Convert your toyota into a Jaguar...

Convert your toyota into a Jaguar...

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Dear +Google , why is Google Currents for Android not available for download in South...

Dear +Google , why is Google Currents for Android not available for download in South Africa? #SouthAfrica #absurd

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Looking at the update, it seems like my Circles are quite subdued

Come on people, work for your Circles!

Reshared post from +Bryan Nelson

The Great G+ South Africa Ripples Experiment

I'd like to do a bit of an experiment with everyone on G+ in South Africa. If you live in South Africa, please share this post publicly and ask your friends to re-share it. The share must be public for ripples to see it.

I'm very interested to see what the ripple will look like. If you don't know what a ripple is, look here https://plus.google.com/111091089527727420853/posts/5vf9cwNVPGD

UPDATE
The ripple is starting to grow. Have a look here https://plus.google.com/ripples/details?activityid=z12tyjt5grq1xfkss221i53o0zbkcfe1x

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Reshared post from +Green IT Web

Embedded Link

Samsung launch the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus partnership with MTN.
Samsung today announced the launch of the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus in an exclusive partnership with MTN.

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Any FNB people on G+ yet?

Any FNB people on G+ yet?

Reshared post from +Yusuf Mayet

FNB just offered me to activate Verified by Visa on my cards. Its an extra layer of security, whereby when you purchase online, FNB will send you an OTP to your mobile which you have to them confirm the purchase with.

However, how will this affect Android Market purchases? Since Android Market and Google Wallet/Checkout does not have the option to input a pin, will VbV break the purchase.

Or will VbV be bypassed by Google Wallet/Checkout, so Android Market purchases will not be affected?

Anybody know?

Embedded Link

Verified by Visa is preventing mobile commerce claims Mobgets
Getting your business mobile

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Giggled despite myself

Reshared post from +Gina Trapani

Giggled despite myself. +1 for Kimbo Slice reference.

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The Great G+ South Africa Ripples Experiment

Reshared post from +Bryan Nelson

The Great G+ South Africa Ripples Experiment

I'd like to do a bit of an experiment with everyone on G+ in South Africa. If you live in South Africa, please share this post and ask your friends to re-share it.

I'm very interested to see what the ripple will look like. If you don't know what a ripple is, look here

https://plus.google.com/111091089527727420853/posts/5vf9cwNVPGD

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Freakin' awesome!

Freakin' awesome!

Reshared post from +Craig Wing

Mythbusters gone wrong - or awesome:

MythBusters Cannonball Experiment Gone Wrong... Hits Houses and Car in Dublin, CA

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W00t, apps for R0.80 !

https://market.android.com/details?id=apps_timed_promotion&feature=banner#?t=W251bGwsMSwyLDIwMSwibnVsbC10b3BfZmVhdHVyZWRfYXBwc19HQl9fMV9wcm9tb18xMzIzMTg3MDYzMDczIl0.

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10 Billion Downloads! - Android Market
Shop Android Market on the web. Purchase and enjoy instantly on your Android phone or tablet without the hassle of syncing.

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http://lifehacker.com/5864004/the-done-manifesto-lays-out-13-ground-rules-for-ge...

http://lifehacker.com/5864004/the-done-manifesto-lays-out-13-ground-rules-for-getting-to-done

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The Done Manifesto Lays Out 13 Ground Rules for Getting to Done
Sometimes (or maybe all too often), you have to churn out work—good, creative work done with tight deadlines. The Done Manifesto is a set of working rules based on a sense of urgency.

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http://kck.st/ruJgAV

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If you have an Android phone, read this

Reshared post from +Pete Cashmore

If you have an Android phone, read this.

I'll be interested to see how the story develops...

Embedded Link

Carrier IQ Tracking Scandal Spirals Out of Control
Carrier IQ, a diagnostic tool installed on most Androids, is gathering a lot of info about your activity, and sending it to a third party.

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Idea for Hangouts app:

Google Map showing participants location. Or will that kill part of the conversation?

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Tablets by the numbers

Reshared post from +Arthur Goldstuck

Tablets by the numbers. The state of play in South Africa: more than 150 000 tablets sold, most of them iPads. Biggest contributor right now is FNB: http://bit.ly/v8n0hK

Embedded Link

Tablets by the numbers: No slowdown in sight | memeburn
Steve Jobs unveiled the iPad on 27 January 2010, which happened to be the day my mother turned 88. Back in 1922, the year she was born, sales of the Model T

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Cool retro toaster!

Cool retro toaster!

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May Allah bless him and grant him peace

The duah (prayer) Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam (صلى الله عليه و سلم) "May Allah bless him and grant him peace." is used after stating Prophet Muhammad's name. Unfortunately however, this has been translated incorrectly by many to mean "Peace be upon him", which to me is quite different. The correct translation, is a prayer to Allah, while the latter is almost a statement, not directed to anyone. It may seem like a petty semantic issue, but I think our intention when saying it is affected by we understand to be the translation and after all, we are judged by intention.

New Samsung ad mocks Apple fans

Reshared post from +JR Raphael

New Samsung ad mocks Apple fans

I smell a viral video in the making...

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Reshared post from +Charly Burleson

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Handmade Portraits: The Sword Maker
As one of Japan's last remaining swordsmiths, Korehira Watanabe has honed his craft for 40 years while attempting to recreate the mythical Koto sword.

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Sometimes I read an article about open source that drives me nuts

Reshared post from +Chris DiBona

Sometimes I read an article about open source that drives me nuts. A recent one stated, without irony, that 'critics have been pounding the table for years about open source being inherently insecure' and that android is festooned with viruses because of that and because we do not exert apple like controls over the app market.

Let me speak to the first one: Open source, which as you know is present in a major way in all three major mobile phone operating systems (android, ios, rim) is software, and software can be insecure. I would posit that popular open source software only gets to become that popular if they pay close attention to security and respond to users concerns about the same, otherwise other projects come to the fore.

For example, in the dusty spans of time, both sendmail and apache went through a year or multiyear period when after they hit 95% and 70% marketshare where the security flaws started becoming a problem on the growing internet.

Sendmail saw multiple oss and proprietary competitors (qmail comes to mind) and over a period of years educated enough sysadmins on how to wrestle sendmail.cf appropriately and fixed problems with the system to stem the loss of marketshare to other vendors and projects.

Similarly, Apache saw people rejecting many of the modules that were perceived to be (And often were) problematic. Some modules didn't come back, some came back stronger or with stronger default options.

So in the spirit of making a positive post here are some facts for future writers of articles about open source, mobile os' and security. A Cheat sheet, if you will:

IOS and Android both use webkit derived browsers, Webkit is coded by android, chromuim and apple developers, and (edited: to fix a sentence here) both use code from the original khtml projects out of KDE.

Both use , at their core, open source kernels (ios uses a bsd derivative, android, a linux one).

Every single CE device uses tons of libraries from open source, especially openssl.

Every single CE device owes a huge technical thank you to GCC. most are built using gcc.

All the major vendors have app markets, and all the major vendors have apps that do bad things, are discovered, and are dropped from the markets.

No major cell phone has a 'virus' problem in the traditional sense that windows and some mac machines have seen. There have been some little things, but they haven't gotten very far due to the user sandboxing models and the nature of the underlying kernels.

No Linux desktop has a real virus problem.

Yes, virus companies are playing on your fears to try to sell you bs protection software for Android, RIM and IOS. They are charlatans and scammers. IF you work for a company selling virus protection for android, rim or IOS you should be ashamed of yourself.

Yes, a virus of the traditional kind is possible, but not probable. The barriers to spreading such a program from phone to phone are large and difficult enough to traverse when you have legitimate access to the phone, but this isn't independence day, a virus that might work on one device won't magically spread to the other. (and yes, I saw the deleted scene http://www.cracked.com/article_18720_7-famous-movie-flaws-that-were-explained-in-deleted-scenes.html )

If you read an analyst report about 'viruses' infecting ios, android or rim, you now know that analyst firm is not honest and is staffed with charlatans. There is probably an exception, but extraordinary claims need extraordinary evidence.

If you read a report from a vendor that trys to sell you something based on protecting android, rim or ios from viruses they are also likely as not to be scammers and charlatans.

Please note: Policy engines, and those tools that manage devices from an corporate IT department are not the same thing at all, but sometimes marketers in companies that sell such things sometimes tack on 'virus' protection. That part is a lie, tell your vendor to cut it out.

So there you go. I'm sure people will now chime in about some worm or malware they downloaded from some app market or something, which will be moderately fun, then it will devolve into a discussion about something unrelated, then I'll cancel comments. :-)

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Reshared post from +Euisul Hwang

Embedded Link

Samsung SUR40 for Microsoft Surface available for pre-order in 23 countries, expected to ship in 2012
Engadget

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http://mygoogleplus.de/id/

http://mygoogleplus.de/id/

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Reshared post from +Euisul Hwang

Embedded Link

Hackers find a way to control Siri using brainwaves
Siri uses your voice to perform its tasks, but what about taking it to the next level by using your [...]

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MTN To Roll Out R8 Billion 3G Upgrade in 2012 | 2oceansvibe.com

Reshared post from +

MTN To Roll Out R8 Billion 3G Upgrade in 2012 | 2oceansvibe.com

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MTN To Roll Out R8 Billion 3G Upgrade in 2012 | 2oceansvibe.com
MTN have announced the roll out of R8 billion worth of 3G wireless stations to enhance service provision across the country. MTN is Africa's largest provider of mobile telecommunications services, and has around 3000 wireless 3G base stations in South Africa alone. “Data is the future,” ...

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True axis of terror?

http://www.ewn.co.za/Story.aspx?Id=77164

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Eyewitness News: Netanyahu is a liar - Sarkozy
EWN Logo. 08:38 CAT / Tuesday, 08 November. Home; Local; World; Sport; Business; Weather; Features; Multimedia; iWitness; Traffic; SMS Alerts; RSS Feeds; Contact. AT A GLANCE >; ZAR/AUD : 8.1317; Z...

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The Hackathon project made it onto Engadget! How friggin AWESOME!

Reshared post from +Anthony Isaakidis

The Hackathon project made it onto Engadget! How friggin AWESOME!

Embedded Link

Google+ laser hack, Hangout shoots first (video)
Engadget

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http://hackaday.com/2011/11/07/google-hangout-laser-turret/

http://hackaday.com/2011/11/07/google-hangout-laser-turret/

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Google Hangout laser turret - Hack a Day
The guys from the House4Hack hackerspace in Johannesburg won the 2011 Google+ Hackathon with their Friggin' Laser Turret. The build started off as a remote-controlled webcam that can be controlled by ...

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Rainbow willow

there's nothing like the rains down in Africa.

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Colour me impressed by #FNB

In less than a week, I went from no account to iPad 2 delivered to me, paying less in fees with the iPad than I was at #StandardBank , who have been less than standard in terms of service recently.

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Who would you recommend as the best Mobile Application Developer houses in South...

Who would you recommend as the best Mobile Application Developer houses in South Africa?

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The world's first "spherical flying machine" developed by Japan's...

Reshared post from +Tom Anderson

The world's first "spherical flying machine" developed by Japan's ministry of defense. It can hover like a helicopter and take off and land vertically. If it hits an obstacle, it can maintain its trajectory through the use of gyroscopes. It can roll along the ground and walls to maneuver into position. The prototype is made of commercially available parts costing just $1,400. It's equipped with a camera.

I realize this was made for defense and spying, but at this price I'm guessing someone will be able to make a toy out of it as well. :-)

PS: I was going to share the throwable ball camera this morning, but +Trey Ratcliff beat me to it (http://bit.ly/t4tAR7), so I'm going with the Japanese drone instead :-)

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The 147 Companies That Run The World

Reshared post from +Morgan ABBOU

The 147 Companies That Run The World

Three systems theorists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich have taken a database listing 37 million companies and investors worldwide and analyzed all 43,060 transnational corporations and share ownerships linking them. They built a model of who owns what and what their revenues are and mapped the whole edifice of economic power.

In effect, less than 1 per cent of the companies were able to control 40 per cent of the entire network, says Glattfelder from the New Scientist. Most were financial institutions.

source: TheNewScientist ~ http://goo.gl/cROKl

The top 50 of the 147 superconnected companies

1. Barclays plc
2. Capital Group Companies Inc
3. FMR Corporation
4. AXA
5. State Street Corporation
6. JP Morgan Chase & Co
7. Legal & General Group plc
8. Vanguard Group Inc
9. UBS AG
10. Merrill Lynch & Co Inc
11. Wellington Management Co LLP
12. Deutsche Bank AG
13. Franklin Resources Inc
14. Credit Suisse Group
15. Walton Enterprises LLC
16. Bank of New York Mellon Corp
17. Natixis
18. Goldman Sachs Group Inc
19. T Rowe Price Group Inc
20. Legg Mason Inc
21. Morgan Stanley
22. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc
23. Northern Trust Corporation
24. Société Générale
25. Bank of America Corporation
26. Lloyds TSB Group plc
27. Invesco plc
28. Allianz SE 29. TIAA
30. Old Mutual Public Limited Company
31. Aviva plc
32. Schroders plc
33. Dodge & Cox
34. Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc*
35. Sun Life Financial Inc
36. Standard Life plc
37. CNCE
38. Nomura Holdings Inc
39. The Depository Trust Company
40. Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance
41. ING Groep NV
42. Brandes Investment Partners LP
43. Unicredito Italiano SPA
44. Deposit Insurance Corporation of Japan
45. Vereniging Aegon
46. BNP Paribas
47. Affiliated Managers Group Inc
48. Resona Holdings Inc
49. Capital Group International Inc
50. China Petrochemical Group Company

#OWS #occupywallstreet #news #economy #banks #finance #MAnews

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A senior NTC military official says Gaddafi has died of wounds suffered during reported...

Reshared post from +Anthony De Rosa

A senior NTC military official says Gaddafi has died of wounds suffered during reported capture.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/20/us-libya-idUSTRE79F1FK20111020

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Gaddafi captured and wounded near Sirte: NTC official
SIRTE, Libya (Reuters) - Deposed Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was captured and wounded in both legs near his hometown of Sirte at dawn on Thursday, National Transitional Council official Abdel Majid ...

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Hồ Plitvice, thiên đường là đây

Reshared post from +Chung Huynh

Hồ Plitvice, thiên đường là đây

Công viên quốc gia hồ Plitvice có phong cảnh cực kỳ đẹp nằm trong khu vực Lika của Croatia. Công viên được bao quanh bởi các ngọn núi Plješevica , Mala Kapela, và Medveđak, nó cũng chính là một phần của dãy núi Alps Dinaric. Có tất cả 16 hồ với màu xanh lục và xanh dương xen kẻ tại Plitvice, được phân cách bởi các vách đá vôi tự nhiên nằm trên cao nguyên Plitvice. Thác nước kết nối các hồ với nhau. Thác nước cao nhất tại đây có tên là Veliki Slap, có độ cao khoảng 70 mét (230 feet). Các khu vực quanh hồ Plitvice có thể tự hào với một lượng lớn các hệ thực vật phong phú đầy màu sắc và các loài động vật thú vị . Du khách có thể đi bộ theo nhiều con đường mòn và nhân tạo xuyên qua các tán lá cây và hồ nước trong xanh, hoặc khám phá mặt hồ bằng thuyền. Công viên có 3 khách sạn và một khu cắm trại, nếu không thích ở đây du khách có thể lựa chọn nơi nghĩ khác tại các làng mạc và thành phố lân cận.


______________________________
http://cong1.com more coolest stuffs

In album The stunning Plitvice Lakes National Park lies in the Lika region of Croatia (12 ảnh)

waterfalls at Plitvicka Jezera National Park

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Bah!

Bah!

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http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?desktop_uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3F...

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?desktop_uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Ffeature%3Dplayer_embedded%26v%3DRpj0emEGShQ&feature=player_embedded&v=Rpj0emEGShQ&gl=ZA

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YouTube Space Lab - What Will You Do?

YouTube Space Lab - What Will You Do?

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"Steve Jobs Stanford Commencement Speech 2005" on YouTube

Steve Jobs Stanford Commencement Speech 2005

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Tobacco Industry Refused To Reduce Radioactivity In Cigarettes In Order To Maintain...

Tobacco Industry Refused To Reduce Radioactivity In Cigarettes In Order To Maintain Addictive Potential
Technique to reduce radioactivity in tobacco would have lowered the strength of nicotine, so the tobacco industry ignored it...
http://science.kqed.org/quest/2011/09/30/tobacco-industry-refused-to-reduce-radioactivity-in-cigarettes-in-order-to-maintain-addictive-potential/

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Reshared post from +Ahmed Zeeshan

#mindblown #universe

The Known Universe

A few days back I posted a youtube video that gave us an idea of how planets from the solar system would look like if they were as close to us as our Moon. The realization of how small we are is actually quite over whelming.

Usually we're presented with numbers and light years of distance which doesn't really give us the kind of visual representation of scale we're looking for. Hence, when I say that at 13.7 billion light years from earth we reach the extent of our known universe, even though it's a seemingly massive number the scale of it still doesn't sink in properly.

Therefore, today I give you this video from a couple years ago. It does an amazing job of showing us our known universe and how our Earth fits into it. The video has 8 million views thus far but the whole planet needs to watch this.

Everytime I am faced with some big hurdle in my life I watch this and realize:
- how insignificant I am in the grand scheme of things
- there is so much out there to explore and discover
- we're slowly destroying earth, our only home, in so many ways
- and most importantly how frikking big the universe is and that's just the known bit

So share this with everyone everywhere. We all need to watch it.

**************************
Permalink to post: bit.ly/a_knownuniverse

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26 Billion Dollars of the Alphabet

http://remythequill.com/head-space/billionaire-alphabet

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Double whammy gene therapy clears HIV from body - New Scientist - New Scientist

http://www.newscientist.com/mobile/article/dn20948-double-whammy-gene-therapy-clears-hiv-from-body.html

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Thought about this just last week on a flight!

TrayVu: In-flight Android with your peanuts
Please make sure that your Android tablet is in an upright and locked position...
http://pulse.me/s/1ETin

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http://phandroid.com/2011/09/13/samsung-galaxy-s-ii-monitors-new-ford-electric-e...

http://phandroid.com/2011/09/13/samsung-galaxy-s-ii-monitors-new-ford-electric-e-bike-concept/

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Samsung Galaxy S II Monitors New Ford Electric E-Bike Concept
First it was the Nike Mags and now this -- the Ford E-Bike Concept. I think it's safe to say, the future has finally arrived. This Android powered hybrid

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Audi Introduces A2 Concept In Frankfurt

With the Frankfurt Motor Show 2011 set to kick off, luxury automobile manufacturer Audi is releasing details of a concept vehicle called the A2,...
http://pulse.me/s/1ATQV

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The million dollar space pen hoax [Debunkery]

There's a famous legend that America spent millions on the development of a 'space pen' that writes upside down, while the ...
http://pulse.me/s/1AWXK

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Fancy a coke, sweets, kruger rand?

Fancy a coke, sweets, kruger rand?

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Only in Dubai....

Only in Dubai....

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MTN Internet still World Class: ASA « Cellular « MyBroadband Tech and IT News

http://mybroadband.co.za/news/cellular/32816-mtn-internet-still-world-class-asa.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

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Watch "Danny MacAskill Plays Capetown (complete video)" on YouTube

Danny MacAskill Plays Capetown (complete video)

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Like a diamond in the sky?

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20832

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RIM’s New QNX BlackBerrys Will Run Android Apps

RIM announced well in advance of the PlayBook's launch that it would be able...
http://pulse.me/s/1kkGr

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Preparing Multimedia for Sony DAV TZ130 DVD player USB

Bear with me while I attempt preparing a mencoder command that converts my multimedia files into something that this darn DVD player can understand.

mencoder -mc 0 -noskip -vf expand=:::::16/9,scale=720:480,hqdn3d,harddup -ovc xvid -oac lavc -channels 6 -xvidencopts fixed_quant=3.8:me_quality=6:noqpel:nogmc:trellis:chroma_me:
chroma_opt:hq_ac:vhq=4:lumi_mask:max_key_interval=300:quant_type=mpeg:
max_bframes=2:closed_gop:nopacked:profile=asp5:autoaspect:bvhq=1
-lavcopts acodec=ac3 -o outfile.avi

The player thinks about playing the file..... then stops thinking and returns to the menu. :(

This works, but only 2 Audio channels:

mencoder -mc 0 -noskip -vf expand=:::::16/9,scale=720:576,hqdn3d,harddup -ovc xvid -oac mp3lame -xvidencopts fixed_quant=3.8:me_quality=6:noqpel:nogmc:trellis:chroma_me:
chroma_opt:hq_ac:vhq=4:lumi_mask:max_key_interval=300:quant_type=mpeg:
max_bframes=2:closed_gop:nopacked:profile=asp5:autoaspect:bvhq=1
-lameopts vbr=2:q=6:aq=2 -o output.avi input.m4v

Halaal Gelatine – Should you know better? (Part 2)

This post is a follow on from here.

After some informative comments from a reader, Emre Metin, I've decided to highlight some of the things that he's researched on the topic.

Emre referenced the following sources:

1. Bazmool M. The Fiqh Principle of Istihala – Changing from impure to pure, (translated by Moosa Richardson and a fatwa given by Shaykh al-Albaani)


2. Venien, A., & Levieux, D. Differentiation of bovine from porcine gelatins using polyclonal anti-peptide antibodies in indirect and competitive indirect ELISA. Journal of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Analysis, 2005;39:418–424.


3. Zhang G, Liu T, Wang Q, Chen L, Lei J, Luo J, Ma G, Su Z. Mass spectrometric detection of marker peptides in tryptic digests of gelatin: A new method to differentiate between bovine and porcine gelatin Food Hydrocolloids,2009;23:2001-2007

The crux of the argument is summed up in the following statement from Emre:

According to Islam, when something changes its composition until it can not be related to its source, it is considered as a completely different material. This is called istihala.

The paper referenced above in [3], finds that it is possible to identify the source of Gelatin by looking for "marker peptides" that will point the source of the Gelatin as being either Bovine or Porcine. So, has the Gelatin then in face been changed in composition to the point that "it can not be related to its source" ?

Allah knows best. Let's not deceive ourselves thinking we can deceive our Creator?