"Brokeback Bharat" is a spoof trailer using images from Bollywood to campaign against section 377 of the Penal code that criminalizes homosexuality in India. It has some great scenes. Bonus points to anyone who knows what TV shows or movies they are from...

You never know what will take off on the Internet.... Last month, some folks on Hornby Island, BC in Canada put a webcam in a bald eagle's nest. Since then, there has been an EXPLOSION of viewers - now up to 2 million per day - watching the eagles and waiting for the eggs to hatch.

I find it pretty relaxing to watch. Now we just need to put a microphone up there for next year...

"Staff at Knowsley Safari Park are monitoring smaller vehicles, including Smart cars and Mini Coopers, after the lions started paying special interest. David Ross, park manager, told the BBC News website that a group of lionesses chased after one Smart car after being confused by its compact appearance."

From the BBC...

Does anyone else find it funny (in a sad, not a haha, sort of way) that within the last week, the US Congress has passed two major pieces of legislation: the first was a comprehensive energy bill, the second a highway transportation bill.

The $14.5b energy bill was pushed forward by the President and Congress bemoaning US oil dependence. They came up with a whole new raft of incentives to produce oil, natural gas and coal domestically to meet rising energy demands. Along the way, they also made polite statements about the need to reduce energy demand, but the funding put into this side of the equation was pitiful in comparison to the supply side of things.

Now, this week, the US Congress passes a MASSIVE $286b highway transportation bill.

Now, call me crazy, but if you spend $286b in six years on expanding the highway system and $14.5b in ten years on developing new sources of domestic energy - doesn't it seem like at the end of the day all you end up with is a package of incentives that keeps Americans spending the majority of their lives in their cars? There are a lot of studies coming out that indicate that more roads = more traffic - countering Bush's claims that better highways will save lives and will REDUCE gas use since people will not be idling in traffic for so long.

Couldn't we spend tax dollars a BIT more wisely and invest them in transit projects instead of highways??? Perhaps change some land use planning practices so people can live closer to where they work? Get folks out of their cars and onto bikes so they don't continue to die at an increasing rate of obesity-related diseases?

I really wish US lawmakers had just taken the summer off, gone to cottages somewhere and READ current studies and research rather than passing bills which buy short-term economic (and political) gains at the expense of the long-term quality of life of the American people and neighbours around the world.

My friend Leah Neiderstadt sent me a great article about an exhibition she helped out with. "Painting Ethiopia: The Life and Work of Qes Adamu Tesfaw" will run at the UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History until Sept. 18.