Hindu goddess swimsuits at Australian Fashion Week spark angry protests

The row has come close to creating a diplomatic incident between Australia and India. Models wearing colourful swimsuits and bikinis covered in pictures of the goddess took to the catwalk in front of hundreds of people in Sydney last week.
However, not everyone thought it was appropriate to use of the revered goddess's image on a skimpy piece of clothing.
When news of the fashion show reached India, some Hindus were outraged. Over the weekend, demonstrators in Amritsar burned the Australian flag in protest, waving photographs of the offensive swimsuit and demanding that all of the garments be recalled.

Lakshmi is the Hindu goddess of wealth, prosperity, fertility and courage. She is worshipped every day by Hindus and her image is considered to be sacred. Rajan Zed, president of Universal Society of Hinduism, demanded an apology from the designer. He said Hinduism was the oldest and third largest religion of the world and its deities deserved to be respected.
"Lakshmi was meant to be worshipped in temples or home shrines and not for pushing swimwear in fashion shows for mercantile greed of an apparel company," he said.
The Bharatiya Janata Partya party (BJP) also called for an apology from the Australian government. The incident is the latest in a long line of fashion faux pas by Western designers when it comes to Indian gods, including US designer Guess using the image of Ganesh on a tank top and the French shoe brand Minelli putting images of Lord Rama on shoes. The Australian fashion house responsible for the design was quick to apologise. In a statement, Lisa Blue Swimwear said the company had put a halt on production of the new range and pulled the pieces that had been shown during Fashion Week.
"This range will never be available for sale in any stockists or retail outlets anywhere in the world," it said.
"We apologise to the Hindu community and take this matter very seriously.
"At no time would we ever have intended that the brand would cause offence."

Australia's relationship with India is only just starting to recover after a spate of attacks on Indian students last year which led to widespread protests and claims that the crimes were racially motivated.

500 Taliban Prisoners Just Escaped Through a Long Underground Tunnel—Built Using No Heavy Machinery

In their biggest prison break since 2008, nearly 500 Afghani detainees (mostly Taliban members) escaped from the Sarposa Prison through an underground tunnel, dug from the outside. Now the U.S. military is searching high and low, hoping to corral the escapees back in. The crazy thing is that they built this long tunnel using nothing but basic tools—no machinery.
UPDATE: Two of the imprisoned Taliban members reveal all about their escape through the underground tunnel.

According to Al Jazeera, Taliban spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid said that a group on the outside spent five months digging a 320 meter tunnel that circumvented numerous security checkpoints (the length of the tunnel varies between 320 and 360 meters in different reports).

The militants launched the dig from a house "within shooting distance of the prison guard towers," the AP notes, but it's not clear whether they lived in the house as the dig continued. The head of Kandahar's prisons told The Guardian that constructing the tunnel must have been extremely labor-intensive given that the Taliban had to refrain from using heavy machinery that could attract attention to its efforts.

From the Times:

At 11 p.m. Sunday, three Taliban prisoners, who he said were the only ones who knew, "went from cell to cell waking people and guiding each of them to the tunnel."

"More Taliban were on hand as the prisoners emerged from the dirt and dust of the tunnel to guide the dazed prisoners to waiting vehicles. Also on hand were Taliban fighters and suicide bombers in case the security forces woke up and there was a fight.

The actual escape began around 11 pm, when imprisoned Taliban members who had obtained copies of the cell keys began guiding prisoners to the tunnel. The walk through the tunnel took over 30 minutes and when they emerged from the tunnel, they were taken away in waiting vehicles. Around 4 am, security guards discovered they had escaped (Taliban officials claim they didn't notice until 7:30 am).

The 2008 escape freed more than 1200 prisoners (and 350 Taliban members), but relied on a less stealth method in the form of a surprise attack on the prison. In that instance, 30 insurgence stormed the prison, which completely caught guards by surprise, creating an environment of chaos. This time around, the escape went totally undetected, leading some to believe some of the prison guards were involved. [NYT via The Atlantic]

[Image via Allauddin Khan/Associated Press]

Desi Humor

Senator Chuck Grassley Is the Worst Twitter User in the United States of America

Last year, 77 year-old Iowan senator Chuck Grassley vowed to do anything for reelection—including picking up Twitter. We almost wish he hadn't. Grassley's 1,147 tweets are possibly among the most incoherent, confounding, mind-boggling text on the internet.

Is This the US Navy’s Secret Helicopter?

Ever since SEAL Team 6 blew up its downed, stealth Black Hawk, aviation geeks around the globe have been trying to figure out what the hell it was. One flight expert has gathered the clues and created this detailed rendering.
David Cenciotti, the brain behind the sketch, has serious credentials: he's a former member of the Italian air force, current private pilot, computer engineer, and journalist. With the help of Ugo Crisponi, an artist at Aviation Graphic, we might have a better understanding of what whisked the commandos in and out without Pakistani interference (beyond a few photos of a severed tail rotor). It's still a drawing, of course, but here it's easier to appreciate the strange tail rotor, and the sleek, streamlined stealth chassis—particularly compared to the standard Black Hawk underneath (click images to expand). We're eager for more details to surface on this mystery bird, but I have a feeling the Pentagon wishes the whole thing had been blown to bits.

The cost of fertility treatment 'tourism'

BBC Radio Scotland's The Investigation programme examines the increasing number of couples travelling abroad to seek infertility treatment.

It is described as one of the fastest growing areas of medical "tourism" although that is a word none of those undertaking this journey like to use.

But is it costing too much in terms of emotional, physical and financial stress?

One couple, interviewed anonymously for BBC Scotland's The Investigation programme, said they had spent £90,000 already, and after 17 treatments in various places, including the US, are heading to Spain again this year for one last try at conceiving a longed-for baby.

This couple did not meet until their mid-30s, and by the time they went for treatment on the NHS, at 40 the patient was deemed too old to qualify by her local health board.

The couple have had to remortgage their house to raise funds, so the financial pressure has been enormous, but they have also been on an emotional and physical rollercoaster. And two miscarriages have made it all the more devastating.

It should be the most natural thing in the world, starting a family when the time is right, but for many thousands, it just does not happen.

Fertility decline
Growing numbers choose to take the overseas route to pregnancy, driven by a desperate desire to have a child of their own.

Professor Richard Fleming, director of the Glasgow Centre for Reproductive Medicine, said that the root cause was because women were starting their families later in life. Scientific studies have shown that human fertility starts declining at the age of 31, which is the age many women are having their first babies.

By the mid-30s, eggs are of poor quality, and chances of natural conception have decreased considerably, and even IVF, the professor said, struggles to make up the shortfall.

Prof Fleming is concerned that the general population are not aware of this sharp decrease in fertility. He said it was not the age of the patient that counts, but the age of the eggs.

A number of studies have looked at the reasons people go abroad for treatment. The Infertility Network UK carried out an online fertility tourism survey, which produced some surprising results.

They found that 76% of those who responded would consider travelling overseas for treatment. Of those, 70.5% said it was because of shorter waiting times than in the UK, 69.5% gave the cost of treatment as a reason, and 61% pointed to the success rates of conception in clinics abroad.

Donor anonymity
The availability of donor eggs and sperm was also an important element in their choice.

Availability is a crucial issue in the UK. There are huge waiting lists everywhere for donor eggs and sperm.

Five years ago the government lifted the anonymity granted to donors, so that now any offspring conceived by the donor method, are able to trace their biological parents when they get to the age of 18.

Juliet Tizzard, policy director of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), believes this was the right thing to do, but donor numbers have declined, and many people go abroad particularly because there is still anonymity, and many donors prefer it too.

In Europe it is not allowed to pay donors a fee, but they may be paid "compensation" for their time and trouble. In the UK it is expenses only, up to a limit of £250, but in Spain, a favourite venue for those seeking treatment, donors will receive €900. In Europe much younger donors are used, often students, whose eggs are at their most fertile.

Varying treatments
Costs of treatments vary, too, with an IVF cycle in the UK costing up to £4,500, or with donor eggs up to nearly £6,000.

Those going abroad also have to build in the cost of travel and accommodation, and, of course, time off work.

A European Union directive, in force since 2007, focuses on the safety and laboratory practice at all fertility clinics in the EU, and last week the European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE) issued a new code of practice to ensure high standards of care for patients.

In Scotland, it is the health boards who determine how much NHS treatment infertile patients may have, and it varies from one area to another.

Some offer two cycles, some three; for all the cut-off point is at 40 years of age, and there are other criteria, such as whether there are already any other children living in the home.

Gwenda Burns, Scottish co-ordinator of the Infertility Network, is calling for an acceptable waiting time in each health board area, and fairness for all those who need help with their fertility, which has been recognised as an illness by the World Health Organisation.

But she also said people must be realistic and call an end to treatment when there is no chance of it working, just as you would with any other illness.

What Happens when You Get Shot in the Head

You may or may or may not see it coming, but it doesn't really matter. You're not going to have time to react. Because a bullet can travel at speeds exceeding 3200 feet per second, which is too fast to duck or yell or plead. Hang in there. Taking a cap to the dome means that it will be over faster than a fatal wound anywhere else.

The bullet with your name on it slides past hair, skin and muscle before it smashes into one of eight cranial bones engineered to keep your brain safe. Unfortunately, it's too late for that now. Bullets beat bones. The projectile's entrance into your skull makes easy shrapnel of your calcium, phosphorus, sodium, and collagen case. As a souvenir of the opening, you gain a circular hole rimmed with abraded skin. Distance matters, too: The closer you are to the bullet, the more the gun's smoke and powder could burn your flesh.

But enough about the blemish; the real work happens deeper. The connective tissue and fibrous membranes that act as internal cushioning are split open just before the bullet dives into your cerebrospinal fluid. This fluid serves as a shock absorber. It, with some other structures, allows you to ride roller coasters and join mosh pits without injury. But again, because your 3.4-pound control system is being taken out, this will be your last head bang.

The bullet travels through your brain faster than the speed at which your tissues tear. This means that it's actually pushing tissues out of the way, stretching them beyond their breaking points. When high velocity long arms are responsible, bullets traveling at thousands of feet per second will exit your body before your tissues have a chance to rip.

The ability to process information and solve problems? All gone when the bullet shoves its way through your prefrontal cortex. Your ability to index memories? Gone with your hippocampus. In the bullet's wake, a long temporary cavity is left. When the tearing finally does happen, your tissues will snap back toward the initial opening and overshoot their original position. You know that back and forth thing that happens when you kick one of those springy door stops? Well that's what your tissues do when the shock waves kick them.

Then the passage collapses. The high-speed firearm that produced the bullet created a disruption in your brain 10 times its diameter.

But you're lucky, relatively speaking. If you were shot in the heart, your blood pressure would quickly drop, but it would take 10 to 15 seconds to lose brain function. In that time you could draw your gun, utter last words, or spend some time thinking about your unfortunate situation. But a shot to the brain is different. Your brain stops functioning almost immediately. In just a fraction of a second, you're gone.

by Rachel Swaby