January 2012
327 posts
What Americans Keep Ignoring About Finland's... →
bbcity:
‘The Scandinavian country is an education superpower because it values equality more than excellence.’
“Finland’s experience shows that it is possible to achieve excellence by focusing not on competition, but on cooperation, and not on choice, but on equity.”
Some things from the article I found worthy to note.. Compared with the stereotype of the East Asian model — long hours of...
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December 2011
334 posts
My new year’s resolution is not to date anyone.
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happy arbitrary coordinate in space-time, guyz.
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“If ‘x,’ then you will never get married.”
The most oft-repeated refrain of the year [and my entire existence].
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“The isle is full of noises,
Sounds, and sweet airs that give delight and hurt...”
– William Shakespeare, The Tempest
It is really sad that most of this land (desert along Red Sea in Egypt) is not protected. The state owns most of the land but enforces nothing, so large swathes of land and coral reefs are not monitored. Commercially owned areas are often in a similar state of disarray. I have seen some shipwrecks and such from the war of ‘73, but I wonder if there are also undiscovered landmines like those...
Driving through the desert. Where are the bandits?
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““The people are getting out of hand here,” he told Pavel. “A...”
– Boris Pasternak, Doctor Zhivago
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““But in a brutal country like ours where human life is cheap, it’s...”
– Orhan Pamuk, Snow
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“[Marx] considers that notions of ‘individuality’, ‘equality’, ‘private...”
– David Harvey, Limits to Capital (via bbcity)
note to self
matryoshhka:
Do not date epistemological problems.
Note to self: solve the epistemological problem of my inability to learn not to date my epistemological problems.
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There is something so soothing about fighting for something that was lost long ago.
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ennui
“In a love affair, most seek an eternal homeland. Others, but very few, eternal...”
– Walter Benjamin, One Way Street (via possiblesubject)
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Crackdown in Cairo →
In the Hosni Mubarak years, civil society activity was heavily monitored and contained through two main mechanisms: arbitrary interference from the much much-feared State Security Investigations apparatus (now renamed National Security), and draconian legislation passed in 2002 that requires all NGOs to register with the Ministry of Social Solidarity (MOSS) and criminalizes the receipt of...
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timshol asked: What motivated you to name your blog 'matryoshka'? I love matryoshkas as well, but just curious if there was a deeper meaning behind making that your url name?
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words that are different, no. 10
Aesthetic, ascetic, and acetic
“Philosophers want to flee from scholarship: they are pursued by it. We see what...”
– Nietzsche, U II 3. Autumn 1873-Winter 1873-74 (via bbcity)
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“We’re not stupid! We’re just poor! And we have a right to insist on...”
– Orhan Pamuk, Snow
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“Suddenly Ka realized he was in love with İpek. And realizing that this love...”
– Orhan Pamuk, Snow
“badddeeeeesh.”
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The FDA's Christmas Present for Factory Farms →
With the stealthy holiday surprise it dropped last week (full text here), the agency declared it would forgo actual regulatory action and instead “focus its efforts for now on the potential for voluntary reform and the promotion of the judicious use of antimicrobials in the interest of public health.”
As McKenna demonstrates, the industry has shown no signs it will...
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A Year in the Life of Egypt's Media: A 2011... →
charquaouia:
Extensive timeline that covers the events of Egyptian media from the internet shutdown back in January up until today with the ruling of an Egyptian administrative court which banned the practice of “virginity tests” in prison. Check it out!
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Egyptian army officer's diary of military life in... →
Most of the mid-ranking officers are completely uninterested in all the patriotic rhetoric. For them it’s just stable employment with decent benefits; the majority are pretty naive and not very politically conscious, and the revolution took them by surprise. When 25 January [the outbreak of the revolution] began these officers were instinctively against the protests but once the regime...
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The World's Worst Human Rights Observer - David... →
“I am going to Homs,” insisted Sudanese Gen. Mohammad Ahmed Mustafa al-Dabi, the head of the Arab League observer mission, telling reporters that so far the Assad regime had been “very cooperative.”
But Dabi may be the unlikeliest leader of a humanitarian mission the world has ever seen. He is a staunch loyalist of Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir, who is wanted by...
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Moussaka overdose. They took away my pomegranates this morning. Not OK.
I’m leaving Egypt soon. Anyone want anything? Papyrus or cotton or something? Seriously though if its dimensions aren’t too large or it’s not too heavy or too expensive, let me know.
someone educate me. in any subject. give me stuff to read. even if it sucks. i’m an undiscerning sponge.