Sirharris.com

As promised by ChangeThis, a summary of their latest manifestos arrived in my mailbox this morning. If this is the first mention you've received regarding this fascinating site I'd suggest you investigate.

The document that most captured my interest is entitled How to Defeat Terrorism.

"Terrorism expert Benjamin Kuipers lays out a step-by-step process for defeating terrorism. Calling the Iraq war a major step backward in the fight against terror, Kuipers writes that mutual trust between communities is an important weapon against the spread of terrorism, as is trust between those communities and their authorities. Once trust is established, Kuipers claims, people turn terrorists in to the police."

I believe ChangeThis has the capability to be a very positive resource if we only devote the little needed time to read and evaluate the quality of their material.

Following the sombre black and white portrayal of Brooklyn the following visual, highly illuminated, refreshment was required (more can be found at Digi*ana*log):

From Joe's NYC we find the following photograph, presenting the noticeably juxtaposed American national flag and obligatory track side graffiti.

"If you woke up this morning with more health than illness you are more blessed than the million who won't survive the week.

If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture or the pangs of starvation, you are ahead of 20 million people around the world.

If you attend a church meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death, you are more blessed than almost three billion people in the world.

If you have food in your refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof over your head and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75% of this world.

If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish someplace, you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy.

If you can read this message, you are more blessed than over two billion people in the world that cannot read anything at all."

Your life is great, I think it's likely about time you started acting thankful.

Chromasia presents to us the following beautiful piece of visual distraction, demanding your stare-time as a brief respite from the world's never-ending text.

A combination post here on an aqua-orientated theme:

Firstly is the Fluid Foundation the London bar guide documenting everything plush and inviting in the capital.

Second, found in the country park just across from our offices, are my new favourite line of drinks Firefly, true finding it locally to you may be difficult, but I'd suggest it is worth the search.

In the past you have been manipulated. I, like you, have become a victim of persuasive chunks of information. To have your opinion altered is certainly no crime, but I would like you to question for a moment who is helping you to make these choices. Is it your family, your friends, your partner? I suspect it is the media.

"ChangeThis" presents a series of well written articles. Everyone gains a chance to understand more and avoid the mass media marketing bombardment. By subscribing to their newsletter your email box will receive periodic summaries of new articles written by free-thinkers.

I'd really like you to take a moment, browse ChangeThis and sign up to the occasional intellectual offering by putting your email address in their subscription box.

Considering my first paragraph I appreciate the irony in what may be viewed as an attempt to persuade you towards this web site. I feel their material is worthy of this specific attention, hoping as many as possible can support a site that promotes this kind of liberated thinking.

Taken from a site new to me I have been following just the past few days: DailySnap. As you'll see if you follow the link below there is a wide range of excellent photography worthy of your devotional staring.

"This is my father using plastic garbage bags as fishing waders from a recent trip to a local lake. The bags ripped..."

I would think they would have to, if only purely in the interests of comedy.

Lifted from another of my daily reads written by Adrian Warnock is an excellent piece on the Islamic faith:

"Actually we live in a time of a four-way battle between philosophies that are each powerful and each seem to be on the assent- which I guess is only possible with the growing population!

Four competing philosophies are struggling mostly with words rather than weapons- Islam, Christianity, secular atheism (which the bible dismisses as foolish) and so-called modern 'New Age' type religions (although these are far from modern in their origin)."

When presented with the fallacy "Christianity is dying" it is nice to remind statistically it is definitely not.

Start here.

Presented at Peter Kaminski's Connecting People site is a link to a very interesting essay studying affluence and the correlation with whether you feel happy.

I think most people at times feel the pull of materialism and you may well be interested to know under what circumstances that often happens.

Robert H. Frank: How not to buy happiness

...My title, not the owners, I assure you.

If you still haven't been following Daily Dose of Imagery I suspect you never will, but here is another visual offering (why not click on it?)


"Sky Reflection"

The way we speak:
"Listen to the changing voice of England. Extracts from the Survey of English Dialects and the Millennium Memory Bank document how we spoke and lived in the 20th century."

Recordings taken from 600 English regions making a total of 30 hours of audio, captured in either the 1950s or 1990s.

British Library: Overview
Collect Britain: Listen

The visually inspiring "Staring at the Sun" is a German PhotoBlog always worth keeping up to date with. Presented below is a photo that caught my eye earlier this month.

"The history of calling 'Shotgun' goes back to the days of covered wagons and the Wild West. On a trip across the plains, the driver of a wagon would hold the reins of his horse team and concentrate on driving. This left him and the occupants of his wagon susceptible to sneak attacks from bandits and thieves. To avoid this atrocious circumstance it became necessary for one person to sit next to the driver with a shotgun and fend off the enemy."

During the completion of my degree, time and time again, one culprit would be heard crying out "shotgun!" as we approached every journey involving a car. Promptly after each shout I would respond: "shut up, we don't live in America". If only I'd seen the below website I could have quickly responded "no way, after your recent balking I'm going to have to driver override you, switching with the owners S.O. you dirty gaper".

Dispute

A source of ever excellent photography is Chromasia, the following is an example as to why I'm a dedicated "reader" (viewer) of this site. Once there make sure to click the "Comments" link, it will provide details as to the scenario/circumstance in which the picture was taken.

In a bizarre combination of a post I must first congratulate Pop Culture Junk Mail on five years of blogging, it's been a consistent source of quality links since I started this site.

Secondly I want to share my two favourite starting points for research, as I am aware some friends I know will find these useful:

Wikipedia
The Internet Archive

And, tipping my hat to the aforementioned PCJM here is a link to the huge (free) moving image collection, store at The Internet Archive: Prelinger Archives

I'd say if there have ever been any "useful" links I've shared on Sirharris.com, that's them.

I've listed Sirharris.com on Blogshares, click the button for more information:

My research in the office brought me to the US home of the "Camp Chase Gazette" a Civil War Re-enactment group. They provide an extensive "19th Century Slang Dictionary" which such an introduction as:

"Humbug? Shecoonery? Useless truck or gum? Hornswoggling? Honey-fuggling? Not in this book, dear sir! I swan to mercy, a huckle- berry above anyone's persimmon. Some pumpkins, a caution, 100 percent certified by a Philadelfy lawyer. If not, dad-blame it, I'll hang up my fiddle, and you can sass me, knock me into a cocked hat, give me jesse, fix my flint, settle my hash, ride me out on a rail and have a conniption fit, you cussed scalawag. Now ain't that the beatingest language you ever did hear? Sure beats the Dutch! Pshaw! Do tell! Bully for you!"

Fix Your Flint

Much of the desktop art I use on my office/home Mac is that of Mandolux. I'd recommend if you want to give your desktop a fighting chance at looking interesting, you examine some of his artwork.

It's about time I shared this series of advice posts on creativity, its a good mixture of advice and humour:

Gapingvoid: How To Be Creative