Saturday, July 21, 2007

Searching for Balance


Mike Moore, originally uploaded by ddbsweasel.

* Chimps grieve over lost matriarch
* Britney fights to regain popularity
* Haneef case develops
* Latest Harry Potter Sale begins
* People forgive Goddess

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Britney Spears dares to bare
Megan Miller
BRITNEY Spears is back in black.

The troubled singer is attempting to revive her pop career with a bold new look for the video of her new single Get Back.

The mother of two yesterday strutted her stuff in a barely there mini dress and black boots, topped with a pillbox hat and veil for the top-secret shoot in downtown Los Angeles.

The Toxic singer has reportedly sworn her aides, friends and backing dancers to secrecy over the project -- her first video in two years.

It seems Spears, 25, is getting serious about her comeback, following a bizarre series of 15-minute lip-synced concerts in May.

The black widow stylings are a far cry from the pig-tailed schoolgirl who broke on to the music scene almost a decade ago.

Since then, she's endured a very public meltdown including shaving her head, a stint in rehab, borne two sons and divorced rapper Kevin Federline.

But Spears still isn't camera shy.

This racy shot were taken less than 24 hours after the pop star stripped down to her underwear for an impromptu dip in the ocean with a friend at Malibu.

Anonymous said...

Taronga Zoo chimps grieve for Fifi
By Steve Gee
THEY share more than 90 per cent of human DNA. And like a family grieving one of its own, Taronga Zoo's troupe of chimps have shown the most human qualities as they mourn the death 60-year-old matriarch, Fifi.

For about an hour after the primate passed away on Thursday, the 19 chimpanzees, who share the enclosure, virtually closed ranks, surrounding her body in a poignant gesture of shared heartache.

They each had their moment of closure; some patting and sniffing the fallen ape, while others simply sat in silence.

"It was as if they all wanted to say goodbye," headkeeper Melissa Beaven said yesterday.

"Normally they are very boisterous, but it was very quiet.

"They didn't want to leave her."

Ms Beaven said even before Fifi's body was discovered, keepers knew there was a problem.

"You could judge by the rest of the group's behaviour that something had happened," she said.

"They were all very close to her.

"They spent a bit of time sitting next to her.

The much loved primate, who celebrated her 60th birthday in May, died on Thursday.

A great grandmother, she had shown no sign of illness apart from arthritis and minor age-related ailments.

Because of the cold, keepers allowed Fifi to stay inside her enclosure on Thursday and it was only when they entered to give her an afternoon feed of fruit that her body was discovered.

Ms Beaven said the chimps spent the hours leading to her death filing in and out of the enclosure, as if paying their final respects.

"She made herself a big comfortable nest of paper in the night house and it looks like she basically went to sleep in the early afternoon, so it was nice and quick," she said.

Ms Beaven said the chimps were quieter than usual yesterday.

It was clear they missed Fifi.

"She has been at the zoo for over 40 years so she has had an important role to play within the community," Ms Beaven said.

Anonymous said...

Harry Potter fans queue for Deathly Hallows
By Mike Collett-White in London
THE seventh and final Harry Potter book goes on sale at midnight, a publishing milestone that will end months of fevered speculation among fans over the fate of the fictional boy wizard and his wand-wielding friends.

Readers young and old were queuing outside book stores around the world overnight, many dressed like their heroes, for the grand finale of the Potter saga, which experts believe will be the fastest-selling book of all time.
Author J.K. Rowling was an unemployed single mother without a publisher or agent 13 years ago, but is now the world's first dollar billionaire writer after the huge success of her first six novels and the Hollywood movies based on them.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows hits the shelves at 9.01am this morning in a carefully orchestrated release designed to maximise suspense and sales from London and New York to Mumbai and Australia's Outback.

But it has been marred by leaks of the contents of the book on the Internet, both real and fake, and by a mistake made by a US online retailer that meant a small number of hard copies were sent to buyers days ahead of publication.

Rowling reacted angrily when two US newspapers ran reviews on Thursday based on copies they obtained ahead of publication.

“I am staggered that some American newspapers have decided to publish purported spoilers in the form of reviews in complete disregard of the wishes of literally millions of readers, particularly children,” the 41-year-old said.

Yesterday, French newspaper Le Parisien published a three-paragraph summary of the final book's epilogue, printing it upside down to give readers a chance to look away.

'P-Day'

Potter publishers will take comfort from the fact that the majority of fans do not know what happens in book seven, and do not want to until they get their hands on a copy on what has been dubbed in the media as “P-Day”.

Families are imposing news blackouts in their homes, and queues began to form outside bookstores as early as Wednesday.

More than 100 die-hard Potter fans, including several from overseas, had gathered outside a book shop in central London overnight, braving torrential rain at one point.

“Everyone says he (Harry) is going to die,” said Sinead Kelly, who travelled from the Netherlands with her boyfriend to be at the epicentre of Harry hysteria.

“I think he's going to live. J.K. Rowling says at least two characters are going to die, so I think it's going to be Hermione and Hagrid.”

In Britain, a phone counselling service for children expects a surge in calls when readers learn who is killed off.

Stores in Taiwan and India are laying on “magic breakfasts” for early customers and a Sydney shop is taking fans aged from two to 84 on a train ride to a secret location to get the book.

The statistics of Rowling's success are staggering.

The first six books in the series, which began with Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in 1997, have sold 325 million copies and the first five movies in the film franchise have amassed around $4 billion at the global box office.

“Harry Potter has made people look at the children's book world in a way they wouldn't have before,” said Caroline Horn, children's news editor at the Bookseller publication.

“It also raised expectations of the amount of money a writer can earn.”

Anonymous said...

Haneef evidence wrong - AFP
from news.com.au
THE Australian Federal Police have admitted that crucial evidence against Gold Coast doctor Mohamed Haneef - that his mobile phone SIM card was found at the scene of a British car bombing - is wrong.

It had not been confirmed the SIM card was found at the scene of the Glasgow Airport attack, as prosecutors alleged during the terror suspect's bail hearing last weekend, federal police sources have told Fairfax newspapers.

The revelation has cast fresh doubts over police handling of the Haneef case.

Criticism has come from Peter Faris QC, who has backed the government's new anti-terror laws, and Queensland Premier Peter Beattie, who has expressed concern.

The SIM card, the smart card in mobile phones, was found in the possession of one of Dr Haneef's cousins, Sabeel Ahmed, in Liverpool, hundreds of kilometres away from the failed Glasgow bombing.

No official attempt has been made to correct the public record, despite police sources telling Fairfax they had been aware of the error for some time.

Asked why Dr Haneef would have provided his SIM card if he knew it was to be used for the purposes of terrorism, prosecutor Clive Porritt, from the Office of the commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), told the court it had been intended that the SIM card would be destroyed in the planned explosion when the Jeep was rammed into the Glasgow airport doors.

A spokeswoman for the DPP said: "It is not appropriate for us to comment on matters before the court."