winnie

In case ya'll missed it...

2008-09-03T11:15:00.000-07:00

it was magical!

I wasn't into the original either.

2008-09-03T11:14:00.001-07:00

I heart Clint.

2008-08-28T10:16:00.000-07:00

Meteor shower!

2008-08-11T11:04:00.000-07:00

Meteors streak past stars over a Bedouin tent near Amman, Jordan, in the early hours of August 12, 2004.

There is another one to between tonight and the early hours of the morning. Under perfect conditions, observers can expect to see about 90 to100 meteors an hour!

But the Perseids will put on a good show as seen from almost any place on Earth for several reasons.

The moon will set relatively early, making the sky darker and allowing observers to see fainter meteors.

Also, the region in the sky where the meteors appear to come from will rise up higher as the night progresses, so fewer meteors will shoot below the horizon.

Meteors higher in the sky also appear brighter, because they are seen through less distortion-causing atmosphere.

Hally, the meteor buff, says that people who want to see the largest number of meteors possible should find the darkest sky available and face northeast, where the meteors will appear to come from.

Lets get invisible .

2008-08-11T10:56:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Scientists say they are a step closer to developing materials that could render people and objects invisible.

Researchers have demonstrated for the first time they were able to cloak three-dimensional objects using artificially engineered materials that redirect light around the objects.

Previously, they only have been able to cloak very thin two-dimensional objects.

The findings, by scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, are to be released later this week in the journals Nature and Science.

The new work moves scientists a step closer to hiding people and objects from visible light, which could have broad applications, including military ones.

People can see objects because they scatter the light that strikes them, reflecting some of it back to the eye.

Cloaking uses materials, known as metamaterials, to deflect radar, light or other waves around an object.

Metamaterials are mixtures of metal and circuit board materials such as ceramic, Teflon or fibre composite.

Bliss.

2008-08-03T22:47:00.000-07:00

I know this doesn't quite fall into what my blog is about but I had to...

Watch this!

2008-07-30T12:03:00.000-07:00

This Saturday and Sunday at 8pm on CNN

http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/siu/

Silent rally.

2008-07-29T11:40:00.000-07:00

Hindu hardliners participate in a silent rally against terrorism in Ahmadabad, India. Police launched a massive manhunt in India's financial capital believing that the serial blasts that rocked the western Indian city of Ahmadabad over the weekend were hatched in a Mumbai suburb.

Travel green!

2008-07-29T11:14:00.000-07:00

These 7 spots were surveyed by National Geographic Traveler for their sustainable practices (including least-toxic cleaners, energy and water savings, and recycling efforts), sense of place, community involvement and general ambience.

1) Camp Denali, Denali National Park and Preserve, Alaska: Centered on Mt. McKinley (Denali), the tallest peak in North America, the phrase "unspoiled paradise" won't seem hackneyed as you step out of your guest cabin into spectacular parkland ($1,365-$3,185 for 3-7 days; campdenali.com, 907-683-2290; also see nps.gov/dena).

2) Orchard Garden Hotel, San Francicsco, Calif.: A LEED-certified hotel in the heart of arguably America's greenest city. Skip the car while in town and take a stylish, recuperated tram, or rent a Prius to visit nearby Point Reyes National Seashore and dine at Alice Waters' Chez Panisse in Berkeley ($169-$450; theorchardgardenhotel.com, 888-717-2881).

3) Rock Harbor Lodge, Isle Royale National Park, Mich.: Hidden on a remote island in Northwest Lake Superior, Rock Harbor Lodge is about as far away from it all as you can get ($223-$386; rockharborlodge.com, 906-337-4993).

4) Sundance Resort, Sundance, Utah: With access to 6,000 wilderness acres at the base Mt. Timpanogos, Sundance provides excellent skiing and hiking while maintaining a keen attentiveness to the environment ($294-$1388 for the summer season; sundanceresort.com, 800-892-1600 for reservations).

5) Buttermilk Falls Inn and Spa, Milton, N.Y.; 90 miles from New York City, this inn on the Hudson River serves local, organic foods grown on-site and relies on geothermal and solar energy to warm its spa waters ($225-$650; buttermilkfallsinn.com, 877-7-INN-SPA).

6) Asheville Green Cottage, Asheville, N.C.: Sleep on organic cotton sheets and natural latex mattresses during your visit to Asheville, a city chockablock with organic restaurants, farmer's markets and mountain ranges. Come the last weekend of July for Bele Chere, the Southeast's largest free arts and music festival ($110-$180; ashevillegreencottage.com; 800.331.9707).

7) Dunton Hot Springs Resort and Spa, Dolores, Colo.: A resort in a former ghost town located in the San Juan Mountain chain of the Rockies close enough to the desert for trips to Monument Valley and Canyon de Chelly ($325-$520 per person per night; duntonhotsprings.com, 970-882-4800).

lets go!

Mummy found in Peru!

2008-07-24T10:21:00.000-07:00

This amaaaaaaazing! Even though we all want to learn more and see what their lives were like back then, part of me feel like they should be left undisturbed. To live the afterlife in peace. I say this while I'm telling everyone to watch this video of them picking him apart I know.

The real bat country.

2008-07-24T10:11:00.000-07:00

More than a hundred bat species have been found packed into about five acres of Ecuadorian rain forest.
While the species found are not new, this marks the highest number of bat species ever recorded in one place.

This is the link to the full story.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/07/080722-bats-ecuador.html

Gay in Iraq.

2008-07-24T09:55:00.000-07:00

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Kamal was just 16 when gunmen snatched him off the streets of Baghdad, stuffed him in the trunk of a car and whisked him away to a house. But the real terror was about to begin.

The men realized he was gay, Kamal said, when he took his shirt off and they saw his chest was shaved.

"They told me to take off my clothes to rape me or they would kill me immediately. This moment was the worst moment in my life," he told CNN, weeping as he spoke of the 2005 ordeal.

"I was watching them taking off their clothes, preparing to rape me. I did not know what to do, so I started shouting loudly, 'Please do not do that! I will ask my family to give you whatever you want.'" Watch the tormented life of gays in Iraq »

His pleas went unheeded. "The other two kidnappers took off my clothes by force and, at that time, I saw them as three dirty animals trying to tear my body apart."

He was held for 15 days, released only after his family paid a $1,500 ransom. He was raped every day. Only once, he said, was he allowed to talk to his family during captivity. "I told my family that I was beaten by them, but I did not dare to tell my family that I was raped by them. I could not say it, it's too much shame."

CNN spoke with Kamal, now 18, and his 21-year-old friend, Rami, about what it's like to be gay in Iraq. Coming out as gay is not easy in any country, but to do so in Iraq could mean a death sentence or torture.

The two men rarely show feelings toward each other in public. They spend a lot of time in Internet cafes in Baghdad, surfing gay chat rooms and seeking contacts with other gay men in Iraq and elsewhere.

Since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, the situation for gays and lesbians in Iraq has deteriorated. Ridiculed under Hussein, many now find themselves the targets of violence, according to humanitarian officials.

Lesbians are also victims of harassment and violence, but not nearly as often as gay men.

It's unknown how many homosexuals have been killed by militias in the lawless streets of Iraq's cities, but some Web sites post pictures of Iraqis they say were killed for being gay.

One photo on the Iraqi Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender site shows a group of men standing around three male bodies sprawled on a street, blood pouring from their heads. "Gay Iraqi victims of the police and death squads," the site says.

A U.N. report on human rights in Iraq reinforces the accusations of violence. Although gays are supposed to be protected by law in Iraq, it says, they face extreme brutality.

"Armed Islamic groups and militias have been known to be particularly hostile toward homosexuals, frequently and openly engaging in violent campaigns against them," the report said, adding that homosexuals have been murdered.

"Militias are reportedly threatening families of men believed to be homosexual, stating that they will begin killing family members unless the men are handed over or killed by the family," it said.

The report was issued at the end of 2006 and is the last U.N. study to touch on the subject.

Human rights experts say homosexuals are targeted for cultural reasons as well.

"Gay men and lesbians in Iraq face a lot of risks right now, because homosexuality is sometimes interpreted by people in Iraq as being a Western import," said Scott Portman with the Heartland Alliance, a group that promotes human rights worldwide. "So they can sometimes be targeted by insurgent groups or militias, in part, because of animosity toward the West and, in part, because homosexuality is not well-accepted in Iraqi society."

He added, "The biggest threats right now are from militia organizations, who will attack and actually sometimes kill gay men and women."

Kamal and Rami say the dangers are all too real in Baghdad -- and they live in secrecy not to shame their families.

"I would rather commit suicide than allow my family to find out I am gay," Rami said.

Kamal said he often pretends to have girlfriends in social settings and tells his friends he's dating girls. "I am also careful with the way I dress -- not to show them that I am gay, especially my family."

What would his family do if they found out?

"They will force me to give it up, and I cannot do that," he said. "The 'normal' people cannot live in Iraq. Imagine how the life is for gays."

Rami added, "I do not know why people hate gays even though so many have this tendency. But still they hate it."

Homosexuality is a touchy subject for many Iraqis. When CNN asked Iraqis in Baghdad how they felt about homosexuals, we found intolerance to be widespread.

One man said he considers gays no different from "criminals and terrorists." Another claimed homosexuality was "illegal under Islamic law, and they [gays] should be punished by law like criminals."

Rami said he once fell in love with a man who was part of the Mehdi Army, a Shiite insurgent group loyal to the radical anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

Their relationship eventually soured.

"One day he told me he would come over to my house and kill me in front of my family," Rami said. "I told him I would come outside and be killed in the street because I do not want my family to find out I am gay."

Both men hope to escape Iraq. They say their ideal destination would be San Francisco, California. For now, both of them keep their feelings secret.

Kamal is still tormented by what happened to him nearly three years ago.

"During my sleep, I only see nightmares and I start crying. My family thought it was because they were beating me."

He paused, "Only my close friend Rami knows about this secret."

So sad.

How's your tan?

2008-07-21T10:40:00.000-07:00

Italian newspapers, an archbishop and civil liberties campaigners expressed shock and revulsion on Monday after photographs were published of sunbathers apparently enjoying a day at the beach just meters from where the bodies of two drowned Roma girls were laid out on the sand.

Italian news agency ANSA reported that the incident had occurred on Saturday at the beach of Torregaveta, west of Naples, southern Italy, where the two girls had earlier been swimming in the sea with two other Roma girls. Reports said they had gone to the beach to beg and sell trinkets.

Local news reports said the four girls found themselves in trouble amid fierce waves and strong currents. Emergency services responded 10 minutes after a distress call was made from the beach and two lifeguards attended the girls upon hearing their screams.

Two of them were pulled to safety but rescuers failed to reach the other two in time to save them.

The Web site of the Archbishop of Naples said the girls were cousins named Violetta and Cristina, aged 12 and 13.

Their bodies were eventually laid out on the sand under beach towels to await collection by police. Photographs show sunbathers in bikinis and swimming trunks sitting close to where the girls' feet can be seen poking out from under the towels concealing their bodies. A photographer who took photos at the scene told CNN the mood among sunbathers had been one of indifference.

Other photos show police officers lifting the bodies into coffins and carrying them away past bathers reclined on sun loungers.

"While the lifeless bodies of the girls were still on the sand, there were those who carried on sunbathing or having lunch just a few meters away," Italian newspaper La Repubblica reported.

Corriere della Sera said that a crowd of curious onlookers that had formed around the bodies quickly dispersed.

"Few left the beach or abandoned their sunbathing. When the police from the mortuary arrived an hour later with coffins, the two girls were carried away between bathers stretched out in the sun."

The incident also attracted condemnation from the Archbishop of Naples, Cardinal Crecenzio Seppe. "Indifference is not an emotion for human beings," Seppe wrote in his parish blog. "To turn the other way or to mind your own business can sometimes be more devastating than the events that occur."

Recent weeks have seen heightened tensions between Italian authorities and the country's Roma minority amid a crackdown by Silvo Berlusconi's government targeting illegal immigrants and talk by government officials of a "Roma emergency" that has seen the 150,000-strong migrant group blamed for rising street crime.

That has provided justification for police raids on Roma camps and controversial government plans to fingerprint all Roma -- an act condemned by the European Parliament and United Nations officials as a clear act of racial discrimination. Popular resentment against Romanies has also seen Roma camps near Naples attacked and set on fire with petrol bombs by local residents.

In a statement published on its Web site, the Italian civil liberties group EveryOne said Saturday's drowning had occurred in an atmosphere of "racism and horror" and cast doubt on the reported version of events, suggesting that it appeared unusual for the four girls to wade into the sea, apparently casting modesty aside and despite being unable to swim.

"The most shocking aspect of all this is the attitude of the people on the beach," the statement said. "No one appears the slightest upset at the sight and presence of the children's dead bodies on the beach: they carry on swimming, sunbathing, sipping soft drinks and chatting."

Source -- CNN

An excerpt from my silver fox.

2008-07-17T12:04:00.000-07:00

"coming home meant coming down. It was easier to stay up. I'd return to piles of bills and an empty refrigerator. Buying groceries I'd get lost - too many aisles, too many choices: cool mist blowing over fresh fruit; paper or plastic; cash back in return? I wanted emotion but I couldn't find it here, so I settles for motion.
Out at night, weaving through traffic, looking for trouble, I'd lose myself in crowds. Gaggles of girls with fruit colored drinks talked about face products and film production. I'd see their lips move, look at their snapshot smiles and highlighted hair. I didn't know what to say. I'd look down at my boots and see bloodstains."

Anderson Cooper knows how to write, and it's not because I'm obsessed with him. This book is so incredible, who wants to read it next? Oh and I got accepted to teach pre school in Ghana in September. My mum is a little freaked out about me disappearing to Africa for a while so I'm looking into Cambodia too. Regardless, I'm going...I need this.

90yr old royal DNA?

2008-07-17T11:13:00.000-07:00

It was 90 years ago Thursday that Russia's last royal family was executed -- but this year's anniversary comes with scientific proof ending years of speculation that some of the Romanovs managed to survive.

Medical, forensic and ballistic tests conducted in several U.S., Russian and Austrian laboratories identified bone and tooth fragments unearthed last summer as belonging to two missing children of Czar Nicholas II.

Chemically damaged and burnt remains found outside the city of Yekaterinburg in 2007 are those of Crown Prince Alexei, 13, the last emperor's only son and heir to the throne, and his sister Grand Duchess Maria, about 19, according to the Investigative Committee of the Russian Prosecutor General's Office.

"The remains that were found belong to Alexei and Maria. We can say that with certainty," Vladimir Solovyov, a senior investigator with the committee, told a news conference Wednesday.

Bolsheviks executed the czar's family and a few servants July 17, 1918 in the basement of a home in Yekaterinburg. But the two children's bodies were missing for decades, leading to persistent hopes among royal supporters that one or both of them had survived.

Although the investigative committee stated the remains belong to Alexei and Maria, its report said scientists will nonetheless continue comparing DNA from the remains to that of the living Romanovs.

"We have to be really careful with release of the information, because previously too many unnecessary disputes happened regarding the DNA data and genetics data," said Evgeny Rogaev, a czar family DNA researcher for over a decade.

"We have to complete our analysis. There are some new possibilities, new findings -- some findings of a blood sample, for example, in museum storage in St. Petersburg recently, of Nicholas II. It is a potential future study."

Since last weekend, Russian royalists have been commemorating the killings of the last members of a centuries-long imperial dynasty by singing, praying and joining religious processions.

Grand Duchess Maria of Russia, the head of the Russian Imperial House and Nicholas' great-grandniece, has come from Madrid to visit places related to the royal saga and meet Russian Orthodox Church representatives and relatives.

The ceremonies culminated Thursday in Yekaterinburg, in the Ural Mountains about 880 miles (1,400 kilometers) outside Moscow, at a cathedral built on the spot where the Romanov family was killed.

Both sets of remains were found around that area. The so-called second burial spot is about 230 feet (70 meters) away from the first grave discovered in 1991, where bone fragments of Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra and their three daughters were exhumed.

Those bodies were solemnly buried in 1998 in a cathedral in St. Petersburg among other Russian royalty crypts. The Russian Orthodox Church canonized Nicholas and his family two years later.

The two newly identified bodies, however, remain unrecognized by the church. The Russian Imperial House of Romanov announced they would follow the Russian Orthodox Church's opinion and therefore also refuse to recognize the remains as Emperor Nicholas's offspring.

"Of course, as a head of the Imperial House, nothing would please me more than (if) these remains would finally be those that we've been looking for so many years," Grand Duchess Maria told CNN.

"But, unfortunately, some dark forces around the country have popped out some doubts about whether they really are. That's why the church and the patriarch have asked to have questions answered about previous remains and these. But unfortunately these questions haven't been answered."

Grand Duchess Maria of Russia also recently filed two new court appeals in a long-running battle to get the Russian government to recognize the last czar's family as political repression victims and to recall the death sentences issued by the Soviet government in 1918, calling them a symbolic beginning to the Soviet mass repressions.

"It is pleasant for somebody who has a relative or a grandfather or father who died, and the whole country believed him to be an enemy of people, that finally it be proved that it's not that, and you can carry your name with pride again," she said.

Source -- CNN

Coldplay.

2008-07-15T07:33:00.000-07:00

I have tix to see them front row tonight.

dontbej.

Wee!

Eagle Nebula Gas Pillars. (gasp!)

2008-07-14T16:42:00.000-07:00

Pillars of hydrogen gas and dust streaming from the Eagle nebula give birth to new stars. The largest pillar (left) is an estimated four light-years long and, like its neighbors, is being bombarded by ultraviolet starlight that boils away gas on its surface and exposes the embryonic stars forming in its interior. The stepped shape of this image is caused by the design of Hubble's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2.

I picked the wrong career.

We want to walk with the world.

2008-07-14T16:20:00.000-07:00

ALWAR, India (CNN) -- At birth, Usha Chaumar's life story had already been written.

lliterate and married off at age 10, Chaumar was forced into the only livelihood her family has known for generations.

As a Dalit, the lowest level in India's complex caste system, she was a so-called scavenger, a person who collects the garbage, feces and urine of other higher caste people. In the eyes of many, that would make her too disgusting to touch.

"They used to call me all kind of names,'' Chaumar, now 33, said. "I used to feel very bad. but what could I do? I didn't have any work to do but this job."

Traditionally, the age-old Hindu caste system is a social hierarchy that determines what occupation a person should pursue. Broadly, the system has four major castes and thousands of sub-castes.

At the upper rung are Brahmins, the priestly class; followed by the Kshatriya or warrior caste; the Vaishya, the trading community; and the Shudras -- trades like carpenters, barbers and metalworkers. The Dalits are involved in menial professions that no one else wants. Hundreds of thousands of Indians are believed to fall in this category.

Officially, the caste system has been outlawed, but millennia of tradition have left deep dividing lines in Indian society.

For her efforts, Chaumar got paid $7 to $10 a month. But it helped to feed her three children.

India has laws against "manual scavenging," as it is called. But the work is still around, in part because of the poor sanitation system in India. In many parts of the country, especially in rural India, many toilets are dry bucket toilets (named for the way they are shaped) that are not hooked up to any pipes. The waste just drops to the ground below.

Manju Atwal says she cleans 20-25 bucket toilets a month and makes about $20 per month, which helps feed her six children.

"For the past 20 years my life hasn't been a life. The world treats us like insects," Atwal said. "I want to walk upright, get a good job and get rid of this dirty work so the world wouldn't oppose us. We want to walk with the world," Atwal said. Watch as Manju cleans her neighbors' waste »

Now 56 former "untouchable" women from Alwar are getting their wish. They are quitting their demeaning jobs and walking with their heads held high, no longer invisible to those around them.

Dr. Bindeswar Pathak of Sulabh International is their guide.

"I saw their conditions, and I thought they were living like ... pigs," Dr. Pathak said. "So why not give them some alternative jobs ... to do something else."

Dr. Pathak happens to be from India's highest caste. His interest in helping Dalits began at an early age.

"While I was a child at 13 years old, I touched an untouchable. For that my grandmother forced me to swallow cow dung, cow urine and Ganges water to purify myself," Pathak said.

He was dismayed at the experience and for the past 40 years has made it his mission to elevate the downtrodden. So far, his organization says it's helped more than 60,000 "untouchables" and installed more than a million of its eco-friendly, humane toilets in India alone.

The United Nations Development Program estimates 2.6 billion people do not have access to a clean and safe place to go to the toilet. It is a recipe for deadly disease.

The U.N. deemed 2008 the Year of Sanitation to bring awareness to the importance of proper sanitation.

Dr. Pathak and the former "untouchables" of Alwar were invited to New York to illustrate that point and also be honored. Pathak took 36 of the women to the United Nations, the women's first trip outside India.

In New York, the spotlight shone on the women, as they strode down the runway modeling the blue saris that they now design and tailor.

The former sanitation workers used to spend their lives covering their faces so they did not upset those around them. Now they are objects of admiration.

Usha Chaumar was singled out for her amazing accomplishments: She can read and write now and is no longer doing the dirtiest of work. She was crowned "Princess of Sanitation Workers" at the United Nations.

It is a title that will take time to get used to after being treated like dirt for most of her life.

"I am overjoyed getting this honor in New York and wearing this crown," Usha said.

"There was a time when there was only filth on my head, and now it has a gold crown."

Aww. This makes me happy.

my lover.

2008-07-14T15:58:00.000-07:00

So I can't go to this because I'm working and I'm so bummed. You should go!

sigh.

I love him.

You ain't seen Michelle Obama's fist bump like this before.

2008-07-14T13:55:00.000-07:00

I'm sure you've seen Michelle Obama do her infamous "fist bump" all over the campaign trails to hanging with the ladies at The View. But the cover of The New Yorker has taken it to a new extreme. He she is with Sen. Obama sporting an afro and an AK-47, fist bumping him while he dons a turban on his head. The icing on the cake for me is the American flag burning in the fire place (i couldn't get a big enough picture, its to the bottom right of the page.)

The Obama campaign states “The New Yorker may think, as one of their staff explained to us, that their cover is a satirical lampoon of the caricature Sen. Obama's right-wing critics have tried to create. But most readers will see it as tasteless and offensive. And we agree."

And I agree. This is our future president people wtf? Gossip .

The editor of The New Yorker, David Remnick, claims this is a satire, that they are making fun of all the rumors.

Attention whores. I guess it worked since I'm blogging about it.

This may come as a surprise.

2008-07-14T12:04:00.000-07:00

But I finally did it.

I applied to volunteer in Ghana as a teacher. I have thought about this for so long and researched the pants off it. I may not have told any of you (except Cheney) but I feel so awesome about it! It's kind of expensive and that was the one thing that held me back, but how pathetic is that, for money to be the reason you don't do something you are craving.

SO, I need to raise this money, help me get creative. I need about 2,500 to help these kids out.

Thank you I love you.

http://www.volunteer.org.nz/ghana/teaching/index.php

Silver Fox.

2008-07-11T17:17:00.000-07:00

This was just shipped to me today, I know you are so excited for my review once I'm done.

One word.

Obsessed.

Enjoy your latte.

2008-07-11T13:52:00.000-07:00

A car's windshield was damaged by rubber bullets during an Israeli imposed curfew on the West Bank village of Nilin.

Natural Wonders Added to UN Heritage List

2008-07-11T13:50:00.000-07:00

This is the island of Surtsey, found 20 miles (32 kilometers) off the southern coast of Iceland, was formed by volcanic eruptions during the 1960s.

Named this week as a new World Heritage site, the island provides scientists with a unique laboratory to study the process of colonization by plant and animal life. Borne by ocean currents, the first seeds arrived in 1964. Molds, bacteria, and fungi arrived the following year. Plants and invertebrates are now relatively abundant, as are bird species—89 and counting.

Todd thinks it looks like boobs.

hello!

2008-07-11T13:44:00.000-07:00

Ok so I gave in and got a blog.

I find things on the internet that interest me, I usually just send them to Todd. Then I realized maybe other people would find them interesting too. I like film and the news. So if you care about what is going on the world everyday or have a love for film then we will get along swimmingly.

weeeeee!