*see “The Interpreter”

050707: Ihab al-Sherif
050707: 52 in London bombings.
050723: at least 64 in Sharm bombings.

still counting: Iraqi civilians and American military casualties in Iraq.

predecessors.

Stories come in two flavors: Love stories, and the other kind. Details are only important in the former — Like in school; you pass, you get a grade from A to E, but you fail, it’s always an F! how unfair!

You’re trapped, you say,
in a miserable Today;
Between the complete uncertainty
of your Tomorrow,
and the unwavering determinacy
of Yesterday.
	
And, I hear you …
                  But!
                      Say
I change it such that:
You know everything about the future,
and can alter anything about the past;
What happiness would that bring -or torture-
about your present state?
                           If naught,
then you      -my friend-
are             -like me-
destined to be
               -eternally-
miserable!
	
For neither of us is God!
                          –And,
Nothing …
Nothing, will change that!

via crooks and liars:
The daily show reports the end of “the war on terror” phase phrase.

You could start at two o’clock, and after twenty five years, it would be two-fifteen. Richard P. Feynman

If you are the “half-empty” kind of person, you might think that this is very depressing — after spending all of this energy and time, you’ve only advanced this tiny much?

Alternatively, you could rejoice at this — thinking of the analogy: even though it looks like you have not accomplished much, even though it seems like you’re always tackling the same questions, or handling the same situations, over and over again, you’ve actually come a long way.

Feynman would not give us an explanation — only operational statements. “This is it how it is”, he would say, “It doesn’t mean anything more.”

A collection of all of sharawy’s reflections (in arabic) on the language of the quran in real audio format. They used to have an advertisement that they would send an mp3 dvd for free (to any address in north america, and only for shipping costs otherwise), but I guess they’ve taken it down (after I got mine)…

I was complaining about distractions to a dear knowledgable friend, when he related this anecdote (which claims access to Einstein’s thoughts, but which I have no other reason to discount or discredit. So, I take it with a grain of salt, for its point is valid):
“What do you think Einstein thought-about while tying his shoes?” He asked. “I have no idea!”, I exclaimed. He paused for a second, letting me examine it for another second before he added “He thought about tying his shoes.” — point well made, I thought.

I was reminded of this incident once more, when I was researching an important and pressing question for an academic thesis I was presenting, and all I could think about was: chicken sushi would be a great idea!

The konfabulator has been acquired by Yahoo!, and ver2.1 is now free. Add that to the QuickSilver free launcher, and you make up most of the ground between panther and tiger.

In the words of a friend: “Who needs tiger when you can have free widgets to hog CPU!!”