meta-roj

actor

chemist and teacher

guess who’s been stopped now?

if a bunch of civilian contrators are involved in abuse in prisons in iraq… does that make them “unlawful combatants”? “unlawful contractors”? do we need to set up a camp for contractors?

commemorating south africa’s 10th anniversary as a democratic nation, nelson mandela, speaking to south africa’s parliament on may 10th took a few moments to chastize the “beacons of democracy” – the united states and great britain.

nelson mandela

We live in a world where there is enough reason for cynicism and despair. We watch as two of the leading democracies, two leading nations of the free world, get involved in a war that the United Nations did not sanction; we look on with horror as reports surface of terrible abuses against the dignity of human beings held captive by invading forces in their own country.

We see how the powerful countries – all of them democracies – manipulate multilateral bodies to the great disadvantage and suffering of the poorer developing nations. There is enough reason for cynicism and despair.

[full text of the speech below]
(more…)

children studying ballet (some, reportedly as young as 3 years old) in worthington have been denied permission to perform a 10-minute derivative segment work based on harry potter. apparently all movie and theatrical production rights for harry are under the warner brothers legal umbrella through 2007, so it’s simply impossible to get the rights to perform the dance.

neil blair, spokesperson for christopher little, agent of jk rawling, in dance: no potter pas [new york times]

It is simply not possible for us to pick and choose however worthy the cause, which in this particular case was clearly most worthy.

the performance, which will benefit the great ormond street hospital and the cleft lip and palate association. the news is running around the world on the ap wire and getting picked up in lots of interesting places, but one thing that the wire story doesn’t include is something you can do about it. to donate to the hospital, maybe in harry’s name.

singer

it’s big, strange world, baby

eonatology and the resistance

guitar