Why the West craves materialism & why the East sticks to religion: By Imran Khan

Here is an article by the most amazing Pakistani Leader of Opposition. A beautiful example of how ignorance mixed with a stupid idea of religion mixed in the crucible of politics makes you come across as a blithering idiot. Lets not forget that this man, for all his new found piety, abandoned his daughter. So the very idea of hearing about how good a Muslim he is, is anathema to my ears. 

Second, as an example of muddled thinking, he mixes east, religion, family, Pakistan, all into this incredibly stupid mess. He forgets that the east was the place where a religion came to being without a concept of a god like Jainism. Or charvakya in Hinduism. But then again, for him to admit that India or anything pertaining to India exists will be difficult. And he takes off on the Ahmadi's. 

finally, this man has an execrable sense of history if he thinks that religion hasn't killed in the east. Do you know son, Muslims have killed far more Muslims than any non Muslims? Or the huge religious wars in Asia? Heck, does he forget the terror wars in Pakistan against the Shia? 

This is what happens when religion goes into the brain son. Stay away from organised religion. Stay away from people who bang on about how good their religion is. More importantly, stay away from the useful idiots who look up to excrescences  like this fellow. They suck out intelligence from their surroundings leaving a fact and smartness and intelligence barren scorched landscape behind. And this is for all religions. The Catholics who protest against abortion or contraception or Hindus who bang on about maryada or Santan Dharma without having even read one book or behave like hooligans or these kinds of Muslims who think like this. 

Bah

Love

Baba

Why the West craves materialism & why the East sticks to religion: By Imran Khan > Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf > Insaf News
http://www.insaf.pk/News/tabid/60/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/1305/Why-the-West-craves-materialism-why-the-East-sticks-to-religion-By-Imran-Khan.aspx

---

My generation grew up at a time when colonial hang up was at its peak. Our older generation had been slaves and had a huge inferiority complex of the British. The school I went to was similar to all elite schools in Pakistan. Despite gaining independent, they were, and still are, producing replicas of public schoolboys rather than Pakistanis.

I read Shakespeare, which was fine, but no Allama Iqbal — the national poet of Pakistan. The class on Islamic studies was not taken seriously, and when I left school I was considered among the elite of the country because I could speak English and wore Western clothes.

Despite periodically shouting ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ in school functions, I considered my own culture backward and religion outdated. Among our group if any one talked about religion, prayed or kept a beard he was immediately branded a Mullah.

Because of the power of the Western media, our heroes were Western movie stars or pop stars. When I went to Oxford already burdened with this hang up, things didn’t get any easier. At Oxford, not just Islam, but all religions were considered anachronism.

Science had replaced religion and if something couldn’t be logically proved it did not exist. All supernatural stuff was confined to the movies. Philosophers like Darwin, who with his half-baked theory of evolution had supposedly disproved the creation of men and hence religion, were read and revered.

Ferguson’s Formula

One of my Hero's son. The man is a legend and here's his success in his own words. Fascinating. Small things but these are difficult to make sure they are done. 

Planning. Foresight. Thinking about what might happen and then ensuring that you put in mitigating actions to avoid. Think about it. He put in a 4 year plan to win a trophy. It's a long time to plan son. And requires awesome dedication to keep on the path for 4 years! 

Good stuff to read and learn. Don't think it's worthwhile to put this in your personal statement but the sentiments are valid. 

Love

Baba

Ferguson’s Formula
http://hbr.org/2013/10/fergusons-formula/ar/1

---

Photography: Sean Pollack

Some call him the greatest coach in history. Before retiring in May 2013, Sir Alex Ferguson spent 26 seasons as the manager of Manchester United, the English football (soccer) club that ranks among the most successful and valuable franchises in sports. During that time the club won 13 English league titles along with 25 other domestic and international trophies—giving him an overall haul nearly double that of the next-most-successful English club manager. And Ferguson was far more than a coach. He played a central role in the United organization, managing not just the first team but the entire club. “Steve Jobs was Apple; Sir Alex Ferguson is Manchester United,” says the club’s former chief executive David Gill.

In 2012 Harvard Business School professor Anita Elberse had a unique opportunity to examine Ferguson’s management approach and developed anHBS case study around it. Now she and Ferguson have collaborated on an analysis of his enormously successful methods.

Anita Elberse: Success and staying power like Sir Alex Ferguson’s demand study—and not just by football fans. How did he do it? Can one identify habits that enabled his success and principles that guided it? During what turned out to be his final season in charge, my former student Tom Dye and I conducted a series of in-depth interviews with Ferguson about his leadership methods and watched him in action at United’s training ground and at its famed stadium, Old Trafford, where a nine-foot bronze statue of the former manager now looms outside. We spoke with many of the people Ferguson worked with, from David Gill to the club’s assistant coaches, kit manager, and players. And we observed Ferguson during numerous short meetings and conversations with players and staff members in the hallways, in the cafeteria, on the training pitch, and wherever else the opportunity arose. Ferguson later came to HBS to see the ensuing case study taught, provide his views, and answer students’ questions, resulting in standing-room-only conditions in my classroom and a highly captivating exchange.

Science Is Not Your Enemy

Kannu

This is a fascinating article on how science is perceived by many specially the religious sort. 

I do think that the author protests too much as broadly in developed countries and many other countries who aren't, science has won. If you want proof, compare the various human development indices and whether their constitutions have something religious in them. If they do like Nepal did, Poland and Saudi Arabia do, you know immediately that that is a place to be laughed at. Or pitied. Anybody who believes without evidence should be mocked hard and frequently because their beliefs can also be dismissed without evidence. 

Anyhow. Interesting reading also from an English logographic perspective son. Many words are technical. Pretty heavy duty writing. Test your understanding of the words. Also check your power of concentration. When faced with heavy writing, the tendency is to skip. But that's the key to mental discipline son. Force yourself to read and comprehend. It trains your mind to overcome higher and higher barriers. And then think, have I understood this good enough to make Diya understand? 

Love

Baba

Science Is Not Your Enemy
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/114127/science-not-enemy-humanities

---

 

Science Is Not Your Enemy An impassioned plea to neglected novelists, embattled professors, and tenure-less historians

BY STEVEN PINKER

The great thinkers of the Age of Reason and the Enlightenment were scientists. Not only did many of them contribute to mathematics, physics, and physiology, but all of them were avid theorists in the sciences of human nature. They were cognitive neuroscientists, who tried to explain thought and emotion in terms of physical mechanisms of the nervous system. They were evolutionary psychologists, who speculated on life in a state of nature and on animal instincts that are “infused into our bosoms.” And they were social psychologists, who wrote of the moral sentiments that draw us together, the selfish passions that inflame us, and the foibles of shortsightedness that frustrate our best-laid plans.

These thinkers—Descartes, Spinoza, Hobbes, Locke, Hume, Rousseau, Leibniz, Kant, Smith—are all the more remarkable for having crafted their ideas in the absence of formal theory and empirical data. The mathematical theories of information, computation, and games had yet to be invented. The words “neuron,” “hormone,” and “gene” meant nothing to them. When reading these thinkers, I often long to travel back in time and offer them some bit of twenty-first-century freshman science that would fill a gap in their arguments or guide them around a stumbling block. What would these Fausts have given for such knowledge? What could they have done with it?

WATCH: Leon Wieseltier’s rejoinder: Science doesn’t have all the answers

We don’t have to fantasize about this scenario, because we are living it. We have the works of the great thinkers and their heirs, and we have scientific knowledge they could not have dreamed of. This is an extraordinary time for the understanding of the human condition. Intellectual problems from antiquity are being illuminated by insights from the sciences of mind, brain, genes, and evolution. Powerful tools have been developed to explore them, from genetically engineered neurons that can be controlled with pinpoints of light to the mining of “big data” as a means of understanding how ideas propagate.

Top 10 Libertarian Supreme Court Decisions

Here's a good overview of some areas which Libertarians get involved in and some which they are still fighting for. For example, I was quite happy with the fact that UK decided not to get involved with Syria. I find this idea that the state can, willy nilly, go about choosing a side and getting involved in a war, bombing people, is as equivalent to the Syrian govt doing poison gas in its cities. The UK govt's job is to protect ourselves, not everybody and his dog. Not only that, it has to think about the cost of the war, which you have researched, we will be paying for the iraq and afghan war for a long long time. And for what?

Still, read these cases son, very useful to know the boundaries and areas where you as a Libertarian need to be involved with and know where to draw the lines. 

Love

Baba

Top 10 Libertarian Supreme Court Decisions - Reason.com
http://reason.com/archives/2012/08/02/top-10-libertarian-supreme-court-decisio/print

---

It’s no secret the U.S. Supreme Court has often been a disappointment to libertarians. Whether the justices are giving the green light to eminent domain abuse, securing absolute immunity for dissolute prosecutors, or rubber-stamping the latest power grab from Washington, the Court routinely fails to live up to James Madison’s famous description of the judicial branch as “an impenetrable bulwark against every assumption of power in the legislative or executive.”

But that doesn’t mean the High Court always gets it wrong. Here, in no particular order, are 10 Supreme Court decisions still standing where the Court put individual liberty and limited government first.

10. Pierce v. Society of Sisters (1925)

In 1922 the Ku Klux Klan and other anti-Catholic groups spearheaded an Oregon initiative designed to eliminate the state’s private schools, many of which were run by Catholic charities. Under the terms of the Compulsory Education Act, all children between the ages of eight and 16 were required to attend "a public school for the period of time a public school shall be held during the current year." The Society of Sisters, an Oregon corporation organized in 1880 to care for orphans and carry out various educational purposes, challenged the law in court, arguing that it violated the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment, which forbids the states from depriving “any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.”

The Supreme Court agreed. “The child is not the mere creature of the state,”declared Justice James McReynolds in a unanimous decision rejecting “any general power of the State to standardize its children by forcing them to accept instruction from public teachers only.” Thus the right of parents and guardians to send their children to private school was secured.

In the Violent Favelas of Brazil

All these big cities have no go areas, son. Even London has these areas, you have to be careful but some cities are really bad. While I was in São Paulo I was accompanied by an armed guard everywhere. I stayed in the white rich part of town but had to drive through the city. Similarly you will find places like the favelas, drug ridden, crime infested hell holes in places like Mexico City. Mumbai, Delhi, Johannesburg. You name it. 

You know what's the worrying thing is? When the state abrogates its responsibility and hands over the responsibility of an area to the crime lords. That's when you know that the state is weak and you shouldn't live there. Or invest. 

But we have to succeed. You heard about the mafia yesterday. Brave men like falcone and Borsalino gave their lives to eradicate the mafia. That was bravery and courage son. Think like those men. We have to keep a constant fight on against the crime lords, the terrorists and the others who don't want to have a safe place for you and your children. 

Love

Baba

In the Violent Favelas of Brazil
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2013/aug/15/violent-favelas-brazil/?pagination=false

---

Walter Mesquita

Favela da Rocinha, Rio de Janeiro, December 2011

My Brazilian friend Marina and I were picking up a visiting friend from New York, who heads an NGO, in her hotel lobby near Paulista, the most prestigious avenue in São Paulo. It was 7:30 on a busy Friday night last October.

We walked up to a taxi outside the hotel. I sat in the front to let the two women chat in the back. Marina asked me to Google the restaurant menu. I was doing so when I saw a teenage boy run up to the taxi and gesticulate through my open window. I thought he was a beggar, asking for money. Then I saw the gun, going from my head to the cell phone.

“Just give him the phone,” Marina said from the back seat.

I gave him the phone. He didn’t go away.

“Dinheiro, dinheiro!”

I didn’t want to give him my wallet. The boy was shouting obscenities. “Dinheiro, dinheiro!”

The boy’s body suddenly jerked back, as a man’s arm around his neck pulled him off his feet. The man, dressed in a black shirt, was shouting; he had jumped the boy from behind. He started hitting the boy. The taxi driver sitting next to me was stoic. He said that this had never happened to him before, but he couldn’t have been more blasé.

The next thing I saw was the boy and another teenager, probably his accomplice, running away fast up the street. The man in the black shirt chased them a bit, then came back panting to the taxi. “Did the bastard get anything?” our savior, whom we later nicknamed Batman, asked. He wasn’t a plainclothes cop, as I’d originally thought; he was just an ordinary citizen who was tired of the criminals.

How to kiss

Now for something else totally son. I've talked to you about smell. And aromas. And how to use that emotion when you're with your girl. It's very important son. Women actually are living breathing smelling organisms. You've got to not use deodorants and after shaves yourself because of two issues. One is that is stops you smelling the girls. And second is that your natural aroma is much more powerful than any perfume. That's how our physiologies are made. But I've talked to you about understanding your girl by sniffing her delicately. Women are very big on smells and aromas. So learn how they smell because their emotions and feelings and desires are frequently communicated through their aromas. And yes despite their perfumes. 

But that's not what I wanted to talk about. I wanted to talk about kissing son. At some point in time son you will want to kiss a girl. And then kiss her. As with any human activity son, you need to be prepared. So where do you start? I've included an article by somebody to authors who might want to write about a kiss. And guess what? It's a good checklist of what you need to think about kissing. 

There are few things that your old father has learnt son. So this is going to be a bit of a long missive. 

1.  Kiss frequently and often. As much and as many times you can son. More the merrier. Daily at least 10 times if not more :) no girl has ever said to any boy that he kisses too much. Surprise her. Delight her. Make up a story. Say that your lips were kidnapped by aliens and they have been sent back down to earth to test out the best looking girl in the world and keep sending back regular progress reports. Tell her that you think one side of her mouth is lopsided and you're bearing the kiss that the doctor ordered to fix it. Tell her that that kissing her 28 times every day is part of your religion. You're an intelligent man. Come up with reasons. 

2.  Treat every kiss as a new one. Don't turn kisses into a chore. 

3. Don't slobber. Ever. It's not fun. 

4. You need to keep the lips and other bits connected to the brain all the time. Don't fall asleep. 

5. Just like dancing son, be slightly ahead of the lady at all times. Lead but be prepared to change direction, pressure, technique as soon as you feel withdrawal. At the beginning you may be confused as to what's a withdrawal or the lady is changing but feel the lower back - if it stiffens a wee bit, then you're not in good territory. 

6. You don't kiss to make yourself feel better. Ever. You kiss to make your girl feel better son. Always. And when your girl feels better, you feel good. Always give. Then you get back more. 

7. Plan the kiss son. Have some thoughts about what you want to do. With your arms. With your nose. With your fingers. You may not end up following the plan but at least you've got options. And then it doesn't become boring. And you have a repertoire of things you can do son. 

8. Nibbling is good. Very good. Specially on the lower lip. 

9. Strangely enough the corners of the mouth are very sensitive. Explore them. 

10. Keep your eyes open. Read the girl. Take clues and hints about what she wants. Her fluttering eyelids. Her eyes colours will change if you're good. Nostrils will flare. And your eyes are windows to your soul. Women read eyes. They will see that you really admire and adore her and want to please her in your eyes. 

11. With one exception. Closing your eyes I mean. That's when you're meeting her after a long time. And too want to take her in one emotion / sense at a time. And you just want to concentrate on the lips. 

12. Have a deal. Whenever she is upset, start kissing her. And apologising. Rinse and repeat. You will be an idiot. You are a man. By definition you're an idiot. But here's a secret son. Girls don't have a defence against kisses :)  I picked this up from our puppies. When you scold them, they start licking you and you cannot stay angry at them. Same concept son. But no licking. Kissing. See above about slobbering. 

13. There are tons of types of kisses. One common confusion is how many times you kiss on the cheek when you meet a slightly formal friend. I go for two. State up front. I'm going to kiss you twice. Avoids embarrassment. 

14. Use your fingertips son. They are like radar receptors. An early warning system. They will signal how your girl wants you to proceed. The temperature. The subtle shifting of the position. The muscles interplay. Very important to read. Think of it as you're blind and you're reading Braille. 

15. One thing which You may particularly fun and particularly nice is to thread your fingers in her hair and gently massage the scalp, scratch it, entwine your fingers in the hair and guide. Or just let the hair wash through your fingers - tugging gently. Interesting results may ensue. Can't do it all the time mind you, specially if you're going out and she's got her hair done or just back from the hair dresser. Have a sense of timing. 

16. Always always always begin and end the day with a kiss. Don't mind the morning pong. Kiss her. Vital. A good solid kiss. Good morning kiss. And good evening kiss. Without fail. 

17. If she's wearing slippers or sandals or is naked feet and if you can observe, check her toes. There's this strange connection. You may have read this phrase, toe curling kiss. Yep. Women do that when it's a great kiss. If you have managed to do that, brilliant kiss son. If you want proof of an over the top kiss, then see if she lifts her leg and leans in. 

18. There the flip side as well son. Learn to recognise kisses. Women cannot lie with their kisses. If she ain't happy with you but is not desirous of making a scene, kiss her. You'll know if you've been a prat or an idiot soon enough if you get kissed with closed mouth or on the cheek or a perfunctory kiss. Then if so, go back to #12 above. 

19. Don't forget to keep on saying things during long kisses. Say how much you love her. Or how wonderful she tastes. Or how soft her lips are. Praise her. Express appreciation. Make love to her mind son. 

20. I think 20 points are enough. So let's end it. Like a speech son, any idiot can start a kiss but it takes considerable skill to end it tidily. Always remember, a kiss is not the end, it's the beginning of something new. Either you will go forward from the kiss or you will want to leave the lady wanting and regretting that the kisses ended. 

Enough blathering on my part. Happy exploring son. May you have a lovely time kissing and practising and making your girl happy all your life. 

Love. 

Baba

How to write a kiss
http://snazzycookies.tumblr.com/post/17540318658/how-to-write-a-kiss

---

Rebloggable version, as requested by davrosbro. :)

Oooh!  Yes!  I love kisses.  Kisses are where it all starts ;).

Okay, first, remember that a kiss is much, much more than just lips.  It is lips, but also tongues, teeth, eyes, faces, hands, noses, bodies, heartbeats,  breath, voice- and most importantly, a kiss is emotions.  A kiss without emotion is just wet mushy lips stuck together.  Ew.  Gross.  The most important part of a kiss isn’t the how, but the who- because of the emotions between the two people.

Okay so:

lips- Lips can slide, glide over each other smoothly, or they can be chapped and rough and dry and get stuck on each other.  They can match, top-to-top and bottom-to-bottom, or they can overlap, with one person’s top or bottom lip captured between the other person’s lips (yummy).  If there is lipstick or chapstick there is lipstick or chapstick flavor, otherwise, lips don’t have a taste (can you taste yours?).  Lips also can smack- the sound of two of them coming together or pulling apart, because they’re wet and warm and soft. 

tongue- Tongues are always wet, and always warm.  They’re very versatile.  They can trace over lips, teeth, or another tongue.  They can be smooth and graceful or teasing and flicking.  When tongues are involved, there is drool.  It’s only sexy when you like the person you’re kissing, or else it’s kinda gross. :P

teeth- teeth can clack together awkwardly, or teeth can bite down sensually.  A person biting their own lip is cute, a person biting another’s lips is sexy.  A person biting gently is sensual, a person biting roughly is sexual. 

eyes- Eyes can be wide open with surprise, half-lidded with desire, fully closed with pleasure.  Eyes can gaze lovingly, lustfully, wistfully, hungrily, seductively- it all depends upon the emotions of your characters.  Have them do whatever you like, but don’t leave them out- give them at least a mention!

faces- Faces are what the lips are attached to.  Noses bump, cheeks flush, ears turn red, foreheads either wrinkle or relax.  Kisses can leave lips, quite easily, and become kisses on chins, cheeks, noses, foreheads, ears, necks, throats.  Kisses on noses or foreheads are cute and adorable, kisses on cheeks are sweet, kisses on chins, ears, and throats are very sexual.  And a kiss on the lips can be all of those! <3

hands- Hands are super-important.  In order to describe a kiss, usually you want to also describe the hands.  Where are they?  Does one character have their hand behind the other’s head or back, holding them close?  Are they on someone’s shoulders pulling them near, or pushing them away?  Fingers brushing someone’s cheek or palms grabbing someone’s ass convey two very different kinds of situations, even if the kiss itself is exactly the same.

noses- Noses are annoying.  They easily get in the way, especially for first kisses!  People have to tilt their head to one side or the other, and if they don’t, noses bump.  I’d only mention noses if a kiss is supposed to be awkward or uncertain or nervous.

bodies- bodies are either close together, or far away.  Someone can be surrounded comfortingly by someone’s arms, or terrifyingly trapped by them.  Bodies are warm or hot, they are calm or nervous, relaxed or tense.  Body language says a lot.  Is your character pulling away, or moving closer?

heartbeat- Hearts can beat fast or slow, and that’s about all they can do- but there are lots of reasons why they do!  A heart can beat fast with fear or excitement or nervousness; a heart can pound with lust or race with terror or sing with joy.  Hearts can glow, cower, or shatter.  When you really want to drive the emotions of a character home, mention the heart.

breath- To me, the most consuming part of a kiss is the breath.  The air that someone else has just breathed going deep into your lungs is very intimate.  Lips and tongues don’t have a taste, but breath does.  Each person’s breath tastes different, smells different, and surrounds a person differently than anyone else’s breath.  Breath can be warm and sweet, breath can be hot and sexy, breath can be hot and frightening.  It is something that is very present and should not be left out.  A lot of writers leave breath out.  And it’s so important; it’s the most intimate part of a kiss.  Someone else is breathing into your lungs, and it’s either heaven or it’s hell.

voice- Voice conveys much, even without words.  A voice can groan, whimper, gasp, moan, catch, whine, scream, sigh.  Voice can convey emotion powerfully, and while some kisses are silent, usually they’re not. 

emotion-  Emotion is the most important- and the thing you try not to say.  You want to describe it, through all of the things above, so that it’s perfectly clear what your characters are feeling, without you ever using the “feelings words”.  If they’re in love, their bodies will lean close, their eyes will smile, their voices will giggle softly.  If they’re nervous, their palms will sweat, their noses will bump, their voices will shudder.  If they’re afraid, their muscles will be tense, their faces will grimace, their lips will not open.  Emotion is the color that you keep inside your mind as you write; it’s the base line that drives the description behind everything else you say.

Wow, that was a lot!  Gosh I hope it wasn’t too much!  Keep in mind not every kiss has all these things- this is just a list of things to consider when writing a kiss, and based on how long of a kiss you want to make.  Keep in mind that typing “they kissed for a long time”…that’s six words, it takes half a second to read, so that’s a short kiss!  If you want a long kiss, you need long sentences that make the reader linger. 

So maybe to start off, pick three things on the list to describe in your first kiss.  Don’t try to do it all- that would be too much for even the most epic kiss.  Just pick what’s most important to this particular scene, to these particular characters, and describe those parts along with the lips, and you’ve got yourself an awesome, emotional kiss. <3

The debt to your parents

So I bought this little antiquarian book published in 1889, Hypatia. She is a favourite of mine (here’s a previous post) and bought it as a birthday present.

But this was the interesting part.

Makes on think, eh? beautifully articulated. One doesn't usually find such emotional though wonderfully elucidated dedications these days, they are all namby pamby. In any case, you don't see massively compound sentences anyway. I wonder if there are any people out there with the patience to appreciate compound sentences any more?

The Gut-Wrenching Science Behind the World’s Hottest Peppers

Kannu

I've eaten this ghost chilly. One bite. One chomp. Once. Spat it out. And cried for 2 hours. Involuntarily. It was pain like I've never experienced and I thought that the knee ligament break was bad. Terrifying. I wanted to die but even that wasn't possible. Seriously bad. And then there's the lady who's on YouTube who rubs bhoot jolakia on her eyes. Mad. 

Nagaland is also beautiful son. Go there is you get a chance. You also get dog curry :) it's an acquired taste heh. 

Love

Baba

The Gut-Wrenching Science Behind the World’s Hottest Peppers | Science & Nature | Smithsonian Magazine
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/The-Gut-Wrenching-Science-Behind-the-Worlds-Hottest-Peppers-208350211.html?c=y&story=fullstory#Burning-Desire-peppers-1.jpg

---

Chiliheads crave the heat that hurts so good, but nothing compares to the legendary superhot that spices life in remote India

• By Mary Roach
• Smithsonian magazine, June 2013, Subscribe

Chilis being transported to the Nagaland’s chili competition. Gloves need to be worn because the chili oils can harm the skin. (Aaron Joel Santos / Novus Select)

The 17 tribes of Nagaland are united, historically, by an enthusiasm for heads. The Nagas: Hill Peoples of Northeast India—my reading matter on the two-hour drive from Dimapur to Kohima, in the state of Nagaland —contains dozens of references to head-taking but only one mention of the item that has brought me here: the Naga King Chili (a.k.a. Bhut Jolokia), often ranked the world’s hottest. “In the Chang village of Hakchang,” the anthropologist J. H. Hutton is quoted as saying in 1922, “…women whose blood relations on the male side have taken a head may cook the head, with chilies, to get the flesh off.” Hutton’s use of “cook” would seem to be a reference to Chang culinary practice. Only on rereading did I realize the Chang weren’t eating the chilies—or the flesh, for that matter—but using them to clean the skull.

Georgia's War on Drugs: How Its Subutex Addiction Ended

Wars are particularly stupid son. Drug wars are even more stupid. You know what I feel about this. 

But here's a great story about how Georgia fought drugs. Remember they just won one battle. The druggies are still there. Eating vomit. Stay away from drugs son. It's horrible. That's what you are reduced to. Eating somebody else's vomit. 

Love

Baba

Georgia's War on Drugs: How Its Subutex Addiction Ended | New Republic
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/113051/georgias-war-drugs-how-its-subutex-addiction-ended

---

Needle drugs seldom make a city look pretty, but some cities are more disfigured by them than others. In 2006, when I first visited Tbilisi, Georgia, it had all the wrecked majesty of an ex-beauty queen with six years of track-marks down her arms. It was a great European capital in decay: crumbling bridges, refugees from war, and—most of all—cast-off syringes everywhere. Alleys, parks, and tunnels under the Soviet-style boulevards all had this spiky detritus, which badly spoiled Tbilisi’s old-world romance and instead put it into a permanent state of biohazard.

So when I returned this year, I packed thick-soled shoes. It turned out that, but for the frigid temperatures (and my own self-respect), I could have worn Tevas. The syringes, which once pumped opiates into the veins of as many as 250,000 addicts, are absent. The subway now feels safe, clean, and orderly, with no trash more revolting than a Snickers wrapper. The tunnels under Rustaveli Avenue still smell pissy, but so do most big cities’ tunnels. If the addicts are still there, they have been persuaded to shoot up with greater discretion. And if they are now gone, the Georgians have accomplished something remarkable, which is the rapid diminution of smackheads.

Atul Gawande: How Do Good Ideas Spread?

Einstein said that genius is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration. Besides other things son I help change organisations. It's difficult. People don't like change. It's the inertia of rest. So one has to move this to the inertia of motion. Continuous improvement. This article tells much that's common in my life as well. Talk to people. Don't tell them what to do. Give options. Otherwise people will do because you told them to. Rather than do because it makes sense. 

Changing behaviours is the most difficult. And takes the longest period. Years even. You have to have insane levels of dedication, passion and perseverance. You will make mistakes. Lots of them. Learn from them son. But it can be done. 

Somebody said to me, you are strange. You like your job. I do. I like making things happen. Fun times. Nothing like walking out at the end of the day satisfied you have won some battles and have left the world a little better than you found it in the morning. 

Love

Baba

Atul Gawande: How Do Good Ideas Spread? : The New Yorker
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/07/29/130729fa_fact_gawande?currentPage=all

---

Why do some innovations spread so swiftly and others so slowly? Consider the very different trajectories of surgical anesthesia and antiseptics, both of which were discovered in the nineteenth century. The first public demonstration of anesthesia was in 1846. The Boston surgeon Henry Jacob Bigelow was approached by a local dentist named William Morton, who insisted that he had found a gas that could render patients insensible to the pain of surgery. That was a dramatic claim. In those days, even a minor tooth extraction was excruciating. Without effective pain control, surgeons learned to work with slashing speed. Attendants pinned patients down as they screamed and thrashed, until they fainted from the agony. Nothing ever tried had made much difference. Nonetheless, Bigelow agreed to let Morton demonstrate his claim.

On October 16, 1846, at Massachusetts General Hospital, Morton administered his gas through an inhaler in the mouth of a young man undergoing the excision of a tumor in his jaw. The patient only muttered to himself in a semi-conscious state during the procedure. The following day, the gas left a woman, undergoing surgery to cut a large tumor from her upper arm, completely silent and motionless. When she woke, she said she had experienced nothing at all.