Meaning of Gadfly

I found something very interesting - why I didn't know about it before, I don't know. And it makes so much more sense esp with respect to my favorite book: The Gadfly by E.L.Voynich. Anyway Wiki defines Gadfly as:

"Gadfly" is a term for people who upset the status quo by posing upsetting or novel questions, or attempt to stimulate innovation by proving an irritant.

The term "gadfly" was used by Plato to describe Socrates' relationship of uncomfortable goad to the Athenian politician scene, which he compared to a slow and dimwitted horse. It was used earlier by the prophet Jeremiah in chapter 46 of his book. The term has been used to describe many politicians and social commentators.

During his defense when on trial for his life, Socrates, according to Plato's writings, pointed out that dissent, like the tiny (relative to the size of a horse) gadfly, was easy to swat, but the cost to society of silencing individuals who were irritating could be very high. "If you kill a man like me, you will injure yourselves more than you will injure me," because his role was that of a gadfly, "to sting people and whip them into a fury, all in the service of truth."

I think it is also a very appropriate name for a blog. Damn I surprise myself!! :-P

Styx post

Check out an interesting blog post by sticky-pie Styx about the new laptops from the One Laptop Per Child foundation.

Misc.

I read a weird article about this new type of by called "Modesty Buses" in Israel. Men and women are segregated with men sitting at the front and women sitting at the back. The sad thing is that this is what is actually happening right now in Iran. Men claim it is actually for the women's sake but come on - the moment you enforce these rules and remove freedom of choice you discard the option of claiming something is for the good of a group.
Like the hejab in Iran - women should cover themselves up... why? if you believe it, you should do it and if you don't...? I read the following quote in an article from Playboy the other day: In Iran, before the revolution, people used to pray in private and party in public. Now it is the other way around.
Somehow I think the more you try to enforce something, the more it backfires in the long run.
Btw the Playboy article is here and i haven't finished reading it but it seems interesting. You can download the pdf.
[Note: Unfortunately, there are no dirty pictures on this site! :-) ]

I am going to finish up with the following picture which I thought was really funny!! Essentially, be nice to the US!

Check out this goal by Messi

Gol de Messi al Getafe 18/04/07

Very Pretty!

Zzzzznoina

It seems another Juan is sneaking in here and trying to compete with the big girls and boys. I am caught in a dilemma - do I offer encouraging words or do I taunt him? I mean seriously, what is a girl to do? I know what... until he really becomes a threat, I will encourage him :-D Go JuanA you can do it!!

I will leave it to the reader to decide if that was a taunt or encouragement! :-P

New Topic:
Do You Feel Holy? why don't you converse with God and Repent.

The Age of the Gadphly

Oh yes Juan can attest, I am beating him senseless. He considers himself a gamer? huh - but then that would make me, lets see, the Queen of the Gamers. It is a new age... The Age of the Gadphly.

For those who have no idea what is going on, Juan and I have been competing against each other in the Towers TD game and lets just say, he is eating my dust.
Oh how rude, may I offer you some water with that dust?! :-P

To see a ranking of the score, search for the group Juanpwns here. I guess the group is a misnomer now huh!

Regret?

You know I have been feeling weird since writing that post last night - does it seem that I am not being sympathetic enough for the Virginia massacre? Because I am - I think it was horrible. I am a very good candidate for knowing how horrible the loss of a loved one is and how terrible a time is spent trying to cope and make sense of it all. The loss of any human life is tragic, full stop. And comparing tragedies is wrong I know but it is massacres like the one on Monday that should remind us how horrible and tragic the situation in Iraq is. Can anyone make sense of the loss of 171 lives in one day? the number of people that are effected because the dead in Iraq also have families and friends. But since we are removed from the situation, we don't think about it. Here we see pictures of the families and friends of the affected, we see people grieving because of what could have been but fortunately wasn't, alumni of Virginia Tech that are grieving simply because of the shooting happening in their school. We are witness to this and we realize the magnitude of the horror. Can anyone say we are realizing the horror happening over in Iraq? and iraq is just an example country - think of Darfur, Palestine/Israel, Somalia, etc. Why is it that we prefer to change the channel to Friends, than watch what is going on over there? because we are responsible for them?

I don't understand the world - I know that if I turned on the TV and only watched all the bad things happening around the world, I would become very depressed - we need to see the beauty around us and the hope and the joy but we need to do it in an informed way. Then and only then do we end up really appreciating the beauty, the hope that we have and the wonder of it all.

Probably it's time I get off my soap box, but the inequality in the world is tragic.

One human life is not worthier than another.

Ignoring it and turning a blind eye on it is a crime itself.