‘I’m under attack,’ Georgia bishop tells congregation

A NEWS BY YAHOOFREESHOP:LITHONIA, GA . – Determined to hold on to the mega-church he built just outside Atlanta, Bishop Eddie L. Long vowed to “vigorously” defend himself against four lawsuits alleging that he used his position to coerce young male members of his flock into sex acts.

Long, an important national figure in African American church circles, took to the pulpit of his sprawling New Birth Missionary Baptist Church Sunday morning and addressed his 25,000-member congregation with defiance and confidence.

“Please hear this: I have been accused. I’m under attack. I want you to know that I am not a perfect man, but this thing I’m gon’ fight,” said Long, who also preached a short sermon on surviving painful times.

“I feel like David against Goliath, but I’ve got five rocks, and I haven’t thrown one yet,” the bishop said to roaring applause as he dropped his microphone on the pulpit with a thud, took his wife Vanessa’s hand and left the stage.

The lawyer for the plaintiffs has also referred to the biblical figures of David and Goliath, but the lawsuits describe Long, 57, as a towering Goliath who manipulated four young men from his church. According to those lawsuits, Long enticed members of the church’s male mentorship program into homosexual acts with jewelry, cars, trips and access to celebrities.

B.J. Bernstein, attorney for the four plaintiffs, declined to comment on Long’s decision to remain head of the church, which sits on a 240-acre campus and has satellite churches in other cities.

Tony Curtis Is Dead

A news By yahoofreeshop:The legendary actor passed away Wednesday in his Las Vegas home.

As we previously reported, Tony — who suffered from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease — was hospitalized in July near Las Vegas after suffering breathing problems while making an appearance at a local Costco.

Suite Arrangements is all about fulfillment for Geoffrey Abdian

A news By yahoofreeshop:He has strode the halls of power and stood outside the oval office, dealt with some of the biggest names of our time, worked in high tech and followed many paths yet Geoffrey Abdian never found fulfillment until now, here in the West Seattle Junction.

He will open Suite Arrangements, a furniture consignment store at 4706 California Ave. s.w. in the West Seattle Junction on Oct. 1 and the business means more to to him than anything he’s ever done.

Abdian has lived in West Seattle for 16 years working in custom remodeling but he began his career as a press agent and legislative aide for U.S. Senator John Melcher, Montana (D) in the 1970′s. Dealing with people meant working, “in a heady atmosphere” he said but left him with no sense of having served his life’s purpose.

He later went on to work in the paper and pulp industry, migrated to the world of high tech working in marketing and advertising and along the way wrote a novel, created a unique “periodic table of behaviors” for the educational market and most recently supported himself by helping West Seattle homeowners fix up their houses as a general contractor but even after all this said “I’m a writer.”

As for the move into the consignment furniture business, it was a matter of timing, luck and other elements coalescing. “The reasons that came together all at once were the macro-economic picture, there are people downsizing, in some cases involuntarily, there’s a lot of foreclosures in the pipeline nationwide. Unfortunately some people here in West Seattle are losing their homes. Others are upgrading or redecorating. It’s difficult to sell furniture that you no longer want. Meanwhile all these townhouses, condos and apartments are being built, people are pouring in. They already have debt from college and they need less expensive furniture. They want nice things but don’t really have anywhere to go for them in West Seattle.”

This for Abdian is also a green pursuit since as he points out, “there are plenty of fine furnishings here that are simply ‘pre-loved’ and why pay to build something new and ship it across the country?”

He also sends 5% of his profits to the West Seattle Food Bank.

Suite Arrangements offers pick up and delivery (he has hired some very capable students from Seattle Lutheran High School to do the moving).

There are several options for selling furniture of course but Abdian has a persuasive argument.

HP Names Ex-SAP Chief Leo Apotheker CEO

A news By yahoofreeshop:HP has named Leo Apotheker as CEO.

Apotheker was CEO of SAP until February when he resigned after SAP decided not to renew his contract.

Apotheker was only solely in charge of SAP for 7 months. (He was co-CEO for a year prior.) He was with SAP for 20 years.

This is a surprising move from HP, as most people believed HP would hire from within.

Specifically, Todd Bradley, head of the mobile and PC division was seen as the potential pick.

In the release announcing the hire, HP said Apotheker, “transformed R&D and technology platforms and expanded business models and customer segments,” at SAP. Apotheker was in sales at SAP.

Apotheker’s short stint as the boss at SAP did not draw rave reviews, but he may have inherited a bad situation. He took over just after the recession was at a low point.

Here’s CIO’s take on his run:

There were missteps, for sure: The ‘Olive Branch’ to Larry Ellison (re: Sun and European holdup) that backfired; the ill-advised “pledge” to get to 10,000 Business ByDesign customers by 2010; the maintenance embarrassment and flap with SUGEN; and simply not having the ability to anticipate and act on the historic transformation happening in enterprise software, and why Big ERP is D.O.A.

But somebody at the top had to be out, right? Somebody had to be the fall guy, right? Somebody needed to be blamed for SAP’s misfortunes, right?

In many respects, I always felt like Apotheker’s reign was similar to U.S. President Barack Obama—both men inherited a glamorous, high-profile position that was in a world of hurt when they were sworn in.

BMW recall 350,000 luxury cars because of problem with brakes

A news By yahoofreeshop:BMW has announced it will recall about 350,000 luxury cars worldwide because of a problem with brakes.

The German firm said the recall was due to a fault with the power-braking system but the cars were not unsafe.

The recall affects V8 and V12 engine cars in the BMW 5, 6 and 7 ranges, and Rolls-Royce – a BMW subsidiary – built between July 2001 and November 2009.

Of the total, 11,427 cars – including 905 Rolls-Royces – are in the UK, and 198,000 in the US.

Globally, 348,000 BMWs are affected, plus a further 5,800 Rolls-Royces.

‘Voluntary’ decision

“In the affected vehicles, a leak may develop in the power braking system, potentially causing a vacuum loss and consequent reduction of power braking assistance,” said the company in a statement.

Ryder Cup 2010 TV Schedule: USA vs Europe Live TV Coverage

A news By yahoofreeshop:Ryder Cup 2010 TV Schedule: Live Coverage on NBC- The best of the best. That is what they call golf players who had been selected to compete for the annual Ryder Cup. Two teams, one from Europe and another from the United States face off in a winner takes all glory.

This year the two teams are composed of the top golf players who had played well for the 2010 season. Here is the list of the teams and their members:

USA Ryder Cup Golf Team: P. Mickelson, Bubba Watson, Hunter Mahan, Jim Furyk, Steve Sticker, Dustin Johnson, J. Overton, M. Kuchar, Z. Johnson, T. Woods, S. Cink and R. Fowler. Team Captain is Corey Pavin.
Europe Ryder Cup Golf Team: L. Westwood, R. Mcllroy, M. Kaymer, G. McDowell, I. Poulter, R. Fisher, F. Molinari, M. Jimenez, P. Hanson, E. Molinari, L. Donald and P. Harrington. Team captain is Colin Montgomerie.

‘Father of test tube baby’ wins Nobel Prize for medicine

A news By yahoofreeshop:The “father of the test tube baby,” Robert G. Edwards, won the Nobel Prize for medicine on Monday, the awards committee announced.

His contributions to developing in vitro fertilization (IVF) “represent a milestone in the development of modern medicine,” the committee said.

“As early as the 1950s, Edwards had the vision that IVF could be useful as a treatment for infertility,” which affects about 10 percent of all couples worldwide, the commitee said.

“He worked systematically to realize his goal, discovered important principles for human fertilization, and succeeded in accomplishing fertilization of human egg cells in test tubes (or more precisely, cell culture dishes). His efforts were finally crowned by success on 25 July, 1978, when the world’s first ‘test tube baby’ was born,” the committee said.

His work has led to the birth of about four million babies, the committee said in praising his work.

The prize is worth 10 million Swedish kronor (about $1.5 million).

Born in Manchester, England, in 1925, Edwards is based at Cambridge University in England.

The announcement marks the beginning of a week of prizes, with physics, chemistry, literature and peace coming in the next four days. The prize in economics will be announced next Monday.