Find the Drug Dealer!

Courtesy: M. Adams, D. Berger

Gold mine for the pharmaceutical industry! The New York Times reports that according to new data from the Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "nearly one in five high school age boys in the United States and 11 percent of school-age children over all have received a medical diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder" (A.D.H.D.) Here is another interesting data that is reported by Nature World News, which may raise some eyebrows:

Some Thoughts on Coaching Youth Soccer ...

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As I have written before, soccer is one of my passions.  I have played the game for many years now, and hope to be able to continue doing so for many years to come. 

Recently, I partook in a USSF National D License class, held up in Aptos High School, Aptos, CA.  Here is to put my passions in soccer and calligraphy together and to pay a tribute to all the the participants in the class:

Some Thoughts on Education

Several months ago, I attended a meeting sponsored by the IEEE, entitled "Forum on Motivating Our Students to Become Engineers: How to Make It Happen."

Source

I was there only during the morning session, and also missed some of the earlier talks.  From some of the presentations, I got the feeling that there was too much focus and emphasis on racing to the top, and over-reliance on standardized academic curriculum, standardized testing results and academic "rigor", especially in the presentation and the accompanying commentary by Ms. Linda Murray, former San Jose Unified Superintendent.  This was quite disappointing, in my opinion. 

Inspired by Maryam Toosi

Here are some designs inspired by, and celebrating the achievements of Maryam Toosi, the speedy female athlete, and holder of the Iranian national records for 100m, 200m, and 400m speed running for women. Click on each the image to zoom in. 

Hoping to see more Iranian female athletes persevere in the face of many challenges they would have to overcome, and realize that the only limits to our true potential and abilities are very likely those we impose on ourselves.

Additional design sketches can be found below. Some of these might have an element of puzzle in them, and a couple of them are meant to provide a clue about others.  In order to decipher what they say and gain a better perspective, you need to be able to read -- and in some cases understand -- Persian, English, and in a couple of cases, both languages.  Hope you find these interesting, and feel free to comment or provide your feedback. 

The Fascinating World We Live In

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I would like to express some of my fascination with the wonderful and amazingly mysterious world we live in.  On the one hand I can see and recognize all the mind-blowing complexities that underlie much of the seemingly simple everyday experiences and things that we take for granted and consider well understood. Yet, if we really try to delve deep, we face so many unexplored territories. On the other hand, there are all these simple explanations for some of the most tantalizing problems that our species has been struggling with for Millennia; yet, our collective culture, and our education system have been feeding us with untruthful, overly complicated, self-congratulatory justifications for all the turmoil.  So, let's look at two examples to illustrate the point.  Each of these can be formulated as a very simple question.

A Very Nice Soccer Game

I just finished watching a very exciting soccer game between Borussia Dortmund and Stuttgart from German Bundesliga, taken place a couple of days ago.  It is full of surprises if you like watching the game while it lasts on ESPN3.

Rest in Peace, Caballo Blanco

See the Book

A couple of years ago, I read Christopher McDougal's fascinating book entitled "Born to Run" and recommended it to some friends and colleagues.  One of those colleagues informed me today in a short email that one of the main characters of the book, Micah True, otherwise known as Caballo Blanco, was found dead in the New Mexico Wilderness.