Big Gamble in Rwanda - The New York Review of Books

Big Gamble in Rwanda - The New York Review of Books

Thought provoking! As usual the French with their "silence accomplice" attitude!

Steven Pinker on the Decline of Violence

Devil's Advocate

"A woman's shoulders are the front lines of her mystique, and her neck, if she's alive, has all the mystery of a border town. A no-man's land in that battle between the mind and the body. "

"Vanity, is definitley my favorite sin. Self love, it's so basic."

Me

Me do not care about certain things that Me is not certain about. Since, there are those interesting things that Me finds interesting. Like, Me sees this beautiful thing and thinks it's beautiful. Me is all subjective, me is all biased! I am all curious about Me and Me is with me till I figure Me out.

I am sitting in a corner and reading a book in Probability, Random Variables and Stochastic Processes. I'm coming across the phrase ''… the evolutionary behavior of these Markov processes.'' There is a new surge of blood and nutrients into my frontal cortex (you may want to call it a mini-orgasm). I'm wondering what just happened! After a little bit of pondering and reflection, I remember the role that this Markovian processes play in very fundamental natural processes, such as, gene regulatory networks, reinforcement learning, and general evolution of populations. Now I know! It is the very promise of deciphering the mystery behind intricate processes that define our lives that resulted in that rapturous moment. But, why am I so troubled and baffled by these simple facts of life (one may put it that way). I believe some people are more sensitive when it comes to the cruelty of life and sufferings of those gentle souls who matter. I believe that our ignorance of nature is at the very root of many evils: "uncultivated minds- what a great haven for random acts of evil." So, here go my days of life!

Sail away!

I will build a boat
I will launch my boat into the river
And will sail away from this strange land
In which, there is nobody to awaken the hero in man

Why do people think to present themselves in complete compliance with some moral code will benefit them more, while risking hypocrisy which is the easiest way to destroy ones image in the eye of the masses? How do people come to be masters of �doublethink�? Not only they say they are what they are not, but also they believe they are what they are not! I seem to me that human mind must find contradictory thoughts uncomfortable. But, there are those who are born being naturally disposed to deception. Maybe life events shakes the foundation of their psyches; a sort of defense mechanism to guard them against some unbearable truth.
Uncultivated minds, what a great haven for random acts of evil!
 

I finally finished George Orwell's 1984. It has induced a sense of strong hatred in me that I have scarcely experienced as an adult. It reminded me of my own childhood memories as a member of a minority group in Iran during 1980s; the resemblance to the methods used by the dominant party (still in place) is astonishing. The conclusion of the book is grim.
''Whoever holds the past holds the future. Whoever holds the present holds the past.''
The only way to reality is through the mind of man. One who controls the mind of man controls his reality. Can that be true?
It seems to me that certain modes of thinking- due to their natural affinity to the true reality of man and their descriptive power as of his relationship to the physical world- are bound to dominate. Thus, in the presence of sufficient thought dynamics the truth will prevail or the untruth will be defeated �. Alas, Generations are to be sacrificed!
 

In doubt (firstcomet)

I need to take a shower
Then eat some food for the power
I look left, then, I look right
I think of the blue and the bright
The world comes in to my view
ongoing work and next week's interview
waiting for the devil to respond
His replies are often very profound
His reasons are even more recondite
He doesn't rely on any second thought
So, here I go again in doubt
Didn't I many such wars fight?

Our whole reward is seeing (firstcomet):

Once again: "our whole reward is seeing," Saint Augustine.
And seeing you have always been accompanied by
the rhythmic melody of my heart's beating.
And your face, so innocent and bright, reminds me
of the early birds of the nautical dawn;
Inspiring me to take upon my self another
day of unbearable anticipation.
An your smile, so refreshing and exhilarating,
resembles the vastness of the Garden of Eden;
Makes me yearn to return to my most primordial forms.
I have once again lost my self in your pulchritude
and fearful that I might never be
cognizant of your true essence and inner beauty. Alas!
I have commissioned the morning breeze
to take notes of your most intimate dreams.
To know you better, I will commit them to my heart
and will recite them with every beating of my heart.

My body capitulated to its growing lassitude and I fainted during the last 30 minutes of the GRE exam. And 'content' remains to be a nostalgic existential state.

In about 12 hours I'll be taking the GRE exam. My average (based on sample tests) is around 780 MATH and 600 VERBAL. But, when it comes to a single trial then average doesn't mean much! So, I've decided that I'm content regardless of my grade. Remember that content is a nostalgic existentialist state, and one can get to this state either through dullness or existential weariness. I think I'm tired! Good night. 

Day after days, months after months, the same perfunctory attempts, the same banal remarks, the same trite expressions, and then comes a person who pushes it all one step further, and then months after months, years after years, the same perfunctory attempts, the same banal remarks, the same trite expressions, and then suddenly comes another person who pushes it all another step forward ... INPROGRESS
 

TMS 

Neuroeconomics
 

 

demo 

Basically .... 

The Fanatic Cook! 

I have been observing this curious quirk that has been creeping into the minds of the computer savvy generation encountered with a new project! I am talking about making folders and hopping from website to website and downloading documents with seemingly related contents into this magical repository. We name it 'nsf_fellowship_application' and for the next 4 month or so we stair at it. As of the faith of this folder, it is to be determined by the next crash of the Windows operating system. In some sense computers have facilitated procrastination and loitering. So, cheers and happy folderfication!