One member of Basij was hidden on top of the roof at a civilian house, at 7:05 p.m he shooted the girl straight right in her heart and succeeded as well. The bullet had blasted within the chest of Neda Agha Soltan, so she cannot tolerate it for more than two minutes and died. Several people from the Protesting Crowd (of about 1 kilometer) were running towards “Salehi St.” because of tear gas and fire.
“Mainstream media” have not yet confirmed the accuracy of the videos, the place of this unpleasant incident, and the identity of the suspected killer. But CNN (The International Media) have shown the videos for several times, though Neda Agha Soltan death`s news were not reported by Iranian Media.
At the end we just dedicate these lines to Neda Aagha Soltan. . . . . .
Neda, you’re the “Face of Freedom” in Iran.
You will not be forgotten.
May God Rest you in Peace.
Neda Agha Soltan
'No memorial service'
The fiance of Neda Agha-Soltan, the young woman whose violent death during clashes in Tehran on Saturday was recorded on video and uploaded to the internet, has described the events leading up to her shooting in an interview for BBC Persian TV.She had been sitting with her music teacher in a car, stuck in traffic, when she decided to get out because of the heat.
"She got out of the car for just for a few minutes [and] that's when she was shot dead," said Caspian Makan.Mr Makan quoted eyewitnesses as saying she appeared to have been targeted deliberately by "paramilitaries in civilian clothing".
He added that officials had prevented mourners holding a memorial service at a mosque on Monday.
"The authorities are aware that everybody in Iran and throughout the whole world knows about her story," he told the BBC. "They were afraid that lots of people could turn up."
Address at Afternoon Exercises
Tercentenary Theatre, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.
June 4, 2009
As delivered
Distinguished guests, graduates and families, alumni and alumnae, colleagues and friends – and Secretary Chu, welcome.
It is customary on this occasion for the president to talk about the year that has passed, to report on the University’s achievements and directions to gathered alumni/ae and friends. This June, I have quite a year on which to reflect — a year of unanticipated and dramatic change.
Perhaps I should have realized that something unusual was afoot when the freshmen were greeted their first night at Harvard in September with a blackout in the Yard. Within weeks, financial markets were in turmoil, venerable firms began to fall, and we watched trillions of dollars of wealth disappear around the globe. Nine months later, we inhabit a new world — one of changing structures, assumptions, and values as well as changed resources. Few expect a return anytime soon to the world we had come to take for granted just a year ago.
We graduate a class of seniors from the College today who, according to The New York Times, face the most difficult job market in decades. We award professional degrees to students entering fields that are searching for new moorings as they face demands for changed regulation, compensation, and public purpose. And we see the roles and resources of universities changing as well in this environment of global crisis. It is clear we have never been more needed. We have watched as Harvard became a kind of employment bureau for the new administration in Washington. As the White House seeks solutions for the economic downturn, for climate change, health care delivery, regulatory reform, and K-12 education, it has called so many of our faculty to service that Senator Susan Collins of Maine was prompted to ask at the confirmation hearing of one of our colleagues whether any Law School faculty members were left in Cambridge. And not just our faculty but many of our alumni have been drafted as well, occupying numerous cabinet and subcabinet posts — and of course the Oval Office itself.
Knowledge — and people with knowledge — are critical to addressing the challenges that face us. This is what we do as a university; this is who we are. We produce knowledge, and we disseminate it — as we teach our students, as we share the fruits of our research. The new president has declared that the United States must support “colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age,” and must, he has said, “restore science to its rightful place,” and must lead the world in research and discovery. His Secretary of Energy, our speaker Steven Chu, has reinforced this message, predicating our prosperity as a nation in the years to come upon, he has said, our “ability to nurture our intellectual capital.”
But even as we reaffirm the importance of universities and their work, we have begun to see that we need to do this work differently. At Harvard, as at our peer institutions, we confront changed circumstances that require changed strategies. As a university community we have spent a great deal of time this year focused on these difficult new realities — beginning to decide what we can and must live without. For all this work, we are still at the outset of a process that will define Harvard’s future and, as our peers undertake similar exercises, the future of higher education. But as we come to the end of this year of change and adjustment, we must focus not on what we have lost, but on what we have. It is time to think of ourselves not so much as objects of a global economic crisis beyond our control, but as heirs of a nearly 400-year-old institution that defines academic excellence for much of the world. In the halcyon days of my installation a year and a half ago, I spoke about that accountability — what we at universities owe one another as teachers, students, and scholars and what we as universities owe the world. These responsibilities, this accountability, have now been magnified by the times that confront us. We cannot simply serve as stewards or curators of Harvard’s storied traditions and proud distinction. We must define and shape the purposes of universities for a changed future.
The distinguished medieval historian Caroline Bynum once observed that “change is what forces us to ask who we are.” What is ephemeral? What is essential? What is just habit? Our accountability — to Harvard, to one another, and to higher education — means that we must ask these questions and we must seize the moment of change and opportunity before us. Change can happen to us — or through us. We must make sure we become its architects, not its victims. We must ask ourselves what it is we want to be on the other side of recession and crisis — when the world has reached what we might call a new normal. How should we envision ourselves and our purposes?
These are questions that demand planning and consultation across the University and these processes are under way. They are questions that require decisions and trade-offs from every part of the institution. Each specific choice will have its own impact and significance. But I want to draw our attention today to the meaning of the accumulation of these decisions — a sum far more consequential than any of its parts. These choices, taken as a whole, will constitute our statement of what we at Harvard believe the research university of the 21st century should and must be.
I want to focus for a few minutes on three essential characteristics of universities. Only three. These brief reflections cannot possibly touch on all that we must do and be in the future. But I have chosen these three because they represent especially important and long-lived understandings of our identity — of responsibilities and opportunities that must continue to guide us. But I also want to note the very real challenges we face — as universities and as a nation — in sustaining these commitments in a world that the past year has redefined.
First: American universities have long been regarded as engines of opportunity and excellence. Education has been central to the American dream since the time of the nation’s founding. Yet as we all know, rising college costs have increasingly strained the resources of average American families. Keeping higher education affordable is crucial to the nation and crucial to Harvard. Opportunity is about fairness; it is also about excellence. We must be a magnet for talent.
We have acted decisively on these convictions. Over the past five years, we have created a transformative undergraduate financial aid program meant to ensure that every student of ability can aspire to attend Harvard College regardless of financial circumstances. And over the past decade, we have tripled levels of financial aid offered by our graduate and professional Schools as well. Our support for students of talent is an essential part of our identity, because we believe that the best ideas do not come from a particular social class or ethnicity or gender or place of origin. Providing broad access is a fundamental dimension of our responsibility and our legitimacy — in our own eyes, given our strongly meritocratic values, and in the eyes of a broader society that provides us with the support of tax exemptions and research dollars. Even as rising need among students and diminishing resources from our endowment have made these commitments increasingly costly, we must affirm these principles of access and opportunity as defining aspects of who we are.
Just as we are committed to bringing the brightest minds to fill our classrooms, so we must continue to invest in exceptional faculty to lead them and to pursue the work of discovery that defines Harvard as a preeminent research university. Even in the face of constrained resources we must sustain and build this faculty for the future. Talented students and talented faculty require one another. Let us make sure that we succeed in continuing to attract and nurture both.
The second aspect of university identity I want to address is the role of universities as the primary locus for both basic and applied research in the United States. In the years after World War II, federal policy established structures of scientific and social scientific inquiry based on a partnership between government and research universities. Research and development drew limited investment within private industry, and in recent years even these modest levels have declined in a trend best symbolized by the contraction of the storied Bell Labs, which in an earlier era enabled basic research like the Nobel prize-winning discoveries of our honorand Steven Chu.
But even as private industry’s commitment to research declined, so too did government support for science. Over the last three decades, federal funding dedicated to research and development has actually decreased, as a proportion of our GDP, by more than 15 percent. The federal stimulus offers a reprieve from this trend — with an infusion of 21 billion dollars to be spent over the next two years, and the administration has set a goal of devoting more than 3 percent of GDP to research and development even as the stimulus comes to an end. But steep federal deficits will combine with diminished university resources to produce real challenges in meeting this very ambitious intention. Even before the economic downturn, the model for supporting science needed overhaul. As a report from the National Academies warned in 2007, we as a nation were already facing a “gathering storm” in which too few students were choosing science; too few were finding the support necessary to launch and sustain their careers; too many were choosing safe and predictable research in order to secure funding; too few were able to follow their curiosity in pursuit of truly transformative ideas. The financial crisis has only laid bare problems already evident about the future of scientific research in the United States and about the support for science at our research universities.
The short-term lift of stimulus funds must not divert us from seeking long-term solutions. Federal funding levels are a critical part of the answer but they are only a part. For example, as we here at Harvard contemplate how to support science in these changed economic circumstances, we find ourselves thinking about new kinds of partnerships with foundations and industry, as well as with neighboring educational institutions. Already, we see collaborations across Harvard Schools, with affiliated hospitals, with the Broad Institute, with MIT, and with other universities as essential to our current and evolving work in stem cells, neuroscience, genetics, and bioengineering. And as we consider how to make our Allston dreams affordable, partnerships beyond Harvard offer great promise. If we — as Harvard and as universities more generally — are going to sustain our pre-eminence in scientific discovery we must devise new ways both to conduct and to support research.
Third: universities serve as society’s critics and conscience. We are meant to be producers not just of knowledge but of doubt — of understanding rooted in skepticism and constant questioning, not in the unchallenged sway of accepted wisdom. More than perhaps any other institution in our society, universities are about the long view and about the critical perspectives that derive from not being owned exclusively by the present.
For nearly four centuries now, Harvard has looked beyond the immediately useful, relevant, and comfortable to cast current assumptions into the crucible of other places and other times. Universities are so often judged by their measurable utility — by their contributions to economic growth and competitiveness. We can make a powerful case with such arguments. Harvard is the second largest private employer in the Boston metropolitan area, and it directly and indirectly accounted for more than 5.3 billion dollars in economic activity for Massachusetts last year. But such contributions are only a part of what universities do and mean. We need universities for much less immediate and instrumental ends.
I worry that we as universities have not done all we could and should to ask the deep and unsettling questions necessary to the integrity of any society. As the world indulged in a bubble of false prosperity and materialism, should we — in our research, teaching and writing — have done more to expose the patterns of risk and denial inherent in widespread economic and financial choices? Should our values have posed a firmer counterweight and challenge to excess and irresponsibility, to short-term thinking with long-term consequences?
The privilege of academic freedom carries the obligation to speak the truth even when it is difficult or unpopular. So in the end, it comes back to veritas — the commitment to use knowledge and research to penetrate delusion, cant, prejudice, self-interest. That truth may come in the form of scientific insights freed from ideology and politics. It may come in the interpretive work of humanists who show us how to read and think critically and offer us the perspective of other places, other tongues, and other times. It may come through the uniquely revisionary force of the arts — which enable us to understand ourselves and the world through changed eyes and ears. It may come through placing questions of ethics and responsibility at the core of our professional School programs. In fact, in recent weeks a group of students at the Business School have created an MBA oath pledging graduates to “serve the greater good.” Asking how business schools and their graduates might have done more to avert the financial crisis, these students seek to encourage conscience and critical consciousness in both business education and business as a profession.
The enhancement of our role as critics and doubters must come as well through the education of our undergraduates, where we seek, in the words of the new General Education program, “to unsettle presumptions, to defamiliarize the familiar . . . to disorient young people and to help them to find ways to reorient themselves.” As we adapt to a rapidly changing world, we must build anew on Harvard’s long traditions of liberal arts education and of humanistic inquiry. These traditions can generate both the self-scrutiny and self-understanding that lead through doubt to wisdom.
Universities as engines of opportunity; universities as the principal sites of America’s scientific research; universities as truth tellers: these are three fundamental aspects of our understanding of ourselves. Yet each faces challenges in the new era that lies ahead of us — challenges of structures, of affordability, and of values. And we are challenged in turn to demonstrate our commitment to these principles, which have so long been at the heart of how we have defined ourselves. We must not take these principles for granted, and we must not lose sight of them as we make the many choices about what to keep and what to forego in the months ahead. But we must devise new ways of sustaining them for changed times. We are accountable to and for these traditions and the values they represent — the belief that the open and unfettered pursuit of truth will build a better world for us all. This is what inspires all that we do and all that we are — for now and in the years to come.
Các Blog BIÊNTHÙY (LTS):, Yahoo Plus , Opera, Xanga,Myspace, Perfspot, Tagged, Magix, Blogger, Wordpress,Friendster, Livejournal, Imeem, Vox, Mindsay, Ucoz (trên 16 t), Ymail Plus và Multiply
Tình hình là để bảo vệ miếng ăn của các chú, các chú đã làm rất tốt những gì anh đã bảo. Cứ thế mà làm tới tới các chú nhé, kẻo anh lại mất công đánh đòn các chú, thì chức danh không những mất mà các chú cũng chẳng còn gì để ăn, ba họ hết được nhờ. Các chú thoải mái nói chuyện té xe té giếng, chuyện thầy cúng thầy đề, cả các em tươi mát, đến các bà rửng mỡ. Chất độc da cam càng tốt. Nhưng xin đừng nói chuyện tiền nong các chú nhé. Anh nhắc lại với các chú lần nữa mệnh đề rất hay mà anh rất tâm đắc nghĩ mãi mới ra: “(tìm ra) Tội đến đâu xử đến đó, không để lọt người lọt tội, nhưng cũng không để oan sai, phải có chứng cứ đàng hoàng”. Không hội đủ mệnh đề này thì coi như không có tội, đố thằng nào bẻ được. Phải có chứng cứ, không có chứng cứ mà nói bừa là anh đánh đòn các chú đó… Cứ cúc cung tận tụy các chú nhé. Chúc các chú một ngày vui. hehehe
Làm báo kiểu... (Theo BBC)Một nhà báo từng học làm báo tại một trong những nơi đào tạo báo chí có tiếng nói một số phóng viên Việt Nam vẫn có xu hướng viết theo kiểu ''đánh hội đồng, đánh cho chết luôn''.
Chị cũng nói ngay cả các 'biên tập viên lớn' cũng vậy.
Theo nữ phóng viên này việc đào tạo nghiệp vụ báo chí ở Việt Nam không được chú trọng đúng mức.
Nhưng chị cũng nói việc đào tạo thể loại bài để phân biệt 'phóng sự', 'bài' và 'tin' chiếm một thời lượng đáng kể.
Mặc dù vậy trên báo chí Việt Nam vẫn xuất hiện những bài viết kèm với bình luận của người viết và không trích dẫn nguồn được đăng như một dạng tin.
Phong bì
Trong khi đó, các khóa đào tạo báo chí Phương Tây thường khuyên các nhà báo thực hiện một số phép thử sau khi viết xong bài.
Trong đó có 'phép thử trang nhất' - thử tưởng tượng xem mình, hay người thân trong gia đình xuất hiện trong bài đó trên trang nhất vào sáng hôm sau.
Báo chí Anh nhấn mạnh nguyên tắc 'bất thiên vị' nhằm đảm bảo các bài viết không tỏ thái độ bênh vực cho bất kỳ bên nào.
Về mặt kiểm chứng thông tin, BBC thường cố gắng kiểm chứng với ít nhất hai nguồn trước khi đưa tin và những người xuất hiện trong tin tức được quyền phản đáp.
Trong điều kiện không thể làm được điều đó, BBC cố gắng trích các nguồn chính thống nhưng cũng đăng cả các ý kiến khác nhau về một v́ân đề.
Các nhà báo phương Tây cũng thường được khuyến cáo không nhận quà cáp khi đi đưa tin.
Có phóng viên thậm chí không ăn uống gì khi tới các buổi tiệc tối.
Cựu phóng viên tại Việt Nam của BBC, Bill Hayton rất ngạc nhiên khi thấy văn hóa phong bì tại các cuộc họp báo ở Việt Nam.
Một nhà báo của tòa báo có tiếng nói luật bất thành văn của báo này là có thể nhận phong bì 'dưới 500.000 đồng'.
Trong khi đó một nhà báo khác cho hay tình trạng phóng viên vừa 'săn tin' vừa 'bán quảng cáo' đáng lo ngại hơn nhiều.
Nhưng những người quản lý báo Việt Nam có vẻ quan tâm nhiều hơn tới việc 'đối tác hôn nhân' của họ nghe lời chỉ dẫn hơn là vấn đề mà Phương Tây này coi là thuộc lương tâm và đạo đức nghề nghiệp báo giới.
Trong mắt lãnh đạo ngành truyền thông, báo chí vẫn là báo chí...
Sean Gardner / For The Los Angeles Times
From the Los Angeles TimesMississippi catfish farmers say Vietnam is sinking their business
The millions of pounds of Vietnamese fish imported to the U.S. each year are not classified as 'catfish' and may not be subject to the same inspection regulations that will soon apply to the AmericanBy Richard Fausset and Richard Simon
June 16, 2009
Reporting from Belzoni, Miss., and Washington — In Vietnam there's a kind of fish that's white-fleshed and whiskered and otherwise pretty darn catfish-like. But in the eyes of the U.S. government, the creatures aren't catfish.
Now fish farmers in the American South fear this government classification will allow the Vietnamese fish to slither around inspection regulations that will soon apply to American catfish.
It's one of many reasons fish farmer Scott Kiker is singing the catfish blues.
Kiker has been forced to shrink his dominion of teeming fish ponds in Mississippi from 270 acres a few years ago to about 80 acres. His operation, like the U.S. catfish industry overall, has been stung by the soaring cost of grain, as well as last year's spike in diesel prices. And the restaurant industry, like the broader economy, is slow enough to make a preacher cuss.
But there is one issue Kiker believes Washington can address: the millions of pounds of Vietnamese fish imported to the U.S. market each year, amounting to what he contends is unfair competition.
Southern catfish farmers believe that problem could be solved if the Obama administration expanded the government's definition of catfish to include the fish from Vietnam.
"They ought to have to do what we have to do. It's not fair," Kiker said.
Kiker, a friendly, ruddy-faced man with a pair of sunglasses perched on his head, recently gave a tour of his aluminum-walled hatchery, lined with troughs of gelatinous yellow eggs being aerated by small rotating paddles. It is a clean, simple operation -- one that his 12- and 16-year old daughters help run in the summer. It's also closely regulated, using only federally approved water additives and antibiotics.
"Our standards are so high, and they don't have any," Kiker said of the Vietnamese. "That's the bottom line."
That argument is ringing out from the farms of the American Southeast, where catfish -- once a river-dwelling delicacy whose availability was subject to the fisherman's luck -- has evolved since the 1960s into a reliable farmed product and a crucial cash crop.
Some observers in Washington warn that changing the definition of "catfish" may heighten tensions between the U.S. and Vietnam, and possibly ignite a trade war.
"This goes far beyond just the definition of a fish," said Gavin Gibbons of the National Fisheries Institute, a trade group.
The Vietnamese government notes that in 2002 Congress prohibited the Vietnamese species -- generally sold as basa and tra -- from being marketed here as catfish.
The 2002 legislation declared that no fish can be marketed as catfish "unless it is fish classified within the family ictaluridae," which is found in the South. The Vietnamese species come from the pangasiidae family.
The problem, from the Southern perspective: Butchers buy basa and tra and tell customers it's catfish. So do some restaurants. The fish industry has fought back with the help of sympathetic state legislatures: In August, Alabama will join a number of states that require restaurants to inform customers where their catfish comes from.
At issue at the federal level is a little-noticed provision of last year's farm bill that will soon subject catfish, whatever its origin, to a new, more rigorous inspection regimen. The provision was included after Chinese seafood was found in 2007 to include drugs banned in U.S. fish farming.
Critics of the push to reclassify say it amounts to protectionism. Supporters say it will increase food safety.
To the Vietnamese, it's confusing.
"The Vietnamese feel pretty whipsawed here," said Brenda A. Jacobs, a Washington trade lawyer who has advised the Vietnamese government. "They can't call their seafood 'catfish,' but they could be subject to a new inspection requirement that is applicable only to catfish?"
(Scott Kiker’s daughter Jordan, 16, tends the troughs full of eggs, aerated by rotating paddles. The operation uses only federally approved water additives and antibiotics. Southern catfish farmers worry that imported Vietnamese basa and tra, sometimes sold as catfish, won't be subject to the same regulations)
Does this reflect confusion, she asked, or an attempt to undermine fair competition?
Thoan V. Ngo, commercial counselor at the Vietnam Embassy in Washington, said he hoped the Americans "would see this as being less about just the definition of a fish and more about the definition of how the U.S. treats developing countries."
When asked about Vietnam's concerns, Rep. Rodney Alexander (R-La.), said, however, "I'm more concerned about my constituents than I am their constituents."
The specifics of this rather esoteric trade issue are well-known in Humphreys County, where Kiker has his ponds. This desktop-flat stretch of rich Mississippi Delta farmland once proudly produced more catfish than any other U.S. county. Not anymore.
The acres devoted to producing catfish in the county dropped from 29,650 acres in 2001 to 18,400 acres last year.
Though the industry is waning here, the ictaluridae family still holds a place of honor in the county seat of Belzoni, a town of 2,600 with a small catfish museum and brightly painted catfish sculptures that dot the downtown sidewalks.
Jim Steeby, a Belzoni-based aquaculture specialist for Mississippi State University, said that a bad batch of Vietnamese fish could give a bad name to Mississippi catfish -- and do even more harm to Humphreys County's signature industry.
"We have a reputation in this industry of having an immaculate product, and we don't want it tarnished," he said.
Steeby drove around the two-lane roads of the county, pointing out numerous swaths of land that once held shallow, nine-acre pools of fish -- and were now overrun with weeds or, in the best cases, sown with row crops.
The crops, he said, are not as labor intensive as catfish, another blow to employment in the region.
Steeby stopped at the home of catfish farmer Michael Pruden, 55, who was getting ready to transfer some fish from 160 acres that he was taking out of production.
Later, Pruden and his young daughter switched on an automated feeder to sprinkle his ponds with soy-corn pellets. The placid ponds erupted in splashes as hundreds of the primordial, wide-mouthed creatures rocketed to the surface for lunch.
Steeby said there would always be someone doing this work in a region where a plate of lightly breaded catfish ranks with pan-fried chicken as the mark of a worthy chef.
Pruden, a salty son of farmers in a John Deere ball cap, wasn't so sure.
"Unless it gets better," he said, "there's no future growing fish."
As with all these designs, try to start with a relatively clean, crisp bill. It will make it much easier. All folds should be sharply creased. It helps to go over the fold with a fingernail on a flat, hard surface.
Start by folding the bill precisely in half lengthwise. (I prefer to fold in toward the front of the bill. I think it produces a nicer design on the end product. For your first attempt, it will be easier to follow exactly the same orientation on the bill as shown in the photos.) Unfold the bill, leaving the crease produced by the fold for the next step.
Fold the bill one quarter of the way in from each side lengthwise. The edge of the bill should just meet the crease made by the fold in the previous step. Do this for both sides as shown.
Turn the bill over. Fold the white of one end over as shown. This will become the collar in the next step. (If the bill is printed unevenly, use the wider edge.)
Turn the bill over again. From this side, angle-in the two corners from the end you folded in the last step. The two points should meet precisely at the centerline. The angle is not terribly important, but should be about the same as shown in the photo.
Fold a little less than one third of the bill lengthwise from the opposite end as shown. If you're following in the same orientation as the photos, use the markings on the bill for a fold point. (Notice that the edge of the bill just meets the word "OF" on the reverse printing.) If you fold too little, the shirt will appear too long in the end. If you fold too much, the next step will not work. See below.
Now you will fold inward in the same direction, tucking the previous fold under the "collar" created in step 4. So far it looks kinda 'nifty, and if you know it is supposed to look like a shirt, you get the collar concept. But wait, there's more...
Gently unfold the previous two folds, keeping the creases. On the lateral fold furthest from the collar, refold it strait across as shown. (On the flatbed scanner, this made a bit of a mess of it, but it is fairly easy in 3D.)
(This step is hard to describe, but it is actually fairly easy.) You are going to introduce two new folds on each "sleeve". I do this by holding each side of the previous fold between thumb and forefinger in the orientation shown, just on either side of the vertical fold as shown. Just force the angle to close slightly, and force the extra paper inside the vertical folds. Once you've got it looking right, force the insides to crease by pressing on a hard surface. (Try looking at the next photo - like I said, it is hard to describe!)
(This is a close-up of what the fold should look like when complete.) Do this for both sides.
(This is what it should look like after both sides are complete.)
When you re-tuck the fold you've been working on back under the collar, you're done! It should look about like this. With the basic shape, the collar and the sleeves, it should be recognizable. Once you've done a few, you can try folding the whole thing into the reverse side, leaving the obverse side out. (Like I said, I think this looks better. This is especially true with 1 dollar bills where the edge seal on the reverse under the collar looks a little bit like a necklace.)
30 World’s Strangest Inventions
This post could be also called stupidest inventions, coolest inventions or the most useless inventions. It doesn’t change a thing – they are all just incredible.
Most of them are probably not new for an experienced web surfer like you, but I heard that there are some people who use Internet solely for reading Village of Joy blog, so this post might be just for them.
Happy reading!
(By the way, my favorite one is #8.)
1. Anatomic Waitress tray
(Image: http://www.ecal.ch/)
2. The Weight Watch Belt
(Image: http://www.ecal.ch/)
3. Fartypants
(Via: ANANOVA)
A US underwear manufacturer has invented pants designed to hide the smell of farts. To prevent gases escaping without passing through it, the underpants are made from air-tight fabric and completely sealed with elastic around the waistband and legs. “We get a lot of jokes - but we don’t doubt that this is a serious product that serves a purpose” says inventor Buck Weimer.
4. Cool Straw lips
5. Bed Ruler
6. Advanced Ringshot
(Image:http://www.designsojourn.com)
7. Toilet Paper Tissue Dispenser
8. 10-in-1 Gardening tool
9. Fake Breasts
10. Stairs-drawer
(Via: desiretoinspire)
11. The Frying Gun Egg Stencil
You can pick it up on Latest Buy for around $9.95.
12. Nail Clock
TX54 concept presents a disposable timepiece that can be worn on the user’s thumbnail making it an invaluable fashion accessory as well.
13. Baby Mop
“Babies are no longer useless.”
14. Umbrella Shoes
15. Train Helmet - Sleeping Aid
(Via :JEMPP)
16. Sleep Comforter
(Via :JEMPP)
17. Train Stand - Sleeping Aid
(Via :JEMPP)
18. Chopsticks with a Noodle Cooler
(Via :JEMPP)
19. Shower Mic
You can buy it on Amazon
20. Pro Thumb Wrestling Ring
You can buy one on Amazon
21. The Noodle Eater’s Hair Guard
22. Cockroach Swatter Slippers
23. Penguin Tea Timer
Making tea, though easy to do, is also time consuming. Place your
tea cup under the beak and set it to the desired time. As you turn the
timer dial, the beak lowers the tea into the hot water. When time is
up, a bell sounds and the penguin automatically lifts his beak,
removing the tea bag from the water. You can buy one on Amazon
24. Transparent Toaster(concept)
(Via :Gizmodo)
25. Lock Cup
Are you tired of others stealing your coffee cup? At last, this new Cup Lock will solve your problems! Just unplug the cup key when you leave your cup alone, and nobody else will be able to use it!
26. Banana Guard
(Via: Gizmodo)
27. Nose Pencil Sharpener
You can buy one at Amazon
28. Traveler’s Phrase book T-Shirt
When talking to foreigners - just point with your finger at the thing you want to do.
29. Fish Bowl Book Ends
You can buy one at Amazon
30. Techno Privacy Scarf
Developed by Joe Malia, this “Techno Privacy Scarf” supposedly protects your privacy when using portable devices in public areas — or at home.
Newspapers have also played a role as disseminators of revolutionary propaganda. Iskra (The Spark), published by Lenin in 1900, is one notable example. On June 21, 1925, Thanh Nien made its debut in Vietnam, introducing Marxism to the country and providing information on the revolution’s strategic policies. Broadcast radio exploded onto the media scene in the 1920’s. Newspapers were forced to re-evaluate their role as society’s primary information provider. Like the new media technologies of today, the development of a low cost, alternative media source produced rumblings that radio would topple the newspaper industry. To respond to this new competition, editors revamped the paper’s format and content in order to broaden their appeal, and stories were expanded to provide more in depth coverage. The technological revolution of today is creating new challenges and opportunities for traditional media. Never before has so much information been so accessible to so many. By the end of the 1990s, some 700 had web sites; today there are thousands. The amount and immediacy of information on the Internet is unparalleled, but it has not signalled the end of the newspaper’s relevance. Newspapers in print remain a popular and powerful medium for the reporting and analysis of events that shape our lives. WAN estimates that one billion people in the world read a newspaper every day!Newspapers: A Brief History
Newspapers: 400 Years Young! A Newspaper Timeline World’s Oldest Newspapers World’s Top 100 Dailies What They Say: Quotes About Newspapers
For centuries, civilisations have used print media to spread news and information to the masses. The Roman Acta Diurna, appearing around 59 B.C, is the earliest recorded “newspaper”. Julius Caesar, wanting to inform the public about important social and political happenings, ordered upcoming events posted in major cities. Written on large white boards and displayed in popular places like the Baths, the Acta kept citizens informed about government scandals, military campaigns, trials and executions. In 8th century China, the first newspapers appeared as hand-written newsheets in Beijing. 
The printing press, invented by Johann Gutenberg in 1447, ushered in the era of the modern newspaper. Gutenberg’s machine enabled the free exchange of ideas and the spread of knowledge -- themes that would define Renaissance Europe. During this era, newsletters supplied a growing merchant class with news relevant to trade and commerce. Manuscript newssheets were being circulated in German cities by the late 15th century. These pamphlets were often highly sensationalized; one reported on the abuse that Germans in Transylvania were suffering at the hands of Vlad TsepesDrakul, also known as Count Dracula. In 1556 the Venetian government published Notizie scritte, for which readers paid a small coin, or “gazetta”.
In the first half of the 17th century, newspapers began to appear as regular and frequent publications. The first modern newspapers were products of western European countries like Germany (publishingRelation in 1605), France (Gazette in 1631), Belgium (Nieuwe Tijdingen in 1616) and England (the London Gazette, founded in 1665, is still published as a court journal). These periodicals consisted mainly of news items from Europe, and occasionally included information from America or Asia. They rarely covered domestic issues; instead English papers reported on French military blunders while French papers covered the latest British royal scandal.
Newspaper content began to shift toward more local issues in the latter half of the 17th century. Still, censorship was widespread and newspapers were rarely permitted to discuss events that might incite citizens to opposition. Newspaper headlines did announce the beheading of Charles I at the end of the English Civil War, although Oliver Cromwell tried to suppress all newsbooks on the eve of the execution. In 1766, Sweden was the first country to pass a law protecting press freedom.
The invention of the telegraph in 1844 transformed print media. Now information could be transferred within a matter of minutes, allowing for more timely, relevant reporting. Newspapers were appearing in societies around the world. Japan’s first daily newspaper, Yokohama Mainichi Shimbun, appeared in 1870 (although printing from movable type was introduced in Japan in the late 16th century).
By the middle of the 19th century, newspapers were becoming the primary means of disseminating and receiving information. Between 1890 to 1920, the period known as the “golden age” of print media, media barons such as William Randolph Hearst, Joseph Pulitzer, and Lord Northcliffe built huge publishing empires. These men had enormous influence within the media industry, and gained notoriety for the ways in which they wielded their power.
No sooner had newspapers adapted to radio than they were forced to re-evaluate themselves in light of a new and more powerful medium: television. Between 1940 and 1990, newspaper circulation in America dropped from one newspaper for every two adults to one for every three adults. Despite this sharp decline, television’s omnipresence did not render the newspaper obsolete. Some newspapers, like USA Today, responded to the technological advancements by using color and by utilizing the “short, quick and to the point” stories that are usually featured on television.
The foreign media and western states are confused and puzzled as to how to interpret the Iranian election on June 12th. Over the past few days I've been speaking with many journalists in Tehran who normally go there for one or two weeks on assignment. Many of them, initially, believed that Ahmadinejad's declared re-election was similar in nature to his first term election in 2005. Meaning that he had successfully mobilized his base of poor people and conservatives and that the reformists and Iranian middle class had, once again, lost the election. But recent development tells us that this is not the real story. So, what are the sources of confusion? What went wrong and why are people angry and un-accepting of the results? Here are some essential questions that one might ask in order to fully understand the issues at hand:
Was the Iranian election rigged? No doubt it was. There are many signs that indicate a very organized fraud, which has been in the works for many months. It's inconceivable that Ahmadinejad could have won 24 millions votes. How could he when he had only received just over 5 million in the first round of the 2005 election? In the second round he gained 16 million and that was simply because he was running against Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani, who was very unpopular at the time, a man that was rumored to have corruption in his family, rumors that became etched in the memory of the Iranian people. There was even a saying that "anybody could beat Hashemi in the second round". At that time, even Ahmadineajds's second position in the first round was so controversial that he was accused of an organized fraud led by Iran's militia forces, Basijis, and the Revolutionary Guard. Now, without any change in Iran's demography, he received, in some places, figures of twenty times more votes than he did four years ago. During the past four years, Ahmadinejad's economic policies have increased inflation from approximately 11 percent to 25 percent, more than double. The effects of such policies have been a hard reality for millions of Iranians. He is the only president in Iran who has not gained the support of Iran's middle class and elite. Although his government spent billions of dollars on propaganda, he remained widely criticized by reformists, experts, civil society activists and even some conservatives. On the other hand, Mousavi (Iran's prime minister at the time of war with Iraq 1980-1988) is very well respected and popular in the society. Iranian people know him as a man of integrity, a politician who managed the war economy quite thoughtfully. The overwhelming support for Mousavi by the Iranian middle class, the political elite, reformists and millions of people was contagious even amongst part of the conservative base (also known as Ahmadinejad's base). Mousavi drew crowds of more than 50,000 to his rallies over the past three months in small and large cities alike, not just in Tehran. So a landslide victory seemed like a joke. When did the suspicion start? On election night, Mousavi received a call from the Ministry of Interior telling him of his victory. Meanwhile, a committee, which included the Minister of Interior himself and two of his deputies, announced different results. They declared Ahmadinejad as Iran's President elect faster than anyone could imagine. While the election was still in progress a news agency, known to strongly support Ahmadineajd, had already written about his landslide victory. It was as if they knew in advance. In less than a few hours the authorities began announcing the results by the millions. Everybody who is familiar with Iran's bureaucracy knows that it's just impossible to have possibly counted the ballots this fast. The voting process is not computerized but totaled by hand and therefore it takes quite a bit of time, particularly with voter turnout being at a record high. So it was obvious that the results were not based on actual votes. Also, like many countries including the United States, Iran is a very diverse country. Candidates naturally have more support in some provinces than in others, like their hometown for example. It's impossible that a candidate could win by a same margin in every single province as Ahmadinejad, allegedly, has. This is numerically improbable and does not make sense to anybody. The results of this election make a mockery of the Iranian voting system and their history as a democracy.
Is it a coup? It might not seem a classic coup. But there are indications that the fraud did not happen just on the actual Election Day. Even if 90 percent of the people voted reformists, it would never have been reflected in the ballot counts. It's just impossible. Let's review different segments of the game and then you call it whatever you want: 1. Before the elections, Ahmadinejad's supporters, major news agencies and radical newspapers, predicted a landslide victory. They even mentioned a plausible win by 60 percent! An alarming and odd a prediction in a country where one cannot even predict the price of a tomato, or an onion, from one day to the next. 2. The results were announced too quickly to be true. It was as if they already knew what the numbers were going to be. So it seems that the authorities didn't even have to bother to actually count the ballots for results. 3. On Election Day, the police were ready for the huge presence of protesters in the major cities. They were fully armed and well equipped with anti-riot gear. What was supposed to happen? Why were they so prepared? 4. A few hours after the results were announced, and even with all of the complaints, the Iranian Supreme Leader announced Ahmadinejad as the next president, and asked all of the other candidates to cooperate with the winner. Why such a rush? 5. Dozens of prominent reformist politicians and journalists were systematically arrested within 48 hours of the announcement of the presidency. Forces were organized, knowing who to arrest and where to go without legitimate reason. But this game could not afford prominent political figures to potentially play leadership roles against the outcome.
7. A top-down pressure began. Mousavi and Karrubi were placed immediately under unofficial house arrest. There were told that it was for their own security. Simultaneously, some of the major religious figures from the office of the Supreme leader, and reportedly, some of the other officials in power pressured Mousavi to accept the results.
8. The next day Ahmadinejad's supporters, many of whom were armed with cold arms, rallied in one of the squares in Tehran in a show of power.
9. At the same time, the spontaneous, and unexpected massive protests began. (Which was not expected on such a scale (because Iranians know how the police and the government can go wild and brutal).
Ahmadinejad called it a rebellion. It was a necessary label for justifying the police action taken to stop the protesters. The protests were peaceful, but the police themselves, started to destroy cars setting the scene for confrontation.
10. Now, you put together the above pieces and tell me what you would call it.
Is the media covering this election properly?
There are some good reports. But consider that many of the journalists are not able to report freely. They know that the government monitors their work closely. They can easily be forced to leave the country. The news agencies, which have correspondents in Tehran, do not want to jeopardize their visa situation nor their ability to have their people on the ground. Even CNN's Christiane Amanpour grossly underreported on the number of Mousavi supporters in Monday's protest in Tehran. She described "thousands" when in fact, it was apparent that there were "hundreds of thousands". It is no surprise. I personally know many journalists who have never been able to renew their visas after writing blunt pieces about the realities on the ground. For many of them it is a matter of professional survival. Beyond this, many of them are not able to connect the dots. They cannot travel throughout the country, many of them do not speak Farsi and there are there just there for a few weeks and like many are just as surprised.
Also, some of the commentators on cable TV tend to add the United States to the equation unnecessarily. This is wrong. What is happening in Iran has nothing to do with the United States. Iranians have been fighting for their rights for decades now. However, if the U.S. had an open and amicable relationship with Iran, it would be more likely that the Iranian authorities would have to behave and respect the demands of the people. The best way to follow the development of the events as they unfold is to follow multiple and diverse news channels.
What should the United States do?
President Obama is in a very critical situation. No matter what happens in the coming days, Obama should not congratulate Ahmadinejad for his victory. He did not win the election, he stole it. However he should stick to his plans to negotiate and communicate with the Iranian government. Most of the U.S. allies in the Middle East, from Egypt to Saudi Arabia, have a much worst political situation on their hands and yet they remain friendly with Washington.
If the Iranian government engages with the U.S. in the coming months and years under Ahmadinejad's second term, it will surely be harder for the Iranian government to ignore their responsibility to the Iranian people. Iran's disconnect from the outside world has served the radicals in Tehran more than anybody else.
Also, the United States should not take side. If Obama supports the protesters it gives the Iranian authorities the reasons they want and need to portray the recent protest as an American phenomena. Play into made up stories of how, for instance, CIA and Moosad and the other intelligence services on the planet are behind the scenes of such an original and genuine movement. The United States and other western countries should put more pressure on the United Nations to act more decisively. So far more than 10 people have died. (I just received word from a reliable source that 9 people died in Rasool e Akram Hospital in Tehran, and a tenth one had been shot and killed earlier). The United Nation's Security Council really should hold an emergency meeting over this issue. The protests have potentials to be another Tiananmen Square, particularly when the police and the militia are interested in turning these peaceful protests to chaos. This gives them an excuse to use force, something they are waiting to do it. The UNSC should adopt a resolution in condemnation of the use of force against peaceful protests.
IRAN: A chronology of key events: 224-651 AD - Sasanian dynasty rules Persia; Zoroastrianism is dominant religion. 636 - Arab invasion brings end of Sasanian dynasty and start of Islamic rule. 9th century - Emergence of modern Persian language (or Farsi), written using a form of Arabic script. 9-13th century - Decline of Islamic Caliphate; rise of Seljuk Turk dynasties. 1220 - Invasion by Mongol forces of Genghis Khan. 1501 - Shah Ismail I becomes first ruler of Islamic Safavid dynasty; Shi'i Islam declared state religion. 1639 - Treaty of Qasr-e Shirin (or Treaty of Zuhab) ends about 150 years of war against Ottoman Empire. 1736 - Nadir Shah becomes monarch; end of Safavid dynasty. 1828 - Iran cedes control of Caucasus to Russia after second Russo-Persian war. 1890 - "Tobacco Riots": ruler Naser al-Din Shah forced to withdraw trade concessions granted to Britain after mass protests. 1907 - Introduction of constitution which limits the absolutist powers of rulers. 1914-1918 - Iran declares neutrality but is scene of heavy fighting during World War I. 1921 February - Military commander Reza Khan seizes power. 1923 - Reza Khan becomes prime minister. 1925 December - Parliament votes to make Reza Khan ruler. 1926 April - Reza Khan crowned Reza Shah Pahlavi. Mohammad Reza, the Shah's eldest son, is proclaimed Crown Prince. 1935 - Formerly known as Persia, Iran is adopted as the country's official name. Shah installed 1941 - The Shah's pro-Axis allegiance in World War II leads to the Anglo-Russian occupation of Iran and the deposition of the Shah in favour of his son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. 1950 - Ali Razmara becomes prime minister and is assassinated less than nine months later. He is succeeded by the nationalist, Mohammad Mossadeq. 1951 April - Parliament votes to nationalise the oil industry, which is dominated by the British-owned Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. Britain imposes an embargo and a blockade, halting oil exports and hitting the economy. A power struggle between the Shah and Mossadeq ensues and the Shah flees the country in August 1953. 1953 August - Mossadeq is overthrown in a coup engineered by the British and American intelligence services. General Fazlollah Zahedi is proclaimed as prime minister and the Shah returns. Campaign to modernise 1963 January - The Shah embarks on a campaign to modernise and westernise the country. He launches the 'White Revolution', a programme of land reform and social and economic modernisation. During the late 1960's the Shah became increasingly dependent on the secret police (SAVAK) in controlling those opposition movements critical of his reforms. 1978 September - The Shah's policies alienate the clergy and his authoritarian rule leads to riots, strikes and mass demonstrations. Martial law is imposed. Shah exiled, Khomeini returns 1979 January - As the political situation deteriorates, the Shah and his family are forced into exile. 1979 1 February - The Islamic fundamentalist, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, returns to Iran following 14 years of exile in Iraq and France for opposing the regime. 1979 1 April - The Islamic Republic of Iran is proclaimed following a referendum. 1979 November - Islamic militants take 52 Americans hostage inside the US embassy in Tehran. They demand the extradition of the Shah, in the US at the time for medical treatment, to face trial in Iran. 1980 January - Abolhasan Bani-Sadr is elected the first President of the Islamic Republic. His government begins work on a major nationalization programme. 1980 July - The exiled Shah dies of cancer in Egypt. Iran-Iraq war 1980 22 September - Start of Iran-Iraq war which lasts for eight years. 1981 January - The American hostages are released ending 444 days in captivity. 1981 June - Bani-Sadr is dismissed, he later flees to France. 1985 - After the US and Soviet Union halted arms supplies, the US attempted to win the release of hostages in Lebanon by offering secret arms deals, this would later become known as the Iran-Contra affair. 1988 July - 290 passengers and the crew of an Iran Air Airbus are mistakenly shot down by the USS Vincennes. Ceasefire 1988 July - Iran accepts a ceasefire agreement with Iraq following negotiations in Geneva under the aegis of the UN. 1989 February - Ayatollah Khomeini issues a religious edict (fatwa) ordering Muslims to kill British author, Salman Rushdie, for his novel, 'The Satanic Verses', considered blasphemous to Islam. 1989 3 June - Ayatollah Khomeini dies. On 4 June, President Khamene'i is appointed as new supreme leader. 1989 August - Ali Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani is sworn in as the new president. 1989 November - The US releases 567 million dollars of frozen Iranian assets. Major earthquake kills thousands 1990 June - A major earthquake strikes Iran, killing approximately 40,000 people. 1990 - Iran remains neutral following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. 1990 September - Iran and Iraq resume diplomatic ties. US imposes sanctions 1995 - US imposes oil and trade sanctions over Iran's alleged sponsorship of "terrorism", seeking to acquire nuclear arms and hostility to the Middle East process. Iran denies the charges. 1997 May - Mohammad Khatami wins the presidential election with 70% of the vote, beating the conservative ruling elite. 1998 September - Iran deploys thousands of troops on its border with Afghanistan after the Taleban admits killing eight Iranian diplomats and a journalist in Mazar-e Sharif. Student protests 1999 July - Pro-democracy students at Tehran University demonstrate following the closure of the reformist newspaper 'Salam'. Clashes with security forces lead to six days of rioting and the arrest of more than 1,000 students. 2000 February - Majlis elections. Liberals and supporters of Khatami wrest control of parliament from conservatives for the first time. 2000 April - The judiciary, following the adoption of a new press law, bans the publication of 16 reformist newspapers. 2000 May - Inauguration of the Sixth parliament. Khatami's second term 2001 June - President Khatami re-elected. 2002 January - US President George Bush describes Iraq, Iran and North Korea as an "axis of evil", warning of the proliferation of long-range missiles being developed in these countries. The speech causes outrage in Iran and is condemned by reformists and conservatives alike. 2002 September - Russian technicians begin construction of Iran's first nuclear reactor at Bushehr despite strong objections from US. 2003 June - Thousands attend student-led protests in Tehran against clerical establishment. 2003 September - UN nuclear watchdog, IAEA, gives Tehran weeks to prove it is not pursuing an atomic weapons programme. 2003 October - Shirin Ebadi becomes Iran's first Nobel Peace Prize winner; lawyer and human rights campaigner became Iran's first female judge in 1975 but was forced to resign after 1979 revolution. 2003 November - Iran says it is suspending its uranium enrichment programme and will allow tougher UN inspections of its nuclear facilities. IAEA concludes there is no evidence of a weapons programme. 2003 December - 40,000 people are killed in an earthquake in south-east Iran; the city of Bam is devastated. Conservative resurgence 2004 February - Conservatives regain control of parliament in elections. Thousands of reformist candidates were disqualified by the hardline Council of Guardians before the polls. 2004 June - Iran is rebuked by the IAEA for failing to fully cooperate with an inquiry into its nuclear activities. 2004 November - Iran agrees to suspend most of its uranium enrichment under a deal with the EU. 2005 June - Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Tehran's ultra-conservative mayor, wins a run-off vote in presidential elections, defeating cleric and former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. Nuclear crisis 2005 August-September - Tehran says it has resumed uranium conversion at its Isfahan plant and insists the programme is for peaceful purposes. IAEA finds Iran in violation of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. 2006 January - Iran breaks IAEA seals at its Natanz nuclear research facility. Bomb attacks in the southern city of Ahvaz - the scene of sporadic unrest in recent months - kill eight people and injure more than 40. 2006 February - IAEA votes to report Iran to the UN Security Council over its nuclear activities. Iran resumes uranium enrichment at Natanz. 2006 April - Iran says it has succeeded in enriching uranium at its Natanz facility. 2006 31 August - UN Security Council deadline for Iran to halt its work on nuclear fuel passes. IAEA says Tehran has failed to suspend the programme. Holocaust denial 2006 December - Iran hosts a controversial conference on the Holocaust; delegates include Holocaust deniers. UN Security Council votes to impose sanctions on Iran's trade in sensitive nuclear materials and technology. Iran condemns the resolution and vows to speed up uranium enrichment work. 2007 February - IAEA says Iran failed to meet a deadline to suspend uranium enrichment, exposing Tehran to possible new sanctions. 2007 March - Diplomatic stand-off with Britain after Iran detains 15 British sailors and marines patrolling the mouth of the Shatt al-Arab waterway separating Iran and Iraq. 2007 April - President Ahmadinejad says Iran can produce nuclear fuel on an industrial scale. IAEA says Iran has begun making nuclear fuel in its underground uranium enrichment plant. It also says that Iran has started up more than 1,300 centrifuge machines. 2007 May - IAEA says Iran could develop a nuclear weapon in three to eight years if it so chooses. 2007 June - Protests erupt after government imposes petrol rationing amid fears of possible UN sanctions. 2007 July - Iran announces plans to stop making cars that only run on petrol and switch to dual-fuel vehicles, which also run on gas. Iran agrees to allow inspectors to visit the Arak nuclear plant following talks with the IAEA. New sanctions 2007 October - US announces sweeping new sanctions against Iran, the toughest since it first imposed sanctions almost 30 years ago. 2007 December - A new US intelligence report plays down the perceived nuclear threat posed by Iran. 2008 February - Iran launches a research rocket to inaugurate a newly built space centre. Washington describes the launch as "unfortunate". 2008 March - President Ahmadinejad makes unprecedented official visit to Iraq, where he calls on foreign troops to leave. He also stresses his government's desire to help rebuild Iraq and signs a number of cooperation agreements. Conservatives win over two-thirds of seats in parliamentary elections in which many pro-reform candidates were disbarred from standing. The conservatives include supporters of President Ahmadinejad as well as more pragmatic conservatives who oppose his confrontational foreign policy. UN Security Council tightens economic and trade sanctions on Tehran. 2008 May - IAEA says Iran is still withholding information on its nuclear programme. Iran's new parliament elects former nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani as its speaker. Incentives offered 2008 June - EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana presents an offer of trade benefits, which Tehran says it will look at, but will reject if it demands suspension of uranium enrichment. 2008 July - Iran test-fires a new version of the Shahab-3, a long-range missile it says is capable of hitting targets in Israel. 2008 August - Informal deadline set by Western officials for Iran to respond to package of incentives in return for halt in nuclear activities passes without reply. Iran says it has successfully launched a test rocket capable of carrying a satellite into space. 2008 September - UN Security Council passes unanimously a new resolution reaffirming demands that Iran stop enriching uranium, but imposes no new sanctions. The text was agreed after Russia said it would not support further sanctions. Congratulations 2008 November - Parliament votes to dismiss the interior minister, Ali Kordan, who admitted that a degree he said he held from Oxford University was fake. The move is a blow to President Ahmadinejad ahead of next year's presidential election. In an unprecedented move, President Ahmadinejad congratulates US president-elect Barack Obama on his election win. Mr Obama has offered to open unconditional dialogue with Iran about its nuclear programme. 2008 December - Police raid and close the office of a human rights group led by the Nobel Peace Prize winner, Shirin Ebadi. Officials say the centre is acting as an illegal political organization. 2009 February - Speaking on the 30th anniversary of the Islamic revolution in Iran, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says he would welcome talks with the US as long as they are based on "mutual respect". 2009 March - Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei tells anti-Israel rally that US President Obama is following the "same misguided track" in Middle East as President Bush. 2009 April - An Iranian court finds Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi guilty of spying for the US. She is sentenced to eight years in prison. 2009 May - Iran rejects a US state department report saying it remains the "most active state sponsor of terrorism" in the world. Jailed Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi is freed and returns to the US. 2009 June - Iran's electoral commission declares Mr Ahmadinejad to have won a resounding victory in 12 June presidential election. The main challenger, Mir Hossein Mousavi, says there have been violations and dismisses the result as a "dangerous charade".
Dreaming is one of the most mysterious experiences in our lives. During the Roman Era, some dreams were submitted to the Roman Senate for analysis and dream interpretation. They were thought to be messages from the gods. Dream interpreters even accompanied military leaders into battles and campaigns! In addition we know, that many artists have received their creative ideas from their dreams. But what do we know about dreams? Here are 13 interesting facts for you.
1. You Forget 90% of Your Dreams
Within 5 minutes of waking, half of your dream is forgotten. Within 10, 90% is gone.
2. Blind People also Dream
People who became blind after birth can see images in their dreams. People who are born blind do not see any images, but have dreams equally vivid involving their other senses of sound, smell, touch and emotion.
3. Everybody Dreams
Every human being dreams (except in cases of extreme psychological disorder). If you think, you are not dreaming, you just forget your dreams.
4. In Our Dreams We Only See Faces, That We already Know
Our mind is not inventing faces – in our dreams we see real faces of real people that we have seen during our life but may not know or remember. We have all seen hundreds of thousands of faces throughout our lives, so we have an endless supply of characters for our brain to utilize during our dreams.
5. Not Everybody Dreams in Color
A full 12% of sighted people dream exclusively in black and white. The remaining number dream in full color. Studies from 1915 through to the 1950s maintained that the majority of dreams were in black and white, but these results began to change in the 1960s. Today, only 4.4% of the dreams of under-25 year-olds are in black and white. Recent research has suggested that those changing results may be linked to the switch from black-and-white film and TV to color media.
6. Dreams are Symbolic
If you dream about some particular subject it is not often that the dream is about that. Dreams speak in a deeply symbolic language. Whatever symbol your dream picks on it is most unlikely to be a symbol for itself.
7. Emotions
The most common emotion experienced in dreams is anxiety. Negative emotions are more common than positive ones.
8. Recurring Dreams
While the content of most dreams is dreamt only once, many people experience recurring dreams—that is, the same dream narrative is experienced over different occasions of sleep. Up to 70% of females and 65% of males report recurrent dreams.
9. Animals Dream Too
Studies have been done on many different animals, and they all show the same brain waves during dreaming sleep as humans. Watch a dog sleeping sometime. The paws move like they are running and they make yipping sounds as if they are chasing something in a dream.
10. Body Paralysis
Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep is a normal stage of sleep characterized by rapid movements of the eyes. REM sleep in adult humans typically occupies 20-25% of total sleep, about 90-120 minutes of a night’s sleep.
During REM sleep the body is paralyzed by a mechanism in the brain in order to prevent the movements which occur in the dream from causing the physical body to move. However, it is possible for this mechanism to be triggered before, during, or after normal sleep while the brain awakens.
11. Dream Incorporation
Our mind interprets the external stimuli that our senses are bombarded with when we are asleep and make them a part of our dreams. This means that sometimes, in our dreams, we hear a sound from reality and incorporate it in a way. For example you are dreaming that you are in a concert, while your brother is playing a guitar during your sleep.
12. Men and Women Dream Differently
Men tend to dream more about other men. Around 70% of the characters in a man’s dream are other men. On the other hand, a woman’s dream contains almost an equal number of men and women. Aside from that, men generally have more aggressive emotions in their dreams than the female lot.
13. Precognitive Dreams
Results of several surveys across large population sets indicate that between 18% and 38% of people have experienced at least one precognitive dream and 70% have experienced déjà vu. The percentage of persons that believe precognitive dreaming is possible is even higher, ranging from 63% to 98%.
And for the end:
Dreams are illustrations… from the book your soul is writing about you. (Marsha Norman)
Timothy H. O’Sullivan – Battle of Gettysburg
This photograph has become synonymous with The Battle of Gettysburg,
which was the most bloody battle of the American Civil War.
Photographer Timothy H. O’Sullivan documented and recorded the
battlefield, and this picture became a sensation. For many, this was
their first chance to see, first hand, the true extent of the Civil
War. However, it was not until 40 years after the battle that the
pictures were mass produced, as photo-engraving had not been
established. The picture shows dead confederate soldiers on the
battlefield, and has earned its place in history as an iconic
photograph.
Lawrence Beitler – Lynching
Lawrence Beitler took this iconic photograph on August 7, 1930, showing
the lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith. It sold thousands of
copies, which Beitler stayed up for 10 days and nights printing them.
It has become iconic over the years as it is one of the best and most
recognisable images of lynchingwhich at the time was commonplace, but
now serves only as a reminder of the pre-Civil Rights era. The photo
shows a crowd that have turned out to view the lynching, and the
audience a mixture of anger and fulfillment. The photo was so popular
it has been the inspiration for many poems and songs down the years.
Joe Rosenthal – Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima
Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima is an historic photograph taken on
February 23, 1945, by Joe Rosenthal. It depicts five United States
Marines and a U.S. Navy corpsman raising the flag of the United States
atop Mount Suribachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II. It
became the only photograph to win the Pulitzer Prize for Photography in
the same year as its publication, and came to be regarded in the United
States as one of the most significant and
recognizable images of the war, and possibly the most reproduced photograph of all time.
Alberto Korda – Che Guevara
Alberto Korda’s well known photograph of Marxist revolutionary Che
Guevara, titled ‘Guerrillero Heroico’ or ‘Heroic Guerrilla’ has become
a symbol of the 20th centry. It shows Che, as he was known, at a
memorial service for victims of the La Coubre explosion. The picture
depicts the then-31 year-old’s stoic and character and now appear on
T-shirts, tattoos, murials and walls all around the world. Despite
being one of the most reproduced images in history, Korda, a lifelong
Communist and supporter of the Cuban Revolution, claimed no payment for
his picture. The rights of the picture are now disputed. Still, it
remains
one of the most iconic photographs of the 20th century.
Eddie Adams – Nguyễn Ngọc Loan executing Nguyễn Văn Lém
Most of the iconic images of the 20th and 21st century have owned their
photographers Pulitzer prizes for their work, and this image is no
exception. Eddie Adams was famous for his portraits of celebrties and
for being a prolific photojournalist, having been in 13 wars. However,
possibly his most famous image is of the execution of Nguy?n Van LÈm by
Nguy?n Ng?c Loan during the Vietnam War. Adams later apologized in
person to General Nguyen and his family for the irreparable damage it
did to Loan’s honor while he was alive.
Moon Landing
Possibly the most talked-about, debated and controversial picture in
history, the picture of the moon landing has been seen as a feat of
human engineering at its best, and has been speculated as a hoax by
contractors of the event. Those in doubt of the authenticity of the
picture have come up with many suggestions as to why and how it might
have been faked. However, none of the accusations have been proved
correct and the debate continues in some circles. For many, though, it
provides a sense of accomplishment and acheivement by the human race to
send a man to the moon, which for years was considered an
impossibility. The American flag also installs national pride in the US
as the winners of the so-called ‘Space Race’, and their establishment
as the world’s one remaining super power.
Richard Drew – The Falling Man
“The Falling Man” is a photograph taken by Richard Drew at 9:41:15
a.m., on September 11, 2001 of a man falling from the World Trade
Center during the September 11 attacks in New York City. The man in the
photohraph remains unknown. Many people find the image disturbing
because it is a horrific image of what people had to resort to during
the attacks. The picture is deceptive, however, as it suggest that man
was falling straight down, however, this is just one of many
photographs of his fall. It is evident from these other pictures that
he tumbling out of control.
Huynh Cong Ut – Napalm Strike
This photo of a naked and terrified young girl running towards Pulitzer
prize-winning photographer Nick Ut has entered popular culture as a
symbol of the horror of the Vietnam War. It was taken during the
American bombing of the village of Trang Bang, Viet Nam. However there
has been much controversy over the events depicted in the photo. It is
suggested that American bombers had nothing to do with this event and
that there have been many derogatory and misleading comments about the
American troops in regard to this photo. Nevertheless, it is said that
this photo ended the war in Vietnam and served as an icon for the peace
movement that was prevelent in the 1970s.
Stanley J. Forman – Fire on Marlborough Street
On July 22, 1975, Stanley J. Forman took this infamous photograph while
working for the Boston Herald. He climbed on the back of a fire truck
as it raced towards a reported fire at Marlborough Street. Just as the
crew had arrived at the scene, a young woman and small girl fell from
an apartment above. The woman died instantly, but the young girl lived.
This photo earned Forman a Pulitzer prize, and in addition, convinced
Boston and several other cities to introduce more comprehensive fire
safety laws.
Tank Man – Jeff Widener
Often considered the most iconic photograph in history, ‘tank man’ or
‘the unknown rebel’ shows an act of courage and defiance and earned the
anonymous man widespread fame. It took place during the protests at
Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on June 5, 1989, and has subsequently become
a symbol of the end of the Cold War era, and one of the most famous
photographs of the 20th century. Four people claim to have took photos
of the event, but the most reproduced image, and the most famous was by
Jeff Widener.
Mike Wells – Uganda
This example of emotive imagery is of child in Uganda holding hands
with a missionary. The stark contrast between the two people serves as
a reminder of the gulf in wealth between developed and developing
countries. Mike Wells, the photographer, took this picture to show the
extent of starvation in Africa. He took it for a magazine, and when
they went 5 months without printing it, he decided to enter it into a
competition. However, Wells has stated that he is against winning a
compeition with a picture of a starving boy.
Kevin Carter – Vulture Stalking a Child
This shocking photo depicts a starving Sudanese child being stalked by
a patient vulture. It is a horrific picture that gave people a true
look at the dire condition in Sub-Saharan Africa. Kevin Carter, who
took the photo, won a Pulitzer Prize for this work. Kevin then came
under a lot of scrutiny for spending over 20 minutes setting up the
photo instead of helping the child. Three months after taking the
photo, he committed suicide.
Lands of Erotic Fantasy and Their Complex Reality
She lifted her head slightly, and was just able to see why: portions of her body had become suddenly covered with thousands upon thousands of brilliantly colored captive butterflies. All of them were engaged in licking away the ointment with what felt, as she later said dreamily, like a million tiny tongues.
Things like this just don’t seem to happen in Dubuque or Stow-on-the-Wold. And as Richard Bernstein suggests in his provocative and intriguing book “The East, the West, and Sex,” it is tales like this that over the years have helped construct today’s notion of the East as a sensual and sexual paradise. Tales of the odalisque, the harem, the seraglio, the concubine, the geisha and the Kama Sutra have all become combined in the past century or so into a sweetly perfumed mélange of exoticism and eroticism, presenting “the Orient” as a realm of languor and loucheness, where concupiscent curds run in the streets and nostalgie de la boue is perfectly de rigueur.
This idea — of the East as the center of a “harem culture” so enticingly different from what is parodied as our own Judeo-Calvinist dreariness — has captivated Westerners since the first imperialists planted their flags in the heat and dust of far away. In recent years, however, it is a notion that has spiraled frighteningly out of control. Nowadays there is precious little that passes for romance about the picture: the charming 19th-century image of Kipling’s temple girl at the old pagoda in Moulmein, the “neater, sweeter maiden in a cleaner, greener land,” has been replaced by today’s obese American pederast trolling for catamites in the bars of Zamboanga, or of middle-aged sex tourists buying infants in Phnom Penh or on the beaches outside Colombo.
Precisely how we regressed from the delights so well described by writers like Gustave Flaubert a century and a half ago — times when, dare one say it, true love did occasionally blossom among the bougainvillea and the date palms — to the grim realities of today’s meat markets in Thailand and the Philippines is the main thrust of Mr. Bernstein’s properly high-minded book. That we get rather less than a fully considered answer — but a good deal of alluring and titillating description in its place — is the single shortcoming of a book that is based on a very good and eminently discussable idea.
Mr. Bernstein, a columnist for The International Herald Tribune, the global edition of The New York Times, sees Richard Burton, a British Arabist, as perhaps most to blame, being among the first to popularize the notion of the East as offering an endless procession of licentiousness and abandon. As Burton saw it, India, the Middle East and Africa were places where, in Mr. Bernstein’s words, “the cultivation of love far surpassed the low and unsatisfactory levels attained in frigid, Christian Europe.” He adds, “The East was a place where the erotic and the poetic mingled, where, stripped of its taint of immorality, it could be the subject of a kind of connoisseurship, a learned cultivation.”
Burton’s translation of “The Arabian Nights” gave us Scheherazade and Sinbad and Ali Baba, of course, but it also gave us what Philip Larkin later hinted at with his poem relating the “16 sexual positions on the sand”: the idea that the conquest of the hot and distant could be made a lot more bearable for the visitor if one only got to understand the locals’ curious customs.
And though white imperialists did plenty of frightful things, a good many of their accounts speak of their total enthrallment with what they found: the Taoist idea that intercourse, for example, permitted a man to absorb life-enhancing yin forces, undeniably offered a degree of justification for foreigners to have a great deal of fun. Steadily, from soldiers and district commissioners, this habit passed downstream and into the world of commerce: “Do anything you like out there, old boy,” was for decades the watchword of all the great British China trading companies, even when I lived in Hong Kong a decade ago. “Whatever you like — so long as you don’t bring it home.”
Perhaps that is when it all began to change; perhaps it was long before the wars, in Japan and Vietnam, that brought so many sex-starved soldiers into contact with this apparently magical world. Perhaps the change happened when rich young businessmen, men armed with cash rather than carbines, came East and began to wield more freely what this exchange between Western men and Eastern women was already truly all about: power.
For that is what this book seems to miss, or if not to miss, then not to make as obvious as it should be. Perhaps there is a kernel of truth, as Mr. Bernstein observes, that “the sexual advantage of the Western man in the East is an aspect of Western dynamism, the questing spirit of Europeans, compared with the relative passivity of Asian in these matters.”
But some will find this an almost insultingly trivial explanation, compared with what is a far more tragic certainty: that whether these sexual transactions occurred centuries ago and involved a sultan with his harem or a daimyo with his geisha, or whether they took place during the Vietnam War and involved a G.I. with his Hong Kong go-go girl, the central truth is always the same. The transactions have always ultimately been based on the same pathetic reality: poor women — and lots and lots of them in those countries that have large populations and place too little value on the female sex — must peddle their bodies and their dignity to whoever has the power to demand them.
In recent years Eastern entrepreneurs, perhaps the tawdriest of all players in an increasingly tawdry business, have cashed in on the trade, creating for millions of foreign visitors the fancy that what is on sale in today’s bars and brothels is somehow mystical, magical and a traditional sacrament of the Orient. It isn’t: it is every bit as much about power and exploitation as if it took place on Eighth Avenue or north of King’s Cross Station. There is absolutely nothing Eastern, nothing magical and nothing exotic about it. It is all just quite desperately sad.
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