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The local Goth prototype has become a run-of-the-mill example of the apocalypse.

12:33 / 04.02.03

Today, I walk thru many photo shops and most of them charges $5 for each scanned photo. Only 2 shops charges $9 for 20 scanned photos. Why such a huge difference is all I want to know. Anyone got any idea appreciated. Thanks.

14:37 / 04.02.03

Jub is William Safire and I claim my Whoppers Junior

22:21 / 04.02.03

Whenever I watch documentaries or news film from Iraq, I see huge posters displayed everywhere of Saddam. I know he made a great show of Islamic belief just before the last Gulf War and has been embraced by the Ummah to a large extent since. However, I understood Islam to forbid such figurative representations on the grounds that they encourage the worship of idols, which is why Islamic art is bare of portraiture and sculpted human forms. Is there a contradiction here or perhaps I misunderstand the religious prohibition?

22:37 / 04.02.03

Xoc -- check out number two of the christian Ten Commandments, King James' version. I guess it all depends how strict you want to be.

14:33 / 05.02.03

Also, Saddam is not a Muslim leader - he doesn't really care what Allah thinks.

He'll do stuff for show, but part of the reason he's there in the first place (with early US support) is that he was a secular leader standing aainst the fundamentalist Ayatollahs in Iran. Here's a potted bio with some details.

You might also glean something from this article on Shiites in Iraq.

14:42 / 05.02.03

But even the hard-assed Islamic nation of Iran also engages in Stalin-scale displays of political portraiture, including the images of the various Ayatollahs. I always wondered about that...

I know there's a strict ban on any attempt to anthropomorphize Allah (although it has been said that the arabesque is an artistic attempt to render the spirit of God as pure mathematics...), and on visual portrayals of the Prophet (peace be on him)...

Or is it more like the Eastern Orthodox tradition, which prohibits statuary but allows the creation of icons as an act of devotion?

15:13 / 05.02.03

Not being Muslim, I may be wrong, but I think Islam prohibits all religious art that shows living things. They found some neat mosaics in the Hagia Sofia a few years back, as when it became a mosque, they Turks just painted over the art on the walls.

No people, and think even depicting animals may be wrong. Fun Fact: If you go to Istanbul, you can see the hairs of Mohammed's beard on display in little individual cases, so I guess relics are okay.

15:15 / 05.02.03

Regarding Iran, maybe it's because a)they're photos? or b) because you're not supposed to worship them, or it's not art, but political support. If people were praying to a big placard of the Ayatollah I think it would be a no-no.

15:36 / 05.02.03

I think it's all down to interpretations of scripture, yeah.

If I'm reading this article on chess & religion right, it seems like the Shiites would be a lot harder on this sort of thing than other Muslims, since they trace succession back to Ali, the son-in-law of Mohammed. He didn't like chess because of the graven images. Today's Taliban felt the same way.

On the other hand, there's this Iranian perspective:

Photographer Meryem Zandi has a studio in an affluent neighborhood in Teheran. She used to take the famous photographs of Ayatollah Khomeini when he was preaching from the small mosque in the southern part of the town.

"It was easy for the first couple times," she said, "as long as I covered my hair, it was O.K. for his guards. They would let me in. But after a year or so, when the revolution really picked up, we were allowed nowhere near him."

Currently Zandi is working on a photographic documentary project. "There is no such thing in the Koran that prohibits art or image," she said, "but to publish your work, you have to get it cleared from the Ministry of Culture, which is never easy."

20:53 / 05.02.03

Maybe it's a hoary old chestnut, but ...

Can anyone name two liberal democracies that have had a war (or as near as) with each other?

No agenda, just a bet.

21:09 / 05.02.03

Thanks very much for the answers re portraits and Islam guys. Sounds like there's a lot of variation in interpretation of the haram rules, right enough.

22:36 / 05.02.03

May I know if anyone of you know of a language translation website that I can go to? Preferably one that translate malay to english. Thanks and best regards. I've been trying to learn some malay cause the economy in my country is really bad. I'm thinking of venturing to my neighbouring countries for better opportunity. Who knows, I might find Susan there.

The Return Of Rothkoid

23:18 / 05.02.03

There's a page with a dictionary that will translate from Malay (and vice-versa) here. You'll have to do it a word at a time, though.

This page allows you to put paragraphs of text in for translation.

00:10 / 06.02.03

The Soccer War maybe? I'm not sure if El Salvador and Honduras were democracies at the time though...

Maybe Peru-Ecuador's war too
Here too

The American Civil War was between two democracies. As was the War of 1812.

Ooh Just found the Long Answer here

(yes)

06:49 / 06.02.03

TRoR : Hey! Thanks for pointing me to the 2 language translators websites. They are really great! You are really of much help to me. The 2 translators website complement one another and really feel great having knowing about these 2 websites. Thanks again.

08:26 / 06.02.03

A pronunciation question.

Don Quixote - Should that be Don kwik-sote, or Donkey-oaty?

Don Juan - Don jewun, or Don whun?

Dic.com offers both, but is one preferable? I get the impression that the most people go for the latter, while stickler-types seem to favour the anglicised version. Any reason for this?

ONLY NICE THINGS

08:35 / 06.02.03

Don Quixote is a title, and so if you pronounce Candide Kon-deed, you need to go for Key-hotay.

Don Juan is a trickier one. If you're talking generally about the Lothario, or the teachings of, Don Hwan. However, muddying the waters is Byron's well-known but little-read Don Juan which, in the style of the day, simply pronounced it as it would be said if the words were originally English, that is to rhyme with "true 'un", thus:

I WANT a hero: an uncommon want,
When every year and month sends forth a new one,
Till, after cloying the gazettes with cant,
The age discovers he is not the true one;
Of such as these I should not care to vaunt,
I 'll therefore take our ancient friend Don Juan-
We all have seen him, in the pantomime,
Sent to the devil somewhat ere his time.

If in doubt go for Don Giovanni (Gee-oh-VAHN-ee).

09:04 / 06.02.03

Thank you muchly

09:23 / 06.02.03

It might be useful to remember, Smoothly Woven One, that Don Juan means nothing more than Mr/Sir/Lord John depending upon the era and the region of Spain and is a very common appellation, so the Don Jew-an pronunciation has the benefit of being a clear reference to one specific fictional (if loosely historical) character, an archetype with echoes of similar figures in many cultures.

11:31 / 06.02.03

Me and the missus are trying to decide which games console to get - PS2 or X-Box? Which offers the better games?

We're both into cutesy platform type thingies (eg Spyro, Monkey Challenge etc) and dumbass first-person shoot-'m-ups (eg Doom, Quake etc). We can't be doing with anal, fiddly games where you have a seperate button sequence for each f..king tendon in a character's leg, or hand-to-hand-fighting or, God-help-us, footie simulators.

I know that the X-Box offers Serious Sam, which is the greatest game in the world, so I'm chiefly interested in hearing about the PS2. But if you can think of anything that'd clinch it for the X-Box, I'd be glad to hear about that too.

PS - Game Cube is out of the running because the excuse we're using to justify this to ourselves is that it'll play DVDs as well.

11:42 / 06.02.03

Yeah, but Game Cube has Super Monkey Ball, Eternal Darkness, and the other great games...

I would go for PS2, since you can run the 200 PS1 games on it as well, and probably pick them up cheap...

...and Microsoft's evil, right?

11:43 / 06.02.03

Pity the Gamecube is out of the question because it would be the perfect choice for your taste in games.

I would have to say the PS2 then, bigger library of games (including lots of budget platformers and shooters) it's also got Timesplitters 2 which is both cutesy and a shooter

The DVD player is fine (well I have no complaints) and its easy to change to multiregion too.

I'm sure someone will come along and disagree and we can get into one of those great X-Boxz/PS2 sux debates

The Return Of Rothkoid

11:58 / 06.02.03

So, just to recap for stupid me: the PS2 is able to play multiregion discs? It can be hacked using a controller, or...?

12:06 / 06.02.03

Using this little chap here -

Region Free?

Bargain at only £8.99

I love Play.

.

16:59 / 06.02.03

Some quick culinary queries:

1) How does one cook an artichoke?

2) I remember there being some sort of website where one could enter the ingredients that one had at hand, and it would provide one with appropriate recipes. If I didn't dream this, where can I find it on the web?

ii.

18:21 / 06.02.03

1) One steams it, at best. Me, I just put the damn thing in boiling water for 15-20 minutes, until the outer leaves pull off easily (and taste right).

2) Sounds great, but I have no idea.

18:35 / 06.02.03

. Check the recipe for apple on its own. Also, splash of vinegar or lemon juice in the boiling water for the artichokes.

19:37 / 06.02.03

Saveloy> I think I'm going to have to agree with Bear here, and recommend the PS2 as yer best bet. It's got some fantastic platform games on it, is an old enough platform that developers have really got to grips with it and has a huge back catalogue of (cheap) titles to pick from. It falls down slightly on first-person shooters, with Timesplitters 2 being the only one of note.

That the DVD functionality nixes the Gamecube completely is a shame.

The Return Of Rothkoid

21:20 / 06.02.03

Bear: ta. But I'm in Australia... I think the region for DVD is different here, so that may not work. Hmm. Must think more. But I *want* one.

21:29 / 06.02.03

And here's another: AllRecipes.com I haven't tested it much myself, but it could work.

.

21:29 / 06.02.03

Cheers grant and H.I.R- Your advice came a bit late for my dinner, so I took a guess and boiled them for 20 minutes, which seemed to do the trick. Very tasty. Basically I get organic veggies delivered by Farmaround every week, and sometimes you get a bit of a surprise in yer organic sack of stuff... I recommend Farmaround for anyone who lives in London, likes organic veg and doesn't want to go to the supermarket. HIR- that's not quite the site I was thinking of, but it's been bookmarked. thanks, ii.

.

21:33 / 06.02.03

Mazarine- cheers very much, that's the ticket... I might finally be able to do something with all these green beans I've got stuck in the fridge. PS. Anyone who wants any beans, I'll post 'em to you... ii.

13:07 / 07.02.03

Re: PS2 vs X-Box

Thanks for the advice, chaps. I've just realised it's further complicated by the fact that two of our pals have got X-Boxes already. Gah! I think we'll just get rid of the telly and go back to picking each others scabs.

The local Goth prototype has become a run-of-the-mill example of the apocalypse.

07:48 / 15.02.03

Today, I saw a Nissan car in a car dealer shop and the car dealer says it's a sports car. This makes me thinks of trying it out on the expressway; overtaking cars and so on. But first I would like to try it out on Daytona USA first. Anyone here can help me out? What are the controls on this arcade game (besides the steering wheel)? How and which controls should I manipulate for a fast pickup to speed in overtaking other racers and how do I slow down from high speed in the shortest time to cut in in front of other racers? And how should I negotiate a bend at high speed?

13:31 / 19.02.03

"i feel funny, oh so funny, i feel funny and sunny and bright."

Where the fuck is this from - it's driving me crazy!

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