So Stallman is back and, as expected, his haters are busy hating him for false accusations. Richard Stallman is a diamond in free software world and we still need him.
Author Archives: Ali Reza Hayati
Happy Nowruz
Nowruz is the Persian new year which begins on the first day of spring and is the first day of Farvardin, the first month of the Iranian solar calendar. It is celebrated worldwide by various ethno-linguistic groups, and falls on or around March 21.
Nowruz has Iranian and Zoroastrian origins; however, it has been celebrated by diverse communities for over three thousand years in Western Asia, Central Asia, the Caucasus, the Black Sea Basin, the Balkans, and South Asia.
We celebrate Nowruz by eating rice and fish, going to meet our elders, giving people gifts and presents, and throw parties. We also believe it is the day for forgiveness and we encourage each other to forgive and reconcile those we think have wronged us.
Part of Nowruz is Haft-sin. Haft-sin is an arrangement of seven symbolic items whose names start with the letter “س” pronounced as “seen” and has the sound of “s“. It’s the 15th letter in the Persian alphabet; and haft (هفت) is Persian for seven. The following are the primary items of Haft-sin, whose Persian names begin with the letter س in the Persian alphabet.
- Sabzeh (سبزه) – wheat, barley, mung bean, or lentil sprouts grown in a dish.
- Samanu (سمنو) – wheat germ sweet pudding.
- Senjed (سنجد) – Oleaster
- Serkeh (سرکه) – vinegar.
- Seeb (سیب) – apple.
- Seer (سیر) – garlic.
- Somāq (سماق) – sumac.
Coins (سکه sekke), hyacinth (سنبل sonbol), and clock (ساعت saat) are sometimes included too. Other symbolic items that are typically used to accompany Haft-sin include a mirror, candles, painted eggs, goldfish, and traditional Persian confections. A “book of wisdom” is also commonly included, which might be the Quran, the Bible, the Avesta, the Shahnameh, or the divān of Hafez.
In Iran, the Nowruz holidays last thirteen days. On the thirteenth day of the New Year, Iranians leave their houses to enjoy nature and picnic outdoors, as part of the Sizdah be-dar ceremony. Sizdah Bedar (Thirteen Outdoor) also known as Nature’s Day is held on the thirteenth day of Farvardin during which people spend time picnicking outdoors. It marks the end of the Nowruz holidays in Iran.
On that day, we celebrate the beautiful mother nature we have and encourage each other to take care of it. Also, “Lie of the Thirteenth” is the Iranian version of the prank-playing April Fools’ Day which is observed on the first or second day of April in Iran, on the day of Sizdah Bedar.
Nowruz is a nice holiday. It brings us joy and happiness and time to spend with family and friends. It’s one of the nicest holidays I know. Everybody is happy, everybody is joyful, everybody is friendly and everybody is just a human being, regardless of differences we have.
Happy Nowruz everybody. Wish you a great new year.
Dinner for few
Ubuntu
Ubuntu is a very nice story from Africa. The motivation behind the Ubuntu culture in Africa is that an anthropologist proposed a game to the African tribal children.
He placed a basket of sweets near a tree and made the children stand 100 meters away. Then announced that whoever reaches first, would get all the sweets in the basket.
When he said ‘ready steady go!”, they all held each other’s hands, ran together towards the tree, divided the sweets equally among themselves, ate the sweets and enjoyed it. When the anthropologist asked them why they did so, They answered “Ubuntu.”
Ubuntu meant ‘How can one be happy when the others are sad?’ Ubuntu in their language means “I am because we are”, a strong message for all generations. Let all of us always have this attitude and spread happiness wherever we go. Let’s have a “Ubuntu” Life.
I AM BECAUSE WE ARE.
Facebook even snoops on you using your camera’s scratches
I recently found out about this. Facebook can figure out people you might know by analyzing the pattern of dust and scratches on a camera lenses. Facebook filed a patent for their “people you might know” feature, the thing that recommends someone that you might want to become friends with on the social network site.
And the way that it works is this: Imagine we’re at an event and I’m taking pictures. I take a photo of you that you really like. We don’t know each other but I show it to you, I send it to you and you post it on your Facebook page. I do the same thing with someone else.
So none of us are in the pictures, none of us know each other, I’ve just taken a picture of you and someone else, and you both posted them on your Facebook pages.
Facebook can then analyze the scratches and dusts on your camera lenses that were on my camera and find the invisible artifacts that those scratches left in the photo to determine that you both had your pictures taken by me at the same time and then recommend that you become friends.
When reporters found this patent, Facebook denied that they were using it in their system but there’s no way to know if they’ve started using it since or if they’ve put it in something like Instagram and WhatsApp.
This is how much trouble we have to protect our privacy.
Happy International Women’s Day
International Women’s Day is celebrated on 8 March around the world. It is a focal point in the movement for women’s rights.
After the Socialist Party of America organized a Women’s Day in New York City on 1909 February 28, German delegates Clara Zetkin, Käte Duncker, Paula Thiede and others proposed at the 1910 International Socialist Woman’s Conference that “a special Women’s Day” be organized annually.
After women gained suffrage in Soviet Russia in 1917, March 8 became a national holiday there. The day was then predominantly celebrated by the socialist movement and communist countries until it was adopted by the feminist movement in about 1967. The United Nations began celebrating the day in 1977.
Women around the world are suffering from inequality and need special attention. I don’t believe men and women should be treated exactly the same. People should be treated good and without discrimination, not completely equal. Being equal doesn’t bring justice and doesn’t eliminate discrimination.
Commemoration of International Women’s Day today ranges from being a public holiday in some countries to being largely ignored elsewhere. In some places, it is a day of protest; in others, it is a day that celebrates womanhood.
Siraf beach time-lapse
Systemic racism explained
Imagine Jamal. Jamal is black person living in a poor neighborhood. Jamal has a friend named Kevin, a white kid living in a wealthy neighborhood. All of Jamal’s neighbors are black and all of Kevin’s neighbors are white.
Because Jamal’s school is funded mostly by property taxes, his school is not very well funded. his classrooms are overcrowded, his teachers are underpaid, and he doesn’t have access to high quality tutors or extracurricular activities.
Kevin’s school district is also funded by property taxes, so high school is very well funded, his classrooms are never crowded, his teachers are very well-paid, and he has access to high quality tutors and lots of extracurricular activities.
Kevin and Jamal live only a few streets away from each other so how come they’re growing up in such different worlds with such different opportunities for success?
The answer is systemic racism.
Continue readingI’m not your nigger
I’ve been called a nigger, sand nigger, monkey, subhuman, and many other derogatory terms and I know how that hurts. It makes you deeply sad and sometimes vulnerable. But after some time, you learn to stop worrying and caring about it. It also made me look into history of the word and learn about it.
Look, there’s absolutely no problem in using the word nigger. Words in and on themselves don’t have any meaning. It’s the context that matters. I use the word nigger when I’m talking about it and it has no problem, because well it’s a word. But how it makes problem when people use it? I’m gonna explain.
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