"Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, olny taht the frist and lsat ltteres are at the rghit pcleas. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by ilstef, but the wrod as a wlohe."

Does anyone know the true original source of the above comment?

Posted in: Funny, Random,

Two years ago this morning a set of events unfolded that no one in the near future will be able to forget. A group of men, who thought their cause superseded all others, effectively plunged the United States into a poorly planned offensive against terrorism. Ironically the United States has now placed this offensive and national security as more important than any other aspects of its own democracy. This extremism occurs on much smaller scales than international. Individuals and organizations with forceful opinions parade as if their issue demands the undivided attention of every person. Ann Arbor is a hotbed for such people. And although they generally do not resort to violence, they are successful in further dividing people of different opinions. To be clear: I?m an advocate of thinking for your self. I?m an advocate of common sense. I?m an advocate of staying true to one?s convictions. However I could never advocate fanaticism that arbitrarily places the value of one man?s opinion or his life less than that of another?s.

That being said, I think it is important to remember the victims of terrorism - all of them, not just those from the United States. Refusing to accept their deaths as meaningless should fuel the drive to correct the problems that inspired such violence in the first place. And although the concepts of fairness and justice may seem forgotten, there is always a lesson to be learned.

Through violence you may murder a murderer, but you can't murder murder.

Through violence you may murder a liar, but you can’t establish truth.

Through violence you may murder a hater, but you can’t murder hate.

Darkness cannot put out darkness. Only light can do that….

– Martin Luther King, Jr.

In the northeast part of Ann Arbor where I live, the foundations for a new housing complex is beginning to take shape. For the most part it resembles any other development with one minor exception: its intended demographic is low income residents. Somehow the residents of the nearby affluent subdivisions felt that low income housing would be a breeding ground for crime and drugs, cause traffic problems and danger to young children by speeding cars. There was a petition drive and committees created to stop the city's approval of the project. Seeing brilliant U of M professors (that I once respected) along with otherwise friendly neighbors take part in the opposition greatly disappointed me. What I could not understand was these people's motives. Common sense would easily refute their claims. Many local teenagers could easily finger the wealthy homes where drugs were used and sold. And in reality the majority of the people who will live in these new units will do just that: live. I'm glad the city did not give into the nonsense. And I'm also glad for the nice area in which I live. However it will take some time to forget my disgust for the selfishness of the people with whom I share this community.

Posted in: Life, Politics,

For the past 3 months that my website has been open to the public, I've had some interesting visitors. Quite a few people are actually looking for me when they visit (imagine that). Many are looking for my resources (that's what I put them up), which is great. Apparently my post on MP3 swapping and my personal music reviews together seemed to have attracted many people looking for free MP3s. Don't they know that's illegal? :-) The absolute weirdest was someone looking for Adam Sandler who ended up at my site.

The different countries are pretty impressive. People from Canada, Netherlands, Seychelles, United Kingdom, Australia, Finland, Russian Federation, Spain, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Sweden, Austria and Switzerland have visited. I hadn't even heard of Seychelles before now. The only disappointing thing was that none were from India. Where are my people?

About the visitors: There were about 116 unique visitors with about 1105 visits (which is about 19,500 pages). Not bad I guess. I'm not really looking for the popularity, but it sure can be interesting. And only 6 of you regular readers even post. Well I'm glad people find something worth reading here.

Posted in: Website,

This weekend I watch The Pianist, a very well done movie in almost every respect. It clearly deserved all the Oscar attention it received. As much as I enjoyed the movie, at times it was very hard to watch its sad depictions and depressing scenes. The German occupation of Warsaw is shown in grim detail through the eyes of a Jewish pianist. As a survivor his very real story was eventually told. The thing that affected me about this movie was that it reminded me of the capabilities of man. Humanity and its meaning at times can be so easily overlooked. I'm not sure what my point is, I guess it bothers me that even to this day worse things happen. I question what mankind has learned from centuries of violence. People can live in their own happy self centered worlds, while easily filtering out the hardships endured by the rest of the people on this planet. Maybe they don't know any better. Maybe no one does. Of course believing that would only be an excuse. There are no excuses, we all should know better.

Posted in: Movies, History, Politics,