Pakistan blocked the head of an airline whose jet crashed near the capital from leaving the country as it began an investigation Saturday into the country's second major air disaster in less then two years. The Bhoja Air passenger jet crashed Friday as it tried to land in a thunderstorm at Islamabad's main airport, killing all 127 people on board. The small domestic airline, which resumed operations in March after an 11-year pause, has said the weather was the cause. Speaking at the scene of the crash, Interior Minister Rehman Malik said Saturday that Farooq Bhoja, head of Bhoja Air, had been put on the "exit control list," meaning he can't leave Pakistan. Such a ban is often put on someone suspected or implicated in a criminal case. Malik said, "It is being said that the aircraft was pretty old, so it has been ordered to investigate thoroughly the air worthiness of the Bhoja Air aircraft." "The causes will be investigated, whether it was any fault in the aircraft, it was lightning, the bad weather or any other factor that caused the loss of precious lives," he said. The plane's flight data recording systems, key to any investigation, have been recovered. Given the violent storm lashing Islamabad during the accident, some experts have speculated that "wind shear," sudden changes in wind that can lift or smash an aircraft into the ground during landing, may have been a factor. It may even have been a dangerous localized form of the phenomena, called a microburst. That can cause planes to lose airspeed suddenly or lift abruptly if a headwind suddenly changes to a tail wind during takeoff or landing. Soldiers and emergency workers at first light began the grim task of looking for bodies and body parts among the debris from the Boeing 737-200, which was spread out over a one-kilometer (mile) stretch of wheat farms around five kilometers (three miles) from the Benazir Bhutto International Airport. The plane was on a flight from the southern city of Karachi to Islamabad when it crashed at dusk. One soldier had a plastic bag over his hand and was picking up small bits of flesh. Another was using a stick to get at remains in a tree. The smell of decomposing bodies was beginning to fill the air. "We are collecting these so that the souls are not desecrated," one of them said. The officers were also picking up personal effects of the passengers, making piles of documents, bank cards, gold and bangles. The last major plane crash in the country — and Pakistan's worst — occurred in July 2010 when an Airbus A321 aircraft operated by domestic carrier Airblue crashed into the hills overlooking Islamabad, killing all 152 people aboard. A government investigation blamed the pilot for veering off course amid stormy weather. Bhoja Air started domestic operations in Pakistan in 1993 and eventually expanded to international flights to the United Arab Emirates in 1998. The company suspended operations in 2001 due to financial difficulties but resumed them in 2012. Nasim Ahmed, a respected former crash investigator, said it appeared at this stage that the age and air worthiness of the plane were unlikely causes. He said that a combination of factors during the most crucial stage of the flight, the landing, was probably to blame, possibly the weather or some form of unexpected incident that caused the pilot to lose vital awareness of the plane's location. According to the Web site www.airfleets.net, the Bhoja jet was 32 years old and first saw service with British Airways in South Africa. Thirty-two years is not especially old for an aircraft, and age by itself is rarely an important factor in crashes. Ahmed said the accident highlighted weaknesses in Pakistan's aviation industry, which he said couldn't be separated from management problems in the Civil Aviation Authority, poor government oversight and corruption and nepotism in the state-owned Pakistan International Airlines
I've been a sex educator since -- well, for a long time. And I am still crazed by the quantity of misinformation available to all of us at any given time. These myths are difficult to debunk; they have a long history and thousands of urban legends to back them up. But it doesn't mean they are correct. Far from it. So while there are plenty of myths about sex and sexuality, far more than the ones I have expanded on here, these are the ones I've chosen to tackle at this moment. If you caught me on another day, maybe I'd present an entirely new list.
Most women have orgasms from sexual (vaginal) intercourse.
Wouldn't we all love for this one to be true? Many experts and studies have found that about 70% of women do not have orgasms from (heterosexual vaginal) intercourse alone (without external clitoral stimulation). This clearly contradicts all the sex scenes we watch on television or in movies where it appears that everyone can climax on demand. (Which is really a shame because that would be nice.) So if you have been wondering what's wrong with you... well, absolutely nothing at all. We are not built the same as men, but the lens through which we talk about sex (or see it) is often male. Many of us wind up feeling badly if our experiences don't match our expectations -- or we start to question the prowess of our partner (but that's another blog post altogether). And don't get me started on pornography -- it can certainly be entertaining, but hardly represents reality. That aside, yes, there are some women who suffer from medical conditions that make orgasm (and even intercourse) difficult or impossible. However, the majority of women are not experiencing sexual dysfunction; we just haven't been given great sex education.
Oral (or anal) sex doesn't count as sex.
I always find it interesting that we seem to have a hierarchy of sex behaviors. Consider the rationalization: I can have oral or anal sex but it's not really sex so I don't have to count it as having a sex partner. Or I can do this and still be considered a virgin. Or... you get the point. And to complicate matters, depending on who you ask, that hierarchy may change. So here are a few thoughts: All forms of sex are sex. They are all intimate personal behaviors with the capacity for great pleasure and if practiced without protection, the potential for certain negative outcomes, too. Did I convince you? If not, try this: Sex is not just for straight people, which is basically what we're saying when we suggest that vaginal intercourse is the only true form of sex.
You would know if your partner has a sexually transmitted infection.
In my eleventh grade health class, our teacher showed us photos of penises and vulvas (notice I did not say vagina?) ravaged by sexually transmitted infections. My health class probably wasn't unique. Lots of us were shown these photos as a means of curbing our sexual behavior. Did it work? Nope. It actually backfired. I remember my fellow students squirming in their seats. "That's disgusting!" they screamed as they looked at images of cauliflower-like warts and oozing blisters. While on the surface it may sound like a great way to scare us out of any or all sexual activity, it didn't (shocking, I know). What it actually did was incorrectly teach us that sexually transmitted infections have visible (and quite grotesque) symptoms. (They don't, most of the time.) The fact is, you cannot tell if a partner has a sexually transmitted infection just by looking at their genitals. The only way to know for certain is for you and your partners to get tested.
Apparently someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed.
In a detailed letter to his mother, one son plots the epic demise of his mom's "damnable" alarm clock.
The somewhat poetic author notes that if the "hellish cries of such a horrible instrument" continue to wake him up, he "will have no hesitation in wrapping it soundly in a plastic bag before dashing it into numerous pieces upon the driveway."
The rant continues for several paragraphs, before the author closes in a softer tone, reminding his mother that her banana bread is fantastic.
Nevertheless, plenty of commenters on Reddit felt the son needed a lesson in good manners. And while mom's response remains unknown, it remains to be seen whether she'll be as frustrated as Tommy Jordan, the dad who shot his daughter's laptop after she posted a Facebook message complaining about her parents.
What do you think of this son's letter? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below.
Music critics were not kind to teenager Rebecca Black last year when the music video for her song "Friday" garnered millions of hits on YouTube: Rolling Stone ridiculed the video's "sub-par production values, grating hooks and extraordinarily stupid lyrics," while a host of others questioned whether the tune was possibly "the worst pop song of all time."
But possibly the harshest criticism Black has received to date may be this week's comparisons to Double Take, a teen pop duo whose music video "Hot Problems" has been viewed more than one million time on YouTube.
In the video, the teens ride around town in the back of a limo while lamenting the trials and tribulations of being too attractive for their own good.
"Hot girls we have problems too," the plaintive duo sings in monotone. "We're just like you. Except we're hot."
So far, the video has received nearly 35,000 "dislikes" on YouTube.
The production company that made the video, Old Baily Productions, was quick to note in the description that they were not responsible for the song, saying "We produced the video as a favor for a younger sibling of one of our friends."
But perhaps the duo should be commended for drawing attention to the devastating condition of hotness, which was highlighted earlier this year in a widely criticized column from the Daily Mail. In the editorial "Why Women Hate Me For Being Beautiful," columnist Samantha Brick explained that her enviable appearance put her at a disadvantage in society because women felt threatened by her, while men viewed her as a sex object.
"While I’m no Elle Macpherson, I’m tall, slim, blonde and, so I’m often told, a good-looking woman," Brick wrote. "I know how lucky I am. But there are downsides to being pretty — the main one being that other women hate me for no other reason than my lovely looks."
While Brick's comments drew criticism from all corners of the Internet, at least one study lends some validity to Brick's claims.
At the end of April, Universal Studios celebrates its 100th anniversary. To mark the milestone, the studio has a heavy presence at the eleventh annual Tribeca Film Festival. Its upcoming comedy, "The Five-Year Engagement," opened Tribeca on Wednesday night, and on Thursday, the fest hosted Judd Apatow and Robert De Niro for an hour-long discussion about their contributions to the studio.
De Niro has made twelve films for Universal throughout his lauded career, including "Meet the Parents," "Cape Fear," "The Deer Hunter," "Casino" and "Midnight Run." All four of Apatow's directorial efforts ("The 40-Year-Old Virgin," "Knocked Up," "Funny People" and the upcoming "This is 40") were released by Universal, as was the Apatow-produced comedy "Bridesmaids." (He also produced "Five-Year.") As Universal president and CEO Ron Meyer said at the beginning of the presentation, the two men are "an integral part of [the] organization."
Despite a shaky start -- mostly owing to the fact that moderator Mike Fleming asked a torrent of questions about De Niro's work in "The Deer Hunter," his first Universal feature, that the actor didn't seem all that interested in answering -- Apatow and De Niro had a good rapport during the panel, discussing everything from personal failures to the future of digital filmmaking. (Meryl Streep, who made "Out of Africa" and "Mamma Mia" for Universal was scheduled to attend, but had to bow out due to an illness in her family.)
ABC’s reality dating game show series, which includes “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette,” is expected to face a class-action lawsuit this week for racial discrimination due to its failure of featuring minority contestants on the show.
According to TMZ, attorneys for Nathaniel Claybrooks and Christopher Johnson will file the complaint in federal court on Wednesday morning against ABC production companies Warner Horizon Television, Next Entertainment, NZK Productions and “Bachelor” executive producer Mike Fleiss.
Sources tell the site that both plaintiffs attended a Nashville audition at a local hotel claiming that a producer questioned their attendance before leaving the two out of the normal audition process. Both believe their race led to the producer’s decision to not contact them following the audition.
The show’s lack of diversity over the course of 23 seasons has raised a few questions in recent years as to why there has never been a non-white bachelor. Last year show creator, Fleiss told Entertainment Weekly that he and his production team are always looking to cast for ethnic diversity, “it’s just that for whatever reason, they don’t come forward. I wish they would.”
Warren Buffett, the billionaire investor known as much for his folksy wisdom as his investing prowess, announced Tuesday that he has been diagnosed with cancer.
In a letter to shareholders, Buffett, 81, said that he had been diagnosed with stage I prostate cancer.
“The good news is that I've been told by my doctors that my condition is not remotely life-threatening or even debilitating in any meaningful way,” Buffett said in the letter.
Buffett said that he will begin a two-month treatment of daily radiation in mid-July. He said his travel will be restricted during that time but it will not otherwise change his daily routine.
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In his typical conversational style, Buffett said that he feels great.
“I will let shareholders know immediately should my health situation change. Eventually, of course, it will; but I believe that day is a long way off,” he said.
Prostate cancer is common among older men, but usually isn’t life-threatening. In 2011, 240,890 men were diagnosed with prostate cancer, according to the American Cancer Society, and 33,720 men died of it.
Speculation has long swirled around who would take over for Buffett should he no longer be able to run Berkshire Hathaway. Buffett said in February that he had chosen someone to succeed him as chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway, but he did not name that person.
Buffett told CNBC Tuesday his succession plan had not changed with the diagnosis.
Buffett has been in the news lately because of his call for the rich to pay more taxes. The so-called Buffett rule, which was rejected by the Senate Monday, came after he wrote an editorial in the New York Times asking lawmakers to stop coddling the rich.
India's central bank cut its key interest rate by a bigger-than-expected half percentage point Tuesday, the first cut in three years, and warned that stalled reforms are diminishing the growth potential of Asia's third-biggest economy.
The Reserve Bank of India cut its short term lending rate -- the repo rate -- to 8.0 percent from 8.5 percent. Many economists had expected a quarter point cut.
The bank said it decided to cut the rate because economic growth has slowed to below what it believes is its long-term trend rate, which in turn is contributing to a moderation in core inflation.
The last interest rate cut was in April 2009. Between March 2010 and October 2011, the bank waged a lonely battle against inflation, raising interest rates by 3.75 points in 13 consecutive rate hikes.
The central bank cautioned that the scope for further rate cuts is limited, because inflation risks remain and growth has not slowed dramatically below what may be a new and lower normal for India, which once aspired to double-digit economic growth.
The bank said India's "trend" rate of growth, or the amount the economy can expand without stoking inflation, had declined from its pre-financial crisis peak of around 8.5 percent to about 7.5 percent. The bank blamed supply bottlenecks, especially in infrastructure, energy, minerals and labor, for the economy's diminished potential, and said unblocking such constraints was "an imperative."
The RBI expects India's economic growth to pick up to 7.3 percent in the current fiscal year from 7.0 percent for the fiscal year ended March 2012. It predicted that inflation, which was 6.9 percent in March, would moderate to 6.5 percent by next March.
The RBI's policy document can be read as a tissue of complaint against New Delhi, shot through with reminders about the limitations of monetary policy to bring about economic change.
"Monetary easing by the RBI is a necessary condition but may not be a sufficient condition for investment sentiment to revive," RBI governor Divvuri Subbarao said.
The bank alternated between admonishing and pleading with New Delhi, offering India's government a long wish list. Stop borrowing so much and crowding out private players from debt markets. Cut subsidy spending. Control the budget deficit. Do more to fix demand imbalances in India's food supply, particularly for protein-rich foods such as pulses, meat, eggs and milk, which have seen double digit price rises.
