Pictured is a laundry label sewn inside an item of clothing that was manufactured by a boutique American company for sale in France. When translated, the label says:
Wash with warm water
Use mild soap
Dry flat
Do not use bleach
Do not dry in the dryer
Do not iron
We are sorry that our president is an idiot.
We did not vote for him.
March 2008 Archives
According to new statistics released by The Vatican, there are now more Muslims in the world than Catholics. "For the first time in history we are no longer at the top: the Muslims have overtaken us," said Monsignor Vittorio Formenti, who compiled the figures for the church's 2008 yearbook.
The Vatican estimates there are around 1.13 billion Catholics worldwide, while United Nations figures put the number of Muslims at around 1.3 billion. However if all denominations of Christianity are clumped together, Jesus still tops the charts, with an estimated 2.1 billion followers in total.
Formenti noted that while the number of Catholics in proportion to the world's population remains stable, Islam's popularity was increasing due to higher birth rates. In an interview with the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, Formenti said, "While Muslim families, as is well known, continue to make a lot of children, Christian ones on the contrary tend to have fewer and fewer."
Despite The Vatican's no waste policy when it comes to sperm, it seems that Catholics have some serious shagging to do if they're to regain the top spot. Certainly it seems Gabriel Archangel, the patron Saint of Conception, needs to pull more weight. In light of his obvious slacking on the job, perhaps The Vatican might think about relaxing its attitude to IVF?
The Daily Mantra would like to applaud pop star George Michael for his appearance on Eli Stone, (which stars Johnny Lee Miller as a lawyer with a higher calling in the title role). In the past, the publicity shy singer/songwriter has even refused to promote his own records, so when he stepped into the limelight for a cameo appearance on last week's installment of the hit ABC spiritually-charged legal drama, we knew it was for reasons beyond mere music and ticket sales, for Michael is a man who knows how to use his fame wisely.
In the episode in question, Stone represents a girl who was expelled from school for protesting about its abstinence-only sex education program by playing Michael's 1987 hit "I Want Your Sex" over the speaker system during assembly. In the show, Michael comes to her rescue, and funds her legal challenge to the expulsion; In reality, the singer used the high-profile TV appearance to challenge America's hypocritical, and highly misleading, policy of abstinence only 'sex education.'
"An abstinence only 'sex education' program is an oxymoron," said Michael from the witness box. "Abstinence can only be a choice if you have all the facts." One fact that's glaringly absent from such programs is that condom use is an effective option to protect against both pregnancy and disease. The silence is deafening, not just in our schools, but in the third world, where the poorest people on our planet have paid dearly, many with their lives, thanks to the deadly combination of AIDS and our no-sex dogma, which comes hand-in-hand with all U.S. government funded sexual health programs.
The AIDS issue is very close to Michael's heart. Michael's lover, Anselmo Feleppa, died of an AIDS-related cerebral hemorrhage in March 1993. "I Want Your Sex" was released in 1987, when Michael was still firmly in the closet (the singer came out to his parents shortly after Feleppa's death, and to the public in 1998). To dispel misconceptions about the anti-promiscuity but pro-sex song, which was banned by many radio stations due to its explicit lyrics, Michael recorded a prologue for the video in which he stated "this song is not about casual sex." During one of the scenes in the steamy video, which featured celebrity make-up artist Kathy Jeung, Michael is seen writing "explore monogamy" on her body in lipstick.
"It was inspired by a relationship. Like most of my work it was autobiographical," said Michael in response to a question posed by Stone's boss and trial colleague Jordan Wethersby (played by Victor Gaber) during cross-examination about the origins of the song. When asked if the song encouraged promiscuity, Michael responded by saying, "It's just the opposite. Ironically I wrote the song about abstinence and I was very much in love with someone at the time."
"When I wrote it we were in year six of the AIDS crises, a crisis that Ronald Reagan did not even address publicly until there were over 21,000 people dead, and what the government is doing right now, funding federal programs that tell children that condoms don't work, is killing people all over again."
To quote Mr. Wethersby, "Thank you, Mr. Michael." We rest our case. How many more of us will be caught 'praying for time' with HIV-infected loved ones before the state gets the church-infected dogma out our publicly-funded education programs and lets pragmatism take its course.
Click HERE for more suggestions on how to have fun during the great Earth Hour turn-off.
Just a reminder that tomorrow (March 29) at 8 p.m. the folks from the World Wildlife Fund are asking us all to switch off our lights for 60 minutes to mark Earth Hour.
Earth Hour began last year in Sydney, Australia. This year the event is going global. Participating cities around the world include Adelaide, Bangkok, Brisbane, Canberra, Montreal, Ottawa, Perth, Copenhagen, Dublin, Manila, Melbourne, Sydney, Tel Aviv, Toronto, and Vancouver.
Here in the U.S. the flagship event is being held in Chicago, with Atlanta, Phoenix and San Francisco also officially jumping on board for the great turn off. Regardless of whether you reside in one of the designated cities, it’s easy to make a stand for Earth Hour. Just turn off, tune out, and drop out…of the power grid that is.
What can you do with the lights off? If the obvious isn't an option, and you’ve already maxed out your meditation quota for the day, the Daily Mantra recommends getting together with your environmentally sound friends for a few rounds of our favorite party game: Murder In The Dark. The prize for the winners? A low energy light bulb of course.
Breast cancer survivor Olivia Newton John is planning a 21-day walk along the Great Wall of China to raise money for a brand new, state of the art, treatment and research cancer center. Her journey begins on April 7th, and, if all goes to plan, will end in Beijing on April 29th. Fellow cancer survivor Sharon Osbourne is one of the many celebrities planning to join Olivia on her 228 km trek.
“The walk on the Great Wall symbolizes the cancer journey," said Olivia in an interview with ET. "It's long and arduous, but we'll triumph in the end." Click HERE if you’d like to sponsor Olivia and her team, which includes Joan Rivers, Leeza Gibbons, Scott Wolf (Party of Five), Sir Cliff Richard, Toyah Willcox, and Danni Minogue (Kylie’s sister).
Scientists have developed a computer game that students of the Law of Attraction may find helpful. The Mind Habits game trains players' brains to focus on the positive rather than the negative, and has been proven to reduce stress in trials.
During his research, Professor Mark Baldwin, a specialist in social cognition from McGill University in Montreal, found that our attention tends to be grabbed by social threats. This makes sense from an evolutionary point of view, since being able to quickly identify threats is a key survival skill, but it does mean we're predisposed to focus on the negative rather than the positive, which has an adverse affect on our stress levels and overall mental health.
Baldwin and his team therefore set out to create a computer game to retrain the brain. In one Mind Habits exercise, players are asked to find the single smiling/approving face hidden amongst a crown of fifteen curmudgeons. Baldwin hypothesizes that, "by doing this repeatedly and as quickly as possible, this trains an automatic response of looking for acceptance and ignoring rejection."
Baldwin and his colleagues tested their game on a team of telemarketers, whom they figured had high levels of stress and disapproval (how many times have you slammed the phone down on a telemarketer?). Before the shift they had one group play the game with faces for five minutes, while a control group played a modified version that required them to find a five-petalled flower in a field of seven-petalled flowers. After their shift, the group that was asked to search for the smiling faces was found to have higher levels self-esteem. Furthermore, blood tests showed this group had lowered their level of the stress hormone cortisol by 17% when compared to the control group. "Just 5 minutes of game-play per day had a significant effect," said Balwin in an interview with New Scientist.
If you'd like to retrain your brain, go to the Mind Habits website to play a free demo of the game. You can also download a free trial version from the site, or buy the full version, which features 100 game levels, for just $19.99.
PETA is no fan of Aretha Franklin. She upset the animal rights organization by wearing a full-length fur coat to a Grammy event last month. But after the TMZ gossip site reported that 'The Empress of All Music' (as she's now calling herself post- Beyoncégate) was about to lose her home due to an IRS claim for approximately $19,000 in back taxes, PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk offered to bury the hatchet, and help out the troubled singer.
PETA has pledged to pay Franklin's tax bill on condition that the pelt-loving diva promises never to wear fur again. They are also asking Franklin to donate her furs to the organization as Mariah Carey and Kim Cattrall have done. "Our offer is a win-win situation," says Newkirk in an open letter. "You get to keep your home, and animals get to keep their lives. We are rooting for you to please give animals the R-E-S-P-E-C-T that they deserve by giving up fur." Sounds like a no-brainer to us.
Al Gore and The Alliance for Climate Protection, a nonpartisan, non-profit founded by the Should-A-Been President, are asking you to stop ignoring the very large herd of elephants in the room (see video), and take a stand against global warming.
The organization, which is committed to educating people, and governments, around the world that the climate crisis is both urgent and solvable is looking to sign up a million would-be eco warriors to help get the point across. So far they've recruited over 900,000 green-minded folks. Help them hit the magic number by clicking HERE.
"By coming together, we're showing overwhelming support for leadership on this critical issue. Add your voice now and help make climate change a priority."
Continue reading Stop Ignoring The 1.2 Billion Elephants In The Room.
Regardless of whether you're a man, woman or beast, it seems fame at an early age is not good for your mental health. The Daily Mail is reporting that Berlin Zoo's most famous resident, Knut, the once über cuddly polar bear cub, has grown up to become a "publicity-addicted psycho."
Knut and his twin brother were born in December 2006. Their mother, 20-year old Tosca, caught a serious case of post-partum depression, and rejected the cubs, who were subsequently rescued by zoo workers. Sadly Knut's brother died after just 4 days, but Knut survived, spending 44 days in an incubator before being hand reared by zookeeper Thomas Dörflein.
In March 2007 the German tabloid Bild-Zeitung carried a quote from Frank Albrecht, a radical animal rights activist, who claimed it would be better for Knut to die than be raised by humans "as a domestic pet." A massive public outcry ensued, and Knut shot to fame worldwide. 400 journalists showed up for his public debut, and the bear became the zoo's superstar poster child. Visitors increased by 30% after Knut graced the covers of newspapers and glossy magazines, such as the German edition of Vanity Fair, and merchandising, book and film deals followed. But fame took its toll on the impressionable cub.
"He is addicted to the whole show, the human adulation. It is not healthy," said Markus Roebke, who is a key member of Knut's human entourage. Roebke would like to see Knut enter rehab far away from the glare of the public spotlight. "Knut must go, and the sooner the better."
"We are not allowed to have contact with him any more and have received letters that if we breach this order our jobs are on the line. He is too unpredictable to play with now,' Roebke continued. "He actually cries out or whimpers if he sees that there is not a spectator outside his enclosure ready to ooh and aah at him...When the zoo had to shut because of black ice everywhere he howled until staff members stood before him and calmed him down."
It is estimated that Knut has earned his zoo over $12 million since his birth. That may seem like a lot, but Knut has a lot of catching up to do if he is to rival the earning power of fellow child star Britney Spears, whose economy is estimated by Porfolio.com to be worth $110 million to $120 million annually. Like Britney, Knut's dad is trying to get in on the action, with Neumünster Zoo (the conservators of Knut's father) threatening to file a lawsuit demanding a share of the spoils. Sadly, Knut and Britney have far too much in common. Perhaps they should hit group therapy together before they both turn into Gary Coleman (it'd break our heart to see Knut doing infomercials).
Continue reading Men Can Be Feminists Too.
Demi Moore shared one of her unauthodox beauty secrets with David Letterman on his show last night. The eternally youthful star revealed that she recently traveled to a clinic in Austria for some leech therapy to help her get in shape before embarking on promotion for her new movie, ironically entitled Flawless.
"I feel like I've always been someone looking for the cutting edge of things that optimize your health and healing," said Moore. "These aren't just swamp leeches, we're talking about highly trained medical leeches. These aren't just some low level scavengers. These are high level blood suckers."
"It detoxifies your blood. They have a little enzyme, that when they're biting down on you, it gets released into your blood. And generally you bleed quite a bit, and your health is optimized. It detoxifies your blood. I'm feeling very detoxified right now."
"They start in a spot for me that is a horrible spot, which is my belly button. They test it out. They're in a little jar...and they pull it out, and they have to stick it in my belly button. Now I'm telling you, my belly button, if somebody just touches it, I want to literally just punch them."
"So we have the little sampler first, which is in the belly button. It crawls in, and you feel it bite down on you, and you want to go you 'bastard'. And then you relax, you work on your Lemaze breathing just to kind of relax, and then you just watch it swell up and get fatter and fatter. Then when it's super drunk on your blood it just rolls over like it's stumbling out of a bar."
According to Wikipedia, "large adults can consume up to 15 grams of blood in a single meal." Vampires could learn a lot from these little creatures. Before feasting, the hermaphrodite bloodsuckers release an anesthetic, and a powerful anti-coagulant (Hirudin), which stops the blood from clotting and allows unhindered feasting.
Medicinal leech therapy has been popular throughout history, and is still used in hospitals today. The creatures have been used to treat numerous conditions including tonsillitis and piles. They can help reduce swelling, and are therefore commonly used after surgery, and have also been used successfully to treat varicose veins. Hmnn, perhaps Moore's not so flawless after all.
A study, published in this week's Science Magazine, has found that spending money on others makes you happy. Following a series of experiments the research team, headed by Professor Elizabeth Dunn of the University of Columbia, concluded that it's not how much you earn, but how you spend what you have that counts, with modest amounts of altruistic spending making a big difference to perceived levels of personal happiness.
"Regardless of how much income each person made, those who spent money on others reported greater happiness, while those who spent more on themselves did not," said Dunn. "This work suggests that even making small alterations in how we spend money on a daily basis can make a difference in happiness."
The team initially surveyed 632 people, asking them questions on income, spending, and general happiness. The subjects were asked to breakdown their budgets into bills, gifts for themselves, gifts for others and donations to charity, the latter two categories being deemed "prosocial" spending. The team found that "personal spending was unrelated to happiness," but that "higher prosocial spending was associated with significantly greater happiness."
In a follow-up experiment, researchers followed 16 employees from a firm in Boston, tracking and rating their happiness both before and after they received bonuses ranging from $3,000 to $8,000. They found that it wasn't the size of the bonus that mattered, but how the recipients spent it, with those spending more on gifts and charity consistently reporting that they were happier.
In a third experiment, the team gave subjects between $5 and $20 to spend in an afternoon. Half were asked to spend the money on themselves, and the other half asked to spend the money on others. At the end of the day, irrespective of the amount, those that spent the cash on others were found to be happier.
"This study provides initial evidence that how people spend their money may be as important for their happiness as how much money they earn," said Dunn. "Spending money on others might represent a more effective route to happiness than spending money on oneself."
If that's the case, George Clooney should be feeling pretty pleased with himself right now, since the charity he heads with pals Don Cheadle and Matt Damon has just given $500,000 to the United Nations World Food Program. And Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie should be feeling positively ecstatic, since it's being reported that the duo donated over $8 million in total to various charities.
If you'd like to make yourself happy, but are on a tighter budget, the Daily Mantra suggests you give The Generosity Game a whirl (see previous post). The stealth-giving sport can be played on any budget, and as a bonus encourages recipients of your guerrilla giving to pay-it-forward, spreading happiness like an infectious disease. Just think, catching happiness could almost be as easy as catching a cold (click HERE if you're confused).
Michael Stipe, frontman of the alt. rock band R.E.M., made a surprising statement today during a video news conference (click HERE to view). It seems that, after years of speculation, his fellow band mates, Mike Mills and Peter Buck, have confirmed they are indeed heterosexual. The duo hope their announcement will encourage more straight people to come out of the closet.
Police in Italy are looking for a man who's been hypnotizing grocery store checkout clerks into handing over all the cash from their tills. In every case, that last thing staff remember is a man leaning over them saying, "look into my eyes."
The talented thief was also caught on tape making an unconventional withdrawal from a bank in Ancona in Northern Italy. He hypnotized a female bank teller into handing over $1,200 in cash, before calmly walking out. The bank employee involved in the incident had no recollection of it, and only knew something had happened after she realized that money was missing. Bank security footage subsequently shed light on the unauthorized transaction.
This is not the first time hypnotherapy has been used as a tool for robbery. In 2005, Moldavian police were on the hunt for a bank robber who employed similar tactics. The man, named Vladimir Kozak, persuaded one teller at a bank in Chisinau to hand over $12,000, and is thought to have grossed at least $40,000 from his mind-bending crime spree.
Don't try this at home. Devout Catholics in the Philippines are marking Good Friday with ritual flagellation and voluntary crucifixions. At least a dozen people from two villages in the North of the former American colony were crucified with "nails the size of pencils," including a 15-year old boy and an 18-year old girl. Scores more flogged themselves with bamboo whips and paddles tipped with broken glass.
The tradition began in the village of Cutud in the early 1960's. The local passion play has since mushroomed into a major tourist attraction, and has spawned copy-cat productions in nearby villages. At the behest of the country's health minister, participants were urged to have Tetanus injections, and use sterilized whips and nails. "If we can't stop flagellants from whipping their own flesh, the best thing these penitents can do is ensure that their whips are clean and well maintained," said Health Secretary Francisco Duque.
Though the proceedings are officially frowned upon by the Roman Catholic Church, thousands came out to watch the extreme devotional spectacle. In Cutud, the Reuters news agency reports that, "the atmosphere was festive, with hawkers selling beer, ice-cream and souvenir whips." VIPs were able to watch the proceedings, which were the hottest ticket in town, from a "specially elevated viewing platform.”
Photo courtesy of Jesus Christ Superstar: The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack Album
Deepak Chopra
“These are my favorite books because they explain the philosophy of Buddhism in a very easy and practical way,” says Chopra. “In addition, they clearly show that Buddha's message was no different from the universal message of great beings such as Jesus, Confucius, and Socrates. The essence of all these teachings that have their roots in the wisdom traditions is that at a deep level consciousness is inseparably one, that the world that we inhabit is a projection of our elective consciousness, that everything interdependently co-arises. Unlike other religious teachers, however, Buddha defers in that he does not advocate a belief system, an ideology or a dogma. Like a great physician he identifies the problem: the human condition. He then identifies causes of suffering and follows with the prescription. In my view the following books explain the four noble truths and the eightfold noble paths in the simplest and most practical way.”
- 1. Buddha
A definitive biography from the author of A History of God
- 2. Jesus and Buddha: The Parallel Sayings
A holistic approach to the teachings of two of the world's greatest spiritual leaders.
- 3. Socrates, Buddha, Confucius, Jesus: From The Great Philosophers, Volume I
Excerpts on the fab four from Jaspers' bulky Great Philosophers tome
- 4. Old Path White Clouds: Walking in the Footsteps of the Buddha
A spiritually rich biography drawn from Sanskrit and Chinese texts written by a Vietnamese Buddhist monk.
- 5. The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching
Buddhism 101, a study of the fundamental principles.
- 6. Awakening the Buddha Within : Tibetan Wisdom for the Western World
Translating an ancient philosophy into a handbook for the modern world.
- 7. Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life With the Heart of a Buddha
Psychotherapy meets Buddhist philosophy; A self-help guide featuring exercises, anecdotes and case histories.
- 8. Buddha Is as Buddha Does: The Ten Original Practices for Enlightened Living
A guide on bringing paramitas (or perfection) into everyday life based on the Bodhisattva Code.
- 9. The Buddha and the Terrorist
A contemporary retelling of the parable of Buddha's encounters with the bloodthirsty Angulimala.
- 10. Living Buddha, Living Christ
A study of common ground, reconciling Christianity with the principles of Buddhism.
Deepak Chopra's new novel, Buddha: A Story of Enlightenment
, the tale of the prince who awakened to become the Buddha, is out now.
A new study has concluded that religious people are happier, and better able to cope with bumps in the road of life. Professor Andrew Clark from the Paris School of Economics and Dr Orsolya Lelkes from the European Centre for Social Welfare Policy and Research analyzed the attitudes expressed in existing household survey data, and concluded that those who had faith to lean on had a more positive outlook on life than atheists or agnostics.
"What we found was that religious people were experiencing current day rewards, rather than storing them up for the future," said Clark, who presented his research at the Royal Economic Society's annual conference in Coventry, England earlier this week. "Churchgoing and prayer are also associated with greater satisfaction," noted Clark. Religion also seemed to help people cope with adversity such as divorce and unemployment, serving as a "buffer" and "insurance policy."
Researches were unable to conclusively clarify however, whether it was faith itself that made people happier, or religion-related lifestyle factors, such as a stable family life, regular consumption of communion wine, or a higher incidence of singing. Either way, the God pill seems to work better than Prozac, which along with other similar drugs was found to be ineffective in all but the most serious cases of depression in another recent study (see previous story).
Love Guru Pitka introduces the Laws of Happiness from his forthcoming book If You're Happy and You Know It . . . Think Again
Mariska Hargitay
This is definitely the way to go. Instead of waiting nervously for his skeletons to fall out of the closet one by one, the newly appointed New York Governor David Paterson, who replaced his disgraced colleague Eliot Spitzer, took the bull by the horns and confessed all just hours after taking office.
After rumors of infidelity surfaced, Paterson and his wife Michelle admitted they had both had affairs during a rocky period in their marriage in a joint interview with New York's Daily News on Monday. The pair then faced reporters together at a news conference held this morning in the Capitol's Red Room.
"I didn't want to be compromised, I didn't want to be blackmailed, I didn't want to hesitate taking an action because the person on the other end might hurt me or my family. I just thought this was the time to come forward and reveal this," Paterson told reporters.
Perhaps this may serve as a new model, with politicians and statesmen confessing all before they take office (which Paterson didn't strictly do, but it's not like he got to pick his timing here) so they can get on with the important work at hand unfettered by sins of the past. After all, public officials only become truly accountable to us at the point that they begin their public service (or, if elected, start campaigning for office), and some of the best and brightest hopes are surely likely, at the very least, to have follies of youth buried in their past.
What are mistakes but opportunities to learn and grow? We, in turn, should learn to be more pragmatic about sin. To quote the big J.C., "let he who is without sin cast the first stone." If we allow our politicians to admit to more mistakes without fear of hysterical or over zealous judgment, we also allow them to better serve us. So let's be grown-ups about this, and get such compromising information out in the open where it is rendered benign. This has to be a more evolved policy than our current one, where the cardinal sin is getting caught.
It's at this point I'd like to give Obama the opportunity to hit the public confessional. McCain and Clinton have been in public service so long that their dirty laundry is by now well aired, but the press have only just started digging into the life of the new kid on the block.
If Obama does indeed win the Democratic candidacy, as it very much looks like he might, it'd be sad if the Republican's won the election by default were an unrecoverable scandal to break closer to November. The tenet of public service is to put those you serve above yourself (and your own career prospects). I'm therefore urging you, Obama, if you have anything you're hiding, whether it be financial or sexual impropriety, or something that could appear as such, to take a leaf out of Paterson's playbook and get it out there now. Your best shield in the upcoming battle is the truth.
Some light-hearted enlightenment courtesy of The Love Guru, a.k.a. Pitka (a.k.a. Mike Myers).
Click HERE if you want to skip the enlightenment and head straight for the "curious vibrations."
We'll have more valuable lessons from Pitka tomorrow.
What does it mean to be human? The Humans Project is asking this seemingly simple question and inviting all members of the distinctly dubious race to answer it in their own words (click HERE to view video).
It's not like I haven't been paying attention in class, but after a lifetime of searching, I still can't come up with a definitive answer. It's not like we have a monopoly on language, art, or love, all of which animals seem more than capable of. I guess uniquely human enlightenment is a journey rather than a destination, since perhaps we're the only species that's daft enough to spend a lifetime looking for answers to unanswerable questions.
Over the weekend I just finished reading Josephine Tey's
Both usurpers to the throne came to power under highly dubious circumstances. Bush thanks to some election jiggery-pokery; the first of the Tudor kings with the help of power-hungry factions of the English nobility who colluded with the French.
Both had to look to the law to ratify their newly seized seats of power. Bush via some friendly Supreme Court judges; Tudor via some questionable acts of a conspiratorial Parliament.
Both have bent the law for their own gain. Tudor by retroactively declaring himself king from the day before the battle in which he took Richard III's life and crown, thus ensuring that anyone who fought against him was by default guilty of treason (which was punishable by death). As for Bush, where do I start?
Both are masters of Morton's Fork, a paradoxical form of reasoning, whereby a choice between two alternate options ultimately leads to the same unpleasant conclusion:
- Henry VII: If a subject lived in luxury, they could clearly afford to pay tax. Conversely, if a subject lived frugally, it was a sign they were hoarding their wealth and could therefore also afford to pay tax.
- Bush: If Saddam Hussein refused to let the weapons inspectors into Iraq, it would serve as proof that the Iraqi dictator had weapons of mass destruction, and would be considered grounds for war. If Hussein cooperated with the weapons inspectors, and no WMDs were found, it would serve as proof that he was hiding them, and it would be considered grounds for war.
Both were masters of manipulating the law of the land for their own political gain. Tudor created the Star Chamber, a conclave of Privy Counsellors whose rule was essentially above the law, while Bush created an ever-expanding concept of Executive Privilege.
Finally, both were masters at revising, and rewriting their own self-serving histories in their own lifetimes:
- Henry VII
Reason For War Version 1:0 The Princes in Tower, and therefore their sister Elizabeth of York, were illegitimate and had no claim to the throne.
Reason For War Version 2:0 Elizabeth of York, who was now Henry's wife, was a legitimate heir (as were The Princes In The Tower if they lived), and therefore as her husband he was the legitimate King of England.
- Bush:
Reason For War Version 1.0 We invaded Iraq because Hussein was responsible for 9/11.
Reason For War Version 2.0 We invaded Iraq because of WMDs.
Reason For War Version 3.0 We invaded Iraq to bring freedom to the country.
Ultimately it's taken historians five hundred years begin to see through the (Thomas More constructed) pro-Tudor Tonypandy (faulty collective memory or popular history). In 2508 will school kids be reading about Hussein’s WMDs and personal involvement in 9/11? Lets hope the historians who chronicle Bush's reign are less biased and see through his contemporary attempt at Tonypandy before putting pen to paper. In the meantime, don’t believe everything your history teachers told you (or Shakespeare or Showtime for that matter).
This is freaky. Click HERE for awareness test.
It's often said that the ability to create art is what separates man from beast, but elephants around the globe are challenging that assumption. It now seems that the only thing that stopped these magnificent creatures from getting their creative groove on was access to decent art supplies. As this video shows, when given a canvas and paint, elephants can create work to rival that of the masters.
If you'd like to get into the Elephant Art world, your can purchase paintings from the Asian Elephant Art & Conservation Project, a non-profit "dedicated to saving the diminishing number of Asian elephants left on our planet through its work with domesticated elephants." The Daily Mantra is a particular fan of Libby and Boombin's abstract florals, Yod Yeam's colorful pointelist works, and Duanpen's Monet-influenced, impressionist pieces. Prices range from $150.00 to $1,200. Click HERE for more info and a link to the online store.
Above art, from left to right, by Duanpen, Boombin, Duanpen, Libby, and Duanpen.
Today, March 14, is Pi Day (3.14 - get it?). To mark the day which honors the magical number that expresses the relationship between a circle's diameter and its circumference we're posting this video (click HERE if player fails to load). Those that are particular about their favorite mathematical constant observe Pi Minute on Pi Day at 1:59 p.m. or even Pi Second at 1:59:26 p.m. ( 3.1415926).
Pi is an irrational number, meaning it's one that cannot be expressed as a fraction (x/y, where x and y are integers). To celebrate Pi Day the Daily Mantra therefore suggests its readers do something irrational. The word irrational is defined as something that is not logical or reasonable. Have fun. We'd love to hear what you get up to.
Ellen DeGeneres' responded to Oklahoma state legislator Sally Kern's homophobic remarks, which surfaced recently on the internet via You Tube.
"Studies show that no society that has totally embraced homosexuality has lasted more then a few decades," said Kern, "I honestly think it's the biggest threat even, that our nation has, even more so than terrorism, or Islam, which I think is a big threat okay. Cause what's happening now is they are going after, in schools, two-year olds...And this stuff is deadly, and it's spreading, and it will destroy our young people, it will destroy this nation."
"I feel there's some misinformation going on here," quipped DeGeneres, "I think I need to call her. She's clearly just mistaken. She's talked to someone and they confused her." Sadly, DeGeneres' voice of reason failed to get through when the talk show host tried calling the misguided politician live on air. Kern's voicemail box was, not surprisingly, full.
Despite a public outcry, Kern remains unapologetic about her comments. "I said nothing that was not true, I said nothing out of hate and I don't believe my colleagues will censure me."
She was right too. They didn't. In fact instead of rebuking (and firing) her, as they should, a group of Republicans gave her a standing ovation following her fifteen minutes of You Tube infamy, which is exactly why they shouldn't be running our country.
Feel free to share you concerns with Kern (let's keep that voicemail full). You can reach out to the Republican legislator at her office via email at: sallykern@okhouse.gov or via phone at: (405) 557-7348
This is one beautiful (and expensive) way to improve your karma. Fisker Automotive have unveiled their new luxury performance plug-in, hybrid, four-door sedan. The Fisker Karma does 0 to 60 in less than 6 seconds, has a top speed of 125 mph, and can drive emission free for 50 miles per day, provided the car is recharged each evening, meaning that the 60% of commuters who drive less than 50 miles to work and back each day will be able to go 100% gas free.
It's designed by Henrik Fisker, who's responsible for the good looks of the BMW Z8, and the Aston Martin DB9 and V8 Vantage. The car has the height of a Porsche 911, the length of a Mercedes Benz CLS, the width of a BMW 7 Series, the looks of Gisele Bündchen, the sex appeal of Johnny Depp, and the eco-chic of Al Gore.
The Q Drive plug-in engine, which also utilizes regenerative breaking to re-charge, was developed in conjunction with hybrid specialists Quantum Technologies. It has two modes: Stealth Drive, which is the car's quiet and eco-nomical mode, and Sports Drive, which maximizes the car's power. An optional full-length solar roof will help charge the car and provide cooling for the interior cabin when the vehicle is parked.
It's expected to go into production in 2009. If Fisker stay on schedule, the Karma could be the first plug-in hybrid electric production vehicle on the road. The cost? A Mere $80,000. We could purchase a lot of carbon credits for our 1998 Ford Escort with that kinda cash.
"Stand By Your Man"
The Spitzer's have three teenage daughters. Are they sending them a healthy message by showing that Daddy can behave in such a disrespectful way to Mommy without consequences as far as their relationship is concerned? What kind of message is that? 'Boys will be boys' I guess. Personally, I'd like to have seen Silda force her husband to face the press alone. Or at the very least make a statement of her own, rather than mutely standing by as the world her and her husband worked so hard to create shattered around her.
Even if she doesn’t ultimately choose to leave him, a break from her husband, and a vacation from the humiliation should at the very least be on the cards for Silda and her children (charged to her husband, of course). Silda, we're here if you need help packing.
Controversial conservative talk show host Dr. Laura Schlessinger has scored yet another own goal for women, this time blaming Eliot Spitzer's wife for her husband's infidelity during an appearance on the Today Show.
"Men do need validation," said Schlessinger, during a panel discussion lead by Meredith Vieira on the sex scandal. "When they come into the world they're born of a woman. Getting the validation from mommy is the beginning of needing it from a woman. When the wife does not focus in on the needs and the feelings sexually, personally, to make him feel like a man, to make him feel like a success, to make him feel like our hero, he's very susceptible to the charm of some other woman making him feel what he needs. These days, women don't spend a lot of time thinking about how they can give their men what they need."
Vieira then asked, "Are you saying women should feel guilty, like they somehow drove the man to cheat?" Schlessinger responded by saying, "You know what, the cheating was his decision to repair what's damaged, and to feed himself where he's starving. But, yes, I hold women accountable for tossing out perfectly good men by not treating them with the love and kindness and respect and attention they need."
It's this kind of fuzzy logic that's making it so tough for Hillary to move beyond the kitchen in the White House. Too many people still blame the presidential hopeful for her husband's infidelity. Again, the Daily Mantra asks, on what planet is this OK?
Click HERE to view Today Show video courtesy of The Huffington Post.
Click HERE to visit StopLaura.com.
The Daily Mantra loves this stylish video short in which a mysterious DJ is sent to a busy city block to mend a series of tragic events that occur (click HERE to view). Using vinyl that's plugged into the spacetime continuum, he remixes events, manipulating what time shifts can't fix with some very special EQ. If only he could spin things back eight years, before the first election was stolen when Al Gore was poised to be president, and remix things so he was.....if only.
Talk about mixed messages. The rather inappropriately named Arts & Education channel is promoting the new series of Gene Simmons' Family Jewels with the tag line "One man, 4800 women?" Ironically the promotional campaign for the third series, which starts tonight, kicked into high gear (with the release of the rather sick widget pictured below which compares the mating habits of several animals, including Simmons) the same day a government CDC report came out that revealed that one in four teenage girls has an STD. The results are even more shocking when you consider that only 50% of the girls surveyed even admitted to having sex. The statistics were even worse for African American female teens, with nearly half having an STD (think about it, that means that statistically speaking 100% of black teenage girls who admit to being sexually active have an STD).
"The national policy of promoting abstinence-only programs is a $1.5 billion failure, and teenage girls are paying the real price," said Planned Parenthood Federation of America president Cecile Richards in an AP interview. While our schools and doctors operate a "don't ask don't tell policy" due to confidentiality concerns, since parents would have to be told of any positive STD results, America's teens are having sex, picking up potentially life-threatening diseases, and find it hard-to-almost-impossible to get treatment because of our current laws, and the fear of church-driven parental retribution. This mass head-in-the-sand policy is clearly not working, and in the meantime we have A&E glorifying one gross (male) individual’s inordinate amount of sexual conquests, while promoting a reality TV show about a family. Don't get me wrong, I'm no prude, but we need a reality check, some balance, and some real arts and education here.
The Vatican has come up with a new list of sins for the modern age. These include pollution, experiments in genetic manipulation, recreational drug use, and causing social and economic injustices, such as poverty, by amassing too much wealth (something the Church could be considered guilty of themselves).
In the past, the Church controlled it all by making themselves the only channel for messages from above and the enforcers of that law. But a recent study by Milan's Catholic University showed that 30 percent of Italian Catholics believed that there was no need for a priest to be God's intermediary. So how can the Church fight back, and make itself more relevant in today's world? By weighing in on what people are already worried about most. It's brilliant!
Godfather of Guilt Monsignor Gianfranco Girotti, the Regent of the Apostolic Penitentiary, the Vatican body that issues decisions on matters of conscience and grants absolutions, said in an interview with the Vatican's L’Osservatore Romano newspaper, "While sin used to concern mostly the individual, today it has mainly a social resonance, due to the phenomenon of globalization". In case you were worried, Girotti said the Catholic Church continued to be concerned by good old-fashioned sin, such as pride, envy, lust, anger, greed, sloth and gluttony. That's good to know.
Making pollution a sin is long overdue. Really. Pope Benedict has been focused on protection of the environment recently, saying that climate change has become gravely important for the entire human race. (Did God tell him that? Or was it Al Gore?) Benedict and his predecessor John Paul have made the Vatican increasingly "green" by installing photovoltaic cells to produce electricity and hosting a scientific conference on global warming and climate change. This green angle is a step away from the traditional Biblical interpretation that humans were given everything on Earth, including the animals, to do with as we please.
Though we're happy that the Vatican has finally got with the environmental program, perhaps the Catholic Church isn't clear on how the Law of Attraction works. Guilt, long a tool of Catholic parents and teachers everywhere, puts the focus on negative things and feelings. But we enlightened Daily Mantra readers know that to truly make changes, we need to focus on the positive. So instead of listing new sins, let's make new commandments (we can run them by God for approval, we're just co-creating here).
- Thou shalt love and honor the Earth, your planetary home.
- Thou shalt marvel at the wonders of nature.
- Thou shalt be grateful for mental clarity and intelligence.
- Thou shalt enjoy sharing the wealth you attract.
- Thou shalt enjoy the pleasures of the body as a means uplifting the spirit and sharing joy.
If sins are meant to be things that could send us to hell, and we think of hell as a consciousness or state of being, then we can use these new and old lists as guidelines to make us think twice and connect to our spiritual center before making decisions that might make our lives and our world a living hell.
"Sin" in Spanish means "without," so we can think of sins as decisions made without checking in with our own spiritual guidance and connection, or as mistakes made from missing the target of our highest and best choices.
So my friends, go and sin no more! (And trade-in your S.U.V. for a Prius if you want a ride on the highway to heaven.)
According ex-Scientologist Marc Headley, Tom Cruise auditioned several actresses to play the part of his wife after his split with Penelope Cruz in 2004. Headley, who produced promotional films for the church, also claims that Holmes was not Cruise’s first choice.
Headley alleges that the Mission Impossible star complained to Scientology leader David Miscavige about his problems meeting women. Miscavige apparently then sent out a discreet casting call, telling potential partners that they were being considered for an unnamed Tom Cruise project as a ruse to get them down to the Scientology Celebrity Center in Hollywood, CA for some on-camera video vetting.
“They went for Jennifer Garner, Scarlett Johansson and Jessica Alba, in that order," says Headley. "Jennifer and Jessica didn't bite but Scarlett took the bait and came in for an audition. When she arrived and found out it was the Scientology Center in Hollywood, she freaked out and didn't do a tape..." After getting nowhere with his top three choices, the Scientologist's zoned in on Holmes, who had previously spoken publicly about her crush on Cruise. "They got her to L.A. and introduced her to Tom. The moment he meets her, he's enthralled with her and he told Miscavige later, 'I knew immediately she was the one.'"
The interview with Headley was published prominently in the center pages of U.K tabloid the News of The World. Notably, the tell-all on the highly litigious, celebrity-obsessed church and its most prominent member was not reprinted online on the paper's website, which has an international audience, though the fearless NY-based gossip site PageSix.com reprinted Headley's quotes.
The Daily Mantra empathizes with Cruise. In this difficult dating climate, we appreciate the need for the unorthodox methods employed by the actor and his church to find the perfect partner. Indeed the Daily Mantra used a similar system to find a husband. Our shortlist included Al Gore, Dylan McDermot and George Clooney. In our case, Al Gore didn't bite, Clooney had committed to a date with a friend (making him off-limits to us), and Dylan McDermott proved to be too short during an on camera audition (seriously). As with Cruise, our fourth choice turned out to be "the one."
Porn star Jenna Jameson is PETA's latest cover girl. The retired adult actress donned a skimpy faux leather bra and panty set for the organization's latest ad to promote cruelty-free leather alternatives. But while pleather may have the approval of the People For the Ethical Treatment of Animals, it doesn't get the vote from environmentalists, since the plastic leather substitute is manufactured from oil and is slow to biodegrade.
The Daily Mantra recommends you stick to organic cotton and hemp underwear, though those truly concerned with saving the planet may want to follow the lead taken by eco-warriors such as Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, by doing away with undies altogether. Underwear-free living not only saves natural resources, but also reduces water and detergent consumption by cutting down the weekly laundry load.
To promote this animal and eco-friendly win-win option, The Daily Mantra is encouraging its readers to limit the use of intimate apparel to just four days a week. We're in the process of getting the folks from the CO2-busting website Carbon Rally to calculate the impact of such action on our carbon footprint, and our Carbon Rally teammates can expect more details of our "Save A Tree Go Undie Free" challenge shortly. "Save A Tree Go Undie Free" T-Shirts will also be available soon.
"I didn't realize making sweet music could be such a sour experience," says Paul Godfrey, who, along with brother Ross, is the constant creative force behind the British downtempo group Morcheeba
Having recorded their first four albums with singer Skye Edwards, the brothers parted ways with their longtime front lady, recruiting Daisy Martey for their next album, The Antidote
Though writing and recording the album turned out to be an artistically and emotionally freeing experience, it was hard for the pair to get back to the creative grind after the turmoil of the recent past. The pressures of the business of music and the band's internal strife, coupled with the death of his father, took their toll on Paul, who succumbed to the darkness of depression, which had haunted him since he was a teen. In our exclusive interview, Paul talks about his struggle with the crippling condition, and how he overcame it to produce what we think is quite possibly Morcheeba's best album to date.
DM: In your press release you say that this was the album that restored your faith in music. Talk a little bit about that if you will.
PG: It really did, because I'd just become very impatient with everything. Music at the moment is something that is completely taken for granted, and I think I'd probably started taking it for granted. Actually working on something for so long, and being patient, it kind of restored my faith in the healing power of music.
DM: Because you'd been through the ringer with the whole lead singer situation, and that kind of hassle can take the fun out of a day's work.
PG: Yeah. When you make a lot of money, you're successful and you're working hard, there's all different pressures from different places. It can split a band up, as it does quite often, so we lost our focus for a bit and it took a while to get it back.
DM: How did you get it back?
PG: I don't know really. Researching the project. Trying to find the right voices that were incredible but still quite fresh to the ear. I think just spending a lot of time in the studio with the collaborators, and talking about what we were trying to achieve. Just slowly it came together.
DM: So quite literally working through your problems?
PG: Exactly.
DM: Because in your press release you also talk about this album being a depression beating therapy.
PG: I've been struck down by depression quite a lot throughout my life. The last time all my energy was completely sapped, and I really burned such a hole that I couldn't really see myself ever going out of it. It sounds so melodramatic, but I really did feel like I was finished you know. It was quite worrying. It was just a case of little by little trying to do things. I'd have to work for a while and then have a sleep, and then work for a while and then have a sleep, because I didn't have much energy. Gradually it started to come together, the music actually energized me, and I started to work quiet obsessively.
DM: The hardest thing when you are in a depressed place is finding the energy to get up in the morning to even begin the work, and that's the vicious cycle.
PG: Yeah. Exactly. Then when you feel like that, the slightest thing, someone can upset you, and then that's it, you just want to go back to bed and say f**k everything. But our studio's in London, and I live down on the coast, so once I'd actually got myself to London I didn't have a lot else to do other than work. I guess not having any distractions was good.
DM: Leaving your family behind, and booking producers and musicians and having to be somewhere at a certain time...
PG: Just having to do it. Exactly.
DM: It's been in the news lately that depression actually serves an evolutionary purpose. There's a reason why it's stayed in the chain so long. It's a mechanism that lets you know that you need to make radical change in your life.
PG: I think that's the thing, once I'd accepted it, I became more resilient to it. I could kind of work with it. It was when I was fighting it that it was just exhausting me a lot. When I was in denial. Especially in male culture, it's not really something that men admit you know, until they're actually really struck down and they have to see a doctor. It manifested itself as physical pain for a long time. Even now, I still have really shitty days and stuff, but just accepting it and not fighting it I think is really the key.
DM: But in some ways you fought it, because you set aside time in London and began to work. How long did it take to accept it, nurture it, and move on? And what spurred that process?
PG: I think a lot of it this time was caused because I couldn't make a decision. I felt awful. I couldn't really balance my family life and my career, because they were two completely different worlds. That was causing quite a big tear inside myself. I think when I accepted that getting back to work would help me out, it did actually make it easier, because I'd made that decision then. Then when I came home I didn't feel so bad. It is difficult to really understand still, but a lot of it was stemming from the fact that I just had too much on my plate. As you were saying, it was just an indicator of that I was trying to keep too many people happy. It was a lot of anger turned inwards and stuff.
DM: And when you learned you needed to make yourself happy first, then once you get yourself sorted out you're able to look after the family. It's the chicken and the egg.
PG: I'd always understood that I had to sort myself out first, but I constantly let it slip and I was constantly just placating people and not putting myself first. And my communication skills weren't that great, and, as I said, it was a lot of anger turned inwards, and a lot of tension and stuff. When I just thought f**k everybody, and stopped socializing, I stopped doing so much stuff, just doing the music purely, on its own, that did help.
DM: They do say depression spurs creativity. If you look at the list of people who are most likely to suffer depression and mental illness, right at the top there are poets, and then two or three notches down are musicians.
PG: I've read a couple of books on the correlation between creativity and depression, and sure enough poets were wracked with it throughout history. I think you're right, it sort of gets to a point where you just don't give a f**k about social obligation and all of society's rules, and without going quite as far as total mental illness, you can kind of step back and see that it's all kind of a farce really in many ways. Creativity, I don't know if it's necessarily correct or not, but it's just a different way of looking at things.
DM: How's it manifested in the music and lyrics on the new album? In your song notes you say that "Blue Chair" is about that fact that we all need love and warmth and that we shouldn't be afraid to give in to our basic need to be nurtured. That sounds like it's quite a personal song.
PG: Well yeah. I mean Judy Tzuke wrote the lyrics, but I suggested the idea. I think another part of my problem is I just try and suffer everything and I find it very difficult to ask for help when I need it because it wasn't really there as a child. So I've sort of created this kind of independent self, which isn't very real. I think I come crashing down with depression as an extreme from trying to be strong. I'm sort of learning to feel comfortable with my family, and that it's OK to be intimate.
DM: Talk me through some of the other songs.
PG: "Enjoy The Ride," that was a really great metaphor because Ross was talking about Griffith Park, near where he lives in California. They shut the gates at sunset and then you can't get out. You're locked in. I heard a quote somewhere that 'the day that you stop running is that day that you arrive.' It's learning to accept your feelings and actually let them be present, in your mind, in your body. That kind of worked out really well, I was very happy with that song. Again that's Judy. We had a big discussion because she suffers from depression as well, and we really bonded over that. It was quite weird. So we were coming at the music from a very similar place. She would like to be positive in the music and I was trying to be dark and more negative. It was quite good, she was sort of pulling me around like that.
DM: It's weird. With this album the two words I would use to describe it are blissful and melancholic. Those are two opposing things, but they sit side by side on this album.
PG: I think there is a certain pleasure really in allowing yourself to feel bad. I think that's what the record does. It accesses feelings that it's really OK to feel. Then when you feel those things you feel whole and human, and ultimately happy I guess.
The manufacturers of Doritos in the UK are hoping to turn billions of aliens on to the brand by beaming a television commercial into space. The snack company is asking members of the public to participate in the project by shooting their own 30 second spot. The producer of the best ad will receive £20,0000 ($40,000) and have their commercial played on terrestrial, and extra terrestrial TV.
The commercial will be beamed into space via a 500 MHz ultra-high frequency radar at a space center in Norway. The signal will be aimed at the Ursa Major constellation, which is a solar system similar to our own 42 light years away from. The project is being undertaken with the help of the European Incoherent Scatter Scientific Association (EISCAT), which operates high tech radar systems.
"Broadcasting an advert extra-terrestrially is a big and exciting step for everyone on Earth as up until now we have only tended to listen out for incoming transmissions," said EISCAT director Professor Tony van Eyken in an interview with The Daily Mail. "If there were to be any response, it would change the face of humanity instantly.
Though the Beatles' song "Across The Universe" has previously been sent into space by NASA, Eyken hopes with his organization's help the first ever commercial to be beamed into space will be more potent. "With the transmission technology and planning we are employing there is a much greater chance that the Doritos advert will potentially be seen by billions of aliens."
"If passing aliens pick up the message and invade earth looking for tasty snacks, don't blame us," says a Doritos spokseman. "If the first word the aliens say when they land in their spaceship is Doritos, we will be delighted."
While we admire their sense of adventure, The Daily Mantra is concerned that with ingredients like Yellow 5 and Red 40 (both colorants derived from yummy coal tar), and additives such as disodium phosphate, disodium inosinate and disodium guanylate (Mmmn!), any aliens that intercept the commercial will think it's part of a chemical warfare plot, and blast our planet into the next dimension. We therefore strongly urge Doritos to reconsider the wisdom of their interstellar marketing strategy.
After Bjork shouted "Tibet, Tibet" from a Shanghai stage after a performance of her controversial song "Declare Independence" (see previous story), Chinese officials have vowed to enforce tighter controls on Western pop stars who visit the country.
A statement posted on China's Culture Ministry's website said that the quirky Icelandic singer's outburst "broke Chinese law and hurt Chinese people's feelings."
Though Bjork's comments concerning Tibet were not reported in the state controlled media, they set Chinese chat rooms alight after her performance in the country on March 3rd.
"We will further tighten controls on foreign artists performing in China in order to prevent similar cases from happening in the future," the statement continues. "We shall never tolerate any attempt to separate Tibet from China and will no longer welcome any artists who deliberately do this."
"If Bjork continued to behave like that in the future, we may consider never allowing her to perform in China," said a spokeswoman for the Culture Ministry speaking to an AFP reporter.
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The People's Liberation Army invaded Tibet in 1950. The province has since been under Chinese rule, though many people still regard the exiled Dalai Lama as the territory's rightful leader. "There is no country that admits that Tibet is an 'independent country,'" the Culture Ministry proclaimed.
Meanwhile The Free Tibet Campaign, a British-based organization which campaigns for the autonomy of Tibet, has praised the singer. "She's shown more courage than politicians like (British Prime Minister) Gordon Brown and (British Foreign Secretary) David Miliband, whose public silence on these issues during recent trips to China is a source of shame for the British people."
The Daily Mantra also applauds Bjork for exercising free speech in an oppressed corner of the globe, and hopes next time she visits Los Angeles that she’ll offer similar aid to free California.
One what planet is this OK? A female Fox & Friends presenter weighs in on the in-studio banter regarding Hillary Clinton's dress sense by proudly proclaiming, "Here at Fox, we like to be feminine. So we don't wear the pants." (If player fails to load, click HERE to view video.) It's like the feminist movement never happened. This Faux News woman is utterly oblivious to the damage she's doing. It's so sad that women are so often their own worst enemies. Evolve people. Then again, along with pant suits, she probably doesn't believe in evolution either. Charles Darwin and the suffragettes (sounds like a 60’s band) must be rolling in their graves. Perhaps she'd like to give up her vote too?
It's becoming more and more evident that apes are capable of speech, but what happens once they do finally get chatty with us humans? What if dolphins have the monopoly on intelligence and sensitivity, and talking apes turn out to be frat-boy like conversationalists? We've been expecting monkeys to come up with Shakespeare once they master the typewriter, what if their first words are, "Dude, where's the party?" Then again, perhaps the cheeky monkey in this video is just auditioning for the remake of National Lampoon's Animal House
I'll leave you with one final thought:
- Question: What's smarter than a talking monkey?
(Click HERE for answer.)
Continue reading Apes Ready For Animal House.
As we previously reported, Paris Hilton was only acting spiritual when she went out on the town in West Hollywood last Saturday night with a suspicious looking personal guru in tow. The shaman was soon revealed to be a shyster, a bit part actor whose previous credits include CSI, My Name Is Earl, and, our favorite, The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie. Very spiritual.
Turns out the whole stunt was set up by Punk'd star Ashton Kutcher for a new TV show he's producing that premieres on E! this Sunday. The eight part series, entitled Pop Fiction, offers celebs the chance to turn the tables on the paparazzi.
In an interview with USA Today, Kutcher's Pop Fiction production partner, Jason Goldberg, claims that about twenty celebrities, including several A-listers, were in on the joke, and participated in similar stunts, though he's being tight lipped as to the names. He says that interest amongst stars wishing to exact sweet revenge on the out-of-control media was "pretty heavy."
"You're speaking their language. We live in a culture that's driven by media and obsessed with celebrity, to the point where they don't have private lives anymore," said Goldberg. "Two people going out to eat turns into, 'They're engaged.' It's a feeding frenzy. It's dangerous and it's irresponsible in some cases."
Goldberg claims that many media outlets have been duped over recent months, so it'll be interesting to see which stories we've read turn out to be fakes. Perhaps this explains Mike Huckabee's presidential candidacy, since surely that was never anything more than a joke.
"We're having fun," says Goldberg, "but we want to say to people, 'Can you really believe everything you read and see?' "
Patrick Swayze’s publicist has confirmed that the Dirty Dancing star has pancreatic cancer. The National Enquirer first broke the story, leading some to question its validity, but sadly it seems the reports are true. The one-year survival rate for those diagnosed with pancreatic cancer is just 20%, and the five-year rate is 4%. If you’d like to make a donation to help find a cure for this highly under-researched disease, click HERE to go to the Hirshberg Pancreatic Cancer Research Center’s website.
Papiroflexia may sound like a strange sexual practice, but it's actually the Spanish word for "origami." In this delightful animated short a skilled paper folder reshapes the world, fold by fold. If only....
Created by Joaquin Baldwin at the UCLA Animation Workshop, 2007. Original Score written by Nick Fevola
Click HERE to view if player fails to load.
The Daily Mantra watched tonight's primarys at a Drinking Liberally soiree in Santa Monica, CA. All we can say is the political organization which boasts it "promotes democracy one pint at a time" works!
We were rooting for Hillary, and when we arrived at the Nocturnal Bar on Lincoln Boulevard she was two percentage points down in Texas. By the time we'd downed our first glass of red wine, God had apparently had a word in Mike Huckabee's ear and had persuaded him to give up his presidential bid, and Hillary had taken the lead over Obama in Texas by four percentage points, and had also won Ohio and Rhode Island. Sadly we were driving, so couldn't consume another glass of red wine for our blue cause. If we had she may have won in Texas by an even bigger margin. We'll plan better, and try harder next time.
Quirky Icelandic singer Bjork set Chinese chatrooms alight after she shouted "Tibet...Tibet" at the end of a performance of her rousing song "Declare Independence" at a show at the Shanghai International Gymnastic Center last night (March 3, 2008).
The song was originally written about the Faroe Islands and Greenland (who are bound to Denmark), and features the lyrics, "Start your own currency/ Make your own stamp/ Protect your language / Declare independence/ Don't let them do that to you."
Danwei.org, an English language site, translated some of the comments from angry Chinese fans. "If she was yelling free Shanghai, that would be great! Free Shanghai! Free Shanghai!" said one fan. "Those who put on the show should be severely fined and not allowed to bring this kind of trash in for performances," wrote another forum participant.
An earlier dedication of the same song to Kosovo during shows in Tokyo last month led to the rescinding of an invitation to perform at the Exit Festival in Serbia. While it's unlikely Bjork will be invited back to China anytime soon, it seems her comments did serve a purpose. "I don't understand, why do Western stars give a shit about Tibet. Isn't Tibet ours?" wrote one confused Chinese concertgoer. Inspiring people to ask the right questions is a good place to start, and is the intension behind much good, bad, ugly, and noisy art (click HERE to listen to the song and you'll know EXACTLY what I mean).
It seems Paris Hilton was only acting spiritual on Saturday night when she paraded in front of cameras in West Hollywood with a mysterious personal guru in tow (see previous story). TMZ tracked him down. Turns out he’s a 52-year old actor from Quartz Hill, CA called Maxie Santillan. According to IMDB, his credits include CSI, My Name Is Earl, Pirates of the Caribbean, and The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie.
Showbiz guru Perez Hilton called it when he said it was a publicity stunt since we don’t think Paris will find much enlightenment by keeping company with a man who says, “Burbank can kiss my Ass" on his MySpace page. Then again, perhaps he was just auditioning to be a contestant on Paris’ new, as yet unnamed, reality TV show in which she’ll search for a new best friend.
Can you believe this girl has the nerve to pull a stunt like this then complain that people don’t take her seriously? Well, yes, we can actually. Still, we’re happy that our fav commerce-with-a-conscience coffee shop got some free publicity out of the Hilton spin cycle.
A new survey has revealed that Librans are the unluckiest drivers, suffering more breakdowns than those born under any other star sign. The research was done by the R.A.C., a British motoring organization that is similar to America's Auto Club. Pisceans were the luckiest drivers, experiencing over 40,000 less breakdowns than unlucky Librans.
The survey also revealed that Brits are more likely to know the laws of the zodiac than the rules of the road. Of those surveyed, 42% admitted to reading their horoscope in the past year, while just 12% had read the Highway Code (the UK equivalent to our Drivers Handbook).
Drivers who are willing to tempt fate, at least where their license plate is concerned, are also among the luckiest however. The report noted that, "registrations that include the number '13' are 25% less likely to break down than average" and that "cars with '666' in the number plate are 15% less likely to break down than average."
While being bad news for Libran NASCAR diver Dale Earnhardt, Jr., this survey may indicate an unexpected upside for devil-worshiping witches who drive.
The full star sign league table is (from unluckiest to luckiest):
- 1. Libra
- 2. Capricorn
- 3. Aquarius
- 4. Virgo
- 5. Sagittarius
- 6. Leo
- 7. Aries
- 8. Scorpio
- 9. Gemini
- 10. Cancer
- 11. Taurus
- 12. Pisces
The CO2-busting website CarbonRally.com has laid out its latest challenge for eco-gamers entitled Right Now Less Cow. Those that choose to accept the new mission are being asked to give up meat for at least two days this week. The site estimates the two-day meat moratorium will, on average, reduce a participant's carbon footprint by 13.2 lbs.
The Daily Mantra invites its readers to join our CarbonRally team. There's never been a better time to lose the beef, given that the specter of mad cow disease has raised its ugly head again with downed cattle (a euphemism for animals suspected of having the disease) having entered the food chain, this time thanks to corrupt managers and employees at a California slaughterhouse.
After the scandal was exposed by the Humane Society, who's investigators compiled secret video evidence, the Hallmark Meat Packing Co., of Chino, was shut down by the USDA. The slaughterhouse supplied meat to several major grocery store chains, and to America's School Lunch Program, and a massive meat recall is in effect.
Many news sites have been reassuring worried consumers by reporting that "there is no evidence that the company's meat posed a health risk." This is misleading however, since Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, an incurable degenerative neurological disorder which humans can contract by eating infected meat, is difficult to diagnose, and the onset of symptoms is often delayed by years, if not decades.
So on that cheery note, we suggest you CLICK HERE to join our team, and spread our new mantra, Right Now Less Cow, to those you care about. You'll help save the planet, and you may just save yourself in the process.
Paris Hilton walked on the path of enlightenment at the weekend (see video), taking a trip to the Bodhi Tree bookstore with a personal spiritual guru in tow. After buying several self-help books at the shop, which is a mecca for those seeking wisdom in the metaphysical realm, the unlikely pair went next door to the Daily Mantra's fav coffee spot, the Urth Café (see previous story).
The duo read from a spiritual pamphlet entitled The Path of the Painted Shaman while sitting at a table on the outside patio with their organic drinks. At one point the guru appeared to bless Paris. He then persuaded the material girl to give the large, diamond encrusted gold heart-shaped pendant she was wearing to a bemused customer at the next table. When asked why she did it, Paris responded, "because the greatest gift is to give."
Faux News is reporting that, according to an inside source, "the former prisoner is turning to shamanism to bring 'love and luck' into her life." Meanwhile the more cynical Perez Hilton is convinced the incident was nothing more than a cheap publicity stunt. Regardless of her true intentions (whatever they may be), The Daily Mantra is happy that Paris has given the gift of publicity to two of our favorite haunts. If it helps even one Paris Hilton wannabe find the pavement to enlightenment, then we're all for it.
