Sheep Cloning in Iran

Djaughe · March 25th, 2006, 09:36 AM

"most newsworthy Iranian sheep."

Quote:

Sheep Cloning in Iran

Following are excerpts from a news report about the cloning of sheep in Iran. Channel 1 of the Iranian TV aired this report on March 15, 2006.

Reporter: Iran is the eighth country in the world to acquire the complicated technology of cloning. The scientists are awaiting the birth of the first Iranian Dolly.
[...]

In each one of the sheep that you see here a cloned fetus is growing and developing. Dr. Vojgani is an expert in veterinary obstetrics, and a member of the cloning team. He has implanted the fetuses in these sheep's wombs.

Dr. Vojgani:We could have transferred the fetuses to the wombs by laparoscopy. However, considering the sensitivity of these fetuses, we preferred to use laparotomy.

Reporter: In 2006, one of these sheep will probably be titled "most newsworthy Iranian sheep." This sheep will give birth to a lamb that will become the most important item in Iran's medical news.

CardFan67 · March 27th, 2006, 06:39 AM

Sheep aren't used for sexual gratification are they?

40yearfan · March 27th, 2006, 08:30 AM

Sudan man forced to 'marry' goat

A Sudanese man has been forced to take a goat as his "wife", after he was caught having sex with the animal.
The goat's owner, Mr Alifi, said he surprised the man with his goat and took him to a council of elders.

They ordered the man, Mr Tombe, to pay a dowry of 15,000 Sudanese dinars ($50) to Mr Alifi.

"We have given him the goat, and as far as we know they are still together," Mr Alifi said.

Mr Alifi, Hai Malakal in Upper Nile State, told the Juba Post newspaper that he heard a loud noise around midnight on 13 February and immediately rushed outside to find Mr Tombe with his goat.

"When I asked him: 'What are you doing there?', he fell off the back of the goat, so I captured and tied him up".

Mr Alifi then called elders to decide how to deal with the case.

"They said I should not take him to the police, but rather let him pay a dowry for my goat because he used it as his wife," Mr Alifi told the newspaper.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4748292.stm

AZZenny · April 2nd, 2006, 09:22 AM

That calls to mind a very lame old joke. Or two.

Some have said the cloning is evidence of Iran's intention to become a scientifically advanced, techno-society -- and proof that regressive fundamentalist Islam (at least Shi'ite Islam) is not against modern ideas and science. (And in the past, Shi'a were considered more scholarly and forward-thinking than Sunni.) Also that this supports their claim that their nuclear intentions are benign, scientific, and civilian.

On the other hand, in their "massive Naval war games" this week:

Quote:

Iran said Sunday it has successfully test-fired a high-speed underwater missile, saying it was capable of destroying huge warships and submarines.

The Iranian-made missile has a speed of 100 meters per second underwater, Gen. Ali Fadavi, deputy head of the Navy of the elite Revolutionary Guards, said. He called it the fastest underwater missile in the world, but it has the same speed as the Russian-made VA-111 Shkval, developed in 1995 and believed to be the world's fastest.

It was not immediately known if the Iranian missile was based on the Shkval.

"It has a very powerful warhead designed to hit big submarines. No warship can escape from this missile," Fadavi told state-run television.

On Friday, Gen. Hossein Salami, the air force chief of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards, announced that Iran had successfully test-fired a a missile that can avoid radar and hit several targets simultaneously using multiple warheads.

The Fajr-3, which means "Victory" in Farsi, can reach Israel and US bases in the Middle East, state Iranian media indicated.

The idea of culturally aggressive, repressive nations with state-of-the-art weaponry is always a bit unsettling. I bet the local Sunni nations are every bit as uneasy as Israel and the US.