Here You Go

According to Masrawy, Rana Abu Bakr, the girl who got the highest rank in the Egyptian General Secondary Education (Thannewya Amma), attacked the government, blaming it for the deterioration of the quality of education in Egypt.
More interestingly, Rana announced that she'll immigrate with her family to the US, where she will start studying Medicine, a scholarship provided by the American University in Cairo (AUC).
Rana, the daughter of a surgeon, announced this during a ceremony organized by a governmental educational organization for students whom scored the highest grades. For me that's the most interesting thing, the embarassment of the system, she shocked the officals sitting there to honor her. That's a slam on the face.
According to a government official, that's the first time a students ranked as the first runner to continue studying elsewhere.
For me its just sad, if this country has to invest in anything, its just education, that's the only asset we have, the people.

UPDATE:
July 26th, 2009: In a phone conversation with one of the popular talk shows in Egypt called "90 Minutes", Rana denied rumors that she has blamed the government for the deterioration of quality of education in Egypt, she also denied that she'll be immigrating to the USA. She said that if she goes there to get a degree, she'll return back to Egypt in order to help the country. Masrawy

Editor: I don't understand why did she do so, she was about to be a hero...

Netanyahu is a stupid ass hole

“I would like to re-emphasize that united Jerusalem is the capital of the Jewish people and of the State of Israel,” Mr. Netanyahu said. “Our sovereignty over it cannot be challenged; this means — inter alia — that residents of Jerusalem may purchase apartments in all parts of the city.”
Israel captured the eastern part of Jerusalem and the West Bank from Jordan in the 1967 Six-Day war. It annexed East Jerusalem, which contains sites holy to Jews, Christians and Muslims, as well as many Palestinian neighborhoods, and built a series of Jewish neighborhoods in and around it to solidify its claim. It has also built scores of West Bank settlements.
NY Times

This is not just a direct challenge to Obama and the American administration, it deepens the people-people conflict, increases hatred and suspicions about the future of this region. Not a single Arab or Arab leader will be able to support the giving away of Eastern Jerusalem.
Moreover, I bet millions in the Middle East will be waiting to check Obama's response for this, something that didn't happen at the time of writing this post. The only thing that is in the media, is the Sen. George Mitchell will be visiting the region this week. We'll see how this goes.

Taking it to the next step

"The most complete terrain map of the Earth's surface has been published.

The data, comprising 1.3 million images, come from a collaboration between the US space agency Nasa and the Japanese trade ministry.

The images were taken by Japan's Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (Aster) aboard the Terra satellite." BBC

A Nasa/Aster image of Death Valley