Hello,

I'm writing an urban fantasy (yes, so many of them these days!) but looking up the Sidhe - both the mounds and the supposed people of the mounds - I ran across some information that implied the Sidhe may have been either Iberian or Anglo-Saxon in origin. I am wondering if there is any more information on this?

I've tried Wikipedia and Google terms "sidhe", "pre-Celtic civilizations", "pre-Roman Iberian civilizations", "Tuatha De Danaan".

Even without Luka Rocco Magnotta, Canada is not a safe place:  that's the narrative you'd be receiving if you read the Chinese newspapers or internet chat rooms this weekend.

The grisly killing of Lin Jun — a 33-year-old Chinese student living in Montreal — allegedly at the hands of fugitive Magnotta, has provoked widespread anger in China, where many believe the crime was racially motivated.

( rest of the article + updates on the killer )

Lin's torso was found in a suitcase in a Montreal alley last week. The other body parts, including a hand and foot, were mailed to the offices of political parties in Ottawa.

According to the Globe and Mail's Beijing-based reporter Mark MacKinnon, the story now dominates internet discussions in that country — Lin's personal account on Weibo (a popular Chinese social-networking site) was the most searched-for page on the sina.com web portal. The number two search was for the latest news of the case.

A lot of the commentary, according to MacKinnon, questions public safety in Canada, especially since this was the second killing of a Chinese student in just over a year.  Last April, York University student Liu Qian was killed in Toronto.

"The impact of the case will be very bad on Canada," Meng Xiaochao, the boyfriend of Liu, told one Chinese newspaper in an interview. "Last year when Liu Qian's case happened, many parents said they were no longer willing to send their children to Canada. Now here comes this other case."

On the website of the China Daily News, China's largest English Language newspaper, readers also voiced their anger about the lack of public safety in Canada.

One poster named Superman suggested: "Canada discriminated against China for several years."

"The evidence states that Canada imposed a head tax on Chinese for several years," he wrote. "A Chinese female was murdered in Vancouver in December and Li[n] Jun was murdered in Montreal. Canada has NOT changed."

Sinbad wrote: "Chinese students going to study overseas must learn from the many tragic deaths of Chinese students in overseas countries over the past few years that personal security in many countries are not so good as in China."

Meanwhile, in the midst of the anger, Chinese officials have issued a safety alert to its citizens in Canada.

"The Chinese Embassy in Canada reminds Chinese citizens travelling in Canada, as well as students and the staff of Chinese organizations in Canada, to improve their self-protection [and] awareness, and to strengthen their personal security," reads the final paragraph of the Embassy's Chinese-language statement on Lin's murder.

Ultimately, the grisly murder of Lin could mean a public relations nightmare for Canadian universities and colleges. According to Citizenship and Immigration Canada, there were 200,000 international students studying in Canada in 2009, contributing more than $6.5 billion to the economy. A total of 25 per cent of the international students were from China.

Update on Magnotta Manhunt:

There is growing evidence that Magnotta is in France.

The Canadian Press is reporting that French officials are investigating claims by two people who believe they saw Magnotta in recent days.

In addition, French police reported Sunday that personal belongings of Magnotta were found in a hotel in suburban Paris. The reports say police discovered pornographic magazines as well as air sickness bags from the airplane he took to Paris from Montreal.

It was unclear whether Magnotta was still in the Paris area on Sunday, but French media reported that authorities had beefed up their presence at railway stations and airports.

source

Another quick picture post: I received my Fleurings in the mail (finally!) right before I left for the reunion. Here's a picture of me, dressed for the 30th reunion dinner (ignore the ugly background). I'm wearing my Emerald House Rising coat under the little black dress.







My new Fleurings were SO MUCH FUN to wear. Besides the utter coolness of them, and how well I thought they looked on me, what made them so much fun was the response I received from people. I had, no lie, at least twenty people stop me to gush over them over the course of the weekend. Complete strangers. They made people laugh, and they made people gasp, and they made them strike up a conversation. I mean really, ladies, when was the last time you wore a piece of jewelry that made a a fifty year old guy stop dead in his tracks, and say something like, "I LOVE your earrings. Take a look at this lady's earrings, aren't they amazing?" I spent about an hour and a half browsing through stores in Northfield, and no less than five sales clerks asked me about them.

I did discover they need to be refilled with water every two to three hours, because by gum, they do work as vases. The flowers suck the water right up. Every drop of it, so you need to replenish the supply.

A total raging success.

This entry was originally posted at http://pegkerr.dreamwidth.org/1603473.html. There are comments on the post.

My obsession with Hunger Games is now cemented. I took Alicia to go see it in the theater for the third time today and walked away as wound up about it as I was going in. I've been reading fic like a madwoman, but to keep myself from writing anything yet, I joined up for Merlin's summerpornathon to focus myself elsewhere. Crazy logic, I know, especially since I keep seeing Josh Hutcherson's face everywhere.

Note to self: he's only 19. And you're not. Remember that. (It's just very, very hard, lol.)

But Peeta kills me. He really does. Well, a lot of THG characters kill me. The inherent tragedy in so many of them, from Peeta to Katniss to Haymitch to Finnick. Hell, even Mr. Mellark's backstory gets to me, the whole unrequited love which I'm such a sucker for.

I had an absolutely wonderful time. I'll do a longer post tomorrow, but for now, here are some pictures from around campus.

This is Old Main, the first building built by the college when it was started in the late 19th century. It has just been renovated.



( Some beautiful things around campus )

This entry was originally posted at http://pegkerr.dreamwidth.org/1603117.html. There are comments on the post.

Finally, an ideal to which I can aspire!


Well, I'll do without the cigarette, but not without acknowledging the symbolic importance of it.

Ironic watermark is ironic.

On last Friday night’s episode of The Late Late Show on CBS, actor Jason Alexander repeatedly joked with host Craig Ferguson about the game of cricket being a “gay sport” as opposed to a “manly” one. Having had time to more carefully consider the jokes he made though, the Love! Valour! Compassion! and Seinfeld actor released a new statement through his Twitter account, explaining how conversations with his gay friends made him realize the effect that kind of denigrating humor has on the adolescents that so often find themselves the subject of it. You can read the full post below:

A message of amends.

Last week, I made an appearance on the Craig Ferguson show – a wonderfully unstructured, truly spontaneous conversation show. No matter what anecdotes I think will be discussed, I have yet to find that Craig and I ever touch those subjects. Rather we head off onto one unplanned, loony topic after another. It’s great fun trying to keep up with him and I enjoy Craig immensely.

( Read more... )

Source.

What do we think?

Arizona third-grader Cassandra Garcia came home with an end-of-term award no parent wants their child to receive -- the "catastrophe award" for the most excuses for not having her homework done. The award was signed with a smiley face from her teacher.

Needless to say, Cassandra's mom, Christina Valdez, was not impressed:

"I was so ticked off," she tells the Toronto Star. "She said the teacher announced the award in front of the whole class and all the kids laughed at her."


( Read more... )

The de-funding of Healthy Communities is not the first time a conservative Queensland government has refused to fund a gay AIDS organisation – but last time it was an order of Catholic nuns who came to the rescue.

John Ebert, 60, and John Stafford, 70, have been together for 42 years and helped set up the AIDS Council in the 1980s that Nationals premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen refused to fund.

Instead, their funding came in the form of brown paper bags smuggled under nuns’ habits after the Sisters of Mercy stepped in to help gay men suffering from HIV/AIDS.

The couple felt they had completed an almost bizarre circle since then with Liberal National Party Health Minister Lawrence Springborg announcing last month the entire $2.6 million in funding would be pulled from the only organisation dedicated to raising awareness and preventing HIV/AIDS in the gay community – Healthy Communities.

( Read more... )


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