For those of you who hate America...
Mood:  down
Now Playing: Evanescensce- Tourniquet - Album "Fallen"
Topic: Human Rights
...the USA could be worse. We could have the same policy on human rights that India does. Heterosexual displays of affection in public are dangerous. Homosexuality in that country is strictly banned and is punishable by up to ten years in prison. If you come out of the closet, you will be socially shunned.
Such is the situation of Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil, who was disowned by his family after announcing his homosexuality publicly. Would it break your heart if your mother cast you away and refused to continue acknowledging you as her child, just because you were different? Well, that's what Gohil is going through- even his own mother has said that anyone using her name in association with him as her son could face a lawsuit.
Gohil doesn't care about his inheritance, though, he cares about his new family- the gay community of Gujarat. He stated that he had to come out of the closet because if he hadn't, and he started being an activist for gay rights, it would be like living a lie. The gay communities in India are on the right track, too. They want homosexuals to feel safe about coming out. The hope is that homosexuals in India can start being forthcoming if they have a positive HIV/AIDS status, and get the medical help they desperately need without the fear of being jailed.

---

Read the original at:
Royal family disowns gay scion

Want to speak out for gay rights in India? Send letters to:

Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi
OR
Chief Minister Narendra Modi
c/o Chief Minister's Office
Block No 1, 5th Floor, New Sachivalaya,
Gandhinagar 382 010,
Gujarat, INDIA
On the homepage of the Gurjarat website, Official Portal of Gujarat Government they say, "Ever since its inception, Gujarat has been showing a new direction to the nation during the last 43 years." Let's give them their own words back, and make sure they show a new direction in compassion for homosexuals. The fear homosexuals have of public punishment is one of the major factors in the spread of the AIDS epidemic throughout India, and the time has come for everyone everywhere to do their part to stop this disease!

Posted by Melvin Bunny at 1:01 AM PDT
Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post

A Golden Dragon is worth more than money
Mood:  mischievious
Now Playing: Lacuna Coil- Fragile - Karmacode (2006)
Topic: Off the Wall
We can all agree that celebrities name their kids some pretty weird crap... Take Zowie Bowie, David Bowie's son, for instance! But those poor rich kids ain't got jack on this 19-year-old from Vietnam, whose father named the boy after the amount of the fine he had to pay for ignoring Vietnam's two-children-per-family law (Fine-Boy was Daddy's big number 5 child). Fortunately, after suffering almost two decades of torture and ridicule at the hands of his classmates, the boy has been safely renamed Hoang Long- "Golden Dragon".

To read the original, go here:
Teen's Name Changed After Years of Mockery

Poison Ivy Issues (Like anything that says
Mood:  irritated
Now Playing: Goldfrapp- Strict Machine; White Zombie- More Human Than Human; Rihanna- SOS (Rescue Me); Alice Cooper- School's Out
Topic: NewsBites
You guys wanna know something that sucks? Global warming's cause, increased carbon dioxide, helps plants gow. Why could this possibly suck? Because it particularly pumps up our arch-nemesis poison ivy. While Uma Thurman must be thrilled, I'm fairly certain I enjoy my backyard poison ivy-free... In fact, it helps ALL the little "poison" plants. Like poison oak and poison sumac as well. According to the Duke and Harvard study, warmer weather helps these plants grow up to three times larger and produce a more toxic urushiol. For those of you who don't know, that means that a simple brush with one of these babies could cause a ton of damage. It just kinda proves that we need to take care of Mother Earth before she "takes care" of us- mob style!

---

For more on this story, check the following links:

1. Global Warming Expected to Raise the Severity of Poison Ivy; More (and Itchier) Seasons Predicted in Coming Years
2. Warming Could Make Poison Ivy Denser, Itchier
3. Poison Ivy Getting Meaner
4. Study: global warming boosts poison ivy
5. Biomass and toxicity responses of poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans) to elevated atmospheric CO2 [Official Study Abstract!]

People on Jeopardy! worry me
Mood:  d'oh
Topic: Off the Wall
I'm worried.... This guy on Jeopardy! just answered a question about felines (also known as CATS) with the answer "What is a rat?" It was not a question about what cats hunt. I wonder if he wonders why he got the answer wrong.... Good god, I know a 5-year-old who'd be screaming that the guy's an idiot if she was watching this. If a 5-year-old knows a feline is a cat, how come a full-grown adult (and a full-grown adult on a trivia show no less) doesn't have a clue? I'm frightened...

Don't believe me? Try to find today's episode online and watch it...

Social Services can't help with this lady... Maybe a rest home is in order?
Mood:  cheeky
Now Playing: Shakira ft. Wyclef - Hips Dont Lie
Topic: Off the Wall
This is a fabulous argument to support rest homes as an option for the elderly in their twilight years....

A 92-year-old lady in Hildesheim, Lower Saxony, Germany, called what is essentially child services to come deal with her 68-year-old daughter's promiscuity. (Just to let you know, Mom was upset because her daughter had *gasp* a boyfriend! God forbid a lady over 60 have a decent romantic life...) When the officials came to the scene and discovered that the "child" in question was 68, they told dear old mom that they couldn't do anything, as her daughter was 50 (yeah, 50) years over their legal interference limit. Nice try, Granny, but I think your kid's gonna keep dating for a while yet! Maybe the mom should try seeing someone too- like a nice psychotherapist!

Read more at:
Mum worried about love life of daughter, 68

People do the funniest things...
Mood:  accident prone
Now Playing: Live365.com- RED BLOOD Gothic Radio: Communion by Aesma Daeva
Topic: Off the Wall
Okay... People do do the funniest things! Last night at Ralph's Grocery Store, I saw a guy walk in wearing a Stater Bros. Grocery Store uniform... How screwed is that? He won't even shop at his own store- and they have great bargains, too! It might have been because it was late- I got out of there around 10:30pm and Stater's closes at 9pm, but still... Company loyalty would be a plus, they are paying the man's wages, after all!
In other news... The Brits are pretty funny to me today. They fired a tea lady, then hired 200-pound-per day consultants to tell their staff how to make/carry tea. For us Americans that 200 pounds equals $337.43, a.k.a. more than your humble webbe-mistress makes in a week... Can I be consulted on how to make and carry tea? I'm rather good at it!

For more on this story, you can read the original here:
The Sun Online - News: Brew couldn't make it up
Or you can read the condensed here:
Consultants tell staff how to make tea

A stop-gap measure for anthrax-related terrorism?
Mood:  hug me
Now Playing: "Songs of Sanctuary" by Adiemus
Topic: NewsBites
Okay, get this... A 17-year-old has done something that millions in government spending couldn't: figure out a way to kill anthrax in the mail for private citizens. Marc Roberge, a high-school student, performed an award-winning experiment on an anthrax-similar (non-lethal) substitute called bacillus subtilis. The similarities between the two allowed him to perform the experiment with confidence in the results. Using a regular iron, set on high heat without steam, you can iron your mail as a stop-gap to kill the anthrax spores. Just apply a little pressure, go back and forth over the suspicious letter for a few moments, and bam! you're anthrax-free. Young Mr. Roberge does insist that his measure is simply for extreme cases where the proper authorities can't be contacted and reminds people to *ALWAYS* notify said proper authorities as the first measure of defense.

Read the articles at:
Anthrax remedy: clothes iron?. (2006). ABC News (from Associated Press). Retrieved Feb 24, 2006, from http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=1643020&page=1

Seventeen-year-old devises anthrax deactivator. (2006). MSNBC. Retrieved Feb 24, 2006, from http://msnbc.msn.com/id/11522143/

Student to publish anthrax science project. (2006). MSNBC (from Associated Press). Retrieved Feb 24, 2006, from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11473217/from/RSS/

Listen to the NPR Interview:
Roberge, M. (2006, Feb 23). Teen develops defense against anthrax. Day to Day, Retrieved Feb 24, 2006, from http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5230109&ft=1&f=17

Search tags:
Marc Roberge
Anthrax
student +anthrax
Marc Roberge +anthrax