 27 passes for 359 yards, with Wright catching 12 of them for 189 yards. Terrance Williams had six catches for 126 yards and two scores.This is not the same TCU team that was a BCS buster the last two seasons. There are missing pieces on a defense that finished the last three seasons No. 1 overall in the country, and four-year starting quarterback Andy Dalton is now a rookie starter in the NFL.Pachall was 25 of 39 for 251 yards and four TDs with that one interception. He threw to 10 players, with Josh Boyce making nine catches for 96 yards.The only time Baylor really appeared to be going backward before TCU’s big comeback was when Wright was excitedly backpedaling after throwing his pass, a 40-yard touchdown to Williams only 2 1/2 minutes into the game. Wright took a quick pass behind the line from Griffin, drawing the defender and leaving Williams wide open.TCU allowed only 229 yards per game last season, and the most allowed in the regular season was 361 by SMU. The Bears had 360 at halftime, when they led 34-23, and finished with 564.It was the most yards and points allowed by the Horned Frogs since Sept. 24, 2005, in their 51-50 overtime victory over BYU, which had 614 yards.Baylor was 0-4 against Top 25 teams last season, when the Bears finished 7-6 with a bowl appearance for the first time since 1994. Their last win over a ranked team was a double-overtime victory over No. 16 Texas A&M in 2004.Griffin is back for his fourth year, though he is only listed as a junior after a hardship redshirt for that early season-ending knee injury in 2009.Baylor built a 40-23 lead when Griffin appeared to underthrow Lanear Sampson streaking down the left sideline. But cornerback Greg McCoy, who had some big kickoff returns for the Frogs, misplayed the ball and Sampson caught it for a 64-yard touchdown.Griffin’s fifth TD pass came on the next drive, a 42-yarder to Williams. And even that wasn’t enough.Pachall, the sophomore who threw only nine passes behind Dalton last season, threw two TDs in a span of 3:18 early in the fourth quarter.The Frogs drove 80 yards on 14 plays before Pachall threw a 1-yarder to Logan Brock. Skye Dawson’s 30-yard punt return and a 15-yard penalty then set TCU up at the 12 before Pachall had a 9-yard TD throw to Boyce and they then connected for 2-point conversion.After a short punt set TCU up at midfield, Pachall threw a 19-yard TD to David Porter. But another 2-point try to Boyce was incomplete.Stansly Moponga caused and recovered a fumble by Griffin at the end of the 10-yard run that started the ensuing Baylor drive.For Gary Patterson, TCU’s defensive-minded coach, and new Baylor defensive coordinator Phil Bennett, the opener certainly couldn’t have been too enjoyable.During one span in the first half, there were scores on six consecutive possessions — three touchdowns by Baylor and two touchdowns and a field goal for TCU. Griffin threw TD passes of 35 and 27 yards to Wright during that span, and Pachall had a 23-yarder to Brock.
Links:Full news story
Source:espn.go.com

One reason I supported President Obama is because he said we must protect clean air, water and lands. But what good is it to say the right thing unless you act on it?
Since early August, three administration decisions — on Arctic drilling, the Keystone XL pipeline and the ozone that causes smog — have all favored dirty industry over public health and a clean environment. Like so many others, I’m beginning to wonder just where the man stands.
For months, the Environmental Protection Agency has been poised to
issue new ozone rules to reduce the smog that causes asthma attacks
and other respiratory ills. We badly need these new standards, which
the EPA estimates could prevent 12,000 premature deaths a year.
On Friday, though, the White House put the new rules on

Source:Associated Press
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EAST LANSING, Mich. — B.J. Cunningham caught nine passes for 130 yards and a touchdown, moving into a tie for first on Michigan State’s career receptions list in the No. 17 Spartans’ 28-6 victory over Youngstown State on Friday night.Kirk Cousins threw for 222 yards for Michigan State, which tied for the Big Ten title last season but wasn’t especially dominant against the Penguins of the Football Championship Subdivision. The Spartans led 14-6 in the third quarter when Cousins threw an 18-yard touchdown pass to Cunningham, who held on despite tight coverage in the back of the end zone.Le’Veon Bell added his second 3-yard touchdown run of the game to make it 28-6 in the fourth.Cunningham has 148 receptions, equaling Matt Trannon’s mark.Cousins completed 18 of 22 passes, and Edwin Baker ran for 91 yards for Michigan State.Youngstown State’s Kurt Hess threw for 126 yards with a touchdown and an interception.Michigan State took a big step forward last season, winning 11 games and sharing the conference crown with Wisconsin and Ohio State, but the Spartans ended on a sour note, losing 49-7 to Alabama in the Capital One Bowl.They looked out of sorts at times Friday, committing seven first-half penalties. Michigan State cut down on the infractions in the second half, but there were still some frustrating moments. Dan Conroy missed a 27-yard field goal in the fourth quarter with a horrific shank, kicking the ball low and way to the left.But the Spartans got the ball back quickly on an interception by Isaiah Lewis, which set up Bell’s second touchdown.Michigan State began the game on a heartwarming note when offensive lineman Arthur Ray Jr. took the field, four years after being treated for cancer in his left leg. Ray underwent chemotherapy shortly after signing with the Spartans in 2007, and a subsequent infection postponed his comeback until now.Coach Mark Dantonio indicated earlier this week that Ray wasn’t able to practice much because of the stress on his leg, but he was in at left guard for Michigan State’s first offensive play of the season. The Spartans called a pass, Ray blocked effectively, then he came out of the game.The underdog Penguins held their own in the first half, controlling the ball for 19:36 thanks to a 14-8 advantage in first downs. After a scoreless opening quarter, Michigan State finally took the lead on a 6-yard touchdown run by Larry Caper.The Spartans forced a punt, but Keshawn Martin muffed it, and Youngstown State then drove 62 yards in nine plays. Hess threw a 10-yard touchdown pass to Jelani Berassa, but the Penguins couldn’t tie it. Michigan State’s Jerel Worthy blocked the extra point.Cousins found Cunningham on a deep pass over the middle for a 55-yard gain on the Spartans’ next offensive play, and Bell scored on a 3-yard run to make it 14-6.Youngstown State went 3-8 last season, although the Penguins led at some point in every game they played. They never took the lead against Michigan State.
Links:Full news story
Source:espn.go.com

The campaign waged by major leaders of the Republican Party against the foreign policy pursued by Democratic President Barack Obama may be marred by excessive one-up-manship. But ignoring it or treating it with condescendence, motivated by the achievements in Libya, would cost Obama dearly, especially if he fails to take decisive action in Syria or provides Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon — as well as the regime in Damascus — with a way out.
True, Europe is the United States’ current partner in the new alliance alarming Iran today, which includes effective Arab countries such as those in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), alongside Turkey the NATO member-state. Nevertheless, there is a great deal of disparity between the American and European stances, because their interests diverge, and also because the dynamics of Europe’s relationship with the countries of the region differ from those of their American counterpart.
If Barack Obama is not to fall into a pitfall here or a trap there, he must pay the utmost attention to the American-European relationship with Iran, and immediately start figuring out what’s required in terms of dealing with Lebanon at the present stage, until the regime in Damascus collapses, through regime change, radical defeat or a coup

For those who follow private military and security contracting issues, Wednesday was rubber meets the road day. By that, I mean that Aug. 31 marked the official release of the final report of the Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan.
This concluding report by the CWC is the capstone of three years of work, numerous hearings, interviews, field trips to Iraq and Afghanistan, including keeping offices in both Baghdad and Kabul, the hiring of a highly professional and qualified staff, and the smooth working of eight bipartisan and nonpartisan commissioners. As commissions go, it would be hard to find one working on such an important issue that had such impressive

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, introduced an extreme bill (HR 2829) that holds UN funding, as well as U.S. leadership, prestige, and influence at the U.N., hostage if her outrageous demands aren’t met. Ros-Lehtinen is willing to sacrifice the benefits of

I just spent two weeks on pilgrimage in Israel, where the three great world religions trace their beginnings.
read full news from www.huffingtonpost.com

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A visitor peers through the fencing that surrounds the 9/11 Memorial site – trying to get a peek at the massive memorial pools.
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This Blogger’s Books from
Curation Nation: How to Win in a World Where Consumers are Creators
by Steven Rosenbaum
7 Days in September: A Powerful Story About 9/11
Directed by Steve Rosenbaum

Follow Steve Rosenbaum on Twitter:
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Cenk Uygur has a tree in his head.
I am currently studying the world-shaking work on storytelling in organizations by Dr. David Boje, who teaches at the College of Business at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, N.M.
In the draft manuscript for his new book, The Quantum Physics of Storytelling, Boje calls on the phrases “grass-in-the-head” and “tree-in-the-head” to describe two ways of seeing and experiencing the world. The phrases are drawn from work by other academics (Linstead & Pullen; Barad, et al.) along with Native American myths and his own family experiences growing up in rural Washington State.
A grass-in-the-head person, writes Boje, has “a desire to be an assemblage of animal herds, family clan, orchards, beehives, and crafts.” A tree-in-the-head person, he says, “can only think from beginning stage to end stage, from root to branches in developing strategy, plans, designs…”
When seen through the marvel that is Boje’s work, Cenk Uygur, whose opinions and political analysis I usually respect, is a big-time

The Great Depression earned its name, not just because of the severe economic depression experienced in the wake of the 1929 stock market crash, but additionally because the national mood was one of prolonged sadness and despair. As the unemployment rate rose up to 25 percent, people simply lost hope and mental health deteriorated.
Poverty is a leading cause of clinical depression, not just on account of causing one’s mood to drop, but loss of access to healthy food, loss of sleep due to prolonged employment search, and overall decline of physical health are also contributing factors to depression and anxiety. Left untreated, this in turn can lead to increased rates of suicide. During the Depression, suicide rates reached an all-time high of 22.1 suicides per 100,000 individuals, a 22.8 percent increase from 1928 (pre-crash) to 1932 (unemployment was at 24.1

The pre-Baath era in Syria is generally acknowledged by most people as the “golden era” of Syrian democracy.
Even radical Baathists who refused to admit that in the past now nod affirmatively when such a bold statement is made, acknowledging that when operating through a real democracy, the Baathists won an overwhelming number of seats in the parliamentary elections of 1954.
That period roughly lasted from the birth of the republic in 1932 until rise of the Baathists in 1963. The socialists, officers and politicians of the post-1963 order often accused this period of having been elitist, feudal and unjust, concentrated in the hands of the urban notability, claiming that it was a dictatorship of the elite, representing urban Syria with no regard for its rural population, rather than a true

With Labor Day fast approaching, many of us are already beginning to anticipate the end of summer and all its fun activities. However, I suggest this Labor Day taking a look at the meaning of the holiday and what you can do to uphold and honor its original intent while making a difference!
Labor Day, which is celebrated the first Monday in September, was started on August 26, 1878 in Boston, Massachusetts. It officially became a federal holiday 16 years later in 1894, following the deaths of a number of workers during the Pullman Strike. Then

In 2009, Solyndra was one of the first cleantech companies to reap the benefits of Obama’s cleantech stimulus package. They looked like a good investment because they’d secured billions of dollars in back-orders, had financial backing from heavy-hitting investors, and promised to keep manufacturing local. But they overestimated their market and their ability to deliver, and now, only two years later, they’re going under and the talking heads on the 24-hour news channels can’t wait to use them as an example of the perils of Obama’s stimulus package.
Yes, it sucks. But Solyndra was given money because it was first in line, and the public was putting on a lot of pressure to deploy the new stimulus

If he couldn’t do it, who will?
Obama was — and still is — the Democrats’ (and by extension all Americans) best hope to combat the corrosive Right Wing agenda of decimating the middle class and privatizing, well, everything.
But as disappointment grows from the Left at what it sees to be an utter lack of gumption (either that or some conspiracy theory about his complicity — forced or otherwise — with the corporate overlords who really run things) there has not emerged a viable progressive alternative to the fatally hamstrung president, a candidate who will be able to get across the nation-healing agenda that the Left is so desperate to enact.
But is Obama, once the world’s bright light of hope and change, now really a capon?
After a moment’s ponderation, something that is in itself considered a quaint throwback to the days of test patterns and telegrams, any perceived disappointment is revealed to be yet another insidious trope contrived by Republican word-doctors and strategists.
Here’s a president who (yes, it still needs to be said) was handed the worst set of economic circumstances from which to divine a recovery, on whose watch Osama bin Laden was eliminated and the Arab Spring sprung, who repealed DADT, provided the Department of Veterans Affairs $1.4 billion to improve services to veterans, signed the Children’s Health Insurance Reauthorization Act, repealed Bush-era restrictions on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, championed and pushed through Health Care Reform, increased funding for the Violence Against Women Act, increased funding for national parks and forests, cut prescription costs for Medicare patients by 50%, created more private sector jobs in 2010 than during the entire Bush term, signed a new START Treaty, provided travel expenses to families of fallen soldiers to be on hand when the body arrives at Dover AFB, etc., etc., etc. And the work is by no means complete.
And all this while a full-throttled hate machine bent on preventing him from governing at all churns out propaganda, lies and obstruction, is funded by Right Wing billionaire zealots who have little compunction about rubbing elbows with religious extremists and fringe lunatics, create and promote sociopolitical and cultural mayhem and who care fuck-all for the public in whose name they claim to be working. And the Left, in a Standard-Operating-Procedure show of shooting off its toes while shooting off its mouth, is ready to repeal support of Obama if he doesn’t

This week, we’re joined by the always — insightful Jay Smooth of IllDoctrine, Donwill of the critically acclaimed hip-hop group Tanya Morgan, and Wyatt Cenac of The Daily Show, to talk about Michael Rapaport’s documentary on A Tribe Called Quest, Beats Rhymes and Life. You’ll also learn about Wyatt’s secret crooner past and Bushwick Bill’s gospel rap career.
Listen to the podcast here on the blog (and subscribe on iTunes).
read full news from www.huffingtonpost.com

Cause for celebration, indeed: Hong Kong director Tsui Hark is back, and if anything, his vision has gotten more crazily energetic and eye-dazzling in his latest effort. In Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame, Andy Lau plays actual historical figure Dee Renjie, a disgraced judge who’s compelled to confront the undeniably fantastic when he’s sprung from prison by embattled Empress Wu to find out who is exterminating her entourage by having them burst spontaneously into flame. As can be expected from Hark, the film is a treasure trove of dizzyingly exquisite fight sequences, backed up by a witty and intelligent storyline that has Dee on the one hand deploying science against the forces of superstition and on the other sees him in conflict with an empress ruthlessly determined to maintain her power.
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I bet after seeing us, George Washington would sue us for calling him “father”.
-Will Rogers
Come now, Mr. Rogers. Surely in Washington’s time our young nation had to endure a small lot of insufferable Americans, who encumbered our fledgling republic and tried his own patience and humanity? Individuals whose mere voice or image he found unbearable, prompting him to put his powder-wigged head through one of Mount Vernon’s storied walls? Perhaps not, as prior to the advent of mass communication, and given the geographic sprawl of the eastern seaboard, it was still possible to sequester oneself in a Virginia country estate and turn a deaf ear to the clatter of Boston and New York high society.
No

It was a sunny spring day in Toronto when I first met Veronica Chail — all dressed up from the OMNI studio to meet me for coffee at a Starbucks on the funky Queen Street strip — but idyllic atmosphere aside, we had something very serious to discuss: IIFA 2011. Little did I know that a masala style chat about one of the world’s biggest award shows would offer me a window into the life of a young woman carving her own path in the media landscape and proving that stereotypes are meant to be broken and glass ceilings shattered.
Veronica Chail, host of OMNI’s Bollywood Boulevard
We shared an animated and obviously obligatory exchange of Bollywood gossip, caught up on who had been wearing what on the Indian fashion scene, compared our favourite Hindi films, hunks and heroines, and generally had a wonderful time getting to know more about each other and our own unique relationships to India and Indian culture.
After covering the official IIFA 2011 announcement with Bollywood stars Anil Kapoor and Preity Zinta in Toronto in January I had promptly packed my bags and moved to Bombay in February, yet had come back for a visit that serendipitously coincided with the 2011 International Indian Film Academy

How two citizen journalists uncovered a bizarre GOP fundraiser.
Arizona resident Dawn Teo was perusing her daily emails when an item on a standard Pima County Republican Party newsletter caught her eye. The Pima County Republican Party was selling raffle tickets for a Get Out the Vote fundraiser. The item being raffled? A Glock handgun, complete with three 12-round magazines, grip and a case — the same general gun type that Jared Loughner used in January to shoot Arizona Congresswoman Gabbie Giffords, who survived, and six other people, who didn’t.
Are they kidding? she thought, and forwarded the item to me, an editor for citizen journalism at the Huffington Post.
If you are reading this, you’ve probably already heard the story.
That’s because Dawn’s tip went to Alex Brant-Zawadzki, a University of San Francisco graduate student who, like Dawn, occasionally reports and writes articles for the Huffington Post’s Off the Bus project, a platform for citizen contributions to our political coverage during the campaign season.
Alex, 31, who was a student reporter at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland and has worked in social media, knows a newsworthy item when he sees

If there is one thing that we learned from Hurricane Irene, it’s that a tropical storm or hurricane doesn’t have to have the highest winds in order to cause massive damage. And Tropical Storm Lee, in the Gulf of Mexico, is the next system to pose a serious danger to parts of the U.S.
The National Hurricane Center does not expect Lee to strengthen into hurricane, but the Hydrometeorological Prediction Center expects the slow-moving tropical storm to produce copious amounts of rainfall fall along the Gulf Coast and then farther northward.
As much as a foot and a half of rain is possible in parts of southern Louisiana and southern Mississippi through next Wednesday, and very heavy rainfall — possibly well over six inches will extend northward into central Louisiana, central Mississippi, southern Alabama, and the western Florida panhandle. The heavy rain will eventually extend northward into the Tennessee Valley and perhaps the mid-Atlantic region as the remnant moisture gets pulled northward.
This much rain during a relatively short period of time has the potential to produce life-threatening flash flooding and river flooding, as well as property

Ten years ago, I was sitting in my high school public speaking class, confused, listening to our principal over the PA system describing something that was happening in New York City (our school was without cable that day due to some construction). As more information came in, we were released from school early, and I spent the remainder of the night watching television, learning the name of Osama bin Laden. This is of course recent history, but lately, when certain presidential candidates and other leaders talk about anything in the past, they get things (read: facts) wrong. It’s a pattern: America is suffering from chronic Revisionist History Syndrome.
Over the last year, three memoirs from the Bush Administration have been released, former Vice President Dick Cheney being the newest just this