Research: Death Penalty – عقوبة الاعدام
Music: Ani DiFranco – Crime For Crime
No human being willingly or intentionally likes to kill, steal and hurt another human being unless she/he is a psychopath or mentally ill. Think about it for a minute before you disagree with me. Humans have evolved to be social and to work together to get more protection, food and back up from other fellow humans. If you kill someone, you know immediately that you will be punished by your family, society and your country. Having said that, no one has the authority or the power to kill another human being. I think the best way to punish criminals is by locking them up in facilities where there are specialists, who can analyze the situation and rehabilitate them to go back to their lives. This way you create more jobs and add value to society’s nourishment. Sadly, our prison system in Kuwait and all over the world, is the worst place to be. It is the easy way out. Humans are treated like undeveloped animals, which makes them worst then what they were. This is a controversial topic and I tend to simplify things so if you have questions or comments please send them through and I will add to your point. I dedicate this song to people who still believe in death penalty. Enjoy!
Video: Daniel Dennett – Free Will, Determinism and Evolution
Beautiful lecture by the scientific philosopher Daniel Dennett, simplifying the magical myth we associate with free will. One of his slides include three key elements to his speech.
- Evolutionary theory, not physics, is the key to understanding the phenomenon of freedom.
- It explains how we can be free, when our parts aren’t free.
- It explains why people get so anxious. Freedom does evolve, and it could go extinct, if we aren’t careful.
I think free thought is how freedom evolves. Enjoy!
Video: The Universe – Brian Cox Lecture
You can’t speak about the universe and not mention Richard Feynman and Albert Einstein. These two great men discovered two main principles in physics. Einstein dedicated his life to understand the world of the very big, general relativity and Feynman focused on the world of the very small, quantum physics. In this lecture, Brian Cox beautifully describes the role of scientific thinking and how these two men changed the way we think about the universe up until this day. Enjoy!
Photography: Iber and Teton. Schnauzers. 2013
Meet my two schnauzers. Iber, the Giant Schnauzer, age 4 and Teton, the Standard Schnauzer, age 1.4. Having two black dogs in Kuwait is not easy. Having two black dogs with beards is even more of a hassle. Some people think Iber is a horse or a goat. The heat also plays a big factor but luckily they both like to swim. Those two make me active and outdoors most of the time, even in the summer. I have discovered so many places with them. They give me unconditional love and always happy to see me no matter what. Some studies show that playing with dogs for half an hour can increase oxytocin level which is a chemical responsible for happiness. I love those two and you will see more of them in this blog.
Articles: David Attenborough – A Life Measured in Heartbeats
Books: You Can’t Read This Book. Nick Cohen. 2012
Imagine if you are deprived of doing one of the most essential elements to your survival. Communication. In consideration to the expansion of the human brain, language and social interactions amongst other things have played a vital role in the capacity of our brains today, compared with the early Homo Sapiens. We humans like to talk. We express ourselves through words, numbers, symbols and drawings. Some of the things that Cohen points out in his book is that we must be ready to back up our arguments and admit that we are scared if we discuss controversial topics such as God, religion and politics. We must face the fact that we might get killed or imprisoned for just speaking clearly, directly and uncensored. We must communicate in all forms with a thick skin and get ready to be offended and disrespected because when arguing you are attacking the idea not the person and there is a huge difference. So be ready to be offended or rebuffed because it is time to speak the truth.
Articles: Work Alone – Ernest Hemingway’s 1954 Nobel Acceptance Speech
Photography: Star trail
It is very exciting to watch the stars let alone produce still images of them. The whole process from getting your camera ready to loading your photos and stacking them up to get one full image. This is my first attempt on star trail photography, this was taken within a short span, an hour only, and 251 images later, stacked using a software for mac called StarStax. I can’t wait to do this again! Thank you Q8geek