Aasif Mandvi investigates the real threat posed by Sharia law taking control in the US and has led to the passage of a law in Alabama outlawing all foreign laws. In the process he discovers a shocking fact that threatens Christianity.
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The zebra, which is believed to have evolved from horses more than 2 million years ago, has such an unusual look that it just cries out for explanations and there have been no shortage of attempts to supply them. The one that has stuck in my mind is that the stripes provide camouflage in the long grass. Now another team of researchers have taken a shot at coming up with a different explanation.
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Some years ago, when my children were in high school, I went to a local 4th of July open-air concert in my town. It featured the high school band playing the usual tunes that bands play. In between, the band-leader spoke about the meaning of Independence Day and what struck me was how over-the-top his praise of the US was. In his words, it was the greatest, freest, most noble, most [insert any good quality here] in the world and always had been. What was striking was that he was an immigrant and still spoke with the strong accent from his native nation.
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I have to apologize to regular readers of this blog who are not fans of cricket and are understandably mystified by the appeal of the game and wonder if I am going to talk about nothing else up to and during the cricket World Cup that runs from February 14 through March 29. This is going to be my last substantive post on it, at least until the tournament begins and I provide some brief comments on the games as they happen.
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This video of Stephen Fry has been making the rounds. He was being interviewed by Gay Byrne as part of an ongoing series for an Irish TV program called The Meaning of Life, with this episode to be aired on Sunday 1st February at 10.30 pm. Fry is asked that old chestnut about what he would say to god if, upon his death, he discovered that god existed and he was in his presence.
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The cricket World Cup runs from February 14 through March 29 and 14 nations have qualified for the tournament. The set of the top eight ranked cricket teams in the world have been stable for some time, although their positions within the top eight keep changing. Currently, the rankings are: Australia (1), India (2), South Africa (3), Sri Lanka (4), England (5), Pakistan (6), New Zealand (7), West Indies (8), Bangladesh, (9), Zimbabwe (10), Afghanistan (11), and Ireland (12). Unranked Scotland and the UAE round out the teams.
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When I saw the cartoon below, I recalled that there have been times when I too was gently chastised for using the phrase ‘global warming’ and told that it was outdated and that the correct term was ‘climate change’. I was a little puzzled by this for two reasons. One is that I was unaware that there was some kind of shifting standard to be followed regarding usage. The other is that I felt that they referred to two different things so one could not replace the other.
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The war that the US waged against Vietnam was a monstrous war crime that inflicted immense death and destruction from the air on a defenseless people, using defoliants like Agent Orange as chemical weapons and napalm and all the other horrors that the military managed to think up to inflict on a backward nation that was trying to shake off the yoke of colonialism. It was understanding the true nature of this war that radicalized me personally.
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The Super Bowl is being played today. Apart from the fact that football causes serious and permanent brain and other injuries to players, the comic strip Pearls Before Swine provides another reason to not be a fan.
Thanks to reader Reese, I came across this short video by Eran Amir. Take a look at it and see if you can see how it was done. After the jump, you can see a behind-the-scenes look at the filming of it.