Leave that shahtoosh alone. And no we're not buying a tiger cub for the kids. The World Wildlife Fund has released its list of Ten Things Not To Buy For Christmas. (Why they've left their Christmas anti-shopping till December 21 is beyond me.)
Full text of the WWF press release follows:
Ten things not to buy for Christmas
Gland, Switzerland – Looking for that elusive gift or sumptuous dining experience as the festive season approaches in many countries?
December 17, 1971: Bangladesh proclaimed its independence from Pakistan following a civil war that was resolved with military intervention from India. Dhaka's Daily Star produced a special Victory Day supplement last Thursday containing a number of accounts of the events of the time.
By sheer chance I happened to watch on BBC World last night the second part of a two-hour documentary produced for BBC Two's "This World" program called "One Day of War". It was a quite fascinating account of sixteen people in each of sixteen trouble spots around the world, all filmed on the same day, 22 March 2004.
If ever any proof was needed of Time magazine's irrelevance as a chronicle of current events, it comes with the announcement that G.Dubya Bush has been named its Man of the Year for 2004.
Al-Jazeera's English language website is one of my primary sources for world news on the web these days, giving as it does a different, professional and independent perspective on world events from the Middle East angle. When they draw their attention to Australia, you can be sure it is unlikely to be in a positive light, but it makes for a worthwhile benchmark of our perception overseas.
Disturbing report in Sunday's Washington Post claiming that the Bush Administration has been bugging the telephones of IAEA director-general Mohammed El Baradei ("IAEA Leader's Phone Tapped"). It's all about looking for dirt to use to block El Baradei's reappointment for a third term.
An amazing protest in Bangladesh on Saturday against the government. Organised by the opposittion Awami League, an estimated five million people formed a human chain right across Bangladesh between 3pm and 4pm yesterday. Here is a map published by Sunday's Daily Star of the path of the chain.
A spinoff of teaching Adara about animal and plant life is that I have started to pay more attention to biodiversity on the web. I do a Yahoo! news photo search for her most mornings.
