Sunday, June 29, 2008

Jackasselope Spotted At Rural Residence!




My husband discovered this creature by the woodshed and shot it with my camera today. Until seeing the photo I had never seen a jackasselope, and will no doubt have nightmares after viewing it.

It's so ugly that it's almost cute. But, hey, it splits wood! And it attracts black flies, drawing them away from other living creatures.

Who couldn't use one of these?

Itipini Community Project & Mthatha Mission

clipped from www.youtube.com
Itipini Community Project

There are several people I see regularly around Itipini who are about my age. It is impossible to look at them and not think about the wildly divergent paths our lives have taken since 1982. Often they have a child (or children), many have HIV, virtually none has a high school diploma, none has a formal job, and all live in tumbling-down shanties that barely deserve the word. As I’ve gotten to know them over the months, I’ve realized many of them are also quite talented, funny, intelligent, and hard-working, and, really, not all that different from me.
What’s been different, of course, is the opportunities available to us by virtue of where we were born and where and how we were raised
I had access to supportive parents, good schools, and an economy that produced opportunities like this one, among a whole host of other advantages. My peers in Itipini had almost none of that

My high-school English students
Noncedo

Mthunsikazi
Nonzuzo
Luleka
Nonhlazo
Ayabonga

Lindiwe
 blog it
I've been following Jesse Zink's blog Mthatha Mission for many months. When I ran across the video today, which incorporates some of his photos, I put the the video and Jesse's excellent blog together to share both with others who may not know of the work being done to help the people who, by accident of birth, live in the Itipini community outside Mthatha, South Africa.

Friday, June 27, 2008

Travel Alberta To See These Unique Attractions!




TravellingAlberta.com offers one-of-a-kind oil sands vacation packages

Edmonton, Canada — As the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) embarks on a synchronized propaganda campaign aligned with the Province's "rebranding" of the tar sands, Greenpeace has launched its own website to counter the greenwashing.

TravellingAlberta.com is a tongue-in-cheek travel site that uses humour to communicate a very serious issue to Canadian and international audiences about the destructive nature of the world's largest industrial development. The website showcases showcases some of the unique attractions that await travelers to Alberta: Black sand beaches, toxic lakes and clearcut forests. Until now, this kind of vacation destination was merely the stuff of science fiction; but now, it can be experienced first-hand.

"We thought we'd help the province and CAPP with their "rebranding" campaign by bringing Alberta's newest tourist attractions to the world's doorstep. Any visitor to the Alberta tar sands can see the pollution, smell the sulfur, taste the toxins and hear the air cannons — we're saving them the trip," says Mike Hudema, a tar sands campaigner with Greenpeace.

"Premier Ed Stelmach and CAPP can spend 25 million dollars of tax payers' money trying to cleanup the image of the tar sands, but this development is still dirty, ugly and foul. That money would be much better spent cleaning up the tar sands themselves, rather than just the global image."

But while a real cleanup of the area is still a way off, the current state of northern Alberta offers a rare treat for the seasoned globetrotter who's craving something new. A seemingly endless expanse of bitumen-laden sands — coupled with the powerful scent of oil from refineries wafting through the hazy air — makes Northern Alberta a truly one-of-a-kind destination. As the long weekend approaches and families make their summer vacation plans, TravellingAlberta.com offers these adventure tips:

* Diversion surfing: Catch a wave, Alberta-style, and join Big Oil in taking advantage of the nearly 92 billion gallons of water diverted from provincial rivers each year!
* Animal sightings: Moose playing in tailings ponds, loons drenched in tar and ducks sinking in oil: it's not everywhere that you can see some of Canada's most prized wildlife in these unique settings. Hurry though! They're going fast!
* Tailings sailing: Come enjoy the vast lakes of toxic water, so big they're visible to the naked eye from space! Chase that horizon, but be careful not to capsize!
* Fun in the sun: Forget Cancun, Alberta is sizzling! Boasting more greenhouse gas emissions than Canada's three other most populous provinces combined, it's really heating up out here!

Greenpeace will promote the website internationally, calling on visitors to share the site with friends and to write Premier Ed Stelmach, Travel Minister Cindy Ady and Prime Minister Stephen Harper to demand they put the brakes on tar sand development.
TravellingAlberta.com


Monday, June 23, 2008

Memorable Merriment From The Divine Miss M


The 1985 appearance of the Bette Midler on the Johnny Carson Show is one of my all-time television favorites. Over the years I've often thought about her hilarious rendition of "Fit or Fat (Fat As I Am)" and wished to see it again. Through the combined miracles of the Internet and YouTube my wish came true this evening, when I found this gem:



Fit or Fat (Fat As I Am)

Fat as I am.
Who wants to see a diva fat as I am?
I get mistaken now for Lainie Kazan.
How is it that I'm fat as I am?

Fat as I am.
The camera's gonna add a ton to my can.
This is the way they say Godzilla began.
How did I get as fat as I am?

"Try it again."
All of my friends say I should diet again;
That all my fans are gonna riot again.
"Look what happened to Liz."

All of my sins
are not as numerous as . . . all of my chins!
I could audition for the Doublemint twins.
No one in the biz is as fat as I is.

Ah, but what's a career
when you put it next to knackwurst and beer?
They could park a DC10 on my rear.
God knows I got the gas!

There goes the chair.
But to tell the truth, I'm too fat to care!
I ate a meatball off the floor right over there.
Ah, you don't give a damn
when you're fat as I am!


--Bette Midler, from Mud Will Be Flung Tonight!

Priceless!

Sunday, June 22, 2008

Release Our Activists