"Comrades!" he cried. "You do not imagine, I hope, that we climate change delegates and officials are doing this in a spirit of selfishness and privilege? Many of us actually dislike foie gras and sculpted caviar wedges. I dislike them myself. Our sole object in taking these things is to preserve our health. Foie gras and sculpted caviar wedges (this has been proved by Science, comrades) contain substances absolutely necessary to the well-being of climate change delegates and officials. We delegates and officials are brainworkers. The whole management and organization of this earth depend on us. Day and night we are watching over your welfare. It is for your sake that we eat foie gras and sculpted caviar wedges."
Ms Jorgensen reckons that between her and her rivals the total number of limos in Copenhagen next week has already broken the 1,200 barrier. The French alone rang up on Thursday and ordered another 42. "We haven't got enough limos in the country to fulfil the demand," she says. "We're having to drive them in hundreds of miles from Germany and Sweden."
. . . The airport says it is expecting up to 140 extra private jets during the peak period alone, so far over its capacity that the planes will have to fly off to regional airports – or to Sweden – to park, returning to Copenhagen to pick up their VIP passengers
. . . The top hotels – all fully booked at £650 a night – are readying their Climate Convention menus of (no doubt sustainable) scallops, foie gras and sculpted caviar wedges.
. . . The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
A U2 show marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall has run into controversy - after organisers built a wall around the venue.
A two metre barrier has been erected around the Brandenburg gate to keep out people without tickets for the show.
Perhaps it's there to keep people from walking out on Bono's sermons about governments giving tax dollars to 3rd world nations while he dodges the tax man in his native land?
Richard Davidson, one of the world's top brain scientists, believes mental exercise, specifically meditation, can literally change our minds.
"Our data shows mental practice can induce long-lasting changes in the brain," said Davidson, professor of psychology and psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
His startling scientific research on the impact of meditation on brain function has implications that go beyond the physical.
Buddhist monks believe mental attributes and positive emotions such as compassion, loving, kindness and empathy are skills that can be cultivated.
Canada's first Africentric alternative skoo opened dis here morning wiff 115 students - 30 o' dem new in da past five days.
If enrolment continues ta surge - dere iz room fo' up ta 150 - da skoo may gots ta add another teacher an' will try hard ta find uh male ta join da current all-female staff, said skoo trustee James Pasternak, who represents da North York skoo hosting da program.
"We hire on da basis o' ability, but we's do need uh male role model, so we's iz going ta be actively recruiting male and shit," said Pasternak o' da Toronto District School Board, standing outside Sheppard Public School on Sheppard Ave. west o' Keele St.
Sporting da skoo uniform o' whitey shirt, black pants or skirt an' vests o' vibrant cloth from Ghana, chil'ns from kindergarten ta Grade 5 wuz led into da skoo by teachers wearing African-inspired fabric an' head scarfs. Inside da gym, west African drummers wuz warming up fo' da opening assembly, where chil'ns sang O Canada as well as da Black National Anthem, an' read out uh skoo pledge dat starts wiff uh vow ta be "the bomb possible me."
"I like seeing da posters o' Martin Luther King on da wall, an' other famous black peeps - an' I wants ta play da African instruments," said Asmaa Mohamed, 9, whose parents will cruize her in each day from they home in Mississauga ta take part in da historic program.
"Kids gots ta know they culture or dey won't gots uh feeling o' dignity - it'sda confusion many kids feel dat makes some o' da violence," said her father Omer Mohamed, who came ta Canada mo' than 20 years ago from Ethiopia.
Dorrell Stone brought her daughter Nickeshia ta start Grade 5 at da skoo "to learn about our culture, especially things done by da peeps o' Jamaica."
Long-time supporters o' da controversial skoo, which won approval by uh slim margin over critics' fears o' segregation, wuz clearly emotional taday ta see da skoo finally open its doors.
"It feels like all muh ma fuckin chil'ns iz here taday," said Donna Harrow, one o' two mothers who pushed fo' da skoo, first proposed in 1994 by Ontario'sRoyal Commission on Learning, as uh way ta combat uh 40 per cent dropout rate among black students.
"I remember da outrage when I suggested we's try it as uh pilot project back in 2005," said Lloyd McKell, da Toronto board'sexecutive officer o' equity, as parents, chil'ns an' media clustered outside da skoo.
Today'sopening assembly began wiff uh traditional African "libation" ceremony, where chil'ns watched water poured in memory o' they ancestors. They also learned ta respond ta statements wiff da Yoruba werd "Ashe!" (Amen!)
Audrey Nakintu iz sending her Grade 1 child ta da skoo, "because obviously da public system grossly under-educates chil'ns about da peeps o' da African diaspora. Black History Month iz just uh footnote; it'san insult."
Mothers Rebeckah Price an' Tamara Griffith gots organized bussing ta da skoo fo' families as far-flung as Mississauga an' Scarborough, fo' about $275 per month.
"We've had five mo' parents sign up in da last few minutes," said Price taday. The skoo iz open ta chil'ns o' all backgrounds.
"We're also starting ta organize uh parent council," said Price, whose great-great grandfather wuz uh runaway slave who established uh community in Jamaica dat continues ta dis here day, she said.
"I wants muh ma fuckin son ta dig' what black peeps gots contributed, not just in Canada but da world in general." Don't make me come ovah there bitch...
Translated from da original colonialist jargon o' da Toronto Star using da phat translator, Ya' dig?:
The eagle, whose expected life span was 30 years, asked the crow, whose life expectancy was 300 hundred years, what the secret of longevity was. The crow responded that it was a result of eating carrion rather than the fresh kill eagles prefer. The eagle tried carrion and decided a life of fresh kill was preferable.
I watched the course of Hurricane Bill with some interest. As it tracked towards the USA, there was the usual hype about more and bigger storms threatening our safety. All caused by global warming of course. Oddly, when Bill shifted course and beat the hell out of the Atlantic Provinces of Canada, the media in the states lost all interest. I guess if it doesn’t affect them, it doesn’t really happen.
The next hurricane in the pipeline, now dubbed Dan, looks like it too will turn north and possibly bash the Maritime Provinces. It too will be of little interest to big media if it does.
Don’t these people know that all that rain plays havoc with our igloos? ;^)
Does anyone really ever get cured of depression? I mean without pills or ongoing therapies? It's potentially as lucrative an industry as death. There will always be morticians because people will always need to be cremated/buried or ritualistically tossed in a swamp; there will always be drugs/religion/secular social services because, let's face it, life is a continuous, meaningless ongoing struggle against death.
And if they can be certified from the time they're five, that's a lot of lifetime consumers for the needy services industry. A life time of drugs and therapy awaits because, well, no one really gets over it, especially if one is reminded from an early age that it's who and what you are.
"Difficult temperament at five months was the most important predictor of depression and anxiety in the children . . . As early as the first year of life, there are indications that some children have more risks than others to develop high levels of depression and anxiety."
It has now been revealed that "15 per cent of preschoolers suffer depression". Wow, that's a lot of kids! That's near as many kids as adults who'll grow up to smoke cigarettes. Hell, maybe they're in the same demographic. These are probably the same kids who feel an early aversion to Disney and refuse to sing along with all the phony bullshit singalong songs they march to in daycare - these kids just ain't healthy. And rest assured those numbers will only get worse once these kids start school.
And if mom is depressed, well, time for a domestic intervention - best just move those kids to a home that's safe!
"We found that lifetime maternal depression was the second most important predictor of atypically high depressive and anxiety problems during preschool years," said Cote.
"Our study is the first to show that infant temperament and lifetime maternal depression can lead to a high trajectory of depressive and anxiety problems before school entry."
The new breed of foster parent will be required to pass a happy test.
Better get those kids into a social(ist) workers care before they get used to a life without interference. We must make them happy - or at least help them to not think.
Is there any correlation between intelligence and depression?
