Lourdes to carry on the Material Girl legacy?

Madonna's still top of the charts, but if she retires her daughter could always take over.

Madge says nine-year-old Lourdes is already shaping up in the singing and dancing stakes.

In fact, she thinks both Lourdes and her son Rocco, five, could be destined for the biz.

Talking to Dermot O'Leary on Channel 4's Confessions Of Madonna she said:

"They are both very musical. Lola's very musical, she sings quite well and she's an incredible ballerina."

Find the full article here.

Canadian Prisons Diversify

Sick of paying $65 per hour for tattoos? Here's a solution: go to Canada and get busted.

Rueters has reported that a prison in Canada has implemented an experimental program where inmates can get tattooed by a fellow inmate in a supervised session for $5/hr ($4.25US). The program is aimed at fighting the spread of disease in prisons through the sharing of makeshift needles.

Prison officials say that the occurrence of Hepatitis B and C is 30% higher than outside prison walls, and the occurrence HIV is 10% higher than in public.

Programs such as these are already successful in the US for mitigating the spread of HIV and Hepatitis. Needle exchange programs in counties declared to be of "high morbidity"-- a term used by groups battling the spread of HIV to identify areas where the transmission rate of HIV is dangerously higher than the national average-- have proven successful in drastically lowering the rate of new HIV transmissions.

Needle exchange programs have been markedly controversial since inception. Critics lambaste needle exchange programs, accusing them of promoting IV drug use, or at the very least making it more socially acceptable.

It may appear to some people that these groups are just dispensing illegal drug paraphernalia, but what is actually happening is that they are giving IV drug users a choice: they no longer need to share needles. The point that the naysayers seem to miss is that junkies are junkies, and they will continue to be junkies until they are ready to quit-- and until then, they will share needles, if they have a limited supply. The sharing of needles is the main issue. The sharing of needles is one of the most common methods of HIV transmission. Needle exchange programs have the right idea. If they can reduce or eliminate the sharing of needles among the IV drug user community, they can dramatically reduce the number of new HIV infections.

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Bush Pardons Turkey...

and accepts the turkey's gesture of gratitude.

F'ing Lemmings

Ok, yes.. the XBox 360 is cool. Just thinking about it gives me a nerd chubby... but I don't think getting one is worth standing in line for hours.

People called in sick and lined up outside of stores to try to get their hands on the XBox360, but if they didn't pre-order, they are S.O.L.

Microsoft, being such a crafty corporate devil, is accused of intentionally causing shortages to increase demand. If that is what they are doing, it's a smart move. It will probably work.

But whatever. It's a cool new toy, but it's not that great. If you don't have HDTV and a kickin' stereo system you probably won't even notice the difference in the improved graphics from the original XBox. There are only 18 games available for the system, which is not backwards compatible with the original XBox-- in other words, your old XBox games won't work on the 360. Lame.

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Nic fit causes plane crash...

Not really, but what if she had gotten the door open?

Sadrine Helene Sellies, 34, is terrified of flying. Many people fear flying, some to a greater degree than others. This woman is terrified of flying, and also has an apparently serious nicotine addiction.

While aboard a Cathay Pacific flight from Hong Kong to Brisbane, MS. Sellies had an urge to light up that was so severe, she didn't even bother trying to tamper with the smoke detector in the lavatory. She went straight to one of the aircraft's emergency exits and fiddled with it, intent on stepping outside to have a smoke. A flight attendant intervened and escorted the woman back to her seat.

At least she was being considerate of her fellow passengers' right to a smoke free environment.

In a Brisbane Magistrates Court, Sellie's defense attorney entered a plea of guilty to the charge of endangering the safety of an aircraft. Magistrate Gordon Dean imposed no sentence other than a "good behavior" bond of (AUS) 1,000 dollars-- which is basically what she will have to pay if she gets in trouble with the law in the next 12 months.
Magistrate Dean issued a stern warning: "You must understand, if you are on a plane you must behave yourself."

Sellies, who does not speak English said through an interpreter that she had no recollection of the incident, because she had taken sleeping pills with alcohol. She also told the court that she had a history of sleep walking.

If someone had tried that on an American flight, they more than likely would have been locked up for a very, very long time... if they weren't beaten to a bloody pulp by other passengers first.

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Wilma

I'm pretty sure this bitch owes my second cousin Billy Bob a new trailer and a couple of coon hounds.



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hah.

My friend sent me this. It made me laugh.

Billboard Ad Removed Amid Controversy

Let me preface this by clarifying that I am one of the most peace lovin', gun hating, socialist, damn-dirty-hippies you will ever meet. I am as liberal and socially permissive as one person can be without disappearing to some clandestine hippy detention facility in the Balkans. (God bless the patriot act. Please don't arrest me. I had nothing to do with the fecal flinging incident at the White House. I swear.)

But I digress, back to guns: The main issue with this billboard, which displays a successful black rap artist (50 Cent) holding a gun in one hand and a microphone in the other, is that it is pasted on billboards and buildings towering over predominately black neighborhoods in southern Los Angeles. Activists claim that the billboard is showing urban black youth that gun violence is ok, because one of their 'role models' appears to be using one on a daily basis.

My argument is that celebrities are not responsible for gun violence in any community. If a teenager gets his hands on a gun, his parents and teachers are to blame, not Snoop Dog, not 50 Cent, not Dr. Dre, or any one else. His or her environment is to blame.

Why was there no controversy over these billboards?

If anyone is supposed to be a 'role model' it should be the Governor of your state, right?


Is the controversy because most white, middle class people already associate black men with gun violence? Or is it really that the community is already so weary from constant gang shootings, and drug related gun violence that they don't need anything else giving young black men the idea that it is ok to carry and use a hand gun? How much influence does one billboard have anyway?

As far as I know, Elmer Fudd, Sylvester Stallone and Arnold haven't caused an increase in gun violence among white kids. Why is 50 Cent now the gun violence whipping boy in the southern LA black community?
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I saw a woman die tonight.

It's late now, almost 2:00 am. I feel sad and heavy, from head to toe.

This evening, as I was driving with a friend to a bar, I saw a woman who had been hit by a van going nearly 60mph. When I came across the accident, the woman was laying alone in the street. Her body was twisted. She had blood coming from her mouth and ears. There was a lot of blood on the street under her head.

The woman appeared to have been attempting to cross in the middle of the street. Her groceries were scattered between where she lay, and where she'd been hit-- a distance of approximately 100 feet.

I held her hand the whole time I was there, waiting for an ambulance. Her pulse was thready, she couldn't breathe and there was nothing I could do about it. That is what saddens me most. I battled with myself throughout the ordeal. Do I attempt to turn her head and clear the blood from her mouth to breathe for her? No. Her neck was most likely broken. I could kill her just by trying to help her. But if I don't, she may die anyway. She needed to be intubated. No one around had the necessary tools to safely get an airway.

People were rubbernecking while the ambulance was trying to get through. I yelled at them and motioned emphatically to move so they could reach her.

I held her hand until the paramedics arrived. When they got there, she'd already been without oxygen for four or five minutes. Her lips were blue. She no longer had a pulse.

I said a little prayer and left the paramedics to their job.

I will never forget her face. I know there was nothing I could do... But I still feel heavy inside... Maybe I should have attempted CPR?

I feel terrible for her family.

I guess I'm writing this now because I can't think of anything else but the accident.
I'm also writing this because I'm hoping that someone will read it, and maybe think about the way they drive... Or the way they live.
Do you drive too fast? Change lanes without signaling? Drive while talking on your cell phone?
Do you try to cross busy streets against the light?
Have you been angry with someone for a long time?
Maybe it's time to call your grandmother and tell her how much you love her.
My life is changed forever. I will savor each and every day I have left in this life.

I will be extra careful while driving. I will make a point to respect everyone I interact with, no matter how irritated I am.
...That person is someone's mother, sister, brother... Father. That person is loved and needed by someone else. I've heard countless stories of near misses, close calls... People who have lost loved ones... Cancer survivors... The things they all say always registered on some level, but not as profoundly as they have this evening. I know now, with every fiber of my being, that life is fragile and precious, that it can be gone in an instant... It is too short for anger, hatred, grudges.

Yes, my life is changed forever.

Arrrrgh!

I wonder if the guy with the bazooka on one shoulder had a parrot on the other.

Find the CNN article about the pirate attack here.


MAHE, Seychelles (AP) -- The crew of a cruise ship attacked by pirates off the coast of Somalia used a sonic weapon to help ward off the attackers, the Miami-based Seabourn Cruise Line said Monday.

The device blasts earsplitting noise in a directed beam.

The Seabourn Spirit escaped Saturday's attack also by shifting to high speed and changing course, the cruise line said.

The sonic device, known as a Long Range Acoustic Device, or LRAD, is a so-called "non-lethal weapon" developed for the military after the 2000 attack on the USS Cole in Yemen as a way to keep operators of small boats from approaching U.S. warships.

Makers of the device compare its shrill tone to that of smoke detectors, only much louder.

The pirates who attacked the Seabourn Spirit grinned as they aimed grenade-launchers and machine guns at the deck and staterooms, some passengers said Monday, recounting the ordeal after safely docking in this Indian Ocean archipelago.

"I tell you, it was a very frightening experience," Charles Supple, of Fiddletown, California, said by phone.
The retired physician and World War II veteran said he started to take a photograph of a pirate craft, and "the man with the bazooka aimed it right at me and I saw a big flash.

"Needless to say, I dropped the camera and dived. The grenade struck two decks above and about four rooms further forward," he said. "I could tell the guy firing the bazooka was smiling."

The Seabourn Spirit had been bound for Kenya when it was attacked by pirates armed with grenade launchers and machine guns on Saturday about 100 miles (160 km) off Somalia's lawless coast.

The gunmen never got close enough to board the cruise ship, but one member of the 161-person crew was injured by shrapnel, according to Seabourn Cruise Line, which is a subsidiary of Carnival Corp.

Relieved holiday-makers praised the ship's captain for foiling the attack, but some said they were lucky to escape with their lives.

A woman survived an explosion in her stateroom simply because she was taking a bath at the time. Others flung themselves to the floor to avoid bullets that were zipping through the ship, Charles Forsdick, of Durban, South Africa, told Associated Press Television News.

Bob Meagher of Sydney, Australia, said he climbed out of bed and went to the door of his cabin shortly before 6 a.m. after hearing a commotion outside.

"I saw a white-hulled boat with men in it waving various things and shooting at the ship -- at that stage it appeared to be rifle fire," he told Australian radio.

"My wife said, 'Look, they're loading a bazooka,' which we later discovered was called an RPG (rocket-propelled grenade) launcher."

"There was a flash of flame and then a huge boom -- a terrible boom sound," he said, adding the grenade hit about 10 feet from where they were.

The liner had been at the end of a 16-day voyage from Alexandria, Egypt.

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Monday that the attackers might have been terrorists. Others said the attack bore the hallmarks of pirates who have become increasingly active off Somalia, which has no navy and has not had an effective central government since 1991.
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