Category: Uncategorized

A galaxy of British actors and directors threatened to boycott the BBC if the world’s biggest broadcaster did not reverse its decision not to air an aid appeal for the homeless population of the bombed-out Gaza Strip.
“We will never work for the BBC again unless this disgraceful decision is reversed,” they wrote in an open letter to BBC’s director-general Mark Thompson cited by The Scotsman on Tuesday, January 27.
Last week, the BBC refused to air an aid appeal by Disasters Emergency Committee, a coalition of charities including Oxfam, British Red Cross and Islamic Aid, to raise funds for the people of Gaza.
More than 1,350 people, including 437 children, were killed and 5,450 wounded in 22 days of air, sea and land Israeli attacks.
The deadly onslaught left Gaza infrastructure in tatters, with 4,100 homes totally destroyed as well as 17,000 homes, 1,500 factories, 25 mosques, 31 government buildings and 10 water or sewage pipes damaged.
Thompson claims that airing the fund-raising appeal could compromise the BBC’s impartiality.
“I will never work for the BBC again unless they change their mind,” actor Samantha Morton, who initiated the boycott call, told a fund-raising event for the Medical Aid for Palestinians agency Monday.
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Forget what’s number one at the box office this week. The most exciting new film features the intricate workings of the body, filmed by scientists using ground-breaking technology.
For the first time in Australia, scientists at Sydney’s Centenary Institute have filmed an immune cell becoming infected by a parasite and followed the infection as it begins to spread throughout the body.
Professor Wolfgang Weninger, head of the Immune Imaging program at the Centenary Institute, says the discovery (published in PLoS Pathogens) was made possible using high powered multi-photon microscopy which allows real cells to be viewed in real time.
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By Heidi Ledford

Elderly people who cut calories performed better on memory tests.
Cutting calories by 30% for three months has boosted memory and reduced insulin concentrations in a group of healthy elderly people.
Previous research on the possible benefits of calorie restriction has yielded mixed results. Some studies have found no benefits. Others have found that calorie restriction protects rats and mice against age-related memory loss and some neurodegenerative diseases. In humans, cutting calories has been linked to prolonged health, but there have been no previous reports of an effect on memory.
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By B. R. Gowani

What is God?

Most human beings have inner instincts on issues that compel them to act accordingly. Whether that urge is Godly force, i.e. God speaking to the person, and the subsequent actions depend on how much political, religious, or will power the person yields.

In some cases, how strong or righteous (or both) the person feels about the issue, is also a factor. Those without clout need stamina to withstand ridicule or death even by occasional stoning. In some instances, e.g., televangelists: being shrewd and cunning are handy tools in the motive to empty the pockets of the gullible.

If Lord Krishna had failed to convince Arjuna (one of five Pandava brothers) to fight his cousins, the Kauravas, on the battle ground of Kurukshetra, when Arjuna was reluctant to shed his cousins’ blood, the religious epic Mahabharata, as we know it, would not have existed.

If Jesus Christ would have answered, “I am,” and no more, when he was asked by the high priest, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?” the chances of a new religion emerging by the name of Christianity would have been minimal. Since Jesus probably felt strongly that he had a special relationship with the Almighty, he added: “And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.’” (Bible, Mark 14:61-2.) With these words, Jesus’ fate was sealed.  These last words scared the Jewish elders for their potential to provoke the Roman rulers and hence his fate. He was crucified.

Some 900 years later, a Persian Muslim Sufi called Mansur Al Hallaj (d. 922 CE) was to meet similar fate. He would be crucified or beheaded for proclaiming “Ana’l-haqq”, that is, “I am the truth” or “I am God.”

“I am he whom I love, and he whom I love is I,
We are two spirits dwelling in one body.
If thou seest me, thou seest Him,
And if thou seest Him, thou seest us both.”

Quoted in Alfred Guillaume, Islam, (1986), p.146.

These were simple verses with a profound message to the religious establishment: God lives within me and so you get lost. Everywhere, the custody of God is in the hands of the religious and/or political establishments. It was no different here. The Abbasid caliph could not let him go so easily; Hallaj had to die. But before that he suffered a decade in a Baghdad prison.

When Prophet Muhammad (CE 770-632) first introduced the concept of one God in Mecca, a land of many goddesses and gods, he was ridiculed. He firmly believed in his mission and persisted with perseverance. Also, being a member of the respectable Banu Hashim family, he didn’t have to fear any physical harm.* He belonged to the Quraish tribe which was powerful as they had control of the Kaaba.

One can only wonder what would have happened to Muhammad if he was from one of the lower class Bedouins.

When Muhammad’s uncle Abu Talib died, the protection afforded to him was denied by the clan leader Abu Lahab, and in 622 CE, Muhammad had to leave Mecca for Yathrib, later named Medina.

Enthusiasm and good battle strategies helped him to return to Mecca in 630, two years before his death. As a result, Islam gained the strength to branch out in different directions, making it one of the major world religions.

In the present time former President George Bush had regular audiences with God in the White House, to know and carry out His mission, as is evident from his conversation in 2003, with Nabil Shaath:

“I’m driven with a mission from God. God would tell me, ‘George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan.’ And I did, and then God would tell me, ‘George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq …’ And I did. And now, again, I feel God’s words coming to me, ‘Go get the Palestinians their state and get the Israelis their security, and get peace in the Middle East.’ And by God I’m gonna do it.”

(Prime Minister Mehmood Abbas was present at the meeting and recalled Bush’s words: “I have a moral and religious obligation. So I will get you a Palestinian state.” The then Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon wasn’t listening, of course.)

Bush came off as such a humble and obedient servant of God! What more could God ask for?

(If God had a few more servants like Bush then surely, He would have been forced to terminate His sabbatical in order to re-create the world, because of high probability that His servants would have caused enough destruction to have left an entirely flat earth. In that case, one could have expected Him to devote more than six days to achieve a decent outcome of the re-creation effort.)

So this is the miracle of power. If we imagine George Bush as an ordinary six pack Joe, a construction worker, or a homeless person in Texas, would his claim that God told him to invade Iraq have had any effect at all? NO. Fellow workers would have laughed at him or his homeless buddies would have distanced themselves from him. Perhaps some mischief mongers would have harassed, taunted, or thrown stones at him. Bush’s claim that God told him to invade Iraq would have been empty, tossed off as mere rubbish, if it had lacked the force and power to carry it out.

Then there are those who have been beaten by the moola bug. They amass fortunes in the name of spirituality, and want to sting everyone else with the spirituality bug. Their argument is that spirituality cures many ills and without it, life is worthless.

These entrepreneurial spiritualists gain riches and fame for themselves by selling spirituality rather then helping common people in any way. Those who are working to make ends meet have much to worry about in paying bills, getting the car repaired, taking care of a child beaten up by a bully, and tons of other problems; they don’t have time for this spiritual nonsense. This changes, of course, if you get a hold of them and create this “need” in their lives.

(Like businesses create a “demand” for their products by bombarding the viewers with their advertisements.)

Yes, there are people who, without commercial interest, genuinely feel that there is room for spirituality in their lives. This is fine. But others have different kinds of needs. They find solace, comfort, pleasure, and happiness (their brand of spirituality) through other mediums. Some enjoy reading a novel by Nawal El Saadawi, a poem by Pablo Neruda, a film by Mrinal Sen, or listen to a song by Joan Baez. Others may enjoy commercial cinema. Some may enjoy hiking or seating on the beach. Yet others may prefer ballet, Kathak, or theater. And so it is. There may be people who would prefer a combination of the above things. Others may like beautiful company of the opposite (or same) gender along with the philosophy of the South Asian film “Chameli’s” heroine: “Jo bhi ho, jaisa bhi ho, bus pyar hona chahiye.” (It doesn’t matter who the person is (male or female) or how that person looks, the most important thing is that there should be love.)

But How did God Come About?

Imagine yourself with no ceiling, no walls, and no shelter. No beds, no pillows, and no quilts. No clothes, no shoes, no caps—not even a shawl. No factories, no industries, and not even Gandhi’s spinning wheel. No electricity, no air conditioners, and no heaters. Fire has not been discovered yet. No farms, no agriculture, no grocery stores; no food except from the trees and plants and from the animals weaker than you, whom you can kill. No doctors, no surgeons, no quacks, no hospitals, no clinics, no pharmacies—not even turmeric.

No transportation of any sort, not even a bike or a cart. The wheel, the mother of all transportation, has not yet been invented. No telephones, no faxes, and no computers. No technology of any type — period. You have no idea about the world or its vastness; forget about its flatness or roundness. And you have zero understanding of the natural phenomena. You have wild and gentle animals, birds, and insects as your neighbors.

Furthermore, it is extremely cold and raining with thunderstorms and lightning. Or it’s hot and humid. Your whole being is enveloped in fear, and fear of the unknown.

This then is the most fertile time of your life. You are in the ovulation period. Then comes pregnancy — not of a child, but a concept. And so during the labor pains and the fear, you give birth. What to? The God Almighty, of course, the Supreme Being.

He is not the Father God. You are the mother of God. You gave birth to God. She, he, I, they, we all are mothers of God. We gave, and give, birth to God in time of our needs.

God is not our Holy Father — we are God’s Needy Mothers.

We are all Mother Mary, Miriam, Maria, Mariam, Mapia, or Madonna. We are all Virgin Mary — nobody impregnates us and yet we conceive God.

This is how God becomes a vital part of our lives and takes on a real (not virtual) existence. “Hey Ram,” “Oh my God,” “Ya Khuda,” “Maula Bapa,” “Jesus,” “Ya Ali,” “Hey Bhagwan,” etc. become a part of our everyday vocabulary.

Knowing that I’m an atheist, people ask me, “So what do you say when you’re in pain or trouble?” “I say ‘Ba’ [Gujarati for mother]” is my reply. She is my creator. “Oh my Ba” and “Thank Ba” are some of the other variations.

By our giving birth to the Supreme Being there gradually evolved gods and goddesses for various natural phenomena. Some saw gods and goddesses in the nature cycles and named them accordingly creating myths about the deities, to allay fears and awe. They also projected the gentleness, strength, wildness, or other attributes in birds, animals and nature onto their gods and goddesses. Subsequently, some inevitably put all the attributes in one entity and thus credited the creation of the entire universe to one God.

With the passage of time and the progress of infant technology, human beings (tiny minority) became more knowledgeable and articulate and the simple gods and goddesses took on a more intricate form, with complicated philosophy and volumes of commentary and interpretations about what goddesses, God, and gods said or meant when revealing their messages through prophets and seers.

I suspect the goddesses, God, and gods would be amazed at their apparent knowledge since their followers claim that every discovery, invention, or breakthrough the scientists make in medical, technology, astronomy, or other fields are already in their scriptures.

(It’s like the person in the court who started sobbing and wailing loudly when his lawyer presented the case in an exaggerated way. When the judge asked the reason for this, the person replied he had not known until then, that he had been beaten up so badly.)

Similarly, the divine is crying out at their ignorance of the extent of their own knowledge.

Yes. This is the Divine irony (nothing to do with Dante’s Divine Comedy.)

One can only be befuddled as to why these archeologists, anthropologists, physicists, evolutionists, biologists, and others are wasting their time in universities, fields, and labs. They should open up any scripture and find their information there. Libraries should only carry the scriptures and no other book.

B. R. Gowani can be reached at brgowani@hotmail.com

*(The idea that Muhammad had no fear of physical harm is taken from one of South Asian historian Irfan Habib’s books.)

By Nadeem F. Paracha

Daddy?
Yes, son.
Are we going to have a war with India?
Perhaps.
Oh, goody. We will thrash them, right? Like we did in 1857!
It wasn’t in 1857, son.
Oh, okay. But whom did we thrash in 1857?
The British, son…
And the Hindus too, right?
Well…
Did Quaid-i-Azam fight in that war along with Muhammad bin Qasim and Imran Khan?
No, son. The Quaid and Imran were born much later and Muhammad bin Qasim died many years before.
Then who ruled Pakistan in those days?
There was no Pakistan in those days, son.
But there was always a Pakistan! It has been there for 5,000 years!
Who have you been talking to, son?
No one. I’ve just been watching TV.
It figures.
Daddy, why are all these people against us Arabs?
Arabs? But we aren’t Arabs, son.
Of course we are because our ancestors were Arabs!
No, son. Our ancestors were of the subcontinental stock.
Sub-what?
Never mind.You seem to like wars, son.
Yes. I like to watch them on TV.
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By Anthony Gottlieb

If a Martian were to look at a map of the Earth’s religions, what he might find most surprising is the fact that such a map can be drawn at all. How strange–he might say to himself–that so many of the world’s Hindus are to be found in one place, namely India. And how odd that Muslims are so very numerous in the Middle East. With the disconcerting curiosity that is so typical of Martians, he might wonder what explains this geographical clustering. Do people move countries in order to be close to others of the same faith? Or do people simply tend to adopt the religion they grew up with?

The answer, of course, is the latter–on the whole. There are exceptions: Jews moving to Israel, for example, and there are many other cases of religious migration. Still, the huddling of the faithful is mainly explained by the fact that religion runs in families. If you have a religion, it is probably the same one as your parents. Earlier this year a survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found that nearly three-quarters of American adults professed the religion in which they were raised. But instead of finding this glass to be three-quarters full, newspapers preferred to notice that it was one-quarter empty. It was the minority of Americans who either switched religions, or abandoned religion altogether, who were highlighted in reports of the survey (“Poll Finds a Fluid Religious Life in US”, ran a headline in the New York Times). Plainly it does not count as news that religion remains largely a family affair. Yet it should do, because of its largely unnoticed consequences. Some religious groups are dramatically outbreeding others, in ways that have an impact on America, Europe and elsewhere.
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By Ian Sample

Charles Darwin’s “tree of life”, which shows how species are related through evolutionary history, is wrong and needs to be replaced, according to leading scientists.
The great naturalist first sketched how species might evolve along branches of an imaginary tree in 1837, an idea that quickly came to symbolise the theory of evolution by natural selection.
But modern genetics has revealed that representing evolutionary history as a tree is misleading, with scientists saying a more realistic way to represent the origins and inter-relatedness of species would be an impenetrable thicket. Darwin himself also wrote about evolution and ecosystems as a “tangled bank”.
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New studies suggest people need to respect the body’s desire for nighttime darkness
By Janet Raloff
Web edition : Friday, January 23rd, 2009

NIGHT LIGHTS AND CANCER

…
To stay healthy, the body needs its zzz’s. But independent of slumber, human health also appears to require plenty of darkness — especially at night. Or so suggests a pair of new cancer studies.
One found that among postmenopausal women, the lower the overnight production of melatonin — a brain hormone secreted at night, especially during darkness — the higher the incidence of breast cancer. The second study correlated elevated prostate cancer incidence around the world with places that have the brightest signatures of light in satellite imagery.
Trends seen in both studies bolster animal data indicating that natural nighttime peaks in blood concentrations of melatonin, which tend to occur during sleep, depress the growth of the hormonally sensitive cancers.
Light will depress the body’s natural secretion of that hormone, whether someone is awake or asleep.
In 2001, Eva S. Schernhammer of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and her colleagues found an elevated risk of breast cancer among women who worked night shifts. The data, gleaned from participants in the long-running Nurses’ Health Study, fit with the idea that the light encountered while working nocturnal hours would have suppressed the women’s melatonin production.
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By BEN WHITE
Published: January 28, 2009

By almost any measure, 2008 was a complete disaster for Wall Street — except, that is, when the bonuses arrived.
Despite crippling losses, multibillion-dollar bailouts and the passing of some of the most prominent names in the business, employees at financial companies in New York, the now-diminished world capital of capital, collected an estimated $18.4 billion in bonuses for the year.
That was the sixth-largest haul on record, according to a report released Wednesday by the New York State comptroller.
While the payouts paled next to the riches of recent years, Wall Street workers still took home about as much as they did in 2004, when the Dow Jones industrial average was flying above 10,000, on its way to a record high.
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