The Rainbow Project to Aid Japan

Help support Japan by contributing a picture of a rainbow and a cash donation to The Rainbow Project:

A rainbow is pure magic. Through The Rainbow Project you can share this magic and at the same time help others.

By uploading your own photograph of a rainbow and making a donation, you will connect with communities around the world. Each photograph that is uploaded will become part of unified rainbow and as we go along, these images will be collaged together, forming one harmonious rainbow that represents cosmic solidarity.

Donations made to The Rainbow Project will be allocated directly to Civic Force and Peace Winds Japan. Our goal is to share this project with as many people as possible! As the rainbow grows on the site, so will The Rainbow Project.

HOW TO PARTICIPATE

1. UPLOAD a picture (.jpg format) of a rainbow. Please include your name, email and location of the photo in the form provided, as well as in the file name of the upload (ex. jane-smith-usa.jpg).

2. DONATE via Paypal to The Rainbow Project. Donate any amount you can afford. Your photo will appear on this site within 24 hours of confirmation of your donation

MSN is doing their part through community involvement while

•Continuing to work with customers, local government, inter-government and nonprofit agencies to support relief efforts. This includes offering free incident support and free temporary software licenses to all impacted customers and partners as well as lead governments, nonprofit partners and institutions involved in disaster response efforts.
•Offering Windows Azure, Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, and Lync Online at no cost for 90 days to help them resume operations more quickly while their existing systems return to normal.

•Providing a cloud-based disaster response communications portal, based on Windows Azure, to governments and nonprofits to enable them to communicate between agencies and directly with citizens.

•Supporting customers directly and providing localized tools such as the Outlook/Windows Live Hotmail rolling blackout calendar. The Microsoft Japan team is also working with partners to create local applications such as J!ResQ, which helps people to find family and friends and aids relief efforts.

•Mobilizing our online properties to help provide information and drive donations. Bing, MSN, MSNBC and Microsoft.com are all promoting links to relief efforts and our corporate disaster response page. Xbox Live is running PSAs for the American Red Cross, a new Bing Maps tool has been released to support relief agencies, and MSN has launched its Stand with Japan site.



Also:

Help Japan, Buy Needlepoint
and
ArtNeedlepoint
and
Block Prints for Japan
all have lovely items for sale to help in the disaster relief.

Official Website for Royal Wedding-Check it Out

Are you an anglophile?  I'll confess to it.  And the upcoming royal wedding holds great interest to almost everyone the world round, anglophile or not.

William and Kate have an official website dedicated to their upcoming nuptuals.  It is updated regularly and has information, naturally, about any and all things related to the wedding.  What I found especially interesting was the music that will be orchestrated, sung, trumpeted, and otherwise performed.  In part:

Two choirs, one orchestra and two fanfare teams will perform the music at the Wedding Service of Prince William and Miss Catherine Middleton at Westminster Abbey on April 29th. These are:

• The Choir of Westminster Abbey
• The Chapel Royal Choir
• The London Chamber Orchestra
• The Fanfare Team from the Central Band of the Royal Air Force
• The State Trumpeters of The Household Cavalry

The choirs will be under the direction of Mr James O’Donnell, Organist and Master of the Choristers at Westminster Abbey. The Choir of Westminster Abbey is made up of 20 boys, all of whom attend the Abbey’s dedicated residential Choir School, and 12 professional adult singers, known as Lay Vicars. In addition...

Everybody is Irish on St. Pat's

Claim to be Irish?  Even our pup (French poodle mix) is Irish today and outdoes the clip art, IMHO.

Doctor Libby (aka Libby the Therapy Dog) also has a St. Pat's scarf, but she was too sleepy to dress in it before the picture was snapped.

Just finished Edward Rutherford's The Rebels of Ireland, which was a tome of Irish background beginning in the 1500's.  If you would like that book, leave me a comment and I'll send it to you postage paid!  First commenter who wants the book wins.

About the book from Amazon:

The Princes of Ireland, the first volume of Edward Rutherfurd’s magisterial epic of Irish history, ended with the disastrous Irish revolt of 1534 and the disappearance of the sacred Staff of Saint Patrick. The Rebels of Ireland opens with an Ireland transformed; plantation, the final step in the centuries-long English conquest of Ireland, is the order of the day, and the subjugation of the native Irish Catholic population has begun in earnest.