Comfortably Numb
... I’ve been to the demonstrations, I’ve been to the vigils, I’ve written poetry, I’ve preached to those who’ve never cared before and till I’ve never cared again. I went to a demonstration on Saturday, for Gaza, for the people of Gaza, for those who had nothing to do with anything, for those who had everything to do with everything. I yelled at the top of my lungs, I chanted and held banners. I took photos and recorded videos. I wanted to feel like I was actually contributing. I wanted to feel like I was trying and that my trying was relevant, was necessary, that it actually might make a difference.. .But not even five hours later, I was strutting in heels, and make-up, down that same street, the demonstration street, Delmar Ave., headed toward a bar to have a drink or three with some friends. What’s the point of it all? What have I really done? I lit up a cigarette, I took a sip of hard liquor, I said I thought the world is becoming a horrible place to live in, maybe I said that out loud, maybe in my head, maybe the world always was a horrible place to live in, maybe I’m seeing it more now because we live in the “information age.” We also live in the misinformation ago. Words, words, words… They commit a genocide. No, they have a right to defend themselves. They kill women and children and bomb schools. No, these are places where the enemy may be hiding. They rain cluster bombs over the city. No, these, these are not cluster bombs. These are…um… these are… what are cluster bombs?
(Rewa Zeinati)
Monday, January 26, 2009
Sunday, January 25, 2009
I've learnt something today : )
iPod creator from Lebanese origins
While Steve Jobs has been taking most of the spotlight when it comes to creative ideas within Apple, the iPod creator, Anthony M. Fadell, is actually the real engineering genius behind the iPod. And where is Fadell originally from? Lebanon.
So, you probably didn’t know that the iPod creator was of Lebanese origin. But who is Tony Fadell?
Tony Fadell was born to Lebanese parents in 1969. After graduating from Michigan University in 1991 with a BS in Computer Engineering, Tony Fadell had a fast growing engineering career moving from a Hardware & Software architect in General Magic, to being the co-founder and CTO position of the mobile Computing group at Philips Electronics. Mr. Fadell later became Vice President of Business Development for Philips U.S. Strategy & Ventures, focusing on building the company’s digital media strategy and investment portfolio.
In the nineties, Fadell started his own company called “Fuse” to develop one of the devices he had in mind: a small hard disk-based music player. However, “Fuse” failed because Fadell did not find a second round of funding. Therefore, he presented his ideas to other companies. He first went to RealNetworks in 2000, but left after only six weeks. Then he got in touch with Apple.
Tony Fadell then joined Apple Company in 2001 as a contractor designing the iPod and planning Apple’s audio product strategy. He assembled and ran its iPod & Special Projects group in which he was overseeing the design and production of the iPod and iSight devices. He quickly moved to be the Senior Director of the Company’s iPod Engineering Team and in 2004, he was promoted to vice president of iPod engineering. In March 2006, Fadell became Senior Vice President of the iPod Division at Apple.
Fadell was also part of the executive team involved in the development of the iPhone, which has become the fastest-growing part of Apple’s business.
So while Fadell has not been getting as much spotlight as Steve Jobs, he is however increasing the list of Lebanese people who raised our flag in terms of business or cultural innovation.
More can be found on Tony Fadell within “The 50 Who Matter Now” CNN listing, ranked as No 27.
According to a recent company release, Fadell and his wife Danielle Lambert, a VP of human resources, “are reducing their roles within the company as they devote more time to their young family. Fadell will remain at Apple as an advisor to the CEO. Lambert will depart the company at the end of this year after a successor is in place.”
(original post by Mohamad Ali Mahfouz in Cedar Times)
No nudity at airports
Berlin: German airports will not implement the use of full-body scanners that reveal outlines of passengers' bodies under their clothes, even if the European Union authorizes their use, said the interior ministry early November.
The comments by the German spokeswoman came after European lawmakers chose to delay the authorization of the scanners. The European parliament voted overwhelmingly for additional study on the privacy and safety implications of the scanner.
The European Commission, the EU's executive branch, had proposed to add the machines to a list of security measures used in EU airports. It has said the scanners would not be used routinely on passengers, and would provide a less intrusive alternate to strip-searching.
"It is unacceptable, if scanners are used; these are machines that see you completely naked," said Martin Schulz, leader of the Socialist faction in the EU assembly. "This is an offence against human dignity."
A number of U.S. airports currently use full body scanners, as do a number of EU countries, including the Netherlands.
(Source: www.esciencenews.com )
Swinging: A Swedish pastime?
Stockholm: Judging by the number of column inches devoted to the subject in recent months, it seems that swinging is Sweden's new favorite hobby. "It's fun and I like to have several men at once," says Annika, a 41-year-old shop assistant from Stockholm. "I started swinging just for another experience," she says. "I don't have a boyfriend, but several lovers instead. So when I go swinging, I just take one of them along with me."
"Things can get pretty 'interesting' at times," says Leif, organizer and owner of Svenska Swingers. "At our 'relax' club night, anyone can come - there is no restriction in terms of sexual orientation: bisexuals, homosexuals, transvestites, transsexuals - everyone is welcome."
The Svenska Swingers website was launched in 1999 and currently has over 7,500 members, who reputedly include celebrities, judges, policemen and politicians. The Gothenburg-based organization holds an event once a month for about 50 to 60 people. Leif explains that one of the most common questions he receives from new members is, 'what will I do if I meet my neighbor?'
"People feel a shame connected with swinging, many may talk about it, but few actually do it. Swinging is not socially accepted at all. People condemn it as if it's some sort of disorder. There is a real double moral in Sweden. Freedom of speech and expression is held in such high regard for issues such as religion, but when it comes to sex, you cannot be public in any way."
The club doesn't admit any men under 25. Apparently, "they get too overexcited and just run around the place chasing orgasms. "The club does have some young women members though: "They call themselves 'nymphs'. These girls say that they need massive amounts of sex, but don't want the hassle of relationships. Some of these girls have 'parties' with multiple men at once on a weekly basis."
Leif adds: "A friend of mine said that he thinks every couple should try swinging at least twice. The first time can be a bit of a shock, so the second visit is a must."
(Source: http://www.thelocal.se)
"Things can get pretty 'interesting' at times," says Leif, organizer and owner of Svenska Swingers. "At our 'relax' club night, anyone can come - there is no restriction in terms of sexual orientation: bisexuals, homosexuals, transvestites, transsexuals - everyone is welcome."
The Svenska Swingers website was launched in 1999 and currently has over 7,500 members, who reputedly include celebrities, judges, policemen and politicians. The Gothenburg-based organization holds an event once a month for about 50 to 60 people. Leif explains that one of the most common questions he receives from new members is, 'what will I do if I meet my neighbor?'
"People feel a shame connected with swinging, many may talk about it, but few actually do it. Swinging is not socially accepted at all. People condemn it as if it's some sort of disorder. There is a real double moral in Sweden. Freedom of speech and expression is held in such high regard for issues such as religion, but when it comes to sex, you cannot be public in any way."
The club doesn't admit any men under 25. Apparently, "they get too overexcited and just run around the place chasing orgasms. "The club does have some young women members though: "They call themselves 'nymphs'. These girls say that they need massive amounts of sex, but don't want the hassle of relationships. Some of these girls have 'parties' with multiple men at once on a weekly basis."
Leif adds: "A friend of mine said that he thinks every couple should try swinging at least twice. The first time can be a bit of a shock, so the second visit is a must."
(Source: http://www.thelocal.se)
Gaza children go back to school with scars of war
BEIT LAHIYA, Gaza Strip: Gaza's children returned to school yesterday for the first time since Israel's massive offensive, many having lost family members, homes and their sense of security. The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) reopened all of its 221 schools, which educate some 200,000 Palestinians in the territory and provided shelter to tens of thousands of people during the fighting.
Public schools operated by the Hamas-run government also reopened. At the UN-run Beit Lahiya primary school the children swarmed into the wide courtyard with their oversized backpacks, noisily running and playing beneath an upper-storey classroom scorched by an Israeli shell. The compound was struck a week ago and set alight, sparking panic among the 1,600 people who had gone there seeking shelter. Two boys, five and seven years old, were killed and around a dozen people wounded, including their mother, whose legs were cut off, according to the UN.
It was one of three schools sheltering displaced people hit by Israeli fire during the war. At another UN-run school nearby more than 40 people were killed by Israeli shelling on January 6. The Israeli military said it had taken fire from in or near each of the buildings, but UN chief Ban Ki-moon called the attacks "outrageous" and demanded those responsible be held to account.
As the hundreds of children were slowly brought to order it soon became clear that many of them bore the unseen wounds of the war, in which more than 1,330 Palestinians were killed, nearly a third of them children. "Come forward if your mother or father was martyred," headmaster Riad Maliha announced through a megaphone to the classes lined up outside for morning assembly. "Come forward if your house was destroyed.
More than 20 students walked to the front to register with UN officials so their families could receive aid, including Anas Abbas, a shy 12-year-old boy. "They destroyed our house and killed five of my neighbors. The Jews came very close to us," he said, his brown eyes looking away. Like the other children, he renders his experiences in one-word answers and simple sentences, keeping most of what he has seen to himself.
Maliha says the first few days of school will be given over to counselling, with teachers trying to help the children express themselves. "In the classes the teachers will encourage them to talk about what happened, or to draw pictures or to write about it," he said. UNRWA, which provides basic aid and services to most of the 1.5 million people living in Gaza, employs some 200 counsellors and is looking to recruit more in the wake of the war. "Imagine what the conversations are going to be like," UNRWA spokesman Christopher Gunness said. "There are going to be thousands of traumatised children coming to school today.
On the upper floor of the school the children drift in and out of the burned-out classroom, chalk graffiti scribbled on its blackened walls and charred blankets and broken desks littering the floor. In the classroom next door the teacher invites the children to come up to the front and tell their stories. The first boy to volunteer recalls when the house next to his was blown up. "The door was dancing. The windows were dancing," he says as the other children break into laughter.
Khitam Aziz, the school counsellor, says the children ask about the scorched classroom upstairs and the holes in the walls left by artillery rounds. "They ask me why they shelled the school, and tell me they worry it will be attacked again," she says. "But we tell them the Jews will not attack the school. They should feel safe. They should play.
Half of Gaza's population is under 18 years of age and more than 80 percent of its people rely on UN food aid. Both Israel and Hamas declared unilateral ceasefires last Sunday and Israeli troops had completely withdrawn by Wednesday. But vast swathes of the territory have been left in ruins, including thousands of homes.
( original source: AFP)
Rockers invite fans to remix new video
Alternative rock band Hoobastank is using its single "My Turn" to give fans their turn at being music video directors. In addition to the regular broadcast clip for the song - the lead track from Hoobastank's fourth Island album, For (N)ever, due 27 January created an interactive version of the video that allows viewers to mix and match a variety of personalities to perform the song.
Many are the four members of the band themselves, performing in a series of costumes. Others include bikini-clad models, senior citizens, frontman Doug Robb's mother and father-in-law, and members of the production crew.
The video, housed at myturn.hoobastank.com and linked from the band's official website and MySpace page, also lets users personalize the clip by uploading their own backgrounds.
"It's starting to tap into new territory of what interactive music video is going to be," says director Brown, who worked with programmer Daniel Kim from Deep Fried Productions, whose clients have included M.I.A., Gwen Stefani and Nine Inch Nails. "We're at an early stage in technology where we can start to offer these kinds of choices for people online."
Robb, who credits Hoobastank manager Jordan Berliant with the interactive concept, says the group wanted to "take advantage of the medium... to do stuff you can't do on a TV video. Basically you'll never see the same video twice."
Many are the four members of the band themselves, performing in a series of costumes. Others include bikini-clad models, senior citizens, frontman Doug Robb's mother and father-in-law, and members of the production crew.
The video, housed at myturn.hoobastank.com and linked from the band's official website and MySpace page, also lets users personalize the clip by uploading their own backgrounds.
"It's starting to tap into new territory of what interactive music video is going to be," says director Brown, who worked with programmer Daniel Kim from Deep Fried Productions, whose clients have included M.I.A., Gwen Stefani and Nine Inch Nails. "We're at an early stage in technology where we can start to offer these kinds of choices for people online."
Robb, who credits Hoobastank manager Jordan Berliant with the interactive concept, says the group wanted to "take advantage of the medium... to do stuff you can't do on a TV video. Basically you'll never see the same video twice."
Saturday, January 24, 2009
One of the world's oldest YouTube stars
Vatican City: Pope Benedict on Friday became one of the oldest people to have his own YouTube channel, and he cautioned the young to use new media wisely and to avoid on-line obsession that can isolate them from real-life.
The Vatican channel, www.youtube.com/vaticanit, will broadcast short video news clips on the 81-year-old pope's activities and Vatican and church events, with audio and text initially in English, Spanish, German and Italian.
The video news clips will be about two minutes long each day. They will be produced by the Vatican's television centre and journalists and web managers of Vatican Radio.
The launch of the channel was combined with the release of the pope's message for the Church's World Day of Communications, whose theme is "New Technologies, New Relationships: Promoting a Culture Respect, Dialogue and Friendship."
Henrique de Castro, managing director of European sales and media solutions for Google, which owns YouTube, told a news conference Google would not make any money from the venture. "Our strategy is to get people to come to our sites," he said.
The YouTube channel will have no advertising and provide links to a number of Vatican and Catholic websites and video channels, including some run by churches around the world. The channel marked the Vatican's deepest plunge into new media. The Vatican's website, www.vatican.va, began in 1995.
Archbishop Claudio Celli, head of Vatican communications said the Vatican could not exclude that someday it would have its own space on Facebook, the social networking site.
In his welcome message to users of YouTube, the pope said he hoped the initiative would be put to "the service of the Truth." In his separate, written message for the Church's communications, he cautioned young people to seek quality and not quantity in their online relationships and not to forget human contact.
"It would be sad if your desire to sustain and develop on-line friendships were to be at the cost of our availability to engage with our families, our neighbors and those we meet in the daily reality of our places of work, education and recreation," the pope wrote.
"If the desire for virtual connectedness becomes obsessive, it may in fact function to isolate individuals from real social interaction while also disrupting the patterns of rest, silence and reflection that are necessary for healthy human development," he said. The pope also said it would be "a tragedy for the future of humanity" if a so-called digital divide were allowed to widen to the point where it excluded disadvantaged areas of the world that are already economically and socially marginalized.
(original source: Reuters)
The Vatican channel, www.youtube.com/vaticanit, will broadcast short video news clips on the 81-year-old pope's activities and Vatican and church events, with audio and text initially in English, Spanish, German and Italian.
The video news clips will be about two minutes long each day. They will be produced by the Vatican's television centre and journalists and web managers of Vatican Radio.
The launch of the channel was combined with the release of the pope's message for the Church's World Day of Communications, whose theme is "New Technologies, New Relationships: Promoting a Culture Respect, Dialogue and Friendship."
Henrique de Castro, managing director of European sales and media solutions for Google, which owns YouTube, told a news conference Google would not make any money from the venture. "Our strategy is to get people to come to our sites," he said.
The YouTube channel will have no advertising and provide links to a number of Vatican and Catholic websites and video channels, including some run by churches around the world. The channel marked the Vatican's deepest plunge into new media. The Vatican's website, www.vatican.va, began in 1995.
Archbishop Claudio Celli, head of Vatican communications said the Vatican could not exclude that someday it would have its own space on Facebook, the social networking site.
In his welcome message to users of YouTube, the pope said he hoped the initiative would be put to "the service of the Truth." In his separate, written message for the Church's communications, he cautioned young people to seek quality and not quantity in their online relationships and not to forget human contact.
"It would be sad if your desire to sustain and develop on-line friendships were to be at the cost of our availability to engage with our families, our neighbors and those we meet in the daily reality of our places of work, education and recreation," the pope wrote.
"If the desire for virtual connectedness becomes obsessive, it may in fact function to isolate individuals from real social interaction while also disrupting the patterns of rest, silence and reflection that are necessary for healthy human development," he said. The pope also said it would be "a tragedy for the future of humanity" if a so-called digital divide were allowed to widen to the point where it excluded disadvantaged areas of the world that are already economically and socially marginalized.
(original source: Reuters)
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.
An atheist UK bus campaign which uses the slogan "There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life" was launched earlier this month following fund-raising by the British Humanist Association.
Featuring on 200 bendy buses in London and 600 other vehicles in England, Scotland and Wales, they were backed by high profile atheists, including Professor Richard Dawkins.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said it would not be further investigating any complaints about the campaign, which was launched on British buses and the London Underground on the 6 January.
While some of the complaints claimed the adverts were offensive and denigrated people of faith, others challenged whether they were misleading because the advertiser would not be able to substantiate its claim that God "probably" did not exist.
Although the watchdog acknowledged the content of the campaign would be at odds with the beliefs of many, it concluded that it was unlikely to mislead or to cause "serious or widespread offence".
Last week, Christian bus driver Ron Heather, from Southampton, Hampshire, refused to drive one of the buses carrying the atheist slogan and walked out of his shift in protest.
The campaign made me think of how easier things would be if people would just chill. I think people in the Middle East in particular and the world in general are so boiled up about their own perception of God and his teachings (punishment, after life, God's promise land, etc.) that it has blinded them from truly experiencing their humanity.
If we look at the atrocities of Gaza, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Iraq, Kuwait, Darfour, etc. only one thing is evident and that is 'intolerance'.
It is true.. Maybe it is easier to pretend there is no God and start living life as human beings regardless of religion. Can this solve all the problems we are facing in the Middle East and the rest of the world, well I'm not sure but at least we can try!
A CALL FOR SHOES
As part of my new installation in May, I am asking people to give me their shoes (old, new, etc.) that they would like to throw on someone or something.
For those who live in other countries, their contribution is essential and therefore I have set up this space on my blog (comments section) for your input. I would like you to send me the names of the person(s), thing, etc. you would like to throw the shoes on and I will use this information on shoes gathered.
Please help me to round up the names and thank you for your support.
Cheers
/Hibz
For those who live in other countries, their contribution is essential and therefore I have set up this space on my blog (comments section) for your input. I would like you to send me the names of the person(s), thing, etc. you would like to throw the shoes on and I will use this information on shoes gathered.
Please help me to round up the names and thank you for your support.
Cheers
/Hibz
China blocks 244 new websites in porn crackdown
Beijing: China has blocked 244 new pornographic websites over the last week, the official Xinhua news agency said, bringing teh total number of sites shut down in a campaign against 'vulgar' content to over 700. Many of the targeted websites were unregistered and broke laws about distribution of sexual content, the report said. China promised last week that the campaign, which Xinhua said is scheduled to last a month, will be no 'flash in the pan'. It has been extended to cover content in mobile phone games, online novels and radio programmes.
Google, Baidu and other major websites have also been given a public dressing down for not being quick enough to wipe out targeted content, and outspoken blogging portals shut down for posting 'politically harmful information'. The internet crackdown has been described by analysts as another step in the Communist Party's battle to stifle dissent in a year of sensitive anniversaries, including the 20th anniversary of the government's bloody crackdown on the pro-democracy Tiananmen Square protests in 1989.
Google, Baidu and other major websites have also been given a public dressing down for not being quick enough to wipe out targeted content, and outspoken blogging portals shut down for posting 'politically harmful information'. The internet crackdown has been described by analysts as another step in the Communist Party's battle to stifle dissent in a year of sensitive anniversaries, including the 20th anniversary of the government's bloody crackdown on the pro-democracy Tiananmen Square protests in 1989.
Iranian woman to be whipped not stoned for adultery
Tehran: Iran's judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahrudi has commuted a sentence of stoning to death handed down to a woman convicted of adultery to 100lashes, a report said yesterday. The woman identified only as 48-year-old Kobra N, was convicted of being an accessory to the murder of her husband and engaging in an adulterous relationship, the daily Etemad Melli newspaper reported. She was sentenced to eight years in prison for the first crime and stoning to death for the second.
The report said the woman served the eight-year jail sentence and was kept in prison for another five years awaiting the sentence of stoning to be carried out. It added that her husband, a drug addict, had forced her into prostitution. The murderer, identified as Habib A, has been freed after serving a 10-year jail term.
According to the newspaper, Ayatollah Shahrudi's decision to spare the woman leaves nine other people, seven women and two men, in Iranian prisons awaiting execution by stoning.
Iran's judiciary last week confirmed two men had been stoned to death for adultery in the northeastern city of Mashhad in December while a third struggled from teh stoning hole and escaped with his life. Under Iran's Islamic law, adultery is still theoretically punishable by stoning which involves the public hurling stones at the convict buried up to her shoulders. Convicts are spared if they can free themselves. Aside from December's stonings in Mashad, five Iranians have reportedly been stoned to death in the past four years despite a 2002 directive by Ayatollah Shahrudi imposing a moratorium on such executions.
In August, the judiciary said it had scrapped the punishment in Iran's new Islamic penal code, whose outlines have been adopted by parliament but whose details are yet to be debated by MP's before final approval.
How can someone react to such piece of information? Do we say oh thanks God, good for them its whipping and not stoning? Or maybe thank you Mr. Shahrudi for sparing the women the stoning? Or maybe thank you to that editor from Etemad Daily that reported the adultery in the first place?
I don't get this. We live in the 21st century and there are still people, regimes, laws that think they are the one true reality and somehow try to substitute God on Earth. What is the goal behind such laws, regimes, etc.? Is it trying to clean up humanity from its flaws or maybe vacuuming all the dirt from our societies? Who gave them the right and what happened to the non-blind folded people of this earth?
(original source AFP)
The report said the woman served the eight-year jail sentence and was kept in prison for another five years awaiting the sentence of stoning to be carried out. It added that her husband, a drug addict, had forced her into prostitution. The murderer, identified as Habib A, has been freed after serving a 10-year jail term.
According to the newspaper, Ayatollah Shahrudi's decision to spare the woman leaves nine other people, seven women and two men, in Iranian prisons awaiting execution by stoning.
Iran's judiciary last week confirmed two men had been stoned to death for adultery in the northeastern city of Mashhad in December while a third struggled from teh stoning hole and escaped with his life. Under Iran's Islamic law, adultery is still theoretically punishable by stoning which involves the public hurling stones at the convict buried up to her shoulders. Convicts are spared if they can free themselves. Aside from December's stonings in Mashad, five Iranians have reportedly been stoned to death in the past four years despite a 2002 directive by Ayatollah Shahrudi imposing a moratorium on such executions.
In August, the judiciary said it had scrapped the punishment in Iran's new Islamic penal code, whose outlines have been adopted by parliament but whose details are yet to be debated by MP's before final approval.
How can someone react to such piece of information? Do we say oh thanks God, good for them its whipping and not stoning? Or maybe thank you Mr. Shahrudi for sparing the women the stoning? Or maybe thank you to that editor from Etemad Daily that reported the adultery in the first place?
I don't get this. We live in the 21st century and there are still people, regimes, laws that think they are the one true reality and somehow try to substitute God on Earth. What is the goal behind such laws, regimes, etc.? Is it trying to clean up humanity from its flaws or maybe vacuuming all the dirt from our societies? Who gave them the right and what happened to the non-blind folded people of this earth?
(original source AFP)
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Gaza: 'No Comment'
As President-Elect Barack Obama vacationed in Hawaii on December 26, stopping off to watch a dolphin show with his family at Sea Life Park, an Israeli air raid besieged the impoverished Gaza Strip, killing at least 285 people and injuring over 800 more.
It was the single deadliest attack on Gaza in over 20 years and Obama’s initial reaction on what could be his first real test as president was “no comment.” Meanwhile, Israel has readied itself for a land invasion, amassing tanks along the border and calling up 6,500 reserve troops.
It was the single deadliest attack on Gaza in over 20 years and Obama’s initial reaction on what could be his first real test as president was “no comment.” Meanwhile, Israel has readied itself for a land invasion, amassing tanks along the border and calling up 6,500 reserve troops.
Another Manic Monday (Dec. 29, 2008)
Monday morning, I leave my flat in the city, jump into my 4x4, put on my Dior shades and drive to work. On my way, my thoughts wander. I think of the up and coming New Year’s party and wonder what I might wear for that. My thoughts of lunch mixed with a bit of Suzy from BBC radio winging about ways to make this credit crisis tolerable were suddenly interrupted by news from Gaza- News that somehow broke the vain mundane and created a parallel reality.
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