BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNN) -- Western Beirut fell under the control of opposition Hezbollah militias Friday in what amounted to an army-negotiated surrender of pro-government positions, Lebanese Internal Security Forces and Western military observers said.

The "dramatic development" is a major blow to the democratically elected and pro-Western government of Lebanon, CNN's Brent Sadler said.

Soldiers went to several offices of pro-government political parties in western Beirut overnight, he said. They persuaded pro-government gunmen who had battled Hezbollah militants to leave the offices as the opposition forces hovered nearby, he said.

Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, part of the pro-government coalition, said the government was "now at the end of a gun barrel" and they expect the "conditions for surrender will be offered sooner or later," Sadler reported.

"I think ... it's a coup," Jumblatt told CNN in a phone interview. "The Lebanese army is in total paralysis."

Rather than fight, the army has stayed above the fray. With its own political factions, taking sides could throw the military into disarray.

With pro-government gunmen out of the way, the fighting in the capital eased at bit Friday after intense gun battles the previous two days echoed through Beirut's streets.

1. Go out and make a bunch of money!

Here we are living in the world's most prosperous country, surrounded by all the comforts, conveniences and security that money can provide. Yet no American political, intellectual or cultural leader ever says to young people, "Go out and make a bunch of money." Instead, they tell you that money can't buy happiness. Maybe, but money can rent it.

There's nothing the matter with honest moneymaking. Wealth is not a pizza, where if I have too many slices you have to eat the Domino's box. In a free society, with the rule of law and property rights, no one loses when someone else gets rich.

2. Don't be an idealist!

Don't chain yourself to a redwood tree. Instead, be a corporate lawyer and make $500,000 a year. No matter how much you cheat the IRS, you'll still end up paying $100,000 in property, sales and excise taxes. That's $100,000 to schools, sewers, roads, firefighters and police. You'll be doing good for society. Does chaining yourself to a redwood tree do society $100,000 worth of good?

Idealists are also bullies. The idealist says, "I care more about the redwood trees than you do. I care so much I can't eat. I can't sleep. It broke up my marriage. And because I care more than you do, I'm a better person. And because I'm the better person, I have the right to boss you around."

Get a pair of bolt cutters and liberate that tree.

Who does more for the redwoods and society anyway -- the guy chained to a tree or the guy who founds the "Green Travel Redwood Tree-Hug Tour Company" and makes a million by turning redwoods into a tourist destination, a valuable resource that people will pay just to go look at?

So make your contribution by getting rich. Don't be an idealist.

3. Get politically uninvolved!

All politics stink. Even democracy stinks. Imagine if our clothes were selected by the majority of shoppers, which would be teenage girls. I'd be standing here with my bellybutton exposed. Imagine deciding the dinner menu by family secret ballot. I've got three kids and three dogs in my family. We'd be eating Froot Loops and rotten meat.

But let me make a distinction between politics and politicians. Some people are under the misapprehension that all politicians stink. Impeach George W. Bush, and everything will be fine. Nab Ted Kennedy on a DUI, and the nation's problems will be solved.

But the problem isn't politicians -- it's politics. Politics won't allow for the truth. And we can't blame the politicians for that. Imagine what even a little truth would sound like on today's campaign trail:

"No, I can't fix public education. The problem isn't the teachers unions or a lack of funding for salaries, vouchers or more computer equipment The problem is your kids!"

4. Forget about fairness!

We all get confused about the contradictory messages that life and politics send.

Life sends the message, "I'd better not be poor. I'd better get rich. I'd better make more money than other people." Meanwhile, politics sends us the message, "Some people make more money than others. Some are rich while others are poor. We'd better close that 'income disparity gap.' It's not fair!"

Well, I am here to advocate for unfairness. I've got a 10-year-old at home. She's always saying, "That's not fair." When she says this, I say, "Honey, you're cute. That's not fair. Your family is pretty well off. That's not fair. You were born in America. That's not fair. Darling, you had better pray to God that things don't start getting fair for you." What we need is more income, even if it means a bigger income disparity gap.

The six projects include one from Imperial College London that will explore how ‘mirror neurons’ found in the human brain can be translated into a digital application. ‘Mirror neurons’, discovered in the early 1990s, trigger memories of previous experiences when humans are trying to understand the physical actions of others. A separate team at UPF Barcelona will also work on iCub’s ‘cognitive architecture’.

At the same time, a team headquartered at UPMC in Paris will explore the dynamics needed to achieve full body control for iCub. Meanwhile, researchers at TUM Munich will work on the development of iCub’s manipulation skills. A project team from the University of Lyons will explore internal simulation techniques – something our brains do when planning actions or trying to understand the actions of others.

Over in Turkey, a team based at METU in Ankara will focus almost exclusively on language acquisition and the iCub’s ability to link objects with verbal utterances.

Watch this elephant, rescued from abusive treatment in Burma, now paint an amazing self portrait. You'll be amazed at how his talent unfolds.

So touched by their horrific backgrounds and loving personalities, ExoticWorldGifts.com now supports, "Starving Elephant Artisans" by selling their paintings so they can continue to have a new life in Thailand.

The teenager, who is the world's smallest girl according to the Indian Book of Records, has a form of dwarfism called achondroplasia. Now fully grown, she weighs just 11 lb.

Far from being unhappy about her tiny size, Jyoti says that she enjoys the celebrity status her height has brought her.

"I am proud of being small. I love the attention I get," she told the Sunday Mirror.

"I'm just the same as other people. I eat like you, dream like you. I don't feel any different."

Jyoti attends her local high school, in Nagpur, India, where she studies alongside classmates of her own age, though she sits at a specially made miniature desk.

The US federal government currently spends about 21% of GDP. If John McCain wins the election and gets every single one of his economic proposals passed, the government would probably be spending about 18% of GDP when McCain leaves office. And if Obama wins and gets all of his economic policies passed, the government would probably be spending no more than 25% of GDP when he leaves office, and likewise if Clinton wins.

There’s a real, substantive difference between taxes and government services at 18% vs at 25%, but it’s a very modest difference relative to the range of government sizes among industrialized nations. The Swedish government, for instance, spends 53% of GDP, while the government of Singapore spends less than 10%. And in terms of the entire sweep of human history, the difference is more modest still. Sweden is neither the Soviet Union nor the Paris Commune, and Singapore is no 19th century United States.

Like many tax filers, you're probably asking yourself: Just where does my money go when the government gets its hands on it?

Alas, it's not as simple a question as it may seem. For those of you who have trouble balancing your checkbook, imagine trying to keep track of where $4.1 trillion goes. That’s what was spent on your behalf at all levels of federal state and local government last year.

Even with armies of accountants and auditors, it’s hard to know with certainty exactly where your taxes ended up. For starters, you pay taxes based on a calendar year; the government spends it based on a fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. Even if the calendars matched up, the journey your tax dollars embark on depends a lot on things like how much you make, how you spend it and where you live. ....

So where did your money go after you sent it off to Tax Heaven? One way to find out is to look at the government's bills. If the government sat down at the kitchen table to try to see where its paycheck went, here’s — very roughly — where it went in 2007.

To make the math a little easier, let’s assume the government made $52,000 a year — or $1,000 a week — which is about the median household income in the U.S. (The real number was $48,200 in 2006. And keep in mind that $1,000 a week doesn’t include taxes. But you’re the government — you don’t pay taxes.)

The biggest government bill last year was for a category called “income security” ($220 of that $1,000 weekly paycheck) — which includes Social Security ($115), along with other social services like welfare ($46), disability payments ($35) and unemployment insurance ($7). The next biggest chunk went to pay for health care ($203), which includes Medicaid and Medicare.

Keeping our country — and your neighborhood — safe cost almost $200 a week, including national defense ($132), along with spending on “public order and safety” ($65), which included police ($27), prisons ($18), courts ($12) and fighting fires ($8).

Education took the next biggest slice ($158) — most of which went to pay for elementary and secondary schools ($117). Much of the rest helped pay for college ($28). About $2 a week of our $1,000 a week paycheck went to pay for public libraries.

Then there’s "general public service" — or the cost of government itself. Unfortunately, government — like many Americans — has been living beyond its means and spending more than it collects in taxes. To make up the difference, state and federal treasuries filled in the gap by selling more debt — roughly the same as you or me using our credit cards. So the biggest single component of the $143 cost of running federal, state and local government last year was the interest on the money borrowed on your behalf ($90). Think of it as the minimum monthly payment on your government’s credit card.

The cost of running all levels of government also included salaries and expenses for the executive and legislative branches ($21) and the cost of collecting taxes ($11).

After that, the bills looked pretty manageable — but then you only had about $79 left. Those bills included highways ($25), agriculture ($8) air transport ($4), air and water quality ($7) and the space program ($3). Rounding out the list were housing and community service ($10) and recreation and culture ($7).