Interesting video which discusses the fallacy of stimulating the economy by waging war.

• Which Traits Predict Success? (The Importance of Grit) | Wired Science | Wired.com

  • there’s a major contradiction between how we measure talent and the causes of talent. In general, we measure talent using tests of maximal performance.
  • success in the real world depends on sustained performance, on being able to work hard at practice, and spend the weekend studying the playbook, and reviewing hours of game tape. Those are all versions of deliberate practice, and our ability to engage in such useful exercises largely depends on levels of grit.
  • involves the growing recognition of “non-cognitive” skills like grit and self-control. While such traits have little or nothing to do with intelligence (as measured by IQ scores), they often explain a larger share of individual variation when it comes to life success.

The first picture of two brothers saying goodbye as the one goes off to war.

And the other picture of the Final goodbye.

The final private anguish made public.  How many times and in how many different ways has this anguish been manifest?  How many thousands, perhaps millions of times has this been repeated?

Is it really all worth it?

This is an amazing story; not only because it is an astounding achievement, but because it stunningly  illustrates the triumph of science over common sense.

I am no sailor and I know very little about sailing.  I was surprised to learn that a sailboat can travel faster than the wind that is pushing it  –  but only if the boat is traveling at an angle to the wind.  At first, this was incomprehensible to me, then after some careful thought and reasoning I realized that if you made the sail larger, you could capture more wind, and hence more energy so if you could find a way to convert that energy into speed, you should be able to go faster.

As you travel downwind and you reach the speed of the wind, the wind speed relative to you becomes zero so it can’t push you any faster.  But, if you travel at an angle to the wind you can actually move through the water faster than the wind is moving.  With a large enough sail, you can move downwind with the wind at, or approaching, the speed of the wind, but since you are traveling at an angle, you are actually covering more distance and hence traveling faster.

But virtually everyone believed that the fastest you could travel directly downwind was the speed of the wind.

The following story is about an amazing individual who, after a thought experiment, became convinced that he could create a wind powered vehicle that could actually sail downwind faster than the wind.  He set out to prove everyone else wrong…and did.

Although I now understand it on some level, it still amazes me to watch it and tangles my brain if I think about it too hard.

Video of the “land yacht” traveling faster than the wind:

Video

Story about it:

Wired Magazine Article

Creativity and ability are like a navigation system; able to guide us along a particular route but unable to sustain achievement without sustained effort.

Effort and determination are like the motive force; the fuel and engine.  Even without inspiration and creativity, it can often bring us to our desired ends.

Dr. Goyal reported that virus H1N1, like other Influenza A viruses, only infects the upper respiratory tract and proliferates only there. The only portals of entry are the nostrils and mouth/throat. In a global epidemic of this nature, it’s almost impossible to avoid coming into contact with H1N1 in spite of all precautions. Contact with H1N1 is not so much of a problem as proliferation is.

While you are still healthy and not showing any symptoms of H1N1 infection, in order to prevent proliferation, aggravation of symptoms and development of secondary infections, some very simple steps, not fully highlighted in most official communications, can be practiced (instead of focusing on how to stock N95 or Tamiflu):

1. Frequent hand-washing (well highlighted in all official communications).

2. “Hands-off-the-face” approach. Resist all temptations to touch any part of face (unless you want to eat, bathe or slap).

3. *Gargle twice a day with warm salt water (use Listerine if you don’t trust salt). *H1N1 takes 2-3 days after initial infection in the throat/ nasal cavity to proliferate and show characteristic symptoms. Simple gargling prevents proliferation. In a way, gargling with salt water has the same effect on a healthy individual that Tamiflu has on an infected one. Don’t underestimate this simple, inexpensive and powerful preventative method.

4. Similar to 3 above, *clean your nostrils at least once every day with warm salt water. *Not everybody may be good at Jala Neti or Sutra Neti (very good Yoga asanas to clean nasal cavities), but *blowing the nose hard once a day and swabbing both nostrils with cotton buds dipped in warm salt water is very effective in bringing down viral population.*

5. *Boost your natural immunity with foods that are rich in Vitamin C (Amla and other citrus fruits). *If you have to supplement with Vitamin C tablets, make sure that it also has Zinc to boost absorption.

6. *Drink as much of warm liquids (tea, coffee, etc) as you can. *Drinking warm liquids has the same effect as gargling, but in the reverse direction. They wash off proliferating viruses from the throat into the stomach where they cannot survive, proliferate or do any harm.

Obama takes 10-point lead on McCain

AP presidential poll: All even in the homestretch

Really makes you wonder, can they be that far off or are they just trying to create some excitement for what has become a huge media spectacle.  I think that on election night each side should have a troupe of scantily clad congressional pages cheerleading from the sidelines and a halftime show culminating in a spectacular fireworks display of exploding talking heads.