Dido

Ummah

The abscence of an apparent reason for the terrorism of the Boston marathon may

only be an issue in America, and the developed world. Indeed, the ‘global South’

i.e. everybody else, might well be working from other definitions of what is going on.

Here is a passage from a 2005 anthropological work on Terrorism:

Tomorrow’s globalization (be it of commerce or violence) will not be American. 

On the example of the great empires of the past, the United States will at least have 

the dubious merit of having enabled larger forms of collective association, probably less around 

the idea of nation than that of a community of new believers in a global and technological

world. Western Democraties are yet too enamored of the concepts of nation and 

nationalism which have forged their history to understand the transnational unity of 

the Muslim world. The Ummah, that is, the community of believers ( over one billion

people in the world) transcends race and nation and Arabs are within it a minority.

From: Martin Kalulambi Pongo et Tristan Landry, Terrorisme international et marchés de

violence, Presses de l’université Laval, 2005.

Translation: doxa-louise

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/tom-parfitt/10024185/Boston-bombs-the-Canadian-boxer-and-the-terror-recruiter-who-led-Tsarnaev-on-path-to-jihad.html

D-Scene

Message

I cannot help but feel that Islam is being sadly - and ironically -

misrepresented in all this. For what is (was) the message of the Prophet.

Islam takes up the deistic message of surrounding religions and presents

its own version of submission. This involves a struggle within oneself, a life

hygiene of prayer, and a duty to others. I would expect that, at the time of its

inception, this was a salutary way of expressing the values of civilization in a portable

manner. Portable to whom: to the groups and tribes not on board.

Spread the message it did, all over the globe. 1300 years later, the work goes on

but not without an accumulation of ironies and reversals along the way.

Jihad indeed.

Caucase

European geography considers North and South Caucasus as forming the boundary
between Europe and Asia.

source: French language Wikipedia.

Sweather Day

Chariot

see: Kurgan Hypothesis, Wikipedia.

Brandy Baby!

source: Food and Wine

Sandwich Day

In the spirit of Grilled Cheese Day, the Web event, dinner chez doxa-louise consisted of a toasted Velveeta cheese and Golden apple sandwich, with oven fries, and a garden salad (it's actually snowing here; don't make me cry) enriched with grapes and almonds and a Hellmann's mayo dressing. With milk (dairy no 3 for the day). It was all actually different and rather good. The idea for the sandwich - which I got on the Web - was from a restaurant chef who uses exotic health bread with the finest cheddar and cooks the sandwich a second time (20 minutes in the oven) to soften the apple. Which just goes to show there sometimes really is a needy audience for black hole Web programming.

Burger Bar

I need to get out more: the following from the menu at Burger Bar, Las Vegas.
If the photo is food pornography (glossy, high color. close-up...etc), the actual
presentation is food art.

 

source reference: MSN, Over-the-Top Burgers.                                                                                   

Ottoman Empire

It is a commonplace of historical research in the West

that world dominance shifted from Asia to Europe beginning in 1500 AD.

Two 'revolutions' are cited here: the dogged desire to open a sea route for

commerce toward India and China, in part because of monopoly condition over

land routes. This eventually led to the discover of America with

uncalculable consequences. The other was the capacity within Europe to embrace a scientific

world view, leading to the industrial model of organization. Interestingly,

this unity was an outgrowth of Christianity. Russia followed suit.

The concepts of 'Europe' and 'Asia' are themselves historical accidents. Herodotus

used Asia to refer to Asia minor and everything to the East. The etymology is Akkadian;

Asia is sun rise, and Europe sunset.

Asia saw the birth of much knowledge and many inventions: indeed this was its

attractiveness. Even vaccination, the first step to modern medecine, was first practiced in

China. It was a matter of luck: discovering America. And the alledged decadence of the East

ie the eventual elaboration of static social models, and the intolerance that these engender.

 

Asia_Regions

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chickens

Why did the chicken study mathematics? Click below to find out!

http://www.jokesnjokes.net/funny.jokes.amusing.humor.laughs/Science/science.mathematic.001.htm