Leap Years

So every four years we add one day to the month of February making it 29 instead of 28 days... The reason: The actual year is one quarter of a day longer than our time-recorded year..

The question here is, since our current arrangement (adding one day every 4 years) seems a bit un-elegant and messy, wouldn't it have been much better if we had extended the second by the equivalent of a quarter of a day spread out...

To explain: Let's say that our current measure of a second is x  ( x is the length of one second ) ; if we used instead another value x' ; such that our time-recorded year would be equal to actual year ; then we wouldn't need to add one day every 4 years .... x' would be calculated as:

x' * 60 * 24 * 365 ( number of new seconds in an actual year assumed 365 days) = x * 60 * 24 * 365 (number of old seconds in a 365-day year) + x * 60 * 24 * 1 / 4 (extra seconds we are adding with the 1-day per 4 years) ... calculating for x' :

x' = x * ( 60*24 * 365.25  ) / ( 60 *24 * 365 ) and x' = x * (365.25/365) ..... If we changed our measure of seconds to this new value, we wouldn't need leap years


* The problem remaining is to find an objective measure of a second that allows for its calculation as a rational number ( I guess that would facilitate things ) ... so if a second is defined as: since 1967 the second has been defined as the duration of 9,192,631,770periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the caesium 133 atom ; Then the new second would be similarly defined by the equivalent of 9198928093.1301369863013698630137 such periods ... of course another element whose period can be expressed as a multiple of 365 would help here

The Big Questions in life

Asking "Why" has many levels, the most shallow of which is when the 'Why' is interpreted as a 'How' as in "Why were you late? -Because I missed the Bus", and the deepest of which touches the real intent ( - Because I didn't really want to see you ) ..

The big WHY questions (WHY life? WHY the universe?) as a matter of elementary philosophical distinction can't be answered by scientists looking at the 'How'..

"The Scientists who don't grasp this distinction, however brilliant they are as scientists, are philosophical morons"

"Today we are encouraged to put aside the big questions of life and death. Why are we here? What is the meaning of life? such questions are strictly meaningless, we are told. Just get on with it. And so we lose some of the sense of how strange it is to be alive."

On the Leadership-Management in Politics discussion

In Politics, a decade is an eternity

- M. Porter in his article " The Competitive Advantage of Nations "

Can - and Should - Leadership and Management of Nations combined into one functions ? should our politicians be our 'leaders' ??? Aren't they inherently opposed to each other, and how to expect a regular politician who gains a strictly time-limited position by spending all his time doing the 'small stuff' and managing appearances or by rising through another irrelevant ladder to be able to provide sustainable vision and thought leadership ... ? Assuming that vision and thought leadership are important components of building a better future.

Voting in the United Nations

As much as the voting system in the security sounds unfair (with the - relatively - arbitrary VETO rights), the voting in the general assembly (as inconsequential and spectacle-only as it is) seems funnier to me ... the One-Man One-Vote when applied to countries becomes utterly ridiculous: How can a country with 1Billion+ people have the same voting power as a country of 100Thousand- people ?? Why should this country of 100K people have the same saying about the planet's future ?

The one-man-one-vote when applied to countries becomes the some-people-are-more-equal-than-others vote!

By the way, How on earth are these countries made in the first place !! some are based on ethnicity, but many don't have their own countries .. some are based on historic coincidence, and some are based on funny deals !!!

State Capitalism - Really ?

I was reading a complete file in the Economist last month that talks about 'State Capitalism'; and discusses in detail the advantages and flaws of the model; of course considering China / Russia / Brazil (in that order) as heroes of the model.

Of course China is engaged in State Capitalism; and many of its leading firms are owned by the state and that is clear in their ownership.. Similar for other countries in this 'axis of state-capitalism' .... Now the really interesting question - if we ponder the claims a bit - is: is liberal capitalism really liberal capitalism. Let's look at some of the evidence:
 - South Korea: the country's leading non-state firms (Samsung, LG, Hyundai, etc....) receive unlimited support from the state financially (even direct contribution to marketing spending) as well as in positioning in key negotiations with other countries... No one can argue that without the state's role in selecting and promoting these firms they would have survived and grown to their current size.
 - The United States: The large defense budgets, the support to Boeing, the contracts that get awarded hazily, as well as many many deals between firms and other countries that are brokered by the state
 - Why does the french president british/ turkish prime minister for example travel with an army of business men and heads of economic sectors and 'close deals' as they are on diplomatic trips ..
 - What about the huge amounts of money that can (and have been) be thrown at companies considered 'too big to fail' .... Isn't the state already effectively a stakeholder here? 

In the end ... the state in most/all these 'liberal-capitalism' countries is the first supporter of its business elite, and this begins to clarify things: The State is the support for the country's business elite and key companies in all cases of US / UK / France / China / Russia / etc ... ( granted with varying degrees) .. The only difference between them, is that - Ironically - in the Chinese case, it is more transparent as we know who the owner is of these companies (the state) and we know that he is acting in his own self interest ... with the other countries, everything becomes under the table !

Maya - By Jostein Gaarder

A brilliant book but the solitaire mystery remains his best... The joker is here, seeing meaning and wonder in life, and not surrendering to the mundane.. Looking with the amazement at the wonder that is our life... It takes 15 billion years to create a life, and a second to end it.

A nice idea is viewing humanity as the universe's attempt to become aware of itself and understand itself. The universe created man and man's awareness to know itself better, otherwise its a large waste. In this sense we are the mechanism for the gene to move further through time and to survive till a better understanding and a more opportune time in the future. We are the vehicle for awareness and for survival of the universe's protein miracle and wonderful show of evolution..

The sound of the big bang was only heard fifteen billion years later.  A mystery hidden in art and the beautiful fabric of space-time, and hope blooming in seeing meaning in the world.. The world can't be a series of mechanical events.

Maya... The illusion that there are different worlds.. Maya.. The beautiful mysterious and feminine... Maya ... The flamingo dancer hidden in goya's 'Maja' ..

The Bed of Procrustes - By Nassim Nicholas Taleb

NNT is - as I read once - a superhero of the mind .. This book is inspiring, deep, and very witty.

Aphorisms and their ability to compress deep statements of wisdom able to spur different ideas varying with the readers own thoughts and knowledge (like poetry) present a great communication tool in this book.

This is a very brilliant book with many insights on knowledge, nobility, thought, and the 'phoniness, neediness, and philistinism' of our time... Courageous, educated, and sophisticated opinions building on deep knowledge and a sharp mind ... Great combination. The book champions many of nnt's opinions about philosophy, education, and the non-sucker and 'big spirited personality'.

a one-time reading is surely not enough !

Brilliant and Inspiring

Oscar Wilde, "Wisdom means to have sufficiently big dreams so as not to lose sight of them while pursuing them,"


"A fool's brain digests philosophy into folly, science into superstition, and art into pedantry. Hence University education." George Bernard Shaw

Sounds of the past

I remember reading in a novel an imaginary scenario by a character


about the possibility of obtaining the sounds and voices of people

from the past if we had advanced enough technology.. Had to think how

possible theoretically that is. So the objective is reduced to trying

and record certain vibrations of air particles that happened

generations back. A trace of every wave caused by a vibration

supposedly vanishes only at infinity, as it is a dampened sinusoidal

wave. The issue then becomes that of obtaining the device with that

powerful sensitivity and variance and ability to trace waves of

infinitesimally low magnitudes, and to determine their current

location and orientation and frequency. The other problem also would

be about the possibility of interference between two similar waves and

sorting out the different possibilities of amplitude and

frequency-complex waves.. Breaking down layers of signals of variable

amplitude, frequency, and orientations into their original simple

components. It is very possible that from the third resonance onward

(yes that fast) a mixed signal would become equivalent to a newly

generated voice signal.... The fact that entropy increases (and

obviously exponentially here)makes this an even more impossible

task,,,

Stone (the movie)

Beautiful movie, expertly knit so that the truth starts appearing


towards the end.. Making the message very powerful and loud... When

you experience a spiritual truth, it comes through sound - you have

to let the sound go through and it will change u and put u back int he

harmony and make you like a tuning fork for god.. The small things,

like vibrations, buzzing, sound of a bee... And everything that

happens to you is what is supposed to happen for you to advance... The

hidden intention is no matter how wrong it might seem, it might be the

right thing in the bigger plan of things ( and how much do we know

about that anyway)... How many things did she ruin by not accepting

the 'message'

Thoughts on China

Socialism / capitalism




"china needs more socialism, and Europe needs more capitalism", a

colleague commented touching on an important issue which is evident to

anyone visiting china these days.. Entrepreneurship, privatization,

liberalizing and opening up the economy are the hot words, and growth

seems to be the new one god..'and - as socialists and communists -

what will you do about the widening income gap ?' is a question that

would get no straight answer from an official in the highly privatized

and rich Zhejiang province as he continues his discussions of plans to

raise the GDP per capita astronomically in the next 5 year plan... We

r in the time of the 12th one I think. The professor comments 'he gave

u the answer... He said 'we r pragmatic''..



'probably worse here', commented two friends who work in the venture

capital industry as I expressed my surprise that the china and the US

might have similar income gaps and disparity between rich and poor

(gini index)



The state, planning, and knowing what is best




Can one person or group know what is - generally - best? This is what

central and ubiquitous planning poses as a fundamental question.. What

about shared decision? What about muting the voices of more

intelligent thinkers, or more informed ones, getting lost in the arena

of power and struggles?but, doesn't a group of coordinated and

powerful leaders have more access and potential to plan and implement

'harmoniously'? All that set aside, we can go up one more level and

ask the fundamental question: is it really important that 'what is

best' gets implemented rather that 'what most people want' , 'what a

group of intelligent people want' , ' what a group of powerful people

want' , or even 'what is simply the most suitable' ?



These are just samples of questions open at this level, far too

complex to be answered simplistically through ideological shortcuts

that demonstrate as a professor called it : 'just laziness'



Working more, working less, culture and economic conditions



So, is working more (or finding it acceptable to work more, and

sometimes in more difficult conditions) a matter of culture, economic

level, social and political demands..? Can we really say that a

certain work ethic is embedded deeper within a culture of collectivism

and respect, or is it simply the 'poorer economy' as a colleague

argued ( and I enthusiastically dismissed) ?



The food and the pork



What is the deal with so much pork, pork feet, pork ears, and pork

bellies? It was everywhere. In restaurants, hotels, storefronts,... I

even thought that there were pork body organs hiding under my bed at

the hotel awaiting the right moment ...



The language



Brilliant to know about a tonal language employing four different

tonalities for every character.. of course i couldn't hear the differences at first. Many possibilities and difficulty,

but more potential for working out the 'right brain' functions ..



Religion



Not much I can discuss here, except my surprise sometimes at the

'externalization' of religion in an eastern culture. The Tao , Lao tzu

and the tai chi are fundamental elements of the philosophical and

religious guiding framework whic predictably embraces many values and

norms perceived in the society

ترصيع بالذهب على سيف دمشقي - نزار قباني

ترصيع بالذهب على سيف دمشقي

أتراها تحبني ميسـون..؟ أم توهمت والنساء ظنون

يا ابنـة العمّ... والهوى أمويٌ كيف أخفي الهوى وكيف أبين

هل مرايا دمشق تعرف وجهي من جديد أم غيّرتني السنيـنُ؟

يا زماناً في الصالحية سـمحاً أين مني الغِوى وأين الفتونُ؟

يا سريري.. ويا شراشف أمي يا عصافير.. يا شذا، يا غصون

يا زواريب حارتي.. خبئني بين جفنيك فالزمان ضنين

واعذريني إذا بدوت حزيناً إن وجه المحب وجه حزين

ها هي الشام بعد فرقة دهر أنهر سبعـة ..وحـور عين

آه يا شام.. كيف أشرح ما بي وأنا فيـكِ دائمـاً مسكونُ

يا دمشق التي تفشى شذاها تحت جلدي كأنه الزيزفونُ

قادم من مدائن الريح وحـدي فاحتضني ،كالطفل، يا قاسيونُ

أهي مجنونة بشوقي إليها... هذه الشام، أم أنا المجنون؟

إن تخلت كل المقادير عني فبعيـني حبيبتي أستعيـنُ

جاء تشرين يا حبيبة عمري أحسن الوقت للهوى تشرين

ولنا موعد على جبل الشيخ كم الثلج دافئ.. وحنـونُ

سنوات سبع من الحزن مرت مات فيها الصفصاف والزيتون

شام.. يا شام.. يا أميرة حبي كيف ينسى غرامـه المجنون؟

شمسُ غرناطةٍ أطلت علينا بعد يأس وزغردت ميسلون

جاء تشرين.. إن وجهك أحلى بكثير... ما سـره تشـرينُ ؟

إن أرض الجولان تشبه عينيك فماءٌ يجري.. ولـوز.. وتيـنُ

مزقي يا دمشق خارطة الذل وقولي للـدهر كُن فيـكون

استردت أيامها بكِ بدرٌ واستعادت شبابها حطينُ

كتب الله أن تكوني دمشقاً بكِ يبدا وينتهي التكويـنُ

هزم الروم بعد سبع عجاف وتعافى وجداننا المـطعـونُ

اسحبي الذيلَ يا قنيطرةَ المجدِ وكحِّل جفنيك يـا حرمونُ

علمينا فقه العروبـة يا شام فأنتِ البيـان والتبيـيـنُ

وطني، يا قصيدة النارِ والورد تغنـت بما صنعتَ القـرونُ

إركبي الشمس يا دمشق حصاناً ولك الله ... حـافظ و أميـنُ