“We are not born all at once, but by bits. The body first, and the spirit later; and the birth and growth of the spirit, in those who are attentive to their own inner life, are slow and exceedingly painful. Our mothers are racked with the pains of our physical birth; we ourselves suffer the [...]

1. A swindle or a confidence game. 2. Money obtained by fraud.

Historical Events 1904 – 3rd modern Olympic games opens in St Louis 1943 – “Pay-as-you-go” – 1st withholding tax from paychecks 1949 – WCCO TV channel 4 in Minneapolis-St Paul, MN (CBS) begins broadcasting 1980 – Steve Overt runs world record 3:48.8 mile in Oslo 1984 – The PG-13 rating is introduced by the MPAA. [...]

NEW YORK (Reuters) – When Jeff Yeager’s book “The Ultimate Cheapskate” came out 18 months ago, he felt like a voice crying in the wilderness telling people to ditch their cell phones, hoard their pennies and pay off the mortgage.

Sometimes, even electric vehicles aren’t good enough for the die-hard green car set. An electric car advocacy group on Tuesday criticized California’s influential air quality regulator, the California Air Resources Board, for allowing BMW’s one-year pilot program of electric Mini Coopers to earn the same credit towards the state’s clean vehicle program as standard production [...]

LONDON (Reuters) – The promoter of Michael Jackson’s planned run of 50 concerts in London wants his family to stage an all-star show in his memory and said on Tuesday he had discussed the idea with them.

BARCELONA (Reuters) – U2 kicked off their first tour in three years on Tuesday, rocking a raucous Barcelona crowd of around 90,000 and reaching for the stars with a live link-up to the International Space Station.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Bizarre in life, Michael Jackson’s complex personal affairs are taking even stranger twists in death, with sketchy reports on Tuesday of plans for an elaborate public memorial and questions over the parentage of his children.

ATLANTA (Reuters Life!) – A new book attempts to dig beneath the euphoria that swept black America when Barack Obama became president to ask the question: what, if anything, actually changed?

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Hours after U.S. troops handed over control of Iraq’s cities to its domestic security forces, a car bomb in the northern city of Kirkuk killed at least 32 people and wounded more than 100 on Tuesday, police said.