Nothing we know is truly independent of context

Recently, I read a sentance written by Laren, Ellen J. Langer, psychology professor at Harvard University in an article available at [1]. The sentence is: "Nothing we know is truly independent of context". The more I went through it, the more interesting it became. As a result, I decided to share it through my blog. I hope you will enjoy reading this blog post.

What we learned in our school mathematics is that 1 plus 1 make 2. I stored this statement in my mind as an axiom. But once I read the article, I don't keep this statement as an axiom without a context. In orther words, I don't believe that one plus one make two in all of the cases. As an example, 1 plus 1 make two in base-10 systems. However, if the base is other than 10, then the statement is not true. For example, 1 plus 1 in base-16 make 32 in base-10 system.

There is another example that helps to understand the sentence more easily. One cup plus one cup doesn't always equal two cups. For example, mixing one cup of vinegar with a cup of baking soda solution creates a mixture of less than two cups as some of the molecules combine and form gas and release to air.

From these examples, we can clearly say that a fact is always associated with contexts. Without it, the fact wouldn't be correct. We have seen that one plus one equal two is true for some contexts and false for some other contexts. Thus, there is no such a wrong answer irrespective of context. Hence Laren's sentence "Nothing we know is truely independent of context" is perfectly reasonable.

References:

[1] When 1 and 1 Are Not 2, Harvard University. Last accessed on July 26,2009 in

http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/1997/01.16/When1and1AreNot.html.

Mr. Jackson in Berlin

As it was my last day in Berlin (June 26, 2009), the capital of modern Germany, and many places were still remained to discover, I'd decided to wake up early in the morning. Accordingly, I woke up at 6:45 am and when it was around 7:35 am I went to ground floor for my breakfast. The place was at a hostel named St. Christhopher's Inns, ROSA - LUXEMBERG PLAZA, BERLIN which is at the heart of the city, near to the Berlin TV Tower.

I was alone in the German trip. Moreover, it was early in the morning. So, there were very few people who were taking breakfast together with me. I was spending the melancholy minutes. Fortunately, a guy, carrying his breakfast, took a seat next to my seat and started talking with me. I was quite happy because he had started chatting in English (In most of the European countries, you will be lucky enough if you meet a person who starts speaking in English). He was from UK. Since I used to follow international news, I was feeling very comfortable while talking with him. Being a student of history, he was also quite confident in the international news, views and subjects.

Our topics for discussion were mostly political : UK, Gordon Brown (his ministers had resigned due to shameful financial scandals), Gurkhas and their protest for the equal rights, Afghan war and so on. In the meantime, he asked me, "Have you heard a breaking news?". "No", I replied. He opened his iPhone, browsed the web and showed me the news. It was written "Michael Jackson is dead... The reason is still unknown". This is how I knew Mr. Michael Jackson's death.

Moreover, he told that he is not a fan of Mr. Jackson. But he started counting Mr. Jackson's famous albums. Like the British guy, I am not his fan. Unlike the guy, I don't know his albums :(. However, I do know that Mr. Jackson is a great singer because I had heard from friends and watched news videos from his latest UK trip (few months ago) in which he was promising to his fans that he would be back soon for his forthcoming concert.

In order to make my first Berlin trip memorable, I started my laptop, wrote a short blog and posted in my blog site mentioning that my first Berlin trip was on a day when Jackson was dead. I also took few pictures of a TV which was broadcasting the breaking news.

Truly speaking, I had remembered Mr. Jackson just a day ago. During the previous day's museum visit, I had met an American women accompanied with her husband. The couple were very friendly. The women is a teacher of Santa Barbara City College and her husband is a software engineer. May be because of his hair style, I felt her husband somehow as Mr. Jackson. At this moment, if I compare the guy with Mr. Jackson, I can find very few similarities ... nationality at least :D. Anyway, it was an event that was triggered in my mind on that day. If I go to Santa Barbara and the address in their visiting card remains valid, I'll definitely visit them and more importantly I'll point out the 'living Mr. Jackson' ;).

What is true is that world has lost a great artist at such a young age (age of 50). My heartfelt condolences to his family and fans !!

Pic: With the American couple at a museum in Berlin. I'd remembered Mr. Jackson when I met the guy (left to me). Remember that Mr. Jackson was dead on 25th June, 2009, the same day I met the couple, perhaps the same time ...!!

Pic: A TV in Berlin broadcasting the breaking news. My heartfelt condolences to his family and fans !!

Pic: Dans la tele a Berlin. Une artiste exceptionnel nous a quitté! Trop tôt, beaucoup trop tôt. Mes plus sincères condoléances pour sa famille et ses fans !!

FRENCH: Un vrai test de français

C’est ma deuxieme article en francaise. En cette article, je vais presenter ma experience de vrai test de français.

Deux semaines avant, j’ai visité allemend pour une presentation conference. La presentation été en Leipzig, une petit ville au sud de la capitale, Berlin. Et pour aller de Paris à Leipzig, il y a deux possibilités. La premire possibilité est prendre le train directment de paris à Leipzig. D’outre possibilité est prendre l’avion jusqu'à Berlin et après le train à Leipzig. J’ai choisi la deuxiemé option parce que cette option été moin cher.

Un aéroport en paris s’appelle Orly. Pour prendre l'avion, je dois arriver à Orly avant 6h30. Le aéroport n’est pas loin, presque 40-45 minutes. J’ai parti pour le aéroport à 5h10. J’ai prendre le RER (train) et arrivé Juvisy où je peux prendre bus pour l’aéroport. Il était 5h50 quand j'été à Juvisy.

Quand j’ai arrivé á bus station de Juvisy, il y a n’ai pas de bus. La station était blocké!! oh la la! … oh la la!! … oh la la!!! … J’ai derniere demi-heure pour arrivé l’aéroport ... :(.

Le problème c’est que, il était en matin et il y a très peu de personne. Mêmê si il y a un person, il ne parler pas l’anglais …. Donc, il était une vraie examem de francais où je dois recontre quelque personne et poser question pourquoi il y a n’est pas de bus !!

Aprés cinq-sept minutes, j’ai recontré une personne et posé la question. Elle dit moi que la station a changé la semaine derniere. Pour prendre le bus je dois marche 500 meters plus. Finallement, j’ai prendre le bus et je suis arrivé aéroport à 6h35 !!

Je dois donne “merci beaucoup” pour la femme qui aide moi en situation trôp dificile. Merci pour moi aussi parce que j’ai passé un vrai test de francais :) :).

À bientôt !!

FRENCH: Je suis en la vraie France

C'est ma premire article en français. Je sais il a beaucoup de erreurs mais pas de problem, je essayer pour ecrire en français de toute façon :). Après quelques articles je peux réduire les erreurs.

La semaine dernier j'ai changé ma appartment. Avant, mon appartment était plus loin de mon bureau. La nouvelle apartment est pas loin. Je peux a piéd meme si il ya une grave, manifastation etc. en train ou bus. La autre difference: j'ai habité en mémé batiment avec mon ami l'étranger. Cependant, maintenant je connaise moin personne que habite a coté de mon appartment. La troisième difference : je dois parler française parce que peuple ne parler pas l'anglais ici.

Donc, Je sens que je suis en la vraie France maintenant. Aussi, je connaître pourquoi je ne parler pas bien français. La réponse est simple, avant je n'ai pas habité en vraie france :).

Merci beaucoup pour lire ma premire article en francaise. à bientôt!

When will this recession ends?

Everybody in the world is affected by recession. All of them are eagerly waiting for its end date. Although it is hard to say when it is going to be end, history can assist to think about it. In this article, I will paraphrase the major recessions and their life period.

According to the Bishambher Pyakurel, there are many recessions since last 70 years [1]. The major recessions and corresponding durations are listed here:

1. Recession during 1930 - 1932 : Duration= 43 months
   
2. Recession during 1980-1981 : Duration= 16 months
   
3. Recession during 1990-1991: Duration = mild
   
4. Recession during 2001 : Duration = mild
   
5. Recession during 2007: Started in December , End = Unknown
   

Furthermore, [1] states that there are 10 recessions since World War II and the average duration is 10.4 months. The current recession is already 17 months old, greater than the average duration, but the end date is not certain yet. It is predicted that the recession will end by the end of 2010. Lets hope it will end very soon.

References:

[1] My Republica

OPINION: "Life is a computer Program"

Despite some differences, a Life and a Computer Program have many similarities. In this article, I will analyze the similarities between them. First I define some of the terms as:

Computer Program: "A computer program is a collection of instructions"

Life :"A human life is a collection of instructions"

Programmer: One who writes programs

Environment: The way a program is written . A computer program is written in another computer program such as IDE.

States: A possible situation of a program such as on lab, running, paused, killed, died etc.

Terms	Computer Program	Human Life
Programmer	Computer Programmer(s)	The God (s)
Environment	Programming languages. Computer Program is written in editors, the computer programs. Not all editors can be used to write programs.	Human life is written using parents, the human lives . Not all parents are used to write human lives.
Execution	executes inside computers	executes in planets
Communication	communicate each other using protocols. Mismatch in protocols means no communication.	communicate each others using languages. Mismatch in languages means no communication.
Dimension	the dimension (height, width etc) depends on the the purpose and devices (computer, mobile phones, pda etc)	depends on the state to states.
States	in lab, written, running, killed, stopped	in belly, born, running, killed (by accidents, wars etc), died
Repairing	debug	medicate
Exception	handled by Exception handlers. Not all programs have such facilities like programs in C vs programs Java.	handled by Insurances. Not all people have such facilities.
War	A program can kill other programs with or without any reasons.	A human can kill other humans with or without any reasons.
Dependent	A program may depend on other programs like packages, APIs	A human may depends on other humans e.g. espouse, parents etc
Hierarchy	have hierarchies. Operating Systems are the big bosses.	have hierarchies. State heads, company executives are the big bosses..
Migration	Can be written in a lab and be sent to other places for execution.	May born in a place and live in another place

NOTE: If you have other similarities in your mind, let us share...

Can problems be solved by laws and legal systems ?

Many people think that laws and legal systems are the only thing that a nation should have in order to keep things in control. In South Asia, we frequently talk about laws. For example, we talk about the laws for women empowerment, child labor, terrorism, dowry etc. However, I personally don't believe only on the legal systems. What I think is that the laws and orders make sense when it applies to the region where basic needs are already fulfilled.

There is a saying - 'Hungry man is the angry man'. I absolutely agree with this statement. How can a law work if people are not certain for their daily foods, sufficient clean drinking water and shelters? We have made laws to prevent selling women for money. Is that working? Of course not! Hundreds of Nepalese ladies are being sold today to Bombay.

Moreover, we have made laws to prevent child labor. All we know that it is illegal to keep a child as a labor. But we forget when we return to our home. We are using them to clean dishes, wash clothes etc. No matter how educated the person we are, we usually forget such rules rules in our daily life.

The same pattern applies in case of terrorism. If a person is not getting items to eat, he could be easily influenced by terrorist groups as they offer a handsome amount of money to him or his family. As a result, he is motivated to carry out dangerous attacks. This is a ground reality we are seeing each day in our region, South Asia.

I believe no counties support dowry and all of them have made some forms of laws to prevent it. But we have witnessed its effect very frequently. In other words, people are not able to get married just because they haven't sufficient money to pay for the boy. After marriage also, many women are forced to do suicide just because their parents can't pay the money committed before their marriage.

These are just few examples. We have a bundle of such laws we are not working at all. The main reason is the lack of basic needs. If a person is not hungry, then only he/she starts thinking what a law is. The important question is not about whether laws are needed or not. The question is - How can we fulfill the basic needs of people so that the laws could be enforced ? People will be educated only when their basic needs are fulfilled and then think about their rights, the laws and legislative systems.