FT Chronicle

Rest in the assurance that God is still in charge no matter how hard the wind blows.

The dog get sick, your husband is out of town, the kids have to be taken to the doctor, the baby-sitter can’t come and the car won’t start. We have to admit that sometimes when the storm is raging, our hearts cry out, “ God, why me?”. But remember that the storm will pass, and God will be there to welcome you at the beginning of another day. He will never leave you in the lurch.

-from Tomorrow Begins Today, Harold J. Sala

Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody gained popularity and has been the core of some memorable salutes in entertainment history. But here comes the time, the Muppets to shine with their own Rhapsody Parody:

It went viral on the moment it was first posted in the Internet millions of hits.

The Muppet Show featured guests like Elton John, Alice Cooper, Deborah Harry, Leo Sayer, Arlo Guthrie, Paul Simon, and Johnny Cash, and that show’s house band, Dr. Teeth & The Electric Mayhem, always rocked pretty hard.

Sesame Street has featured impressive musical guests as disparate as Ray Charles, Feist, R.E.M., Sheryl Crow, Stevie Wonder, the Dixie Chicks, the Goo Goo Dolls, Billy Joel, LL Cool J, and Little Richard.

The Muppets even once delightfully starred in Weezer’s “Keep Fishin’” video.

Indonesians’ immorality is main reason for series of natural calamities to happen said a government minister.

Communication and Information Minister Tifatul Sembiring pointed out many television programmes and pornographic DVDs in local market intoxicated people’s morals, therefore, bringing natural disasters to occur.

His remarks came as he lectured a prayer gathering on Friday in Padang, Sumatra, which was hit by a powerful earthquake in late September.

However, his comments received harsh criticism especially on social networking site Twitter.

Why focus on public immorality when there was so much within the government, one respondent reportedly asked.

More than 1,000 people died in the Padang earthquake, which tumbled hundreds of buildings in the city.

Padang lies to the south of Aceh province, which was devastated in the December 2004 Asian tsunami.

Indonesia lies across a series of geological fault-lines and is prone to frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

Photo and nes via BBC

Still thinking the best gift for your friend or for special someone? Well, a gadget that maybe could be a good option is the UMA HDDV-1. This new video camera by UMAZONE has 53(W) × 65(H) × 112(D) mm, weighs 320 g (body only) and features a 3.0 inches wide TFT color LCD monitor. It is also equipped with 5 x optic zoom, 503-megapixel 1/ 2.5 type CMOS image sensor, 8G3P (8 layer Glass ; 3 layer plastic) lenses with F 3.3~3.7/ F=6.8~34 mm.

The UMA HDDV-1 has an internal memory with a storage capacity of up to 128MB. Of course, if the user wants to increase this storage capacity, it can be made by using microSD cards (up to 2GB) or SDHC cards (up to 32GB).

.It has max 20 (5x optic 4 x digital) zoom function, ½~1/4,000 sec shutter speed, Auto 800/1600 ISO sensitivity. Video recording size and max frame rate ranges from Full HD (1080 p/30 fps) to QVGA (240 p/ 30fps) and it is possible to shoot videos of 100-150 minutes duration.

It has 128 MB internal flash memory, can support SD Card (max. 2GB), SDHC card (max.32 GB), JPEG, MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 (AVI) formats and is compatible with Windows XP (SP3 and later) and Windows Vista (SP1 and later) operating systems with Core 2 Duo 2Ghz (or more)and 2GB of memory (or more). Finally its is equipped with Mini USb2.0, Digital TV (mini HDMI/Type C) and Analog TV(mini pin jack-RCA) output terminals.

Resource Reading: myddnetwork.com

Realize that winds of testing only strengthen your faith when you remain faithful and steadfast.

Some folks become Christians, anticipating that they will never, ever again face problems, although, they are the ones who get disappointed. Remember that God never promised to exempt you from storms, but to be with you and to take you through the storm.

-from Tomorrow Begins Today, Harold J. Sala

MANILA, Philippines – President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo put the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) under the hand of the national government yesterday and also gave Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno power to suspend any civilian and police officials in the region.

Press Secretary Cerge Remonde confirmed Puno was authorized to relieve or suspend any official and appoint replacements to guarantee the sustained operation of the regional government.

“I would like to inform you that the President authorized Secretary Puno, or has given Secretary Puno or has delegated to Secretary Puno, full powers of supervision to the ARMM, which means he is now free to carry out his own recommendations,” he said.

Remonde said Puno is also empowered to suspend all officials of Maguindanao province and relieve all police and military commanders in the area.

He also added that Puno can appoint officers-in-charge to posts that would be vacated by any suspension order.

Meanwhile, Puno said the national government’s supervision of the ARMM would remain in force until the Maguindanao massacre is completely resolved and peace and order has returned to the region.

He would decide in the coming days whether to suspend all ARMM officials based on Mrs. Arroyo’s order to get to the bottom of Monday’s killing of 57 people, he added.

Puno said his instructions from Mrs. Arroyo are to ensure that investigators gather evidence to pin down the perpetrators of the gruesome murders.

Mrs. Arroyo issued the order to Puno following a closed-door meeting with him, Remonde, acting Defense Secretary Norberto Gonzales, Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, and other security officials in Malacañang.

Police are preparing for the possible spillover of violence in Maguindanao to other ARMM provinces and nearby regions.

“We are on full alert because of the possible spillover of violence, and considering Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao and Cotabato City, which is also under my area, have been placed under state of emergency,” said Central Mindanao Police director Chief Superintendent Josefino Cataluña.

There are fears that there would be another bloodbath, this time triggered by the clan war between the Ampatuans, who are accused of being behind the massacre, and the Mangudadatus.

Lawyer Adel Tamano, a Muslim and a Nacionalista Party senatorial aspirant, urged President Arroyo to suspend the Ampatuans’ posts in the ARMM and said if the government fails to act on the killings, it would send a message to “these monsters” that they can get away with it.

“Although they (suspects) are not yet guilty… the prime suspect is an Ampatuan, maybe it would be better for the governor himself and his family members who occupy key provincial posts to go on leave to ensure that the investigation will be impartial.

“This massacre happened because we allowed people to maintain private armies and to have loose firearms,” he said.

Gates were closed at the NBI headquarters and security personnel were checking everyone and every vehicle entering the compound where Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr. is confined.

National Bureau of Investigation Director Nestor Mantaring denied yesterday Ampatuan is being secured by private security guards with long firearms at the NBI detention center in Manila. No unauthorized personnel are allowed to enter Ampatuan’s cell, he added. Ampatuan is being treated as a high-risk prisoner, Mantaring said.

Photo and news via Philstar

BERLIN – Germany’s Labour Minister Franz Josef Jung resigned over the accusations that the military withheld information on a deadly NATO airstrike in Afghanistan.

Mr. Jung was defense minister when a strike was ordered on September 4 that killed civilians as well as insurgents.

“I told Chancellor Angela Merkel this morning that I was handing in my position as federal labour minister,” Mr. Jung told reporters in Berlin on Friday.

One-year extension of Germany’s deployment in Afghanistan has been approved by German parliament last week.

(via newyeartimes)