V = I·R

Windows are dangerous

2010-02-09T22:05:00.004-05:00

This is not another PC vs. Mac post. It's a reference to something my rabbi said when he heard a speaker express an opinion that owning Internet at home is dangerous because a child may use it to visit sites with terrible content. My rabbi commented on that: "Having windows in your house is also dangerous".

I thought about this just now when reading a post on ChabadTalk. Am I wrong for thinking that the following is nuts? And not because I am a beheima who has been known to watch a movie. And not even because I've always thought that Chabad philosophy is: "just because the fools worship stars, the moon and the sun, should Hashem destroy His Universe?" But because I think that when parents haven't taught a child enough common sense or inner strength to resist temptation they have somehow failed...

I also like how merely owning a CD-ROM drive is already damaging. (Suddenly, MacBook Air looks more attracting.) What about a USB port?

In my opinion, merely having a VCR, DVD, or CD-ROM drive can be extremely damaging to a child's educational, spiritual, and psychological life. This might lead children to watch videos of bad content without the knowledge of their parents (yes, even with passwords and lock).

Unfortunately, many look at this belief as fanatical and out of touch, but I can attest that it is very true. I am a victim of this approach. I come from a very religious home with no TV, but for a short amount of time my parents borrowed a VCR for "kosher videos."

Without their knowledge (they still don't know), I cut school and compulsively watched videos of bad content. Since then my life has gone downhill. I now see therapists and psychologists to return to normalcy. I have also met many boys like myself who were victims of "controlled VCR's".

So please, if you want to do what's best for your child so they shouldn't end up like me and my friends, don't bring into your homes any videos, DVD's, or CD-ROMS.

[source]

It does sound like: "Merely owning a stove in a house is already damaging to a child's health and the family's parnoso. Now, many people think that's fanatical, but I know a family, in which a child was playing with a stove and burned down the house, getting some nasty burns himself."

Labels

2010-02-08T00:34:00.001-05:00

Two ways exist of uniting Jews with Torah. One is to bring Torah down to Jews. Another is to elevate the Jews up to Torah.

On Google Mail, one has labels to the left of the messages. The labels are used instead of placing the messages in folders. This way, each message can have multiple labels (e.g., "personal", "shidduch", "humor", "New York"), can be grouped with other messages in more than one way, and can be searched through multiple keywords.

One can assign a label to a message through the "Labels" drop-down menu. One can also drag: either drag a message onto a label, or drag a label onto a message.

The interesting thing is: if you drag a label onto the message, the latter stays in your Inbox but acquires the particular label (it becomes added to the left of the message's subject). Then you can repeat this with the other labels. But if you drag the message onto the label, it disappears from the Inbox and can be found by clicking on the label. Then, other labels can be assigned to it.

This reminded me of two ways a person can associate himself with Torah, with Yiddishkeit. One way is making "frum Jew" one of his labels. He is a frum Jew. He is also a medical student. He is also someone who plays poker. He is also someone who enjoys kayaking. He can be identified by any of these labels, but generally speaking, he is still in the same place he was before (in his "Inbox"), even though he acquired additional labels (and perhaps lost some) — one of which happens to be frum Yiddishkeit.

The second way is for the person to move fully from the place where he was and acquire for himself a completely new identity: that of a frum Jew. All that he is becomes seen (by himself and others) exclusively through the light of Yiddishkeit. And, inside that "location" (the mission given to one by Hashem), he may attach other labels, look at them, and identify himself with them, but only on the terms of the new main identity.

Which way is right? Which way does Chassidus (i.e., the Rebbeim from the Alter Rebbe to the Rebbe) say one should do it? Is there one way that's better for all, or is it different for each person? Can there be combinations?

Bella, ciao

2010-02-07T22:46:00.000-05:00

(translation)

Regarding poetry

2010-02-06T19:22:00.000-05:00

Все ужасней и гаже стихи,
С каждым веком они только хуже.
Каждый мнит, что он с рифмою дружен,
А стихи невозможно плохи.

Все в поэзию прут – от сохи,
От тоски, от безделья и скуки.
Им бы делом занять свои руки,
Вместо этого пишут стихи.

(source)

Communist mitzva tank

2010-02-04T17:19:00.002-05:00

...during the Civil War in Russia. Well, not a tank but a train.

Anyone can make a mistake

2010-02-04T15:53:00.002-05:00

In the news:

Romanian Ministry of Defense decided to send its contribution to helping the unfortunate islanders of Haiti after the earthquake. From the army airport, it sent a battalion of mountain infantry with 2000 tons of humanitarian aid — food, water, blankets, medicine. Because of an unfortunate mistake, however, the battalion was sent to a wrong place: to the island of Tahiti in French Polynesia, in Pacific Ocean. Romanian minister of defense, Gabriel Oprea, comments: “No need to make a big sensation out of this. The names are very similar. Haiti, Tahiti, Maiti, Papiti. Devil take them all.”

If you think I am lying, this is the original:

Un incident hilar a avut loc ieri in Tahiti, dupa ce un batalion de vanatori de munte din Romania a fost subiectul unei crize isterice de ras pe insula paradiziaca din Polinezia Franceza.

Din cauza unei confuzii regretabile, Ministerul Apararii a gresit destinatia ajutoarelor pentru victimele cutremurului din Haiti, expediind un batalion de vanatori de munte, precum si 2000 de tone de provizii, apa, paturi, medicamente si alimente intr-o directie total opusa, respectiv in insula Tahiti, aflata in Pacificul de Sud.

"Eu zic ca nu trebuie sa facem un spectacol din chestia asta. Adica, numele seamana foarte, foarte mult. Haiti, Tahiti, Mahiti, Papiti. Sa le ia dracu', suna la fel", a declarat pentru times.ro Ministrul Apararii, Gabriel Oprea.

And they say that only Americans are bad at geography.

This is not the first time Romanians want to help and mess up. In 1943, they were covering the flanks of Nazi army during the Battle of Stalingrad. Soviet tanks plowed through Romanians (and their friends Italians; the only ones missing from the scene were French — and that’s because they were busy sulking after having been conquered in two weeks), encircled Germans and destroyed the whole 6th Army, turning the tide of the war.

Be passionate

2010-02-04T15:15:00.002-05:00

Are daled amos enough?

2010-02-01T19:41:00.013-05:00

It has become customary to say that a man needs only six feet of land. But a corpse needs six feet, not a person.
— Anton Chekhov

I had the following conversation with someone as a part of Yud Shvat farbrengen. Originally I didn’t want to post it until I thought it through completely, but was nevertheless persuaded to post anyway. The topic of the conversation was how much a person should be a human vs. a chossid.

[Background (feel free to skip till after the brackets): everyone knows the famous statement in Tanya that anything upon which the Divine Presence does not obviously rest is not holy but belongs to the spiritual category of klipah (lit. “shell”), the forces of impurity which conceal G-dliness from this world. Klipah can be in the category of nogah (“translucent”) or in the category of sholosh klipos tmeios (“three unclean shells”). The second type cannot ever be made holy. Example: pork. The first type is not holy yet, but can be made holy if used for the purpose of holiness. Example: meat of a kosher animal. When the animal is slaughtered and its meat is prepared according to Halacha, and then the meat is eaten so that a person has power to serve G-d, the spiritual status of the meat becomes elevated from that of klipah to that of kedusha (holiness).

The important part is: most things in our lives are klipas nogah. Most of them are neither required by Torah nor forbidden. For example, going bowling. So, one would be inclined to say that there is nothing wrong with those things. Alter Rebbe, however, points out that if those things are not being used for the purpose of holiness, they are still klipah and are thus inappropriate for a Jew. A Jew needs to strive to reach the level where everything he does is for the purpose of G-d, not “just ’cause”.

More about this here: “Carbon monoxide and reishus, Part II” (see Part I for a quote from Tanya).]

So, let us assume as an axiom that in Chabad, there is a number of behaviors which are considered unchassidish for a person. For instance, being obsessed with nice clothes or fine wine. Going to movies. Reading secular fiction. Listening routinely to secular music. Etc. These things distract a person from G-dliness (unless used specifically l’shem shomayim, for the purpose of Heavens), immerse a soul in coarse materiality and therefore are not examples of a refined behavior.

Now, the person I was discussing this with quoted the following Hayom Yom:

When my grandmother, Rebbetzin Rivka, was eighteen (in 5611, 1851) she fell ill and the physician ordered her to eat immediately upon awakening. She, however, did not wish to eat before davening; so she davened very early, then ate breakfast. When her father-in-law, the Tzemach Tzedek, learned of this he said to her: "A Jew must be healthy and strong. The Torah says about mitzvot, 'Live in them,' meaning bring vitality into the mitzvot. To be able to infuse mitzvot with vitality, one must be strong and joyful." Then he concluded: "You should not be without food. Better to eat for the sake of davening rather than to daven for the sake of eating;" he then blessed her with long life. [She was born in 5593 (1833) and passed away on Sh'vat 10, 5674 (1914)].

My father told this teaching of the Tzemach Tzedek to someone at yechidus, adding: "And this must be done with joy."

This Hayom Yom is mostly famous because it is used in the arguments with misnagdim regarding the reasons why one should eat breakfast before davening. But my friend pointed out something else: Tzemach Tzedek said that “A Jew must be healthy and strong. The Torah says about mitzvot, ‘Live in them’, meaning bring vitality into the mitzvot. To be able to infuse mitzvot with vitality, one must be strong and joyful.” For the Rebbetzin Rivka (as for the most of us), this mean eating a breakfast before davening. But what if this means wearing nice clothes?

Now, for me personally it doesn’t matter whether I am wearing a $300 suit or a $1,200 suit. But let us say someone is more comfortable in the latter. According to the teachings of Chassidus, this is an example of unrefined attitude and behavior, due to the interest in coarse materiality. A Jew should not care about such gross material things (although, of course, his dress should be clean and respectable).

But, my friend said, for this person, wearing a nice suit is like for the Rebbetzin Rivka eating breakfast. It’s part of the vessel which will receive the light. The light cannot exist in the vacuum. Chassidus must exist inside a real person, not a golem. So, if liking clothes is an aspect of that person, then that is a part of his service of G-d, just like eating, sleeping, showering, being healthy and all other things we do in order to survive in this world to do our holy mission as Jews. Therefore, a person (especially a ba’al teshuva, my friend added) should be careful not to break himself.

I want to add specifically that my friend did not say that the person should only be comfortable being himself now. He added: Tzemach Tzedek did not say “eat the breakfast now, but eventually phase it out”. So, the person who likes clothes should be comfortable liking clothes as a part of his humanity all his life, while filling this “vessel” with Chassidus, i.e., becoming holy while remaining a human.

My question is the follows. I had a friend who smoked a lot. He needed to smoke. He knew that smoking was ruining his health (not to mention costing him money; his girlfriend was disgusted by it, etc.), but he needed it in order to function. Specifically, to do experiments. So, he could say: smoking is what I need to do to remain a scientist.

Fine. But wouldn’t it be better if my friend did not smoke at all? What is wrong with saying: “I need to smoke now in order to function, but I would like to quit and eventually phase it out, replacing it with more healthy habits”?

What is wrong with saying: “I like nice clothes now, but I hope 20 years from now, this chitzoiniusdik obsession will be replaced with something holy — e.g., lehavdil, making sure there are especially nice mezuzas in my house”? An example I heard was this: you could say that in order to function, you need a vacation. But the Rebbe didn’t need a vacation (and devoted all his time to the service of Hashem). Wouldn’t it be better if you were more like the Rebbe?

Regarding Russian roads...

2010-02-01T10:46:00.008-05:00

Question: How come Russia has such bad roads?
Answer: It’s a form of national defense.

Some footage from German “Eastern front” (i.e., Russia) during WWII:

By the way, that song (which is very funny, if you speak this most cultured language) is from a very popular Russian movie Gardemariny (“Marine Guards” — think of it as Russian “Three Musketeers”), which had some of the cheesiest musical scenes in the history of the Soviet cinematography:

Of course, now that we are on the topic of cheesy Soviet music scenes — a little dance in Ivan the Terrible’s court:

Get out!

2010-02-01T10:45:00.000-05:00

Dedicated to all the people in yeshiva/seminary/kollel and to all misnagdim.

Get Out
by Esma-Movie

Regarding pirates...

2010-02-01T10:31:00.002-05:00

Monotheism

2010-01-29T08:59:00.001-05:00

In Judaism, we believe there is only G-d.

Update: After much deliberation (see comments), it was determined that this is in fact heresy. But the reason this is not what we believe in illustrates what Rambam (and numerous others) meant when he said that G-d is one but not (just) in a numerical sense (not “one but not two”).

iPad

2010-01-29T08:42:00.005-05:00

The world intelligentsia responds to the new phenomenon. Click on the images to enlarge.

(source)

At the same time, it may indeed be a useful thing (not only as a religious artifact for the congregants of the Church of Apple). See the post by Nikita Ivanov:

Айпад круче, чем что-либо, что я видел, решает подавляющее большинство моих повседневных задач. Я люблю серфить по сети, лёжа на диване или сидя в кафе, люблю смотреть кино в поезде, люблю читать книжки, люблю скачавать миллион прикольных приложений, чтобы через неделю удалить, я очень часто пользуюсь картами, кроме того мне нужно что-то, что удобно откроет пэдээфки и всякие другие документы из Дропбокса, когда я сижу на встрече и, наконец, я пишу много писем и обожаю смотреть на картинки.

Ноутбуки меня в этой роли не устраивают из-за своей громоздкости, а нетбуки вообще сосут. Всё это я могу делать на Айфоне, но у него экран слишком маленький для таких дел — глаза быстро устают и постоянно что-то не помещается.

Большой мощный комп мне нужен только для работы в Шопе и полётов в Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X. (как бы эту хрень перевести?).

При этом, я постараюсь дождаться не такой сырой версии Айпада (но уже начал сомневаться, что терпения хватит). Со временем, в таких гаджетах появится камера, тактильная обратная связь, многозадачность — и всё, я не знаю, зачем включать настольный комп (ах, да, Фотошоп).

If you’re ever bored at work...

2010-01-29T00:38:00.004-05:00

...you can do things like this (but don’t look if you get disgusted easily, especially by bugs; or if you hate modern art).

Literary reflex

2010-01-28T13:03:00.000-05:00

Literate people raised in certain cultures respond instinctively to particular scenes or events of life by having similar scenes from their favorite books come to the surface of their memory. At least in the cultures where people predominantly read books for leisure (as opposed to mainly listening to music or watching TV).

For instance, the vast majority of people raised in the former Soviet Union upon seeing this picture (from the previous post):

(click on the image to see in full glory)

... will hear the following words in their mind (at least the first sentence):

The darkness that came from the Mediterranean Sea covered the city hated by the procurator. The hanging bridges connecting the temple with the dread Antonia Tower disappeared, the abyss descended from the sky and flooded the winged gods over the hippodrome, the Hasmonaean Palace with its loopholes, the bazaars, caravanserais, lanes, pools... Yerushalaim — the great city — vanished as if it had never existed in the world. Everything was devoured by the darkness, which frightened every living thing in Yerushalaim and round about. The strange cloud was swept from seaward towards the end of the day, the fourteenth day of the spring month of Nisan.

It was already heaving its belly over Bald Skull, where the executioners hastily stabbed the condemned men, it heaved itself over the temple of Yershalaim, crept in smoky streams down the temple hill, and flooded the Lower City. It poured through windows and drove people from the crooked streets into the houses. It was in no hurry to yield up its moisture and gave off only light. Each time the black smoky brew was ripped by fire, the great bulk of the temple with its glittering scaly roof flew up out of the pitch darkness. But the fire would instantly go out, and the temple would sink into the dark abyss. Time and again it grew out of it and fell back, and each time its collapse was accompanied by the thunder of catastrophe.

Other tremulous glimmers called out of the abyss the palace of Herod the Great, standing opposite the temple on the western hill, and its dread, eyeless golden statues flew up into the black sky, stretching their arms out to it. But again the heavenly fire would hide, and heavy claps of thunder would drive the golden idols into the darkness.

The downpour burst unexpectedly, and then the storm turned into a hurricane. In the very place where the procurator and the high priest had had their talk around noon, by the marble bench in the garden, with the sound of a cannon shot, a cypress snapped like a reed. Along with the watery spray and hail, broken-off roses, magnolia leaves, small twigs and sand were swept on to the balcony under the columns. The hurricane racked the garden.

At that time there was only one man under the columns, and that man was the procurator.

Evolution from a student to an employer

2010-01-28T12:03:00.000-05:00

Russian realities:

— First we brag how we haven’t spent any time studying but get good grades.
— Then we brag how we don’t do anything at work but get paid good money.
— Then we complain how we pay decent salary to some young punks who don’t know anything and don’t do any work.

North Caucasus

2010-01-28T09:00:00.004-05:00

As a special series (see the previous post), I present to you North Caucasus, the birthplace of white people. Click on the images to enlarge.

[Photographs by Dima Chatrov]

Dima Chatrov

2010-01-28T08:44:00.005-05:00

I present to you the awesome craziness and crazy awesomeness that are the photographs from all over the world by Dima Chatrov. Click on the images to enlarge, but to see the full beauty of it, I suggest you go to his blog (and blog-roll it). Each post with a picture has a link under it with a picture in larger resolution.

Dima himself:

Pythagorean theorem, etc.

2010-01-27T20:47:00.016-05:00

Everyone knows that most truths in the world can be proven from the Pythagorean Theorem. For example, Einstein's Theory of Relativity. And existence of G-d. Amongst other things.

But what is the proof of the theorem itself?

Here is a nice visual version:

(from here)

Also, did you know that 0.999... = 1? Equal mamosh.

And that 0⁰ = 1?

And also: 1/2 + 1/4 + 1/8 + 1/16 + ... = 1

[via Ilya Birman's blog]

Landscapes of sugar, flint and cinnamon

2010-01-27T09:00:00.004-05:00

This artist creates rather awesome-looking mini-models of landscapes using materials from everyday life.

Some quotes by Anton Chekhov

2010-01-26T16:11:00.000-05:00

A few selected quotes:

A good upbringing means not that you won’t spill sauce on the tablecloth, but that you won’t notice it when someone else does.

Brevity is the sister of talent.

Each of us is full of too many wheels, screws and valves to permit us to judge one another on a first impression or by two or three external signs.

Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.

Silence accompanies the most significant expressions of happiness and unhappiness: those in love understand one another best when silent, while the most heated and impassioned speech at a graveside touches only outsiders, but seems cold and inconsequential to the widow and children of the deceased.

There is nothing more awful, insulting, and depressing than banality.

Indifference is a paralysis of soul.

By poeticizing love, we imagine in those we love virtues that they often do not possess; this then becomes the source of constant mistakes and constant distress.

A fiancé is neither this nor that: he’s left one shore, but not yet reached the other.

If only one tooth aches, rejoice that not all of them ache.... If your wife betrays you, be glad that she betrayed only you and not the nation. [A Russian version of “the glass is half-full”.]

When a person is born, he can embark on only one of three roads of life: if you go right, the wolves will eat you; if you go left, you’ll eat the wolves; if you go straight, you’ll eat yourself.

If you are afraid of loneliness, do not marry.

Any idiot can face a crisis; it is the day-to-day living that wears you out.

Doctors are the same as lawyers; the only difference is that lawyers merely rob you, whereas doctors rob you and kill you too.

A nice person should feel ashamed even before a dog.

I myself smoke, but my wife asked me to speak today on the harmfulness of tobacco, so what can I do? If it’s tobacco, then let it be tobacco.

There is no national science, just as there is no national multiplication table; what is national is no longer science.

There are people whom even children’s literature would corrupt. They read with particular enjoyment the piquant passages in the Psalms and in the Wisdom of Solomon.

Neither I nor anyone else knows what a standard is. We all recognize a dishonorable act, but have no idea what honor is.

It’s easier to write about Socrates than about a young woman or a cook.

You ask “What is life?” That is the same as asking “What is a carrot?” A carrot is a carrot and we know nothing more.

People should be beautiful in every way — in their faces, in the way they dress, in their thoughts and in their innermost selves.

He is no longer a city dweller who has even once in his life caught a ruff or seen how, on clear and cool autumn days, flocks of migrating thrushes drift over a village. Until his death he will be drawn to freedom.

It has become customary to say that a man needs only six feet of land. But a corpse needs six feet, not a person.

About Chekhov:

This great kindness pervades Chekhov’s literary work, but it is not a matter of program or of literary message with him, but simply the natural coloration of his talent.
— Vladimir Nabokov

Worse than Shakespeare.
— Leo Tolstoy on Chekhov's plays.

Just eyeball it!

2010-01-26T13:38:00.000-05:00

How good are you at eyeballing things visually? I am this good:

So, apparently, somewhat average. How good are you? Take a test.

What is it like to be a bat

2010-01-26T04:56:00.001-05:00

In the famous proof that consciousness cannot be material, Thomas Nagel asks a question: “What is it like to be a bat?” The essence of the proof is that even if one were to study and know every single aspect of the bat’s nervous system, one would still not know what it is like to be a bat — to have an experience of being a bat. (The bat is used to make the example more stark. Bats use echolocation to navigate in space. In other words, bats “see” through their hearing.)

So, if you know everything about the system which is physical but still don’t know X (which is part of the system), then X must be not physical. In this case, X is consciousness.

This is a good example of what it is like to know English well enough to understand many (maybe most) words in a text, and have a lot of words sound familiar, but still not to understand what the text is saying:

riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs.

Sir Tristram, violer d'amores, fr'over the short sea, had passen core rearrived from North Armorica on this side the scraggy isthmus of Europe Minor to wielderfight his penisolate war: nor had topsawyer's rocks by the stream Oconee exaggerated themselse to Laurens County's gorgios while they went doublin their mumper all the time: nor avoice from afire bellowsed mishe mishe to tauftauf thuartpeatrick: not yet, though venissoon after, had a kidscad buttended a bland old isaac: not yet, though all's fair in vanessy, were sosie sesthers wroth with twone nathandjoe. Rot a peck of pa's malt had Jhem or Shen brewed by arclight and rory end to the regginbrow was to be seen ringsome on the aquaface.

This is what a game of baseball looks like to a foreigner:

Evolution of a liberal reform

2010-01-25T13:45:00.002-05:00

From arbat:

All starts with the leftists finding a “Problem”. Oftentimes the Problem is not really a problem. For instance they think that asset inequality is a problem. Even though it is the main stimulus for the economy’s development. To call it a problem is similar to calling voltage difference in the electric grid a problem that needs to be corrected as soon as possible, so that there is no difference in electric potentials at all. [For those less physically inclined, replace electric grid with a ski resort and the voltage difference with the height difference between the top and the bottom of the hill.]

Having identified the Problem, leftists propose a Plan. Oftentimes the Plan involves people giving up some kind of freedom and the government, in turn, forbidding the Problem away. As a rule, the freedom is indeed taken away. It’s the only part that goes according to the Plan. The original “Problem” remains the same, but in addition to it arise a number of “unforeseen side effects”. Which are of course presented as the next set of “Problems”, which are treated with new Plans (instead of getting rid of the original plan, which caused the problems in the first place), and so on.

Reminds me of someone who’s discovered a prescription pad, a medical encyclopedia in Chinese and a Korean dictionary and works this way as a village doctor, prescribing away.

Also reminds me of public high schools. Teachers treat students as idiots. As a result, the student behave like idiots. As a result, the teachers treat them as idiots, etc. I called it a feed-forward cycle of idiocy.

Different approaches

2010-01-23T22:21:00.003-05:00

Most people knows this joke: “Americans have spent millions of dollars to develop a pen that would work in zero gravity. Russians use pencils.”

Here is another example of a difference in problem solving, but this time — from real life:

The problem: A centrifuge has 12 spaces for test tubes. Whenever one puts the tubes in the centrifuge, they need to be balanced. For instance, if you number the spaces from 1 to 12, and you’re inserting four tubes, they have to be positioned at the places 1, 7, 2 and 8 (or 1, 7, 3 and 9; etc.). Question: how should you balance five test tubes?

A mathematician’s/physicist’s approach: First balance three tubes. Do it by placing one tube and then placing two tubes such that they are equidistant from each other and from the first tube. Having balanced the three tubes, insert the other two such that they are also balanced. For example, you can have the tubes at the positions 1, 5, 9, 2 and 8.

A biologist’s approach: Hmm. Five doesn’t divide in two. Hmm. Take a sixth test tube, fill it with enough water to approximately balance one of the test tubes. Now we have six test tubes. Put them in the positions 1, 2, 3, 7, 8 and 9.