Akram's Razor - Reflections on Islam, Muslims & America

Jungle babble is anything but

There's a fascinating article in The New York Times detailing the way some animals not only possess an animal-specific vocabulary for sounding the alarm about predators (e.g., one cry for a leopard; another for an eagle), and listen to each other's warnings (across species), but are able to filter out irrelevant alarms (e.g., a bird ignoring a monkey's shriek of "Leopard!", but taking note when it warns "Eagle!").

Olivia Jones/ The Wild Side - "Leopard Behind You!" (The New York Times, Oct 6, 2009)

This isn’t a complicated vocabulary, with thousands of words. Nonetheless, it’s clear that for many animals, alarm calls are more than simple squawks of fear. Vervet monkeys, for instance, use different sounds to warn of different types of predator. “Leopard!” is not the same as “snake!” or “eagle!” If you hide a loudspeaker in the bushes, and startle unsuspecting monkeys by playing recordings of “snake!” at them, they will look around at the ground. “Eagle!” makes them look up. “Leopard!” sends them scampering to the trees.

Masha'Allah, simply amazing.  I wonder how easy this is to explain using using natural selection.

Keep an eye out for armored cars in Jeddah this month

I've mentioned my theory of Khaleeji Consumption Disorder before. This case takes the cake.

There are filthy rich people around the globe who pour money into yachts, custom sports cars, alpine villas, tropical islands, gold plated bathroom fixtures, trips into space, and all manner of self-indulgent and eccentric luxuries, yet not even the kinkiest playboy tycoon ever had an idea so revoltingly wasteful and utterly gauche as this "historical benchmark for the adult novelty industry" dreamed up by some pathetic man in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

I want this freak's name published for all the world to see. Or better yet, extorted into donating to charity 10 times the amount he spent on this sick toy.

P.S. Not that I particularly feel the need to establish my open-mindedness about such matters, but I will note that what I find "sick" about this is the expense and mindset required to feel it necessary turn such a device into a piece of jewelry. I couldn't care less whether people buy such items (which despite their distasteful associations might legitimate uses for all I know), but I see something truly clinical in the particulars of this "special order". 

Talk about culture shock

After I shared that link about spousal assassinations in India on Facebook, a friend shared this even weirder report.

BBC NEWS | UK | Abused Asian men's lives 'living hell'

More South Asian men married to British women are becoming the victims of domestic violence, it has been revealed.

The National Men's Advice Line found 9% of calls for help to its service last year were made by men originally from countries such as India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. [MORE]

My reply:

Wow. That's a man-bites-dog story if I ever saw one. I realize that being a newcomer without local knowledge and/or contacts is serious impediment to getting help and I realize that the shame would be a serious deterrent, but I wonder how much of a role male relatives are playing in these case. People can be bullied all sorts of ways, though. Thought provoking.

I sometimes wonder if the counter anecdotes one sometimes hears of "husband beating" aren't more urban legends than reports of a real social problem, but this sounds like a pretty credible.

It's easy to forget that men come in different sizes, shapes and temperaments. There are of course men who deeply conflict-averse, for example. I have to admit to finding it exceedingly hard to imagine myself ending up in such a situation, but I guess the first mistake in sociological thinking is to universalize one's own experiences.

As Arsenio Hall used to say, "Things that make you go 'Hmm...'"

The latest titilation from Egypt

Oy vey, where to begin?

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Egypt anger over virginity faking

A leading Egyptian scholar has demanded that people caught importing a female virginity-faking device into the country should face the death penalty.

Abdul Mouti Bayoumi said supplying the item was akin to spreading vice in society, a crime punishable by death in Islamic Sharia law.[MORE]

Meanwhile, men are getting it on with impunity. Given the double standards and life changing penalties many women face for making the same mistakes as the guys, I'm not sure I'm all that concerned about this, at least so long as this doesn't result in the spread of venereal disease. It takes two to tango, too.

It's not right for people to misrepresent their sexual past to prospective spouses, of course, but neither is having your life ruined for a mistake that is commonplace in your generation, which much of "modern" culture seems designed to encourage and which is undetectable among your male peers.

I also find it very saddening to see a prominent scholar could advocate such a ridiculously draconian measure for an action that does not cause people any physical harm. This would hardly be the only source of vice in Egyptian life.

However one feels about the ethics of this device, such a call makes a mockery of Islamic law. (And, accepting these bizarre premises for a moment for the sake of conversation, what about the fact that a girl can rupture her hymen through a variety of non-sexual activities? Should someone be killed for aiding such a girl in protecting her honor and marital prospects?)

Even THESE guys' jobs can be outsourced to India

Something to ponder when planning a leisurely visit back to the Old Country.

BBC NEWS | South Asia | British Asians 'outsourcing murder'

A BBC investigation has uncovered the deadly practice of British Asians travelling to India to hire contract killers.

Family and business associates, who are lured to the sub-continent, are often the targets.

In a country where murder is cheaper and less fraught with risk, the perpetrators of these crimes are rarely brought to justice. [MORE]

Note to self: Keep on Shabana's good side while planning visits to Pakistan.

I too have family abroad, but assuming assassins are even to be found in Denmark, I don't want to imagine how expensive it would be.

Rush Limbaugh, king-maker or paper tiger?

Conservative columnist David Brooks has an interesting take n The New York Times on the influence of Rush Limbaugh and kindred right-wing crusaders in punditry. He argues that these shrill figures are essentially all bark and no bite, being unable to get the people they claim to represent onto the street or into the ballot booth.

Op-Ed Columnist - The Wizard of Beck - NYTimes.com

[N]o matter how often their hollowness is exposed, the jocks still reweave the myth of their own power. They still ride the airwaves claiming to speak for millions. They still confuse listeners with voters. And they are aided in this endeavor by their enablers. They are enabled by cynical Democrats, who love to claim that Rush Limbaugh controls the G.O.P. They are enabled by lazy pundits who find it easier to argue with showmen than with people whose opinions are based on knowledge. They are enabled by the slightly educated snobs who believe that Glenn Beck really is the voice of Middle America.

So the myth returns. Just months after the election and the humiliation, everyone is again convinced that Limbaugh, Beck, Hannity and the rest possess real power. And the saddest thing is that even Republican politicians come to believe it. They mistake media for reality. They pre-emptively surrender to armies that don’t exist.

They pay more attention to Rush’s imaginary millions than to the real voters down the street. The Republican Party is unpopular because it’s more interested in pleasing Rush’s ghosts than actual people. The party is leaderless right now because nobody has the guts to step outside the rigid parameters enforced by the radio jocks and create a new party identity. The party is losing because it has adopted a radio entertainer’s niche-building strategy, while abandoning the politician’s coalition-building strategy.

The rise of Beck, Hannity, Bill O’Reilly and the rest has correlated almost perfectly with the decline of the G.O.P. But it’s not because the talk jocks have real power. It’s because they have illusory power, because Republicans hear the media mythology and fall for it every time.

I don't think these characters are as out of sync with the GOP as Brooks assumes. If only.

They may have been midwives to a terrible new era of shrill, dumbed-down political debate, but they're not the ones who knocked the GOP up in the first place. I think part of their success stems from their skillful tapping into long-standing (and until recently unchallenged) reactionary trends within the party. I think  many of the seeds of this ugliness were planted during the Reagan era, which ratcheted up the culture wars more than a bit.