BBC NEWS | Entertainment | JK Rowling denied top US honour

What a joke- if anyone of recent years should be honoured for her contribution to child-lit, its her.

B.

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | JK Rowling denied top US honour

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CBC News - Film - Polanski to fight extradition

While I have enjoyed several of his films, I have no sympathy for this guy.

Do you remember what you were like at 13? Consent is a joke for anyone that age engaging with an adult. That's a bigger issue than whether she has forgiven him.

He drugged that girl and had his way with her. Child sexual abuse, plain and simple. NO sympathy for him...

B.


CBC News - Film - Polanski to fight extradition

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CBC News - World - The strange, dark truths of Moammar Gadhafi

Man, this guy has more staying power than Castro... He's dangerous and brutal but just so bizarre...

B.

CBC News - World - The strange, dark truths of Moammar Gadhafi

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New Morning Routine

Ninety days from now we be Christmas Day. Ninety days from today will also be three days into our Disney World vacation! As we’re staying on the resort with a full meal plan, every morning we make sit-down meal reservation for a day our vacation.

Today’s booking was Christmas Day and I had expected it to be a tough one. The bookings for each day go “live” at 7am our time and at 07:00:01 or so, I was on the website to make our booking at the Crystal Palace restaurant in the Magic Kingdom. I had tried for 12PM and needed up with 11:40. Not bad… That’s a busy second, though. :-)

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Everything I wanted to own when I was my oldest daughter's age

1980 Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back Catalogue

Fortunately, I never had this toy as a child

MyPhones: a safer way to listen. ??????

Okay- I may actually consider getting a couple of these for the girls. Given some genetics in my family, I've thinking a lot about hearing protection lately.

B.

MyPhones: a safer way to listen.

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"Water or the Web" (Interesting BBC Article)

Here's an interesting article about broadband Internet development and the future of Africa, in the face of more basic developmental needs.

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/technology/2009/09/day_two_water_or_the_web.html

The First 9 Review I've Read

My old pal "Clueless in Cowtown" is the first person I know to have seen "9." It was the movie that I was eagerly anticipating here.

Either click on her name above or click here to read her review.

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District 9 movie review

I'm generally not given to undue praise for films, even ones that touch on some of guilty my pleasures (such as realistic aliens, sci-fi, alternate history, apocalyptic themes, etc.). That said, DISTRICT 9 ROCKED.

Simply put, it had an original, compelling story, top notch special effects and a generous scoop of real-life allegory. If you haven't heard of the film, its set an alternate present (or close to the present day) in a post-Apartheid South Africa. In 1982, a huge alien spacecraft parked above Johannesburg. Since that time over a million aliens have lived in a township just outside the city.

The Apartheid symbolism is not light or subtle. "Prauns" as the vaguely insectoid aliens are pejoratively called are viewed paternally as an inferior race. In the human mind, they are lazy and directionless and a Haliburton-like corporation called "M.N.U." is responsible for them. One part United Nations, one part Blackwater the M.N.U. enforces the segregation, care and feeding of the aliens. The film starts on the eve of a massive move of the entire alien population to a concentration camp-like settlement, of course for their own protection.

The assault rifle-carrying paternalism is what I imagine vintage Apartheid must have been like. Racist urban planning with an iron fist... Even more interesting, I've read that the film was being made at the height of South Africa's recent anti-foreigner violence.

From there, the film accelerates into a frantic chase story, while never relenting its examination of race, "us," and "them." Great!

B.