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Why Are You Here?

Robert Lanza, M.D.

Robert Lanza, M.D.

Scientist, Theoretician

Posted: November 12, 2010 08:48 AM

Why Are You Here? A New Theory May Hold the Missing Piece

Biocentrism, a new theory of everything, provides the missing piece.

Although classical evolution does an excellent job of helping us
understand the past, it fails to capture the driving force. Evolution
needs to add the observer to the equation. Indeed, Niels Bohr, the great
Nobel physicist, said, “When we measure something we are forcing an
undetermined, undefined world to assume an experimental value. We are
not ‘measuring’ the world, we are creating it.” The evolutionists are
trying to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. They think we, the
observer, are a mindless accident, debris left over from an explosion
that appeared out of nowhere one day.

Cosmologists propose that the universe was until recently a lifeless

collection of particles bouncing against each other. It’s presented as a
watch that somehow wound itself up, and that will unwind in a
semi-predictable way. But they’ve shunted a critical component of the
cosmos out of the way because they don’t know what to do with it. This
component, consciousness, isn’t a small item. It’s an utter mystery,
which we think has somehow arisen from molecules and goo.

How did inert, random bits of carbon ever morph into that Japanese guy who always wins the hot-dog-eating contest? In short, attempts to explain the nature of the universe, its

origins, and what’s really going on require an understanding of how the
observer, our presence, plays a role. According to the current paradigm,
the universe, and the laws of nature themselves, just popped out of
nothingness. The story goes something like this: From the Big Bang until
the present time, we’ve been incredibly lucky. This good fortune
started from the moment of creation; if the Big Bang had been
one-part-in-a-million more powerful, the cosmos would have rushed out
too fast for the galaxies and stars to have developed. If the
gravitational force were decreased by a hair, stars (including the Sun)
wouldn’t have ignited. There are over 200 physical parameters like this
that could have any value but happen to be exactly right for us to be
here. Tweak any of them and you never existed.

But our luck didn’t stop with the laws, forces, and constants of the universe. Sahelanthropus tchadensis, Orrorin tugenensis, Ardipithecus ramidus, Australopithecus anamensis, A. afarensis, Kenyanthropus platyops, A. africanus, A. garhi, A. sediba, A. aethiopicus, A. robustus, A. boisei, Homo habilis, H. georgicus, and H. erectus

— among other hominid species — all went extinct. Even the
Neanderthals went extinct. But alas, not us! Indeed, we happen to be the
only species of Hominina that made it.

Our special luck continues in the present time. Asteroids could

strike Earth at any time, producing a surface-charring blast of heat,
followed by years of dust that would freeze and/or starve us to death.
Nearby stars could go supernova, their energy destroying the ozone layer
and sterilizing the Earth with radiation. And a supervolcano could
shroud the Earth in dust. These are just a few (out of billions) of
things that could go wrong.

The story of evolution reads just like “The Story of the Three

Bears,” In the nursery tale, a little girl named Goldilocks enters a
home occupied by three bears and tries different bowls of porridge; some
are too hot, some are too cold. She also tries different chairs and
beds, and every time, the third is “just right.” For 13.7 billion years
we, too, have had chronic good luck. Virtually everything has been “just
right.”

It’s a fascinating story to tell children, but claiming that it’s all

a “dumb” accident is no more helpful than saying “God did it.” Loren
Eiseley, the great naturalist, once said that scientists “have not
always been able to see that an old theory, given a hairsbreadth twist,
might open an entirely new vista to the human reason.” The theory of
evolution turns out to be the perfect case in hand. Amazingly, it all
makes sense if you assume that the Big Bang is the end of the chain of physical causality, not the beginning.

Indeed, according to biocentrism, it’s us, the observer, who create

space and time (which is the reason you’re here now). Consider
everything you see around you right now. Language and custom say it all
lies outside us in the external world. Yet you can’t see anything
through the vault of bone that surrounds your brain. Your eyes aren’t
just portals to the world. In fact, everything you experience, including
your body, is part of an active process occurring in your mind. Space
and time are simply the mind’s tools for putting it all together.

Theoretical physicists Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow recently stated:There is no way to remove the observer — us — from our perceptions of the world … In classical physics, the past is assumed to exist as a

definite series of events, but according to quantum physics, the past,
like the future, is indefinite and exists only as a spectrum of
possibilities.”

If we, the observer, collapse these possibilities (that is, the past

and future) then where does that leave evolutionary theory, as described
in our schoolbooks? Until the present is determined, how can there be a
past? The past begins with the observer, us, not the other way around
as we’ve been taught.

The observer is the first cause, the vital force that collapses not

only the present but the cascade of past spatio-temporal events we call
evolution. “If, instead of identifying ourselves with the work,” said
Ralph Waldo Emerson, “we feel that the soul of the workman streams
through us, we shall find the peace of the morning dwelling first in our
hearts, and the fathomless powers of gravity and chemistry, and, over
them, of life, pre-existing within us in their highest form.”

“Biocentrism” (co-authored with astronomer Bob Berman) lays out Lanza’s theory of everything.

Yusuf Islam in Kuala Lumpur

Alhamdulillah, inshaAllah, there will be a concert by Yusuf Islam or formerly known as Cat Stevens in Kuala Lumpur next year.

Fudzail is planning and organizing this event of the year, announcement soon by Yusuf in Kuala Lumpur. It will be one of concerts as part of KL as an entertainment hub.

Born Steven Demetre Georgiou, the son of a Greek Cypriot restaurant owner and Swedish mother, he grew up in a flat above the family shop in London’s theatre district, situated at the northernmost junction of Shaftesbury Avenue and New Oxford Street, near the heart of the West End. The back streets and alleyways of this cosmopolitan district became Steven’s concrete playground and a place of learning. Full of bright lights, famous theatres and cinemas, strip clubs and musical instrument stores, this busy part of the city throbbed with excitement and entertainment. At night, musicals would echo from Drury Lane just across the road and drift up through his window; he would oftentimes be found hanging around in coffee bars, where the latest hit singles were continuously playing. 


Early on, Steven developed a natural love for art and music. At 15, he managed to get his father to buy him a guitar for £8. He began penning his own songs almost immediately, and it soon became clear to his family and friends that he had a unique talent to paint as well as sing. That talent separated him from the rest. He didn’t have many friends, so he became something of a loner. On most evenings, he would climb high up to the rooftops and gaze at the noisy city below; allowing for moments of peaceful and elevated detachment under the capital’s night sky. As a child, he was naturally inquisitive (“I used to look up into the heavens and wonder: where does the night end?”). 

While studying at Hammersmith Art College, he was auditioned by Mike Hurst, a record producer formerly of the pop-folk trio the Springfields. Hurst was about to emigrate to America when he decided to record this handsome young discovery. The results, “I Love My Dog” and “Portobello Road,” impressed Decca Records so much that the young artist—now to be known as Cat Stevens—was selected to launch the new Deram label, which also signed new British talent such as David Bowie and the Moody Blues. 

Power-played by pirate radio stations, in November 1966 “I Love My Dog” reached No. 28 on the U.K. charts. His next hit, “Matthew and Son,” went to No. 2, stopping behind the Monkees’ “I’m a Believer.” Stevens’ earnings jumped from 2 pounds a week to 300 pounds per night. At nineteen, he was getting a reputation for Top Ten hits. His song “I’m Gonna Get Me a Gun” reached number six. He was also a popular songwriter: the Tremeloes covered “Here Comes My Baby” which went to No. 4, and P.P. Arnold, a former Ikette from the Ike and Tina Turner Revue, cut a version of “The First Cut Is The Deepest” which reached No. 18. Many years later Rod Stewart made the song a worldwide smash hit. 

Clean cut, in sharp, black velvet Carnaby Street suits, Stevens was a prime sixties recording artist at a time when the music business was in its infancy and singers weren’t heavily targeted to any one audience. He regularly appeared on what would have been highly unusual tours by today’s standards—alongside the Walker Brothers, Engelbert Humperdinck and the Jimi Hendrix Experience! 

As Stevens’ debut album Matthew and Son climbed to No. 7 in 1967, he was now keeping to a rigorous promotion schedule of live performances, television appearances and record store signings and was regularly locked away in the studio. With a producer and musical director, it was not unusual to record three tracks in one session. 

While his late-sixties material had a distinctive orchestrated sound—easy to remember, odd lyrics, quirky and infectious—Stevens preferred sitting cross-legged and relaxed on the floor, and plucking his guitar like the folk-blues artists he admired and listened to at his favourite Soho hang-out, Les Cousins, a dank basement club where Paul Simon and Al Stewart occasionally played. These were the early days of a new tradition that used folk idioms in melodic acoustic ballads, the roots of the seventies singer-songwriter movement, which would produce performers like James Taylor and Joni Mitchell. 

Despite the growing underground popularity of acoustic music, all of Stevens’ attempts to change his style were met with resistance by his record company. The young singer was caught in a sound-trap. Cat Stevens soon found that he didn’t like personal appearances either. This frustration, added to the whirlwind rounds of double gigs, smoking thirty cigarettes a day, drinking and late nights, finally took its toll. In the winter of 1968 he caught a cold that grew progressively worse. Eventually he was hospitalised with tuberculosis and a collapsed lung. 

The nearly yearlong convalescence probably saved his life. This was his chance for peace and meditation. Stevens remembered, “To go from the show business environment and find you are in hospital, getting injections day in and day out, and people around you are dying, it certainly changes your perspective. I got down to thinking about myself. It seemed almost as if I had my eyes shut.” When he did emerge, he was a chastened and bearded young man. 

The most profound transformation, however, was musical. He began to write a string of deeply inspiring songs. Many of the unreleased demos he recorded away from the spotlight during this experimental period like “I’ve Got A Thing About Seeing My Grandson Grow Old

Yusuf Islam in Kuala Lumpur

Alhamdulillah, inshaAllah, there will be a concert by Yusuf Islam or formerly known as Cat Stevens in Kuala Lumpur next year.

Fudzail is planning and organizing this event of the year, announcement soon by Yusuf in Kuala Lumpur. It will be one of concerts as part of KL as an entertainment hub.

Born Steven Demetre Georgiou, the son of a Greek Cypriot restaurant owner and Swedish mother, he grew up in a flat above the family shop in London’s theatre district, situated at the northernmost junction of Shaftesbury Avenue and New Oxford Street, near the heart of the West End. The back streets and alleyways of this cosmopolitan district became Steven’s concrete playground and a place of learning. Full of bright lights, famous theatres and cinemas, strip clubs and musical instrument stores, this busy part of the city throbbed with excitement and entertainment. At night, musicals would echo from Drury Lane just across the road and drift up through his window; he would oftentimes be found hanging around in coffee bars, where the latest hit singles were continuously playing. 


Early on, Steven developed a natural love for art and music. At 15, he managed to get his father to buy him a guitar for £8. He began penning his own songs almost immediately, and it soon became clear to his family and friends that he had a unique talent to paint as well as sing. That talent separated him from the rest. He didn’t have many friends, so he became something of a loner. On most evenings, he would climb high up to the rooftops and gaze at the noisy city below; allowing for moments of peaceful and elevated detachment under the capital’s night sky. As a child, he was naturally inquisitive (“I used to look up into the heavens and wonder: where does the night end?”). 

While studying at Hammersmith Art College, he was auditioned by Mike Hurst, a record producer formerly of the pop-folk trio the Springfields. Hurst was about to emigrate to America when he decided to record this handsome young discovery. The results, “I Love My Dog” and “Portobello Road,” impressed Decca Records so much that the young artist—now to be known as Cat Stevens—was selected to launch the new Deram label, which also signed new British talent such as David Bowie and the Moody Blues. 

Power-played by pirate radio stations, in November 1966 “I Love My Dog” reached No. 28 on the U.K. charts. His next hit, “Matthew and Son,” went to No. 2, stopping behind the Monkees’ “I’m a Believer.” Stevens’ earnings jumped from 2 pounds a week to 300 pounds per night. At nineteen, he was getting a reputation for Top Ten hits. His song “I’m Gonna Get Me a Gun” reached number six. He was also a popular songwriter: the Tremeloes covered “Here Comes My Baby” which went to No. 4, and P.P. Arnold, a former Ikette from the Ike and Tina Turner Revue, cut a version of “The First Cut Is The Deepest” which reached No. 18. Many years later Rod Stewart made the song a worldwide smash hit. 

Clean cut, in sharp, black velvet Carnaby Street suits, Stevens was a prime sixties recording artist at a time when the music business was in its infancy and singers weren’t heavily targeted to any one audience. He regularly appeared on what would have been highly unusual tours by today’s standards—alongside the Walker Brothers, Engelbert Humperdinck and the Jimi Hendrix Experience! 

As Stevens’ debut album Matthew and Son climbed to No. 7 in 1967, he was now keeping to a rigorous promotion schedule of live performances, television appearances and record store signings and was regularly locked away in the studio. With a producer and musical director, it was not unusual to record three tracks in one session. 

While his late-sixties material had a distinctive orchestrated sound—easy to remember, odd lyrics, quirky and infectious—Stevens preferred sitting cross-legged and relaxed on the floor, and plucking his guitar like the folk-blues artists he admired and listened to at his favourite Soho hang-out, Les Cousins, a dank basement club where Paul Simon and Al Stewart occasionally played. These were the early days of a new tradition that used folk idioms in melodic acoustic ballads, the roots of the seventies singer-songwriter movement, which would produce performers like James Taylor and Joni Mitchell. 

Despite the growing underground popularity of acoustic music, all of Stevens’ attempts to change his style were met with resistance by his record company. The young singer was caught in a sound-trap. Cat Stevens soon found that he didn’t like personal appearances either. This frustration, added to the whirlwind rounds of double gigs, smoking thirty cigarettes a day, drinking and late nights, finally took its toll. In the winter of 1968 he caught a cold that grew progressively worse. Eventually he was hospitalised with tuberculosis and a collapsed lung. 

The nearly yearlong convalescence probably saved his life. This was his chance for peace and meditation. Stevens remembered, “To go from the show business environment and find you are in hospital, getting injections day in and day out, and people around you are dying, it certainly changes your perspective. I got down to thinking about myself. It seemed almost as if I had my eyes shut.” When he did emerge, he was a chastened and bearded young man. 

The most profound transformation, however, was musical. He began to write a string of deeply inspiring songs. Many of the unreleased demos he recorded away from the spotlight during this experimental period like “I’ve Got A Thing About Seeing My Grandson Grow Old

SEO Secrets (2)

SEO Secrets

There is no greater force driving your Search Engine Position than your content. If the content on your site is unique and informative, in no time, your site ranking for keywords related to that content steadily increases to top position.

 

Speed of this rise is proportional to the particular search engine’s crawling rate.

 

  • Google Bot accesses your site on the average twice per week
  • Yahoo Bot accesses your site on the average twice per week
  • Baidu Bot (Chinese) accesses your site on the average thrice per week
  • Alexa Bot accesses your site on the average once per week
  • Bing Bot (Microsoft) accesses your site on the average once per week

 

 

To allow all search bots entry to all pages in your site, create a text file named “robots.txt” using notepad.exe and upload it to your site root. (Directory “public_html” if your site is hosted on a linux server and “wwwroot” if it is on a windows server)

 

The file should have just these two lines shown below the stars.

User-agent: *

Allow: /

 

 

If you would like to restrict the bot from accessing files in specific directories, add a line

Disallow: /directory full path/

 

Where “directory full path” gives the full path of the directory you want to hide from visitors. (Don’t forget the colon!)

You nay also allow and disallow specific bots by writing their name instead of “*” in the code line

User-agent: *

 

What you should do NOW!!

  1. Create a robots.txt and upload it to your site.
  2. Submit your site to Google at http://www.google.com/addurl.html. Gmail ID not required.
  3. Visit Google Webmaster Tools at http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/. Gmail ID required.
  4. Create a sitemap and submit it to Google Webmaster Tools at http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/. Gmail ID required.

 

 

Sitemaps help the search bots index pages that are not otherwise visible to them. A sample sitemap for Google is given below.

 

 

<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”UTF-8″?>

<urlset xmlns=”http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9″

        xmlns:image=”http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap-image/1.1″

        xmlns:video=”http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap-video/1.1″>

  <url>

    <loc>http://www.example.com/foo.html</loc>

    <image:image>

       <image:loc>http://example.com/image.jpg</image:loc>

    </image:image>

    <video:video>    

      <video:content_loc>http://www.example.com/video123.flv</video:content_loc>

      <video:player_loc allow_embed=”yes” autoplay=”ap=1″>http://www.example.com/videoplayer.swf?video=123</video:player_loc>

      <video:thumbnail_loc>http://www.example.com/thumbs/123.jpg</video:thumbnail_loc>

      <video:title>Grilling steaks for summer</video:title> 

      <video:description>Get perfectly done steaks every time</video:description>

    </video:video>

  </url>

</urlset>

 

And that was a single entry for a URL that includes an image and a video!!!

 

Don’t worry if this looks a bit complex. I can create sitemaps for your site content in a few hours and send it to you by email (if you want).

 

What NOT to do:

 

If you want to control what Google does, you’re going to have to gain a profound understanding of the algorithms they use and keep up to date as the code changes. You’re contending with some of the shrewdest computer scientists in the world.

 

Just for fun I’ve included links to Google’s own PageRank algorithm by Sergei Brin & Lawrence Page and the Hilltop algorithm by Krishna Bharat to get you started. Be warned that if you’re caught you’ll be black-listed by Google and will have to crate a new website. But it may be fun reading if you are a hacker.

Lauren Booth embraces Islam

Lauren Booth embraces Islam
Sun Oct 24, 2010 2:6PM
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Lauren Booth
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s sister-in-law has embraced Islam after visiting the holy shrine of Fatima al-Masoumeh (AS) in Iran’s holy city of Qom.

“It was a Tuesday evening and I sat down and felt this shot of spiritual morphine, just absolute bliss and joy,” Broadcaster and journalist Lauren Booth told The Mail. 

The 43-year-old half-sister of Cherie Blair now wears hijab whenever she leaves her home, prays five times a day and visits her local mosque. 

“Now I don’t eat pork and I read the Qur’an every day. I’m on page 60. I also haven’t had a drink in 45 days, the longest period in 25 years,” she added. 

“The strange thing is that since I decided to convert I haven’t wanted to touch alcohol, and I was someone who craved a glass of wine or two at the end of a day.” 

Booth, who works for Iran’s English-language Press TV news network, decided to embrace Islam six weeks ago and converted immediately after she returned to Britain. 

Booth did not refuse the possibility of wearing a burqa and said, ‘Who knows where my spiritual journey will take me?’ 

Before her holy experience in Iran, Booth had spent considerable time working in Palestine and was “always impressed with the strength and comfort it [Islam] gave.” 

She travelled to Gaza in August 2008 along with 46 other activists to highlight Israel’s blockade of the territory and was subsequently refused entry into both Israel and Egypt. 

In a public letter she wrote to Tony Blair during her visit to Iran last month, Booth expressed hope that the former Labor Party politician would change his presumptions about Islam. 

“Your world view is that Muslims are mad, bad, dangerous to know,” she wrote in her letter, asking Blair to acknowledge the International Quds Day, an annual event on the last Friday of the holy month of Ramadan when Muslims express solidarity with the Palestinian people and protest Israel’s occupation of Al-Quds (Jerusalem). 

“Here in Iran they feel proud to suffer in order to express solidarity with the people of Palestine,” she said. 

“It’s kind of like the way you express solidarity with America only without illegal chemical weapons and a million civilian deaths.” 

Booth, who had moved to France with her husband and two daughters in 2004, returned to Britain after her husband suffered a sever brain injury following a motorcycle accident in April 2009. 

TE/HGH/MMN

Conservatives Attack Islamic Superheroes

99 Problems But a Cape Ain’t One:

Superhero fans, especially those old enough to have opinions, are often divided by their views on the appropriateness of real-world politics in their escapist literature. While many of us regard Dennis O’Neil and Neil Adams’ socially relevant run on “Green Lantern/Green Arrow” to be a superlative example of costumed heroes confronting the hard-hitting issues of the day, just as many readers dismiss it as didactic and inappropriate given the characters’ roots in benign adolescent power fantasies. But what about when real-world issues encroach upon the mild escapism? What happens then?

These issues are being confronted again with “The 99,” a comic about a group of multi-ethnic superheroes with a basis in Islamic culture and faith. An animated series based on the comic was meant to debut last week, but it’s been pushed back to January of next year (unlike DC’s “JLA/The 99” crossover miniseries, which debuts next week with issue #1). Like New York City’s so-called “Ground Zero Mosque,” itself envisioned to promote tolerance and peace between Muslims and the greater American population, “The 99” cartoon finds itself imperiled by those who’ve yet to see or even contemplate the true nature of the work.

“Cancel ‘The 99’ before it starts,” wrote the New York Post’s Andrea Peyser in an editorial this week.

Hide your face and grab the kids. Coming soon to a TV in your child’s bedroom is a posse of righteous, Sharia-com pliant Muslim superheroes — including one who fights crime hidden head-to-toe by a burqa.

These Islamic butt-kickers are ready to bring truth, justice and indoctrination to impressionable Western minds.

Conservative conspiracy website World Net Daily joined in, writing nearly 1,000 words of warning against the supposedly subversive series. Except, from all appearances, “The 99” is about as subversive as baseball and mom’s apple pie.

The superhero group was created by Muslim psychologist Naif Al-Mutawa not to promote radical Muslim values, but specifically to confront them, and challenge the xenophobia preached by radical Imams (possibly the sort of views that have resulted in an American cartoonist going into hiding after challenging Muslim extremists). In an interview with PBS, Al-Mutawa recalls his inspiration for “The 99,” which began with the familiar idea of “Pokemon,” and his desire to create something for children with that kind of potential:

My next thought was that there had been a fatwa issued against Pokemon in this region. My next thought was, “My God, who are these people, and who appointed them to be spokespeople for Islam?” My next thought was Allah, and how disappointed he must be. My next thought was that Allah had 99 attributes, and that brought me full circle back to Pokemon, which is a concept of 300 attributes.

Each of the heroes of “The 99” represents one of those virtues of Allah, such as strength, mercy and wisdom, attributes that are valued by many faiths and cultures. Praised by U.S. President Barack Obama as embodying “the teachings of the tolerance of Islam,” the young heroes also demonstrate these values in their fantastical adventures without any one character praying or even mentioning explicit Muslim scripture nor the Prophet Mohammed, according to ICv2.

Just as importantly, “The 99” are not only intended to present a moderate, tolerant face of Islam to the Western world, but also to the Islamic world itself. In the same PBS interview, Al-Mutawa recalled pitching the idea of “The 99” to investors, and describing the trading cards and stickers of suicide bombers that were sold “in the millions” to children throughout the West Bank and the Middle East. It was time for the Islamic world to find some new heroes, he said.

The inherent Middle Easternness of “The 99” does set it apart from other television cartoons; I don’t think we’ve seen this cultural context presented so obviously in children’s entertainment since Disney’s “Aladdin” in 1992 (you can count “Prince of Persia” if you like). A seven-minute preview on YouTube reveals more of “The 99’s” backstory, which has to do with Mongols plundering and burning a library in 13th century Baghdad, which contained the world’s
largest collection of knowledge and wisdom. Luckily, the contents of the books were saved within 99 magic gemstones — “Noor Stones” — which are discovered centuries later by the young heroes of “The 99.”

Such a series mythology is in keeping with the tradition of the variously “ethnic” backgrounds of some of our favorite children’s adventure stories: Indiana Jones, Johnny Quest, the Immortal Iron Fist. There are differences, obviously, like the fact that all those heroes are white men inserted into “exotic” locales and cultures to become their champions, rather than heroes actually based in those milieus, as seems to be case with “The 99.”

That one female character, Batina the Hidden, wears a burka and a few other heroes wear headscarves seem to be sticking points for opponents of “The 99,” and opponents of Islam in general. Indeed, Peyser’s critical New York Post piece is called “Trading Cape for the Burqa,” as if even gazing upon such fictional children will be enough to prompt non-Muslim American children to abandon our Western fashions and adopt all the trappings of the dreaded Sharia, or Islamic Law. It’s the next dangerous fad that will get your children into trouble, like huffing paint or drag-racing down the street at night.

Andy Sullivan, a Queens construction worker opposed to the “Ground Zero mosque,” on “The 99”:

They’re taking advantage of the fact that in every middle-class household, Mom and Dad are working their asses off. They know the kids are watching TV or on the Internet. So maybe Sharia becomes OK. It’s a game. It gradually becomes more and more in their lives.

Why shouldn’t Mr. Sullivan be scared? In the United States, Sharia is most often discussed in connection with Muslim extremists such as the Taliban in Afghanistan and other places where one imagines thieves’ hands being cut off at the wrists and women being executed for having the misfortune of being raped. Sharia has also been invoked as a boogeyman by some conservative American politicians, who say their liberal opponents intend to adopt Sharia in some official capacity. Former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Newt Gingrich recently came out firmly against Sharia being “considered as a replacement for American law” (even though no American politician is promoting anything of the kind). Sharia is coming for our courts and it’s coming for our kids!

In reality, Sharia is not a by-the-books law but more of a set of social and political beliefs practiced by Muslims around the world, who differ on the details depending on where you go and who you talk to. What’s generally true across the board is that Sharia is about being culturally conservative, behaving very modestly with respect to sex and money, and practicing a high level of courtesy and reverence for one’s neighbors.

But even by this most unspecific definition of Sharia, “The 99’s” connection to Islamic law seems tenuous at best. The reality is that Superman himself operates in a way that would be very agreeable by most mainstream interpretations of Sharia, and it is with pronounced irony that conservative Americans, particularly those in favor of living life like we’re all Boy Scouts, react so hatefully towards Muslims, who are truly their allies in this regard.

If “The 99” were truly promoting the kind of intolerant views so feared by detractors — if the super-strong Jabbar left an unmarried woman to burn in a fire because he found out she was banging her boyfriend, for example, or Betina the Hidden refused to stop some bank robbers unless the bankers agreed that “Israel should be wiped off the map,” then we would have a problem. But none of those things are going to happen, and for millions of Muslims around the world, those things are not what Sharia is about.

There are no doubt numerous empirical studies that suggest a wild conversion of non-Muslim American children to Islam or an adoption of fundamentalist Sharia is incredibly unlikely, but I can best speak to my own experiences as an American youth growing up not just in front of Islamic-themed television, but in actual Islamic countries. So as to deflect any accusations of religious bias, I should point out that my surname, Khouri, is Arabic for “priest,” and it’s a name my ancestors took on as they converted to Christianity. It is from within that Christian heritage that I first encountered Islam — not on my television, but living next door. As a child I lived in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, where Islam is the official religion and Arabic is the official language. The little girls next door wore headscarves, as did all the women on our street — except for my Scottish/German mother and my half-Arabic sister, since they weren’t Muslims. The broadcasts of “Astro Boy” and “The Muppet Show” were interrupted for salah (ritual prayers), and I took a mandatory Arabic language class in school.

Strangely, over twenty years later, I remain a non-Muslim who can’t speak Arabic, and I suspect the same will be true of non-Muslim children who watch “The 99.” The worst that could happen, if you’re inclined to think of it that way, is that non-Muslim American children may actually learn that while Europe was up to its eyeballs in the Dark Ages, the Middle East was experiencing a cultural renaissance. Non-Muslim American children may actually lay their eyes upon fictional kids of perhaps unfamiliar backgrounds stepping up to become heroes themselves, rather than backwater citizens in distress waiting for Tom Cruise’s “Last Samurai” or Kevin Costner’s “Dances With Wolves” character to come save them.

In the mythology of “The 99,” these young heroes appear to explicitly embody virtues and powers that inform all superhero stories, and with a stated mission to change the world for the better by focusing on those ethics and not on any religious dogma. It is a mission that Grant Morrison and Deepak Chopra have advocated for years.

“The 99” creator Naif Al-Mutawa, in conversation with CNN:

It is finally time that all of us became more accountable for that which our children will be hearing; tiny differences setting us apart rather than celebrating those positive things that bind all good people together. If we allow small-minded men to spout fear and hate in the name of our religion, we will enable them to brainwash another generation as they did our own. And soon, the next generation will fall into a pit of dissonance. To sit by silently makes us all complicit.

There’s nothing to disagree with there, and children could do a lot worse than watch animated series based on that outlook. Assuming any children watch “The 99” at all.

You see, having broken down the bigoted, anti-Islamic arguments against “The 99,” we’re left with the inescapable fact that it just looks like hell. As you probably saw in the preview video above, the animation is like something out of a ’90s SEGA game. The characters appear utterly without any depth or attractive edge to their personalities whatsoever. Barring any surprises — like the series even airing at all in this toxic political climate — it looks like the U.S. media has embarrassed itself again by railing ignorantly against a work of little substance, a cheap cartoon that depicts only the most basi
c concepts of good versus evil in the plainest possible language.

Indeed, “The 99” is the superhero cartoon for which conservative parents have prayed for years!

[Via ICv2]

TOP 20 DOS FILE-RENAME ROUTINES

BELOW IS A COLLECTION OF MANY  MS-DOS FILE-RENAME ROUTINES,  from “Experts Exchange“, FOR A VARIETY OF NEEDS.
ALL HERE IN ONE PLACE, FOR YOUR EASE & PLEASURE    : )

N o t e s :
– Some code is
condensed using the ‘&’ sign (for NT/2k/XP) or the ‘|’ sign (for 98)
which often allow use of multiple commands on one line. See http://computerhope.com/issues/ch000177.htm
“Can you type more than one command at one command prompt?”. (Some of
what fails:  ‘|’ after ‘if’ or ‘call’ statement; ‘&’  after ‘if’,
‘&’ after ‘set’ as in:set x=y&if  %x%==y echo y; the set doesn’t
happen until AFTER a line break! Weird language…) Note: to echo the
‘&’  you must ‘echo ^&’
-The code-author’s EE id usually follows each code block.
-Some code  just ‘echo’s the rename commands to be run. Must remove the ‘echo’ from ‘echo ren’ to actually do the deed.

~~ Add a suffix (*_n): ~~
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Operating_Systems/WinXP/Q_21678938.html
FOR %%f IN (*.*) DO ren %%f %%f_n
::mgh_mgharish

~~ Remove a suffix (Remove b in   a_b.c) ~~
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Programming/Q_21506296.html
@echo off&for %%f in (*_*.*) do call :ProcessFile %%f
goto :eof
:ProcessFile
for /F “delims=_. tokens=1,3” %%c in (“%1”) do echo ren “%1” “%%c.%%d”
::Adam314

~~ Add a prefix (S1*): ~~
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Operating_Systems/MSDOS/Q_20591441.html
for %%i in (*.*) do move %%i s1%%i  
::bryancw
for /f “delims=” %i in (‘dir/b’) do ren “%i” “s1%i”
::ManuelGuerra

::pbarrette
The DOS command shell, to include WinNT/2K/XP
has always acted strangely when using wildcards in the middle of
filenames. The truth is, that wildcards almost never work correctly when
the wildcard is in the middle of the filename.
For example:
“REN *.TXT *-S1.TXT” will result in the file TEST1.TXT being renamed to TEST1.TXT-S1.TXT
“REN *.TXT S1-*.TXT” will result in the file TEST1.TXT being renamed to S1-T1.TXT

~~ Remove a prefix — a fixed # of bytes. Replace with new prefix. (SFyymmddhhmm.csv->SISCR12mmddhhmm.csv ) ~~
*** “:~4%” crop feature: where is it documented? Please let me know… – callrs***
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Operating_Systems/MSDOS/Q_20784641.html
@echo off
for %%i in (SF03*.CSV) do (set fname=%%i) & call :rename
goto :eof
:rename
::Cuts off 1st 4 characters of fname, then appends prefix
ren %fname% SISCR12%fname:~4%
goto :eof
::-SethHoyt

 
~~ Add a prefix to numbers-only file-name: ~~
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Operating_Systems/MSDOS/Q_21474433.html
for /f %%a in (‘dir /b *.txt ^| findstr /I /X /R /C:^[0-9]*.txt’) do ren %%a prefix%%a
::or for 8-digit files only:
for /f %%a in (‘dir /b *.txt ^| findstr /I /X /R /C:^[0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9].txt’) do ren %%a pyxbl%%a
::mpfister

~~ Rename to random number: ~~
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Operating_Systems/WinNT/Q_20781578.html
@echo off&setlocal
set FileMask=*.bmp
for /f “tokens=*” %%a in (‘dir /b /a:-d “%FileMask%”‘) do call :process “%%a”
goto :eof
:process
:loop
set rnd=%Random%
if exist %rnd%%~x1 goto loop
ECHO ren %1 %rnd%%~x1
goto :eof
::oBdA

~~ ??? wildcards ~~
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Miscellaneous/Q_21623266.html
ren ???xxx??? ???zzz???
::paraghs

~~ Recurse through all sub-directories (excluding current), changing extension: ~~
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Operating_Systems/WinXP/Q_21328624.html
@echo off
for /f “tokens=1 delims=” %%a in (‘dir /s /b /ad’) do if exist “%%a*.asp” echo ren “%%a*.asp” *.html >> rename.cmd
::leew

~~ Rename all jpg files in a folder tree (to cover.jpg): ~~
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Operating_Systems/MSDOS/Q_20696712.html
@for /R c: %%f in (*.jpg) do echo rename “%%~ff” cover.jpg
::SteveGTR

~~ Recurse thru sub-directories, renaming files ~~
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Operating_Systems/WinXP/Q_20849138.html
FOR /r %1 IN (.) do MYRENAMEBAT.BAT %1
::RaviPal .   Where the bat file is:
@echo off&echo This will rename all files containing ‘_fixed’.
echo CHANGE THE FOLDER&cd %1&Pause
rename *_fixed.zip *.xxx
rename *.zip *.zip.old
Rename *.xxx *.zip

~~ Suffix a date: ~~
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Miscellaneous/Games/DOS_Games/Q_10314402.html
ren c:tempabc.txt abc%date:~4,2%-%date:~7,2%-%date:~10%.txt
::temadan

http://www.experts-exchange.com/Operating_Systems/MSDOS/Q_21625029.html
@echo off&if [%1]==[] goto :usage
set strFile=%1
set strExt=%strFile:~-4%
set strNew=%strFile:~0,-4%
ren strFile %strNew%%date:~6,4%%date:~0,2%%date:~3,2%.%strExt%
goto :eof
:usage
RenFile OriginalFilename
::sirbounty

~~ Copy, adding system date: ~~
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Operating_Systems/MSDOS/Q_20611296.html
@ECHO OFF
FOR /F “TOKENS=2-4 DELIMS=/ ” %%F IN (‘DATE /T’) DO (SET TODAY=%%F%%G%%H)
COPY /Y /B C:TEMP*.VCH C:UploadCombined.vch
REN C:UploadCombined.vch Combined-%TODAY%.vch
::pbarrette

~~ Rename jpg files to their file-time-stamp: ~~
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Operating_Systems/WinXP/Q_20805899.html
@ECHO OFF
FOR
%%V IN (*.jpg) DO FOR /F “tokens=1-5 delims=/: ” %%J  IN (“%%~tV”) DO
IF EXIST %%L%%J%%K_%%M%%N%%~xV (ECHO Cannot rename %%V) ELSE (ECHO
RENAME “%%V” %%L%%J%%K_%%M%%N%%~xV & RENAME “%%V”
%%L%%J%%K_%%M%%N%%
~xV)
::From PC-Mag
::arjanh

~~ Copy, appending current date: ~~
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Operating_Systems/MSDOS/Q_21554862.html
@echo off&setlocal
::Change these as necessary
set Source=d:temp&set Dest=d:temp2
if “%Source:~-1%” NEQ “” set Source=%Source%
if “%Dest:~-1%” NEQ “” set Dest=%Dest%
if not exist %Source% goto :Error
if not exist %Dest% goto :Error
set Today=%date:~0,2%%date:~3,2%%date:~6,4%
for %%z in (%Source%*.*) do call :ProcessFile “%%z”
goto :eof
:ProcessFile
set FilePath=%~1&set FileName=%~n1&set FileExt=%~x1
::Remove the echo from the next line to do the actual copy
echo copy “%FilePath%” “%Dest%%FileName%_%Today%%FileExt%”
goto :eof
:Error
echo Either the source or destination directory does not exist
::Adam314

~~ Date Image Files based on date taken etc. ~~
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Operating_Systems/WinXP/Q_21374636.html
http://www.hugsan.com/EXIFutils/html/features.html Rename image files based on the value of EXIF and IPTC fields
http://www.kuren.org/exif/ How to read EXIF Tags  (Similar to above)
http://www.unidreamtech.com/index.php Powerbatch
http://www.stuffware.co.uk/photostudio/ Photo Studio
http://djernaes.dk/download/jpegdate14.zip  – http://big.park.se/files/extra/exchange/jpgdate.zip

~~ Rename all files to 3-digit Number (001, 002, …): ~~
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Operating_Systems/MSDOS/Q_21062570.html
:: Change c:temp1 with the folder your files are in. Don’t put .bat files in that folder.
@echo off&setlocal&set count=0
for /f “usebackq delims=” %%x in (`dir /a:-d /b “C:TEMP*.*”`) DO CALL :NUMBER %%x
goto :EOF
:NUMBER
set NAME=%~n1%
set EXT=00%count%
set EXT=%EXT:~-3%
echo ren “%1” “%NAME%.%EXT%”
set /a count+=1
goto :EOF
::MaartenG (-)
–>Below is MS-DOS 6 version, with c:temp1 being path to files to rename.
——————— rename00.bat
ECHO OFF|set n1=0|set n2=0|set n3=0
for %%a in (c:temp1*.*) do call renameit.bat %%a
set n1=|set n2=|set n3=|set nx=
——————— renameit.bat
rename %1 %n3%%n2%%n1%
set nx=%n1%| call incnx.bat
set n1=%nx%
if not %n1%==0 goto end
set nx=%n2%| call incnx.bat
set n2=%nx%
if not %n2%==0 goto end
set nx=%n3%| call incnx.bat
set n3=%nx%
:end
—————————- incnx.bat
if %nx%==0 goto number0
if %nx%==9 SET nx=0
if %nx%==8 SET nx=9
if %nx%==7 SET nx=8
if %nx%==6 SET nx=7
if %nx%==5 SET nx=6
if %nx%==4 SET nx=5
if %nx%==3 SET nx=4
if %nx%==2 SET nx=3
if %nx%==1 SET nx=2
goto end
:number0
SET nx=1
:end
::For-Soft

~~ Rename all files to prefix + a number  (images_1.jpg, images_2.jpg …) ~~
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Operating_Systems/MSDOS/Q_21347867.html
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Operating_Systems/MSDOS/Q_21536842.html
@echo off&set /a cnt=1
for %%a in (*.jpg) do call :PROCESS “%%a”
goto :EOF
:PROCESS
echo rename %1 images_%cnt%.jpg
set /a cnt+=1
::SteveGTR

~~ Replace First Dot ~~
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Operating_Systems/Win2000/Q_20596712.html
@echo off&setlocal&echo.&set Test=FALSE
if %1.==. goto Syntax
if %1==/? goto Syntax
if %1==-? goto Syntax
if %2.==. goto :begin
if /i not %2==/test goto Syntax
set Test=TRUE
:begin
for /f %%a in (‘dir /b /a:-d %1’) do (
  set FilePath=%%~dpa&set FileName=%%~na&set FileExt=%%~xa&call :process )
goto :eof
:process
if %FileName%==%FileName:.=% goto :eof
for /f “tokens=1* delims=.” %%a in (“%FileName%”) do set NewFileName=%%a-%%b
echo %FilePath%%FileName%%FileExt% –^> %NewFileName%%FileExt%
if /i %Test%==TRUE goto :eof
ren “%FilePath%%FileName%%FileExt%” “%NewFileName%%FileExt%”
goto :eof
:Syntax
echo %~nx0&echo.
echo Replaces first “.”, if any, of the file name with a “-“, but not the extension&echo.
echo Syntax:  &echo repdot ^<File^> [/test]&echo.
echo ^<File^>: The specified directory/file is processed
echo /test:  No renaming is done, files that would be renamed are only displayed.
echo.
::oBdA

~~ Move tokens around ~~
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Operating_Systems/WinNT/Q_20686191.html
@echo off&setlocal&set Folder=%1&set Pattern=samptest.txt.*
dir /b %Folder%%Pattern% 1>NUL 2>NUL
if errorlevel 1 goto Syntax
for /f %%a in (‘dir /b %Folder%%Pattern%’) do (
  set File=%%a&  call :process)
goto :eof
:process
echo Processing %File% …
for /f “tokens=1-3 delims=.” %%a in (“%File%”) do (
  set Name=%%a
  set Number=%%c)
set NewFile=%Name%%Number%.edi
:: *** Remove the “echo” in the next line to “arm” the script
echo ren %Folder%%File% %NewFile%
goto :eof
:Syntax
echo.&
echo ediren.cmd&echo.
echo Renames files matching samptest.txt.^<Number^>
echo to samptest^<Number^>.edi&echo.&echo Syntax:
echo ediren [^<Target Directory^>]&echo.
echo If no target directory is specified, the current directory is used.
echo The directory must be specified including the trailing “”!
echo.
::oBdA

~~ Other ~~
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Programming/Programming_Languages/C/Q_20124580.html
MoveFile – Rename an existing file or a directory
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Operating_Systems/MSDOS/Q_20721695.html
renaming files but exclude newest
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Programming/Programming_Languages/Cplusplus/Q_20929292.html
Comparing,moving, and renaming files in a DOS atmosphere
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Operating_Systems/MSDOS/Q_21587969.html
A batch rena
me operation which cannot be done with dos, can someone do it in/with vbscript?

~~ General Renaming Utilities referenced in posts: * means freeware ~~
http://www.snapfiles.com/freeware/system/fwfilerename.html File Renaming Tools*
http://www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk/Main_Intro.php Bulk Rename Utility*
https://sourceforge.net/projects/renameit/  http://www.beroux.com/renameit/ Opensource Rename-it*
http://www.joejoesoft.com/vcms/108/ Rename Master*
http://www.kellysoftware.com/software/Rename4u.asp Rename4u (Kelly Software)*
http://www.azheavymetal.com/~lupasrename/news.php Lupas Rename 2000*
http://www.irfanview.com/  IrfanView* (File–>Batch Conversion/Rename…)
http://www.publicspace.net/windows/BetterFileRename/ Better File Rename (Not Free)
http://www.123renamer.com/buy.htm File and MP3 Tag Renamer (Trial)

~~ Below is my own code from answer to “Rename Files Instantaneously”:
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Operating_Systems/Win98/Q_21864152.html ~~
=================================================renlef+.bat
:: renlef+.bat
::
Prefix ADD utility for file names: Adds the specified prefix and delim
(& optionally isolates delim by spaces) to all files that have
specified extension
:: Doesn’t perform the rename, but generates &  writes the commands to a bat file
:: If prefix+delim is already in the original name, then ignores the file unless doall=1
::
:: Arguments:
::   %1 – Prefix to add
::   %2 – Delimiter to add
::   %3 – Extension of file
::   %4 – Space – Set to 1 to add space to both sides of delim
::   %5 – Doall – See “If prefix+delim…” note above
::
:: v1.01  By Ravinder Singh (‘wiz’ on the quickmacros forum), May 26, 2006
::
::
:: if exists renlef+_.bat goto FILEEXISTS
@echo off
setlocal
set outfile=renlef+_
if exist “%outfile%.bat” del “%outfile%.bat”
if %1.==. (set /a exitcode=98&goto USAGE)
if %2.==. (set /a exitcode=98&goto USAGE)
set adn=%1&set delm=%2&set ext=%3&set space=%4&set doall=%5&&set count=0
if %doall%.==1. goto SIMPLE

for %%a in (*.%ext%) do (
if %space%.==1. (
     echo %%a| find “%adn% %delm% “
     if errorlevel 1 (set /a count+=1&echo ren “%%a” “%adn% %delm% %%a”  >> “%outfile%.bat” ))
if NOT %space%.==1. (
      echo %%a | find “%adn%%delm%”
     if errorlevel 1 (set /a count+=1&echo ren “%%a” “%adn%%delm%%%a” >> “%outfile%.bat”     ))
)
goto :DONE
:SIMPLE
::  separated routine here ’cause wasn’t able to integrate ’cause of weird behaviour in msdos on Win2K
:: e.g. if you SET XX=YY, then echo “%XX%” doesn’t give us XX’s value within a FOR loop, but only on exit from loop
for %%a in (*.%ext%) do (
     set /a count+=1
     if %space%.==1. echo ren “%%a” “%adn% %delm% %%a”  >> “renlef+_.bat”
     if NOT %space%.==1.      echo ren “%%a” “%adn%%delm%%%a” >> “renlef+_.bat”)

:DONE
if %count%==0 (
     echo No files found that match criteria.&echo.
     set /a exitcode=97
     goto usage
     )
type renlef+_.bat
echo.
echo type: %outfile%         To rename the above %count% files files! Or edit %outfile%.bat
goto :EOF

:USAGE
echo USAGE: %~nx0  WHAT-TO-APPEND-TO-LEFT   DELIMETER   EXTENSION  SPACE? ALL?
exit /B %exitcode%

:FILEEXISTS
echo renall.bat exists. (Check ^& ) Delete file first.
exit /B 99
====================================================renlef-.bat
:: renlef-.bat
::
 – Prefix REMOVAL utility for file names: Cuts the specified prefix
that precedes a space and/or the specified delimiters in a file name
:: As a precaution:
:: — All rename commands are generated & then displayed on screen
:: — All rename commands are written to a file which can be run  (after any optional or required user’s edits)
::
:: Arguments:
::    %1 – Word to remove
::    %2 – Optional delimiters, in addition to the default space, that separate %1 from the part you want to keep
::    %3 – Extension of file
::
:: E.g. to remove initial “PART” from all files that start with “PART # “:
::     renlef- PART #
::
:: v1.01 By Ravinder Singh (‘wiz’ on the quickmacros forum), May 26, 2006
::
@echo off
setlocal
if %1.==. (set /a exitcode=98&goto usage)
set cut=%1&set delims=%2&set ext=%3&set outfile=renlef-_&set count=0
if exist “%outfile%.bat” del “%outfile%.bat”
::if not exist  “%outfile%.bat” set writeToFile=1
set writeToFile=1

:: Let user see and verify all rename commands before we execute them
for /f “usebackq delims=” %%i in (`dir /b %cut%*.%ext%`) do @call :TEST “%%i”

if %count%==0 (
     echo No files found that match criteria.&echo.
     set /a exitcode=97
     goto usage
     )
echo.
echo type: %outfile%           To rename the above %count% files! Or edit %outfile%.bat
goto :EOF
::1*

:TEST
set /a count+=1
set name=%1
FOR /f  “usebackq tokens=1,2,3 delims=%delims% ” %%j IN (`echo %name%`) DO @set mycmd=ren %name% “%%k
echo %mycmd%
if %writeToFile%==1 echo %mycmd% >> %outfile%.bat
goto :EOF

:usage
echo usage: %~nx0   LEFT-TRIM-STRING   DELIMS    EXTENSION
exit /B %exitcode%

:: Other notes
::
:: original basic routine, with delimiters being “- “
::for /f “usebackq tokens=1,2,3  delims=- ” %%i in (`dir /b %1*`) do echo ren “%%i – %%j” “%%j”
::
:: 1* — Optional code, can use if you don’t want to create %output%.bat
:: Now prompt whether or not to do the batch rename
set/p input=Enter y to execute the above commands, anything else to quit:  
if not %input%.==y. goto :EOF
for /f “usebackq delims=” %%i
in (`dir /b %cut%*.%ext%`) do @call :RENAMEALL “%%i”
goto :EOF
:RENAMEALL
set name=%1
FOR /f  “usebackq tokens=1,2,3 delims=%delims% ” %%j IN (`echo %name%`) DO ren %name% “%%k
goto :EOF

Rabbi Arthur Waskow from Mt Airy says:

Rabbi Arthur Waskow from Mt Airy says:
One long rant above against Islam is filled with rage but no facts. ALL religions (including Judaism, in which I am a rabbi) have some bloody strands, and ALL are centered on love, compassion, and justice. Hindus invented the suicide bomber tactic in this generation, Sikhs murdered Indira Gandhi, Christian terrorists in Ireland — both Protestant and Catholic — turned northern Ireland into turmoil for 40 years, Jewish terrorists have murdered Muslim and Christian Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, Buddhists fought a civil war in Sri Lanka and supported the military adventures of the Japanese govt before and during World War II, the Ku Klux Klan were Christian (Protestant) terrorists.

In the Quran, God says that the human race was created through one couple to teach that we are all one family and that God has evolved humanity into many cultures and peoples so as to encourage us to know and understand each other; not hate each other. the Quran teaches that in religion there should be no compulsion. The Quran also has passages hostile to othe religions, but so does the Hebrew Bible and the Christian “New Testament.” (“Allah” is simply the Arabic word for what in English is “God,” just as “Dieu” is in French, “Elohim” in Hebrew, etc.)

Far from being anathema to the majority of human beings, islam is the religion of 1.5 billion people. Christianity has a far bloodier record than Islam. It was Christians, not Muslims, who carried out the Holocaust, and although there were over the centuries some Muslim pogroms against Jews there were far more pogroms, Inquisitional burnings-at-the-stake, etc by Christians than by Muslims. In a thousand years of European history, the only time Jews, Christians and Muslims lived in peace and friendship with each other was under Muslim rule in Andalusia. The Christian recoquest of Spain climaxed with the expulsion of Jews and Musllims in 1492 and the Inquisition thereafter. Beginning in 1492, Christianity carried out genocide against the indigenous peoples of the Americas.

There are millions of peace-committed Muslims in the US, and the Muslim American Society, Cordoba House (the founders of the Park 51 Muslim-rooted cultural center in Lower Manhattan) CAIR (the Council on American Islamic Relations) and other American Muslim organizations have repeatedly denounced terrorism. That record of commitment to peace and dialogue is available on the websites of all those organizations, and in their own behavior as well.

Shalom, salaam, peace —
Rabbi Arthur Waskow
Director, The Shalom Center
www.theshalomcenter.org

Algorithms to access the cloud

Algorithms to access the cloud

Cloud computing is a term used to describe both a platform and type of application. A cloud computing platform dynamically provisions, configures, reconfigures, and de provisions servers as needed. Servers in the cloud can be physical machines or virtual machines.

 


Figure 1: Major components for building a dynamic infrastructure to reduce costs improve service and manage risk

Advanced clouds typically include other computing resources such as storage area networks (SANs), network equipment, firewall and other security devices. Cloud computing also describes applications that are extended to be accessible through the Internet.

These cloud applications use large data centers and powerful servers that host Web applications and Web services. Anyone with a suitable Internet connection and a standard browser can access a cloud application.

The cloud computing architecture is built upon several functional component blocks (for example, compute resources or deployment environments), which are organized into specific layers of a pyramid.

The width of these layers represents the depth of technical expertise required to build and/or deploy that layer.

At the apex of the pyramid are users accessing the applications; in the center is a dynamic control plane that traverses all others and provides real-time connectivity, information coordination, and flow control between the layers.

An important strategic consideration is the integration of all the pieces of the infrastructure to create the cloud.

 

The primary components of cloud architecture are:

Users/Brokers:

Users or brokers acting on their behalf submit service requests from anywhere in the world to the Data Center and Cloud to be processed.


Figure 2: Cloud architecture

SLA (Service Level Agreements) Resource Allocator:

The SLA Resource Allocator acts as the interface between the Data Center/Cloud service provider and external users/brokers. It requires the interaction of the defined scheduled mechanisms to support SLA-oriented resource management.

Google App Engine [3] allows a user to run Web applications written using the Python programming language. Other than supporting the Python standard library, Google App Engine also supports Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) for the data store, Google Accounts, URL fetch, image manipulation, and email services. Google App Engine also provides a Web-based Administration Console for the user to easily manage his running Web applications. Currently, Google App Engine is free to use with up to 500MB of storage and about 5 million page views per month.

Microsoft Live Mesh [4] aims to provide a centralized location for a user to store applications and data that can be accessed across required devices (such as computers and mobile phones) from anywhere in the world. The user is able to access the uploaded applications and data through a Web based Live Desktop or his own devices with Live Mesh software installed. Each user’s Live Mesh is password protected and authenticated via his Windows Live Login, while all file transfers are protected using Secure Socket Layers (SSL).

Both the applications of Google and Microsoft cloud initiative can be divided into divided into three phases [5]. There are phases involved in resource recovery, scheduling, and executing.

In the second phase the best match between the set of jobs and available resources is determined. The second phase is a NP-hard Problem [6]. The computational grid is a dynamic structure and exhibits unpredictable behaviour such as:

• Computational performance of each resource varies from time to time.

• The connection between computers and mobile phones may be unreliable.

• The resources may join or relinquish the grid at any time

• The resource may be unavailable without a notification.

The scheduling of cloud architecture is dynamic in nature and moreover Grid middleware and applications are using local scheduling and data co-scheduling. The approach of replication has been also applied and assisted in scheduling and optimization of replication.

There are different existing algorithms like the Genetic algorithm (GA) is used for searching large solution space. On other hand, simulated Annealing (SA) is an iterative technique that considers only one possible solution for each meta-task at a time. Ant Colony Algorithm (ACO) is the latest entrant to this field.

ACO algorithm can be interpreted as parallel replicated Monte Carlo (MC) systems [7]. MC systems are general stochastic simulation systems, that is, techniques performing repeated sampling experiments on the model of the system under consideration by making use of a stochastic component in the state sampling and/or transition rules.

Figure 3: Cloud Services Under ACO

Experimental results are used to update some statistical knowledge about the problem. In turn, this knowledge can be also iteratively used to reduce the variance in the estimation of the described variables and directing the simulation process toward the most interesting state space regions.

Analogously, in ACO algorithms the ants sample the problem’s solution space by repeatedly applying a stochastic decision policy until a feasible solution of the considered problem is found. The sampling is realized concurrently by a collection of differently instantiated replicas of the same ant type.

Each ant “experiment” allows to adaptively modifying the local statistical knowledge on the problem structure. The algorithm is recursive in nature.

REFERENCES

[1] Chu, K. Nadiminti, C. Jin, S. Venugopal, and R. Buyya. Aneka: “Next-Generation Enterprise Grid Platform for e-Science and e-Business Applications”, in Proceedings of the 3th IEEE International Conference on e-Science and Grid Computing (e-Science 2007), Bangalore, India, Dec. 2007.

[2] A. Weiss, “Computing in the Clouds”, netWorker, Volume 11, No.4,pp.16-25, December, 2007.[3] Google App Engine, http://appengine.google.com [accessed in Octobe
r 2010]

[4] Microsoft Live Mesh, http://www.mesh.com [accessed in  October 2010]

[5] Stefka Fidanova and Mariya Durchova,” Ant Algorithm for Grid Scheduling Problem”, Large Scale Computing, Lecture Notes in Computer Science No. 3743, Springer, , pp 405-412, 2006.

[6] Yaohang Li, “A bio-inspired adaptive Job Scheduling Mechnism on a Computational Grid”, International Journal of Computer Science and Network Security, Vol.6.No.3.B, March 2006.

[7] Dorigo, M., Maniezzo, V., Colorni, A.: The ant system: “Optimization by a colony of cooperating agents”, IEEE Transactions on Systems”, Man, and Cybernetics, part B, 26(1) pp. 1–13, 1996.

[8] S. Venugopal, X. Chu, and R. Buyya, “A Negotiation Mechanism for Advance Resource Reservation using the Alternate Offers Protocol.” In Proceedings of the 16th International Workshop on Quality of Service (IWQoS 2008), Twente, The Netherlands, June 2008.

[9] Soumya Banerjee, Indrajit Mukherjee, and P.K. Mahanti. “Cloud Computing Initiative using Modified Ant Colony Framework” World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology 56 2009

A Muslim is bitten from a burrow only once

By TwoCircles.net Staff Correspondent,

Kollam/Malappuram: The decision of independent MLA Manjalamkuzhi to
cut ties with the CPI (M) and to resign his MLA post has created a new
head-ache for the party. While many senior leaders such as the party
general secretary and state ministers responded to Ali’s decision
harshly, Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan yesterday asked Ali to change
his decision. However, Ali replied that he was not willing to make any
change and that he would continue with his decision to resign the MLA
post.

The decision of Manjalamkuzhi Ali was unfavourable and Ali should be
ready to change it, said Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan yesterday in
Kollam. Ali had contributed a lot to the organisation, though he was not
a member of the party. His works have been helpful in giving a big blow
to the Congress and the Muslim League in Malappuram. Ali’s help has
been good to the party. But his present stand is weakening to the left
parties and helping the UDF. This makes undone all the good deeds that
he had done, he added. He was speaking at a programme organized by the
Kollam Press Club.

VS said that he did not consider much Ali’s view that he had to face
problems because of his close relations with the former. He added that
he did not criticize Ali for such thoughts. Mr Achuthanandan rejected
the analysis that leaders from minority communities were leaving the
party. All cannot be made MLA or MP. Decisions are made by the party
according to the specific circumstances in each time, he reminded.

Manjalamkuzhi Ali stated that there was no change in his decision to
resign his MLA post. He was responding to the query of media persons
regarding the statement of VS. Meanwhile, Ali will hold a meeting
explaining his politics on October 17 (Sunday) at 4 pm. Ali is expected
to speak about his political career as well as the circumstances that
led to the resignation. MP Veerendrakumar will deliver the chief
address.

Ali, who had represented the Mankada constituency in Malappuram in
the Assembly as an independent supported by the CPI (M), decided to cut
all ties with the party reportedly out of ‘insults from the party
leaders’. He announced his decision to resign his MLA post as well as
several other posts on October 11 in a press conference held at his
house in Malappuram. He also made it clear that he was not joining any
party, but rather would continue his social work as an independent.

A sign of minorities leaving the CPI (M)?

The decision of Ali to leave the CPI (M) is seen as the latest among
the bidding farewell of several leaders in the party belonging to the
minority communities. The trend was begun by AP Abdullakkutty, former MP
of Kannur, who rose to heights in the party through the SFI and the
DYFI. He left the party following his controversial praise of the
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. Next was the turn of Dr KS Manoj
who had defeated senior Congress leader VM Sudheeran in Alappuzha. The
decision of some leaders to leave the party gradually led to the
departure of other political parties from the LDF. MP Veerendrakumar
left his own party Janata Dal (S) and the LDF and is now in the UDF with
a new party. The Indian National League which has been with the LDF
since its formation has now left it for good as the LDF was not ready to
take the party into the alliance even after 14 years of cooperation.
INL is now with the UDF, though a group chose to continue with the LDF
namely INL (Secular). The People’s Democratic Party had helped the LDF
in the last Parliamentary elections. But the party gradually went away
from the front after the elections and the gap increased very badly by
the arrest of the party chairman Abdunnasir Maudany by the Karnataka
police with the help of the Kerala police. Now the PDP is contesting the
local body elections alone, without making alliance with any party. The
Jamat e Islami had supported the LDF in the last Assembly and
Parliament elections. But the organisation has gone too far away from
the LDF and it is contesting the local body elections under the banner
of the Janakeeya Vikasana Munnani.

The departure of the Kerala Congress (Joseph group) was a big blow to
the LDF as it meant a large erosion of the Christian votes. It was also
helpful for the UDF as the party merged itself in the Kerala Congress
(Mani group), thus making the party the second biggest party of the
alliance in the Assembly. There were also reports of pastoral letters
being read out in the churches warning the believers not to vote for the
communists and atheists. If all this meant the loss of Christian votes,
the loss of Muslim votes was revealed by the departure of the INL and
estrangement of the PDP and the Jamat e Islami from the LDF. The recent
policies followed by the CPI (M) appeasing the Hindutva forces can also
be read along with this. The Chief Minister and Home minister had made
remarks which were seemingly anti-Muslim during the controversy
following the hand-chopping incident.

The party which had once been the hope of the labourers and working
class as well as the downtrodden Dalit sections is now apparently
estranged from all them. The leftist parties are losing support of these
traditional vote-banks. At the same time, the UDF which is said as
rightist is now gaining the support of some of these sections. As Ali
said, the left has become more right and the right has become more left
in Kerala.