On Hummus and Aliens

The hummus revolution is taking Canada by storm. For one, Microsoft Word recognized the word, and did not draw that ugly, red, squiggly line underneath the word. Marketed as “healthy alternative” and “vegetarian certified” it’s not hard to see why it would be so popular. Plus, it tastes great.

But that’s besides the point. As far as I’m concerned, hummus is the latest victim of Capitalist bastardization of a great classic. Variations on hummus available in the supermarket these days inclu

de: spicy hummus, roasted garlic hummus, masala hummus, avocado hummus... among others. I told a friend of mine as I opened the fridge at work, seeing at least 4 varitites of hummus “we’ve been eating hummus for 3,000 years, recipe mainly unchanged. It only took a year for hummus to lose its identity.” This is the culture we live in.

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I can’t help but think that as we get more technologically advanced our written culture is becoming less and less traceable. Most of what we know about the culture of ancient civilizations is through carvings, tablets, and other “concrete” forms of communication. As we start putting things on servers, CD’s, and USB drives we’re making our written culture less and less visible. It takes a pair of eyes to see the first alphabet ever created. It takes 100 years worth of technology to read an email. Soon enough the only way we’ll be able to read a Charles Dickens novel will be through a Kindle, or a computer monitor.

If a meteor were to strike our planet, and thousands of years later we are visited by extraterrestrials, how much of our written culture will they come across. I have a feeling those same tablets that we marvel at in museums will still be around, while my CD with 2,000 ebooks will be looked upon as some sort toy for children.

Shuffle: All Songs

The emergence of the internet has definitely influenced the type and variety of music people listen to. The interaction of people on Twitter and Facebook, and the readily available music videos on YouTube, have all made the exposure and accessibility of music literally a click away. And now that we can carry over a few thousand songs in the palm of our hands, we have become walking music libraries. The beauty of this change in the way people listen and acquire music is that no one is ever complaining (except maybe for record labels).

Discovering a new album grants us hours of enjoyment in our cars, on Muskoka chairs, and even in depressing subway cars. We look forward to the chance of pressing play, and letting our thoughts and dreams dance with the tune of the song. The album eventually wears off its uniqueness and we go on to discover another one. If we ever choose to shuffle our music selection, we are bombarded with songs that define a specific time in our lives, songs that take us seamlessly through a past vacation, a season, or a celebration. A song simply becomes a label for a certain time in our lives.

So, following Isobel’s tag, I shuffled the songs on my iPhone and went through them one by one, until I got to 16. Below is the list:

1. A Message – Coldplay

2. The Rainbow – Charbel Rouhana/Hani Siblini

3. Rain Day – Jesse Cook

4. Ihtarif El Huzn Wal Intizar – Fairouz

5. Indama Ya’ti Al Masa’ – Abdel Wahab

6. Mata Ashofak – George Rassi

7. Nahawand – Haytham Safia

8. Taqasim Part 2 - Marcel Khalife

9. Beef and Brocoli –Immortal Technique

10. Anomaly (Calling Your Name) – Taylor

11. Ya Manta Wahishni – Fadel Shaker

12. Wherever I May Roam – Metallica

13. I Who Have Nothing – Ben E King

14. Sierra Maestra – Immortal Technique

15. Warako Al Assafar – Fairouz

16. Ya Roboo’ Biladi – Fairouz (I have a lot of Fairouz on my iPod)

I tag D.

The Bastardization of the English Language Thru Web 2.0 - A study

When we got our physics lab report back in grade 12 there was one sentence circled in red “we installed the measurement devise to take readings…” next to the sentence our witty teacher commented “humans must devise a device that checks for spelling as well as context.”

It has been about 5 years since then, and we’re in need of the “device” more urgently than ever. All one needs to do is look around to see how spelling is getting butchered left and right. MSN (and now facebook and twitter) culture is raising a generation of people who try to condense their thoughts into a sentence or two, using every mean of spelling butchering available. Every time a clever bastardization of a word is seen it spreads like wildfire and becomes the standard in techno lingo. To illustrate I took 4 sekonds on facebook to find the falowing comments on a pic of some1’s mantion (note: no dramatization added):

- what a baller
this is mad balling
i think i must change the pic casue i am going blind from the insane ballign

- I think you can afford to pay me back that $5 from last summa homie...sheeeeeeeeet LoL

- wooow dats so beautiful!! is that ur house?

- LOL I Wish!...Soon 2 Be Tho!

Wa halluma jarran

Another word bastardization that I find particularly annoying is the replacement of “love” with “heart.” At least when people use shitty abbreviations of words they’re being lazy, and that’s respectable. But when you replace “love” with “heart” you’re trying to be cool, and sadly failing at it. I especially notice the replacement in facebook status updates, as in “I heart my new car.” I shudder to think of this becoming a trend where people replace words with symbol words such as “I heart my brain husband” for “I love my smart husband” or pushed one step further “I heart my brain ring.”

And why does replacing a “c” with a “k” make a word so much kooler?

While we’re on the topic of kool, I’m ashamed to admit that my post “mY mSn NaMe iS sO toTalLY kOOl!!” is one of my most popular. It continues to rake in the hits despite the fact that I wrote it 3.5 yEaRs AgO. In all this gloom there's light at the end of the tunnel. For instance, about a year ago I joined the local chapter of the Coalition Against People Who Can't Spell "Definitely" Facebook group. We’re 7 members strong and growing!

Ne way, its gettin late and I better hit the sack… BRB

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Ode to the fx-991MS

A dog may be a shepherd’s best companion, a wallet is a bankers best friend, and a pen is a writer’s best tool. To an engineering student the calculator is what the dog, wallet, and pen are to their respective owners.

The journey began sometime late in high school when I needed a new calculator. I was having trouble with statistics and noticed a new calculator on the shelves that promised to do statistics, matrices, and much more. It was the Casio fx-991MS, and it was love at first sight.

The Casio promised to be a lot more that what was mentioned on the box. It made my test, and exams easier in high school, and it proved to be just as effective during university.

I clearly remember an electrical circuits course we had during first year. Imaginary numbers were a pain in the ass to do arithmetic with, and phasors were things we had to deal with in physics and circuits. Of course I didn’t have a problem with all those imaginary numbers thanks to my Casio. When the class discovered the abilities of the Casio, I estimate over 80% of the class trashed their Sharp, Texas Instruments, and whatever other crappy calculator they had and made the move to the fx-991MS… doesn’t that just roll off the tongue?

The Casio became the talk of the class (I’m not kidding) and those with Casios would show off the abilities of the calculator to the non-believers. I have to say that the non-believers truly missed out on many time saving tricks including:

• Solving equations with 2 and 3 unknowns
• Solving order 2 and 3 equations
• Imbedded BEDMAS rules
• Calculating the inverse of a 3X3 matrix
• Conversion between base 10, binary, hex, and oct
• Tons of statistical functions
• Ability to type equations and quickly perform iterations
• Integration using Simpson’s rule (although this one take about a minute to process)

There are other features of course, but the first few are by far the most time saving, especially in an exam situation.

My Casio will travel to work with me, and the second one (I have 3..you know, for emergencies and such) will stay on my desk. Every now and then I plan on giving it a little work out, so it stays sharp, so to speak.

For the makers of the fx-991MS I say thank you, using the calculator has been a pleasure. The Casio fx-991MS will always be my favourite calculator.

Let it snow, let it snow... in Argentina?!

The symptoms of global warming have started showing.. I found this piece of news especially disturbing

The temperatures plunged to -22C (-8F) in parts of Argentina's province of Rio Negro, while the capital, Buenos Aires, saw snow for the first time since 1918.
[source]

Is this procedure 7aram?

Is this 7aram? I honestly would like to know whether a Muslim, or Jewish person is allowed to do this… please read on

Michael Helyer is a diabetic with a difference. Ten years ago he was implanted with pancreatic cells from pigs in the hope that they would restore his insulin production, so helping to control his blood glucose levels. Now, to the surprise of researchers who carried out the trial, not only are those pig cells still alive, but a few continue to produce insulin…

In 1996, LCT injected 1.3 million capsules of alginate, a resin derived from seaweed, into Helyer's peritoneal cavity. Each capsule contained about 500 insulin-producing islet cells isolated from the pancreases of newly born piglets. "The alginate lets insulin out of the capsule and nutrients in, to keep the cells alive," explains Elliott. Importantly, it also hides the "alien" pig cells from the human immune system. [source]

Now that’s a clever idea!

There are two questions that I have about this. First, would religions which prohibit the consumption of pig meat, also prohibit having pig cell transplants? If they do, then why do they allow transplantation of human cells? Wouldn’t that qualify as cannibalism then?

The other question is to the biologically literate. Why were pig cells chosen? Are they closer to human cells than, say, cow cells? Or do pigs have a pancreas that closely resembles humans’?

I’m really curious, so if you know the answers, or would like to hypothesize, then by all means…

Update:

Thanks to Andre I have an answer on why pigs are chosen as donors:

"For pancreas transplants, other animals can be used as well, but pigs have been preferred for purely technical reasons, so nothing to do with similarity with humans in the pancreas case."

see the comments section for the rest of his informative comment

And Dalia turned my attention to this, regarding whether Islam prohibits such a transplant:

"the fatwa issued by the eminent Muslim scholar, Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, who states:

"Basically, transplanting an organ from an impure animal such as a pig to a human body must not be resorted to save in case of necessity. It should be considered that what is rendered permissible due to necessity should be estimated only according to what alleviates the hardship in every case. Also, this should be estimated by reliable and trustworthy Muslim physicians."

technorati tags: diabetic, diabetes, pancreas, pig, muslim, jewish, transplant, medicine

In need of a better OS

So I got another email from Microsoft, telling me to try the new Windows Vista. My first reaction was to delete the message without even opening it. Microsoft hasn’t even perfected XP yet, why are they in such a rush to release another operating system, which will more than likely, have a ton of security issues, and a thousand updates…a day.

When I first got my computer XP took up just over one GB of space. Now after a few years of use, two service packs and a million security updates later, the size of XP has taken up half of my computer!!! I now need a hard drive for Windows alone. I even heard that Windows Vista needs an operating system for itself!

Now I know all the IT geeks reading this will say “Do you know how hard it is to design an OS?” But it’s also hard to design a plane, and I certainly hear of a lot more computer crashes. What I’m trying to say is that there are many consumer products out there that we have such high expectations for. No one will ever accept their brand new car, dishwasher, or furnace to break once a month. When a certain manufacturer starts making bad quality goods, we react by not buying their products, and the company will go downhill. On the other hand, when Microsoft comes out with their Vista, bloggers will write about how aesthetically pleasing the new OS is, and how multimedia friendly it is. We will hear about Vista on TV and Radio, and people will happily format their hard drives to install it. A month later we will start getting those annoying updates, and hear about the inherent security flaws in the operating system. By then it’s too late. All new PC’s will come with Vista installed, new software will proudly display the Vista compatible sticker, and the monopolization of the computer market will continue.

I think we deserve a better operating system. I can’t even begin to imagine the countless hours lost by people because their computer crashed, the memories that went down the drain because someone lost all their photos, and all those precious computer resources going to the operating system instead of useful applications.

technorati tags: windows, visa, OS, operating, system, microsoft

On the internet and vacation planning

Keeping with the Canadian “tradition” of going to a warm place in the middle of the winter, my friends and I decided to hit the Caribbean for the Christmas holidays. Also, keeping with the tradition of poor students, we waited until the last minute to look for good vacation deals. The process of looking into a Caribbean vacation showed me just how great the internet is as a source of information, not like this wasn’t already known to everybody reading this. Having said that, let me elaborate on how we used the internet to research our vacation.

While we were discussing our main reason behind going to the Caribbean, I mentioned “the ocean.” Since we were going in the winter I had to get confirmation if the water temperature was good enough for me to swim in. The internet quickly provided me with an answer. I was also able to pull out historical weather data from the past few years to see just how warm Cuba is in December.

To search for our vacation package, we used a few sites like selloffvacations.com, orbitz.ca, and the likes. We were able to pick and choose from tons of vacation spots and resorts. After narrowing down the playing field to two we had to look further into them to see where they’re located, what the food is like, etc. One of our choices was Club Amigo near Holguin, Cuba. Of course we looked up Holguin to see how big of a city it is and what kind of off resort entertainment it can offer. We then searched through Google Maps to see just what it looks like from above. After that we searched through tripadvisor.com for reviews by regular people who have been there recently. We learned that Club Amigo provides an amazing beach with OK food, and that it’s mainly a family destination. We then researched the exchange rate between Pesos and Dollars to estimate what it would cost to rent a car.

We then looked into Getaway Resort in Mexico. We learned that it was an 18 and above resort, where massive parties take place, and bed sheets have “perma-stains.” The beach there was horrible, and the staff was not very helpful. So we crossed that off the list. We did the same research for several other resorts only to find that most resorts at this time of the year are a family destination.

Almost giving up on our vacation hunt, I suggested we go to the mall to Flight Centre and see if they can help us pick something. It was Saturday, at 8:45 pm and we weren’t sure of the mall’s Christmas hours. Googling the hours told us we have 45 minutes to make it over there.

Long story short, the travel agent convinced us to visit South Beach, Florida instead of the Caribbean. We went home and went on hotels.ca. We pinpointed the exact hotel we wanted using the power of Google Maps and satellite imaging. We even confirmed the picture of the hotel pool by comparing the one on hotel.ca with the one on Google Maps. We then checked out nearby clubs, beaches, kayaking, etc. Having acquired all the information we were interested in we all agreed that South Beach offered it all. Good water, in a busy City, with the potential of lots of different activities. Now all we have to do is pack our bags and head down to Florida…. in about 2 weeks.

technorati tags: internet, vacation, caribbean, florida, south, beach, resort, google, maps,