Wednesday, April 30, 2008

DARE DEVILS AND GODS

Bit of a mixed bag for you all today...

THE BIG WALK
The daring step of this guy blew my mind. I had vertigo just watching. The place is El Camino Del Rey in Spain. The walkway was built in 1905 and has fallen into disrepair, and although people are warned not to take the walk, many people still do and quite a few have fallen and died. That’s what makes this guy’s walk so scary, he doesn’t seem to take any precautions just keeps on going...amazing!!


PERMISSABLE IMPURITY – Managed by God!
This article is about the rules of Sharia Law for investments but its really about bending the rules with 'permissable impurity'... interesting justifications going on here!


DARA AND SARAH DONT WANT TO PLAY WITH BARBIE AND HER FRIENDS
And last but not least is the story of Barbie, Spiderman and Harry Potter all being banned from Iran for their destructive cultural and social consequences. While importing the toys is not necessarily illegal, it is discouraged by a government that seeks to protect Iranians from what it calls the negative effects of Western culture and smuggled imports pose a threat to the “identity” of the new generation.

Barbie is sold wearing swimsuits and miniskirts in a society where women must wear head scarves in public and men and women are not allowed to swim together.

In 2002, Iran introduced its own competing dolls — the twins Dara and Sara — who were designed to promote traditional values with their modest clothing and pro-family stories. But the dolls proved unable to stem the Barbie tide.

Yeah, mustn’t let things get too out of hand, throw that Barbie doll into the bin girls and get your scarf back on..... your identity is slipping!

Friday, April 25, 2008

OPPOSITES ATTRACT

Sorry to have dropped out for a while, life is going very fast at the moment. I can hardly believe its been a month since I last posted. Here's something I eventually found that made my heart go thump!

This is a story about a dying professor who is now too sick to carry on teaching, his students who are praying for a miracle and the awfully sad ending to his lifetime passion. Makes for a very unusual story on a few levels really.

Professor of Law Stephen Gey is rapidly succumbing to Lou Gehrig's disease.
"Lou Gehrig's disease is amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, a progressive, incurable disease that destroys motor neurons in the brain and spinal cord. Famed physicist Stephen Hawking has the hereditary kind, which is devastating, but not life-threatening. Gey has the nonhereditary kind, which kills by slow paralysis."

"One of the few hopeful avenues of ALS research has involved the transplanting of embryonic stem cells. Such research has been limited for seven years in the United States by religious conservatives and the Bush administration. His adversaries have erased his last chance. "The irony doesn't escape me."

"Gey uses a lawyer's words to define his situation: cognitive dissonance. He cannot pray for a miracle. "I have a disease you wouldn't give to your worst enemy," he says, as if arguing before a jury. "If you believe in a caring, all-knowing God, how can you reconcile that? I can only approach it fatalistically. Stuff happens."