On second thought, while he appears to be twisted, dangerous, and manipulative, he doesn’t seem to have the intelligence of a mastermind.
from the Guardian Nigeria -
IRANIAN President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has questioned the accepted narrative of the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, saying it was still not clear who was behind them.
“Something happened in New York and still nobody knows who the main perpetrators of that act were,” Agence France Presse (AFP) quoted Ahmadinejad as telling diplomats and newspaper editors late on Sunday while on a brief visit to Qatar.
“No independent people were allowed to try and identify the perpetrators,” he charged.
[...]
Ahmadinejad has on several occasions questioned the accepted version of the 2001 attacks by Al-Qaeda militants, which killed nearly 3,000 people in the United States.
In March, he referred to the attacks as “a big lie,” Iranian state media reported.
Could you imagine being told you had to change the lyrics in those songs because a word had taken on multiple meanings? Or you just might not be able to sing one of those songs anymore?
A principal at a school in Australia has done just that – taken the easy way out, rather than give an explanation of the word “gay” in the song “Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree.”
from nwi.com -
Martin said he was playing a recording of the song for the students about a month ago when the line “gay your life must be” produced a flurry of giggles throughout the classroom. Some of the students use the word “gay” as a schoolyard taunt, he said, but don’t understand its true meaning. And so, to calm them down, he told them to swap in the word “fun” for “gay.”
“It wasn’t misplaced political correctness, it wasn’t homophobia, there was nothing really calculated in doing it,” he told The Associated Press. “I could’ve stopped the whole class and gone into a very caring, supportive explanation of gay being quite a reasonable choice in lifestyle that some people make, but I was only talking with 7- and 8-year-olds and I think that sort of thing is better explained more fully with parents.”
I used to sing that song in the U.S. in grade school back in the early sixties. We didn’t giggle back then. We didn’t use the word “gay” as a synonym for “fun” either. That was before our time. We just sang the song and blew it off. Same as we did the Flintstones. But we giggled if we had to say the word diarrhea during science back then in grade school. Kids will be kids. And we were told to stop giggling – it’s a word and a bodily function…get over it.
Principal Garry Martin of Le Page Primary School in Melbourne needs to grow up and get over it.
You, your child, or your student have an awesome opportunity at your fingertips…24/7.
Robert Ballard, a deep-sea explorer who you may know for his discovery of the Titanic is bringing you “Nautilus Live.
The Nautilus and its team are on their way to the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, Israel.
Their mission:
Start date: September 4, 2010 End date: September 15, 2010
The eastern Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Israel is home to underwater landslides, deep-sea corals, ancient archaeological sites, gas seeps, and many other interesting features. During this part of the expedition, Nautilus team members will use sonar to survey this fascinating area…
Continue reading about the mission, read blog posts, see live video and photos, sign up for Facebook and Twitter updates here at Nautilus Live.
Are you familiar with the story, “A Tree Grows In Brooklyn Lebanon/Israel? Me either.
from Ynet News -
The UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon has concluded that a tree at the center of deadly clashes along the Lebanese-Israeli border on Aug. 3 was inside Israel.
We almost lost New Orleans. Some say California could fall away from the west coast. What if you suddenly became a (wo)man without a country? What if it just disappeared? Erratic weather that comes in waves every number of years or global warming…no matter what’s to blame, there’s always the possibility of an island country being sucked up into an abyss…and then what?
from the New York Times -
If a country disappears, is it still a country? Does it keep its seat at the United Nations? Who controls its offshore mineral rights? Its shipping lanes? Its fish?
And if entire populations are forced to relocate — as could be the case with citizens of the Maldives, Tuvalu, Kiribati and other small island states facing extinction — what citizenship, if any, can those displaced people claim?
Who would expect anything less from Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. As I’ve said before, he appears to be twisted and dangerous.
from Ynet News -
A day after Iran began fueling its first nuclear power plant, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Israel was “too weak” to attack the Islamic Republic.
[...]
In the interview, Iran’s president offered friendship to the United States but also taunted Washington by saying he does not fear an attack by the US because it could not even defeat a small army in Iraq.
President Barack Obama has repeatedly offered to start a dialogue with Iran, but his administration says Iran chose international isolation instead. The two countries are at odds over Iran’s nuclear program, which the US fears is aimed at producing weapons though Tehran denies it.
While other countries continue to build their programs, we continue to talk of trimming ours. So, we risk falling behind, instead playing big sister and working on outreach programs while those less powerful catch up.
Iran says they plan on sending their own astronauts into space by 2025. I see no reason we should doubt them. They also have a new, unmanned drone called, “an ambassador of death.”
from VOA -
Iran’s military has unveiled a new unmanned aircraft, saying the drone is capable of carrying out long-range missions.
Iran’s military displayed the drone Sunday at a ceremony attended by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and shown on live television.
Officials told Iran’s state-run Press TV that the drone, named the Karrar, meaning “striker”, can carry out long-distance bombing runs against ground targets at high speeds.
Tell me…exactly what is wrong with being a superpower? Don’t we have to continue to plan for the future in order to hold our power now?
April 13, 2010
President Obama today at a news conference closing his “Nuclear Security Summit,” where he made the odd statement that “whether we like it or not, we (United States) remain a dominant military superpower, and when conflicts break out, we get pulled into it.”
I guess that problem is solved. While I get the regular flu vaccine yearly ( and have begun to wonder whether that is almost a waste of time) I was apprehensive about the H1N1 vaccine. My daughter, son-in-law and baby grandson did get it with no side effects (that we know of). This was just one vaccine I did not want to get and I worried about my family. I believe the vaccine was rushed into the system too quickly. Now the World Health Organization (WHO) indicates the pandemic was short-lived…
from the Star Tribune -
GENEVA – The World Health Organization declared the swine flu pandemic officially over Tuesday, months after many national authorities started canceling vaccine orders and shutting down telephone hot lines as the disease ebbed from the headlines.
WHO Director-General Margaret Chan said the organization’s emergency committee of top flu experts advised her that the pandemic had “largely run its course” and the world is no longer in phase six — the highest influenza alert level.
Around my parts, people whine when it rains too much and they can’t maneuver the streets to get home or their basements partially flood during a bad rainstorm. I’m not saying losing all of your belongings in your basement to a backed-up sewer or a basement flooded with four feet of water isn’t devastating. Of course it is. It’s your home and you are helpless. It’s horrible, but it could have been worse, right? While they are whining, in the back of my mind I flash back to Katrina or the Tsunami in Sri Lanka or the devastation in China.
Now look at what Pakistan is going through.
Worst flooding in Pakistan in 80 years Photo: Reuters
And it never fails. When a country is suffering – aid runs into road blocks from its own government. In India it’s being reported that a charity supported by al-Qaeda links is front and center helping out.
from BBC News -
“The worst floods in Pakistan’s history have hit at least 14 million people, officials say.Twelve million are affected in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab provinces, while a further two million are affected in Sindh. In Indian-administered Kashmir, at least 113 people died in mudslides.
Meanwhile, it has emerged that a charity connected to a group with alleged al-Qaeda links has been providing flood relief.”
Every few months I get an urge to pay a visit to the Cuban blog “Generation Y.” I can’t help being drawn to the words of suppressed people and stories they want to get out to the world. A lot of the communications are about the political prisoners and their followers. Other blog posts tell of general life in a time and place that seems from long ago.
In looking at the blog, I found a story about automobiles that I think we all know about, but it was interesting to read all the same. Those cars we would call classic on our own streets are a way of life in Cuba…out of necessity.
From Generation Y -
There is a detail of our reality that fascinates tourists and surprises collectors around the world: the number of old cars still running on the streets of the country.
