Khomeini Lives!- in Cardboard Cut-Out Form

No this isn't a joke. The Iranian government actually decided to celebrate the 33rd anniversary of Ayatollah Khomeini's return to Iran from exile after the Islamic Revolution by having a cardboard cut-out replica of him traveling across the country. It even had a group of soldiers standing to attention and saluting him/it.

We see a Middle Eastern meme in the making with several Photoshoped pictures of the replica placed in awkward and funny places (Saad Hariri's hospital room, for one) circulating the net.

"This event was supposed to achieve a state of respect to the man, but it just made me laugh."

The student union is the heart of student activism. Egypt's universities are getting in on the action of the revolution by having a mass strike until SCAF hand over power. Each student union has released a statement on their stance and protocol. The full details of the strike, the public student union statements (some SUs have withheld making their's public) and the overall demands are all here.

"A number of universities or rather students unions in several universities across the country have announced that they are going on a general strike starting from next February 11st , 2012 till SCAF hands over powers to civilians as an escalation of protesting."

It is painful to compare the state of revolution this time last year and how it is now. A year ago, it was the Camel Battle, which were viewed as quite extreme at the time. Now, protesters are being attacked with teargas. This blogger has a comparative look back and gives a handful of very useful facts about teargas.

Points can mean a number of things. In mathematics, it is the end to the infinity of a line. In an argument, it is the indication of a position. For this blogger, a point marks the end of something aimless and the beginning of something new. There is no turning point.

"Life is not about returning points, she decided, smiling. There will be no middles for her. There will be beginnings. There will be endings."

It used to be that if you sinned, it would be within a somewhat limited and straightforward threshold. Now, thanks to the Internet, any number of things could lead you to hell's gates, including hacking, torrents and credit card fraud.

"I illegally downloaded thousands of movies and songs through torrents."