Quote of the Day

We must accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope.

--Martin Luther King Jr.

H/T New York Muhtari

Linkestan 2007 11 25

What is going on in the Malatya massacre case? - Turkish Daily News Nov 22, 2007 : indeed what is going on?

Five on trial in Turkey for missionary murders : postponed to 14/01/2008

Emotional Intelligence Or Something Else ?

An excerpt from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix:

** "Don't you understand how Cho's feeling at the moment?" [Hermione] asked.

"No," said Harry and Ron together.

Hermione sighed and laid down her quill.

"Well, obviously, she's feeling very sad, because of Cedric dying. Then I expect she's feeling confused because she liked Cedric and now she likes Harry, and she cant work out who she likes best. Then she will be feeling guilty, thinking its an insult to Cedric's memory to be kissing Harry at all, and she will be worrying about what everyone else might say about her if she starts going out with Harry. And she probably cant work out what her feelings towards Harry are, anyway, because he was the one who was with Cedric when Cedric died, so that's all very mixed up and painful. Oh, and she's afraid she's going to be thrown off the Ravenclaw Quidditch team because she's been flying so badly."

A slightly stunned silence greeted the end of this speech, then Ron said, "One person cant feel all that at once, they'd explode."

"Just because you've got the emotional range of a teaspoon doesn't mean we all have," said Hermione nastily, picking up her quill again. **

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UPDATE : HERE is a take on emotional intelligence from an investing angle but the sources cited herein also make for a more generally useful resource on this subject.

Royal Institution Lecture by Sir Roger Penrose

Attended this evening.

A mind stretching experience.

Managed to get Professor Penrose to sign my copy of The Emperor's New Mind.

Some notes and key words jotted down during the lecture :

• icosahedral symmetry
• crystalline patterns can have rotational symmetry as well as translational symmetry
• n-fold symmetry
• Penrose tiles are surrounded by rings of 10 pentagons
• only 3 kinds of polygons are used to create Penrose tiles : star, jester's cap and pentagon
• Penrose tiles exhibit a "non-repeating quasi 5-fold symmetric pattern"
• Robert Ammann solids (3-D tiling)
• J Kepler (1619) in his book Harmonice Mundi shows tiling patterns that anticipate Penrose tiles
• Penrose tiles exhibit a "hierarchical structure"(?)
• Penrose tiles have a connection with fractals
• there seem to be analogies between the formation of quasi crystals and the superposition principle in quantum mechanics ("non-local choice" is present in both)
• Penrose tiling uses only two structures : kites and darts

Godliness

The godly man lives in the presence of God and in such place recognises his many weaknesses which leads him to his knees to pray so that he may not be a hypocrite.

Linkestan 2007 11 19

Letting Go of the Past & Water Over the Dam

Roots by the River: I Just Can't Forgive Myself

The Equal And Opposite Reaction : an essay on the Islamic sense of justice which is the cause of hyper-sensitive temperaments in devout Muslims and also among the less religious raised in a Muslim environment.

Celal Birader As Drawn By His Daughter

Linkestan 2007 11 17

Symmetry and the Monster :

Turning sphere inside out : interesting video lecture

Évariste Galois: 196th birthday : with a good description of what Galois was on about

Does Mathematical Beauty Pose Problems for Naturalism? : more on truth and beauty in mathematics

Beauty and the quest for beauty in science

Response to Erdogan about the Armenian Genocide

Click here for responses to comments made during a visit to Washington D.C. in November 2007

Linkestan 2007 11 05

So How's that Public Diplomacy Effort Going, Anyway?
: Condoleezza Rice visits Turkey

Dog t-shirt deemed insulting
: insulting to "Turkishness", that is.

Biden Iraq plan passes
: a non-binding senate resolution in favor of the break-up of Iraq

Stars and Stripes: Incirlik proves efficient for supply missions

50 reasons to love Turkey
: you gotta take the good with the bad

Amnesty Intl Report on Turkey
: a report dated Feb 2006

Willie Nelson sings Always On My Mind

Jesus

"In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness." Hebrews 9:22