Monday, August 24, 2009

Norwegian UN diplomat slams Ban Ki-moon | FP Passport

Norwegian UN diplomat slams Ban Ki-moon | FP Passport: "Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's fruitless visit to Burma in the beginning of July is indicative of a Secretary-General and an organization who are struggling to show leadership. In a time when the UN and the need for multilateral solutions to global crises are more needed than ever, Ban and the UN are conspicuous by their absence. During the last six months, where the follow-up to the many crises that left their imprint on the General Assembly during the fall should have brought the Secretary-General and the UN into play at full force, the opposite seems to have happened."

There's more ... click on the link.

Sunday, August 23, 2009

A School Bus for Shamsia - NYTimes.com

A School Bus for Shamsia - NYTimes.com: "And so unfolded one of the mysteries not only of Shamsia but also of the Mirwais Mena School and perhaps all of Afghanistan. Women in Afghanistan are held to be lesser beings than men; they are accorded fewer rights and fewer opportunities. But build a school for girls, and the girls will come. They will face down death to come. And their illiterate parents will support them. Their illiterate parents will push them out the door."

A School Bus for Shamsia - NYTimes.com

A School Bus for Shamsia - NYTimes.com: "And so unfolded one of the mysteries not only of Shamsia [a young Afghan woman who was sprayed with battery acid for attending school] but also of the Mirwais Mena School and perhaps all of Afghanistan. Women in Afghanistan are held to be lesser beings than men; they are accorded fewer rights and fewer opportunities. But build a school for girls, and the girls will come. They will face down death to come. And their illiterate parents will support them. Their illiterate parents will push them out the door."

Canadian, Please

Fun ... :->

A Victim Treats His Mugger Right : NPR

What a great story!!!

A Victim Treats His Mugger Right : NPR: "'He wants my money, so I just gave him my wallet and told him, 'Here you go,'' Diaz says.

As the teen began to walk away, Diaz told him, 'Hey, wait a minute. You forgot something. If you're going to be robbing people for the rest of the night, you might as well take my coat to keep you warm.'

The would-be robber looked at his would-be victim, 'like what's going on here?' Diaz says. 'He asked me, 'Why are you doing this?''

Diaz replied: 'If you're willing to risk your freedom for a few dollars, then I guess you must really need the money. I mean, all I wanted to do was get dinner and if you really want to join me ... hey, you're more than welcome."

Roger Ebert's Journal: Archives

Roger Ebert's Journal: Archives: "Having read through some 600 comments about universal health care, I now realize I took the wrong approach in my previous blog entry. I discussed the Obama health plan in political, literal, logical terms. Most of my readers replied in the same vein. The comments, as always, have been helpful, informative and for the most part civil. My mistake was writing from the pragmatic side. I should have followed my heart and gone with a more emotional approach. I believe universal health care is, quite simply, right.

It is a moral imperative. I cannot enjoy health coverage and turn to my neighbor and tell him he doesn't deserve it. A nation is a mutual undertaking. In a democracy, we set out together to do what we believe is good for the commonwealth. That means voluntarily subjecting ourselves to the rule of law, taxation, military service, the guaranteeing of rights to minorities, and so on. That is a cheap price to pay."

Great column. I hope you click on the link to read the whole thing. :)

Op-Ed Columnist - Food for the Soul - NYTimes.com

Op-Ed Columnist - Food for the Soul - NYTimes.com: "One of my childhood memories is of placing a chicken egg in a goose nest when I was about 10 (my young scientist phase). That mother goose was thrilled when her eggs hatched, and maternal love is such that she never seemed to notice that one of her babies was a neckless midget.

As for the chick, she never doubted her goosiness. At night, our chickens would roost high up in the barn, while the geese would sleep on the floor, with their heads tucked under their wings. This chick slept with the goslings, and she tried mightily to stretch her neck under her wing. No doubt she had a permanent crick in her neck.

Then the fateful day came when the mother goose took her brood to the water for the first time. She jumped in, and the goslings leaped in after her. The chick stood on the bank, aghast."


Click on the link to read the rest of the story ... :->

Friday, August 14, 2009

Why don't my flights ever have a rapping flight attendant?

A thing of genius

Start watching around 1:35 ... you will thank yourself if you do!!!!

Saturday, August 08, 2009

Professor Main Target of Assault on Twitter - NYTimes.com

Professor Main Target of Assault on Twitter - NYTimes.com: "The cyberattacks Thursday and Friday on Twitter and other popular Web services disrupted the lives of hundreds of millions of Internet users, but the principal target appeared to be one man: a 34-year-old economics professor from the republic of Georgia."

Friday, August 07, 2009

Class photo


DSC_3117
Originally uploaded by Noisypond.

Taken today with my camera, set up on a tripod. The man in the orange shirt is our beloved anatomy professor, Dr. T.

The Queen of England

Thanks to my friend Welah for this laugh:

The Queen of England was showing the Archbishop of Canterbury around the Royal Stables when one of the stallions close by farted so loudly it couldn't be ignored. "Oh dear," said the Queen, "How embarrassing! I'm frightfully sorry about that." "It's quite understandable," said the Archbishop, and after a moment added, "as a matter of fact I thought it was the horse."

Sunday, August 02, 2009

Op-Ed Columnist - How to Lick a Slug - NYTimes.com

Op-Ed Columnist - How to Lick a Slug - NYTimes.com

"A British study found that children could more easily identify Japanese cartoon characters like Pikachu, Metapod and Wigglytuff than they could native animals and plants, like otter, oak and beetle.

Mr. Louv calls this “nature deficit disorder,” and he links it to increases in depression, obesity and attention deficit disorder ...

One study of three generations of 9-year-olds found that by 1990 the radius from the house in which they were allowed to roam freely was only one-ninth as great as it had been in 1970."

Toan Lam: An Angel In Queens, New York: School Bus Driver Responsible For 70,000 Hot Meals And Counting...(Video)

Toan Lam: An Angel In Queens, New York: School Bus Driver Responsible For 70,000 Hot Meals And Counting...(Video)

Gotta share this

Tonight I went out with my classmates to celebrate two birthdays. It was a good time, but the funniest part of the evening happened on my way home sometime after midnight. I was sitting on the subway at Yonge & Eglinton, waiting for the train to take off. A pair of friends (a man and a woman) said their good-byes, and the man got in the subway car and sat down. However, the woman's subway (going in the opposite direction) had not yet arrived, so she hovered just outside the door of our train, and starting calling into the car after her friend in a saccharinely maternal voice: "I love you, John!" Then: "Don't pee in the subway like you normally do!" The poor guy looked embarrassed and amused at the same time.

It was so outrageous and clever that I grinned the rest of my way home.