Names as Verbs Speak (DSK Version)

-- He Kobe'd her then got Manning'd --

French politician on suicide watch in New York

May 18, 7:48 AM (ET) By CHRIS HAWLEY

NEW YORK (AP) - The maid came from one of the world's poorest countries to the U.S., working to support the teen daughter she raised alone. The penthouse suite at the Sofitel Hotel was just another room; she had no idea the man she says tried to rape her was a famous French politician.

The man, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, remained jailed under a suicide watch Wednesday as a lawyer for the woman sought to rebut whispered allegations that her charges were a conspiracy and a setup.

Calls intensified for the 62-year-old Strauss-Kahn to step down as head of the powerful International Monetary Fund, with U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner saying Strauss-Kahn "is obviously not in a position to run" the agency.

Strauss-Kahn was one of France's most high-profile politicians and a potential candidate for president in next year's elections. His arrest on charges including attempted rape shocked France and cast intense attention on his accuser, a 32-year-old chambermaid from the West African nation of Guinea.

On Tuesday her lawyer, Jeffrey Shapiro, said he had no doubts his client was telling the truth about her encounter with Strauss-Kahn on Saturday.

"She came from a country in which poor people had little or no justice, and she's now in a country where the poor have the same rights as do the rich and the powerful," Shapiro said. "What (Strauss-Kahn) might be able to get away with in some countries, he can't here in this country."

Strauss-Kahn's lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, said at his client's arraignment this week that defense lawyers believe the forensic evidence "will not be consistent with a forcible encounter."

"She did not know who this man was until a day or two after this took place," Shapiro said. "She had no idea who this man was."

Strauss-Kahn is also charged with sex abuse, a criminal sex act, unlawful imprisonment and forcible touching. The most serious charge carries five to 25 years in prison.

Because of his high profile, he was being held Tuesday at Rikers Island in a section of the jail that normally houses prisoners with highly contagious diseases like measles or tuberculosis. Corrections spokesman Stephen Morello said Strauss-Kahn has been placed in a wing with about 14 cells, all of them empty except for his.

Norman Seabrook, president of the correction officers union, said Strauss-Kahn did or said something during a mental health evaluation that concerned doctors, and he is being monitored day and night.

A law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of prisoner medical information, said Strauss-Kahn had not tried to harm himself.

Strauss-Kahn's cell has a toilet and a sink. He takes his meals there, with breakfast at 5 a.m., lunch at 11 a.m. and dinner at 4 or 5 p.m.

Morello said Strauss-Kahn can occasionally leave his cell and wander the wing, and can go outside for an hour each day. Because he is awaiting trial, Strauss-Kahn isn't required to wear a prison uniform. He may bring his own clothing and wear what he chooses, except for his shoes.

Meanwhile in Europe, Strauss-Kahn's past conduct with other women was getting new scrutiny.

The IMF investigated him following a 2008 affair with an employee, the Hungarian-born economist Piroska Nagy. The institution eventually cleared him of wrongdoing, but a person close to Nagy said Tuesday that she had sent the organization a letter at the time warning about his behavior toward women.

Strauss-Kahn seemed to anticipate that his problems with women could be a political liability ahead of France's presidential elections.

The French daily newspaper Liberation reported this week that at a meeting with Strauss-Kahn in April, he speculated that his presidential campaign might be subjected to low blows over "money, women and my Jewishness."

Strauss-Kahn also theorized that his enemies might try to pay someone to accuse him of rape, according to the newspaper.

The Associated Press does not name victims of alleged sex crimes unless they agree to it. But in the days since the alleged attack in Manhattan, details are beginning to emerge about Strauss-Kahn's accuser.

The woman came to the United States under "very difficult circumstances" in 2004 from Guinea, one of the world's most destitute countries, said Shapiro, her lawyer.

Guinea's average annual income of $1,000 per person is lower than Haiti's and Rwanda's and about the same as Afghanistan's, according to the CIA World Factbook.

The woman's daughter, then 8, came with her. The girl's father is dead, and they have no other relatives in the United States, Shapiro said.

"They are very much alone in this world," he said.

The United States gave the pair political asylum, he said, though he was unsure of the reason.

The woman found work as a chambermaid in hotels, he said, eventually landing a job in 2008 at the French-owned Sofitel Hotel on 44th Street in Manhattan. The hotel said she was a satisfactory employee.

The woman and her daughter moved into an apartment building in the Bronx about 10 months ago, said Zulema Zuniga, who lives on the same floor. The neighbors would occasionally meet in the elevator and say hello.

"She was very nice," Zuniga said.

But this humble immigrant life was shattered, police say, on Saturday afternoon, when the woman entered Strauss-Kahn's suite at the Sofitel to clean the room.

Strauss-Kahn came out of the bathroom naked, chased her down a hallway and pulled her into a bedroom, the woman told police. Then he dragged her into a bathroom, forced her to perform oral sex on him and tried to remove her underwear, she said.

She broke free, fled the room and told hotel security, but Strauss-Kahn was gone by the time detectives arrived, authorities said. They arrested him soon afterward on an airliner that was just about to depart for Europe.

Brafman said he is confident his client will be exonerated once all the physical evidence is collected.

Shapiro, a personal injury attorney, said he was put in touch with the woman through a mutual acquaintance. He said they had not discussed the possibility of a civil lawsuit against Strauss-Kahn.

Media attention has made it impossible for his client to return to her house or to work, Shapiro said. This week television crews and photographers hung around the employee entrance of the Sofitel and loitered outside her apartment, hoping for a glimpse of her.

Shapiro said his client is now in a "safe place," but would not elaborate.

"Her life has now been turned upside down," Shapiro said. "She can't go home, she can't go back to work. ... This has been nothing short of a cataclysmic event in her life."

(courtesy apnews.myway.com)

p.s. and now he's just a regular john with a big wallet

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Osama and my Wife (a true story)

Wife/Osama: This converter's not working!

Voice from other room: Just a second.

[in which some time elapses ... ]

Wife/Osama: It's still not working!!

Voice from other room: I'll be right there.

Voice, now in the room: You know you're pointing it at the ceiling, right?

Wife/Osama: No, look. [repeated clicks in a jabbing motion, still pointing it at the ceiling]

Voice: Let's try this. Point it at the floor.

Wife/Osama: Hey, it works.

Voice: You're welcome.

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Anderson Cooper is Funny

Anderson Cooper Attacked by Mob in Egypt

8:56 AM 2/2/2011 by Lindsay Powers, hollywoodreporter.com

The anchor was "punched 10 times in the head," CNN producer Steve Brusk Tweeted.

Anderson Cooper was attacked in Egypt Wednesday.

CNN producer Steve Brusk Tweeted, "Anderson said he was punched 10 times in the head as pro-Mubarak mob surrounded him and his crew trying to cover demonstration."

Cooper then escaped to the roof of a nearby building, where he said on air that he and his crew were trying to get to a neutral zone between protestors and pro-Mubarak supporters when they "were set upon by pro-Mubarak supporters punching us in the head. The crowd kept growing, kept throwing punches, kicks...suddenly a young man would look at you and punch you in the face."

Cooper told CNN's live blog that the attackers "pushed and shoved the CNN crew and punched them in the head... but no one was seriously hurt."

Added Brusk on Twitter, "Live images now of crowds on opposite side of trucks throwing rocks. A CNN reporter called earlier scene snowball fight with rocks."

CNN's Ben Wedeman told the blog that "he overheard a panicked army officer say the situation was out of control and there was nothing the army could do to restore order."

etc

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Anderson counted the punches?

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"Present!"

Thanks, O, that was very helpful.

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Kristof: Young Superheroes in a Hut

April 11, 2010
Op-Ed Columnist, nytimes.com
Young Superheroes in a Hut By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
VICTORIA FALLS, Zimbabwe



Why is Africa poor?

Is it a legacy of colonial exploitation? Tropical diseases and parasites? Or is it that local mammals, like the zebra and the African elephant, were difficult to domesticate and harness in agriculture?

There’s truth in each of these explanations. But a visit to Zimbabwe highlights perhaps the main reason: bad governance. The tyrannical, incompetent and corrupt rule of Zimbabwe’s president, Robert Mugabe, has turned one of Africa’s most advanced countries into a shambles.

In a village less than a day’s drive from Victoria Falls, I stumbled across a hut that to me captured the country’s heartbreak — and also its resilience and hope. The only people living in the hut are five children, orphans from two families. The kids, ages 8 to 17, moved in together after their four parents died of AIDS and other causes.

The head of the household is the oldest boy, Abel, a gangly 10th grader with a perpetual grin. He has been in charge since he was 15.

At one time, the two families reflected Zimbabwe’s relative prosperity. One mother was a businesswoman who traveled abroad regularly. A solar panel that she brought back from Zambia lies in the courtyard.

One of the fathers was a soccer coach who named his son Diego Maradona. Diego may have inherited some of his father’s talent, but he has no soccer ball and no soccer shoes — indeed, no shoes at all. And here, as in much of Zimbabwe, a once-impressive system of schools and clinics has pretty much collapsed, along with tourism, agricultural production and the economy itself.

The household stirs to life each morning when Abel rises at 4 and sets off barefoot on a nine-mile hike to the nearest high school. He has no watch or clock, so he judges the time from the sun, knowing that it will take three hours to get to school.

Abel and the other children have no money to pay school fees or buy notebooks. But the teachers allow them to attend class anyway, because they are brilliant students who earn top grades. They’re a reminder that talent is universal, although opportunity is not.

After Abel leaves for school, responsibility shifts to Diego Maradona, who is 11. He wakes the three younger children, feeds them cold cornmeal mush left over from the previous night’s dinner, and walks with them to the elementary school they all attend a few miles away.

When Diego and the younger children return in the afternoon, they gather firewood, fetch water, tend the chickens and sometimes search for edible wild plants. Abel returns by about 7 p.m. and cooks more cornmeal mush for dinner. He dispenses orders and affection, nurses the younger ones when they are sick, comforts them when they miss their parents, spanks them when they are naughty, coaches them with their schoolwork, begs food from neighbors, fixes the thatch roof when it leaks, and rules the household with tenderness and efficiency.

Abel’s goal is to graduate from high school and become a policeman, because the job will provide a steady salary to support his siblings. He does not know how he will come up with the modest fees to take graduation exams.

I asked Abel what he dreams of. “A bicycle,” he said. Then he would be able to get home from school more quickly and manage the household better.

“Life was a lot better when I was younger,” he said, a bit wistfully. “From what my parents used to tell me, life was a lot better under white rule. There was a lot more food and clothes, and you could afford to buy things.” But Abel insisted that he was optimistic that life would eventually get better again.

Westerners sometimes think that Africa’s problem is a lack of initiative or hard work. Nobody could think that after talking to Abel and Diego Maradona — or so many other Zimbabweans who display a resilience and courage that left me inspired.

I found Zimbabwean superheroes like Abel often in my week of surreptitious reporting in Zimbabwe. (Mr. Mugabe subjects journalists to imprisonment, so it seemed best not to advertise my presence.) Parents sacrifice meals to keep their children in wretched schools (one teacher showed me his two textbooks for a class of 50). And a growing number of Zimbabweans risk crocodiles, drowning and violence to sneak into South Africa in search of work.

So Zimbabwe’s tragedy isn’t its people, but its leader. Likewise, Africa’s failure has been, above all, one of leadership. It is telling that Africa’s greatest success story, Botswana, is adjacent to one of its greatest failures, Zimbabwe. The difference is that for decades Botswana has been exceptionally well and honestly managed, and Zimbabwe pillaged.

Hola

back soon

July 20 update: did I mention the pool at the resort. damn crowded!


I got my laps in, but not without jostling a few bellies.

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First thing you think of?

In all honesty, what's the first thing you think of when you see this pic?


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Her? (for DrNo)



















Her?














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A Little Thing (Procedure) I Invented

How to change in a hotel room when in mixed company or with your kids:


You guys are welcome to use this.

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Somebody's going to the Grand Canyon!

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"Just step back a bit .."

This part added Nov 6:

That's at the south rim, above, last year at Grand Canyon National Park. Below is a mule train, this week, leaving from that basic location to "Plateau Point", 3200 ft down, and with an overlook to the Colorado River another 1200 feet down. For perspective, the location for the pic above is at the bottom of the bendy curve in the horizon, down and just left from where the contrail hits the horizon (see here for a map). In the pic below the treed area in the background is Indian Garden, and the trees are thanks to a natural spring that drains down into the Colorado. They say that 7 of the world's 8 basic climate zones are represented in the trek from the top of the canyon to the river .. I believe it.


If you're not taking a mule down Bright Angel trail, this is the way down: South Kaibab Trail (if you expand this picture you can see two people coming up the trail on the extreme left, and smaller still two people going down right by the bottom switchback .. gives some perspective):


At times you walk alone, with your thoughts, the canyon walls, and the promise of a warming morning sun and a river somewhere below:


First stop, Ooh Ahh point, with the "battleship" butte in the near background, and the North Rim in the distant background. In between is our destination, the Colorado River.


The views are spectacular ..


A look over to Plateau Point, and the trail from Indian Garden (not visible) out to it (the worn area at the end is the mule rest); some beautiful views of the river and canyons within the canyon from there:


If you blow that picture up, there's a little green patch to the right (east) of Plateau Point, and you can see a little snippet of the river. Bright Angel trail comes up from the river through that green patch. That was our return route, and you'll get to see some hanging gardens on the way.

The walk down is beautiful -- South Kaibab Trail was built with tourists in mind while Bright Angel Trail was still privately owned -- on top of the ridges and buttes, and thus with the great vistas. Of course, some guys can find trouble anywhere (late note, my wife's caption for this picture is better than mine, she called it "Wrong way, Sisyphus"):


While others just minding their own business:


Blister stop:


Ah, a glimpse of the river, and, look hard, it has visitors (visible if you blow up the picture). This will be our lunch stop, and then begin the uphill climb.


Finally, almost there, and then ... there (well, through a tunnel, over a bridge, down a little hill, and there)! By the way, in the bottom left picture the treed area to the top (north) of the river is the lead-in to Phantom Ranch (the green patch on the right hand side of the first picture; detailed pic here, you can actually see people), the single lodge at the bottom of the canyon. This is the stop-off point for many (wimps) who want to spread the "Rim-to-rim" or the "down and up" trek over two days. We thought we were okay doing down and up in a day, only to have a guy join us (and our flashlight) for the last half hour of our trek on the tail end of his "rim-to-rim-to-rim" 48 km single day sojourn. That will be my goal for next year, I guess. Also, if you blow the picture up, you can see the second (westerly) of the two foot bridges crossing the river, this one people only, and leads to the Bright Angel Trail which after 9-10 miles or so takes you back (in the dark, for us) to the South Rim. The east bridge in the pic on the right and below is at the bottom of the South Kaibab Trail and is heavier duty, for mules and people.















And yes, you get to dip your feet in the Colorado:




In the background is the oldest section of rocks that make up the canyon, the Vishnu Schist layer; to get an idea of the relative size of this layer to the whole canyon, see here. Then lunch on the beach with some other trekkers, watching some Spaniard river rafters (the visitors spotted from above) getting ready to continue their 16 day ride down the river:


Some company, the rafters:


Oh, and hi to you, too, you don't mind, do you (you look hungry)?


And you, we know you're watching


Okay, time to go. Just remember, as the sign on the way down says, "Getting down is optional, getting up is mandatory!"


Now the rafters have caught up, lots of company. Here the trail goes along the river for a mile or so, the connector from South Kaibab to Bright Angel Trails. A thousand or so feet up (still three thousand + down from the South Rim), at about Plateau Point elevation, a second trail, Tonto Foot Path, connects the two.


A last look, the river wasn't much more than this, when, a mile up and 5 million years ago, it started journey downward, through the Coloardo Plateau:


The journey back. Getting dark, but still gotta suss out the great views:



{Six or so hours later ..} Made it! (note what's in my right hand: essential!):


Five minutes earlier, emerging from the dark (and cold) at Bright Angel Trailhead .. whew!


Okay. Top it off the next morning with some sunrise pics















and then listening to Ranger Dave. In thirty minutes you'll learn more than you ever thought you could know about the Grand Canyon, trust me



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Two days earlier we were at Zion Park, this is the last stretch to aptly named Angel's Landing. After a 2 hour climb you're confronted with a final challenge: cross this narrow ridge, 800 ft drop on one side and 1200 ft drop on the other, and you're there ...


and yes, we shall walk that wall


da climb (I'm a little spec on the middle-left)



only to find in the end that somebody has got your spot:


Another view:


Fly away? I can still see you ..


Concentrate, the view down is a bit dizzying:


To think about, the outer ring below is the road, the inner ring is the Virgin River. Where I stood to take this picture, at one time I would have been at the bank of that river. There's a saying by the great one-armed civil war general and Colorado River explorer John Wesley Powell that goes something like this: "Deep time gives water dominion over rock." Amazing but true.

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