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A new Cambodian cafe is offering diners a slice of life under the Khmer Rouge, with a menu featuring rice-water and leaves, and waitresses dressed in the black fatigues worn by Pol Pot's ultra-Maoist guerrillas.
Newly opened across the road from Phnom Penh's notorious Tuol Sleng "S-21" Khmer Rouge interrogation and torture centre, the cafe is meant to remind Cambodians of the 1975-1979 genocide in which an estimated 1.7 million people died.
But the set "theme menu" of salted rice-water, followed by corn mixed with water and leaves, and dove eggs and tea at $6 a time is proving too much to swallow for many visitors.
"Our grandfather and other relatives lost their lives under Pol Pot's regime," said 17-year-old manager Hakpry Agnchealy, whose brother owns the business. "This is more than just a restaurant. It is to remind us of those who died." "We opened two weeks ago, but have only had two Europeans coming here to eat. We don't know how much longer we can go," she said.
Faithful to the Khmer Rouge era, when many victims starved to death after a disastrous attempt to transform the country into a peasant utopia, the waitresses are barefoot and clad in the black pyjamas and red-white scarves of the guerrillas.
Speakers blare out tunes celebrating the 1975 toppling of U.S.-backed president General Lon Nol and the walls are adorned with the baskets, hoes and spades Pol Pot hoped would power his jungle-clad south-east Asian homeland to communist prosperity.
Recognising that many tourists might not be able to stomach such a close brush with the Killing Fields, the "Khmer Rouge Experience Cafe" is also promoting itself to those wishing to shed a few pounds.
"It's good for me to slim down," said Tan, a 40-year-old Malaysian visitor. For some who survived Pol Pot's rule, the cafe served up too many chilling reminders of one of 20th century history's darkest chapters.
"My mother visited me here once, saw the Khmer Rouge style and has never come back again," Hakpry Agnchealy said.
What the hell...
:: Anathema ::
Yahoo
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A chilly bit of Scandinavia is coming to the heart of London's West End Saturday with the opening of Absolut Icebar, a bar made entirely out of ice right down to the art on the walls and the glasses for the drinks.
Situated next to the accompanying but room temperature Below Zero restaurant, the bar is kept at minus 23 fahrenheit year round. For a cover charge of 12 pounds ($22.20), patrons are given a thermal cape, thick gloves and a glass made out of ice before entering the second of two airtight doors designed to keep heat out.
"It's an experience rather than a traditional bar. We feel we're really offering something different," said Anette Eliasson, manager of market communications for V&S Absolut Spirits vodka company, which is opening the bar with partner company Icehotel.
The Stockholm-based franchise launched the first Icebar in Jukkasjarvi, Sweden, in 1994 within Icehotel, where visitors stay in the comfort of a warm sleeping bag in an icy room. Since then, Icebar locations in Stockholm, Sweden and Milan, Italy, have been met with success, prompting a fourth permanent location in London.
"This is where trends come from, so that's why London was important to us," Agnetha Lund, director of Icebar International, said.
Bar patrons who would like a warm meal will find European cuisine and lounge-style seating at Below Zero restaurant next door. Fred Olsson, managing director, said the menu features dishes that can be shared among friends.
All the ice for the bar is imported from the Torne River in the north of Sweden, where the pure water and river freezing process make the finished product "crystal clear," according to Lund.
The entire venue will be redesigned and rebuilt every six months, because the ice will gradually melt with daily use and the body heat of the crowds, Lund said. Icebar commissions artists to sculpt the decor on site, and opening day art includes a floor-to-ceiling vodka bottle and partial human figures along the walls.
The 10,764-square-foot bar has a capacity for 60 people. Pre-booking for one of the 45-minute time slots is a must.
This sounds like a very interesting place...
:: Anathema ::
Yahoo
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According to some scientists, worldwide communication is taking place on a regular basis with extraterrestrial UFOs. The technology involves 5-D gravity waves.
In his general theory of relativity, Dr Albert Einstein found a solution that modeled an entirely new type of wave: the gravity wave. General relativity describes the force of gravity as a geometric warping in space-time; if the warping were to take the shape of a wave, then this would be a gravity wave.
While electromagnetic waves occupy three special dimensions (as well as time), gravity waves exist in five, making them hyperdimensional in nature.
Gravity wave detectors show strange communication with other worlds. While terrestrial communication technologies focus on electromagnetic characteristics, advanced alien civilizations communicate with gravity waves which are five dimensional.
Einstein stated that these waves probably travelled at the same speed as light, 300,000 km/s, which means that nothing is gained in using gravity waves over their electromagnetic counterpart.
The mainstream physics for some reason have done little with Gravity waves. Governments have done little to reveal the technology, harness it and make it available for technological advancements. However, it exists in many people’s back yards and individually these individuals reveal the existence of strange commun9cation between different parts of the earth and the very advanced extraterrestrial civilizations, UFOs and UFO bases in the cosmos.
Officially there has been no detection of these waves; however, the design of such gravity detectors has been based on general relativity theory. There are some who have developed their own theories and so their own detector technology. They also claim to have detected transmissions from other worlds.
The aliens using the gravity waves for communication makes many believe that these are very advanced aliens in the 5-D Hyperspace in which our physical Universe floats.
I'm not sure how credible these stories are, I just thought they were a good read. It reminds me of the nerdy guys from the X-Files, always putting out crazy underground stories...
:: Anathema ::
indiadaily
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A U.S. doctor has sued a Seattle-area newspaper for defamation after it reported he posed as his twin, a gynecologist, to have sex with his brother's patients.
Dennis Momah said the King County Journal defamed him in 2003 when it published an article that said: "Two twin brothers were taking turns having sex with patients on a regular basis without the patients' knowledge that they were two different people."
Momah, who filed the lawsuit in King County Superior Court this week, also sued Harish Bharti, an attorney quoted in the paper who represents six female patients of Charles Momah, Dennis Momah's twin and a gynecologist.
Charles Momah is being sued by some of his former patients, who say that he switched places with Dennis, giving him access to his gynecological patients.
In February, six patients said in a lawsuit that they were sometimes deceived into being seen, examined, operated on and sexually fondled by Dennis Momah, a general practitioner who is not certified in obstetrics and gynecology.
Charles Momah, who had medical practices in two suburbs south of Seattle, has pleaded not guilty to criminal charges of rape, indecent liberties and insurance fraud. That trial is scheduled for October 4.
Dennis Momah, who has not been charged with any crime, said in his lawsuit that the article was "published negligently and with reckless disregard for the truth."
Barbara Morgan, executive editor of the King County Journal, said the newspaper had not been served and did not know the details of Momah's lawsuit.
Dennis Momah's lawyer, Timothy Ford, said the media coverage had ruined his Nigeria-born client's career.
"Right now he's looking for work," Ford said.
Bharti was not immediately available for comment, and phones to Charles Momah's practices were disconnected.
Sounds pretty wierd...
:: Anathema ::
Reuters
