KJ RECEIVES CITATION FROM CONSULATE GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES.
"R" WORD POSTER
Monday, 6 December 2010
MARIAH CAREY AND BABY BUMP PERFORM AT DISNEY.
Mariah Carey
Mark Ashman/Disney
Sunday, 5 December 2010
TOO MUCH CHRISTMAS SPIRIT RANKLES NEIGHBORS.
PRAIRIE VILLAGE, Kan (Reuters Life!) - Mike Babick's display of Christmas spirit has grown too popular for some neighbors, who complain his expanding array of lights and holiday figures draw some unwelcome gawkers. Babick's passion for the holiday has driven him to adorn his modest one-story home in this Kansas City suburb with more than a thousand figures housed in display cases that go up to his rooftop.
Babick, 69, said his display requires a month to set up and draws some 250,000 visitors each year based on a vehicle-counter he installed on his street.
"It's a gigantic Christmas present to everyone -- from me," Babick said in an interview.
But some neighbors say Babick's Yuletide creation has become too popular. Cars, limousines and tour buses sometimes block the street and driveways. Visitors trudge across their lawns, with some pausing to relieve themselves.
"There are too many people any more who don't have respect for others," said Bob Myhre, who lives two doors down.
In response to complaints from some 30 residents, police made Babick's block temporarily one-way and put up no-parking signs, but that has not stopped visitors from parking in private driveways.
"We're not anti-Christmas, nobody's anti-Christmas," said Myhre, who has a modest light display on his home.
Jessie Novak, who lives across the street, said the traffic drawn to Babick's display is bothersome but tolerable.
"I would move if it wasn't there," Novak said of the display. "I know it's crazy and out of the norm, but I really enjoy it. It would beat any store window in New York."
Babick tries to keep cars moving and picks up litter nightly, saying he understands neighbors' concerns.
"There are only a couple of Grinches in the whole bunch," he said.
"We do have a lot of frowns turn to smiles," he said. "What I really like to see is the kids -- the laughing and the smiling. That's my reward."
SOMEONE POSTS COOKIE MONSTER'S SNL AUDITION VIDEO TO RCMP'S TWITTER.
VANCOUVER - RCMP want cookie.It appears someone at the national police force was browsing YouTube and came across a viral video of the Cookie Monster auditioning for Saturday Night Live.
But when whoever was logged into the RCMP's account clicked the "like" button below the video, it beamed a link to the clip to the force's Twitter account for British Columbia.
Several of the RCMP's 2,700 Twitter followers poked fun at the force, with one suggesting it was evidence of "our tax dollars at work."
Clearly feeling a little crumby, the RCMP then posted an apology, explaining the tweet was a mistake and they were looking into how it happened.
GERMAN MAN ARRESTED FOR MAILING TARANTULAS TO THE USA.
A German man who allegedly shipped hundreds of live tarantulas into the United States through the mail was charged on Friday with illegally importing wildlife. Sven Koppler, a 37-year-old German national, was arrested by federal agents late on Thursday, shortly after arriving in Los Angeles to meet an associate, U.S. Attorney's spokesman Thom Mrozek said in a written statement.
Mrozek said the investigation into Koppler began in March, when a routine inspection turned up about 300 live tarantulas in a package mailed to Los Angeles.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agents then intercepted two more packages, one containing nearly 250 live tarantulas, wrapped in colored plastic straws.
The second package was found to hold 22 Mexican red-kneed tarantulas, a species formally known as Brachypelma smithi that is protected under an international treaty.
Mrozek said Fish and Wildlife agents, conducting an investigation dubbed "Operation Spiderman" ordered more spiders from Koppler and were sent a total of five packages containing dozens of live and dead tarantulas.
According to the criminal complaint, agents believe Koppler has received about $300,000 for selling tarantulas to individuals in dozens of countries throughout the world.
Koppler, who prosecutors believe lives in Wachtberg, Germany, was scheduled to make his initial court appearance later on Friday and faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted.
While many people considered tarantulas threatening, their venom is weaker than a honeybee and other than a painful bite, is harmless to humans.
The Mexican red-kneed tarantula, which is native to Mexico, can grow to about 4 inches long, with a leg span of 6 inches, and has a dark body with orange patches on the legs, giving it the "red-kneed" appearance.
The spiders are considered docile and females can live for more than 20 years.
The Brachypelma genus of spider is protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species because it is considered threatened, and can only be legally traded with permits from the exporting country.
Wednesday, 24 November 2010
WHAT THE HELL? COOKIE MONSTER WANTS TO HOST SNL??
Now if that happens, I'm hosting too! There's my brothers in the 90's with him. They are now 24 and 19. Cookie Monster has made an audition tape to convince "SNL" that he can host the show. "Sesame Street" posted the video Wednesday on YouTube and Facebook.Introducing the tape, Cookie Monster says he wants to "branch out beyond me cookie-eating career."The four-minute video follows with Cookie Monster doing a run-through of an episode of "Saturday Night Live."
NBC did not comment. LOL!
Monday, 22 November 2010
WeDay IS NOW OVER. I HAD A FANTASTIC TIME!
KJ with Grayson Chance, the rock music phenomenom who played to Lady Gaga's song on Ellen show. All videotaped interviews he did are coming. We Day started in Toronto on September 30th, then October 15th in Vancouver and finale in Montreal November 12th. Our special thanks go to a special lady, Angie Gurley who is the Associate Director for PR and Publicity for the Me to We organization.Check her out at metowe.com and also thanks to CTV and of course the founders Craig and Marc Kielburger and also all the Publicists of the VIP's K'naan, US VP Al Gore, Deepak Chopra, Former First Lady Cheryl Blair, Rev Jesse Jackson, Down With Webster, The cast of MTV's Buried Life and The the Keilburgers, Craig and Jan Coleman the Exec Producer from Hollywood and the entire staff of the event in all 3 cities!! Thanks you for making this happen for KJ. More footage at KJ's FB fan page.
Founded by Craig and Marc Kielburger, Free The Children’s We Day is more than just one day of celebration and inspiration. It’s a one-of-a-kind event and part of an innovative year-long program created to celebrate the power of young people to create positive change in the world.
We Day is a day-long event with speakers and performers that kicks off a year-long program of action called We Schools in Action. The program helps students develop and implement one local and one global project to help youth who do not have access to basics like food, clean water and education. The goal is to encourage young people to take local and global action throughout the year.
KJ THE KID REPORTER was the only kid media present and also one of the 6 media outlets privileged to cover the red carpet interviews alongside media greats like The Canadian Press, MuchMusic, MTV Canada, Aux TV and CTV. He was also interviewed by MuchMusic.
Enjoy KJ's pics.
Copyright © 2004-2010 Keminications Media. All Rights Reserved. | Powered by Google Photos may not be used or tagged without expressed written permission.
Friday, 12 November 2010
DOUBLE DIGITS ARE HERE: I AM FINALLY 10 YEARS OLD TODAY!!!
Yes! Thanks to everyone who posted on my Facebook pages, Twitter and e-mail. This cake to be demolished after school. I'm getting older...6 years and I get my driver's license and Maybach and the girls from Stomprite Canada can come ride with me!!
Sunday, 7 November 2010
Thursday, 4 November 2010
Wednesday, 27 October 2010
MY FAVE HOTELS DELTA CHELSEA ON STRIKE.
“I didn’t mind at all. I support unions,” said Travis, who is in town from Newfoundland for a two-year check-up at Toronto General Hospital for his double lung transplant.
“We woke up to quite a racket, but I’m okay with that.”
More than 100 of the Gerrard St. hotel’s hourly workers with Unite Here, Local 75, walked off the job after failing to negotiate a collective agreement for full-time jobs and lighter workloads.
Lynne Hill, a pub worker at the hotel for 34 years, said she and her fellow workers want some respect.
“All of us at the Delta Chelsea want to send a strong message. This hotel, and our industry in general, have been in recovery mode for months. There is absolutely no excuse for this hotel to ask us to accept concessions when it is looking forward to years of growing revenues,” Hill said.
Eula Marcos, a room attendant at the hotel for 19 years, said the recession has been hard on her and her co-workers.
“Most of us working in hotels are women and most of us are also immigrants. Women and immigrants were hit the hardest by the most recent recession. The hotel industry has recovered; we need to recover, too. This is not just about us — it’s about our families and our communities.” Marcos said.
The strikers were joined on the picket line by members of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union.
The hotel will remain open for business during the strike, said Murray Kelsey, Delta’s general manager.
“The goal of the Delta Chelsea Hotel has been to reach a negotiated collective agreement that is fair and represents the current economic climate,” Kelsey said. “We are disappointed that on Monday evening, the union’s negotiating committee walked away from the table and elected to take a strike.”
Kelsey added the hotel’s management team is willing to meet with the union’s negotiating committee at any time.
They have a Guitar Hero room, pool, internet room, indoor waterslide and daycare center. I hope they go back to work soon.
Thursday, 14 October 2010
MY QUESTION TO PRESIDENT OBAMA TODAY ON TWITTER AT 4PM.
The President is talking to youth in America. What about those of us who live outside the country? See my question above. Already submitted, then tune in to MTV, BET and CMT at 4pm Eastern today Oct 14th 2010.
Wednesday, 29 September 2010
record for the trophy bear.
In this Aug. 2010 photo provided by the Olmstead family, Jessica Olmstead, 17, of Battle Creek, Mich., is shown with the 448-pound black bear she killed in Oba, Ontario, Canada. Olmstead killed the bear with a Matthews Passion bow and arrow set, designed for women, from a little over 16 yards away. The black bear was the young hunter's first big game take and she currently holds the Pope and Young Bowhunting record for the trophy bear.
Saturday, 25 September 2010
Belgium experiments with mystical "full moon" beer.
Full moons are often associated with tides, insanity and creatures like werewolves, but it turns out they're also good for brewing beer.
In Peruwelz, a small, sleepy town in southern Belgium, a family-owned brewery has produced its first batch of specialist beer brewed by the light of a full autumnal moon.
It isn't so much a nod to mythology as a recognition of nature's impact on the science of brewing.
"We made several tests and noticed that the fermentation was more vigorous, more active," explained Roger Caulier, the owner of Brewery Caulier, which began in the 1930s when his grandfather started selling homemade beer from a handcart.
"The end product was completely different, stronger, with a taste lasting longer in the mouth," he said.
The full moon speeds up the fermentation process, shortening it to five days from seven, which adds extra punch to the beer without making it harsh, according to connoisseurs.
The finely balanced, gold-colored beer is 10 percent alcohol by volume, extremely strong by most European or U.S. standards but not uncommon in Belgium, where traditional monk-brewed beers frequently hit 10 or 12 percent.
"It goes down very well, no problem at all," said Joseph Francois, a journalist and beer expert who has tasted the brew.
Brewery Caulier, which uses methods dating from the 1840s and is well-known for its artisanal beers, plans to produce about 12,000 bottles of its full moon beer, called Paix-Dieu (Peace-God), which go on sale on October 31.
The idea came to Caulier after he visited a friend in Alsace, a winemaking region of eastern France, who told him about how he planned his entire production schedule according to the lunar calendar.
Caulier began experimenting and eventually came up with a nine-step process that includes using two types of hops and involves a two-week secondary fermentation process inside the bottle, not unlike the technique used to produce Champagne.
"It gives the product greater fame, a bit like for great vintage wines," he said.
"It could lead to collectors checking the differences between one vintage and another because there could very well be differences between every batch."
Being from a three-generation brewing family, Caulier is fascinated by the science behind the process. But he doesn't discount the mythical aspects of full moon beer either.
"Many farmers are convinced that the moon influences the quality of some of their products," he said.
"You can feel agitated on full moons, you have births, you get many myths around the full moon and I think there is some truth behind them."
Either way, he's hoping that Paix-Dieu proves a hit and is even in talks to distribute it in the U.S. and Japan.
Source
Scientists look at deodorant for New Zealand's smelly birds.
Scientists say they are hoping to develop a deodorant for New Zealand's native birds to stop them falling prey to introduced predators.New Zealand has an abundance of native bird species, including the famous kiwi, but no native land mammals, meaning introduced animals such as cats and stoats have had a devastating impact on bird numbers.
Canterbury University reseacher Jim Briskie said Friday it appeared New Zealand birds suffered from body odour, making them an easy target for predators.
Briskie said unlike their overseas counterparts, which evolved alongside mammals, New Zealand birds emitted a strong smell when preened to produce wax to protect their feathers.
He said the kiwi smelled like mushrooms or ammonia, while the flightless kakapo parrot's odour was like "musty violin cases", possibly contributing to its endangered status.
The Marsden scientific research fund has given Briskie a 600,000 New Zealand dollar (440,000 US) grant to study native bird body odours over the next three years in the hope of making them less exposed to predators.
"Down the line, if we do find some species are particularly smelly or vulnerable, perhaps I can design a deodorant for kiwis," he told the Dominion Post newspaper.
Source
Thursday, 23 September 2010
KATY PERRY'S SESAME STREET VIDEO YANKED!
Children's pocket money falls to 7-year low.
British children's weekly pocket money has fallen to a seven-year low, in a sign parents are still cutting back on non-essential spending even as the country emerges from recession, a survey showed Monday.
Halifax, part of Lloyds Banking Group, said average pocket money fell to 5.89 pounds ($9.23) a week in 2010 from 6.24 pounds in 2009. The new figure is the lowest weekly sum since 2003 when parents paid an average of 5.79 pounds.
Children's pocket money has fallen despite a small rise in their parents' wages over the past year. Average weekly pay in Britain in the three months to July was 431 pounds excluding bonuses, 1.8 percent more than a year earlier.
Parents paid daughters less pocket money than sons, in a parallel to the gender gap in the earnings of grownups.
Girls received an average 5.70 pounds a month, compared to 6.08 pounds a month for boys, a difference of around 6 percent compared to 12 percent between men and women in full-time work.
Halifax based its data on a survey of 1,204 children aged between 8 and 15 conducted from August 26 to September 2.
To kill a bedbug: Pick your weapon.
Killing a single bedbug can be as easy as rolling on top of it in your sleep. Ridding a home or hotel of its siblings and cousins on the other hand, is an exhausting and expensive task.Nearly eliminated a few decades ago, bedbugs are back with a vengeance.
They've overtaken college dorms, military barracks, apartment complexes, office buildings and even forced the closure of Niketown's flagship New York store Monday.
And they are big business: 258 million dollars in the United States last year, according to the National Pest Management Association.
Leading experts gathered in a Chicago suburb Tuesday for a two-day summit on eradicating the hardy critters, which can live a year without feeding and like to explore at night, often catching rides to new homes in luggage, handbags and clothing.
"It's easy to come in and kill bedbugs with insecticide, but it's much harder to get to the point where you can be confident that they're gone," Kenneth Haynes, an entomologist with the University of Kentucky, told AFP.
Bedbugs are very good at hiding, he explained, and the problem is finding a poison which is powerful enough to kill all the bugs and their eggs but safe enough to be used indoors.
The summit's showroom was filled with potential solutions: massive room heaters to bake the bugs, carbon dioxide sprayers to freeze the bugs, high powered steamers to boil the bugs, plastic moats and barriers to block the bugs from getting into beds, tight-fitting mattress protectors, and even specially-trained dogs to sniff out their hiding spots.
"There's so much bedbug hysteria and 75 percent of it is well-founded," said David James, whose company Packtite sells portable heating chambers designed to kill any critters that crawl into luggage or non-washable possessions like books and shoes.
"They're so bad out there and they're so hard to kill," James said as he manned a busy display at the sold-out show.
"I've had people call me and say they've gone bankrupt trying to get rid of them because they keep replacing their clothes and furniture."
There is unfortunately no silver bullet for eradicating bed bugs, said Phillip Cooper, president of BedBug Central, a for-profit educational organization which hosted the conference.
"Nothing works on its own," said Cooper, who also runs a pest-control company founded by his father in 1955.
The best thing to do is try to keep bed bugs out of your home by carefully inspecting hotel rooms, washing all clothes taken on a trip in hot water and vacuuming or treating your luggage.
If you end up picking up the critters at work, a movie theatre, church or work, hope that you find them quick and call a professional right away.
A moderate infestation can be eradicated with a single, properly-applied treatment of insecticide, Cooper said. But serious infestations can require several treatments and a multiprong approach costing thousands of dollars.
One way large hotel and apartment complexes are cutting their costs is hiring sniffer dogs to pinpoint exactly which units are affected and find the nests.
A property manager at a large apartment complex outside Chicago, Shellie Beno, got into the business last year after residents started bringing her bags filled with bedbugs.
Pest controllers would spend hours tearing an apartment apart looking for nests. Her three dogs can search a typical unit in about five to seven minutes. And their noses can sniff out places people can't, like behind the walls.
Another advantage is the dogs are much less intrusive and residents don't have to worry that their neighbors will know they've got bugs.
"Would you rather have me going through your dresser drawers or my dogs?" said her Detective Bedbug partner David Bohannan.
Donald Duck, God and King in Swedish polls.
Donald Duck, the king and God are among those who snagged votes in the Swedish general elections, a final list of hand-written votes published Thursday by the election authority showed.Hand-written ballots are allowed in Swedish polls. Voters normally use them to write down the name of the established party they wish to vote for, but random options also pop up on ballots.
More than 120 people wanted to see Donald Duck, the Walt Disney Company's cartoon character, get elected in Sunday's vote.
"My party" meanwhile garnered four votes, while "Myself" got two, the same amount as Jesus, Jesus Christ and God.
"The king" meanwhile won three votes, one more than "common sense in Sweden" -- written in English on the ballot.
"Harry Potter", "Mickey Mouse" and "Couch potato party" each got one.
Aside from such very personal picks, a number of smaller parties not represented in parliament also garnered support on Sunday.
The two largest were the pro-file-sharing Pirate Party and the Feminist Initiative, which both raked in less than one percent of votes.
Among others, was the Pensioners Party with 0.1 percent of the vote, the Hard Alcohol Party with 237 supporters and the Healthcare Party with 185.
Thursday, 16 September 2010
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY HOMIE CANADIAN RAPPER JONNY ROXX!
Photo of Jonny Roxx: FacebookJonny Roxx is my buddy and homie. I met him at the 14th Division fun day last year and we always bump into many things together with my mom. Today is his birthday and I wanna wish him!!!
Sunday, 12 September 2010
Armenia sets record for world's largest chocolate bar
It is a chocolate lover's dream. Armenian company Grand Candy on Saturday unveiled the world's largest-ever chocolate bar -- a 25-centimetre-thick (10-inch-thick) slab weighing in at 4,410 kilograms (9,720 pounds) and measuring 5.60 metres (18.4 feet) by 2.75 metres (nine feet).In a televised ceremony, representatives of Guinness World Records measured the dark-chocolate bar and handed a document to company managers certifying it as the new record-holder.Grand Candy CEO Karen Vardanian told journalists the bar was produced in honour of the company's 10th anniversary.
The record was previously held by a chocolate bar produced in Italy in October 2007 that weighted 3,580 kilograms (7,890 pounds).
Source
'Dumb and dumber' pet thieves wrestle python
Two "dumb and dumber" alleged pet thieves wrestled a stolen python in a McDonald's restaurant carpark as astonished customers looked on, Australian police said Thursday.
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The men, aged 22 and 24, struggled with the 1.5-metre (five feet) snake, named Boris, which was "not happy" at being removed from its container after being stolen from a Melbourne pet shop.
"In all honesty, it's just a case of dumb and dumber," Detective Sergeant Andrew Beams told public broadcaster ABC.
"Anyone who gets out there with a one-and-a-half metre python in a McDonald's carpark, they're pretty dumb."
Totally Reptiles owner Jodie Graham said Boris, who is safely back at the pet shop, has a "very nice personality" and was upset at not being handled properly.
"He was a bit cold and stressed so I have him in the tank warming up. I am just glad to get him back," she said.
The two men were arrested and charged with offences including burglary and theft.
Source
Mystery eye problem at dairy show caused by cow urine.
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The Royal Adelaide Show had to close its dairy cattle pavilion after an rising number of people reported sore eyes when visiting the judging marquee.
Officials from the South Australia (SA) Health Department were called in to investigate and found the cause of the outbreak was stagnant cow urine.
Show spokeswoman Michelle Hocking told local reporters that a recent spell of wet weather may have created conditions within the pavilion where ammonia from cow urine was released.
About 30 people were treated on site by volunteers from the first aid group St. John Ambulance but about 20 went to the emergency department of the Royal Adelaide Hospital.
"From our institutional memory we can't recall an incident of this nature before," Peter Jackson from the St. John Ambulance told Reuters.
Source
2 charged in Australia after python wrestling demo.
Victoria state police say the men stole the 8-year-old black-headed python and a lizard from a pet shop on Wednesday. They then brought the snake to the McDonald's parking lot, where they began wrestling with it in front of puzzled customers, police said.
The men, aged 22 and 24, were arrested and charged with burglary and theft. Police didn't release their names.
"In all honesty, it's just a case of dumb and dumber," Detective Sgt. Andrew Beams told Australian Broadcasting Corp. "Anyone who gets out there with a one-and-a-half meter python in a McDonald's car park — they're pretty dumb."
The snake was returned to a relieved Jodie Graham, owner of the Totally Reptiles pet shop. The lizard is still missing.
"He was a bit cold and stressed so I have him in the tank warming up," she said. "I am just glad to get him back."
Black-headed pythons are native to northern Australia. They are not venomous, and aren't likely to bite unless they're hunting prey.
Source
Pilots who faked resumes back in the air.
The Civil Aviation Administration of China said they had found 192 pilots whose "flying experience to different degrees did not accord with reality."
Some had their licenses revoked, but others were given the chance to retrain and had been allowed to fly once more, the regulator said in a statement on its website (www.caac.gov.cn) late on Wednesday.
"Those pilots given compulsory retraining were, after a thorough inspection of their qualifications, allowed to resume their posts," it said, without naming the airlines involved or how many pilots had been allowed back to work.
Following the incident, the regulator said it had tightened procedures to ensure the problem would not happen again, and that it would not tolerate such falsification.
The official Xinhua news agency said that with the rapid expansion of the aviation sector in China, "airlines turn a blind eye to fake records since they are happy to see more pilots certified by the administrative agency."
China's aviation industry was jolted by an accident in the northeast of the country last month in which 42 people died when a Henan Airlines jet crashed short of the runway.
Until that crash, there had been no other major accident as a result of stricter safety rules and relatively young fleets of mainly Western-made aircraft.
Source
Xbox blocks US gamer over town's name: Fort Gay .
The town's name is real. But when Josh Moore tried to tell Seattle-based Microsoft and the enforcement team at Xbox Live, they wouldn't take his word for it. Or Google it. Or check the U.S. Postal Service website for a postal code.
Instead, they suspended his gaming privileges for a few days until Moore could convince them the location in his profile, "fort gay WV," wasn't a joke or a slur: It's an actual community of about 800 in Wayne County, along West Virginia's western border with Kentucky.
"At first I thought, 'Wow, somebody's thinking I live in the gayest town in West Virginia or something.' I was mad. ... It makes me feel like they hate gay people," said Moore, an unemployed factory worker who plays shooters like Medal of Honor, Call of Duty and Ghost Recon under the gamertag Joshanboo.
"I'm not even gay, and it makes me feel like they were discriminating," said Moore, who missed a key Search and Destroy competition because of last week's brief suspension. His team lost.
Mayor David Thompson also tried to intervene, but with little success. He told television station WSAZ, which first reported the dispute, that he was informed the city's name didn't matter. The word "gay," he was told, was inappropriate in any context.
Stephen Toulouse, director of policy and enforcement for Xbox Live blamed miscommunication.
"Someone took the phrase 'fort gay WV' and believed that the individual who had that was trying to offend, or trying to use it in a pejorative manner," Toulouse said. "Unfortunately, one of my people agreed with that. ... When it was brought to my attention, we did revoke the suspension."
Toulouse said he will contact Moore and apologize. Staying ahead of slang and policing Xbox for offensive is a constant challenge, he said.
Source
Australian churches ban sports songs from funerals.
Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart said sports songs were not appropriate for a service which emphasises the solemn nature of death and is not designed as a celebration of the deceased's life.
"Secular items are never to be sung or played at a Catholic funeral, such as romantic ballads, pop or rock music, political songs, football club songs," Hart writes in the new guidelines.
"At the funerals of children... nursery rhymes and sentimental secular songs are inappropriate because these may intensify grief."
The guidelines stress that the wishes of the deceased and their family and friends should be taken into account, but say the Catholic funeral mass is a sacred rite rather than "a secular celebration" of the individual's life.
"In planning the liturgy, the celebrant should moderate any tendency to turn the funeral into a secular celebration of the life of the deceased," they say.
The move in Melbourne, a city that prides itself on its fanatical attachment to Australian Rules Football and where club songs are commonly played at funerals, has received a mixed reaction, a spokesman for the church said.
One parish priest, Father Bob Maguire from South Melbourne, said the move would make it harder to balance the needs of mourners with those of the church.
He told Melbourne's Herald Sun newspaper he preferred to see funerals as "family affairs attended by clergy, not a clergymen's affair attended by family".
"I think (the rules) are a bit insensitive to local sensibilities, and a reversal of grassroots Catholic rituals," he said.
Funeral directors said celebrations of the deceased's life were important elements of modern services, and this often involved the playing of football club songs or songs such as Pink Floyd's "The Wall".
"It's important to focus on celebrating the life of the person," managing director of Jensen Funerals in Melbourne, Andrew Pinder, told ABC radio.
A survey conducted by the Herald Sun two years ago found the Collingwood song, "My Way" and "The Wind Beneath My Wings" were funeral favourites, along with Louis Armstrong's "Wonderful World" and "Unforgettable" by Nat King Cole.
More unusual choices included Queen's "Another One Bites The Dust", Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" and AC/DC's "Highway to Hell", it said.
Source
Snake plunges Philippine island into darkness.
The National Grid Corporation, which is in charge of power transmission, reported that the snake left Bohol without power for more than half a day until a replacement transformer was installed, the website said.
Police in Bohol confirmed that the island had a power outage until noon from an unspecified breakdown in equipment but could not confirm if a snake was involved.
Source
Friday, 10 September 2010
ALERT PSA: DO NOT BURN A KORAN ON SATURDAY 9/11!!
It's insane to burn any HOLY BOOK. This Pastor Terry Jones does not represent we Americans home or abroad. Wash my Public Service Announcement.
Rotating strikes continue at downtown hotels.
As striking hotel staff rolled out a red carpet for film festival fan photo opportunities Sunday, one besieged big inn manager said he hopes contract talks resume soon. Nine days after workers launched rotating picket lines in time for the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), both sides issued statements accusing each other of delaying negotiations.
“We continue to be treated like second-class citizens by the Hyatt owners,” hotel room attendant Althea Porter-Harvey said in a Unite Here statement. “We deserve better than that,” she stated. “We’re joining the street party today.”
The union claims Toronto hotel owners cite recession issues for seeking to boost work hours without pay hikes, but insisted Canadian and U.S. guest bookings are “rebounding.”
Hyatt Regency general manager Bruce Flyer said his hotel, which remains open to guests as a TIFF centre, has sought to settle with the union since January.
“During this period, we have honoured the terms of our expired agreement,” Flyer said in an e-mail, adding Hyatt wants a deal “appropriate for these economic times that is fair to all parties.”
Flyer claimed the union delayed talks more than six months and chose “to demonstrate and strike rather than continue our work towards finding solutions.”
Hotel negotiators agreed to meet again Sept. 23, “but have not received final confirmation from union leadership,” he said.
Unite Here staged its first pre-festival walkout Sept. 3 at the Hyatt on King St. W., followed by a return there last Friday, during a day-long strike outside the Fairmont Royal York Hotel. Workers picketed the Holiday Inn on Bloor St. on Saturday and two hours Sunday at the Hyatt Regency.
Since its first walkout 10 days ago, the union claimed Hyatt “made no move to address any of the hotel worker concerns.”
Source
BAD GUY STEALS POLICE CAR??
Ever get that feeling that you left the keys in your police cruiser? Or that you left that burglar unattended in the back seat? At least you remembered to close the rear seat divider... right?Source
Koranic teachers arrested over child begging.
DAKAR (Reuters) - Senegalese security forces have arrested seven Koranic teachers for forcing children to panhandle, a police official said on Friday, days after the West African state announced a crack down on public begging. The predominately Muslim country is under mounting international pressure to end the use of children by Koranic teachers to collect money, rice and sugar after a prominent rights group said the practice was similar to slavery.
"We have arrested seven Koranic teachers who have sent children to the streets to beg," police spokesman Mbaye Sady Diop said. "They were handed over to the prosecutor to do his job."
Parents in Senegal have been entrusting their children to traditional Muslim schools, called daaras, for centuries, expecting them to receive food, shelter and teachings from the Koran, and to work on communal farms.
But forced begging began to emerge in the 1970s when crop failures led schools to move into cities and boarding students were called upon to panhandle to cover costs.
Human Rights Watch said in April at least 50,000 children in the country of 12 million were living in conditions "akin to slavery," facing severe beatings from unscrupulous teachers if they did not collect enough money.
Some of the religious leaders -- known as marabouts -- make as much as $100,000 per year on the proceeds while cutting back hours in the classroom, according to the report.
Senegal announced last week it would enforce an existing ban on public begging, "under threat from partners."
But opponents of the crackdown say with little formal employment and a virtually non-existent welfare system, many adults and children in the impoverished country have little choice but to beg.
Tuesday, 7 September 2010
US woman devours 181 chicken wings in NY contest.
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NEW YORK, N.Y. - The Black Widow of eating contests gobbled up nearly 181 chicken wings in 12 minutes, devouring the national championship record in Buffalo on Sunday.
"I'm so happy!" said Sonya Thomas, who ate 4.86 pounds (2.2 kilograms) of chicken wings to win the contest, besting world eating marvel Joey Chestnut at the ninth annual National Buffalo Wing Festival.
Buffalo, about 300 miles (480 kilometres) northwest of New York, is said to be the birthplace of the wings, typically fried and covered in tangy vinegar and hot sauce.
Chestnut, America's No. 1 professional eater, was favoured to win Sunday's competition. He came in second after eating 169 chicken wings, or 4.55 pounds (2.06 kilograms).
This was the first time Thomas, of Alexandria, Virginia, and Chestnut, of San Jose, California, faced off in a chicken wing eating contest. They went at it "neck and neck," said Drew Cerza, the founder of the festival, which was inspired by the 2001 Bill Murray comedy "Osmosis Jones," about a compulsive eater.
"They pushed each other really hard," Cerza said. "Joey is so strong. He's got great jaw strength. But Sonya's so fast with the hand."
Thomas, who's 5 feet (1.52 metres) tall and weights 105 pounds (47.6 kilograms), calls herself the Black Widow because she often defeats bigger male competitors — Chestnut is 6-foot-2 (1.87-meter) and weights 230 pounds (104.3 kilograms) — in eating contests. She set the previous wings record in 2005, when she ate 174 in 12 minutes.
She also previously set eating records for oysters, hard-boiled eggs, cheesecake and jalapeno peppers. She won her first competitive eating event in 2003.
The sprightly 43-year-old said she owed Sunday's triumph to her fancy finger work.
"Sometimes if I try to chew too much I slow down," she said. "I used my hands more than the mouth."
During the public contest, in front of thousands of people, she twirled the wings in her small fingers while quickly tearing off the meat with her teeth and lips.
Her cheeks were covered in a sheen of orange Buffalo sauce by the end.
But she said she was still hungry afterward, calling the wings "an appetizer." About an hour later, she made a guest appearance in the Ridiculously Hot Buffalo Wing Eating Contest and ate 20 more.
"The hottest wings!" she said. "I had to drink a lot of water."
KJ THE KID REPORTER 2011
