STOCKHOLM, Sweden -- Swedish authorities say parents can now name their newborns "Budweiser" or "Metallica" if they so wish.
For decades, Swedish tax authorities had banned parents from naming their children after fast food chains, rock bands or their favorite brand of beer. But tax authority spokesman Lars Tegenfeldt says the guidelines have been relaxed. He says "there is nothing negative about a name like Coca-Cola or McDonald's today. In the 1970s, maybe it was."
Still, authorities are drawing the line at giving children swear words for names. And forget about naming your child God, Allah or Devil.
#1
Well I'm glad to hear that they have risen above all that nonsense of not being able to name your own child after your whore mother's favorite brand of liquor.
As the ceremony got under way with a dramatic, drummed countdown, viewers watching at home and on giant screens inside the Bird's Nest National Stadium watched as a series of giant footprints outlined in fireworks processed gloriously above the city from Tiananmen Square.
What they did not realise was that what they were watching was in fact computer graphics, meticulously created over a period of months and inserted into the coverage electronically at exactly the right moment.
The fireworks were there for real, outside the stadium. But those responsible for filming the extravaganza decided in advance it would be impossible to capture all 29 footprints from the air.
As a result, only the last, visible from the camera stands inside the Bird's Nest was captured on film.
The trick was revealed in a local Chinese newspaper, the Beijing Times, at the weekend.
Gao Xiaolong, head of the visual effects team for the ceremony, said it had taken almost a year to create the 55-second sequence. Meticulous efforts were made to ensure the sequence was as unnoticeable as possible: they sought advice from the Beijing meteorological office as to how to recreate the hazy effects of Beijing's smog at night, and inserted a slight camera shake effect to simulate the idea that it was filmed from a helicopter.
"Seeing how it worked out, it was still a bit too bright compared to the actual fireworks," he said. "But most of the audience thought it was filmed live - so that was mission accomplished."
He said the main problem with trying to shoot the real thing was the difficulty of placing the television helicopter at the right angle to see all 28 footsteps in a row.
One advisor to the Beijing Olympic Committee (BOCOG) defended the decision to use make-believe to impress the viewer. "It would have been prohibitive to have tried to film it live," he said. "We could not put the helicopter pilot at risk by making him try to follow the firework route."
A spokeswoman for BOCOG said the final decision had been made by Beijing Olympic Broadcasting, the joint venture between the International Olympic Committee and local organisers that is responsible for providing the main "feeds" of all Olympic events to viewers around the world.
"As far as we are concerned, we let off the fireworks - that's what's important to us," she said.
Mr Gao said he was worried that technologically literate viewers who spotted the join might be critical, but comments online suggested more admiration of the result.
Although the event as a whole received rapturous reviews abroad, that has not been entirely the case at home. Some internet comments were hostile, saying that while it looked stunning the contents were vacuous.
Others focused on the sheer numbers of people involved - more than 16,000 performers, mostly from People's Liberation Army song and dance troops.
"That certainly showed China's unique character," said one comment. "Namely, that we have 1.3 billion people."
Posted by: john frum ||
08/12/2008 14:01 ||
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The Daily Telegraph solved the mystery by discovering the identity of the man who decided to make the gnome his travelling companion, and took him to meet the owners.
Posted by: john frum ||
08/12/2008 00:00 ||
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The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Monday dismissed bail petition of a man from Swat district who was charged for sending three children from the district to a seminary in Bajaur Agency for jihadi training against the will of their parents.
Kabal Police Station of Swat had lodged an FIR against a tailor Habibullah for sending Samiullah, Mujeebur Rehman and Noor Mohammad for jihadi training to a seminary of his friend Dawa Khan situated in Bajaur Agency against the will of their parents.
A PHC single bench headed by Justice Syed Yahya Zahid Gilani heard the bail petition of Habibullah. His lawyer contended that in the FIR the children's parents stated that the petitioner called their children at his tailoring shop by making telephone calls to them and they did not return to their homes after that. The parents registered FIR against him under Section 365 of Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC).
The lawyer submitted before the court that the government has not extended Section 11 (v) of Anti Terrorism Act (ATA) to the Provincially Administered Tribal Areas (PATA) and thus the petitioner is entitled to be released on bail.
The respondent lawyer, however, told the court that the accused had committed an 'inhuman' act and has also confessed that he had sent the children for jihadi training. He prayed the court to dismiss the bail petition of the accused as such people were creating militants.
On this, the court dismissed the bail petition of the accused.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/12/2008 00:00 ||
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Looks like the rumors are true. Here's an excerpt from a FoxNews interview: JONATHAN HUNT: You talk about the good Muslims, like your father, yet you still now renounce the faith of your father. Could you have not been a good Muslim?
MOSAB HASSAN YOUSEF: Now, here's the reality: after I studied Christianity which I had a big misunderstanding about, because I studied about Christianity from Islam, which is, there is nothing true about Christianity when you study it from Islam, and that was the only source.
When I studied the Bible carefully verse by verse, I made sure that that was the book of God, the word of God for sure, so I started to see things in a different way, which was difficult for me, to say Islam is wrong.
Islam is my father. I grew up for (one) father 22 years for that father and another father came to me and told me, 'I'm sorry, I'm your father.' And I was like, 'What are you talking about? Like, I have my own father, and it's Islam!' And the father of Christianity told me, 'No, I'm your father. I was in jail, and this (Islam) is not your father.'
So basically this is what happened. It's not easy to believe this (Islam) is not your father anymore. So I had to study Islam again from a different point of view to figure out all the mistakes, the huge mistakes and its effects, not only on Muslims (of) which I hated the values ... I didn't like all those traditions that make people's lives more difficult but its effects also on humanity. On humanity! People killing each other (in) the name of God.
So definitely I started to figure out the problem is Islam, not the Muslims and those people I can't hate them because God loved them from the beginning. And God doesn't create junk. God created good people that he loved, but they're sick, they have the wrong idea. I don't hate those people anymore but I feel very sorry for them and the only way for them to be changed (is) by knowing the word of God and the real way to him.
JONATHAN HUNT: Does it worry you that in saying these things and given your background and your words carrying extra weight there is a danger that you will increase the difficulties, the hatred between Christians and Muslims in the world right now?
MOSAB HASSAN YOUSEF: This could happen if a Christian person will go talk to them about the reality of Islam. They put Christians on the enemy list anyway, before you talk to them about Islam. So if you go to them and tell them, as a Christian, they will be offended immediately and they will hate you and this will definitely increase the vacuum between both religions but what made someone like me change? Nothing we rantburgers don't already know. He's still a Palestinian patriot, but a more sober, and realistic, one.
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.
