Winter Life

When we moved to England in 1992, we quickly realized that the British Islands are very distinct in terms of their nature. Nowhere else we have seen before trees full of blossoms in early January. At least till today I was convinced that this must have to do with the rather mild winter in the southern counties of the UK, like Kent, Sussex or Surrey, where we lived. Today I found the exact same tree on a cemetry in Munich, and became interested in its history and how it became so resistant to cold weather.

Bodnant viburnum, on Daglfing cementry, December 28th 2013

The name of this tree is Bodnant viburnum (Duft-Schneeball in German), and it is actually a product of man made plant breeding. The cross of Viburnum farreri (formerly V. fragrans) and V. grandiflorum was originally made by Charles Lamont, the Assistant Curator at the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh in 1933, and I guess this is the reason why it became first popular in gardens and parks in Brittan, and only later was imported to other European countries.

So this tree is unique for showing its real beauty only in winter time, when (at least in Germany) most other plants lost their leaves and look pretty sad. I don't really know why all around the world people warship so much the Christmas tree. I think they are pretty boring, and except for their wood have no use at all. Their needles are a pest once you have them on your carpet, and if you have them in your garden, they poison all other plants (by producing humic acid). Their roots destroy the foundations of buildings, inhibit the growth of grass and promote growth of moss. If you have some spruce or fir in your garden, you can be sure that after a while the garden looks like a dark forest. we have three of them in our garden, and I plan to cut them all this year to heat our oven with their wood. But even for heating, they are no good choice, since their resin causes a lot of soot which contaminates the chimney.

I would therefore opt to replace the fir (christmas tree) as symbol of life in hard winter times with Bodnant viburnum. It is an elegant and beautiful three, and it permits the few rays of winter sun to reach us, whereas pines and firs are like black spots which block the sun.

By the way, there are other plant species which resist the winter cold. I also like a lot the winter-hard cereals like rhy or barley, which look freshly green even at the strongest frost.

Winter rhy, near Munich-Daglfing, December 2013

When I saw these tiny young shouts now in December, I was happy to know that next year we will have again fields full of golden rhy with its tentalizing odor in summer.

Forough Farrokhzad: A Poet that fell silent too soon

Recently I was invited by a friend in Munich to a reading of poetry by an Iranian writer, who died much too young in 1967, only reaching 32 years of age. Forugh Farrokhzad (1935-1967) was the most famous woman in modern Persian literature. She was exceptionally in the sense that only an extremely small number of Iranian women have achieved anything outside of the home without dependence upon a relationship with a man or male patronage.

From the poems of Forough Farrokhzad, which Kianoosh presented this evening I remember the verses from "Another Birth"

   ... Life may be that cloistered moment  

     When my gaze comes to ruin in your pupils 

     Wherein there lies a feeling 

     Which I shall blend ...

During her short life, Forough not only wrote some of the most influential, beautiful and ever-lasting poetries of modern Persian literature, but she also became a proponent of childrens right, in particular for those from the poor families. Her engagement for the children being isolated and hospitalized for leprosis laid in her honest sympathy with those who are suffering. Unlike modern celebrities, who too often present themself in public with an alibi "social" project, Foroughs activites to help the children with leprosis came from her very personal desire to make the world a little bit better. From the movie "Moon, Sun, Flower, Play" by the German director Claus Strigel one can listen to Foroughs voice, hear how colleagues and friends remember this extraordinary woman and watch scenes from the street-battle preceding the Shahs dismissal and from the childrens leprosis hospital.

Black and Blue

Coming from the north-east into Munich, perhaps one of the worst examples of 70th urban architecture awaits the traveler: The Arabella high-rising building, which harbours not only a large hotel of the same name, but office, medical practises and flats. What is less known: In the basement of this block once resided the most important music recording studio “Musicland”. It was of little domestic importance, because the innovative sound that sound-engineer Mack and pop-composer Giorgio Moroder produce there was more acknowledged by international stars like Freddy Mercury, ELO, Led Zeppelin and Rolling Stones. They recorded a few of their best songs and entire records at Macks and Moroders Musicland Studios. For some of them, a special regulation in the british tax-law might have played a role in their decision to come here and live and work for at least a year in Germany, thus evading the astronomic income taxes of the labour government. But to large degree, it was the special Moroder sound and the savior-vive in the Bavarian capital that made Munich so attractive to them. Freddy Mercury liked to take the tram in the afternoon, to drive down across the Isar river to hang around at the beer-garden “Chinese Tower”.
The Rolling Stones produced the entire “Black and Blue” album at Musicland in 1975, but had enough time to meet Uschi Obermeier, the most enchanting of the Munich communards.
At the end of the eighties, Mack and Moroder came under growing pressure from the property owner Schoerghuber, who tried to rise the rent for the studio. At the same time, a new subway-line was build, only a few meters aside the studio rooms. From now on, subway trains running along caused too much noise to permit further music recordings. Giorgio Moroder left Musicland and went to the US, and Mack relocated the entire studio to the Munich suburbs.

About ten years later, rich Arabic families from the Emirates and Saudi Arabia discovered Munich as a save, convenient and pleasant place to spend the summer time, escaping the heat at home, spending large sums at daily shopping walks and visit high-class medical clinics for annual check-ups. It might be, that the Arabs were fascinated by the idea that the name “Arabella-Hotel” was a reference to their home.

I tried with little success to shoot a picture with one of them, and the record cover of the Stones “Black and Blue” in front of the former entrance to the Musicland studios. It took me several days to find out a trick, since none of the black veiled women or their husbands were very fond of appearing on a photograph, with reference to the Stones rock music.

Black and Blue - in front of the former Musicland Studios

Accelerating Evolution on Mars

Hello Michael, 

You have probably heard that last week a new mars rover landed succesfully on Mars surface, and how this event was enthusiastically wellcomed by NASA and the entire scientific community. It follows a long series of less brilliant failures to get a working mars robot up there, one that could produce more than just pretty pictures. This new mission of an explorer vehicle called "Couriosity" is officially intended to test the existence of lower forms of life on our neighbor planet. For this purpose, "Couriosity" carries on board a couple of sophisticated devices, some that can take samples from mars' surface or from deeper layers of the ground in order to apply sensitive detection methods for organic molecules, considered to be exclusively produced by living organisms. I am wondering if they are looking there for a sort of blood stains, or some traces of blond hair or spit-out chewing gum.

What makes this new Mars exploration so special (for me as a radiation biologist) is the fact, that the rovers energy supply comes from about 5 kg of plutonium 235, providing 120 W electric energy for at least five years. Thats fine, I would say from an engineers point of view, and I would also like to drive my old Benz with this sort of low-emission, low-cost and low-maintenace type of fuel.

But the radiation-biologist in me (and I hope you agree somehow) has to wonder about the long term consequences of 5 kg plutonium, a potent alpha emitter, if it comes to its mutatgenic effects on living organisms. Assuming the plutonium is accidentally released from the mars rover and evenly spread over the hypothetical mars ecosphere,  it would cause a tremendous rise of the mutation rate in all cells, whether low prokaryotes or in higher and multi-cellular creatures like plants or animals or anything else in between. This means the 5 years mission of the man-made Mars rover will not only explore the presence of live on Mars, but if there is any, it will also drive evolution by increasing the number of new mutants. So scientists will not only be the silent observers, but active players of an extra-terrestrial evolution of life.

I am afraid, that with this man-made mutation burden, the mars creatures will indeed soon look like those in Tim Burtons "Mars Attacks". But for this, we have to blame nobody else than ourself.

I am more than worried now looking up the sky at night. There are not only beautiful meteor showers and the romantic moon, but from now on there might also be a laboratory of accelerated evolution on mars.

Take Care, yours sincerely
/ghazal

Love in the Era of Social Networking

Ghazal my Dear,

About a year ago we were sitting at the bone fire on the bank of the Isar river and I was badly condeming destiny for beeing so cruel to me by sending you here, the most fascinating and inspiring person I ever met, but at an too young age to get closer with somebody like me who was in his fourties already. There at the river bank, laying on the peble stones and talking open about our dreams and about science and life, you remember I told you how little I could understand your confession that - except for a school-mate - you only had boy-friends that you met at internet dating-sites. My suggestion to you, just to wait until a real brave and strong person approaches you in a coffee or in the train or at the university, without going through all this cyber-dating proceedure could not convince you much, even though I argued that this short relationship that we have here in Munich (you call it friendship, for me it is a bit more)is the best example that two people can still meet each other outside the cyber-world. The fact that I simply went to you after the lectures and never hesitated to invite from then on almost every day to go out, without having ever seen your Facebook identity, this you obviously considered an exception. Maybe you saw me as a social fossil, or an immoral person who stands outside the social networks.

Zoe Margolis, writer of the blog "Girl with a one-track mind" and author of a book with the same name (under her pseudonym Abby Lee) wrote a remarkable witty and obviously experienced essay about the evolution of a relationship in the era of social networking. It shows that it is so damned easy to turn a loos exchange of some thoughts with a so-called "friend" at Facebook into a more and more privat and intimate relationship. Because it is just words, ideas, and maybe photos that are exchanged, one never has to present itself in his entire personality. The social networks are almost invented to polish a personal identity from all unwanted details. It starts with the very simple thing as a photograph on your privat page. It usually shows you at a younger age, at very could conditions, sometimes after sophisticated Photoshop work. One of the obvious examples is Zoe Margolis Blog-page itself: Whereas in reality in front of a TV camera she appeares as a mature, self-confident woman, her blog autobiography shows her on a college girl style picture. I"m not trying to make any judgement here about which of the two appears more attractive (this as usually lays in the eye of the viewer), for sure the two images almost show two different characters. And as there are these huge uncertainties to find out how somebody looks in reality, if you only know him through social networks, the rest of your web identity is usually also a reflection of how you would like to be, rather than what you really are.
Zoe Margolis describes in her short essay in a very clear and pointed way how sooner or later the real person behind the web identity has to unvail itself, if the relation gets closer and closer. And a relationship goes trough a difficult, not so say catastrophic time if confronted with these torn images. How hard it is and how painful if the social network link suddenly dries out.
Zoe Margolis describes this as following:

"Once upon a time, outside the social network of the Internet, you’d just shrug if someone dropped communication and accept that if they really wanted to stay in contact, they’d simply pick up the 'phone and say hello. But in the web of modern interactivity, where you get used to the regular loud chatter of the (false?) intimacy of the social network, the sudden distance and silence from someone you’ve connected with on a frequent and personal basis is –ironically – deafening."

Why I don"t feel any sorrow for you, Basidj

Yesterday, I saw your face in this documentary about the elections and post-election demonstrations in Tehran in June 2009. I saw your coward eyes under the black helmet, Basidj. Like all of the other black-dressed and heavily armed puppets of your leaders, you seemed to enjoy this feeling of total power over the students on the streets of Tehran, who had nothing else to defend against you than their T-shirts, canvas slipper and hand-written posters.
You felt so much superior, when you started to beat them and kick those who were already laying on the ground. You felt so powerful, fed with drugs by your fat and conscienceless commanders and equipped with the newest high-tech guns and tear-gas bullets and batons from the top weapons factories of the world. How did you felt, when you did your so-called job out there ? I guess you wanted to impress your commanders and the other members of your squad by the ruthlessness of your beating, by the precision of your shooting. But we all know that you are just a bloddy coward. You think you are strong in the moment when you torture and kill unarmed young people, mostly students, young women but also children and elder people. Did you felt satisfied for pleasing your coward commanders and the heads of this criminal gouvernment.
And when you saw how the bullets from your guns made the streets turn red, didn”t you thought that this is more thrilling than your ego-shooter computer game ? And how does it feel if you kick your steel-armed boots into the belly of somebody whom you first chained feets and arms with a cable ? Does it gives you an emotional blow to imagine how the steel covers of your boots causes pain and internal bleeding in the person laying on the ground in front of you ? Did you considered kicking again and again, not just to score higher at your commanders record, but also to repeat this image of how your stupid steel boots so easily destroy the head of an intelligent young man or girl ? And later, when you throwed those who were wounded and could not escape anymore onto pick-ups and trucks to bring them to Evin Prison or Ghezel Hesar, I’m sure you knew that this was not a journey for medical treatment or recovery, but to further harras and rape and kill them. And if you later saw the pictures of Neda Agha-Soltan and Sohrab Arabi, cowardly killed by you and your commrades, how long did those pictures appeared in your dreams, before you got rid of them with more drugs and blood-money and more violence ?
But you should know, Basidj, that what you did 2009 on Tohid square wont be forgotten. You turned a peaceful demonstration into a blood shed. The hundred thousands that walked the streets those days, wearing green T-shirts and green shawls did not had enough phantasy to think that this day might end up in violence. The girls had put on their most beautiful jewelery and make-up and the men kept their expensive lap-tops with them in their bags. People were sure that this day would demonstrate the power of a peaceful political change and give hope for a better future of this country . The people on the streets felt the dawn of  a grey period of political speechlessness, and they were hoping to meet some of the political leaders to discuss the future of the country after the elections.
The millions who gave their vote in the 2009 election and later formed an endless band of the green movement in the streets of Tehran, they wont forget that their hope for a peaceful move was turned into a violent nightmare by Basidj cowards just like you. And the next time when they meet you on the same streets, don”t expect any more unarmed young intellectuals. The next time, Basidj, you will be attacked, there wont be an option for peaceful settlement any more. And when the magazin of your automatic gun is empty, and you again killed and wounded the first twenty of the protesters, than there will come another twenty and another twenty and the same to each other of your Basidj commrades. There will be hundred thousands again coming out of the universities, of the restaurants and shops and beauty-salons, from all the places they escaped to in 2009, when they had to run away from your guns and butons. But this time they wont run away any more, and they dont want to talk to you any more, but they will attack you and kill you. And then, the streets of Tehran will turn red again, but this time it will be your damned blood.
And if somebody will throw your dead corpse into the gateway of your house, there wont be anybody crying tears for your death. Your mother will come out at night and bring you corpse to the waste bin of the garden, together with the chicken-heads and rotten carrots and the bad smelling polo from last week. Your parents will be ashamed of you, there will be no mourning for you. And for all the cowardize of your life, Basidj, your children will forget your name. To avoid that others would point with fingers on them, they will tell everybody that they don’t know who their father was. Your name will be forgotten in a new, free Iran. And only the history text books will know a precise number of nameless Basidj cowards. And you will have been one of them, not more, but also not less.

Munich Tourists and Shoppers Sign Declaration for a Free Iran

The Munich Association for a Free Iran organized a rally to protest against political oppression in Iran and inform about the raising numbers of its victims. Visitors of the city and people comming for Saturday shopping stoped at the Stachus square to see the photographs of people who were imprisoned and humilated for the crime of fighting for liberation of their country. Reading about several individual cases of torture and oppression, many of the passers-by signed a declaration demanding immediate release of all political prisoners, end of violence, torture and killing of political activists. Next to Frankfurt and Berlin, Munich was always one of the main destinations of political refugees from Iran in Germany.

کانون ایرانیان آزادیخواه مونیخ /آلمان

Help request: What means "Ey Vay !"

At university I had a very good friend from Jordan. He was palestine, much younger than the rest of us physics students and extremely gifted. But he did not only had an extraordinary mathematical talent, he was also very familial with classical european music and literature. On the other hand, he had a very firm opinion about Israel, whom he completely refused the right of existence. About the last point we had a never-ending intellectual fight, whereas for most other issues, philosophy, science, values of life we felt quite similar. During the friendship with him, Ismail, I learned a lot about tolerance and that different points in some aspects of life does not has to result in a confrontation, but in fact can be a gain for both. I knew that he was muslim, praying 5 times a day, and he knew I am bloody atheist, drinking a glass of wine here and than and having sympathy for Israel.

Thanks to his permanent supply of records from west-Germany, I used to visit him to listen to some rare pieces of music. Once he brought from his shopping trips to West-Berlin Strawinskys "Le Sacre du Printemps", played by the Berlin Philharmonics. When I heard the first tunes by the oboe, with the sudden entry of the rhythm strings, I got completely struck. Maybe this day I had already a glass of wine, but together with the music I felt more and more like in one of the fairy tales of 1001 nights. Inspired by the idea of the "Sacre" I asked Ismail if he knew something about this new student, which must be from another muslim country, because she sits the whole afternoon in the state library wearing a head scarf. But I told him that even though she wears the scarf, one could see how beautiful she was and that she had the most amazing blue eyes. So I asked Ismail if he could find out her name, what he did, but only after telling me that any further intentions to meet her were very likely a waste of effort. Anyway, a few days later Ismail came to me and said "The girl you saw at the library is Samira. She is from Syria, and daughter of a high ranking Baths party leader. They are all instructed not to make any personal contacts to ordinary germans. And by the way, all of us foreign students coming to your country also had to sign an agreement in the east-german embassy, promissing that we will avoid any privat relationship to german student-mates or people on the street. So you see, even our occasional get-together to listen to music, talk about quantum-mechanics and Einsteins philosophy and to argue about middle-east politics, all this might be already illegal. What you think they will call it if you start here to court a student girl from Syria ?". In my naive understanding of friendship (and in these times friendship in the official speach of politics meant "friendship between all peace-loving nations") I just rejected his very rational arguments and the next day went to the library again and asked the girl "You are Samira, right ?". Under her scarf I almost could see how she wrinkled her brows, since it appeared that except of her name "Samira" she did not understood a single word. What I did not knew, that except of Ismail, who spoke fluently several languages and quickly made the brilliant jokes in german, most of the foreign students from rich countries had their privat translator, who sat next to them during all lectures and seminars and therefore making any attempt to learn the language of their host country superfluous. Therefore, our first conversation was very limited. Today I have to laugh about my silly idea to seduce a girl with the only arabic phrase I knew: "Salam Alejkum". But at least I could invite her to "coffee", which I was pretty sure must sound similar in arabic. She shook her head and said "Chaj", which fortunately I knew from russian, where it also means "Tea". So we went to the library buffet, which was located in the basement and had the chic of a station toilet. I could imagine that for her drinking a tea or coffee had another cultural implication, and this filthy buffet with its fuggy smelling air would hamper the last bit of delight, even of this third-class tea. Therefore I made signs to her to leave this filthy room with our cups and sit outside on the concrete stairways of the old library building.

Our conversation resembled very much the one between Robinson Crusoe and Friday: pointing to various things around us we would give them the names in our two languages. This way I learned that chestnut was "chestanub", honey is "Al Asal" and eyes are "orjoun". We probably met several times in and outside the library, and I was following Ismails warning that inviting a girl that wears a head scarf anywere else could cause a serious problem for both sides. But even the occasional encounter between the two of us on the stairway outside the library must have attracted the attention of some watchdogs from either her or my country. Somebody must have been concerned that we might find our own very individual interpretation of friendship between the nations. And they might have also kept a record of the progress we made in our conversation, which became more and more intense, but absolutely ununderstandable for any outsider, who would have tried to sneak into our talks. For our own use we had created a sort of german-english-arabic Esperanto, that to anybody else must have sounded as a completely cryptic code. But I never considered, and neither did Samira, that Ismails advise not to meet each other somewhere else than at the library for moral reasons was indeed the most foolish thing to do. Because we were sitting there like on an open display: visible for everybody who wanted to keep a record of the frequency and intensity of our short, but regular meetings. And this was perhaps seen as an open demonstration of disobedience, for two totalitarian countries a heresy much worse than would have a secret get-together been.

The security forces acted fast, silently and efficient: without any warning Samira was send home to Syria with a couple of hours notice. And since we did not had telephone, let alone e-mail or mobile in the mid 80es, she could not even say good bye. I also had forgotten to give her my address, since for us the stairway of the library was always the natural place to meet. After a couple of days not seeing her I asked Ismail if he could find out what happened to her. His legendary talent in physics has made him an admired student not only for us, but in particular for most other foreign students from middle-east countries as well. So it took him only a short talk with a guy from the syrian students group to find out that Samira was back home. The explanation was that she came to Germany only for a short summer school in aerodynamics, and this course had finished now. Funny enough, the books she always read at the library were all about high-energy nuclear physics.

Ismail with some degree of satisfaction said: "You see, I told you never try to court a girl with a head-scarf. You have to wait until somebody of her family lifts her scarf for you". When I told him, that Samira ones already shifted her scarf backward, showing with or without intention some of her chestnut-coloured, curly hair and that she might not fit into his conventional idea of a modern girl, he band backward, started laughing and said "Oh Boy". Ismails "Oh Boy" was a sort of final sentence of this short but inspiring relation to a girl with a head scarf that she was just about to lift without any help. It was like the two words "The End" on the final credits of a nice, long movie.Until recently, and still entangled in the belief that a german-english-arabic Esperanto is an easy way to bridge language-boarders I was convinced that "Oh Boy" means just "Oh Boy", a very common vocative in english with a connotation that lays somewhere between compassion and admonition.

But only recently, 24 years later, I heard again this phrase, and now it sounded more like "Ey Vay !". It was during an interview with one of the students who took part in the 2009 demonstrations in Teheran, shown in Ali Samadi Ahadis wonderful movie "The Green Wave". And here, the interview was subtitled, and I had to learn that Ismail was using the same "Ey Vay !", meaning "Oh God" when he commented my reckless idea of courting Samira. In these years in the late 80es the islamic "revolution" in Iran was just 10 years ago, and occasional reports about police forces in Teheran that would fix womans head-scarfs with pins on their head were taken as US propaganda. Caught in the memories of Samira and her rather lavish usage of her scarf I did not had enough fantasy to imagine that a few strains of hair leaking under it could provoke a violent and inhuman reaction by the police. And I could not imagine that 24 years later an iranian student would talk about much worse violence on the streets of Teheran, using the phrase "Ey Vay !" to express complete frustration and disgust.

Meeting of the Curly Haired in Teheran

Sometimes it does not need much more than this ...
And who will doubt that the future of Iran lays in the hand and hearts of its young generation
(پارک ملت‎ Pārk-e Mella).



source: http://naafass.blogspot.com

Hi Ghazal,

I can"t help myself, but this "Group of the Curly Haired"   is so amazing and beautiful.
I think you should become a member of this group.
It reminds me of the movie "You don"t mess with Zohan", where Zohan tries to explain to his friends why he wants to leave the army and become a hairdresser:
"Hair is just beautiful, it does not do any harm, it does not hurt anybody".

How are you ?
Tired ? Sad ? Disappointed ? Too busy ? Feel offended ? Fed up ? Sick ? Taken hostage ? Electricity cut off ?

I do worry a bid (But I hope without reason).

Michael

The 32nd aniversary of unfreedom and violated human rights

Todays 32nd anniversary of the islamic revolution in Iran hardly gives any reason for celebration. Initially enthusiastically welcomed by many progressive people around the world - including the socialist countries and churches - it soon became clear that this revolution brought to the iranian people anything else than freedom from corruption or an end to a totalitarian leadership.
The last three decades in Iran were not only hallmarked by oppression of any free thoughts and violation of human rights, but also by a growing corruption among the religouos, political and armed forces. An article by B.Kalnoky and C. Wergin published recently in the german newspaper "Welt am Sonntag" describes the internal battle for economic influence between these ruling forces (Translated version see here).
There is hope, however, that the strength of the people of Iran, their cultural heritage and traditional civil values will overcome the current regime.

Social Networks and Loneliness

Hi Ghazal, my Dear,

Hope you are well up, although I have not heard from you for a while. I"m afraid I might have written something confusing or unintentionally something that you felt as assaulting. We had a very emotional argument today in the institute about the value of social networks and whether each of us or even the entire institute should be present in Facebook. Some believe it is essential, to stay visible to others (but to be honest, there are science-specific social networks a lot, like PubMed or LAbome, Wikigenes and others. They are probably most efficient to meet and stay in contact with other scientist). But I agree, to be visible to the general public there is perhaps no way around Facebook. Using this, we might soon be contacted by celebrities who want to use our Cre-Lox gene targeting method to correct the shape of their nose or to get rid of their double-chin. We might also be asked by anxious people about the risk coming from all the atoms in their body. I"m seeing forward to discuss issues like those with them.
The general attitude among the people here in the lab towards facebook was pretty ambigious. IVG was absolutely in favor of it, praising its cabability to stay in contact with friends worldwide. BSB and myself were very proud to be social and very communicative folks without having long lists of Facebook friends. And there were even some, like ZB and OH who claimed that they are post-Facebook generation, i.e. they had a Facebook account but were unsatisfied with it and deleted their accounts.

I very much see a misconception of long lists of so-called "Friends" at the social networks and the value of some long-lasting and solid personal relations, some that are not just for the sunny days but on which you can also rely if you need help. Sometimes I got the impression that the social networks are weak networks, they seem to be devoid of any personal responsibility. The possibility to opt-out of a Friendship just by clicking a button makes it so much easier to avoid any commitment to people you know. I"m convinced that one should accept also difficulties in a relation, and not just choose an easy way-out. I recently heard a paraphrase by german actress, who after some personal tragedies still manages to make a very happy appearance. She said "If life gives you a box of lemons, you better ask to have salt and tequilla with it."
For you, Ghazal, I hope there wont be any lemons at all, but a lot of apples, sumac berries and oranges, not just for Norooz but for the whole year through.

TAke CAre

Michael

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

hi michael,

the three fruits you mentioned at the end of your letter are only a small selection of what is typical for persian new year. I"m going to send you my kucha-pecha presentation that I gave last year at the schneeferner-house to the other MSc students.
Facebook becomes very important if you are away from home, from your family and friends, or if you have to change home frequently. I therefore understand IVG a lot, because like myself she travelled a lot when she was student, master-student, PhD. Like her, I also used facebook a lot when I lived in London one year and last year in munich. But for me, the real relations in life where you meet people face by face are of course superior. I also found that such relationships are much more solid, and you can rely on somebody if you need help. I think you have to have a real exchange of thoughts between two persons, and a track of giving and taking to realy feel bound to somebody. In contrast, one might collect endless lists of "friends" in facebook and still be completely lonely.
I recently read an interesting study in the journal Science about Loneliness and general Health. The full paper is here.
What I found very clear, the author states that “Some people are socially isolated but they are not lonely. By contrast, some people are lonely even if they have a lot of social contacts.”
And the authors found very interesting correlations between loneliness and the risk for several diseases, including stroke, dementia and metabolic disorders. The long lasting assumption, however, that loneliness can cause cancer has been disproven in this study.
Maybe it would be an funny project to investigate, if the number of "Facebook Friends" that people have on their accounts is linked to the frequency of various diseases. Than maybe in the near future you might see a prescription from your doctor saying: "Diagnose: You have got migraine. Suggested therapy: Reduce the number of "Friends" by 50%" or "Jouvenile Diabetes type 2: Stop using the internet at all and ride the bike for 1 hour every day".

Oh boy, so much things to care about. And we are still trying to see the minuscle effects of irradiation.

Hope you are okay, take care (but don"t take the study about loneliness too personally)

/ghazal

.....................................................................................

Hi Ghzal my Dear,

Why you think I might take the study by John Cacioppo et al from Chicago about the health effects of loneliness personally ? I don"t feel lonely, not at all. If I say that I miss you, it does not mean I"m lonely. I manage very well to keep myself busy, here at the institute, at home with my family and house and the dog and playing music and reading books. But none of these activities take away the feeling that I lost something very precious when you left.
With the study design I have to check the original paper by Cacioppo et al. I would like to see how the study was done. I guess, like people always design the epidemiologic studies it was a case-control study. The problem therein is that the correlations found (as in this case between loneliness and mental illness) only shows a link between two independent observables. How one can exclude that loneliness is just coming from a gradual loss of mental fitness, and this can be a very early step of dementia. So it might equally be that the pathogenesis of dementia includes as one of the earliest symptoms loneliness.

I hope, of course, that neither you nor me and any of your friends and your family has to worry about this. It is really a very frustrating disease, since absolutely no working therapies against it (just some to reduce the symptoms).

Take Care , my Dear

Michael

Discovery of a habitable planet (also for horses ?)

Ghazal, my Dear,

What a funny coincidence that today, just a couple of days after you speculated about finding a house for us on the moon astronomers from Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, D.C announced the discovery of the first extra-terrestrial habitable planet in the universe. For sure, the moon is much closer to the earth, to your family and friends, and you probably can even spot Sweden from there if it is "Full-Earth". According to the U.S. astronomers, however, the living conditions on "Gliese 581g" as the planet was named, should be much more convenient than the surface of the moon. O.k., I have to admit, you have to spend more for transportation (Gliese 581g is about 20 light-years or 190 billion km away from europe, moon "only" 380 000 km), but I would be ready to spend some extra money for the flight tickets, but have a nice environment instead (like on earth, the value of a property mainly depends on the three factors "location, location and location"). Talking about the living conditions there, of course one cannot expect exactly the same as on earth, but I guess we could easily accomodate to them. For instance, the seasonal year is only 37 days long (whether there ARE seasons like summer and winter here on earth is not known yet). There are, however day and night, that"s for sure. And the day-and-night rhythm seems to be much more human (first estimate is between 25 and 35 hours) than what you have in northern Sweden with their 180 days polar-day followed by another 185 days darkness.
There is one problem, and thats the mass of Gliese 581g: Since it is about 3 times heavier than the earth, physics unavoidably will give everything there a 3 fold higher weight. So the first weeks up there would be quite exhausting, walking, standing or dancing will be a tough physical exercise, untill our skelleton, joints and muscle strengthen and got used to carry this extra weight. The good thing and the best way to get around this stressful gravitational stress is the existence of water up there on Gliese 581g. Calculations show that there will be plenty of lakes, oceans and beaches, and the water should be crispy and cristal-clear. There just was no messy industry or agriculture or human sewage to spoil the water). And swimming, you should know, we would not feel our extra weight any more because of the (hydrostatic principle discovered by Archimedes).
Anyhow, whether you believe him or not and whether you like spending most of your day in the water, it is good that neither you nor me have any weight problems here on earth. This is for sure a good pre-condition to relocate to Gliese 581g, and maybe they even want to see a health-certificate for this when you ask for entry visa up there.

Hope you sleep well, and maybe in your dream discover some extra "must-sees" on this planet.

Take Care,

Michael

PS: You don"t have to prepare you luggage right now. And for sure: You first have to finish your MSc project and got the degree, because this improves your chances to make a scientific career on "Gliese 581g".

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hi michael,

what ???? I don"t wanna go to this extra-terrestrial planet ! I just made up my mind, and after struggling with myself again and again and weighing every pro and con, and talking with my family in Sweden I declined to consider a future here in Munich. Thats 980 km away from Stockholm, and I wont accept any further distance. Not the moon ("only" 380 000 km ha, ha, ha) let alone a planet that is so far away, that even the light needs 20 years to reach stockholm. So then, everything the U.S. astronomers discovered now only shows how this planet was 20 years ago. Things can change so rapidly, michael, just have a look on our earth and ourself: 20 years ago we didn"t had mobile phones, but instead Freddy Mercury and Frank Zappa were still alive. You have been in east-berlin working in the station-bistro and I was a 4-year old baby-girl carried around europe on the arms of my beloved parents. How can we be sure that during the last 20 years no massive industrialisation started on this strange planet, or that global cooling down turn all the lakes and oceans into ice-skating courses ? Thats my last word. This planet is not an option for me.
And by the way, I came along this marvellous horse range this morning, on my way to the lab. It was a mystic scenery, how the horse appeared slowly from the morning mist..
When I was a kid, my dad used to read me persian fairytales, in which a white camel played a role, because it rescued Zartusht (or Zaratustra as you call him) from the deluge. I think you mentioned this legend also on your blog entry form July 16th. I fell in love with this camel, and the horses I met this morning reminded me of it. I think their physical strength and mental calmness are similar, and that makes both of them good companions to men. There was a display on the horse farm, and as much as I understoud german, they offered to give you one of the horses for riding out, if you agree to take care of it and clean it and feed it, it wont even cost a lot. So this, I have to admit, was one reason for me to consider staying in Munich.
I doubt that there will be horses on this far planet, therefore I also don"t want to go there.


Hope you understand my concern, michael.

Have a good night, and good dreams.

/ghazal

Champaign Dreams

I dreamed, that reason and truth might rule the world instead of religions and self-installed gods, and that the later are kept under glass in museums. And in my dreams there was no place any more for saints and gods, who use to judge man as heretics or as immoral.

I dreamed, that mankind will live free from hate against each other, that culture, birth, tradition, colour or race will loose its deviding function. I dreamed, that men find paradise here on earth, and not commiting crime and murder against each other to reserve a place in heaven after life. I dreamed, that love brings people together, rather that laws or social normatives, and that sympathy and attraction between two people would be the only reason to come together, not their cultural background, nor nation, gender or age.


I dreamed that people would do the biggest creations ever, not because they have to fight against poverty or death, but because they want to rise above nature and tradition and convention, because they want to discover the unknown land and conquere the desert and turn it into a flowering garden. I dreamed that men were doing good things, not because they fear punishment from a false god, but because they believe in the eternal values of good and beauty and truth.

I dreamed a silly dream, that at the end of my 4th life decade I start a second period of life with a 25 years old persian princess, who thinks that books and historical myths are useless, who fears spiders and ants, who loves McDonals and KFC fast food more than anything else. Whereas she does not know the magic of her blue eyes, she tries every morning to defeat her wild hair with cremes and razor-blades.

Ghazal, you should know that you are a woman, not a girl any more, and that you can easily drive a man into madness or into heroism. If you only want, you can be a queen and become myth as the founder of a new, enlightened empire, where love and reason rule, rather than superstition, religions and the hate and war they cause. Ghazal, my persian princess, your beauty and wisdom and grace does not put a spell only on me, but will seduce everybody who sees you.

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Ich träumte, dass Vernuft die Welt regiert und Religionen nurmehr in Museen zu bestaunen seien und keine Götter uns mehr zu Ketzern oder zu Abtrünnigen abstempeln.

Ich träumte, dass Menschen ohne Hass leben, dass Herkunft, Kultur oder Tradition, Hautfarbe und Rassen unwichtig werden.Ich träumte, dass Menschen ihr Paradies hier auf Erden fänden, und nicht Verbrechen begehen müssten für ein jenseitiges Himmelreich. Ich träumte, dass Liebe die Menschen zusammenführte, und nicht staatliche Gesetze und Normen, dass Liebe das einzige Argument wäre für die Verbindung zwischen zwei Menschen, egal ob sie Geschlecht, Kultur, Nation oder Alter mehr trennt als vereint.

Ich träumte, dass die Menschen Grosses leisteten, ohne Angst vor der Armut, dass sie sich erheben über die Natur und über die Konventionen und über das Althergebrachte einzig und allein, weil sie nach Höherem und nach Wahrheit und nach Erkenntnis streben. Ich träumte, dass die Menschen gut sind weil sie an die Macht des Guten glauben, und nicht weil sie ein Gott belohnt oder bestraft für ihre irdischen Taten.

Ich träumte einen wahnsinnigen Traum, dass ich am Ende meines 4. Lebensjahrzents ein zweites Leben beginne mit einer 25-jährigen persischen Prinzessin, die mit Bücher und mit Historien-Mythen wenig anfangen kann, die sich vor Spinnen und Ameisen fürchtet, die Fast-Food von McDonalds und KFC vergöttert, die aber den Zauber ihrer blauen Augen selber noch nie wahr genommen hat und ihr widerspenstiges Haar mit Cremes und Rasiermessern zu bändigen versucht. Ghazal, Du bist eine Frau, Du bist kein Kind mehr, Du kannst einen Mann zum Wahnsinn treiben oder zum Heldentum, und wenn Du willst wirst Du zur Königin und zum Mythos eines aufgeklärten, neuen Reiches in dem Liebe und Vernuft regieren statt Aberglauben, Kirche und Hass.
Ghazal, meine persische Prinzessin, Deine Schönheit und Deine Anmut und Deine Klugheit schlägt nicht nur mich in seinen Bann, sondern wird alle verzaubern, die Dich erblicken.

Time Shift and Crystals

Ghazal, my dear,
what can I say ? Your watch indeed runs pretty slow. I opened it yesterday night to clean it (but of course it was extremely clean from the inside). Between midnight and now, 8 a.m., it lost again about 3 minutes.
When you told me your observation that it regularily looses about 15 minutes per day, I thought this indicates once again that you came here from another universe. Maybe you know the TV-serie "X-Files" with Agent Scully and Agent Moulder, who always find simple evidence that people like you and me come from outer space. I think both of them would like the idea that somebody with the potential to slow down a watch (if it is in close enough contact with its own pulse, like in your case) must come from another world (where, as we all know, time is running slower, the spiderman falls into love with a swan and people are born old to get younger every day).
But coming back to your watch, which I fully understand you want to have running with earth-compatible speed. Sure enough, you are also going to spend some more time here on earth, with no flight booked yet that will bring you back to your angels universe. I heard of cases, when Angels came here just for a short visit, and suddenly started to like the wild life in our world and decided to stay for longer.
Therefore, I will do my best today to set up your watch to +/- zero. I"ll put in a new battery, later we see. In case it still runs slow, I"m afraid nobody can help you and you would probably have to return it to the shop (in this other solar-system) and ask for replacement through warranty (you have not shown to me the warranty certificate: I guess it was issued from a shop not known here on earth !!! Something like "The Unified Reverse Time Company at Zartha").

But first, let me try to adjust it. We here on earth are good scientists and talented engineers, although we can not compete with you angels in terms of beauty and wisdom. Maybe I find a way to bring your clock-speed in synchronity with ours.

Have a nice and inspiring day, my dear.

Yours Michael

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hi michael,

im fine, yesterday was a nice sunny day as today.

thank you for taking care of the watch. i think i should bring it to the shop in sweden. maybe they can fix it. or i just have to return it. haha no im just a normal girl living in the right time. just something wrong with the watch. :) you dont have to change batteries. i just have it until i go back to sweden or something. but really thank you for trying to fix it.

hope it was not too hard to take back the other bike to helmholtz. i would think its hard.

i will take a look at the trailer later.

take care!!:D

/ghazal

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Ghazal, my dear,

Of course every angel tries to insist he (or she) does not come from another star, but simply from a country a bit further north. O.k., I acknowledge that you learned some swedish to convince me of this. But maybe it was just enough to guide me through IKEA, explaining to me that "Ordin" means "order" and "Äpple" means "apple". I think I could learn this in a couple of days too. And what still makes me suspicious a lot are your blue eyes in combination with your dark hair. This, for sure is neither oriental nor scandinavian: this is celestial.

Now the latest news regarding your watch: I put in a fresh battery (guaranteed made here on earth), and have to say it seems to be 100% compatible with your extra-terrestrial DKNY watch. It runs nice and smoothly, and after 2 hours still without a second delay. I will leave it in for a couple of hours more, just to make sure it is stable. I just suspect, that your watch with its strong extraterrestrial energy has already influenced my watch at home, also causing this one to run slower now. Finally, both our watches now might run synchroneous, but are perhaps lagging behind normal earth clock-speed.

What would support this notions is the fact, that always when we have been together somewhere, like recently at IKEA or at the lake, in the coffe or just sitting with you in the car and driving the wrong way, I got the strange feeling that we were suddenly drifting into another time-zone, where everything is happening slower, but more intense. I would not say that it was an unpleasant feeling, it was just unusual. I think I could get used to it.

There is a second possibility to explain why the time around you runs 15 min slower per day. And this in fact has a scientific base, it is not a joke any more:

Some years ago US scientists wanted to understand how much is our human 24-hours diurnal rhythm (that controls when we sleep, dream, wake up, eat, work, digest etc) determined by the day-night-cycle of the earth. To study this, they recruited about 50 volunteers, who agreed to live for a month in a building that was completely isolated from any sun-light. The volunteers could only use electric light, which they switched on and off when they wanted. So finally, after some weeks in this isolated environment, the entire group had adopted its own rhythm of inactivity (sleeping) and activity (beeing awake, working, playing etc.). What was strange: their own physiological rhythm was exactly 11 min slower than 24 hours. Therefore, when the experiment was finsihed after 7 weeks, the people inside the building were almost exactly 12 hours laggig behind the day-night-cycle outside the building. This means, that we still have our own biological clock build in, that runs per day 11 min slower than 24 hours. It is only the astronomic day- and night-changes, that synchronizes us to an exact 24hours rhythm. Without seeing the sun coming and going every 24 hours, we would all live a slightly longer day. The most likely explanation for this slower running biological clock inside our body was, that it developed already in primates about 1 million years ago. And 1 million years ago, the earth was indeed rotating approximately 11 min slower per day (because the gravitational force between earth and moon continiously fasten it up).

If we use this knowledge, and remember that your watch runs 15 min per day slower, we might conclude that you came here from the past, from approximately 1 273.645 years before.
In case you think this is all very academic, have a look at these two papers that shows how DNA-repair and radiosensitivity changes with círcadian rhythm or how disturbances of the later can even increase cancer-risk.
Sorry, my dear, if I start to confuse you. It is not really my intention to cause you any headache.

I met today on the flee-market a man fro Persia, who used to sell books. I wanted to get something about Zartoscht, in case you decide to do the Pecha-Kucha about this. The man said he has a few in persian, but they are not for sale, you could only try to borrow from him. He also has german ones, but than I would have to try to translate a bit. I think it would be an interesting subject for a short talk. And you could combine it with some contemporary musicians who had or have zoroastrian roots (Freddy Mercury of Queen and former general conductor of the Munich Symphony Orchestra, Zubin Mehta).
I think due to my own interest in this philosophy, I might help you to collect some material.
But you have to made up your own mind.

At the end, Ghazal, here comes something for you just to relax:
It is a tour through the Swarovski Cristal exhibition and performance and I am absolutely sure that you will like it (it is calm, probably also runs on a slower speed and therefor more suits your rhythm of life).

Take care, don"t condemn me, relax.

Michael


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Ghazal, my dear,

Hope you had a nice day. I wish you some interesting dreams. You might dream of your wrist watch. It runs since 2 p.m. without any delay. But maybe now you are sad hearing this? Maybe this 15 min delay per day was one of the last links that connected you to your former angels universe, Ghazal.

I willl keep the old battery (the one that makes the watch running slower). If you feel to much nostalgia, I can put it back into the watch for a day or so.

Yours Michael

Asa, Sade and McLaughlin, de Lucia, Al di Meola

Hi!

The music you gave me was not the type of music i usually listen to. Friday night in san francisco.... it was only intruments??right? I have never heard it before. Asa and Sade. I liked Sade more. Some of sade's songs i liked actually. they were calm and nice. so i guess hmm.. that sade is from the new generation, so from 21th century and Asa i really didnt like.. tried to listen and enjoy but couldnt really. Asa is then from 20th century. Am I right?
My parents mostly listened to michael jackson modern talking during my childhood i remember, and persian music.dont hitnk they listened to friday night in san francisco.:)

Thank you for the music. you did not have to do this.

yees, football is not so fun. only if there is someone you want to win! then you can watch the game when that country is playing.. otherwise it is not so fun.

see you

/Ghazal

Persian Blogosphere

To: iraniansblog@gmail.com

I would highly appreciate if you would add my blog to your directory.
I called it "Letter to an Persian Cat"

If you will see, it is totally un-political, it has to do with cats (mainly as an aphorism), and I am not iranian nor had I ever the chance to visit your country. Why do I want you anyhow to add it to your list ?

It is the record of an utopia that I almost lost my mind in during summer 2010 (I guess many people in Iran also think of a free Iran, that is currently an utopia). It has to do with the encounter between me, a university teacher and scientist and a student, who was born in Sweden to Iranian parents. I have to admitt, that I feel a strong attraction to her, but try to keep it on an spiritual base (Ha ha, I can hear your laughter).
Any how, you might say it is a story of an unlucky love like there are millions elsewhere in the world. The reason, though, why this blog should be listed is the following: I know your struggle for freedom in Iran, and I very much feel with you. I remember I went through a quite similar time in 1988/1989 in east Germany / GDR. I was pretty much involved in the movement for liberalisation and against the oppression by the single ruling party and the secret service. Looking back from now to these two years, I have the feeling that they were a wasted time of my life: I don"t remember a single book that I red, no concert or theater I went to, no long friendship or love-affairs. These two years were completely devoted (and lost) to a political fight againts idiots like the police, secret service, party officials. I can tell you, I was happy when everything was over (although the new west-german rulers were also a shame) and I had time again and regained mental power for the real important things in live, for culture, music, love, philosophy, for my job as a scientist, and the possibility to reflect about us, the universe, and where we all came from and why we fall in love.
Political fight is sometimes unavoidable (like in Iran right now), but be carefull not to turn it into the most important purpose of your life.
After it will be over, and I hope of course with a new tolerant gouvernment, remember the old values of Persia: arts, poetry, music and science.
Than I"m absolutely positive your country will have a great future. And try to settle your controversy with Israel. If both of you find a peaceful relation, this will be a strong alliance, and nobody in middle-east will dare to fool you, not the US nor the arabs.

Good luck, Take Care

Yours "Radius of the Persian Cat"