WHEN an elder was kidnapped in a clan dispute in conservative southern Egypt, the Al-Arab family's worst fears were soon realised - they received a package containing his moustache, local media reported.
The man himself was returned uninjured, but the use of the new shaving tactic sent shockwaves through the town of Mahrusa, near Luxor 650 kilometres south of Cairo, where a man's Honour is measured by the size of his doinker moustache, the Al-Gomhuria daily said.
The conflict that started with a coffee shop brawl swiftly spiralled out of control, with the Al-Arab carrying out a humiliating reprisal shave on a leading member of the Fallaheen family, followed by all-out battles with sticks and clubs.
Police and community leaders then intervened, restoring a relative calm to the town, the paper said, with those worst hit by the conflict set to remain indoors for the coming weeks pending the regrowth of their manliness.
The musings of an actress who writes about her pet cats and favourite television series have captured the imagination of internet users and made her the most-read blogger in the world.
That she is one of the most beautiful film stars in China has certainly not hindered Xu Jingleis rise to the top. But it is also the everyday style of her entries, distinguished more by their very ordinariness than by sexy kiss-and-tell tales from her life as a star, that has attracted her huge audience. It is an approach with which many ordinary Chinese feel they can identify, and her blog has become the first to boast 100 million page views.
It is not unusual for Miss Xu to receive 1,000 responses to a posting about her cats or the difficulties of learning English for a 33-year-old Beijing-girl-turned-actress. A weekend blog about watching an episode of the American TV series Prison Break has already drawn 776 comments. Her image as the girl next door, often dressed simply in jeans and T-shirt, enhances her appeal. . . .
Photo at the link. She could move in next door to me anytime.
Posted by: Mike ||
07/23/2007 11:15 ||
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#1
Yes, definitely easier on the eyes than Glenn Reynolds (no offense, professor).
Posted by: Jonathan ||
07/23/2007 11:42 Comments ||
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#2
Eh, China.
"Last night, a full million of us met in my hotel room..."
Warning to the humor-impaired: he's kidding, folks!
Many of our most thoughtful environmentalists are telling us that our planet is facing an unfathomable calamity. The combination of unbridled overpopulation and increasing greenhouses gases puts us on a path to destroy Mother Earth...unless we do something now. Two of the major suggestions to prevent such disaster were unveiled this week: in England, scientists suggested creating compulsory restriction on family sizes, to reduce the global population. Meanwhile researchers in Japan suggest an end to eating meat, since the environmental cost of a few pounds of beef is responsible for more pollution than driving a car for three hours.
I have examined this problem closely and realize there is a simple answer to this dilemma. If overpopulation and consumption of animals cause major harm to our planet, then we can simply eradicate both threats through cannibalism.
Let's eat each other.
Like acupuncture and Yoga, cannibalism has been around for many centuries. And as you know, we progressives are willing to embrace anything associated with ancient, spiritual cultures. And believe me, you can't get much more ancient or spiritual than a self-consuming practice that protects animals while paying tribute to our lovely planet. What I'm talking about is a healing process for the earth.
But in a pot. With carrots and maybe some spring potatoes. Or how about some fava beans and a nice chianti?
And really, in order to embrace modern environmentalism, you must reject any exceptionalism about humanity, or any possibility that something good might come from creating more people.
So dig in. I suggest we start with Al Gore. He's got some tender meat on those bones!
Your Friend,
Greg
Posted by: Mike ||
07/23/2007 08:27 ||
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Egypt announced on Sunday the discovery of the largest-ever military city from the Pharaonic period on the edge of the Sinai desert, part of a series of forts that stretched to the Gaza border.
"The three forts are part of a string of 11 castles that made up the Horus military road that went from Suez all the way to the city of Rafah on the Egyptian-Palestinian border and dates to the 18th and 19th dynasties (1560-1081 BC)," antiquities supreme Zahi Hawwas said in a statement.
Teams have been digging in the area for the past decade, but the Egyptian discovery of the massive Fort Tharo and the discovery of two other fortresses by French and American teams confirmed the existence of the Horus fortifications described in ancient texts.
Fort Tharo, the military headquarters for the eastern defence of Egypt, had 13-metre thick mud brick walls running 500 metres by 250 metres and was punctuated by 24 huge towers, said a statement from the Supreme Council of Antiquities.
The fortress was surrounded by a water-filled moat which could only be crossed by using a removable wooden bridge, with the fort's administrative buildings, temples, storehouses and market places found nearby.
The entire complex, which was connected by a bridge over the crocodile-infested waters of a now silted up branch of the Nile, was charged with defending Pharaoh Ramses II's northern capital city of Per-Ramesse.
Ramses II of the 19th Dynasty spent 16 years of his long reign battling the rival Hittites in the Levant and mounted numerous expeditions across the desert into neighbouring lands.
The other fortresses discovered appear to be outer lines of defence for the Tharo complex.
The American expedition found a 100-metre square fort known as the Lion's Lair seven kilometres east of Tharo in Tel al-Burj, also surrounded by a large moat.
Another 15 kilometres to the east the French expedition found a slightly smaller fortress built by Ramses' father Seti I in Tel Heir.
#1
Yet another Oliver Stone production of almost a Mariah Carey film, starring the red-head alien babe from FIFTH ELEMENT. "MMMUUUUUUUU
UULLLLTTTTIIIPAAAAASSSS...".
BAMAKO - Mali held the second round of legislatives elections on Sunday with the coalition of the west African countrys president expected to win a clear majority.
As in the first round on July 1, Mali voters appeared to be again proving their reputation as the worlds most ballot-shy electorate. Turnout early Sunday was very light in the capital and in the main provincial cities, local journalists told AFP. Polls were to close at 1800 GMT. Only 33 percent of eligible voters turned out to cast their ballots in the first round.
Candidates of the Alliance for Democracy and Progress, which backs President Amadou Toumani Toure, are seen as winning as many as 134 seats in the 147-seat parliament.
Toure on Sunday appealed to voters to go to the polls after casting his ballot. He admitted that during the first round the turnout was not to our satisfaction, especially in Bamako. Toure said he hoped the second round vote would be better organised and that it would lead to a much higher turnout.
Toure was re-elected for a second and final five-year term in April garnering more than 71 percent of votes cast. The opposition made charges of voting irregularities but finally accepted the results and decided to participate in the legislative polls.
The presidential bloc holds 97 seats in the outgoing parliament, while the opposition Front for Democracy and the Republic has the remaining 50.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/23/2007 00:00 ||
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A FINNISH researcher plants to study fish in an aquarium while a rock group performs nearby, to see if the sound causes any ill-effects or distress.
Bands including aging rockers Uriah Heep will perform on Friday night to about 3000 fans in a tent just a couple of dozen metres away from the aquarium.
"I will be looking for any abnormal behavior or activity," said researcher Mikko Erkinaro.
The 500,000l tank is home to salmon, trout, pike and perch and other species common in Finland's brackish coastal waters.
"It could be quite nasty to arrange such an aquarium and a performance venue (so close)," Erkinaro said, "especially when the (band) is a bit old-fashioned."
#5
No better excuse to trot out Kip Addotta's old chestnut:
It was April the forty-first.
Being a quadruple leap year,
I was driving in downtown Atlantis.
My barracuda was in the shop.
So I was in a rented stingray.
And it was overheating.
So I pulled into a Shell Station.
They said I'd blown a seal.
I said, "Fix the damn thing,
And leave my private life out of it,
Okay pal?"
While they were doing that,
I walked over to a place called the Oyster Bar, a real dive.
But I knew the owner,
He used to play for the Dolphins.
I said "Hi Gil!"
You have to yell, he's hard of herring.
Gil was also down on his luck.
Fact is he was barely keeping his head below water.
I bellied up to the sandbar.
He poured me the usual.
Rusty snail, hold the grunion,
Shaken not stirred.
With a peanut butter and jellyfish sandwich on the side,
Heavy on the mako.
I slipped him a fin.
On porpoise.
I was feeling good.
I even dropped a sand dollar in the box for Jerry's squids,
For the halibut.
Well the place was crowded.
We were packed in like sardines.
They were all there to listen to the big band sounds of Tommy Dorsal.
What sole!
Tommy was rockin' the place with a very popular tuna.
Salmon Chanted Evening.
And the stage was surrounded by screaming groupers,
Probably there to see the bass player.
One of them was this cute little yellowtail.
And she's giving me the eye.
So I figured this is my chance for a little fun,
You know, piece of Pisces.
But she said things I just couldn't fathom.
She was too deep, seemed to be under a lot of pressure.
Boy, could she drink.
She drank like a . . .
She drank a lot
I said "What's your sign?"
She said "Aquarium."
I said "Great, let's get tanked!"
I invited her to my place for a midnight bait.
I said "Come on baby, it'll only take a few minnows."
She threw me that same old line,
"Not tonight, I gotta haddock."
And she wasn't kidding either.
Cause in came the biggest, meanest looking haddock,
I'd ever seen come down the pike.
He was covered with mussels.
He came over to me and said,
"Listen, shrimp, don't you come trollin' around here."
What a crab.
This guy was steamed.
I could see the anchor in his eyes.
I turned to him, I said,
"A-balone, you're just being shellfish."
Well, I knew it was going to be trouble and so did Gil,
Cause he was already on the phone to the cods.
The haddock hits me with a sucker punch.
I catch him with a left hook.
He eels over.
It was a fluke but there he was,
Lying on the deck, flat as a mackerel.
Kelpless.
I said "Forget the cods Gil,
This guy's gonna need a sturgeon."
Well, the yellowtail was impressed with the way I landed her boyfriend.
She came over to me, she said,
"Hey, big boy, you're really a game fish,
What's your name?"
I said "Marlin."
Well, from then on we had a whale of a time.
I took her to dinner, I took her to dance.
I bought her a bouquet of flounders,
And then I went home with her.
And what did I get for my trouble?
A case of the clams.
#7
Wow, Zenster. That takes me back to my high-school days.
Thanks for making me feel old. Rather, older. Had plenty of reasons to feel old all weekend.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
07/23/2007 20:32 Comments ||
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#8
OK, 60's Rockers...Why do these brackish finsh keep chanting, " Country Joe! Country Joe! Country Joe"?
Posted by: Asymmetrical T ||
07/23/2007 20:51 Comments ||
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#9
So, Rob, how's the weight loss going? I've managed to drop all 20 pounds I gained over the last few years in the catering business. I hope you're having equal or better success.
REUTERS NEWS AGENCY - As many U.S. cities and states arrest illegal aliens in raids and toughen laws against them, a Connecticut city is offering to validate them under a new, first-in-the-nation ID-card program.
Starting tomorrow, New Haven will offer illegal aliens municipal identification cards that allow access to city services such as libraries and a chance to open bank accounts. Supporters say the cards will improve public safety and give illegal aliens protections now afforded legal residents. Critics contend that it will unleash a flood of illegal immigration, straining services and wasting taxpayer money.
New Haven officials overwhelmingly approved the program last month in a 25 to 1 vote.
Continued on Page 49
Kennedy was arguing that these people were in the shadows, correct? Well, let's bring them out, then. Get them all in one area, give them all ID cards - then deport them. At least, that's how I'd like to do it.
Unfortunately, not everybody thinks like I do . . .
Posted by: The Doctor ||
07/23/2007 16:34 Comments ||
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Nineteen families control one-third of Israel's economy, including much of the Jewish state's news media, according to a study released today.
The families all have given campaign contributions to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and foundations associated with newly installed Israeli President Shimon Peres, WND has learned. Most of the families support major leftist Israeli organizations.
The Concentration Index, which measures the wealth of families who control companies that affect all aspects of the lives of regular Israeli citizens, published its annual study today reporting 19 families take in one-third of the revenues of the 500 leading Israeli companies. The leading companies own most of Israel's news media.
The top five families on the list, including U.S. media mogul Haim Saban, control 61 percent of the income of these 19 families up from 54 percent in 2005.
Saban is a top supporter of Peres and of major Israeli and international organizations petitioning for an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank, Gaza Strip and sections of Jerusalem. Israel evacuated Gaza in 2005; since then rockets have been regularly launched into nearby Jewish population centers. The West Bank is within rocket-firing range of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Israel's international airport.
Today's Concentration Index study follows a Forbes Magazine report from last year revealing 12 business groups control more than 60 percent of Israel's economy, making it among the most concentrated in the world.
The 12 groups include Saban's organization and a group controlled by Matthew Bronfman, who was recently installed as leader of the World Jewish Congress, a major Jewish organization.
Forbes contended the groups constructed their empires, which own about 60 percent of the aggregate market value of all Israeli public companies, using organizational methods that were abolished in the Western world in the 1930s.
The groups reportedly achieved tight economic ownership by structuring their companies in pyramid-style, putting top holding companies in charge of smaller companies that all are beholden ultimately to the 12 groups. The U.S. largely eliminated this style of privatized influence nearly 80 years ago through a series of restrictions on ownership and the implementation of double taxation of dividends paid by a company to its parent organization.
The Forbes article stated the 12 groups have a disproportionately large amount of control over Israel's economy and the country's media through ownership of many of Israel's top banks and large media companies.
#4
I hear almost the entire place is run by Jews, too.
Posted by: Mark E. ||
07/23/2007 9:02 Comments ||
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#5
The problem isn't wealthy families. It is an "Old Europe" disease, in which the wealthy families use every effort to keep everyone else poor. They find they cannot enjoy their wealth unless they are surrounded by poverty.
This afflicts Europe, and Mexico through South America, along with many other places once dominated by Europe.
In the US, it seems bizarre, as most of our billionaires make themselves wealthier by making many, many more people millionaires. Bill Gates, for example, has probably created tens of thousands of wealthy people as a by-product of becoming wealthy himself. Hundreds of thousands moved into the upper middle classes.
Compare that with Carlos Slim Helu, the Mexican billionaire, who has only enriched perhaps a few dozen, and they were probably very well to do to start with, anyway. As far as the rest of his employees, he wants to keep them as far down the wage scale as possible.
This is why Mexico's economy should be a LOT bigger than it is. It is not just a willingness of their rich to allow poverty, they actively encourage it.
And this is also why these regions tend to have government that vacillate between extremes of socialism and extremes of dictatorship. Even France has been described as "mob rule punctuated by dictatorship."
Venezuela before Chavez was an excellent example of the disease. A few families earning most of the money while everyone else lived in squalor. This is why Chavez rose in the first place.
Of course, as soon as the great egalitarian became el Supremo, he puts himself in the position of the wealthy, wanting everything for himself, and to hell with the peasants. This is typical.
Most likely, Israel done not have a full blown case of this problem, in that many Israelis were raised in the US. But perhaps their wealthiest families earned their wealth in Europe or Russia.
#7
Moose, I don't think it's about keeping people poor but of making yourself richer. Mexico should be a PARADISE, they have the land, minerals, and workforce to be an economic powerhouse. The problem is that there is way way too much corruption at all levels of the Government.
Posted by: John Kerry ||
07/23/2007 14:12 Comments ||
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#9
Holy Mighty Morphin Power Rangers! What next from these people?
Posted by: Ho Chi Spomosh2247 ||
07/23/2007 17:19 Comments ||
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#10
Actually, not all that many Israelis come from the U.S. But about half come from not-Europe: the Arab world, the Magreb and sub-Saharan Africa, Hispanic America... and it's the not-European Israelis who are having more children, in line with the cultures they came from. I wonder what Israel will be like a generation from now.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
WHEN an elder was kidnapped in a clan dispute in conservative southern Egypt, the Al-Arab family's worst fears were soon realised - they received a package containing his moustache, local media reported.
BAMAKO - Mali held the second round of legislatives elections on Sunday with the coalition of the west African countrys president expected to win a clear majority.
A FINNISH researcher plants to study fish in an aquarium while a rock group performs nearby, to see if the sound causes any ill-effects or distress.
