I was watching a program on the Discover/Times channel last night, and they used the term "Islamist websites". I've heard this term in the past. What I don't understand is - what are Islamist websites?
Is it just Aljazeera.net (whose english site can be found here)? I can't imagine that's the only one. But whenever news reports mention these sites, they always refrain from giving the actual URL - I suspect they do this because they don't want to drive more traffic to these sites or provide free advertising.
I understand this concern, but, to be honest, I'd like to read what they have to say. Not because I'm interested in jihad or anything like that. But I do believe in being fully informed on the issues - in particular hearing as many sides of an issue as I have time to read.
Anyone know of any of these sites?
Here are two other things that change radically when you have a kid. First, bodily functions become a constant source of conversation with people you've just met. For example, we recently befriended a really cool couple whose daughter is one day younger than Aurelia. The other day we had lunch with Lenny and Pernilla, and a substantial part of our conversation was about poop and urine. We talked all about it... color, scent, amount, funny occurances like overflow of diapers, air time when poop happens in mid-diaper change, etc. etc. etc. Needless to say, we don't normally talk feces on first lunches with new friends.
Second, public display of breasts occurs all the time. If Aurelia is crying, Diana wastes no time whipping out her boob and feeding her. This also happened at our lunch. In fact, both Diana and Pernilla whipped out the boobs to feed. And neither of them hestiated or were concerned in any way.
Third, both of these things are themselves topics of conversation. We all laughed hard at how babies change these things and how utterly comical it is.
My boss forwarded me this joke the other day... I laughed out loud.
A man in a hot air balloon realized that he was lost. He reduced altitude and spotted a woman below. He descended a bit more and shouted "Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don't know where I am."
The woman below replied,
"You're in a hot air balloon hovering approximately 30 feet above the ground.
You're between 50 and 51 degrees north latitude and between 114 and 115 degrees west longitude.
"You must be an engineer," said the balloonist.
"I am," replied the woman. "How did you know?"
"Well," answered the balloonist, "Everything you told me is technically correct, but I've no idea what to make of your information. The fact is, I'm still lost. Frankly, you've not been much help at all. If anything, you've delayed my trip."
The woman below responded, "You must be in management."
"I am," replied the balloonist, "but how did you! know?" "Well," said the woman,
"you don't know where you are or where you're going.
You have risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air.
You made a promise, which you've no idea how to keep, and you expect people beneath you to solve your problems.
The fact is, you are in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but now, somehow, you've managed to make it my fault."
At Anderson, the Entrepreneur Association periodically hosts "Brainstorming/Focus Group Lunches" to kick around ideas for businesses. I recently had the chance to attend one and it was pretty amazing. For 30 minutes, two guys presented their idea for a business. They are preparing to go in front of some VCs to get funding for their company (which they've been running for a year). The following 30 minutes, current Anderson students peppered them with questions, suggestions, thoughts, clarifications, new ideas, etc. It was really pretty amazing to see and participate.
So, if you have an idea, are in the LA area, and are willing to go in front of a group of 30 or so MBA students and pitch your idea, let me know. I can't guarantee that I can get you in but there's no harm in asking.
Until recently, I felt pretty confident that Abu Ghraib was an anomoly. At least, something of an anomoly. Bad things happen during wars and intelligence sure seems like a dirty business. Surely the horrific events that occured in that prison in Iraq were rare, out of the ordinary... even unpredictable. I mean, who would have thought that people, Americans no less, could have done such brutally demeaning acts?
Well, as it turns out, there was a social experiment in 1971 called the Stanford Prison Experiment which was designed to study the impact of imprisonment on the prisoners *and* the guards. In this experiment, Phil Zimbardo and his colleagues conducted a social simulation with 20 college males from Palo Alto. All people were screened for psychological abnormalities... essentially, they picked 20 completely normal people to participate in the study. Then, they split the people into 2 groups by flipping a coin, one set were guards, the other prisoners. Then, the prisoners were imprisoned in the basement of the psychology building at Stanford, and the guards were assigned to watch over them and ensure order.
What do you think happened?
Well, the study was planned to run for 2 weeks, but they had to stop it after 6 days because everyone began experiencing substantial problems. Several prisoners had to be released because of psychological problems and psychosomatic ailments. Several guards began treating prisoners in completely inhumane ways.
How inhumane? Well, they made the prisoners do push-ups while guards sat on their backs. They subjected prisoners to routine strip-searches. They thought up ways to pit prisoners against each other. They used nudity and feigned sodomy to enforce their control over the prisoners.
Sound familiar?
This experiment was really mind-blowing for me, in a lot of ways. Clearly, there are massive ethical questions about such an experiment. (Apparently, after this experiment, academia revised it's ethical guidelines for conducting real-life simulations in the US.) But, more importantly, the people in this experiment acted exactly like the soldiers at Abu Ghraib.
I couldn't believe that this happened. It's just amazing. The study suggests that horrific events like those of Abu Ghraib are *contextual*. That is, given the right set of circumstances, otherwise normal, sane, everyday people will commit such terrible acts. I find this to be shocking. I believe it, but I am just amazed.
I highly recommend that you read through the slide show on the SPE. Also, Prof. Zimbardo offers these links on the relationship between the SPE and the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal.
I'm still not really sure what to make of all of this information, but I thought it would be worth sharing. I believe that I'm fairly well-read and well-educated, and I had never heard of this before. So, maybe you haven't heard of it either. I guess human nature can really be a frightening thing.