Pareto's Principle

For a long time lately i thought i was cursed to only understand things of the past. Real time thinking was a unattainable task for me anymore. I remember when i was last time in dr.Boboia's office at Providence Scholls, i told her i cannot enjoy anymore anything in the present but only memories, everything else being the present Hell. And she completed with: It's good you have pleasant things to remember or something like that.

Real time thinking is only allowed to people with a thorough understanding of the times and reality they live in. I think.

For the first time in a long time i'm going try to react to a current event other than a response to my own blog posts.

For a few days now the Romanian newspapers keep a news about a mayor of a city in Romania  that seems to me to be home of some radical thinkers. She allegedly plagiarized from an Italian philosopher. I say philosopher because it is a tittle that is separated from the others attached to his Wikipedia entry. Alright. What's the big news? Besides proving one more time how bad is if one is assuming someone's else work, that unfortunately is nothing new?



Then something caught my eye in another Wikipedia entry associated with his name, by clicking on the link above, Pareto's principle. (God i wish my computer and internet was faster, maybe i'm going to order next speed, 20 mbps, right now i only have 7 and i thought the servers are not fast enough for this but i think in 2 years that changed).

Wow. So outdated. So much linked to the time period he lived in. So tributary and inseparable from his momentous state of mind. I thought philosophy, sociology and applied sociology was much more than that. A long time before the current post post-modern age when society was driven by an elite few.

Pareto defines the society he lives in based on some statistics pretending he discovered something.

I'm not going to go further with the analysis of thinking of a grown man who can theorize his own state of mind and make a principle out of it. I suspected for a long time that some educated people can take their own childish understanding of the surrounding reality, twist it a little bit, according to some rule they got obsessed by in some school or acquired through some random experience and make a philosophy out of it and project it in an ideology and give a raison d'etre to many others that simply don't have time or cannot afford the luxury to think. ("forgetting" to apply one of main principles of logic and that is verification through generalization - the main excuse after all could be he was probably mainly educated as an engineer). After all it's a temptation that we all fall in, the return to the innocent mind that allowed us the discovery of this world we live in, before we fell slaves to our own needs.

And start to manipulate their present reality by creating whole schools of thought and actions for those who are vulnerable and tempted because of the failure of other models, or any model that don't match with their state of mind.

The more different their model from current reality, the more radical their means of necessary actions are.

It's not 20-80 anymore. Those elites are gone mostly because of the last 2 WWs. It's everybody giving in and melting their personality into some huge entity and then bowing their egos to it. Some went so far and call this God or the collective subjective conscience that came out from the thinking of a single man 50 years or a century ago just because it fits their current psyche. Or because they think others might have had overlooked it at the time.

An entity that can handle everything for them better than themselves can. Some call it NWO. With its ancestors, communism and Nazism, usually under the form of dictatorships. That can build a whole new reality modeled on a whatever unfinished, unproven theory, like the one mentioned in the alleged plagiarism case above. If it can change the world? Of course it can and probably it already did. Bad luck for us if one of these incomplete theories merged with others of the same kind is the starting point leading historically to our current social reality cause there are probably much better models of reality we can resort to, and some i hope take as starting point our individuality and the presumption we don't have to give it up in order to exist as a society.

It is very intriguing why they brought this in the light of the current news paradigm and into the search engines' cache, and it occurs to me it may be yet another attempt into manipulating us into thinking that this may be a current model they use to manipulate us on daily bases.

I suspect the models currently used in applied computational sociology may very well be generated by computers using data from different digitized sources, even more simplified, similar to those used in modelling in engineering like finite elements, that cannot be understandable by a single human mind, ever changing, or even modelling our thoughts like a long string of Pavlovian reflexes. It might very well be, but it is applicable only for a current state of mind. Depending on a very unique combination of neurotransmitters unevenly distributed in different areas of the brain at a certain moment in time. (But then what is conscience, an illusion?)

Thus the need to continually manipulate the society to make it fit better on whatever theory they think they discovered. And the best way to do it is to keep it continuously in a collective trance or psychosis by creating on-demand, shocking news, and by repeating all kind of mantras, behind closed doors, and resulting in a cult like collective mind set-up. Being all close to the same state of mind would keep us with a similar distribution of neurotransmitters, and similar thought patterns, but it will also cut our minds' and society's natural redundancies. (I remember during communism a very common tendency in all conversations was the generalized need of reaching a consensus.)

Trouble is if they go too far with those and how far and if they can revert it back to human control and understanding. Some are saying we are already on a one way, no return road.

Or could they have brought it to public's attention through a back door like they often do, invoking this plagiarism case they might have constructed themselves so they can keep it in the news to test our reactions because they think they might just have found a new way in which they can apply the magic combination, 20-80, by considering themselves a new elite, based on ideology alone and not on history and inheritance of values, like it used to be during Pareto's time, that might in the future not even needing the rest of us, and trying to replace us with robots? So deja vu, except for the robots part.

But more worrying, these incomplete theories might be just psychological tricks, applied on large scale, letting us think they have a "strong" theory, that would bring humanity in its right place like it has never been before, thus the need for collectively experimenting, flattering to all that adhere to their organization, like through becoming an elite, just to better manipulate the whole of us until they reach their real purpose, whatever that might be though full of good intentions.

There are better ways to deal with individual's integration in a society. It only takes a set of rules and laws. The rules are applied in micro-society, within family and circles of friends. The laws, for the greater society, and as a last resort when one forgets his rules. That lets society grow little by little governed by its own naturally and historically generated principles.

I always asked myself, how can two people live together without giving up something if each can't stand him/her-self, not talking about a society? Is there any way to be part of a group without any giving in his own freedom, individuality and ego, without understanding the simple fact that he/she wants the same as every one of his kind?

How can some attempt to model a society when they could never model a single human brain? And probably we'll never could. (And if they are pretending they already did, please beware of tricks).

Living in a society is so complicated that it takes each a sophisticated, mature mind, a complete connection with the society one lives in, a complete understanding (or simply the wish to) of the rules, laws and the principles of this reality  - paradigm we each see differently.

TEE

"Rendezvous on Champs-Elysees"

Or proof that subliminality was not invented only a few years ago.

However, someone still has to explain to me who is screwing who. But my guess is nobody really knows.

Adnotări la un interviu

Nu am altă soluţie decât să copy&paste aici acest articol din Cotidianul pentru că trebuie să răspund la fiecare paragraf.
 

Acad. prof. dr. Cătălin Zamfir:

"Asistăm la o demoralizare colectivă!"

Cotidianul.ro »Acasă » Interviu » Articol

Domnule profesor, istoria se repetă, sociologia românească devine din nou Cenuşăreasă la fel ca în perioada comunistă. Mai avem nevoie de sociologi?

Rolul sociologiei este cel mai bine definit de Dimitrie Gusti, fondatorul Şcolii Sociologice de la Bucureşti. El a spus că „sociologia este ştiinţa naţiunii”, înţelegând prin aceasta ştiinţa societăţii în care sociologul trăieşte, pentru că, vedeţi, realitatea politică este peste tot la fel pe glob şi există o singură fizică, valabilă în toate zonele lumii. Societatea este însă foarte diversă, de aceea sociologiile au caracter naţional, în sensul de contextual. Sociologiile au ca principală misiune întocmirea hărţilor sociale. Pentru că aşa cum avem nevoie de harta geografică a României, avem nevoie şi de o hartă socială, deoarece actorii politici caută să schimbe realitatea socială în care trăiesc şi e nevoie să înţeleagă ce se întâmplă, care este configuraţia societăţii româneşti şi de-aici să tragă concluziile necesare. În al doilea rând, sociologia trebuie să şi explice de ce în societatea noastră se întâmplă lucrurile într-un fel sau altul şi de asemenea să încerce să facă şi predicţii, să dezvolte sugestii pentru politici sociale, deoarece sistemul politic nu are doar funcţia de a dezvolta o politică economică, ci şi un pachet mare de politici sociale.

Dimitrie Gusti, a scris ultima carte în 1941. Principala misiune este întocmirea hărţilor sociologice. Păi mai este asta valabil în 2013, când lumea trece de la elitism adică o democraţie aparentă, ghidată de elite la o democraţie reală, ghidată de media, deţinută de corporaţii şi tot felul de interese transnaţionale, cu feedback, când politicienii conduc acum o ţară în direcţia în care vrea ea, după ce au avut grijă să-i convingă populaţia care este direcţia bună, prin ei înşişi şi prin media aliată lor şi să le taie orice alte alternative, câteodată pur psihologic, alternativele existând? Prin sondaje în timp real care în mod evident, nu sunt întocmite de acest institut care aparţine de Academia Română, din moment cei ei spun mai jos că nu au mijloace? Actorii politici sărăcii nu înţeleg nimic din ce se întâmplă nici ei, pentru că sunt doar nişte bieţi... actori, ce-i drept, profi şi nu se vede că sunt cu casca la ureche tot timpul. Mulţumesc totuşi că aţi folosit cuvântul. E posibil ca sociologia română să fie alta decât cea britanică. Dar eu cred că sunt sociologi străini care o înţeleg mai bine decât orice sociolog din România.

Se uită politicianul într-o oglindă pe care i-o puneţi la dispoziţie şi se sperie de ceea ce vede? Se vede urât şi neputincios şi adoptă apoi politica struţului?

Nu neapărat, problema este că avem de-a face cu un proces social-economic, iar factorul politic poate influenţa negativ sau pozitiv acest proces. Vreau să vă dau un exemplu: în 1991, noi, Institutul de Cercetare a Calităţii Vieţii, am lansat un program de cercetare a sărăciei în România, în ideea că tranziţia va fi dură şi că unul dintre efectele ei va fi şi sărăcirea societăţii, neştiind însă în ce proporţie. Am făcut cercetări. M-am întâlnit pe-atunci cu prim-ministrul, iar acesta mi-a spus: ”Măi, Cătălin, de unde scoateţi voi atâţia săraci? Eu n-am văzut niciun sărac clătinându-se pe stradă de foame!”. Ăsta era punctul de vedere al prim-ministrului... Ca să vedeţi că de multe ori factorul politic nu înţelege ce se întâmplă. În cei 23 de ani de existenţă am publicat studii ştiinţifice şi ceea ce numim noi rapoarte. Rapoarte ce reprezină analize ale unor probleme grave ale societăţii româneşti, prezentate într-o formă „citibilă” de către publicul larg, de către politicieni. Uneori, politicul şi-a manifestat interesul faţă de aceste rapoarte.

Singura oglindă în care se uită politicianul este cea din cabina de machiaj. Coşul zilnic şi nivelul sărăciei este unul din multele aspecte ale sociologiei. Dar nu cred că este nevoie de un academician ca să vedem care este nivelul de sărăcie al României. Iar Petre Roman poate să fie satisfăcut, acum sunt, într-adevăr, români care cad de foame pe stradă, care dorm prin boscheţi, care îşi abandonează copii şi merg cu milioanele şi se prostituează şi fac alte munci în Italia şi Spania şi aduc bani în România la un nivel care pune România pe locul 3 în lume după India şi Mexic. Iar dvs. sunteţi acoperit. I-aţi spus de atunci!

În ultimii trei ani însă, guvernarea a strâmbat din nas şi a fost foarte supărată pe aceste rapoarte...

Noi nu criticam guvernul, ci ofeream o imagine a societăţii, „iată ce se întâmplă!”.

Este clar de ce nu-i interesează, după cum am spus înainte, tot ce-i interesează pe ei este ce aud la cască, instrucţiunile codificate pentru mimică, etc.

Ne putem raporta acum la anii ’90? Întreb, deoarece am văzut destui oameni clătinându-se pe stradă de foame...

E destul de greu să compari. Coşul zilnic demonstrează un lucru extrem de îngrijorător. Dinamica acestui coş zilnic minimal pentru a trăi a ajuns la nivelul celui din ’89 de-abia acum cinci ani, în 2008, şi a început iarăşi să se deterioreze. Tranziţia a fost foarte dură pe ansamblu. Am asistat timp de douăzeci de ani la un proces masiv de sărăcire a segmentului salarial al societăţii noastre. Din păcate a crescut enorm segmentul de populaţie nesalariată. Vă daţi seama, în 1989 erau 8.400.000 de salariaţi, salariul reprezentând o sursă foarte importantă de venit pentru majoritatea gospodăriilor. Acum avem mai puţin de jumătate, aproape 4.200.000 de salariaţi. A dispărut o masă mare de salariaţi. Unde s-au dus aceştia? Au mai migrat unii, alţii au intrat în economia gri sau neagră, asistăm la o subocupare mai ales în zona rurală, deci din punctul de vedere al stării societăţii, tranziţia a fost extrem de dură.

Ce coş dle. Sunt ţinuţi la un un nivel minim de existenţă, ameţiţi de media şi o anumită parte a internetului, iar cei plecaţi sunt condamnaţi la deromânizare. Numai din aceste date înţelegem că poporul român a intrat într-un declin, ghidat, fără precedent.

Dacă el ca şi academician şi salariat al statului român, subfinanţat, văzând aceste lucruri, a lua vreo iniţiativă personală, voluntară, de a identifica problemele majore care crează aceste statistici şi măcar a le publica cu tragerea semnalului de alarmă?


Decidentul, confruntat cu oglinda despre care vorbeam, a avut grijă să vă „tragă pe linie moartă”...

Ce se întâmplă? Aici era o discuţie în legătură cu evaluarea sociologilor. În ultimii ani, secţia de resort a ministerului a fost dominată de un grup de sociologi care au dus o politică de dezagregare a acestei ştiinţe, de deturnare a ei, de creare a unei rupturi de realitatea socială. Obiectivul propus sociologiei de acest grup este să publice în Occident. Foarte bine, să publice acolo, numai că vei publica doar anumite teme de interes mai general. Temele care sunt de interes critic pentru România au fost devalorizate, depunctate, iar tinerii sociologi sunt năuci, ei trebuie să publice în Occident, ăsta e obiectivul lor, nu să-şi realizeze misiunea lor de sociologi, şi anume cercetarea societăţii româneşti.

Cine este acel grup, au nume, feţe? Eu ştiu că la orice loc de muncă, mai ales în occident, există o listă de îndatoriri. Care este lista de sarcini zilnice pentru care primesc salarii angajaţii Institutul pentru Cercetarea Calităţii Vieţii? http://www.iccv.ro/echipa.

Pe cine deranjează? Devine ea o piedică în calea globalizării, a ştergerii identităţii naţionale?

Ce se întâmplă? Haideţi să luăm ţările importante. În Anglia, o mare producătoare de sociologie, peste 90% dintre cercetările în domeniu se referă la realitatea Angliei şi publică masiv despre realităţile de acolo. Francezii de asemenea... Doar 10% sunt cercetări cu teme mai comode care se publică în alte ţări occidentale. Şi sociologia noastră ar trebui să meargă pe această linie, adică 90% din efortul nostru să fie orientat spre cercetarea realităţii societăţii noastre.
Cercetarea se face numai că există acest grup care promovează un „mondialism gol” şi o politică de denigrare a cercetării de relevanţă românească.

Vroiam să întreb ce se traduce din ce se publică, prin efortul Institutului dvs, dar după aia m-am gândit, nu prea are rost, dacă vă luaţi după ce spunea Dimitrie Gusti, că fiecare ţară cu sociologia ei... Doar aşa, pentru ştiinţa noastră sau a studenţilor din ultimii 22 ani (+45 handicap). Dar nu mă pot abţine să vă întreb de ceva din Wikipedia, aţi auzit? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computational_sociology A tradus la institut cineva pagina asta? Sau vreuna din lucrările din lunga listă de la sfârşitul articolului?

Există pe site-ul ICCV o pagină, Proiecte de cercetare/proiecte finalizate. Unul din aceste proiecte este "Publicistica sociologică românească după 1944" M-am uitat în zadar la un link la acea bază de date. Unde este?

Este un grup care în schimbul burselor şi granturilor obţinute apără interese oculte, de pulverizare-atomizare a „românescului” şi în acest domeniu?

Nu ştiu cât la sută este finanţare, cât la sută este prostie şi cât ambiţie personală. Nu sunt încă date suficiente. Problema este că ei, în vreo cinci-şase ani, au ocupat puncte de control politic în Ministerul Educaţiei. Trebuie schimbată acum această mentalitate, această politică distructivă în sociologie...
În primul rând trebuie ca în minister să se schimbe radical viziunea de evaluare a sociologiei, să nu mai fie evaluată sociologia la fel ca fizica.

De la sociologul şef al României ne-am aştepta să ştie măcar acest lucru, dacă există un asemenea grup. În fond, e un fenomen... social! Dar eu mai întreb, în afara burselor şi granturilor luate de idioţi şi de la statul român şi de la alţii, el ca sociolog, ce alte mecanisme de pulverizare a românismului a identificat?

Apar tot soiul de politruci care - ei şi numai ei - deţin adevărul absolut şi ne prezintă din când în când „adevărata” stare a naţiunii, cum stăm cu PIB-ul, cu arieratele, numai despre coşul zilnic şi prăpastia creată între instituţii şi oameni nu vorbeşte nimeni...

Înţeleg că aceştia sunt alţii decât actorii politici de care aţi vobit mai devreme?

Institutul nostru (n.r. - Institutul pentru Cercetarea Calităţii Vieţii) a lansat pentru 2013 un mare program de cercetare - „Diagnoza stării sociale a României” - pentru că nu există o analiză clară, care este starea societăţii româneşti, nu în sistem politic, ci cum trăiesc cu adevărat oamenii.

Noi am propus guvernului să susţină un asemenea program, pentru că el nu se poate face în lipsa unor resurse. Politica de desfiinţare a cercetării sociologice a fost dusă la extrem prin finanţările prosteşti ale vechii guvernări. E nevoie măcar acum în ceasul al 12-lea de o analiză ştiinţifică corectă a realităţii pe care o trăim.

De ce mai trebuie o finanţare specială pentru un program special? Ce ne dă nouă acest institut altceva decât un site şi nişte rapoarte, poate vreo 3-4 în peste 20 ani LOL am ghicit! http://www.iccv.ro/proiecte/finalizate pe care poate le-a citit cineva? Oare singurul lucru pentru care le ajunge banii este să meargă în fiecare zi la servici, să deschidă calc şi să facă te miri ce? Şi un nume liniştitor, Institutul pentru Cercetarea Calităţii Vieţii, de care am auzit şi eu vag, cândva, bine, există cineva care se ocupă şi de chestia asta, nu suntem chiar orfani în lume, avem şi o calitate a vieţii, care este... mizerabilă, dar există... fiindcă o cercetează cineva!

Revenind la întrebarea dumneavoastră, sigur, starea de bine în social depinde în bună măsură de planul economic. Economia noastră se află într-o criză structurală ce s-a consolidat de-a lungul întregii perioade de tranziţie. Agricultura este destructurată - trebuie să fie găsite căile de restructurare şi de creştere a potenţialului ei -, iar pe de altă parte, industria a fost în mare parte distrusă. Este necesar un amplu program de reconstrucţie economică, problema este extrem de complexă...

LOL e destructurată, complexă, program amplu. Aici nu mă pot gândi decât la una din legile lui Murphy, aia cu ce pare uşor e greu ce pare greu e imposibil... Dar hai să fim pozitivi, măcar declarativ, să nu mai demoralizăm colectiv România.

Dar le puteţi pune în faţă decidenţilor o radiografie pertinentă a socialului nostru în anul de graţie 2013...

Asta o putem face, putem da şi unele sugestii, dar problemele sunt extraordinar de complexe şi factorul politic este în situaţia de a lua deciziile care ne-ar putea scoate din criză.

Mai mult centralism? Eu nu sunt sociolog, politolog bla bla dar un lucru am înţeles, politicienii nu sunt buni de altceva decât să promită, să acopere şi să încurce treburile. Dacă sunt reali. Dacă sunt doar actori cum aţi spus, atunci ei ne vor scuti de o agonie lungă.

Dacă cineva va rezolva vreodată ceva, acestea sunt mecanismele economice nestânjenite funcţionând într-o ţară suverană.

În procesul de schimbare social-economică, unul dintre efectele extrem de negative este creşterea inegalităţii, a polarizării societăţii. Ne tot comparăm cu Bulgaria, care suferă la fel ca noi, dar noi am devenit cea mai polarizată societate din Europa. Programul construcţiei europene este promovarea - să zicem - a unei societăţi mai echilibrate. E interesant că în ultimii ani Uniunea Europeană vorbeşte tot mai mult despre ceea ce se cheamă „o societate bună”. Cum ar arăta ea? Nu neapărat una prosperă, dar echilibrată social, de asemenea se vrea o stare de spirit pozitivă şi o apropiere între cetăţeni şi instituţiile publice.

Bulgaria are numai o minoritate etnică majoră, noi avem 2-3 cu tot cu diasporele lor din SUA. Care sunt, pardon, la curent cu ultimele cercetări în toate domeniile, inclusiv sociologia. Mai ales sociologia!

Noi moştenim o stare nu numai de dezamăgire, ci şi un sentiment de „n-ai ce face”. Sentimentul de „n-ai ce face” este generat de faptul că instituţiile nu sunt interesate de părerea cetăţenilor pe care-ar trebui să-i servească. Cetăţenii n-au nicio modalitate de a influenţa mersul sistemului public. Aici este o mare problemă, asistăm la o demoralizare colectivă. Şi aici, pe lângă reconstrucţia economiei, trebuie să luăm în calcul şi acest obiectiv. Moralul este o parte foarte importantă a dezvoltării sociale. La televizor vezi mereu: ”Dom'le, aşa se întâmplă! Şi ce să faci?”. Apoi mai există o expresie extrem de păguboasă, şi-anume: „Tot aşa va fi, nimic nu se va-ntâmpla!”.

Cei ce vorbesc ştiu din experienţele lor personale. Într-un fel e bine că nu se întâmplă nimic, deşi în 23 de ani s-au întâmplat multe, dar treptat, lumea s-a schimbat şi nu neapărat numai în bine, dar un lucru nu înţeleg, ce aşteaptă lumea să se întâmple? Ce au făcut ei pentru a se întâmpla ceva şi nu s-a întâmplat?

Societatea românească este modelată după Europa de Vest interbelică. Acolo dacă un om îşi făcea datoria, avea un job, plătea nişte impozite, se aștepta, normal ca şi cei plătiţi de stat să facă ceva asemănător, iar statul având tot felul de instituții, ele să funcționeze în folosul celui care plăteşte impozitul. Poate asta aşteaptă românii, miracolul ca într-o zi să vadă că şi cei care primesc salariu de la stat îşi fac datoria. Poate e timpul să le spună cineva. Nu prea îşi fac datoria. Faţă de români.

Există o ruptură între colectivitate şi instituţiile publice. Democraţia înseamnă că populaţia participă la decizii şi are un sentiment de încredere în instituţiile pe care le-a votat. Neîncrederea este însă dominantă la acestă oră în socialul românesc, iar guvernarea actuală mai are încă o misiune extraordinar de grea: aceea de a recâştiga încrederea populaţiei în instituţiile statului.

Eu sunt sigur că românii nici nu prea ştiu de instituţiile astea publice. Lumea îşi face treaba şi merg acasă să se odihnească şi să se distreze. Nu e treaba lor să ţină legătura cu aceste instituții. Dar acum, dacă au ieşit în presă şi acest articol va sta pentru câteva zile bune în Cotidianul.ro, hai să vorbim şi cu ei.

În România populaţia participă la decizii, de acord, dar nu în felul în care ne-am aştepta. Ei sunt sondaţi prin complicitatea proprietarilor de reţele sociale (ne-am fi aşteptat să vorbiți şi despre acestea, domnilor sociologi, câte studii aveţi pe rol?, dacă înţelegeţi cum funcționează, la nivel fizic, unde sunt serverele, în ce ţări, cine controlează datele, confidențialitatea la nivel de stat român) şi înainte de asta, prin alte reţele, incluzând cea telefonică, în mod ilicit, iar aceste sondaje ajung, ca efect, de multe ori în timp de ore sau chiar minute înapoi la ei prin actorii politici, dar nu în felul în care ar fi avantajos pentru români, deşi prezentat în forme atrăgătoare, câteodată chiar sexy. Nimic despre tehnici de manipulare în media?

Sau dacă au colaborat vreodată cu http://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/, organizaţie filantropică care pare specializată în problemele sociale? Şi care probabil nu duce lipsă de fonduri, studii şi materiale publicate?

Între Dimitrie Gusti şi sociologia modernă sunt peste 60 ani. S-a făcut un salt imens în toate domeniile. Dar din păcate, nici în România, nici în ţările din vest sociologia de vârf nu este numai în mâna guvernelor. Diferite organizaţii private angajează cei mai buni sociologi şi matematicieni şi fac ce vor şi mai ales numai ce ştiu ei iar noi numai putem să bănuim. Dar când vedem reacţia promptă a actorilor la anumite fenomene nu putem să tragem decât o singură concluzie. Organizaţiile pe care le folosesc ei nu sunt cele de acoperire, ca Institutul pentru Cercetarea Calităţii Vieţii. Care după cum a şi recunoscut şeful lui, nu funcţionează.

Site-ul personal al acad. prof. dr. Cătălin Zamfir.

Lasciati

Toţi politicienii români sunt cumpăraţi sau de vânzare. Dacă vreunul scoate capul cu vreo idee care nu convine, este imediat amenințat, şantajat sau cumpărat. Unii chiar îşi liniştesc conştiinţa, cu idei de genul: Nu vezi ce ţară de idioţi, mai ai câţiva ani de trăit, tu ce câştigi dacă lupţi pentru idioţii care sunt oricum pierduţi?

All Romanian politicians are for sale or already bought. I would say most are in the last category. If any raises his head with an idea that is not conforming to whoever controls that country, it is immediately threatened, blackmailed or bought. Some even trick their conscience with ideas like: Don't you see what a country full of idiots this is, you only have so many years to live, what do you get if you fight for those idiots that are already lost?

O  întreagă armată de celebrităţi execută piruete la comandă, apărând în orice moment, la timp, cu tot felul de noutăţi neaşteptate, de obicei legate de evenimentele politice curente, pentru a produce ezitare, pierdere de timp şi în derizoriu şi confuzie. Dar nu au nici o personalitate. Sclavi telecomandaţi.

A whole army of media celebrities do their pirouettes, on demand, showing up in any moment, just in time with all kind of unexpected insignificant news, usually semantically related to the current political events, to produce hesitation, waste of time and confusion. 

Articole de presă şi mişcări de scenă care aparent nu au nici o legătură cu nimic, le sucesc, paralizează şi ocupă minţile românilor, precum şerpii îşi paralizează pradă înainte de a o ucide.

Press articles and scene moves that apparently don't have a link with nothing, twist, paralyze and occupy the minds of Romanians, like the serpents paralyze their pray before killing it.

Dar acest proces a început, cât se putea, integrat sub masca ideologiei comuniste, profitând de inepţia ocupanţilor, cu numirea unui idiot total manipulat în poziţia conducătorului. Cred că a fost singurul caz în istorie când o ţară a fost ocupată iar ocupanţii nu a câştigat nimic în schimb au deschis calea altora, mai deştepţi decât ei. Aceasta dovedeşte şi faptul că ei înşişi erau ocupați, ideologic. De cine?

But this process started, as little as it could,  integrated under the masque of communist ideology, taking advantage of the incompetence of the occupants, their lack of sophistication, with the naming of an idiot totally manipulated in the position of "conducător". I believe this was the only case in history when a country has been occupied and their occupants didn't gain much, but in turn opened the gate for others, smarter then them. This in itself proves that they themselves where occupied, if only ideologically. The question remains to this day, by whom?

Îmi amintesc de melodia "trupei" Phoenix, La umbra marelui urs. La umbra marelui urs, căruia îi trebuie decenii să înţeleagă ce s-a întâmplat ieri, ne-au subminat, măcinat şi până la urmă i-au pus piedică şi acestuia.

I remember here of the song of the Romanian band Phoenix, Under the shadow of the great bear,  who needs decades to understand what happened just yesterday. Under the shadow of the great bear they constantly undermined and eroded us.

Unii din cei mai buni psihologi şi sociologi din lume coordonează toată această mascaradă. Acum, modelată în timp real pe supercomputere, alimentate cu datele puse voluntar de români în reţelele sociale şi telefonice.

Some of the best psychologist and sociologist the world have ever seen coordinate all this current masquerade. Now, modeled in real time on supercomputers and fed with the data put voluntarily by Romanians themselves in the social networks and computers and telephone networks.

Ghinionul nostru a fost să-i avem vecini pe cei care s-a interpus între noi şi restul Europei de secole, ei beneficiind de acest contact şi integrându-se în vest, folosind şi aplicând cu decenii înaintea noastră ultimele noutăţi ştiinţifice, filtrându-le pentru noi şi servindu-ne pe dos.

Our bad luck was to have as neighbors those who interposed between us and the rest of the civilized Europe, for centuries, only them benefiting from that contact and integrating themselves in the West, using and applying with decades before us the latest technical and scientific novelties, especially controlling some of the Romanian scholars mostly through corruption.

Câteodată chiar stau şi mă gândesc ce rol au avut aceştia în capitala culturală a Europei de Est, Viena şi ce influenţă au avut asupra Austriei, Europei şi lumii în general.

Sometimes i think of the influence they had in the cultural capital of Eastern Europe, Vienna, and generally over Austria, Europe and generally in the whole world.

Cunoscători perfecţi de limba română (chiar mai buni decât înşişi românii) şi psihologia românului, după ce de secole au fost elita stăpânitoare în vestul ţării.

Knowing perfectly the Romanian language (sometimes even better than the Romanians themselves), after being for centuries the mastering elite in the west of the country.

România nu mai înseamnă nimic pe plan industrial sau economic în general, tot ce i-a mai rămas este sufletele milioanelor, pe cale să fie pierdute într-un război psihologic invizibil, nedeclarat dar total şi bineînţeles, teritoriul.

Romania doesn't mean much on industrial or economical terms, everything that's left is the souls of the millions that are still in the country that are about to be lost in a an invisible, psychological, undeclared but total war, and of course, its territory. With the remotely controlled politicians, after 89, other millions emigrated in Western Europe.

Nu este exclusă folosirea unor ramuri ascunse, care uneori se întâlnesc la capitolul "paranormale" din ştiinţe precum fizica, biofizica, psihologia, fiziologia.

It is not excluded the use of some hidden branches, which sometimes are known are "paranormal" from sciences like physics, biophysics, psychology, physiology.

Românii ar trebui să înţeleagă că tot ce mişcă şi se vede sau nu se vede că mişcă în ţara aceea, le este duşman acum şi nu există o singură persoană care poate să-i ajute.

Romanians should understand that everything that moves and is visible and invisible in that country it's their enemy now and there is not a single person or entity that can help them.

Providence Scholls

On December 29 2011 i spoke on the phone with Julian Mart, in Seattle. At the time, i thought he fixed his immigration status, but recently i found out he is on a Pulitzer type of visa.

That day i was feeling ill, some trouble breathing, some anxiety attack. He mentioned on the phone he is on another line with "the doctor" and put a heavy accent on that word. I attributed that to his foster care business at his home where he takes care of elderly people.

Later in the evening the symptoms got worse and i decided to go to Providence Scholls. I went and checked in and went to buy some potassium gluconate supplements at the nearby Walgreen's. I think i had in and out atrial fibrillation due to lack of potassium. I noticed there was a black limo in the parking lot and a guy in the waiting room dressed in some sort of unusual, shining leather jacket that seemed young, restless and full of life and not the sick type you usually find in those places throwing at me some sort of arrogant looks and smiles.

When i opened the bottle with the potassium gluconate i just bought, a woman came and called me. She took me to an area where an assistant took my vitals signs. I noticed she was not looking at me while talking, just at the blood pressure and oxygen level monitors, and she asked me again if i really wanted to check in. In a way she seemed familiar to me. Very young, darker skin with some sort of heavy make-up. Later i thought she was looking a lot like Niki Minaj.

So i went in, undressed, put on a gown and the doctor showed up. She introduced herself as dr.Bertani, Emilly. She seemed very young, maybe too young to be a doctor, like in her late 20s. She was kinda hardly trying not to laugh, smiling all the time. She went straight to the computer, asked the usual questions and put the data in. I asked her if she knew dr.Weeks, the doctor i last saw in that clinic, a year before. She said she was there for a very short time, she doesn't know all the doctors. (Please click again on the Providence Scholls link above. You will see the doctors that are working right now in that clinic. Do you think if she was a new doctor in there she wouldn't know them all?).

Among other things that happened in there, one thing caught my attention, although i was feeling really sick and distracted by my symptoms. When she used her stethoscope, she was barely touching me with it, not talking about holding it and listening to anything. My wife is a medical assistant, we have several stethoscopes at home and i learned to used them, including manually checking blood pressure and listening and comparing heart's sounds with those found on several sites on internet. In fact, i remember i told her that i have stethoscopes at home but i don't like to listen to my own heart because i freak out or something like that and she laughed nervously.

Then in the end i used the word breath referring to me breathing hardly and hyperventilating and i think she intentionally mistook the word for breasts and took a sort of embarrassed pose. However, in the end she told me compassionately that i should take care of what she refereed to as "chronic problems". Probably with references to my alleged psychiatric problems in the past.

I went home. About an hour later, i realized she might not have a doctor after all. In fact, she looked a lot like the celebrity known as Lady Gaga.

When i realized that, i decided to go to the ER at Providence St.Vincent hospital. I didn't know at the time what was happening to me and i though maybe it was better so. But driving i thought i was getting better and i was undecided. When at the last stop sign before the hospital, still undecided, some guy driving behind me flashed me with his high beam and i don't know why, that was the final push towards the decision not to go. So i turned back home.

For the last few days i head an ongoing conversation with the Oregon Board of Medicine Licensing. I am intrigued by the fact that they do not have doctors' photographs on their Verification of Licensure page. In Oregon, there have been at least one notorious case of a doctor working without license, dr.Patil. As a coincidence, my wife's ex-oncologist name is Patil.

A few days after i went to Providence Scholls and took a picture at the board at the entrance with the list of doctors. No dr. Bertani in there. I think there was no dr.Bertani working for Providence Scholls, ever.

Incomming Call

Just received a phone call with no caller ID information. All it was saying was "incoming call". It was from the chiropractor office i went to earlier. But this is another story. They left a message. But now i'm not sure it was from them. I'm not sure the woman who called still works there. I was earlier in the office and there was a different receptionist.

A local call from a business, no way it could have been blocked. Or even if it has been blocked, it would have shown blocked or private. But this one was marked "incoming call".

So i went to CenturyLink site and found a form and filled it out. After all i'm paying 10 dollar a month just for the caller ID. This for the daily 1800 soliciting calls i'm getting and don't want to answer.

Can't remember what form. But i received a confirmation email from CenturyLink. I am saved. This one should show what i was complaining about. Oops... It doesn't say anything, just saying they received my email. And a statement about their goals.

"
On Wed, Jan 23, 2013 at 3:03 PM, Qwest.Com Customer Support <Qwest.Support@centurylink.com> wrote:

Thank you for taking the time to contact CenturyLink by email.   We have
received your message.  It will be reviewed as soon as possible by a
member of our Customer Care team.  Our specialists are available and
respond to requests Monday through Friday between the hours of 8:00 AM
and 6:00 PM Central Standard Time.

Our goal is to respond to all customer concerns within 24 hours.
Please note that emails sent after 6:00 CST or during weekend hours may
require additional response time.

If you need immediate assistance, click the link below to find our
customer service and repair telephone numbers. http://qwest.centurylink.com/customerservice/index.html

Again, thank you for contacting CenturyLink.
"

About two month ago, they cut my phone service for 24 hours, with no explanation.  A CenturyLink van was here near the box, my wife saw it, then the phone was cut out. I spent one day calling them, bought a new phone, then finally another guy with a pickup marked CenturyLink came and it was fixed.

This is the way they deal with things around here. When you are trying to fix a problem (initial problem was inexplicable back pain in the morning, not in the evening), i got into a myriad of other problems. They create new problems so they cover the old ones. This is proof that i'm dealing with only one entity everywhere i go.

"
This ticket has a date of the future, see below date ticket created. The ticket was opened today, before this email was sent. Please check the date of the email.

George Ion

On Wed, Dec 5, 2012 at 6:49 PM, CenturyLink <Online.Repair@centurylink.com> wrote:

MyAccount Customer Service Special Offers Explore Products Account Review

Thank you for submitting your repair ticket centurylink.com. Below are the details of your request. Repair Ticket Number: 5036755086 Date Ticket Created: 12-06-12 Number to be Repaired: 5036755086 Contact Number: 9712697402 Contact type cell The problem should be resolved by 12-06-12 06:00 PM. You can check the status of your repair online from the Manage My Repairs page. Thank you for using centurylink.com This was sent from an automated email server. Please do not reply to this message. Instead, please use the contact options on the customer service page. Copyright © 2011 CenturyLink, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Centurylink values your business and respects your privacy. For more information on how we use information we collect online, please read our Privacy Policy.

"

Pulitzer Prize-Winning, With Typo

In this 2001 Pulitzer winning article from the Oregonian by Julia Sullivan-Springhetti, published December 2000, there is a typo, one occurrence only, yeras instead of years.

There used to be a direct link at the Pulitzer site to this article but they made it impossible to link to it. Down in this page you can search for this title and click on it.

"Congressional acts move the INS, sometimes: Pressure on the agency from elected officials often helps immigrant families through the system, but it doesn't ensure success"

http://www.pulitzer.org/winners/6932

Needless to say. John Pulitzer was Hungarian and Pulitzer prize is worth 10000 dollars and is given to many journalists every year.

Lodge Climbing, 1979

Summer 1979. End of High School. During vacation before college (actually before the mandatory nine month military stage before college) i was working at the local furniture factory across the street from where i was living in Câmpulung, Suceava. 7 November St, now they changed it to Calea Transilvaniei, don't know why.

I was spending all my evenings at the Mancaş family, half mile down the street. Mother and three daughters. Mrs.Mancaş (born Gătej) was from Câmpulung and owned that piece of property with a cottage, across the street from where Liviu Strugariu, my ex grade school class mate lived. In fact, he introduced me to them. Daughters, Elena, Tatiana and Gabi. Tatiana, the cutest, "had to give up ballet because of a heart murmur". Tatiana and Elena "just got admitted to college", as myself.
(Years later Gabi told me Tatiana became a physics teacher and married in Piatra Neamţ).

One day my three Tehnoton HS ex class mates, Mareş Mirel of Buhuşi, now Montreal, Canada, Valentin Gheorghiţă of Focşani, Romania, Gabriel Ringhiliescu of Iaşi, Ştefăneşti - Botoşani, France, came with Gabi's brand new car, (Dacia) for a trip to Ardeal. My father didn't want me to leave the job so they went alone. In a couple of weeks they came back and we went on a Saturday on a trip to Rarău, a blessed place on the face of the Earth. (No i don't believe anymore he is the guy on the right).

Mareş Mirel, left, Valentin Gheorghiţă, right, Gabi Ringhilescu, next to him. Click to enlarge.

I went to Mancaş sisters which i visited all summer and they agreed to come with us. We bought some food and a bottle of 1 litre of brandy. Mirel, V.Gheorghiţă and myself went by foot, some 9 miles, and the rest with Gabi in the car.

We raised a tent and rain came. We used the pump from the mat to blow in a fire. Made a trip around the lodge. Weather and angle of view of the lodge from where we had the tent was similar to this one.

Click to enlarge

Night came. The six of them slept in the tent. There was not enough room in the tent and i was left to sleep in the parked car but couldn't sleep and played with car's radio's dial on the short waves. I think i drank, alone, most of the brandy. I caught some music at Free Europe. I remember they were playing ABBA's song Give me Give me Give Me a Man at the Midnight. (Now i know that song was officially released months later, don't know). And i was singing along replacing the word man with girl. And then something really weird happened. I saw through the windshield a guy coming down the lodge from the roof using a climbing rope. Dressed in a completely black suite, tight on the body, like for divers. He went inside on a window.

I was too drunk to think. I thought maybe he was playing a prank to somebody. I don't know.

The next day i think i told them the story but nobody paid attention. We went back to Câmpulung the same way we came. Sun came up. Beautiful day. I had a hangover. Monday went back to work.

From time to time i remember the episode. Don't know what to think anymore. Could it have been...a ninja?

dr.Sigurtson

In September 2004 my wife had cancer surgery. I was in the same hospital at Providence St.Vincent in Barnes Rd. in Portland, Oregon, in the psychiatric ward due to a psychosis. In fact, i was at the 4th floor while she had surgery at the fifth. She came to see me the second day after surgery, while i was laying in bed thinking i was on a different planet. Could this be related to my downstairs neighbour, a person to whom we both refereed to as "the witch", a 300+ pounds woman with a black cat, stars and moons door mat, and a bumper sticker on her car saying "my other car is a broom", who sometimes was laughing on a really high tone, alone in the house? At 6810, SW Hall Blvd, Beaverton, OR, 97035. Later she moved to a different apartment in the same complex, i think i have a picture of the "things" she kept in front of the door. Here it is...

At Sussex Village Apts, Beaverton, OR, 2007/07/23 18:25:27, click to enlarge

At Providence i was in care of dr.Sigurtson. That's all i remember, his last name. In fact he obtained from Washington county some sort of court order to keep me in there because i wanted to get out.

I remember he enumerated some antidepressants and asked me what i wanted. I chose Remeron (Mirtazapin) because it sounded right to me at that time. I've been on Remeron until early 2007. It took me one full year to fight with the withdrawal symptoms. From what i've heard, i am the first person to ever get off of Remeron. But i believe i got the bradycardia because giving it up. (Remeron as a side effect is a cardiotonic and raises your heart rhythm and after a while your body gets used to and your heart rythm gets back to normal. When you get off it, i suppose it goes down. My pulse now is in the low 50s and even in the upper 40s when i lay down.)

But the strangest thing is a few days into my hospital stay (in fact just after signing the document below) dr.Sigurtson dissapeared. He was replaced by a different doctor, dr.Guistwhite. But by that time, i already gave up, i made peace with myself and everybody. Could it have been the phone calls i made from the hospital to different lawyers from yellow pages trying to describe to them my situation and ask for help? The nurses told me he had an accident. Years later i tried and called the hospital asking them about dr.Sigurtson and they told me he moved into a different country.

Nowadays i am reviewing a number of faces i knew and resemble other persons,  mostly celebrities. Dr. Sigurtson's face look a lot like ...Sigurjón Sighvatsson, the Iceland born actor. Can anybody tell me what the hell is going on?

Sigurjón Sighvatsson

Can get most of the resolution with middle click

I had this document for 8 years. I always hesitated to show it so someone. Why? Because the handwritten parts especially the small letters look exactly like my handwriting, with a few differences though.

Breaking Ice on The Roof

My place, 1/11 2013

Apparently 10 days ago i myself cleaned the leaves from the gutter above the bedroom, using a stick and a hose cause they started to stink. Weather was fine, but it took me several hours, to get them from the balcony with a long stick with a hook at the end.

Here in Oregon the weather is under freezing several nights, mabye a couple of weeks in total in a year. Mostly during night time.

Today it was frosty and holiday but they came to clean the leaves from the other gutters in the building.  Leaves, of course frozen in the gutters that were full if they were like mine. I don't know how they had the guts to walk on the frosty roof like that. And the energy. Those two Mexicans were all day on the roofs until night and they didn't seem tired to me. It's their business, after all.

But they hammered the gutters for a couple of hours and everything inside was shaking like hell. People who don't live in wooden houses don't understand. Then they climbed with a power blower and blew whatever it was left on the roof. After a couple of hours they moved to the next building. When it though everything was over, a big diesel truck from a towing company came and shook everything for 15 minutes with a different frequency.

My place, post date

How Chest Pain Works

There are more and more numerous and sometimes irreconcilable theories about why chest pain occurs as a symptom of a heart attack. The funniest i heard of so far (actually i heard it in a radio show) is the one that says that they are due to a genetic anomaly. That is some people have some sort of shortcuts in the nervous system, presumbably at the spine level that transmit signals of a heart attack perceived by the brain as chest pain.

That's when i knew that there is yet another crisis in the theory of medicine. 

None of these theories, besides this last fantastic one can explain the variations and the asymmetry. Cause some people have silent heart attacks, with no pain. There should be major genetic differences between people to explain it and that's not the case. Then the asymmetry. It's always the left area of the chest or left hand. So that's when i started thinking, since i'm no stranger to temporary chest discomfort and even pain and had an episode of atrial fibrillation with rapid ventricular response (when i drove myself on the middle of the night (ambulance showed after i left) on black ice and a quarter inch of frost on the windshield to the hospital, with the pulse oximeter on the finger showing 200+ then on the freeway when there was no ice i went all the way to 90 mph because my truck has a speed limit sensor, for about 2 minutes that seemed an eternity 'till i reached the hospital.)

I believe it's the posture that triggers it. Your body through numerous chemical and hormonal changes during a heart attack, and i believe some of them are just trying to compensate the acute heart failure; through your brain or through some reflex mechanism, contracting certain muscles in the spine and creating a spine curvature, usually asymmetric (due to asymmetry of the position of the heart in the chest, there's more discussion in the paragraph below about this) that can put pressure on the nerves directly or through the extension of the asymmetrically pressured disks, creating the pain sensation.

(I read a few days ago about the importance of the position during sleeping. On the right side, it's better for the heart because there's less pressure and "more room" for the heart due to the position relative to other organs. Why heart needs more room to work? Because heart, like any muscle, can only contract but not expand. It expands only through relaxation when it regains its shape and only if there's no pressure on it allowing the blood to flow inside due to venous pressure. If you put pressure or lay other organs on it, it's not going to have room to expand. Things are aggravated by obesity, cause the intra and extra abdominal fat adds pressure to the abdominal cavity and inside the chest through diaphragm and hiatal hernias to the point that is making your stomach touch the bottom of your heart. Gas and abdominal bloating is another factor. One good sign that your heart does not have enough room to expand are palpitations triggered by your stomach touching the heart through hiatal hernias.)

The Two Ways or The Twilight

There are two major different ways of succeeding. The classical one, through (guided from parents and different schools), individual way. Constant effort and learning can eventually lead you in a stable position in society with stable relationships, family, friends, job.

The other way is much faster. Bowing your individuality to different associations, occult or not, bigger or smaller, that in the end can be affiliated to only one in a social pyramid like type of structure. In this case you have to pass first and constantly in time all kind of (initiation) rituals, most of them being secret as probably going on the other side of the law. You become one gear in a big machine, replaceable. Obedience is the key. You apparently get instead everything one could achieve through the first method and more.

When i was working at IMU Bacău in Romania one day my boss came to me and said the unexpected. "You should become member of the communist party". It was not considered an honour any more at that time. But it was essential if you wanted to climb your way into the company. But it was too late. 8 month before the revolution came. But i still remember the meeting of the "base" organization in the company. I had to memorize and recite the swear in statement in front of several hundred members. Actually in the rear cause i stood up when reciting from one of the latest rows in a huge room where everybody was siting.

Nowadays every once in a while usually in September i see in the news about the death of one or several students during initiation ceremonies in fraternities. It is more of a game compared to probably what they have to go through in the initiations of the real big important frats. But in a sense children are known to be tougher than adults when playing and imitating the big guys. Crossing the line may be also be an unconscious form of protest to the abuse. But in essence you give yourself up in front of the members of the frat drinking until they are satisfied while depending on them to stop you.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twilight_of_the_Idols

Just read the first paragraph in the link above. First my thought went to Thor. Then to my older obsession. Why is satanism associated with goats or rams? Could it be because of the way male goats or rams confront each other or defend themselves? The butt-head. Can one imagine the shock to the brain a butt-head can do? Or generally any kind of shock when somebody is in a state of relaxation? Like me on October 26 last year when i was hit while in my truck from behind by another car in an intersection when i was about to pass out anyways because of the smoke from the neighbours i inhaled all day? Steel bumper to steel bumper, almost no trace, but got headaches for a couple of weeks later? Or even when the neighbour's slamming door and stomping on the stairs when trying to read something or especially when you read something and don't like and get mad? Sudden noise can bring a storm of neurotransmitters and if repeated you can get depleted of calcium or potassium and even faint or go into fibrillation. And it can definitely alter your thought pattern, your day, your week and generally your life.

Sanskrit Words with English Resonance

After looking for Romanian words of possible Sanskrit etymologies and browsing thousands of words in Sanskrit dictionaries, i stumbled upon a number of English words that sound very close to Sanskrit ones and to me the etymologies i found for those words in different English dictionaries are not satisfying anymore.

Everething Bell €

Although i have a degree in Mechanics, i am (was) specializing in Machine Tools. Never studied a thing about motors or compressors. All i know is from fixing my cars and negotiating with mechanics (diagnosing the cars for them so i can tell them exactly what's wrong and save money.)

So i never knew what a fridge compressor look like. Until today. But i don't want to talk about the compressor itself. In a way it's just a reversed engine. It's got a motor and a cylinder with a crankshaft and a piston or more.

What i want to talk about it's the encassing. It looks exactly like two bells put together. The lower bell covers a biger piece of metal with some sort of maze that is not vibrating and actually dampens the vibration of the compresor. But the upper bell, shorter, covers the noisy part.

Problem is the bells themselves are kinda thin and vibrate like ... bells! Alhough it covers most of the noise from the compressor, they vibrate in turn to their own resonance frequencies. So you have to dampen that as well.

The designer's solution is the evaporating pan in top of the upper bell. It is tightened to the bell with a bolt and nut and glued as well.

When i moved into the appartment, the evaporating pan was full of some stuff that i still don't know what was made of, probably mineral insulation from the attic or from under the bathroom that somehow made its way in the appartment and ended  in the water in the evaporating pan and in time got glued with the formaldehyde resin that was evaporating from the fiberboard floor and re-polymerized in there.

It was stinking really bad so i had to remove it using a screwdriver, it took me and my wife a couple of hours to do so.

I diverted the water from the freeze-thaw cycle in a one gallon water container that i had to empty monthly. I did that because it was collecting water from the air, acting like a dehumidifier. But the pan was leaking as well and i didn't know until recently, again. And i took it off and i saw it was glued to the upper bell. But the glue was probably very cheap stuff and the pan separated from the bell and the bell was vibrating producing ultrasound. But when i took it out, the level of ultrasound increased suddenly. And actually started to have back pain, hands pain, all kind of pains.

The lower bell was installed on four rubber mounts that shrank and allowed it to rattle at low frequencies.

These days i rebuilt the mounts, retighten the bushings, glued back the pan with sillikon seal, and fill the pan wiht gypsum.

I don't know if i cut all the vibrations, but it is definetelly a low quiter now. But my ears are still ringing. My wife can't hear a thing. Tomorrow i'm going to try to see if i can dampen the high frequencies a little bit more.

I even tried to wrap the bells in rags and it works pretty well but it heats up too much and had to remove them.

Mr.Raţiu or Mr.Palmer?

Yesterday i saw Mr.Raţiu's picture in the newspaper he helped create in Romania, Cotidianul. It was 13 years since his "death".

Lately i've been seing on OPB As Time Goes By. Being gone from Romania for 17 years, i forgot how Mr.Raţiu looked like but when i saw the picture i thought for a second they made a mistake and put a younger Geoffrey's Palmer picture instead with a smile full of confidence in Romania's future made-up especially for us but no, it was Mr. Ion Raţiu, ex-presidential candidate and member of Romania's parliament for a long time. Could it be just because of the bow-tie? Could it be just another switcheroo? I remember now that he wasn't speaking Romanian very correctly when he came, actually he was in England for 50 years or so and nobody who knew him in Romania was alive to recognize him. And his speech the one with the lesson of democracy and of course, the metaphor about the god of democracy. That one is still too deep for me never figured it out.

Dracula And The Ninja Master

I've been thinking for a long time now to write a fantastic novel about a possible confrontation between the two medieval social and cultural remnants, what are known to us as ninjas and Dracula.

The possible inspiration for my novel would be the urban legends with a kernel of truth that circulate nowadays especially on the internet or the hidden, or dark side of the internet.

The whole action would take place somewhere on the eastern Pacific coast.

Jinichi Kawakami is one of the legends and possible inspirer for the main character of my novel.

The other one, of course, embodied by a poor immigrant from Romania who unknowingly acts as Dracula.

The ninja master having as advisers people from that part of the world that give him a continuous stream of information in the psychology of Romanians and locals, as themselves being immigrants in the area where the action takes place.

The ninja master has the advantage of local people helping him, hoping in promoting their ideas through a real time television show publicized in one of those dark areas of the internet mentioned above.

The ninja master and his allies built a whole apartment complex in an area controlled by them in a big city on the Pacific shore. They lure the Romanian guy into one of those buildings with a cheap rent and so the action begins.

But for the purpose of the show, they attributed the ownership of the buildings to Dracula who is un-measurable reach (although he appears as a poor Romanian immigrant) and uses the buildings to lure and rent the apartments to his future victims.

The ninja master occupies himself and controls several apartments in the same building where the Romanian lives. But the viewers, or as the French would say, les voyeurs, think the opposite. (In fact, almost in all situations, everything they think about this show is the opposite of truth, which almost always gives them much sensation). The apartment beneath where the Dracula lives is officially vacated. However, he sometimes hears somebody moving some heavy stuff around. I would later describe the possible purpose of this.

Using his specific training, ninja master dresses and disguises as different persons, men and women, mimicking some average locals living in that type of dwelling.

The building although it looks built in the late 70s has been built more recently using recycled materials from old buildings and old appliances. The ninja master participated himself with the design and actual building of the place, laying all kind of tricks, psychological traps, semi-toxic, addictive, materials and generally all kind of junk and as a retired engineer himself he designed especially the parts that deal with resonance, controlling the levels of ultrasound and infra-sound generated by different appliances, walls, plumbing, roof, etc. By moving heavy stuff (moves usually integrated with the script, so the viewers can applaud them as well) he changes resonance frequencies. In fact, Dracula is always puzzled by the fact that the bedroom's door frame changes shape from one day to another so one day he can easily close and open the door and the other day it gets stuck, unexplained by the change or lack of it in the humidity shown by the weather station)

Here's an example of daily routine. One moment the master leaves the building as a woman in well chosen moments, usually when the Romanian guy is in the kitchen and prepares his meals. Then leaves his car in a well camouflaged hole dug in a hill nearby and comes back five minutes later through a tunnel and leaves again as a different woman from a different apartment with a different car while the Romanian is watching the two persons leaving while eating his dinner and drinking a glass of cheap red wine.

Everybody watches the show on the internet but probably due to some "technical problems" it is not possible to see exactly the beans in his plate, but just some brownish red stuff.

(Usually at this point, a plane would fly above and use a telescope like camera, try to film through the windows what's in Dracula's plate. Dust from the walls is falling due to resonance of the walls with the noise of the plane's phased engines and Dracula ingests some, contributing to the later "lethal" flatulence.
The ninja master waits the moment and when that happens, he appears, starts to, depending of his current disguise, to look dizzy or almost faint, hurrying to his car or apartment. There he will burn some secret ninja stuff engulfing the whole place with protecting smoke that neutralizes Dracula's flatulence and gets Dracula dizzy at least for a while or until he gets an anxiety attack and forgets the whole episode until tomorrow when the master can restart the whole cycle

There are numerous variations on this. Like in the morning after Dracula eating beans, he opens the windows and the ninja master gets out of one of his apartments again as a woman and hurries to his car, unhurt.

The ninja master has on its side an army of extras lent by the greater non-local government that secretly took them from other parts of the world, that in agreement with the local government drive hundreds of cars an hour around the Dracula's place, sort of like circling the wagon in Western movies, with the only purpose of shaking the building and generating those low frequency vibrations i was talking about. The cars, just not to raise suspicions are used cars, bought by the government which spent a few billion dollars to buy them from the people through some sort of cash for junk program, that officially was supposed to bust new cars sales and increasing economy, in fact increasing only the import of cheap cars from master's masters. Some of the cars where fitted with self driving capabilities so they can perfectly time the entrance or the exit in or out of the scene and the engines' rpm. The extras think that are fighting terrorists and so their peace of mind and motivation is assured.

(Actually some of the locals got pissed-off several times and tried to protest initiating street protests name like un-occupy your city, but with not much conviction or success. Some of those protesters are also fake or provocateurs).

The purpose of those low frequencies is clear. To keep Dracula in a state of mind that prevent him from thinking and confusing him and minimize or completely annihilate his biting powers and/or earthquake generating power this newly engineered Dracula has and force him to feed on beans, bread and wine. (Or manipulating the poor Romanian immigrant and continuously literally brainwashing him by vibrating his brain). The other main purpose would be to create fibrillation in Dracula's heart. Not enough to kill him, although later that is clearly on the options' table, but just to raise viewers' hope that he might actually get a stroke (fibrillation is a major risk for stroke). But no, they wouldn't do that without a good reason. Since there are days when he is actually starting to crave his wine because they got him addicted to it, he continuously shakes his leg under the table like an addict. Their sensors pick the vibration and interpret it as yet another attempt to start an earthquake and then they have a reason to complete the cycle and start driving like crazy to create other, better, completely mechanical, engine vibrations.

By getting a stroke, he could have brain surgery, fulfill all the prophecies, have a change of mental status and go ahead and actually officially take over the world. By taking over the world, other prophecies could be fulfilled and maybe even the apocalypse could start, if not started yet, and that could end in viewers' benefit.

Some might even ask, how is that possible, how could some benefit from an apocalypse.

It is very simple. It is written that some would be saved after the apocalypse happens and have eternal life. The Saints. No argue about that.

So if you want to have eternal life, one option is to become a saint and wait for an apocalypse. Or become a saint when an apocalypse is imminent, (this would be a more convenient version). Or become a saint and if no apocalypse is in sight get actively involved into creating one, by letting, helping, hiring or forcing others to sin for you until one is started. In fact there are more versions but i think i shed enough light on the matter for those who never thought about it this way.

One easy way to start an apocalypse would be raising Dracula. The best case scenario (or script) for this show could be, of course, the resurrection and maintaining of the cult of Dracula in the minds and souls of contemporary people who lack entertainment, or are saturated by it. That kind of people that try to forget their own problems by immersing themselves in all kind of living art. Or maybe even ruining the world's economy by people staying and watching the show instead of doing anything else (and/or presenting the buildings as piles of junk with no value) and replacing it everywhere with communism.

For the purpose of the show there are semi-clandestine cameras installed all around but due to the declared "clandestinity" of the show, the local politicians and law enforcement agencies turning a blind eye but not being able to actually officially allow it to happen, "glitches" prevent from viewing parts of the living show, especially the ones that could prove boring and in the same time endangering the authenticity.

Did i mention thought reading devices and trough walls vision systems that the ninja master uses to supervise Dracula?

But then there are the real cameras that film everything and feed their stream into the supercomputers located in a different area of the planet which actually control and rewrite the show as it happens and all the characters have attached tiny earphones that tell them what to do or say. Sophisticated voice synthesizers and voice generators are used for those who don't speak well enough the local language.

Due to the fact that the Romanian guy has been on a similar show on a different location and not being able to understand what's going on for such a long time, he becomes neurotic, and had several nervous breakdowns that put him in the psychiatric wards several times in the past. That helps as well because the mood he is showing must be real.

On occasions, guest stars from Hollywood or other celebs are added to the show, either paid, bribed or blackmailed. Some of them are doing for promoting their religious believes and integrated into the show.

The whole show is integrated with the current political events end especially the economical crisis triggered by the real estate devaluation which they attribute to Dracula. The politicians from Romania as well are being bribed or blackmailed to turn a blind eye. They don't realize or don't care that by doing so they ruin the long term future of their country. Actually some of them participate in the show as drivers from the distance promoting in state jobs on higher levels in Romania only people with names ad Dragoş, Neculae, Nikol, Antonia, Beşescu with all the versions, Lividu, Live-u, Leave-u, etc. But there is also a possibility, in my projected novel of course, that Romania exists only as a fake country and that only for the purpose of the show. After 50 some years of the worst dictatorship the world ever saw, attributed, of course, to Dracula too, it has been taken over by a tribe of monguls, allies of master's masters that occupy all the government positions all carrying the names described above and officially in Dracula's service. Those about 10%  who could not be brainwashed were forced to emigrate. The monguls can shape shift into international divas with infinite legs and attractions that pretend that are remotely controlled by Dracula as well. From time to time, visits of divas from Romania and everywhere are arranged, but the poor Romanian immigrant don't see any, they are directed to the adjacent apartments, controlled by the ninja. Need to tell what happens to them? They probably go to the higher ranks extras that double Dracula from time to time.

Actors and politicians and generally celebs are shuttled into the show from Hollywood or Europe using high speed, semi-classified, supersonic planes. That way they can pretend they never been there since it was not possible due to timing and distance.

Of course, the main attraction of the show is the question, "in the end, who's gone win, the ninja master or Dracula?"

I am writing this because i need help to get more information and documentation into this kind of possibilities to make my novel more credible and attractive.

And here's an idea about the theme song for the show:

Goodbye Windows

Yesterday i tried and chose the option to boot Windows. Because i had a dual Windows and Fedora computer and hadn't done it in a long time. Windows on a set of partitions and Fedora on a different set. After, i spent two hours downloading and installing Windows updates. I mean watch the computer while downloading and installing 138 updates. About 4 times more time than Fedora 17. Then that i tried and launched whatever version of Explorer is the last one for Windows 7 and tried to see my blog in Explorer. But i ran into the problem of having to re-zoom each site cause by default i think Explorer does not remember the last zoom you used for a site.

Then i had sort of a revelation, fueled by and developed in the waiting time. Since most of the employers nowadays let programmers chose whether to use Windows or Linux and some force you to use Linux, i realized. Linux is more productive in an office environment. You get more things done. Is that simple. I couldn't possibly write 277 posts in one year on my blog while pampering Windows and falling in a trance every time seeing the animation at boot time.

 Then, i used a partitioning program, cleaned those partitions and installed Fedora as the second boot. Yes, Fedora 17, for the second time. I spoke before of the advantages. By doing so instead of plainly re-installing you can have a clean install and a very smooth transitioning. You can always choose the old one at boot time. You can share data while transitioning. You can pick only what you need from the mess left behind.

But this time for me it was just for experimenting. What i was anxious about is i could not imagine how you can have on a hard drive two / partitions, two /boot, two /home, etc. and not confuse the two OS.

Here's how it's done. At installation, (i used the live CD), the installer sees only the Linux partitions you just formatted on the free chosen space. The others belonging to the older installation are at that moment just some unmounted partitions on a hard drive. It will also find the other Fedora loader on the other boot partition and add it to the grub boot menu, with a slightly different name (and maybe a warning, i can't remember). After booting one of the two, each will see only its own partitions and the other's will be just unmounted devs with the option to mount them and transfer whatever data you need.

Actually, nothing to do but install the second instance of Fedora.

Actually, i never tried and chose the other, older Fedora from the boot menu. I just did now, after i wrote the first paragraphs, to make sure it works. What happens is because of some minor problem, instead of Fedora animated logo at boot time, i get to see the some messages scrolling while the boot happens. Boot time is the same, it's working the same. With file manager i'm seeing the newer partitions, with their corresponding sizes but not named, as unmounted. But i'm not going to try to fix that one, i don't need it anymore.

1/6/13 5:32 PM PDT. Just fixed the "minor" problem. Manually added the newest kernel entry from the older grub.cfg into the newer grub.cfg. Now i can boot them both with no problem. Two identical OSs on a same computer!

1/6/13 11:12 PM PDT. Thought maybe i should write what i think is exciting about this. Although i accidentally discovered the possibility while trying to learn partitioning with an XP installation disk long time ago, when i installed XP twice (LOL) by mistake and got a menu at boot time asking me which one to boot, i never thought of the advantages until a few month ago.

Any OS, including Fedora, although not nearly as much as Windows, degrades irreversibly in time. Although there are numerous softwares out there that claim that can restore your system as it was when you first installed it (bought it for the most people), the problem is too vast and complex to be solved like this.

Every time you install and un-install software, or work with sizable amounts of data, the hard disk gets fragmented, the registry file gets corrupted and remnants of the older softwares haunt your hard drive. When nowadays on an average computer you have hundreds of thousands of of files, it is very hard for any cleaning software to automatically undo the mess.

And then there's the updates. Every time you update a package, the newer files pile up in top of the others, often leaving your computer with several versions of the same packages, of course, the older ones being useless, but hard to remove due to the precision and the know how required to only delete the useless not the usable or the current version.

And then there's the internet temporary files. Every time you open a site, scores of files are being saved on your hard drive and depending on your browser's settings they are being rolled out like in a first in last out basis. If you don't use administrative measures like i am keeping all of them on a separate partition, they will populate every empty space of your hard drive contributing to the fragmentation.

And on a Windows computer with no separate partitions no matter how big the hard drive is, the mess is unimaginable.

And i am not pretending here to finish the list of problems that add to the cluttering of an OS in time.

That's why among administrators the concept of a clean install has been born. What that means? It means you save whatever data you need, wipe clean the hard drive and install it anew, then the programs and then try to restore everything you added up into a workable status by putting the data back little by little. But this is a very time consuming process, and although you will have a faster computer, you will never have it the same way as it was before you cleaned it.

(Actually that's what i believe cloud computing would be so successful, because it keeps your data away from your own messy computer.)

So why all this talk in this post? Because what i've stumbled upon could bring a totally new prospective into maintaining a computer.

Supposedly you or the manufacturer reserved some space for this purpose when first installing the OS. Supposedly you have all your data separated from the programs in a different partition or partitions (not absolutely necessary).

All you have to do is install for the second time your OS into the reserved space with the programs and try and pick the data from the other partition without deleting nothing on as needed basis while still keeping the option of booting the computer with the old system that might be slow but you are so familiar with. The transition will be much smoother and you can delete the old partition(s) when you feel you don't need them anymore or when you think you need that space for anything else including repeating the above cycle.

And above all, no emotions from the possibility of loosing data while totally and truly renewing your computer.

As an example, what i just did, i installed Fedora 17 and the updates and all the programs for the second times on some free space on the hard drive, creating some sort of a mirroring of the old system, then copied the username directory from the old installation /home into the new /home partition, and voila, all the familiar icons popped on the desktop, and i was ready to go in about 2 hours in total, and this while keeping the option of booting the old system. Everything was done mostly automatically by the Fedora installer (except choosing the free space and partition types and sizes, from the live CD, with only a one time manually editing of the grub.cfg file, as mentioned above.