Ruminating Out Loud

Here is another glorious manifestation of fractal geometry to go along with a previous post on fractals in nature. This time it is dendrites in the cracking pattern of a sheet of ice.

Here is a fascinating video of art by Phil Hansen. Enjoy!

You be the judge.

Apparently “13,500 people spontaneously sang Hey Jude together in Trafalgar Square. Everyone involved arrived thinking they could be dancing – no-one had any idea how the event would unfold.”

What is illusion, really? Dictionary defines it as something that deceives by producing a false or misleading impression of reality. Then, this article at BBC will amaze you. It is a story about Sara Watson, a design student who managed to get an old Skoda disappear by painting it to merge with the surrounding objects.

Beauty transcends color and presentation. It is specially the case for the depiction of objects in art (e.g. photography). The most pleasing elements need not be  masqueraded with color. A simple black and while image distills the essence of attraction and creativity. Below are fractal images (Yes, I realize you are aware of the fondness ROL has to these abstractions we call fractals…) via a compilation put together by  Smashing Magazine for your pleasure. Enjoy!

A well composed photograph of President Barack Obama for your viewing pleasure. Always the center of attention…

President Barack Obama and members of his staff arrive for a reception April 6, 2009, at the Dolmabahce Palace in Istanbul. Official White House Photo by Pete Souza

In an example that most acutely typifies the increasingly integrated world we live in, here is a video of a symphony, a Tan Dun composition “Internet Symphony, Eroica” as selected and mashed up from thousands of video submissions from around the globe, presented by YouTube. It speaks to the boundless connectivity between vast corners of the world and the emergence of infrastructure that allows for tapping into the wealth of resources and creativity henceforth undiscovered or made relevant.

Truly enlightening. Here is another one from the reservoir of knowledge:

From time to time, I will be posting images of objects gazed into collective human imagination and artistic inspiration through the night sky. Below are the first of such entries: the nebulae. For a more delightful immersion into the this visual exhilaration, visit here.

Below are examples from a striking collection of images taken using infrared photography, in which “the film or image sensor used is sensitive to infrared light. Because everyday objects reflect infrared in proportions that differ sharply from that of visible light, the tonal relationships are wildly unexpected. Such near-infrared techniques used in photography give subjects an exotic, antique look. Green vegetation becomes white, whereas human skin becomes pale and ghostly.”

This one is quite an impressive work by Hank Willis Thomas and Ryan Alexiev.

Breakfast of Champion

In “Breakfast of Champion” Thomas and Alexiev are commenting on the iconization and consumerization of the President of the United States. The piece appropriates the religious imagery of Byzantine mosaics to create a sugar cereal image of President Obama. Does the election of Barack Obama symbolize a victory of substance over cynicism or of packaging over product? The mosaic proposes the question: “Is Barack Obama a modern messiah in the world of politics or marketing?
Perhaps he is both. Only time will tell. Underneath the glossy surface of the piece is the artists’ attempt to understand how to critique and question something they too are seduced by. (An idea we were trying to get at) – The sugary sweet mosaic, made of thousands of cereal bits, depicts idea of what a healthily balanced breakfast (democracy) might look like when considering the role that marketing plays in myth building around corporate and political brands…”

Nanoflower: The crystalline wurtzite indium nitride (InN) nanoflower was synthesized via molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) processes, using pure indium and a high efficient nitrogen source, hydrazoic acid (HN3). (Center for Condensed Matter Science, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.)

Other similar wonderful images, which were selected from the MRS “Science as Art” competition held at recent Materials Research Society (MRS) Spring and Fall Meetings, can be found here.

There is a distinct pleasure in reading a well crafted argument and piece like this one by Zadie Smith about voices and multitudinous of life lived at the borders. It provides as truthful and insightful of an assessment as I have come across about the person of Barack Obama, as Joe Klein rightly observes, partly due to Zadie’s shared experience of being a byproduct of a biracial genetic accident. If you would rather listen to the sound of her speaking in tongues, you can do so here. You may also take a look at Hendrik Hertzberg’s take, entitled Zadie Smith Reports from Dream City, of this piece in the Ney Yorker Magazine.

At this point in the human experience, the existence of a super natural force that brought the universe into being is at best the likeliest conclusion, at least a convenient answer to the grand existential question, one arrives at. That is fundamentally due to the fact that no matter how definitive scientific insights may be in unearthing the secrets of creation, there remains an astounding lack of totality of knowledge. In the instance where a deep and fundamental knowledge is acquired or a giant leap taken, there still exist postulates and assumptions that make the knowledge more of an approximation of the absolute truth. In other instances, the fruits of scientific pursuits bring one asymptotically closer to the truth with the uncovering of yet another hidden question that is to remains unanswered; each time taking a step forward in the seemingly infinite cascade of discoveries.

The vastness of our ignorance about existence and the meaning of it lends itself to the belief in human constructs that attempt to make sense of and provide answers. Such human constructs have the simultaneous benefit of providing simple answers and also instituting order and interdependence within society. The manifestations of the good that comes out of believing are not just societal order and organization, but also personal. A recent report in Time magazine indicates “a growing body of scientific evidence suggests that faith may indeed bring us health. People who attend religious services do have a lower risk of dying in any one year than people who don’t attend. People who believe in a loving God fare better after a diagnosis of illness than people who believe in a punitive God. No less a killer than AIDS will back off at least a bit when it’s hit with a double-barreled blast of belief. “Even accounting for medications,” says Dr. Gail Ironson, a professor of psychiatry and psychology at the University of Miami who studies HIV and religious belief, “spirituality predicts for better disease control.” This outcome is not contrary to the nurturing that is gained from a close familial upbringing or the sense of togetherness achieved through cultural, racial, or other related relationships. The evolution of the human kind into a social being reliant in the collective well-being of a group, I believe, has conditioned us to be needy of such interpersonal and inter-group connectedness. Moreover, the quest for answering the grand questions of existence can be an isolating and unsettling experience. The inherent incapability of the human mind to provide answers to all these questions renders one helpless and receptive to ease of faith-based explanations.

Faiths and religions have the unique ability of providing definitive answers, no matter how incomplete and unsatisfying they may be. They prescribe an absoluteness of knowledge about the absolute truth. They have the unique trait of inducing a calming effect in troubling times by the promise of a better life tomorrow or in the after life. They also have the ability to affirm the exaltation of present well-being by interpreting them as being manifestation of the unique and destined blessing of the few. Such combination of explanations to the highs and lows of the human experience make them powerfully appealing. In exchange, the believer is subjected to the necessity of unwavering allegiance to one pathway to salvation as a testament to the affirmation of faith. Any derailment from such path is met with the strong condemnation and warning of a lost reward for obedient behavior.

The model of interrelations between the creator and the follower is one of a master and slave, very much reminiscent of the societal organization that existed when the holy texts were brought onto the Earth and the people. Such construct is common to most religions, each of which aspiring to provide exclusionary answers and redemption through the belief in a particular creator and adherence to specific set of rules and guidelines. It is not, therefore, a stretch of imagination and explanation, to think that not all of these belief systems can truthfully co-exist in the same space. It is either that there is a multitude of manifestations of a creator each of which being uniquely appealing to select few, or a great many of these beliefs are misplaced in their target in the condition that there is just one creator. Since there is just one expansive form of existence and simplicity of organization rules over it, the belief that there are multiple creators or manifestations of one is rendered to be unnecessary. The likeliest conclusion one can arrive at is then, most religions as they are organized are human constructs that have been put in place to fill the void in understanding and satiate the aforementioned quest for answers.

With in the context of creation and existence, a defining issue that is usually raised and needs to be addressed is the question of morality. What are good and evil? How do we discern one from the other? The answers to these questions can simply be attained by the understanding of evolutionary interdependence of members of a group. Such co-existence of the individual and the group depends on the rewarding of behaviors that ensure long-term survival and condemnation of and punishment for those that bring about extinction. As such, reward-able behaviors are perpetuated over a long period of time resulting in the definition of what is “good,” and by necessary contrast what is “evil.” Such interpretation is complete in its analysis as long as the question of the source of creation is answered. On the contrary, one could invoke the existence of a creator and the transformation that occurs within the created upon the acceptance of a certain core principles of belief. This transformation could be one of altruistic inclination or due to the pursuit of self-interest in ultimate salvation resulting in benevolence towards other beings.

The irony is that the seeker of meaning for life and answers to existence are left to investing faith one way or another: The believer in the existence of a super-being invests faith in the doctrine being adhered to; the non-believer invests confidence in the ability of the human endeavor to continue to uncover the mysteries of existence and provide answers to the questions of existence. The vastness of the unknown in comparison to the individual leaves both approaches seeking comfort in intangible beliefs derived from either historic teachings or scientific pursuits. Therein lies the freewill; the distinct choice between two is left to the individual. Of course, one can also choose to believe in the existence of a super-natural being that is not confined by the constructs of human religions or the total birthing of existence out of nothing, however that may be accomplished.

Here is an insightful look by Mark Winne at the the issue of poverty and income disparity in the U.S. It underscores the fundamental issue at the heart of the poverty plague stealing the life and destiny out of millions of our people. These choiceless millions are subjected to a vicious cycle of depravity and lack that continues to perpetuate the status-quo. There is a fundamental need for not only the recognition of the fundamental injustice of the system as it is, but also for a commitment to bring about a fairer distribution opportunity and access to wealth and prosperity.

We have in America today a tale of two food systems—one for the poor and one for everyone else. The poor cobble together their week’s groceries from a combination of food stamps, food bank donations, and bus trips to Wal-Mart. If they are lucky, parents won’t be forced to skip meals to feed their children. The rest of us, driven by an ever expanding food consciousness, choose from an unprecedented abundance which increasingly leans toward the organic, local, and expensive end of the food chain. Our toughest choice is whether to pay for our food with Visa or Mastercard.  And as the numbers attest—35 million hungry or food insecure Americans (USDA); 50,000 emergency food sites visited annually by 10 percent of the country’s population (America’s Second Harvest); 26 million people receiving food stamps—we have allowed a significant segment of American society to eat at the lowest end of the food chain. These parallel food systems have become the norm, and like the streets and buildings that surround us, we have come to accept them as just part of our everyday landscape…

Any effort to address poverty, and ultimately hunger, will require a concomitant effort to reduce the vast income disparities that plague this nation. Economic inequality has been increasing in the United States for more than thirty years. According to the New York Times, “The top 0.1 percent of earners—that’s one out of every 1,000 families—made 6.8 percent of the nation’s pretax income in 2004, up from 4.7 percent a decade earlier and about 2 percent in the ’60s and ’70s.”

As the superrich take a greater share of the national wealth, the poor sink deeper into poverty. Of the 37 million poor Americans, 16 million live in severe poverty—incomes less than half of the federal poverty level—which is a thirty-two-year peak. And just in case people think that the severely poor are good-for-nothing, working-age men, one in three is a child, and two in three are women…”

Below are pie charts showing the composition of visitors to some of the popular social media destinations on the web. Two things that I find interesting:

• There are more girls than boys on the web, at least teenagers. The question this brings up is that are girls more prone to obsessive and impulsive instincts which lend themselves to an addictive participation in social media?
• While Facebook and myspace are at each others throats fighting for the same teenager crowd, Linkedin and flickr have successfully managed to corner the middle-aged crowd. Linkedin seems to be more successful at this. The other interesting issue is that as  one moves from Facebook and myspace to Linkedin and flickr, the women-men balance shifts. There are more middle-aged men participating in these two social media destinations than women. Does this mean that there are more middle-aged men who have plenty of time at their disposal to engage in social media?

President Barack Obama acting as a responsible leader that he is… Admittance of a mistake and willingness to highlight and correct it is crucial in earning and keeping the trust of those who invested so much confidence and hope in him.

In an attempt to “to protect local specialities from the growing popularity of ethnic cuisines,” cities in Italy, which are governed by the right leaning parties, are banning Kebab and other foreign foods. No, this is not a joke. In a food economy that is as global and integrated as it is now, I guess it has not dawned on the politicians that the food items that they consider to be “local specialties” may actually be manufactured elsewhere… This part is priceless:

Massimo Di Grazia, the city spokesman, said that the ban was intended to improve the image of the city and to protect Tuscan products… There is confusion, however, over what is meant by ethnic. Mr Di Grazia said that French restaurants would be allowed. He was unsure, though, about Sicilian cuisine. It is influenced by Arab cooking.”

It is not the food Africa is starved of, for there is plenty waiting to be equitably distributed. It is not water Africa is thirsting of, for rivers flood all across the land. It is not for the lack of means of any kind – earth-bound or alive. There is only one cancer that is the root cause of all evil: Africa is raped by poverty of leadership.

Raped by egoistic, selfish, and ignoramus buffoons who pretend to stand for her; humiliated world-over; left behind to die impoverished and in despair; stained by the blood of innocents falling victim to violence, cruelty, and lawlessness; hemorrhaging her precious resources – living and non-living.

Bloodied, exposed, and defiled by the ruthlessness of her own; helpless and powerless in exploitation; shamed by plagues and misery: Africa is raped by poverty of compassionate leadership.

A play-ground for aggressors and opportunists, exploited and sold, with bleeding arteries that became boarders between nations: Africa is raped by poverty of courageous leadership.

With potentials unfulfilled, promise unrealized, lands un-tilled and deforested, ravaged by civil-wars among brothers and sisters,  dependent on remission and gifts, an empty basket filled with hope and faith: Africa is raped by poverty of visionary leadership.

Africa is raped by poverty of leadership!

Reader’s Digest has an article exploring the lottery, which 42 states and the District of Columbia used to raise $17.4 billion for their budgets in 2007 out of the  $58.4 billion that was collectively spent by the population. Below are some other random facts about it:

$58.4 billion: How much we spent on the lottery in 2007.
30%: Amount states kept as profits.

$1.1 billion: California’s total lottery profits.
1.5%: Portion of California’s education budget that comes from the lottery.

$8.50: Amount a college-educated player spends on the lottery each month in Texas.
$16: Amount spent each month by the typical player without a high school degree.

49: West Virginia’s rank in median household income.
1: West Virginia’s rank in state lottery profits per capita.

$315 million: Biggest lottery jackpot claimed by a single winner.
$51.7 million: Biggest unclaimed jackpot.

1 in 146 million: The odds of hitting the 30-state Powerball jackpot.

1 in 67 million: Your odds of making two holes in one in the same round of golf

…”

You could not possibly guess who uttered those words when speaking about former Senator Bill Frist’s wife. The full quote is as follows:

I want to thank my friend, Senator Bill Frist, for joining us today. He married a Texas girl, I want you to know. Karyn is with us. A West Texas girl, just like me.” Nashville, Tennessee, 27 May, 2004

Those words were spoken by President George W. Bush. In an article entitled “The ‘misunderestimated’ president,”BBC has a collection of “his most memorable pronouncements.”

A website is born, “dedicated to President-elect Obama’s national call to service” In a true Obama-fashion and much like other websites they created during the presidential campaign, this one is intended to serve as a central hub for the coming together of a people around a common goal. I am certain that it will serve as a platform for organizing and focusing of efforts in search of bringing about change. More about the website:

…In 1994, Congress transformed the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday into a national day of community service to further commemorate a man who lived his life in service to others. As a tribute to that legacy and the very real needs of our nation, the President-elect and Vice President-elect have launched a national organizing effort on the eve of their Inauguration to engage Americans in service. This national day of service will fall on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, January 19, 2009 and, unlike past calls to service, President-elect Obama is calling on all Americans to do more than just offer a single day of service to their cities, towns and neighborhoods.  He is asking all of us to make an ongoing commitment to our communities. Never has it been more important to come together in shared purpose to tackle the common challenges we face.

This website is designed to help promote these events and for Americans to make their commitments, build communities, find opportunities to serve and share their results. These can be events that engage people in direct service, or bring people together to reflect on Dr. King’s legacy and how they can commit to becoming more engaged citizens. Please create an event or sign up to volunteer today.”

The total number of words in the English language is predicted to reach one-million by sometime in April. Happy one-million word to all!

…English does indeed have lots of words, almost certainly more than any other tongue. That is the consequence of its evolution. Basically Germanic, it was expanded by the conquering Normans, who introduced French, and the medieval scholars and clergy, who used Latin. As the global language of the modern world, it now has lots of local variants—some recompense perhaps for the words it helps to obliterate as more and more languages become extinct.”

Today, we heard the news about yet another billionaire committing suicide because of the recent economic down turn. Mr. Adolf Merckle apparently lost more than $500m by a wrongside bet on a Volkswagen stock. In a previous post ,we learned about the concept of anomie, which was articulated by Emile Durkheim, in relation of the death of Mr. de La Villehuchet.

It is fascinating to me how such people of tremendous wealth and influence can suddenly find themselves to be helpless and lose the type of grandiosity surrounding their lives. For all practical purposes, even with the type of loss that was incurred, Mr. Merckle would probably still be one of the wealthiest individuals in the world. That perspective is lost on such people and the spiraling down of events catapults them into a state of disfunctionality and illness. It is all the more interesting how Durkheim was able to aptly describe such a condition, which he called anomie and refers to “the breakdown of the normative frameworks of our lives, the upsetting of rules, expectations, one’s sense of one’s place in society, one’s status vis-à-vis others, a social condition with grave psychological effects, leading in extreme cases to suicide.” Indeed, because of thinkers like Durkheim, we have the framework for learning about and making sense of such seemingly bizarre events.

Here is a rude-awakening about a quite storm sweeping through our own backyards. The epidemic of fatherlessness, which is affecting this country more than any other industrialized nation (40% of children in the U.S. are fatherless) is profiled with a heart-breaking detail in a PBS program called “Raising Cain: Boys in Focus.”

Hosted by child psychologist Michael Thompson, Ph.D., co-author of the best-selling book Raising Cain: Protecting the Emotional Lives of Boys, this documentary explores the emotional development of boys in America today. Thompson consults with some of our nation’s most respected psychologists, social activists, researchers and educators to probe the issues facing boys and find solutions to their dilemmas.

This two-hour documentary provides surprising new research about boys’ inner lives, dispelling a number of commonly held misconceptions, and highlights innovative programs that are bringing out the best in boys. The PBS Parents Guide to Understanding and Raising Boys offers insights and advice from Thompson and other experts on raising boys in America today.

Here is an informational article which discusses the “emotional miseducation” that is perpetuated on boys, which forces them to assume a mask of masculinity to hide the fear lying underneath the bravado and appearance of strength and manhood.

• Total spending: Noway
• Household goods: Norway. Canada is close second followed by Denmark, England and Germany.
• Clothing: Norway. England is close second followed by the U.S., Denmark, Sweden and Finland.
• Alcohol and Tobacco: Norway. Switzerland is second followed by England, Finland and Denmark.
• Electronics: Norway. England is a close second followed by Denmark, Australia and the U.S.

Who Is Buying What

There has recently been a tremendous amount of buzz spreading all over the internet around the shirtless pictures of President-elect Barack Obama. O!, gushed The Huffington Post.

O!

Thinking about this incident, I could not help but be impressed by the subtle, but symbolic, example it sets for the nation. Every bit of news coverage of  his daily work activities during the transition process has been making note of the fact that he incessantly goes to a gym without fail. He is probably one of the busiest persons on the planet and yet makes time to exercise on a daily basis. Needless to say, the fruits of such habits clearly manifest themselves in his good physical health and shape the images that surfaced project.

This is to be contrasted with the obesity epidemic that is affecting the nation. Below are graphs from CDC that show the percent of U.S. adults that are obese:

Percent of Obese (BMI > 30) in U.S. Adults (2007)

It is incredible to note that almost all the states have > 20% of their population as obese. Now, let us look at the same type of map from years past:

1986

1995

2001

The pace at which the numbers have been increasing is cause for alarm and is crying out for a major intervention and an act of strong leadership. What are the consequences of obesity? The answer to this question can be found from Weight-control Information Network, at National Institute of Health:

Obesity is more than a cosmetic problem. Many serious medical conditions have been linked to obesity, including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, and stroke. Obesity is also linked to higher rates of certain types of cancer. Men who are obese are more likely than nonobese men to develop cancer of the colon, rectum, or prostate. Women who are obese are more likely than nonobese women to develop cancer of the gallbladder, uterus, cervix, or ovaries. Esophageal cancer has also been associated with obesity.

Other diseases and health problems linked to obesity include:

• Gallbladder disease and gallstones.
• Fatty liver disease (also called nonalcoholic steatohepatitis or NASH).
• Gastroesophageal reflux, or what is sometimes called GERD. This problem occurs when the lower esophageal sphincter does not close properly and stomach contents leak back—or reflux—into the esophagus.
• Osteoarthritis, a disease in which the joints deteriorate. This is possibly the result of excess weight on the joints.
• Gout, another disease affecting the joints.
• Pulmonary (breathing) problems, including sleep apnea, which causes a person to stop breathing for a short time during sleep.
• Reproductive problems in women, including menstrual irregularities and infertility.

Health care providers generally agree that the more obese a person is, the more likely he or she is to develop health problems.

Emotional suffering may be one of the most painful parts of obesity. American society emphasizes physical appearance and often equates attractiveness with slimness, especially for women. Such messages make overweight people feel unattractive.

Many people think that individuals with obesity are gluttonous, lazy, or both. This is not true. As a result, people who are obese often face prejudice or discrimination in the job market, at school, and in social situations. Feelings of rejection, shame, or depression may occur.”

That is where I see Obama leading by example. Without saying a word, the good physical shape he is in communicates the result of sustaining an active lifestyle. The discipline with which he goes about attending to his daily workouts communicates the type of committement it requires to stay healthy and, for that matter, overcome obesity. He is indeed a leader unlike any other.

Ponzi Schemes

It turns out that Mr. Madoff, himself a Jew, has particularly exploited the Jewish community. What he has been able to pull off is believed to be the latest example of a particular kind of investment scam called affinity fraud. A good introduction into this concept can be found at SEC:

Affinity fraud refers to investment scams that prey upon members of identifiable groups, such as religious or ethnic communities, the elderly, or professional groups. The fraudsters who promote affinity scams frequently are – or pretend to be – members of the group. They often enlist respected community or religious leaders from within the group to spread the word about the scheme, by convincing those people that a fraudulent investment is legitimate and worthwhile. Many times, those leaders become unwitting victims of the fraudster’s ruse.

These scams exploit the trust and friendship that exist in groups of people who have something in common. Because of the tight-knit structure of many groups, it can be difficult for regulators or law enforcement officials to detect an affinity scam. Victims often fail to notify authorities or pursue their legal remedies, and instead try to work things out within the group. This is particularly true where the fraudsters have used respected community or religious leaders to convince others to join the investment.

Many affinity scams involve “Ponzi” or pyramid schemes, where new investor money is used to make payments to earlier investors to give the false illusion that the investment is successful. This ploy is used to trick new investors to invest in the scheme and to lull existing investors into believing their investments are safe and secure. In reality, the fraudster almost always steals investor money for personal use. Both types of schemes depend on an unending supply of new investors – when the inevitable occurs, and the supply of investors dries up, the whole scheme collapses and investors discover that most or all of their money is gone.”

… than the delivery system.” That is according to a publisher discusing about the transformation that is taking place in the way books are being read. Gregory Cowles, who blogs about books for NY Times, states that “2008 may be remembered as the year that e-books finally caught on.” The argument is based on his observation of the prevalent use of the Kindle among the public and the publishing community. There is also another good article here on this topic. Below is an excerpt from the post:

I think I would have a hard time adapting to that — I live too much in my head already, and enjoy the solid physicality of ink on paper — but then, I’m the kind of guy who would have complained about the end of parchment or chiseled stone too. There’s no stopping the future. “When you get right down to it,” a publisher told me, “the story you’re delivering is always more important than the delivery system you use.”  

The transformation from print to electronic media in the modes of information dissemination is an inevitable one. We are making incremental steps in that direction. The convenience and cost factors will gradually dictate as to which delivery technology will win. It is, however, clear that the convergence of functionalities is proving to be a winning combination allowing for having all the information that is relevant on the go or easily accessible from the same device. The following comment by Fanisa on Cowel’s post gives an apt description of all the benefits of flexibility and convenience afforded by such devices like Kindle.

I have a Kindle, and I love it. I find that I’m reading more because of it.

Yes, you can make annotations anywhere you want. You can judge just about how far along you are in the book by a series of dots along the bottom of the screen.

It’s easier to hold than most books, easier to turn the pages, and the screen doesn’t hurt your eyes because it is not backlit.

I’ve got tons of free public domain books on it–including most of ancient, English, American and Continental literature, and with my 8-gig memory card, I’m only using about one-tenth of the available memory. It even holds audiobooks and music. It has a dictionary that you just click on from the page you’re reading whenever you want to look up a word.

One of the major problems in my life is that I have too many books. They’ve taken over my house. This way I can carry around my entire library (once everything’s been switched over to e-books) in my bag. If you lose the Kindle, you’ve still got your whole library backed up either on your own home computer (I always keep the copies of the free books I download) or on Amazon to download as many times as you wish.

I read “John Adams” on it, and stopped to read Tom Paine’s pamphlets, and the whole Declaration of Independence, because I had them right there on the Kindle. If I’d been reading the (heavy) physical book, I wouldn’t have done that. Now I’m reading some Ken Follett and having just as much fun as if it were a physical book.

It’ll be awhile before the photos on the Kindle are of better quality and before color, but that’ll come. This thing is the future.”

So good, so creative, so delightful!

The process of writing transforms thoughts into structured composition of words. I believe the difficulty in writing, for that matter in any creative process, lies exactly in the challenges posed by the extraction of the inherent randomness in the thought process while transforming them into ordered synthesis and description of ideas.

Why writing well is hard

There is a parallel to be drawn with the concept of increasing entropy, as described with the second law of thermodynamics. This law states that the natural tendency of processes is to progress in the direction of increase in disorder. For any process, countering this tendency requires the input of work in order for it to occur. That is precisely why writing well is difficult. The second law stipulates that there is a price to be paid to take the the randomness of the thought process and organize ideas in ordered format. The price is the work that needs to be put in the writing process.

The work required to take an idea through the three stages shown above requires the lowering of the overall randomness of the system of thought. There are no shortcuts to it. One only learns about the path of the least resistance through study and practice. This process could be one of developing faculty with the language of expression or other instruments of creativity. It could also be, in the process of reading, the sheer absorption of ways, intentionally or unintentionally, in which other great writers were able to accomplish this task. What differentiates the good from the not-so-good is the discovery and channeling of that unique path.

The first compilation of Expressions created using animoto.