Category: Kim Blog (English)

Personal blog. Thoughts, conspiracies with a danish twist etc.

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“Real followers of Islam don’t dance”

Ramadan posterYesterday was my regular day in Lektiehjælpen i Mjølnerparken, you might have forgotten, since it’s been a while since I wrote something about my work there.

Yesterday we had a rare discussion about religion, and it was triggered by this comment:

“Real followers of Islam don’t dance”

I know that it wasn’t to be taken too serious, and that I overreacted by hearing such a misguided statement, but I beg to differ. It really doesn’t get truer to Islam than Maâllem Mokhtar Gania & Gnawa Sufi group, and since Islam Muslim translates to “devotee”, a lot of dancers qualify for the title of being real followers, at least in my book.

On September 29th, there will be Sufi Ensemble performing in Stefanskirken, Nørrebrogade 191. The concert with Maâllem Mokhtar Gania & Gnawa Sufi group was fantastic, and I hope that this will be on par, even though the venue seems to be less suited for dancing (like in not at all – can you dance in a church? I might just give it a try).

ps. One of the children also handed me a copy of “لوسر دمحماللها Muhammed, Guds sidste sendebud” (links to a PDF) – I’ll read it – even though I’m sceptical of the content.

The booklet is available in most major languages from Islamhouse.com – and now seems like a good time to study الإسلام and the القرآن again.

pps. The quote below is true to Islam, again in my book ;-).

[2.112] Yes! whoever submits himself entirely to Allah and he is the doer of good (to others) he has his reward from his Lord, and there is no fear for him nor shall he grieve. ‏بَلَىٰ مَنْ أَسْلَمَ وَجْهَهُۥ لِلَّهِ وَهُوَ مُحْسِنٌۭ فَلَهُۥٓ أَجْرُهُۥ عِندَ رَبِّهِۦ وَلَا خَوْفٌ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا هُمْ يَحْزَنُونَ ‎
balay’ man ‘ʔaslama wajhahuw lil:ahi wahuwa muḥsinunm falahuwʔ ‘ʔajruhuw ʕinda rab:ihiy wala’ xawfun ʕalayhim wala’ hum yaḥzanuwna (I hope this was correct, I’m not proficient in Arabic).

Salaam Aleikum and happy Ramadan.

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Your “Pyramid” is beautiful, but we’ve just invented the “Arch”

Balancing the Pyramid of KhefrenSo you thought you could build an economy on other peoples work, and even have the audacity to charge them (that is us) for it!!!

Well! You have your “Pyramid” – and it’s beautiful – unfortunately for you we‘ve just invented the “Arch”.

So Google will remain a fantastic monument, but we‘re building the Aqueducts, Viaducts and last but not least the beautiful temples.

And how come Google and all the other search engines, seems to ignore the copyright all together? No let’s boycott Google, and ask to be delisted, or have them block commericals.

So let’s put Google and all the SEO “creeps” out of business, and get rid of the commercial search engine, “itsy bitsy spider, walk along the web” – it’s not that hard to build a better google than google. Where we’re going we don’t need Google.

Civilisation has just gone out of beta!

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Collective Intelligence 101? – Thank you my favourite muse :-*

Henrietteblogheader

Jaiku can be very (understatement) inspirational, and this time I managed to inspire my favourite muse, Henriette, to write a great blog-post, despite her being sick.

Web avant-garde » Blog Archive » the pulsefrequency of the brain (and it’s effect on creativity and incubation)

I wrote this on Jaiku to thank her:

Thanks, very nice!!! It was sort of a “thank you”. Remember some months ago you asked about ideas on how to be creative, and I just started blogging like a madman… I’ll think of a worthy comment, but I do need to catch some alpha-waves – surfs up – ahem down…

First Henriette asks this question:

so what do YOU love to do ? and are you doing it when you are taking time off ?

Henriette loved this:

This weekend I took my favorite man and went on a mental training workshop by Susan Ekberg. It was a real mental kick and I got so much out of it. Among other things she talked about the pulsefrequency of the brain which I want to share with ya’ll.

So I promised her a “worthy” answer:

This is (one thing) that I love – when not catching Alpha Waves (which I try to practice Yoga Nidra to achieve), or walking and/or biking in nature.

I love to ponder the future, technology, and how it can finally help humanity evolve. Today it has mostly made us slaves – the production lines has never run faster than today, despite talk about a “spare-time society” – where you aren’t a slave.

So here goes “nothing“:

Henriette mentions “Collective Intelligence”, this is a subject I’ve been trying to brew up a blog-post on, since July. It’s, tentatively, titled “Building a framework for (online) knowledge sharing“.

Continue reading “Collective Intelligence 101? – Thank you my favourite muse :-*”
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Mobile Monday Denmark

Mobile Monday LogoMobile Monday Denmark
I just rediscovered Mobile Monday – I’ll be lurking for a while (Jaiku is a great lurking tool ;-))

MobileMonday is a community of mobile professionals. The open community promotes the mobile industry and fosters cooperation and networking among industry people and their companies by providing opportunities for personal and virtual contacts.

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IX-XI or XI-IX @ Kim Bach . Org: Go humanity! I’m your number one fan

Kim Bach . Org

Today marks the first aniversary of my final post on “this subject”. One month later I suddenly found my self “not being in Kansas anymore“. MOVING ON – or VIDERE (hat tip to my former boss)!!!

Here’s what I wrote on “the subject” (newest first!)

Moving on in a jiffy (RUF) – will we make it?

The human mind works in mysterious ways, and it’s what makes people build houses in the shadow of “Mount” Vesuvius which you just have to love.

Humanity will prevail, because we have such irrational minds and short memories/lifespans – but we’re also waking up – will we make it?

Right now I’m positive – the immense prosperity we’re experiencing – despite being at war – means that we have the time to think further than the next meal, and in places like Denmark – which is such a wealthy country – the environment is beginning to show signs that it’s recovering from the exploitation of the industrial revolution. A sign of the times is that the Danish Railroads (DSB) just announced, that they’ll get most of their electric from renewable sources (wind and hydro) – it’s quite amazing – now let’s get rid of the car, as we know it, in a jiffy (Danish RUF – pun intended). It’s so STUPID and DESTRUCTIVE to the environment to pack your own power-plant – and ALL talk about a car-bridge crossing the Kattegat Sea must cease, a high speed railroad OTOH – start building NOW!

Another sign of the times is that you can go for a swim in the inner Copenhagen harbour (“as long as”, in the eternal words of a harbour biologist, “you don’t take a bite from the bottom”), and that McDonalds now sells Fair Trade coffee!!!

Go humanity! I’m your number one fan!

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Warning: Thanks to the DS, I might pick up the “guitar” – AGAIN

Ubisoft Jam Sessions ScreenshotNintendo.com News : Transform your DS into a guitar with Jam Sessions

After having been on the Japanese market for quite a while, Ubisoft is about to launch Jam Sessions to the rest of the world.

Jam Sessions is a Guitar Simulator, and unlike Guitar Hero, it’s focusing on reality, as this (Hidari Mae: Logical Conclusion) great sounding sample demonstrates – it was made without real guitars!

The concept is that you strum the guitar using the touch screen, and use the navigation keys to create chords.

So I might pick up the “guitar” again, it’s been more than 25 years since I tried to learn how to play the guitar – I sort of managed to get the technical details right, and it’s still in “my fingers” – but it never really amounted to anything – you know music is about feelings and “letting go” – when I was 18 I was a serious uptight old fart, with no concept of feelings, I think I might fare better today, and I’ve actually been jamming with my oldest niece using her acoustic guitar, and it actually sounded much better after she coached me – I was amazed or maybe I’m just tone-deaf ;-).

I’m NEVER going to master a traditional game controller, but the new generation of gaming concepts that Nintendo is pioneering strikes a SERIOUS chord (pun intended ;-)) with me.

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Last.fm – insanely great – should I apply?

Last.fm Red LogoLast.fm – the online music community – is probably the KEWLest web-site on the planet – and now it’s even KEWLer, since they have a Jaiku channel.

In case you don’t know Jaiku, it’s a web application that makes it easy to follow your friends, and stay updated on your favourite topics and/or sites (if they have a channel that is). Services like Jaiku are often refereed to as “microblogging services”, and it’s somewhat similar to another web-application: Twitter.

In case you don’t know Last.fm – you’re not from this planet, but it’s a service that, based on your musical preference, helps you discover new music, events and friends. Last.fm also operates unlimited streaming “radio stations”, where the users determine the content, for instance based on the similarity of artists, you can for instance ask Last.fm to stream a radio-station similar to a specific artist.

Since I joined the #LastFM channel, I remembered that I one year ago added “Send job-application to Last.fm” to my to-do list – I feel that Last.fm thinks like I do, and they’re looking for lots of people, and it looks like a great place to work.

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Moonlighting: Microsoft Delivers Silverlight 1.0, Extends Support to Linux

Microsoft Silverlight LogoMicrosoft Delivers Silverlight 1.0, Extends Support to Linux: “Entertainment Tonight” HSN and World Wrestling Entertainment showcase new online experiences; more than 35 partners commit to Silverlight Partner Initiative.

REDMOND, Wash. — Sept. 4, 2007 — Microsoft Corp. today released to the Web (RTW) Silverlight™ 1.0, a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering richer user experiences on the Web. In addition, Microsoft will work with Novell Inc. to deliver Silverlight support for Linux, called Moonlight, and based on the project started on mono-project.com.

Silverlight significantly reduces development and deployment costs and provides enhanced Web audio and video streaming and playback using industry-leading Windows Media® Technologies. Microsoft unveiled new Silverlight customer experiences on “Entertainment Tonight,” HSN and World Wrestling Entertainment, and also launched the Silverlight Partner Initiative, a program designed to foster collaboration among solution providers, content delivery networks, tools vendors and design agencies.

“Our expectations for compelling, immersive experiences on the Web are increasing daily,” said Ray Ozzie, Microsoft’s chief software architect. “With today’s release of Silverlight 1.0, we’re making it possible for developers and designers to deliver to individuals the kind of high-def experiences they crave by integrating data and services in rich and unique ways. Silverlight will further accelerate the growth in rich interactive applications by giving developers and designers new options for delivering great experiences that span the Web, PC, phone and other devices.”

I think my jaw just hit the floor, this exceeds my wildest dreams – let’s hope that it’s not just that – and that it will materialise.

This is the validation that the Mono Project needed! Flash will now – finally – get serious competition – or rather a run for it’s money – from a company that understands, and listens to, developers (no “monkey dance” here – they just do!).

It’s WONDERFUL news. GO RAY OZZIE, Microsoft will be “insanely great” – unlike “another” company – that no longer has ANY interest in computers!!!

And guess what: I just started as a Microsoft developer again – seems that I got the timing right.

Get Silverlight 1.0 here (yes: it’s ALSO for the Mac)…

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Richard Dawkins:Wake up! You’re in the universe! Now: make the most of it!

This is part of a lecture by Richard Dawkins, all seven episodes are GREAT, but this segment really drives his points home.

Dawkins is a fantastic lecturer, and it’s tough to find Danish equivalents, the only one I can think of is Jens Martin Knudsen (R.I.P. I’m SO sorry he didn’t get to go to Mars, or see people walking there).

In the 80ies Jens Martin Knudsen did a series of lectures that were broadcast on Danish National Television (DR), I have to go find them.

HAVE FAITH (in scientific method)!

Are you evolved yet?

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NASA Space Telescopes Find ‘Lego-Block’ Galaxies in Early Universe

Hubble-20070906-BrowseJPL.NASA.GOV: News Releases

NASA has just issued a press release regarding a new discovery. What the Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes have discovered are small, dense galaxies in the distant universe (meaning we’re looking WAY back in time), that are considered to be building blocks of the Universe, and it contributes to, and confirms, our understanding of the evolution of the Universe.

This press release caught my interest, in part, due to the mentioning of ‘Lego’ the BEST toy EVER, but behind the headline lies yet another important discovery, that, to me, really demonstrates why we need to invest in Space Telescopes, there’s so much to learn.

“OH MY GOD! IT’S FULL OF STARS!”.

This is a quote from the NASA press release:

A NASA’s Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes have joined forces to discover nine of the smallest, faintest, most compact galaxies ever observed in the distant universe. Blazing with the brilliance of millions of stars, each of the newly discovered galaxies is 100 to 1,000 times smaller than our Milky Way galaxy.

“These are among the lowest mass galaxies ever directly observed in the early universe,” said Nor Pirzkal of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Md.

The conventional model for galaxy evolution predicts that small galaxies in the early universe evolved into the massive galaxies of today by coalescing. These nine Lego-like “building block” galaxies initially detected by Hubble likely contributed to the construction of the universe as we know it.

JPL is the NASA body that manages the majority of the robotic missions to the planets and the solar system, this includes the highly successful Mars Rovers, Voyager, Cassini. You can subscribe to the NASA JPL newsletter by visiting this link