The Chaotic-Neutron

I have heard about the legend of Faust before but never had the chance to read it. As destiny would have it, I recently stumbled upon Faust again, one of the works by Goethe (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe), the one that made him apparently famous in the literary world of then Europe.

For the past few days, piecemeal I’ve read and it is beautiful. My only regret is that I did not discover this gem before.

The tale of Faust is supposed to be Goethe’s greatest work into which he poured a lifetime of experience; the entire work took him his whole life and he finished the second part only a year before his demise. The literary work is written as a play (a poetical drama actually) and it portrays an interplay of religion, the supernatural, love, tragedy and the surreal. To give you an introduction about Faust, here’s a brief synopsis.

Faust is an old man, a sage or an alchemist, wise, learned and very pious. We see a conversation between God and Mephistopheles (satan) in which God remarks that Mephistopheles may try all he likes to tempt Faust; God is confident that Faust is too moral an individual to be tempted by anything. Mephistopheles sets to work, appearing to Faust and conversing with him. Faust is weary of life, and Mephistopheles is soon able to convince him that he could sample something more.

The story concerns the fate of Faust in his quest for the true essence of life. Frustrated with learning and the limits to his knowledge and power, he attracts the attention of the Devil (Mephistopheles), who agrees to serve Faust until the moment he attains the zenith of human happiness, at which point Mephistopheles may take his soul. Faust is pleased with the deal, as he believes the moment will never come.

In the first part, Mephistopheles leads Faust through experiences that culminate in a lustful and destructive relationship with an innocent and nubile woman named Gretchen. Gretchen and her family are destroyed by Mephistopheles’ deceptions and Faust’s desires and actions. The story ends in tragedy as Gretchen is saved and Faust is left in shame.

The second part begins with the spirits of the earth forgiving Faust (and the rest of mankind) and progresses into rich allegorical poetry. Faust and his devil pass through the world of politics and the world of the classical gods, and meet with Helen of Troy (the personification of beauty). Finally, having succeeded in taming the very forces of war and nature Faust experiences a single moment of happiness.

The devil Mephistopheles, trying to grab Faust’s soul when he dies, is frustrated as the Lord intervenes — recognizing the value of Faust’s unending striving.

This has been one of the most interesting drama’s I have ever read. It portrays one of the imminent weaknesses of the human kind; The quest for knowledge and the impossibility to attain enlightenment without the passion. And It punches in all that with philosophical poetry. Enough said. Go grab a copy now and enjoy it.

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“Normal is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work and driving through traffic in a car that you are still paying for – in order to get to the job you need to pay for the clothes and the car, and the house you leave vacant all day so you can afford to live in it.”

— Ellen Goodman

I used to think the brain was the most wonderful organ in my body. Then I realized who was telling me this.

- Emo Phillips

On the day of my father’s eve,
I search again for serenity.
Another thought lost and some more friends gained,
Cliched references to a life not quit.

Here I stay, with pain filled throat,
I tear, I repair and I loathe ;
This unknown reference pointing to lucidity
Another answer to the final question.

A new day dawns, a sky unfolds
Gives hope and a ritual foretold.
I await, eager to fulfill destiny
The soul and body reaching maturity.

It hurts, to live in agony;
It sears skin and heart with questions;
But there lies false solutions everywhere,
Can mind see truth in this worldly illusion ?

Scorned by the poor language,
Words inadequate to express thoughts.
Or is it the influence of wine and more
That fumbles intended poetry into conceited dribble ?

My father. Guide me. Or take me. Now.

Another thought, in another world perceived,
Here lies the eternal music beyond.
Sublimity in music and work and the world
How shall I write this beauty felt in words.

Amadeus. Da Vinci. Einstein.
My heroes. Consigned to flames of woe.
Every genius faces his misery,
The reward disguised unseen until the moment.

My moment, hopefully will be realized before it is late,
Here I watch, unfold a perfect story in harmony.

Alone in a city full of people,
Here I stare at fireworks along the shore;
Hours away, a test about to unfold,
For the physical and the pysche alike.

This marathon, I wanted for so long,
Shall push my physical limit to beyond.
Zones I thought I tamed by mind,
This body shall endure and conquer it too.

If this were to fail, then hear me,
This shall be my last strike.
For I will not quit this endeavor
Before tasting that medal awaiting me at 26.2 miles.

A long time feeling,
Of feeling afloat, in sea wide,
As far as eye can see, flowing with the tide,
Something missing in this life another.

Pressure from people I love,
Unwilling to fulfill what might be necessary;
This frantic soul escaping worldly needs
Would stillness of the breath bring peace within ?

Love untold to a woman beloved,
Here I type, without anyone beside,
There lies the black hole right by my side,
That I would love to bend my vision around.

Love. Vacation. More friends. I miss them all…

One of the best moving quotes about Mathematics, something I feel so close to and deeply about, in words I could barely fathom to think and create as poetry, Bertrand Russell gives a killer of a quote, I’m bound to remember till I die. Here it is:

Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth, but supreme beauty, a beauty cold and austere, like that of sculpture, without appeal to any part of our weaker nature, without the gorgeous trappings of painting or music, yet sublimely pure, and capable of a stern perfection such as only the greatest art can show. The true spirit of delight, the exaltation, the sense of being more than Man, which is the touchstone of the highest excellence, is to be found in mathematics as surely as in poetry.

–BERTRAND RUSSELL, Study of Mathematics

O Fortuna is a poem from Carmina Burana, a collection of Latin poems written in early 13th century. I do not know what is enticing about the tune but the chorus, the rhythm resonates within me. For years, I have not known the meaning of the song and now here it is (translated to english).

O Fortune,
like the moon
you are constantly changing,
ever waxing
and waning;
hateful life
first oppresses
and then soothes
as fancy takes it;
poverty
and power
it melts them like ice.

Fate – monstrous
and empty,
you whirling wheel,
you are malevolent,
well-being is vain
and always fades to nothing,
shadowed
and veiled
you plague me too;
now through the game
I bring my bare back
to your villainy.

Fate is against me
in health
and virtue,
driven on
and weighted down,
always enslaved.
So at this hour
without delay
pluck the vibrating strings;
since Fate
strikes down the strong man,
everyone weep with me!

A song, gives me peace,
Elates me to places high,
Without crutches or weird tease
I see tranquility and perfect harmony.

Life moves me away
From serenity found and felt ;
Insane thoughts and crazy friends
Deviate this mind at rest.

Music, my final solution.
For years, yet there is an alternate
To cure this cancer of the mind,
Sangeetham, high hopes, chance,
What difference is there, in their meaning core ?

Darkness closing in at dusk,
Clouds protecting earth from sun’s wrath,
Blood spilt beauty, another one of his prank,
Here lies serenity I’ve failed to see.

Just read an article on the Roast for the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad over at the Onion. It was hilarious. Of course, since it is the Onion, do not, for heaven’s sake start thinking that this was real.

Ofcourse, the article ends with Mahmoud’s closing statement:

“It warms my heart to see all of you here tonight,” Ahmadinejad said to boisterous applause. “I know some of you have been worried that I may be developing a nuclear program to use against you, but I would like to take this opportunity to assure everyone that its sole, peaceful purpose is to provide the Iranian people with energy.”

How nice, I thought until I read the next line.

Added Ahmadinijad, “We’re gonna need all the electricity we can get when we nuke you fuckers back into the Stone Age, you blood-sucking infidels. Good night, everybody!”

Haha.

This is satire at its best. The article should take your mind off real world problems for say 3 minutes ! Thinking about it, wouldn’t it be fantastic if there really was such a roast, without the shields of diplomacy at the U.N. I sure as hell wouldn’t want to miss that live telecast…

I recently read an article on the Scientific American on “Why we kiss” and it is interestingly controversial. Fortunately, it does address some of the common questions I’ve heard before and hence, this might be interesting enough to read on a sunday afternoon.

One of the first questions that is answered is “Why do we do it ?”

Excerpt from the article:

Whatever else is going on when we kiss, our evolutionary history is embedded within this tender, tempestuous act. In the 1960s British zoologist and author Desmond Morris first proposed that kissing might have evolved from the practice in which primate mothers chewed food for their young and then fed them mouth-to-mouth, lips puckered. Chimpanzees feed in this manner, so our hominid ancestors probably did, too. Pressing outturned lips against lips may have then later developed as a way to comfort hungry children when food was scarce and, in time, to express love and affection in general. The human species might eventually have taken these proto-parental kisses down other roads until we came up with the more passionate varieties we have today.

Well, that makes a lot of sense. I believe that a lot of the actions we perform are deeply influenced by what animals did out of survival which later became acts of luxuries and a part of social behavior itself. So I’ll leave this at that.

Another interesting quote from he article is as follows:

“Kissing,” said evolutionary psychologist Gordon G. Gallup of the University at Albany, State University of New York, “involves a very complicated exchange of information—olfactory information, tactile information and postural types of adjustments that may tap into underlying evolved and unconscious mechanisms that enable people to make determinations … about the degree to which they are genetically incompatible.” Kissing may even reveal the extent to which a partner is willing to commit to raising children, a central issue in long-term relationships and crucial to the survival of our species.

There are few other interesting tidbits of information about how human sensory organs behave and the reactions of the brain during a kiss. Useless, but fascinating nonetheless.

Well anyway, at the end of the day, it really does not matter what these studies come up with for results. Since perceptions are averaged over thousands of people and there is a high probability that me or you do not perceive like any of them or the person you kiss, all you can do is read it and move on

It is interesting enough following through the new developments in the nuclear industry with innovative GEN4 reactors sprouting out concepts little explored before. But then again, there is nothing like a hoax that seems very genuine from one of the biggest heads in the nuclear industry. Here’s an excerpt.

A blog called Next Energy News leaks a story about Toshiba building a “Micro Nuclear Reactor” that would be nothing short of a miracle.

The 200 kilowatt Toshiba designed reactor is engineered to be fail-safe and totally automatic and will not overheat. Unlike traditional nuclear reactors the new micro reactor uses no control rods to initiate the reaction. The new revolutionary technology uses reservoirs of liquid lithium-6, an isotope that is effective at absorbing neutrons. The Lithium-6 reservoirs are connected to a vertical tube that fits into the reactor core. The whole whole process is self sustaining and can last for up to 40 years, producing electricity for only 5 cents per kilowatt hour, about half the cost of grid energy.

via Gadgets-Weblog

Sad that this news was a hoax but in reality, if such a design were to be made in a feasible manner, this could be wonderful in lieu of the growing concerns on global warming and move towards greener energy. Well, it still would create new problems in the nuclear non-proliferation regime but lets deal with this one step at a time.

Dilbert, the ever so true picturesque depiction of an engineer’s mind has done it again. I guess this is strip is one of their oldies but I was riffling through some of the old files in my hard drive and found this gem.

Hopefully, to the technologically minded, this should send a resonating lol twitch.