Dementia wrote:
] ] Clothing shops and factories have been given a written
] ] order to stop producing clothes that stray from the
] ] strict female dress codes, the head of a clothing trade
] ] union in Tehran told a local newspaper.
] ]
] ] Long, shapeless black coats and head coverings have been
] ] mandatory women's wear - regardless of religion - since
] ] the country's Islamic revolution 24 years ago.
] ]
] ] However, in recent times some Iranian women have been
] ] sporting shorter, paler coats that end at the knee and
] ] hug the body.
] ]
] ] Some don colourful headscarves that allow their hair to
] ] spill out from underneath.
] ]
] ] But now dress shops have been told they have a month to
] ] clear their shelves of items that do not conform to the
] ] code.
] ]
] ] Some traders in various shopping districts in Tehran told
] ] news agency AFP they had already been raided by police.
]
] I know - I just don't understand the culture. Still, I
] consider this moronic. So your women _want_ to look beautiful,
] and you won't let them? Idiots caging birds and not only never
] letting them fly, but covering them so no one can appreciate
] their beauty.

I don't understand the culture either. And I don't have to. Clearly the attempt to conceal women’s bodies is a sign of insecurity (remember the Taliban?) "if no one can see how beautiful your woman is, its that much less likely someone will try to seduce her from you."

I don't agree with any culture that oppresses people in such a manner. In Saudi Arabia, its still legal to own slaves, and you can have your hands cut off for petty shoplifting. Adultery in many Muslim countries is an offense punishable by death - but normally only for the woman. The offending male goes free with no punishment.

This culture still lives in the dark ages in so many respects. Is it any wonder they resort to pathetic acts of terrorism (kill first, negotiate later) to try and force their out dated ideals on the rest of the world?

Will the Muslim countries PLEASE join the rest of the world in the 21’st century???

Laughing Boy

RE: BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | Iran tells women to button up

] Clothing shops and factories have been given a written
] order to stop producing clothes that stray from the
] strict female dress codes, the head of a clothing trade
] union in Tehran told a local newspaper.
]
] Long, shapeless black coats and head coverings have been
] mandatory women's wear - regardless of religion - since
] the country's Islamic revolution 24 years ago.
]
] However, in recent times some Iranian women have been
] sporting shorter, paler coats that end at the knee and
] hug the body.
]
] Some don colourful headscarves that allow their hair to
] spill out from underneath.
]
] But now dress shops have been told they have a month to
] clear their shelves of items that do not conform to the
] code.
]
] Some traders in various shopping districts in Tehran told
] news agency AFP they had already been raided by police.

I know - I just don't understand the culture. Still, I consider this moronic. So your women _want_ to look beautiful, and you won't let them? Idiots caging birds and not only never letting them fly, but covering them so no one can appreciate their beauty.

BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | Iran tells women to button up

bucy wrote:
] ] BRAUNSCHWEIG, Germany — In these girth-conscious times,
] ] even weight itself has weight issues. The kilogram is
] ] getting lighter, scientists say, sowing potential
] ] confusion over a range of scientific endeavor.
] ]
] ] The kilogram is defined by a platinum-iridium cylinder,
] ] cast in England in 1889. No one knows why it is shedding
] ] weight, at least in comparison with other reference
] ] weights, but the change has spurred an international
] ] search for a more stable definition.

Fascinating! I thought all metric units had long ago been revamped to be defined by a universal constant? The meter for example used to be defined as 1 / 10,000,000th the distance from a pole to the equator. Considering the earths crust shifts constantly, this was deemed to be inaccurate, and its defintion went thru several improvements in accuracy over the years and was last defined in 1983 as "The length traveled by light in a vacuum during 1/299 792 458 of a second."

Very odd they haven't come up with a universal constant to define the gram yet.

BTW... If you ever wanna win a sucker bet with a friend, ask them what the official unit of measurements for the USA is. They will likely reply "the english system", when ironically enough, our "official" unit of measure is the metric system, and has been since 1893...

http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/usmetric.html

"In 1893, Congress adopted the metric standards, the official meter and kilogram bars supplied by BIPM, as the standards for all measurement in the U.S. This didn't mean that metric units had to be used, but since that time the customary units have been defined officially in terms of metric standards. Currently, the foot is legally defined to be exactly 0.3048 meter and the pound is legally defined to equal exactly 453.59237 grams."

Laughing Boy

RE: Scientists Struggling to Make the Kilogram Right Again

] Even as an endangered species, with protections afforded
] only a handful of other creatures on Earth, the Florida
] manatee loses up to 10 percent of its number every year,
] many crushed or slashed by boats.

Poor sea cows!!!!!!

Florida grapples with plight of manatees

] Mercado, who brushed back strands of brown hair from her
] reddened eyes as she spoke, has a story that has not
] changed from the start. She told the Richardson police
] officer who responded to the store's call that she had
] always taken pictures of her children nude, and that it
] wasn't uncommon in her native Peru to do so. They were
] innocent baby pictures, taken for the family's benefit,
] she said.
]
] Five days later, when a state child welfare investigator
] and two detectives arrived at her house, Mercado again
] insisted that she saw nothing wrong with the photos. She
] allowed the group to search the couple's cramped room,
] and the detectives went through everything, including
] their photo albums, apparently looking for more evidence
] of child porn. They found nothing.
]
] "We fought so hard to come to this country," says
] Mercado, a 33-year-old who was a nurse in Peru and
] aspires to become licensed in the United States one day.
] "For this to happen is unbelievable."

This is crazy. People are so afraid that they're going to miss a child abuse case that they go after everything and anything.

Printable page

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] America has 47,000 power plants, airports and other
] "critical infrastructure facilities."
]
] Walker believes a terrorist can get within 100 feet of
] most of them, unchallenged and undetected, and kill or
] injure thousands.
]
] But if onsite cameras beamed photos to the World Wide
] Web, Americans could monitor these sites from home. If
] they spied a potential attacker a masked man
] trying to scale a power plant fence, or a van parked next
] to a reservoir they could alert security agents
] with a click of the mouse. Agents would call local
] authorities and help avert disaster.
]
] Walker envisions spotters getting up to $10 per hour,
] paid by the government agencies and companies that need
] protecting. He wants to sell USHomeGuard to the federal
] government for $1, then charge fees to run the system.

This is so freaking Orwellian, its scary. Keep an eye on this one folks...

Laughing Boy

Webcam homeland

Panoramic view of Mount Everest. Quite impressive.

Mount Everest. 360 degree panorama from the top of Mt Everest - QTVR panoramic movie from panoramas.dk

crankymessiah wrote:
] ] HONG KONG (Reuters) - A top Hong Kong scientist said on
] ] Friday it was likely the deadly SARS virus that has
] ] killed almost 700 people worldwide jumped to humans from
] ] civet cats, which are considered a delicacy by many
] ] people in southern China.
]
] I've always known ctas were evil. Long live dogs!

One minute its cats, the next its chickens, and NOW its from outer space! TRANSLATION - "We have no fucking clue where this bug came from."

Laughing Boy

RE: ABCNEWS.com : SARS Virus Likely Came from Civet Cats-Scientists

] Sharman Networks said its Kazaa file-sharing software was
] on track to set a record Friday as it becomes the
] most-popular free program on the Web with over 230
] million downloads.
]
] By hitting that total, Shaman said Kazaa would surpass
] the popular ICQ instant messaging program, owned by CNN's
] parent company AOL Time Warner.

Fuck Kazaa and its spyware. http://www.winmx.com for your P2P file sharing needs - spyware free! Spread the good word!

Most downloaded program on the Web?