What do you do when your government exerts a regime that is unacceptable to its people, and to you as a citizen? The historic thing to do is to start or participate in a revolution, but that can only be a temporary event, after which we must attain a better sociopolitical state. It helps to have a desired state in sight beyond the revolution.

This vision, or cause, is what must be supplied in order to rally the people, who are in everyday life a scattered, non-cooperative bunch.

On the last day before his momentous move to Saturn, the egg lover opened his soon-to-be-emptied fridge, and looked for a snack that he could fix himself. He did not have much time, and besides, he could not cook a proper meal to save his life. All cheeses were gone, the olives, cucumbers and tomatoes were gone, and some bread remained in the freezer. But he found the last egg.

Now the egg lover loved eggs. It was an affinity with that condiment based on his feeling happily re-energized when he ate them.

I often feel like a cultural black hole. Engulfing and consuming large quantities of culture, music, movies, books, and yet never producing any of it myself. Does it just get wasted inside? Well, I talk about it :-)

The Internet is promoting a new kind of culture that is more inclusive. To me, YouTube is the most glaring example: everyday people producing audio/video material, mostly out of their own time and effort, that addresses any topic that concerns them. Sometimes using it for commercial self-promotion, and that's part of the point too.

Before me, on public TV, is unfolding live the fire of the Egyptian Parliament's building.

The Nile News channel is filming the building on fire. Here's what I learn:

10:30pm (Egypt time, GMT+3)

• the fire started at 5:45pm.
• it is now 10:30pm and the fire is still going strong inside the building.
• the explanation for the rapid spread is that the strong wind and the wooden structure did it.

What does this mean: {{{

     (#<img class="teximage" src="/files/tex/783f24a3c095bbbc53d30b932101494dbed5e0c4.png" alt="$ forAll ?PERSON1
     (# $" />implies
        (#<img class="teximage" src="/files/tex/6c8db462dbbc868fb7529c75fd1a70a7010e73cd.png" alt="$ isa ?PERSON1 # $" />Person)
        (#<img class="teximage" src="/files/tex/17606da0f1e8249e64f28e259e985e653a63af64.png" alt="$ thereExists ?PERSON2
           (# $" />and
             (#<img class="teximage" src="/files/tex/13cffa4604a6669caf2e41ab2f7d486b65aebfac.png" alt="$ isa ?PERSON2 # $" />Person)
             (#$loves ?PERSON1 ?PERSON2)))

Found at an OpenCyc tutorial.

Long ago, men and beasts lived together in complete harmony with nature. The cycle of life flowed freely, taking lives and renewing them endlessly without intervention or observation from any creature.

Dear American,

We need your help. Us, your neighbours around the world, have always admired your industriousness, ingenuity, and spirit of enterprise. We absorb your music, your movies, your language, fashion, books, your science and technology, and enjoy all of them while thanking you for it in sympathy. In return, we like to offer you what we're proud of in our own culture. We dream of your beautiful country, so vast and varied, where dreams can be realized. Because we also have dreams we want to realize, very similar to yours. Indeed, many of us have settled in your country to realize their dreams and their true potential. So you see, we look up to you in many ways.

It just hit me that all the countries that congratulate themselves on upholding freedom of speech and even try to shove it down other people's throats have a blatant breach of that principle right under their very eyes: the secrecy practices of corporations. When an employee is hired or fired, he signs a non-disclosure agreement concerning the activities of the company he joined. If he breaks that agreement, he is liable to legal pursuit, from the same legal system which holds freedom of speech as a sacred principle.