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This is so awe inspiring!
Humbling!

And amazing to realize the fact that none of the planets are (or ever can?) get ahead of our star in the direction of its forward motion!

What happens when it slows down, some day?
Would the planets then spiral down right into it and die?
Is motion of the Sun keeping them in their seemingly perpetual orbit?
Are the orbits of these planets shrinking?

Gosh! My head is buzzing!
​سبحان الله

via +Francis Anderson.

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A fantastic GIF on Reddit showing the true orbit of planets. All of a sudden just sitting in my chair at work feels like a rollercoaster ride of epic proportion.

I also feel a little motion sick...

Conflating the subjects of Jews, Judaism & the word Israel is a growing hypocrisy around the world!

    — Judaism is a religion.
    — He who follows Judaism is a Jew.
    — Isreal is an apartheid state illegally occupying the nation of Palestine!
    — Many Jews are against the apartheid state of Israel!
    — Most of Israel's supporters are not Jews!
    — Not all Jews are Zionists!
    — Most Zionists are not Jews!
    — That is a false synonym: Jews ≠ Israeli & Israeli ≠ Jews 
    — Anti-semitism applies to Arabs just as equally!
    — All the founders of the Zionist movement were aetheists!
    — Israel is founded on a religious basis;
        claims to be promised to them by a God the founders reject as
        non-existent!

Apartheid Israel is a toxic threat to the world!

How the Bible Led Me to Islam: The Story of a Former Christian Youth Minister, Br. +Yusha Evans.

Key Points of This Video:
    Introduction [00:00]
    Me before Islam [01:10]
      - Me as a christian
      - My family was extremely conservative

    Sunday school [03:00]
    Me at the youth services [05:00]
    Me reading the bible [11:00]
    Bible claims Noah was an alcoholics [12:41]
    Bible claims that Lut's daughters seduced him [14:56]
    Bible claims that David is an Adulterer & Murderer [16:35]
    Me reading the new Testament [23:59]
      - The bible is full of Monotheism
      - An implicit statement can not override an explicit statement

    Why the crucifixion? [27:28]
    Christian Professor from Bob Jones University shakes my faith [31:34]
    Me looking at other religions [35:44]
    Me getting into a Car Accident [38:10]
    Robbed on gun point? [41:18]
    Me becoming an agnostic [44:13]
    Me reading about Islam [45:22]
      - Me meeting a Muslim
      - Me going to mosque

    Me in the mosque [51:27]
    The Imam doing the Friday Sermon [52:29]
    Friday sermon about not despairing from the Mercy of Allah [54:28]
    Congregation standing up for prayer [56:00]
    Me reading the Quran [58:00]
    Me accepting Islam [1:02:27]
    Millions looking for the truth [1:03:02]
    Islamic Finance & Islamic Real estate [1:04:21]
      - Islam is the solution

    Spread the cure! [1:09:54]
      - Don't put a bucket on your candle

    Conclusion [1:17:02]

http://yushaevans.com/
http://www.yushaevansmedia.com

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...no way!

via +Hector GHF.

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Amazing! 3000 year old Android figurine on display at Shanxi museum in China. Coincidentally, this antique was excavated in 2007, the same year when Android was first unveiled.

Gujarat — Lest_We_Forget_Our_Shame.pdf
http://goo.gl/KTirW (an exhaustive investigative report by Ashish Khetan)

The entire story, a 108-page special issue of Tehelka. The investigation establishes the chilling truth of one of the worst societal ruptures in modern Indian history.

Gujarat Genocide: Reflections on justice and media
http://tehelka.com/gujarat-genocide-reflections-on-justice-and-media/

In Sep 2003 the Supreme Court said they had lost faith in the Gujarat government!

In Apr 2004 the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in open court said that Narendra Modi was like a modern-day nero who looks the other side when helpless children and innocent women are burnt!

Babu Bajrangi's video referenced in the report
http://tehelka.com/video/the-truth-gujarat-2002-babu-bajrangi/

Arvind Pandya's video referenced in the report
http://tehelka.com/video/the-truth-gujarat-2002-arvind-pandya/

...a brilliant interview about the various different multiverse theories that are currently in progress in the present day science community. From Hugh Everett's "Many Worlds" interpretation to "Super Symmetry" to "Quantum Loop Gravity" and ultimately "11 Dimensional Super String Theory".

The most interesting part of this lecture is the discussion about the new emerging theory explaining Dark Energy. It's called "Cosmological Inflation". This being very insightful as it explains Dark Energy as Repulsive Gravity. A stronger form of the traditional Newtonian/Einsteinian gravity that we are use to.

We, as a species, never may be able to answer all the questions or the ultimate question. Why does the Multiverse exist at all. What energy source triggered the Big Bang? But I'm confident in the super intelligent scholars such as Dr Greene are on the case. We are getting so much closer to realizing Einstein's dream — to unify Quantum Theory with Gravity and the large scale reality of space/time.

Other string theory related videos, enjoy:
http://youtu.be/xd8Qbb8T47E
http://youtu.be/xf3ImofdnM4
http://youtu.be/YHNIGcrXaVY

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I follow a lot of people for the sheer serendipity it affords. Needless to say I come across so many internet philosophers that just get it wrong, especially the basics of life, so to speak...

But I don't go about correcting them or the Urban dictionary, or the Wikipedia or anything else (anymore! :-).

But when it's concerning a topic close to heart though, I do tend to respond; even today. Earlier it used to go into lengthy back & fourth rallies.

Not anymore! I voice my opinion, anticipating a couple of their responses, including their coverage in my first comment and leave it at that; unless some insightful truth is spoken and I have to change my position. In which case I acknowledge that fact and further the conversation in that direction.

Otherwise I let that person have the last (wrong) word, leaving the impression that they have won it somehow, only for them to realise the error later in their lives, and only if they are sincere in their quest for knowledge and Truth.

Meanwhile the point lingers on in my own mind, on a back-burner, in my subconscious, testing whatever the hypothesis is. And even if it is weeks, months or even years, I get back with a reply when I learn something that changes my mind or gives new insight into their follies and foibles (if at all)...

It frees one from the debacle of debating proliferating Internet Philosophers! Quite liberating.

#freeYourself #internetPhilosophers #liberateYourself

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I guess we will never sleep again.

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You see, the thing is, if you follow that manifesto with integrity, conviction & sincerity you will be a Muslim!

I know you are surprised; but does it matter?

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[My 2012: The Year I Read 20+ Books]

If there is one thing that happened to you this year, or that you did that could summarize your life in 2012, what would it be? I'd love to hear it. Make a post with "My 2012: The Year I..." and tag it with #my2012 so we can share with each other! 

I hungrily read 20+ books this year, almost all of which were non-fiction. This is the most I've read since I was kid when I spent my summers going to the bookstore every week, devouring stacks and stacks of literature. Starting to feel like myself again. 

If there is nothing else that symbolizes what I've accomplished this year, and the shift in my mindset, it is this. Not sure that anyone else will appreciate or understand the significance of this, but the meaning is personally poignant enough for me that I needed to document it.

2012, you've been a surprising and remarkable year.


#HappyNewYear #my2012  

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The same applies to every religion & creed out there!
I wonder how many will hold up though...

via +Blaine Hall.

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:-D

I found this movie profound!
A must-watch, ignore/skip all the nuidity.

—— EXTRACT, sums it all up ——
  There are two movements now.
  There are the people who […] grab all they can.
  […]
  Then there's the other movement…
  …farmers going out to milk their cows,
  …soldiers reporting for duty,
  …those who believe that life will go on somehow;
  …or just don't know what else to do.

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Never waste a bit of your time...

Mostly, rest is change of work (as in what you're engaged in at any given moment); otherwise take rest by giving your body & brain their needed rest by sleeping well.

That's a principle I've followed for years, and with great results, الحمد لله...

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8 Ways to Develop Concentration and Stay Focused

When you have your plate full, keeping focused isn’t always easy. And when we can’t give our full attention to a task, we can’t give it our best. This can start a cycle of demotivation and non-productivity, unless we pull in the reins and turn it around.
It takes a strong resolve to focus, good motivation, and working smartly to beat distractions. Here are some ways to hone your ability to focus and stay focused on the task at hand:
Read more: http://proms.ly/12Crahh

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The cryptographers behind this innovation may be the only ones who could have pulled it off.

The team includes Phil Zimmermann, the creator of PGP encryption, which is still considered the standard for email security; Jon Callas, the man behind Apple’s whole-disk encryption, which is used to secure hard drives in Macs across the world; and Vincent Moscaritolo, a top cryptographic engineer who previously worked on PGP and for Apple.

Together, their combined skills and expertise are setting new standards—with the results already being put to good use.

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There's a new surveillance-proof smartphone app that is going to FREAK OUT the feds

For the past few months, some of the world’s leading cryptographers have been keeping a closely guarded secret about a pioneering new invention. Today, they’ve decided it’s time to tell all.

    Unhurt 'n Earned
    ———————————
    Wounds all healed; hopes given a chance afresh,
    A smile 'bout to break into a dance... just yet.
    Warm April billow my thawed heart—
    As under cleft ocean with a heave forward.
    
        Up 'n 'bout, up from a worn-down slumber;
        On this earth 'n free as wind unbound — at last!
        Hip — and shoulders above the crowds'—
        'Na flyin', feelin' heart finer than the clouds'.
    
    Insight through a Dense Harmony — a flash;
    A smile 'bout to break in an irony — shabaash!
    With none but Hot Muse to wonder—
    Incisive, shatterin' and smack as a thunder!
    
        Walk out on pity-talking plunderers—
        Into the Lashing Rain; —get undone; —uncraze!
        'Coz if Sense sweeps wide 'n runs deep,
        Know in your heart, 'tis connected yon High; —now sleep.
———————————————————————————————
...do give me your strongest, no-holds-barred critique, please. I will appreciate it.

Wondering how to do ibadah (worship) while playing a sport?

1. Bundling your arrows – Working on your system
A shot consists of actions, emotions and thought. So I needed to develop consistency in these three areas.

2. Repetition is an awesome tool
In order to learn to group your arrows you have to align your body, emotion and thought process into a system: a process which you will repeat with each shot.

3. Get a good teacher
Repetition can be destructive if you repeatedly do something which is wrong.

4. Reinforce positive thinking with each shot
If you’re prone to negative attitudes, archery is ideal to teach you to be positive.

5 ‘Regular and reliable’ gets you ahead
...to deal with a challenging situation you have to have a habit you can rely on and let it work for you.

via +ProductiveMuslim.
.

Is it ok for a German poet to criticise Israel?
World Have Your Say, BBC

What Must Be Said, a poem by the German Nobel laureate Günter Grass, calling Israel's undeclared nuclear might as a threat to world peace, is drawing wide condemnation from Jewish groups and commentators in Germany. Even Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has attacked it. Others, such as Hans, posted on the New York Times; The problem (in Germany mostly) is that you can't criticise Israel's foreign policy without being called anti-semitic.

http://goo.gl/ahFD8; 00:49:36, 22.7MB, mp3 downloadable from bbc.co.uk for 7 days only; if anyone needs it later than that, please let me know in comments...
————————————————————————————————
What must be said
Poem published in the Süddeutsche Zeitung...

Why have I kept silent, held back so long,
on something openly practiced in
war games, at the end of which those of us
who survive will at best be footnotes?

It's the alleged right to a first strike
that could destroy an Iranian people
subjugated by a loudmouth
and gathered in organized rallies,
because an atom bomb may be being
developed within his arc of power.

Yet why do I hesitate to name
that other land in which
for years—although kept secret—
a growing nuclear power has existed
beyond supervision or verification,
subject to no inspection of any kind?

This general silence on the facts,
before which my own silence has bowed,
seems to me a troubling lie, and compels
me toward a likely punishment
the moment it's flouted:
the verdict "Anti-semitism" falls easily.

But now that my own country,
brought in time after time
for questioning about its own crimes,
profound and beyond compare,
is said to be the departure point,
(on what is merely business,
though easily declared an act of reparation)
for yet another submarine equipped
to transport nuclear warheads
to Israel, where not a single atom bomb
has yet been proved to exist, with fear alone
the only evidence, I'll say what must be said.

But why have I kept silent till now?
Because I thought my own origins,
Tarnished by a stain that can never be removed,
meant I could not expect Israel, a land
to which I am, and always will be, attached,
to accept this open declaration of the truth.

Why only now, grown old,
and with what ink remains, do I say:
Israel's atomic power endangers
an already fragile world peace?

Because what must be said
may be too late tomorrow;
and because—burdend enough as Germans—
we may be providing material for a crime
that is foreseeable, so that our complicity
will not be expunged by any
of the usual excuses.

And granted: I've broken my silence
because I'm sick of the West's hypocrisy;
and I hope too that many may be freed
from their silence, may demand
that those responsible for the open danger
we face renounce the use of force,
may insist that the governments of
both Iran and Israel allow an international authority
free and open inspection of
the nuclear potential and capability of both.

No other course offers help
to Israelis and Palestinians alike,
to all those living side by side in emnity
in this region occupied by illusions,
and ultimately, to all of us.
—Günter Grass, Translated by Breon Mitchell

@fynali(on twtr): http://goo.gl/JVTmR

#poem #whatMustBeSaid #günterGrass #undeclaredNuclearWeapons #criticism #hypocrisy

The Petition says, Minister Pawar, Your ministry needs to manage India's precious marine resources sustainably and protect the livelihoods the millions who depend on them.

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The Pomodoro Technique in 2 lines:
- Work uninterruptedly and hyper focused for chunks of 25 minutes (pomodoros). If somebody/something interrupts restart the pomodoro
- Take 5 minutes breaks between pomodoros and a 25 minute break after 4 pomodoros

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A good technique for shaking off that guilty feeling!

Last Friday in Masjid An-Nabawi, Madinah.
Pan ↕↔ for a forward photo sphere view from the 7th saff...

Palestinian land loss: 1946–2000

World Hijab Day
World Have Your Say, BBC

Discussing World Hijab Day. Non-Muslim women around the world are being encouraged to try out life wearing the traditional head scarf. What do you think, does it protect or oppress? How do others react to a woman wearing a hijab?
————————————————————————————————
http://goo.gl/BdqfP [md5sum: 3f205cc4bb9fd7926866e9d8b8a76f09]; 00:58:05, 26.5 MB, skip to 00:06:12 for WHYS; mp3 downloadable from ADrive up to 2013-03-03; if anyone needs it later than that, please let me know in comments...

At O'Reilly Media, we've always published our ebooks DRM free, following the advice of Lao Tzu, who said, 2500 years ago, "Fail to honor people, they fail to honor you." 
—+Tim O'Reilly, Founder, +O'Reilly Media, Inc.

Go, Go!

A quick & brief reason why
argc int, argv *[]byte is better than int argc, char *argv[] !

Getting to love +The Go Programming Language!

#goLang #programming #rediscoveringFun #goodOldDays

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Unbelievable awesomeness!

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Can anyone help?
Hey, +Google, if you're serious about Google Drive, this sort of moves should be a simple thing, right?

Cc: +Teresa Wu +Google Docs

#googleDrive #migrationIssue #howTo #help

One of my favourite movies...
Just watched it one more time! :-)
Have a deko, folks.

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A true master!
This is for +IMTIAZ ALI Moopan, +Naeem Saj, Nihal Mohammed Moopan & +Muhammad Hanan Sajid!
Enjoy!

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TED video of a yoyo master

http://youtu.be/gnuFrtTNUTc

#HolyKaw  

An all-time favourite!

Considering on that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar,” every “supreme leader,” every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known. -Carl Sagan

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Always, always awe inspiring!

One thing I definitely wanna do after my death, is to ask the Lord for a complete, I repeat, a complete unguided tour of the Entire Universe!¡

'coz as a human it's not possible.
Perhaps as a freer soul, it's easier?

via +Jawhar Abdul Jabbar.

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To stand in awe before the Universe

If you want to know what it's like to live inside my head, then simply look at +Ben Canales's photo.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2012/11/22/astrophotographer_takes_stunning_picture_of_the_milky_way_from_a_volcano.html

My uncle, Abdul Rahman, and Mr. Jobs were born in the same year...

The online version of a full page (broadsheet) writeup about him that appeard in +Gulfnews on 8/8/'08!

Capturing the best of 26 years
Photographer recalls some of the most memorable events of a long career.
http://goo.gl/vfWLL

Rahman was born in 1955 in the small historic village of Eriyad in India's most lush province, Kerala. He describes getting into photography as a mistake that has been the best thing for him. "You know, I am a painter and when I was at school in Kerala, I wanted to get a book from the library on painting and the librarian gave me a book on photography by mistake. I was immediately inspired and there began my love for photography," Rahman says.

Not that I have more than one spouse (so far! :-), but I actually identify with a of lot what they're sayin'! Surprisingly similar to what Islam teaches! Except that Isalm does not allow to be married to sisters at the same time...

Give it a listen, quite insightful.
Do sound off with your comments & feedback!
————————————————————————————————
The secrets of a polygamous marriage — meet an American man and his three wives
Outlook, BBC

...what's it like to be in a polygamous marriage? We meet Joe Darger and his three wives — identical twin sisters Vicky and Valerie and their cousin Alina.

They live with their 23 children in a large house outside Salt Lake City, Utah. They say they are part of a group of about 30,000 fundamentalist Mormons who practice polygamy in the USA — even though such behaviour remains to this day illegal. They tell Matthew about their decision to speak out to challenge the suspicion and prejudice which they say they face because of their lifestyle.

http://goo.gl/ggRg4 (MD5: 778501cb12de8ecba6d43a17eb878baa); 00:26:57, 12.4 MB, mp3 download expires on 2012-10-05; if anyone needs it later than that, please let me know in comments...

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Blogger Derek Lowe recalls the furore that greeted Shechtman's claims of five-fold symmetry in metal alloys (quasicrystals):

I was in grad school when the result came out, and I well remember the stir it caused. Just publishing the result took a lot of nerve, since every single crystallographer in the world would tell you that if they knew one thing about their field, it was that you couldn't have something like this.

As it turned out, these issues had already been well explored by two different groups: medieval Islamic artists and mathematicians.

It turns out that what looks like unallowable symmetry in two (or three) dimensions works out just fine in higher-dimensional spaces, and these theoretical underpinnings were actually a lot of help in the debates that followed.

via +*****

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Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2011 – live blog This year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been won by Daniel Shechtman for the discovery of quasicrystals

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!

via +Erwan MACE.

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Our thoughts go to every family who lost a loved one http://virg.in/otg #guncontrol #newtown

Dear friends, please pass this around...
————————————————————————————————
    Jab life ho out of control,
    bodyguard ko bolke do!

Watch the full +Satyamev Jayate show:
Satyamev Jayate - Child Sexual Abuse - 13th May 2012

Do especially watch this part 50:22 with your kids.

Advice for parents about keeping children safe: http://goo.gl/xTP6g
Online advice http://goo.gl/zehZg
.

Consumers have long paid their utility bills with little inkling of how much each device in their home costs to run.

Shwetak Patel has found a better way. The MacArthur Fellow recognized that every device has a unique digital signature that can be detected with simple wireless sensors.

Patel's smart algorithms, combined with a sensor plugged anywhere in a home, inexpensively provide visual feedback allowing consumers to see which devices are the biggest wasters and how to conserve. The family who lives in the Hayward, California, home pictured here, was surprised to learn that digital video recorders eat up 11% of their household power.

Read more from Rick Smolan and Jennifer Erwitt's book: Human Face of Big Data humanfaceofbigdata.com
Two essays taken from the book:
Pulse of the planet by Esther Dyson http://goo.gl/NSHmq
Data Driven by Jonathan Harris http://goo.gl/zrbRi

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...breaks my heart!

We're allowing this by not holding our governments accountable; they're the custodian of our natural resources, our economies, our welfare (we pay taxes, don't we!)

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Smart Streets
Discovery, BBC

Angela Saini explores the revolution taking place in the streets beneath our feet as she reveals the story behind a new urban design movement called shared space.

http://goo.gl/CJsPc; 00:17:58, 8.29 MB, mp3 downloadable from bbc.co.uk for at least a year; if it's not available at the short-link, please let me know in comments...

Cc: +Jawhar Abdul Jabbar; ...you were wondering what next after B. Arch. Urban Development and Planning, right?

The epitome of a most divisive, intolerant, undemocratic & ignorant individual as I've ever seen.

It is a failure of Indian democracy (only one more proof, though) that he lived a free life getting away with such desecration of our constitution!
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Bal Thackeray: On Hitler
"Hitler did very cruel and ugly things. But he was an artist, I love him (for that). He had the power to carry the whole nation, the mob with him. You have to think what magic he had. He was a miracle.... The killing of Jews was wrong. But the good part about Hitler was that he was an artist. He was a daredevil. He had good qualities and bad. I may also have good qualities and bad ones."

Bal Thackeray: On Muslims
"They [Muslims] are spreading like a cancer and should be operated on like a cancer. The... country should be saved from the Muslims and the police should support them [Hindu Maha Sangh] in their struggle just like the police in Punjab were sympathetic to the Khalistanis."

Bal Thackeray: On Hindu Suicide Bombers
"Islamic terrorism is growing and Hindu terrorism is the only way to counter it. We need suicide bomb squads to protect India and Hindus."
————————————————————————————————
Bal Thackeray's hallmark was his spontaneity.
He liked to make statements that shocked and made headlines
on Tehelka, by Kumar Ketkar, Editor, Dainik Divya Marathi http://goo.gl/PS7FZ

    Thackeray used to openly praise Hitler and
    publicly talk against Gandhi and
    non-violence. That used to encourage the
    lumpen and wayward youth to take to
    violence. Many so-called leaders of the
    Shiv Sena, including corporators, MLAs or
    even MPs have such criminal pasts and much
    of their wealth too has come from crime
    covered up by SS politics.

    *    *    *

Turmoil in the Great City: Shahrukh and the Shiv Sena
by Vinay Lal, blogger http://goo.gl/aaw6s

    The Shiv Sena are at it again.  This band
    of troglodytes and common thugs cannot rest
    for more than a few months without causing
    a huge stir.  Many things animate their
    passions, many are their grievances and the
    imagined humiliations that arouse their
    hostility.  They have some steady targets
    against which they fire away at will, but
    there is also an equally steady stream of
    moving targets.  In recent years, their
    most sustained agitations  have been
    against those deemed foreigners, by which
    the Shiv Sena means non-Maharashtrians.
————————————————————————————————
Jai Hind!
Down with those who work to undermine our Integrity!
.

RESHARE:
via +Jessica Paulson .

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Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Always inspiring us...

#activism   #justice   #environment  

This is the first time a technology company
has wished me on the occasion of Êid!
Thank you, #redHat!


                                Ê i d   M u b ä r a k   t o   a l l !

.

An agnostic Jew talking about Islam & Muhammad [s.a.w] to a Muslim audience, and does a great job!

World renowned speaker Lesley Hazleton speaking at the Young Muslim Association's annual Birth of the Holy Prophet [s.a.w] Celebration.

She covers a range of topics focusing around Islam and Muslims in this age, including history and beliefs, media perceptions, radicalization, and insight into human nature.

A must-watch!

Also watch: Lesley Hazleton at TEDxRainier

Updated:
______

Google+ needs keyboard shortcuts! - ASAP

For now the following #keyboardShortcuts are available:

j/k - Go to next/previous post in any stream (even in Sparks)
q - Go to Chat - Search people

The following more are at least needed to make g+ truly shine:

Application
/ then c - search Circles for friends
/ then s - search Sparks (if this is possible)
/ then / - search web (open a minimizable gmail-like google search pop-up within)

Jumping
g then s - Go to Stream
<Shift> + n/p - next/previous in Streams
x - Expand/collapse comments for the particular post
n/p - next/previous comment

g then x - Go to Sparks
<Shift> + n/p - next/previous in Sparks
x - Expand/collapse story for the particular Sparks entry
m - Toggles story as read/unread

g then p - Go to Photos
<Shift> + n/p - next/previous in Photos

g then P - Go to Profile
g then c - Go to Circles

Folks, just make it easy for users: click on any empty space, ready to accept keyboard shortcuts...

Insightful, exciting!

...his exploration of happiness — sharing some surprising tests and experiments that you can also try on yourself.

Watch through to the end for a sparkling Q&A with some familiar TED faces.

Addressing Euthanasia, Assisted suicide & Completed Life!
What do you think, friends?
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When Assisted Death is Legal Part One
Documentary Archive, BBC

It is possible to balance the right of the individual who wants to die with the responsibility of society to protect those who don't? Liz Carr visits Switzerland, Belgium and Luxembourg to find out. http://goo.gl/8XGQQ, 00:23:31, 10.8 MB

When Assisted Death is Legal Part Two
Documentary Archive, BBC

How does it feel to be part of ending someone's life? Liz Carr talks to the doctors and volunteers who conduct assisted suicide and enable people to die. http://goo.gl/XWysT, 00:23:31, 10.8 MB
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mp3s of both the parts are downloadable from bbc.co.uk for at least a year; if it's not available at the short-link, please let me know in comments...

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BS of the highest degree...!

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Did the early Christian clergy perform Same-Sex Marriages?
If there is truth to this, a lot of questions will be asked. If clergy members in the early Christian Churches performed same-sex marriages, that would mean that the Apostle Paul's letters were concerning prostitution and idolatry and not homosexuality as many people are traditionally taught to believe. If there are documents that prove that homosexuality was not condemned, then a major quake would take place in the Christian Church. It would be nice if the Church would do the research and learn to move on to other important subjects instead of constantly talk about same-sex marriages, gays, and premarital sex all the time. Maybe the Church could actually focus on Jesus.

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Love that city! Lived there more than half my life!
Missing it — my home away from home!

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Dubai, the misty city

stunning pictures of this futuristic city

source: http://www.boostinspiration.com and http://sayforward.com

Want to write your story, create a screenplay, block out a storyboard, or create a comic? Put down the text editor, and pick up Celtx. Based on Firefox, Celtx is an all-in-one tool for media pre-production.

Article by +Joe Brockmeier, Citrix Systems, open source cloud computing evangelist (former openSUSE Community Manager).

Apps by Celtx on +Google Play goo.gl/7CqgD celtx.com
You might also be interested in Celtx Edge:
https://www.celtx.com/services.html

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Sad state of affairs!
...every possible pun intended!

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There you go; here's the full video!
Wish we could see Felix's viewpoint all the way!

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Watch the entire video here #LiveJump   #felixbaumgartner  

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THE POMODORO TECHNIQUE by Greg Head, Ep 61

The Pomodoro Technique in 4 lines:
— Work uninterrupted, hyper focused for 25 minutes (a pomodoro)
— If somebody/something interrupts you, restart the pomodoro
— Take 5 minutes breaks between pomodoros
— Take a 15-20 minute break after 4 pomodoros

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A good technique for shaking off that guilty feeling!

http://www.sharia101.org/prophet-muhammad-honored-by-us-supreme-court.php
Here is what the Supreme Court’s website says about this frieze:
The figure [below] is a well-intentioned attempt by the sculptor, Adolph Weinman, to honor Muhammad, and it bears no resemblance to Muhammad. Muslims generally have a strong aversion to sculptured or pictured representations of their Prophet.
        *    *    *
Muhammad (c. 570 - 632) The Prophet of Islam. He is depicted holding the Qur’an. The Qur’an provides the primary source of Islamic Law. Prophet Muhammad’s teachings explain and implement Qur’anic principles.

In the year in which the frieze of Prophet Muhammad was erected, Franklin D. Roosevelt was president, and Charles Evans Hughes was the Chief Justice.

It is not known how the court deliberated on this architectural contribution. No one at that time thought it inappropriate to include Prophet Muhammad as one of the greatest lawgivers of the world at the chambers of the United States Supreme Court. This was despite the fact that American society at that time was not as diverse as it is today. Women had just acquired the right to vote, and Japanese-Americans were about to be sent to concentration camps.

I'll be taking this course prior to starting work on my next start-up.

Course Syllabus
The course is divided into 12 units. We will cover two of them each week:

    1. What is Gamification?
    2. Games
    3. Game Thinking
    4. Game Elements
    5. Psychology and Motivation (I)
    6. Psychology and Motivation (II)
    7. Gamification Design Framework
    8. Design Choices
    9. Enterprise Gamification
    10. Social Good and Behavior Change
    11. Critiques and Risks
    12. Beyond the Basics

Recommended Background
This course is designed as an introduction to gamification as a business practice. No particular technical knowledge or prior coursework are required.

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...stronger hints of the degree of degeneracy that has eaten into their system!

At this rate, a collapse is not a possibility in the distant future!

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Our Government Has Gotten A Bit Scarier

+Arun Natarajan S A friend, +Banda Bakhiet has this query,

"Hi, I'm trying to mount 10TB to one of my Linux servers & it just doesn't see it at all; do you have any idea how to do that?"

Could you help?

Unbelievable! Awesome!

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Beautiful Palestine!

Before 1947 (when the UN just ripped 55% off Palestine and gave it to the Zionists, there was no such thing as 'Israel'. In roughly a year after that, they occupied 75% of Palestine.

In 1948 Israel was created. And so began the illegal occupation that continues.

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I always talk about how I used to live "5 minutes walking distance from the shoreline". This is a picture of Netanya, Israel.

If the photographer would have panned the camera to the left just a bit, you'd see an apartment building where I lived for a while.

₹10.67 lakh crores is ~US$ 194 billion!

A 10.67 lakh crores scam, says the CAG. Between 2004-2009, the Coal ministry, at that time headed by the PM, has caused this massive loss by allocating coal mines to private and public coal corporations at a throw-away price. This loss does not include the forests, wildlife and livelihoods of forest communities destroyed by coal mining.

For over a year now, along with over 90,000 people, I have been asking the Coal Minister to end this mad rush for more coal. They’ve accepted the petitions and said they’d ‘look into the matter’. Instead the government has given a provisional clearance for coal mining in the forests of Mahan, in Madhya Pradesh.

Once Mahan is gone, other forests in Central India will follow suit. We need to get bigger and louder than we have ever been to save these forests and the lives and livelihoods of those who depend on them.

You should ask the Prime Minister to stop all new coal allocations and forest clearances until this scam has been investigated and there is a clear demarcation of areas that shouldn’t be mined.
    —+Greenpeace India 

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...excellent!
Bravo! Great job, +Fridrich Strba.

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I had an experiment in December after http://fridrich.blogspot.com/2012/12/libreoffice-visio-import-filter-20.html

I googled for "OpenOffice+Visio" and for the top 30-40 hits, I looked for a real user question about Visio files support in OpenOffice. As an answer to the real user question on different forums (ask ubuntu, OOo forums, linuxquestions, ...) I politely attracted the users' attention to the fact that LO can handle Visio files.

Those different forums now caused that that particular blog was bumped in two months to the No. 5 most read blogs of mine. It has the particularity that it contains a link to donation to LO and several links to the main LO web page.

I am wondering whether this is not something to actually do systematically. It is an activity that does not require programming skills and is one of the ways to direct people to LO when they google for OOo. And also, they hit a blog explaining a feature before hitting a page of LO, which allows them actually to see that their problem is solved.

Anybody has some spare cycles to do similar for CorelDraw, MS Publisher or other feature blogs from other developer?

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Now, that is an engineer!
...with taste, class & style!

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11 months of work squeezed into 2 1/2 minutes. Love the ending! #stopmotion   #animation  

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Self-confidence is everything, preceded by wisdom, of course.
If you missed this earlier, here's a quick opportunity to amaze yourself!
 

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Unbelievable! Awesome!

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Hmm...
And here we have Apple suing away Samsung and other companies over trivial things!

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http://www.funkyspacemonkey.com/industrial-design-braun-apple

...to strike a balance between limitless free expression and censorship, Prof. Cass R. Sunstein argues that freedom in broadcasting, campaign finance, hate speech, pornography, government funding of the arts, and cases of privacy must go hand in hand with Responsibility and Civility.

This book is a must-read for anyone who thinks seriously about the free speech issues facing this generation.

Below is an interview with the professor talking about Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness http://goo.gl/xV7Vb, on #googleBooks .

Nudge theory in practice
How to change behaviour & society without legislation or regulation!
Analysis, BBC

Governments should incentivise rather than force citizens to behave better, according to the book "Nudge". Author Cass Sunstein explains how governments have adopted his theories.
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http://goo.gl/HzPrW; 00:28:14, 12.9 MB, mp3 downloadable from bbc.co.uk for at least a year; if it's not available at the short-link, please let me know in comments...

A sign of status, symbol of sex, a tool for the oppression of women, perhaps!

But definitely a product of patriarchal culture, makes women crippled, distorts her body causing anatomical & physiological damage, sometimes irreparable!

The Heel
The Why Factor, BBC

Why do tens of millions of women all over the world choose to walk around on stilt like objects called heels? Where did the fascination with elevated footwear come from and what do they tell us about class, power and sex? It may surprise many to hear that high heels were first worn by… men.
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http://goo.gl/8z943; 00:17:56, 8.31 MB, mp3 downloadable from bbc.co.uk for at least a year; if it's not available at the short-link, please let me know in comments…

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"We couldn't solve this problem. It took a generational change, for the next younger group who had been exposed to terminals and computers to grow up," Jeff Hawkins (of Palm) continued. "That was an amazing technology adoption problem you would have never thought about."

But you would have thought of this if technology-adoption analyses more typically included the study of gender and class. And that's why we've long argued that even the most money-hungry, wannabe apolitical technologist needs to understand the role that social power plays in technology adoption.

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The link between sexism and tech adoption is stranger than I could have imagined.

...sitting [is] “the smoking of our generation.” —+Nilofer Merchant

Keyboard Shortcuts for your Chrome Extensions & Apps

— Go to extension-management page: chrome://chrome/extensions/
— Click on Configure commands (bottom right); take it away!
— Remember not to override useful browser shortcuts...

You'll get a dialog like in the image below. Makes things a little bit faster using +Google Chrome.

I have plenty of extensions added to Chrome (I use stable & Canary builds), but I do not keep all of them enabled all the time (takes up memory, you see...)

Nevertheless, I've set up keyboard shortcuts as above; and the shortcuts remain as configured even when you toggle the extension on/off as and when you need them.

Bravo! Chrome!!
.

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Beautiful.
via +vance christian

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And that's Pi in a nutshell.

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That's how climbers rest midway... If I were one like 'em, I'd do the same!

But I'd never dare such a climb! The very thought would kill me! (-:

via +Jawhar Abdul Jabbar .

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Would you do this?

An interesting issue...

UK cut aid to anti-gay countries?
World Have Your Say, BBC

UK Prime Minister David Cameron thinks nations receiving British aid should "adhere to proper human rights", highlighting countries which ban homosexuality.

Do you agree?

http://goo.gl/qPCjS; 00:23:11, 10.6 MB

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via +Aaron Quinn.

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Felix Baumgartner’s Spacesuit
#LiveJump

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Crazy! But I guess it makes more sense & be better managed after all...

Google’s fleet of aircraft included eight private jets spread across Larry Page, Sergey Brin and Eric Schmidt alone, according to news revealed back in December 2011, owned and operated by an independent company formed by the three executives apart from Google. Google almost definitely has more aircraft than that overall at this point, and establishing their own close-to-hand place from which to operate, maintain and store those means of transportation likely just makes more sense at this point than whatever other arrangements they previously had in place.

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When companies are better managed than cities...

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This needs to be shared; spread the word, folks...

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#occupy


ICELAND. No news from Iceland?… why? How come we hear everything that happens in Egypt but no news about what’s happening in Iceland:
…
In Iceland, the people has made the government resign, the primary banks have been nationalized, it was decided to not pay the debt that these created with Great Britain and Holland due to their bad financial politics and a public assembly has been created to rewrite the constitution.

And all of this in a peaceful way. A whole revolution against the powers that have created the current global crisis. This is why there hasn’t been any publicity during the last two years: What would happen if the rest of the EU citizens took this as an example? What would happen if the US citizens took this as an example.

This is a summary of the facts:

2008. The main bank of the country is nationalized.
The Krona, the currency of Iceland devaluates and the stock market stops. The country is in bankruptcy

2008. The citizens protest in front of parliament and manage to get new elections that make the resignation of the prime minister and his whole government.
The country is in bad economic situation.
A law proposes paying back the debt to Great Britain and Holland through the payment of 3,500 million euros, which will be paid by the people of Iceland monthly during the next 15 years, with a 5.5% interest.

2010. The people go out in the streets and demand a referendum. In January 2010 the president denies the approval and announces a popular meeting.
In March the referendum and the denial of payment is voted in by 93%. Meanwhile the government has initiated an investigation to bring to justice those responsible for the crisis, and many high level executives and bankers are arrested. The Interpol dictates an order that make all the implicated parties leave the country.

In this crisis an assembly is elected to rewrite a new Constitution which can include the lessons learned from this, and which will substitute the current one (a copy of the Danish Constitution).

25 citizens are chosen, with no political affiliation, out of the 522 candidates. For candidacy all that was needed was to be an adult and have the support of 30 people. The constitutional assembly starts in February of 2011 to present the ‘carta magna’ from the recommendations given by the different assemblies happening throughout the country. It must be approved by the current Parliament and by the one constituted through the next legislative elections.

So in summary of the Icelandic revolution:
-resignation of the whole government
-nationalization of the bank.
-referendum so that the people can decide over the economic decisions.
-incarcerating the responsible parties
-rewriting of the constitution by its people

Have we been informed of this through the media?
Has any political program in radio or TV commented on this?
No! The Icelandic people have been able to show that there is a way to beat the system and has given a democracy lesson to the world

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Have a sad listen; a gentle reality check!

Assignment: America's Poor
Documentary Archives, BBC

The BBC's Hilary Anderson examines what it means to be poor, in the richest country in the world.

http://goo.gl/Q83dX; 00:23:34, 10.8MB, mp3 downloadable from bbc.co.uk for at least a year; if it's not available at the short-link, please let me know in comments...

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Seen this before; but a must-share health info, always! I'd hate for my kid to be hooked on this shit.

via +Chris Messina.

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This is what happens to your body within one hour of drinking a can of soda.

10 minutes: 10 teaspoons of sugar hit your system, which is 100 percent of your recommended daily intake. You'd normally vomit from such an intake, but the phosphoric acid cuts the flavor.

20 minutes: Your blood sugar skyrockets. Your pancreas attempts to maximize insulin production in order to turn high levels of sugar into fat.

40 minutes: As your body finishes absorbing the caffeine, your pupils dilate, your blood pressure rises, and your liver pumps more sugar into the bloodstream. Adenosine receptors in your brain are blocked preventing you from feeling how tired you may actually be.

45 minutes: Your body increases dopamine production, causing you to feel pleasure and adding to the addictiveness of the beverage. This physical neuro response works the same way as it would if we were consuming heroin.

60 minutes: The phosphoric acid binds calcium, magnesium and zinc in your lower intestine, which boosts your metabolism a bit further. High doses of sugar and artificial sweeteners compound this effect, increasing the urinary excretion of calcium. The caffeine’s diuretic properties come into play. (You have to GO!) Your body will eliminate the bonded calcium, magnesium and zinc that was otherwise heading to your bones. And you will also flush out the sodium, electrolytes and water. Your body has eliminated the water that was in the soda. And in the process it was infused with nutrients and minerals your body would have otherwise used to hydrate your system or build body cells, bones, teeth.

The sugar crash begins. You may become irritable and/or sluggish. You start feeling like crap. Time to grab another?

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Timeless...
Point to note, +Margie Hearron.

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Hey guys, thought you might like this.  I created it to set as my Facebook "cover" image...

I encourage you all to use it and share it with others!