The Ministry of Education is investigating a teacher who criticized Shiite practices.

Many Saudi writers, including Abdul-Rahman al-Rashed and Reem al-Saleh, have written that one of the main concerns to Saudis in the issue of Saudi-US relationship is the ability of Saudi students to study in the States. “If it was up to me, I would exchange oil with education,” al-Saleh says.

Rojo, the web-based RSS aggregator, is out of beta, and it looks far better than before.

James Suroweicki’s The Wisdom of Crowds was rated as one of the best books of last year. The author argues that large groups of people will outperform a few experts at the process of making correct decisions. This argument seems weird and controversial at the beginning, but little by little, one realizes how convincing the idea of the wisdom of crowds is, and how it can be found, deeply integrated, in our everyday lives.

Some parts of the book, especially those dealing with complicated economic issues, may not be interesting to some readers. Other parts related with NFL may not be understood by most international readers. But in general, this book could be a good read for everyone.

Here is a piece from the last chapter on democracy:

[T]he democratic experience is an experience of not getting everything you want. It’s an experience of seeing your opponents win and get what you hoped to have, and of accepting it, because you believe that they will not destroy the things you value and because you know you will have another chance to get what you want.

Badria al-Bisher writes about a woman who had to hit a rude man. It sounds like a funny story, but I think it’s a sad one. It is a shame to find men treat women this way in country where people claim to be the Ultimate-Super-Muslims.

This piece says people read better when they are in love, and are reading a love letter. I totally agree with this. Love does not only makes us better readers, it makes us better people.

Five times a day, any place that comes to mind must be closed. Why? Because the Wahabis think they can force people to pray. What if you had an emergency and needed a drug from the pharmacy during prayer time? You are not going to get it. Who the hell told you to be sick during prayer time?! I have said this a million times before, one more time won’t hurt. A person who wants to pray will not give a rat’s ass to anything. And when it comes to works with the government, this can be a real pain in the ass. Because most of these over-paid pencil-pushers will use prayer as an excuse for their laziness and uselessness.

This is the first part of a series about things that cause me to curse, frown, or simply feel some discomfort. There are things that bug you? You can contribute to this series by posting to your blog, or leaving a comment here.