For Every Government There's an Equal and Opposite Government

The image says it best

Newton’s Third Law: for every action there’s an equal and opposite reaction.

It’s a law of nature that Newton happened to explain first. It’s law that applies to much more than physical objects. Rather, at least in my opinion, it applies to all that is natural.

Politics these days is a prime example of the hidden workings of the third law. Let me summarize in point form (in a somewhat chronological order):

- Israel elects right wing government
- The second Intifada begins, with the heightened activity from right wing Hamas and Islamic Jihad
- US elects Bush, who forms the most right wing government in US history
- Islamic terrorists step up their attacks worldwide
- Bush invades Afghanistan and Iraq
- Al Qaeda transforms from an organization to an ideology
- Iraq becomes the new Afghanistan
- Israel continues to violate human rights in the name of fighting terrorism
- Hamas and Islamic Jihad step up with more suicide bombings
- Iran elects a right wing Islamic leader
- US starts a political war against Iran
- Palestinians elect Hamas
- Israel does not like the outcome, and thus punishes Palestinians for practicing their right to vote

This is where we are right now, and the pattern could not be any clearer. Right wing governments in the west, are directly influencing the creation of right wing governments in the east. Western governments don’t like newly elected eastern governments, and hence take oppressive actions against them. Oppressive action leads to terrorism, and we’re back at square one.

The observations discussed so far are not in any way groundbreaking. I’m sure many people have come across them, including government officials. So why then are we heading in this direction? Is there a reason for keeping the Middle East a hot-button issue? What are the benefits of keeping the Middle East unstable?

Technorati Tags: politics, right wing, government, hamas, jihad, israel, terrorism, palestine, Bush

How Arabs Say Goodbye on the Phone

The tet on top is the way Arabs say goodbye on the phone. The English on the bottom is the way everybody else says goodbye.

Wise and Humbling Words

This quote is taken from one of my favourite books, Pale Blue Dot. I posted the quote earlier on my blog, but my readership then wasn't as large as it is now, and hence I felt the quote didn't get the attention it deserves. So here it is again...

“... Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there - on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors, so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light.
Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.
The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.
It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known. “

Carl Sagan

About the image:
The shiny object in the centre is earth. A pale blue dot as seen from Voyager. The picture is humbling, as it shows how insignificant we are, in the large scheme of things.

Technorati Tags: science, earth, quote, carl sagan, astronomy, humanity, life, thought

Interesting Science Studies 2

Everynow and then I come across cool science stories that really interest me, here are a few:

Teens gain valuable social skills online

Despite the potential dangers of teen community websites, youngsters can learn much from their cyber-interactions, experts argue

Mathematical proofs getting harder to verify

Increased collaboration and use of computer code make some new work so complex it may never be proven true – making mathematics more like science, say experts

Hand waving boosts mathematics learning

Gestures that complement a verbal description of a problem – rather than duplicating those instructions – significantly boost successful learning

This story is not really scientific, but it’s worth mentioning
Abu Dhabi to get own Sorbonne

Gilles de Robien, France's education minister, has signed an agreement with his emirati counterpart to set up an outpost of the prestigious French Sorbonne university in oil-rich Abu Dhabi.

This is the first venture of its kind outside of France for the Sorbonne, an institution dating back to 1253 CE and whose landmark building in the heart of Paris was commissioned by Cardinal Richelieu in 1635.

Technorati Tags: science, study, teens, math, proof

No Comment...

Holocaust denier Irving Jailed

Powerful Picture - the reality behind Palestinians' living conditions

My wing is too small for the wind
Originally uploaded by AnomalousNYC.

ORIGINAL PHOTO: unknown newswire, found on the flickr of /ishmais, a young Paletsinian living in Khan Younis Refugee Camp, Israeli-Occupied Gaza Strip.

The picture almost brought tears to my eyes…

I saw the picture on anomalous’ flickr page, who altered the original image found here. The description under the photo went on to say:

“In Israeli-Occupied Palestine there is a human catastrophe underway. The level of malnutrition in Gaza is the same as that of the poorest sub-Saharan Countries. Let me quote some figures: 22% of children under five years old suffer malnutrition and 15.6% of them suffer from anemia, which for many of them will cause permanent physical and mental damage. The majority of families eat once a day and often only some tea and bread. Today the number of poor has tripled since 2000. 60% of the Palestinians – 75% in Gaza, 50% in the West Bank – live under a regimen of extreme poverty; the per capita income has halved in terms of two years ago; the survival of more than half of the Palestinian population depends exclusively on humanitarian aid. And it often happens that the aid cannot be distributed by the OGN because the delivery trucks are blocked by the Israeli army, tons of food supplies remain stationary for days until the food becomes unusable. It is because of the conflict in progress that these conditions prevail, certainly, but underneath there is a political design. By international legislation Israel, in that it is an occupying power, has the obligation to ensure the survival of the population. Instead the continuous closures, the curfew, the military incursions do not allow the people to receive the necessary sustenance. The hindrance of movement is not only a limitation of freedom, but the effective privation of the right to be nourished and the right to health. Because of the occupation of the Territories the Palestinian people are at starvation point.”

--UN Special rapporteur on the right to food Jean Ziegler

Technorati Tags: , Palestine, Palestinians, Children, UN, United Nations, Hunger, Poverty, Israel, Terrorism

Not Very FAQ

This is a very interesting idea that the team of Bridge the Gap in Blogspace came up with, here's a rundown:

Everything you always wanted to know about Muslims, Christians, Jews or Atheists but were afraid to ask…”

Each week a new question will be mailed to our list of Volunteers. They will be asked to try and answer the question as honest, clear and open-minded as they can. And in a hundred words or less. A digest of the responses will be posted here, waiting for your comments!

We hope to foster a platform where people from all continents, cultures and beliefs can gather to check, cross-check and hopefully dispel cultural stereotypes.

If you have any question you would like asked, please send us an email!
If you would like to be in the panel of Volunteers, who get to see the questions first, please add your name here.

The first question asked in this series was:

As a Westerner, in the light of the latest events concerning the cartoons issue, do you see a difference between a Muslim, Arab, Middle-eastern, and Eastern in general? And if you do, what do you think the difference is?

You can see the question and some answers here.

The Good Wife's Guide to Treating Her Man

I got this from my friend at work. It is an actual clipping from Housekeeping Monthly Magazine published in 1953.


Things really have changed in the last 50 years haven't they!! Married men feel free to distribute to your wives :| Use at your own discretion...

Technorati Tags: funny, joke, women, men, wife, house wife, women's rights, housewife, magazine

Smokers... stop complaining and take it outside!

I have been so underexposed to cigarette smoke; I have become almost allergic to it. Ontario has a ban on public smoking, so there’s virtually not a place you can smoke unless you’re at home or in some privately owned place. I love the fact that you can go have a coffee, play pool, etc. all without having to endure the smell of smoke, and more importantly the toxic chemicals.

Second hand (passive) smoking is an important issue, that is often uncalculated for. Studies have shown that

“passive smoking is a cause of lung cancer, and that in those with long-term exposure the increased risk is 20-30%... also passive smoking is a cause of ischaemic heart disease, of serious respiratory illness, asthmatic attacks, and middle-ear disease in children, and of the sudden infant death syndrome^”

A larger study including over 32,000 women, monitored over a 10 year time period showed

“healthy, non-smoking women who reported regular exposure to passive smoke at home or in the workplace had a 91% greater relative risk of heart attack than those who reported minimal passive smoke exposure. Those who reported occasional exposure had a 58% greater relative risk.”

Numerous other studies confirmed a relationship between passive smoking and increased chance of heart disease and cancer. Do we need anymore proof?

I especially hate when smokers complain about having to smoke outside, how they’re “discriminated against” and all that other nonsense. In Canada and the US, smokers form the minority of the population and this minority is on the increase. Why does the majority have to endure health risks caused by smokers?

How about babies who have to inhale toxic fumes because their parents chose to smoke around them? We ban marijuana, shouldn’t we do the same with cigarettes?

I will finish this sporadic post with a quote from NewScientist's latest issue:

“It is a milestone in the fight against cancer: in the US the total number of cancer deaths has dropped for the first time since 1930. The biggest cause is a decline in the number of smokers.”

I want a debate on this issue. Smokers speak up!

Technorati Tags: smoke, smoking, cigarette, second hand, passive smoking, cancer, health, lung cancer, Canada, Ontario, heart disease

Setting the Record Straight

When there’s nothing good on TV sometimes there’s no choice but to watch crap, and last Sunday was no different. I happened to flick past Discovery and notice the Guinness Book of Records show on. So I decided to watch it, hoping for some cool records to be broken, but as usual Sunday television had to dissapoint. One of the records that was set in the episode was “Most worms eaten in x number of minutes.” So I thought to my self, how’s that a good record? Can we take just about anything and make a record out of it?

I can understand things like “world’s highest base jump,” or “world’s fastest man” but most worms eaten?!?!?! Of course eating worms is not the only useless record that the show has hosted. I’ve seen people eat hot dogs, jars of mayonnaise, spiders, and even glass! Is it really that impressive being a fat ass?

And then there are these records that are soooo specific. Something like “longest interval of time spent on a red hang glider at night” or “longest football throw thrown by a guy on skates” Maybe I’m exaggerating here, but you know what I mean..

So these records got me thinking, if people enjoy watching others eat spiders then why haven’t these been attempted yet:

Fart related

a) longest continuous fart

b) loudest fart

c) deepest note hit with a fart

Booger related:

d) biggest booger taken out of someone’s nose

e) largest mass of snot sniffed out in one breath

yeah yeah, I know what you’re saying now “that’s nasty,” but come on here, do you really think that these suggestions are any more disgusting that eating worms by the handful?

P.S anyone notice the cheesy pun? huh? huh?

Technorati Tags: records, Guinness, tv, shows, record books, worms

A New Undertaking in Arab Blogging and You're Invited

What do you get when you connect reasonable voices from east and west? Answer: Bridge the Gap!

Bridge the Gap in Blogspace is a newly conceived undertaking with the goal of bridging the gap between east and west. It’s a place where reasonable, open minded voices have a place a place to vent, inform and most importantly discuss. It’s a place where a Christian meets Muslim meets atheist. It’s a place we’ve been missing in the blogosphere.

I invite you to join us in this remarkable undertaking.

Technorati Tags: blog, blogging, east, west, discussion

Going back to old blogging habits

If my blog were a person, then he would have been angry, stunned and confused the past two weeks. As you can tell, I have been following the Danish cartoon issue pretty closely, and I think I can write 20 more posts about it. I’m not going to promise that I will write no more about the issue, but for now I’ll leave the writing for others to do.

Having said that, my blog needs a change of mood, and that means going back to old blogging habits. A mix of silly, thoughtful, and critical posts all thrown together to create an incoherent blog.

So I decided to give you a sneak preview of the next post and give you the topic to be discussed: Guinness Book of Records

Stay tuned…

Syrians Against Violence - Reactions from the Syrian blogosphere

None of us believe in violence as a solution. The following is a compilation of the writings of Syrian bloggers, regarding the attacks on the Danish and Norwegian embassies. The intent of this post is to give our readers a different perspective, a perspective that the media ignores. We’ve all seen the images of riots in the streets, flag burning, and public protests. On the other hand, few have heard of the reasonable voices coming from the Arab world in general, and from Syria in specific. If you would like to add your voice to ours, let me know and I’ll be more than happy to add you to this post. Let’s work together to make our voices heard.

Ihsan: "I welcomed both the commercial and diplomatic actions in response to the cartoons that mocked the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), and for once, I felt that we are reacting in a civilized manner! Not any more! While I’m 100% convinced that the Syrian Regime had a hand in what happened. I still cannot understand the concept of being driven like a sheep. To me, those people who were sabotaging and burning the embassies seemed like stupid sheep led by a smart shepherd."

Yazan. No, they were not attacking Danish or European "out of line" freedom of speech, they were not even taking revenge for the prophet, They were attacking the heart of Syria. The civilized idea of Syria.These ppl are criminals, And the ones RESPONSIBLE for letting them unleashed are CRIMINALS too...

Ayman: What happened in Damascus today is just shameful. I had expected the protest to be peaceful and civilized. Mobs ran into the streets, shouted and attacked embassies, without realizing the severity of the damage they inflicted to "their" cause and to Islam's image. Mobs controlled the protests today, and people who were there to peacefully protest were shocked and had to hide in their homes. I felt a bitter disappointment.

Sara: I couldn't believe that a mob of angry Muslims burnt the Danish embassy. Why?? That was seriously not necessary. They had no right. Islamically this is seriously NOT acceptable. I personally condemn this sinful act. You cannot fix something wrong with something worse... Innocent people could've died. They had nothing to do with the cartoons.

The Syrian Brit: "These acts were carried out in the name of Islam, under the guise of defending it.. What a sickening farce.. I say to all those bastards who attacked the Embassies and burnt flags and vandalised properties.. Not in my name.. Never.."

Omar Faleh: "I do feel ashamed of how things turn out in my home country, and I do feel very bad about where the country is going, especially that I believe that the government was not completely innocent of being involved in this matter.. and I don't agree with any political or social value in there.. but.. those people are not Syrians.."

Sinan: There is not in any imaginable way a valid reason to the attacks held against the Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish embassies, however I totally understand it. Have you ever heard of marches and demonstrations where violence didn't occur? However it's necessary and very crucial for the rest of the world to understand that these actions do not, I repeat, do not in anyway reflect what the Syrian people really believe, or at least what the elite in here believe.

Omar Salaymeh: "I hope people don’t take the actions of a few thugs as representative of the Syrian or Lebanese people. Just like we expressed our voices of concern over the cartoons in the first place, we’re all expressing our views again over the shameful acts. We, the rational, should work together to show the world that there’s more to Arabs than what they see on television. If I learned anything from the cartoon fiasco, it’s that our views, beliefs and culture are not well known to the west. I think this whole situation could have been prevented if there wasn’t much ignorance on both sides of the table."

Ammar: Everybody said it, this is not us, nor it is our Islam. Everything that happened in the last two days in Syria and Lebanon jeoperdised the efforts muslims made to keep the protests civilised and rational. Apologies to the people and countries hurt in the violence acts. Still, we'll keep protesting peacefully against the cartoons about our prophet Muhamad (PBUH).

Yaman: The problem for Muslims is not the Danish economy. In fact, the source of the problem
does not even rest with the editors of the European newspapers or the cartoonists themselves. The problem is the cancer of the extremists who embrace and adopt their closed minded and violent world view based loosely on an erroneous understanding of the Qur'an. For, we must realize that the publication of the cartoons in the first place was a response to the extremists and ironically enough, succeded only in eliciting primarily the response of those same extremists further intensifying the problem. It was irresponsible of the papers to do this knowing what the response would be--but let us not forget that the cartoons were originally published five months ago on September 30, 2005. Why the delay? Obviously, it was more politically suitable for the Arab regimes to inflate this issue today. Why the riots 5 months later? If the cartoons were really the issue then the world would have been on fire in 2005, not 2006.

Sasa: The ignorant mobs who set fire Syria's international reputation should be ashamed of themselves. I am more angry that Muslims are being portrayed as
terrorists than any insult to Islam. So someone drew a picture of the Prophet (PBUH), big deal. Shouldn't we be more worried that someone labelled Muslims as bomb carriers. And that others defended his right to do that. All that the eloquent Damascene demonstrators managed to do was reinforce that stereotype - congratulations. And while you were out screaming and shouting, did you miss Israel's murder of two Palestinian girls at close range? I guess you did.

Hasan: What happened in Damascus for the embassies is definitely not the right way to discuss things. This should have never happened. People who did this are very small majority and not from us the big majority.

Digital Oasis: (post in arabic)

Gottfried: (post in Arabic)

Technorati Tags: syria, syrian, blogosphere, reactions, cartoons, mohammad, danish, denmark, norway, norwegian, embassy, embassies, carticature, muslim, islam

Regarding the Vandalism of Danish Embassies - Perspective From a Syrian Living Abroad

Picture taken from The Damascene Blog

I want to be able to read people’s minds, particularly the minds of those who torched the Danish and Norwegian embassies in Damascus, and the Danish Embassy in Beirut. It boggles my mind the way some people think.

How does setting an embassy on fire, improve the situation? Why burn the embassy of a country, when the officials in that country expressed their concern over the cartoons?

I don’t get it! If anything we are now in a worse situation than we were before. I can just imagine millions of people in Europe right now saying “see, I told you so”. What bothers me is how easy it is for a bunch of thugs to come along and create such a horrible image for Arabs. The people who commit such acts are the ones who fuel the western media with excellent news stories which further echo Arab fanaticism and ignorance.

I find the acts shameful. Violence and vandalism is not an answer to any problem. We know better than that. While most of us asked for fairness and respect from the Danes, we should now apologize for what has happened to their embassies. Although none of us supported this sort of action in the first place, I find it only appropriate to apologize on the behalf of the morons who committed the torching.

I also demand an investigation to track down those responsible for the vandalism, and to hold them responsible. We cannot hold a double standard, asking fairness and respect from the Danes and not providing it.

Lastly, I hope people don’t take the actions of a few thugs as representative of the Syrian or Lebanese people. Just like we expressed our voices of concern over the cartoons in the first, we’re all expressing our views again over the shameful acts. We, the rational, should work together to show the world that there’s more to Arabs than what they see on television. If I learned anything from the cartoon fiasco, it’s that our views, beliefs and culture are not well known to the west. I think this whole situation could have been prevented if there wasn’t much ignorance on both sides of the table.

Technorati Tags: danish, denmark, norway, norwegian, embassy, embassies, damascus, cartoons, syria