General Thoughts

Drima just got back from Istanbul and is officially blown away by the city. Gosh, what an amazing vibrant place. I loved every second of every minute I spent there.

I don’t think I’ve ever been in any city that felt so comfortable and homey for me in such a short span of time. It is such a rare occasion of the best of East meeting the best of West, and the two merging together so peacefully, you sometimes can’t even tell them apart.

Prayer in the Blue Mosque was certainly the highlight of the trip for me. It was a deeply mystical experience being inside under the large dome listening to the beautiful and echoing recitation of the Quran by the imam.

What’s up everyone, I’m back with a little thought experiment I’d like to share with you. I’m doing it with a new format that I’ve been wanting to try out lately, because it allows me to share more in less time. Plus, you don’t have to end up reading a gigantic long post.

Video has its advantages, but please excuse me if my voice sounds a little weird. I recorded the whole thing right after waking up. Alrighty then, let’s begin. Watch the video below.

I’ll be doing a follow-up post update after this, but for now, who would you rather trust more? X or Y?

UPDATE: Many of the first 20 comments contain no direct answer to the main question - whether the pick is Mr. X or Mr. Y.

That’s partially due to a blunder on my part for not making the thought experiment coherent enough, so I don’t blame those of you who who over-analyzed the story and came up with hilarious non-answers.

For example, I didn’t have a particular reason for stating the one day time period it took both Mr. X and Mr. Y to finish their bridges. The stated short time period wasn’t meant to sound like some miraculous feat, but a number of you perceived it as such, which was quite intriguing. Regarding Harvard apparently not offering civil engineering courses, well, it wasn’t meant to cast doubt on Mr. X’s genuine honesty.

Both Mr. X and Mr. Y are good honest men. It’s just that the basis of their bridge building and design efforts are different.

All in all, the feedback was ultimately good because it’s going to help me refine this thought experiment and make it more coherent. It also helps me prepare the ground to move forward with certain related topics I want to begin discussing. More importantly, if we only take into account the answers that did make a clear pick between X or Y, then we have an obvious winner.

Here are the answers (they are limited to ones from the first 20 comments in this post and the first six comments posted over at YouTube):

Answers from the Blog Post

Zoxuf - “I would go with Mr. X because his method of bridge building has been proven to be reliable in the past while Y’s method has not yet been proven.”

Andrew Brehm - “I’ll have to agree with Zoxuf… I’d trust Mr. X more.”

Elizabeth - “I agree with Andrew. I believe in G-d, but I can’t be sure that Mr. Y actually was inspired by G-d. I’ll pick Mr. X’s bridge.”

Optimist - “I like intuitions and convictions, but only when they are my own, thereby making it hard to trust Mr. Y’s bridge… Honestly, trusting a person with conviction and intuition seems romantic, but in this case it’s also flirting with death. I don’t like crocodiles. So Harvard grad’s bridge it is!”

lirun - “i would trust mr x.. assuming i dont need to double guess his credentials”

Amjad - “I would trust Mr. Y more, because Mr. X is a big fat liar! Harvard University does NOT offer Civil Engineering degrees, so Mr.X is a liar! :P”

Answers from YouTube

yaeli13 - “Yikes, I might rather build my own boat. I’d probably go with Mr. X though.”

StephenM02 - “mr. x”

… and the score is (drumroll)

• Total clear picks: 8
• Picks favoring Mr. X: 7
• Picks favoring Mr. Y: 1

Mr. X wins.

The results don’t surprise me. Do they surprise you?

To some of you, this might just be a simple fun silly thought experiment, but to me, it’s much deeper than that. The answers this experiment generates are precisely the kind that have huge political and social consequences on everyday life.

I trust in reason, and it seems like most of you who gave an answer do too. Whereas when it comes to faith, I only revere and respect the uplifting kind in non-rational and non-empirical matters, which cannot be proven or dis-proven, but I will not be dogmatically bound to it.

More in an upcoming post.

From Sudanese Optimist’s blog:

Sudan has lost a dear citizen, who has contributed tremendously to Sudanese and Arabic literature. His most acclaimed work is the 1966 novel “Season of Migration to the North.” The novel was, at one point, banned in Sudan for its inclusion of sexual imagery, yet it was declared “the most important Arabic novel of the 20th century” by the Syrian-based Arab Literary Academy in Damascus.

More here at this BBC article. Amira also hammered out an awesome roundup over at Global Voices.

RIP Tayeb Saleh, you will be missed.

““Is”, “is.” “is” — the idiocy of the word haunts me. If it were abolished, human thought might begin to make sense. I don’t know what anything “is”; I only know how it seems to me at this moment.” - Robert Anton Wilson

And on continues my battle with ways of figuring what is real Vs what is perceived. Go down the rabbit hole of epistemology, and I suspect you’ll never be the same again.

Related:

• Reality Vs ‘Reality’: Mediums, Sound Waves and Music That Moves
• Kant On Reality and Empiricism

And along with the second debate, Obama was the better performer in this one.

I liked how he sailed through McCain’s attack and question about Ayers calmly and rather eloquently like it was no big deal. On the other hand, I loved how McCain looked into the camera and started talking directly to “Joe.”

It was kinda funny, but I liked his emphasis on the importance of smaller government. His performance in this debate was better than the previous one which is ironic, since the format of the previous debate is supposed to be McCain’s favorite - town halls. During the first debate, he was the winner though.

Overall after watching the two candidates hit each other back and forth, I’m coming out in favor of Obama but with my nose squeezed tightly.

Thing is, when the race began, I was backing McCain. I wanted to see him win. Moreover, I wanted to see Hillary and Rudy lose, lose, lose.

Thank goodness them two did.

Obama was a no-name so I didn’t even pay attention to him. But then his phenomenal rise began, and the rest is history.

I like McCain, and I don’t have the kind of hatred many on the left have towards him, but ultimately, I believe his choice for VP was terrible. It served him well but only in the short-term. Moreover, I’m tired of seeing the lack of pressure being exerted by Elephants on Sudan to implement the CPA and settle the Darfur conflict.

Darfur is an issue which is more important to liberals since conservatives are more concerned with Iran and the War on Terror, (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing). Not only that, but Biden has switched his interventionist position on Darfur too to something more acceptable. On top of that Obama is staunchly in favor of Net Neutrality. McCain isn’t strongly so, which isn’t so nice.

Am I comfortable with my choice?

No, but one needs to be made, regardless of the big question marks.

And the big question marks that remain aren’t over Iraq or Afghanistan.

They’re over Iran, Pakistan…

… and the current US economic crisis!

“The rationalism of a frog living at the bottom of a well is to deny the existence of mountains. This is logic of a kind perhaps but it has nothing to do with reality.” - Frithjof Schuon

Related:

• Reality Vs ‘Reality’: Mediums, Sound Waves and Music That Moves
• Kant On Reality and Empiricism

Great list, must have taken that funky ghetto hijabi girl (with an interesting story, and probably confused identity) ages to put together. Although it would have been better with some links included but I trust her anyways.

Smallville’s Lana Lang is the HOTTEST, followed by Lisa Ray at number 15! (if you’ve been too busy living on Mars, Lana Lang is number 25 in the list in case you’re wondering). Nicole of the Pussycat Dolls is too damn slutty. Meanwhile, Halle Berry is getting too old.

There are all kinds of awesome, delicious mixes on that list including Ethiopian Irish. I bet at least 20% of those people grew up with some big identity crisis issues.

And hey, did you know Heroe’s Nathan Petrelli is half Iranian, half German? Boycott the freaking show! Say NO to evil Iranians, all of them, starting with beloved Ahmadmidgetnejad!

The finals, are finally here people! It’s too bad and sad the Netherlands is already out (ops, I’m “supposed” to hate them and boycott them right?). It’s nice that Italy got eliminated however. I’m super glad. They already had their moment in the last World Cup. They should be satisfied with that.

I really wanted to Turkey to reach the finals and win. Imagine, Turkey the EU wanna-be winning the Euro Cup. Now that would have been hilarious. Hard-core Europeans would have probably gotten so pissed off.

Speaking of Turkey, I was talking to my friend in Berlin last night and I asked her who the Turks living in Germany (and who are mostly German citizens) were supporting during the Germany Vs Turkey match.

To my slight surprise, she said they were all pretty much openly supporting Turkey.

“Don’t worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you’ll have to ram them down people’s throats.” - Howard Aiken.

I’ve held a very simple position on this matter. Give the man a fair trial, and if he’s found guilty, lock him up behind bars for as long as possible. If he is found innocent, release him as soon as possible. That’s it. Full stop. Is that too much to ask?

For more than six years Sami was imprisoned in Guantanamo without any due process. None whatsoever. Six years, and I think it’s an utter shame. Today, he finally heads back home to his family.

Zachary Katznelson, Sami’s American lawyer has called the whole spectacle ‘un-American’ and I believe he’s right.

The Supreme Court has said that every prisoner in Guantánamo has the right to challenge his imprisonment in court. If that right is taken away, these prisoners will languish in prison for years – innocent or not. If a prisoner is abused, he will have no recourse. That goes against everything a democracy should stand for. It is un-American,” Zachary Katznelson, Senior Counsel at Reprieve stated.

On top of that, the US Supreme Court has deemed the military trials unconstitutional.

South Park is super hilarious. The show just keeps getting better and better, poking fun in a very blunt way at everyone and anyone - Catholics, environmentalists, Al Gore, Muslims, Paris Hilton, Jews, gays, Africans and even Michael Jackson. I especially almost died with laughter when I watched that episode which caused a big stir about people who annoy you: N _ ggers.

Yeah, the blank is an ‘a’, not an ‘i’ just in case you might be confused. If you thought it was an ‘i’, you owe Jesse Jackson a major apology!

Have you seen the episode with Baher Hakeem, the new Muslim kid in school who got suspected of being a terrorist only later to have it emerge that instead of him, Russians were planning a terrorist attack during a Hillary Clinton campaign rally by hiding an explosive nuclear device in her you know… ehm?

Wonderfully blunt and funny!

The amount of political incorrectness the show’s creator’s get away with is staggering. Indeed, South Park’s satire is very daring.

If you don’t watch the show, you might want to check it out. Although I wouldn’t recommend a South Park DVD as a Christmas present for your six year old child or nephew, unless of course you want all kinds of profanities uttered in your face.

By the time we finally departed I was already pissed off and so were the two hot Swedish chicks sitting right beside me. We waited for a whole freaking hour and got no apologies whatsoever. Okay fine, at least the driver kept the engine and air conditioning running as we sat still in the bus the whole time but so what? I was still mad.

Thing is, the girls and I were angry for two completely different reasons. While I was irritated about having to arrive at my destination late, the girls weren’t. In fact, they didn’t seem to mind at all. Guess what they rambled about?

“How can he put all that smoke in the air? He should have turned off the engine. Doesn’t he know anything about global warming?”

I burst out laughing.

Needless to say, they weren’t amused, so we talked. Long story short, they were fully on board the “man-made global warming is going to destroy us” bandwagon. It was also evident to them that I wasn’t.

That specific incident was my tipping point and I knew had to get deeper into this whole Al Gore induced phenomenon. I’ve never been the environmentally aware kind. Didn’t bother, didn’t care but with a growing number of people trying to get me to join the club, I tried to arrive at my own conclusions.

So, you’ve got “The Inconvenient Truth” Vs “The Great Swindle.” In other words, “Man is screwing up the climate” VS “it’s mostly just Mother Nature.” Or if you still want to rephrase it differently, “the Left” Vs “the Right.”

Now, I’m neither interested nor willing to invest time and effort delving into the many details involved . Not yet. Maybe never. What we should be focusing on are the fundamentals.

The fundamentals are easy to see if we just take a step back and zoom out. Why don’t we all just do that? The question of whether man-made global warming is myth or reality shouldn’t be focused on much because at the end of the day pollution is a fact. Deforestation is a fact. Oil spills are a fact. Given the exploding population of the planet, the immense importance of sustainable development is a fact. Claiming that ditching your huge ass SUV for a tiny Mini-Cooper instead results in fuel cost savings is a fact. Claiming that smokey buses cause climate change isn’t and receiving preachy lectures from two very self-righteous chicks about how turning off the bus’s engine helps the environment is downright annoying.

But that’s not all.

Frankly, the Al Gore type of evangelism makes me suspicious because it isn’t just about saving energy and all that stuff. Oh no. It’s also about extra taxes and increased government regulation, things I can’t happily swallow thanks to my libertarian leanings.

I’m all for solving problems if and when they exist but bigger government doesn’t really seem like a good answer to me. In this case, what would be better is methods like getting consumers to lobby corporations into becoming more socially responsible or else risk losing their market shares.

Basically, let the market forces settle it, but bigger government? Hmmm… no thanks.

Global warming or not, one thing is for sure. Going green has a good ROI. Now that I can certainly agree with. In fact, I like how Tim puts it. It’s so much better than what I had to endure from the two girls.

It looks like the Emiratis have been helping the coalition in Afghanistan for the past 5 years now. Good stuff.

I’m glad the story is getting coverage over at Red State. Not surprisingly, some Muslims are fuming over what they view as treasonous.

Sure, let’s bring back the wonderful Taliban please. They’re so much better than the evil coalition.

I hate haters, therefore I hate myself.