Month: April 2007

Live Earth Concerts Line-Up

Madonna will be heading the star-studded line up for the Live Earth concert at the new Wembley Stadium to highlight the threat of climate change.

Other star performers for the London leg of the global gig are: Red Hot Chili Peppers, Razorlight, Keane, Snow Patrol, Genesis, Foo Fighters, Beastie Boys and the Black Eyes Peas.

Headliners for the U.S. concert at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., include Bon Jovi, Dave Matthews Band, Kanye West, Rihanna, John Mayer, Smashing Pumpkins and Fall Out Boy.

Other shows will take place in Shanghai, China; Johannesburg, South Africa; Sydney, Australia; Tokyo; and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The “Live Earth” concerts will be taking place on July 7th across seven continents to mobilize action to stop global warming.

The concerts are forming part of a global publicity drive on the issue, tagged SOS – Save Our Selves – headed by former US vice president Al Gore.

Proceeds from the concerts will create a foundation to combat climate change led by The Alliance for Climate Protection, currently chaired by Mr Gore.

[Source: Sky News, Mercury News]

The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)

I finished reading “The Lovely Bones” by Alice Sebold last night. I came across this book a number of times throughout the past years, and I thought it would be an interesting read, so it’s been on my to-read list for a while, the only thing that made me get around to reading it faster is that Peter Jackson is currently working on making a movie based on this book, and so I wanted to read the book before the movie was released.

The novel tells the story of Susie, a murdered 14 year old girl who recalls what happened to her from Heaven, and follows how the incident affects her family and those around her, as well as the different connections that are built between them.

I liked the approach to this book and how the narrator is the murdered girl, looking down from heaven and telling the events as she sees them in detail.

Another idea I really liked in this book is the concept of heaven described in it: Heaven isn’t a place that is the same for everyone, it’s a place that is personalized for every person according to their ever-changing dreams, wishes and imaginations.

I can pretty much see how the movie will turn out and I can’t wait to see it and see the different choices Peter Jackson will make while bringing it to film.

There are places where it feels a bit stretched out and you might start to lose some interest, but it quickly tries to catch up, and it’s a pretty good and interesting read all in all.

If you’re interested in checking it out, you can buy it here.

Israel’s Oppressive Apartheid Regime

“We enthusiastically chose to become a colonial society, ignoring international treaties, expropriating lands, transferring settlers from Israel to the occupied territories, engaging in theft and finding justification for all these activities. Passionately desiring to keep the occupied territories, we developed two judicial systems: one – progressive, liberal – in Israel; and the other – cruel, injurious – in the occupied territories. In effect, we established an apartheid regime in the occupied territories immediately following their capture. That oppressive regime exists to this day.”

— Michael Ben-Yair (Israeli’s Attorney-General 1993-1996), The War’s Seventh Day; Ha’aretz, 3 March 2002.

[Via: Lawrence Of Cyberia]

Universal Red Blood Cells

An international team of academic and industry scientists has come up with a feasible way of making universal red blood cells that are stripped of their blood type. The hope is that it can be developed into a viable way of relieving blood bank shortages.

Compatibility of blood group is a bit complicated and depends on who is giving and who is receiving. If a person receives blood of a type that is not compatible with their own, there is a risk their immune system will attack it, destroying the red blood cells, producing kidney failure, and the person could die.

People with blood type “O” are considered universal donors, able to give blood to people from all other blood types, but it’s only normal that blood banks and hospitals sometimes run short of this type of blood, plus it’s not always easy to find blood of the needed type, so it’s great that this new discovery has come along to avoid this problem and help save more people’s lives.

The team’s next step is to start clinical trials to test the method’s treatment safety and efficiency. I hope all goes well and that this method is spread all over the world to save life.

[Source: Medical News Today]

The Secret Life Of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)

Yesterday I finished reading “The Secret Life Of Bees” by Sue Monk Kidd. I’d picked the book up from the Waterstone’s in Manchester’s Trafford Centre a few months ago while I was shopping for books there, and I remembered hearing about it being a good read somewhere, most probably on a friend’s blog.

The book follows the story of 14-year-old Lily Owens, neglected by her father, isolated on their Georgia peach farm, and the trip she takes with her nanny Rosaleen in search of the truth about her mother, ending up in Tiburon South Carolina with three black beekeeping sisters.
The events take place in 1964, so all the racial tensions and the problems surrounding the Civil Rights Act are going on in the backdrop of the story.

It’s a great book, well written and narrated, that I truly enjoyed reading and that I went through really quickly. What got to me the most, although I guess it’s not the main objective of the book, is the passion surrounding beekeeping, and it got me wishing I could venture into beekeeping at some point in my life.

I really recommend this book, it’s light and a pleasure to read.
If you’re interested in checking it out, you can buy it here.