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Darton College family studies
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Find information about Darton College family studies, and registering for elective seminars and discussion sections. As a student, your first stop should be the registrar's office, where you can pick up a free copy of both the academic calendar and course catalog, in order to find available credit classes that you may be interested in taking. You may be surprised that you can enroll for a full-time course load, without having to attend any 8am classes at all. Finally, check with your major department for assistance with prerequisites, tuition payment deadlines, and Darton College mental health counseling information. Please use the form above to request admissions info for Darton College.
Students with a bachelor's degree in social work can find opportunities working in schools, corporations, or in the social services sector. Analysis is based on changing problematic behaviors, feelings, and thoughts by discovering their motivation. In dysfunctional families, children must learn to cope with unbearable situations, and often develop classical psychological symptoms. Social workers, in turn, will attempt to identify destructive behavior and emotions, and select suitable therapy.
Humanistic Therapy emphasizes people's capacity to make rational choices and develop to their maximum potential. Alternatively, social work programs help families change by emphasizing their concern, care and interest. Family Therapy is a form of psychotherapy where clients can work with one or more counselors. This methods is a popular format for support groups, where family members can learn from each other. Beyond consideration for Darton College family studies, you may think about LA Harbor College SAT subject tests for complementary electives to your primary course of study.
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Lovely Accomodation for 4 People "Ktima Tzamika"
Maksimum Konuk Sayısı4
Yatak odası1
Boyut42 metrekare
Floor No.1
- Aile / Çocuk dostu
- Mutfak
- Balkon/teras
- Havlu
- Evcil hayvan girebilir
- Şömine
- mevcut Otopark
Accommodation summary
|παραλια επισκοπη ρετηυμνο, 74055 επισκοπι ρεθυμνο, Amerika Birleşik Devletleri
|Mülkiyet türü
|Referans kodu
|Acceptance rate
|Response time
|A few hours
|Calendar updated
New apartments with nice view and hospitality.
-1 room apartments (living/sleepingroom) with a maximum of 2 persons
-2 room apartments (living/sleepingroomx2) with a maximum of 4 persons.
The apartments have kitchenette, bathroom, balcony, terrace, veranda and grill.
Ktima Tzamika offers nice, quiet accommodation set in 10 acres of land, full of olive, orange and lemon trees suitable for both summer and winter vacations.
This modern apartments and studios have from their balcony a great view over the sea and the surrounding mountains. They also have gardens for the kids to play, and places around to explore.
Ktima Tzamika is situated between the village of Episkopi and Kavros just 1 km outside of Georgioupoli, in a distance of 600 m from the long sandy beach. It is close to the sea (500m) in a quiet part surrounded by olive oils near the mountain. Rethymno is also nearby.
Equipment Provided:
All are equipped with cooking facility, refrigerator, water cooker, coffeemaker, television, complete kitchen equipment, heating, child bed and terrace chairs.
Ev kurallarıPlease leave the room in the same condition as found.
|Monthly rate for up to 3 guests
|> 3 misafir için ücret
|TRY 39 misafir başına/ekstra gece
|Check-in Saati (Sonrası)
|Check-in before
|Check-out Saati (Öncesi)
|İptal Koşulları
Bu mülk için yapılan yorumlar
nice and very private accomodation. beautiful see view. garden could be a bit more green and children focussed.
De accommodatie is heerlijk rustig gelegen in de olijf- en sinaasappelboomgaard van Michalis. Het is klein, maar knus. Beneden is een heerlijke tuin om in te zitten, boven is een balkon, waar je een prachtig uitzicht hebt op de witte bergen en de zee. Wij hadden het appartement boven, maar konden ook in de tuin zitten, omdat er geen andere gasten beneden waren. Het enige nadeel van boven was, dat de bank een bedbank was, zodat je het steeds moest ombouwen of geen zitbank had. 's Morgens werden we gewekt door het hanengekraai of het schapengeblaat: heerlijk landelijk! Toch zaten we vlakbij de grote weg, dus heel handig voor allerlei tochten én vlakbij het strand.
Michalis en Anna zijn ontzettend vriendelijk en we kregen direct bij aankomst een grote fles eigengemaakte olijfolie. Ook werden we naar een leuk eetadres vlakbij gebracht, wat we zelf nooit hadden gevonden, maar waar we heel hartelijk werden ontvangen en heerlijk hebben gegeten, met van alles gratis erbij en voor zo weinig geld. We zijn er nog 2 keer geweest en werden steeds weer heel hartelijk ontvangen.
We had a very good time in "Ktima Tzamika". A quiet place in the middle of olive trees, close to a nice beach. Michalis and Anna are very kind and we spent interesting time with them. Thank you. Bettina and Sabine
We had a beautiful apartment, fantastic sunset and a lovely cat family. Thank you also for the olive oil and all the attention. Great sight to the olive trees and the sea, what is really near to the flat. We will never forget our vacation in Crete!
It was really very nice vacation. We came very late because our flight was delayed, but Michalis picked us up at 3 am from the main road. It was very appreciated. We felt here very very well - surrounded by sea, mountains and olives trees. We looked for calm and silence and this place was what we needed. I recommend this place for everyone who want to get away from crowd and bustle.
Ottima esperienza. La casa è piccola ma graziosa, dotata di quanto può servire per un soggiorno al mare. E' immersa negli ulivi e a breve distanza dal mare. Le foto rispecchiano la realtà.
Michail e Hannah sono gentilissimi, hanno fatto di tutto per renderci la vacanza speciale e ci hanno fatto sentire parte della famiglia.
Very pleaseant stay. Beautiful setting with views of mountains and rural landscape of olives and vines. Sandy and rocky shores in easy reach. Very warm welcome from Anna and Michail who were very generous with their time and own produce. Try the sheep's cheese from the farm across the road and, if you need it, get Anna to teach you how to make Greek coffee. The only negative aspect from our point of view was that the cooking facilities were a bit cramped.
Highly recommended.
These rooms are set in a beautiful location surrounded by olive trees, a car is needed to visit all the surrounding areas though the beach is only a ten minute stroll down a quiet road. Clean spacious accomodation with spectacular views. The hosts Michail and Anna are extremely hospitable and welcoming. I would recommend for anyone wanting a peaceful stay with a real feel of Crete.
Bu ev sahibinin diğer mülklerine yapılan yorumlar
We just loved our recent stay in Anna's and Michalis' studio...with both a great sea and mountain view! The studio itself offers basic, clean accommodation, but since in Crete you spent most of the time outdoors, it has all you need. The location of the studio is excellent for exploring many stunning places in the area and even further away. We had a rental car, which gave us all the freedom we wanted. Western Crete has won our hearts forever and we can't wait to go back next year! And we look forward to meeting Michalis and Anna again; they're very friendly, charming, helpful and generous people. Efcharisto poli!! Love, Ilse and Chris from Belgium
PS : We also had a fantastic time with the cats and little kittens...miss them too!
- Kalite güvenceli konaklama
- Her ev sahibi telefonla doğrulanmıştır
- SSL şifrelemesi ile güvenli ödeme

subset: commoncrawl


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I would like to thank Pamela Salomon Benner for editing the English translation of this post
Outside the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem and east of Damascus Gate is a small green door. If you stand in front of it, you cannot imagine what lies on the other side. If you pass through that door, you will find a huge underground cave 300 meters long and 100 meters wide. The place was once a subterranean quarry used by the builders of Jerusalem in the Second Temple period. A persistent tradition says that King Solomon used stones from the same quarry to build the First Temple. The cave is linked to many traditions, and quite a few stories exist about it. The children of Jerusalem would tell you, for example, that this was the place where the Bible says Korach and his followers disappeared after the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them.
The most important tradition concerns King Zedekiah, the last king of Judea. According to Jeremiah 52, Zedekiah tried to escape from the city of Jerusalem while it was under siege. He managed to flee through a place referenced as the "gate between the two walls," but "… the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king, and they overtook Zedekiah on the plains of Jericho, and all his army had scattered and deserted him…." (Jeremiah 52:8). Zedekiah was led to Babylon, but not before the Chaldeans killed his sons in front of him and then blinded him. He spent the rest of his life in exile, away from his city and country.
Now you probably asked yourself, "How did King Zedekiah get from 'between the two walls' to the plains of Jericho while the city of Jerusalem was under siege?" Well, the book of Jeremiah does not tell us anything about that; however, Rashi does supply us with an answer: "He [Zedekiah] had a cave going from his house to the plains of Jericho and he escaped through the cave. What did God Almighty do? He presented a deer to the Chaldeans and made it run above the cave's roof. The Chaldeans chased the deer and as Zedekiah emerged from the other side of the cave, they spotted him and caught him." You can easily guess the end of my story: An old tradition made the connection between the cave Rashi wrote about and the cave found near Damascus Gate. At the heart of the cave lies a small spring, and it is believed that its water comes from King Zedekiah's tears—the tears he shed while watching the death of his sonsand the destruction of his city.
The only entrance to the cave was once barricaded by Sultan Suleiman I who feared while he was building the walls of the Old City that the cave might serve as a weak spot during a siege. For many years people told tales about a huge cave residing under the Muslim Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, but the cave was found again only during the 1850s by James Turner Barclay. Barclay, who was a doctor and a Bible scholar, walked his dog one night outside the walls of the Old City. Suddenly the dog disappeared. It took Barclay a while until he found the dog barking from inside a hole in the ground. The hole led Barclay and his colleagues down to the heart of the earth and thus they discovered Zedekiah's Cave again. Barclay was followed by interested Freemasons, who thought this was the quarry of King Solomon, the first Freemason according to their tradition. Freemasons continue to assemble secretly in the cave every once in a while.
Over the past few years the cave of Zedekiah has been open to all visitors. As a tour guide I take many of my groups to see this fantastic site. On a hot day in May 2012 we walked into the cave, trying to escape the blazing sun, and I was telling my group about various traditions related to the cave of Zedekiah. Nothing prepared us for the surprise that was waiting for us inside. All around we saw loudspeakers from which a soft, wonderful Indian singing voice emerged. At first I thought it was a new tourist upgrade intended to make our stay underground more pleasant; however, after walking farther into the cave we discovered the true nature of the music. At the great hall in the center of the cave sat hundreds if not thousands of Indians. In front of them, on a small improvised stage with the image of the god Hanuman in the background, sat the guru Sri Morari Bapu telling the tales of Rama, Sita and Hanuman in Lanka as they are told in the Indian epic Ramayana.
Sri Morari Bapu, a well-known guru in India, is particularly respected as a preacher who conducts special ceremonial readings of and commentaries on the sacred Hindu writings. These ceremonies are called kathe and last nine or ten days each. The readings are accompanied by traditional Indian music played live by Indian masters of traditional Indian instruments. This scene explained the music we heard when we entered the cave.
Sri Morari Bapu lives in the small village of Talgajarda in Bhavnagar, a district in the state of Gujarat, India. From his base he travels worldwide to perform nine-day kathe. As of this writing Sri Morari Bapu has performed at least 700 kathe around the world on land, at sea and even on air. The kathe are attended by huge crowds—sometimes thousands, sometimes millions.
This was Sri Morari Bapu's first tour in Jerusalem. On his Web site he wrote that Jerusalem is an example of a small city where people of all religions learned to live together and didn't have to compromise over their religion. The followers of Sri Morari Bapu with whom we spoke told us that in his katha he emphasized the need for compassion, love and reconciliation and thus, according to their belief, it is obvious that Jerusalem is a legitimate site for this kind of ceremony. They considered the katha in Jerusalem as a means to send a message to the entire world.
The sitar was playing, Sri Morari Bapu led the ceremony on, and the excited crowd sat quietly and observed every word. I led my group farther into the depths of the cave. As we returned to the main hall half an hour later it seemed as though nothing had changed. The guru maintained the same position, as did his followers. No one was in a rush. I thought to myself that they had all come to Zedekiah's Cave to find their way into the heart of Jerusalem. Later, another thought occurred to me: Could it be that Sri Morari Bapu had transformed Zedekiah's Cave from a way to escape from Jerusalem to a gateway into the city? Could he see in a place that symbolizes the destruction of the city the way to rebuild it? Could it be that through the stone that helped build the city two thousand years ago Sri Morari Bapu built a bridge between the hearts of all lovers of Jerusalem? Was this what Sri Morari Bapu intended, or was it my own wild imagination? I suppose I will eventually find the solution while touring Jerusalem.…
A short video I took in the cave
Back To the Home Page – Tours in Jerusalem


text:
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Revista Brasileira de Anestesiologia
Print version ISSN 0034-7094On-line version ISSN 1806-907X
Rev. Bras. Anestesiol. vol.56 no.5 Campinas Sept./Oct. 2006
Comparative study of 0.5% racemic bupivacaine versus enantiomeric mixture (S75-R25) of 0.5% bupivacaine in brachial plexus block for orthopedic surgery
Dear Editor,
I think it is relevant that every Brazilian anesthesiologist should be aware of the importance of RBA and what it represents to have a paper published in this journal.
CAPES 1 (Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior), the organ that regulates post-graduate programs in Brazil, gives RBA the classification qualis A taking into consideration the repercussion and frequency that papers published in this journal, indexed in the SciElo (Scientific Electronic Library Online) are quoted. Therefore, a paper that is published in this respected journal is qualified to validate a stricto senso masters' degree, and might even exempt the author from defending his thesis to the qualified examining board.
Regarding the article in the title 2, it was part of my masters' degree of the Health Technology Post-Graduate Program (PPGTS) of the Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Paraná (PUCPR) and whose tutor was Professor Dr. Luiz Carlos Von Bahten. Having a paper published by the RBA qualifies me for a CAPES scholarship and validates my master's program.
Therefore, the disclosure and knowledge of this fact to Brazilian anesthesiologists may be an incentive for the scientific promotion of my fellow anesthesiologists, besides creating a positive feedback for RBA, more publications, more quotes.
I hope to have contributed and I would like to thank you for this opportunity.
Roberto Tsuneo Cervato Sato, TSA, M.D.
Anesthesiologist and instructor of the
CET/SBA do Hospital Universitário Cajuru PUC-PR
01. Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior http://www.capes.gov.br, acessado em 02 de junho de 2006.
02. Sato RTC, Porsani DF, Amaral AGV et al. Bupivacaína racêmica a 0,5% e mistura com excesso enantiomérico de 50% (S75-R25) a 0,5% no bloqueio do plexo braquial para cirurgia ortopédica. Estudo comparativo. Rev Bras Anestesiol, 2005;55:165-174.


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In this technical post I am going to illustrate how you can use the simple local-web-server package for NodeJS to start your web server in a few commands.
Let's get started!
Step 1 – Installation
First, install NodeJS from http://nodejs.org/download/
If you are using Windows, then make sure you download the MSI package because it is so easy to install.
Keep the default options as you're installing:
After installing NodeJS, open an elevated command prompt (i.e: run cmd.exe as Administrator) and type the following command in order to install the local-web-server package:
npm install -g local-web-server
You should see something like this:
No errors imply that the package has been successfully installed! Continue reading


text:
February is Black History Month (or African American History Month) in the United States and Canada. This is the month in which we highlight and celebrate the contributions made to our society by African Americans throughout history. It is a month for paying tribute to the generations of black people who fought so hard against slavery, racism, segregation, and other adversities in order to gain their independence and to be lawfully treated as full citizens in this country. I don't limit my reading of authors of color to any particular month, but I wanted to write a post about what I'm reading this month in honor of this celebration, as well as provide some recommendations for further reading.
I'm reading:
The Color Purple, by Alice Walker
This is a re-read for me, and I'm reading it for our #TuesBookTalk discussion that takes place on Twitter and Goodreads. Published in 1982, The Color Purple takes place in the 1930s in the south and tells the story of Celie–a poor, uneducated black woman–through letters that she writes over 20 years of her life. The book addresses the lives of black women in the south during that time, showing the numerous issues they had to face and how they dealt with their low position in American society. The Color Purple won both the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for Fiction in 1983.
Ninth Ward, by Jewell Parker Rhodes
I'm reading this book for the 2012 National African American Read-In sponsored by the Black Caucus of the National Council of Teachers. The reading and discussion of this particular book is being hosted by Vasilly of 1330v, Doret of The Happy Nappy Bookseller, and Edi of Crazy QuiltEdi. Here's a description of the story from Goodreads:
Twelve-year-old Lanesha lives in a tight-knit community in New Orleans' Ninth Ward. She doesn't have a fancy house like her uptown family or lots of friends like the other kids on her street. But what she does have is Mama Ya-Ya, her fiercely loving caretaker, wise in the ways of the world and able to predict the future. So when Mama Ya-Ya's visions show a powerful hurricane—Katrina—fast approaching, it's up to Lanesha to call upon the hope and strength Mama Ya-Ya has given her to help them both survive the storm.
Ninth Ward is a deeply emotional story about transformation and a celebration of resilience, friendship, and family—as only love can define it.
Home, by Toni Morrison
This is Toni Morrison's new book, and while it doesn't come out until May, I was lucky enough to receive an electronic galley from the publisher. Toni Morrison has long been one of my favorite authors, and I'm so excited to be able to read this book early and review it here on Between the Covers. This is the synopsis of the book from the Random House, Inc. website:
An angry and self-loathing veteran of the Korean War, Frank Money finds himself back in racist America after enduring trauma on the front lines that left him with more than just physical scars. His home—and himself in it—may no longer be as he remembers it, but Frank is shocked out of his crippling apathy by the need to rescue his medically abused younger sister and take her back to the small Georgia town they come from, which he's hated all his life. As Frank revisits the memories from childhood and the war that leave him questioning his sense of self, he discovers a profound courage he thought he could never possess again. A deeply moving novel about an apparently defeated man finding his manhood—and his home.
I cannot wait to dive into this one.
The following are books that I have read and highly recommend for further reading in celebration of Black History Month (clicking on a highlighted title will take you to my review of that book):
- Autobiography of Malcolm X — Malcolm X, Alex Haley
- The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr.
- Black Boy and Native Son — Richard Wright
- Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance — Barack Obama
- The Huey P. Newton Reader — Huey P. Newton
- I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (and the rest of the series) — Maya Angelou
- The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks — Rebecca Skloot
- Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl — Harriet Jacobs
- Invisible Man — Ralph Ellison
- Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention — Manning Marable
- Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass — Frederick Douglass
- Right to Ride: Streetcar Boycotts and African American Citizenship in the Era of Plessy v. Ferguson — Blair L. M. Kelley
- Roots — Alex Haley
- Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America — Melissa Harris-Perry
- A Slave No More: Two Men Who Escaped to Freedom — David W. Blight
- Song of Solomon — Toni Morrison (or any of her books, honestly)
- The Souls of Black Folk — W.E.B. DuBois
- Their Eyes Were Watching God — Zora Neale Hurston
- The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration — Isabel Wilkerson
- Worse Than Slavery: Parchman Farm and the Ordeal of Jim Crow Justice — David M. Oshinsky
The list of books I could recommend is nearly inexhaustible, but the books listed above are those that I've read over the past few years or those that came to mind easily. I enjoyed every one of them and I highly recommend them.
What books would you recommend reading for Black History Month?


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Which Console Did You Buy/Receive Over The Holidays?
So, when Eidos announced half a year or so ago that they would be releasing a game based on the Backyard Wrestling movies, with the demented minds behind Thrill Kill backing it, gore-loving gamers rejoiced the world over. The possibilities seemed endless. No longer confined to a ring setting, Paradox Entertainment could go nuts with their game design to bring players the bloodiest wrestling title ever invented. Now that Backyard Wrestling is out, it's quite clear that Paradox Entertainment did not do anything with the Backyard Wrestling license but deface it with an unbelievably mediocre showing.
The game starts by letting you pick from Talk Show Mode, Exhibition Mode, or Bonus Games. If you pick Talk Show Mode you'll be led to the main game mode, where you're brought to a cinematic where the setting is (surprise!) a talk show. After a few stereotypes are thrown out, and a few remarks made about Backyard Wrestling that are obviously meant to be sarcastic, guests on the talk show will talk about their encounters. Things such as Backyard Wrestlers coming through their property ,and the injuries they sustained during the rampages.
When this process is done you get to experience the main flaw with Backyard Wrestling: the gameplay. Though Paradox entertainment's fighting system is certainly ambitious, it doesn't work that well. Playing more like a fighting game than a wrestling game, the fighting controls span more than four pages in the game's instruction manual, which is sure to be a shock to anyone raised on THQ's simple wrestling titles. Though the truth is that even fighting game fans will have an unbelievably hard time picking up the many quirks of the control system.
Even if you do pick up the controls you'll still have an incredibly hard time beating your opponents. Not only is the AI in Backyard Wrestling cheap and vicious, but in order to pass through an environment in the game you will need to beat three different opponents in a row, starting back at opponent one if you get your butt handed to you by the second or third guy you face. Oh yeah, don't forget that you have to do three separate challenges all within this process, and that every time you lose you have to sit through a minute of loading screens as you're taken back through a save process, back to the title screen, then through the opening cinematic again every time you screw up on that finishing body slam.
One high point that alleviates this process is the game's audio, which is sure to please many angry white suburban boys who think that rap stands for Retards Attempting Poetry. The soundtrack includes a wide variety of acts in the punk, rock, and metal worlds both well known (Sum 41, Bowling For Soup) and underground (Chimaira, Shadows Fall, Spineshank). The only blemishes on the soundtrack are the many additions by The Insane Clown Posse. Though it's understandable that there would be additions from the ICP (since they allowed their own league's wrestlers to be put in the game), that doesn't change the fact that ICP's blend of cartoonishly violent rap and metal overtones is woefully annoying.
The game's graphics are also noteworthy as Paradox has done everything in its power to make sure Backyard Wrestling earns its M rating. Blood splatters in highly detailed glory here, and damage is reflected so specifically on your wrestler that you can't help but feel his pain. The animations also look awesome, with fantasy wrestling moves looking as beautiful as they are gruesome. The environments you fight in though are the greatest display of Backyard Wrestling's graphical prowess, with every interactive facet displayed in beautiful 3D glory.


text:
At Suyati, our edge is our technical expertise. And how well we apply it
Suyati is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, with key focus on Sharepoint, Biztalk and SQL Server. Our Center of Excellence in Microsoft Technologies ensures that our customers stay on top their game, and the competition.
Our Center of Excellence in Free and Open Source Software seeks to further the philosophy of collaboration that has seen these technologies solve complex problems in quick time. So much so, that a collaborative and open environment is an integral part of our corporate culture. Our strengths include PHP, Python, Ruby on Rails, and more.
"Mobile-first, everything else follows" is our dictum for mobile development. We dabble with our niche development skills in iOS, Android and Windows platforms to give you enriching and lasting UX.
Along with scalability, flexibility and lower ownership and investment costs, cloud enables IT to more rapidly adjust resources to meet fluctuating and unpredictable business demands. We help companies migrate their existing applications onto the cloud as well as build cloud based applications from scratch.
With our Big Data skills, we derive meaningful insights from the humungous amounts of data being generated daily. Our BI and Big Data strengths are vast, and they're built around - Couch DB and Mongo DB.


text:
Our New Celebrity Hot Tubs!
Celebrity Hot tubs are a new brand of lower priced hot tubs built by Marquis. They may be lower priced, but they have many great features like waterfalls, LED surround lighting, head cushions, lots of jets and an amazing and affordable optional marine grade audio system. They are the best value in hot tubs today.
They're priced from $3999 to $5295 here at Fireside. They seat from five to seven people, depending on the model. Not only are they made in the USA, they're made right here in Oregon and on the same assembly line that quality Marquis hot tubs have been made for 25 years. While they are made for the American market, they also meet European standards for use throughout Europe.
So, add a little celebrity status to your lifestyle with a Celebrity Hot Tub™. Whether you want to relax alone, catch up with the kids, romance your love or party the night away, a Celebrity Hot Tub is the place to be. Quality built and designed to perform, your Celebrity Hot Tub will play a leading role in your life, encore after encore. Celebrate, and drop in for some fun! You can find them all at CelebrityHotTubs.com. Then, come into Fireside and see them in person! You will be impressed!


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Youtube has suspended the account of Wael Abbas – which contained the the egyptian police brutality and torture videos- because there were apparently too many complaints and flags from users- who are not members of the egyptian government or state security, of course- who have deemed the videos inappropriate and offensive. Youtube immediately took action, and suspended the account, claiming that it violated its terms of use. Now, while this may be true in the technical sense, it may benefit them to make exceptions for such videos that do expose certain tyrannical regimes and won;t be shown by mainstream international media, you know, as part of that whole "alternative independent media" thing they have been talking about for some time now. Or they could take on Issander's compromise. Also read Brian Whitaker's take on it!
Archive of 'causes' category
Sandmonkey Tales: Abdel Monem and me
I never really met Abdel Monem. Never was interested to meet the "moderate" Muslim Brotherhood..ehh..Brother?? or is it member? anyway…. But that doesn't mean we are not connected, nor that this story shouldn't be told. Let's just say that this is a testimonial, a cautionary tale without any heroes, a reminder so to speak to those who believe in freedom and support it that not all is always what it seems to be.
Let's rewind time a little, a few months back, to the day when I decided that I would stop blogging. Shall we?
It was 2 hours before the BBC interview began, when my farewell post was published. They were supposed to be here to talk to me about blogging, and whether or not it was making a difference in Egypt, and blah blah blabbity blah. I already knew all of their questions (those rarely change), the same way I already knew all of my answers to them. I have said them so many times they were etched on my frontal lobe, and I always gave them exactly the story they wanted without lying. They were perfect soundbites. And they should've been. I've had so much practice over the months. I even knew who else they probably interviewed alongside me. The List was always the same: Hossam , Elijah , Issandr, Wael , Nora , alaa or manal . Those were the ones comfortable with english you see. With the other ones you needed translators, and really, who wanted to go to the trouble?
This, like all of my other interviews on camera, was going to have my face hidden. I pondered the futility of doing that for a minute, since I was quitting blogging anyway. Maybe Giving the Sandmonkey a face would be a smart move, especially with that nice police car parked under my house for the third consecutive week. But I brushed off the idea completely, because 1) I knew they were following me since the day of that protest, so it might not have anything to do with being the sandmonkey , and 2) Maybe all they needed to indict me is a direct link to the blog, which until now I haven't given them, so why bother now?, and most importantly 3) I never did this for fame. I never knew this blog would be so successful, and I honestly didn't intend to have this as a full time project. Being the Sandmonkey didn't define me, and I had no intention to let it. I didn't want to be famous. I just wanted to be heard.
Unfortunately, this wasn't the case with everybody. Others were in it precisely for themselves, to perpetuate an image, to create an Icon of themselves, to become "legends" of the egyptian blogsphere, which is probably the most pathetic of goals there is. But you learn to ignore. To let go. You, after all, had to work with these people. You maybe the illegitimate child of the egyptian blogsphere, but this was your family, whether you or they liked it or not. Their fights were your fights. That was the case, at least until they started to fight fake battles.
That's when Abdel Monem enters the story.
Abdel Monem was a journalist, and a politically active member of the muslim brotherhood. He was also a blogger. His blog wasn't really of any consequence to speak of, but he was friends with Alaa & Manal, Nora, Hossam, and the majority of the February 30th movement (February 30th, get it?). I never fully understood what was so special about him, except that he was a "moderate" voice amongst the Muslim Brotherhood, and by moderate they meant that he didn't want to see all the leftists dead. He was the MB member they could be friends with, and the kind of person they could show to someone like me and go " See, not all the MB members are bad. Here is one who shakes hands with unveiled women, and he talks about freedom for everybody and stuff. You are the one who is too narrow minded. You are the one who dehumanizes them. We are all in this together", while wagging their fingers in my face.
Except that we were not all in this together. And they were being useful idiots. But we will get to that part later.
Anyway, that sense of comradery that they felt for him, accompanied with some of them's desire to forge links and good relations with the "Inevitably-sooner -or-later-coming-to-power Muslim Brotherhood", made them feel as if they needed to do something for their friend. But they knew that no one cared internationally about a muslim brotherhood member getting arrested, even a so called moderate one. So they were like :"Wait a minute? Doesn't he have a blog? That makes him a jailed blogger! People internationally will care about that! We can help our friend that way!" Nevermind that he wasn't arrested for his blogging, nevermind that his blog was of literally no consequence or impact, there was a blog, and that makes him a blogger and therefore a jailed blogger. End of discussion, Honesty be damned.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how the Free Monem campaign got started!
Now before I go any further, here is a caveat: I do not think it is right for people to get arrested for exercising their political rights, nor am I against the MB getting their own party. And I am definitely not pro people getting arrested for merely being Muslim Brotherhood members (maybe pro getting their heads checked, just kidding), so I am not for Abdel Monem getting arrested and despite it all, I would like him to stay free. However, there is a fundamental difference between someone getting arrested for being politically active in an illegal group, and someone getting arrested for writing on their blog. That difference isn't exactly hard to distinguish I believe.
Two days after I stopped blogging, I was in DC, and all hell had broken loose.
Apparently my little goodbye post caused a lot of furor. I thought it would be just like a couple of blogs writing goodbye posts and linking to me and that's it, like dozens of others who quit before me. I was gravely mistaken. I underestimated the media, and their hunger for a sexy story. Blogs and bloggers, at the time, were sexy topics that made sexy stories. And apparently bloggers getting silenced was the story equivalent of Angelina Jolie sexy. Who knew?
So, the next thing I know, AFP wrote a story about it, and was then followed by AP. Then the AFP story got translated into arabic, and then it was syndicated into numerous arabic language publications that never had the name Sandmonkey in it before. My mailbox was flooded by requests for interviews, with reporters whom I am friends with demanding exclusives, reporters I used to know referring me to their friends and asking if I wouldn't mind talking to them, two e-mails from Charles Levinson, whom I refused to talk to after writing a story about me that was just short of disclosing my real name 2 years ago, begging for another chance, and not to mention the thousands of other e-mails from fans. It was insane. And then it got a little crazier, when I received a link to an article written by MB apologist and propagandist Ibrahim Al Hudaiby , declaring solidarity with "The Sandmonkey" that was published on Ikhwan Web. I was supported by the MB. Who could've imagined?
(Of course I understood that this was a way for the MB to harness the media attention to their own causes, which could've only been done by Ibrahim. He is, after all, their english language propaganda guy. AUC educated and one-time-Student government president, he knows how to talk and handle western media. He is also the translator for the MB supreme Leader Mahdy Akef with foreign Media, and you know what's funny? What Mahdy says in arabic, and what Ibrahim translates into english, are completely different things. But that's another story.)
But through out it all, I maintained radio silence. I just wanted the entire thing to go away. The only interview I ever gave at the time was to Pamela from Atlas Shrugged, and that only happened because we were meeting for drinks in New York and she surprised me with her interview request, so I agreed. Plus, I figured it's not gonna be heard that many people anyway (was wrong on that one. never underestimate the blogsphere). But besides that, I kept my mouth shut. I gave no interviews to neither strangers nor acquaintances. Charles ended up interviewing Issandr for his story about me, which I thought was hilarious.
It wasn't until I felt that the people definitely got the wrong impression from me quitting that I wrote the follow-up explanatory post (which of course was completely ignored by the media- who wants a story about a bloggers who were getting a big head because of media attention anyway?), and which also included the idea of that organization for protection of bloggers (which started nicely but ended up crashing, but that's also another story) and stopping the exploitation of their causes by other organizations (as was happening with the Free Kareem campaign at the time). For me this was the next step, a cause worth fighting for. Something pure, honest and that could bring people- from all political spectrums- together. And to think I actually thought it could work.
I am pretty naive sometimes.
* a few months ago*
G: So, what do you think of that Free Momen campaign?
Me: I think it's the dumbest and most dangerous thing that any of us have ever made.
G: How so?
Me: Because they are campaiging for him as if he is jailed for blogging, and he isn't. And just the other day I was reading about another MB member that got arrested, and who also had a blog, and suddenly he is too "the jailed blogger blah blah blah". Now, all the Muslim Brotherhood needs to have people campiagn for their members is to ask them to have blogs, and suddenly everybody is a hero of free speech and has to be defended by us.
G: I swear to god that's what I told them. That this way we are breached by the Brotherhood and playing to their hand. But nobody will listen.
Me: But they are idiots. If they keep this up, Egypt will become known as that country that jails bloggers, and nobody will care. We will be like Tunisia in the eyes of the world. It won't be a worthy cause to release a blogger jailed in Egypt for his/her opinion, because it will be normal. It will be "what they do there in Egypt".
G: I know.
At the same time, the Free Monem movement was on full swing. Posts about "War on bloggers" were being written. Monem's name was mentioned in the UN's Citizen Journalists conference on the international day for free press in the same breath as Abdel Karim. And the Free Monem campaign got launched on that same day. It was PR blitz and it had Monem's name and face all over it. It was fantastic.
About a month later, Abdel Monem was released. He was now an internationally known face. a Hero of free speech. A blogger who was also a moderate member of the MB. A legend was created, and it had mass appeal to all kinds of intellectuals and so called Middle-east experts. No wonder when Marc Lynch came to Egypt last October, meeting Abdel Monem was on top of his agenda. After all, this guy was imprisoned for his views and opinions and is a moderate voice amongst the Brotherhood. That's street cred and legitimacy you just can't buy.
Fast forward to 2 weeks ago. The Muslim Brotherhood release the final draft of their Political Party's platform: The Platform is, as expected, anti-Christian and anti-women (Prohibiting both from ever becoming either President or Prime Minister). Oh, and also the chief moderate Ikhwan voice, Essam el Aryan, got sacked from the leadership. And guess what? Nobody said anything. Not a single person who participated in the Free Monem campaign even mentioned it on their blogs. Neither did Abdel Monem, but he didn't stop there.
See, there was a group of MB bloggers who were a voice of dissent amongst the Brotherhood, who didn't like the Platform nor the way some things were run and presented by the leadership. Some, taking special issue with the MB's official website, Ikhwanonline, for their blatant stealing of content from their blogs without giving them credit, created a counter website called Ikhwan Offline as a counter protest. Those bloggers all looked to Abdel Monem as a reformer and a leader, someone they can trust. They discoverd shortly how wrong they were.
Abdel Monem went to the High leadership of the MB and snitched on everybody . He gave them every single name of every single dissenter and what they are saying. The leadership immedietly cracked down on the dissenter, using with some the whip (threats of expulsion from the Brotherhood prompted the runners of the site to shut it down) and with others the carrot ( the ones with any talent were hired by Ikhwan Online as writers with significant salaries). When news of his betrayal of his so-called brothers reached MB member from Saudi and the Gulf and prompted them to give Monem furious phone calls for what he did, Monem's response was : "Listen people. I am an internationally known blogger, and have a big name, and will not deal with your nonsense", and hung up on them. It was also found out that our "Hero" has been- and still is- on the Payroll of jailed MB financier and second man in command Khairat el Shater, and Khairat is definitely from the conservative part of the MB, so I guess it makes sense that those who are paid by him to follow his line, no?
Now, is anyone talking about that?
Did any of those who were behind the campaign issue anything even close to a repudiation to Abdel Monem or the MB's platform?
Did any of those who defended him apologize for making a star out of him, thus making him a trustworthy figure to those kids he betrayed?
Did any of them even acknowledge, that maybe, just maybe, they were wrong about this guy and defending him in the first place?
Hehehe. Right.
The Silence is- at the risk of sounding cliche- deafening.
You see, I think they owe the world an apology. I think they should apologize for deceiving people about him. I think they should apologize for making an international symbol of him, and one that is dishonest at best. I think they should say that they were wrong about that. I think they should say that they were wrong about him. That they misjudged. That they miscalculated. THAT THEY WERE WRONG. That they acted like the Useful idiots I warned them of being, and that they were used by someone who claimed to be a moderate, but when push came to shove, he not only followed the MB line, he sold out his brothers who weren't, and who trusted him.That maybe, just maybe, they were responsible for this, and that they need to atone for it. They gave this guy fame, They made him a hero when they knew he wasn't and now he will use that and milk it to his ends and those of the MB, and that will be all on their hands.
But of course they won't admit their fault or apologize. At best they will just ignore this post, keep their silence and hope it goes away, and at worst they will view it as a personal attack on them by me, and will wish to retaliate. Doesn't matter either way, cause whatever they do, they know that what I said here was the truth. And nothing they say or do will change that.
Me and Abdel Monem don't know each other, and I am glad of that. I am glad to not know him, to not be acquainted with him, let alone be friends with him, because as I suspected, he couldn't be trusted. Just like Ibrahim el Hudaiby, just like every other single moderate face of the Brotherhood. At best they have no power nor influence, and at worst they are fakers and propagandist, preying on whatever media outlets and useful idiots from the left and the right who want to believe the Fantasy that the MB could become moderate and be the voice of the egyptian opposition. For the final time I will say it: It's not going to happen. They will use you as their defenders and their mouthpieces to their own ends, and then they will betray you, the same way they always did (Hey, remember the 2005 parliamentary elections? How many Kefayah members did the MB vote into power? yeah,thought so!). I don't fault Abdel Monem for what he did. It is to be expected from him. The fault lies on those who supported him, who should know better but chose to ignore reality, and then falsified it to help him. Even if they don't come clean for what they did, maybe, just maybe, they have learned their lesson out of this.
But I doubt it!
Related Posts:
Karim Amer is getting tortured in Prison
Abdel Karim Soliman, famously now known as Karim Amer, who got jailed for "disdain for religion" and "insulting the president" on his blog, is reportedly getting tortured by the Prison authorities.
Karim who is an Egyptian
blogger sentenced to prison for 4 years for 'vilifying religions' and
defaming the president was tortured & that was ordered and
supervised by an investigation officer in Borg Alarab prison. Karim was
also ordered into a solitary cell where he was assaulted again and had
one of his teeth broken; this assault's date came to mark one year
since Karim was sent to jail.
Karim reported his being tortured in prison to his lawyers in
the Arabic Network and Hisham Mubarak Center, the torture came at the
hand of another prisoner and a prison guard, ordered by Midhat Samir
one of the prison's investigations officers. This came to pass after
Karim has uncovered some corruption act in the prison. Karim was
punished and tortured severely which resulted in several injuries in
addition to a broken tooth. He was deprived from officially reporting
the incident against the accused officer as well as denying him the
right to document these injuries in a medical report.
The Arabic Network for Human Rights information and Hisham Mubarak
Centre for Law mentioned in their communiqué to the Prosecutor-General
that the assault on Karim is manifested in the following:
- Being beaten inside
ward Number 22 where he is imprisoned at the time of the assault, the
battery was launched by another prisoner and a prison guard, in the
presence of Officer Midhat Samir and under his supervision. Samir also
gave the green light for the assault which resulted in a broken tooth
"upper right canine tooth" along with a number of bruises and abrasions
on various parts of the body.
- Transferring Karim to a disciplinary cell where he was
handcuffed and had his feet strapped into shackles; he was beaten up
again which caused him more injuries.
- Another inmate prisoner was brought over where they stripped
him out of clothes and beat him severely in front of prisoner Kareem
Soliman as they also threatened to inflict upon him the same
punishment, if he didn't mind his own business.
I wish I could say I am surprised by this, but I have heard and seen so much of this, that, as horribly as that sounds, it kind of becomes expected. We are ruled and governed by Monsters who have no respect for our human rights or dignity. They just waited until his story wasn't that "Hot" anymore and went ahead with it. In this country, with the exception of those of us who believe in human rights, who is gonna defend him? A guy who insulted the prophet getting tortured? The public response is gonna be : "Good. That's exactly the kind of person who should be tortured! Make an example out of him." God knows that the day of his sentencing, and I was there for the majority of the trial, the public outside were debating how he should be killed. Some were like, "he should be hanged", others were like, "No, we need to go islamic on this. Behead him.", while others demanded that people have some common sense and instead of being all barbaric with the beheading, they should "just stab him". And that's the average egyptian on the street. Imagine the people in prison's reaction. And then ask yourself: would the sadistic bastards who run our prison system think twice about torturing this guy? They might've during the trial, when the spotlight was on him. But now? Forget about it. He is fairgame, and his jailers know it.
And the most telling part of all..
It is to mention that Karim since he was imprisoned is subjected to a
systemic discriminatory practice and maltreatment in Borg Alarb prison
on the hands of the prison's officers. He mentioned to his lawyer that
the maltreatment was always coupled with this phrase "This is until you
do change your mind"!!
That's the message they are sending to all of us by this. Received and decoded guys. Thanks, you sick sadistic animals.
Azhar Sheikh: 80 lashes for freedom of press
So has decreed the Grand Sheikh of Al Azhar Mohamed Sayyed "Ok" Tantawi, as islamic punishment for those bad journalists who spread rumors about the president and the country.
"God will not respond to the invocation of the arrogant and
pretenders who accuse others with the ugliest vice and unsubstantiated
charges," said Tantawi during a religious celebration Monday attended
by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and broadcast live on television.
"The Islamic Sharia (law) subjected all the people to be equally
punished for the crime of libel which is a flagrant aggression on the
virtuous men and women," he added. Tantawi's comments were published in
Al-Akhbar newspaper Wednesday and in Sawt Al-Azhar, the mouthpiece of
Al-Azhar, the following day.
During his speech, Tantawi seemed to argue for serious punishment as
well, quoting a verse from the Quran saying that those who accused
women of adultery without necessary proof were to receive "80
He said his example involved women but added that "libel is also
applicable to men … this punishment is set by God to protect the
honor of men and women from bad talk that hurts dignity and honor."
Nice ehh?
You know why we call him "Sayyed OK" in Egypt? Because before he became Grand Sheikh of Al Azhar (appointed by President Mubarak) he used to be Egypt's mufti, and he was famous for his ability to issue any Fatwa you would like as long as you pay him. The man is such a joke, that during the presidential elections he issued a Fatwa- when the opposition was trying to get the people to boycott the elections in order to say it was illegitimate- that egyptians have to go and particpate in the elections as their islamic duty and that it's haram not to do so, because that's suppressing testimony and god forbids that and hates those who suppress their testimony. No one, of course, listened. This is the man, who under his reign, Al Azhar became a place for breast-feeding fatwas and debates over if an actor gets married on TV, is he counted as married in real life, amongst other fun fantastic very relevant debates. And now he wants to lash journalists who libel the good honorable men of this government 80 lashes. 80.
and you thought journalists had it rough in your country.
Tantawi, do us all a favor: RESIGN!
The Ibn Khaldoun meltdown
Saad El Deen Ibrahim is finally admitting that he is on a self-imposed exile outside of Egypt, fearing his arrest by the authorities. Good. I just hoped that he would've informed the Press that the American Ambassador is the one that relayed the message to him from the egyptian authorities and urged him not to come back. But I guess he didn't want to make a big stink about the fact that the egyptian authorities treat him like an american stooge to the point of using the US ambassador- whom I can't believe agreed to this role- to inform him that they wanted him out. No Point in raising a stink. The man, after all, spent too much time in jail for his views as it is. The Problem lies in the fact that while he is abroad, his life-work is getting destroyed back here. The Ibn Khaldoun center is slowly falling apart.
Back in early 2006 I approached Dr. Ibrahim for advice on starting my own Think Thank, and the one thing he warned me against was having a one-man show there. It was right after Al Ghad Party started to fall apart with Ayman Nour going to Jail, and with the Power struggle that took place in Al Wafd Party because Nooman Gomaa wouldn't give up his seat as the party head. Dr. Ibrahim lamented to me that the problem in Egyptian leadership is that the person on top, once they arrive there, they never want to give up control or pave the way for someone to carry on their work, out of fear that those same people remove and replace them. And now we are seeing the same thing happen in the center of Ibn Khaldoun, Dr. Ibrahim's NGO.
Dr. Ibrahim had a manager for the Center and her name was Ayyat. Ayyat , while not overly competent, knew the NGO in and out and all the contacts, and is effectively the operational manager of the center. Right after Dr. Ibrahim fled the country, the government-sponsored
attack dogs newspapers showed bathing suits pictures of Ayyat and made some seriously messed up insinuations about her, which eventually led her to resign from Ibn Khaldoun. With Saad and Ayyat gone, there was no one to take charge (no institutional hierarchy to speak of exists over there), so now Dr. Ibrahim's brother is the one running the place, and doing so firmly into the ground. The man doesn't know the first thing about running an NGO, nor does he understand any of the projects there, so now the interns are the ones who are making all the decisions inside. Add to that the fact that aid for NGO's in Egypt is now simply eroding, because Egypt is now becoming a low-income country instead of a less-developed country, is not making things any easier. The Europeans have already cut most of their funding, and the USAID, I am informed, will be systematically reduced over the next 10 years until it becomes inconsequential to the overall picture. Democracy building in the middle east, after all, is no longer a priority or in fashion. The international left finally got his wish there. Good Job guys. How about a shot for every imperialistic agent of an NGO that closes its door in the next few years due to lack of funding? I am buying!
This is sad because in the world of civil society, the name Ibn Khaldoun carries with it a lot of weight, and soon it will be destroyed. No leadership, no organization and soon no funding, it won't be long till it closes down, unless the man comes back and puts his house in order. That, unfortunately, due to his belief that he would be imprisoned and killed while in prison, doesn't seem like it's going to happen anytime soon. Ibn Khaldoun may not be dead yet, but it might be wise to get out and start washing your funeral cloths. Shouldn't be long now.
Egyptian newspapers strike for a day
Well, Independent ones, anyway. The daily ones didn't appear yesterday and the weekly ones will not publish throughout the week. This is the latest development in the crisis between the Press and the Government.
Egypt's newspapers conducted a silent
protest against the government by withholding their publications from
newsstands on Sunday. Both independent and opposition newspapers joined
forces in the one-day protest against the government's crackdown and
imprisonment of journalists in the country. The move comes as a leading
editor is due to return to court on charges of defamation. The charges
come after his paper, Al Dostour, reported on rumors that President
Hosni Mubarak was ill or possibly dead in August.
newspapers withdrew from the atmosphere of freedom in the victory day
for vague reasons and because of pressures from an unknown power,"
wrote the pro-government Rose El-Youssef newspaper in opposition to the
Pressue from an unknown power. Right. Yeah, don't count on Al Ahram, or Al Akhbar to join the protest either. There sued to be a time- until very recently- they would've, but not anymore!
A week ago
*Those incidents took place a week ago, when I went to that protest. The fact that I didn't write about them until now is a testament to how busy I am. Apologies for that!*
"Why are you doing this?", my friend S asked me. "Why are you, of all people, going to today's protest?"
I looked at her silently for a second, as if I am not able to comprehend the question. What exactly did she mean by "you of all people"? And then I rememberd, yeah, flaming Libertarian going to a solidarity with workers' protest. Yeah, I guess that should raise some eyebrows.
I looked at her and said: "Well, because I am a capitalist, babe. Those people worked, and they deserve their getting their pay. That's all there is to it.", and she looked at me and shrugged, as if saying, "I think what you are doing is stupid!".
Yeah, You are probably right, I thought to myself. But then again, I wasn't totally honest about my answer. What I said was a truth, but not the whole truth. But I wasn't going to explain now. It was almost 9 m, and my ride was here.
It's time to embark on some civil disobedience.
We, me and M., arrive at the Parking lot right next to the AUC. That's the rendez-vous point with Gimmy , H., her boy, and whomever else was coming to this thing. M. and H. were dressed in jeans and male shirts, looking like female british factory workers. I guess if you are a capitalist chick going to a worker's protest, this is what You wear.
The news we heard so far wasn't very comforting: The Talaat Harb square is , again, a War Zone. Police Cars everywhere, plainclothed police Officers lining up the streets, and everybody is afraid to start the protest by themselves. For the life of me, I do not understand their insistence on always protesting in either Tahrir Square, Talaat Harb square or the Press Syndicate. I persoanlly don;t get it. Why not have a protest in Heliopolis? Or Dokki? Or Maadi? Why always Downtown? God knows the State security knows how to completely control the area and squash the protests with ease now. It almost feels like folly. Like we are children and we are about to play Police and Protesters. Where we playing today boys? The Talaat Harb Playground? Fantastic. Let's all go to Al Borsa Cafe after it's all over and talk about how we managed to waste the last few hours, while smoking cheap Shisha. Yeah!
I call Nora to see where she is, and she informs me that she is in the Ghad Party headquarters, an apartment in a Building in Talaat Harb sqre, and that they are having "inside the apartment Protest". The Police is standing in front of the building's door and are letting people in, but not letting them out. So, what now? We decide to go anyway, but we had to wait a couple of minutes cause a bunch of other people were coming first. In the meantime, Gimmy starts mock wailing while holding his cellphone: "Nawarah, this is not the time for this stuff". I ask him what's up, and he shows me a text message she sent to his Phone: " 'Peacefull protests are the best way to neutralize causes and trick the people' Malcom X.- I fear for every one of you, because you are doing something no one else is doing and you have no one covering your backs but GOD!"
Oh Boy!
At that moment 3 other guys passed by and shook hands with Gimmy, and stood with us, also seemingly going to the Protest. Someone pointed at one of them and told me that this was "Egyptian Leftist"- the guy who designed this greeting – and he was in the classic egyptian half sarcastic, half Jovial mode, informing us that 4 people were arrested already for this protest. I asked him which group they belonged to, and he tells me "The Ghad Party".
To which I respond, mischievously, "Good riddance", and he laughs and says : "Absolutely. If anyone is to be arrested, let them be the capitalist liberals."
At that moment I extend my hand to him and say "We haven't met before. Hi, I am the Sandmonkey!" He looks at me for a second, and then starts laughing immediacy, says"That's you? Been wanting to meet you for a while now!" and shakes my hand, without a hint of hostility.
This is gonna be fun!
The atmosphere is tense as we are heading out to Talaat Harb Square. Gimmy is very much a "usual suspect" with a very known face to the Downtown Police. We kept teasing him and asking him to walk 3 meters away from us so when the Police arrests him, they wouldn't arrest us as well, to which he runs towards us and hugs me laughingly saying, "No, not getting arrested alone". And as if the Gods wanted to test us, I get a text message from Nora that asks me to pick up Salma from the place close to Talaat Harb square. Now Salma is another very very known face, and walking with Gimmy and Salma is like wearing a sign saying" arrest me now!". Oh fuck it. What difference will it make, right? So, once we all arrive to Talaat Harb square, me and Gimmy split from the group and go get Salma, who was at a Candy store with a female friend and this tall bald dude with glasses, who looked like a walking foriegn journalist cliche. We walk with them to Talaat harb and the police, once they see them, completely ignore Salma and Gimmy and pounce on the Journalist looking guy, telling him to get out of here and pushing him away. Salma immediately starts fighting with the Policeman, trying to pry his arm off the bald dude, which in turn made more policemen gang up on them. I froze in my place, looking at the scene and not doing anything.
Someone besides me asks me "We are not gonna do something?".
Without turning around, I hear myself saying "I don't plan on getting arrested today, do you? No? Then keep still. We don't want to give them any excuse for them to use violence against us."
The Police wasn't arresting the three though. The Police simply was pushing them away from Talaat Harb. The Talaat Harb protest wasn't gonna happen. They were pushing the people away from the square. I look at Gimmy and ask him: "The Press syndicate?"
He sighs, shakes his shoulders and says: "Yeah, guess so!".
And we head out there.
The Scene at the Press Syndicate is the same as every protest: A hundred people standing on the stairs, the Police has barricades surrounding them, and are letting people in but not letting them out. The usual Kefaya players are also there: Oh Look, there is George Ishac, and here is Kammal Khalil. The Kefaya Theathre group doing an encore of their favorite show. As I walk in I realize how many of the old players are not there: Alaa and Manal are in Italy, Sharqawy, Malek, Droubi and the Brothers Gharbeia were nowhere to be found (they probably had better things to do), Hossam is in California, Elijah is somewhere between Bangkok and Hanoi, and Issandr is god knows where. Even the foreign journalists have changed, and all the old crew is gone and replaced by newbies. Egypt is no longer news worthy, and our cause is now almost forgotten.
The Protest goes on, and gets bigger and with every moment I miss my favorite Marxist Trotskite revolutionary more, so I decide to call him in Cali and keep him updated. There was news after all: A Lebanese journalist named Jano Charbel got arrested, which I found out later was Hossam's friend and neighbor. There were also rumors that some guy in Mahalla got shot and killed by the Police, but no one could confirm it. I was more distracted by the presence and arrival of 2 ambulance cars and a firefighting truck. I started harboring hopes we might get hosed. Now that should be interesting, I think to myself as I am sitting on the stairs and resting my back on the wall of the syndicate. And for a second there, you get the appeal of the place. This is our Freedom Zone. This is the place we get to scream and shout and exercise our rights of free speech. I decide to get into the spirit of things and start chanting and clapping with the rest of the protesters.
No wonder they need to confine us to this place, freedom of speech is infectious.
Gimmy came over accompanied by a dutch journalist and introduced her to me. We shake hands, and she asks if she can ask me a few questions, and I agree. This is how it went:
Z: So, you shut down the blog for a long time because the Police was after you, right?
Me: Well, that was a reason for why I shut it down, that's true.
Z: Yet you opened it again last month. What happened? They stopped harassing you?
Me: Well, things were quiet for the first few month, and I decided to move on and get involved in a couple of other projects. But around the last week of august I got a phone call from my father, asking me why a man in a suit came over and asked our doorman questions about me. Questions regarding if they see me here often, where I work now, stuff like that. The guy told the doorman that he is asking those questions because I was being "considered for a very prestigious position" and they wanted to do background checks on me. This, of course, is bullshit. They were snooping around me , again, when I didn't do anything and completely "behaved" myself for the past few months. So I figured, I am damned either way, so fuck it, I will blog again.
Z: Ok, so what brings you to this protest? This is not usually your scene.
(Why does everyone keep asking me that?)
Me: Well, part of it is because I believe the workers are right. They are owed money and they didn't get paid for over a year, so they have every right to protest the way they are. But that's not the full reason. The reality is, I haven't gone to a single protest ever since the constitutional amendments one, and you know how horrible that one was. And it has gotten worse ever since that day. Ayman Nour is still in Prison, the brothers Sadat are all out of the Parliament, Saad el Deen Ibrahim is all but virtually exiled out of the country, with the Egyptian government sending him a message using the american ambassador Riccardione to tell him that Egypt isn't safe for him anymore, and now we have 4 editors in chief of independent anti-Mubarak newspapers who are facing trial and jail sentences. And NOBODY CARES. We are pretty much heading towards a very dark period, so I came today to see if there is a glimmer of hope left, and be a part of it. Cause, what else is there to do?
Two hours had passed, it was around mindnight, and the Protest had grown in numbers, partially because more people were coming in to join, and partly because the Police wasn't letting anybody out. We started joking that we will spend the night on the stairs, and have our Sohour here. I started taking a poll, asking people if they feel like ordering Food Delivery. We figured we will call Gad for Falafel sandwiches, since it's Ramadan and all. I even went to the guards and asked them if they would allow the passage of food to us, since it seems we are gonna be here till tomorrow and we might need to have a sohour cause it's Ramadan and all. The Police soldiers laughed and said they would let the food pass, no problem. Sweet.
Just as we are actually preparing to take the order, we noticed that the Police was starting to let some people out, but the majority of which were carrying kids. I had seen some of them coming in with children and I didn't get it at first, and now I did. They bring the children with them, so that they can use them as an excuse to get out. Unfuckinbelievable. Anyway, more people were alerted that they were allowing some people to exit, so they started moving towards the exit as well, and the entire situation became intensely crowded, with the people pushing and shoving each other, and the Police letting like 3 people out every 5 minutes, enjoying how much we are pushing and shoving each other every time in adjustment.
I was leading the way, and when the door finally opened to let some people out, a woman cried that she is suffocating. So getting her out became a priority, so I also screamed that we have girls and pushed M and H to the front, so they all got out and the door closed again for another 5 minutes. Ignoring the guy who was elbowing me and the 3 trying to push me against the barricade, I could see M and H talking to the police Officer and pointing at us. Then the door opened again, and they pointed at me and told me to get out. So I pushed my away out, knowing that Gimmy is right behind me, to find them closing the opening in his face. The Police Officer pointed at him and said: "Anybody but him. He kicked me in an earlier protest. Don't let him out".
I went and spoke to the ranking Police Officer ( a different one), imploring him to open the gate to let the rest of our group out. He told me that I can point at them and let only 3 out. I agreed. As I was about to chose the rest of my group, including Gimmy, the police Officer said "On one condition. Not that one" pointing at him. Looking at him, I muttered "I am sorry", and started pointing my friends out. Suddenly everybody knew my name and started shouting at me to choose them to get out as well, so I started pulling everybody that I could out, bringing out 8 people instead of 3 until the Police removed me and shut the gate again. The Officer looked at me and said : "I said only 3", to which I responded "yeah, but they are all my friends and its Ramadan. Happy Ramadan to you", so he shooed me away, and told me to start moving or else we will all get arrested for real. So we started walking towards the side street we came from, grouping together the original group with the extras I pulled out. The three of them knew Gimmy. We started debating what we should do, so I decided to call him and found him answering: "Yes, they let me out. I am coming right now!". So we told him where we were, and when I started seeing his sillouhette coming towards us I started running towards him, except that he wasn't answering my calls. Instead he was starting to move faster, almost running, and pointed towards me with his hand to stay away.
And then he suddenly broke into sprint and went into a side street…
…and then I noticed 4 other big men that were behind him, who suddenly started sprinting and ran behind Gimmy as well.
Gimmy was being chased!
I ran towards the group, telling them to start moving. They asked me "What's wrong? Where did Gimmy Go?"
"He ran this way. He is being chased by 4 plainclothed police officers", I respond.
"But why? They let him out!" M. said.
"So that they can beat him up later away from the media." One of the three joining us said. He then looked at his two buddies and said, "Let's go after them, to make sure he is ok!" and they started running towards that side street, and then stopped suddenly, when they saw a gorup of girls they knew, and started chatting with them. Probably telling them heroic stories about the protest they just got out of. The rescue Gimmy Calvary got shut down by a 3 protester groupies. The Kid was on his own.
"Let's run and get the car", I said to M. as I started pulling her away with me.
"What the fuck are they doing? Is this the time to pick up chicks? Weren't they gonna.."
"Well, they saw a chance to score Punanni and they took it over helping their friend M. Ok? We are gonna have to get him. So LET'S RUN."
She looked at me for one second and then she started sprinting, and I am with her and the rest of the group behind us. I call Gimmy, and ask him for his location. We agree to rendez-vous at Talaat Harb square again, because its crowded and they wouldn't be able to secretly beat him up there. Not to mention, numbers in strength. In 3 minutes we bumped into him and I look for the 4 guys and I don't see them. He lost them. Relief washes over me, but we are not out of the woods yet, so we immediately head to the cars to go home. On the way there, Gimmy gets a phone call from the 3 guys who were supposed to come to his rescue, asking him how he is doing and if he was ok. They then asked him if he wanted to join them at the Borsa Cafe, cause everybody who was in the protest is there.
God I hate Downtown activists!
Two days later, the Mahalla strike was over. The workers were victorious. A settlement with the state-owned company was reached, and they were going to get paid their rightfully acquired salaries and profit shares. The moment the news broke out that the Mahalla workers got their rights, 2 other workers Protests broke out in Domyat and Tanta. The workers saw that this government , for the first time ever, responds to pressure, and they are taking full advantage of the opportunity. Good for them.
Yeah, we are heading towards some seriously dark days, but glimmers of hope still exist!
Kefayah Demonstration tonight
Tonight @9 PM, Talaat Harb Square, to protest the jailing of the 4 Opposition Newspapers editors in Chief and in solidarity with the Mahalla workers protest. I know it's a thursday night in Ramadan and all, but, like, you can always smoke shisha later. Be there!
Jordan Bows to Big Brother
Some seriously sad news coming from the one country in the region that seemed adamant to leave Freedom of Speech alone. Too bad!
Round 2
For those who are not familiar with this case, please go here , here , here , here and here for background information. For those who are, this is what happend today:
Today was the first session of the case at the new court, the sixth district court, to cover the case of Judge Mourad against the 21 websites. The Judge was supported by the Hesbah lawyers of the AbdelKarim case (they are trying to add his blog to the list of banned websites), and our side was supported, by, like many many many people, including the government. Imagine that. The Ministery of telecomunication sent a lawyer that was, for the lack of a better word, excellent. But more on that Later.
Judge Mourad presented his case, which was a whole lot of Bullshit. His first line of argument was that he was being attacked and slanderd by those evil websites, which is something that could happen to any Judge (Hint hint, presiding Judges, hint hint), and that he faces a very organized campaign of attack and slander against him since day one. His case then became that those websites and organizations insult the Quran, God, The President and the country, and some of them are funded by "foreign sources" that give them "bags of dollars" to help them continue to defame the country. He asked the court to demand from the NGO's a detailed account of where their funding comes from and then presented posts and pirnted webpages to support his claims. He also demanded that the court makes the sessions private and not allow publishing anything in the newspapers on the case.
Then our side striked back.
Gamal Eid from HR Info presented the plagarsim document, and made a very elequont case that this is very much a private vendetta thing and an attempt by the Judge to hide his plagarism, and has nothing to do with defending Egypt. He also wanted the Judges to ignore the gag order and continue nmaking this case as public as possible, since the man just publcially defamed them in court.
The Government Lawyer made a very detailed argument that a) It's practically impossible to block a website, since there are proxies that can access it, and b) That it makes no sense to block every website someone defames somebody on, and made the analogy that if a wrietr in a newspaper insults someone in his writing, the newspaper doesn't get shut down and c) that the Judge has no business telling the government which websites to block and which not to, and that if thatd oor gets opend, everyday someone will demand the pulling of a website, and they do not have the time, energy or respources to investigate every single one and block it , given that they know how futile it is.
The Judge then announced that he will make his decisions on the demands known at the end of the session, then came out with a decision to move the next sesion to the 5th of may and to ignore the Judge's demand for a gag order. The thing that makes you very optimistic is that the Judges seemed to really know the case and what's at stake and weren't exactly friendly to the Judge. So there is hope and a very good chance that this case could be very well thrown out.
After the session was over, a small but heated argument started between The Hesbah Lawyer and Alaa and Gamal Eid, given that the Lawyer was a witness at a police report accusing Manal and Alaa of insulting Judge Mourad the last hearing. This is bullshit, because, well, Manal wasn't even there. She had left at 10 am and the scuffle that took place last hearing where the alledged insulting happend, occured around 1:30 pm. The Hesbah Islamic lawyer, with his beard and all of his Koran spouting skills, is a liar and Alaa told him that to his face. Not that it matters of course. The man has no conscience!
It feels weird though to be on the same side of the government. Not sure that I am going to get used to that feeling.
Oh well..
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Thread: jZebra 1.3.5
- 03-27-2012, 07:32 PM #1Senior Member
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jZebra 1.3.5
jZebra is a Java applet that allows you to print barcodes, receipts, and more from a Web page. It sends raw print commands to your printer. It has been tested with Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer, and Opera. It supports parallel, USB, and network printers.
This release fixes some weird behavior when RegEx characters are used with a printer search, adds HTML printing support for LaserJets, InkJets, and DeskJets. It fixes a print margin bug with PDFs. It includes experimental image printing, including base64 or URL printing, JPEG, PNG, etc. for ESCP, PSCP, and ZPLII capable printers.
URL: jzebra - Free browser applet for sending raw commands to your printer - Google Project Hosting


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How to add more information to Yii::app()->user
By default, the expression Yii::app()->user returns a [CWebUser] [application component](http://www.yiiframework.com/doc/guide/basics.application#application-component) which can be used to store information that are closely related with the current user and should be persistent throughout the current user session. [CWebUser] already comes with a [name|CWebUser::name] property that stores the username of the current user. In order to store more information, we need to modify the [identity|IUserIdentity] class used together with [CWebUser]. Each application may have one or several identity classes which are mainly responsible to provide ways of performing user [authentication](http://www.yiiframework.com/doc/guide/topics.auth). Here we use the `UserIdentity` class included in the `testdrive` application as an example, assuming our goal is to add the ID and the last login time of the user to [CWebUser]. We would modify `UserIdentity` as follows, ~~~ [php] class UserIdentity extends CUserIdentity { private $_id; public function authenticate() { $user=User::model()->findByAttributes(array('username'=>$this->username)); if($user===null) $this->errorCode=self::ERROR_USERNAME_INVALID; else if($user->password!==md5($this->password)) $this->errorCode=self::ERROR_PASSWORD_INVALID; else { $this->_id=$user->id; $this->lastLoginTime=$user->lastLoginTime; $this->errorCode=self::ERROR_NONE; } return !$this->errorCode; } public function getId() { return $this->_id; } public function getLastLoginTime() { return $this->getState('lastLoginTime'); } public function setLastLoginTime($value) { return $this->setState('lastLoginTime',$value); } } ~~~ In the above we define a `lastLoginTime` property with getter/setter methods. We also override the `getId()` method to return a private variable. The reason that the `id` property is not defined like `lastLoginTime` is because `id` is a pre-defined property in [CUserIdentity] and is recognized by [CWebUser]. If we need to add more information, we should follow the way of defining `lastLoginTime`. In the `authenticate()` method, we retrieve the user record according to the provided username. We populate the `id` and `lastLoginTime` properties if we find such a user record whose password matches the provided password (meaning successful authentication). That's all we need. Now if we want to retrieve the `id` or `lastLoginTime` information in our code, we can do the following: ~~~ [php] $id=Yii::app()->user->id; $lastLoginTime=Yii::app()->user->getState('lastLoginTime'); // starting from 1.0.3 you can use the following: // $lastLoginTime=Yii::app()->user->lastLoginTime; ~~~


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Get the Magazine That Changed It AllSubscribe
For this month's Playboy "No Filter" series, singer-songwriter Allie X shared her thoughts on life, music and fame.
"I'm no expert on Carl Jung, but I'm connected to his concept of the shadow self. So the X in my name stands for the variables in life. We all have an X. My music is about the journey to finding a sense of wholeness. But I'm not some religious cult leader telling people they won't be whole until they do the same. Being confused is a big part of it. After all, the least complex thing about me is that I'm a white girl who grew up in the suburbs."
On the concept of her second EP, CollXtion II, out this spring
With each album, I'm telling a new chapter of the story of X. The idea is that listeners will start asking questions of themselves and looking for their own truths. Everyone's experience of X will be different. In my first EP, CollXtion I, the girl's shadow split from her real self. It left the two parts missing each other and trying to find a way to reunite. In CollXtion II, the plot moves forward.
On her reputation as a visual artist
I make music that some would call sugary sweet with a metallic understating. Sonically, my music doesn't sound like it looks in my head. To get the feeling fully across, I need to give people the visuals so they get the full aesthetic.
On her influences
Carl Jung will remain an influence of the CollXtion project, but I've also recently become a fan of Roman Polanski, as this sort of figure in exile. I watched this documentary about him while he was under house arrest in Switzerland called Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired. It was an informal film and the filmmaker used a lot of stock footage to tell his story. It made me realize what an extraordinary life Polanski has had, with an extraordinary amount of pain. And yet, he's so daring and intelligent in his filmmaking. I've been inspired by that this year.
On her inner demons
I have a seeming tendency toward conflict. I'm always trying to make my life a little heavier than it needs to be. I don't know if it's for my artistic purpose or if it's just my personality, but I am drawn to creating melancholic situations and feeling a sort of darkness. That's unhealthy. I don't want that on a rational level. One of my ultimate goals in life is to find a sense of peace and quiet and wholeness. That is what the story of X is telling: It's a girl's journey to reunite both sides of herself and to finally be whole.
On her bubbling fame
I will never answer questions about my past or my personal life, but I'm not really famous enough yet to have done so many interviews that anything is painful. I haven't had to deal with obnoxious journalists because people who write about me are doing it because they want to support me.
On the music industry's biggest blind spot
I don't get down about writing stupid pop for other people; in fact, I enjoy it. But stupidity is the worst thing about the music industry right now. There have been times where I've gotten frustrated that what I'm doing isn't obvious enough for some executives. That causes me to get more jaded, but that happens when you get older anyway—no matter what field you're in.
On the music industry's digital era
This industry is an open playing field. The rules are changing. You don't need to be on a major label to get your song heard. It's incredible to watch the rise of [YouTube artist turned recording artist] Troye Sivan, with whom I wrote songs for his debut album Blue Neighbourhood. He started off as a kid YouTube. Ten years ago, that wouldn't have happened. You have all this power and possibility that hasn't existed before.
CollXtion II, Allie X's next release, is out this spring.
Photographer Olivia Jaffe
Stylist Shelly Glascock
Hair & Make Up Sara Cranham


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What does CPE mean in Language Codes (3 Letters)?
This page is about the meanings of the acronym/abbreviation/shorthand CPE in the Regional field in general and in the Language Codes (3 Letters) terminology in particular.
Creoles and Pidgins, English-based (Other)
Find a translation for CPE in other languages:
Select another language:
Discuss this CPE abbreviation with the community:
Use the citation below to add this abbreviation to your bibliography:
"CPE." Abbreviations.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2018. Web. 21 Feb. 2018. <https://www.abbreviations.com/term/33948>.


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Posted by: Jae-Ha Kim
Category: Film
Tags: Dustin Nguyen, foreign film, Truc Charlie Nguyen, Veronica Ngo, Vietnamese
"The Rebel"
By Jae-Ha Kim Amazon.com Janaury 5, 2009 A fast-paced, beautifully executed film, The Rebel works hard at being an epic martial arts picture set in 1920's French-occupied Vietnam. While that may sound like a bit much, director Truc Charlie Nguyen does a formidable job creating a plausible scenario with some awesome fighting sequences. While not […]


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Scotch Oakburn College's Inspiring Commitment to their Timor Leste Partner School
This month, the second group of staff and student representatives from Scotch Oakburn College headed to Timor Leste to visit their partner school, Maliana One High School. We were thrilled that Principal Andrew Barr also joined the group and signed a pledge of commitment and service to the College's partner community.
It was another remarkable journey, filled with highlights and milestones. The first morning in Maliana brought dancing at 5:00am with the students from the Encouragement House, before the group headed out to watch the Tour De Timor bike race through the town. Each day was filled with lots of English language tutoring- working in small groups at the Encouragement House and at Maliana One, and the Scotch Oakburn teachers also ran a session for pre-service teachers at the local university. One evening, the group shared dinner with a local family just outside Maliana, who are campaigning to get a library built in a nearby village. This is an amazing project that we hope we will be able to gain Australian support for.
Following their first visit in 2011, the Scotch Oakburn College community raised an amazing $3,000 for their partner school. The group had the privilege of donating the funds on behalf of the community, which will enable Maliana One to install fresh drinking water for their 1300 students and 55 staff. The group also worked hard to set up an IT system for the Maliana teachers, including an internet connection, 2 computers and 1 printer, as well as contributing educational resources to the school. This support was in direct response to the areas of need identified by Maliana One, and was an extremely exciting journey to be a part of.
Funds from the group's visit and Destination Dreaming were also used to buy materials and pay local builders to construct another student shelter for the new dormitory 'Kookaburra'. The shelters have proved to be a real hit and it was great to see the students (from both Scotch Oakburn and the Encouragement House) assisting the builders to prepare the site and foundation.
At the conclusion of the 10 days, 18-year-old Kathleen said 'I have learnt that giving is a truly fantastic experience and that making a change in one person's life, changes the world for them. I had the best week of my life and as a result will endeavour to share and continue to give for the rest of my life.'
Scotch Oakburn teacher Tania Deguara said, 'once again the experience was incredible. Cultural awareness, global understanding, problem solving and collaboration are essential skills to have to meet the challenges of the 21st Century. A Destination Dreaming program provides an excellent opportunity for young people to learn about and experience the challenges, hopes and possibilities of another culture and in turn learn about the ways they as young people in Australia can shape the world they want to live in.'
A huge thank-you to the entire Scotch Oakburn College community, particularly coordinating teachers Andrew French and Tania Deguara, for another amazing adventure.


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Kiku, who's dancing away to glory for the seventh season of the celebrity dance show 'Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa' these days, is also participating in the competition in his character Palak. (Agencies) Latest Newsfrom Entertainment News Desk
"I have been working in the industry for the past 11 years. I would love to be called an actor, and not comedian," said Kiku.
He is pleased that his character Palak has achieved a unique identity and more so as the makers of 'Jhalak...' want 'Palak' to rock the dance floor with 'her' amusing dance movements.
"The show wants Palak to participate. My character has got its own individuality after the 'Comedy Nights...' People recognize me as Palak. I'm quite happy that Palak has attained an identity," he added.
"Jhalak..." went on air on Colors on June 7 with filmmaker Karan Johar, choreographer-director Remo D'Souza and actress Madhuri Dixit on the judges panel.
Kiku, who 'hasn't learnt dancing, but loves dancing', is practicing with his choreographer Kruti to give neck-to-neck competition to other celebrity contestants, he's also learning different dance forms.
"I have never learnt dancing, but I love dancing. Palak has its three to four signature moves. I cannot showcase just those on the 'Jhalak...' stage since it's a hardcore dance show. The tasks cannot be taken lightly. All the contestants are judged technically. I learn and practice different dance forms with my choreographer Kruti. I'll be practising the Latin form of dance, which I have never done in my life," he said.
Kiku said as the show proceeds, he might get out of Palak's get-up and perform as himself."I may not do the whole show as Palak. With time, I'll get out of Palak's get-up and perform being Kiku," he said.
Kiku is fond of dancing and this is not his first dance show. He was earlier seen in the sixth season of celebrity couple dance show 'Nach Baliye' with his wife Priyanka Sharda, who he says also loves dancing.
'Jhalak...' is Kiku's fourth TV show besides 'Comedy Nights', which he says is his main priority. He is currently playing Akbar in the new show 'Har Mushkil Ka Hal: Akbar-Birbal' and does small stints for 'F.I.R' alongside TV actress Kavita Kaushik. Handling the four shows altogether is a tough task for Kiku and he doesn't get much sleep.
Kiku, who's dancing away to glory for the seventh season of the celebrity dance show 'Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa' these days, is also participating in the competition in his character Palak.
Latest Newsfrom Entertainment News Desk


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Jackett Delighted With City Response
Kenny Jackett has praised the players for their victory over Bristol City, keeping us on track for a promotion push.
Speaking to the London Evening Standard following the 2-1 victory the gaffer said.
'It's great to get a win after two losses, I am very pleased with that. Their keeper was far busier than ours and kept them in it with some excellent saves. We responded very well after the equaliser.'
Commenting on the official site about the game, he also added.
'They played vital role, Liam put in some excellent crosses and Dany showed that he has the capacity to make an impact up front in this Division. The challenge is now for him to repeat that level of performance against Preston.'
Vital Millwall on:
Vital Millwall on:


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My internal calendar has been messed up since the new year began! I have this weird feeling that Spring is upon us - and it's early January! I suppose it could be due to the unseasonably warm weather (high 50's & low 60's) lately, or that the hubby is starting track conditioning already, but whatever the reason, I've been wanting to do spring crafts! Then I found a sweet spring flower button art wall project by Mondocherry on Pinterest that spoke to me! (see below)
|Vase of Spring Flowers
|DIY Wall Design with buttons
by Mondocherry
|Project supplies


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Dear Mr. Goldberg:
Thank you for this excellent book. I read it back when it was first a best seller.
I seem to recall a reference to Peter Jennings admitting to adjusting his news reporting to advance leftist political agenda, but I can't recall or locate specifically where in the book.
Hope you can help me out with a little after sales service, so to speak.
I need to respond to the writing on a message board of a young admirer of his comparing him favorably to the likes of Brinkley, Cronkite, et al.
I mean no disrespect to the late Mr. Jennings, but would like to offer a bit of eye witness historical perspective, with a reliable collaborative quotation.
Thank You,
The Bikemessenger


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It could be said that petroleum products keep America running. Petroleum products like oil and natural gas are the principal sources of energy in the United States and are used in many manufacturing and chemical processes. Petroleum products are primarily transported by pipeline. There are more than a million miles of liquid and natural gas pipeline in this country, ranging in diameter from two inches to four feet. These pipelines bring crude oil and natural gas from production fields to processing plants and refineries – and ultimately to the consumer.
The Liquid Pipeline Field Operations curriculum is a part of NCCER's Pipeliner Training and Assessment Program (PTAP) and covers topics such as Liquid Pipeline General Abnormal Operating Conditions, Pipeline Communications, and Field Quality Control.
Instructor Resource
Liquid Pipeline Field
Operations, Level 1
Performance Tasks,
Performance Profiles
©2011 NCCER, All Rights Reserved.Designed by web design company 352 Media


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The California Report's Scott Shafer tweeted live today from the Proposition 8 hearing at the U.S. District Court for Northern California. The issue before Chief Judge James Ware: Should Vaughn Walker, the judge's predecessor, have disclosed his long-term same-sex relationship before he adjudicated the Proposition 8 case because of potential bias?
Update 1 p.m. KQED's Joshua Johnson debriefed Scott Shafer mid-way through the proceedings, after the attorneys for Proposition 8 had made their case. Shafer reports that the Prop 8 attorneys asserted that their motion to vacate does not relate to Judge Walker's sexual orientation, but rather to his being in a long-term same-sex relationship, which they contend he should have disclosed. Judge Ware then questioned Prop 8 attorney Charles Cooper on whether or not being in a long term relationship meant you necessarily wanted to get married.
The judge, Shafer reports, really homed in on the question of whether sexual orientation is equivalent to race or gender when it comes to issues of judicial bias. Can a black judge or female judge rule impartially on race or sexual assault issues, he asked. At one point, the judge queried Prop 8 attorneys as to whether a female judge who'd been raped would have to disclose that in a case concerning sexual assault. "That was a tough question for Charles Cooper (Prop 8 attorney) to answer," Shafer reports.
Scott Shafer's report on first half of oral arguments
You can also listen to Scott Shafer's NPR report from before the hearing. Here is the motion to vacate filed by Prop 8 lawyers. The argument against Judge Walker starts on page 9. Shafer reported on his Proposition 8 blog Friday that the motion is unlikely to succeed, at least according to the legal experts he spoke with:
Most legal experts I've talked to doubt the motion has much merit. First, it's very late. These kinds of challenges need to be immediate — like during the trial. Second, this is like saying a black judge can't fairly rule on civil rights cases, or female jurists cannot be impartial about gender equity issues. The very premise of our legal system is that justice is blind — that judges set aside their own perspective (as women, minorities, or presumably gay and lesbian judges) and rule based on the law.
You can read about the arguments anti-Prop 8 attorney Ted Boutros made in the second half of the hearing in Scott Shafer's tweets below: