The television program LOST (first broadcast on the United States channel ABC between 2004-2010) includes a geodesic dome. I do not intend to say much here about the show other than I have enjoyed it tremendously. The sixth and final season of LOST begins in February 2010. This essay will discuss the geodesic domes appearing in LOST.
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Trevor Blake: Snow. Portland, Oregon USA. 29 December 2009.
Yahoo News: Taliban blow up Pakistan girls school
Islamist militants opposed to co-education and subscribers to sharia law have destroyed hundreds of schools, mostly for girls, in northwest Pakistan in recent years.
The Nation: Woman sold in public auction in Pakistan – for $3,200
A 20-year-old girl was auctioned at village Badani Bhutto of Taluka Kashmore in consideration of Rs2,70,000 on Saturday. Azizan, daughter of late Allah Bux Bhutto, was divorced on the allegation of Karo-kari [roughly, adultery] some time back. She is stated to be mother of two children and was residing with her brother who held the open auction for her ‘sale’ at village Badani Bhutto.
BBC: Pakistan court orders ears and noses to be cut off
A Pakistani court has ordered that two men have their ears and noses cut off, as punishment for doing the same to a woman who refused to marry one of them.
Mail Online: Muslim police chef defeated in ‘bacon roll’ tribunal faces £75,000 legal bill
Mr Khoja, 62, lost his claim in May after a police employee told an employment tribunal how she saw Mr Khoja eat bacon rolls and sausages.
Mail Online: Islamic militants stone man to death for adultery in Somalia as villagers are forced to watch
Mohamed Ibrahim appeals to Islamic militants not to carry out the execution as he is buried in the ground as his villagers are forced to watch.
BBC: Uganda bans female genital mutilation
Anyone convicted of the practice, which involves cutting off a girl’s clitoris, will face 10 years in jail, or a life sentence if a victim dies.
Spiegel Online: Al-Qaida Kills Eight Times More Muslims Than Non-Muslims
Between 2004 and 2008, for example, al-Qaida claimed responsibility for 313 attacks, resulting in the deaths of 3,010 people. And even though these attacks include terrorist incidents in the West — in Madrid in 2004 and in London in 2005 — only 12 percent of those killed (371 deaths) were Westerners.
ABC News: Torture Tape Implicates UAE Royal Sheikh
A video tape smuggled out of the United Arab Emirates shows a member of the country’s royal family mercilessly torturing a man with whips, electric cattle prods and wooden planks with protruding nails. A man in a UAE police uniform is seen on the tape tying the victim’s arms and legs, and later holding him down as the Sheikh pours salt on the man’s wounds and then drives over him with his Mercedes SUV.
BBC: Swiss minaret ban ’security risk’
“Provocation risks triggering other provocation and risks inflaming extremism.”
Death By 1000 Papercuts: How Easy to Build a Christian Church in Muslim Countries?
These countries are the largest in the Muslim world.
New York Times: Muslim Prayers Fuel Spiritual Rebuilding Project by Ground Zero
“We want to push back against the extremists.”
All articles continue at links. Part of a series that never ends… [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9] and etc. There are photographs of Mohamed Ibrahim being stoned to death at the above link. Go ahead, take a look. Islam is the religion of peace, and there is no compulsion under the religion of Islam. You just need to level-up your cultural sensitivity to their sacred traditions. Respect their diversity. Sure, men get tortured and stoned to death and have parts of their faces cut off, all with the cooperation and enthusiastic participation of the Islamic government. And yes, women have their genitals mutilated and are sold as slaves. But just because these people are different doesn’t mean we should fear or hate them. We need to walk a mile in their shoes before we can judge them. For heaven’s sake don’t provoke them – provocation risks triggering other provocation and risks inflaming extremism. See, it’s our fault! It takes a signature from the President of Egypt to build a Christian church in Egypt. No Christian churches are allowed in Saudi Arabia at all. Turkey and Algeria forbid existing Christian churches to be repaired and often order that they be torn down. Indonesia allows Christian churches to exist providing no worship services occur there on Sundays. Pakistan Christians generally meet in private homes. No wonder Muslims are angry that the Swiss have banned the construction of new mosques in their country. Whether it’s eating pork or building places of worship, Islam is a ‘do as I say not as I do’ sort of superstition.
My opinion counts for little, but here it is. I’m encouraged by the Muslims described in the last link, those pushing back against their fellow Muslims. I’m for the free exercise of religion and I’m for secular government. Christianity survived secularization and Islam can survive it as well. If it cannot or will not, Islam deserves to die out. Does it seem impossible that a religion could die out, particularly a globe-spanning religion like Islam? Then spend a little time walking around in the graveyard of the gods to get a little perspective. Every religion dies out given time. And a little bit of a shove.
Architecture. Portland, Oregon USA. 5 December 2009.
Worshippers quit church after council noise ban ‘takes away their ability to praise God’:
Members of a congregation in north London have abandoned their church – because of a council noise ban. The Immanuel International Christian Centre was ordered to keep its amplified music and sermons quieter after a neighbour complained. But the church’s pastor Dunni Odetoyinbo claimed Waltham Forest council had only told them to keep quiet so as not to offend the Muslim community. The church also argued the council had ‘taken away its ability to praise God’, and that congregation numbers had dwindled from 100 to 30 because of the restrictions. Baha Uddin, who lives near the church, had complained he was unable to use his garden at weekends and his one-year-old daughter was regularly disturbed by the noise from services. He said: ‘It’s been a nightmare. I’ve not been able to use my garden or living room on a Sunday because of the church services. The amplified music, drums and the loud sermons made having a conversation impossible. The noise made me depressed.’ But other neighbours say the noise is not a problem. The church lodged an appeal, and appeared at Waltham Forest magistrates’ court on Tuesday. In court Mrs Odetoyinbo, 55, claimed a council officer had asked her ‘to keep the noise down so as not to offend the Muslim community’. But magistrates rejected the appeal, and ordered the church to pay £2,250 costs.It can now only play music for 20 minutes on a Sunday between 11.30am and 11.50pm. A council spokesman said: ‘All attempts at mediation have failed and we regrettably were forced to issue the church with a noise abatement notice.’
Article continues at link. Previously at OVO, The Bells Bells Bells Bells Bells Bells Bells. When you’ve got an invisible monster that lives in the sky on your side, giving you special dispensations that are unquestionable and eternal, you might get it in your head that anything you do in the service of that invisible monster that lives in the sky is justified – nay, compulsory. That’s the sort of thinking that causes US Presidents to declare war [1] [2] [3] [4] and Saudi Arabian architects to hijack airplanes [1] [2] [3]. Perhaps compared to these evils, annoying a neighbor is a small thing. Perhaps it is an unfair comparison all around. But I will say that being a pest to your neighbor is not excused by superstition. And every time a place of religion drags the State into their affairs, both the freedom to worship and the ability to have a secular / pluralistic government suffer.
He published a book titled The Human Drift (1894), which advocated that all industry should be taken over by a single corporation owned by the public, and that everyone in the US should live in a giant city called Metropolis powered by Niagara Falls. A later book, World Corporation (1910), was a prospectus for a company set up to create this vision
Gillette’s plan for an immense three-level metropolis (called “Metropolis”) on the site of Niagara Falls. Designed to accommodate a population of tens of millions of inhabitants, the mega-city would draw its electric power from the Falls. [circular houses on a hex road grid - 1894]
Concrete Canvas have developed a ground breaking material technology called Concrete Cloth that allows concrete to be used in a completely new way. Concrete Cloth was originally developed for the award winning Concrete Canvas Shelters, a building in a bag that requires only water and air for construction.
Bucky’s 113th Birthday: Savoring the Gift of Global Awareness
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