Happy 2011 !!!

Celebrations around the world have already started!

This is the show over Sydney's HarbourBridge.

Hide/Seek : U.S. National Portrait Gallery

Ellen Degeneres, Kauai, Hawaii
PHOTO: Annie Leibovitz 2010

The first major museum exhibition to focus on sexual difference in the making of modern American portraiture.

Hide/Seek considers such themes as:
• the role of sexual difference in depicting modern America
• how artists explored the fluidity of sexuality and gender
• how major themes in modern art - especially abstration - were influenced by social marginalization
• and how art reflected society's evolving and changing attitudes toward sexuality, desire and romantic attachment.

Don't Ask Don't Tell -> Don't Care

U.S. President Barack Obama signed the Don't Ask Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010 on December 22, 2010, paving the way for gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military.

Obama signed the bill before a cheering crowd that included top military officials and politicians at the Department of the Interior in Washington, D.C.

The new legislation will not go into effect for at least 60 days.

My humps

Length: 1 minute

The video was licensed to BlueVoice.org by Gene Flipse of Conscious Breath Adventures, the videographer, with whom they work. The newborn whale was videoed on the Silver Bank just north of the Dominican Republic. It is part of their campaign to end the killing of humpbacks by Greenland.


Newborn humpback whale nursing from BlueVoice.org on Vimeo.

Amazing Dolphin Facts

Fractals : Seeing a Hidden Dimension

This video is cool, captivating, colourful AND it comes from the show NOVA on PBS.

It's about 52 minutes long but,
if you can stream it, you can dream it !

[ OMG, can't believe I just said that ! LOL ]

Watch the full episode. See more NOVA.

Which 'facts' are we to believe?

Thought the conclusion of this study was interesting because I REALLY wanted Echinacea to work. 
Echinacea no help for colds: study

•••
Then, I noticed the link in the Related Posts to THIS from just 3 years ago ...

Echinacea halves risk of catching cold: review

•••
And THEN, I noticed the link to THIS POST from 2 years before that !!
Echinacea useless for cold symptoms

•••
At least the scientists are getting paid!

Rudolph the ... Reindeer?!

This video vividly depicts the potentially tragic results of a Celebrity Rednose-ectomy.

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Imitate an Accent to Understand It Better

According to a new study, the key to understanding someone with a different accent is to repeat what he says and to approximate the accent. The work appears in the journal Psychological Science. [Patti Adank, Peter Hagoort and Harold Bekkering, "Imitation Improves Language Comprehension"]

Humans imitate each other during social interaction. This imitative behavior streamlines social interaction and aids in learning to replicate actions. However, the effect of imitation on action comprehension is unclear. This study investigated whether vocal imitation of an unfamiliar accent improved spoken-language comprehension. Following a pretraining accent comprehension test, participants were assigned to one of six groups. The baseline group received no training, but participants in the other five groups listened to accented sentences, listened to and repeated accented sentences in their own accent, listened to and transcribed accented sentences, listened to and imitated accented sentences, or listened to and imitated accented sentences without being able to hear their own vocalizations. Posttraining measures showed that accent comprehension was most improved for participants who imitated the speaker’s accent. These results show that imitation may aid in streamlining interaction by improving spoken-language comprehension under adverse listening conditions.

The Other White Christmas

In The Netherlands, Zwarte Piet
is Sinterklaas' helper/slave.

The Netherland’s Christmas traditions are subject to a lot of controversy as their version of Santa, Sinterklaas, is accompanied by a one-time slave known as Black Peter [ Zwarte Piet ]. These days, the Dutch try to play down the racism of the matter by claiming that Black Peter’s cartoonish appearance is a result of his going down dirty chimneys all the time and he’s no longer referred to as a slave, but a “helper.”
The naughty man in blackface is a mischievous character who may kidnap naughty children and whisk them away to his home in Spain.


Origin and evolution [ wiki ]

According to myths dating to the beginning of the 19th century, Saint Nicholas (Sinterklaas) operated by himself or in the companionship of a devil. Having triumphed over evil, it was said that on Saint Nicholas Eve, the devil was shackled and made his slave. A devil as a helper of the Saint can also still be found in Austrian Saint Nicholas tradition in the character of Krampus.

Some sources indicate that in Germanic Europe, Zwarte Piet originally was such an enslaved devil forced to assist his captor, but the character emerged in the 19th century within the Netherlands as a companion of Saint Nicholas resembling a Moor.^[1] Saint Nicholas is said to come from Turkey. The relation of Zwarte Piet with Haji Firuz is incredibly close, Haji Firuz is a traditional herald of Nowruz, the Persian New Year celebration, exactly black in the face and comes with Amoo Nowruz a white beared old man who brings gifts for the children counter part of Western Santa.

The introduction of this new Zwarte Piet was paired with a change in the attitude of the Sinterklaas character that was often shown as being quite rough against bad children himself and thought unbefitting of a Bishop by teachers and priests. Soon after the introduction of Zwarte Piet as Sinterklaas' helper, both characters adapted to a softer character.^[2]

Until the second half of the 20th century, Saint Nicholas' helper was not too bright, in line with the old colonial traditions. Once immigration started from the former colonised countries Zwarte Piet became a much more respected assistant of Saint Nicholas, who is often a bit inattentive.^[3]

According to the more modern Saint Nicholas legend, a Zwarte Piet is a servant who accompanies Saint Nicholas on his holiday travels. In some versions, it is alleged that Saint Nicholas once liberated a young slave named Peter, who decided to serve Nicholas (as a free servant) rather than enjoy liberty alone. Zwarte Piet is today commonly depicted as a black person in the colorful pantaloons, feathered cap and ruffles of a Renaissance European page, a tradition based on a single illustration in a book published in 1850.

Zwarte Pieten are often portrayed as mischievous but rarely a mean-spirited characters. Parents used to tell their children that if they have been good, a Zwarte Piet will bring them gifts and sweets, but if they have been bad, a Piet will scoop them up, stuff them in his huge dufflebag and spirit them away to Spain as punishment. Though this is increasingly uncommon nowadays, he can still carry some type or scourge (called a "roe"), especially a a bundle of birch branches, which could be used for birching or in modern words, to chastise children who have been too naughty to deserve presents. The character is believed to have been derived from pagan traditions of evil spirits. Also told for decades is a story that the Zwarte Pieten are black because of chimney soot and/or in mockery of the darker Spanish occupiers of the Low Countries in centuries past.

The traditions of the Saint Nicholas feast are in part at least of medieval origin, if not much older. St. Nicholas himself, as described in the Dutch tradition shows some similarities to Wuotan/Odin, which suggests that the duo have a pre-Christian origin. Possible precursors to Zwarte Piet can be found in Odin's ravens Hugin and Munin.

Popping a Pink Cherry

Comments made by sports celebrity Don Cherry against "pinkos" during the swearing-in of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford have caused a stir.

Cherry, invited by Ford to the ceremony, said he specifically chose to wear a flamboyant pink jacket.
"Well, actually I'm wearing pinko for all the pinkos out there that ride bicycles and everything," he said.

Berlin Patient Follow-Up 'Strongly Suggests' HIV Cure

Timothy Ray Brown gave an interview to German magazine Stern.

The “Berlin Patient” — a man living with HIV who underwent a transplant involving HIV-resistant stem cells in 2007 for the treatment of leukemia — has been classified as cured of his HIV, according to an update of the patient’s experience published online, ahead of print, on December 8 by the journal Blood. The man has remained off HIV treatment for three-and-a-half years with normal CD4 counts and no evidence of HIV replication.

Though it was initially suspected that HIV archived in the man’s cells would begin proliferating once his immune system began to recover from pre- and post-transplantation treatment, this was not observed and the team monitoring the patient now conclude, “our results strongly suggest that cure of HIV has been achieved in this patient.”

Link to another version of this story

The Wizards of Nykerk

For all fans of The Wizard of Oz, this choir has created a sweet tribute:

Acrobats strip for Pope Benedict XVI, perform topless in Vatican

OK, so you could put anything in front of the Pope, and he would look lecherous, but this performance makes you wonder what's really going on in his brain!

Russian Police and their Homo tendencies

Saw these Russian Police uniforms in a video about them crushing Gay Pride Parades in Russia, and couldn't help but get the irony of seeing them in a mirror !



Here's the video:


Here is some background:
http://www.pridesource.com/article.html?article=44431

Offspring from 2 males, “A new form of mammalian reproduction”

Scientists in Texas have created baby mice from two males, raising possibilities that double-father offspring could, in the future, repopulate vulnerable species.

Dr. Richard Behringer at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center published his study Wednesday in the peer-review journal Biology of Reproduction.

The advance could some day even help same-sex human couples have children carrying both parents' genes.

Stanley Cup overflows with Pride

The Stanley Cup, which has been on more adventures than perhaps any other piece of championship hardware, will make its first appearance in a gay-themed event this weekend [ Chicago Pride - June 27, 2010 ].

The Chicago Gay Hockey Association invited the Blackhawks to join Sunday's Gay Pride Parade after the team won its first Stanley Cup title since 1961 -- and the team said yes. So did the Chicago Cubs, who will have their own float in the parade for the first time.

Defenceman Brent Sopel and his wife, Kelly, will accompany the Cup on a float in the parade. Sopel, who was traded this week to Atlanta, is a 33-year-old father of three who said he volunteered to honour the late son of Toronto general manager Brian Burke, his former boss in Vancouver.

Patrick Burke remembers his pioneering brother, Brendan

Brendan Burke's coming out and death showed his brother and family the welcoming side of hockey. Now their arms are open for other gay athletes.

Patrick Burke [left] and his brother Brendan

“There are a lot of gay athletes out there and gay people working in pro sports that deserve to know that there are safe environments where people are supportive of you regardless of your sexual orientation.” - Brendan Burke


Every time a player has the courage and the confidence to step up and be an example and a role model, he breaks a stereotype held by athletes who generally have limited exposure to gay culture. 


It is truly a vicious cycle: Athletes who are never exposed to gay culture hold onto antiquated (and often harmful) stereotypes about homosexuality, which makes gay athletes afraid to come out, which means the athletes never confront the ignorance of their beliefs. 


The cycle has been repeating itself for generations in pro sports.

Homophobia and Hockey

Brendan Burke's legacy lives on

CBC's Fifth Estate recently did a documentary on The Legacy of Brendan Burke.

Brendan Burke [ wikipedia ] was a remarkable young man. Growing up in a hockey family, with a sports icon as a father [ Brian Burke - Pres./Gen.Mgr. of The Toronto Maple Leafs ], he was probably destined to make his mark in hockey.

And he did, but in a way few could have predicted. He decided to tell the world he was gay — a courageous move in a sport where no player, current or former, has ever come out.
Brendan Burke's life was tragically cut short, but his legacy lives on.

Click on the link to watch the full 45-minute documentary about Brendan and how his example is changing the world.

How true the last post's title was ... on so many levels

The word "Home" can mean so many things. When Mom and I boarded our plane home to Canada, neither one of us had any idea of how the next few months would unfold.

Turquoise was Mom's
favourite colour.

Mom passed away four weeks later after a systemic collapse, and a brief recovery which allowed her to visit with her entire family beforehand.


I feel proud to have done my part to make her last days as comfortable and happy as possible.


I couldn't have coped with everything without the support of my sister, Linda.

Everyone had a chance to
spend some time with her.

The rest of my extended family brought joy, flowers, kindness and strength for all of us to share.

I love you, Mom.

On our way home from seeing Mom at the hospital for the last time, stopped to watch a show of fireworks over the Ottawa River. It reminded us to celebrate Mom's long and beautiful life, and that she would be alive in our hearts forever.

... isn't that just like Life.


Since then I have moved, been overwhelmed by everything required to put another's affairs to rest, and made other dramatic changes in my life as a result.


... but,


I am ready to do something for myself again. Writing this blog was that for me - something for myself in happier times. And now, it can also serve as a record of our last time together, too ... a place to remember my last trip with Mom in a detailed way that a mere memory could never allow. I am grateful for that.