Self defense

Simple self defense moves that could protect you

 

by NAOMI COLEMAN, femail.co.uk

Street crime is on the increase with more muggings than ever taking place up and down the country.Statistics from the British Crime Survey 2002 reveal street robberies soared 28 per cent last year. But according to the Metropolitan Police, your risk of attack can be cut simply by following some basic personal safety measures.
Apart from walking in well-lit streets and being aware of your surroundings, self defence experts recommend carrying a personal alarm and learning some simple self defence moves in case an attacker strikes.
To help you feel safer on the streets, view our picture gallery, right, to learn some basic self defence moves. Read our guide below to find out what's involved. Also, view our second picture gallery, right, to find out which personal alarm is best for you.

WALK CONFIDENTLY
The first rule when it comes to safety on the street is to walk confidently. Psychiatrists have found that speaking the right body language such as looking alert and confident will make attackers think twice about approaching you.
The truth is that most attackers will look for someone who is easily frightened and appears to be an easy target. 'One of the best tricks is to walk confidently,' says self defence expert John Davies of Basis Training UK, an organisation that teaches self defence classes. 'Get into the habit of walking positively with your head tall, rather than walking with slumped shoulders and looking at the floor.'
_________________________________________
SCRAPE YOUR HEEL DOWN THE SIDE OF HIS SHIN
If you are approached from behind, one of the most effective ways to throw off your attacker is to run your heel down the front of their shin - the prominent bone found in the lower part of the leg. This is a fine bone and even if your attacker is well built, this bone tends to stick out. Simply lift up your heel and scrape your heel down the front of your assailant's shin bone as hard as possible. Most footwear is capable of causing pain and damage, but heels are even better.
_________________________________________
AIM FOR THE NOSE
If your attacker grabs you from behind, another tactic is to throw your head back as far as possible and try to head butt your assailant's nose. You should try to jerk your head back - being careful not to jar your own neck - and aim for the bridge of his nose. The theory is that your attacker releases you in order to grab hold of his painful nose - giving you vital seconds to run away.
_________________________________________
GO FOR THE EYE
If your attacker is heading towards you, grab his ear with your fingers and press your thumb firmly along the whole of his eye. Use a pushing action, press your thumb back into his skull. Holding your attacker's ear means your thumb will automatically drop down to his eye level. Apart from being more painful than simply poking his eye, if your assailant turns his head, your hand will move with it. With any luck, your attacker will jerk backwards in an attempt to cover his eye, giving you precious time to flee.
_________________________________________
AIM FOR THE THROAT
Self defence experts also recommend poking your finger into your attacker's windpipe - the part of the air passage found below the Adam's apple. Try to press your finger - rather than your thumb - into the space between the Adam's apple and the top of the breastbone as hard as possible. Pressing your finger into this part of the body is easier to do. This has the effect of closing the air passage making it difficult for your attacker to breathe. The idea is that he will clasp his throat in order to breathe again, allowing you the chance to escape.
_________________________________________
KEEP YOUR KEYS HANDY
When you are walking in the street at night, get into the habit of carrying your keys in one hand and making a fist with one of your keys pushed between your middle fingers. If you are attacked, make an upward movement towards your assailant's face and slash his cheek with your key. This movement could start at the mouth and finish at the ear - or the other way round if it's easier. Even if you don't cut his face, your attacker's natural reaction will be to bend down and cover his cheek to soothe the pain.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-146156/Simple-self-defence-moves-protect-you.html#ixzz4C1HrdwDU

Inside the cell

This is an incredible tripthat we can only go through an animation that I find extraordinary. The first time I saw this video, I was stunned by how they could tell a cell so just in its complexity. I think that will appeal to each of you because it shows different mechanisms that, even as you read these lines, are happening constantly.
I believe that the graphic representation of the ribosome and how they work is fantastic, not least of all the rest.

"In a cell, the starting point of a more complex realization that call an organism."

This Emergency Shelter Can Be Set Up In 5 Minutes...

These would be wonderful for short term after a tornado or flood, could also be used in middle east for refugees and keep them in their home country, if they have air conditioning, I doubt many of them have had ac in the past. And if we had a disaster here I would not want to be sent to another country, but I agree it does look like a concentration camp, maybe the could separate them out so they are more private

Enjoy Mongolian Music (Daiqing Tana (Haya) - Khokh Nuur (Qinghai Lake) (Blue Lake))

 Daichin Tana is an ethnic Mongol singer and she was born in Mongolian Town Delhii right next to the Blue Lake (Kok Nuur, Qinghai Lake) which is located in north-west region of todays China. “Haya” means ‘margin’ or ‘boundary’ in Mongolian. According to an ancient legend, at the boundary of the endless sky there is a gem called Haya that holds the radiance of all living things. It is said that the day Haya is discovered, all hatred will dissolve and love will spread throughout the entire world.

Song lyrics in English and Mongolian
Hairin zoolun molmiigeer namaig chi shirtedeg / I love the way you look at me with your lovely soft warm eyes
Harts duuren hairiig chini mederch bi jargadag / I'm in heaven when I feel your love in your eyes
Hailan tungalag usiig haran bi bayasdag / I enjoy looking at the pure blue lake
Haya uur shig tengeriig shirten bi chamtai l honoy l dee / Let's spend the night together by looking at the sky (haya)
Derged min ir, haluun amisgal hulee / Please come to me, I miss your warm breath
Denduu huleesen hairalsan chi ireesei / I missed you so much my love, please come to me

“El Cuerpo” aka “The Body” (2012) – Spanish Suspense/ Thriller

 

 “El Cuerpo” brings a heady mix of classic film noir, blood-chilling horror and high suspense, as the film follows a worn out veteran police detective as he begins an investigation of a mysterious break-in at the city morgue, the accidental hit-and-run of a guard, and searches for a corpse that has gone missing one dark and stormy night. Why has the corpse disappeared? Was the woman murdered? Was her distraught husband behind it all? Or is there some other sinister plot behind the disappearance of the body?” Less of a horror film than my usual pick for movie fun, “El Cuerpo” might be a Hitchcock-style murder mystery, but the Trailer certainly hints that there’s much more going on throughout than in the usual “whodunit”. A whole lot more…

ஒரு மார்ச்சுவரி காவலாளி இரவு நேரத்தில் கண்மண் தெரியாமல் ஓடி வந்து காரில் மோதி விழுகிறான். போலீஸ் விசாரனையில் அவன் பணி புரிந்த மார்சுவரியில் இருந்த பிணம் ஒன்று காணாமல் போனது தெரிய வருகிறது.

மிக பெரிய கோடீஸ்வரியின் அந்த உடல் எங்கு போனது? யார் எடுத்தது? கோமாவில் இருக்கும் காவலாளி எதை பார்த்து அப்படி ஓடி வந்தான்? போலீஸ் விசாரனை தொடங்குகிறது...

மாரடைப்பால் இறந்த அந்த பெண்ணின் கணவனை விசாரிக்கையில் அவன் பையில் இருக்கும் ஒரு விஷம் மாரடைப்பை உண்டாக்கும் என்று தெரிகிறது. போலீஸ் சந்தேக பார்வை கணவன் மீது திரும்ப, கணவனுக்கு பல அமானுஷ்ய சம்பவங்கள் நடக்க ஆரம்பிக்கிறது.

இவை அனைத்தும் அந்த மார்ச்சுவரிக்குள், பிணம் காணாமல் போன 8 மணி நேரத்திற்குள் நடக்கிறது. ஒரு இரவை கடந்து விடிவதற்குள், அவ்வளவு திருப்பங்கள்... கதை சும்மா தீ பிடித்து ஓடுகிறது..

பிணம் மறைந்தது பற்றி ஒவ்வொருவருக்கும் ஒவ்வொரு பார்வை இருக்கிறது. அனைத்தும் நம்பும்படி இருக்க, கடைசியில் நாம் எதிர்பார்க்காத வகையில் திரைக்கதை முடிகிறது. செம்ம த்ரில்லர்...
A don't miss movie... ;)

ஸ்பானிஷ் மொழி திரைப்படம் பெயர் : The Body.

Marathi movie Court திரைப்படம் : கோர்ட்

திரைப்படம் : கோர்ட்
இயக்கம் : சைதன்ய தமானே
மராட்டி மொழி (ஆங்கிலத் துணைத் தலைப்புகளுடன்); 1 மணி நேரம், 58 நிமிடம்; 2015

 கிண்டல், கேலி மாதிரி ஒரு அட்டகாசமான உணர்வு எதுவும் இல்லைன்னு நினைக்கிறேன், மனிதனுக்கு மட்டுமே உள்ள ஸ்பெசல் உணர்வு அது.

கோர்ட்'ன்னு ஒரு மராத்தி படம் இந்தியா சார்பில் ஆஸ்கார் விருதுக்கான கடைசி சுற்றுக்கு போயிருக்குன்னு கேள்விபட்டு அதை பார்த்தேன்.. செமயான Sattire - Sarcasm flow... எப்படி விவரிக்கிறதுன்னே தெரில...

இந்தியாவின் red-tapism முறையை ஓட்டு ஓட்டுன்னு சீரியஸா ஓட்டுறாங்க... ரொம்ப மெதுவா போற படம், ஆனா ஒவ்வொரு ஃப்ரேமிலும் தெரிக்கும் எகத்தாளம், கிண்டல்.. படம் முழுக்க சீரியஸா போகும் ஆனா நம்ம முகத்துல புன்னகை தான் இருக்கும்...

எந்த காட்சிக்கும் விளக்கம் கிடையாது, ஜட்ஜ் ஒரு சீரியஸ் விவாதம் பண்ணும் போது அவருடைய உதவியாளர் பின்னனியில் மொபைல் ஸ்க்ரீனை பாத்துட்டு இருப்பது கிண்டல்ன்னா அந்த பொண்ணு முகத்துல இருக்கிற புன்னகை மகா கிண்டல்...

ஒரு கேஸ் அறிமுகம் ஆன உடனே ஜட்ஜ் இன்னிக்கு உங்க கேஸ் விவாதம் பண்ண முடியாது உங்களுக்கு வாய்தா தாறேன்னு சொல்வார்.. அந்த பொண்ணு எதுக்கு சார்ன்னு கேக்கும் அதுக்கு ஜட்ஜ் சொல்ற பதில் " நீ ஸ்லீவ்லெஸ் சட்டை போட்டிருக, இது கோர்ட்டை அவமதிக்குது'ன்னு.

சரமாரியா சரவெடி லந்துகள்... படத்துல இன்னோரு அம்சம் அதன் இயற்கையான சவுன்ட். தேவையில்லாத இசை எங்குமே இல்லை.. அதனால படத்தோட நாம ஒன்றிடறோம், எந்த அளவுக்குன்னா ஒரு காட்சியில கோர்ட் ரூம் லைட்டை எல்லாம் அணைச்சிட்டு பணியாளர் கதவை மூடிட்டு போவார், நாம ரூமுக்குள்ள இருக்க இவர் கதவை மூடுறாரேன்னு தோணும். அந்த அளவுக்கு...

படத்தோட கதையே செம நக்கல், ஒரு துப்புரவு தொழிலாளி குழிக்குள்ள இறங்கி துப்புரவு செய்யும் போது இறந்துடுறார், அவர் எந்த பாதுகாப்பு சாதனங்களும் அணிந்திருக்க வில்லை. அதுக்கு 1008 காரணம் இருக்க அதை எல்லாம் விட்டுட்டு அரசாங்கம் அந்த ஏரியாவில் தெருப்பாட்டு பாடும் ஒருத்தரை கைது செய்கிறது. அது சொல்லும் காரணம் இவர் பாடிய பாட்டில் இருந்த கருத்தினால் தான் தொழிலாளி தற்கொலை செய்து கொண்டார் என்பது.

அந்த காரணத்தை நியாயபடுத்த அரசு தரப்பு எடுக்கும் கோமாளி கூத்துகள் தான் படம். ஆனால் எந்த இடத்திலும் இது புரிய வைக்க முயற்சி இல்லை.. திரைப்படம் அதன் போக்கில் இயங்கி நம்மை உள்ளே இழுக்கும் வகையில் ஒரு மேக்கிங். அவசியம் பார்க்க வேண்டிய திரைப்படம்.
கதைச் சுருக்கம் :

நாராயண் காம்ப்ளே எனும் ஒரு வயதான, மராட்டிய நாட்டுப்புறப் பாடகர் மீது ஒரு விசித்திரமான வழக்கு பதிவு செய்யப் படுகிறது. அவர் பாடிய ஒரு பாடலைக் கேட்டு மலக்குழியில் வேலை செய்யும் துப்புரவுத் தொழிலாளி தற்கொலை செய்து கொண்டார் என்பது தான் அந்த வழக்கு.

நாராயண் காம்ப்ளேவுக்கு ஆதரவாக வினய் வோரா எனும் வசதியான, மெத்தப் படித்த வழக்கறிஞர் வாதாடுகிறார்.

அரசு வழக்கறிஞராக நூதன் எனும் பெண் வாதாடுகிறார். காம்பளே பற்றியும் இந்த வழக்கின் அனர்த்தம் பற்றியும் எந்த அக்கறையும் கொள்ளாமல், எப்படியாவது பதவி உயர்வு கிடைக்க வேண்டும் என்று நினைக்கிற மத்தியத் தர வாழ்க்கை வாழ்கிற, குடும்பம், வேலை இவற்றுக்குள் அல்லாடுகிற பெண்மணி.

இவர்களை எதிர்கொள்கிற நீதிபதி சதாவர்தே எதைப் பற்றியும் கவலைப் படாமல் தனது பழமை வாய்ந்த மதிப்பீடுகளையும் சட்டப் புத்தகத்தையும் நிலைநாட்ட முனைபவர்.

இந்த வழக்கைச் சுற்றியே அமைக்கப்பட்ட அரசியல் முக்கியத்துவம் வாய்ந்த, எள்ளல் நிறைந்த, நம்மை மூச்சு முட்ட வைக்கிற திரைக்கதை கொண்ட யாரையும் வில்லனாகக் காட்டாத, நீதித்துறை எனும் எந்திரம் எதிர்கொண்டிருக்கும் வியாதியை வெளிக்கொணரும் படம் இது.

கதாப்பாத்திரங்களின் பின்புலம், தனிப்பட்ட வாழ்க்கை அவர்களின் வேலையிலும் பிரதிபலிப்பதை நாம் உணரமுடிகிறது.

ஆனந்த் பட்வர்த்தனின் "ஜெய்பீம் காம்ரேட்" எனும் ஆவணப்படமும் மும்பையில் தலித் மக்கள் மீது நடத்தப்பட்ட போலீஸ் துப்பாக்கி சூட்டைக் கேள்விப்பட்டு மனம் வெறுத்துப்போன விலாஸ் கோக்ரே எனும் இடதுசாரி அரசியல் பாடகரின் தற்கொலையிலிருந்து தான் தொடங்கும்.

கோர்ட் எனும் இந்த முழுநீளத் திரைப்படமோ ஒரு பாடகரின் புரட்சிப் பாடலைக் கேட்டு ஒரு துப்புரவுத் தொழிலாளி தற்கொலை செய்து கொண்டார் என்று தொடங்கும்.

கோர்ட் வெனிஸ், வியன்னா, ஹாங்காங், மும்பை, மாஸ்கோ, சிங்கப்பூர், மெக்சிகோ திரைப்பட விழாக்களில் விருது பெற்றது.

சிறந்த படத்திற்கான தேசிய விருதும் பெற்ற படம் கோர்ட்.

இந்தியா சார்பாக ஆஸ்கார் விருதுக்கு பரிந்துரை செய்யப்பட்ட படம்.

A courtroom drama usually offers at least some of the following elements: a fiery orator, high stakes, an evolving case, thrilling arguments and some degree of resolution—even if it’s not a happy one. “Court" offers none of these elements. The oration from the lawyers practically dares you to stay awake. The case itself is jaw-dropping in its staidness. The arguments are routinely filled with jargon, and this jargon may even be irrelevant. For most of its 116-minute runtime, a resolution appears quixotic.
And yet, Indian filmmaker Chaitanya Tamhane’s first feature is a masterpiece, one of the best films of the year. How did this happen?
“Court” deals with an aged Marathi folk singer living in Mumbai, Narayan Kamble, who’s arrested on a bizarre accusation. The state alleges that a song he performed drove a manhole cleaner to commit suicide, and that he is therefore responsible for the man's death. The case comes to the attention of Vinay Vora (Vivek Gomber), a well-educated and well-off lawyer who picks up Narayan’s fight. He’s up against the public prosecutor Nutan (Geetanjali Kulkarni), who couldn’t be bothered with the plight of Narayan or the logic of the case. Together they’re in front of Judge Sadavarte (Pradeep Joshi), who doesn’t care for anything except upholding his archaic morals and interpretation of the law. In the funniest scene in this surprisingly funny film, the Judge refuses to hear a case because the plaintiff, a woman, is wearing a sleeveless top. There are times when it feels as though the real accused in "Court" are India's judicial system and society.
Nearly 60 years ago, Sidney Lumet locked the “12 Angry Men” of a jury inside one room. The setting’s claustrophobic nature would help viewers understand why people’s lives deeply influenced how they interpreted the law and cold, hard facts. Tamhane takes the opposite means to achieve a similar end. His script, carefully structured but not gaudily so, considers the characters’ lives outside the courtroom as essential to comprehending what they do once inside it. This approach is integral to the movie’s humanistic tone. No character is a villain hell-bent on destroying Narayan’s life. They are all just cogs in an unfair machine.
The viewers follow Vora as he attends a posh club with his bourgeois friends, and shops for cheese and wine without looking at the price tags. Clearly, he can afford to pick up a case so obviously headed towards a dead-end, and no wonder he continues speaking English in the courtroom even though it wins him neither favor nor friend. “Court” also shows Nutan for who she might be in real life: a competent woman who tries to juggle her professional duties with her responsibilities as a mother and wife, all while working for a promotion. Forget ignoring the price tags, for her even using olive oil in cooking is a matter of fantasy to be discussed with commute buddies.
There is a moment where it feels like “Court” could end. It seems to have made a point. The viewer has understood what this universe entails. And the filmmaking builds up to a memorable closing shot. But then the film goes on. Over a coda that’s perplexing at first, Tamhane unveils his trump card. With a series of scenes that are remarkable in their assuredness, he underlines, emboldens, and italicizes the purpose of his film.
The acting elevates the words on the page and makes them sing. Gomber, who also produced the film, brings a sense of lumbering calm to his affluent lawyer character. At one point, after being shockingly reminded of what a regressive environment he lives in, he breaks down. It’s not just his sadness that’s moving; it’s his exhaustion. Kulkarni is pitch-perfect as a middle-class Maharashtrian woman. The way she reads out the list of charges against the accused in fluent but monotonous English, only to segue into Marathi when she’s done, is hilarious in its accuracy. Some cast members were untrained, non-professional actors. In the case of the woman who plays the deceased’s widow, it’s eerie how unaffected the scene is before you realize that it’s reality. (The woman is widowed in real life. Her husband was a manhole worker.)
The seemingly interminable drawl of the case is echoed in the filmmaking style, with cinematographer Mrinal Desai utilizing lengthy, static takes. Scenes continue a few seconds or even minutes after the point where other filmmakers might have opted to cut. This ends up adding to the film’s authenticity; the action doesn’t feel directed by force as much as it feels captured by fluke. It’s also a showcase for the impeccable detailing in the film’s environment. As one character gets assaulted outside a restaurant, the framing allows you to see the security guard escape into the safety of the building, while the unending take forces you to watch what he’s successfully hiding from.

That, perhaps, is why “Court” ends up being a great courtroom drama: it treats the audience as both witness and jury and lays out a sprawling argument for them to ponder over. It’s hard to shake this one off long after the credits have rolled.

These homes built from plastic bottles are co-existing with nature while also protecting it

Neeya Naana - Men who consider their home as bore Vs Housewives

Top Sai Baba Songs | Sai Amrutdhara | Sai Gunjan | Popular Bhakti Songs

Phagocytosis (White Blood Cell (Neutrophil) Chasing and Eating Bacteria)

What is Phagocytosis?

Aside from being one of the most fun words to say in science, the process of phagocytosis is pretty cool in itself. Remember the old video game Pac-Man? You guide the round, yellow character through a maze, dodging ghosts and gobbling up little dots. When Pac-Man opens his mouth and consumes one of the dots, it's a little bit like phagocytosis.

Phagocytosis is a type of endocytosis. Endocytosis is a process through which a cell absorbs a particle, molecule, bacterium, or other type of matter by engulfing it. Phagocytosis refers to the engulfing of larger, solid particles. Often the engulfed particle is another cell, like when a white blood cell, which is a part of the immune system, engulfs a bacterium to destroy it. 

The Process of Phagocytosis

Let's use the example of a white blood cell engulfing an invading bacterium to illustrate the process of phagocytosis. A cell that engages in phagocytosis is called a phagocyte. First, the white blood cell has to recognize the invader and realize that it needs to be destroyed. It recognizes signal molecules released by the bacterium and is drawn toward it.

The white blood cell then has to attach its membrane to the membrane of the bacterium. It does this by using molecules called surface receptors. These are molecules embedded in the white blood cell's membrane that are designed to detect and attach to molecules in the membrane of the bacterium. The two cell membranes link up and stick together.

Once attached to each other, the membrane of the white blood cell swells outward around the bacterium and engulfs it. The membrane enclosing the bacterium pinches off and the result is a little pouch, called a phagosome, that contains the offending bacterium inside of the white blood cell.

With the bacterium safely imprisoned inside the white blood cell, it can now be destroyed. The white blood cell brings digestive enzymes into the phagosome. These enzymes break up the bacterium and the resulting harmless particles can either be used by the cell or released out of the cell.

Old god Ganapathi statues and Images

The statue dates back 800 years and is from eastern India

காந்தஹார்- Kandahar Film (ஈரானிய திரைப்படம்) by Iranian director, Mohsen Makhmalbaf

2001ஆம் ஆண்டில் திரைக்கு வந்த படம். பல மிகச் சிறந்த திரைப்படங்களை இயக்கி, உலக அளவில் புகழ் பெற்ற இயக்குனராக ஒளி வீசிக் கொண்டிருக்கும் ஈரானிய திரைப்பட இயக்குனர் Mohsen Makhmalmaf இயக்கிய ஒரு மாறுபட்ட கதைக் கருவைக் கொண்ட இப்படம், வித்தியாசமான படங்களைப் பார்ப்போர்கள் மத்தியில் பெரிய அளவில் கொண்டாடப்பட்டுக் கொண்டிருக்கிறது.
பொழுது போக்கு அம்சங்களைக் கொண்ட படங்களை உருவாக்கி விட்டு, ஏதோ பெரிதாக சாதித்து விட்டோம் என்று மார்பைத் தட்டிக் கொண்டு ஆர்ப்பரிப்போருக்கு மத்தியில், யாரும் எடுப்பதற்காக அஞ்சக் கூடிய ஒரு பேசப்படும் கதைக் கருவைக் கையாண்டு, அதை ஒரு நேர்த்தியான திரைப்படமாக எடுத்திருக்கும் Mohsen Makhmalmafன் அசாத்திய துணிச்சலை நாம் பாராட்டியே ஆக வேண்டும்.

''Kandahar'' is bound to attract potential audiences, if only because it may be the only film whose name gets more mentions than Harry Potter on CNN. Though the Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf's picture was filmed long before today's breaking news from Afghanistan, it is worthy of some attention because it happens to portray the culture -- specifically the treatment of women in that Taliban stronghold -- in forceful and dramatic terms.

An Afghan journalist, Nafas (Nelofer Pazira), who left Afghanistan and is now based in Canada, goes back home to find her troubled sister. Mr. Makhmalbaf isn't much of a storyteller, and Ms. Pazira is more than his equal in her lack of acting ability. She looks slightly distracted when staring into the camera; she seems to be waiting for instructions to change expression to come over an ear piece, and the instructions never quite get there. Yet she has the command of someone who is accustomed to sitting before the camera and holds positions as if she were born to be there, which makes her the film's star by sheer power of concentration. (In real life Ms. Pazira, who grew up in Kabul, is a Canadian television journalist.) To say that she doesn't lend a great deal of emotional credibility to ''Kandahar,'' which opens today at the Lincoln Plaza, is an understatement.

As Nafas slips into Afghanistan to begin her search, she runs into a number of situations that almost make the movie seem to be taking place on a back lot, a dreamy Never-was Land where each scene is a setup for another surprise. (The movie was filmed in Iran.) But the bleached, sun-beaten landscapes are undeniably real, as are the hardships that the women suffer as they battle to survive the inhospitable land and the rigidity of the Taliban. Children play and pray while machine guns, worn and obviously used, sit near their feet. Desperation has a ghostly presence here: it's never spoken, but we can feel it nonetheless, and it's a part of the everyday life in the encampments where these women live.

Nafas meets a doctor who treats women in a most unusual fashion, at least to Westerners, and who isn't what he seems. He talks to his female patients while they're under a sheet -- he views them through a hole -- and the low-key assurance in his voice is a marvelous contradiction to the strangeness of the situation. By this point Ms. Pazira's vacant stare has become a part of the texture of ''Kandahar'': you almost can't imagine anybody else -- certainly not someone who might actually react to these unusual proceedings -- as the lead.

On this level the director displays talent by providing notes of absurdity and unforgettable visuals. Somehow it's as if he is cognizant that his star, and most of the rest of the cast, for that matter, simply can't carry a scene. His compensatory touches have a jaw-dropping power: for example a shot of prosthetic limbs parachuting onto the bleak desert landscape as scores of handicapped men on crutches await the legs as they fall from the sky. When he pulls off things like this, ''Kandahar'' feels like a Magritte painting rendered in sand tones, and your eyes are drawn to the screen.

There aren't enough of these moments, though, and Mr. Makhmalbaf lessens their power by repeating them. He knows he is dealing with a hot, potent subject, and he has an eye for astonishing imagery, which he integrates into ''Kandahar'' in such a way that the film occasionally succeeds on its own made-under-a-full-moon terms: it's a wide-screen daydream. But the way the film works defeats any melodramatic urgency in this tale of enduring punishment. The awful moments he creates have the time-delay impact of a nightmare: the potency of the horrors hit and linger after the freakishness of an image or a moment fades away and the creeping realization of exactly what you've just witnessed finally hits you. Sometimes that impact comes like a blow to the back of the head.
KANDAHAR
Written, edited and directed by Mohsen Makhmalbaf; in Farsi and English, with English subtitles; director of photography, Ebraham Ghafouri; music by Mohamad Reza Darvishi; produced by Makhmalbaf Film House and Bac Films; released by Avatar Films. At the Lincoln Plaza, Broadway at 62nd Street. Running time: 85 minutes. This film is not rated.
WITH: Nelofer Pazira (Nafas), Hassan Tantai (Tabib Sahid) and Sadou Teymouri (Khak).

The film Kandahar serves as a timely memorial to the brutality of the Taleban regime, and its release comes as the world's attention is focused on the town after which it is named.

One day the world will see your problems and come to your aid

The acclaimed Iranian director, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, described Afghanistan as "a country without images". Under the Taleban there has been no cinema, no television, photography was banned, painting was considered "impure", and books were burnt.

Makhmalbaf is very well known in his native Iran

Yet, in one of his most polemical films to date, Makhmalbaf secretly entered the country and made one of the very few films ever to have been set inside Afghanistan. Watching a film about a country in which films are banned lets the viewer share the thrill of defying the censor.
But it is given added edge by the knowledge that the Taleban regime is collapsing in real life as the movie unfolds.
At the beginning of the film one of the characters tells a crowd of Afghan refugees that "one day the world will see your problems and come to your aid".
But when the film was made, few people would have been able to find Kandahar on a map. The world had turned its back on Afghanistan.
Beneath the veil
The film tells the story of an Afghan-Canadian journalist, Nafas, who returns to Kandahar to rescue her sister who is so depressed that she has threatened to kill herself before the last solar eclipse of the 20th century.
As she enters Afghanistan, Nafas is told she must wear a burqa - the all-encompassing veil - to protect the honour of her male escort.

Women were also made to wear the veil before the Taleban

It becomes a symbol of the stifling oppression of women - the most invisible group of people in this "country without images" - and at the same time their defiance of this oppression.
Her veil is not one of the now familiar blue nylon burqas, but a woven muted green and pink veil. In one scene she joins a large group of women going to a wedding party, all wearing brightly-coloured burqas.
The women may be faceless, but the veils themselves are strangely beautiful.
By ordering women to be fully covered, the religious militia also never quite know what is underneath the veil.
But the audience is permitted to look inside: girls secretly apply lipstick and paint their nails; Nafas carries a tape-recorder; and a man uses the subterfuge to escape arrest.
Surreal
The journey to Kandahar must be completed within three days if Nafas is to rescue her sister, which gives the film an urgency that highlights the unbearable timelessness of Afghanistan - a country where time seems to have stopped.

This surrealism is not an aesthetic device, but a straight portrayal of a people pushed to the limits of survival.

Nafas falls sick along the way, and has to visit a doctor. Because men are not allowed to look at women who are not related to them, she must sit on the other side of a cloth partition from the doctor, who speaks to her through her child escort. "Ask her what she has eaten," says the doctor. "What have you eaten?" asks the boy. "Tell her to put her mouth to the hole," says the doctor. "Put your mouth to the hole," repeats the boy.
The laboured repetition dramatises the absurdity of daily life in Afghanistan in a way in which straight reporting can rarely do.
As the journey continues we are taken on a tour of the surreal land which decades of war and the Taleban regime have wrought out of Afghanistan.
This surrealism is not an aesthetic device, but a straight portrayal of a people pushed to the limits of survival.
In one of the most memorable scenes, a group of one-legged landmine victims race on crutches to claim pairs of false legs that Red Cross helicopters have dropped from the sky. It could be from a Fellini film, yet it is quite likely to be real.
Although a feature film, Kandahar is half documentary, and many of the characters are not actors but refugees that the crew met along the way.

The latest weapon against climate change? Turning carbon dioxide into stone better than basalt.

Carbon dioxide has been pumped underground and turned rapidly into stone, demonstrating a radical new way to tackle climate change.

The unique project promises a cheaper and more secure way of burying CO2 from fossil fuel burning underground, where it cannot warm the planet. Such carbon capture and storage (CCS) is thought to be essential to halting global warming, but existing projects store the CO2 as a gas and concerns about costs and potential leakage have halted some plans.

The new research pumped CO2 into the volcanic rock under Iceland and sped up a natural process where the basalts react with the gas to form carbonate minerals, which make up limestone. The researchers were amazed by how fast all the gas turned into a solid – just two years, compared to the hundreds or thousands of years that had been predicted.

The Iceland project has already been increased in scale to bury 10,000 tonnes of CO2 a year and the basalt rocks used are common around the world, forming the floor of all the oceans and parts of the land too. “In the future, we could think of using this for power plants in places where there’s a lot of basalt and there are many such places,” said Martin Stute, at Columbia University in the US and part of the research team.

Testing has taken place in the Columbia River Basalts, extensive deposits in Washington and Oregon in the US. India, which has many polluting coal power plants, has huge basalt deposits in the Deccan Traps.

One potential challenge for the new technique is that it requires large amounts of water: 25 tonnes for each tonne of CO2 buried. But Matter said seawater could be used, which would be in plentiful supply at coastal sites. Another is that subterranean microbes might break down carbonate to methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, but this was not seen in the Iceland research.

The research, called the Carbfix project, took place at Iceland’s Hellisheidi power plant, the world’s largest geothermal facility. The plant pumps up volcanically heated water to run electricity-generating turbines but this also brings up volcanic gases, including carbon dioxide and nasty-smelling hydrogen sulphide.

The researchers re-injected 230 tonnes of the gas, which was dissolved in water to prevent it escaping, down into the basalt to a depth of 400-500m. They used tracer chemicals to show that over 95% of CO2 was turned into stone within two years, “amazingly fast” according to Matter. Edda Aradottir, who heads the project for Reykjavik Energy, said: “It was a very welcome surprise.”

The Iceland project has now begun scaling up to bury 10,000 tonnes of CO2 a year, plus the hydrogen sulphide which also turns into minerals. The Columbia University group are also investigating another rock type, found in Oman, which may be able to turn CO2 into rock even better than basalt.

In conventional CCS, the CO2 is stored as a gas in sedimentary rocks such as exhausted oil fields under the North Sea. Unlike basalt, these rocks lack the minerals needed to convert CO2 into stone. Such sedimentary reservoirs could potentially leak and therefore have to be monitored, which adds to costs.

They have also raised concerns from the public and projects on land in the Netherlands and Germany have been halted as a result. “In Europe you can forget about onshore CCS,” said Matter.

Conventional CCS also requires the CO2 to be separated from the mix of gases emitted by power stations and industrial plants, which is expensive. But the basalt-based CCS does not require this. However, Matter said there would still be a role for conventional CCS in places where power plants are close to good reservoirs. 

thanks  https://www.theguardian.com

570