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Tom Cruise as
Jack Reacher? I don't think so!!
When I first heard this I thought it
was a joke. How can a dark haired midget play a 6'4" blond with ice blue
eyes? Well apparently Hollywood is going to try and make it work. As for
me, and most Reacher fans, I won't be seeing this movie, it would
forever ruin Jack Reacher for me, and I could never read another Reacher
novel.
Comments;
Watership Down
Watership Down is another of my favourite books, and it's only about
a small group of rabbits. It was written by British author Richard
Adams.
Although the animals in the story live in their natural environment,
they are anthropomorphised, possessing their own culture, language (Lapine),
proverbs, poetry, and mythology. Evoking epic themes, the novel recounts
the rabbits' odyssey as they escape the destruction of their warren to
seek a place in which to establish a new home, encountering perils and
temptations along the way.
Adam's
makes the point of man's destruction of the environment for the sake of
progress. I found this novel poignant, and it made me think for the
first time about the common treatment of harmless animals. This was the
first fantasy book I ever read apart from Tolkein, and the first animal
book; it was after reading this book that I started collecting my dog
books. I am still not a great reader of fantasy, but I will try any
genre. (I went on to read Cold Moon, a fantasy about the almost
total destruction of the Badger population in England in the 60s'
another lovely book.)
The novel
takes its name from the rabbits' destination, Watership Down, a hill in
the north of Hampshire, England, near the area where Adams grew up. The
story is based on a collection of tales that Adams told to his young
children to pass the time on trips to the countryside.
Published in 1972, Watership Down was Richard Adams' first novel,
and is by far his most successful to date. He also wrote The Plague
Dogs, a book I found too disturbing to finish.
Though it was initially rejected by thirteen publishers before
eventually being accepted , Watership Down has never been out of
print, and was the recipient of several prestigious awards. Adapted into
an acclaimed classic film and a television series, it is Penguin Books'
best-selling novel of all time. In 1996, Adams published Tales from
Watership Down, a follow-up collection of 19 short stories about El-ahrairah
(this was a mythological rabbit that was a part of rabbit culture) and
the rabbits of the Watership Down warren.
I have
read Watership Down many, many times since that first read. It
sounds like a simple book, but it is not. A compelling, sad, but also
happy and wonderful saga about a motley crew of rabbits who leave their
ancient warren when the gentle 'Fiver' predicts death for all who stay,
and against all odds they survive because of the intelligence of Hazel
their leader, their fearless fighter Bigwig, and their faith in each
other. The old warren is demolished to make way for roads and
supermarkets and a new suburb.
It made me
wonder about all animals, not just our favourite cats and dogs. What
about pigs, they are very intelligent. What about cows and chickens and
all the animals we make lead a terrible life because we intensively farm
them. I am not and never will be a vegetarian, but I also will never
again eat any animal product that is not free range. And I mean free
range, none of this supermarket free range, I use a certified butcher,
and he's wonderful, people come from all over Melbourne to buy his meat
and poultry. Sadly our choices are ever being squeezed by the big
supermarket chains. I've even given up buying any fresh goods in a
supermarket. I go there strictly for the tinned and dry foods I need,
but finding a good green grocer was not easy either, they are also a
vanishing breed. I am also not a rabbid greenie. We don't have to destroy everything, but we don't
have to be made to fear all progress either. Maybe going back to a
simpler life would be better for everyone. I shake my head when people
claim to be environmentalists, but then hop on a private plane to
somewhere to tell everyone else how to save the environment. Hollywood
stars like Kate Blanchett who told us to have a 2 minute shower to save
water and build a smaller home to save energy, yet she has a great big swimming pool
at her energy guzzling mansion; or
those who drink their water out of plastic bottles that are overloading
us with landfill, and pull out their green shopping bags that are
creating more pollution in production than any predecessor, and yet they all sit back
and watch our food sources being dictated by big business, real food
slowly disappearing, and kids getting fatter on processed muck. That
shouldn't be what it's all about. If we stop consuming all this junk and
go back to a properly bred and grown food chain I think there would be
far less impact on the environment and the animals we consume could live
out happy lives in a natural environment.
Comments;
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Just when the rest of the world seems to be going into deep
freeze, we're all lucky to be in sunny Aus. Don't you just love
it here? I've traveled the world at least 3 times in my
life, and I still love Australia best, and Melbourne even
better. Here's a pic of the Twelve
Apostles on the Great Ocean Road in Victoria
Click on photo for Melbourne's latest
news and weather or
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News items in Australia, and an Aussie view on them
The great betrayal of our diggers in
Afghanistan
‘Stop firing’ screamed the Afghan interpreter metres away
from a suspected Taliban leader as he emptied his magazine towards a
small band of Australian commandos. As the walls exploded the
insurgent responded by clipping on a fresh magazine and unloading it
at them. The Australians returned fire and lobbed a grenade into
the dark room. The firing ceased. As they crept into the room they
noticed a sight that will haunt them forever. The suspected Taliban
leader lay dead amongst a human shield comprising women and
children. Three of the commandos in the raid, doing what they were
sent to do by the Australian government, now face charges of
manslaughter. These young men have been double-crossed by our
political leaders who have exposed them to the jurisdiction of the
International Criminal Court in the Hague.
Membership of the world court is a gold plated pass to the finer
things in life for the international legal fraternity. First class
travel, 5-star hotels, fine cuisine and vintage wine are standard
fare for the elite in the justice system. The court provides a
forum for eminent legal minds from Australia, Albania, Botswana, the
Central African Republic, Romania, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Bangladesh,
Mongolia, Tajikistan and others to discuss a new world order for law
and justice.
Read the whole article here:
http://www.charlielynn.com.au/2010/10/the-great-betrayal-of-our-diggers-in-afghanistan/ttp://www.charlielynn.com.au/2010/10/the-great-betrayal-of-our-diggers-in-afghanistan/
From flood to fire, NSW has already had it's fair share of inclement
weather this summer. Australia is heading for another season of
severe fire danger, as we continue in one of our cyclic droughts.
Dorothea Mackellar's poem 'My Country'
was published in 1908 and is still so
relevant here today! Follow all the
latest news on Wang Wang & Funi
HERE!
Giant Chinese pandas Wang Wang and Funi
have touched down at Adelaide Airport (28/11/09) and are clearing
customs ahead of a waiting police escort to deliver them safely to their
new home.
The pandas are being unloaded from their crates for processing by
quarantine and customs officials. They will then be transported in a
climate-controlled semi-trailer to a new $8 million enclosure.
Travelling with them are Chinese keepers and vets as well as Adelaide
Zoo keepers who have been getting to know the bears over the past few
weeks.
Adelaide Zoo spokeswoman Emily Rice said the pandas were expected to
arrive around lunchtime.
"It depends on how quickly they are processed," she told AAP.
"They should be here in the next hour or two."
Wang Wang and Funi will spend the next month in quarantine, ensconced
inside the enclosure which includes some innovative features including
refrigerated rocks to ensure they can handle the Australian summer heat.
We're pretty notorious for our for our sharks here - particularly
the Great White fish variety,
how's this for a
day at the beach? (from Yahoo - 1/11/2009)
Rhys Gadsden was out for a
morning paddle off Portland on Friday when he says a great
white shark appeared from the deep and wrapped its jaws
around his sea kayak, leaving giant puncture marks.e marks.
The 27-year-old was flipped
off the kayak and spent a terrifying 15 minutes in the water
by his kayak desperately hoping he would not be eaten alive.
"I grabbed my oars, hit it
in the head probably five to six times and it released it,"
the Portland man told the Nine Network.
"It was freaky being in the
water, yeah, I didn't know where it went, I didn't know if
it was going to come back.me back.
"I didn't know what to do
really, I didn't want to splash around and make it come
back."
Finally a nearby boat came
to his rescue.
Humpty Dumpty
from ABC
October, 23rd 2009
A
children's literature expert says changes made to the
nursery rhyme Humpty Dumpty are part of a worrying trend in
society. In the United Kingdom, the BBC is under fire for
rewriting Humpty Dumpty to give it a happy ending on the
CBeebies children's program Something Special. Instead of
the last line saying "couldn't put Humpty together again",
the new version claimed all the King's horses and all the
King's men "made Humpty happy again".
June Factor, who has spent nearly
four decades researching and writing children's books, says
such moves to "sanitise" story-telling is very concerning.
"It's a sad sort of ignorance involved. It's completely
unnecessary, it's a misjudgement and it's foolishness," she
told ABC News Online. "I am concerned about this
misunderstanding and misreading of human development, and in
many ways there are quite serious restrictions being placed
on children. "It's a worrying trend because there is, in
countries like England and Australia, a strange panic about
children. "The idea is that children should be protected
against all risk and in this case they are seeing a
psychological risk. On the contrary, it's a psychological
strengthening you gain from this material." Dr Factor, an
honorary senior research fellow at the Australian Centre at
the University of Melbourne, says unnecessary changes have
been made to children's tales for generations. And she says
those who "bowdlerise" children's literature do have good
intentions, but they are missing the cultural and historical
point of nursery rhymes and fairytales.
"Their intentions are always
admirable - the path to hell is paved with good intentions.
They are hoping to make sure children aren't frightened but
of course they are omitting the purpose," she said.he said.
"[Nursery rhymes] are not there as a
cotton ball to protect children from the world. They are a
way of exposing children to the world from the safety of
someone's lap." Dr Factor says scary tales are meant to
teach children about dangers in the world. "Fairytales are
full of very grim life experiences - dead parents, being
left in the woods, there's tricksters and dangers - and what
they do for children is a whole number of things," she said.
"It's a way of approaching the world for children in
symbolic ways so they do gain some understanding of the
world but they don't actually have to go out and experience
the big bad wolf or whatever.
"They are about courage,
resilience, quick-wittedness, patience and they are all
about hope."
I can only agree with all these comments. Stop re
writing history, and leave books alone. 
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