J. R. Ackley, who owns an insurance business in Marble Rock, noted that the top three Democrats in the field - Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama and former Sen. John Edwards - have mighty short Senate resumes compared to Biden, who was elected in 1972.

 http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2007/11/27/biden_fans_ask_why_not_take_on.html

Introducing

Joe Biden...

recalling the death of his wife and baby daughter in a car accident shortly after his first Senate election, and later, the two major brain surgeries that nearly cost Biden his life. Political advisors have urged to him to speak more of his struggles on the campaign trail.

But Biden told the crowd, "I'm not good at talking about it. I acknowledge it. I don't like to talk about it. You talk about it, you relive it." The crowd was frozen. "The neighborhood where I come from, a lot of people had a lot of tough things happen to them. At the end of the day, I think people will know who I am."

 Biden Gives His Take on Iraq Policy, Pakistan, Campaigning in Iowa

Posted by mach1231 at 6:29 PM PST

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If you go:

The World’s Worst Airports

 - -

Charles de Gaulle International Airport gets to be fifth.

“Charles de Gaulle is a disgrace … it’s like a third-world airport.” —Michel-Yves Labbé, president of French travel company Directours, Aug. 14, 2007

 - -

Not too to surprising amidst todays headlines of riots ,

students protesting against reform  ,

bitter tourists amidst a workers strike ,

and renewed allegations against past President Chirac to boot.

France's Ex-president: was Chirac involved in political sleaze

 - -

In similar vein as political turkeys, check out Forbes list of turkey cars you would be wise to do a little more than kick the tires on if you are in the market for a 2007 used car. In other words visit the site

BEFORE!

you plunk that cash down on the barrelhead for that Sebring you always wanted...

http://ca.pfinance.yahoo.com/ca_finance_general/426/the-years-poorest-performing-cars 

Posted by mach1231 at 11:36 AM PST

Updated: Tuesday, November 27, 2007 12:52 PM PST

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The location and period for 'In A Savage Land' emerged out of a fascination with the Trobriand Islands which began with the Director as an eight year old, looking at "old photos taken by his war-photographer father."

After spending over two years intensely researching the Trobriand Islands, which are located in the Solomon Sea, between the PNG mainland and Bougainville, "the idea of a love story set against this complex social structure evolved."

  - - - -

The result? 

- filming of  'In A Savage Land'  took place over eight weeks in the Trobriand Islands, (followed by a two week post-production shoot in Adelaide) at a cost of $10 - 12 million

- Nicole Kidman slated for the lead role of a young anthropologist, Evelyn, but opted out to spend time with Hubby Cruise

- key crew people spent six weeks building CGI models of authentic Japanese battleships needed for the impending invasion scene.

 - Shooting in Papua New Guinea was apparently alot more difficult than expected, despite all of Bennett's research:

Trobriand has no water, no electricity, no accomodation

"It was chosen for its..untouched wilderness and its savagery. But it took its toll, so isolated and undeveloped as to be the equivalent of shooting on the moon. A hot, steamy, jungle-covered moon."

 -a group of islanders punctured the film crews tyres, created a road block, and with machetes in hand demanded a payment of $10,000

- due to the fact that the film showed numerous bare-breasted women, a representative of the former PNG Prime Minister, Bill Skate, questioned the film crew over why he shouldn't deport them for 'making a pornographic film.'

 - An Australian produced film, the ending was tested on an American audience and changed to their liking.

- all of the scenes shot in Papua New Guinea were done by a handheld camera.

-a tidal wave in PNG (which killed 3000) meant the pic's freight had to ?

More info sites

http://www.geocities.com/vue2sewell/

In A Savage Land

http://www.themakeupgallery.info/hair/willingly/savage.htm 

 - -  -

"We wanted to give the film a dirty look. But every place we put the camera is so beautiful that we use seven filters. We wanted to take the romanticism out, to diffuse the sentiment, to avoid the cliches of the tropical islands. At the same time, we want to give it a caress. We want to avoid anything aggressive, because this is about a woman who finds her sensual self."

And now introducing

The Trobriand Islands Musicians

 http://www.amazon.com/Savage-Land-David-Bridie/dp/B00003ZKYA

 See also http://www.followthegeography.com 

--

Posted by mach1231 at 8:59 PM PST

Updated: Tuesday, November 27, 2007 11:22 AM PST

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Mood:  lazy

Guaranteed to make you think again about

the term: "guerilla marketing" 

Chiquita Bananas Fined 25 Million for Involvement with Columbian Death Squads

 - -

Interesting article about the cooled (make that "frozen") relations between Columbia and Chavez-country here by a writer who dares to suggest for us to:

"..imagine for a moment that Venuzuela [Chavez] actually proved successful at doing what 50-plus years of U.S. effort failed to do: end the war..."

 but the real money-quote?

"..even a Brazilian telenovela cannot compete with the heat in this particular political drama."

A spat between countries, Chavez feels "humiliated", Columbia has "spit in Venezuela's face."

Posted by mach1231 at 8:19 PM PST

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Mood:  chatty

I can't even keep up with my self these days

 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

 "After 28 years of war in Afghanistan, so many people have so many psychological problems."

Burn unit seeing too many young victims

 - - - --  -

And then theres this "gem" .

Alas!

.. human nature is simply not politically correct.

Adapted from “Why beautiful people have more daughters”

By Alan S. Miller and Satoshi Kanazawa...

Posted by mach1231 at 4:41 PM PST

Updated: Sunday, November 25, 2007 4:52 PM PST

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Mood:  not sure

(RE: missing remains of Royal Russian family)

Amateurs Unravel Russia’s Last Royal Mystery 

As the longest running un-solved mystery in Russias history draws near to a close a mystery from an age which has been termed the birth of a "diabolical era", perhaps the Litvinenko story shows just how far we have come in that era which started last century.

The widow of the poisoned Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko said yesterday that she had filed a lawsuit in the European Court of Human Rights, suing Russia for compensation

Litvinenko posioning suspect defiant a year on

 - -

 GRAVES, MISSING PERSONS

Meanwhile in war-scarred Bosnia, of the 30,000 persons missing following the cessation of conflicts there are still about 13,500 persons unaccounted for today.

Since November 2001, The International Commission on Missing Persons has led the way in using DNA as a first step in the process of identification.

ICMP has information from 85.323 relatives of 28.378 missing people and 24.011 bone samples taken from mass graves throughout the former Yugoslavia.

By matching DNA from the relatives' blood with DNA from victims ICMP has been able to identify 12.885 missing individuals from the region.

 See

Germany Continues to Support ICMP

for more....

 - -

-  -

Also running in the un-solved mysteries, this one out of Spokane, Washington about 4 hours from Vancouver,Canada

Teen abducted from father in Germany in 2006 found

A security guard walking the grounds of a medical center recognized one Megan Mulczynski, now 13, from a missing-person flier .......

 Man, now that is adroit.

Some people speculate that the Russian spy case may be paving the way for demonstrating with ease just how potential dirty bomb threats may be carried out.  Talk about laughter far from paradise.

Posted by mach1231 at 3:50 PM PST

Updated: Sunday, November 25, 2007 4:22 PM PST

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Mood:  blue

in 1725,                                                                                                                                            

Antonio Vivaldi wrote the music for The Four Seasons.                                                                            

He penned a poem for each of the four seasons: Fall, Winter, Spring and Summer.                                        

Each season has its reason, its significance, its purpose, its own symbolism.                                                 

Life is like the four seasons.                                                                                                                  

Summer is but one of the seasons of the year; one of the seasons of Vivaldi's masterpiece The Four Seasons.      

Summer is the story of Hope Jones, a young Gitxsan fiddler from northern British Columbia, Canada.            

Hope has a rare musical talent and what everyone believes is a very valuable Stradivarius violin.                     

Is it the mysterious missing 'Juliet'? As Hope grows and matures in her music, she learns more about her     violin, the romance         

and mystery that surrounds it and the very dangerous family that continually threatens her in their                  

attempts to claim it.                                                                                                                           

Hope's life follows the four seasons of Vivaldi's music, much like life unfolds through the seasons.                  

Summer is but one story in Vivaldi's musical journey.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

For more information, check out the author's website at: www3.sympatico.ca/mistymo

 - -

Symphony Will Sell a Collection in Dispute
New York Times, United States - 23 Nov 2007

Posted by mach1231 at 3:07 PM PST

Updated: Sunday, November 25, 2007 4:28 PM PST

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Mood:  a-ok

Googling "gigantic gnat air" in Images reveals interesting results

but you wont find a  Godwit named E7.

  .....the longest non-stop flight known for any bird and also the longest journey without pausing to feed by any animal, 11,570 km along a route from Alaska to New Zealand.

  - - - -

eBay Find of the Day: The Bat Car - Auto Vendors Network

  - -

Look in the sky..its a car, its a bird,--ohop, wait a minute...looks like a bat with a subwoofer and a pair of tweeters... 

Posted by mach1231 at 2:47 PM PST

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Mood:  caffeinated

Alaska to New Zealand—A Non-Stop Journey

A female Bar-tailed Godwit, a large, streamlined shorebird, has touched down in New Zealand following an epic, 18,000-mile-long (29,000 km) series of flights tracked by satellite, including the longest non-stop flight recorded for a land bird.

No mere exercise in frivolousity, all in the name of science....

Posted by mach1231 at 2:39 PM PST

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Mood:  incredulous

Thousands turned away from women's shelters
Edmonton Journal, Canada - 22 Nov 2007

25000 abused women, kids turned away from Alberta shelters CBC.ca

Kids trading sex for shelter Edmonton Sun

put batterers behind bars
Edmonton Sun,  Canada - 21 Nov 2007
"judges across the us and canada still are giving very, very light sentences for domestic violence convictions," he says. and intervention counselling is .

 - -

Tories' anti-crime agenda sidesteps family violence

 - -

As one writer so adroitly put it, criminals, guns, gangs are HOGGING the spotlight in an intense laser beam focus of media feeding frenzy sensationalism on the spectre of violence and shy away like so many aestanithisized body parts of the whole picture on homicide in Canada (40 % percent due to domestic violence..those are kilings)

I can think of no other thing I can do than to simply point out that the gender of the writer wont be revealed or that is : stated. I can think of no better nod of recognition to show acknowledgement for this harrowing statistic, which would otherwise leave us with blank expression in the wake of our fleeting attention spans ...but also to say that in this day and age, I  hate having to get up everyday and have my gender pinned on me like a 3rd class waif would heed the siren call everyday to  carve  his living  measuring 6 feet pits for soon to be lowered caskets....idiots us all. Idiots us all.

Law and disorder
Ottawa Citizen,  Canada - 23 Nov 2007
"Domestic" violence -- in the weirdly sanitized phrase -- just doesn't fit into the "guns, gangs and drugs" rhetoric that characterizes the Harper ...

 US shocked at Saudi victim's sentence

-  -

Sentence? 

Posted by mach1231 at 1:14 AM PST

Updated: Sunday, November 25, 2007 1:39 AM PST

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