Life, Dreams and Reality -- Sohel's Blog

Anne Applebaum's analysis in The Washington Post on revolutions spreading in the Middle-East correctly shows the patterns in history that repeat. In 1848, revolutions in European nations, have similarities what had and are transpiring in Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Libya, Yemen, Jordan, Morocco, and possibly more nations (China?) in the coming days and months. Revolutions are indeed messy and by its very nature, political changes demanded by general restive populace under the repressive governments / regimes meet heavy handed oppressions by the power in the pulpits who are desperately trying to cling to their slipping illusory controls over the mass that no longer have the fear. Each of these nations that are going through upheavals that were unthinkable only a few months ago, have commonality in their shared culture and history, but also have stark dissimilarities arising from varied geographical boundaries and political history. Conglomerating protests in all these nations as a ...

The following comment in the book review of Brian Greene's The Hidden Reality seems a bit weird but perhaps reality is indeed more than these pair of mundane eyes can see: "If information is indeed the key to understanding nature, the question arises of whether the universe “is” a computer....computers will eventually become powerful enough to run simulations involving intelligent entities like human beings so realistically that the beings inside the sims think they’re living real lives....we may already be living inside such a simulation. He notes that simulations would be highly popular among the inhabitants of any civilization capable of running them. Terrestrial historians might, for instance, run thousands of sims to determine the results of altering Napoleon’s tactics at Waterloo, or social scientists run sims to predict how various pieces of social legislation will pan out. The implication of running sims in minutes that replicate events taking years is tha...

How would the computer evolve in future? How would the human mind expand with the help of easily accessible information tools that will become more ubiquitous? Will computer ever be able to replace human beings in every facets of intellectual realm? The increasingly faster rate that the progress in computing science is evolving, is simply breathtaking. It seems the days of Intel 80386 and 80486 and even the very first Pentium processors and Microsoft Windows 95 operating system are so antiquated. Modern world it seems cannot not have enough of more technologies, embedded in every way possible, in cell phone, tablet, mounted in wall, in gaming systems, and some even can be put into clothing. In an instant I can pull up three thousand years old Egyptian history while the protesters were chanting to depose their dictator in 21st century. Going to grocery store is not the same anymore. One can scan the bar code of a food through cell phone, and here comes all the tidbits of the delicious...

".....those writing in other languages, their work is rarely translated and never read. So much of human experience is marginalised." Turkish Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk's the above comment is sad but true. There are numerous great writings never get wide international readership. This problem possibly can be resolved if more marketing campaigns can be conducted for translated works in collaboration between the publishing companies and the government. Now that electronic book is increasingly becoming the reality in the world of books, perhaps innovative translating software can play a big role into this over time. Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jan/26/orhan-pamuk-attacks-marginalisation-non-english

It was not that difficult. Here is how I did it: 1 .2 kilogram Salmon fillets were defrosted. In a skillet cooked for 10 minutes the following: 1 large onion, bunch of garlic cloves, 2 large tomatoes sliced, broccolis, red and yellow peppers, green beans, 1 large Lemmon sliced with skin, extra virgin olive oil, black pepper, turmeric, coriander, paprika. Placed the half cooked vegetable in a baking sheet and container and inserted into a preheated oven (350 degree F) for 20 minutes. Marinated the defrosted salmon fillets with olive oil and Lemmon. Took out the baking container that had baked vegetable, and placed the salmon fillet on top of vegetable. Covered the top of salmon fillets with the remaining half of the vegetable from the skillet. Placed the baking container with vegetables and salmon and baked for 25 minutes. In the end, verdict of the loved one: "not bad". Salmon is full of omega 3 and other healthy nutrients, as are the vegetable used. No need o...

Brian Greene's article in The New York Times is a must read that so eloquently reminds the immensity of the cosmos. http://nyti.ms/hllXBX

"...the amount of leisure time spent sitting in front of a screen can have such an overwhelming, seemingly irreparable impact on one’s health that physical activity doesn’t produce much benefit.....those who said they spent two or more leisure hours a day sitting in front of a screen were at double the risk of a heart attack or other cardiac event compared with those who watched less. Those who spent four or more hours of recreational time in front of a screen were 50 percent more likely to die of any cause. It didn’t matter whether the men were physically active for several hours a week — exercise didn’t mitigate the risk associated with the high amount of sedentary screen time....One possible mechanism, demonstrated in animal studies, is that being sedentary may affect lipid metabolism. Prolonged inactivity appears to sharply reduce the activity of an important enzyme called lipoprotein lipase, which is responsible for breaking down circulating blood lipids and makin...

Various categories of exercise videos are available from the link below: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health/fitness-basics/

http://nyti.ms/fALhZh

Ok – a Poem By Mahbubul Karim (Sohel) December 15, 2010 Ok, so one life to live, huh? Walk on the moon? Or swim near the Barrier Reef? Nada Ok, so haven’t been on the moon Nor swooned under the sea Snorkeling amid sharks Impossible? Blah! Blah! Blah! Breathing the air Deep and long Swallowing water Like pure mist Seen the ocean’s heist of the sun Setting like large blood droplet While the new moon Stuck on the sky Like a curvy knife That farmer thrashes life Of Weeds and brambles with But who says This moment, this frenzy Of pressurized heart, aching Muscles and tattering bones Even in screeching pain Jumping off the calcified mirror And saying hello in tingling tone One life to live, huh? Ha! Ha! Ha!

 Versed by Rae Armantrout – a Book Review By Mahbubul Karim (Sohel) November 30, 2010   Terry Eagleton provides a non-poetic definition of poem:  “A poem is a fictional, verbally inventive moral statement in which it is the author, rather than the printer or word processor, who decides where the lines should end.” 1 Some poems have end rhyming, some don’t, some use strict metres, and some are more dynamic. Rae Armantrout’s magnificent collection of poems in Versed have varieties in line endings, internal rhymes and rhythms, forms and metaphors, while intense burst of imageries in simple words, constructed like frothing ocean waves, one after another, leaving the trails of dispersed pathos in poetic but delicate flare. An example: Equals 1. As if, after all, the thing that comes to mind squared times inertia equalled the “real.” 2. One lizard Jammed headfirst down the throat of a second.  Rae Armantrout explores the world of spirit and deity, with not “so for...

"The wildest urban legends are readily believed. There is said to be a two-month backlog at the abattoirs, as families abandon the expensive pets, including Thoroughbred racehorses, that they bought in the fat years and now can no longer afford to feed. One hears stories of the return of bartering: a yacht swapped for a mobile phone, a Harley-Davidson exchanged for a bicycle. There are moments of giddiness and breathless panic when it feels as it must have in the last days of the Weimar Republic.  At first, when the poor beast began to sicken, we Tiger cubs set up a great roaring and ranting. Who is to blame for our sudden travails? we demanded — somebody must be to blame. The bankers? Them, certainly. The politicians? Well, the politicians are always to blame, so nothing new there. The markets, those shadowy entities that seem to operate by whim? Ourselves, perhaps? — now, there was a sobering possibility". John Banville's sad comment in the above provide...

From the earliest memory that I can recollect, in the morning of the Eid festival, after returning home with my father from Eid prayer, I used to go to my room, and closed my ears with my both hands, while tears streaking down my face. The heart of a child could not take the unbearable scream and bleating of dying animals, whose throats were getting cut just around the corner of his home, a whole lot of them, where professional butchers, and their assistance, wearing lungi and Punjabi garment, or white shirt, tackling the sacrificed cows or goats, and the large sharp knife piercing the throat of poor animals, one after another, soaking the ground with warm blood. If the God is the most merciful and benevolent, and the most loving entity that man knows, why would the slaughter or sacrifice of enslaved animals be necessary? This is not only an yearly or religious thing. My holier-than-thou moment ends right there. Like all the other happily living mortals, I go to the grocery store, bu...

Why is there growing disparity between boys and girls' reading skills? The trend is alarming. Here is an excerpt from Thomas Spence's article in The Wall Street Journal, that has plausible reason and solution: "The appearance of the boy-girl literacy gap happens to coincide with the proliferation of video games and other electronic forms of entertainment over the last decade or two. Boys spend far more time "plugged in" than girls do. Could the reading gap have more to do with competition for boys' attention than with their supposed inability to focus on anything other than outhouse humor?  Dr. Robert Weis, a psychology professor at Denison University, confirmed this suspicion in a randomized controlled trial of the effect of video games on academic ability. Boys with video games at home, he found, spend more time playing them than reading, and their academic performance suffers substantially. Hard to believe, isn't it, but Science has spoke...

"An international team of 42 scientists, which included 15 Canadians, have trapped 38 antihydrogen atoms – one by one – for a fraction of a second." Why it is important? "it could serve as the foundation for future experiments and discoveries" of Nobel Prize winning caliber. Read the full news from the following link: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/antimatter-captured-in-major-scientific-breakthrough/article1803302/

Excerpt from one of my favorite columnists James Carroll's article in The Boston Globe: "...because power is ambiguous, statecraft sometimes requires the veiling of intention and action. At the micro-level, there can be no intimacy without confidentiality. That is true because personality resides in a hidden place, always unfolding and never fully known. We are mysteries to ourselves — or nothing. The protection of privacy is therefore essential to citizenship. So this assault on the secret, even in the name of democracy, can threaten democracy. Ironically, because the obliteration of privacy is being accomplished as much by our willing surrender to technology as by omni-intrusive governments and corporations, we are co-creators of our vulnerability ."  Article Link: http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2010/11/01/guarding_secrets_that_define_us/

Don't believe the book is dead, but the current format made from paper, may indeed become nostalgic memories for many. Margaret Wente writes: " My books were a statement of my identity. They said: “Here’s the kind of person who reads the poetry of William Blake.” The fact that I haven’t read the poetry of William Blake since grad school was irrelevant. You never know when you might want to.....Tipping points come faster now. Just three years after launching its Kindle e-book reader, Amazon sells more e-books than books in hardcover. The big-box stores are loading up on cheap e-readers, which they bet will be this season’s iPod. One expert, quoted in The New York Times, predicts that, within a decade, fewer than 25 per cent of all books sold will still be print on paper". Link to article: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/margaret-wente/like-it-or-not-the-book-is-dead/article1800474/

From The Los Angles Times, the following 7 factors , diet and exercises, can reduce the risk of death from heart disease: At least 150 minutes of moderate exercise, or 75 minutes of intense exercise, a week. Having a body mass index of less than 25. Being a nonsmoker for at least one year. Meeting four out of five of the association's key components for a healthy diet. Based on a 2,000-calories-a-day meal plan: 41/2 cups of fruits and vegetables a day; two or more 3.5-ounce servings of fish (preferably oily fish) a day; fewer than 450 calories a week of sugar-sweetened beverages; three or more 1-ounce servings a day of whole grains; and less than 1,500 mg of sodium a day. Keeping total cholesterol below 200 milligrams per deciliter of blood. Maintaining blood pressure below 120/80 millimeters of mercury. Having a fasting blood sugar level below 100 mg/dL of blood. Link to full article: http://www.latimes.com/health/la-he-prevention-20101115,0,987463.story

This is probably one of the better articles written by the columnist David Brooks. He provides clear distinctions between two cultures of economic thoughts, one is conservative and one is liberal. In recent years, the liberal economists are emphasizing on more quantitative rigors, claiming, " The performance of the economic machine can be predicted with quantitative macroeconomic models T ".  David Brooks provides a simple example: "These models can be used to make highly specific projections. If the government borrows $1 and then spends it, it will produce $1.50 worth of economic activity. If the government spends $800 billion on a stimulus package, that will produce 3.5 million in new jobs." On the other hand the conservative economists are emphasizing on psychological concerns , like, "If the government borrows trillions of dollars, this will increase public anxiety and uncertainty", and also present moralistic arguments, like, "This c...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywLOCoHyAPQ Mo and I had gone to the same university in Austin, now seems long time ago. He was one of the most remarkable human beings I'd honor to meet and hang out with, study with, and jam with our old guitar and keyboard, sometimes deep in the night of Texas winter, waking up all of my neighbors with our carefree tunes and vocals. A man of lot of heart, and full of compassion, whose music reveals only fragments of his loving soul. Here is another of Mo's performance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEOO4MvC_No Mo's site link is: http://mopair.com/ In youtube more of his music can be found from the following link: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=mo+pair&search_type=