Montreal May 06

Lots of artistic decorations outside the buildings


Modern buildings that don't require any decoration


Decorative clown-mascots


A massive cathedral, with tones of decorations inside (ok I am gonna stop it...)


This is a music instrument in a secluded room of the cathedral all covered in gold (damn how can I forget it's name...)


Always chat up locals and someone will invite you for dinner.


If they are as friend as this Caribbean couple they may even host a party for you. In the picture there is an Moroccan taxi driver, a ex-pilot from Ghana,... Canada is sort of immigrants.


If you look carefully, you'll see one of them is daydreaming.


Not the only "leisure center" in town


"Ugly Americans" a fun read I never finished.


The Olympic spirit passed from Montreal at some point. Don't ask me when.


The picture doesn't give justice to how tall this building is.

There is no monopoly in common sense

The Taliban have released a 28-minute video showing a US soldier captured in Afghanistan last month.*

In the video, the soldier, in grey clothes and with shaved head, says being a prisoner is "unnerving" and that he misses his family.

He says the US public has the power to bring US troops home to be "back where we belong and not over here, wasting our time and our lives".

The US military in Kabul said the man in the video was the missing soldier.
...
US military spokesman in Kabul, Capt Jon Stock, condemned the use of the video.

He told Reuters: "The use of the soldier for propaganda purposes we view as against international law.

"We are continuing to do whatever possible to recover the soldier safe and unharmed."

Leaflets have been distributed and a reward offered for his safe return.

The US military said the soldier disappeared after walking off base with three Afghan colleagues.

He is believed to be the first soldier seized in either Iraq or Afghanistan for at least two years.


*http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/8157795.stm
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There is no monopoly in common sense
On either side of the political fence
We share the same biology
Regardless of ideology
Believe me when I say to you
I hope the "russians" love their children too


Sting

Are you a rock-chick or a pop-princess?

What did Michael Jackson leave behind?

It's pointless to answer this question. Think of all the inspired kids (all over the globe) trying to pick up his dancing moves or the debt of his bank accounts and the list goes on. But like every other human being Michael Jackson left a dead body behind. Well not exactly. MJ's body like every genuine star's body had the signs of excess on it. So here's a question for you:

Should MJ donate his body to science?


PS: If such a thing happened I would see it partly as a humorous partly as a revengeful action. - For all the damage science did to me, the best way to retaliate is give my body back. -

Should there be limits on art?

I think yes and the audience, viewers, spectators are the ones responsible for applying them. In light of the release of the movie Bruno by Sacha Baron Cohen, there will be many discussions on where art stops serving as a means of entertainment and becomes a means for provocation. In my opinion the answer is to be given by those who pay to watch it(as well as those who refrain from doing so). I am personally not very interested in listening to "experts'" opinions.

Art of course is not solely a means of entertainment. Aristotle considered tragedy to have unique qualities with its roots in the cause and effect nature of the universe. He also suggested that fear and pity should be invoked within the audience. Plato on the other hand disregarded any form of art.

Did an important "individual" passed away recently?

It goes without saying that not every human being shares the same values, has the same interests and so on... If I carried on this path I would soon hit the wall of individuality. Each human being is different and has to be respected for that. Sure.

The millions of people standing in front of the television watching Michael Jackson's funeral are different, even though they are having exactly the same reaction to MJ's death. No matter how different they are then, they should still be sharing something in common. Is it that they are all equally manipulated by the media on what is important? Is it that they are all equally desperate in search for a role model so that the profile of a talented musician accused for numerous things, can serve as one? Is it that they have so much free time to sit and watch the funerals of celebrities? I don't know but it's almost intriguing how much interest people find in the show Jackson's family and the media put together.

PS: Apparently hours after MJ's death someone put together a web domain titled something like www. Is m j still alive. com Once you clicked on the site there was a big no coming up. Some friends were laughing over it. I am curious how funny they would find it if it was referring to a relative or friend of them?

Jupiter's Travels by Ted Simon

On page 153 Ted Simon quotes someone "We are in great haste to construct a magnetic telegraph from Maine to Texas; but Maine and Texas, it may be, have nothing important to communicate." How ironic can such a sentence seem in a book whose author tried to connect dots so far away on the map? But it's not; and there are millions of fascinating stories connecting all these places. Ted Simon put's together his own, in a genuine, vivid, humorous and insightful way.

http://www.jupitalia.com/