January 31, 2005
"The most perfidious way of harming a cause consists of defending it deliberately with faulty arguments." -- Friedrich Nietzsche I couldn't agree more. Applying this to the case of Islam in the world, I think one of the things harming it these days is the number of clueless people who think they are qualified to defend it. These people who go on and try to portray themselves as scholars of Islam when they basically don't have the necessary background or knowledge for it are just making things worse everytime they open their mouths. People should be really careful about...
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January 29, 2005
Posted on January 29, 2005 11:57 PM under:
Tunisia
The Handball World Championship has been taking place in Tunisia ever since January 23rd. Most of the matches are being held in the newly constructed Rades indoors stadium and in the Menzah indoors stadium. The Tunisian team has been doing pretty great and tonight was their last match in the first round putting them first in their group after defeating Angola, Canada and Denmark, and tying with France and Greece. I wish the Tunisian team the best of luck in the second round and hopefully they'll go on doing a great job and improving their game more. They've made us...
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For some time now I've been playing around with different elements in Subzero Blue, and I still plan to go on changing things (to the better, I hope). Some of you have noticed the changes, some of you haven't. So just in case you're among the people who haven't, here's what's changed. - I've added an About page with some info about me and the site. And for those who are interested, a picture of me. - I've moved some main navigational elements to a new horizontal menu that I've created beneath the header. - I've added the 5 most...
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January 28, 2005
If I were a musical instrument, I'd be an acoustic guitar. If I were a song, I'd be "Somewhere Over The Rainbow / What A Wonderful World" by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole. If I were a word, I'd be "Friend". If I were a colour, I'd be blue. If I were a home, I'd be a country house. If I were a place, I'd be a tropical island. If I were a car, I'd be a 4x4. If I were an animal, I'd be an eagle. If I were a fruit, I'd be an apple. If I were a blog, I'd be...
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It's always a delight to see a new pro-Palestine blog being born, and this time it comes in the form of PalestineBlogs. This new blog is an effort by our friend Sabbah, and it will provide users with a comprehensive overview of Palestine's current and previous issues; news clippings; reblog news; a debate forum and a lot more. It seems that some invitations will be sent to some pro-Palestine bloggers to join the editing team, which I think is a really great idea. So, good luck to PalestineBlogs. You can always count on me to help in anyway that I...
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So, it's finally Friday and it's time for me to answer the questions and suggestions that I got over the past week. So I'll be answering the questions one by one in the order I got them. Saoirse: i want to know your full name:) How old are you? how many brothers and sisters do you have? How come you are the only one who gets to post threads?!!! Who did you vote for in superstar2?(if anybody at all!) What is your favourite tunisian plate? How come your wife is so sweet??:) ...
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January 27, 2005
Hmmmm.... When five dozen roses didn't work, an estranged husband took out a full-page $17,000 newspaper ad to ask his wife for forgiveness. "Please believe the words in my letter, they are true and from my heart," read the ad in Tuesday's edition of The Florida Times-Union. "I can only hope you will give me the chance to prove my unending love for you. Life without you is empty and meaningless." Larry, who declined to give his last name, sent the $17,000 apology to Marianne, his wife of 17 years. She left him almost two weeks ago, he said. Larry,...
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A Londonder made a tsnuami-relief donation using lynx -- a text-based browser used by the blind, Unix-users and others -- on Sun's Solaris operating system. British Telecom, the site-operator, misread an access log and saw it as a non-standard browser not identifying it's type and doing strange things. They decided that this "unusual" event in the system log indicated a hack-attempt, traced the user's IP and had the police go in SWAT style to arrest the donor while he was having his lunch. The man is out on bail till next week and preparing to make a lot of very...
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Shortly after the voting was opened for the 2005 Bloggie Awards, the site went down because of bandwidth problems. Anyway, the site is back online again now and you can vote for your favourite blogs. Subzero Blue is a finalist for "Best African or Middle Eastern Weblog". So, please pass by the Bloggies site and vote for me. Thank you :)...
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January 26, 2005
Google have just launched a beta of one of their new services Google Video. The service archives televised content transcripts and screenshots, and enables you to search through them. It seems that soon they'll also be providing video files of the shows. For this test period, only a small amount of programming from a limited number of channels is included in the search results. But new content will be indexed daily and more channels will be added in the near future. I think this is a cool and very interesting service, anyway I would also like to see Google expand...
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Weird stuff... A 63-year-old man who hasn't slept for more than two decades has been told there is nothing medically wrong with him by doctors. Ukrainian Fyodor Nesterchuk from the town of Kamen-Kashirsky said the last time he managed to doze off was more than 20 years ago. All attempts by doctors to put him to sleep have failed. [Via: Ananova] Sleeping is one of life's pleasures that I enjoy the most. If I weren't able to sleep for 20 years, I'd most probably kill myself!...
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January 25, 2005
Now this is interesting... Map reading and parking may prove difficult for some women because they were exposed to too little testosterone in the womb, researchers from the University of Giessen, Germany discovered. The study, in the journal Intelligence, fuels the age-old male myth that women are deficient in these skills. [Via: BBC News] What do you women-drivers think? I personally don't think all women drive badly, it's bad to generalize. But I have to admit that a lot of them suck when it comes to it. Honestly, every single time some car does something stupid in front of me,...
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January 24, 2005
Update: The Bloggies 2005 site is back online now. You can start voting. Thank you :) Thanks to all your nominations and to the votes of the Bloggies 2005 panel afterwards, Subzero Blue is a finalist for "Best African or Middle Eastern Weblog" for the second year in a row. Please pass by the Bloggies 2005 site and vote for me and don't forget to tell all your friends to vote for me too. Only one vote per email address, so whoever has more than one email can vote more than once ;) I'm counting on you guys to win...
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January 23, 2005
The most common of childhood questions must definitely be: "What do you want to be when you grow up?". We all had certain things we wished to be but ended up not being, and some of us still have some of these dreams. Well, here are the main things I wanted to be growing up. And as I'm still in the process of getting older, some of these things are recent ones ;) Pilot: I always loved air travel and still do. And for years and years I dreamt of becoming a pilot. The Freedom, the flying, the travel, the...
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January 22, 2005
Picked for you from my photolog....
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So, George W. Bush has been sworn in for his second term as President of the USA. Dangerousmeta neatly and chillingly sums it up with help from Jefferson, Grant, Jackson, Roosevelt, Lincoln, et al. May God help us all. [Via: Antipixel]...
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I just came accross this great on-line exhibition,"The poster art of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict." I think it's really worth checking out. [via: Sabbah, Rafah Pundits]...
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January 21, 2005
Here's an interesting idea... Something about me you'd like to know? Something you've been wanting to ask me? Something you'd like to know my opinion on? Something you'd like me to ramble on about? Pick a topic, a question, anything, and drop it in the comments. Come next Friday (28/01/05), I'll go through what (if anything) is there and start talking about it. Of course, if nothing appears, I'll still go on blogging as usual about whatever crosses my mind. [Via: eclecticism, The Republic of T., Stay of Execution.]...
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Google just recently released version 2 of Picasa, the photo organizing tool they acquired last year. Being a happy user of Picasa already, I downloaded the new version and took it for a spin. Picasa 2 offers more photo editing options to alter the lighting, colors, saturation, contrast and more to make you happier about your shots in just one click. It now provides added integration with Blogger and Hello so that users can directly post pics to their blogs or instantly share them. Picasa 2 also allows you to add captions to your photos as well as make collages...
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January 20, 2005
The Sharon government intends to strip thousands of West Bank Palestinians of their property in occupied East Jerusalem, according to the Israeli press quoting newly released government documents. At stake are thousands of donoms of land belonging to Palestinians who live in the West Bank and are now unable to access their land due to Israel's separation barrier. By some estimates, the total land to be expropriated could add up to half of all East Jerusalem property. [Via: Al Jazeera] And who'll be raising a finger as Israel steals these people's properties and strips them of their land in yet...
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January 19, 2005
Eid El Adha, the big Eid, the feast of the sacrifice or the Eid of the sheep as some call it is tomorrow. Prices for sheep sky-rocketed as they always do around this time of year, but nevertheless most Tunisians went out and bought their sheep for the big day even if they had to get a new credit to do so. This Eid comes with the end of the Hajj, and is the day in which muslims worldwide sacrifice sheep in commemoration of the prophet Abraham's story with his son. Half of the sacrificed sheep is kept and the...
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Posted on January 19, 2005 11:15 AM under:
Music
Growing up in a music loving family, I was surrounded with all types of music ever since my childhood. My uncles and aunts played and taught different instruments and my dad was as big a music fan as I grew up to be. So in my childhood other than listening to all the music that was coming up in the 80's and then 90's, I also listened to older stuff from the 50's, 60's and 70's that my dad used to listen to. Of course, I had my faves from the music in that era too, and one of...
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January 18, 2005
The Committee to Protect Bloggers is a new clearinghouse for information on bloggers who are punished, threatened or otherwise disadvantaged for what they post on their blogs. The Committee has four primary spheres of activity. - CPB will serve as a clearinghouse for information on incarcerated members of our community, as well as those whose lives have been taken from them because of their enthusiasm for the free exchange of information that blogging allows. - CPB will serve as a pressure group to force unrecalcitrant governments to free imprisoned bloggers, and make restitution for tortured and murdered ones. - CPB...
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January 17, 2005
"The great masses of the people ... more easily fall a victim to a big lie than to a little one, since they themselves lie in little things, but would be ashamed of lies that were too big. Such a falsehood will never enter their heads and they will not be able to believe in the possibility of such monstrous effrontery and infamous misrepresentation in others ... Therefore, something of even the most insolent lie will always remain and stick -- a fact which all the great lie-virtuosi and lying-clubs in this world know only too well and also...
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Update: Technical problems seem to be solved. You can vote now. So, the voting for the Best Arab Blogs Awards 2004 opened yesterday. Subzero Blue is nominated in a number of categories, but will only win if you guys want it to and vote for it. Here are the categories Subzero Blue is nominated in: - 2004 Best Arab Blog (English) Vote here - 2004 Best Tunisian Blog Vote here - 2004 Best Blog Design Vote here - 2004 Best Everyday Life Blog Vote here - 2004 Best Humour Blog Vote here - 2004 Best Personal Blog Vote here -...
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January 14, 2005
July 22, 1961, Weekend Magazine What sort of life will you be living 39 years from now? Scientists have looked into the future and they can tell you. You will be whisked around in monorail vehicles at 200 miles an hour and you will think nothing of taking a fortnight's holiday in outer space. (I wish!). At work, Dad will operate on a 24 hour week. The office will be air-conditioned with stimulating scents and extra oxygen - to give a physical and psychological lift. (Yeah Right!). In commercial transportation, there will be travel at 1000 m.p.h. at a penny...
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January 13, 2005
Posted on January 13, 2005 09:42 AM under:
Islam
Tariq Ramadan has written a great new article on the role of Muslims in the west in the evolution of Islam worldwide and in the new reform movement that is being born. "The reform movement that is in the process of being born has as its first requirement knowledge of the comprehensive message of Islam, its universal principles, and the tools available to help human beings to adapt themselves to their society as well as to change the world." [...] "Western Muslims will play a decisive role in the evolution of Islam worldwide because of the nature and complexity of...
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The White House has confirmed that the search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq has been given up by the United States. Contradicting the main argument for a war that has cost the lives of more than 15,000 Iraqis and over 1000 US soldiers, the US' top weapons inspector has declared that Iraq was free of WMDs before last year's invasion. So there you go, as everyone already knew, over 16,000 lost lives for nothing! Oh of course, we'll be hearing all that talk about the removal of Saddam Hussein from power being for the good of the whole...
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January 12, 2005
I just found PeerCast, a P2P (Peer to peer) program that enables anyone to become an online audio and video broadcaster without the costs of traditional streaming. So basically anyone can download this, throw it on their server and start their own online radio or tv station, creating more options for people than is normally found on commercially funded sites. It's open source, has a low memory footprint and CPU load. It streams a number of formats (MP3, OGG Theora/Vorbis, WMA, WMV, NSV) and supports all popular media players (WinAmp, XMMS etc...). I think this is a great and really...
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"The Palestinians are powerless. There are no concessions they can make. Only the United States can force the Israelis to make concessions so that a Palestinian state can be established. The United States refuses to do so. Hence, the never-ending war will go on and on and on..." -- Charley Reese. [Via: Je Blog]...
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January 11, 2005
It's amazing how easy it is to give people the right advice, and how hard it is to follow that advice yourself. How many times do you find yourself giving people advice you wish in the bottom of your heart that you could follow but just don't have enough courage to. If we believe so much in the advice that we give and are so certain that it is the road to ultimate happiness, how come we can't force ourselves to go down that road too?!...
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"One day when the peace treaty is achieved, and the Palestinian ambassador presents his credentials to the president of Israel in the Western section of Jerusalem, while the Israeli ambassador presents his to the Palestinian president in East Jerusalem, we shall all have to laugh at the stupidities of our past. Even as we laugh, we shall have to answer for the spilling of so much innocent blood. But the mothers and fathers of the dead will not be laughing." -- Amos Oz, Two Stubborn Men, and Many Dead; NY Times, 12th March 2002. [Via: Lawrence Of Cyberia]...
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January 07, 2005
"Real success is finding your lifework in the work that you love." -- David McCullough and... "If your success is not on your own terms, if it looks good to the world but does not feel good in your heart, it is not success at all." -- Anna Quindlen but keep in mind... "I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody." -- Bill Cosby...
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Posted on January 7, 2005 04:56 PM under:
Tunisia
Houssein has gone on and started a directory for Tunisian blogs at TN Blogs. I think it's a great idea and a great way to group and promote Tunisian blogs. An aggregator for Tunisian blogs could be in the works too. That'd be really cool. Thank you Houssein, great work :)...
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Microsoft is now offering a new and free anti spyware tool to help protect PCs from spyware and other potentially unwanted software that secretly monitors the activities of Internet users and can cause sluggish computer performance or popup ads. Another free piece of software Microsoft will start offering soon is a new security program, that will protect PCs from viruses and worms. Updated versions of this program will be offered automatically and free each month from the Microsoft website. The weird thing though is that Microsoft says that the virus-removal program will not prevent computer infections and was never intended...
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Why do we press harder on a remote control when we know the batteries are flat? Why do banks charge a fee on "insufficient funds" when they know there is not enough? Why doesn't glue stick to the bottle? Why does Superman stop bullets with his chest, but ducks when you throw a revolver at him? Why do Kamikaze pilots wear helmets? Do married people live longer than single ones or does it only seem longer? If someone with a split personality threatens to commit suicide, is it a hostage situation?...
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January 06, 2005
All For Peace is a collaborative Palestinian-Israeli radio station broadcasting online. The radio station is an effort created by The Palestinian organization Biladi, The Jerusalem Times and The Jewish-Arab Centre for Peace (Givat Haviva). According to their website, the goals of the project include: exposure of the various aspects of each side to the other side exposure of interviewees, artists and topics of each side to the other side emphasis on the different and the similar discussion of common interests such as health, environment, culture, transportation, economy, etc. exposure and reporting on joint initiatives and projects and on alternative ideas...
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January 05, 2005
Long a symbol of economic prosperity, America for the first time no longer ranks among the top 10 free nations of the world, according to The 2005 Index of Economic Freedom, just released by the Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal. "The United States is resting on its laurels while innovative countries around the world are changing their approaches and reducing their roadblocks," said Marc Miles, a co-editor of the book, along with Ed Feulner and Mary Anastasia O'Grady. "The U.S. is eating the dust of countries that have thrown off the 20th-century shackles of big government spending and...
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According to Om Malik: Six Apart, the parent company behind hosted blogging service TypePad, and Moveable Type is about to acquire Live Journal, for an undisclosed amount. The deal is a mix of stock and cash, and could be announced sometime later this month, according to those close to the two companies. If the deal goes through, then Six Apart will become one of the largest weblog companies in the world, with nearly 6.5 million users. It also gives the company a very fighting chance against Google’s Blogger and Microsoft’s MSN Spaces. I don't really know what to think of...
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January 04, 2005
A lecturer was giving a lecture to his student on stress management. He raised a glass of water and asked the audience, "How heavy do you think this glass of water is?" The students' answers ranged from 20g to 500gm. It does not matter on the absolute weight. It depends on how long you hold it. If I hold it for a minute, it is OK. If I hold it for an hour, I will have an ache in my right arm. If I hold it for a day, you will have to call an ambulance. It is the exact...
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January 03, 2005
Posted on January 3, 2005 08:32 PM under:
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Posted on January 3, 2005 05:22 PM under:
Tunisia
Picked for you from my photolog. The Punic bay in Carthage / Tunisia....
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The 2005 Bloggie Awards have started and they're accepting nominations. So please pass by their site and nominate my blog :) You can choose to nominate it for whatever category you want, but the main categories i'm aiming for are: Best African or Middle Eastern weblog, Best-Kept-Secret Weblog and maybe Weblog of the year :P. So please nominate me there at least. Here's the link: 2005 Bloggies. The name of this blog is: Subzero Blue and the address of course is: http://www.subzeroblue.com Last year, my blog was a finalist for Best African or Middle Eastern weblog. So maybe this year...
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