Protecting the Most Hated Man on Earth February 28, 2006
Posted by doobya in america, w, world.5 comments
About 5,000 personnel including snipers, commandos and US Marines using helicopters, bomb detectors and electronic jammers will protect President George W. Bush during his visit to India this week, officials said yesterday.
Cartoons? Worth dying for? February 15, 2006
Posted by doobya in islam, religion, world.add a comment
While the minority of hardliners on both sides of the Prophet cartoons controversy seems to get more vocal and violent by the week, garnering media attention and increasing tensions, some more intelligent reactions are starting to surface from the silent majority.
The only way we can end this vicious cycle of violence is by understanding each other.
What was ignored in most press coverage was the degree to which the response was widespread, spontaneous and largely took the form of non-violent direct action (…) Press coverage, at least, in the US, didn't help create understanding. If anything, it mirrored the gap and served in the end to fuel more misunderstanding.
If Muslims and Europeans, as equal citizens living together in a democracy, are not able to trust each other, if we are not able to talk to each other (…) we are sending a signal to Islamic majority countries that there is no way for Muslims and Westerners to trust each other. We in Europe have a great, great, great responsibility. It's important that European citizens understand that if mutual knowledge and mutual respect are improved, then we are sending the signal that it is possible. Right now, though, we are sending exactly the opposite message.
As this international and intercultural issue once again proves, violence and noise do not solve anything; they only escalate and amplify.
The sane way out of a situation like this involves calming down, educating, and listening to the other side's arguments. One thing we don't need is more intolerance. One thing we do need is more understanding.
Both sides have the bomb, and there's only one planet.
[Update – 21 Feb] Andrew Sullivan comes to a similar conclusion:
As readers know, I have no patience for the extremists in Islam, and no doubt about their current ascendancy. But they are not all there is. And we need to do a better job of reaching out to and understanding the arguments of their internal opponents.
Des champs de chanvre qui chantent l’avenir February 14, 2006
Posted by doobya in drugs, hemp, lang:fr, love, nature, world.add a comment
Il faut croire que le chanvre a fait naître des vocations parmi la jeunesse… On s’inquiétait de la part toujours plus réduite des agriculteurs parmi la population active française ayant un emploi. Eh bien messieurs les politiciens, réjouissez-vous !
Nos campagnes françaises, en voie de désertification, vont se repeupler et les champs en jachère redevenir des surfaces agricoles utiles. Oui, car la jeunesse, préoccupée par les problèmes environnementaux, a décidé qu’il fallait réhabiliter le chanvre, pour le bien de l’humanité et de nos campagnes, hélas désertées au profit de mégalopoles surpeuplées et surpolluées.
N’ayez crainte, leur aspiration est sincère. Depuis longtemps ils rêvent de porter des slips en fibres de chanvre. L’un veut en isoler les murs de sa maison, l’autre souhaite qu’éole souffle dans la voile en chanvre de son bateau.
Community service February 12, 2006
Posted by doobya in cool, geeky, internet, world.add a comment
Last month, several researchers from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh reported they had examined some 438 vulnerabilities in programs made by 325 software vendors and found the patching speed of open-source vendors was roughly 60 percent faster than that of the closed-source vendors they studied.
Semaphore February 1, 2006
Posted by doobya in america, brainwash, fuck this, love, w, world.add a comment
Amidst all the noise about this whole Iraq war stuff, I believe Cindy Sheehan‘s voice is one that deserves to be heard – if only for her courage. While dubya was addressing the media with this year’s State of the Union, Cindy was getting jailed for wearing a T-shirt.
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