Budapest Tulips

Budapest Tulips, originally uploaded by Mehretube.

Avec l'eau.

Mother Peacon

Mother Peacon, originally uploaded by Mehretube.

A mother peacon & her chicks. It was incredibly cute.

Prague

Prague, originally uploaded by Mehretube.

More Prague.

Prague

Prague, originally uploaded by Mehretube.

More Prague.

Prague

Prague, originally uploaded by Mehretube.

More Prague.

Prague

Prague, originally uploaded by Mehretube.

A few shots from Prague.

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ሰላም ዮሃንስ

Prague

Prague, originally uploaded by Mehretube.

A few shots from Prague.

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ሰላም ዮሃንስ

Prague

Prague, originally uploaded by Mehretube.

A few shots from Prague.

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ሰላም ዮሃንስ

Cooked Crabbe Mistake

Cooked Crabbe Mistake, originally uploaded by Mehretube.

So instead of a sea slug to eat (this is typical French/Bretagne food) and
various other "sea fruits", this little crabbe had found a home in this
shell. Too bad it cost him his life.

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ሰላም ዮሃንስ

Petit Crabbe

Petit Crabbe, originally uploaded by Mehretube.

A dead crab that Aurelie found... otherwise she insists she would hold it
this way.

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ሰላም ዮሃንስ

Farmer Ranch Ants

Farmer Ranch Ants, originally uploaded by Mehretube.

Farmer Ants, ranching their Aphid cattle. This picture is cooler than I
could have hoped for.

Pretty House

Pretty House, originally uploaded by Mehretube.

Easily one of my favorite pictures. The blue really adds pop to the
picture.

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ሰላም ዮሃንስ

On The Way to Morbihan

On The Way to Morbihan, originally uploaded by Mehretube.

This house an excpetionally green lawn... at a time where they had a water
restriction in place. My friend wasn't impressed.

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ሰላም ዮሃንስ

On The Way to Morbihan

On The Way to Morbihan, originally uploaded by Mehretube.

Still on the way.

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ሰላም ዮሃንስ

On The Way to Morbihan

On The Way to Morbihan, originally uploaded by Mehretube.

Still on the way.

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ሰላም ዮሃንስ

On The Way to Morbihan

On The Way to Morbihan, originally uploaded by Mehretube.

On the way along the beach to Morbihan.

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ሰላም ዮሃንስ

On The Way to Morbihan

On The Way to Morbihan, originally uploaded by Mehretube.

On the way along the beach to Morbihan.

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ሰላም ዮሃንስ

On The Way to Morbihan

On The Way to Morbihan, originally uploaded by Mehretube.

On the way along the beach to Morbihan.

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ሰላም ዮሃንስ

On The Way to Morbihan

On The Way to Morbihan, originally uploaded by Mehretube.

On the way along the beach to Morbihan.

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ሰላም ዮሃንስ

Old Boat

Old Boat, originally uploaded by Mehretube.

I loved this boat. Such character.

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ሰላም ዮሃንስ

Cafe

Cafe, originally uploaded by Mehretube.

Late Cafe dans Ville De Vannes

To Danny Tschind-Kassap

 I have seen something else under the sun:

   The race is not to the swift

   or the battle to the strong,

nor does food come to the wise

   or wealth to the brilliant

   or favour to the learned;

but time and chance happen to them all.

 Moreover, no one knows when their hour will come:

   As fish are caught in a cruel net,

   or birds are taken in a snare,

so people are trapped by evil times

   that fall unexpectedly upon them.

                                      --Ecclesiastes 9:11-12

I remember hearing the news of Danny's heart attack two and a half years ago.  I remember talking to a coworker (a doctor) who worked in an ICU in a major hospital, and him telling me that no matter how stressed the athlete a 26 year old shouldn't have a heart attack.  I remember being in awe of the fact that it had happened in what was the perfect place (short of a hospital) to have a heart attack. High profile race, where the world record would eventually be set.  Early in the race where there were still a lot of people.  I knew then that had it happen on a training run, even with us (& no defibrillator) he wouldn't have made it then.  I remember being grateful, not for the heart attack, but for it happening in the place that it did.

I remember talking about it with Danny, shortly after he came back.  How he felt it was a second chance.  How fortunate he was, to not only survived, but to recover quickly.  He had amazed the doctors, much like he always amazed us.  I could tell, even then, he was going to run again. 

"To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the Gift." -- Steve Prefontaine

How could he not?  It was his passion.  As a runner, few had his talents and fewer still had his passion for it.  No matter how fast he was going, he always looked like this was an easy pace.  His running style was the definition of smooth.  I don't know how many workout I've done with him, but they were never enough. He never raced you in a workout, he would often pause slight, match your pace, then try to pull you along.   It always gave me extra lift when he ran by me.  Even when he didn't say one word, I always came out thinking to run faster.  It was inspiring to be beaten by him.  His passion was running, but his gift was his generosity.  I have no doubt that if he had the time, he would have made a major splash.  With his talent and his work ethic, how could he not?

But it's not Danny the runner I'll miss.  It's Danny, a friend, a man of a generous heart, who I'll miss.

It's hard to believe I wont see him again.  I wont see him fly by, smooth strides belaying his speed.  His gold chain the only sign of hard effort.  I wont see his trademark smile, his easy laugh and joking manner.

I can't believe the years will pass, and he will not be there.  He wont see my life change, I wont see his.  I wont see him getting old and watch his children play.  He wont see mine.  We wont make a bet to see who's kid will be faster, all the while hoping that both our kids will be fast regardless.  But instead he's gone.

A friend dad happen to be praying for him at 1am on the night of his heart attack.  He'd been praying for Danny for the last two and a half years.  So maybe we didn't get robbed of his life.  Maybe instead we received an extra 2.5 years with him.  We got the extra opportunity to get to know him better.  Instead of losing him suddenly in 2008, we got to keep him around until 2011.

And maybe, when this is said and done, when we go join him, we will meet again.  Where we can spend more time with one another. 

For this I hope and pray.

Thank you Danny, for being yourself.

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ሰላም  ዮሃንስ

Happiness comes & goes...

Happiness come and goes.  It's an emotion we feel depending on what is happening.  Are you really going to be happy if you broke your favorite mug?  I doubt it, and why should you be?  It's okay to be sad about... it's was a great mug.  But even though I can be sad at that moment that I lost my favorite mug, I can still be thankful and joyous that I even had a great mug to begin with.

Paul encourages the Thessalonians* to be "joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus".  Think about it, he commands joy.  Which implies that it's a choice.  He commands gratitude, which implies it's a choice.  And finally he indicated this is what God's plan for us is. 

Joy, prayer and gratitude.

In a time of fortune telling, and horoscope reading he gives a simple understanding of what is expected of us.

And you know what?  It doesn't take a whole book, to get this message across.  But it does take us a lot of time and energy to get it down.

So, today I'll practice the first. 

Joy. 

You should too... or not, but it is your choice.

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ሰላም  ዮሃንስ

*1 Thess 5:16-18

Listen Up by Heather

Listen Up by Heather on Piano! from clipontie on Vimeo.

Easily the most talented 9 year old you'll hear in a long time. You will likely hear from her in the future. And she wrote this song! Obviously she's still learning the piano, so we can forgive the piano playing (cause we, of course, demand unnecessary perfection from all internet celebs, duh!).

I think I enjoy her faces almost as much as her song... almost.

Neighbour says lesbians taunted them with racial slurs

The Star
Published On Wed Mar 24 2010

Neighbour says lesbians taunted them with racial slurs

Two Oshawa women who were allegedly assaulted by a black man constantly harassed and used racial slurs against their black neighbours, a court has heard.

Diane Campbell, who lives two doors from Anji Dimitriou and Jane Currie, testified she has called police eight or nine times over the couple's behaviour.

"They're very aggressive people. They call my family 'n---s' and they're constantly attacking us," Campbell said on Tuesday. She testified the couple called her son a "black tar baby monkey."

Campbell was called as a defence witness for Mark Scott, 45, who has pleaded not guilty to two counts of assault causing bodily harm against Dimitriou and Currie. The charges arise from an altercation outside Gordon B. Attersley Public School on Nov. 3, 2008 in which Scott, who is black, and the same-sex couple got into a yelling match.

The women have denied using racial epithets during the confrontation, which was witnessed by school children and parents. However, they have accused Scott of using derogatory terms about their sexual orientation. Days before the incident at the school, Campbell overheard a conversation outside her home involving Dimitriou, 32, and Currie, 38, and three other people, court was told.

Dimitriou referred to "f---ing n---s" and someone said "we're going to get those n---s" the next day, Campbell testified.

"I was scared, thinking they're going to do something to myself or my husband."

The group didn't refer to her family by name and nothing happened, Campbell said, but a few days later her daughter told her about an incident at the school involving Dimitriou and Currie. She didn't elaborate.

The harassment continued after the couple learned Campbell was coming to court to testify, she told defence lawyer Mark Jacula.

Earlier on Tuesday, Angela Hustins, who witnessed the dispute in the school's parking lot, said she heard Currie hurl an "ugly racial slur" at Scott after he punched her and Dimitriou in the face.

"Jane screamed out very loudly, 'you goddamn f---ing n-----. This is why people can't stand your kind'," Hustins told Jacula. "For her to say something like that, it was disgusting. The whole thing made my stomach ill."

Hustins said Scott started the fight by hitting Dimitriou as many as three times, knocking her to the ground. But Dimitriou hit and kicked back, Hustins testified.

"I remember thinking 'this is a full-out brawl'," she said, adding that the slur upset her because she later had to explain it to her young daughter.

Hustins described the scene as "chaotic" with swearing, yelling and "finger-pointing just inches from each other's face."

The trial continues.

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My thoughts.

Clearly this isn't an ordinary situation. I've been on the receiving end of racial slurs from women on more than one occasion, and let me tell you, I wished I was a woman at the time (or had a woman friend there). I've also known men who weren't so reserved about hitting women. Clearly this guy was one such guy. The question is this, what do you make of a situation where a guy gets provoked and responds violently.

Obviously if he hit them, he should pay the price. But the interesting thing about this case is that it was billed as a hate crime. Meaning, he hit them because they were lesbians (in fact he did seem to call them names back). Now it turns out they were the hateful ones. Taking things to a very different place of crime.

Lesbian and racist... and unexpected turn, certainly.

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ሰላም ዮሃንስ

Interesting story. I was at that Toronto show, ManifesTO. And I do remember thinking it was very gracious and generous of K-OS to do that. It's interesting that he would start a beef with K'Naan... wonder why.

Next Time - Remix - Kina Grannis & Ryan "Hydroponikz" Abugan

Kina Grannis is an artist that I discovered very recently. She's got a new video out and has made the Billboard 200 (139 actually) in her new album. If that doesn't sound impressive remember she has no label, publicist or agent. Anyway, aside from the fact that she is a pretty good singer, she writes some very good (original) songs. David Archuleta got her to write a song for him. But this remix is easily of the best songs I've heard in a long time. I can't get enough.

Twilight the Way it should have Been

The way Twilight should have been.

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ሰላም  ዮሃንስ

police article

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/crime/article/775697--officer-charged-after-off-duty-confrontation?bn=1

So a policeman drew a gun at some security guards and flew the scene.  He was not suspended or fired.

Sigh... he was given "desk" duty... dude was off-duty when he drew the gun.  He should be fired.  Period.

I just hope that this is temporary until the trial.

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ሰላም  ዮሃንስ

taxes

People of Toronto complain about the tax hicks... so I looked it up.  This is easy to do with the help of google.  Essentially, you type the city name and then "property tax" that kind of thing.  Or you can just go here that lists (old, from previous year but still good for comparison) them all together.  Click here for 2008 rates (previous were 2006, but has this link imbedded)

So the results? (I'll only list the residential, for brevity)

Toronto 0.8547807%
Mississauga 1.017593%
Whitby 1.423870%
Pickering 1.392348%
Brampton 1.233258%

If you look at the list, you'll note that only Milton comes close.  What does this all mean?  So if you have a $400,000 house this is what you can expect to pay based on the above rate:

Toronto  $3 419.12
Mississauga 4 070.372
Whitby 5 695.48
Pickering 5 569.39
Brampton 4 933.03

A few points here.  Toronto is easily the cheapest, that much is obvious.  Of course $400K gets you a smaller place in T.O than in the other cities.  But what you miss in size of properties, you get in services.  Between the significantly better transit (you can actually take it and get somewhere), to close amenities and all sorts of things to do.  Oh --- let us not forget that the really expensive Police is is not funded by the province, federal governement or shared with other cities (like Mississauga).  And a provincial service of Welfare.  All in all, I'd say a better job than people give the city credit for.







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ሰላም  ዮሃንስ

Typography

As a calligrapher, this typography insipres me.

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ሰላም  ዮሃንስ

Kosher Cellphones

One of the many battle Jesus regularly faced in his day is that of "legality".  Is it lawful to do anything on the Sabbath (like healing a sick person), etc etc etc.  Out of the many things he said, he spoke in Mark 7 about what makes one "unclean".  Specifically he said (it's worth quoting the whole thing):

¹The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus and ²saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were "unclean," that is, unwashed. ³(The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders. ⁴When they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash. And they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles.^[a])

 ⁵So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, "Why don't your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with 'unclean' hands?"

 ⁶He replied, "Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written:
   " 'These people honor me with their lips,
      but their hearts are far from me.
 ⁷They worship me in vain;
      their teachings are but rules taught by men.'^{[b] 8}You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men."

He goes on to explain other things, but it's worth noting that he isn't dismissing God's word, but their use of it.  Anyway, it's interesting and all, but the reason I bring it up is cause I just read about a modern example of this. 

Specifically "kosher" cell phones.

The kosher cellphone looks like an ordinary cellphone, can make and receive calls, and may have a calculator and alarm clock.  But it cannot send or receive text messages, browse the internet or take photos - all activities that could potentially involve behaviour considered "immodest" among Haredis. For example, SMS capability could lead to the unwitting receipt of mass text messages publicising secular events. It could also be used as a method of illicit communication between male and female teenagers.

So far doesn't sound like a big deal right?  After all, all old cellphones would fit this description right?  Well, except for one thing:

All the major Israeli cellphone companies have accommodated the powerful Haredi constituency by providing kosher phones, and cheaper-than-normal packages which connect only with other Haredi numbers.

As the companies have created distinct code prefixes to accompany the kosher phone plans, the phone numbers have quickly become a badge of religious observance.

Not only do some Haredi newspapers refuse to publish ads with non-kosher phone numbers, but parents are worried their children will be blacklisted by the shadchan, or matchmaker, if their numbers are not kosher.[emphasis added]

This is what the problem with Kosher is.  You start with one (seemingly innocent/good/well-intentioned) principle, and it become something else altoghter.  How does one go from being cautious about what you do --- to the point of getting a phone that is fairly limited and even stamped "kosher" with an approval from a Rabbi -- to being forced to have a specific area code/designation?

You can argue that if that person doesn't have this area code, they could make a call with the cell to any number and theoretically could be unclean (i.e. it doesn't "guarantee" it's clean).  But I think Jesus answered it best.

Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, "Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. ¹⁵Nothing outside a man can make him 'unclean' by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him 'unclean.' ... "Don't you see that nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him 'unclean'? ¹⁹For it doesn't go into his heart but into his stomach, and then out of his body." [Mark 7:1415, 18-19]

In other words, if I call this "teenage girl" because I'm concerned for her (for whatever reason). I'm better off than another who has this cellphone, doesn't call her, but meets her in private in order to convince her to do something that she/he shouldn't.  Or if I make some agreement with a person (agreeing to do or not do something), but does not address the true heart of the disagreement.

It's funny where people draw lines really.

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ሰላም  ዮሃንስ

Cancer Research: The Good and bad.

HeLa cells, easily the most cultured human cells ever.  They are cancer cells that come from Henrietta Lacks and African American woman, mother of 5 who died of cervical cancer (aged 31) in 1951.  Her cells have helped advance cancer research immensily.  Not to mention that her cells also helped to make the Polio vaccine.  Still many lines of research are done on her cells. 

A few interesting things about her though.  They say her cells are perhaps the most aggresive growing cells they've even seen.  From the sounds of it, after Henrietta got cancer, she had no real chance of survival.

Also, they were taken without consent.

And her family found out about it 24 years after her death.

I find it interesting as of this article (2000) her family didn't have health coverage.  Not surprising though.




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ሰላም  ዮሃንስ

"Fast" Windows 7 vs. Ubuntu

So the new windows is getting rave reviews for being "fast".  Mostly cause it's better than Vista.  But that's like beating a 93 year old man at a race and claming to be "fast".  From what I understand it's still not as fast as XP.

But let's compare "new" Windows 7 vs the last Ubuntu edition on the same hardware.

Not even close.

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ሰላም  ዮሃንስ

the solution to a controversy

so, I've never really understood the scientific communities uproar over use of embryonic stem cells.  Besides the debatable ethical concerns, I always thought there were some real physiological ones.  Specifically, yes embryonic stem cells are the "most" undifferentiated (in layman's it means that they have the "best" potential to develop into "anything").  But their genetics was also going to be the problem.  They would face the same rejection issue as donated organs.  Different DNA does that.

The other thing I knew is that their are many other kinds of stem cells, placental stem cells (can easily be retreaved at birth with little time and cost), as well as various adult stem cells.  Finally, we have progress in this new development.

A jaw bone grown from adult stem cells.  A solution for all.

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ሰላም  ዮሃንስ

Spammer, Scammers & War

I write this in hopes of helping the was against spammers, scammers and the like.*  This one person, send me an email telling me that he needed to "make sure" no one was pulling a "fast one" over "us".  Oh, and I had family inheritance coming and it was important that I contact him privately.  He let that little detail slip out.  It was such a feeble attempt, I was tempted to just ignore it.

But then I realized that he gave me his real email address.  The one from Honk Kong (it's ending giving it away) and not from Italy like he claimed (.it for italy not ,hk).  So I thought I'd use his stupidity against him.  You see, everytime someone posts an email online, people find it and start spamming it.   Machines just crawl the internet and find anything that resembles an email address and start spamming like crazy. 

Then they sell it to other spammers and so on and so forth. 

So here goes:

macinipedro@yahoo.com.hk
macinipedro@yahoo.com.hk
macinipedro@yahoo.com.hk
macinipedro@yahoo.com.hk
macinipedro@yahoo.com.hk
macinipedro@yahoo.com.hk
macinipedro@yahoo.com.hk

It is my hope this works, though I'll never know.

Btw, if you need to put your address online, you should always write it out.  E.g. email dot address [at] host dot com.  This way the crawling machines which apparently look for the "@" symbol, wont find it.  Hence those emails above. :)

Have a good day spammer. :) He he he.



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ሰላም  ዮሃንስ

*btw, why can't we wage war on these mutually hated things instead of other ridiculousness.

World's Biggest Rat

Giant Rat found in 'lost volcano'.

Here's a (seemingly old) BBC news story about a discovery in Bosavi of a giant wholly rat.  It's 82 cm long head to tail (or about the size of a cat).  And it's not scared of people.  Kinda cute... I think...



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ሰላም  ዮሃንስ

Explaining Emergent Churches

Explaining Emergent Churches - Inner Compass from Calvin College on Vimeo.

Something interesting to listen to (26 minutes). It's about the Emergent Churches. To be honest, I have no idea what they are. Ok... that's not 100% true, I think I can guess at what they might be. Basically it has to do with "fundamentally" changing how churches work. I quote fundamentally because I'm not entirely sure that it is changing Christian at all. Interestingly, the guy in this video says a similar-ish type thing. I'm still processing so I'm not sure.

I have to add that I got this link from a friend (see link at the title). As I watched this I couldn't help but think of a couple of things I've heard from a few different sources, including Rick Warren in his book Purpose Driven Church. Basically that these new movements are often because there is a lack, or something missing from what the churches are currently doing. Even the Collins talks about action, love and being born again I am reminded of Jesus imploring Peter to "feed [his] sheep" (John 21 I believe). Still this is more than interesting to listen to. I know I will have to listen to it a couple of times in order to fully grasp all that he said.