Yummy Wakame

Portrait Illustration Maker - Let’s make an original icon!!
(then let’s give it to Bsti for the Chapel Gallery!)

Feecal the little chocolate starfish
“Hi! My name is Feecal Matter and here you can find out all about me and my friends. We live in a place called Tuna Town and have lots of fun. There are lots of things to see and play with on our website including animations, drawings, picture stories, cudly soft sculptures and you can even join our club! xxx”

GOLGI’S CELL
Posting from cell 241C

Occupation is Oppression
A speech by Desmond Tutu, at a conference on “Ending the Occupation” at Old South Church in Boston, Massachusetts

“On one of my visits to the Holy Land I drove to a church with the Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem. I could hear tears in his voice as he pointed to Jewish settlements. I thought of the desire of Israelis for security. But what of the Palestinians who have lost their land and their homes?

I have experienced Palestinians pointing to what were their homes, now occupied by Israeli Jews. I was walking with Canon Naim Ateek (the head of the Sabeel Ecumenical Center) in Jerusalem. He pointed and said: “Our home was over there. We were driven out of our home; it is now occupied by Israeli Jews.”

My heart aches. I say, why are our memories so short? Have our Jewish sisters and brothers forgotten their humiliation? Have they forgotten the collective punishment, the home demolitions, in their own history so soon? Have they turned their backs on their profound and noble religious traditions? Have they forgotten that God cares deeply about the downtrodden?

Israel will never get true security and safety through oppressing another people. A true peace can ultimately be built only on justice. We condemn the violence of suicide bombers, and we condemn the corruption of young minds taught hatred; but we also condemn the violence of military incursions in the occupied lands, and the inhumanity that won’t let ambulances reach the injured.

The military action of recent days, I predict with certainty, will not provide the security and peace Israelis want; it will only intensify the hatred.” ~ April 13 2002

Click here to read the whole speech

Vanessa is in the house - Leeds Today
Friends today described Vanessa as “vibrant and fun loving” and guaranteed she would create a stir within the house.

“Vanessa is a real extrovert. Men will instantly fall in love with her and the girls will love to hate her. She is really feminine and a head turner. She is extremely clean and tidy and a great cook. She is also quite sporty and a team player so that will stand her in good stead when it comes to the challenges. Who can say whether she will win but I’m sure whatever happens she will leave the house with lots of offers of work – and probably marriage!”

‘Manager, there’s a fly in my waiter!’
A waiter working in a restaurant in central China gobbled up a fly found by a customer in a bowl of noodles to avoid the manager seeing it.

Diner Li Juan asked to see the manager of the restaurant in Changsha, Hunan province, when she found the insect in her food. The waiter promptly picked up the fly and swallowed it when Li repeatedly demanded that the manager be brought over. The restaurant then refused to acknowledge that anything unusual had been found in Li’s bowl of noodles.

Viennese veggie orchestra (photos)
Hamburg - The sound of 40kg of finely tuned cucumbers, leeks, potatoes, radishes, peppers, aubergines and marrows entertained a German audience at a weekend concert by the Viennese Vegetable Orchestra.

The nine-piece orchestra plays a range of original compositions on instruments constructed from vegetables - including a flute made from a carrot, a saxophone carved out of a cucumber and a pumpkin converted into a double bass.

Deforestation led to Haiti’s floods - iafrica.com
Haitian Prime Minister Gerard Latortue on Friday attributed Haiti’s deadly flash floods to the Caribbean country’s massive deforestation.

“The deep cause of this situation is the deforestation of Haiti,” Latortue said at the summit of European and Latin American leaders in Guadalajara, Mexico. We have lost more than 80 percent of forest because people like to use wood charcoal as a source of energy,”

A UN spokeswoman said there were 1500 dead or missing in Haiti alone.

“We can’t go on like this,” he said of the deforestation issue. “When I return I have plans to speak with the government to invite students in a re-forestation project.”

BushGame - The Anti-Bush Online Adventure

Congrats to Vanessa Nimmo for making it into the Big Brother 5 house.

Vanessa is not just a South African beauty, there is much more to her. This self-confessed adrenaline junkie, loves rugby and runs for an hour every morning. She was the South African archery champion for 2 years running and is a huge heavy metal fan (notice the Slipknot tatoo on her sholder).

Vanessa was a year behind me at Sans Souci Girls High and also dated my ex before leaving for the UK 6 years ago.

I think she’s the prettiest girl on any UK BB so far and I’m certain she will do extremely well. Wouldn’t it be a shock to have a South African winner on the UK BB show?

For the first time ever I will be watching Big Brother. Updates on her will be posted on yummy. Go Vanessa go!

Moscow zoo rents out animals for guest appearances
Cash-strapped bosses at Moscow Zoo are renting out animals for the day in a bid to boost funds.

It hopes by allowing animals to make guest appearances more people will be encouraged to visit. For a fee of 1,000 roubles (about £20), the zoo will organise a house visit complete with keeper to make sure there are no accidents. The management at the state-owned facility said it hoped the “mobile zoo” project would increase interest in animals and the zoo among young Russians.

UK Couple find abusive note from postman
An elderly couple were left shocked and disgusted after opening a thank you note to find an abusive note inside it from their postman.

The note read: “Dear Customer, we had to open this letter to check for money or credit cards, there were none so you can have the f***** back!

“Next time, make sure there is some money. Love, Royal Mail.”

William Kill, 72, said: “We were disgusted. It is like having someone burgle the house.”

Venus ‘could support life’
US scientists say there could be life on Venus.

According to a report in the journal Astrobiology, the existence of life on the planet’s oven-hot surface is unimaginable. But microbes could survive and reproduce, experts say, floating in the thick, cloudy atmosphere, protected by a sunscreen of sulphur compounds, reports BBC News Online.

This Wonderful Life
Click to watch video

“This short film was presented at the Electronic Theater at Siggraph this year in San Diego. A troubled young woman finds an unexpected surprise in this highly emotional and beautiful tale. This short film features some of the most advanced and complex facial expressions I have ever seen Truly impressive both technically and artistically. Armed with nothing but his trusty Athlon 1.4 Ghz, 3ds max and a lot of patience, created this true little masterpiece. Bravo!” ~ Liam Kemp

(seen on Chapel Perilous)

Bsti links to Bluebaby

Tutu won’t react to Mugabe
Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu will not be reacting to Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s charge that he is “evil”, Tutu’s office said on Monday.

Tutu, a past winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, has criticised Mugabe’s government for human rights and democratic abuses, and has decribed him as a “caricature of an African dictator”.

Mugabe’s claim that Tutu is “an angry, evil and embittered little bishop” is due to be broadcast in a SkyTV interview with the Zimbabwean ruler on Monday.

Global Fund may withdraw Aids funds
The Global Fund to Fight Aids, TB and Malaria threatens to withhold nearly a billion rand from South Africa. The funds had been available since 2002, but were being held up in Pretoria.

Invisible “Air Guitar” On Sale on e-Bay - 7 Bids
Owner pictured holding the Air Guitar.

“YOU ARE BIDDING ON AN ORIGINAL AIR GUITAR FROM THE 80′S…”

“AS YOU CAN SEE THIS ONE IS IN VERY GOOD CONDITION AND SHOULD GIVE THE OWNER MANY MORE YEARS OF PLAYING AT DRUNKEN ORGIES, FRAT PARTIES, AND ANY FAT GIRLS BIRTHDAY PARTY…”

(seen on Weird Links)

Just for the Ladyboys of Bangkok fans…

Peter Funch is a photographer with a gorgeous website. He includes a gallery of the Ladyboys. Just select “02 HESHE” from the menu.

The incredible true story of the young Masai woman who was the first girl from her rural community to seek a university degree in the US, and her mothers journey to witness her graduation.

Anna Ntaiya, a dryly pragmatic woman, said she was going to the United States for three reasons: to see the daughter she had borne at 17, to witness an educational triumph that far eclipsed anything ever achieved by a woman from Enoosaen - her daughter’s graduation, and to personally thank the many Americans who had made it possible.

For Ntaiya, 43, the trip to her daughter Kakenya’s graduation from Randolph-Macon Woman’s College in Lynchburg, Va., required months of deliberation and weeks of preparation and prayer. She had to leave her struggling farm and her six children still at home for more than two weeks. And she endured 60 hours of nearly nonstop travel from Enoosaen into what would seem like a different century altogether — from a culture where no one owns a refrigerator or a television to one where everyone seemed to have a cellphone and a car.

This was the path her eldest child had traveled more than four years earlier in pursuit of a degree from an American university. Now it was Ntaiya’s duty to travel the path as well.