Houston Rockets Air Clutch in Beware of the Bear

A funny little video - LOVE the ending! LOL

Web Addresses to Include Chinese and Arabic Characters

Despite what some might say, it's not often that an opportunity comes along to change the lives of billions of people. But that's just what the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) will do by changing the rules of Web addresses, shaking up the Internet like never before.

According to the Daily Mail, the ICANN board will pass a resolution this Friday that will allow entire Web addresses to be written in non-Latin alphabets. Those languages could be anything from Japanese to Arabic, or Hindi to Greek. The change means that many people around the world could more easily navigate the Web, and even create Web sites in their native tongue. Of the 1.6 billion people who use the Internet, about half are native speakers of languages that do not use the Latin alphabet. "This is the biggest change technically to the Internet since it was invented 40 years ago," said ICANN chairman Peter Dengate Thrush at a press conference in Seoul, South Korea yesterday. If approved, the first non-Roman domain names should hit the Web sometime in mid-2010.

But why now? For years, the group has been testing a new translation system to convert multiple scripts into a single address, and it finally feels ready to put the system to use.

We don't want to count our chickens before they hatch, but this is big news, folks. It's akin to the introduction of a three-point line in basketball, or the forward pass in football. This resolution will totally change the game, so you might want to brush up your Arabic or Chinese.

Elizabeth Taylor: Michael Jackson Movie "Most Brilliant Piece of Filmmaking"

Elizabeth Taylor has high praise for the new movie about her late friend Michael Jackson.

The 77-year-old actress said Michael Jackson's This Is It is "the single most brilliant piece of filmmaking" she has ever seen.

Although Taylor said she first saw the documentary last week, she was sworn to secrecy until Monday, and in a series of dozens of Twitter posts, she said that she "wept from pure joy at his God-given gift" and was "honored with the great privilege" of seeing the film.

"It cements forever Michael's genius in every aspect of creativity," she posted. "To say the man is a genius is an understatement. He cradles each note, coaxes the music to depths beyond reality... There will never, ever be the likes of him again. And we have this piece of film to remind us forever and ever that once there was such a man."

She added: "You owe it to yourselves and your loved ones to see this again and again. Memorize it and say to yourselves, 'I saw genius in my lifetime.' I loved genius in my lifetime."

She also commended the film's director, Kenny Ortega, posting that he did a "masterful job" of capturing Jackson's creative process.

"Mr. Ortega catches Michael in his every mood," she posted. "You see in front of your eyes Michael's genius blossoming on this piece of film thanks to Kenny Ortega and his crews. I truly believe this film should be nominated in every category conceivable."

Based on rehearsal footage shot while Jackson -- who died in June at age 50 -- was preparing for his series of comeback concerts in London, the movie opens worldwide Tuesday night.

Target return policy changes and it needs to be more upfront about it

Last month, Target ushered in the busy shopping season with changes in its return policy. The timing couldn't make more sense considering the premonition and speculation about a disastrous holiday season for retailers.

We all know the big discounter can't better rival Walmart on prices, but can it take a shot at them with the new policy and swing away traffic? Maybe not, according toConsumerReports.org

On the face of it, the changes, which are still being rolled out, look awesome. In a year-long period, you can exchange any item or items up to $70 and many times as you want, as compared to the previous cap of $35 and only two returns without receipts.

The changes also allow for using a gift registry as a receipt. If you've reached your $70 limit, Target will still let you have an even exchange without a receipt. Walmart, on the other hand, allows the exchange of three items without receipts in a 45-day cycle.

So, which is a better deal? Well,Walmart wins on clarity and a cleaner policy. The company clearly spells out the details of a receipt-less return on its Web site, unlike Target which says it "allows a limited amount of no receipt refunds or exchanges for guests that don't have a receipt."

When asked why the company hasn't updated the policy changes on its Web site, Sonja Pothen, a Target spokeswoman, said it's because the company focuses on encouraging shoppers to always bring receipts for returns and exchanges.

Really, does anyone have the time to dig for the hidden changes? Target will have to do better than that.

Meanwhile, I think I'll just continue with my tried and tested habit of stashing those receipts in a secret compartment in my wallet.

Some parents who wouldn't dream of striking their children are shouting instead.

Nightclubs for the plus-size begin to weigh in

Ok, I ask you, what has the world come to? Nightclubs for the plus-size? Why not call it what it really is for the most part, Night Clubs for the people who are eating themselves to death and don't give a rats ass that they contribute to the problem of rising healthcare costs! Don't get me wrong, I understand that there are people out there who due to a medical condition cannot help that they are "plus-size" but that is not the case with most of the "plus-size" or "obese people in America.

At the heart of this is the increased amount of fast food restaurants, lack of extra curricular activities for young ones at the school level, a failure of schools throughout the US to fund PE classes so that the students are actually being active, and let us not forget the never ending use of video games that assist our children to sit in one place and consume junk food while they watch or play their favorite games.

When you add all of this together what do you get? Well that young obese child become an even bigger teenager and young adult who now has a "club" to help justify his/her lack of activity and that tells them that it is ok to "embrace" your bigness.

I wonder if it'll be ok when that same person drops dead of a heart attack at a young age of lets say 33!

Below is the article as it reads By JOHN ROGERS, AP

Move over, it's Saturday night at Club Bounce and people are bouncing onto the dance floor in a big, big way.

These are big, big people, all dressed to the nines and many tipping the scales at 250, maybe 300 pounds.

That's because this expansive nightclub a couple blocks from the Pacific Ocean, with its flashing lights, friendly atmosphere and wall-rattling hip-hop sounds, caters specifically to fat people.

That's right, fat people. Not just any fat people, either, but fat people who are proud to call themselves fat people. People who joke that they are part of the new Fat is Phat movement.

"Self-conscious? No! Not at all," laughs Monique Lopez, a curvaceous woman of 23 as she arrives in a tight, black dress and heels. "I was like, 'I'm going to Club Bounce tonight. I'm going to wear my shortest skirt.'" (Which she did.)

The movement for equal rights for plus-sized people is nothing new of course. The National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance, with chapters around the country, was founded 40 years ago. A nonprofit group, it advocates that everyone be treated equally regardless of size, arguing that we don't live in a one-size-fits-all world.

But what has been slower coming, fat advocates say, are places like Club Bounce, where people who might have some trouble getting past the velvet ropes at other night spots because of their size are made to feel like they fit right in.

"When you're not what they consider ideal, you know, and you're out there trying to get your dance on at those other places, you get the looks, the stares. But not here. Everything's accepted here," says Vanessa Gray of Long Beach, an attractive 30-something woman who acknowledges jovially that after giving birth to three children, "I've got a little more meat on my bones."

Such clubs are still a relatively new phenomenon, however, with a handful scattered across California, mainly in coastal cities from San Diego to San Francisco.

"The whole thing really started on the Internet, with clubhouse parties organized online," says Kathleen Divine, who runs another Southern California plus-size club, the Butterfly Lounge. "Now you see a lot more large people out in public, not hiding behind their keyboards anymore."

A Web site for "big beautiful women" (bbwnetwork.com ) sponsors an annual "Vegas Bash," for example, and there are similar gatherings in cities like Atlanta and Seattle.

But veteran fat activist Lynn McAfe of the Council On Size and Weight Discrimination would like to see more clubs.

"It's nice to have a place to go where you can do a little flirting and maybe bring your thin sister or somebody from work who isn't fat, and they'll be in your world for awhile," says McAfe, a pioneer of the fat advocacy movement. "That's an amazing experience for a lot of people who aren't fat, to spend a day or night in a world of fat people."

Not that every large person prefers to be called fat, especially by someone who isn't.

Lisa Marie Garbo, who opened Club Bounce five years ago, says she prefers plus-sized or larger-framed.

"But I don't think fat is a bad word anymore," she adds. "I think a lot of people embrace it now."

Garbo, a vivacious, 40-year-old blonde partial to flamboyant outfits of tight-fitting pants and low-cut tops, said she opened the club for herself and others who were tired of being "the only fat girl at the local nightclub."

The club, with a capacity of 400, attracts relatively equal numbers of men and women, although Garbo says about three-quarters of the women tend to be heavy, while only about a quarter of the men are.

Some club-goers, like Chad Koyanagi, started out big, then slimmed down. Others, like Garbo herself, have seen their weight go up and down over the years. Still others say they're happy the way they are.

Like a lot of heavy people, Koyanagi says he started dropping by the club after a friend he met on a social networking site kept after him to get out of the house. Painfully shy at first, the 30-year-old eventually began to fit in and ended up shedding 50 pounds. Although he's no longer hefty enough to fit the club's BHM profile (Big Handsome Man), he says he's made too many friends to stop coming.

But while not all club-goers are overweight, the very nature of such venues has led some to question whether they are encouraging people to remain fat in a society where, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one-third of adults are already obese.

"I'm not a gain-weight advocate or anything like that," says Garbo, who adds she has struggled with her own weight since doctors put her on steroids as a child to treat her asthma. "My message to people is live your life no matter what size you are."

Although obesity remains a serious problem, with links to diabetes, heart disease and other health issues, says sociologist Karen Sternheimer, creating a place where people can feel good about themselves can build self-esteem, which in turn can prompt people to do something about their weight.

"As the country gets heavier and ultimately unhealthier, in many instances the problem is people feeling bad about themselves, and feeling bad about themselves doesn't motivate people to lose weight," says Sternheimer, author of "Connecting Social Problems and Popular Culture."

What does motivate people, she said, is starting with a positive outlook of accepting who you are, then working from there to change your appearance in whatever way you want.

"Anything that helps people feel better about themselves," she said, "there's something positive to that."