Pippa Bacca, 33, an Italian artist who was hitch-hiking from Milan to the Middle East dressed as a bride to promote world peace has been found murdered near the Turkish city of Gebze....Pippa had said she "wanted to show that she could put her trust in the kindness of local people".Her friend's blog:http://www.erodoto.org/dblog/
i love invitations in my inbox cordially inviting me to pay 1,000's to attend events.the day starts with a good laugh.
As discussed in an earlier issue of our e-Magazine, a pharaonic plan to develop a vast golf & villa complex in one of the last remaining wilderness areas of Crete is meeting with stiff opposition, with a legal case to be considered by Greece's High Court in May 2008.Two well-known authors have now also started an international petition at:http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/Save-the-Cretan-landscapeYou can add your name if you agree.
In early 2008, a camera trap in the border area between Albania and FYROMacedonia provided the first direct evidence that the endangered Balkan Lynx is still alive! To prevent its extinction, Euronatur, an NGO, calls for more protected areas and corridors between those areas which already exist.Photo & details:http://www.euronatur.org/Camera_trap_took_...re_o.756.0.html
So, it had to be a Monday, late Monday, yesterday when Jules Dassin quietly passed away at the age of 96 in Athens after a short illness. Blacklisted by McCarthy's HUAC, but listed forever in the hearts of Athenians, for his 1967-1974 campaign for the restoration of democracy in Greece and the still awaited return of the Parthenon Marbles, a passion he shared with his late wife and muse Melina Mercouri. He died 5 years after his colleague & 'compatriot', the gigantic but controversial Elias Kazan who infamously named names at the HUAC and went to to win 21 Oscars through his films (compared to just 2 Oscar nominations for the equally talented Dassin), and a few months before the full opening of the new Acropolis Museum, the child of Melina and Jules.
History's first email spammer was an engineer of now defunct computer company DEC, trying to inform EVERYONE that their new computers could handle the Arpanet protocol. Equally amusing, with the benefit of hindsight, was the rebuke by the then government-managed Arpanet, the precursor to the Internet: QUOTETHIS WAS A FLAGRANT VIOLATION OF THE USE OF ARPANET AS THE NETWORK IS TO BE USED FOR OFFICIAL U.S. GOVERNMENT BUSINESS ONLY. APPROPRIATE ACTION IS BEING TAKEN TO PRECLUDE ITS OCCURRENCE AGAIN. Full 1st spam message and reaction details
The Circus has an long and illustrious history, all the way to the decadent stages of the Roman Empire, with the famous Circa of Rome - Circus Maximus, Flaminius, Maxentius and of course that of Nero (Neronis). However, today horror stories about maltreated, starving animals in circuses around the world often make headlines, with cities and countries such as Austria introducing bans of circa featuring wild animal performances. Yet there is fresh proof, if it ever was needed, that circus misery is not confined to animals: Italian police have just rescued two teenage Bulgarian sisters who had been forced to swim with piranhas....a clear link between human and animal trafficking. Circuses are not just a matter of bad taste but a matter of violation of human and animal rights. Time to pull the plug!
Italian Minister of Agriculture's proposal to name 'Mediterranean diet' as a World Heritage may sound a bit surreal but the underlying forces may be a contest between bodies such as FAO (based in Italy) UNESCO (based in France) the EU and the World Trade Organisation. A lot of money to be made in the protected 'appelation d'origine' industry...There is also a danger that if we are to recklessly expand the definition of world heritage beyond natural areas and cultural relics to include commercial products, the whole concept may become discredited. Meanwhile it is already hard to manage and protect existing world heritage sites with 30 such sites being officially in dangerHowever, traditional food making facilities can indeed be recognised as part of a country's heritage, but they have to be something truly spectacular to acquire world heritage status.
ever wondered why you have to *pay* an intermediary to 'offset' your emissions? Offset them yourself without paying, by walking to work, not eating meat, by not buying useless items, by giving directly to a green cause of your choice!It seems it is getting harder for them to sell these days: we received a spam email which offered us to "create an offsetting product of our own"... Which means that these folks are propagating themselves like geraniums, pyramid-scheme like. So next time you try clicking n offsetting at a website, imagine how many irrelevant profit margins and administration costs you will be covering. (see, if you spam many people what happens? you may end up annoying the wrong person). Oh, yes, and the funny part is when the spammers mention you must keep the email content confidential Don't worry, don't worry.
Farewell to our friend and member Kostas Papastathopoulos who suddenly passed away. The happiest and most positive person who had achieved many professional goals but also found time for his beloved wife, two young children, his ancestral village and vineyard, always with a smile. Why do good people have to die young? Why are billions wasted on means of destruction and not spent on much needed cures?
