I don't know if you've seen this or not, but its the front cover of TIME magazine's Dec the 17th issue. It kind of sums up the whole conflict in one :P.
You can read the full story here.
Sunday, December 23, 2007
Iran's Nuclear Program
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Happy Eid Adha Everyone
Translation:
" It's simple all you have to do is wear this sheep skin for the first day of Eid and act like me and I'll pay you well for it ............. after the third day of Eid .......... what do you say ?"
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Wireless Missile Launcher
Well these should take the boredom out of the office hours >:).
You can get more details from the original source here if you want to buy it ( yes its for real :-O).
Here's a demonstration of a battery of the previous wired version I found on Youtube thats been tweaked with a camera for tracking :
Friday, December 14, 2007
Finally, Blogger is compatible with other blogging systems - Updated - Updated Again
On my previous post a discussion was brought up on the motives behind Blogger canceling the ability to link back to your blog when commenting. Two theories were thrown around, my initial was it being for security reasons and the other theory was that Google was trying to sideline other blogging systems and their users :-B .
Well yesterday I started to notice that a Blogger icon would appear beside a commenter's name, if he was using a Blogger id, later in the afternoon I noticed a drop down list below the commenting section allowing you to choose were you were signing in from (Google/Blogger, AOL, Wordpress, Live Journal, TypeKey ).
I signed into a Wordpress account I have ( for backup :P ) and found that I actually can comment with either one of my identities ( Blogger/Wordpress ) by simply switching between the different choices in the drop-down list, as long as I was signed into both. This is a great feature for non-blogger readers ( Rein, Melantrys ) from either Wordpress or Typepad or any other system; as they won't have to worry about their identities being forged and they won't have to create a new blogger account to comment on blogger either B-) .
Even though I'm not a great fan of large corporations and I do have my reservations on some of Google's privacy issues, but I have to admit this is Great ! <:-P
Update :
Well blogger has made a post explaining the premise behind its move to support OpenID and how it went about doing it. It also apologizes for "prematurely" disabling commentator link back support as quoted here :
"
The "Other" URL field
Right now, the only way to add a URL to your name when commenting is to sign your comment with OpenID. We apologize for removing the URL field from the comments form prematurely two weeks ago. That was a mistake on our part that came from launching OpenID support on Blogger in draft.
Ironically, our testing of OpenID, a feature that lets you use accounts from all over the web to comment on Blogger, made it appear that we were trying to force you into getting a Google Account. We regret this appearance, since we're strong supporters of OpenID and open web standards in general.
"
Update - 21/12/2007 :
Now you can add a URL of your website our blog to your nickname ............. so everything is back to normal :P.
Thursday, December 6, 2007
Here comes another bubble
As most of you have probably noticed by now a lot of investors are on a shopping spree of the newest Web 2.0 technologies like facebook, skype which many fear is going to end with a second internet bubble similar to the dot-com bubble. The following video is highlighting this theory while at the same time making fun of people who are making the same mistakes all over again :P.
and here are the lyrics, courtesy of Podesk Videos:
"There's absolutely no bubble in technology"
Peter thiel october 31, 2007
investor, Facebook
got me a CS degree
honor roll, MIT
moved to Palo Alto
opportunity Knocked
thought i had the perfeect plan
took a job at webvan
traded in my twenties
for a worthless pile of tech stock
Suffered throught the market crash
lost a giant wad of cash
Pink slips, burger flips
would you like some fries
happy days are here again
lary page, sergey brin
time to write a business plan
so i can be like those guys!
here comes another bubble
it's a monster rally
all around the valley
first you need a buzzword
(Ajax)
then a second and a third
pick at least two industries
you'll revolutionize
(newpappers + friendship bracelets)
find yourself an engineer
feed him pizza, buy him beer
(product placement : Samel Adams)
Give him just a fraction
of a fraction of the pie
need a good domain name
must be cheap, can't be lame
something cool like
flickr, meebo, wikiyou, mahalo, bebo
"telephone" without the "t"
"digg" but with a triple "g"
make your elevator pith
("We're going to change the world!")
code it up and flip the switch
(internal server error)
here comes another bubble
(VC #1: friendship bracelets and news is a game changer.)
the VCs are backing
(VC #2: The next wave of the web will be friendship bracelets.)
baby let's get cracking
blog, blog, blog it all
blog it if it’s big or small
blog at the cineplex
(justin.tv)
blog while you're having sex
blog in the locker room
babies blogging in the womb
blog even if you’re wrong
won’t you blog about this song?
(Yet Another Stupid Web 2.0 Video)
launch party, nicely dressed
what the point? sausage fest
blue shirt, khaki pants,
looking like a line of ants
need to get a facebook page
all these guys are half my age
twenty nice, past my prime
i feel so behind the times
here comes another bubble
(Matt is broke)
in a year we swear
we'll all be billionaires
make yourself a million bucks
partly skill, mostly luck
now you can afford a down payment
on a small house
if you want a bigger one
hillsborough, atherton
better hoipe the same thing
happened to your spouse
IPO... luky you
have your cake and eat it too
Party yacht, party jet
why not buy a matching set?
build yourself a rocket ship
blast off on an ego trip
can this really be the end?
back to work you go again
here comes another bubble
(im in ur serverz making thingz better!!, Twitter has problems!!)
and when we are gone
(You looked better on Myspace)
this will still go on
Sunday, December 2, 2007
Old and New Libyan License Plates
I've just stumbled across this website ( via TheB-Sides ) which shows license plates from around the world and from different periods of rule. So I checked for Libyan plates and managed to find the set I've posted below that include plates from the Italian occupation era :-O.
The only plates I've seen are the ones from the 1997 to 2001 set. I think they are lacking the yellow plates for the pick up trucks and some other plates from the 90's, but its a good collection nonetheless ;). You'll also notice how different numerical systems were used during different eras :-B.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Cheney's Heart
Cheney's Doctors Detect Signs of Heart
By Andy BorowitzIn a stunning development that has confounded medical experts around the world, doctors examining Vice President Dick Cheney said today that they have detected signs of a heart.
The vice president was rushed to the hospital over the weekend after complaining of chest pains, but no one in Mr. Cheney's inner circle suspected that a human heart was the cause.
"We had been operating under the assumption that he didn't have one," said chief of staff David Addington, who said that Mr. Cheney also has not had a soul since 1995, when it was purchased by the Halliburton Corporation.
At George Washington University Hospital, doctors struggled to contain their excitement about what appeared to be the medical anomaly of the century: the sudden appearance of a human heart in a 66-year-old man.
"It is too early to say conclusively," said Dr. Carol Foyler, head of the team of doctors who examined the vice president. "But so far the beating and pumping sounds we are hearing in the vice president's chest cavity are very much consisten with his having a heart."
Dr. Foyler stressed that if the sounds emanating from Mr. Cheney's chest are those of a human heart, "This will contradict everything we thought we knew about Dick Cheney."
At the White House, spokesperson Dana Perino said that the sudden appearance of a heart in Dick Cheney's chest had motivated President Bush to schedule an MRI of his head.
Elsewhere, Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass) said that writing his memoirs would be "challenging," adding, "I can't even remember what I did last night."
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
The New Alliance between Russia and India
Russia and India recently held a summit that ended with a number of strategic agreements, luckily for us an India hacker managed to infiltrate the communications system at the conference and provided us with a copy of parts of a discussion between two diplomats from both countries after the signing of the agreements.
source
Thursday, November 8, 2007
XBox package for only £33.24
It seems that someone at Tesco made a mistake while he was tagging an XBox package they were offering online, so instead of pricing it at £332.40 the zero was omitted and it became £33.24 ( or at least thats the rumor :P).
Unfortunately for me I wasn't one of the lucky few who managed to place an order before the mistake was rectified, but according to the discussions going on on this blog it seems that even those who managed to place an order before the price was corrected weren't lucky enough for the order to go through. From what they say Tesco emailed the lucky unlucky purchasers to apologize for the mistake and inform them that their orders were canceled :(.
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
You've got to love this guy
In reply to a question from a reporter on the situation in Iraq President Bush Junior said ( you can see video of question here as well ):
If you lived in Iraq and had lived under a tyranny, you’d be saying: God, I love freedom, because that’s what’s happened.
Man, its times like these that I just wish I was Iraqi ! ( pun intended ) ............ I wonder if Rice can pull a few strings with her old friend Maliki and maybe get Bush an Iraqi citizenship so he can enjoy its freedom and prosperity .................
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
A Mouse Trap in The House
A mouse looked through the crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife open a package.
What food might this contain? The mouse wondered - he was devastated to discover it was a mousetrap.
Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed the warning :
There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!
The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said, " Mr.Mouse, I can tell this is a grave concern to you, but it is of no consequence to me."
" I cannot be bothered by it."
The mouse turned to the sheep and told him, "There is a mousetrap in the house!
There is a mousetrap in the house!"
The sheep sympathized, but said, "I am so very sorry, Mr. Mouse, but there is
nothing I can do about it but pray."
"Be assured you are in my prayers."
The mouse turned to the cow and said "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!"
The cow said, "Wow, Mr. Mouse. I'm sorry for you, but it's no skin off my
nose."
So, the mouse returned to the house, head down and dejected, to face the
farmer's mousetrap.
That very night a sound was heard throughout the house -- like the sound of a
mousetrap catching its prey.
The farmer's wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness, she did
not see it was a venomous snake whose tail the trap had caught.
The snake bit the farmer's wife. The farmer rushed her to the hospital , and
she returned home with a fever.
Everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup, so the farmer took
his hatchet to the farmyard for the soup's main ingredient.
But his wife's sickness continued, so friends and neighbors came to sit with
her around the clock.
To feed them, the farmer butchered the sheep.
The farmer's wife did not get well; she died.
So many people came for her funeral, the farmer had the cow slaughtered to
provide enough meat for all of them.
The mouse looked upon it all from his crack in the wall with great sadness.
So, the next time you hear someone is facing a problem and think it doesn't concern you, remember -- when one of us is threatened, we are all at risk.
We are all involved in this journey called life. We must keep an eye out for one another and make an extra effort to encourage one another.
Remember,,,,
Each of us is a vital thread in another person’s tapestry;
Our lives are woven together for a reason.
One of the best things to hold onto in this world is a friend
P.S. I go this from a mailing list so I don't know its source.
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Thursday, November 1, 2007
When you are alone, remember "everybody hurts"
This is an oldie, that I found again, and thought it was worth sharing; so enjoy :D .
These are the lyrics to the song, which are quite good :
When the day is long and the night, the night is yours alone,
When youre sure youve had enough of this life, well hang on.
Dont let yourself go, everybody cries and everybody hurts sometimes.
Sometimes everything is wrong. now its time to sing along.
When your day is night alone, (hold on, hold on)
If you feel like letting go, (hold on)
When you think youve had too much of this life, well hang on.
Everybody hurts. take comfort in your friends.
Everybody hurts. dont throw your hand. oh, no. dont throw your hand.
If you feel like youre alone, no, no, no, you are not alone
If youre on your own in this life, the days and nights are long,
When you think youve had too much of this life to hang on.
Well, everybody hurts sometimes,
Everybody cries. and everybody hurts sometimes.
And everybody hurts sometimes. so, hold on, hold on.
Hold on, hold on. hold on, hold on. hold on, hold on. (repeat & fade)
(everybody hurts. you are not alone.)
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
حتى تصل إلى النجاح
I just go this in my email and I thought it was worth sharing ..... so i hope you enjoy it :). I also would like to apologize in advance for not providing a translation to my non-Arabic readers, especially ibeebarbie and rein :).
Friday, October 19, 2007
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Offline Ramadan Greetings :))))
I just got this from a friend and I was laughing my head off when I read it ( he is a guy ), but it is sweet right ? so I think its worth sharing maybe somebody else could put it too good use :)))).
يادانه في البحور يازهره بين الزهور أهنيك بقرب رمضان زينة الشهور ... السنة تمشي وتـدور ويجي احلى الشهـور ونقول لاغلى القلـوب كل عام وأنت بصحه وسرور
Monday, September 10, 2007
Ramadan Mubarak Everyone
Given my busy schedule ( I know it's hard to believe :P ) and the fact that its Ramadan I won't be posting as frequently as before ( if I post at all ), so I would like to apologise in advance and wish you all a blessed and happy Ramadan.
Liberal vs Conservative Brain Activity
According to a research paper just released by a joint team of researchers at the university of New York and the UCLA, which was reported here and here, it seems that the idealogical differences between liberal and conservative leaning people is a result of differences in the way their brains process information .Of course only subscribers to the Nature Neuroscience journal have access to the original paper, so my opinion is based on the two articles I've linked to above.
To sum it up it seems that liberal minded people act less habitually, are more accepting of new ideas and are more tolerant of ambiguity, which was induced from the increased brain activity ( compared to that of their conservative counterparts ) they exhibited before making any decision in the experiment they were put through; when faced with a conflicting situation . If you want in on the details of the experiment you should read either one of the above articles, here are some excerpts from the LA Times article I liked the most :
"The results show "there are two cognitive styles -- a liberal style and a conservative style," said UCLA neurologist Dr. Marco Iacoboni, who was not connected to the latest research."
"Liberals had more brain activity and made fewer mistakes than conservatives when............"
"Frank J. Sulloway, a researcher at UC Berkeley's Institute of Personality and Social Research who was not connected to the study, said the results "provided an elegant demonstration that individual differences on a conservative-liberal dimension are strongly related to brain activity.""
""There is ample data from the history of science showing that social and political liberals indeed do tend to support major revolutions in science," said Sulloway, who has written about the history of science and has studied behavioral differences between conservatives and liberals."
"...........it would be a mistake to conclude that one political orientation was better. The tendency of conservatives to block distracting information could be a good thing depending on the situation......."
Saturday, September 8, 2007
Adding a Java/HTML script to your blog
Recently I noticed maya was having a problem adding a ticker from tickerfactory.com to her blog and I also noticed that rosebud added a website counter to her blog as a post, which would render it ineffective once that post was archived or if a reader accessed another post directly without going to the blog's main page. So I thought it would be best to make a post to address the issue of Adding HTML/Java scripts to a blog, if even small one.
If we were to take maya's ticker script as an example of a script we want to install on a blog, we would basically start by copying the script from the ticker webpage after customizing the ticker ( use CTRL+A to select the whole code and CTRL+C to copy it ).
Now after copying it from the ticker webpage we have to insert it into the blog . To do that we go to the Dashboard and pick "Layout" from the options presented, then we will be led to the "Page Elements" page as shown below.
In it we can see the blog's layout, from which you choose were you want to insert the ticker ( in our example ) and you click the "Add a Page Element" link at the top of that section, after which you will be presented with the following pop-up page.
Now all you have to do is click the "HTML/Java Script" "ADD TO BLOG" button and you will get an empty box in which you paste the previously copied code and then press the "SAVE CHANGES" button in the subsequent page and you should be done. If there is no problem with the script all should be well and in tip-top shape, and Maya should have her Birthday ticker going :P.
Sunday, September 2, 2007
Rich Beggar
These are a group of photos, of a beggar, a friend sent me from another forum ........... In the first the beggar is own his way home with his wheelchair .......
The poor thing is still struggling to get home .............................
Lucky guy seems he has a car, and what a nice car it is too ............................ :P
Wait a minute I thought you couldn't stand ???????? Maybe he is only leaning on the car maybe thats all ?????
Oh boy he can walk ......................
and there goes our rich beggar after another hard day's work ............. :)))))))))))))))
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Blogger Blog's Backup
Given the recent debacle on Highlander's blog, I thought now would be the appropriate time to make a post on how to backup your Blogger Blog ........... I mean I don't want any of the blogs I frequent to be lost or taken offline :P .
Even though there are many tools out there that allow you to save/backup your blog or any webpage for that matter, there aren't many that allow the restoring of your blog automatically ( if even partially ), i.e. , without having to restore the whole blog on a post per post basis. As an example of such software, that only allow backup, we have WinHTTrack ( which doesn't work with the new version of blogger but is totally free ) or WebsitePacker which isn't free but you can download a shareware version of the product that is good enough .
There is on the other hand a number of good solutions that allow backup and recovery of blogger posts even though blogger doesn't support them, which makes them more cumbersome . The program I preferred the most is called 'Blogger Backup' and can be downloaded here.
Below is an image of the main dialog page of Blogger Backup and I've summarized its advantages and disadvantages below it :
Advantages :
Disadvantages :
Now to get to how the backup/restore process of your blog using this program. I have broken up the process into two sections in the first I demonstrate the backing-up and restoring of posts while in the second section I demonstrate the backing up of the images.
A- The steps required to backup your Blog posts :
B- The steps required to restore your Blog posts :
C- Backing Up Blog Images :http://blogname.blogspot.com/search?max-results=1000
So everybody should start backing up their posts :P
Friday, August 24, 2007
Uploading personal video's to Blogger
Well given that today is Bloggers 8th anniversary, Blogger has enabled a number of new features ( while messing up some of the old - like RSS - for some bloggers ) among them the ability to browse the profiles of other bloggers who share your interests. By clicking one of the links on your profile, that highlight any of your interests or your profession, you will be directly taken to a page that lists all the bloggers that share that interest or profession with you, kind of like Googling ( well its Google so its to be expected :P ).
But For me the most important feature that they added was the ability to upload a video from your personal computer directly to your post, which you can do by pressing the new video icon on the top of your post editor that is located beside the image upload button. There is a 100 MB limit on the video size so if your video is bigger you would have to split it into 100 MB sized pieces.
Even though the uploaded video would be technically saved to Google video; but no public access would be allowed to it ( at least thats what they say :P ). Below is an example of a video I uploaded to make sure it really works ( hattip to Trabilsia for previously sharing it with us ) :P.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Dick Cheney '94: Invading Baghdad Would Create Quagmire - Updated
Update :
This is an interview by Jon Stewart with Stephen F. Hayes, author of Cheney: The Untold Story of America's Most Powerful and Controversial Vice President, in which they discuss the reasons behind the change of views and why this opinion of his was hidden by the Bush administration during the run-up to war, given that he was among the staunchest supporters of the war.
Saturday, August 11, 2007
2007's Recommended Movie Viewing's - Updated
A friend recently asked me to recommend some movies to him as he wasn't as familiar with the movie scene as I am:P. So I thought while I'm at it I could make a post out of it and add my commentary to the movies . The movies below are the best of all the movies I've seen this year and I'll make a similar post for 2006; but of course I haven't seen all the movies that come out in the cinema's so I may have missed one or two good ones.
I've also added a short list of the movies I hope to watch in the upcoming two months. So if you haven't seen any of these movies you should :P and feel free to recommend any other movies from 2007, I may have missed, or to comment on my commentary.
btw the movies are ordered according to their box office revenues, based on this site.
Shrek the Third
This is a continuation of the series which is really funny and with better visual and audio effects than its predecessors.
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
Another excellent movie from Johnny Depp, even though its the third part it's still not boring :P.
Transformers
I liked it ( many didn't ); but I'm an old fan of Transformers and the movie presented a comical twist that is completely new and that made it fun.
Ratatouille
Grade A cartoon really really funny totally unexpected and so far the best cartoon this year.
Wild Hogs
You have John Travolta, Martin Lawrence and Tim Allen in one comedy ... need I say more ?
Live Free or Die Hard
Again a great movie even though there are many hard to swallow feats; but the visual effects were great and they've got a hacker helping him this time :D.
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
Being a Marvel Fan I've never hated a movie based on its comics other than Spiderman 3 and this one is better than the first Fantastic Four Movie.
Ocean's Thirteen
As good as the first one ( Ocean's Eleven ) and better than the second one plus there are too many good actors to miss an Ocean's movie.
Meet the Robinsons
This is a great Cartoon really funny and the digital effects and storyline are really good. Its set in the future so there are a lot of twists and unexpected events.
Evan Almighty
A family comedy with a subtle advocacy of nature preservation; but in this one Steve Carell is really funny. The story is based on the Story of Noah's( PBUH ) Ark.
I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry
Another Hilarious comedy in which two firefighters fake a same sex marriage in order to guarantee that the children of one of them don't loose out on the life insurance.
Norbit
Similar to Nutty Professor and just as funny, Eddie Murphy taking on more than one role again; but with a romantic twist.
The Bourne Ultimatum
The final episode of this trilogy ( or so I'm guessing , if you've seen the first two parts a must see you get to see the ending and the action scenes in it are quite good filmed in numerous locations ( Moscow, London, Rome and Newyork ).
License to Wed
Ok, I'm a fan of Robin Williams so this might be biased but this movie is really funny and Josh Flitter makes it funnier.
Because I Said So
This is a dramatical romantic comedy; but again it is really funny and it has Mandy Moore in it ...... ( she is also in Licence to Wed ).
Fracture
A great thriller with Anthony Hopkins playing a sadistic role similar to that of Hannibal in The Silence of the Lambs ..... but again with a great twist at the end ... shhh .
Smokin' Aces
A shoot 'em up with a lot of action, a lot of good actors and many intertwined plots ...
The Number 23
I never wanted to watch this movie; but a friend convinced me to see it. I mean Jim Carrey in a thriller ..... but it completely took me by surprise totally thrilling movie.
Zodiac
If you're familiar with the original crimes of the alleged Zodiac killer there is nothing new for you here; but if not ( like I wasn't ) its a great movie even if it is a bit too long :p.
Breach
Great spy thriller, very tense, I can't say more than that otherwise I would ruin the plot :p.
Mr Brooks
Here Kevin Costner is a sadistic killer with dual personality syndrome and he is fighting his own urges to kill .... I mean he is trying to .....
Hannibal Rising
The only thing that got me angry at this movie is why it wasn't shown before the other parts they would have made more sense, had it been shown earlier. Not for the faint of heart though a bit gruesome .
Hot Fuzz
English police comedy I guess maybe the english accent cracked me up more than anything else :)))).
Next
Nicolas Cage in a Sci-Fi which is really good and has a lot of weird action in it.
Catch and Release
Jennifer Garner in a Dramatic Comedy try to overcome the death of her fiance ( who died on their wedding day ) which exposes her to a lot of his secrets.
The Namesake
Now this is a special movie for all those living in diaspora, I think everyone living abroad can associate with this film. Its actually address's Brave Hearts post on Second Generation Issues ( you should find the solution to your question there Brave Heart :)) ).
I Think I Love My Wife
Really funny comedy with Chris Rock on how the hardships of life can ruin a marriage .....
The Wind That Shakes The Barley
This is a political movie. It shows how the British manipulated the Irish, in an attempt to block their independence, after the Anglo-Irish treaty signed on December the 6th 1921, causing/resulting in a civil war. There is a really tragic ending to it as well; which I can't tell as it spoil the movie . It reminds me of another civil war going on ...........
Anticipated Movies
Illegal Tender
War
Death Sentence
The Brave One
Update :
My discussion with Ibeebaribie in the comment section reminded me of a 2007 movie I had forgotten, which wasn't listed in the site I relied on, so in this section I'll add any more good movies that come to mind or any movies I haven't seen and are recommended by anyone else :).
Music and Lyrics
Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore in a comedy that relies on a lot of 80's style singing......
Sunday, August 5, 2007
The Libyan Bloggregator
For the past week I have been secretly working on my own equivalent of a Libyan Blogroll that some other Libyan bloggers have, which I've called the Libyan Bloggregator ( Blog + Aggregator ) :p. Except I've added a twist to mine, which is that not only do I list all the blogs; but you can also see the last three or two posts (depending on the activity of the blogowner ) made on that blog. I managed to do that using RSS and by playing around with the template it looks like a website that presents links to the latest posts on the Libyan Blogosphere . I also tried to add summaries of the posts under each post link; but it seems blogger widgets still don't support that feature so we will have to wait for that :(.
Of course to be honest it wasn't originally my idea, you see my sister frequents the Blogosphere now and then and she got tired of having to go through the blogs to see who has made a new post and who hasn't and she was thinking of something that would summarize all the new posts in one page, which led me to this solution; so she gets part of the credit :P . I would also like to thank Misratia for providing the link to the cool website I used to generate the website logo and Highlander, Anglo-Libyan and Libyano for providing me with the links from their Blogrolls .
In ending, any recommendations, ideas or feedback would be more than welcome so feel free to criticize ( not too much though :P ).
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
Engineers and Engineering redefined :))
It seems we were fooled during the days of undergrad at University into believing that Engineers are good, articulate, honorable people and a major part of that academic brainwashing program was the following definition of Engineering :
" The profession in which a knowledge of the mathematical and natural sciences gained by study, experience, and practice is applied with judgement to develop ways to utilize, economically, the materials and forces of nature for the benefit of mankind [online source]".
Well I've recently discovered that we were being indoctrinated and fooled into believing we are the good guys :P. This definition of Engineers I found online ( to which I am grateful ) was my truth serum, so to speak, and I would like to share it with you so none of you are fooled by us :)))).
" Engineer (en je 'nir) n. An individual who is able to produce, with prolific abandon, streams of incomprehensible formulae based upon extremely vague assumptions and theories based on debatable figures acquired from inconclusive tests and incomplete experiments, carried out with instruments of problematic accuracy by persons of doubtful reliability and rather dubious mentality with the particular anticipation of disconcerting and annoying everyone outside of their own profession. [source unknown]".
Disclaimer : It's a joke :):):):)
Saturday, July 28, 2007
TV Series's Remakes and DVD release's
A while back me and Anglo were reminiscing on the old day's :P when we used to watch Hart to Hart and the The Fall Guy among many other series's like the Bionic Woman, The Six Million Dollar Man and Battlestar Galactica; which were famous series's airing from the late 70's right through to the eighties.
Well, I went and did some googling after that and found out that the First Season of The Fall Guy has recently being released on DVD ( I already got my copy :P ) and I even saw that there is a remake of Battlestar Galactica, which isn't that good to tell you the truth. Actually, just this Wednesday I was lucky to see the pilot episode of the remake of The Bionic Woman, which was great, a must see.
So I was wondering how many of you out there have seen any of these series or their remakes or reruns ( for the young ones :P ) and what were your favorite series's of the time ................?
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
MIT Open Courseware
I've been frequenting this site for some time now and have been meaning to share it with the rest of you, but was waiting for the appropriate moment and given Leebeya's recent enlistment in an MBA program and some bloggers expressed boredom of the summer vacation, I thought the time was ripe :p.
The website is courtesy of MIT ( one of my favorite universities ) and provides an online repository of courseware (pdf's, audio recordings, powerpoint presentations, ........ ), for both graduate and postgraduate studies in all the fields available in its regular programs.
For example it provides the course materials of a whole school of Management and Economics ( Lebeeya and Mani ), it also provides material for Architectural Engineering ( piccolina ), Electrical Engineering and Computer Science ( Maiuna ) , and Mechanical Engineering ( a_akak ) . Unfortunately I couldn't find anything related to Legal studies so sorry happymoi , safia and ibeebarbie :).
So for those of you who have a lot of time on their hands ................hit the books and prepare for the new term/semester .......... at least thats what I used to do near the end of the summer :p.
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Between Duty and Humanity
The footage I've posted below was shot by the Guardian's Sean Smith, who is a photojournalist, during his time as an embedded journalist with the US apache company. The video was initially aired by ITV news; and was later picked up by ABC's London bureau who posted it on ABC's news website.
I'm posting it, because of the unique perspective it presents with regards to the Iraq war.In it you'll see a different view of the Iraq war that isn't common in the mainstream American media, so to speak, it shows the deaths and killings and also shows how the pressure of the war is getting to the soldiers and how it leads them, unintentionally, to kill innocent people. It also illustrates the soldiers anger towards their government; because of their indecision on what to do and their political squabbling over mundane topics while overlooking the real suffering and pain that both civilians and soldier incur from this war.
The posting of the video on an ABC's website attracted more than 250,000 views and 500 comments on this video alone apart from the comments on the subsequent related articles. One of the comments was from the mother of one of the soldiers killed in the video in which she said "He was 19 years old and could see the futility of Iraq invasion and occupation,", ABC's David Muir dedicated a whole article to the comments on the video which can be read here.
For those of you who have limited bandwidth you can read a summary of the video here and the original article within which the video was posted can be found here, if you're interested in the original video as posted on ABC's website ( not on youtube ) it can be viewed here .
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Personality Tests
Ibeebarbie has brought to my attention an online personality test site provided by the web site similar minds . So I took the tests as well, out of curiosity, and posted the results below. Anyone else want to take a shot at it ?
Monday, July 9, 2007
Women Only Beaches
Women in Italy have recently gotten fed up of male harassment and unwanted advances on beaches to such an extent that they've created a Male free beach ! According to this article the beach is located on the Adriatic coast and takes up a 50 miles stretch of the coast and it's entrance has a big sign with "No Men" written on it. Even the male owner of the beach only monitors it from a rescue boat just off the beach so as not to intrude. I read from another news source that the beach didn't allow children either, which I thought was a bit of a stretch, but keeping men off the beach seems ok to me. I don't think there is a precedent to this except in Iran .
This article also reminded me of one of our female bloggers complaining about not being able to enjoy her day out at the beach because of bad mannered men harassing her, so maybe this is a good solution to the problem ?
Saturday, July 7, 2007
Lake Disappears - Update
A few weeks ago I made a post about a lake that disappeared in Chile, initially it was assumed that the lake was drained into the core of the Earth as a result of an earth tremor as the area was active at the time; but that was based on mere speculation .
Well a few days ago a report of a survey of the lake region by a group of scientists came out with a preliminary conclusion that global warming is to be blamed for the disappearance of the lake. It seems that the melting of some glaciers from within the vicinity of the lake increased the level of the water in the lake thus increasing the pressure at the depths of the lake. At the same time the lake itself was situated, it seems, in some sort of ravine that was blocked by a glacier ( acting as a dam ), the increased pressure budged the glacier ( that was acting like a dam ) out of its way which led the water to flow into the sea .
It looks like the effects of global warming are worse than we anticipated and the sea level is going to increase at a rate higher than that expected especially if we are going to be getting unaccounted for sources of water pouring into the sea ......... I wonder what we will be seeing next ?
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
The "new" World's Richest Man and July the 4th
Bill Gates has just lost the title of the worlds richest man, according to this report. Bill Gates was estimated to be worth $ 59.2 billion up until the end of the second quarter ( January 1st- March 31st ) , which was $8.6 billion less than the estimated worth of Carlos Slim . The increase in Slim's worth is attributed to a 27% increase in the shares of America Movil which is considered the largest cell phone company in both America's and of which Carlos Slim is the chairman. I remember reading a while back that IT and telecommunication companies are the most profitable form of investment and that the profit from them surpasses even that of the Arms and Drug trade, its no wonder then that the richest people in the World are investors in this field.
On another note, today is July the 4th ( or at least it should be by the time anyone reads this :p ) and no I'm not talking about Independence Day :p, I'm actually referring to the birthday of Amira, the daughter of a fellow blogger ( ibeebarbie ), so Happy 4th Birthday Amira :D .
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Desktop Psychoanalysis
A few days ago a_akak challenged us to post images of our computer desktops ( this is the original post ) so that we can be psychoanalyzed by our fellow bloggers. Well, I've taken up his challenge and have posted two images of my Desktops the first is of my Windows Desktop and the second is of my Linux desktop.......lets see what you have to say about me :P.
Friday, June 29, 2007
Stop The Clash
I just saw this video and I had to share it........couldn't help ( sorry happymoi :) ), so enjoy.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Lake Disappears
Well I bet you weren't expecting to read this, but it seems like a lake in southern Chile that was approximately the size of 10 football pitches has suddenly disappeared within a two month period!
Here are some pictures of the emptied lake :p, courtesy of Reuters :
One of the theories presented in the article was that a tremor caused the drainage of the lake water into the inner earth, wa allah a3lam .
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Pictures of Benghazi, Misrata and the Green Mountains
I've just finished uploading some pictures I have of the East of Libya to a Flickr account for those interested or nostalgic :p. You can find the link at the bottom of the left sidebar . After I finished uploading the pictures I have of the east of Libya I started uploading the pictures I have of the West, starting with Misrata, assuming that Flickr's limit on pictures is with respects to storage space only ( 100 MB ), it turns out that there is also a limit on the number of images I wasn't aware of :( (200 pictures ) which I exceeded so there are 2 more pictures of Misrata you won't be able to see and nothing from Tripoli or Lubda :(. Here is a link to the images, apart from the one on the sidebar. I should note that most of these pictures aren't mine they're an acquaintances pictures, who has granted me permission to post them ............. so enjoy.
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Funny or Sad ?
I was sitting in the reception of an optician earlier today and while I was waiting for my appointment I picked up an old copy of a Maclean's magazine..........so I started flipping through the pages and this article caught my attention. Anyway to cut to the chase the article describe the plight of a Canadian of Moroccan origin ( Kamal El Batal ) who applied for a position at Quebec's Agriculture Co-operative more than 19 times and was refused even an interview every time he applied. So he changed his name and removed the fact that he was fluent in Arabic from his C.V., applied again and guess what? he was interviewed and the recruiter actually complimented him for his credentials ???????????????????
The thing is I think I'm supposed to be surprised or disappointed when I read this, right? instead I wasn't surprised nor saddened I was actually laughing my head off at how smart he was for outwitting them and getting compensated ( 15,000 Canadian Dollars ) ................. I mean have I become numb to discrimination to such an extent that I don't care anymore or is it that I don't expect anything less ? has discrimination become the norm for Muslims of Middle Eastern/Asian descent now ? Or is it just me...............................?
Sunday, June 17, 2007
Haram Police
Here are some snippets of the video I liked the most :
Finally there are those people on the internet who may have good intentions, but they have no qualifications....you know who I'm talking about!
Sometimes there are people on the Internet who think they are scholars, but they're not scholars. Actually they have no qualifications, but they do have access to the internet and a keyboard.
So many times I've seen a question being posed on a forum regarding if something is haram or not only to get one of these young kids to say " In my opinion I think its haram; because I feel ..." . In my opinion I feel! what ! are you kidding me ? Where are all of you self proclaimed internet scholars coming from.
First, of all the rulings of Islam is not based on what you feel is haram or halal.
Second, copying and pasting a hadith translated to English from some unknown website, a hadith no one has heard of before is not enough for you to come up with a ruling.
Finally, one need to be qualified to give a ruling. You don't just walk into a hospital and start practicing medicine ....
.
.
If you want to be a Doctor you go to school first. It's the same thing when it comes to Islamic rulings you have to have knowledge and to be qualified otherwise if you walk into a hospital giving people advice you can actually do more harm then good plus your opinion doesn't count; because your not a doctor. Its the same thing when it comes down to Islam.
Monday, June 11, 2007
Female vs Male Drivers ............ again
Well I just read this article that presents a study conducted by Kanetix, which is a car insurance company in Canada, to determine who are better drivers men or women. It reminded me of a post Anglo-Libyan had previously made posing the same question.... so I thought it was worth sharing especially since many of our female bloggers disagreed with the general concession reached at the time ( women are worse :p). The conclusion Kanetix reached, based on the number of Accidents and Tickets, was that women were actually better drivers, which I'm sure a lot of women will be glad to hear. I've posted an image of the table summarizing the statistical difference between men and women which was a basis for their decision :
Saturday, June 9, 2007
Online Arab TV channels, Movies and Aljazeera in English
I stopped by an internet cafe earlier today, to send a fax, and I couldn't help but notice that one of the computers was displaying a live feed of Aljazeera. So I asked the cafe owner if he was paying for the service and he replied "no its a free website". I wrote down the URL of the website, and upon checking the site when I got home, it turned out that not only did it provide a live feed of Aljazeera in Arabic, but also in English :) among a boutique of other Arabic channels which include MBC, Libya TV:P, Almajd, Tunis 7 and Future TV. It also hosts a number of Egyptian movies which can be viewed online without downloading ( direct streaming ), which I'm sure many of you will enjoy. So without further adieu here is the link to the main page of the website where you'll find a side menu on the left of the page with, among other choices, two link to the "films" and "TV live" pages respectively ......enjoy.
Thursday, June 7, 2007
New Template .....already ? :p
OK everyone, so I'm trying out a number of new templates this is the first and I would be really grateful if everyone could rate the templates on a scale of 10. At most I'll only try three, if this one get applauded then I'll only try another alternative before deciding. There is one last thing I should mention, the templates seems to be working ok on firefox but not on IE so I was wondering if I could any feedback on that as well :)... thanx and salaam.
Friday, June 1, 2007
Cocaine in Rome
I've just read this article that presents a profound reason for peoples love of Rome. Supposedly researchers found high concentrations of cocaine and pot among other addictive substances in the downtown area of the city of Rome.....now we know why its such an attractive tourist destination. Here are some excerpts of the article :
Researchers may have figured out what makes la vita so dolce in Rome. A report from Italy's National Research Council released Thursday found that there are traces of cocaine and cannabis in the air of the Eternal City.
"The highest concentrations of cocaine were found in the center of Rome and especially in the area of the University of La Sapienza," said Dr. Angelo Cecinato, who led the investigation.
Looks like the students at the University of La Sapienza are really stressed out :P.
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
These are your Rights
You have the right to life, liberty, and security,
as long as you are not a minority.
You have the right not to be arbitrarily imprisoned
but it is up to the officer's discretion.
On arrest, you have the right to:
be informed why,
to retain a lawyer,
and have your habeus corpus
unless you are already a corpse.
You have the right to a speedy trial
unless you are already jailed,
and then, you may as well stay there a while.
You have the right to be presumed innocent
until proven guilty.
Unless you can not afford a good lawyer, then
it is just a pity.
You have the right to peaceful assembly,
and you have the right to free speech,
but, you would be crazy to actually try it!
Monday, May 28, 2007
Senator Ron Paul on the US policy of foreign intervention and the war on terror
During the first Republican Presidential debate senator Ron Paul made a very strong case against the war in Iraq and foreign intervention as a foreign policy for the US ( he is the only Republican Presidential candidates to have voted against the war in Iraq ).
In the second of the Republican Presidential debates which was broadcasted live on Fox news senator Ron Paul argues against the notion that the terrorists of 9/11 attacked the US because of its liberty and wealth which got him into a scuffle with Rudy Giuliani .
This is an interview with him after these debates on the Bill Maher's show "Real Time With Bill Maher" where he further explains his position and mocks Guiliani with a number of other guests, that include Ben Affleck.
If you don't have time to watch all three clips start with the last one it kinda sums it up. I hope you enjoy it and tell me what you think of it :).
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Guns, Germs, and Steel
This book argues that the reason behind western civilization's dominance in the world right now is a "luck of a draw" as stephen colbert says :P, and is more a result of geographical location ( fertility and water ) rather than genetic superiority as some advocates of western civilisation would have us believe. Which is a theory I have always held, that and the fact that they won the second world war, so for those interested it's a recommended reading.
Here is a link to the book's website, and below is an interview with the author.
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