So apparently Saudi textbooks are still teaching intolerance, or at least this is what a recent study has found. This should not come as a surprise to me, because even though a friend of mine, who has a direct connection to someone who worked to change the textbooks after 9/11, told me that these books are better now, I always thought they can’t be much better because they were so bad it is hard to imagine how they could be fixed. And just like Mochness, “I never thought of checking the books to make sure.”

I agree with Rasheed that one of the main problems with reforming the textbooks is that the government is facing a tough resistance from the religious conservatives who consider the calls for such thing a western conspiracy. In the same time, some liberals such as Hamza Al Mozaini and Mohammed Al Zulfa have been calling for education reform, but there calls went unheard so far. So, between the Americans, the conservatives, and the liberals, where are we going to go with our textbooks? I think that we have made some progress, but there is still a lot to do.

ISU have blocked SaudiEve‘s blog, and it is said that other blogs will follow. However, I don’t think they would like to receive the same reaction they had last year when they blocked Blogger and BlogSpot for a short time. Please show your support to SaudiEve and the rest of Saudi bloggers by writing about this, and consider filling out the unblocking request form. Thanks.

By introducing their web-based email service with Arabic interface, Google have done what Microsoft and Yahoo! failed to do, or probably ignored to do, for about ten years now. This is indeed good news for Arab users, and I’m looking forward for more services in Arabic from Google.

I was working on a new design for the blog but was not lucky enough to launch it before the beginning of the toot design competition. The design is ready now. I will wait till the results are announced and then change the layout.

Jeff Jarvis says: “Any episode of The Sopranos is better than half the best-sellers out there.” I find it hard to agree or disagree. Maybe he is right because most of the time, not all what’s on the best-sellers lists is good, but I think it could be the other way around too: a good book is better than half the episodes of The Sopranos, or any other top series for that matter. I know it varies very much between what he is talking about and the situation that we actually have here in the Arab World, but I think it’s an argument worth tackling. What do you think?

Now that we are living the World Cup mania, I think it’s time to point to this column by Stephen J. Dubner and Steven D. Levitt, authors of Freakonomics, on why most football (that’s soccer for Americans) stars are likely to be born in the first three months of the year. However, it is not entirely about footballers, but rather about how high performances are the result of hard work and not talent, and therefore a star is made, not born. On a related note, check out what our friend SunShine has to say on the book. I still can’t find time to read it, but sure will do.

Asharq Al-Awsat reports that “a number of Saudis have expressed hope physical education will be incorporate to the educational curriculum for girls across the Kingdom, respecting local traditions and Islam.” Well, I don’t think it will happen anytime soon. Not with the current minister of education in charge anyway, as he has made it clear that he is against it. But the good part in this story comes later: “a study which examined the physical condition of girls and women who practiced gymnastics and track and field reported no adverse effects.” A big WOW! Don’t get me wrong, but as far as I can recall, I always thought sports are harmful to women ;-)