Now that’s something I never thought I would say.

According to a new theory by cosmologists, published in the New York Times, me and you might just be the momentary spasms of some brains floating in space.

Freaky, I know. Read this:

If true, it would mean that you yourself reading this article are more likely to be some momentary fluctuation in a field of matter and energy out in space than a person with a real past born through billions of years of evolution in an orderly star-spangled cosmos. Your memories and the world you think you see around you are illusions.

If you are a creationist, you will hate this. If you are an evolutionist, you will equally hate this. The “calculations” leading to the theory have not yet been proven correct, but scientists are still working on them.

You have to read the article more than three times to understand it fully. I read it once and a half so far. But just imagine, the idea of us being “notions” of things that happened in the past, and not being real people with real lives — that is fascinating!

The basic problem is that across the eons of time, the standard theories suggest, the universe can recur over and over again in an endless cycle of big bangs, but it’s hard for nature to make a whole universe. It’s much easier to make fragments of one, like planets, yourself maybe in a spacesuit or even — in the most absurd and troubling example — a naked brain floating in space. Nature tends to do what is easiest, from the standpoint of energy and probability. And so these fragments — in particular the brains — would appear far more frequently than real full-fledged universes, or than us. Or they might be us.

Whoa!

A friend of mine told me that my recent posts are chirpy. Since the start of January, and the piercing migration episode that I had, I have sort of picked up blogging again. I am not sure why this has happened, and I do not remember thinking at one point “alright now, back to blogging regularly. Break is over.”

And the truth of the matter is; I didn’t return after a conscious decision to do so. I just had things that I felt like blogging about, and when I blogged about them, you came. It was purely coincidental. For all I know, this might not last. I might not have “returned” at all.

When I said I am taking a break, I had decided it will be for at least one year. I had (have) things going on in my life that I imagined would drain my attention and I would not be able to communicate with anyone outside my GTalk list. I was feeling exceptionally down, defiant, liberated, and hostage. They were very dark times.

I still feel this way but I think that the more you push yourself to do, the more you achieve regardless of what your circumstances may be. I don’t mean to say that this blog here is in any way an addition to world heritage, or that it makes a difference in anyone’s life, but it sure has made a difference in mine.

Perhaps I semi-returned because I realized I had lost my fight. Perhaps because I realized I have nothing to lose, maybe things cannot get any worse and so, what’s the point of not blogging about them? It’s a fight either way, maybe documenting it will help. Brooding certainly won’t.

So, people who read this blog, that was my reflective thought for the day. Enjoy the chirpy phase while it lasts :)

I think aliens are the coolest things after flavored yogurt. I once thought I spotted an UFO, but it turned out to be a chopper. Well, Discovery News report that an alien impact had actually poisoned the water of one Canadian town, leading to health problems.

The ancient impact shattered the granitic ground so that extraordinary amounts of fluoride now taint the well water. Slightly higher than recommended amounts of fluoride can cause mottled teeth, while even higher concentrations can lead to neurological problems and softened bones.

In Karak, I once saw a huge hole in the ground (really wide and deep) and it was the result of a similar impact. Next time I go there I will take a picture of it and share. I believe that aliens do exist, since there is nothing to disprove it yet. Just think, all of this space in the universe, which is expanding too, is reserved only to us on Earth? I don’t buy it.

Hey, maybe aliens contaminated Jordan’s water last year, too. Just a thought.

I generally love corsets and think they’re beautiful. This makes me wonder if I would like to wear one at all times — if I can handle making it with my own flesh. I don’t know yet but the concept is very tempting.

I still love this:

I did this quiz in the past and my blog was worth 3,387$, and now:

I’m not impressed. After four years of hard work and spilling my brains out on this page, I made a meager 14,678$. Good thing I kept my day job. But on the bright side of things, my blog’s worth more than quadrupled in a little over two years. Not bad, businesswoman Tololy, just keep the job.

I was just doing my morning news round and I came across an important article in Al Rai newspaper. The article treats the subject of early marriage in Jordan, and why it will sap this country of its riches.

According to Jordanian law, the legal marriage age is 18, which is reasonable. But there is a special clause that basically says that a judge has the authority to marry off a 15 year-old girl whenever he sees fit, or when he sees that the marriage will be for her own good. Of course, a religious judge (which is the type of judges that does marriage procedures) or a Sheikh authorized to write the marriage contract (el ktab) seldom if ever object to marrying off an underage girl. I say this because I have heard from my mother, time and again, how the Sheikh married this girl or that girl although she was only 15-16. Beddo yostor 3aleeha, i.e. he believes he is doing good and preserving her honor (followers of this logic believe that a woman is a scandal waiting to happen).

Al Rai article details the health, financial, and psychological consequences for young marriages and criticizes the legal exception granted to judges to marry off underage girls. In essence, the exception annihilates the actual law, because like I mentioned, very few judges or Sheikhs would object to underage marriages because according to their religious views; they are saving society from the evils of adultery. Never mind the fact that they are helping perpetuate gender inequality and tens of social dysfunctions, not to mention literally endangering the girls’ healths and education and characters by marrying them off to, dare I say this, pedophiles who hunt young brides to “mould them” into the submissive wife-maids they wish. Never mind all that, they are saving society.

According to the article, the percentage of underage marriages is 14%, which translates to 7598 marriages. That is inaccurate, because judges and Sheikhs when they draft up the marriage contracts do NOT put the actual ages of the girls when they are underage, they simply write 18! So that 14% is only what got reported, but not the actual percentage.

Jordan has one million girls under the age of 15, who are alive right now. I did the math; this means that 140,000 girls between the ages of 15-18 WILL get married within the next 15-18 years. That is a huge number! Let’s assume that each one of these girls will only deliver three babies, that makes it 420,000 babies IN ADDITION to the other births from legal marriages. Naturally, the men who marry underage girls do not only want three babies. They want five, six, maybe more, and their child-wives are fertile enough to keep on popping kids for 15 years. And don’t forget, 14% is not the actual percentage of underage marriages in our society.

Can you imagine what will happen to the population of Jordan at this rate? Can you imagine the health bill that will come out of the birth complications and other child-related problems? Can you imagine the thousands of children who will be born to semi-illiterate mothers, what will become of them? Can you imagine what will happen when Almighty Daddy can’t take care of his dozen children?

He will marry off the girls at 15.

If you are celebrating your birthday today, or you know someone who is, this is my present to you on this special day:

Happy birthday!