Missing Mary Road

fascinating stuff…

A digest of last week’s prophetic and interpretive thought

“I was not commenting and I will not comment on the wisdom of making a decision to put a mosque there. I was commenting very specifically on the right that people have that dates back to our founding.” —Barack Obama

“We all know that they have the right to do it, but should they?” —Sarah Palin

“Where the ‘Ground Zero mosque’ is concerned, opposition is roughly proportional to distance, even in New York.” —Hendrik Hertzberg

“I believe that this is an important test of the separation of church and state—as important a test as we may see in our lifetimes—and it is critically important that we get it right.” —Michael Bloomberg

“Obviously my opinion is that I’m opposed to it.” —John McCain

“If you are a healer, you do not go forward with this project. If you’re a warrior, you do.” —Rudy Giuliani

“It’s a community center. They’re going to have a gym. They’re going to have point guards. Muslim point guards.” —Al Franken

“Nazis don’t have the right to put up a sign next to the Holocaust Museum in Washington. We would never accept the Japanese putting up a site next to Pearl Harbor. There’s no reason for us to accept a mosque next to the World Trade Center.” —Newt Gingrich

“There is no valid comparison there.” —Pat Buchanan

“This is like a metastasized anti-Semitism.” —Daisy Khan

“We strengthen America by distinguishing, clearly and unequivocally, between our al-Qaida enemy and our Muslim neighbors.” —Jeff Merkley

“How is this opposition to the mosque being funded? How is this being ginned up?” —Nancy Pelosi

“It is a real affront to people who lost their lives…. Another site would be a better idea.” —Howard Dean

“The longer we have this feud, the more the terrorists are laughing.” —David Paterson

before

after

The pictures above are self explanatory and are taken on August 13th 2001 and August 18th 2010 respectively. Large images are also available, before and after.

The Indus River at Sukkur was at exceptionally high levels on August 18, 2010, when the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured the top false-color image. The upper image shows the Sukkur region on August 13, 2001. Water ranges from dark blue to silvery blue, and plant-covered land is red in the false-color image.

Sukkur is the hub of a crucial irrigation network that brings water to farms throughout the Sindh province. The dark blue canals surround the white-gray city of Sukkur in both images. In the bottom image, the Indus River extends over its banks across many kilometers. Near the city, the river seems to be held in check by the canals and associated structures.

The floods started in late July when intense monsoon rains fell over northern Pakistan. By mid-August, about one-fifth of Pakistan was flooded, affecting more than 15 million people.

Please find it in your hearts to donate some money for relief efforts here.

http://www.chowrangi.com/donation-links-and-relief-resources-for-pakistan-flood-victims.html

matthew miller writes a really good article in ZDNET.

As I plan my trip to Nokia World next month I have continued thinking about Nokia and finally posted an article on ZDNet that I have been thinking about for a few months. I write this Nokia Experts site so of course I am a fan of Nokia and their devices or I wouldn’t spend hours writing here for free. I try to give you my honest take on things and am both positive and negative here and in my other writing. However, it seems to me that the media and smartphone enthusiasts in the US are unfairly slamming Nokia when other smartphone operating sytems get by with more. Am I being overly sensitive or do you too feel that Nokia doesn’t get the respect it deserves in the US?