MMaxi08 Tolar

MMaxi08

Cité Tango

Astor Piazzolla

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has said France will send more troops to bolster Nato's mission in Afghanistan, subject to certain conditions.

Mr Sarkozy, who is on a state visit to Britain, said he would make the offer at next week's Nato summit in the Romanian capital, Bucharest.
Britain and the US have frequently called on other Nato members to send more soldiers to fight the Taleban.
The Nato-led force, Isaf, currently has over 43,000 personnel in Afghanistan.
"You represent the touchstone of everything our democracies stand for" was his opening gambit.
It was followed by a hymn of praise to British history and courage. This always goes down well with a British audience but it is quite rare to hear it these days.
Not on this occasion.

"France will never forget," he declared, when speaking with emotion about the last war.

He did not mention the Iraq war.
He did mention to European Union.
"My dear British people, the EU needs the UK," was his message.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy's ex-wife has won 30,000 euros (£22,321) in damages from a French magazine which printed photos of her in a swimsuit.

The picture of Cecilia Sarkozy was set opposite one of Carla Bruni, a former model who became the president's girlfriend, also seen wearing a bikini.
A court near Paris found Closer guilty of violating the former First Lady's right to privacy.
The pair divorced in October, ending an 11-year marriage.
She now goes by the name Cecilia Ciganer-Albeniz.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his bride Carla Bruni have won a case against low-cost airline Ryanair for using their picture without consent.
But the court in Paris awarded Ms Bruni only 60,000 euros (US$89,000; £45,000) - a fraction of the 500,000 euros she had asked for.

US President George W Bush has accepted an invitation to meet his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, next week in Russia's Black Sea resort of Sochi.
Mr Bush said they would discuss American plans to site a missile defence system in Eastern Europe.
They will meet after next week's Nato summit in Bucharest, Romania.
Russia has strongly criticised the US proposals, which would see interceptor missiles based in Poland and a radar system in the Czech Republic.

Days go by

The Bush administration sent its final budget request to Congress last week, projecting that the deficit for all of 2008 will total $410 billion, very close to the all-time high in dollar terms of $413 billion in 2004.



deficit |ˈdefəsit|
noun
the amount by which something, esp. a sum of money, is too small.
• an excess of expenditure or liabilities over income or assets in a given period : an annual operating deficit | the budget will remain in deficit.
• (in sports) the amount or score by which a team or individual is losing : came back from a 3–0 deficit.
• technical a deficiency or failing, esp. in a neurological or psychological function : deficits in speech comprehension.
ORIGIN late 18th cent.: via French from Latin deficit ‘it is lacking,’ from the verb deficere (see defect 1 ).

It turns out that how we eat is affecting climate change -- and climate change is affecting how we eat.
The U.S. Defense Department accidentally shipped ballistic missile components to Taiwan, the Pentagon said Tuesday.

accidental |ˌaksiˈdentl|
adjective
1 happening by chance, unintentionally, or unexpectedly : a verdict of accidental death | the damage might have been accidental.
2 incidental; subsidiary : the location is accidental and contributes nothing to the tension between the characters in the poem.
3 Philosophy (in Aristotelian thought) relating to or denoting properties that are not essential to a thing's nature.
noun
1 Music a sign indicating a momentary departure from the key signature by raising or lowering a note.
2 Ornithology another term for vagrant .
DERIVATIVES
accidentally |ˈøksəˈdɛn(t)li| adverb
ORIGIN late Middle English (in senses 2 and 3 of the adjective) : from late Latin accidentalis, from Latin accident- ‘happening’ (see accident ).
THE RIGHT WORD
Things don't always go as planned, but there are many ways to describe the role that chance plays.
Accidental applies to events that occur entirely by chance (: an accidental encounter with the candidate outside the men's room); but it is so strongly influenced by the noun “accident” that it carries connotations of undesirable or possibly disastrous results (: an accidental miscalculation of the distance he had to jump).
A casual act or event is one that is random or unpremeditated (: a casual conversation with her son's teacher in the grocery store), in which the role that chance plays is not always clear.
Something that is incidental may or may not involve chance; it typically refers to what is secondary or nonessential (: incidental expenses in the budget) or what occurs without design or regularity (: incidental lighting throughout the garden).
Adventitious also implies the lack of an essential relationship, referring to something that is a mere random occurrence (: adventitious circumstances that led to victory).
In contrast, contingent points to something that is entirely dependent on an uncertain event for its existence or occurrence (: travel plans that are contingent upon the weather).
Fortuitous refers to chance events of a fortunate nature; it is about as far as one can get from accidental (: a fortuitous meeting with the candidate outside the men's room just before the press conference).

A Finnish tourist was detained after allegedly stealing a piece of volcanic rock from one of the massive Moai statues on Easter Island.

The Rapa Nui civilization flourished for more than a millennium, then abruptly collapsed, leaving Easter Island strewn with hundreds of enormous stone statues called "moai." As to how and why the moai were built and moved, or even how people came to the island in the first place, there are at least as many theories as questions.

civilization |ˌsivələˈzā sh ən|
noun
the stage of human social development and organization that is considered most advanced : they equated the railroad with progress and civilization.
• the process by which a society or place reaches this stage.
• the society, culture, and way of life of a particular area : the great books of Western civilization | the early civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt.
• the comfort and convenience of modern life, regarded as available only in towns and cities : the fur traders moved further and further from civilization.

Please Democrats stop the bicker |ˈbikər|



verb [ intrans. ]
1 argue about petty and trivial matters : whenever the phone rings, they bicker over who must answer it | [as n. ] ( bickering) the constant bickering between Edgar and his mother.
2 poetic/literary (of water) flow or fall with a gentle repetitive noise; patter : against the glass the rain did beat and bicker.
• (of a flame or light) flash, gleam, or flicker : the restless wheels whose flashing spokes bicker and burn.
ORIGIN Middle English : of unknown origin.

Nearly 50 Tibetan exiles in India began a global torch relay Tuesday with a symbolic "Olympic" flame that will end in Tibet on the day of the Summer Games' opening ceremonies in Beijing, organizers said.
Olympic Games



(also the Olympics)
a modern sports festival held traditionally every four years in different venues, instigated by the Frenchman Baron de Coubertin (1863–1937) in 1896. Athletes representing many countries compete for gold, silver, and bronze medals in a great variety of sports. Since 1992 the Summer Games and Winter Games alternate every two years.
• an ancient Greek festival with athletic, literary, and musical competitions, held at Olympia every four years traditionally from 776 bc until abolished by the Roman emperor Theodosius I in ad 393.
I'm a strong believer that Politics should be out of Sports.
There is other ways of protesting against the Politics of China.

A chunk of Antarctic ice about seven times the size of Manhattan suddenly collapsed, putting an even greater portion of glacial ice at risk, scientists said Tuesday.
An ice shelf about the size of Connecticut is breaking up and "hanging by a thread" from the Antarctic Peninsula because of global warming, the British Antarctic



iceberg |ˈīsˌbərg|
noun
a large floating mass of ice detached from a glacier or ice sheet and carried out to sea.
PHRASES
the tip of the iceberg the small, perceptible part of a much larger situation or problem that remains hidden : the statistics represent just the tip of the iceberg.
ORIGIN late 18th cent.: from Dutch ijsberg, from ijs ‘ice’ + berg ‘hill.’

Heavy rains and flooding have forced hundreds of thousands of people from homes in southern Mexico's state of Tabasco over the past four days, with nearly as many trapped by the rising waters, state officials said Thursday.

Tabasco 1 |təˈbaskō; -ˈbäs-|
a state in southeastern Mexico, on the Gulf of Mexico; capital, Villahermosa.
Tabasco 2 |təˈbaskō| |təˈbøskoʊ| |təˈbaskəʊ| (also Tabasco sauce)
noun trademark
a pungent sauce made from the fruit of a capsicum pepper. • The plant is Capsicum frutescens (or C. anuum), family Solanaceae.
ORIGIN late 19th cent.: named after the state of Tabasco

• Human Competion | 14-06-2008
• Rufous Hummingbird | 12-06-2008
• Amsterdam,Human | 11-06-2008
• Amsterdam,Human,Plants | 10-06-2008
• Animal, Water | 09-06-2008
• Amsterdam, Water, Human | 09-06-2008
• Animal, water, Amsterdam | 08-06-2008
• Animal, Bird | 08-06-2008
• Amsterdam, Human,Stone | 07-06-2008
• Amsterdam, Human | 06-06-2008
• Amsterdam, Human | 06-06-2008
• Amsterdam, Human | 06-06-2008
• Amsterdam, Human | 06-06-2008
• Animal, Alberta,nuthatch,white-breasted | 02-06-2008
• Alberta,blue,jay | 31-05-2008