2B || ! 2B ® AKA minneapolis

Learn from your past, enjoy your present, challenge your future...

2010-11-02T16:34:00.002-04:00

I've gone throught a lot of experiences last year... Mainly the idea was to penetrate my boundries and all happened under a false pretence that I might be mistaken regarding few opinions -of course I'm not :) and if so, I may need to change my prespective on few distinctive moral dilemmas.

I've proven to myself after almost one full year the same facts which I already learned through the years; but again I needed this experience to assure others my righteous take on these dilemmas once and for all, nevertheless I didn't quite admire myslef when I did:

1- Allow someone to get too close to me and ruin my suit; glad it wasn't Armani, it was just CK :)
2- Argue with someone who has a broken moral compass, then anticipate something good; the argument will be distanced to fail!
3- Grant a chance to come clean to a liar and hope for a change, it will prove nothing!
4- Try to explain myself to a stupid person, it won't work both ways!
5- Excuse someone who tells incomplete facts and letting it linger away, eventually you will need to correct it so do it sooner -on the spot- than later!
6- Try to motivate a blunt person, it is a waste of time!
7- Disregard a person who is envious of me, it is dangerous!
8- Repeat myself over and over, if you repeated the request more than once it implies something is wrong so you need to find it in order to fix it, regardless do NOT repeat anything!
9- Trust someone who feels insecure and has trust issues, it will never work you silly :)
10- Allow anyone to break a preliminary agreement will open a can of worms, so stick with your guns for everyone's sake :)

But I promise you next year is a brand new year, Cheers...

Listen to BetterLife radio...

2010-03-10T17:07:00.008-05:00

Alexandria - The Mermaid of the Mediterranean

2009-12-06T00:53:00.002-05:00

Malyata ya shabab...

2009-12-01T01:24:00.006-05:00

Ham yeda7ak sa7ee7! bas bieny we bienkom ma-heya tol 3oumraha kida we palash ned7ak 3ala ba3d koleena 3arfeen el 7a2ee2a el morra bas gayez lessa 3andena 2amal tet-3'ayar...gayez...
7elwa awee inn ba3daha be isbou3 el nas gaya tetkalem! da bey-sammouh: el nom fel 3asal, mesh bardo yeda7ak? hamena kolo aflam ne3milha we ned7ak 3aleeha!

teftekra 7aga 7atet-3'ayar?
--mafeesh fayda, mafeesh fayda-- (weghet nazr)

and continue watching part 2 in its related vedios list.

Street شارع 18 (two thumbs up!!)

2009-11-28T05:29:00.005-05:00

Ana akeed met2a7'er fee mawdou3 el aflam bas aho el wa7ed bey7awel yetabe3 3ala ad maye2dar, so finally i had a chance to watch Street 18 (2007 production).

Why Street 18?
Kont badawar 3ala 7aga gedeeda fa akeed thriller walal horor masri ye7'ali el wa7eld yes2al nafso 7aykon shaklo eih 7'asatn ba3d Mafia (2002) and Malaky Iskenderia (2005)? we bardo kont badawr 3ala nas mo7tarama shewaya -3ala el 2a2al yekono madmoneen :) also kan ba2aly fatra min zaman ba7awel 2atabe3 Mais Hemdan, we ahm 7aga tab3an lo mo7'reg shab we awel mara lazem kolena nedelo foursa :)

Min 2awel de2ee2a we el film kan bayen 3aleeh inno mou7'talef, we bardo min awel mash-had Hossam El-Gohary zabat el gaw min na7yet el 2e7'rag we shou3'l el camera we el dou2 (ana mesh technical wala professional bas ya3ni el shou3'l el mou7taram beyban), be3'ad el nazar 3ala 7ettet el te3ban illi ana shayefha kanit over shewaya, bas 7asal 7'ier ba3d ma ban innaha 7elm :)

Tab3an Mais Hemdan lessa 3aleha shewaya, da rabe3 movie leeha we azon inn da kan leeha a7san zehor feehom so far. Donia as usual gamda gamda el sara7a, ba2alha fetra taweela bete3mil shou3'l 3ali; 2ama Omar we Falawkas fa bardo ana shayef innohom lessa yadoub beyebtedo bas all-in-all el film you7sab leehom akeed we el nas yegi minha.

Donia 3ala fekra heya we Hossam (Director) we Omar Shamma (Scenarist) homa illi 3amalo min el film da 7aga. I like it and hope that you guys enjoy it as well when you have time, Enjoy...

Experience something ELSE!

2009-11-25T23:01:00.002-05:00

Finally... It's time for revolution, it's not too late :)

Folks, today might be the day when you start to notice how ancient our smartphones have become, even if they only came out in last few months. Blame Else (formerly Emblaze Mobile) for its confusingly-named First Else, a phone "built from scratch" over the last two years and now powered by Access Linux Platform (ALP) 3.0 -- a mobile OS thought to have quietly died out since our last sighting in February. Until today's London launch event, the last we heard of this Israeli company was from October's Access Day in Japan where it previewed the Else Intuition OS, which we like to think of as inspired by Minority Report. While it's still too early to tell whether the First Else -- launching in Q2 next year -- will dodge the path of doom, we were already overwhelmed by the excellence of the device's user experience, both from its presentation and from our exclusive hands-on opportunity. Do read on to find out how Else is doing it right.

Read the full article at engadget.

"Bolteya El-3ayma" بلطية العايمة

2009-11-25T20:36:00.008-05:00

Wa-7a-shet-ny Alexandria fa 2oult 2adawar 3ala movie gedeed kida yekon 2etsawar hinak 3alshan 2asabar nafsy shewaya, we ba3d kam sa3a min el tadweer raset 3ala "Bolteya El-3ayma" le 3abla Kamel we ba3d kaman sa3a 3ou2bal ma la2et nos7'a 3edla...

Ana mesh 3a'awee ka2aba bas mesh 3aref la2et nefsy bakamel el film lel 2a7'er; leh? mesh 3aref! gayez el kesa we el remozha ou gayez 3abla wala gayez Alexandria we shaware3ha we manazerha?

We le 2awel mara kan nefsy fee nehaya hindi we el batala tefra7 shewaya fel 2a7'er :) el wa7ed 7'ala maba2ash yesta7mel el 7a2ee2a el moura tet7eky 2ousado! bas mesh mohim talama el ba7r ahoo lessa mawgood

We fel 2a7'er: Rabak rab 3'alaba bardo we 3ala ra2ye Bolteya "bas ya rab homa yesoboholna - El ba7r" :)

Funny fact: Apparently that Belal Fadel -the movie writer- didn't know that Tilapia Nilotica "El-Bolty" is not a salt-water (i.e. sea) fish, they should know better and pick more Alexandrian title to the movie/character :) any suggestions?

Prayer Bug :)

2009-08-12T12:23:00.001-04:00

Two Thumbs Up And One More Up :)

2009-07-24T02:36:00.008-04:00

دكان شحاته

2esm Khaled Youssef kefaya inno yeshedak le ay film, bas bardo el wa7ed kan me2ala2 min Haifa Wehbe, el film kolo momkin ye2leb wawa we papa 2a7 :)

El wa7ed 2al yedeelo shewaya we ye check "Dokkan Shihata" reviewes after a while and surprisingly el reviews ibtadet moushage3a fa el wa7ed gammed 2albo we itfarag be 2alb we el sara7a istamta3 be kol 7aga ;)

Kont bardo 2al2an masaln inn kol el 2a3'any 7atkon le Haifa, la2a ma7asalsh bel 3aks kan wade7 inaha da7'la tethbet nafsaha we as I can tell she left a very good impression.

El 7ak yokal: El film mesh 7'afeef abadan (Two thumbs Up) we Haifa (one more Up) 3ala awel tagroba leeha (excluding Sea of Stars by Pepsi) gamda we yegy minha as usual ya3ni lol, Enjoy...

إثارة...متعة... و تشويق

عيون بهيه - يا حضرة العمدة

2009-06-09T17:11:00.005-04:00

Listen to the song here, you can share the full album on my Box.

كلمات اغنيه
يا حضرة العمدة
يا حضرة العمده ابنك حميدة حدفني بالسفندية
اهيي وقعت على صدري ضحكوا علي زملاتة الافندية
ازاي كده !
يرضيك يا عمدة علشان ابن عمدة يعمل كدة كدة فية
يا ابو حميدة .. جرى ايه
متحوش حميده .. عمل ايه ؟
ده عيون وسحرها .. هيروح ضحيه
يرضيك يا عمده ؟ .. لا لا لا
علشان ابن عمده .. لا لا لا
حبيبه حلوه .. غنيوه حلوه
طب وانا مالي ؟؟
دي سيرتها حلوه فى البلد مهيش رديه
احنا غلابه .. ايوه ايوه
ومحناش غلابه .. ايوه ايوه
قيمه الغلابه وسعدهم شرف الصبيه

2009 UEFA Champions League Final Poll!

2009-05-25T14:24:00.005-04:00

27 May 2009
Stadio Olimpico, Rome at 20:45
Barcelona vs. Man. United

Share your thoughts using Zoomerang.

And Barcelona is the new champion against all the odds :)

A Glimpse Ahead...

2009-05-19T17:52:00.001-04:00

Please check Microsoft Sustainability : Productivity, future vision if you can't see the plugin.

Slice and Dice Your Search Results

2009-05-14T12:53:00.002-04:00

Please check out this link if you can't see the plugin: Google Search Options.

13,500 singing Beatles' "Hey Jude" in Trafalgar square, London

2009-05-02T17:03:00.003-04:00

Hey Jude don't make it bad
Take a sad song and make it better
Remember to let her into your heart
Then you can start to make it better

Hey Jude don't be afraid
You were made to go out and get her
The minute you let her under your skin
Then you begin to make it better

And any time you feel the pain, Hey Jude, refrain
Don't carry the world upon your shoulders
For well you know that it's a fool who plays it cool
By making his world a little colder
Na na na na na
na na na na

Hey Jude don't let me down
You have found her now go and get her
Remember to let her into your heart
Then you can start to make it better

So let it out and let it in
Hey Jude begin
You're waiting for someone to perform with
And don't you know that it's just you
Hey Jude you'll do
The movement you need is on your shoulder

Na na na na na
na na na na Yeah

Hey Jude don't make it bad
Take a sad song and make it better
Remember to let her under your skin
Then you'll begin to make it better
Better, better, better, better, better, Yeah,Yeah,Yeah

Na Na Na Na Na Na Na
Na Na Na Na, Hey Jude!

Life's For Sharing :)

2009-04-27T00:36:00.002-04:00

Diigo: Highlight and Share the Web!

2009-04-26T21:02:00.001-04:00

Chess Game: Audi vs BMW

2009-04-20T01:24:00.005-04:00

Posted on FB by Miro and it worth sharing: Brilliant advertising. Look at the advertising on the left from Audi, and the one on the right from BMW. Priceless!

Is Time a Measure or Quality?

2009-04-11T01:35:00.005-04:00

by Paulo Coelho

I correspond a lot by e-mail with Stephan Rechtschaffen, a doctor who founded the successful Omega Institute in New York. I was invited to give a talk there but I had to cancel it at the last moment. Then Stephan and I were contacted to talk together in Vienna, Austria, and this time I decided to cancel because I found the price they were charging absurdly high. The fact is that these upsets, instead of separating me from him, have ended up drawing us closer (the world has very odd situations).

In one of these exchanges, he told me he was going to send his book. To my surprise I received a copy in Portuguese (Timeshifting – “Reorientando o Tempo”). I read it in one afternoon and have re-read it several times more, since all of us, every day of our lives, always have some problem with this theme. In the text Stephan offers some comments that I have listed below (edited on account of the size of the column).

Time is not a measure: but rather a quality. When we look at the past we are not rewinding a tape but remembering a gift of our passage on Earth. Time is not measured like a road is measured, since we take gigantic leaps backwards (memories) and forwards (projects).

Managing is not living: “time is money” is nonsense. We have to be aware of each moment and know how to take advantage of each single moment in what we are doing (with love) or in just contemplating life. A day has 24 hours and an infinity of moments. If we slow down, everything will last much longer. Of course, washing the dishes can take longer too, but why not use that time to think about pleasant things, singing, relaxing, being happy at just being alive?

In tune with life: Arthur Rubinstein (one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century) was once approached by an ardent admirer, who asked him: “How can you use the notes with such mastery?” The pianist answered: “I use the notes the same way that others do, but the pauses … ah! That’s where the art lies.” My divorce process was extremely painful and I thought that by keeping busy I would manage to get over the difficult moments, but it did not work out as foreseen because I could not see the pain in my soul. As of a certain moment I began to “use the pauses” – sit down, let the pain come and reach me and then pass. Little by little I re-structured my life and understood better the reasons for the separation. Today my ex-wife works with me in the Omega Institute – because I was able to face pain, not just hide it behind my work.

Deal with experiences in more depth: a study on the visitors to the National Zoo in Washington showed that the average time that people spend looking at an animal show is less than ten seconds. So why go to the zoo? Better just to leaf through a book with photographs, right? A guide explained to me that people complain that the hippopotamuses are always under the water, but as a matter of fact the average length of submersion is between 90 seconds and a maximum of five minutes – so, the urge to rush ahead is what makes the visitors miss all the enjoyment.

Knowing when to reflect or act: a patient of mine with an obesity problem said she was prepared to do anything to get better. I asked her, whenever she felt the urge to eat, to observe the feeling and not act. “But I feel hungry!” she answered. “Exactly,” was my comment. “If you can manage to live with that feeling, observe the hunger, let it come in all its intensity, suffer occasionally – but without acting – soon you will manage to attenuate the anxiety and you will the master of your will rather than the slave of your impulses.”

Acting in the face of negative emotions: when we sit down on the sofa, we turn on the television (which is actually a way to “turn off” from the world). Or else we grow very anxious, feel we are wasting time, that we need to call someone, do gymnastics, tidy up the house. Why? Because if we stay quiet, all the wave of repressed emotions will assail us, depress us, leave us feeling sad or guilty. But the more we “keep busy” the more these emotions pile up, until one day we run the risk of seeing them explode out of control.

Yes, we all have our problems, which have to be faced – why not do this today? Stop. Think. Maybe suffer a little. But in the end, understand who we are, what we feel, what we are doing here at this very moment – instead of wanting to determine the Agenda of Life.

Eros, Philos and Agape

2009-04-11T01:15:00.004-04:00

by Paulo Coelho

May you never lose your enthusiasm at any moment for the rest of your life: it’s your greatest strength, intent on the final victory. You cannot let it slip through your fingers just because as time passes we have to face some small and necessary defeats.

In 1986, when I was on the road to Santiago with my guide Petrus, we passed through the city of Logroño while a wedding was taking place. We ordered two glasses of wine, I prepared something to nibble on, and Petrus discovered a table where we could sit down together with the other guests.

The wedding couple cut an immense cake.

They must love one another, I thought aloud.

Of course they love one another, said a man in a dark suit sitting at our table. Have you ever seen anyone get married for any another reason?

But Petrus did not let the question go unanswered:

What type of love do you mean: Eros, Philos or Agape?

The man looked at him without understanding a word.

There are three words in Greek to designate love, Petrus said. Today you are seeing the manifestation of Eros, that sentiment between two persons.

The bride and groom smiled for the cameras and received compliments from the guests.

The two seem to love one another. In a short time they will be fighting alone for life, establishing themselves in a house and taking part in the same adventure: that’s what makes love grand and dignified. He will pursue his career, she probably knows how to cook and will make an excellent housewife because since she was a little girl she was brought up to do that. She will accompany him, they will have children and they will manage to build something together, they will be happy for ever.

Al of a sudden, however, this story could happen the other way around. He is going to feel that he is not free enough to show all the Eros, all the love that he has for other women. She may begin to feel that she has sacrificed a career and a brilliant life to accompany her husband. So, instead of creating together, each of them will feel robbed in their way of loving. Eros, the spirit that joins them, will start to display only his bad side. And what God had meant to be man’s most noble sentiment will begin to be a source of hatred and destruction.

I looked around me. Eros was present in many couples. But I could sense the presence of Eros the Good and Eros the Evil, just like Petrus had described.

Notice how odd it is, continued my guide. Despite being good or bad, the face of Eros is never the same in all persons.

The band struck up a waltz. People moved to a small paved area in front of the band-stand to dance. The alcohol began to show its effect and they all became merrier and drenched in sweat. I noticed a girl dressed in blue who must have been waiting for this wedding just for the moment of the waltz to arrive because she wanted to dance with someone she had dreamed of embracing ever since she entered adolescence. Her eyes followed the movements of a young man, well dressed in a light-colored suit, who was sitting with a bunch of friends. They were talking away merrily, they had not noticed that the waltz had started, nor had they noticed that a few yards away a girl in blue was staring at one of them.

I thought of small towns, of marriages with the chosen boy, dreamed of ever since childhood.

The girl in blue noticed me looking at her and moved away. And as if the whole movement had been rehearsed, now it was the boy’s turn to seek her out with his eyes. Discovering that she was close to other girls, he went back to his lively conversation with his friends.

I drew Petrus’s attention to the two of them. He watched them exchanging glances for a while and then returned to his glass of wine.

They act as if it were something shameful to demonstrate that they love one another, was his only remark.

Another girl was staring at us, she must have been half our age. Petrus raised his glass, made a toast, the girl laughed in embarrassment and made a gesture pointing towards her parents almost in apology at not coming closer.

That’s the beautiful side of love, he said. Love that challenges, love for two older strangers who have come from afar and tomorrow will already have parted down a road that she too would like to travel. The love that prefers adventure.

Then he continued, pointing to an elderly couple:

Look at those two: they haven’t let themselves be affected by hypocrisy, like so many others. They look like they are a couple of farm workers: hunger and need have obliged them to overcome many a difficulty together. They have discovered love through work, which is where Eros shows his most beautiful face, also known as Philos.

What’s Philos?

Philos is love in the form of friendship. It’s what I feel for you and others. When the flame of Eros no longer able to shine, it’s Philos who keeps couples together.

And what about Agape?

Agape is total love, the love that devours those that experience it. Whoever knows and experiences Agape sees that nothing else in this world is of any importance, only loving. This was the love that Jesus felt for humanity, and it was so great that it shook the stars and changed the course of man’s history.

During the millennia of the history of civilization, many people have been smitten by this Love that Devours. They had so much to give – and the world demanded so little – that they were obliged to seek out the deserts and isolated places because love was so great that it transfigured them. They became the hermit saints that we know today.

For me and you who have experienced another form of Agape, this life here may seem hard and terrible. Yet the Love that Devours makes everything lose its importance: these men live only to be consumed by their love.

He took a pause.

Agape is the Love that Devours,” he repeated once more, as if this was the phrase that best defined that strange type of love. “Luther King once said that when Christ spoke of loving our enemies he was referring to Agape. Because according to him, it was impossible to like our enemies, those who do us harm and try to make our daily suffering all the worse.

But Agape is a lot more than liking. It is a sentiment that invades everything, fills all the cracks and makes any attempt at aggression turn to dust.

There are two forms of Agape. One is isolation, life dedicated only to contemplation. The other is precisely the opposite: contact with other human beings, and enthusiasm, the sacred sense of work. Enthusiasm means trance, ecstasy, connecting with God. Enthusiasm is Agape directed at some idea, something.”

When we love and believe in something from the bottom of our soul, we feel stronger than the world and we are imbued with a serenity that comes from the certainty that nothing can conquer our faith. This strange force makes us always make the right decisions at the right time, and we are surprised at our own capacity when we fulfill our objective.

Enthusiasm usually manifests itself in all its power in the early years of our life. We still have a strong tie with the divinity and we give ourselves with such zeal to our toys that dolls take on a life of their own and little tin soldiers manage to march. When Jesus said that the kingdom of Heaven belonged to the children, he was referring to Agape in the form of Enthusiasm. The children reached him without paying any attention to his miracles, his wisdom, the Pharisees and the apostles. They came happily, driven by Enthusiasm.

May you never lose your enthusiasm at any moment for the rest of your life: it’s your greatest strength, intent on the final victory. You cannot let it slip through your fingers just because as time passes we have to face some small and necessary defeats.

يا زيزافون

2009-03-26T22:02:00.004-04:00

بعمل سيرش ع اليوتيوب بكتب جدعان راب

لقيت بنت سابت كومينت اسمها كول ماهيتاب
قالتلى مكى مش هتصدق لما سمعنا الاغنية
تيتا قامت قالت يو يو وتس اب
بس ماما كان ليها رد فعل تانى وباعته عتاب
لما سمعت منها شوية سرحت صرخت ذوقكوا هباب
فين ايامه فريد او شادية والست وموسيقار الاجيال
ولا حليم وطلال مداح وفايزة فى قلبي اليك ميال
مش هنكر مدى عظمتهم وزمانهم ده بجد جميل
حتى احنا بنتعلم منهم ازاي يبقي الفن اصيل
كل زمان بيكون له ادان وكل اوان بيكون له فنون
تخيل لو داخل علي واحدة وبتقولها يا زيزافون
وصدقينى وماسك وردة وفارق شعرك والببيون
تعمل كده في الاربعينات تاكل جدا وتجيب جون

وتلقى البت تأفور ترعش وتقول بينا ع المأذون
بس في الالفية التالتة عليك هتشد البنت سيفون
ماهي اسألى مامتك هتقولك عاللي اتقال فى ظهور عدوية
قالوا ساعتها ده هابط هابط بأه ملك الغنوة الشعبية
وانا بتكلم لغة الشارع لو الفاظى دي شوارعية
عايزك تعرفى انى براب ومليش دعوة بالاغنية
ولا بتقطع شوق وعذاب وييجي يرشوا عليا المية
ولا ع الخضرة كمان بتمرمغ ولا بتنحنح فى الاغنية
ولا بدلع ولا بتمرقع ولا الكاميرا تجيب رجليا
ولا نفّخت وحطيت سيلكون ولا كبرت فى تتتتيت شوية
ولا بتريق انا علي بلدي أو علي ناسها واقول حرية
ولسانى كمان مش معوج بتكلم بطريقة عادية
مش زي الراب الموجود فى كتير منه بلكنة غبية
المولخية مية مية ويا سلام لو بالتقليه
شهية شهية وهي دي القضية
انا لا مجرم فحت ومش بقلد الامريكان
مسقط بنطولنى وكل البوكسر بان
مدرسة المشاغبين قابلوا ساعتها معارضة قوية
قالوا دي تافهة ومش فاهمين وعملوا عليها بجد قضية
اهو دلوقتي وبعد سنين فى تراث المسرح وهمية
قولى يا طنط لو انا غلطان ممكن اجبلك امثال تانية
بس الاول هشكر نقدك اصل كلامك اثر فيا
فى اللي بينقد نقد بجد ده علي راسي ومية المية
وفى اللي يسب ويشتم فيا ده مش ناقد لا نفسية
يو يو يو
م الاخر مهما هكون مش هعجب برضه شوية
وهيطلع كام مليون يقولى عنى ده تييت مقلية
يشهد جحا ويا حماره واللي بيحصل حاجة عادية
ومثلى الاعلى بأه هيكون شاب ديليفرى عزيمته قوية
لابس خوذة وراكب فيزبا ولا بيخاف تخبطه عربية
ولا بيهمه كلاب الشارع بس يوصلكوا طلبية
وانا هعمل كده بمحبه وهكمل والناس حواليا
حاجة أخيرة انا عايز اقولها للى شتموا اظن لذيذة
كل واحد فينا ليه استايله واي واحد فينا له ميزة
فى اللي بيعجب واللي ما يعجب واللى ما عاجبه ياخد فيزا

Bang Exploitable!

2009-03-20T14:16:00.003-04:00

Microsoft to release exploitability tool
Robert Lemos 2009-03-18

VANCOUVER, B.C. — Aiming to better identify bugs that could lead to security issues, Microsoft announced on Wednesday that it planned to release a tool to help developers classify and assess program crashes.

The tool, known as !exploitable and pronounced "bang exploitable," is a plugin for the Windows debugger that categorizes crash information using two hashes, members of Microsoft's Security Science group told SecurityFocus in a briefing. Using the hashes, which Microsoft called major and minor hashes, the tool can group crashes that are caused by the same bug, even if the program executed in different ways to produce the crashes. The tool also estimates the exploitability of the vulnerability, rating them as Exploitable, Probably Exploitable, Possibly Exploitable, and Unknown.

"It helps to define what exploitability means among researchers," said Jason Shirk, Microsoft's program manager for fuzzing technology. "It's saying, how do we want to talk about these things, so we are sure we are talking about the same thing."

The program is the latest software tool that Microsoft has released to help third-party developers better secure their software. In 2006, the company announced it had added three security features to Vista: address space layout randomization (ASLR), data execution protection (DEP) and kernel patch protection. In 2002, Microsoft released new versions of Visual C++ development platforms, which included an anti-buffer-overflow feature known as the GS flag. On Wednesday, Microsoft also announced that it would be improving the GS flag technology in Visual Studio 2010, allowing it to protect against integer overflows and database array overflows.

To demonstrate the usefulness of the !exploitable program, Microsoft's Security Science group asked internal testing groups to run four different fuzzers against a recently acquired software program. The !exploitable tool identified 15 security issues among the 57 different crashes produced by the fuzzers and classified only one issue Exploitable.

"Internally, if someone comes across someting that is Exploitable or Probably Exploitable, then they have no choice, it has to be fixed," said Shirk said.

Microsoft plans to release the tool at the CanSecWest conference on Friday after a presentation to attendees on the technology.

Good is overrated :)

2009-03-02T11:23:00.001-05:00

So how do you think they will fix it?

2009-02-18T17:00:00.003-05:00

The Canadian Press

February 16, 2009 at 12:19 PM EST

PORT HOPE, Ont. — The latest case of an Ontario driver nabbed by police for smoking in a car carrying a minor is raising eyebrows about the new law.

A 20-year-old Port Hope, Ont., man has been ticketed for smoking in a car in which a 15-year-old girl was one of his passengers.

While Tory Ashton was waiting for his $155 ticket, the girl — a smoker herself — got out of the car and legally lit up a cigarette of her own.

The provincial politician representing the riding says this may represent a glitch in the law and wants it be examined.

Liberal Lou Rinaldi is asking for a meeting with the province's health promotions minister later this week to find ways to improve the fledgling law.

Mr. Rinaldi says one improvement might be changing the age limit on how young the passenger has to be for the smoking ban to kick in.

“In 99.9 per cent of cases, the legislation is doing the job,” he said. However he described as a “glitch” the scenario where a 20-year-old could be fined for smoking while his 15-year-old passenger could stand by the side of the road and light up.

There is no law prohibiting a 15-year-old from smoking. It is only illegal to purchase or sell tobacco to anyone under 19 years of age.

The law, which took effect last month, is designed to shield children from highly concentrated levels of nicotine while they are being driven in cars.

Mr. Rinaldi, who represents the Northumberland-Quinte West riding in eastern Ontario, also said he'd like to discuss the law with Port Hope police to see what challenges they've had in enforcing it.

Statistics on how many charges have been laid since the law's inception Jan. 21 won't be available for several weeks.

But reports have surfaced about people being fined, including separate incidents involving a 29-year-old Sarnia-area woman and a 53-year-old Kingston man. Both where nabbed at RIDE spot checks which normally check to see if a driver has been drinking.

راديو محطة مصر, عيش جو مصر

2009-02-15T12:15:00.015-05:00

The new entrepreneurs

2009-02-03T19:01:00.002-05:00

by Paulo Coelho

Pamela Hartigan, director of the Schwab Foundation, drew up a list of ten points common to people whose dissatisfaction with the world around them drove them to create their own work. I think that Pamela’s list reaches far beyond this new mechanism called “social enterprise” and can be applied to many of our everyday activities:

Impatience: those who seek their dream do not wait around for things to happen: they see yesterday’s problems as today’s opportunities. Their impatience often makes them change course, but this adaptation is what matures them.

Conscience: those who seek their dream know that they are not alone in the world and that each gesture has a consequence. The work that they are doing can change the atmosphere around them. By understanding this power, they become an active element in society, and this sets them at peace with life.

Innovation: those who seek their dream believe that everything can be different from what it is, but it is necessary to pick a path that has not yet been traveled. Although always surrounded by old bureaucracy, the comments of others, and the difficulties of penetrating an unexplored forest, they discover alternative ways to make themselves heard.

Pragmatism: those who seek their dream do not hang around waiting for the ideal resources to start their work - they roll up their sleeves and get to work. No matter how little progress is made, it increases their confidence and the confidence of those around them, and the resources eventually turn up.

Apprenticeship: those who seek their dream usually have a deep interest in some particular area that can reveal new solutions to old problems when looked at in detail. But this apprenticeship can only be achieved through practice and constant renovation.

Seduction: no-one can survive alone in a competitive world: those who are aware of this and seek their dream manage to interest other people in their ideas. And these people become interested because they know that they are in the presence of something creative, committed to society - and above all else, economically lucrative.

Flexibility: those who seek their dream have an idea in their head and a plan to turn it into something real. However, as they move forward they realize that they have to adapt to the realities of the world around them, and from that point on their social responsibility becomes an important factor in changing the environment. For example, in order to reduce the rate of child mortality in a given city, it is not enough just to care for the children’s health - one has to change the sanitary structure, the nutritional system and so on.

Stubbornness: those who seek their dream may be flexible in their ways but at the same time concentrated on their objective. On account of their innovative ideas and because they are always moving in unknown territory, they never say: “I tried, but it didn’t work.” On the contrary, they always seek all the possible alternatives, and that is why the results eventually appear.

Happiness: those who seek their dream undergo difficult moments, but are happy with what they do. The occasional confusion and mistakes have nothing to do with their inability, and they are capable of smiling when they make a mistake - because they know that they will be able to correct that mistake further ahead.

Contagiousness: those who seek their dream have the unique ability to make people around them realize that it is worthwhile following their example and doing the same thing. That is why they will never feel alone, even if from time to time they feel misunderstood.

Pamela Hartigan closes her study offering the example of a Brazilian, Fabio Rosa, who developed a system to use solar energy after seeing that his community was spending a lot on non-renewable fuel. Fábio’s work, which contains the ten points listed in the study, is now known all over the world, has “contaminated” large corporations, and will soon benefit millions of people in addition to contributing to preservation of the environment.

If at this very moment I had a chance to turn into a bird...

2008-12-10T16:13:00.004-05:00

Mogo and the meaningless feast
by Paulo Coelho

This story is a free adaptation of “Come and Follow Me” by Paul H. Dunn:

A certain man called Mogo used to see Christmas as a feast without the least sense to it. In his mind, the night of the 24th December was the saddest of the year, because many people realized how lonely they were or remembered their dearly beloved who had died during the past year.

Mogo was a good man. He had a family, tried to help his neighbor and was honest in his business. However, he refused to admit that people were so naive as to believe that God had descended to Earth just to console men. Being a person of principles, he was not afraid to tell one and all that Christmas, besides being sad rather than happy, was also based on a story that was not real - a God transformed into man.

As always on the eve of the celebration of the birth of Christ, his wife and children were getting ready to go to church. And as always, Mogo decide to let them go alone, saying:

- It would be hypocritical of me to accompany you. I’ll be here waiting for you to come back.

When the family left the house, Mogo sat down on his favorite chair, lit the fire and began to read the day’s newspapers. But he was soon distracted by a noise at the window, then another and yet another.

Thinking it was someone throwing snowballs, Mogo slipped into his coat and went outside hoping to give the trespasser a fright.

As soon as he opened the door he saw a flock of birds that had lost their direction due to a storm and were now shivering in the snow. Noticing the warm house, they had tried to enter, but then they hurt their wings beating against the window and would only be able to fly again when they healed.

“I can’t leave these creatures outside there,” thought Mogo. “How can I help them?”

Mogo went to the garage door, opened it and turned on the light. But the birds did not move.

“They’re afraid,” thought Mogo.

He went back indoors, fetched some breadcrumbs and made a trail to the heated garage. But the strategy did not work.

Mogo opened his arms, tried to lead the birds with affectionate cries, softly pushing one and then another, but the birds became all the more nervous and began to beat their wings flying around in the snow without any direction, wasting the little strength they still had left.

Mogo no longer knew what to do.

- You must be thinking that I’m some scary creature, he said out loud. - Don’t you understand that you can trust me?

He shouted out in despair:

- If at this very moment I had a chance to turn into a bird just for a couple of minutes, then you would see that I’m really trying to save you!

At that moment the church bell chimed midnight. One of the birds transformed into an angel and asked Mogo:

- Now do you understand why God needed to turn into a man?

With his eyes filled with tears, Mogo knelt down on the snow and answered:

- Pardon me, angel. Now I understand that we can only trust those that resemble us and live through the same things as we do.

~fin~

Big Bang OR Boltzmann’s Brain, "Fade to Black" is the answer :)

2008-11-26T14:46:00.004-05:00

from NY Times, Big Brain Theory: Have Cosmologists Lost Theirs?

It could be the weirdest and most embarrassing prediction in the history of cosmology, if not science.

If true, it would mean that you yourself reading this article are more likely to be some momentary fluctuation in a field of matter and energy out in space than a person with a real past born through billions of years of evolution in an orderly star-spangled cosmos. Your memories and the world you think you see around you are illusions.

This bizarre picture is the outcome of a recent series of calculations that take some of the bedrock theories and discoveries of modern cosmology to the limit. Nobody in the field believes that this is the way things really work, however. And so in the last couple of years there has been a growing stream of debate and dueling papers, replete with references to such esoteric subjects as reincarnation, multiple universes and even the death of spacetime, as cosmologists try to square the predictions of their cherished theories with their convictions that we and the universe are real. The basic problem is that across the eons of time, the standard theories suggest, the universe can recur over and over again in an endless cycle of big bangs, but it’s hard for nature to make a whole universe. It’s much easier to make fragments of one, like planets, yourself maybe in a spacesuit or even — in the most absurd and troubling example — a naked brain floating in space. Nature tends to do what is easiest, from the standpoint of energy and probability. And so these fragments — in particular the brains — would appear far more frequently than real full-fledged universes, or than us. Or they might be us.

Alan Guth, a cosmologist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who agrees this overabundance is absurd, pointed out that some calculations result in an infinite number of free-floating brains for every normal brain, making it “infinitely unlikely for us to be normal brains.” Welcome to what physicists call the Boltzmann brain problem, named after the 19th-century Austrian physicist Ludwig Boltzmann, who suggested the mechanism by which such fluctuations could happen in a gas or in the universe. Cosmologists also refer to them as “freaky observers,” in contrast to regular or “ordered” observers of the cosmos like ourselves. Cosmologists are desperate to eliminate these freaks from their theories, but so far they can’t even agree on how or even on whether they are making any progress.

If you are inclined to skepticism this debate might seem like further evidence that cosmologists, who gave us dark matter, dark energy and speak with apparent aplomb about gazillions of parallel universes, have finally lost their minds. But the cosmologists say the brain problem serves as a valuable reality check as they contemplate the far, far future and zillions of bubble universes popping off from one another in an ever-increasing rush through eternity. What, for example is a “typical” observer in such a setup? If some atoms in another universe stick together briefly to look, talk and think exactly like you, is it really you?

“It is part of a much bigger set of questions about how to think about probabilities in an infinite universe in which everything that can occur, does occur, infinitely many times,” said Leonard Susskind of Stanford, a co-author of a paper in 2002 that helped set off the debate. Or as Andrei Linde, another Stanford theorist given to colorful language, loosely characterized the possibility of a replica of your own brain forming out in space sometime, “How do you compute the probability to be reincarnated to the probability of being born?”

The Boltzmann brain problem arises from a string of logical conclusions that all spring from another deep and old question, namely why time seems to go in only one direction. Why can’t you unscramble an egg? The fundamental laws governing the atoms bouncing off one another in the egg look the same whether time goes forward or backward. In this universe, at least, the future and the past are different and you can’t remember who is going to win the Super Bowl next week.

“When you break an egg and scramble it you are doing cosmology,” said Sean Carroll, a cosmologist at the California Institute of Technology.

Boltzmann ascribed this so-called arrow of time to the tendency of any collection of particles to spread out into the most random and useless configuration, in accordance with the second law of thermodynamics (sometimes paraphrased as “things get worse”), which says that entropy, which is a measure of disorder or wasted energy, can never decrease in a closed system like the universe.

If the universe was running down and entropy was increasing now, that was because the universe must have been highly ordered in the past.

In Boltzmann’s time the universe was presumed to have been around forever, in which case it would long ago have stabilized at a lukewarm temperature and died a “heat death.” It would already have maximum entropy, and so with no way to become more disorderly there would be no arrow of time. No life would be possible but that would be all right because life would be excruciatingly boring. Boltzmann said that entropy was all about odds, however, and if we waited long enough the random bumping of atoms would occasionally produce the cosmic equivalent of an egg unscrambling. A rare fluctuation would decrease the entropy in some place and start the arrow of time pointing and history flowing again. That is not what happened. Astronomers now know the universe has not lasted forever. It was born in the Big Bang, which somehow set the arrow of time, 14 billion years ago. The linchpin of the Big Bang is thought to be an explosive moment known as inflation, during which space became suffused with energy that had an antigravitational effect and ballooned violently outward, ironing the kinks and irregularities out of what is now the observable universe and endowing primordial chaos with order.

Inflation is a veritable cosmological fertility principle. Fluctuations in the field driving inflation also would have seeded the universe with the lumps that eventually grew to be galaxies, stars and people. According to the more extended version, called eternal inflation, an endless array of bubble or “pocket” universes are branching off from one another at a dizzying and exponentially increasing rate. They could have different properties and perhaps even different laws of physics, so the story goes.

A different, but perhaps related, form of antigravity, glibly dubbed dark energy, seems to be running the universe now, and that is the culprit responsible for the Boltzmann brains.

The expansion of the universe seems to be accelerating, making galaxies fly away from one another faster and faster. If the leading dark-energy suspect, a universal repulsion Einstein called the cosmological constant, is true, this runaway process will last forever, and distant galaxies will eventually be moving apart so quickly that they cannot communicate with one another. Being in such a space would be like being surrounded by a black hole.

Rather than simply going to black like “The Sopranos” conclusion, however, the cosmic horizon would glow, emitting a feeble spray of elementary particles and radiation, with a temperature of a fraction of a billionth of a degree, courtesy of quantum uncertainty. That radiation bath will be subject to random fluctuations just like Boltzmann’s eternal universe, however, and every once in a very long, long time, one of those fluctuations would be big enough to recreate the Big Bang. In the fullness of time this process could lead to the endless series of recurring universes. Our present universe could be part of that chain.

In such a recurrent setup, however, Dr. Susskind of Stanford, Lisa Dyson, now of the University of California, Berkeley, and Matthew Kleban, now at New York University, pointed out in 2002 that Boltzmann’s idea might work too well, filling the megaverse with more Boltzmann brains than universes or real people.

In the same way the odds of a real word showing up when you shake a box of Scrabble letters are greater than a whole sentence or paragraph forming, these “regular” universes would be vastly outnumbered by weird ones, including flawed variations on our own all the way down to naked brains, a result foreshadowed by Martin Rees, a cosmologist at the University of Cambridge, in his 1997 book, “Before the Beginning.”

The conclusions of Dr. Dyson and her colleagues were quickly challenged by Andreas Albrecht and Lorenzo Sorbo of the University of California, Davis, who used an alternate approach. They found that the Big Bang was actually more likely than Boltzmann’s brain.

“In the end, inflation saves us from Boltzmann’s brain,” Dr. Albrecht said, while admitting that the calculations were contentious. Indeed, the “invasion of Boltzmann brains,” as Dr. Linde once referred to it, was just beginning.

In an interview Dr. Linde described these brains as a form of reincarnation. Over the course of eternity, he said, anything is possible. After some Big Bang in the far future, he said, “it’s possible that you yourself will re-emerge. Eventually you will appear with your table and your computer.”

But it’s more likely, he went on, that you will be reincarnated as an isolated brain, without the baggage of stars and galaxies. In terms of probability, he said, “It’s cheaper.”

You might wonder what’s wrong with a few brains — or even a preponderance of them — floating around in space. For one thing, as observers these brains would see a freaky chaotic universe, unlike our own, which seems to persist in its promise and disappointment.

Another is that one of the central orthodoxies of cosmology is that humans don’t occupy a special place in the cosmos, that we and our experiences are typical of cosmic beings. If the odds of us being real instead of Boltzmann brains are one in a million, say, waking up every day would be like walking out on the street and finding everyone in the city standing on their heads. You would expect there to be some reason why you were the only one left right side up.

Some cosmologists, James Hartle and Mark Srednicki, of the University of California, Santa Barbara, have questioned that assumption. “For example,” Dr. Hartle wrote in an e-mail message, “on Earth humans are not typical animals; insects are far more numerous. No one is surprised by this.”

In an e-mail response to Dr. Hartle’s view, Don Page of the University of Alberta, who has been a prominent voice in the Boltzmann debate, argued that what counted cosmologically was not sheer numbers, but consciousness, which we have in abundance over the insects. “I would say that we have no strong evidence against the working hypothesis that we are typical and that our observations are typical,” he explained, “which is very fruitful in science for helping us believe that our observations are not just flukes but do tell us something about the universe.”

Dr. Dyson and her colleagues suggested that the solution to the Boltzmann paradox was in denying the presumption that the universe would accelerate eternally. In other words, they said, that the cosmological constant was perhaps not really constant. If the cosmological constant eventually faded away, the universe would revert to normal expansion and what was left would eventually fade to black. With no more acceleration there would be no horizon with its snap, crackle and pop, and thus no material for fluctuations and Boltzmann brains.

String theory calculations have suggested that dark energy is indeed metastable and will decay, Dr. Susskind pointed out. “The success of ordinary cosmology,” Dr. Susskind said, “speaks against the idea that the universe was created in a random fluctuation.”

But nobody knows whether dark energy — if it dies — will die soon enough to save the universe from a surplus of Boltzmann brains. In 2006, Dr. Page calculated that the dark energy would have to decay in about 20 billion years in order to prevent it from being overrun by Boltzmann brains.

The decay, if and when it comes, would rejigger the laws of physics and so would be fatal and total, spreading at almost the speed of light and destroying all matter without warning. There would be no time for pain, Dr. Page wrote: “And no grieving survivors will be left behind. So in this way it would be the most humanely possible execution.” But the object of his work, he said, was not to predict the end of the universe but to draw attention to the fact that the Boltzmann brain problem remains.

People have their own favorite measures of probability in the multiverse, said Raphael Bousso of the University of California, Berkeley. “So Boltzmann brains are just one example of how measures can predict nonsense; anytime your measure predicts that something we see has extremely small probability, you can throw it out,” he wrote in an e-mail message.

Another contentious issue is whether the cosmologists in their calculations could consider only the observable universe, which is all we can ever see or be influenced by, or whether they should take into account the vast and ever-growing assemblage of other bubbles forever out of our view predicted by eternal inflation. In the latter case, as Alex Vilenkin of Tufts University pointed out, “The numbers of regular and freak observers are both infinite.” Which kind predominate depends on how you do the counting, he said..

In eternal inflation, the number of new bubbles being hatched at any given moment is always growing, Dr. Linde said, explaining one such counting scheme he likes. So the evolution of people in new bubbles far outstrips the creation of Boltzmann brains in old ones. The main way life emerges, he said, is not by reincarnation but by the creation of new parts of the universe. “So maybe we don’t need to care too much” about the Boltzmann brains,” he said.

“If you are reincarnated, why do you care about where you are reincarnated?” he asked. “It sounds crazy because here we are touching issues we are not supposed to be touching in ordinary science. Can we be reincarnated?”

“People are not prepared for this discussion,” Dr. Linde said.

I was tired of people thinking Jordan was just a basketball player :)

2008-11-25T14:55:00.002-05:00

Jordan's Queen Rania has received YouTube's first Visionary Award for a daily video webcast and blog in which she sought to challenge stereotypes of the Arab and Muslim world and encourage dialogue across cultures.

Accepting the award in a YouTube clip posted Saturday, Rania listed 10 reasons for her five-month YouTube series in a spoof of the Top 10 list segment on the Late Show with David Letterman.

Learning to be the other!

2008-11-18T17:01:00.002-05:00

by Paulo Coelho

We are so centered on what we feel is the best attitude that we forget something of great importance: in order to reach our objectives, we need other people. So it is necessary not only to observe the world but also to imagine ourselves in the skin of others and to know how to follow their thoughts.

This holds true for both love (golden rule) and war (game theory).

الوردة الحمراء

2008-11-13T16:02:00.005-05:00

لــ جمال مرسي

و في قلبِ الحبيبةِ فاسكبيها		ألا يا نَسْمةَ الصُّبْحِ اْحمليها
لمن أحببتُ كل الحُبِّ فيها		و لا تتباطئي، فاليومَ عيدٌ
و أشعاراً تجوبُ الكونَ تِيِها		ألا فلتحملي كُلَّ اشتياقي
حناناً من مُحياها و فِيِها		و قُولي ذي هديةُ مَنْ رَوَتْهُ
سواها ، يا أميرةُ فاقبليها		أُحِبُّكِ.. لستُ أملكُ في حياتي
و في أعماقِ قلبكِ خبِّئيها		أُحِبُّكِ.. فاملئي الأسماعَ منها
لديْكِ أسيرةً ، لا تُطلقيها		أُحِبُّكِ .. إنَّ لِيْ دَقَّاتِ قلبٍ
فيا كُلَّ المُنى لا تُطفئيها		شُموعُكِ قد أضاءتْ في الحنايا
و إسمي في عناقٍ ، فاتركيها		و أحرفُكِ الجميلةُ قد تلاقتْ
حروفَ أميرتي و يذوبُ فيها		دعي حرفي يُراقصُ في الليالي
و نجماتُ المجرَّةِ مِنْ بنيها		يُخاصرُ من لها الجوزاء أُمٌّ
على شُبّاكِها نوماً رفيها		إذا طلعَ الصباحُ تنامُ عيْني
دعيها في صبابتها ، دعيها		ألا ، لا توقظي أطيارَ قلبي
لبحرِكِ ، جاهدي أنْ تُغرقيها		و إن أرسلتُ أشرعتي تباعاً
كعينِكِ للفنا سَبَباً وجيها		فكم وَجَدَ الغريقُ إذا دَعَتْهُ
لهُ مأسورَ غانيةٍ شبيها		و كم بحبائلِ الصيادِ لاقى
إلى قصرِ الأميرةِ ، هنِّئيها		ألا يا نسمةَ الصبحِ اسبقيني
و قلبَ مُتَيَّمٍ ، فلتحمليها		أُحَمِّلُكِ الأمانةَ ، عِقْدَ فُلٍّ
عليها قُبلتيْنِ ، فوصِّليها		و أزهاراً طَبَعْتُ مِنْ اشتياقي

~fin~

Where Hope Goes To Die :)

2008-11-05T14:03:00.002-05:00

Ana Gada3 :)

2008-10-15T17:48:00.001-04:00

غمض عينيك و ارقص بخفة و دلع

الدنيا هي الشابة و انت الــــــــجدع

تشوف رشاقة خطوتك تعبــــــــدك

لكن انت لو بصيت لرجليك ....تـقع

عجبي !!!

Life is a Chess-Board; The Question Is: Who's Playing :)

2008-10-03T12:54:00.005-04:00

Published by Paulo Coelho on September 29, 2008

The warrior always hears the words of some preachers of old, such as those of T.H. Huxley:

“The consequences of our actions, are the scarecrows of
fools, and the beacons of wise men.

“The chess-board is the world, the pieces are the phenomena of the universe, the rules of the game are what we call the laws of Nature. The player on the other side is hidden from us. We know that his play is always fair, just, and patient.”

It is up to the warrior to take up the challenge. He knows God will not allow one mistake by those he loves to go unnoticed, and will not allow his chosen ones to pretend not to know the rules of the game.

~fin~

Honesty is hardly ever heard And mostly what I need from you :)

2008-10-01T13:42:00.002-04:00

Even when faced with new facts and insights, most voters don't change their minds about their favorite candidates. A neurologist explains how they might, check it out at: Mind Reader.

--Hardly a recommendation for choosing a presidential candidate based upon a gut feeling that he or she is honest.

100 pages for 1 statement...

2008-09-23T12:29:00.004-04:00

from Paulo Coelho's Blog

A journalist hounded the French writer, Albert Camus (Nobel Prize, 1957), asking him to explain his work in detail. The author of The Plague refused: "I write, and others can make of it what they will."

But the journalist refused to give in. One afternoon, he managed to find him in a café in Paris.

"Critics say you never take on truly profound themes," said the journalist. "I ask you now: if you had to write a book about society, would you accept the challenge?"

"Of course," replied Camus. "The book would be one hundred pages long. Ninety-nine would be blank, since there is nothing to be said. At the bottom of the hundredth page, I’d write: "man’s only duty is to love ".

~fin~

And then it will toss you in the fire...

2008-09-18T13:21:00.004-04:00

"So faith, hope and love endure. These are the great three, and the greatest of them is love." 1 Corinthians 13:13

The first cardinal virtue: Faith

The second cardinal virtue: Hope

The third cardinal virtue: Love
Published by Paulo Coelho on September 17, 2008

According to the dictionary: from the Latin amor: strong affection that drives us towards the object of our desires; inclination of the soul and heart; affection; passion; exclusive inclination; theological grace.

In the New Testament: So faith, hope and love endure. These are the great three, and the greatest of them is love. (Corinthians 13:13)

According to etymology: the Greeks had three words to designate love: Eros, Philos and Agape. Eros is the healthy love between two persons that justifies life and perpetuates the human race. Philos is the sentiment that we dedicate to our friends. Finally, Agape, which contains both Eros and Philos, goes far beyond “liking” someone. Agape is total love, the love that devours those who feel it. For Catholics, this was the love that Jesus felt for humanity, and it was so great that it shook the stars and changed the course of the history of men. Those who know and feel Agape realize that nothing else in this world has any importance, only loving.

For Oscar Wilde:

Yet each man kills the thing he loves
By each let this be heard,
Some do it with a bitter look,
Some with a flattering word,
The coward does it with a kiss,
The brave man with a sword!
(Ballad of Reading Jail, 1898)

In a late 19th century sermon: Pour your love generously on the poor, which is easy; and on the rich, who distrust everybody and cannot see the love that they so need. And on your neighbor – which is very difficult, because it is towards him that we are most selfish. Love. Never lose a chance to give joy to your neighbor, because you will be the first to benefit from this – even if nobody knows what you are doing. The world around you will become happier, and things will become easier for you.

I am in this world living the present. Any good thing that I can do, or any happiness that I can bring to others, please tell me. Don’t let me put things off or forget, because I shall never live this moment again. (Henry Drummond The Supreme Gift, [1851-1897])

In an e-mail received by the author: “While I kept my heart to myself, I never had a single morning of anguish or a single night of insomnia. Since I fell in love, my life has been a sequence of anguish, losses, confusion. I think that God, by using love, managed to hide hell in the middle of Paradise” (C.A., 23/11/2006)

For science: In the year 2000, researchers Andreas Bartels and Semir Zeki, of University College in London, located the areas of the brain activated by romantic love by using a series of students who claimed to be madly in love. In the first place, they concluded that the zones affected by the sentiment are far smaller than they had imagined, and are the same as those activated by stimuli of euphoria, such as in using cocaine, for example. Which led the authors to conclude that love is similar to the manifestation of physical dependence provoked by drugs.

Also using the same system of scanning the brain, scientist Helen Fisher, of Rutgers University, concludes that three characteristics of love (sex, romanticism and mutual dependence) stimulate different areas of the cortex, and further conclude that we can be in love with one person, want to make love to another, and live with a third.

For a poet: Love possesses nothing and does not want to be possessed, because it is enough in itself. It will make you grow, and then throw you on the ground. It will whip you so that you feel your impotence, it will shake you to rid you of all your impurities. It will crush you to leave you flexible.

And then it will toss you in the fire so that you can become the blessed bread to be served at God’s sacred feast (The Prophet, by Khalil Gibran [1883-1931])

~fin~

Rev your engines :)

2008-09-08T17:52:00.004-04:00

Based on Wired.com on September 04, 2008.

A study commissioned by a phallically named insurance company proves beyond all doubt that the unbridled roar of an Italian supercar turns women on but the soft purr of a fuel-efficient econobox doesn't stimulate anyone's MPG-spot.

David Moxon subjected 40 men and women to the sounds of a Maserati, Lamborghini and Ferrari, then measured the amount of testosterone in their saliva. He found everyone had higher levels of the stuff -- a measure of their arousal -- after hearing the revving exotics, but the amount the women had was off the charts.

The econobox, however, left everyone colder than a January day in Nome.

The study was commissioned by the ultra-exclusive British insurer Hiscox (we swear we're not making this up), which was curious to know how people respond to high-end luxury cars. "We knew owners of luxury cars felt a connection with the sound of their vehicles," says Steve Langan, managing director of the insurance company. "We have now scientifically proven the physical attraction people feel when it comes to cars."

To test the theory that high-performance cars get people hot, Moxon had 40 men and women listen to recordings of the three Italian exotics and a Volkswagen Polo. Everyone had significantly more testosterone after hearing the exotics, and all of the women were turned on by the Maserati. The guys, on the other hand, were drawn to the Lamborghini.

“We saw significant peaks in the amount of testosterone in the body, particularly in women," Maxon says, noting that even women who said they had no interest in cars were turned on. "Testosterone is indicative of positive arousal in the human body so we can confidently conclude from the results out today that the roar of a luxury car engine actually does cause a primeval physiological response.”

As for the Polo? Everyone had less testosterone after listening to it. That means the acceleratus interruptus of a Prius going all-electric in traffic is automotive equivalent of skin flicks starring previous secretaries of state, despite General Motors' claim that nearly nine out of 10 women would rather talk to a guy in a hybrid than a Porsche.

Don't buy it? Check out these videos of Maserati, Lamborghini and VW Polo exhaust notes and tell us how you feel afterward. Be forewarned, though -- we are not responsible for any primeval responses they cause.

Maserati (Hot):

Lamborghini (Spicy):

VW Polo (Lame):

~fin~

رمضان جانا .. أهلا رمضان

2008-08-30T12:34:00.000-04:00

With which hand is Escher holding his reflecting sphere?

2008-08-29T17:47:00.004-04:00

في عينيك عنواني

2008-08-26T17:53:00.003-04:00

لــ فاروق جويدة

قالت: سوف تنساني

وتنسى أنني يوما

وهبتك نبض وجداني

وتعشق موجة أخرى

وتهجر دفء شطآني

وتجلس مثلما كنا

لتسمع بعض ألحاني

ولا تعنيك أحزاني

ويسقط كالمنى اسمي

وسوف يتوه عنواني

ترى.. ستقول يا عمري

بأنك كنت تهواني؟!

* * *

فقلت: هواك إيماني

ومغفرتي.. وعصياني

أتيتك والمنى عندي

بقايا بين أحضاني

ربيع مات طائره

على أنقاض بستان

رياح الحزن تعصرني

وتسخر بين وجداني

أحبك واحة هدأت

عليها كل أحزاني

أحبك نسمة تروي

لصمت الناس.. ألحاني

أحبك نشوة تسري

وتشعل نار بركاني

أحبك أنت يا أملا

كضوء الصبح يلقاني

أمات الحب عشاقا

وحبك أنت أحياني

ولو خيرت في وطن

لقلت هواك أوطاني

ولو أنساك يا عمري

حنايا القلب.. تنساني

إذا ما ضعت في درب

ففي عينيك.. عنواني

~fin~

Experience Heaven and Hell yourself!

2008-08-18T14:00:00.001-04:00

Q: If there was a heaven and hell - what would you imagine each to be like?

A (by Paulo Coelho): I don’t think I have to imagine Heaven and Hell, there are many examples in our world that represent both.

Recently I read a very interesting book called “ The Lucifer Effect”by Philip Zimbardo. This book tells of an experiment conducted in the sixties in Standford University where students were chosen to carry out an experiment in the basement of the university. A prison was recreated and by the flip of a coin 7 students were held hostage while the other 7 students were the prison guards. The guards had absolute power over the victims (except for physical violence) and the experiment was meant to last 2 weeks. Yet, at the end of the 6th day the experiment had to be ceased - victims having nervous breakdowns. The guards, that unleashed their evil, had to go under therapy for years to come.

These normal individuals, given absolute power, started doing evil deeds, simply because they could – or didn’t do anything to avoid hell of breaking loose.

I was very impressed by this and I think that this experiment illustrates the fact that heaven and hell both dwell in our souls, just as light and darkness compose a day.

~fin~

Choosing one’s destiny

2008-08-12T19:30:00.002-04:00

By Paulo Coelho on July 25, 2008 in Stories

“I am willing to give up everything”, said the prince to the master. “Please accept me as your disciple.”

“How does a man choose his path?” asked the master.

“Through sacrifice,” answered the prince. “A path which demands sacrifice, is a true path.”

The master bumped into some shelves. A precious vase fell, and the prince threw himself down in order to grab hold of it. He fell badly and broke his arm, but managed to save the vase.

“What is the greater sacrifice: to watch the vase smash, or break one’s arm in order to save it?” asked the master.

“I do not know,” said the prince.

“Then how can you guide your choice for sacrifice? The true path is chosen by our ability to love it, not to suffer for it.”

RIP Mahmoud Darwish

2008-08-11T11:14:00.003-04:00

موت آخر و أحبك

.
.
.
-2-

سألتك أن تريديني خريفا و نهرا

سألتك أن تعبري النهر وحدي

و تنتشري في الحقول معا

سألتك ألا أكون و ألا تكوني

سألتك أن ترتديني

خريفا

لأذبل فيك، و ننمو معا

سألتك ألا أكون و ألا تكوني

سألتك أن تريديني

نهرا

لأفقد ذاكرتي في الخريف

و نمشي معا

و في كل شيء نكون

يوحدّنا ما يشتّتنا

ليس هذا هو الحبّ

في كل شيء نكون

يجددنا ما يفتّتنا

ليس هذا هو الحبّ_

هذا أنا..

أجيئك منك، فكيف أحبك؟

كيف تكونين دهشة عمري؟

و أعرف

أن النساء تخون جميع المحبين الأّالمرايا

و أعرف:

أن التراب يخون جميع المحبين إلاّ البقايا

أجيئك منك انتظارا

و أغرق فيك انتحارا

أجيئك منك انفجارا

و أسقظ فيك شظايا ..

و كيف أقول أحبك ؟

كيف تحاول خمس حواسّ مقابلة المعجزة

و عيناك معجزتان ؟

تكونين نائمة حين يخطفني الموج

عند نهاية صدرك يبتديء البحر

ينقسم الكون هذا المساء إلى إثنين:

أنت و مركبة الأرض.

من أين أجمع صوت الجهات لأصرخ:

إني أحبك
.
.
.

~fin~

Beware of the effect of adding milk to your tea!

2008-08-07T18:28:00.004-04:00

Published online on Jan 9, 2007 at The European Heart Journal:

Milk counteracts the favourable health effects of tea on vascular function. This finding indicates the need for particular awareness in the interpretation and design of studies comprising nutritional flavonoids.

A study at the Charité Hospital of the Berlin Universities showed that adding milk to tea will block the normal, healthful effects that tea has in protecting against cardiovascular disease. This occurs because casein from the milk binds to the molecules in tea that cause the arteries to relax, especially EGCG. Milk may also block tea's effect on other things, such as cancer. Other studies have found little to no effect from milk on the observed increase in total plasma antioxidant activity. Teas with high EGCG content, such as green tea, are not typically consumed with milk. Previous studies have observed a beneficial effect from black tea which was not attributable to the catechin content. Plant-based "milks", such as soy milk, do not contain casein and are not known to have similar effects on tea.

Milk also binds the tannin in the tea, rendering it harmless.

Bel mou7'tasr el mofeed: 2eshrabo "sada" 2a7sanlak :)

In search of signs!

2008-07-30T11:46:00.002-04:00

By Paulo Coelho on July 14, 2008 in Stories

We may think at times that the only thing life offers us tomorrow, is to repeat everything we did today. But if we pay close attention, we will see that no two days are alike.
Each morning brings a hidden blessing; a blessing which is unique to that day, and which cannot be kept or re-used. If we do not use this miracle today, it will be lost.

This miracle is in the small things of daily life; we must live in the understanding that at every moment there is a way out of each problem, the way of finding that which is missing, the right clue to the decision which must be taken in order to change our entire future.
But how to find the courage for this? As I see it, God speaks to us through signs. It is an individual language which requires faith and discipline in order to be fully absorbed.

For example, Saint Augustine was converted in this way. For years he sought - in various philosophical schools - an answer to the meaning of life, until one afternoon, in the garden of his house in Milan, as he reflected on the failure of his search, he heard a child in the street: “Take up and read! Take up and read!”
Although he had always been governed by logic, he decided - in an impulse - to open the first book which came to hand. It was the Bible, and he read part of St. Paul which contained the answers he sought. From then on, Augustine’s logic made way for faith to take part in his life, and he went on to become one of the Church’s greatest theologians.

The monks of the desert used to say it was important to allow angels to act. Because of this, they occasionally did absurd things - such as talk to flowers or laugh without a reason. The alchemists followed the “signs of God”; clues which often made no sense, but which always lead somewhere.

“Modern man tried to eliminate life’s uncertainties and doubts. And in doing so he left his soul dying of hunger; the soul feeds off mysteries” - says the dean of Saint Francis Cathedral.

There is a meditation exercise which consists of adding - generally for ten minutes a day - the reasons for each of our actions. For example: “I now read the newspaper to keep myself informed. I now think of such-and-such a person, because the subject I read about lead me to do so. I walked to the door, because I am going out”. And so forth.

Buddha called this “conscious attention”. When we see ourselves repeating our ordinary routine, we realize how much wealth surrounds our life. We understand each step, each attitude. We discover important things, and useless thoughts.

At the end of a week - discipline is always fundamental - we are more conscious of our faults and distractions, but we also understand that, at times, there was no reason to act the way we did, that we followed our impulses, our intuition; and now we begin to understand this silent language which God uses in order to show us the true path. Call it intuition, signs, instinct, coincidence, any name will do - what matters is that through “conscious attention” we realize that we are often guided to the right decision. And this makes us stronger and more confident.

إسكندرية… ليه؟ كمان وكمان -نيويورك

2008-07-29T14:07:00.004-04:00

...وداعا يوسف شاهين

I make my films first for myself. Then for my family. Then for Alexandria. Then for Egypt. And if the Arab world likes them, ahlan wa sahlan [welcome]. And if the foreign audience likes them--they are doubly welcome.

سكوت ح نصور

An Adventure Beyond the Ordinar-E

2008-06-26T12:09:00.003-04:00

WALL-E is an acronym for Waste Allocation Load Lifter--Earth Class.

According to John Lasseter in a presentation to Disney corporate investors:

WALL-E is the story of the last little robot on Earth. He is a robot and his programming was to help clean up. You see, it's set way in the future. Through consumerism, rampant, unchecked consumerism, the Earth was covered with trash. And to clean up, everyone had to leave Earth and set in place millions of these little robots that went around to clean up the trash and make Earth habitable again.

Well, the cleanup program failed with the exception of this one little robot and he's left on Earth doing his duty all alone. He doesn't know he can stop working. But it's not a story about science fiction. It's a love story, because, you see, WALL·E falls in love with EVE, a robot from a probe that comes down to recover the last plant left on Earth, which curious little Wall-E has picked up. He absolutely falls in love with her.

Don't miss it, Release dates:
June 27, 2008 (USA, CAN)
July 18, 2008 (UK)
September 18, 2008 (AUS)

~fin~

excessive punishment!! for god's sake...

2008-06-19T12:06:00.003-04:00

Check original post at GlobeAndEmail site, you might need to consider reading the comments there, you will find it hilarious-if you are at the same side as those who commented :) and feel free to comment over there.

Father doesn't know best, court rules in girl's fight to get grounding overruled

TU THANH HA

From Thursday's Globe and Mail

June 19, 2008 at 4:05 AM EDT

First, the father banned his 12-year-old daughter from going online after she posted photos of herself on a dating site. Then she allegedly had a row with her stepmother, so the father said his girl couldn't go on a school trip.

The girl took the matter to the court - and won what lawyers say was an unprecedented judgment.

Madam Justice Suzanne Tessier of the Quebec Superior Court ruled on Friday that the father couldn't discipline his daughter by barring her from the school trip.

The judge's decision, made from the bench, applies only to the girl's unusual circumstances, lawyers for both sides said, trying to dispel visions of grounded teenagers rushing to the nearest courthouse to overturn their parents' punishments. Nevertheless, the case triggered an uproar in the Gatineau region of Quebec, near Ottawa, where the girl, her divorced parents and her stepmother live.

Even though the school trip is now over, the father is appealing the ruling because his moral authority over his child had been undercut by the court, said his lawyer, Kim Beaudoin. "He is stunned by this situation. He feels like he's lost his daughter," Ms. Beaudoin said in an interview.

"My client wants to appeal so no other parents will live through the same thing."

Lucie Fortin, the lawyer representing the 12-year-old, said the judge found that depriving the girl of the school trip was an excessive punishment.

She said the girl has already been forbidden to use the Internet and her father also punished her by cancelling her participation in an extracurricular event.

The trip, a three-day outing within Quebec supervised by teachers and volunteer parents, marked her Grade 6 class graduation from elementary school.

"She's becoming a big girl. ... It's a unique event in her life," Ms. Fortin said.

The girl's parents are divorced. Her father has legal custody but for the past month she has lived with her mother, Ms. Fortin said.

Before Judge Tessier, she cited Sections 159 and 604 of the Quebec Civil Code, which allow minors in some circumstances to initiate court proceedings relating to the exercise of parental authority.

Ms. Beaudoin said Section 159 is normally used in extreme circumstances, for example when a child wants to be removed from negligent parents.

"What my client is saying is that a school trip is not a right, it's a privilege," she said.

Ms. Fortin said, however, that the case ended in court after a long, escalating dispute between the girl and her father and stepmother, which ended with the daughter being expelled from her father's house and living with her biological mother since May.

"I presented this [court] motion with a lot of sadness," Ms. Fortin said.

Ms. Beaudoin also described a climate of tension and defiance, saying the girl, who had been banned from Internet chatting, tried to circumvent the order by going online at a friend's house.

Judge Tessier heard the matter for about 40 minutes on Friday morning then gave her oral ruling in the afternoon, Ms. Beaudoin said.

~fin~

Believe it or not!

2008-06-13T00:58:00.003-04:00

I came cross an article titled "5 Things You Never Knew Your Cell Phone Could Do" and it listed something really new! check this out:

Have you locked your keys in the car?

Does your car have remote keyless entry? This may come in handy
someday. Good reason to own a cell phone: If you lock your keys
In the car and the spare keys are at home, call someone at home on
their cell phone from your cell phone. Hold your cell phone about a foot
From your car door and have the person at your home press the unlock
button, holding it near the mobile phone on their end. Your car will
unlock. Saves someone from having to drive your keys to you. Distance is no
object. You could be hundreds of miles away, and if you can reach someone who has
the other 'remote' for your car, you can unlock the doors (or the trunk).

Try it and let me know :)

Holografika...

2008-06-09T15:31:00.007-04:00

Finally Roadrunner! First PetaFLOPS Supercomputer

2008-06-09T14:31:00.003-04:00

check the fact sheet at http://www.earthtimes.org/

One slide show :)

2008-06-06T11:10:00.000-04:00

How many victims :)

2008-05-09T11:17:00.004-04:00

راديو مارمرقس .... من قلب الكنيسة

2008-04-23T23:28:00.004-04:00

دلوقتى راديو مارمرقس 24 ساعة برامج , ترانيم , قداسات و اجتماعات مباشرةً على الهواء

Play in external player...

~fin~

What a chick ;)

2008-02-26T23:06:00.034-05:00

Kont fakir Nadine Labaki malhash 3'er fee Nancy Ajram's video clips, bas tala3t (iskandrany :P mesh tele3et) 3'altan :) 7a2eek 3alaya ya set Nadine :)

if you didn't check "Caramel" movie yet, check it now... and see Nadine starring as well as directing and also writing... wow what a chick ;)

Mabroook (Egypt - Six Stars)

2008-02-10T19:53:00.000-05:00

mabrok le masr el negma el sata :)

After all... I'm just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her.

2008-02-03T23:40:00.000-05:00

Notting Hill, this area in West London, England close to the north-western corner of Hyde Park, also it has a contemporary reputation as an affluent and fashionable area; known for attractive terraces of large Victorian townhouses, and high-class shopping and restaurants; so definitely this is my type of place where i like to be around.

Julia Roberts, She is the star of the nineties. An incandescent screen presence that has captivated movie screen audiences worldwide. The smile is dazzling, she is really a sparkling star.

She is one of a handful of screen actors who has found fame in the nineties by the sheer force of talent and screen charisma; a potent mix that has given them popularity, celebrity and fame.

Since she first lit up the screen in the early nineties in the smash hit comedy Pretty Woman, Julia has had fame. A perceived state of being that is often exaggerated, exploited and misunderstood.

Funny thing; Julia is emphatic about her take on fame. "It’s a myth," she declares. "I have often time said that people’s perception of my life or an actor’s life is a lot more hectic and outrageous and pressure-filled and glamorous than I have ever known my life to be, or any of my actor friends."

so back to the fascinating place and the lovely person with the most passionate and sentimental songs ever, definitely this piece of art is one of my favorites. I'd never get bored replaying this movie time after time, day after day.

I hope you enjoy it's mythic romantic, flavored with hint of a cheerful comedy as I always do...

In Notting Hill, Julia plays Anna Scott, ‘the world’s most famous movie star,’ who meets and falls in love with William, ‘an ordinary guy.’ The pursuit of their love affair highlights not only the differences of their respective lifestyles, but the perception of fame by the famous and the non-famous. A perception summed up by Robert’s character, Anna: "The fame thing isn’t real, you know. Don’t forget—I’m also just a girl. Standing in front of a boy. Asking him to love her."

~fin~

ايامي بيك - أواخر الشتا

2007-12-18T12:05:00.001-05:00

we el donia min youmiha ya 2alby 3awedetna...
lama betedy 7agat 2awam ta7'od 7agat...

I still can't put my hand on the reason for the mysterious affinity between me and this one, yet it has something familiar! maybe something I've experienced long time before or maybe just a Déjà vu :) You can listen to it in my box as well as Elissa's new Album (Ayami Beek).

Enjoy it and let me know what do you think about this song!

~fin~

HOlidays... HOlidays... HOOlidays...

2007-12-12T13:35:00.000-05:00

Ho..Ho..Hoo...Merry Christmas and happy new year... and Happy Eid, happy Holidays to everyone. See you all in 5 weeks, and whoever in Egypt see you in one week :)

~fin~

wa7shany (ابنة َ اليمِّ) :)

2007-11-14T14:43:00.000-05:00

اِختِلافُ النَهارِ وَاللَيلِ يُنسي
ل أحمد شوقي

اِختِلافُ النَهارِ وَاللَيلِ يُنسي	اُذكُرا لِيَ الصِبا وَأَيّامَ أُنسي
وَصِفا لي مُلاوَةً مِن شَبابٍ	صُوِّرَت مِن تَصَوُّراتٍ وَمَسِّ
عصفتْ كالصَّبا اللعوبِ ومرّت	سِنة ً حُلوة ً، ولذَّة ُ خَلْس
وسلا مصرَ : هل سلا القلبُ عنها	أَو أَسا جُرحَه الزمان المؤسّي؟
كلما مرّت الليالي عليه	رقَّ ، والعهدُ في الليالي تقسِّي
مُستَطارٌ إذا البواخِرُ رنَّتْ	أَولَ الليلِ، أَو عَوَتْ بعد جَرْس
راهبٌ في الضلوع للسفنِ فَطْن	كلما ثُرْنَ شاعَهن بنَقسْ
يا ابنة َ اليمِّ ، ما أبوكِ بخيلٌ	ما له مولع بمنع وحبس
أَحرامٌ عَلى بَلابِلِهِ الدَو	حُ حَلالٌ لِلطَيرِ مِن كُلِّ جِنسِ
كُلُّ دارٍ أَحَقُّ بِالأَهلِ إِلّا	في خَبيثٍ مِنَ المَذاهِبِ رِجسِ
نَفسي مِرجَلٌ وَقَلبي شِراعٌ	بِهِما في الدُموعِ سيري وَأَرسي
وَاِجعَلي وَجهَكِ الفَنارَ وَمَجرا	كِ يَدَ الثَغرِ بَينَ رَملٍ وَمَكسِ
وَطَني لَو شُغِلتُ بِالخُلدِ عَنهُ	نازَعَتني إِلَيهِ في الخُلدِ نَفسي
وَهَفا بِالفُؤادِ في سَلسَبيلٍ	ظَمَأٌ لِلسَوادِ مِن عَينِ شَمسِ
شَهِدَ اللَهُ لَم يَغِب عَن جُفوني	شَخصُهُ ساعَةً وَلَم يَخلُ حِسّي

...

~fin~

To Believe It Or Not To Believe It :)

2007-10-16T11:55:00.000-04:00

Based on this article "When our vices get the better of us" prepared by The Courtesy Association for Psychological Science and World Science staff:

Drug abuse, crime and obesity are but a few of the problems modern society faces, but they all have one thing in common: people’s failure to control themselves in the face of temptation. While the ability to restrain our impulses is a defining feature of the human animal, its failure is one of society’s central problems. So why do we so often lack this crucial ability?

As humans, we have limited resources to control ourselves, researchers say; all acts of control draw from one source. So when using this resource in one domain, such as dieting, we’re more likely to run out of it in another domain, like studying hard.

Once these resources run out, our self-control ability is diminished, according to scientists. The dieter is more likely to eat chocolate, the student to watch TV, and the politician to accept a bribe.

In a recent study, Michael Inzlicht of the University of Toronto Scarborough and colleague Jennifer N. Gutsell offer an account of what’s happening in the brain when our vices get the better of us.

Inzlicht and Gutsell asked participants to suppress their emotions while watching an upsetting movie. The idea was to deplete their resources for self-control. The participants reported their ability to suppress their feelings on a scale from one to nine. Then, they completed a Stroop task, which involves naming the color of printed words (i.e. saying red when reading the word “green” written in red), yet another task that requires self-control.

The researchers found that those who suppressed their emotions performed worse on the task, indicating that they had used up their self-control resources while holding back their tears during the film.

An electroencephalogram (EEG), a recording of electrical activity in the brain, confirmed the results, they said. Normally, when a person deviates from their goals (in this case, wanting to read the word, not the color of the font), increased activity occurs in a part of the brain called the anterior cingulate cortex, which alerts the person that they are off-track. The researchers found weaker activity in this brain region during the Stroop task in those who had suppressed their feelings. In other words, after engaging in one act of self-control this brain system seems to fail during the next act, they said.

The findings, which appear in the November issue of the research journal Psychological Science, have implications for future interventions aiming to help people change their behavior, the researchers argued. Most notably, they said, the results suggest that if people even temporarily don’t realize they have lost control, they will be unable to stop or change their behavior on their own.

This is actually good thing to know, still you might believe it or not!

The Hilarius part is its application in real life :) to know more revisit this "Your Virtual Wing Man" Blog by Scott Adams and let me know if you can prove it true ;)

~fin~

7alo ya 7alo Ramadan kareem ya 7alo :)

2007-09-17T14:00:00.000-04:00

Mashrebtesh Men Nilha tab Garabt Te3'anelha

2007-07-26T15:36:00.000-04:00

Baladna Amana Fe 2edeina Ne3aleha Madam 3ayshen
Ne3esh Feha Senen we Senen We7na metamenen

Mashrebtesh Men Nilha tab Garabt Te3'anelha
Garabt fe 3ezz ma te7zean Temshy fe Shaware3ha we Teshkelha
Mamshetsh fe dawa7eha tayeb makbertesh feha
Wala Lek sora 3alramla Kanet 3al shat Fe Mawaneha

Dawar Gowak Tel2aha Heya El So7ba we heya El Ahl
3eshret Balady betb2a Nesyanha 3al Bal Mesh Sahl
Yemken Nasy La2enak Feha mosh wa7shak wala 3'ebt 3aliha
Bas elly megareb We fare2ha 2al fel Donya Mafesh Ba3deha

En 3'ebt Ba7anelha Wansa El Donia we Agelha
Wen get Ansa Tefakrny be Million Zekra le 2albi Shayelha

3'alya Baladna 3alina we Hatefdal fe 3eneina
We madam Ben7eb Baladna yeb2a 7atet3'aiar Be 2edeina
E7na Elly Ne3aleha .. be 2edeina Nekhaleha Agmal Lena we lewladna
mahma El 3omr Ye3ady 3alina..

Dawar Gowak Tel2aha Heya El So7ba we heya El Ahl
3eshret Balady betb2a Nesyanha 3al Bal Mesh Sahl
Yemken Nasy La2enak Feha mosh wa7shak wala 3'ebt 3aliha
Bas elly megareb We fare2ha 2al fel donya mafesh Ba3deha

Sway Vs. El Liela Dee

2007-07-13T15:15:00.000-04:00

It's not a hard thing to discover -from the first tone- that the main song of Amr Diab's new Album "El Liela Dee" is a strong resemblance to The famous Sway With Me song, but some people is trying to misuse this, and finally it's published on the air when Mixology (Negoum FM show) rendered a couplet by Couplet matching between the two songs as a new remix, really it was hilarious :) i couldn't stop giggling when i listened to the remix, but it seems that it took a lot of courage from the presenter to air this "remix" heheheh it is really funny :)

In spite of everything, I like the Album :) and actually both songs are borrowing the Mambo beat as the main rhythm so it's not really what they have in their minds! bas mayemna3sh i loved the "remix" heheheheh

And if you just followed the Sway song's (with the same lyrics) various versions from 1950 till 2007 with more than 40 artists you will get my point of view, at least now we have an Arabic version with a brand new Arabic lyrics (at least this is the first Arabic version) :)

What do you think?

[Updated] El Lila Dee

2007-07-05T16:00:00.000-04:00

ba3d tool 2entezarrrr :) 07-07-07 is always the lucky number :) let's wait and see we ya7'abr el naharda beflos kaman youmin yob2a bebalash :)

Check the complete Album at myBox.

BTW at the same day The New 7 Wonders of the World will be announced during the Official Declaration ceremony in Lisbon, Portugal! and no more Egyptian wonders!!!

Rat-a-too-eeeeeee

2007-06-25T13:26:00.000-04:00

Finally after waiting for almost one year, the coming JUNE 29th we can all watch and enjoy Ratatouille (Rat-a-too-ee)!

And thanks to Pixar for raising the bar on all animation featured movies, so we can all go and enjoy watching an animated movie without having in mind that we are going to watch animation! which for some people is disturbing ~I have no idea why! but this is true :)

You will be really amazed by its creativity and brilliance; on the top of my head i can just tell you that almost all animation movies (except Japanese Anime movies which we can take a whole day talking about each one of them) had covered the followings (Thanks to Dilbert who has compiled this list):

Bugs
Monsters
Super heroes
Cars
African animals
Suburban animals
Robots
Toys
Fairy Tale creatures
Fish
Birds (Chicken, Penguin...Added)
Dinosaurs
Ghosts

Now you can tell how much does it take to come up with new ideas specially the good ones :) so enjoy yourselves we 2ed3ooli ;)

[Live] NogoumFM 100.6

2007-05-29T19:18:00.036-04:00

El wa7ed bardo betew7asho 7agat 3'areeba kol fien we fien kida, ba2aly shewaya 7elween kida ne2oul shahr kamel ba7awel asma3 NogoumFM bas lel 2asaf kol al sites illi a3rafha fag2a kararet inaha tebatal 2eeza3a -3ala 7azy ana ba2a-

Any way bardo fag2a ana karart today inny a7awel tany, we bardo lessa kol al sites mesh sha3'ala we kaman al sites illi lessa la2eeha today, bas hooraaaay i found one site still working and for all people who are missing NogoumFM they can stream it from here:

التالتة تابتة

2007-05-11T15:11:00.000-04:00

يازهر البساتين
غناء منيرة المهدية
ألحان كامل الخلعي
من رواية التالتة تابتة

يازهر البساتين الشيلة بتلاتين
والصحبة بمليم والحزمة بعشرين
خلاقه عظيم
أنا جوه البستان غنى لي الكروان
والغصن اتمايل والفل يخايـــل
والورد أهو فتح والياسمين صبح
والزهر منور على بختي بدور
شوفولي ياريحان ياحارس ياأمين

من بعد البورصة أنا أبيع وأتوصى
وإمتى سلامة ييجي بالسلامة
ويجينا الشاطر مجبور الخاطر
وحياة المرسي مركبنا حاترسي
نظرة يابوالعباس يا حامي المساكين

دي صحبة لمة من زهر الأمة
أنا وفقها مين حيفرقها
ربطتها متينة ودي أجمل زينة
ارشقها في صدرك كايد بها ضدك
تغنيك عن رتبة وعن كبشة نياشين
...

~fin~

ما اسمعش صوتك ولا حسك :)

2007-05-07T01:57:00.000-04:00

Hehehehe mesh 2ader 2a2oul 7aga...aslan mesh la2y kalam 2a2oulo! bas mas7'ara el sara7a...bas 7elwa bardo :)

Ta7'ayalo ma3aya lo fe3lan fee wa7da betkalem wa7ed we te2oulo kida! mas7'ara sa7ee7 :)

Listen to the song here...

Blue Man Group (off-Broadway - 434 Lafayette St.)

2007-04-30T18:03:00.000-04:00

Music & Lyrics

2007-04-20T00:23:00.000-04:00

A melody is like seeing someone for the first time, the physical attraction, sex... but then as you get to know the person, that's the lyrics. Their story, who they are underneath...It's the combination of the two that makes the magic.

I've been living with a shadow overhead
I've been sleeping with a cloud above my bed
I've been lonely for so long
Trapped in the past, I just can't seem to move on

I've been hiding all my hopes and dreams away
Just in case I ever need them again someday
I've been setting aside time
To clear a little space in the corners of my mind

All I wanna do is find a way back into love
I can't make it through without a way back into love
Oh oh oh

I've been watching but the stars refuse to shine
I've been searching but I just don't see the signs
I know that it's out there
There's gotta be something for my soul somewhere

I've been looking for someone to shed some light
Not somebody just to get me through the night
I could use some direction
And I'm open to your suggestions

All I wanna do is find a way back into love
I can't make it through without a way back into love
And if I open my heart again
I guess I'm hoping you'll be there for me in the end

There are moments when I don't know if it's real
Or if anybody feels the way I feel
I need inspiration
Not just another negotiation

All I wanna do is find a way back into love
I can't make it through without a way back into love
And if I open my heart to you
I'm hoping you'll show me what to do
And if you help me to start again
You know that I'll be there for you in the end

~fin~

Strangers

2007-04-12T15:39:00.000-04:00

Strangers tells the compelling tale of two young men, one Arab and one Jewish who are motivated by fear to overcome their racial prejudice and hatred when suddenly confronted with a menacing gang of skinheads.

So What do you think about it?

P.S. Thanks to اسكندراوى for pointing out this video.

Make a Difference

2007-04-10T11:58:00.000-04:00

At this time, the i’m™ initiative is available only in the United States. yet it's still a good thing to spread the word. So let's make a difference.

Happy Easter

2007-04-06T21:19:00.000-04:00

PursePliers ™ (Based on Dilbert.Blog Post)

2007-03-22T13:23:00.000-04:00

I came across this post about "Excellent New Product for Men" by Scott Adams, and he has this hilarious invention :) and just to save a few clicks for my post readers I'll scrap it here.

for all Men: Enjoy this invention ;)
and for "Others": I bet you didn't see that coming :P

If you’re a guy, you’ve probably heard way too many times a variation of this not-really-a-question: “Could you hold my purse?”

As you know, there is no way to hold a purse in a manly fashion. After sixty seconds of transporting a designer bag full of Tampons and lipstick, your testosterone will be so low that you’ll be playing field hockey and lactating.

You can try holding the purse in a manly, irregular fashion, but it won’t help. It’s still a purse. And you’re holding it. You big wuss. Say goodbye to your gonads; they’ll be hiding in your torso like two BBs in an airplane hangar.

That’s why I invented the PursePliers ™. They are exactly like regular pliers, but you carry them in your back pocket in all times in case you are asked to hold a woman’s purse. When you hear the call, “Honey, would you grab my purse?” you whip out the pliers and use them to safely transport the purse and its wuss cooties.

The recommended way to lift a purse with pliers is by grabbing the zipper and holding it the way you would hold fresh road kill, at a safe distance from your body, just in case it’s not totally dead. Research has shown that wuss cooties can not cross pliers.

While there is no manly way to touch a purse with your bare hands, there is no unmanly way to use pliers. Your PursePliers can be used in a variety of situations, including shopping for a blouse for your wife, passing the low-calorie salad dressing, and tucking in a baby.

PursePliers: Their time is now.

~fin~

[Closed] - Questionnaire on Knowledge of HIV/AIDS in Egypt

2007-03-12T21:25:00.000-04:00

The following anonymous questionnaire is a humble effort to understand how well-informed is the Egyptian youth about HIV/AIDS and whether they consider it a potential threat to the public health. Please choose to complete the questionnaire in English or Arabic. To preserve the privacy of all participants, an email address through which all participants can send their answers has been created.

To maintain the privacy of all participants, all answers should be sent from an anonymous email created specially for that purpose. Send your answered questionnaire only once to rabie@global-studies.de using the documented email in order not to reveal your identity.

for further information kindly read the notes on the last page of the questionnaire.

To whom are interested in filling and completing the questionnaire; you can download it from here:

Arabic Questionnaire
English Questionnaire

Thank you for your time!

~on behalf of~
R.R.
Albert Ludwigs Universität Freiburg, Germany

nefsy fee Egyptian accent, enough shoooooo :)

2007-03-10T12:11:00.000-05:00

El wa7ed hina yebos yemino yela2y Lebanese yebos shemalo yela2y (guess what) Lebanese bardo, yesha3'l El radio yela2y Lebanese FM! heya 7aga kewayesa we kol 7aga bas ya3ni El wa7ed illi yakol mango kol youm 3ayez one apple kida 3alshan ye3del al mazag ;)

se7et El sob7 2oult ne3del El mazag we neshouf nogom FM (2amry 2ella Alla) we rou7t online 3alshan asma3 shewya :) we the catastrophe strikes once again :) it was a Lebanese show duh!

BTW Excuse me for the late posting i was buried up to my neck at work last month, but here I'm back live and kicking ;)

~fin~

Tagged: Five Things You Don't Know About Me

2007-02-13T20:16:00.000-05:00

1- I adore cartoon movies
2- Drama movies really get to me and with the proper doze/timing i might shed few tears
3- I hate dirty fingernails
4- I forget why i got angry at anyone after a while :)
5- I can't stand doom-and-gloom atmospheres

I've been tagged more than one, so this implies that almost most of the people out there are already been tagged, hence now might be a good time to stop the victim-hood.

~fin~

New Office, New View

2007-02-02T12:39:00.001-05:00

As it turned out the new year really comes with a brand new *new* package :)
and once again here I'm getting a *new* window office :)

Ummm who knows what's next!

~fin~

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

2006-12-18T14:18:00.000-05:00

Enjoy the Holiday season, and as you know I'm going to enjoy it in Egypt with all my family and friends wohaaaaaaa, So adiós...au revoir...Auf Wiedersehen...arrivederci ......

Vacation for 4 weeks starting tomorrow's, don't hold your breath :)

~See You Soon~

Let’s vaporize the moon :) (Based on Dilbert.Blog Post)

2006-12-06T16:30:00.000-05:00

I came across this post about "Moon Real State" by Scott Adams, and he was wondering about who's with him :) - you can count me in (Thumbs Up) I'm all for the World Peace...

Actually i find it hilarious yet (form a Risk Mitigation perspective) it might prevent a lot of troubles in the future as he was trying to clarify :)

So go-no-go!

~fin~

Rage3lik ya Iskindireyya :)

2006-12-01T12:07:00.000-05:00

El wa7ed beyestana Christmas min el sana lel sana 3alshan kol Christmas vacation lazim anzil Egypt :) you know to visit my family and my friends and to pay some visits to my beloved Alexandria sea :)

Al wa7ed wa7asheto Iskindireyya shibr shibr...share3 share3..ahwa ahwa...3amod noor 3amood noor hehehehehhe :)

Gadwal zeyaratee 7aykon kal 2atyy bel tarteeb min Ba7ary le Abu-keer :)

El-Shekh Wafeek	Chez Gabi	Acacia	Harris Café	Le Canari
Al 2al3a	City Café	Palmira	Abu 3aly	Down under
Chai Sha2awa	Green Café	Anna Misho	Mermaid	Sixties
2ahwaet 6 October	Far’n’Away	Dahab	Sultana Roushdy	3asfor
Gelaty Makram	Roastery	Sa3a Le 2albak	Dalton	El Saba7i Plaza
Grand Café	2awlad El Fala7	Maspeero	Minouche	Hamdy
Tikka Grill	Samara	Jomana	La Casetta	Balba3
Fish Market	El 2ahwa El 3alia	Welad El Zawat	Amnesia	Dahab Café
2ahwet Farouk	24/7	Basata	Club 21	Saltana
Sayed Sawaree7’	Grand Caesar	Asala	Pastroudis	Dawar Go7a
Ba2ash	7 Secrets	Badaweya	Swiss Cottage	Layaly El 7ossien
Muhammed Ahmed	Costa	Cordon Rouge	Saltanet Stanli	Laylaty Café
7’arob 2amal	Cilantro	Trianon	Africano	Maxim
El Sultan 7essien Café	Jungle	Splash	Défilé	Abu 2ashraf

wa lel 7adeeth bakeya :)

Save your time now and create your own "Read List"!

2006-11-23T16:44:00.000-05:00

I know that most of the bloggers right now know how to sweep their favorite blogs efficiently on a daily basis or whenever they have time.

But for those who still suffers and think for better ways to do so, check *Google Reader* -this is really pretty simple and elegant way to have one centralized place to check out what's hot and new according to you :)

To get some answers for these questions:

Why would I want to use Google Reader?
How do I search for new content?
What is my reading list?
What are my subscriptions?
How does sharing work?
How do I get the source for what I'm reading?
Can I import an existing subscription list?

Just go to the FAQ page and you will find more than what you are looking for.

Enjoy :)

*Your Blog should support RSS in order to properly permit subscriptions to it.

~fin~

إحساس جديد - نانسي عجرم

2006-11-22T16:12:00.000-05:00

ma3lish al 7agat al gedeeda betewsal met2a7'ara shewya leya bas lessa metabe3 al hamd lelaa :)

3amaletha Nancy talet mara ma3aya:) first time was her hit "yay se7r 3eyouno", and the second when she sang "lown 3eyounak" and actually while writing this post I'm listening to her latest "i7sas jadid" it's amazing and her video clip is stunning - akeed ya3ni 3alshan mesawarah fee Lebanon).

No one can deny that she put a very sensational as well as innovative touch when she included "lou3't al soura" as she called it in her dedications at the end of her clip -really touching :)

It reminds me with those old days when i used to be in Scouts group (Scouts et Guides: Terre Sainte), and we had the same idea in almost all our songs, we tried it once in some camp and it turned to be really fun so it became our motto for a while :)

wow see how "te2telny" and "magnouna" turned out expressively and interactively :)

for Nancy's fans: you can download it here, enough talking :) and check this out:

إحساس جديد

إحساس جديد
بقلبك بيزيد
بتحسو كلما بتطلع فيي
وانك عاطول فيي مشغول
كتير بتشتقلي وبتموت عليي

انا مابدي تقلي كلام يدوب قلبي حنين وغرام
بيكفيني تقلي بحبك هيدي الكلمه بتقتلني

حدي بيكون قلبك مجنون
حتى نظرات عيونك مجنونه
وبيعز عليك ترف بعينيك
وتمرق شي لحظه ماتشوف عيوني
...

~fin~

Paris 2054. Live forever or die trying (Renaissance - 2006)

2006-11-17T14:00:00.000-05:00

Animation movie and Black & White, i find this a killer combination specially if the movie is really has a good writing and whole bunch of great people teaming behind it; like "Sin City" for Frank Miller BTW I love this movie and fortunately they have part 2 and 3 in process :) Last week i watched "Renaissance" a French production and you can say that i enjoyed it - not as much as "Sin City", yet it's B&W so it's by definition "I Like It" :) they really did some great work there, check it out here:

~fin~

Warning: May Cause Toe-Tapping :)

2006-11-08T13:37:00.000-05:00

~fin~

There's no place like 127.0.0.1

2006-11-01T13:11:00.000-05:00

Realtors, Insurance Brokers, Bankers, Lawyer, Home Stores, Bell Canada, Rogers, Mattress Mart, Sleep Country, Future Shop, Best Buy...Urghhhhhhhhhh
I believe now that you got some ideas about where i was buried in the last three weeks, but finally there's no place like 127.0.0.1 :)

~fin~

zoom zoom zooooom

2006-10-12T13:26:00.000-04:00

For a quite long time I was searching for my coming vehicle, I had in mind some prerequisites for it; it should be hatchback (I love hatchbacks) and it should have pretty powerful engine because I really like to hear the engine roaring :) as well it should be practical which means no way to get a 2 doors hatch and at last it should be rare meaning I don’t want to see my car on each intersection I pass by :)

I was monitoring closely the auto car for the last year and the best matches were 2007 VW R32 (2dr), 2007 Audi A3 (3.2 Q), 2007 VW GTi (4dr), 2007 Volvo C30 (2dr), but finally last week I found it 2007 mazdaspeed3 (zoom-zoom)

See how awesome this hot redhead babe in this commercial :) tonight I’ll get these hot wheels - awesome ;)

Chi Mai

2006-09-23T12:59:00.000-04:00

After returning home form a weary work day as it happened every week day, the person need to do plenty of things and after many days…weeks…months… with this routine, the necessity to get back to yourself and have few minutes as a quality time will arise; it’s only a matter of time till you feel it :)

و يا سلام بأه

على قعدة دافية

و معاها نسمة عالية

تحت شمساية مايلة

ويا موسيقى هادية

تيكيلام تيكيلام

And this is what I really want to talk about: THE *music*; you can listen to many classics, but nothing really touch your soul or communicate with you, although it was a piece of art and may be composed or performed with one of the greatest in our age, yet it will lack this warmth which embraces your soul and wrap your heart.

I really can’t find any words to describe how I felt the first time I listened to this piece, and since that time and I adore it, I spend almost three years to get it. And during this time I was just replaying the movie where it was the soundtrack or simply waiting for my lucky day to listen again to it on any radio broadcast, but it worth :)

The Movie was “Le Professionnel” for the French star: Jean-Paul Belmondo, and the piece is “Chi mai” for the Italian legend: Ennio Morricone.

Unfortunately, by the time I first heard this soundtrack, I didn’t know its composer, and I recall that I was only fourteen or something and no one is interested in the French movies to just point me where I can get this soundtrack, but for me it was also a matter of time till I get it all :)

I’ve uploaded the MP3 version so anyone can download it or even stream it, relax we sibly nafsak 7’ales :)

~fin~

3esht lel 2abad ya prof ---‘-;{@

2006-09-20T15:56:00.000-04:00

Le Professeur: Fouad El-Mohandes (6 Sept. 1924 – 16 Sept. 2006)

Sometimes when the person need to laugh, need to untimely enjoy his time, but nothing in his life is helping to reach his desires! Did you face this problem before? I really had the solution for this predicament, I just play back any of Fouad El-Mohandes’s movies or plays, regardless how sad and tough my mood is; Le Professuer always has its own way directly to my heart and automatically the smile is being drawn on my face again and saved into my heart :)

You can’t actually imagine how excited I was at the past when I find any of his works replayed by chance on the public television, just remembering these memories brings all the fun to my heart.

3esht lel 2abad ya prof ---‘-;{@

Unfortunately two of the greatest comedy legends in Egypt and the Arab world passed away in a short time. First it was Gaddo Abdo now it is Amo Fouad. From few days ago Actor Fouad El-Mohandas had passed away in the hospital ,after long struggle with a heart disease, it was the irony of time when he entered the hospital to be treated from his heart on the same day his long time co-actor and friend Abd El-Monam Madbooly passed away from couple of months.

And just for whom concerned and want to learn more about his life, you can check it all on Al-Ahram Weekly – by Ahmed Bahgat.

And especially for all Le Professeur's fans world wide; listen to one of his songs and enjoy :)

~fin~

تنورتهــا شبــر و نص، و بلوزتهــا بتـــلالي

2006-09-17T00:29:00.000-04:00

Along Alexandria cost from Abou Kir bay in the east to the western harbor in the west you can ultimately enjoy your time, not because of the aquatic environment of Alexandria but because it always has this unique style of coffee shops rowed on the seafront and each and every one has its unique style and climate, nevertheless the joyful people you can just sit and enjoy their company…

*sigh* Those really were good days...Back to my main subject; after moving to Canada I missed this life style I used to, but fortunately we still here in Ottawa has some good coffee shops, yet all of them has these two things in common: first; its all Lebanese -where قهوة زيادة called حلو كتير and حجر تفاحة called تفاحتين, and second -which is the reason behind writing this blog; its all start playing this song “Tannoura – Fares Karam” once I walk into it :)

When I first heard it, I wished more for listening to any song with the Egyptian accent, but my friend H. told me to concentrate more in its lyrics, and after I started to decipher its words, I started laughing… the song is hilarious, realistic and it really makes a lot of sense, please enjoy yourselves…

~fin~

I've been tagged...

2006-09-16T01:28:00.000-04:00

Been tagged by an Angel who couldn’t be seen :) and after tagging me she added a twist to me, and I’ll try my best:

1) Are you happy/satisfied with your blog with it's content and look?

Ummmm, it’s really depends on its scope and the objective behind it, and this blog is simply a scratch board for my thoughts or whatever pops into my mind, so you can say that it makes me satisfied ; not the other way around.

2) Does your family know about your blog?

I don’t know for sure, and actually this is not an issue for me.

3) Do you feel embarrassed to let your friends know about your blog or you just consider it as a private thing?

It’s a scratch board as I mentioned before, so if they are really want to scratch with me; I’ll be more than happy.

4) Did blogs cause positive changes in your thoughts?

It actually depends on the feedback I got from other people who read mine, and yet I didn’t get that thing which you can call it positive change.

5) Do you only open the blogs of those who comment on your blog or you love to go and discover more by yourself?

Sure, I check who comment my blog, and if there are some interesting links to other blogs in the way, I don’t mind to check it.

7) Did you try to imagine your fellow bloggers and give them real pictures?

LOL, no I don’t because I had a really bad experience because of my imagination.

8) Admit. Do you think there is a real benefit for blogging?

So far I can’t find any down side, but I hope to experience its pros soon –if any.

9) Do you think that bloggers society is isolated from real world or interacts with events?

LOL, I wonder who actually wrote this survey :) any how; I don’t think so! Blogging men al sha3b we lel sha3b :)

10) Does criticism annoy you or do you feel it's a normal thing?

Al 2adab fadalo 3ala al 3elm, I don’t mind anything but please with respect and civilized way.

11) Do you fear of some political blogs and avoid them?

nope

12) Did you get shocked by the arrest of some bloggers?

Does it really matter!

13) Did you think about what will happen to your blog after you die?

I think Blogger’s Prod OPS team has some policy for cleaning up untouched blogs, so the rule will apply on mine as well.

14) What do you like to hear? What's the song you like to put its link in your blog?

Ya sallam, mesh te2oul innena fee “ma yatlobo al mostame3on” :) All out of love for Air Supply.

15) Five bloggers to be the next "victims"?

bluestone, rubiba, alexandra, ummmm and all the others whom I know are already tagged, so it’s a good time to cease the victimhood :)

~fin~

في حــاجه أكــيد غلــط...و ربنــا يستــر عليــنا

2006-09-14T13:05:00.000-04:00

According to what have been posted all over the media that Haytham Shaker & Tamer Hosny have been in jail for about 30 days. And they are spending their jail time in the Tora prison in the south of Cairo (revisit The Daily Star - Egypt).

The police decided that both Tamer and Haytham have to pay 50,000 L.E each because they are both banned from traveling abroad, and they both used fake passports to travel. Nevertheless they were also arrested by the police in a new case; they haven't gone to the obligatory army service; so they will both face a possibility to spend 3 years in Jail.

And after while Tamer Hosni has revealed that after serving his year long jail sentence he will retire from singing and immigrate to the USA to be reunited with his father. His lawyer is still trying to shorten his sentence.

And also there are a chain of convictions are planned to take place regarding his forging official university diplomas from the universities of Hilwan and Al Mansoura.

Ironically that people are cheering for them and wish them good luck as well as wishing them a lovely stay and fast recovery, and you can check Nogoum FM every day promoting their news as if they had an ordinary accident! *sigh* is this really happening! And we wonder why Egypt is suffering all those issues in all fields! (ربنــا يستــر)

~fin~

يا درويش .. إن شاء الله تعيش - حكايات حارتنا - حكايه 1

2006-09-02T21:34:00.000-04:00

I’ve grown in a house where the living room had a huge book library, included most of the breath taking novels and mind blowing stories, of course besides most of the world famous classics, of course thanks to my father who raises me up to his taste and standards :)

In my teenage years I had the chance to read books for Homeros, Ovid, Shakespeare, Dickens, Tolstoy, Chekhov and many others, also our library were crowned with the best Egyptian Arabic writers such as Ahmed Shawqi, Youssef El Sebai, Yehia Hakki, Abbas Al Akkad, Tawfiq Al Hakim as well as the most closed one to my heart Naguib Mahfouz to whom I read my first Arabic novel which was "حكايات حارتنا".

And over the years his works grows in me bigger and bigger, and every time I finish reading one of his works I admire him more, and become more confident that it will never face that moment of end and death, I really think that his works and thoughts are eternal as long there are some people who respect and cherish literature with classy taste and prestigious style.

That’s was the first thing it gushed into my mind when I heard the news of Naguib Mahfouz’s Obituary, and below is what I wanted to share with every one who loves him –may be not in person yet through his works:

I’ve picked the title as the first line of his book and the first line in my serious Arabic reading, and hopefully it will be the start for many others over the years to keep his merited eternity, may god bless his soul and rest it in peace...

~fin~

Nostalgia

2006-08-28T22:50:00.000-04:00

Yesterday night I went to bed and hanged there awaken for a while, and as all who knew me: my favorite thing to do before going to sleep is to play music, songs, or even tune the radio to a descent broadcasting channel.

Back to yesterday night, it was Abd El Halim's night, I played all his hits in sequence, but there is one hit which surprisingly touched me more than any others: which usually are my favorites such as “Kare2et Al Fengan, Fatet Ganbena, Kamel El 2awsaf…”; This song is “Ya Malken Kalbi”.

كلمات: الأمير عبد الله الفيصل

ألحان: محمد الموجي

يا مالكا قلبي

يا مالكا قلبي
يا مالكا قلبي يا آسراً حبي

النهر ظمآن لثغرك العذب

مل بي له مل بي يا مالكا قلبي

قل لي أين المسير في ظلمة الدرب العسير

طالت لياليه بنا والعمر لو تدري قصير

يا فاتنا عمـــري

هل انتهى أمري

في غربتي وحدي

في ظلمة الأسر

يا مالكا قلبي

آه من الأيام أه لم تعط من يهوى مناه

مالي أحس أنني روح غريب في الحياة

يا فاتنا عمري

هل انتهى أمري

أخاف أن أمشي

في غربتي وحدي

في ظلمة الأسر

يا مالكا قلبي

رحماك من هذا العذاب قلبي من الأشواق ذاب

ليلي ضنى.. صبحي أسى عيشي على الدنيا سراب

يا فاتنا عمري

هل انتهى أمري

أخاف أن أمشي

في غربتي وحدي

في ظلمة الأسر

يا مالكا قلبي

Oh boy… you can easily tell how these words hit me! I can make it easier for myself, but this is not me :)

~fin~

Share the fun

2006-08-20T17:50:00.000-04:00

The last few weeks was really hectic, all the time was mainly consumed in work, yet a business trip pop’ed up in my schedule, and finally managed to get some free time which turned to be fun later.The trip was to San Francisco – CA. Now you can say that I had fairly fun time there. Moreover, I really enjoyed myself watching a bunch of Arabic movies during the past period, ironically speaking that I really didn’t watch that much of Arabic movies before, all my experience with Arabic movies was narrowed to Super Jet trips in between Alexandria and Cairo, and of course I wouldn’t pay a penny to watch any of nowadays' Arabic movie.

The strange thing that I felt like missing Egyptian movies, and at the same time N0^2 (mille merci again) sent me this great link of Arabic movies which have been uploaded to Google Videos, thanks to the Arabic movies' fans world wide :)

Enough with my past experience with Arabic movies, This time I watched “Harb Italia” for Ahmed El-Saka whom I usually dislike for his over reactions and macho attitude, yet there was another star inviting me to check the movie; she is Nelly Karim whom on the other hand I really respect particularly her personality as well as admiring her artistic life between Ballet and Acting –or may be because she had an Alexandrian bloods ;)

This movie was really promising, I remember once in one of my trips back from my work in Cairo to spend my week-end in Alexandria with my family and friends, I watched Mafia and I wished to see more movies down the road with a serious scenario and professional technicalities.

And at last I saw Harb Italia -again there was El-Saka, but this time it seems that he started to control his over reactions and turning to be more into the personality he is manifesting. I’m not writing a critic, and I don’t intend to start; Just this time- it was a turning point for me regarding the Arabic movies and believe me when I say: this was utterly unexpected, I really enjoyed this movie, and as my motto is to Share the fun, here you are the movie replay at Google Videos…

Pamper yourself; Giant popcorn box might be useful :)

~fin~

You have made my whole year...

2006-07-29T01:48:00.000-04:00

The tide recedes, but leaves behind Bright seashells on the sand.
The sun goes down, but gentle warmth still lingers on the land.
The music stops, and yet it echoes on in sweet refrains...
For every joy that passes, something beautiful remains.

Since I moved to Canada and I've wished to hear the waves on the beach, to feel the warm sand running in between my toes, to smell the cool breeze blown in my face and to taste the salty drops carried in the air…and I was wishing till Today when my dream at last came true, yes I heard the waves, felt the breeze and walked *eventually* on the beach…

Thanks to you and REALLY you have made my day, moreover you have made my whole year; This is the best Birthday gift ever ---;-'{@

P.S. this amazing scene was accompanied with joyful sound effects and powered with melodious crooning, may be after another year of dreaming we can get to manifest it *crossing fingers*.

~fin~

THE QUEEN OF SPADES (1834)

2006-07-18T12:04:00.000-04:00

"I am convinced," she wrote, "that your intentions are honourable, and that you do not wish to offend me by any imprudent behaviour, but our acquaintance must not begin in such a manner. I return you your letter, and I hope that I shall never have any cause to complain of this undeserved slight."

by Alexander S. Pushkin (1799-1837)

from "The Queen Of Spades" (1834)

It is said in The Bible that God has given Man “free will.” Unfortunately for Man, The Bible does not entail exactly what “free will” is.

Some speculate that there is a force called Chance. These people believe that through a serious of coincidence, luck, and their own choices, they can control their future. Others believe in a force known as Fate.

With this line of thinking, everything has a goal, and those goals will be met eventually. This gives the believer a sense of inevitability and they tend to be more laid back due to the philosophy of least resistance. Least resistance is the idea of “it’s going to happen anyway, so there’s no real point in pushing back.” In Pushkin’s “Queen of Spades”, chance and fate seem to endlessly intertwine themselves to the point where there appears to be a third force somewhat dictating their actions. In some instances, the lives of the characters seem to be going in a set path (Fate). At other instances, it appears as if had this not just happened to happen at this point in time, this person’s life wouldn’t have been affected in this way (Chance).

Are Fate and Chance separate forces? or puppets on the strings of another power? Chances are, they’re one in the same.The play opens with a man, Tomsky, who “just so happens” to be telling the story of his grandmother and how she “fatefully” came upon the secret to wealth.

First, looking at it from the chance perspective, had this not happened, life would have been altered for many people. Countess Anna Fedrova, Countess A-----, is the person who puts the order of chance happenings in motion. Had she not been born, had she been “damaged” in some way earlier in life, had she not married the man she did, and many other “what ifs" and “if onlys" could have stopped the series of events from occurring. But, “by chance”, all of these things did happen. “By chance”, a man who would be interested in learning the secret of the three winning cards was listening to Tomsky. Again, had his life not gone the way it had, he might not have been around Tomsky in the first place. “By chance”, he was. The pattern of “by chance” is set up early in the story. The entire story was written “by chance”, which makes an interesting parallel to real life.

Had Pushkin not been born! we would not have the story, and so forth. Or was it fate? Was Countess A----- destined to be at the card game that caused her to lose her money which caused her to become desperate, and ultimately be given the secret? All this was set up for her to continue living the life she was accustomed to and by doing so gave birth and had assistants, and lived to be very old. This set up for the rest of the events to take place. At times, it appears that everything is happening for a reason; as if an unbiased coin were flipped and it was known what the result would be and due to the result being pre-ordained and not left to chance, something would happen. Or to relate more to the story, had she never learned the secret, she wouldn’t be killed because of it.

“ ‘Money is not necessary,’ replied St. Germaine: ‘be-pleased to listen to me.’‘Then he revealed to her a secret, for which each of us would pay a great deal…’”(Pushkin, pp. 3)

But discussing fate as an inevitability goes against the notion of free will. If we cannot escape our fate, are we actually making the choices at all? Instep the third force. 'God' If fate has goals, who sets them? When this question is asked, another force happens to be created. When this happens, chance and fate may be more easily meshed. God set somehow an abstract goal for Fate to strive toward. Fate achieves this by acts of Chance. Acts of chance are based on our decisions. With this line of thinking, fate and free will can exist. Some would argue that if God is setting our goals, then we have no free will. A rebuttal to that would be that we have the freedom to choose how we get there. The God Force could easily
explain how things come to be. This gives rise to infinite possibilities to how the story could progress (Matrix). For example, God wants to test Hermann at some point in time. Because of a timeline built on fate, Tomsky is born and Hermann by chance hears of the three winning cards. Because Hermann made the choice to listen to Tomsky’s tale, he is tempted and a fate’s goal is complete.One problem with using the God Force to explain the story is that it contradicts with the religious ideology of Russia which was at the time composed of an atheism enforcing government. Yet again, Pushkin did make reference to Mephisto, which is a reference to Goethe’s “Faustus”. Mephisto is another word for Satan. To refer to Satan, one would infer that God is. If one were to rule out the God Force and simply use Fate and Chance individually, I believe that each refers to a different perspective. Fate is more from the characters’ perspective. Their lives, no matter how many times they’re retold, always end the same way.

The end of the book is the goal of the fate set at the beginning. From the reader’s perspective, this is simply a story of chance happenings. We as readers have the unfair advantage to jump around time within the story. The characters, however, perform in the way it is said they
do. In their minds, as we read, actions are in the present tense and to them; they are making the choices resulting to a fate.To illustrate this, Hermann’s tale shall be the example. Through his eyes, everything is happening by chance.
Hearing the story, meeting the girl who just so happens to know the countess from the story, and eventually going insane was all coincidence to him. To the Countess, however, his fate was known when he killed her. She did not know her own fate because to her all was chance. She did, however, know his fate because she decided it as if to be playing God. She knew, if she told him the cards, what he would do and what would happen. To her, she made the choice to do it.

“ ‘Can you not name me these three winning cards?’continued Hermann.The countess remained silent; Hermann Continued.‘For whom are you saving your secret?’ … The Countess remained silent; Hermann fell upon his knees.”(Pushkin, pp. 14-15)

Another illustration would be from the card games. To Countess Anna Fedrova, the card game was fated in her favor for she knew the cards. To everyone around her, who didn’t know that she knew which cards to play, this was all chance. In essence, she was on the outside looking in on the card game; where everyone else was looking out. Later, Hermann thought he was fated to win because the Countess told him the cards. This became a different fate to him when he played the wrong card. The card happened to wink at him. It was the spirit of the Countess, who knew the real fate as she was yet again on the outside looking in. This is also an example of repeating motifs and echoing within the story. Exploring the theme of chance, one realizes that chance is simply a game of perspectives. Random to one was planned by another. Was everything put together as a plan to make Hermann go insane one day?

“At that moment it seemed to him that the queen of spades smiled ironically and winked her eye at him. He was struckby her remarkable resemblance.‘The old Countess!’ he exclaimed, seized with terror.’”(Pushkin, pp. 23)

Or did it simply just happen to turn out that way?

“Hermann went out of his mind, and is now confined in room Number 17 of the Oboukoff Hospital. He never answers anyquestions, but he constantly mutters with unusual rapidity:“Three, seven, ace! Three, seven, queen!”(Pushkin, pp. 23)

As only God knows why all was created, only Pushkin knows why these events happened in the way they did. It all depends on how you look at it. In hindsight, what was once thought to be fate is simply the pattern of chances strung together.

~fin~

To judge or not to judge, this is not the question. (John 12:47,48)

2006-06-29T11:45:00.000-04:00

As it seems that God is differentiating between two groups with respect to John 12:47,48:
1- Who hear God's words, and don't believe; God will not judge him.
2- Who reject God, and don't receive God's words, God will judge him in the last day.

But actually what is the key differences between those two groups!
This is really vague to me...Who "don't believe"; I find him as a rejecter. And who reject God; definitely he is not believer!

People sometimes misunderstand these words, as they think that it's contradiction between 47 and 48, based on: God will Judge, or not? But really this is very superficial thinking! As we all know the issue here is the *Right* and *Wrong* pass, and that's eventually to be the key difference between the two groups.

The clues to properly understand the real key differences in my opinion are:
1- Consider what God said as his explanations: "For I came not to judge the world, but to save the world" and "The word that I have spoken, the same will judge him in the last day"
2- Think about it in a timely fashion, which will be cleared as you read...

Jesus' words regarding coming to save the world helps clarify the point he was seeking to make. Christ in his first coming (47) didn't come to bring judgment and wrath, but salvation and restoration. It is only at his second coming (48) that Christ will judge the world:

"And just as it is appointed for men to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him." Hebrews 9:27-28

For those who rejected Christ in his first coming, the word that Jesus spoke will stand as a witness against them in the day that Christ comes to bring in God's wrath. In other words, Jesus is saying that even though he didn't come to judge individuals in his first coming, nevertheless the words that he spoke will stand as a witness against all those who rejected his message when he returns to judge the living and the dead. He basically said the same thing early on in his ministry in John3:16-18, which assure us to take our Bible as one entity not as separated phrases. And always align ourselves with the context and the circumstances in order to reach the truth:

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. He who believes in him is not condemned; he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God." John 3:16-18

Although Christ came to save, not condemn, the world, an individual's rejection of Jesus in his first coming is a sign that such a person stands condemned on the day in which Christ will come to judge everyone. This is where John 5:22 comes in.

Jesus in John 5:22 is not denying that the Father judges anyone, but is denying that he does so directly. The Father will judge the world indirectly through the agency of his Son when he returns to resurrect the dead and judge the world:

"The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me, has eternal life; he does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. Truly, truly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself, and has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of man. Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come forth, those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment." John 5:22-29

~fin~

7th Heaven

2006-06-22T19:37:00.000-04:00

Listen to Theme Song ©2006 The WB Television Network	When I see their Happy faces smilin' back at me... 7th heaven I know there's no greater feelin' than the love of Family Where can you go When The world don't treat you right? The answer is *Home*!!!!!!!!! That's the one place that you'll find
7th heaven. Ooooooooooooooooooooooh! 7th Heaven 7th heaven

~fin~