what is completely wrong with this story? It truly blew my mind, that Reuters missed this mistake. If I'm somehow wrong about this, or I'm reading it incorrectly... Let me know...

Foul water put swimmers' health at risk: group

Fri Aug 4, 2006 2:08 PM BST

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[-] Text [+]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Foul water forced U.S. officials to issue health warnings or close beaches for more days than ever last year, an environmental group that is suing the government over water safety standards said on Thursday.

The Natural Resources Defense Council said in a report that ocean, bay and Great Lakes beaches were closed or health advisories issued for a total of more than 20,000 days last year, up 5 percent from 2004.

The group blamed the rise in days that the water was found to be unsafe on heavy rain, better monitoring and more coastal development.

"Those violations are pretty good indications that the beach water was contaminated with human and animal waste, and that beach goers were either swimming in that waste or banned from doing so due to the health risks," the report said.

But the group argued that even the beaches that were deemed safe may be hazardous because the Environmental Protection Agency has failed to update beach water quality standards, which are 20 years old.

The EPA was supposed to update its standards by October 2005 but says it will be unable to finish the process until 2011, the NRDC said.

The group filed suit against the EPA on Thursday to force it to establish tougher standards.

Overall, the NRDC found that 8 percent of beach water tested failed to meet federal health standards, with Mississippi's beaches the dirtiest. A total of 22 percent of tests done there found the water violated health standards.

New Hampshire and Delaware had the cleanest beaches, with their beaches found to be dirty just 1 percent and less than 1 percent of the time, respectively.

© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved. | Learn more about Reuters

source link

http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/thewickerman/trailer1/

I discovered the original Wicker Man about 5 years ago and fell in love with its weird, campy, 70s goodness. I found a new VHS copy in the dollar bin of some store and fell in love immediately.
It seems these days, that Hollywood has no originality. Every year there's a remake of this movie or that movie and generally with very crappy results. It seems to me that when Hollywood tries to make "modern adaptations" things generally seem to fall apart. I have no hope for this film after viewing the trailer... none.

(excerpt from http://www.steve-p.org/wm/)
The Wicker Man began life in 1972 when actor Christopher Lee; Peter Snell, head of film company British Lion; and writer Anthony Shaffer formed a casual consortium and started to discuss the possibility of working on a movie project of mutual interest. Shaffer had purchased a 1967 book called Ritual by David Pinner with the idea of developing a screenplay. Eventually - even though each member of the consortium had chipped in £5000 for the rights to make the book into a movie - it was realised that the book simply wasn't good enough to be turned into a worthwhile production.

to read more... go to the above link

more Wicker Man links:
http://www.nuada98.fsnet.co.uk/nuada%203/
http://www.scotlandthemovie.com/movies/fwickerman.html
http://www.garycarpenter.net/archive/wicker.htm

the new Wicker Man movie site:
http://thewickermanmovie.warnerbros.com/

So today on my way home, I was listening to my ipod... Two songs in a row (the top two here) came up with Fuck in the title... So i decided that when I came home I would compile a list of all of the songs I could find on google with Fuck in the title. um there are just way too many... Here's just a select few...

*please note... i've made the font small because shit... there are just too many

pj harvey - who the fuck

Who the fuck do you think you are
Get out of my hair
who the fuck do you think you are
Comin' round here
who the fuck who the fuck
who the fuck do you think you are

Get your comb out of there
combin' out my hair

I’m not like other girls
You can't straighten my curls
I’m not like other girls
You can't straighten my curls
No!

Who the fuck you tryin' to be
Get your dog away from me!
What the fuck you doing in there
Get your dirty fingers out of my hair

Who who who who
fuck fuck fuck you

I'm free, you'll see
I'm free, you'll see

cake - shut the fuck up

Ok
All right
Oh no
This one, this one, this one


Heads of state who ride and wrangle
Who look at your face from more than one angle
Can cut you from their bloated budgets
Like sharpened knives through chicken mcnuggets


Now, heads of state who ride and wrangle
Who look at your face from more than one angle
Can cut you from their bloated budgets
Like sharpened knives through chicken mcnuggets


(Shut the fuck) up
Yo, shut the fuck up
(Shut the fuck)
Right, right, learn to buck up
(Shut the fuck)
Right, shut the fuck up, hey, ho
(Shut the fuck)
Now, now learn to buck up

(1, 2, a-1, 2, 3, 4!)

Now, nimble fingers that dance on numbers
Will eat your children and steal your thunder
While heavy torsos that heave and hurl
Will crunch like nuts in the mouths of squirrels

Now, nimble fingers that dance on numbers
Will eat your children and steal your thunder
While heavy torsos that heave and hurl
Will crunch like nuts in the mouths of squirrels

(Shut the fuck) up
Yo, shut the fuck up
(Shut the fuck)
Right now learn to buck up
(Shut the fuck)
Right, shut the fuck up yeah, ho! Yow!
(Shut the fuck) Yow! Yow! Yow!
Learn to buck up

Now, simple feet that flicker like fire
And burn like candles in smokey spires
Do more to turn my joy to sadness
Than somber thoughts of burning planets

Now, clever feet that flicker like fire
And burn like candles in smokey spires
Do more to turn my joy to sadness
Than somber thoughts of burning planets

(Shut the fuck)
All right
Ok
I don't(Shut the fuck) wanna
I don't wanna hear it that's right
(Shut the fuck)
Oh no, ok, I don't wanna
(Shut the fuck)
I don't wanna
(Shut the fuck)
Yeeaahh, ho, yow!
(Shut the fuck)
I don't wanna...I don't wanna...

Ooooh ooh oooooooh ooh ooooooohhh ooh

jack off jill - angels fuck

I woke up, morning
I woke up dead today
I aged a thousand years or more
I flinch when you are nice
You kill me with a single word
When angels fuck and devils kiss, I'm sure

I'll bask in your forever
You just waste my time
I want to drag you down, down with me
I wanted to help, to help destroy the world
I wanted to be that, to be that special girl

Everybody's got a little something to hide, but me
Everybody's got a little someone to crush, but me
I'm living in humid teenage mediocrity
Everybody's got a little someone to trust, but me

I dreamed that I was you
I dreamed your ego died
Said who loves you more than I do
I know you lied

I'll bask in your forever
Fucking waste of time
Angels fuck and devils screw

I wanted to heal me and then destroy the world
Piss in your heart and be that, and be that special girl

Everybody's got a little something to hide but me
Everybody's got a little someone to crush but me
I'm living in a teenage negative mediocrity
Everybody's got a little someone to trust but me

But me, but you
Not me
Hate you
Love me, love me, hate you
Want me, fuck you, hate me
Kill you
Fuck me, like you, want me
Like you want you fuck you
Fuck me, fuck you, fuck you fuck you fuck me
Fuck you, fuck me, fuck you fuck you fuck me (you never loved me)
Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you fuck you fuck me

I will never make it better
I will never make it better
It will always hurt you fucking asshole

2 Pac - I don't give a fuck

I don't give a fuck
They done push me to the limit the more I live
I might blow up any minute, did it again
Now I'm in the back of the paddy wagon
While this cops bragging about the nigga he's jackin
I see no justice
All I see is niggas dying fast
The sound of a gun blast
Then watch the hurst past
Just another day in the life 'G'
Gotta step lightly cuz cops tried to snippe me
The catch, they don't wanna stop at the brother man
But then they'll have an accident and pick up another man
I went to the bank to cash my cheque
I get more respect from the mutha-fuckin' dope man
The Grammy's and the American music shows pimp us like hoes
They got dough but they hate us though
You better keep your mind on the real shit
And fuck trying to get with these crooked ass hypocrites
They way they see it, we was meant to be keep down
Just can't understand why we getting respect now
Mama told me they're be days like this
But I'm pissed cause it stays like this
And now they trying to send me off to Kuwait
Gimme a break
How much shit can a nigga take
I ain't goin' nowhere no how
What you wanna throw down
Better bring your guns pal
Cuz this is the day we make 'em pay
Fuck bailin' hate I bail and spray with my A-K
And even if they shoot me down
There'll be another nigga bigger
from the mutha-fuckin' underground
So step but you better step quick
Cause the clocks goin' tick and I'm sick of the bullshit
You're watching the makings of a physco-path
The truth didn't last
Before the wrath and aftermath
Who's that behind the trigger?
Who'd do yah figure!?
A mutha-fuckin night nigga
Ready to buck and rip shit up
I had enough and I don't give a fuck

Niggas!, isn't just the blacks
also a gang of mutha-fuckas dressed in blue slacks
They say niggas hang in packs and their attitude is shitty
Tell me, who's the biggest gang of niggas in the city
They say niggas like to do niggas,
Throw me in the cuffs with just two niggas
A street walkin' nigga and a beat walkin' nigga with a badge
I had to shoot yah and the pass for the blast take his cash
And bash his head in dump him at the dead in
And that's just his luck
Cause a nigga like me
don't really give a fuck

Walked in the store what's everybody staring at
They act like they never seen a mutha fucker wearing black
Following a nigga and shit
Ain't this a bitch
All I wanted was some chips
I wanna take my business else where
But where?
Cause who in the hell cares
About a black man with a black need
They wanna jack me like some kind of crack fiend
I wonder if knows that my income is more than
His pension, salary and then some
Your daughter is my number one fan
And your trife ass wife wants a life with a black man
So who's the mac in fact who's the black jack
Sit back and get fat off the fat cat
while he thinks that he's getting over
I bust a move as smooth as casanova
And count another quick meal
I'm getting paid for my traid but its still real
And if you look between the lines you'll find a rhyme
AS strong as a fuckin' nine
Mail stacked up niggas wanna act up
Let's put the gats up and throw your backs up
But the cops getting dropped by the gun shot
Usta come but he's done, now we run the block
To my brothers stay strong keep yah heads up
They know we fed up
But we they just don't give a fuck

They just don't give a fuck

I gotta give my fuck offs

Fuck you to the San FranCisco police department
Fuck you to the Marin County Sheriff department
Fuck you to the F.B.I
Fuck you to the C.I.A
Fuck you to the B-u-s-h
Fuck you to the AmeriKKKa
Fuck you to all you redneck prejudice mutha fuckas
And fuck yah
Fuck Y'all
Punk gay sensitive little dick bastards
2paclypse mutha fuckin' know
Y'all can kiss my ass and suck my dick
And my uncle Tommy's balls
Fuck Y'all
Punks, punks, punks, punks, punks

dead kennedys - Too drunk to fuck

I woke up alarmed
I didn't know where I was at first
Just that I woke up in your arms
And almost immediately I felt sorry
'Cause I didn't think this would happen again
No matter what I could do or say
Just that I didn't think this would happen again
With or without my best intentions, and
What ever happened to a boyfriend
The kind of guy who tries to win you over, and
What ever happened to a boyfriend
The kind of guy who makes love cause he's in it, and

I want a boyfriend
I want a boyfriend
I want all that stupid old shit
Like letters and sodas
Letters and sodas

You got up out of bed
You said you had a lot of work to do
But I heard the rest in your head
And almost immediately I felt sorry
'Cause I didn't think this would happen again
No matter what I could do or say
Just that I didn't think this would happen again
With or without my best intentions, and

I want a boyfriend
I want a boyfriend
I want all that stupid old shit
Like letters and sodas
Letters and sodas

I can feel it in my bones
I'm gonna spend another year alone
It's fuck and run
Fuck and run
Even when I was seventeen
Fuck and run
Fuck and run
Even when I was twelve

You almost felt bad
You said that I should call you up but
I knew much better than that
And almost immediately I felt sorry
'Cause I didn't think this would happen again
No matter what I could do or say
Just that I didn't think this would happen again
With or without my best intentions

And I can feel it in my bones
I'm gonna spend my whole life alone
It's fuck and run
Fuck and run
Even when I was seventeen
Fuck and run
Fuck and run
Even when I was twelve

mc Hawking - Fuck the creationists

Trash Talk 
Ah yeah, here we go again!
Damn! This is some funky shit that I be laying down on your ass.
This one goes out to all my homey's working in the field of
evolutionary science.
Check it!

Verse 1 
Fuck the damn creationists, those bunch of dumb-ass bitches,
every time I think of them my trigger finger itches.
They want to have their bullshit, taught in public class,
Stephen J. Gould should put his foot right up their ass.
Noah and his ark, Adam and his Eve,
straight up fairy stories even children don't believe.
I'm not saying there's no god, that's not for me to say,
all I'm saying is the Earth was not made in a day.

Chorus 
Fuck, fuck, fuck,
fuck the Creationists.

Trash Talk 
Break it down.
Ah damn, this is a funky jam!
I'm about ready to kick this bitch back in.
Check it.

Verse 2 
Fuck the damn creationists I say it with authority,
because kicking their punk asses be me paramount priority.
Them wack-ass bitches say, "evolution's just a theory",
they best step off, them brainless fools, I'll give them cause to fear me.
The cosmos is expanding every second, every day,
but their minds are shrinking as they close their eyes and pray.
They call their bullshit science like the word could give them cred,
if them bitches be scientists then cap me in the head.

Chorus 

Trash Talk 
Bass!
Bring that shit in!
Ah yeah, that's right, fuck them all motherfuckers.
Fucking punk ass creationists trying to set scientific thought back 400 years.
Fuck that!
If them superstitious motherfuckers want to have that kind of party,
I'm going to put my dick in the mashed potatoes.
Fucking creationists.
Fuck them.

What do you do when you just fail?

It's a serious question. Now, I'm not talking about not finishing first in a race or not passing some sort of test, that you thought you had aced. No, I'm talking about something that should have been easy. Something, that maybe if you had better luck with timing, maybe you would have achieved that goal.

No it's not the end of the world. I'm still here. It's not like nothing was completely lost... It's just...

I'll never know what I could have gained.

I've been told by those in the know, that I should be on a mental vacation. I should just stop this insessant  planning which has been causing whirlpools of never-ending thoughts in my brain. Those ones that don't just keep you up for one night, they keep you up for months. Years.

You know the cause of the obsession. The obsession itself changed. It was one thing, which morphed into another, which grew into a third. At the end I don't know how many there are offhand. If I wanted to take the time and count them all up... I think I could.But I'm on vacation. The root of the obsession(s) will be dealt with. I guess. At some point. Later.

So what do you do if you fail and you don't know how to go on a mental vacation? What if you not only don't know where to purchase the tickets for the cruise, but you don't even know how to wrap your mind around the concept?

There are so many things to be dealt with. So many other things. Things that have dripped off the laundry list, on to the shopping list and are quickly flooding the to do list. So many things piling onto other things. So many things you can't even stop to wonder what those "other" people do. You know who they are. You saw them in a magazine that you flipped through and then tossed into a pile. You're just too busy to read it because you need to think about all of those things. Sometimes you just get tired thinking of those things. Those million, billion little things.

I went to a marketing meeting today. I realized, that I have no ability to schmooze. It's not a tallent I've ever really wanted to acquire. I run in the opposite direction of networking. I refuse to have a business card, that has a standard font from Microsoft Word. I refuse to have a busines card, that I didn't create in a fit of boredom to pass the time. I refuse to have a business card to hand to someone so they can remember who I am. I refuse to have a business card, that condenses my life and career in two...

short...

Raminta                   Raminta               Raminta
Marketing director     Sheet Metal         Technical Specialist

lines...
Raminta                 Raminta                Raminta
Project Manager         Artistic Director      Executive Assistant

Right now I should be crossing of things on my many lists to make room for more things. These things never seem to be satistified with being cornered into a situation where they can just be eliminated. They breed and create havoc within their thing population. There is no way to control the population humanely or inhumanely. So as these things, these many things, that are never satisfied with being crossed off and set aside, they grow and grow.

Taking a mental vacation just becomes another thing to be added to the list of things. Things to be done, to be bought, to be crossed off.

i'm going here for about a week

http://www.city.iqaluit.nu.ca/

i leave today at 4pm for ottawa.

i am so excited

I kept thinking about my friend Dalia. I just couldn't get her out of my head. Over and over all of these images, memories, her voice... kept floating around in my head... swimming so fast, that I couldn't rest.

Dalia was brutally murdered in her apartment on the 5th of March, 2002. Stabbed multiple times and no motive was ever given by the killer.

Dalia was beautiful and kind. Intelligent and giving. She became my best friend...

but when I left her... I never wrote. I never called. I had just figured, we'd meet up some day. We'd sit like we did at the Pienu Baras (milk bar), looking out into the street. Or she'd take me to her favorite spot again in Vilnius, overlooking the river. We'd listen to Tom Waits and she'd talk about her old boyfriend, the actor.

Maybe she'd finally explain what she saw in her husband. A man I had completely detested. I don't know if he made her happy. I'm sure he did. I'll never know now.

I don't know where her grave is. Or in which town exactly she is burried in. I don't know if her mother is still living.

I miss her rationality. I miss her wit.

Now she'll never know how much she shaped my journey into womanhood. She'll never know what a huge part she played in my lonely life over there.

Well I broke down in E. St. Louis
On the Kansas City line
and I drunk up all my money
that I borrowed every time
and I fell down at the derby
and now the night's black as a crow
It was a train that took me away from here
but a train can't bring me home
What made my dreams so hollow
was standing at the depot
with a steeple full of swallows
that could never ring the bell
and I come ten thousand miles away
with not one thing to show
well it was a train that took me away from here
but a train can't bring me home
I remember when I left
without bothering to pack
you know I up and left with
just the clothes I had on my back
now I'm sorry for what I've done
and I'm out here on my own
well it was a train that took me away from
here but a train can't bring me home

What is the most unprofessional thing that has been ever said to you?

I've had many occurances... However today is definately in the top ten...

I answer the phones for my company... Here is the choice conversation:

Caller: May I speak with your IT director?

ME: We don't have one may I ask what this is about?

C: IT Procurement are you the IT Manager?

M: No, what exactly is this about?

C: IT Procurement.

M: Ok, but what about IT Procurement? Is this a sales call or a survey?

C: Do you even know what IT Procurement is?

M: Yes, but you haven't answered my question. What exactly is this about?

C: IT Procurement. You don't know what it is do you.

M: Yes actually I do, but since you won't tell me what it is EXACTLY you wish to discuss regarding IT Procurement, I ask that you please take our company off of your calling list.

C: Cunt! *click*

Well... I *69ed the company and spoke to one woman. Gave her the exact details of the conversation. She put me through to the secretary of the VP and I told her what happened. Then she put me through to the VP and I told her what happened and she stated that she was going to take this to the President. So the VP took my information and just now I got a call from the president. The president of the company told me that she wanted to hear from me exactly what happened because they discovered who this person was that made the call and he was on her "team." So I told her again exactly what happened and stated that for me, her phone call was enough for me. She was highly apologetic and I believed her sincerity.

I think this totally tops the time I went for an interview for a welding job and was told that the only job available was a secretarial position and was asked if I had a boyfriend...

You few folks that still read this barely updated blog ever have anything similar happen? I know that I've been called tons of names on the phone before, but this was the only time where they caught me at a moment where I was pissed off enough to *69 them. *69 is your friend.

Deepa Mehta (born 1950 in Amritsar, India) is an Indian born Canadian film director and screenwriter, based in Toronto.

She graduated from the University of Delhi with a degree in philosophy before emigrating to Canada in 1973.

She embarked on her film career as a screenwriter for children's films. In 1991 she made her feature-film directorial debut with Sam & Me (starring Om Puri), a story of the relationship between a young Muslim boy and an elderly Jewish gentleman in the Toronto neighbourhood of Parkdale. It won First Honorable Mention in the Camera d'Or category of the 1991 Cannes Film Festival. Mehta followed up with Camilla starring Bridget Fonda and Jessica Tandy in 1994.

She is best known for her elements trilogy, all of which were filmed in India. Fire (1996) was set in contemporary India. It was a controversial film due to its explorations of gender, marriage, and sexuality.

Earth (1998) (released in India as 1947: Earth) tells the story of the partition of India in 1947 from the vantage point of a young Parsi girl and is based on the novel Cracking India by author Bapsi Sidhwa.

The final film in the trilogy, Water (2005) was released in the fall of 2005. Bapsi Sidhwa has been asked to write a book based on Mehta's film script. It is set in the 1930s and focuses upon the lives of a group of widows.

Deepa Mehta is currently working on her next project, Kamagata Maru which stars Amitabh Bachchan and John Abraham. The movie is apparently based on the Komagata Maru incident that occurred in Canada.

I was first exposed to Mehta's work when my ex took me to see Fire at the Brattle Theater in Cambridge, MA. I knew that the movie had inspired riots in Indiabecause of the lesbian themes in the movie. It was probably one of the most moving films I had ever seen up until that point. Earth was epic. Completely epic.

After having seen both of those films I anxiously awaited the release of Water, the third in Mehta's trilogy. For the longest time, I thought that I had just missed it somehow... That it was burried on some back shelf at my local video store. According to wikipedia:

Mehta originally intended to direct Water in February, 2000, with a different cast that included Shabana Azmi, Nandita Das and Akshay Kumar. The day before filming was due to begin, the crew was informed that there were complications with gaining location permits. The following day, they learned that 2,000 protesters had stormed the ghats, destroying the main film set, burning and throwing it into the Ganges in protest at the film's criticism of Hindu rites.

In an attempt at compromise, Mehta reluctantly made changes to her script, but to no avail; the Indian government was inclined toward supporting the protesters because the RSS, a strong political party across the country, was attempting to show publicly the strength it had over the local government, and used Mehta as an example.^[1]

Mehta eventually gave up on making the film in India and shot the film secretly with a different cast in Sri Lanka, under the title River Moon in 2003. The film was finally completed and debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2005.

Links on Mehta:

A Bio

Interview

Lilac Wine
Jeff Buckley

I lost myself on a cool damp night
I Gave myself in that misty light
Was hypnotized by a strange delight
Under a lilac tree
I made wine from the lilac tree
Put my heart in its recipe
It makes me see what I want to see
and be what I want to be
?When? (But) I think more than I want to think
Do things I never should do
I drink much more that I ought to drink
Because (it) brings me back ?you? (in)...

Lilac wine is sweet and heady, like my love
Lilac wine, I feel unsteady, like my love
Listen to me... I cannot see clearly
Isn't that she coming to me nearly here?
Lilac wine is sweet and heady where's my love?
Lilac wine, I feel unsteady, where's my love?
Listen to me, why is everything so hazy?
Isn't that she, or am I just going crazy, dear?
Lilac Wine, I feel unready for my love,
feel unready for my love.