Iran Tried and Failed To Launch a Monkey Into Space 272
Medevilae writes with a recent report from PopSci's dedicated 'space monkey' news feed that "When Iran indefinitely suspended its plans to launch a monkey into space earlier this month, it was actually because they had already tried and failed. Iranian Deputy Science Minister Mohammad Mehdinejad-Nouri told state media that the Kavoshgar-5 rocket carrying a capsule with a live monkey launched during Shahrivar, which is the Iranian month spanning August 23 to September 22, but the launch was not publicized because it did not accomplish all of its mission objectives. Assuming one of the objectives was to safely carry the monkey to space and back, things don't sound good for the monkey."
Re:the monkey was quoted as saying (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Ahmadinejad / Monkey jokes (Score:5, Informative)
OK, I hold an Iranian passport and have been in and out of Iran many times.
People in Iran do not like Ahmadinejad. One of the many insults is to call him a monkey because he is a half-wit. Same as how George Bush got the monkey insults.
Nothing to do with race. Just that he's a simple fool in charge of an entire country.
Re:Congratulations for trying! (Score:5, Informative)
How many countries just rely on someone else to do the space thing for them?
Well, they certainly have some catching up to do. The first 5 US missions of this type didn't exactly end well for the passengers:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkeys_in_space#United_States [wikipedia.org]
and the first 'successful' Soviet dog in orbit trip didn't even include 'bring it back alive' as a mission objective:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laika#Controversy [wikipedia.org]
Re:the monkey was quoted as saying (Score:4, Informative)
Places with a "state religion" (which particular religion doesn't matter) are, by definition, shit holes.
Most places actually have a state religion, including some that I'd question if you actually intended to call them shit holes. I'll leave the naming of them to the other replies in this thread. Some even have several state religions going at once. American-style separation of Church and State is, relatively speaking, actually quite an unusual state of affairs.
That said, many of these places have both a state religion and religious freedom. These are not incompatible.
Re:Failed to launch a monkey? (Score:5, Informative)
To the mods, that is not racist, Ahmanedijad, or however you spell that fucktards name, is the only Persian I have that opinion of. Given I've run into quite a few Persians (Iranians) with that opinion of him also, I wouldn't call that racism, just an idiot who likes to wave his arms around like a fool... and fling poo.