I was hooked onto reading via Hamzanama - as written in Urdu for young adults. It has 10 parts and, to place it broadly, is the Lord of Rings for South Asia - though it preceded Tolkien. Its not just me. It is quite common to hear people describe Hamzanama as their starting point for their love of books. Two years ago I posted about a new and excellently reviewed English translation of the adult version called The Adventures of Amir Hamza (see Hamzanama: Homer meets Tolkien in Medieval Islamic World).

Now there is a translation out for the sequel (well - a kind of a sequel) to Hamzanama, titled, Tilism-e-Hoshruba. It is far longer, far-more magical, and with far more action than Hamzanama. How long is it? Well, the first volume is about 400 pages - and there are plans to publish 24 volumes over the next eight years!! This is an interesting project and I have posted below a recent review. However, I must confess, that while I adored Hamzanama (the young-adults version), I did not like the young-adult version of Tilism-e-Hoshruba. It felt like a forced sequel - centered on the most popular side-kick of Hamzanama, Amar Ayyar. Well, I did not know about it then, but it seems that this exactly was the intent - and it has an interesting story behind it (details below). Here is an excellent review by Bilal Tanweer on 3quarksdaily:

Can you think of a book you’ve read that begins with a warning? This is probably a first, for its exuberance if nothing else:

[This tale] has consumed whole generations of readers before you. And like all great tales, it is still hungry—ravenous, in fact—for more. You may not return from this campaign. Or come back so hardened you may never look at stories in quite the same way again.

It might seem an exaggeration, but here are the facts: this yarn was spun by two generations of storytellers and it is spread over eight thousand pages in its original Urdu language. At the height of its popularity in North India, it attracted legions of followers all the way from the aristocratic class down to the ordinary folk of the bazaar. In other words: this is a bloody carnival of a book, and everyone is invited.

Reading it, you immediately think of Borges’ remark on The Thousand and One Nights: “one feels like getting lost in [it], one knows entering that book one can forget one’s own poor human fate; one can enter a world, a world made of archetypal figures but also of individuals.”

That sums it up, really. Except, during the course of this narrative, our poor fate is in the hands of five tricksters, who are the heroes of the tale: they are spies, assassins, chameleons, and commandoes all rolled into one and their tricks usually involve elaborate plots to overcome the astounding magic of enemy sorcerers.

And here is how this looong story came into being:

During the mid-nineteenth century in Lucknow, India, where oral storytelling was still a viable career – lucrative, even promising, in some cases, popular stardom and privileged access to the royal courts – two storytellers decided to use an immensely popular oral epic, The Adventures of Amir Hamza, to their own advantage. The two storytellers claimed that they had discovered a ‘lost episode’ of Amir Hamza and appended to it their own ornate edifice: Tilism-e Hoshruba (the usual spiel: grandpa’s trunk, old manuscripts, amazing secrets, etc). But here’s what made them special: they were men with monstrous ambitions and they set out to create the mother of all tales. A clue lies in how they named their epic: Tilism-e Hoshruba i.e., magic that will blow your senses away.

Their scheme worked well, and their magical fantasy epic was a smashing success. Tilism-e Hoshruba rose to glory with its cataclysmic wars, ornate descriptions of feasts, coquetries of lovers and beloveds, a dazzling array of fearsome sorcerers battling the sly tricksters, their miraculous devices and ingenious plots. The next two generations of readers were entranced by this tale and the Hoshruba storytellers ran a thriving business in the oral storytelling districts of India. The tale was later published in print to immense acclaim: eight editions from Lucknow alone, to say nothing of other North Indian cities.

But during the last century, oral storytelling lost its charm as a popular medium of adult entertainment, and the last professional storyteller in India died in 1928, having already abandoned his family profession, taking to selling paan (betel leaf) instead. But Tilism-e Hoshruba survived through a reincarnation in children’s literature: it is still in print in Pakistan in a ten-volume abridged version which is popular with adults as well. Hoshruba’s tricksters and sorcerers are commonly found in pop-lit spinoffs which were a flourishing cottage industry in the nineties, up until the advent of Cartoon Network.

Now Tilism-e Hoshruba has finally reappeared, thanks to the labors of Musharraf Ali Farooqi, the premier translator of Urdu into English. His last venture brought us a first-rate translation of The Adventures of Amir Hamza – hailed variously as a “gift to world literature” (Time), “a wonder and a revelation – a classic of epic literature” (New York Times), “a true marvel of literary and intellectual engineering” (Washington Post). Now he has come out with Hoshruba—The Land & the Tilism, the first volume of a translation of Tilism-e Hoshruba with the next two lined up for this year.

And I like the concluding remarks in the review for the larger context:

But here’s the real problem: after a while, even the action becomes repetitive and seems little more than a reenactment of the same action with different names. What do you do then? Muddle through, like you do with Tolstoy or Mann. The book is four hundred pages and the periods of exertion are necessarily brief.

The Tilism-e Hoshruba project is valuable because it introduces to the Western audience something unique, new and strange; something that shakes up the established expectations from fiction and meanings of the ‘literary.’ It would not be entirely wrong to claim that this work fits uncomfortably in the form of a book. It is better imagined as something like a talisman whose function is not to teach, but to charm.

Like all great fiction, Tilism-e Hoshruba promises its readers a perpetual dream. It gives us a glimpse of something we find entirely missing from our contemporary condition of disenchantment from the world, i.e., a world enchanted with itself, perpetuating its meaning through an unmitigated belief in imaginative storytelling to bewilder, dazzle, and entertain us. And if fiction is supposed to take us where we haven’t been before, then this “magical fantasy epic” is undoubtedly among the highest imaginative expressions of fiction. But yes, slack is the stuff it’s made of.

This translator, Musharraf Ali Farooqi, is beating his kettledrum for this enormous, marvelous, ravenous tale. We must heed his call. And here’s friendly advice: don’t skip the introduction. You will be better prepared to undertake the journey. God speed.

Read the full review here.

The Startup Visa Act continues to gain momentum on Capitol Hill, thanks to grassroots support of all of you. Without lobbyists or PACs, we're getting the word out in DC and nationwide that we have an opportunity to act - this year - to create jobs right here in America by supporting entrepreneurship and innovation. As bills in both chambers of Congress pick up supporters and co-sponsors, it's more important than ever for citizens who care about this issue to call, write, and tweet their representatives.

On our most recent trip to DC, the Startup Visa team produced two new videos to encapsulate our work to date, and hopefully inspire future action. They feature two of the rock stars of the Startup Visa team, Shervin and Brad, looking like, well, rock stars. Please take a look and, if you're as inspired as I am, please take a moment to help spread the word, embed these videos, or take another action outlined below. Thanks!

Shervin Pishevar, activism at 30,000 feet.
"My big belief in the Startup Visa Act: Entrepreneurship is very much representative and symbolic of what America's all about."




Brad Feld, the Startup Visa Act.
"When you think bout the economic stress and economic crisis we've been going through in this country, and you think about future economic growth, there's no question that entrepreneurship and innovation is a huge driver of future success."



Want to get involved? We have a list of ways on the StartupVisa website:

1. Go to our campaign page & tweet your support NOW! (<30 sec)
   
2. Write your local newspaper & tell them you support the Startup Visa Act
3. Call your senators & let them know you support Startup Visa legislation
4. Add the Startup Visa Widget to your blog or website
5. Follow the #startupvisa hash tag on Twitter and voice your support
6. Contribute to Startup Visa so we can spread the word!

In particular, we are also working on a letter of support from university presidents and entrepreneurship professors across academia. If you know someone who might be willing to sign on to that letter, please contact Brad Feld, who is organizing the letter.

We've already had GENEtics rap, Large Hadron Collider rap, Astrobiology rap, and the non-rap Hotel Mauna Kea. You can now add 3.5 'til infinity to this esteemed list. I think its quite entertaining, has decent amount of rap-science in it, and is nicely done (tip Pharyngula):

Here is a short (about 13min) TED talk by Michael Shermer from couple of years ago. It is a quick, fun talk and 3quarksdaily recently reminded me of that. Probably much of it would be familiar to you - but the segment with Zeppelin's Stairway to Heaven is pretty neat. Also check out the ending with Katie Melua's song Nine Million Bicycles. I didn't know the song - but it is very cool that she modified her lyrics (you should check this out yourself). Here is the talk:

It saddens me to report another incidence of violence against a university professor in Pakistan. Just last week I had posted about the brutal beating of an environmental science professor at Punjab University by members of Jamiat (the student wing of Jamat-e-Islami). Now we have an instance of targeted killing of a communications professor, Nazima Talib, at the gate of University of Baluchistan in Quetta. It seems that she was targeted because of her ethnicity.

I know that there are also many fantastic things taking place at educational institutes in Pakistan. But it is hard to notice them when even the lives of faculty members are not safe. Universities are supposed to provide safe space for free inquiry and are meant to be sites for the development of intellectual ideas. What can we expect when professors are being beaten or killed. Here is the report from today's Dawn:

QUETTA: Gunmen on Tuesday shot dead a woman university professor in southwest Pakistan, where targeted killings blamed on tribal insurgents, sectarian groups and militants are increasing, police said.

Nazima Talib, 48, had just stepped into a rickshaw at the gate of Balochistan University in Quetta city when gunmen riding a motorbike sprayed her with bullets, senior police officer Tariq Manzoor said.

“She received multiple bullet wounds and died before she could be taken to hospital,” Manzoor told AFP.

“It was a targeted killing,” he said. Talib came from Pakistan's central province of Punjab that regional insurgents in Balochistan accuse of siphoning off their resources and denying them independence, police said.

She was a senior teacher in the mass communications department.

Dozens of schoolgirls in Kunduz, Afghanistan, have fallen ill. The cause of the illness is unclear - but local authorities suspect foul play. This is not so far-fetched as the Taliban have in the past attacked schoolgirls in Afghanistan - including throwing acid on the faces of fifteen girls, and have bombed hundreds of schools in Pakistan. The resilience of Afghan girls is amazing! But going to school should not be such an ordeal. Here is the news report from the BBC:

Scores of schoolgirls in the Afghan province of Kunduz have fallen ill over the past week, in what authorities allege is mass poisoning by insurgents.

On Sunday, 13 girls were taken ill. This follows two separate incidents earlier in the week when about 70 girls complained of dizziness and nausea. An inquiry has already begun, health officials told the BBC.

The Taliban - which oppposes female education - denies carrying out an attack, the Reuters news agency says. The girls said they noticed a strange smell in class before the onset of their symptoms, but health officials said the gas remains unidentified. None of the symptoms experienced by the girls are reported to to be serious.

Read the full story here. Also check out these earlier posts:

Poisoning of schoolgirls and a map of conflict

Taliban, education, and diary of a 7th grade schoolgirl from Swat

I can barely write, as I'm still recovering from the amazing but overwhelming Startup Lessons Learned conference last Friday (great summary here). I'll follow up with a more detailed post later, but for now let me just say: thank you to everyone who participated, spoke, sponsored or helped organize. It exceeded my expectations totally.

Want to learn more about lean startups? Want to talk about applying the lessons beyond software, internet, and small companies? The Lean Enterprise Institute, the official keepers of lean, are hosting a free webinar on Wednesday, April 28. Details are below. This will be a unique cross-cultural meeting between entrepreneurs and traditional lean experts. I believe we have much to learn from each other.

920 people from over sixty countries have already signed up to attend - help us break 1000 by registering here.

Lean mindsets and methods for innovation in any company
a free webinar featuring:
Eric Ries
April 28, 2010 at 2:00 PM EDT

The "Lean Startup" is the application of lean thinking to the process of innovation in startup companies — defined as a type of business where both the problem (customer need) and the solution (product) are unknown. Traditional product development efforts often invest millions of dollars and years of time into one fixed product concept that is assumed to meet known customer needs — creating a high level of risk that the "waste of overproduction" occurs and creating a product that customers reject. The "Lean Startup" methodology, instead, tests new ideas early and cheaply, with early and frequent customer feedback. Critical to product success is creating a learning feedback loop that's company-wide, continuously testing new ideas so that idea failure doesn't have to equal company failure. Iterating more quickly is the key to success rather than having the one initial perfect concept.

Since successful startups grow into larger mature companies, how do the lessons from "Lean Startups" apply? How can businesses of all shapes and sizes use lean methods to be innovative and disruptive? Where a startup is a high uncertain opportunity in a highly uncertain business, how can more stable businesses use these methods for their new uncertain products or ideas? How do familiar lean manufacturing mind sets and philosophies for quality management, training, and problem solving contribute to innovation?

Specifically, you will learn:

• How to define "value" in an innovation setting
• What is a "minimum viable product" and why is that preferable to big batch
  development?
• How to create a blame-free development culture that encourages learning, root
  cause problem identification, and improvement
• How a process focus can lead to discipline, not bureaucracy
• How to apply the right learnings from "Lean Startups" to a non-startup environment

Who Should Attend:
This webinar is designed for a broad audience: everyone who is interested in learning how companies with unknown problems and solutions can use rapid P-D-C-A cycles to better understand and meet customer needs. This is intended for anybody who is working on new innovations, whether that means continuous improvement at the front lines, or new product development in a mature manufacturing company.

I hope you'll join us. More information is available here.

When will we ever learn? Because of the US history, scientists here have to be extra careful when dealing with culturally sensitive issues involving native tribes. Trust should be the center-piece in all cases. It seems that this very trust was breached in the DNA research involving the Havasupai Indians who live in the Grand Canyon:

At issue in the Havasupai case was whether an Arizona State geneticist had obtained permission from tribal members to use their DNA for anything other than finding clues to Type 2 diabetes. More than 200 of the 650-member tribe signed a consent form stating that their blood could be used to “study the causes of behavioral/medical disorders,” but many said they had believed they were donating it only for the study of diabetes, which tribal members suffer from at extraordinarily high rates. When they learned years later that the DNA samples had been used to investigate things they found objectionable, they felt betrayed.

There are couple of issues embedded here: First, can scientists use blood for research purposes other than the reasons stated at the time of collection? This is a bit complicated as sometimes research can end up taking a different direction. But then the donors, perhaps, should be informed of the new direction and asked for a new permission. And this was the basis of the settlement reached between Arizona State University and Havasupai Indians. But this can also become quite cumbersome - and problematic, especially when anonymity of specific donors is also being protected.

Some have proposed an international tribunal akin to the Helsinki human rights agreement, which would lay out the ethical obligations to research participants. Others suggest staying in touch with subjects so they can be consulted on new projects — and because under current practices they tend to learn of breakthroughs based on their own DNA only if they become close readers of scientific journals.

Courts have ruled that individuals do not have a property right to their cells once they are taken in the course of medical care, but they do, under federal guidelines, have a right to know how they will be used. Complicating matters is the increasing impossibility of ensuring that DNA data can remain anonymous. Do participants need to be told that their privacy cannot be guaranteed? Can “blanket” consent up front do the trick, or is even that misleading because researchers can’t adequately describe the scope of studies they have yet to design? Is it O.K. to use DNA collected for heart research to look for genetic associations with intelligence, mental illness, racial differences?

For one thing, “we have to communicate a hell of a lot better to the public what is going on when we put their specimens in our biobanks,” said Stephen J. O’Brien, a geneticist who runs the Laboratory of Genomic Diversity at the National Institutes of Health.

But what caught my attention here was a larger issue. The DNA research showed that the ancestors of the Havasupai originated in Asia, contradicting the origin story of the tribe originating in the canyon and, thus, being assigned as its guardians. What if the Havasupai did not want to subject their DNA for migration studies? What if their origin story plays an important role in their identity and they want to protect that? Well, I guess this should be their right. This got me thinking about young earth creationists or Muslim creationists who reject evolution. Can they argue for a similar protection from a scientific view of the origin of humans? I guess this would be okay (though suicidal for development) in their own private schools - which they can still do. This demand would also be reasonable if crucial evidence for evolution dependent on the cooperation of these creationists (say if their DNA was really unique). Phew! I'm glad there is sufficient evidence without that.

Back to the Havasupai case:

Another article, suggesting that the tribe’s ancestors had crossed the frozen Bering Sea to arrive in North America, flew in the face of the tribe’s traditional stories that it had originated in the canyon and was assigned to be its guardian.

Listening to the investigators, Ms. Tilousi felt a surge of anger, she recalled. But in Supai, the initial reaction was more of hurt. Though some Havasupai knew already that their ancestors most likely came from Asia, “when people tell us, ‘No, this is not where you are from,’ and your own blood says so — it is confusing to us,” Rex Tilousi said. “It hurts the elders who have been telling these stories to our grandchildren.”

Others questioned whether they could have unwittingly contributed to research that could threaten the tribe’s rights to its land. “Our coming from the canyon, that is the basis of our sovereign rights,” said Edmond Tilousi, the tribe’s vice chairman.

Oh boy - the last issue adds a whole other layer of political complications. Combine it all together and we return to the basic issue of trust. My fellow scientists - lets be careful and open about how we present our research.

Read the full article here and another one here. Also see this earlier post on Science, tissue-ethics, and faith-healers.

This is an update on the sad, tragic, insane case of Lebanese TV host, Ali Hussain Sibat, and his death sentence on "sorcery charges" in Saudi Arabia (the mode of execution is beheading). There are indications that his life may now be spared - thanks to intense international pressure. As a scientist, I'm usually annoyed by psychics, astrologers, etc. But a death sentence for practicing pseudoscience?? This is crazy. He has already spent two years in jail and the last few weeks under the constant threat of beheading. It is time for Saudi authorities to let him go. But as a popular TV host and a Lebanese citizen, Sibat may have been the lucky to attract international attention to his plight. How many others have been, and will be, executed in Saudi Arabia for frivolous charges, such as sorcery?

Also check out earlier posts on the topic:

"Sorcery" execution delayed

Beheading on "sorcery" charges expected on Friday

Still no sense from Saudi Arabia on sorcery death sentence

Sorcery Charges: Saudi Arabia boldly marches into the 15th century

Also here are some bits from an article in today's NYT that further highlights the plight and agony of him and his family:

For more than two years, Ali Hussain Sibat of Lebanon has been held in a prison in Saudi Arabia, convicted of sorcery and sentenced to death. His head is to be chopped off by an executioner wielding a long, curved sword.

His crime: manipulating spirits, predicting the future, concocting potions and conjuring spells on a call-in television show called “The Hidden” on a Lebanese channel, Scheherazade. It was, in effect, a Middle Eastern psychic hot line.

...

Several times in recent months, Mr. Sibat’s lawyer, his wife and his four children were told he would, any day, be escorted to a public square for his beheading. And several times, the execution was postponed after an outcry from international human rights groups and the Lebanese government.

...

“It’s been two years of this mental anguish,” said his wife, Samira Rahmoun, during a telephone interview from their home in the Baalbek area of Lebanon. “Two years of torture. They are killing an innocent man, and they are slowly killing a whole family.”

There has been little public outcry in Saudi Arabia over the case, which is considered rather ordinary, according to political experts in the capital, Riyadh. But the international attention and criticism has cast a harsh light on the ultra-religious side of Saudi Arabia as the kingdom is working to improve its reputation, especially in the West.

Read the full article here.

This is a guest post by Nidhal Guessoum (see his earlier posts here). Nidhal is an astrophysicist and Professor of Physics at American University of Sharjah.

A few days ago (April 20, 2010), the Algerian daily Echorouk (with the largest circulation in the country, and some say in the Arab world: over a million copies sold each day), published a story titled “An Algerian (female) researcher discovers a plant-based cure for cancer”. This in itself was a stunning announcement, though it would not have shocked me so much, did it not come just three days after a Lebanese media outlet published a story titled “Obstruction to the Invention of the Century: a gift from Lebanon to the whole world – discovery of a cure for cancer”. All of this reminded me that other Arabs/Muslims have also been making the greatest of medical breakthroughs, with, in particular, the announcement by Sheikh Al-Zindani (not an obscure figure by any measure) a few years ago of the discovery of a cure for AIDS Sheikh Al-Zindani, along (as a bonus) that for Hepatitis B and C…

Let’s look at these claims in a bit more detail now, just to make clear that we are not talking about some obscure assertions by fringe crackpots somewhere in the wilderness of the web.

The Algerian researcher, Echorouk tells us, received a B.Sc. in Biology in 1982 (in Algeria, it is implied) and then went to the UK and the US (we are not told whether she received Master’s or Doctorate degrees) where “she trained in the largest labs and worked with the greatest European biologists”. As the story goes, she went back home where, after 20 years of work at the Pasteur Institute in Algiers (the most renowned medical center in Algeria), she was able to “decode cancer in all its forms”, and she has now “helped cure hundreds of Algerians from various cancers, including leukemia, breast cancer, and stomach cancer”… She adds that in addition to producing a cancer-preventing potion, she successfully treats patients of various infections, neurological disorders, etc.

The newspaper tells us that she has filed a patent in Switzerland and in Algeria for her plants-based cure, which has made her “the focus of strong interests and requests of many European pharmaceutical labs, not to mention offers from the most important hospitals in France and Belgium to have her participate in the treatment of cancer patients”. But she insists that she is only interested in helping the poor and the stricken, and so she will remain in Algeria and do her humanitarian medical work there.

The Lebanese case is even more startling. First, the claimant is not a medical doctor or even a biologist; he is a chemical engineer, albeit with a Ph. D. degree. He too has come up with a potion, which, he tells us, “in 2005 he registered in the USA according to the norms, then had it ‘corrected’ by American experts and published in final form in Switzerland in 2007”… We are given no reference to such “expert corrections” and “publications”; in fact, the claimant refuses to divulge his formula or have it examined by the community at large. Instead, he has called for an “in-camera” (private) debate with Lebanese cancer doctors before he makes public his discovery/invention as a gift to humanity…

But the biggest such story has got to be Sheikh Al-Zindani, the Yemeni fundamentalist leader, who is both a politician and head of a militia and a proponent of I`jaz (“miraculous scientific content of the Qur’an”), the president of the Al-Eman University, and whose two years of pharmaceutical studies many years ago have allowed him to claim some “expertise” on science issues, both conceptual and practical.

A few years ago he stunned the world by announcing that his team of researchers at Al-Eman University had discovered the cure for AIDS... by correctly interpreting a hadith (a statement by Prophet Muhammad)! In fact he runs a “Prophetic Medicine Center” at his university - “prophetic medicine” referring to the belief by many Muslims that some of statements made by the Prophet (over 1400 years ago) contain much important and still useful medical information; Al-Zindani’s center is thus dedicated to doing medical research by analyzing… statements!

Like the other two “discoverers”, Al-Zindani has refused to divulge his cure formula, stating only that it is from “floral extracts”. (Most Muslims, including many highly educated people, strongly believe that plants and flowers are much better bases of medicines than chemical compounds…)

I remember watching – totally dazed –Al-Zindani being interviewed at length on Al-Jazeera, hearing him claim that his team had “completely cured” at least 13 AIDS patients and that he would not even submit his formula for examination for fear of having it stolen through some back-door legal procedures by the big pharmaceutical companies. (Here is an English-subtitled excerpt of one of the Al-Jazeera interviews he gave on the subject.) It has been a few years now, and he has yet to divulge any further information on his historic claim…

What conclusions can we draw from these stunning stories? That there are some crackpots, charlatans, or at least self-deluded people in the Arab-Muslim world? That would hardly be worth reporting on; there are impostors and fools everywhere in the world, including – perhaps particularly – on medical and serious-illness “discoveries”. No, two things shock me most in these stories: (a) the fact these are matter-of-factly reported on by the mainstream media with no attempt to critically examine the claims (not one bona fide expert was interviewed or cited on the above stories); (b) that such claims are coming from both influential leaders and (presumed) members of the scientific community… Clearly we still have much work to do in the field of science education and in promoting and ingraining critical thinking even among educated people…

Hubble Space Telescope (HST) is 20 today! Happy Birthday. I still remember from grad school days the thrill from seeing some of its earliest images (after the 1993 repair). I don't know how much time we spent gawking over the Hubble Deep Field or the Eagle Nebula or the Cartwheel Galaxy - all of these were taken between 1995-1996. Just imagine, each image transforming the area of astronomy it represented (see a mini-documentary about HST's contributions here). We have now indeed grown accustomed to being amazed by Hubble images. Here is one more. The image at the top of the post is a new one released for the 20th anniversary - and shows a close-up of a stellar nursery located 7500 light years away.

Phenomenal!

Here is the press release associated with the image:

This craggy fantasy mountaintop enshrouded by wispy clouds looks like a bizarre landscape from Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" or a Dr. Seuss book, depending on your imagination. The NASA Hubble Space Telescope image, which is even more dramatic than fiction, captures the chaotic activity atop a three-light-year-tall pillar of gas and dust that is being eaten away by the brilliant light from nearby bright stars. The pillar is also being assaulted from within, as infant stars buried inside it fire off jets of gas that can be seen streaming from towering peaks.

This turbulent cosmic pinnacle lies within a tempestuous stellar nursery called the Carina Nebula, located 7,500 light-years away in the southern constellation Carina. The image celebrates the 20th anniversary of Hubble's launch and deployment into an orbit around Earth.

Scorching radiation and fast winds (streams of charged particles) from super-hot newborn stars in the nebula are shaping and compressing the pillar, causing new stars to form within it. Streamers of hot ionized gas can be seen flowing off the ridges of the structure, and wispy veils of gas and dust, illuminated by starlight, float around its towering peaks. The denser parts of the pillar are resisting being eroded by radiation much like a towering butte in Utah's Monument Valley withstands erosion by water and wind.

Nestled inside this dense mountain are fledgling stars. Long streamers of gas can be seen shooting in opposite directions off the pedestal at the top of the image. Another pair of jets is visible at another peak near the center of the image. These jets (known as HH 901 and HH 902, respectively) are the signpost for new star birth. The jets are launched by swirling disks around the young stars, which allow material to slowly accrete onto the stars' surfaces.

Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 observed the pillar on Feb. 1-2, 2010. The colors in this composite image correspond to the glow of oxygen (blue), hydrogen and nitrogen (green), and sulfur (red).

You want a wallpaper of this image? Download it from here.

Here is another fascinating short episode (about 20 min) from Radiolab (from last year). The show is about how we think about what is right and wrong, and the difference between our emotional and the rational part of the brain. The program starts with a moral puzzle of asking if one would kill his or her baby, if this act would result in saving the lives of many (you have to listen to the podcast to get the proper scenario). The discussion here is fascinating and I like Jad's response that, of course, no father could ever think of doing that (the results actually suggest that 50% would choose to save many lives). However, this got me thinking about honor-killings - the despicable act of killing a son or a daughter (usually daughters) for the sake of saving the honor of the family. Here is a case where cultural issues perhaps short-circuit the rational part of the brain so much that one is willing to kill one's offspring simply over a disagreement (usually associated with marriage choices). While socially despicable, this may be an interesting premise to explore in testing the limits of such moral puzzles (and just to be clear, unlike the scenario presented above, there is absolutely no justification whatsoever regarding honor-killings!).

The most fascinating part of the program dealt with our increasing ability to deal with abstract thoughts - and how it is changing the way we use our brain. Josh Greene, here, is certainly hopeful that we can learn to think about long-scale problems, such as climate change and nuclear proliferation and is optimistic about about our the future of our species. Also, I totally loved the experiment where the task of remembering large numbers resulted in an overwhelming choice of eating a chocolate cake over fruit salad. Confused about how all of this related to saving the world? Well check out the full podcast.

Malam ini Kembara Sufi yang ke-8 akan diadakan di UTP. Memang setiap tahun akan diadakan konsert ini namun kali ini ada sedikit kelainan yang dibawa. Jemputan istimewanya adalah artis nasyid yang tidak asing lagi namanya di Indonesia dan juga bagi mereka yang meminati nasyid-nasyid bertemakan dakwah dan jihad.

Shoutul Harokah

Nasib kami baik kerana dapat bertemu langsung dengan Ustaz Taufiq Ridlo, salah penyanyi utama Shoutul Harokah. Beliau yang sememangnya kenalan Akh Hizul Azri kemudiannya menjemput kami untuk bertemu dengan teman-temannya di dalam rumah tumpangan UTP. (Pertama kali menginjaki rumah tumpangan UTP setelah 3 tahun di sini!)

Teman lama kembali bertemu.  Akh Hizul berbaju biru dan Uztaz Taufiq berbaju hitam.

Akh Azahar dan Ustaz Taufiq, dalam rumah tumpangan.

Asalnya kami menjemput Ustaz Hilman Rosyad, juga salah seorang penyanyi Shoutul Harokah untuk memberi sedikit perkongsian dalam majlis ilmu yang dirancang untuk diadakan pada keesokan harinya, Ahad, 25 April 2010. Namun Ustaz Hilman tiba-tiba tidak dapat hadir. Beliau sebenarnya baru sahaja pulang daripada menunaikan umrah, dan masih belum bersedia untuk hadir bersama dalam persembahan pada malam ini.

Lalu Ustaz Taufiq diminta untuk mengganti. Sayangnya, tiket pulang mereka adalah jam 7 pagi esok di LCCT!. Mereka akan bertolak sejurus sahaja selesai persembahan pada malam ini. Nampaknya tiadalah rezeki ikhwah UTP untuk mendengar perkongsian daripada ustaz-ustaz penyanyi ini.

Fakhrullah turut menyertai. Tengok apa tu ba..

Namun pertemuan dengan orang seperti mereka ini amat bermakna. Walaupun Ustaz Taufiq ini adalah wakil Dewan Perwakilan Wilayah (DPW) PKS di Jawa Barat namun tidak pernah kekok untuk bersama dengan kami yang entah siapa-siapa ini. Kerendahan hati dan kebesaran jiwanya begitu memikat hati kami.

Jadilah petang itu kami hanya bersilaturrahim dengan penyanyi-penyanyi Shoutul Harokah. Walaupun singkat tetapi amat bermakna. Tak sabar untuk menghadiri konsert mereka pada malam ini. Jom kawan-kawan, Kembara Sufi. Berdakwah sambil berhibur, jangan tersilap ya. Bukan berhibur sambil berdakwah. (^_^)

Dari kiri : Akh Dr. Hussaini, Akh Fakhrullah, Akh Umair (ana la..), Ustaz Taufiq Ridlo, Akh Dr. Hizul Azri, Akh Azahar.

P/S : Sesuatu yang ana dan Fakhrullah bingungkan...Kami diberitahu oleh (.....) Esok katanya telah ada sesi perkongsian antara ahli-ahli Shoutul Harokah dengan Persatuan Pelajar Indonesia (PPI) UTP yang dirancang olehnya, sehingga kami dikatakan tidak sepatutnya menjemput ustaz-ustaz ini untuk mengisi. Tetapi ustaz-ustaz ini dah kena bertolak awal-awal lagi. Hurm...Boleh sesiapa tolong terangkan keadaan yang berlaku? (^_^)

What if some students from my class decide to attack and beat me up with metal rods and hockey sticks? I was thinking about this after reading the harrowing account of the beating of an environmental science professor at Punjab University by members of Jamiat, the student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami. Professor Baloch first locked his office and then tried to hide in the washroom, but the hooligans broke open both doors and physically assaulted him with metal rods and hockey sticks:

The professor was working in his office here on the campus of Pakistan’s largest university this month when members of an Islamic student group battered open the door, beat him with metal rods and bashed him over the head with a giant flower pot.

Iftikhar Baloch, an environmental science professor, had expelled members of the group for violent behavior. The retribution left him bloodied and nearly unconscious, and it united his fellow professors, who protested with a nearly three-week strike that ended Monday.

The attack and the anger it provoked have drawn attention to the student group, Islami Jamiat Talaba, whose morals police have for years terrorized this graceful, century-old institution by brandishing a chauvinistic form of Islam, teachers here say.

But the group has help from a surprising source — national political leaders who have given it free rein, because they sometimes make political alliances with its parent organization, Jamaat-e-Islami, Pakistan’s oldest and most powerful religious party, they say.

What a shameful act! But, then this also mirrors many of the problems that Pakistan is facing in general:

The university’s plight encapsulates Pakistan’s predicament: an intolerant, aggressive minority terrorizes a more open-minded, peaceful majority, while an opportunistic political class dithers, benefiting from alliances with the aggressors.

The dynamic helps explain how the Taliban and other militant groups here, though small and often unpopular minorities, retain their hold over large portions of Pakistani society.

But this is the University of the Punjab, Pakistan’s premier institution of higher learning, with about 30,000 students, and a principal avenue of advancement for the swelling ranks of Pakistan’s lower and middle classes.

The battle here concerns the future direction of the country, and whether those pushing an intolerant vision of Islam will prevail against this nation’s beleaguered, outward-looking, educated class.

Please read the full article here. Also, please check out this short (5 min) video that provides some shots of Punjab University as well as interviews with a few faculty members, including Iftikhar Baloch. By the way, this is not a new thing for Jamiat. It has been terrorizing students for at least a few decades now and are an exemplar of intolerance in the name of religion. Can this lead to the banning of this fascist group? I would like to hope so - but the likelihood is small. This group is well connected and people, in general, seem to have a high tolerance for religious intolerance - and I doubt this incident will change the status quo. I don't the current situation, but Jamiat lost its power in Karachi in the 80s to an equally violent student wing of the secular, but ethnic, Mattahida Qaumi Movement (MQM). So much for universities as safe spaces for intellectual inquiry!

If you follow urdu, here is a news report that covered the original attack on Iftikhar Baloch:

The Guardian had this headline recently: UFO studies should be 'legitimate university subject', claims American professor. Well, first of all, Hellllo!! I have been teaching Aliens: Close Encounters of a Multidisciplinary Kind at Hampshire for the past couple of years (pdf syllabus here). We look at the history of UFO and alien abduction claims, look at psychology of human perception and the fickle nature of our memories, scientific search for life in the universe, and the social and cultural context of UFO-based religions. And I think all of these are still in the broad umbrella of "legitimate". But no love from the Guardian. Oh - wait. But this American Professor that the Guardian found is an anthropologist who seems to think that UFOs might be, or are, actual spaceships from other planets. Hmm...the evidence regarding that is a wee bit thin. On the contrary, evidence for the belief in UFOs is quite real, and that can be the source for a "legitimate" university subject. But to make it into the Guardian, I may have to crazify my course a bit more ;)

While we are on the subject, here is Jill Tartar's TED talk from last year. However, it was posted on CNN today alongside her article. If you are familiar with SETI, then you won't find anything specifically new in here. However, I liked her strong insistence on letting go of our species-specific ego and, what it would mean to us as humans, to look into an alien eye (of course, assuming that the evolution of our contactee aliens have also resulted in an organ for visual perception. Reasonable guess - but who knows). Much of this is in between 9 and 13 minutes of this 20min talk. Enjoy!

Telefon bimbit bergetar. Mesej masuk.

Salam. Zikr, maaflah mengganggu. Saja nak tanya. Kau ada balik sekolah baru-baru ni kan?

Salam. Haah, kenapa?

Tak adalah, aku dengar kau ada cerita fasal kami pada junior-junior. Betulke?

Cerita yang macam mana tu?

Kau mesti lagi tahu.

*******

“Dah setahun. Rindu betul aku dengan tempat ini.” Zikran berkata kepada dirinya sendiri. Berdiri di tempat yang sering dilewatinya sepanjang 5 tahun yang lalu. Di belakang Masjid Al-Falah, di atas sebuah batu besar. Dari situ dia boleh melihat seluruh panorama sekolah menengah kesayangannya itu. Sebuah sekolah agama yang telah menjadi tempatnya mengenal erti kehidupan.

“Eh, Abang Ziikr! Bila sampai?” Tegur seorang junior. Azizi Hamid. Pelajar tingkatan 4.

“Zizi! Baru je sampai tadi. Solat dhuha sebentar, lepas tu berdiri atas batu ni.”

“Abang memang suka berdiri atas batu ni kan?”

Zikran cuma tersenyum. Memang kebiasaannya setiap kali ada masa lapang, dia akan ke sana.

“Apa mimpi tiba-tiba balik sekolah ni? Ada apa-apa ke?”

“Rindu,” Jawabnya ringkas.

“Rindu? Hah, ni rindu pada siapa pula ni.” Azizi bertanya dengan nada mengusik.

“Rindu dengan sekolah ni lah. Semua yang ada di sekolah ni. Bangunan-bangunan, guru-guru, pelajar-pelajar, dan yang paling abang rindu adalah suasananya.”

“Suasana yang macam mana tu bang?”

“Hisyh, kamu ni memang banyak tanya kan? Kalau ye pun, marilah berborak sambil duduk. Letih abang berdiri di atas batu ni.”

Mereka tertawa bersama-sama sambil menuju ke tangga masjid. Walaupun sudah hampir setahun Ziran meninggalkan sekolah, namun hubungannya dengan junior-junior dan guru-guru di sekolahnya masih baik.

“Kamu sekarang tidak rasa lagi macam mana berertinya suasana di sekolah ni Azizi. Nanti bila kamu keluar baru kamu tahu. Susah nak jumpa suasana macam ni lagi. Kamu akan rindu dengan kawan-kawan yang masih istiqomah mengekalkan ciri-ciri keislaman.”

“Maksud abang, bekas-bekas pelajar sekolah kita ni dah tak menjaga diri lagi ke?”

“Tidaklah teruk sangat. Cuma yang ketara daripada penampilan. Yang perempuan, tudung labuhnya tiada lagi. Ada yang pakai seluar jeans. Yang lelaki, dah mula melayan cinta.”

“Kalau abang-abang tu saya fahamlah. Mereka memang dari dulu payah berjemput ke surau. Tapi kakak-kakak yang EXCO BADAR dulu tu? Takkan dah tak pakai tudung labuh?”

Zikran diam seketika.

“Penangan kejutan budaya. Masa di sekolah ramai yang boleh beri nasihat. Bila dah keluar nanti, hampir tiada siapa yang kisah. Kamu buatlah hal sendiri. Kamu sendiri yang akan tentukan hala tuju kamu. Sebab tu kamu perlu persiapkan diri untuk menghadapi dunia luar. Kamu perlu faham kenapa sekolah kita mewajibkan beberapa perkara, juga melarangnya.”

“Saya takutlah Abang Zikran. Sekarang ni mungkin masih kuat nak menjaga diri supaya taat kepada Allah. Nanti dah keluar macam mana ye?”

“Sebab tu kita perlukan suasana tarbiyah.”

“Suasana tarbiyah?”

“Suasana yang sentiasa mengingatkan kita agar menjaga keperibadian muslim sejati. Bila kita tersalah jalan, ada yang akan memimpin tangan kita ke jalan yang lurus kembali.”

“Macam mana nak buat tu?”

“Jangan fikir banyak-banyak dulu. Nanti abang datang lagi minggu depan insya-Allah. Kita fikirkan sama-sama macam mana nak istiqomah berada dalam keadaan beriman dan bertakwa.”

*******

Owh, aku cuma kata yang aku rindu dengan suasana sekolah. Kawan-kawan sekarang dah tak sama macam dulu.

Kau cerita aku dah tak pakai tudung labuh lagi?

Aku tak cerita, diorang tanya.

Apa-apalah. Aku cuma nak kau tahu, aku cuma nak jadi diri aku yang sebenar.

Diri kau yang sebenar tu maksudnya nak pakai pakaian macam budak-budak lain kat kampus ni ke?

Sini bukan sekolah lagi Zikran. Aku nak bebas.

Owh, aku ingat kau faham kenapa peraturan sekolah kena pakai tudung labuh. Bukan sebab itu disiplin untuk pelajar sekolah agama. Itu disiplin sebagai hamba Allah yang Muslim. Rujuklah Al-Quran, Surah Al-Ahzab, ayat 59.

Tiada lagi SMS masuk.

Zikran termenung sendirian. Cerita-cerita seniornya di kampus tentang perubahan-perubahan para pendahulu mereka menerjah ke fikiran. Pengalaman-pengalaman yang sukar dipercayainya kembali bertamu di fikiran.

-------

"Senior aku dulu presiden BADAR. Masuk kampus ni pakai seluar pendek je. Bukan setakat itu, dah bercouple. Clubbing pun ada."

-------

"Kau tengok mamat di meja hujung tu. Yang baru sampai tu. Dia sama batch dengan aku. Budak sekolah agama dulu."

"Eh, biar betul? Habis tu, yang duduk semeja dengan dia tu siapa? Adik dia?"

"Zikr, kau masih berbaik sangka ya? Tu awek dia. Aku kenal. Satu kelas dengan aku."

Zikran menggeleng-gelengkan kepala. Sukar untuk mempercayai.

-------

Zikran melihat seorang perempuan berseluar jeans dan berbaju T-Shirt lengan panjang berwarna terang. Betudung bawal. Kelihatan sedang asyik bergelak tawa dengan teman lelakinya sambil berjalan melepasinya. Dia hampir tidak mempercayai apa yang dilihatnya.

'Eh, biar betul? Takkanlah Kak Balqis tu? Tak mungkin...'

"Qis, you ni nakallah!" Zikran tiba-tiba menangkap suara teman lelaki si perempuan. Tersirap darahnya. Jika diikutkan hatinya, hendak sahaja dia menegur kakak seniornya itu. Namun diurungkannya niat di hati. Terus berjalan lirih. Hatinya hampir gugur.

-------

Tidak semena-mena airmatanya mengalir. Sedih dan kecewa diadun menjadi satu. Apakah teman-teman sekolahnya juga akan menjadi seperti itu? Dia tidak mahu itu terjadi. Dia terus berdoa. Suasana pagi yang cerah itu terasa suram di hatinya.

Zikran bergerak ke komputer ribanya. Jemarinya digerakkan menghalakan tetikus untuk membuka tetingkap Fire Fox Browser. Laman Friendster menjadi pilihan. Sekali lagi dia terlihat sesuatu yang diharapkannya tidak berlaku. Gambar teman sekelasnya di tingkatan 5 dahulu dengan seorang perempuan.Sungguh mesra berdua-duaan. Dan perempuan itu dia cukup kenal.

"Kamil pun ke? Dengan Aliya?"

Aku tak mungkin berdiam diri. Aku tak boleh biarkan Kamil jadi macam ni. Aku dah berjanji dengan dia.

*****

Salam Perpisahan SPM diadakan di Masjid Al-Falah. Semua pelajar lelaki tingkatan 5 beratur dalam 1 barisan panjang. Mereka akan bersalam-salaman, memohon maaf atas segala kesilapan dan saling memberi pesan terakhir. Mereka mungkin akan berpisah terus setelah tamat persekolahan. Masing-masing akan membawa haluannya sendiri.

Tiba giliran Zikran dan Kamil.

"Zikr, maafkan aku selama ni banyak buat salah dengan kau. Aku nak jadi kuat macam kau. Kaulah satu-satunya orang yang aku tengok dapat berubah 180 darjah."

"Semua dengan izin Allah. Kau pun boleh Mil, kalau kau mahu."

"Aku tak kuat Zikr. Tapi memang aku nak."

"Insya-Allah, aku doakan. Doakan aku juga. Sekarang mungkin kita dapat ubah diri. Tapi kalau kita tak istiqomah, Allah boleh tarik hidayahnya bila-bila masa saja."

Lalu mereka berpelukan. Kamil mendakap Zikran dengan kuat. Amat kuat. Air mata Zikran sudah mula bertakung. Dia cuba menahannya. Lalu Kamil membisikkan sesuatu ke telinga Zikran.

"Zikr, aku nak kau janji dengan aku satu perkara."

"Apa dia?"

"Jangan biarkan aku sesat Zikr. Jangan. Kalau kau nampak aku buat salah, cepat-cepat tegur aku. Aku takut. Aku takut Allah biarkan aku sesat. Macam yang kau selalu cerita dalam tazkirah kau, Allah akan membiarkan orang-orang yang ikut hawa nafsu ni sesat." Suara Kamil putus-putus. Serak basah. Kami sedang menangis.

Zikran tidak dapat menahan air matanya. Empangan yang menahan takungan air matanya kini pecah. Seketika lamanya mereka hanya larut dalam pelukan. Musik instrumental Kitaro - Mirage yang mengaluni suasana Masjid Al-Falah menambahkan rasa terharu.

"Insya-Allah Kamil. Aku akan cuba sedaya-upaya aku. Kau pun tolong ingatkan aku sama."

*******

Kini masanya janji ditagih. Zikran segera mengeluarkan telefon bimbitnya dan mendail nombor telefon Kamil.

"Assalamu'alaikum Warahmatullah"

"Wa'alaikumussalam Warahmatullah. Ha, Zikr, apa khabar?"

"Aku sihat je. Kau?"

"Aku pun sihat. Macam mana kampus kau? Aku pun ingat nak masuk situ juga nanti."

"Baguslah, boleh kita terus saling nasihat menasihati macam kat sekolah kan?"

"Insya-Allah. Hah, mimpi apa kau tiba-tiba cari aku ni?"

"Mimpi pasal janji kita."

"......"

"Kamil, gambar yang kau letak dalam Friendster kau tu memang gambar betul kan? Kau dengan Aliya."

"......"

"Aku cari kau untuk menunaikan janji aku Kamil. Kamil, aku sayang kau. Kau ada potensi besar untuk menjadi lebih baik. Aku ingat lagi malam tu. Kita berpelukan cukup lama. Aku ingat lagi bisikan terakhir kau tu. Aku masih ingat sampai sekarang."

"Zikr, aku..." Kamil tidak meneruskan kata-katanya.

"Ya, manusia terkadang tersilap. Itu lumrah kehidupan Kamil. Tiada bumi yang tidak pernah hujan. Tiada manusia yang tidak pernah terjatuh. Tetapi yang penting adalah kita tetap bangun kembali. Tidak kira berapa kali kita jatuh."

"Zikr, aku bersyukur kau dapat ingatkan aku. Aku kagum kau dapat tunaikan janji kau. Tapi maaf Zikr, aku tak kuat. Aku rasa aku tak boleh patah balik lagi. Aku rasa aku dah dapat apa yang aku cari."

"Kamil! Tolonglah. Kau lebih baik daripada ni! Aku kenal kau. Kamil yang aku kenal masih ada di situ. Tolonglah ingat tujuan hidup kita. Jangan korbankan hari esok hanya untuk keindahan yang semu ni."

"....."

"Kamil, tiada yang lebih indah daripada mendapat redha Ilahi. Seindah apapun sesuatu itu dalam pandangan kita, tanpa redha Allah, ia tetap sia-sia. Allah cintakan kita Kamil. Allah sayangkan kita. Tinggal kita nak sayang diri kita atau tidak.." Zikran mula beremosi. Air matanya mula mengalir.

"Zikr, terima kasih. Terus doakan aku ya." Tiba-tiba talian diputuskan.

"Kamil!!"

Zikran terus mendail kembali nombor Kamil. Namun tiada jawapan. Berkali-kali, sehingga operator yang menjawab.

Zikran terduduk melutut. Dia berasa amat bersalah. Air matanya terus mengalir. Dia kembali menata hatinya. Wudhu' diambil. Sejadah dihamparkan. Solat Dhuha didirikan. Hatinya merintih memohon secebis kekuatan daripada Allah yang Maha Mendengar dan Maha Mengetahui.

“Ya Allah, ampunkan aku yang lemah dalam membimbing teman-temanku. Aku sendiri tidak menunjukkan contoh tauladan yang baik buat mereka. Aku tahu aku lemah, aku banyak dosa. Namun aku tetap berharap agar aku mampu kembali kepadamu setiap kalu aku tersungkur. Dan itulah juga harapanku buat teman-temanku. Bantulah mereka untuk mengenal syariatMu dan memperjuangkan agamaMu. Peliharalah diriku dan diri mereka daripada terpengaruh dengan keindahan dunia yang menipu ini.”

Airmata terus menjadi saksi.

Last week's Nature had an editorial (you may need subscription to access the full article) that brought up the importance of learning science in informal settings, such as museums, planetaria, documentaries, etc. I remember going to the Planetarium in Karachi when I was in my 9th grade and it was a very cool experience. But such educational opportunities are relatively rare in much of the Muslim world. In fact, the planetarium in Karachi kept on showing the same show for years to come. There was later even an effort to close it down in favor of some commercial buildings, but it was fought-off successfully by local astronomy enthusiasts and other concerned citizens. There is clearly much interest in the general public. Just look at the tremendous response that Khwarizmi Science Society got when they arranged a series of star-gazing night for the general public (see an earlier post: Pakistani astronomers shine during the International Year of Astronomy). But how fantastic would it be if Dubai was known for the world's most amazing science museum - instead of the world's tallest building (or may be it can host the science museum in The Burj Khalifa - that would be okay).

In any case, this is what Nature has to say about the research into learning science via informal settings:

Their evidence strongly suggests that most of what the general public knows about science is picked up outside school, through things such as television programmes, websites, magazine articles, visits to zoos and museums — and even through hobbies such as gardening and birdwatching. This process of 'informal science education' is patchy, ad hoc and at the mercy of individual whim, all of which makes it much more difficult to measure than formal instruction. But it is also pervasive, cumulative and often much more effective at getting people excited about science — and an individual's realization that he or she can work things out unaided promotes a profoundly motivating sense of empowerment.

This suggests that policy-makers who focus exclusively on the classroom are missing an opportunity: even modest investment in informal science education could help to make the very large investment in formal instruction considerably more effective. Most of the necessary infrastructure is already in place: museums and zoos, for example, have been around for generations. Likewise, government funding mechanisms — agencies such as NASA and the National Science Foundation (NSF) — have been funding science exhibits, television specials and other informal science-education projects for many years.

Well, apropos of that, here is a review of a new permanent exhibit at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C. The exhibit is about human origins and it looks fantastic! You can check out its multimedia, interactive website here:

A permanent exhibition exploring what it means to be human opened last month at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington DC. The US$20.7-million David H. Koch Hall of Human Origins depicts how human traits evolved out of our ancestors' struggle to survive changes in climate over the past 6 million years.

The exhibit focuses on six evolutionary milestones of early humans: walking upright, experimenting with new tools and foods, changing body sizes and shapes, developing bigger brains, increasing social networks and communicating using symbols.

Visitors can compare their stride to the 3.6-million-year-old footsteps of Australopithecus afarensis. This species of hominin, which includes the fossilized partial skeleton named Lucy, walked upright and climbed trees, adapting as climate fluctuated between wet and dry, cool and warm. Walking on two legs helped A. afarensis to pick fruit and left their hands free to carry babies. In a striking comparison of body size, a child skeleton of Homo erectus named Turkana Boy stands next to the adult composite skeleton of Homo neanderthalensis, which is only marginally taller. Whereas H. erectus was adapted to hot climates, having a long, narrow body for dissipating heat, H. neanderthalensis had a shorter, wider body to conserve heat in colder European climes.

I haven't been to the exhibit, but from the review it seems that it provides an intimate look at our ancestors. In fact, it seems that the most popular segment is "also the least scientific: a photo booth that transforms your picture into a portrait of your prehistoric ancestor." I think it is a cool idea. But they also tried something interesting with smiles also:

Seven reconstructed busts — including that of a 1-metre-tall female 'hobbit', Homo floresiensis, from Indonesia and a male H. neanderthalensis — allow a more personal connection than the blank gazes offered by their skulls, 76 of which are bolted to a huge wall display, representing 15 species. To determine whether they could turn up the corners of the mouth like modern humans, “we looked at where smile muscles attach”, says Rick Potts, director of the Smithsonian's Human Origins Program. “Their smiles look different from ours and are more like the grimace of a chimpanzee.”

And there is a constant reminder that our species may have survived, but there is no guarantee for the future. Just ask any neanderthal:

Above the skulls, a label reads: “Fossils of more than 6,000 individuals discovered so far. More than a dozen species identified. Only our species, Homo sapiens, remains.” The exhibition gives constant reminders that life is precarious — whether through suspenseful music, in a short video playing the chimp-like squeals of an early human attacked by a leopard or in displays of hominin bones etched by crocodile teeth or eagle talons. Although we have survived, “our species has also been fragile”, says Potts. H. sapiens almost became extinct 70,000 years ago when vast swings in climate reduced the population to a few thousand breeding adults. Potts adds: “Our intentions, the decisions we make, make a difference.”

The exhibit looks great! Read the full review here (you may need subscription to access the full article).

The power that women hold over natural events is quite incredible. Flooding, hurricanes, earthquakes - often we find that women are to blame for them. Thus, it comes as no surprise that a senior Iranian cleric, Sedighi, has found a correlation between women's immodest dressings in Tehran and the increase in earthquake activity. I sense a Nature paper here...

"Many women who do not dress modestly ... lead young men astray, corrupt their chastity and spread adultery in society, which (consequently) increases earthquakes," Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi was quoted as saying by Iranian media. Sedighi is Tehran's acting Friday prayer leader.

...

"What can we do to avoid being buried under the rubble?" Sedighi asked during a prayer sermon Friday. "There is no other solution but to take refuge in religion and to adapt our lives to Islam's moral codes."

He is right. We don't have many other options. If this "promiscuous

women theory for the causes of earthquakes" fails, then we may have to start trying human sacrifices to appease the magma. This is true and tried classic ancient wisdom. How can that be wrong? Let us all hope that this works, because then we are really out of ideas.

On the other hand, there are some idiot seismologists that keep on talking about their fairy tales about plates and faults:

Seismologists have warned for at least two decades that it is likely the sprawling capital will be struck by a catastrophic quake in the near future.

Some experts have even suggested Iran should move its capital to a less seismically active location. Tehran straddles scores of fault lines, including one more than 50 miles (80 kilometers) long, though it has not suffered a major quake since 1830.

Yeah right! Plus, if these highfalutin seismologists are correct, wouldn't we find that most earthquakes correlate with plate boundaries? Of course not, and we should not even bother looking for these natural causes.

Read the full article here.

Update (april 20th): For a hilariously irreverent commentary on this state of affairs, check out the plans for boobquake here.