March 31, 2008
This is just unbelievable... A young Saudi Arabian woman was murdered by her father for chatting on the social network site Facebook, it has emerged. The unnamed woman from Riyadh was beaten and shot after she was discovered in the middle of an online conversation with a man, the al-Arabiya website reported. [...] Saudi preacher Ali al-Maliki has emerged as the leading critic of Facebook, claiming the network is corrupting the youth of the nation. "Facebook is a door to lust and young women and men are spending more on their mobile phones and the Internet than they are spending...
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The Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano announced yesterday that Islam has surpassed Roman Catholicism as the world’s largest religion. Catholics accounted for 17.4 percent of the world population, a stable percentage, while Muslims were at 19.2 percent. Monsignor Vittorio Formenti attributed the change to Muslim families having more children, while Catholics have tended towards fewer offspring. When considering all Christians and not just Catholics, Christians make up 33 percent of the world population. [Source: Yahoo! News] [Via: Truemors]...
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Now, how cool would shelves like that look. Simply awesome. We've been thinking of getting some shelves for our piling books and stuff for some time, and now that I've seen this, I'm really considering having a carpenter custom-make us some of these. [Source: Brave Space Design] [Via: And Far Away, Kotaku]...
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I just came across this quote by Gandhi, which rang so very true... You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them. -- Mohandas Gandhi Now, I'm not going to go on a rant on how some group of people conspired against the Arab world to get them to not read books and thereby destroy our culture; I'm not really in the conspiracy theory mood right now. But what is more important is how true the direct relation between not reading and the destruction of a culture really is; and how it...
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March 28, 2008
The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has launched a new program called NEWtrees, through which you get to buy a tree for only $5.50, which is then planted in a rainforest in Sebangau National Forest in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia and you are given the possibility to watch it grow on Google Earth (they send you a Google Earth KML file with the coordinates of your tree). As Google Earth is updated with higher resolution satellite and aerial images, you should be able to keep an eye on your tree as it grows. To see already planted trees and buy one of...
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March 27, 2008
Above is a heat map of the world according to the attention each country gets in the New York Times’ coverage. This is one of several heat maps developed in a project to indicate the regions that some of the major western media outlets, and the blogosphere, give more attention to. These maps allow you to grasp several media trends at a glance. First, traditional newspapers are highly selective in their coverage of world news. Looking at the three British dailies, editors favour countries that are bigger and more populous, but also closer to home and better developed. They...
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Many of us talk about our priorities in life, how we've given them some thought, how we've figured them all out, and how we know we should act according to those priorities. But in the end of the day, many many of us don't do anything about it, we know what our priorities should be, we know what we care about most in life, but when it comes to our everyday acts in life, they simply don't reflect those priorities at all. Sometimes it takes something very powerful, a shock, to just open our eyes, bring everything into perspective, and...
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March 26, 2008
A really interesting idea using the illegal Israeli barrier wall to support local Palestinian businesses... As Israel continues its illegal land grab of Palestinian territory, by caging in the West Bank, the controversial barrier wall has become more than just oppressive concrete slabs to some; it’s become an easel for various artists. Two Palestinians have come together to put a new spin on rendering the wall into an art form, by starting an organization called send.a.message, whereby you can pay them (online) to spray paint whatever message you want on the wall. It’s only $45 and it goes towards supporting...
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March 19, 2008
A really creative and useful idea to help power African schools in a clean way... A young inventor is hoping to tap the unbounded energy of children in a playground to power schools in Africa. Design student Daniel Sheridan has created a simple see-saw which generates enough electricity to light a classroom. The device works by transferring the power, created by a child moving up and down on it, to an electricity storage unit via an underground cable. The Coventry University student has won £5,500 in funding to develop the idea. [Source: BBC News]...
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March 18, 2008
Fundamentally, the stuff we call "intellectual property" is just knowledge - ideas, words, tunes, blueprints, identifiers, secrets, databases. This stuff is similar to property in some ways: it can be valuable, and sometimes you need to invest a lot of money and labour into its development to realise that value. But it is also dissimilar from property in equally important ways. Most of all, it is not inherently "exclusive". If you trespass on my flat, I can throw you out (exclude you from my home). If you steal my car, I can take it back (exclude you from my...
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March 14, 2008
Posted on March 14, 2008 10:49 PM under:
Books
I just heard about the newly created "International Prize for Arabic Fiction," which this year went to Egyptian author Baha Taher for his book 'Sunset Oasis', a book that explores one man's existential crisis. The winning book will get published throughout the Arab world, and translated outside of it, thus helping the author gain a wider readership. The cash awards included; which are: $10,000 for shortlisted authors, $50,000 for the winner; should also give a good boost to authors in the Arab worldm a region where it is nearly impossible to live off of writing up to now. The list...
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March 13, 2008
Posted on March 13, 2008 12:16 PM under:
Memories
Mark just posted about his bad experience with Wimpy yesterday, which reminded me of my own experience with the same fast food chain. Let me start from the very beginning, somewhere around 20 years ago or even more, back when I was a little kid in Zimbabwe, we used to have this routine as a family, where we'd go to the movies and then on our way out have a nice meal at the next door Wimpy. It was so delicious, their burgers were some of the best you could find, juicy fresh and simply awesome, the taste stayed with...
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March 12, 2008
Tunisia is one of the countries with the highest mobile penetration in the region at 78% in 2007 and expected to reach as high as 108% by 2010. But not only do most Tunisians have mobile phones, they also have the mobile phone craze, following every new model, keeping up with all the new features and little cool additions. Obviously, one of the areas, most mobile phone makers are making strides in and focusing on, are the photo capabilities of their mobile phones, or should we call them photo phones now. One such case is the Samsung G800 which was...
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Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal. ~ Henry Ford...
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March 11, 2008
Today is March 11th again; Twenty nine years ago, on this very day, in a time close to this one, in a little clinic in downtown Tunis: I was born into this world. Only one year away from Thirty now; an age a lot of people see as a milestone in their lives. Anyway what does Twenty Nine mean to me? Well, not much, but if it does mean anything to me, it's in a context in which I look at the years of my life and what I've been able to accomplish in them. All in all, I'm pretty...
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March 10, 2008
The Catholic Church has come out with a list of seven new modern day sins - 1,500 years after announcing the original Seven Deadly Sins. The new sins outlined in the Vatican's official newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, include: 1. Genetic modification 2. Human experimentations 3. Polluting the environment 4. Social injustice 5. Causing poverty 6. Financial gluttony 7. Taking drugs According to the Catholic Church, a person who commits a mortal sin risks burning in hell unless it's absolved through confession and penitence. [Source: wbztv.com]...
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March 07, 2008
However many holy words you read, however many you speak, what good will they do you if you do not act on upon them? -- Buddha...
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March 06, 2008
After 13 years on top of the list of the world's richest people, Forbes says that Bill Gates has slipped down in the list. The honor now belongs to Warren Buffett. The list of the top 20 richest people in the world goes as follows now: 1. Warren Buffett 2. Carlos Slim Helu 3. William Gates III 4. Lakshmi Mittal 5. Mukesh Ambani 6. Anil Ambani 7. Ingvar Kamprad 8. KP Singh 9. Oleg Deripaska 10. Karl Albrecht 11. Li Ka-shing 12. Sheldon Adelson 13. Bernard Arnault 14. Lawrence Ellison 15. Roman Abramovich 16. Theo Albrecht 17. Liliane Bettencourt 18....
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March 05, 2008
Interesting bit of news from Harvard... In a test of Harvard’s famed open-mindedness, the university has banned men from one of its gyms for a few hours a week to accommodate Muslim women who say it offends their sense of modesty to exercise in front of the opposite sex. The policy is already unpopular with many on campus, including some women who consider it sexist. […] No men are allowed in the gym between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. on Mondays, and between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Even the staff during those times is all...
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March 04, 2008
Came across this bit of news on BBC News today. A book fair in Paris has become the subject of controversy with several Muslim countries announcing boycotts because the guest of honour is Israel. Saudi Arabia has become the latest to withdraw, following Iran, Lebanon, Yemen, Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria. The Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Isesco) has also urged its 50 members to pull out from the fair, which starts on 14 March. [...] The organisers of the book fair have said their aim is to honour literature and promote dialogue between cultures. ... the Paris book fair...
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In response to written questions by the Washington Post, Barack Obama talks about a major speech, within his first 100 days of office, at a major Islamic forum, in which he'd redefine the US struggle and their relationship with the Muslim world: "As president of the United States, I will directly address the people of the Muslim world to make it clear that the United States is not at war with Islam, that our enemy is al-Qaeda and its tactical and ideological affiliates, and that our struggle is shared. In this speech, I will make it clear that the United...
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