Chatterboxx's topics - tribe.net

Original versions of more famous covers.

Guy Montag — Wed, 28 May 2008 03:51:47 GMT

http://youtube.com/watch?v=T_VBEo3FXuc

;)

posted in Chatterboxx - 8 replies

Weigh in... your opinion, that is

feiruz_al-bnefsagia — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 20:55:42 GMT

Discuss some interesting topics on CreateDebate like these:

http://www.createdebate.com/debate/show/Is_Islam_a_religion_of_violence_or_a_religion_of_peace
http://www.createdebate.com/debate/show/Should_guns_be_banned_in_America
http://www.createdebate.com/debate/show/Who_is_the_more_entertaining_comedy_news_show_host
http://www.createdebate.com/debate/show/Should_Marijuana_be_legalized
http://www.createdebate.com/debate/show/Worst_President_Ever_2
http://www.createdebate.com/debate/show/Top_10_most-used_websites
http://www.createdebate.com/debate/show/Should_reparations_be_paid_for_slavery
http://www.createdebate.com/debate/show/Should_America_have_Universal_Healthcare
http://www.createdebate.com/debate/show/Are_organic_foods_worth_spending_your_$_on
http://www.createdebate.com/debate/show/Should_something_be_done_to_avert_the_Peak_Oil_Crisis
http://www.createdebate.com/debate/show/Do_you_trust_the_press
http://www.createdebate.com/debate/show/Outsourcing_of_US_jobs_to_foreign_countries:_Bad_or_Good
http://www.createdebate.com/debate/show/Which_US_political_party_best_represents_Christian_values
http://www.createdebate.com/debate/show/Is_Turkey_Oppressing_its_Citizens
http://www.createdebate.com/debate/show/Was_Bush_right_saying_that_the_Indian_middleclass_people_are_responsible_for_the_inflation
http://www.createdebate.com/debate/show/Should_abortion_be_legal
http://www.createdebate.com/debate/show/Apples_I-Phone_necessity_or_not

posted in Chatterboxx - 1 reply

A Post.

Bloke72 — Tue, 27 May 2008 19:33:41 GMT

Well.. someone should... post..

I saw this. You might like it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jocw-oD2pgo

Where are all the chatterers ?

Taco/Guy/Mr Squiggle still talks to me. He loves me. Where are the rest of you slackers ?

posted in Chatterboxx - 3 replies

Groovy Webpages.

Guy Montag — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 04:46:25 GMT

Anyone like this one?

http://www.schmap.com/

posted in Chatterboxx - 8 replies

What if God had a Myspace?

Bloke72 — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 09:57:50 GMT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jU_iZfe5Xa4

posted in Chatterboxx - 10 replies

Anybody into Moby?

meliaarhrt — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 05:23:54 GMT

I just heard my first CD- very interesting. Makes me wish I had a better stereo 8)

What are Y'all listening to?

posted in Chatterboxx - 3 replies

The Most Memorable Web Videos of 2007

Bloke72 — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 03:47:30 GMT

http://potw.news.yahoo.com/s/potw/58092/the-most-memorable-web-videos-o/

posted in Chatterboxx - 1 reply

The nuns?

John — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 06:27:15 GMT

Why? What? And where can I meet them?

posted in Chatterboxx - 48 replies

Shakespeare goes digital (X-post)

feiruz_al-bnefsagia — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 20:00:55 GMT

Why x-posted? It's Shake-freakin-speare!!!

From Reuters via Yahoo news: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080326/tc_nm/britain_shakespeare_digital_dc

A U.S. and British library plan to reproduce online all 75 editions of William Shakespeare's plays printed in the quarto format before the year 1641.

The Bodleian Library in Oxford and Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington DC have joined forces to download their collections, building on the work of the British Library which digitized its collection of quarto editions in 2004.

In the absence of surviving manuscripts, the quartos -- Shakespeare's earliest printed editions -- offer the closest known evidence of what Shakespeare might actually have written, and what appeared on the early modern English stage.

The project is designed to make all of the quartos, many of which are only accessible to scholars, available to the wider public.

The process of downloading the quartos will begin next month and take a year to complete.

Online visitors will be able to compare images side-by-side, lay one facsimile on top of the other, search plays and mark and tag the texts.

As well as highlighting more minor differences between copies of the same quarto, the digital database will also make it easier to study the often wide discrepancies between quartos, including some of Shakespeare's most famous lines.

"There will be countless new ways for scholars, teachers, and students to examine the quarto texts, particularly of 'Hamlet'," said Folger director Gail Kern Paster.

"You find out all sorts of things -- about how the copies went through the press, and also about the printing process," she added.

Shakespeare wrote at least 37 plays and collaborated on several more between about 1590 and 1613. He died in 1616.

posted in Chatterboxx - 0 replies

Books

Krista Iman — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 18:38:07 GMT

What are you guys reading these days??

Any good books to share with us?

I just finished *Life With A View* about an American couple who live in Italy and spend their summers on the Black Sea coast in Turkey and their process of building their dream home. Oh my gosh, I couldn't stop laughing through some parts of the book. Probably my favorite so far of the *American in Turkey* books I have come across.

I just started reading *Gorky Park* today. I guess it was a movie in the 80s that was famous, I am clueless??

So... ?

posted in Chatterboxx - 88 replies

Perfume

Krista Iman — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 07:28:47 GMT

I just watched the movie *Perfume* the other night.
Finally!!
My husband saw it before but the DVD didn't have english subtitles for me. My most favorite DVD rental guy in the entire world burned me a DVD off the computer with english subtitles (heh, gotta love Turkey).
So, after having to hear raves from K about how great the movie was and how I must see it and this and that...I got to watch it.
I really, really liked it. True, it was disgusting and depraved (HA!) but it was such a strangely beautiful movie at the same time.
I bet the book is even better. Who wrote it?
Melia...you read the book and saw the movie also, didn't you? I seem to recall you talking about it some months ago.
Which did you enjoy better, the book or the movie?
*Perfume* for me belongs in the ranks of movies like *Chocolat* and ...oh SHOOT! There is this wonderful Turkish film about a Greek family in Istanbul in the early last century and it revolves around their spice shop. I forget the name. I think you can get it online or maybe even find it at some rental stores in the US. It won some awards in....somewhere in Europe...argh. I have to find the DVD and get back to you on the title. Anyway, I just adored that movie. It also told the story of when the Greeks in Turkey were being expelled back to Greece during the Turkish-Greece war.
Anyway....*Perfume*....share your views on the movie and or book!!

posted in Chatterboxx - 6 replies

<<Kiosk>>

Guy Montag — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 05:25:50 GMT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6al6Z6hF48E

posted in Chatterboxx - 0 replies

RIP Gary Gygax, Co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons (X-posted)

feiruz_al-bnefsagia — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 22:43:42 GMT

If it weren't for the creative guys at Tactical Studies Rules (TSR) I doubt we'd have the extensive fantasy- and mythology-based literature and games which are so popular and financially successful today.

Rest well, Gary.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Gygax

Feiruz, a second-generation "gamer"

posted in Chatterboxx - 0 replies

A game for dummies ?

Bloke72 — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 07:39:09 GMT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnVDHzUAj30
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTSFhIv9bYg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuoR6OM6KxA&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDoKF1NZ8P8

posted in Chatterboxx - 27 replies

Animal Rescue

Bloke72 — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 12:10:11 GMT

Hi, all you animal lovers. This is pretty simple... Please tell ten
friends to tell ten today! The Animal Rescue Site is having trouble
getting enough people to click on it daily to meet their quota of
getting free food donated every day to abused and neglected animals.
It takes less than a minute (How about 20 seconds) to go to their site
and click on the purple box 'fund food for animals' for free. This
doesn't cost you a thing. Their corporate sponsors/advertisers use the
number of daily visits to donate food to abandoned/neglected animals
in exchange for advertising.
Here's the web site! Pass it along to people you know.

http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/clickToGive/home.faces?siteId=3

posted in Chatterboxx - 8 replies

Consumerism

Guy Montag — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 21:22:35 GMT

The Culture of Commercialism: A Critique

Are we immune to commercialism?

Each of us would like to believe that we're immune to the effects of advertising and commercialism. Maybe other people are affected by ads, but we ourselves are too smart, too savvy.

Yet are we really immune? A lot of evidence suggests that we are influenced. Think about the nationally-advertised products we buy, the style of our clothes, the kinds of food we eat, the attention we give to our appearance, and our encyclopedic knowledge of brand names. In these ways and others, our lives reflect the ads around us.

Over the years, the sophistication of marketing has increased a great deal. The messages that encourage us to buy are designed by creative, talented people. Modern scientific knowledge of human psychology and of how the brain processes visual information is used in developing ads. An array of technical equipment and resources is also used. Ads talk to our conscious, rational mind and to our subconscious fears and desires.

Of course, no one would advocate a ban on marketing. Ads provide information that can be helpful to us as consumers. Ads increase our understanding of the product choices available to us. And in an economy based on free enterprise, ads play a vital role for the business community. Ads are a valid part of modern life.

Some people are concerned about all the advertising we're exposed to. They feel that the constant message to buy influences us in ways that are not to our benefit. One concern is that the message to buy overshadows other messages about helping each other, caring for our environment, and contributing to community.

What follows is a summary of concerns about the influence of commercialism in our lives. The information is not presented as an objective argument on the pros and cons of commercialism. In fact, this list and essay were put together by an organization that works to fight commercialism. Do you think these concerns are valid? Why or why not?

What are the effects of advertising and commercialism?

1. Commercialism distorts our culture by turning every event into a reason to consume. Anthropologists say that holidays reflect a culture's values. In America, every holiday is a sales event.

2. Advertising projects false images. For example, some ads imply that you're not cool unless you drive an expensive car, that smoking means you're an independent spirit, or that to be mature means drinking alcohol.

3. Commercialism contributes to environmental problems by encouraging wasteful use of natural resources. Over-packaging, disposable goods, and buying things we don't really need all contribute to unnecessary use of limited resources. The manufacture and disposal of the things we buy cause other environmental problems, including habitat loss and increased air and water pollution. Billboards cause visual pollution.

4. Advertising perpetuates stereotypes. Examples include stereotypes related to race (African-Americans as musicians and athletes), gender (women as sex objects, men as business people), and class (middle-class whites as the social norm).

5. Advertisers influence the content of publications and broadcasts. Government censorship of the media is illegal. Yet it is well documented that newspapers and other media are censored by advertisers. For example, a beer producer may pressure a magazine in which it buys ad space not to print articles on the dangers of drinking.

6. Corporate sponsorship of civic, environmental, or other non-profit groups may influence those groups. For example, tobacco industry contributions may discourage an organization from joining anti-smoking campaigns.

7. Commercialism has influenced our political process. Many politicians try to attract votes with an image created by advertising and media coverage. In the past, candidates tried to attract votes by their stand on the issues.

8. The public's perception of a company's activities and priorities can be distorted by image advertising. For example, ads can portray major polluters as environmentally conscious companies that give to worthy causes.

9. Advertising costs us money. Businesses pass many of their advertising costs on to us. Also, the price of a product increases when ads successfully cultivate the idea that a certain product can give us status or a cool image.

10. Ads cost us more in taxes, too. Advertising is a fully tax-deductible business expense. Because of this, state and federal treasuries receive billions of dollars less in business taxes each year. Tax rates for citizens must make up for this, so individual taxpayers indirectly subsidize advertising.

11. Ads can be misleading. They emphasize the benefits of products and services and ignore the drawbacks.

12. Ads encourage a brand-name mentality, or buying on the basis of the maker rather than quality or price.

13. Advertising fosters dissatisfaction, envy, and insecurity. It can make us feel unattractive, uncool, and unhappy with what we do or don't have.

14. Our commercialized society places a strong emphasis on appearance, encouraging us to care about our own and others' appearances rather than about characters, talents, and personalities.

15. Constant exposure to ads may encourage materialism and selfishness. This may make people less inclined to help others. Statistics show that giving to charitable causes has decreased in recent years. Similarly, there has been a decline in public support for government programs to aid the least fortunate members of our society.

16. Corporate sponsorship may influence content and undermine the objectivity of exhibits at science and art museums. For example, is an exhibit sponsored by a company that makes insecticides likely to examine human/insect relationships in a fair and balanced way?

17. Ads take a lot of our time. The average person spends almost an hour a day reading, watching, or listening to ads through TV, radio, theaters, videotapes, newspapers, magazines, mail, or telephone. By the time the average American is seventy-five years old, advertising will have taken four years of his or her life.

18. Paid product placements influence the content of movies, TV shows, books, and board games. This compromises artistic integrity.

19. Advertising promotes alcohol and tobacco use, which kill half a million Americans annually. Problems related to alcohol hurt more people's lives and cost society more money than all illegal drugs combined.

20. Marketers compile detailed electronic portraits of shoppers. Companies sell mailing lists for everything from foreign car ownership to sexual preference. These computer databases present a staggering potential for abuse.

21. Commercialism has spread into almost every aspect of life. Being unable to escape it is annoying to many.

22. Advertising aimed at young children intrudes on the parent-child relationship, can undermine parental authority, and can create friction in the home.

23. Commercialism may erode values - such as sharing, co-operation, and frugality - fostered by families, religious institutions, and schools.

24. Commercial foods and the ads for them tend to encourage unhealthy eating habits.

25. Commercialization of school materials and equipment may undermine objective, unbiased education.

26. Heavy promotion of shopping and buying distracts us from other activities such as reading, thinking, and playing. All the ads we're exposed to make it easy to forget how many different kinds of activities we enjoy.

27. Our commercialized culture encourages people to spend money that they don't really have. The number of Americans with financial problems has increased steadily in recent years.

28. Advertising implies that there's an easy solution to everything, from being healthy to having friends.

29. Many ads imply, even if they don't say outright, that happiness is something we can buy. When we act as though this is true, our personal horizons and ability to find fulfilment in life are limited.

30. Commercialism does not just promote specific products. It promotes consumption as a way of life.

What is the cumulative effect of all this commercialism?

Commercialism has clear parallels with industrial pollution. Just as modest amounts of waste can be absorbed by the natural environment, so modest amounts of commercialism can be assimilated by our cultural environment. Large amounts, however, can totally overwhelm either environment, and such is the case today.

For decades we failed to recognize, let alone control, the harm caused by industrial practices. In some cases, such as air pollution from coal-burning furnaces, the problems were obvious but were either ignored or justified on the basis of short-term economic gain. In other cases, such as toxic chemicals that pollute the air and water, the dangers were not even recognized. So it is with commercialism: We excuse its obvious defects in the name of economic progress; we don't even try to identify more subtle effects.

Again as with pollution several decades ago, the consequences of excessive commercialism remain unexamined and unproven. Our understanding rests on a handful of often preliminary or inconclusive academic studies. The fact is that, despite the dominance of commercialism in our culture, social scientists have barely begun to explore its nature and its consequences. Moreover, government regulatory programs are inadequate to contain commercialism. Agencies that focus on deceptive advertising have such small budgets - totalling only about one thousandth as much as what is spent on advertising - that only the most blatantly dishonest advertising can be stopped. Other forms of commercialism go completely unexamined.

What, then, is the impact on our society, when, as Advertising Age [a technical journal for people who work in the advertising industry] wrote, "mass-media advertising explodes out of a shotgun and sprays everyone in its path, kids included"? Andy beyond advertising, what are the effects of living in a culture where even schools, museums, sports and non-commercial broadcasters have been commercialized? Does commercialism turn engaged citizens into mere consumers?

-------

Source: www.media-awareness.ca/englis...ism.cfm

posted in Chatterboxx - 56 replies

Election petition.

Guy Montag — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 23:07:11 GMT

Subject: Superdelegates?

Hi,

You've probably heard about the "superdelegates" who could end up deciding the Democratic nominee.

The superdelegates are under lots of pressure right now to come out for one candidate or the other. We urgently need to encourage them to let the voters decide between Clinton and Obama—and then to support the will of the people.

I signed a petition urging the superdelegates to respect the will of the voters. Can you join me at the link below?

http://pol.moveon.org/superdelegates/?r_by=-1233511-QEO8xd&rc=paste

Thanks!

posted in Chatterboxx - 0 replies

God bless the BBC..

Bloke72 — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 06:00:35 GMT

Did you folks have "The Goodies" as wee'ens ?

This low budget stupid show was, along with Dr Who, England's true contribution to so many Australian (and English) Children's formative years... no wonder we are weird...

If you did not have them, you poor things. Explains everything which is wrong with the world...

I present to you (and if you want to see the first part of the show - see part 1 ...)

KITTEN KONG !!!!!!!!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhKcKvi1M0g&feature=related

Oh - and educational things like the Funky Gibbon...
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=L_w12ePzFx8&feature=related

posted in Chatterboxx - 33 replies

The world's getting better, but we're not there yet

Bloke72 — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 11:54:23 GMT

I am the girl kicked out of her home because I confided in my mother that I am a lesbian.

I am the prostitute working the streets because nobody will hire a transsexual woman.

I am the sister who holds her gay brother tight through the painful, tear-filled nights.

We are the parents who buried our daughter long before her time.

I am the man who died alone in the hospital because they would not let my partner of twenty-seven years into the room.

I am the foster child who wakes up with nightmares of being taken away from the two fathers who are the only loving family I have ever had. I wish they could adopt me.

I am one of the lucky ones, I guess. I survived the attack that left me in a coma for three weeks, and in another year I will probably be able to walk again.

I am not one of the lucky ones. I killed myself just weeks before graduating high school. It was simply too much to bear.

We are the couple who had the realtor hang up on us when she found out we wanted to rent a one-bedroom for two men.

I am the person who never knows which bathroom I should use if I want to avoid getting the management called on me.

I am the mother who is not allowed to even visit the children I bore, nursed, and raised. The court says I am an unfit mother because I now live with another woman.

I am the domestic-violence survivor who found the support system grow suddenly cold and distant when they found out my abusive partner is also a woman.

I am the domestic-violence survivor who has no support system to turn to because I am male.

I am the father who has never hugged his son because I grew up afraid to show affection to other men.

I am the home-economics teacher who always wanted to teach gym until someone told me that only lesbians do that.

I am the man who died when the paramedics stopped treating me as soon as they realized I was transsexual.

I am the person who feels guilty because I think I could be a much better person if I didn’t have to always deal with society hating me.

I am the man who stopped attending church, not because I don't believe, but because they closed their doors to my kind.

I am the person who has to hide what this world needs most, love.

Repost this if you believe that homophobia is wrong.

******************************

Live in love, and this world will be a better place.

posted in Chatterboxx - 6 replies

The Best of Amateur Singing on Youtube..

Bloke72 — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 12:00:39 GMT

I think she does a great job http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PszHAjkvqbc&NR=1

As do these woman - but gee, I wish the sound quality was better... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GA-_M1zJWic&NR=1

Anyone else got some links for us ?

posted in Chatterboxx - 4 replies

Vietnamese

Guy Montag — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 06:12:18 GMT

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-vietnamese24jan24,1,5097023.story
From the Los Angeles Times
A jolt in new Vietnam pact
Vietnamese American reaction to the accord allowing deportations to their homeland is conflicted, often bitter.
By My-Thuan Tran and Christopher Goffard

January 24, 2008

To U.S. officials, a new pact announced this week with Vietnam, allowing the government to deport illegal immigrants, was almost routine -- a straightforward matter of treating Vietnam like other nations.

But for many among the tens of thousands of immigrants in Orange County, the nation's largest Vietnamese population center, nothing about their homeland is routine. Tuesday's announcement of the long-negotiated pact has stirred sometimes-bitter debate within a community where loathing of Vietnam's communist government remains white hot.

"The Vietnamese have already been persecuted. I am afraid that sending those people back would give them another life sentence," said Loc Nam Nguyen, director of the Immigration and Refugee Department of Catholic Charities in Los Angeles.

Until now, most Vietnamese in the United States could not be deported back to Vietnam because many had left as refugees and Vietnam was unwilling to take them back. The repatriation pact, announced Tuesday after 10 years of negotiations, affects about 1,500 Vietnamese nationals -- many of them described by the U.S. government as people who were convicted of crimes in this country -- who arrived in the United States after July 12, 1995, when the two countries resumed diplomatic relations. The repatriations are scheduled to begin in two months.

In addition to these 1,500 people, another 6,200 Vietnamese nationals have received final deportation notices. However, because they arrived in the U.S. before 1995, they cannot be returned to Vietnam under the new pact. Instead, they face possible deportation to a third country, according to the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

In all, roughly 1.5 million Vietnamese Americans live in the United States, many clustered in enclaves in Orange County, San Jose and Houston.

The repatriation agreement underscores the growing economic and diplomatic ties between the United States and Vietnam, even as many Vietnamese immigrants here abjure personal and business ties with their home country.

The struggle of many Vietnamese to flee their homeland -- on rickety boats, in military plane convoys to Camp Pendleton -- remains the founding story of large immigrant enclaves. As a result, many reacted with anger or hesitation to the idea of returning any Vietnamese to communist control.

Lan Quoc Nguyen, an attorney who serves on the Garden Grove school board, said that after the agreement was announced he received frantic calls from members of the community who worried it might affect them.

"For those who go back to Mexico, they go back to their families and nothing happens to them," Nguyen said. "But for people who go back to Vietnam, it's a totally different ballgame. They will be discriminated against. They will be denied household registration and even identification papers because they cannot provide their background in the bureaucracy process. They will have a hard time finding jobs."

But the reaction was neither unanimous nor one-dimensional. Many Vietnamese immigrants are also strongly conservative. The conflict between anger at the communists and distaste for lawbreakers led to mixed feelings.

Lac Tan Nguyen, president of the Vietnamese American Community of Southern California, spent two years in a communist reeducation camp before fleeing on a raft in 1982 and detests the government in Hanoi, which he has denounced in dozens of protests. Yet he doesn't think lawbreakers deserve to stay in the U.S.

"I would like to give people a second chance to make corrections and redo their lives in the United States," he said. But "the people who don't respect the law have abused their freedom here."

A group of men drinking coffee Wednesday at the Asian Garden Mall in Westminster also said deporting criminals who violated U.S. laws was the right thing to do.

"It follows the law. There are thousands of good people who want to come here from Vietnam who can't," said Du Nguyen, 62, who came here in 1975.

"Returning criminals to Vietnam is better for society here," he said. "They make the society here dirty."

Minh Dang, 56, of Westminster, who arrived in 1989, believes political refugees should be allowed to stay but had little sympathy for criminals. "We pay taxes to take care of criminals in prisons here," he said. "If they are criminals they deserve to be sent back."

Reaction in Washington was swift. Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose) and 12 other lawmakers condemned the arrangement with Vietnam in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, demanding that the measure not be implemented until Congress approves it.

Lofgren, who represents the congressional district with the highest number of Vietnamese Americans, cited Vietnam's "extensive and continuing record of human rights violations," saying in the letter that "it is appalling and unbelievable that this administration would even consider returning those who escaped communism back to the clutches of the very communists that they escaped."

In recent years, the State Department has described the human rights situation in Vietnam as "unsatisfactory" and detailed a litany of violations, including limits on free speech and the denial of swift trials. Other groups, such as Amnesty International and the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, have also documented human rights violations in Vietnam.

But advocates for greater immigration controls applauded the repatriation memo. "The mistake was normalizing relations with Vietnam a decade ago without such a memorandum of understanding," said Mark Krikorian, director of the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies. He dismissed concerns about Vietnam's human rights record.

"There are a lot of bad countries in the world, but it ain't Auschwitz," he said, describing it instead as "authoritarian."

Charlie Manh, a lawyer from Westminster, expressed concern that the pact would target those who overstayed their visitor or work visas, or those who came here legally and committed crimes but have rebuilt their lives.

"If you look into the real details, some don't deserve to be deported," Manh said. "For those with extreme hardship and the fact that they don't have any more family members over there, the law should have exceptions for them not to be deported."

In 2002, the U.S. and Cambodia signed an agreement for the deportation of Cambodian nationals who were convicted of aggravated felonies.

Assemblyman Van Tran (R-Garden Grove) said he feared deportees could be harassed or intimidated in Vietnam.

"There has to be stringent oversight to ensure that the people are not politically persecuted when they go back to Vietnam," he said. "There are very legitimate concerns, given Vietnam is still a one-party totalitarian state."

posted in Chatterboxx - 6 replies

get with the dugh dudes!

John — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 08:35:57 GMT

apparently one can make both yoghurt and dugh easily at home. And different places in the mideast and central asia serve different variants of dugh. for instance i tried turkish dugh in mountain view, in silicon valley, and it had no soda it in like some Persian dugh does. anyways, i like the persian version better. have i made some enemies ;-?

http://www.chow.com/recipes/11074
http://www.dvo.com/recipe_pages/grilln/Persian_Yogurt_Drink_-_Dugh.html

http://www.allfreecrafts.com/giftinajar/homemade-yogurt.shtml
http://www.nandyala.org/mahanandi/archives/2005/06/23/home-made-yogurt/
http://homecooking.about.com/library/weekly/aa031102b.htm

this is interesting: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doogh

posted in Chatterboxx - 2 replies

LOL

Guy Montag — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 05:24:21 GMT

http://youtube.com/watch?v=JCbKv9yiLiQ

http://partyvan.info/index.php/Project_Chanology

http://theunfunnytruth.ytmnd.com/

posted in Chatterboxx - 2 replies

... about 20 years ago!

Guy Montag — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 04:57:45 GMT

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ItboLOq0zII

posted in Chatterboxx - 1 reply

Benazir Bhutto

Krista Iman — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 17:16:57 GMT

Ok...so this is one of the *serious* threads for Chatterboxx.

Of course I am sure most of you have been hearing non-stop coverage on the assassination of Bhutto.

I don't feel like participating in any of the political tribes on this subject. Well, I hardly ever do anyway.

What are some of your thoughts on this subject and on Pakistan's elections? Do you think Bhutto was corrupt or do you think she could have been a positive leader for Pakistan? What about Musharraf, etc. etc.

posted in Chatterboxx - 10 replies

It's almost English when dictionary does Australish

feiruz_al-bnefsagia — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 20:19:01 GMT

From Reuters: www.reuters.com/article/oddl...3973920080110
By Rob Taylor

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Contemplating a New Year tattoo in that fashionable area above the buttocks? To help you along, Australians have given them a not-so-fashionable name: "arse antlers." Want a suntan as well? You could have "tanorexia."

These are just some of the words the country's biggest online dictionary is asking people to vote for as word of the year for its latest annual update.

A "butt bra" raises the profile of the buttocks to go with your arse antlers, while "manscaping" refers to removal of body hair for men, sometimes tied to the female preoccupation with the "lady garden," or pubic zone.

"Tanorexia" refers to an obsession with a suntan, while a "salad dodger" is an obese person.

Other nominations for the Macquarie Dictionary Online include "infomania," for those who constantly put aside the job at hand to concentrate on incoming email and text messages. "Password fatigue" is frustration from having too many passwords to recall.

Casting aside the personal, someone who spreads their clothes around the house, clean or otherwise, is said to be treating the room as a "floordrobe."

Or if the global credit crunch is hitting home, you may be tempted into becoming a "credit card tart," or someone who shifts loans around from one credit card to pay for another.

In business, the "glass cliff" refers to people placed in jobs with high risk of failure because they belong to a group not well represented in leadership positions, such as women.

Even geopolitics gets a mention, with "Chindia" joining China and India, at least in Australish English, in terms of their fast growing strategic and economic clout in the world.

The "Great Firewall of China" noun refers to the block preventing Chinese internet users from accessing online sites deemed undesirable by the Chinese government. To get around it may take a "cyberathlete," or professional computer game player.

Susan Butler, the dictionary's publisher, said environmental themes were hot this year in a time of global warming, with "climate canary" referring to a geographical feature, plant or animal species pointing to climate change.

"Toad juice" refers to a liquid fertilizer produced in Australia from pulverized cane toads, an introduced environmental pest marching its way across the continent.

To vote for their favorite word, Butler said people should visit macquariedictionary.com.au. Voting closes on January 31. (Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)

posted in Chatterboxx - 2 replies

Just Me!

Salihah — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 19:17:03 GMT

I imagine you'll have been terribly wretched to each other while I've been gone. ; ) Missed you all so much. Been offline with tribe, blogging, all that for months!

So I heard that Charles and Leanna kissed and made up? Sorry it got ugly for a bit. I would've smacked all the evil people upside the head. But alas, I am a horrid moderator!

Hope all is with everyone and Happy New Year!

posted in Chatterboxx - 7 replies

Check out the new mod!

Salihah — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 16:12:39 GMT

I hear she is a hottie!

Welcome and congratulations to Krista (Iman) for taking over the position of moderator. Since she's my twin sister, it will be just like me, only better.

I started Chatterboxx probably a year ago now...it's turned into quite the cute little monster. Much love to you all!

I'll be around in the other two tribes I moderate, and maybe here and there otherwise, just not online much anymore. Those that want to keep in touch, drop me a msg and I'll shoot you my email.

Happy New Year!

posted in Chatterboxx - 4 replies

Nasrin Alavi's WE ARE IRAN: The Persian blogs?

John — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 06:41:13 GMT

Anyone read this collection of young Persian bloggers in a book? It looked really interesting so I forked out the $'s for it. I was in the history section my local bookstore, spinning my wheels waiting on a book pickup. I considered a very large book on the history of Zionism and decided I am tired of Israel/Palestine. So I jumped eastwards.

I am looking forward to reading it, especially since it appears CheneyCo are not going to get their lusted after destruction of Iran. There may still exist a country and people to visit when I get around to traveling there. Until then, the book.

posted in Chatterboxx - 10 replies

Interesting story from Tehran.

Guy Montag — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 16:48:31 GMT

Redesigning two women's lives

Summary:
Sudaveh, left, with one of her employees, lost her job after the Iranian revolution and started her own factory. As a businesswoman, she faced extra scrutiny from the newly formed morality police, one of the obstacles her assistant, Zarir, helped her negotiate.
The two Iranians were of opposite worlds, one secular and rich, the other pious and poor. In post-revolutionary Tehran, they built a friendship and a business.

By Borzou Daragahi, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
December 8, 2007
TEHRAN — A wealthy, fashionable woman from north Tehran, Sudaveh had no idea how to act when the morality police would show up at her clothing factory in the first years of the Iranian revolution.

Zarir, her young assistant from the pious slums of south Tehran, knew exactly what to do. "Don't go in there!" Zarir would tell the men as Sudaveh rushed to cover up in adherence to strict Islamic dress codes. "Madame doesn't like to be disturbed during her prayers."

Or, "Don't look inside that drawer" where the well-traveled Sudaveh kept foreign design catalogs that would be deemed risque. "She might have pictures of herself without her head scarf!"

While Zarir helped Sudaveh navigate the intricacies of the Islamic Republic,Sudaveh helped Zarir transform herself from a homebound victim of domestic violence to a businesswoman who stood up to her ex-husband and strict traditional family.

Over nearly two decades, the two women from two different Irans became friends. The threads of their lives became interwoven. The fabric of their nation changed. Their clothing business grew into a small empire.

"This is a place where I got to know them," Sudaveh said, referring to Iran's religious poor, "and they got to know us."

After the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran turned inside out. Streets, once bustling with prostitutes and drunken revelers, became as somber as mosques during afternoon prayers. Homes, once refuges from the revelry and decadence of the city, became impromptu bars and nightclubs.

The revolution also upended Iran's once-inflexible class system. Wealthy families lost status and income, and many moved abroad. Pious and poor families made their way up the social ladder. Economic realities sent women into the workforce.

In this transformed world, Sudaveh and Zarir came together.

Before the revolution, Sudaveh worked as a deputy to the head of Iran's state-owned Agricultural Bank, an elite post she got through connections and a family background that bordered on the aristocratic. But like many of her class, she was pushed out of her job.

A restless and wiry woman then in her mid-30s, she began going through her options. She wanted to earn money for her family, stay busy and keep her distance from the newly empowered class of pious bureaucrats who enforced Islamic codes of behavior.

"I wasn't the type to sit home," she said. "I had to work."

She decided to get into the clothing business, specifically children's outfits, to avoid the troubles that accompany anything to do with women's fashion in Iran.

She sketched T-shirt designs, had them produced cheaply at workshops in downtown Tehran and, along with a friend named Haleh, canvassed vendors.

"My husband considered it a game," said Sudaveh, who asked that neither their last names nor the name of her company be published for fear of jeopardizing the firm and its workers. "He used to make fun of me."

She ran into numerous hassles in the male-dominated business.

"At first, work was very hard," she said. "The stores would try to rip us off. They thought I was some simple rich woman whose husband is letting her doing this to keep her busy. I had to show that they couldn't rip me off, that I knew what I was doing."

Her business grew, and Sudaveh took a chance. She bought some equipment, hired a few workers and began producing the clothes herself. At the time, it was rare for a woman to run a factory, and it immediately aroused the suspicion of the morality police. They started making visits.

The Islamic Republic's restrictions on dress and social behavior barely affected Zarir's south Tehran neighborhood during the 1980s, when almost all women wore black chadors covering everything but their faces and hands, and parents arranged weddings for their children.

Zarir came from a strictly religious family, and even during the secular rule of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, she was sent to an Islamic school in south Tehran.

At 16, she was married off. Her husband was abusive and divorced her; he won custody of their two children six years later. The divorce was a mark of shame for her and her family. To make matters worse, her former husband refused to let her see her son and daughter.

With no means to look after herself, she persuaded her conservative father to let her look for a job. That's when she met Sudaveh. It was the late 1980s.

"When I came here, I was in a really bad state," said Zarir, now in her early 40s and manager of the workshop. She is the physical opposite of Sudaveh, beefy arms, round cheeks and a booming voice that rises above the workshop's rumble and clatter.

Her reluctant father was impressed with Sudaveh and agreed to let Zarir work at the factory as long as she stayed upstairs and did not go downstairs where the men worked.

Sudaveh soon discovered her new employee's hidden talents.

"Because she understood these religious people, when they came here and I was terrified she would step forward to answer," Sudaveh said.

She'd lost her business partner, Haleh, after a run-in with the morality police. They had stormed in and found a clothing catalog with photographs of women wearing bikinis in a desk drawer; Haleh was locked up in prison with junkies and armed robbers. She left Iran soon afterward.

"You have to answer them quickly," Zarir said. "If they ask, 'Why are you wearing makeup?' You say, 'I don't wear makeup for men; I wear it for women.' If they say, 'Your socks are too thin,' you say, 'But my hijab is long.' "

Once an official from the morality police, formally called the Office of Public Places, came in and began quizzing her about her boss, asking whether she mistreated her employees. "No," Zarir says she told him, "but she's a little prickly. She doesn't like any noise when she's praying."

Sudaveh, who favors tight designer jeans and open-toe high-heel pumps, found the help indispensable.

"I didn't even know how to wear my hijab," she said. "I had no one in my family teach me how. Not even my grandmother wore hijab."

After Sudaveh learned of her employee's tale of heartbreak, she gave her some sophisticated uptown advice: discreetly befriend her ex-husband's new wife, and offer to take care of the children now and then.

It worked. Soon Zarir and the second wife were conspiring, getting her the time with her children that had been denied by their father and the Islamic courts.

When the second wife became gravely ill, she entrusted both women's children to Zarir while the husband was at work.

"It was a great lesson for me," she said. "I learned to get what I needed."

Zarir became impressed with Sudaveh's social skills. Although conservatives derided people from her class as Western stooges, Zarir found her boss' world attractive. "I've never seen a man treat a woman from their family the way my husband treated me," she said.

Sudaveh hired more women, who now total 12 of her 40 employees. But she was frustrated by their refusal to interact with her male workers. They wouldn't even look at the men and shrieked if they came close to touching. If a woman wanted to hand some needlework she'd done to a man assembling shirts, she'd find Sudaveh to do it.

"It was hurting the bottom line," Sudaveh said. "A group effort means a group."

One day some years ago, she gathered all the women working in the factory's upstairs rooms. "I said, 'I want to send you downstairs.' "

She led them down the steps. "I said, 'You won't put your head down. You'll raise your head and look at the men in the eyes.' "

The next day, she made them do the same thing, and then again the day after that. Within a few months, an easy informality set in. The men and women began addressing each other by their first names as they worked side by side.

The men were forced to behave themselves, curb their language and keep their work spaces clean. One employee livened up the workshop by bringing in parakeets. They chirp as Iranian pop music plays in the background.

"Now they're so normal with each other, it's like nothing," said Sudaveh, crossing her legs and smiling with satisfaction. "No one quit. They got used to it."

As the years went by, Iranian society continued to change. People began moving from villages and farms to big cities such as Tehran, Tabriz and Mashhad, and cramming into tiny apartments.

Couples had fewer children, two or three instead of the six or seven common at the beginning of the revolution, according to the United Nations.

Parents doted on their children, and high-end clothes for them became a lucrative business.

Seven years ago, Sudaveh opened her own shop, with her own brand.

"Most store owners know nothing about products, or fashion," she said.

It did well, and she opened another store.

Sudaveh's daughter Ghazaleh finished her studies at the university and began working for her mother. She hired a software programmer to set up a computer inventory system, putting bar codes on every outfit, giving the company production and tracking capability.

The business that Sudaveh's husband once viewed as a lark has expanded to about a dozen stores nationwide, generating millions of dollars in annual revenue. Sudaveh bought a condominium in Toronto. Zarir put her daughter through college.

The morality police still come around, though they are more a nuisance these days than a threat; they will shutter shops -- but temporarily -- when a saleswoman doesn't comply with Islamic dress codes.

Recently, Zarir's father fell ill and was in a hospital. She went to visit him, sitting by his bed. A business associate came in, and he introduced her.

"This is my daughter, the one who works," he said with pride, and Zarir realized how far they'd come.

---------

The story's photo gallery is worth a perusal. :) She has an army of men working for her.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-twowomen8dec08,0,3972845.story?coll=la-home-center

posted in Chatterboxx - 25 replies

Sound Familiar Out Fox "News"

LouAnna — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 04:11:05 GMT

https://civ.moveon.org/donatec4/foxattacksiran.html/?rc=fox_attacks_iran_frontpage&r=2916

posted in Chatterboxx - 4 replies

Naughty Santa !

Bloke72 — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 05:59:17 GMT

Naughty Santa !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTHzSVigiXA

posted in Chatterboxx - 2 replies

Terry Pratchett

feiruz_al-bnefsagia — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 15:48:22 GMT

FYI

http://www.paulkidby.com/news/index.html

:(

posted in Chatterboxx - 0 replies

Maria do Carmo Miranda da Cunha

Guy Montag — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 07:33:00 GMT

Birth Name: Maria do Carmo Miranda da Cunha
Name Change: Carmen Miranda
Nickname: "The Brazilian Bombshell," "Pequena Notavel" ("Little Prodigy")

Birth date: February 9, 1909
Place of birth: Marco de Canavezes, Portugal
Death date: August 5, 1955
Place of death: Beverly Hills, California, USA
Burial location: Sao Joao Batista Cemetery, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Height: 5 feet
Weight: Between 105 - 123 lbs.
Hair color: Black
Eye color: Green
Nationality: Portuguese
Occupation: Actress, Singer

Did you know?

Maria do Carmo received the nickname Carmen because of Carmen, the opera from Bizet.

Carmen Miranda moved with her parents to Brazil when she was just 10 months old.

Carmen's platforms were up to 7.08 inches high.

1939 was the year that Carmen revolutionized New York. It was her debut which made her the Brazilian Bombshell.

In 1998, forty-three years after Carmen Miranda's death, the intersection of Hollywood Boulevard and Orange Drive was named Carmen Miranda Square.

Carmen Miranda was the first South American artist with hands, feet and signature in the Hall of Fame (Grauman's Chinese Theatre Forecourt).

Carmen performed in countries such as Italy, Belgium, Denmark, Finland and Norway, but never in her homeland Portugal.

In 1946 Carmen was the actress who paid the highest income tax in the USA.

Carmen had a yellow mark on her left eye and preferred to be photographed on that side, that way the mark did not appear.

Source:
http://www.carmenmiranda.net/about/facts.htm

posted in Chatterboxx - 5 replies

"Old Folks"

Bloke72 — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 13:43:09 GMT

I have a lot of older friends. Being 35, it is probably unusual that I like spending time and have some true and close friendships with folk in their 60's, 70’s and 80’s

Western society seems to devalue and dismiss the “elderly” – what’s peoples thoughts on this and their experience of friendships with older people ?

posted in Chatterboxx - 16 replies

How are the MIA Chatterboxes?

Bloke72 — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 13:13:59 GMT

Been a little more quiet around here than it once was

Where have the chatterboxes been and how are they doing ????

Are we still living up to the name of this tribe ???

posted in Chatterboxx - 49 replies

Oh dear..

Bloke72 — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 05:28:17 GMT

http://damngoodvideos.com/?p=40

posted in Chatterboxx - 12 replies

The history of "Sesame Street" and did the original Cookie Monster have substance abuse problem?

Guy Montag — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 04:17:52 GMT

November 18, 2007
NY TIMES
Sweeping the Clouds Away
By VIRGINIA HEFFERNAN

Sunny days! The earliest episodes of “Sesame Street” are available on digital video! Break out some Keebler products, fire up the DVD player and prepare for the exquisite pleasure-pain of top-shelf nostalgia.

Just don’t bring the children. According to an earnest warning on Volumes 1 and 2, “Sesame Street: Old School” is adults-only: “These early ‘Sesame Street’ episodes are intended for grown-ups, and may not suit the needs of today’s preschool child.”

Say what? At a recent all-ages home screening, a hush fell over the room. “What did they do to us?” asked one Gen-X mother of two, finally. The show rolled, and the sweet trauma came flooding back. What they did to us was hard-core. Man, was that scene rough. The masonry on the dingy brownstone at 123 Sesame Street, where the closeted Ernie and Bert shared a dismal basement apartment, was deteriorating. Cookie Monster was on a fast track to diabetes. Oscar’s depression was untreated. Prozacky Elmo didn’t exist.

Nothing in the children’s entertainment of today, candy-colored animation hopped up on computer tricks, can prepare young or old for this frightening glimpse of simpler times. Back then — as on the very first episode, which aired on PBS Nov. 10, 1969 — a pretty, lonely girl like Sally might find herself befriended by an older male stranger who held her hand and took her home. Granted, Gordon just wanted Sally to meet his wife and have some milk and cookies, but . . . well, he could have wanted anything. As it was, he fed her milk and cookies. The milk looks dangerously whole.

Live-action cows also charge the 1969 screen — cows eating common grass, not grain improved with hormones. Cows are milked by plain old farmers, who use their unsanitary hands and fill one bucket at a time. Elsewhere, two brothers risk concussion while whaling on each other with allergenic feather pillows. Overweight layabouts, lacking touch-screen iPods and headphones, jockey for airtime with their deafening transistor radios. And one of those radios plays a late-’60s news report — something about a “senior American official” and “two billion in credit over the next five years” — that conjures a bleak economic climate, with war debt and stagflation in the offing.

The old “Sesame Street” is not for the faint of heart, and certainly not for softies born since 1998, when the chipper “Elmo’s World” started. Anyone who considers bull markets normal, extracurricular activities sacrosanct and New York a tidy, governable place — well, the original “Sesame Street” might hurt your feelings.

I asked Carol-Lynn Parente, the executive producer of “Sesame Street,” how exactly the first episodes were unsuitable for toddlers in 2007. She told me about Alistair Cookie and the parody “Monsterpiece Theater.” Alistair Cookie, played by Cookie Monster, used to appear with a pipe, which he later gobbled. According to Parente, “That modeled the wrong behavior” — smoking, eating pipes — “so we reshot those scenes without the pipe, and then we dropped the parody altogether.”

Which brought Parente to a feature of “Sesame Street” that had not been reconstructed: the chronically mood-disordered Oscar the Grouch. On the first episode, Oscar seems irredeemably miserable — hypersensitive, sarcastic, misanthropic. (Bert, too, is described as grouchy; none of the characters, in fact, is especially sunshiney except maybe Ernie, who also seems slow.) “We might not be able to create a character like Oscar now,” she said.

Snuffleupagus is visible only to Big Bird; since 1985, all the characters can see him, as Big Bird’s old protestations that he was not hallucinating came to seem a little creepy, not to mention somewhat strained. As for Cookie Monster, he can be seen in the old-school episodes in his former inglorious incarnation: a blue, googly-eyed cookievore with a signature gobble (“om nom nom nom”). Originally designed by Jim Henson for use in commercials for General Foods International and Frito-Lay, Cookie Monster was never a righteous figure. His controversial conversion to a more diverse diet wouldn’t come until 2005, and in the early seasons he comes across a Child’s First Addict.

The biggest surprise of the early episodes is the rural — agrarian, even — sequences. Episode 1 spends a stoned time warp in the company of backlighted cows, while they mill around and chew cud. This pastoral scene rolls to an industrial voiceover explaining dairy farms, and the sleepy chords of Joe Raposo’s aimless masterpiece, “Hey Cow, I See You Now.” Chewing the grass so green/Making the milk/Waiting for milking time/Waiting for giving time/Mmmmm.

Oh, what’s that? Right, the trance of early “Sesame Street” and its country-time sequences. In spite of the show’s devotion to its “target child,” the “4-year-old inner-city black youngster” (as The New York Times explained in 1979), the first episodes join kids cavorting in amber waves of grain — black children, mostly, who must be pressed into service as the face of America’s farms uniquely on “Sesame Street.”

In East Harlem and Bedford-Stuyvesant in 1978, 95 percent of households with kids ages 2 to 5 watched “Sesame Street.” The figure was even higher in Washington. Nationwide, though, the number wasn’t much lower, and was largely determined by the whims of the PBS affiliates: 80 percent in houses with young children. The so-called inner city became anywhere that “Sesame Street” played, because the Children’s Television Workshop declared the inner city not a grim sociological reality but a full-color fantasy — an eccentric scene, framed by a box and far removed from real farmland and city streets alike.

The concept of the “inner city” — or “slums,” as The Times bluntly put it in its first review of “Sesame Street” — was therefore transformed into a kind of Xanadu on the show: a bright, no-clouds, clear-air place where people bopped around with monsters and didn’t worry too much about money, cleanliness or projecting false cheer. The Upper West Side, hardly a burned-out ghetto, was said to be the model.

People on “Sesame Street” had limited possibilities and fixed identities, and (the best part) you weren’t expected to change much. The harshness of existence was a given, and no one was proposing that numbers and letters would lead you “out” of your inner city to Elysian suburbs. Instead, “Sesame Street” suggested that learning might merely make our days more bearable, more interesting, funnier. It encouraged us, above all, to be nice to our neighbors and to cultivate the safer pleasures that take the edge off — taking baths, eating cookies, reading. Don’t tell the kids.

Points of Entry

Caveat teletor: Volumes 1 and 2 of “Sesame Street: Old School” are available on DVD, which you can sample and buy on Sesameworkshop.org. With a few episodes, extras and celebrity appearances by the likes of Richard Pryor and Lou Rawls, “Old School” sounds harmless enough. But are you ready to mainline this much ’70s nostalgia?

The Way Old: YouTube is great for performance art. If 1969 is not far back enough for you, how’s 1935? The Oscar-winning short film “How to Sleep,” by the Algonquin Round-Tabler Robert Benchley, can be found here in sumptuous black-and-white; search for his name and the film’s title on YouTube.

Come of Age: Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick, the men of “My So-Called Life” and “thirtysomething,” have at last introduced their online-only young-adult series, “Quarterlife.” It started Nov. 11 on MySpaceTV.com, and it marks the first time a network-quality series — a long indie film, really — has been produced directly for the Internet. If the old times unnerve you, welcome to the new times.
--------

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/18/magazine/18wwln-medium-t.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2

posted in Chatterboxx - 39 replies

Australian Election.

Guy Montag — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 20:17:58 GMT

Because we need to know all about it.

THANKS!

posted in Chatterboxx - 6 replies

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone...

Leanna — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 10:03:36 GMT

May it be filled with, your favorite foods, people you love, and thanks : D...

posted in Chatterboxx - 12 replies

Iqbal

Guy Montag — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 02:02:09 GMT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvBd_F-Fn3w&eurl=http://apps.facebook.com/superwall/view.php?id=133412866&owner_id=519096206

posted in Chatterboxx - 2 replies

Chatterboxx Ceasefire!

Krista Iman — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 07:44:39 GMT

Ok...you guys.

Salihah is not able to be online much these days so I told her I would keep an eye on the tribes she moderates.

I probably have been ignoring things for too long hoping that things would get solved on their own but....

I think we all are getting too involved in this last thread (Personal Attacks thread, sorry...I am blanking on the exact title). I don't want there to be a big fight here you all are great guys. So...let's all back off on this.

There are obviously a lot of different points of views, opinions, etc. on everything on this tribe. One of the things I like the best about Chatterboxx is that we don't always have to be exactly PC. I think most of the time, we can understand that the jokes, teasing, etc. are in good nature and not intended to be harmful but sometimes it doesn't work out that way and feelings get hurt on both sides.

So let's skip any references or comments regarding a person's race, religion, sexuality, handicap or political view unless you are sure it is fine by that person to have a discussion along those lines.

Group hug everybody??

posted in Chatterboxx - 14 replies

Who has been harassed because of personal choices, or personality type?

Leanna — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 07:31:59 GMT

I'm interested to know who in the group has been harassed/"teased" because of personal choices or personality type... Or, has seen it happen, and what was your reaction to it...

posted in Chatterboxx - 49 replies

Do you ever get the feeling you are being watched?

meliaarhrt — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 05:57:34 GMT

I know... it's just general paranoia... but why does the feeling ebb and flow? If I was just paranoid, wouldn't I feel that way all the time? I even know that before when I thought I was being watched by a specific person, I was not- I was wrong. So my observations are not necessarily to be relied upon.

But now there are two different authorities who would have the motivation to keep tabs on me. I've reopened my workers comp case because I am tired of being treated by a pschiatrist when what I need is an orthopedist or neurologist. So sue me. And they are. The other entity could be those who popped my friend who sits in MCJ. No one can figure out why Marin county ran the sting anyway-- it's totally out of character, and not at all politically correct in that particular county. If I believed that the spirits of the dead could influence our lives, I'd say it was my mother!

... but I don't... at least, I don't think I do...
Mom? Is that you?

posted in Chatterboxx - 18 replies

Bunnies acting... in 30 seconds. :)

Guy Montag — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 06:26:49 GMT

www.angryalien.com/

posted in Chatterboxx - 15 replies

A museum (snicker)

Guy Montag — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 05:16:05 GMT

http://www.phallus.is/

posted in Chatterboxx - 33 replies

Feed the hungry by playing a game!

Guy Montag — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 03:21:22 GMT

http://www.freerice.com/index.php

posted in Chatterboxx - 18 replies

Check these threads :)

Bloke72 — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 01:11:12 GMT

http://15minutelunch.blogspot.com/2007/10/strap-in-shut-up-and-hold-on-were-going.html

posted in Chatterboxx - 8 replies

international game of telephone, anyone?

chillyfreezesteak — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 21:45:47 GMT

Or, what is "lost in translation":

http://tashian.com/multibabel/

Phrase: Man, I really need to be working"
Babelized: "The team of the employees, remarkable people of the mines really of the interests of this work is he"

It didn't deal with "taş var köpek yok" too well =(

posted in Chatterboxx - 41 replies

Aretha F'in' Franklin is the BOMB!

Guy Montag — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 05:51:44 GMT

http://youtube.com/watch?v=OAa8vwmeewU

http://youtube.com/watch?v=STKkWj2WpWM&mode=related&search=

http://youtube.com/watch?v=_DBl5gAs6WI&mode=related&search=

posted in Chatterboxx - 9 replies

Arabic ?

da Sage — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 09:58:22 GMT

Does Banat al Kamal mean anything in Arabic? And if so, what?

posted in Chatterboxx - 15 replies

It's meditation time!

Guy Montag — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 04:24:04 GMT

http://home.comcast.net/~hytaipan/media/serenity2.html

posted in Chatterboxx - 3 replies

Chatterboxx Trivia ! ...! , (Bloke...!)

meliaarhrt — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 02:14:13 GMT

What is the most distinct characteristic of your town- that you'd rather it didn't have, but that you would clearly remember if you went to the ends of the Earth?

Mine is COW MANURE!

Every fall the pasture has to get fertilized-- I guess, since I am a city girl, through and through. There are many dairy farms between here and the coast, and the prevaling winds waft that rich aroma into every crevice of my house. Oh, for some city exhaust... at least I can still eat when I smell fossil fuel burning.

But then again, there is half-and-half, which I couldn't start the day without...
8)

posted in Chatterboxx - 13 replies

Public Transit Stories

Krista Iman — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 10:56:07 GMT

Ok, I have a feeling there was a thread along this line before but...let's start one here anyway.

Anybody have some good / funny stories to share about their experiences on public transportation?

Here is my latest that happened yesterday....

I was on my way home from meeting some friends in Kadikoy to shop. It was around 430pm when I got on the train so of course it was crowded with people headed home after work. I ended up standing near the doors holding onto the railing of the seat next to me. Anyway, at one of the stops, this middle aged nicely dressed man got on and stood next to me but facing me as he held onto those...ceiling holding thingies?

This *gentleman* proceeded to dig very seriously for buried treasure in his noses. Working intently on one nostril at a time, pulling out the finger to examine the contents before putting said finger back in. Switching over to the other nostril and working that one then back to the other. I kid you not. It was so revolting, the kind where you don't want to look but you can't stop yourself from sneaking peeks. I was text messaging my friends that I had just left to share the episode and hoping the guy didn't know english if he happened to look over.

He calmly got off the train a few stops later and left those of us around him to look at each other awkwardly with stifled giggles.

Yeah, public transit can be lovely.

posted in Chatterboxx - 4 replies

a recommendation

raz — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 08:55:20 GMT

go download the new radiohead
you can get it for any price, or free, and its totally legal

www.radiohead.com
www.inrainbows.com

this is what im doing for three days
listening to radiohead
have a nice weekend!
r

posted in Chatterboxx - 3 replies

Does your box chatter? (Or what's up with vaginal flatulence?!)

Guy Montag — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 10:40:20 GMT

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaginal_flatulence

posted in Chatterboxx - 17 replies

Alzheimer's Eye Test

Krista Iman — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 10:42:03 GMT

I got this as part of an email from my aunt. Try this out. If you already know this one, don't spoil the fun for the rest of us. I will post the answer soon. ;)

ALZHEIMERS' EYE TEST

Count every " F " in the following text:

FINISHED FILES ARE THE RE

SULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTI

FIC STUDY COMBINED WITH

THE EXPERIENCE OF YEARS...

posted in Chatterboxx - 15 replies

AWOL

Salihah — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 18:14:05 GMT

I could say that I got abducted by aliens, or that some members here formed a coup d’État against me and I had to seek political asylum in another tribe..maybe both or a little inbetween or nothing related at all. Anyhoo, as the Minnesotans say, I was MIA for awhile and probably will be for awhile. You know that thing, what's it called again.. life, that's it, sigh. It's got me off the computer and into action, lol!

Not that anyone seemed to miss me AT ALL! Shame on you. I declare this day in the Realm of Chatterboxx, "Honor Thy Moderator Day"... you can all send me gifts and offerings now.

; )

Heehee!

posted in Chatterboxx - 13 replies

incredible news!

raz — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 21:44:15 GMT

i dont wanna be misunderstood
so i wount write anything,
imm to otir ed
^so
where is me
?

the ca
t
and banana$
my testexamss are toooo cloes together enough
so dont write mch
but love to you all
giggitti-giggitti-goo

posted in Chatterboxx - 5 replies

..and they make it look easy !

chillyfreezesteak — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 02:37:26 GMT

http://www.youtube.com/user/sarascratch

They have the "talking" part down; I can almost hear the Japanese from the kid without the hat..

posted in Chatterboxx - 1 reply

JESUS CHRIST+JESU KRISTE+YESHUA HAMASHIACH+JESUS CHRISTUS+JESU KRISTU+ISOUS HRISTOS

Sun, 23 Sep 2007 07:33:14 GMT

JESUS CHRIST+JESU KRISTE+YESHUA HAMASHIACH+JESUS CHRISTUS+JESU KRISTU+ISOUS HRISTOS

Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophesy and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near. REVELATION 1:3

And I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy one thousand two hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth." REVELATION 11:3

He who testifies to these things says, " Surely I am coming quickly." Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus! The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. REVELATION 22:20-21

+++

Everyone, has the responsibility to find the truth for themselves. What is stated below, must be researched and verified, so that every individual can then decide to accept, or discard it as myth. The only truth is God the Father, the Son our Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. Read the Bible, pray to the Holy Spirit for guidance and our Lord Jesus Christ will not abandon you, but will place the truth in your heart.

+++

We must not try to copy the world, but be different to it, as the example set by our Teacher, our Lord Jesus Christ. Being the same as the world, sharing its base values, being part of the fashion trends, is all part of Satan's system (Sex changes that are taking place ever more frequently and therefore not knowing anymore who is a man or a woman). The Pope of Rome is one of Satan's instruments (the Papists have immense power and wealth, our Lord Jesus Christ was humble and owned nothing). Talmudists/Zionists want to rebuild Solomon's Temple and proclaim their own false king of the world (there is only one King of the Jews and Orthodox Christians and that is our Lord Jesus Christ). Their power base is the U.S.A (Superpower of the world). They contol many governments, banks, newspapers, television stations (the media in general), etc. We must not forget the very elusive and cunning Masonic Lodges which form part of Satan's means to spread anti-Christian and heretic information. Television and video has been one of the most powerful tools of Satan, which has ruined the ethics which sustained our youth and the family unit. With pornography in all its forms, men have been misled and subsequently their women, a whole generation of our youth and their families have been devoured by Satan. We have forgotten about God, the Bible and prayer and have allowed ourselves to go down the road to hell and have fallen into Satan's trap (in other words we are slaves to flesh and our desires). Hedonism is the aim of humanity.

The group that is attempting to rule the world, consists of three member countries, U.S.A, Europe and Japan (3 presidents). Their central control, consists of 32 members (of the 29, 8 are Americans; 9 from Japan; 12 from the European Union (contolled from Belgium/Luxembourg). Head of the 3 member group is Rockefeller (his head quaters is in Rhodes, Greece; his specific influence is in the U.S.A and E.U). Whoever does not obey the orders of this group are murdered. Death is the penalty for disobedience. Another Satanic "club" is called, Bildeberg. They can destroy any government and put a new one together again. They can make a country vanish and create a new one too. 200 members, which include intelligence agencies (CIA; BIA; BND (Ger.); SIB (Ital.); SPELA (Fra.)). There are members who are involved with NATO and hold important positions in the US administration, etc. They hold an extremely harsh stance against the East, especially with Russia because of its Christian Orthodox heritage. They exterminate/demolish any opposition.

An enemy going back thousands of years is head quatered in China (the Himalayas/Tibet). The Seljuks come from that region, who are the ancestors of the Turks, who attacked and oppressed Christian Orthodoxy in Asia Minor and Greece. The Turks/Jews have tried many times to wipe out the Greeks and Christian Orthodoxy. They call the Greeks and Christian Orthodoxy, the people of the "Blue Trigramaton" (which is refering to the Holy Light that emenates from our Lord Jesus Christ's tomb). The roots of martial arts is that region spoken of above. Martial arts are Satanic and anti-Christian and yet has our youth spellbound under the innocent guise of sport/fitness. In the Himalayas there is a glass pyramid (Sambala), it has many entrances. This is where the White Brotherhood is based. It's aim is to destroy all the world's religions except its own. It has more power than the U.S.A. It has more resources at its disposal than all the governments in the world. It has infiltrated and controls many governments and religions (Roman Catholics, Protestants and Judaism). The First and Second World Wars were masterminded by them. They are going to start the Third World War too. The White Brotherhood works with the Bildeberg club and all the others. They are assisted by the Zionists. They created Hitler and introduced the Swastika (broken cross, that is what it means). Hirohito of Japan was responsible for a massive bloodbath, but he was not punished like the others, after the Second World War because he was a member of the world ruling 3 member group mentioned above. Grey Wolves (Turkish Muslims), are connected to the White Brotherhood. Only Grey Wolves members may rule Turkey. They must always mantain a harsh stance against Greece/Christian Orthodoxy (Turgut Ozal, was exterminated for his softer stance).

The White Brotherhood want to destroy the followers of Jesus Christ. They call His followers, bipods or two-legged ones. Their methods are many: thirst, hunger on a worldwide scale. All plants and forests must be destroyed. Wars, so as to ensure maximum slaughter. They refer to humanity as a chicken breeding farm. They destroy humanity with drugs; they have contaminated our drinking water (it has been doctored with medication); our food is also contaminated and our clothes too from the fancy washing powders that we use (that is why everyone is getting ill and they don't know why). Thirst on a worldwide scale, for eg.. Euphrates to be dried up because of Turkey, which will lead to a confrontation with Iran/Syria. Hunger, for eg., Russia was the world's wheat provider, even the U.S.A relied on her. The White Brotherhood ensured that Russia would starve. In Moscow young women give themselves for a plate of food. Homosexuality, the U.S.A being its banner. One can go on and on, but there will be no end then. It is devestating. But do not despair, if you are a follower of our Lord Jesus Christ because He has defeated Satan and the world.

(This is a summarized version and a translation of a tape recording in Greek, from a Greek Orthodox perspective ofcourse, given to me by a Monk at Calvary/Golgotha in Jerusalem, Christmas, 2001. I cannot divulge any names, nor my own because this is a very dangerous subject. You will have to verify the truthfullness of the matter yourself. Please excuse my errors of spelling or other. May God forgive me if I am wrong about any of this, but I do it with honest intentions. God bless you. From a humble follower of our Lord Jesus Christ.)

+++

"These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." JOHN 16:33

+++

"LORD JESUS CHRIST, HAVE MERCY ON ME."

posted in Chatterboxx - 9 replies

important q for shana tova

raz — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 05:39:52 GMT

if you had a chance to be the opposite sex for a day, how would you enjoy it? what would you do?

posted in Chatterboxx - 36 replies

In the Woods...

Canada Jr — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 22:51:34 GMT

If Papa Bear Bill O'Reilly is speaking in the woods and nobody hears, does anyone care? If I'm speaking in the woods....

posted in Chatterboxx - 19 replies

RIP Robert Jordan

feiruz_al-bnefsagia — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 15:46:55 GMT

James Oliver Rigney, Jr. (aka Robert Jordan) passed away September 16, 2007 at 2:45 p.m. ET from complications
from primary amyloidosis with cardiomyopathy.

At last the WoT series is done.

--Feiruz

posted in Chatterboxx - 0 replies

Cautionary Tale for those in the computer business...

meliaarhrt — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 21:07:08 GMT

> > A young man married a beautiful woman who had previously divorced
> > 10 husbands. On their wedding night, she told her new husband to "Please
> > be gentle; I'm still a virgin".
> >
> > "What?" said the puzzled groom. "How can that be if you've been married
> > ten times.?"
> >
> > "Well, husband #1 was a Sales Representative; he kept telling me how
> > great it was going to be.
> >
> > "Husband # 2 was in Software Services; he was never really sure how it
> > was suppose to function; but he said he'd look into it and get back with
> > me.
> >
> > "Husband # 3 was from Field Services; he said that everything checked
> > out diagnostically but he just couldn't get the system up.
> >
> > "Husband # 4 was in Telemarketing; even though he knew he had the
> > order, he didn't know when he would be able to deliver.
> >
> > "Husband # 5 was an Engineer,he understood the basic process but he
> > wanted three years to research, implement, and design a new state of
> > the-art method.
> >
> > "Husband #6 was from Administration; he thought he knew how but he
> > wasn't sure whether it was his job or not.
> >
> > "Husband # 7 was in Marketing; although he had a product, he was never
> > sure how to position it.
> >
> > "Husband # 8 was a Psychiatrist; all he did was talk about it.
> >
> > "Husband # 9 was a! Gyneco logist; all he did was look at it.
> >
> > "Husband # 10 was a Stamp Collector; all he ever did was.......... God, I
> > miss him!
> >
> > "But now that I've married you, I'm so excited".
> >
> > "Wonderful", said the husband, "but why?
> >
> > "You're with the GOVERNMENT. ..This time I KNOW I'M gonna get SCREWED!"

8)

posted in Chatterboxx - 8 replies

Favorite Movie Quotes/ Scenes

Canada Jr — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 00:47:47 GMT

Hey all.....What are you favorite movie quotes and/or scenes? I have many but I'll start with these....
"Yea, though I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death I will fear no evil because I am the baddest m*therf*cker in the whole g*d damn valley!"

"You have all heard 'Thou shall not kill', well I say F*CK THAT SH*T!"
-both are from Jarhead while the main character is going through Marine Corps Sniper training.

I'll sum this next on up with:
"Tommy want wingey."
--The whole restaurant scene in Tommy Boy...and many, many other scenes. ("Brothers don't shake hands, brothers gotta hug")

The copier scene (has to have the music) in Office Space.

"No thank you, I don't want to get stabbed tonight."
-Harold and Kumar go to White Castle, when Kumar is taking a piss on the side of the road and this man (Jamie Kennedy) appears out of nowhere to urinate on the same bush.

posted in Chatterboxx - 3 replies

I love the new main picture for the tribe

Bloke72 — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 08:34:18 GMT

It gave me a big smile :)

posted in Chatterboxx - 12 replies

Odd local trivia?

Guy Montag — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 00:44:48 GMT

Does anyone have odd local trivia to report?

I'll go first.

Los Angeles' original name was:

El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles del Río de Porciúncula

After the river (which was named):

Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles de la Porciúncula

Incidentally a similar mess was created in Buenos Aires, Argentina:

Ciudad de la Santísima Trinidad y Puerto de Santa María del Buen Aire

posted in Chatterboxx - 58 replies

Sometimes we all need to laugh

Canada Jr — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 00:50:44 GMT

Let US all reMEmbeR and laUgh....OKAY? This bIT is grEaT. I thiNK thAt we aLL might FeEl tHis waY nOW anD AGAIn. Enjoy..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQJv6qsg0pI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQx4sXsBt5M

hee hee hee...*sigh*

posted in Chatterboxx - 0 replies

#1 Rule for this Tribe...

Salihah — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 04:21:24 GMT

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tzofia/1184167348/

posted in Chatterboxx - 16 replies

Quotes

Krista Iman — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 20:41:38 GMT

I love quotes! Ever since I was in high school I have been collecting quotes and writing them down in notebooks. Now, I have tons of notebooks full of quotes by famous people, normal people, random stuff and well known ones. What are some of the quotes you really like and want to share here?
I can't even begin to do a *my favorite quote* as they change all the time so here are a few for starters that I like....

*If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.* --Henry David Thoreau

*Life has taught us that love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction.* -- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

*For in the final analysis, our most basic common link, is that we all inhabit this small planet, we all breathe the same air, we all cherish our children's futures, and we all are mortal.*-- John F. Kennedy

*Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage.* --Anais Nin

*If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at the people he gave it to.* --Dorothy Parker

posted in Chatterboxx - 23 replies

Quotable Quotes

Bloke72 — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 15:49:11 GMT

Tenderness & Kindness
Tenderness and kindness are not signs of weakness and despair, but manifestations of strength and resolution.
~ Khalil Gibran ~
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khalil_Gibran

I liked the above and pinched it from another tribe....

Chatterboxx's topics - tribe.net

Original versions of more famous covers.

Weigh in... your opinion, that is

A Post.

Groovy Webpages.

What if God had a Myspace?

Anybody into Moby?

The Most Memorable Web Videos of 2007

The nuns?

Shakespeare goes digital (X-post)

Books

*Perfume*

&lt;&lt;Kiosk>>

RIP Gary Gygax, Co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons (X-posted)

A game for dummies ?

Animal Rescue

Consumerism

Election petition.

God bless the BBC..

The world's getting better, but we're not there yet

The Best of Amateur Singing on Youtube..

Vietnamese

get with the dugh dudes!

LOL

... about 20 years ago!

Benazir Bhutto

It's almost English when dictionary does Australish

Just Me!

Check out the new mod!

Nasrin Alavi's WE ARE IRAN: The Persian blogs?

Interesting story from Tehran.

Sound Familiar Out Fox "News"

Naughty Santa !

Terry Pratchett

Maria do Carmo Miranda da Cunha

"Old Folks"

How are the MIA Chatterboxes?

Oh dear..

The history of "Sesame Street" and did the original Cookie Monster have substance abuse problem?

Australian Election.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone...

Iqbal

Chatterboxx Ceasefire!

Who has been harassed because of personal choices, or personality type?

Do you ever get the feeling you are being watched?

Bunnies acting... in 30 seconds. :)

A museum (snicker)

Feed the hungry by playing a game!

Check these threads :)

international game of telephone, anyone?

Aretha F'in' Franklin is the BOMB!

Arabic ?

It's meditation time!

Chatterboxx Trivia ! ...! , (Bloke...!)

Public Transit Stories

a recommendation

Does your box chatter? (Or what's up with vaginal flatulence?!)

Alzheimer's Eye Test

AWOL

incredible news!

..and they make it look easy !

JESUS CHRIST+JESU KRISTE+YESHUA HAMASHIACH+JESUS CHRISTUS+JESU KRISTU+ISOUS HRISTOS

important q for shana tova

In the Woods...

RIP Robert Jordan

Cautionary Tale for those in the computer business...

Favorite Movie Quotes/ Scenes

I love the new main picture for the tribe

Odd local trivia?

Sometimes we all need to laugh

#1 Rule for this Tribe...

Quotes

Quotable Quotes

Lyrics...

Perfume

<<Kiosk>>