@ Joseph's

The Steps To Remove Religious Sect From Lebanese Registry Records

2013-02-19T23:00:00.001+02:00

On the eve of an extremely sectarian and divisive electoral process, in terms of electoral law or political discourse, I still strongly believe that boycotting the elections is the best solution true Lebanese citizens must adopt to protest the hijacking of their country by leaders from the Middle Ages. (previously discussed in the blog entry: A good Lebanese citizen must not vote).

Protest and boycott are excellent starters to the main course of obtaining a nation. But this is a long path to follow, in the goal of reaching the non-sectarian civil society we all dream of.

An important right, which not all Lebanese citizens are aware of it, is your right to remove your religious sect from civil registry records (حق شطب المذهب من القيد) which saw the light with Minister of Interior Ziyad Baroud in 2008/2009.

Fellow twitter user @AHAreej kindly shared with me the following valuable documents in response to my question about the legal proceedings of removing religious sect from records.

I believe it's recommended to have a lawyer, and well, to be very persistent and follow it up (due to terrible bureaucracy, you know).

Document 1: The legal research conducted by Ministry of Justice to confirm the validity of this right (download here):

Document 2: The form to be filled and submitted to دائرة النفوس (download here):

In a sectarian country such as Lebanon, the main concern following such move of removing your religious sect could have some consequences like jeopardizing marriage or inheritance rights, some civil rights like voting or public office. The following 2 documents are a sort of a quick FAQ on these issues explaining the basis of legally defending those rights after removing your sect (download here and here):

As beautifully depicted in the previous FAQ document, a Lebanese after removing his sect information, is no longer a number in a sect, but a Citizen.

Joseph

The Confused Nomad

2013-01-31T22:57:00.001+02:00

It seems that Beirut International Airport is my favourite place to spot controversial books. After The God Delusion, this time, I found in the duty free bookstore the book Nomad by controversial author/politician/activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

Cover of the book Nomad (ISBN: 978-1-84739-818-5)

Praised by prominent "New Atheists" like Richard Dawkins, the late Christopher Hitchens and Sam Harris, the book invoked some interest in me and I decided to get it and read it.

Hirsi Ali starts her book by relating her tough early life (Hirsi Ali also has written a memoir titled Infidel) between Somalia, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia and Kenya by depicting her relationship to various members of her troublesome family and compares the differences she faced after running away from an arranged marriage to seek refuge in the Netherlands, where she began her activism, became a member of the parliament and then had to move to the United States of America for a job in the American Enterprise Institute.
Then she goes on by describing her account of the Muslim societies in the USA, to sum up their behaviour by three main conflicting topics: sex, violence and money, to then try to offer, what she considers, remedies.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali's style is simple, pleasant and straight to the point. Her ideas on getting rid of outdated superstitions and complete helplessness, empowering women, protecting them and equating them with their men counterparts (through her foundation) are hailed although her approach is provocative to some extent (for instance the short film Submission, which caused the assassination of its director Theo Van Gogh).

Scene from the short film "Submission" by Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Theo Van Gogh.
The latter was assassinated shortly after the release of the film.

But, mevrouw Hirsi Ali, despite her much respected activism, seems to have a sort of confusion about this "new" world she is part of, in which she's a constant nomad and an eternal learner.
For an atheist who staunchly opposes religions (or is it Islam only, because of her sad past with it?), it is strikingly hypocritical to accept a job with the AEI, the think tank of the American Christian Neoconservatives, not to mention their deep attachment to the Zionist movement.

Moreover, miss Hirsi Ali, uses the ludicrous white man guilt theory to justify the support of some activists to the Palestinian cause (in the context of attacking feminists for not raising voice against issues outside their borders):

"Having sided with other movements of social revolution, such as the movement for national independence in Southeast Asia and minority groups and for the Palestinians, feminists began to define white men as the ultimate and only oppressors."

While looking up Hirsi Ali, I came along a YouTube video about a speech of Ayaan Hirsi Ali in the Global Atheist Convention 2012 discussing the Arab Spring from a secular v/s Islamic perspective.

The talk is very interesting except the bit where Hirsi Ali disregards all the crimes and apartheid of Israel and calls to tolerate its existence and claims that Israel is free because of the fact that newspapers can criticize politics and society.
This attitude is not restricted to this talk but, in fact, is highlighted in Nomad, in another attempt by Neoconservatives to shift the focal point of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to one between a Jewish and (allegedly more violent, hateful and decades backward) Islamic civilizations in order to demean it and legitimize the persistence of apatheid. Regardless of the attitude of any religion, this attitude is untrue, and the core of the conflict is the Israeli forced apartheid state which ripped the Palestinian land and is mistreating its people.

Also, mevrouw Hirsi Ali seems very confused about the new found freedoms in the western world. Undeniably, the society if the West, in the USA for instance, is more advanced than the ones in the third-world (and in this case, for Hirsi Ali is anti-Islamic, Islamic) societies. But these societies are also plagued with all sort of social problems of the modern type (psychopathy, rape, crime, homelessness, unemployment, dysfunctional families, etc...). Also, she seems to consider the illusion of choices in consumption an indication of happiness. There's more to life than this.

Of course no one's denying the bigger sense of freedom and cultural advancement in these societies (mainly because of the lesser influence of religions, among other reasons) but like in the "barbaric dictatorial regimes" Mrs. Hirsi Ali is allegedly fighting, regimes of corporations are ready to do more horrific actions, warmongering, and global crises, for the sake of the interest of the corporations.

The world needs people like Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who raise the voice against injustice and call for progress but, to overlook important causes and promote ideals of corporations is not a compromise to be made.

Joseph.

Facing Apartheid

2013-01-22T22:33:00.002+02:00

Note: This post was drafted back in September 2012, following a decision from Lebanese band Mashrou' Leila (Leila's Project) —after pressure from their fanbase— to decline the opportunity of opening for the Red Hot Chili Peppers who were heading to Tel-Aviv immediately after their Beirut gig, in favour of the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement.

"Israel is guilty of apartheid and persecution of the Palestinian people, both inside Israel and also in the Occupied Territories."

BDS campaign poster "Made in Israel"

Undeniably, the apartheid state of Israel is one of the worst examples in racism and state-sponsored terrorism (cultural, economic, political, security, ...) in recent history, unfortunately backed by the lobbying power of major states in the world, who use double standards in judging the issues of the world, creating conflicts for trivial reasons, covering up major international laws infringement for political reasons.

Over the years, many aspects of resistance to this anomalous situation have appeared, ranging from acts of rebellion, hunger strikes, boycotting, information Intifada, military Intifidas, military Resistance.

The debate about the effectiveness of those methods, as opposed to negotiations has been going for a very long time. How far is too far when it comes to boycotting?

Should we boycott any person who visits Israel and hence acknowledge its existence, or should we only boycott people who bluntly declare their open support to the apartheid state?
Should we use a certain technology developed by Israelis ("peaceful" non-military technologies are in question here)? Should we boycott people who use it? Should we boycott companies who open branches in Israel?
Should we interact with Israeli people? Should we follow Israeli artists?

For me, the answer is simple: nothing is too far, nothing is too short, because every contribution helps build-up the strategic momentum the movement is seeking.

More specifically, I believe that any visitor to Israel, must hence be overlooking their racist behaviour, and thus must be boycotted (not to mention that the person will be subject to questioning by Lebanese law unless diplomatically immune).
For the technology part, I think it's very easy to find alternatives and avoid supporting Israeli products or technologies that rely on an Israeli effort (one could overlook open projects where a contributor or more can be Israelis, since we can't deny that these persons exist and have the access to such projects, and it doesn't provide much material support to the apartheid state), as for boycotting people who use such technology, well it could depend on the situation, but in general, making the point and stating alternatives is a good starter, which may reach higher levels depending on the complexity of the relationship.
As for interactions, especially with the open nature of the modern world, and the various communication platforms, one might be in situations facing an Israeli person. I think it's well worth it to indicate your position to the person bluntly, and keep the interaction to the minimum and forced by professional need one (interactions on digital platforms are a bit more complicated and should be approached within the boundaries of local laws in the intention to expose the criminal thought and/or behavior).

Because the cause is righteous, because we all can contribute in our own small way, face the apartheid, expose it.

Joseph.

Are Fortune-tellers Dictating Our Behaviours?

2013-01-01T00:29:00.000+02:00

The "sheikh" of fortune-tellers in the Middle-East, Michel Hayek, in his 2012 NYE show (credit - naklan3an)

In the recent years, the trend of fortune-telling and future predictions for the year have been on the rise on the various Lebanese TV channels (and some Arabic and Middle-Eastern channels, to some extent).
Of course, these predictions are controversial, and, well, hence are legitimate commercial TV material.

Over the years, this business has become very varied and creative. Fortune-tellers range for weird charlatans to regular astrologers, who's, superficially, are hosted to increase the ratings of the channel and return larger incomes from commercial advertisements.
Also the evolution of these characters on TV, their wording, their body language and their ways of adding mystery to their predictions is quite interesting (although, I'm not quite an expert on this).
Yet, behind this mask of showbiz and marketing and profit, and by critically linking the dots between the types of predictions being made, the common points and the differences among the various charlatans, one would suspect a larger scheme.

I strongly feel that this is not an innocent TV programming. It's an effective method of inculcating some guidelines to the general public in an entertainment package.
It's not a coincidence that the political predictions of these fortune tellers are always biased to the favour of the vision of the political party supporting the TV station hosting them, nor is the fact that these change depending on switching from one sponsor to the other. This highly suggests a certain strategy to favour their (political parties) opinions and modulates a certain part of the public opinion to accept certain ideas. (I strongly believe that these predictions play an important part in the quasi-apathy of the Lebanese society towards violence acts, not alone, of course).
Other than political guidelines, one senses a sort of guidance and hints to a certain behaviour in the economic choices and market activity.
It's not innocent to direct negative predictions to a certain sector, or area, or country in the larger scale of the region/world, it's also quite suspicious talking about stability of certain currencies and financial policies, and failure of some others, giving hints in certain sectors to encourage investors, or on the other hand make them flee from other ones.

Away from being a mere conspiracy theory, this is a potential breach to people's personal freedoms. Whether it's based on very strong evidence or just a personal fear of such a plan, doesn't negate the need for the public to be more critical, and to denounce these kind of shows, by flipping the table on them, and stop watching them, by asking for real and fruitful entertainment, that doesn't invade it's collective mind, inculcating its behaviour, in order to increase its consumption and make more profits.

Happy new year 2013.

Joseph.

The World Is Still Religious

2012-12-19T21:22:00.004+02:00

A recent report by the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life found that more than eight-in-ten people in the world identify with a religious group. People who are not affiliated to any religion were the 3rd largest group with 16.3% or about 1.1 billion (right after Christians with 31.5% and Muslims with 23.2%).

As much as the thought that 1 in 6 people in the world are not religious is interesting and reveals a fact that religious people should not ignore, the dark side of this number (5 in 6 that are religious) is even more significant.
The world is still deeply religious in the 21st century (and that's unlikely to change a lot in the coming years if you analyze all the current events of the world).

The world is still religious in its majority

Yet another unpleasant aspect of this report is the fact that it reveals that more than 73% of the world population live in a country where their religious group is a majority. The world is an archipelago of religious (or irreligious) islands and, day after day, the fortifications around these islands are thickening and making them impenetrable and any hope for change and interaction is becoming a mere dream.
The Middle East (and North Africa), the cradle of the 3 main monotheistic religions, also the cradle of the world's fiercest conflicts for the last century and so, is the most religious region of the world with less than 1% of its population being unaffiliated with any religion (and a majority of Muslims).

The Middle East and North Africa region is the most religious area in the world

Religion is not a refused phenomenon, per se. It's, in fact, an interesting human heritage full of social traditions and a good basic platform for moral principles. But the human civilization is more than 12,000 years old, and we have passed a long way in so many fields.
The knowledge we have acquired till the 21st century AD should be a motive to us to evolve these traditions and adapt them into a less fantastic world view and a more rational one that focuses on the human species and its survival in a harsh environment such as Earth's (or Kepler-22b), rather than dwell in spiritual delusion or an unconfirmed (except on the basis of faith) hope for an eternal life.

Joseph

P.S. Download the full Pew Forum report in PDF format here (10MB. 81 pages)

Open Sesame

2012-11-29T21:31:00.000+02:00

SESAME main bldg. - Allan, Al-Balq'a, Jordan (credit SESAME.org.jo)

Unlike Ali Baba's tale, SESAME will not open a cave full of priceless treasures. In fact, SESAME (Synchrotron-light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East) is a “third-generation” synchrotron light source under construction in Allan (Jordan). It will be the Middle East's first major international research centre.

It is a cooperative venture by scientists and governments of the region set up on the model of CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research). It is being developed under the auspices of UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) following the formal approval given for this by the Organization's Executive Board (164th session, May 2002).

The project is backed by several Arab nations, together with Turkey, Pakistan, Cyprus, Iran and - astonishingly - Israel as well. It is set to start operating in 2015.

Animated model of a synchrotron (credit Aseem Sharma)

A synchrotron is a special type of particle accelerator, accelerating a beam of electrons into a booster ring to pick up a speed of 99.99986% the speed of light and an energy of 1.5 to 2.9 GeV. The beam is guided into a storage ring where it's maintained and guided by computer-controlled magnets. Light is produced when bending magnets deflect the beam, and is focused into the experimental chambers. (For a comprehensive explanation of the operation of a synchrotron, please check this diagram).

The synchrotron radiation is used in around 70 facilities worldwide for a variety of applications (source Wikipedia):

Life sciences: protein and large molecule crystallography
LIGA based microfabrication
Drug discovery and research
"Burning" computer chip designs into metal wafers
Analysing chemicals to determine their composition
Observing the reaction of living cells to drugs
Inorganic material crystallography and microanalysis
Fluorescence studies
Semiconductor material analysis and structural studies
Geological material analysis
Medical imaging
Proton therapy to treat some forms of cancer

Researchers involved hope Sesame could be a beacon for peace in the region (credit BBC NEWS)

Beyond science and the valuable addition to the research field in the Middle East region, SESAME is seen by its launchers, and by all the participant researchers, as a first step into breaking the political tension in the region among countries who don't recognize each others (Turkey/Cyprus and Pakistan,Iran/Israel) and potential war zones. The following is a testimonials video from the participant researchers, interviewed by BBC News' David Shukman.

The comments of the various researchers vary from establishing a line of communication (if not bring peace), that the project will lead into other achievements of political nature, that a single country cannot afford having a synchrotron, to scientists belonging to humanity or have a common ground that is scientific research regardless of politics or race or religion.
But in my opinion, the comment of Israeli professor Eliezer Rabinovici reveals a lot about the nature of this project. Rabinovici says:

"It has always been my dream, to show that Arabs and Israelis can work together for the benefit of humanity and the benefits of their people."

When the goals of such a project are way beyond its scientific value, it is impossible not to take political conflicts into consideration. My view may be radical, but I think this project mainly targets to impose the presence of Israel, and subsequently the 2-state solution and many other political compromises, via the backdoor of science this time. I don't want to fall into conspiracy theories, but connecting the dots cannot but lead into such conclusions.

A similar issue can be raised about the "Israeli civilian" targeting during conflicts. All in the name of humanity, which the state of Israel violates on a daily basis. The responsibility of these civilians in that case, and researchers in SESAME's case is that they approve of the actions of their terrorist state either by willingly or by simply being silent against the flagrant criminality of their apartheid state.

Hence the radical attitude of refusing any kind of cooperation with the Zionist entity of Israel, on any grounds, whether scientific or artistic or any other field, as being a way of recognition of Israel and a step of normalization with it. (At this front the BDS movement is doing a brilliant job, please check their website).

As for the cost sharing argument, well the BBC News reports that the cost will amount to around $40m (...construction is being funded with $5m each from Israel, Iran, Jordan and Turkey plus another $5m from the EU for Cern to provide the magnet system. Pakistan has agreed to provide $5m in kind. That still leaves a $10m shortfall in funding to improve the "beamlines"). That is merely negligible in front of the massive spending of $70bn for the World Cup organization in 2022, or the $1.5bn spending on mile-high buildings.

In conclusion, the scientific value of the SESAME project is undeniable, but we shouldn't let ourselves be deluded behind false that ideals, that could waste years of efforts and resistance, especially that the countries of the Middle East can easily achieve this project without any dependency to an Israeli effort, unless it's a condition for the survival of the project, which would undoubtedly confirm the high suspicions of the motives behind the project.

Joseph.

Life is What You Make It

2012-11-27T10:28:00.001+02:00

The Maker is a stop-animation short by Christopher and Christine Kezelos, which has currently screened at over 60 festivals and won 21 awards.

The film is set in a fantasy world where a strange creature races against time to make the most important and beautiful creation of his life, as per the official description.

'Biorhythm' by Andre Martinez-Reed (credit: Lend Me Your Eyes)

The main slogan, "life is what you make it", is not a new one. In fact it aims, along with the events of the film, to emphasize on our importance to life, on the role we play in making our short passage on earth a worthwile one, and that we hold the keys to a good life in our modest mortal hands.

Hope you enjoy it.

Joseph.

My confusion

2012-11-24T06:22:00.001+02:00

Every time we try to speak, my mind goes off, completely blank, and I face the toughest challenge of uttering a word that actually makes sense, that can convey all the mess of emotions and helplessness that I am in.

Before you I'm like an uninspired writer, waiting for his blank sheet of paper to speak anything to his wandering soul, so he could spill the ink and fill its tender body with the best of his thoughts, but all which comes up is another failed attempt, another wasted chance, another murder to the soft spirit of his notebook.

Ironically, when you're away, you are the muse of my every verse, you are the invisible hand guiding my pen. Maybe it's just meant to be this way, but I refuse to surrender to this deceptive fate.

I desperately need your fierce dark eyes to guide my path, your nightly hair to breeze upon the ocean of my despair, your shining white skin to spread the warmth through my cold temple, and your godly presence, to respawn faith in my wasted soul.

Joseph.

The Dawn of Evolution

2012-11-12T14:47:00.001+02:00

Evolution by nature selection is the most evident and viable theory of the proliferation and the diversity of life on our Planet. But unfortunately, it hasn't equipped us, Homo Sapiens, (yet) with the full imagination tools to visualize and understand its processes over an extremely long time scale.

Professor Richard Dawkins, posted this very interesting analogy to the timeline of Evolution on his Foundation's Facebook page.

24-Hour Clock analogy to the evolution of life on Earth
(credit Richard Dawkin's Foundation for Reason and Science)

In this analogy, the 4.3-billion-year history of the Earth is represented as a 24-hour clock, where Zero hour is the the moment of formation of the planet Earth.
Coincidentally (or not *grin*) the estimated origin of the first "alive" bacterial organisms is at 4:00am, almost at dawn.
The oldest fossils, our best friends and evidence to the evolutionary process, appeared almost at 5:36 (almost equivalent to 3.4 billion years ago).
Then come the various appearances of the several species and ancestors.
And the first human species has appeared for only a minute and 17 seconds ago on the 24-hour scale (that's merely around 3 million years ago). Now that's insignificant!

"Insignificance" ( 32 x 48 cm large working paper by Carine Weve - credit Independent Collectors)

Another interesting analogy to the insignificance of humans in this universe is also given by Dawkins, although not being his, admittedly, where he compares the history of the universe to the full length of his extended arms tip to tip.
This is from his book tour (sorry in advance for the amateur video and low quality audio, I couldn't find a cleaner version) where Dawkins uses a modified version of this analogy:

As Dawkins eloquently put it,

"The whole of recorded history falls as the dust from a single stroke of a nail file."

It's fairly evident that humanity is merely insignificant in the whole existence, it's about time we stopped acting like we're the center of it, especially with all the cognitive faculties that we possess and allow to make existence a beautiful process.

Joseph

Avtomat Kalashnikov

2012-11-11T22:45:00.002+02:00

It's very likely that if you ask any person around you, they'd recognize a Kalashnikov rifle. The iconic Soviet assault rifle is the most widespread weapon in the world. It's in fact nicknamed "the layman's weapon".

The Avtomat Kalashnikov 47 AK-47 (credit Wikipedia)

Russia Today has released this interesting (relatively short) documentary discussing the rifle, its history, its reliability, its usage and includes some testimonies for the man behind the name, Mikhail Kalashnikov, and various experts.

For more valuable insights and information on the iconic rifle, the book The Gun by C.J. Chivers is a very interesting and recommended read.

Joseph.

Mighty Titan

2012-10-31T22:53:00.002+02:00

Torment of the Titans Atlas & Prometheus,

Laconian black-figure amphora C6th B.C., Vatican City Museums (credit theoi.com)

*Shrugs* No, it's neither Atlas, nor Prometheus.

The US DoE's Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) have "launched a new era of scientific supercomputing" with the latest most powerful supercomputer yet known as Titan.
In their Oct 29 press release, ORNL announced the launching of the 20-petaflop-supercomputer (that's 20 trillion calculations per second, WHOA!), containing 18,688 nodes, with each holding a 16-core AMD Opteron 6274 processor and an NVIDIA Tesla K20 graphics processing unit (GPU) accelerator. Titan also has more than 700 terabytes of memory. This system is 10 times faster than its ORNL predecessor, Jaguar, and uses only marginally more electricity (5 times more energy efficient).

ORNL's supercomputer Titan (click for high-resolution image)

By relying on 299,008 CPU cores and its new GPU system, "Titan will allow scientists to simulate physical systems more realistically and in far greater detail" —announced James Hack, director of ORNL's National Center for Computational Sciences— in the fields of energy, climate change, materials and other disciplines (more on scientific applications here).

Titan will be open to select projects, 40 projects a year will continue to be given access to the lab’s massive computational facilities based on their scientific merits, reports Russia Today.

At par with IBM's Sequoia BlueGene/Q, and slightly ahead of China's Tianhe-1A, Titan is a new important achievement in computational technologies and hopefully will help us solve a lot of our scientific research problems in the near future.

Joseph.

Into the Future

2012-10-17T10:59:00.001+03:00

A conceptual futuristic city (credit Great Leadership)

The future, the ultimate unknown to the human mind, has been the central focus of our cultures and civilizations since ever. We have always pictured it as better, with solutions to all our medical, technological, cultural,... problems. This is probably one of the major reasons to give us hope in our daily lives.

We may not know how the future is going to be (or do we?), but we sure can orient it towards a desired outcome by actions we perform in the present.

But what are we doing to reach the fantastic future we dream of in movies and novels?

More than 1/7th of the earth population is under the weight of hunger while food production and demographic growth are not going hand in hand, consumerism is on the rise despite steep economic crises, finite resources are being carelessly wasted, extremism, fundamentalism and religionism are rising, civilian (non-military oriented) science is facing budget cuts in most of the countries, the industry of war is flourishing with more lethal and mass destructive weapons.

In short, we are doing it wrong. At this pace the future is bleak and nothing like we fantasize about it.

On these thoughts, I leave you with a brighter take on the future and time travel with a series of strips from my favourite comic Calvin and Hobbes.

(credit GO Comics)

(credit Go Comics)

Joseph.

The Savage Civilization of Apartheid and Hypocrisy

2012-10-06T23:08:00.000+03:00

Advertisement that reads "Support Israel/Defeat Jihad" in the Times Square subway station in New York
(Reuters/Brendan Mcdermid)

After NYC, a court in Washington has ruled in favor of "anti-Jihad/pro-Israel" poster campaign.

The campaign raises many suspicions and a link to the worldwide riots against the awful US-produced movie "The Innocence of Muslims", which mocks Islamic beliefs and prophet, can be established as aiming towards the same goal of creating an anti-American/anti-Israel Islamist boogie-man, especially after many claims that Americans are supporting extremist terrorist groups in the Middle East (especially in Syria).

The message used in the poster says:

In any war

between the

civilized man

and the savage,

support the civilized man.

Support Israel.

Defeat Jihad.

This is quite ironic, especially when calling for support of a racist and criminal state such as Israel, as opposed to an extremist concept which isn't adopted by most of the Muslims or non-Muslims who oppose the neo-colonization of the US.

You don't have to be an Islamist or extremist or a Muslim or even a religious person to understand how wrong this campaign is, especially that Israel, the party we're supposed to support as per the ad, is a criminal apartheid regime, which is settling into Palestinian land by using excessive and brutal force against men, women and children alike, a hypocrite system which exerts all kinds of inhumane measures against Palestinians, depriving them from freedom, keeping them under siege with bare access to vital needs, striking and bombing civilians on a quasi-daily basis under lame pretexts, then gets outraged when any act of resistance is expressed by the oppressed people.

“It’s a victory for all freedom-loving Americans,” claimed the attorney of the advertiser.
No mister, this is another phony exploit of the savage civilization of apartheid and hypocrisy that your ideals represent.
No mister, this is a victory for inhumanity and injustice against the people of the world and especially the Middle-Easterns and Palestinians.

Joseph.

Conquest of Freedom

2012-10-03T01:11:00.000+03:00

I finally watched the supposedly controversial huge Turkish production Fetih (Conquest) 1453 ("Illegal" peer-to-peer download, if you insist), about the conquest and fall of Constantinople at the hands of the army of Sultan Mehmet II. (Update: Apparently the movie was officially banned in Lebanon)

A promotional poster of Fetih 1453 (credit: mintmax.tk)

Overall, it's a fairly OK movie —considering its cost of about $18 million— but it seems the producers invested more budget on the CGI and hollywoodic cliche scenes than on the actors. Anyhow, the director managed to make a major historical personality and influential on the world history appear as a delusional, lucky, poor tactician (but with great faith and commitment to the conquest, nevertheless). On the other hand, the historical context is pretty much real, but also one-sided and overlooks a lot of facts about the terrorism of the Ottomans, but would you expect otherwise?

I happened to have watched the movie in a period where the world is boiling with protests against the very controversial (in timing and motives) US-produced movie "The Innocence of Muslims" (which happens to be a terrible low budget production, judging from the trailer published online).

Naturally, being advocate of freedom of thought and expression, I believe in the importance of art in expressing opinions and delivering messages of all sorts no matter how offending to some, or far opposite to personal opinions and biases (provided the quality of the artwork is decent enough, and it's not serving a terrorist political agenda).

No book or movie banning, no protests, no riots and no violence is an acceptable response or can constitute enough reason to threaten the sacred right of expressing thoughts, criticizing ideas and dogmas, expressing a historical point of view, etc.

If you are not supposed to criticize and mock something, then there must be something legitimately deserving criticism and mocking about it.

It's about time we stop fighting fire (of "offense") with fire, and move to the battlefield of arguments, logic and reason.

Joseph.

Why Did I Cry When You Died?

2012-10-01T00:33:00.000+03:00

Death has never struck so close.
It came along like a thief in the night,
Discreet, silent and by surprise.
And like wildfire,
The poisonous news spread through my veins,
Paralyzing my body, mind and soul,
Inflicting all the pain of the world,
To finally sprinkle through the soul mirrors,
In a diamond-shaped tear.

I thought I have already killed my feelings.
I was absurdly wrong.
Love, friendship, care, protection,
Have lost their meaning without you.
Life, ambitions, dreams, future,
They are not the same after you.
Why did I cry you when you died?

If only could it have spoken,
My diamond-shaped tear.

I cried you when you died,
Mostly not because you were gone
And deprived from precious life.
Not because the path to god,
was shattered to no return.
I have cried a part of my soul that I have buried away,
Till my last breath, when you'll be my final memory,
And I'll be the guy who died, in his eyes
A diamond-shaped tear.

Joseph.

Eureka

2012-09-30T09:25:00.000+03:00

Do you ever stop and ask yourself: "have I succeeded in my life?"

Are success and failure predefined paths which we have to follow the signs to reach?

We are in a constant search for a success. We have whole sections in bookstores about self-improvement and reaching success. We have TV shows hailing success stories of various kinds.

But truly what is success? Can we define it beyond the regular stereotypes our societies have defined? Is it for instance landing a job that brings you great wealth? Is it fame? Is it wealth and fame? Is it to achieve a distinguished career path? Is it to find the job you love no matter the other consequences? Is it a certain public office? Is it to find the love of your life? Is it to get married? Is it to have a child, or maybe two, or even twelve? Is it to have your own property and possessions? Is it independence and personal freedom? Is it to travel around the world? Is it to reach the top of Mount Everest? Is to win the World Cup? Is it to find out a secret that has been haunting our life?

Who decides? Rather, whose right is it to decide? Life is a subjective experience. Nevertheless we keep comparing our achievements, measuring the potential of each others based on meaningless criteria. I think that, until we learn that life is all about personal choices, all about the little achievements that matter to the subjective person, that satisfy inner needs and are projected onto the subjective view of the world, that lead to happiness, which is not a measurable or comparable or replicable among different people, we're still failing. Failing in humanity.

Joseph.

The Beautiful World Of Critical Thinking

2012-09-20T01:51:00.001+03:00

Confidimus In Discrimine Cogitandi: this blog's description is the Latin adaptation of "In Critical Thinking We Trust".
To my understanding the world we're living in is a complex combination of harmonious entities, governed by physical and natural laws. We as human species are blessed by the ability to understand the underpinnings of this world (and consequently the Universe). But this same human nature is responsible for fooling us and make us credulous to claims about the world (to the point of gullibility in some cases). And here lays the importance of applying skepticism and critical thinking.

Carl Sagan (credit - BrainPickings.org)

Carl Sagan, a personal hero of mine, is one of the most famous advocates of this approach.

In an article published in the Skeptical Inquirer, vol. 12, Fall 1987 titled "The Burden of Skepticism", Sagan contemplates skepticism, its various aspects and how far should we go with our skepticism and disbelief.

Sagan emphasizes on the role skepticism should play in the human life.

We are Homo sapiens. That's the distinguishing characteristic about us, that sapiens part.

And a duty for our "smart" species is to be skeptical, "if you don't exercise some minimal skepticism, if you have an absolutely untrammeled credulity, there is probably some price you will have to pay later." But unfortunately, "we are skeptical in some areas but [...] not in others." And this has lead us to create multiple odd beliefs (from pseudoscience, to various superstitions, to religions...). By Sagan's account, "a great many of these belief systems address real human needs that are not being met by our society" and hence their survival despite the flagrant conflict with scientifically proven notions.

But with skepticism comes many dangers.

Skepticism challenges established institutions.

Changing conceptions is a hard thing to achieve, and often people take beliefs and biases very personally, they define their existence around them, which makes a very tedious task to convince them of the fallacy of their claim even with obvious logical arguments. Emotional attachments and feelings, although contributing to the beautiful human experience, are the worst judgement deceivers, thus "when we recognize some emotional vulnerability regarding a claim, that is exactly where we have to make the firmest efforts at skeptical scrutiny. That is where we can be had."

But to what extent should we be skeptical? As Sagan beautifully put it:

It seems to me what is called for is an exquisite balance between two conflicting needs: the most skeptical scrutiny of all hypotheses that are served up to us and at the same time a great openness to new ideas. Obviously those two modes of thought are in some tension. But if you are able to exercise only one of these modes, which ever one it is, you’re in deep trouble. If you are only skeptical, then no new ideas make it through to you. You never learn anything new. You become a crotchety old person convinced that nonsense is ruling the world. (There is, of course, much data to support you.) But every now and then, maybe once in a hundred cases, a new idea turns out to be on the mark, valid and wonderful. If you are too much in the habit of being skeptical about everything, you are going to miss or resent it, and either way you will be standing in the way of understanding and progress. On the other hand, if you are open to the point of gullibility and have not an ounce of skeptical sense in you, then you cannot distinguish the useful ideas from the worthless ones. If all ideas have equal validity then you are lost, because then, it seems to me, no ideas have any validity at all.
Some ideas are better than others. The machinery for distinguishing them is an essential tool in dealing with the world and especially in dealing with the future. And it is precisely the mix of these two modes of thought that is central to the success of science.

It's all in taking the right methodology, to reduce the amount of simplistic credulity and gullibility, but not to become extremely doubtful and cynic.

Based on Sagan's work, the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science and Skeptic Magazine editor Michael Shermer present The Baloney Detection Kit: A 10-Point Checklist for Science Literacy video:

But one of the major problems facing the popularity of the scientific method and critical thinking and skepticism approaches to the world

is also the fault of the educational system. We do not teach how to think. This is a very serious failure that may even, in a world rigged with 60,000 nuclear weapons, compromise the human future.

In an interesting approach, Australia's TechNYou, has introduced 6 animated videos on arguments and critical methods aimed at school ages 8 to 10, or kids between the ages of 13 and 15, but also designed to resonate with grown-ups, along with interesting educational resources on critical thinking.
Watch the YouTube Playlist by TechNYou for the animated videos.

A critical approach to our modern world is of high importance. Our reasonable (or on the opposite side unreasonable) views to beliefs, values and scientific methods, that we pass on to the human generations to come, are essential in determining our progress (or devolution), and the fate of our species and our world.

Joseph.

Has Apple Lost Its Shine?

2012-09-13T17:14:00.000+03:00

Apple's logo with the advertized slogan "Think different" (credit - Wikipedia)

Admittedly, I'm no huge fan of Apple Inc.'s, but it is an undeniable fact that it is one of the key players in the market of consumer electronic and telecommunication technologies.

The debate of whether Apple's products are really innovative and ground-breaking, hence worth the money, has always been staggering between fans who defend Apple's position and products and their opponents who believe that Apple is a deceptive company with excellent marketing and a business strategy based on registering/purchasing trivial patents in the purpose of making more profit at the expense of technology (to be fair, Apple is not the only one to do it, but in fact the most controversial).

In the event of the release of the latest version of Apple's flagship smartphone, the iPhone 5, BBC's technology news published the opinions of two prominent tech bloggers about the event.

Journalist and blogger Dan Lyons, known for creating the 'Fake Steve' blog, was asked before the event took place. The viewpoint he supported was that "Apple's iPhone launches no longer excite", stating several challenges that face the iPhone and finally drawing the conclusion that

"Somewhere up there, I can hear Steve screaming."

(You may read the whole article at BBC's website: Viewpoint: Apple's iPhone launches no longer excite.)

On the other hand, tech blogger Adam Banks, editor-in-chief of UK's MacUser magazine, asked after the event, holds the viewpoint that "iPhone 5 proves Apple is still innovating - in its own way" defending Apple's strategy in the technology features they present to consumers and replies to Dan Lyons' conclusion that Steve Jobs would be

"screaming at tech pundits to judge products not on some misplaced urge for "wow factor", but on how they feel to use."

(You may read the whole article at BBC's website: Viewpoint: iPhone 5 proves Apple is still innovating - in its own way.)

In conclusion, it's important to stress on the necessity to be critical about the technological choices we adopt. It's well worth it to be informed in this field, in order to correctly assess the products presented to us consumers, and build a reasonable bias towards the technology that best suits us, be it Apple's or not (preferably not Apple's :-P).

Joseph.

2+2=5

2012-09-11T12:30:00.000+03:00

A brilliant short movie (9 minutes) by Iranian-born director Babak Anvari. For more info the website of the movie: http://twoandtwofilm.com/

"In a drab, anonymous grey school governed by a strict authoritarian regime, an apparently unremarkable day is turned on its head following a seemingly ridiculous announcement.

Disbelieving at first, the all male, identically uniformed pupils are informed that what they had always been taught as fact is no longer true. When the incredulous students speak out, what initially seems laughably absurd becomes desperately real as they are forced to question how far they will go to stand up for their beliefs.

Two & Two is an allegory for the absurdness of dictatorship and tyranny - and the resilience of the human spirit."

This Orwellian allegory can be extended to the modern world in many aspects. The obvious situations are the dictatorial totalitarian regimes oppressing their people. Another case are the religious institutions or religion-driven societies. Another aspect is the tight information censorship which has been a prevailing trend worldwide recently and media propagandism driven by skewed agendas.

Be free, refuse censorship, refuse dictatorship, revolt.

Joseph.

The Human Body: A Successful Socialist Machine

2012-09-04T13:06:00.001+03:00

Man as an Industrial Palace by Dr. Fritz Kahn - 1927 (credit Quaerentia)

The animal body is one of nature's best achievements, and the human body, as one of the advanced forms of this type of bodies, is one of the best examples of this.

The Machine.

The human body is wonderful. It has been the subject of research and understanding for probably forever.
Many representations and descriptions have been given, but my favorite is the machine-like one, mainly because we're living in an advanced industrial age and machines play a major role in our modern life.
To my understanding, the human body is one of the ultimate machines of nature (this is actually the subject of a Discovery Channel documentary series about the human body being the ultimate machine); complex distributed organs and subsystems, perform several advanced jobs in high efficiency (supporting weights, flexible movements, providing Oxygen, distributing nutrients, filtering food and liquid supplies, waste disposal, anti-viral protection, etc...), the result of many years of adaptation and evolution through natural selection, to allow the individual to perform complex tasks needed for survival.
So, in a context far for the metaphysical meaning and supernatural definitions, the human body is an intricate advanced machine of complex subsystems, with complicated active mechanisms, striving for survival. (The illustration by Dr. Fritz Kahn is an excellent example of the industrial-like mechanical complexity of the human body.)

The Socialist Model.

Analogically to a society, the human body is a striking example of the success of the Socialist model. As indicated, it is a complicated set of very complex subsystems each performing a useful task, not only to their existence, but also to the survival of the whole body. This doesn't stop at this point, but, in fact, through the complex sanguine irrigation subsystem, resources are shared among the various constituent organs, in an equilibrium between the need of the specific organ, depending on its current state of activity, and the fair distribution to all working body parts.
Additionally to these basic survival features, life threatening situations are excellent examples of this blunt behavior.
For instance, in the case of slack (or potentially a failure) in a subsystem, alerts are sent to the brain, and a set of rescue steps are initiated by the massive supercomputer on top of our shoulders, by transmitting the alerts to various other subsystems, in order to reduce their activities, or work more efficiently, or secrete certain helping chemicals to help the failing organ, and the whole body prioritizes the resources towards the more needy subsystem. "Local police" in the sanguine subsystem initiates a "rescue mission" in the vicinity of the trouble. In case of need for external involvement, the brain can initiate the necessary means for that, by either alerting other, supposedly more knowledgeable humans, via a complicated set of idea generation and signal transmission subsystems (talking, facial expressions, body movements, etc...) or by providing the necessary external supply of chemicals via complex mechanisms of thinking, precise movement (interaction of visual, muscular, skeletal subsystems...), the supply of the chemical via the digestive system, the targeting of the organ or any related secreting organ, all while feedback is being constantly sent to the related brain unit.
Many others examples can be given, but the main point is that nature had chosen a Socialist-like approach to successfully and efficiently allow various species (and especially the human one) to survive.

It is about time for our human societies to learn the natural way, our bodies way, and go towards a more Socialist behavior, especially with the crises we are and will be witnessing in the coming years (from over population, to environmental changes, to economical problems, to resources deficits, etc...) It is about time to learn from the working systems of our natural environment to ensure a better and longer survival in the future of our kind.

Joseph.

US Readership's Election Heat Map 2012

2012-08-25T16:06:00.001+03:00

With the election day on November 6, and in a very interesting move, Amazon is providing an interactive heat map analyzing its best selling books in each US state, by assigning the label "red" (for Republican), "blue" (for Democrat) or neutral.

We classify books as red or blue if they have a political leaning made evident in book promotion material and/or customer classification, such as tags.

The map is updated on a daily basis.

We compute percentages, updated daily, for each state and the US by comparing the 250 best-selling blue books during the time period against the 250 best-selling red books during the same time period, including new book launches.

Interestingly, the map shows a growing interest in "red" book. If this can be of any significance, Republicans are more favored to win the elections than Democrats. But as the description by Amazon insists:

Books aren't votes, and a map of book purchases can reflect curiosity as much as commitment, but we hope our 2012 Election Heat Map will provide one way to follow the changing political conversation across the country during this election season.

Personally, I hope this is not an indicating criterion, because it demonstrates a rise of conservatism, and potentially extremism and fundamentalism, in the United States (a nation with a big role in the political events of the world).

Joseph.

NASA's Curiosity Successfully Lands on Mars

2012-08-06T10:48:00.000+03:00

The US NASA has managed this morning to successfully land the nuclear-powered Curiosity rover onto its destination in Mars.

First image from Curiosity on Mars (credit NASA)

A new technical achievement or the American space agency (and subsequently to humanity) which allowed it to place a car-sized nuclear powered robot (ironically landed on the same day the A-Bomb was dropped on Hiroshima in 1945) using a "sky crane" mechanism, making it the largest vehicle to study the potential existence of life on Mars; the rover will assess whether Mars ever was, or is still, an environment able to support microbial life, as described by NASA.

Artist's concept of Mars Science Laboratory entry, descent and landing. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The rover has on board a variety of devices:

- 3 Cameras: MastCam for general monitoring, Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) for the robotic arm monitoring and Mars Descent Imager (MARDI) for descent monitoring.

- 3 types of spectrometers: ChemCam, Alpha-particle X-ray spectrometer (APXS) and the Chemistry and Mineralogy (ChemMin) instrument.

- The Sample analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument suite consisting of The Quadrupole Mass Spectrometer (QMS), The Gas Chromatograph (GC) and The Tunable Laser Spectrometer (TLS).

Posts to twitter (tweets) about the progress of the mission are expected on the account @MarsCuriosity.

Joseph.

A Society's Phenomena

2012-08-02T14:15:00.000+03:00

Note: TV kills your brain. Read more often.

"What I don't understand is why do they keep inviting her to TV shows?", I said to my dad, watching the notorious Maryam Nour, making a scene on TV, "she's obviously out of valuable content and keeps making up fights and throwing curse words on TV, calling everybody an ignorant for refusing her delusions, and that's not entertaining anymore."

In fact, this whole scene of Maryam Nour's (which she's apparently repeating on many other shows and many other occasions), emphasizes many trending phenomena that must be noted.

Battle of Money Sacks and Safes (2006 - Credit: Sergey Tyukanov)

The amount of TV this nation is watching, is dramatically high, regardless of the nature of the content. It's also notable that pointless entertainment takes a major part of the programming we are consuming (not based on any information source but rather an empirical observation by yours truly). What's sadder is the obvious attempt of spicing up TV shows with flagrant marketing cliches, for the sole purpose of reaching a bigger audience and higher ratings hence more advertisers and more money, never caring about the content (الجمهور عايز كده؟), with a clear consent from the viewers who instead of punishing such shows, keep encouraging them by giving them part of their time. (A previous post handling similar subject: Joe Maalouf And The New Low In Morality).

But that's not the end of it, we are shifting, as a society, and fast, into blind consumption. This is reflected in a major part in the superficial type of conversations we tend to have (again no statistics, but empirical observation to various "social" platforms). We value the complaints that share our world views, yet don't come up with revolutionary ideas. We consume ideas, defend them and never criticize them (unless of course they're opposite to our world view, and criticism is more like hate). Pointless small talk is taking a huge part of our social interactions. (Of course, there's the huge trend of geekism nowadays, but, in fact, intellect is relatively superficial in this phenomenon, and the image of a geek is mainly a consumption of concepts that are tailored by marketers). Knowing more stuff has replaced thinking.

Which brings up the careerism and the trend everybody is trying to follow to make more capital, and as fast as possible. A job is no longer a valued work or an interesting social role, but rather the necessary mean for a better consumption. This is displayed in the imbalance in the various work sectors, and the sudden surges in certain areas and lack of interest in others. We can't all be entrepreneurs, or work in the same high profile multi-national companies.

Worse, the loss of interest in the public life is being hailed, as an alternative to constant political/social/economic debates, and due to the lack of change power that the system offers, and escaping to consumption of entertainment (regardless of the quality) and a life of denial. I tend to believe that such involvement is a national duty, and the collective is responsible (as much as affected) for social/political/economic outcomes. (Previously discussed in: My Comrade and A good Lebanese citizen must not vote).

It's not too late, change towards a better society, critically thinking and deciding its own fate can be achieved. We only have to be ready to give up on the old habits, and accept to make certain compromises. We have to care about the nature of culture we receive, be more critical towards our collective well-being, as much as the individual one and promote innovative efforts and ideas instead of running towards globalist cliches.

Joseph.

A good Lebanese citizen must not vote

2012-07-15T17:39:00.000+03:00

Boycott elections! (credit libcom.org)

In the "democratic" political life, elections, is the process by which politicians are chosen by the mass of eligible voters to hold a public office. This process assumes transparency and honesty in the process, additionally the possibility to accountability to the candidate in future elections based on the amount of responsibility manifested during office.
A democratic life is based on principles and values and require a long process of education and awareness and not —unlike preached by the modern-age colonizers— on practices mimicking the democratic practices in old democratized countries.

In fact, a democracy is a by-product of a stable governance regime, social and economic equity, and not the opposite as merely advertised.

For all this, democracy is just an illusion in most of the "third world countries", advertised by global imperialist neo-colonial resource-driven political forces, to create a sort of controlled chaos in various regions of the world to keep dominance over much sought, and fought upon natural resources (not to mention the capitalist imperialism, spreading the wings of its greed everywhere a potential capital might be sucked).

And Lebanon (the current political Lebanon as opposed to the historical Lebanon) is no stranger to those facts. It has been the playground of a multitude of global and regional forces for around a century, it's divided into sectarian forces which can be in harmony at one point or ultimate foes in another circumstance.
Lebanese have been, for a long time, celebrating the sense of freedom they enjoy, unlike many of the surrounding neighbors. But in fact, this is just an illusion. People do have the right to elect their representatives, but in fact don't have the choice but to vote for the same old rotten class of politicians who have demonstrated year after year their loyalty and tight bounds with exterior forces and political agendas, or the ones who have been the most lucky in climbing the sectarian ladder and setting themselves a sort of de facto candidates for their confessions.
Add to that the manipulation of the voters by depriving them from a lot of their basic needs, to then be bribed cheaply for their votes on election day.
Election results may vary based on the actual cast votes, but in fact, the disease is always the same, rotten, corrupt, unprincipled politicians whose only purpose is to keep power, rather then creating a social national dynamism of change and progress.
Not to mention, the tailored sectarian confessional electoral law, which, regardless of any modernization added to it (proportional representation, fair media laws, independent monitoring NGOs...) remains a failure of a system and deepens the crack in our fragile pseudo-democracy.

The fundamentals of a nation are, as a matter of fact, missing.

Hence, voting in elections held under the same conditions is nothing but another stab to the back of potential progress. Let's face it, change is not gonna happen from within, simply because the system established doesn't allow it. We have witnessed many holders of the Reform slogan, being halted and altering a lot of their attitudes to maintain certain political gains they managed to acquire (to be excluded the electoral period).
Not even a blank vote (aka protest vote/white vote) is enough. All it does is refusing the choices given, but on the other hands is taking part of this corrupted environment, thus leaving the system unshaken.

Only abstaining from taking part of this elaborate joke, and protesting by raising the voice and creating massive gatherings will be the drive for such change. People give legitimacy to the corrupt system. Without the masses of people, the system is rendered illegitimate and hence more vulnerable to the public that refused to give it its blessing.

The chance to manifest this is nearer than possible. The 2013 electoral cycle should be the target of those protests. It's not early. In fact politicians start planning their electoral scenarios as of now, and protests should do that as well.

So until we have an agreement on the nature of our nation (a non confessional secular country, with powerful state organizations and equitable socio-politico-economic system), boycotting the silly joke of elections and acting upon our citizen duty to protest, are the weapons to be used to cure this political disease.

Joseph.

CERN Update on the Higgs Boson - Live Stream

2012-07-04T10:02:00.000+03:00

This stream is over.

Summary slide of the CMS experiment results

Conclusion slide of the ATLAS experiment

"I THINK WE HAVE IT!" ~ Rolf-Dieter Heuer (CERN general director 2012/07/04)

Reaction of Peter Higgs and François Englert after the announcement:

Reaction of Peter Higgs and and François Englert and other theorists in CERN TV interview:

Reaction of Stephen Hawking:

Twitter streams: #higgs #ichep2012
Google+ streams: Higgs boson #Higgs