Subject: The Wooden Bowl
How true – very touching.
Read fully & remember -Nothing is Permanent in Life – so live each day as it comes!
The Wooden Bowl
I guarantee you will remember the tale of the Wooden Bowl tomorrow, a week
from now, a month from now, a year from now.
A frail old man went to live with his son, daughter-in-law, and
four-year-old grandson. The old man’s hands trembled, his eyesight was
blurred and his step faltered.
The family ate together at the table. But the elderly grandfather’s shaky
hands and failing sight made eating difficult. Peas rolled off his spoon
onto the floor. When he grasped the glass, milk spilled on the tablecloth.
The son and daughter-in-law became irritated with the mess. ‘We must do
something about father,’ said the son. ‘I’ve had enough of his spilled
milk, noisy eating, and food on the floor.’
So the husband and wife set a small table in the corner. There, Grandfather
ate alone while the rest of the family enjoyed dinner. Since Grandfather
had broken a dish or two, his food was served in a wooden bowl.
When the family glanced in Grandfather’s direction, sometimes he had a tear
in his eye as he sat alone. Still, the only words the couple had for him
were sharp admonitions when he dropped a fork or spilled food. The
four-year-old watched it all in silence.
One evening before supper, the father noticed his son playing with wood
scraps on the floor. He asked the child sweetly, ‘What are you making?’ Just
as sweetly, the boy responded, ‘Oh, I am making a little bowl for you and
Mama to eat your food in when I grow up.’ The four-year-old smiled and
went back to work.
The words so struck the parents, so that they were speechless. Then tears
started to stream down their cheeks. Though no word was spoken, both knew
what must be done.
That evening the husband took Grandfather’s hand and gently led him back to
the family table. For the remainder of his days he ate every meal with the
family. And for some reason, neither husband nor wife seemed to care any
longer when a fork was dropped, milk spilled, or the table cloth soiled.
On a positive note, I’ve learned that, no matter what happens, how bad it
seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow.
50 Human Body Mysteries
The Human Body is a treasure trove of mysteries, one that still confounds doctors and scientists about the details of its working. It’s not an overstatement to say that every part of your body is a miracle. Here are fifty facts about your body, some of which will leave you stunned… Or…
1. It’s possible for your body to survive without a surprisingly large fraction of its internal organs. Even if you lose your stomach, your spleen, 75% of your liver, 80% of your intestines, one kidney, one lung, and virtually every organ from your pelvic and groin area, you wouldn’t be very healthy, but you would live.
2. During your lifetime, you will produce enough saliva to fill two swimming pools. Actually, Saliva is more important than you realize. If your saliva cannot dissolve something, you cannot taste it.
3. The largest cell in the human body is the female egg and the smallest is the male sperm. The egg is actually the only cell in the body that is visible by the naked eye.
4. The strongest muscle in the human body is the tongue and the hardest bone is the jawbone.
5. Human feet have 52 bones, accounting for one quarter of all the human body’s bones.
6. Feet have 500,000 sweat glands and can produce more than a pint of sweat a day.
7. The acid in your stomach is strong enough to dissolve razor blades. The reason it doesn’t eat away at your stomach is that the cells of your stomach wall renew themselves so frequently that you get a new stomach lining every three to four days.
8. The human lungs contain approximately 2,400 kilometers (1,500 mi) of airways and 300 to 500 million hollow cavities, having a total surface area of about 70 square meters, roughly the same area as one side of a tennis court. Furthermore, if all of the capillaries that surround the lung cavities were unwound and laid end to end, they would extend for about 992 kilometers. Also, your left lung is smaller than your right lung to make room for your heart.
9. Sneezes regularly exceed 100 mph , while coughs clock in at about 60 mph.
10. Your body gives off enough heat in 30 minutes to bring half a gallon of water to a boil.
11. Your body has enough iron in it to make a nail 3 inches long.
12. Earwax production is necessary for good ear health It protects the delicate inner ear from bacteria, fungus, dirt and even insects. It also cleans and lubricates the ear canal.
13. Everyone has a unique smell, except for identical twins, who smell the same.
14. Your teeth start growing 6 months before you are born. This is why one out of every 2,000 newborn infants has a tooth when they are born.
15. A baby’s head is one-quarter of its total length, but by the age of 25 will only be one-eighth of its total length. This is because people’s heads grow at a much slower rate than the rest of their bodies.
16. Babies are born with 300 bones, but by adulthood the number is reduced to 206. Some of the bones, like skull bones, get fused into each other, bringing down the total number.
17. It’s not possible to tickle yourself. This is because when you attempt to tickle yourself you are totally aware of the exact time and manner in which the tickling will occur, unlike when someone else tickles you.
18. Less than one third of the human race has 20-20 vision. This means that two out of three people cannot see perfectly.
19. Your nose can remember 50,000 different scents. But if you are a woman, you are a better smeller than men, and will remain a better smeller throughout your life.
20. The human body is estimated to have 60,000 miles of blood vessels.
21. The three things pregnant women dream most of during their first trimester are frogs, worms and potted plants. Scientists have no idea why this is so, but attribute it to the growing imbalance of hormones in the body during pregnancy.
22. The life span of a human hair is 3 to 7 years on average. Every day the average person loses 60-100 strands of hair. But don’t worry, you must lose over 50% of your scalp hairs before it is apparent to anyone.
23. The human brain cell can hold 5 times as much information as an encyclopedia. Your brain uses 20% of the oxygen that enters your bloodstream, and is itself made up of 80% water. Though it interprets pain signals from the rest of the body, the brain itself cannot feel pain.
24. The tooth is the only part of the human body that can’t repair itself.
25. Your eyes are always the same size from birth but your nose and ears never stop growing.
26. By 60 years of age, 60% of men and 40% of women will snore.
27. We are about 1 cm taller in the morning than in the evening, because during normal activities during the day, the cartilage in our knees and other areas slowly compress.
28. The brain operates on the same amount of power as 10-watt light bulb, even while you are sleeping. In fact, the brain is much more active at night than during the day.
29. Nerve impulses to and from the brain travel as fast as 170 miles per hour. Neurons continue to grow throughout human life. Information travels at different speeds within different types of neurons.
30. It is a fact that people who dream more often and more vividly, on an average have a higher Intelligence Quotient.
31. The fastest growing nail is on the middle finger.
32. Facial hair grows faster than any other hair on the body. This is true for men as well as women.
33. There are as many hairs per square inch on your body as a chimpanzee.
34. A human fetus acquires fingerprints at the age of three months.
35. By the age of 60, most people will have lost about half their taste buds.
36. About 32 million bacteria call every inch of your skin home. But don’t worry, a majority of these are harmless or even helpful bacteria.
37. The colder the room you sleep in, the higher the chances are that you’ll have a bad dream.
38. Human lips have a reddish color because of the great concentration of tiny capillaries just below the skin.
39. Three hundred million cells die in the human body every minute.
40. Like fingerprints, every individual has an unique tongue print that can be used for identification.
41. A human head remains conscious for about 15 to 20 seconds after it has been decapitated.
42. It takes 17 muscles to smile and 43 to frown.
43. Humans can make do longer without food than sleep . Provided there is water, the average human could survive a month to two months without food depending on their body fat and other factors. Sleep deprived people, however, start experiencing radical personality and psychological changes after only a few sleepless days. The longest recorded time anyone has ever gone without sleep is 11 days, at the end of which the experimenter was awake, but stumbled over words, hallucinated and frequently forgot what he was doing.
44. The most common blood type in the world is Type O. The rarest blood type, A-H or Bombay blood, due to the location of its discovery, has been found in less than hundred people since it was discovered.
45. Every human spent about half an hour after being conceived, as a single cell. Shortly afterward, the cells begin rapidly dividing and begin forming the components of a tiny embryo.
46. Right-handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left-handed people do. This is largely due to the fact that a majority of the machines and tools we use on a daily basis are designed for those who are right handed, making them somewhat dangerous for lefties to use and resulting in thousands of accidents and deaths each year.
47. Your ears secrete more earwax when you are afraid than when you aren’t.
48. Koalas and primates are the only animals with unique fingerprints.
49. Humans are the only animals to produce emotional tears.
50. The human heart creates enough pressure to squirt blood 30 feet in the air.
Month of Muharram
Muharram literally means ”Forbidden”. It is one of the four sacred months during which waging a war and fighting is not allowed.
Allah says in the Holy Quran:
“Surely the number of months with Allah is twelve months in Allah’s ordinance since the day when He created the heavens and the earth, of these four being sacred; that is the right reckoning; therefore be not unjust to yourselves regarding them.” [Surah 9 :At-Taubah, Verse 36]
Prophet Muhammad (saw) informed us about the four sacred months in the following narration:
“The year is of twelve months, out of which four months are sacred: Three are in succession Dhul-Qa’ da, Dhul-Hijja and Muharram, and (the fourth is) Rajab…” [Bukhari Vol 004, Book 054, Hadith 419
Muharram – The Beginning of a new Islamic year
Muharram is the first month of the Islamic Hijri calendar. It is based on the migration of the Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w) from Mecca to Medina in 622 AD.
However, the use of the Hijri calendar began in AD 639 or 17 AH during the Khilafat of Syedna Umar Farooq (ra).
The governor of Yemen during this reign was Abu Musa Ashari. The letters which Umar (ra), used to send to him did not bear any date. He informed Umar (ra) about it who then decided to resolve this issue by setting up a small committee.
It was decided that the Islamic calendar will begin from the hijra (migration) of the Muslims from Mecca to Medina. Therefore AD 622 became the 1 AH and since the decision to migrate was made right at the end of the month of Dhul-Hajj, and the first moon to rise after this was that of Muharram, thus Muharram came to be the first month of the Islamic Hijri calendar. (Fatah Al bari 334/7 Hadith 3934)
Time is indeed the greatest blessing of Allah Subhaan’o wa Ta’ala, rolling diligently along its own pattern and set speed. It waits and stops for no one and slips through our hands quickly. Every New Year makes the one gone by, the past. Time will come and go, as Allah Subhaan’o wa Ta’ala has decreed, but what remains written in Time is how man utilized that time so that it may benefit him in the hereafter. So this new month of Muharram is reminding us to lead a purposeful life doing good, productive work and righteous deeds in order to make the passing moments as reward points secured in our favor thereby making eternal success our destiny and saving ourselves from eternal disaster.
Junaid Baghdadi has said,
“Assess each moment of life by evaluating how close you have come to Allah Subhaan’o wa Ta’ala, how far you have distanced yourself from Shaitan, how close you have come to Jannah and how far you have moved away from Jahannum.”
So gear up physically and mentally by making a resolve to:
· Strengthen your relationship with Allah Subhaan’o wa Ta’ala
· Return to your worships with renewed enthusiasm and diligence.
· Improve upon serving your parents well and giving the relatives their rights.
· Refocus on the moral/Islamic upbringing of your family and children.
· Plan further learning and self-development.
· Seek to participate in social works for the betterment of those less fortunate than yourselves in the society.
· Keep on adding what your heart tells you as a result of your own self-assessment.
· And make sure to do your best to fulfill your promise to yourself. So that your resolve is not just a wishful thinking but it is a way of life for you to seek Allah’s pleasure and a sign that all your obedience and worship is only for Allah. Amen.
Masnoon Acts:
The Significance of Muharram can be best understood by the saying of Prophet Muhammad saw narrated by Abu Huraira (ra) “The most excellent fast after Ramadan is in Allah’s month; al-Muharram, and the most excellent prayer after what is prescribed is prayer during the night.” [Muslim 6: 2661]
Prophet Muhammad (saw) called Muharram “Allah’s Month” which shows its importance and sanctity and the fasts of the month of Muharram are most reward able ones among the Nafl (voluntary) fasts.
Fasting on Ashura:
The entire month of Muharram is sacred and special and fasting on any day of Muharram has special rewards from Allah, but the 10th of Muharram, called Ashura holds a more significant position than the rest of the days.
We know from a number of authentic traditions that in the beginning, fasting on the day of Ashura was obligatory for the Muslims. It was later when the fasts of Ramadan were made obligatory that the fast on the day of Ashura was made optional.
Narrated by Aisha (ra): “The people used to fast on ‘Ashura (the tenth day of the month of Muharram) before the fasting of Ramadan was made obligatory. And on that day the Ka’ba used to be covered with a cover. When Allah made the fasting of the month of Ramadan compulsory, Allah’s Apostle said, “Whoever wishes to fast (on the day of ‘Ashura’) may do so; and whoever wishes to leave it can do so.”[Bukhari Vol 02, Book 026, Hadith Number 662]
However, Rasul Allah saw used to fast on the day of Ashura even after fasting in Ramadan was made obligatory.
Atonement of Sins:
Fasting on the day of Ashura expiates the sins of the previous year as told by our Prophet Muhammad saw.
“Abu Qatada al-Ansari (Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) was asked about his fasting… He was asked about fasting on the day of ‘Ashura (10th of Muharram), whereupon be said: It expiates the sins of the preceding year…”[Muslim: Book 06: Hadith 2603]
Historical Perspective:
Hazrat Musa (as) and his people the Bani Israel were saved from the Egyptian Pharaoh by the miracle of the parting of the sea on the day of Ashura. It was for this reason that the Jews used to fast on this day. Prophet Muhammad (saw) also then ordered the Muslims to fast on the day of Ashura as well.
Ibn e Abbas ra narrated: “When the Prophet came to Medina, he found (the Jews) fasting on the day of ‘Ashura’ (i.e. 10th of Muharram). They used to say: “This is a great day on which Allah saved Moses and drowned the folk of Pharaoh. Moses observed the fast on this day, as a sign of gratitude to Allah.” The Prophet said, “I am closer to Moses than they.” So, he observed the fast (on that day) and ordered the Muslims to fast on it. [ Bukhari: Vol 4, Book 055, Hadith Number 609]
Command to distinguish the Muslim fast of Ashura with the fast of the Jews
Ibn ‘Abbas ra reported: ”When the Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) fasted on the day of ‘Ashura and commanded that it should be observed as a fast, they (his Companions) said to him: Messenger of Allah, it is a day which the Jews and Christians hold in high esteem. Thereupon the Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) said: When the next year comes, God willing, we would observe fast on the 9th But the Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) died before the advent of the next year.” [ Musim : Book 006, Hadith Number 2528]
Abdullah ibn Abbas (ra) also reported that the Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) had said:
If I live till the next (year), I would definitely observe fast on the 9th.[ Muslim: Book 006, Hadith Number 2529]
Hence, one should combine another day with the fast of Ashura and fast on either the 9th and 10th of Muharram or the 10th and 11th in order to distinguish the Muslim way of fasting from that of the Jews.
May Allah accept all our good deeds. Amen. May Allah Bless us all. Amen. Received from M. Bukari … edited by M. Rafiq Lakhani … Please remember us & our families & whole Muslim umah in your prayers
Regards and Salam,
May Allah shower his Rahamat & Magfirat on all of us. Amen.
RECALL NOTICE:
The Maker of all human beings (ALLAH) is
recalling all units manufactured, regardless of
make or year, due to a serious defect that has developed in the
primary and central component of the heart.
This is due to a malfunction in the original
prototype units code named Adam and Eve,
resulting in the reproduction of the same defect
in all subsequent units. This defect has been
identified as “Subsequential Internal Non-
morality,” more commonly known as S.I.N., as
it is primarily expressed.
Some of the symptoms include:
1. Loss of direction
2. Foul vocal emissions
3. Amnesia of origin
4. Lack of peace and joy
5. Selfish or violent behavior
6. Depression or confusion
7. Fearfulness
8. Idolatry
9. Rebellion
The Manufacturer, who is neither liable nor at
fault for this defect, is providing factory-
authorized repair and service free of charge
to correct this defect. ALLAH has most generously offered to bear
the entire burden of the staggering cost of
these repairs. There is no additional fee
required.The number to call for repair in all
areas is: P-R-A-Y-E-R. Once connected,
please upload your burden of SIN through
the REPENTANCE procedure. Next,
download ATONEMENT from ALLAH into the heart component.
No matter how big or small the SIN defect is,
ALLAH will replace it with:
1. Love
2. Joy
3. Peace
4. Patience
5. Kindness
6. Goodness
7. Faithfulness
8. Gentleness
9. Self control
Please see the operating manual, the QURAN
(BEST Instructions Before Leaving Earth) for
further details on the use of these fixes.
WARNING: Continuing to operate the
human being unit without correction voids
any manufacturer warranties, exposing the unit
to dangers and problems too numerous to list,
and will result in the human unit being
permanently impounded. For free emergency
service, call on ALLAH.
DANGER: The human being units not
responding to this recall action will have to be
scrapped in the furnace. The SIN defect will not
be permitted to enter Heaven so as to
prevent contamination of that facility.
Thank you for your attention!
P.S. Please assist where possible by notifying
others of this important recall notice, and you
may contact ALLAH any time.
Because HE Lives!
Working for God on earth doesn’t pay much…
but His retirement plan is out of this world!
Top 10 Supercomputers
10: Nebulae (China)
Nebulae, made by Chinese supercomputer manufacturer Dawning, has been in the top 10 of the TOP500 list since June 2010. The computer has slid from a strong starting rank of No. 2 down to No. 10, but being the tenth most powerful computer in the world is still pretty good, right? With only 120,000 Intel Xeon computer cores, the Nebulae performs at more than 1.27 petaflops and is the second most powerful computer in China.
Nebulae operates at the National Supercomputing Centre in Shenzhen. Part of its speed comes from a number of Nvidia graphics processing units (GPUs) that help accelerate performance. Nvidia’s GPUs also helped China’s Tianhe-1A, currently in fifth place, to best many other super-powerful computers.
Like most supercomputers, Nebulae is tasked with doing what it does best: performing calculations very, very quickly. Its time is reportedly divided between high speed calculations and cloud calculations [source:What’s On Shenzen].
9: Curie Thin Nodes (France)
France’s Curie thin nodes, created by technology company Bull, exemplify how much supercomputer design can vary, even with a lot of the same parts under the hood. The ninth computer on the top 10 list uses Intel’s Xeon processors, but runs on a unique Bull supercomputing suite, instead of the Linux operating system used by most computers on the list.
The computer’s spot on the list is also impressive, given that it uses a mere 80,000 processor cores. That’s 40,000 fewer than the Nebulae! The Curie system peaks at a performance of around two petaflops. According to the French Atomic Energy and Alternative Energies Commission, the Curie computer system is open to scientists through the PRACE research infrastructure, making it one of the most powerful computers in Europe open to research.
8: JuQUEEN (Germany)
JuQUEEN is the first of four computers on the top 10 list running on IBM’s powerful BlueGene/Q platform, with max performance of around 1.6 petaflops. While many computers on the list have been around for the last couple years, the JuQUEEN is brand new. It’s actually a replacement for another system, JUGENE, which was the ninth fastest system on the November 2010 TOP500.
Once JuQUEEN is coupled with another BlueGene/Q supercomputer in October 2012, researchers at the Jülich-Aachen Research Alliance will be able to carve out some time with one of the most powerful supercomputers in the world. Researchers have to submit proposals for projects to justify using some of JuQUEEN’s cores.
7: Fermi (Italy)
IBM’s Fermi is one of five systems the company has ranked on the top 10 list. That’s right — half of the 10 fastest supercomputers in the world come from IBM! Of course, they’re all different, and the IBM Sequoia in the first spot is dramatically faster than many other systems.
Fermi uses more than 163,000 processor cores and, like JuQUEEN, is a brand new European supercomputer set up in June 2012. It’s the fastest supercomputer in Italy and is installed at Cineca, a nonprofit consortium of 54 Italian universities. Fermi maxes out at more than 2 petaflops of performance, making it the second fastest European supercomputer on the list.
6: Jaguar (United States)
The Jaguar is a change of pace. While the last three systems have been newcomers to the TOP500 list, the Jaguar is an old veteran: It’s been on the list since the second half of 2009! That’s practically ancient in the supercomputer world, but the Jaguar, located in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, is a powerhouse. It was the fastest supercomputer in the world on the November 2009 and June 2010 lists. It spent the next year and a half at second and third place before sliding down to sixth.
Jaguar is one of the rare few computers in the top 10 to run on AMD processors, and it also utilizes a special version of Linux, the Cray Linux Environment, built for supercomputers. Supercomputer manufacturer Cray built the Jaguar for $104 million and upgraded it in 2012 to keep it competitive [source:knoxnews]. The company increased Jaguar’s processor count from about 225,000 to nearly 300,000, bringing its processing power from about 2.3 to 2.6 petaflops.
5: Tianhe-1A (China)
China’s electronic pride and joy, Tianhe-1A, was the fastest supercomputer in the world in 2010. It slipped to second place in 2011 and now sits in the number five spot. Like the Nebulae, Tianhe-1A’s performance is bolstered by graphics card maker Nvidia. It uses 168 Nvidia Tesla M2050 GPUs to offload work from its 14,336 Intel Xeon processors. In total, it runs on more than 180,000 computer cores [source: CNET].
Unlike Nebulae, Tianhe-1A is not made by Chinese computer company Dawning. Instead, it comes from China’s National University of Defense Technology. It operates at the National Supercomputing Center at Tianjin. Tianhe-1A can crank out 2.5 petaflops of performance, making it twice as fast as China’s next-best supercomputer.
4: SuperMUC
Despite being another IBM system using Intel’s Xeon processors, the SuperMUC is unique in a couple different ways. Located in Germany’s Leibniz Supercomputing Centre, the SuperMUC uses a new hot-water cooling system to keep the computer’s brain from frying while it’s performing billions upon billions of operations. The SuperMUC is another new entry on the list and performs at up to 3 petaflops, thanks to about 150,000 processing cores.
Efficiency is what really sets the SuperMUC apart: IBM says it’s 40 percent more energy efficient than an air-cooled system would be. They claim the water removes heats 4,000 times more efficiently than air. Thanks to its cutting-edge hardware, the SuperMUC is Germany’s fastest supercomputer. In fact, it’s the fastest supercomputer in Europe, period.
3: Mira (United States)
Here’s where supercomputers get serious. The first seven entries on the list were fast, but not fast enough for top-three ranking. IBM’s new Mira, which becomes fully operational in 2013, peaks at a performance of 8 petaflops. That’s more than twice as fast at the SuperMUC in Germany.
Mira runs on 768,000 processor cores. It’s located at the Argonne National Laboratory, a research laboratory run for the United States Department of Energy. It uses IBM’s BlueGene/Q platform and replaces an older IBM system, Intrepid, which ranked fourth on the list in 2008.
Researchers who submit proposals for the Innovative and Novel Computational Impact on Theory and Experiment program will be able to claim processor time on Mira. Sixty percent of the computer’s capacity will go to their research, while 30 percent will go towards the Advanced Science Computing Research Leadership Computing Challenge. The final 10 percent will be reserved for urgent, time-sensitive computations [source: Information Week].
2: K computer (Japan)
Fujitsu’s K computer, the only supercomputer in Japan that made the top 10, is an incredibly powerful machine. It reigned as the fastest supercomputer in the world on both 2011 lists and now sits at No. 2 with a huge gulf in performance over IBM’s new Mira. It can perform at up to 11 petaflops.
The K Computer is located at Japan’s RIKEN Advanced Institute for Computational Science, where it performs scientific operations including global disaster prevention, meteorology and medical research [source: Fujitsu]. Unlike many of the other supercomputers on the list, it doesn’t run on IBM architecture. The K computer uses Fujitsu’s own SPARC64 VIIIfx octo-core processors. Seven hundred and five thousand computer cores help it churn through operations at an incredible pace.
But believe it or not, the fastest supercomputer in the world is leaps and bounds more powerful than the K computer.
1: IBM Sequoia (United States)
This is the Big Kahuna, the champion on the June 2012 TOP500 list. IBM’s Sequoia is the fastest computer in the world (at least, the fastest visible to the public) thanks to 1.6 million processing cores that can crank out an incredible 16.3 petaflops of performance. Wondering just how incredible that is?
Well, if we look back a mere half decade, to 2008, IBM’s Roadrunner made history (and grabbed the top slot) for cracking 1 petaflop, aka performing 1,000 trillion operations per second [source: IBM]. IBM said Roadrunner was equivalent to 100,000 of 2008’s laptops in performance. And Sequoia is 16 times as fast! Sequoia is one of four computers on the June 2012 list running on the BlueGene/Q IBM design, an 18 core 1.6GHz chip. That’s not an especially fast clock speed by today’s standards, but with 96 racks of chips, the performance really adds up.
What’s Sequoia doing with all that speed, anyway? For a while, IBM has bragging rights — Sequoia is 55 percent faster than the second fastest computer on the list. But they’re putting Sequoia to work, of course. The computer operates at the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration at the Livermore National Laboratory. The computer’s doing important work: One of its responsibilities is simulatingnuclear explosions.
HOW TO GET BACK YOUR CAR AFTER IT HAS BEEN STOLEN?
It takes only 2 minutes for a car thief to runaway with your car. No matter you have a trekker and auto-alarming devices fitted in your car.
The best safety for your car is a live and active Mobile Phone hidden in a sage place in your car:
1. Buy any low price mobile phone with longer standby time (Qmobile has one model which run for 10 days on standby and cost around Rs.2,200/-).
2. Install a mobile connection which has best network in the country.
3. Turn this mobile on complete SILENT mode (double check it should not vibrate while you turn it on SILENT mode).
4. Wrap it up slightly in a plastic sheet so that it should not get dirty and dusty during its hidden use.
5. Make sure it is perfectly responding by calling its number from another mobile phone.
6. Hide this mobile in a safe place in your car. And that’s it…!!!
If by any chance your car is found stolen, immediately inform your local Police / 115 in Pakistan. Give them phone number of the mobile hidden in your car. Police / 115 can easily track the location by calling that number. Chances are that you may get back your car within the shortest possible time.
And finally do not forget to charge this mobile at least twice a week and hide it back in your car in active position.
Dad .. what’s a terrorist? by David Campbell
Surely even a child can understand the difference between good and
evil.
Dad … What’s a terrorist?
Well, according to the Oxford dictionary a terrorist is “a person who
uses violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political aims”.
Which means that terrorists are very bad men and women who frighten
ordinary people like us, and sometimes even kill them.
Why do they kill them?
Because they hate them or their country. It’s hard to explain …
it’s just the way things are. For many different reasons a lot of people
in our world are full of hate.
Like the ones in Iraq who are capturing people and saying that
they’ll kill them if all the soldiers don’t leave?
Exactly! That’s an evil thing called “blackmail”. Those innocent
people are hostages, and the terrorists are saying that if
governments don’t do what they want, the hostages will be killed.
So was it blackmail when we said we’d attack Iraq and kill innocent
people unless they told us where all their weapons were?
No! Well … yes, I suppose. In a way. But that was
an “ultimatum” … call it “good blackmail.
Good blackmail? What’s that, DAD?
That’s when it’s done for good reasons. Those weapons were very
dangerous and could have hurt a lot of people all over the world. It
was very important to find them and destroy them.
But Dad … there weren’t any weapons.
True. We know that now. But we didn’t at the time.
We thought there were.
So was killing all those innocent people in Iraq a mistake?
No. It was a tragedy, but we also saved a lot of lives. You see, we
had to stop a very cruel man called Saddam Hussein from killing a
great many ordinary Iraqi people. Saddam Hussein stayed in power by
giving orders that meant thousands of people died or were horribly
injured. Mothers and fathers. Even children.
Like that boy I saw on TV? The one who had his arms
blown off by a bomb?
Yes … just like him.
But we did that. Does that mean our leaders are terrorists?
Good heavens, no! Whatever gave you that idea? That was just an
accident. Unfortunately, innocent people get hurt in a war. You can’t
expect anything else when you drop bombs on cities. Nobody wants it
to happen … it’s just the way things are.
So in a war only soldiers are supposed to get killed?
Well, soldiers are trained to fight for their country. It’s their
job, and they’re very brave. They know that war is dangerous and
that they might be killed. As soon as they put on a uniform they become a
target.
What uniforms do terrorists wear?
That’s just the problem … they don’t! We can’t tell them apart from
the civilians. We don’t know who we’re fighting. And that’s why so
many innocent people are getting killed … the terrorists don’t
follow the rules of war.
War has rules, dad?
Oh, yes. Soldiers must wear uniforms. And you can’t just suddenly
attack someone unless they do something to you first. Then you can
defend yourself.
So that’s why we attacked Iraq? Because Iraq attacked us first and we
were just defending ourselves?
Not exactly. Iraq didn’t attack us … but it might have. We decided
to get in first. Just in case Iraq used those weapons we were talking
about.
The ones they didn’t have? So we broke the rules of war?
Technically speaking, yes. But …
So if we broke the rules first, why isn’t it OK for those people in
Iraq who aren’t wearing uniforms to break the rules?
Well, that’s different. We were doing the right thing when we broke
the rules.
But Dad … how do we know we were doing the right thing?
Our leaders … Bush and Blair and Howard … they told us it was the
right thing. And if they don’t know, who does? They say that
something had to be done to make Iraq a better place.
Is it a better place?
I suppose so, but I don’t know for sure. Innocent people are still
being killed and these kidnappings are terrible things. I feel very
sorry for the families of those poor hostages, but we simply can’t
give in to terrorists. We must stand firm.
Would you say that if I was captured by terrorists?
Uh … yes … no … I mean, it’s very difficult …
So you’d let me be killed? Don’t you love me?
Of course! I love you very much. It’s just that it’s a very
complicated issue and I don’t know what I’d do …
Well, if somebody attacked us and bombed our house and killed you and
Mum and Jamie I know what I’d do.
What ..DAD?
I’d find out who did it and kill them. Any way I could. I’d hate them
for ever and ever. And then I’d get in a plane and bomb their cities.
But … but … you’d kill a lot of innocent people.
I know. But it’s war, Dad. And that’s just the way things are.
Remember?
David Campbell is a Melbourne writer.