Bill Clinton Brings Arrested Journalists Home from North Korea

Twitter delivered me the best news I have heard in days: North Korea has pardoned and released Laura Ling and Euna Lee!

Ling, 32 and Lee, 36 were arrested in March while reporting undercover near the borders of the communist country, under the dictatorship of Kim Jong Il.  The pair was sentenced to 12 years of hard labor by the North Korean government in June.  While their tragic arrest stirred the hearts of many, the media coverage of the incident was less than influential. I'll bet walking out to the streets right now, most of the people you ask would not even know who Laura and Euna are.

Nevertheless, our government and our hero of the hour by the name of Bill Clinton finally stepped in and took action.  According to CNN, the former president "met with top North Korean officials in Pyongyang to appeal for the release of Laura Ling and Euna Lee."

For more, read the CNN Wire blog here.

Awesome day, awesome day. I wish I were still at Koream so I could help craft a feature for this news.  Nonetheless, I thank God for the return of these two journalists, who can now go home to their young families (Laura is married, Euna is married with a four-year old daughter).

And now, it is not so tasteless to post up a picture of Laura's hoooot husband, Iain Clayton.

I know, RIGHT? And they're even cuter together to boot.

Earth Day (Week)!

Why settle for Earth Day when you can celebrate Earth Week??!!  Or better yet, Earth Month! How about Earth 24/7?  

Because I, alas, cannot all my time to writing about ways to save our globe (but why not?), I shall try, for this week at least, to devote one entry a day to finding ways to recycle, reduce, re-use.  First up:

Bottles.

Errr..not those types.

These ones.

The New York Times has a sunny little article out about the costs and benefits of water bottles, comparing plastic ones with those made of stainless steel.  

Up until last year, I'm ashamed to say that I was a user of plastic bottles.  I always recycled but every week, I would still use up tens of twenties of bottles (hey, I'm a thirsty girl).  But I finally saw the light when I was traveling around Europe and Hong Kong and didn't have luck to find water everywhere I went nor the capacity to lug gallons of water up the hills to my dorm room.  So I started using a plastic canteen to quench my thirst. And you know what? Best idea of my life.  

With a more durable and sustainable water bottle, you can:

1) Drink water WHENEVER you want! Just fill it up at a nearby fountain.

2) Save money. Do you know how much packs of water in plastic bottles cost? Last time I checked my sources (Sheila), it was $3.00 +$1.20 in CRV (the charge for the plastic bottle) and you constantly have to buy a new box every week. Know how much a bottle costs? Anywhere from $5-$10. Save that extra cash for something that really matters, like that cup of coffee you so badly need at 8 in the morning.

3) Drink at whatever temperature you like.  Durable bottles are far more useful for when you want that piping hot mug of green tea or that ice cold lemonade.  They keep the temperature of the liquids longer and you can buy different types so you won't burn your hand. Yay for pro-choice!

These days, you'll hardly see me without my convenient blue and silver bottle (far right in the picture above).  And I haven't looked back.  Drink up!

Boobs!

Everything is better when it's a musical. (Even the possible demise of my future career.) I found this little gem on the site Rock Cookie Bottom where Jonathan Mann creates a song a day.

P.S. Boobs!