Two interesting pieces of news this week. One from Berlin and the other from New York, and both have caused wide debates on freedom of speech and how far these bannings can go.

In Berlin, there are attempts by their interior minister to ban the usage of the name Jihad after a Turkish Muslim caused a public debate when he called his son Jihad.

Berlin’s City Police Department argues that naming the boy Jihad goes against the child’s interest. The district council originally argued that a name “associated with terrorism” could “endanger the child’s well-being.”

In New York, on the other hand, there is an attempt to ban the “n-word” in an attempt to take it out of the mainstream and especially the rap and hip hop scene.

The resolution, which never actually names the term, referring to it only as “the ‘N’ word,” passed with unanimous support on Wednesday, the last day of Black History Month.

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I obviously disagree with both plans to ban words.

The New York ‘n-word’ ban is not a legally binding law, but its a suggestion. Personally, I don’t like the word and would be happy to see it stopped being used in the mainstream, but again, banning it would be just stupid!!

Banning an offensive word will just open the door for more bans on other phrases and words!

For the name Jihad, it is very stupid of them to try and ban a name that has been around for thousands of years and has very historic and cultural significance! The fact that the word has been misused or has had a bad conotation in the past 5 or 6 years doesn’t make it right to ban it based on that, especially in a place like Berlin, which is known for being very liberal and open-minded!

On the other hand, someone living in the west should have the sensibilty not to use that name in the current situation! The guy who called his kid Jihad is obviously a publicity seeker, he spoke on TV previously approving of the Sept 11th attacks and the Bali attacks, and Jihad is his 6th son! The guy is an ass but putting a law banning the name is just ridiculous!

Today, for some strange reason that noone has been able to comprehend yet, our company decided to work.

Put in mind that I work in an investment company, and none of the local banks are open, none of the international banks are open, none of the other investment companies are open, and the stock market is also closed! More than half the staff has taken the day off, and today comes in between Thursday Friday weekend and a Sunday Monday public holiday.

So, I declare today, “catching up on blogs day“!

On the bright side, it took me less than 5 mins to get to work and I easily found the best parking spot available!

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Remember Armageddon? At least we had a sneak preview..

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Asteroid heading for Earth needs UN plan say scientists

On a cosmological scale, an asteroid called Apophis is small. However, if the 250 meter wide space rock hits Earth in 2036, as scientists say it may, the consequences would be catastrophic. According to the Association of Space Explorers (ASE), a professional association for astronauts and cosmonauts, the world needs to wake up to the danger or suffer a disaster that would dwarf the Indian Ocean Tsunami of 2004.

Former astronaut Rusty Schweickart, chairman of the ASE’s Committee on Near Earth Objects (NEO) and a member of the Apollo 9 lunar module crew, believes action needs to be taken under the auspices of the UN to minimize the threat from rogue asteroids heading our way.

“While such cosmic impacts between NEOs and the Earth are infrequent their magnitude is often far greater than any other natural disaster, with an upper bound resulting in global, rather than local or regional devastation. Historically the largest of such cosmic impacts have
led to the virtually instantaneous extinction of a majority of the species alive on the planet at the time of impact,” Schweickart and his fellow NEO committee members wrote in an open letter produced by the ASE in 2005.

Now Schweickart and his team are calling for a new global organization, which will have the responsibility of coordinating and dealing with such threats. According to ScienceNoW magazine, published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), astronomers told the annual meeting of AAAS last week preventing a collision would require mounting a not-yet-planned space mission by a not-yet-identified governmental body.

While thousands of potentially dangerous NEOs have been identified by astronomers, Apophis has been singled out for attention because it is going to have two very close encounters with the Earth within a short space of time. The first on Friday April 13 2029 will see the asteroid pass within an uncomfortable 30,000 kilometers. However, it is the second pass seven years later that have scientists worried. They’re not sure whether the first pass will see Earth’s gravity drag Apophis into a direct impact trajectory in 2036.

The only modern documented case of a large space body impacting Earth was in 1908 when an object exploded in the air over the Tunguska region of Siberia. The resulting blast, equivalent to a 10 megaton nuclear bomb, flattened 2150 square kilometers of forrest. There is still conjecture as to whether the object was part of a comet made of ice and dust or a rocky asteroid similar to Apophis. If it was an asteroid, then scientists have calculated that it would have been about 60 meters in diameter, less than one quarter the size of Apophis.

Proposals being put forward to circumvent the threat posed by Apophis and other NEOs include have specially prepared spacecraft ready to launch which would impact the threatening asteroid and deflect it from its collision course. Another suggestion, is to deflect the asteroid’s course using the weak gravitational field of a spacecraft hovering nearby.

Scientists generally don’t favour the idea of hitting asteroids with nuclear missiles as they believe it creates the danger of the asteroid simply fragmenting into a number of smaller but still deadly Earthbound NEOs.

Link

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In a not related note…maybe..

Britney quit rehab o shaved everything off o had a tattoo -

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Ok if they tell you that your part of the world will be gone for sure at that time, and that you have to be moved quickly, where would you move yourself and your family to??

I just upgraded wordpress on my blog from an ancient version to this new 2.1 version.

I wasnt sure what I was doing to be honest!

For about 10 or 15 mins, I thought I lost my blog….really I did..

I actually felt like I lost a part of me for a moment! I kept telling myself everything is ok, but then there was nothing on the main page and all i could do was think of some posts, the one that kept popping up on my mind was the sabiyya visit for some reason!

The feeling of losing all my posts is not the same as working on a project and losing it without saving (which has been happening alot recently), its more of losing an idea or a belief.

This blog really does mean alot to me, I have had it for a much longer time that I have had a single job. So far its been almost 2 years and a half!

I just thought Id share these very weird feelings I got when I thought I lost this small spot on Web 2.0! Funny how someone can get attached to something so intangible and abstract such as a website!

Ever thought of what it would feel like to lose your blog? (for bloggers obviously)

If the concept of money did not exist, in the sense that you didn’t have to try to get it because it does not exist … what would you be doing with your life?

And I dont mean things like bumming around or chilling, I mean what would you dedicate your life for? what would you be doing in the world?

How does that compare with your job?

نحن حزب محبي السوشي لا نطلب منك أن تشاركنا محبته

ولكن نطلب منك ان لا تقلل من قيمه من يحبونه

نفتح يدينا اليك بالسلام

ونمد يد المصافحه

و ندعوك ثاني ايام العيد

بدعوة مفتوحه في طهران ماكي

و بدعوه خاصه من الشيف نجاديتو سوكوهامي

My cousin just came back from the US to visit, and he emailed me a while back saying that he has a unique birthday gift for me. Knowing him, when he says unique, it will be unique! So I saw him two days ago, and he gave me my gift.

I mentioned the movie UHF once before when talking about Weird Al’s video. One of the reasons I like the movie is that it reminds me alot of the time we used to spend at my grandparents house watching movies with my cousins. Also because its just plain stupid and crazy, my kind of comedy!

Anyway, the gift I got was a signed copy of the UHF DVD, personally signed by Weird Al Yankovic!

I couldn’t stop laughing at the gift!

Its been so long that I forgot that Fran Drescher from The Nanny was in the movie along with the once very popular and now infamous Michael Richards, Seinfeld’s Kramer!

Anyway, it really is a great gift, lots of nostalgia plus being a very personalized gift!

My Birthday

&

World AIDS day

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Have a nice day

This was taken at 11:21 PM Monday night, coming back from a midweek shalaih break!

Nice and cold!

P.S.- Darts kick ass! Im getting addicted!

Speaking of brb and tyt, I think everyone remembers the good old days of mIRC (is it still being used in Kuwait?).

Here is my question -

What was your nick on mIRC?

We’ll probably be surprised, and some of us probably have seen or spoken to each other in our previous internet life!

My nick was - `3afreet (believe it or not I cant remember if it was 3afreet or 3efreet! Im sure someone will remind me)
lol, Im smiling just looking at the name!