March 21 marks the Persian new year. The spring is on the way and I can sniff it even here in Canada. Though it doesn't exactly look like the new years that we had back home, thanks to the wonderful friends that the warmth of their hearts and their unconditional love have made such an amazing spring and new year for us...
I also would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the new year to all Iranians and wish them all the best.
Cheers,
Saeed.
Monday, March 19, 2007
Happy New Year
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
The Curse of Sparta
300 is the new product of Warner Bros. Pictures, and will be screened from Friday, March 9. The movie is about the Battle of Thermopylae that happened at 480 B.C between Persians and Greeks. Although Persians won the battle, they suffered from heavy loss that eventually led to the victory of Greeks in the Battle of Salamis.
An online petition has been launched, calling this an unethical action for picturing Persians as some savage barbarians. I came across a second opinion, The ridiculous truth, by Nema Milaninia. Please share your thoughts if you feel strong either way.
Here comes the Nema's article:
The ridiculous truth
This is one of the most ridiculous petitions I have every seen in my entire life and the fact that a “Dr.” drafted it and that over 2,500 people signed it is even more ridiculous. The petitioned is drafted as an attack against the movie 300 for its “inaccurate” portrayal of the “Persians.” Actually, its more a petition that states “Persians are the best, we conquered the world but of course we would never kill people to do it.”
First of all, who ever said that 300 is intended in any way to be a documentary of historical events. I saw ogres, freaks, rhino’s being ridden, and other supernatural creatures. You would have to be brain-dead to actually think that a genius like Frank Miller intended to reflect real-life events, than simply create a stylish battle movie. Think about it, its like Christians attacking the Mel Brooks movie History of the World for being historically inaccurate because it shows a waiter bugging Jesus during the last supper. These movies are not intended to be a historical account and everyone knows it.
Second, it’s pretty disappointing to see so many Iranians in an outrage against this movie when there’s so many more important and bigger issues out there, such as, lets see, a possible war on Iran which could cause thousands of deaths, the abduction of female activists in Iran, the continual deprivation of human rights in Iran and in the US. I’ve signed petition on these issues, and in general, they don’t usually garner more than 1000 people. Its really shocking to see how double that amount care more about attacking a movie and in essence attacking freedom of speech, then for promoting it in a country which represses it.
And lastly, I can’t help discussing this beautiful line of cultural arrogance in the petition:
“Based on the Zoroastrian doctrine, it was the strong emphasis on honesty and integrity that gave the ancient Persians credibility to rule the world, even in the eyes of the people belonging to the conquered nations (Herodotus, mid 5th century B.C). Truth for the sake of truth, was the universal motto and the very core of the Persian culture that was followed not only by the great kings, but even the ordinary Persians made it a point to adhere to this code of conduct.”
The Persians did not expand through organic growth and love for their culture. They did so through conquest, which by its very nature requires bloodshed. The fact that the Persians continuously tried to subdue the Greeks is evidence of their imperialist desires more than anything else. If the Persians only cared about “truth” and credibility, then why in the world would they seek to conquer a country that was resisting them? The fact is, the Persians were no different than any other empire in the past or present. They conquered through their military, stripped their enemies of freedom, and instituted a systematic tribute to tax each province.
Yes, one could argue that the Persians gave those they conquered many things as well, such as a postal system and some form of human rights But then again, that’s precisely the argument the British have used to justify colonialism in India, South Africa, Kenya and other places. Even were that to be true, it truly takes someone culturally egocentric to believe that there could ever be an empire which expanded through virtue rather than bloodshed. In the end, the movie itself displays no ignorance of history because its clearly intended to be fictional. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for the people who created and signed the petition against it.
Saturday, February 24, 2007
Documentary Movie About Iran
Rageh Inside Iran is a documentary that ventures inside the so-called misunderstood country of Iran.
Unlike other documentaries focusing on dark sides of Iran and Iranian society, he tries to portray a realistic and vibrant picture of Iran.
Rageh meets with local people to hear their personal stories and feelings about the current state of affairs in Iran. There are stories of taxi drivers, wrestlers, business women, people working with drug addicts and the country's leading pop star and his manager.
Check it out:
Friday, February 23, 2007
Make Your First Day...
Today is the first day of the rest of your life! Do something that makes your first day. Start with a positive attitude and plan to do your best. Try to make a difference...
Saturday, February 10, 2007
Unfinished business...
Imagine, just for a moment, that you have only one day left, and this is it... There is not much time to finish up everything. You've got to begin with most important unfinished business. What you will be doing first? Telling someone that you love her and you have never dared to do so? Begging someone to forgive you? or may be just giving a warm hug filled with love and affection? Whatever it is, it's got to be worth spending last minutes of your life...
In fact, we never know when our time comes. We better always think what to do first and appreciate the precious gifts we are nearly unaware of.
Every single second counts...
Friday, February 09, 2007
Who is Playing God?
Carmela Bousada, a 67-year-old retired Spanish department store clerk, gave birth to twin boys Dec. 29 in Barcelona and became the world's oldest new mother! She became pregnant with the aid of fertility medicine. But the cutoff age in her fertility clinic is 55, and she had to lie to cover up her age.
One question raised by critics is whether aging parents will be able to cope with toddlers at retirement age. Furthermore, women over 50 face an increased risk of pregnancy complications, such as diabetes and high blood pressure.
On the other hand, pregnancy decision seems to be very personal thing. "That's like taking a 25-year-old parent with seven kids living on welfare, who smokes and abuses her children and saying that she's a good parent just because she's young", says Jan Andersen, who runs www.mothersover40.com.
Monday, January 29, 2007
iPhone is on the way...
Take a closer look at the new product of Apple, iPhone, a real state of the art!
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Presence of Lord...
Here is an excerpt from the 16th supplication of Sahifeh Sajadieh, from Imam Sajjad, peace be upon him:
"أَنَا الَّذِي بِجَهْلِهِ عَصَاکَ، وَ لَمْ تَکُنْ أَهْلًا مِنْهُ لِذَاکَ
این منم که از روی جهالت تو را عصیان کردهام در حالی که تو سزاوارعصیان من نبودی"
which means "Oh Lord, I was ignorant and committed the sin, but you didn't deserve my rebellion...". I think someone who deeply believes in this and has such an attitude towards the God shall never do any bad...
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
The Power of the Pill to Doom the Future!
This post is motivated by Hamed's very recent post, The Power of the Pill. It's indeed true that women are now able to better manage their lives by planned pregnancy, but it's not the happy ending of the story. I don't want to get into the old discussion of how sex life has become more fancy with the aid of these tiny pills, and what good it has brought to the human face of our lives. In fact, I think the future of economy and its growth can't be just about workers who never get pregnant. It must also be about how mind of the future generation who runs the economy is shaped.
People have become this much selfish that they easily sacrifice the future at the price of making more money and having a more prestigious job. Mankind never stops making money. The passion of wealth is that strong that drives people even in their 80's or 90's to work until death puts an end to it. What is not reversible here is the age of fertility in women. It's clearly proved with strong scientific evidences that women have certain fertility period which is the best period to get pregnant and raise a kid. In fact the problem is much more complicated. For instance, when there is a huge age difference between kids and parents, which usually happens in case of late pregnancy, children are not able to emotionally relate to their parents and eventually results in many parental issues. We are indeed in charge of shaping the future, and raising good healthy children is very crucial part of this duty.
Monday, January 15, 2007
Friday, December 29, 2006
Thanks to the fools who keep jerks in the market!
John Edward is probably one of the hottest psychic mediums in the U.S. He says he can communicate with the dead. But is he truly gifted with this power or he just has a game plan? There is a year long waiting list to get in his TV show, Crossing-Over. Just check out here to see how his time is all booked almost everywhere in States. His four best sellers is on the market now. His critics say that he is taking advantage of people who have beloved ones passed away and desperately seeking a way to comfort their heart.
He says he doesn’t see dead people. He claims he gets a sense, a thought in his head, feelings, and he interprets them. He says he feels the energy.
He does it like this: he rubs his hands together, closes his eyes, meditates and concentrates. After a bit of silence he starts firing a barrage of words.
Some skeptics say psychic mediums like John Edward just use a technique called "cold reading." They've used it for hundreds of years to make people believe them. Here comes the way his trick works: He first pretends that a dead person is talking to him and a conversation like this happens between him and an old woman:
- It's an older man, someone very close to you?
- My father?
- Does this month, November, hold a special significance?
- My birthday's in November!
- Right, because he's saying, "Tell her 'Happy Brithday.'"
- What else does he say?
- He saying "the money. Stop worrying about the money."
- Oh my God! My sister and I have been fighting over his inheritance.
He just started with something really vague. He chose an older man because he is betting that, based on this woman's age, her father is most likely dead. But if her father wasn't dead, he could still say it was some other older man. He just asked her if November meant anything. Her father could have died in November, or Thanksgiving could have been really special for them. But he goes with the birthday and validate it now, as if he knew, by saying "He wishes you a Happy Birthday." When a father dies, inheritance is usually an issue, and money is something everyone worries about.
Michael Shermer, author of Why people believe wierd things and a serious critic of Edward says: “Anybody can talk to the dead, getting them to talk back is the hard part!!”
In fact, Edward bombards audience with names and initials, until one of them hits the spot and turns out to be associated with someone in the audience. One moment he pours out an entire sentence of the dead, another moment he can’t hear the names and keeps saying:” I hear J, like John, Jack, Jane,…” Why is that? Apparantly, he says just a bunch of random names until somebody in the audience gets the right one! He also passes some information about disease, but there are certain standard! disease which are very common like heart disease, cancer,…and if you name them, one of them will eventually turn out true!
Survey says 60 millions of Americans believe in him!!!
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Mission Impossible II
Mission accomplished! I finally moved to Toronto, and the whole nightmare of moving is now over!!! But it was a lot more difficult than what I thought. I have to admit that I had underestimated the amount of time and labor! it takes. If you want to move, I strongly recommend to devote at least three day full time job or one week part time job to it, otherwise you either brake your back! and your stuff or you can't move in time and you get charged...
I'd like to write about John Edward as soon as I settle down.
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
What is Science?!
I came across an interesting talk given by Richard Feynman at the fifteenth annual meeting of the National Science Teachers Association, 1966 in New York City. He elaborates on the importance of scientific observation, the essence of science, and what distinguishes a brilliant scientist.
Here I quote a piece of conversation between him and his father who happened to be his mentor though he was a businessman not a scientist, after his graduation in Physics from MIT and Princeton,
I came home, and he said, "Now you've got a science education. I have always wanted to know something that I have never understood, and so, my son, I want you to explain it to me."
I said yes.
He said, "I understand that they say that light is emitted from an atom when it goes from one state to another, from an excited state to a state of lower energy.
I said, "That's right."
"And light is a kind of particle, a photon, I think they call it."
"Yes."
"So if the photon comes out of the atom when it goes from the excited to the lower state, the photon must have been in the atom in the excited state."
I said, "Well, no."
He said, "Well, how do you look at it so you can think of a particle photon coming out without it having been in there in the excited state?"
I thought a few minutes, and I said, "I'm sorry; I don't know. I can't explain it to you."
He was very disappointed after all these years and years of trying to teach me something, that it came out with such poor results.
I think it has a remarkable message: you should be able, by puting in plain words, to simply and intuitively give explanation to the scientific fact which you think you have learned perfectly!
Here is his talk, "What is Science?".
Sunday, December 10, 2006
Saturday, December 09, 2006
Colorful Thoughts of a Physician!
Albert Einstein happened to have his hands on some other areas other than Physics! He wrote an essay, Why Socialism?, mentioning the harms and consequences of capitalism in contrast to socialism.
Justifying why he dares to articulate this matter and speak his mind, he demonstrates an example about agreement of astronomy and economics in essential methodological approaches: scientists in both fields attempt to discover laws of general acceptability for a group of phenomena in order to make the interconnection of these phenomena as clearly understandable as possible.
He argues how economic aftermath of capitalist society is the real source of the evil: what the worker earns is not the function of the real value of the goods he produces, but by his minimum needs and by the capitalists' requirements for labor power in relation to the number of workers competing for jobs. He looks farther and concludes that the representatives of the people do not in fact sufficiently protect the interests of the underprivileged sections of the population, since the members of legislative bodies are selected by political parties, largely financed and influenced by private capitalists who, for all practical purposes, separate the voters from the legislature. Moreover, under existing conditions, private capitalists inevitably control, directly or indirectly, the main sources of information, and as a result, individual citizen can not come to objective conclusions and to make intelligent use of his political rights.
He further argues that in such a society production is carried on for profit, not for use. An "army of unemployed" almost always exists, and the worker is constantly in fear of losing his job. Technological progress frequently results in more unemployment rather than in an easing of the burden of work for all.
He then suggests a way to eliminate these crucial evils: establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals. In such an economy, the means of production are owned by society itself and are utilized in a planned fashion. A planned economy, which adjusts production to the needs of the community, would distribute the work to be done among all those able to work and would guarantee a livelihood to every man, woman, and child. The education of the individual, in addition to promoting his own natural abilities, would attempt to develop in him a sense of responsibility for his fellow-men in place of the glorification of power and success in our present society.
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
What it's like to be homeless?
Refugees await the arrivail of a massive sandstorm at a refugee camp in northeastern Chad. Click on the image to enlarge.
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
Hide Your Crotch Mam!
Britney Spears has recently exposed the bitter face of this sex-stricken society. Carelessly spreading her legs while emerging from a car, she let snappers capture her private parts which are now available across the Internet. Who was the driver? Paris Hilton!!!
What the hell is with these folks not wearing panties? Saving a few seconds if they have to pee real bad? or better ventilation? It might be a post-feminist fashion, or the descendant of bra-burning era. It seems that a new chapter in the history of humankind is about to begin! Many believe that Sharon Stone started this dirty game by uncrossing her leg in Basic Instinct. This time Britney did it again.
It reveals this 21-century blatant phenomenon of women making sex object of themselves in pursuit of publicity and lime light. Apparently, building the fame and public figure upon the wreck of notoriety is becoming a widespread habit!
Monday, December 04, 2006
Same Sex Education catching up with Co-ed
241 Number of public schools in the U.S. that have some single-sex classes. The total will probably grow--the Department of Education has relaxed rules that had limited single-gender education.
3 Number of public schools that offered single-sex classes in 1995.
Time Magazine, November 2006.
The population of US hits 300 million which shows roughly 15% increase comparing to the year 1995's population that was around 262 million. At the same period, the number of single-sex schools has sky rocketed by 7933% !!!
Any thought?
Google Image Labeling Game
Following up my post about Human Computation, Google has created its own image labeling game. The idea is basically the same as ESP game. It seems that Google has tried to keep it simple and plain and it is not as fancy as ESP game. Anyways. I like ESP a lot more!
Sunday, December 03, 2006
Ethics versus Human Computation
You might have heard about the Human Computation. The basic idea is that there are lots of problems that human can solve but computers can not. In fact, we are able to crack many problems by making good use of human power.
Just to give you an idea of how human power is wasted, let me give you two numbers: Over nine billion human hours of solitaire were played in 2003. But it took 20 million human hours to build the entire Panama Canal and that’s equivalent to less than a day of people who played solitaire.
ESP game is a good example of exploiting human power to solve a tedious problem. This game is a two-player online game. First player is randomly paired with somebody else and they are not allowed to communicate with each other. Both of players need to type the exact same word given the common image in order to score. The best strategy is to type a lot of words related to the image until they agree on a same word. Once they get point they proceed to the next image. This word must be a very good word since it comes from two independent sources. Interestingly, this game turns out to be an excellent technique to label images. Actually, The ESP game could label all images of Google Image less than a week!
Peek-A-Boom game is more sophisticated and tries to identify different objects of an image with applying the same idea of ESP game. A little statistics from the first four months of the game: 27,000 players; 2,100,000 pieces of data; many people played 120 hours in the first 10 days!!!
Verbosity is another game which is not yet released. It collects common sense facts; e.g. a man has two legs. Computers unlike human technically don’t have common sense facts. If we could somehow put common sense facts into computers, we could potentially make them more intelligent.
Watch this if you are interested to learn more about these games.
From one point of view, it would be great if we could figure out how to apply this concept for everything. But from an ethical point of view, people will end up spending their work hours playing the game rather than their free time hours, so we may not gain any productivity in fact at all. I admit that any player knows the purpose of the game beforehand and the game doesn’t trick players into doing anything. But people are not reimbursed for the hours they have spent to play. This poses another argument that people enjoy playing the game and in reality we pay to have any kind of fun and in this case we pay with minutes of life we have earned for free. Even some people improve their English language by playing such a game!
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