Mind Soup

By the time a person reaches 25, it seems that he/she has become fully saturated emotionally, mentally and sometimes physically. In fact, our generation has witnessed the highest stress level among all generations. Recent studies  have shown that high school students today have the same anxiety levels as insane asylum mental patients during the 1950’s. Our generation strives so hard to stand out, both at work and at home, in an attempt to be noticed in the highly competitive environment that we live in. Suddenly, attaining a comfortable living is not such an easy task. We work hard to be able to hold everything together and push ourselves to and beyond our limits and this has taken its toll greatly on us. The amount of information that we now acquire by the time we are twenty is probably more information than previous generations could learn in a lifetime. With the widespread access of information through the internet, TVs, mainstream and social media, we are bombarded...

I was recently contacted by Tomooh to spread awareness about a scholarship that has been going unnoticed. PepsiCo has an ongoing scholarship program since the past 6 years called Tomooh. It is a scholarship program funding the education of those with high academic performance. It gives partial scholarships starting $500 up to $5,000 depending solely on the academic performance and financial needs of the applicants. Only 500 students are applying each year and more than 200 are getting scholarships; they believe that much more deserving students would apply if they were aware and informed about the scholarships which have become close to 300 this year. For the past two years, the program has been dedicating 10% of its funds for students with special needs. Hopefully this year even more students will benefit. The program is active in Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt, and have given partial scholarships to more than a 1000 students in Lebanon so far, it's their 6th year and deadline f...

AP : A Saudi judge has asked several hospitals in the country whether they could damage a man's spinal cord as punishment after he was convicted of attacking another man with a cleaver and paralyzing him, the brother of the victim said Thursday. Abdul-Aziz al-Mutairi, 22, was left paralyzed and subsequently lost a foot after a fight more than two years ago. He asked a judge in northwestern Tabuk province to impose an equivalent punishment on his attacker under Islamic law, his brother Khaled al-Mutairi told The Associated Press by telephone from there. He said one of the hospitals, located in Tabuk, responded that it is possible to damage the spinal cord, but it added that the operation would have to be done at another more specialized facility. Saudi newspapers reported that a second hospital in the capital Riyadh declined, saying it could not inflict such harm. Administrative offices of two of the hospitals and the court in Tabuk were closed for the Saudi weekend beginning ...

Zara - Now on Sale So the world cup is over, what happens to the car? "Use of the elevator is prohibited for going up/down one floor" "Get Married for LL39000" = $26 Lebanese Flag during one of the World Cup 2010 games in South Africa

Via Maurice Salem , from Cyanide & Happiness (my favorite comics website).

During all police investigations it will be necessary to visit a strip club at least once. If being chased through town, you can usually take cover in a passing St. Patrick's Day parade - at any time of the year. It's easy for anyone to land a plane providing there is someone in the control tower to talk you down. The ventilation system of any building is the perfect hiding place.  No one will ever think of looking for you in there and you can travel to any other part of the building you want without difficulty. You're very likely to survive any battle in any war unless you make the mistake of showing someone a picture of your sweetheart back home. Should you wish to pass yourself off as a German officer, it will not be necessary to speak the language.  A German accent will do. The Eiffel Tower can be seen from any window in Paris. A man will show no pain while taking the most ferocious beating but will wince when a woman tries to clean his wounds. If a large pane o...

This is an actual notice one of the political science professors posted at my university right after the beginning of the finals period. Which reminds me, I have an exam in 7 hours, better go sleep. Wish me luck :)

NEW YORK -- J.D. Salinger, the legendary author, youth hero and fugitive from fame whose "The Catcher in the Rye" shocked and inspired a world he increasingly shunned, has died. He was 91. Salinger died of natural causes at his home on Wednesday, the author's son said in a statement from Salinger's literary representative. He had lived for decades in self-imposed isolation in the small, remote house in Cornish, N.H. "The Catcher in the Rye," with its immortal teenage protagonist, the twisted, rebellious Holden Caulfield, came out in 1951, a time of anxious, Cold War conformity and the dawn of modern adolescence. The Book-of-the-Month Club, which made "Catcher" a featured selection, advised that for "anyone who has ever brought up a son" the novel will be "a source of wonder and delight - and concern." Enraged by all the "phonies" who make "me so depressed I go crazy," Holden soon became American litera...

When Lynn Middlebrooks Geter found that her 12-year-old son's report card wasn't to her liking, she didn't offer to help him with homework or ask teachers for extra instruction. No, she decided something more drastic was in order. The 38-year-old mom from Warm Springs, Georgia decided the best way for her boy to learn was to kill his pet hamster. With a hammer. The kid, naturally, was quit upset. What would happen with his next report card? Would he have to beat his sister to death to improve his commitment to math? So he told his teacher about it the next day. The teacher called social workers, who in turn called the Meriwether County sheriff's department. For her visionary parenting strategies, Geter is now in jail for animal cruelty, child cruelty and battery. UPDATE: Lynn Geter was either the greatest mom in Georgia, or a Mommy Dearest who put up a good show in public, but was a wicked witch inside the privacy of her own home. Those seem to be the radically dif...

School buses in Japan School buses in India Can you spot the difference?

For once, you can take the “@” symbol at the front of a Twitter account name literally. The Twitter name “@arjanelfassed” is not only the Twitter account of one Arjan El Fassed; it’s also the name of an actual location, “@ arjanelfassed tweetstreet,” which is now a street in a Palestinian refuge camp. The Dutch website Jouw Eigen Straatnam charges $146 for each of 200 street names in the Askar camp and gives the proceeds to the Palestinian Child Care Society (PCCS), according to Al Fassed, to fund “cultural and expressive after-school activities” for the up to 1,000 children in the camp at its youth center. Part of the program’s allure, he says, is that the corresponding street signs are temporary. “Since a refugee camp by definition should not remain permanent, selling street names of the camp is a creative way to connect people and support these children after school,” said Arjan El Fassed. “Naming the street to my Twitter account is a symbolic way to connect both online a...

 

What is a human made of?