Category: rePosts

nice read. read the whole thing. People have a fixation with a probabilty or 1 the sure thing and 0 the impossible, when the truth is almost always somewhere in the middle.

3) Probability is all we ever know. When physicists use quantum mechanics to predict the results of an experiment, the only thing they can predict is the probability of detecting each of the possible outcomes. Given an experiment in which an electron will end up in one of two places, we can say that there is a 17% probability of finding it at point A and an 83% probability of finding it at point B, but we can never say for sure that a single given electron will definitely end up at A or definitely end up at B. No matter how careful we are to prepare each electron in exactly the same way, we can never say for definitiviely what the outcome of the experiment will be. Each new electron is a completely new experiment, and the final outcome is random.
via Seven Essential Elements of Quantum Physics : Uncertain Principles.

But Holden won over the young, especially the 1960s generation who saw themselves in the disaffected preppy, according to the cultural critic Morris Dickstein. “The skepticism, the belief in the purity of the soul against the tawdry, trashy culture plays very well in the counterculture and post-counterculture generation,” said Mr. Dickstein, who teaches at the Graduate Center of the University of the City of New York. Today, “I wouldn’t say we have a more gullible youth culture, but it may be more of a joining or togetherness culture.”
The culture is also more competitive. These days, teenagers seem more interested in getting into Harvard than in flunking out of Pencey Prep. Young people, with their compulsive text-messaging and hyperactive pop culture metabolism, are more enchanted by wide-eyed, quidditch-playing Harry Potter of Hogwarts than by the smirking manager of Pencey’s fencing team (who was lame enough to lose the team’s equipment on the subway, after all). Today’s pop culture heroes, it seems, are the nerds who conquer the world — like Harry — not the beautiful losers who reject it.
via Get a Life, Holden Caulfield – NYTimes.com.

This just tears your heart down to pieces. With a lot of us working in High Rise Buildings, and some are even living in very High Condominiums , I fear for how disastrous a very strong earthquake would be for us. Hope we can help Haiti.

He cries talking about what he found there. For instance children without parents, wandering in desperation.

“I’m doing my best,” he says. “I’ll take another trip with UNICEF. So we can try to get all those children out there … you know, we have parents who have been trying to adopt for two or three years.”
At this point, tears are streaming down Dalembert’s face. “You know and … that’s frustrating me … you’re asking people to help. And kids have parents over there who want to adopt them. I’ve got a hundred parents, and you have a bunch of guys sitting down with the freaking papers. All it takes is one hour to go over everything, you know what I’m saying?
“I saw somebody’s leg amputated in front of me. Surgeries performed on a kitchen table … I’m talking about a folding kitchen table … I have some disturbing pictures. And it hurts. … There was no surgery room … You heard him screaming. … Not enough alcohol. Things we take for granted, you know. They try to make one bottle of alcohol last.
“Problems just keep occurring. There’s no machinery to move things around. It’s taking a long time to locate the people. I know everybody is doing their best. … It’s crazy over there.
“One thing really touched my heart the most is all the children. A lot of homeless children.”
Dalembert says he and Medishare are in the process of negotiating to get tents for “a ton” of people in Haiti.
via Samuel Dalembert, back from Haiti with a heavy heart – TrueHoop Blog – ESPN.