USNews | Hottest News Headlines from USA and The World

Started by NewsCaster, Jun 23, 2010, 09:03 AM

NewsCaster

Jessica Simpson turns 30 Saturday and she is celebrating on the Italian island of Capri with her new boyfriend, ex-49er Eric Johnson. See pictures of their romantic getaway here."I thought I had it figured out; I'm going to be this great pop star, be married, have babies," she once told Us Weekly of turning 30. "But things can be taken from you."More...

Happy 30th Birthday, Jessica Simpson! See Her Best Moments (VIDEO)



NewsCaster

It has been said by many teachers that outer manifestation is a reflection of inner reality. I know the truth of that statement through personal experience. Inner peace for me was a far off concept when I weighed 350 pounds. Now that I have been of normal weight for nearly a decade I can authentically say that my inner healing was the major reason for maintaining the loss of weight.Here are three important steps I took:More...

3 Essential Keys to Living a Healthy, Peace-Filled Life



NewsCaster

Being a model means more than just having a pretty face. For some, it means being able to converse in five other languages, preparing valedictorian speeches or ultimately taking time off to pursue a higher education. We rounded up the most intelligent minds to ever meet the runway. Take a look through and tell us whose accomplishments are truly impressive.More...

Cindy Crawford, Emma Watson & Brooke Shields: Who Is The Smartest Model? (PHOTOS, POLL)



NewsCaster

Ah the circle of life. Children and the elderly have a lot in common when it comes to saying and doing ridiculous things. The only difference is how it's perceived. Kids as we know end up looking adorable. And the elderly, as you'll see, end up looking insane. But don't be intimidated. They're just like us - they put on their crazypants one leg at a time.More...

Senior Citizens Say The Darndest Things: The Craziest Old People Of All Time (VIDEO)



NewsCaster

In youth-centric Hollywood, birthdays are sometimes met with mixed emotions. But I've found the best way that anyone can embrace any birthday is to remember how fortunate they are to be growing another year older and use it as an opportunity to give back.That's why this year I'm Giving Up My Birthday - happily and readily - for children in need by supporting the nonprofit World of Children Awards in their tireless efforts to improve the lives of children worldwide.More...

Giving Up My Birthday for the World of Children



NewsCaster

In Karl Rove's recent Wall Street Journal column he dropped this tidbit:A report on these focus groups issued this week by Resurgent Republic (a group I helped found) showed that both political independents and tea party participants passionately denounced federal spending and deficits, using words like "reckless," "out of control," "unnecessary" and "unhelpful." The evidence suggests that both groups remain deeply skeptical of Mr. Obama's stimulus package and are unpersuaded by the administration's arguments in its favor.More...

Will the Owner of Reckless Government Spending Please Stand Up?



NewsCaster

Marion Cotillard attended the Paris Premiere of "Inception" on Saturday and this time, she left her bed sheet at home, donning a strapless gray cocktail dress with a black lace overlay and beige heels. Take a look at her ensemble and tell us what you think.More...

Marion Cotillard 'Inception' Paris Premiere Dress: Hit Or Miss? (PHOTOS, POLL)



NewsCaster

It sure seems to me that everywhere I turn of late, I am being greeted with either a new service offering to enhance my life by providing my precise geo-location to a retailer or inserting my data into one of the many location-based services*  available to collate my whereabouts and analyze my behavior.  How about you?  Are you appending your geo-coordinates or location to each social network update you are creating, be it on Twitter, Facebook, SkyRock, Sonico, Qzone or the like?  If so, please read the FAQ within the service and understand how you can opt-in or opt-out.  This applies to your devices as well; understand how to turn on and off the geo-location of your device.   These actions will ensure you are knowingly opting into the service as opposed to being defaulted into having your location shared broadly.I see the use of location-based services as both reasonable and worrisome.  I shall not try to touch on every possible permutation, but will share my thoughts on a couple of areas with the hope that it will stimulate discussion for both the implementation side of the equation as well as the individual user's perspective.More...

The "Double-Edged Sword" of Location-Based Services



NewsCaster

I've had the opportunity to meet with many engineering leaders over the past decade. I've observed how they work, and talked about their challenges and successes. Our (Knovel) customers represent more than 600 organizations worldwide including 70 Fortune 500 companies and 80 percent of the top engineering schools in the United States. In this context, it's no surprise that I pay attention to statistics related to the next generation of engineers.In the June 14th issue of Fortune, David Kaplan highlights worrisome statistics in his article, "The STEM Challenge":More...

Reengineering America's Future



NewsCaster

During the banking crises, the billion dollars bailout was given to those reckless, behemoth banks that were called too big to fail; the argument was that they would bring down the entire American economy if they were allowed to suffer the consequences of their greed-driven gambles.  We learned of that shadow world of devious derivatives, short sales, and swinish swaps, etc. none of which meant a damned thing to me, but meant mega fortunes for Goldman Sachs and their brothers in that high stakes gambling casino called American banking; a casino in which the house always won, because the people would cover the losses.  We were essentially held hostage to these banks, not daring to risk their failure which then might spread across the nation and the world and transform a horrible recession into a devastating depression.  Thus we had the Obama policy of bailout before they destroyed the entire world economy; note that both the scheme for bailout and the destruction had been in place before Obama came into office.   And still, months later, the jobs situation is critical for millions despite the assurances of Timothy Geithner and Larry Summers.  A situation made more critical by the stone-hearted Republicans who refuse to extend the unemployment benefits for the long term unemployed.   Lionel Barrymore and Edward Arnold played these guys in the old thirties movies, political friends of the millionaires, and the enemies of the downtrodden, but Jimmy Stewart always saved the day.  Where is Jimmy now that we need him?   Can Obama find his inner Jimmy Stewart?  We can only hope so.   If this is class warfare it is unique, because it is a revolution started by the super-rich.Only the small, those whose limited reach touches the lives of their friends and families, are allowed to fail.    My elderly 76-year-old friend Molly, promised a loan modification from the bank that held her mortgage, and nearly losing her mind in the endless paper trail she was forced to provide, was, despite everything she tried to do, recently foreclosed.  She lost her apartment of thirty years, barely escaped living in the streets, after a lifetime of middle class decency working as a saleswoman at Filenes, raising two sons, and being a generous friend to all.   Too small to succeed, I suppose.  As an Obama supporter, I cannot ignore the shameful way that the loan modification program was announced with so much fanfare, only to be ignored in its application as the administration averted its eyes to "more important matters."   Good works depend more upon the works made workable than the good intentions, a lesson this administration has yet to learn.  Oh, don't get me wrong, I will be voting for Obama and for those who support his policies, not because I am under a spell of his enchantment, I see his many failings as clearly as I see my own, but because I view the Republican perpetual no vote as a seismic temper tantrum that defines their inherent selfishness, and not as they claim it to be, a frugal policy for running a government for its citizens welfare.More...

Too Bad to Fail