Created for a talk at New Think Festival, May 2012 at Al-Hussein Park.

The presentation has images and directions, but here’s the list for those of us who need information NOWNOWNOW:
1. Turtle Green
2. Jabal Al-Qalaa (the Citadel) during the call to prayer
3. The stairs in Jabal Amman
4. El 7ara
5. La Calle
6. Jo Bedu
7. Beit Ibra
8. Darat Al-funun
9. Habiba in Downtown Amman
10. The Internet

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[via the always-awesome Boing Boing]

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Sweetie, you can’t say that. It just sounds stupid.

What you can use instead:

Hello,

I hope you are well. Here are some guidelines you might need.

Thanks,
Person

-

Friends,

I hope you are well. Here are some guidelines you might need.

Thanks,
Person

-

Dear bloggers,

I hope you are well. Here are some guidelines you might need.

Thanks,
Person

-

Ladies and gentlemen,

I hope you are well. Here are some guidelines you might need.

Thanks,
Person

-

Hi everyone,

I hope you are well. Here are some guidelines you might need.

Thanks,
Person

-

Dear team,

I hope you are well. Here are some guidelines you might need.

Thanks,
Person

-

Dear participants,

I hope you are well. Here are some guidelines you might need.

Thanks,
Person

-

Avast!

I hope you are well. Here are some guidelines you might need.

Thanks,
Person

See? It’s simple enough. There are a hundred million options that can help you avoid “Dears”.

Thank you.

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A beautiful excerpt from the 11th episode Carl Sagan’s “Cosmos”:

“What an astonishing thing a book is. It’s a flat object made from a tree with flexible parts on which are imprinted lots of funny dark squiggles. But one glance at it and you’re inside the mind of another person, maybe somebody dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, an author is speaking clearly and silently inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people who never knew each other, citizens of distant epochs. Books break the shackles of time. A book is proof that humans are capable of working magic.”

[Via Brain Pickings]

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Via Arabzy

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This is awesome, aside from all the gender stereotypes and propoganda.

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Previous diary entries:
Collection 4
Collection 3
Collection 2
Collection 1

Sister cigarette

Shave

أنا لا انتمي

Will

Troll

The dark side

Unattainability

هدوء

Light

انا إمرأة حرة

Is yours open?

Pina

Gwen

لم نفسك قبل منلمك

Similaritude

Seriously.

Hamed

Freddy

عشق

Pokemon

Rainbow pinwheel cookies <3

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I love people whose eyes light up when they talk about something they love to do. I don’t watch movies, but damn it, I’ll watch those movies with you because nothing beats being sucked into long conversations where you’re trying to show me just what is it exactly that makes that scene so f*cking perfect.

And what about the few people who are honest with you and honest with themselves? Oh, I can’t even begin to describe to you how much I love the honest ones. I tip my hat and bow to all the men and the women who are not afraid to explore the deep, dark allies of “why“. Thank you for telling me exactly how you feel, for sharing your thoughts with the world, and for trying to understand. There is pain in honesty, and I love you for taking the pain with a straight face.

Then there is words, and people who understand the thing about words: words are not a scent that fades or a hug that disappears once the giver is gone. They are not a beautiful moment that by its very nature is just a moment. Words are the scents, the moments, the little pleasures of life. Words are the creation of everything. They don’t end, they don’t smolder out. And people who understand the magical essence of words are magical too.

It is this kind of magic that makes me love people.

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This is the coolest thing I’ve seen in a while: the Baloney Detection Kit.

Honey, stop backing up your absurd debates with pseudoscience. And stop believing everything anyone tells you, including the Internet. Please use this Baloney Detection Kit.

And for your reference, the below “beliefs” are pseudoscience:
- Moon landing conspiracy theories
- Astrology
- Lunar effect (the belief that the full moon influences human behavior)
- Channeling
- Psychokinesis
- Ufology
- Hypnosis
- Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP)
- Psychoanalysis
- Alternative medicince
- Biorythms
- Chiropractic
- Crystal healing
- Faith healing
- Homeopathy
- Acupuncture
- Feng Shui
- Dream interpretation

The complete checklist in the Baloney Detection Kit:

1. How reliable is the source of the claim?

2. Does the source make similar claims?

3. Have the claims been verified by somebody else?

4. Does this fit with the way the world works?

5. Has anyone tried to disprove the claim?

6. Where does the preponderance of evidence point?

7. Is the claimant playing by the rules of science?

8. Is the claimant providing positive evidence?

9. Does the new theory account for as many phenomena as the old theory?

10. Are personal beliefs driving the claim?

Video via Brain Pickings

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