Monday, June 30, 2008
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
readings
Thursday, September 28, 2000
Goodbye Jerusalem BBC’s correspondent Jeremy Bowen is leaving his Middle East post. Looking back on his years on the job, Bowen gives a personal inside story of Jerusalem – a rarely unbiased account. It is not his war. It is not his land. Bowen merely points to the facts and they speak for themselves. The fate of many Palestinians who ran away or were “driven away” because of an Israeli state that was “created by war” will remain the key source of Israel’s insecurity that will not go away until they make peace. It is a stirring story of a broken people, of the shining Dome of the Rock and the “smelling herbs sold by Palestinian women-mint, basil and zatar”. http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/from_our_own_correspondent/newsid_941000/941749.stm
posted by samar at 2:54 PM
Will Traditional Music Rub Shoulders with Globalization? Globalization has brought McDonald’s, Nike and Leonardo Di Caprio to the Middle East. As the concept of the “global village” expands, questions about the place and survival of traditional music arise. Last week, international musicians and music experts put such questions at the First Meeting on the Promotion of Local Music Heritage in the Age of Globalization, which took place in Amman. While some argued that music knows no “religion, country or language, it only knows humanity”, others expressed their belief that “globalization” is just another word for “Americanization”. It only seems more difficult to try and preserve local music and heritage in the overpowering of today’s “homogenous entity”. Last year, Jean Michel Jarre’s millennium concert at the Cairo pyramids proved just that. His ability to fuse Om Kalthoom with western music proved to be a success as a huge audience listened in amazement. http://star.arabia.com/000921/FE4.html
posted by samar at 2:54 PM
Techno Tea What are the Japanese up to now? . Towa Company of Tokyo invented the ‘tea tablet’: super-compressed tea leafs in a heart-shaped mold. According to Towa, the compacted leaf surfaces are protected from air and so should stay fresh longer than normal leaves. It takes up to 4 pills to make a cup of tea, which will cost around 3 English pounds. Maybe someone can call Towa up and ask them for super-compressed alcohol tablets, saving some the hassle of trying to get drunk. http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_70158.html
posted by samar at 2:53 PM
O Profligate Youth of Rome, Ye #*!, Ye @#! Harvard University Press, the caretaker and publisher of the Loeb Classic Library, has been putting back the “naughty bits” that have been edited out of Greek and Roman literature. This refers to Plato’s writings on homoerotic love and Aristophanes’ sexually explicit jokes. In the past, translators either replaced the “vulgarities” with decent lines or omitted the scenes. One of Loeb’s translators, Mr. Henderson explains that literal translation of such lines show how the writers used the obscenity to point out the outrageous costumes and expose what was “normally hidden” in their societies. As Emily Katz Anhalt, professor of Classics of at Trinity College explains, “when he (Plato) talks about men being in ‘love’, you shouldn’t translate it as ‘close friends- wink, wink”. As for the students, so far there haven’t been any complains, only a lot of emails asking, “Is this stuff really in there?” http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/28/arts/28ARTS.html
posted by samar at 2:50 PM
Norms Changing for Women It is not enough to see Arab women smoking cigarettes, shisha, hanging out in bars or in bikinis. Although these might be silent signs for a new change, women in the Middle East are still struggling for independence. The discrimination they face in the work place, in the courts with inheritance claims, honour crimes, divorce and education are some of the issues they have to deal with. According to a United Nations report, 52% of Arab women are still illiterate with a 27% representation in the total workforce. A recent law passed by the Egyptian government making it easer for women to obtain divorces does show a promising future for Arab women. The modernization of their lifestyles is merely a superficial façade where in fact their “battle” still lies ahead. http://www.islamonline.org/iol-english/dowalia/news-2000-sep-28/topnews6.asp
posted by samar at 2:48 PM
You Are What You Wear If only People magazine could get their hands on Mr. Clickwell’s job. Design critic Mr. Clickwell reviews this year’s worst dressed websites. Condemning Salon.com for not using enough ‘curves’, the “red, white and bloated”AOL.com and asking Bill Gates to forget about breaking up the company but rather just “break up this site”, he might seem a bit too harsh. Then again it is almost 2001 and everyone wants something sexy. As for “GO-dot-com” it’s only fair to ask it to just “Go-dot-away.” Click on the site to see for yourself! http://www.islamonline.org/iol-english/dowalia/news-2000-sep-28/topnews6.asp
posted by samar at 2:46 PM
Wednesday, September 27, 2000
blood koran -- comment: oh my god. great story......is this true???
posted by Hana at 6:10 PM
-- the wording for this was a little confusing -- I reworded it : Are you among those of us who are still struggling to set the date and time on our old crummy video players, while others are up and about having three-letter word conversations ? "WAP, DNS, or HTML "...we haven't even caught up on the terminology let alone the technology. Thankfully, the future is looking promising to tech dummies. Apparently, by 2020 we'll be able to talk to our houses. Lights and air conditioners will (flick?) turn on by themselves, refrigerators will refill themselves via online grocery shopping, and our computers will offer us effortless daily medical checkups of blood or bodily waste. As for our cars, all we’ll have to do is sit back and program, while sensors in the car monitor the activities and destination of other vehicles on the road. It may sound like heaven, but it could get complicated-- Let’s just hope they’re working on ‘2020 for Dummies’.
posted by Hana at 6:09 PM
finding the seeds -- great- good flow, well written , interesting - and stereo-type breaking. good.
posted by Hana at 5:48 PM
Finding the Seeds of Hope in a Society of Paradoxes For many Americans the word ‘Iran’ is associated with terrorism, hostage crises and the film “Not Without My Daughter”. Elaine Sciolino’s new book, ‘Persian Mirrors: The Elusive Face of Iran’, depicts a different country. From her 20 years of experience as senior correspondent in the Washington bureau of the New York Times, she gives a true account of the complexity and contradiction of Iranian society today. Sciolino unravels a culture of paradoxes, from segregated parties to a woman who ran a gambling business in her apartment. The success of an expressive cinema against a besieged press, the transformation of the Islamic Republic to an Islamic democracy and the love-hate relationship towards America are all aspects discussed in this ragingly insightful book. http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/27/arts/27LAPI.html
posted by samar at 2:06 PM
Better
Goodbye Jerusalem BBC’s correspondent Jeremy Bowen is leaving his Middle East post. Looking back on his years on the job, Bowen gives a personal inside story of Jerusalem – a rarely unbiased account. It is not his war. It is not his land. Bowen merely points to the facts and they speak for themselves. The fate of many Palestinians who ran away or were “driven away” because of an Israeli state that was “created by war” will remain the key source of Israel’s insecurity that will not go away until they make peace. It is a stirring story of a broken people, of the shining Dome of the Rock and the “smelling herbs sold by Palestinian women-mint, basil and zatar”. http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/from_our_own_correspondent/newsid_941000/941749.stm
posted by samar at 2:54 PM
Will Traditional Music Rub Shoulders with Globalization? Globalization has brought McDonald’s, Nike and Leonardo Di Caprio to the Middle East. As the concept of the “global village” expands, questions about the place and survival of traditional music arise. Last week, international musicians and music experts put such questions at the First Meeting on the Promotion of Local Music Heritage in the Age of Globalization, which took place in Amman. While some argued that music knows no “religion, country or language, it only knows humanity”, others expressed their belief that “globalization” is just another word for “Americanization”. It only seems more difficult to try and preserve local music and heritage in the overpowering of today’s “homogenous entity”. Last year, Jean Michel Jarre’s millennium concert at the Cairo pyramids proved just that. His ability to fuse Om Kalthoom with western music proved to be a success as a huge audience listened in amazement. http://star.arabia.com/000921/FE4.html
posted by samar at 2:54 PM
Techno Tea What are the Japanese up to now? . Towa Company of Tokyo invented the ‘tea tablet’: super-compressed tea leafs in a heart-shaped mold. According to Towa, the compacted leaf surfaces are protected from air and so should stay fresh longer than normal leaves. It takes up to 4 pills to make a cup of tea, which will cost around 3 English pounds. Maybe someone can call Towa up and ask them for super-compressed alcohol tablets, saving some the hassle of trying to get drunk. http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_70158.html
posted by samar at 2:53 PM
O Profligate Youth of Rome, Ye #*!, Ye @#! Harvard University Press, the caretaker and publisher of the Loeb Classic Library, has been putting back the “naughty bits” that have been edited out of Greek and Roman literature. This refers to Plato’s writings on homoerotic love and Aristophanes’ sexually explicit jokes. In the past, translators either replaced the “vulgarities” with decent lines or omitted the scenes. One of Loeb’s translators, Mr. Henderson explains that literal translation of such lines show how the writers used the obscenity to point out the outrageous costumes and expose what was “normally hidden” in their societies. As Emily Katz Anhalt, professor of Classics of at Trinity College explains, “when he (Plato) talks about men being in ‘love’, you shouldn’t translate it as ‘close friends- wink, wink”. As for the students, so far there haven’t been any complains, only a lot of emails asking, “Is this stuff really in there?” http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/28/arts/28ARTS.html
posted by samar at 2:50 PM
Norms Changing for Women It is not enough to see Arab women smoking cigarettes, shisha, hanging out in bars or in bikinis. Although these might be silent signs for a new change, women in the Middle East are still struggling for independence. The discrimination they face in the work place, in the courts with inheritance claims, honour crimes, divorce and education are some of the issues they have to deal with. According to a United Nations report, 52% of Arab women are still illiterate with a 27% representation in the total workforce. A recent law passed by the Egyptian government making it easer for women to obtain divorces does show a promising future for Arab women. The modernization of their lifestyles is merely a superficial façade where in fact their “battle” still lies ahead. http://www.islamonline.org/iol-english/dowalia/news-2000-sep-28/topnews6.asp
posted by samar at 2:48 PM
You Are What You Wear If only People magazine could get their hands on Mr. Clickwell’s job. Design critic Mr. Clickwell reviews this year’s worst dressed websites. Condemning Salon.com for not using enough ‘curves’, the “red, white and bloated”AOL.com and asking Bill Gates to forget about breaking up the company but rather just “break up this site”, he might seem a bit too harsh. Then again it is almost 2001 and everyone wants something sexy. As for “GO-dot-com” it’s only fair to ask it to just “Go-dot-away.” Click on the site to see for yourself! http://www.islamonline.org/iol-english/dowalia/news-2000-sep-28/topnews6.asp
posted by samar at 2:46 PM
Wednesday, September 27, 2000
blood koran -- comment: oh my god. great story......is this true???
posted by Hana at 6:10 PM
-- the wording for this was a little confusing -- I reworded it : Are you among those of us who are still struggling to set the date and time on our old crummy video players, while others are up and about having three-letter word conversations ? "WAP, DNS, or HTML "...we haven't even caught up on the terminology let alone the technology. Thankfully, the future is looking promising to tech dummies. Apparently, by 2020 we'll be able to talk to our houses. Lights and air conditioners will (flick?) turn on by themselves, refrigerators will refill themselves via online grocery shopping, and our computers will offer us effortless daily medical checkups of blood or bodily waste. As for our cars, all we’ll have to do is sit back and program, while sensors in the car monitor the activities and destination of other vehicles on the road. It may sound like heaven, but it could get complicated-- Let’s just hope they’re working on ‘2020 for Dummies’.
posted by Hana at 6:09 PM
finding the seeds -- great- good flow, well written , interesting - and stereo-type breaking. good.
posted by Hana at 5:48 PM
Finding the Seeds of Hope in a Society of Paradoxes For many Americans the word ‘Iran’ is associated with terrorism, hostage crises and the film “Not Without My Daughter”. Elaine Sciolino’s new book, ‘Persian Mirrors: The Elusive Face of Iran’, depicts a different country. From her 20 years of experience as senior correspondent in the Washington bureau of the New York Times, she gives a true account of the complexity and contradiction of Iranian society today. Sciolino unravels a culture of paradoxes, from segregated parties to a woman who ran a gambling business in her apartment. The success of an expressive cinema against a besieged press, the transformation of the Islamic Republic to an Islamic democracy and the love-hate relationship towards America are all aspects discussed in this ragingly insightful book. http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/27/arts/27LAPI.html
posted by samar at 2:06 PM
Better
good thinking
the blog is created to provided a good materials for blog users
i think it is very useful.
i think it is very useful.
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