Evening 12-5-08 Midday

** until 12-11-08 **

331, 025, 803, 485, 596, 374

Midday & Evening

** until 12-7-08 **

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Folk music legend Odetta dies at 77

NEW YORK - Odetta, the folk singer with the powerful voice who moved audiences and influenced fellow musicians for a half-century, has died. She was 77.

Odetta died Tuesday of heart disease at Lenox Hill Hospital, said her manager of 12 years, Doug Yeager. She was admitted to the hospital with kidney failure about three weeks ago, he said.

In spite of failing health that caused her to use a wheelchair, Odetta performed 60 concerts in the last two years, singing for 90 minutes at a time. Her singing ability never diminished, Yeager said.

"The power would just come out of her like people wouldn't believe," he said.

With her booming, classically trained voice and spare guitar, Odetta gave life to the songs by workingmen and slaves, farmers and miners, housewives and washerwomen, blacks and whites.

First coming to prominence in the 1950s, she influenced Harry Belafonte, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and other singers who had roots in the folk music boom.

An Odetta record on the turntable, listeners could close their eyes and imagine themselves hearing the sounds of spirituals and blues as they rang out from a weathered back porch or around a long-vanished campfire a century before.

"What distinguished her from the start was the meticulous care with which she tried to re-create the feeling of her folk songs; to understand the emotions of a convict in a convict ditty, she once tried breaking up rocks with a sledge hammer," Time magazine wrote in 1960.

"She is a keening Irishwoman in ‘Foggy Dew,’ a chain-gang convict in ‘Take This Hammer,’ a deserted lover in ‘Lass from the Low Country,’" Time wrote.

Active in civil rights movement
Odetta called on her fellow blacks to "take pride in the history of the American Negro" and was active in the civil rights movement. When she sang at the March on Washington in August 1963, "Odetta's great, full-throated voice carried almost to Capitol Hill," The New York Times wrote.

She was nominated for a 1963 Grammy award for best folk recording for "Odetta Sings Folk Songs." Two more Grammy nominations came in recent years, for her 1999 "Blues Everywhere I Go" and her 2005 album "Gonna Let It Shine."

In 1999, she was honored with a National Medal of the Arts. Then-President Bill Clinton said her career showed "us all that songs have the power to change the heart and change the world."

"I'm not a real folksinger," she told The Washington Post in 1983. "I don't mind people calling me that, but I'm a musical historian. I'm a city kid who has admired an area and who got into it. I've been fortunate. With folk music, I can do my teaching and preaching, my propagandizing."

Among her notable early works were her 1956 album "Odetta Sings Ballads and Blues," which included such songs as "Muleskinner Blues" and "Jack O' Diamonds"; and her 1957 "At the Gate of Horn," which featured the popular spiritual "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands."

Her 1965 album "Odetta Sings Dylan" included such standards as "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right," "Masters of War" and "The Times They Are A-Changin'."

In a 1978 Playboy interview, Dylan said, "the first thing that turned me on to folk singing was Odetta." Dylan said he found "just something vital and personal" when he heard an early album of hers in a record store as a teenager. "Right then and there, I went out and traded my electric guitar and amplifier for an acoustical guitar," he said.

Belafonte also cited her as a key influence on his hugely successful recording career, and she was a guest singer on his 1960 album, "Belafonte Returns to Carnegie Hall."

She continued to record in recent years; her 2001 album "Looking for a Home (Thanks to Leadbelly)" paid tribute to the great blues singer to whom she was sometimes compared.

Odetta's last big concert was on Oct. 4 at San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, where she performed in front of tens of thousands at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival, Yeager said. She also performed Oct. 25-26 in Toronto.

Odetta hoped to sing at the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama, though she had not been officially invited, Yeager said.

Born Odetta Holmes in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1930, she moved with her family to Los Angeles at age 6. Her father had died when she was young and she took her stepfather's last name, Felious. Hearing her in glee club, a junior high school teacher made sure she got music lessons, but Odetta became interested in folk music in her late teens and turned away from classical studies.

She got much of her early experience at the Turnabout Theatre in Los Angeles, where she sang and played occasional stage roles in the early 1950s.

"What power of characterization and projection of mood are hers, even though plainly clad and sitting or standing in half light!" a Los Angeles Times critic wrote in 1955.

Occasional acting roles
Over the years, she picked up occasional acting roles in TV and film. None other than famed Hollywood columnist Hedda Hopper reported in 1961 that she "comes through beautifully" in the film "Sanctuary."

In the Washington Post interview, Odetta theorized that humans developed music and dance because of fear, "fear of God, fear that the sun would not come back, many things. I think it developed as a way of worship or to appease something. ... The world hasn't improved, and so there's always to sing about."

Odetta is survived by a daughter, Michelle Esrick of New York City, and a son, Boots Jaffre, of Fort Collins, Colorado. She was divorced about 40 years ago and never remarried, her manager said.

A memorial service was planned for next month, Yeager said.

Russians track wayward U.S. spy satellite

Even in the vacuum of outer space, it's hard to keep the sound of a secret quiet.

The U.S. Air Force apparently has a malfunctioning Defense Support Program satellite on its hands. DSP-23 is one piece of a constellation of such Earth-staring satellites designed to detect missile launchings and nuclear detonations, and gather other technical intelligence.

DSP-23 seems to be drifting out of its high-altitude slot — and might prove troublesome to other high-value satellites in that populated area.

One person who has flagged the problem to a U.S. satellite tracking expert is a Russian space analyst — a project partner of the International Scientific Optical Network, or ISON for short.

Vladimir Agapov is a senior scientist for the Keldysh Institute of Applied Mathematics of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He told Space.com that ISON is a global network of scientific optical facilities for observation of high-altitude geocentric orbits. They keep an eye on what's going on in order to better understand the real population of artificial objects — mainly space debris — in that part of outer space.

Passive object
Agapov said ISON is monitoring the entire ring of objects in geostationary Earth orbit, or GEO. The network tracks all operational satellites, as well as space debris, spent rocket bodies, dead spacecraft, operational fragments and objects originating from satellite fragmentations that have appeared in geostationary orbit.

"We have continuously tracked an object we have identified as DSP F23 since January 10, 2008," Agapov said. "Identification is made on the base of initial orbital information obtained by amateur astronomers using their own measurements."

Processing of optical measurements obtained by ISON confirmed that DSP-23, after making three stationkeeping maneuvers, has not performed any follow-on movements during the course of some two months, he said.

The spacecraft has strayed from its spot in space — moving along in geostationary orbit as a passive object.

It's not clear from optical data alone just what the operational status of the satellite truly is at present, Agapov added. "You need other kind of observations, radio-monitoring data, photometry, etc., to come to more definitive conclusion," he said.

Asked about the possibility of DSP-23 smacking into others satellites in GEO, Agapov said that "it exists." Sauntering willy-nilly through space, the classified satellite could have close encounters with many operational satellites, he said.

Unknown objects
As of the beginning of 2008, the ISON network consists of 18 scientific institutions, 18 observatories and observation facilities, 25 optical instruments, and more than 50 observers and researchers in various nations.

In the big picture, Agapov noted that ISON has discovered 152 "unknown" objects that have no public orbital information as distributed by the U.S. Air Force Space Surveillance Network through its Space-Track database.

In addition, ISON has discovered and is tracking 192 previously unknown, faint debris objects in geostationary orbit, using a variety of instruments.

"Thus, our ISON effort resulted in increasing the number of known — for the public — and continuously tracked objects in GEO region by more than 35 percent, compared to published Space-Track data," Agapov concluded.

Harvard's endowment takes $8 billion hit

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - Harvard University says its endowment has tumbled $8 billion in the four months since the end of the last fiscal year.

The estimated 22 percent decline is the school's sharpest endowment drop in modern history. The endowment was valued at $36.9 billion on June 30.

According to a letter to deans from university heads, Harvard must take a "hard look" at staffing levels and compensation. They're also forecasting a 30 percent drop for the fiscal year ending in June 2009.

The school has said its U.S. stock portfolio and foreign equity portfolio had taken hard hits recently. The school's endowment is the largest in higher education.

The university's president warns that the estimated drop may be conservative because some money managers that have yet to report figures.

"The art of pleasing consists in being pleased."

                                -  William Hazlitt   -

Midday & Evening

** until 12-4-08 **

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095, 195, 295, 395, 495, 595, 695, 795, 895, 995

079, 179, 279, 379, 479, 579, 679, 779, 879, 979

240, 241, 242, 243, 244, 245, 246, 247, 248, 249

Wednesday 12-3-08

087, 907, 249, 415, 405, 675, 637, 205, 480

598, 000, 081, 266, 777, 7788, 1266, 7459

"The worst sin toward our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them; that's the essence of inhumanity." 

                                              ~ George Bernard Shaw ~

Monday 12-1-08

777, 467, 457, 580, 290, 259, 113, 114

198, 083, 205, 358, 775, 291, 456, 486

Pack's late breakdowns hand Panthers 35-31 win

By CHRIS JENKINS – 2 hours ago

GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — DeAngelo Williams scored his fourth touchdown of the game with 1:30 left on the clock, giving the Carolina Panthers a stunning come-from-behind 35-31 victory over the Green Bay Packers in wintry conditions at Lambeau Field on Sunday.

The Packers appeared headed for a comeback victory of their own after breaking a 28-28 tie on Mason Crosby's 19-yard field goal with 1:57 remaining. But Green Bay immediately gave up a 45-yard kickoff return to Mark Jones and a 54-yard heave from Jake Delhomme to Steve Smith to set up first-and-goal on the Green Bay 1.

Williams then went up the gut for his career-high fourth score of the game, helping Carolina (9-3) keep pace in the competitive NFC South.

And the loss could be crushing for the Packers (5-7), who will fall two games out of the NFC North lead with four games left unless division co-leaders Chicago and Minnesota play to a tie Sunday night.

Green Bay's last-minute special teams and defensive breakdowns ruined what could have been a signature win for first-year Packers starter Aaron Rodgers. He led Green Bay back from a 21-10 halftime deficit despite blustery wind, temperatures in the 30s and snow showers, with the Packers poised to take the lead in the fourth quarter.

And with the game tied at 28, Rodgers drove the Packers deep into Panthers territory, then absorbed a jarring late hit out of bounds by Carolina's Julius Peppers for a penalty. That set up first-and-goal on the 7.

Green Bay's Brandon Jackson ran to the 1, but the Panthers stuffed the Packers on two straight running plays. Packers coach Mike McCarthy briefly considered going for it on fourth-and-goal, but instead sent in Crosby to kick the field goal for the lead — only to watch it all fall apart on two big plays.

Jones weaved through the Packers' kick coverage for 45 yards to Carolina's 45. Delhomme then heaved a jump ball to Smith, who brought it down as Packers defensive back Charles Woodson appeared to slip.

After a replay review confirmed the spot of the ball, Williams scored to win it.

Rodgers finished 29-of-45 for 298 yards with three touchdowns and an interception, but it wasn't enough to overcome the Packers' confounding last-minute mistakes.

Trailing 21-10 at halftime, Rodgers drove the Packers to a field goal to open the half. He then put together an eight-play, 95-yard drive ending with a touchdown pass to Donald Lee and 2-point conversion pass to Greg Jennings to tie the game late in the third quarter.

After a defensive stop by the Packers, Rodgers threw a 21-yard dart to Jennings in the end zone, giving Green Bay a 28-21 lead early in the fourth quarter.

But the Panthers tied the game on a 1-yard run by Williams after a 36-yard completion from Delhomme to Smith on third-and-11.

Smith finished the game with 105 yards receiving — all in the second half. Delhomme was 12-of-17 for 177 yards.

Sunday 11-30-08

918, 672, 293, 637, 573, 394, 593, 586, 321

721, 630, 004, 295, 050, 205, 725, 834, 068

195, 208, 000, 444, 777

Mother Wants Maximum Penalty in Cyberbullying Case

Here we go again? Winona Ryder accused of stealing Bulgari jewels

BY KORIN MILLER
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Saturday, November 29th 2008, 12:57 PM

Convicted shoplifter  Winona Ryder  is caught in the middle of an alleged jewelry theft.

The "Reality Bites" actress has been accused of swiping more than $124,000 worth of  Bulgari  jewels she borrowed for a Nov. 20 event sponsored by  Marie Claire magazine  inMadrid, according to  TMZ.com.

Ryder, who was caught stealing from a  Saks Fifth Avenue  store in 2001, reported the diamond-encrusted bracelet and ring missing sometime after she left them in her hotel room to be picked up by someone from Marie Claire, the site says.

But according to French celebrity magazine Voici, Ryder says she left the jewels at the hotel's front desk for safekeeping. Hotel management , meanwhile, claims they never received the jewels, insisting that they have no surveillance footage showing Ryder handing over the diamonds.

The jewels are reportedly still M.I.A.

This is the second time Ryder has made headlines in recent weeks. The 37-year-old developed a mystery illness while flying to  London  earlier this month, causing the plane to make a special landing. She was hospitalized and later released.

Ryder served three years of probation and 480 hours of community service after her 2001 shoplifting incident.

"I didn't have this tremendous sense of guilt, because I hadn't hurt anyone," she later told Vogue of the "embarrassing" incident.

"Had I physically harmed someone or caused harm to a human being, I think it would have been an entirely different experience."

Reps for Bulgari and Ryder could not be reached for comment on Saturday.