Originally posted by darthnip:

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leeeaviiiing????? there will be no leaving muhuhahahahahahahah.....

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Originally posted by darthnip:

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leeeaviiiing????? there will be no leaving muhuhahahahahahahah.....

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(CNN) -- Officials at Virginia Tech said Monday that they thought the situation was under control during the hours between two shootings that claimed 33 lives.

"We concluded first that the incident in Ambler Johnston [dormitory] was domestic in nature. In fact we had some reason to think the shooter had left campus," Virginia Tech President Charles Steger said during a late-afternoon news conference.

Police in Blacksburg, Virginia, were alerted to the shootings at around 7:15 a.m. ET, when they were notified in a 911 call that there were several victims in a dormitory, Steger said. (Watch why SWAT trainer said cops needed to rush in Video)

At about 9:15 a.m., more than 30 shots were reported in nearby Norris Hall, he said.

One student told CNN that he was upset with the way the university notified students about the shooting.

"I'll say on the record I'm outraged that someone died in a shooting in a dorm at 7 in the morning. The first e-mail about it, no mention of locking down campus, no mention of canceled classes, they just mention they're investigating a shooting a few hours later at 9:26," said student Jason Piatt.

"Meanwhile, while they sent out that e-mail, [more] people got killed."

According to The Associated Press, the e-mail read:

"A shooting incident occurred at West Amber Johnston earlier this morning. Police are on the scene and are investigating. The university community is urged to be cautious and are asked to contact Virginia Tech Police if you observe anything suspicious or with information on the case. Contact Virginia Tech Police at 231-641. Stay attuned to the www.vt.edu. We will post as soon as we have more information."

Other students complained about the timing of warnings.

"We were kept in the dark a lot about exactly what was going on," Andrew Capers Thompson, a 22-year-old graduate student from Walhalla, South Carolina, told the AP.

Steger defended the university's reaction to the first shooting.

Steger said that soon after the dorm shooting the university used a telephone alert system to notify resident assistants of the tragedy and sent out e-mails to help notify the students who lived on- and off-campus. He also said warning sirens went off.

Officials said 9,000 of Virginia Tech's 26,000 students live in residence halls.

Steger said the university will review how it reacted to Monday's events.

"But it's one of these things that no one anticipated and you have to remember that you can only make the decision based on the information that you know at that moment in time," he said. "And you don't have hours to reflect on it, you have to take immediate action."

The school's lockdown system worked very well,Steger said. Students were cooperative and very few people were out after the lockdown, he said.

Virginia Tech Police Chief Wendell Flinchum said his office will investigate to see if the shootings were related to two bomb threats that were called in recently.

In the first, on April 3, university officials closed down Torgersen Hall and a main gateway to the campus after a written note threatened the 100,000-square-foot building, according to the Roanoke Times.

The school canceled classes in the building and sent bomb-sniffing dogs in to check it out. No device was found.

The second incident took place Friday, according to WTVR in Richmond, which reported that a bomb threat forced closures of Torgersen, Durham and Whittimore halls. The buildings were closed over the weekend and reopened only in time for classes Monday morning, according to the New River Valley Times.

The university has offered a $5,000 reward for information about the bomb threats.

"We're looking into that to see if they are or are not connected," he said. "It's certainly a possibility we're exploring. "

Copyright 2007 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Britney v. Leo | Candy Spelling | Julian Lennon

Britney More Charitable Than Leo

Britney Spears gave almost as much money in 2005 to the phony baloney Kabbalah Centre in Hollywood as Leonardo DiCaprio contributed in total to charitable causes.

Indeed, Spears ? who just settled her expensive divorce from Kevin Federline ? forked over $30,000 to Spirituality for Kids, a division of the Kabbalah Centre, the same group that Madonna also lavishes with tax-free cash gifts. This is according to the most recent federal tax filing of the Britney Spears Foundation.

In total, Britney gave away $590,000 in 2005, including $350,000 to relief programs related to Hurricane Katrina. Spears donated $175,000 alone to Habitat for Humanity.

On the other hand ? and just by comparison for a celebrity of her generation and income ? actor Leonardo DiCaprio only gave away $48,025 in 2005 to a handful of groups from his own registered tax-exempt foundation.

DiCaprio commands between $12 million and $15 million per film, at least, and famously made $10 million from "Titanic" in 1997.

Spears, on other hand, hasn?t worked in a long time and is certainly cash-depleted, thanks to the Federline situation.

Spears is also the target of the worst publicity in the world. But thanks to Nina Biggar, who runs the Britney Spears Foundation from her home in Cambridge, Mass., the pop star can count her charitable giving as a bright spot in her sketchy world.

The foundation also donated $25,000 to Spears? summer camp; $50,000 each to Gilda?s Club and City of Hope; and $6,000 to the American Cancer Society.

Of course, foundation chief Biggar also kicked $50,000 to the private Inly School of Scituate, Mass. Maybe Spears is planning to send her kids there one day.

Spears? 2005 giving was way up from the previous year ? just $20,000 in 2005. But there?s also no annual pattern. She donated $110,820 in 2003. Last year was the first record of her ponying up any dough for Kabbalah, a group that thrives on receiving donations from celebrities.

As for DiCaprio, he recently announced that his foundation would be involved in launching a documentary about the environment. But records show that his giving has been quite limited in that area.

While he often acts as a spokesman for environmental causes, he hasn?t been that generous with his hard-earned money. And more than half of the money he gave away originated not from him, but from a $27,300 donation made to his foundation by Godiva.

DiCaprio?s largest recipients included the Library Foundation ($10,000); a charity for the U?wa people indigenous to Colombia and Amazon Watch ($17,000) and Robert Kennedy Jr.?s National Resources Defense Council ($3,000).

Candy Spelling: Sacrifices Boyfriend for Tori

We know from reading the supermarket tabs that Candy Spelling is reconciling with daughter Tori after one the worst public family feuds in history.

But how and why? Is it because Tori needs money from her father?s estate? Or is it because Candy wants to be close to her newborn grandson?

One thing?s for certain. Marc Nathanson, the ?family friend? whom Tori accused Candy of spending too much time with while Aaron Spelling lay dying, is history.

Nathanson?s name is conveniently missing from the Us Weekly cover story about Tori and her new baby. It was just a few months ago that Nathanson was cited as the reason Tori hated her mother so much.

But now I?m told that Candy is selling the house and a piece of property she owned next door to Nathanson ? this is apart from the zillion-square-foot mansion she and Spelling built.

?She?s gotten rid of him,? observes a source.

Nathanson might not have been the perfect next husband for wealthy widow Candy.

In 1993, when he was a California Coastal Commissioner, Nathanson pleaded guilty to tax evasion and racketeering. He was sentenced to four years and nine months in prison and fined $200,000.

His crime was the solicitation of about a million dollars in bribes from celebrities including Sylvester Stallone, Barry Diller, Sandy Gallin, Jeffrey Katzenberg and director Blake Edwards.

Julian Cashes Out; Mike Wallace Returns

Julian Lennon, who had to fight stepmom Yoko Ono for his portion of his dead father?s estate, cashed out last week.

Lennon, who had hits in the early 1990s but abandoned the music business, must have needed the money. He sold off his rights to the songs John Lennon wrote with Paul McCartney for the Beatles.

The buyer was Primary Wave Music, owned by Larry Mestel, a respected former music label exec.

More and more, it seems, former execs from the music biz are buying up song catalogs and becoming publishers. It?s where the money is. ?

Mike Wallace was back on ?60 Minutes? last night for a piece about Don Imus. Wallace, who turns 89 on May 9, reported on Imus, mixing an old interview with new insights.

He looked and sounded great. ?

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Microsoft's Silverlight Aims to Outshine Flash

By Chris Maxcer
TechNewsWorld
04/16/07 11:58 AM PT

Microsoft's new Silverlight browser plug-in, announced Monday at the National Association of Broadcasters trade show, aims to take a bite out of Adobe Flash. Microsoft's offering uses a combination of Windows Media Video, Microsoft's implementation of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers VC-1 video standard, and support for interactive video.


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Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) Free 30-Day Trial. Seamlessly Integrate UNIX & Linux systems with Active Directory. Latest News about Microsoft on Monday unveiled Silverlight, a new browser plug-in designed to compete head-to-head with Adobe's (Nasdaq: ADBE) Latest News about Adobe Flash plug-in. Announced at the National Association of Broadcasters Latest News about National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) trade show in Las Vegas, Microsoft says the new cross-platform application will let Web publishers deliver rich interactive applications (RIA) and video media that will run on both Mac OS X and Windows PCs via a variety of browsers, including Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari.

If this new technology sounds familiar, it's derived from technology in previous development: Microsoft sensibly renamed the technology Silverlight -- it was previously known as Windows Presentation Foundation Everywhere (WPF/E).

"Content providers are seeking a way to deliver rich interactive applications using the tools and skills they already have. They want an end-to-end solution that enables them to rapidly reach multiple platforms with reasonable deployment costs," said Bob Muglia, senior vice president of the Server and Tools Business at Microsoft. "Silverlight is the only solution in the market today that enables content creators to tap into the broad ecosystem for Windows Media technologies while taking the Web's rich interactive application experience to new levels."

Silverlight uses a combination of Windows Media Video (WMV), Microsoft's implementation of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) VC-1 video standard, and support for interactive video that can scale full-screen, high-definition video down to mobile small-screen video.
Tapping into Windows Media

Because Silverlight is based on Windows Media Video, publishers can tap into existing Windows Media-related resources to deploy existing content to the Web -- or utilize their own Windows Media expertise to work with the new Silverlight.

In addition, because Silverlight is based on the Microsoft .NET Framework, Microsoft says, developers and designers can use existing skills and tools to deliver media experiences and RIAs for the Web. Designers can use Microsoft Expression Studio while developers can use Visual Studio.
Competing with Adobe

Also at the NAB, Adobe on Monday announced plans to deliver its own media player, which will compete with Microsoft's Windows Media Player. Adobe already has Flash for the Web, which competes with Silverlight. With its new Media Player, Adobe will also be able to work the online and offline rich video convergence angles that Microsoft is going after.

Microsoft has a dominant position with its Windows Media Player, while Adobe enjoys a dominant position with its online Flash player plug-in.

"While I think it's going to be tough to displace either competitor because they're so well entrenched, what it all boils down to ultimately is how much content supports which format," Van Baker, a Gartner (NYSE: IT) Latest News about Gartner analyst, told TechNewsWorld. "Content is where the movement is going to be hard because you're not suddenly going to get publishers authoring in Silverlight just because it's out there -- they are used to Flash and it's serving their needs well.

"The same thing goes for Windows Media Audio and Windows Media Video," he added. "It's very well entrenched and there's a lot of people offering content in that format, and they're unlikely to switch just because Adobe now has a player."

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How To Live Rich Without Going Broke
by Lauren Kerensky
Thursday, April 12, 2007provided byForbes

While very few of us will reach the ranks of the world's billionaires, it doesn't mean we can't live like them.

And we don't have to shell out several million to do so.

That's because a number of companies are offering temporary use of high-end products and services such as yachts, exotic cars, luxury handbags, and even personal chefs and stylists.

So while you may not be able to call it your own, you still get every benefit of living the rich life.

"We call it the Luxury Access Revolution," says Milton Pedraza, CEO of the Luxury Institute, a research company that provides luxury information to high-net-worth individuals and the companies that cater to them.

"It makes it easy for you to say, 'I'm not going to buy it. I'm going to carve out the experience and buy the experience,' because [people] don't want the hassle of owning the possession. You're seeing it across many more categories."

NetJets, a Berkshire Hathaway-owned company that began offering fractional jet ownership in 1986, caught on to customer desire for the luxe life with minimal commitment in 2001.

That's when it introduced the Marquis Jet Card, which allows the user to sublease a NetJets fractional share of which Marquis Jet Partners is the owner. Individuals may pre-buy 25 hours of yearly flight time for $119,900 (excluding additional charges like tax, fuel, etc.).

Several other companies are following suit.

Home Cooking

Private Chefs, which has staffed the homes of Richard Branson and Madonna, will dispatch a personal cook to yours for as little as a day. Be prepared to pay a $100 agency fee plus $35 per hour, and everything else is taken care of, from the shopping and cooking to serving and cleanup.

"This is the part of our business that's been increasing steadily in the past year," says Christian Paier, PCI president.

The company gets an average of 10 requests per week in each of its eight offices located in Beverly Hills, Calif.; Palm Beach, Fla.; Dallas; London; New York; Las Vegas; Seattle; and Washington, D.C.

"It appeals," Paier continues, "to a lot more people than the full-time thing. It's affordable; anybody can do it." His customers often "want to splurge and have a wonderful experience, whether it's just them and their spouse, or a small dinner for six or eight friends. People absolutely love it."

It's hard not to feel privileged when an executive chef is serving you gourmet food, but when it's not simply your primary residence, but rather your only one, cabin fever tends to set in.

Solution? Get an apartment in Paris.

Ooh-La-La Life

Yes, it may be temporary, but opt for one of the exquisite, fully furnished pieds-a-terre available through ParisLuxuryRentals.com, and you're practically guaranteed an authentic experience.

The company offers short- and long-term rentals in select neighborhoods, including Saint-Germain-des-Pres, Ile St. Louis, Le Marais and the Latin Quarter. To live like a local without the hassle, the company offers an optional daily or weekly housekeeping service, and an optional car and driver.

A 2,000-square-foot apartment, for example, which is considered very large for Paris, would run for about $3 million, and that's without taxes and the cost of maintaining such an investment.

However, a brief stay in one of ParisLuxuryRentals.com's similarly sized dwellings, which combine the spaciousness and privacy of an apartment with the amenities of a hotel, might only cost about $10,000 per week at the higher end of the spectrum.

"It's a place of their own," says CEO Claude Nederovique. "They live like Parisians. They can really participate in life, [which is] a completely different experience [from a hotel]."

Nederovique saw the number of people requesting his service double last year. 90 percent of his clientele come from the U.S., and most rent from one week to one month, though some stay as long as three months.

Handbag Heaven

Even those who just want to dress like a socialite, but can't bring themselves to part with $1,200 for a Gucci handbag, can do it affordably with Bag Borrow or Steal, a site that lends customers high-end bags and jewelry from designers like Chanel, Versace and Dior, for a weekly or monthly fee.

"Borrowing is really about freedom, access and convenience," says Lynn Ridenour, senior vice president of marketing. "It gives [customers] greater access to a vast inventory of luxury accessories and the opportunity to indulge in more, more often."

Is there a downside? Of course: In the end, you do have to give it all back.

Still, says Pedraza, "There's no question that [the trend of temporary use] will grow. It is such a great convenience where you can buy the experience, not the depreciating assets.
Copyrighted, Forbes.com. All rights reserved.

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CAPE CORAL, Fla. - A woman arrested for shoplifting has blamed the crime on irritable bowel syndrome, authorities said. Helen Gallo, 61, of Clearwater, was arrested Sunday after allegedly shoplifting from a Cape Coral grocery store, The Daily Breeze of Cape Coral reported.
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Gallo reportedly told authorities that she could not wait in line because she has irritable bowel syndrome, according to the newspaper.

Gallo was charged with petit larceny and released Sunday from the Lee County jail on $500 bond.

Gallo did not answer a telephone call placed to her home by The Associated Press. It was not known if she had an attorney.

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A thread for all topics including Where Did All The Old Timers Go ? Also Say A Good Morning Or Afternoon Or A Good Evening Or A Good Night Thread. Plus the occasional joke, interesting trivia and interesting tech happenings.

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