Iran's New Space Program 243
eldavojohn writes "Coinciding with the 32nd anniversary of the Iranian revolution, Iran opened a center to receive satellite images built 'entirely by Iranian engineers.' Iran promised that by the end of their year (March of 2011) they would launch two observational satellites: Fajr (Dawn) and Rasad-1 (Observation-1). You might recall two years ago when they launched Omid, which completed about 700 orbits in two weeks. There are reports that new launch rockets will be revealed in February to launch the new satellites — all equipment is claimed to be entirely Iranian made. Iranian media is reporting that one of the satellites 'carries remote measuring equipment that would be used in meteorology and identifying sea borders.' The Iranian Student News Agency says Explorer 4 (Kavoshgar 4) is meant to transport humans and other living organisms into space, and that the sensory on the satellites 'is able to find gas and oil resources, identify coal mines, jungles and agricultural products as well as salty-marsh and contaminated environments.' These rapid fire achievements are not the only bragging Iran has done as of late; they also claim 'new gamma radiation units for medical treatments and a supercomputer billed as among the top 500 most powerful in the world. But, fact or fiction aside, the satellites have old enemies speculating."
Orbital nukes in 3 ... 2 ... 1 ... (Score:3)
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Ah Bomb bomb bomb...bomb bome Iran...
[Falsetto] A bomb Iraaaaaaan....
(sung to the tune of Barbara Ann)
Built by Engineers? (Score:5, Funny)
Somehow, I had a mental image of a bunch of engineers trying to erect a building. None survived.
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You've got the joke wrong.
"A building built by an architect might fall down, but a building built by an engineer should be torn down."
Just who do you think designs and supervises the construction of buildings?
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Who actually constructs the buildings?
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Mexicans.
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Just who do you think designs and supervises the construction of buildings?
Usually, a Structural Engineer of Record who stamps, signs, and vouches for the building. The SER is then liable for problems with the building for up to six years after their death. Special insurance is available for those claims.
SER certification requires formal training (e.g. B.Eng.) specialized post-graduate training, experience, and registration explicitly as a SER with multiple peer reviews. They often specialize in areas such as a building envelopes.
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I was thinking of adding:
- Buzz Killington
at the end but figured that was a little belt / suspenders.
Yes, Russia better worry the most (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Yes, Russia better worry the most (Score:5, Interesting)
A Tiny Bit of Compassion for the Iranian People (Score:5, Insightful)
To answer your question in a historical context I might point you to the horrible things that Russia and the United States did during the Cold War that essentially provided puppet theaters for their ideologies to be fought out. Why risk your citizens when you can show the world who's right with war and poverty in weaker nations? Wikipedia does a decent job of summing this up [wikipedia.org] but you might look up the 1953 Iranian coup d'état followed by the 1979 Iranian revolution and surmise why it would be in Russia's best interest to keep this thorn festering in the United States' side right up until today. The Soviet War in Afghanistan, the Eastern Bloc and many other actions were basically a cowardly way of Russia and the United States putting external countries in chaos to prove who was the better country in our petty capitalism versus socialism spat (and after all that everybody's implementing a little bit of both).
Similar to the redrawing of national/political boundaries by the Allies following World War II, we (and I mean the world, US/Russian citizens, the citizens of those countries, everybody) will for a very long time feel the pain and suffering of putting such pressures on weaker nations during the Cold War.
When you say "it's most crazy neighbor to the south," it might benefit you to consider the pressures that added to that craziness. While the blame lies entirely on no one, everybody participated. For a somewhat more even handed introduction to Iran's problems, check out the intro to Persepolis (the movie or the manga).
You know who's really lost a lot in all of this? The Iranian citizens.
Re:Yes, Russia better worry the most (Score:5, Insightful)
Iran is not crazy. I'm not sure where you got that idea from. The government is pretty hard line in some instances, but the populace isn't generally. In my opinion crazy is starting wars.
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"Iran is not crazy."
A piece of Geography rarely is.
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A piece of Geography rarely is.
Rosie O'Donnell begs to differ.
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So, you're the opinion that USA is crazy, then ?
Just asking.
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If that's the case, the USA has been crazy for over 50 years.
I mean, I know /. is an american site and has an unashamedly american bias, but this shit is just ridiculous. Iran is less of a threat to the world than the USA is. The USA has shown time and time again that they are prepared to start wars, meddle in other countries internal affairs, kidnap civilians, ignore international law or forc
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Whatever. I'm not an American, and I'm not about to defend any of what you're bitching about. In fact, I agree with a lot of what you say.
I have seen speeches with Ahmadinejad and the simultaneous translation (I believe it was actually Al Jazeera) -- I'm still of the opinion he's bat-shit crazy. I can only hear someone talking about wiping the Great Satan off the planet so much before I'm forced to come to that conclusion.
I also saw the footage of what was happening to their protesters not so long ago.
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Any country in which NOT believing in the prevailing religion is a crime, is fucking crazy.
Any country which still has public stonings, is fucking crazy.
Simple enough for 'ya?
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Hubris, perhaps?
The Russians believe their strategy "worked" in Chechnya -- bomb the cities to the stone age, kill anyone who doesn't cooperate, and arm a local force whose existence depends on you and their willingness to do whatever it takes to suppress dissent.
My sense is they think they could probably crush any kind of Iranian aggression just as easily.
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Mission accomplished much?
Central America, Korea, Afghanistan (I mean the previous conflict where the US armed the taliban), Iraq (I mean the previous Iraq where the US armed Saddam)
Pot vs. kettle much?
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Russia has a problem with radical Sunni (Salafi / Wahhabi) insurgency. Iran is not a threat there, because those folks hate Iran (which is Shiite) just as much if not more. Aside from that, there isn't anything for two countries to fight over, and they can back each other (and China) in UN versus US and its Western allies.
We're too late.... (Score:2)
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IIRC couple months ago, an american christian preacher went to Uganda and preached about the righteousness of killing homosexuals, dozens have been hanged and stoned and laws have been drafted with the death penalty for homosexuality in response.
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Laws were drafted, no idea if they passed.
Basic scenario is that the American christian preacher came to Uganda, preached hate and death.
Then a tabloid published a list of names and addresses of gays.
Many of them were killed.
Laws were drafted with the death penalty for gays.
?
That should be enough info for you to google it yourself.
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In the last 20 years there have been significantly more successful attacks on US soil by Christian extremists (primarily in the form of attacks on abortion clinics) then their have been by Islamic extremists.
What's the body count? Last I checked, the Islamist extremists killed over two orders of magnitude more people than the anti-abortion people. The second biggest known terrorist attack (the Oklahoma City bombing) was anti-government not Christian. EgyptAir 990 [wikipedia.org] might qualify as a terrorist attack. After that, you're into nuts with guns territory.
If we look overseas we see a number of high casualty bombings in Europe and a ridiculous amount of bloodletting throughout the Middle East. You can talk about how
Nothing in the Christian world compares?WTF (Score:2)
Ever hear of Timothy McVeigh? He killed quite a few. Now lets look at the numbers killed in South America by US sponsored terroist groups. Or Afghanistan during the russian invasion. Or in Ireland when US Irish were funding the IRA for amy years only stopping after 9/11. Or thieving Terrosit nation of Israel, using bombs paid for and supplied by the US.
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Given the US govt is dominated by christians, I dont see how you can say nothing to do etc.
The main reason for the IRA struggle was quite certainly two christian religions,
or are youj trying to say there are Protestants in the IRA?
Your claim that islamists kill more is simply laughable.
Burn, strawman! (Score:2)
(US: Torture, invasions, abuse of power, runaway government spending - Mexico: Rampant Corruption - Egypt:Mass censorship, dictatorship - Pretty much every government: Civil Rights Issues, police state tendencies, etc)
And my brother is the most evil of all, he kicked my dog!
If you are trying to equate any of those other governments' wrongdoings with one that tries to stone a woman to death for "adultery" because she befriended another man two years after her husband died you are as wacko as the Iranian theocrats.
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>it the USA that is out of control and evil and crazy
Put your sister in a bikini and have her walk down the sidewalk in Times Square. Then have her do the same in Tehran's Grand Bazaar. Report back and let us know which scenario goes best.
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Fun fact: it's legal for women to go topless in NYC.
Less fun fact: It's damn near freezing in NYC right now, so toplessness and bikinis are right out for most people.
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>they'll be arrested
Are you joking? Have you ever walked around the outside of the White House? There are protesters camped out all over the place, all the time, none of whom are arrested, and many of whom have been there for months.
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Here is another test. Walk around Tehran's Grand Bazaar in a green shirt while carrying a sign that says "vote fraud" and see what happens.
Re:Yes, Russia better worry the most (Score:4, Interesting)
Amen to that, brother.
Of all the insanity on Slashdot, the thing that probably drives me the most crazy is the number of people who reply with "The USA is just as bad" when someone complains about human rights in a totalitarian nation. (And no, I'm not American.) Could the USA do a lot better in the human rights department? Absolutely. Are they orders-of-magnitude better than many, many, many places on this planet? Also absolutely.
Didnt you see the results of Cast lead. (Score:2)
NO but they have killed many thousands of Palestinian and Lebanese civlians and used phosphorus against a school.
Israel is a contry founded by a terrorist campaign you know. Look up Irgun or the stern gang, and the King David hotel
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So is the US, though the term hadn't been invented yet. Look up the Sons of Liberty, who the British called the "Sons of Violence".
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Yep, they were terrorists too. Funny how when it is terrorists you agree with they are freedom fighters, and when you dont agree they are terrorists.
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Clone the space shuttle (Score:2)
Iran can always do what the Soviets did and make a clone of the US space shuttle.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buran_(spacecraft) [wikipedia.org]
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The soviet version also flew, completely autonomously and landed perfectly without incident. Then it was retired.
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So did Buran. It made one test flight, in 1988, then the Soviet Union abandoned the programme as not being worth the cost.
Re:Clone the space shuttle (Score:4, Funny)
Yeah, those Soviets never did anything first in the space race.
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What they did first is what the Iranians are finally doing, and it's causing the same reactions in the same reactionaries that the Russian version did.
I think it's the reactionaries who aren't progressing.
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No mod points to give you, sorry, but to acknowledge your well place sarcasm: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_space_exploration_milestones,_1957-1969#Notable_firsts [wikipedia.org]
1957: First intercontinental ballistic missile, the R-7 Semyorka
1957: First satellite, Sputnik 1
1957: First animal to enter Earth orbit, the dog Laika on Sputnik 2
1959: First firing of a rocket in Earth orbit, first man-made object to escape Earth's orbit, Luna 1
1959: First data communications, or telemetry, to and from outer space, Luna 1.
1959: First man-made object to pass near the Moon, first man-made object in Solar orbit, Luna 1
1959: First probe to impact the Moon, Luna 2
1959: First images of the moon's far side, Luna 3
1960: First animals to safely return from Earth orbit, the dogs Belka and Strelka on Sputnik 5.
1960: First probe launched to Mars, Marsnik 1
1961: First probe launched to Venus, Venera 1
1961: First person in space (International definition) and in Earth orbit, Yuri Gagarin on Vostok 1, Vostok programme
1961: First person to spend over a day in space Gherman Titov, Vostok 2 (also first person to sleep in space).
1962: First dual manned spaceflight, Vostok 3 and Vostok 4
1963: First woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova, Vostok 6
1964: First multi-man crew (3), Voskhod 1
1965: First EVA, by Aleksei Leonov, Voskhod 2
1965: First probe to hit another planet (Venus), Venera 3
1966: First probe to make a soft landing on and transmit from the surface of the moon, Luna 9
1966: First probe in lunar orbit, Luna 10
1967: First unmanned rendezvous and docking, Cosmos 186/Cosmos 188. (Until 2006, this had remained the only major space achievement that the US had not duplicated.)
1969: First docking between two manned craft in Earth orbit and exchange of crews, Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5
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Buran is not a clone of the US space shuttle. It looks similar, but it's not. Buran is launched on a huge booster; it has no main engines of its own, unlike the US Shuttle. It's more rugged than the Shuttle, which can't handle rain or cold weather. In many ways, it's a better design. T
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Great blog article here [schneiderism.com] about Buran. What might have been. Just goes to show that it's good to see the Russians still active in space exploration and how their different approach gets results. They've been kicking ass since Day 1.
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Ahhh, the sweet irony (Score:2)
While the religious fanatical state in the middle east is working hard to advance science, "heart land" of america is working hard to denounce science.
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I can understand why having bought the bridge and tower you would want to offload them, but trying to get him on the Nigerian thing is just plain rude. You see, you're swallowing the propaganda has two major ill effects.
Firstly, it's bad for you personally because it narrows your mind and constrains it to predictable repeated pathways and as we all know, a brain that follows the same pathways again and again without exploring new possibilities starts to die and develops dementia.
Secondly, people from Iran a
Why all the hate? (Score:2, Insightful)
What's up with that? What possible use could a stable, financially self-sufficient nation have for nuking a much larger nation (who has a lot more nukes)? I know people like to portray them as crazies and always extract the most radical-when-translated-and-taken-out-of-context q
Re:Why all the hate? (Score:5, Informative)
Stable? At the last election, government forces killed some 36 people demonstrating against vote fraud.
That's not the mark of a stable government; that's a mark of a totalitarian regime that will kill to stay in power.
That's why it's bad when they get nukes.
I for one believe that trade is the best binder; sooner or later we won't be able to go to war against China because we simply won't have the industrial base to support ourselves (and I'm not talking weapons but shoes. How long would a US president last if the voters couldn't buy shoes? )
Let's bind Iran in a web of trade so they can't go to war with us. The problem is that we really don't have anything they want....
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The US installed regimes (ousting democracies) that killed thousands when in power. Just because a regime is corrupt and brutal doesn't mean that the west does not consider it stable. It's up to you to decide the morality of that, but your point that the Iranian government killed 36 people pales into insignificance compared to the brutality the west's allies have meted out in the past (and most of the west itself for that matter).
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The crazy thing here is it reads like you're about the good old US of A.
Messianic regime... don't you idiots always go on about "god bless" and "in god we trust" and shit. Your constitution might say your church and state are separate, but how likely is it that an open atheist could get into the presidency? How many in your government believe Israel was given by god to the jews? Who had the first nukes? Who is the only country to have used nukes d
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"God bless" is like "geseundheit", it's just something you say when someone sneezes. "In god we trust" is on our money, but I've never heard it come up in any other context.
About as likely as a Catholic, a divorcee, or a black man.
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BZZZZT. Kids went out and played in the falling ash thinking it was snow the Americans had brought them.
No, I referring more to the women, children and jour
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The US has been bankrolling Israel for years and years now.
How is this different?
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The worry is that some of their nuclear technology might fall into the hands of some extremist group that would have no qualms about setting off a nuke in the middle of a city just to send a message. When someone blows themselves up using a regular bomb there's enough debris left over to have a good idea of who might have done it. Even a small nuclear device would cause enough destruc
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I don't think there's any worry that Iran will nuke the United States. That would just be completely stupid on their part.
I fear Iran more than I ever did the Russians because I never believed the Russians were crazy or suicidal. I have no such assurance in the case of Iran or N Korea. We've had lots and lots of evidence pointing to the fact that Islamist extremists can be quite suicidal for the right cause. The Mutually Assured Destruction model of deterrence (which has actually worked quite well so far) doesn't really work when one of the parties is willing to entertain the notion of certain death in exchange for the assu
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The Iranian government are not Islamic extremists any more than the US government are Christian extremists. You have more to fear from former soviet states because they have nuclear material dotted around the place with little security. If I wanted to make a dirty bomb I'd be looking around there. Iran is most certainly not crazy and has some very advanced science and technology.
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Well, we developed all of those technologies for the purposes of nuking someone ... so, its not unreasonable, if somewhat irrational, to expect we'd believe the same of someone else doing it.
Not sure we've got the moral high ground to point fingers, though.
Because they're religious nuts? (Score:2)
Citation [theisraelproject.org].
Seriously, Iran is fucked in the head when it comes to thinking. I don't want their kind of thinking having access to nuclear warheads and ballistic missiles.
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"Hate" is good politics. No politician, in a democracy, or a dictatorship, or anything in between, ever kept his job by calling his population a bunch of lazy dumb-asses, who are responsible for their own dire status. Pin the blame on some folks out of the country, or a minority group in the country too small to defend themselves.
Embezzle, and stash the cash away in the Cayman Islands, Switzerland and Lichtenstein. Make sure to flee the country to your Villa on the Cote D'Azur before the shit hits the
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Oh crap, dirty brown people are getting their hands on technology
Nice race-baiting straw man, there. People worrying about the Iranians and high-end weapons-related tech don't give a crap what color anybody is. It's the cultural world-view of the mysoginistic, retrograde theocratic thugocracy running the country, their vocal and overt support for terrorism, and their stated objective of wiping a country off the map. Who cares about skin pigment? It's what people do that matters. Like jailing and killing political opponents who don't want to be subject the Iranian leader
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Every time I read a story about technological advancement in some [non friendly to the US] nation it's always portrayed in the light of "Oh crap, dirty brown people are getting their hands on technology OMFG THEY'RE GONNA NUKE US"
It's nearly as bad when it's a friendly nation. Hence the billion redundant unfunny jokes about curry/unintelligible tech support/Kwik E Mart/funny accents if it's a story about a technical development in India. Then there's always the standard "they shouldn't be doing that, they should be spending that money on social programs to get running water to their poor first" idiotic comments. Funny how nobody ever insists on NASA being wound up until poverty in the US is eliminated and the last homeless American
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There are far more hateful, misinformed and bigoted comments than mine all over this thread. The ones you don't notice have an anti Iranian/pro American paranoia flavour. I just like playing devils advocate and balancing things up a bit..
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May I be the first to say that this is great... (Score:2)
...target practice!
(I kid, I kid. Just don't tell Sarah Palin.)
Russian Parts, Chinese Parts... (Score:3)
All Made in Iran.....
(Clang).....
To Paraphrase the first Iranian Astronaut after his retro rockets failed to fire trapping him in orbit for a few extra hours....
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The first Iranian astronaut was Anousheh Ansari, a female
in orbit, to face Mecca's direction, face Earth (Score:2, Informative)
There's been no Iranian Islamonauts, female or otherwise.
In my book, that's score 1 for the Americans, err Russians. Damn this outsourcing is confusing.
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She wasn't an astronaut, she was a passenger.
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Iran needs a place to put all their viruses (Score:2)
so they're looking towards space. if you think their reactor is going to be a big hit when the rooted controls stop working, just wait until their space bombs get called by the botnet.
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"so they're looking towards space."
That's good.
There's nothing able to fund NASA quicker than the US Religious nuts thinking the Iranians would make Mars a Muslim planet and build a mosque there.
NK is the best Korea! (Score:2)
This story sounds strangely deja vu like.
What other militant country with a nutjob leader which has openly swore to wipe another off a map was trying to advance "satellite putting up in orbity" technology and at the same time trying to start a nuclear program (but only to generate power) which is their god given right to do so...
Nothing to see here, move along.
I would say they are playing with fire, but that would be too obvious not to mention literal.
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"a nutjob leader which has openly swore to wipe another off a map"
You do realise that was simply false dont you, A mistranslation of what was said.
Never let the facts get in the way of a biased rant eh?
700 oribts in two weeks? (Score:2)
Hmm, seems to me that 700 orbits in two weeks is about one orbit every thirty minutes.
It's been a long time since I was in school, but last I checked a 30 minute orbit around Earth is impossible.
Well, without a continuous 7G burn to keep the satellite from flying off out of the solar system - speed required to do a 30 minute orbit is about 60% more than solar escape speed.
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That's what she said.
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Ouch
That's what she said.
No, that was what he, the Iranian suicide terrorist, said when he found out that the virgins in Paradise were not females...
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Why Photoshop it? This could be the next method to deter dissidents.