Saturday, December 31, 2011
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Muslim condmemnation of violence
Muslims Stand Up Against the Horrific Attacks Against Christians in Nigeria
This
article, written by a Muslim believer and columnist, condemns violence
against Christians (and all believers) on Islamic grounds, including
scriptural references for the writer's position drawn from the Qur'an
Amplify’d from www.huffingtonpost.com
It
is those who truly know the religion of Islam who, despite our
differences, engage in peaceful dialogue and wholeheartedly forsake acts
of violence like this. As dedicate worshippers we recognize that an
injustice in one part of the world is never validated by another
injustice. Human life is sacred and it is never acceptable to take a
person's life to promote a political agenda.
Read more at www.huffingtonpost.com
Putting on a good face
Putting on a good face
Saving face?
Why am I not surprised that this was invented in Japan?
Halloween huh?
Saving face?
Why am I not surprised that this was invented in Japan?
Halloween huh?
Amplify’d from theweek.com
1. The disturbingly accurate mask of your own face
A Japanese startup called REAL-f began selling "three-dimensional photo forms," or frighteningly realistic masks of human faces made from a chloride resin modeled on several photos of a person's face taken from a variety of angles and positions. (See some samples here.) If you have a spare $4,000, said Mariella Moon at Tecca, it's essentially "the best Halloween mask ever."
A Japanese startup called REAL-f began selling "three-dimensional photo forms," or frighteningly realistic masks of human faces made from a chloride resin modeled on several photos of a person's face taken from a variety of angles and positions. (See some samples here.) If you have a spare $4,000, said Mariella Moon at Tecca, it's essentially "the best Halloween mask ever."
The formal end of Bachman
Michelle Bachman has been toast for a long time already, but her comment on defector Sorenson marks the official end of her bid.
Politics is politics. There comes a time in the path of each novice hopeful in which they reveal that they are unfamiliar with the nature of politics in big leagues.
In the case of odd-ball and spoiler Ross Perot, he goofily blurted that opponents darkened his daughter's wedding. That was the end of Perot. It was as much as saying "Hi, I know nothing about politics. Vote for me"
Here Bachman makes the absurd declaration that her boy bailed out for money. Good night Ms. Bachman. Please give us a call if you are interested to know any other realities about politics in the big leagues.
Some things are known. Some things are not said.
Politics is politics. There comes a time in the path of each novice hopeful in which they reveal that they are unfamiliar with the nature of politics in big leagues.
In the case of odd-ball and spoiler Ross Perot, he goofily blurted that opponents darkened his daughter's wedding. That was the end of Perot. It was as much as saying "Hi, I know nothing about politics. Vote for me"
Here Bachman makes the absurd declaration that her boy bailed out for money. Good night Ms. Bachman. Please give us a call if you are interested to know any other realities about politics in the big leagues.
Some things are known. Some things are not said.
Amplify’d from www.thedailybeast.com
Monday, December 19, 2011
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Youcef Nadarkhani of Iran to serve another year in prison
The Qur'an itself does not prescribe any earthly punishment for apostasy; Islamic scholarship differs on its punishment, ranging from execution – on an interpretation of certain hadiths – to no punishment at all as long as they "do not work against the Muslim society or nation."
Amplify’d from www.religionnewsblog.com
TEHRAN, IRAN (BosNewsLife)– Iranian pastor Youcef Nadarkhani has to serve at least one more year in prison before he may be executed for refusing to abandon his faith in Christ and return to Islam, an official assisting him has said.
Iran’s judiciary wants to use that time to “use whatever means necessary to cause him to convert to Islam”, explained Jason DeMars, director of advocacy group Present Truth Ministries (PTM).
“The order was to not issue a verdict and hold Youcef in prison,” DeMars quoted an attorney of the pastor as saying. The court was told “to use whatever means necessary to cause him to recant and return to Islam,” DeMars added.
The 34-year-old Nadarkhani, who has a wife and two children, was detained in his home city of Rasht in October 2009 while trying to register his house church.
Nadarkhani was eventually found guilty of “apostasy”, or abandoning Islam, in September 2010 and sentenced to death by the Rasht court.
In June this year Iran’s Supreme Court did not overturn the ruling but instead asked the Rasht court to “re-examine” whether the pastor was a practicing Muslim before he became a Christian at age 19.
Nadarkhani told the court however that he would remain faithful to Christ, said an official of the Church of Iran house church movement.
“Pastor Youcef was [therefore] four times invited [by the court in the northwestern city of Rasht] to recant [his faith] in Christ in order to avoid the execution,” explained Firouz Khandjani, a council member of the pastor’s Church of Iran movement to BosNewsLife earlier.
“He answered that he will not,”Khandjani said.
See this Amp at http://bit.ly/tduryi
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Hunger in America
(US 2011 military spending: $1.030–$1.415 trillion)
Amplify’d from www.reuters.com
Half of those asking for emergency food assistance were people in families, while 26 percent were employed. The elderly accounted for 19 percent, with the homeless making up the remaining 11 percent.
About 24.4 million Americans are either out of work or underemployed and employment remains 6.3 million jobs below its level in December 2007 when the recession started.
According to government data, a record 49.1 million Americans were living in poverty in 2010.
See this Amp at http://reut.rs/tvHhzi
Sunday, December 11, 2011
US and Pakistan - question of national sovereignty
An area where we can ill afford to be so unwelcome
Amplify’d from www.nytimes.com
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The Central Intelligence Agency has vacated an air base in western Pakistan that it had been using for drone strikes against militants in the country’s tribal areas, the Pakistani military said on Sunday.
Pakistan had ordered the C.I.A. to leave the Shamsi air base in protest over NATO airstrikes that killed at least 25 Pakistani soldiers near the border with Afghanistan on Nov. 26. Pakistan has also blocked all NATO logistical supplies from crossing the border into Afghanistan since the clash.
Pentagon and Obama administration officials declined to comment publicly on the departure from the Shamsi air base.
See this Amp at http://nyti.ms/vdgPBq
Monday, December 5, 2011
Stanford University offers free on line courses
Openculture.com covers more on these matters, not only this good news from Stanford.
Amplify’d from www.openculture.com
Courses start in January and February. Enroll today for free. And, if something doesn’t pique your interest below, don’t miss our big list of 400 Free Online Courses.
See this Amp at http://bit.ly/teKaAY
Sunday, December 4, 2011
US - no official response to killing Pakistani soldiers
Is there something a bit odd about killing people and then calling their friends and family on the phone to express condolences?
Amplify’d from edition.cnn.com
(CNN) -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke Saturday with Pakistan's prime minister, the latest bid to address strained relations between the two nations exactly one week after 24 Pakistani soldiers were killed inadvertently in an NATO airstrike.
NATO later called the subsequent mass casualties caused by the strike "tragic (and) unintended." Clinton and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta have called the incident a "tragedy" and offered condolences, though Washington has not issued a formal apology.
No such apology came in Saturday's phone conversation, according to a statement from the U.S. State Department.
Clinton "once again expressed condolences to the families of the soldiers and to the Pakistani people for the tragic and unintended loss of life," the statement said.
"She reiterated America's respect for Pakistan's sovereignty and commitment to working together in pursuit of shared objectives on the basis of mutual interest and mutual respect."
During an exclusive interview Monday with CNN, Gilani said the country wants to maintain its relationship with the United States as long as there is mutual respect and respect for Pakistani sovereignty.
Asked directly if Pakistan is getting that respect, the prime minister said: "At the moment (it is) not."
"If I can't protect the sovereignty of my country, how can we say that this is mutual respect and mutual interest?" he asked rhetorically.
See this Amp at http://bit.ly/tO4Q81
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Why is Hillary Clinton in Myanmar
Amplify’d from www.miamiherald.com
BEIJING --
As Hillary Rodham Clinton visited Myanmar on Wednesday, the neighbors were watching closely.
"We are quite uncertain what kind of role the U.S. is going to play in Myanmar," said Zhu Feng, an international relations expert at Peking University. "Myanmar will be a test for American policy toward China."
The concerns underline the complexity of relations between the United States and China. On one hand are economic ties that include more than $457 billion in trade last year and China's holding of more than $1.1 trillion in American Treasury debt.
It's "part of the grand policy adjustment by the U.S. to reconsolidate its presence in the Asian Pacific, and its main driving force is concern about China," said Wang Yong, a professor of foreign relations and the director of the Center for International Political Economy at Peking University.
See this Amp at http://bit.ly/vYGYSm
Beautiful Mosques in the world
This is a slide show
Amplify’d from www.huffingtonpost.com
Europe's great churches were built centuries ago and the great monuments of Judaism are almost invariably antique, but massive, eye-catching Mosques have bloomed all over the world during the last several decades thanks to funding provided by the oil rich and royal. These magnificent structures praise God with their architectural elation, soaring towers, onion domes and brilliant coloring. They aslo draw inspiration from the architectural traditions of the places they've been constructed, from Brunei to Arabia.
See this Amp at http://huff.to/vMvG07
Thursday, November 24, 2011
World's lightest material
Developed in California
Amplify’d from theweek.com
A team of researchers from UC Irvine, HRL Laboratories, and the California Institute of Technology claim to have created the "world's lightest" material. The findings, published in the Nov. 18 issue of the journal Science, say that the material is 100 times lighter than styrofoam, and capable of sitting atop a feathery dandelion without dispersing its seeds. Here's how it works:
Microlattice, reportedly the world's lightest material, is made of interlocking hollow nickel tubes that are each 1,000 times thinner than a human hair. Photo: Dan Little © HRL Laboratories, LLC.
See this Amp at http://bit.ly/sxjOJr
Monday, November 21, 2011
Continued clashes in Cairo's Tahrir Square
3rd day - More deaths
Amplify’d from www.bbc.co.uk
Clashes have again erupted in the Egyptian capital as security forces continue their efforts to clear Cairo's Tahrir Square of protesters.
At least 20 people are reported to have died since the violence began on Saturday with hundreds more injured.
Some 1,750 people have also been reported injured in clashes across the country.
See this Amp at http://bbc.in/v9pXC1
Attacks on Capital: A New Phase for Syria
Amplify’d from www.nytimes.com
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Insurgents fired rocket-propelled grenades at the offices of the ruling Baath Party in Damascus on Sunday in a highly symbolic strike that signaled a new chapter in the eight-month uprising against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad.
It was the second attack in days in the capital, which had so far largely been spared the unrest in other cities.
The Free Syrian Army, an insurgent group made of defecting soldiers and based in southern Turkey, claimed responsibility for both attacks.
See this Amp at http://nyti.ms/v7PCWl
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Egypt protesters flee security in Tahrir Square
Amplify’d from edition.cnn.com
Cairo (CNN) -- Hundreds of Egyptian army and police forces pushed into Cairo's Tahrir Square Sunday, making thousands of demonstrators flee in the face of tear gas and what sounded like live fire.
Clashes had broken out in the square earlier Sunday, the second day of unrest there ahead of the country's elections.
Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets, but before the army joined them later in the day, the situation appeared calmer than on Saturday, when rifts between police and protesters left two people dead in two cities, the health ministry reported.
At least 928 people have been injured from the clashes in Egypt, the health ministry said Sunday.
See this Amp at http://bit.ly/sx3Tqh
Friday, November 18, 2011
Pentagon successfully tests hypersonic flying bomb
Amplify’d from news.yahoo.com
See this Amp at http://yhoo.it/uRrmK8
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Occupy NYC livestream
This site is the live stream for Occupy NYC
Fascinating to watch, the pace of tweets is almost too fast to read
See this Amp at http://bit.ly/s9uOyC
Potential breakthrough for treating cancer
This looks very hopeful. Let's wish these researchers well in their continued efforts.
Amplify’d from www.bbc.co.uk
Protein recycling in the body could be a critical part of tumour formation, researchers believe.
A report in Science Translational Medicine showed that protein recycling was accelerated in more than 30 types of cancerous cell.
When scientists interrupted the process in mice with cancer, the tumours began to shrink.
The recycling process studied was "chaperone-mediated autophagy" (CAM). It is a normal part of a cell's routine, removing damaged goods and recycling the raw materials.
Prof Ana Cuervo, one of the researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, believes cancerous cells are using this process in order to fuel their abnormally rapidly growth.
"Cancer cells seem to have learned how to optimise this system to obtain the energy they need," she said.
When they studied a variety of tissues, including lung, breast and liver, they found the level of CAM activity was higher in cancerous cells than normal ones.
The researchers then used a virus to infect cells with short snippets of genetic material, which would turn off the recycling process.
Using the virus slowed the growth of the tumours in mice with human lung cancers.
Prof Cuervo said it resulted in "dramatic tumour shrinkage and almost complete blockage of metastasis [spreading]".
The scientists believe their findings could lead to an anticancer drug. By finding a chemical which would interfere with the recycling process they hope to be able to mimic the effect the virus had.
See this Amp at http://bbc.in/ssWVjb
UN nuclear agency IAEA seeks high-level Iran visit
Amplify’d from www.bbc.co.uk
The head of the UN nuclear agency, the IAEA, has proposed sending a high-level mission to Iran, to address new fears about a possible military dimension to the country's nuclear programme.
IAEA Director-General Yukiya Amano said there was credible information Iran had carried out activities relevant to the development of a bomb.
He said there might be undeclared nuclear material and activities.
Tehran says its programme is for peaceful purposes.
"Our technical experts have spent years painstakingly and objectively analysing a huge quantity of information from a wide variety of independent sources, including from a number of member states, from the agency's own efforts and from information provided by Iran itself. The agency finds the information to be, overall, credible," Mr Amano said in a statement.
"It is consistent in terms of technical content, individuals and organisations involved, and timeframes. The information indicates that Iran has carried out activities relevant to the development of a nuclear explosive device."
He hoped a date for the visit would be agreed soon, he added.
See this Amp at http://bbc.in/uPx3H4
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
King of Jordan Becomes First Arab Leader to Tell Syria’s Assad to Quit
Amplify’d from www.nytimes.com
BEIRUT, Lebanon — King Abdullah of Jordan added his voice on Monday to the growing pressure on the president of Syria to relinquish power, becoming the first Arab leader on Syria’s doorstep to call for a change in government to end the increasingly bloody political uprising there.
The Jordanian monarch’s remarks, made in an interview with the BBC, came as Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, was still smarting from the Arab League’s unexpectedly strong rebuke over the weekend with its decision to suspend Syria’s membership. Syria also faced additional sanctions imposed Monday by the European Union.
“I believe, if I were in his shoes, I would step down,” King Abdullah told the BBC. “If Bashar has the interest of his country, he would step down, but he would also create an ability to reach out and start a new phase of Syrian political life.”
The United Nations said this month that at least 3,500 people have been killed in Syria since the uprising started in March. The government disputed the death toll and has blamed the unrest on armed groups which it says have killed more than 1,100 soldiers and police officers.
See this Amp at http://nyti.ms/u8iZe4
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Thailand Floods 2011: Ancient Capital Damaged
Amplify’d from www.huffingtonpost.com
Experts fear that at least half of the more than 200 waterlogged monasteries, fortresses and other monuments in the one-time royal capital have been damaged.
Capital of a powerful state for 417 years, seat of 33 kings, Ayutthaya has been described as one of the greatest cities on water ever, with a canal network that measured more than 85 miles (140 kilometers). Built on the flood plain of central Thailand at the confluence of three rivers, it was inundated annually, but its citizens lived in stilt-raised houses and used boats for transport.
Water also defended Ayutthaya, which once held as many as 1 million residents, until a brutal sacking by the Burmese in 1767 forced relocation of the capital to Bangkok, 50 miles (80 kilometers) to the south – where the same floodwaters that inundated Ayutthaya are now nearing the inner city.
See this Amp at http://huff.to/tSqabj
Thursday, November 10, 2011
India and Pakistan PMs pledge 'new chapter'
Let's hope this continues
Amplify’d from www.bbc.co.uk
Pakistan's prime minister and his Indian counterpart have met in the Maldives, pledging to open a "new chapter" between the two nations.
Talks between the two nations were suspended after the 2008 Mumbai (Bombay) attacks which India blamed on Pakistan-based militants.
But earlier this year, leaders vowed to resume their dialogue and find ways to build trust and promote peace.
The two prime ministers held an almost hour-long meeting on the sidelines of the South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (Saarc) meeting in the Maldives, which is being attended by eight heads of government.
"The next round of talks will be more positive, more constructive and will open a new chapter in the history of both countries," Mr Gilani told reporters.
See this Amp at http://bbc.in/tIEi0a
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Op-Ed: Iran and Nuclear Weapons
Iran and Nuclear Weapons
The Tuesday release of the IAEA report comes close to removing all doubt about Iran's nuclear program. More sanctions appear on the way. But will this solve the problem in the long run?
The Tuesday release of the IAEA report comes close to removing all doubt about Iran's nuclear program. More sanctions appear on the way. But will this solve the problem in the long run?
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
U.N. Finds Signs of Work by Iran Toward Nuclear Device
Amplify’d from www.nytimes.com
United Nations weapons inspectors released a trove of new evidence on Tuesday that they say makes a “credible” case that “Iran has carried out activities relevant to the development of a nuclear device” and that the project may still be under way.
The long-awaited report relies on evidence of far greater scope and depth than any the International Atomic Energy Agency has made public before, and represents the harshest judgment the agency has ever issued in its decade-long struggle to pierce the secrecy surrounding the Iranian program. The findings have already rekindled a debate among the Western allies and Israel about whether increased diplomatic pressure, sanctions, sabotage or military action could stop Iran’s program.
Those tests “are strong indicators of possible weapon development,” it said.
See this Amp at http://nyti.ms/s560Gg
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Vulnerability
Most powerful, most vulnerable, fear to initiate escalation.
I would add the special susceptibility to asymmetry
Amplify’d from www.foreignpolicy.com
If cyberwar is such a threat, why is the Pentagon doing so little to prepare for it?
career a few days before retirement, former Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike
Mullen discussed what he sees are the two "existential" threats facing the
United States. After nuclear weapons, Mullen listed cyberattacks, which, he
said, "actually can bring us to our knees."
But a more important argument against a cyberattack was the
desire to avoid setting a precedent that other adversaries could later exploit
against the United States. Similarly, the U.S. government considered
hacking Osama bin Laden's bank accounts but refrained because officials
feared that such an attack could cause investors to lose faith in the
safeguards underpinning the global financial system. The common theme is that the
United States, including its military forces, is among the heaviest users of
computer networks and thus has the strongest incentive to avoid escalating
combat in this domain.
See this Amp at http://bit.ly/rsALDa
The Man Who Knew Too Much
Dark times
Amplify’d from www.foreignpolicy.com
Libyans may be celebrating the killing of
Muammar al-Qaddafi, but you'd better believe that Western governments are
breathing a sigh of relief themselves.
Whether the NATO countries -- who had only a few
years ago welcomed Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi back into the international fold in
exchange for his renouncing his chemical and nuclear weapons programs and
allowing U.S. and British experts to come and help dismantle them -- played any
role in what certainly appeared in first reports from the scene to have been
the summary execution of the Libyan dictator will probably never be known. What
the video evidence does prove is that the Libyan revolutionary forces did not
find him already dead or killed by a NATO airstrike; nor does the initial claim
that he was killed in "crossfire" between insurgent forces and diehard regime
loyalists stand up to even the most minimal scrutiny.
NATO does acknowledge that its planes bombarded
the convoy in which Qaddafi was fleeing the city of Sirte shortly before it was
intercepted on the ground by the insurgents, but it has denied it even knew he
was there. If that is true, and the French, British, and Americans did not try
to make their own luck, then they certainly were very lucky indeed.
much. Taken alive, he would have almost certainly have been handed over to the
International Criminal Court (ICC),
revealed the extent of his intimate relations with French President Nicolas
Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the details of his government's collaboration
with Western intelligence services in counterterrorism, with the European Union
in limiting migration from Libyan shores, and in the granting of major
contracts to big Western oil and construction firms.
cooperation was extensive.
soon falling all over themselves to curry favor with a newly "respectable" Qaddafi.
The Daily Mail reproduced a facsimile
of the letter that, while prime minister, Tony Blair wrote to Saif Qaddafi
to help him with his research for his LSE doctorate.
of many members of his own cabinet, invited Qaddafi to Paris in Dec. 2007, for
an official state visit, the upshot of
which was billions of dollars in contracts from Libya won by French firms.
Paris, or London -- links between Libyan intelligence and the CIA were
particularly strong, as an archive of secret documents unearthed
by Human Rights Watch researchers has revealed.
See this Amp at http://bit.ly/uWnpZm
Friday, October 21, 2011
‘We Came, We Saw, He Died’ Hillary Clinton Reacts To Confirmed News Of Gaddafi’s Death
A Hillary Clinton moment of joy
Amplify’d from www.mediaite.com
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was in the midst of a series of news interviews yesterday when news broke that Muammar Gaddafi had been captured. So press pool cameras were rolling at the very moment that Clinton learned of unconfirmed reports of Gaddafi’s capture, which elicited a stately “wow!” Shortly there after, the same cameras captured the moment she learned that Gaddafi was dead, which had the Secretary of State joyously proclaiming “we came, we saw, he died!”
See this Amp at http://bit.ly/o1k8Qb
US vows to act unilaterally in Pakistan
The public accusation added to tensions in America’s relationship with Pakistan, which plummeted to a new low this year as Pakistan arrested a C.I.A. contractor and American commandoes killed Osama bin Laden deep inside the country in May.
The Obama administration decided to take a harder line with Pakistan in a meeting at the White House on Sept. 29 in the wake of a 19-hour assault on the American Embassy in Kabul by heavily armed insurgents linked to the Haqqani network.
Amplify’d from www.nytimes.com
See this Amp at http://nyti.ms/pk2jwJ
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