This declassification comes at a moment when politics in Indonesia have become sharply polarized. A reckoning over 1965 is very much a part of today’s political struggle. Although there is an appetite, especially among young people, to know more about what happened in 1965, there has also been a fierce backlash from army generals and Islamist politicians who warn that any talk of reconciliation or apology is a plot to revive communism.
Author: signordal
Rockledge – Florida – USA (by John Getchel)
Rockledge – Florida – USA (by John Getchel)
Blade Runner’s Immaterial Girls
This belatedness of the sequel’s future changes the genre of Denis Villeneuve’s new film, Blade Runner 2049. This is not a work of prophetic science fiction. It is an alternative history—tracing out the implications of another timeline. This is perhaps why the layered repetitions in Villeneuve’s film do not build toward a new world, or multiply possibilities forward, but rather double them back, trapping them in an infinite regression of stereotype and allusion.
mikenudelman:20 cities where Americans have the longest…
mikenudelman:The 10 most and least healthy Halloween candies.
What Are We Doing Here?
I have been reading lately about the rise of humanism in Europe. The old scholars often described themselves as “ravished” by one of the books newly made available to them by the press, perhaps also by translation. Their lives were usually short, never comfortable. I think about what it would have been like to read by the light of an oil lamp, to write with a goose quill. It used to seem to me that an unimaginable self-discipline must account for their meticulous learnedness. I assumed that the rigors and austerities of their early training had made their discomforts too familiar to be noticed. Now increasingly I think they were held to their work by a degree of fascination, of sober delight, that we can no longer imagine.
Twenty miles outside of Boston, Massachusetts, and not far from…
Twenty miles outside of Boston, Massachusetts, and not far from the historic battlefields of Lexington and Concord, Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge features 3,800 acres of wetlands and forests – perfect habitat for a wide variety of wildlife. Over 200 species of birds have been sighted here, and white-tailed deer, beaver, fisher, otter, muskrats, red fox, weasels and various small mammals all find a home in the refuge. Photo by Deb Della Piana (http://ift.tt/18oFfjl).
The B&N Podcast: Walter Isaacson
Every author has a story beyond the one that they put down on paper. The Barnes & Noble Podcast goes between the lines with today’s most interesting writers, exploring what inspires them, what confounds them, and what they were thinking when they wrote the books we’re talking about.
Readers who had followed Walter Isaacson from his life of Benjamin Franklin to his record-setting biography Steve Jobs could already discern a pattern – a fascination with personalities who embody the spirit of irreverent and unpredictable creativity. Is it any wonder, then, that Walter Isaacson now delivers the sumptuously illustrated and provocatively structured Leonardo Da Vinci – a portrait of the Renaissance genius highlighting the childlike curiosity and wonder that may, according to his biographer, may be the key to Leonardo’s bewitching works of art and invention. In this episode, he talks with Bill Tipper about what we can learn from this restless mind.
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The author of the acclaimed bestsellers Steve Jobs, Einstein, and Benjamin Franklin brings Leonardo da Vinci to life in this exciting new biography.
Based on thousands of pages from Leonardo’s astonishing notebooks and new discoveries about his life and work, Walter Isaacson weaves a narrative that connects his art to his science. He shows how Leonardo’s genius was based on skills we can improve in ourselves, such as passionate curiosity, careful observation, and an imagination so playful that it flirted with fantasy.
He produced the two most famous paintings in history, The Last Supper and the Mona Lisa. But in his own mind, he was just as much a man of science and technology. With a passion that sometimes became obsessive, he pursued innovative studies of anatomy, fossils, birds, the heart, flying machines, botany, geology, and weaponry. His ability to stand at the crossroads of the humanities and the sciences, made iconic by his drawing of Vitruvian Man, made him history’s most creative genius.
His creativity, like that of other great innovators, came from having wide-ranging passions. He peeled flesh off the faces of cadavers, drew the muscles that move the lips, and then painted history’s most memorable smile. He explored the math of optics, showed how light rays strike the cornea, and produced illusions of changing perspectives in The Last Supper. Isaacson also describes how Leonardo’s lifelong enthusiasm for staging theatrical productions informed his paintings and inventions.
Leonardo’s delight at combining diverse passions remains the ultimate recipe for creativity. So, too, does his ease at being a bit of a misfit: illegitimate, gay, vegetarian, left-handed, easily distracted, and at times heretical. His life should remind us of the importance of instilling, both in ourselves and our children, not just received knowledge but a willingness to question it—to be imaginative and, like talented misfits and rebels in any era, to think different.
Click here to see all books by Walter Isaacson.
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Photo of Walter Isaacson Courtesy of The Aspen Institute.
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New York City – New York – USA (by John Getchel)
New York City – New York – USA (by John Getchel)
How to Rebalance Your Life
In investing, there is something called rebalancing your portfolio. A portfolio has different asset classes in it (such as stocks, bonds, and cash), and there is a particular allocation that best serves your financial goals.
Over time, however, your portfolio might go out of balance. One asset class might outweigh the others because its price increases rapidly. The allocation will then deviate from its ideal.
What should we do then? How can we handle such a situation?
The answer is rebalancing.
Rebalancing is the act of getting the asset allocation back to its ideal. You do it by selling the asset class that’s overweight and buying the one that’s underweight. With this, your portfolio will once again be in a good shape to serve your financial goals.
I believe that the idea of rebalancing also applies to life. You need to make sure that your life is balanced and if it’s not, you need to rebalance it.
In investing, the asset classes are stocks, bonds, and cash. In life, the ‘asset classes’ are the five aspects of life:
- Spiritual: your relationship with the greater power.
- Health: your physical health.
- Work: your career and finance.
- Social: your relationships with others.
- Learning: your personal development.
We need to rebalance our lives from time to time. Here are the steps to do that:
1. Find the aspects that are underweight.
Look at each of the five aspects. Which ones do you think are underweight? Which ones do you think need more attention?
2. Find the aspects that are overweight.
Now, do the opposite and find the ones that are overweight. Where do you spend so much time and energy that it takes away from the other aspects? Which aspect dominate everything else?
For many people, the answer might be work.
There is another possibility actually. It’s idleness. This is when you do things that are not included in the five aspects above. For example, you might be watching too much TV. In such a case, it’s the idleness that’s overweight.
3. Find ways to reduce the overweight aspects.
Next, you need to find ways to reduce the resources taken by the overweight aspects. Think about how you can spend less time there. Think about how you can become more efficient.
There are three actions that you could take:
- Set boundaries. For example, you might decide that you won’t work past 6 p.m every day. Such a boundary will push you to become more efficient at work because your time is now limited.
- Eliminate. Decide not to do certain things. Say no to them. Use the 80/20 principle to focus only on the few important things
- Delegate. If you can’t eliminate something, find ways to delegate it to someone else.
4. Spend more resources on the weak aspects.
Now that you have freed up some resources, put them into the weak aspects.
The key here is to plan ahead what you are going to do. If not, your extra time might only be spent on idleness which is the default way of spending time for most people.
If the weak aspect is learning, for instance, think about how you are going to learn. You might want to buy a book and put it beside your sofa to remind you to read. You might even want to set an alarm to remind you to read.
Remember, a new behavior won’t happen automatically. You need to plan for it to happen.
5. Review your life regularly.
Just because you have rebalanced your life once doesn’t mean that it will stay balanced forever. Over time, things might go out of balance once again.
That’s why you need to review your ‘life portfolio’ regularly. Doing a weekly or monthly review is a good way to do that.
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Rebalancing your life puts you in a position where you can live your life to the fullest.
Do you have tips on rebalancing life? Feel free to share them in the comments.
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By the way, investing has always been a passion of mine. I’m currently working on an investing course and it’s going to be ready soon. Stay tuned!
Sig Nordal 