3/30/2006
Light earthquake strikes Quebec's Far North, no damage reported - Yahoo! News
Well damnit foiled again...
Matisyahu: A most unorthodox pop star on Yahoo! News
"Matthew Miller cuts a striking figure on stage with his black hat and beard. The fervent Hasidic Jew better known as Matisyahu is also an unlikely rising star of reggae and rap.
The 26-year-old has reconciled strict religious demands with a staccato chant pop style that has taken his latest album 'Youth' straight into the Billboard charts at number four with 120,000 copies sold in one week.
With the help of internet chat rooms, in a few months Matisyahu has gone from local shows to headlining national events. He will be one of the top names at the Lollapalooza festival in Chicago in August.
But no shows on a Friday, the eve of the Sabbath, and no fraternising with female fans. 'There's always one drunk girl who runs up to give me a hug. I have to pull away,' he said in a recent interview with Rolling Stone magazine.
His rap is hardcore but puts across a positive message:
'Strip away the layers and reveal your soul,
Give yourself up and then you become whole'.
Matisyahu has already gone through the rebellious phase of his life.
Born in to a non-religious Jewish family, he spent much of his younger years living in the New York suburb of White Plains. He went to a Hebrew school twice a week as a child but says he was often threatened with expulsion for disrupting classes.
It was as a 16-year-old on a camping trip to Colorado that he discovered religion. From there he went on a trip to Israel that he says 'stirred' his Jewish identity.
After that trip, the youth dropped out of his home school and was sent to a wilderness school in Oregon, where he ended up studying reggae and hip-hop music and began performing under the name MC Truth.
He returned to New York in 2000 to study, started regularly attending a synagogue and met a rabbi who convinced him to become a Lubavitch Hasadic Jew.
MC Truth, who once sceptical of authority, became "Matisyahu", the Hebrew version of Matthew.
Matisyahu's entourage say his music combines the sounds of late reggae legend Bob Marley and Shlomo Carlebach, a rabbi who became one of Israel's best known singers of the 20th century.
Bill Werde, a senior editor at Billboard magazine, explained Matisyahu's appeal.
"There's a lot of interest in reggae and in general Jamaican music in the US right now, if you look at the success of other artists like Sean Paul or Wyclef Jean," Werde told AFP.
"His music is good, his songs are good. He has sort of a positive uplifting message and I think that's really reasonating with people right now."
Matisyahu has definitely arrived. He told Rolling Stone he had been invited by Madonna, a recent convert to the mystic Jewish faith of Kabbalah, for the Passover festival.
"I don't know if I can go. I'll have to check it out with, like, multiple people, to make sure it's kosher," the rapper said on the Jimmy Kimmel television show which helped launch his career.
The rabbis generally approve of his music, he added, because they back anything to "help people to connect to their godliness".
Time will tell if Matisyahu becomes a longstanding pop sensation.
But Werde said that while the rapper has a Jewish "base" he was now "a mainstream pop success story".
"Because of Matisyahu's appearance, he was able to create a critical amount of buzz. If he didn't have the music to back it up, he would not sustain his rise. And the fact of the matter is these are great songs, and it's a message that people are clearly responding to."
The 26-year-old has reconciled strict religious demands with a staccato chant pop style that has taken his latest album 'Youth' straight into the Billboard charts at number four with 120,000 copies sold in one week.
With the help of internet chat rooms, in a few months Matisyahu has gone from local shows to headlining national events. He will be one of the top names at the Lollapalooza festival in Chicago in August.
But no shows on a Friday, the eve of the Sabbath, and no fraternising with female fans. 'There's always one drunk girl who runs up to give me a hug. I have to pull away,' he said in a recent interview with Rolling Stone magazine.
His rap is hardcore but puts across a positive message:
'Strip away the layers and reveal your soul,
Give yourself up and then you become whole'.
Matisyahu has already gone through the rebellious phase of his life.
Born in to a non-religious Jewish family, he spent much of his younger years living in the New York suburb of White Plains. He went to a Hebrew school twice a week as a child but says he was often threatened with expulsion for disrupting classes.
It was as a 16-year-old on a camping trip to Colorado that he discovered religion. From there he went on a trip to Israel that he says 'stirred' his Jewish identity.
After that trip, the youth dropped out of his home school and was sent to a wilderness school in Oregon, where he ended up studying reggae and hip-hop music and began performing under the name MC Truth.
He returned to New York in 2000 to study, started regularly attending a synagogue and met a rabbi who convinced him to become a Lubavitch Hasadic Jew.
MC Truth, who once sceptical of authority, became "Matisyahu", the Hebrew version of Matthew.
Matisyahu's entourage say his music combines the sounds of late reggae legend Bob Marley and Shlomo Carlebach, a rabbi who became one of Israel's best known singers of the 20th century.
Bill Werde, a senior editor at Billboard magazine, explained Matisyahu's appeal.
"There's a lot of interest in reggae and in general Jamaican music in the US right now, if you look at the success of other artists like Sean Paul or Wyclef Jean," Werde told AFP.
"His music is good, his songs are good. He has sort of a positive uplifting message and I think that's really reasonating with people right now."
Matisyahu has definitely arrived. He told Rolling Stone he had been invited by Madonna, a recent convert to the mystic Jewish faith of Kabbalah, for the Passover festival.
"I don't know if I can go. I'll have to check it out with, like, multiple people, to make sure it's kosher," the rapper said on the Jimmy Kimmel television show which helped launch his career.
The rabbis generally approve of his music, he added, because they back anything to "help people to connect to their godliness".
Time will tell if Matisyahu becomes a longstanding pop sensation.
But Werde said that while the rapper has a Jewish "base" he was now "a mainstream pop success story".
"Because of Matisyahu's appearance, he was able to create a critical amount of buzz. If he didn't have the music to back it up, he would not sustain his rise. And the fact of the matter is these are great songs, and it's a message that people are clearly responding to."
3/29/2006
Thinking about....
getting a Tattoo....
On my back covering from tailbone to shoulder blades..
this one....Maybe....?
Comments would be very helpful, this is a VERY BIG DEAL to me.
From a series of Books I Like very much,,, Phedre's Marque tattoo...
Kushiel's Chosen...
ASPARAGUS SOUP WITH LEMON CREME FRAICHE Recipe at Epicurious.com
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
1 cup sliced shallots (about 6 large)
2 pounds asparagus, trimmed, cut into 2-inch lengths
2 teaspoons ground coriander
2 14-ounce cans vegetable broth
1/4 cup crème fraîche or sour cream
1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon finely grated lemon peel
Melt butter in heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add shallots; sauté until soft, about 5 minutes. Add asparagus and coriander; stir 1 minute. Add vegetable broth and simmer until asparagus is tender, about 5 minutes. Cool slightly. Working in batches, puree soup in blender. Strain into same pan, pressing on solids to release liquid. Season with salt and pepper.
Keep warm.
Stir crème fraîche, lemon juice, and lemon peel in small bowl.
Divide soup among bowls.
Top with dollop of lemon crème fraîche and serve.
Makes 6 first-course servings.Bon AppétitMarch 2006
1 cup sliced shallots (about 6 large)
2 pounds asparagus, trimmed, cut into 2-inch lengths
2 teaspoons ground coriander
2 14-ounce cans vegetable broth
1/4 cup crème fraîche or sour cream
1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon finely grated lemon peel
Melt butter in heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add shallots; sauté until soft, about 5 minutes. Add asparagus and coriander; stir 1 minute. Add vegetable broth and simmer until asparagus is tender, about 5 minutes. Cool slightly. Working in batches, puree soup in blender. Strain into same pan, pressing on solids to release liquid. Season with salt and pepper.
Keep warm.
Stir crème fraîche, lemon juice, and lemon peel in small bowl.
Divide soup among bowls.
Top with dollop of lemon crème fraîche and serve.
Makes 6 first-course servings.Bon AppétitMarch 2006
MUENSTER CHEESE SOUFFLE WITH RED BELL PEPPER AND TOMATO SALAD Recipe at Epicurious.com
Real French Muenster (available at specialty foods stores) will make a big difference in this soufflé. What to drink: A dry white wine with plenty of perfume, like Gewürztraminer.
1 1/4 cups whole milk
1 1/2 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
Panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)*
3 large eggs, separated
1 cup 1/3-inch cubes rindless French Muenster cheese (about 4 ounces)
Red Bell Pepper and Tomato Salad >see below
Bring milk just to simmer in small saucepan; remove from heat. Melt butter in heavy medium saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in flour; cook roux 2 minutes, whisking constantly (do not brown). Gradually whisk in warm milk. Cook until sauce is smooth and thick enough to drop from whisk in thin ribbon, whisking constantly, about 8 minutes. Remove from heat. Mix in cumin and season generously with salt and pepper; transfer to medium bowl.
Cool 10 minutes. (Soufflé base can be made ahead. Press plastic wrap onto surface.
Let stand 2 hours or chill 1 day.
Bring to room temperature before using.)
Preheat oven to 400°F. Butter 4- to 5-cup soufflé dish; coat inside with panko.
Whisk egg yolks into soufflé base 1 at a time; stir in cheese cubes.
Beat egg whites and pinch of salt in another medium bowl until stiff but not dry.
Fold egg whites into soufflé base in 3 additions; transfer to prepared dish.
Bake soufflé until puffed, brown on top, and firm but jiggly to touch, about 28 minutes.
Spoon soufflé onto 4 plates.
Arrange salad alongside and serve.
Test-kitchen tip:
To cube soft Muenster cheese, pare off the rind, then cut cheese into 1/3-inch slices.
Freeze slices 15 minutes to firm, then cut into small cubes. Separate cubes on plate and chill.
*Available at some supermarkets and at Asian markets.
Makes 4 servings.
Bon Appétit
RED BELL PEPPER AND TOMATO SALAD
24 grape or cherry tomatoes, halved1/2 cup
1/4-inch cubes red bell pepper1/3 cup
1/4-inch cubes drained roasted red pepper from jar
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon white wine vinegar
Pinch of ground cumin
Combine all ingredients in medium bowl. Season salad with salt and pepper. (Can be made 3 hours ahead. Let stand at room temperature, tossing occasionally.)
4 servings.
Bon Appétit
1 1/4 cups whole milk
1 1/2 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
Panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)*
3 large eggs, separated
1 cup 1/3-inch cubes rindless French Muenster cheese (about 4 ounces)
Red Bell Pepper and Tomato Salad >see below
Bring milk just to simmer in small saucepan; remove from heat. Melt butter in heavy medium saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in flour; cook roux 2 minutes, whisking constantly (do not brown). Gradually whisk in warm milk. Cook until sauce is smooth and thick enough to drop from whisk in thin ribbon, whisking constantly, about 8 minutes. Remove from heat. Mix in cumin and season generously with salt and pepper; transfer to medium bowl.
Cool 10 minutes. (Soufflé base can be made ahead. Press plastic wrap onto surface.
Let stand 2 hours or chill 1 day.
Bring to room temperature before using.)
Preheat oven to 400°F. Butter 4- to 5-cup soufflé dish; coat inside with panko.
Whisk egg yolks into soufflé base 1 at a time; stir in cheese cubes.
Beat egg whites and pinch of salt in another medium bowl until stiff but not dry.
Fold egg whites into soufflé base in 3 additions; transfer to prepared dish.
Bake soufflé until puffed, brown on top, and firm but jiggly to touch, about 28 minutes.
Spoon soufflé onto 4 plates.
Arrange salad alongside and serve.
Test-kitchen tip:
To cube soft Muenster cheese, pare off the rind, then cut cheese into 1/3-inch slices.
Freeze slices 15 minutes to firm, then cut into small cubes. Separate cubes on plate and chill.
*Available at some supermarkets and at Asian markets.
Makes 4 servings.
Bon Appétit
RED BELL PEPPER AND TOMATO SALAD
24 grape or cherry tomatoes, halved1/2 cup
1/4-inch cubes red bell pepper1/3 cup
1/4-inch cubes drained roasted red pepper from jar
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon white wine vinegar
Pinch of ground cumin
Combine all ingredients in medium bowl. Season salad with salt and pepper. (Can be made 3 hours ahead. Let stand at room temperature, tossing occasionally.)
4 servings.
Bon Appétit
Are You a Yankee or a Rebel? - alphaDictionary * Free English Online Dictionary
To find out how much Southern blood your speech shows, simply choose the words you use below, then press "Compute My Score!" at the end. The Alpha Dictionary will compute your score and tell you where you're coming from: are you (all) speaking Bubbaese or are you(se) a Yankee Doodle Dandy? The higher your score, the deeper from the South you are coming. The test is based on research by the Harvard Computer Society enhanced by Dr. Beard's own research here at alphaDictionary
It appears that I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy, with a dash 29% dixie...y'all.
It appears that I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy, with a dash 29% dixie...y'all.
3/28/2006
Here's your totally useless fact of the day:
The 'fingers circle' gesture is widely accepted
as the American 'okay'
or 'I'm in agreement' sign, but it means
something quite different in
other countries.In Brazil and Germany, the
gesture is considered vulgar
or obscene. The gesture is also considered
impolite in Greece and Russia,
while in Japan it means 'money'. In southern
France, the fingers-circle
sign signifies 'worthless' or 'zero'."
The 'fingers circle' gesture is widely accepted
as the American 'okay'
or 'I'm in agreement' sign, but it means
something quite different in
other countries.In Brazil and Germany, the
gesture is considered vulgar
or obscene. The gesture is also considered
impolite in Greece and Russia,
while in Japan it means 'money'. In southern
France, the fingers-circle
sign signifies 'worthless' or 'zero'."
3/27/2006
Wolf Dogs
They are beautiful...Yes I am Poodle mad, BUT, I love wolves as well...So a wolf dog would be perfect . Check out this site , the pictures of the puppies and the parents they are incredible...
Brain Cells Fused with Computer Chip - Yahoo! News
The line between living organisms and machines has just become a whole lot blurrier. European researchers have developed 'neuro-chips' in which living brain cells and silicon circuits are coupled together.
The achievement could one day enable the creation of sophisticated neural prostheses to treat neurological disorders or the development of organic computers that crunch numbers using living neurons.
To create the neuro-chip, researchers squeezed more than 16,000 electronic transistors and hundreds of capacitors onto a silicon chip just 1 millimeter square in size.
They used special proteins found in the brain to glue brain cells, called neurons, onto the chip. However, the proteins acted as more than just a simple adhesive.
'They also provided the link between ionic channels of the neurons and semiconductor material in a way that neural electrical signals could be passed to the silicon chip,' said study team member Stefano Vassanelli from the University of Padua in Italy.
The proteins allowed the neuro-chip's electronic components and its living cells to communicate with each other. Electrical signals from neurons were recorded using the chip's transistors, while the chip's capacitors were used to stimulate the neurons.
It could still be decades before the technology is advanced enough to treat neurological disorders or create living computers, the researchers say, but in the nearer term, the chips could provide an advanced method of screening drugs for the pharmaceutical industry.
'Pharmaceutical companies could use the chip to test the effect of drugs on neurons, to quickly discover promising avenues of research,' Vassanelli said.
The researchers are now working on ways to avoid damaging the neurons during stimulation. The team is also exploring the possibility of using a neuron's genetic instructions to control the neuro-chip.
Microbe and Machine Merged to Create First 'Cellborg'
Scientists Make Bacteria Behave Like Computers
Brain Power: Mind Control of External Devices
Study: Your Brain Works Like the Internet
Monkey's Brain Runs Robotic Arm
"
The achievement could one day enable the creation of sophisticated neural prostheses to treat neurological disorders or the development of organic computers that crunch numbers using living neurons.
To create the neuro-chip, researchers squeezed more than 16,000 electronic transistors and hundreds of capacitors onto a silicon chip just 1 millimeter square in size.
They used special proteins found in the brain to glue brain cells, called neurons, onto the chip. However, the proteins acted as more than just a simple adhesive.
'They also provided the link between ionic channels of the neurons and semiconductor material in a way that neural electrical signals could be passed to the silicon chip,' said study team member Stefano Vassanelli from the University of Padua in Italy.
The proteins allowed the neuro-chip's electronic components and its living cells to communicate with each other. Electrical signals from neurons were recorded using the chip's transistors, while the chip's capacitors were used to stimulate the neurons.
It could still be decades before the technology is advanced enough to treat neurological disorders or create living computers, the researchers say, but in the nearer term, the chips could provide an advanced method of screening drugs for the pharmaceutical industry.
'Pharmaceutical companies could use the chip to test the effect of drugs on neurons, to quickly discover promising avenues of research,' Vassanelli said.
The researchers are now working on ways to avoid damaging the neurons during stimulation. The team is also exploring the possibility of using a neuron's genetic instructions to control the neuro-chip.
Microbe and Machine Merged to Create First 'Cellborg'
Scientists Make Bacteria Behave Like Computers
Brain Power: Mind Control of External Devices
Study: Your Brain Works Like the Internet
Monkey's Brain Runs Robotic Arm
"
From Aunt Deena
Who can make me feel like a WOMAN?'
On a transatlantic flight, a
plane passes through a
severe storm.The turbulence is awful, and
things go from bad to worse when one wing is struck by lightning.
One woman, in particular,
loses it.
Screaming, she stands up in
the front of the plane.
'I'm too young to die,' she wails.
Then she yells, 'Well, if
I'm going to die, I want my
last
minutes on earth to be memorable! Is
there anyone on this plane
who can make me feel like a WOMAN?"
For a moment there is
silence. Everyone has forgotten
their own peril. They all stare, eyes
riveted, at the desperate woman in
the front of the plane.
Then a cowboy from Alberta
stands up in the rear of
the plane.
He is handsome: well built,
with dark brown hair and
blue eyes.
He starts to walk slowly up
the aisle, unbuttoning his
shirt,one button at a time.
No one moves. He removes
his shirt. Muscles ripple
across his chest.
She gasps . .
He whispers . .
"Iron this. Then get me a beer."
On a transatlantic flight, a
plane passes through a
severe storm.The turbulence is awful, and
things go from bad to worse when one wing is struck by lightning.
One woman, in particular,
loses it.
Screaming, she stands up in
the front of the plane.
'I'm too young to die,' she wails.
Then she yells, 'Well, if
I'm going to die, I want my
last
minutes on earth to be memorable! Is
there anyone on this plane
who can make me feel like a WOMAN?"
For a moment there is
silence. Everyone has forgotten
their own peril. They all stare, eyes
riveted, at the desperate woman in
the front of the plane.
Then a cowboy from Alberta
stands up in the rear of
the plane.
He is handsome: well built,
with dark brown hair and
blue eyes.
He starts to walk slowly up
the aisle, unbuttoning his
shirt,one button at a time.
No one moves. He removes
his shirt. Muscles ripple
across his chest.
She gasps . .
He whispers . .
"Iron this. Then get me a beer."
SAUERKRAUT IN A JAR
PUT CAPS IN SMALL PAN AND BRING TO AND KEEP
THEM SIMMERING
I POUR SCALDING WATER PARTWAY INTO MY JARS AND
DUMP RIGHT BEFORE I FILL
SLICE CABBAGE SHREDS...(I MAKE THICKER THAN
BOUGHT)
PACK CABBAGE INTO CLEAN JARS
ADD
1 TEASPOON SALT
1 TABLESPOON VINEGAR
1 TEASPOON SUGAR
POUR BOILING WATER OVER AND LET SETTLE. ADD
MORE WATER TO COME TO 1/2 INCH FROM TOP.
PUT HOT LID ON AND SEAL.
THATS IT FOLKS !!!!!
LET SET 4 WEEKS BEFORE USING...........IT WILL
SET ON SHELVES FOR A YEAR AT LEAST :0)
MUCH BETTER THAN THE KIND YOU BUY"
PUT CAPS IN SMALL PAN AND BRING TO AND KEEP
THEM SIMMERING
I POUR SCALDING WATER PARTWAY INTO MY JARS AND
DUMP RIGHT BEFORE I FILL
SLICE CABBAGE SHREDS...(I MAKE THICKER THAN
BOUGHT)
PACK CABBAGE INTO CLEAN JARS
ADD
1 TEASPOON SALT
1 TABLESPOON VINEGAR
1 TEASPOON SUGAR
POUR BOILING WATER OVER AND LET SETTLE. ADD
MORE WATER TO COME TO 1/2 INCH FROM TOP.
PUT HOT LID ON AND SEAL.
THATS IT FOLKS !!!!!
LET SET 4 WEEKS BEFORE USING...........IT WILL
SET ON SHELVES FOR A YEAR AT LEAST :0)
MUCH BETTER THAN THE KIND YOU BUY"
3/24/2006
The Seal Hunt Begins.. WHY???
THIS MAKES ME PHYSICALLY SICK..... There is nothing I can really do about this, I have seen these pictures since I was a child (well over 30 years now)and it sickens me and makes me cry EVERY YEAR....This is a Horrible, degrading, perverted massacre, there is no need for this AT ALL....
If you want to take action to stop the Canadian commercial seal hunt, please click HERE!!!!!!HELP THE SEALS!!!.
Reuters) - Canada's annual seal hunt, the focus of a major protest effort by animal activists, will start on Saturday and could last longer than usual because the ice floes on which the seals gather are in poor condition, officials said on Thursday.
Canada says a total of 325,000 harp seal pups can be shot or clubbed to death this year. The first stage of the hunt, which takes place on ice in the Gulf of St. Lawrence on Canada's East Coast, will account for just over 90,000 animals.
Activists, who say the killing is cruel and unnecessary, say they will film the proceedings. The hunt officially starts at 6 a.m. on Saturday.
Hunters usually take between five and eight days to meet their quota but officials say the ice is much more broken up than usual and the seals are very scattered.
"It will be slower ... this will drag on," said Roger Simon of the federal fisheries ministry.
The second and more important stage of the hunt, which takes place off the coast of Newfoundland, will start on April 4 and last for most of the month.
A number of high-profile figures, among them former French film star Brigitte Bardot and ex-Beatle Paul McCartney, have called on Canada to scrap the hunt.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper shrugged off the protests on Thursday, saying he had no intention of commenting on what Bardot and others were doing.
Seal Hunting in Canada
Who is in charge of the seal hunt?
The federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans is responsible for all aspects of harp seal management, which include ensuring that the Canadian seal hunt is humane and sustainable.
What species of seals are hunted?
Although harp seals are the focus of the commercial hunt, a smaller number of hooded seals (Cystophora cristata) are also commercially hunted each year. Other species of seals, including ringed (Pusa hispida), harbour (Phoca vitulina), grey (Halichoerus grypus), and bearded (Erignathus barbatus) are also killed in non-commercial hunts.
What legislation regulates the seal hunt?
The Marine Mammal Regulations, which fall under Canada's Fisheries Act, are the main piece of Federal legislation pertaining to the seal hunt. Unnecessarily cruel behaviour by sealers is also prohibited by the Criminal Code of Canada, which states: "Everyone commits an offence who (a) wilfully causes [...] unnecessary pain, suffering or injury to an animal or bird."
How is the seal hunt managed?
Since 1996, the government has based its management decisions largely on a computer model that suggests the harp seal population numbered 4.8 million seals in 1994. A replacement yield – the number of animals that can be removed from the population annually without causing it to decline – was set at 286,700 seals. Based on this model, the Total Allowable Catch (TAC) was increased to 250,000 in 1996 and 275,000 from 1997 to present. These are the highest TACs since the introduction of quota management in 1971.
How are hunt regulations enforced?
DFO has the responsibility for enforcing hunt regulations, and claims that: "Humane practices are supported by industry and strictly enforced by the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans. Penalties are among the toughest in the world".
The enforcement efforts of DFO have come under increasing criticism. In 1998, for example, Dr. Mary Richardson, a respected veterinarian who has been Chair of the Animal Care Review Board for the Solicitor-General of Ontario, Director of Animal Welfare for the Ontario Veterinary Medical Association and Animal Welfare Committee Member for the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association was quoted as saying: "I have now reviewed new video evidence obtained by IFAW during the 1998 commercial seal hunt.
Even though a full year has passed since the 1997 footage was released, it is clear that the DFO, which is responsible for monitoring this hunt, and the Canadian Sealers' Association, which promotes this hunt as well-regulated, have done nothing to ensure that seals are not suffering and that the relevant provisions of the Marine Mammal Regulations and the Criminal Code of Canada are upheld" (Source: Canada's Commercial Seal Hunt - 1998 Investigation, IFAW).
How many sealers take part in the hunt?
The Department of Fisheries and Oceans states "In recent years, commercial licenses issued to sealers averaged 9,000 per year. In 1999, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) issued 10,518 commercial sealing licenses." (Source: Atlantic Seal Hunt - 2000 Management Plan, DFO).
It is important to note, however, that only a small fraction of licensed commercial sealers actually participate in the seal hunt. In Newfoundland, for instance, there were only approximately 600 active sealers in 1996 (Source: Newfoundland Region 1996 Seal Fishery Activity Report, DFO). In 1998, the Executive Council of the Conference of Atlantic Premiers reported that 3,900 fishermen were engaged in the sealing industry. (Source: "The Sealing Industry" a news release by the Executive Council of the Conference of Atlantic Premiers, Fredericton, NB, June 9, 1998)
Where and when does the hunt take place?
Although the movement of ice floes and ice conditions often determines the degree of effort in any given area, the majority of the seal hunt occurs on the Front, off the north and east coasts of Newfoundland, and in the Gulf of St. Lawrence near the Magdalen Islands and Prince Edward Island.
Canada's Marine Mammal Regulations specify that the commercial harp seal hunt may occur between November 15 and May 15. However, the main hunt usually begins in early March, and continues through May or until the quota has been reached.
The Greenland hunt (which is essentially unregulated) occurs mainly between June and September, when the harp seals have migrated to the waters between Greenland and the Canadian eastern arctic.
Taking into account both the Canadian and Greenland hunts, the Northwest Atlantic harp seals can be hunted at virtually all times of the year. No other North American large mammal population is managed in this way.
How are seals killed during the hunt?
Younger seals (ragged jackets and beaters) are usually killed on the ice with clubs or hakapiks (a device resembling a heavy ice-pick). Later in the season, beaters and older seals are usually shot with a rifle, both on the ice and in the water. It is also legal to use a shotgun firing slugs. It is illegal to deliberately capture seals using nets, although seals are often caught incidentally in nets set for other fisheries.
What is the total number of seals killed?
The Canadian government issues "landed catch" statistics that are widely reported in the media and often misinterpreted as the total number of seals killed.
These reports, however, only count the number of seals that are "landed" at seal processing facilities. They do not include seals that are killed during Greenland's hunt of the same population, nor do they account for seals that are wounded but escape ("struck and lost"), or animals that are killed incidentally in fishing nets.
A recent study "Estimating Total Kill of Northwest Atlantic Harp Seals, 1994-1998" in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Marine Mammal Science concluded that in 1998 the actual number of harp seals killed was somewhere between 406,258 and 548,903. This means more animals are being killed than would be considered prudent under a truly precautionary approach to harp seal management.
How old are the seals when they are killed?
A harp seal can be legally killed as soon as it has begun to moult its white hair, around 2 weeks after birth. Adult seals are also killed. The seal hunt is one of the very few hunts that occur in the spring when young are being born. Most other large mammals are hunted in the fall, and are protected from hunting in the spring.
What percentage of seals killed are pups?
Usually around 80% of the seals killed in the commercial hunt are ‘young of the year’ - between approximately 12 days and 1 year old (Source: DFO, Proceeding of the National Marine Mammal Review Committee, Feb. 1999).
Is it illegal to kill whitecoat seals?
The Marine Mammal Regulations make it illegal for non-natives to barter, sell, or trade whitecoat seal products. The prohibition on selling these seals was intended to remove any reason for hunting them. A recent ruling by the Newfoundland Court of Appeal found this section of the Marine Mammal Regulations to be unconstitutional and, as a result, it cannot be enforced in Newfoundland. In February 2000, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans announced that it would attach a condition to commercial sealing licences that will prohibit the hunting of whitecoat and blueback seals. The new condition gets around the court ruling by prohibiting the killing rather than the selling of seal pup products. Moreover, the federal government has sought leave to appeal the Newfoundland Court of Appeal's ruling to the Supreme Court of Canada.
What is the difference between a seal hunt and a seal cull?
A hunt is meant to be a sustainable kill of a "renewable resource." The objective is to maintain a relatively large and constant population size while killing a set number of animals each year.
A cull is designed to reduce the size of a population; in this case, ostensibly to reduce the impact on fish stocks, and provide benefits for commercial fisheries. A seal hunt, by definition, cannot be both a sustainable hunt and a cull.
The Canadian government's stated objective is that of a sustainable hunt - one which does not cause the current population to decline - rather than a cull.
Is the hunt humane?
Almost everyone involved with seals and sealing agrees there are documented problems with the current hunt, but opinions vary widely on the seriousness of the issues and the best solution.
In essence, the sealing industry believes that widely publicised video from the past five seal hunts only shows isolated incidents which can be addressed through better training and limited changes to sealing regulations.
The Department of Fisheries and Oceans is committed to proposing new regulations to address what it sees as the critical hunt issues. The International Fund for Animal Welfare supports efforts to revise sealing regulations, but notes that though many sealers may be well-intentioned, the unpredictable weather and ice conditions, combined with the difficulties inherent in killing a large number of wild animals very quickly, results in unacceptable levels of inhumane conduct.
Dr. Mary Richardson, former Chair of the Animal Care Review Board for the Solicitor-General of Ontario, noted that "Veterinarians accept that animals will be used by humans, but as a profession, we work to ensure that they will be treated humanely and when death is necessary, that it be executed in a quick and painless manner. The seals that are taken in Canada's commercial hunt are not being killed humanely" (Source: Canada's Commercial Seal Hunt - 1998 investigation, IFAW).
Is the hunt sustainable?
Not currently, the Canadian government defines a sustainable hunt as one that does not cause the population to decline from current levels. The "replacement yield", or number of harp seals that the government estimates can be killed annually while still maintaining the size of the population, is 286,700.
For the past four years, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans has set the total allowable catch (TAC) at a number lower than the replacement yield, with the objective of a sustainable hunt, as defined above.
Landed catch statistics are used to assess the number of seals killed, and to determine whether the seal hunt occurs at a level that is sustainable. The simplest and most conventional way to determine if the hunt is sustainable is to compare the landed catch of harp seals with the estimate of replacement yield.
In each of the past four years, the reported landed catch of seals from the Canadian hunt, combined with the landed or estimated catch of the Greenland hunt (which takes seals from the same population), has been greater than the replacement yield. Therefore, if the Canadian government's figures are correct, the hunt is not sustainable and the harp seal population is likely declining.
The Department of Fisheries and Oceans has now recognised this risk, stating, "the recent growth of the Greenland seal hunt may be taking the two countries beyond the harp seal replacement yield".
Year
TAC
Landed Catch(Canada) 1
Landed Catch(Greenland)2
Total Landed Catch(Canada + Greenland)
1994
186,000
52,916
54,332
107,248
1995
186,000
64,794
60,207
125,001
1996
250,000
242,262
73,938
316,200
1997
275,000
264,204
45,170-75,5923
309,372-339,794
1998
275,000
282,070
45,170-75,5923
327,240-357,662
1999
275,000
1 Official catch statistics obtained from the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Ottawa (see Lavigne in press). These figures differ slightly from those provided for the same years by the ICES/NAFO Working Group on Harp and Hooded Seals (Anon. 1998, 1999).
2 Anon. (1999). These figures differ slightly from the landed catch statistics and estimated landed catches provided previously for the same years by Anon. (1998), and Lavigne (in press).
3 Minimum and maximum catch for Greenland, 1997-1998, estimated using 95% confidence limits (df = 3) around average Greenland catch, 1993-1996, inclusive (53,046, 54,332, 60,207, 73,938, respectively; Anon. 1999). These estimates differ slightly from those in Lavigne (in press), which were calculated using data reported previously.
In addition, it is certain that more animals are actually killed during the seal hunt than are reported in landed catch statistics. For example, some animals that are killed by hunters are not recovered (struck and lost), and are therefore not included in the landed catch values. Others are killed for selected parts (e.g. penises) and never appear in the landed catch statistics. Harp seals are also taken as bycatch in other commercial fishing operations. In fact, the number of seals reported in landed catch statistics could underestimate the total human-caused mortality of harp seals by as much as 89% (Source: Lavigne 1999).
Most recently, a study published in the internationally-respected scientific journal Conservation Biology concluded that the number of harp seals being killed by humans (including the numbers of animals landed by sealers, the number of seals killed but not recovered, and incidental catch in commercial fisheries) exceeds the levels that would be permitted by a more conservation-oriented management model by as much as 2 to 6 times (Source: "Notes for a presentation to the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans, House of Commons, Ottawa," IMMA).
Since harp seals are not endangered, why not hunt them and encourage the markets for their parts?
The history of wildlife conservation has shown that the commercial trade in dead wild life, or its parts and derivatives, is virtually impossible to regulate and is rarely sustainable. Certain biological characteristics make seals particularly susceptible to the effects of commercial exploitation. For example, harp seals are relatively long-lived mammals, which reproduce in large groups and bear only one offspring each year. In addition, the management of Northwest Atlantic harp seals is complicated by the fact that the population migrates between Canada and Greenland, and is commercially hunted in both countries.
But biology and management aside, there are other reasons why the commercial exploitation of seals needs to be carefully monitored:
The fact that dead animals have a price placed on their heads creates incentive for illegal trade and misreporting of the catch. A legal trade in seal penises for the aphrodisiac market, for example, may provide an incentive for poaching. It also results in "highgrading", where animals are killed for selected valuable parts such as the penis, and the rest of the animal is discarded without being recorded in the landed catch statistics.
Finally, history also shows us that once legal (and illegal) markets are established for wildlife parts, they cannot be easily legislated away. It is for all of these reasons that encouraging a trade in harp seal parts could result in unsustainable harvesting practices, and threaten the seal population.
Should the quota be increased or decreased?
If the federal government is indeed interested in ensuring that the commercial seal hunt is sustainable, it has little choice but to lower the harp seal Total Allowable Catch from its current level of 275,000.
In the last two years, an increasing number of prominent scientists and conservation organisations have become concerned that the commercial seal hunt is depleting the harp seal population.
The government of Newfoundland has, in the past, indicated that the quota should be increased. On May 4, 1998, John Efford, Newfoundland Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture told his legislature that "I would like to see the 6 million seals, or whatever number is out there, killed or sold, or destroyed or burned. I do not care what happens to them...the more they kill the better I will love it."
DFO has indicated that: "There are many different views and opinions on whether the harp seal total allowable catch (TAC) should be increased or decreased. Until we have new information on the size of the harp seal population, there is no basis for change in the TAC". The federal government is creating an Eminent Persons Panel to advise on future management directions for the seal hunt, including appropriate quota levels.
What you can do
The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) was founded in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada, in 1969 and has grown into one of the largest animal welfare organisations in the world. IFAW works to improve the welfare of wild and domestic animals throughout the world by reducing commercial exploitation of animals, protecting wildlife habitats, and assisting animals in distress. IFAW seeks to motivate the public to prevent cruelty to animals and to promote animal welfare and conservation policies that advance the well being of both animals and people.
If you want to take action to stop the Canadian commercial seal hunt, please click HERE!!!!!!HELP THE SEALS!!!.
The federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) is responsible for all aspects of seal management, which includes ensuring that the Canadian commercial seal hunt is conducted in a humane and regulated manner.
"Morons or Oxymoron's???
1. Is it good if a vacuum really sucks?
2. Why is the third hand on the watch called the
second hand?
3. If a word is misspelled in the dictionary, how
would we ever know?
4. If Webster wrote the first dictionary, where
did he find the words?
5. Why do we say something is out of whack? What
is a whack?
6. Why do 'slow down' and 'slow up' mean the same
thing?
7. Why do 'fat chance' and 'slim chance' mean the
same thing?
8. Why do 'tug' boats push their barges?
9. Why do we sing 'Take me out to the ball game'
when we are already there?
10. Why are they called 'stands' when they are
made for sitting?
11. Why is it called 'after dark' when it really
is 'after light'?
12. Doesn't 'expecting the unexpected' make the
unexpected expected?
13. Why are a 'wise man' and a 'wise guy'
opposites?
14. Why do 'overlook' and 'oversee' mean opposite
things?
15. Why is 'phonics' not spelled the way it
sounds?
16. If work is so terrific, why do they have to
pay you to do it?
17. If all the world is a stage, where is the
audience sitting?
18. If love is blind, why is lingerie so popular?
19. If you are cross-eyed and have dyslexia, can
you read all right?
20. Why is bra singular and panties plural?
21. Why do you press harder on the buttons of a
remote control
when you know the batteries are dead?
22. Why do we put suits in garment bags and
garments in
23. How come abbreviated is such a long word?24. Why do we wash bath towels? Aren't we clean when we use them?25. Why do they call it a TV set when you only have one?26. Christmas oxymoron: What other time of the year do you sit in front of a dead tree and eat candy out of your socks? "
1. Is it good if a vacuum really sucks?
2. Why is the third hand on the watch called the
second hand?
3. If a word is misspelled in the dictionary, how
would we ever know?
4. If Webster wrote the first dictionary, where
did he find the words?
5. Why do we say something is out of whack? What
is a whack?
6. Why do 'slow down' and 'slow up' mean the same
thing?
7. Why do 'fat chance' and 'slim chance' mean the
same thing?
8. Why do 'tug' boats push their barges?
9. Why do we sing 'Take me out to the ball game'
when we are already there?
10. Why are they called 'stands' when they are
made for sitting?
11. Why is it called 'after dark' when it really
is 'after light'?
12. Doesn't 'expecting the unexpected' make the
unexpected expected?
13. Why are a 'wise man' and a 'wise guy'
opposites?
14. Why do 'overlook' and 'oversee' mean opposite
things?
15. Why is 'phonics' not spelled the way it
sounds?
16. If work is so terrific, why do they have to
pay you to do it?
17. If all the world is a stage, where is the
audience sitting?
18. If love is blind, why is lingerie so popular?
19. If you are cross-eyed and have dyslexia, can
you read all right?
20. Why is bra singular and panties plural?
21. Why do you press harder on the buttons of a
remote control
when you know the batteries are dead?
22. Why do we put suits in garment bags and
garments in
23. How come abbreviated is such a long word?24. Why do we wash bath towels? Aren't we clean when we use them?25. Why do they call it a TV set when you only have one?26. Christmas oxymoron: What other time of the year do you sit in front of a dead tree and eat candy out of your socks? "
3/23/2006
An article sent from the DARK ONE herself...:P
"I have seen the future - and it's goth
We mocked their make-up and giggled over their gloom. But the goths are taking over the country. Dave Simpson reports
Tuesday March 21, 2006
The Guardian
It's every parent's nightmare. Their apparently well-adjusted child suddenly comes home with hair the colour of a coalface, a face whiter than anything made by Dulux, and announces, 'Mummy, I'm a goth.' However, according to a new study, parents of goths will probably end up boasting about their son/daughter the doctor, lawyer or bank manager.
That is the surprising finding of Sussex University's Dunja Brill, whose doctorate in media and cultural studies looked at people with funny hair and eyeliner in London, Brighton and Cologne, and who is herself a former goth.
'Most youth subcultures encourage people to drop out of school and do illegal things,' she says. 'Most goths are well educated, however. They hardly ever drop out and are often the best pupils. The subculture encourages interest in classical education, especially the arts. I'd say goths are more likely to make careers in web design, computer programming ... even journalism.'
Perhaps she has a point. Long before finding gainful employment at the Guardian, I too was a goth. For at least six months in the 80s, I reached for the hair crimpers, painted my bedroom black and scrawled the name of gothy band the Birthday Party on the door so it looked like blood. Hours were spent adopting the requisite air of mysterious gloom, reading (um) the spines of Dostoevsky novels, and gazing forlornly at spots. However, similar experiences can be found among people in much more likely to make careers in web design, computer programming ... even journalism."
Perhaps she has a point. Long before finding gainful employment at the Guardian, I too was a goth. For at least six months in the 80s, I reached for the hair crimpers, painted my bedroom black and scrawled the name of gothy band the Birthday Party on the door so it looked like blood. Hours were spent adopting the requisite air of mysterious gloom, reading (um) the spines of Dostoevsky novels, and gazing forlornly at spots. However, similar experiences can be found among people in much more respectable professions.
Visitors to the Archangel dental surgery in west London are confronted by a goth dentist, Didier Goalard, who says: "I've got goth friends who are doing quite well. There's a dentist in Lyon, a couple of solicitors, a Church of England priest."
"Goths are like masons," I have been told. "They're everywhere." But rather than blaming some sinister conspiracy, let us look at the reasons people become goths in the first place. According to Choque Hosein, formerly of goth band Salvation but now running a record label, "Goths tend to be the weirdo intellectual kids who have started to view the world differently." Cathi Unsworth is now a successful author, but she remembers that her own dark gothic past gave her an outlet for alienation. "I loved the bands, especially Siouxsie and the Banshees, but it wasn't a pose - I felt authentically depressed," she says. Unsworth was a teenager in Great Yarmouth, where she felt that "people didn't like me. It got to a point where I wanted to stop fighting against being different and embrace it."
Gillian Porter is now a successful PR but remembers a misspent youth of "electric-blue hair extensions, big boots with great big skulls, more crimped hair than Pete Burns. Totally and utterly ridiculous." Porter wasn't depressed, although she concedes that, "Listening to a lot of Sisters of Mercy doesn't exactly cheer you up."
Unsworth favoured a "black polo neck jumper and full-length skirt, for which she would be "spat on by the beer boys".
It could be tough, but being a goth can open up a world where art, current affairs and literature are embraced and openly discussed, perhaps paving the way for future networking. Unsworth remembers debates about "current affairs, Oscar Wilde, decadence, hairspray ..." "There was a lot of Edgar Allan Poe and Bram Stoker," remembers Porter. "It was better than the Sun." For Hosein, it was Quentin Crisp and "The Day of the Triffids. Anything involving horror and death."
Some took the whole thing very far. Hosein once lived in Headingley, Leeds; he remembers that students would enrol at Leeds university specifically because the town housed gothic kingpins (and his neighbours) the Sisters of Mercy. One night, Hosein saw a fog descending over the area and commented that lead singer Andrew Eldritch was around - then looked up to see him entering his doorway.
Indeed, there is a certain dry humour about goth that is often overlooked amid tales of black-clad youths worshipping Satan and, in one case, carrying out the Columbine massacre. "That wasn't goths," insists Brill. "The guys who did it always wore black trench coats but they listened to Marilyn Manson. There's an academic article: Why Marilyn Manson Isn't Goth." Brill insists that goth is a non-violent subculture. "They're like hippies. I don't know any goths who are into graveyard destruction or cat slaughtering. They like their graveyards and they love their cats."
Nor do drugs seem to be much of a problem. "Speed is a goth drug because the ideal is to be skinny," says Unsworth. "But for most of us it was Blue Nun wine because Wayne Hussey from the Mission drank it."
So perhaps parents shouldn't be too worried that a new generation of goths is cropping up again. There's a goth couple on Coronation Street. Hosein's bands include Black Wire, who wear black eyeliner, winklepickers and sound a lot like the Sisters of Mercy, although they had never heard them until they started rifling through his record collection. For some goths - who run T-shirt businesses or enterprises such as Whitby's biannual Gothic festival - goth can become a livelihood as well as a way of life. But most simply drop back into the mainstream.
Louise (she prefers not to give her surname) works in credit risk in Leeds. Aged 34, she got into goth music 17 years ago and now has tickets for the upcoming Sisters of Mercy tour. She reckons about "four or five people" at her workplace are former goths. "There's a kind of gaydar that lets you spot them." Goalard the dentist is now 39 but refuses to wear the white smock, preferring to top his boots with a black uniform. Faithful to the last, he plays Nine Inch Nails and Killing Joke songs as he drills.
"It never entirely leaves you," says Unsworth. "I still look at the world of beer boys and Tories and feel a beating heart of darkness."
As for Porter, she's just undergone "flashbacks" visiting Gothic Nightmares, Tate Britain's study of the supernatural themes in the work of Henry Fuseli and William Blake. However, this goth-turned-PR-woman is adamant that as goths grow up, they are advised to modify the look.
"I see them now in Camden where I live and think 'Fine in your twenties. But when you're 30? Sorry - you look like a twat"
Is your boss a goth?
10 telltale signs
1 Drinks snakebite
Former or closet goths still display a lingering thirst for snakebite - half a pint of lager with half a pint of cider, sometimes with blackcurrant. Snakebite is the worst thing the goths ever did after their invasion of the Roman Empire in 267.
2 Penchant for eyeliner
It seems everybody's wearing eyeliner these days, but a goth's make-up is a smidgen more extreme: the skin is powdered white, and black eyeliner is used on eyes, brows, lips and sometimes - to draw cobwebs, probably - the skin. NB: goths do not use bronzer, rouge, or St Tropez self-tan.
3 Cape
Capes have been fashionable this winter, but don't let that confuse you. A goth wears a cape so long it grazes the floor. Looks a little incongruous over a business suit.
4 Went to Leeds university
Strangely, Leeds has a nigh-on magnetic attraction for goths, and there are more cape shops per capita in the city than anywhere else in Europe.
5 Whistles Fields of the Nephilim/ Sisters of Mercy/ March Violets/ Subway to Sally songs This is why no goth ever had a successful career as a milkman.
6 Strange hobbies
Many of your colleagues will spend the weekend at B&Q, drinking Lambrusco and playing five-a-side. Not goths. They read preposterous fantasy books, do a spot of Wicca and anything "a bit medieval".
7 Black clothing
Though both wore a lot of black, it is easy to differentiate between the goth and the 80s throwback by asking this simple question: can you imagine this outfit in a Robert Palmer video? The goth's predilection for black clothing is a reflection of the Black Aesthetic - taking those things society regards as evil or wrong and making them beautiful. Many items in the longtime goth's wardrobe may now have faded to a sort of charcoal shade.
8 Disturbing dancing at Christmas party
The goth sticks rigidly to the routine of two and a half steps to the front and back again, while gazing at the floor in an affected fashion and waving hands around mysteriously.
9 Disarmingly pointy boots
It is a little-known fact that inside their shoes, goths' feet are just as pointy as their winklepickers.
10 Drives a hearse to work
And doesn't work at a funeral parlour
.Laura Barton
We mocked their make-up and giggled over their gloom. But the goths are taking over the country. Dave Simpson reports
Tuesday March 21, 2006
The Guardian
It's every parent's nightmare. Their apparently well-adjusted child suddenly comes home with hair the colour of a coalface, a face whiter than anything made by Dulux, and announces, 'Mummy, I'm a goth.' However, according to a new study, parents of goths will probably end up boasting about their son/daughter the doctor, lawyer or bank manager.
That is the surprising finding of Sussex University's Dunja Brill, whose doctorate in media and cultural studies looked at people with funny hair and eyeliner in London, Brighton and Cologne, and who is herself a former goth.
'Most youth subcultures encourage people to drop out of school and do illegal things,' she says. 'Most goths are well educated, however. They hardly ever drop out and are often the best pupils. The subculture encourages interest in classical education, especially the arts. I'd say goths are more likely to make careers in web design, computer programming ... even journalism.'
Perhaps she has a point. Long before finding gainful employment at the Guardian, I too was a goth. For at least six months in the 80s, I reached for the hair crimpers, painted my bedroom black and scrawled the name of gothy band the Birthday Party on the door so it looked like blood. Hours were spent adopting the requisite air of mysterious gloom, reading (um) the spines of Dostoevsky novels, and gazing forlornly at spots. However, similar experiences can be found among people in much more likely to make careers in web design, computer programming ... even journalism."
Perhaps she has a point. Long before finding gainful employment at the Guardian, I too was a goth. For at least six months in the 80s, I reached for the hair crimpers, painted my bedroom black and scrawled the name of gothy band the Birthday Party on the door so it looked like blood. Hours were spent adopting the requisite air of mysterious gloom, reading (um) the spines of Dostoevsky novels, and gazing forlornly at spots. However, similar experiences can be found among people in much more respectable professions.
Visitors to the Archangel dental surgery in west London are confronted by a goth dentist, Didier Goalard, who says: "I've got goth friends who are doing quite well. There's a dentist in Lyon, a couple of solicitors, a Church of England priest."
"Goths are like masons," I have been told. "They're everywhere." But rather than blaming some sinister conspiracy, let us look at the reasons people become goths in the first place. According to Choque Hosein, formerly of goth band Salvation but now running a record label, "Goths tend to be the weirdo intellectual kids who have started to view the world differently." Cathi Unsworth is now a successful author, but she remembers that her own dark gothic past gave her an outlet for alienation. "I loved the bands, especially Siouxsie and the Banshees, but it wasn't a pose - I felt authentically depressed," she says. Unsworth was a teenager in Great Yarmouth, where she felt that "people didn't like me. It got to a point where I wanted to stop fighting against being different and embrace it."
Gillian Porter is now a successful PR but remembers a misspent youth of "electric-blue hair extensions, big boots with great big skulls, more crimped hair than Pete Burns. Totally and utterly ridiculous." Porter wasn't depressed, although she concedes that, "Listening to a lot of Sisters of Mercy doesn't exactly cheer you up."
Unsworth favoured a "black polo neck jumper and full-length skirt, for which she would be "spat on by the beer boys".
It could be tough, but being a goth can open up a world where art, current affairs and literature are embraced and openly discussed, perhaps paving the way for future networking. Unsworth remembers debates about "current affairs, Oscar Wilde, decadence, hairspray ..." "There was a lot of Edgar Allan Poe and Bram Stoker," remembers Porter. "It was better than the Sun." For Hosein, it was Quentin Crisp and "The Day of the Triffids. Anything involving horror and death."
Some took the whole thing very far. Hosein once lived in Headingley, Leeds; he remembers that students would enrol at Leeds university specifically because the town housed gothic kingpins (and his neighbours) the Sisters of Mercy. One night, Hosein saw a fog descending over the area and commented that lead singer Andrew Eldritch was around - then looked up to see him entering his doorway.
Indeed, there is a certain dry humour about goth that is often overlooked amid tales of black-clad youths worshipping Satan and, in one case, carrying out the Columbine massacre. "That wasn't goths," insists Brill. "The guys who did it always wore black trench coats but they listened to Marilyn Manson. There's an academic article: Why Marilyn Manson Isn't Goth." Brill insists that goth is a non-violent subculture. "They're like hippies. I don't know any goths who are into graveyard destruction or cat slaughtering. They like their graveyards and they love their cats."
Nor do drugs seem to be much of a problem. "Speed is a goth drug because the ideal is to be skinny," says Unsworth. "But for most of us it was Blue Nun wine because Wayne Hussey from the Mission drank it."
So perhaps parents shouldn't be too worried that a new generation of goths is cropping up again. There's a goth couple on Coronation Street. Hosein's bands include Black Wire, who wear black eyeliner, winklepickers and sound a lot like the Sisters of Mercy, although they had never heard them until they started rifling through his record collection. For some goths - who run T-shirt businesses or enterprises such as Whitby's biannual Gothic festival - goth can become a livelihood as well as a way of life. But most simply drop back into the mainstream.
Louise (she prefers not to give her surname) works in credit risk in Leeds. Aged 34, she got into goth music 17 years ago and now has tickets for the upcoming Sisters of Mercy tour. She reckons about "four or five people" at her workplace are former goths. "There's a kind of gaydar that lets you spot them." Goalard the dentist is now 39 but refuses to wear the white smock, preferring to top his boots with a black uniform. Faithful to the last, he plays Nine Inch Nails and Killing Joke songs as he drills.
"It never entirely leaves you," says Unsworth. "I still look at the world of beer boys and Tories and feel a beating heart of darkness."
As for Porter, she's just undergone "flashbacks" visiting Gothic Nightmares, Tate Britain's study of the supernatural themes in the work of Henry Fuseli and William Blake. However, this goth-turned-PR-woman is adamant that as goths grow up, they are advised to modify the look.
"I see them now in Camden where I live and think 'Fine in your twenties. But when you're 30? Sorry - you look like a twat"
Is your boss a goth?
10 telltale signs
1 Drinks snakebite
Former or closet goths still display a lingering thirst for snakebite - half a pint of lager with half a pint of cider, sometimes with blackcurrant. Snakebite is the worst thing the goths ever did after their invasion of the Roman Empire in 267.
2 Penchant for eyeliner
It seems everybody's wearing eyeliner these days, but a goth's make-up is a smidgen more extreme: the skin is powdered white, and black eyeliner is used on eyes, brows, lips and sometimes - to draw cobwebs, probably - the skin. NB: goths do not use bronzer, rouge, or St Tropez self-tan.
3 Cape
Capes have been fashionable this winter, but don't let that confuse you. A goth wears a cape so long it grazes the floor. Looks a little incongruous over a business suit.
4 Went to Leeds university
Strangely, Leeds has a nigh-on magnetic attraction for goths, and there are more cape shops per capita in the city than anywhere else in Europe.
5 Whistles Fields of the Nephilim/ Sisters of Mercy/ March Violets/ Subway to Sally songs This is why no goth ever had a successful career as a milkman.
6 Strange hobbies
Many of your colleagues will spend the weekend at B&Q, drinking Lambrusco and playing five-a-side. Not goths. They read preposterous fantasy books, do a spot of Wicca and anything "a bit medieval".
7 Black clothing
Though both wore a lot of black, it is easy to differentiate between the goth and the 80s throwback by asking this simple question: can you imagine this outfit in a Robert Palmer video? The goth's predilection for black clothing is a reflection of the Black Aesthetic - taking those things society regards as evil or wrong and making them beautiful. Many items in the longtime goth's wardrobe may now have faded to a sort of charcoal shade.
8 Disturbing dancing at Christmas party
The goth sticks rigidly to the routine of two and a half steps to the front and back again, while gazing at the floor in an affected fashion and waving hands around mysteriously.
9 Disarmingly pointy boots
It is a little-known fact that inside their shoes, goths' feet are just as pointy as their winklepickers.
10 Drives a hearse to work
And doesn't work at a funeral parlour
.Laura Barton
WORLD'S EASIEST QUIZ :
Passing requires 4 correct answers
1) How long did the Hundred Years' War last?
2) Which country makes Panama hats?
3) From which animal do we get catgut?
4) In which month do Russians celebrate the
October Revolution?
5) What is a camel's hair brush made of?
6) The Canary Islands in the Pacific are named
after what animal?
7) What was King George VI's first name?
8) What color is a purple finch?
9) Where are Chinese gooseberries from?
10) What is the color of the black box in a
commercial airplane?
All done? Scroll down to check your answers
below.
ANSWERS TO THE QUIZ
Passing requires 4 correct answers
1) How long did the Hundred Years War last? 116
years
2) Which country makes Panama hats? Ecuador
3) >From which animal do we get cat gut? Sheep
and Horses
4) In which month do Russians celebrate the
October Revolution?
November
5) What is a camel's hair brush made of? Squirrel
fur
6) The Canary Islands in the Pacific are named
after what animal? Dogs
7) What was King George VI's first name? Albert
8) What color is a purple finch? Crimson
9) Where are Chinese gooseberries from? New
Zealand
10) What is the color of the black box in a
commercial airplane?
Orange, of course. "
Passing requires 4 correct answers
1) How long did the Hundred Years' War last?
2) Which country makes Panama hats?
3) From which animal do we get catgut?
4) In which month do Russians celebrate the
October Revolution?
5) What is a camel's hair brush made of?
6) The Canary Islands in the Pacific are named
after what animal?
7) What was King George VI's first name?
8) What color is a purple finch?
9) Where are Chinese gooseberries from?
10) What is the color of the black box in a
commercial airplane?
All done? Scroll down to check your answers
below.
ANSWERS TO THE QUIZ
Passing requires 4 correct answers
1) How long did the Hundred Years War last? 116
years
2) Which country makes Panama hats? Ecuador
3) >From which animal do we get cat gut? Sheep
and Horses
4) In which month do Russians celebrate the
October Revolution?
November
5) What is a camel's hair brush made of? Squirrel
fur
6) The Canary Islands in the Pacific are named
after what animal? Dogs
7) What was King George VI's first name? Albert
8) What color is a purple finch? Crimson
9) Where are Chinese gooseberries from? New
Zealand
10) What is the color of the black box in a
commercial airplane?
Orange, of course. "
Chicken Little (2005)
Plot Outline: After ruining his reputation with the town, a courageous chicken must come to the rescue of his fellow citizens when aliens start an invasion.
Cast overview, first billed only:
Zach Braff
....
Chicken Little (voice)
Garry Marshall
....
Buck Cluck (voice)
Don Knotts
....
Mayor Turkey Lurkey (voice)
Patrick Stewart
....
Mr. Woolensworth (voice)
Amy Sedaris
....
Foxy Loxy (voice)
Steve Zahn
....
Runt of the Litter (voice)
Joan Cusack
....
Abby Mallard (voice)
Wallace Shawn
....
Principal Fetchit (voice)
Harry Shearer
....
Dog Announcer (voice)
Fred Willard
....
Melvin - Alien Dad (voice)
Catherine O'Hara
....
Tina - Alien Mom (voice)
Patrick Warburton
....
Alien Cop (voice)
Adam West
....
Ace - Hollywood Chicken Little (voice)
Mark Walton
....
Goosey Loosey (voice)
Mark Dindal
....
Morkubine Porcupine/Coach (voice)
(more)
Cast overview, first billed only:
Zach Braff
....
Chicken Little (voice)
Garry Marshall
....
Buck Cluck (voice)
Don Knotts
....
Mayor Turkey Lurkey (voice)
Patrick Stewart
....
Mr. Woolensworth (voice)
Amy Sedaris
....
Foxy Loxy (voice)
Steve Zahn
....
Runt of the Litter (voice)
Joan Cusack
....
Abby Mallard (voice)
Wallace Shawn
....
Principal Fetchit (voice)
Harry Shearer
....
Dog Announcer (voice)
Fred Willard
....
Melvin - Alien Dad (voice)
Catherine O'Hara
....
Tina - Alien Mom (voice)
Patrick Warburton
....
Alien Cop (voice)
Adam West
....
Ace - Hollywood Chicken Little (voice)
Mark Walton
....
Goosey Loosey (voice)
Mark Dindal
....
Morkubine Porcupine/Coach (voice)
(more)
3/22/2006
Ford Vehicles: Enter the Ford Music Video Sweepstakes and play the Trivia Quiz
Get Down with Ford Music Video Trivia!Are you a superstar or a cool contender? Choose the best answers for all the questions below (no skipping!) for your trivia rating. Every Wednesday, watch the Ford Music Video for clues on American Idol. Or take a shortcut to the sweepstakes, and you could win a Ford Fusion and a trip for two to the American Idol finale.
VEAL CUTLETS WITH THYME BUTTER SAUCE Recipe at Epicurious.com
"If you can't find panko, cut the crust off slices of country-style bread, tear the bread into pieces, and grind it coarsely in a processor. Dry the crumbs in a 250�F oven. Do not use store-bought breadcrumbs, which have too fine a texture and give a less crispy result. What to drink: Either a dry ros� from the south of France or a full-bodied, oak-aged Chardonnay would work here.
click photo to enlarge
24 ounces veal scallops, pounded to 1/8-inch thickness
2 cups panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)*
1/2 cup all purpose flour
2 large eggs
1 cup dry white wine
1 cup low-salt chicken broth
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup fresh thyme leaves
1/4 cup chopped shallots
18 tablespoons (about) chilled butter, cut into tablespoon-size pieces, divided
2 tablespoons whipping cream
2 teaspoons chopped fresh chives
Sprinkle veal with salt and pepper. Place panko in large shallow bowl. Place flour in medium bowl. Beat eggs just to blend in another medium bowl. Working in batches, coat veal cutlets in flour, then egg, then panko, pressing gently to adhere. Place on rimmed baking sheet. (Can be prepared 2 hours ahead. Cover and chill.)
Place wine, broth, lemon juice, thyme, and shallots in heavy large skillet. Cook over medium heat until liquid is reduced almost to glaze, about 10 minutes. Add 10 tablespoons butter, 2 tablespoons at a time, whisking constantly and blending well between additions. Whisk in cream. Remove from heat. Cover to keep sauce warm.
Preheat oven to 200�F. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Working in batches and adding more butter by tablespoonfuls as needed, cook ve"
click photo to enlarge
24 ounces veal scallops, pounded to 1/8-inch thickness
2 cups panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)*
1/2 cup all purpose flour
2 large eggs
1 cup dry white wine
1 cup low-salt chicken broth
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup fresh thyme leaves
1/4 cup chopped shallots
18 tablespoons (about) chilled butter, cut into tablespoon-size pieces, divided
2 tablespoons whipping cream
2 teaspoons chopped fresh chives
Sprinkle veal with salt and pepper. Place panko in large shallow bowl. Place flour in medium bowl. Beat eggs just to blend in another medium bowl. Working in batches, coat veal cutlets in flour, then egg, then panko, pressing gently to adhere. Place on rimmed baking sheet. (Can be prepared 2 hours ahead. Cover and chill.)
Place wine, broth, lemon juice, thyme, and shallots in heavy large skillet. Cook over medium heat until liquid is reduced almost to glaze, about 10 minutes. Add 10 tablespoons butter, 2 tablespoons at a time, whisking constantly and blending well between additions. Whisk in cream. Remove from heat. Cover to keep sauce warm.
Preheat oven to 200�F. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Working in batches and adding more butter by tablespoonfuls as needed, cook ve"
3/21/2006
Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone From Yahoo! News
Child Bride
Posted by Kevin Sites
on Mon, Mar 20 2006, 4:55 PM ET
Married at the age of four, an Afghan girl was subjected to years of beatings and torture, finally escaping to discover that within all the world's cruelty, there is also some kindness.
KABUL,
- Eleven-year old Gulsoma lay in a heap on the ground in front of her father-in-law. He told her that if she didn't find a missing watch by the next morning he would kill her. He almost had already.
Enraged about the missing watch, Gulsoma's father-in-law had beaten her repeatedly with a stick. She was bleeding from wounds all over her body and her right arm and right foot had been broken.
She knew at that moment that if she didn't get away, he would make good on his promise to kill her. * * *
When I meet her at the Ministry of Women's Affairs I'm surprised that the little girl, now 12, is the same one that had endured such horrible suffering. She is wearing a red baseball cap and an orange scarf. She has beautiful brown eyes and a full and animated smile. She takes one of my hands in both of hers and greets me warmly, without any hint of shyness.
"She looks healthy," says Haroon, my friend and translator. I nod. But she looks older than her years, we both agree. In orphanages — first in Kandahar, then in Kabul — she has had a year to recover from a lifetime's worth of unimaginable imprisonment, deprivation and torture.
In one of the ministry's offices she sits in a straight-backed wooden chair and tells us the story of her life so far. She is stoic for the most part, pausing only a few times to wipe her eyes and nose with her scarf.
Her story begins in the village of Mullah Allam Akhound, near Kandahar.
"When I was three years old my father died, and after a year my mother married again, but her second husband didn't want me," says Gulsoma. "So my mother gave me away in a promise of marriage to our neighbor's oldest son, who was thirty."
"They had a ceremony in which I was placed on a horse [which is traditional in Afghanistan] and given to the man."
Because she was still a child, the marriage was not expected to be sexually consummated. But within a year, Gulsoma learned that so much else would be required of her that she would become a virtual slave in the household.
At the age of five, she was forced to take care of not only her "husband" but also his parents and all 12 of their other children as well. Though nearly the entire family participated in the abuse, her father-in-law, she says, was the cruelest.
"My father-in-law asked me to do everything — laundry, the household chores — and the only time I was able to sleep in the house was when they had guests over," she says. "Other than that I would have to sleep outside on a piece of carpet without even any blankets. In the summer it was okay. But in the winter a neighbor would come over and give me a blanket, and sometimes some food."
When she couldn't keep up with the workload, Gulsoma says, she was beaten constantly.
Gulsoma's scars
"They beat me with electric wires," she says, "mostly on the legs. My father-in-law told his other children to do it that way so the injuries would be hidden. He said to them, 'break her bones, but don't hit her on the face.'"
There were even times when the family's abuse of Gulsoma transcended the bounds of the most wanton, sadistic cruelty, as on the occasions when they used her as a human tabletop, forcing her to lie on her stomach then cutting their food on her bare back.
Gulsoma says the family had one boy her age, named Atiqullah, who refused to take part in her torture.
"He would sneak me food sometimes and when my mother-in-law told him to find a stick to beat me, he would come back say he couldn't find one," she says. "He would try to stop the others sometimes. He would say 'she is my sister, and this is sinful.' Sometimes I think about him and wish he could be here and I wish I could have him as my brother."
One evening, Gulsoma says, when her father-in-law saw the neighbor giving her food and a blanket, he took them away and beat her mercilessly. Then, she says, he locked her in a shed for two months.
"I would be kept there all day," she says, "then at night they would let me go the bathroom and I would be fed one time each day. Most of the time it was only bread and sometimes some beans."
She says every day she was locked in the shed, she wished and prayed that her parents would come and take her away. Then she would remember that her father was dead and her mother was gone.
But Gulsoma had an inner strength even her father-in-law couldn't comprehend.
"When he came to the shed he kept asking me, 'Why don't you die? I imprisoned you, I give you less food, but still you don't die.'"
But it wasn't for lack of trying. Gulsoma said when her father-in-law finally let her out of the shed, he bound her hands behind her back and beat her unconscious. She says he revived her by pouring a tea thermos filling with scalding water over her head and her back.
"It was so painful," she says, dabbing her eyes with her scarf and sniffling for a moment. "I was crying and screaming the entire time."
Five days later, she says, her father in law gave her a vicious beating when his daughter's wristwatch went missing.
"He thought I stole it," she says, "and he beat me all over my body with his stick. He broke my arm and my foot. He said if I didn't find it by the next day, he would kill me."
* * *
Gulsoma found hope after escaping
She crawled away that night and hid under a rickshaw. When the rickshaw driver found Gulsoma, broken and bleeding, he listened to her story and took her to the police. She was hospitalized immediately.
"The doctor at the hospital who treated me said, 'I wish I could take you to the village square and show all the people what happened to you, so no one would ever do something like this again,'" Gulsoma says.
It took her a full month to recover from her last beating. But the fear and psychological trauma may never go away.
"I was happy to have a bed and food at the hospital," she says. "But I was thinking that when I get better they will give me back to the family."
However, Gulsoma says when the police questioned the family, the father-in-law lied and tried to tell them she had epilepsy and had fallen down and hurt herself. But the neighbor who had helped Gulsoma confirmed the story of her beatings and torture.
The police arrested her father-in-law and "husband." They told her, she says, they would keep them in jail unless she asked for their release.
"Everyone was crying when they heard my story," Gulsoma says. Gulsoma says she stayed at an orphanage in Kandahar, but was the only girl in the facility. Eventually, her story was brought to the attention of the Ministry of Women's Affairs.
The toll of torture
Gulsoma was then brought to a Kabul orphanage, where she lives today. She takes off her baseball cap and shows us a bald spot, almost like a medieval monk's tonsure, on the crown of her head where she was scalded.
She then turns her back and raises her shirt to reveal a sad map of scar tissue and keloids from cuts, bruises and the boiling water.
Haroon and I look at each other with disbelief. Her life's tragic story is etched upon her back.
Yet she continues to smile. She doesn't ask for pity. She seems more concerned about us as she reads the shock on our faces.
"I feel better now," she says. "I have friends at the orphanage. But every night I'm still afraid the family will come here and pick me up."
Gulsoma also says that when the sun goes down, she sometimes begins to shiver involuntarily — a reaction to the seven years of sleeping outdoors, sometimes in the bitter cold of the desert night.
She says she believes there are other girls like her in Kandahar, maybe elsewhere in Afghanistan, and that she wants to study human rights and one day go back to help them.
As we walk outside to take some pictures, I ask her if, after all she's been through, she thinks it will be harder to trust, to believe that there are actually good people in the world.
"No," she says, quickly.
"I didn't expect anyone would help me but God. I was really surprised that there were also nice people: the neighbor, the rickshaw driver, the police," she says. "I pray for those who helped release me."
Looking directly into the camera, she smiles as if nothing bad had ever happened to her in her entire life.
"I think that all people are good people," she says, "except for those that hurt me."
SEND YOUR SUPPORT
The Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone team has set up an email account so that messages of support can be retrieved and forwarded to Gulsoma via a local organization. Click here to email your message.
Posted by Kevin Sites
on Mon, Mar 20 2006, 4:55 PM ET
Married at the age of four, an Afghan girl was subjected to years of beatings and torture, finally escaping to discover that within all the world's cruelty, there is also some kindness.
KABUL,
- Eleven-year old Gulsoma lay in a heap on the ground in front of her father-in-law. He told her that if she didn't find a missing watch by the next morning he would kill her. He almost had already.
Enraged about the missing watch, Gulsoma's father-in-law had beaten her repeatedly with a stick. She was bleeding from wounds all over her body and her right arm and right foot had been broken.
She knew at that moment that if she didn't get away, he would make good on his promise to kill her. * * *
When I meet her at the Ministry of Women's Affairs I'm surprised that the little girl, now 12, is the same one that had endured such horrible suffering. She is wearing a red baseball cap and an orange scarf. She has beautiful brown eyes and a full and animated smile. She takes one of my hands in both of hers and greets me warmly, without any hint of shyness.
"She looks healthy," says Haroon, my friend and translator. I nod. But she looks older than her years, we both agree. In orphanages — first in Kandahar, then in Kabul — she has had a year to recover from a lifetime's worth of unimaginable imprisonment, deprivation and torture.
In one of the ministry's offices she sits in a straight-backed wooden chair and tells us the story of her life so far. She is stoic for the most part, pausing only a few times to wipe her eyes and nose with her scarf.
Her story begins in the village of Mullah Allam Akhound, near Kandahar.
"When I was three years old my father died, and after a year my mother married again, but her second husband didn't want me," says Gulsoma. "So my mother gave me away in a promise of marriage to our neighbor's oldest son, who was thirty."
"They had a ceremony in which I was placed on a horse [which is traditional in Afghanistan] and given to the man."
Because she was still a child, the marriage was not expected to be sexually consummated. But within a year, Gulsoma learned that so much else would be required of her that she would become a virtual slave in the household.
At the age of five, she was forced to take care of not only her "husband" but also his parents and all 12 of their other children as well. Though nearly the entire family participated in the abuse, her father-in-law, she says, was the cruelest.
"My father-in-law asked me to do everything — laundry, the household chores — and the only time I was able to sleep in the house was when they had guests over," she says. "Other than that I would have to sleep outside on a piece of carpet without even any blankets. In the summer it was okay. But in the winter a neighbor would come over and give me a blanket, and sometimes some food."
When she couldn't keep up with the workload, Gulsoma says, she was beaten constantly.
Gulsoma's scars
"They beat me with electric wires," she says, "mostly on the legs. My father-in-law told his other children to do it that way so the injuries would be hidden. He said to them, 'break her bones, but don't hit her on the face.'"
There were even times when the family's abuse of Gulsoma transcended the bounds of the most wanton, sadistic cruelty, as on the occasions when they used her as a human tabletop, forcing her to lie on her stomach then cutting their food on her bare back.
Gulsoma says the family had one boy her age, named Atiqullah, who refused to take part in her torture.
"He would sneak me food sometimes and when my mother-in-law told him to find a stick to beat me, he would come back say he couldn't find one," she says. "He would try to stop the others sometimes. He would say 'she is my sister, and this is sinful.' Sometimes I think about him and wish he could be here and I wish I could have him as my brother."
One evening, Gulsoma says, when her father-in-law saw the neighbor giving her food and a blanket, he took them away and beat her mercilessly. Then, she says, he locked her in a shed for two months.
"I would be kept there all day," she says, "then at night they would let me go the bathroom and I would be fed one time each day. Most of the time it was only bread and sometimes some beans."
She says every day she was locked in the shed, she wished and prayed that her parents would come and take her away. Then she would remember that her father was dead and her mother was gone.
But Gulsoma had an inner strength even her father-in-law couldn't comprehend.
"When he came to the shed he kept asking me, 'Why don't you die? I imprisoned you, I give you less food, but still you don't die.'"
But it wasn't for lack of trying. Gulsoma said when her father-in-law finally let her out of the shed, he bound her hands behind her back and beat her unconscious. She says he revived her by pouring a tea thermos filling with scalding water over her head and her back.
"It was so painful," she says, dabbing her eyes with her scarf and sniffling for a moment. "I was crying and screaming the entire time."
Five days later, she says, her father in law gave her a vicious beating when his daughter's wristwatch went missing.
"He thought I stole it," she says, "and he beat me all over my body with his stick. He broke my arm and my foot. He said if I didn't find it by the next day, he would kill me."
* * *
Gulsoma found hope after escaping
She crawled away that night and hid under a rickshaw. When the rickshaw driver found Gulsoma, broken and bleeding, he listened to her story and took her to the police. She was hospitalized immediately.
"The doctor at the hospital who treated me said, 'I wish I could take you to the village square and show all the people what happened to you, so no one would ever do something like this again,'" Gulsoma says.
It took her a full month to recover from her last beating. But the fear and psychological trauma may never go away.
"I was happy to have a bed and food at the hospital," she says. "But I was thinking that when I get better they will give me back to the family."
However, Gulsoma says when the police questioned the family, the father-in-law lied and tried to tell them she had epilepsy and had fallen down and hurt herself. But the neighbor who had helped Gulsoma confirmed the story of her beatings and torture.
The police arrested her father-in-law and "husband." They told her, she says, they would keep them in jail unless she asked for their release.
"Everyone was crying when they heard my story," Gulsoma says. Gulsoma says she stayed at an orphanage in Kandahar, but was the only girl in the facility. Eventually, her story was brought to the attention of the Ministry of Women's Affairs.
The toll of torture
Gulsoma was then brought to a Kabul orphanage, where she lives today. She takes off her baseball cap and shows us a bald spot, almost like a medieval monk's tonsure, on the crown of her head where she was scalded.
She then turns her back and raises her shirt to reveal a sad map of scar tissue and keloids from cuts, bruises and the boiling water.
Haroon and I look at each other with disbelief. Her life's tragic story is etched upon her back.
Yet she continues to smile. She doesn't ask for pity. She seems more concerned about us as she reads the shock on our faces.
"I feel better now," she says. "I have friends at the orphanage. But every night I'm still afraid the family will come here and pick me up."
Gulsoma also says that when the sun goes down, she sometimes begins to shiver involuntarily — a reaction to the seven years of sleeping outdoors, sometimes in the bitter cold of the desert night.
She says she believes there are other girls like her in Kandahar, maybe elsewhere in Afghanistan, and that she wants to study human rights and one day go back to help them.
As we walk outside to take some pictures, I ask her if, after all she's been through, she thinks it will be harder to trust, to believe that there are actually good people in the world.
"No," she says, quickly.
"I didn't expect anyone would help me but God. I was really surprised that there were also nice people: the neighbor, the rickshaw driver, the police," she says. "I pray for those who helped release me."
Looking directly into the camera, she smiles as if nothing bad had ever happened to her in her entire life.
"I think that all people are good people," she says, "except for those that hurt me."
SEND YOUR SUPPORT
The Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone team has set up an email account so that messages of support can be retrieved and forwarded to Gulsoma via a local organization. Click here to email your message.
3/20/2006
3/17/2006
St Paddy's Day
"Who is Saint Patrick?
Important historical figures are frequently shadowed by the myths and legends attributed to them over the course of centuries, and St. Patrick is no exception. He is believed to have been born in the late fourth century, and is often confused with Palladius, a bishop who was sent by Pope Celestine in 431 to be the first bishop to the Irish believers in Christ. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, St. Patrick was the patron saint and national apostle of Ireland who is credited with bringing Christianity to Ireland. Most of what is known about him comes from his two works, the Confessio, a spiritual autobiography, and his Epistola, a denunciation of British mistreatment of Irish Christians. Saint Patrick described himself as a 'most humble-minded man, pouring forth a continuous paean of thanks to his Maker for having chosen him as the instrument whereby multitudes who had worshipped idols and unclean things had become the people of God.'
Saint Patrick is most known for driving the snakes from Ireland. It is true there are no snakes in Ireland, but there probably never have been -- the island was separated from the rest of the continent at the end of the Ice Age. As in many old pagan religions, serpent symbols were common and often worshipped. Driving the snakes from Ireland was probably symbolic of putting an end to that pagan practice. While not the first to bring Christianity to Ireland, it is Patrick who is said to have encountered the Druids at Tara and abolished their pagan rites. The story holds that he converted the warrior chiefs and princes, baptizing them and thousands of their subjects in the 'Holy Wells' that still bear this name.
There are several accounts of St. Patrick's death. One says that St. Patrick died at Saul, Downpatrick, Ireland, on March 17, "
Origins of Saint Patrick's Day
Traditional Irish Blessings
Leprechauns, castles, good luck and laughter; Lullabies, dreams and love ever after. Poems and songs with pipes and drums; A thousand welcomes when anyone comes.
May St. Patrick guard you wherever you go and guide you in whatever you do -- and may his loving protection be a blessing to you always.
May the road rise to meet you, May the wind be always at your back, May the sun shine warm upon your face, The rains fall soft upon your fields and, Until we meet again, May God hold you in the palm of His hand.Saint Patrick's Day has come to be associated with everything Irish: anything green and gold, shamrocks and luck. Most importantly, to those who celebrate its intended meaning, St. Patrick's Day is a traditional day for spiritual renewal and offering prayers for missionaries worldwide. The Irish are descendants of the ancient Celts, but the Vikings, Normans and English contributed to the ethnic nature of the people. Centuries of English rule largely eliminated the use of the ancient Gaelic, or Irish, language. Most Irish are either Catholics or Protestants (Anglicans, members of the Church of England).
So, why is it celebrated on March 17th? One theory is that that is the day that St. Patrick died. Since the holiday began in Ireland, it is believed that as the Irish spread out around the world, they took with them their history and celebrations. The biggest observance of all is, of course, in Ireland. With the exception of restaurants and pubs, almost all businesses close on March 17th. Being a religious holiday as well, many Irish attend mass, where March 17th is the traditional day for offering prayers for missionaries worldwide before the serious celebrating begins.
In American cities with a large Irish population, St. Patrick's Day is a very big deal. Big cities and small towns alike celebrate with parades, "wearing of the green," music and songs, Irish food and drink, and activities for kids such as crafts, coloring and games. Some communities even go so far as to dye rivers or streams green!
The Shamrock and the Blarney StoneThe Legend of the ShamrockAccording to Encyclopedia Britannica, a shamrock is "any of several similar-appearing trifoliate plants (plants whose leaves are divided into three leaflets). Common shamrocks include the wood sorrel (Oxalis acetosella) of the family Oxalidaceae, or any of various plants of the pea family (Fabaceae), including white clover (Trifolium repens) and suckling clover Trifolium dubium." According to Irish legend, St. Patrick chose the shamrock as a symbol of the church's Holy Trinity because of its three leaflets bound by a common stalk. Wood sorrel is shipped in large quantities from Ireland to other countries for St. Patrick's Day.
The Legend of the Blarney Stone
There is a stone there,That whoever kisses,Oh, he never missesTo grow eloquent.'Tis he may clamberTo a lady's chamber,Or become a memberOf Parliament.
Just northwest of the Irish village of Cork is the village of Blarney. The name Blarney is derived from the Irish An blarna, "the plain." Blarney is home to the 90-foot-tall (27.4-meter) Blarney Castle. The castle visited today is the third one built at the site and was erected in 1446.
Built on a rock, above several caves, the tower originally had three stories. On the top story, just below the battlements on the parapet, is the world famous Blarney Stone. While its origins are unknown, the Blarney Stone is said to give the gift of eloquence (beautiful speaking ability) to all who kiss it. Today, "Blarney" means "the ability to influence and coax with fair words and soft speech without offending."
Kissing the stone is quite a physical feat. You have to sit with your back to the stone, and a local guide or friend sits on your legs or firmly holds your feet. Then you lean back and down into the darkness between the castle's 18-foot-thick (5.5-meter) walls and, grasping the iron rails, lower yourself until your head is even with the stone.
One local legend claims that an old woman, saved from drowning by a king of Munster, rewarded him with a spell that if he would kiss a stone on the castle's top, he would gain a speech that would win all to him. It is not known, however, when and how the word Blarney entered the English language and the dictionary.
Important historical figures are frequently shadowed by the myths and legends attributed to them over the course of centuries, and St. Patrick is no exception. He is believed to have been born in the late fourth century, and is often confused with Palladius, a bishop who was sent by Pope Celestine in 431 to be the first bishop to the Irish believers in Christ. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, St. Patrick was the patron saint and national apostle of Ireland who is credited with bringing Christianity to Ireland. Most of what is known about him comes from his two works, the Confessio, a spiritual autobiography, and his Epistola, a denunciation of British mistreatment of Irish Christians. Saint Patrick described himself as a 'most humble-minded man, pouring forth a continuous paean of thanks to his Maker for having chosen him as the instrument whereby multitudes who had worshipped idols and unclean things had become the people of God.'
Saint Patrick is most known for driving the snakes from Ireland. It is true there are no snakes in Ireland, but there probably never have been -- the island was separated from the rest of the continent at the end of the Ice Age. As in many old pagan religions, serpent symbols were common and often worshipped. Driving the snakes from Ireland was probably symbolic of putting an end to that pagan practice. While not the first to bring Christianity to Ireland, it is Patrick who is said to have encountered the Druids at Tara and abolished their pagan rites. The story holds that he converted the warrior chiefs and princes, baptizing them and thousands of their subjects in the 'Holy Wells' that still bear this name.
There are several accounts of St. Patrick's death. One says that St. Patrick died at Saul, Downpatrick, Ireland, on March 17, "
Origins of Saint Patrick's Day
Traditional Irish Blessings
Leprechauns, castles, good luck and laughter; Lullabies, dreams and love ever after. Poems and songs with pipes and drums; A thousand welcomes when anyone comes.
May St. Patrick guard you wherever you go and guide you in whatever you do -- and may his loving protection be a blessing to you always.
May the road rise to meet you, May the wind be always at your back, May the sun shine warm upon your face, The rains fall soft upon your fields and, Until we meet again, May God hold you in the palm of His hand.Saint Patrick's Day has come to be associated with everything Irish: anything green and gold, shamrocks and luck. Most importantly, to those who celebrate its intended meaning, St. Patrick's Day is a traditional day for spiritual renewal and offering prayers for missionaries worldwide. The Irish are descendants of the ancient Celts, but the Vikings, Normans and English contributed to the ethnic nature of the people. Centuries of English rule largely eliminated the use of the ancient Gaelic, or Irish, language. Most Irish are either Catholics or Protestants (Anglicans, members of the Church of England).
So, why is it celebrated on March 17th? One theory is that that is the day that St. Patrick died. Since the holiday began in Ireland, it is believed that as the Irish spread out around the world, they took with them their history and celebrations. The biggest observance of all is, of course, in Ireland. With the exception of restaurants and pubs, almost all businesses close on March 17th. Being a religious holiday as well, many Irish attend mass, where March 17th is the traditional day for offering prayers for missionaries worldwide before the serious celebrating begins.
In American cities with a large Irish population, St. Patrick's Day is a very big deal. Big cities and small towns alike celebrate with parades, "wearing of the green," music and songs, Irish food and drink, and activities for kids such as crafts, coloring and games. Some communities even go so far as to dye rivers or streams green!
The Shamrock and the Blarney StoneThe Legend of the ShamrockAccording to Encyclopedia Britannica, a shamrock is "any of several similar-appearing trifoliate plants (plants whose leaves are divided into three leaflets). Common shamrocks include the wood sorrel (Oxalis acetosella) of the family Oxalidaceae, or any of various plants of the pea family (Fabaceae), including white clover (Trifolium repens) and suckling clover Trifolium dubium." According to Irish legend, St. Patrick chose the shamrock as a symbol of the church's Holy Trinity because of its three leaflets bound by a common stalk. Wood sorrel is shipped in large quantities from Ireland to other countries for St. Patrick's Day.
The Legend of the Blarney Stone
There is a stone there,That whoever kisses,Oh, he never missesTo grow eloquent.'Tis he may clamberTo a lady's chamber,Or become a memberOf Parliament.
Just northwest of the Irish village of Cork is the village of Blarney. The name Blarney is derived from the Irish An blarna, "the plain." Blarney is home to the 90-foot-tall (27.4-meter) Blarney Castle. The castle visited today is the third one built at the site and was erected in 1446.
Built on a rock, above several caves, the tower originally had three stories. On the top story, just below the battlements on the parapet, is the world famous Blarney Stone. While its origins are unknown, the Blarney Stone is said to give the gift of eloquence (beautiful speaking ability) to all who kiss it. Today, "Blarney" means "the ability to influence and coax with fair words and soft speech without offending."
Kissing the stone is quite a physical feat. You have to sit with your back to the stone, and a local guide or friend sits on your legs or firmly holds your feet. Then you lean back and down into the darkness between the castle's 18-foot-thick (5.5-meter) walls and, grasping the iron rails, lower yourself until your head is even with the stone.
One local legend claims that an old woman, saved from drowning by a king of Munster, rewarded him with a spell that if he would kiss a stone on the castle's top, he would gain a speech that would win all to him. It is not known, however, when and how the word Blarney entered the English language and the dictionary.
St. Patrick's Recipes
Irish Soda Bread
4 cups flour (unsifted)
1 tsp. baking soda
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 cup seedless raisins
1 cup buttermilk
4 tablespoons butter
Mix flour, soda, sugar and salt in large mixing bowl. Stir in raisins. Make a well in the mixture and pour in buttermilk. Stir until well blended. Knead dough 8 to 10 times on floured wax paper. Roll dough into a ball.
Use 1 1/2 tablespoons of butter to grease cookie sheet. Place dough ball on cookie sheet and pat into thick circle. Use floured knife to make an X on top of loaf (keeps loaf from cracking). Spread remaining butter on tops and sides of bread.
Bake loaf in preheated 375 degree oven for about 40 minutes. Check periodically to see if top of loaf is golden brown. Serve with butter and green mint jelly! "
4 cups flour (unsifted)
1 tsp. baking soda
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 cup seedless raisins
1 cup buttermilk
4 tablespoons butter
Mix flour, soda, sugar and salt in large mixing bowl. Stir in raisins. Make a well in the mixture and pour in buttermilk. Stir until well blended. Knead dough 8 to 10 times on floured wax paper. Roll dough into a ball.
Use 1 1/2 tablespoons of butter to grease cookie sheet. Place dough ball on cookie sheet and pat into thick circle. Use floured knife to make an X on top of loaf (keeps loaf from cracking). Spread remaining butter on tops and sides of bread.
Bake loaf in preheated 375 degree oven for about 40 minutes. Check periodically to see if top of loaf is golden brown. Serve with butter and green mint jelly! "
3/16/2006
ABC News anchor Woodruff leaves military hospital - Yahoo! News
"LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Six weeks after he was gravely wounded by a bomb blast on assignment in Iraq, ABC News anchor Bob Woodruff was released on Thursday from a military hospital outside Washington, the network said.
Woodruff, 44, who has been up and about, talking and joking with family and watching the news, will continue his recovery for the next few weeks at a private facility in the New York City area, ABC News President David Westin said in an e-mail to colleagues and others in the media.
After that, Woodruff is expected to go home and undergo further rehabilitation on an out-patient basis.
'He continues to show just how strong and determined he is,' Westin said of Woodruff's recovery. 'That said, we expect months of further recuperation.'
Woodruff was seriously wounded by a roadside bomb while riding in a military patrol near Baghdad on January 29, suffering injuries to his chest, neck, face and head. He had remained under heavy sedation for weeks during his initial recovery at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.
His cameraman, Dough Vogt, who suffered less extensive injuries in the blast, was moved to an out-patient care facility in February.
ABC News executives have said they still hope Woodruff can eventually return to his duties as co-anchor of the network's weeknight 'World News Tonight' broadcast with Elizabeth Vargas.
The network debuted its new two-anchor newscast format on January 3 with Woodruff and Vargas permanently taking the place of the late Peter Jennings, who died of lung cancer in August.
After Woodruf"was injured, ABC's leading breakfast-hour personalities, "Good Morning America" co-hosts Diane Sawyer and Charles Gibson, took turns filling in as co-anchors with Vargas as speculation swirled about whether one of them might be named to permanently join the "World News Tonight" team.
During the past week, Vargas has anchored the evening newscast alone.
Vargas raised further questions about the immediate future of "World News Tonight" when she revealed last month that she was expecting a baby in late summer, though she plans to stay on the job through most of her pregnancy.
Reuters/VNU
Woodruff, 44, who has been up and about, talking and joking with family and watching the news, will continue his recovery for the next few weeks at a private facility in the New York City area, ABC News President David Westin said in an e-mail to colleagues and others in the media.
After that, Woodruff is expected to go home and undergo further rehabilitation on an out-patient basis.
'He continues to show just how strong and determined he is,' Westin said of Woodruff's recovery. 'That said, we expect months of further recuperation.'
Woodruff was seriously wounded by a roadside bomb while riding in a military patrol near Baghdad on January 29, suffering injuries to his chest, neck, face and head. He had remained under heavy sedation for weeks during his initial recovery at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.
His cameraman, Dough Vogt, who suffered less extensive injuries in the blast, was moved to an out-patient care facility in February.
ABC News executives have said they still hope Woodruff can eventually return to his duties as co-anchor of the network's weeknight 'World News Tonight' broadcast with Elizabeth Vargas.
The network debuted its new two-anchor newscast format on January 3 with Woodruff and Vargas permanently taking the place of the late Peter Jennings, who died of lung cancer in August.
After Woodruf"was injured, ABC's leading breakfast-hour personalities, "Good Morning America" co-hosts Diane Sawyer and Charles Gibson, took turns filling in as co-anchors with Vargas as speculation swirled about whether one of them might be named to permanently join the "World News Tonight" team.
During the past week, Vargas has anchored the evening newscast alone.
Vargas raised further questions about the immediate future of "World News Tonight" when she revealed last month that she was expecting a baby in late summer, though she plans to stay on the job through most of her pregnancy.
Reuters/VNU
3/15/2006
Free tattoo flash / TribalShapes.com
very cool I'm checking this out , need to get a tattoo , soon I hope:)
Judster educates children about responsible pet care.
This is a very good thing, check it out.
children and animals, working and learning together...very good...
children and animals, working and learning together...very good...
3/14/2006
Glendorn Ginger Snaps
These cookies are definitely for the ginger lover.
Prep. time: 15 minutes Cooking time: 15 minutesServes: make 5 dozen cookies
Source: Houston Junior League Cookbook
Ingredients
3/4 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup molasses
1 egg
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ginger
Directions
Cream shortening and sugar together. Add molasses, then egg. Sift together flour, soda, salt, cinnamon, cloves and ginger. Add to sugar mixture and blend well. Chill. Form dough into small balls and roll in additional sugar. Place on cookie sheets about 1 inch apart. Flatten balls of dough with a glass tumbler. Bake at 350 degrees to 375 degrees for 15 minutes, or until crisp. Remove cookies to wire racks and let cool.
Author: Junior League of Houston, Inc.
Prep. time: 15 minutes Cooking time: 15 minutesServes: make 5 dozen cookies
Source: Houston Junior League Cookbook
Ingredients
3/4 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup molasses
1 egg
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ginger
Directions
Cream shortening and sugar together. Add molasses, then egg. Sift together flour, soda, salt, cinnamon, cloves and ginger. Add to sugar mixture and blend well. Chill. Form dough into small balls and roll in additional sugar. Place on cookie sheets about 1 inch apart. Flatten balls of dough with a glass tumbler. Bake at 350 degrees to 375 degrees for 15 minutes, or until crisp. Remove cookies to wire racks and let cool.
Author: Junior League of Houston, Inc.
3/13/2006
Blogthings - What Color Green Are You?
| You Are Teal Green |
 You are a one of a kind, original person. There's no one even close to being like you. Expressive and creative, you have a knack for making the impossible possible. While you are a bit offbeat, you don't scare people away with your quirks. Your warm personality nicely counteracts and strange habits you may have. |
More ancient war goddess statues found in Egypt - Yahoo! News
CAIRO (AFP) - A team of German archeologists has unearthed 17 statues of the lion-headed goddess Sekhmet during restoration work at an ancient temple in the southern city of Luxor, Culture Minister Faruq Hosni announced.
The team found the statues of the war goddess near the same site where six similar statues were unearthed last week, on the location of the 18th dynasty (1580-1314 BC) temple of pharaoh Amenhotep III on the west bank of the Nile, Hosni added in a statement received by AFP.
The black granite statues were life-size, measure between 1.7 metres and 1.8 metres and show Sekhmet sitting on a throne holding the Ankh, a hieroglyphic sign that represented life for the ancient Egyptians, said Zahi Hawas, head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities.
Hawas said there were inscriptions on either side of the seat indicating the various names of the pharaoh Amenhotep III.
The team, he explained, was currently in the process of raising the statues, which were found in three metre-deep holes and measuring eight metres in diameter, for restoration.
Last week, Egyptian and German archeologists found six statues for Sekhmet near the courtyard of the same temple.
The goddess Sekhmet was associated with war and retribution and represented the destructive force of the sun. Part of her destructive side was disease and plague, but she could also cure ailments.
Pharaoh Amenhotep III collected many statues of Sekhmet as, according to some theories, he had dental and other health problems that he hoped the goddess would be able to cure."
The team found the statues of the war goddess near the same site where six similar statues were unearthed last week, on the location of the 18th dynasty (1580-1314 BC) temple of pharaoh Amenhotep III on the west bank of the Nile, Hosni added in a statement received by AFP.
The black granite statues were life-size, measure between 1.7 metres and 1.8 metres and show Sekhmet sitting on a throne holding the Ankh, a hieroglyphic sign that represented life for the ancient Egyptians, said Zahi Hawas, head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities.
Hawas said there were inscriptions on either side of the seat indicating the various names of the pharaoh Amenhotep III.
The team, he explained, was currently in the process of raising the statues, which were found in three metre-deep holes and measuring eight metres in diameter, for restoration.
Last week, Egyptian and German archeologists found six statues for Sekhmet near the courtyard of the same temple.
The goddess Sekhmet was associated with war and retribution and represented the destructive force of the sun. Part of her destructive side was disease and plague, but she could also cure ailments.
Pharaoh Amenhotep III collected many statues of Sekhmet as, according to some theories, he had dental and other health problems that he hoped the goddess would be able to cure."
3/12/2006
STEAMED CLAMS WITH PASTA Recipe at Epicurious.com
Improv: Try mussels instead of clams; substitute basil for the parsley.
Cook in pot of boiling salted water until tender but still firm to bite; drain:
1 pound linguine
Meanwhile, cook covered in large pot over medium-high heat until clams begin to open, about 10 minutes:
6 pounds littleneck or other small clams, scrubbed
1/2 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley
3 garlic cloves, chopped
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper
Divide pasta among bowls. Top with seafood mixture and juices, discarding any clams that do not open; serve.
Makes 6 servings.
Bon App�tit
March 2006"
Cook in pot of boiling salted water until tender but still firm to bite; drain:
1 pound linguine
Meanwhile, cook covered in large pot over medium-high heat until clams begin to open, about 10 minutes:
6 pounds littleneck or other small clams, scrubbed
1/2 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley
3 garlic cloves, chopped
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper
Divide pasta among bowls. Top with seafood mixture and juices, discarding any clams that do not open; serve.
Makes 6 servings.
Bon App�tit
March 2006"
3/10/2006
Cat Comforts Grieving Orangutan at Zoo - Yahoo! News
well I don't really like cats(very allergic), and apes , but a nice story....
Dog Survives After Fall Into Icy Channel - Yahoo! News
"GRAND HAVEN, Mich. - A dog that was presumed drowned after falling into an icy river channel that feeds Lake Michigan was found alive hours later and returned to its grateful owner.
ADVERTISEMENT
Robert Chavez was walking two of his dogs alongside the Grand River around 10:30 a.m. Tuesday when his German shepherd fell into the channel and broke through the ice.
The ice prevented Chavez from getting the dog out of the water, so he ran to a nearby home and called 911. When he returned to the river, he could not find the dog.
Officers from the Public Safety Department and the Coast Guard station searched, but they also could not find the animal.
Around 9:45 p.m., a woman reported that she and her friends had heard a dog barking as they walked along the channel's south pier.
Responding officers also heard barking that appeared to be coming from a tunnel beneath the pier, but they were unable to remove a 12-inch service cover to gain access to it.
Two hours later, a man reported that he had also heard barking sounds, and he managed to remove the cover and found a dog trapped in the tunnel.
Sheriff's Deputy Mike Petroelje used a leash to free the dog, The Muskegon Chronicle reported. The dog was not injured.
Strangely, officials said they believe the German shepherd gained access to the tunnel by swimming through a hole created in the channel's seawall when it was rammed by a Mackinaw while the new icebreaker was on a tour of Great Lakes ports.
The Mackinaw's captain was removed from his post after the accident, which also left an 8-foot-by-3-foot dent in the bow of the $90 million ship."
ADVERTISEMENT
Robert Chavez was walking two of his dogs alongside the Grand River around 10:30 a.m. Tuesday when his German shepherd fell into the channel and broke through the ice.
The ice prevented Chavez from getting the dog out of the water, so he ran to a nearby home and called 911. When he returned to the river, he could not find the dog.
Officers from the Public Safety Department and the Coast Guard station searched, but they also could not find the animal.
Around 9:45 p.m., a woman reported that she and her friends had heard a dog barking as they walked along the channel's south pier.
Responding officers also heard barking that appeared to be coming from a tunnel beneath the pier, but they were unable to remove a 12-inch service cover to gain access to it.
Two hours later, a man reported that he had also heard barking sounds, and he managed to remove the cover and found a dog trapped in the tunnel.
Sheriff's Deputy Mike Petroelje used a leash to free the dog, The Muskegon Chronicle reported. The dog was not injured.
Strangely, officials said they believe the German shepherd gained access to the tunnel by swimming through a hole created in the channel's seawall when it was rammed by a Mackinaw while the new icebreaker was on a tour of Great Lakes ports.
The Mackinaw's captain was removed from his post after the accident, which also left an 8-foot-by-3-foot dent in the bow of the $90 million ship."
BALSAMIC-GLAZED PORK CHOPS Recipe at Epicurious.com
Caramelized shallots and a dark vinegar glaze turn chops into an extremely flavorful sweet-and-sour dish.
click photo to enlarge
4 (3/4-inch-thick) center-cut pork chops (about 2 lb total)1 teaspoon salt1/2 teaspoon black pepper2 tablespoons olive oil6 oz small shallots (about 8), quartered and peeled, leaving root ends intact2/3 cup balsamic vinegar1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
Pat pork dry and sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper.Heat oil in a 12-inch heavy skillet over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking, then cook pork (in 2 batches if necessary) along with shallots, turning pork over once and stirring shallots occasionally, until pork is browned and shallots are golden brown and tender, about 5 minutes total. Transfer pork with tongs to a plate and add vinegar, sugar, and remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper to shallots in skillet. Cook, stirring until sugar is dissolved and liquid is thickened slightly, about 1 minute.Reduce heat to moderate, then return pork along with any juices accumulated on plate to skillet and turn 2 or 3 times to coat with sauce. Cook, turning over once, until pork is just cooked through, about 3 minutes total. Transfer pork to a platter and boil sauce until thickened and syrupy, 1 to 2 minutes. Pour sauce over pork.Makes 4 servings.GourmetLast TouchMarch 2006
click photo to enlarge
4 (3/4-inch-thick) center-cut pork chops (about 2 lb total)1 teaspoon salt1/2 teaspoon black pepper2 tablespoons olive oil6 oz small shallots (about 8), quartered and peeled, leaving root ends intact2/3 cup balsamic vinegar1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
Pat pork dry and sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper.Heat oil in a 12-inch heavy skillet over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking, then cook pork (in 2 batches if necessary) along with shallots, turning pork over once and stirring shallots occasionally, until pork is browned and shallots are golden brown and tender, about 5 minutes total. Transfer pork with tongs to a plate and add vinegar, sugar, and remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper to shallots in skillet. Cook, stirring until sugar is dissolved and liquid is thickened slightly, about 1 minute.Reduce heat to moderate, then return pork along with any juices accumulated on plate to skillet and turn 2 or 3 times to coat with sauce. Cook, turning over once, until pork is just cooked through, about 3 minutes total. Transfer pork to a platter and boil sauce until thickened and syrupy, 1 to 2 minutes. Pour sauce over pork.Makes 4 servings.GourmetLast TouchMarch 2006
Rat-Squirrel Not Extinct After All - Yahoo! News
It Looks like "SCRAT" from the kid movie "ICE AGE".....
3/08/2006
3/07/2006
'Dead' denizens dwell on cusp of life, death
"By Anita Sama, USA TODAY
Tue Mar 7, 6:54 AM ET
The premise is larger than life: There is a transitional place for the dead if they remain in the memory of someone living.
In his novel The Brief History of the Dead, Kevin Brockmeier peoples an entire city with these nearly departed.
His city of the dead pulses with life. Inhabitants shop for shoes, read the newspaper, linger over coffee and wonder what comes next. Neither heaven nor hell, death here actually looks a lot like life on Earth with some fascinating quirky twists. No one ages, and possibilities range from good people rediscovering love to the not-so-good staying disturbingly in character. (Related excerpt: Read a preview of The Brief History of the Dead)
Each chapter alternates between this posthumous 'outer room' and a fiendishly cold corner of the real world. Here, one woman's memory holds the key to that otherworldly city. Laura Byrd is a wildlife specialist on a bizarre polar expedition.
Gradually, we understand why she is there and meet her family, childhood friends, former lovers and passing acquaintances. With Brockmeier's well-paced narrative, connections among them become clear.
Who are these people, and what are they doing in this strange place? Sound familiar and enticing? Sort of like Lost in a good book.
Brockmeier's roots in the tradition of science fiction and fantasy are evident, although in this relatively brief book, he reaches wider than merely charting the apocalypse. There are many levels, each interesting.
One is the fragile nature of human civilization. Another is the stunning number of people e"
Tue Mar 7, 6:54 AM ET
The premise is larger than life: There is a transitional place for the dead if they remain in the memory of someone living.
In his novel The Brief History of the Dead, Kevin Brockmeier peoples an entire city with these nearly departed.
His city of the dead pulses with life. Inhabitants shop for shoes, read the newspaper, linger over coffee and wonder what comes next. Neither heaven nor hell, death here actually looks a lot like life on Earth with some fascinating quirky twists. No one ages, and possibilities range from good people rediscovering love to the not-so-good staying disturbingly in character. (Related excerpt: Read a preview of The Brief History of the Dead)
Each chapter alternates between this posthumous 'outer room' and a fiendishly cold corner of the real world. Here, one woman's memory holds the key to that otherworldly city. Laura Byrd is a wildlife specialist on a bizarre polar expedition.
Gradually, we understand why she is there and meet her family, childhood friends, former lovers and passing acquaintances. With Brockmeier's well-paced narrative, connections among them become clear.
Who are these people, and what are they doing in this strange place? Sound familiar and enticing? Sort of like Lost in a good book.
Brockmeier's roots in the tradition of science fiction and fantasy are evident, although in this relatively brief book, he reaches wider than merely charting the apocalypse. There are many levels, each interesting.
One is the fragile nature of human civilization. Another is the stunning number of people e"
Christopher Reeve's Widow Dies at Age 44 - Yahoo! News
By JIM FITZGERALD, Associated Press Writer 16 minutes ago
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. -
Dana the singer-actress who married the strapping star of the "Superman" movies and then devoted herself to his care and his cause after he was paralyzed, has died of lung cancer, a year-and-a-half after her husband. She was 44.
Although Reeve had announced her cancer diagnosis in August — to an outpouring of sympathy and support from admirers around the world — her death seemed sudden. As recently as Jan. 12, she looked healthy and happy as she belted out
Carole King' 's "Now and Forever" at a packed Madison Square Garden during a ceremony honoring hockey star Mark Messier, a friend.
"Unfortunately, that's what happens with this awful disease," said Maggie Goldberg of the Christopher Reeve Foundation, where Dana Reeve had succeeded her husband as chair. "You feel good, you're responding and then the downturn."
Reeve, who lived in Pound Ridge, died Monday night at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Medical Center in Manhattan, said foundation president Kathy Lewis.
Officials would not discuss Reeve's treatment or say when she entered the hospital. But Lewis said she visited her there on Friday, when Reeve was "tired but with her typical sense of humor and smile, always trying to make other people feel good, her characteristic personality."
"The brightest light has gone out," said comedian
Robin Williams' "We will forever celebrate her loving spirit."
Former
President Clinton' and Sen.
Hillary Rodham Clinton' described Reeve as "a model of tenacity and grace."
"Despite the adversity that she faced, Dana bravely met these challenges and was always an extremely devoted wife, mother and advocate," they said.
Christopher and Dana Reeve married in 1992. Life changed drastically for the young show-business couple three years later when Christopher Reeve suffered near-total paralysis in a horse-riding accident and almost died.
In his autobiography, "Still Me," Reeve wrote that he suggested early on to his wife, "Maybe we should let me go." She responded, "I'll be with you for the long haul, no matter what. You're still you and I love you."
Those were "the words that saved my life," Christopher Reeve said.
For his remaining nine years, Dana Reeve was her husband's constant companion and supporter during the ordeal of his rehabilitation, winning worldwide acclaim and admiration. With him, she became an activist in the search for a cure for spinal-cord injuries.
"Something miraculous and wonderful happened amidst terrible tragedy, and a whole new dimension of life began to emerge," she wrote in a 1999 book, "Care Packages: Letters to Christopher Reeve from Strangers and Other Friends." "What we had yet to discover were all the gifts that come out of sharing hardship, the hidden pleasures behind the pain."
After her husband's death in October 2004, Reeve said she planned to return to acting. She had appeared on Broadway, off-Broadway and regional stages and on the TV shows "Law & Order," "Oz," and "All My Children," and she'd had to give up a Broadway role when she was widowed.
"I am an actress and I do have to make a living," she said.
However, her mother died of complications from ovarian cancer and her own diagnosis came the next summer.
"I thought that after everything that she had gone through with Chris that she would have time to smell the flowers and be in the sun," said Sen. Diane Feinstein of California. "But apparently that was not meant to be."
From the start, Reeve expressed confidence she would beat lung cancer. And four months ago, wearing a long formal gown at a fundraising gala for the foundation, Reeve provoked wolf whistles from Williams and said she was responding well to treatment.
"I'm beating the odds and defying every statistic the doctors can throw at me," Reeve said. "My prognosis looks better all the time."
At about the same time, Reeve taped a PBS show, "The New Medicine," about how doctors are paying more attention to a patient's cultural values and lifestyle as part of treatment. In her introduction to the program, Reeve said, "It has become clear to me that high-tech medicine, with all its wonders, often leaves out that all-important human touch."
PBS said Tuesday that the show will be broadcast as scheduled March 29.
Survivors include the Reeves' 13-year-old son, Will; two grown stepchildren, Matthew and Alexandra; her father, Charles Morosini; and two sisters.
Goldberg said Will was "in the loving care of family and friends" and that his mother had arranged for his future.
The foundation said no plans for a funeral have been announced.
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. -
Dana the singer-actress who married the strapping star of the "Superman" movies and then devoted herself to his care and his cause after he was paralyzed, has died of lung cancer, a year-and-a-half after her husband. She was 44.
Although Reeve had announced her cancer diagnosis in August — to an outpouring of sympathy and support from admirers around the world — her death seemed sudden. As recently as Jan. 12, she looked healthy and happy as she belted out
Carole King' 's "Now and Forever" at a packed Madison Square Garden during a ceremony honoring hockey star Mark Messier, a friend.
"Unfortunately, that's what happens with this awful disease," said Maggie Goldberg of the Christopher Reeve Foundation, where Dana Reeve had succeeded her husband as chair. "You feel good, you're responding and then the downturn."
Reeve, who lived in Pound Ridge, died Monday night at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Medical Center in Manhattan, said foundation president Kathy Lewis.
Officials would not discuss Reeve's treatment or say when she entered the hospital. But Lewis said she visited her there on Friday, when Reeve was "tired but with her typical sense of humor and smile, always trying to make other people feel good, her characteristic personality."
"The brightest light has gone out," said comedian
Robin Williams' "We will forever celebrate her loving spirit."
Former
President Clinton' and Sen.
Hillary Rodham Clinton' described Reeve as "a model of tenacity and grace."
"Despite the adversity that she faced, Dana bravely met these challenges and was always an extremely devoted wife, mother and advocate," they said.
Christopher and Dana Reeve married in 1992. Life changed drastically for the young show-business couple three years later when Christopher Reeve suffered near-total paralysis in a horse-riding accident and almost died.
In his autobiography, "Still Me," Reeve wrote that he suggested early on to his wife, "Maybe we should let me go." She responded, "I'll be with you for the long haul, no matter what. You're still you and I love you."
Those were "the words that saved my life," Christopher Reeve said.
For his remaining nine years, Dana Reeve was her husband's constant companion and supporter during the ordeal of his rehabilitation, winning worldwide acclaim and admiration. With him, she became an activist in the search for a cure for spinal-cord injuries.
"Something miraculous and wonderful happened amidst terrible tragedy, and a whole new dimension of life began to emerge," she wrote in a 1999 book, "Care Packages: Letters to Christopher Reeve from Strangers and Other Friends." "What we had yet to discover were all the gifts that come out of sharing hardship, the hidden pleasures behind the pain."
After her husband's death in October 2004, Reeve said she planned to return to acting. She had appeared on Broadway, off-Broadway and regional stages and on the TV shows "Law & Order," "Oz," and "All My Children," and she'd had to give up a Broadway role when she was widowed.
"I am an actress and I do have to make a living," she said.
However, her mother died of complications from ovarian cancer and her own diagnosis came the next summer.
"I thought that after everything that she had gone through with Chris that she would have time to smell the flowers and be in the sun," said Sen. Diane Feinstein of California. "But apparently that was not meant to be."
From the start, Reeve expressed confidence she would beat lung cancer. And four months ago, wearing a long formal gown at a fundraising gala for the foundation, Reeve provoked wolf whistles from Williams and said she was responding well to treatment.
"I'm beating the odds and defying every statistic the doctors can throw at me," Reeve said. "My prognosis looks better all the time."
At about the same time, Reeve taped a PBS show, "The New Medicine," about how doctors are paying more attention to a patient's cultural values and lifestyle as part of treatment. In her introduction to the program, Reeve said, "It has become clear to me that high-tech medicine, with all its wonders, often leaves out that all-important human touch."
PBS said Tuesday that the show will be broadcast as scheduled March 29.
Survivors include the Reeves' 13-year-old son, Will; two grown stepchildren, Matthew and Alexandra; her father, Charles Morosini; and two sisters.
Goldberg said Will was "in the loving care of family and friends" and that his mother had arranged for his future.
The foundation said no plans for a funeral have been announced.
Knights Of The Internet
Welcome to the Knights of the Internet. Here you can receive your FREE online knighting! All you have to do is click the FREE INSTANT ONLINE KNIGHTING link, fill out the form then print off your credentials. You will then have the right to put "Sir" in front of your name
Farmer feeds family friend's corpse to pigs - Yahoo! News
Makes me think of "Hannibal"..."Feed them to the Pigs"...."Do you hear them squealing Clarice?"
Dana Reeve dies of lung cancer: reports - Yahoo! News
how very sad...they have left their child...poor kid.
3/06/2006
From Just Free Stuff:)
"Andy is driving around Tennessee and he sees a
sign in front of a house:
'Talking Dog For Sale.'
He rings the bell and the owner tells him the dog
is in the backyard.
The guy goes into the backyard and sees a
Labrador Retriever sitting there.
'You talk?' he asks.
'Yep,' the Lab replies.
'So, what's your story?'
The Lab looks up and says, 'Well, I discovered
that I could talk when I
was pretty young.'
'I wanted to help the government, so I told then
CIA about my gift, and
in no time at all they had me jetting from
country to country, sitting
in rooms with spies and world leaders, because no
one figured a dog would
be eavesdropping. I was one of their most
valuable spies for eight years
running.'
'But the jetting around really tired me out, and
I knew I wasn't getting
any younger, so I decided to settle down. I
signed up for a job at the
airport to do some undercover security wandering
near suspicious characters
and listening in. I uncovered some incredible
dealings and was awarded a
batch of medals.'
'I got married, had a mess of puppies, and now
I'm just retired.'
The guy is amazed. He goes back in and asks the
owner what he wants for the dog.
'Ten dollars,' the guy says.
'Ten dollars? This dog is amazing. Why on earth
are you selling him so cheap?'
'Because he's a liar. He never did any of that."
sign in front of a house:
'Talking Dog For Sale.'
He rings the bell and the owner tells him the dog
is in the backyard.
The guy goes into the backyard and sees a
Labrador Retriever sitting there.
'You talk?' he asks.
'Yep,' the Lab replies.
'So, what's your story?'
The Lab looks up and says, 'Well, I discovered
that I could talk when I
was pretty young.'
'I wanted to help the government, so I told then
CIA about my gift, and
in no time at all they had me jetting from
country to country, sitting
in rooms with spies and world leaders, because no
one figured a dog would
be eavesdropping. I was one of their most
valuable spies for eight years
running.'
'But the jetting around really tired me out, and
I knew I wasn't getting
any younger, so I decided to settle down. I
signed up for a job at the
airport to do some undercover security wandering
near suspicious characters
and listening in. I uncovered some incredible
dealings and was awarded a
batch of medals.'
'I got married, had a mess of puppies, and now
I'm just retired.'
The guy is amazed. He goes back in and asks the
owner what he wants for the dog.
'Ten dollars,' the guy says.
'Ten dollars? This dog is amazing. Why on earth
are you selling him so cheap?'
'Because he's a liar. He never did any of that."
Animal Print Collection - Animal Print �Pink Poodle� Handbag - D84260CD
this rocks, I love it....37.99....hey somebody buy it for me please:)
GARBAGE -Crush Lyrics-F@#king awsome Song...
Crush
I would die for you
I would die for you
I've been dying just to feel you by my side
To know that you're mine
I will cry for you
I will cry for you
I will wash away your pain with all my tears
And drown your fear
I will pray for you
I will pray for you
I will sell my soul for something pure and true
Someone like you
See your face every place that I walk in
Hear your voice every time I am talking
You will believe in me
And I will never be ignored
I will burn for you
Feel pain for you
I will twist the knife and bleed my aching heart
I'll tear it apart
I will lie for you
I can steal for you
I will crawl on hands and knees until you see
You're just like me
Violate all my love that I'm missing
Throw away all the pain that I'm living
You will believe in me
And I can never be ignored
I would die for you
I would kill for you
I will steal for you
I'd do time for you
I would wait for you
I'd make room for you
I'd sail ships for you
To be close to you
To be a part of you
'cause I believe in you
I believe in you
I would die for you"
I would die for you
I would die for you
I've been dying just to feel you by my side
To know that you're mine
I will cry for you
I will cry for you
I will wash away your pain with all my tears
And drown your fear
I will pray for you
I will pray for you
I will sell my soul for something pure and true
Someone like you
See your face every place that I walk in
Hear your voice every time I am talking
You will believe in me
And I will never be ignored
I will burn for you
Feel pain for you
I will twist the knife and bleed my aching heart
I'll tear it apart
I will lie for you
I can steal for you
I will crawl on hands and knees until you see
You're just like me
Violate all my love that I'm missing
Throw away all the pain that I'm living
You will believe in me
And I can never be ignored
I would die for you
I would kill for you
I will steal for you
I'd do time for you
I would wait for you
I'd make room for you
I'd sail ships for you
To be close to you
To be a part of you
'cause I believe in you
I believe in you
I would die for you"
3/02/2006
DOUBLE-CHEESE AND PROSCIUTTO CALZONE Recipe at Epicurious.com
"Using purchased pizza dough to make one large calzone saves lots of time. lighten up: For a lower-calorie, lower-fat calzone, use part-skim mozzarella.
2 cups grated mozzarella cheese (about 8 ounces)
3 1/2 ounces soft fresh goat cheese, crumbled
2 ounces prosciutto slices, chopped
2 1/2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme
1 garlic clove, pressed
1 13.8-ounce tube refrigerated pizza dough
Extra-virgin olive oil
Position rack in middle of oven; preheat to 425�F. Toss first 5 ingredients in medium bowl. Season with pepper. Unroll dough into rectangle on rimmed baking sheet. Mound filling crosswise on lower half of dough, leaving 1-inch border on sides. Fold upper half of dough over. Crimp edges to seal; fold corners under to form half-circle. Bake until puffed and brown, about 18 minutes. Brush with oil. Transfer to platter and cut into 4 pieces.
Makes 4 servings.
Bon Appetit
Quick Kitchen
February 2006"
2 cups grated mozzarella cheese (about 8 ounces)
3 1/2 ounces soft fresh goat cheese, crumbled
2 ounces prosciutto slices, chopped
2 1/2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme
1 garlic clove, pressed
1 13.8-ounce tube refrigerated pizza dough
Extra-virgin olive oil
Position rack in middle of oven; preheat to 425�F. Toss first 5 ingredients in medium bowl. Season with pepper. Unroll dough into rectangle on rimmed baking sheet. Mound filling crosswise on lower half of dough, leaving 1-inch border on sides. Fold upper half of dough over. Crimp edges to seal; fold corners under to form half-circle. Bake until puffed and brown, about 18 minutes. Brush with oil. Transfer to platter and cut into 4 pieces.
Makes 4 servings.
Bon Appetit
Quick Kitchen
February 2006"
blonde sagacity: Where are the Senate Republicans?!
PEOPLE READ THIS AND DO SOMETHING, WE ARE...
Thursday, March 02, 2006
Where are the Senate Republicans?!
...a new bill before the Senate has one sponsor and one co-sponsor. Both are Democrats. The Bill is S. 451: Pet Safety and Protection Act of 2005 and it is a desperately needed bill that will beef up the currently lax restrictions regarding "Class B" dog dealers.In layman's terms that means that currently individuals can run massive kennels where people called "bunchers" come sell random dogs to the kennel owners. Many of these dogs are stolen family pets sold to the kennels for $25 each --the kennel then sells them to research labs all over the country for approx. $250 each. The conditions at the kennels are beyond appalling. HERE are some pictures of the abuses that continue to go on... See how many Class B dealers are currently licensed to operate in your state.Turning your head from something unpleasant doesn't make it go away. Every Senator and House member should have to watch the documentary DEALING DOGS (Which is currently showing on Comcast "On Demand"). This documentary is the culmination of an eight month undercover investigation of a kennel in Arkansas. I don't care if you hate dogs...no sane person can see what goes on at these kennels and not be horrified.I know there are tons of "dog people" out there --and we really need to write our Senators and urge them to support this bill. Here you can find contact information and a sample letter.Last Chance for Animals is the organization that took down kennel owner (a pastor?!) C.C. Baird in AK. If you set aside some money to donate to animal causes --think about donating to them. Their organization used a dangerous and sophisticated sting to bring down Baird and saved hundreds of animals and a possible thousands more by having Martin Creek Kennels shut down permanently! I want to see some co-sponsors from the GOP on this bill!!!Maybe everyone should link pics of their pups in the comments...
Thursday, March 02, 2006
Where are the Senate Republicans?!
...a new bill before the Senate has one sponsor and one co-sponsor. Both are Democrats. The Bill is S. 451: Pet Safety and Protection Act of 2005 and it is a desperately needed bill that will beef up the currently lax restrictions regarding "Class B" dog dealers.In layman's terms that means that currently individuals can run massive kennels where people called "bunchers" come sell random dogs to the kennel owners. Many of these dogs are stolen family pets sold to the kennels for $25 each --the kennel then sells them to research labs all over the country for approx. $250 each. The conditions at the kennels are beyond appalling. HERE are some pictures of the abuses that continue to go on... See how many Class B dealers are currently licensed to operate in your state.Turning your head from something unpleasant doesn't make it go away. Every Senator and House member should have to watch the documentary DEALING DOGS (Which is currently showing on Comcast "On Demand"). This documentary is the culmination of an eight month undercover investigation of a kennel in Arkansas. I don't care if you hate dogs...no sane person can see what goes on at these kennels and not be horrified.I know there are tons of "dog people" out there --and we really need to write our Senators and urge them to support this bill. Here you can find contact information and a sample letter.Last Chance for Animals is the organization that took down kennel owner (a pastor?!) C.C. Baird in AK. If you set aside some money to donate to animal causes --think about donating to them. Their organization used a dangerous and sophisticated sting to bring down Baird and saved hundreds of animals and a possible thousands more by having Martin Creek Kennels shut down permanently! I want to see some co-sponsors from the GOP on this bill!!!Maybe everyone should link pics of their pups in the comments...
Dog Show USA - Dog Gallery - LEROY
Check this out, very cute:)
"Location: Fairfax, VA
Category: Best Trick
Breed: Border Collie
Nickname: Lee Lee
Dog's Age: 2
Favorite Place: on stage
Celebrity my dog most resembles: Ashton Kucher
Description: Leroy knows over 35 tricks. His most impressive is to set the dinner table with dinner, drinks and dessert from his own kitchette. Then he turns a lamp on, plays a piano for his audience and at the end of the show turns the lamp off...now that's entertainment !"
"Location: Fairfax, VA
Category: Best Trick
Breed: Border Collie
Nickname: Lee Lee
Dog's Age: 2
Favorite Place: on stage
Celebrity my dog most resembles: Ashton Kucher
Description: Leroy knows over 35 tricks. His most impressive is to set the dinner table with dinner, drinks and dessert from his own kitchette. Then he turns a lamp on, plays a piano for his audience and at the end of the show turns the lamp off...now that's entertainment !"
3/01/2006
SLICED STEAK WITH ARUGULA Recipe at Epicurious.com
"Straccetti di Manzo
Generations of Roman cooks have relied on this trattoria favorite � made with classic ingredients � for dinner in a hurry.
5 oz baby arugula
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 large garlic cloves, smashed
1 large sprig fresh rosemary
1 lb boneless top loin steak or sirloin (1 inch thick)
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 large shallot, thinly sliced crosswise
1 1/2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 1/2 tablespoons red-wine vinegar
Garnish: freshly ground black pepper
Mound arugula on a large platter.
Heat oil with garlic and rosemary in a 12-inch heavy skillet over high heat, turning garlic once or twice, until garlic is golden, about 4 minutes. Discard garlic and rosemary.
Meanwhile, cut steak crosswise into 1/8-inch-thick slices and toss with 3/4 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Add meat to skillet all at once and saut� over high heat, tossing with tongs to color evenly, about 1 minute for medium-rare. Arrange steak over arugula using tongs, then add shallot to oil in skillet along with vinegars and remaining 1/4 teaspoon each of salt and pepper and boil 2 minutes. Pour dressing over steak and serve immediately.
Makes 4 servings.
Gourmet
Quick Kitchen
March 2006"
Generations of Roman cooks have relied on this trattoria favorite � made with classic ingredients � for dinner in a hurry.
5 oz baby arugula
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 large garlic cloves, smashed
1 large sprig fresh rosemary
1 lb boneless top loin steak or sirloin (1 inch thick)
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 large shallot, thinly sliced crosswise
1 1/2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 1/2 tablespoons red-wine vinegar
Garnish: freshly ground black pepper
Mound arugula on a large platter.
Heat oil with garlic and rosemary in a 12-inch heavy skillet over high heat, turning garlic once or twice, until garlic is golden, about 4 minutes. Discard garlic and rosemary.
Meanwhile, cut steak crosswise into 1/8-inch-thick slices and toss with 3/4 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Add meat to skillet all at once and saut� over high heat, tossing with tongs to color evenly, about 1 minute for medium-rare. Arrange steak over arugula using tongs, then add shallot to oil in skillet along with vinegars and remaining 1/4 teaspoon each of salt and pepper and boil 2 minutes. Pour dressing over steak and serve immediately.
Makes 4 servings.
Gourmet
Quick Kitchen
March 2006"
Blogthings - How Much Do You Weigh?
Ok this is hilarious... I am 138lbs at 5ft 9in....ok lol.
"
| You Should Weigh 170 |
 If you weigh less than this, you either have a fast metabolism or are about to gain weight. If you weigh more than this, you may be losing a few pounds soon! |
Dinner and a movie... - Yahoo! News
Philip Blenkinsop
Wed Mar 1, 8:11 AM ET
BERLIN (Reuters) - A real-life German cannibal who ate a willing victim is being immortalized on the big screen, like the fictional Hannibal Lecter, despite his legal bid to block the movie version of his gruesome crime.
'Rohtenburg' ('Butterfly -- A Grimm Love Story') is set to open in Germany on March 9 and will hope to profit from the shock and fascination the case of Armin Meiwes evoked in a transfixed public in Germany and beyond.
The movie tells the tale of fictional American criminal psychology student Katie (Keri Russell) who is drawn in by the bizarre case of a Meiwes-like character called Oliver Hartwin.
The cannibal plot of the movie, seen in a preview on Tuesday, is almost identical to real-life events. It also shows a younger Hartwin as a loner forced by a domineering mother to wear Lederhosen at school. Like Meiwes, he dreams up an imaginary friend.
Later, as a computer repairman, Meiwes's career, he is drawn to the 'Cannibal Cantina' Web site in his search for a willing victim, who he finds in Simon Grombek.
'I want you to bite off my thing. Are your teeth strong enough?' Grombek asks in one of the movie's more startling lines.
Later, when the two meet at a railway station near Hartwin's half-timbered home, mirroring that of Meiwes, Grombek introduces himself with the line 'I am your meat' a prelude to his slaughter.
Director Martin Weisz says the film is merely inspired by real events, but Meiwes's lawyers are not convinced.
Meiwes's lawyer Harald Ermel complains the film effectively portrays his client as a 'beastly murderer,' arguing the main actor could be Meiwes's twin brother and that the movie is a confusing blend of truth and fiction.
"The ending is all wrong. The victim is stabbed in a frenzy a dozen times. In reality, it was just one stroke," Ermel said.
LEGAL ARGUMENTS
Meiwes has sought to block the film's release. A German court will determine Friday whether his rights have been infringed after lawyers presented arguments Tuesday.
Ermel also believes the March release date is inappropriate as judges at Meiwes's retrial could then be considering their verdict.
The real computer repairman was sentenced to 8-1/2 years for manslaughter in January 2004.
However, Germany's Supreme Court ruled the judges had been too lenient and ordered a retrial, which started in January.
Meiwes only killed one man, unlike notorious American serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, who practiced necrophilia on and ate some of his 17 male victims, but Meiwes's case is unique because his victim wanted to be eaten.
Legal experts have focused on the case.
Meiwes's lawyers argue he is only guilty of illegal euthanasia, but prosecutors say the fact that Meiwes filmed the slaying for sexual gratification should tip the scale toward murder.
Meiwes severed his victim's penis and they both tried to eat it, initially raw then fried. The bizarre scene is also part of the movie, Hartwin serving up the dish for a candlelit knife-and-fork meal for himself and a weakening Grombek.
When the victim fell unconscious, Meiwes took him to his "slaughter room," slit his throat, pulled out his organs and chopped off his head. In the film too, Hartwin hacks into the corpse, with a severed head in the foreground.
The movie title "Rohtenburg" is a corruption of Rotenburg, the town where Armin Meiwes lived. "Roh" is German for raw.
Wed Mar 1, 8:11 AM ET
BERLIN (Reuters) - A real-life German cannibal who ate a willing victim is being immortalized on the big screen, like the fictional Hannibal Lecter, despite his legal bid to block the movie version of his gruesome crime.
'Rohtenburg' ('Butterfly -- A Grimm Love Story') is set to open in Germany on March 9 and will hope to profit from the shock and fascination the case of Armin Meiwes evoked in a transfixed public in Germany and beyond.
The movie tells the tale of fictional American criminal psychology student Katie (Keri Russell) who is drawn in by the bizarre case of a Meiwes-like character called Oliver Hartwin.
The cannibal plot of the movie, seen in a preview on Tuesday, is almost identical to real-life events. It also shows a younger Hartwin as a loner forced by a domineering mother to wear Lederhosen at school. Like Meiwes, he dreams up an imaginary friend.
Later, as a computer repairman, Meiwes's career, he is drawn to the 'Cannibal Cantina' Web site in his search for a willing victim, who he finds in Simon Grombek.
'I want you to bite off my thing. Are your teeth strong enough?' Grombek asks in one of the movie's more startling lines.
Later, when the two meet at a railway station near Hartwin's half-timbered home, mirroring that of Meiwes, Grombek introduces himself with the line 'I am your meat' a prelude to his slaughter.
Director Martin Weisz says the film is merely inspired by real events, but Meiwes's lawyers are not convinced.
Meiwes's lawyer Harald Ermel complains the film effectively portrays his client as a 'beastly murderer,' arguing the main actor could be Meiwes's twin brother and that the movie is a confusing blend of truth and fiction.
"The ending is all wrong. The victim is stabbed in a frenzy a dozen times. In reality, it was just one stroke," Ermel said.
LEGAL ARGUMENTS
Meiwes has sought to block the film's release. A German court will determine Friday whether his rights have been infringed after lawyers presented arguments Tuesday.
Ermel also believes the March release date is inappropriate as judges at Meiwes's retrial could then be considering their verdict.
The real computer repairman was sentenced to 8-1/2 years for manslaughter in January 2004.
However, Germany's Supreme Court ruled the judges had been too lenient and ordered a retrial, which started in January.
Meiwes only killed one man, unlike notorious American serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, who practiced necrophilia on and ate some of his 17 male victims, but Meiwes's case is unique because his victim wanted to be eaten.
Legal experts have focused on the case.
Meiwes's lawyers argue he is only guilty of illegal euthanasia, but prosecutors say the fact that Meiwes filmed the slaying for sexual gratification should tip the scale toward murder.
Meiwes severed his victim's penis and they both tried to eat it, initially raw then fried. The bizarre scene is also part of the movie, Hartwin serving up the dish for a candlelit knife-and-fork meal for himself and a weakening Grombek.
When the victim fell unconscious, Meiwes took him to his "slaughter room," slit his throat, pulled out his organs and chopped off his head. In the film too, Hartwin hacks into the corpse, with a severed head in the foreground.
The movie title "Rohtenburg" is a corruption of Rotenburg, the town where Armin Meiwes lived. "Roh" is German for raw.
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