The Mirror Project | See The Horrible Monster
"In many cases, more effective than just words and photos, infographics can quickly help us grasp information and timelines in a visual and easy-to-follow manner. "
Come beat me for the crime of the Trail of Tears, for I have settler blood.
Come scream epithets at me for the crimes of slavery, for I have Dutch blood.
Come, tell me I deserve to die for crime of imperialism, for I have French blood.
Come throw rocks at me for the crime of the holocaust, for I have German blood.
Come spit on me for putting innocent Japanese-Americans in interment camps, for I am American.
Come defile my church, as my people did to black churches in Georgia, for I am American.
Come throw a Molotov cocktail at me for killing innocents children at Kent State, for I am American.
Come throw garbage at me for killing 35,000 women, children and older people in Dresden, for I am American.
Come traumatize my children for acts of terrorism, for I am native born American, just like Timothy McVeigh.
But do not, please do not, hurt Middle-Easterners and Muslims who have committed no crime beyond the one you have:
being born with the same blood as killers.
"In Brisbane, a schoolbus packed with Islamic children was damaged by stones and bottles and there had been abusive calls to mosques, said Queensland Islamic Council chairman Sultan Deen."
"In Chicago, a Molotov cocktail was tossed Wednesday at an Arab-American community center. "
"In Huntington, N.Y., a 75-year-old man who was drunk tried to run over a Pakistani woman in the parking lot of a shopping mall, police said."
"Mosque windows were shattered in Texas, a New York man was arrested for an alleged anti-Arab threat, and a prison fight broke out over Muslim slurs in Washington state. "
"In Suffolk County, N.Y., authorities arrested a man who allegedly made an anti-Arab threat and pointed a handgun at a gas station employee. "
"In Asbury, N.J., Ramandeep Singh, a Sikh who wears a turban for religious reasons, said he had garbage and stones thrown at his car and stayed home from work. "
"At the Kuwait Embassy in Washington, Tamara Alfson spent Wednesday counseling frightened Kuwaiti students attending schools across the United States. One student was told, ``You should all die,'' Alfson said. "
Matt sent me OTIVO's automated test tools review a few days ago, but what with one thing and another....
an opening thang from gleanings, sept. 13th 2001
Good morning all of you dear readers. This has been a horrific few days. Yesterday I tried to go to work yesterday and realized I couldn't be that far from my husband. I ended up going home so that I could get up from the computer every hour and hug him. I feel deeply for those who have been stranded far from their loved ones, the source of comfort. Lane is one such individual. If anyone can offer Lane a ride back to Austin from San Francisco to be reunited with his love Courtney, let me know and I'll pass on that info to them.
Philippe and I turned off all the media for a couple of hours yesterday at midday to cook and consume a big lunch. I think a lesson for me is that we must take the time to value our ordinary life activities. The TV only circles around, rarely offering new news and mostly offering scenes to terrible for us to comprehend, repeated endlessly. I was treated to watching the plane slice through the WTC tower like a knife through butter forwards, backwards and in slow-mo as Peter Jennings tried to think of something to say "The same technology that allows us to watch sports plays in a multiple ways allows us to... see...this..."
When the media went off, and the only sounds in the house was the wind at the windows and the frying pan sizzling, I felt a bit more human, a bit more able to process this impossible event. Take a walk, cook an egg, ride a bike, see a movie-- give yourself permission to rest.
Please consider giving blood, but wait a couple more days. The blood banks are flooded with people caught up in emotion and willing to give. But I fear in a few days we'll be back to our shortages. Write yourself a note on your calendar, or put it in your pilot-- unless you have O-, wait a bit, but do give.
Amazon is showing real class but setting up a place to donate money to the Red Cross. One click makes it very easy to help out.
A surprise class-act comes from X10, the inventers/utilizers of the pop-under, who have replaced those with direction on how to help in this time of disaster
All the newsletters I receive, and all the mailing lists have changed in the last few days. I'm on lists for writers, usability specialists, web developers, IA's and suddenly they all look the same. Stories form New Yorkers expressing relief for their lives and anguish for those who weren't lucky. Prayers and love sent to all. Whispers of fear for the future.
Robert Scoble said it best, I think "Today, we're human again."
Anyhow, I wanted to reach out to you all. I've written a ton on the blog, and there are even links to ordinary web stuff there.
and if anyone has heard from Andi Lewis, please tell me. I'm sure she's fine, but I'd like to know for certain.
After donating to the Red Cross through Amazon, I noticed this in the corner of the confirmaiton page. My reaction was "No duh." But then it reminded me of one of the cardinal rules of page design-- never assume that the customer knows what you do. I don't know how many home pages I've visited where I'm looking around trying to figure out if I'm at a useful place. New people visit your site everyday. And much as it may bore you to say "Gromits Inc, We sell grommits online" on the homepage month after month, it may just the thing to turn a visitor into a buyer.
Another best practice from Amazon.