The heroic photojournalist that is responsible for this incredible iconic photo has been missing since Wednesday. He is believed to have been arrested. UPDATE: He has been released!
There is one right that every human being on this planet has, that can only be taken away by death.
This one right, at it's most extreme, takes the most courage to exercise but can cause the biggest changes. It's powerful and those with power fear when people feel compelled to use it.
It is the right to say "No", a word that exists in every language and is usually among the first words a child learns to speak. It is a word more powerful than tanks, or guns, or bombs, and when combined with the voices of many others, shouting it in unison, it is possible to wage war and win, without ever striking or attacking with any other weapon.
Citizens of Iran, keep saying "No"!
Whatever it is that the government wants, keep saying "No", unless and until it is what YOU want.
You can and will win, as long as you keep saying "No".
A long time ago I created a set of buttons for use on another website, to number pages.
Back in those days, I was kind of careless and stupid concerning saving the original templates for my artwork. Instead I saved one blank button with a black background, to match that site, which means I can only use those buttons on sites with black backgrounds.
I really liked those buttons a lot, so I recreated them from scratch today, in much better quality than the originals.
(shown actual size)
With transparent backgrounds, they can now be used on any color website. I also made a set with a slight drop shadow, so they would stand out more on lighter backgrounds.
Released under a Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution license, suitable for both personal and commercial use. Just give credit by linking back to this site on any page that you use them, or in your about box if you use them in a desktop application.
Besides using them to number pages, I think they would be great for numbering items in all those “Top 10” lists that so many bloggers seem to be fond of.
And in case you want to do a top 20 list, I have included .psp and .psd source files of both versions, so you can edit and make more buttons (or change the font).
This work of art is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license.
Perfect for linking to your Twitter profile or any other purpose in which you’d need a bird icon.
In 16 assorted colors, so you can dare to be a little different and match the colors of your website.
Also included in the full set, are the original Paintshop Pro vectors (.psp).
Released under a Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution license, suitable for both personal and commercial use. Just give credit by linking back to this site on any page that you use them, or in your about box if you use them in a desktop application.
If you’d like to have only the blue ones, you can just save these images and skip the download (the feet aren’t showing because of my black background, but they are trhere):
This work of art is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license.
A set of 12 buttons in PSD, PNG (with and without shadow), and Paintshop Pro PSP and TUB formats. (They should work in any version of Paintshop Pro, v7 and newer.)
Set includes:
light bulb
contact
information
awards
about (male)
about (female)
home
help
rss
privacy
news
one blank button for you to customize in any way you choose
Icon images on the buttons were created by Yusuke Kamiyamane (from his Fugue Icons set). Chrome bezel buttons were made by me.
To use these buttons, you must credit and link to BOTH sites on each page in which they appear. Exception for the blank button, in which you only need to credit and link to me.
Feel free to drop a link to your site in a comment if you use them. I would be interested in seeing the results.
This work of art is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license.
ConvoTrack is that neat little tab you see on the left, powered by BackType, that when clicked opens a sidebar, revealing reactions to this page, from around the web.
A good example demonstration of exactly what it does can be seen here, on my post about adding a TwitThis button to Blogger posts.
When you click the ConvoTrack tab, you’ll see filter links at the top. Clicking any of those links will filter reactions coming only from that source.
There are instructions on the ConvoTrack site for adding this tab to all sorts of blogs of different platforms. But as us Blogger users know, a lot of codes do not work without some tweaking or special instructions, specific to Blogger.
Luckily, it is quite easy to add this nice little tab to your Blogger blog. Here is how:
1. The first thing to do is go to Layout and then click the tab for Edit HTML.
2. Now make a backup of your template, so that just in case anything goes wrong, you’ll have an easy way to fix it. Click the link that says “Download full template” and save the XML file to your hard drive, in a safe place.
3. Then in the HTML code box, scroll down till you get to the <body> tag.
4. Right after that tag, paste in the following code:
<!-- BEGIN ConvoTrack --> <style type='text/css'>@import url('http://convotrack.com/css/tab.css');</style> <a href='javascript:void((function(){var%20e=document.createElement("script");e.setAttribute("type","text/javascript");e.setAttribute("charset","UTF-8");e.setAttribute("src","http://convotrack.com/javascript/bookmarklet.js");document.body.appendChild(e)})());' id='convotrack_tab'>ConvoTrack</a> <!-- END ConvoTrack -->
5. Now save your template and you are done. You should now have a ConvoTrack tab on every page of your Blogger blog.
NOTE: If you are using a self hosted Blogger blog, on your own server, you can probably use the code supplied on the ConvoTrack site, without any alterations.
You'll get to read plenty of stories about people that won large lottery prizes, from Rebecca Jamison, a woman that won but almost lost when someone claimed the ticket was really theirs, to Max Matthews, a guy that received his ticket as a birthday gift from his son.
And they come from all walks of life, from Beverly Palmer, a woman that had recently hit hard times and lost her job, to Iorworth Hoare, a convicted rapist that not only won, but found "love" when a golddigger became attracted to his new riches.
A number of small island nations are in danger of disappearing, as they sink into the sea due to global warming induced rises in sea level. This is not if, it's when, and it's soon.
These tiny countries need serious help and they need it now.
Over 500,000 people from Bhola Island in Bangladesh permanently lost their homes when half of the island sank in 2005.
The Carteret Islands will be fully submerged by 2015. It's 10,000 residents need a new home now, but their government can't afford to move them off the island.
Tuvalu will be gone by 2050. Where will its 10,000 residents go? And what will become of its .tv top level domain? GoDaddy is recommending people not to buy one, because the island is sinking. The island needs the revenue generated by the sale of those domain names if they ever hope to be able to afford to buy a chunk of land big enough to relocate. But if the island disappears, there is a good chance that the .tv domain names will disappear with it, leaving anyone that bought one holding something worthless. It's considered a risky investment. The only real reason for buying one of their rather expensive domain names is to help them, not to actually use it.
And speaking of relocation, the UN doesn't recognize climate change as a qualification for official refugee status. This means no official international aid to help these small disappearing countries find a new home, people that are in danger as a direct result of the actions of those living in industrialized nations. Technically, nobody has to take these people in and all countries have the right to turn them away and tell them to go back home to a place that doesn't even exist.
It's our carbon emissions and green house gasses that are responsible for permanently taking away the homelands of all these people and while you may not personally agree with it, it's our collective agreement as industrialized nations, that they be left with no place to go and no help. Think about that the next time you go for a nice leisurely drive.
So what are we going to do with all these people? It's not like they can just buy a chunk of land from private citizens in Texas and set up a new country within the borders of the US. Neither the US or any other country would ever willingly allow something like that.
No country wants to give up any of their land to another country. This fact has been the basis of many wars throughout history. It's seen as a hostile invasion, even if it is attempted peacefully. Look no farther than Israel and the Palestinian conflict if you want to see how it works out in the long term.
What is the alternative? Split everyone up and scatter them around the world and make them assimilate to living in a new country, destroying everything…their culture, national identity, and perhaps even their native language in the process? That doesn't seem right either.
While I would personally be willing to temporarily take in one of the displaced families and help them adjust to their new life in a new country, I know in my heart this isn’t what is best for them.
Whatever solution we come up with better happen soon, because we don't have time to waste. The islands are sinking and their residents need our help.
Statistically speaking, most people visiting this site are English speakers from the US, on cable or DSL, viewing the site with a widescreen monitor, in Firefox 3, running on WinXP. Does this describe you?
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