Putin’s website down by hacktivist group

TOP STORIES 

BEST OF

A more incisive and creative way to show protest. Hacktivist group Anonymous has been up to its old tricks again, this time briefly taking out the web site of the Russian president as a show of support for the growing opposition to newly re-crowned leader Vladimr Putin. Like most of the group's DDoS campaigns, the attack only temporarily disrupted the kremlin.ru site, which is back online now.

Anonymous tweeted from its Op_Russia Twitter account this Wednesday referencing OpDefiance, its new campaign designed to protest against what it claims were unfair elections in Russia which swept former president and prime minister Putin back to power. 

Putin’s work to change legislation allowing him to get back to power has just paid back, but anti-Putin rallies have been increasing even after his reelection. 20,000 people took part in a protest on Sunday against Mr Putin's inauguration, though police put the figure at 8,000. 

Even in the US, Obama’s office came with a disapproval of the "mistreatment" of peaceful protesters. 

The US and Russian leaders will meet during the G20 summit in Mexico in June, but so far it’s highlighted growing tensions between the two nations over the US missile defence plans in eastern Europe, our correspondent adds.





THE WORST

Brand new Russian jet crashes in Indonesia

46 people died in a jet crash this Wednesday in Indonesia. The wreckage was found only today (Thursday) near a volcano. The airline operated a demonstration flight especially arranged to sell the merits of this new civilian model, called SSJ100, who had just received her certification in April to fly in Europe.

The demonstration flight, to which were invited several journalists, was part of a tour organized by Soukhoï in the region and should take SSJ100 to Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Burma, Laos and Vietnam.

The SSJ100 is often presented as the hope of Russian civil aircraft, which went into decline after the end of the Soviet Union. With the capacity to carry between 75 and 100 passengers, the aircraft was designed to compete with the Brazilian Embraer and Canadian Bombardier in the regional aviation market. Its first commercial flight, from the Russian airline Aeroflot, happened a year ago, in April 2011.

Perigee and full moon but no werewolfs

FEARS

THE BEST

At 5 o'clock in the morning last Sunday the moon has been at its perigee, the closest point in the orbit of the Earth. The fact that the approximation coincided with a full moon, provided the most spectacular phenomenon.

For many people it was just a beautiful moon overhead that good bigger due to its coming closer to earth, but for many others it was a recipe for disaster.

Though scientists agree that moon is capable of making some impact on earth, but it is limited to some moderate high tides near beaches and nothing more. Others who claim that the moon may impact the earth adversely claim that the moon is most dangerous when it becomes a super moon.

There are people who have been predicting disasters every time there is super moon. Richard Nolle who is credited to have used the term of super moon for the first time says, “Supermoons have a historical association with strong storms, very high tides, extreme tides and also earthquakes”. But in the last few years there was neither any earthquake nor extreme tides on the occasion of super moon.

Moon’s impact on earth is well known. Just like the orbits of planets around the sun, the moon’s path around the Earth is more elliptical than circular. So within each lunar cycle, there is a part of the orbit when it is closest to Earth and a part when it is farthest away (perigee and apogee, respectively). The tides normally change as the moon goes from perigee to apogee, and next week will be no different. 

A NASA official says, “You tend to have stronger tides near the full moon…These will be the strongest tides of the month, but they won’t be much different from last year. They’re not that unusual from other tides around the full moon.

At perigee, the moon is 363,000 miles away, on average, the Earth. In the heyday, when the star is farther away, is 405 000 kilometers. This difference causes the moon tomorrow is 14% higher and 30% brighter.

But the best time to observe this difference is a few hours before, even on Saturday, during the moonrise, at 20h09, when it always seems bigger

If u didn't see it there will be more opportunities. the phenomenon is cyclic. The last time it had happened was on March 19, 2011 and the next opportunity to observe a moon as big will be the March 19, 2013 and August 10, 2014.

Powdered human flesh capsules in  South Korea 

THE WORST

South Korea says it will increase customs inspections targeting capsules containing powdered human flesh.

The South Korea Customs Service said it had found almost 17,500 of the capsules being smuggled into the country from China since August 2011. The powdered flesh, which officials said came from dead babies and foetuses, is reportedly thought by some to cure disease and boost stamina. But officials said the capsules were full of bacteria and a health risk.

"It was confirmed those capsules contain materials harmful to the human body, such as super bacteria. We need to take tougher measures to protect public health," a customs official was quoted as saying by the Korea Times.

Inspections are to be stepped up on shipments of drugs arriving from north-east China. A local newspaper said that capsules were being dyed or switched into boxes of other drugs in a bid to disguise them. Some of the capsules were found in travellers' luggage and some in the post.

Allegations that human flesh capsules were being trafficked from north-east China into South Korea emerged last year in a South Korean television documentary.

Ministry spokesman Deng Haihua said China had "strict management of disposal of infant and foetal remains as well as placentas. Any practice that handles the remains as medical waste is strictly prohibited."

Look out don't miss Lockout

MOVIES

Lockout (2012)

THE BEST

As a fan of antecipation science fiction movies, one doesn't get many chances to see a decent movie per year. From the Terminator saga to Minority Report, and including Surrogates, for example. Well, i'm one of those fans and Lockout is overall the best production in its genre i've seen in months. Let us conced it lacks some scripting density, but it compensates with the cynical humor perfectly carried by Guy Pearce.

Directors Stephen Leger and James Mather are still giving their first steps and they've taken a good one with this work about a man wrongly convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage against the U.S. to whom is offered his freedom if he can rescue the president's daughter from an outer space prison taken over by violent inmates.

It may not have the visual appealing of idiotic Hunger Games, but overall it's a much more acceptable movie.




Wuthering Heights (2011)

THE WORST

Emily Bronte's novel seventh adaptation to cinema. It all started in 1939 with William Wyler's version and it has been ten years since Peter Kosminsky's movie starring Juliette Binoche and Ralph Fiennes.

Still working on difficult family bonding, director Andrea Arnold had raised up the scale with previous Fish Tank, but now she couldn't jump higher and sets with an low medium quality adaptation, too pretencious and a low pace induced by all the artistic nature imagering. It just didn't work.

One can suppose it was intended to enhance powerful description, state of mind, suffering, but it happens to display a series of failed cinematic metaphores.

When your number's up

TV SERIES

Person Of Interest (SEASON 1)

THE BEST

Here's a realistic and fresh entertainment. Shown on CBS, Person of Interested (POI) is a well succeeded creation of Jonathan Nolan (brother of director Christopher Nola) who wrote the screenplays for Christopher's movies "Memento", "Batman Begins", "The Prestige", "The Dark Knight", as well as the upcoming "The Dark Knight Rises", and "Man of Steel.

A significant portfolio doesn't certificate the quality of this TV Series. It happens this monitored world where each one of us can be screened at any real time is not science fiction for a long time. The only unrealistic aspect is the benevolent approach on the vigilance. I'm sure nobody would really mind being watched by the funny computer genius named Finch.

He developed a machine they say it's used to detect information leading to acts of terrorism before they happen. But he also developed a back door into the system which only spits out the social security number of a central person involved in the crime.

Supposedly dead in the authority's eyes, Finch hires John Reese, an ex-CIA special operations agent, who, too, dropped out of life after his girlfriend was killed as the result of a professional incident, and he was dissatisfied with the government's handling of the situation. Go figure...




Seinfeld, get back

Veep (SEASON 1)

THE WORST

From POI to VIP, pardon, VEEP it's a long way down. The long empathy of Julia Louis-Dreyfuss from her unforgettable participation in classic humour series Seinfeld vanishes after two episodes of miscarried comic sense in VEEP.

A single travelling camera that never stops intended to give rhythm and action to the vice-minister office is even more tiring than the senseless dialogues produced in what should be a satire to the political agenda of top government persons.

One gets the feeling this could be a fairly good TV series if it had a background of good and imaginative scripts, which is not definitely the case. If you have by any chance an urge to get bored, take a look at this VEEP.

Real Madrid clinches 32nd spanish title

 SPORT

THE BEST

Football season's near the end in most european leagues. FC Porto and Ajax assured national titles in Portugal and Netherlands, but at the moment the strongest european league is the Spanish, where Real Madrid has just conquered its record-extending 32nd Spanish soccer league title with a 3-0 win over Athletic Bilbao. Barcelona’s Lionel Messi settled with a European goal-scoring record.

Gonzalo Higuain, Mesut Ozil and Cristiano Ronaldo scored - as the "merengues" pushed their single-season Spanish scoring record to 115 goals - to give Real its first La Liga title since 2008 and end Barcelona’s three-year reign as champion. New champion has 94 points, seven more than its arch rival with two matches left. “The league is even harder when you fight for it with a team like Barcelona,” Ronaldo, who missed a penalty kick, said in comments on Real’s website. “We were better than them.”

The victory gives Real manager Jose Mourinho (seven) championships in four different countries, following titles with Porto, in his native Portugal, Chelsea, in England, and Inter Milan. 




“I won the league title in Portugal, Italy and England, but this one has been the toughest,” Mourinho told RealmadridTV. “I’ve won seven league titles overall and I know what it feels like.”

Ronaldo lifted his league tally to 44 goals, two fewer than Messi, who scored three times last night in a 4-1 win over Malaga to break the record for goals in a European season.





Hilarious political boycott on Euro'2012

THE WORST

Austria, Belgium and the Netherlands announced this week they would not send government ministers to the Euro 2012 soccer tournament because of the way that co-host nation Ukraine has treated imprisoned former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko. 

It is a laughable statement considering they have not been selected to play. However, meant as political signal to Kiev this move has been the only media decision they could think of in order to get some sort of reaction. As it was in the past, governments are still using sport as a political instrument to do their job. 









This statements are even more silly considering that none of the European soccer federations involved in the tournament have boycotted the event and UEFA chief Michel Platini said in an interview last week that the European Championships would continue on as planned.

Calls for the snub first came from two German ministers and EU justice commissioner Viviane Reding at the weekend. In recent days Austria, Belgium and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said they will not go. The Netherlands has also threatened to stay away.

The President of Poland - which is co-hosting Euro2012 with Ukraine - has accused EU politicians planning to boycott Ukrainian matches of ulterior motives. Bronislaw Komorowski said the crackdown on opposition in Ukraine is not comparable to events which prompted previous Western boycotts - of the Moscow Olympics in 1980 and the Beijing Olympics in 2008. "These were the effects of war which Russia launched against Afghanistan or the bloody repression of Tibetans' aspirations for freedom, where blood was spilt, where there were mass arrests, jailings and so on. But the situation in Ukraine is not like that. We all understand this perfectly. So it is possible to speculate there are some other calculations being made."

Komorowski's remark on "other calculations" is an allusion to concerns that some EU countries are using human rights as a pretext for harming EU-Ukraine integration.The countries on the boycott list have in the past opposed moves to give Ukraine a promise of future EU accession.

The man made his point.

MY WEEK

CHOOSING THE BEST ONLINE SCHOOLS

THE BEST

I’ve been considering for a long time to take a free online university course. I was told some of the best universities in the world offer online courses even though they don’t actually give certification or verification for completing the course.

Nevertheless, it would be great to add up some new knowledge and to enhance my academic studies. I was suppose the prestigious MIT, Stanford, Carnegie and Berkeley are very appealing, and i’m still gathering information about which would be the best online school for me.

I’ve been reading about it before i make a decision and i would appreciate if you come forward with any information about this courses, specially if you have some sort of experience with these online schools.

I’ve already been to university and completed the course on human and social sciences, in the branch of journalism. But now i feel i could go further in-depht in some disciplines.

GETTING OVER MY ASTHMATIC CONDITION

THE WORST

It’s has been a difficult week as my asthmatic condition is giving me a hard time. I prefer to avoid using my asthma pump because i don’t want to be dependent on it, but one of this nights i had no other chance. I was having trouble in breathing.

I don’t want to upset you with this problem and there could be worse problems than asthma. I’m already feeling better, i know it’s also a weather climate related problem.

My asthmatic condition gets worse when there’s above average humidity in the air. Hopefully it will go away in the next few days.

SPORT

Zenit high above takes Russian title

THE BEST


A hard-fought 2-1 win over Dynamo Moscow gave Zenit an unassailable 15-point lead with three games remaining, a victory they achieved despite playing most of the second half with ten men. It is Zenit's second-straight title and third since 2007.

Russia’s second largest city was celebrating the victory on Saturday night. After the game, thousands of fans came to the city centre with team flags, chanting and greeting each other. The Palace Square and the Nevsky Prospekt were most crowded, and many fans say they would stay there until morning.

Luciano Spalletti’s team, backed by Russian energy giant Gazprom, only needed a draw in the top-of-the-table clash the title. Zenit midfielder Roman Shirokov fired the home side in front on the half-hour and fellow Russia international Alexander Kerzhakov doubled the lead from the spot six minutes later.

Moldova defender Alexandru Epureanu pulled one back for the visitors just before the break but Zenit held on for a deserved win to stretch their lead over Dynamo to 15 points. Zenit had to play with 10 men for most of the second half after their Russia midfielder Konstantin Zyryanov was sent off after picking up a second booking.

“We had a good team when we won our first title (in 2010) but we were even better this season,” said the Italian coach Spaletti. “I can only congratulate my players for a job well done.”



Shocking missile to secure London 2012

THE WORST

UK authorities might place surface-to-air missiles on a water tower in a densely populated London neighbourhood as part of security for the Olympic Games this summer, a ministry official said this Sunday.

Residents in an east London community have received leaflets warning them of the possibility. Site evaluations and exercises have taken place.

A former water tower within the Bow Quarter gated private estate would be the location for the proposed missiles. Bow Quarter is a former match factory containing a number of large buildings, converted into hundreds of residential flats and houses.
"Ground-based air defence systems could be deployed as part of a multi-layered air security plan for the Olympics, including fast jets and helicopters, which will protect the skies over London during the Games," said an official, asking not to be named in line with British government practise.

Some of the receivers of leaflets about the possible missile system have shown their disapproval. "This is a highly built-up area. I can't imagine any situation in which you could safely use a high-velocity missile over Tower Hamlets," as the neighbourhood is called. There is "obviously the security issue around the Olympics", but missiles would be an overreaction. "This is meant to be reassuring, but it creates a lot of anxiety", they say.

London is hosting the 2012 Olympics from July 27 to August 12 and the Paralympics from August 29 to September 9.