Award Winning - Best Pictures of the Year 2008

Lightning bolts appear above and around the Chaiten volcano as seen from Chana, some 30 kms (19 miles) north of the volcano, as it began its first eruption in thousands of years, in southern Chile May 2, 2008. Cases of electrical storms breaking out directly above erupting volcanoes are well documented, although scientists differ on what causes them. Picture taken May 2, 2008. (REUTERS/Carlos Gutierrez)



The Space Shuttle Discovery lifts off from launch pad 39-A at Kennedy Space Center on May 31, 2008 in Cape Canaveral, Florida, en route to the International Space Station on a construction mission. (Eliot J. Schechter /Getty Images)



An aerial view of floods caused by Tropical Storm Hanna is seen in Gonaives, Haiti on September 3, 2008. Haiti's civil protection office said 37 of the 90 Hanna-related deaths had occurred in the port city of Gonaives. (REUTERS/Marco Dormino/Minustah)



A U.S. Marine, from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, has a close call after Taliban fighters opened fire near Garmser in Helmand Province of Afghanistan May 18, 2008. The Marine was not injured. (REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic)



The hand of a dead body lies on the ground amongst the rubble of the earthquake ravaged town May 15, 2008 in Beichuan, Sichuan province, China. (Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)



Italian soccer club AC Milan's newly signed player Ronaldinho of Brazil attends his presentation at San Siro Stadium in Milan, Italy on July 17, 2008. (REUTERS/Alessandro Garofalo)



The right hand of a young visitor is silhouetted against a jellyfish exhibition hall at the Ocean Park aquarium-amusement complex in Hong Kong on January 20, 2008. (REUTERS/Victor Fraile)



Buildings and debris are seen floating in the Cedar River against a railroad bridge Saturday, June 14, 2008, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Days after it rose out of its banks on its way to record flooding in Cedar Rapids, the Cedar River has forced at least 24,000 people from their homes, emergency officials said. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)



Kenyan athletes train at Eldoret's Chepkoilel stadium on May 30, 2008 in preparation for the upcoming Beijing Olympic Games 2008. Recently the Kenyan athletics federation announced the setting up of two training camps in Eldoret and Nairobi to cater for a selected team of 120 athletes ahead of the Beijing Olympic trials on July 4-5. (TONY KARUMBA/AFP/ Getty Images)



Time exposure of the Swiss mountain resort of Grindelwald next to the north face of the Eiger mountain, seen on January 10, 2008. (REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth)



Department of Water and Power workers are emptying out bales of plastic balls in the Ivanhoe reservoir in Los Angeles on Monday, June 9, 2008. Department of Water and Power released about 400,000 black plastic 4-inch balls as the first installment of approximately 3 million to form a floating cover over 7 acres of the reservoir to protect the water from sunlight.



A man dressed as a tiger carries a small whip made from rope in Zitlala, Guerrero state, Mexico, Monday, May 5, 2008. Every year, inhabitants of this town participate in a violent ceremony to ask for a good harvest and plenty of rain, at the end of the ceremony men battle each other with their whips while wearing tiger masks and costumess. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)



A baseball is illuminated by the sun as Chicago Cubs starting pitcher Ted Lilly throws during the first inning of a game against the Milwaukee Brewers Saturday, Sept. 27 2008, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Darren Hauck)



Children of slain Philadelphia police sergeant Stephen Liczbinski, Amber and Steve embrace after their father's funeral mass on the steps of the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania May 9, 2008 Sergeant Liczbinski was gunned down as he investigated a bank robbery on May 3. (REUTERS/Tim Shaffer)



A policeman carries a child away during a gun battle in Tijuana, in Mexico's state of Baja California, January 17, 2008. A shootout on Thursday, after police agents moved in on a drug cartel group, left four people injured and forced the emergency evacuation of a school in Tijuana, according to the local media. (REUTERS/Jorge Duenes)



A man stands in front of the Marriott hotel after a bomb blast in Islamabad September 20, 2008. A truck bomb was detonated outside the Marriott in the Pakistani capital Islamabad on Saturday, killing at least 54, injuring at least 266 and starting a fire which swept through the hotel. (REUTERS/Faisal Mahmood)



Locals and tourists walk around the Dutch ship Artemis which ran aground on the beach of les Sables d'Olonne, southern French Britanny, western France, March 10, 2008. The boat had been driven onto the coast by the wind blowing more than 130 km per hour. (REUTERS/Stephane Mahe)



A fire rages out of control at the backlot filled with movie sets at Universal Studios in Universal City, California, 12 miles (19 km) from downtown Los Angeles June 1, 2008. A portion of the set used in Steven Spielberg's film



Swiss pilot Yves Rossy, the world's first man to fly with a jet-powered fixed-wing apparatus strapped to his back, flies during his first official demonstration, on May 14, 2008 above Bex, Switzerland. (Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/ Getty Images)



Cyclone Nargis victims huddle in torrential rain as they await assistance in Dedaye Township, southwest of Yangon, Myanmar on May 19, 2008. Political resistance to outside aid and a slow response by the government worsened an already devastating situation - an estimated 146,000 people lost their lives. (REUTERS/Stringer)



Tear gas cannisters fired by Israeli soldiers fall from the sky on Palestinian and Israeli peace activists during a protest agaisnt the construction of Israel's controversial security barrier in the West Bank village of Bilin, near Ramallah, on June 6, 2008. (Abbas Momani/AFP/Getty Images)



Maasai warriors cover a battle field as they clash with bows and arrows with members of the Kalenjin tribe in the Kapune hill overlooking the Olmelil valley located in the Transmara District in Western Kenya on March 01, 2008. The Massai, the Kalenjin and the Kisii tribes have recently clashed over ongoing land disputes that erupted after botched local elections during the general elections held in Kenya in December of 2007. Over twenty warriors from the tribes have been killed in bow and arrow battles near the borders of these tribes in the last couple of months. (Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP/Getty Images)



Firefighters battle a blaze at the Namdaemun gate, one of South Korea's most historic sites, in central Seoul, on February 11, 2008. An arsonist started the fire, destroying the gate - the oldest wooden structure in Seoul, first constructed in 1398 and rebuilt in 1447. (Kim Jae-hwan/AFP/ Getty Images)



The head of a male student, still alive, trapped under the debris is pictured at the scene of the church school that collapsed on the outskirts of Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince, November 7, 2008. At least 30 people were killed when the three-story La Promesse school building collapsed while class was in session and some of the walls and debris crushed neighboring homes in the Nerettes



Wounded Palestinians lay near Reuters news agency reporter Fadel Shaana's car after it was hit by an Israeli missile on April 16, 2008 in the central Gaza Strip. The Israeli air strike killed a Palestinian cameraman working for the Reuters news service and two other civilians, Palestinian medics and witnesses said. (MOHAMMED ABED/AFP/Getty Images)



A rescue helicopter prepares to hoist aboard surviving Japanese climber Hideaki Nara near the summit of Aoraki Mount Cook in New Zealand on December 5, 2008. A Japanese climber stranded for six days just below the summit had died just hours before rescuers reached him and a compatriot, local media reported. The two Japanese climbers were forced to huddle in a tent 50 meters below the 3,754-meter (12,349 feet) peak, as poor weather and high winds foiled attempts to rescue the men by helicopter.



A Kenyan boy screams as he sees kenyan policeman with a baton approach the door of his home in the Kibera slum of Nairobi 17 January 2008. Hundreds of police who had earlier clashed with supporters of Kenya's opposition leader Raila Odinga at the entrance of the slum moved into the shantytown and did a house to house search for protestors. (WALTER ASTRADA/AFP/ Getty Images)



An Afghan refugee child hides from a dust storm behind a tent at a refugee camp in Kabul, Afghanistan on October 7, 2008. Over a quarter million Afghans have returned home this year from Pakistan and Iran, many of them reportedly due to economic and security uncertainties faced in exile, the United Nations said. (MANPREET ROMANA/AFP/Getty Images)



The Guizer Jarl is silhouetted as members of his Viking Squad walk around a long boat with burning torches during the annual Up Helly Aa Festival, in Lerwick, Shetland Islands on January 29th, 2008. Up Helly Aa celebrates the influence of the Scandinavian vikings in the Shetland Islands. (Carl de Souza/AFP/Getty Images)











































Kartoula, 14, a refugee from Sudan's western Darfur region, enters a distribution centre to receive monthly food rations at Djabal camp near Gos Beida in eastern Chad, June 5, 2008. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly)

Superb photos by Andreas Stridsberg

Exotic pictures of Scotland



Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the southwest. In addition to the mainland, Scotland consists of over 790 islands including the Northern Isles and the Hebrides.



It was the hub of the Scottish Enlightenment of the 18th century, which saw Scotland become one of the commercial, intellectual and industrial powerhouses of Europe. Scotland's largest city is Glasgow, which was once one of the world's leading industrial cities, and now lies at the centre of the Greater Glasgow conurbation which dominates the Scottish Lowlands.



The Kingdom of Scotland was an independent state until 1 May 1707 when it joined in a political union with the Kingdom of England to create a united Kingdom of Great Britain.



Scotland's legal system continues to be separate from those of England, Wales, and Northern Ireland and Scotland still constitutes a distinct jurisdiction in public and in private law.



Scotland is from the Latin Scoti, the term applied to Gaels. The Late Latin word Scotia (land of the Gaels) was initially used to refer to Ireland. By the 11th century at the latest, Scotia was being used to refer to (Gaelic-speaking) Scotland north of the river Forth, alongside Albania or Albany, both derived from the Gaelic Alba.



Repeated glaciations, which covered the entire land-mass of modern Scotland, have destroyed any traces of human habitation that may have existed before the Mesolithic period. It is believed that the first post-glacial groups of hunter-gatherers arrived in Scotland around 12,800 years ago, as the ice sheet retreated after the last glaciation.

Polish Remover : Tricky one - concentrate to understand this joke

A Polish (citizen of Poland country) man moved to the USA and married an American girl.

Although his English was very worst, they got along very well until one day he rushed into a lawyer’s office and asked him if he could could arrange a divorce for him. The lawyer said that getting a divorce would depend on the circumstances, and asked him the following questions:

Have you any grounds?
- Yes, an acre and half and nice little home.

No, I mean what is the foundation of this case?
- It made of concrete.

I don’t think you understand. Do either of you have a real grudge?
- No, we have carport, and not need one.

I mean. What are your relation is like?
- All my relations still in Poland.

Is there any infidelity in your marriage?
- We have hi-fidelity stereo and good DVD player.

Does your wife beat you up?
- No, I am always up before her.

Is your wife a nagger?
- No, she white.

Why do you want this divorce?
- She going to kill me.

What makes you think that?
- I got proof.

What kind of proof?
- She going to poison me. She buy a bottle at drugstore and put on shelf in bathroom. I can read, and it say: Polish Remover.

Upcoming Swingers events: March-May

Saturday, April 4th
LoveVoodoo at Tabu (Baltimore, MD)
LoveVooDoo Bunny Party
To celebrate LoveVoodoo Fest'09 we are giving away a ...
3-Night 4-Day FREE Trip to Hedonism II, Jamaica

Saturday, April 4th
LoveVoodoo at Trapeze (Atlanta, GA)
LoveVoodoo Mega Event
To celebrate LoveVoodoo Fest'09 we are giving away a ...
3-Night 4-Day FREE Trip to Hedonism II, Jamaica

Saturday, April 18th
LoveVoodoo at Tabu (Baltimore, MD)
Tabu's 4th Anniversary Party
To celebrate LoveVoodoo Fest'09 we are giving away a ...
3-Night 4-Day FREE Trip to Hedonism II, Jamaica



Saturday, April 18th
LoveVoodoo at TJs Lasting Impressions (Harrisburg, PA)
To celebrate LoveVoodoo Fest'09 we are giving away a ...
3-Night 4-Day FREE Trip to Hedonism II, Jamaica




Saturday, May 2nd
LoveVoodoo at Trapeze (Ft Lauderdale, FL)
LoveVoodoo Sponsored Event
To celebrate LoveVoodoo Fest'09 we are giving away a ...
3-Night 4-Day FREE Trip to Hedonism II, Jamaica

Weekender Recreational yatch

A yacht is a recreational boat. It designates two rather different classes of watercraft, sailing and power yachts. Yachts are differentiated from working ships mainly by their leisure purpose. It was not until the rise of the steamboat and other types of powerboat that sailing vessels in general came to be perceived as luxury items. However, since the level of luxury on larger yachts has seen an increasing trend, the use of the word yacht to mean any sailing vessel has been diminishing and is more and more limited to racing yachts or cruising yachts.

Yacht lengths generally range from 40 feet (13 m) up to hundreds of feet. Luxury craft smaller than 40 feet are more commonly called "cabin cruisers" or simply "cruisers." A mega yacht generally refers to any yacht (sail or power) above 100 ft (34 m) and a super yacht generally refers to any yacht over 200 ft (70 m). This size is small in relation to typical cruise liners and oil tankers.

Weekender yachts are slightly larger, at under 30 ft (9.5 m) in length. They often have twin keels or lifting keels such as in trailer sailers. This allows them to operate in shallow waters, and if needed "dry out"—become beached as the tide falls. The hull shape (or twin-keel layout) allows the boat to sit upright when there is no water. Such boats are designed to undertake short journeys, rarely lasting more than 2 or 3 days (hence their name). In coastal areas, long trips may be undertaken in a series of short hops. Weekenders usually have only a simple cabin, often consisting of a single "saloon" with bedspace for two to three people. Clever use of ergonomics allows space in the saloon for a galley (kitchen), seating, and navigation equipment. There is limited space for stores of water and food. Most are single-masted "Bermuda sloops" (not to be confused with the type of traditional Bermudian ship known as a Bermuda sloop), with a single foresail of the jib or genoa type and a single mainsail (one variation of the aforementioned Bermuda rig). Some are gaff rigged. The smallest of this type, generally called pocket yachts or pocket cruisers, and trailer sailers can be transported on special trailers.

Underground system to solve Abu Dhabi's waste problems

Overflowing garbage drums may become a thing of the past with the installation of innovative electrohydraulic underground waste system across the emirate of Abu Dhabi
The Centre of Waste Management Abu Dhabi is launching an innovative electrohydraulic underground waste system across Abu Dhabi.

This is the first time this modern technology will be used in Abu Dhabi.

The new underground system removes many of the hazards associated with waste left outside premises, such as foraging by street cats.

The system has a lockable receiver mechanism, making it inaccessible to anyone who does not have the key to open the unit.

It will be installed at 31 locations in the Khalidya, Tourist Club Area and the Grand Mosque.

Majed Al Mansouri, Head of the Supreme Committee of Waste Management, said the move is part of efforts to "create a better environment for residents, visitors and the business community in the Emirate."

Al Mansouri also highlighted the importance of community participation and a greater sense of ownership of the environment.

He assured that every household covered by the scheme will receive an information pack with details about the new service.

Large containers are encased within a metal frame and then sunk inside a concrete sleeve in the ground.

The only visible element of the system at ground level is a steel platform a receiver unit through which the refuse is deposited. Pedestrians, street cleaners and small shops will be able to deposit their waste at street level.

The containers are fitted with censors that send alerts when full, enabling more efficient waste collection by reducing unnecessary traffic.

When the containers are full, specially-adapted waste trucks will lift them out of the ground, empty the containers and replace them.

India's Israel envy

India's Israel envy

By Shashi Tharoor

NEW DELHI - As Israeli planes and tanks were exacting a heavy toll on Gaza, India's leaders and strategic thinkers were watching with an unusual degree of interest - and some empathy.
India's government, no surprise, joined the rest of the world in calling for an end to the military action, but its criticism of Israel was muted. For, as Israel demonstrated anew its determination to end attacks on its civilians by militants based in Hamas-controlled territory, many in India, still smarting from the horrors of the Mumbai attacks in November, have been asking: Why can't we do the same?
For many Indians, the temptation to identify with Israel was strengthened by the terrorists' seizure of the Chabad House, and the painful awareness that India and Israel share many of the same enemies. India, with its 150 million Muslims, has long been a staunch supporter of the Palestinian cause, and remains strongly committed to an independent Palestinian state. But the Mumbai attacks confirmed what has become apparent in recent years: The forces of global Islamist terror have added Indians to their target list of reviled "Jews and crusaders."
Just as Israel has frequently been attacked by rockets fired from across its border, India has suffered repeated assaults by killers trained, equipped, financed and directed by elements based next door, in Pakistan. When president George W. Bush's press secretary equated members of Hamas with the Mumbai killers, her comments were widely circulated in India.
Yet there the parallels end. Israel is a small country living in a permanent state of siege, highly security-conscious and surrounded by forces hostile to it; India is a giant country whose borders are notoriously permeable, an open society known for its lax and easygoing ways.
Whereas many regard Israel's toughness as its principal characteristic, India's own citizens view their country as a soft state, its underbelly easily penetrated by determined terrorists. Whereas Israel notoriously exacts grim retribution for every attack on its soil, India has endured with numbing stoicism an endless series of bomb blasts, including at least six major assaults in different locations in 2008 alone. Terrorism has taken more lives in India than in any country in the world after Iraq, and yet, unlike Israel, India has seemed unable to do anything about it.
Moreover, whereas Israel's principal adversary is currently Hamas, India faces a slew of terrorist organizations - Lashkar-e-Toiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, Jamaat-ud-Dawa and more. But, whereas Hamas operates from Gaza without international recognition, India's tormentors function from Pakistan, a sovereign member of the United Nations. And that makes all the difference.
Hamas is in no position to repay Israel's air and ground attacks in kind, whereas an Indian attack on Pakistani territory, even one targeting terrorist bases and training camps, would invite swift retaliation from the Pakistani army. And, at the end of the day, one chilling fact would prevent India from thinking that it could use Israel's playbook: The country that condones, if not foments, the terror attacks on India is a nuclear power.
So India has gone to the world community with evidence that the Mumbai attacks were planned in Pakistan and conducted by Pakistanis who maintained contact with handlers there during the operation. While India had briefly hoped that the proof might enable Pakistan's weak civilian government to rein in the malign elements in its society, the Pakistani authorities' reaction has been one of denial.
Yet no one doubts that Pakistan's all-powerful military intelligence has, over the last two decades, created and supported terror organizations as instruments of Pakistani policy in Afghanistan and India. When India's embassy in Kabul was hit by a suicide bomber last July, American intelligence sources revealed that not only was Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence behind the attack, but that it made little effort to cover its tracks. The ISI knew perfectly well that India would not go to war with Pakistan to avenge the killing of its diplomatic personnel.
The fact is that India knows that war will accomplish nothing. Indeed, it is just what the terrorists want - a cause that would rally all Pakistanis to the flag and provide Pakistan's army an excuse to abandon the unpopular fight against the Taliban and Al-Qaida in the west for the more familiar terrain of the Indian border in the east. India's government sees no reason to play into the hands of those who seek that outcome.
Yet, when Indians watch Israel take the fight to the enemy, killing those who launched rockets against it and dismantling many of the sites from which the rockets flew, some cannot resist wishing that they could do something similar in Pakistan. India understands, though, that the collateral damage would be too high, the price in civilian lives unacceptable, and the risks of the conflict spiraling out of control too acute to contemplate such an option. So Indians place their trust in international diplomacy and watch, with ill-disguised wistfulness, as Israel does what they could never permit themselves to do.

Shashi Tharoor is an Indian novelist and commentator, and a former under-secretary- general of the United Nations.

Paris Hilton may be seeing George Clooney

Reports indicate that Paris Hilton may be seeing George Clooney. The two have been spotted out together a couple of times. The first being at the Whiskey Bar in West Hollywood. Sources say: “Paris and George sat and talked together for ages. They didn’t seem to be aware of anyone else in the room.”



The two were next seen together at Dan Tana’s in some type of “bizarre business meeting.” Described as such because sitting next to them was Ridley Scott, Marvel studios chairman David Maisel and Brittanny Flickinger, Paris’ manufactured BFF.



Clooney must have a deathwish. Doesn’t he know his immune system isn’t prepared to deal with Paris? Putting his penis in her will be like sneezing on someone who lives in a bubble. Paris’ vag must be happy though. It gets to feed again. I even heard someone mention that they heard an eerie, “Muahahahahaha!,” coming from her crotch when she went to fix herself up in the Whiskey Bar’s bathroom.



Here’s Paris and her BFF in Australia.