Happy 4/20 Everyone!

I don't know the source of the following, my boyfriend sent it to me:

It is widely accepted that in 1971, a group of teenagers at San Rafael HighSchool in San Rafael, California, calling themselves "The Waldos", used tomeet every day after school at 4:20 p.m. to smoke marijuana at the LouisPasteur statue. The term became part of their group's salute, "420 Louis,"and it eventually caught on more widely. Many cannabis users continue toobserve 4:20 as a time to smoke communally. By extension April 20 ("4/20" inU.S. has evolved into a counterculture holiday, where people gather tocelebrate and consume cannabis.)There are also many apocryphal urban legends attempting to explain theorigin of the term. Two of the most common of these are that 420 refers tothe number of active ingredients in cannabis, or that it is police dispatchcode for cannabis. In actual fact there are around 315 active chemicals incannabis, varying depending on the exact plant used, and 420 has never beenverified as the police dispatch code for anything in any locale.

THE DOPE FROM THE POPE

VATICAN CITY (AFP) - A book on Jesus by Pope Benedict XVI is a runaway success in Italy with 50,000 copies sold on the first day and a second edition already planned, the publishers Rizzoli said Tuesday.

"Jesus of Nazareth" was launched on the pontiff's 80th birthday on Monday and is billed as his answer to popular publications such as Dan Brown's best-selling "The Da Vinci Code".
It aims to reconcile the historical figure of Christ with that of the Gospels.
The second edition of 70,000 would take the total print run to 420,000, said a statement from Rizzoli.
The book is being translated into 17 languages, and will soon be available in Latin America, where books by Spanish Jesuit and liberation theologian Jon Sobrino were recently severely criticised by the Vatican.
In his work, Benedict laments "the worst books, which destroy the figure of Jesus and dismantle faith, filled with the supposed results" of scriptural study.
This has been taken by many observers as a clear allusion to "The Da Vinci Code," which was criticised by the Roman Catholic Church.
The pope began writing his book in 2003 when he was a cardinal and headed up the Vatican's doctrinal enforcement body.

A Country That Begins With The Letter 'U'...and more..

Americans are NOT stupid - WITH SUBTITLE
Uploaded by antoinetheone

I've heard of micro-loans, initially on Oprah (I think). Tonight watching PBS I heard about an organization called KIVA which will allow people to make micro-loans to entrepreneurs in third world countries.

I think the micro loan concept is a wonderful way to give people a hand up, and now with KIVA anyone can do so.

Although, I can't really afford to do it, I think I am going to give it a try. A way to give back. Besides, haven't we all blown a hundred dollars on nonsense without giving it a second thought?

Kiva micro- loans are as little as $100.00 and you can loan as little as $25.00 which goes into a basket with money loaned from other lenders until the loan amount is reached. I hope you will check out the KIVA site and give a loan to someone who needs help.

No one who has received a loan from KIVA has EVER defaulted on a loan. Please check it out, it is much more personal than donating money to an organization and wondering where it went.

I have made a loan of $75.00 (US) to Elshan Alishanov, Location: Sumgayit city , Azerbaijan Activity: Household Items Store. (You can see his info at the left). I also made a 10% donation to KIVA which brought my total to $92.00 CDN.

I hope you will consider joining with KIVA and help someone too.

www.kiva.org

Since I orginially posted this, Elshan Alishanov has reached his loan goal and will receive the funds at the end of the month. The ad to the left updates to display another entrepreneur.

Director David O. Russell flips out on the I Heart Huckabee's set.

OCAD student's artwork

The Horn Of Victory!

Farrow: "Spielberg Could Become Leni Riefenstahl of Olympic Games"

Actress Mia Farrow has condemned director Steven Spielberg for aiding China's staging of the 2008 Olympic Games, warning he could become known as "the Leni Riefenstahl of the Beijing Games." Farrow, a United Nations UNICEF goodwill ambassador, launched an impassioned appeal on behalf of African victims in the over-spilling Sudan crisis earlier this month. And The Omen star, 62, is astonished so many big names and corporations like Coca-Cola and McDonald's are also readily lending their support to what they have dubbed 'The Genocide Olympics', because China openly supports the government of Sudan. She writes in a Wall Street Journal article, "That so many corporate sponsors want the world to look away from that atrocity during the games is bad enough. But equally disappointing is the decision of artists like director Steven Spielberg - who quietly visited China this month as he prepares to help stage the Olympic ceremonies - to sanitize Beijing's image. Is Mr. Spielberg, who in 1994 founded the Shoah Foundation to record the testimony of survivors of the Holocaust, aware that China is bankrolling Darfur's genocide?" Farrow went on to warn the Schindler's List director that he risked becoming a modern version of Nazi propaganda filmmaker Riefenstahl, who is famed for her 1936 Berlin games film Olympia. She writes, "Does Mr. Spielberg really want to go down in history as the Leni Riefenstahl of the Beijing Games? Do the various television sponsors around the world want to share in that shame? Because they will. Unless, of course, all of them add their singularly well-positioned voices to the growing calls for Chinese action to end the slaughter in Darfur." According to official United Nations figures, more than 200,000 people have died and more than two million have been displaced since the rebels and government forces first clashed in Dafur in 2003.

Gee, why didn't I think of that?

I heard on a local radio station today that CTV was airing the Juno Awards after the American show The Amazing Race. I thought it seemed more than a bit odd that the major Canadian contemporary awards show would not be airing until 10:00 pm in Toronto!

Aparently they have changed their minds over at CTV. Good. Click the link for the full story from CP.

Industry criticism prompts CTV to air Juno broadcast earlier in Eastern Cda

German Beard Championships

A combination of pictures shows 18 participants during the international German beard championships in the southern German village of Schoemberg March 24, 2007. Some 200 participants from all over Europe took part in different categories of moustaches, chin beards, whiskers and full beards. REUTERS/Alex Grimm (GERMANY)

Suspicious Package

Click on this link to see tonight news story regarding a Canada Post truck that contained a suspicous package. The truck is on the Sherbourne Street bridge right beside our building.