Movie Review - S.W.A.T.

This police thriller is possibly the best in Hollywood. The plot features Colin Farrell as SWAT officer Jim Street, partner to Brian Gamble, thwart a bank robbery, but at the cost of their jobs. Gamble is suspended from the LAPD, while Street only gets suspended from SWAT. The plot seems to be very confusing for the first half of the movie, but as the second half progresses on, the plot relaly takes flight, climaxing with tons of action and edge-of-your-seat drama. Street later gets recruited back into SWAT by Sgt. Hondo, played by Samuel L. Jackson. When Alex Montell, a fugitive drug dealer wanted in more than ten different countries attempts to bust out of the LAPD jail, Hondo and his team are charged with the difficult task of escorting Montell to a federal prison to await prosecution. The task gets even harder when Montell offers $100 million to save him. The movie's action scenes are perfect, though camera angles are sort of all over the place, breaking the "180 degree rule" in filming, thus rendering the audience disoriented at times. The intro is long, tedious, and not required. It seems like a waste of time for the first half, but as soon as the second half kicks off, the plot is amazingly spectacular and well-thought out. 4 stars given for bad camera angles, okay plot, and EXTRAORDINARY action scenes.

Feds Lone AIG $85 Billion

Yesterday marked a dark day for the stock market, with the Dow Jones crashing 500 points following news of the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers. Now the biggest insurance company in the nation, American International Group Co., or AIG, is failing as well. In order to save the ailing company, the U.S. government agreed to fund $85 billion to the company in order to prevent a chaotic stock market crash. The failure of AIG could lead to more destruction in the already fragile economy, as well as "substantially higher borrowing costs, reduced household wealth, and materially weaker economic performance." In return for the loan, the Fed will receive a 79.9% equity stake in the company.

"It might not just bring down other financial institutions in the U.S. It could bring down overseas financial institutions," said Timothy Canova, a professor of international economic law at Chapman University School of Law. "If Lehman Brother's failure could help trigger AIG's going down, who knows who AIG's failure could trigger next.*"

*Taken from Yahoo!

Schwarzenegger Making History

The state of California, run by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, has been in turmoil over it's state budget plan for a while now. California is the only state with out a state budget plan this late in the fiscal year. Schwarzenegger and lawmakers have been battling it out since the beginning of the fiscal year, with Schwarzenegger threatening to veto any legislature until a state budget bill is passed. California is now about $15 billion in debt. Lawmakers finally approved a $143 billion dollar budget plan on the 78th day of the fiscal year. The delay has costed many state employees their jobs, with Schwarzenegger cutting 20,000 state jobs and making 200,000 other state employees being paid at the federal minimum wage. The cuts have yet to be made, since authorities have not yet acted, determined to undermine the governor's plans.

Yet even with the budget plan, Schwarzenegger announced today that he will veto the state budget plan, claiming that the long-overdue spending plan lawmakers approved lacked long-term fiscal reforms and would burden taxpayers. Senate leaders have already announced that they will override the governor's veto.

If Schwarzenegger follows through on his threat, it would mark the first time in modern history that a California governor would veto a state spending plan.*

*Taken from Yahoo!

HP To Cut Jobs

Among news of the financila crisis in the stock markets today, Hewlett-Packard has announced that it is making plans to cut 24,600 jobs within the next three years, 8% of its workforce. The plans were announced today after the stock market closed. The move is designed to cut costs as HP combines with newly bought Electronic Data Systems Corp.

The cuts represent the Palo Alto-based company's most aggressive move yet to streamline its operations under Chief Executive Mark Hurd, who engineered the $13.9 billion acquisition to challenge IBM Corp. for more of the lucrative, long-term business of helping companies manage their computing infrastructure.*

Most job cuts will be within EDSs ranks, though half of the jobs will be from the U.S. HP projects that it will save nearly $1.8 billion a year with the cuts. They are however, planning to refill half of the positions after the restructuring. Before the merging, HP had 178,000 people and EDS had 142,000, a total of 320,000 workers.

US Economy Plunges

Today was a hectic day on Wall Street, with the Dow Jones plunging more than 500 points. The stock market estimated a $700 billion dollar loss for shareholders today, among news that the third biggest mortgage company Lehman Brothers has filed for bankruptcy, as well as a forced sale by Merrill Lynch to Bank Of America for $50 billion. This day is marked as one of the worst for the stock market since 2001. Wall Street investors are now holding their breaths for the American International Group Inc., also known as AIG. Investors are worried that troubles at AIG and the bankruptcy of the Lehman brothers will set off another chain of events with in the financial market, causing more uproar and devastation to the already plunging US Economy.

The Dow fell 504.48, or 4.42 percent, to 10,917.51, moving below the 11,000 mark for the first time since mid-July. It was the worst point drop for the Dow since it lost 684.81 on Sept. 17, 2001, the first day of trading after the terror attacks. The Nasdaq composite index fell 81.36, or 3.60 percent, to 2,179.91; that was its worst point loss since Jan. 4.*

*Taken off Yahoo!

NBA News

This week has been hectic for the National Basketball Association, who is now faced with the possibility of a star player ending his career to early and a former player being documented and known to the world.

Saturday, September 13th, 2008, marked the day that Phoenix Suns center Shaquille O'Neal foreshadowed his retirement. He has already put a deadline on his retirement, at the end of his contract, which is the 09-10 NBA season. Shaq's career, which has taken a turn for the worse since he left the Lakers, has been somewhat diminished to that of a lower status NBA player (if there is a such thing.)

Also in NBA news, a documentary on another NBA player has got the nation hyped. Fairly unknown NBA star Wat Misaka played for the New York Knicks for a short time, breaking one of the racial barriers of the NBA. In a time when the NBA was dominated by whites and Americans, and at the peak of an anti-japanese era, Misaka was able to play in the NBA and show the world that you don't have to be american to be good at basketball. The new documentary, titled “Transcending: The Wat Misaka Story,” is about how this son of two japanese immigrants lived, and the hardships he faced because of his ethnicity. Misaka played for the Knicks for the first two weeks of the season, before he was cut early. He set this milestone 61 years ago, 3 years earlier then when the NBA started accepting blacks. The documentary took two years to film, and will be showing next week in San Francisco, Sacremento, and Los Angeles.

Metrolink Crash Kills 18

Early Friday a Los Angeles Metrolink train crashed into a freight train, killing 18 and injurng 135 more. Rescue workers are still searching the rubble for survivors. Many injured are in serious or critical condition. They crashed in Chatsworth, a suburb near Los Angeles. Among the crash was a LAPD officer as well. Metrolink has said that the crash was caused by the train Engineer when he had failed to stop at a red light. The engineer had worked for a subcontracter that has been used by Metrolink since 1998.

Fire chief Mario Rueda said the finding of any survivors left in the crash is "very remote." The last survivor was pulled out Friday night. The impact rammed the Metrolink engine backward into a passenger car, which rested on its side with the engine still inside it early Saturday, and accordioned the freight train cars. Two other Metrolink cars remained upright. Crews had to put out a fire under part of the train.*

*Taken off yahoo!

Russians Withdrawing

Many Russian troops are beginning to pull back from temporary bases near the Black Sea port of Poti. The Russians are honoring their ceasefire deal with a partial pullout from Western Georgia. However, Georgia, like other western nations, are asking for a full pull out to positions held before the war, which broke out a month ago, due to conflicts with Georgia and breakaway province South Ossentia. "They have fulfilled the commitment" to withdraw from the area by Sept. 15 under an agreement European Union leaders reached with Russia last week, Georgian Security Council chief Alexander Lomaia said*. The Russians still have about 1,200 Russian servicemen are still at 19 different checkpoints, with 12 outside South Ossentia and seven outside Abkhazia. Russia said it would pull them out by Oct. 11 as long as 200 European Union observers are deployed to strips of territory surrounding the two separatist regions by Oct. 1.*

*Taken off Yahoo!

Hurricane Ike Report

After Hurricane Ike blew across Texas overnight, leaving billions of dollars in damage and a few dead. Officials report that the water only peaked at 13.5 feet, which is a lot better than the forecasted 20-25 feet. The state had already been evacuated. Ike roared ashore at 110 winds mph. Rescue crews were frustrated, but vowed to get to the more than 140,000 people who stubbornly stayed behind as soon as they could. Governor Rick Perry had already gave a strong warning to all residents to evacute. Some people stayed in order to protect their neighborhoods from theft.

Featured Video - What I've Done

Today's featured video is the music video for Linkin Park's "What I've Done" This was the hit single in their newest album, Minutes to Midnight. Also in this album was Shadow of the Day, which won the MTV VMAs Best Rock Music Video award. Their website is http://www.youtube.com/linkinparktv.

Chinese Health Incident

The latest chinese criticism comes with a health report saying that a milk powder was sent out on the market, even when the company had knowledge that the powder contained Melamine, a chemical rich in Nitrogen. The powder was sent out to Taiwan, but none to foreign markets. Chinese state run Xin-Hua News Agency has reported that one baby has died and 432 others are infected. The powder is likely to cause kidney stones in infants. The milk was supplied by Sanlu Group Co., the largest supplier of milk powder in the nation.

The government has sent out doctors from Beijing who will pay and treat the infected babies. Officials seized 2,176 tons of the formula, and ordered a recall of another 8,218 tons. That's 700 more tons than the previous recall ordered by Sanlu. Beijing has also launched an emergency inspection of 175 other companys that produce the formula as well. The dairy had received complaints in March and June, but intial tests were done only in August. Because of this delay, many lives have been affect that could've been saved.

Featured Video - (en) 이불 "Lee Bul" - 영원 "Forever" Official MV (HQ)

Today's video is a korean song written by Lee Bul. It's just a preview of korean style music videos, and how they are so different from American videos. American videos have chaotic scenes and dramatic effects. Korean videos are still pretty basic while capturing the whole effect of the song. It's been subtitled in english by CJWTown, which I have found to be a pretty good source of Korean shows. Their website is http://cjwforums.co.nr. They also subtitle the very good show "We Got Married"

Closed for a week

Zamble will be closed for a week due to personal conflicts. Monitoring two sites and three blogs is getting tiring, so I will be closing down the ones that aren't as important.

Featured Artist - Britney Spears

Today's featured artist is the MTV VMAs choice for Best Female Video, Best Pop Video, and Video Of The Year. Britney's life has been plagued with paparazzi troubles, as it seems like the whole world is out to get her. Though her video for "Piece Of Me" was actually the video that won, the video was unable to be embedded on this blog. Her website is http://www.britney.com/.

Video unable to be embedded.

Schwarzenegger Being Recalled

Mike Jimenez, president of the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, said that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has been a failure since the last governor, who was also recalled in 2003. Jimenez claimed that the union was seeking a recall vote against Schwarzenegger because its 300,000 some-odd members have gone two years without new labor contracts and "because Schwarzenegger didn't exempt its members from an executive order intended to reduce pay for tens of thousands of state employees to deal with the state's budget crisis. Many guards increase their salaries significantly with overtime." The union would need about one million signatures to put a recall vote on the ballot.

Schwarzenegger's executive order to reduce pay for some 175,000 state workers to the federal minimum wage of $6.55 an hour has not taken effect because the state controller has refused to comply.*

*Article taken from Yahoo! Click on blog title to link to original article.

Mortgage Rates Drop

The government took control of mortgage titans Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, who alone control nearly half of the US mortgage market. The move was made to protect the falling US economy. The average interest rate for a 30-year fixed rate mortgage dropped 0.3 of a percentage point to 6.04 on Monday, according to HSH Associates, and are expected to decline a little more in the coming weeks*. The US has faced huge amounts of foreclosures the last few years, causing a rapid decline in the US market.

*Taken off Yahoo! For original article, click blog title.

Featured Video - Linkin Park ~ Shadow of the Day

Today's featured video is the VMAs best rock music video. Linkin Park's Shadow of the Day was featured in their third album, Minutes to Midnight. The album also featured such hits as "Leave Out All The Rest" and "What I've Done" Linkin Park's previous two albums were Hybrid Theory and Meteora. Their website is http://www.youtube.com/user/linkinparktv.

Featured Artist - Asa The Comic

Today's feaured artist is Asathecomic. He likes to "philosiphize" and "comede" while sending out a serious topic. However, parent discretion is advised, since Asa tends to talk about adult cases and uses explicit language. Most teens wouldn't and shouldn't watch asa, but they still do. He loves to use green screen and sound effects that are HILARIOUS. His website is http://www.youtube.com/asathecomic.

Olympian Released

Former Olympian Marion Jones was released from prison today. She was serving a six-month term for lying about her steroid use. She had to forfeit the three gold medals and two silver medals she won in the 2000 Sydney games after her steroid use was admitted. She admitted that she used a steroid known as "the clear" from September 2000 to July 2001.

Good-Bye Jenny

The oldest gorilla in capitivity died today at the age of 55. The gorilla, named Jenny, lived in the Dallas Zoo. She was ethuanized on Thursday night because of an inoperable tumor in her stomach. Jenny already stopped eating and drinking, and studies showed she was unlikely to recover from the tumor. Gorillas in the wild normally live to age 30 or 35, but they can survive years longer in a zoo, with veterinary care and protection from predators. Still, of the roughly 360 gorillas in North American zoos, only four were over 50 as of this spring*.

The new oldest gorilla is 51 year old Colo, who lives in the Columbus Zoo. She was born into captivity.Last month, 43 year old Hercules died in a surgical spine procedure.

Self-Learning Helicopter

A new age of AI technology has gone to new extents. The technology, located in a remote control helicopter, allows the copter to "learn" new tricks by just watching other helicopters. "The result is an autonomous helicopter than can perform a complete airshow of complex tricks on its own, its inventors say*." The copter can do all sorts of tricks, such as flips, loops, and rolls.

The stunts are "by far the most difficult aerobatic maneuvers flown by any computer-controlled helicopter," said Andrew Ng, a Stanford University professor directing the research of graduate students Pieter Abbeel, Adam Coates, Timothy Hunter and Morgan Quigley*.

"I think the range of maneuvers they can do is by far the largest" in the autonomous helicopter field, said Eric Feron, a Georgia Tech aeronautics and astronautics professor who worked on autonomous helicopters while at MIT. "But what's more impressive is the technology that underlies this work. In a way, the machine teaches itself how to do this by watching an expert pilot fly. This is amazing."*

* Articles taken directly from Yahoo. Blog title links to original article.

Featured Video - Exploding Water Heater

Today's video features TV's Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman, AKA the Mythbusters. These former special effects artists use their knowledge of science and technology to make most things explode. They leave a wake of destruction in their path while debunking the most well-known myths known to man. Enjoy the carnage in this episode, where they see what happens when a water heater blows up due to neglection. Their website is http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/mythbusters/mythbusters.html.

Plane Pops A Tire

An American Airlines Boeing 737 made an emergency landing at LAX today after the pilot reported a malfunction with the left landing gear. The plane was headed towards Toronto. AA has reported 5 crew members and 130 passengers aboard the plane. The plane was safely returned back to LAX shortly after takeoff.

Featured Video - Jonas Brothers ~ Burning Up

Today's featured video is for the teens and kids out there. This trio of brothers have risen to fame through disney, much like teen sensation Miley Cyrus. They have released many top selling albums. Nick; 14, Joe; 17, and Kevin; 19, form their own band, with a guitarist, a drummer, and a singer. Here you guys go. Their website is http://www.jonasbrothers.com/.