Still couldn't believe it i really attended the Fulbright greatest moment where all Fulbrighters, both Indonesian and American grantees gathered to help us prepare for our departure to US. 

"It's a dream come true," during the PDO I always remembered the moment when I prepared my scholarship application, tried not to think about it and felt how fast my heartbeat was when Aminef staff phoned me

The past month has been an incredible roller coaster: #sllconf was a trending topic (briefly topping Justin Bieber before the wifi in the hotel gave out), the Web 2.0 Expo Intensive rocked, the mainstream media has started writing about the Lean Startup, and - most of all - the movement continues to grow and evolve. Having had a few weeks to recover from the adrenaline crash, I find myself full of gratitude.

First of all, the Startup Lessons Learned conference exceeded my wildest expectations. I could barely keep up with the reaction in the weeks leading up to it; the transition from cynicism to hype almost caused whiplash. Sean Murphy has an excellent and comprehensive roundup of resources about the conference: all of the slides, videos, summaries, notes and write-ups are listed on his blog here. I'd like to call special attention to Kurt Carr's perspective (let's hope he finishes his five-part series):

Now that I’m back in Ohio (I was one of the token foreigners in a room full of Silicon Valley residents), I have found myself reliving and rethinking much of what I saw there. It has taken me a while to integrate what I learned into my experiences but I think that I have gotten at least the MVP version of that integration completed. These posts are the result.

I went to the conference thinking that I was well grounded in the basics of the Lean Startup approach and that attendance would hone the edges of that understanding. As it turned out, my thinking was short sighted at best.

It’s not that I was ignorant of the fundamentals of Lean Startup thinking, but that hearing these fundamentals discussed by some very intelligent, experienced folks helped me transform and internalize that knowledge. I had really debated about whether there was any value in spending the time and money to fly to San Francisco when there was a perfectly serviceable simulcast going on in Cleveland. All I can tell the folks who attended the simulcasts is that I’m not missing either the time or the money.

(You can read the rest of his posts on his blog: Introduction, Part 1, Part 2.) All video from the conference is available for free at Justin.tv here. It's in reverse-chronological order, so start with page 3 or just use Sean's handy reference..

I am grateful to everyone who helped make this event a success, especially my co-organizers Charles Hudson and David Sachs. Erin Turner helped organize the dozens of simulcast venues. All of those venues had their own local organizers who deserve our thanks as well (especially those in distant time zones who had the stamina to watch live). And a special thanks is due to all of our presenters, panelists, and mentors. You are the ones that consistently blew the audience away.

One of the themes of the conference was that we all stand on the shoulders of giants. I'd like to supplement that with some personal thank-yous.

Steve Blank has been a mentor to me for several years. He had the courage to speak out about the need for a rigorous theory of entrepreneurship long before that was a popular idea. When I first encountered customer development, it was considered pure lunacy by mainstream entrepreneurs and VC's. He inspired me to take a deeper look at what we all thought we understood about startups. We all owe him our thanks for persevering. His latest project, to reform the teaching of entrepreneurship worldwide, will have no less an impact. Do you know the difference between Durant and Sloan? If not, you'd better watch video of his talk ASAP. And then you can buy a t-shirt.

Kent Beck is deservedly famous for his many contributions in the software industry. His characteristic humility and clear thinking were on display as he casually demolished one sacred cow after another. Although many of the non-technical folks in the room didn't understand what was happening in the moment, plenty of hackers were on high alert. By the time he was done, he had launched a new Agile Manifesto:

Team vision and discipline over individuals and interactions (or processes and tools)
Validated learning over working software (or comprehensive documentation)
Customer discovery over customer collaboration (or contract negotiation)
Initiating change over responding to change (or following a plan)

And he made it seem like no big deal. Of course ideas have to evolve and change. How often do you see that level of intellectual honesty on display? Thank you, Kent.

Randy Komisar is someone I am pleased to consider a friend and mentor. We were colleagues briefly at KPCB, where Randy has been working not just with individual companies, but also working to change the mindset of entrepreneurs everywhere. Unfortunately, the video of our sllconf conversation is not online (due to technical problems), but we have a physical tape backup which we are endeavoring to get online soon. In the meantime his two books, The Monk and the Riddle and Getting to Plan B are both a must-read.

There are so many more people to thank: Sarah Milstein and the Web 2.0 Expo team for their tireless efforts to give us a fantastic stage in San Francisco (my keynote and Steve Blank's are both online), Steve Lohr at the New York Times for two great pieces on the Lean Startup concept (The Rise of the Fleet-Footed Start-Up and What Start-Ups Can Teach Big Companies), Pui-Wing Tam of the Wall Street Journal for exposing the larger movement to a mainstream audience (with minus points for calling me a guru), Harvard Business School professor Tom Eisenmann who has helped behind the scenes, conference sponsors (especially Steve Anderson), Mark Graban and the Lean Enterprise Institute, my comrades-in-arms and fellow-bloggers (you know who you are, including David Binetti for correcting my spelling), and my family and friends who have supported/put up with me during this intense roller coaster.

Most of all, I wanted to say a huge thank you to all of you: readers, entrepreneurs, agents of change. I get more credit than I deserve for being in the right place and the right time, putting your aspirations and frustrations into words. Together, I believe we are changing the face of entrepreneurship. If that's true, it's primarily due to your hard work, building companies and testing new ideas. Entrepreneurship is the life-blood of our global civilization. We all owe you. Thank you.

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Kapal Lifeline For Gaza diserang. Sungguh kejam lagi tidak berperikemanusiaan. Di sini saya bawakan artikel daripada Hilal Asyraf tentang isu ini. Mari ambil tindakan dan mula bergerak.

May 31st, 2010

by Hilal Asyraf. 

 

Dunia, apakah kamu tidak melihat? ~ Picture by Delt4 of Deviant Art

Saya masih ingat saat-saat intifada Palestin kedua bermula pada September 2000, saat pejuang-pejuang Palestina memulakan serangan menggunakan bom manusia, ada suara-suara busuk yang berkata:

“Apa la mereka itu, Israel juga manusia”

“Pengganas. Tidak berbelas kasihan. Tak ada common sense”

“Mujahidin ni pelampau. Ada patut sampai nak bom Israel. Tak fikir ke itu negara orang?”

Hari ini, berita telah sampai kepada saya bahawa Kapal yang membawa bantuan kemanusiaan bawah kelolaan projek Lifeline4Gaza telah diserang oleh askar zionis pada jam 10.30pagi Malaysia, 31hb Mei 2010. Memburukkan keadaan, sekurang-kurangnya 10 aktivis telah terbunuh manakala 30 orang pula tercedera.

Apa salah bantuan kemanusiaan itu? Adakah mereka membawa senjata? Apa salah orang yang terbunuh? Apa silap orang yang tercedera?

Dunia, saya hari ini saya ingin sekali lagi mendengar suara-suara kamu.

Apakah tidak kau melihat kepada mereka?

Itu kapal penyelamat, bukannya pembunuh

Sungguh jelek sekali jika dunia hari ini mendiamkan diri mereka. Jika memang bisu tidak mengapa. Tetapi sengaja membisukan diri adalah perkara yang hina.

Kapal-kapal itu bergerak untuk merentas Gaza, kerana rasa kemanusiaan yang tinggi untuk membantu saudara-saudara seagama yang kesempitan dikepung dalam tembok kematian. Sungguh keimanan telah menjana ukhuwwah merentas sempadan sebagaimana yang Islam ajarkan. Mereka membawa bantuan-bantuan kemanusiaan yang selama ini tidak diberikan kepada penduduk Gaza.

Kapal-kapal itu, di dalamnya terdapat manusia-manusia yang ikhlas. Saya membaca satu penyataan menyatakan bahawa di dalamnya yang paling muda adalah berumur kurang dari setahun, manakala yang paling tua ada yang melebihi 80 tahun. Semuanya dengan ikhlas menyabung nyawa untuk membantu saudara-saudara yang ditinggalkan. Ditinggalkan Mesir, ditinggalkan Jordan, ditinggalkan Arab Saudi, ditinggalkan Syria, ditinggalkan Lubnan yang berada di sekelilingnya.

Kapal-kapal itu, di dalamnya tiada tentera. Hanya rakyat biasa yang mempunyai kefahaman dan rasa kemanusiaan yang melangkaui manusia yang hanya inginkan dunia.

Tetapi kapal-kapal itu diserang hingga menyebabkan ada yang terbunuh dan tercedera.

Oh dunia, tidakkah kau melihat kepada mereka? Negara yang bernama Israel itu dan apa yang dilakukan oleh mereka?

Sungguh jelek sekali jika dunia hari ini mendiamkan diri mereka. Jika memang bisu tidak mengapa. Tetapi sengaja membisukan diri adalah perkara yang hina.

Israel Zionis yang kamu pertahankan itu

Wahai kamu kamu yang bersuara busuk selama ini. Yang menyatakan Israel Zionis juga manusia. Yang pernah berkata kepada saya bahawa Israel juga ada hak untuk mempertahankan dirinya. Yang pernah mengherdik saya menyatakan bahawa Israel juga ada hak asasi mereka. Yang pernah memarahi saya menyatakan bahawa Israel tidak patut diganggu dan sepatutnya berdamai sahaja dengan mereka.

Wahai kamu kamu yang bersuara busuk ini. Saya ingin kamu melihat apa yang berlaku hari ini. Israel Zionis yang kamu pertahankan itu yang menyerang kapal-kapal kebaikan hari ini. Yang di dalam kapal itu tidak mempunyai bala tentera untuk mempertahankan diri. Yang di dalam kapal itu tidak mempunyai senjata untuk digunakan apatah lagi diberi kepada mujahidin. Yang di dalam kapal itu hanya penuh dengan bantuan kemanusiaan berbentuk keperluan penting buat yang tersepit.

Israel Zionis yang kamu pertahankan itu, tidak segan silu terang-terangan menyerang kapal kebaikan itu. Lihatlah bagaimana mereka berkelakuan. Lihatlah bagaimana mereka membuat perhitungan. Lihatlah bagaimana mereka beradab dengan kebaikan.

Apakah satu perkara yang melampau memberikan bantuan kemanusiaan?

Lihatlah betapa kejamnya mereka dengan mata akal kamu yang waras.

Inilah sebabnya Mujahidin Palestin hingga sampai perlu mengebom diri mereka dalam menentang mereka. Sungguh, mereka itu gila tanpa jiwa. Inilah sebabnya tiada perjanjian damai lagi buat mereka. Kerana setiap kali berdamai mereka mengingkarinya.

Inilah dia Israel Zionis yang kamu pertahankan itu.

Yang kamu kata dia juga manusia.

Apakah kamu meragui kenyataan yang diberikan oleh Allah SWT?

“(Sesudah kamu - wahai Muhammad dan pengikut-pengikutmu - mengetahui tentang kerasnya hati orang-orang Yahudi itu) maka bolehkah kamu menaruh harapan bahawa mereka akan beriman kepada seruan Islam yang kamu sampaikan itu, padahal sesungguhnya telah ada satu puak dari mereka yang mendengar Kalam Allah (Taurat), kemudian mereka mengubah dan memutarkan maksudnya sesudah mereka memahaminya, sedang mereka mengetahui (bahawa perbuatan itu salah)?” Surah Al-Baqarah ayat 75.

“Dan mereka (kaum Yahudi) berkata pula: “Hati kami tertutup (tidak dapat menerima Islam)”. (Sebenarnya hati mereka tidak tertutup) bahkan Allah telah melaknatkan mereka disebabkan kekufuran mereka, oleh itu maka sedikit benar mereka yang beriman. Dan ketika datang kepada mereka sebuah Kitab dari Allah (Al Quran), yang mengesahkan apa yang ada pada mereka (Kitab Taurat), sedang mereka sebelum itu sentiasa memohon (kepada Allah) kemenangan atas kaum kafir musyrik (dengan kedatangan seorang Nabi pembawa Kitab itu). Setelah datang kepada mereka apa yang mereka sedia mengetahui kebenarannya (Nabi Muhammad dan Al Quran), mereka mengingkarinya; maka (dengan yang demikian), laknat Allah menimpa orang-orang yang kafir ingkar itu.” Surah Al-Baqarah ayat 89.

“Orang-orang Yahudi dan Nasrani tidak sekali-kali akan bersetuju atau suka kepadamu (wahai Muhammad) sehingga engkau menurut ugama mereka (yang telah terpesong itu). Katakanlah (kepada mereka): “Sesungguhnya petunjuk Allah (ugama Islam itulah petunjuk yang benar”. Dan demi sesungguhnya jika engkau menurut kehendak hawa nafsu mereka sesudah datangnya (wahyu yang memberi) pengetahuan kepadamu (tentang kebenaran), maka tiadalah engkau akan peroleh dari Allah (sesuatupun) yang dapat mengawal dan memberi pertolongan kepada mu.” Surah Al-Baqarah ayat 120.

Kejadian hari ini adalah salah kamu

Kenapa Israel berani lakukan apa yang mereka lakukan hari ini?

Sebab selama ini dunia menutup mata dan membiarkan mereka. Sebab selama ini dunia menyokong dan terus menyokong agenda mereka. Dunia membutakan mata, memekakkan telinga, menyembunyikan tangan, dan berdiam diri sahaja.

Islam tidak diambil sebagai kehidupan. Palestina kamu pandang sebagai negara lain. Kamu tunduk pada kehidupan sekutu Israel. Kamu biarkan jiwa kamu terbius, kamu lepaskan anak-anak kamu juga turut terbius. Kamu pimpin negara kamu dalam tatacara hidup mereka melahirkan rakyat-rakyat yang juga terbius.

Salah kamu. Salah kamu. Salah kamu.

Sebab itu hari ini, mereka tidak segan lagi terang-terangan menyerang.

Berita saya dapat dari twitter sahabat al-aqsa adalah seperti berikut:

“Israel tetap menembakkan gas air mata…memaksa peserta Freedom Flotilla keluar dari kapal….KAMI TIDAK AKAN MENYERAH!! ALLAHU AKBAR!!!”

“Kira2 pkl4.30 am tadi,prajurit Israel turun dr helikopter kedek kapal Mavi Marmara,&lgsg menembaki orang2 sipil yg tidak bersenjata disana.”

Twitter ini disiarkan sekitar setengah jam yang lalu.

Ya, itulah dia. Seakan-akan Israel berkata dengan lantang: “Kami tidak kisah. Sebab apa pun yang kami lakukan, dunia tetap akan menyokong kami dan berdiam diri”

Oh kamu. Apa yang telah kamu lakukan? Tidakkah Allah sudah berfirman:

“Dan jika mereka meminta pertolongan kepada kamu dalam perkara (menentang musuh untuk membela) ugama, maka wajiblah kamu menolongnya,” Surah Al-Anfal ayat 72.

“Seorang muslim adalah saudara bagi muslim yang lainnya, (dia) tidak menzaliminya dan mengabaikannya(membiarkannya dalam penderitaan, memberikannya kepada musuh), tidak mendustakannya dan tidak menghinanya. Taqwa itu disini (seraya menunjuk dadanya sebanyak tiga kali-). Cukuplah seorang muslim dikatakan buruk jika dia menghina saudaranya yang muslim(apatah lagi menzaliminya, mengabaikannya dan mendustakannya)” Hadith yang ke-35 dalam Hadith 40 An-Nawawi. Hadith riwayat Muslim.

Kalaulah selepas ini dunia terus membutakan mata

Saya tidak kisah kalau dunia ini memang asalnya buta. Maka saya rela maafkan ketidak pekaan mereka. Saya tidak kisah kalau dunia ini memang asalnya kudung. Maka saya rela maafkan ketiadaan tindakan daripada mereka. Saya tidak kisah kalau dunia ini memang asalnya bisu. Maka saya rela maafkan kebisuan mereka.

Tetapi saya sangat maklum bahawa dunia ini mempunyai mata, tangan dan suara.

Sungguh, saya terluka kepada mereka yang tidak menghiraukan perkara ini walau sudah terjadi keadaan seperti hari ini. Saya terluka kepada mereka yang masih mengambil kehidupan musuh Allah sebagai peraturan hidup. Saya terluka kepada mereka yang masih mencanangkan bahawa Israel adalah manusia yang ada hak asasinya.

Saya terluka, kalau selepas ini, tiada apa-apa yang dilakukan oleh dunia.

Ini yang Israel lakukan, pada saat dunia semuanya sedang menyaksikan konvoi itu secara langsung. Ini yang Israel lakukan, walau konvoi itu diperhatikan secara LIVE melalui internet.

Bagaimana agaknya yang Israel lakukan terhadap penduduk Gaza, yang terputus dari dunia luar?

Kalau selepas ini akal kamu masih tertutup, maka ketahuilah bahawa kamu tergolong kalangan manusia-manusia yang hancur.

“Dan orang-orang yang kafir, setengahnya menjadi penyokong dan pembela bagi setengahnya yang lain. Jika kamu (wahai umat Islam) tidak menjalankan (dasar bantu-membantu sesama sendiri yang diperintahkan oleh Allah) itu, nescaya akan berlakulah fitnah (kekacauan) di muka bumi dan kerosakan yang besar.” Surah Al-Anfal ayat 73.

Oh jangan risau. Kamu akan dihitung

Jangan risau wahai Israel Zionis. Juga jangan risau konco-konco kepadanya. Jangan juga risau wahai yang berkomplot bersamanya. Juga jangan risau kepada yang menyokong mereka.

Kamu semua akan dihitung. Kamu semua akan dihitung. Kamu semua akan dihitung.

“(Sumpah demi sumpah) bahawa sesungguhnya segala yang dijanjikan kepada kamu (mengenai hari akhirat) tetap benar; Dan bahawa sesungguhnya balasan amal, tetap berlaku” Surah Adz-Dzariyyat ayat 5-6.

Tuhan saya, tuhan mereka yang berada di Gaza, tuhan mereka yang berada di atas kapal konvoi, tuhan mereka yang mati atas kezaliman tangan-tangan kalian, tuhan mereka yang tercedera apabila kamu merampas kapal, tuhan yang satu untuk seluruh ummat di dunia, juga tuhan kamu yang sebenarnya, Dia, Allah, Yang Maha Perkasa, Yang Maha Kuat Tiada Tandingannya, Yang Maha Berkuasa Atas Segala-galanya, Pencipta Kepada Neraka, sungguh Dia akan menghitung kamu.

“Apakah (yang ditunggu-tunggu oleh mereka yang tidak beriman itu?) mereka tidak menunggu melainkan kedatangan malaikat (yang mencabut nyawa mereka), atau kedatangan (azab) Tuhanmu, atau kedatangan sebahagian dari tanda-tanda Tuhanmu (yang menjadi alamat hari kiamat). Pada hari datangnya sebahagian dari tanda-tanda Tuhanmu itu, tidak berfaedah lagi iman seseorang yang tidak beriman sebelum itu, atau yang tidak berusaha mengerjakan kebaikan mengenai imannya. Katakanlah: Tunggulah kamu (akan apa yang kamu berhak mendapatnya), dan kami pun sebenarnya menunggu (akan apa yang telah dijanjikan oleh Tuhan kepada kami).” Surah Al-An’am ayat 158.

Saya bersabar jika Allah melambatkan hukumanNya ke atas kamu. Sungguh, itu tanda sinar kasih sayangNya buat kamu masih belum luput. Tetap Dia memberikan peluang seperti peluang yang Dia berikan kepada yang membakar Ashabul Ukhdud.

“Sesungguhnya orang-orang yang menimpakan bencana untuk memesongkan orang-orang lelaki yang beriman dan orang-orang perempuan yang beriman, kemudian mereka tidak bertaubat,(ini adalah tanda bahawa, sekiranya mereka bertaubat, maka mereka akan selamat) maka mereka akan beroleh azab neraka Jahannam (kerana perbuatan buruk itu), dan mereka akan beroleh lagi azab api yang kuat membakar (kerana mereka tidak bertaubat).” Surah Al-Buruj ayat 10.

Tetapi bila tiba waktunya, Dia akan menghukum kamu.

Tidak di dunia, di akhirat sana pasti perhitunganNya terlaksana.

Beratnya, hingga kamu bercita-cita bahawa kamu tidak pernah dilahirkan di dunia.

“Sesungguhnya (dengan keterangan-keterangan yang tersebut), Kami memberi amaran kepada kamu mengenai azab yang dekat (masa datangnya), - iaitu hari seseorang melihat apa yang telah diusahakannya; dan orang yang kafir akan berkata (pada hari itu): Alangkah baiknya kalau aku menjadi tanah (supaya aku tidak dibangkitkan untuk dihitung amalku dan menerima balasan)” Surah An-Naba’ ayat 40.

Takutnya, hingga kamu merayu dikembalikan semula.

“Dan (sungguh ngeri) sekiranya engkau melihat ketika orang-orang yang berdosa itu menundukkan kepalanya di hadapan Tuhan mereka (dalam keadaan malu dan hina, sambil merayu): Wahai Tuhan kami, kami telah melihat dan mendengar dengan sejelas-jelasnya (akan segala yang kami ingkari dahulu); maka kembalikanlah kami ke dunia supaya kami mengerjakan amal-amal yang baik; sesungguhnya kami sekarang telah yakin” Surah As-Sajadah ayat 12.

Kamu tiada pengakhiran yang gembira, oh musuh-musuh Allah yang celaka.

Mati kamu di neraka, syahid kami di Syurga.

Mati kamu merana, mati kami disiram bahagia.

Kamu akan dihitung. Kamu akan dihitung. Kamu akan dihitung.

Dan saya berharap-harap, Allah akan menjadikan saya antara wakilNya dalam menumbangkan kamu di atas dunia. Ketahuilah, saya bukan manusia yang berharap sahaja. Saya manusia yang berusaha.

Penutup: Ini garisan antara kita.

Berdiam diri, atau melakukan sesuatu.

Inilah dia garisan antara kita. Yang membezakan orang-orang yang benar keimanannya atau yang palsu semata.

“Habis, apa yang boleh saya lakukan?” Mungkin itu yang anda tanyakan.

Macam-macam. Khas untuk konvoi, kita boleh solat hajat dan berdoa. Untuk perjuangan ini, kita boleh mula dengan ubah diri kita dan ajak manusia lain kembali kepada Allah.

Masalah Palestina bukan masalah kenegaraan. Masalah Palestina adalah masalah ummah. Perhatikan sejarah. Palestina hanya mampu aman apabila ummah berada dalam kondisinya yang terbaik. Zaman Saidina Umar dan zaman Salahuddin Al-Ayubi, kamu kajilah ummahnya bagaimana. Palestina hanya menderita, pada zaman ummah rosak dan berpecah belah. Selaklah sejarah, hari-hari Palestina ditawan semula dari tangan orang Islam dan bagaimana kondisi ummah ketika itu.

Ada yang berjuang mempertahankan Palestina dengan senjata. Mereka yang berada di dalam Palestina sendiri tidak henti-henti merawat jiwa-jiwa di sana. Ada pula yang berjuang seperti yang berada di atas Marmara Mavi, yang menyertai konvoi-konvoi keselamatan. Dan ada pula yang berjuang dari luar Palestina dengan merawat jiwa-jiwa ummah yang tercedera dengan jahiliyyah.

Tetapi berdiam diri, tidak termasuk salah satu daripadanya.

Sungguh, ini garisan antara kita.

Yang membezakan orang-orang yang duduk ketakutan, dengan orang-orang yang berdiri dengan yakin penuh keberanian.

“Tidaklah sama keadaan orang-orang yang duduk (tidak turut berperang) dari kalangan orang-orang yang beriman - selain daripada orang-orang yang ada keuzuran - dengan orang-orang yang berjihad (berjuang) pada jalan Allah (untuk membela Islam) dengan harta dan jiwanya. Allah melebihkan orang-orang yang berjuang dengan harta benda dan jiwa mereka atas orang-orang yang tinggal duduk (tidak turut berperang kerana uzur) dengan kelebihan satu darjat. Dan tiap-tiap satu (dari dua golongan itu) Allah menjanjikan dengan balasan yang baik (Syurga), dan Allah melebihkan orang-orang yang berjuang atas orang-orang yang tinggal duduk (tidak turut berperang dan tidak ada sesuatu uzur) dengan pahala yang amat besar; Iaitu beberapa darjat kelebihan daripadaNya, dan keampunan serta rahmat belas kasihan. Dan (ingatlah) adalah Allah Maha Pengampun, lagi Maha Mengasihani.” Surah An-Nisa’ ayat 95-96.

_________________________________________________________

Rujukan berita dari:

http://twitter.com/freegazaorg

http://twitter.com/sahabatalaqsha

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/05/201053133047995359.html

http://www.livestream.com/insaniyardim

http://www.facebook.com/pages/LIFELINE-4-GAZA-Break-The-Siege/358514058399

© 2010 Langit Ilahi | Powered by Ravi Varma

~End Of Post~

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

I’m an astro-physicist, one who’s research has for almost twenty years now been in large part focused on antiparticles in our galaxy, so when headlines – or at least news stories – bring these antiparticles to the front and put them in the same sentence with ‘God’ and ‘our existence’, I am not only interested, I find matter (no pun) for commentary. Oh, and for once, there won’t be any reference to Islam…

What’s the story? You may not have heard, but the physics community got all excited last week because Fermilab (one of the big accelerators out there) found some hints of why there are more particles than antiparticles in the universe. Indeed, that has been a serious mystery, because all matter (the particles that constitute atoms and molecules, i.e. electrons, protons, neutrons, and other less well-known fundamental particles) came from the energy that was expanded in the Big Bang, but it could only come out in particle-antiparticle pairs, which sooner or later “annihilate” when they meet their opposites in the universe. But somehow there was some “excess” matter over antimatter, just a tiny bit, 1 extra for every 30,000,000 pairs! And those “extras” ended up forming all the matter structures that exist, from atoms to galaxies, and of course you and me. And that’s why you read that “our existence” is owed to that “matter-antimatter asymmetry”, and I don’t want to use the fancy vocabulary (like “baryogenesis” or “baryon asymmetry”).

There have been proposals and particle physics models to account for that asymmetry (the most well-known among students of physics is “CP violation”, where C stands for “[electric] charge conjugation” and P for “parity”, i.e. left-right), and laboratory (accelerator) experiments have long found some particles which exhibit that kind of violation, but it has also been shown that the process would not have produced enough excess to account for, yes, “our existence”… In fact, there are many proposals for particle-antiparticle asymmetry, but none have been confirmed experimentally, and certain not at any appreciable level – until now.

And that’s where last week’s news story comes in, with physicists at Fermilab announcing that they have seen a heretofore unobserved violation effect that could produce a substantial level of excess (of particles over antiparticles). And, of course, it wasn’t enough for the paper to appear in Science (one of the most, if not the most prestigious journal out there), they had to throw in the buzz words “existence” and “God” to make sure the announcement would resonate around the blogosphere. Dennis Overbye, New York Times science reporter, titled his report “A New Clue to Explain Existence”; in it he quoted Joe Lykken, a theorist at Fermilab, saying “I would not say that this announcement is the equivalent of seeing the face of God, but it might turn out to be the toe of God.” Wow!

First, it is way premature to claim any trophies over this experiment; as all scientists know, this result needs to be ascertained (it is only tentative right now) and confirmed (by other teams and instruments). Indeed, in our fields, a “2 to 3 sigma” result is statistically bordering on the marginal, and I (with many) can recall important results that were presented with much greater statistical confidence but got retracted later or were just never confirmed by anyone else.

Secondly, I don’t know whether the exaggerated usage of such ‘God’ metaphors (the previous one was the fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background that was described as “seeing the face of God”) says more about the media, the scientists, or the general public. Why does everyone feel obligated to not only hype a discovery (which, granted, can often be important) but also describe it in grand metaphors? Why can’t we just present the results in context, with some background, and perhaps a nice Sidney Harris cartoon? Why does a genetic engineering feat like Craig Venter’s replacement of a bacterium’s DNA with a synthetic one have to be announced as “Scientist Craig Venter Has Created Artificial Life”? Again, I am not downplaying the achievements, just complaining about the hype…

Anyway, I wish that my positrons (anti-electrons) were really directly linked to “my existence” (then I could use that idea in seminars) or that matter-antimatter excess was a toe-print of God’s, but I don’t believe one can raise the science to such levels, and I don’t think it serves science or education to adopt such hyping and buzzing approaches.

----------------------------------

Also see a related post, God is in the Metaphor.

David Sloan Wilson was our Science & Religion Lecture Series speaker at Hampshire College couple of years ago and gave a fantastic talk on the evolutionary origins of religion and on his own ideas of group selection leading to religions. Check out the video of his talk here.

Here is a recent Nature interview where he talks about the importance of understanding evolution and also about his own work on religion:

You wrote a book called Evolution for Everyone. Why is it important to you that the public understand evolution?

Because it is useful. The way most people understand evolution, it is not consequential, and so they don't need to believe it. The 50% figure — how many people in the US don't accept evolution — doesn't impress me. Close to 100% of people don't connect it to matters of consequence in their own lives.

And that includes scientists?

The long view of the history of evolutionary theory is that, although in some sense it is obvious that it has profound implications for the way we think about ourselves, it became confined to the biological sciences for most of the 20th century. Now what is taking place at the level of research and scholarship is the rethinking of entire disciplines. But this is not yet reflected in higher education. At virtually every college and university, if you are not a biology major, you are not going to hear about evolution.

But can thinking about evolution really improve policy?

Every policy has a surface logic, but like wishes in folktales they have unforeseen consequences that we don't keep track of. And so we continue the same polices. At the Evolution Institute we take subjects that have been combed over from other perspectives, but when you take an evolutionary perspective, you see things differently and a new common sense emerges.

Take childhood education. If you look at hunter-gatherer societies, there is very little that resembles formal education. Education takes the form of play, and adults provide explicit instructions more or less when asked. And yet this spontaneous education system is not only not exploited by formal education, it is subverted.

But we in the modern West aren't raising our children to be hunter-gatherers. Why should we educate our children like them?

This question is an empirical issue. We need to do experiments. It could be that the skills we need today are so different that you need different educational methods, that you can't make it fun, that you can't make it like hunting. Or maybe there really isn't such a big difference between an American kid learning his times tables and an Australian kid learning his songlines [songs that function as maps and must be memorized each generation].

Studying evolution can tell us something about how human behaviours came to be, but can we really harness it to improve our behaviour?

You have to think about the environment. If you want to change a practice or implement something, you need to create the environment which will cause that thing to win the Darwinian contest. When you start thinking like this, evolution becomes an indispensable tool.

Take risky adolescent behaviours, for example. Instead of regarding them as pathological, which is the typical model, they are better regarded as adaptive responses to harsh environments that enhance immediate fitness, however damaging to others or even the individual over the long term.

And on Religion:

You also study religion from an evolutionary perspective. Why would religion be adaptive for humans?

The empirical evidence points to substantial group-level benefits for most enduring religions.

Benefits include defining the group, coordinating action to achieve shared goals and developing elaborate mechanisms to prevent cheating. The same evolutionary processes that cause individual organisms and social insect colonies to function as adaptive units also cause religious groups to function as adaptive units. Religious believers frequently compare their communities to a single body or a beehive. This is not just a poetic metaphor but turns out to be correct from an evolutionary perspective.

As we speak, we are establishing our first consulting relationship with a religious congregation in Binghamton to explore their religion and spirituality and to help them be more effective as an organization [by using evolutionary tools]. I think the benefits we provide will be so great that we will be sought after by other congregations.

Read the full interview here and the lecture video here.

"Umair, tengok tu.." Seorang kawan study group saya menjuihkan bibir arah hadapan.

"Astaghfirullahal'azim.." Spontan bibir saya mengucapkan.

"Hahaha..lawak la kau ni Umair. Kau memang nak tengok kan?"

Saya hanya menggeleng-gelengkan kepala sambil tersenyum tawar kepadanya. Kawan yang seorang ini memang suka bergurau. Tetapi kali ini perkara yang dimainkannya agak menyentap hati saya.

Wanita berpakaian tetapi seolah-olah telanjang. Berpakaian, tetapi hanya sekadar mahu menutup apa yang perlu. Apakah kurang ongkos untuk membeli pakaian lebih sehingga terpaksa meminjam 'baju adik'? Wallahua'lam. Allah lebih tahu niat mereka.

Namun, menjadi tanggungjawab kita kemudiannya untuk memilih sama ada mahu melihat atau tidak. Dan pilihan kita itu akan dipertanggungjawabkan.

Antara Mampu dan Mahu

"Alah, orang dah pakai, mestilah untuk tunjuk. Kita nak buat macam mana, tengok je la."

Wah, mudahnya!

"Kalau macam tu, nanti kalau orang hidang babi panggang atas meja, kau terus makanlah ye. Dah orang hidang, nak buat macam mana?"

"Hehehe..."

Ha, jawab-jawab!

Setiap daripada kita belum tahu sekadar apa kemampuan kita. Namun saya yakin yang setiap daripada kita tahu apa kemahuan kita. Orang-orang tua berpesan "Hendak seribu daya, tak nak seribu dalih." Dan ia teramat benar. Jika kita mahu, pasti kita akan melakukan apa sahaja demi mendapatkan kemahuan kita. Tetapi jika kita jumpa orang yang tidak mahu ini, sila perhatikan alasan-alasan yang bakal dikemukakannya. Sampai yang tidak logik seperti perbualan di atas pun akan dikeluarkannya.

"Aku bukan apa. Aku ni teruk, tak layak rasanya nak ikut halaqoh dengan korang ni. Korang ni geng-geng malaikat. Korang dengan Malaikat Jibril tu agak-agak dah nak sama taraf dah. Aku ni pula geng-geng syaitan. Hahaha..."

"Sebab kita ni teruklah kita kena berkawan dengan Malaikat Jibril. Kurang-kurang dapatlah dengar-dengar macam mana nak berusaha masuk syurga. Dah tahu diri teruk, nak jadi kawan syaitan pula. Dah sedia nak masuk neraka ke?"

Ops, pedas ke? Kenyataan bro. Pilih-pilih..

Isu Kebebasan

"Alah, sekarang dunia dah maju. Kita kena bebaskan fikiran kita daripada belenggu-belenggu yang menghambat pemikiran kita ke arah kemajuan. Kita boleh buat apa yang kita suka, hak kebebasan manusia!"

Ya manusia perlu kebebasan. Tetapi jika kebebasan yang dimaksudkan ialah dengan menggadaikan maruah, saya kata itu bukan kebebasan, tetapi propaganda yang menjerumuskan kita kembali ke tamadun rimba. Cara hidup binatang. Kerana yang diperjuangkan adalah kebebasan hawa nafsu. Keseronokan dan kepuasan nafsu belaka. Padahal hawa nafsu sentiasa menjerumuskan manusia ke dalam kesesatan dan kehancuran.

Akal yang ada hanya digunakan untuk mencari kepuasan bagi perut dan 'benda' di bawahnya! Lalu apa bezanya kita dengan binatang? Apa mulianya kita berbanding makhluk tuhan yang tidak berakal itu?

Allah menciptakan kita dengan nafsu dan akal. Kita diberikan peluang untuk menjadi lebih baik daripada malaikat, tetapi juga mempunyai risiko menjadi lebih hina daripada binatang. Allah menciptakan malaikat tanpa nafsu, maka wajarlah mereka beribadah tanpa henti dan tidak berkeinginan untuk bermaksiat. Haiwan pula diciptakan dengan nafsu tanpa akal, maka hidupnya hanya berpandukan keinginan hawa nafsunya. Jika kita manusia yang mempunyai akal ini dapat menggunakan akal bagi mengawal nafsu, maka kita lebih baik daripada malaikat. Tetapi jika kita hanya menjadikan hawa nafsu nakhoda, maka kita jauh lebih hina daripada binatang yang tidak berakal.

Pilih, nak jadi hina atau mulia? Pilihan di tangan kita.

Saya berfikir ayat yang sesuai untuk disampaikan kepada teman tadi.

"Bukan aku tak bernafsu nak tengok. Tapi aku memilih untuk tidak melepaskan peluang untuk tengok wanita syurga yang jauh lebih indah semata-mata untuk melihat kecantikan wanita dunia macam dia tu."

"Wah..tinggi falsafah kau!"

Saya hanya tersenyum.

Ya-Allah, peliharalah hatiku!

~End Of Post~

Here is a fantastic song by Josh Ritter about a love affair between an archaeologist and a mummy. It is called The Curse, and it is simply gorgeous. This is from his new album, So Runs the World Away. Here are the lyrics to The Curse and here is the song:

I have seen Josh Ritter live couple of times and he is fantastic. I was introduced to him music via Kathleen from his first album. Do check out Kathleen.

Last week the Mauna Kea Management Board (MKMB) unanimously recommended the approval of plans for the construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) on the summit of Mauna Kea. There is a long history of controversy here and there is opposition to new construction from some Native Hawaiian groups as well as some environmental groups. But, as usual, this is a complicated issue with multiple views on each side. However, it seems that the TMT - one of the largest of the next generation of telescopes - will be located on Mauna Kea. After the MKMB recommendation, the TMT proposal will now go for approval to the UH-Hilo chancellor and then to the UH Board of Regents. And if you are not tired of reading acronyms, the Board of Land and Natural Resources (BLNR), will then decide on the permit. Phew.

If you want to catch-up on the controversy, check out the following posts:

Management Plan Approved for Telescopes on Sacred Mauna Kea

Hawaii-Tribune Herald on the recent Mauna Kea lawsuit decision

Mauna Kea Observatories Update
Is it good news that Maui is picked as the site for a new Solar telescope?

This is absolutely hilarious! It has everything: violence, sex, and a dodo [And yes, DarLOSE joke is definitely the winner here. Hey - it matches perfectly well with the juvenile humor I like]. Enjoy!

Dana Carvey is "DARWIN" - watch more funny videos

By the way, I did get a chance to see the real Darwin biopic, Creation. It was okay. The first half is very good and it presents both Darwin's ideas and his struggles in a nuanced and interesting way. In particular, there is a fascinating time-lapse sequence that highlights Darwin's famous Tangled Bank passage from Origin of Species. Furthermore, the movie does not back away or soften up Darwin's atheism. The second half of the film, however, is moody & dark and suffers from too much focus on his daughter's death (yes, I know the movie is based on Annie's Box) and it almost completely forgets about Darwin's intellectual development and his exchanges with other scholars of the time. Paul Bettany is fantastic as Darwin, and Jennifer Connelly is also good as Emma. However, I'm not too crazy about the actress that plays Annie.

If you are watching at home, watch the first half - it is definitely worth the rental. But a good Darwin biopic is yet to be made.

Oh - and there was nothing really controversial in the film. I'm still not sold on the idea that film had a hard time finding a distributor in the US solely because of its subject matter. As I have said before, it got the distributor in about a month after its premiere at Toronto Film Festival, and the delay may also have been due to the not-so-great quality of its story telling (for an indie film distributor).

See earlier posts on Darwin biopic here:

Darwin biopic, Creation: What Controversy?

Is Darwin a problem for Hollywood?

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

A conference dealing with astronomical solutions to the prayer and fasting times for Muslims will take place in Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates) from May 30 to June 1, 2010. Organized by the Islamic Crescents Observation Project (ICOP) and the Emirates Astronomical Society (EAS), this conference is expected to gather about 200 registered participants from about 20 countries plus dozens more local attendees, not counting the twenty or so “Islamic personalities”, i.e. muftis and religious scholars.

This conference, the second of its kind to be organized in Abu Dhabi over the last few years, aims at addressing issues of relevance to the religious life of Muslims, issues that are directly related to Astronomy. In particular, the longstanding “Ramadan problem”, i.e. the determination of the dates for starting and ending the month of fasting (Ramadan), has yet to find a solution that can satisfy all. (I will come back some other time to explain the problem in more detail and to summarize the solutions that have been proposed to date.) This problem is related to the more general issue of the Islamic calendar.

Recently, another issue has begun to seriously worry millions of Muslims, the question of the prayer times in high-latitude regions of the globe, e.g. Canada, the UK, Scandinavia, etc. What is the problem there? In Islam, prayer times are set with respect to the Sun’s position in the sky, above the horizon (during the day) or below it (for the sunset and evening/night prayer). In particular, the moments of the first and last prayers are defined by when the first rays of the Sun are refracted by the Earth’s atmosphere, which has been generally agreed to occur when the Sun is about 18 degrees below the horizon. The problem is that the Sun does not go so low below the horizon in high-latitude places during certain periods of the year, and so the moment of first prayer, which is also the moment of the start of fasting in Ramadan, is sometimes undefined. Now, since Ramadan is a lunar month, thus it shifts through the seasons (by about 11 days each year), it is about to start occurring in the summer (in the northern hemisphere), so there will be – for Muslims living in the UK, Canada, and most of northern Europe, no clear time for the start of fasting or for the first prayer.

These are a few of the serious issues that have continued to face Muslims and which astronomers have been contending with (including several non-Muslims who have found some of these issues fascinating and worthy of study). And conferences like this upcoming one in Abu Dhabi have been gathering experts who present novel solutions; the question is usually the extent to which such solutions are both applicable without difficulty and acceptable to the religious authorities. Indeed, about a dozen Muslim scholars have agreed to attend the conference and discuss the topics with the astronomers. I have attended several such conferences in the past, and I can attest that they tend to be a complicated exercise of balance, between the necessity of scientific rigor (papers are refereed, etc.) and the requirement to abide by the “religious rules”, which sometimes are rather subjective and vary depending on the school of jurisprudence and on the group’s general Islamic outlook (e.g. salafi vs. reformers)…

I will report back to you after the conference on what promises to be a very interesting meeting of astronomers (including a few non-Muslim ones) and religious scholars…

This is the end of the semester - so you have to excuse me for this.

It is not entirely my fault, but while clearing up my Google Reader, I ran into two Star Trek related posts - one at Bad Astronomy and the other at 3quarksdaily. These are not really related to the blog - but then how could I resist William Shatner singing Rocket Man. As far as the conversation between Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis is concerned, I've always had a soft spot for ST-TNG. I was at Stony Brook for undergraduate when it was being aired, and I remember going to the student union every Sunday night to watch it with a bunch of other Trekkies (hey - what did you expect? I was an astronomy and physics major). Oh - I can make it even geekier. I admit it - I saw Marina Sirtis speak at one of the big science fiction conventions (ICON) at Stony Brook in the early 1990s (ST-TNG was still running) - and yes, she was great answering questions in front of over 600-700 doting Trekkies jammed into a lecture hall.

FYI: Apart from the Borg episodes, Yesterday's Enterprise, Ship in a Bottle, and All Good Things were some of the best TNG episodes :)

So, first here is William Shatner singing(?) Rocket Man:

And here is a chat from 2008 between Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis (this is actually funny):

In the past few months I have posted several items about science and education initiatives in the Muslim world. Some of this follows from Obama's Cairo speech and his appointment of science envoys. Even if there is no immediate impact, these efforts, I think, are going to have a net-positive impact if employed with long-term effects in mind. Yes, there is a danger of US appearing to be a patronizing power or being perceived as coming in with some sinister motives. However, there is also the real need in much of the Muslim world of scientific intellectual input and the development of an infrastructure that can sustain high-quality research in the long-run. Since there are economic benefits also tied in with this development, my guess is that a positive engagement will, in the end, win out against trepidation over the US involvement. I may sound like a broken record here, but I hope that this engagement goes beyond applied sciences and that there is a serious effort to invest in pure sciences as well (and the related issue of providing safe space for free speech and tolerance of other ideas).

A bill has now been introduced in the House of Representatives, cosponsored by a Democrat (Howard Berman, D-CA) and a Republican (Jeff Fortenberry, R-NE), that wants to provide grants for scientific research to universities, businesses, and institutes in the Muslim world (see full text of bill H.R.4801 here). From Nature Medicine:

The Global Science Program for Security, Competitiveness and Diplomacy Act, co-sponsored in March by Berman and Jeff Fortenberry, a Republican from Nebraska, would provide grants of up to five years to universities and businesses and fund infrastructure for research in a number of specific fields, including multi–drug-resistant and water-borne diseases, renewable energy and nuclear nonproliferation, among others. Research into sensitive subjects such as bioterrorism and select agents would not be funded. The bill, which does not specify a budget, also aims to create a 'global virtual science library' that would make scientific journals available at little to no cost.

Ahmed Zewail, an Egyptian-born chemist at the California Institute of Technology and a member on the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, applauds the legislation. “This is about creating the infrastructure, exchanges and management” in science between the US and the Muslim world, says Zewail, who was one of three science envoys appointed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in November.

Still, he concedes that some countries in the region do not have the capacity to support research, even if paid for by US taxpayers. “Some countries are at different levels,” he says. “Some will only be able to contribute human resources,” but others should produce concrete results.

Read the full story here. This bill is in its early stages and has to first go through the foreign affairs committee as well the relevant science committees of both the House and the Senate, before it can be brought up for a vote in the respective chamber of the Congress.

It has all the trappings of a big, dumb, summer movie. However, I have some hope. The movie is about Hypatia, a woman astronomer/mathematician, living in Alexandria in late Roman Empire. She was killed in 415 AD (oh - c'mon. I didn't give away the ending. This is history :) ). So now comes Agora. Why do I have hope for the film? Hypatia is being played by Rachel Weisz - who is smart, intelligent, and is usually quite selective in her choice of films (okay - Mummy 2 was a mistake, but she was quite new at the time). In fact, she has been active in shaping the depiction of Hypatia in this film as well. In her own words, she does not want Hypatia to come off simply as "a brain on two legs". The second reason why I'm hopeful about he film is that is directed by Alejandro Amenábar, whose earlier work includes The Others and The Sea Inside - both independent and highly acclaimed films. In fact, he was thinking of making a film about the history of astronomy, when he stumbled onto the fascinating character of Hypatia.

But the film is also a commentary on religious intolerance. It seems that the film, while set in 5th century Alexandria, makes a deliberate comparison with the Taliban of the 21st century (though the Taliban would rather be living in the 10th century AD). Here is a bit from an article in today's NYT:

“The hot topic these days is Islamic fundamentalism,” Ms. Weisz said recently over tea at an East Village restaurant near her home. “But in ‘Agora,’ it’s the Christians who are the fundamentalists” whose zealotry leads them to destroy one of the libraries of Alexandria, perhaps the greatest center of learning in the ancient world.

Some of those scenes evoke the Taliban’s demolition of statues of Buddha in Afghanistan in 2001, and Ms. Weisz, British born and educated at Cambridge, said such parallels were deliberate. In another scene, Hypatia has a veil put over her head, “and it said in the script that this should be reminiscent of the burqa,” she recalled.

“The very first thing I thought when I read the script was that this is a story about today, a very contemporary, 21st-century story,” she said. She mentioned opposition to stem cell research and to the teaching of evolution as examples of “a wall between science and religion” that still stands, and then concluded her thought: “That we’re still killing people in the name of God is primitive but true.

...

“She was an exceptional woman, a virginal intellectual who managed to impose herself as an important figure, a reference point in the philosophical and political life of Alexandria during a crucial epoch” Mr. Amenábar said. “We are accustomed to seeing lions devouring Christians in films, but not the transformation of Christians from a persecuted group to one that is powerful and armed.”

C'mon - it better be good, and I hope they do justice to the topic. Read the full article here. Here is the trailer for Agora:

By the way, Hypatia also captured Sagan's imagination and was brought up multiple times in Cosmos. Here is a clip about the last days of the Library of Alexandria and the death of Hypatia:

Timothy Ferris is an excellent science writer. If you haven't read his books, check them out. I particularly like Coming of Age in the Milky Way. He usually places science in a larger humanistic context. His new book is The Science of Liberty: Democracy, Reason, and the Laws of Nature and as you can guess from the title, it looks the influence of science in the shaping of the US constitution. This argument, to a certain degree, was also made in the excellent book, Science and the Founding Fathers: Science in the Political Thought of Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and James Madison (yes, the title is really this long) by I. Bernard Cohen. If you get a chance, read Cohen's book.

Back to Ferris' book. Here is a review by Michael Shermer (you may need subscription to access the article) in this week's Nature, and he starts with Richard Feynman (I personally think that every review should start with Feynman):

In a 1963 lecture, Nobel-prizewinning physicist Richard Feynman opined on the nature of politics, arguing that the US governmental system “is new, it's modern, and it is scientific”. Feynman reasoned that the way in which the system had been designed from scratch in the eighteenth century made it flexible enough to evolve as ideas were “developed and tried out and thrown away”. The writers of the Constitution, he noted, knew of the value of doubt.
...

Most science historians attribute the rise and success of the scientific enterprise to the Enlightenment values of reason, empiricism and anti-authoritarianism. Ferris reverses the causal vector. Most of the founding fathers were serious amateur scientists who deliberately adopted methods of data gathering, hypothesis testing and theory formation. Thomas Paine, for example, was an amateur astronomer who speculated that every star is a sun like our own, with orbiting planets. Assuming that science is universal, he believed that inhabitants of other worlds would discover the same natural and social laws as ours. “All the great laws of society are laws of nature,” Paine wrote in his 1791 treatise The Rights of Man.

These laws are discovered through experiment. Paine protested against ridiculing unsuccessful experiments because through trial and error comes progress. Moreover, political elections are scientific experiments. “I smile to myself when I contemplate the ridiculous insignificance into which literature and all the sciences would sink, were they made hereditary,” Paine growled, “and I carry the same idea into governments.”

This idea of equating the ever-changing error-correcting mechanism of science with governance and laws of society is fascinating. Of course, this is also challenging as we also have to find ways of evaluating the results of experiments - and this is certainly easier in science than in politics. But the idea of an ever-changing or an evolving political structure is certainly very powerful.

The 1776 US Declaration of Independence, Ferris says, is steeped in the language of science. Its opening reference to “the laws of nature and of nature's God” echoes René Descartes' and Isaac Newton's laws of motion and nature. The assertion that there are “self-evident” certain truths — among them that all men are created equal — was added to Thomas Jefferson's original draft of the declaration by Benjamin Franklin. Both men were schooled in the axioms of Euclid's geometry, an axiom being a statement that is self-evidently true.

Read the full review here.

Cerita tentang boikot mengingatkan saya tentang Palestin, khususnya Gaza.
Gaza terus dibantai tanpa belas kasihan, sedangkan kita di sini masih berdalih-dalih untuk memboikot barangan yahudi zionis.
Cukuplah. Mulakan mendoakan mereka.
Mulakan langkah anda.

Mari sama-sama mengingati Gaza.
Terimalah : Kami Tidak Akan Mengalah!

Cahaya putih yang menyilaukan itu

Menerangi langit Gaza malam ini

Manusia bertempiaran mencari perlindungan

Tanpa mengetahui nasib hidup mati mereka

Mereka datang dengan kereta kebal dan jet pejuang

Dengan kedahsyatan api yang membakar

Dan tiada apa yang tertinggal

Melainkan sebuah suara kebangkitan di sebalik asap tebal

Kami tidak akan mengalah

Di malam hari tanpa berjuang

Kamu boleh bakar hangus masjid, rumah dan sekolah kami

Tetapi semangat kami tidak akan pernah mati

Kami tidak akan mengalah

Di Gaza malam ini

Wanita mahupun kanak-kanak

Dibunuh dan dibantai setiap malam

Sementara mereka yang kononnya pemimpin di negara sekitar

Bertelingkah tentang siapa yang benar atau salah

Tetapi cakap kosong mereka sia-sia belaka

Dan bagaikan hujan asid bom-bom terus berjatuhan

Tetapi dengan tangisan, darah dan kesakitan

Kita masih mendengar suara itu di sebalik asap tebal

Kami tidak akan mengalah

Di malam hari tanpa berjuang

Kamu boleh bakar hangus masjid, rumah dan sekolah kami

Tetapi semangat kami tidak akan pernah mati

Kami tidak akan mengalah

Di Gaza malam ini

Kami tidak akan mengalah

Di malam hari tanpa berjuang

Kamu boleh bakar hangus masjid, rumah dan sekolah kami

Tetapi semangat kami tidak akan pernah mati

Kami tidak akan mengalah

Di malam hari tanpa berjuang

Kami tidak akan mengalah

Di Gaza malam ini

Inspired By : We Will Not Go Down (Micheal Heart)

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