Jack Black is taking on the title role of Lemuel Gulliver, a free-spirited travel writer who, on an assignment to the Bermuda Triangle washes ashore on the hidden island of Liliput, home to industrious, tiny people.The jolly giant towers over the tiny citizens.There is a strong supporting cast of characters including Billy Connolly, Jason Seigel from How I met Your Mother And Knocked Up, TJ Millerfrom Get Him to the Greek, and Romany Malco, from Baby Mama and The Forty Year Old Virgin. This movie is only going to deal with Gulliver's adventures with the Lilliputians.The Island of Brobdingnag where Gulliver finds himself small as he was tall in Lilliput,is not touched upon so it seems pretty probable that there will be a sequel.
Gullivers Travels 3D
History Behind Gullivers Travels
by Jonathon Swift
Jonathan Swift was born in Dublin,Ireland on 30 November 1667.
Gulliver's Travels was published in 1726 . Though it's been pretty solidly labeled a children's book, it's also a great satire of the times with adult concepts.It shows Jonathan's desire to encourage people to read deeper and not take things for granted. Alot of the book looked at current events and long-term societal problems of the time.
In 1710 Swift tried to open a political career and eventually took over the Tory journal The Examiner. From 1713 to 1742 Swift was the dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral. Jonathan Swift died on 19 October 1745, aged 78.
Sony Music and Indian Idol winner Sreeram Chandra have put together two Indian music videos for The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. One in the dialect of Tamil and the other in Telugu. The song is called ‘Rehnuma’ and the videos have some new scenes from the movie.
Trailer 2
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader C.S.Lewis
1952
When Edmund, Lucy, and their cousin Eustace are pulled into Narnia through a painting, they find themselves aboard the Dawn Treader, the ship of their friend King Caspian. Together, they must travel by sea to find and rescue the seven lost lords, good men whom Caspian’s evil uncle Miraz banished when he usurped the throne. Let the journey begin.
born on November 14th 1927,raised in Adelaide, working for his father at the Adelaide stables after completing high school at Marist Brothers, Sacred Heart College.
Bart Cummings first experienced the thrill of a Melbourne Cup win at 23 years of age when he strapped the home-bred Comic Court for his father Jim Cummings in 1950. He took out his own training licence in 1953. Bart first hit the headlines when he not only won his first Melbourne Cup in 1965 with Light Fingers, but also went on to train the winners of the two subsequent years, Galilee in 1966 and Red Handed in 1967. For good measure, he also trained the second placegetters in 1965 and 1966.On Tuesday he lines So You Think up, looking for number 13.
Bart's 12
Latest News on the legendary Bart Cummings
A smiling Cummings left Richmond's Epworth Hospital about 12.45pm today October 31st two days before the big day.The 82-year-old, who is recovering from pneumonia, was admitted to hospital on Thursday.
It was feared the hospital stay would put Cumming's attendance at Tuesday's race in doubt despite the prospect of a record 13th Cup triumph with his latest stable superstar, So You Think. Cummings said from his hospital bed he had every intention of being at Flemington for the race that stops the nation.
When Secretariat arrived at Saratoga in the summer of 1972, he was a good-looking horse with promise nothing more. After winning three races in 27 days, he left as one of the leading thoroughbreds in the country.
One year later, he returned as perhaps the greatest thoroughbred of all time. He had swept the Triple Crown with overpowering ease, winning the Belmont by an astonishing 31 lengths.
Secretariat won 16 of 21. His electrifying performance in the Belmont is considered one of sports not just horse racing’s greatest moments.
Belmont Stakes
Red Rum
Red Rum is the only horse in the history of the Grand National to win the race three times and on the two occasions that he ran and did not win he came second.
On this day I'm sure that most of the talk would have been about the defeat of Crisp rather than the win of Red Rum but, 12 months later it wasRed Rum who was carrying the 12st burden and despite that he went on to win successive nationals and the public started a love affair with this chaser the like of which, is only given to a few
So You Think is our tip for this year super horses win the cup and he is on the verge of becoming one.
Japan’s annual slaughter and sale of thousands of dolphins, in the waters off Taiji has began.The gruesome spectacle of dolphins being slaughtered for profit has returned to Taiji.
In a typical hunt the fishermen pursue pods of dolphins across open seas, banging metal poles together beneath the water to confuse their sonars. The animals are driven into a large cove sealed off by nets and herded into secluded inlets to be butchered with knives and spears. They are then loaded on to boats and taken to the quayside to be cut up in a warehouse, the fishermen's work hidden from the outside by heavy shutters.
A deeper knowledge and further information about dolphins is definitively the first step towards better conservation and understanding of these wonderful mammals.They have so many unique characteristics and just recently the bubble ring blowing is another loving gesture from the king of the sea.They are such an endearing part of nature.A gift!
There is a large number of accounts about dolphins helping people since the ancient Greeks.Protecting people in the ocean from the attack of sharks.Leading fisherman back home through thick fog.Alot of us would remember Flipper on our TV screens in the sixties.This maybe taking it a little far but they are a gentle animal and one we should respect and protect.
Dolphin and their Halo's
Feeding Rainbow Beach
Flipper Theme
Everyone loves the king of the sea,
Ever so kind and gentle is he,
Tricks he will do when children appear,
And how they laugh when he's near
Japan is called the “Land of the Rising Sun”
It is known for leading the world in innovation and technology, for moving forward into the future and for blazing the way with new trends and ideas.
Japan is also a land of tradition proud of its ancient cultural background. Sometimes, it holds on to ancient traditions and customs, which seem to contradict the country’s efforts to lead the way into the future. It is this blend of the old and new which makes Japan the interesting and intriguing place it is today.
Unfortunately, some of Japan’s ancient traditions are still being practiced .The dolphin slaughter is a tradition that should cease.
The small town of Taiji is a place of picturesque beauty and hidden horrors. Taiji could easily be viewed as just another quaint, historic Japanese village. However, this is not the case.At the beginning of September every year dolphins and small whales are corralled by fisherman and slaughtered in the coves of Taiji .
Hundreds of dolphins are killed between September and March. Fishermen slay the dolphins by driving a pin into their necks, by slashing their throats with knives or by spearing them with long harpoons from their boats. In addition, members of the international dolphin display industry attend these dolphin slaughters to purchase show-quality dolphins for use in captive dolphin shows and dolphin swim programs then the dolphins not selected are slaughtered. This is the largest scale dolphin slaughter in the world and unfortunately very few know it even takes place.
Their ability to make light is known as bioluminescence. Both males and females have light producing organs composed of cells called photocytes, which contain a chemical called luciferin. An enzyme known as luciferase acts on luciferin that combines with oxygen to generate light in the firefly’s tail. Scientists have used luciferase in the analysis of cells. By injecting luciferase into specific cells within an animal’s body, they are distinguishable from other ones because of their glow. For instance, by injecting cancer cells with luciferase, researchers can monitor progress in treatments, as cells begin to disappear. Apart from cancer research, firefly luciferase has played a significant role in the areas of muscular dystrophy, heart disease, urology, antibiotic testing, and wastewater treatment and blood banks have used the luciferase enzyme to test the quality of red blood cells within their stock.
Fireflies Stem Cell Research.
In University of Central Florida ,Steven Ebert engineered stem cells with the same enzyme that makes fireflies glow. The "firefly" stem cells glow brighter and brighter as they develop into healthy heart muscle, allowing doctors to track whether and where the stem cells are working. Researchers are keenly interested in stem cells because they typically morph into the organs where they are transplanted. But why and how fast they do it is still a mystery. Now Ebert's cells give researchers the ability to see the cells in action with the use of a special camera lens that picks up the glow under a microscope. If doctors can figure out exactly how the cells repair and regenerate cardiac tissue, stem cell therapies could offer hope to more than 17.6 million Americans who suffer from coronary disease. The glow of the enzyme also means therapies would no longer require cutting into patients' chest cavities to monitor the healing.Now that scientists can track the stem cells, Ebert said he hopes to use them in disease models to determine how they heal a damaged heart and what conditions are most suitable for the stems cells to thrive.
Firefly and their Mating
New research finds that females of the firefly species Photinus ignitus choose males based on flash pattern in their taillights. A long burning flash means the male can offer a high quality nuptial gift, a sperm package high in nutrients.
Females that receive high quality nuptial gifts lay lots more eggs, University firefly researcher Sara Lewis said there is a benefit for females that choose one of these males.
But males of a related species, Photinus greeni, may not be so honest. The greeni males with the most desirable flash pattern do not provide the best nuptial gift.
The question now is whether the males are being purposely dishonest or signaling something else, Lewis said. "Females definitely notice the variation. They're still being choosey"
Male fireflies are built to mate basically their whole anatomy is dedicated to producing the sperm package. Making a good sperm package requires loads of energy, and most males can only produce about 10 in their short lifetime. The entire purpose of a male firefly's life is to mate, pretty much with any female that will accept them.
Female fireflies need to be choosey they only live for two weeks in their adult stage and need to make those two weeks count. In this small period of time females will mate with multiple males and lay about 100 eggs.
Fireflies in a Jar
History of Firefly
Fireflies have served as cheap lights in some countries, such as China and Japan, where students once used them as reading lights. The Brazilians made gourd lanterns from them and tied them in their hair and around their ankles to guide them at night. Throughout history people from different cultures have been fascinated by fireflies. European sailors returning from the South Pacific talked of “fields of fairies” they had seen in the islands. Many Native Americans believed they were magical. The Cherokee told a legend of fireflies leading a young brave to his lost daughter after a terrible storm. And today the Japanese, having a deep respect for nature, hold firefly festivals hotari matsuri in their honor. Aside from the romantic myths that surround these luminous insects there are numerous scientific discoveries that we can share as we engage in chasing fireflies.
Firefly
Darkness fills a damp summer night,
Nature’s lanterns begin to take flight,
Crickets chirping, the nocturnal awake,
Nightfall in action until the day breaks,
Fireflies staging a brilliant show,
Festival of lights in a grassy meadow.
Children rush to this sacred place,
Wondrous looks on each little face.
Searching ever carefully for a twinkle and flash,
snatching beetles from mid-air, away again they dash.
Catch them, count them, one, two, three...
Flickering in a jar for all to see.
A call in the distance, time to fly,
Release the luminaries back to the sky.
European Union justice commissioner Viviane Reding wants legal action taken against France for its treatment of its Roma community.She says France's deportation of its Roma, or Gypsies,are similar to injustices committed during World War II.
Frances president Nicolas Sarkozy has said Roma camps are links to crimes like prostitution and child exploitation and has deported 1000 gypsies back to Romania and Bulgaria .
She's personally been appalled by a situation where people are being removed from a member state of the European Union just because they belong to an ethnic minority," she said.
"This is not a minor offence. After 11 years of experience in the commission, I even go further: this is a disgrace."Ms Reding says the European Commission has no choice but to start legal proceedings.
Gypsy in Spain
Antonio Moreno lives in Madrid. He owns a four-bedroom house with a pool.He works out of his own photo and video studio and he's a Gypsy, one of the 40,000 inhabitants of an illegal settlement on the outskirts of the Spanish capital. If they lived in just about any other European country, Moreno and his neighbors would be the source of tension and controversy. When it comes to dealing with Gypsies also known as Roma Spain is different. Spain has embraced its Gypsies, giving them rights, celebrating their history and making them feel at home. "Of course there is racism, but it's better here than anywhere else I've seen," Moreno says.
Gypsies Tramps and Thieves
Roma or gypsy
are an ethnic minority that is difficult to define in any definite, factual terms. Throughout their history, the Roma have been comprised of many different groups of people, absorbing outsiders and other cultures while migrating across continents. This has resulted in creating a patchwork of groups calling themselves Roma, Romani, Romany or Gypsy, each with differing cultures, customs.
If any one single aspect of their history has been dominant, it must, unfortunately, be that of their persecution, forced assimilation, enslavement, and yes, even genocide carried out against them by the Nazi's. Estimates are that roughly 600,000 Roma were exterminated by the Nazi's, roughly 1/4 to 1/3 of their numbers in all of Europe. Even in Europe in the 1400's they were confused with muslim invaders from the east. Laws were enacted against them everywhere they went. The history of the response of the countries in which they have lived has been uniformly one of rejection, mistrust, fear,and banishment.
Vardos
It is the Vardos that reminds me of the Gypsies and my mum had one on her mantlepiece for years. That's an ornamental one.When I was doing my blog on Cohen's song Suzanne there was an article that contained the story of Suzanne Verdal and her son, building one to live in on the banks of the St Lawrence River. Then looking for my behind the news story I came across France's discrimatory actions against these people so I chose it as my behind the news story.
Gypsy Dance and Music
The Flamenco
Flamenco dancing was the result of several cultures coming together with music, dance. The gypsy people came from India and arrived in the Andalucia region of Spain in the early 1400s. Jews and moors also lived in this area, which was under Arab rule at the time.
Catholic monarchs forced the gypsies, Jews and moors all to convert to Christianity and give up their traditions and way of living; as a result, these groups took refuge together in mountainous areas that were too dangerous for authorities to visit. This is when gypsy dance began to mix with Arab influences and other Spanish dancing, which eventually became known as flamenco.
The increasing popularity of festivals throughout the world over the last ten years is a sign not only that girls just wanna have fun, Cyndi but everyone wants to have fun so i thought I would do a post on the subject of festivals and use some of my photos from a few festivals around the Sunshine Coast recently. Enjoy!
The Burning Man event which has been described as an annual celebration of radical self-expression' this year had a 'Metropolis' theme.
This year's festival included more than 199 registered art works.Burning Man began in 1991 and culminates in the burning of a 40ft high wooden man
For one week out of the year, a portion of the desert is transformed into a thriving diverse city known as Black Rock City.The event traditionally starts on the Sunday before and ends on the day of American Labor Day. Revellers this year are were warned to be on the look out for undercover female cops posing in revealing outfits.The annual week long self-expression festival is notorious for nudity, quirky costumes and drugs.
Ginger Festival
The Dutch city of Breda celebrated the fifth annual red-hair day.
Despite being the butt of many jokes, the town celebrated being ginger as thousands from around the world gathered for the two-day festival.
The event featured individual photoshoots, a fashion show, lectures about ginger hair and music.
The main criteria of attending the free two-day festival is that you have natural red hair.
The festival was created in 2005 when Dutch painter Bart Rouwenhorst advertised for 15 redhead models and received 150 replies.
Ginger Factory
Julia Gillard
Last year saw more than 4000 red heads attend.
Ginger bread man was taken at the Ginger Factory Yandina Sunshine Coast Queensland maybe they should run a reciprocal festival and invite our Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
Festivals in Australia Recently
Here are some images taken from these events,enjoy
The finding of more bodies in Belanglo Forest just south of Sydney got me thinking their has never been a movie made of Milat and his murder spree.The likes of Bundy,Gacy, Ed Gein,Charles Manson have all had movies made on there macabre exploits.Ed Gein,the 1950s farmer and serial killer would be hollywood's most popular murderer. He has inspired Texas Chainsaw Massacre,Physcho, and Silence of the Lambs.
There has always been speculation that many more Milat victims are buried in Belanglo.Solicitor Leon Sokulsky, who represented Milat as a junior lawyer in the 80s, explains in his book Innocent Until Proven that he believes there could be hundreds of other victims buried in the forest.They include girls who went missing from the Belmont area, near Newcastle, in the early 80s.
The skull and other bones have been discovered on the weekend in the forest, south of Sydney, that Milat used as the dumping ground for the bodies of the seven backpackers.
The Milat story may continue to get bigger in the weeks too come and Hollywood may yet become interested. I think of the victims families and how they feel seeing their loved ones murderer being catapulted to big screen fame but a story is a story I suppose, no matter how painful it is for some. We all have our pain and have to deal with it. Just some its hard to forget when it has to be relived in a movie.
Quotes
Death leaves a heartache no one can heal, love leaves a memory no one can steal.
When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight. Kahlil Gibran
We must embrace pain and burn it as fuel for our journey. Kenji Miyazawa
Unable are the loved to die. For love is immortality. ~Emily Dickinson
Flashback to the loved ones lost
The first bodies found in the original investigation were of two British backpackers, Caroline Clarke and Joanne Walters. They had been missing for five months after leaving Kings Cross to travel south together looking for work. While in Germany, Manfred and Anke Neugebauer listened anxiously to the news, wondering if first bodies found were those of their son Gabor and his girlfriend Anja who had disappeared without trace after leaving a Kings Cross backpacker's hostel just after Christmas Day, 1991.
Herbert Schmidl, in his home in Regensburg, near Munich, listened also hoping that neither body was that of his only daughter Simone, who had been missing since leaving Sydney in 1991.
Several hundred miles south of Belangalo, in Frankston Victoria, Pat Everist, wondered if it was her daughter Deborah and her friend, James Gibson that were laying dead in the forest. They had been missing since 1989.
Mass Murderers
Ted Bundy
Ted Bundy was active for five years between 1973 - 1978, during that period he twice escaped from county jails before his final apprehension in 1978. It took more than a decade of denials before Bundy confessed to some 30 alleged killings, although it is believed that he killed a total of 35; the span of his admitted killings was 1974 - 1978. His primary method of killing was to bludgeon his victims with a heavy object before strangling them to death. He was also a rapist and necrophile. Ted was executed for his final murder in Florida in 1989. Bundy's murders spread over a number of American states including Washington, Idaho, Utah and Colorado
Movie The Deliberate Stranger
Mark Harmon played Ted Bundy
John Wayne Gacy, Jr.
He was a serial rapist and killer, convicted and executed for the rape and murder 33 boys and young men. Chillingly, he was in operation at the same time Ted Bundy, starting a year earlier in 1972 before his arrest in 1978. He is perhaps better known by his name 'The Killer Clown' because of his frequent block parties for children, where he would dress up as a clown complete with makeup; calling himself 'Pogo the Clown
To Catch a Killer
Brian Dennehy stars as John Wayne Gacy
Jeffrey Dahmer
Dahmer was a wolf in sheep’s clothing. At the time of his arrest, few people imagined the polite man with blond hair, blue eyes and thick glasses was capable of killing, dismembering and cannibalizing 17 young men. But his murders remain among the most gruesome in American history. Most of his victims were poor Asian, African-American and Latino men from the Milwaukee area.
Dahmer 2002, this movie tells the emotionally riveting story of a man who turned his darkest fantasies into a horrifying reality
Ed Gein
Gein stayed to himself. No one knew that he spent hours obsessed with sexual fantasy and reading about the female anatomy. The human experiments performed in Nazi camps also fascinated him. His mind filled with images of sex and dismemberment and as the mental images merged into one,
Police went to Gein's farmhouse in hopes of finding Bernice Worden. The shed was the first area searched. Inside the shed was a woman's naked corpse hanging upside down, the body disemboweled, and the throat and head missing. It was the body of Bernice Worden. Next came the search of Gein's house. The police officers waded through piles of garbage and an unfathomable amount of junk with only oil lamps to guide them. As the officers eyes adjusted, the junk began to take a recognizable form, one that was more horrific than anyone could have ever imagined. Everywhere they looked they saw various body parts, some used as household items such as skulls made into bowls, jewelry made from human skin, lips hanging, chair seats with human skin upholstery, facial skin that was well preserved and resembled masks, a box of vulva's among which was his mothers, painted silver.
Bufffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs was a combination of three real life serial killers Ed Gein, who skinned his victims and Ted Bundy , who used the cast on his hand as bait to make women get into his van; and Gary Heidnick, who kept women he kidnapped in a pit in his basement
Charles Manson
Manson and his gang of four people most notoriously killed actress Sharon Tate in 1969. The Manson Family, which was mostly composed of naïve and troubled young women, was convicted of killing seven people in total. The charismatic leader dreamed of a racial revolution that would eventually result in the Manson Family ruling the world.
Our behind the news look this week is the war going on against drugs.South America,Afghanistan,Mexico and the U.S border and how even celebrities like Paris Hilton are being brought down by the cocaine, the cartels supply.
Drug Gang Massacre
On August 26th 2010 work began under heavy security of the gruesome task , identifying the bodies of 72 Central and South American migrants killed in Mexico's biggest drug-gang massacre only 100 miles from the U.S border. The bodies were found blindfolded and slumped against a wall at a remote ranch near San Fernando.
A lone survivor, 18-year-old Luis Freddy Lala Pomavilla, staggered wounded to a marine checkpoint on a highway and told authorities about the slaughter
His family said that Lala left his remote town in the Andes mountains two months ago in the hopes of reaching the U.S.
"I told him not to go but he went," one of his brothers, Luis Alfredo Lala told Ecuavisa television from Lala's home town.
Lala's parents already live in the United States and send money home to the family, and Lala had been the primary caretaker for his eight siblings and his grandmother.
In its most recent study, the National Human Rights Commission estimated nearly 20,000 migrants are kidnapped each year based on the number of reports it received between September 2008 and February 2009 — numbers the federal government has dismissed as unreliable.
In an April report, Amnesty International called the plight of tens of thousands of mainly Central American migrants crossing Mexico for the U.S. a major human rights crisis.
Some Success
Successful arrest and gun seizure Mexico
August 1st 2010 there was some success for authorities.When in Mexico City we saw the gunning down during a U.S military raid of Ignacio "Nacho" Coronel Villareal, a principal leader of the Sinaloa drug cartel, Coronel, had gotten his start in criminal activity working for Amado Carrillo Fuentes, who was responsible for sending drugs from Central and South America to the U.S. market.
The U.S. State Department and the FBI were offering $5 million for information leading to Coronel's capture,
Although the Ignacio Coronel Villareal Mexican Drug Trafficking Organization is based in Mexico, the scope of its influence and operations penetrate throughout the United States, Mexico, and several other European, Central American and South American countries," according to the FBI, which lists Coronel among its most wanted. Coronel was indicted by a federal grand jury in Texas in 2003. That year, a U.S. federal arrest warrant was issued for Coronel charging him with conspiracy to possess a controlled substance with intent to distribute and conspiracy to import a controlled substance.
La Barbie Charged
Federal authorities have charged alleged drug cartel leader Edgar Valdez-Villarreal -- known as "La Barbie" and five other defendants with trafficking thousands of kilograms of cocaine from Mexico into the United States between 2004 and 2006, according to an indictment unsealed in federal court Friday. Valdez-Villarreal, who remains at large, is alleged to be a top member of the Arturo Beltran-Leyva cocaine cartel.
Authorities have issued a $2 million reward for information leading to his capture. He is currently believed to be in Mexico, a Justice Department statement noted.
Colombian Drug Cartel
Celebrities And Cocaine
Paris Hilton
US socialite Paris Hilton was arrested last night in Las Vegas for possession of cocaine. The hotel heiress was a passenger in a vehicle which was stopped by police outside Las Vegas' Wynn Hotel
It was stopped when officers saw what they thought was marijuana smoke coming from the car.The driver - a friend of Hilton's - was arrested for DUI pertaining to drugs, not alcohol.
After further interaction between Hilton and authorities, it was discovered she was in possession of cocaine, police said.
Hilton was detained and released from the Clark County Detention Center at around 2:30am local time Saturday and was released on her own recognisance.
Lindsay Lohan
Lohans previous charge on possessing cocaine a couple of years ago.
After Lohan failed a field sobriety test. During a prebooking search, police found cocaine in one of her pant pockets, according to Sgt. Shane Talbot, a spokesman for the Santa Monica police.
The 21-year-old actress was booked on two misdemeanor charges of suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol, driving on a suspended license, and on two felony charges of possession of cocaine and transport of a narcotic.
. George Michael
It was the latest in a string of bizarre automotive and drug-related mishaps that have raised fears for Michael's safety.
He was charged after plowing his Range Rover into a branch of Snappy Snaps in Hampstead, north London, in the wee hours of July 4. The dent in the wall is still visible, and someone has added one word of graffiti: Wham.
Afghanistans Poppy Fields
Guarding the Poppy Fields
Working in the Poppy Fields
President Obama's new strategy for Afghanistan calls for continuing the destruction of poppy fields, although experts and his top envoy to the region have called the practice counterproductive.
The dilemma of Afghanistan's poppy production has long been a thorn in the side of civilian and military strategists. The crop makes up 90% of the world's opium, which is used to make heroin, and a third of the nation's gross domestic product, according to the United Nations. Opium profits fuel the insurgency, but so does destroying the poppy crops of poor farmers.
The military also began targeting opium traffickers, as opposed to growers. Former Afghanistan counternarcotics coordinator Thomas Schweich says that formula succeeded in driving down opium production by 6% last year, and the number of acres under cultivation dropped 19%.
