American Dream

Yesterday, on 4th of November 2008, Americans have chosen their next, 44th, president. To relief and happiness of many, a democratic candidate, Barack Obama, was elected for this important position. Election of Barack Obama has great symbolic (and historic) value as he happens to be an African-American, the first one ever to hold a such prominent function in the US.

The story of Barack Obama's election is like fulfillment of "American Dream". Obama realizes it well himself, as he started his victory speech with words: "If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer."

I listened to Obama's (and McCain's) speeches with thousands of other San Franciscans at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and it was definitely a very moving experience. Everybody had tears in their eyes and people were kissing and hugging each other. History was being made just in front of our eyes.

Obama's victory was great, but it felt bitter-sweet to me. I hoped that since Americans proved to be mature enough to elect a black president, they would be also mature enough not to take away rights from the same-sex couples to get married. Even in a such (supposedly) progressive state as California, 52% of people supported an addition to Californian constitution that would effectively delegalize marriages between gay couples (link). Why so many people are against it, is beyond my comprehension.

Photos taken yesterday during the election party at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco:

free rice revisited

In case you have not played FREE RICE yet, or you took a break from it for a while, you should definitely check it out: It got largely expanded and now you can also check your knowledge on other than English vocabulary subjects (e.g. art, geography, chemistry, go here to see the full list of subjects). And for every answer you get right, 20 grains of rice are donated for the hungry.

Is Europe a country?

This NYT article prompted me to find a youtube video, in which a young, sweet-looking American girl publicly admits that she thought Europe was a country...

You have to watch it, to actually believe it:



According to the same article "nearly two-thirds of Americans want creationism to be taught along with evolution". TWO-THIRDS.

It's really scary that (many) citizens of one of the world's most influential countries playing a leading role in world's politics and economy are so ignorant.

The Long Now Foundation

I just got the following email from The Long Now Foundation. I found it amazing, so I thought that I will share it with you here:

Reflecting on his 25 years as a forecaster, Paul Saffo pointed out that a forecaster's job is not to predict outcomes, but to map the "cone of uncertainty" on a subject. Where are the edges of what might happen? (Uncertainty is cone-shaped because it expands as you project further into the future--- next decade has more surprises in store than next week.)

Rule: Wild cards sensitize us to surprise, and they push the edges of the cone out further. You can call weird imaginings a wild card and not be ridiculed. Science fiction is brilliant at this, and often predictive, because it plants idea bombs in teenagers which they make real 15 years later.

Rule: Change is never linear. Our expectations are linear, but new technologies come in "S" curves, so we routinely overestimate short-term change and underestimate long-term change. "Never mistake a clear view for a short distance."

"Inflection points are tiptoeing past us all the time." He saw one at the DARPA Grand Challenge race for robot cars in the Mojave Desert in 2004 and 2005. In 2004 no cars finished the race, and only four got off the starting line. In 2005, all 23 cars started and five finished.

Rule: Look for indicators- things that don't fit. At the same time the robot cars were triumphing in the desert, 108 human-driven cars piled into one another in the fog on a nearby freeway. A survey of owners of Roomba robot vacuum cleaners showed that 2/3 of owners give the machine a personal name, and 1/3 take it with them on vacations.

Rule: Look back twice as far. Every decade lately there's a new technology that sets the landscape. In the 1980s, microprocessors made a processing decade that culminated in personal computers. In the 1990s it was the laser that made for communication bandwidth and an access decade culminating in the World Wide Web. In the 2000s cheap sensors are making an interaction decade culminating in a robot takeoff. The Web will soon be made largely of machines communicating with each other.

Rule: Cherish failure. Preferably other people's. We fail our way into the future. Silicon Valley is brilliant at this. Since new technologies take 20 years to have an overnight success, for an easy win look for a field that has been failing for 20 years and build on that.

Rule: Be indifferent. Don't confuse the desired with the likely. Christian end-time enthusiasts have been wrong for 2,000 years.

Rule: Assume you are wrong. And forecast often.

Rule: Embrace uncertainty.

Saffo ended with a photo he took of a jar by the cash register in a coffee shop in San Francisco. The handwritten note on the jar read, "If you fear change, leave it in here."

More in Harvard Business Review

martial law

26 years ago martial law was introduced in Poland (also see BBC summary: link). I was almost 4 years old then and one of the earliest memories that I have from my childhood is connected with this event. I remember my parents whispering behind my back about current political situation in Poland, I remember them being worried and not sure about future, and deciding that for my safety it would be the best if they would send me to my grandparents who lived in a small village in the middle of nowhere. I also remember that once I was at my grandparents' place I got measles. Then having a skin rash seemed much more exciting (for me) than martial law...

Free Rice for the hungry

Play Free Rice game, learn new vocabulary and feed the hungry. The game is both good for people fluent in English and for the ones who just recently learned this language. Based on your first few replies, it decides on which level your English vocabulary is and thereafter it gives you question at appropriate level. With each word which meaning you knew correctly you gain 10 grains of rice that will be distributed among the world's poorest people by the United Nations World Food Program (WFP).

Each one grain, one person, one voice, one vote can make a difference:

Halloween/Democratic party

bash: III RP is back

III_RP has joined #Polska
[III_RP] RE!

Uff... :-))

Poles in Britain

NYT has a very interesting article about Polish work-related immigration to Great Britain and its influence on British economy. It seems that Britain has greatly benefited from the presence of large population of Polish people not only economically but also culinary... ;-)
Ah, I am dreaming about Delicje, Tyskie, Zywiec, pierogi z kapusta i grzybami, placki ziemniaczane...

Poland, politics, church, little brother

"The direct intervention of the state agencies in the election campaign is for me proof that this government is abusing democracy,"

"Since the height of its popularity in the late-90s, Radio Maryja has steadily lost listeners but it still claims a daily audience of about one million. (...) A recent opinion poll said 74% of the radio's listeners would vote for Law and Justice."

Be careful! The Little Brother is watching!

seven-year itch

Gabriele Pauli, member of the Bavarian conservative Christian Social Union (CSU) party caused massive uproar by proposing to limit validity of civil marriages to seven years. After that time the married couple would have a chance to decide again if they want to stay married or not. If they would decide against it, they would not have to go through the procedure of divorce, saving time, money and probably also lots of emotional distress. (see: Times online)
I like her idea a lot, as I see it as the first step towards abolishing institution of marriage altogether. From personal experience I can only say that there is no more satisfying relationship than the one which is not bound by any sort of contract (or definition) and in which you can give your partner (and get it back as well) all the freedom in the world, and where you and your partner use this freedom to consciously choose day by day and night by night to stay together for one more day and one more night. And even if such relationship ends, still you are left with the best gift of all: in somebody's eyes you were the most fascinating person for these x of days, months, weeks, years.

insanity Polish way

Kaczynski is the name of both Polish president and prime minister. Kaczka in Polish means duck, so many people call them colloquially "ducks".
One guy posted somewhere in the web sentence: "I will buy a gun and shoot the ducks". Few days later he got arrested by the police. Luckily, they believed him that it was just a joke and after two weeks of investigation he was not presented with "attempt to kill Polish president and Prime minister" charges, but he will "only" be charged with "causing unnecessary mobilization of public forces and starting false alarm".
That feels really insane. I do agree that a joke was stupid and inappropriate, but still, to put the poor guy in front of the judge for that?

link in Polish

Polish parliamentary elections

Polish parliamentary elections are approaching (in the US they will be held on 20th of October) and if I want to vote I should register now. I feel that it is my responsibility to vote (otherwise I will not have a right to complain), but as [Kosior] said on bash: "Taking into account the quality of the current candidates, voting in the election is a pleasure that can be only compared to visiting a bordello to chose your future wife."

[Kosior] Przy obecnej jakości kandydatów pójście na wybory to przyjemność, którą można porównać jedynie z wizytą w burdelu celem wybrania sobie żony.

dilemma

from bash
[ubu] everybody is so dissatisfied and angry with PiS (Law and Justice, current Polish governing party)
[ubu] but I am actually grateful to them
[ubu] before, when other parties were ruling, I had so many dilemmas
[ubu] now I have only one
[ubu] Ireland or London?

[ubu] wszyscy tak najeżdżają tak na ten PiS
[ubu] a ja jednak jestem im za coś wdzięczny
[ubu] przez wszystkie poprzednie rządy miałem mnóstwo dylematów
[ubu] teraz został mi jeden
[ubu] Irlandia czy Londyn?

political theater

The Polish parliament has voted to dissolve itself: BBC link, ONET link. It's only shame that it happens so late and in such bad atmosphere (there are multiple corruption allegations against many politicians that form current government). According to Polish constitution new general election will take place within next 45 days.

bash rocks

Either I have a very good day when everything makes me laugh, or the latest bash is simply the best (unfortunately some things would not make sense after translation, so not everything will be in English):

[Satisek] I was in Cracow, I went to the restaurant, I look at the menu and I see:
[Satisek] Typical polish food:
[Satisek] Russian Pierogi
[Satisek] Beans Breton-style
[Satisek] Hungarian Cake
[Satisek] Pancakes Vienna-style
[Satisek] ...

[Satisek] Bylem se w krakowie, podeszłem pod restauracje by zobaczyc cennik i widze:
[Satisek] Typical polish food:
[Satisek] Pierogi Ruskie
[Satisek] Fasolka po Bretonsku
[Satisek] Placek po Węgiersku.
[Satisek] Nalesniki po Wiedensku.
[Satisek] ...


[ktosia] I have a logical game for you:
[ktosia] Ziobro says: Leper lies
[ktosia] Leper says: Ziobro lies
[ktosia] Knowing that both of them are politicians judge how true are their statements using the three-valued logic of Lukasiewicz
[ktosia] and judge which one is lying and which one is only not fully sticking to the truth?

[ktosia] Mam dla Ciebie zagadkę logiczną, w stylu rycerze i łotry:
[ktosia] Ziobro mówi: Leper kłamie
[ktosia] Leper mówi: Ziobro kłamie
[ktosia] Wiedząc że obaj to politycy oceń prawdziwość zdań w trójwartościowej logice Łukasiewicza,
[ktosia] oraz oceń który kłamie a który tylko mija się z prawdą?


[Gregor] Do you know the (Kama Sutra) position "the bike"
[Przetus] yyyy no.
[Gregor] you do it with two pedals
[Przetus] ....

[Gregor] Ty, wiesz jaka to jest pozycja "na rower"
[Przetus] yyyy nie.
[Gregor] robisz to z dwoma pedałami
[Przetus] ....


[beneras] Kiedy Jacek z Plackiem alias Lech z Jarkiem ukradli już księżyc, na ich drodze stanęła czarownica z kotem na ramieniu. Chłopcy wiedzieli już wtedy, że świadków przestępstwa trzeba się pozbywać. Nie mieli tyle odwagi by zabić stojących im na drodze. Dlatego Lech wziął czarownicę, a Jarosław kota.

tarcza przeciwrakietowa

why J. Kaczynski does not have a bank account

missile defense system

Kaczynski meets with Bush and one more time proves how smart he is: link.



But that is even more crazy.

the one with a pig

Andrzej Lepper (leader of Self-Defense Party) and his driver were driving for several days throughout Poland. One day a pig jumped out in front of their limo and as a result of it, got killed. Leppper seeing what has happened asked his driver to go the nearby house and pay the value of the pig to its owner.
The driver came back after around one hour with a cigar in his mouth, a bottle of wine in his hand and torn clothes.
- OMG, what has happened to you? - asked Lepper.
- Well, the farmer gave me the wine and the cigar, his wife made food for me, and their 19-year old daughter enforced wild sex on me...
- Why? What did you tell them?
- That I am a driver of Andrzej Lepper and that I just killed the pig.


Andrzej Lepper i jego kierowca jeździli przez wiele dni po Polsce. Pewnej nocy przed limuzynę wyskoczyła im świnia. Nie przeżyła tego spotkania. Lepper widząc co się stało, kazał kierowcy iść wytłumaczyć wszystko właścicielowi i powiedzieć, że wszelkie straty zostaną zrekompensowane.
Kierowca wrócił dopiero po godzinie z cygarem w zębach, butelką wina w ręce i w poszarpanym ubraniu.
- Mój Boże, co ci się stało? - pyta Lepper.
- No cóż, rolnik dał mi wino, jego żona obiad, a ich 19 letnia córka chwile szalonej, niezapomnianej rozkoszy.
- Cóżeś ty im powiedział?
- Że jestem kierowcą Andrzeja Leppera i właśnie zabiłem świnię.