Sunday, July 15, 2012
Moonrise Kingdom (movie)
Saw the movie Moonrise Kingdom this afternoon - charming and delightful. I'll watch anything starring Ed Norton but this was amazingly good, with or without him! Set on an island off the coast of New England in the summer of 1965, "Moonrise Kingdom" tells the story of two twelve-year-olds who fall in love, make a secret pact, and run away together into the wilderness. As various authorities try to hunt them down, a violent storm is brewing off-shore -- and the peaceful island community is turned upside down in more ways than anyone can handle. Bruce Willis plays the local sheriff. Edward Norton is a Khaki Scout troop leader. Bill Murray and Frances McDormand portray the young girl's parents. The cast also includes Tilda Swinton, Jason Schwartzman, and Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward as the boy and girl. Director: Wes Anderson.
Elusive Mongolian Snow Leopards
The dens of two snow leopard mothers and their cubs have been located in Mongolia
for the first time, with new, unprecedented video showing the mothers
and their young inside the den, a conservation organization announced on July 12. See video at following link.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2173210/Filmed-time-The-elusive-snow-leopards-Mongolia-bow.html
"Referred to by locals as 'Asia's
Mountain Ghost' knowledge of snow leopards in general is quite limited
due to the cat's elusive nature, and even less is known about rearing
cubs and cub survival in the wild."
Saturday, July 14, 2012
Happy Bastille Day! Vive la France!
On July 14, 1789, the people of France stormed the Bastille violently
adding momentum to the French Revolution. The medieval fortress and
prison had become a symbol of the King’s authority, who stood by and
watched as the French economy plummeted and taxes soared. The annual Bastille Day celebration honors this victory with one of
Europe’s largest military parades along the Champs-Élysées in Paris. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/14/bastille-day-france_n_1673185.html
Although the Bastille only held seven prisoners at the time of its capture, the storming of the prison was a symbol of liberty and the fight against oppression for all French citizens; like the Tricolore flag, it symbolized the Republic's three ideals: Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity for all French citizens.
It marked the end of absolute monarchy, the birth of the sovereign Nation, and, eventually, the creation of the (First) Republic, in 1792.
Two white lion cubs born in Ukraine Zoo
Staff at the Yalta zoo, which bills itself as a 'fairy-tale park' on
Ukraine's Crimean coast, were expecting ordinary lion cubs from the
sand-colored mother lioness. But the cubs were born pure white, or albino.
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| http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lion#White_lions |
More elusive than the African leopard, rarer than the
legendary snow leopard of the Himalayas, and as white as the polar bear
of Alaska, rumors of the existence of pure White Lions have existed in
the African oral tradition for centuries. While reports of White Lions first surfaced in the 1930s, scientists
were not able to officially document their existence until 1975. It is
not clear exactly when the White Lions re-emerged on our planet and where from still remains a
mystery, but the legend goes that the White Lions came to our planet for specific spiritual purposes. They are Africa's most sacred animals and considered to be "ancestral bringers of light": http://whitelions.org/
Friday, July 13, 2012
Three Siberian tigers kill man at Copenhagen Zoo
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| http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siberian_tiger |
A man died this week, after suffering a tiger bite to the throat at a zoo in Copenhagen. The 21-year-old was discovered dead by a zookeeper. Police believe he climbed a low wall surrounding the den which contained three Siberian Tigers and entered a moat when inside the enclosure. Lars Borg, a spokesman for the Copenhagen police, said investigators could not rule out suicide. "He has been in the water and the animals must have seen that and attacked him," Mr Borg said. Police have not released the man's identity but said he was a foreign national (possibly from Afghanistan) with a Danish residence permit. Below is a link to a Reuters video about the attack:
Population: The Last Taboo
This is an article from 2010 which still seems relevant. "What unites the Vatican, lefties, conservatives, environmentalists, and scientists in a conspiracy of silence?"
Thursday, July 12, 2012
Vast wealth didn’t shield Eva Rausing from drug death
The story of billionaire Eva Rausing (48) lying dead in her smart Belgravia home in West London, possibly for up to a week before being discovered by police, reads like a modern-day Greek tragedy. U.S. born Eva (daughter of a Pepsi executive) and her husband were wealthy philanthropists who both battled against drug addiction. Her husband was an heir to the Swedish Tetra Pak (laminated drink container) fortune. She had been arrested in 2008 for smuggling cocaine and heroin into the US Embassy in London. In 2007, Eva Rausing reflected on her life and her drug addiction in an entry on MySpace. "I don't work but probably should," she said. "Or at least think of a constructive way of using my life. I fell back into the same hole as before and have been there for nearly seven years." She became fascinated by hard drugs as a pharmacology student at Occidental College in California, a private liberal arts college, which she attended at the same time as President Obama who is several years older. The press have revelled in the couple's seeming globe-trotting ennui. "It takes billions to buy this much boredom," ran one headline. "Drugs and a couple so rich they don't know what to do with their lives," went another...
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| Eva Rausing in happier times |
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