Bar Refaeli criticisms

Previously linked to "Baywatch" actor David Charvet and Uri El-Natan, Rafaeli began a relationship with American actor Leonardo DiCaprio in November 2005 after meeting him at a Las Vegas party thrown for members of U2. In the course of their trip to Israel in March 2007, the couple met with Israeli president Shimon Peres and visited Refaeli's hometown Hod HaSharon.

In 2007, Refaeli became a source of controversy when it became known that she had evaded military service, mandatory for Israeli citizens over 18, by marrying a family acquaintance and divorcing him soon after. Refaeli stated in an interview with "Yedioth Ahronoth", 'I really wanted to serve in the IDF, but I don't regret not enlisting, because it paid off big-time,' further adding, 'Why is it good to die for our country? What, isn't it better to live in New York?' Refaeli has since said the interview didn't accurately reflect her statements and threatened to file a lawsuit for libel. Consequently, the Israeli Forum for the Promotion of Equal Share in the Burden threatened to boycott the fashion chain Fox if they hired Refaeli, but the two sides reached a compromise in which the model would visit injured IDF soldiers on visits to Israel and encourage enlistment in the army.

Most of the criticism about her focuses on the fact that she deceivingly evaded her military service (that is compulsory in Israel) by marring an old man who was a friend of her family.

Now, the press doesn't like her much because during her last visit in Israel with her boyfriend, Leonardo DiCaprio, they were very introverted and didn't let anyone picture them. It sounds like a joke, but some journalists took it rather personally and boycotted her. (here's the story, if you can read Hebrew.

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PBS Criticism and controversy

PBS was founded to provide diversity in programming at a time when most television was broadcast over the public airwaves by only three privately owned national networks (as opposed to the multitude of programming sources provided by today's private cable or satellite delivery services). There is debate as to whether or not the PBS system has outlived its public necessity. Public television proponents maintain that the original mandate to provide universal access, particularly to rural viewers and those who cannot afford to pay for the private television services, remains vital. In addition, they argue that PBS provides some types of critical programming which would not be shown at all on the commercial networks and channels, including extensive educational children's programming, scientific exposition, in-depth documentaries and investigative journalism.

On-the-air fundraising

Since 53% to 60% of public television's revenues come from private membership donations and grants, most stations solicit individual donations by methods including pledge drives or telethons which can disrupt regularly scheduled programming. Some viewers find this a source of annoyance since normal programming is often replaced with specials aimed at a wider audience to solicit new members and donations.

Political/ideological bias

The Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 required a "strict adherence to objectivity and balance in all programs or series of programs of a controversial nature". It also prohibited the federal government from interfering or controlling what is broadcast.

Banned by PBS: Muslims Against Jihad On July 19, 2007, Fox News carried published "Banned by PBS: Muslims Against Jihad," charging the network of liberal bias.

In at least one instance (a 1982 broadcast of the United States Information Agency program Let Poland be Poland about the martial law declared in Poland in 1981), Congress has expressly encouraged PBS to abandon its conventional position of non-partisan neutrality. The program, a protest against the imposition of martial law by a Soviet-backed régime, contained commentary from many well-known celebrities. While widely viewed in the U.S., it met with skepticism on the part of European broadcasters due to concerns that the show, "provocative and anticommunist," was intended as propaganda.

Kenneth Tomlinson, former chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting resigned in November 2005 after a report sharply criticized Tomlinson for the way he used CPB resources to "go after" perceived liberal bias at PBS, including directing funding towards conservative-written programming, secretly hiring an outside consultant to monitor the Now with Bill Moyers program, and hiring White House employees to form an ombudsman office to "promote balance in programming.

Individual programs have been the targets of organized campaigns by those with opposing views, including former United States Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings.

Kenneth Tomlinson, who took over at CPB in 2003, began his tenure by asking for Karl Rove's assistance in overturning a regulation that half the CPB board have practical experience in radio or television. Later he appointed an outside consultant to monitor the regular PBS program NOW with Bill Moyers. Told that the show had "liberal" leanings, Moyers eventually resigned in 2005 after more than three decades as a PBS regular, citing political pressure to alter the content of his program and saying Tomlinson had mounted a "vendetta" against him. Moyers eventually returned to host Bill Moyers Journal, after Tomlinson resigned. Subsequently, PBS made room temporarily for conservative commentator Tucker Carlson, formerly of MSNBC and co-host of CNN's Crossfire, and The Journal Editorial Report with Paul Gigot, an editor of The Wall Street Journal editorial page (this show has since moved to Fox News Channel) to partially balance out the perceived left-leaning PBS shows. On November 3, 2005 CPB announced the resignation of Tomlinson amid investigations of improper financial dealings with consultants.

Public Broadcasting Service

Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American non-profit public broadcasting television service with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters are in Arlington, Virginia.

PBS is the most prominent provider of programming to U.S. public television stations, distributing series such as PBS NewsHour, Masterpiece, and Frontline. Since the mid-2000s, Roper polls commissioned by PBS have consistently placed the service as America's most-trusted national institution. However, PBS is not responsible for all programming carried on public TV stations; in fact, stations usually receive a large portion of their content (including most pledge drive specials) from third-party sources, such as American Public Television, NETA, WTTW National Productions and independent producers. This distinction is a frequent source of viewer confusion.

PBS also has a subsidiary called National Datacast (NDI), which offers datacasting services via member stations. This helps PBS and its member stations earn extra revenue.

Sports broadcast on PBS

The network has shown some sporting events in its history.

During the 1970s and 1980s PBS was the leading American tennis broadcaster. Bud Collins and Donald Dell were PBS announcers. PBS was the first American network to regularly broadcast tennis tournaments.[citation needed] PBS also broadcast Tennis for the Future, hosted by Vic Braden.

In 1982, PBS, ESPN and ABC provided the first thorough American television coverage of the FIFA World Cup. PBS aired same day highlights of the top game of the day. Toby Charles was PBS' play-by-play announcer.

From 1984 to 1987, PBS broadcast Ivy League football. Dick Galiette and Upton Bell called games for the first season and Marty Glickman and Bob Casciola called the games in 1985. In 1986, PBS increased its coverage and had two announcing teams, Brian Dowling and Sean McDonough, who had been the sideline reporter for the prior two seasons were the play by play announcers and Bob Casciola and Len Simonian were the color analysts. For the final season McDonough and Jack Corrigan were the game announcers and Mike Madden was the sideline reporter.

PBS networks

PBS has also spun-off a number of TV networks, often in partnership with other media companies: PBS YOU (ended January 2006, and largely succeeded by American Public Television's Create), PBS KIDS (ended October 1, 2005), PBS KIDS Sprout, PBS World (commenced August 15, 2007), and PBS-DT2 (a feed of HDTV and letterboxed programming for digitally equipped member stations), along with packages of PBS programs that are similar to local stations' programming, the PBS Satellite Service feeds. PBS Kids GO! was promised for October 2006, but PBS announced in July that they would not be going forward with it as an independent network feed (as opposed to the pre-existing two-hour week daily block on PBS).

Some or all are available on many digital cable systems, on free-to-air TV via communications satellites, as well as via direct broadcast satellite. With the transition to terrestrial digital television broadcasts, many are also often now available as "multiplexed" channels on some local stations' standard-definition digital signals, while DT2 is found among the HD signals. PBS Kids announced that they will have an early-morning Miss Lori and Hooper block with four PBS Kids shows usually around 08:00. With the absence of advertising, network identification on these PBS networks were limited to utilization at the end of the program, which includes the standard series of bumpers from the "Be More" campaign.

PBS Kids

PBS Kids is the brand for children's programming aired by the Public Broadcasting Service in the United States founded in 1993. As with all PBS programming, PBS Kids programming is non-commercial. It is aimed at children aged eight years old and under.

Angelina Ballerina: The Next Steps

Barney & Friends

Between the Lions

Bob the Builder

Caillou

The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That!

Curious George

Dinosaur Train

Martha Speaks

Sesame Street

Sid the Science Kid

Super Why

Thomas and Friends

Word World

History

Along with the block of programming on PBS, PBS Kids was a separate television network, founded in the fall of 1999, and was targeted to children four to eight years old. The PBS Kids Channel ran for six years and was largely funded by DirecTV. The channel ceased broadcast on September 26, 2005, in favor of a new commercial joint venture, PBS Kids Sprout, which is a partnership owned by Comcast About half of PBS TV stations still program a children's channel themselves over their multicasting service, such as WNET, WHYY, WNED, UNC-TV, Georgia Public Broadcasting, Twin Cities Public Television, WGBH, WQED, WMHT, WTTW, WYCC, and WETA-TV. On PBS, two blocks of programming are currently included in PBS Kids, including PBS Kids GO! and the PBS Kids Preschool Block, and the former block, PBS Kids Bookworm Bunch, which was launched in 2000 and canceled in 2004.

E-card Security

Sending an e-card to a given recipient invariably involves giving that recipient's email address to the e-card service – a third party. As with other third-party email services (such as mailing-list companies), the operator has the chance to misuse this address. One example of misuse is if the e-card service sends advertisements to the recipient's address. Under anti-spam rules used by major ISPs, such advertisements would be spam, since the recipient never asked ("opted in") to receive them. The e-card sender as well as the service could be held responsible for the act of spamming, since while the service sent the spam, the e-card sender provided the address.

In some cases, it may be illegal for an organization or business to use an e-card service to send greetings to its customers. For instance, data privacy laws may forbid a business from disclosing information about customers to a third party – including names and email addresses.

In late June 2007 a spate of emails with the subject line "You've received a postcard from a family member!" and other similar subjects, was seen making their way across the internet. Unfortunately most of these emails contained links to malicious web sites where Javascript was used to exploit the browser in order to compromise a system, or contained a link to a malware file masquerading as an e-card.

E-card

E-card is similar to a postcard or greeting card, with the primary difference being that it is created using digital media instead of paper or other traditional materials. E-cards are made available by publishers usually on various Internet sites, where they can be sent to a recipient, usually via e-mail. It also considered more environmentally friendly compared to traditional paper cards. E-card businesses are considered environmentally friendly because their carbon footprint is generally much lower compared to paper card companies and because paper is not used in the end product.

E-cards are digital "content", which makes them much more versatile than traditional greeting cards. For example unlike traditional greetings, e-cards can be easily sent to many people at once or extensively personalized by the sender. Conceivably they could be saved to any computer or electronic device or even viewed on a television set, however e-card digital content has not yet progressed as far as digital video or digital audio in terms of varied usage.

Postcards and Greeting Cards

Like their paper counterparts, "postcards" use visual art (static or animated images or video) and provide a space for a personal note to be added. These were the first type of e-card in use.

Like their paper counterparts, cyber "greeting cards" provide a greeting along with the visual art. Variations range from e-cards with fixed greetings like a paper card to selectable greetings (from drop-down lists or other selection options) to changeable suggested greetings.

Flash animation

This type of e-card is based on two-dimensional vector animation controlled with a scripting language. The format is proprietary to Adobe; however, widespread usage of Adobe's software allows this type of card to be easily viewed on most of today's computers. The recipient sees an animated short usually 15–30 seconds in duration. The animation often appears to have a cartoon style due to the nature of the content, though some Flash creations can be quite sophisticated and realistic. A sound track which may contain speech or music usually accompanies the animation.

Flash animated greeting cards can include interactivity, for example, asking the viewer to choose a picture to animate; however, most Flash e-cards are designed to convey the sentiment of the sender through simple observation.

Flash animated cards are offered today by almost all major e-card publishers and are consequently the most common format used.

Mothers' Day Medals for Great Moms

God could not be everywhere, so he created mothers. The moment a child is born, a mother is also born. Mother is an absolutely new product. Motherhood doesnt come easy. And for single mothers who are either bereaved of their husbands due to unforeseen circumstances say an accident, or cardiac arrest, or were left out by their counter-parts to fight the battle all alone, it is even more difficult.

There are few courageous single mothers who took a bold step of raising their kids all by themselves. They rejected financial assistance from their parents just to find a name for themselves as single mothers. On the d-day, TOI talks to three single yet working women to make them feel special on this mothers day. It’s not easy being a mom, but single moms have it especially tough. Between managing work, caring for the house, financial commitments, and extracurricular activities while raising kid(s) alone is no easy task.

In honor of Mother’s Day, we put our data and analytical minds to work to determine where are the best places for single moms to live.

The honour is bestowed upon a socially responsible mother, who has shown herself to be an exemplary parent of children and teenagers, as well as being someone who has supported parenthood and family-life in general. Recipients for the honorary medal were sought from all parts of the country, and from different kinds of backgrounds and conditions. Adoptive and surrogate mothers have been highlighted in the past years.

Mother's Day in United States

Celebrations of mothers and motherhood occur throughout the world and can often be traced back to ancient festivals .One of the earliest historical records of a society celebrating a Mother deity or Mothers Day can be found among the ancient Egyptians, who held an annual festival to honor the goddess Isis, who was commonly regarded as the Mother of the pharaohs. The ancient Greek cult to Cybele or the Roman festival of Hilaria are also examples. The modern US-celebration of Mother’s Day is not directly related to any of these.

Some holidays, like Thanksgiving, are unique to the United States. Others, like Mother’s Day, are celebrated on various days in various ways by nations around the world. The U.S. is among some 52 countries that celebrate Mother’s Day today, the second Sunday in May.

In addition to the U.S., Hungary, Afghanistan, Bolivia, Canada, France, Germany, India, Iran, Italy, Mexico, Pakistan, Panama, Sweden, United Kingdom and Ireland also celebrate Mother’s Day, though not necessarily today.

It makes sense that Mother’s Day is a day celebrated internationally: Each of us has a mother. And that alone seems worth celebrating.

In the U.S., Mother’s Day traces its roots to Ann Jarvis, who in 1868 created a committee to establish a “Mother’s Friendship Day” to reunite families divided by the Civil War. She died in 1905 without seeing the fruits of her efforts, though.

So her daughter Anna Jarvis continued the push until President Woodrow Wilson made the day an official national holiday in 1914. He proclaimed it as a day for American citizens to display the flag in honor of those mothers whose sons had died in war.

a few more years of political action and Jarvis working full time to have federal legislation pass, but in 1914 President Woodrow Wilson signed the official National Observance of Mothers Day for the Second Sunday in May.

What is particularly noteworthy in the history of the day is its most recent origins in peace and unity. Both Howe and Jarvis were committed to these ideals as they worked to the national observance. It is a remembrance that perhaps our churches would do well to remember today!

Of course, the day is one filled with giving flowers and pampering Mom. Restaurants tend to book solid, flower shops are well stocked, the phone lines are jammed, and everyone tries to make sure Mom knows how much she is loved.

Tomorrow, as we take time to honor Mom, let us also honor the spirit of Mother's Day by also working for peace, unity, and celebrating the universal quality of motherhood.

Mother's Day: Honor lasts

U.S. moms may get dinner in a restaurant for Mother's Day, but they say they are honored on Mother's Day for no more than 5-10 minutes, a survey indicates.

A survey of 1,690 U.S. mothers for The Mom Complex -- a global think tank that inspires, enables and challenges moms and marketers to better understand each other -- indicates that on Mother's Day, mom is supposed to come first, 40 percent of American mothers say their husband and children come first on Mother's Day.

The card has a flower drawn by the student and the face of the flower is a button with their child’s picture and a banner wishing them a Happy Mother’s Day.

“When I first came here we started collecting aluminum cans and if we made a gift or bought something for our moms, we didn’t have to ask Mom for money,” first-grade teacher Jan Dickerhoff said. “So we collect aluminum cans and use that money to buy what we need.” While she does have a little help from a friend who takes the children’s pictures and creates the buttons for them, the gift is otherwise completely made by the students.

What do I want for Mother’s Day? Just two simple things - sunshine and just a few hours of peace to enjoy my kids and not have to worry about anything. My mother used to say when it was sunny on Mother’s Day that “God was smiling on mothers today” and I said “God smiles on mothers every day.” After all, isn’t it every day we get to enjoy the gifts of motherhood?

Hugs are a great environmentally friendly choice this Mother’s Day. Depending on the donor, they can be organic, vegan, and full of love.

Happy Mother’s Day to all!