Since I was flying from Toronto to DrupalCon San Francisco 2010, the US passport control and customs were in the airport before flying.

As usual, I ticked all the vegetables (baby carrots, produce of the USA!), and meat (chicken sandwich), just in case ...

This spring is unusually early and warm. Today the temperature was around 26C, and that is not the first time this season.

The leaves are already sprouting from buds when it is barely mid April. One Japanese Maple tree has already bloomed and shed its flowers. Another silver maple tree is in bloom today. Our neighbor's magnolia trees has flowers that will open in a few days now. The lilacs are starting to show leaves as well.

All the above usually happens in the first week of May in other years, so we are 3 week early!

ليه الصعيدي بيحط جنبه منبهين ؟؟

عشان واحد يضرب والتاني يحوش

طب ليه الصعيدي بيحط جنبه كوباية شاي؟

عشان منبه

طب ليه بيحط كوباية قهوة؟

عشان لو الشاي مرنش

و ليه بيحط ملح على راسه ؟

علشان يبقى حدق

و ليه بيحط سكر على الكرسى قبل ما يقعد ؟

علشان تبقى قعدته حلوة

ليه الصعيدى لما بيشوف البرق بيضحك؟

عشان الصوره تطلع حلوة

ليه الصعيدى بيلبس شرابات خضراء ؟

عشان خضرة لابسة شراباته

صعيدى واقف فى الشمس و معاه دودة ليه؟

عشان الدكتور قال له اقف فى الشمس دقائق معدودة

خمس صعايدة فى غواصة غرقوا ليه؟

قصة الخليجي الذي ذهب للدراسة بألمانيا

ذهب خليجي من اسرة ثرية للدراسة في ألمانيا

وبعد شهر من الدراسه كتب رساله لأبيه يخبره فيها بأن برلين بلد جميلة جدا ان الناس كانوا لطفاء جدا معه

ولكنه يشعر بالخجل عندما يصل بسيارته المرسيدس الذهبيه للجامعة بينما يصل أساتذته بواسطة القطار

بعد فترة قصيرة استلم رساله من أبيه مرفق معها شيك بعشرة ملايين دولار

هل تعلمون ماذا كان محتوي الرسالة

اشتر لنفسك قطار
ولا تحرجنا مع الاجانب

This is amazing ...

Raj Patel, a London-born American academic and activist of Indian descent shows up on The Colbert Report, a comedy show on TV.

People from a little known religious group, Share International, proclaim that he is their awaited Maitreya.

He is then inundated with email from them. He denies it by posting on his web site (more detailed here), only to have those fans believe in him much more!

The similarities with scenes from the movie, Life of Brian are startling.

The irony is that Patel is opposed to the "savior" mentality, and rather believes that there are no easy answers to complex problems.

The article mentions Stephen Louis Cooper, a homeless man with gender identity disorder, also from the UK who was identified as an incarnation of the Hindu goddess Bahuchara Mata and now lives in a temple in Gujarat.

From this Guardian article.

Worth a read for sure ...

Update

:
What is funnier than the original article is how people who perceive Share International, Maitreya and Raj Patel as threats, a conspiracy, and started to attack them via web sites and Youtube videos.

Examples on Youtube are authors by the name of http://www.youtube.com/user/MaitreyaTheBetrayerMaitreyaTheBetrayer, TheTruthIsFromGod and maitreyaisthebeast.

Red Moon Rising compares Maitreya to the Anti-Christ, and Hidden Codes comments below that Raj Patel is indeed a mouth piece for Share International.

I received this photo via email (thanks Yehiya!)

The Arabic sign is بيع الدواجن المذبوحة for which the correct translation is "Sale [of] Slaughtered Chicken", meaning that they are not sold alive, already killed according to Islamic law.

The creative translator of the sign decided to use "Sale of Chicken Murder", not knowing how to express that they are already slaughtered.

In this MSNBC article, research at Columbia University showed that, among other findings:

According to this CBC article, an IPSOS Reid survey shows that Canadians now spend more time online on their computers over watching TV.

No wonder social networking sites, such as Facebook have a big share in this ...

On Friday March 19, 2010, Muslims attending the weekly congregation prayer at the Waterloo Masjid were greeted by vandalism of their house of worship.

The 666 number of the beast was sprayed on most windows and doors. Two windows were broken, including the funeral room, where the deceased are washed and shrouded in preparation for burial. Pentagrams, symbols of magic, were sprayed, as well as many insults, most of them misspelled, "Satan", "Deat [sic] to you all", "Devel" [sic], "soul collector".

The BBC has an interesting look at the African-Palestinians in Jerusalem.

Their ancestry comes from Chad, Nigeria, Sudan, and Senegal.

They settled and married from other Muslim Arabic speaking non-African Palestinians in Jerusalem, and face the same challenges that the broader Palestinian community faces.