The deal it previously offered was rejected on the grounds that its business model was a low-growth one, which Cadbury's shareholders do not like. I am sure it's also more likely the British confectionary doesn't want to be part of the US corporation for more than just the way it does business, but they use this reason because it sounds more politically correct.
Business drama?
TIME magazine may be sold soon. Time Warner must be making huge losses to want to sell all its assets outside the film industry. By the way, notice it isn't considering losing its film industry stuff?
"Time Warner just spun off their cable division, they are going to sell their print division, they are going to spin off AOL and they're just going to be Warner Brothers, HBO and the Turner Networks," said Crawford, managing director of The Capital Group.
It seems the losses aren't coming from Warner Brothers. Or maybe they just want to keep it for sentimental values. XD
So piracy hurts box office revenues, but a major corporation would rather keep its movie brand than one of the most significant magazines in the world?
I pity Obama. First is the trouble with the economy, then he had to keep his promise by giving the US healthcare system a major overhaul which half the US population didn't agree with. Now that the objections have kinda died down, it's Afghanistan giving him trouble.
Last week, news report say that their top general in charge of the operation is asking for more men. Today, people are discussing the possibility of not fighting the entire war but concentrate on terrorism. Let the Afghan troops fight the rest of the war, while the NATO soldiers will just search and kill terrorists.
Seriously, no one wants to put more troops in the Middle East, not US, not the UK, not anyone. All of the European countries were investing soldiers against the wills of their people in the first place, and now with many of these countries encountering certain incidents (eg Germany has just killed quite a number of civilians accidentally, Britain's number of casualties has reached the highest in the generation since WWII), they all want to pull out.
Obama is right there, fighting his predecessor's war and placed in a no-win situation. If he goes on fighting, he loses popularity. If he loses the war, he loses popularity. If he doesn't throw in more men and loses the war in the process, he loses popularity. If he dares to send more soldiers, he loses popularity. If he uses the backup plan mentioned in the first paragraph, many people expect that the Afghan soldiers aren't going to be as effective and hence Obama loses popularity.
There is basically no way out for him but somehow win without using more soldiers. If that can be done he would have long ago.
One thing about wooden floors is that the boards don't stick together forever. Already gaps are appearing between the wooden planks, for some reason I don't know. It seems the planks don't fit my floor perfectly, and I worry that dirt would accumulate in the empty space between them or worse, gather water when it's being cleaned.
I probably need to use that special paste to fill up the gaps, but I don't want to have a patch of it right in the middle of the room. I don't really know how to shift the gap since only the planks in the middle of the room are loose.
Lyrics in info in the Youtube page.
What has the world become?? Switzerland recently arrested a famous filmmaker for a crime committed over 30 years ago. France and Poland got really pissed about Roman Polanski's arrest and are making all sorts of noise.
But... Polanski's crime was having sex with a 13-year-old girl. How can they disagree with his arrest??
French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand said he was "stunned" by the news, adding that both he and French President Nicolas Sarkozy wanted to see the acclaimed director returned swiftly to his family. Poland's film-makers' association also rose to his defence.... "We regard that as a scandalous situation and an example of incomprehensible overzealousness."
People don't seem to understand that sincerity changes according to circumstances. A person when faced with the possibility of punishment, will become proportionally sincere in his apology and desire to change. But once the judgement is done and the sentence is given, it is entirely possible that he will return to his old habit if the punishment was not traumatising enough.
I do not believe that people will change just because they're threatened with punishment. Circumstances can change people. If someone points a gun at my head and make me swear not to eat so that I would starve, I would do so sincerely from the bottom of my heart. But if you hand me a meal 3 days later, who knows?
I am sure many people have been in similar situations, where they promise very sincerely (to themselves or to others) they would do something, only to break the promise when the time came to actually commit the deed.
Just like the way many Christians try to follow the rules of their religion(s) only because of their belief in an afterlife. Or else, why would there be so many names for Hell in the English language, including the Netherworld, the other side, Hades and etc? Things that people think about very often tend to have a number of names roughly proportional to how frequently the idea enters their minds.
Anyway back to the main topic, Polanski's punishment is long overdue! Child rapists, not matter how sorry they are without being punished, need to be sorrier. And it is definitely child rape because a 44-year-old man cannot possibly have consensual sex with a 13-year-old girl. Doesn't matter if she was willing.
From Wikipedia, on his conviction 30 years ago:
Polanski was initially charged with rape by use of drugs, perversion, sodomy, lewd and lascivious act upon a child under 14, and furnishing a controlled substance (methaqualone) to a minor. These charges were dismissed under the terms of his plea bargain, and he pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of engaging in unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor.
This means his sentence was already a very much lightened one. Yet he still tried to escape and avoid serving what he had agreed to.
What is even more ironic is that Poland had just implemented the law that castrates child rapists last Friday!! That they have taken such an extreme stance against sex crimes involving children and yet be unhappy when a known child rapist, no matter how distinguished, is arrested is nothing but
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