Rare and Foolish (By Paul Krugman)

"China accounts for 97 percent of the world’s supply of rare earths, minerals that play an essential role in many high-technology products, including military equipment." Read the full article

A third way for Quebeckers? New party in the offing

"The legislature was full of rumours Thursday about a new right-of-centre party that would be pro-business and ambivalent on the national question." Read the full article

The Mortgage Morass (By Paul Krugman)

A fantastic article by Paul Krugman

"Now an awful truth is becoming apparent: In many cases, the documentation doesn’t exist. In the frenzy of the bubble, much home lending was undertaken by fly-by-night companies trying to generate as much volume as possible. These loans were sold off to mortgage “trusts,” which, in turn, sliced and diced them into mortgage-backed securities. The trusts were legally required to obtain and hold the mortgage notes that specified the borrowers’ obligations. But it’s now apparent that such niceties were frequently neglected. And this means that many of the foreclosures now taking place are, in fact, illegal." Read the full article

Benoît Mandelbrot, Novel Mathematician, Dies at 85

The father of Fractals, passed away. Read the full article

Income Inequality: Too Big to Ignore (By ROBERT H. FRANK)

"Yet many economists are reluctant to confront rising income inequality directly, saying that whether this trend is good or bad requires a value judgment that is best left to philosophers. But that disclaimer rings hollow. Economics, after all, was founded by moral philosophers, and links between the disciplines remain strong. So economists are well positioned to address this question, and the answer is very clear." Read the full article

A great free online Calculator of almost everything

Background noise affects taste of foods, research shows

"The level of background noise affects both the intensity of flavour and the perceived crunchiness of foods, researchers have found."..." Read the full article

Joan Sutherland, Flawless Soprano, Is Dead at 83

She was one of my favorite singers. I absolutely adore her rendition of Casta Diva in Bellini's Norma. Rest in Peace.

Read the full article

Marijuana, Once Divisive, Brings Some Families Closer

Having a joint with grandpa! Read the full article

Google Invests In Major offshore Wind Power Project

"the project would be capable of delivering 2,000 megawatts of wind energy"...Read the full article

A livable planet right next door

"Astronomers say they have for the first time spotted a planet beyond our own in what is sometimes called the Goldilocks zone for life: Not too hot, not too cold. Juuuust right."...

"The planet circles a star called Gliese 581. It's about 120 trillion miles away, so it would take several generations for a spaceship to get there. It may seem like a long distance, but in the scheme of the vast universe, this planet is "like right in our face, right next door to us," Read the Full Article

Gargling With Salt Water Can Ease Cold Symptoms

From NY Times

"At the end of the study period, the group that regularly gargled had a nearly 40 percent decrease in upper respiratory tract infections compared with the control group, and when they did get sick, “gargling tended to attenuate bronchial symptoms,” the researchers wrote." Read the full article

Basic Religion Test Stumps Many Americans (NY Times)

"Those who scored the highest were atheists and agnostics" :)

It sounds ironic but it's not. You need to read and think considerably, before you can deny God, but following religion can be as easy as....

6 Things Everyone Knows About Women (That Aren't True) [From Huffington Post]

BEST MOVIES OF 2008

Here is the list of the best movies of 2008, according to me!

1. Waltz with Bashir (Ari Folman)
2. Le Voyage du ballon rouge (Hsiao-hsien Hou)
3. Slumdug millionaire (Danny Boyle)
4. WALL-E (Andrew Stanton)
5. Caramel (Nadine Labaki)
6. The Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan)
7. MILK (Gus Van Sant)
8. El Orfanato (Juan Antonio Bayona)
9. Blindness (Fernando Meirelles)
10. Changeling (Clint Eastwood)
11. And when did you last see your father? (Anand Tucker)
12. Burn after reading (Coen Brothers)
13. I served the king of England (Jiri Menzel)
14. Happy Go Lucky (Mike Leigh)
15. Hors de Prix (Pierre Salvadori)
16. In Bruges (Martin McDonagh)
17. Body of lies (Ridley Scott)
18. The Bank Job (Roger Donaldson)
19. Religolous (Larry Charles/Bill Maher)
20. The Duchess (Saul Dibb)

Note 1: Some of the movies in the list have been produced in 2007, but since they have been released in Montreal in 2008, I put them in the list.

Note 2: I still haven’t seen some highly-praised movies of the year such as Revolutionary road, The Wrestler, Entre les murs and Gomorra, because they have not been screened in Montreal yet.

Another take on the so-called scandal

In the past of couple of weeks, the whole democratic primary has been heavily shadowed by Barack Obama’s Pastor, Reverend Wright’s scandal. His angry remarks including the infamous “God damn America” were circulated around, specifically on YouTube, and widely played almost everywhere, from cable news to talks shows. Analysts were asking why Obama did not condemn his pastor. Some were judiciously assessing the damage to his campaign and some others, elevated the story to the level of a Greek tragedy in which Wright was subconsciously sabotaging the life and the career of his pseudo-stepson, Barack!

Amidst this festival of talking points’ repetition, one probable and rather obvious hypothesis, was apparently missed unanimously by political analysts. They failed to notice the possibility of an ingenious scheme by Obama’s campaign to design and/or fuel the whole scandal.

Like most of the conspiracy theories, it might sound crazy at first but think about it! Let’s explore the case like a professional detective by asking “Who benefits the most from the scandal?” or “What would have Obama gained or lost, had he designed the whole drama?”

Barack Obama is a highly educated politician with an almost flawless record. He is a young, handsome, impeccably eloquent and extremely charismatic, natural-born speaker who is supposed to run against an old, boring grandpa-veteran who can hardly put three sentences together, before putting everybody to sleep (let’s face it, today’s McCain is nothing like the liberal maverick he was, a decade ago). Besides, Obama’s views on economy, Iraq’s war and healthcare, to name a few, are broadly shared among Americans while those of his opponent, have been considered the continuation of the Bush’s immensely unpopular policies. Even though the magical talent of democrats in losing winnable elections shouldn’t be overlooked, it is highly unlikely that the smart, resourceful and magnetic Obama would fail to become United States next president unless…is there any way Obama could lose this election?

Well, there was one actually. According to most experts, he has been plagued by a major exposed weakness and that was his Arabic middle name, Hussein, coupled with the fact that his father was a Muslim and that he attended a “Madrasah” while he was living in Indonesia! I understand that it is shameful to even consider a mere nonconformity as a major flaw but setting idealism aside, give all those above-mentioned information to an average American while running the Bin-Laden’s picture on the background and voila, you have made yourself a winning strategy!

Stupid as it sounds; it’s not easy to do well in a presidential election when your fist name was Saddam’s last and your last name rhymes with Bin Laden’s first! (I refer all who consider the judgment of an average American underestimated in the aforementioned analogy, to poor Howard Dean’s high pitch scream and its catastrophic effect on his candidacy!)

In fact, the plan had been already started. Emphasizing on his middle name, showing Obama’s picture in traditional African outfit wearing a turban, has- according to polls- persuaded a good percentage of Americans that he was a Muslim! and to many, Muslim, terrorists, what’s the difference?!!

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that if he wanted to be the next president, he would have been in desperate need to defuse this eminent threat, as soon as possible.

Back to the scandal, let’s first explore what he gained from the reverend Wright scandal?

At the moment, almost every single American, even remotely interested in politics, knows that Barak Hussein Obama is not a Muslim! They all know that despite his middle name, he is a Christian and not only in name, but he has regularly and consistently attended church, over a period of two decades. They clearly know that he has a personal and spiritual mentor name pastor Jeremiah Wright and that his children have been baptized in a Christian church by this pastor. Mission sort of accomplished, huh? (Bush has ruined this phrase forever, hasn’t he?!)

What else Barak could do to keep it going? Well, he could postpone rebutting his pastor, prolonging the whole upheaval for couple more weeks, proving that he is not quite unhappy with Americans’ brains being engraved with the fact that Obama is a Christian.

The incident helped him to substantially reinforce his weakest side; making any future republican attack from this side, practically hopeless and most importantly, he did it without spending even a dime! It even granted him the opportunity to give a historic lecture on “Race in America” that increased his popularity among young educated Americans, strengthen their robust support. Last but not least, Obama’s refusal to condemn Wright in public, accentuated his image as an honest and different politician and not a regular opportunist! (I’m talking to you Hilary! Remembering your grandfather’s memories of teaching you how to shoot, right before Pennsylvania’s primary was rather disgusting. Though not as despicable as John Kerry’s appearance on TV with a hunting rifle and a goose-hunting hat! talking about hunting down Bin Laden as if he was a migrating bird, for heaven’s sake!!!!)

Finally, let’s analyze “things Barack lost in Wright’s Fire”?

Surprisingly, almost nothing! To begin with, the democratic primary had been practically finished long before the scandal. Weeks before Pennsylvania, it would have been mathematically very improbable for Hillary to be able to fill the delegate gap, even if she had won all the remaining contents.

Besides, Obama’s support base has been mostly consist of either African-American voters (who, no matter what, would vote for the only eligible black candidate in the history of the presidential race), or white educated middle class (who are supposed to be intelligent enough to see through this phony drama).

And in practice, he finished the Pennsylvania much better than the anticipations, won Guam and North Carolina and almost tied in Indiana (the state in which he was projected to be lose badly due to the large population of blue collar workers). Could anybody forecast a better result for him, had the scandal not happened?!

The whole reverend Wright Scandal was either one of the most brilliantly executed PR maneuver in the history of the presidential elections, or Obama is just one of the luckiest men alive! Personally, I won’t go with the latter.

Lazy cat on treadmill

Some really funny cats on treadmill

Have a nice Trip!

An apparently regular scene in Tokyo’s rush hours…

I had read about it before but I couldn’t really believe it.

Kai wants a popsickie

So cute...

Jeanne Cherhal - Voilà

Listen to this song “Voila” by French singer “Jeanne Charhal”. Right at the end, it becomes surprisingly Iranian in tune. It’s quite interesting.