What the World Doesn't 'Get' About the Arab Spring

"A few months ago, I took the boat from Andalusia to Morocco. From the Spanish port town of Algeciras to the Spanish enclave of Ceuta (Sebta) behind Jebel Mousa. From Babylon to Zion. From Europe to Africa."

With the deadline for registering for presidential candidacy on the morrow, this blog has dubbed them the 'Hunger Games'. The scramble for a shot at the presidential game now includes the ex-spy chief Omar Soliman.

"Tomorrow at 2 pm the high presidential elections committee "HPEC" will close its orders for registration in front of all the presidential hopefuls and in the past 48 hours lots of things took place."

"What it means to be on a list of powerful people ? simply that you are one of those powerful ones.

What does powerful mean? it means being influential, doing what's good for those around you or making changes in the filed you are working in."

PR Machines Acting Like PR Humans by Roba
From the always-awesome Boing Boing:

"PR people sometimes say “I loved your coverage of x, perhaps you’d like to hear about y!”. The idea is to ensure that I, Esteemed Journalist, know that I am worthy of personalized attention, rather than being an entry on a mailing list.

Some of them, however, are trying to have their cake and eat it, too. I’ve started getting emails that contain computer-generated personal touches. Computers trying to copy what humans would say to avoid looking like computers!"

How to ready Lebanon academically: a handy reference of texts to consider if you're looking to examine Lebanon by its critical literature. Includes the stodgy and the multi-lingual. Useful to students or recreational 'readers' of the hefty subject that is Lebanon!

"In addition to this personal archive that has enabled me to craft and produce my research and dissertation, there are a number of texts that I keep returning to in order to think about Lebanon more critically."