Iranian woman 'gives birth to frog'
Allright, what the fuck... I have heard some crazy stories, but this one is being passed off as truth. Hmmm. Maybe the father is French.

Iraq's new flag
Speaking of flags (see my excellent June 20 post), here's a funny take on the new American-decreed Iraqi flag.

Dubai Intl Fincl Center Axes Chief Regulators
This is a real scandal, and shows how a number of greedy businessmen in Dubai (who Lord knows are rich enough) continue to line their pockets by outsourcing every piece of business they oversee (as director of publicly owned or government companies) to themselves.

This is not a new concept, and something anyone in Dubai has known for years. It's a shame because this has undermind Dubai's credibility, which is key if DIFC is to ever succeed.

GUNNER PALACE
Here's a new documentary about a journalist who was embedded with the 2/3 Field Artillery Battalion in Baghdad, and here's a great review of it on The Guardian.

I've always wanted to produce a great fly-on-the-wall documentary since I met Bill Carter in 1996 when made a presentation at my university about Miss Sarajevo, which was amazing.

Contractopoly - Center for American Progress
An excellent site by The Center for American Progress that highlights how companies like Halliburton and UNISYS have used their influence on the cowboys in the White House to get billions in contracts to rebuild Iraq.

Iran to ban sheeshah in public
One of the few good things about living in oppressive Middle Eastern countries like Iran is that although they have outlawed such "sinful" activities like drinking, drugs and cinemas, they've always been cool about letting people smoke.

Unlike the rest of the world, you could always smoke in restaurants and public places, and smoking sheeshah (argeeleh) has allowed ex-smokers like me a little nicotine indulgence.

Now, the Iranians are banning the last fun thing that youth had to do: smoking sheeshah in public.

Right, I'm never going to Iran now..

Flags of the World
This guy's built a great website, that rates all the flags in the world (from A to F). He deducts points for such things as weapons, maps and "colonial nonsense." Funny and worth a look.