Yummy Wakame

Say what you like
Do we really have a freedom to be downright offensive?

BBC NEWS: “What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist,” wrote Salman Rushdie. It’s 15 years since Rushdie’s novel, the Satanic Verses, earned the Booker Prize-winning novelist death threats, but the question persists.

Soup’s up! Come and get it while it’s hot!
Hey, remember a while back when I was whining about not being able to find any vegetable stock here in Japan? Well, I just arrived home from my hols and guess what was sitting on the table waiting for me! Yes, that’s right, my prayers were answered - a big huge can of veggie stock, all the way from Brighton! Olivia went to all the trouble of tricking me into giving her my home address, just so that she could surprise me with this yummy present! Furthermore she had enclosed a looooong, lovely, very chatty handwritten letter (I didn’t know you young ‘uns knew how to write!) in the parcel … along with a fluffy little surprise for Benjamin! Thank you Livvy! Hugs and kisses back to you, too!

Sorry for the lack of posts the last few days. Life at home has been upheaved due to furniture being rearranged to have new windows put in and I have only just reassembled the desk and my little office is partially up and running again. My inbox nearly burst at the seams as I powered up the laptop, opened Outlook and was notified “receiving 1 of 475 emails”. Anyway…

It’s nearly midnight and pretty soon it will be 2005. We’re having a quiet night at home this time, with good food, duvet on the couch downstairs and catching up on some films we missed. I hope that wherever you are, you are having a good new year’s eve and that 2005 will be big, in a good way, for your whole family.

In case you’re wondering where you can send your unwanted christmas gifts, old clothes, toys and anything else you dont want, those affected by the recent Tsunami could benefit from anything you want to give. Look out for charity drop offs in your area. (Thanks Angel)

In the UK there is an umbrella group for the Tsunami Appeal called the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), which funds the major charities including among others, British Red Cross, Cafod, Oxfam, Save the Children, Tearfund. Call them on +44 0870 60 60 900 or donate online at www.dec.org.uk. Donations to the DEC will help the charities to make a more co-ordinated response to this disaster.

Other bodies raising money include the Muslim groups Muslim Aid (+44 020 7377 4200) and Islamic Relief (+44 0121 622 0622) and the Hindu charities Sewa International +44 0116 261 0303 and the ISKCON Disaster Appeal on +44 01923 856848.

Tsunami death toll rises above 20,000.
Mass devastation and millions lhave been left homeless after being hit by a 10 metre wave caused by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake. Worst hit was Sri Lanka but the waves hit India, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Sumatra, the Maldives, Burma, Bangladesh, even as far as Somalia on the African coast. Waves also struck Kenya, after hitting Mauritius, Reunion and the Seychelles on the way.

map: impact of the earthquake

“This may be the worst natural disaster in recent history because it is affecting so many heavily populated coastal areas… so many vulnerable communities,” UN emergency relief co-ordinator Jan Egeland told CNN.

The only warning that its victims received was that the sea was sucked into the wave as it came closer. “The water went back, back, back, so far away, and everyone wondered what it was - a full moon or what? Then we saw the wave come, and we ran,” said Katri Seppanen, who was on Phuket island’s Patong beach in Thailand with her family when the wave washed over their heads and separated them.

I know Christmas has been an expensive time for you and your family, but please consider supporting the charities who are already in the affected areas with their rescue teams. Entire countries have been devastated:

Oxfam rushes aid to Sri Lankans
“Oxfam flood-response experts are already on their way to the worst affected regions and urgently needed assistance is being prepared.”

International Red Cross and Red Crescent societies in south Asia have begun to mobilize staff and volunteers to affected areas to assist with the immediate needs.

Survival Guide to Homelessness:

“I spent nearly five years, from mid-1996 to the beginning of 2001, homeless, or as I liked to call it with a distributed household. I had storage, shelter, mailbox, telephone, shower, bathroom facilities, cooking equipment, and transportation, even access to television, radio, computer equipment, and ac power. I had the essence of a home. It was simply more geographically scattered than is traditional in our culture. I’m not the first to do what I did, to live homeless well. I’m not the first to find advantage in homelessness. It is a well kept secret that homele: otessness can be freedom and comfort can attend it. The secret is well kept because revealing that you are homeless in this society is dangerous. There is stigma. There are even laws prohibiting it. Imagine that. There are laws against being homeless. Let me say that one more time. There are laws against being homeless…”

(Found on Monochrom)

Banksy’s Artworks for Sale!

HAPPY CHRISTMAS (not XMAS) and/or HAPPY YULE everyone!

I hope you’re having a wonderful holiday with your friends, family or by yourselves this year. Have fun!

xxx Livvy, Pieter and Small, Medium & Large

My Paper Crane sells really cute stuffed toys, including the tampon doll! (Don’t worry, it won’t bite)

Heidi’s journal is just as creative.

Hamlet sent me this hilarous X-FACTOR outtake. (WMV 3MB)
This guy makes a living out of slaughtering battery chickens… no wonder he’s a little damaged.

Google’s Cheat Sheet
A must for google power users ;)

NEW7WONDERS.COM
“This website offers you the opportunity to participate in the first global vote to elect the new 7 wonders of the world. Be a part of history!”

Thanks Tintu!

This year Bellman (the ad agency Pieter works for) made a gorgeous e-card for their clients. Its a sweetly illustrated festive Flash game that the web department secretly busied themself with. Thought it was a nice one to share…

Get your fingers ready!

CHAVOPOLY
The Monopoly game for Britain’s new welfare generation

Rumba-Kali Radio
“The web’s oldest and best African hip hop webcast as started out in 1998 at Africanhiphop.

New tracks from all over the continent playing back to back. We get supplied with the latest tapes, most of which never get to be released internationally. We’ll regularly add new tracks and interviews. You can submit tracks, see our site for the mailing address.”

Click here to listen directly (mp3 stream, will work in Winamp, Mediaplayer or Realone player).

Yummy Wakame LOVES this station!!

Up here in the Northern hemisphere, today is the shortest day of the year.

HAPPY WINTER SOLSTICE everyone!

Stonehenge marks winter solstice
Hundreds of people gathered at Stonehenge early this morning to celebrate the winter solstice - a pagan tradition. More than 20,000 people usually attend the annual summer solstice celebrations at the site.

Solstice celebration ancient Plains ritual
Long before the first Europeans walked on Kansas soil, American Indians celebrated the prairie and its December night skies. In some cases, these native people of more than a thousand years ago dug intaglios, or animal figures, into trenches along hillsides across the state and built council circles for dancing and sacred ceremonies. The winter solstice, Dec. 21, held tremendous significance to these prehistoric Kansans.

FEATURED BLOG: All these links can be found on Studio 93:

• Michael Jackson’s Favourite Things

• Chatter Music Video
No it is not a joke, there is no hope for mankind. But still, its funny!

• Shut Up Already!
Two designers have made these warning cards for obnoxious cell phone users, available in convenient PDF download-and-cut-out form…

“DEAR CELL PHONE USER, We are aware that your ongoing conversation about your husband’s vasectomy is very important to you…”

MicroMedia Paper
“This snapshot-sized display can play music, movies, and more.
Price: $50 for a 10-pack.
Designer: Lunar Design.
Executive Summary: Wafer-thin display and storage finally brings digital media to the familiar format of paper
Tech Barriers: Flexible, disposable displays; radical new GUI; millimeter-thick batteries
Target Market: Photo-sharing families, 35 and up, plus execs wanting fancy business cards
Projected release: 2015″

HERMIT CRAB BLOG
“Hermies for Christmas

Hermit crabs are the ultimate impulse purchase pet and Christmas time is no exception. Hermit crabs are not the ‘easy, carefree’ pets they are promoted to be by pet stores. Its not as simple as buying a plastic box and putting the crab it in. In fact, hermit crabs require just as much, if not more, care than your average small pet. Before you pick up a hermit crabs for Christmas morning please consider the following:

Land hermit crabs can live a minimum of 30 years in captivity. This is the age of the oldest pair in captivity that I know of, and they are still going strong. Hermit crabs are believed to live up to 70 years in the wild. Are you prepared to own and care for this ‘throw away pet’ for that length of time? Will your child be willing to care for this pet into adulthood?…”