Tu ne quaesieris (scire nefas) quem mihi, quem tibi
finem di dederint, Leuconoe, nec Babylonios
temptaris numeros. Ut melius quicquid erit pati,
seu pluris hiemes seu tribuit Iuppiter ultimam,
quae nunc oppositis debilitat pumicibus mare
Tyrrhenum: sapias, vina liques et spatio brevi
spem longam reseces. Dum loquimur, fugerit invida
aetas: carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero.

Horace: Odes I.

105... Almost There

Oleg Cassini, 92, the dapper descendant of Russian aristocrats who married a movie star, designed clothes for a first lady and was the first to license his name to products from perfume to luggage, died March 17 at a hospital on New York's Long Island. His third wife, Marianne, said the designer suffered a broken blood vessel in his head.

Mr. Cassini was best known as Jacqueline Kennedy's couturier, creating 300 elegant outfits from simple A-line dresses to her iconic pillbox hats.

"I have programmed myself to be at least 105 years old," he declared in 1995. "My life signs are of a 45-year-old man. From age 17 'til now I'm the same weight. It's an act of vanity but healthy vanity."

By Patricia Sullivan
Washington Post

I love Italy

The Italian Government has established a web site for giving tourists detailed information about Italy (monuments, hotels, restaurants and so on).

check it out

www.italia.it


OOppppsss...unfortunately they still haven't given away to the millions of tourists the password to enter the site...

God bless you

100 Dublin priests accused of abuse since 1940

The full extent of child abuse scandals threatening the Roman Catholic church in Ireland has emerged in a study by the archdiocese of Dublin which reveals that more than 100 of its priests have faced paedophile accusations since 1940. More than 350 children are said to have been sexually or physically abused in that period.

Commenting on the figures, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin said it might be necessary to sell property to meet compensation bills and that sacrifices would have to be made to set right past injustices. "It's very frightening for me to see that in some of these cases, so many children were abused. It's very hard to weigh that up against anything," said Archbishop Martin, a former Vatican diplomat who was appointed in 2003.

"On the other hand, I know that the vast majority of priests don't abuse, that they do good work, that they're extremely upset and offended by what's happened."


Owen Bowcott Ireland correspondent
Thursday March 9, 2006
The Guardian

Uighurs at Guantanamo Bay

In the case of one group of prisoners, Muslims from western China known as Uighurs, the U.S. has struggled to find a solution.

A military tribunal has determined that five are "no longer enemy combatants" and can be released from Guantanamo Bay. The U.S. agrees they could face persecution back in China, but so far has not found a third country to take them.

For now, the Uighurs are being kept at Camp Iguana -- a privileged section of the prison where inmates have unlimited recreation time, televisions, stereos and a view of the Caribbean.

A Uighur told a military tribunal that he feared going back to China so much, he considered trying to convince the panel he was guilty, according to a hearing transcript.

"If I am sent back to China, they will torture me really bad," said the man, whose name didn't appear in the transcript. "They will use dogs. They will pull out my nails."

"Home is China and in China you disappear into a dungeon and no one ever hears from you again," said their lawyer, Sabin Willett. "These guys are not a risk to anyone. They should be released here."

The Associated Press.

So thick.

"You don't know who anyone really is in LA. The bullshit out there is so thick. You wouldn't believe the things that people will look you in the eye and say." She tenses visibly. "Being successful in that industry is about more than just swallowing it and deciding to make some money. You'd also have to say, 'I like this' and 'This is great' when you didn't mean it. You'd have to play those kind of games. And I can't do it."
Natascha McElhone

I like this way of characterizing 'bullshit'.