MattSh
MattSh's JournalThe Christmas Adventures of Mog the Cat
US voters support bombing Aladdin's Agrabah - Al Jazeera English
Bombing Agrabah
Some 30 percent of US Republican primary voters and 19 percent of Democrats who said they would support bombing Agrabah, a fictional nation in Disney's Aladdin animation feature, are sent up on social media for their ignorance.
"Welcome to Agrabah, a city of mystery, of enchantment, and the finest merchandise this side of the river Jordan, on sale today. Come on down". Those are the words that open the Disney animation Aladdin, a feature made in the early nineties. Agrabah, a fictional land, has enjoyed renewed attention as a national survey showed that a not insignificant number of people would support its bombing.
More, more, more!
-----> http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/12/satire-voters-support-bombing-aladdin-agrabah-151219063937814.html
Need Hope? Then you need to click this...
After a year of news stories that produced photos that can often be difficult or disturbing to view, I thought I’d take the time to compose an essay of uplifting images from the past year. The following are images of volunteers at work, expressions of love and compassion, families and friends at play, and assistance being given to those in need. Alternate titles considered were “The Good Side of 2015,” “The Better Angels of Our Nature,” or simply “News Photos That Won't Make You Despair for the Fate of Humanity.” One of my favorite quotes is from Mr. Rogers, who once said that when he was young and saw scary things in the news, “My mother would say to me ‘look for the helpers—you will always find people who are helping.’ To this day, I remember my mother's words and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers—so many caring people in this world."
A Danish policeman plays a guessing game with a migrant girl at the E45 freeway north of Padborg, Denmark, on September 9, 2015. Many migrants, mainly from Syria and Iraq, were crossing through Denmark, trying to reach Sweden to seek asylum there. The police had closed the freeway for security reasons. #
Wish they would use the term refugee, not migrant though...
Brooke and Cameron Rigby play Christmas music on the street in honor of a terminally-ill boy named Evan Leversage, with all proceeds being donated to the Leversage family in St. George, Ontario, Canada, on October 24, 2015. Evan had been living with inoperable brain cancer since he was two years old. His family organized an early Christmas celebration for him, with a full parade, in case seven-year-old Evan did not live to celebrate his last Christmas day on the traditional date of December 25. Evan passed away on December 6, about one month after his early Christmas. #
Boys walk home for lunch from school in the village of Kogelo, west of Kenya's capital Nairobi, on July 16, 2015. #
http://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2015/12/hopeful-images-from-2015/420066/ (Pic heavy)
Dogs That Immediately Regretted Their Poor Life Choices
Many more here! -----> http://imgur.com/a/0blzT
In what country are 70% of science and engineering students women?
Hint: It's not the USA.
Damn those Muslims. They're terrorizing men, who should have a permanent guarantee to this type of work...
⬅︎ ⬅︎ ⬅︎ for the sarcastically challenged...
Set To Take Over Tech: 70% Of Iran's Science And Engineering Students Are Women - Forbes
70% of of Iran’s science and engineering students are women, and in a small, but promising community of startups, they’re being encouraged to play an even bigger role.
The common myth about women in Iran is that they are seen, but not heard, that they’re not permitted to drive, that they are second-class citizens, and that entrepreneurship and positions of power are out of reach. These notions are wrong. For years, women in Iran have owned and managed businesses, many of them in male dominant industries like oil and gas, construction, mining, and now tech. And now, with such a high number graduating with degrees in science and engineering, there’s a push to get women more involved in Iran’s blossoming startup scene.
20-year old Ghonche Tavoosi recently practiced pitching her startup Lendem, to a group of VC’s, including Dave McClure of 500 Startups at iBridges, a conference supporting Iran’s tech community. Through Lendem’s platform, friends, colleagues and neighbors lend each other stuff, like phone charging cables, and other items. The website keeps track of who’s got what, reminds people to give items back, and guarantees their return. Tavoosi pitched well. McClure was impressed, though he won’t make any investments in Iran until sanctions are lifted.
Entrepreneur Ghonche Tavoosi (Photo courtesy of subject)
In an industry just starting to emerge, women are at the forefront, even if small in numbers. Two sisters, Reyaneh and Bahareh Vahidian, helped organize the first Startup Weekend for Women in Tehran encouraging female entrepreneurs to share ideas and network. Iran’s young women are considered trailblazers in the tech sector, but generations have come before them, including pioneers like Behnaz Aria.
-----> http://www.forbes.com/sites/amyguttman/2015/12/09/set-to-take-over-tech-70-of-irans-science-and-engineering-students-are-women/
Stolen Dutch masterpieces held for ransom by far-right Ukrainian militants with links to government
A collection of Dutch 17th century art stolen a decade ago was found in a villa in east Ukraine and offered for sale by a far-right militia, a museum has claimed.
The 24 paintings and silver artefacts were valued at €10m ($10.8m; £7m) when they were stolen from the Welfries Museum in Hoorn a decade ago. Two art detectives hired by the museum claim they were offered for sale for €5m by a member of a far-right militant with alleged ties to an MP and former senior security official.
.....
"There are very strong signs that the paintings are now being offered to other parties or have even been sold," Geerdink said. "Given the paintings' fragile condition, it is already one minute to midnight, or even one past midnight."
Art detective Alex Omhoff told IBTimes UK: "All efforts to get the paintings back were made. Dutch politicians were involved. Our foreign minister asked the Ukrainian president for help and we tried by negotiating with these people to get the art back, but unfortunately money is more important to them than historically important pieces of art."
-----> http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/stolen-dutch-masterpieces-offered-sale-by-ukrainian-far-right-militia-1532191
Among the pieces stolen in the 2005 heist was Jan Claesz Schilderij's
Rietschoof, Gezicht op het Oostereiland - Westfries museum
20 brilliant photographs which hugely impressed us in 2015
Sometimes, you see a photograph which summons a whole storm of emotions inside. Often this is down to a perfectly chosen angle or a shot taken at just the right moment. Sometimes, it’s a shot of a stunning landscape or an awe-inspiring natural phenomenon. But in other cases, it can be something as simple as the chronicling of our everyday lives from all around the world.
Here, we’ve gathered together 20 of the most brilliant photographs we’ve seen this year. Some are amusing, some exciting, and others simply wonderful.
-----> http://brightside.me/article/20-brilliant-photographs-which-hugely-impressed-us-in-2015-54655/
Obligatory cute animal photo!
20 brilliant photographs which hugely impressed us in 2015
Sometimes, you see a photograph which summons a whole storm of emotions inside. Often this is down to a perfectly chosen angle or a shot taken at just the right moment. Sometimes, it’s a shot of a stunning landscape or an awe-inspiring natural phenomenon. But in other cases, it can be something as simple as the chronicling of our everyday lives from all around the world.
Here, we’ve gathered together 20 of the most brilliant photographs we’ve seen this year. Some are amusing, some exciting, and others simply wonderful.
-----> http://brightside.me/article/20-brilliant-photographs-which-hugely-impressed-us-in-2015-54655/
Obligatory cute animal photo!
How Uncle Sam Seeded Global Jihad & Cultivates It to This Day
They Sow the Cyclone — We Reap the Blowback — Essays by Dan Sanchez — Medium“For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind” — Hosea 8 : 7
It may be surprising to hear, but it is a plain historical fact that modern international jihad originated as an instrument of US foreign policy. The “great menace of our era” was built up by the CIA to wage a proxy war against the Soviets.
A 1973 coup in Afghanistan installed a new secular government that, while not fully communist, was Soviet-leaning. That was a capital offense from the perspective of America’s Cold War national security state, at the time headed by Henry Kissinger.
Conveniently for Kissinger, the dirt poor country was sandwiched between two US client states: Pakistan to the east and Iran (then still ruled by the CIA-installed Shah) to the west. Immediately after the coup, the CIA and the clandestine security agencies of Pakistan (ISI) and Iran (SAVAK) began regime change operations in Afghanistan, orchestrating and sponsoring Islamic fundamentalist insurrections and coup attempts.
.....
The Syrian Jihad, like the Afghan Jihad, was preceded by less direct and lower grade subversion using militant Islamists. In the Afghan prelude, America’s dirty work was done by Pakistan and Iran. In the Syrian prelude, it was done by the Saudis and lesser Gulf Sheikdoms, who with US approval, began sponsoring anti-Assad Salafist militias in neighboring Lebanon as early as 2006.
There were voices even among the Saudis who, like Eqbal Ahmad, darkly forebode blowback from dealing with such devils. One former Saudi diplomat warned:
“Salafis are sick and hateful, and I’m very much against the idea of flirting with them. They hate the Shiites, but they hate Americans more. If you try to outsmart them, they will outsmart us. It will be ugly.”
-----> https://medium.com/dan-sanchez/they-sow-the-cyclone-we-reap-the-blowback-dc938c9075a3#.d4ng4rva1
Profile Information
Gender: Do not displayHome country: USA
Current location: Former USSR
Member since: Wed Oct 25, 2006, 02:04 PM
Number of posts: 3,714
