By Kifah Zaboun
Ramallah, Asharq Al-Awsat – Two high-level ranking Hamas leaders have vehemently emphasized that the Hamas organization does not operate in any Arab or non-Arab territory and that it has no military activity except in Palestine. In statements to Asharq Al-Awsat, Yahya Musa and Atif Adwan stressed that Hamas is satisfied with the Syrian role in supporting the Palestinian issue, and noted that Syria's stance is different from the stances adopted by several Arab countries. They said that Hamas respects the Syrian option to hold dialogue with Israel, that these negotiations are legitimate, and that there is no reason for concern about the outcome of these negotiations.
Both Hamas leaders were commenting on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's interview in Asharq Al-Awsat where he stated that Hamas and Hezbollah would not attack Israel from Syria. He pointed out that in the direct negotiations with Israel through Turkish mediation efforts, he reached a stage closer to an agreement than that reached in the era of his father's negotiations with the then Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and former US President Bill Clinton in 2000. more
Why I don't want to be a philosopher? "Let no one unversed in geometry enter here."
As time passes by in the twilight of one's career, the most painful predicament is when one becomes aware of 'so much to learn with so little time available.' It is always the inadequacies and gaps in my comprehension of universal truth, the very idea of knowing so little and the very dynamic nature of truth, infuriates me sometimes and razes the peace of my mind. Follies of intellect are difficult to argue with. It is a fact that knowledge is bestowed to mankind in dots and drips. I have always maintained that history cannot be judged from our own vantage point. It would be mockery of a fair deal to pass judgments based on realities of today. No knowledge is flawless, neither is any philosopher or a prophet. "Contemporary transformation" and the dominant and invasive modifications taking place throughout all aspects of human existence beg the questions: Where are we potentially heading and, perhaps more importantly, where should we be heading? As I have put it mildly on my introduction on Newsvine under my picture 'Searching the purpose of our existance and where do we end up?'
We discover truth with the passing of eons. The definition of truth keeps changing; the dynamics of the change is what our minds need to train for. As if 'facts' are not fixed, they keep changing over time. Let's take an example: joblessness causes frustration and extreme anger, we saw what that Dutch man did the other day when he lost his job yet, Aristotle said that all paid jobs cause degradation of mind. Aristotle could not imagine a society with 1 billion job seekers, this scale of human degradation has inevitably caused momentous strides in research and development. He also postulated that ''the universe is perfect; the Earth is the center of this perfect universe, and that everything in the universe revolves around the Earth.''
In Athens, his teacher Plato also believed with the Pythagoreans that the stars, planets, Sun and Moon moved around the Earth attached to the surface of crystalline spheres which slid over one another while circumscribed about the five regular solids. Plato founded a school of learning in a place that once belonged to the Greek hero Academos (from whom "academy" is derived). Over the academy's door was written: "Let no one unversed in geometry enter here." It flourished for over 900 years, from 387 B.C. to 529 A.D. when it was closed by the Christian emperor Justinian who claimed it was pagan. It sadly remains a time honored tradition of man, that reason and free thinking has always been considered pagan for a holy man.
The claim looks so embellished, the idea so embroidered as we, with the benefit of time and burning at stake of those who disagreed, realize how little of geometry Plato and his generation knew. It is astounding as to why the human race is turning into skeptics, cynics and pessimists? In every challenge we face, be it on the front of the economy or health, instead of recovery we see depression, disease and destruction as our fate. Albeit spanned only over 10,000 years of restricted written history of man (mostly irrelevant in terms of astronomical timelines), the narrative of human life stands as a tangible witness of triumph of man over adversity. The limits and extent of our awareness is swelling exponentially. Disappointingly, most of us remain sheltered within the 'time frame' of our physical life or knowledge of the past. So much has changed in the realms of global economy in the last 100 years and on the front of the medicine, yet, when it comes to economic meltdown or pandemics, we keep making comparisons to 'the Great Depression of 1930' or the great flu epidemic of 1918. Little do we realize that we are not on the gold standard, and that we have tools which effectively deal with the interconnected global economy in a different way. Printing money was not an option in 1930; it is today. That also goes for the strains of flu we have, that death is caused by the aftermath or the side effects of the flu. But the lines between the pre-penicillin world and post penicillin world are blurred.
It is hip to be pessimistic, and an optimistic person is considered to be "weird." What an irony! We always imagine the worst but live longer. It is better to live happily and expect the best out of any outcome. That in itself gives a boost of confidence to the fabric of mind. It is the war of minds that needs to be won. If your mind is awake and healthy, your response will be proper and sharp whatever the challenges be. The mind just cannot reconcile the new help that advancements of knowledge of this century bring to answer the disasters of the past. Part of humanity is preoccupied with the dangers of darkness associated with deity, and the other part, the guiltless victims of intense media hype.
From what we know now of the universe, the limited scale of the genesis of human understanding is so humbling. We know that our greatest philosophers and prophets were so imperfect; infallibility of thought is the 'Achilles' heel' of man. Luckily, we can criticize our philosophers without much impunity but forget about prophets. Their sanctified position remains too virtuous to be subject of debate.
Our inability to subject the popular wisdom of "creation" to the test of reason shall be considered by many of us as blasphemous. Noah existed 6000 years or 15 billions years ago; that is a miscalculation that we can live with serenely, but the same obstinacy and inflexibility where freedom of thought is moderated by the Holy Scriptures leads to maniacal display of medievalism by extremists of the world.
One can not even envisage the horrors in 387 B.C. if Copernicus or Galileo entered the academy and would declare the legitimacy of the heliocentric cosmology. Rubbishing earth as the center of universe would have been considered as heretical and blasphemous in the sacrosanct environ of the academy, as it was by the clergy of Rome, nearly 2000 years later. Italian philosopher Galileo Galilei was one of the supreme figures of contemporary science. His rank as a "saint" of the modern world hinges on his discrimination by the Catholic Church for boldly championing the Copernican theory that the earth revolved around the sun, in contradiction to scripture, church tradition and the ancient authority of Aristotle and Ptolemy.
It looks as if destiny has its own time scale. The overthrow of man from the central role of the keeper of the universe was not an easy acceptance by saviors of mankind. Copernicus and Galileo were not entirely correct, that it was the Sun instead at the centre of the Universe and the stars being some bright heavenly bodies of an unknown nature. It was only 'partial truth.' The truth remained concealed by the fate from the curious minds of philosophers in the multilayered shrouds of ambiguity. It was as if waiting for the genius of Bruno. Giordano Bruno is known as 'The Forgotten Philosopher' who predicted ' Infinite Galaxies, Infinite Life.' He claimed that the sun was only one star among the many thousands, and therefore, like the sun, many other stars also have planets around them and living beings inhabiting them." By the time Bruno was burned at the stake as a heretic in 1600 on Rome's Campo dei Fiori for his provocative ideas about the infinity of the universe the Inquisition, condemned him to death in Rome as part of a yearlong jubilee. Giordano Bruno is one of the enormous figures of renaissance Europe. He is an intellectual peer of the greatest thinkers, a thinker whose dream of the world foreshadowed ours.
When science becomes a "cult," persecution follows. The Pythagoreans who followed the teachings of Pythagoras believed that science was meant only for the chosen few and that commoners should have nothing to do with it. Philosophers can be cruel too; sometimes when reason failed, persecution took over the better part of judgment. Inquisitions and burning at stake was not just a sacred preoccupation, even Pythagoras to his eternal shame sentenced Hippasus to death by drowning.
One story claims that a young student by the name of Hippasus was idly toying with the number √2, attempting to find the equivalent fraction. Eventually he came to realize that no such fraction existed, i.e. that √2 is an irrational number. Hippasus must have been overjoyed by his discovery, but his master was not. Pythagoras had defined the universe in terms of rational numbers and the existence of irrational numbers brought his ideal into question. The consequence of Hippasus's insight should have been a period of discussion and contemplation during which Pythagoras ought to have come to terms with this new source of numbers. However, Pythagoras was unwilling to accept that he was wrong, but at the same time he was unable to destroy Hippasus's argument by the power of logic. Source
We discover truth with the passing of eons. The definition of truth keeps changing; the dynamics of the change is what our minds need to train for. As if 'facts' are not fixed, they keep changing over time. Let's take an example: joblessness causes frustration and extreme anger, we saw what that Dutch man did the other day when he lost his job yet, Aristotle said that all paid jobs cause degradation of mind. Aristotle could not imagine a society with 1 billion job seekers, this scale of human degradation has inevitably caused momentous strides in research and development. He also postulated that ''the universe is perfect; the Earth is the center of this perfect universe, and that everything in the universe revolves around the Earth.''
In Athens, his teacher Plato also believed with the Pythagoreans that the stars, planets, Sun and Moon moved around the Earth attached to the surface of crystalline spheres which slid over one another while circumscribed about the five regular solids. Plato founded a school of learning in a place that once belonged to the Greek hero Academos (from whom "academy" is derived). Over the academy's door was written: "Let no one unversed in geometry enter here." It flourished for over 900 years, from 387 B.C. to 529 A.D. when it was closed by the Christian emperor Justinian who claimed it was pagan. It sadly remains a time honored tradition of man, that reason and free thinking has always been considered pagan for a holy man.
The claim looks so embellished, the idea so embroidered as we, with the benefit of time and burning at stake of those who disagreed, realize how little of geometry Plato and his generation knew. It is astounding as to why the human race is turning into skeptics, cynics and pessimists? In every challenge we face, be it on the front of the economy or health, instead of recovery we see depression, disease and destruction as our fate. Albeit spanned only over 10,000 years of restricted written history of man (mostly irrelevant in terms of astronomical timelines), the narrative of human life stands as a tangible witness of triumph of man over adversity. The limits and extent of our awareness is swelling exponentially. Disappointingly, most of us remain sheltered within the 'time frame' of our physical life or knowledge of the past. So much has changed in the realms of global economy in the last 100 years and on the front of the medicine, yet, when it comes to economic meltdown or pandemics, we keep making comparisons to 'the Great Depression of 1930' or the great flu epidemic of 1918. Little do we realize that we are not on the gold standard, and that we have tools which effectively deal with the interconnected global economy in a different way. Printing money was not an option in 1930; it is today. That also goes for the strains of flu we have, that death is caused by the aftermath or the side effects of the flu. But the lines between the pre-penicillin world and post penicillin world are blurred.
It is hip to be pessimistic, and an optimistic person is considered to be "weird." What an irony! We always imagine the worst but live longer. It is better to live happily and expect the best out of any outcome. That in itself gives a boost of confidence to the fabric of mind. It is the war of minds that needs to be won. If your mind is awake and healthy, your response will be proper and sharp whatever the challenges be. The mind just cannot reconcile the new help that advancements of knowledge of this century bring to answer the disasters of the past. Part of humanity is preoccupied with the dangers of darkness associated with deity, and the other part, the guiltless victims of intense media hype.
From what we know now of the universe, the limited scale of the genesis of human understanding is so humbling. We know that our greatest philosophers and prophets were so imperfect; infallibility of thought is the 'Achilles' heel' of man. Luckily, we can criticize our philosophers without much impunity but forget about prophets. Their sanctified position remains too virtuous to be subject of debate.
Our inability to subject the popular wisdom of "creation" to the test of reason shall be considered by many of us as blasphemous. Noah existed 6000 years or 15 billions years ago; that is a miscalculation that we can live with serenely, but the same obstinacy and inflexibility where freedom of thought is moderated by the Holy Scriptures leads to maniacal display of medievalism by extremists of the world.
One can not even envisage the horrors in 387 B.C. if Copernicus or Galileo entered the academy and would declare the legitimacy of the heliocentric cosmology. Rubbishing earth as the center of universe would have been considered as heretical and blasphemous in the sacrosanct environ of the academy, as it was by the clergy of Rome, nearly 2000 years later. Italian philosopher Galileo Galilei was one of the supreme figures of contemporary science. His rank as a "saint" of the modern world hinges on his discrimination by the Catholic Church for boldly championing the Copernican theory that the earth revolved around the sun, in contradiction to scripture, church tradition and the ancient authority of Aristotle and Ptolemy.
It looks as if destiny has its own time scale. The overthrow of man from the central role of the keeper of the universe was not an easy acceptance by saviors of mankind. Copernicus and Galileo were not entirely correct, that it was the Sun instead at the centre of the Universe and the stars being some bright heavenly bodies of an unknown nature. It was only 'partial truth.' The truth remained concealed by the fate from the curious minds of philosophers in the multilayered shrouds of ambiguity. It was as if waiting for the genius of Bruno. Giordano Bruno is known as 'The Forgotten Philosopher' who predicted ' Infinite Galaxies, Infinite Life.' He claimed that the sun was only one star among the many thousands, and therefore, like the sun, many other stars also have planets around them and living beings inhabiting them." By the time Bruno was burned at the stake as a heretic in 1600 on Rome's Campo dei Fiori for his provocative ideas about the infinity of the universe the Inquisition, condemned him to death in Rome as part of a yearlong jubilee. Giordano Bruno is one of the enormous figures of renaissance Europe. He is an intellectual peer of the greatest thinkers, a thinker whose dream of the world foreshadowed ours.
When science becomes a "cult," persecution follows. The Pythagoreans who followed the teachings of Pythagoras believed that science was meant only for the chosen few and that commoners should have nothing to do with it. Philosophers can be cruel too; sometimes when reason failed, persecution took over the better part of judgment. Inquisitions and burning at stake was not just a sacred preoccupation, even Pythagoras to his eternal shame sentenced Hippasus to death by drowning.
One story claims that a young student by the name of Hippasus was idly toying with the number √2, attempting to find the equivalent fraction. Eventually he came to realize that no such fraction existed, i.e. that √2 is an irrational number. Hippasus must have been overjoyed by his discovery, but his master was not. Pythagoras had defined the universe in terms of rational numbers and the existence of irrational numbers brought his ideal into question. The consequence of Hippasus's insight should have been a period of discussion and contemplation during which Pythagoras ought to have come to terms with this new source of numbers. However, Pythagoras was unwilling to accept that he was wrong, but at the same time he was unable to destroy Hippasus's argument by the power of logic. Source
Deeper Digital PenetrationThe expanding invasion of the naked body scanners
y scanners are taking over.
When we first checked in on them two years ago, the scanners, which see through clothing, were being deployed at a single airport. A few months later, they were upgraded to millimeter-wave technology, which delivered similar images with even less radiation—"10,000 times less than a cell phone transmission," according to the Transportation Security Administration. At the time, TSA assured us that the scanners would be used only as a "voluntary alternative" to "a more invasive physical pat-down during secondary screening." Only a few passengers, the ones selected for extra scrutiny, would face the scanners. The rest of us could walk through the metal detectors and board our planes full story
Israel shoots an Irish Nobel Peace Prize winner
Israel shoots an Irish Nobel Peace Prize winner
Irish Nobel Peace Prize winner Mairead Maguire has been shot with a rubber[-coated metal] bullet by the Israeli military while taking part in a nonviolent civil rights protest organised by Palestinians and Israelis.The incident took place on Friday 20 April, and Ms Maguire, famed for her work for reconcilition in Northern Ireland, has now returned home.
She won her Nobel Laureate for galvanizing popular demands for a just peace and opposition to both military and paramilitary acivities during 'the troubles'.
She said yesterday: “I was invited with my friend to attend a nonviolent conference in Bilin, a village outside Ramallah [in the West Bank], and to give a talk there, which I did. At the end of the conference, we were invited to participate in a nonviolent demonstration with some of the Palestinian members of parliament and Israeli peace activists and local villagers and international visitors.
Gaza - Rebuild the territory and open a pathway to peace.
BEIT LAHIYA, Gaza Strip (AP) — The seven foul-smelling lagoons of sewage near Gaza's coast were supposed to be replaced by a globally funded waste treatment plant. Instead, they epitomize the nightmare faced by foreign donors as they seek to rebuild the territory and open a pathway to peace.
The multimillion dollar project has been delayed by violence and a 20-month-old border closure that have made it difficult to bring supplies into Gaza. Now, after Israel's devastating military offensive, clearing the lagoons is just one part of a much bigger challenge.
On Monday, some 80 donor countries meeting in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheik will be asked to pledge at least $2.8 billion in aid to Gaza.
There's plenty of good will — Saudi Arabia has already promised $1 billion and the U.S. $900 million — and the level of representation will be stellar, including U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and French President Nicholas Sarkozy. More
The multimillion dollar project has been delayed by violence and a 20-month-old border closure that have made it difficult to bring supplies into Gaza. Now, after Israel's devastating military offensive, clearing the lagoons is just one part of a much bigger challenge.
On Monday, some 80 donor countries meeting in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheik will be asked to pledge at least $2.8 billion in aid to Gaza.
There's plenty of good will — Saudi Arabia has already promised $1 billion and the U.S. $900 million — and the level of representation will be stellar, including U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and French President Nicholas Sarkozy. More
Who is the father of Jesus?
Who is the father of Jesus?
The author of this list attempts here to piece together a claim from the Qur'an that even though God specifically declares many times throughout it that Jesus (pbuh) is not His son and that this claim is a blasphemy of the worst kind, still, he thinks that if he tries heard enough he might be able to claim that through implication it might be possible for the dedicated student to make the Qur'an "hint" at endorsing what it explicitly refutes and warns against in many places. But he is measured in his approach. He covers all bases first. He starts by saying "Is Jesus the son of Allah? The Qur'an says no." which he then follows up with his implication that in spite of this, still, the Qur'an might still leave the door open for the exact opposite of its explicit claims to be true. In this manner, he attempts to leave himself the room he shall need to maneuver if anyone simply points to God's continuous and repeated explicit refutations of the claim that Jesus (pbuh) is his son. In this case, he can simply say "I already said that the Qur'an says 'no'." However, he then goes on to imply that such a simple matter as the God's explicit condemnation does not necessarily mean that He really means it. TheMuslimJesus
The author of this list attempts here to piece together a claim from the Qur'an that even though God specifically declares many times throughout it that Jesus (pbuh) is not His son and that this claim is a blasphemy of the worst kind, still, he thinks that if he tries heard enough he might be able to claim that through implication it might be possible for the dedicated student to make the Qur'an "hint" at endorsing what it explicitly refutes and warns against in many places. But he is measured in his approach. He covers all bases first. He starts by saying "Is Jesus the son of Allah? The Qur'an says no." which he then follows up with his implication that in spite of this, still, the Qur'an might still leave the door open for the exact opposite of its explicit claims to be true. In this manner, he attempts to leave himself the room he shall need to maneuver if anyone simply points to God's continuous and repeated explicit refutations of the claim that Jesus (pbuh) is his son. In this case, he can simply say "I already said that the Qur'an says 'no'." However, he then goes on to imply that such a simple matter as the God's explicit condemnation does not necessarily mean that He really means it. TheMuslimJesus
Islamic Stand Against Terrorism and 9 11
Islamic Stand Against Terrorism and 9 11
April 23, 2009 |
In Iran, they observed a minute’s silence for the victims of 9/11. Ayatollah Imami Kashani said this act of terrorism could only be condemned by all Muslims, adding that the whole world should mobilise against terrorism. On September 18th, Iranians held a vigil on the streets of Tehran. They lit candles, prayed for the victims, and condemned terrorism.
In Bangladesh and Indonesia they held rallies condemning terrorism.
Palestinian organizations strongly condemned the terrorist attack. Palestinians held candle light vigils on September 12th and 14th to express their grief and solidarity with Americans. Close to a million Palestinian students stood for five minutes in silence, to express their solidarity for American children who were struck by the tragedy. Palestinian university students in East Jerusalem began a blood drive to donate blood to the victims of 9/11.
Contradictions in the Bible
Contradictions in the Bible
Who incited David to count the fighting men of Israel?(a) God did (2 Samuel 24: 1)
(b) Satan did (I Chronicles 2 1:1)
In that count how many fighting men were found in Israel?
(a) Eight hundred thousand (2 Samuel 24:9)
(b) One million, one hundred thousand (IChronicles 21:5)
How many fighting men were found in Judah?
(a) Five hundred thousand (2 Samuel 24:9)
(b) Four hundred and seventy thousand (I Chronicles 21:5)
God sent his prophet to threaten David with how many years of famine?
(a) Seven (2 Samuel 24:13)
(b) Three (I Chronicles 21:12)
How old was Ahaziah when he began to rule over Jerusalem?
(a) Twenty-two (2 Kings 8:26)
(b) Forty-two (2 Chronicles 22:2)
How old was Jehoiachin when he became king of Jerusalem?
(a) Eighteen (2 Kings 24:8)
(b) Eight (2 Chronicles 36:9)
How long did he rule over Jerusalem?
(a) Three months (2 Kings 24:8)
(b) Three months and ten days (2 Chronicles 36:9)
The chief of the mighty men of David lifted up his spear and killed how many men at one time?
(a) Eight hundred (2 Samuel 23:8)
(b) Three hundred (I Chronicles 11: 11) Get more
Who created God ?
Well this question i can tell everyone that no one has the answer to, not man nor woman can answer this question and the only one who can answer this question is god alone, therefore that question must be asked to god, not humanity, because humanity as smart as they are ,are another creation and are limited on knowledge.
If that isn't satisfying for anyone and think that god was created, then who ever created that god, then there must be another god that created that one, and there for there must be another god that created that one and we can clearly see that this would be an endless discussion which will continue and continue and no answer is reached. Unless off course there is only ONE God.
Either way to be realistic as possible, Only at death one would find out, and in no attempt to have one fear his death, because believe me your better of in gods hands then mans. but to remember that we are here for a purpose, we are not part of any accident and creation, beginning whatever put us here is proof for rational minds that believe things just don't randomly happen for example hurricane rips through new york city and leaves it looking like Dubai in Emirates,haha , might as well say that your birth process wasn't actually done by specific and particular actions from the beginning till the end ,and that was just accidents the for some random coincidences that made the sperm reach the egg. Did you know that the female egg only sends one signal and the sperm only understands one signal.. Hmm another coincidence as well. not possible , this complicity is every where around us, its too common, all the work is masterfully done.
All im saying here is God is far beyond my comprehension, your comprehension, every ones comprehension, mankind is given a set of gifts and tools they can use, such as the 5 senses and the endless worldly bless that is around us . oh yea and Soul, Life, Energy force, whatever name you wish to call it , its the same thing in all of us.
What else does man have power over then the worldly things and his own self ??
God exists based soley on the facts we see around us based on design and supported by life which goes around us everyday, what we are aware of and what we are not. Its Important to remember that we build our own personal relationship with our creator, and from that point we can start connecting with each other on a much higher scale of unity, under humanity's name, which one day will end all that we struggle with everyday on a global scale. More
If that isn't satisfying for anyone and think that god was created, then who ever created that god, then there must be another god that created that one, and there for there must be another god that created that one and we can clearly see that this would be an endless discussion which will continue and continue and no answer is reached. Unless off course there is only ONE God.
Either way to be realistic as possible, Only at death one would find out, and in no attempt to have one fear his death, because believe me your better of in gods hands then mans. but to remember that we are here for a purpose, we are not part of any accident and creation, beginning whatever put us here is proof for rational minds that believe things just don't randomly happen for example hurricane rips through new york city and leaves it looking like Dubai in Emirates,haha , might as well say that your birth process wasn't actually done by specific and particular actions from the beginning till the end ,and that was just accidents the for some random coincidences that made the sperm reach the egg. Did you know that the female egg only sends one signal and the sperm only understands one signal.. Hmm another coincidence as well. not possible , this complicity is every where around us, its too common, all the work is masterfully done.
All im saying here is God is far beyond my comprehension, your comprehension, every ones comprehension, mankind is given a set of gifts and tools they can use, such as the 5 senses and the endless worldly bless that is around us . oh yea and Soul, Life, Energy force, whatever name you wish to call it , its the same thing in all of us.
What else does man have power over then the worldly things and his own self ??
God exists based soley on the facts we see around us based on design and supported by life which goes around us everyday, what we are aware of and what we are not. Its Important to remember that we build our own personal relationship with our creator, and from that point we can start connecting with each other on a much higher scale of unity, under humanity's name, which one day will end all that we struggle with everyday on a global scale. More
The following table shows the 50 countries with the highest percentage of Muslims.
Country -- %of Muslims -- Muslim Population
Mauritania - 99.9% - 3,083,772
Maldives - 99.9% - 348,756
Western Sahara - 99.8% - 272,461
Somalia - 99.5% - 8,548,670
Turkey - 99% - 68,963,953
Iran - 99% - 67,337,681
Algeria - 99% - 32,206,534
Afghanistan- 99% - 29,629,697
Yemen - 99% - 20,519,792
Tunisia - 99% - 9,974,201
Oman - 99% - 2,971,567
Comoros - 99% - 664,534
Djibouti - 99% - 471,935
Morocco - 98.7% - 32,300,410
Iraq - 97% - 25,292,658
Libya - 97% - 5,592,596
Pakistan - 96.35% - 156,491,617
Saudi Arabia - 95.7% - 25,281,642
Tajikistan - 95% - 6,805,330
Jordan - 95% - 5,471,745
Qatar - 95% - 819,898
Senegal - 94% - 10,459,222
Azerbaijan - 93.4% - 7,389,783
Egypt - 91% - 70,530,237
Mali - 90% - 11,062,376
Niger - 90% - 10,499,343
Gambia - 90% - 1,433,930
Uzbekistan - 89% - 23,897,563
Turkmenistan - 89% - 4,407,352
Indonesia - 88.22% - 213,469,356
Bangladesh 88% - 127,001,272
Syria - 88% - 16,234,901
Guinea - 85% - 8,047,686
Kuwait - 85% - 1,985,300
Bahrain - 85% - 585,093
Palestine - 84% - 3,159,999
Kyrgyzstan - 80% - 4,117,024
UAE - 76% - 1,948,041
Lebanon - 70% - 2,678,212
Albania - 70% - 2,494,178
Brunei - 67% - 249,481
Sudan - 65% - 26,121,865
Malaysia - 60.4% - 14,467,694
Sierra Leone - 60% - 3,610,585
Burkina Faso - 55% - 7,658,922
Chad - 54% - 5,306,266
Nigeria - 50% - 64,385,994
Eritrea - 50% - 2,280,799
Ethiopia - 47.5% - 34,700,310
Kazakhstan - 47% - 7,137,346
Source
Mauritania - 99.9% - 3,083,772
Maldives - 99.9% - 348,756
Western Sahara - 99.8% - 272,461
Somalia - 99.5% - 8,548,670
Turkey - 99% - 68,963,953
Iran - 99% - 67,337,681
Algeria - 99% - 32,206,534
Afghanistan- 99% - 29,629,697
Yemen - 99% - 20,519,792
Tunisia - 99% - 9,974,201
Oman - 99% - 2,971,567
Comoros - 99% - 664,534
Djibouti - 99% - 471,935
Morocco - 98.7% - 32,300,410
Iraq - 97% - 25,292,658
Libya - 97% - 5,592,596
Pakistan - 96.35% - 156,491,617
Saudi Arabia - 95.7% - 25,281,642
Tajikistan - 95% - 6,805,330
Jordan - 95% - 5,471,745
Qatar - 95% - 819,898
Senegal - 94% - 10,459,222
Azerbaijan - 93.4% - 7,389,783
Egypt - 91% - 70,530,237
Mali - 90% - 11,062,376
Niger - 90% - 10,499,343
Gambia - 90% - 1,433,930
Uzbekistan - 89% - 23,897,563
Turkmenistan - 89% - 4,407,352
Indonesia - 88.22% - 213,469,356
Bangladesh 88% - 127,001,272
Syria - 88% - 16,234,901
Guinea - 85% - 8,047,686
Kuwait - 85% - 1,985,300
Bahrain - 85% - 585,093
Palestine - 84% - 3,159,999
Kyrgyzstan - 80% - 4,117,024
UAE - 76% - 1,948,041
Lebanon - 70% - 2,678,212
Albania - 70% - 2,494,178
Brunei - 67% - 249,481
Sudan - 65% - 26,121,865
Malaysia - 60.4% - 14,467,694
Sierra Leone - 60% - 3,610,585
Burkina Faso - 55% - 7,658,922
Chad - 54% - 5,306,266
Nigeria - 50% - 64,385,994
Eritrea - 50% - 2,280,799
Ethiopia - 47.5% - 34,700,310
Kazakhstan - 47% - 7,137,346
Source
Guantanamo prisoners to be transferred to Baku An Azerbaijani newspaper reported
The Newspaper Musavat Novin, printed in Baku, reported that an agreement was made between the Azerbaijani government and the American government regarding the transfer of Guantanamo Bay prisoners to Azerbaijan at the same time that the country is on the verge of voting for a referendum regarding its constitution.
This newspaper wrote the following about how Azerbaijan is a strategic position for American forces: “American airplanes enter the Azerbaijan Republic every day and then fly to Afghanistan and other countries. But, the information regarding what these planes are carrying remains secret. It is not clear whether they are carrying prisoners or military equipment. This issue creates the conditions necessary to transfer prisoners.” Story
This newspaper wrote the following about how Azerbaijan is a strategic position for American forces: “American airplanes enter the Azerbaijan Republic every day and then fly to Afghanistan and other countries. But, the information regarding what these planes are carrying remains secret. It is not clear whether they are carrying prisoners or military equipment. This issue creates the conditions necessary to transfer prisoners.” Story
Terrorized by 'War on Terror' How a three-word mantra has undermined America
Terrorized by 'War on Terror'
How a three-word mantra has undermined America
by Zbigniew Brzezinski
The "war on terror" has created a culture of fear in America. The Bush administration's elevation of these three words into a national mantra since the horrific events of 9/11 has had a pernicious impact on American democracy, on America's psyche and on U.S. standing in the world. Using this phrase has actually undermined our ability to effectively confront the real challenges we face from fanatics who may use terrorism against us.
The damage these three words have done -- a classic self-inflicted wound -- is infinitely greater than any wild dreams entertained by the fanatical perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks when they were plotting against us in distant Afghan caves. The phrase itself is meaningless. It defines neither a geographic context nor our presumed enemies. Terrorism is not an enemy but a technique of warfare -- political intimidation through the killing of unarmed non-combatants.
But the little secret here may be that the vagueness of the phrase was deliberately (or instinctively) calculated by its sponsors. Constant reference to a "war on terror" did accomplish one major objective: It stimulated the emergence of a culture of fear. Fear obscures reason, intensifies emotions and makes it easier for demagogic politicians to mobilize the public on behalf of the policies they want to pursue. . . .
Posted by Source
How a three-word mantra has undermined America
by Zbigniew Brzezinski
The "war on terror" has created a culture of fear in America. The Bush administration's elevation of these three words into a national mantra since the horrific events of 9/11 has had a pernicious impact on American democracy, on America's psyche and on U.S. standing in the world. Using this phrase has actually undermined our ability to effectively confront the real challenges we face from fanatics who may use terrorism against us.
The damage these three words have done -- a classic self-inflicted wound -- is infinitely greater than any wild dreams entertained by the fanatical perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks when they were plotting against us in distant Afghan caves. The phrase itself is meaningless. It defines neither a geographic context nor our presumed enemies. Terrorism is not an enemy but a technique of warfare -- political intimidation through the killing of unarmed non-combatants.
But the little secret here may be that the vagueness of the phrase was deliberately (or instinctively) calculated by its sponsors. Constant reference to a "war on terror" did accomplish one major objective: It stimulated the emergence of a culture of fear. Fear obscures reason, intensifies emotions and makes it easier for demagogic politicians to mobilize the public on behalf of the policies they want to pursue. . . .
Posted by Source
50 Signs of Judgment day accourding to Islamic signs
50 Signs of Judgment day
These signs were prophesied 1400 years ago!!!
Take a look and think for yourself.
* Camels will no longer be used as a means of transport;
* People will ride on saddles that aren't saddles (cars?)
* The distance on earth will become short;
* Horses will not be used in wars;
* Muslims will defeat the Byzantines which will end with the conquest of Constantinople( Istanbul)
* The Jews will gather again to live in Bilad Canaan;
* Very tall buildings will be built;
* The disappearance of knowledge and the appearance of ignorance, with much killing;
* Adultery will become widespread, and the drinking of wine will become common;
* The number of men will decrease and the number of women will increase until there are 50 women to be looked after by one man.
* Islam will become worn out like clothes are, until no one will know what fasting, prayer, charity and rituals are;
* Allah will send a disease to fornicators that will have no cure (Aids?);
* People will begin to believe in the stars and reject AL QADAR (THE DIVINE DECREE OF DESTINY);
* Men will pass by people's graves and say: 'Would that I was in his place'; (large amount of suicidal deaths?)
* The Euphrates will uncover a mountain of gold for which people will fight over (the river of Al Furat that lies near Iraq/Syria);
* Two large groups of people will fight one another, and there will be many casualties; they will both be following the same religion (World War II?);
* Approximately 30 DAJJALS will appear, each one claiming to be the
messenger of ALLAH;
* Earthquakes will increase;
* Time will pass quickly;
* Afflictions will appear;
* Killing will increase;
* Wealth will increase;
* Women will be wearing clothes but not wearing clothes
* THE PROPHET (saw) SAID: 'IF MY UMMAH BEARS 15! TRAITS(QUALITIES) ,TRIBULATION WILL FOLLOW IT.
' (DAY OF JUDGEMENT) SOMEONE ASKED,'WHAT ARE THEY O MESSENGER OF ALLAH?' HE (saw) SAID:
* When any gain is shared out only among the rich, with no benefit to the poor;
* When a trust becomes a means of making profit;
* When paying ZAKAT becomes a burden;
* When voices are raised in the mosque;
* When the leader of a people is the worst of them;
*When people treat a man with respect because what he may do;
* When much wine is drunk; red wind or the earth swallow them, or to be transformed into animals.
* 'IMRAN IBN HUSAYN SAID: 'THE PROPHET (AS) SAID, 'SOME PEOPLE OF THIS UMMAH WILL BE SWALLOWED BY THE EARTH, TRANSFORMED INTO ANIMALS, AND SOME WILL BE BOMBARDED WITH STONES'.
ONE OF THE MUSLIMS ASKED, WHEN WILL THAT BE O MESSENGER Of ALLAH?' HE SAID,
WHEN SINGERS AND MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS WILL BECOME POPULAR AND MUCH WINE IS DRUNK.
*THE GREATER SIGNS OF THE HOUR the Quran will disappear in one night, even from the people's hearts, and no Ayyah will be left on earth.
(Some groups of old people will be left who will say: 'We heard of fathers' saying 'LAILLAHA ILLA ALLAH' so we repeat it)
* The appearance of the MAHDI
* the appearance of the DAJJAL (Anti Christ)
* the appearance of Ya'juj and Ma'juj (biblical Gog and Magog)
* Isa (Jesus) will come during the time of Dajjal
* the rising of the sun from the west
* the destruction of the Ka'ba and the recovery of its treasures
* the smoke.
* "O Prophet (pbuh) preach to them (the Truth), for preaching proves beneficial for the Believers" ..
** "O Messenger {Muhammad (pbuh)}! Proclaim (the Message) which has been sent down to you from your Lord.
" ..
Posted By IS
Citigroup Plans Big Bonuses Despite Rules Against Them
AIG isn't the only bailed-out financial firm paying big bucks to managers who helped steer their company to near collapse. Citigroup has pledged millions of dollars in bonuses to senior executives for the next few years, despite lawmakers efforts to eliminate such payments.
It's not clear whether the bonuses, which Citigroup says are for 2008 but won't start paying out until 2010, will be allowed. Under compensation rules passed by Congress in mid-February, cash bonuses are barred for top executives at bailed-out banks.
But Citi finalized its bonus program shortly before the new rules were introduced. That might make the payments permissible, though they could be made almost worthless by new tax rules just passed by the House of Representatives and headed for consideration in the Senate. Even so, Citigroup's move in January to set in place bonus payments for years to come raises questions about whether it was trying to evade compensation rules it knew were coming.
"If an executive legitimately earns a bonus, then paying it out over a number of years makes a lot of sense,' says Paul Hodgson, a senior research associate at the Corporate Library, which examines issues of corporate governance. "But I find it hard to believe that any top executive at a bailed-out bank would have had the performance in 2008 to generate a multimillion-dollar bonus.
Suspects threw more than $17,000 from car
SAN DIEGO, March 20 (UPI) -- Authorities in San Diego said drug suspects threw more than $17,000 out of a vehicle during a police chase on a highway in the evening commute hours.
Eileen Zeidler, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, said the chase began at about 5 p.m. Thursday when two men who were under surveillance as part of "a significant drug investigation" drove off in a pickup truck and were pursued by San Diego police and DEA agents, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported Friday.
The passenger in the vehicle began throwing money out the window of the vehicle, causing passersby to rush to recover the money. Agents and officers recovered more than $17,000 thrown from the vehicle and a 16-year-old boy later gave police $570 that he had picked up.
Zeidler didn't say how much money the suspects were carrying before they began throwing the cash. She said the suspects were arrested but didn't give any further information on the arrests or the investigation, the Union-Tribune said.UPI
Nissan's GT-R hit the sports-car scene last year
Nissan's GT-R hit the sports-car scene last year with a tremendous bang, but not even a year after the first car was delivered, there's already controversy. Web-savvy car enthusiasts have no doubt read about the GT-R's issue with the "launch control" system. It was something I had to bring up with GT-R project chief Kazutoshi Mizuno. Over a cup of green tea, I asked for an explanation...well, he did more than that. He threw me the keys to a 2010 Nissan GT-R and said, "I'll explain as you drive."
Mizuno said that the major difference between the 2010 model GT-R and its predecessor is the launching system. ("Please don't call it launch control!" he kept reminding me.) Nissan was forced to make revisions to this technology after dozens of busted transmissions (by folks who abused the system by using it repeatedly over a short period of time). The issue became so publicized that it led to a highly viewed You Tube parody starring an evil German dictator, which at the time of this writing had 204,900 views.
Mizuno and his team claim that this device was never intended for setting fastest quarter-mile times at your local drag strip. Its main function was to efficiently pop out of slippery driving surfaces, such as snow or mud. Yeah, right. I gave him a questioning stare. He pulled out the car's original owner's manual and said, "See for yourself."
Okay, he had a point. It did state that the system was to be used only when getting out of snow or mud.
But Mizuno said that because there was so much made about the system in its current state, he has made sure there will be no controversy next year. The "leave-the-line-efficiently-out-of-slippery-surfaces control" has been reprogrammed to launch the car at 3000 rpm instead of 4500. This dramatically eases the stress on the drivetrain, allowing the driver to use it repeatedly without worrying about breaking anything. Unfortunately, it also means the end of super-quick wheel-chirping snaps off the line. Still, even with this mellower version, the car is plenty fast.
The 2009 version now comes with the same reprogrammed software as the 2010. First, we tested the 2009 model. The car's original 0-60-mph using the launching system was 3.3 seconds. We recorded 3.4 sec. with the new software. There's much less drama when releasing the brake pedal, but it doesn't take long for all four tires to hook up. Now Mizuno asked me to launch "normally" — by using only one foot. So when I was ready, I took my right foot off the brake pedal and then mashed the throttle with the same foot. Again, no real drama when leaving the line, but the result was surprising. I recorded a 3.5-sec. 0-60-mph run. This means that you really don't need to initiate the launching mode anymore, unless for some crazy reason, you really savor that extra fraction of a second. This held true for the 2010 model as well.
Other changes for the 2010 car, which comes with an MSRP of $80,790 ($83,040 for the Premium Edition), include a new color mentioned above and a new black coating on the forged alloy wheels. But for driving enthusiasts, the only difference worth noting is the leave-the-line-efficiently-out-of-slippery...oh the heck with it, the only difference worth noting is the launch control.
Obama on Tonight Show urges students to study engineering, not finance
Enrollment in computer science is on the rise after six years of decline, and even President Barack Obama is urging students to eschew finance in favor engineering.
Obama's advice was offered on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (See video). "We need young people, instead of -- a smart kid coming out of school, instead of wanting to be an investment banker, we need them to decide if they want to be an engineer, they want to be a scientist, they want to be a doctor or a teacher," the president said.
Obama didn't specifically cite computer science in his riff on Leno's show, but the message was clear. He would rather see students pursue "things that actually contribute to making things and making people's lives better -- that's going to put our economy on solid footing."
The economy may be helping to reverse a major shift away from computer science that began after the collapse of the dot.com bubble and the rise of offshore outsourcing. The total enrollment in U.S. computer science programs by majors is up 8.1%, according to the annual Taulbee Survey by the Computing Research Association. The survey only looks at a subset of the total computer science enrollments, those students at Ph.D.-granting institutions, but it's the first enrollment data to identify the trend. That subset shows an enrollment change from 28,675 to just over 31,000.
Peter Harsha, CRA's director of governmental affairs, said there's "increased optimism about the continued demand for CS graduates in the workforce. Students, and their parents probably, understand that even in these tough economic times, companies that want to innovate need graduates who can think computationally."
Harsha said, anecdotally, there "seems to be a growing understanding among some of the best students of the intellectual depth and societal benefits of computing. It's an intellectually rich, rewarding place to be." Story
Promiscuous antibody targets cancer
Researchers have challenged an old immunological dogma — that an antibody can bind to only a single target or antigen — by engineering an antibody to bind tightly to two distinct proteins.
The antibody, described in Science1, blocks two proteins: vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2). VEGF is thought to promote growth in tumours, and HER2 is highly expressed by some aggressive breast tumours.
Separate antibodies that target each protein individually are already used to treat some cancers: trastuzumab tackles HER2, whereas bevacizumab binds to VEGF.
Although researchers frequently come across antibodies that weakly bind to multiple targets, until now no antibodies have been found, or engineered, that specifically bind to two very different antigens.
The results are surprising, says Paul Parren, a senior vice-president of biotechnology company Genmab, which focuses on antibody therapies, based in Utrecht, the Netherlands. "You just didn't think about antibodies that way before. It makes you wonder if such molecules might also exist in nature."
Two-in-one
To create the antibody, Germaine Fuh at Genentech, a biotechnology company in South San Francisco, California, and her colleagues mutated an antibody for HER2 and then screened for mutants that bound to both HER2 and VEGF.
A similar approach is sometimes used to modify antibodies so that they bind a different antigen, and in 2006, researchers reported that they had used the technique to create antibodies that bound to two similar forms of botulinum toxin2. But Fuh's team is the first to use the technique to create antibodies that bind two unrelated proteins. "This could open the door to dual-targeting types of therapy," she says.
The structures of the bound proteins show that they attach to distinct, but overlapping, sites on the antibody. The antibody also slowed tumour growth in mice, but the mouse models used were designed to respond to either one antibody or the other and researchers do not yet know if targeting VEGF and HER2 simultaneously would enhance the cancer-fighting effect in human cancers.
Dosing difficulties
Fuh notes that antibodies which can target two proteins could dramatically reduce the cost of developing a combination therapy, which would normally require clinical trials with each antibody individually as well as in combination. A dual-targeting antibody, however, would be treated as a single drug.
Although it is possible that such antibodies could reduce costs, they could also present practical challenges in the clinic, says Parren. "How do you find the optimal dose for something that binds to two targets?" he says. This could be particularly important if one activity of the antibody is more toxic than the other. Fuh acknowledges that dosing difficulties could be a tricky to overcome, but says that the antibodies could also be engineered to bind their two targets with different efficiencies.
Combining two therapeutic antibodies is not always beneficial, even when both are at their optimal doses. Two studies published in February analysed antibody combinations in the treatment of colorectal cancer, and found that the combinations increased toxicity and reduced survival rates3,4. "Hopefully these cases are just exceptions, but they shows that preclinical research doesn't always tell you what's going to happen in the patient," says Parren. "If you've developed a two-in-one antibody, you will be less flexible at that point."
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