Bersalaman yang erat

A doctored photo, but the Queen would sure like it ...

Queen Sokong Bersih

Truths and Lies Uncovered

1Malaise Clown

BERSIH 2.0

'The Culprit!'

Unggun Bersih oleh A. Samad Said

Semakin lara kita didera bara—
kita laungkan juga pesan merdeka:
Demokrasi sebenderang mentari
sehasrat hajat semurni harga diri.

Lama resah kita—demokrasi luka;
lama duka kita—demokrasi lara.
Demokrasi yang angkuh, kita cemuhi;
suara bebas yang utuh, kita idami!

Dua abad lalu Sam Adams berseru:
(di Boston dijirus teh ke laut biru):
Tak diperlu gempita sorak yang gebu,
diperlu hanya unggun api yang syahdu.

Kini menyalalah unggun sakti itu;
kini merebaklah nyala unggun itu.

24—25, 6.11. A. SAMAD SAID

Dr Hafidzi Mohd Noor: Memperingati Nakba

Unlocking the human brain

by studying the brain of worms ...     [NYT]

Scientists have engineered two worm neurons to glow bright green if a neuron 
responds when the worm is exposed to certain chemicals.

By NICHOLAS WADE

In an eighth-floor laboratory overlooking New York’s East River, Cornelia I. Bargmann watches two colleagues manipulate a microscopic roundworm. They have trapped it in a tiny groove on a clear plastic chip, with just its nose sticking into a channel. Pheromones — signaling chemicals produced by other worms — are being pumped through the channel, and the researchers have genetically engineered two neurons in the worm’s head to glow bright green if a neuron responds.

How the West is haunted by Erdogan

An article from the Newsweek magazine:

The Mideast’s Next Dilemma With Turkey flexing its muscles, we may soon face a revived Ottoman Empire. by Niall Ferguson Newsweek  June 19, 2011 Tolga Bozoglu / EPA-Landov On one issue the Republican contenders and the president they wish to replace are in agreement: the United States should reduce its military presence in the Greater Middle East. The preferred arguments are that America cannot afford to be engaged in combat operations in far-flung countries and that such operations are futile anyway. The question no one wants to answer is what will come after the United States departs. The “happily ever after” scenario is that one country after another will embrace Western democracy. The nightmare scenario is either civil war or Islamist revolution. But a third possible outcome is a revived Ottoman Empire.

Gaza: Cradle of Killing — Americans Too

Published on Sunday, June 19, 2011 by CommonDreams.org

by Ray McGovern

Stuffing my backpack before setting out to board “The Audacity of Hope,” the U.S. boat to Gaza, I got a familiar-sounding call from yet another puzzled friend, who said as gently as the words allow, “You know you can get killed, don’t you?” 

I recognize this caution as an expression of genuine concern from friends. From some others — who don’t much care about Gaza’s plight and/or who do not wish us well — the words are phrased somewhat differently: “Aren’t you just asking for it?”

That was the obligatory question/accusation at the end of a recent interview of me that was taped for a BBC-TV special scheduled to air this coming week as we try to break — or at least draw attention to — Israel’s illegal blockade of Gaza and the suffering it inflicts on the people there.

BERSIH 2.0

Selamat menjalankan tugas

The story of the Prophet Muhammad pbuh

A Tale of Three Plumes

A tornado makes its way across Baca county, Colorado, in May 2010.
There are more in store for year 2011. 

A volcano in Eritrea erupted for a third day on Tuesday
 but with reduced intensity,  its ash cloud spreading out 
over Sudan and forcing the cancellation 
of some regional flights.


 

Trees burn in a burnout fire as firefighters battle the Wallow Fire 

in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest, 

Arizona's worst wild fire in history,

 Sunday, June 12, 2011.

The deadly bean sprout

Germany has confirmed that it is the beansprout from a farm in northwest Germany 

which is responsible for the E Coli outbreak that has killed 31 people 

and sickened another 3100.

Gurgaon: City without a local government

Famous Indian Painter MF Hussain dies today

The Cost of Revolution

[Newsweek]

Egypt’s stock market is tanking and its rich are taking their money to Zurich. Will an economic plunge ruin the Arab Spring?

Miguel Medina / AFP-Getty Images

Egypt incurred an estimated $1.7 billion

 in economic losses when crowds 

thronged Tahrir Square.

I recently sat at the desk where John Maynard Keynes wrote The Economic Consequences of the Peace, his coruscating 1919 polemic against the Versailles Treaty. I asked myself what Keynes would be writing if he were with us today. I think the answer is The Economic Consequences of the Arab Spring.

The point of Keynes’s original tract was that the victors of the First World War were bungling the peace. The punitive reparations they were demanding of Germany, he argued, would plunge that country into an economic crisis. After that would come the political backlash.

Forum HAM 29 Mei 2011

PengerusiJK Masyarakat Madani Bandaraya JB,

 Ustaz Yunus Abu Bakar, dengan tenang, 

mendaftarkan peserta

YDP IKRAM Kluang, Tuan Haji Sarif Mohyin mempengerusikan Forum
dengan penuh semangat, menyuntik idea bernas ke dalam
benak peserta

The Grimsvotn volcano erupts

A small plane flies past the volcanic plume.
The Ryjkjavik airport in the capital of Iceland  is closed to all flights.

Tornado hits U.S. Midwest

A scene of destruction in Joplin, Missouri on Monday.  Much of 
this southwestern Missouri city lay in ruins Monday morning 
after a massive tornado, the latest storm to ravage
 the Midwest and South this spring, tore
 through the area, killing at least 
89 people. Officials say they
 expect the death 

toll to climb.

Obama, Osama, dan Bibi

Telah lebih dua minggu Osama mati dibunuh tentera AS.  Dalam serangan ke atas kediaman Osama di Abbottabad, Pakistan, AS turut merampas CPU komputer dan berpuluh-puluh  'thumb drives' yang dijangka mengandungi banyak maklumat yang berharga.  (Osama dikatakan sentiasa menyimpan rekod terperinci segala aktivitinya.)  Tentunya agensi perisikan AS giat membongkar khazanah info dari harta rampasan tersebut.  Kini AS tentu boleh merancang strategi baru yang berkesan dalam peperangannya menentang Al-Qaeda.  Juga, tentunya sumber baru itu menyimbahkan cahaya yang  terang benderang ke atas serangan 911 yang Al-Qaeda lakukan. (Fakta 911 memang kelihatan kabur, menimbulkan banyak persoalan.  Serangan ke atas Afghanistan uang menyusul 911 mempunyai kesan memadamkan kebanyakan bahan bukti.)
Hakikatnya ...

Isu Kristian dan Ibrahim Ali

Setelah mmemerhatikan enonton klip video berikut dan rentetan peristiwa sejak 7 Mei 2011 saya membuat kesimpulan bahaa seluruhnya adalah sebahagian daripada strategi UMNO memenangi semula Selangor dalam PRU13.  Ia bertitik tolak daripada arahan Najib kepada penyokong UMNO untuk ' buat apa saja untuk merampas kembali Selangor'.  Kesimpulan itu konsisten dengan dikap pemimpian kerajaan dan Polis terhadap isu itu.

A Q Khan : ‘I Saved My Country From Nuclear Blackmail’:

The “father” of the Pakistani bomb on why we shouldn’t be afraid.

Pakistan’s nuclear program has always been a target for Western propaganda and false accusations. I would like to make it clear that it was an Indian nuclear explosion in May 1974 that prompted our nuclear program, motivating me to return to Pakistan to help create a credible nuclear deterrent and save my country from Indian nuclear blackmail.

After 15 years in Europe with invaluable experience in enrichment technology, I came to Pakistan in December 1975 and was given the task of producing nuclear weapons by then–prime minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. On Dec. 10, 1984, I informed Gen. Zia-ul-Haq that we could explode a device at a week’s notice, whenever he so desired. We achieved credible nuclear capacity by the second half of the ’80s, and the delivery system was perfected in the early ’90s. For a country that couldn’t produce bicycle chains to have become a nuclear and missile power within a short span—and in the teeth of Western opposition—was quite a feat.

Utusan, Kristian, dan Ibrahim Ali

1.  Sejak 7 Mei 2011 apabila Utusan menerbit berita kononnya wujud konspirasi menjadikan Kristian agama rasmi negara, satu trend yang membimbangkan sedang terjana.

2.  Polis, yang biasanya lebih tahu daripada wartawan, mengambil pendirian seakan-akan ia langsung berada dalam kegelapan berhadapan dengan berita itu.

3.  Utusan pula membuat laporan berdasarkan 'laporan' seorang blogger yang sejak itu telah memadamkan coretannya.

4.  Kini sudah lebih seminggu dan Polis masih menyiasat berita itu.  

5.  Setelah berjumpa dengan pihak Gereja pada hari Khamis 12 Mei 2011, Perdana Menteri Najib menegaskan paderi Kristian tidak ada niat menukar status Islam sebagai 'agama rasmi' negara. [Pertma, rasminya dalam Perlembagaan, Islam 'Agama Persekutuan'; dalam masa kita memerlukan kejituan, nampaknya PM tidak begitu teliti. Kedua, menjadi trend PM mengadakan perjumpaan terus dengan pemimpin agama apabila timbul krisis; sebelum ini berkenaan 'Al-Kitab'.  Apa yang sebenarnya dibincangkan tidak menjadi maklumat awam.]

6.  Buat aseketika, seakan-akan keadaan mula reda.  Tetapi hakikatnya tidak begitu.

7.  Keesokan harinya, Menteri Dalam Negeri, yang bertanggungjawab terhadap Polis, Hishamuddin Hussein berkata ada asas dalam laporan Utusan, walaupun ia hanya menyebut sebagai bukti ada laporan Polis yang mempunyai jalan cerita yang sama.

8.  Berikutnya, Perkasa dengan pemandunya, Ibrahim Ali, pula menambah lagi  ketegangan apabila dia berkata sanggup melancarkan 'pearng salib' terhadap penganut agam Kristian. ['Perang Salib' membawa konotasi yang membakar dan mengguris perasaan orang Islam dan Kristian.  Presiden Bush terpaksa menarik balik ungkapan itu menjelang serangannya terhadap Afghanistan pada tahun 2011.]

9.  Sekali lagi sikap KDN dan Polis amat mencurigakan.  Polis diam seribu bahasa sedangkan jika luahan itu dibuat oleh penganut Kristian atau pembangkang, kemungkinan besar ISA akan digunakan.  

10.  Hisham sekadar berkata 'Ibrahim tidak mewakili semua orang Islam.'  Pernyataan itu sesuai dikeluarkan oleh Mufti atau NGO Islam, tetapi itu bukan pernyataan yang bertanggungjawab daripada Menteri KDN.  

11.  Rakyat Islam berada dalam satu macam kecelaruan.

12.  Rakyat bukan Islam pula berada dalam ketakutan.

13.  Ruh 13 Mei masih menghantui Malaysia.

Arab revolt reaches Israel

Read:  http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2071599,00.html

My comment:  The Arab revolt has come to Israel.  It is time Israel takes stock of its injustices towards, and crimes against, the Arab people. Follow the path of Mubarak and Ben-Ali, and peace shall come your way. Follow the path of Gaddafiand Assad, and further turmoil awaits you.

Now everybody can fly a drone!

[NYT May 15, 2011]

BOULDER, Colo. — A father of five and a professed geek, Chris Anderson, editor in chief of Wired magazine, is always looking for child-friendly activities that could, he hopes, inculcate his children with techie sensibilities.

So one weekend in 2007, Mr. Anderson brought home a model radio-controlled airplane and a Lego Mindstorms robotics kit. Soon he and the children put the two toys together, making the Lego robot fly the plane. The result was a clunky Lego drone.

A College Degree, 55 Years and an Era in the Making

Burlyce Sherrell Logan, 73, at the University of North Texas.
She will graduate Saturday May 15, 2011.

DENTON, Tex. — As she prepares for her commencement at the University of North Texas here on Saturday, Burlyce Sherrell Logan can still hear the words the institution’s president spoke at her freshman welcoming ceremony.

“ ‘There are some people here — you know who you are — that we don’t want here, but the state says can be here,’ ” she recalled the president telling the class of 2,155, clearly referring to her and the dozen other African-Americans among them. “He said we couldn’t eat in the cafeteria, we couldn’t live on campus. They set up a little area, with a little television, for us to be in when we weren’t in class.”

All about banana

Jews against Zionism

Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss of Jews United Against Zionism speaks with a cleric
 during the Global Alliance against Terrorism for a Just Peace conference in Tehran today.

Senyum Bandot 2

The Mississippi swells

The Mississippi is one ofthe three major rivers 
which run thru in the bigger U.S.A.

The Mississippi forms the natural western border 
of the state by the same name



Mississippi River Cresting at Memphis:
The Mississippi has started to cross near record levels on May 9, 2011 
in Memphis downstream of the federal government opened a spillway
 to relieve pressure on the low flood New Orleans

Senyum Bandot

Planetary Alignment

Makanan pantas dan seimbang

Setiap bangsa ada makanan masing-masing yang seimbang dan pantas dari segi penyediaannya.

Orang putih ada sandwic dan burgernya:

atau sadwic seperti poorboy:

Di Timur Tengah mereka ada felafel:

Di Malaysia pula kita ada lontong:

Indahnya dunia ini dengan pelbagai bangsa.

5 Stupid Things Geert Wilders says

Last night, Dutch anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders visited Toronto, where he spoke to both Sun TV’s Ezra Levant and the Canada Christian College. Wilders, for the uninitiated, is the leader of the third-largest political party in the Netherlands and the one-trickiest of one-trick ponies. His ideology can be summed up, essentially, as such: he really, really doesn’t like Muslims. His “Party for [non-Muslim] Freedom” probably has other positions on important issues, but it’s his unfortunate views on Islam that get him invited to international speaking arrangements. So what does Wilders believe? We take a look at five of his most ridiculous statements after the jump.

Harga gula naik lagi

1. Hari ini harga gula naik 20 sen menjadi RM2.30 di semananjung Malaysia.

2. Kenaikan harga gula kali ini adalah yang keempat selepas kerajaan berbuat demikian sebanyak tiga kali pada tahun lalu iaitu pada Januari (20 sen), Julai (25 sen) dan Disember (20 sen).

3. Kenaikan harga gula juga berlaku seminggu setelah harga petrol RON97 naik 20 sen manjadi RM2.90.

4. Akhbar arus perdana melaporkan kenaikan harga tersebut di halaman dalam, bukan sebagai tajuk utama.

5. Bagaimanapun respons rakyat terhadap kenaikan harga gula tidak kedengaran.

6. Apakah makna ini semua?

7. Sejak Najib menjadi PM kenaikan harga sudah menjadi trend.

8. Harga RM2.90 untuk petrol merupakan termahal dalam sejarah.

9. Apabila petrol naik menjadi RM2.70, ramai yang menjangka ia akan tetap di situ sebab itu adalah harga termahal sebelum ini, iaatu semasa Tun Abdullah Badawi menjadi PM tetapi terpaksa menurunkan semula atas desakan rayat. Sementara Pak Lah menaikkan dengan mendadak, Najib menaikkan secara berperingkat.

10. Di bawah Najib, tidak nampak kesudahan kepada kenaikan harga minyak dan gula. Implikasinya barang-barang lain juga akan turut naik harga.

11. Kesunyian yang membingitkan telinga bukan bermakna rakyat gembira dengan kenaikan harga, tetapi mereka sudah kebal dengan trend yang yang cukup menekan.

12. Adakah mereka akan menunggu PRU13 untuk bersuara?

Stealth helicopter used in 'Target Geronimo'

Al Jazeera wins top prize for coverage of Mideast unrest

Columbia University's School of Journalism honors Qatar-based satellite news channel for the 'great service' it has performed through its English-language coverage of regional turmoil.

By Reuters
Qatar-based news channel Al Jazeera's English service will be awarded the highest honor of New York's Columbia School of Journalism for its coverage of unrest in the Middle East, the university said on Wednesday.
The Columbia Journalism Award honors "singular journalism in the public interest." The Columbia School of Journalism is also home to the The Pulitzer Prize Board, which annually honors journalism, books, drama and poetry.