René O'Deay gBlog

Gone for dental surgery this AM. Let you know how it turns out for me later.

UPDATE: am okay, but have to go back for a second round in a month.

René

Today features the NBA Cares All-Star Community Caravan, a collection of community service events that began Monday.

With 100 percent participation, NBA members are building playgrounds, community centers and homes in New Orleans and surrounding areas.

Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu said in a recent interview that for many, the recovery of New Orleans has become about the future of America, not just the future of one city.

Today's Day of Service, the centerpiece of the NBA's work in the area, will include more than 2,500 people affiliated with the All-Star festivities working at one of 10 project sites. It is a single-day event with a magnitude that the NBA said is unprecedented.

"It's a lot different from a team coming in and doing a Habitat for Humanity for the weekend," Landrieu said.

Source: nola.com via René

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How will this affect the future of gold values?

How long before the gold appears on the market?

Interesting that this ancient country is still discovering new gold resources/mines.

Xinhua[Saturday, February 09, 2008 14:03]

The China Geological Survey Bureau (CGS) announced Friday that in 2007 the country's gold prospecting efforts made a series of significant findings, with five major gold mines discovered.

The CGS said that the five mines include the copper-gold mine in Gandise of Tibet Autonomous Region, the Dachang gold mine in Qinghai Province, the Yangshan gold mine in southern Gansu Province, the Sizhuang gold mine in Shandong Province and the Baolun gold mine in Hainan Province.

In addition, a number of gold deposits have been found on the peripheries of some lead and zinc mines.

The five mines boast a combined gold reserve of some 600 tons, and there is still great potential for further prospecting, the CGS said.

The Shandong peninsular in east China is one of the country's most important gold producers, with a proved gold reserve of over 1,000 tons so far.

In 2007, China overtook the United States to become the world's second largest gold producer with an output of 270.491 tons, only next to South Africa, which produced 272 tons of gold in 2007. Gold consumption by China's manufacturing sector was about 9.2 percent of the global total, according to official data.

China plans to produce 1,300 tons of gold and verify gold mine reserves of 3,000 to 5,000 tons in the five-year period between 2006 and 2010, according to the State Development and Reform Commission.

NOTE: Xinhua is the official news agency of the PRC.

Source: phayul.com via René

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Gordon Brown faces rift with Prince Charles over 'snub' to Dalai Lama

By GLEN OWEN

Gordon Brown is on a collision course with Prince Charles over the sensitive issue of the Chinese government's human-rights record.

The exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, is planning to visit Britain in May and has requested an audience with the Prime Minister.

But Mr Brown, keen to boost trade links with China, has yet to reply to the request and risks being embarrassed during the trip by the Prince of Wales, a long-standing friend of the Tibetan.

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Charles's support for the Dalai Lama, who has been in exile since an uprising against Chinese rule in Tibet in 1959, is understood to be one of the reasons why he has made it known that he is boycotting this summer's Beijing Olympics.

He has met the Tibetan on several occasions, including his last visit to the UK in 2004, and is likely to do so again in May.

Tony Blair met the Dalai Lama in 1999 and President George Bush held a public meeting with him last year.

The Prime Minister, however, keen to do business with China, has accepted an invitation to attend the Olympics and campaigners fear he may snub the Dalai Lama.

When Mr Brown visited China last month, the issues of Beijing's human-rights record and its rule over Tibet were raised only fleetingly.

Source: mailonsunday.co.uk via René

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The episode airs Monday night (Feb. 4) at 9. Bourdain hit town in September for the shoot, which was a quest to test the city's culinary fitness more than two years after the levee failures.

Back then, sipping an Abita Amber in the lobby of the W Hotel on Poydras, Bourdain paused briefly from his shooting schedule to report that his preliminary judgment is that New Orleans kitchens appear alive and well.

"The (culinary) world view ... seems the same," said Bourdain, who hadn't visited New Orleans for either business or pleasure since the August 2005 storm. "That's what I was terrified of (losing), particularly among cooks.

"The restaurant culture -- the subculture of cooks and chefs and restaurant workers -- was something that struck me really favorably the first time I came, and that's specifically what we're looking at this time around.

"Last night, we were at a bar and there must have been a couple-hundred line cooks in there. It was great. I felt right at home."

Anger was what he felt as he watched the earliest coverage of levee-failure flooding.

"Very angry," he said. "Rage and disbelief. I just couldn't believe that this could be allowed to happen and go on and on."

At the time of the September interview, weeks before he had recorded his voice-overs and overseen the final edit of his crew's footage, Bourdain said he doubted he would let much of that anger infuse the episode.

"I'm not going to go all Anderson Cooper on my show," he said. "It's a travel show. I think I try to avoid being explicitly political, though I think a lot of things speak for themselves.

Source: nola.com

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The most incredible community party
Mardi Gras 2008
Superbowl Sunday? Who cares, the weather was beautiful. The crowds on St. Charles were ecstatic.

There is no way to explain it. Even when you are there in the middle of a parade, it is like being in a movie.
There is this sense of community. In this day and age when we are so unconnected, we have TV and computers, the internet. still so isolated.

It's not about the beads, it's about the connection.
When you see a float rider jump up on the front of a float and dance and raise his arms in greeting, you want a necklace from him. He is so joyous!

I've heard it said that riders are greeted by a wall of sound when they turn on to Canal. It can be brutal, there are so many people, all screaming: "Throw me something!"

The party on St. Charles goes on for days.
They were line dancing in the street between floats and parades.

It's probably more fun when you have a large group, family and friends, with chairs and ladders and shelters and food. Groups even rent their own porta-potties, parking them on the side streets.

You have to experience Mardi Gras in New Orleans at least once in your life.

Here's some of the Pictures from the two parades I watched roll down St. Charles, the Krewe of Midcity and the Krewe of Thoth. 

special to NowPublic by René O'Deay 

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Tags: New Orleans | St Charles | Culture | Entertainment | Mardi Gras

By LYNN ELBER, AP Entertainment Writer 1 hour, 40 minutes ago

LOS ANGELES - A breakthrough in contract talks has been reached between Hollywood studios and striking writers and could lead to a tentative deal as early as next week, a person close to the ongoing negotiations said Saturday

Source: news.yahoo.com

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