We’ve heard about those evil Iranians for so many years, I thought it might be interesting to put together some photos from around the world (well… the internet) of what Iran actually looks like.
Low and behold!   it looks like they’re just like us.   Towns, Cities, Families, Art, Jobs, School, Scenic Vistas and more…

Photos From…
http://www.pbase.com/bmcmorrow/iran
http://thrillingwonder.blogspot.com/2007/01/discovering-iran-photo.html
http://www.bibliothecapersica.com/articles/images/v10f1/iran-flag.jpg
 

By Restless
A scorecard on last night’s speech from Suzanne Nossel:
1. That the strategy is “new”
2. That the strategy is any more likely to work now than in the past
3. That the strategy is “Iraqi” in impetus or direction
4. That 20,000 troops will somehow change the game
5. That the Iraqi government enjoys sufficient legitimacy and impartiality […]

    
Fictional Big Brother, 1984    Real Big Brother, 21st Century
If you think Bush having the new power (via one of his un-constitutional “signing statements”) to open your mail is over-blown,  then perhaps you might like living in modern England,  (home to over 1.5 million Police surveillance cameras) where yesterday’s scarry unthinkable fiction, is becoming today’s sad […]

From YahooNews: 
World’s smallest country up for sale
LONDON (Reuters) - For sale: the world’s smallest country with its own flag, stamps, currency and passports.
Apply to Prince Michael of Sealand if you want to run your own storm-tossed nation — even if it is just a wartime fort perched on two concrete towers in the North Sea.
Built […]

 
By Restless 
In a recent der Spieglel article, Gabor Steingart breaks out the components of our (the U.S.’s) dilemma. First, there are 3 unique characteristics of our national character:

 
Pro
Con

Optimism & daring
Nowhere in the world as high; dating back to the birth of our nation.
Optimism to the point of naiveté as many citizen’s financial condition worsens

Radically global
Dominant […]

By Restless 
Along the lines of the map of  the religions’ spread throughout the world, I found another Flash map showing the Imperial history of the Middle East, which puts our President’s war in perspective. See it here.
Created by the same people as did the map in Porter’s post (Maps of War) it details the volitility […]

 
From Yahoo News:
Furor in Italy over “gay nativity” in parliament
ROME (Reuters) - Two leftists in Italy’s ruling coalition on Wednesday outraged fellow lawmakers by placing four dolls representing homosexual couples near the baby Jesus in the official nativity scene in parliament.
The two parliamentarians from the small “Rose in the Fist” party said their gesture was […]

 
By Restless 
Highlighting our (the U.S’s) vast differences to the rest of the civilized world in regard to benefits to its citizens (health care, basic freedoms, etc.) is a new article regarding the days of vacation mandated by law in other countries. Though Mexico and Hong Kong are chincy (their laws say 1 week), only China […]

From The BBC: 
Italy village gets ’sun mirror’
A sun-deprived village in the Italian Alps has come up with a novel solution to fix the problem - by installing a giant mirror.
The mirror - an eight-by-five metre (26×16ft) sheet of steel - was placed on a nearby peak to reflect sunlight onto Viganella’s main square below.
The computer-operated […]

 
A much more amazing 360 degree photo of the snippet above can be found here.
You see a picture like that and understand why Paris is considered one of the most beautiful cities on earth.   It’s been over 20 years since I’ve been there, I think I might be time for another visit.

From The BBC: 
Condoms ‘too big’ for Indian men
A survey of more than 1,000 men in India has concluded that condoms made according to international sizes are too large for a majority of Indian men.
The study found that more than half of the men measured had penises that were shorter than international standards for condoms.
It has […]

  
  American Scammer       Nigerian Scammer
Sometimes that whole Anti-Intellectual, Anti-”Book Learning”,  Anti-Living in Reality… ”trust the word of Jesus” thing really comes back to bite you in the ass.
From CNEWS.COM: 
Churches, Ministers Targeted By Nigerian E-mail Scammers
Nigerian e-mail scammers are successfully targeting American churches and ministers, cheating them out of millions of dollars under the guise of spreading […]

 
From MSNBC.COM: 
Bush vows to keep forces in Iraq, rips al-Qaida
President in Baltics for NATO summit, heads to Jordan later in the week
RIGA, Latvia - The United States will not withdraw its forces from Iraq before its mission of building a stable democracy is complete, President Bush said Tuesday.
“There is one thing I’m not going to […]

 
From YahooNews:
Swingers swap sex partners in prudish Singapore
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Every two months, dozens of couples meet in a pub in Singapore, have drinks, mingle, and then decide whether they want to sleep with one another.
In Sydney or Seattle nobody would bat an eyelid, but the couples are part of a thriving underground swinging scene […]