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Alicia Keys is pregnant and engaged Swizz Beatz. Keys and her producer-beau, Swizz Beatz, are “very happy” with the news. According to their reps, the couple is set to be wed “in a private ceremony later this year.” Alicia Keys, 29 year old, said “It is one of the most beautiful experiences to have in this life and I am looking forward to it when it is my time.” This is the first pregnancy of Keys and will be the third child of Beatz who had two sons from his previous relationships. The two sons of Kasseem Dean (real name of Swizz Beatz) are Kasseem Jr., 3, (from previous marriage to Mashonda Tifrere) and Prince Nasir, 9.

The couple had been together since fall of 2008. The announcement came after they attended a Black Ball in London for Keys’ “Keep a Child Alive” charity last May 27. They have a common bond for a long time career as Swizz Beatz served as Keys’ assistant chief in her album. They hit their intimacy when they were working on “Whitney Houston Million Dollar Bill.” 31 year old rapper Swizz Beatz is a music producer for artists like Beyonce, Jay-Z, JLO and Gwen Stefani.

Related posts:

1. Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys Engaged and Soon-to-be Parents
2. Alicia Keys pregnant and engaged to Swizz Beatz
3. Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz are now Engaged and will be having a Baby! What about Mashonda?

The sinking ship that is CNN is at the center another humiliating debacle.

The network has apologized after it broadcast the N-word during a tory about a 103-year-old Black woman who still gets behind the wheel to get around her Pennsylvania hometown.

And you thought the time they fell for the 140-year-old hot dog hoax was embarrassing!

For reasons that made sense at the time, the network opted to use the mid-90s Coolio track “Fantastic Voyage” to accompany the piece. The lyrics in the song include the words: ‘Ain’t no punk-ass n***gas set tripping.”

Anchor Kyra Phillips apologised for the use of the song and the racial slur later in the broadcast.

“We aired some music just a few minutes ago, and obviously for those of you that heard it, it was the wrong music that aired. We apologise for that. It was a terrible mistake. And we’re working very hard to make up for it.”

Is the massive oil spill that could wreck the Gulf Economy a black swan event?

BP keeps a 600-page Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Response Plan, with maps to show how far the oil could spread, what environmental regions it could devastate, and how quickly the company could deploy those controversial dispersants (via Shreveport Times).

Of course, the actual oil spill response has been pretty disappointing. It turns out BP analysts were lying to themselves about how bad it could get.

BP GOM facilities

Worst case spill range

Worst case spill range #2

Worst case spill range — seabed map

Worst case spill range #3

Chemical dispersant plan

Chemical dispersant plan #2

Threatened regions

Threatened regions #2

Threatened regions #3

Estimated response time: Florida

Estimated response time: Mississippi & Alabama

Estimated response time: East Louisiana

Estimated response time: West Louisiana

Estimated response time: Texas

Environmental risks

Environmental risks: Florida

Environmental risks: Louisiana

Environmental risks: Texas

Which Coast Guard office to call when a rig goes down

Don’t miss…

Nausea-Inducing Photos Of Oil Entering The Marsh

Join the conversation about this story »

Yesterday, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, or HELP, held a hearing to weigh the costs and benefits of funding certain ailing pension funds. Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) has proposed legislation to aid some pension funds fed by multiple employers, such as some Teamsters benefit plans. Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), who heads HELP, yesterday argued that allowing the plans to fail or slash benefits would be “catastrophic for working families”:

Although pensions are insured by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, the payout for insured benefits hasn’t increased in years, so many retirees would see their benefits slashed.  Plus, the collapse of any multiemployer pension plan places an incredible strain on an agency already beleaguered by fiscal woes, and the failure of a large plan could cripple the agency.

Congress has already taken steps to provide targeted, short-term relief to ease them through these tough economic times, and funding relief will surely help some of these plans remain afloat.  But for a handful of multiemployer plans, short-term funding relief simply isn’t enough. Those are the plans we are focusing on today — the minority of plans that are truly in dire straits. They find themselves bearing costs dumped on them by defunct employers that failed to pay their fair share while, at the same time, watching their contribution base shrink as industries and demographics change over time. Those plans need long-term help and systemic reforms. The challenges faced by multiemployer plans are real, and we need to face them head-on because, quite frankly, they are simply too big to ignore.

Casey’s Create Jobs and Save Benefits Act targets hard-stricken multiemployer pension plans, which have suffered during the recession as individual firms paying into the plan have gone belly-up or have withdrawn, leaving the other firms to shoulder bigger burdens. Casey argues that the remaining payees into the fund should not have to cover the “orphan employees” of collapsed firms, and suggests moving them into a new Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. fund — where the pension liabilities would be backed by taxpayers. But the PBGC is already running deficits. And any new bailouts, even to good causes, will have serious trouble getting past Congress’ deficit hawks.

Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) spoke out in opposition to the plan yesterday. “Workers should not be burdened with wondering whether or not their pensions are secure,” he said. “We must come up with a plan to overhaul the multiemployer pension system. But we should not do it piecemeal with just a very small handful of companies. Otherwise, the system will end up a house of cards. Congress is an enabler to this situation because it would rather kick the can down the road than try to resolve the difficult problems today. Instead of providing false hope to a few retirees, we must address this issue with the seriousness it deserves and overhaul the system.”

Multiemployer pension plans cover around a quarter of workers with a pension. Deficit hawks worry that bailing out some pensions would lead to a broader and much more expensive reform, adding tens of billions to the national debt. Casey estimates his plan would cost $8 billion over 10 years.

Byron writes:

Reformed “nice guy” here with some feedback and solution to a problem I’ve not yet seen in your experience.

Your blog so succinctly highlights the disparity between what women say they want and what turns them on. A crucial distinction that your haters fail to grasp. Sure (most) women want a beta provider but the best fuck doesn’t come after vacuuming the lounge room floor on a Saturday afternoon. It should be obvious to all but the most deluded denialists that this isn’t a rigid dichotomy but a perfect LTR partner can combine both to raise a brood and resist enough shit tests to maintain dignity and remain attractive.

Today I finally solved a common problem affecting this  urban PUA – separating a woman (an easy 8 in this case) from her iPod. She sat next to me on the bus carrying a fashion bag with a label, blithely plugged into her pod. I casually pulled out my phone to “check Facebook” and after a few moments of indifference, gave her a lascivious look up and down and interrupted her with “Hey, what’s that store name on your bag ?”

She unplugged to tell me and I replied “I’m just going to pick out your new season’s wardrobe.” I was rewarded with a brief grimace, she plugged back in and she spent the next few minutes alternating glances between me and the store’s webpage. The bus ride was too short for any close but it was a good chance for some nonverbal game (smiles, raised eyebrows, nods, rolling eyes at the lingerie page) and I had successfully won her attention. Negs, common interest, rapport, innuendo, all in a packed bus with nary a word spoken.

This isn’t a half bad pickup opener to use on girls on buses and subways. It looks a little disjointed on paper, but I can see this working in the field with the right facial expressions. Logistics would have to be favorable as well; you’d need to be sitting or standing next to the girl. The neg as opener is also a favored tactic of mine.

The bigger theme here is how to get the attention of girls who are essentially deaf to the outside world thanks to their use of personal media players. Walk down any street in the city on any given day and at least half the hotties you pass will either be zoned out with headphones in their ears or tappity-tapping away text messages on their phones. And I’m guilty of this too. I can hardly walk a few blocks without using my iPod to listen to Earth, Wind and Fire. The PMP revolution has been both a blessing and a curse for the urban womanizing warrior. Obviously, it makes it more difficult to grab a girl’s attention, but it also provides a DHV opportunity for the enterprising player who is willing and able to disarm the iPod obstacle. After all, the iPod has probably accounted for a 50% reduction in hookups because of all the men cockblocked by its presence. It’s every single girl’s substitute father figure brandishing a shotgun in your face.

It makes sense to think of iPods as the equivalent of cockblocks. Address the iPod first and disarm it. Make a nonverbal gesture with your hand to your ear signaling the girl to remove her earpiece. That’s one way to unplug her so she can hear you. Another way is to simply talk loudly enough so that the girl will be able to hear you over the dulcet tones of Karen O. Most girls will unplug if they think someone is trying to talk to them.

Opening girls who are walking down the sidewalk with iPods is more difficult. You’ve only got a brief window to catch her attention and she’s not going to hear you until you’re right on top of her. Nonverbally signaling her as you and her close distance is an option, but most girls are not going to remove their earpieces because some random dude walking toward them is gesturing for them to do so. You’d have to instead make strong eye contact and open your mouth as if you’re about to say something, as if you’re a tourist about to ask for directions. This is probably the most elegant way to cajole a girl to unplug so that she may fall victim to experience the full joy of your player charms.

Filed under: Game and Related Bloggers, The Big City Life

Asi es, desde hace unos días se encuentra a la venta el nuevo Nissan 370Z Roadster. Si queremos hacernos con este modelo, deberemos pagar los 52.000€ que cuesta.

Sobre la motorización de este vehículo, recordemos que hace uso de un motor 3.7 i V6 que desarrolla 328 CV de potencia. Esta motorización estará ligada a una caja de cambios manual de 6 velocidades.

Por otra parte, si lo deseamos, podremos elegir una caja de cambios automática de 7 velocidades aunque tendremos que sumar 2.400€ al precio del modelo. Sobre el equipamiento, de serie incluye ordenador de viaje, faros xenón, equipo de audio de alta calidad, tapizados en piel, sistema de navegación, climatizador y llantas de aleación.

Related posts:

1. Nissan 370Z Yellow solo en el Reino Unido
2. Nissan 370Z 40th Anniversary Edition solo en Estados Unidos
3. Nissan GT-R SpecV, comienza la pre-venta en Europa

It appears that the best-looking tuning kit for the Bmw X6 called Interceptor is coming from Russia! Forget about Hamann and Lumma, as the new kit will show an impressive design consisting of a new front bumper with four fog lights, new side sills, a rear trunk spoiler and a new rear bumper with integrated exhaust system and air diffuser. More details to be revealed! Until then, take a look at the photos after the jump!

[via cardesign]

Source: Car news, Car reviews, Spy shots

Filed under: Sedan, Europe, Safety, Technology, BMW, Diesel, Luxury

The new 2011 BMW 530d has easily passed its first crash test evaluation while using active emergency brake intervention. Like a number of other cars to come to market recently, the 5 Series is available with a radar-based active cruise control system that can use the brake system to manage vehicle speed and keep the car a safe distance from the vehicle in front. Recently these systems have been enhanced with emergency brake intervention that allows full braking force to be applied if crash is imminent – even when the cruise control is not being used.

However, current crash test procedures don’t allow for the activation of such systems. For example, in the European 40 mile per hour frontal offset test, the vehicle is expected to crash at 40 mph. In the real world, active braking would reduce the speed of the impact, likely reducing severity as well. However, applying full brakes also causes the nose to pitch down and the cars occupants to shift position can alter the test’s results.

As more cars get these types of systems, they need to be accounted for in crash testing, and BMW is working with German testing agency DEKRA to develop new procedures. Check out the official press release after the jump.

[Source: BMW]

Continue reading BMW 530d passes crash test using emergency brake intervention

BMW 530d passes crash test using emergency brake intervention originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 28 May 2010 11:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Can we all agree that Red Dead Redemption is one of Rockstar’s finest games? It’s probably one of the best games of this generation, too. A 30-minute short film based on the game, directed by the guy (John Hillcoat) who directed The Road (good) and The Proposition (great), debuts tomorrow night on the Fox network at midnight. Set your DVR. Here we have a short trailer (that I should have posted yesterday).

Erica Kane’s airplane just took a nosedive on ABC’s once-great, now-middling soap All My Children, but that’s nothing compared to what’s about to happen to the network’s sister cable channel, SoapNet. It’s going bye-bye. For good. And excuse the well-worn expression, but hell hath no fury like a soap fan scored. First, a bit of background: Parent company Disney just announced it will take over SoapNet’s space on the TV dial with a 24-hour preschool channel. Instead of reruns of General Hospital and One Life to Live, viewers will be "treated" to Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Jungle Junction when the network transforms into Disney Junior in 2012. (Maybe it really is the apocalypse?) The bottom line for business, obviously, is that soaps are aging and dying (as are their fans—sorry!), and there’s much more upside to a cable net dedicated to tots and their tchotchke-demanding ways. Inculcate them early, and they’ll be Disnified for life, or so the thinking goes. Soaps, on the other hand, don’t sell a lot of swag, even if you count the Erica Kane Barbie doll (yes, there is one). SoapNet, for its part, is trying to be upbeat about it all, with a chatty glass-half-full feature on its homepage. "You get 18 more months of SoapNet," it says, towing the company line. Fans, meanwhile, are having none of it. "I am totally disgusted and appalled by this decision," says one. "This bites," says another. Diehards are threatening to boycott Disney and/or start some viral campaign to keep the network. I hate to tell them they’re probably swimming upstream, but go ahead and vent, fanatics. It might be more satisfying than counting the Lost rip-offs in All My Children.

—Posted by T.L. Stanley

After his Counter-Strike character died in a knife fight, 20-year-old Julien Barreaux spent six months tracking down the virtual killer. Then he grabbed a real kitchen knife and paid the man a visit. More »










Counter-Strike – History – Julien Barreaux – Working Class – Web Design and Development

I love maps and I love subway maps. New York City is the largest in the world, with 660 miles of tracks, and it just got a new map. It is not the one you are seeing above. More »










New York City – Subway – Urban Transport – Transportation and Logistics – Transit Systems

The bones of our ancestors do not speak across time with ultimate clarity. The fossils with which scientists reconstruct our family tree are often fragments that offer hints and clues to where we came from. So it comes as no surprise when, as part of the flow of science, researchers offer counter-interpretations to even the most famous of finds.

That’s what happening to Ardi.

Last October Ardipithecus ramidus hit the main stage when, after 17 years of study, a large team led by paleoanthropologist Tim White published its work in the journal Science. The 4.4-million-year-old find shakes up our understanding of our own history, White said—primarily the story of how and when we learned to walk.

Ardi cast doubt on the widely accepted view that our ancestors became bipeds because they left the forest and entered a flatland savanna habitat that demanded it. But Ardi appeared to be a kind of hybrid, comfortable in the trees and on the ground. And, White said, analysis of the site where the fossil was found indicated that Ardi lived in a woodland habitat. If it’s true that early humans walked in the woods, then the “savanna hypothesis” would be swept away.

But not so fast. In today’s edition of Science, two teams of scientists respond (1, 2) with doubts about the story of Ardi.

The question of Ardi’s habitat was raised by Thure E. Cerling, a geochemist at the University of Utah, and seven other geologists and anthropologists. They said they used the White team’s own data for soils and silica from ancient plants, and found it did not support an interpretation that Ardi lived in thick woods. Instead, Dr. Cerling’s group said, “We find the environmental context of Ar. ramidus at Aramis to be represented by what is commonly referred to as tree- or bush-savanna, with 25 percent or less woody canopy cover” [The New York Times].

The second paper questions whether Ardi is really an early human at all, rather than a member of the chimpanzee line.

Ardi’s age is so close to that divergence date that no unequivocal determination can be made about whether she is in the ape or human lineage, says [primatologist Esteban] Sarmiento, who conducts research from home in East Brunswick, New Jersey. But White and co-authors disagree. In their response, the group says Sarmiento’s “tortuous, nonparsimonius evolutionary pathways” are not supported by many of the fossil’s characteristics [Nature].

White and colleagues issued responses to both questions (1, 2) in the same issue, and struck back in the press, too.

If Ardi were really ancestral to chimps, certain features of its teeth, pelvis, and skull would have had to later evolve back to their more ape-like conditions, an “evolutionary reversal that’s highly unlikely,” White said in an interview [AP].

White is sticking to his guns regarding Ardi’s habitat, too. While it’s true that the fossil record seems to show grasses where Ardi lived, there are also many fossils of forest-dwelling animals that suggest a wooded area, he argues.

Related Content:
The Loom: Ardipithecus: We Meet at Last
DISCOVER: Meet Ardi, Your First Human Ancestor
DISCOVER: The 2% Difference examines what sets us apart from chimpanzees
80beats: A Fossil Named Ardi Shakes Up Humanity’s Family Tree
80beats: No Tarzans Here: Earliest Humans Quickly Lost Their Ape-Like Climbing Abilities

Image: J.H. Matternes

If you guys haven’t heard already, there are reports going around that Ford Motor Company executives are working on a plan to kill the Mercury brand. The plan will be presented to directors in July. Sales of the brand have dropped 74 percent since 2000 and that leads us to believe that no one really cares to even consider the brand while shopping for a new car. Are we wrong? Let us know whether or not you would consider Mercury when shopping for a new vehicle and if you really care that the future may not have any Mercury cars on the roads.

For those of you wondering, Mercury currently offers only four models with the Milan (which is based on the Ford Fusion) being the only one to get a total redesign since God knows when. Other than that you have the Mountaineer, Mariner and the Grand Marquis.

Let us know your thoughts in the comments section after the jump.

– By: Omar Rana

The whole “cyberterorrism” fear mongering is being taken to even more extreme levels. At the Strategic Command Cyber Symposium, William Lynn III, the deputy defense secretary apparently told the audience that companies who operate critical infrastructure need to let the US install monitoring equipment or it puts everyone at risk. The NSA has apparently developed a monitoring system called Einstein (I wonder if they paid the license fee), and want to let companies “opt-in” to installing the gov’t’s system on their own systems, or face the “wild west” and put everyone at risk. This sounds like blatant fear mongering to let the government tap into all sorts of private infrastructure systems. After all, the government has shown, time and time again, that once it gets access to information, it doesn’t take those whole “oversight” or “privacy rights” issues particularly seriously.

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Filed under: Etc., Humor

As a nation, we’re pretty attached to our cars. Thanks to generations of poor civil planning and rampant urban sprawl, we’ve come to need personal transportation like most civilizations require fresh water. Turns out we aren’t the only ones, though. Our amiable neighbors to the north seem to be just as hooked on the automobile as their surly cousins down south. A new survey of Canadian drivers has found that car owners would gladly give up a number of essentials before parking their car once and for all – including sex.

According to The Toronto Star, the study found that two percent of the population would rather give up sex and just one percent chose driving as the thing they could go without, while 14 percent of those tallied would sacrifice coffee and 36 percent would ditch junk food.

The survey was organized by the World Wildlife Fund as a way to get people thinking about the benefits, both financially and environmentally, of taking public transportation. Of those surveyed, nearly 30 percent said that they always drive wherever they’re going. Our guess is that number would be significantly steeper if the survey took place here in the land of the deep-fried free.

[Source: The Toronto Star]

Survey: More Canadians would go without sex than cars. Canuck that! originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 28 May 2010 10:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It seems Sledgehammer Games isn’t straying too far off the beaten path for their upcoming Call of Duty game. The job listings on their website indicate that they’re working on a CoD FPS.