This article describes 20 myths that have confused people. Interesting read, although I think I knew about most of them before.
A Digg comment which I thought was hilarious was about myth #2: Jesus was born on December 25
emanji: "I'm confused, Jesus birth date is #2 on the myth list. But the fact that he was born by a VIRGIN and came back to life after being crucified never cross peoples mind."
What in the world is Iran's government thinking by this new (well, 8 days old) action? I am talking about their arrest of the English soldiers in the disputed waters, then publishing the apology letters and videos. What is going on??? What do they think they can gain by this?
OK so somethings I learned are:
* According to a treaty between Iran and Iraq in 1975 the Britons were in Iran's water - however after the beginning of the Iran-Iraq war, Saddam Hossein invalidated the treaty. After that, the waters have been disputed.
* Supposedly this is Iran's way of showing they have power. This is a negotiation tool for bargaining the Iranian diplomats which are captured and imprisoned in Iraq.
But I don't get it. Regardless of where the Britons were, what is the point? Their actions mirror the way the Iraqi kidnappings were conducted - the televised apologies and confessions. Do they think they can gain sympathy and empathy for their plight using these tactics? Then again, except for this, would the other countries listen to Iran?
I don't know. I do know the situation in Iran is becoming worst and worst. Something has to happen.
****************
ok, this is a couple of hours after I wrote the above post - and I am a bit more calmed down. It is amazing how the media can influence the thoughts and feelings of people. When they are continually looking at an issue unilaterally, it seriously constrains your vision. As you can tell, I had been listening to the radio this morning!! :-P and this was even NPR and not some right winged propaganda crap.
I found the following article from The Independent to be very interesting. It is kind of cool because it starts with the first charter of human rights by Cyrus. So Alvaro and Juan you both should read this article - and to the end, not just the first part. It is a much more balanced view of things and though it does not by any means excuse the actions of Iran, it does bring more of a global view of the context to this act. Very interesting.
To tell or not tell your friends about your blog... that is the question! The moment you tell people, you are limiting what you can write in your blog. It is no longer anything that you feel, anything that you do. Now you think about what people (the ones that you know that they know and the ones that you think they know but maybe they don't check!) who read your blog will think about a post, about what you write. You can no longer really get personal and write about what you think and you dream and you feel, because you might not want others to know or you might not like their response to your blog. Oh and you can definitely not write and complain about someone in your audience! What to do, what to do!?
Not telling people really doesn't solve the problem either. Half the fun in my posts are finding out people's reactions to these topics, what they think and what they contribute. It is the interaction that is fun, else I might as well keep a diary at home.
So it is a Catch-22. You're doomed if you do, and doomed if you don't.
For you game theoretic people out there, what is optimal strategy here?
Just wanted to post the pic that Alvaro sent because I thought it was really beautiful - it kind of reminds me of the paintings of Picasso with the rounded voluptuousness. This is a mosaic from Bishapur found at the Louvre. Another example of the west swallowing the treasures of the east. Of course I have to admit that I can't imagine present day Iran putting this up anywhere in the museums!! what a world.
I finally uploaded a bunch of photos from my various activities in the past week. Above is the picture of the Norouz spread we had at the party on Tuesday night. It was a pretty fun party. I met a girl with a most intriguing blood line - half African American, half Persian. She was very pretty and cute actually. And she actually spoke Farsi pretty good for someone who had never lived in Iran.
On wednesday I finally met my online/blog buddy Jeerjeerak :-) She was in DC for school and we met for dinner in China Town - we went to a nice Thai restaurant. You wouldn't believe how fast they brought our food!! and we kept changing tables and we kept stealing other table's candles because our light kept going out!! We had a great time - it was actually quite interesting meeting someone that you have never met before and yet you have been following their blog for a while, so you kind of know them... so suffice it to say we were warm very fast :-) Jeerjeerak and I actually went to the same primary school while i was in Iran - she was in my cousin's grade, who is one year ahead of me. Unfortunately I don't recall too much from that time, except that it was great - perhaps the best time of my life. According to Jeerjeerak, I once crashed her birthday party! :-P I invited myself along with my cousin to her house!! Party crasher, woo hoo! I had style even from that early age.
One of the most interesting things about Jeerjeerak is her look. ok ok, she had lots of interesting things, but one of the things which was very unique to her, is her look - For me, she looks just like the traditional beautiful women of ancient Persia, the look which is always emulated for women in Persian miniatures: the long curly hair, the extended brows... like the girls in the painting below. She is probably going to kill me, for going on and on about her look, but I thought it was very beautiful and also very unique to her. Her looks represented to me, Iran. :-)
I found the following article from NY Times to be a very nice reflection of why the making of 300 the movie, was inappropriate. I liked the following paragraphs from it:
The 'Battle Of Thermopylae' has been the single most powerful wedge, which has divided East and West for over 2 millennia. In a time when East and West should be reconciling their differences, along comes the movie '300' to drive that wedge even deeper.
What is most disturbing about this movie is not that it lacks historical accuracy. It is not that Xerxes, the Grandson of Cyrus The Great and loving husband of Esther, is shown as an oversized drag queen. It is not even the outdated racist cliché of casting the Persians as Africans and the Spartans as white, blue-eyed 'Chippendale dancers,' when in reality the roles may well have been reversed.
What is so distressing about this movie is the realization of the tremendous power Hollywood wields in determining a people's identity. It is the same nightmare Native Americans endured during the whole 'cowboy-movie' genre.
So this was a nice article. I still haven't seen it, refuse to see it. My uncle went and saw it and he is someone who can like things just for the way the movie is made etc. Anyway he said even the action scenes were not great - most of the movie was battle scenes and blood and gore and... not nice.
ok finally some interesting points which were made to argue why we shouldn't get upset about the movie:
- most Americans don't associate Persian with Iranian
- Iran also has stereotypes of Americans and they are not particularly nice stereotypes. When Iran stops using these stereotypes they can point the finger at US and Hollywood.
still I think the movie was inappropriately made. Hollywood has power... and with great power, comes great responsibility. :-D
I don't have time to try the following games right now, but these are all supposed to be fun. Definitely something to try. If anyone tries any, let us know how they are :-)
Enigma is a puzzle game inspired by Oxyd on the Atari ST and Rock'n'Roll on the Amiga. The object of the game is to find uncover pairs of identically colored Oxyd stones. Simple? Yes. Easy? Certainly not! Hidden traps, vast mazes, laser beams, and, most of all, countless hairy puzzles usually block your direct way to the Oxyd stones...
Silverspehere: Get the Silver Sphere in to the Blue Vortex. Some more info.
oh and it seems the PS3 launch in Aus didn't go down very well!! :-P
Happy Norouz to all of my friends, near and far! May you have a wonderful new year!
The Persian new year will begin at just after 8pm E.T. We are supposed to spend the passing of the new year with our families, in front of the Sofre Haft-seen (Spread of Seven 'S' = seven items which start with the letter 's'), exchanging gifts. In my version, I will be spending the evening with some Iranian friends. Norouz literally means New Day and occurs on the spring equinox and it is a credit to the precision of the persians that we know the exact time and not just the date :-)
The above link actually has a lot of very interesting details about the traditions of Norouz.
Boys and girls, today's post is all about things which i heard or read today. Some are interesting, some are insightful:
You never get over anyone, you simply get used to it.
This is what Chris Rock said in Inside The Actor's Studio, when he was talking about the death of his father. I think he said it really well, you never get over their loss, you simply get used to them not being there anymore. You build a life that doesn't have them any more and yet you never forget the old life in your head.
The Masochist said, Hit Me. The Sadist said, No.
I heard this on this audio book i am listening to about the mind. I thought it was so funny and so deep!! I found out something else from the audio book...
Freud's interpretation of morning sickness: morning sickness is the result of the mother's loathing of her husband. The subconscious manifestation of this is a desire to abort the fetus through vomiting.
Oh this one was also hilarious! oral abortion. Only Freud would come up with that. Of course another interpretation, based on evolutionary theories, is that the period of time when the mother has morning sickness is when the fetus is just starting to develop organs and it is most sensitive to toxins and so by making the mother incapable of eating food with specific taste or smell. The morning sickness stops when the fetus has grown its organs and is no longer as in danger. Actually all this info is better said in the link above.
But what was also interesting was that people who have more severe morning sickness generally miscarry less and the fetus is born without any defects. Goes opposite to what I had thought. Now when I get pregnant, do I want to be sick!! :-P
Today on NPR they mentioned the following interesting stat:
The top 3 countries with the highest number of journalists killed are:
1 - Russia
2 - Colombia
3 - Iran
We've all heard all these recent stories about the journalist killed in Russia and actually even outside of Russia by supposedly Putin's government. The most recent one was the guy who was supposedly investigating a supposed deal between Russia and Iran involving nuclear weapons.
According to Alvaro, in Colombia the majority of journalists are killed by the gorillas and the paramilitary.
And in Iran... well I don't think the concept of free press really exists.
But this is wierd - I checked out the following site that lists some more stats about the journalists killed in the last 10 years and they don't mention Iran... I wonder if I misheard and I heard Iraq instead of Iran....
They say the following about Colombia:
"No journalists were killed there in reprisal for their work during 2004, but Colombian journalists say this is because provincial reporters are simply too afraid to cover the ongoing civil conflict."
A suicide bomber killed more than 30 people in a cafe in Baghdad yesterday. Daily we hear of these huge number of people killed, 100s every week, thousands ... I can't imagine the huge cost of this on iraq - its present and its future. The most able bodied and able minded are killed daily and what is left but a society of the old and the young. It is hard to fathom the instability in iraq and the cost of this war of choice.
You hear of bombs that kill the iraqi police so often - it amazes me that all policemen have not deserted their jobs. That there are still people who are willing to put their life at such risk. Of course there is the fact that people have to eat.
Compare this life with what what we live through daily and let us never forget our blessings.
Check out the following article, which describes how S. Korea is looking at putting together a code of ethics to prevent abuse between humans and robots (either direction). Are we really at the stage where we need them? :-D
Everytime I think about Asimov's laws it quite amazes me how imaginative they are. Can you think of anything else to supplement them?
ASIMOV'S LAWS OF ROBOTICS
* A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
* A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
* A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law
"Thought you might appreciate the subtlety of this ad, done by a Brazilian ad agency, for a lubricating gel (K-Y equivalent) targeting the French market. They were trying to come up with an ad that is not offensive or tasteless. The picture looks completely innocent until you notice the details... Oh, my God. Look carefully at the details. Apparently, it has created quite a buzz in Europe."
Look away, look away I tells you...
I watched some of an interesting program today about Hell. Here are some of the things I learned about Hell w.r.t. different religions - Alvaro I know you know a lot more about this topic, so if you can give more info about any of this, I would really appreciate it!
Christianity
- Lucifer vs. god
- infinite hell
- literal hell
- Dante - the first to associate behavior with different punishments - 7 rings of hell.
Islam
- no devil, only god
- god's wrath needed for people to serve him, but his mercy overcomes his wrath, therefore...
- finite hell
- hell is both literal and logical
- very few people go to hell
Hebrew
- no afterlife
- however there exists reward and punishment after death
Buddhist
- not creator base
- hell not a place but state of existence -> negative rebirth
- no divine god but your own karma
Chinese Buddhism
- multiple realms of hell
- finite hell until unwholesome karma they created exhausted and reborn in more fortunate
