Carl Jung used the term SYZYGY to denote an archetypal pairing of opposites, which symbolized the communication of the conscious and unconscious minds.

20070112

Fuzzy Furry Friends from Across the Pond Meet in America

Bindi Says: No Need for Fake Snakes When You Live at the Zoo!

Bindi Irwin in American tourist push

Australia Herald Sun
By Jade Bilowol
January 06, 2007

PINT-sized star Bindi Irwin is gearing up to sing and dance in the United States as part of a push to lure more American tourists to Australia.

Bindi will follow in the footsteps of her late father Steve by flying to the US and taking part in Tourism Australia's G'Day USA Week initiative from January 11 to 20.

The eight-year-old wildlife warrior will take her adrenalin-charged stage show Bindi and The Crocmen to Los Angeles and New York.

Bindi will be joined by her mother Terri and the manager of their Australia Zoo wildlife park on Queensland's Sunshine Coast, Wes Mannion, who will be performing with a range of animals including crocs.

The Wiggles, Russell Crowe and The Veronicas are also involved in the G'Day USA promotions.

Family friend and manager John Stainton today said Bindi and Terri were leaving for the state's next week to star in the 90-minute family-orientated show at the Ahmanson Theatre in LA and the New York Civic Centre.

"That's what her dad did for the last three years, he went over every year and did that and he did a big show,'' Mr Stainton said.

"Well he was going to do that next week too, but now that he's not there Terri and Bindi are filling in and they're going to do it in his place.

"The one in New York is sold out and the one in LA is just about gone.''

Bindi has been performing her show to thousands at Australian Zoo's Crocoseum for the first time since her father's death last September when a stingray barb pierced his chest.

Mr Stainton said she would be performing at the zoo until Tuesday.

''(Yesterday) morning before the (first) show she said 'I feel a little bit nervous' - I think it was just the fact of going up there and doing that show and knowing her dad wasn't going to be up there (in the stand) watching her,'' Mr Stainton said.

"She was terrific, as good as she's ever been if not better.''

Bindi Says: No Need for Fake Snakes When You Live at the Zoo!

My Holiday Top

First I went on a plane to Amsterdam. Then I went to Paris, it was lots of fun! In Amsterdam I sometimes visited Dad. I think it was once. After that I went to Paris. It was fun too and I stayed at a beautiful place. Well that was my holiday and I hope if you come to the zoo you have a good time too.

Love Bindi xoxoxox.

Oops I forgot a little bit, the highlight was Disneyland. Me and Mum went on the big thunder mountain ride and had so much fun and we went on lots of playgrounds and stuff too. The End.


USA: the highlight was Disneyland. Me and Mum went on the big thunder mountain ride and had so much fun and we went on lots of playgrounds and stuff too. !!!

US puts out red carpet for Bindi

By Peter Mitchell in Los Angeles
January 07, 2007 01:45pm


BINDI Irwin will rub shoulders with one of the Desperate Housewives, appear on Dave Letterman's TV talkshow and walk in the footsteps of Winston Churchill at Washington DC's National Press Club.

Her whirlwind tour of the US which starts this week has a high-profile itinerary any A-List actor campaigning for next month's Oscars would pine for.

Prime Minister John Howard does not receive as much exposure and red carpet treatment when he visits the US.

"America is so excited for Bindi to come here," said Annie Howell, senior vice president of US TV network, Discovery, that plans to launch Bindi's new TV series later this year.

"She'll be welcomed with open arms and rightly so.

"She's a very special child."

Bindi and her mother, Terri, are two of the stars of G'Day USA: Australia Week, a 10 day promotion in Los Angeles and New York highlighting Australian entertainment, tourism, food, business and fashion.

The high-profile tour will launch Bindi's showbiz career in the US, but it will also be dotted with emotional moments where she will honour her late father, Steve "The Crocodile Hunter" Irwin.

Bindi's star-studded tour begins on Thursday in Los Angeles when she appears with Terri as a guest on one of America's most popular TV talkshows, The Ellen Degeneres Show.

The talkshow, shot at NBC's Burbank studios, will provide Bindi and Terri with a great chance to glean some behind the scenes gossip about the catty TV series, Desperate Housewives.

Wisteria Lane's blonde bombshell, Nicollette Sheridan, will also be a guest on Degeneres' show on Thursday.

Next Saturday the glamour ride continues when Bindi and Terri join Russell Crowe, Naomi Watts, Rupert Murdoch, The Veronicas and several hundred other celebrities and dignitaries at the Penfold's Icon Gala Dinner at LA's Hyatt Regency Hotel.

Crowe and Watts will receive entertainment awards, while Steve Irwin will be honoured with an emotional tribute and a Lifetime Achievement Award.

On January 14 Bindi and her backup dancers, the Crocmen, will team up with The Wiggles for a concert at LA's Ahmanson Theatre, where Americans have snapped up tickets worth up to $US65 ($83).

The Irwin's tour then moves to America's east coast, where Bindi and Terri will be guests on another top-rating TV talkshow, The Late Show with David Letterman on in New York on January 17.

The most interesting stop on the Irwin's odyssey occurs two days later when they travel to Washington DC to address a luncheon in the ballroom at the National Press Club.

"It's the Press Club's Newsmaker Luncheon which is reserved only for very important people," Howell said.

The podium at the NPC has been graced by a who's who of world leaders, including Churchill, Nikita Khrushchev, Golda Meir, Indira Gandhi, Charles deGaulle, Boris Yeltsin, Nelson Mandela and Yasir Arafat.

On January 20, Bindi, the Crocmen and The Wiggles team up again for another concert at Manhattan's City Centre.

The Irwin's American tour also coincides with the US airing of the documentary, Ocean's Deadliest.

The show, on which Steve Irwin was working when he suffered the fatal blow to the heart from a stingray barb on the Great Barrier Reef in September, will premiere in the US on January 21 simultaneously on the Animal Planet and Discovery channels.

A separate tribute program to Irwin, put together by Irwin's longtime manager John Stainton, will follow Ocean's Deadliest.

"Ocean's Deadliest is a fairly straight forward documentary, although it's emotional in terms of it's the last show Steve is doing for us," Howell said.

"The tribute show will be emotional. It looks at his life and legacy. It's a beautiful show. It's a salute to Steve."

Howell said Bindi's new US TV series, Bindi, the Jungle Girl, was pencilled in to premiere in America in several months.

"John Stainton has been busy finishing up the two programs, Ocean's Deadliest and the tribute show for Steve, and then he'll finish Bindi's show," Howell added.

"We're guessing it will air sometime in the second quarter of this year."


Does Australia Zoo accept international orders? Yes we do. We ship orders worldwide. All prices on our site are in Australian Dollars. If you are ordering internationally you can use the Free Currency ConverterTM to check the total amount you need to pay. This amount may vary according to the actual currency values at the time of purchase.

All set to say 'G'day USA'

Peter Mitchell
January 07, 2007 11:00pm
Courier Mail


BINDI Irwin will appear on top-rating television talk shows and walk in the footsteps of Winston Churchill at Washington DC's National Press Club in a whirlwind tour of the US which starts this week.

"America is so excited for Bindi to come here," said Annie Howell, senior vice-president of US TV network, Discovery, which plans to launch Bindi's new TV series later this year.
"She'll be welcomed with open arms and rightly so. She's a very special child."

Bindi and her mother, Terri, are two of the stars of G'Day USA: Australia Week, a 10-day promotion in Los Angeles and New York highlighting Australian entertainment, tourism, food, business and fashion.

The high-profile tour will launch Bindi's showbiz career in the US but it will also be dotted with emotional moments where she will honour her late father, Steve Irwin.

Bindi's tour begins in Los Angeles on Thursday when she appears with Terri on popular TV talk show, The Ellen Degeneres Show.

The pair will team up with Russell Crowe, Naomi Watts, Rupert Murdoch, The Veronicas and several hundred other dignitaries at the Penfold's Icon Gala Dinner at LA's Hyatt Regency Hotel.

Crowe and Watts will receive entertainment awards, while Steve Irwin will be honoured with an emotional tribute and a Lifetime Achievement Award.

The Irwins will be guests on another top-rating TV talk show, The Late Show with David Letterman in New York.

The most interesting stop on the Irwin's odyssey occurs two days later when they travel to Washington DC to address a luncheon in the ballroom at the National Press Club.

"It's the Press Club's Newsmaker Luncheon which is reserved only for very important people," Ms Howell said.

The podium at the NPC has been graced by a who's who of world leaders, including Churchill, Nikita Khrushchev, Golda Meir, Indira Gandhi, Charles deGaulle, Boris Yeltsin, Nelson Mandela and Yasir Arafat.

The Irwins' tour also coincides with the US airing of the documentary, Ocean's Deadliest.

The show – on which Steve Irwin was working when he suffered a fatal wound to the heart from a stingray barb on the Great Barrier Reef in September – will premiere in the US this month simultaneously on the Animal Planet and Discovery television channels.

A separate tribute to Irwin, put together by Irwin's longtime manager John Stainton, will follow Ocean's Deadliest.

"Ocean's Deadliest is a fairly straight-forward documentary, although it's emotional in terms of it's the last show Steve is doing for us," Ms Howell said.

"The tribute show will be emotional.

"It looks at his life and legacy. It's a beautiful show. It's a salute to Steve."

Howell said Bindi's new US TV series, Bindi, the Jungle Girl, was pencilled in to premiere in America in several months.

"John Stainton has been busy finishing up the two programs, Ocean's Deadliest and the tribute show for Steve, and then he'll finish Bindi's show," Howell added.

"We're guessing it will air sometime in the second quarter of this year."

The Irwin itinerary
Thursday: Los Angeles, guest on The Ellen Degeneres Show
Saturday: Los Angeles, Penfold's Icon Gala Dinner
January 14: Los Angeles, Bindi and The Wiggles' concert at Ahmanson Theatre
January 17: New York, The Late Show with David Letterman
January 19: Washington DC, National Press Club speech
January 20: New York, Bindi and The Wiggles' concert at City Centre
January 21: Steve Irwin's Ocean's Deadliest airs in the US

Does Australia Zoo accept international orders? Yes we do. We ship orders worldwide. All prices on our site are in Australian Dollars. If you are ordering internationally you can use the Free Currency ConverterTM to check the total amount you need to pay. This amount may vary according to the actual currency values at the time of purchase.

Zoo puts humans on display

Tue Jan 9, 2007 8:20am ET

ADELAIDE, Australia, Jan 9 (Reuters Life!) - An Australian zoo has put a group of humans on display to raise awareness about primate conservation -- with the proviso that they don't get up to any monkey business.

Over a month, the humans will be locked in an unused orang-utan cage at Adelaide zoo, braving the searing heat and snacking on bananas. They will be monitored by a psychologist who hopes to use the findings to improve conditions for real apes in captivity.

Audiences can vote for their favorite "ape" via mobile phone text messages, in the style of reality television shows, and at the end of the month, a "super human" will be selected to represent the zoo.

"They're completely mad," said one visitor to the exhibit, as the humans, who are allowed home at night, played up to the crowds and checked each other for imaginary lice.

"It's not as exciting as the animals actually, they're not really doing very much," another onlooker said, clearly unimpressed by the volunteers' shenanigans.

One of the human apes, Josh Penley, said the experiment was a chance to "get myself out of my comfort zone and to get a week off work."

Participants wear microphones in front of Web cams to allow watchers to hear the action in what has been billed as "Big Brother behind bars."

Dr. Carla Litchfield, who is conducting the experiment, has laid down firm rules for the new apes: no nudity, no rude behavior and no jumping into the enclosure spa.

Zoo vets haven't ruled out using tranquilizer darts if the humans misbehave.


Bindi Says: No Need for Fake Snakes When You Live at the Zoo!

US wants full prints at airports

Craig Skehan
January 8, 2007

AUSTRALIANS face having the fingerprints of both hands scanned on arrival in the United States and the details stored on an FBI database, under a reported security crackdown in the country's airports.

The requirement will begin at 10 selected US international airports and then be extended to all terminals, The Observer in London has reported.

Citizens of Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Britain and other European nations would be subject to the new requirement, the report suggests.

The Australian Government has refused to confirm whether Australians will be required to participate.

A spokesman for federal Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said last night: "We are not commenting on a newspaper report quoting sources. We'll wait for more official information."

The Observer said prints were now taken from two fingers. Changing that to all 10 fingers would make the information compatible with the FBI's database. There would be no restrictions on international use of the prints collected, the newspaper said.

The president of the Australian Council for Civil Liberties, Terry O'Gorman, said last night he was concerned about the reported measures. "It is a pretty stupid terrorist who leaves his fingerprints around," he said.

He said that, even assuming a security case could be made, there would need to be strict protections in place. He warned that experience since the terrorism attacks in the US on September 11, 2001, showed that promises that fingerprints, DNA and related criminal intelligence would be restricted to terrorism investigations had proved "empty or illusory".

The risk was that prints would be widely distributed to various law-enforcement agencies, he said.

"The Australian Government should be asking the US whether this proposal, as reported, is going to be extended to Australians," Mr O'Gorman said. "Because if it is, our position would be (that) fingerprints gathered from passengers should be absolutely quarantined for use only in counter-terrorism investigations."

The Observer reported that a US Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman had confirmed that the system would be tested in the northern summer. The paper quoted sources as saying the scheme would be initiated at such airports as New York, Washington and Miami.

British civil-rights group Liberty said the scheme would turn thousands of innocent people into terrorism suspects. However, US officials believed the measure would not deter ordinary people, but would leave any terrorist worried he or she had left fingerprints in a safe house, The Observer said.

There have been concerns in the US and Britain that technological hiccups would result in false fingerprint matches and that there will be longer arrival queues at American airports.

The Observer reported that, under the new measures, passengers could have their credit-card transactions traced when they booked flights to the US.

It said passengers giving their email address to an airline could have their emails investigated.


Save the Last Wild Polar Bears Now because DNA is Magick!

Wild African lions kill buffalo live on Internet

Tue Jan 9, 2007 7:16 PM IST

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Nature lovers worried growing hordes of tourists might spoil a safari to Africa can now watch the continent's wildlife live and in the raw on the Internet.

Canada's Infotec Business Systems Inc, which uses webcams to broadcast live footage of wild animals on the web, says its 'Africam' site has captured the first live kill of an animal in the wild streamed through the Internet.

The site showed six lions hunt and kill a buffalo live on Christmas Day at the Nkorho Pan on the edge of South Africa's vast Kruger Park, Infotec BSI said on Tuesday.

"The majestic beauty of these animals is rarely seen by the general public. Now we're able to share it with everyone, without harming these animals," said Infotec BSI Chief Executive Arthur Griffiths in a statement.

The Nkorho stream, shown at www.africam.com and www.wavelit.com, films a watering hole in the upscale Sabi Sands reserve on the edge of Kruger Park -- one of the world's top game reserves -- 24 hours a day.

On Tuesday morning a baboon slurped from the watering hole while a cluster of bambi-like impala and a lone warthog chomped on nearby patches of grass.

Infotec drummed up media attention last year when it broadcast a live feed of two bird's nests. It later launched Africam on its Wavelit Internet video site and another stream showing live footage of Canadian grizzly bears.

Websites like Africam have beamed still images from the African bush around the world via the Internet for several years but better technology has made live video footage possible.

The number of people watching TV over the Internet, or IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) is expected to double to 13.3 million in 2007 and surge to 48.8 million by 2010, according to industry analyst Gartner.

http://www.africam.com/


Save the Cetacean Nations from Human Cruelty & Greed: Their 'World' is the Ocean where We are Aliens!

Case Point- Why the World Needs 'Cuteness' to Stop the Slaughter of Wildlife:

Bloodbath: Japan's dolphin cull gets underway

The nation's annual hunting season is underway, a tradition stretching back centuries. Now, though, protesters from abroad are trying to end this way of life.


David McNeill reports from Taiji
UK Independent Online
06 January 2007

In Taiji, the fishermen say that dolphin tastes like venison or beef. But eaten raw with a dab of ginger and soy sauce, the glistening dark flesh resembles liver, with a coppery aftertaste that lingers on the roof of the mouth long after you've chewed it past your protesting taste buds. The ripe, tangy smell stays longer.

"I hate cutting up dolphin," says Toshihiro Motohata, who runs a nearby whalemeat shop. "The stink stays on you for days, even after several baths."

Dolphin-hunting season has arrived again in this sleepy harbour town. Perhaps 2,000 small whales and striped, bottlenose, spotted and Risso's dolphins have been slaughtered for meat that ends up on the tables of local homes and restaurants, and in vacuum-packed bags in supermarkets. By the end of March, many more will go the same way, part of what is probably the largest annual cull of cetaceans - about 26,000 around coastal Japan, according to environmentalists - in the world.

Six hours from Tokyo and accessible only via a coastal road that snakes through tunnels hewn from dense, pine-carpeted mountains, Taiji for years escaped the prying eyes of animal rights activists, but the isolation has been abruptly ended by the internet and the cheap rail pass. A steady trickle of foreign protesters - most Japanese people know little about the tradition - now arrive in the rusting town square to cross swords with the local bureaucrats and the 26 fishermen who run the hunt.

Taiji's notoriety has grown, fuelled by gruesome videos of the dolphin kill posted on YouTube, and by criticism from celebrities such as the American actors Joaquin Phoenix and Ted Danson and from high-profile environmentalists, and tensions have sharpened. Protesters have repeatedly clashed with the fishermen. Nets and boats have been sabotaged, activists arrested and several environmental groups have been effectively banned from the town.

Foreigners now almost inevitably mean trouble, especially when they come with cameras; local people speak with special venom of a BBC documentary that they say depicted them as barbarians. "One fisherman told me if the whalers could kill me, they would," says the best-known protester, Ric O'Barry, who trained dolphins for the 1960s television series Flipper. "But I always try to stay on the right side of the law. If I get arrested, I'm out of this fight."

Around Taiji and in the nearby towns of Kii-Katsura and Shingu, whale meat has been eaten for hundreds of years, claim local officials. Restaurants and shops offer dolphin and whale sashimi and humpback bacon, along with tuna and shark fin soup. A canteen next to the Taiji Whale Museum, where dolphins and small whales are trained to perform tricks for tourists, sells minke steak, sashimi and whale cutlets in curry sauce, in a room decorated with posters of the 80 or so "cetaceans of the world" - whales, dolphins and porpoises.

According to Ikuo Mizutani, a local wholesaler, dolphin meat sells for about 2,000 yen (£9) a kilo, cheaper than beef or whale.

Unlike most Japanese children, who have no idea of what whale tastes like, children in Taiji know their cetaceans. "I don't like the taste of dolphin because it smells," says nine-year-old Rui Utani. "I prefer whale."

In the museum, out-of-towners are often stunned to learn of the local specialities. "I'm shocked," says Keiko Shibuya, from Osaka. "I couldn't imagine eating dolphin. They're too cute."

The hunts are notoriously brutal, and blue tarpaulin sheets block the main viewing spots overlooking the cove where the killings take place, to prevent photographs being taken. Beyond the cove, small boats surround a pod of migrating dolphins, lower metal poles into the sea and bang them to frighten the animals and disrupt their sonar. Once the panicking, thrashing dolphins are herded into the narrow cove, the fishermen attack them with knives, turning the sea red before dragging them to a harbourside warehouse for slaughter.

The fishermen, who consider dolphins just big fish, like tuna, are bewildered that anyone would find this cruel, and describe the protesters as extremists. "If you walked into an American slaughterhouse for cows, it wouldn't look very pretty either," says one, who identifies himself only as Kawasaki. "The killing is done in the open here, so it looks worse than it is." Most of the fishermen are descended from families that have been killing and eating the contents of the sea around Taiji for generations, and reject arguments that dolphins are "special". Says Kawasaki: "They're food, like dogs for the Chinese and Koreans."

Mr O'Barry claims, however, he was told in private by town officials that tradition is not the real reason for the hunts. "It's pest control," he says. "They want to kill the competition for the fish. That's unacceptable. These animals don't have Japanese passports, they belong to the world. They're just trying to get around this town and these 26 guys."

He calls the town "schizophrenic". "It's as pretty as a 1950s postcard, and the people are so friendly, but this secret genocide takes place every year."

The schizophrenia is sharpest, say activists, in the Taiji Whale Museum, where tickets for whale-watching trips in dolphin-shaped boats are sold, while the non-performing animals bump up against each other in a tiny concrete pool. The trainers here help sort the "best-looking" dolphins from the kill, and train them for use in circuses and aquariums across Asia and Europe.

The museum recently made the world's science pages when fishermen handed over a dolphin with an extra set of fins, possibly proving that they once had legs and lived on land. But Mr O'Barry says the story had a dark side. "The Japanese media didn't report that this particular dolphin was taken away from her mother. The mother's throat was slit and she was butchered in the Taiji slaughter house along with more than 200 other bottlenose dolphins."

The bitter controversy over what fishermen in Taiji and other Japanese ports take from the sea is salted with nationalism, one reason why they are backed to the hilt by the Tokyo government. In a country that produces just 40 per cent of its own food, fisheries bureaucrats bristle at "emotional" lectures from Western environmentalists, and amid an intensifying fight for marine resources, they are determined not to yield. For some, cetaceans are a line in the sand. "If we lose on whales, what will happen next?" asks Akira Nakamae, deputy director general of Japan's fisheries agency.

Next, it seems, is tuna, a staple of the Japanese diet in contrast to whale, which is a minor delicacy now eaten by a tiny proportion of the population. Japan's voracious appetite for tuna shows no sign of abating: a report last December claimed that Japanese fishermen poached a staggering 100,000 tons of the coveted southern bluefin tuna above quota between 1996 and 2005.

The Taiji fishermen deny they are taking too much from the sea. "We would be cutting our own throats," says Kazutoyo Shimetani, sales manager of the dolphin hunters' cooperative in Taiji. The cooperative - essentially a closed guild - says it rigidly controls fishing, limiting dolphin hunting to just 26 of the town's approximately 500 fishermen.

Taiji's growing notoriety has widened the cultural gulf between the town and the rest of the world, and most senior officials will no longer talk to Western journalists. But the head of the local board of education, Yoji Kita, who lectures on whaling to schools and colleges, agrees to a brief, testy meeting.

Like many in the town hall, he is defensive, accusing Westerners of failing to understand or explain Japan's culture to their readers, and of inciting protesters, but he is guardedly polite - until a question about the dangerously high mercury levels detected in whales and dolphins. "Why pick on those as reasons to stop eating them?" he asks, voice rising. "The whole environment is poisoned. There is no point in talking to you, because you don't want to listen. That's just racism," he says, standing to terminate the interview.

"It's very difficult," sighs a clerk in the museum. "The town leaders are just so tired of having to deal with this. They want it to go away."

There seems little chance they will get their wish, despite an offer to fund the retirement of the dolphin hunters from a US environmental group. Few in the town took the offer seriously, and the fishermen say they would in any case reject it. "Why should we give up our tradition on the orders of somebody else?" asks Mr Shimetani.

In a world racked by wars, greed and environmental destruction, the fate of a few thousand animals might seem small fry, but activists say the plight of the dolphins is connected to all three. "The dolphin hunt is a symbol of our utilitarian view of nature," says Mr O'Barry. "That we can use and abuse the sea. I honestly believe when the world finds out about this, it will be abolished. It can't possibly survive the light of day."

One man's campaign

Ric O' Barry is one of the world's best known environmentalists. A former US Navy diver, he later trained the five dolphins that played Flipper in the Sixties television series before turning against dolphin captivity in 1970. He has spent his life since as an animal rights campaigner and much of the past decade fighting what he calls the "secret genocide" of dolphins in Taiji, where thousands of the animals are killed between October and March every year. Mr O' Barry travels to the small port town several times a year to film the annual dolphin hunt for a coalition of environmental groups (at www.SaveJapanDolphins.org). He claims he is despised by officials at the town hall, trailed by goons, and harassed and threatened by whalers. "One fisherman down there told me if the whalers could kill me, they would," he says. "I was kind of flattered. They call me 'Samurai dolphin man', which shows that, at least, they respect me." Oddly, the first time the 67-year-old visited Taiji in 1975, he met the mayor and was given the keys to the town after leading a campaign against a US boycott of Japanese products led by anti-whalers whom he considered "racist". He still believes boycotts will not stop whaling. "Boycotts are completely useless because the Japanese people don't even know about this. They are a blanket condemnation of the Japanese people, and the dolphin hunt is led by just 26 fishermen."

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article2129954.ece


Save the Cetacean Nations from Human Cruelty & Greed: Their 'World' is the Ocean where We are Aliens!

Father says ‘Tigger’ hit his son at Disney park
Employee temporarily suspended while authorities investigate incident

MSNBC
Jan 6, 2007

ORLANDO, Fla. - A Walt Disney World employee dressed as the character “Tigger” was accused of hitting a child while posing for a photo, a spokeswoman for the theme park said Saturday.

Park officials temporarily suspended Michael J. Fedelem while they investigate the accusations, Disney spokeswoman Zoraya Suarez said.

“Naturally, physical altercations between cast members and guests are not tolerated,” Suarez said.

Jerry Monaco of New Hampshire videotaped his son, Jerry Jr., posing with the costumed character at Disney-MGM Studios on Friday and recorded the confrontation, according to a statement from the Orange County Sheriff’s Office.

The father said Fedelem intentionally hit his son “on or about the head,” said sheriff’s spokesman Carlos M. Padilla. “The tape only shows a fraction of what happened. Now it’s up to us to find out what led up to that.”

A message left by The Associated Press for Monaco was not immediately returned. A telephone listing for Fedelem could not be located.

In 2004 a Walt Disney World employee dressed as Tigger was accused of touching the breast of a 13-year-old girl while she posed with him for a photo. A jury found the man not guilty.

Save the Cetacean Nations from Human Cruelty & Greed: Their 'World' is the Ocean where We are Aliens!

World’s too small for Goofy-on-Chip sex video
Disney takes ‘appropriate action’ over characters’ ‘mouse orgy’ at Paris park

MSNBC

LOS ANGELES - The Walt Disney Co. said it took "appropriate action" against employees at its Paris theme park who were caught simulating sex while dressed as Disney characters in a digital video that has received wide attention on the Internet.

Disney would not say whether it had dismissed any of the costumed employees featured in the grainy video, which appears to have been shot with a hidden camera at a backstage dressing room at Disneyland Resort Paris.

"The behavior shown on the video is unacceptable and inexcusable," Disney said in a statement.

"The video was taken in the backstage area not accessible to guests. Appropriate action has been taken to deal with the cast members involved."

The video shows Minnie Mouse struggling to free herself as she is grabbed from behind by Goofy and then a giant snowman.

Later, Mickey Mouse simulates sex with the snowman and Goofy does the same with either Chip or Dale, the chipmunks, as laughter is heard on the tape.

The tape is described on the Internet as the "mouse orgy."


Posted By:Ministry of Mutation
Mouse Orgy at Disneyland Paris

Get More Rad videos at MySpace.com


A man enyoys his cigar as dancers in colorful costumes perform in a street of Havana, Saturday, Jan. 6, 2007. The revelers dance to remember a tradition established in colonial times that gave slaves one day a year to freely celebrate in the streets with dance and drums!

Cuban Paper Warns Against Consumerism

Jan 7, 2:10 PM (ET)
By VANESSA ARRINGTON

HAVANA (AP) - Cuba's official youth newspaper on Sunday reported an increase in sales of children's toys this year but warned against a rise in consumerism on the communist-run island.

In a two-page spread, the Juventud Rebelde reported on the revival of "Three Kings Day," a Latin American tradition of giving gifts to children on Jan. 6, commemorating the arrival of three wise men who offered the newborn Jesus gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

"A tradition that seemed extinct in Cuban society rises again," the state-run newspaper said. "Although no one sees celebrating the millennial festivity of the Three Kings as heresy, the danger could be in (the holiday) accentuating consumerist habits and social differences."

Christmas is a low-key affair in Cuba. The government discouraged holiday celebrations for religious and consumerist reasons for decades following Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution, but made Christmas a holiday in 1997 ahead of a visit by Pope John Paul II in 1998.

Christmas was declared a permanent holiday at the end of 1998, a decision religious leaders embraced while also echoing concerns that it would succumb to Western-style commercialization.

State-run department stores offer no special promotions or sales on toys this time of year. Those interviewed for the Juventud Rebelde article attributed the increase of gift-giving in Cuba to the influence of globalization and visits by Cuban-Americans and other natives living abroad.

"During these days one can hardly move around the toy department of stores ... in the capital," the article said.

The newspaper spread showed photographs of shoppers holding several bags and children playing with toys. Raisa Vazquez, a manager of Havana's La Epoca department store, was quoted as saying toy sales were the highest this year since the store reopened in 1998.

"The enormous demand has forced us to spread out the toys to other departments, like the hardware section or the area with school supplies, so that the customer doesn't have to wait in such an immense line," Vazquez told the newspaper.

No specific sales numbers were reported, however.

Some of those interviewed by Juventud Rebelde expressed disdain for the resurgence of the holiday, calling it "a tradition of capitalist countries." University professors also warned that gift-giving can highlight economic differences.

"What should worry us is the social connotation that this could have, making it an objective of families to buy the most ostentatious gift," Teresa Munoz, a sociology professor at the University of Havana, told the newspaper. "The solution is not to prohibit (the celebration) but rather to be conscientious of the consequences we could face creating consumerist habits that deform little ones and make them feel superior to their companions."

The Three Kings Day tradition comes from Spain. While not actively promoted by the communist government, the newspaper said rebels led by Castro in the 1950s also gave toys on the holiday to children in the mountains where they were fighting the Cuban revolution.

On Monday, the office of Havana's city historian will distribute 100,000 toys to children to celebrate the holiday but also to honor Castro's Jan. 8 entrance in Havana after the triumph of his revolution in 1959.

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Mickey's cousins unwelcome guests in Florida town

Reuters Dec 30, 2006

ORLANDO, Fla. - Central Florida, the home of Walt Disney World, is typically invaded by visitors wearing mouse ears this time of year.

But while Mickey Mouse's fans may be welcome, the residents of Apopka, a tiny town 25 miles north of the theme park, are disgusted by the hundreds of thousands of real mice that have overrun their community.

The thumb-sized house mice have chased people out of homes and offices for the second time since 1999, said David Overfield, environmental administrator for the Orange County Health Department.

"It's pretty nasty," said Overfield, whose job includes trying to determine the cause of the infestation.

His current theory says an overabundant crop of acorns may have encouraged well-fed mice to mate -- and mate some more.

Dee Sincavage, owner of one of the many ornamental plant nurseries for which Apopka is known, is hard pressed to pick her worst mouse experience since the infestation began last summer by chasing kids out of Camp Wewa.

Was it the morning she walked into her nursery and felt the squish-crunch of fresh mouse carcasses underfoot? The night mice chewed through plumbing, flooding her office and soaking her business records? Or just the daily ordeal of drowning and disposing of dozens of live mice caught in traps overnight?

"Gosh, they are all over the place," Sincavage said. "The stench is bad and the gnats around here are terrible from all the dead carcasses. It's just disgusting."

Counter-measures by health authorities, who have established a special rodent command center, so far have been only partly successful. Besides dispensing traps and bait, authorities launched an air assault by releasing 17 barn and screech owls expected to feast on dozens of mice a day. News of the buffet apparently traveled far, luring many more birds of prey to the area.

"We have more raptors than we've ever seen before," Overfield said. "They just line up along the telephone wires and dive down and pick stuff off."

So far, Overfield said, the infestation has not sickened anyone, although the smell of all the rotting carcasses trapped in the walls of many homes and businesses is certainly nauseating.

Overfield cautioned residents to be vigilant about inspecting their food supplies since the mice can eat through standard plastic storage containers.

Although Orange County leaders recently allocated another $200,000 to continue the rodent battle, no one knows when or how the infestation might end.

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