Katy Perry - Hot and Cold (Cover)

This was very entertaining. Makes me smile for some reason.

Bobby McFerrin rocks the audience with the pentatonic scale!!!

World Science Festival 2009: Bobby McFerrin Demonstrates the Power of the Pentatonic Scale from World Science Festival on Vimeo.

You must take a minute to enlighten yourself with this feat!! I have never seen anything like it. Must watch to understand!

Woman slows light to 38 MPH!!!!!

http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2007/02.08/99-hau.html

You must read this story and you must wonder why this isn't common knowledge. Why didn't the mainstream TV news crush this story to death? Start asking questions.

War and Lies - Governments Lie, We Die

I Love Living Life. I Am Happy.

If you press play you need to watch the whole video.

After being kidnapped at the age of 16 by a group of thugs and enduring a year of rapes and beatings, Assiya Rafiq was delivered to the police and ...

After being kidnapped at the age of 16 by a group of thugs and enduring a year of rapes and beatings, Assiya Rafiq was delivered to the police and thought her problems were over. Then, she said, four police officers took turns raping her.



http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/26/opinion/26kristof.html?em

After being kidnapped at the age of 16 by a group of thugs and enduring a year of rapes and beatings, Assiya Rafiq was delivered to the police and thought her problems were over.

Then, she said, four police officers took turns raping her.

The next step for Assiya was obvious: She should commit suicide. That’s the customary escape in rural Pakistan for a raped woman, as the only way to cleanse the disgrace to her entire family.

Instead, Assiya summoned the unimaginable courage to go public and fight back. She is seeking to prosecute both her kidnappers and the police, despite threats against her and her younger sisters. This is a kid who left me awed and biting my lip; this isn’t a tale of victimization but of valor, empowerment and uncommon heroism.

“I decided to prosecute because I don’t want the same thing to happen to anybody else,” she said firmly.

Assiya’s case offers a window into the quotidian corruption and injustice endured by impoverished Pakistanis — leading some to turn to militant Islam.

“When I treat a rape victim, I always advise her not to go to the police,” said Dr. Shershah Syed, the president of the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Pakistan. “Because if she does, the police might just rape her again.”

Yet Assiya is also a sign that change is coming. She says she was inspired by Mukhtar Mai, a young woman from this remote village of Meerwala who was gang raped in 2002 on the orders of a village council. Mukhtar prosecuted her attackers and used the compensation money to start a school.

Mukhtar is my hero. Many Times readers who followed her story in past columns of mine have sent her donations through a fund at Mercy Corps, at www.mercycorps.org, and Mukhtar has used the money to open schools, a legal aid program, an ambulance service, a women’s shelter, a telephone hotline — and to help Assiya fight her legal case.

The United States has stood aloof from the ubiquitous injustices in Pakistan, and that’s one reason for cynicism about America here. I’m hoping the Obama administration will make clear that Americans stand shoulder to shoulder with heroines like Mukhtar and Assiya, and with an emerging civil society struggling for law and social justice.

Assiya’s saga began a year ago when a woman who was a family friend sold her to two criminals who had family ties to prominent politicians. Assiya said the two men spent the next year beating and raping her.

The men were implicated in a gold robbery, so they negotiated a deal with the police in the town of Kabirwala, near Khanewal: They handed over Assiya, along with a $625 bribe, in exchange for the police pinning the robbery on the girl.

By Assiya’s account, which I found completely credible, four police officers, including a police chief, took turns beating and raping her — sometimes while she was tied up — over the next two weeks. A female constable obligingly stepped out whenever the men wanted access to Assiya.

Assiya’s family members heard that she was in the police station, and a court granted their petition for her release and sent a bailiff to get her out. The police hid Assiya, she said, and briefly locked up her 10-year-old brother to bully the family into backing off.

The bailiff accepted bribes from both the family and the police, but in the end he freed the girl. Assiya, driven by fury that overcame her shame, told her full story to the magistrate, who ordered a medical exam and an investigation. The medical report confirms that Assiya’s hymen had been broken and that she had abrasions all over her body.

The morning I met Assiya, she said she had just received the latest in a series of threats from the police: Unless she withdraws her charges, they will arrest, rape or kill her — and her two beloved younger sisters.

The family is in hiding. It has lost its livelihood and accumulated $2,500 in debts. Assiya’s two sisters and three brothers have had to drop out of school, and they will find it harder to marry because Assiya is considered “dishonored.” Most of her relatives tell Assiya that she must give in. But she tosses her head and insists that she will prosecute her attackers to spare other girls what she endured.

(For readers who want to help, more information is available on my blog at:www.nytimes.com/ontheground.)

Assiya’s mother, Iqbal Mai, told me that in her despair, she at first had prayed that God should never give daughters to poor families. “But then I changed my mind,” she added, with a hint of pride challenging her fears. “God should give poor people daughters like Assiya who will fight.”

Amen.

I just donated $25 to the Mukhtar fund. It was created by the woman who kept her from committing suicide. This happened to her too.

If you want to help her and many more then go to the link just below this sentence and mention her name, Assiya Rafiq, in the comments.

https://donate.mercycorps.org/donation.htm?DonorIntent=Mukhtar

Here is an interesting site on the charity in question in case some were skeptical like me.
http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=4078

Elijah Lynn

Moving Windmills

Very Inspirational!

Reddit is interviewing this man.

Ксения Симонова - Реквием из песка

Very pretty video

Class Day Lecture 2009: The Uniqueness of Humans

Good stuff!

Optibike vs Giant Twist Freedom DX

I am thinking of purchasing an Electric Bike until the new pure electricTesla Model S comes out in 2011.

Right now I am leaning towards the Optibike, handmade in Boulder Colorado, USA. I am also going to test drive the Giant Twist Freedom DX. The Optibike seems to be one tough bike with all sorts of high-end features and it is also made in the USA which is a rare find these days!

We will see what happens!

Day in the Cloud VS Ten Grand is Buried Here

Too funny! Microsoft is pulling a dirty scheme to get attention to their browser and Google and Virgin are doing something similar (getting attention) but with much more class!

I will never participate in Microsoft's evil game, Ten Grand is Buried Here, attempting to get innocent users to download Internet Explorer 8 to find $10,000. But, the catch, you cannot find it with any other browser, it must be the golden IE8! Hah! They are really desperate.

On the other hand, I would love to participate in the "Day in the Cloud" event on the 24th. They let you play 2 sample rounds and it really gets your brain thinking! Plus, you can use any common browser to participate. I will probably use Chrome, Firefox, or possibly the new Opera Unite I just installed but never IE7 or IE8.

Google and Virgin have so much more class! The winner gets free flights on Virgin America for 1 year, a HP netbook and a TB of Google Storage.

Just to be fair. Here are the links to both events.

www.tengrandisburiedhere.com
www.dayinthecloud.com

Note to self: Revisit when building next house.

http://abduzeedo.com/unusual-houses

Wow! Water powered jet suit!

Amazing New Water-Powered Jet Pack - Watch more Funny Videosjavascript:void(0)

What does it mean to be free?

Congrats to the winner of the Linux Foundation's commercial contest!! I really like the video, a lot!

Open Source is the future of the world. For all those who say it isn't.. Go join the camp who was against Orville and Wilbur Wright, ya know the guys who revolutionized the world with flight after all the "experts" said it couldn't be done.

Soon proprietary software will be a thing of the past and we will find ourselves telling stories that are start with, "Can you believe we use to pay for proprietary software!".

Here are the runner up videos which I thought we're excellent as well!

The Origin...

The Origin... from Agustin Eguia on Vimeo.

This one had a bit of Harold and Kumar spin to it!

A-Pod part 1 - New robot with some amazing music!

If you have some good headphones that can pump out some bass then put them on! This song is by Trifonic and is called Lies. This song reminds me a lot of Stabbing Westward, which was one of my favorite bands when I was a teen!

The robots are coming! We must embrace the technology and not resist it. People fought computers once to you know. Now we all use them because they do many of the mundane tasks so much better. Jacque Fresco talks alot about how we will use new technologies to make this world a better place and explains why their isn't logical basis for fearing robots and new tech. His book is called "The best that money can't buy" and is amazing!

Jason Mraz and Colbie Callait - Lucky (Live!)

These two did a great job on this!

Dealing with Impossible Crises

http://danieltenner.com/posts/0007-dealing-with-impossible-crises.html

Highly recommended article for dealing with situations that may seam impossible to overcome. Daniel Tenner has some great words of wisdom here. I sent this to some of my close friends recently and amazingly to my surprise many responded and actually thanked me for sending it. Most of the time my emails don't get much response. So, this tells you that this is good and you should invest 5 minutes of your life into reading this article.

Enjoy!

Jason Mraz ft. Colbie Caillat "Lucky"

A rather sad story

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/the-dark-side-of-dubai-1664368.html

I just read this story. I shed a few tears at how some of these people are treated, slaves who somehow got sucked into thinking it would be a better life. One woman even left her child behind and is now stuck with no passport to get back.

Humans have to be the most cruel species on this planet. We must evolve past this level. Humans are one.

Financing Volunteer Projects

This entry is more of a bookmark for now.

I found this article fascinating and am so glad that it was linked to off of Mark Shuttleworth's page on Ubuntu.org.

http://www.advogato.org/article/844.html

It discusses why introducing money into a volunteer workflow can seriously hamper the whole community. It also discusses that even if two contributers are sitting right next to each other they should keep their discussions in the public forum or mailing list.

There is something about the free and open source software movement that make money completely unnecessary. It just messes things up. Transparency is key. If you talk on the phone. Record and transcribe it and make it available for everyone. If you don't want to do that then don't talk on the phone.

There shouldn't be discussions that say, "Well, me and Tony decided at lunch the other day". Those actions will demean the community effort.

On another note. I originally found that page because I wanted to see how much support for Ubuntu Linux costs. $250 for 9-5 support for a desktop for a year. I would much rather give my money to Canonical than Mac or Windows. Mac's customer service is horrible, it is like a lottery, you never know if you are going to get someone who has been using Mac for years or just started working there.

It would be nice to "test out" Canonical's support option. I may do that if I have some extra cash someday. But first I need to take another pilot lesson.

I just wish there would be a pro video editing suite on par with Final Cut Studio (FCS) for Ubuntu Linux. Or at the very least be able to install FCS on Ubuntu. Maybe someday. I know Apple has a hard time getting FCS to run reliably on their own hardware for now.

Until next time...