Sourkandy

After nearly 50 years in power, Fidel effectively hands the reins to his younger brother, Raul Castro.

After nearly half a century in power, Fidel Castro has stepped down from the helm of Cuba – a pivotal moment in the history of the island nation.

The announcement caps a year and a half of limbo and expectation since Mr. Castro fell ill and temporarily ceded power to his younger brother Raul Castro.

Mr. Castro came to power on New Year’s Day 1959, and became the nemesis of the US as he turned Cuba into a communist state. Throughout the cold war, and well beyond, US presidents have attempted to topple him – with no success. Many Cubans have no memory of anything other than Castro as their head of state.

But beyond the symbolism, his resignation is not likely to mean an immediate change in how Cuba is run; it merely formalizes the dynamic that has been in place since Raul Castro took over as acting president.

Many analysts expect a gradual leadership transition, and perhaps some economic reforms. But Fidel will likely remain a key influence, much as he has been since undergoing intestinal surgery in the summer of 2006.

“The most notable thing is that he is leaving on his own terms. He is retiring. It was neither invasion nor covert operations nor the embargo nor the tightening of sanctions nor President Bush’s policies that have pushed him out,” says Philip Peters, a Cuba expert and vice president of the Lexington Institute in Arlington, Va. “It is an orderly constitutional succession.”

In a letter that appeared Tuesday in the Communist Party daily Granma, Castro wrote: “I will not aspire to nor accept – I repeat, I will not aspire to nor accept – the post of President of the Council of State and Commander in Chief.”

Castro remained ambiguous on who will succeed him – which is expected to be cleared up Sunday when the National Assembly convenes to choose its new leadership – but many analysts predict Raúl Castro will stay on. “You will still have Fidel around with the revolutionary legitimacy, while Raúl makes the trains run,” says Daniel Erikson, a Cuba expert at the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington.

Raúl Castro has hinted at economic reforms, but many say that he has been reined in by his older brother over the years. “If you look at the expectations when [Raúl became acting president in July 2006], there was a feeling that things would in fact happen,” says Dennis Hays, former official of the Cuban-American National Foundation, an organization dedicated to replacing Castro’s regime with a market-based government. But little has changed, he says. “No one wants to make a move while the ‘jefe’ [boss] is still alive…. If the Cuban government moves in any way that repudiates the ways of Fidel, it undermines the whole legitimacy of the power structure.”

This is likely to remain the status quo until Castro eventually dies, say some. For now, Fidel Castro will not disappear from the scene. He won a parliament seat during elections in January, and will likely be elected to the 31-member Council of State.

“[Raúl] is more of an admirer of Chinese-style reforms, which Fidel has been wary of, so we’ve seen a situation in Cuba over the years in which some reforms have been pushed by Raúl, and pushed back by Fidel later on,” says Ian Vasquez, the director of the Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank in Washington. “And part of the issue there is that to the extent that you introduce changes you create constituencies for continued change.”

Others are more hopeful that small, if limited, economic reform is possible while Fidel Castro is still alive. “I think this opens the door for some incremental changes by Raúl, that wouldn’t have been possible while Fidel was still president,” says Mr. Erikson. “On the economic side, [it includes] implementing minor economic reforms such as opening up farmers markets, or small-fee capitalism, incremental grass-roots steps. But nothing that approaches what China has done.”

Castro’s resignation is expected to make way for the permanent presidency of his brother. But other leaders could fill the spot or at least rise in the ranks of power. They include Carlos Lage, the council’s vice president, or Ricardo Alarcón, the president of Cuba’s National Assembly. In any case, Mr. Peters says that a form of collective leadership will likely emerge, no matter who carries the title.

Analysts say Cubans will take a wait-and-see approach. “But people are expecting something to change,” says Mr. Hays. “And they want things to happen quickly. If [the new leadership] doesn’t show progress, it could be a difficult path.”

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0220/p01s04-woam.html

Blu-ray, also known as Blu-ray Disc (BD), is the name of a next-generation optical disc format jointly developed by the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA), a group of the world’s leading consumer electronics, personal computer and media manufacturers (including Apple, Dell, Hitachi, HP, JVC, LG, Mitsubishi, Panasonic, Pioneer, Philips, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, TDK and Thomson). The format was developed to enable recording, rewriting and playback of high-definition video (HD), as well as storing large amounts of data. The format offers more than five times the storage capacity of traditional DVDs and can hold up to 25GB on a single-layer disc and 50GB on a dual-layer disc. This extra capacity combined with the use of advanced video and audio codecs will offer consumers an unprecedented HD experience.

While current optical disc technologies such as DVD, DVD±R, DVD±RW, and DVD-RAM rely on a red laser to read and write data, the new format uses a blue-violet laser instead, hence the name Blu-ray. Despite the different type of lasers used, Blu-ray products can easily be made backwards compatible with CDs and DVDs through the use of a BD/DVD/CD compatible optical pickup unit. The benefit of using a blue-violet laser (405nm) is that it has a shorter wavelength than a red laser (650nm), which makes it possible to focus the laser spot with even greater precision. This allows data to be packed more tightly and stored in less space, so it’s possible to fit more data on the disc even though it’s the same size as a CD/DVD. This together with the change of numerical aperture to 0.85 is what enables Blu-ray Discs to hold 25GB/50GB.

Blu-ray is currently supported by more than 180 of the world’s leading consumer electronics, personal computer, recording media, video game and music companies. The format also has broad support from the major movie studios as a successor to today’s DVD format. In fact, seven of the eight major movie studios (Disney, Fox, Warner, Paramount, Sony, Lionsgate and MGM) have released movies in the Blu-ray format and six of them (Disney, Fox, Sony, Warner, Lionsgate and MGM) are releasing their movies exclusively in the Blu-ray format. Many studios have also announced that they will begin releasing new feature films on Blu-ray Disc day-and-date with DVD, as well as a continuous slate of catalog titles every month. For more information about Blu-ray movies, check out our Blu-ray movies and Blu-ray reviews section which offers information about new and upcoming Blu-ray releases, as well as what movies are currently available in the Blu-ray format.

http://www.blu-ray.com/info/

Some good info since Blu-ray won out over HD-DVD

WASHINGTON - Barack Obama cruised past a fading Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Wisconsin primary and Hawaii caucuses Tuesday night, gaining the upper hand in a Democratic presidential race for the ages.

The twin triumphs made 10 straight for Obama, and left the former first lady in desperate need of a comeback in a race she long commanded as front-runner.

“The change we seek is still months and miles away,” Obama told a boisterous crowd in Houston in a speech in which he also pledged to end the war in Iraq in his first year in office.

“I opposed this war in 2002. I will bring this war to an end in 2009. It is time to bring our troops home,” he declared.

Sen. John McCain, the Republican front-runner, won a pair of primaries, in Wisconsin and Washington, to continue his march toward certain nomination.

In a race growing increasingly negative, Obama cut deeply into Clinton’s political bedrock in Wisconsin, splitting the support of white women almost evenly with her. According to polling place interviews, he also ran well among working class voters in the blue collar battleground that was prelude to primaries in the larger industrial states of Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Clinton made no mention of her defeat, and showed no sign of surrender in an appearance in Youngstown, Ohio.

“Both Senator Obama and I would make history,” the New York senator said. “But only one of us is ready on day one to be commander in chief, ready to manage our economy, and ready to defeat the Republicans. Only one of us has spent 35 years being a doer, a fighter and a champion for those who need a voice.”

In a clear sign of their relative standing in the race, most cable television networks abruptly cut away from coverage of Clinton’s rally when Obama began to speak in Texas.

McCain easily won the Republican primary in Wisconsin with 55 percent of the vote, dispatching former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and edging closer to the 1,191 delegates he needs to clinch the GOP nomination at the party convention in St. Paul, Minn. next summer. The Arizona senator also won the primary in Washington, where 19 delegates were at stake, with 49 percent of the vote in incomplete results.

In scarcely veiled criticism of Obama, the Republican nominee-in-waiting said, “I will fight every moment of every day in this campaign to make sure that Americans are not deceived by an eloquent but empty call for change.”

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/campaign_rdp

Does anybody really care what insane “100 years in Iraq” McCain says???

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite

http://www.autoblog.com/2008/01/10/spy-shots-2010-ford-mustang-gt-caught-again/

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite

An important part of gaining weight is eating enough food, but to gain the right kind of weight you need to exercise. Putting on muscle is more complicated than taking in a lot of calories. You have to stress (workout) your muscles to a point where they become damaged. When they heal, they’ll become bigger and stronger.

Unlike losing weight, when you gain muscle you can choose what part of your body you want to focus on. This can be problematic if you work one part of your body more than another. You want to have a balanced workout that hits all areas of your body equally.

Your first step should be to figure out your routine. There are two basic options. You can use the ACSM workout and go to the gym 2-3 times per week. This workout requires that you do 1-2 sets per muscle group and hit every muscle group during your workout.

The other option is to split up your workout into different groups of muscles each day. A popular split is: day 1: chest & triceps, day 2: back & biceps, day 3: shoulders, day 4: legs. With this type of workout, you should do 6-12 sets per muscle group (12-24 sets if you do two muscle groups in one day). Remember to leave at least 48 hours between working out the same muscle group.

If you have never worked out before, start with the ACSM workout. If you follow their guidelines you shouldn’t be in the gym for more than an hour. The second workout could take between 60 and 90 minutes. The ACSM workout also only calls for you to workout 2-3 times per week where the second routine would require 3-4 times per week depending on how many days you have in your routine. You don’t want to do too much too quickly as this could cause you to quit all together.

Once you have a routine, you need to pick the exercises you’ll be doing. There are plenty to choose from but when you first start out you should try and use the machines rather than the free weights. Once you’re comfortable on the machines, you can move to the free weights. Keep in mind that free weights (especially if your form is off) do not necessarily provide a better workout. A good routine will combine machine and free weight exercises.

If you chose the ACSM workout, you’ll need to pick one exercise for each muscle group (quads, glutes, hamstrings, calves, chest, back, shoulders, biceps, triceps, abs). If you chose the split workout, you should do 2-3 sets per machine (or free weight).

With both the ACSM workout and the split routine, you need to workout the bigger muscles first. If you do the ACSM workout, start with legs and move on to upper body. If you do the split routine and pair back with biceps and chest with triceps, make sure you do your back and chest before your biceps and triceps.

The last thing you need to keep in mind is to change your workout. Overtime, your muscles become used to the workout you do and when this happens you need to change your exercises and the order that you do them in or you won’t progress. You can also write down all the weights and repetitions you do in a workout log. It’ll save you time when you do the same exercise during your next workout since you won’t have to guess where you left off.

While eating is very important in gaining weight, sticking to your routine is crucial in gaining muscle. If you eat without exercising hard you may soon find yourself needing to lose weight.

Guide to Gaining Weight

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ken_Bendor

The old year is ending with too many Americans in a credit card “hangover.”

Delinquencies and defaults in credit card payments are surging, according to a recent Associated Press analysis of financial data from the country’s largest credit card issuers, released Dec. 24.

The Federal Reserve estimates that Americans now owe just shy of a trillion dollars in credit card debt — a reported $920 billion.

Christmas 2007 is expected to only add fuel to a raging inferno.

“I stay away from them,” Annette Combs of Whipple, said of credit cards. “I’ve got my bank card that takes out of my checking, but that’s all. I learned from other people that you can get into trouble with credit cards.”

The AP study found that the greatest rise was among accounts more than 90 days in arrears. Deterioration of finances of many households is partly a byproduct of the subprime mortgage crisis, the analysis found.

The new data represents about 325 million individual accounts held in trusts created by credit card issuers in order to sell the debt to investors - similar to how many banks packaged and sold subprime mortgage loans. Together, they represent about 45 percent of the $920 billion the Fed counts as credit card debt owed by Americans.

Until recently, credit card default rates had been running close to record lows, providing one of the few profit growth areas for the nation’s banks, which continue to flood America’s mailboxes with monthly offers of easy sign-ups for new plastic.

Combs, who is in her 30s, said she and her husband get credit card offers in the mail every single week. She’s tired of it.

“I rip them up and throw them in the trash,” she said.

Unlike the majority of Americans, this couple used cash — not credit — for their Christmas shopping.

There will be no fear of bills in January.

Credit card debt eventually leaks into other areas, whether it begins with the mortgage and goes to the credit card or vice versa, experts say.

“One of the big problems today is also the high cost of gasoline, other utilities, mortgages, on top of the very substantial amount of interest charged by credit card companies,” said Pete Gammon, 46, of Gammon Financial, 200 Putnam St. “Late fees on credit card debt is outrageous.”

http://www.mariettatimes.com/news/story/new112_1231200784148.asp