Month: December 2006

1 Missing Climber’s Body Found in China

1 Missing Climber’s Body Found in China | World Latest | Guardian Unlimited

A follow up on the top female climber reported missing in an earlier post.
The body was found at the 17,390-foot level on Genie Mountain, also known as Genyen Peak, not far from the Sichuan border with Tibet. The mountain is 20,354 feet high.

Unlike the case of the missing climbers on Mount Hood in Oregon, the search had been complicated because the two did not leave detailed plans and rescuers initially did not even know which province in southwestern China to search.

But a clue to their whereabouts emerged several days ago, when rescue workers found a driver who had dropped the pair off near the mountain on Nov. 11.

Boskoff and Fowler told him they would climb the mountain and that he could meet them on Nov. 24 so they could pick up their bags, but they did not show up.

Boskoff ascended six of the world’s peaks over 26,000 feet, including Mount Everest. She owned Mountain Madness, a Seattle adventure travel company.

Chess Player Banned 10 Years For Cheating With Bluetooth, Computer

Chess Player Banned 10 Years For Cheating With Bluetooth, Computer – News by InformationWeek
An Indian chess player was banned Tuesday from competition for 10 years after he was caught using a Bluetooth headset sewn into a cap earlier this month to get help from a computer.

The All India Chess Federation slapped the 10-year sanction on Umakant Sharma, who had been using a Bluetooth device stitched into a cap he typically pulled down over his ears. According to the federation, Sharma’s accomplices relayed moves made by a computer chess program to him via the Bluetooth headset. Bharat Singh Chauhan, the AICF treasurer, showed the cap and Bluetooth device at a meeting convened Tuesday that decided Sharma’s punishment.

Sharma was found out during a random check at a New Delhi tournament Dec. 4; he had been seeded second in the tournament.

Too Many Technicalities to Pray

Too Many Technicalities « Metamorphosis

Blog of a Muslim Biologist, who became an atheist. Here he describes the minute technicalities that must be performed before prayer 5 times a day.
Growing up Muslim, I was taught the mechanics of everyday Muslim prayer and life. By mechanics, I mean, exactly how many times to wash your right hand before your left hand, etc. And if you screwed it up, God wouldn’t acknowledge your prayer!

I had molvies (Imams, Priests, etc.) drill this into my head. If it had been one molvie, I would’ve dismissed it as a freak instance; but it was every teacher, Pakistani and non Pakistani. How many times to pray, exactly when to pray, and what direction to pray. You have to face Mecca, or your prayer will not be accepted. Oh, it’s 2 minutes past Asr prayer…it’s too late. Continue reading “Too Many Technicalities to Pray”

Photos:The things we miss along the way

the things we miss along the way

Photography has taught me a lot. It has helped me to notice life. To realize that there is beauty in the mundane. That art is everywhere waiting for someone to notice. That the marrow of life lies in the alleys and forgotten corners of our own homes as we rush by everyday on our way to work and bed.

DVD players finally outnumber VCRs

DVD players finally outnumber VCRs
Although DVD players dropped below the magic $100 barrier some time ago, they have only just caught up with the VCR, according to Nielsen. The media tracking firm says that DVD player ownership has finally surpassed VCR ownership for the first time.

During the third quarter of 2006, 81.2 percent of all US households reported owning at least one DVD player compared to 79.2 percent for VCRs. That figure marks a 6 percent increase in DVD player ownership from the same period in 2005, while VCRs ownership fell. It’s a far cry from 1999, when Nielsen first began tracking DVD ownership. At the end of the 90s, only 6.7 percent of households owned a DVD player, compared with 88.6 percent owning VCRs.

Pakistan gets Nuked, after US…

Scripps Howard News Service

Some unthinkable possibilitiesQuick! Name the country we turn into a parking lot the next time al-Qaida’s network pulls off a 9/11. If your knee jerks toward Pakistan instead of Iran, your instincts are sound because conditions are falling into place for that scary scenario to unfold.

No, we won’t be toppling a regime – much less nation building – anytime soon in a country of 170 million Muslims (eight times the size of Iraq). But the United States could readily find itself unleashing the “gravest possible consequences” (remember that spooky Cold War phrase?) inside Pakistan’s borders – specifically the federally administered tribal areas that border Afghanistan. Continue reading “Pakistan gets Nuked, after US…”

Saudi Lawyer Takes On Religious Court System

Saudi Lawyer Takes On Religious Court System – washingtonpost.com
Over the past three years, Lahem has taken on the country’s most controversial and sensitive cases and turned them into high-profile indictments of the justice system. He has been thrown in jail several times and banned from traveling abroad. But he continues to fight what he considers an antiquated judiciary, out of step with basic human rights.

Saudi Arabia’s legal system is based primarily on the principles of sharia, laws derived from Islam’s holy book, the Koran, and on the Sunna, examples from the life of its prophet, Muhammad. Saudi judges follow the official Wahhabi doctrine, the most puritanical and conservative interpretation of Islam, and have wide discretion in handing down sentences.

Lahem’s latest client is a 19-year-old woman who was in a car with a male friend when she was kidnapped and gang-raped by seven men. In November, four of the men received prison sentences ranging from one to five years and 80 to 1,000 lashes, and three are awaiting sentencing. The rape victim was sentenced to 90 lashes for having been with a male friend, which is illegal in this strictly segregated country. Continue reading “Saudi Lawyer Takes On Religious Court System”

Overcoming Allergies Possible

Study: Overcoming Allergies Possible – Forbes.com
Allergies to pollen and other environmental triggers often are treated with shots called immunotherapy. A series of injections containing small amounts of the allergen builds up patients’ tolerance, reducing or even eliminating symptoms in many people.

Shots proved too dangerous for food allergy. So Burks and colleagues at Duke and the University of Arkansas developed an oral immunotherapy.

Here’s how it worked: First, youngsters spent a day at the Duke hospital swallowing minuscule but increasing doses of either an egg powder egg or a defatted peanut flour, depending on their allergy. They started at 1/3,000th of a peanut or about 1/1,000th of an egg, increasing the amount until the child broke out in hives or had some other reaction. Continue reading “Overcoming Allergies Possible”

Iran’s oil exports may disappear

Report: Iran’s oil exports may disappear
Iran is suffering a staggering decline in revenue from its oil exports, and if the trend continues income could virtually disappear by 2015, according to an analysis released Monday by the National Academy of Sciences.

Iran’s economic woes could make the country unstable and vulnerable, with its oil industry crippled, Roger Stern, an economic geographer at Johns Hopkins University, said in the report and in an interview.

Iran earns about $50 billion a year in oil exports. The decline is estimated at 10 to 12 percent annually. In less than five years exports could be halved and then disappear by 2015, Stern predicted. Photo of shop in Esfahan, Iran. Continue reading “Iran’s oil exports may disappear”

‘Santa Claus does not exist’ school tells stunned kids

‘Santa Claus does not exist’ school tells stunned kids | News | This is London
A primary school has been accused of spoiling Christmas for pupils after a lesson telling them that Santa Claus does not exist.Children as young as nine were told that only ‘small children believe in Father Christmas’.

The blunder came after the Year 5 pupils were given seasonal worksheets containing various festive classroom exercises. One began by informing the children that ‘many small children believe in Father Christmas’. It then went on to explain that thousands of letters sent by these children to Santa every year are actually answered by the Post Office.