Great minds...

Einstein and his wife

A beautiful picture worth of many thousands of words. Suprisingly or not, it does not appear in the results of the Google image search for "Einstein and his wife".

Thanks to cynical_sceptic. He knows secret places where such pictures dwell before being unearthed.

As if anybody needs the proofs...

Oh Al-Jazeera, CNN of the Arabic world, beacon of truth...

An Interview With Al-Jazeera Editor-in-Chief Ahmed Sheikh

( A few gems first... Yet finally comes the real stuff. Tough truth... )

...In many Arab states, the middle class is disappearing. The rich get richer and the poor get still poorer. Look at the schools in Jordan, Egypt or Morocco: You have up to 70 youngsters crammed together in a single classroom. How can a teacher do his job in such circumstances? The public hospitals are also in a hopeless condition. These are just examples. They show how hopeless the situation is for us in the Middle East.

Who is responsible for the situation?

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one of the most important reasons why these crises and problems continue to simmer. The day when Israel was founded created the basis for our problems. The West should finally come to understand this. Everything would be much calmer if the Palestinians were given their rights.

Do you mean to say that if Israel did not exist, there would suddenly be democracy in Egypt, that the schools in Morocco would be better, that the public clinics in Jordan would function better?

I think so.

Can you please explain to me what the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has to do with these problems?

The Palestinian cause is central for Arab thinking.

In the end, is it a matter of feelings of self-esteem?

Exactly. It's because we always lose to Israel. It gnaws at the people in the Middle East that such a small country as Israel, with only about 7 million inhabitants, can defeat the Arab nation with its 350 million. That hurts our collective ego. The Palestinian problem is in the genes of every Arab. The West's problem is that it does not understand this.

German original in Weltwoche

Филологи из Аль-Джазиры

Прирастать Сибирью будет...

Аль-Джазира, оказывается – это не только ценный мех, но и 2, а то и 3 кг легко усвояемого диетического мяса светоч правды и демократии, но и филолог на филологе:

For instance, did you know that the name "Siberia" is derived from Sabareen - referring to the local people enduring harsh conditions with patience who took [to] Islam when the Abbasids reached what is known today as Siberia?

Тут, правда, вмешался Фасмер и сказал, что название "Сибирь" происходит от гуннского этнонима "сабейрои, сабейрес*", а некторые сближают его с тюркским sapmak "сбиваться с пути" или выводят из монгольского sibir "заросль, сырая местность".

Главное - установлена научная истина: Сибирь - это Дар уль-Ислам, и рано или поздно там демократическим образом восстановится владычество Уммы. Снимайте чувяки валенки заранее, сибиряки!
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*А я так думаю, что название "Сибирь" происходит от нашего סביר, "савир" - терпимо, значит, тяжело, но терпимо. Ермак терпел и нам велел.