Posted by: KDL

A longstanding effort to replace a church with a mosque in Kenya's northern town of Garissa culminated in an attack by 50 Muslim youths this month that left the worship building in ruins, reports MNN.

Compass Direct reports the gang stormed the building of Redeemed Gospel Church and pelted the congregation with stones, sending many Christians fleeing while others became embroiled in fistfights. Ten Christians received hospital treatment for minor injuries and were released.

Jonathan Racho with International Christian Concern says anti-Christian violence is growing in Northern Kenya. "It's a part of Kenya where Muslims make up the majority, so there is a growing hostility against Christians in these parts, and this is partly because of the growth and influence of Islam elements inside Somalia."

Most of the people there are ethnic Somalis.

Tensions between Christians and the Muslim-majority population in the semi-desert town of 20,000 people began simmering after Muslims built a mosque next to the church in June 2007. Purchasing its land on Nov. 1, 1999, the church had begun worshipping there by early 2001, eventually growing to 400 members.

Church leaders complained to the district commissioner in June 2007 that the new mosque was built too close to the church -- only three meters separate the two structures -- and that it was blocking the church entryway.

The government is striving to avert further incidents by preventing the Christians from returning to the ruined structure, according to a Provincial Police official identified only as Chelimo. With tensions expected to rise during the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, he said police were taking precautionary measures to ensure that the congregation never returned to their property.

"To allow this would be suicidal," Chelimo told Compass. "We have deployed five security guards every day to make sure that the members of the church will not enter its structure."

Racho says Christians are turning to authorities, but "no one in the administration is protecting them. The Christians are not being protected. The people who attacked them are free on the streets. They are not in prison. This is really disappointing."

Christians are concerned the more violence is coming, says Racho. "The Muslims in Garrisa are openly saying that they are going to destroy other churches, too. So there is no reason why they won't implement what they are saying."

Report from the Christian Telegraph

Anyway, see for yourselves:
http://holeycheese.wordpress.com/2008/10/10/%c2%a4-111-building-sukkah-part-1/

Obviously it's not quite finished yet (what project here ever is?!) but we've restored the old stone pillars, plonked a gorgeous oak beam on top (locally sourced, well-aged and only 50 euros!) and Ian has been my hero once again and rebuilt the top bit with bricks we reclaimed from the fireplace that was knocked down. It's not as deep as the old fireplace, and we've raised the height of the mantelpiece so that we can fit in our 'new' woodburning stove (which has made a dramatic difference to the temperature around here!). It may not be a beautiful stove to many people, but it really chucks out the heat and the way it's built should last another 100 years!

The back of the fireplace behind the stove and the new brickwork has had two coats of lime paint (see recipe). There is talk of it one day having a top-coat of lime-green, but for now I like the soft-white of uncoloured lime paint so I'm holding fire on that decision.

The yellow wall just visible on the right will eventually get knocked down, and I still haven't polished up the hearth stones, but we're about 90% of the way there!

before...

and after...

226, originally uploaded by James D Bull.

Building 226. I cnn't help but wonder what's inside.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

TROIKA + GLOWLAB

the cloud

tetris + knight rider on office building windows

- starbucks has the largest wireless cloud in the world - they are now an entertainment channel
- doing the same with internet connection as they did with music cds
- war chalking / war driving
- hobo culture / signs / graffity to communicate and warn one another
- marks on buildings to let people know where free internet access is around the city
- notion of privacy of how much of your life is public and how much is private
- google is keeping track of every single search that we do
- web crawler and cyber squatters flipping internet domains

drift.relay in san jose by glowlab
"information wants to be free" = guiding moto of open source movement
book called "The Long Tale" - by Chris Anderson who is the editor of Wired Magazine
- digital content (sitting on a hard drive) versus brick and mortar inventory in a store
- there will be a market for my work
- eventually you will be able to buy the license to a piece of content that you have already paid for (cd, dvd, blue-ray, next gen...)
- digital has transformed everything
- google is the single largest data mining enterprise in the world - save every search until 2038

- google knol - is this the precursor of the CIC (Central Intelligence Corporation - Snow Crash)?
- knol = unit of knowledge - go and get information and if you want more, you can pay for it
- Google is giving you information that they THINK you may want
- civil liberties = main concern: aggregation of personal data in commercial databases
- government databases are subject to privacy act
- commercial databases fall outside of privacy act, and the use of contractors has transformed law enforcement
- ChoicePoint or Seisint, aggregate data from commercial transactions with public records (prescriptions, groceries, travel plans, criminal records)

- potential for abuse
- concentrated target for hackers, identty thieves and authorities otherwise constrained by privacy act
- Seisint compiled a list of 120,000 based of a "terrorist quotient", a profile they created including ethnicity and religious beliefs and handed it over to law enforcement
- Florida relied on ChoicePoint to identify convicted felons registered to vote - as many as 1 in 7 were wrongfully expunged from the voters list (voter margin in 2000 was 537 votes)

RFID - Radio Frequency Identification
- shock bracelets with EMD Technology (Electro-Muscular Disruption)

Privacy and Social Networks
Google's Value Proposition - "is to figure out what people want, but to read our minds, they need to know a lot about us"
- will pull ads containing certain keywords, but will not state what those keywords are
- handed over user-records of Orkut to Brazilian government for an investigation
(orkut is a social networking service which is run by Google and named after its creator, an employee of Google - Orkut Büyükkökten. The service states that it was designed to help users meet new friends and maintain existing relationships.)
- censored and constrained its Chinese search-engine to gain access to that market
- the Chinese government is in the process of saving SKYPE messages that pass through mainland China and now SKYPE has ended their relationship with their Chinese affiliate

Google Streets - recorded some random kid who saw the Google van drive by and he ended up wiping out on his bike
"Don't Be Evil"

Second Life Lawsuit
http://blogs.pcworld.com/staffblog/archives/005816.html

The Worst of Real Made Virtual
- the covenant of Extropia
- A Declaration of the Rights of Avatars - by Ralph Koster

189 Satellites that don't officially exist (spy satellites CIA, KGB)
iridium satellite flashes - search when the satellite will flash on the web
- Russian town had 400 people show up in yellow raincoats and stood in the town square when the google satellite went overhead

Taken during mid afternoon on the Boise bench. I thought this building had some unique features. The question is did I capture them or not...

Dream House

HGTV ~ Saturdays 7am ET

I have watched Dream House in previous seasons.  In one season it was a stay at home mom acting as her own contractor, trying to get a million dollar home built in Chicago area.  In another season it was a group of three young kids remodeling their dream home in California by trying to do all the work themselves while living there.

This season, filmed in 2006, we follow Stephen and Shannon Mackey and the building of their 4300 sq. ft. Notaviva Vineyards winery and dream house.  They have a delusion dream to become winemakers.  It came to them six years ago when they were at a wine tasting event at Breaux Vineyards Harvest Festival.  Shannon asked Stephen, “Do people really get to do this for a living?” to which he replied, “You wanna?”  So armed with a wine consultant and a loan, a winemaking we will go.  [FYI – A new grape vineyard will give you a small crop after three years and in seven years you may break even.]  From what we have learned so far, we don’t know if they have EVER made wine before.  That’s OK.  Why not borrow $1.2 million to get into a new hobby?  Sounds like a plan to me.

All of this is going on while working as full time event planners, raising 10 month old Tristan, being pregnant with baby number two, and living in a one bedroom home.

OK, the $1.2 million isn’t just for the hobby.  $820,000 is for the winery/dream house.  Built in Percelville on an abandoned 42 acre cattle ranch in northern Virginia, will be a 4300 sq. ft. winery/dream house.  All they were able to salvage from the site was an old corn shed.  The 200 year old farmhouse was too far gone to be saved, hence the building of the winery/dream house.  The winery/dream house is a timber frame structure designed by the couple.  It will have a 600 sq. ft. kitchen and wine tasting bar on the main level.  Above will be a catwalk open to the main floor for people to sit and enjoy their wine.  And the music loft will be where the live entertainment and music is.  The basement will have the main living quarters.  It will have the den, two bathrooms, three bedrooms, and au pair’s room, and will be closed to the public.  The couple is hoping to have lots of kids to fill the bedrooms.  I would think all those kids would come in quite handy around the vineyard.  Someone has to stomp the grapes, right?

The couple is using cost saving techniques as they go along.  In this week’s episode, they decided they would burn the debris of the main house instead of paying $55/ton to haul it away.  The main obstacle {and what would a reality show be without one?}of this week’s episode was drilling for water.  It costs $10/foot to drill a well, and there are no guarantees that they will reach water, or an acceptable flow.  At 480’ water was found but it was only at one gallon/minute.  This meets minimum code requirement, but in order to meet the needs of a vineyard/winery/dream house they will need more.  They continue drilling to 600’ and stop there.  The flow was still the same as it was at 480’ and it looks like they will need to drill another well at future date.

Beyond that, the building permit is delayed and Shannon finds out that she is three months pregnant.  So that means NO vineyard work due to all the herbicides/fungicides/pesticides they use.  It seems this dream has some nightmares too.

Next episode – adventures in winemaking.  They make [their first?] wine.

"Building Community Within you website"

The notion of customer experience in e-commerce refers to targeting a customer’s perception & interpretation of all the stimuli encountered while interacting with a firm. There are 7 C’s to effectively building and maintaining a customer experience: context, content, community, customization, communication, connection and commerce. Here we will focus on community and explore some underlying methods of building community within your website.

Community refers to how sites build relationships between users. Strong community encourages stickiness and loyalty. Some examples of the way firms can build communities in their websites are: support forums, discussion/message boards or forums, member areas and blogs. Basically, building community is a way for users of your site to connect and communicate with each other. We will now look explore some of the tools used to build community in particularly discussion/message boards and blogs.

One article about discussion/message boards  examines the several advantages of a message board over an email list or instant chatting.  One of the advantages that stood out in the piece was the fact that past and present messages on a message board are readily viewable. This means that evidence of quality participation and a large group of participants is necessary to encourage more visitors to contribute.  The task then here is developing topics that drive traffic to the conversation.

Blogs can be a great way to encourage users to participate in your website and remain engaged with your websites content. However, professional blogger for Viral Garden, Mark Collier, has a some very interesting points and suggestions made in his article about blogging. He suggests that there is a big difference between blogging and expecting people to participate, and actually creating a viral community within your website. Some of the few blogs he links to include: Jack Yan’s “The Persuader Blog”, Clyde Smith’s “Hip-Hop Marketing”, and Toby Bloomberg’s “The Diva Marketing Blog”.

Priya Shah, a partner at a search engine marketing firm, in her article “How to build Traffic to your Blog”, states that “Write and they will come” isn’t exactly a magic formula to bring in traffic by the boatload. In her article she has 8 points of consideration for anyone wishing to build community through a blog.

1. Write posts that People will Want to read
2. Optimize your Post for Search Engines
3. Submit your blog and RSS feed to directories
4. Ping the Blog Service
5. Build Links to Your blog
6. Edit Your Blog Posts into Articles
7. Create buzz about your blog
8. Capture Subscribers by Email

Alot of things must be taken into consideration when implementing tools to build community and keeping that community together. Justilien Gaspard, at SerachEngineWatch.com discusses various aspects about building community in his article. He states that that a viral marketing campaign, whether it be blogging, forums, or discussion boards, or any combination of tools, has a greater likelihood of success by having specific objectives and targeting communities. There are no guarantees with viral marketing, he admits. Finally, he states that if it doesn’t succeed, explore what you can improve on, what you’ve learned and put that new knowledge into another campaign. He says at the very least you developed some relationships with people to promote your next vial marketing initiative. Building viral communities in your website is a good way to bring a group of people (your customers) together that share common interest(s), who can generate content to your website, and feel that they are an important and integral part of what you are offering. 

Ok, so Kaneva announced their Halloween Hangout Builders Contest, but some of you may not have the credits or the cash to participate... Here at the Kanevian Blog, I want to help you out with that.  First, here is the prize that is up for grabs:

• 2 standing skeletons
• 2 cobweb decorations
• 1 skull candle
• 500 credits

And now for the rules - To enter in this contest all you have to do is simply leave a comment on this blog (anywhere on this blog).  Leaving a comment will get you 1 entry.  Want a special bonus entry?... how about this, if you blast or re-blast a link to this post (http://kanevian.wordpress.com/2008/10/09/the-kanevian-blog-halloween-contest)... you will get an extra 3 entries.... What's that you said?  You want another way to try to win?... ok, I will give you another 2 bonus entries if you put the below graphic up in your club during a party.

Here's what all of this means - you can have up to 6 entries in this contest!  I will randomly select from the entries for the winner.  The contest starts today and will end on October 22nd at 9 am EST.  The winner will be announced on the 23rd.

Now for some more rules - You may not use alt accounts for extra entries... If I catch you, all of your entries will be disqualified.  If you blast or reblast the link to this post - you must email a screen capture of it to SFNdust at Gmail dot Com.  If you place the ad banner in your club, it must be during a party (you have to have more than 10 people in your club) and you must have either myself (SFNdust) or Paynomind come and look at it for proof.

The cliff notes version:

• You win stuff to help you win the Halloween Builders Contest - or just use for yourself
• Contest starts right now and ends on October 22nd at 9 am
• Winner will be selected from random drawing
• No alts, if you are caught, you are disqualified
• Comment on any post = 1 entry
• Blast or Re-blast this link - "http://kanevian.wordpress.com/2008/10/09/the-kanevian-blog-halloween-contest" = 3 entries (don't forget to send proof)
• Put the ad for this blog up in your club during a party = 2 entries
• Any other questions - feel free to email me, Kmail me, or PM me

NOW LET THE GAMES BEGIN!

That phrase has been heavily imprinted on people's minds since the dawn of the new millenium.  Its seems like ever since global warming was brought to the public's attention, everyone is doing their part to make sure we can stay on this wonderful planet a little longer.  Today, new and innovated technologies are being developed and implimented into daily use.  Some of these developments include solar panels, hybrid vehicles, energy from wind, etc.

All of these technologies are huge leaps towards having an eco-friendly society, however, we were trying to find something that hit a little closer to home.  In fact, we wanted to find ways to make home building and construction of buildings to be able to Go Green.  So a few of us sat down and did some research on how we could make construction of homes more energy efficient, while at the same time using less natural resources.  Thus, NRG Building Solutions was created in order to educate the public about the benefits of green building.

So at this point you may be asking yourself, "ok, so what is green building?"

Well, I'll tell you.  Green Building is defined as using recyclable materials to create an energy efficient, sustainable building that has low impact on the environment.  This is accomplished by using material such as steel instead of wood, and solar panels for energy.

After the creation of NRG Building Solutions, we came across a framing system called Structural Insulated Panelized Systems or SIPS being produced by a company out of Phoenix, Arizona and manufactured in Tucson, Arizona.  I'll be talking in much more detail about the SIPS later in this blog.  However, our gut reaction once we saw this product was, "Wow, this product is going to revolutionize the housing industry."  And it was exactly what we were looking for.

We set out to start spreading the word about SIPS and the new green building techniques we had discovered, and everyone we have said something to about this product has had the same reaction we had.  Jaw-Dropping.  We received comments like, "Why haven't we heard about this before?"  and "This is incredible stuff,"  over and over again.

I encourage you, if you think that going green is the wave of the future (which it is) and would like more information about how to make your home green, then feel free to subscribe to this blog.  I will be bringing you more information on the incredible SIP system and even simple-to-do tips that can help your home to be more energy efficient.

Driving past the Xcel Centre site this afternoon, I took the opportunity to get a quick snapshot of progress so far. This is of the east side of the building, with childcare, exhibition hall and coffee shop all now taking shape....exciting stuff!

In regards to SL, I have recently been appointed Simulcast Manager, taking over from Riko who did a fabulous job at it and I am trying hard to fill the boots left behind. So far so good, it basically entails making the band avies, finding people to run the avies and hopeing that the RL events run smoothly so that there are no last minute changes *eeps*

I have also been building a range of Tiny Furniture selling on SLX and OnRez - pocket money is pocket money! I am also really keen to start figuring out more Machinima in SL, to be able to record performances at the Rose and also random videos of every day frivolity - Think it is nice to have a record of your SL in all formats! hehe

So I have been exceptionally busy recently in world, and I love it! Roll on the busy busy bee please

Lady Kezzy

As the UN prepares to assess the Millennium Development Goals this week, will tension between the consumption of the North and the development of the South doom both to a future of crises and scarcity? Felix Dodds and Michael Strauss argue that allowing the Millennium Goals and their environmental aims to slide would be a false economy.

This week is the 8th anniversary of the first conference on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which focused on "nutrition, energy, water, education, healthcare and environmental protection for one half of the world's one billion poorest citizens, by 2015."

The article discusses how two converging crises have put increasing pressure on meeting these goals. The first being the food crisis, with the price of food almost doubling since 2007 and the second being the American financial crisis, which has sent ripple effects across the globe.

This article does a great job of offering an objective, omniscent view of the issues at hand. We cannot let our fears and immediate concerns interfere with trying to solve the issues that remain the basis for these crises.

The doors to the pastors’ office in a beautiful gothic style church on Court Street in Historic Lynchburg, Virginia…

2008 D L Ennis, All rights reserved.

NOTE: Permission for the use of my images is granted for personal websites and blogs (THAT MEANS NO ADS AND NO SELLING OF ANY KIND) but is to include a link back to this site and proper credit given to me, D L Ennis. Link to be used...(Visual Thoughts http://dlennis.wordpress.com/)

NOTE: Commercial use, and the creation of prints, must be purchased! For more information you can contact me here.

£195,000

[caption id="attachment_41" align="alignnone" width="320" caption="4 bed house Wales For Sale"][/caption]

29 Camddwr Rise is a new build detached property offering spacious 4 bedroom accommodation, en-suite, fully fitted kitchen and bathroom. Complemented by double garage, off road parking and lawned gardens

The property comprises the following accommodation (measurements are provided for identification only):

ENTRANCE HALL - With external door to front, telephone point, radiator, doors to cloakroom, kitchen and living room, stairs to first floor.

CLOAKROOM - 6'3" X 3'3" (1.9m X 1m)

Maximum. With WC, washbasin, part tiled splashbacks, extractor fan and radiator.

KITCHEN/DINING ROOM - 12'2" X 10'2" (3.7m X 3.1m)

Into bay. With 1 1/2 bowl stainless steel sink, tiled splashbacks, gas fired hob, extractor hood, electric oven, fitted wall and base cupboards, integral dishwasher and fridge freezer, breakfast bar, 2 radiators, television point, telephone point, double glazed window to front and rear. Door to;

[caption id="attachment_42" align="alignnone" width="320" caption="Kitchen 4 bed house Wales"][/caption]

UTILITY - 6'11" X 5'7" (2.1m X 1.7m)

With Worcester combi boiler, plumbing for washing machine, double glazed window and door to rear.

LIVING ROOM - 16'1" X 10'2" (4.9m X 3.1m)

With television point, telephone point, radiator, double glazed window to rear and double glazed door leading to patio terrace. Double doors to;

[caption id="attachment_43" align="alignnone" width="320" caption="Living room 4 bed house for sale Wales"][/caption]

STUDY - 7'3" X 10'2" (2.2m X 3.1m)

Into bay. With telephone point, radiator, double glazed window to front.

FIRST FLOOR LANDING - With Airing

Cupboard housing electric heater and shelving.

BEDROOM 1 - 11'2" X 10'2" (3.4m X 3.1m)

With television aerial, telephone point, fitted wardrobe, radiator and double glazed window to rear.

EN-SUITE - 6'11" X 5'7" (2.1m X 1.7m)

With shower cubicle, shaver, WC, washbasin, extractor fan, radiator and double glazed window to rear.

BEDROOM 2 - 9'10" X 10'2" (3m X 3.1m)

Into bay. With fitted wardrobe, radiator and double glazed window to front.

BEDROOM 3 - 10'2" X 9'10" (3.1m X 3m)

Into bay. With fitted wardrobe, radiator and double glazed bay window to front.

BEDROOM 4 - 10'2" X 8'10" (3.1m X 2.7m)

With fitted wardrobe, radiator and double glazed window to rear.

BATHROOM - 10'2" x 8'10" (3.1m x 2.7m)

Offering WC, washbasin, panelled bath, 1/2 tiled splashbacks, extractor fan, radiator and double glazed window to rear.

OUTSIDE - The property is approached over a tarmacadam driveway preceding the DOUBLE GARAGE: 5.2M X 4.8M with electronically controlled up and over door, double glazed window and part double glazed door to side. Power and lighting connected. A slabbed path leads to the front door. The rear garden is laid to lawn with a slabbed patio terrace and timber fence boundaries.

HEATING: Gas fired central heating.

Why not view this property? Ring McCartneys on

01597 823300 to bag this bargain!

Enjoy the crazy chaos!

well this is not the building i colour in company.. its similiar like this lol