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Source: Running wild: San Fermin festival 2011

As always, amazing pictures at The Big Picture... This photo of an anti-bullfighting protest... Also as always, brings to mind Jacques Brel's Les Toros

Les toros s'ennuient le dimanche
Quand il s'agit de courir pour nous
Un peu de sable du soleil et des planches
Un peu de sang pour faire un peu de boue
C'est l'heure où les épiciers se prennent pour Don Juan
C'est l'heure où les Anglaises se prennent pour Montherlant

Ah! Qui nous dira à quoi ça pense
Un toro qui tourne et danse
Et s'aperçoit soudain qu'il est tout nu
Ah!Qui nous dira à quoi ça rêve
Un toro dont l'oeil se lève
Et qui découvre les cornes des cocus

Les toros s'ennuient le dimanche
Quand il s'agit de souffrir pour nous
Voici les picadors et la foule se penche
Voici les toreros et la foule est à genoux
C'est l'heure où les épiciers se prennent pour Garcia Lorca
C'est l'heure où les Anglaises se prennent pour la Carmencita

Les toros s'ennuient le dimanche
Quand il s'agit de mourir pour nous
Mais l'épée va plonger et la foule se penche
Mais l'épée a plongé et la foule est debout
C'est l'instant de triomphe où les épiciers se prennent pour Néron
C'est l'instant de triomphe où les Anglaises se prennent pour Wellington

Ah! Est-ce qu'en tombant à terre
Les toros rêvent d'un enfer
Où brûleraient hommes et toreros défunts
Ah! Ou bien à l'heure du trépas
Ne nous pardonneraient-ils pas
En pensant à Carthage Waterloo et Verdun
Verdun

Random charts

Source: UNODC World Drug Report 2011 (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime)

Random charts

Source: Arab Attitudes, 2011 (Zogby)

Random pictures

Source: Henry Markram: supercomputing the brain’s secrets

Additional BB QR readers - XIX

Another BB QR code reader is QR Scan Now, at $0.99, "... Scan fast with QR Scan Now. Just press the app icon and point your BlackBerry camera at a QR Code. QR Scan Now starts scanning and reads the QR code. It then places the results on your screen. You can then open it if it is a web link, call a number if it is a telephone number, copy it to the clipboard or even make a new MemoPad note from it with just one-click..."

A quick download and I was testing it, using the QR Code Quality Standards Test v1.02 When launched the application starts scanning immediately... no splash screen or main menu here... Good success with 'phone', 'sms, 'email', and 'url' QR codes.

While it did read all the QR codes, many variants could not then be used, e.g. see below for 'WiFi', 'vevent', 'geo', 'MECARD', and 'vcard' scans being unable to be processed on the BB.

The bottom line? Not a bad code reader. However, given that there are free applications that handle more QR code variants and have add additional features (e.g. BizBarcode and Barcode Assistant) I can not recommend QR Scan Now.

Note: Tested on my current BB, a Torch.

BB QR readers (26 links)

Additional BB QR readers - XVIII

Another BB QR code reader is Qrem by Cornplay, that claims "QRem can convert anything to QR code and scan any QR code... QRem is fully integrated with your BlackBerry. Most core applications (Contacts, Calendar, Messages, Browser, Phone, MemoPad, Maps) have "Show QR code" menu item. Select it and you will see an instant QR code for the selected item..."

A quick download and I was testing it, using the QR Code Quality Standards Test v1.02 It worked as advertised for most QR codes, including 'phone', 'SMS', 'url', 'geo', and other QR code variants... Note: Qrem does not take photos and decode from there, but reads the QR codes directly.

Some very dense 'vcard' QR codes did not read e.g. Test case 12.1 The application didn't fail graciously either, but kept scanning until I got tired of holding my phone up to the QR code.

Some QR codes were read but then were treated as free text and put into the BB's Memo application e.g. 'WiFi', 'vevent' and 'MECARD' QR codes, e.g. see below:

Like BizBarcode and Barcode Assistant, Qrem also can generate QR codes. You can type in and generate a QR code, or alternatively you can use the 'Show QR code' menu entry it adds to the Blackberry's applications, e.g. see examples below. However, unlike BizBarcode and Barcode Assistant you can not save, send, etc. the generated QR code.

QRem stores your history on-BB, and you can 'rerun' them or generate QR codes...

The bottom line? A very respectable QR reader... While not particularly fast it handles most flavors of QR codes fairly well, and can generate QR codes as well. Still, not quite at the level of Barcode Assistant or Bizbarcode, which remain the best.

Note: Tested on my current BB, a Torch.

BB QR readers (25 links)

Brief update III (Finally?)

The May 6th, 2011 blog entry, Interminable, looked at the latest happenings at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon and wondered when the pre-trial judge, Daniel Fransen, would act on the indictments filed by the Prosecutor Daniel A Bellemare.

Well, amazingly enough, four indictments were issued June 30th, 2011, and their names leaked almost immediately. Four Hezbollah members. Reactions were swift, including from Hezbollah Secretary-General Nasrallah... The members of the newly-formed Lebanese government also were forced to respond to the indictments as their opponents tried to pin them down with respect to arrests of the suspects, support for the STL, etc.

However, much remains to unfold and it is possible that there will be many more twists and turns along the road before this gets wrapped up, bringing to mind a Winston Churchill quote from November of 1942, "Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. but it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning..."

STL Indicts Four Suspects in Hariri Murder
Special Tribunal for Lebanon indictment is here: Observations
Why Hezbollah Had a Really Bad Week
Robert Fisk: UN blames Hezbollah for Hariri bomb murder
Lebanon Fears Crisis with Issue of Arrest Warrants
Nasrallah Comments on the STL Indictments
Lebanese Ministerial Statement - see article 14
The Cabinet and the STL