If we could turn the population of Earth into a small community of hundred people, keeping the same proportions we have today, it would be someting like this...

Ben 'Apologises'..Not really

On Sunday, September 17^th, during his address to the faithful, Pope Benedict XVI said that he was sorry for the reaction to the quotation he had used about Islam during his lecture at the Regensburg University in Germany.

I would like to discuss two points about the Regensburg lecture.

First is the word “read”. The message of Islam had started with this word. Read before you express yourself on any subject. In this case by reading I mean making some effort to find out if perhaps quotations from Rumi, Ghazlani, Ibn Khaldun, Saadi or Hafiz may indicate more accurately what Islam is all about, than a ‘conversation’ that took place between an unnamed scholar and the Emperor of a dying empire.

The question is not about the quotation as such, or about what it says, or in what context etc. The question is: Why was such a quotation selected in the first place?

Much has been written about the naïveté’ and the ignorance of the pontiff, words in my opinion which are inadequate.

French philosopher A.Besancon said on September 17^th that in his opinion “ it was the purpose of the Pope to point to the difference” between religions.

Polish Professor Wolniewicz said that the Pontiff used his words and quotations “to strengthen the moral backbone of the West”.

In other words, these philosophers are saying it was not the Popes naïveté or ignorance that was on display here, but that it is an indication that the Holy See thinks that any possible dialogue with Islam has many limitations – limitations which are bigger than the ones indicated earlier, for example, during the papacy of John Paul II.

Of course there is great scope for strengthening Europe’s moral backbone. This Europe looks at its spiritual roots and heritage with contempt, claims the right to decide on human life by exercising abortion and euthanasia, deems Gay marriages as holy as any other form of matrimony and wants to make God a private matter of evening prayer, if at all. But selecting quotations from forgotten kings of a fallen empire 600 years ago will not strengthen the backbone of Europe’s morality.

Of course the biggest fight that has to be fought today will be within the body of Islam. It is a fight between the moderate majority and the most vocal criminal extremist minority. The problem is that the moderates are moderate in articulating their views.

If one looks at history Islam has been hijacked atleast thrice. The first time was when the royal houses were established; second, when the Ulema serving them claimed the right to establish what Islam was about – women were the greatest victims of this hijacking. The third time it has been hijacked by terrorists.

Muslim intellectuals, open-minded imams and most importantly, the common man, the man on the street must speak about moderation, must shout out a big “NO” against the criminal acts which are being carried out under the banner of faith.

It is also imperative for all those in Europe who want to speak about Islam, who want to express their opinions and take part in the dialogue, to first read what they want to talk about, and not hide later behind words like “regret” and “ I was not aware”.

Second; Let us not forget the proverb that ‘people living in glass houses should not throw stones’. There were wars in the history of Islam and there were wars in the history of Christianity. And of course there were wars between states that would send their armies under the banner of both these faiths. And as the Romans would say: “ inter arma silent leges”. In the times of war, laws are silent. Sadly.

Today the biggest bastion of Christianity is the continent of South America, a continent where the whole native population was either slaughtered by Christians or forced to become Christians. There is no disputing the fact that military force played a part in the spread if Islam also, especially in the post-caliphate era. These are historical facts. Also even today there is no denying the efforts being made by Christian missionaries to spread their faith to every corner of the world, especially in Moslem countries. Such movements are not found within Islam (Conversion to Islam, when it has and continues to occur is by individuals alone who ‘read’ and learn to know about its message themselves).

So It does not serve any positive purpose to raise issues like who was converting whom more forcibly, and to what extent. One may also conclude that the Pope had ulterior motives behind making this remark, willing to endure the initial backlash that was expected.

The bottom line is that politics has consistently used religion for its own purpose.

One would however expect a certain level of responsibility from any organisation or faith based institute, a certain degree of goodwill. The quality of the heart should take precedent over the pride, and the conviction of having monopoly over the Truth.

One hopes that it is through a dialogue on values, not on doctrine, that Islam and Christianity would get to know each other. Knowledge will bring understanding and respect. Let us also try and not insult each other’s intelligence in the process.

Former Friends star Matt LeBlanc and his wife of three years, Melissa McKnight, finalized their divorce Wednesday, according to court documents obtained by PEOPLE.

LeBlanc and McKnight will share joint and legal custody of their 2-year-old daughter, Marina (who has suffered from a brain disorder). LeBlanc will provide $15,000 a month for child support until Marina turns 18. He will also cover 100 percent of her medical and nanny costs and school tuition. Both LeBlanc and McKnight waive all claims for spousal support.

The couple separated last January, when LeBlanc, 39, announced he was moving out of the Encino, Calif., home he shared with McKnight, 41, their daughter and McKnight's two children from a previous marriage. "It was very sudden," McKnight's longtime friend Kelly Phillips told PEOPLE at the time. "She was absolutely blindsided by what transpired." Citing "irreconcilable differences," LeBlanc filed for divorce in March. "The dissolution is amicable," his publicist Joe Libonati said in a statement. "They remain devoted parents and friends."

Shortly thereafter, PEOPLE reported that LeBlanc had been involved with his Joey costar Andrea Anders, 31. Although the new couple are still together, the show didn't fare as well; it was cancelled in May.

LeBlanc and McKnight, a former model, were introduced in 1997 by actor Lou Diamond Phillips and his then-wife, Kelly. After a five-year engagement, they were married on May 3, 2003, in Hawaii in front of 75 guests that included former Friends costars Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox and Lisa Kudrow.

Daily show takes on Dubya Bubya Bush

In focusing solely on Hugo Chavez's characterization of Bush as the devil, the mainstream media have succeeded in aiming attention away from the Venezuelan President's most salient point made during his UN speech - CIA control of terror cells around the world and their protection of plane bomber Luis Posada.

According to documents released by the George Washington University's National Security Archive, and verified by the BBC, Luis Posada Carriles was a CIA agent and on the payroll from the 1960s until mid-1976.

Posada was part of an anti-Cuban terror cell called Commanders of United Revolutionary Organizations (CORU), led by another CIA operative Orlando Bosch. From the mid-1970's Posada and Bosch instigated a reign of terror that spanned seven countries, carrying out over 50 bombings and political assassinations - including the October 1976 bombing of a Cuban passenger plane as it took off from Barbados, killing 73 innocent people on board.

All at the behest of the current President's father and then CIA Director George H.W. Bush.

Posada and Bosch were arrested and jailed in Venezuela but promptly escaped in 1985 when money from Miami, funneled in by fellow terrorist Gaspar Jimenez Escobedo, was used to bribe prison guards.

The two were then transported by terrorist handler and Cuban expatriate Felix Rodriguez to El Salvador to link up with Oliver North and the Iran-Contra conspiracy, supplying Contras against the Sandinista government of Nicaragua.

Two years later Senator Tom Harkin stated the American people "deserve a full accounting of [then Vice President] Bush and the vice president's office and its knowledge of Luis Posada's role in the secret contra supply operation."

Posada's terrorist accomplice Rodriguez, pictured above with Che Guevara in the hours before Guevara's assassination, bragged during his Iran-Contra congressional testimony of having personally met with George H.W. Bush.

After El Salvador, Posada was given safe passage by the U.S. government and allowed to continue to carry out terrorist atrocities, including a wave of tourist industry bombings in Havana during the 1990's.

Posada was finally arrested by federal agents in Miami in May of 2005, but a recent ruling by US magistrate Norbert Garney in El Paso, Texas, will pave the way for the CIA asset and mass murderer to be released once again.

Whether or not you agree with the politics of trying to undermine Communist regimes during the Cold War - the fact remains that the U.S. government has historically created and hired terrorist organizations to carry out acts of mass murder of innocent people to further geopolitical agendas - and has then deliberately protected terrorists from arrest or prosecution.

The hypocrisy of a government and a Bush dynasty supposedly engaged in a war on terror and yet concurrently the biggest sponsor of global terror was made plain by Chavez during his speech yesterday.

"And we must recall in this room that in just a few days there will be another anniversary. Thirty years will have passed from this other horrendous terrorist attack on the Cuban plane, where 73 innocents died, a Cubana de Aviacion airliner," said Chavez.

"And where is the biggest terrorist of this continent who took the responsibility for blowing up the plane? He spent a few years in jail in Venezuela. Thanks to CIA and then government officials, he was allowed to escape, and he lives here in this country, protected by the government."

"And he was convicted. He has confessed to his crime. But the U.S. government has double standards. It protects terrorism when it wants to," said the Venezuelan President.

"I accuse the American government of protecting terrorists and of having a completely cynical discourse."

Subsequent media response to Chavez's speech framed the debate to only include discussion of his "devil" reference - an almost offhand joke at the start of the talk - and completely ignored the detailed enunciation of the U.S. government's protection of the CIA's terrorist operatives.

Fox News (see above) seized upon the "devil" quote and used it to demonize Chavez as having lost his mind - absent any mention of the Posada topic.

Chavez again alluded to U.S. government complicity in 9/11, a subject he had raised in a previous speech.

"And I would just add one thing: Those who perpetrated this crime are free. And that other event where an American citizen also died were American themselves. They were CIA killers, terrorists."

Amid the difficult translation, Chavez is clearly making reference to elements of the CIA being behind 9/11.

The media is complicit, acting as gatekeepers in a desperate attempt to edit and obfuscate the hard-hitting and increasingly revealing speeches given by Hugo Chavez. The Venezuelan President's bold intention to rip away the veil of deceit in exposing western state sponsored terror should be applauded and given as much play as possible by the alternative media.

911 Remembered

[This is part 1 of a 4 part series titled '911:THE ISRAELI CONNECTION' aired on FOX.To see the rest click LINK]

Five years ago to this day, the world as we know it changed...

Not really. Write 'OPERATION NORTHWOOD' on Wiki and you’ll see what I mean.

Once the 'shock and awe ' of Sept 11th had elapsed, one begins to question; NOT 'who' or 'why', but 'how?’ To the first two Q's we have long been prepped; Islamic terrorists (now Islamic Fascists), who hate our freedom, led by Osama, came down from their caves in the Bora Bora, a cavalry of bearded Jihadists chanting 'God is Great and Death to America’. They had managed to devise and implement a plan so devious and so sophisticated. Wait that's not right!..Sophisticated?? Maybe just very very lucky then! After all how could a renegade of bearded mullahs infiltrate the most powerful nation in the Universe (Life as we know it exists only on Earth) and train within it's borders and unleash a deadly attack on it's centers of commerce and power, in a perfectly synchronized fashion and with military precision? And what of the Grand Finale’; How does one explain the perfect collapse of the two towers? Was it just me, or did it not look an awful lot like a controlled demolition? You know, the crunch in the middle followed by the classic fall? Are we supposed to believe that 110 storey’s of concrete and steel came raining down because a plane crashed into it, and that too not into its foundation? (A foundation, which by the way goes some 7storeys down!) The official explanation being jet fuel caused the iron rods to melt; when there are dozens of recorded cases of skyscrapers catching fire, sometimes burning for 18hours nonstop and they never collapsed? And what of the collapse of the infamous Building 7(it's actually never been aired on prime time TV)? Why did this sister dwarf of the WTC collapse when it was never hit by a plane, and that too in a smooth fall? (Just like when a foundation gives away and the rest just follows). Building 7 was just grazed on the side.

And this goes on and on...So WHO was responsible?

There is mounting evidence that the events of 9/11 had little or nothing to do with freedom hating Moslems and a lot more to do with a 'Neocon Oil mafia ' currently in office in the White House and what has been called the 'Invisible Government'

The Invisible Government & 9/11 Synthetic Terror

Lifting The Curtain On The Invisible Government

The claims that OBL had been behind the attacks has long been refuted [1,2,3], also see http://www.public-action.com/911/oblintrv.html

The heinous act of 911 was but the necessary first step towards achieving the Neoconservatives dream of total and absolute control (George Orwell must be rolling in his grave now)! To Dubya Bush it also meant Energy security, to his Master, The Dick Cheney, it also meant more shares in Halliburton, The Carlyle Group etc.

For someone who's knowledge of International Politics is limited to what he glimpses on CNN as he quickly skips to ESPN, this may seem absurd; the idea that 911 was probably carefully orchestrated by elements within the US Government and possibly some of it's allies (namely mossad)...However there is a wide body of evidence to this effect; don’t take my word for it, see for yourself! The video links given below will open your eyes and hopefully you will also manage to 'unplug' from the matrix of media control and the lies that have been fed to us..

There is a growing movement in the United States itself, Not in the Arab world mind you, comprising many scholars, prominent Physicists and politicians who have accused their Government of having a hand in 911...

• http://www.questions911.com I highly Recommend you see the CSPAN and Loose Change videos if nothing else:

CSPAN Coverage of 911 Truth Conference 07292006 1of4 (WMV 47megs)

CSPAN Coverage of 911 Truth Conference 07292006 2of4 (WMV 47megs)

CSPAN Coverage of 911 Truth Conference 07292006 3of4 (WMV 47megs)

CSPAN Coverage of 911 Truth Conference 07292006 4of4 (WMV 47megs)

• http://www.physics911.net
• http://www.unansweredquestions.org
• http://www.911truth.org
• http://www.infowars.com
• http://www.americanscholarssymposium.org

Audemus jura nostra defendere "we dare to defend our rights"

MSAI

The Maldivian students in JIPMER, India have started an online community project ' The Maldivian Students Abroad Initiative ', which aims to bring the thousands of students from Maldives studying abroad on a common platform for exchange of views and ideas on a range of subjects and issues.

The web page (http://www.maldivianstudents.com) launched on 02.09.2006 is still in its infancy and is essentially a forum, which also includes a Student Guide that will hopefully be useful to aspiring students back home on the options available to them. The forum if successful will give way to healthy exchange of ideas between Maldivians doing higher studies abroad and will hopefully evolve into a 'Vox Populii', if you will, that will contribute its just share to the continuing development of Maldives.

For the record, our goal is not political, but given the fact that the youth (college goers in our case) makeup the substantial chunk of our tiny population, we hope to play however a small part, by discussion and free flow of thought. The future of our small home is after all, undeniably, in our hands. We seek no affiliations and all we ask is the participation and support from all well-wishers, to make this forum a success.

So I'm inviting all Maldivians doing higher studies abroad to join our forum :)

CogitoErgoSum

The World as I see It- By Einstein

"How strange is the lot of us mortals! Each of us is here for a brief sojourn; for what purpose he knows not, though he sometimes thinks he senses it. But without deeper reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people -- first of all for those upon whose smiles and well-being our own happiness is wholly dependent, and then for the many, unknown to us, to whose destinies we are bound by the ties of sympathy. A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving...

"I have never looked upon ease and happiness as ends in themselves -- this critical basis I call the ideal of a pigsty. The ideals that have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Kindness, Beauty, and Truth. Without the sense of kinship with men of like mind, without the occupation with the objective world, the eternally unattainable in the field of art and scientific endeavors, life would have seemed empty to me. The trite objects of human efforts -- possessions, outward success, luxury -- have always seemed to me contemptible.

"My passionate sense of social justice and social responsibility has always contrasted oddly with my pronounced lack of need for direct contact with other human beings and human communities. I am truly a 'lone traveler' and have never belonged to my country, my home, my friends, or even my immediate family, with my whole heart; in the face of all these ties, I have never lost a sense of distance and a need for solitude..."

"My political ideal is democracy. Let every man be respected as an individual and no man idolized. It is an irony of fate that I myself have been the recipient of excessive admiration and reverence from my fellow-beings, through no fault, and no merit, of my own. The cause of this may well be the desire, unattainable for many, to understand the few ideas to which I have with my feeble powers attained through ceaseless struggle. I am quite aware that for any organization to reach its goals, one man must do the thinking and directing and generally bear the responsibility. But the led must not be coerced, they must be able to choose their leader. In my opinion, an autocratic system of coercion soon degenerates; force attracts men of low morality... The really valuable thing in the pageant of human life seems to me not the political state, but the creative, sentient individual, the personality; it alone creates the noble and the sublime, while the herd as such remains dull in thought and dull in feeling.

"This topic brings me to that worst outcrop of herd life, the military system, which I abhor... This plague-spot of civilization ought to be abolished with all possible speed. Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism -- how passionately I hate them!

"The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed. It was the experience of mystery -- even if mixed with fear -- that engendered religion. A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, our perceptions of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty, which only in their most primitive forms are accessible to our minds: it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute true religiosity. In this sense, and only this sense, I am a deeply religious man... I am satisfied with the mystery of life's eternity and with a knowledge, a sense, of the marvelous structure of existence -- as well as the humble attempt to understand even a tiny portion of the Reason that manifests itself in nature."

You guys have to check this out ! A guy walks the streets of America and asks random people some pretty easy questions.The answers he got, you won't believe.Example:He asks one lady 'what is a mosque?'...she has no idea..He asks her to guess..She replies "an animal"...

Teen Brain: It's All About Me

It may be a "me first" world in the typical teen brain.Brain scans show that teen's brains may still be developing when it comes to sensitivity to other people's feelings.

And in a second study, the same researchers found that adolescents and preadolescents are slower at predicting how another person might feel in a given situation.

Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, PhD, of University College London, worked on the two studies.

"We think that a teenager's judgment of what they would do in a given situation is driven by the simple question: 'What would I do?'" Blakemore says, in a University College London news release.

"Adults, on the other hand, ask: "What would I do, given how I would feel and given how the people around me would feel as a result of my actions?'" she continues.

Blakemore presented the findings from the studies today in Norwich, England, at the BA Festival of Science, held by the British Association for the Advancement of Science.

Finally LOST season 3

(SPOILER WARNING)

After giving some answers and leaving behind even more perplexing questions, Season 2 of LOST had ended leaving me absolutely spellbound and crying for more.Initially I had had my doubts on the series; thinking how in the world they are gonna make a whole season about a group of people stranded on a mysterious, and apparently uninhabited island miles away from civilisation and in the middle of nowhere.But boy, did I get it wrong ! LOST will literally glue you to the TV..PC monitor in my case ! The thing about LOST is , there is no way one can predict whats gonna happen.

While much of the East was barely getting started on Season one, viewers in the US were onto Season2.Me and my friends managed to keep up with the States by downloading the latest episodes.

Season2 ended with viewers wondering how Sayid is gonna try and falter "Henry Gale" and 'others' plans for Jack,Kate,Sawyer, why the 'ell did they let Hurley go, and what's with the 'Big toe', and what about the blinding explosion..to mention a few

Season 3 will finally premiere on Oct. 4 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on ABC.Viewers in Asia will probably start on Season 2.Those of us who wanna stay ahead of the game will have to opt for downloading...

After the first six episodes, fans will have to wait three months to see the remainder of the season. ABC President Stephen McPherson blamed the show's intense production schedule for the delay. "If we could run 22 [episodes] straight in the fall, we would. But we just can't get the shows done in that amount of time."

As for me, my exams are looming overhead.Im due to write third year exams in November..so i guess Season 3's gonna have to wait..Mannn :(

[SPOILER WARNING]
http://www.lostpedia.com/wiki/Main_Page

Australian naturalist and television personality Steve Irwin has been killed by a stingray during a diving expedition off the Australian coast.

Mr Irwin, 44, died after being struck in the chest by the stingray's barb while he was filming a documentary in Queensland's Great Barrier Reef.
Paramedics from Cairns rushed to the scene but were unable to save him.
Mr Irwin was known for his television show The Crocodile Hunter and his work with native Australian wildlife.
Me and my bro's were devoted fans of NatGeo,Animal Planet and all things wild, and steve's show was among our favourites...Steve, you'l be missed dearly mate' :(

Get this: Majority, a whopping 83% of Americans, believe Charlie Sheen's(Star of the hit series 'Two and half men') claims that 911 was a Government coverup !
That my friends is no small victory for Our 'War on Lies and Deceit'

"This is a watershed moment in the struggle to create a powerful, educated and active contingent of individuals with no hierarchical structure but with a unified cause."

Audemus jura nostra defendere

"we dare to defend our rights"