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Source: http://www.lucianne.com/thread/?artnum=657605
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Saturday, December 31, 2011
U.S., Israel Discuss Triggers for Bombing Iran?s Nuclear Infrastructure
JSC-A troops deliver Christmas cheer thanks to Eagle Scouts
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JSC-A troops deliver care packages from a NJ Eagle Scout to the wounded warriors' homes at Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan on Christmas morning, 2011. Includes sound bites from Capt. Greg Backer from New Jersey.
Source: http://www.dvidshub.net/video/134082/jsc-troops-deliver-christmas-cheer-thanks-eagle-scouts
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Friday, December 30, 2011
sluathletics: SOCCER: Southeastern Places State-High Four Players on All-Louisiana Squad http://t.co/1YX28YyW #NCAA #soccer
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SOCCER: Southeastern Places State-High Four Players on All-Louisiana Squad dlvr.it/12Zc17 #NCAA #soccer 
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The Best College Football Games Of 2011
The first night game ever at The Big House lived up to all the hype and more, with Michigan pulling off a win over Notre Dame in one of the most exciting games in either storied program's history.
The first night game ever at The Big House lived up to all the hype and more, with Michigan pulling off a win over Notre Dame in one of the most exciting games in either storied program's history.
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/28/best-college-football-games-2011_n_1168351.html
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Thursday, December 29, 2011
Techmeme: LG Announces Ice Cream Sandwich Updates to Begin Q2 2012 (@kevinphandroid / Android Phone Fans) http://t.co/jgH5y2Rk http://t.co/dZrm8OoM
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LG Announces Ice Cream Sandwich Updates to Begin Q2 2012 (@kevinphandroid / Android Phone Fans) j.mp/vTE51d techme.me/CTFF 
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Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Weird Fossils Show Ancient Organism Reproducing
snapshots of an organism caught in the act of reproducing.
So its half a billion year old kiddie pr0n. nsfw. its a trap. I'm not clicking that link, not my thing at all. I remember when
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Tuesday, December 27, 2011
India get past Greece on the back of Harika`s victory
Harika defeated Marina Makropoulou while Koneru HumpyKoneru Humpy, Tania Sachdev and Padmini Rout all settled for draws. On the top board for India, Grand Master Humpy in fact stood slightly worse against top Greek Yelina Dembo and on the other boards the forms of the Indians was found wanting as both... FULL ARTICLE AT Zee News
Source: http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r5664020042
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newsobserver: Raleigh family, devastated by April tornado, is home for Christmas http://t.co/d4SeNiK1
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Raleigh family, devastated by April tornado, is home for Christmas bit.ly/rrnx9G 
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Monday, December 26, 2011
Syria fighting kills 13 ahead of Arab monitor visit (Reuters)
BEIRUT (Reuters) ? Thirteen people were killed as Syrian armored forces battled opponents of President Bashar al-Assad in Homs on Monday, residents said, ahead of a planned visit by Arab League monitors to verify whether he is ending a violent crackdown on unrest.
A day before observers were to have their first look at the city at the heart of a nine-month-old uprising, there was no sign of Assad implementing a plan agreed with the League to halt military repression of protests and start talks with opponents.
With an armed insurgency increasingly eclipsing civilian protests, many fear Syria is drifting towards sectarian war pitting majority Sunni Muslims against Assad's minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam, especially after a double suicide bombing in Damascus on Thursday that killed 44 people.
"The Baba Amr (district) (of Homs) is being exposed to fierce shelling from heavy machinegun fire, armored vehicles and mortars," the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Right said in a statement.
"The violence is definitely two-sided," said a Homs resident who named himself only as Mohammed to protect his safety. "I've been seeing ambulances filled with wounded soldiers passing by my window in the past days. They're getting shot somehow."
Parts of Homs are defended by the Free Syrian Army, made up of defectors from the regular armed forces, who say they have tried to establish no-go areas to protect civilians.
The Observatory documented names of those reported killed in Monday's clashes that began with raids and arrests by pro-Assad forces, which were also reported in Syria's second city of Aleppo, which had been spared from the upheaval until recently.
The initial 50 of 150 Arab League monitors were due to arrive in Syria on Monday, and some will go to Homs on Tuesday, a source at the organization's headquarters Cairo told Reuters. Their job will be to assess whether Assad is going to withdraw tanks and troops from Syria's third largest city as promised.
"The Arab monitoring team will visit Homs as it is the most turbulent place," the source said.
Syrian state television has regularly shown some areas of the city of one million looking peaceful. But activist video posted on the internet shows other parts looking like a war zone of empty streets, bodies and shattered house fronts.
Syria has barred most foreign journalists since the revolt began, making it hard to verify reports of events on the ground.
TEN-MAN TEAMS, SPLIT FIVE WAYS
The United Nations says at least 5,000 Syrians have been killed the revolt, inspired by other Arab uprisings this year that have toppled three dictators, broke out in March - and an estimated one-third of deaths have occurred in and around Homs.
Assad says his government is facing an insurgency by gangs of terrorists. Arab League states persuaded him, after six weeks of threats and cajoling, to let 150 observers in to witness what is really happening on the ground.
The first group of about 50 monitors, led by Sudanese General Mustafa Dabi, will be divided into five 10-man teams going to five locations.
"We're waiting. Let's see," said Homs resident Mohammed. "We hope they work the way they should. We hope they will be neutral ... If they are neutral they will be condemning everyone but most especially the (Syrian) authorities because they are the ones who should be responsible for protecting people."
He said some Homs districts were running out of food.
"My friends in Baba Amr, who have nothing to do with the troubles, say they don't have bread. They are under siege."
Arab League mission chief Dabi arrived in Damascus on Friday while the capital was reeling from twin suicide bombings last week that marked an ominous escalation of the violence.
Assad's opponents say they suspect his government carried out the Damascus bombings itself to prove to the world that Syria is facing indiscriminate violence by armed Islamists and to intimidate the work of the Arab League monitors.
Assad's opponents have voiced skepticism about the Arab mission to oversee a peace plan they say Assad will not honor, given the continuing fierce repression against demonstrators.
The Syrian authorities blame the violence on foreign-backed armed Islamists who they say have killed 2,000 members of the security forces since the unrest flared in March.
ONE WEEK ENOUGH TO ASSESS COMPLIANCE
Dabi said he had met Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby in Cairo before departing for Damascus, laying down a "road map" for the mission's work, which he promised would be transparent.
In remarks carried on the Egyptian state news agency, Dabi said the mission would meet different groups in Syria, including the armed forces and members of the opposition.
It was not known if Syrian authorities would give the monitors enough freedom of movement to do their job properly.
Syrian state media have not reported Dabi's arrival.
After six weeks of stalling, Syria signed a protocol this month to admit the monitors under the plan calling for an end to violence, the withdrawal of troops from the streets, the release of prisoners and a reform-minded dialogue with the opposition.
Elaraby said it would take only a week to find out if the authorities are respecting the terms of its peace plan.
Burhan Ghalioun, head of the opposition Syrian National Council, said the League, which has imposed sanctions and suspended Syria's membership, should step up pressure on Assad's by asking the U.N. Security Council to adopt the Arab initiative.
"We want this regime to leave so that we can live in peace. The world should not stand watching over the bodies of men, women and children," the exiled opposition leader said in a Christmas video address to Syrians.
Assad, 46, succeeded his father in 2000 to carry on a dynasty that has ruled for 41 years. He has responded to popular calls to step down with a mixture of force and promises of reform, announcing an end to a state of emergency, giving citizenship to tens of thousands of Syrian Kurds, and promising a parliamentary election in February.
(Additional reporting by Ayman Samir in Cairo; Writing by Douglas Hamilton; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111226/wl_nm/us_syria
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ChrisBurke_SI: Miles Austin might have just decided some fantasy football titles.
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Miles Austin might have just decided some fantasy football titles. 
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Sunday, December 25, 2011
PFT: For four teams, it's win and get in
APEighteen games remain in the 2011 NFL season: Bears-Packers tonight, Falcons-Saints tomorrow and 16 games on New Year?s Day. Here?s a rundown of how each team still in contention can have its playoff position affected by the results of those 18 games:
Patriots: Clinch home-field advantage throughout the AFC playoffs by beating Buffalo or by having both the Ravens and Steelers lose.
Ravens: Clinch the AFC North and a first-round bye with a win or a Steelers loss. Clinch home-field advantage with a win and a Patriots loss.
Steelers: Clinch the AFC North with a win and a Ravens loss. Clinch home-field advantage with a win, a Ravens loss and a Patriots loss.
Texans: Locked into the AFC No. 3 seed. Week 17 is meaningless to Houston, and the Texans may rest many of their key players.
Broncos: Clinch the AFC West and the No. 4 seed by beating the Chiefs, or a Raiders loss.
Raiders: Clinch the AFC West and the No. 4 seed by beating the Chargers and a Broncos loss. If the Broncos win, the Raiders can still get a wild card if they win and the Bengals lose, plus either the Titans lose or the Jets win.
Bengals: Clinch a playoff spot and the No. 6 seed if they win, or if the Jets lose and either the Raiders or Broncos lose.
Jets: Get the No. 6 seed if they win and the Bengals and Titans and either the Raiders or Broncos lose.
Titans: Get the No. 6 seed if they win and the Bengals lose, plus either the Jets win and the Broncos or Raiders lose, or the Jets lose and the Broncos and Raiders both win.
Packers: Clinch home-field advantage throughout the NFC playoffs if they beat either the Bears tonight or the Lions next week, or if the 49ers lose next week.
49ers: Clinch a first-round bye with a win next week or the Saints losing either on Monday night or next week. The 49ers can still get home-field advantage throughout the playoffs if they win and the Packers lose to both the Bears and the Lions.
Saints: Clinch the NFC South if they win either of their two remaining games, and they could even clinch the NFC South if they lose both of their remaining games, if the Falcons lose in Week 17. The Saints can?t get home-field advantage throughout the NFC playoffs, but they can get a first-round bye if they win both their remaining games and the 49ers lose next week.
Cowboys/Giants: Next Sunday night?s game is essentially a playoff game: The Cowboys-Giants winner wins the NFC East and is the No. 4 seed, while the loser?s season is over. If the game ends in a tie, the Giants win the division.
Falcons: The Falcons can clinch a playoff spot tonight by the Packers beating the Bears. They need just one more win or one more Chicago loss to get to the playoffs. They could still win the NFC South, but only if they beat the Saints Monday night and win next week, plus the Saints lose next week.
Lions: Detroit is an NFC wild card. Whether they?re the No. 5 or No. 6 seed depends on the results of their own game with the Packers and the Falcons? remaining games.
Bears: Chicago can still make the playoffs, but only if they win both their remaining games and the Falcons lose both their remaining games.
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gueritaverde: I just ousted @misterchanel as the mayor of Stitches on @foursquare! http://t.co/tJMWtnkv
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I just ousted @misterchanel as the mayor of Stitches on @foursquare! 4sq.com/79VbVK 
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Saturday, December 24, 2011
Kia's Ray EV hasn't heard about aerodynamics, sets out to defy naysayers in Korea
Continue reading Kia's Ray EV hasn't heard about aerodynamics, sets out to defy naysayers in Korea
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This Must Be How the Large Hadron Collider Looks Like Deep Inside [Image Cache]
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Friday, December 23, 2011
ComScore?s 2011 Social Report: Facebook Leading, Microblogging Growing, World Connecting
You already know that social networking sites have been getting huge around the world, but an annual report out today from comScore shows what exactly is going at a wonderful new level of detail, with surprises for even long-time industry watchers like me.
1 in every 5 minutes of time online is now being spent on social networking sites, up from a mere 6% in early 2007. The sites, led by Facebook, now reach 82% of the world?s internet-using population ? about 1.2 billion people in total. This growth is happening across countries, with 41 of the 43 countries that the web measurement firm tracks showing penetration of 85% or more.
Within these big numbers, though, all sorts of differences emerge. People in Latin America spend an especially large portion of their time online on sites like Facebook and Twitter ? 28%, or 7.6 hours per month. That?s much less the case in Asia, where it?s 11% and less than 3 hours per month. Those are broad averages, and full of anomalies. The Philippines, for example, is actually the most socially networked country in the world, with 43% of users time going to these services, and above 8.7 hours.
Facebook itself is making up the largest portion of all this usage ? even as all sorts of rivals and alternatives are surging. The service reached 55% of the worlds? online population in October, with incredibly high engagement: 3 out of every 4 minutes on these types of sites, and every seventh online minute. For the most part, it has surged into first places across countries that had previously been on rival sites, like Orkut in Brazil.
But Facebook is running out of new users in North America and Western Europe simply because it has so much of these markets already (even though it?s not running out of users? attention). In the meantime, a whole other crop of social sites are booming everywhere, led by Twitter.
The microblogging service has grown by 59% in the past year to reach 160 million monthly unique users worldwide. Professional social network LinkedIn has grown by 55% to nearly 100 million. Easy-blogging site Tumblr is up 172% to nearly 40 million; Chinese Twitter-style site Sina Weibo shows almost identical growth (albeit mostly in China).
Report co-author Andrew Lipsman says this is one of the trends that was most surprising to him about the report. There?s more and more people who want to share around interests, not just the close social relationships.
All in all, many of these market leaders are also showing just how global they are these days, with Twitter and Facebook each now having 80% of their users outside of the US.
The report has all sorts of other data gems, too. Here?s a few that jumped out at me:
- Google+ now has 65 million users worldwide. That thing has some legs, even if we don?t always see them here at TechCrunch.
- Women continue to lead men in engagement across the world ? by 2 hours or 30% per month in North America and Europe. This is a long-term trend that comScore has seen across older services like instant messaging. But, men have shown a 10% bump since July of 2010, and they gradually appear to be catching up. A lot of this has to do with age. Usage is about at equilibrium among younger age groups, Lipsman notes.
- Mobile is crucial to usage in many markets and growing, but continues to account for a minority of overall usage. Between a quarter and a third of users in Western markets reported accessing social networking sites at least once a month from mobile devices.
- Ads are still playing catch-up to spending levels per traffic that you?d expect to see in other areas.
- Email usage has been declining in usage among younger age groups, a trend that?s not likely to change.
This is by no means all of the interesting data in the report. You can download the full thing on comScore?s site, here. I should note that it deserves credit for doing an especially good job providing easy-to-read data visualizations ? something that you don?t see often enough amidst all the awful infographics out there.
ComScore?s methodology, considered by many to be the best in the measurement business, includes large-scale opt-in user sampling around the world and across desktop and mobile devices.
?comScore is a global Internet information provider to which leading companies turn for consumer behavior insight that drives successful marketing, sales and trading strategies. comScore???s experienced analysts work closely with clients to identify their business objectives and determine how they can best apply and benefit from comScore???s vast databases of consumer behavior. comScore maintains massive proprietary databases that provide a continuous, real-time measurement of the myriad ways in which the Internet is used and the wide variety of activities that...
Learn moreSource: http://techcrunch.com/2011/12/21/comscoresocial2011/
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Even Rick Perry's iPad can't do that
Make Us Great Again, a super PAC that supports Rick Perry, has a new ad out that thwacks Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich with old newsreel-style footage and then brags on Governor Perry by a way of a new iPad. It's posted below.
Earlier today, Rachel sent over an email asking if the black fingernail polish on the person holding the iPad signifies anything. Tricia McKinney answered that whatever it means, you can't make an iPad do what it's doing in this ad.
Sing along, iPad crowd: You can't swipe the screen and change the image with one finger if another finger is already on the screen.
Source: http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/22/9639599-even-rick-perrys-ipad-cant-do-that
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Thursday, December 22, 2011
House GOP to reject stopgap payroll tax cut
House Speaker John Boehner at a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Monday, Dec. 19, 2011, as Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., listens at right. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
House Speaker John Boehner at a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Monday, Dec. 19, 2011, as Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., listens at right. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? With the Senate adjourned for the holidays, House Republicans are moving to shelve a bipartisan two-month extension of the Social Security payroll tax cut that cleared the Senate over the weekend and are demanding instead that their fellow lawmakers return to the Capitol for negotiations.
After a spate of bipartisanship last week, the combatants are back in full-throated warfare over President Barack Obama's payroll tax initiative and other expiring measures, including jobless benefits for almost 1.8 million people who will lose them next month if Congress doesn't act.
Instead of accepting a two-month stopgap Senate measure that would ensure fighting continues into February, Republicans said they would move Tuesday to set up an official House-Senate negotiating panel known as a conference committee. The Senate's top Democrat said he would refuse to negotiate until the House passes the short-term version.
Both sides insist they want to extend the provisions before a Dec. 31 deadline, but that will prove difficult. After overwhelmingly passing a two-month extension Saturday, senators raced for the exits in the belief that the House would see no alternative but to go along. The Senate isn't scheduled to resume legislative work until Jan. 23.
The Senate's short-term, lowest-common-denominator approach would renew a 2 percentage point cut in the Social Security payroll tax, plus jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed, and would prevent a huge cut in Medicare payments to doctors.
But House Republicans quickly erupted in frustration at the Senate measure, which drops changes to the unemployment insurance system pressed by conservatives, along with cuts to Obama's health care law. Also driving their frustration was that the Senate, as it so often does, appeared intent on leaving the House holding the bag ? leaving it no choice but to go along.
"With millions of Americans struggling to make ends meet, it would be unconscionable for Speaker (John) Boehner to block a bipartisan agreement that would protect middle-class families from the thousand-dollar tax increase looming on January 1st," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who negotiated the two-month extension with Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. The 2 percentage point tax cut provides about a $1,000 annual tax cut for a typical earner making about $50,000 a year.
Both sides were eager to position themselves as the strongest advocates of the payroll tax cut, with House Republicans accusing the Senate of lollygagging on vacation and Senate Democrats countering that the House was seeking a partisan battle rather than taking the obvious route of approving the stopgap bill to buy more time for negotiations.
Just a couple of weeks after many Republicans made it plain they thought that the payroll tax cut ? the centerpiece of Obama's autumn jobs agenda ? hadn't worked and that renewing it was a waste of money, Republicans emerged from a closed-door meeting touting their support for the president.
"Do you want to do something for 60 days that kicks the can down the road?" said Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas. "Or do you want to do what the president asked us to do? And we're people who don't agree with the president all that often."
"I've never seen us so unified," Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, said as he left a two-hour, closed-door meeting Monday night where Republicans firmed up their plans. He said the payroll tax cut that has been in effect this year failed to create any jobs, but he favored extending it for another 12 months because "it's tough to raise taxes when you're in a down economy."
Congress' approval ratings are in the cellar, in part because of repeated partisan confrontations that brought the Treasury to the brink of a first-ever default last summer, and more than once pushed the vast federal establishment to the edge of a partial shutdown.
This time, unlike the others, Republican divisions were prominently on display.
The two-month measure that cleared the Senate, 89-10, on Saturday had the full support of McConnell, the Republican leader, who also told reporters he was optimistic the House would sign on. Senate negotiators had tried to agree on a compromise to cover a full year, but were unable to come up with enough savings to offset the cost and prevent deficits from rising.
The two-month extension was a fallback, and officials say that when McConnell personally informed Boehner and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of the deal at a private meeting, they said they would check with their rank and file.
But on Saturday, restive House conservatives made clear during a telephone conference call that they were unhappy with the measure.
Ironically, until the House rank and file revolted, it appeared that Republicans had outmaneuvered Democrats and Obama on one point.
The two-month measure that cleared the Senate required the president to decide within 60 days to allow construction on a proposed oil pipeline that promises thousands of construction jobs. Obama had threatened to veto legislation that included the requirement, then did an about-face.
The president recently announced he was delaying a decision on the pipeline until after the 2012 elections, meaning that while seeking a new term, he would not have to choose between disappointing environmentalists who oppose the project and blue-collar unions that support it.
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Monday, December 19, 2011
Kim Jong Il, a Cold War-era leader in modern times (AP)
PYONGYANG, North Korea ? Even as the world changed around him, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il remained firmly in control, ruling absolutely at home and keeping the rest of the world on edge through a nuclear weapons program.
Inheriting power from his father in 1994, he led his nation through a devastating famine while frustrating the U.S. and other global powers with an on-again, off-again approach to talks on giving up nuclear arms in return for energy and other assistance. Kim was one of the last remnants of a Cold War-era that ended years earlier in most other countries.
His death was announced Monday by state television two days after he died. North Korea's news agency reported that he had died at 8:30 a.m. Saturday after having a heart attack on a train, adding that he had been treated for cardiac and cerebrovascular diseases for a long time. He was 69.
Kim, who reputedly had a taste for cigars, cognac and gourmet cuisine, is believed to have suffered a stroke in 2008 but he had appeared relatively vigorous in photos and video from recent trips to China and Russia and in numerous trips around the country documented by state media.
His longtime pursuit of nuclear weapons and his military's repeated threats to South Korea and the U.S. stoked worries that fighting might break out again on the Korean peninsula or that North Korea might provide weapons of mass destruction to terrorist movements. The Korean War ended more than 50 years ago in a cease-fire, and the two sides remain technically in a state of war.
Kim Jong Il, who took power after the death of his father, unveiled his third son as his successor in September 2010, putting the twenty-something Kim Jong Un in high-ranking posts. On Monday, the North Korean news agency dubbed the son a "great successor" as the country rallied around him.
Few firm facts are available when it comes to North Korea, and not much is clear about Kim Jong Il, the man known as the "Dear Leader."
North Korean legend has it that Kim was born on Mount Paektu, one of Korea's most cherished sites, in 1942, a birth heralded in the heavens by a pair of rainbows and a brilliant new star. Soviet records, however, indicate he was born in Siberia in 1941.
His father, Kim Il Sung, is still revered as the founder of North Korea. The elder Kim fought for independence from Korea's colonial ruler, Japan, from a base in Russia for years. He returned to Korea in 1945, emerging as a communist leader and becoming North Korea's first leader in 1948.
He meshed Stalinist ideology with a cult of personality that encompassed him and his son. Their portraits hang in every building in North Korea, and every dutiful North Korean wears a Kim Il Sung lapel pin.
Kim Jong Il, a graduate of Pyongyang's Kim Il Sung University, was 33 when his father anointed him his eventual successor.
Even before he took over, there were signs the younger Kim would maintain ? and perhaps exceed ? his father's hard-line stance.
South Korea has accused Kim of masterminding a 1983 bombing that killed 17 South Korean officials visiting Burma, now known as Myanmar. In 1987, the bombing of a Korean Air flight killed all 115 people on board; a North Korean agent who confessed to planting the device said Kim had ordered the downing of the plane.
When Kim came to power in 1994, he had been groomed for 20 years to become leader. He eventually took the posts of chairman of the National Defense Commission, commander of the Korean People's Army and head of the ruling Worker's Party. His father remained as North Korea's "eternal president."
He continued his father's policy of "military first," devoting much of the country's scarce resources to its troops ? even as his people suffered from a prolonged famine ? and built the world's fifth-largest military.
Kim also sought to build up the country's nuclear arms arsenal, leading to North Korea's first nuclear test, an underground blast conducted in October 2006. Another test came in 2009, prompting U.N. sanctions.
Alarmed, regional leaders negotiated a disarmament-for-aid pact that the North signed in 2007 and began implementing later that year. The process has since stalled, though diplomats are working to restart negotiations.
Following the famine, the number of North Koreans fleeing the country rose dramatically, with many telling tales of hunger, political persecution and rights abuses. North Korea is estimated to hold 150,000 to 200,000 people in political prisons; the government denies operating any such camps.
Kim often blamed the U.S. for his country's troubles and his regime routinely derides Washington-allied South Korea as a puppet of the Western superpower.
Former U.S. President George W. Bush described Kim as a tyrant. "Look, Kim Jong Il is a dangerous person. He's a man who starves his people. He's got huge concentration camps. And ... there is concern about his capacity to deliver a nuclear weapon," Bush said in 2005.
Defectors from North Korea describe Kim as an eloquent and tireless orator, primarily to the military units that form the base of his support.
He also made numerous trips to factories and other sites to offer what North Korea calls "field guidance." As recently as last week, the North's news agency reported on trips to a supermarket and a music and dance center.
"In order to run the center in an effective way, he said, it is important above all to collect a lot of art pieces including Korean music and world famous music," the Korean Central News Agency story read in part.
The world's best glimpse of the man came in 2000, when a liberal South Korean government's conciliatory "sunshine" policy toward the North culminated in the first-ever summit between the two Koreas. A second summit was held in 2007 with then South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun.
Standing 5-foot-3, Kim wore platform shoes and sported a permed bouffant. His trademark attire of jumpsuits and sunglasses was mocked in the American film "Team America: World Police," a movie populated by puppets that was released in 2004.
Kim was said to have wide interests, including professional basketball, cars and foreign films. He reportedly produced several films, mostly historical epics with an ideological tinge.
A South Korean film director claims Kim had him and his movie star wife kidnapped in the late 1970s, spiriting them to North Korea to make movies for a decade before they managed to escape during a trip to Austria.
Kim rarely traveled abroad and then only by train because of an alleged fear of flying, once heading all the way by luxury rail car to Moscow, indulging in his taste for fine food along the way.
One account of Kim's lavish lifestyle came from Konstantin Pulikovsky, a former Russian presidential envoy who wrote the book "The Orient Express" about Kim's train trip through Russia in July and August 2001.
Pulikovsky, who accompanied the North Korean leader, said Kim's 16-car private train was stocked with crates of French wine. Live lobsters were delivered in advance to stations.
A Japanese cook later claimed he was Kim's personal sushi chef for a decade, writing that Kim had a wine cellar stocked with 10,000 bottles, and that, besides sushi, Kim ate shark's fin soup ? a rare delicacy ? weekly.
"His banquets often started at midnight and lasted until morning. The longest lasted for four days," the chef, who goes by the pseudonym Kenji Fujimoto, was quoted as saying.
Kim is believed to have curbed his indulgent ways in recent years and looked slimmer in more recent video footage aired by North Korea's state-run broadcaster.
Disputing accounts that Kim was "peculiar," former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright characterized Kim as intelligent and well-informed, saying the two had wide-ranging discussions during her visits to Pyongyang when Bill Clinton was U.S. president. "I found him very much on top of his brief," she said.
Kim's marital status wasn't clear but he is believed to have married once and had at least three other companions. He had at least three sons with two women, as well as a daughter by a third.
His eldest son, Kim Jong Nam, who is about 40, is believed to have fallen out of favor with his father after he was caught trying to enter Japan on a fake passport in 2001 saying he wanted to visit Disney's Tokyo resort.
His other sons include likely successor Kim Jong Un and the heir-apparent's older brother, Kim Jong Chol. Their mother reportedly died several years ago.
___
Lee reported from Seoul, South Korea.
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Sunday, December 18, 2011
Administration gets behind two-month payroll tax cut deal with pipeline provision (Star Tribune)
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