unbelievable

in case you might be interested...
this is dr james watson's opinion on human intelligence... i'm amazed that someone could say these things in our day and age. read for yourself.

thoughts?

a song to go with today's post

Don't look in their eyes - Stabilo

Go now go get your guns
we'll all fight like cowboys and pray like nuns
then we'll dance around the open flames
if it gets too hot well we have no shame
no shame

they say we talk too much
cause nothing changes,nothing changes
and I say we don't talk enough
cause nothing changes, nothing changes
and oh, oh oh, oh oh

so we're here, sound the alarms
throw up your arms
we brought the entire army
and we're starving so don't try anything smart
theres plenty of ammunition and we've got our guards

look now he's on the run
i'm glad he tried its much more fun
if we chase him till the sun goes down
we can take him out with noone else around
no one else around, no one else around
no, no, oh no no

so we're here, sound the alarms
throw up your arms
we brought the entire army
and we're starving so don't try anything smart
theres plenty of ammunition and we've got our guards

stick around i got a hunch
we'll bomb this town and stop for lunch
and never,nevermind these awful cries
it's not as real if you don't look in their eyes

don't look in their eyes, don't look in their eyes, oh no
oh no no

so we're here, sound the alarms
throw up your arms
we brought the entire army
and we're starving so don't try anything smart
theres plenty of ammunition and we've got our guards

don't look in their eyes, don't look in their eyes, oh no
don't look in their eyes, don't look in their eyes, oh no



----------------
Now playing: Stabilo - Don't Look In Their Eyes
via FoxyTunes

To whom it may concern

I just got out of a Native Studies seminar.  Today was especially interesting, as our seminar leader announced that many students were just barely passing the participating component, the result being that people are being forced to talk.  This is good; the discussion was much more lively!  Anyway, we had read an article about decolonizing schools, though it really didn't provide any method of decolonization or say that it was even necessary... In any case, regardless of how non-commital the article was, we started to discuss the school system.  Of course, my ideas are slightly radical, so I'm sure many students are now walking away going "man, does that kid piss me off". 

Here's the case: a country with a large, marginalized population that is everyday attacked on the basis of race, language and culture, and has been for over 100 years.  This population is now trying to empower itself, and is tired of being given solutions.  That being said, a portion of that population, namely its young people are unsure as to what exactly to believe.  The question comes up: should we even care about past wrongs?  Can we not just move the hell along?  Who am I talking about?  Why Canada and its Aboriginal population, who else? 

We look at a lot of stats in this course, and it all points to the need for transformation.  Not only for social transformation, but also personal transformation.  Of course, these are things that I cannot say in class.  I suggested that all students, not just Aboriginal ones should learn about Aboriginal culture.  So I got asked: why?  and what should they learn about Aboriginals and their culture?  I said in class that it's because of the racism that exists.  But I don't think that person understood.  Let me explain here. 

I am not Aboriginal.  I lived in an area of my city that is predominantly white-middle class.  My school was so white that my Chinese French teacher would often ask me for the Iranian perspective to balance out the opinions in class.  I think her intentions were in the right place, but really, it was racist, and I hated that class as a result.  But you get the picture.  That all being said, we did learn about Aboriginal people in History - but that's only because we had a French History class.  None of my Anglophone friends learnt much about this population, and if they did, it was minimal.  What I learnt, I have now come to realize, was Eurocentric and inaccurate.  You know, if school is where we learn about stuff we don't learn at home, like other cultures, and on the news we hear bad news about Aboriginal people, and the "Aboriginal section" of the curriculum hasn't existed for long - tell me, how exactly are people to be able to understand them?  Or anyone for that matter? 

Do you think if my French teacher had understood that I just wanted to be normal that she would have put me on the spot so much?  Did I ever have the guts to tell her off? 

The thing is that we cannot allow misconceptions about others to continue.  It doesn't matter who they are - prejudice, racism - you know, just plain old ignorance - it cannot go on.  Our society is falling apart, piece by piece.  Yes, maybe it is tough for people to hear that we have to learn about them, but you know, we have to learn about everyone.  And maybe it's not that every student should be able to recite the alphabet in Cree, but more that children will grow up realizing that every person is a  person in their own right, that they have a soul, that they are challenged and tested, just like I am or you are, and that we need to respect them, whether they live on the street or in a mansion or next door.  You know, right now, many different cultures live in my area.  No one knows zip about the person next door - they just know what's on the news, if that!  So now, if my neighbors saw Iranians on television and thought I was like them, do you think they'd talk to me? 

Next problem - how do we get there?  How do we cause a change in the system?  Is it possible?  Aren't there forces that are propelling us in an individualist, profit-driven direction?  If the answer to the last question is "yes", then isn't resistance futile? 

This is why I talk about personal and social transformation.  The idea is not my own - it is clearly written all over the Baha'i Writings, and that's where I've been learning about this from.  See, here's the thing - you can't transform either one on their own or "first".  Our world's systems are based on the fragmented idea that you can... quite frankly, that makes no sense.  Let me give you an example: UV radiation, it is widely acknowledged, can cause cancer.  What happens is that the radiation messes up our DNA - even just one tiny, infintesimal base in our DNA in one cell can result in a tumor forming.  When that mutation (the messing with the base) occurs, the entire system in the cell is affected, and that results in bad news - the cell either dies or it becomes immortal and divides, hence the cancer...  The tumor, in turn takes over the body, crushing organs, destroying blood vessels - it is so destructive that the interior of the tumor actually dies because nutrients can't get to it.  So we can see how small changes to an individual component of an environment can result in changes in the environment.  Similarly, we see how global warming, a change in our environment, is affecting plant and animal life, which is affecting how we live, which affects, etc etc etc.... So now, if we see so many examples in nature, how is it that we don't see that society and the individuals within it function in the same way?  How could we ever imagine that we could create a just and fair society if the individuals within it, even just a small segment, are corrupt?  How could you say "I am truthful" when the place you work in requires you to bend the truth, or even to lie?  You see, we have to change both society and individual at the same time...

And I'm running out of time, so I'll continue this later.  

today's funny

this is a conversation between my sister (farah) and i today - she happens to be 3 and a half years old.

me: farah, make sure you finish your food
farah: i already did (note the obvious inability to align her understanding with reality - her plate was full of food)
me: uh...
now, in many previous conversations i have explained to my sister that if she eats, she will get big and strong...
farah: taleleh, are you small?
me: no, i'm not little, farah
farah: are you big?
me: yes
farah: then why are you eating?
[at this point my father and i are dying with laughter]
farah: what's so funny?

solutions that people forget about

so i'm well into the school year now... it's only midway through the second full week of classes and if you asked me about summer holidays i'd probably reply with a confused stare... anyway, today, i went to a seminar in which the participants had a discussion about solutions for the problem of "the inner city".
we all basically agreed that yes, the people themselves have to build up their own community... the question then was: how. how do we get people motivated? do we, "the other" - should we - get involved? if yes, how do we get involved? what should we do? if no, then do we just wait? and what are we waiting for? what will an "improved" inner city look like? then the question comes to mind: how will the people themselves, whom we know are trapped in a state of hopelessness, act on their desire to improve their lives? and if we believe as a society that humans are basically animals, then should we even care about "improving the lives of others"?
see, here's the basic problem with any kind of discussion at this level. if we are to deny the existence of God, of spirituality and of the nobility of the human spirit - all three of which are inseparable, as the existence of one demands the existence of the other two - then why are we concerned about improving our lives? without God our lives become a matter of survival, and for the duration of my life, i bet the situation in my town's inner city will not get bad enough to affect me.
now, personally, i do not agree with this standpoint. God does exist. every human being is created by God and therefore is noble, and so spirituality is just a matter of fact. humanity is one - so what affects anyone else, affects me. i've never really understood how in the social sciences we can ignore the interaction of the individual and the environment with each other. how is it possible that we know that a snow storm affects our pattern of life, and yet we do not understand that when someone stabs someone in front of my face, i'm going to be in shock for the rest of the day? it doesn't make any sense. we live in a society that boasts freedom of expression, and yet everywhere i turn, people are suppressing their emotions - their desire to do better, to help others, to reflect the qualities and attributes of God - such as love, justice, kindness, generosity...
anyway, the discussion was fruitless, of course. these seminars are designed only to help give students insight into the topic, and not actual experience and understanding. now, you tell me, how are we going to learn about the current plight of the first nations peoples in any region, without actually seeing their plight?
and that, dear reader, is our cream-of-the-crop education system. future leaders - i command you: ARISE!

whoops... i forgot, that doesn't even work in the wizarding world. even voldemort when to school and practiced.

meet wilson

Hello, world. Meet the current love of my life, Wilson (above). Well, actually this isn't all of him, this is just his N-domain, and actually his name is longer than "Wilson", but I think Wilson will do for now... maybe even Willy might be funny.

For the next year, Wilson and I will be doing joint projects in the lab, enjoying each other's company and doing things like binding him to others and seeing what his 2d mnr - sorry, I mean, n-m-r - might just look like. Using my super duper x-ray glasses, also known commonly as "YHS reading specs", I will get to do cool things and maybe just create a formula to world peace. That's right, world peace from a bunch of red, blue and yellow squiggly lines. It's like Martha Stewart minus the jail time, and plus the biochemistry. :P

Anyway, that's all for now, folks. I'll be posting more as the year goes on... I think this year shall prove to be awesome... that, and my favorite joke buddy is off to grad school, so I'll be bored out of my mind, and will have to post my commentary here... no more passing doodles of ATP factories in class...

an awesome video about teaching children!

quotation of the day... too funny (and true)

If you watch a game, it's fun. If you play at it, it's recreation. If you work at it, it's golf.
  - Bob Hope

coffee craziness

well, i got up this morning and decided (as usual) to grab some coffee and i found myself driving to the tim's close to my place - i figured i could drive-thru it up - and to my dismay, well, and alarm, i found the line up was actually causing traffic in the street! this is how much people are addicted to tim's coffee... i find it amazing.
so then i had to come to school and get coffee - which i did... and anyway, then i rolled up my rim (after having finished drinking cold, watered down coffee.. it was nasty....) and it said: please play again - so then a thought came to my mind... what if we could "roll up the rim" on exams? it'd be like a raffle to see if you could get an automatic pass or something.. i think that'd be pretty cool... and i imagine that students would go for it, and the university could make tons of money, and then maybe they can lower tuition and higher less angry librarians, and raise the entrance average so that we don't get idiot arts students watching movies loudly in the library... freaks!

anyway... those are my thoughts... coffee makes people crrraazy.

things i learnt yesterday

1. in terms of food additives, the term "contaminant" does not include insect fragments, rodent hairs and other extraneous matter
• ok.. so... what about whiskers?
2. smoking and deep sea fishing are more dangerous than food additives

oh - and a survey!

i want you all to say - phonetically : eee-pine (like pine tree) - frein ... now faster, eeepinefrein

question: if you are a forth year (honors) life science student (like a biochemist maybe...) and you pronounce "epinephrine", "eeepinefriene", should you be allowed to graduate?

leave a yes or a no in the comments section

The above is not at all, in any way, shape or form, based on a true story, or on the life of a close friend/classmate of mine. Any similarities you might see are surely a figment of your crrrazy imagination and not a reflection on me writing about someone else.

sneaky study

The phone rings.
"Hi?"
"Hey. It's me."
"Heeey, where are you?"
Nonchalant: "In the hospital."
"Oh my God! Are you ok?!"

It was this conversation that got me sneaking into the body repair facility late at night - sometimes as late as 8pm - to study. One little secret vertical passageway would take me up to the 13th floor - the others didn't have a number 13 button - and there I would find small furnished cubbyholes that were build for the more frugal body mechanic (mec) student. At one end there was a chapel so that you could pray you didn't fail exams... and at the other end... well... I haven't the guts to venture that far (I ordered guts on ebay, but they got lost in the mail)... There were even wash facilities with two doors, so that a creepy mec could never corner you - it would take two creepy mecs to do so!
I would sneak to this place witha friend or two (the cubbyholes you sickos not the wash facilities!) ...and close the door and read my books in peace. In peace from the trivium students watching funny people on their light books in the book repositories; in peace from gates being randomly locked; and from scary, angry cleaning staff that slam your desk when you are writing and say "oops! Sorry, I guess I pushed that chair in too hard" three times over! The only problem: I am not a mec.
I would always look over my shoulder to see if someone was coming to tell me to leave the premises. I was sure that I was wearing a gigantic sign on my back saying "theorist" but it was just the exact same letters embroidered onto the back of my new zip-up.
Then one day when I was alone in my cubbyhole, I heard steps approaching quickly... then slowing down... then stopped in front of my door. The doorhandle turned - I looked up, ready to pack my books and to throw in my towel in this battle of life - and a lady stuck her head in, saw I was there, and said "oh, sorry" and left. Today, I have gained a place to study.

In your face, university!

well, i must say....

that i am very much wanting to write but never having much to say.... it's like filling radio silence. i was on my friend's radio show once.... and i was at a total loss for what to say, so i was like don't tell them i'm here! needless to say, i was introduced, i said a very lenthy "hullo" and then quickly gave her a track to play (oh harry and the potters! *tear*) this is kinda like that - you see a blank screen and you think, what the heck am i going to do with this.... unfortunately for both you and i.... the answer is not much. sigh

anyway, i'm at school right now, in the main library - frustrated out of my mind that i got locked out of the building that houses my locker and one of my reserve textbooks. baaah tell me: what kind of university shuts down at 5pm during final examinations and then proceeds to lock doors to its health sciences building?! you'd think they'd care about the med and dent students more than the arts students (the arts building is still open). and extended hours - i laugh at your lame attempt to convince me of that.. here i am, sitting in the main library with arts students who spend more time laughing and watching videos (without headphones) than studying... you know what? i'm going home. with a 3 year old and parents on my case - even my house is quieter and less hectic than these people.

i have other less appropriate words for this university... but i'll end this blogpost here.

and they wonder why we get such low grades... IDIOTS!

aha! THIS is what i need to do with my life!

I gotta work out. I keep saying it all the time. I keep saying I gotta start working out. It's been about two months since I've worked out. And I just don't have the time. Which uh..is odd. Because I have the time to go out to dinner. And uh..and watch tv. And get a bone density test. And uh.. try to figure out what my phone number spells in words.
- Ellen DeGeneres

So I'm wondering how many of you can see a cool little handwritten font, instead of the usual times or whatever that I've been using. If you can see it, please let me know. If not... sigh, back to the drawing board it will be for me. In any case, I've discovered a new found love - web design. That's right, my friends, I think I shall drop out of school, forget science and what not - and devote my life to making cool web pages and photography like every other sorry student out there. Take THAT my 100% final!

Also, for those of you who CAN read this font - I wish very much that my real hand writing can look like this. I actually have a doctor's scrawl... I attribute this to my inability to think straight - it ends up affecting everything because I can't keep up with the profs and their crazy talk eheh. Today, I was told by a very kind friend of a friend that bad handwriting is the mark of a genius. Sigh... I also wish that I were somewhat a genius.

Apparently, I'm also not very genius at making this whole blog font thing work - so far this font is not showing up for anyone... I should've listened in grade 7 when they taught us the basics!

Anyway, I should get back to studying about sulfites...

i found this amusing :P

Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net

today's learning

well, i've been studying some more - and so i have a few fun facts for you all (ahah, say that 10 times fast!)

1. if you hear: "nitrile levels increased following glucosinolate consumption" that means: "we gave them a toxic dinner, and then measured the amount of poison in their bodies
2. ok, so i'm taking a food additives and toxicants class. at one point we were learning about isothiocyanates, a compound which can become the poison cyanide in the body. the prof gave us a list of reasons why it is bad for us, and then has at the bottom of that list, a bullet stating that the effects of this compound on humans is not known, as no one's really looked into studying it. so now, here's my question for you - if we're talking about food toxicants, wouldn't it be normal to expect that we'd want to know what the compound does to a human? just a thought. maybe we don't... i dunno..
3. oh, and for all you lab rats out there - remember, do not, i repeat DO NOT autoclave your food. i realize that you want to get rid of tannins just as much as i do - but autoclaves are not the right means to that end.
4. oh, and if you want to peel a potato, it's never been easier - a simple alkali steamer will go pop, and there goes the peel claen and easy. no more hand cramps from peeling during those wonderful family-dinner holidays all women hate...

and now, a piece of advice for those of you who like to text. most cell phones (or mobiles for those of us not in north america) are now equipped with a silent function, in which you can push buttons all you want without making touch-tone phone sounds.

and that's all for now...

bits of info

so i was studying today (surprise, surprise...) and i came across a few things in my notes that i thought might be of some interest to you:

1. cyclamates, a type of non-nutritive (which also means non-caloric) sweetener, are also useful as a means to cause testicular atrophy - remember that for the next time he cheats on you! :P
2. chemically synthesized also seems to mean "not found in nature". get that.
3. there is such a thing as "chinese restaurant syndrome" - it's when you go insane and convince yourself that Chinese food is bad for you.
   
4. gossypol - which is cotton-seed oil - can work as a male contraceptive. it also causes major organ failure.. but that's beside the point - just think, a male contraceptive. no more pill, patch, iud, etc for the woman... brilliant.. although, can men handle the responsibility?

anyway, that's all for tonight in terms of funny things i learnt from my notes... i'm sure i'll have more soon enough!

quotations of the day

here are some quotations i read today that i thought were pretty cool...

Therefore, you must thank God that He has bestowed upon you the blessing of life and existence in the human kingdom. Strive diligently to acquire virtues befitting your degree and station. Be as lights of the world which cannot be hid and which have no setting in the horizons of darkness.

and...

Therefore you should put forward your most earnest efforts toward the acquisition of the sciences and arts. The greater your attainment, the higher your standard in the divine purpose. The man of science is perceiving and endowed with vision whereas he who is ignorant and neglectful of this development is blind. The investigating mind is attentive, alive; the mind callous and indifferent is deaf and dead.

the standard question

well, my life has become a matter of procrastination, and as such, i deem it necessary to write as many blog posts as is required to compel me to study out of boredom of blogposting. you, the reader, naturally, may desire to destroy me because of such horrible ramblings as are on this blog.. however, i must say, i'm not the kind of person that puts up a fight... so.. anyway, that is a digression...

needless to say, last night i was presented with a case in which a friend compared getting stuck in traffic to going runnin with the old man... (ahah, the way that is worded it sounds like the old man can't actually run and is slower than the don valley parkway - BUT! ...read on.. eheh) she was saying that she always has really good excuses for why she isn't doing something she should be doing. i suggested to her that not doing homework to go running with the pops is slightly different than being stuck in traffic and extremely late to pick up one's date. the question, i said, is a matter of having a control to compare to, and in this case, all the variables are different... and that, dear reader, is not the way an experiment is done.

so, we go on to our topic of being funny. i would suggest that our control be a lack of funny. an empty vector of sorts. in the case of a student, it would entail a set of class notes devoid of any absurdity or wit. in the case of an employee it would be a grey cubicle. in such cases, anything out of the ordinary can be used as humor... and therefore, anyone could make it funny. so there's no fun in that! eheh

what is often hilarious is irony. take today... people were driving past me on the freeway... probably yelling profanities at the old idiot driving that... anyway, you get the point. i - one of the most speed-loving creatures on this earth - had to drive slowly! like a normal old person. it was painful. see, now that's funny. oh, and the reason for this actually stems from my impatience... i ended up breaking part of my putt putt - and so now he has a nearly mirror-less driver :P anyway: moral of this story: i need a car that can withstand my need for a rush.

hmm.... kinda like the type of guy i need... ahem...

you know though, there is an inherent flaw in the need for a control - you always need something to compare the variable to - and so you never know absolutely "this is the answer", you just have a series of guesses that lead you to believe "this".

anyway... i need some feedback on something so that i can poke fun at it! now if this were a lecture.... :P

right so i forgot to say...

for those of you who actually read this blog and then go so far as to read the comments, you may have noticed comments regarding monkey sex and its funniness. after hearing back from the involved parties about the situation which led to comments regarding monkey sex i feel it my duty to write a message to you.
the situation in question involved an analysis of canadian blood services' recent questionnaire change. the new questionnaire makes some interesting assumptions. i'm not too sure what conclusions they can draw from the form; however, i did check out the info sheet on "what you need to know to give blood". it would seem that they are now being precautious to the extent of discrimination. now, i won't go into the details - i suggest you take a look at it for yourself, it's really quite funny.. but one of the questions on the questionnaire is if you have ever worked with monkeys or come into contact with the bodily fluids of monkeys in your past or present job. hence, the monkey sex.
i find it amusing to think that cbs needs to ask such interesting questions in such public places as the tunnel at my university - could you imagine sitting in a hallway with hundreds of students bustling by, your friends standing around you and you checking off a box and the nurse being like "i'm sorry, you don't fit our criteria for eligible blood donors" for a reason such as you having been in France. amazing.
excuse me if i'm not surprised at why we don't have enough donors - i'm suprised that we have any donors at all! the way the questionnaire is set up - i am barely eligible because i've been travelling outside of canada (not including the US) in the past 3 years - yeah, like inner city NYC is safer than a little irish village.
anyway, so ends my rant...

the above all being said, i understand that cbs is trying to cut back on cost of testing blood and throwing away infected blood, etc - and promoting the health of those individuals requiring blood, which really could be any of us. my purpose in the above commentary is merely that i find the subject of their questions and their implications rather curious and i am stating that. that is all.

phew - what a crazy post!

so the last blog post involved me trying to be funny... and well, impressing one of my readers (which worked) however, it has taken me a few days to recover from various comments that i have received such as "this blog wasted my life" and "you're a sell-out, tah" and other such mean things.
is it that bad to want to make someone smile? to be funny? to fit into this world?

after a few tearful nights... i have decided to continue on my funny tangents...

ok, so if anyone knows how to make an online survey and insert it into a blog post, that would be great - in the meantime, i will share my initial hypotheses on the questions posed in my previous blog post. they are as follows:

• how you write funny things into a blog post?
• is it possible to be funny in a blog post?
• what constitutes "funny"?
• how can we make a "funny" standard?

i am sure that other funny questions will come up as we meet little hiccups along the road to discovering more about this concept of humor. questions such as: is God a funny sorta Guy, and other such things. (seriously, i'm sure people will be getting hiccups as i write this, somewhere in the world.. and who knows? i might run into them.)

so in looking at these questions, it would be wonderfully spectacular if you could post back your own answers and thoughts, and then we could create a bit of a dialogue. just remember - this is my blog and therefore everything you write here will be under my name.. i might acknowledge you if i think your contribution was important... but probably not.

anyway, so i think that about covers the introduction... and you'll have to wait for the experiment to incubate for a few hours before i can analyze them and then give them back to you.

and... i also have a little bit of work to do so... i'll post more later!