It's cold outside...

Constantine

MuslimSisLilSis

OmrowSalam

Only true love can give you the warmth you need.

not neccessarily

two tops, a thick coat, scarf, gloves and boots can also get the job done

MuslimSisLilSisnot neccessarily

two tops, a thick coat, scarf, gloves and boots can also get the job done

lol

...that's communicating all kinds of "i'm not a romantic person" on various different levels

Vest, hotpants and fishnets.

100man

Constantine

...that's communicating all kinds of "i'm not a romantic person" on various different levels

Vest, hotpants and fishnets.

And thats communicating all sorts of info bout the person wearin that kinda thing....cheap and tacky!

is anyone else coming down with the flu? 😢

Darth V-Hayderis anyone else coming down with the flu? :cry:

Not yet.

I've been home all week. But London is not that cold..yet.

Angel

100man

Constantine

...that's communicating all kinds of "i'm not a romantic person" on various different levels

Vest, hotpants and fishnets.

And thats communicating all sorts of info bout the person wearin that kinda thing....cheap and tacky!

...with a heart of gold.

Salam

Talking of flu, the bird flu H5N1 is on the way. God help us all.

Trust in God and take a lot of liquids.

Omrow

stock up on the Fosters lads, General Omrows orders 😂

Islam is making women hot. Because its cold outside Islam.

Read this article from Christian's own media:

Why European women are turning to Islam

Peter Ford - Tue 27 Dec 2005

Mary Fallot looks as unlike a terrorist suspect as one could possibly imagine: a petite and demure white Frenchwoman chatting with friends on a cell-phone, indistinguishable from any other young woman in the café where she sits sipping coffee.

And that is exactly why European antiterrorist authorities have their eyes on thousands like her across the continent.
Ms. Fallot is a recent convert to Islam. In the eyes of the police, that makes her potentially dangerous.

The death of Muriel Degauque, a Belgian convert who blew herself up in a suicide attack on US troops Iraq last month, has drawn fresh attention to the rising number of Islamic converts in Europe, most of them women.

"The phenomenon is booming, and it worries us," the head of the French domestic intelligence agency, Pascal Mailhos, told the Paris-based newspaper Le Monde in a recent interview. "But we must absolutely avoid lumping everyone together."

The difficulty, security experts explain, is that while the police may be alert to possible threats from young men of Middle Eastern origin, they are more relaxed about white European women. Terrorists can use converts who "have added operational benefits in very tight security situations" where they might not attract attention, says Magnus Ranstorp, a terrorism expert at the Swedish National Defense College in Stockholm.

Ms. Fallot, who converted to Islam three years ago after asking herself spiritual questions to which she found no answers in her childhood Catholicism, says she finds the suspicion her new religion attracts "wounding." "For me," she adds, "Islam is a message of love, of tolerance and peace."

It is a message that appeals to more and more Europeans as curiosity about Islam has grown since 9/11, say both Muslim and non-Muslim researchers. Although there are no precise figures, observers who monitor Europe's Muslim population estimate that several thousand men and women convert each year.

Only a fraction of converts are attracted to radical strands of Islam, they point out, and even fewer are drawn into violence. A handful have been convicted of terrorist offenses, such as Richard Reid, the "shoe bomber" and American John Walker Lindh, who was captured in Afghanistan.

Admittedly patchy research suggests that more women than men convert, experts say, but that - contrary to popular perception - only a minority do so in order to marry Muslim men.

"That used to be the most common way, but recently more [women] are coming out of conviction," says Haifa Jawad, who teaches at Birmingham University in Britain. Though non-Muslim men must convert in order to marry a Muslim woman, she points out, the opposite is not true.

Fallot laughs when she is asked whether her love life had anything to do with her decision. "When I told my colleagues at work that I had converted, their first reaction was to ask whether I had a Muslim boyfriend," she recalls. "They couldn't believe I had done it of my own free will."

In fact, she explains, she liked the way "Islam demands a closeness to God. Islam is simpler, more rigorous, and it's easier because it is explicit. I was looking for a framework; man needs rules and behavior to follow. Christianity did not give me the same reference points."

Those reasons reflect many female converts' thinking, say experts who have studied the phenomenon. "A lot of women are reacting to the moral uncertainties of Western society," says Dr. Jawad. "They like the sense of belonging and caring and sharing that Islam offers."

Others are attracted by "a certain idea of womanhood and manhood that Islam offers," suggests Karin van Nieuwkerk, who has studied Dutch women converts. "There is more space for family and motherhood in Islam, and women are not sex objects."

At the same time, argues Sarah Joseph, an English convert who founded "Emel," a Muslim lifestyle magazine, "the idea that all women converts are looking for a nice cocooned lifestyle away from the excesses of Western feminism is not exactly accurate."

Some converts give their decision a political meaning, says Stefano Allievi, a professor at Padua University in Italy. "Islam offers a spiritualization of politics, the idea of a sacred order," he says. "But that is a very masculine way to understand the world" and rarely appeals to women, he adds.

After making their decision, some converts take things slowly, adopting Muslim customs bit by bit: Fallot, for example, does not yet feel ready to wear a head scarf, though she is wearing longer and looser clothes than she used to.

Others jump right in, eager for the exoticism of a new religion, and become much more pious than fellow mosque-goers who were born into Islam. Such converts, taking an absolutist approach, appear to be the ones most easily led into extremism.

The early stages of a convert's discovery of Islam "can be quite a sensitive time," says Batool al-Toma, who runs the "New Muslims" program at the Islamic Foundation in Leicester, England.

"You are not confident of your knowledge, you are a newcomer, and you could be prey to a lot of different people either acting individually or as members of an organization," Ms. Al-Toma explains. A few converts feel "such a huge desire to fit in and be accepted that they are ready to do just about anything," she says.

"New converts feel they have to prove themselves," adds Dr. Ranstorp. "Those who seek more extreme ways of proving themselves can become extraordinarily easy prey to manipulation."

At the same time, says al-Toma, converts seeking respite in Islam from a troubled past - such as Degauque, who had reportedly drifted in and out of drugs and jobs before converting to Islam - might be persuaded that such an "ultimate action" as a suicide bomb attack offered an opportunity for salvation and forgiveness.

"The saddest conclusion" al-Toma draws from Degauque's death in Iraq is that "a woman who set out on the road to inner peace became a victim of people who set out to use and abuse her."

Christian Magazine

Pretty good articles.

I would have expected some bias given the source... but it was well written.

Salam

Admin
I would have expected some bias given the source... but it was well written.

Bias is a path to self-delusion.

Those who fear Islam, for whatever reason, have now realised that
using tactics to make people scared of "bogey muslims" and "evil religion" is not working.

As they can witness to their horror that such propaganda has
failed and it has naturally resulted in more people looking deeply
into Islam for themselves. Evidently, such enquiries had consequenses:

People began to like it. Accept it. Run towards it. Embrace it.

" You can fool some of the people all of the time. You can fool
all of the people some of the time. But you can never fool
ALL of the people ALL of the time." [ President Abraham Lincoln ]

Evangelists should know better that demonising Islam
and its followers is a NOT a good idea. It leads to undesirable results.

Omrow

back on the topic - it is sooo cold day :!: went 2 the shops and hands were soo numb due 2 the cold and only realised on the way back that i had gloves in my bag :shock: lol

wish it would jus snow cuz that way the cold lessens...woke up looked outta window n there were bits n bats of white on the ground but thats bout it>>>>another not-white xmas jus gone by...

freezing weather....my hands were so numb today aswell and hurt when i rubbed them,

but i prefer the cold to hot weather

Aasiyah

Adminlet it snow, let it snow, let it snow...

I wanna see snow...

But apparently the chances have diminished since I saw he weather report on thursday morning...

Gaaaarh!

:evil:

no iA it wil snow...atleast a lil'... *fingers-crossed!*

It snowed today!!! IT SNOWED EVERYBODY!!!!! 😃

somebody's happy!

It did certainly snow. Only a millimetre or so.

But its darn cold.

As long as it leads to more proper snnow, its probably worth it.

Adminsomebody's happy!

It did certainly snow. Only a millimetre or so.

But its darn cold.

As long as it leads to more proper snnow, its probably worth it.

i told u it would snow!! 😃

yeh well i'm glad that it stayed atleast - this morning i woke up to see the snowflakes falling, but they didnt stay. but i guess in the evening it was cold enough for them not to melt. 😃

hey everyone keeps saying its so cold outside - i just came in a while ago, its -1.5C where i am, i wasnt wearing any gloves and i didnt feel it at all! :| 🙂

I don't think they were expecting snow here in oldham.

Nothing has been gritted.

Black ice galore.

I had a few near misses today when I decided to go shopping.

Here it was white ebfore I got up.

Since then there has been very light snow, but not enough to stick more...

Yippeee it snowed!!!!!

I woke up around 5 in the morning and saw it had snowed, i had a moment of panic coz i thought i might not be able to get to the sales....

but it was fine by 10 clock, although it snowed throughout the day it didnt set again till the evening, not much snow for my liking but my both my little sisters slipped hehehe......

okay thats just me being mean

jus wana join in and say ITS GOOD 2 SEE THE SNOW!!!! lol

it was white when i woke up this morning n all...iv always liked the snow - 2 bad it came few dayz after xmas :!:

YEAH IT SNOWED

So now i can bunk off work.... hahahahahaha :twisted:

looks like someones dream has come true :roll: lol

muslim_kurilooks like someones dream has come true :roll: lol

lol yeah,

was watching the news last night and the guy weather man said NOT TO MAKE AN UNNECESSARY JOUREYS so i said... cool i didnt feel like going to work anyway... so in conclusion im bunking of work bcoz the weather man told me to.

ahhh the classic 'blame it on the weatherman' u might get away with it this time...but u cant blame the poor guy everytime theres a drizzle of snow :!:

Aseya is happy that it snowed today. So I thought... Why not:

This comes in the film DIE HARD, and in DIE HARD 2:

Oh the weather outside is frightful,
But the fire is so delightful,
And since we've no place to goo,
Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!

It doesn't show signs of Pauseping,
And I've bought some corn for popping,
The lights are turned way down loow,
Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!

When we finally kiss goodnight,
How I'll hate going out in the storm!
But if you'll really hold me tight,
All the way home I'll be warm.

The fire is slowly dying,
And, my dear, we're still good-bying,
But as long as you love me sooo,
Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!

By: Sammy Khan

Independent - 28 December 2005

Weather extremes: How to keep warm in winter

As sub-zero temperatures grip Britain, the challenge for most people is keeping out the cold. Jonathan Brown and Michael McCarthy talk to the animals to find out how it's done

Togetherness

Look outside this morning: here comes the real freeze, with snow across half the country and icy air across the rest. But before you give way to that involuntary shiver, remember there are lots of natural ways in which warm-blooded animals can defy low temperatures in winter. Our fellow creatures manage very well without two pairs of socks, thermal underwear or a glass of whisky and one way of keeping warm is to huddle.

We are warm-blooded creatures and our bodies produce heat: when we get together this is naturally multiplied, sometimes uncomfortably so (especially on the Tube). Humans tend not to huddle together for psycho-social reasons: most of us like to keep our private space inviolate. But for some creatures it is necessary.

When birds roost in large flocks, they are not only providing a common defence against predators, but also sharing their warmth on cold nights, especially the smaller species. One bird, the emperor penguin, is perhaps the most remarkable example of how togetherness can be used to provide insulation. Penguins breed exclusively in the cold currents of the southern ocean. They are accustomed to low temperatures; and the emperor, which actually breeds on the icy Antarctic land mass, is the best insulated of all. Under its skin is a thick layer of blubber. Then there is a layer of downy feathers that trap air and finally a layer of waterproof feathers that keep out the icy sea water. This means it has no problem at all with temperatures down to, say, -10C. But when it goes inland to breed, the emperor penguin encounters the lowest temperatures regularly endured by any living thing, with blizzards in the Antarctic winter taking the thermometer down to as much as 70 below. The birds cope by forming a crowd. Those on the outside get coldest quickest, so they tramp round and round in a circle to keep warm, until it is their turn to move to the centre of the huddle and share the warmth, while other birds take their places and begin the circular shuffle themselves.

Fur

Temperatures in the Arctic plunge to -35C in winter. But that doesn't worry the polar bear, Ursus maritimus, which spends the most productive part of its life cycle adrift on giant ice floes.

The most northerly species of bear can handle such extreme conditions because of its fur. The top layer of guard hairs is made of long, oily, hollow, quill-like follicles that help the 600kg mammal stay afloat during its regular dips into the freezing sea. Creamy-white to blend in with the frozen surroundings, the outer coat is also water repellent, allowing the bear to shake itself dry, in the same way that a dog does after swimming. It also prevents the inner layer of fur from getting wet. This dense, soft undercoat acts like a warm fleece. Air pockets between the hairs trap heat and aid buoyancy. Another of the polar bear's tricks is to allow itself to be covered in snow when it is hunting or asleep, dramatically reducing the wind chill it experiences.

Its greatest enemy - apart from the humans that hunt it for meat and fur - is warmth. During the icy season, the polar bear's main food source, the ringed seal, is readily at hand, forced to surface at ice holes where the largest land carnivore spends many hours lying motionless in wait. It is during the summer months - when the ice recedes - that the polar bear becomes vulnerable. Because of its dependence on cold, it is particularly at risk from global warming. Climate change is already being observed in the Arctic and as the icy season becomes shorter, the polar bear is faced with longer periods without food. Its body condition deteriorates and reproduction rates drop. Already, the polar bear has virtually disappeared from the most southern parts of its range.

Blubber

Mammals that spend most or all of their time in the water, such as whales, seals or dolphins, have developed a highly specialised form of fat to insulate them. For those that must dive to capture their prey, fur is an inadequate protector, as pockets of air trapped by the thick hairs are squeezed out under extreme water pressure. And deep down in the waters of the Arctic or Antarctic oceans the temperature can drop to a truly inhospitable -40C.

Blubber is a thick layer of fat that encases the body and can make up half of total body weight. It contains narrow blood vessels and, in addition to maintaining temperature, it provides a vital energy store for the many sea animals that travel large distances to breed and feed. Blubber also helps streamline the bodies of fast-swimming creatures, helping to lower the amount of energy they need to propel themselves through the water as well as making them more buoyant. The colder the waters the animal inhabits, the thicker the layer of blubber. The fat-layer is acquired from the mother's milk. A baby grey whale, for example, may consume up to 30 gallons a day of milk which has the consistency of soft margarine.
It was the hunt for blubber that drove much of the whaling trade for centuries and resulted in the calamitous destruction of these giants of the seas. Whalers would render down cetacean blubber in giant cauldrons to make oil. Inuit peoples have long valued blubber as an energy-rich food source. Seals or pinnipeds share their time between the water and the land, so most of the 33 species have a thick layer of fur as well as blubber to give them an additional layer of warmth when ashore.
Getting away from it all

Another way of dealing with the cold is to get away from it, and the creatures best able to do this, of course, are the most mobile ones: birds. Bird migration, one of the wonders of the natural world, takes small, warm-blooded creatures hundreds or even thousands of miles away from winter weather towards warmer climates.

Sometimes you hardly notice: chiffchaffs, whose returning two-note song is one of the first sounds of the spring, slip away unseen towards Morocco. But swallows are very visible as they collect in large parties on telephone wires every autumn before setting out for southern Africa, where they will find congenial temperatures, and even more important, a continuing source of insect food.

Migration also works in reverse: some birds come from the cold north to spend their winters in warmer Britain. These include two Scandinavian thrushes, the redwing and the fieldfare. Go into a park in Oslo in the summertime and you will see redwings hopping around, with their attractive cream-coloured eyestripe and red flanks. But at this time of the year, they've left icy Norway behind, and are eating the berries on British bushes. Fieldfares have grey heads and lower backs: you can see flocks of them now in the countryside. Other animals besides birds migrate: grey whales swim from polar seas to mate in the tropics, and large hoofed mammals, such as reindeer in the Arctic and wildebeest in Africa, travel long distances to find fresh grazing. Even butterflies do it: the monarch, a large orange and black North American species, makes a journey every autumn in spectacular groups, millions strong, from the USA to Mexico.

Hunkering down

Hibernation is a successful winter survival strategy for many warm-blooded mammals in cooler climates, from hedgehogs and dormice to bears and bats; and it also works well for cold-blooded creatures such as amphibians (newts) reptiles (tortoises) and insects (butterflies).
Hibernation tends to involve a cosy den, and a very deep sleep. Unfortunately, humans are not properly equipped for it as the state is often more complicated than a simple snooze: in some cases it involves a radical slowing-down of heartbeat, breathing, metabolism and other processes, to conserve energy that would otherwise be lost in the struggle to find food and keep warm. Body temperature falls in hibernation to only a few degrees above the temperature outside (in a hamster, it can drop to 0C), but chemical reactions inside the body prevent the animal from freezing to death. Such fuel as is needed during the long sleep is provided by body fat, built up by constant feeding during the autumn.

Smaller animals such as bats and dormice tend to go into the deepest sleep; inside a dormouse's nest, its heart may beat only once every few minutes. Bigger beasts, such as American black bears, sleep more lightly: their temperature drops, but their heartbeat hardly slows. In warmer spells, bears can wake easily, and some females give birth during the hibernating months. The Reverend Gilbert White, whose 1789 classic, The Natural History of Selborne, about the wildlife of his Hampshire village, was the first serious piece of birdwatching, was convinced that swallows hibernated, although he did not know where. But swallows play a different game...

The human experience

The human body has a number of ways of countering the cold. The average naked person will start to feel chilly when the surrounding temperature drops below 25C. As the temperature decreases, blood vessels dilate, blood pressure rises and in an echo of our more hairy days, the tiny muscles attached to hair follicles contract causing goose bumps - a fruitless attempt to trap warm air close to the skin. Shivering sets in, caused by the contraction of larger muscles, and can increase the internal production of heat five-fold. In order to preserve warmth in vital organs, the blood supply is cut to non-essential extremities such as hands, feet and nose.

Ice swimmers and those who inhabit the chilliest climates find they become conditioned to the cold through prolonged exposure and by eating energy-rich diets. Scientists find the number of people killed by similar drops in temperature is fewer in northerly towns and cities than it is in the warmer south. Adult mortality is 15 per cent higher on a winter's day than in the summer.

Modern man owes his ability to handle the weather to his much more distant cousins. The first evidence for the controlled use of fire dates to 1.5 million years ago with the discovery of charred bones at Swartkrans in South Africa. The technique spread as man migrated, reaching Asia and Europe anything up to a million years later. Fire revolutionised the world of early humans. It provided warmth and allowed man to journey farther afield, exploiting colder regions in search of new hunting grounds. It warded off wild animals and gave psychological reassurance to frontier communities and a focus for social gatherings, storytelling and tradition. Cooking meat on the fire dramatically unlocked the calorific energy of food and helped combat disease. Fire provided a means of communication through smoke signals, a method of clearing ground for agriculture and unleashed a revolution in metallurgy. But it was the Romans who devised the first form of central heating. Today highly efficient gas central heating, insulated walls and roofs, draught-proof, double-glazed windows and doors have turned homes of the better-off into a snug sanctuary.

http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article335325.ece

OmrowI don't know of any other person who wears two tops.

alot of people wear two tops...thats normal for people like us

Hayder on Holidayis anyone else coming down with the flu? :cry:

Yeh all xmas holiday I was not feeling to good, I fell ill and ended up with a cough and I am still not that well. :shock:

Lick some honey. And have an extra large cup of tea on top.

I was having a splendid little break until yesterday when I realized one of the books for that massive research project I promised i'd work on over break - was still at school.

So I had to leave beautiful sunny Charleston - where my fiancee presently is waiting for me to come back - to come aaaaaaaaaaaaaaall the way back up HERE.

And once again I find myself imposing... myself... on my childish cousins and their absurd little haunted VILLAGE.

Never go to Gettysburg (not that I had it in mind yall would) - the weather is awful, the town is depressing and the ghost population outnumbers the people.

I don't believe in ghosts.

Except for that guy over there - because I definitely don't want to tick him off.

...he looks mean.

I didn't say that!!! He looks very nice and charming and polite and would make a splendid friend (for somebody else) JUST SO LONG AS HE AND HIS FREAKY FRIENDS LEAVE ME ALONE.

I can't wait to get out of here

aaah!

I was wondering why you were back.

You are motivated I gotta say. I had a completed assignment in my bag when I left uni at xmas a few years ago. I did not even post it in.

That does bode well for you. Effort mostly pays off.

lol in the end it's really all for naught.

Last night when various things were creaking and there were odd moans (and it was freezing) I decided this project just isn't worth it so i'm going to work on it for two days and take annette down to the yucatan for the rest of this vacation.

I guess you could say my little trip has "spooked me out" on doing more work.

hahahhahahhahahhahhahhahhahahaha