Rat Children

Tuesday, April 27, 2010 5:17 AM Posted by Black Scorpion 0 comments
Rat children of Dolay Shah Shrine are not rat children but abused children who are either suffering from Microcephalics or made to wear metal helmets so their heads stay small.

http://blog.dawn.com/2010/04/27/trading-in-misery/

THATS INHUMAN!!!!!

Male Prostitution in Khi

Monday, April 26, 2010 11:09 PM Posted by Black Scorpion 0 comments
Its a sad sad fact:

http://dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010\04\27\story_27-4-2010_pg12_3

Buzkashi

5:27 AM Posted by Black Scorpion 0 comments
Ancient Sport, beautifully captured:


http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/media-gallery/30-buzkashi-not-for-the-faint-hearted-so-02

Crash Course on designers for a Black Scorpion

3:10 AM Posted by Black Scorpion 0 comments
Recently, a friend of mine Dazza was visiting the Holy Land of Karachi. Her bro in law will be getting married soon and she was hunting for clothes for the occasion. She was always the type who thought too much about clothes but now being married into a fashion forward family, she cares much much more than before. She wants the most latest and hip thing in the market.

So, here was poor little me, who does not give a second thought about herself and during the three days that I took her out shopping, and sat for hours googling, doing my extensive research on designers, their outlets, their prices, their trends.. I got my crash course on the designers of Pakistan.

So what did I learn...

  • Every tom dick and harry calls himself a designer
  • They are Damn pricey for Nothing.
  • Just because they are charging more does not mean they would also give you good quality and service. (Replications of dresses looked better than the actual dresses in terms of quality.)
  • Not every one sucks.

So what makes a designer, A GOOD DESIGNER?

  • Sense of color: I saw many clothes designed in multiple colors but most of them did not look pretty, in fact a lot of them looked cheap. Good ones were the ones, which took care of the color wheel rules and experimented with uncommon colors.
  • Cuts: This I believe is the deciding factor. If you wanna spend money on a designer then spend it on him/her for cuts. Artisans of Pakistan are amazing, a common person with a little sense of color and style can make a nice dress but cuts is some thing which not every person can do. Most of the designers in Pakistan do not rely on cuts but they rely on just embroideries and the band wagon of whats in. Like nowadays, while walking inside the designer studios it feels as if one is walking in the valley of kaghan. So nothing out of the box or original where every thing is borrowed and not even improvised upon from NWFP style of clothing.

So who would I pay to wear?
If ever, I would have a change of mind and clothes become that important to me that I throw my money like crazy to wear designers. I guess I would like to wear Asifa and Nabeel:

http://www.friendskorner.com/forum/f31/asifa-n-nabeels-new-collection-146445/
http://desihunter.blogspot.com/2010/02/lahore-fashion-week-2010-asifa-nabeels.html

Why?

Cos cuts and colors are so amazing that I can't figure out how the dress is designed.

Dedicated to:
Dazza & Arshia
(My fashion crazy gals)

Brothers in Arms

Thursday, April 22, 2010 3:11 AM Posted by Black Scorpion 0 comments
Humans are known to find and get attracted towards their own kind.. same color, same religion, clan, etc etc .. but a new set of experiments showed how sperms (little guys which comes outta male organs) can also find their brothers and get attached to them. Check the following picture out before I give you the interesting details:


Yup.. these are sperms stuck together. So first the terms:

Brothers: Sperms belonging to same male

(Yup! Thats the only term you need to understand.)

So what did scientist do?

  • They took set of rats.
  • Dyed their sperms in different colors to glow under UV light (now dying sperm is an interesting topic in it self which we will explore some other time).
  • Placed different sets of sperms of different males in different combination in the petri dish along with an egg.
  • Observed what they did.
Sperm's Common Goal:

  • To get to the egg as soon as possible and be the best love machine

Results:

  • Sperms from different males when placed together found their brothers, got stuck to them and then draft, Lance Armstrong-style, moving faster than they could alone thanks to more "engine" power from the cluster.
  • However, when they reach the egg, they again become sworn enemies like before.
  • When they were placed in the petri dish with out their brothers, they found their closest cousins and did the same as above.
Why is it cool?

  • Sperms are so smart man! There is more to them than what we gave them credit for.
  • Genetic Algorithms: These rules can also be applied to genetic algorithms and see how they perform.
  • Quoted: "The results support the long-held view that competition drives the evolution of sperm behavior".

Experiment's Limitations:
  • Not sure if human sperms behave the same. May be they are smarter, maybe they are dumber
  • The experiment was done in a petri dish, not sure if they will behave the same in the womb
  • Quote: "the study examines just one promiscuous and one monogamous species." So again, it does not imply that all mammal's little guys are this smart.

So who did this shit?

Evolutionary geneticist at Harvard University's Hoekstra Laboratory.

Where can you read more on this shit?

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/04/100421-glowing-sperm-brothers-cooperation-evolution/

Ain't it some cool shit?

Lack of Reading Habit

If you are wired like me, who hates to read a LOT of stuff. Then I can understand the plight that you face . Every now and then, some thing is sent to me which is suppose to have instructions about what IS to be done and what IS NOT to be done. Yet I make a general assumption about what this might contain and go ahead with my Stupid self doing stuff which I am not suppose to do or not doing stuff which I am suppose to do.

Any ways.. we better learn to keep our eyes open.

A Serene Sunset

Friday, April 9, 2010 4:25 AM Posted by Black Scorpion 1 comments

This picture was taken while hiking in Griffith Park, Los Angeles. This picture was taken almost a year back in my Lazy Crazy Days break. In the initial shot i took of this sunset, the ring was behind the tree but much more pink. By the time I ran to the next hill, the pink was little lesser and I was able to capture much more edge of semi-circle than as compared to my earlier shot(my camera lens is not that wide actually). So the only thing I had to compromise on is pink in the sky, how ever I like the composition better here. I increased the contrast a bit before posting picture. The rest of the stuff is untouched. Hope you guys like it. :)

Camera used: Canon Powershot SD870

Fashion and Animal Products

Thursday, April 8, 2010 10:38 PM Posted by Black Scorpion 1 comments
While there is no harm in adopting "Natural" theme for one's collection, however, fashion should stay separate from animal products. Therefore, it was disappointing to see the following picture in the coverage of Pakistan Fashion week by Fashion designer Fahad Hussain:


Showcasing such fashions and styles creates a demand of animal products and in turn endangers their existence. Fashion industry of Pakistan has come a long way in fashion and gotten it self accepted as a high potential industry. Therefore, our fashion designers should also act more responsibly now that they and their work is more in lime light. The responsibility also falls on media to abstain from highlighting such fashions or highlight them negatively.

Live Responsibly!
Peace Out!

References:
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/media-gallery/17-Amidst%20the%20colors-ek-04?pageDesign=new_MediaGallery_externallink12-12

Cool Idea

Wednesday, April 7, 2010 2:59 AM Posted by Black Scorpion 0 comments
Cool stuff and great idea.. both artistically and environmentally. :)

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/media-gallery/17-the+collector+of+lost+dreams-ek-02

Karo Mumkin - a good initiative by Telenor

Tuesday, April 6, 2010 10:59 PM Posted by Black Scorpion 0 comments
Pakistan's telecoms industry is a cutthroat competitive industry where all the service providers not only have to step up their game in terms of services and quality but also their marketing and publicity strategy at regular periods for survival. Marketing and publicity comprises of a huge chunk of the company's investment.

Though its not uncommon for multinationals to indulge in community service projects as part of their marketing campaign. However, even if it is a marketing and publicity gimmick, then I would say its a gimmick with a good cause and output.Therefore, it came as a great pleasure to see the initiative taken by Telenor Pakistan in form of their "Karo Mumkin" campaign. It not only serves the purpose of their marketing campaign but also provides a platform for some great ideas to surface.

The Karo Mumkin provokes you to think that, "How do we perceive the Pakistan of the future?"

They give some very good ideas themselves first like..

"How a university chancellor made it compulsory for every student to teach at least 6 months in a village to earn his degree, this was then adopted by every university and now in the future, every Pakistani is literate."

In another advertisement, a doctor is saying,

"I will take out one hour every day from my schedule and go to some small locality and tend to patients for free"
implying how it made the health care more available to every person, in the Pakistan of the future.

These are indeed simple and good ideas and can be actually implemented and make a difference.

Then, they urge us to come up with ideas of our own and implement them, by their tag line:

"Apnay andar, kuch kar deekhainay ki ahliet ko pehchano, aur phir kar dikhaoo"
"Realize the potential do some thing inside yourself and then, just do it!".
(I might be a bad translator.)


Ideas can be submitted via following methods:
SMS/Call: 576 (Telenor users) | CALL: 0345-555-5540 (Other networks)
Telenor Karo Mumkin page: http://www.telenor.com.pk/karomumkin/

Though this might not be a very novel idea, however, it is a very well executed idea. It provokes us to think by giving ideas and then provides platform for brain storming and giving our own ideas. They say in the end, that the best ideas will be chosen, however they do not tell exactly what will be done with the chosen ones. As in, will they be funded, or what? There is no implementation strategy outlined by them.

Some one pointed out on their blog that this a rip off following Pepsi campaign:

http://www.refresheverything.com/

However, they are funding the ideas, wonder what Telenor has up its sleeve. Never the less, if nothing else, at least it provides a plat form for good ideas and it provokes people to think what part they can play for the betterment of this country. After all, it is our country, and we must all work hard to make it better for every one.

When did Mr. X become a certified "Social Activist"?

Thursday, April 1, 2010 12:29 AM Posted by Black Scorpion 0 comments
Just recently, at a dinner, someone while introducing his friends added, "They are also social activists". For some reason this small piece added to their introduction intrigued me enough that I wanted to explore that when can you reach a point where you can start labeling yourself as a "Social Activist".

So first and foremost, like all people, I turned towards Wikipedia. It defines social activism as following:

"Social Activism, in a general sense, can be described as intentional action to bring about social change."

So, following the above definition, Social Activist can be defined as an agent who brings about the social change. However, what is change and how or what sort of change does a social activist brings about needs to be explored in more detail.

Change can be defined as anything becoming different than what it is. Please, do note: "different", and not better or worse, but, different. There is a famous saying that, "The only thing constant is Change". Change is inevitable, it will come whether we like it or not.

Social activist strive to be the catalyst of change to steer the society in the direction they feel is fit for it. Every person has his/her own perception of a Utopian society. It can range anything from "Society consisting of only one religious belief" to "a society where every man has access to World Wide Web and unlimited access to knowledge". Every person's Utopia is based upon his/her beliefs and ideas and longings. So, social activists are those who put their ideas into action to convert their dream of Utopian society to reality?

If all sorts of people striving for all sorts of Utopian society will be labeled as social activist, it could be quite a detrimental definition and qualification of it for society. Although common sense understands, and considers the above deduction of the definition of social activist to be a logical fallacy of faulty generalization (by reaching an inductive generalization based on insufficient evidence) yet, unfortunately, the reality is very much in line with this definition due to the absence of mutual agreement on what is "Absolute Good" for the society. Therefore, historically, all sorts of personalities have been characterized and certified as "Social Activists". We have social activists ranging from the likes of Mother Teresa to Che Guevara. To elaborate further on this, at this point, I would like to introduce the explanation of the word activism as described in Wikipedia,

"The word "activism" is often used synonymously with protest or dissent, but activism can stem from any number of political orientations and take a wide range of forms from writing letters to newspapers or politicians, political campaigning, boycotts , rallies, street marches, strikes, stoppages hunger strikes, or even guerrilla tactics."

This term covers quite a huge ground. One website says that there are two challenges that a Social Activist needs to overcome,

• To encourage community people to take self-determined actions, and
• To avoid harassment and obstruction by the more powerful who may feel threatened.

So… what sort of actions and for what sort of causes? In my opinion, reforms, resulting from the social activism of a social activist which lessens the sufferings of the oppressed of the society, may only be qualified as positive social changes. Hence, those actions which are performed by a so-called social activist following his/her fantasies of what could be a Utopian society, do not hold much weight if they are not helping any oppressed.

Loosely speaking, every person in his own right is to some extent a social activist striving for a change in society. However, the term should not be thrown around lightly while labeling people in such a manner. Only those people whose actions have brought about that change in society which has lessened the sufferings of the abused and tormented on a huge level truly deserve to be labeled and certified as Social Activist. Then, and only then, the society should certify that Mr. X has indeed become a "Social Activist".

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