Spaniard Javier Clemente moved a step closer to becoming Iran coach after agreeing to the football federation’s condition that he should live there. Efforts to appoint the 57-year-old former Spain and Serbia coach broke down this month over his refusal to stay in Iran.

‘By telephone, Clemente accepted Iran’s condition of living in Iran all the time,’ Iranian state television said on Wednesday in a brief caption headline without giving details.
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And the Oscar Goes to…

Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood

Best Actress: Marion Cotillard in La Vie en Rose

Best Picture: No Country for Old Men

Best Director(s): Joel and Ethan Coen for No Country for Old Men

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David Perlman, Chronicle Science Editor

A new spacecraft more powerful and sophisticated than any other is flying flawlessly toward Mars, and its date to begin orbiting the planet on March 10, NASA officials reported Thursday.
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February 26, 2006
AFP

France is stepping up measures to reassure consumers and contain the spread of bird flu after the discovery of the deadly disease in commercial poultry hit its farming sector hard.
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Reuters

In the conventional view, the earliest mammals were small, primitive, shrewlike creatures that did not begin to explore the world’s varied environments until the dinosaurs died out 65 million years ago.

But scientists reported Friday that they have uncovered fossils of a swimming, fish-eating mammal that lived in China fully 164 million years ago, well before it was thought that some mammals could have spent much of their lives in water.
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San Francisco - Google’s mission to organise all the world’s information was set back by a judge who ordered the Internet search leader to stop showing thumbnail images from porn site Perfect 10 on its Google images index.

The ruling in the copyright case may prevent the company from displaying thumbnails from other sites and could have an impact on its ambitious scheme to index the contents of millions of books, whether the copyright owners allow it or not. Google plans to appeal.
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Ancient Rome provides a handy non-offensive stereotype for us to define ourselves against

Mary Beard, The Guardian

The best way to judge a modern recreation of ancient Rome - in film or fiction - is to apply the simple “dormouse test”. How long is it before the characters adopt an uncomfortably horizontal position in front of tables, usually festooned with grapes, and one says to another: “Can I pass you a dormouse?”

The basic rule of thumb is this: the longer you have to wait before this tasty little morsel appears on the recreated banquet, the more subtle the reconstruction is likely to be. On these terms Rome, the new joint HBO-BBC series, does not do badly. It is not until at least 30 minutes into the first episode that anyone pops the dormouse question.
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2/22/2006
Reuters

San Francisco, a leader in urban recycling, is preparing to enlist its canine population for a first in the United States: converting dog poop into energy.

Norcal Waste Systems Inc., the city’s garbage company, plans to test collection carts and biodegradable bags in a city-center park popular with dog walkers.
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2/21/2006
Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The government has decided to ban the import of poultry and live birds from India, Iran and France where cases of bird flu have been reported.

The decision was taken at a joint meeting of the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Food and Agriculture chaired by Health Minister Mohammad Nasir Khan on Saturday.
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AFP

Iran has said that 135 wild swans found dead at the Caspian Sea coast have tested positive for the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of bird flu, the first cases of the virus to be confirmed in the Islamic republic.
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2/16/2006
Ali. R. Forootan

The weapon of mass destruction is not a new-clear (”nuclear” as pronounced by GWB), it is a cartoon.

A N-bomb destroys at most about 150 miles around a spot and it takes several thousands to destroy the earth. If you blow up a bomb over a populated country, as the US did over Japan. The attacked country will accept defeat in The War. Then the said country will immediately set on the reconstruction of its war and economically ravaged land. It will use your money of course to do this. Then they start building these really bad transistor radios and begin to sell them in the global market. Then they will make better radios and call them Walkman and take over the radio business. They also make bad cars called Datsun and eventually make the best cars around and call them Accura. In 40 years they become your fiercest rival in all aspect of global economy. They will buy up your long term debts to hold over your head like a sharp sword. They will come close to defeating you economically if they could.
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2/10/2006
Ali R. Forootan

I just came back from Iran. One hot, uncharacteristically humid, afternoon when I was there I sat on the balcony of our apartment to tea and look at the sites of the country that I adore. Tehran is a beautiful city, even with smog hanging in the air.

Anyway, as I drank my tea and read from the afternoon newspaper. I heard a whistle. A high tone note followed by yet a higher tone but different note. I looked down the street and there he stood, a teenage boy, about 12-13. He had dark long hair, bangs grown longer in front, about five feet tall. He was wearing a azure blue shirt, a pair of jeans, and sneakers. He held a plastic ball, with red and white stripes, firmly between his arm and body.
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2/8/2006
Ali R. Forootan, lastkick.com

Already, you are thinking this guy has a kinky side. He is into inter-racial stuff. He can’t see gray, everything to him is black and white. He is going to incite racial violence. He is a black lover. He is a white supremacist. I am non.

I like football, no not the game like you football nuts, but the ball. I like both whites and blacks, when it comes to football. While I adore Brazil’s style of play, I can’t name their current coach. So, I like the football, literally…. very literally.
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