North Koreans crying at Kim Jong Il's funeral | Youtube

North Koreans who did not shed some tears during the highly orchestrated mourning over Kim Jong Il's death are going to serve six months in labor camp, South Korean newspaper The Daily NK reported Friday.

Citing a "source from North Hamkyung Province", The Daily NK said, "The authorities are handing down at least six months in a labor-training camp to anybody who didn’t participate in the organized gatherings during the mourning period, or who did participate but didn’t cry and didn't seem genuine."

It further said that the recriminations "created a vicious atmosphere of fear."

Citizens are also forced to idolize North Korea's newly-installed leader, Kim Jong Un, the youngest son of Kim Jong Il.

"Every day from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m., they have vehicles for broadcast propaganda parked on busy roads full of people going to and from work, noisily working to proclaim Kim Jong Un’s greatness," the report said.

It added that many citizens are being made to study "the greatness of Kim Jong Un" in education sessions "packed so tightly together without a break that people are just exhausted."

"While it has not been possible to verify the public trial claim, earlier the authorities did order the military to shoot anyone who attempted to defect during the mourning period and eliminate their family, so it would not be surprising. The source agreed with earlier testimony stating that while it is usually possible to escape punishment during such crackdowns with bribes, it is much more difficult to do so now," it said.

Via http://www.dailynk.com/english/read.php?cataId=nk01500&num=8668

Marines urination video screencap | Youtube

A video allegedly showing U.S. Marines urinating on dead bodies of Taliban fighters has been condemned by Afghan President Hamid Karzai, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, Taliban leaders and the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

Posted on YouTube and other websites, the video shows four men in camouflage Marine combat uniforms urinating on three corpses at an unidentified location apparently in Afghanistan. One of them jokes: "Have a nice day, buddy." Another jokes, "Golden, like a shower."

"We expressly ask the US government to urgently investigate the video and apply the most severe punishment to anyone found guilty in this crime," President Karzai said in a statement on Thursday evening. "This act by American soldiers is simply inhuman and condemnable in the strongest possible terms."

In Washington, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta denounced the actions shown on the video and vowed that "those found to have engaged in such conduct will be held accountable to the fullest extent."

"I have seen the footage, and I find the behavior depicted in it utterly deplorable," Panetta said in a statement. "I condemn it in the strongest possible terms."

The Taliban has also criticized the clip as "shameful" but said it would not derail attempts at peace talks.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the footage "is not a political process, so the video will not harm our talks and prisoner exchange because they are at the preliminary stage."

The ISAF has also released a statement regarding the video, condemning the act depicted in it.

"This disrespectful act is inexplicable and not in keeping with the high moral standards we expect of coalition forces," it said. "ISAF strongly condemns the actions depicted in the video, which appear to have been conducted by a small group of US individuals, who apparently are no longer serving in Afghanistan."

It is not yet clear who shot or posted the 39-second video that surfaced online on Wednesday. There are no information yet on who the people pictured in it were or where it was shot.

The US military said it was "deeply troubled by the video" and now investigating it.

7.3 quake jolts Indonesia | USGS map

A 7.3-magnitude earthquake struck off west coast of northern Sumatra, Indonesia early Wednesday, prompting the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center to issue a tsunami warning.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said the earthquake, which has a depth of 29.1 km, hit at 12:37 a.m. local time, about 423 km southwest of Banda Aceh, Sumatra, Indonesia.

"The quake was in the sea and a tsunami warning is in force, but so far we have no reports of casualties or damage," an official at Indonesia's Meteorology and Geophysics Agency told AFP.

According to an Associated Press report, residents in the provincial capital, Banda Aceh and other cities along the coast were rattled from their sleep. They fled their homes and poured into the streets.

Local officials lifted the tsunami alert, nearly two hours after the quake struck.

Indonesia sits on "Pacific Ring of Fire" where continental plates collide, causing frequent volcanic activity.

Mount Etna erupts anew (January 5, 2011 Photo)

Mount Etna spewed lava and sent plumes of ash over 16,000 feet into the air Thursday.

The volcanic activity reportedly started at the southeast portion of Mount Etna's crater Wednesday night while explosions were observed the next morning. Lava was also seen flowing toward the uninhabited Valle del Bove region.

No casualties or damage to property have been reported. Flights are not expected to be disrupted by the cloud of ash.

Mount Etna, located on the island of Sicily in Italy, is considered the most active volcano in Europe and in the last few decades eruptions have been very frequent and lava flows have often threatened the villages surrounding the crater. The volcano erupted at least 18 times from January-November, 2011. It is the first time that it erupted this year.

Standing 10,922-foot high, Mount Etna is also Europe's tallest active volcano.

$736,000 tuna sold at Japan auction

A $736,000 bluefin tuna was sold at an auction at Tokyo's Tsukiji fish market in Japan Thursday, setting the new world record for the most expensive tuna fish.

The winning bidder, Kiyoshi Kimura, president of Kiyomura Co., which operates the Sushi-Zanmai restaurant chain, shelled out the whooping amount to the 269-kilogram tuna, the largest among the 274 shipped globally. Each kilogram of the massive tuna will reportedly be sold at $2,700.

"I wanted people in Japan, not those abroad, to eat the number-one tuna," company Kimura was quoted saying by Jiji Press.

“It is not just about the money, as there will be positive ripple effects from buying the fish,” said Sushi-Zanmai's spokesperson Hiroshi Umehara. “It is also about the Japanese spirit.”

The tuna caught in Oma on the northern tip of Honshu easily beat the previous record set last year - a 342-kilogram fish which fetched $420,000.

Prized for its tender red meat, the best slices of fatty bluefin tuna can sell for $24 per piece at sushi bars in Tokyo.

Japanese are the major consumers of bluefin tuna in the world.

Here's AFP's video report about the $736,000 tuna:

Moonshine deaths now 155

The number of deaths from tainted moonshine liquor in the Indian state of West Bengal has risen to 155, AFP reported Friday.

Most of those killed in the moonshine mass poisoning were poor people, including construction workers, rickshaw-pullers and street vendors. Several children also died.

More than a hundred of individuals who drank the contaminated home-made spirits are still in the hospitals.

According to the police, the victims ingested the poisonous moonshine Wednesday night and began dying early Thursday morning.

"More and more people are turning up with symptoms of liquor poisoning and one local hospital is now overcrowded," Local magistrate Narayan Swarup Nigam said.

The administrator added that methanol had been detected in at least 20 victims, which is being suspected to be the reason of the mass poisoning. Used as a fuel, solvent or anti-freeze, methanol is highly toxic.

Deaths attributed to toxic alcohol are reportedly common in India. Locally known as desi, daru, toddy or moonshine, the brew is often spiked with methyl alcohol and industrial spirits and, mixed wrongly, can cause vomiting, blindness and death.

Moonshine is mixed in illegal backyard stills, usually using molasses and the fragrant flowers of the mahua tree. A small plastic bagful of moonshine costs as little as five rupees.

Authorities have arrested four alleged bootleggers as local residents ransacked village breweries and staged protests.

The families of those who died have been offered of compensation from the local government.

"I want to take strong action against those manufacturing and selling illegal liquor," state chief minister Mamata Banerjee said.

The moonshine deaths are the highest since July 2009, when 122 people were killed in western Gujarat state after consuming toxic alcohol.

India has one of the faster growing legal alcohol markets in the world.

US deficit falls to 2-year low of $110.3 billion

The US current-account deficit has narrowed in the third quarter to $110.3 billion, the lowest level since the final three months of 2009, Associated Press (AP) reported Thursday.

The broadest measure of international trade because it includes income payments and government transfers, the current-account deficit of America has fell to 11.6 percent, reflecting stronger exports and a decrease in the deficit on goods.

AP added that there was a 4.6 percent drop ($181.8 billion) in the deficit in goods for the third quarter while the surplus in services rose to $46.2 billion or 4.1 percent which was facilitated by gains in airline ticket sales to foreigners.

Meanwhile, the surplus in income increased to 2.5 per cent ($58.3 billion) in the same quarter. There was also a smaller deficit of $33 billion in unilateral transfers, the category that covers U.S. foreign aid.

The current-account deficit stood at 2.9% of the country's GDP in the third quarter, down from 3.3% in the previous quarter and the smallest percentage since the fourth quarter of 2009.

Arlington man Thomas Lester Harper jailed

An Arlington man has been jailed after identified as suspect in two multiple-vehicle crashes and shooting that left two people dead and four injured including two toddlers in Arlington, Texas.

Thomas Lester Harper, 27, is now being held at the Arlington City Jail on $555,000 bond after charged with murder, intoxication manslaughter and two counts of child abandonment and endangerment. Police believe drugs were a factor.

Police said Harper drove his blue sport utility vehicle - with his twin toddlers inside - when he caused a three-vehicle wreck on N. Collins Street.

Harper then fled the scene before causing a second multiple-vehicle crash in which killed 42-year-old motorist Najee Nasir.

Police officials said Harper then fatally shot 19-year-old Clarenence Bryan Robinson who reportedly was trying to help those involved in the crash.

Harper, who was laughing at the scene, reportedly admitted his involvement to the police. A handgun was recovered at the scene.

His toddler-aged twins - a boy and a girl - were brought to Cook Children's Hospital in Fort Worth for non-life threatening injuries.

Cell phone ban while driving urged in the U.S.

The United States National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has recommended cell phone ban while driving in all U.S. states. 

With its five members unanimously concurring, the NTSB called for a nationwide ban on the use of cell phones and text messaging devices while driving in connection with a deadly highway pileup in Missouri in August 2010 which was reportedly caused by the inattention of a 19 year-old-pickup driver who sent or received 11 texts in the 11 minutes immediately before the crash which killed the driver and a 15-year-old student and injuring thirty-eight other people. The new recommendation applies to both hands-free and hand-held phones and would outlaw non-emergency phone calls and texting by operators of every vehicle on the road.

NTSB chairman Deborah Hersman said the Missouri Accident was "big red flag for all drivers."

"Driving was not his only priority," Hersman added. "No call, no text, no update is worth a human life."

According to statistics, crashes caused by drivers using cell phones rose from 636,000 in 2003 to 1.6 million in 2008.

A new study by the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has found that texting while driving has risen 50% and that two out of every ten drivers admit to it. The NHTSA apparently had people watching at intersections for people texting and found 1% of all drivers that came through an intersection were texting.

Seemingly a small number, however at a busy intersection that 1% can be a lot of people. According to the study, 18% of drivers admit to sending texts or emails at the wheel with younger drivers 21 to 24 being the worst offenders. In 2012, 3,092 deaths on the highways around the country were attributed to distracted driving.

Virginia Tech Shooting - December 8, 2011

Virginia Tech officials said a police officer and another individual were killed in a shooting incident inside the school's campus Thursday. The university has been put on lockdown.

Below is the statement released by the Virginia Tech which was posted on its website:

BLACKSBURG, Va., Dec. 8, 2011 – Shortly after noon today, a Virginia Tech police officer stopped a vehicle on campus during a routine traffic stop in the Coliseum parking lot near McComas Hall

During the traffic stop. the officer was shot and killed. There were witnesses to this shooting.

Witnesses reported to police the shooter fled on foot heading toward the Cage, a parking lot near Duck Pond Drive. At that parking lot, a second person was found. That person is also deceased.

Several law enforcement agencies have responded to assist. Virginia State Police has been requested to take lead in the investigation

The status of the shooter is unknown. The campus community should continue to shelter in place and visitors should not come to campus.

According to a Twitter alert issued by the school, the suspect is "a white male, wearing gray sweat pants, gray hat w/neon green brim, maroon hoodie and backpack."

"Reports of recent sounds ID'd as gunshots and suspicious activity on campus have been investigated and are unfounded. Stay where you are," it added.

In April 2007, 33 people died and 25 were wounded in a shooting incident happened the campus of Virginia Tech or the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A. - considered as the deadliest mass shooting in modern history of the country.

Heisman finalists for 2011 bared!

The Heisman finalists for this year have been announced by Heisman Trophy winner Eddie George, on behalf of the Heisman Trophy Trust, on Monday on ESPN's "SportsCenter." The five finalists  for the 77th Annual Heisman Memorial Trophy are Montee Ball, Robert Griffin III, Andrew Luck, Tyrann Mathieu, and Trent Richardson.

The 2011 Heisman finalists will be invited to New York for the live Heisman Trophy announcement this Saturday, December 10, which will air on ESPN at 8pm EST presented by Nissan North America.

For the fourth straight year, two Heisman finalists will face each other in the BCS National Championship Game as Tyrann Mathieu will go up against Trent Richardson on January 9, 2012.

University of Wisconsin running back Montee Ball is leading the nation with 1,759 rushing yards as well as 32 rushing touchdowns for Wisconsin. He holds second place all-time at UW with 60 career touchdowns and 54 career rushing touchdowns. He has the opportunity to join two other Badgers in this elite fraternity: Ron Dayne (1999) and Alan Ameche (1954).

Baylor University quarterback Robert Griffin III has the opportunity to be the first player from Baylor to receive The Heisman Memorial Trophy. The junior quarterback is ranked second in the nation in total offense with 387 yards per game. This season he threw 36 touchdowns and passed for 3,998 yards. Griffin and former Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow are two of four players in major college history with at least 9,000 yards passing and 2,000 yards rushing in a career.

Stanford University quarterback Andrew Luck is looking to be the second Cardinal to take home The Heisman Trophy after Jim Plunkett won in 1970. The red-shirt junior passed for 3,170 yards and 35 touchdowns this season. Luck leads the Pac-12 in passing efficiency with 167.5 and broke Stanford's records for career touchdown passes and single-season touchdown passes. While leading the Cardinals to an 11-1 record, he rushed for 153 yards and scored 2 touchdowns.

Louisiana State University cornerback Tyrann Mathieu is looking to be the second LSU Tiger to win The Heisman Memorial Trophy after Billy Cannon won in 1959. The sophomore had 71 tackles, 5 forced fumbles and 2 interceptions this year. He also gained 420 yards and 2 touchdowns in punt returns during LSU's 13-0 season. If Mathieu wins, he will be the second cornerback to be inducted into this group of outstanding college football players joining Charles Woodson (1997).

University of Alabama Trent Richardson rushed for 1,583 yards and had 20 touchdowns this season for Alabama. In nine of his twelve games, the running back rushed for over 100 yards for the 11-1 Crimson Tide. If awarded the Heisman, Richardson will only be the second player from Alabama to receive the trophy after 2009 winner, Mark Ingram, Jr.

"Prevailing out of one of the deepest and most highly contested fields in recent history, we would like to congratulate this year's Heisman finalists for their outstanding season," said Robert Whalen, Executive Director of the Heisman Trophy Trust. "We look forward to December 10, when the winner is announced."

The Heisman Trophy is given to the most outstanding college football player in the United States. The voters include 870 media representatives from six regions across the country, every living Heisman winner, and one overall fan vote through a partnership with Nissan North America.

A Press Release | Photo courtesy of Heisman Trophy

World's oldest dog dies

Pusuke, the world’s oldest dog, has died in Japan on Monday afternoon.

Recognized as the oldest living dog in the world by Guinness Book of World Records in December last year, Pusuke lived for 26 years and nine months. According to reports, that's somewhere between 118 to 185 years if converted to dog years.

Pusuke's owner Yumiko Shinohara reportedly said that her dog was eating well and was still active until Monday when he lost his appetite and had difficulty breathing. Reports say Pusuke died peacefully just minutes after Shinohara returned home from a walk.

"I think (Pusuke) waited for me to come home," Shinohara was quoted saying.

Pusuke, a crossbreed male dog, died two years and eight months shy of the record for the oldest dog to have ever lived - Bluey, an Australian cattle dog who died in 1939 at the age of 29 years and five months.

Pearl Harbor attack on December 7, 1941

The 70th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack will be commemorated by the United States National Archives, in partnership with the Newseum, on Wednesday, December 7, 2011, with a free public program in the William G. McGowan Theater of the National Archives Building.

The program, “It Is No Joke—It Is a Real War”: How Americans First Learned of Pearl Harbor, features journalist Marvin Kalb using film, audio, and photographic records from the National Archives and the Newseum to discuss how the media informed Americans of the 1941 attack on the naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

The National Archives Building in Washington, DC, is located on the National Mall at Constitution Ave. and 7th Street, NW. Metro accessible on Yellow or Green lines, Archives/Navy Memorial station. The public should use the Special Event entrance on Constitution Avenue and 7th Street, NW. To verify the date and times of the program, call the National Archives Public Programs Line at: (202) 357-5000, or view the Calendar of Events online.

Marvin Kalb is a James Clark Welling Presidential Fellow at The George Washington University and Edward R. Murrow Professor Emeritus at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. He is also a contributing news analyst for National Public Radio and Fox News Channel. In addition, he is frequently called upon to comment on major issues of the day by many of the nation's other leading news organizations.

Kalb had a distinguished 30-year broadcast career, working for both CBS News and NBC News, where he served as Chief Diplomatic Correspondent, Moscow Bureau Chief, and moderator of Meet the Press. Among his many honors are two Peabody Awards, the DuPont Prize from Columbia University, the 2006 Fourth Estate Award from the National Press Club and more than a half-dozen Overseas Press Club awards. He has lectured at many universities, here and abroad. Kalb was the founding director of the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics, and Public Policy at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

A graduate of the City College of New York, Kalb has an M.A. from Harvard and was zeroing in on his Ph.D. in Russian history when he left Cambridge in 1956 for a Moscow assignment with the State Department. The following year, he joined CBS News, the last correspondent hired by Edward R. Murrow. Kalb has authored or co-authored 12 nonfiction books and two best-selling novels. His latest book, co-authored with his daughter, Deborah, is "Haunting Legacy: Vietnam and the American Presidency from Ford to Obama."

A Press Release | Photo courtesy of the National Archives

Angela Merkel addressing the German Parliament Friday

Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel has told the country’s parliament, the Bundestag, Friday about moving forward with what markets see as an emerging plan for more effective action to contain the European financial crisis, urging tougher rules against government overspending.

Here's the transcript of Angela Merkel's speech:

"The government had always made clear that the European crisis can not be solved in one fell swoop overnight.

"There is no such thing as the one fell swoop solution here.

"There are no easy and no fast solutions, especially not, as some people insist on saying ahead of every summit, the apparent on last push.

"That is neither my kind of language nor way of thinking. The resolution of the euro crisis is a process.

"And this process will take years.

"It is the most important basis of our democracy: our credibility and trustworthiness. Both these institutions the courts and the banks need to be protected and preserved.

"Politicians have frittered away the trust in them over the years because since the founding of the economic and currency union they have not stuck to the principles stated in the Growth and Stability Pact.

"We do not intend and we are a long way from allowing our national budget to be controlled and determined by a European institution and this is also not even possible according to our constitution.

"As long as this is the case, we are in the situation where a common responsibility would not reflect this, and therefore the discussion about Eurobonds is null and void.

"We are going to Brussels with the goal, and I want to emphasize this, to bring treaty changes, and we want to avoid creating a wedge between Euro countries and non-Euro countries.

"The future of the euro is inseparable from European unity.

"The journey before us is long and will be anything but easy but I am convinced that we are on the right path.

"It is the right path to take to reach our common goal: a strong Germany in a strong European Union that will benefit the people in Germany and in Europe."

Chancellor Merkel will be attending a meeting in Brussels next week wherein Europe’s leaders will try again to find a politically palatable solution to the crisis.

Tax refunds worth $153M yet to be delivered

Millions of tax refunds are still unclaimed in America.

The United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced Wednesday that it is looking to return $153.3 million in undelivered tax refund checks. In all, 99,123 taxpayers are due refund checks this year that could not be delivered because of mailing address errors.

Undelivered refund checks average $1,547 this year.

Taxpayers who believe their refund check may have been returned to the IRS as undelivered should use the “ Where’s My Refund?” tool on IRS.gov. The tool will provide the status of their refund and, in some cases, instructions on how to resolve delivery problems.

Taxpayers checking on a refund over the phone will receive instructions on how to update their addresses. Taxpayers can access a telephone version of “Where’s My Refund?” by calling 1-800-829-1954.

While only a small percentage of checks mailed out by the IRS are returned as undelivered, taxpayers can put an end to lost, stolen or undelivered checks by choosing direct deposit when they file either paper or electronic returns. Last year, more than 78.4 million taxpayers chose to receive their refund through direct deposit. Taxpayers can receive refunds directly into their bank account, split a tax refund into two or three financial accounts or even buy a savings bond.

The IRS also recommends that taxpayers file their tax returns electronically, because e-file eliminates the risk of lost paper returns. E-file also reduces errors on tax returns and speeds up refunds. Nearly 8 out of 10 taxpayers chose e-file last year. E-file combined with direct deposit is the best option for taxpayers to avoid refund problems; it’s easy, fast and safe.

The public should be aware that the IRS does not contact taxpayers by e-mail to alert them of pending refunds and does not ask for personal or financial information through email. Such messages are common phishing scams. The agency urges taxpayers receiving such messages not to release any personal information, reply, open any attachments or click on any links to avoid malicious code that can infect their computers. The best way for an individual to verify if she or he has a pending refund is going directly to IRS.gov and using the “Where’s My Refund?” tool.

A Press Release from the IRS.

Best Buy online store screenshot.

Best Buy ran out of online stock of Apple iPad 2 on Black Friday, Electronista reports. All models of the coveted tablet are now listed as "sold out online," including even the more expensive 64GB 3G models.

The rush can be attributed to Best Buy's $45 Thanksgiving weekend discount on all iPad 2 models.

According to the Electronista report, many branches of Best Buy are also likely out of stock; a check in the Austin, Texas area shows no stores with inventory.

This news about stock shortages suggests that the demand for the iPad 2 is still at a high level, despite reports that it may be on the wane.

Best Buy also offered the following deals on other Apple products on Black Friday:

---$150 off iMacs and MacBook Pros (very limited stock in stores);
---iPhone 4 and 3GS at normal pricing ($99 and free, respectively, with a two-year Sprint or Verizon contract, but does not mention the iPhone 4s at all);
---the current-model of Apple TV at $10 off;
---the 32GB iPod Touch at $5 savings;
---$100 iTunes gift cards for $80;
---iPod nano 8gig, $5 off its normal price with $15 Best Buy gift card;
---$5 off on the 8GB iPod Touch with a $50 Best Buy gift card; and
---iOS-compatible "app-cessories" such as the Helo TC remote control helicopter for $15 off its normal $50 price.

CIA Arrests

Iran has arrested a dozen "spies" working for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Iran's official Islamic Republic News Agency reported quoting an influential parliamentarian.

Parviz Sorouri, a member of Iranian Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, said the alleged agents were coordinating with Israel’s secret service, the Mossad, and other regional agencies, targeting Iran’s military and its nuclear program.

“The U.S. and Zionist regime’s espionage apparatuses were trying to damage Iran both from inside and outside with a heavy blow, using regional intelligence services,” Sorouri was quoted as having said Wednesday.

“Fortunately, with swift reaction by the Iranian intelligence department, the actions failed to bear fruit,” Sorouri said.

The lawmaker did not specify the nationality of the CIA agents, nor the date and location they had been arrested.

The CIA declined to comment on the report.

Iran has been suspected by the United States and its allies for pursuing a nuclear weapons program which it denied.

This current announcement follows the unraveling by Lebanon's Hezbollah of a CIA spy ring in that country. Hezbollah has close ties to Iran.

The claim is similar to the June 2011 claim by Lebanon’s Hezbollah, whose leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said he had uncovered at least two CIA informants who had infiltrated the organization. Although U.S. authority initially denied the accusations, U.S. officials later confirmed Nasrallah’s story.

-Report from the Associated Press

Macy's Black Friday Sale commercial for 2011 is out! And it is super hilarious!

It shows adult men screaming their heart out like tween "beliebers" as Justin Bieber makes his way to Macy's for its Black Friday midnight opening. Check out Justin Bieber's Macy's Black Friday Commercial below:

 
The commercial will be shown on US TV this November 22nd.

Macy's executive vice president for Marketing Martine Reardon said that they will be opening at midnight across the US for the first time.

"With humor and the help of Justin Bieber, we are reminding our customers to shop early at Macy's to find the most desirable gifts at a great value," Reardon said.

Check out Macy's Black Friday Sale Catalogue for 2011 here: https://s3.amazonaws.com/MacysBlackFriday/Macys+Black+Friday.pdf

Benetton ad "Unhate" showing pope-immam kissing.

One of the Benetton "Unhate" ads showing Pope Benedict XVI kissing on the lips the imam of the Al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo, Egypt, Ahmed el Tayyeb has been removed by the Italian clothing company after receiving a protest from the Vatican.

Benetton said that it was "sorry that the use of the image had so hurt the sensibilities of the faithful." The statement came after receiving a condemnation from the Vatican.

"We must express the firmest protest for this absolutely unacceptable use of the image of the Holy Father, manipulated and exploited in a publicity campaign with commercial ends," Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said in a statement.

"This shows a grave lack of respect for the pope, an offence to the feelings of believers, a clear demonstration of how publicity can violate the basic rules of respect for people by attracting attention with provocation," he added.

The said Benetton ad is part of new global advertising campaign of the company called "Unhate" which was launched Wednesday. With the purpose of battling the culture of hate in all its forms, "Unhate" ads feature photoshopped photos of political and religious leaders kissing including US President Barrack Obama, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Check out the said Benetton "Unhate" ads below:

King James Bible 400th Anniversary

Sermon given by The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, at the Thanksgiving Service to mark the 400th Anniversary of the King James Bible in Westminster Abbey on November 16, 2011.

What is a good translation? Not one that just allows me to say, when I pick it up, 'Now I understand'. Of course, if I'm faced with a text in a strange language, I need to be able simply to read it; but a good translation will be an invitation to read again, and to probe, and reflect, and imagine with the text. Rather than letting me say, 'Now I understand', it prompts the response, 'Now the work begins.'

One of the most striking things in the wonderful Preface to the King James Bible composed by Miles Smith is the clear conviction that there is never an ideal or a final translation. To translate any work of significance is to reveal a certain range of meanings in the original; but there will always be, as the 1611 translators fully recognized, another range that hasn't yet been captured and will need another round of engagement with the text. If this is true of any important text, how much more true is it of Scripture, where the meanings are the self-communications of an infinite mind and love? The invitation that Scripture offers is an invitation to a pilgrimage further and further into the mysteries of that mind and love; and a good translation of the Bible must therefore be one that opens out on wider and wider horizons.

We have all suffered from a mindset in the last couple of centuries that has assumed there is an end to translating and understanding and thus that there is something wrong with any version of a text that fails to settle disputes and to provide an account of the truth that no-one could disagree with. But what the 1611 translators grasped was that hearing the Word of God was a lifelong calling that had to be undertaken in the company of other readers and was never something that left us where we started. Of course they believed, and said so robustly in that same Preface, that the essential lines of Christian belief were clearly laid out – belief in God the Creator, God who makes covenant with his people, God who becomes flesh and creates a new and universal community of believers by the death and rising again of the Word made flesh and the gift of the Holy Spirit, God who justifies us in freedom, not as a reward for good works. But this is not so much the revelation of a series of self-contained truths as an inundation of vision, a flooding of human language that can be strange and extreme and bewildering; it is a vision whose presence makes the sacred writers stumble and search for words at least as much as it makes them fluent and persuasive. Doesn't St Paul say just that in I Corinthians 2? 'My speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.' That 'demonstration' may be most powerful when it is most inarticulate by normal standards, and Paul himself illustrates this again and again. 'What shall we say then to these things?' he asks, as he lets himself be swept along lyrically by the joyful mysteries of Romans 8; and 'O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!' he exclaims as he lays out the sorrowful mysteries of Romans 11, his agonised meditation on choice and rejection in the history of Israel and humanity and each human soul. His tortuous path towards the celebration of grace is no easy argument but a wrestling with the shattering implications of the events of Jesus' life and death. And a good translation is one that leads us through Paul's wrestling in all its clumsiness and passion.

And think too of how the Old Testament prophets cope with this shattering of their world; of Ezekiel trying to evoke the vision of the chariot of the Almighty filling the sky, awkwardly qualifying everything he says with 'as it were', and 'the likeness of', or 'the appearance of'. 'Above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone: and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it...This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. And when I saw it, I fell upon my face, and I heard a voice of one that spake' (Ezek.1.26, 28b). What makes the translation a good translation is that there is no attempt to smooth over the stumbling of the original: it was if it were like the impression of something, as it were...This is the precision of revelation because it is language showing the weight it bears, the weight of a Word from outside ordinary categories. And the 1611 translators never let us down in this, never seek to make it easy. It is one of the things that gives this version its abiding importance. It remains an invitation to work, to open up our own language to this weight of presence and gift.

'In the beginning was the Word'. Before anything, God is a God whose life pours out in the intelligence of love, necessarily and always. Every created word, even the words we use to speak of this eternal truth, will be struggling breathlessly to keep up with the Word itself, himself. The English Reformation often made use of the phrase 'God's Word written' to describe Scripture. And we should not take this to mean a mechanical dictation; rather it says that when human language writes what God does and says in all his acts throughout history, the Bible is what it looks like. Wax bearing the imprint of what I called just now the weight of the Word. To read or rather to hear that Word in our reading and hearing of Scripture is not to thumb through a volume of records and commands but to absorb Scripture's language in such a way, at such a depth, that we sense that weight and accept the burden and the joy of labouring at a lifelong response to it.

I've mentioned hearing as well as reading. It's easy to forget that when the 1611 Bible was first published it was not yet a volume that everyone could be expected to own. Like its Reformed predecessors, Tyndale's Bible, the Geneva Bible, the Bishops' Bible—and unlike its Catholic parallel, the Rheims/Douai version—it was meant to be read aloud. And that means that it was meant to be part of an event, a shared experience. Gathered as a Christian community, the parish would listen, in the context of praise, reflection and instruction, to Scripture being read: it provided the picture of a whole renewed universe within which all the other activities made sense. It would not be immediately intelligible by any means, but it marked out the territory of God's work of grace. It affirmed, with St Paul in II Corinthians, that the landscape of the world was illuminated by the new and radical act of God in Jesus Christ, so that the standards of this world and society were shown to be under judgement; yet it also affirmed that this illumination was something it took time to get used to, time to find words for, and that the clay pots of custom and ritual were both necessary and problematic – and that this was simply how human beings heard and echoed the Word. 'How can man preach Thy eternal Word?' asked George Herbert a couple of decades after 1611; 'he is a brittle, crazy glass.' But, as that great poem of Herbert's goes on to claim, even in fragile material God's story can be sealed and printed, and the light come through.

So to celebrate the Bible of 1611 is not to genuflect before a timeless masterpiece, to salute a perfect translation; the translators would have been both baffled and embarrassed by any such idea. It is to recognize the absolute seriousness with which they sought to find in our language words that would pass on to us hearers and readers in the English tongue the almost unbearable weight of divine intelligence and love pressing down on those who first encountered it and tried to embody it in writing; those who like Moses and Ezekiel found themselves overwhelmed by the sheer 'density' of divine presence, those who like St Paul found themselves dizzy with the number of connections and interrelations between God's acts over the ages and unable to put it all into a theory, only into a hymn. The temptation is always there for the modern translator to look for strategies that make the text more accessible; and when that temptation comes, it doesn't hurt to turn for a moment—for some long moments indeed—to this extraordinary text, with its continuing capacity to surprise us into seriousness, to acquaint us again with the weight of glory – and, we hope and pray, to send us back to the unending work of letting ourselves be changed so that we can bear just a little more of the light of the new world, full of grace and truth.

Christopher Southgate wrote a poem for the meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature here in London last July which captures much of this, and I end with its opening words:


So we listen in turn; and we walk into that forest, among the trees of life.

Read the details of the service here: http://noypistuff.blogspot.com/2011/11/king-james-bible-400th-anniversary.html