Spielberg series sued for haircut
Mood:  lazy
Topic: Entertainment



A family from the Mescalero Apache tribe is suing the producers of a Steven Spielberg TV series for cutting their daughter's hair for the show.



Christina Ponce's father showed how short her hair had been cut

"Just because you're wealthy, you don't do something without checking first" - Mr. Ponce

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4820582.stm

Youre damn straight. Carte blanche, wagons west, hand me those scissors, ...oooops, see you in court.

Mood:  spacey
Did you hear that more British men than women use the telephone in a state of undress?

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Now, because of a prior user-agremeent with our sponsor Tripod already in place, Machs Cafe cannot show you any pictures or photos of nude British men using the phone (or women for that matter)...

but what we can do is provide you with a link that actually tells the story.

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I recommend reading the caption to the Reuters
photo for an extra laugh.

Without it, I think I would just be shaking my head.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/27032006/6/n-odds-dial-n-naked.html


''''

Very interesting. The Al Pacino/Russell Crowe Michael Mann vehicle 'The Insider' was released as
'El dilema' in Spanish speaking countries. The Dilemma. The Dilemma? Really!

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Is it ironic that Peter Jennings, a high school dropout from Canada... would die from lung cancer, even after quitting years ago but starting up again post-September 11th,2001?

Sounds like a question ONLY Mike Wallace would ask but judging by this transcript, even Anderson Cooper is out of the feed-back loop on Jennings name being dropped in The Big Tobacco scandal as portrayed in the movie "The Insider".

But Google doesn't reveal a single hit. --

Disney is distributor of the film, and Disney owns ABC, ABC owns Jennings...my question is....was PJ offered a story that refuted the smear efforts on Wiggand ?

Or did ABC pass over a story on a failed tobacco executive in an attempt to trump CBS and 60 Minutes and their red-hot (too hot for TV) story? Who, uh, at showtime...were not even allowed to mention Wiggands name fearing a lawsuit.

Leave a comment if you have an answer.

Technologies lead
Mood:  not sure
The Britannica vs. Wikipedia Accuracy Debate

Encyclopaedia Britannica has assailed an article in the journal Nature that questioned its accuracy.

By Associated Press

CHICAGO (AP) -- Encyclopaedia Britannica has completed an exhaustive research article on an unlikely new topic -- questions about its accuracy.

The publisher's verdict: It was wronged.

Firing back at an article in the science journal Nature that likened its accuracy to that of Wikipedia, the Internet site that lets anyone contribute, Britannica said in a 20-page statement this week that ''almost everything about the journal's investigation ... was wrong and misleading.''

It demanded a retraction.

The venerable encyclopedia publisher, which has enjoyed an almost unassailed reputation for reliability since the 18th century, called Nature's research invalid, its study poorly carried out and its findings ''so error-laden that it was completely without merit.''

''The entire undertaking -- from the study's methodology to the misleading way Nature 'spun' the story -- was misconceived,'' Britannica said.

But the war of words didn't end there, and it may not have a winner.

Read on..

Mood:  bright
Somwhere nestled in the extreme Northwest corner of Pakistan theres a valley home to about a quarter million people.

It's high mountains interspersed with isolated valleys once had small communities that thrived for centuries free from any outside interference.

A Norwegian linguist, Georg Morgenstierne, once postualated during his time that this area,
called Chitral, had the highest linguistical
diversity rate in the world.

So, about this fellow in Afghanistan, facing the death penalty for his religious conversion.

I wondered if he was originally from a land once referred to as 'Kafirstan' and if he speaks Kafirstani.

Or:...Nuristani.

Nuristan was conquered by one King Abdul Rehman of Afghanistan in 1893 and the former Nuristan is now
the Kunar Province of Afghanistan.

Apparently, at that time King Rehman had forcibly converted the Nuristanis to Islam.

Source: http://www.ishipress.com/kalasha.htm

Mood:  accident prone
Topic: Entertainment
Well,...TV tonight.

Whats on TV tonight, hon?

Coffee news..other than ETA declaring peace
Mood:  caffeinated
Six week measurement time period

Number of stories about atrocities in Iraq:1000
Number of stories about atrocities in Darfur: 63

And Rwanda is open for business. Even as liberated champions triumph in a country a century behind the free world, 12 years after a mass slaughter that killed nearly a million people, while pangs of the world conscience fritter away over the Darfur region of Sudan, they are willing to sit down at the table with their leaders over coffee.

Does that mean we are all back at the same table together then?

If neighboring Chad eventually joins the imbroglio or is sucked in, propelled in part by the force of its own internal problems, it could mean an implosion of forces and a resultant worsening of an already detrimental situation.

In fact, it's starting already.

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I feel like Guy Hamilton in Jakarta. But I am not a reporter. Basically the government is saying they
never armed the janjaweed. Oh.

Mood:  rushed
Running a little short of time to blog Women in History this month.

Suggestion? Google: Doris Lessing.

Or, heres one...in 1987....almost two decades
ago...a woman was discovered in a German discotheque.

Her name is now synonymous with Guess jeans and the
world now knows her as Claudia Schiffer.

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... reminds me, unlike that messageboard that shall
not be referred to , Machs Cafe doesnt reveal private identities of people who dont wish to be ...

Topic: Crime and Punishment
Thomas Lubanga has been arrested. He will be put on trial
by the ICC(International Criminal Court) for using children in wars.

CSM is calling it a step forward for international justice and lumps it in as being
aprt and parcel of the
prosecution of the world's worst criminals.

Meanwhile, in another far away distant part of the
world, a man Abdul Rahman, faces a possible death penalty for converting to Christianity.

And in other places where democracy is catching on..
i.e. the Congo, Germany plans to bolster the EU's current peacekeeping contingent this June by sending more troops, perfectly timed for elections.

Alas, not everyone in Germany agrees.

I plan to stay home myself this June, watching John Malkovich in Heart of Darkness...glued to the TV, shriveling in my chair...wasting away....

This is interesting. Throwing a literal lifeline
to 3rd World countries..the Freeplay Foundation gives radios, which do not require batteries or electricity, to youth, community health workers, traditional leaders, listening groups, teachers and informal classrooms in the developing world, mostly in Africa.

The Lifeline radio plays non-stop using wind-up energy and solar power and is the first radio ever produced solely for humanitarian use.

http://www.tenzero.net/~fp2/displayarticles.php?id=118

This initiative gives children a vital link to the world at large by giving access to radio programs that teach them how to grow their small garden plots to feed themselves, take care of their chickens or goats, and prevent deadly diseases like malaria and AIDS.

With more than 13 million children orphaned by AIDS,
the timing of this project speaks for itself.

Recently, a U.S. company has chosen to sponsor the
Coffee Radio Project

Information relayed by the National University of Rwanda Department of Journalism through 'Freeplay Lifeline radios' to farmers' cooperatives, will benefit about 15,000 farmers.

'The initiative is the first link in a planned global communication chain among coffee producers who often live in isolated areas', the release indicates

The Executive Director of Freeplay Foundation Kristine Pearson, said the information will help farmers revitalize the coffee industry, still
suffering from the remnants and damages of
a genocidal war.

Dr. Tom Schilling, the Country Director for Partnership to Enhance Agriculture in Rwanda through Linkages (PEARL) noted that the initiative will help Rwandan coffee farmers ingratiate developments in the coffee sector.

'InterAmerican Coffee has funded a programme that will enable farmers avoid the traps of the past, where they were lured to sell their coffee at a very low price,' Schilling is quoted as saying in the release.


Source:


http://allafrica.com/stories/200603200687.html