| Going ‘Bump’ in the Night
Take a boat out just after dawn and cruise the labyrinth of channels that thread between the islands south of the Old Cataract Hotel. Night herons should be looked for in the trees overhanging the river — but look carefully. In the dapple of light and shade, they are surprisingly hard to find. Other herons will be out and about, Little egrets, Squacco herons and even Striated herons. And at that early hour the stunning, and normally reclusive, Purple gallinule can be quite bold. In Arabic, the name for most herons is balashuun, but the Night heron is known as ghuraab al-layl, literally ‘night crow,' probably because it shares the black and gray color pattern of the Hooded crow as well as a crow-like call. The completely unrelated cormorant is also known as ghuraab, this time ghuraab al-bahr or ‘sea crow.' Like it or not, we share our metropolis with a myriad of rats and mice.
Partyline: Charity Circle serves up a festive holiday luncheon
The Shagbark Trail home of Susan and Lee Moss was an elegant setting for Charity Circle' s Christmas Luncheon earlier this month. The event raised money for local charities supported by the Circle. Members collect money at various fundraiser they host and then redistribute the funds, in their entirety, to local nonprofits. Some of the agencies that have received funding from the Circle in the past are Habitat For Humanity, Emergency Fund, Child Advocacy Center, Hospice of Murfreesboro, YMCA, Senior Citizen's Day Care, West Main Mission, Primary Care & Hope Clinic, Boys & Girls Clubs, Greenhouse Ministries, Tennessee School for the Blind, Rutherford County Food Bank, Special Kids Inc., Good Shepherd's Children's Home, Exchange Club Center, Community Helpers, Project HELP, Room at the Inn, CASA and the Domestic Violence Shelter.
Longoria Parker has natural flair for comedy
Eva Longoria Parker doesn't mind fame. As long as it's the right kind of fame. "I love being on the cover of Elle. I love being on the cover of InStyle. I hate being on the cover of Us weekly. I hate being on the cover of Star magazine," she says on the phone while visiting Chicago in mid-January. "Do I love being on the cover of magazines? Reputable, journalistic ones, yes. Where you're promoting a piece of your work, yes," she says. "Not being on the cover of a magazine because I put soy milk in my latte." .
The Oscar Warrior's 2008 Predictions Part 1
Likewise, John Travolta's performance in drag as Edna Turnbald in the movie musical Hairspray got a supporting nomination from the Hollywood Foreign Press who would usually love that sort of comedy/musical. (Oddly, SAG nominated the entire ensemble but not Travolta individually.) Travolta is a two-time Oscar nominee for Pulp Fiction and Saturday Night Fever having never won, but this isn't the role that will get him a third nomination. My Personal Pick (s): Ben Foster in 3:10 to Yuma. A colleague of mine hated James Mangold's Western because he was bothered by the implications of the relationship between Foster's psychotic gunslinger and his boss, played by Russell Crowe. Me, I'm blown away by the intensity that Foster brings to every role he plays, and that was definitely the case with this movie, too.
Tempus comment: No room for error
Advertisers and media companies might start waking up to the limits of online advertising: it does not deliver block audiences like Coronation Street or the Daily Mail can. It may never deliver video like television, or audio like radio; it can't generate number one hits like The X-Factor can. That does not mean Google, and indeed online advertising, will not be significant. It is still growing faster than conventional advertising, but it is easy to overvalue it, too. It is instead part of a modern advertising campaign, which means that online advertising in general and Google in particular is not immune to cutbacks when economies slow. But Google's massive valuation does not allow for mistakes. As Sir Howard Stringer, the Sony chief executive, warned in Davos, too many web businesses are relying on advertising to deliver revenues.
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