Drop Zone Only

Vanilla Ice at a ONE DIRECTION Concert!?

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 16:20:00 +0000

Fans Celebrate the 30th Anniversary of ET

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 12:30:00 +0000

Japanese Man Climbs World's 14 Tallest Peaks

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 14:29:00 +0000

Today in History for June 2nd

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Sat, 02 Jun 2012 16:02:00 +0000

Envoy Annan 'horrified' by Syria Massacre

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Mon, 28 May 2012 18:06:00 +0000

Police: 3 Face Terror Charges Ahead of NATO

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Sat, 19 May 2012 20:07:00 +0000

Paris Hilton paparazzi frenzy at Mr. Chow

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Fri, 04 May 2012 11:11:00 +0000

Kim Kardashian and Kanye West's NYC Date Part 2!

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 20:03:00 +0000

Crystal Renn's Shocking Weight Loss

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 16:50:00 +0000

Heidi Klum Dating Thomas Hayo?

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 19:46:00 +0000

Dennis Rodman Is Sick, Broke & Headed For Jail

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 21:35:00 +0000

Lionel Richie On Being Nelson Mandela's Stylist

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 00:25:00 +0000

Lindsay Lohan Hits Person With Car & Flees!

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 15:52:00 +0000

Cattle smuggling ends in torture along India border

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 01:25:00 +0000

Raw Video: Monkey Thought Extinct 'Rediscovered'

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 01:22:00 +0000

Shit Black Guys Say To White Snowmen

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 00:37:00 +0000

"Haywire" actress could "break you in half"

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 00:34:00 +0000

David Letterman - $#*! Dana Carvey's Dad Says

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 22:40:00 +0000

Trend Alert: Nude Fashion!

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 22:07:00 +0000

Michael Ealy Joins New "Underworld" Cast

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 22:05:00 +0000

Minelli, Pacino among victims of bankrupt investment company

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 18:52:00 +0000

NEW YORK, Feb 17 (Reuters Legal) – A celebrity investment firm filed for bankruptcy on Thursday, listing entertainers such as Liza Minnelli, Al Pacino, Paul Simon, TV interviewer Barbara Walters and film producer Harvey Weinstein among hundreds of creditors.

Starr & Company LLC and Starr Investment Advisors LLC filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy less than a year after its founder Kenneth Starr pleaded guilty to bilking millions of dollars from investors.

Other famous figures listed in the creditor claims include the photographer Richard Avedon, the author Cormac McCarthy and a company representing the late composer Leonard Bernstein.

Starr, 67, who is facing a prison sentence of between 10 and 12 years, stole between $20 million and $50 million from his clients in a Ponzi scheme, according to court documents.

It is unclear how much each creditor can recover in the bankruptcy proceedings, or whether any money is left for the court to distribute. The assets listed in the bankruptcy filing, about $140,000 plus some artwork, would be first distributed to priority creditors, who include dozens of employees.

Last year, the New York Post reported that some people, including Pacino and Walters, had withdrawn their investments shortly before Starr was arrested. But Pacino and Walters were among those listed as creditors in the bankruptcy filings.

Starr's lawyer has urged the court to be lenient when deciding sentence, saying her client was unlikely to outlive a 10-year spell behind bars.

Tweet it from Everest: "OMG! we're halfway up!"

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 15:24:00 +0000

KATMANDU, Nepal – You can't get away from a cell phone call, even at the top of the world.

Thanks to 3G towers newly installed near Mount Everest's base camp, explorers can surf the Web, tweet and post Facebook updates without worrying that their signals will disappear into thin air.

The new high-speed service, announced Friday by Ncell, a subsidiary of Swedish telecom company TeliaSonera, will allow mountaineers setting off to the summit of the world's tallest mountain to access wireless Internet and make video calls to family, friends and supporters.

"You know, I think it's kind of good and kind of bad, but to me it's kind of inevitable," said renowned climber Ed Viesturs, frequently described as the strongest U.S. high-altitude mountaineer.

The 51-year-old veteran of seven climbs to Everest's 29,035-foot summit said the new technology is not for him.

"I'm kind of old school," said Viesturs, who has climbed all 14 of the world's highest peaks. "But you can imagine the newer generation saying, 'No, bring it on. The more the better.'"

Every year, thousands of trekkers from all over the world walk to Everest's base camp at 17,000 feet, and hundreds of mountaineers take on the arduous and dangerous route to the summit.

Until now, they were forced to carry heavy — and expensive — satellite equipment to transmit information and images from base camp. On the climb, mountaineers carry handheld VHF radios to talk with base camp, though an expedition might also carry a satellite phone to contact sponsors and family.

For 25-year-old Leif Whittaker, who summited Everest for the first time in May — calling his mother on the descent, using a satellite phone — the advantage comes down to being able to easily phone home.

"Just being able to communicate with your family and friends would make it a lot easier to spend two months in a tent away from home," said Whittaker, whose father, Jim Whittaker, was the first American to summit Everest.

But there is a risk that it could be a dangerous distraction, the Port Townsend, Washington, resident said. When attempting the summit, "you need to stay focused in the moment."

Dave Hahn, who has climbed Everest 12 times, more than any other American, noted that the north side base camp in Tibet has had cell service for several years, but not the south side in Nepal.

The 48-year-old from Taos, N.M., said that when he first climbed Everest in 1991, he had equipment that allowed him to transmit lines of Telex. "That was pretty high-tech in 1991."

And in 1999, when Hahn was on the expedition that found the body of legendary English mountaineer George Mallory, who died on Everest in 1924: "I remember sitting up all night figuring out how to send the photos out in big enough resolution."

That will be a thing of the past now. But might Facebook, Twitter and the high-pitched sound of dozens of cell phones ringing cheapen the experience?

"I hear that all the time," Hahn said. "And what can you say? Things change that way. And those of us who've beamed home pictures and stories from the place, well, we've accelerated that change."

Gordon Janow, who helps set up base camps for expeditions led by Alpine Ascents International of Seattle, agreed.

Trekkers in the lower elevations of the Himalayas also use cell phones, and "I don't know if it's good or bad," he said. "It was one of the few places you could go and lose yourself from the world."

Japan protests to China over boats near islands

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 16:50:00 +0000

TOKYO — Japan said Monday it had lodged a protest with China after spotting two of its fisheries patrol boats near a disputed island chain at the centre of a bitter row between the Asian giants.

"Last night around 9:00 pm (1200 GMT) our coastguard sighted them and afterwards the two (Chinese ships) left there and sailed north toward China," Japan's top government spokesman Yoshito Sengoku said Monday.

"After the incident we launched a protest through diplomatic channels," Sengoku, the chief cabinet secretary, told a regular press conference.

Beijing and Tokyo have been locked in their worst spat in years that started after Japan arrested a Chinese trawler captain on September 8 near the uninhabited island chain in the East China Sea.

Amid the row nationalist street demonstrations have been held in both countries, with protesters again rallying in China at the weekend, chanting anti-Japanese slogans and calling for boycotts of Japanese goods.

The row started when Japan arrested the Chinese captain near the Japan-administered islands, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, after his ship had collided with two of its coastguard vessels.

China reacted with a barrage of diplomatic protests and snubs and other punitive steps and first dispatched two of its own fisheries patrol boats on September 23 to waters near the islands.

It withdrew the boats after Japan released the captain, but last week Japanese media reported that China had again dispatched boats on October 14, with the aim of "protecting the legal rights of Chinese fishermen".

The Japanese government spokesman reiterated Tokyo's position in the row over the islands, which are located in rich fishing grounds and near suspected gas deposits, in waters between Japan's Okinawa island and Taiwan.

"There is no doubt at all that the Senkaku Islands are an integral part of Japanese territory historically and under international law," he said.

"We are going to continue taking the necessary precautions and (conducting) surveillance."

Asked about the wording of the protest, Sengoku said Japan told China that it disapproved of its ships sailing near the islands, saying: "What's the purpose? Such activities are no good, are they? We have told them this."

The two economic giants and major trade partners have at various times in recent weeks sought to de-escalate the row.

Japan's Prime Minister Naoto Kan held a brief meeting with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in Brussels early this month, and officials in Tokyo say both countries are seeking to arrange a formal summit later this week in Vietnam.

6.7-magnitude aftershock hits Chile coast: USGS

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 04:59:00 +0000

WASHINGTON — A 6.7-magnitude aftershock has struck off Chile's coast, some 72 kilometers (45 miles) from Concepcion, among the cities hardest hit by last month's 8.8-magnitude quake, US seismologists said.

The US Geological Survey said the quake hit at a depth of 35 kilometers (21.7 miles) at 0222 GMT Tuesday, but no tsunami watch was issued.

"No destructive widespread tsunami threat exists based on historical earthquake and tsunami data," the monitoring office said.

"However, earthquakes of this size sometimes generate local tsunamis that can be destructive," it added.

A tsunami that followed the massive February 27 quake in Chile wiped out entire coastal villages.

Questions over why a tsunami warning was not issued more quickly after that temblor led to the firing of the head of Chile's navy Oceanography Service.

The latest aftershock was one of over 200 to rock the South American nation since the February quake.

'I'm in perfect health,' says Brazil's Lula after scare

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 08:15:00 +0000

SAO PAULO — "I'm in perfect health," Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Saturday, following medical tests and a blood pressure scare that forced him to cancel a trip to Davos, Switzerland.

"I'm going to improve the quality of my diet," the 64-year-old leader told reporters outside a Sao Paulo cardiac clinic that carried out the tests.

But, he insisted, "I'm going to keep traveling" as planned throughout the rest of the year -- his last months in power before handing over the reins to a successor to be chosen in October elections.

Lula's aides described the tests as an overdue routine check-up.

Early Thursday, Lula was taken off his jet readying to leave the northern city of Recife for the World Economic Forum in Davos and rushed to hospital, where he was put under observation for several hours.

Doctors said he had experienced sudden high blood pressure, likely the results of a flu and an intense work schedule.

Lula rested in his private residence outside Sao Paulo until the new tests, which were carried out under the supervision of his personal doctor.

Immediately after leaving the clinic, Lula returned to Brasilia to spend the rest of the weekend in his official residence. He was to resume his work schedule on Monday.