Each time a man stands up for an ideal,
“Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the
lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple
of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of
energy…those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls
of oppression and resistance.”
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately,
“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to
front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it
had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”
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—
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Henry David Thoreau, Walden
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Achilles Heel
In the drawing above the Sea
Goddess Thetis submerges her son Achilles in water from the Styx, to make him
invulnerable. Unfortunately the water doesn’t touch the heel, where she holds
him and his heel becomes his most vulnerable part.
When Achilles was a baby, it was
foretold that he would die young. To prevent that his mother Thetis took
Achilles to the River Styx, which was supposed to offer powers of
invulnerability, and dipped his body into the water.
Achilles grew up to be a man of
war who survived many great battles. One day, a poisonous arrow shot at him was
lodged in his heel, killing him shortly afterwards.
Writing is a form of therapy
“Writing is a form of
therapy; sometimes I wonder how all those who do not write, compose, or paint
can manage to escape the madness, melancholia, the panic and fear which is
inherent in a human situation.” Graham
Greene, Ways Of Escape
Writing is a very honest job,
Writing is a very
honest job, it demands you to look within, search, it demands your painful
honesty no wonder some of the greatest masterpieces have stemmed from pain.
Only those who dare
“Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.” Robert F. Kennedy
Every now and then
“Every now and then I like to do as I’m told, just to confuse people”
Tamora Pierce
Tamora Pierce
I love this sort of stuff
What's
Really Happening When Your Brain Detects a Ghoul?
by PHILIP PERRY
Once,
in middle school, a gang of boys and I were lured to a spot behind the Dunkin'
Donuts in our town. We went after dark, to a place where a kid from school
witnessed a paranormal experience. Once there, we saw nothing. We chided our
classmate until suddenly, a column of white light appeared out of nowhere. We
scattered.
It
sustained itself for a few minutes. Then suddenly, it cut off. A few moments
later, just as mysteriously, it went on again. We stayed there quietly studying
it, scared out of our minds. Until someone in our group finally pointed out a
streetlight overhead. The bulb was getting old. That was the last time I
believed in ghosts.
Do
you? If so, you’re in good company. 45% of Americans do. In one poll, 28% of
them admitted they’d had contact with one, personally. Senior research fellow
at the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry Joe Nickell is the world’s sole,
full-time, scientific paranormal investigator. After five decades of research,
he hasn’t turned up a shred of evidence that points to the existence of ghosts.
Magicians Harry Houdini and James Randi arrived at a similar place.
It’s
not for lack of trying. In a video for Vox, Nickell says he’s employed blood
pattern analysis, linguistic analysis, aspects of psychology, and more. It
isn’t just him. Not one haunting or ghost sighting has ever rendered any
evidence.
One
of the problems is, it’s hard to grab raw data. All we usually have is a
personal account. And these vary widely. One person will interact with an
actual human figure, while another will observe mere objects flying across the
room. There are a few grainy, blurs in some photos. But it’s hard to
extrapolate from that.
Though
electromagnetic field (EMF) meters have been made popular by movies like
Ghostbusters and TV shows such as Paranormal Lockdown and Ghost Hunters,
there’s no scientific proof of any link between supernatural phenomenon and the
magnetic field. Despite a general lack of evidence, such experiences feel
poignant and real.
In
a recent TED talk, Carrie Poppy explains her brush with the paranormal, how it
made her feel, and later on, what she came to realize about it. She’s the
co-host of the popular podcast Oh No Ross and Carrie, which explores and
demystifies spiritual, religious, and paranormal topics, among others, through
a scientific lens.
At
the time her ghost sighting occurred, she was alone in her house. Suddenly, she
felt a presence. Poppy felt like she was being watched. The feeling grew and
grew and as it did, a pressure began to build inside her chest. The feeling
increased slowly over the course of a week and rose to a fever pitch. She
started to hear whispering sounds and became convinced that her house was
haunted. Poppy tried to do a cleansing by burning a sage stick and other
things. But no matter what she tried, the pressure on her chest got worse. It
was also growing painful.
Finally,
she took to the internet and arrived on a ghost forum for skeptics. She told
them what she was experiencing and one of them said she had the symptoms for
carbon monoxide poisoning. These include pressure on the chest and auditory
hallucinations. The utility worker who rectified the problem, told her that if
she hadn’t of gotten it fixed when she did, she wouldn’t have been alive the
next morning.
The
process by which one experiences something that isn’t there is called
misperceived self-representation. So what else might induce this, besides
carbon monoxide poisoning, brain damage, or an episode related to mental
illness? Well, several things actually. There is a condition called sleep
paralysis for one, also known as waking dreams.
This
affects around 8% of the population. It usually occurs in the twilight hours of
the morning, when one is between a waking and dreaming state. You can’t move
your body and sometimes experience visual hallucinations. Grief also tends to
increase the chances of a ghostly encounter. Psychologists say it might be a
way for the mind to process and deal with loss. Usually, the person they see is
a comforting figure who appears serene.
Another
ghost-inducing phenomenon is called infrasound. This is a vibration that occurs
below our normal range of hearing. That’s below 20 hertz (Hz). Certain
machinery (like engines), whales, and extreme weather can all cause infrasound.
Some
studies suggest that it can result in symptoms including feelings of
depression, the chills, and the sneaking suspicion that someone is watching
you. According to Hayden Planetarium director and astrophysicist Neil deGrasse
Tyson, infrasound at 18 Hz vibrates at such a rate that the eye can pick it up,
which might cause visual hallucinations.
So
if you or someone you know claims to have seen a ghost, believe them. But also,
look for what evidence or phenomenon might be behind the sighting. You could
end up finding a faulty lightbulb was the culprit all along.
traffic laws
The only traffic laws we are familiar here in India are 'wear your seat belt', 'stop when the traffic signal is red', and the very vigilant of us lot actually move out of the way of an emergency vehicle. Different countries, different people, different attitudes and hence different traffic laws too. There are laws around the world that will leave you scratching your head - 'Why!' Turns out San Francisco has a law weirdest of them all, followed by Alabama. Find out what they are and you will wonder too that what in the name of God almighty must have happened that forced the authorities to create such drastic laws.
It is illegal to drive blindfolded in Alabama
Will Alabama folks be jealous if we told them we have no such law in our country? Well, because illegal or not, no one in their right mind does that. Of course, unless they are high on very questionable substance - which is illegal, to begin with. Someone in Alabama probably tried driving with his sight obscured, and hence the authorities had to come up with such a law.
You must check for children hiding under the car before setting off in Denmark
This law perhaps crops from a mishap that included a child hiding under the car. The Danes are required to check under their cars before driving off. This law protects anyone working under a manhole cover under the car or perhaps children playing 'hide n seek'.
You can not drive topless in Thailand
Talk about hampering democracy or civil rights! But this law is in line with the maintenance of public decency. The country does house one of the most celebrated party towns in the world – Bangkok, where a law like this does make sense.
Keep your car clean or pay a hefty fine in Russia
Keeping one's car clean is entirely their prerogative in most parts of the world, however, in Russia, the government wants you to keep your car clean or else you'll have to pay a fine. And apparently, it is up to the police officer if s/he deems your car dirty.
Illegal to drive a black car on Sundays in Denver, Colorado
One can not drive a black car in the capital city of Colorado, Denver, on Sundays. It is a legal requirement according to a very old law, which is perhaps not enforced any longer.
Big fine for running out of fuel on an Autobahn in Germany
Germans' love for speed is pretty evident in their cars and even their highways. While most countries have restricted the speeds which a driver can achieve on a highway, German Autobahns don't have any such speed limits. They like driving fast there and are actually one of the most satisfied drivers in the world. A car, which has run out of fuel, parked by the side of the road is not appreciated in Deutschland and you could end up paying hefty fines or even a driving ban in more serious cases.
Illegal to dry or buff your car using used underwear
It's almost like you wouldn't really want to know what happened that this law had to be enforced. And it isn't as simple as it sounds. The law is only applicable to commercial vehicles. Feel free to use as many pairs of tighty-whities to clean your personal car.
Good words to have
Yawp
1 : to make a raucous noise : squawk 2: clamor, complain
Yawp first appeared sometime in the 15th century. This
verb comes from Middle English yolpen, most likely itself derived from the past
participle of yelpen, meaning "to boast, call out, or yelp."
Interestingly, yawp retains much of the meaning of yelpen, in that it implies a
type of complaining which often has a yelping or squawking quality. An element
of foolishness, in addition to the noisiness, is often implied as well. Yawp can
also be a noun meaning "a raucous noise" or "squawk." The
noun yawp arrived on the scene more than 400 years after the verb. It was
greatly popularized by "Song of Myself," a poem by Walt Whitman
containing the line "I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the
world."
Repudiate | rih-PYOO-dee-ayt 1 : to divorce or
separate formally from (a woman)2 : to refuse to have anything to do with :
disown 3a : to refuse to accept;
especially : to reject as unauthorized or as having no binding force b : to
reject as untrue or unjust 4 :to refuse to acknowledge or pay.
In Latin, the noun repudium refers to the rejection of a
spouse or prospective spouse, and the related verb repudiare means "to
divorce" or "to reject." In the 16th century, English speakers
borrowed repudiare to create the English verb repudiate, which they used as a
synonym of divorce when in reference to a wife and as a synonym of disown when
in reference to a member of one's family. They also used the word more
generally in the sense of "to reject or cast off." By the 18th
century repudiate had also come to be used for the rejection of things that one
does not accept as true or just, ranging from opinions and accusations to
contracts and debts.
Steadfast has held its ground in English for
many centuries. Its Old English predecessor, stedefæst, combined stede (meaning
"place" or "stead") and fæst(meaning "firmly
fixed"). An Old English text of the late 10th century, called The Battle
of Maldon, contains our earliest record of the word, which was first used in
battle contexts to describe warriors who stood their ground. Soon, it was also
being used with the broad meaning "immovable," and as early as the
13th century it was applied to those unswerving in loyalty, faith, or
friendship. Centuries later, all of these meanings endure.
Onerous: Latin onus, meaning
"burden,"
Hap: 1. Chance; fortune. 2. An
occurrence. From Old Norse happ (good luck). Ultimately from the Indo-European
root kobe (to suit, fit, or succeed), which also gave us happen, happy,
hapless, and mishap.
Savant
sa-VAHNT 1 : a person of
learning; especially : one with detailed knowledge in some specialized field
(as of science or literature) 2 :a person affected with a mental disability
(such as autism) who exhibits exceptional skill or brilliance in some limited
field (such as mathematics or music); especially : autistic savant
Savant comes from Latin sapere ("to be wise") by
way of Middle French, where savant is the present participle of savoir, meaning
"to know." Savant shares roots with the English words sapient
("possessing great wisdom") and sage ("having or showing wisdom
through reflection and experience"). The term is sometimes used in common
parlance to refer to a person who demonstrates extraordinary knowledge in a
particular subject, or an extraordinary ability to perform a particular task
(such as complex arithmetic), but who has much more limited capacities in other
areas
Copacetic. koh-puh-SET-ik. Definition very
satisfactory. Theories about the origin of copacetic abound, but the facts
about the word’s history are scant: it appears to have arisen in
African-American slang in the southern U.S., possibly as early as the 1880s,
with earliest known evidence of it in print dating only to 1919. Beyond that,
we have only speculation. One theory is that the term is descended from Hebrew
kol be sedher (or kol b’seder or chol b’seder), meaning “everything is in
order.” That theory is problematic for a number of reasons, among them that in order
for a Hebrew expression to have been adopted into English at that time it would
have passed through Yiddish, and there is no evidence of the phrase in Yiddish
dictionaries. Other theories trace copacetic to Creole coupèstique (“able to be
coped with”), Italian cappo sotto (literally “head under,” figuratively
“okay”), or Chinook jargon copacete (“everything’s all right”), but no evidence
to substantiate any of these has been found. Another theory credits the coining
of the word to Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, who used the word
frequently and believed himself to be the coiner. Anecdotal recollections of
the word’s use, however, predate his lifetime.
How Liu Xiaobo paid 'the price of freedom'
Confidante reflects on Nobel laureate's passion to awaken
China's intellectuals
I first met Liu Xiaobo in Beijing in 1987. I was 23,
working as a translator at the Beijing Foreign Languages Press and writing
freelance articles for Hong Kong-based Asiaweek magazine. Liu, almost a decade
my senior, had just begun a PhD program in comparative literature at Beijing
Normal University.
The future Nobel Peace Prize laureate was in the process
of taking the literary worlds of Beijing, and of China, by storm. He had just
published his groundbreaking first book, "Critique of Choices: Dialogue
with Li Zehou."
Liu's simple, eloquent argument was that China's
intellectuals had for centuries compromised so much to curry political favor
with the authorities of the day that they had lost their independence. The book
included the scandalous statement, "China would benefit from 300 years of
colonization by the West." This was not welcomed by establishment
intellectuals or Beijing's communist rulers.
Liu did not mean his statement literally. Rather, he meant
that Chinese intellectuals needed to recover from the damage inflicted by
centuries of authoritarian rule, straighten their backs and reclaim their
intellectual independence and integrity. But his critics seized on the remark
as evidence of his "reactionary" nature.
Liu did not shrink from these attacks. Instead he fought
back in print, publishing the follow-up book, "Aesthetics and Human
Freedom," and then five more in quick succession.
He wasn't a typical effete, Confucian scholar. He was a
guy's guy. He drank, chain-smoked, and told bawdy political jokes. He was a
character straight out of the 1919 May Fourth New Culture Movement. But he
gored too many political oxen with his iconoclasm and earned establishment
intellectuals' strong enmity.
With fellow activist-writers Duo Duo, Bei Ling, Mang Ke
and others, he formed a literary salon that I reported on for Asiaweek. They
gathered weekly at Beijing Foreign Studies University, then retired to neighborhood
restaurants to drink lukewarm Yanjing beer, smoke and debate current political
events, the course of economic reforms, traditional philosophy and history
until the wee hours.
This was my graduate school. I had been living in Beijing
for only a few years, so there was much I didn't understand. But because I was
a foreigner, there was no such thing as a dumb question, and Liu treated me
like a little brother.
He was a real Renaissance man. He read voraciously, from
the Chinese classics to Schopenhauer, and would quote texts from memory as we
bicycled through Beijing's back alleys, passionately discussing the fate of
China.
His critics did not appreciate how Liu wielded ironic
humor to play down how passionately he cared about his country. "I'll never
let fear of criticism or punishment stifle my speaking out, and I'll struggle
for the right of others to free expression, even if their views don't agree
with mine," he said one evening. "That's the price of freedom."
If only he knew how high a cost he would pay for his ideals.
With his literary reputation soaring, in 1988 Liu accepted
an invitation to teach at Columbia University. Reunited there with fellow
Beijing political activist Hu Ping, poets Jiang He and Bei Ling, and artists Ai
Weiwei and Yan Li, the group continued their Beijing salon in New York City,
debating how best to continue their work when they returned home.
When student protests broke out in Beijing in 1989, Liu
watched television day and night. He saw millions take to the streets to demonstrate
for a better future. The students were so sincere, their idealism so moving. He
felt he had to go back to Beijing to be with them.
Liu purchased a one-way ticket, paying cash so he couldn't
change his mind. "I'm frightened, but can't sit in New York while my
compatriots need me," he said. "Haven't I been preparing for this
moment all my life?"
Liu didn't know if he would be arrested upon arrival in
Beijing, but the authorities had bigger concerns. He made it to Tiananmen
Square and spent weeks living in a tent and standing shoulder to shoulder with
his former students, emerging as the chief spokesperson for the protesters in
the final days before June 4.
He stood his ground the night of the massacre, ultimately
negotiating with martial law troops for the safe passage out of Tiananmen
Square of hundreds of those remaining, including me. For this action, Liu came
to be known as one of the "Four Noblemen of Tiananmen." If not for
his intervention, hundreds more young lives would have been tragically lost.
After the crackdown, Liu was arrested. He had no illusions
about how a scholar would be treated in prison. "Willingness to endure
punishment and even death is the price that must be paid for liberty," he
said just before turning himself in. I wouldn't see my friend again for two
years.
He was sent to Qincheng Prison, China's Bastille, on the
charge of "instigating counterrevolutionary rebellion." After his
release in 1991, he was again arrested in 1995, this time spending four years
in a labor camp for calling on the government to overturn its verdict on
Tiananmen and acknowledge its tragic mistake in violently suppressing the
peaceful, patriotic student movement.
The last time I saw Liu was Christmas 1999. We sat on the
balcony of a friend's apartment, sipping beer and reminiscing about the old
carefree days of the 1980s. "I wonder if we'll ever see the kind of
freedom and open debate that we experienced then," he sighed. We raised
our glasses and vowed, "Let's hope so!"
In a letter to his friend Liao Yiwu in 2000, he wrote:
"Compared to others under the communist black curtain, we can't call
ourselves real men.... In order for everyone to have the right to be selfish,
there has to be a righteous giant who will sacrifice selflessly.... In history,
nothing is fated. The appearance of a martyr will completely change a nation's
soul and raise the spiritual quality of the people."
In 2002, he reflected on the radical, Mao Zedong-style
politics he embraced earlier in his career: "I realized that my entire youth
and early writings were nurtured in hatred, violence, arrogance, lies,
cynicism, and sarcasm. I was raised on the 'wolf's milk' of the revolution, and
Mao-style thinking and Cultural Revolution-style language was ingrained in me.
I'd become my own jail. It may take me a lifetime to get rid of the
poison."
In 2008, Liu initiated the seminal Charter 08 political
freedom and human rights manifesto and signed it with more than 300 fellow
Chinese citizens. The Charter was drafted to coincide with the 60th anniversary
of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Two days before
its official release, Liu was arrested and charged with "suspicion of
inciting subversion of state power."
"I Have No Enemies" was the statement he
prepared to read at his trial, but wasn't allowed to. The essay was later read
at the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize ceremony which Liu was not able to attend due to
his imprisonment.
"I have no enemies and no hatred. None of the police
who have monitored, arrested and interrogated me, the prosecutors who
prosecuted me, or the judges who sentenced me, are my enemies. While I'm unable
to accept your surveillance, arrest, prosecution or sentencing, I respect your
professions and personalities.... I do not feel guilty for following my constitutional
right to freedom of expression, for fulfilling my social responsibility as a
Chinese citizen. Even if accused of it, I would have no complaints."
On Christmas Day 2009, Liu was sentenced to 11 years'
imprisonment and two years' deprivation of political rights.
"China's political reform should be gradual,
peaceful, orderly and controllable and should be interactive, from above to
below and from below to above.... The order of a bad government is better than
the chaos of anarchy. So I oppose systems of government that are dictatorships
or monopolies. This is not 'inciting subversion of state power'. Opposition is
not equivalent to subversion," Liu wrote in his rejected appeal.
He was incarcerated in Liaoning Province. Last month, he
was diagnosed with terminal liver cancer and granted medical parole. He died in
the prison hospital on July 13 at the age of 61. In the 28 years since the
Tiananmen massacre, he had spent more than half in prison.
Farewell old friend.
Scott Savitt
Scott Savitt is the author of "Crashing the Party: An
American Reporter in China" and was previously a correspondent in Beijing
for the Los Angeles Times and other publications.
We must dissent from the fear, the hatred, and the mistrust
We must dissent from the fear, the hatred, and the
mistrust. We must dissent from a nation that buried its head in the sand
waiting in vain for the needs of its poor, its elderly, and its sick to
disappear and just blow away. We must dissent from a government that has left
its young without jobs, education, or hope. We must dissent from the poverty of
vision and timeless absence of moral leadership. We must dissent, because
America can do better, because America has no choice but to do better. -Thurgood
Marshall, US Supreme Court Justice
