New electric supercar will break records according to Elon Musk, with blistering acceleration and 630-mile range. Here’s everything we know
Archives for November 19, 2017
Who asked you to love life
November 19, 2017 by Leave a Comment
The Woman Who Was The Master Of Bayazid Bestami (ra)
November 19, 2017 by Leave a Comment
It is said that when Bayazid Bestami was asked who his master was, he explained:
She was an old woman.
One day, I was possessed by such ecstacy and yearning and sense of unity that not even a hair of anything else could be found in me. In this selfless mood, I went for a stroll in the desert, where I happened to meet an elderly lady burdened with a bag of flour.
She asked me to carry the flour for her, but I was incapable of taking it, so I beckoned to a lion to take the load. The lion came up to me and I laid the sack upon its back. I then asked the old lady what she intended to say to the townspeople since I did not want them to apprehend who I was.
“I’ll tell them,” she replied, “that I met a vain tyrant.”
“What are talking about?” I exclaimed.
The lady explained thus, first asking: “Has the lion been put to trouble or not?”
“No,” I answered. –
“Except for the fact that you burden down those whom God Himself has not burdened!” she objected. “Is that not oppression?”
“So it is”, I admitted.
“And, despite this”, she continued, “still you desire the townspeople to know that you have subjected a lion and are a miracle worker. Is that not vanity?”
“Yes, it is”, I confessed.
So I repented, experiencing abasement from my former exaltation. Indeed that old woman’s words performed the function of a spiritual guide and master for me.
SOURCE: Attar, Tadhkerat al-auliya 
The Tale of Two Frogs
November 19, 2017 by Leave a Comment
A group of frogs were hopping contentedly through the woods, going about their froggy business, when two of them fell into a deep pit. All of the other frogs gathered around the pit to see what could be done to help their companions. When they saw how deep the pit was, the rest of the dismayed group agreed that it was hopeless and told the two frogs in the pit that they should prepare themselves for their fate, because they were as good as dead.
Unwilling to accept this terrible fate, the two frogs began to jump with all of their might. Some of the frogs shouted into the pit that it was hopeless, and that the two frogs wouldn’t be in that situation if they had been more careful, more obedient to the froggy rules, and more responsible.
The other frogs continued sorrowfully shouting that they should save their energy and give up, since they were already as good as dead. The two frogs continued jumping as hard as they could, and after several hours of desperate effort were quite weary.
Finally, one of the frogs took heed to the calls of his fellows. Spent and disheartened, he quietly resolved himself to his fate, lay down at the bottom of the pit, and died as the others looked on in helpless grief. The other frog continued to jump with every ounce of energy he had, although his body was wracked with pain and he was completely exhausted.
His companions began a new, yelling for him to accept his fate, stop the pain and just die. The weary frog jumped harder and harder and – wonder of wonders! Finally leapt so high that he sprang from the pit. Amazed, the other frogs celebrated his miraculous freedom and then gathering around him asked, “Why did you continue jumping when we told you it was impossible?” Reading their lips, the astonished frog explained to them that he was deaf, and that when he saw their gestures and shouting, he thought they were cheering him on. What he had perceived as encouragement inspired him to try harder and to succeed against all odds.
This simple story contains a powerful lesson. Your encouraging words can lift someone up and help him or her make it through the day. Your destructive words can cause deep wounds; they may be the weapons that destroy someone’s desire to continue trying – or even their life. Your destructive, careless word can diminish someone in the eyes of others, destroy their influence and have a lasting impact on the way others respond to them.
Source : http://www.islamcan.com/islamic-stories/the-tale-of-two-frogs.shtml
The Pious “Drunkard” and “Fornicator”
November 19, 2017 by Leave a Comment
ultan Murad IV, the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1623-1640, would often anonymously go into the midst of the people and see their state. One evening, he felt an uneasiness in himself and the urge to go out. He called for his head of security and out they went. They came to a busy vicinity, and found a man lying on the ground. The Sultan prodded him but he was dead and the people were going about their own business. Nobody seemed to care about the dead man lying on the ground.
The Sultan called upon the people. They didn’t recognise him and asked him what he wanted. He said, “Why is this man lying dead on the ground and why does no one seem to care? Where is his family?”
They replied, “He is so and so, the drunkard and fornicator!”
The Sultan said, “Is he not from the Ummah of Muhammad (saw)? Now help me carry him to his house.”
The people carried the dead man with the Sultan to his house and once they reached, they all left. The Sultan and his assistant remained. When the man’s wife saw his dead body, she began weeping. She said to his dead body, “May Allah have mercy on you! O friend of Allah! I bear witness that you are from the pious ones.”
The Sultan was bewildered. He said, “How is he from the pious ones when the people say such and such about him? So much so that no one even cared he was dead!”
She replied, “I was expecting that. My husband would go to the tavern every night and buy as much wine as he could. He would then bring it home and pour it all down the drain. He would then say, ‘I saved the Muslims a little today.’ He would then go to a prostitute, give her some money and tell her to close her door till the morning. He would then return home for a second time and say, ‘Today, I saved a young woman and the youth of the believers from vice.'”
The people would see him buying wine and they would see him going to the prostitutes and they would consequently talk about him. One day I said to him, “When you die, there will be no one to bathe you, there will be no one to pray over you and there will be no one to bury you!”
He laughed and replied, “Don’t fear, the Sultan of the believers, along with the pious ones shall pray over my body.”
The Sultan began to cry. He said, “By Allah! He has said the truth, for I am Sultan Murad. Tomorrow we shall bathe him, pray over him and bury him.”
And it so happened that the Sultan, the scholars, the pious people and the masses prayed over him.
We judge people by what we see and what we hear from others. Only if we were to see what was concealed in their hearts, a secret between them and their Lord. If Allah knows, why does it matter who knows and who doesn’t know?!
“O you who believe, abstain from many of the suspicions. Some suspicions are sins. And do not be curious (to find out faults of others), and do not backbite one another. Does one of you like that he eats the flesh of his dead brother? You would abhor it. And fear Allah. Surely Allah is Most-Relenting, Very-Merciful.” (49:12)
Don’t Change the World
November 19, 2017 by Leave a Comment
Once upon a time, there was a king who ruled a prosperous country. One day, he went for a trip to some distant areas of his country. When he was back to his palace, he complained that his feet were very painful, because it was the first time that he went for such a long trip, and the road that he went through was very rough and stony. He then ordered his people to cover every road of the entire country with leather.
Definitely, this would need thousands of animals skin, and would cost a huge amount of money. Then one of his wise servants dared himself to tell the king, Why do you have to spend that unnecessary amount of money? Why don’t you just cut a little piece of leather to cover your feet? The king was surprised, but he later agreed to his suggestion, to make a shoe for himself.
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Spoken Words Con’t be Retrived
November 19, 2017 by Leave a Comment
A farmer slandered his neighbor. Realizing his mistake, he went to the preacher to ask for forgiveness. The preacher told him to take a bag of feathers and drop them in the center of town. The farmer did as he was told. Then the preacher asked him to go and collect the feathers and put them back in the bag. The farmer tried but couldn’t as the feathers had all blown away. When he returned with the empty bag, the preacher said, “The same thing is true about your words. You dropped them rather easily but you cannot retrieve them, so be very careful in choosing your words.”
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Live or Work
November 19, 2017 by Leave a Comment
Father was a hardworking man who delivered bread as a living to support his wife and three children. He spent all his evenings after work attending classes, hoping to improve himself so that he could one day find a better paying job. Except for Sundays, Father hardly ate a meal together with his family. He worked and studied very hard because he wanted to provide his family with the best money could buy.
Whenever the family complained that he was not spending enough time with them, he reasoned that he was doing all this for them. But he often yearned to spend more time with his family.
The day came when the examination results were announced. To his joy, Father passed, and with distinctions too! Soon after, he was offered a good job as a senior supervisor, which paid handsomely. Like a dream come true, Father could now afford to provide his family with life’s little luxuries like nice clothing, fine food and vacation abroad.
However, the family still did not get to see father for most of the week. He continued to work very hard, hoping to be promoted to the position of manager. In fact, to make himself a worthily candidate for the promotion, he enrolled for another course in the Open University. Again, whenever the family complained that he was not spending enough time with them, he reasoned that he was doing all this for them. But he often yearned to spend more time with his family.
Father’s hard work paid off and he was promoted. Jubilantly, he decided to hire a maid to relieve his wife from her domestic tasks. He also felt that their three-room flat was no longer big enough; it would be nice for his family to be able to enjoy the facilities and comfort of a condominium. Having experienced the rewards of his hard work many times before, Father resolved to further his studies and work at being promoted again. The family still did not get to see much of him. In fact, sometimes father had to work on Sundays entertaining clients.
Again, whenever the family complained that he was not spending enough time with them, he reasoned that he was doing all this for them. But he often yearned to spend more time with his family.
As expected, Father’s hard work paid off again and he bought a beautiful condominium, overlooking the coast of Singapore. On the first Sunday evening at their new home, father declared to his family that he decided not to take any more courses or pursue any more promotions. From then on he was going to devote more time to his
family. Father did not wake up the next day.
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Death in rotating restaurant: Parents sue after boy’s skull crushed in Atlanta hotel
November 19, 2017 by Leave a Comment
Updated
The family of a five-year-old boy whose skull was crushed in the rotating wall of a hotel restaurant has sued the Atlanta hotel, accusing it of negligence in his death.
Key points:
- Police said the boy got his head stuck between tables
- They said the rotating floor shut off automatically when he was stuck
- Lawsuit disagrees with police statements
Attorney Joseph Fried filed suit for Rebecca and Michael Holt of Charlotte, North Carolina, whose son Charlie died on April 14.
Marriott International, the owner of the Westin Peachtree Plaza hotel, did not immediately respond to an email and phone call requesting comment.
Police had said the boy wandered away from his family’s window table at the restaurant and got his head stuck between tables.
They also said the rotating floor shut off automatically when he was stuck.
But the lawsuit disagreed with police statements.
It said the family left along a path that various members had used without problems to go to and from the bathroom.
But this time, it said, a booth rotating near a stationary wall blocked their path.
Charlie, a few steps ahead of his parents, “was too short to see past the booth and did not appreciate the danger until it was too late,” and was trapped in the “pinch point” between booth and wall, according to the lawsuit.
“To Michael’s and Rebecca’s horror, the rotation did not automatically stop when Charlie got trapped,” the lawsuit states, and there was no emergency button to stop it.
The hotel reopened the restaurant in June.
“After Charlie’s death, Marriott has said that it won’t allow the restaurant to revolve again until it has addressed the dangerous pinch points,” Mr Fried’s statement said
The family of a five-year-old boy who was killed in a rotating restaurant sues the Atlanta hotel, accusing it of negligence in his death.
Tesla Roadster: nine things we know about the ‘smackdown to gasoline cars’
November 19, 2017 by Leave a Comment
Tesla announced a new version of its very first car, the Roadster, turning it into an electric supercar described as a “hardcore smackdown to gasoline cars” by company founder Elon Musk.
The new sports car was unveiled alongside Tesla’s new electric truck, and promises to wow drivers with some extraordinary statistics that make it look like a Top Trumps card turned into an electrified reality.
Here’s everything we know about the new Tesla Roadster.
1. Zero to 60 in 1.9 seconds
Musk said prototypes of the “base model” are able to hit 60mph from a standstill in 1.9 seconds and that a production version of the car may be able to accelerate even faster.
That’s a full 0.4 seconds faster to 60mph than the current fastest Tesla, the Model S P100D, in the so-called ludicrous plus mode, which hits 60mph in 2.3 seconds. But it would also be faster than any current production car, with the performance hybrid Porsche 918 Spyder the current king with a 0-60mph time of 2.2 seconds. The fastest 0-60mph time ever recorded was 1.5 seconds by the AMZ Grimsel Electric Race Car.
2. Zero to 100mph in 4.2 seconds
If hitting 60mph in 1.9 seconds wasn’t enough, Tesla reckons the Roadster will be able to reach 100mph from a standstill in 4.2 seconds and go on to do a quarter-of-a-mile time of 8.9 seconds, should Vin Diesel ever come calling.
3. A top speed of 250mph
Musk proudly proclaimed that the Roadster will have a top speed of over 250mph, if you can find a straight long enough. The current record for top speed for a production car is the Koenigsegg Agera RS, which reached a speed of 277.87mph on 4 November, in Pahrump, Nevada.
4. Three motors
Using a similar system to the Model S P100D, the Roadster will have three motors. One in the front to drive the front wheels and two in the rear to drive the rear wheels giving the Roadster all-wheel drive.
5. It can do 630 miles between charge
As if record-breaking acceleration wasn’t enough, Musk said that the Roadster should be able to drive around 630 miles of motorway driving between charges with a 200kWh battery. The current top-rated distance for the Model S 100D at 55mph, at 20 Celsius, is 424 miles.
6. Four humans (of different sizes) will fit in it
The Roadster is what is called a 2+2, meaning it has two full-size seats in the front and two smaller seats in the back, meaning that if you really wanted to you could probably squeeze four people into the car, as long as the rear passengers are small people.
Other 2+2 cars include Audi’s TT coupe and the Porsche 911.
7. It’ll cost you $200,000
The standard retail price of the so-called base model will start at $200,000 (£151,530) making it the most expensive Tesla to date above the £144,440 top of the line Model X.
However, even at the not insignificant sum of $200,000 the Roadster will actually be comparatively cheap for its performance levels. The Porsche 918 Spyder, for instance, cost about £780,000 when new, while the Bugatti Chiron costs about £2.5m.
The first 1,000 Roadsters sold will actually cost $250,000 and will be limited edition Founder’s Series.
8. You can’t get one until 2020
Musk said the Roadster will go on sale in 2020, although that figure is speculative given the problems and delays Tesla has faced getting its other cars to market.
It’s already technically up for pre-order, however: as interested buyers who put down a $50,000 deposit at the Roadster’s launch event were able to have a ride in a prototype.
9. And the point is …
Given Musk’s stated aim for Tesla was to make electric cars mainstream, starting with high-priced cars to fund the development of the cheaper and more mainstream Model 3, what’s the Roadster’s purpose?
“The point of doing this is to give a hardcore smackdown to gasoline cars,” said Musk at the launch. “Driving a gasoline sports car is going to feel like a steam engine with a side of quiche.”
UK considers tax on single-use plastics to tackle ocean pollution
November 19, 2017 by 1 Comment
The chancellor, Philip Hammond, will announce in next week’s budget a “call for evidence” on how taxes or other charges on single-use plastics such as takeaway cartons and packaging could reduce the impact of discarded waste on marine and bird life, the Treasury has said.
The commitment was welcomed by environmental and wildlife groups, though they stressed that any eventual measures would need to be ambitious and coordinated.
An estimated 12m tonnes of plastic enters the oceans each year, and residues are routinely found in fish, sea birds and marine mammals. This week it emerged that plastics had been discovered even in creatures living seven miles beneath the sea.
The introduction just over two years ago of a 5p charge on single-use plastic bags led to an 85% reduction in their use inside six months.
Separately, the environment department is seeking evidence on how to reduce the dumping of takeaway drinks containers such as coffee cups through measures such as a deposit return scheme.
Announcing the move on plastics, the Treasury cited statistics saying more than a million birds and 100,000 sea mammals and turtles die each year from eating or getting tangled in plastic waste.
The BBC series Blue Planet II has highlighted the scale of plastic debris in the oceans. In the episode to be broadcast this Sunday, albatrosses try to feed plastic to their young, and a pilot whale carries her dead calf with her for days in mourning. Scientists working with the programme believed the mother’s milk was made poisonous by pollution.
The call for evidence will begin in the new year and will take into account the findings of the consultation on drinks containers.
Tisha Brown, an oceans campaigner for Greenpeace UK, said the decades-long use of almost indestructible materials to make single-use products “was bound to lead to problems, and we’re starting to discover how big those problems are”.
She said: “Ocean plastic pollution is a global emergency, it is everywhere from the Arctic Ocean at top of the world to the Marianas trench at the bottom of the Pacific. It’s in whales, turtles and 90% of sea birds, and it’s been found in our salt, our tap water and even our beer.
“The Treasury’s announcement is only a statement of intent, but it recognises the significance of the problem and the urgent need for a solution. There is a long way to go, but hopefully this is the beginning of the end for single-use plastic.”
Source: UK considers tax on single-use plastics to tackle ocean pollution | Environment | The Guardian
