Guantanamo Bay Prison Guard describes Quranic recitation

There was usually one detainee who would lead the call to prayer at five in the morning. That person was in the very last cell. The detainees, they sang beautifully. It was so eerie to hear, because it was such a beautiful song, and to hear forty-eight detainees just get up in the morning and, in unison, sing this gorgeous song that I could never understand — because Arabic is way out of my range of possibility — it was really intense. 

my own Styrofoam creations

(Listen to the Quran being recited by a young boy)

Singing in Unison?  That’s not how we pray Fajr (morning prayer) in my Mosque.  The Prison Gaurd  went on to describe how the prisoner’s would draw on foam cups. He observed that the prisoner’s don’t draw the human form, but instead drew flowers.  (This guard knows more then some of my Sunday school students.) The cups would then be taken by the guards, examined, and thrown away.  The Guard attempted suicide using a ceiling fan but it ended up breaking when he attempted to tie rope to it.  Pretty disturbing stuff.

Obese people should pay more

During the 1990’s,  Americans gained 10 pounds on average.  This required airlines to spend an extra 350 million gallons of fuel a year.   Thats approximately  $1.3 billions dollars at today’s gas prices. 

Apparently, Americans  are demanding that obese people pay more for airline tickets.  Some experts are also pushing for it to happen, not out of hatred for fat people, but out of concern for being fair to the passengers that have to sit next to them. 

I definitely wouldn’t mind obese people paying more when it comes to insurance companies.  (more weight=more diseases) but I am not so sure about using weight as a measure of price for airline tickets. 

Original Article from Newsweek

Obama Prayer Note Heist

It is customary for people who visit Israel to write a prayer note and lodge it in Jerusalem’s Western Wall, a hallowed ground for Jews. In fact there are even services provided by the Israeli Telephone Service that allow you to fax such notes to Israel where they are then presumably printed out and conveniently stuck in the wall, saving that expensive plane ticket to Israel (gas prices, huh?). Of course this practice did not escape Presidential Candidate Barack Obama’s keen eye during his excessively publicized trip to Isreal. He of course scribbled a note and placed it in the wall, only to be stolen, seconds later by a seminary student who apparently sold it to the Israeli paper Ma’ariv. Despite the apparent moral concerns of revealing a high profile political figure’s prayer note, Ma’ariv shamelessly published the note for all the world to see. The note read:

Lord,

Protect my family and me. Forgive me my sins and help me guard against pride and despair.

Give me the wisdom to do what is right and just.

And make me an instrument of your will.

What does this say about Barack Obama? Its hard to say. Did he expect it to get stolen? Was it staged? An outlandish statement for sure but such a poignant note written in a moments notice? I mean if someone said, “Hey, write a prayer and stick in that wall!” I’m fairly certain the normal person wouldn’t ask God to make him or her an “instrument of your will”.

Here’s a video of the thieves plundering the note from the wall:

Zionists hack facebook

The “Jewish Internet Defense Force” or JIDF hacked into facebook and took down the group called “Israel” is not a country… … Delist it from Facebook as a country!. They erased 4000 member’s from the facebook group.  They accused the Facebook group of being Gasp! Anti-Semetic.  Even though most of the member’s in the group were probably semites.  They also accused the group of being pro-jihad and inciting hatred.  The group was founded by an American Jew named David Appletree.  So much for free speech.  I found this article on an Israeli Website but I could’nt find it being reported on any American media.

Bear Attack PSA

Find out how to survive a bear attack below.  

Taiwan’s High-Tech Security System

  

Looks like America isn’t the only nation having a hard time recruiting people to join the Army.  Locals noticed that a local army base in TaoYuan Province, Taiwan had guards that never moved from their location.  They went in for a closer inspection and found that they were just dummies.  The army base was forced to remove the dummy soldiers shortly after being exposed.

Article Here

Magic?

A berry that makes even the sourest and bitterest of foods taste sweet? Sounds like something out of Harry Potter. But its true, a berry that on its own has been described as less flavorful cranberry works miracle with your taste buds, crack one open, swirl it around for a minute and voila! Get that bottle of tabasco sauce, lemon juice or vinegar out of your cupboard and drink away! Tabasco sauce reputedly tastes like doughnut glaze and straight up lemons taste as sweet as baklava. Since there really is no commercial use for them, they aren’t widely grown. Only one man in the United States grows them from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and with recent influx in publicity, the price is quite high: a thirty fruit minimum at $3 a fruit and shipping fee of $30 makes your order out to $120. The website says that orders could be delayed several weeks due to the backlog in supply. Very recently however, Garden of Eden Gourmet Market has started carrying the wonder fruit and with several location around northern New  Jersey and New York, they might yet be within our grasp although of course prices and availability vary so calling ahead is your best bet.

Mccain elected President after defeating Hillary Clinton.

Apparently the McCain camp never expected to face Barack Obama as a presidential nominee.  They posted a page on their website, prematurely declaring Jon McCain the winner (about 4 months early).  Thankfully, someone from Reddit.com took a screen grab and posted it for everyone to see. (Click on the picture to enlarge it.)

Playstation may have incited war in Congo

“Kids in Congo were being sent down mines to die so that kids in Europe and America could kill imaginary aliens in their living rooms,” said British politician Oona King, who was a Member of Parliament from 1997 to 2005.

When Sony launched the Playstation 2 in 2000, it caused a huge increased in the demand for a black metallic ore called Coltan.  Coltan is refined into a powder called tantalum, which is then used to make cellphones, laptops, playstations, etc.  The powder rose in price from $49/pound to $275/pound after the Playstation 2’s debut.  The Playstation 2 sold about 140 million consoles and is the best-selling video game console. (if you dont include the Nintendo DS.)  Sony has since sworn not to use tantalum acquired from Congo anymore.  Check out the original article here.

Batman vs. George W. Bush

The Dark Knight was loaded with political commentary.

(SPOILERS BELOW)
The main villain was a terrorist that was trying to spread anarchy and chaos throughout Gotham City.  Batman is forced to install a high-tech security system that spies on 30 million people in order to find him (much to the dismay of his boss, Lucious Fox, who threatens to quit if the security system isn’t destroyed.)  Batman also uses torture on the Joker in order to find out where Rachel Dawes is being kept.  The torture works to a certain degree but only because the Joker allows it too. It’s clear that Christopher Nolan likes drawing parallels to 2008.  But how much relevance would Adam West’s Batman from the 1960’s have today?  (We still don’t have shark repellant spray.)  A comedy group called Secret Pants challenged people to try and distinguish phrases from either Bush or (Adam West’s) Batman.  The result is hilarious.  Check it out below.