Flight from Death: The Quest for Immortality

I just watched this documentary: Flight from Death: The Quest for Immortality:

Apparently, many things boil down to people defending their symbolic story of denial of death... read it again: our denial of death belief system, defines our tolerance, and when we see our immortality system threatened, we tend to become anxious and aggressive.

Here's a paper published in 1989, http://people.uncw.edu/ogler/Experimental/TM%201.pdf, which says that once subjects are reminded of their death, they sympathizer more toward people of their own beliefs, and become hurtful of people who either disrespect that immortality system or just believe in something different. THIS, of course is when we push this anxiety to our subconscious. If we keep reminding ourselves about our death, we will not allow this anxiety to affect our actions without us realizing it.

There's so much that comes to mind after this. I realized that when a war starts, specially if it is between different culture/religions, it will be a reinforcing cycle: see more death, feel more threatened, get more anxious, hurt the other more, kill more... Now I am thinking that the Iran-Iraq war might have permanently changed the views of those generation that took part in it. (i.e. my parent's generation). They might not realize the effect, but the war has indeed made them more and more intolerant. Some time has passed, some people have again forgotten the fearful times, so they are again getting tolerant people, but I hope.. I just hope... that nothing like that reminds them again and pushes them unto the stressful, intolerance, fear of mortality.

On the flip side, peace is a positive reinforcement cycle too..
oh well..

America, the story of US

Watching "America, the story of US" documentary series on my Netflix! It's really exciting to learn the events I kind of knew and heard about in one collective set and getting the right dates and the gaps and everything. I created a timeline kind of thing, which I hope to keep in my head(we'll see about that). Here it is, without much editing, because I'm too lazy. But it could be helpful to somebody at some point...

100 after Christoph columbus, religion priests went to guide people in the USA.. 

120 after at 1610: John Ralf comes to Usa to james town during starving time in the US,.Ralf marries Pokohantes, daughter of king. He grows tabaco.. 1000 more settlers in 2 years come, including slaves. 30 years later, 20,000 people in virginia. america is founded on tabaco!

in 1616 europians come and bring disease to native people(diseases which they had been imune to, due to the black death)..

10 years after Ralf comes, English religious settlers in new world. seeking religious freedom. april 1621.after cold winter.. food supplies low.. 

they join forces with native and battle a rival tribe, they win and a period of peace comes. after that battle thanksgiving day is celebrated.

Boston rebels dump tea taxes onto sea .. 

1768, at Boston (english colony) 

4 July 1776: independence- declaration of right: liberty in pursuit of happiness..

1825 industrial revolution, america catching up!

1840: the word Millioner is invented in new york. nyc becomes most crowded port.. after Eirie chanal is completed..

1850 america created 75% cotton in world. south becomes very rich. (white gold) thanks to slavery..

in North, factories to make clothes.. women work and earn money for the first time.. punch cards are invented--> idea of binary calculation and computers!

1850 slavery became a moral, political, economical issue that devides north and south. 

1852- uncle tom's cabin best seller in north... 

1860: election.. war of south and north.. Abraham Lincoln.. he's against slavery. south doesn't accept him. they decide to get independent against the rest of the US.

civil wars begin 5 weeks after lincoln takes office.

1844: telegraph and Mors code widespread..

Lincoln uses railroads and telegraphs as an advantage.

invention of portable cameras -> public opinion about war changes..

1864 civil war is over. south joins the union and slavery is stoped.. Lincoln is assacinated soon afterwars. 

After war railroad gets completed to west coast. people are given land as payment because government is poor now. 

1892 population goes back to east because it's too hot and there are tornados and insects...

1885 statue of liberty finaly is assembled.. 

early 1875 steel industry by andrew carnegie.. => tall skyscappers.. cities, ships,..elevators, 

crimes, slums, urban problems.. > but in future at 1930, stock market collapses.

1907 sewage.. waste collection,..

1879 Thomas Edison-> electric light bulb! -> factories, sports everything can operate at night! people coming to cities, women working,. 

1900 Oil is discovered in america.. Gasoline is made cheap... cities allow for larger cities... leads to consumer boom.. 

1908.. Henry Ford makes cheap car after Gasoline is cheap.. (and inventing production line which affects everything)

1919 black migration from south to north.. cultural tension.. white not selling houses to black.. white not getting arrested if he kills black.. riots everywhere (The Red Summer).. also alcohol problem: this year production and sale of alcohol is added to constitution..gangsters grow, people take the amendment back out of constitution.

1930 consumer bubble burst! stuck market collapses, banks collapses, jobs die, --> great depression!

1935 hoover dam is completed. Inspiring, produces electricity and water.. Radio gets to every house..

Then the WWII begins..

T.B.C!

farewell to a friend

What can I say, except that I wish wherever you go, you go with happiness and sincerity and have great great life... I'll miss you for sure, and you'll forever be my dear friend, and I promise here and now that I'll have your back, and be your support until my last breath. May our friendship grow and keep growing and even when life seasons change our friendship remain our anchor..

While reading Randy Pausch's last lecture book...

I'm reading Randy Pausch's The Last Lecture right now, and it's full of little gems, some very familiar to me, some so new and wise. Reading page 168 line 8, I suddenly for some reason realized that this world is built for good people to find each other, and connect, and accomplish their goodness with help of each other. All else is temporary, and random, and shapeless, and like the noise around a solid pattern in an image...

Sophies World, finished!

Yesterday I finally had time to finish Sophie's World book. What a wonderful book it was. Loved the ending too, :) Finishing a book is like an accomplishment. Somehow you feel that you did something good for yourself. The other resolution for my current year was to read 20 books.

So far I've finished
1) Franny and Zooey,
2) Blind Owl (Boof-e-Koor)
3) Sophies World,
4) A Tale of Two Cities (still going!)

There are also two books I have started but kind of going slow. The Golden Compass, and the Freakonomics. Freakonomics is educational, but the other one is like for kids.. I might stop it. NEXT will be a bunch of good books like History of Time or the Grand Design, also the Selfish Gene.. I need to get my hands on all of these!

On another completely different note: Happy Memorial Day! We planned to go to picnic, but first, it's too hot, and second, I had wanted these two days to be MINE, to explore the tech world, iphone app writing, etc. Don't know what to do. Maybe I'll go. Maybe I'll skip it.. I can always go hicking there with another good friend of mine. In fact we had promised to go there togather.. Haha, according to what I learned yesterday in Sophie's World, in Freud's psychoanalysis chapter, I'm just "rationalizing" now.  Deep down I guess I don't want to go, that's all!

OKKKKKKK finally! The papers are both done now, and I'll have two full days to myself and my ambitions! It should be fun :)

Eat that Frog!

Sometimes you become a very boring person.. So boring you don't want to be with yourself even.. Today is one of those days, for me! I have to finish a paper, and it's a boring paper, and anything exciting I want to do I tell myself noooo wait till your paper is finished, and because the paper is boring too, I end up going about it veryyyy slowly. I guess even blogging isn't gonna make me skip that paper. Have you read "Eat that Frog" book? This paper is like one slimy ugly frog that I have to swallow before I can do anything fun in the rest of my life. Might as well finish it early!