Friday 30 January 2009

Illusions 21

Can you find the hidden baby?!
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Lobão - "Vou te levar" (lyrics)

Listen to this acoustic song from a very famous and polemical Brazilian singer/songwriter:
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Lyrics
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Pensar em tudo que se passou,
que se pôde sonhar e não realizou
a vida tentando escapar
mas não por agora
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Ao mesmo tempo tanta coisa se amou,
se refez, se perdeu, se conquistou
retratos estampados do nosso amor
em preto e branco pregados na parede
revelando pra sempre a gente,
nosso orgulho um do outro, olhando pra lente,
como quem dissesse: não queremos mais nada nesse mundo
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E que me lembrasse, a cada instante
que valeu a pena cada lance
e que valerá tenha certeza, pra toda vida...
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Vou levar, vou te levar
pra onde eu for, vou te levar
vou levar, vou te levar
pra onde eu for, vou te levar
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kd lang - "The consequences of falling" (lyrics)

I love this Canadian singer:
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Lyrics
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Are you breathing
What I'm breathing
Are your wishes
The same as mine
Fire you needing
What I'm needing
I'm waiting for a sign
My hands tremble
My heart aches
Is it you calling
If I'm alone in this
I don't think I can face
The consequences of falling
Are you thinking
What I'm thinking
Does your pulse
Quicken like mine
Are you dreaming
What I'm dreaming
I can't read your mind
One step towards you
Two steps back
Feels like I'm crawling
If I'm alone in this
I don't think I can face
The consequences of falling
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Brain teaser 20 (solution)

There are an infinite number of places where this could occur. The most obvious of these is the South Pole, but he could also be at any place which is 1 mile south of a point where the cross-section of the Earth is a circle of circumference 1 mile.
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Brain teaser 19 (solution)

81
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Tuesday 6 January 2009

Netherlands - First muslim mayor of Rotterdam

Ahmed Aboutaleb (47), a prominent Labour politician who was born in Morocco, is the new mayor of Rotterdam.
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Before becoming a deputy minister in February 2007, Aboutaleb made a name for himself in Amsterdam, where he was the city council's executive for social affairs.
Aboutaleb is the first mayor of Moroccan descent to be appointed in the Netherlands. Rotterdam is the country's second biggest city (population 584,000) and has substantial social and poverty issues.
It is also the city where populist politician Pim Fortuyn started his short-lived political career. Fortuyn was murdered by an environmental activist in 2002, just a few days prior to the national elections.
His 'heirs' still make up the largest opposition party in Rotterdam and have voiced strong criticism of Aboutaleb, not so much for his background in rival city Amsterdam, but for his roots in Morocco.
"Aboutaleb is a Muslim and he has two passports. Should he, of all people, be in charge of a city where the majority of the immigrant population refuses to integrate?" city councillor Dries Mosch said.
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Poet, journalist, politician

Ahmed Aboutaleb, now 47, was born as the son of a Muslim cleric in the town of Beni Sidel in the Rif mountains of Morocco. At the age of 15 he emigrated to the Netherlands with his family. His childhood ambition was to be a poet but he later exchanged this dream for a career in journalism, working for the commercial station RTL4 and public broadcaster NOS Radio. He then moved into the world of politics, becoming an alderman on Amsterdam City Council.

The city was shaken to its core in 2004 when film maker Theo van Gogh was murdered by a militant Muslim. Ahmed Aboutaleb's resolute stance in the wake of the killing earned him the praise of many Amsterdammers, both inside and outside of the Moroccan community. Perhaps his most famous hour was the speech he gave at an Amsterdam mosque, in which he told residents who have trouble accepting Dutch values to pack their bags and board the next plane out. His performance brought him to prominence but also resulted in death threats. Since that time he has been unable to leave home without bodyguards. Yet he has steadfastly refused to tone down his approach, and shows no signs of changing his ways.
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"I'll treat young Moroccans in Rotterdam the same way as I treat all young people. If you do the right thing, you can count on my support, my hand on your shoulder. But if you are out to disrupt society, to deliberately pull a fast one, if you don't want to work - I will show you no mercy."
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(Radio Netherlands Worldwide/NRC Handelsblad)
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Thursday 1 January 2009

Brain teaser 20

A man leaves his house and walks one mile due north. He then walks one mile due east, followed by one mile due south, when he arrives back at his starting point. How is this possible???
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Illusions 20

This optical illusion was first created in 1861. Look at the two thick vertical lines. Do they look straight or curved? Hold a ruler up to the screen and you will see that they are indeed straight!
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Brain teaser 19

A two-digit number, read from left to right, is 4.5 times as large as the same number read from right to left. What is the number?
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Vampire Weekend - "Oxford Comma" (lyrics)

One of the best albums of 2008 comes from US but I'd swear the band was from UK:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_i1xk07o4g
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Lyrics
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Who gives a fuck about an Oxford comma?
I've seen those English dramas too
They're cruel
So if there's any other way
To spell the word
It's fine with me, with me
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Why would you speak to me that way
Especially when I always said that I
Haven't got the words for you
All your diction dripping with disdain
Through the pain
I always tell the truth
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Who gives a fuck about an Oxford climber?
I climbed to Dharamsala too
I did
I met the highest lama
His accent sounded fine
To me, to me
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Check your handbook
It's no trick
Take the chapstick
Put it on your lips
Crack a smile
Adjust my tie
Know your boyfriend, unlike other guys
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Why would you lie about how much coal you have?
Why would you lie about something dumb like that?
Why would you lie about anything at all?
First the window, then it's to the wall
Lil' Jon, he always tells the truth
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Check your passport
It's no trick
Take the chapstick
Put it on your lips
Crack a smile
Adjust my tie
Know your butler, unlike other guys
Why would you lie about how much coal you have?
Why would you lie about something dumb like that?
Why would you lie about anything at all?
First the window, then it's through the wall
Why would you tape my conversations?
Show your paintings
At the United Nations
Lil' Jon, he always tells the truth
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