Category Archives: Uncategorized

Apocalypse Emergency: Love’s Wake-Up Call. Book by Michael Adzema released. Order Information.

Sillymickel's Blog of the Obvious Unspoken Things

Well, I “pulled the trigger” on the first one. 3 more books coming in short order.

This book can be ordered now and will be available, is available ….

CreateSpace eStore: Immediately
Amazon.com: 5-7 Business Days
Amazon Europe: 5-7 Business Days
Expanded Distribution channels: 6-8 Weeks
in Kindle it has been available already….

More information coming, as I have it.

Click below to order.

https://www.createspace.com/4455846?ref=1147694&utm_id=6026

ApocEmergFinalCover4Kindle

Apocalypse Emergency—Love’s Wake-Up Call is about a frightening global predicament that everyone seems to be aware of but which few people are giving the attention and seriousness it deserves. Why people would do that and why the media would be inclined to shy away is understandable.

We simply have no way of comprehending the magnitude of what is happening—the end of life on Earth—nor how fast it is occurring—likely in our lifetime—since no living thing on this planet in its multibillion year history has had…

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This Website is Banned As Per The Lebanese Ministry of Telecommunications

A Separate State of Mind | A Blog by Elie Fares

Yesterday afternoon, Twitter user Raja Farah was busy researching late Lebanese politician Habib Pasha Saad when he stumbled on a page that wouldn’t open.

The notification as to why that particular website was unaccessible was a simple prompt: This website is banned as per the Lebanese ministry of Telecommunications. The above screenshot is what he got.

Using modern technology, which seems to have escaped our ministry of telecommunication, I managed to access the website in question. It turned out to be a directory of people: trying to build family trees, connect with relatives you may not know, etc. There was nothing more to it and definitely nothing less since it was pretty bland as it is. And yet, the website was banned. I tried to access it using a different ISP and the website would refuse to load even though my internet connection worked quite well.

katagogi.com

The page Mr. Farah…

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The Embrace #haiku #photography

penned in moon dust

Embrassez moi

sous la pluie

ne jamais cesser

*

never stop

holding me with your heart

catch love’s tears

*

catch love’s tears

save them in a bottle

for a sunny day

The prompt for today’s Carpe Diem is “Embrace.” There are many forms of that gesture I was in a romantic mood so my haiku cascade starts with a French Kiss!!!

Photography: “Rainy Tears” © L. Moon 2013

The famous embrace ” Le_Baiser_de_lHotel_de_Ville” by celebrated French photographer Robert Dosineau

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Stories From The Fringe Freaks – ‘Truker Rally’ UPDATE – ‘Meet The Conspiracy Theorist Behind This Week’s Trucker Rally In D.C.’

The Last Of The Millenniums

zeeda andrews

‘In recent days, a series of planned anti-government rallies involving truckers protesting on the Capital Beltway has produced widespread press coverage and been given a publicity boost by Fox News and Glenn Beck’.

‘Though the organizers and participants have been presented by conservative media as salt-of-the-earth people with constitutional objections to President Obama and members of Congress, the event is actually being organized by a fringe conspiracy theorist’.

‘Zeeda Andrews — a co-organizer of the effort who made October 8 appearances on Fox News and Glenn Beck’s The Blaze to promote the event –‘

  • ‘Apparently thinks that President Obama and Osama bin Laden are somehow the same person’;
  • ‘That Obama is a secret Muslim’;
  • ‘That the Boston bombings were a “false flag”‘;
  • ‘That the CIA murdered Buzzfeed journalist Michael Hastings’;

‘And that the Department of Homeland Security is stockpiling ammunition in order to slaughter Americans’.

‘On her Facebook page, Andrews…

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4 Reasons Why US Shouldn’t Reduce Aid to Egypt

Nervana

I wrote this piece for AlMonitor.  I tried to provide an Egyptian  perspective on the U.S. military aid reduction move

It’s hard to find any written analysis about America and Egypt without mention of the $1.3 billion aid package the United States delivers annually to the Egyptian military. Following the 2011 Arab Spring, the general debate in the United States focused on how America could help the Middle East in its time of upheaval. However, things have changed recently. In Syria, instead of focusing on the overall stability of the Levant, the debate has shrunk to a discussion about President Bashar al-Assad’s chemical weapons. In Egypt, the debate that once concentrated on ways in which the United States could help that country’s emerging democracy has now shifted to military aid.

Last May, despite concerns about President Mohammed Morsi’s leadership abilities, US Secretary of State John Kerry quietly approved a 

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The Lebanese Government Doesn’t Want You To Get iPhones

A Separate State of Mind | A Blog by Elie Fares

iPhone 5C and 5S

It wasn’t enough for Lebanon’s iPhone users had to deal with the device not being officially released by Apple in the country yet with exorbitant prices and no customer service for their device. Starting in June, regulations have made getting their device into the country harder than ever.

The iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C were released recently around the world to massive customer reception. Their prices in Lebanon, however, are about $1100 for the 16GB version of the iPhone 5S and $720 for the 16GB version of the 5C. To compare, the 16GB version of the iPhone 5S in the United States is $649 whilst the same version of the 5C retails at $549.

Many Lebanese, like yours truly, refuse to succumb to these black market prices and a government which couldn’t give a rat’s ass as long as it’s making enough money for the people running it to remain…

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China has 500,000 more internet monitors than soldiers : Shanghaiist

The Chinese government currently employs around two million people to work as the online monitors who censor and detain 16 year olds for \’inaccurate\’ Weibo posts \’maintain social stability\’ on China\’s Internet, outnumbering the country\’s 1.5 million active military personnel, according to a recent report by the Beijing Times via Quartz.

There is now an entire industry and profession dedicated to controlling—or attempting to control—China’s fast-moving social media world, where comments quickly go viral among the country’s 500 million internet users. The People’s Daily, the official mouthpiece of the Chinese communist party is holding a four-day seminar this month where successful students can be certified as “public opinion analysts,” according to the Beijing Times report. Once certified, they’re eligible for jobs with China’s propaganda department, commercial companies, news websites or public relation firms.

Social media monitoring has been turned into a \”money-making machine for local governments,\” Guobin Yang, A professor of sociology and communications at the University of Southern California said.

Earlier, Reuters sat down with four former censors at Sina Weibo who described being underpaid and overworked while working under intense pressure as online monitors.

Most Sina Weibo censors are in their 20s and earn about 3,000 yuan ($490) a month, the former censors said, roughly the same as jobs posted in Tianjin for carpenters or staff in real estate firms. Many took the job after graduating from local universities.

\”People leave because it\’s a stressful dead-end job for most of us,\” said a third former censor. […]

On an average day, about 40 censors work 12-hour shifts. Each worker must sift through at least 3,000 posts an hour, the former censors said.

Last month, China\’s supreme court announced that any online rumor-spreading post \’clicked and viewed more than 5000 times, or reposted 500 times\’ could land its original author up to three years in jail.

via China has 500,000 more internet monitors than soldiers : Shanghaiist.

I Leaf Art

It was working in a prison that drove Solange Al-Heybe “to give life to the walls surrounding those dark spaces” of confinement. “I was always inspired to bring colors into those people’s lives, as a healthy, comfortable way to reach a positive, hopeful vision,” the psychologist and founder of “I Leaf Art” says.

After “giving life” to several walls at Roumieh Prison and Palestinian camps, Heybe took on an UNRWA school at Bourj Barajneh, where “I Leaf Art” was born in November 2012. As its mission statement tenderly declares, it is a “Group of Artists targeting Rigid Dark Spaces; Turning them into Safe, Dreamy ones.”

“What’s most fulfilling is the reaction of the children involved, their amazement and trust,” Heybe explains. Current projects include an elderly Palestinian couple’s home and more UNRWA and public schools. While some of these are supported by the non-profit Sharing is Caring and the Norwegian Refugee Council, Heybe says lack of NGO registration and lack of funding remain challenges. But, she insists, “once we start we can’t stop.”

via I Leaf Art.