Some good videos

I know I haven't been updating the blog as much as I would like to.  I currently have a lot on my plate taking my time up.  So for now, I'll put up some good thought provoking and educational videos that I like:




Two of science's luminaries converse on the beauty of science. Neil deGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist and host of NOVA and evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins will explore the wonders of the Cosmos and of Life, its origins, its inspirations, and why science is not just an option, it is the only reality we possess.







Sam Harris is one of my favorite authors with books such as "The End of Faith" and "Letter to a Christian Nation". He is a neuroscientist who has conducted research into the neural basis of belief, disbelief, and uncertainty. People sometimes ask me why I'm so concerned about the proliferation of religion, this does a good job of explaining it.







This is just awe inspiring. The American Museum of Natural History took the scientific data that's been accumulated through years of research and created an animation of the known universe. Everything in the animation is to scale as according to the best scientific research to-date.

It's August...so let the fear mongering commence!

So there seems to be a fair amount of focused fear and anger towards a particular building 2 blocks away from Ground Zero.  The building is an old Burlington Coat Factory which is being used right now as a mosque for Muslim worshipers.  The problem that most of America has with this building, is that there's a group called The Cordoba Initiative that currently owns the building and wants to make it an interfaith center.  (By the way, the group's intentions are to spread religious tolerance between Islam and the West.  Pretty courageous if you ask me...seeing that Al Qaeda consistently attacks people who do this). The center would still house the mosque on a couple of floors, but an interfaith library and recreational center for the rest of the building.  Sounds reasonable, right?  But here's the problem, it's an election year; and the closer you get to election time in November, the more vitriol and fear mongering consumes the airwaves and print media.

A little history about American politics first...
Currently, Democrats own Congress and the White House.  And as always during mid-term elections, the party that won control 2 years ago (the incumbent party) is on the defensive in order to maintain control.  The usual suspects when it comes to fear based campaigns are of course the "conservative" parties; which will stop at nothing to fabricate stories that don't need to be true as long as it sits in the back of the collective minds while in the voting booths.  Remember "death panels" and "Obama's a socialist, Muslim, not born in the U.S., etc"?  And while the so called "progressive agendas" are barraged with negative attacks and fear laden propaganda; it's those who put their media eggs in one basket who suffer the ignorance of not being well informed.  People that only watch MSNBC or Fox News and get their news from biased sources can never be well informed from both sides of the argument, so they go on the offensive with these cheap stories stating that it will be the decline of all humankind if the incumbents are re-elected.  Here's how it usually goes, "I was watching Fox News today and they said that X will happen if Y is re-elected.  It may or may not  be true...but I'm going to be on the safe side and make sure that Y is not re-elected and spread the word".  But the problem with Fox News is another rant for another time.

Enter the uproar over the "Mosque at Ground Zero".  I can already see the bold red letters on the news channels like is this is actually breaking news.  Why not a headline like: "Idiots Fall For Yet Another Scheme to De-legitimize Brown People"?  But I digress...

Here's what I think about this made up fear.  No one, and I mean no one will be able to find a legal reason this religious center shouldn't be built.  It's constitutionally protected.  Remember those amendments everyone talks about?  Well, it's the first one.  Yes, the first thing that the Founding Fathers thought of when writing the Bill of Rights of this country was..."man that state run religion in England sure did suck...we should make sure that doesn't happen here.  So lets ensure that everyone in this new country has the freedom to practice any religion anywhere they want".  So then what's all the hubbub about?  Here's the argument against the mosque:  'It is insensitive to put a monument to Islam next to Ground Zero since Muslims attacked us'.  Now, I can't begin to tell you how many things are wrong with that statement.  It just amazes me that anyone would think like that, but they do.

If you are one of those people who think that statement is valid, then I have one thing to tell you.  You'd better be ready to tear down every single Catholic church that's in a 2 block radius from a playground.  As much as I disdain religion, or any group that doesn't use evidence as a basis for understanding; the religion itself didn’t rape those children, people did.  All of Islam didn't attack the U.S. on 9/11/01, people did.  I’m smart enough to know that not everyone will break the law if given the chance.  So let the Muslims have their mosque, especially since those who want to build it are enemies of Al Qaeda.  How better to 'stick it' to Bin Laden than embrace his enemies?  You didn't know that the Imam who is trying to build this center is an enemy of Al Qaeda?  Hmm...Fox News didn't mention that?

Freedom is freedom, no matter how uncomfortable it may seem to you.  These are the struggles you have to overcome to be a unified society.

Abandon Earth, or Face Extinction

I am quite often asked by friends and family members why we (the US) still have a space program.  Or for that matter, why we put so much money into it.  In this economically distressing time, why put forth the effort to man the International Space Station or set our sights on manned flights to Mars?

Most of us these days are emotionally and intellectually detached from the space program.  You'd have to search far and wide to find a space enthusiast like myself who is still awe struck at the accomplishments of humanity, and downright giddy on the future prospects of manned and unmanned spaceflight.  It's just not as entertaining anymore.  There used to be a time where parents would sit their kids down in the living room to watch the TV broadcast of latest launch down at Cape Canaveral.  The Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions were a big part of the success of NASA back in the 60's because it was a groundbreaking exercise of what human ingenuity could accomplish...people were glued to the respective media outlets to catch a glimpse of the latest person in space.  In fact, those first spacefarers were the ultimate celebrities; the Brad Pitt's of their time.  This type of admiration of the practical uses of science was exhilarating, but time has passed, the space program now has a "been there, done that" stigma associated with it.  This saddens me, but I'm not surprised.  Back then, the space program was entertainment for the general public.  Exciting shows can only be entertaining until you start seeing reruns...which is what the space program is now.

Stephen Hawking has another compelling, yet undeniably chilling reason to pursue the space program...the extinction of our species.  In his argument, he states that any intelligent species that inhabit a world, and can use its natural resources to not only manipulate its atmosphere, but inflict harm on each other (through nuclear weapons in our case); not only may end up destroying the planet, but given enough time, will.  The other reason is the "death by natural causes" argument.  Comets and other celestial bodies have struck the planet many times before causing mass extinctions.  Not to mention the ever present threat of nearby supernovas and gamma ray bursts.  If humans can't seem to find a way to live indefinitely on a spacecraft or terra form another world (such as Mars), we're bound for extinction.  As I always tell people, imagine the Earth's geological history on a timescale of a 24 hour clock.  The start of the 24 hour clock being the formation of the Earth and the Solar System.  Then imagine all of the explosions of life, mass extinctions, comet strikes, vulcanism, constantly changing layout of the continents...all of this for 4.5 billion years encapsulated in a 24 hour clock...the human race has been on this planet for only the last 2 seconds.  I think we need an insurance plan.

My First Post: a little blurb about me...

I grew up in Arlington, TX; the bible belt of the US, and new home of the Dallas Cowboys!  My childhood was typical for a first generation American kid.  Trying to assimilate into “American” values all the while figuring out where the values of the Pakistani culture fit in.  But like most kids, I just didn’t care.  I was too busy having fun with my friends, recording home videos with my brothers Nomi and Irfan, and getting an earful of New Kids on the Block from my sister Sadia.

I graduated from Arlington High School in 1997 and enlisted in the US Navy.  From there, I saw and experienced the world, its people and cultures first hand.  Hong Kong, Australia, the Middle East; all different cultures of people, but all somehow the same; just trying to survive.  It allowed me to introspect on what I can only assume most astronauts already know...it’s one world; a pale blue dot as Carl Sagan would say, yet there’s so much indifference, fighting, tribalism and downright arrogance between ourselves.  Those who really know me can understand why I feel the way I feel about our cultural inefficiencies, like not using reason and logic to advance our society.  This understanding has molded me into the person I am today.

The Navy did one great thing for me, it brought me to San Diego, CA; where I met the love of my life, Lisa.  I don’t believe in fate or destiny; but there’s something really enchanting about realizing that one little venture off course of your current life could lead you to a completely different life.  For me, that would’ve been a life without Lisa, which I just can’t imagine.  She’s my reason for everything.  We got married in Maui in 2008.

Lisa gave me the greatest gift anyone could receive.  A son.  A wonderful,  adorable, happy albeit often cranky little boy named Jackson.  The things that Jackson will teach me far outweigh the world of knowledge that I can present to him.  I get to teach him things like how to think (not what to think), how to play football, about music, about life and about his place in the universe.  I plan on purchasing a telescope so that he can learn early on that our planet, this pale blue dot, is just a speck of dust flying around a vast, seemingly infinite array of space.  That we may not be the only ones lucky enough to exist and ask questions like “where did we come from?”.  That there may be other intelligent civilizations with radically different cultures somewhere else in the cosmos.  If that doesn’t get him to appreciate his place here in this universe and on this planet...I don’t know what will.  This is and will be my life, and I love it.