Sunday, July 31, 2016

A osprey's wonderful first flight.

It's a wonderful and calming thing to see a bird take its first flight, isn't it?


Somebody told me once that every great and meaningful project requires a leap of faith.

Learning something new is just like learning to fly for a bird too.
We all learn fast naturally but often education stunts the process.

"Don't let education get in the way of your learning.", Mark Twain said.

All too often teachers won't allow students to make mistakes.
Mistakes are being stigmatized and the learning process is halted because the teacher intervenes where the student could have learned how to recover, cope, adjust and recalibrate.
This essential step is crucial to learning but micro-managing and having no faith in the student at all will remove almost all those benefits from making mistakes.

You can see in the video that the mother does not come immediately after he takes off but only after he had landed. This does not mean that the mother will not help when he is in need but she doesn't intervene too fast.

The Pygmalion effect states that the expectations you set for people influence those people's performance. This is tested in schools and workplaces. If you have no faith in your students then how do you expect your students to succeed?

Let's make learning fun again. Remove stigma from failure.
Let creativity free so you can come up with many ways to learn from your failure.
Look forward to learning coping and recovery strategies. Look forward to recalibrating your strategies.
This is how people who are good in something become great.
Have faith.

Take flight.

Saturday, July 30, 2016

This adorable cat has to hunt for food.


This cat has to "hunt" to get some food. 


We used to hunt for food too, we used to walk for miles and outrun animals to get some meat.
This seems to be the first method of hunting for us humans. 


Walking and running is an essential part of our physical and mental health.
It improves our mood and memory. 

Now most of the physical exercise we use to do is replaced by exercises in a gym. 
Te difference between the gym and the exercise outside the gym is that it is uneven, unregular.
Running happens in the gym on a flat band, outside the terrain is uneven in many places.
You can run on asphalt or a somewhat flat road but it is healthier to run on an uneven terrain. 

Unregularity and randomness keep us sharp and healthy.
Everything that is too regular can make our health more fragile.

Have a great unregular day. 


Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Too much gratitude can kill you.

Thank God!

The first response you get when something gets fixed that seems very important to you.

We should be grateful it gets fixed and that they are willing to help us.

But sometimes the problem was caused by the people who are now offering the fix....at a cost of course. Nothing is for free.

Oh and you can't have what we originally agreed on but you get something that on the surface seems to offer the same but is, in fact, nothing like it at all.

But hey, be grateful you get what we offer you.

We are going to stab you but be happy we are not going to stab you in the stomach.

We are going to screw you over but trust us we had no choice, just be grateful we didn't take everything you have.

Be grateful we didn't take all your data.

Be grateful we don't control all your money.
Be grateful we don't do it more often.
Be grateful we kept that information from you, you couldn't handle it anyway.

Be grateful we f*cked things up so bad there had to come change that is eventually good.


Well, guess what. The curtains up. The show is over. We aren't gonna take it anymore.

Time's up!

Support the organisations that demand change:


Anonymous (which doesn't seem to be an organisation according to one of them)

To keep to the internet free and for all of us there is:


To lend money to people who need it there is Kiva.
Browse categories of borrowers— people looking to grow businesses, go to school, switch to clean energy and more.

Support minorities in need. #Blacklivesmatter.

Be a voice for those suppressed and silenced.
Let use our privilege to help those less privileged.

Support artists that create change. 


What do you stand for? What will you not stand for?
What organisations are important and are missing in the list here. Let us know.


We are not powerless!

Have a great day. 

Why we need to reevaluate how we design our technology before its too late.


Technology has given us so many great inventions that can improve our lives.
Many of these inventions that we use today we take for granted.

Some inventions aid us to get things done and others help us to find answers we need.
Take for instance a calculator. A calculator helps us find mathematical answers but does it make you understand math better?

No. The more we depend on using calculators the more we become dependent on calculators.

I see the same thing when I am copy-pasting words that I have to Google, because English is not my native language. I forget the words more easily.

We program computers to become smarter but most of the time we don't think about making computers that make us smarter. This is te difference between A.I, artificial intelligence and I.A Intelligence amplification.

This reminds me of a question about war that was asked to Neil DeGrasse Tyson:
Is it possible to create super soldiers and what research is there done?
He answered that any time a change needed to be made in order to improve survival chances  in space those changes were made external by engineers instead of biological.

Which means that spacesuits were made and improved, The space stations were improved, the way a space shuttle take off, travels and lands are improved. All external to the body.

Why? Because when something happens the health risks are smaller and easier to repair.

So in some situations externalizing aid is not only optional but essential.

  Nevertheless outside of matters of life and death, many of our external aids make us more dependent and the skills we have to do it ourselves are diminishing.

Maybe it is a better idea to design our technology to enhance our skills and intelligence instead of outsourcing it everytime.

Let me know what you think in the comments.

Have a great day.

Saturday, July 23, 2016

How to get the best out of Pokemon Go ... if you're NOT playing it.



Hi there people,

You have by now been swallowed by the Pokemon Go hype and have chosen to play or not.
No matter what you have chosen to do you will have seen it on social media and on the streets.

I can imagine it might be somewhat irritating if you have friends or colleagues keep talking about it or when they don't pay attention and are focused on their game instead. 

Some people are getting upset and post on social media how these Pokemon Go players are 
childish and how adult they themselves are. Other people are posting how Pokemon Go players get in trouble sometimes to show how "dumb" they are. 

Other people just don't want other people to have fun. 

You can be upset all the time or you could get the best out of this situation too.

Some shops are using it to attract more clients.
If you are a creator and sell on Etsy or another site you can make stuff for Pokemon players if you want.

The San Diego Zoo uses the hype to educate people. 
The Maryland Zoo is attracting more Pokemon in the game and attracting more people to visit the zoo.
The Toronto Zoo made a map so players can find the Gyms more easily in the zoo.

These people utilised the hype to their benefit maybe you can utilize it too.
Maybe you can use something that you first thought was hindering you to your advantage.

Sometimes it's all about how we look at a situation and how we look at the things that happen in our life. Maybe you will find even more situations in your life that you can utilize.

Have a great day.
Enjoy.


Tuesday, July 19, 2016

Controlling the chaos in magic.



Seriously, what gave you the impression you could bargain with Cthulhu?
What makes you think that you can control all the vibrations in Indras net when you step right in.

Every nervous system has its limits to the range of sensory perception.
What lies in the ultraviolet light?  What lurks in the frequencies that we can't tap into?

"You look more radiant every day madam Cury."
How many sacrifices did it take to learn about radiation what we take for granted today?

Even when you stretch your perceptual acuity and your sensibility there are always limits.

There is always more we don't know than that we know.
There is always more happening than that we can comprehend.

Dynamic systems have chaotic solutions in a universe that is fractal with exponential growth.
Now , I know this is a sentence with a lot of big words but this isn't' a Deepak Chopra quote, Understanding the basics of dynamics systems and cybernetics, chaos theory, fractal math and exponential growth is cruel in working with chaos.


Many people who are into Chaos magic also have shown much interest in the work Nassim Nicolas Taleb did into living in a world of incomplete information, chaos, antifragitlity and black swans.

"The black swan theory or theory of black swan events is a metaphor that describes an event that comes as a surprise, has a major effect, and is often inappropriately rationalized after the fact with the benefit of hindsight. The term is based on an ancient saying which presumed black swans did not exist, but the saying was rewritten after black swans were discovered in the wild."-wikipedia.

We often tend to explain non-linear unpredictable things in hindsight as linear and predictable.
This is best to keep in mind when working with magic it seems to me because magic is (thinking that we are) making linear connections with "forces" in a non-linear universe. 

Ofcourse Chaos magicians know that you can use anything to make a meaningful connection as long as you make it meaningful. This is the benefit of a fractal universe, everything reflects everything else. As explained in my other post about magic, anything can be used as a source of a greater "power".  It are the connections that give it power, how you connect to the item you are working with and how that item is a part of, is related to, something bigger than itself. 

Yet, even when we have the wanted result in magic it would be unwise imo to think that the results are restricted to what you can perceive or that when a ritual or other magical working fail that therefore nothing happened.  

But what does this mean practically? What does this change for me practicing magic? 

It may seem reasonably abstract at first but changing understanding changes the boundaries of the concepts we can work with and it changes how we relate to things. 

It can be that you are accumulating small undetectable changes in a vast network that could suddenly give exponential results. 

It can be that what the spells you left unfinished keep reverberating and that what you delete sends out a signal from the beginning of time to infinity. I am using exaggeration to make you stretch your imagination of possibilities. 

Train your peripheral thinking and understanding of the world.

We can learn where our functional fixedness lies and soften or remove those boundaries. 

No matter how much we learn there is always more to learn. No matter how much you control don't get cocky and overreach. 

About reach of power, Nicolas Taleb had the following to say, that the control of power should be given to the smallest unit that can handle it. That way the bigger system can gain from the failure and/or fragility of the smaller. Small conflicts between smaller parts give more resilience to the bigger unit. When a too big part takes control of power it can damage the resilience of the smaller parts and therefore make the larger system more fragile in the end. 

So who are you trying to summon and for what goal and ends? What is it reach and where can it overreach? 

How much are you in control of your magical  practise and how much is in your control of you? 

Micromanaging does more damage than that is beneficial to the system. 
So where do we need to draw the line? It comes back to the smallest manageable part again. 

Maybe it can help to think in terms of min-maxing. 

May the For... Chaos... entrance you and inspire you to learn more. 

Have a great day. 





The police response on the 3 dead policemen in Baton Rouge was great and here is why.



After the Baton Rouge shooting  a police officer responded to the situation with:
"Were not sure of anything right now. All we do know is..."

Wonderful!

How many times have you heard somebody trying to be smart by trying to come up with an explanation on the spot?

Even when there is information to base a conclusion on it is important to acknowledge when you have too little information to come to a conclusion. Guessing what something could be in such situation can create confusion that can escalate faster than we can comprehend.

Clarity in communication is essential in dangerous and risky situations.
It is also very important when emotions are getting stirred up in a group.

Stating that you don't have all the information does not make you dumb,
the best scientist will answer: "I don't know." in a Q&A when they don't know the answer.
It's a sign of greatness.

Recognizing the boundaries of our knowledge makes us more alert and critical of how we come to know things, how we learn and how we process information.

Once we know what it is we don't understand or know yet we can begin to learn.
Until we have recognized what it is we don't know enough of we can't see with clear eyes, we can't learn.

Another great way of creating clarity is sticking to the facts without coming to a conclusion.
Many people think that a person who doesn't come up with conclusions on the spot is indecisive or even maybe dumb; Maybe this happened to you too.

In fact, people who are slower to come to conclusions often are more critical and understand that not everything is like it seems at first sight. They will often look for underlying reasons and systems that could change what appears to be. They will often be more careful when making a decision and care about the sustainability of a change they want to make instead of going for the first thing that pops in their head.

That does not mean that this is a better strategy all the time. There are times when it is better to just go for "good enough".

In the case of the police responding on the Baton Rouge shooting, the answer of the policemen was exactly what was needed.

Well done.

Sunday, July 17, 2016

World Emoji Day - Fun Facts.



With so many emojis you could say almost anything in pictures. Before you know it we are back to using hieroglyphs like in ancient Egypt. That's not a fact of course, but what well is, is that:

We process emojis with the same parts of the brain that process facial expressions wich means that our brain responds the same to emojis as to facial expressions.
For more information on facial expressions, check out: Paul Ekman.

Every language how complex it may be at first becomes simpler over time.

Emojili was a network that uses emojis only. Emojli was set up as a joke by two people in their spare time and despite the occasional call from confused investors, it isn't a startup. Over 60,000 of you may have downloaded the apps, but very few people actually used it. It closed 30th July 2015.

Link: http://emoj.li/

One of those friends who started Emojili is Tom Scott, who became rather accidentally a emoji expert suddenly.


This is my opinion but I am still gonna give it: Tom is a very smart and funny guy and you might learn a thing or two from him. He has a youtube channel.

Have a great day now. :D 






Thursday, July 7, 2016

Why police shootings are often misjudged.



Once more we have a police shooting. This time in Minnesota. 
It is very understandable why people get angry when they hear about it.

It seems like the police shootings increase and people don't feel safe at all. 
They feel let down and used by the system that is supposedly there to protect them. 

What goes wrong with so many police interventions?

Police officers are often assigned to a district that has people from different backgrounds than where the officer lives. This creates an environment of mistrust between the civilians and the police. 

When conflicts arise tribal bias can overtake the necessity to try to understand the person in front of you. 

When things get really dangerous or is perceived as dangerous the level of adrenaline rises and our perception of time changes. 

Remember that time when you heard about a gunfight the police had. It could be a page long.
In reality, that could happen in the timespan of  a few seconds time. All the decisions have to be made in fractions of a second. Judging a situation and reacting to it needs to happen in a fraction of a second. 

Perceptions can be skewed in drastic manner. 

Police need some serious training that changes the reflexes and snapshot judgments in high adrenaline situations. Also maybe learn how to lower their adrenaline so their state is more stable when they enter high risk situations. 

All this doesn't mean that those police shootings can be  just excused. 
Something needs to happen. 

The problem is on different levels at once: Organisational, Political, Educational and Personal. 
Change needs to happen on all those levels before any good change can stick. 

Have a great day. 

Wednesday, July 6, 2016

Why Oprah Winfrey's speech could be dangerous advice.


Although she inspires people she is really vague in how you should achieve that.
She uses big fluffy words like: dream, energy, ext..

People like to dream. Maybe even the American dream.  
It sounds like Deepak Chopra and his big words that hold no ground in science at all.  
"You’re responsible for the energy you put out into the world.” she said.  
But what does that mean? Energy is a metaphor and not a physical thing in the real world. 

Although I do believe that following your bliss or as she said it "The magic is to surrender to God’s dream for you" that doesn't mean that it's going to be easy once you know what it is.

It most likely means that you are going to face more difficult choices and challenges in your life. So I want you to be prepared instead of being with your head in the clouds. 

The concept of returning energy that you put in the world or what people think is karma doesn't repay you equally for what you did. The universe is chaotic and random, what doesn't mean that there can't be kindness. 

To think that karma is justice is an injustice to karma.
The web trembles as you move it does not care why you move.

She seems to give the impression that it's all in your hands but it often depends on where you start too. It depends on the privileges you have to start with and the people around you, your social network.
Here the Matheus effect is good to remember: Those who already have much find it easier to accumulate even more but those who have little will be taken more resources from (or are less protected against it). 

People who have much (or have more privileges) find it easier also to ask for favors from others but those who have little often don't find the courage to ask for help. 

So what to do? 
1.     Remember that this is a non-linear world. 
2.     Count your blessings. 
3.     Learn how to leverage what you have disproportionally. (scalebility)
4.     Calculate unexpected setbacks in your plan.
5.     Start with a "good enough" plan.
6.     Take the first step.
7.     Learn what feedback is useful and what is not. 
8.     Be willing to change your plan if necessary. 
9.     Create habits instead of relying on willpower. 
10? Ok 10. Be suspicious of advice of so called "experts" or celebrities.
Of course I am not expert myself. But anyway, don't take my word.
Test. Test. Test! 

Have a great day. 

Tuesday, July 5, 2016

Short - Wimbledon, a hit and miss.


Are you going to Wimbledon?

It's far from all hotels and you have to stand in queues for queues.
You can also pay to watch it on a big screen. 

So, not really something I enjoy but if this is your jam....plan!

Make sure that you spend your time well.

Black Lives Matter making a point.

Mark Blinch/Canadian Press

We have seen the rise of many groups that don't have a singular leader that started it guides it.
These are organizations like Anonymous and Black Lives matter.

When there are so many different groups all fighting to be heard and to be seen sometimes they collide. 

When the Pride Parade was in Toronto they got held up by a Black Lives Matter group. 

There isn't freedom achieved for everybody yet. 

“Folks are forgetting that we haven’t all made it to the point of queer liberation. That not all communities who participate in Pride are actually able to be free in that celebration,” Williams said ahead of the parade.

But does that mean that freedom cannot be celebrated at all when others fight for their freedom?

Maybe we can use that opportunity of freedom to put a spotlight on those who are in need and those who are still fighting. 

Freedom is not something that comes free. When we stop fighting for it we lose it. 

We can celebrate freedom; we can celebrate the victories in our fight for freedom, 
But we cannot forget, we may not forget that it is not done. It is never done. 

There will always be groups with good intentions that collide.

Maybe we can learn to listen well and to integrate different calls for help and calls for action in the spotlight instead of fighting for the spotlight. 

There are so many things that demand our attention and time. 


Let's make the best of our time....together. 

Monday, July 4, 2016

Are Hooters corrupting the scouts boys?

Photograph: Screengrab/hooters.com

Imagine sending your 7-year-old to the scouts camp as you always do and at the end of the day you see that he is surrounded by Hooters. Hooters with more covering clothes, but still.

This was not what you had in mind for your 7-year-old.

That was what a mother of a 7-year-old boy in Denver experienced. She was outraged.

If it was the father I could understand that more. I would be a little bit jealous too maybe. *laughs*

Well, both the parents were outraged to be correct.

Does it corrupt kids to be exposed to some sexy ladies?

Maybe they might become more aware of their sexuality and are becoming more curious about sexuality.

We have seen through history that restricting curiosity about sexuality and trying to remove and condemn every impulse that could cause arousal causes unnecessary mental and biological stress that could even lead to physical and mental illness.

In the middle ages they thought these mental illnesses were possessions.
It led to witch hunts and killing many innocent people.

So, it doesn't seem a good idea to punish natural biological processes to me.

What does seem helpful is teaching kids how to deal with these new emotions and to learn that these are all natural and give them a place.

Let's get rid of the unhealthy shame culture and get back to a more wholesome approach to guide the development of our youngsters and our society by extension because in the end these parents were just concerned about their kid and we all are concerned about the youngsters because they represent the future of our society.


Saturday, July 2, 2016

Why Fergie and Kim Kardashian MILF$ song is already a success.



Fergie's new song MILF$ together with Kim Kardashian is a pop song as so many pop songs already.
But that is not a bad thing if you want to make money.

Pop songs have become more and more general over the years and that's not all due to the artists.
We look for and buy more generic songs too so we keep this cycle going.

Music artists have used more formulas to make music that people like and if a formula works there is no reason to do something else. It are the hits that brig the money in so you are better of making a safe bet then taking risks.

Zipfs law states that the probability of occurrence of words (or other items) starts high and tapers off. Thus, a few occur very often while many others occur rarely.
When formulas are used in lyrics the fewer and fewer words are used.

So it comes down to algorithms in the end.

Some other reasons why pop music could sounds more and more the same is because the number of good musicians and producers goes down and the number of artists they produce music for goes up.
The musicians also tend to learn to make about the same music and the more same music is made the more of the same musicians seem to be needed.

In other words: because the same people make it.

Experimentation is pushed to the margins and algorithms and formulas of success take over.


Have a great day.

Friday, July 1, 2016

Feeling down or depressed? The solution may be less complicated than you think.



We all have moments of feeling down or depressed.

Maybe we try to think about would have caused it and try to come up with a logical reason why it happened.

Maybe we think back to our childhood and look for something that may have caused it.

We think about what it means and what it tells about ourselves and what it means for our future.
Maybe we think about how other people perceive us and what our self-worth is.

Could it be something neurological maybe or something genetic even?

All those questions can arise when we are feeling down or depressed yet the solution can be easier than you think sometimes.

The way we use our body influences how we feel.
The way we sit, stand and walk all changes how we feel.

How much have you walked outside lately?

Walking stimulates our brain often much more than all those brain exercises and games.
Too much sitting down makes our body less active.

Sunlight influences our biorhythm.
Too little natural light can make us feel down.
Too much (and/or bright) light from screens late in the evening can make us sleep less well.

Just taking care of basic human needs like enough light, exercise and water can change a lot.

We all know that the body exists out of 60% water and that we need to drink a lot of water.
Seriously, I don't think experts agree on how much exactly but simply drinking more water daily could make you feel much better in your day.

Having more meaningful social interactions could improve your mood too.
We all need human interaction to stay healthy. We are social creatures.
Communication trough social media and smartphone doesn't replace meeting people face to face.

Another, what overlooked, way to feel better it to focus on making other people feel better.

Try them out and maybe you could feel even better than ever before with just a few simple habits to add in your life.

Enjoy and have a great day.