moftasa.net

[This is an excellent example|http://fiveseptember.blogspot.com/] of an on-line response to a tragedy. Collecting all information and accounts in one blog. Reminds me of the [tsunami blog|http://tsunamihelp.blogspot.com/]. I think we need to repeat this as soon as something happens. It is better to use our tools to bring things under one blog (or wiki), that will also serve as a scrapbook documenting the event, help people know more and access the information easily without following different blogs. It would have been a nice thing to do for the elections.

Mohamed, from Cairo asks a good question:

Seems that the only reason blogs get mentioned is politics, and seems that the only people whom are interested in Egyptian politics are non-Egyptians! In order to balance things abit, I've written an article about blogs, from a total non-political perspective, and am trying to publish it at one of the local English-language publications, in an attempt to get more non-political bloggers on board. Looks like no one is interested though. Doesn't sell if its not politics?

I also think that the readership of non-political blogs decreased too, I myself skip reading posts on the aggregator that are not politically related from bloggers I read infrequently. I guess it doesn't sell now because of the politically charged times we are experiencing.

My problem is that I am not creative enough when it comes to politics, so I guess I will either have to shut up, take people by hand and direct them to interesting articles published elsewhere (like a linkblog) or try and blog about politics and see if I can improve by time.

But why do I complain about lost readership? I don't know, but I guess it is disappointing to spend too much time in a post with what I think an interesting account spiced up with some wicked javascripting and I don't get a single comment.

P.S: Mohamed could you please allow people without a blogger.com account to post comments on your blog ?

I wrote an account on my trip to Sudan on 18th of March 2004, I didn't have this blog to post it to. So I emailed it to everyone I knew. I guess it is worth putting here. Since this post is very long, I tried to add as much photos as I can to make the post more appealing. Note that some photos have hotspots that are annotated. I also added an interactive google map with placeholders for places I have been to, but I don't know why only one placeholder is appearing. Sorry about that, I will try to fix it soon. This page is very large, apologies to dial-up users.
UPDATEIt seems a bug from google so I am removing the map.

• (insert here a very common interjection that is usually cut out from TV and films in Egypt. Alexandrians consider it a harmless preposition)
• (insert here the Arabic slang for what gynaecologists work around all day.) + (insert the Arabic word for mother)
• (insert here the Arabic slang for the position in which a woman gives birth)

repeat the above loudly and hysterically while driving back home from the last day in the round.

[http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/Archive/Aug2005/Katrina_AMO_2005241.jpg]

Katrina is scary. The photos from the news sites reminds me of the [Day After Tomorrow|http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0319262/]. Here are photos from real people posted at [flickr|http://www.flickr.com/groups/45871688@N00/]. Even [scarier photos from newswires|http://news.yahoo.com/photos/sm/events/ts/080304tropicalweathe/p:91]

Also, [here are some evidence|http://www.gfdl.noaa.gov/~tk/glob_warm_hurr.html] that Hurricanes will go from bad to worse in the upcoming years due to global warming.

;: An implication of these studies is that if the frequency of tropical cyclones remains the same over the coming century, a greenhouse-gas induced warming may lead to a gradually increasing risk in the occurrence of highly destructive category-5 storms.

Well, apart from the standard activities you can do in Sinai like snorkeling, hiking, sleeping on the mountain that God spoke in a way that God would never appreciate, sleeping on the beach and dodging police flashlights at night, watching the sunrise and seagulls, sleeping in an Internet cafe along side a stray dog, sleeping in a bar's toilet, getting your legs bruised and scratched in your first windsurfing lesson, seeing veiled women getting out of the mens room, entering a room where two people were getting laid or whatever freaking mad thing you can do in that town.

Just discovered my new favourite activity in Dahab.

Try ripping and bringing down Mubarak banners at 5am in the morning followed by throwing the banners in the middle of the street and jumping up and down on them, while people can clearly see you from a distance.

I was very lucky to watch this year's [Perseid meteor shower|http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2005/22jul_perseids2005.htm].

[Last Friday|http://mostafa.foolab.org/node/118], in Marina, my cousin noticed two shooting stars. I vaguely remembered that there was a meteor shower in mid August. We drove [about 20km west of El-Alamein|http://maps.google.com/maps?q=egypt&ll=30.992914,28.667107&sll=37.062500,-95.677068&spn=0.540169,0.894974&sspn=33.641581,60.292969&t=k&num=10&start=0&hl=en], we escaped city lights. We didn't stay long because they were not really showers. They were like 1 meteor every 6 or 8 minutes. Anyways, since this was my first meteor shower I get to see. It was very nice.

Next time, I should plan things earlier, bring some hot drinks or whatever that would make the star gazing more comfortable.

This post is a little bit different. I would like to share some of my bookmarks and things I found on the Internet.

Few of the best music tracks I found available under a non restrictive license. They deserve a mention here as they made it to my main playlist. You can download them, share or remix some of them.

• [Young Agent Jones|http://artists.iuma.com/IUMA/Bands/Young_Agent_Jones/] - [El Ventriloquistador|http://artists.iuma.com/site-bin/mp3gen/10734/IUMA/Bands/Young_Agent_Jones/audio/Young_Agent_Jones_-_El_Ventriloquistador.mp3]
• [ASHWAN|http://ccmixter.org/by/ASHWAN] - [Angelface|http://ccmixter.org/contrib/ASHWAN/JOHN%20VAN%20BUREN%20ANGEL%20FACE.mp3]
• [Ulysses|http://artists.iuma.com/IUMA/Bands/Ulysses/] - [Mother Theresa|http://artists.iuma.com/site-bin/mp3gen/66075/IUMA/Bands/Ulysses/audio/Ulysses_-_Mother_Theresa.mp3]

My experience in cooking is very limited. However, I learned how to make an Omelette in exactly 110 seconds*, which is perfect for breakfast when you are in a hurry.

This is probably the fastest omelette in the world.

!Equipment:
* Microwave oven
* Handheld mixer
* Porcelain mug

!Ingredients: