My spirituality/religion has more or less arrived at a vague agnosticism, but it is things like this beautifully edited video with Neil DeGrasse Tyson talking about the most astounding fact about the universe that remind me that the sheer astonishing fact that the universe exists and that we exist in it is enough. For me, faith pales compared to ( Read more... )

The wind is blowing through the trees and it sounds like an ocean. It tugs and blows unexpectedly, at turns angry and teasing. This kind of wind always makes me feel restless ( Read more... )

So I just went to a "bull session" for my astro class: essentially three hours of my professor talking about mindblowing shit while the poor brave souls who hazarded coming ask baffled questions. It was awesome. I learned, for example, that there is an infinitely large infinite number of infinitely large infinities. You may think that there are ( Read more... )

I didn't learn to love English in school: I simply learned English. Scarcely a year into the language, and not a trace of German left in my young brain, I went into public school with a decent knowledge of the language, learned seemingly by osmosis. The young brain is easy to mold, and mine seemed especially so. I had no trouble speaking or reading ( Read more... )

I'm reading Eva Hoffman's Lost in Translation for my Language and Identity seminar, which is proving to be a fascinating and illuminating class. Everyone in the class has a diverse linguistic history: parents who speak different languages, students who are immigrants themselves, students who have lost a linguistic heritage, those who are caught ( Read more... )

I am back from my journey among the stars! (Or, more accurately, my three minute journey to the top of Campbell Hall ( Read more... )

I have now had a full two days of college classes. It has been exciting. Well, not really, actually, as it has mostly been blah blah blah syllabi-cakes. So, a rundown:

Persian 11A: Wow, I am the only Afghan in this class. Watch as my accent singles me out horrifically. But dude, I'm kind of militant about not wanting my accent to change ( Read more... )

OhmyfuckingGod.

Decoded at last: the 'classical holy grail' that may rewrite the history of the world - Scientists begin to unlock the secrets of papyrus scraps bearing long-lost words by the literary giants of Greece and Rome This is...beyond amazing. This is ancient, lost Greek masterpieces, this is more writing from the Greek greats, this ( Read more... )

Another week, full of people and school and things ( Read more... )

I heard ( Read more... )