Mind Soup

I was getting my daily fix of news from google reader this afternoon and I fell upon this inspirational blog post about religious tolerance in Lebanon from Seif and his Beiruti Adventures  and I thought I'd share it with my readers, especially after the journalist incident  last week. I sure hope that Ali Seif doesn't mind the repost. [...] Ramadan seems to have passed by very quickly this year with 10 days or so left of fasting (depending on where you are). Ramadan is one of my favourite months, as I really enjoy the days of fasting, prayer, forgiveness, and blessing associated with this month. It’s a break from the 11 other months of hectic busy schedules, anger, and nagging. I may have mentioned this before, but my family has never been “all that religious” in the past, as is the case with many Sunni Muslim families of the Bekaa Valley (specifically in the Zahle province). I was taught how to pray, fast, and the basic necessities of Islam, but not muc...

This is so evil, but I would totally buy this for my kids if I ever have any! This t-shirt is actually being sold online, so if you want to buy one, check out the website here .

CHICAGO — A Chicago man could be unwrapping the hundreds of Christmas gifts spread around his apartment for days, even weeks. Trouble is, they aren’t really presents. They’re his own belongings meticulously wrapped by friends as a prank while he was out of town. Louie Saunders’ packages contain everything from couch cushions to the beer in his refrigerator. His friend Adal Rifai masterminded the scheme after Saunders gave him a spare key. It took 16 people, 35 rolls of wrapping paper and eight hours to finish the job. Saunders tells the Chicago Sun-Times he’s only been able to unwrap about 10 per cent of the packages. He jokes that the upside is that, with each package he unwraps, he finds something inside that’s just what he needs.

VATICAN CITY — Papal bodyguards overpowered a woman who rushed at Pope Benedict XVI, yanking him to the ground Thursday as he entered St Peter's Basilica to celebrate Christmas Eve mass. Video footage showed the woman, dressed in a red sweatshirt, jumping over a security barricade and rushing at the 82-year-old pope as he began leading the traditional procession of about 30 cardinals to the vast basilica's altar. She was immediately tackled by a security guard, but succeeded in grabbing Benedict's vestments near the neck and yanking him to the ground, according to video footage taken by a pilgrim broadcast on Sky News. Several others fell over in the melee. Prominent French Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, 87, broke a leg in the incident though he was "several metres (yards)" from the pope, Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi told AFP, adding that the prelate was rushed to hospital. The woman is in the custody of the Vatican police, the ANSA news agency reporte...

Yahoo Inc. is closing down for a week over the holidays to save money, but experts said the shutdown is par for the course in Silicon Valley. The Internet company is mandating that most of its employees worldwide, except for those responsible for “essential functions” such as customer service, take off work from Dec. 25 through Jan. 1. In the U.S., employees can either use vacation time for nonholiday dates or take unpaid leave. Workers outside the country will be paid according to local standards, said spokeswoman Dana Lengkeek. Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo told its staff about the break in April, and has recommended employees to take the week off in the past, Lengkeek said. “This is nothing new, just formalized a little more,” she said. “It’s fairly standard in the industry, closing down during a traditionally slow week and giving employees time to recharge. A lot of employees tend to take that week off anyway.” In addition to reducing operations, Yahoo will be turning lights and co...

Deck the pools: Festive divers work at an aquarium in Manila As the lights were switched on in Trafalgar Square last night – and we all start thinking of getting ours in this weekend – other countries were creating their eye-catching variations. The smallest would be pretty tricky to decorate – because it measures less than half the width of a human hair. Little bit of fun: This silicon tree is 0.04mm wide It is made from silicon with an ion beam, normally used on silicon chips, at Britain’s National Physical Laboratory. Meanwhile, Mexico City has gone to the other extreme, hoping to enter the record books with a tree that towers 90m (295ft) over shoppers – beating Rio de Janeiro’s 82m (270ft) effort. Dizzying: Mexico City’s 90m tree dwarfs the traffic passing by Big in another sense is the effort standing in New York’s Rockefeller Center. It has been bedecked with a dazzling 30,000 lights. But lights would be a fairly risky decoration for the tree ...