JAN 25 US CELEBS ARE BECOMING CITIZENS OF AFRICAN NATIONS

JAN 25  US CELEBS ARE BECOMING CITIZENS OF AFRICAN NATIONS

The Ancestry Craze has taken over the USA! Using new tech, people can discover their ancestral past with just a simple oral swipe. It often leads to surprises. Just watch 'Finding Your Roots' on PBS. See, most Americans don't know their true ancestry. We are told we are descendants of French aristocracy or the Italian mafia, etc. as part of family lore. After receiving factual DNA results, we are flabbergasted to see we're actually 90% Slovenian or Lebanese and none of our cherished legends are likely true.

Yet perhaps the most revolutionary aspect of the Ancestry Craze involves African-Americans. At least other groups have an notion...an idea...of where they're from. But for the descendants of the 20 million African slaves brought to the New World, DNA data is a spectacular view into a previously unknown area. Here are three celebs who have embraced their African origins, visited their homelands and then became citizens:

SAMUEL L. JACKSON. (Gabon). This actor actually went on the PBS show and was fascinated to learn that his family is from the Benga People in Gabon. This led to Jackson researching and visiting his ancestral home in Africa. Turned out he loved it! He described his trip as a "journey of discovery." When he returned a year later, Jackson was hailed as a national hero. Gabon's "President" Ali Bongo was on hand and presented the 'Pulp Fiction' star with a shiny new Gabonese passport. Nice!

LUDACRIS (Ghana). The Atlanta rapper-turned-actor is also on the ancestry bandwagon and began researching his heritage. This work took Chris to Ghana. As the sole British colony on Africa's Gold Coast, Ghana is where the majority of the American colonies' slaves came from. As part of Ghana's "Year of Return" ceremonies, Ludacris was one of 125 other international artists of Ghanaian descent to receive citizenship. "I was not born in Africa, but Africa has been born in me." You go, Luda!

TIFFANY HADDISH (Eritrea). Although born in South-Central LA, this comedian's family are recent immigrants from East Africa. When her father passed away last year, Tiffany attended his funeral in Eritrea, his birthplace, for the first time. She was astounded with the natural beauty of the land and the hospitality of the people. Like Jackson, she was celebrated and feted by the government. She now proudly has dual US / Eritrean citizenship. Beautiful!

JAN 17 NATIONS THAT FORBID ALCOHOL

JAN 17  NATIONS THAT FORBID ALCOHOL

One of America's most memorable days occurred one hundred years ago today. January 17, 1920, was the first day of Prohibition. From coast to coast, kegs of beer, casks of wine and barrels of whiskey were ceremoniously dumped into sewers. Thirteen years later, the moral experiment known as the 18th Amendment ended. Today, a handful of Islamic nations still have complete bans on alcohol:

KUWAIT. The Koran specifically forbids followers from consuming alcohol. Worldwide, 95% of Muslims don't drink. Grocery stores don't sell it, restaurants don't serve it. However, in most Islamic countries, non-followers of the Koran are allowed to drink. It is legal for businessmen and tourists to drink, so you'll see booze in airports and select hotels. This is not the case in Kuwait. Strict laws prohibit anyone from having even an ounce of liquor.

LIBYA. Prior to the arrival of Col. Gaddafi in 1969, Libya resembled the other Mediterranean countries. It was blessed with fantastic beaches, quaint coastal ports and phenomenal Greco-Roman ruins. Then the Green Book came and everything changed. Visitors and booze were suddenly forbidden. The current dictatorship has only wrenched up the policy.

SAUDI ARABIA. As the guardian of Mecca, it comes as no surprise that Saudi Arabia has most strict interpretation of Koranic law. Upon arrival, luggage is thoroughly searched. Bottles are confiscated and fines are levied. If you arrive drunk, you aren't allowed in. Once inside the Kingdom, the laws become even more severe. The punishment for selling alcohol? 500 lashes.

INDIA. Most of India has no restrictions on alcohol. However, there are two states that have such extraordinary ordinances they deserve mention. The states of Gujarat and Nagaland implement the death penalty for anyone caught manufacturing any form of booze. Yikes. Bihar recently also became dry, which is notable. With 103 million residents, if Bihar were an independent country it would boast the world's 13th largest population.

The remaining nations with outright bans on booze are: Mauritania, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.

JAN 11 CONFUSING TIME ZONES EXPLAINED

JAN 11  CONFUSING TIME ZONES EXPLAINED

Happy New Year from the DUNER BLOG! Every New Year's Eve, the staff gets together at the San Francisco HQ to watch each time zone celebrate on the news. It starts at 3:00 am - that's when folks in Samoa light off the very first fireworks. At six, we watch Sydney Harbour awash in colour, then at ten o'clock it's Hong Kong Harbour. The real party starts at 9:00 pm, when the ball drops at Times Square, NYC. During the day, we discover some really curious time zones around the world. Here are five:

SAMOA: UTC +14:00. Up until the year 2011, Samoa was on the last nation to celebrate a new year. See, the island nation is only 100 miles west of the International Date Line. This causes Samoa problems, as they are a day behind their top business partner, Australia. The solution? Bend the date line. Together with neighboring Kiribati, they cancelled December 30th, 2011 and jumped a day forward.

INDIA: UTC +5:30. During colonial times, there were three time zones in India: Two, Bombay Time and Calcutta Time, were an hour apart. The third, Madras Time, is in between these two meridians. Therefore, it was a half hour off. This worked for sailors, but when railways crisscrossed India it became a problem. People didn't know if a train was on Bombay, Madras or Calcutta time. So it was decided India would have ONE time zone. Logically, the one in the middle was the one selected. A nation is allowed to choose their time zone, and it's stuck around ever since.

NEPAL: UTC + 5:45. Travelers joke it's best not to observe India's half-hour time zone. Why? Because Indians are always thirty minutes late! So does that mean that the Nepalese...the only country in the world with a 45 minute increment...are even later than Indians?? Nope. It's because the Kingdom has always set their watches around when it's noon at Gaurishankar, a sacred Himalayan peak.

CHINA: UTC + 8:00. The People's Republic likes things uniform, so it comes as no surprise they too only have one time zone. The problem is that the PRC is much larger than India. For comparison, the 48 contiguous US states is the same size as China. However, we have four time zones. As expected, one gigantic time zone creates odd occurrences. For example, in summer, the sun sets a midnight in Xinjiang. As a quiet protest, the Uighur people who live there use common sense and adhere to their actual time zone.

NEWFOUNDLAND: UTC -3:30. The Western Hemisphere has surprisingly normal time zones, logically following lines of latitude. Except for Newfoundland. Like India, they are a half hour off. It too dates to the British colonial period, when the ports of St. John's were thirty minutes ahead of Quebec. When time zones were first drawn up in 1885, Newfoundland was not part of Canada and chose to keep their zone. The independent-minded colony was the last province to join Canada in 1933. Despite pressure from Ottawa, they grudgingly keep their odd time zone.