Ambling Along Acquiescently

Can You Solve This? | Halifax Bahai Community

2011-12-10T22:38:00.001-04:00

“Can You Solve This?” is a campaign that aims to bring attention to human rights abuses in Iran. In particular, it focuses on the systematic denial of education which the Iranian government pursues against different groups of students. Some of the persecuted groups include Sufi Muslims, evangelical Christians, Jews, Baha’is, Sunnis, Ahmadis and others who have different religious views than those of the Iranian government.

The major component of this campaign is the website can-you-solve-this.org where one can view a short animated video that outlines the situation in Iran and which facilitates the visitor’s sending of emails to political representatives asking for their support. The twist on this campaign is that it uses a QR (Quick Response; see attached image)code through which people can access the website as well. These popular codes can be scanned by “smartphones” which automatically directs the user to the website. This is the first time these QR codes are being used in the context of a human rights issue.

At this time Germany, UK, Brazil, Slovakia, the US, Australia, and India have already launched this campaign in their respective countries. Canada launched on the 19th of October, 2011 starting at the University of Toronto campus, and we are excited to announce that Halifax will be launching its event on January 9th, 2012 at Dalhousie University!

In queue to be launched are France, Italy, Netherlands, Holland, and Greece. So far, almost 10,000 letters have been sent to various official representatives including Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations and Navanethem Pillay, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

This human rights initiative is a coalition between a diversity of organizations and individuals around the world.

For more information contact Emad Talisman at eblaghi@gmail.com, or visit the following links:

YouTube: youtube.com/user/CanYouSolveThis

Canadian website : can-you-solve-this.org/ca

Facebook group : facebook.com/canyousolvethis

Facebook event for Canada : on.fb.me/v1I3M1

Case study that was done by the movement: http://www.movements.org/blog/entry/latest-case-study-canyousolvethis.org-interactive-campaign-for-right-to-edu/

Article on leading online magazine for social media: http://mashable.com/2011/08/23/qr-code-iran/

via halifaxbahai.org

Act by asking your government to speak up!

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Can You Solve This? | Halifax Bahai Community

2011-12-10T22:30:00.001-04:00

“Can You Solve This?” is a campaign that aims to bring attention to human rights abuses in Iran. In particular, it focuses on the systematic denial of education which the Iranian government pursues against different groups of students. Some of the persecuted groups include Sufi Muslims, evangelical Christians, Jews, Baha’is, Sunnis, Ahmadis and others who have different religious views than those of the Iranian government.

The major component of this campaign is the website can-you-solve-this.org where one can view a short animated video that outlines the situation in Iran and which facilitates the visitor’s sending of emails to political representatives asking for their support. The twist on this campaign is that it uses a QR (Quick Response; see attached image)code through which people can access the website as well. These popular codes can be scanned by “smartphones” which automatically directs the user to the website. This is the first time these QR codes are being used in the context of a human rights issue.

At this time Germany, UK, Brazil, Slovakia, the US, Australia, and India have already launched this campaign in their respective countries. Canada launched on the 19th of October, 2011 starting at the University of Toronto campus, and we are excited to announce that Halifax will be launching its event on January 9th, 2012 at Dalhousie University!

In queue to be launched are France, Italy, Netherlands, Holland, and Greece. So far, almost 10,000 letters have been sent to various official representatives including Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations and Navanethem Pillay, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

This human rights initiative is a coalition between a diversity of organizations and individuals around the world.

For more information contact Emad Talisman at eblaghi@gmail.com, or visit the following links:

YouTube: youtube.com/user/CanYouSolveThis

Canadian website : can-you-solve-this.org/ca

Facebook group : facebook.com/canyousolvethis

Facebook event for Canada : on.fb.me/v1I3M1

Case study that was done by the movement: http://www.movements.org/blog/entry/latest-case-study-canyousolvethis.org-interactive-campaign-for-right-to-edu/

Article on leading online magazine for social media: http://mashable.com/2011/08/23/qr-code-iran/

via halifaxbahai.org

Act by asking your government to speak up!

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All Halifax Deals | Groupon

2011-10-08T18:24:00.001-03:00

via groupon.com

Great Local Deals from Groupon!!

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globalrevolution - live streaming video powered by Livestream

2011-09-24T12:37:00.001-03:00

Global Revolution brings you live stream video coverage from independent journalists on the ground at nonviolent protests around the world. The team includes members of Mobile Broadcast News, Glassbead Collective, Twin Cities Indymedia and the alt.media ninjas that brought you Terrorizing Dissent and Democracy 101 documentaries. Currently broadcasting from #OccupyWallStreet protests in NYC that began on Saturday, Sept 17, 2011. Please donate to equip our live video team:http://tinyurl.com/occupywslive

Live video coverage and content from the Global Revolution that began in Tunisia and Egypt, and is spreading around the world.

DONATE TO EQUIP OUR LIVE VIDEO TEAM

NEWS FROM ON THE GROUND

CONNECT WITH THE PROTESTERS

WATCH TERRORIZING DISSENT

WATCH DEMOCRACY 101

#OCCUPYWALLSTREET GENERAL ASSEMBLY (UNOFFICIAL NEWS)

via livestream.com

occupywallstreet grabbed my interest this morning

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Baha'i Toolbar for Firefox and Internet Explorer

2011-09-15T03:01:00.001-03:00

Home | About | Bahá’í Books and Media

Over 3000 users in nearly 100 countries, and growing!

The Bahá’í Toolbar for Firefox and Internet Explorer provides fast and easy access to key Bahá’í resources on the Internet. The Bahá’í Toolbar is free to download and use, and contains no spyware or adware.

The Bahá’í Toolbar provides one-click access to official Bahá’í web sites, news and resources, plus key learning and education web sites, and much, much more!

Version 2.0.2 released December 15, 2010:

New Google Chrome extension available:

Visit this page with Google Chrome, and click the following image to install the Bahá’í Resources extension:

via bahaitoolbar.com

Pretty interesting Gadget. Lots of valuable information available.

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Did He Just Play A Trance Song On A Guitar? - Funny Videos at Videobash

2011-08-24T21:24:00.001-03:00

via videobash.com

Ewan Dobson has established himself as one of Canada’s most brilliant and exhilarating guitarists, having won first prize in nearly every single Classical Guitar competition across the country. (http://ewandobson.com)

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Best Photos From National Geographic 2011 July (Part 2)

2011-08-22T22:48:00.001-03:00

via gilygily.com

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Arrests are part of official campaign to block development of Iranian Baha’is « halifaxbahai.org

2011-08-02T16:29:00.001-03:00

Arrests are part of official campaign to block development of Iranian Baha’is

NEW YORK, 25 May 2011 (BWNS) – The raids carried out on some 30 homes of Baha’is, who were offering education to young community members barred by the government from university, is the latest action in Iran’s ongoing policy to keep its largest non-Muslim religious minority on the margins of society.

Since the 1979 Islamic revolution, Baha’is have been systematically deprived of higher education. With nowhere else to turn, the community initiated its own educational programmes.

“The Iranian authorities are clearly determined to make it impossible for the Baha’i community to educate its youth whose opportunities are blocked by the state,” said Bani Dugal, Principal Representative of the Baha’i International Community to the United Nations.

“Denying people the right to education is a denial of their right to exist as free and productive human beings – and to make a contribution to their society,” she said.

via halifaxbahai.org

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halifaxbahai.org

2011-08-02T16:12:00.001-03:00

Academic conference explores "othering" of Iranian Baha'is

TORONTO, 4 July 2011 (BWNS) – Iranian scholars, many from globally prominent universities, gathered here for a groundbreaking academic conference on the persecution of Iran’s Baha’is.

Titled “Intellectual Othering and the Baha’i Question in Iran,” the conference examined how Iranian authorities have sought to exclude Baha’is from social, political, cultural, and intellectual life by portraying them as outsiders in their own land – a process known as “othering.”

The event, held from 1-3 July, was the first major academic conference at a top-ranked university to focus on the persecution of Iran’s Baha’is in any context.

“This conference is not a Baha’i studies conference,” said its main organizer Mohamad Tavakoli. “It is an effort to understand the use of repression in the history of modern Iran and how the ‘othering’ of Baha’is has become a mechanism of mass mobilization for the legitimization of the state and for the creation of political-religious ideology.”

Dr. Tavakoli – a well-known scholar on Iran and the Middle East from the University of Toronto – said the idea for the conference came from his own research into the degree to which various Iranian groups had used anti-Baha’i rhetoric and made a scapegoat of Baha’is to gain political power, both in the past and the present.

via halifaxbahai.org

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OpenID Explained

2011-07-26T20:22:00.001-03:00

Faster and easier to sign in

OpenID also simplifies signing in. With OpenID you only have to remember one username and one password. That's because you log into websites with your OpenID, so your OpenID is the only thing you have to make secure. Now, you might already use one username and one password online, but OpenID lets you do this in a secure way. That's because you only give your password to your OpenID provider, and then your provider tells the websites you're visiting that you are who you say you are. No website other than your provider ever sees your password, so you don't have to worry about an insecure website compromising your identity.

Remembering all those usernames can really weigh you down!

via openidexplained.com

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Sulic & Hauser: Smooth Criminal on 2 Cellos (VIDEO) - AMPwerx

2011-07-26T12:37:00.001-03:00

Watch as Luka Sulic and Stjepan Hauser play their arrangement of “Smooth Criminal” by Michael Jackson on two cellos.

via ampwerxmedia.com

Another great tune -ON CELLOs, Right On!

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Sulic & Hauser: Welcome to the Jungle on 2 Cellos (VIDEO) - AMPwerx

2011-07-26T12:35:00.001-03:00

Absolutley Awsome Duet!!

Watch as Luka Sulic and Stjepan Hauser play their arrangement of “Welcome To The Jungle” by Guns N’ Roses on two cellos.

via ampwerxmedia.com

These guys are pretty amazing!!!

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DTV :: All the demoscene on a web TV !

2010-03-07T02:11:00.001-04:00

via demoscene.tv

For all the up-to-the-minute audio and visual technology demo talent...You have to check out http://demoscene.info and http://demoscene.tv .
You won't be disappointed.

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The Sawfish Underwater Tree Harvester

2010-03-04T17:38:00.001-04:00

via tritonlogging.com

Triton's Sawfish™ Underwater Harvester represents the first true arrival of viable marine technology in underwater forests. Developed and manufactured by Triton, it is the world's only deep-water logging machine, combining proven elements from timber-harvesting and submarine vehicle technology on an innovative platform.

Competitive Advantages

Deepwater Access The Sawfish™ not only navigates precisely by a remote pilot, it can operate to any depth. Alternative systems (grapples or divers) are limited to approximately 25 m, even though 80 percent of submerged timber resources are found at greater depths.

Economical and Efficient While alternative systems use the same mechanism to cut and retrieve trees, The Sawfish™ achieves significant efficiencies by de-coupling the cutting and surfacing processes, enabling it to perform multiple cuts without returning to the surface. And with no new roads to build and no fires or pests to control, Triton’s system becomes even more economical.

Safety Triton’s harvesting operation does not involve falling trees or working with heavy machinery in tight spaces or sloped terrain. And by removing hazardous trees from reservoirs, Triton creates safer environments for recreational and commercial use.

from AMPwerx

The Sawfish Underwater Tree Harvester

2010-03-04T17:22:00.001-04:00

via tritonlogging.com

Competitive Advantages

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Body Talk Nova Scotia - Could a new therapy be the answer to all your aches and pains?

2010-02-04T03:27:00.003-04:00

Have you ever wondered how the superhuman among us – the Barack Obamas, the Oprah Winfreys – manage to appear so gleaming, so lucid, so centred apparently all the time? Don't they ever have an off day?

Obama, who this week celebrated his first year in office, shares a little secret with Oprah. They are reportedly both fans of "BodyTalk", the alternative healthcare system of the moment, now finding converts in Britain. BodyTalk is based on the belief that the body knows how to heal itself but, like a computer, can get overloaded, leading to malfunction. A BodyTalk practitioner offers no diagnosis or prescription, just a "rewiring" session using muscle testing and light tapping on the head and sternum to re‑establish channels of communication within the body. Then the body will start functioning optimally again.

Words like "innate", "healing" and "wisdom" set off alarm bells for me, especially when used together. But look past the jargon – and past the fact that this is a booming Florida business whose founder, Dr John Veltheim, resembles an outsize elf with bushy beard and evangelical smile – and there is sense in recognising the body as a "whole" with interconnecting systems. After all, we know that when one thing goes wrong, diverse other symptoms can crop up...( learn more here: http://bodytalknovascotia.ca/article )

via bodytalknovascotia.ca

I've only had one BodyTalk session thus far; however I intend to get more & a number of people I've talked to who have had it done regularly swear by its ability to help them improve their ailments. Very Interesing stuff.

In addition to knowing Kelley at BTNS I have been getting chiropractic care from Dr. Joanne at the Genesis clinic and have been pleasantly surprised by the progress being made via my adjustments and my lower back pain has been subsiding. Overall, the combination of BodyTalk and Genesis Chiropractice and Wellness Ctr., Is a great way to get some holistic/alternative attention to your "Aches and Pains".

from AMPwerx

Judge a Book by Its Cover Competition 2009

2010-02-03T08:24:00.002-04:00

My friend Anna Quon wrote a book last year and saltyink.com is having a competition for the Cover Art of local East Coast publications.

Anna's book has a great book cover and everyone is invited to help keep it at the top of the list.

You can vote for her book by going to saltyink.com and voting for Migration Songs.

Check it out!! It's a great book too by the way.

Anthony

http://saltyink.com/judge-a-book-by-its-cover-competition-2009/

More info about Anna Quon - writer of Migration Songs

In addition to Migration Songs, Anna has self-published two chapbooks of poetry, Poems for 4 Seasons (ISBN 0-9737263-0-X) and Half Empty (ISBN 0-9737263-1-8), and three poetry zines. For more samples of her writing check out:

www.annaquon.ca or via twitter

Since 1998, Anna has written feature and news articles on a wide range of subjects for numerous local, regional and national publications. Her favourite stories are those of people with disabilities, entrepreneurs, socially and environmentally conscious folk, and women.

She has also taught English as a Foreign Language in Slovakia, and tutored immigrants and foreign students in conversational English and high-school subjects.

Today, Anna Quon is a full-time freelance writer living and working in Dartmouth Nova Scotia. Though she graduated from Dalhousie University in 1989 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature, she considers her real education to be her experience of mental illness.
Having a mental health disability has given Anna insight into the workings of the mental health system, into the prejudice and discrimination faced by mental health consumers, and into the workings of her own mind. It has made her a more sensitive, compassionate and aware writer, especially when it comes to telling the stories of people with disabilities. ¹

Before she decided to call herself a writer, Anna held a number of different jobs, including day care teacher, administrative assistant, fundraiser/ outreach coordinator for a shelter for victims of family violence, volunteer coordinator of a disability organization, retail sales clerk and communications assistant for a provincial not-for-profit. She hopes the job title of novelist and poet will stick longer than any of them. ²

The Coast - Book Review...

Anna Quon’s debut novel Migration Songs is a hopeful sign for Atlantic Canadian literature moving beyond the traditional rural stories and recognizing that we don’t all share the same history. Though Quon’s Halifax is a blur—this is really a story about the interior life and struggles of Joan, a jobless 30-year-old loner, who feels out of place in this world: “Inside I am dark and shady, like a copper beech, rattling its leaves in the breeze.” Joan’s fragility is protected by matronly Hungarian neighbour Edna, Joan’s British father, David, a staunch Mao supporter, and her mother Gillian, a Chinese-Canadian immigrant. Quon has already mastered the power of restraint, shrinking her character down in size, quietly living in the shadow of her parents and their stories. A strong debut from a new hopeful voice. ³

An excerpt from Migration Songs...

There was no time to get to the hospital. My mother leaned against the kitchen table, holding her belly in one hand and the phone in the other. She called my father, who worked as a hospital administrator, and told him to come home. As usual on a Saturday, he was catching up on his paperwork, but he arrived soon after, ahead of the ambulance, which just goes to show how fast he must have driven our battered old Chrysler.

Read More from Anna Quon's new novel Migration Songs... (here). ⁴

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Beware of C.C.D. It is dangerous

2006-09-02T02:14:00.000-03:00

The house is shrinking
AMP1409163

It is late on a Friday night and I am up beyond midnight. "That's not so uncommon." You say. Well, when most people [younger folks] are out on the town enjoying the nightlife, or the family is out to the movies I sit here tapping out mindless sleep-deprived musings to cyberspace.

I classify this condition as Computer Compulsive Disorder that slowly begins to take over our lives as we spend more and more time in front of the computer screen.

There are millions of blogs out there that recount life's day-to-day events -this is not one, thanks- but there are others out there that offer valuable insights to an immeasurable amount of information, those I like. In either case they must take an enormous amount of time to do and now that I have one of my own I'm left with a quandary....where do I find the time to add "blogging" to my day? Now I guess...

The date stamp obviously does not state the actual time I started this purge, because like all other creatures, sleep is required for good health. There is little of that lately due to commitments to the PC, yes the PC. It seems to me that the personal computer has become a serious threat to good health similar to that of nicotine and caffeine -it can become an addiction.

My faithful feline Sanorra has been expanding her territory that was once a small spot on the la-z-boy. My territory has shrunk to a small tract of land between the chair in front of the PC and the bathroom. Like the regal creature she is -ruling over the human class as if it was destined that way- she is now perched upon a pillow on the sofa looking down over her expanding feline kingdom after an defenseless takeover from an absent King.

Beware late-night bloggers! If you seem to spend more of you waking hours typing into cyberspace you may loose more than sleep.

Global Village Rendezvous

2006-08-31T11:37:00.000-03:00

The World is Getting Smaller
AMP1309163

I am unaccustomed to the furor that surrounds the blogging community. Therefore, it took a day or so to wade through mixed messages of misinformation, defamation and the like. Whether it is rants & raves, or positive sentiments, I am reminded,

"Concern that each human being should enjoy the freedom of thought and action conducive to his or her personal growth does not justify devotion to the cult of individualism that so deeply corrupts many areas of contemporary life."*

Early this morning I woke to an e-mail that was the genesis for this web log. This is a first of an envisioned sporadic number of posts regarding the remnants of an old world order and the glimmerings of hope for the one to be rolled in its stead. As I was saying, this all started this morning...

I awoke to a note in my in box from a friend of many years who had ventured away from her coastal City to the flatlands of the West. It was by her example I followed the path to "blogdom" as today's post is being written. She had, just yesterday, signed up to this online journal experience and as I read, I began to acquire a taste for writing my own slant on the world. Thus far, it feels a tad bit liberating, yet a seemingly waste of time. After all who would be interested in my drabble.

It began very much like any letter from a friend to a friend, the only difference being the potential to be read by the masses. As I followed her words down the page her wit and dead-honest point of view began shining through...she hasn't any inhibitions when it comes to something she believes. I guess some things stay with us for as long as we live.

It was nice to hear her experience of the transition from East Coast to Western Culture and how the Maritimes are everywhere. She tells me, "It is a saying out here that Alberta is friendly because half the Albertans are Maritimers". Many a Bluenoser has made the journey to find a new career and the possibility of expanding their personal prosperity. If mature student status doesn't work out I may head out myself...one never knows.

There is something about a maritime community; it balances hustle with moderation with a long look of calm recognition to the world beyond its borders. I have been to many towns and cities; big and small; however, the East Coast has the enviable quality of taking the good and the bad on an equal footing not letting either get the best of it. It combines the thriving competition of the downtown core with the neighbourly camaraderie of the one street hometown. If I weren’t from here I'd want to be.

The Global Village and the internet's ever-expanding sprawl of worldwide computer networks is only the beginning of a unified system of communication that is delivering the world to the individual, our homes, and our minds.

If getting your feet wet in the ocean of web logs and info sharing will open your eyes to the world and "let your vision be world-embracing", then I'm all for it. Blog On!