Archive for February, 2007

Frustrated with YouTube

Friday, February 16th, 2007

Perhaps I should not still be listening to James Blunt. Three hours of the same song are enough to bring bad luck to anyone. YouTube is frustrating the living hell out of me at this point in time, and I am irritated.

I won’t throw a BF, I reserve those for my close circle of friends and family. I wanted to embed a video I had uploaded and to share it with you, but it seems that this will not happen today. There must be something wrong with the code YouTube generated because as far as I can tell, I am doing it all by the book.

Bleh.

Quoting Charles Baudelaire on Fashion

Thursday, February 15th, 2007

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All fashions are charming, or rather relatively charming, each one being a new striving, more or less well conceived, after beauty, an approximate statement of an ideal, the desire for which constantly teases the unsatisfied human mind.

- Charles Baudelaire

The God Gene

Wednesday, February 14th, 2007

Do you believe that people seek to believe in a Higher Power (or powers) because this power really exists, or is it because people need to believe so they simply follow that instinctive need for The Divine that’s embedded in them?

For as long as I can remember, I have been fascinated with the issue of religion and spirituality, and have been very fond of science as well. Mix those elements together, do a little research on each, engage in discussions with people of different faiths and those without, and you will get soul-searching chaos Tololy-style.

I first heard about the theory behind the God gene from my sister, and that was years ago. Today, I finally decided to blog about it because I want to communicate it to people who may not have heard about it. Basically, as the question in the first passage of this post asks, the quest for a Deity (or more) just might have something to do with genetic predisposition. Read this article from TIME, dating back to October 2004, and titled Is God in Our Genes? , or you could read the following excerpts:

Which came first, God or the need for God? In other words, did humans create religion from cues sent from above, or did evolution instill in us a sense of the divine so that we would gather into the communities essential to keeping the species going?

. . .

Chief of gene structure at the National Cancer Institute, [Dean] Hamer not only claims that human spirituality is an adaptive trait, but he also says he has located one of the genes responsible, a gene that just happens to also code for production of the neurotransmitters that regulate our moods. Our most profound feelings of spirituality, according to a literal reading of Hamer’s work, may be due to little more than an occasional shot of intoxicating brain chemicals governed by our DNA. “I’m a believer that every thought we think and every feeling we feel is the result of activity in the brain,” Hamer says.

. . .

Hamer also stresses that while he may have located a genetic root for spirituality, that is not the same as a genetic root for religion.

Spirituality is a feeling or a state of mind; religion is the way that state gets codified into law. Our genes don’t get directly involved in writing legislation. As Hamer puts it, perhaps understating a bit the emotional connection many have to their religions, “Spirituality is intensely personal; religion is institutional.”

. . .

What do you think?

معاً لاستعادة السلطنة العثمانية

Tuesday, February 13th, 2007

يكتب نبيه برجي للمحرر العربي مقالاً بعنوان يطالبون بعودة السلطنة العثمانية: ماذا يفعل الزلزال الأيديولوجي بالشرق الأوسط يقول فيه   

ذات يوم، قال لنا الإمام الراحل محمد مهدي شمس الدين إن أكبر نكبة حلت بالعرب في القرن العشرين هي سقوط السلطنة العثمانية!. أن يصدر كلام عن مرجعية دينية وفكرية بذلك الحجم، فهذا يعكس مدى التراجيديا العربية التي تجاوزت كل الحدود. والطريف، بل والمخجل، أن هناك عرباً ما زالوا ينددون، حتى الآن، باتفاقية سايكس - بيكو أو يتوجسون من مفهوم البلقنة، مع أن العرب الذين انبعثت فيهم الغرائزية القبلية بتجلياتها الإتنية والمذهبية، ذهبوا إلى أبعد بكثير من البلقنة، وراحوا يدمرون البلد الواحد الذي أنتجه مارك سايكس وجورج بيكو قبل أن تضع الحرب العالمية الأولى أوزارها. كان هناك في الأستانة سلطان يدعى عبد الحميد الثاني رفض، بشدة، عرضاً من مؤسس الحركة الصهيونية تيودور هرتزل بتسديد كل ديون السلطنة في مقابل إعطاء وطن قومي لليهود في فلسطين، حتى أن هرتزل فكر بتفجير قصر يلدز بزوارق مفخخة للقضاء على السلطان  

 و يضيف

عرب آخرون تمنوا لو يظهر أتاتورك عربي يتولى غسل العقل العربي من «رقصة الدراويش»، ومن التقاليد، والمظاهر، البالية، بعدما كانت اليابان، وحيث التقاليد أكثر رسوخاً، قد أخذت بثورة الميجي (1867)، فيما الأوروبيون أوقفوا سيطرة الكنيسة التي أحرقت غاليليه لأنه قال بكروية الأرض، على المؤسسة السياسية، لكي لا يبقى صاحب الجلالة ظل الله على الأرض، ورغم أن العديد من الدول استخدم صليب قسطنطين الأكبر (الإله الكلي القدرة لا الإله الكلي المحبة) بتشكيلاته المختلفة، رمزاً لها. لكن رقصة الدراويش ما زالت مستمرة. وثمة عرب يفكرون الآن بتوقيع عريضة إلى اسطنبول للمطالبة بعودة السلطنة. والطريف أن هناك ساسة ومعلقين صحافيين بارزين يدعون، علناً، إلى تدخل تركي في المنطقة، من أجل تأمين التوازن مع التدخل الإيراني. وغداً قد يطالبون بتدخل أريتري لتأمين التوازن مع التدخل الأثيوبي، ومن دون أن يخطر في بال أحد طرح ذلك السؤال البديهي: لماذا أدمغة، وجيوب، وأرواح، وغرف نوم العرب مشرعة إلى هذا الحد؟

Women Leaders: Harvard’s New President

Monday, February 12th, 2007

When will a Jordanian university have a woman as president? Hopefully the wish is not far fetched, and hopefully the position will not appoint a “token female” merely to ward off allegations of discrimination. Here’s a big NO to the defeatist attitudes of people who claim women cannot lead — disregarding the feeble religious, social, and personal motives behind their allegations.
The New York Times’ Drew Gilpin Faust: Coming of Age in a Changed World by Sara Rimer covers the story of Dr. Drew Faust and her ascension to her current position as president of Harvard University:

Recalling her coming of age as the only girl in a privileged, tradition-bound family in Virginia horse country, Drew Gilpin Faust, 59, has often spoken of her “continued confrontations” with her mother “about the requirements of what she usually called femininity.” Her mother, Catharine, she has said, told her repeatedly, “It’s a man’s world, sweetie, and the sooner you learn that the better off you’ll be.”

Interestingly, Dr.Faust succeeded Lawrecne H. Summers, who dug himself a hole when he said that innate differences between men and women might be one reason fewer women succeed in science and math careers.

You Will Blog About This

Monday, February 12th, 2007

Source: Natalie Dee (http://www.nataliedee.com/062806/fortune-cookie.jpg)

Hannibal Rising: Prelude to Genius

Sunday, February 11th, 2007

Not to break off the arguably-sickening chain of posts in category Love, I have to devote a second one to Hannibal. The first one, “Is this Clarice? Why, hello Clarice,” can be accessed by clicking on the title.

Hello to you, reader.

Now for some cinematic initiation, Wikipedia says:

Hannibal Rising (2007) is the fifth film about Dr. Hannibal Lecter. A prequel to Red Dragon, The Silence of the Lambs, and Hannibal, it is an adaptation of Thomas Harris’ 2006 novel of the same name and will tell the story of how Hannibal becomes the infamous serial killer of the previous films and books. (Link to Hannibal Rising Wiki)

I was brought to light on the existence of the movie by pure luck, or by the usual diabolique scheming of The Fates, while  browsing Slate. The critique of the movie was anything but kind, here’s a link to Dana Stevens’ Eurotrash Schoolboy: The Young Lecter in Hannibal Rising, and then some:

The movie is trudgingly tedious—if you’re in it for the violence, be advised that each action scene is separated from the next by at least 20 minutes of macabre vamping. Above all, the movie is shameless. It doesn’t hesitate to avail itself of whatever historical boogeyman it needs to advance the plot, whether it’s Klaus Barbie’s exportation of French children to Auschwitz or the loss of one’s entire family in Hiroshima.

Stevens is entitled to her own opinion until I formulate my own. For the time being, I am excited beyond repair merely knowing that there exists a story frame for Hannibal as a young person. I cannot wait to watch the movie, and when I do, be promised that you shall read about the experience. Another post labeled Love will come your way — Yes.

To get appropriately inspired for the movie itself, do visit the official page at HannibalRising.com. The site offers information on the movie, which is directed by Peter Webber, and even lets you send Hannibal Rising e-cards.

Oh, the movie was released on Friday, February 9th, 2007.

The Visuals Are Back!

Friday, February 9th, 2007

This is to announce that I, single handedly, managed to configure and activate the plugin that operates The Visuals section of this blog. Now you can view all my Flickr photos simply by clicking on The Visuals and choosing an album to browse.

This is sensational! Do you remember when I ruined The Visuals and had my Tololy’s techie gibberish protest? I confessed back then that

I ruined my “The Visuals” section while trying to fix it, which just proves how very un-techie I am. You can either check my flickr for recent pictures, or fix my Visuals.

Easy, tiger. Well now I am just super pleased to share this news with you, I did it on my own. Yippee.

Good Eating: Pictures of Food

Thursday, February 8th, 2007

The only thing I love more than a good movie is a good meal. Given the fact that I do not consume large quantities of food (or even normal quantities, some rumours sustain), I am very picky when it comes to what I do eat and I enjoy good eating beyond description. For an (otherwise useless) in-depth analysis of my eating habits, please refer to Of Hunger and Other Demons.

Since I absolutely worship yummy foods and taking pictures of them, this post has pictures of the foods I had during the past two days. Without further ado, I invite you all to indulge yourselves, feast your eyes, and drool if nobody is watching: