Oh My God!

Opposing view on existance of God, how can I argue with either one?
A Geneticist atheist turned evangelical Christian and a Biologist turned Atheist. I tend to agree with the later.


Part I of the discussion:

NPR Fresh Air Interviews:
Richard Dawkins Explains 'The God Delusion'
2007 • In his most recent book, British scientist Richard Dawkins writes about the irrationality of a belief in God, examines God in all his forms and sets down his arguments for atheism. The book is The God Delusion.
Dawkins is a professor of "the public understanding of science" at Oxford University

Selfish Gene:



Part II of the discussion:


NPR Fresh Air Interviews: Francis Collins on 'The Language of God'
Geneticist Francis Collins is director of the National Human Genome Research Project. He is also an evangelical Christian, and author of the book The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief.

Dole Bananas - Jokes - Policitcs of Divide & Canquer

Dole Bananas: Most Persians in Iran pronounce it like “dool” as in “fool.”

Sexy and still around! I know some people will get a kick out of this and brings them fun memories! For myself, I stopped being amazed by this kind of jokes. They don’t appeal to my sense of humor any longer. Either I’ve become older or boring or both. We have a poker game once in a while and some of the guys always tell jokes about somebody’s accent or heritage (Turkie, Rashti, Esfahani, Jewish, & etc.) I know they even go further and substitute Turks for Polish, Isfahani for Irish or Jewish, and Ghazvini for Greeks.
Dole – My older blog reference to Pines in Persian
Shirin’s memorable encounter with Banana in Iran. A very interesting an funny story indeed.

And just to be clear, I don't want this to sound like an obsession of mine, so I will not mention bananas or anything having to do with male or female genitalia again.

Click the picture to enlarge so you can read the caption (joke!)

On Mixing Jokes and Politics
Although I may laugh at some, deep inside I find it disrespectful and perhaps divisive. I wonder if I could blame that on the English as well. I mean why do we pick on each other and have a laugh at the expense of another? Did someone plant the seeds of divisiveness among us to encourage discord and animosity between us? That good old theory of divide and conquer!


Divide and Conquer: Noam Chomsky’s Interview

Divide et impera: Latin term for Divide & Rule in politics, sociology and economics, a strategy to gain or maintain power or an Algorithm in Computer Science
This is just interesting to me and I like the painting too.
Divide and Conquer: The Lord prayed that His people in this world would be one.

Allah Akbar – God is great!

Allah Akbar – God is great! That may be so, but where the hell is he? How long is he going to condone this?
Iranian Women Activists Gain Momentum All Things Considered, March 17, 2007, from NPR.ORG: Iranian women demonstration for Women’s Rights

Authorities Refused Women Demonstrations
Women Demonstrations Stopped!
March in Europe Demands Abolition of Anti-Women Laws in Iran
As Elections Near, Iranian Women Stage Protest (June 13, 2005).
Imprisoned Iranian activist denounces the crocodile tears of sympathizers!

On and on and on... Year after year after year... Are they signing to deaf ears? You go girl!

Star Wars fete in L.A.

Star Wars


Lucasfilm Ltd. has chosen L.A. for the 30th anniversary celebration of the release of "Star Wars."
The company will take over the L.A. Convention Center May 23 through 28 for a wide range of events, including back-to-back screening of all six or the space adventures.

The event is dubbed "Celebration IV," because officially sanctioned “Star Wars” conventions have been held in Denver (1999) and Indianapolis (2002 and 2005).

The 17-hour movie marathon begins at 9AM May 23 and will mark the first time in US that all six of the films have been shown in sequence.

May 24 is reserved for official "Star Wars" Fan Club members. Then the convention has its official opening May 25, the anniversary date of the first film's release.

Among events planed during the convention are appearances by Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia) and Anthony Daniels (C-3PO), a presentation of Charles Ross' "One-Man Star Wars" stage show, "Start Wars" laser tag, "Stormtroopers Olympic" and "XXtreme Droid Challenge."

Tickets to the movie marathon are free to the people who pre-register to attend "Celebration IV" at http://registration.gencon.com/celebration/. For more information, go to www.starwars.com/celebration.

Also getting in on the anniversary celebration is the Postal Services, which announced Thursday that it will be wrapping about 400 mail collection boxes in 200 cities with special covering to look like R2-D2 as promotion for the new stamp to be announced March 28.

See Starwars.com or Star Wars Wikipidia for a more detail information.

Belated Happy PI Day

Pi, or π, is the mathematical constant equal to a circle's circumference divided by its diameter.


Belated Happy Pi Day!

How could I forget it? PI is approximately 3.14, which kind of coincide with Mar 14 (as in 03/14/07.)

Read about PI day here. This is actually interesting (i.e., Albert Einstein’s birthday is also March 14). So read on.

Check out Pi Day Song and if you "fancy," just Google PI for more links and "stuff."

More Related Links

And another person dear to my heart, Feynam Point, as in Richard Feynman.

The New Movie "300", A Call For War or 300...Kittens

300 The Site

I would like to list a recent article written by one of my friends, Mehr “Jay” Shaidi. Jay has been very active in local and global politics in the past decades from his base in Minnesota. He has been active in many fronts from his early Student Activist days as the head of Iranian-American Society of Minnesota, to his activities and involvements with Minnesota Institute for Talented Youth (MITY), Citizens for Global Solutions, American Refugee Committee, International Student Services, Amnesty International USA, Land Mine Committee of the United Nations Association, and many other organizations, just to name a few. If you Google “Jay Shahidi”, you will see the number of organizations, and many lectures and other volunteer activities he has been involved with over the years. He's also a board member of several organizations. With Running two successful businesses, I wonder where he finds the time.

I am very honored to have him as a friend. Although I have a great appreciation and respect for him, I don’t quite share all his views on this subject, but I’m compelled to support him and list his article here. My initial response was the same, but I don’t quite see it that way. Although I won’t put this propoganda pass the current administration, I fail to see a deliberate act between Hollywood and the warmongers in Washington. I also give the American people much more credit. Please judge for yourself. Here is his article:


The New Movie "300", A Call For War

Though a masterful production, "300" is a slick, conniving and equally masterful attempt on character assassination. Filled with historical inaccuracies, the movie is deftly intended to portray the Persians, today's Iranians, as barbaric monsters even when, by 480 B.C., they had formed “the first true empire before that of Rome," according to P.R.S. Moorey of Oxford University. This distorted plot justifies mythology as history and fiction as fact. It is crafty intended to brainwash the audience.
Yes, Hollywood has always taken advantage of public mood of the time to make profit. The desire for monetary reward is fine but malicious intent is another. This flick is clearly designed to sway the young Westerners into warfare against Iran at a time war hawks are feverishly lobbying for military attack on Iran. It might as well be a promotional video for Neo-Cons. It glorifies militarism and bloodletting as great virtues while depicting the Persians of 2500 years ago as the "Dark Force". It implies that the Persians of today are equally devious.
Firstly, the Persian royalty and military commanders of that era were Aryan and white, of the same stock as the Spartans, Macedonians and Greeks. When Cyrus founded the Persian Empire in 559 B.C., he established the first official code of human and civil rights. The kingdoms of the Empire were mandated to allow religious and racial freedom. After conquering Babylon, Cyrus's first official act was to free the Jews from bondage. Persian monarchs of his dynasty never claimed divinity. This film is an insult to the non-white people of the world (the entire Persian army is black). It is a malicious attempt to influence specially the younger male viewers into embracing warfare as a way of life (the theater was full of teenagers). It clearly pounds on you the notion that white European is superior to others.


300…Kittens, is another informative and interesting take on this from one of my favorites, PhDiav, the conservative American archeologist, Dorothy King in UK. There is also an interesting video of the “300” with added "stuff."


Related Links:
Hollywood Propaganda
A Nintendo view on 300!

Persian Fallacy n+1

Persian Fallacy #n+1
Don’t sit too close to the TV, you’ll go blind!

Result: I have tried this many times and for many long hours at times with or without adult supervision (I didn’t have to share that.) I have sat in front of a TV set or a computer monitor as close as few feet (36-50 centimeters) to several feet (3-5 meters range.) I have not found that it has affected me in anyway (obvious) over the years. The only noticeable change over the years is the growth of love handles, increase weight gain, and an affection to food specially poop corn and beer during sporting event, love for huge sums of ice cream during romantic or depressing movies or just over consumption of meals with little activities during the activity (programs or shows). It is also commonly observed that one would greatly get hooked on lazy man chair or in my case a comfortable couch with a number of hi-fi or TV remote controls or game controllers.

ADHD is very common with the male subjects and easily noticeable by frequent channel surfing and multi-tasking. Tivo and other recorders have helped with eventual completion and full view of many programs. This condition has been greatly masked, ignored and remedied with the introduction of Netflix rented or purchased DVD’s and the ability to rewind or restart at a certain screen chapter selection quickly. Some subjects have been observed to engage in many activities simultaneously. For example eating, drinking, answering or making phone calls, emailing, IM, blugging, or surfing the internet, listening to pod casts, playing MP3 files, surfing porn sites, gambling, or playing an online game and still functioning at an acceptable rate of accomplishment. Girl friends or significant others are thoroughly annoyed by these habits, but most have been able to work through their problems or engaging in a number of brown nosing and make up activities involving anything from chocolate, romantic dinners, weekend/short trips to exotic places, or even jewelry briberies.

No break up or divorce has been directly attributed to these activities, unless the subject was an AH to begin with or some have been known to lose their jobs for engaging in much of the same at work and not having a clue why they were let go to begin with.

Please feel free to share your own experiences with me.

Disclaimer:

These fallacies are not restricted just to Iranians, but I just like to take credit for them here first.
Most of these fallacies have been proved wrong by the author or professional stunt people under supervision of other adults in a controlled environment and under extreme considerations for safety of everyone involved and even the bystanders. You should not try these at home and I do not recommend these activities by non-professional stunt people. Be safe and would the force be with you.

Cheese Web Cams

Life is a Cheese!
I had heard of all many girls trying their fortunes in front of Web Cam, but a cheese modeling in front of camera all day 24/7/365! Well I’ve found one. I love cheese, many types and in many forms and especially with crackers and a cold glass of beer (or wine for those wine lovers.)


NPR Radio is where I first learned about this cheese story. You can listen here to the short story Diversion: Cold Toes, Old Cheese, or jump ahead to the link directly to the Web Cam at Cheddar Vision.Tv, to watch a big hunk of cheddar cheese mature in front of your eyes. The best time to watch is around 10AM (local time), when the cheese is turned once a day. You can also learn a lot about the farm in the UK and enjoy other related stories. In addition here is a testimonial on My Space. This cheese even has a My Space site. Isn’t that cool or wacky a bit? About me:

I am a West Country Farmhouse Cheddar cheese, handmade down on a farm in Somerset by one of a small group of artisan cheesemakers. I now have my own website at www.cheddarvision.tv where you can watch me mature 24/7! You can even download a bespoke screensaver of me from my webcam accurate to the very second. I love grapes, oat biscuits, strawberries and even prunes. I live in a cheese store in Somerset and am enjoying my moment in the limelight. I’m looked after by Tom (you can see his photo in the pics section). I will be graded to check I’m growing up to be deliciously tasty in March, June and September. Log on and check this out if you want to learn something new! Spread the cheese love and become my friend!

I also like to mention a favorite of mine in U.S.
Tillamoock Cheese in Portland Oregon where you can also learn about the nutritions, vitamins, allergens, gluten free, hormone free cow milk and details like that.


BTW, I feel your pain! I’m a little Lactose Intolerant myself. But I’ve found these pills, called Lactaid, that I usually carry a few with me, and I just pop one up before a glass of milk, pizza, or just any food with lots of cheese and that takes care of it.

Last, but not least, our beloved Feta Cheese

Godless Dollar

I knew my prayers were answered!
Godless Dollar

In 1955, the year after Congress inserted the words “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance, Congress required all currency to carry the motto “In God We Trust.”

Atheist challenges ‘In God We Trust’ Pledge of Allegiance foe Newdow sues to remove motto from U.S. currency. Here is another source on Wikipedia regarding In God We Trust history in U.S. Here a lot more historical references and background supporting the sentiments behind this from the Fact Sheets: Currency & Coins History of "In God We Trust" from United States Department of the Treasury.

Iran and America Make Music

Reza Derakshani-John Densmore
Concert in Southern California: Friday, March 9, 2007 in OC and Saturday March 10 in LA.
Iran & America Make Music

Balance

A Balanced Life
A Balanced Diet
A Universe in Balance
A Balanced Budget
A Balanced Checkbook
A Balanced Sheet
…
Balance Everywhere

This is my version: Inner-peace, personal wellness, and peace of mind. You have to look and strive for a balance in your life. It’s easier said than done. We go through so many stages in our lives that it’s hard to keep up just with the changes we encounter let alone find a balance. For so many years, we are just followers and not decision makers. We are bound to our parents’ sense of direction and the society or the circle we live in. Our experiences are bound to the environment the surrounds us. This would have been much more limited, but our universe has vastly grown with access to the Internet, for good or for worse. There is a lot more to learn and a lot more to take in and a lot more to deal with now. Hopefully we are smarter too and can avoid the traps we encounter. Then we grow up and seek an education or train for a profession and end up getting into some kind of business with its daily challenges and routine repetitions. Soon we are on our own. We may even seek or find a partner in the mean time. It’s not always easy, but we have more control over our lives if we are fortunate. We should look for a balance and equilibrium in our life. Some can and some never will. Again it’s not easy, but we should at least try and look outside the box and remind ourselves of our options and choices. We may start a family and that’s even more complicated. It’s complicated, because we may lose ourselves to the task at hand. We should find a balance in work, play and family activities. Next to our childhood, these are the best years of our lives whether we realize it or not and we need to make time to cherish it.

What did you think? I’m not a philosopher! Did you think I was going to spell it out and tell you what’s up ahead? Luck is a big ingredient in all of this. You can call it fate if you want. I’m such a pessimist at times. Half the time I look at the glass half full. I’m always anxious that something unfortunate might happened and I may lose it all. I mean, you have to do your best and remain prepared. I don’t have all the answers. I hope you can also give me some advice too. Besides, I don’t think this is one size fits all kind of proposition. Just one free advice, start on your 401k, IRA, or whatever early.

I’m not going to suggest many links, since our needs and interests are different. You know what you need and what you’re looking for. Here is an interesting link, but remember: “Buyer Beware!”
Balance
Healthy Living with a Twist

Is L.A. Marathon Sexy?

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I'm Such a Hypocrite

Scarlett Johansson goes to Harvard. Another case of legally blond or the girl who played a Girl with a Pearl Earring and here is the author's link

I’m such a hypocrite! It’s actually not new. I have been known to disappoint myself before. Wow, it also means I’m a charlatan! Well, I only agree to be hypocrite this week. The same week that Hollywood praised Al Gore and gave him an Oscar for An Inconvenient Truth, just to have the media blast him for his $30,000 energy bill on his huge house.


Scarlet Pudding – The Sydney Morning Herald

Al Gore's electricity bill heats up blogosphe

Al Gore’s Personal Energy Use Is His Own “Inconvenient Truth”

Group: Gore a hypocrite over power bill

Bill O’Rielly on the “O’Rielly Factor”, said that everybody can be called upon and called a hypocrite and praised Al Gore on his mission and defended him. Of all people, Bill O’Rielly to say that, I was very surprised. That was a good positive comment coming from, I think.

On the same segment, Dennis Miller Takes on the Oscars, Al Gore, NY times and ACLU.
If interested on the video segment, scroll down to that section and click on the link, “video available here.”

Actually, if you read this whole article, on
FOX News, it is a much more fair and balanced reporting. For example, the fact that the house is old and the are installing Solar Panels to reduced the power used off of the power grid and renovating the house to be more energy-efficient.

I also want to give credit where it’s due. This is one of my favorite sites that I always find interesting tidbits. That’s where I saw this news first. It dedicated to Archeology, but it’s much more than that (what ever the means, and I hope PhDiva doesn’t mind my last comment!)