Irina on Irene

Surely, in the last couple of days I got teased more than once about my almost namesake. Well, I love New York, so it would only be natural if she feels the same way and wants to visit, wouldn't it ? :)

Jokes aside, as we all know,  it is hard to make predictions, especially about the futures and weather predictions are not as much of exception.  However, I am wondering whether anybody else has the feeling that's what's going on around Irene now feels more political then weather related? A jump start of the presidential race for messrs Obama and (may be) Bloomberg as well ? After all the last thing our current President needs on his hands is to have a second Katrina on his hands (all the while being caught  in Martha's Vineyards...). And, considering all the critique Mayor Bloomberg got for handling the snowstorm this winter, he might feel he is better of shutting down the MTA and ordering mandatory evacuation. Is all this activity warranted? We shall see in the next 24 hours. Although I could not help but wonder why the evacuation of BPS is all over the news, but the downgrade of Irene to Category 1 from Category 2 is almost a by the way comment?

What do you think? If you are on the East Coast, you might have plenty of time to ponder and comment this weekend  :).
Be safe

On help.... It's simple :)

Those who can help - help.
Those who can not - ask :"How can I help you?"
And those who can not even ask - dispense free unsolicited advice

The greatest mystery of Russian language finally revealed! Rated R (Strong language).

A friend shared with me the latest scientific findings. The greatest mystery of Russian language finally revealed!
Rated R (Strong language).

Oy Vey!!! They decaffed Haggadah!

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/09/nyregion/09haggadah.html

"Tu deviens responsable pour toujours de ce que tu as apprivoisé."

"Les hommes ont oublié cette vérité, dit le renard. Mais tu ne dois pas l’oublier. Tu deviens responsable pour toujours de ce que tu as apprivoisé."

"Le Petit Prince " - by Antoine de Saint Exupéry

What's up with the hair?

I am watching a lot of French TV lately (and trying to understand, but that's a separate story :) and I noticed that their anchors hair style is more "free", I'd even say disorganized then the perfect to a "t" American TV folks hairstyles. I mean c'mmon - here when you watch TV it seems like they all just came out of hair salon! Thinking about it - seems like yet another cultural difference.. What's up with that? Do you feel perfect hair is a part for American success/sex symbol?

Japan - is it time to talk radiation countermeasures?

As you might have noticed I do closely follow the developments in Japan, and one thing is puzzling: nobody so far seemed to mention radiation countermeasures for potential exposure from Fukushima reactor. Now, I am not in any way an expert in the flied, but I do know that such measures are being developed and some of them are in a pretty advanced stage and passed initial human trials. I am talking about CBLB502, the drug being developed by Cleveland Biolabs, which demonstrated protection from radiation damage. I am hoping the science had progressed since Chernobyl calamity and there must be some additional ways to protect the population from the disaster, in addition to evacuation and iodine. What are they and why is nobody talking about it?!

UPD. here is some info on CBLB502 : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CBLB502

Dependency on Independence

In an eternal quest for freedom one might become so dependent on independence.

Whatever's worse...

Only one thing could be worse than someone, with nothing to say, talking non-stop - someone, with a lot to say, keeping silence...

Words create confusion...

Words create confusion, numbers do it even faster and way more convincing, but nothing better has been invented yet :)

Thou shalt not covet ...

...thy neighbor’s free professional advice that is.

How many times were you asked for a professional advice or a "little favor" - at a party, in a casual conversation with a stranger or an acquaintance or their brother? "So how would you go about ... XYZ?", "Would you mind looking over my business plan?", "Oh, this reality check you are doing is such a great idea - so let me tell you about my situation...."

Have you been there? I know a ton of people who play along. They feel regret and resentment, yet they do allow others to steal their goods (well, services) !

So, what can you do? What do you say in those cases?

These and other business 'No' related questions will be addressed in one of the Confidantency series workbooks. Stay tuned!

The decline effect and the scientific method: newyorker.com

The decline effect and the scientific method: newyorker.com

It's amazing - here is the scientific proof that scientific proof is, well, not so scientific after all!

And may by, just may be, it points out something else - as to the way everything in this Universe is changing and nothing can be taken for granted.

Even the premise of gravity is not so certain after all.

Welcome to the real world! Just pick which real-ity you beleive in! :)

When a concept becomes a template...

Once upon a time there was a concept. It was a nice, happy concept, clear and useful to those around him. Then concept grew larger and more people learned about him, he was trying to make them all happy, but that was tough... And then one day the concept looked in the mirror and saw a template...
A lot of meaningful concepts share the story. One of them would be a concept of the business plan - initialy the idea was to explore the terrain ahead for the new business itself, and then it became a sales tool, or an item on "that's-what-you-need-to-tick-off-when-you-start-a-business " laundry list.
Victims of templatization are many and I am intending to ponder on it further, but just wanted to start a discussion, hear your thoughts and examples. Jump in!

Are You That Into You?!

With Valentine's Day fast approaching I see more and more people asking the almost proverbial "Is he/she that into me?". Yes, ladies, without breaching any confidentiality, I will reveal to you that men do ask this question too. After all they too are human, or at least are able to prove it when asked by a captcha. But I digress. So, back to the point.

When trying to figure out the answer to the question above people use various criteria - do we like the same movies? Are our backgrounds similar? Does the other person understand me? Is the sex good? Is there too much or too little? Did I meet the parents? Is that person willing to spend money on me? Time with me? Questions are aplenty. Yet the questions which are very seldom asked, if at all is "What does it really mean to me "to be into me"? "

"Am I into me?"

And from this starting point many interesting discoveries are made...

To be continued...

Cats and humans - where we are on the evolutionary line?

The bad news: cat's are definitely higher than us on command chain.

The good news: we humans, are definitely more trainable.

It's no wonder cat's are so good at managing people - they are just very efficient! It takes us tons of words, to express a simple command, while cats are very succinct.

For example, we would say:"Would you please kindly drop everything you do right this second and come and scratch my belly, just because I so fancy. And besides, it went unscratched and unattended for the whole 5 minutes, so it is about time I plead to social service for emotionally neglected cats!". It is kinda longish, isn't it?

And the cat? Le chat, if you will? Just goes: "Meeeeow!" and it's all pretty clear. It just takes a couple of attempts to get the human to know this request and to teach her to distinguish it from victorious hunting yell, when chasing oversized pigeons(they are on the other side of the window anyway:)

Why is life worth living?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mIfUf4wU0Y

Indeed...

Multilingual living I: La vie, etc

It seems to me that certain words, due to phonetics and graphics of the word itself, are resonating better with their meaning than others…..

For example the word for “life”

Life

La vie

Жизнь [Zizn’]

חיים [Khaiim]

To me the French word contains the most “livelihood “ – the smells, the air, the sounds - and all the rest of it that constitutes life

On the other hand the Hebrew word for “snow” is the closest to its meaning in my mind (out of the following options):

Snow

Neige

Снег [Sneg]

שלג [Sheleg]

The Hebrew word somehow carries in it each and every snowflake, while they are falling to the ground and disappearing among the myriad of others

Is it me or do others also create their own internal language out of the external languages at their disposal, to communicate better with their respective selves and occasional others and get a clearer picture of what is going on? J

Happy Halloween! And some helpful delusion

I only wish, I'd be the one to put it this way first, but here it goes:

http://www.bigquestionsonline.com/columns/virginia-postrel/in-praise-of-irrational-exuberance

On the other hand - isn't it better to know that you are not responsible for the whole world (yes, this one is not a delusion - even YOU are not! :) and some things REALLY CAN be delegated? :).

BTW curious, how many of you had a chance to read Adam Smith. I haven't, but am contemplating to do it now. Happy Halloween!

Q&A vicitms - unite! :)

From Cartoons from the Issue of October 18, 2010: newyorker.com

Danger: VERY VAGUE IDEA ahead

How long are human beings going to put up with?:

-Trainers, physical therapists, yoga/Pilates etc teachers who have VERY VAGUE IDEA about human anatomy!

-Therapists/coaches/”spiritual leaders” who have VERY VAGUE IDEA about human psyche and their own biases!

-Personal shoppers/image consultants/ designers with VERY VAGUE IDEA about the notions of colors, composition et al!

Due to the nature of my practice, I might be biased about the number of victims of the aforementioned plague. Or am I? : )