Archive for October, 2006
Al Gore recently won the prestigious Quill Literary Award for his acclaimed book on the startling state of the environment, “An Inconvenient Truth”.
The ex-vice president and former electoral Bush opponent has been applauded lately for his staunch efforts on promoting environmental awareness, mostly through his book, which has been also made into a film. The book, which talks about climate change, was awarded the Quill prize in the history, current events and politics category.
The Quills, which just started last year, hope to be likened to the famous Pulitzer and National Book Awards, and was created to promote literacy and gain exposure for authors. The prize was voted by the public, who cast their votes online.
tags]Al Gore,Environment,Quill Prize,Book Awards,Books,Film,An Inconvenient Truth[/tags]
As we all know, Hollywood celebs have now made it de rigeur to adopt children from the developing world, with Africa being a firm favourite.
Well, returning with husband Guy Ritchie from a goodwill trip to Africa, Madonna was faced with some pretty big problems in sorting out legal papers for their newly adopted 1-year-old child, David Banda.
Although the child’s father has already signed over his rights to the superstar couple, various charity groups in Malawi are now saying that the adoption was illegal on the grounds that Madonna has never lived in the country as the law states.
The Human Rights Consultative Commitee (HRCC) chairman Justin Dzonzi explained:
“The laws of Malawi are clear that if one wants to adopt a child one has to stay with the child for at least 18 months for assessment.”
He added that Malawian law prohibited international adoption.
“If Madonna wants to adopt this baby she has to stay here”
But Penston Kilembe, director of child welfare in the Ministry of Gender, Child Welfare and Community Services, said Madonna and Ritchie had broken no laws.
“The process did not start today; Madonna’s people have been pushing the papers for some time and her coming was just to sign the papers to conclude the process…” he said.
[tags]Madonna,malawi, Adoption,Guy Ritchie,Madonna adoption,Family[/tags]
Its pumpkin season all over the world again, and in the news, the great orange veg is back in the spotlight. Yes, good old Jack will be lit up and ready to greet trick or treaters by the end of the month, and the web is flooded by pumpkin stories – both interesting and silly.
Here’s some of them:
The 1,223 lb Great Pumpkin
Washington state farmer Joel Holland wins for the second year running for his larger-than-life pumpkin. The pumpkin contest in Half Moon Bay, CA was part of the area’s annual arts festival and also awarded prizes for biggest in California and most beautiful.
Pumpkin Searches Spike Up
According to Yahoo, searches for the words “pumpkin carving”, “pumpkin crafts“, pictures, stencils and the like have risen by more than 120% and still moving upwards. So yes, Halloween is definitely in the air.
Jailbird Jack o Lanterns?
School kids in the Lancaster, Ohio, area getting pumpkins grown at the Southeastern Correctional Institution. Inmates have harvested about 400 pumpkins grown at the prison farm. The other day, Warden Mark Saunders and some other prison employees dropped off pumpkins at the Tallmadge Elementary School.
Pumpkin Crimes
Two men are facing charges, including felony assault, after police arrested them this weekend for allegedly dropping pumpkins from highway overpasses onto cars along a 40-mile stretch of Route 2. The incidents left two people injured.
Instead of junk in the trunk, authorities spotted three stol en pumpkins in a car driven by a man suspected of drunken driving, a South Lake Tahoe police officer said.
Another sign of the season occurred about a week before the failed pumpkin heist when youths were caught smashing pumpkins in a commercial area. Under the eye of police, the youths picked up the orange squash scraps.
[tags]pumpkins,halloween,carving pumpkins,pumpkin crafts[/tags]
Trekkies flocked far and wide from across the galaxy to New York City for a 3-day sale of over 1,000 items of Star Trek costumes, sets and memorabilia spanning the 40 years run of the cult television series and movie franchise.
The highly-sucessful and energetic auction entitled “40 Years of Star Trek: The Collection”, which took place at Christies‘ auction house sold out completely, with some items, such as a model of the starship Enterprise selling for an unprecedented $576,000 to an online bidder, which was over ten times its estimate of $8,000 – 10,000. Most of the key items also went way over their estimated prices.
Other highly coveted Trekkie memorabilia included:
30-square-inch Borg Cube from “Star Trek:First Contact” – $96,000
Captain Jean Luc Picard’s Chair – $ 62,000
Worf’s Rifle – $19,000
Voyager Replica – $132,000
The overall takings reached $7,107,040, much more than the organizers expected. Money aside, the auction was said to be one of the most fun ever held, with bidders and Christie’s staff dressing like Trekkies.
When a bidder dressed as Picard won Ron Perlman’s jumpsuit costume from “Star Trek: Nemesis” for $6,000, the auctioneer exclaimed:
“It’s with Picard then……….A sentence I never thought I’d say.”?
Perennially hip mag Rolling Stone just came up with a list of what they think are the 10 Best Soundtracks ever. The criteria? That they play like perfect mixes just as they are.
Not surprisingly, winners were the likes of “Pulp Fiction“, “Trainspotting” and “Pretty in Pink“, which all get a big thumbs up from me, the latter especially taking a whole generation of us back to some heady high school memories.
RS also spoke highly of another soon-to-be-released soundtrack which already has the makings of a top-tenner in their book – Sophia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette.
Here’s Rolling Stone’s top ten below. What would you add?
1. Purple Rain
2. Pump Up The Volume
3. Repo Man
4. Pretty In Pink
5. Superfly
6. Trainspotting
7. Valley Girl
8. Pulp Fiction
9. Dazed & Confused
10. The Harder They Come
