This cute little site lets you impose your own subtitles on a 1-minute clip from a vintage Bollywood potboiler. The selection of clips changes every day, so if nothing on offer strikes your muse, come back tomorrow. When you finish, the site gives you a permalink to your creation.
Over at Tim Blair's place, there's a whole comment thread with links to various productions ranging from borderline amusing to screaming hilarious.
Post links to your creations in the comments below. Here's a couple of mine:
Updated: 9:56 p.m. ET Jan. 26, 2006
NAIROBI, Kenya - A starving Kenyan woman placed a powerful tribal curse on God, accusing him of sending famine, and died in her sleep, local newspapers said on Thursday.
The woman from eastern Kenyas drought-ravaged Kangundo district decided to invoke a dreaded oath from the Kamba community, famed for its potent witchcraft, media reports said.
Whoever brought this famine, let him perish, the woman chanted, striking a cooking pot with a stick.
#4
Meanwhile, OBL continues to run free after murdering several thousand Americans. In other news, Saddam Hussein, the murderous ex-dictator, continues to make a mockery of the court proceedings in Iraq.
Good thing they never cursed God--then they'd really be sorry!
Posted by: Dar ||
01/30/2006 12:47 Comments ||
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#5
Spooky, kind of reminds me of that 'First Born' threat given to Moses from Pharoah; that bit him in the butt !
Afghan-made Coca-Cola hit the streets of Kabul on Sunday as distribution started from a 25-million-dollar plant that represents one of the most significant investments in the war-torn country since the ousting of the Taliban. Brand new red and white trucks fanned out across the city to distribute the Afghanistan-made Coca-Cola, Fanta and Sprite which the franchisee is hoping will squeeze the Iranian- and Pakistani-made versions off the shelves. The first distribution precedes an official launch expected in the Islamic New Year which starts in March.
"I believe in the future of Afghanistan — that is why I put my money in Afghanistan," said Habib Gulzar, partner in the franchisee, Habib Gulzar International. "The economy is getting better... we believe this is a good investment and Afghanistan has the potential for more investment," he told AFP.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/30/2006 00:00 ||
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About 3 000 members of the South African Police Service who could previously not read and write have completed literacy training.
Ben Smit, managing director of Secudac, a private company which provided the training said on Monday that the officers also acquired life skills during the six months Adult-Based Education and Training programme.
"Some 230 facilitators were used to provide this training course which, besides basic literacy and numeracy, also focused on life skill aspects such as HIV/Aids awareness, community and personal relations, social care and health issues, family planning, gender sensitivity, communication skills and financial management," Smit said.
Numerancy....? Is that what I think it is?
"They can now read the newspaper, plan their budgets, read a stop sign and on a personal level, read the Bible and letters from their children and grandchildren." Police officers, support staff and administrative personnel all received training, the entire illiterate lot.
Most of them were exposed to formal education for the first time since turning in their Kalashnikovs. "They have been exceptionally positive towards this training course, with learners travelling as far as 100km per day to attend classes. Most of them are now motivated to undergo more training programmes," Smit said.
The certification ceremonies will be held from February 13 to March 7, 2006 in Middelburg, Potchefstroom, Pretoria, Durban, Polokwane, Bloemfontein, Kimberley, Cape Town, Oudtshoorn, Paarl and Port Elizabeth. - Sapa
Mayor Ray Nagin, please take note. There does appear to be hope for the NOPD.
#4
We should encourage programs like this around the world, at least in friendly countries. Illiteracy is almost painful, and certainly frustrating, even in 3rd and 4th world countries.
Police officers that can read are far more valuable than illiterates, and interestingly, far less prone to abusing civil rights in their country. Paperwork can often prove innocence.
As the list of countries boycotting Arla grows, the dairy is forced to halt operations in Saudi Arabia
An Arabic boycott of Danish products has forced Danish-based dairy Arla Foods to close its plant in Riyadh.
Arla is one of the largest international dairy food producers in the world and it has over 800 employees in Saudi Arabia.
Sales in Arabic countries have ground to a halt as the boycott spread from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to states throughout the Middle East and North Africa, forcing the company to stop production.
Arabic countries are boycotting in protest over Denmark's reaction to newspaper Jyllands-Posten's publication of 12 cartoons in September, an act considered blasphemous by Muslims.
The majority of Arla's employees in Saudi Arabia are local hires. None risk losing their jobs for the time being, nor have any of the company's Danish workers been withdrawn.
Three dairies in Denmark are also affected by the strike, but Arla officials said it was still too early to say if any Danish employees would be laid off as a result.
Over the weekend, two Arla employees were injured in separate events when their trucks were attacked. The employees, both Arabic, were said to be shaken, but escaped unharmed.
Saudi agriculture ministry said it executed 37 falcons after laboratory tests showed five falcons infected with a bird flu virus. A ministry statement said the infected falcons were discovered during a recent visit by a veterinary team to a falcon center in Riyadh, one of the measures to examine safety of birds. The team took samples from 37 falcons in the center for laboratory tests and found five falsons carrying the H5 virus. The team decided to execute all falcons then burned them, said the statement.
That's a very costly step for the Soddies to take; the princelings do love their falconry. King Abdullah is apparently not waiting to see if bird flu is according to the Will of Allan.
MUSCAT A special court here has sentenced five Omanis to three years in jail for hunting gazelles at a natural sanctuary. The accused were convicted for damaging nature conservation areas by hunting three gazelles using two firearms. They were sentenced to three years imprisonment. The judge also ruled that all weapons seized in the incident should be confiscated.
They have gazelles in Oman? Who knew?
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/30/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Arabian gazelles, native to the Arabian peninsula and Sahara desert.
COPENHAGEN Denmarks Prime Minister said yesterday his government could not act against the blasphemous cartoons after Libya closed its embassy in Copenhagen amid growing Muslim anger over the dispute. The newspaper Jyllands-Posten had not intended to insult Muslims when it published the drawings, Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen said, referring to an editorial on the papers Web site in Danish and Arabic.
But while Rasmussen tried to assuage Muslim anger, Libya yesterday closed its embassy in Denmark in protest at the drawings. Because the Danish media had continued to show disrespect to the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) and because the Danish authorities failed to take any responsible action on that, Libya decided to close its embassy in Copenhagen, the Libyan Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
It also threatened to take unspecified economic measures against Denmark.
And in the West Bank --
In a demonstration on the West Bank, members of Fatahs Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades threatened Danes in the area and told them to leave immediately, the Danish news agency Ritzau reported on Sunday. The demonstrators burned the Danish flag and called on the Palestinian authorities to cut diplomatic ties with Denmark, Ritzau said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/30/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
called on the Palestinian authorities to cut diplomatic ties with Denmark
Does that mean not taking their money? Or will they just take their money and call threaten to kill them?
Posted by: Formerly Dan ||
01/30/2006 0:50 Comments ||
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#2
"We're sorry we're not sorry. Really." ( A little nuance never hurts when dealing with powerhouse countries like Libya and holy warriers like al's martyrs brigands.) Who's got the fireproof flag concession over there?
#3
and before you have your lunch U might like to read this........
http://islamselect.com/naby/index.php?pg=en
Support Your Prophet
A declaration condemning the attack by reporters from Denmark and Norway against the Prophet,
What can one say in response to the sarcastic caricatures published in the Jyllands Posten newspaper from Denmark, in its issue dated Tuesday, September 30 th 2005? Whom was this newspaper mocking? It was mocking the greatest man ever created the leader of all the Prophets, sallallaahu alayhi wa sallam. They featured evil, shameless images of him, as shameless as any disbelievers imagination can be.
#5
I just got some delicious Havarti cheese at the grocers'. "Denmark's Finest" for those keeping score at home. Tonight I'll write a note to Arla Foods and to the Danish Embassy thanking them for their yummy "freedom cheese".
#10
Bill Clinton's remarks will be well received by his ME (Saudi) Masters. You know, the ones that donated how many millions ($$$) to his library, together with the big buck speaking engagments in the ME, like say in...Qatar.
What I find "appalling" and "totally outrageous" Mr. Clinton is you weak ass defense of the freedom of speech.
Posted by: Mark Z ||
01/30/2006 15:05 Comments ||
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#14
Ikea is indeed Swedish, but some years ago the CFO was a Dane. (We were neighbors, briefly, in Brussels.) Basically, your generic, highly successful, Scandanavian firm.
Will Sen. Hillary Clinton's next role be in a film about women's pre-menstrual syndrome? The answer is yes, if Hollywood's Rosanna Arquette gets her way.
According to the World Entertainment News Network, the star of "Desperately Seeking Susan" wants to have the New York senator play a part in a documentary about PMS. "I'm so fascinated about this. I have so many friends who are hitting 40 and are flipping out," said Arquette. "I think it hasn't been talked about so I'll be interviewing a bunch of people about it. I want to interview movie stars and rock stars, people on the street and then I want to interview Hillary Clinton."
Arquette has recently had success as a director with her debut documentary titled "Searching For Debra Winger," in which she examined actresses struggling to find meaningful roles after reaching age 40. "I also want the men's response to it and how they deal with it because I think that will be funny. So do I, but in a different way. It hasn't been talked about in a way that could just enlighten people," Arquette told WENN. "When they find out that women's brains swell and it's physiological. I screamed so much when I saw this new commercial for birth control for women where you only have to bleed four times a year. What are they thinking? It's insane what they are doing to women."
Unidentified attackers beat up a group of Christians with iron rods in the Hindu nationalist-ruled central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh injuring 12, police said on Sunday. The attack took place on Saturday in the state capital Bhopal, where some 20 Christians had gathered for prayers at a missionary institution, police said. The attackers stormed the building, shouting anti-Christian slogans, and beat those at prayers with iron rods and sticks, Bhopal police chief Anant Kumar Singh said. Some Christians, including a priest and a child, have been injured, said Singh. The exact cause of the feud is being investigated.
Two seriously injured were in hospital, he added. The attack was condemned by local Hindu leader Devendra Rawat though he charged Christians in the area with attempting to convert poor and illiterate Hindus by offering them material incentives. Christian groups in Bhopal say rightwing Hindus systematically target members of their community. Christians have been under pressure in Madhya Pradesh for long and such atrocities have increased under the rightwing BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) rule, said Anil Martin, general secretary of the states Christian Association.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/30/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Can't have those poor and illiterate Hindus getting converted they might want to raise them selves up from poverty and start thinking themselves as good as their betters
About seven cars of a non-stop train, imported from China two years back, derailed in eastern Pakistani province of Punjab and plummetted into a 50 to 60 feet deep ravine on Sunday, police and railway officials said. A non-stop train was heading toward Lahore city from Rawalpindi, when its seven cars derailed in a complex mountainous area near Jehlum city, about 150 kilometers from Islamabad, and plummetted into a ravine, the police officials told KUNA. According to a senior railway official, who was on his way to the disaster site, said about 621 passengers were aboard the train. He, fearing the accident may turn into a big disaster, said about 400 passengers were jammed packed into the unfortunate train cars.
Meanwhile, a journalist, Muhammad Nawaz, calling from the accident site said that over 50 passengers were feared to have died in the accident and more than 100 wounded. He said dozens of ambulances had reached the scene and rescuers and military troops were trying to rescue the unfortunate passengers. He said nothing was visible because of night darkness, adding, people and rescuers who gathered at the site could hear only hue and cries of women and children.
Not nearly as much as it worries the accused, though...
PESHAWAR: NWFPs veteran lawyers expressed concern over a trial courts limb amputation verdict against an Afghan under the Hadood Law, and said the punishment required either the accused to plead guilty or two adult male witnesses who qualify for tazkiya al-shuhood to testify against him. Pakistan Jurists Association President Mian Muhibullah Kakakhel said the two witnesses should be truthful and abstain from major sins. He said in the case of Jalabads Ajab Khan, son of Awal Khan, the judge had ignored the Islamic principals of testimony, which was not allowed under the Hadood Law. He called the verdict un-Islamic, unconstitutional and unlawful.
Advocate Abdul Latif Afridi said that although the Hudood Law was applicable, under the current circumstances it was impossible for a judge to fulfil the required procedures to order amputation of limbs. He said Peshawar High Court had ordered amputation of limbs of two British Muslims in a robbery case in the 1980s but the apex court suspended the order and acquitted them. He said a sessions judge had ordered the amputation of a hand and a leg of an accused in a robbery case in Dir and a woman was sentenced to stoning to death in Kohat, but the Federal Shariat Court did not confirm the verdicts as the witnesses did not qualify for tazkiya al-shuhood. He said such decisions, which the international community considered violation of human rights, brought a bad name to Pakistan and portrayed an extremist image of Islam.
The civilized world considers such decisions to be barbaric. Pakistan's bad name comes from having such laws, which we fully expect to be used when the primitives take charge. It's not an "extremist" image of Islam when such things are characteristic of the religion; it merely an accurate image.
The veteran lawyer said the verdict did not fulfil the legal requirements and would allow the international community to criticise Pakistans judiciary. Khawaja Mohammad Khan Gara, a lawyer who deals with criminal cases, said everyone was bound to divine law but the witnesses should fulfil the Islamic requirements and should abstain from major sins. Barrister Masood Kauser said such decisions could be imposed in an Islamic society wherein every person was provided the basic facilities of life by the government. He said the Pakistani society was not Islamic according to the Islamic law, and in such a situation, these verdicts would only damage Islams image. On January 25, an acting district and sessions judge in Peshawar, Muhammad Jamal Khan, ordered the amputation of an accused Afghans right hand from his wrist and his left foot from the ankle in a robbery case, under section 17 (3) of the Offence of Hadood Ordinance, 1979.
Really, they don't feel shame like we do.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/30/2006 00:00 ||
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Paul Wolfowitz is sending shock waves through the World Bank as he begins exerting his influence -- starting with a crackdown on corruption -- less than a year after arriving from the Pentagon with a reputation as a neoconservative ideologue. Wolfowitz's nomination by President George W. Bush to head the world's largest development lender was controversial from the start because of his role as an architect of the Iraq war. Eight months into his tenure, critics, including veteran bank officials who have left in an exodus of managers, say Wolfowitz has centralized his authority through an inner circle of advisors mostly from the Pentagon and White House.
They cite two recent appointments -- both American Republicans -- to key positions. Suzanne Rich Folsom became director of Institutional Integrity, the bank's anti-corruption unit, and Kevin Kellems, a former advisor to U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, was named to the strategic advisory post of director of external relations. A recent letter by the World Bank Staff Association questioned the appointments, and the bank's 24-member board of member nations has urged Wolfowitz to step up the search to fill senior management positions.
The bank's No. 2 position of managing director has been vacant since December when Shengman Zhang, the bank's operations chief, left for the private sector, causing anxiety over who will fill his post. In a recent interview with Reuters, Wolfowitz said he had launched a global search to fill Zhang's post, opening a traditionally closed decision-making process that member countries in the developing world have long complained about.
It's the EUro/tranzi unelected elite network vs. open meritocracy. no wonder they're unhappy with him!
On November 29 Wolfowitz appointed a staff committee led by Graeme Wheeler, a former New Zealand treasury official and the bank's treasurer, to look for candidates to fill Shengman's post. Wheeler, widely respected in the bank, is also acting managing director.
Wolfowitz's predecessor, James Wolfensohn, also had a volatile first year of friction with senior managers and staff as he tried to reform the institution. Analysts who have followed his career say Wolfowitz has a history of forcing unpopular ideas and strategies on resistant audiences. "He has always taken the role of a controversial visionary whose job is to articulate a new path forward to people who don't want hear it," said Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute, a research group in Arlington, Virginia, with close ties to the Pentagon. "Wolfowitz at the Pentagon felt that if people were happy with what he was doing then he must not be doing it right. So I'm not surprised he has brought much of the same demeanor to the World Bank."
Continued on Page 49
#1
The World Bank is recognized by the major rating agencies to enjoy a preferred creditor status with its borrower-shareholders.
"International Bank for Reconstruction and Development Credit Ratings: AAA/Stable/A-1+
Major Rating Factors:
- Strong capital position and adequate liquidity;
- Prudent financial management and policies; and
- Strong membership support, including expected treatment as a preferred creditor."
Hold on to your bank accounts and sovereignty---Via Lucianne:
The most potent threats to life on earth - global warming, health pandemics, poverty and armed conflict - could be ended by moves that would unlock $7 trillion - $7,000,000,000,000 (£3.9trn) - of previously untapped wealth, the United Nations claims today. The price? An admission that the nation-state is an old-fashioned concept that has no role to play in a modern globalised world where financial markets have to be harnessed rather than simply condemned....
SNIP
#1
I didn't read the whole thing, but a hopeless mishmash of free markets make people rich (self evidently true) with the USA must sign up to Kyoto cos it it aint gonna work otherwise (ignoring the fact it isn't and never will work anyway). It then lumps together fighting disease makes people better off (again self evidently true) with securing third world debts against productive aspects of economies, economic idiocy because it loads down the stuff that works with the debts of the stuff that doesn't work.
#3
The UN solution to half the population being under either a Marxist dictatorship, or an Islamic mobocracy, is to spread enable its spread to the rest of the world.
I can head Kofi sing now ( to the tune of the sound of music )
The hills are alive with the sound of taxes
With money we can blow on anything...
#11
There you go again underestimating the true cost of the whole deal. Anciliary costs bribes will add on an extra $3.365 Trillion. We'll have to work harder for a lot less to make up the shortfall. And when I say "we", I mean all you thievin' capitalists! #6 Unfortunately, the administrative costs assosiated with this plan will total aprox. $6.2 Trillion.
Posted by: bigjim-ky 2006-01-30 10:23
Posted by: Almost Anonymous2520 ||
01/30/2006 19:50 Comments ||
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TEHERAN Iran is set to buy the Air France Boeing 747 jumbo that flew revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini back to Teheran from exile in 1979, a government newspaper said yesterday.
Plane swarm!
Sanctions imposed by the United States prevent Iran from buying Western aircraft, but the Iran newspaper said the plane was no longer fit to be used for commercial purposes and that the clerical regime only wanted it as a souvenir.
Also could be used to deliver a nuke.
After contacts with France, Iran is set to buy the plane that carried the founder of the Islamic republic the February 1, 1979, as the symbol of this magnificent day, the newspaper said. The report did not say if a deal had already been signed, or how much the Islamic republic would pay.
Or who would be piloting the thing.
Although Irans US-backed shah had already fled the country when Khomeini returned from exile in the small French town of Neauphle-le-Chateau, the 747s landing is seen as the true start of the Islamic revolution. Archive film of the landing of the 747 is still regularly shown on Iranian state television.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/30/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
I can see it now. Draped in black silk, with mass stampedes like clockwork.
Posted by: ed ||
01/30/2006 1:43 Comments ||
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#2
I think it could catch fire before it's delivered.
#5
1 Feb 1979, the day they started the war we are now in. It all started with Iran, soon it will end there. Let them have the plane, it will stand as a reminder of the countdown to their non-existance in ths world.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
01/30/2006 9:15 Comments ||
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Syria on Sunday joined the chorus of Arab and Islamic countries condemning caricatures published in a Danish newspaper deemed insulting to Islam's Prophet (PTUI PBUH). "Syria strongly condemns this insult against the supreme token of the Arab and Islamic nations," the Syrian news agency SANA quoted an unidentified Foreign Ministry official as saying. The official said the Danish government should punish the offenders.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/30/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Yeah, Syria doesn't have anything else to worry about. Why not piss the Danes off too?
Posted by: Formerly Dan ||
01/30/2006 0:48 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Afghan-made Coca-Cola hit the streets of Kabul on Sunday as distribution started from a 25-million-dollar plant that represents one of the most significant investments in the war-torn country since the ousting of the Taliban. Brand new red and white trucks fanned out across the city to distribute the Afghanistan-made Coca-Cola, Fanta and Sprite which the franchisee is hoping will squeeze the Iranian- and Pakistani-made versions off the shelves. The first distribution precedes an official launch expected in the Islamic New Year which starts in March.
They were bought in 1994 and NOW they want their money back?
Saudi agriculture ministry said it executed 37 falcons after laboratory tests showed five falcons infected with a bird flu virus. A ministry statement said the infected falcons were discovered during a recent visit by a veterinary team to a falcon center in Riyadh, one of the measures to examine safety of birds. The team took samples from 37 falcons in the center for laboratory tests and found five falsons carrying the H5 virus. The team decided to execute all falcons then burned them, said the statement. 
MUSCAT A special court here has sentenced five Omanis to three years in jail for hunting gazelles at a natural sanctuary. The accused were convicted for damaging nature conservation areas by hunting three gazelles using two firearms. They were sentenced to three years imprisonment. The judge also ruled that all weapons seized in the incident should be confiscated.
Unidentified attackers beat up a group of Christians with iron rods in the Hindu nationalist-ruled central Indian state of 
About seven cars of a non-stop train, imported from China two years back, derailed in eastern Pakistani province of Punjab and plummetted into a 50 to 60 feet deep ravine on Sunday, police and railway officials said. A non-stop train was heading toward Lahore city from Rawalpindi, when its seven cars derailed in a complex mountainous area near Jehlum city, about 150 kilometers from Islamabad, and plummetted into a ravine, the police officials told KUNA. According to a senior railway official, who was on his way to the disaster site, said about 621 passengers were aboard the train. He, fearing the accident may turn into a big disaster, said about 400 passengers were jammed packed into the unfortunate train cars.
The veteran lawyer said the verdict did not fulfil the legal requirements and would allow the international community to criticise Pakistans judiciary. Khawaja Mohammad Khan Gara, a lawyer who deals with criminal cases, said everyone was bound to divine law but the witnesses should fulfil the Islamic requirements and should abstain from major sins. Barrister Masood Kauser said such decisions could be imposed in an Islamic society wherein every person was provided the basic facilities of life by the government. He said the Pakistani society was not Islamic according to the Islamic law, and in such a situation, these verdicts would only damage Islams image. On January 25, an acting district and sessions judge in Peshawar, Muhammad Jamal Khan, ordered the amputation of an accused Afghans right hand from his wrist and his left foot from the ankle in a robbery case, under section 17 (3) of the Offence of Hadood Ordinance, 1979. 
Paul Wolfowitz is sending shock waves through the World Bank as he begins exerting his influence -- starting with a crackdown on corruption -- less than a year after arriving from the Pentagon with a reputation as a neoconservative ideologue. Wolfowitz's nomination by President George W. Bush to head the world's largest development lender was controversial from the start because of his role as an architect of the Iraq war. Eight months into his tenure, critics, including veteran bank officials who have left in an exodus of managers, say Wolfowitz has centralized his authority through an inner circle of advisors mostly from the Pentagon and White House.
TEHERAN Iran is set to buy the Air France Boeing 747 jumbo that flew revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini back to Teheran from exile in 1979, a government newspaper said yesterday. 
Syria on Sunday joined the chorus of Arab and Islamic countries condemning caricatures published in a Danish newspaper deemed insulting to Islam's Prophet (
