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How Comcast blocks your Internet traffic

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 07:23:07 GMT

How Comcast blocks your Internet traffic

Bless the Associated Press for unearthing, through careful and diligent investigation, Comcast's shameful, hidden Internet traffic-management scheme.

Comcast, the AP determined, actively manages data on its network by using software to essentially masquerade as its subscribers' machines. When non-Comcast Internet subscribers request files from your Comcast-connected machine -- as happens in peer-to-peer file-sharing applications -- Comcast's technology steps in and tells the non-Comcast subscriber you're not available... full article here: How Comcast blocks your Internet traffic - Machinist - Salon.com

So, you paid for your high-speed Internet access and you actually thought that that's what you're going to get? Think again...

Stories of covert, underhanded ISP Internet traffic tampering and throttling began surfacing mid-to-late last year. Big national ISPs first denied the allegations, long enough to come out with a "story" having the correct spin as to why it's important for them to "manage" their networks. And of course, by "manage", they meant cheat their customers out of bandwidth that they've rightly paid for.

In any case, this story has come a long way... and the government having found Comcast with its hand in the proverbial cookie jar, they threatened to introduce regulation into the ISP industry. This apparently was enough of a threat for Comcast to soil its underpants and relent under the political pressure and put a stop to its traffic shaping and interference practices. Here is how the story evolved over the past few months:

19-Oct-2007: How Comcast blocks your Internet traffic
http://machinist.salon.com/blog/2007/10/19/comcast/index.html?source=search&aim=/tech/machinist/blog

09-Jan-2008: The FCC examines Comcast's traffic-blocking plan
http://machinist.salon.com/blog/2008/01/09/comcast_fcc/index.html?source=search&aim=/blog

25-Feb-2008: Will the FCC disrupt Comcast's network disruption?
http://machinist.salon.com/blog/2008/02/25/fcc_comcast_rule/index.html?source=search&aim=/blog

27-Mar-2008: Comcast agrees to lift BitTorrent block
http://machinist.salon.com/blog/2008/03/27/comcast_bittorrent/index.html?source=search&aim=/tech/machinist/blog

It's amazing what cooperation and fair business practice that the threat of industry regulation can inspire. :)

FRONTLINE: Bush's War | PBS

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 07:20:14 GMT

FRONTLINE: Bush's War | PBS

On the fifth anniversary of the Iraq invasion, this definitive two-part series draws on FRONTLINE's more than 40 reports on Iraq and the war on terror, as well as fresh reporting and interviews, to examine the lasting legacy of the Bush administration.

The more I think about Dubya, the more I think he's a real son of a Bush.

Caprica is on!

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 07:18:40 GMT

Caprica is on!

Battlestar Galactica prequel gets thumbs-up from Sci-Fi; two-hour pilot will show creation of toasters...err, Cylons.

Sweeet! A possible BSG spin-off to air with a 2 hour pilot. Can't wait!

Microsoft DreamSpark

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 07:18:02 GMT

Microsoft DreamSpark

DreamSpark is simple, it's all about giving students Microsoft professional-level developer and design tools at no charge so you can chase your dreams and create the next big breakthrough in technology - or just get a head start on your career. ...

Free Microsoft Software for Students!! Must be attending a participating University, College, Educational Institution.

This is the REAL thing. This is not beta software, or 30-day limited trial software, or anything tricky like that. These are FULL VERSIONS of professional-grade software made available FREE to students by Microsoft. Hope you find this information useful.

Daily Kos: Essential BBC documentaries not shown on US TV

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 07:15:14 GMT

Essential BBC documentaries not shown on US TV
by Maynard G Krebs

Adam Curtis exposes the public manipulation we sense but usually don't understand. His BBC documentaries are legendary in Britain but practically unknown in the US. An American network executive who wouldn't even let his name be used said "we would be crucified if we showed that here". ...
Daily Kos: Essential BBC documentaries not shown on US TV

I haven't seen many of these, only The Power of Nightmares, and I can vouch that TPON was a damn good series.

Video: "There Is No Energy Crisis, There is a Crisis of Ignorance"

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 07:13:00 GMT

There Is No Energy Crisis, There is a Crisis of Ignorance

Visit http://www.geni.org for more information. A sustainable global energy strategy, first proposed by Buckminster Fuller in 1969, to interconnect the abundant renewable energy resources between nations around the world. ...

One can only hope for a day when this is truly doable and economically and politically expedient.

Cruelty to Animals in the Entertainment Business

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 07:10:55 GMT

Cruel Camera

Twenty-five years ago, Bob Mckeown and a fifth estate crew stunned the country with an investigative report that showed that many of the wildlife documentaries we'd grown up watching on television (remember the famous footage of the lemmings going off the cliff or some of the memorable moments from shows like Wild Kingdom?) were staged for the television cameras. As well, they revealed that animals often died during the making of movies; all for the sake of the entertainment value.
Now, Bob McKeown and an investigative team have returned to the subject to find out what has changed since the fifth estate's first Cruel Camera documentary. What they found may astonish you.

Watch Video here: Cruel Camera - Watch Video : the fifth estate : CBC News

This is an update of a 25-year old video report on the subject of ethical/moral treatment of animals and animal subject matter in the entertainment industry. It's a pretty informative and enlightening report, and not too gruesome for the squeamish. Be sure to also catch the May 1982 video report as well, available as a link in the right side-bar.

The Machine Gun of Capitalism

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 07:07:54 GMT

Published on Wednesday, February 6, 2008 by the San Francisco Chronicle

The Machine Gun of Capitalism
Dead soldiers, peak oil and mind-boggling profits; praise Jesus, the machine’s still working

by Mark Morford

The Machine Gun of Capitalism: Dead soldiers, peak oil and mind-boggling profits; praise Jesus, the machine's still working

Here's what made those brown eyes blue - More health news - MSNBC.com

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 07:03:59 GMT

Here's what made those brown eyes blue - More health news - MSNBC.com

People with blue eyes have a single, common historical ancestor, according to new research.

Isn't science amazing?

Giving up God: A crash course and rapid detox from the 'God' delusion

Tue, 27 Nov 2007 02:27:48 GMT

In response to my all-too-frequent encounters with modern humans whose notions of reality, the world, and our place within it herald from and are steeped in Bronze-Age mythology handed down to us from 2000 to 4000 years ago, I decided it’s time to put together a little refresher course for anyone who’s been away from the science class for a spell too long. I've tried to select content from readily available, and accessible, Internet resources that expound scientifically credible and widely accepted modern explanations of our existence, origin, and evolution.

I compile this material in hopes of helping those with a God addiction get free of religion's distorting influence and get back on the road to rational recovery. Like many twelve-step programs, designed to “help” wean you off of undesirable substances and behaviours and onto Jesus instead, this program is designed to wean you off of Jesus (or other imaginary spiritual saviour) and away from the accompanying intellectually stifling and planetary-endangering beliefs in unfounded, unsupported, supernatural creation myths and their associated irrational adherence to blind faith -- incidentally, a redundant term which stands for a fervent belief in things for which there is, and can be, no evidence. My hopes are to turn you on to the amazing and wonderful world of fact, reality, honesty, and the scientific (ie. undeluded) search for truth.

In a way, I’m evangelizing a different and rational world view to compete with the one that you may have accidentally been born into and which was the result of a sheer accident of birth, for a Christian could just as easily have been born into a Muslim family, thus growing up a Muslim, as could have a would-be Muslim grown up a Jew. For almost the unanimous majority of religious people, they belong to the same “faith” as their parents do. Sociologists tell us, in fact, that there are exceedingly few exceptions to this general rule worldwide. Thus, an innocent and impressionable child may never come to “know” Jesus, Mohammad, Moses, Santa, Easter Bunny or Tooth Fairy without someone first teaching them about these figures, and thus may never grow to “believe” in these figures unless taught so from a very early age. Most of us would agree that a grown adult of 18 or 20 who still fervently believes in Santa or the Easter Bunny arguably has some developmental problems. But why is this not the case also for belief in any of the so-called prophets or saviours? While a child's indoctrination into all sorts of these beliefs often starts with the child’s parents, it is also the parents’ religious institutions, and immersion in a surrounding religious social and cultural milieu that delivers the ultimate coup de grâce to a child's developing sense of natural wonder and budding rationality. Of course, a particularly intelligent and willful child may always try and exercise his free will to reject these early teachings, but such an individual must contend with the repercussions of parental and communal backlash against such rebelliousness as can be seen in the following shining example of the Christian “tolerance” and “love” that we've come to hear about: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8Aq00yJSxo&feature=related

For many reasons, all strongly unscientific and dogmatic ideologies and or other radicalizing systems of belief, particularly those of supernatural and spiritual origin (which are often bounded up in strong emotional attachment and a requirement for suspension of reason and rationality), carry with them an ever-present and menacing potential for oppression, violence, and abuse as history has amply shown. A good resource for exploration of this argument is given in the eloquent book “End of Faith”, by Sam Harris. Book summary: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_End_of_Faith. Read excerpts online here.

The absurdity, non-necessity, fallacy, and dangerous potential of the “God" delusion are exquisitely addressed in many of the works of Richard Dawkins, including but not limited to these of his books:

- “The Selfish Gene” (emphasis on the word ‘gene’, not ‘selfish’; see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Selfish_Gene for overview, or read excerpts of the book for free online here.

- “The Blind Watchmaker” See overview here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blind_Watchmaker. Read excerpts here.

- Or most recently, “The God Delusion” (http://richarddawkins.net/godDelusion,
Watch Richard read excerpts from “The God Delusion” and answer questions to a university audience here.

- For a compelling account of the impressive and vast interrelatedness of all species of organisms, past and present on this blue planet, have a look at the summary for the book “The Ancestor’s Tale” here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ancestor%27s_Tale, or read parts of the book online here.

In his book, “The Devil’s Chaplain” and in reference to Bertand Russell’s proposition of a hypothetical, non-disprovable, invisible celestial teapot orbiting our Sun (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell%27s_teapot) as an analogy for the belief in God, Dawkins had this to say:

The reason organized religion merits outright hostility is that, unlike belief in Russell's teapot, religion is powerful, influential, tax-exempt and systematically passed on to children too young to defend themselves. Children are not compelled to spend their formative years memorizing loony books about teapots. Government-subsidized schools don't exclude children whose parents prefer the wrong shape of teapot. Teapot-believers don't stone teapot-unbelievers, teapot-apostates, teapot-heretics and teapot-blasphemers to death. Mothers don't warn their sons off marrying teapot-shiksas whose parents believe in three teapots rather than one. People who put the milk in first don't kneecap those who put the tea in first.

For a view into the origins and evolutionary basis of our most complex and innate drives and emotions such as love, compassion, sacrifice, altruism, justice, and many more, take a look at “The Moral Animal” by Robert Wright (http://www.scifidimensions.com/Mar04/moralanimal.htm). For some very recent scientific findings on the Evolutionary Psychology basis of “the Golden Rule” take a look here. This is a NY Times Online article, so you might have sign up for a free account to view it.

For lies, bologne and inane metaphysical speculations about how we got to be here, you can read pretty much any of the unintelligent drivel produced by the Intelligent Design or Creationist movements that seem to be unquellable in today's America, promoted by any of the following (woefully incomplete) list of examples from the lying, deceitful cabal of Evangelists and pseudo-intellectuals on the vanguard of the truth-abolition movement:

- The devout gay-hating, atheist-loathing, evolution-denying, (not to mention very creepy) Christian Evangelical minister/hypocrite Ted Haggard, George W Bush’s former best religious buddy.

o And here where Haggard professes to be a wonderful (Christian) person, transformed by his communion with Jesus: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dz6A7_gsq-w

o You can watch Haggard's prophetic rant against gays to young attendees at a bible camp in the excellent but scary documentary “Jesus Camp” (see clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6rSjrBhUIA)

o And witness Ted's fall from grace into the lap of a gay sex scandal amidst charges last year of an ongoing 3-year long relationship with a male prostitute from whom it is alleged that he bought Crystal Meth. Articles here and here and here. Video here.

o And his artful denial/downplay of his moral slip: video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbCRUucI1zk. Pay close attention to the body language of his eyes; they seem to close at the climax of each lie, perhaps to hide his shame. Notice, these are not simple blinks; they are full-on eye closures. Notice the meek, hapless, silent, supportive Christian wife.

o And here where he confesses to being “an evil, deceptive, liar” following his organization's failure to bury the scandal: article http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15536263/

o If that isn’t enough to give you the creeps about this guy, watch him here go after Richard Dawkins like a rabid dog in this clip from the documentary “Root of All Evil?” (video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGrltT54OsA). Haggard claims he has unshakeable evidence for God’s existence from the authority of “a book, written over 1500 hundred years ago, by 40 different authors on 1 subject and which doesn’t contradict itself”).
- For revealing insights on the claims of consistency and the non-contradictory nature of the bible, check out the documentary “The God Who Wasn’t There” (film trailer here; a good clip from the movie here) whose only critics seem to be Christians or Christian Apologists with a bone to pick.
- Also, by comparison, have a look at this compelling alternative hypothesis on the origins of Christian belief, rites, and rituals: “Zeitgeist [Religion]: The Greatest Story Ever Told” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNf-P_5u_Hw). There are 3 parts to this. A transcript w/ source references is available here: http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com/transcript.htm

- The devout, evolution-denying, atheist-loathing, tax-evading-turned-federal-prisoner (and likely gay-hating closet-homosexual) Christian Evangelical hypocrite/minister Kent Hovind. He and his “Creation Science Evangelism” movement have produced some astoundingly messed up explanations of life's origins and the fossil record. People rode Dinosaurs in the Garden of Eve don't you know! The man: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_Hovind and his shame: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=51236.

- The Discovery Institute (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discovery_Institute). The conservative Christian think-tank that brought you Intelligent Design. These are the original Intelligent Design advocates; ID-iots for short.

o The “Center for [attacking] Science and [dumbing down] Culture” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Science_and_Culture)

o The original *ahem* “scientific” voice of the ID-iot movement, Michael Behe, author responsible for the factually-lame and childishly simplistic book “Darwin’s Black Box” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Behe)

o William Dembski (I'll a void an obvious disparaging play on the last name) is another God-loving irrational who thinks we need "more Bible” in math class. He loves cooking, jabbering, walks on the beach, and oh yes, pushing his IDiot anti-science political agenda onto hapless school children. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dembski)

o Phillip E. Johnson, founder of the Discovery Institute and leader of the IDiot village (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phillip_E._Johnson)

- Any one or combination of these weasels: Bill O’Reilly, Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Pat Robertson, and the late Jerry Falwell, to name just a few.

- Or the hopelessly deluded, the likes of Kirk Cameron, Roy Comfort et. al., and their raves about God and bananas. See the idiotic “God’s Banana: An evolutionist’s nightmare” video here. FYI, the earliest edible banana is believed to have been domesticated about 7000-8000 years ago by early tribal cultures in Papua, New Guinea; the banana variety we are most familiar with today is the Cavendish – the type used by Roy Comfort in his God's Banana video. This banana variety is probably no more a 1500 years old, which means God didn’t make it, people did, through selective pollination/breeding (a deliberate and useful form of artificial evolution long exploited by mankind)
Today, there are hundreds of distinct banana varieties in the world, each in a family serving vastly different uses: cooking, beer-making, sweet, roasting, etc.
There are currently 95 distinct varieties of Banana grown in Uganda alone (84 endemic to the region). Now that’s a lot of banana shapes that God has to account for!

Of course, you could always choose to relax and enjoy a read about how Intelligent Design was recently spanked in court in the judicial decision of “Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District” or watch the video documentary of these events at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/id/program.html.

I could go on and on, but the pickings are just too easy and it doesn’t actually get us anywhere. So, without any further ado, let your immersive crash course in science begin:

1. History of the Universe, Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wg1fs6vp9Ok

2. History of the Universe, Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMQk6MveZOE

3. The Story of the Earth: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lN8XXaDrK4A

4. Molecular Biology: The Chemistry of Life:
Origin of life: Self-replicating molecules: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozbFerzjkz4
The amazing power of simple chemistry and electrical atomic interactions: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2kIatxYrws&feature=related and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8lhPt6V-yM&feature=related
Visualization of DNA: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UoKYGKxxMI
Visualization of RNA translation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nl8pSlonmA0
Visualization of DNA replication, DNA->mRNA Transcription RNA->Protein Translation (protein manufacture and assembly from amino acid chains): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkdRdik73kU&feature=related
Visualization of Kinesin (a motor protein) used in intracellular vesicle transport: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TGDPotbJV4

5. DNA Structure: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qy8dk5iS1f0&feature=related

6. Genetic Mutation (as occasionally expected and anticipated by the theory of Evolution): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kp0esidDr-c&feature=related

7. Computer Simulations of genetic Evolution showing speciation by the means of the evolutionary mechanisms of replicator recombination (parental gene mixing), random mutation, and a process of deterministic selection, just like in the wild:
a) A virtual organism (image) that is bred over several generations and which evolves to meet a defined “fitness” criteria for the prescribed environment. The environment favours resemblance to a given South Park character: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2SVMKZhV2g
b) A virtual population of breeding prey organisms adapting to match the changing colour of their environment (ie. camouflage): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeTssvexa9s
c) Evolving a precise, time-keeping virtual clock/watch (complete with gears, hands, and pendulum) using nothing more than elements of Evolution: replication, recombination, mutation, and selection. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcAq9bmCeR0.

8. Means of Artificial, Natural and Sexual Selection:
a) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4FqAUEEv_U (R.I.P. Carl Sagan)
b) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zV7v2H7io8

9. One miracle (of many) of 4.5 billion years of evolution: The human Leukocyte (white blood cell) see brilliant computer-animated video here.

10. The Human Genome Project: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuUpnAz5y1g

11. God and DNA: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXfIop5ZOsY

12. Making peace with the grand truth (this is the only world and only life we have, we must preserve it and use it well):
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShJwq3aPLMk
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxQR6gdd1P0&feature=related

You’ve now completed the 12-step program, and by this point, you should have cast out your childish spiritual beliefs and stopped clinging to your religious delusions and supernatural crutches, and hopefully have begun to accept the healing power of science and reason into your heart and have embraced them as your guiding light and compass going forward in life from here on in. If so, you have my congratulations and future generations’ gratitude for your courage in quashing mindless superstition and irrationality and bringing the world one step closer to true peace. Now, watch this video and begin to feel good about and proud of your new-and-improved rational self: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdVucvo-kDU&feature=related.

If you wish to learn more about Evolution and more generally about the scientific mindset, check out these resources:

- Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85diEXbJBIk&feature=related

- Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmphlbRhLu8&feature=related

- Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewtw_nZUIDQ&feature=related

- Part 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkwRTIKXaxg&feature=related

- Part 5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5NG8SYQSzE&feature=related

- Part 6: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jBD8xfbf4Y&feature=related

- Part 7: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKtamnmrNqs&feature=related

For some resources on how Intelligent Design falls flat on its face when it’s most powerful “evidence” is analyzed scientifically:

- Argument for the irreducible complexity of Bacterial Flagellum... debunked: watch this.

- Argument for the irreducible Complexity of the Eye... debunked: watch this and this.

- Argument for the irreducible Complexity of the Clotting Cascade... debunked (see Kenneth Miller argument distilled for the layman here)

- Argument for the irreducible Complexity of the a Mouse Trap... debunked (see Chapter 8 of the NOVA video "Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial")

Here is a video of a great talk that Ken Miller gave to students and faculty of Case Western University on the subject of Intelligent Design.

The “Classical” Big Bang theory has now been extended and subsumed in a far greater explanatory framework called Inflationary Cosmology. If you want to learn more about what we currently believe about how it all got started, read Brian Greene’s latest book “Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality” (summary here, and a helpful review here). Focus on Chapter 10 (pp 272-303) for this explanation. Rather than an explosion IN space, Inflationary Cosmology suggests an explosion OF space -- a rapid expansion of the very fabric of spacetime driven by a massively-high-energy field called the Higgs Inflationary Field or "Inflaton Field" for short. Yes, it’s spelled with a -ton ending on purpose.

I'm thrilled to announce, that as I presently write this, Monday November 26, 2007, the largest and most powerful scientific instrument ever built is coming online and we are about to embark on a whole new and exciting journey of human discovery. The very powerful (sub)atomic particle collider, CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_Hadron_Collider), the largest atom smasher ever built -- designed to search for humankind's cosmic origins -- is coming online, with the express purpose of answering the most important physical questions that have eluded us for the past 40 years, including "where did all this come from?" One of the chief goals of the LHC is to find evidence of the Inflaton Field via detection of the theorized Higgs Boson particle. If this particle is found, it will be confirmation of the explanatory power of our scientific theories with respect to cosmic origins and proof of the mechanism which caused our universe to come into existence. In addition to this primary concern, the LHC collider is also poised to help us answer a variety of questions that have eluded us for 4 decades concerning features of the most fundamental elementary particles and forces of nature and of the conditions of the earliest moments of the universe: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fJ6PMfnz2E. The video is a little over-dramatized for my taste, but there’s not much out there about the LHC at the present time. I’d take some of the comments by the interviewees as being designed to evoke false controversy for entertainment’s sake than for what we actually know and theorize today about the Standard Model of Particle Physics. If you are curious, pick up The Fabric of the Cosmos and read all about what we know and what we think we know.

If you’re still unconvinced that science, reason, rationality, and objective truth should replace your religion, read this post again, follow the sources, examine the evidence, watch the videos; this time with your eyes, ears, and mind wide open.

A Sampling of Contemporary Arabic Pop Songs and Ballads

Thu, 31 May 2007 10:08:17 GMT

I thought I'd take the opportunity to introduce you to a small selection of contemporary arabic music. I tried to select videos that have decent sound and video quality, but alas, the selection on YouTube is somewhat limited. Some of the songs are performed live at one of the many large, televised concerts/parties that is commonly held throughout Beirut on weekends. If there is one thing Beiruti's love to do, it's to dress up and go out for a nice meal and listen to good live music and generally have a good time. These concerts are fun for the whole family.

I've selected 5 artists, and 2 tracks from each artist, except for Nawal al-Zoghby... she gets three! Lemme know what you think about this music and these selections. Enjoy.

Artist: Nancy Ajram (lebanese)

Track: Ana Yalli Bahibak - "I'm the one who loves you"

Track: Lown Eiounak - "The colour of your eyes"

Artist: Haifa Wehbe (lebanese)

Track: Ana Haifa Ana - "I'm Haifa, I am"

Track: Kul Marra - "Every time" (performed live at a televised party)

Artist: Wael Kfoury (lebanese)

Track: Hobbak 3azaab - "Loving you is hardship"

It starts slow but picks up a third of the way into it. He sings to his absent love whom he is missing very much. It's very romantic.

Track: Tabki Eltoyoor - "The birds cry"

A painful song lamenting lost love.

Translated Lyrics:

The birds cry, flowers wither, sun sets and only darkness prevails
The words are lost, what a pity she was able to forget and her eyes went to sleep
A dream dies, and all I find is the wind
And misery is born and all whats left are wounds

Maybe Tomorrow she'll be back , I doubt she'll be back

The love died
I collect my wounds, my preoccupations and my sorrows
Stay up for nights while she sleeps
All the time we spent together were easy for her to forget
The honesty is gone, where is the trust
How many times with those hands did I cure my beloved
Who forgot all what we had
My sorrows are big, as big as mountains
The wounds are deep, depth of the seas
My mistake was being naive and always forgiving
I collect my wounds, my preoccupations and my sorrows
Stay up for nights while she sleeps

Artist: Nawal (Noelle) al-Zoghby (lebanese)

Track: Aghla al Habayib - "My Dearest Love" (performed live at a televised party)

Track: Albi Daa - "My heart (skipped a) beat"

Track: Al Layali - "The Nights"

It's a very beautiful song about reunited love. She really is a talented singer/songwriter. I just wish I could do it justice in the translation, which I really can't, but here goes anyway:

	Transliterated Arabic	English Translation
1	el layali ragga3itli taani, hobbi albi min gideed	The nights brought back to me the love of my heart anew
2	ba3di gheeba gaani, rah nadaani, khalla 3omri kullo 3eed	On his return he came to me, called for me, and filled my life with joy
	repeat 1,2	repeat 1,2
3	kunti fain ya? ya shaghilli hawaya.	Where were you? You, who stirs my desires.
4	kunti fain ya? yalli albak ma'aaya.	Where were you? You, whose heart dwells with me.
	repeat 3,4	repeat 3,4
5	layaali, layaali, layaali	Nights, nights, nights
	repeat 1,2	repeat 1,2
6	Lay, lay, lay. Lay la la ....	Lay, lay, lay. Lay la la ....
7	hobbak, ya ghali, ghayarli haali	Your love, my precious, has changed my outlook
8	ala shoqi laik, bas-ha wa banaam	I awaken and sleep to my longing for you
9	alimti rohi, tihwak ya rohi	You taught my soul, to love you my darling
10	wit dooq ma'aak agmal gharaam	and taste with you the most beautiful love
	repeat 7,8,9,10,3,4,3,4,5,1,2,6	repeat 7,8,9,10,3,4,3,4,5,1,2,6
11	law ghibti 'anni lahza Ibtewhashni	If you part for even a moment, I begin to miss you
12	w-andah 'alaik tool el sa'aat	and call out to you through the hours
13	wayyaak ya 'omri, ihlaw 'omri	With you my darling, my life is joyful
14	wa yirga'li beek 'omri elli faat	and with you, I regain the life I had lost
	repeat 11,12,13,14,3,4,3,4,5,1,2,1,2	repeat 11,12,13,14,3,4,3,4,5,1,2,1,2
15	Aaah, Lay, la, la...	Aaah, Lay, la, la...
	repeat 3,4	repeat 3,4

Artist: Amr Diab (egyptian)

Track: [Habibi, ya] Nour El Ein - "[Darling, o'] apple of my eye"

Again, starts slow, but picks up at about 2 minutes into the video. Good latin-influenced rhythms in this one.

LYRICS / TRANSLATION (courtesy felinabranca, YouTube. arabic and english sentences interleaved):
Habibi, ya nour el ain,
My darling, glow in my eyes,
Ya saakin khayali.
Who lives in my fantasies.
Aashek bakali sneen,
I've adored you for years,
Wala ghayraak fibali.
No one else is in my mind.
Habibi, habibi, habibi,
My darling, my darling, my darling,
Ya nour el ain.
Glow in my eyes.
Agmaal eyoun fil koon ana shoftaha.
The prettiest eyes I have seen.
Allah aleik allah,
God be with you,
Alla sihraha.
Because of their magic.
Eyounaak ma-ayaa,
Your eyes are with me,
Eyounaak kifayaa.
Your eyes are enough.
Tinawar layali.
They light up my nights.
Albaak nadally wa kaal,
Your heart called me and said,
Bet-hebenee.
That you love me.
Allah aleik allah,
God be with you,
Tamenteni.
You reassured me.
Ma-aak el bidaya,
You have the beginning,
Wa koul el hekaya.
And the whole story.
Ma-aak el bidaya,
You have the beginning,
Wa koul el hekaya.
And the whole story.
Ma-aak lil nahaya.
I'll be with you to the end

Track: Wala 'ala balu - "[I'm] Not Even On Her Mind" (aka. my lover doesn't care)

Fast beat, good for dancing or a good pacer for cardio workout

Track: Tamally Ma'aak - "Always With You"

Okay, so I couldn't resist putting another one here from this very talented artist. Beautiful strains of acoustic guitar.

Lyrics:

i am always with you even when you are far away
your love fills my heart
i am always with you
i am always thinking about you
never forget you for a moment
i miss you even when you are by my side
oh sweetheart
i miss you so much
and want you always before my eyes
i feel so lonely when you are away
even when surrounded by people
i miss you dearly
darling don't go away
i need you near me
you are my first love
with you here i have nothing to fear

Moroccan Hip Hop Song: Sma3ni

Wed, 30 May 2007 13:42:39 GMT

I came across this on YouTube while randomly surfing. It's really quite good. Has a great, sexy beat, and is tightly executed. The song is sung mainly in Moroccan with some French. Though Moroccan is a dialect of arabic, it's not a dialect that I can readily understand. Nonetheless, I really enjoyed the tune and bet you will too. The name of the song, Sma3ni, literally translates to "Hear Me".

Wonders of Biology: Inner Life of a Cell

Sun, 20 May 2007 21:09:01 GMT

The world of science is simply wondrous and amazing. This short video depicts a vignette of the inner life of a cell at the biomolecular level. In this case, a Leukocyte (a white blood cell), that helps our bodies fight disease.

Click here to see the full 8-minute version with technical narration explanating the fine-grained biochemical processes at work.

Folk Song: "Ted Haggard is Completely Heterosexual"

Thu, 17 May 2007 23:59:05 GMT

Roy Zimmerman has a lot of these funny folk songs. I particularly found this one amusing, and thought I'd share it with whomever is still visiting this space.

Celebrate PI day

Wed, 14 Mar 2007 21:18:52 GMT

Did you celebrate PI day?

The Greek letter PI represents the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter.

March 14 is PI day. 3/14. It is to be celebrated at 1:59am or PM.

Well... seems that I was robbed last night

Sat, 10 Feb 2007 08:23:41 GMT

I came home to a lovely suprise last night. I found my home had been broken into and a number of items missing. The perpetrator(s) couldn't have lingered long and looks like he/they had to leave in an awful big hurry. They left behind a half-filled back of possessions, the tool used to jimmy my house door with, and a flash light which belonged to them that they hurredly left behind on top of my bed, and which was still on and shining bright. They must have heard the sounds of the downstairs tenants coming (an hour before I arrived home) and decided to "get the hell out of Dodge."

I got home at 10pm and think that this all went down between 8:30 and 9:00pm.

There's a bit over $5000 worth of stuff missing, but the kicker is that they got my laptop, with pretty much my life on it. The identity thieves are going to have a hayday with this one. Fuck!

To top it all off, they got my other cell phone which he spent the night making calls from. Not surprisingly the idiot must have no friends since he spent the night using my stolen phone to call several people in my phone's address book, including my current cellphone (which I carry at all times) and my Dad's phone. Yeah, you heard me... the criminal called me on my current cell phone from the stolen one! He didn't say much, just kind of grunted and sighed like the moron that he is. The police came over last night and took a report and contacted the department's fingerprinting officer to come down to my home and dust for prints. The last one left at about 2:00am. The criminal in the meantime was calling me, while I was giving my report to the cops. I couldn't call him back because it would have just forwarded back to me... I have that phone permanently call forwarded to my new one.

I called the Fido to deactivate the phone but thought it might be a little more satisfying to have them unforward the phone for an hour or two so I can call the perpetrator and harrass and verbally abuse him a while. Sure made me feel better when the moron picked up both, my first and my second phone call. It just doubled my opportunity to curse and insult him before cancelling the service. I have to admit... it made me feel a little better.

I'll never see that stuff again, I'm sure. But, it'll be nice for the next little while fantasizing about what horrible fates might befall such a clearly idiotic criminal. I hope they find him and lock him up in a cell with a very big oven and two demented teenage puppy-bakers. One can only hope. Spare the puppies, bake a loser (see previous entry).

This latest incident only serves to top off an equally wonderful week which saw me miss two days of work due to an unknown illness, as well as the quite sad occasion of attending the funeral of a friend who lost his battle with cancer. I can't wait for this month to pass. Enough!

Teens sentenced for cooking puppy in oven

Sat, 10 Feb 2007 08:01:34 GMT

Atlanta teens killed dog, then threatened children if they told about it

The Associated Press

Updated: 6:19 p.m. MT Feb 9, 2007

ATLANTA - Two teenage brothers each were sentenced to 10 years in prison for torturing a puppy by cooking it in an oven.
Joshua Moulder, 17, and Justin, 19, pleaded guilty in January to charges including burglary, criminal damage to property, terroristic threats and cruelty to children.
The brothers brought neighborhood children to see the dead puppy, then threatened to kill them if they reported it, prosecutors said.
Police said they found the dead mixed-breed puppy inside an oven at an apartment community center Aug. 21. Scratch marks were found inside the oven, indicating the puppy had been alive when it was placed inside, prosecutors said.
A necropsy on the 3-month-old dog found its paws and snout had been duct taped and it had been doused with paint before being placed in the oven, prosecutors said.
Authorities also found damaged computers, broken glass and splattered paint on the walls of the newly refurbished community center.

The brothers’ first trial ended in a mistrial in December. Their attorney, Timothy Owens, said he had hoped his clients’ sentencing would have focused more on rehabilitation than incarceration.
© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17074960/

What kind of sick, demented, twisted kids are we raising these days? This kind of cruelty just turns my stomach. Also, the line about their lawyer "hoping the punishment would have focussed on rehabilitation rather than incarceration" -- I've got news for ya Mr. Lawyer, at age 17 and 19 the boys are well beyond help. If they have reached a level of apathy for another living being so as to duct tape it, cover it in paint and bake it alive in an oven, they are pretty much hopeless cases. Yes, let us all sing "Kumbaya" and rehabilitate these demons from their unfathomable cruelty and apathy toward another life. Let's let them keep roaming the streets so they can work their way up the food chain to our children and satiate their next escalation of adrenalin-fueled extacy and cruelty. No! I have a better idea... let 'em rot in hell.

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