The More We Change, The More We Stay The Same

Have you noticed how much more focused we are just lately?

Things impact us more. Like the quake in Japan. Those poor people took the brunt of a major earthquake with hundreds of aftershocks that are still happening even now, and a terrible tsunami that took the lives of thousands. Not to mention the damage to their nuclear power plants and the ensuing trouble that has caused.

Actually it is the nuclear accident that I want to talk about. I was listening on the radio today and I heard a thyroid cancer specialist telling people not to stockpile potassium iodide because it wouldn't do any good for radiation that might make it here over five and a half thousand miles away. Are you kidding me? What were those people thinking about? It would be a different story if they were thinking of packaging it up and sending it off to help those poor people in Japan. But I doubt if that was the reason for their trip to the pharmacy.

Well, the other thing is the drama that unfolds before our eyes. All of this has become much more available because of high speed Internet networks and connections that hook the world up practically in real-time! I think the most dramatic thing has been the capability of a news story, replete with scary pictures and video, to go viral on the Internet in fractions of a second.

Along with this, has emerged the new critical society, where everyone has an opinion, and this collective opinion has replaced whatever went before. Wait a minute! What actually did go before? Well, we had "Opinion" columns and editorial content. We still do have these. But nowadays, if someone makes a comment, the whole world gets to find out and really quickly too.

We are just getting to explore the localization part, since before people were really reluctant to give out their location. Now, the location helps in the overall data mix, to provide more detailed information about trends and other things. If you allow a social network access to your location, that network can add this information to the general information about where people are and this adds to the usefulness of the data.

I see the future as being very interesting indeed. Without wanting to labor the topic of natural disasters, just recently, some scientists in California have managed to hone their prediction skills for the likelihood of a major quake here, and they are using some pretty advanced techniques. They are using satellites to measure the movement of the ground with GPS (Global Positioning System), tracking how far the ground has moved after a quake. This then allows the data to reveal how much stress is now bearing on the known fault lines.

This new technology came into its own during the 2010 April Mexicali quake that was felt between Mexico and Fresno, CA. The data that came from that quake was plentiful and opened up a whole new range of possibilities for earthquake forecasts, something that everyone would be grateful for. Even Japan's automated warning system only gives them 30 seconds. It could be more for Los Angeles, because of the logistics inherent in our unique fault system and where the populated areas are located.

Another thing that was revived after the Mexicali quake was the theory of a prominent Japanese seismology professor, Dr Kiyoo Mogi, whose ideas about this emerged some twenty years ago. His theory was that small quakes begin appearing in a circular formation around a central point and at a certain critical time, the doughnut hole (in the center of the doughnut) could be the scene of a major quake. His "Mogi Doughnut Theory" is talked about even today and Cal Tech scientists have based some of their work on his theory.

There is a Season, Turn Turn Turn!

"...To Everything (Turn, Turn, Turn), There is a season (Turn, Turn, Turn), And a time to every purpose, under Heaven
A time to be born, a time to die, A time to plant, a time to reap, A time to kill, a time to heal
A time to laugh, a time to weep..." -  The Byrds - "Turn Turn Turn"

It is the eve of the General Election here in America, November 2, 2010, and every single race with very few exceptions are extremely close, meaning of course that for every one American, another wants to vote opposite!

 

We are seeing the intense coverage, the pollsters and the pundits, all analyzing and assessing the figures as they emerge from right to left, from East to West. Almost predictably, the Right has the Right and the Left has the Left, meaning that a Democrat is likely to be elected in Hawaii, and California too, and a few Republicans will be elected in the Right.

 

Of course it is never as simple as that. Tom Brokaw had an interesting comment to make on the NBC Nightly News analysis show with Brian Williams. In fact it was very insightful. He said that it is now never the same every two years. Also he mentioned the fact that the Tea Party has had an effect on the Republicans, who have never been so diverse in living memory, with new diversity members headed for Washington!

And Sara Palin is telling the President that "...enough is enough", deploring the change in America. It would seem that much of America feels the same...

 

And just to add to the mix, the Hispanics are coming out in force as voters. This will be a challenge for Harry Reid in Nevada since he probably needs to learn how to say "Muchas Gracias" said José Diaz-Balart of Telemundo, commenting on this overwhelming majority of Hispanics in today's political arena, another new phenomenon.

 

Other stuff - there has never been quite so much money spent on political campaigning ever before, particularly here in California. Meg Whitman spent hundreds of millions on her campaign, where over two thousand commercial messages would be seen promoting her campaign each day on television. It makes you wonder how Jerry Brown could even be predicted the winner of this race! However, thinking a little deeper, this means that he has the backing of a lot of special interest groups.

 

The truly crazy thing about this is that it will all be over tomorrow. True, the politicians will have to get to work, but the voting will all be over. However, don't let's forget, the pattern is now similar to Europe, that of stalemate, where nobody is truly satisfied. half vote one way and the other votes the other. I saw the same thing happening in Great Britain where a Labor Party (British version of Democrats) win over and over in a highly marginal race kept occurring. In the end an unelected Prime Minister (a phenomenon that could only occur in Great Britain) stepped down to a sigh of relief from everyone British, and now the Conservative (Republican) Prime Minister is busy dismantling all the programs that the outgoing party put in place (when the country could barely afford it!) In situations like this, there are many more truly unhappy people, so the politicians are going to have to work a lot harder to solve the real problems, and amazingly enough, after all the hype, the recession is still here in America, 9.6 million are unemployed and nothing about it has really been fixed!

 

Let's see what happens next!

What Were You Doing, (In C Sharp Minor)

I got stuck in a mess on the L.A. freeway system this morning.

Oh Yes, I never said, did I? I have a job now. I am writing web content, among others things. Well, I left for work at a little before the usual time and, as I approached the freeway, i slowly became aware of a massive back-up, several miles long, and, after hearing the radio traffic news, I heard it had gone back as far as the next town...

Anyway the long and the short of it was that I spent around an hour and ten minutes going a distance I usually do in ten minutes most days and I guess, compared with other people, I got off lightly!

The humorous side of it was that the whole sig-alert was down to a gigantic truck spilling its load of... guess what? Pomegranates! First thing that went through my mind was: Persephone, stuck in Hades after eating the fatal fruit! Classic Greek mythology always seems to repeat itself, doesn't it!?

Got to work. I was late for one meeting, which went ahead anyway and a massive amount of stuff started to pile up.

The Language of the World

I speak seven languages. Really? Which languages? European languages? Asian languages?

In my mind I am conjuring up a visual image of the person who speaks all of these languages. How do they get daily practice speaking not just one other language than their "mother-tongue" but all of the ones they profess to speak...

It seems to radiate outwardly in a kind of a wave. Let's say the mother-tongue is English. In school we may have learned French, Spanish, German, even Italian. At a stretch, we may have learned Russian, but this is a far harder language to learn with past passive participles and other oddments.

Going out with the ripples, it is unlikely that we would learn Portuguese or Greek. Even less likely that we would learn Romanian, Serbian or Croat. It is even less likely still that we have a command of Catalan or Basque. But we might. Following this theme, Asian languages are going to be really hard to learn, because they have no relationship to anything in our experience, unless we have spent time there in an Asian country with Asians and speaking an Asian language. And Asians are remarkably good at English, so why would we need to learn their language?

I began to learn Korean. I was fascinated with the culture. I got good at conversational Korean, but never learned the alphabet. This was a mistake, because I couldn't relate to anything which had been written, only spoken. Now, if I try and remember anything, it's a distant memory. And this was only a few months ago...

I think what I am coming to is that to successfully learn any language, you need to have a strong knowledge of the culture and also have someone who speaks that language spend time with you, helping you understand all the nuances and tricks in learning to speak it. Oddly enough, I remember enough about Korean to know that you have to use different words to say goodbye to someone who is leaving you than if you are leaving them!

Something which is really helping is the emergence of the Web 2.0 culture and all the social networks. This is helping stimulate bonds of friendship between really indigenous boundaries. It will be interesting to see how far this really goes. Even the Chinese censorship and blocking of outside web links is not having an adverse effect on social media. The word is still getting through. And woe betide you if you are an Iranian dictator who wants to stop a fair election! The word also gets out here too.

Outrage, Twitter worm author gets a job at exqSoft Solutions...

Why does someone who intentionally wanted to do harm to millions of people deserve a job more than me?

"It's because he can code, Steve," I hear you shouting. Yes but that's all very well, but a 17 year-old? People do improprietary things every day and sometimes they are punished and other times they are rewarded. It is such a crazy world. I mean, why would this dude get a job and the inventor of that terrible virus "Melissa" be headed to jail?

I think that it probably feels better to do the right thing. Every day I and other people too, are presented with situations where, if we said nothing, we would be undercharged, or we would not have to suffer the consequences of what would happen if we had spoken up. But for some reason, it always feels better to "face the music!"

I don't know about you, but I feel better at night. I sleep better if I know I have done the correct thing. Michael Josephson has written a book about ethics. In fact Michael Josephson writes a weekly column about how ethics make the world a better place. You can hear this on the radio too. The amazing thing is, there is so much quality to living an ethical life. The knock-on effect of your actions are very far-reaching! You have no idea how far-reaching they really are until you come to view it all from a point outside of yourself. Then you will see.

Well, here's hoping that I made a difference to somebody's life today!

If Music Be The Food Of Love, Om On.....

We look endearingly at mantras. We gaze lovingly at yantras,

and yet we still cannot ground our chakras. Have you heard the crystal bowls being played? I had a friend who played the bowls. Their steady but haunting music had a positive effect on my thoughts. I was able to instill really great ideas in my head.

We need to breathe deeply and consider all of the great things that happen in our world. We need to be grateful for all the things we do have. We need to look forward to the things that will be coming to please us in the future.

There is so much in this world which is sad and dismal, we need to correct the balance. We can do that by being positive and upbeat. We need to look at happy things and face the brightness of the sun and shiny happy people. If we do that, all the shadowy, evil things will take their place behind us.

Every awesome day begins with the sun rising and warming our bodies. Even in winter, the sun comes for a few hours to warm up the earth. After the winter solstice, the days grow longer and the nights grow shorter all the time. That period is soon.

"When the white eagle of the north is flying overhead,
and the browns, reds, and golds of autumn lie in
the gutter, dead.
Remember then the summer birds with wings of fire
flaying come to witness springs new hope,
born of leaves decaying.
As new life will come through death, love will come
at leisure, love of love, love of life and giving,
without measure gives in return the wondrous yearn
for promise, almost seen.
Live hand in hand, and together we'll stand

on the threshold of a dream." - The Moody Blues

Great Indian Food You Are Going To Love!

An Indian dish called dhansak. 

It is made with four types of lentils (aka "dhal" or "dal") and chicken. (Apologies to all the vegetarians out there.) The complete Indian (Parsee) name is murgh dhansak (meaning chicken curry made with lentils in a savory sauce.) Most restaurants who serve this dish make it medium spicy, so if you don't like any spicyness in your food, you may like to request it mild.  

It is eaten with Pulao Rice. Meantime here is the recipe for those who want to create it at home:

Rice Method: (start this around 15 minutes to the end)

2 cups	Indian Basmati Rice
6 tbsp	oil
1 tbsp	whole cumin
6	whole cloves
1 stick	cinnamon
8	whole black peppers
1/2	onion, sliced thinly
	salt
1/2 cup	frozen peas
2	large black cardamon seeds

Heat oil in a pan. When hot, add the pepper, cloves, cinnamon and cardamom. Fry until brown. To this add the cumin and onions and fry until onions are soft and pink. Meanwhile wash and soak rice for 1/2 hour. Then add the rice to the pan and fry for 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Add 4 cups water and cook until rice is done.

Dhansak Method:

1/4 tsp  1/4 tsp  1/2 tsp  1 tbsp  1/2 tsp  1 tsp  1/2 tsp  1 cup  2 1/2 cups  1/4 cup  2  1/2 cup  1 1/3 cups  2/3 cup  1/4 cup  1 tsp  11/2 lb  2-inch piece  6  1/4 cup  4  4 2 tsp  1 tbsp  2/3 cup 1 1/3 cups  1 tsp

seeds from 3 cardamom pods ground nutmeg cloves  ground fenugreek chili powder  ground star anise  coriander  ground black pepper  mixed dal (lentil), washed and soaked for 1 hour  you will need: toor, masoor, urad and moong 1/4 cup each.  water  chopped cilantro  large onions, chopped  diced pumpkin  diced eggplant  diced potatoes  vegetable oil  garam masala  boneless chicken breasts, cubed  fresh ginger, peeled and grated  garlic cloves, crushed  chopped fenugreek leaves  large green chilies, finely chopped up  (you could make this only one chili, if you want a mild dish!)  large tomatoes, chopped up  tomato paste  dark brown sugar  Tamarind water  chicken stock  white wine vinegar  juice of 1 lemon salt and pepper

Heat a dry skillet pan until it's hot, then add cardamom, cloves, and all the ground spices (nutmeg, star anise, pepper and fenugreek), and dry-fry for 4-5 minutes or until the spices are toasted and releasing their aroma. Put the dal (lentils mix) into a saucepan with the water, 1 tablespoon of the chopped cilantro, 2 tsp of the spice mixture, the onions, pumpkin, eggplant, and potatoes.

Simmer, covered, for 40 minutes or until the vegetables and lentils are very soft. Remove from the heat and puree in a blender (that's right! in a blender) to a smooth sauce.

Heat the oil and fry the remaining spice mixture with the garam masala. Add the chicken cubes, and fry on all sides to seal. (It is sometimes helpful to get the chicken going first by pre-cooking in a microwave.) Add the ginger, garlic, the remaining chopped cilantro, fenugreek leaves, tomatoes and green chilies to the skillet and cook for 10 minutes. Reminder: about twenty minutes into this final section of cooking, you will need to start the rice. Don't forget, because it is great when both gets served at the same time! Add the pureed dal mixture to the chicken with the tomato paste, sugar, tamarind water, and stock. Simmer gently, covered, for 35 minutes or until the chicken has cooked through and is tender. Season to taste with salt and pepper and add the vinegar and lemon juice.


Simmer for 5 minutes and serve on silver platters 

with Basmati (jasmine, pulao or whatever rice! It really is best with Basmati. Look at my separate recipe for the rice, which needs to be started 11 minutes before the rest of the dhansak is ready.)

Also, you might want to break out the mango chutney and lime pickle!

Serves 4 - Enjoy!