LOVE ANGELES

Whale Leaps From Water, Crushes Sailboat

Source: FOX - If you play with fire, you get burned. Or crushed, it appears.

Photographs show a 33-foot southern right whale soaring out of the water off Cape Town, South Africa, and landing on a couple's boat, nearly destroying it. But reports indicate that the 40-ton beast was provoked into the attack -- and local officials are investigating.

The couple, Ralph Mothes and Paloma Werner, posted pictures of the incident on a Facebook  page associated with their company, Cape Town Sailing Academy. 

The couple detailed the incident in a typo-laden post on the social-networking site: 

"While taking some pictures we decided to had back when a southern right whale, between 11 - 14 m long, breach about 100 meters away from us and then suddenly breach about 10 meters from us and then on us. We where sailing had no engine of so we could not even take any action. Scary!"

Mothes said his 32-foot steel boat had held up well, sustaining no structural damage despite the right whale's massive bulk.

Reports suggest that the couple's harassing behavior may have incited the whale, however, leading the local Department of Environmental Affairs to launch an investigation. Several people came forward to say a boater had broken the law by approaching the whale, reported one local news agency.

The couple tells a different story. They point out that because this particular species of whale navigates by sound -- and has poor eyesight -- it may have simply not heard the sailboat.

"Our boat's engine was off and so the whale just didn't know we were there," Paloma Werner told the BBC.

"We were just the wrong boat, in the wrong place, at the wrong time."

Werner and her partner Ralph reportedly first saw the whale in the distance. They floated for an hour watching. "It appeared about 120 meters away from our boat and then it went under the water again," she told the BBC.

"A few moments later, I saw it resurface just 10 meters away. Suddenly I heard my partner shout, and when I looked around, I saw the huge thing breaching onto the deck.

"Instinctively, I took cover as the mast came crashing down. I saw my partner, Ralph, dive for cover behind the yacht's wheel. Then the whale slid down the side of the boat and back into the water."

"As soon as I realized that we were unhurt, we checked to see how much damage had been done.

"Luckily, we weren't taking on water so we started the engine and headed for shore. I saw the whale reappear further away.

"When we got back to land, I realized how lucky we were to have survived."

World Cup 2010: One Love (Video)

Enjoy this lovely recap from Germany '06...

Challanges in Africa

Source: AllAfrica.com - Ever since the AIDS problem was discovered nearly 30 years ago, the deadly acquired immune deficiency syndrome remains a challenge to the society.

Now, it is important that we base our initiatives on some understanding of what has gone wrong. Unfortunately and in many ways, the world, countries and communities have struggled to overcome social and economic challenges posed by HIV/AIDS.

Though there is much campaign and struggle to fight HIV/AIDS, the seemingly unstoppable, disaster and catastrophic human tragedy caused by the disease continues in some parts of the world.

It should be noted that some factors contribute to the failure of success against HIV/AIDS. To some extent silence and denial are a primordial and protective human response to situations that are excessively stressful.

It's true that human kind cannot bear too much reality, but trying to cover up the existence of AIDS will never lead to mastery over the disease or its impacts. This habit still commonly occurs in families, communities, and in several parts of the world.

Attitudes, behaviors, insidious associations, and adverse social reactions that discriminate against and stigmatize those with HIV/AIDS drive acknowledgment of the disease into an underground of silence, secrecy, shame and self recrimination.

Lack of correct information on how the disease can be contracted, how it can be prevented, and what those infected can do to ensure that they live a longer life of better quality still remains a challenge.

Today a significant proportion of people do not know how to be protected against HIV infection. Some even do not know that oral and anal sex involve extensive HIV transmission risks. People still think that you can judge by appearances whether or not a person is HIV infected.

The global fund for AIDS, TB and Malaria that was created by the United Nations nearly 10 years ago has helped the international community and national governments to deal with the problem.

This has somehow eased the social and economic challenges as costs for purchase of anti-retro viral drugs and health care of people living with the disease have been minimized.

People should deliver capacity to design good strategies with good response measures. Important to mention is that there is strong focus on short term measures aimed principally at behavior change, but with minimal attention in the context of the disease.

There is strong need to prevent and overcome poverty, malnutrition, the powerlessness in many societies of women and young girls, inadequate health support services, lack of job opportunities, and the absence of recreational outlets as this is one of the channels of the infection exposure.

Inadequate attention to developing comprehensive strategies that focus on the physical, social, economic, recreational and psychological needs of youth. The war against AIDS will be won when it is won among the youth sooner than later.

Overriding attention to dealing with the disease at the level of the individual, but with little recognition that the disease is also undermining the ability of systems, organizations and institutions to cater for the needs of individuals and society remains a problem.

Failure in many approaches to be sensitive to cultural and religious perceptions and values, with the result that suspicions, intransigence and conflict over peripheral issues such as condom use have tended to overshadow what should be a shared world and community vision of how to respond to the disease.

In order to put a halt to the continuous obscene growth of the disease, we need to take forceful action. We must harness the huge potential of the education sector to prevent further HIV infection. By educating people about the spread and infection of the disease, we are bale to overcome its challenges.

We should mobilize the sector to offer support and care for those who are infected with the disease or are in any way affected by it. Here we need to take steps to keep our society in order and protect it from the in roads and ravages of the disease.

Falling Whistles

Falling Whistles began as a small story exposing our world's largest war. It has become a campaign for peace in Congo.

Less than a year ago, laying in Titu Prison, 5 boy-prisoners spoke of the whistleblowers.

Abducted in Congo and too small to carry a gun, boys were given merely a whistle and sent to the front lines of battle.

The sound of their whistles calling together was meant to frighten the enemy away. Failing that, their sole duty was to receive the bullets with their bodies.

With falling whistles, their only choice was to feign death, or face it.

The world is changed by those who speak up. Whistleblowers. Rarely understood in their time, history looks back and calls them courageous.

Make their weapon your voice and be a whistleblower for peace.

Proceeds from whistles sales help restore the lives of war-affected children.

Buy a whistle, support the movement: www.fallingwhistles.com/

Falling Whistles - Be a Whistleblower for Peace in Congo from Falling Whistles on Vimeo.

Congo's Conflict Minerals Power Your Cell Phone

Source: Causecast - The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is the second largest African nation and is home to a plentiful array of valuable natural resources. Among the country’s minerals is coltan, an important component of many electronics including cell phones and computers. The DRC has an astounding 80 percent of the world’s coltan resources. The abundance of natural wealth should mean the country has a thriving and healthy economy, right? Wrong.

The struggle over the nation’s mineral resources has fueled decades of both internal and international armed conflict. Yet, while millions of Congolese people are dying over conflict minerals in Africa’s World War III, people around the world are enjoying their cell phones and computers guilt free.

Check out this dynamic and informative video from Take Part:

It’s clear that this system must end, but the solution isn’t as simple as halting all coltan purchases from the DRC. After all, hard-working Congolese civilians also participate in the country’s mining economy too. A ban on all Congolese coltan would hurt the nation’s people, just as much as it could help them. Rather what is needed is a transparent supply chain, in which mines that are controlled by rebel forces’ violence aren’t able to participate in international trading. This would eliminate the incentive for rebel groups to seize mines because the seized minerals would be unsellable.

Now you know, what can you do?

1. Pass this video along to your friends, spread the word about conflict minerals!

2. Urge U.S. electronics companies to sign the Conflict Minerals Pledge!

3. Contact your Congressional Representatives and tell them you support the Conflict Minerals Trade Act of 2009. This crucial act demands transparency in the supply chain of U.S. companies, so we can make sure that our electronics aren’t continuing to fuel war in the DRC.

Edward Norton is Doing Good as Usual

ecorazzi - Edward Norton has achieved his goal of raising more than $1 million for the Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust.

"The fundraising effort began in late summer when Norton and a team of runners (including some Maasai warriors) sought sponsorship in running the New York City Marathon. Celebrities such as Alanis Morissette and David Blaine jumped on board — as well as corporations like shoe giant PUMA. All of the money raised, which totaled some $750,000 after the marathon in early November, went towards the Trust to support education, wildlife conservation, and medical services. But Norton wasn’t content with just three quarters of a million.

“Trying to raise 1 million by the end of next week. We’re close.,” he wrote on Twitter. 11 days later, using a variety of signed movie collectibles and other giveaways, Norton and his team crossed the finish line. The current total now stands at $1,005,977.

While the tweets have dropped off since then, we suspect the last one means we haven’t quite reached the end of this ambitious fundraising effort. “For new followers: check out what we’ve been up to,” it says. “Trying to get 100,000 people to contribute $20 to this great org www.maasaimarathon.com"

Congratulations to Team Norton on raising cash that will make an enormous difference for both the people and wildlife of Kenya.

Let Emmanuel Jal tell you about music and life

Hip-hop star Emmanuel Jal first exploded into dance halls with Gua in 2005. His music has energized music lovers of all ethnicities and nations. But Jal's life story is far darker. Swept up into the Sudanese rebel army at age seven, he finally escaped with 400 fellow soldiers, 16 of whom survived, the rest succumbing to starvation, ambush and animal attacks. Rather than resort to cannibalism, Jal ate snails and vultures until he arrived at a refugee camp, where he was adopted by aid worker Emma McCune and later sent to England.

Jal found an outlet for his turbulent life story in music. His lyrics tell moving and disturbing stories, but wrap them into hope and love. He is active in charity work across Africa, fighting against poverty and child warfare. War Child, his biography, was released in early 2009 along with a documentary film.

"Jal's narrative flows between darkness and light, the terror that befell his family and kinsmen, the horrors he went on to inflict upon others, and a deep-seated desire to set things right."

-Washington Post