Great Artwork beautiful Islamic Calligraphy
Afghanistan's  Calligraphy worker draw the Largest Qur'an in the World

Calligrapher worked for five years to create the world's biggest Qur'an in a bid to show the world that Afghanistan's rich cultural heritage

ABLUTION - A MEANS OF PURITY - REWARDS & PUNISHMENTS !


ABLUTION AS PER QURAN

O you who have believed, when you rise to [perform] prayer, wash your faces and your forearms to the elbows and wipe over your heads and wash your feet to the ankles. And if you are in a state of janabah, then purify yourselves. But if you are ill or on a journey or one of you comes from the place of relieving himself or you have contacted women and do not find water, then seek clean earth and wipe over your faces and hands with it. Allah does not intend to make difficulty for you, but He intends to purify you and complete His favor upon you that you may be grateful.

[Holy Quran 5:6]

KEY TO SALAH N PARADISE

Jabir ibn Abdullah (RA) narrated that Allah's Messenger (SAW) said,”They key to paradise is the salah and the key to the salah is ablution."

[Ahmed 14668]
[Sunan Tirmidhi #4]

ABLUTION AS PER SUNNAH

Narrated by Humran(the slave of 'Uthman) I saw 'Uthman bin 'Affan(ra) asking for a tumbler of water (and when it was brought) he poured water over his hands and washed them thrice and then put his right hand in the water container and rinsed his mouth, washed his nose by putting water in it and then blowing it out. then he washed his face and forearms up to the elbows thrice, passed his wet hands over his head and washed his feet up to the ankles thrice. Then he said, "Allah's Apostle(pbuh) said

FORGIVE PAST SINS BY PERFORMING TWO RAKAT PRAYER

'If anyone Performs ablution like that of mine and offers a two-rakat prayer during which he does not think of anything else (not related to the present prayer) then his past sins will be forgiven"

FORGIVE SINS B/W CONCURRENT SALAH'S

After performing the ablution 'Uthman(ra) said, "I am going to tell you a Hadith which I would not have told you, I heard the Prophet saying, 'If a man performs ablution perfectly and then offers the compulsory congregational prayer, Allah will forgive his sins committed between that (prayer) and the (next) prayer till he offers it.

Sahih Bhukari [Volume 1, Book 4, Number 161]

PURITY - A MEANS OF WASHING ALL THE SINS AWAY

Sayyidina Abu Huraira (RA) reported that the Prophet (SAW) said, "When a Muslim slave or a Believer washes his face while performing ablution then, with the water, or the last drop of water, all his sins committed with his eyes are washed away. When he washes his hands then all sins commited with them are washed away with water or the last drop of water till comes out pure from sins."

[Ahmed 8026, Muslim 244]
[Tirmidhi #2]

HEELS ON FIRE

Narated By ‘Abdullah bin Amr, The Prophet(ra) remained behind us on a journey. He joined us while we were performing ablution for the ‘Asr prayer which was over-due and we were just passing wet hands over our feet (not washing them thoroughly) so he addressed us in a loud voice saying twice or thrice, “Save your heels from the fire.”

Sahih Bhukari [Volume 1,Book 003,Hadith 164]

Zakir Naik and Ibtisam Elahi Zaheer together

 

Program Ilm o Hikmat has two parts first part is rescheduled and now it is going to be released on 1st December on Dunya Tv at 5.05 pm repeat timing 2nd December 11.am.Part 2 will be released on 8th December on Dunya Tv at 5.05 pm repeat timing 9th December at 11.am

 

Imam Abu Al-Hussain Muslim bin Hajjaj (R.A)
Aik Herat Angez  Tehreer jo Zaroor aap ko Zaeef Ahadees k bare sochne pe majboor kare gi
Sahih Muslim ke Muqaddame ki Roshni main agr yeh Wazeya ho jata hai k is Ummat k liye Sirf Sahi Ahadees hi kiou zaroori hain jo log Zaeef Ahadees ko tarjeeh de jate hain un k liye yeh Muqaddama Yaqeenan Lamha-E-Fiqriya hona chahiye Sahi Muslim k is Muqaddame ko zaroor parhiye or doosron k saath bhi share kijiye.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Powerball officials say the record jackpot has been won.

Early Thursday morning officials confirmed that two winning tickets were sold: One in Arizona and one in Missouri. An additional 8,924,123 players won smaller prizes.

The numbers drawn Wednesday night are: 5, 16, 22, 23, 29 and Powerball of 6.

A lottery official said late Wednesday that the jackpot increased to $579.9 million by the time of the drawing, making the cash option $379.8 million.

The drawing Wednesday night's prize followed 16 consecutive drawings that produced no top winner, boosting the Powerball to become the second-largest potential lottery payout in U.S. history.

Tickets were selling at an average of 130,000 a minute across the United States in the hours before the drawing, said Chuck Strutt, executive director of the Multi-State Lottery Association, which runs the Powerball game. That equates to players buying 7.8 million tickets an hour, spending $15.6 million an hour for a chance at the huge jackpot.

The huge sales volume, which was about six times the rate of the week before, prompted game officials to boost the jackpot twice in two days.

An estimated 90 percent of the tickets sold were quick picks in which the players allowed computers to pick the numbers, adding an extra element of randomness to the number choices.

There had been no Powerball winner since Oct. 6, and the jackpot was initially posted at $425 million, which was a record for the game. However, it was revised upward on Tuesday to $500 million when brisk sales increased the payout.

On Wednesday morning it was increased again to $550 million and revised once again prior to the drawing to $579.9 million. That was rapidly closing ground on the $656 million Mega Millions prize of March, the largest lottery jackpot in history.

"Sales have been so fast and so strong it's difficult to keep up with the estimates," said Mary Neubauer, spokeswoman for the Iowa Lottery, one of the founding Powerball states.

It took nine weeks for the Mega Millions jackpot to get that high, before three winners — from Kansas, Illinois and Maryland — hit the right numbers, each collecting $218.6 million for their share of the split.


Source: http://www.sfgate.com/news/us/article/Powerball-officials-2-winners-for-record-jackpot-4075665.php

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Powerball officials say the record jackpot has been won.
Early Thursday morning officials confirmed that two winning tickets were sold: One in Arizona and one in Missouri. An additional 8,924,123 players won smaller prizes.
The numbers drawn Wednesday night are: 5, 16, 22, 23, 29 and Powerball of 6.
A lottery official said late Wednesday that the jackpot increased to $579.9 million by the time of the drawing, making the cash option $379.8 million.
The drawing Wednesday night's prize followed 16 consecutive drawings that produced no top winner, boosting the Powerball to become the second-largest potential lottery payout in U.S. history.
Tickets were selling at an average of 130,000 a minute across the United States in the hours before the drawing, said Chuck Strutt, executive director of the Multi-State Lottery Association, which runs the Powerball game. That equates to players buying 7.8 million tickets an hour, spending $15.6 million an hour for a chance at the huge jackpot.
The huge sales volume, which was about six times the rate of the week before, prompted game officials to boost the jackpot twice in two days.
An estimated 90 percent of the tickets sold were quick picks in which the players allowed computers to pick the numbers, adding an extra element of randomness to the number choices.
There had been no Powerball winner since Oct. 6, and the jackpot was initially posted at $425 million, which was a record for the game. However, it was revised upward on Tuesday to $500 million when brisk sales increased the payout.
On Wednesday morning it was increased again to $550 million and revised once again prior to the drawing to $579.9 million. That was rapidly closing ground on the $656 million Mega Millions prize of March, the largest lottery jackpot in history.
"Sales have been so fast and so strong it's difficult to keep up with the estimates," said Mary Neubauer, spokeswoman for the Iowa Lottery, one of the founding Powerball states.
It took nine weeks for the Mega Millions jackpot to get that high, before three winners — from Kansas, Illinois and Maryland — hit the right numbers, each collecting $218.6 million for their share of the split.


Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/news/us/article/Powerball-officials-2-winners-for-record-jackpot-4075665.php#ixzz2DgqbE4z5

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Powerball officials say the record jackpot has been won.
Early Thursday morning officials confirmed that two winning tickets were sold: One in Arizona and one in Missouri. An additional 8,924,123 players won smaller prizes.
The numbers drawn Wednesday night are: 5, 16, 22, 23, 29 and Powerball of 6.
A lottery official said late Wednesday that the jackpot increased to $579.9 million by the time of the drawing, making the cash option $379.8 million.
The drawing Wednesday night's prize followed 16 consecutive drawings that produced no top winner, boosting the Powerball to become the second-largest potential lottery payout in U.S. history.
Tickets were selling at an average of 130,000 a minute across the United States in the hours before the drawing, said Chuck Strutt, executive director of the Multi-State Lottery Association, which runs the Powerball game. That equates to players buying 7.8 million tickets an hour, spending $15.6 million an hour for a chance at the huge jackpot.
The huge sales volume, which was about six times the rate of the week before, prompted game officials to boost the jackpot twice in two days.
An estimated 90 percent of the tickets sold were quick picks in which the players allowed computers to pick the numbers, adding an extra element of randomness to the number choices.
There had been no Powerball winner since Oct. 6, and the jackpot was initially posted at $425 million, which was a record for the game. However, it was revised upward on Tuesday to $500 million when brisk sales increased the payout.
On Wednesday morning it was increased again to $550 million and revised once again prior to the drawing to $579.9 million. That was rapidly closing ground on the $656 million Mega Millions prize of March, the largest lottery jackpot in history.
"Sales have been so fast and so strong it's difficult to keep up with the estimates," said Mary Neubauer, spokeswoman for the Iowa Lottery, one of the founding Powerball states.
It took nine weeks for the Mega Millions jackpot to get that high, before three winners — from Kansas, Illinois and Maryland — hit the right numbers, each collecting $218.6 million for their share of the split.


Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/news/us/article/Powerball-officials-2-winners-for-record-jackpot-4075665.php#ixzz2DgqbE4z5

Los Angeles (CNN) -- Lindsay Lohan faces new criminal charges in California, filed just hours after the actress was arrested in New York in connection with an alleged early morning fight at a nightclub.

Lohan's latest legal troubles could send her back to jail because she is on probation for a necklace theft conviction.

Lohan's convoluted path through the criminal courts system and her struggle with drugs and alcohol has taken her to court 19 times and to five rehab facilities for a total of 250 days since January 2007.

Lohan, 26, was arrested at a Manhattan nightclub after an alleged fight about 4 a.m. Thursday, the New York Police Department said.
Sheen gives Lohan $100,000?
Celebrity Mug Shots Celebrity Mug Shots
Lohan in trouble Lohan in trouble

Lohan may have hit another woman at the Avenue Lounge, police said. Authorities declined to say whether she faced charges.

"Once again, Lindsay Lohan is a victim of someone trying to capture their 15 minutes of fame," Lohan's New York lawyer, Mark Heller, told CNN. "From my initial investigation, I am completely confident that this case will be concluded favorably and that Lindsay will be totally exonerated."

'Liz & Dick' producer talks the risky business of hiring Lindsay Lohan

Across the country in Santa Monica, California, the city attorney filed four charges against Lohan Thursday morning in connection with a car crash last summer.

She is accused of giving false information to a police officer, obstructing or resisting a police officer in performance of his duty and reckless driving, according to the city attorney's office.

While these charges are all misdemeanors and would not alone normally result in jail time, the Los Angeles city attorney, who successfully prosecuted the actress for stealing a necklace in 2011, could ask a judge to revoke her probation.

A decision by the Los Angeles city attorney could come as soon as Friday, spokesman Frank Mateljan said.

While it would likely be several days before the prosecutor gets confirmation of Lohan's New York arrest, the Santa Monica charges filed Thursday should reach the Los Angeles city attorney's office sooner.

The timing of a decision on seeking a revocation of Lohan's probation for the shoplifting conviction depends on the workload in the prosecutor's office, Mateljan said.

The Santa Monica charges stem from a car crash last June while Lohan was on her way to the set for the filming of "Liz & Dick," the Lifetime movie that aired this week.

She is accused of telling police her assistant was driving the Porsche, while witnesses told investigators they saw Lohan behind the wheel.

"During the subsequent investigation, information was developed that Lohan was the driver of the Porsche when the accident occurred," the Santa Monica prosecutor said in a statement to CNN.



Source: http://edition.cnn.com/2012/11/29/showbiz/lindsay-lohan-arrest/index.html

by Salman Hameed

The Master is one of the best (and certainly one of the most interesting) films of the year! It is shot specularly and the acting is amazing. And it is one of those films where a second viewing simply enhances the pleasure tremendously.

But is it about the beginnings of Scientology? Well, yes and no. There are some elements of the film that seem to be inspired by the life of Scientology founder, L.Ron Hubbard. But that is just an inspiration. Rest of the movie goes in directions of its own.

Okay now to the actual discussion of the film. First we have a no-spoiler review (film autopsy) of The Master. For those who are interested in a further discussion of the movie, film professor, Kevin Anderson, and I also have a review essay titled, The Master: What is it all about? And yes, the latter discussion contains spoilers. [See all our reviews at Film Autopsy website]

Film Autopsy (review) of The Master:


Review Essay - The Master: What is it all about?

This post was co-written by Sarah Milstein and Eric Ries, co-hosts of The LeanStartup Conference.

It’s well-known—and we ourselves have been publicly frustrated—that white men tend to dominate the speaker rosters for tech and entrepreneurship conferences, not to mention the portfolios of many entrepreneurship programs. Conference hosts, VC’s, and others often attribute this to a "pipeline problem," the idea that there simply aren’t enough qualified women or people of color who wanted to or were qualified to participate. So we were proud earlier this week to announce our program for The Lean Startup Conference, which comprises approximately 40% women and 25% people of color. We still have room to grow, but this is a significant improvement over last year’s conference, which had almost none of either. Our approach was deliberate, and we want to share it with you, in the hopes that you can replicate it for other conferences and for processes like hiring where equity is important.

We have argued previously that the pipeline problem may be caused by the selection process itself. If under-represented groups have a reasonable expectation of not being selected, it’s perfectly reasonable that they therefore don’t apply. After all, if you were thinking of submitting a proposal to present at a conference that had a record of not choosing people like you—if you weren’t sure that your proposal would be assessed on its merits or that you’d be welcome at the event—why would you spend the time applying? The problem compounds itself: because women and people of color are not often speakers, we’re less aware of them, and we’re less likely to think of them for our own events.

There’s a solution that addresses these issues: meritocratic selection. It’s not a game of quotas; it’s quite the opposite. Indeed, we picked the speakers we thought had the best stories and would be the most engaging presenters. We didn’t rule out any candidates for being white or men, and we didn’t favor women or people of color. Instead, we used a handful of principles to guide us: transparent process,  blind selection, proactive outreach and enlisting help. Here’s how they played out.

Transparent process. Over the summer, we made a big deal about how we wanted to find speakers based on merit (i.e., the great stories they had to share) rather than on their proximity to us. In August, we posted a call for speakers, asking people to apply. We explained that we were looking for speakers based on what they knew rather than who they knew. We also noted that in the past, Eric had mostly drawn from a pool of people he had worked with directly, which meant that in 2010 and 2011, this conference had had almost no speakers typically under-represented at tech events. We received nearly 200 applications, more than half from women and about a quarter from people of color. That included a notable number of black people, which we call out because we’ve received very few applications from black speakers at other conferences we’ve run. Similarly, quite a few men and women over the age of about 50 applied to speak. One person talked about the importance of representing people with disabilities. In addition to being pleased by the demographic range, we were stunned by the consistently high quality of the proposed talk ideas across groups, as the previous open calls we’ve run have brought in relatively few great speakers.

Here’s what resulted from that call for speakers: from the pool of applicants whom we chose for the December 3 conference program, more than half were women. From the pool of applicants whom we chose for the December 2 Ignite: Lean Startup program, more than a third were people of color. And we had to make some heartbreaking decisions to pass on a number of speakers just because we didn’t have enough time on stage for everyone. Taken together, this shows that when you have a broader group from which to draw, there’s a good distribution of speakers; not all—not even most—of the good speakers are white men. The common conference organizer’s argument that we don’t know any black people in tech or that women didn’t apply to speak just doesn’t hold up.

Did employing a transparent process make a difference? The August call for proposals described above was actually our second attempt to change the makeup of our applicant pool; the first attempt failed. In June, we posted our first call for speakers, asking people to nominate others they thought would be good speakers. We noted that we were particularly keen on learning about women and people of color who might be great speakers but weren’t on our radar yet, but we didn’t say anything about what had happened in the past or how we were trying to change it. We received about 35 nominations. Although some were very good, just about 10% were women and almost none were people of color. Every piece of data we have been able to gather on conferences says that 10% is the standard rate at which women will apply or be nominated and that very few people of color will be among these pools.

Let’s dwell on this for a moment. By using principles of meritocratic selection—i.e., being explicit about our desire to find great speakers whom we didn’t know, and by being honest about the process we’d used in the past—we created an atmosphere in which a much broader range of strong speakers felt invited to participate.

It’s also worth mentioning that we knew we’d hit on something important not just because we got such different results in the second round, but also because applicants told us so. We got a lot of comments like this:

“I LAUGH when you say, ‘under-represented at a tech conference,’ because had you not presented such a compelling invitation, I would have never even dreamed of applying for a position of a speaker.”

“The main reason I'm applying is because I have a huge amount of respect and admiration for your efforts to reach out to a new circle of contributors. Anything I can do to support you, whether it's speaking or just behind the scenes, is personally very worthwhile to me.”

“Thanks for opening this up to the non-famous. I think there are lots of great stories out there to be told.”

Blind review. It’s well documented that when people know the sex or race of a job applicant or the main character in a story, they generally assess the person’s qualifications and performance more favorably if the person is male or white. Because we all have internal biases, everybody does it, including women and people of color. We wanted to eliminate that bias as best we could. So we asked applicants to submit some written information, along with a video, and we made the first cut based on the write-ups, which we read without checking names or other identifying info. 

Did using blind review make a difference? By reading the applications, we quickly eliminated people who weren’t a fit for the conference because their topic clearly wasn’t on point for our audience. That was a small group of people, but the distribution was broad. Beyond that, blind review didn’t make a big difference. Why? We asked for relatively little info in writing, both because we wanted to hear directly from speakers (not their PR people) and because video much better represents the medium we’re trying to assess (often, people who can write a nice description of their talk can’t deliver the presentation well, and vice versa). So video was much more important to us than writing, but we couldn’t assess it blind. It’s worth considering whether there’s more we can do with this tool in the future.

Proactive outreach. A very common way that conferences build a program is to brainstorm speakers, come up with a bunch of familiar names, and then notice late in the game that you have almost no women or people of color (at which point, you might scramble to find some or just complain that you don’t know any). Our initial brainstorm wasn’t magically diverse; in fact, it included an overwhelming percentage of young white men. But we immediately—during the same meeting—started digging deeper to think of people we’d left out, and when we came up with less-top-of-mind candidates from under-represented groups, we reached out to them early and often. We kept that up throughout the whole cycle.

Did proactive outreach make a difference? As we noted earlier, Eric’s previous conferences rosters were based almost entirely on people who were top of mind, and they skewed heavily toward white and male.

Enlisting help. There were two primary ways we asked other people to help us. First, when we had a call for participation, we posted it to mailing lists with lots of women and/or people of color, we asked our friends to do the same, and we approached organizations like Women 2.0 to publish or cross-post our info on their blogs and Twitter accounts. Second, when we asked other people for speaker ideas or when we formed our few panels with moderators, we told them about our search for under-represented speakers, and we said that we’d appreciate their support.

Did enlisting help make a difference? It can be scary to ask for this kind of help, because you don’t want to suggest that you’re interested in diversity over quality. But we found that people were consistently, surprising open to working with us on this issue. And it did make a difference: When we forgot to mention to people that we were looking for speakers we didn’t already know, we almost always got back suggestions for more white men who’d be great presenters. When we included a note about our efforts to reach farther, we almost always got back suggestions for women and people of color who’d be great presenters. In addition, we heard regularly from people who’d found out about our call for speakers through Women 2.0 and other mailing lists we worked with.

--

Our four-pronged approached generated really encouraging, even exciting, results. We’re further encouraged by the fact that we didn’t execute this plan perfectly, so there’s still room for improvement. Here’s what we we’ll work on next time out.

Coordinating our approaches. As noted above, in addition to our public call for speakers, we also reached out to people we did already know in the Lean Startup community whom we thought would have really compelling stories. Although this group included some women and people of color, it had a big percentage of white men. Because we started this process before the public call, and because we didn’t know if our public call would work, we quickly filled a number of speaking slots with these great candidates from the group we did know, and we didn’t leave as much room as we could have for terrific speakers new to us. We’ll use a hybrid approach again, but next time, we’ll trust the open-call process and be more deliberate about the distribution of speakers.

Getting beyond the easy wins. Related to the issue above, it’s just plain easier to put people onstage when you know them personally or by reputation. There are a few reasons for this. First, like most conferences, we want to put well-known people onstage, because they’re a draw. So when somebody has a big name and is available, we we’re more likely to consider them for our program, even if their story is only tangential to our angle. For instance, we were interested in having some well-known entrepreneurs join us, and we were willing to let them talk about their experiences generally rather than have them focus on Lean Startup principles. Unsurprisingly, all of the people who fit into this category were white men; women and people of color with comparable stories but less prominence didn’t get this kind of consideration. Correspondingly, we had much stricter standards for people who were less well known, insisting that they have a direct Lean Startup story—and if we didn’t already know them, we were less trusting that their stories were really good examples of Lean Startup methods. (For the record, we had so many good Lean Startup speakers, we didn’t wind up taking anybody with a general entrepreneurship story. But we definitely considered a bunch of them.)

Additionally, we found that when we already knew a speaker, it was easier to find good slots for them in the program because we were more aware of how they were using Lean Startup principles. For instance, if we were looking for somebody from a hardware startup to tell a great pivot story, we might have had six candidates…but it just so happened that the one guy we knew from that group had an even better story about innovation accounting. Because we were familiar with his company generally, we knew his other areas of expertise, and it was therefore easier to put him in the program. It was harder to find the various angles that would work from people we didn’t know.

In other words, between knowing their stories less well and bringing our biases to bear in trusting them, we had a harder time green-lighting the people we didn’t know. Again, that’s human. But if we don’t make conscious decisions to account for it, we’ll never change the dynamics of these events. 

Finding people in other under-represented groups.Our program has almost no people of our parents’ generation, and we don’t think we have any speakers with disabilities. In the future, we can apply the approach above to find more great speakers from these groups.

--

Pulling together a conference program that highlights deservedly well-known people in your field *and* reveals compelling new stories is a challenge. But it’s one you can take on—and that, frankly, not enough conferences do.  As we’ve found, meritocratic selection isn’t just a phrase you can mull or a fantasy for the future. These tools, used thoughtfully and in combination, can help you achieve it: transparent process, blind selection, proactive outreach and enlisting help. And we hope this post will help spark this question: if you’re not using these tools, is your selection process susceptible to unconscious biases that could be making it work less well? Is it really as merit-based as it could be?

Whenever there’s a discussion about the history of celebrity chef pop culture, one name is invariably left out, and this Swedish Meatballs recipe served as a reminder of that sad fact. How anyone can talk about the pioneers of food television without including the Swedish Chef from the Muppets is beyond me.

His frenetic energy and charisma makes Gordon Ramsey seem like a shrinking violet by comparison. His technique surpasses Emeril's on every level, and if we’re just talking catch phrases, how can you even begin to compare “Yummo” to “Bork, Bork, Bork?”

Some use the excuse that he wasn’t actually real, that he was just a bunch of stained, smelly fabric, wrapped around some dude’s hairy forearm. Well, that may be true, but it goes beyond that. I believe there’s been a systematic discrimination against Swedish chefs, which has made advancing upward impossible. I call it the ice ceiling.

Do NOT forget the Lingonberry jam!

Anyway, in related news, these Swedish meatballs rocked! Unlike most of the recipes I post here, I’ve had little experience with the recipe, but was very happy with the results, except for one major issue, which I mention in the video. I broke the cardinal rule of meatball making, and used lean meat.

Not paying attention, I picked up a package of ground pork that turned out to be 95% lean. The horror. I might as well have used tofu. Nonetheless, I loved the flavor, but implore you to use regular ground beef, and ground pork with a 75/25 lean-to-fat ratio. Do that, and you’ll be enjoying a plate of meatballs even the world's most under appreciated celebrity chef would love. Enjoy!

Ingredients for 4 large portions:

For the meatballs:

2 tbsp butter

1/2 yellow onion, finely chopped

1/4 cup milk

2 large eggs

1/3 cup plain bread crumbs

3/4 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground allspice

1 1/2 teaspoon fine salt

pinch of cayenne

1 pound ground chuck

1 pound ground pork

*Note: you can always cook a little piece to taste for salt, and adjust from there.

Brown meatballs in 425 degrees F. oven for about 20-25 minutes.

For the sauce:

2 tbsp butter

3 tbsp  all-purpose flour

3 1/4 cups beef broth

1/2 cup heavy cream

1/2 tsp sugar

1/4 tsp Worcestershire sauce

salt and pepper to taste

View the complete recipe

Just in time for the holidays, Lisa Robin Kelly has updated her family photo album.

The 42-year-old actress, who played Topher Grace's floozy sister on That '70s Show, has been arrested following a fight with her husband for the second time this year.

Kelly was busted last night after allegedly assaulting a 61-year-old man who was identified as her spouse at their North Carolina home, the Iredell County Detention Center confirms to E! News. She was briefly detained but is no longer in custody.

See Lisa Robin Kelly's last mug shot

According to TMZ, Kelly's hubby was also arrested.

She ultimately wasn't prosecuted following her March 31 arrest for allegedly getting violent with her husband in Los Angeles. Back in 2010, Kelly pleaded guilty to misdemeanor drunken driving near their home in Mecklenburg, N.C., and was sentenced to a day in jail.

She was credited for time served and spent a year on probation.


Source: http://www.eonline.com/news/366446/mug-shot-of-the-day-that-70s-show-s-lisa-robin-kelly-sports-sourpuss-after-assault-bust

It was five years ago today that Washington Redskins safety Sean Taylor died after a shooting at his home. Taylor's death was one of the most shocking and affecting in recent sports history, and the memory of it still resonates strongly and emotionally with Taylor's fans, friends and former teammates. This video tribute includes insights from former college and professional teammates Antrel Rolle, Clinton Portis, Ed Reed, Chris Cooley and Santana Moss as well as Redskins owner Dan Snyder, who smiles as he remembers Portis badgering him to draft Taylor.

I remember hearing of Taylor's death, of course. I was a baseball writer at the time, but anyone who followed sports even tangentially heard the story, and no one could get their arms around it in a way that made any sense. Five years later, as I heard today from fans, watched the video and read the columns by those who were covering the story at the time, it's clear that Taylor's death is still affecting a large number of people.

Rolle talks about how he still watches Taylor highlights on YouTube. Cooley remembers how grateful he was that Taylor never practiced his trademark big hits against him in practice. And Moss breaks down in tears remembering the way the news affected him. If you're a Redskins fan, I know the loss of Taylor is a wound on your heart that still hasn't healed. I invite you to share your memories and your feelings about him in the comments section of this post.


Source: http://espn.go.com/blog/nflnation/post/_/id/67406/memories-of-sean-taylor

CHICAGO - As Americans went on a ticket-buying spree, the Powerball jackpot rose to $550 million Wednesday, enticing many people who rarely, if ever, play the lottery to purchase a shot at the second-largest payout in U.S. history.

Among them was Lamar Fallie, a jobless Chicago man who said his six tickets conjured a pleasant daydream: If he wins, he plans to take care of his church, make big donations to schools and then "retire from being unemployed."

    Life after a Powerball win: What to expect if you strike it rich
    Record Powerball jackpot: What to do if you win

Tickets were selling at a rate of 130,000 a minute nationwide — about six times the volume from a week ago. That meant the jackpot could climb even higher before the Wednesday night drawing, said Chuck Strutt, executive director of the Multi-State Lottery Association.

The jackpot has already rolled over 16 consecutive times without a winner, but Powerball officials say they now believe there is a 75 percent chance the winning combination will be drawn this time.

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If one ticket hits the right numbers, chances are good that multiple ones will, according to some experts. That happened in the Mega Millions drawing in March, when three ticket buyers shared a $656 million jackpot. That remains the largest lottery payout of all time.

Yvette Gavin, who sold the tickets to Fallie, is only an occasional lottery player herself, but the huge jackpot means she'll definitely play this time. As for the promises she often gets from ticket purchasers, Gavin isn't holding her breath.

"A lot of customers say if they win they will take care of me, but I will have to wait and see," she said.

In the hours before Wednesday's drawing, Associated Press photographers fanned out across the nation to meet ticket buyers and ask about their lottery fantasies. Here's a look at what they found:

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When Atlanta barber Andre Williams buys scratch-off tickets, he typically does a dance in his shop for good luck. As a first-time Powerball player, he plans to reprise the dance — and buy a few extra tickets to enhance his chances.

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I don't even know if I'll look at it," said Williams, who bought his ticket at a newsstand. "If I win, I might pass out."

Paralegal Pat Powell was buying her first Powerball ticket at another store in Atlanta, even though she acknowledged her odds were probably "zero to zero."

Still, Powell has specific plans should she win: start an Internet cafe in the West Indies and a learning center in Georgia.

"I've been thinking about winning this money and what I'd do with it," Powell said. "There's no ritual, but it's just been on my mind. So it's like, let me just join the hype and just do it."


Powerball purchases at the Canterbury Country Store in Canterbury, N.H., have been so steady that the manager has been working extra evening hours to keep up.

Horticulturist Kevin Brags buys tickets at the store two to three times a month. He says he usually picks numbers higher than 32 because so many people use numbers 31 and lower, largely because of birthdays.

The birthday theory didn't scare off Paul Kruzel, a retired doctor who chooses the days his children were born.

Both, however, have the same plans for winning: "make a lot of people happy."

John Olson has a more elaborate idea: He'd like to buy an island.

Jill Schlesinger, editor-at-large for CBS MoneyWatch, has advice for the lucky one who defies the odds and hits the jackpot: it's fine to splurge a little but the key is to not go crazy.

"That means don't buy a new house or a Ferrari for a while, but do take your family on a fabulous vacation," Schlesinger writes. "And when you return, remember that you have a new job: Responsibly managing your money."



Source: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57555976/powerball-jackpot-soars-to-record-$550-million/

HOLLYWOOD star Liam Neeson is considering giving up his Roman
Catholic beliefs and becoming a Muslim.
The actor, 59, admitted that Islamic prayer "got into his spirit"
while filming in Istanbul.

"The call to prayer happens five times a day, and for the first

week, it drives you crazy, and then it just gets into your spirit, and
it's the most beautiful, beautiful thing," he told The Sun.
“There are 4000 mosques in the city. Some are just stunning, and
it really makes me think about becoming a Muslim."
Neeson was raised in Northern Ireland as a devout Roman
Catholic and was named after the local priest.
But the star - whose wife, Natasha Richardson, died aged 45 in a
skiing accident in 2009 - has spoken about challenges to his faith.
"I was reared a Catholic, but I think every day we ask ourselves,
not consciously, what are we doing on this planet? What's it all
about? I'm constantly reading books on God or the absence of
God and atheism," he said.
His latest movie, The Grey, about an oil-drilling team that crashes
in freezing Alaska, is set to be released on February 16.

 

 

Great Islamic Art Surah-Fateha the first Surah of The Quran in beautiful Calligraphy
Beautiful Artwork

American Woman who lost eight relatives in the attacks 9/11 Converts to Islam

Elizabeth Torres
She took another name : Safia Al-Kasaby , reflecting her new identity

Top Five well known Persons of USA who convert to Islam

1.
Jermaine LaJuane Jackson (also known as Mohammad Abdul Aziz) (born December 11, 1954) is an American singer, bassist, composer, a member of The Jackson 5 and occasional film director. He also produced and recorded duets with American singer Whitney Houston in her early years as a recording artist and was also a producer for Bobby DeBarge's band Switch.



2.
Hamza Yusuf Hanson is an American Islamic scholar, and (with Zaid Shakir and Hatem Bazian) is co-founder of Zaytuna College in Berkeley, California, United States. He is a convert to Islam, and is one of the signatories of A Common Word Between Us and You, an open letter by Islamic scholars to Christian leaders, calling for peace and understanding. He has described the 9/11 attacks as "an act of 'mass murder, pure and simple'". Condemning the attacks, he has also stated "Islam was hijacked ... on that plane as an innocent victim". The Guardian newspaper in the United Kingdom reported that he "is arguably the west's most influential Islamic scholar" and added that "many Muslims find his views hard to stomach." 

3.
David Khari Webber "Dave" Chappelle ( born August 24, 1973) is an American comedian, screenwriter, television/film producer, actor, and artist. Chappelle began his film career in the film Robin Hood: Men in Tights in 1993 and continued to star in minor roles in the films The Nutty Professor, Con Air, and Blue Streak. His first lead role in a film was in Half Baked in 1998. In 2003, he became widely known for his popular sketch comedy television series, Chappelle's Show, which ran until his abrupt retirement from the show in 2005. Chappelle is ranked forty-third in Comedy Central Presents: 100 Greatest Stand-Ups of All Time. 

4.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (born Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor, Jr., April 16, 1947) is a retired American professional basketball player. He is the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, with 38,387 points. During his career with the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Lakers from 1969 to 1989, Abdul-Jabbar won six NBA championships and a record six regular season MVP Awards. In college at UCLA, he played on three consecutive national championship teams, and his high school team won 71 consecutive games. At the time of his retirement, Abdul-Jabbar was the NBA’s all-time leader in points scored, games played, minutes played, field goals made, field goal attempts, blocked shots, defensive rebounds, and personal fouls. Abdul-Jabbar also has been an actor, a basketball coach, and an author. In 2012, he was selected as a U.S. cultural ambassador. 

5.
Rasheed Abdul Wallace (born September 17, 1974) is an American professional basketball player who currently plays for the New York Knicks of the NBA. A native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Wallace played college basketball at the University of North Carolina before moving on to the National Basketball Association (NBA) in 1995.
Originally selected by the Washington Bullets (now known as the Washington Wizards) as the fourth pick in the 1995 NBA Draft, Wallace was named to the All-Rookie second team following his first season. He was then traded to the Portland Trail Blazers after the season. With Portland he was a key member of the Trail Blazers team that made it to the Western Conference Finals in 1999 and 2000, and was an NBA All-Star in 2000 and 2001. Wallace averaged a career best 19.4 points per game in 2002 for the Trail Blazers.
During the 2003–04 season Portland traded him to the Atlanta Hawks where he played one game before he was traded to the Detroit Pistons. With the Detroit Pistons, Wallace won the NBA championship in 2004, but lost the NBA Finals in the following season. Individually, Wallace was an NBA All-Star in 2006 and 2008. After the 2008–09 season, Wallace left the Detroit Pistons as a free agent and signed with the Boston Celtics, where he played until retiring in 2010. He returned to sign a one-year deal to play for New York in 2012.
Wallace is currently the NBA's all-time leader in player technical fouls, with over 300. Wallace also holds the single-season record for technical fouls. In the 2000–01 season, Wallace received 41 technical fouls over a span of 80 games, about one technical foul for every two games.
 

by Salman Hameed

Now this may turn out to be interesting. Darren Aronofsky likes to explore the darker side of humanity (check out Black Swan or Requiem for a Dream or Pi or the more accessible, The Wrestler). So it may be perfect that he is making a Biblical epic about Noah - a story in which much of humanity dies in a deluge. The cast is superb, with Russell Crowe in the title role (I guess, you can think of it as a sequel to Master and Commander...). Already, the ark in the film looks different than people have usually imagined. Here is a picture from the set in New York:

And here is a brief description from Vulture:

The vessel is built to biblical proportions and capable of provoking awe at distances of up to 700 cubits—which is about how far away photographer Dan Wagner was when he captured this shot for New York. “To see it in person, and know there’s no CGI involved, was incredible,” he says. But Wagner wasn’t willing to suspend all disbelief: “The set decorator brought in tree stumps that weren’t there before, to give the effect that the ark was made with local lumber,” he says. “And there’s no way Noah and his sons could have built such an enormous structure themselves. That would have taken 500 years.”

The idea here is that the ark was not meant to go anywhere - but rather be a place of shelter. Okay - we'll see how it turns out. I have liked all of his films (yes, even The Fountain - for its ambition) and it will be interesting to see Aronofsky's take on this Biblical tale. While we are on the subject, here is one of my favorite New Yorker cartoons (full disclosure: I'm really allergic to mold - so this one really hits home for me):

Google has just announced in an email notification that the LG Nexus 4 will be available for sale from Google Play starting today at noon PST, only in the US. Customers were faced with what appeared to be a frenzy of ordering back on November 13th, when the Play store grew sluggish and Nexus 4 models sold out quickly. The new phones were expected to ship on November 15th, but some customers experienced delays "due to overwhelming demand," putting the device on backorder for up to three weeks. Google's supply seems to have caught up, and if you're in the market for a new flagship Android device, head on over to Google Play this afternoon.

Update: Google's Play Store is again experiencing the same problems we saw when the Nexus 4 originally went on sale, but if you've had no luck so far, keep at it. A message on the Play website now says, "Google Play is currently experiencing very high traffic. Nexus 4 is not sold out and will still be available for purchase. Please try again shortly. Thank you for your patience." For anyone that isn't keen on honoring Google's request to have some patience, your best option is hitting the refresh button. Many times.




Source: http://www.theverge.com/2012/11/27/3696884/nexus-4-google-play-today

With Cyber-Monday expected to produce $1.5 billion in sales today, here is a deal from Amazon. The Amazon Kindle Fire 2, the non HD sequel to the original low priced 7 inch tablet, is $129. That is $30 off the regular $159 price and the sale is limited to one per customer. The device is equipped with a 7 inch LCD screen with resolution of 1024 x 600 with a pixel density of 170ppi. A dual-core 1.2GHz TI OMAP 4430 processor is under the hood and the tablet packs 1GB of RAM and 8GB of native storage. There is no camera on back or front and no microSD slot. Android 4.0 is installed.

The Amazon Kindle Fire 2

Of course, Amazon also has the Amazon Kindle Fire HD for $199 with a resolution of 1280 x 800 on its 7 inch screen, and dual-band Wi-Fi. There is also the Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9" for $299 with its 1920 x 1200 resolution screen, front-facing camera and a dual-core 1.5GHz processor. Lastly, the Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9" 4G LTE is priced at $499. The latter will ship the week of December 10th while all other models are in stock.

The main focus is on the deal today for the Amazon Kindle Fire 2 for $129. To order, click on the sourcelink. You do need to enter FIRESALE at checkout. Get it? FIRESALE. FIRE-SALE. Amazon Kindle FIRE-SALE. Hey, we're only repeating Amazon so don't shoot the messenger. At try to remember that the deal turns back into a pumpkin at 11:59pm Pacific time today (2:59am on the East Coast of the U.S.), so don't miss it!





Source: http://www.phonearena.com/news/Amazon-Kindle-Fire-2-just-129-on-Cyber-Monday_id37009

Angus T. Jones doesn't want to be on "Two and a Half Men" anymore. In a video interview with the religious website Forerunner Chronicles, Jones spoke out against the show and called it "filth."

"If you watch 'Two and a Half Men,' please stop watching 'Two and a Half Men,'" Jones says around the 7:45 mark in the video below, which the website billed as "The Testimony of the Awakening of [a] star." "I'm on 'Two and a Half Men,' and I don't want to be on it. Please stop watching it, please stop filling your head with filth," he continues.

“People say it’s just entertainment,” he said. "Do some research on the effects of television and your brain, and I promise you, you'll have a decision to make when it comes to television, especially with what you watch on television. It's bad news."

Jones, who is 19 years old, isn't the first star to speak out against "Two and a Half Men." His rant comes about a year-and-a-half after Charlie Sheen's meltdown, during which he repeatedly ripped the show and its creator Chuck Lorre. In response, the series wrapped production early, Sheen's character was written off the show, and Ashton Kutcher joined the cast as his replacement.

Warner Bros., the production company of "Two And A Half Men," had no comment on Jones' interview.