July 20, 2009 – islamicate

Politics

President #Obama on Discrimination

islamoyankeeJuly 20, 2009

“But make no mistake: The pain of discrimination is still felt in America. (Applause.) By African American women paid less for doing the same work as colleagues of a different color and a different gender. (Laughter.) By Latinos made to feel unwelcome in their own country. (Applause.) By Muslim Americans viewed with suspicion simply because they kneel down to pray to their God. (Applause.) By our gay brothers and sisters, still taunted, still attacked, still denied their rights. (Applause.)” Full transcript – http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-by-the-President-to-the-NAACP-Centennial-Convention-07/16/2009/

Inter-faith Intra-faith

Tweeting the #Quran – #Ramadan [Updated]

islamoyankeeJuly 20, 2009

Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting, is approaching. We expect it to begin around August 21. Traditionally, Muslims read the Qur'an in its entirety over this time, in a section a day. The Qur'an is split into thirty sections, called juz', and one section is read each night. This year, I have been thinking it would be fun to tweet the Qur'an for Ramadan. Coincidentally, Shavuot came, and several people I follow on Twitter tweeted the Torah. Since that experience seemed to be successful, it further cemented my belief that this would be a good idea. Some guidelines for tweeting…

Web/Tech

Jonathan Zittrain on the Future of the “Cloud”

islamoyankeeJuly 20, 2009

Just posting it because it’s of intellectual interest. Take it or leave it. But the most difficult challenge — both to grasp and to solve — of the cloud is its effect on our freedom to innovate. The crucial legacy of the personal computer is that anyone can write code for it and give or sell that code to you — and the vendors of the PC and its operating system have no more to say about it than your phone company does about which answering machine you decide to buy. Microsoft might want you to run Word and Internet…