General Larry Platt

We all got a good chuckle Wednesday out of General Larry Platt and his Pants on the Ground song. Entertaining as he was, I couldn't help but wonder why the American Idol producers saved the last spot of the show for a 62-year-old guy with a funny song.

Now I think I know.

Take a look at the photograph on the home page of the Civil Rights Veterans Movement website. See the young man on the left, looking directly into the camera? That's Larry Platt, age 16.

"We had come by bus in 1963 to a church in Savannah, Georgia to plan a march to desegregate the city," Platt writes. "Reverend Hosea Williams and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. were our leaders. That particular planned march was canceled and we were singing to raise our spirits before returning home."

Platt worked with the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Georgia, organizing sit-ins in the South.

He was beaten during the Bloody Sunday march from Selma, Ala., to Montgomery.

He got his nickname, "General," from the Rev. Hosea Williams because of his heroic efforts on behalf of the civil-rights movement.

The Georgia General Assembly proclaimed Sept. 4, 2001, Larry Platt Day in Atlanta, because of "his great energy and commitment to equality and the protection of the innocent and for his outstanding service to the Atlanta community and the citizens of Georgia."

He remains a community activist in the Atlanta area and recently has become known for publicly protesting foreclosures.

If anybody in that Atlanta crowd deserved his 15 minutes of fame on national television, it was Larry Platt.

Pants on the Ground

Wednesday night's "American Idol" should only be remembered for one thing:

"Pants on the ground!"

This was the cleverly devised climactic tune belted out by 62-year-old 'General' Larry Platt. The rap, which he claimed to have written himself, was accompanied by an impressively physical dance that had the man break dancing.

"I have a horrible feeling that song could be a hit," is all Simon could muster by the end of it, adding, "I don't think this is the last we'll hear from you."

Sadly, Platt's age automatically disqualified him - contestants can't be older than 28 - which begged the question of why they let him into the audition in the first place.

His unique number was reason enough.

"American Idol" producers played up the song so much, they had everyone singing and taking part. During a montage following Platt's audition, Randy Jackson could be seen dancing by his side, and other contestants outside where chanting its addictive chorus.

"Pants on the ground! Pants on the ground!"

The evening's Atlanta episode was peppered with a few other auditioners hoping for some "Idol" fame. At the same time, as is expected with these audition-themed episodes, several were clearly more interested in chasing that William Hung fame.

But among them were singers seeking real "American Idol" gold, and were invited to Hollywood, such as the guitar-garbed Holly Hardin, country-crooner Vanessa Wolfe, Keia Johnson and Brian Walker.

Hardin's get up appeared to be an instant ticket out the door, but the 20-year-old's voice impressed the judges (all except Mary J. Blige, this episode's guest judge, who seemed to spend much of the episode laughing). Brian Walker, a 25-year-old cop from Tennessee, showed he had soulful vocals with his take on "Superstar."

Next week, "American Idol" auditions wanna-be stars in Chicago.

Haiti Earthquake Twitter

1423 Frank Thorp, a US citizen in Haiti, told The Early Show on CBS he drove 161km (100 miles) to Port-au-Prince after the earthquake to rescue his wife Jillian, an aid worker, from the rubble of their home. He said he dug for more than an hour to free her and a co-worker from beneath 1ft (0.3 metres) of concrete.

1418 The BBC has created a Twitter link, where you can follow tweets from Haiti.

e-mail sent in by reader
1412 Emerson Tan, at London's Gatwick airport, emails:I'm part of a team of volunteer aid workers trying to get to Haiti. There are four of us from my group, Mapaction, and over 70 rescue specialists. The sniffer dogs are here as well. My group provides mapping and information for all the aid agencies. Haiti is extremely poor and a lot of its buildings are badly constructed. Strangely though, the shacks are where more people are likely to survive. The building materials are lightweight and survivors can get out more easily.


1410 Reports from another city in Haiti, Jacmel, say the earthquake has also caused great destruction there. A representative of Unicef in the city, Guido Cornale, told the BBC World Service that at least 20% of buildings had been destroyed in the city of 50,000 inhabitants. He said up to 5,000 people had gone to Jacmel airport looking for shelter.

1403 The UN peacekeeping chief Alain Le Roy says "less than five" UN staff had been found dead at the organisation's headquarters in Port-au-Prince but many are still believed to be in the rubble. The UN has not confirmed reports that their head of operations in Haiti, Hedi Annabi, was killed.

1358 US President Barack Obama will make a statement on the Haiti disaster at 1500 GMT (1000 EST), says the White House.

e-mail sent in by reader
1355 Susan Westwood, a paediatric nurse from Scotland working at an orphanage outside Port-au-Prince, e-mails: "I was in the intensive care room looking after a nine-month-old baby girl when the earthquake hit. The floor started shaking violently and the whole building shook from side to side. It lasted about 45 seconds. After that, there was a constant shuddering. The babies were really frightened and started to cry. Other staff and carers were screaming, they were so terrified. It was very upsetting."

1351 Renzo Fricke, emergency co-ordinator for Medecins Sans Frontieres, tells the BBC World Service: "We have treated hundreds of patients that were wounded…these patients that have arrived have mostly trauma, fractures and burns. None of them [the hospitals] are functional. They are either collapsed, or without staff or without medicine."

Imogen Foulkes
1345 The BBC's Imogen Foulkes in Geneva says: The first 48 hours following an earthquake are crucial to saving lives but with roads blocked and nearly all communication lines down it is extremely difficult to assess the situation. Some aid agencies don't yet know if their own staff and buildings are safe.

1340 UN chief Ban Ki-moon says the UN is mobilising an emergency response team and releasing $10m (£6m) from its emergency relief fund for victims of the Haiti quake.

e-mail sent in by reader
1336 Annalie Maning, Philippines, e-mails:My husband, relatives and friends, many Filipinos are in Haiti. I don't have any communication with them. I don't know if they have food water, if they are ok.

comment from blogger
1334 Ezili Danto , a Haitian human rights lawyer in the US, blogs:All the poor living on the mountains, in houses built on the mountains, are feared to have suffered heavy, heavy casualty. Our report is that these houses on the mountains tumbled down, one on top another.


1328 UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon says the earthquake has had a "devastating impact" on Port-au-Prince but that other areas of Haiti are largely unaffected. "We are yet to establish the number of dead or injured, which we fear may well be in the hundreds. There is no doubt that we are facing a major humanitarian emergency and a major relief effort will be required," he tells a news conference in New York.

Lane Kiffin Press Conference

The Lane Kiflin press conference that Oakland Raiders coach Lane Kiffin had today. And what looks at first like an ordinary press conference (at least, as ordinary as it can get for a coach who doesn't know if he's going to be fired today or not) turns into a near-fistfight:


At the end of the video, Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury News nearly gets into a fight with Raiders executive John Herrera, who is probably the closest person in the organization to owner Al Davis. Kawakami gives his side of what happened here.

Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk explains that the fight was fallout from the widely held belief that Herrera distributed an article critical of Kiffin to members of the local media. Bottom line: The Raiders' owner and his top deputy are doing their best to undermine the coach, while the coach waits to get fired and the media nearly come to blows with team executives. Yeah, I'd say they've got a real healthy thing going on in Oakland.

Haiti Earthquake Picture-Videos

News is still coming in from Haiti even thought night as fallen. Shortly after the quake, our first look at the devastation was given to us via social media websites like Twitter and Facebook. These pictures were found by CNN and shown live world wide in the last hour. The earthquake occured just before 4pm EST today. Night has now fallen, so we will have to wait to see the damage tomorrow. Thirteen aftershocks above 4.5 have happened since the initial 7.0 quake hit. Check out these photos of the initial damage done and a video news report from the area of the quake below.

Lane Kiffin Usc

Tennessee head coach Lane Kiffin is the new head coach at Southern Cal. This comes as a big surprise given that Kiffin had only coached one season in Knoxville, guiding the Vols to a 7-6 season.

A new coaching search will begin immediately, I assume. It’ll be interesting to see who Tennessee finds, as well as how Kiffin does at USC. As someone who liked Kiffin and generally defended his, shall we say, feistiness, I hate to see him go. Of course, if he doesn’t have any greater commitment to the Vols than that..

UPDATE: Kiffin gives one minute press conference announcing his departure, does not allow television cameras. Tomorrow he’ll be in California and never look back. Tennessee deserves better.

Tennessee Volunteers' head coach Lane Kiffen has agreed in principal to become the next head coach at the University of Southern California. Kiffin will replace new Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll. Lane Kiffin was the Oakland Raiders coach two years ago, but was fired and then headed to Tennessee for one year.
Kiffin is said to bring his father and defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin and assistant head coach and recruiting coordinator Ed Orgeron to Southern California as well. Kiffin was 7-5 in his only season as the Volunteers' coach and was a member of the Trojans' coaching staff from 2001-2006 before heading to Oakland.
There were several candidates that were perceived to be the next head coach, but dropped from contention after Carroll officially announced his resignation. Former USC linebacker and Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Jack Del Rio committed to staying in Jacksonville and Jeff Fisher along with Oregon State Beavers' head coach Mike Riley showed no public interest despite their tie to Trojans' football.
The possibilities of the USC Trojans could face major NCAA sanctions worried some coaches, but it can't change the fact USC offers an extremely attractive position with everything necessary to succeed right away with a rich talent base and ample talent already there. Not to mention a great history and tradition along with a large and wealthy alumni base to keep winning. Tennessee’s wide receivers coach Kippy Brown will be named interim coach at Tennessee.

8 parts of speech

8 Parts of Speech

The 8 Parts of Speech are Verb, noun, pronoun, adjective, adverb, preposition, conjunction and interjection.

Explanations of each part are given below:

1: Verb:

The most important part among 8 Parts of Speech is verb. Verb is a Word/words used to express actions, state, existence and condition.

Examples:

1: I am playing football.

2: Ali is dancing.

3: I am writing a letter

In the above examples: Playing, dancing and writing are the verbs.

2: Noun:

Noun is the name of a person, place or thing.

Examples:

1: I am going to New York

2: Ali is my best friend
3: Tea is hot.

New York is a name of place, Ali is a person and Tea is an object.

3: Pronoun:

Pronoun is also common among the8 parts of Speech. Pronoun is a word used in place of a noun.

Seven classes of a pronoun are

I, we, you, they, he, she, it

These words are used instead of a noun

Examples:

1: Brad is my best friend {instead of Brad: He is my best friend} here He is representing Brad.

4: Adjective:

4th among the 8 part of speech is Adjective, used to modify a noun, express the noun and telling more about the noun. Adjective is also used to simplify the subject matter.

Examples:

Tall, fat, green, heavy, is, am, are

Browse > Home / Education / Blog article: 8 Parts of Speech
8 Parts of Speech

January 12, 2010 by rob
Filed under Education

8 Parts of Speech

The 8 Parts of Speech are Verb, noun, pronoun, adjective, adverb, preposition, conjunction and interjection.

Explanations of each part are given below:

1: Verb:

The most important part among 8 Parts of Speech is verb. Verb is a Word/words used to express actions, state, existence and condition.

Examples:

1: I am playing football.

2: Ali is dancing.

3: I am writing a letter

In the above examples: Playing, dancing and writing are the verbs.

2: Noun:

Noun is the name of a person, place or thing.

Examples:

1: I am going to New York

2: Ali is my best friend

3: Tea is hot.

New York is a name of place, Ali is a person and Tea is an object.

3: Pronoun:

Pronoun is also common among the8 parts of Speech. Pronoun is a word used in place of a noun.

Seven classes of a pronoun are

I, we, you, they, he, she, it

These words are used instead of a noun

Examples:

1: Brad is my best friend {instead of Brad: He is my best friend} here He is representing Brad.

4: Adjective:

4th among the 8 part of speech is Adjective, used to modify a noun, express the noun and telling more about the noun. Adjective is also used to simplify the subject matter.

Examples:

Tall, fat, green, heavy, is, am, are

5: Adverb:

Adverb is used to modify verb, adjective or itself.

Examples:

1: Monica Runs slow {slow is adverb}

6: Preposition:

It is used always before the noun that’s why it is called Pre-position.

Example:

I went to the hospital. {To the hospital: is preposition}

7: Conjunction:

7th most important part of speech among the 8 parts of speech is Conjunction: Conjunction is used to join two words, sentences etc. Conjunction express the relationship between the words, phrases etc.

8: Interjection:

Interjection used to express emotions etc.

Ruthie from 7th Heaven

Ruthie from 7th Heaven best played, Mackenzie Rosman is all grown up and is about to star in her first leading role on the big screen.

Mackenzie Rosman, now 19 years old is starring in the new Edgar Allan Poe film, in which she will play the role of Loreli. Her last film role was Jill in the horror movie Fading of the Cries.

According to some reports, Mackenzie Rosman could be one of the new up and comers in Hollywood depending on the reaction to her latest movie. 7th Heaven fans should be pleased, although as the Mackenzie Rosman picture above shows, she’s not little Ruthie any more.

Oinkernet

Oinkernet sounds like a world wide web for pigs. In a sense, that's what Oinkernet is. Oinkernet.com is a new website with a live webcam featuring Piggy the guinea pig. Oinkernet updates automatically every two minutes.

Even though we found out Zhu Zhu Pets Are Safe, Oinkernet seems like it already generated plenty of interest. Oinkernet will soon go live. People still want to see real animals! According to the Oinkernet About Us page at Wiki "OinkerNet Guinea Pig TeleVision - Almost Live! - SkoolNet©"