Myanmar shows new signs of press freedom
Privately owned newspapers are being published in Myanmar for the first time in decades. The militay government took control of independent papers in 1964, a...
By: AlJazeeraEnglish
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Hannity Guest Goes Crazy on Charge that Black Conservatives Have No Freedom Of Speech – (Ben Carson) – Video
Hannity Guest Goes Crazy on Charge that Black Conservatives Have No Freedom Of Speech - (Ben Carson)
April 1, 2013 - Sean Hannity #39;s Monday night show got heated... to say the least. Inviting on radio host Leo Terrell and Niger Innis, national spokesperson fo...
By: MichaelSavage4Prez
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2013 JEEP WRANGLER UNLIMITED 4WD 4DR FREEDOM EDITION – Video
2013 JEEP WRANGLER UNLIMITED 4WD 4DR FREEDOM EDITION
Orange Coast Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram http://www.ocauto.com 2524 Harbor Blvd Costa Mesa CA 92626 (714) 546-9720 2013 JEEP WRANGLER UNLIMITED 4WD 4DR FREEDOM E...
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2013 JEEP WRANGLER UNLIMITED 4WD 4DR FREEDOM EDITION - Video
Freedom of Speech
Let’s play Freedom Fighters – 2-1 – Video
Let #39;s play Freedom Fighters - 2-1
I #39;m good at this game, you #39;ll see later! http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3540988.
By: Tin Tim
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Tax Freedom Day on April 18, group estimates
Tax Freedom Day will arrive on April 18 this year, the 108th day of 2013, the Tax Foundation reported this week in a release.
Americans will work well over three and a half months of the year before they have earned enough money to pay this years tax obligations at the federal, state and local levels. Both higher federal taxes and rebounding incomes contribute to this years date, which is five days later than in 2012, the foundation said.
In an agency study, Tax Freedom Day 2013, economists William McBride, Elizabeth Malm and Kyle Pomerleau also calculated how long Americans would have to work in order to close the federal budget deficit. In order to pay for all spending in the current year, the government would need to raise an additional $833 billion in taxes, pushing Tax Freedom Day to May 9th.
This year, Americans will work five days later than in 2012 to pay all of their taxes. The total tax bill at all levels comes to approximately $4.2 trillion, or 29.4 percent of their total income, McBride said. That means Americans will pay more in taxes in 2013 than they will spend on food, clothing and housing combined.
Historically, the date for Tax Freedom Day has fluctuated significantly. The latest-ever nationwide Tax Freedom Day was May 1, 2000 meaning that Americans paid one-third of their total income in taxes. A century earlier, in 1900, Americans paid only 5.9 percent of their income in taxes, meaning Tax Freedom Day came on Jan. 22.
For more information, visit http://www.taxfreedomday.org.
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Los Alamitos: Freedom Choice sharp for El Primero Del Ano Derby
Freedom Choice was the sort of 2-year-old Quarter Horse who improved with each start in 2012. By December, he was the 2-1 favorite in the Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity, but finished third, losing by a head to the filly Matabari.
Freedom Choices 3-year-old season began on a brighter note, with a win in a March 17 time trial for Sundays $205,900 El Primero Del Ano Derby at Los Alamitos. He may not be favored in the final, but has an excellent chance to win the 400-yard race.
In the trial, Freedom Choice won by a half-length in 19.81 seconds, his third win in his fifth start. He has earned $271,128.
We gave him some time off after he finished with some very good races last year, trainer and co-owner Jose De La Torre said after the trials. We gave him some light training just to get him fit enough for these races. We feel that hes headed for some good things this year.
Co-owned by the trainers brother, Gustavo, Freedom Choice has an enormous role to fill in the barn in 2013. The stables leading runner of 2012 was One Dashing Eagle, the Quarter Horse World Champion who won three seven-figure futurities the Ed Burke Million in June and Golden State Million in November at Los Alamitos, and the All American Futurity at Los Alamitos in September.
One Dashing Eagle was retired to stud in January.
Sunday, Freedom Choice must contend with two other impressive trial winners from March 17, Henoshersecret and Mr Ease Cartel.
Henoshersecret, fourth in the Golden State Million, set the fastest qualifying time of 19.68 seconds in the trials. Trained and co-owned by Paul Jones, Henoshersecret has won 4 of 10 starts, but has yet to win a major stakes.
Mr Ease Cartel qualified for the Ed Burke Million Futurity last June but was not allowed to run after he was part of a group of horses seized by the Department of Justice whoe were determined to be owned by members of the Los Zetas Mexican drug cartel.
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Los Alamitos: Freedom Choice sharp for El Primero Del Ano Derby
Freedom baseball team looks to make fast start last
Nick D'Amico can't point to one moment that sent Freedom into a second-half swoon last season.
An injury to shortstop Brian Uliana hurt the Patriots. The back end of their schedule featured more games against the Lehigh Valley Conference's top baseball teams than the front end did. Their confidence may have wavered when the losses started to accumulate.
No matter what caused the Patriots to fade last season they went 2-9 in the second half and lost their last seven games D'Amico wants to steer his players away from a similar fate this season. Freedom's seventh-year coach should have that chance with his team off to one of the best starts in the area again.
With Tuesday's 8-3 win over Bethlehem Catholic, Freedom (5-0 heading into Thursday's nonleague game with Parkland) became the first team in the area to reach five wins. The Patriots are on pace to at least match their first-half play from 2012, when they opened 8-2.
Seniors Uliana, Gary Moritz and Dylan Frankenfield have led the way for a Freedom lineup that went into Thursday averaging nine runs per game. Uliana has shifted from shortstop to center field this season in a move designed to give the Patriots their best defensive alignment. He scored eight runs in their first five games and was 5-for-5 in stolen base attempts.
Moritz, a first-year starter at catcher, has ripped the ball. He began Thursday hitting .444 with one triple, two home runs and 13 RBIs. Frankenfield was also hitting .444 and had a .667 on-base percentage through Wednesday.
Freedom also has received solid work from its top three starters Frankenfield, Nick Mazzella and Chris Maurer. Mazzella and Frankenfield both have started 2-0 with sub-two ERAs as the Patriots have allowed four or fewer runs in four of their first five games.
"We have very good leadership with our seniors right now," D'Amico said earlier this week. "It's coming out onto the field. Even in games that we're behind in, we're coming back, which is the sign of a good team. Our hitting's been very clutch for us so far, and the pitching has been doing a pretty decent job of getting people out."
Now Freedom has to show it can finish as well as it starts. D'Amico sees plenty of parity across the LVC, especially in terms of pitching.
Being pegged for last place in the East Division by The Morning Call has provided some extra motivation for the Patriots early this season. D'Amico has reminded his players that winning will lead to recognition.
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Press freedom : Malaysia lags behind Brunei, Timor Leste
Brunei and Timor Leste have a much better global press freedom ranking than Malaysia. That says a lot about the Malaysian media.
Brunei, Timor Leste much better than RI Veeramalla Anjaiah, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | World | Mon, February 25 2013, 11:38 AM
Paper Edition | Page: 10 Is Brunei, a non-democratic country, much more open than worlds third largest democracy Indonesia in terms of press freedom? Yes it is, says Reporters Without Borders (RSF), a Paris-based non-government organization that promotes and defends freedom of information in its recently released World Press Freedom Index 2013.
The annual index measures the level of freedom of information in 179 countries in five continents. The survey covers six fields pluralism, media independence, environment, self-censorship, legislative framework transparency and infrastructure through a questionnaire sent to all five continents.
A quick look at the 2013 index reveals that none of the 10-ASEAN countries made into the top 100 countries out of 179 that were surveyed for this years index. Brunei ranked at 122 with a score of 35.45, a slight increase from 2012s 125th position on the same index. Finland, like last year, once again topped the index with a score of 6.38 followed by the Netherlands (6.48) and Norway (6.52) in second and third respectively.
With a score of 84.83, Eritrea retained its infamous crown as the country that least respects press freedom and sits at the bottom of the index in 179th place. North Korea, where press freedom is an alien concept, ended up at 178th with a score of 83.90.
Indonesia ranked only 139th position with score of 41.05, four positions behind Thailand, which had a score of 38.60. In fact, Indonesia did improve its ranking by seven positions from 146th position in 2012.
Indonesias former state Timor Leste earned the respectable rank of 90 with its score of 28.72. Indonesias neighbor Papua New Guinea fared much better at 41st position with a 22.97 score.
The question raised by these results is why democratic countries like Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines lag behind Brunei, a country without an elected parliament? An RSF executive gives some insight;
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Commercial Banker Stephen A. Witt Joins Freedom Bank
FAIRFAX, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Freedom Bank of Virginia (Bank) (Bulletin Board:FDVA.OB) announced the addition of Stephen A. Witt as Senior Vice President, Corporate Banking Division. Mr. Witt will be based in the Fairfax office and tasked with fostering new relationships while continuing to provide quality service to our existing clientele. All of us are pleased that Steve joined the Bank and look forward to the contributions he will bring to our team, stated Executive Vice President & Chief Lending Officer Kevin Curtis. Mr. Witt joins Freedom Bank from Virginia Commerce Bank where he was a Senior Vice President and Product Development Manager. Prior to Virginia Commerce Bank, Mr. Witt was employed for two years with WashingtonFirst Bank as Vice President and Business Development Officer / Branch Manager of the Banks Fairfax City office.
About Freedom Bank
Freedom Bank is a local community bank providing a full range of financial services, including credit and deposit products, cash management, and Internet banking services for consumers and businesses. The Bank operates from its headquarters office at 10555 Main Street, Fairfax, Virginia 22030. For more information visit http://www.freedombankva.com.
Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/multimedia/home/20130405005749/en/
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Rebuttals missed point of eugenics letter
Re: Quality of letters questioned by reader, Reference to Agenda 21 like 9/11 conspiracy (Letters, March 29)
Writers Alan Johnson and Murray Sinclair both attempt to denigrate my well-founded concerns about the Globalist eugenicist sustainability cult and one of its key tyrannical mechanisms, United Nations Agenda 21.
Johnson suggests that Gregory Hartnell doesnt seem to understand the differences between sustainability, birth control and eugenics, while Mr. Sinclair suggests that I am using arguments that are the intellectual equivalent (using the term generously) of a 9/11 conspiracy theory.
Both writers seem to have missed the whole point of my original letter, which suggested columnists David Suzuki and Ian Hanington support Uruguayan president Jose Mujica because he votes for population reduction and the so-called family planning programmes of UN Agenda 21.
While I agree with Johnsons assertion that greens support legal, safe and accessible birth control, I part company with him when he writes that fewer unwanted children is a way to slow the environmental damage we are already causing in this world.
Sinclair calls Agenda 21 a voluntary, non-binding environmental plan from the United Nations, and notes that Christian Heritage Party candidate Dr. Philip Ney included similar warnings about the proposition in his election platform.
While I am not a member of that party, I am unashamed to confirm that I was one of the people who voted for him.
Basically, I think Ney and those awakened souls who condemn the dangerous sustainable development myth of UN Agenda 21 make more sense than sustainability cultists like David Suzuki and Ian Hanington.
Gregory Hartnell
Victoria
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Cris Cyborg Ready to Reclaim the Iron Throne as the Top Women’s Fighter in MMA
It's been well over a year since Cris "Cyborg" Santos last stepped into a cage for an actual MMA fight.
The last 15-plus months were filled with interviews about her suspension from the sport for using a banned substance, a heated rivalry with Ronda Rousey, exiting both Strikeforce and the UFC and finally signing a multi-fight deal with Invicta FC.
Santos has been doing a lot of talking, but her passion was always to get back in the cage and back up her words with her fists. It wasn't long ago that she was the top-ranked woman in MMAan absolute wrecking machine that mauled opponent after opponent.
Lately, however, instead of being called the best women's fighter on the planet, Santos is better known as a rival to Rousey in a fight that still may never happen. Like she was gunning for the iron throne in Westeros, Santos is hell-bent on reclaiming her spot as the most feared woman in MMA.
Cyborg is the same assassin she's always beennow it's just time to remind everybody what she's capable of doing to her opposition.
"I don't think I need to prove anything but I think I need to do the same as I did in the other fights. I want to do the best fight and try to go for the knockout all the time," Santos told Bleacher Report. "Be aggressive as my other fights. I think people know my training, and they know what I did already. Win or lose, I always try to do my best."
During her time away from active competition, Santos signed on with former UFC light heavyweight champion Tito Ortiz as her new management. Since then, Ortiz has gone on a tireless campaign to push Santos back into the spotlight and even trained with her as she prepared for her return to action.
"She is Wanderlei Silva in her prime," said Ortiz. "She doesn't mind getting punched, she likes the takedowns, she likes to spar, she likes to train, she's the world champion. To be 10-1 and stop people, dominate people, her career speaks for itself."
If one black mark continues to haunt her, it's the suspension she faced for using a banned substance, which earned her a year away from the sport. She continues to be accused of cheating, but Ortiz says it was a mistake that she's owned up to and won't make again.
"People judge by one little mistake that she did because she tried to make weight easier, and you can't judge a book by its cover by her last fight," stated Ortiz. "People say you're only as good as you're last fight, well she knocked out her last opponent, and for the substance that was illegal at the time that she took, it was strictly taken to cut the weight. No more than that."
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Cris Cyborg Ready to Reclaim the Iron Throne as the Top Women's Fighter in MMA
Invicta 5: ‘ Cyborg ‘ leads best all-female fight card ever
Cris 'Cyborg' Santos has in the past refused to drop 10 pounds to fight star Ronda Rousey.
AP
Let's get this straight from the start: It's not that mixed martial artist Michelle Waterson doesn't appreciate the honor of headlining Friday night's Invicta 5 promotion in Kansas City. It's just that as a fan of women's MMA -- not just as a practitioner of it -- she has a confession to make: "I would love to be able to fight first and then watch the rest of the girls," she says.
Hardcore female fight fans understand why.
Invicta, the women's-only fight promotion, celebrates its one-year anniversary by hosting what many industry insiders suggest might be the best all-female fight card ever assembled. Invicta co-founders Shannon Knapp and Janet Martin have bet good money -- their own money, in fact -- on the concept that fight fans will pay $9.95 to watch an online stream of legitimate female fighters show off their legitimate skills. The promotion isn't peddling the notions of celebrity (there's only one Ronda Rousey), or history (like the inaugural UFC female fight last February), but in the simple belief in its viability (show good fights and fans will pay good money).
The business plan is as straightforward as it is scary. After all, it was only two years ago that UFC president and de facto industry boss Dana White derided women fighters and declared that they would never fight in the UFC. Nor have legacy sports like basketball or boxing presented a blueprint for the economic and cultural success of female athletes.
It's not that the mainstream masses don't want to watch females fight. The franchising of The Real Housewives of Wherever -- complete with its table throwing and bickering -- proves otherwise. Invicta 5 features a helping of the kind of personal vendetta and catty sniping that anchors the Bravo network's reality programming in the Bec Hyatt (4-2-0) matchup with Yasminka Cive (5-0-0). Their beef stems from an exchange of Twitter slights that results in this promo video. As former Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker succinctly put it me last January, "Anytime you've got fighters with personal beef, it's always a great matchup."
Hyatt-Cive won't undermine that conventional wisdom. Hyatt, a 24-year-old upstart fighter with her bleach blonde hair shorn punk-style, has gained a cult following in her short tenure on the WMMA circuit. The Australian showed sprightliness and grit in her short-notice loss to strawweight champion Carla Esparza last January that was both endearing and entertaining. But she'll need more than fan support when facing Cive, an Austrian with an impressive kickboxing resume and an MMA curriculum vitae that includes four consecutive knockouts and an amateur bout in November 2010 against a male opponent that ended in a draw.
But the Hyatt-Cive bout won't be more compelling than the return of Cris "Cyborg" Santos to the cage. The most dominant fighter of the pre-Rousey era of WMMA -- she ended the fighting career of Gina Carano, after all -- will fight for the first time in 16 months after testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs.
The central question in Cyborg's faceoff with replacement opponent Fiona Muxlow isn't if she'll win but how she'll appear doing it. UFC president White dismissed Cyborg as "irrelevant" in February after the 27-year-old Brazilian with perhaps the most potent punch-out power on the women's circuit, refused to drop down from her 145-pound featherweight division to the 135-pound bantamweight class where Rousey looms. It's fair to assume that any and every opponent is simply a sparring match until Cyborg tests her striking against Rousey's judo. Cyborg isn't fighting to simply win fights but to regain relevance in a women's fight field that has moved on without her.
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Melissa Segura: Invicta 5: ‘ Cyborg ‘ leads best all-female fight card ever assembled
Cris 'Cyborg' Santos has in the past refused to drop 10 pounds to fight star Ronda Rousey.
AP
Let's get this straight from the start: It's not that mixed martial artist Michelle Waterson doesn't appreciate the honor of headlining Friday night's Invicta 5 promotion in Kansas City. It's just that as a fan of women's MMA -- not just as a practitioner of it -- she has a confession to make: "I would love to be able to fight first and then watch the rest of the girls," she says.
Hardcore female fight fans understand why.
Invicta, the women's-only fight promotion, celebrates its one-year anniversary by hosting what many industry insiders suggest might be the best all-female fight card ever assembled. Invicta co-founders Shannon Knapp and Janet Martin have bet good money -- their own money, in fact -- on the concept that fight fans will pay $9.95 to watch an online stream of legitimate female fighters show off their legitimate skills. The promotion isn't peddling the notions of celebrity (there's only one Ronda Rousey), or history (like the inaugural UFC female fight last February), but in the simple belief in its viability (show good fights and fans will pay good money).
The business plan is as straightforward as it is scary. After all, it was only two years ago that UFC president and de facto industry boss Dana White derided women fighters and declared that they would never fight in the UFC. Nor have legacy sports like basketball or boxing presented a blueprint for the economic and cultural success of female athletes.
It's not that the mainstream masses don't want to watch females fight. The franchising of The Real Housewives of Wherever -- complete with its table throwing and bickering -- proves otherwise. Invicta 5 features a helping of the kind of personal vendetta and catty sniping that anchors the Bravo network's reality programming in the Bec Hyatt (4-2-0) matchup with Yasminka Cive (5-0-0). Their beef stems from an exchange of Twitter slights that results in this promo video. As former Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker succinctly put it me last January, "Anytime you've got fighters with personal beef, it's always a great matchup."
Hyatt-Cive won't undermine that conventional wisdom. Hyatt, a 24-year-old upstart fighter with her bleach blonde hair shorn punk-style, has gained a cult following in her short tenure on the WMMA circuit. The Australian showed sprightliness and grit in her short-notice loss to strawweight champion Carla Esparza last January that was both endearing and entertaining. But she'll need more than fan support when facing Cive, an Austrian with an impressive kickboxing resume and an MMA curriculum vitae that includes four consecutive knockouts and an amateur bout in November 2010 against a male opponent that ended in a draw.
But the Hyatt-Cive bout won't be more compelling than the return of Cris "Cyborg" Santos to the cage. The most dominant fighter of the pre-Rousey era of WMMA -- she ended the fighting career of Gina Carano, after all -- will fight for the first time in 16 months after testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs.
The central question in Cyborg's faceoff with replacement opponent Fiona Muxlow isn't if she'll win but how she'll appear doing it. UFC president White dismissed Cyborg as "irrelevant" in February after the 27-year-old Brazilian with perhaps the most potent punch-out power on the women's circuit, refused to drop down from her 145-pound featherweight division to the 135-pound bantamweight class where Rousey looms. It's fair to assume that any and every opponent is simply a sparring match until Cyborg tests her striking against Rousey's judo. Cyborg isn't fighting to simply win fights but to regain relevance in a women's fight field that has moved on without her.
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Melissa Segura: Invicta 5: ' Cyborg ' leads best all-female fight card ever assembled
‘ Cyborg ‘ Santos: Ask Dana White or Ronda Rousey Why They Don’t Want the Fight
Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos returns to the cage after a nearly 16-month layoff to face Fiona Muxlow at Invicta Fighting Championships 5 this evening.
Prior to the bout, the former Strikeforce featherweight champ said she still has her eyes set on a superfight with UFC bantamweight title holder Ronda Rousey.
The Brazilian powerhouse believes that Rousey and UFC President Dana White are the ones to blame for the enticing match up not happening yet (via MMA Fighting). "Ask Dana White if he wants to make the fight," Santos said. "Ask Ronda if she wants the fight. I will fight her. I'm not afraid of anyone. You have to ask them why they don't want to make the fight."
Santos was under a contract with Zuffa LLC from her Strikeforce days and looked to finalize a deal with the UFC that eventually culminated with a 140-pound catchweight bout with Rousey.
However, when the terms of the deal could not be agreed upon, Cyborg asked for her release and signed with Invicta FC.
Santos has been on the shelf ever since she failed a post-fight drug test in Dec. 2011 where she tested positive for the anabolic steroid stanozolol.
As a result, the California State Athletic Commission suspended Santos for one year and fined her $2,500.
Heading into Friday night's bout with Muxlow, Santos is 10-1(1) in her professional MMA career, with her only loss coming in her pro debut in May 2005.
On the other hand, Muxlow enters the contest with a record of 6-2, most recently suffering a submission loss to Marloes Coenen in December.
The bout was contested under the Dream banner and the loss broke a three-fight win streak for Muxlow.
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' Cyborg ' Santos: Ask Dana White or Ronda Rousey Why They Don't Want the Fight
Cris ‘ Cyborg ’ Santos is returning to a changed landscape in women’s MMA
Having rejected an offer to join the UFC, Cris Cyborg Santos makes her Invicta debut April 5. (AP)
KANSAS CITY, Mo. The last time Cris Cyborg Santos fought professionally, Newt Gingrich was the front-runner in the Republican presidential primaries, Breaking Dawn: Part I had just hit theaters and an upstart judoka by the name of Ronda Rousey showed promise with her second win on the Strikeforce circuit.
Needless to say, much has changed since Santos was the face of womens MMA.
Since Santos received a one-year suspension for testing positive for stanozolol leading up to her Dec. 17, 2011 fight with Hiroko Yamanaka, Rousey rose from niche sport newcomer to mainstream sports icon; the all-female fighting promotion Invicta launched while Strikeforce went the way of Gingrich; and UFC president Dana White 180ed on his position that women were too pretty to fight, placed them as headliners on the UFC 157 card, and slapped Santos with perhaps the cruelest insult when he labeled her irrelevant. (Oh, and Twilight fans watched Alice and Edward kiss in advance of their happily-ever-after ending in Breaking Dawn: Part II, in case you were wondering.)
Its been a tough time, said Santos, 27, relaxing on the couch of her Holiday Inn hotel room Thursday night as she prepared for her return to the ring against Australias Fiona Muxlow as part of Friday nights Invicta 5 fight card. Banana bunches, hardboiled eggs, and half-empty bottles of Pedialyte the hallmarks of her weight cut to 145 pounds are spread before her on a coffee table.
A tough time thats about as much as a reticent Santos will reveal about her 16-month layoff but talk to anyone in her inner circle and theyll tick off a list of indignities ranging from her mounting bills to her dwindling bank accounts, the sponsors who hightailed it away from her, her divorce from fellow fighter Evangelista Santos, and perhaps the worst of it all the Strikeforce incident.
It was Aug. 18, 2012 eight months into her steroid suspension when Strikeforce hosted its main event, Ronda Rousey versus Sarah Kaufman, near Santos San Diego apartment. As the former Strikeforce featherweight champion, Santos expected to sit where all the fighters do: cageside, where fighters can get a close-up of their potential opponents and television cameras can capture the fighters reactions. But when Santos arrived, she discovered shed been banished to the bleachers, high above the cage and far from the TV sightlines. When a friend fighting on the card found out about her seat placement, he sent her a ticket for a floor seat from his allotment.But again, Strikeforce officials shepherded her to the top of the stairs and back of the arena.
It really bothered her, says George Prajin, who manages Santos along with UFC Hall of Famer Tito Ortiz.
But Santos says the year off, brutal as it was, offered her a chance to re-evaluate her career, her future, and the weaknesses in her game. She focused on improving her jiu-jitsu to balance out her potent punching power, changed management, and with the help of Ortiz, opened her own gym in her native Brazil called The Rock.The gym is part of Ortizs and Prajins plan to extend her brand beyond the cage.
In one of her first conversations with Ortiz, Santos told him, When I beat Gina Carano and won the [Strikeforce featherweight] belt, my life didnt change, my bank account didnt change.
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Cris ‘ Cyborg ’ Santos is returning to a changed landscape in women’s MMA
‘ Cyborg ‘ returning to a new landscape
Having rejected an offer to join the UFC, Cris Cyborg Santos makes her Invicta debut April 5. (AP)
KANSAS CITY, Mo. The last time Cris Cyborg Santos fought professionally, Newt Gingrich was the front-runner in the Republican presidential primaries, Breaking Dawn: Part I had just hit theaters and an upstart judoka by the name of Ronda Rousey showed promise with her second win on the Strikeforce circuit.
Needless to say, much has changed since Santos was the face of womens MMA.
Since Santos received a one-year suspension for testing positive for stanozolol leading up to her Dec. 17, 2011 fight with Hiroko Yamanaka, Rousey rose from niche sport newcomer to mainstream sports icon; the all-female fighting promotion Invicta launched while Strikeforce went the way of Gingrich; and UFC president Dana White 180ed on his position that women were too pretty to fight, placed them as headliners on the UFC 157 card, and slapped Santos with perhaps the cruelest insult when he labeled her irrelevant. (Oh, and Twilight fans watched Alice and Edward kiss in advance of their happily-ever-after ending in Breaking Dawn: Part II, in case you were wondering.)
Its been a tough time, said Santos, 27, relaxing on the couch of her Holiday Inn hotel room Thursday night as she prepared for her return to the ring against Australias Fiona Muxlow as part of Friday nights Invicta 5 fight card. Banana bunches, hardboiled eggs, and half-empty bottles of Pedialyte the hallmarks of her weight cut to 145 pounds are spread before her on a coffee table.
A tough time thats about as much as a reticent Santos will reveal about her 16-month layoff but talk to anyone in her inner circle and theyll tick off a list of indignities ranging from her mounting bills to her dwindling bank accounts, the sponsors who hightailed it away from her, her divorce from fellow fighter Evangelista Santos, and perhaps the worst of it all the Strikeforce incident.
It was Aug. 18, 2012 eight months into her steroid suspension when Strikeforce hosted its main event, Ronda Rousey versus Sarah Kaufman, near Santos San Diego apartment. As the former Strikeforce featherweight champion, Santos expected to sit where all the fighters do: cageside, where fighters can get a close-up of their potential opponents and television cameras can capture the fighters reactions. But when Santos arrived, she discovered shed been banished to the bleachers, high above the cage and far from the TV sightlines. When a friend fighting on the card found out about her seat placement, he sent her a ticket for a floor seat from his allotment.But again, Strikeforce officials shepherded her to the top of the stairs and back of the arena.
It really bothered her, says George Prajin, who manages Santos along with UFC Hall of Famer Tito Ortiz.
But Santos says the year off, brutal as it was, offered her a chance to re-evaluate her career, her future, and the weaknesses in her game. She focused on improving her jiu-jitsu to balance out her potent punching power, changed management, and with the help of Ortiz, opened her own gym in her native Brazil called The Rock.The gym is part of Ortizs and Prajins plan to extend her brand beyond the cage.
In one of her first conversations with Ortiz, Santos told him, When I beat Gina Carano and won the [Strikeforce featherweight] belt, my life didnt change, my bank account didnt change.
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TMMC Sea Lion Pups Stranged on SoCal Beaches – Video
TMMC Sea Lion Pups Stranged on SoCal Beaches
Valerie and Ranel are in this NBC Nightly News video, working at the The Marine Mammal Center last Friday! Ranel is (ironically) cutting up fish, and Valerie...
By: Steven Porter
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Will they site them on the beaches ? D-Day for veterans’ fight to stop Normandy wind farms
For nearly 70 years, visitors to the D-Day beaches have stared out to sea and recalled the moment when one of the largest fleets ever assembled emerged from the Channel mist on 6 June 1944.
Within a couple of years that view could be changed forever by an immense off-shore wind-farm.
As The Independent revealed two years ago, a site in the Bay of the Seine, six miles off the invasion beaches, has been selected by the French government for an array of 75 wind generators, each of them more than half the height of the Eiffel Tower.
Protests launched by commemorative and environmental groups have since spread around the world. Thousands of people, including many from Britain and Canada, have signed a petition organised by a group called European Platform Against Windfarms. Weve had calls from Canada, England, the US, saying France cannot do this to us, said Jean-Louis Butr, chairman of the organisation. People are very upset. One former RAF Group Captain said that, if necessary, he would come back and bomb the beaches again.
The 1.8bn (1.5bn) project is popular in Normandy, where it will create 7,000 jobs and pump millions of euros in taxes into a stumbling local economy. It forms part of an ambitious strategy to provide almost a quarter of Frances needs from renewable energy by the end of the decade.
Over the next four months, an official debate including 11 public meetings is taking place across lower Normandy to consider arguments for and against the project. The president of the special commission running the debate which is neutral and independent wants the voices of Britons, including veterans and their families, to be heard.
These beaches are not just French beaches. They are also British beaches and American beaches and Canadian beaches, Claude Brvantold The Independent. They are a place of great, symbolic importance. We in France have a duty to be aware of that.
One public debate, in Arromanches on 12 June, will take place in English and French.
Some of the British veterans organisations tell us that they dont want to get involved in anything political, Ms Brevan said. This is not political. It is an independent public debate on an issue of great importance. If there are British questions, worries or complaints about this project, we want to hear about them now.
The wind-farm 75 large generators, 175m high, covering an area of 50 sq km would be built six miles off the small seaside town and fishing port of Courseulles-sur-Mer. On June 6 1944, the sands either side of the town formed Juno Beach where 21,000 Canadian and British troops fought their way ashore, with the loss of 359 lives.
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Will they site them on the beaches ? D-Day for veterans' fight to stop Normandy wind farms
Astronomy saviour of human civilization: Narlikar
Chandigarh, April 4 (IANS) Leading astrophysicist Jayant V. Narlikar Thursday said astronomy was quite relevant to the needs of the common man and knowledge of this science was helping save human civilization.
Making a presentation at the second national Space Conference (Theme Astronomy) under the International Space Society's (ISS) space outreach programme for schoolchildren, Narlikar said that astronomical research has shown that comet Swift Tuttle could strike earth on Aug 14, 2126 and cause devastation.
However, he added that space science can prevent the collision by causing a nuclear explosion near the comet.
Narlikar, who is internationally known for his work on cosmology, said that a big project will use space technology to bring Sun's energy to the Earth to satisfy human hunger for more and more energy.
"This energy will be capable of lighting up complete cities and towns and will be better than the solar energy being garnered today, as this is able to light up small establishments only," he said.
Nearly 1,500 school students from Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh region are attending the two-day event.
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