Desert truffles are an unusual desert crop related to European truffles, found in France and Italy. It can be found in North Africa from Morocco to Egypt, and in Syria, and Arabia.

Names and History

Its classical name is Kama' كمأ - كمأة but today is known as faqa' فقع or by the local variants zubaydi زبيدي -khalasi خلاسي in Arabia, to terfas in Egypt, and terfezia in Morocco.

They have been said to be served for Pharoahs, as well as Fatimid rules from the Muqattam mountain.

It has been known to Arabs for millenia, since the prophet is reported to have said: "Kama' is from manna, and its water is a cure for the [diseases of the] eye". 

Here is another sample of fake lottery winning.

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It seems many people fall for this king of scam, otherwise the fraudsters would not have kept trying.

This is a list of cases of mistaken identity. Whether it is airline staff removing a passenger, or other passengers forming a mob to evict a "suspicious" looking person, and other absurdities.
This is "collateral damage" in the War on Terror.

Seth Stein is a New York born Jewish architect from London. He designs interiors for vacation homes of wealthy clients, and hence travels a lot.On his way back from a vacation at Turk and Caicos, he was on an American Airlines flight to New York. After using the bathroom at the start of the flight, he settled with an iPod. A man claiming to be an NYPD police officer pounced on him, holding him in a headlock. He was told that he was acting suspiciously and to stay calm. The man went through his pockets and took his passport and the iPod.He was told that his holiday tan made him "look Arab".

For years, I have been using an IDE Travan tape for backup. I detailed the advantages of removable media like tape and how to use it under Linux in another article.

However, the choice of tape drives and tape cartridges for a home office environemnt are rather limited. The media is expensive, and the drives are also expensive.

My Seagate IDE Travan drive is capable of backing up 10GB, and 20GB with compression. This was satisfactory for years, until I got a 4 megapixel camera, and disk usage started to go up. I had to split the backup into two tapes, one for the pictures directory, and another for everything else.

Pablo Gutierrez Vega is a 35 year old law professor at the University of Seville.He was on an Air Berlin flight when three German passengers approached him and asked to search his luggage. When he realized that they are not undercover police he refused.Why did this happen? Because Vega had a dark complex and (horror or horrors) a beard!Vega says that "they treated me like an Islamic terrorist because of my appearance". Moreover, he says that the pilot told him "the passengers believed I was a Muslim". How shocking!Read the detailed from the AP and CBS.

Here is an Egyptian man called Yehya (يحيى Arabic for John), although it is pronounced "Yaya".He was on Jimmy Kimmel Live on the 13th of September.He is a handyman by day, and celebrity stalker by night. He just wants to have his picture taken with famous celebrities. He has accumulated 1,600 such photos.His technique is typical Egyptian: he gives the celebrity a gift, which is a souvenir camel figure.His accent is typical Egyptian too. He says "biktshur" (picture), "Robert Williams" (Robin Williams), "Little Women" (Lethal Weapon), "Sixty Second" (Sixth Sense), "elephant" (dolphin).

Israeli peace activist, Uri Avnery has a good article on the recent quotes by Pope Benedict. A good refutation of "spreading the faith by the sword" myth.

Two decades ago, Air India flight 182 was bombed over the Atlantic ocean.

The main suspects were militant Sikhs devoted to creating a homeland independant of India, and protesting the Indian army storming the Golden Temple in Amritsar.

Kalwant Mamak is a Sikh-Canadian who lost his 42 year old wife in the bombing. She was going to India to visit her sick father. He describes in some detail how his life was impacted: he could barely cook, his son did not hug his mother out of embarassement at the airport, and more.

Iran continued defiance of Western pressure and its assertiveness are not out of mere religious fervor. The BBC's John Simpson's article: Iran's growing regional influence explains the motives in nationalist and anti-Imperialist. Similarly, Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Hezbollah has a growing popularity in non-Shia countries, such as Egypt, because of his militia's being able to hold off Israel in the recent war in Lebanon.This led to humorous things, such as the most expensive variety of dried dates being dubbed Nasrallah by fruit sellers in Cairo. The worst kinds are dubbed Olmert and Bush.