As the curtain draws on one of the most successful and spectacular Olympic Games ever, another event has just begun in the North-western English port city of Liverpool, which by the way, is also home to the most successful English football club, Liverpool FC, and probably the greatest band ever, the Beatles!
What major international sporting event am I talking about? Why, it’s the World Firefighters Games 2008, of course! The 10th edition of the bi-annual Firefighters Games, which started in Aukland, New Zealand in 1990, is being staged in Liverpool from the 25th of this month to 3rd September.
We might not see an Usain Bolt zooming up the stairs in the stair run, nor a Michael Phelps splashing his way to gold in the open water swimming event. We might not even see a single event on TV, but it’s a very important gathering of men and women from the fire services from around the world in a celebration of sports, camaraderie and unity as proud and heroic firefighters that they are.
I wish I could watch the cook-off because I hear firefighters cook a mean steak! Mmmmm ….
Lock up your children! Gary Glitter, incarcerated for child molestation in Vietnam, has been released from prison by the authorities there pending deportation from the country.
And guess what?
He’s contemplating moving to either Hong Kong or Singapore.
Glitter said he was thinking about resuming his singing career and that he might move to Hong Kong or Singapore.
Glitter, whose real name is Paul Francis Gadd, was convicted in March 2006 of molesting two girls, ages 10 and 11, from the southern coastal city of Vung Tau. He served two years and nine months of a three-year sentence, which was reduced for good behavior.
He was also charged and convicted of child pornography in 1999. This is one foreign talent that I would NOT welcome if he decides to move here.
It seems like the world is against John Mayer for breaking up with Jennifer Aniston. Or so he says. He had lots to say about the whole breakup affair, defending himself against rumours that he was a cheapskate (Jennifer paid for everything when they were going out) to him being unfaithful to her.
He was obviously pissed when groups of paparazzi hounded him and incessantly asked him questions about the breakup.
“If you guys are going to run stuff and run every lie under the sun, have somebody stand up for somebody. Have me as a man who ended a relationship stand here and write some truth. Have me stand up for somebody and write that Jennifer Aniston is the smartest, most sophisticated person I think I’ve ever met. She’s one of the most lovely people I’ve ever met in my life and I’m going through something that’s a very personal thing and you have to give that up. You have to give everything up because you can’t have it all and it sucks.
“I’m sorry that the story’s not interesting, but it’s about time that somebody stands up for that girl and I think she’s great.”
Mayer reflected on the situation as “the most normal thing in the world – There’s no lying, there’s no cheating. There’s no nothing.
I doubt we’ll really know what went wrong with him and Jennifer Aniston, but she’s keeping largely quiet about it, as she did when Brad Pitt dumped her.
So the “it” couple is no more.
I love John Mayer’s music and he may be a nice guy but when I first read about his relationship with one of my favourite Friends, I knew it wouldn’t last, given his history with women.
Although the movie is a satire about Hollywood, the actors and the movie industry in general, there are scenes in the movie where being intellectually disabled, or ‘retarded’, is funny. A coalition of disability groups, led by Special Olympics, protested to DreamWorks and demanded that certain objectionable scenes be removed, but the studio refused to give in.
I understand parody and I can even laugh at certain stereotypes, eg. about my race or something, and I’m quite liberal when it comes to censorship but when an offensive and hurtful word such as ‘retard’ is used repeatedly such as the case in this movie, it’s crossing the line between parody and downright offensive behaviour, which is disappointing because I like Ben Stiller’s movies before this one. And it’s even more disappointing to know Ben Stiller gave up his time to do a television special in 2006 to raise funds for people with autism.
Sure, some parts of Tropic Thunder is actually funny. I’ve seen the trailer and there are some funny lines in it, but portraying people with disabilities as a joke is cruel.
The Special Olympics-led coalition has issued a protest statement on its website, part of which reads:
Declare that under the guise of “parody,” whether intentional or not, Tropic Thunder demeans, insults, and harms individuals with intellectual disabilities by using the “R- word.” Furthermore, it perpetuates derogatory images and stereotypes of individuals with intellectual disabilities including mocking their physical appearance and speech, supports the continuation of inappropriate myths and misperceptions, and legitimizes painful discrimination, exclusion, and bullying;
TOGETHER, we declare our intention to make the public aware of the need to create and foster inclusion of individuals with intellectual disabilities as a matter of social justice by:
* Boycotting the film and explaining to our nation’s children why the film is harmful;
* Educating the public, especially young people, about intellectual disabilities through far-reaching awareness campaigns to ban the use of the “R-word,” and other initiatives to permanently change attitudes and promote inclusion;
* Calling on Hollywood studios, writers and executives to pledge to make this the final chapter in a sullied history of demeaning portrayals of individuals with intellectual disabilities and assist in public education campaigns; and
* Requesting that Congress investigate and conduct oversight of how Hollywood portrays individuals with intellectual disabilities and the effect these portrayals have on our nation and around the world.
Detailed facts about why the movie is so offensive can be found here.
Do your part. Even if you’re not planning to boycott the movie, understand that contrary to the saying “sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me”, derogatory and offensive words such as ‘retard’ do hurt. People with disabilities need our understanding and support. Throwing the R-word around and making it seem funny isn’t nice. At all.
The site that offers whole magazines, scanned, free for your reading pleasure is expected to be hit by multiple lawsuits of magazine publishers who have had their work ’stolen’ from them. Many popular magazine titles, albeit scanned copies, can be found on the site and it’s available for anyone to read but this blatant copyright infringement by Mygazines has incurred the wrath of publishing associations both in the US and the UK with member publishers being encouraged to sue Mygazines for putting out unauthorized copies of their magazines on the internet.
The site that launched quietly is likely to out with quite a big, and expensive, bang.
Flickr invites you to celebrate life on a very auspicious day, 8/8/08. On the day that the world comes together for the Beijing Olympics, Flickr wants you to post a picture any time during the day to the Flickr 888 group.
The first 24 Hours of Flickr event was held on May 5, 2007 and it attracted more than 7,000 entries. It’s very interesting to see similarities and differences in how we spend the day in the many pictures that were uploaded.
The Flickr 888 group opens on 8th August for submissions. Go ahead and join and be part of this world-wide event!
KFC in Canada has introduced a vegan sandwich, probably in order to capture the vegetarian segment of the fast-food consumer market (or it could be because of PETA’s relentless pressure against the company).
Yeah, go ahead and laugh …. a veggie burger at KFC. While I applaud their efforts to catering to the needs of vegans in Canada, I can’t help but be amazed at their lack of concern into what constitutes a vegan meal, ie. the food should never be cooked using cookware meant for cooking meat products. That’s like cooking a ‘halal’ meal using a pot used to cook pork.
Well, that’s exactly what a vegan found out when she rang up KFC in her hometown when she heard that they were introducing a vegan sandwich. Boy, she must have been very disappointed, maybe even angry at KFC, when she was told that
they fry it up in the same fryer as the meat. This was very upsetting and I just wanted to pass this news along as I think it might be something that should be posted since it kind of defeats the whole Vegan thing.
For some reason, this article on the front page of today’s Today (gawd I hate that title!) paper makes me hunger for a Burger King BBQ turkey-bacon double burger. Probably because the print ad of that burger has sort of an old Western sheriff’s wanted poster design, I think (can’t find a picture of it though).
Not that Mas Selamat looks like a burger, hence the hunger pangs. It is close to lunchtime, anyway.
$1,000,000 …. now, I could probably buy my own Burger King franchise with that kind of money. Should I go look for Mas Selamat now? Naaahh …. I’ll go look for food, instead.
I don’t really care much for Rock Band, the game but I am looking forward to the new Guns N’ Roses album, Chinese Democracy. A single from that album will be released on Rock Band 2.
I’m not sure if it’s a first for a band or artiste to release a single on a game, but I think it’s a novel idea. Great!
What could possibly drive a man to try to saw off his own dick?
The dick and the accompanying balls are possibly a man’s sacred assets (they don’t call them ‘the family jewels’ for nothing), but this man, Skylar Deleon, already been charged with murder of a couple at sea in an attempt to steal their yatch, finds himself in a prison cell in the mental ward with a razor, tries to saw off his dick, the pain was too much for him to bear and he didn’t succeed in completing the job, leaving him with half his penis partially sliced.
OMG! I think slicing his wrists would have been less painful. He might die, sure, but the pain of sawing off one’s penis halfway is just unimaginable!
No word on why he tried to do that. Not a suicide attempt for sure. Maybe he’s just …. nuts.
Besides being a gorgeous celebrity, who’s dating one of my favourite singers, John Mayer, she’s also a …. photographer! And not only that - she’s using a Nikon D200! *swoon*
Here, she’s photographing John Mayer as he plays at one of his concerts in London. Talk about a hot concert photographer!
Contrary to popular opinion, and what the principal of their high school believed, according to one of the teens, there was no agreement among them to get pregnant and have babies at the same time.
“No. There was definitely no pact. There was a group of girls who decided that they were gonna … they were already pregnant before they decided this. That they were gonna help each other with their kids so they could finish school and raise their kids together, to do the right thing was their decision. Not, let’s get pregnant, like, as a group,” said Lindsey Oliver, 17, whose baby is due Nov. 12.
Whether or not there was a pact, the fact remains that as many as 17 girls from that high school are pregnant.
Unlucky, as the soon-to-be father of Lindsey’s baby claims (he said his girlfriend was on the pill at the time) or were the teens simply reckless in their actions?
If you’re a supermodel named Naomi Campbell, and you’ve screamed abuse at an airline pilot because they lost your bag, ordering him to go look for it, holding up the flight for almost an hour, refuse to get off the plane when police arrive but instead accuse them of targetting you because you’re black, you don’t get to go to jail for assaulting a police officer and abusing an innocent pilot trying his best to do his job.
No, if you’re Naomi Campbell, all you get is community service and a HUGE fine of 550 pounds.
The court was told Campbell became upset and demanded to know where her bag was and started using her mobile phone. Meanwhile the captain began to go through her options with her.
Miss Parrish said: “To say that this process was difficult would be something of an understatement. Miss Campbell made no attempt to listen to him and talked over him, stating: ‘I don’t want to hear’.”
She continued to shout at Capt Sutherland, saying: “I can’t believe you have lost my fucking bag. Bring me my fucking bags now.”
Ms. Campbell and her fucking bags have happily been reunited, I hear.
Princess Eugenie, 6th in line to the British throne, was caught frolicking naked at the exclusive Marlborough College during an end of term celebration.
*sigh …!* Whatever happened to “prim and proper”? I guess princesses these days aren’t like in the old days.
Or maybe they’re so much in the glare of the media that every minute wrong doing is blown out of proportion.
Angelina Jolie says she has real versions of the guns used by Lara Croft in the Tomb Raider movies in her home and she’s not afraid to use them on an intruder should one tries to trespass one of her and Brad Pitt’s homes.
Hot MILF with guns. Yummmm!
Lara Croft’s guns would be a nice prop to have actually. That and maybe the One Ring from Lord of the Rings and the Sorting Hat from Harry Potter.
The city’s poison control center issued the warning Friday after receiving a hospital report that a 35-year-old man who ingested the hard, brown substance died earlier this month.
The product is sold under names including Piedra, Love Stone, Jamaican Stone, Black Stone and Chinese Rock at sex shops and neighborhood stores. It is banned by the Food and Drug Administration.
City health officials said the victim, whose identity was not released, was admitted to the hospital complaining of chest and abdominal pain. He died two days later.
Health officials said the hardened resin, made with venom from toads of the Bufo genus, contains chemicals that can disrupt heart rhythms.
The aphrodisiac was supposed to have been applied to the skin, not eaten, but authorities said even that use can be harmful.
A publicity stunt, no doubt, but this 7-inch Panasonic Evolta battery-powered robot scaled 1,700ft of the Grand Canyon, completing the task in about 7 hours. Wow!
For the first time since it opened in 1962, the Seattle Space Needle is getting a good cleaning. Imagine being one of the cleaners, suspended 184 metres up in the air.
An Egyptian man was convicted of swindling hundreds of people out of £280 million and sentenced to …. get this …. a thousand years! That must be some kind of a record.
Of course, the authorities aren’t going to hold him in jail until he turns into a fossil! With any luck he might be released after a number of years depending on his conduct in prison or something.
If this scammer is jailed for a thousand years, then perhaps those Nigerian ones should be jailed for all eternity!
