Thursday, March 17, 2011

On-Line petition works!

I'm blown away - again. When I signed this petition, I thought it was just the right thing to do, but lo and behold, it worked!

"Better to light a candle than curse the darkness"


"Dear chris,

A small group of lesbian activists from the poverty-stricken townships of Cape Town walked into South African parliament on Monday and convinced their government to finally start fighting the country’s decades-old scourge of "corrective rape" -- where men rape lesbian women to "turn" them straight. You made that moment possible.

Late last year, these activists called on the world to help them pressure their leaders to take action on corrective rape. We answered their call, and more than 170,000 Change.org members from 163 countries joined with them, making this the largest campaign of all time on Change.org.

Three and a half months later, they succeeded. Teaming up with 23 major South African organizations, they got some of the most powerful officials in the country to agree to bring together various government arms and civil society groups to develop and implement a national action plan to combat corrective rape.

The ministry officials asked for details of specific cases in need of immediate attention, committed to a series of meetings beginning in six weeks, and promised to present concrete proposals to prevent corrective rape by the next meeting.

It’s an astounding victory, far beyond what we ever could have imagined when we set out late last year. Now these activists need your help holding the government accountable for its commitments.

If there was any question about the effect you had, the chief of staff himself confirmed it: At one point in the session he explicitly said, in a pleading voice, "Please don't petition us again."

But that’s exactly what we need to do. The government is making a series of urgent decisions on sexual violence legislation in the next few weeks, and South African activists need your help in pressuring them to follow up their words with tangible action:

http://www.change.org/petitions/south-africa-follow-words-with-action-against-rape?alert_id=aDwQnnErnm_iYUAzpBTXp&me=aa

Your work led to overwhelming international press coverage of the campaign, taking corrective rape from an unspoken epidemic to a prominent international issue. In the last two weeks alone, the campaign against corrective rape has been covered by Time Magazine, the Washington Post, USA Today, Houston Chronicle, San Francisco Chronicle, Philadelphia Inquirer, Boston Globe, Miami Herald, Seattle Times, ABC News, CBS News, NBC News, Fox News, MSNBC, Dan Rather, Forbes, Yahoo! News, Salon, and dozens of global outlets from Taiwan, Indonesia, Australia, Canada, Spain, and even a Finnish tabloid.

An elated Luleki Sizwe Founder Ndumie Funda (pictured to the right, alongside the chief of staff from the Ministry of Justice) called it "an incredible achievement…I humble myself to the 170,000 people from all over the world who made this possible. It was about time this happened."

There is still much to be done, but every Change.org member should be proud about what has been accomplished here. In just 100 days, a tiny group of township activists have managed to mobilize more than 170,000 people from 163 countries and engaged the highest levels of government to address their demands. That’s incredible.

Thanks for lending your voice.

- Weldon and the Change.org team"

Bobbin' Apples - How to ressurect an iPod

Bobbin' Apples - How to ressurect an iPod touch

I'm amazed!

Kimmy washed Dyl's iPod at 40 deg C on the "Synthetic" cycle. It died.

I googled how to repair a washed iPod, and was advised to dry it off as well as I could, DON'T SWITCH IT ON, and then put it in a bed of rice. Rice is hydrophillic, and will draw out the remaining moisture. I was sceptical.

I did this, 2 days later, I tried it, and it switched on. 2 more days in the rice, and the screen looked better, but the battery status still said empty - it ran on mains power, but looked at the bottom of it's charge level. 1 more day in the rice, and the battery had come back to life! It showed full charge, and works without the mains supply!

So I now have a live iPod, with a slightly blotchy screen, but have saved throwing it away.

Wednesday, March 09, 2011

Ween - I Gots a Weasel (Original Version)



Priceless!

Tuesday, March 08, 2011

News from A Welsh Born Icon



Lifted directly from the excellent A Welsh Born Icon :-

Tuesday, March 08, 2011

You Did it to Me

A huge and iconic stained glass window hangs in a church in the US state of Alabama, paid for by the people of Wales, after the church was destroyed by bombers in 1963, killing four little girls.

In 1963, racist bombers blew up the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. The murder of children marked another low in the violent resistance to civil rights.

News of the bombing was broadcast worldwide. Welsh sculptor John Petts heard about it on the radio as he worked in his studio and wanted to do something to help. He contacted The Western Mail, and a campaign was launched to raise money to help rebuild the devastated church. No one was allowed to give more than half a crown – to ensure that no rich benefactor could take credit for the money raised. There were reports of children, black and white, queuing up in Cardiff's Tiger Bay to donate their pocket money.

Tens of thousands of people contributed to the fund. With the money that was raised, Petts was commissioned to create a new stained-glass window for the church. Grand in scale, it depicted the crucified Christ as a black man.

The window is now a focus of worship and has become one of the most famous pieces of art to come out of the darkness of the civil rights period. At its foot is a simple message: "Given by the people of Wales".

Read more today, and listen on Thursday 11.30am-12.00noon BBC RADIO 4.

Sunday, March 06, 2011

Charlie Brooker vs. Colonel Gaddafi

Tuesday, March 01, 2011

IAN DURY - By those that really knew him



I was there!