Manal and Alaa's bit bucket

A recent poll commissioned by a upcoming reality TV show confirmed that Americans are more likely to know pop culture factoids, but not news, classical literature, science or history.

Quote:

The poll found that:

• About 77 per cent of Americans can name at least two of the dwarfs from the fairy tale Snow White, but only about 24 per cent can name two U.S. Supreme Court justices.
• 57 per cent of the U.S. respondents know that English writer J.K. Rowling's fictional boy wizard is named Harry Potter, while only 50 per cent can name U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair.
• 73 per cent can name the Three Stooges (Larry, Curly and Moe). Only 42 per cent could name the three branches of the U.S. government (judicial, executive and legislative).
• 60 per cent of respondents knew that, on The Simpsons, Homer's son is named Bart. Only about 21 per cent could name one of the ancient Greek poet Homer's epics (The Iliad and The Odyssey)
• Of those polled, 60 per cent could name Krypton as the home planet of Superman. Only 37 per cent could name Mercury as the closest planet to the sun.
• While 23 per cent of poll participants know that Taylor Hicks is the most recent singer crowned American Idol, only 11 per cent could name Samuel Alito as the most recent judge to join the U.S. Supreme Court.

A new scarecrow term that has emerged recently, specially in right wing media and the Bush administration's rhetoric. The term is the caliphate.

In this article, I mention some facts on the caliphate, and what the above rhetoric is.

read more

The BBC compares and contrasts the Suez crisis of 1956 to the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Britain and France allied with Israel to attack Egypt and end Gamal Abdel Nasser's rule of a few years, but the US stopped them.

This was the end of Britian's Empire.

There are differences too, but the mindset of going to war with deception is common.

Here is the article, definitely worth a read.

Several years ago, a Dutch friend told me that some Dutch have funny names.

It turns out that this is a story worth telling, possibly repeated in Algeria, with the French playing a part in both.

Many Dutch names are of the form:

van ("of/from"), de/het/'t ("the"), der ("of the"), van de ("of the/from the"), and in het ("in the") or simply de ("the"). All but the latter denote a place of origin or residence, and the latter an occupation or attribute.

read more

Several years ago, a Dutch friend told me that some Dutch have funny names.

It turns out that this is a story worth telling, possibly repeated in Algeria, with the French playing a part in both.

Many Dutch names are of the form:

van ("of/from"), de/het/'t ("the"), der ("of the"), van de ("of the/from the"), and in het ("in the") or simply de ("the"). All but the latter denote a place of origin or residence, and the latter an occupation or attribute.

read more

The BBC has an article on how a gem in one of King Tut's necklaces is actually made of
natural glass that formed from a meteorite that exploded over the Western Desert.

Here is an article on Space.com on the crater, called El Kebira ( الكبيرة "The Big" in Arabic), and here is a satellite photo.

أريد أن أبكي ….فلا تجد دموعي لها مخرجاً…فتختار الدموع أن تتساقط من عيوني ألى قلبي…دموعك يا مصر…دموعك يا شرقاوي…دموعك يا شاعر…دموعك يا حب…دموعك يا حلم…دموعك يا صديقي…دموعك يا تاريخ…دموعك يا حق…دموعك يا ساكن الهواء…دموعك يا مرفوض الذكاء…أمتلاء قلبي دموعاً وكاد أن يفيض… ولا أستطيع أن أبكي….

The history of Malta includes several centuries of Arab presence that were very influential in what its heritage today is, including language, and place names.

History of Arabs in Malta

From 870 CE to 1091 CE, the islands were almost exclusively Muslim by religion and Arab by language. Even after the Norman conquest, a significant Muslim segment in the society remained till the 13th century, since the initial Norman did not converted the population. This is similar to Sicily, where the Normans allowed the Muslims to remain Muslims for some time, and not forced to convert. For example, Al-Idrisi was a Muslim Arab nobleman who worked in the court of Roger, and wrote his geography book and named it The Book of Roger (Al-Kitab Al Rujari الكتاب  الروجري).

Dr. George Saliba of Columbia University gave a lecture at Princeton on Islamic science.

A few years back, I attended a lecture he gave at the University of Waterloo, and wrote about it. I got his permission to republish some of his articles as well.

I later started digging some of what he discussed, and the result was many articles on my site about Leo Africanus, Joseph Barbatus, Elmacinus, Erpenius, Rhazes, Alhazen and Ibn Khaldun.