On season 16 episode 5 of Top Gear UK Jeremy Clarkson (Jezza), Richard Hammond (Hamster), and James May (Captain Slow) decided to tackle the big problem that England faces now more often than never. I am talking of course of the very minuscule amount of snow they receive. In early February 2009 the snow ranged from 3.9 inches to 7.9 inches, which is nothing compared to what happens here in Canada or the US. From watching the news, I was able to understand that they have not invested enough money in snow removal. I can understand that, however when it happens two years in a row, and causes high financial losses, and travel disruptions can’t they justify it? It’s not only a matter of money, they probably are not trained well for this type of job. Here in Montreal I actually stand and watch the snow removal team, because to me it’s so interesting, they have it down to a science.
I’m glad to have seen this episode of Top Gear because it’s always interesting to see that others have a similar viewpoint on a situation. The lads converted a combine harvester into a snow plow. For the most part it did an excellent job in my opinion. The manufacturers could easily create a more reliable set of modifications (which would probably not cost much in research and development) which lets the harvesters double as snow plows. I found it really interesting that since these harvesters are not being used in the winter, it’s a great win/win situation. This means farmers can either rent out their harvesters or plow during the winter to make extra money (Every documentary or news piece I’ve seen including farmers always says how they struggle to not go bankrupt) and the government does not have to spend too much money on a solution. Why did it take a TV show to bring the concept to light instead of the government/BAA? Finally let me just say that it wouldn’t be Top Gear if they didn’t add some other bells and whistles and made themselves look like bumbling idiots. I love their humor, and while others just don’t get it, that makes it all the more funnier.
Yesterday evening the greatest revolution was a success. Thanks to the youth of Egypt, the entire population of ~80 million people have been freed. That might sound a little pretentious, however it really is true. For the last 30 years Egypt has been under rule by a dictator who really does rule with iron fist. If anyone spoke badly about him they usually gave him a warning of beatings, if it was done again, they usually disappeared. All this was known by the people, however to the world he presented a fair and loved image.
I remember once I was in Egypt and plain clothed police tried to give me a hard time for standing in front of a hotel which my sister was staying in. I didn’t mind them and told them to stop annoying me. Since I live out in the western world this was normal to me, however to them this was very abnormal. They told me to give them my Egyptian national ID, which I told them I don’t have. They asked how come, and I told them I live out of the country. I gave them my Seneca College ID and didn’t care if I got it back as I transferred to Concordia University. They thought they had me. Then my friend came with his father to pick me up and because he is a big shot they shut up and didn’t say anything and even apologized. However what really annoys me is why this treatment in the first place? Why does someone in Egypt have to have a connection or be someone big to be treated well (and not because they want to treat them well, just because that’s the way the system works)?
Anyways that is how the system has been working for the last 30 years under Hosni Mubarak. I am thankful I have not lived there to experience the depressed state that people there have forcefully had on the for so long, seriously this is what causes people to live without any hope. I seriously can not believe someone has the heart to do that, not even to one person, but to 80 million. It is not only him though, he is the ring leader, all his family and cronies are the same. All of them have billions of dollars.
So why was the youth able to pull this revolution off? Well recent events sparked the thoughts I think. The revolution in Tunisia was the first incident and probably the most important. What happened there was a man by the name of Mohamed Bouzazizi was an educated graduate that could not find work, so he sold fruits on a street card to make ends meat. When his fruits were taken and he was slapped by the police he lost it. He lit himself on fire in protest to the way things work in the country. This caused an uprising of protests which eventually made the President Ben Ali step down. Next in Egypt someone bombed a Church in Alexandria (now thought to be the plot of Habib al Adly). What the government wanted was to divide the people of Egypt into distinct groups in order to preoccupy their minds in order to avoid what happened in Tunisia. What better way to do that then by religion. So they bombed the Church in order to stay in power. However their plan did not work, and Muslims reached out to the Christians. Next the Egyptian youth organized online using social media in order to form a revolution to overthrow the current regime. Headed by Wael Ghonim they headed to Tahrir square on January 25th 2011. I’m not sure if the Egyptian government knew about and underestimated the power of Facebook and twitter, or they didn’t know about it. Anyways the protest quickly gained momentum with everyone, even foreigners joining.
The regime tried to use scare tactics and force in order to quell the protesters. First they played it off like it was not a big deal, and ignored the movement while saying that the people have the right to protest in hopes of it dying down quickly. When it actually gained ground, they started using everything they have in order to regain power of the situation. They used state television to spread propaganda, shut off the internet and telephone communication, hired thugs (plain clothed police officers) to hold pro-Mubarak protests, attack the peaceful protestors, even with horses, camels and running them over with vehicles which the state tv quickly denied. All throughout this, the regime said they understand what the people want, and Hosni Mubarak will punish the corrupt officials in the government. Thing is though, he is the one that is to blame. He was in denial, knowing what was going on and just playing dumb. This angered the people even more. Finally he used one more tactic, having his regime announce that he would come on tv and resign. When he did come one late as usual, he said he would not step down. He wanted to anger the protesters in order to justify deadly force against them, however this tactic failed again and he had no more tricks up his sleeve and had to resign. The coward didn’t even have the guts to do it himself and had his goon Omar Suliman do it for him.
I don’t have a great knowledge of history but I do know that Egypt was great back in the day. So what caused this revolution to be so strong and able to withstand the brutal tactics of a coward for 18 days? First they have been living in terrible conditions for the last 30 years and didn’t want one more second of it. Secondly if they were to go home as the regime wanted them to, things would get way worse and it would turn into a complete police state, in which after Hosni Mubarak left his son would take over. I want to make it completely clear that when Hosni Mubarak said that he was not running and again and his son too, he was completely just saying that in order to trick people that there would be change, even if that was true he would hand the power to his cronies, which is the same thing in the back office, with different faces on the front.
In conclusion I would first like to thank all the people who risked their lives, especially the martyrs that have been killed supporting this revolution, of course Mohamed Bouzazizi for sending a harsh message that took his life, Al Jazeera and Al Arabeya for reporting the truth to the world, and finally the Christians and Muslims of Egypt for sticking together and not allowing anything divide them. I have never been more proud of being an Egyptian, and a human being.
P.S.: Some of this post is just my opinion, so don’t go using it for a source on Wikipedia. I might have gotten things chronologically incorrect, missed a few things, or made other mistakes.
Since highschool I was always coughing in the mornings because I felt there was something stuck in my throat. Every once in a while I would cough up a small yellow ball of an unknown substance. It is very disgusting and smells so bad you have no idea, yet I feel so relieved when I get some out. I eventually went to a throat, mouth, and nose doctor (I don’t know how he was considered a doctor) who told me I was imagining things, YES IMAGINING THINGS!
Come a couple of days ago, I don’t know how I stumbled on the actual term for these yellow creatures. Tonsil Stones (tonsillolith), Yup and I felt so validated that I was right and the “doctor” did not know what he was talking about. I saw the video below which grossed me out and encouraged me to do the same. I found that my crypts are not visible since the lining of my mouth is small, but I was determined to remove some stones. I poked around with my finger and a huge chuck came out. It felt so satisfying.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uELOO4wskto
Pretty disgusting huh? Well the video below is the latest operation that can help get rid of the crypts and the problem all together. I read somewhere that 2-3% of the world’s population suffers from tonsil stones in crypts, however I think it’s much more, but people just don’t know they have them. If you haven’t figured out by now, they are probably the main cause of halitosis (bad breath), so if you have bad breath see if you have tonsil stones. I want to have this operation performed on me.
According to Egyptian blogger and human rights activist Wael Abbas, he obtained documents that prove Hosni Mubarak is much richer than the estimated $40 – $70 Billion that we all have been hearing in the last couple of days. In the below scanned documents, the amount of purchased gold bond is $620,000,000,000 yes that is $620 BILLION with a capital B. Who knows if this is true or not, I would believe it though considering the amount of stealing this guy does and the time he has had to do it (~30 years). Another interesting bit is that he has a UK passport. Finally after Wael posted this onto the internet, his site started getting DDOS (Distributed Denial of Service Attacks) which attempted to crash the server that runs his website. That is why he has mirrored it, and I am now mirroring it here, with the hopes of not having my server crashed. Anyways once something hits the internet, its out there and can never be hidden again.
I love a good laugh, and since I have been debating recently how Blackberries suck (phones, not the fruit the fruit is amazing) with many people, I thought this picture would be really funny. I found this picture on my friend Kareem’s Facebook wall photos. I told him that I would be submitting it online, so I shared it with reddit.
If you downloaded iTunes 10.1.1 via Software Update yesterday and then tried using it you might have gotten this error like I did: “iTunes cannot be opened because of a problem.”
I quickly searched Google and found the solution. You have to download and install iTunes again from Apple.com. Anyways that was a quick post and I plan to do a lot more posting after exams!
Finally it has been released for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad alike. You can get it form iTunes. No word yet on jailbreaking, although, it was reported that the Geohot’s exploit was working up to 4.2 beta 3. As of now I am updating my iPhone 4 and will report back if limera1n is working with final release of 4.2.1.
Update: I’m not sure why it says 4.2 on the update, and is actually 4.2.1. Way to confuse people Apple.
Below you can see the changelog, my favorite feature is the ability to find text in safari!
Yesterday I went to the TEDxMcGill 2010 event. It was really great, well organized, and had great speakers. Like most TED or TEDx events it was inspirational. There were many stories told, philosophies, and ideas shared (which is what TED is about). I will now try to go to any TED or TEDx event I can, and maybe even try to organize some back home if I can. Shout out to Tara for getting me to go to this amazing event! On the way out the organizers surprised the attendees with three TEDxs made out of Diet Coke cans, Coke cans, and water bottles.
I was bored and was on Gizmodo.com when I saw this post. Anyways it’s a commercial made in CGI that looks so realistic its just breaks your brain. It is called Above Everything Else created by Alex Roman for Silestone. I would have thought it would be some sort of insurance commercial based on the name and everything falling, however it’s just the counter tops throughout the commercial.
Yesterday they were filming a movie outside my building called On the Road. It is a film adaptation of the Novel written by Jack Kerouac. Anyways they setup this fake electrical goods store next to my house and even had old street lamps for a pedestrian scene. It has some big Hollywood names like Kristen Dunst and Kristen Stewart. Check it out in 2011.
