Here is a short background on Blog Action Day from MadMikesAmerica:

"Blog Action Day takes place annually on October 15, 2009. This gives us one day a year for bloggers to focus on just one topic. This year's topic is Global Climate Change. So far, 5,464 sites have registered to participate with a reader following 10,453,869 from around the globe. If participation is anything like last year those numbers will swell dramatically as we get closer to Blog Action Day 2009.

Blog Action Day 2009 is the largest social change event on the internet. It began in 2007 when Australian Bloggers Collis & Cyan Ta'eed (along with help from Envato) decided to have a day when bloggers could focus on one subject. The chosen topic was the environment. That first year over 20,000 bloggers participated."

 

The initiative is not limited to the United States or Western nations. Bloggers in the Philippines are using this day to draw attention to recent natural disasters in the region.

"Bloggers Kapihan is hoping it will and urges Filipinos worldwide to join “Blog Action Day” on October 15 by publishing blogs, podcasts, and videocasts on why there is a need to reintroduce the discussion about climate change and actions to mitigate its effects, said its member and blogger/journalist Anthony Ian Cruz.

Cruz said the massive flooding, death, and damage caused by tropical storm “Ondoy” and typhoon “Pepeng,” which hit the Philippines in the last three weeks reflected the urgency in which the issue of climate should be addressed."

If you would like to participate, then please visit Blog Action Day's website here and start blogging about climate change.

Bhumika Ghimire

"Don't worry. It's okay."

But I am worried. This guy keeps inching closer to me. My first instinct was that he was going to pickpocket me. I clutched my bag tighter and tighter to my chest.

Now, I think he might put his head on my shoulder any second. He'd boarded the train two stops after my friend and I did, and ever since then I could feel his eyes boring into the back of my head.

As I've said before, the best thing to do in a situation like this is use evasive tactics. I pretend I don't hear him. My friend, skilled in the ways of the commuter, keeps chatting — about the movie we just saw, about the weather, about Lindsay Lohan versus Britney Spears. Anything to avoid a lull in the conversation because when that happens…

"You are so cute."

Then he taps me on the shoulder. Instinctively, I turn toward him and break the cardinal rule — do not make eye contact under any circumstances. He looks fairly harmless with his backpack and button-down shirt.

My friend whispers, "I don't smell alcohol." Neither do I, but there is something altered about him.

"What language do you speak?" he asks now that he has my attention.

This forces me to move to level two of subway avoidance, which I am not very good at: the freeze out. "English."

"Really? I speak English, too. Yeah, I do. You speak so nice. I was listening to you. You are so cute."

I suppose there is a double standard here. This guy has clearly crossed the line to Creepyville, but had he looked like George Clooney (a girl can dream), I would have already given him my number. This guy does not look like George Clooney. They never do.

"Where are you from?"

Since we're already in the borough, I go with the obvious. "Brooklyn."

"Really? Wow! Me, too! You are so cute."

My friend says, "Do you want to move?" We are still about four stops from home, maybe ten more minutes, which will seem like eternity. Yet, we don't move. It's the same reason I'm not very good at the freeze out. I don't want to seem rude. For some reason I would rather be uncomfortable than to embarrass him or call more attention to the situation. I think this is the good-girl syndrome, as in, "Just be a good girl and don't make trouble," or "Good girls are well-mannered and considerate." Boys don't seem to be raised with the same mantras. It takes good girls a long time to learn to speak up and not be taken advantage of.

Would I tell him to stop talking to me? It seems extreme, so I just sit there and try to ignore him when he suddenly pops up and runs off the train at the next stop. I suddenly felt bad for him. I mean, this is a tough way to get a date.

George, if you're reading this, I'll be on the Q train tomorrow, conductor's car.

Jacquelin Cangro

 According to the BBC:

"The cleric, Sheikh Saad al-Shethry, said the mixing of sexes in any university was evil and a great sin.

He demanded the curriculum should be vetted by Islamic scholars to prevent teaching of 'alien ideologies.'"

On its website, KAUST describes itself as "an international, graduate-level research university dedicated to inspiring a new age of scientific achievement in the Kingdom that will also benefit the region and the world."

At True/Slant, author Jessica Faye Carter has posted on co-education in the country and also has a video from Al-Jazeera on the university.

It remains to be see weather the conservative kingdom and its clerics with strong opinions will be able to accept the university and the openness it promises.

Bhumika Ghimire

Stand-up comedy is like suicide when you are new to the art form. Every time the MC calls your name for you to come on stage, your knuckles go white and you feel an invisible trigger coldly press against your index finger.

"HI! I almost didn't make it to the stage tonight. I got into the room and saw this guy I used to date. My heart just stopped…but then it started again. So all's good!"

Silence.

"So the other day I went to the supermarket and asked the teller for…."

People start fidgeting.

"You know, before I came here tonight, I practiced my set ten times on my cat…He didn't laugh once."

Silence. BAM!

It's a cold, lonely death; and as you walk off that stage, there's no crowd to comfort you or pay their respects. They have moved onto the next comedian, glad that you are done for the night. All you have is you to beat yourself for not being funny.

I've been doing stand-up comedy over a year now. I've performed seven times, flopped three. The last time I performed, I was so nervous that a lady offered me these pills that slow down your heart.

Reason why I still go back there?

It's an adrenaline rush.

Tharuna Devchand