How engineers learn from evolution

This is just amazing, that how much we can learn from the nature. Click and watch :)

Wisdom of the day

The distance between “everything is just perfect” and “oh I’m really doomed” is nothings. Life is a box of surprises...

Little Taste of Heaven

Feijoa, Did you ever heard of this name? Do you no what this is? If not, I'm telling you.. you are missing the taste of one of the most delicious fruits on earth. Just go and find it trust me!

Well as far as I remember, there were several Feijoa trees (different types) in our garden (My parents' actually). One of my uncle was an agriculture engineer, I guess he was the one who first introduced the tree to my parents. Every Autumn, gorgeous perfumed flowers cover allover the trees' body. Even the flowers are quite delicious. Feijoa is a stunning aromatic green fruit. You can eat it with skin or cut it in half and eat the inside, so juicy. I love it any way, with or without skin. My mom used to make jam out of it, even the jam is awesome. I am amazed how come such gorgeous delicious fruit is not as famous as it deserves.It seems the fruit originated from Brazil.

During years I got used to my friends' puzzled faces, when I ask them if they taste Feijoa!

"What ? Fuji? Fiji? is that a fruit? " back in school , in university here in Canada, no one heard the name of this fruit. I bet "star fruit" is more famous even so it dose not have even half of Feijoa's taste and smell.

In Canada I found Feijoa in Sobeye's gracory store. you should have been there to see my face.

"Feijoa, yes yes finally!!!"

I remember the look on cashier's face. A young boy looked at the Feijoas and said: what are these???!!!!!"

I guess it's Autumn and my desire for Feijoa showing up again, I need to find some :))))

The gorgeous pictures are from here and here.

Send your message to the Space

This is really cool. You can send your message to the space through this Kepler spacecraft. I attache our certificate ;)))
Here is the Link: http://namesinspace.seti.org/

BOOST YOUR BRAIN

I am receiving regular newsletter from the website called: Bottom Line's Daily Health News. Today I noticed very interesting piece of news about the brain.

It’s about 8 efficient ways to boost up your brain suggested by Cynthia R. Green. She mainly encourages people to use and challenge their brain in order to prevent disease such as Alzheimer and also to make the brain sharper and faster.

We can improve our brain by simple activities such as playing puzzle, listening/reading daily news. The sharper we want our brain to be the more challenging things we should do.
In part of the newsletter it advice to “DO DIFFICULT THINGS” such as learning new things: music, language, etc.
There are some top universities who offer free online courses:
Berkeley University of California: http://webcast.berkeley.edu/courses.php
Carnegie Mellon University : http://www.cmu.edu/oli/
Massachusetts Institute of Technology: http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/home/home/index.htm
Tufts University: http://ocw.tufts.edu/

More useful advice:
• Do crossword puzzles, Sudoku and jigsaws. For online puzzles go to www.cbsnews.com and click on "Puzzles & Toons." Go to www.jigzone.com for jigsaw and other puzzles.

• Memorize a new word and definition each day at www.wordsmith.org.

• Do math calculations. Visit www.sharpbrains.com for free math brain teasers. Or go to www.gamequarium.com/math.htm.

• Play strategic games such as Battleship and Scrabble (http://www.puzzlexpress.com/Java/Battle/Battle.htm and www.download-free-games.com).

• Try new recipes at easy healthy recipes or epicurious.com.

Bottom Line “Use it or Lose it” :)

Play Halloweenooooo :)

Zombie Burger

Slow Me Down

I saw Emmy Rossum, in The Phantom of the Opera first. She was just 16 years old and sang like an angle. I heard she is more intended toward pop music although she is great in opera.
A friend of mine sent me this link. The video is one of her pop songs called “Slow Me Down”. I do like the song, and her angle voice.
Read the lyrics from here

The Most Artistic Suitor

I read a book, named "Extreme Nature, The weirdest animals and plants on the planet". For those who have passions for animals, this book is quite interesting. It's about the strangest and out of ordinary behavior of animals and plants in the nature, we ever known. You can read about African termites which are the best architect in the wild, or golden dart frog which is the most poisonous animal than can kill a human by even touching its skin.

One of the most fascinating piece of information, in this book is about a bird called, brown gardener or Voglekop bowerbird.
The male brown gardener creates unique piece of art to attract females. The male uses available materials around him to make colorful bower. In fact the more impressive the size and colorfulness of his bower, the more females will allow him to mate with them.

The picture above shows an example of this bird's artistic taste. The male even use cans and plastic bag to make his piece of art more sophisticated. Isn't that pretty?

I like to know how a female Volgelkop evaluate a male works!

If a male gather more and more cololr will he be the winner? or how he decorates the objects and match this color with that, is important? I like to know how much that female bird is picky? :)

When Old Charm Let You Go

The most precious feeling that one can have is to feel you are creating somethings new, just like God.

I remember my conversation with a friend of mine. We were sat just next to each other waiting for the Engineering Math final term exam to be started. I had a feeling that she can understand what I am saying, and I was right. I don't know why at that moment we had this conversation.
I told her I want to be somebody, and by somebody I don't mean be famous at all. I want to live my life just like everyone else but with awareness. I don't want live my life blindly and just do the same things like others without knowing why. Go to school because everyone else does, got married because everyone else does, have kids because, Believe in this or that...

I want to know my options and know why I am choosing this or that. at the end maybe my life seems just like others but at least I know what I am doing, I don't just follow the society blindly. There is nothing wrong with following the society trend but I don't want my whole life in a package imposed on me.

It's like large companies get stronger and swallow small, individual shops; for example, Star bucks , Tim Horton ,etc get stronger and tiny cozy coffee houses disappear gradually. you come to yourself and everyone buy coffee from a single large company; But I love to see tiny cozy shops around that each has their own character and taste.

This is exactly what I don't want happen to us living in society growing larger and larger. I don't want a society swallow my individuality. Makes us more and more identical. Imagine in 2050 all people shop from the same store; go to the same place for vacation, have the same hobbies.

I always think there is something, called an "Old Charm" which surrounds us , keeps our foot on the ground makes us earthy. This charm makes us stop asking unanswered questions and instead helps us enjoy our everyday life : Go do some shopping; enjoy juicy gossip with a bunch of friends; be worry about your dress for tonight party, thinking about where to go for vacation, etc..

On some of us the charm works pretty well, it just never let us free even for a second. But for some of us this "old charm" gives us a break. That's a moment that you suddenly wake up from a deep sleep. All your unanswered questions come back! What I am doing here? is this what I always wanted to do? ... after asking all those unanswered questions again and again with no clue, your mind gets tired and that's when "Old Charm" come back and leashed you.

To be honest this charm has not worked very well on me lately, it keeps giving me a break and bunch of old unanswered questions storm back to my mind. There is one thing I keep telling to myself, no matter what the answer of those questions are, there is one thing for sure,

"you have a great life; enjoy every second of it, leashed or unleashed"

A little bit of everytings :)

These past few days in Calgary were quite an experience for me. I attended a conference there. The weather was just perfect , sunny and warm. Nima and I had a chance to visit Banf and lake Louise, which was fantastic. One of the "MUST HAVE SEEN" places in Canada.

in conference, I had a chance to meet new people working on the same issue as I do.
Before I present my paper I was a bit nervous that how would that be in front of all those experts, But when I started talking, I was really calm.

Anyway, here I am again, in my room behind my desk :)

**********************************

Tomorrow is Nima's birthday. All day I was waiting for a parcel, and finally before Nima came back home, I received that. It's under the bed now ;)

Nima was saying he will be 400 months old tomorrow , isn't it interesting to count your life span in month or day unit. Well I 'll be 10,000 days old this coming March. wow big number !!!

**********************************

Let's finish this post with something totally irrelevant, Today I found several small flies in a kitchen, I started killing them, I was thinking, if the flies were able to scream or if we were able to hear them , was that easy for me to still kill them without hesitation?

The world is just awesome

I love the mountains
I love the clear blue sky
I love the Bridges
I love when great whites fly

I love the whole world
And all its sights and sounds
Boom Dee Ahh Dah
Boom Dee Ahh Dah
Boom Dee Ahh Dah
Boom Dee Ahh Dah

I love the oceans
I love real dirty things
I love to go fast
I love egyptian kings

I love the whole world
And all its craziness
Boom Dee Ahh Dah
Boom Dee Ahh Dah
Boom Dee Ahh Dah
Boom Dee Ahh Dah

I love tornadoes
I love arachnids
I love hot magma
I love the giant squids

I love the whole world
It’s such a brilliant place
Boom Dee Ahh Dah
Boom Dee Ahh Dah
Boom Dee Ahh Dah
Boom Dee Ahh Dah

The lyrics from : Music Videos and Lyrics

Report From St. John's

I finished my meeting. Everything was fine up to now. There is one more meeting tomorrow and after that I am free.
It's really refreshing to come here in St. John's and visit my very good friends. I was lucky to find such nice friends here in St. john's. Most of the time when you come to new place and became a minority because you do not have that much choice you kind of stuck with people who are way different than you but circumstances make you hang out with them. But for me, honestly, that was not a case. I am not saying everyone was perfect but I made some friends that I love to have them in my book of life for good.

Anyway I'll be back soon to end my husband's bachelor days ;) I forgot to check if Nima water the plants regularly!!

St. John's, I am coming again

I am heading to St. John's tomorrow. My eyes are puffy. I was working all day long to wrap up my presentation for committee meeting. I can't hold my eyes open anymore... I hope everything goes well..
Nima is going to be alone for few days, we were joking that he can throw party every night :)
Anyway, I should really get to bed... no dream tonight , please Mrs brain let me have dreamless sleep...switch off for a while...

This is just Lovely

They don't bored me at all.James Blunt.

Emotional Memory

I am 7 or 8. My sister and I are sitting on the tin roof of dog's house. The sun is setting. The sky is full of yellow, red and orange colors. we are singing a song while moving our feet in the air.
" wake up, wake up little kid
look through the window
with your beautiful eyes
watch the outside views
look far!
a pigeon flying
maybe he is bringing a message from the rose to the nightingale "

I am enjoying the harmony we two have, singing and moving our feet...

when we really enjoys somethings, it does not matter how tiny it is, our memory will keep that for ever. I don't remember everyday of my life but there are special days I will never forget and all of those days have somethings in common. those days are all involved with feelings, joy, hate, fear, excitement, embarrassment, cheers.

I do remember the day that I accidentally broke my brothers head. I must have been 7, but I remember every things, how I found a flat stone, my brother's head came out of the river. we were bunch of kids exited to shoot him. I through the stone and there was his blood flew along the river. I panicked. I don't remember how my parents bring him to the hospital, if he told me off or not. but I remember how panicked I was. How I tried to explain to my parents it was just an accident...

I remember the sky's color, the harmony my sister and I had, the movement of our feet in the air, I remember the flat stone, etc but I barely remember what I had for lunch last Wednesday :)

The story of a big Fly

It was a dark night and I was walking in the sitting room that I saw it. There was a big fly, got stuck in the space between the sliding glass door and the net behind it. It was sit on the net and was looking outside, just like a prisoner watching the world through the small window.
I though it might be a long and painful die for the poor things, waiting in its prison, thirsty and hungry (very dramatic) to the end. Thus I cautiously open the sliding door and then slide the net back.
- Ok Go now Mr fly, you are free
The fly took off the net, flew around my head and then sit back on the glass door this time. It was sit there, watching through the glass door inside the house, seemed it really wanted to get in.

- Hey! look back! you are free to go, it's the all world out there just behind you

Being too busy watching inside, made the fly totally blind to see its freedom. That's it , it was time to take an action. With a quick move of my hand I made the fly to take off the door. It flew up and faded in the dark (At least I thought it faded).

Well the lesson here is:
Sometimes you need, somebody shake you to see what you have just under your nose !

Be "flawless" in Beijing

TV programs are all focus on Olympic these days. The funny part is neither Canada nor Iran, two countries that we support, has won any medals yet.

I didn’t know that most of the Olympic athletes are armature. I was reading about some of these athletes, each of them is quite a character for themselves; for example, Michael Phelps who won 11 Olympic gold medals and became one of the greatest Olympian. He is 23 years old (5 years younger than me, I don’t know what is the relation any way). I was watching an interview with him, he eats as much as a family of four (7000-8000 calories per day). He said he can not do anything except swimming during a day; basically he only eats, swims, and then slip (so focused). It must be wonderful to embrace such achievements after working so hard for something.

I want that feeling…

Chinese are rocking, they strongly dominate different areas, diving, gymnastic,… one things that I notice is you heard the word “motherland” from their champion in their interview a lot. “I am so happy to win this for my motherland”.

I read in the globe that Chinese government has obsession with showing everything including people “flawless” . In the opening ceremony, viewer heard the voice of 7-year old girl but because she was chubby and had uneven tooth, another little girl came to the stage and did lip-synching!!! What kind of decision is that? Who cares how she looks like; she is 7 years old and sings like an angle. Why should they replace her with prettier girl? It seems one person does not matter but the whole image is important. I totally disagree! One person means a lot, how she/he feels is obviously very important.

It was written in the globe that some of the Chinese are not allowed to come to the stadium because they are apparently are not handsome enough.. This is stupid.

I hope as China getting stronger, Chinese citizens find more comfort and happiness and also the rest of the world.

I hate to think new ultra powerful country are coming to picture to cause more troubles and wars than now...

To care or not to...

One things that really irritates me is to see people line up for airplane boarding before boarding starts. Passengers are supposed to be boarded based on their seat number but no one really care. I do care and that's why Nima and I are most of the time last people who get on the airplane. This is what exactly happened to us again on the way back to Toronto. After two hours delay the boarding started. People were already lined up. After boarding the executive class, disables, etc, they asked passengers with seat number 19 or higher. Our seat row was 12 so we did not stand in a line. Nima told me to join the line he said "be sure no one really care". Anyway we waited until they call for the rest of us. when we got in, almost everyone were sit and there was no space for our "carry on" on top shelve (since people from other row put their hand bags in our shelve) thus we kept our "carry on" under our feet. I really felt bad, since it was my fault to keep Nima behind. I don't know why I am keep doing this; why I can not convinced myself not to care about these things. Sometime I feel because of this behavior of mine, we fall behind. I don't know!!

We are Glad that you are here :)

We are in Chicago, the city of Al Capone, for few days. Nima is attending a conference here. The hotel we are staying at is very close to Michigan Avenue, which is one of city’s attractions. Part of the Michigan Avenue, called Magnificent Mile, is a location of several famous American stores such as : Bloomingdale's, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom , luxury boutiques like Bulgari, Ralph Lauren, Gucci, etc. There are also several fine restaurants, hotels, and a number of the tallest buildings in the world here in Magnificent Mile.
I went to Neiman Marcus just for curiosity there was a white shoes with no specific design with a value of $500!!!!!!
It totally does not worth it (just don’t tell me it is special leather). I think some times these brands make money just because people wants to carry their name on their shoes, or dress which might make them feel they are distinguished. I don’t know!

Anyway, Chicago in comparison with her sister, Toronto ( in my opinion ) has a much better traffic management in downtown. The streets are mostly wider and I feel people are nice for such a big city. As cities get bigger people became less nicer, people are more in hurry and does not have time to look around or give a kind smile to total strangers.
Nima and I visited the John Hancock Center which is one the tallest skyscraper in U.S. we went up to the 95th floor, which was the building observatory site. From there all the city is beneath your feet. I stood by the tall window and imagine I am ready for bungee jumping, honestly even thinking about jumping from that height make me shiver a bit. :)
We are coming back tomorrow, I hope my plants are alright. :)

Dearest Planet

One of the most beautiful documentaries about the wild life and earth that I have ever seen is the series of documentaries made by BBC. It called Planet Earth and Blue Planet.

The seines are amazing; from North Pole to South Pole they recorded unique and fantastic seines; from intact places that only few humans have ever been there, from the animals that rarely have been seen in the wild. What really astonished me is how these people filmed these. For each section of the documentary there is a diary part which explains how the crew spent months or a year at different places to capture unique shots. For example it shows how two camera men spent one year at South Pole to record unbelievable endurance of male penguins during the bitter and cruel winter of the pole; to record how the mother polar bear raise her two babies , how a young and starving male polar bear fight for his life.

If you love nature these DVDs are MUST SEEN for you.