TO THE ANSWER

Words of Wisdom - Albert Eisntein

2010-03-06T00:00:00.000+09:00

There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.

生活するには2通りの方法がある。奇跡なんてないと思うか、何もかも奇跡だと思うかだ。

Albert Einstein (Wikipedia)

Untitled

2010-03-05T00:00:00.003+09:00

My stomach
Be stronger
Be more greedy
Swallow everything
Digest everything
Change everything into energy
Change everything into muscle
〜Friend, Coffee, Lie and Stomach, Mr.Children

I love Mr.Children, a Japanese rock band, as well as GLAY, and this is a quotation from “Friend, Coffee, Lie and Stomach”, one of my favorite songs of Mr.Children.

Now I’m traveling around the world. If there were my determination and purpose, it would be like this. I would see many things and meet many people. I would swallow and digest everything. I would change everything into energy and muscle.

There is no such thing as forever. Everything must pass. That’s why most of my experience in this travel would disappear as time goes by. But, once Einstein said, "Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school". Like he said, if there was something that remained in myself after I had forgotten what I had experienced in this travel, it will be “IT”, “ANSWER”, or “MEMORY” of, by and for myself.

I’m going to travel to “IT”, “ANSWER” and “MEMORY”.

Science

2010-03-04T00:00:00.001+09:00

I love science as well as literature and music. Physics, Chemistry, Biology, I love and am interested in all of them. My favorite scientists are Newton, Einstein, Darwin, Schrödinger, and so on, and I learned many things from them. One of my favorite books by them is “What is life” by Schrödinger. In the book, there is an interesting sentence.

It feeds on “negative entropy”
(※”It” means creature here)

So simple but so deep. Entropy is the measure of randomness. And there is “the law of entropy increase” in this world for no reason. It’s all about the shift from order to disorder. Nothing and no one can counteract this law. Everything in this world must follow this law. We human beings are no exception. But we are living with cells, tissues and organs that beautifully function together in harmony. It’s an order and seems to be contradict “the law of entropy increase”. But of course there is a reason.

That’s metabolism. Our body keeps dynamic equilibrium by absorbing new molecules and discarding old molecules. Actually we don’t feed on negative entropy. Schrödinger just used a metaphor to express the essence of metabolism. What a great idea (Surprisingly he is a physicist not a biologist!). The only way to counteract the law is metabolism. As long as we live, we can’t stay in non-dymanic equilibrium. That is, we can’t escape from changing. Everything flows.

As I studied Immunology in grad school, I write about it too. Although there are some important things in Immunology like self and non-self discrimination or diversity, simply speaking, I think the most important thing in Immunology is "MEMORY". When we are infected by some pathogens, immune responses are caused, and "MEMORY" is left in our body. Once we get "MEMORY", we can clear out the same pathogen more effectively and efficiently than we used to be. Basically, once we get MEMORY, it never disappears. It remains in our body.

This "MEMORY" has nothing to do with our mind. It’s a matter of body. I think this is a good example of a thing that we can feel only with our body, not our mind. In this world, there is a thing we can feel only with body, which we can never feel with our mind. In this sense, "MEMORY" is similar with “IT”.

From the viewpoint of metabolism, everything must pass, on the other hand, from that of Immunology, there is a thing that remains as "MEMORY". What passes and what remains. Now I’m wondering what kind of experience I will have, lose and get through this travel. Now I don’t know. Who knows? The answer is blowin’ in the wind.

Music

2010-03-03T00:00:00.003+09:00

I love music as well as literature. Japanese music, foreign music, Jazz and Classic, I love all of them. Having said that, there is some preference and my favorite is definitely Japanese music. For no reason, I’ve been listening to music with words. Since music is sound, there might be someone who doesn’t care about words so much. But I can’t think that way. There have been always words when I’m listening to music. Of course I love foreign music and foreign lyrics, and I love the words of The Beatles so much. But my native language is Japanese, so Japanese language has struck on my mind most directly.

One of my favorite Japanese band is GLAY. I have and love all of their albums. Among them, my favorite song is “I’m in Love”. I can’t explain well the reason why I love this song. Words and melody are so simple.

I’m just in love
I’m just in love
Lonely days we can fly
Lonely nights we can fly
We will rock you words from heaven

It seems that TAKURO wrote this song thinking about his mother and grandmother. (TAKURO is the leader & main composer of GLAY. More than 90% of GLAY’s songs have been written by him.) Every time I listen to this song, I think words and melody are so simple and beautiful. Actually, there is nothing new, revolutionary or special in this song. But I really love this song. I wonder if the feeling might be “IT”.

Although TAKURO is a musician, he published a book, 胸懐
. This book, too, is full of truth of life, like his songs. Reading this book, I thought I saw the secret why his words always touch my heartstrings.

“As a matter of fact, it’s so easy to sing about self-reflective things. One day, all of a sudden, I realized that how the way to get sympathy of listeners by revealing one’s worry had been preventing me from growing up as a musician. It’s not good to view it beautiful to sing about songs reflecting weak myself. From now on, I stop writing these kinds of songs. Then, what kind of song should I write?”

Because he is a musician who thinks like this, I think I’ve been, am and always will be attracted by his songs. Of course, the answer, what he wants to sing about, is written in this book.

According to his book, he seems to find out his answer in a foreign country on his journey. If he didn’t travel abroad, he wouldn’t be able to find the answer. He got it through experience, not through thought or language. Although there are many reasons why I decided to travel around the world, this is one of the reasons. I’m going to the place where he found out the "ANSWER".

Literature

2010-03-02T00:00:00.001+09:00

“A story is all about a letter with which an author tries to talk about something to oneself. That’s the only way to find out the something. – The Shadow of The Wind

This is a quotation from the international bestseller from Spain, “The Shadow of The Wind”, one of my favorite books. The reason why I quote this here is because there is nothing but these words that can simply and precisely express my thought. Just right now, I’m feeling that way.

I wonder when was the first time I thought I wanted to write a story by myself. But I didn’t know what to write until I met “The Shadow of The Wind”. Why I can write just right now is completely thanks to “The Shadow of The Wind”. “The Shadow of The Wind” gave me the answer. A story is all about a letter an author writes to oneself. Even now, I don’t know to whom and what I’m writing. But I guess it’s a story of, by and for myself.

There is a clue to the something I’m looking for. That was written in “On The Road”, one of my favorite books too. It was a book too that gave me the clue. The clue is so abstract and intangible, but I believe that’s the only way to express the something. That’s “IT”. The definition of “IT” is the following. What I’m looking for might be “IT”.

“IT” is a state of being inconceivable through thought or language, but knowable through experience.”

Literature, Music, and Science

2010-03-01T00:00:00.001+09:00

I’ve been writing some things while I was waiting for and on my flight.

From now on, I’m gonna post them here little by little.

It includes Literature, Music, and Science.

To The World

2010-02-07T00:00:00.014+09:00

Last year, I quit. And now I determined to travel for a few months to give my brain blank. My brain needs blank.

The destination is W. W stands for West. I’m gonna go West from Eastern Island, Japan.

Because I’ve never been abroad, this is my first overseas traveling and I'm so excited about it. Traveling the world like Columbus, Darwin, Jim Rogers, Dean and Sal of “On The Road”, Kotaro Sawaki of "Midnight Express", and Chris of “Into The Wild” has been my dream.

In "On the road", Dean and Sal traveled to seek for "IT". It was the travel to seek for "IT" of themselves, by themselves, for themselves. But now I don't have such "IT" yet. So, I too will travel to find "IT" of, by and for myself.

I thought

now is the time,

it's now or never,

the die is cast.

I'm going on the road to anywhere but here.

May my travel be GREAT VACATION!!!

P.S.
I'm not sure how often I can update my blog during my travel.
But, at least, I'm gonna tweet as often as possible.
If you like, follow my tweet (and my blog) !!!

Into The Wild

2010-02-06T00:00:00.002+09:00

“Into The Wild” is a non-fiction story written by Jon Krakauer about a young man, Christopher McCandles.

Chris was a highly educated good student and graduated college with very good grades. He had the bright future in the richest country in the world, the United States of America. But he got off the road. After graduation, he discarded everything. He donated all his money to some charity organization and went on the road. He got off the civilized life and started his journey around the U.S. The final place he arrived at was Alaska. He got into the wild, spent his life, and died there.

The reason why I was into this story is because Chris and I have so many things in common. For example, high education, not interested in rich life, and bad terms on parents. And there is one more story I was impressed. When Chris graduated from college, his father offered to present new car to Chris for the celebration. But he turned it down. Because Chris had already a car, he didn’t need any more car. Although his car was old, it still ran. As long as it ran, he didn’t need any more car. He was the man who was never satisfied with materials. Although I don’t have a car, I will turn down the car too, because at least in my present life, I don’t need a car.

Although he died in the wild of Alaska, it was an accident. He happened to eat a poison seed. He didn’t suicide. His death was an accident. He was going to go back to the society and coexist with others. As an evidence, he left a memo that recorded his answer.

“HAPINESS ONLY REAL WHEN SHARED”

It was his answer and touched my heartstrings.

I guess he reached this answer because he was truly alone in the wild of Alaska.

Once, John Lennon, too, said similar things.

"You don't know what you got, until you lose it."

When I know true loneliness, I'll know true love. I thought that way.

Into the Wild (Amazon)
荒野へ (Amazon)

Midnight Express

2010-02-05T00:00:00.002+09:00

“Midnight Express” is a book written by Kotaro Sawaki about his travel from Hong Kong to London by bus and train. It’s kind of bible for Japanese backpackers. It’s said that there are many backpackers who determined to travel after reading “Midnight Express”.

One day, the author quit his job and started to travel. He seemed to want to do what everybody can do but nobody do. I don’t know what was the driving force of him but I guess he didn’t see his future of keeping on working.

This time, I, too, determined to travel. Although I have dreamed of traveling for a long time, there is no doubt that “Midnight Express” affected me a lot.

By the way, this book starts with the following sentence.

“Midnight Express” is a prison slang of foreign prisoners in Turkey. They translated “Escaping from jail” into “Getting on Midnight Express”.

深夜特急〈1〉香港・マカオ (Amazon)
深夜特急 (Wikipedia)

Pride of Badman

2010-02-04T00:00:00.016+09:00

Dragan Stojkvic is the fairy in the field and his nickname is “PIXY”. His beautiful and fantastic plays amazed us, but what comes from his life was his passion and pride for his own country, Yugoslavia that was at the mercy of politics.

Yugoslavia was tore apart. What caused conflicts was not different cultures. Rather, to cause conflicts, many differences were used, like ethnic group, religion, language, and even Football. When and where everything started was 13 May 1990, Maksimir stadium. Innocent people were agitated by policymakers and resulted in a riot.

Who suffers most is always innocent ordinary people. Who causes problems is always policymakers. NATO dropped bombs onto Yugoslavia. And Yugoslavia national football team was forbidden to take part in national tournament like World 92’ Euro and 94’ World Cup.

One day, Pixy was watching CNN and a refugee girl from Croatia was talking. But he was shocked. What the girl was talking and the translated subtitle was completely different. All cruel behaviors were blamed on Serbia. What CNN and BBC cover is only favorable things for them and they report in the favorable way for them.

There is no such absolute badman. Absolute badman is made up.

All ethnic groups are victims and offenders. But among them, Serbia was treated extremely unfair. Once they were denied by the world intentionally, but they played beautifully. It was a pride of badman.

I thought, from now, I want not to believe news without thinking.

And, PIXY used to play in Japan in 90s. A world class player like him played in Japan. It's miracle.

Yugoslavia (Wikipedia)
Dragan Stojković (Wikipedia)

誇り―ドラガン・ストイコビッチの軌跡 (Amazon)
悪者見参―ユーゴスラビアサッカー戦記 (Amazon)

One of PIXY's best goals!

The Little Prince

2010-02-03T00:00:00.009+09:00

The narrator crash-landed on a desert in Africa and met a little boy, who had left a little his own planet, traveled many planets around the universe and arrived at Earth as a seventh planet. While repairing the crashed airplane, the narrator talked with and learned from the little prince.

We need to see things with our hearts. The most important things are invisible. What made the rose precious for you is the time you spent on with the rose. You are responsible for what you once engaged with, forever. You are responsible for the rose. Just one careless mistake ruins all things. That makes all difference.

This book is dedicated to then-children that we adults used to be.

The Little Prince (Amazon)
小さな王子さま (Amazon)

The Shadow of The Wind

2010-02-02T00:00:00.001+09:00

This is a story about the grave of forgotten books. The grave is a holy place, sanctuary. Every single one of books you read has souls respectively. The souls of authors and readers who read, lived with and had a dream of the books. Every time a book moves from someone’s hands to the other’s hands, and every time someone reads the page, the soul of the book grows up and gets stronger. Every time some libraries and bookstores somewhere closed, and every time a book is forgotten from the society, these books are supposed to come to the grave. These books have been forgotten through the stream of time and no one remembers them. But these books live in the grave forever and wait for someone who finds out the book again, like the unbuttoned hole waiting for the button to fit there.

A story is all about a letter an author sends to oneself to let the author know what the author wants to talk about. Without writing, the author doesn’t know what the author wants to talk about. For the author, nothing but writing is the only way to find the answer, what the author wants to talk about.

As long as someone remembers you, you live forever.

Although everything must pass, there might be forever in the sense above.

I want to recommend this book for those who love reading. If you love reading, you will become to love reading more and more after reading this book.

In this moment too, "The Shadow of the Wind" is waiting for you in the bookshelf somewhere in this world.

For your information, “The shadow of the wind” has been an unprecedented long bestseller in Spain, has been translated in more than 37 countries and more than 5 million copies have been sold, as of 2006. In France, “The shadow of the wind” won the most valuable foreign literature prize in 2004.

The Shadow of the Wind (Amazon)
風の影 (Amazon)

The Kite Runner

2010-02-01T00:00:00.011+09:00

This is a story about redemption and forgiveness. Until winter of 1978, Amir, a 12 years old boy, had lived and played with his best friend Hassan in Kabul, Afghanistan. But after the kite tournament, everything changed. Amir betrayed Hassan. Amir witnessed that Hassan was buried by bad boys, but he overlooked it because of fear. Since then, everything changed and another lie tore apart them.

Next year, Russia invaded into Afghanistan, so Amir had to escape to America with his father (his mother was dead when she gave birth to Amir). Since then, Amir had lived in America and graduated college. Apparently things had looked good, but his guilty conscious had been always in his mind.

In 2000, a call from Pakistan made him determine to go to Afghanistan under control of Taliban. It was so dangerous but he had to do it, to redeem his sin.

According to author’s comment, he seems to put a hidden message in the scene that Amir overlooked Hassan being bullied. The message was that the most of us in the world, too, has been overlooking the Afghanistan. It was a bitter criticism to me. To be honest, Afghanistan has been the country that is far away from Japan and irrelevant to my life. I thought, as a first step, I needed to pay more attention to news about Afghanistan to know what’s happening there.

In 1978, Hassan ran to take the kite for Amir, saying “For you, a thousand times over”. In 2001, Amir ran to take the kite for Sohrab, Hassans’s son, saying “For you, a thousand times over”. When I watched the scene of 2001, it touched my heartstrings.

Nobody is perfect. But there is a way to be good again. Better late than never.

There is a way to be good again.

The Kite Runner is a great book. I’m so glad to meet it. I want to add it into my favorite books list!

The Kite Runner (Amazon)
君のためなら千回でも (Amazon)

Pay It Forward

2010-01-31T00:00:00.004+09:00

The other day, in Kiva, my lending was repaid, so I re-lent it to other borrower. Namely, I paid it forward.

I have lent $100 to four group ($25/group) in need of start-up capital. Teachers of one of primary schools in Sierra Leone (22% repaid so far), A female farmer in Lebanon (25% repaid so far), Merchants in Mexico (62% repaid so far), Farmers in Cambodia (3% repaid so far).

Although I have blogged about microfinance, I want to blog about it here again. The essence of microfinance is all about the next phrase.

“You can’t get a dollar without a dollar to quest next dollar”
You can buy a material for a dollar and sell a product for two dollar. Repeating this cycle, you can make money and live by yourself, independent of donation. But if you don’t have the first dollar, you can’t do anything. Everyone in the world needs such a first dollar. It’s often said and I think it so true in this field. “Important is not giving fish, but teaching how to fish.”

And the greatness of Kiva is we can repeat the lending cycle again and again, unlike typical one time donation.

This time, I paid it forward to Merchants in Peru.

And I decided not only to pay it forward but also to lend additionally from my bank account, at every repayment day. As an additional one, this time, I selected Cloth seller in Ukraine. Thanks to Kiva, I got an additional joy of life. Thank you, Kiva!!! Kiva is so great!!!

I can understand the world better by looking at the world through Kiva, like I can understand the world better by looking at the world through investment.

For your information, the repayment rate in Kiva is more than 98%.

Kiva - online microfinance (Blogged on 18 Nov 2009)
Philanthropy 2.0 (Blogged on 19 Nov 2009)
ANSWER 2 (Blogged on 20 Nov 2009)

Pay It Forward !!!

Twitter Rocks!!! - Let's build a school

2010-01-30T00:00:00.012+09:00

The other day, I bought a Japanese magazine, “週刊ダイヤモンド(DiamondWeekly)” through the affiliate link of Amazon.

I’ve never bought the magazine, and to be honest had no interest. But this time I bought it because it covers about Twitter and the profit of the affiliate link is to be donated Room to Read, an NGO for education of world children.

If there is $30,000, we can build a school in Asian countries. Because one donation from the affiliate link is $0.5, if 60,000 people buy the magazine through the affiliate link, we can build a school!!! ($0.5×60,000people=$30,000)

This partnership isn’t limited on this Twitter feature issue. The donation through the affiliate link of Amazon is supposed to continue for every future issue of the magazine. The Internet is so great. Don’t bet against the Internet!!

This time, I know about this donation program through Twitter. I think the speed of information transduction is faster by Twitter than other tools. Of course, shortly after I knew this program, I retweeted it. I hope my tweet and this blog can help to spread information virally and get someone involved in this program, even if it’s a tinny little power. If I can be a part of ≒0, I want to be ≒0 willingly. (The Long Tail - ≒Zero × ≒Infinity ＝ Something (Blogged on 12 Feb 2009))

The affiliate link is here

Room to Read Japan (Twitter)
Room to Read Global (Twitter)

Twitter Rocks!!! - a lost wallet (Blogged on 28 Dec 2009)

Collective Unconscious, Archetype and Heartstrings

2010-01-29T00:00:00.009+09:00

Jung began to realize the existence of collective unconscious by painting mandala. Why did he painted mandala? He had started to realize it naturally gradually. What mandala expressed was his mind. There was a center and it spread toward outside. It was the structure of his mind.

It’s said that the first man who painted mandala painted mandala because of religious experience. Although we living now in this era accept myth and religion as what came from outside of us or what we are taught, in the first place, the background of myth and religion is the human mind. Myth and religion generated from the human mind. Jung saw mandala and found out myth and religion there by getting in deep in his mind.

Jung realized that what he found in mandala had something to do with a culture of human beings. The image in his mind was what he and human beings had in common. That’s how he lead to his theory, collective conscious.

By nature, the minds of human beings have a similar structure. It was so in the past and it’s the same as now. So, collective conscious is, in a sense, a universal structure of mind everyone has.

Jung called such common images that is often seen in myth and religion as Archetype.

Jung’s psychology and Art have in common. Artworks of artist come from deep psyche, after all. Artworks generate from vast sea of unconscious. Why we are moved by artworks might be because artists and viewers had the same unconscious in our deep psyche. When artists succeed in creating kind of archetype from unconscious, artworks has the power to touch viewers heartstrings.

I wonder collective unconscious might have evolved through the process of evolution, like Apriori (Blogged on yesterday).

Jung (Wikipedia)
Collective unconscious (Wikipedia)

天才の時間 (Amazon)

Apriori

2010-01-28T00:00:00.010+09:00

Why the result of calculation by mathematics matches the movement of stars in the universe. Because the universe must have existed for sure long before the genesis of human beings, the universe must be independent of and irrelevant to human beings. Nevertheless, why do Mathematics human beings invented at some point in our history matches the universe?

Is mathematics invented or discovered?

After all, the answer would be 50% and 50%. This universe changes constantly, but the brain of human beings is reversible and adaptable to any circumstances. So, the brain of human beings would have evolved to copy down kind of a structure of the universe through the process of evolution.

Mathematics is what the brain of human beings invented. So, the brain can invent. On the other hand, however, the brain of human beings has copied down the structure of the universe. So, the brain can also discover.

If the brain has evolved that way, it might be natural that the result of calculation by mathematics matches the universe.

Generally, Apriori is explained like “irrelevant to experience”. But if it is translated like below, it might be easier to understand what Apriori means.

“We have acquired it through the process of evolution”.

Apriori (Wikipedia)
Kant (Wikipedia)

天才の時間 (Amazon)

Epistemology

2010-01-27T00:00:00.001+09:00

Case of Locke

For example, there is an apple. The apple exists by itself and its information goes into us. This way of thinking is empiricism and famous is “Tabula rasa” of Locke. “Tabula rasa” means a white paper. That is, when we were born, we were a white paper and the experiences we have are written onto the white paper.

Case of Hume

On the other hand, when we see the apple, we image the apple in our minds. We image, that’s why the apple exists. That is, our subjective view makes up the world and the world doesn’t exist by itself. According to his theory, the world must disappear when we die.

Case of Kant

Kant is rather closer to Hume, but of course there is a difference between them. According to his theory, the apple exists by itself but we can’t recognize it. He called what we can recognize “Phenomenon”. Here, phenomenon is like a collective term of the apple. For example, the apple has many characteristics like red, spherical, edible, and so on. These things are factors of the apple, not the apple itself. What we recognize is not the apple itself but each factor that makes up the apple, and we construct the apple with each factor of the apple.

According to the present brain science, Kant turned out to be right. In the first place, all information in the world exists in the form of separate and disassembled fragment. And our brain assembles these disassembled information in the brain.

Locke (Wikipedia)
Hume (Wikipedia)
Kant (Wikipedia)

天才の時間 (Amazon)

Language-game

2010-01-26T00:00:00.012+09:00

Our daily life is impossible without language. For example, when there is a book, we can know the existence of book because there is a word “book” and the word “book” can be used. So what we can’t handle with language, we can’t know the existence of things.

When there is a paper, we can point at the paper. When there is a clock, we can point at the clock. That’s how, the meaning of word can be difined. But what if the words are “length”, “meaning”, “one” or things like that. We can’t point at these words, because these words don’t exist as physical things. We can’t point at abstract things. And an important conclusion comes from here.

The essence of language is its “use”. How “length” is used, how “meaning” is used, how “one” is used, in our daily life. That’s all. That’s how the meaning of word is determined.

That’s the world of language-game.

In this sense, Wittgenstein said, “What we cannot speak about, we must pass over in silence”.

To be honest, when I’m blogging in English, I’m not sure about the use of word. When I don’t know how to write what’s in my mind in English, I use English dictionary. Then, I can find out the words I was looking for, but I’m not sure which one is better. I don’t know which one is better or best, given the use in daily life in English speaking countries. From the viewpoint of meaning, the word would be right, but from the viewpoint of use, I’m not sure.

When we learn foreign language, there is always the wall of “use”.

In physics, the existence is energy. On the other hand, in Wittegenstein’s case, the existence depends on the word and its use.

Again, What we cannot speak about, we must pass over in silence.

WIttgenstein (Wikipedia)
Language-game (Wikipedia)

天才の時間 (Amazon)

Energy

2010-01-25T00:00:00.001+09:00

The most famous equation in the world is E = mc^2 by Einstein. But I wonder how many people understand the meaning of this equation. Although I was one of those who know only the equation but don’t know its meaning, I happened to understand it while reading a book.

I knew “E” of the left side of equation stands for Energy. But what’s energy? According to the book, in physics, energy is a basic concept so physics can’t dig it anymore. So, in physics, having energy means that it exists, whereas not having energy means that it doesn’t exist. Physics is the -ology of things, it accepts only existing things. So, energy itself means that it can be accepted in the world of physics.

“m” of the right side of equation stands for molecular weight and “c” means the velocity of light.

Because “c” is constant, the essence of this equation is that the energy of things depends on molecular weight. In other words, energy is equivalent to molecular weight. Moreover, when the molecular weight decreases, the material must let out its energy. This seems to be the mechanism of nuclear weapon.

Mass–energy equivalence (Wikipedia)
Einstein (Wikipedia)

天才の時間 (Amazon)

Time

2010-01-24T00:00:00.010+09:00

Case of Newton

According to Newton, time is absolute. Time is real and mathematical. Time has nothing to do with everything in this universe and flows by itself constantly. For Newton, time is one and only.

Case of Einstein

According to Einstein, time is relative. For Einstein, there are many times depending on every single one of us. Every single one of our times is right and there is no such thing as an absolute time.

Case of Hawking

According to Hawking, time is just a mathematical model in our head. Time exists only in our head and there is no such thing as an absolute time in the universe, in the first place.

According to his theory, there are two times, real time and imaginary time. When we use real time, it comes to an conclusion that there was a big bang, whereas when we use imaginary time, it comes to an conclusion that there wasn’t a big bang. The essence of his theory is that it doesn’t matter which is right, real and imaginary time. In other words, there is no such thing as one and only truth. There is no meaning to define which is right.

We tend to want to know whether there was a big bang, but Hawking answers to this question that using real time there was, whereas using imaginary time there wasn’t.

So difficult, but so interesting.

Newton (Wikipedia)
Einstein (Wikipedia)
Hawking (Wikipedia)

天才の時間 (Amazon)

GREAT VACATION

2010-01-23T00:00:00.020+09:00

What do geniuses have in common? One example is a great vacation. But the great vacation being used as an example here isn’t just a normal vacation. It’s far from our normal vacation. Whether like or not, the geniuses had to be into such a great vacation and to commit to their work. Fortunately or unfortunately, God had given them such a genius time and geniuses had changed the world without knowing. There are many such stories about geniuses. The great vacation is all about genius time like a maturation time of the best wine.

There are many many books out there in the world that analyzed geniuses. For example, an analysis that concluded that most of geniuses had mental disorders, or an analysis with neuroscience, or things like that. But this book keeps a distance from such an analysis for geniuses. Of course, no one can prove that genius isn’t by nature, and vise versa. No one has proved yet.

Geniuses are special and that’s why irrelevant to you. If you think that way, you can get nothing from this book. But if you don’t think that way, you might get a clue to get closer to geniuses.

Generally, the meaning of “genius” is a talent gifted by God. But, actually, it might be a timely vacation to commit to their work, freed from miscellaneous things.

How to spend such a precious time given by God. It might make all the difference between genius and ordinary people.

A talent is proportionate to a courage to commit to what you love to do.

The title you’re clinging to collapses and has no meaning.

This book covers Newton, Einstein, Hawking, Darwin, Kant, Wittgenstein, Jung, and so on.

天才の時間 (Amazon)

By the way, there is a song, GREAT VACATION, GLAY.

Lunacy

2010-01-22T00:00:00.012+09:00

“Lunatic” and “lunacy” in English are stem from “Luna” that means the Moon in Latin. The doctors in ancient Rome had called cyclical mental diseases as "lunacy" and they were using the word "lunacy" in the meaning of abnormal behavior.

It’s said that the aggression and violence seen in the wolf man legend are due to the effect of Full Moon, and the cruel crime like Jack the Ripper has something to do with Full Moon and New Moon.

When I come to think of it that way, I though one thing, although it might be a stretch. When John Lennon was killed was on 8 Dec 1980 and 7 Dec 1980 was New Moon. I thought this is too much to be a coincidence. No, I might think too much...

月の本―perfect guide to the MOON (Amazon)

By the way, come to think of the Moon and lunacy, I remember there was a Japanese band, LUNA SEA.

The Biotide Theory

2010-01-21T00:00:00.006+09:00

As the water ratio of human body is equal to that of Earth’s surface (80%), it’s natural to think that human body is affected by the Moon like Earth. The biotide theory is, in brief, that the Moon has the same effect on Earth and human body. Namely, like the Earth’s crust, Earth's sea water, and Earth’s magnetic field, the biotide of human goes up and down.

Although there is a direct effect of the attractive force of the Moon on the body water, there are indirect effects through magnetic force of the Moon, too.

The magnetic force of the Moon affects the permeability of cellular membrane and physical characteristic of water. Consequently, the stream of water in the body is changed. The magnetic force of the Moon also affects the neural system. Because of the change of the magnetic field, the electric conductivity is affected and the speed of signal transmission goes up and down.

I think this theory is reasonable and possible…

How the Moon Affects You (Amazon)
月の魔力 (Amazon)

Lunar Effect – How the Moon Affects You

2010-01-20T00:00:00.008+09:00

The number of killing and car accidents increases at Full Moon. The author got interested in this rumor and began his study. Through his study, he was surprised to find many facts that there are sure correlation between the Moon and human beings.

With its attractive force, the Moon causes high and low tides. As 80% of human body is water, the Moon might cause the tidal action in the human body too. This biological tide is the key of human action and feeling, and through this rhythm human, more precisely creatures, are connected with the universe. The author pioneered the frontier of science by proposing his theory named “Biotide Theory”.

About thinking of the effect of the Moon on humans, there are still prejudices in the science world. Many scientists show negative response to hear about the Moon. Although there are many superstitions, it’s not scientific to reject everything, the moment you hear about the Moon.

The fascination of this book is not in the correct science. Even if there are still abstract things in the data, even if there is still a little leap in the bold logic, the dynamism to bravely challenge the unknown area is the fascination of this book.

Even if there is left an animosity derived from imperfectness of the theory, a theoretical hypothesis should be permitted. We need to have the brave to hop into the unknown world. After all, science has progressed that way.

How the Moon Affects You (Amazon)
月の魔力 (Amazon)

New Moon

2010-01-19T00:00:00.005+09:00

When the Moon is between the Sun and Earth, the Moon is called “New Moon”. Viewing from Earth, the Sun and the Moon are in the same direction. Especially when the Moon is right in front of the Sun, the Moon blocks sunlight completely and day becomes night. It’s called solar eclipse.

In astrology, it’s said that New Moon is full of new energy and the day to start something new. I thought when I lose the way to go, it might be good to look up New Moon, feel its energy and refresh myself to restart my life.

Like the cycle of New Moon and Full Moon, my life has the cycle of good and bad times. I need to be careful not to lose myself in the bad time. Thinking of New Moon and Full Moon will help me remember it.

New Moon (Wikipedia)

Full Moon

2010-01-18T00:00:00.012+09:00

When the Moon is in the opposite side of the Sun, the Moon is called “Full Moon”. At Full Moon, it can be thought that the energy of new cycle that started from New Moon reaches the maximum level, ends the cycle, and restarts the new cycle. It can be also interpreted that human beings can always restart like Moon repeats its cycle.

It’s said that at Full Moon the energy from the universe becomes most active and Full Moon shows off its mysterious power. The examples of its power are the increase of birth, crime and volatility of stock markets. Although it’s still controversial, there is for sure some data that proves it.

It’s well known that the sea tide of Earth is affected by the Moon. Given the fact that 80% of both human beings and Earth are made of water, it’s possible to think that we human beings are also affected by the Moon.

Full Moon (Wikipedia)

By the way, when it comes to the Moon, there is a great song in Japan.

"Someday, it will shine like the Moon tonight"
- Like the Moon tonight, Elephant Kashimashi (Wikipedia)

Life of Star

2010-01-17T00:00:00.003+09:00

All stars begin the same way. The birth, life, and death of a star have six separate phases.

1. Cloud of gas and dust
A spinning cloud of gas and dust, called a nebula, shrinks and heats up. The cloud breaks into pieces.

2. A star is born
A small piece forms a new star. Leftover material around the star may form planets.

3. Main sequence
The star shines steadily for most of its life. It produces energy by nuclear reactions, turning hydrogen into helium.

4. The star expands
When all its hydrogen is used up, the star swells and starts to cool down. It becomes a red giant.

5. The star collapses
When it runs out of energy, the star collapses and its outer layers are blown into space.

6. The star dies
Only the core of the star is left. This small white dwarf cools slowly and eventually fades away.

In terms of Our Sun, it was born about 4.6 billion years ago and is now in the main sequence (3rd phase). In about 5,000 million years from now, the yellow Sun will start to run out of hydrogen. Then, it will cool, swell, and become a red giant star (4th phase). When it becomes a red giant, the Sun will be at least 100 times bigger than it is now.

Eclipses

2010-01-16T00:00:00.011+09:00

On Earth, a solar eclipse occurs when our Moon passes in front of the Sun. This cuts off sunlight from certain parts of Earth. When the Moon is in exactly the right position, it can cover the Sun entirely and block sunlight from shining on Earth. For a shot time, day becomes night. A total eclipse occurs only once in about 300 years in any one spot on earth.

What I like most about Eclipse is Diamond Ring. At the beginning and ending of a total eclipse, the Sun shines at the edge of the Moon. This bright spot of sunlight looks like the sparkling diamond in a ring.

On the other hand, a lunar eclipse occurs when Earth comes directly between the Sun and the Moon. The Moon does not disappear completely. As Earth’s shadow falls on it, the Moon turns reddish-brown.

Eclipse (Wikipedia)

Speed of Light

2010-01-15T00:00:00.005+09:00

The Universe is made of everything that exists in space, but it’s so huge that I don't know well where I am. It is said that where we are is the solar system, but even the solar system is just a part of the galaxy Milky Way. Likewise, even the Milky Way is just a part of the Universe. How huge the Universe is!!!

The Universe is so amazingly huge that we measure space distances in units called light-years. One unit is the distance that light travels in a year. For your information, one light-year is 9.46×10^12 meter.

Speed of Light (Wikipedia)

Mother Nature Sun

2010-01-14T00:00:00.005+09:00

The Sun is a star. Just like the other stars in the universe, it is a huge, glowing ball of hot gases. The Sun is so big that 1.3 million Earths could fit inside it.

The Sun gives out enormous amounts of heat and light all the time. Inside the Sun, nuclear reactions turn hydrogen into helium. These reactions give off great energy as heat and light that makes life on Earth possible. Without the Sun, neither plants nor animals could survive.

Plants use solar power to make their own sugary food. They capture sunlight in their leaves and combine it with gas from the air and water from the soil, and animals eat plants as food. In this manner, energy from the Sun is passed to plants and then to animals.

Everything started from the Sun.

3, 2, 1, Gold!!!

2010-01-13T00:00:00.005+09:00

Now, Gold might finish the down trend of 4th wave of Elliott, and get in the up trend of 5th wave.

Roughly speaking, Elliott wave consists of 5 waves in the up trend and consequent 3 waves in the down trend. Both 5 and 3 are Fibonacci number.

The first 5 waves consist of 3 up waves and 2 down waves. The up waves are 1st, 3rd, 5th, and the down waves are 2nd and 4th.

The later 3 waves consist of 2 down waves and 1 up wave. The down waves are A(6th) and C(8th) and the up wave is B(7th).

That is, 1st, 3rd, 5th, B(7th) are up waves and 2nd, 4th, A(6th), C(8th) are down waves.

Although I have Gold before, these days I bought Gold a little more. I bet for Gold’s 5th wave of Elliott. And I expect the 5th wave continues until about the end of Mar or the beginning of Apr. But I have to be careful for the next down wave, Elliott A(6th) wave. I’m gonna escape from Gold at the time, but I’m positive of Gold’s future in the long term, because the central banks all around the world printed so much paper currency and flawed its credibility. So, I’m gonna buy Gold again when it finishes the A(6th) or C(8th) waves of Elliott.

On top of that, there are other positive signals for Gold. DOW, S&P500, NASDAQ, CRB, BDI show UP signals and GSR(Gold/Silver Ratio, sorry for no link) and VIX show DOWN signals. All of these signals indicate the increase of Gold price.

My philosophy is “Think and grow rich”, not “Work and grow rich”.

By the way, there is one more interesting thing about Elliott wave. It’s Fractal, embedded structure. For example, the 5th wave of Elliott in the large view consists of small 5 waves.

Although I don’t know in detail, Elliott wave theory seems to be based on Fibonacci number. So interesting. I want to understand more and more about it.

I can look at the world in a different way through investment. For me, this is another purpose of investment other than making money.

Elliott Wave Principle (Wikipedia)
Fractal (Wikipedia)

The above picture is from ボテの先物日記

The Economy Moves on Golden Ratio

2010-01-12T00:00:00.016+09:00

In economy, everything is determined by golden ratio. Golden ratio is derived from Fibonacci number. Fibonacci number is a sequence of number, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55… 1+1=2, 1+2=3, 2+3=5, the sum of two adjacent number becomes the next number. And the two adjacent numbers are supposed to converge into two numbers, 1.618 and 0.618.

For example, 5×0.618=3.09≒3, which is the former number of 5. 3×1.618=4.854≒5, which is the next number of 3. Likewise,

5×1.618≒8
8×0.618≒5
8×1.618≒13
13×0.618≒8
13×1.618≒21
21×0.618≒13
21×1.618≒34

Namely, when multiplied by 0.618, it goes down the sequence, whereas when multiplied by 1.618, it goes up the sequence.

Next, four arithmetic operations.

1.618×1.618=2.618
1.618÷0.618=2.618
1.618×0.618=1.0
2.618×1.618=4.236
2.618+1.618=4.236

And the round-off numbers play a key role in the economy.

62, 162, 262, 424

Moreover, the half numbers are important too.

31, 81, 131, 212

More concretely, 62 days, 62 weeks, 81 days, 81 weeks, or things like that. When we look for the turning point of the market, these numbers play an important role, it’s so mysterious though…

「10年大局観」で読む 2019年までの黄金の投資戦略 (Amazon)

Golden Ratio (Blogged on 12 Nov 2009)
FIbonacci Number (Blogged on 13 Nov 2009)

The following is a memo for me. It’s too long but I blog it for my memo.

2013 - The Bottom Target

Talking about the result first, the next bottom of the world economy will be 2013. Toward 2013, the world economy, especially US’s economy, will go down. Because 2013 coincides with lots of important numbers derived from golden ratio and Fibonacci number.

Reckoning from 1932, which is the bottom of the NY Dow’s great depression in 1929, 2013 is 81 years from 1932.

Reckoning from 1982, which is the beginning of the great bull market, 2013 is 31 years later.

Reckoning from 2000, which is the top of IT bubble, 2013 is 162 months later.

The market that arrived at its top must go down. The latest top of the bull market that started since 1982 was the 2007. So, now is in the middle of the down trend and the destination of the present down trend is expected to be 2013, given golden ratio and Fibonacci number.

Autumn of 2011

Before the bottom of 2013, there will be a mini bottom in autumn of 2011, because lots of important numbers from golden ratio and Fibonacci number converge there.

From Sep to Oct of 2011 is 262 months from the end of 1989, which is the beginning of Heisei Deflation in Japan.

Nov of 2011 is 212 weeks from Oct of 2007, which is the top of US stock market.

From Jul to Sep of 2011 is 848 weeks from Apr of 1995, which is the bottom of JPY/USD.

Oct of 2011 is 81 months from Jan of 2005, which is the starting point of reckoning of 5 to 6 years cycle of JPY/USD.

Aug of 2011 is 424 weeks from Jun of 2002, which is the top of JGB (Japanese Government Bond).

Although it’s irrelevant from golden ratio and Fibonacci number, from Jun to Aug of 2011 is the bottom of 150 – 152 months cycle of crude oil.

Given these numbers, autumn of 2011 is likely to be the bottom before the final bottom of 2013.

These days, in the long term, the stock market is in the down trend, but in the short term, it’s in the rebound trend. So, now I’m looking for the turning point that changes the present up trend to down trend leading to the bottom of autumn of 2011.

If I sell short, I will be able to make money, but there is a difficult problem.

That is "Zombie Economy".

Zombie Economy

Now the world is in deflation. Almost all people and companies try to save their own money and pay back their debt and never try to use money. Now the world wants to save money.

When we don’t purchase, the profit of the companies decreases and the stock market goes down. But, now the stock market goes up, despite that we don’t purchase.

The reason of this contradiction is the huge amounts of excessive liquidity of printing money by the central banks of all over the world. They printed the huge amounts of paper money to stimulate the purchasing by people and the investment by the companies, but they failed. We didn’t try to use money, instead, tried to save money.

As a consequence, the printed money lost their place to be and flowed into the stock market. I want to call it “Zombie Economy”. Given the fundamental of the market, there is no reason to buy the stocks, but the market has been going up because of the printed money that lost their place to be. It’s as if living dead.

I’m sure that such a market won’t be able to keep going up, but having said that way, I shouldn’t bet for the fall of the market, because the enemy is Zombie. Zombie never stops. So, I think if I sell short carelessly, I will lose money. So, I must be so careful when I sell short.

Because the enemy is Zombie, the problem is not so simple.

And one more thing. The unemployment rate is still low. The price of stock market goes up but there are many many jobless people. I can’t admit Jobless recovery.

Looking at the World through Shoten

2010-01-11T00:00:00.001+09:00

Shoten is a TV program that has been broadcasted for more than 40 years, which is the longest time of Japanese TV program.

The main content is Ogiri, in which the master of ceremony sets a question and the respondent selected by a show of hands by MC answers to the question. When the answer is full of wit, the respondent can get Zabuton, which is a Japanese cushion for sitting. On the other hand, when the answer is bad, the respondent loses Zabuton. Whether the answer is good or bad is judged by MC. This rule is based on the notion that sitting on Zabuton is comfortable, but sitting without Zabuton is painful. When someone collected 10 Zabuton, he is celebrated and gets a gorgeous present. After 10 Zabutons are collected, they restart with one Zabuton per respondent.

It might be not too much saying that Shoten is the most famous Japanese TV show. Shoten is such a popular TV show. Almost all of Japanese people know it. As Shoten is broadcast from PM 5:30 to 6:00 on Sunday, We Japanese people feel late afternoon of Sunday when we watch Shoten, like we feel the end of Sunday when we watch Gaki no tsukaiya arahende (Messengers from Sunday).

By the way, there is an interesting way of looking at the world through Shoten. These days, the audience rating of Shoten has been so high. Especially in last Nov and Dec in 2009, almost all of the audience ratings of Shoten got No.1 of the week. But the reason can be guessed cynical one. The most reasonable reason is Japanese people are getting reluctant to go out and spend money on Sunday. Because of the economy depression, Japanese people are getting more and more stay home and feel comfortable by watching Shoten oon Sunday, instead of going out. And because people are reluctant to spend money, the price of products has to go down. It’s deflation.

We can see the depression and deflation by looking at the World through Shoten.

Shōten

Brillo Box

2010-01-10T00:00:00.002+09:00

Brillo Box is just a box of pads for cleaning dishes, but Andy Warhol replicated the box and exhibited as his art works. Not only Brillo Box, he created many art works by coping and replicating usual things in our daily life like a bottle of Coca Cola, a can of Cambel soup, a face of Marilyn Monroe and so on.

His art works are called "Pop Art" and established its position in the art world.

His materials are not gorgeous, but cheap things no artist except him pays attention to. But these cheap things can be art by him.

In 1950s and 1960s in America when Warhol created these things, there was a mass consumption society. In the sense that he copied, replicated and sold many same things, he and the era had in common. He sold the copies of his art works so much and his art became business. Actually he called his atelier "Factory".

As Warhol didn't create by himself, he and Duchamp have in common in the sense of Readymade. But what makes a difference between them is easiness. Although Duchamp's art works seem to have something difficult behind it, whereas Warhol's art works seem to have kind of easiness.

Andy Warhol (Wikipedia)
Pop Art (Wikipedia)

現代アート、超入門! (Amazon)
齋藤孝のざっくり!美術史 (Amazon)

Fountain

2010-01-09T00:00:00.001+09:00

"Fountain" is art by Duchamp. A small male toilet is put in the unusual direction and signed "R, Mutt". Even if this is said to be art, I can't understand it's art.

In the first place, this is an industrial product. This isn't what he created. Different artists have different styles, but one thing they have in common is they create their own art works by themselves. But, in the case of "Foutain", he did nothing, except signing, changing the direction and putting it. Is it art?

Moreover, as long as it's an industrial product, there are many same products out there in the world. One aspect of worthiness of art works is that it exists as one and only thing in the world. If there are many same things, the worthiness of "Foutain" is questionable.

On top of that, the industrial product is not what human made, but what the machine produced. Can a machine product be art? What intention did Duchamp have?

1917 was the year that "Fountain" is exhibited first and then World War 1 was happening. In the first place, it's unusual that French Duchamp exhibited "Fountain" in New York, not Paris. The reason was because he hated the war and moved to America. he doubted the world where people are killing each other. From here, his activity started. He thought that this world is wrong so it must be denied. He doubted the old senses of value and thought new world must be created with new senses of value. That's how his axis was set on "denial".

His denial eyes saw art too. Why must it be beautiful? Why must I paint by myself? Why must it be created by human? Doubting from many viewpoints, he reached an answer. By exhibiting "Fountain" as art, he proposed to change the sense of value from zero.

The art that questions the way of thinking like "Fountain" is called "Conceptual Art". And like the toilet, the method to use the existing thing is called "Readymade".

As a genesis of both Conceptual Art and Readymade, "Fountain" is a milestone in the art history.

Duchamp (Wikipedia)
Fountain (Wikipedia)
Readymade
Conceptual Art (Wikipedia)

現代アート、超入門! (Amazon)

Piss Christ

2010-01-08T00:00:00.001+09:00

Christ on the cross is in the fluid of gold or orange. It’s so celestial and looks so beautiful, except the fact that the fluid is piss.

This is so radical, even for me who don’t believe in Christianity, more precisely, has no religious.

It seems that Serrano criticized with this art work for the current religion being too superficial and losing its essence.

Because I have no religion, I don’t know how much impact Christians had at the time when he exhibited it. But I guess it’s so huge.

It looks so beautiful, but there is a poison inside.

In the world of contemporary art, anything is possible.

Serrano (Wikipedia)
Piss Christ (Wikipedia)

現代アート、超入門! (Amazon)

The Persistence of Memory

2010-01-07T00:00:00.002+09:00

Surrealism is based on Psychoanalysis of Freud and tries to capture and express the surreal that can’t be in the real world but has sometimes more reality than that of the real world. The representative artist of surrealism is Dali who created "The Persistence of Memory".

In "The Persistence of Memory", the clock is distorted and looks unreal. But Dali succeeded in capturing and expressing the real world.

In the real world, it’s based on Newton physics basically. Newton physics is premised on the homogeneous time-space world. Two minutes are twice as one minute. Two meters are twice as one meter.

It appears absolute world, but that’s not true. When the gravity force is strong, time and space are distorted. Time and space are not absolute, but relative.

"The Persistence of Memory" reminds me of the relativity theory of Einstein. Dali and Einstein taught me that self-evident is not always self-evident.

Dali (Wikipedia)
The Persistence of Memory (Wikipedia)
Surrealism (Wikipedia)

知識ゼロからの西洋絵画入門 (Amazon)

The Beauty of Nature on Words

2010-01-06T00:00:00.010+09:00

We Japanese people like Impressionism. The reason is because the light painted by Impressionism makes us feel the relaxation and the beauty of nature.

Many western paintings are based on Christianity, so it’s hard for us Japanese people understand it because of the religious difference. What we Japanese people symphathize is the beauty of nature.

From the ancient time, Japanese people have found the delight in the beauty of nature. In Waka and Haiku (Japanese forms of poetry)、the themes are subtle change. Capturing such a subtle change and putting it onto words have been in the center of Japanese people’s sense of beauty. The essence of Waka and Haiku is the combination of the worlds of mind and nature.

齋藤孝のざっくり!美術史 (Amazon)

Waka (Wikipedia)
Haiku (Wikipedia)

The Sound of Silence

2010-01-05T00:00:00.015+09:00

Balancing the real world and the subjective sense of oneself like Cezanne has something to do with the relationship between sound and silence in music.

Once Tōru Takemitsu said that because music is created by artificially the enemy of music is the heaviness of silence of nature. He confessed that his music can’t beat the heaviness of silence.

Then what is the music that can beat silence? John Cage tackled this matter by creating the music called 4′33″, in which nothing is played. Because nothing is played, people listen to a variety of sound. That’s why, people listen to the sound of silence.

When the painting art can’t beat the nature, what should the artists do to? How can the paintings get over the real world. Having thought that way, it might have been inevitable that the paintings that don’t paint the nature as it is like Cezanne was born and lead to abstract paintings in the future.

齋藤孝のざっくり!美術史 (Amazon)

Solar Eclipse and Future

2010-01-04T00:00:00.007+09:00

Once upon a time, primitive people feared solar eclipse. They thought that something bad would happen when Sun is covered and its light is blocked by Moon.

Now that we know when next Solar eclipse occurs because of the development of Astrology and think it funny for them to worry.

But we still don’t know what will happen in the future, no matter how much science advanced, like primitive people didn’t know when next solar eclipse would occur.

目に見えないもの (Amazon)
Hideki Yukawa (Wikipedia)
Solar Eclipse (Wikipedia)

Invisible Things

2010-01-03T00:00:00.008+09:00

There are two types of study in Physics. One is to see visible things, which is, for example, Newton Physics that explains the movement of ball. The other is to see invisible things, which is, for example, Quantum mechanics that explains the behaviors of atoms, electrons or things like that.

In our daily life, we feel Newton Physics but don’t feel Quantum mechanics. In other words, Newton Physics has a reality for us, but Quantum mechanics doesn’t have a reality for us. It’s because atoms are invisible (although we can see them with a specific observational equipment).

On the other hand, we take it for granted that the cause of disease is the virus, despite that we can’t see virus (although we can see it with a microscope).

In the sense that we can’t see them, atom and virus are the same, but in our sense of reality, atom is considered less serious.

Although I don’t know well, Quantum mechanics is deeply connected with this universe. So, understanding these invisible things leads to understanding this universe. That's why I think these invisible things should be valued more and more.

目に見えないもの (Amazon)
Hikedi Yukawa (Wikipedia)

The Crystal of Thought

2010-01-02T00:00:00.006+09:00

We can’t grab water when it’s liquid but can grab it when freezed. When water is crystallized, we can grab it.

Likewise, I can’t grab my thought when it’s in my mind but I can grab it when I blogged it.

I can understand my thought by blogging.

Without blogging, I can’t understand my thought.

My blog is the crystal of my thought.

目に見えないもの (Amazon)
Hideki Yukawa (Wikipedia)

Words of Wisdom - John Lennon

2010-01-01T00:00:00.033+09:00

Yes is the answer and you know that for sure

Yes is the surrender, you got to let it, you got to let it go

心を開いて「イエス」って言ってごらん

全てを肯定してみると答えが見つかるもんだよ

John Lennon (Wikipedia)
John Lennon Museum

ーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーー

Don't say "No Future", I say "Yes Future".

Yes is the answer.

Words of Wisdom - John Lennon

2009-12-31T00:00:00.016+09:00

Now that I showed you what I've been through

Don't take nobody's word what you can do

ぼくがこれまでどうやってきたかは教えられるけど

君がこれからどうするかは自分で考えなきゃ

John Lennon (Wikipedia)
John Lennon Museum

Empire of Light

2009-12-30T00:00:00.014+09:00

The upper side is day and the lower side is night. It’s unrealistic but it looks so natural, at least for me.

I wonder what Magritte tried to express with this art work. “Everything has the opposite side?” “Two opposed things must coexist?” “The combination of ordinary things like day and night can be extraordinary?”

But, it doesn’t matter to me. That’s none of my business. I don’t like thinking too much.

Anyway, I think it so beautiful and really like it.

That’s it.

Magritte (Wikipedia)

現代アート、超入門! (Amazon)

Composition Ⅱ

2009-12-29T00:00:00.011+09:00

Generally, artists create art works as self-expression, but this is not the case. Mondorian’s composition isn’t self-expression.

As a background, he had learned Theology. Theology is based on God’s intension that defines everything in the world has its reason and connected with inevitability. In Theology, everything must be predetermined in harmony.

That’s why, Mondorian pursued the law and relationship that governs the world. Apart from his subject, regardless of his existence, he tried to express the universal law that lasts forever and never changes. The simplicity of a few vertical and horizontal lines and colors is based on such his intention.

Seemingly, it might seem easy to paint it, but I don’t think so. When I think about where to draw a line, I feel it so difficult. And when I think about what color to paint, I feel it so difficult again. Given these things, I think Mondorian is so great.

But, apart from all knowledge described above, I think it so beautiful as a design.

I really like it.

Mondorian (Wikipedia)

現代アート、超入門! (Amazon)
齋藤孝のざっくり!美術史 (Amazon)

Twitter Rocks!!! - a lost wallet

2009-12-28T00:00:00.020+09:00

With the power of Twitter, a lost wallet can get back to the owner less than 20 minutes.

JohnwoodRTR seemed to find a lost wallet of Annissteiner and Tweeted it.

18 minutes later, she called him back and the wallet found a way to reunite with the owner.

Although I don't know the process well, between John and Annis, there seemed to be a little help from two men who found and contacted her via Twitter and Facebook.

I think this story is so great and hope it will be shared by many many people. If you know the process in detail, please let me know!!!

Twitter Rocks!!!

Composition Ⅵ

2009-12-27T00:00:00.014+09:00

Abstract art is the art that doesn’t paint concrete something. Although Picasso and Matisse changed the color and shape freely, they painted concrete something like human and scene. But, there is no such concrete something in Kandinsky’s art work.

Basically, since Runaissance, art had tried to express the subject as much alike as it is. The more it looks like real, the more it’s valued. But, contemporary art began to pursue new art. Then, Kandinsky tried to create the art work that’s far from the real world. And the answer he arrived at was abstract art.

Having said abstract art, it’s so difficult not to paint concrete something. If so, what should the artist paint? This is so challenging but he got over it and established new genre of art, abstract art.

I don’t know what is painted and I don’t think it beautiful. But, apart from it, I think it worth to understand its importance.

In the series of “Composition”, I prefer “Composition Ⅷ”

I don’t know what is painted but I feel it beautiful.

Kandinsky (Wikipedia)

Abstract Art (Wikipedia)

現代アート、超入門! (Amazon)

知識ゼロからの西洋絵画入門 (Amazon)

The Weeping Woman

2009-12-26T00:00:00.014+09:00

The woman who is crying hysterically is painted by the way of Cubism. Cubism was pioneered by Cezanne and developed by Picasso. The feature of Cubism is to break the subject into geometric figures and rebuild them from the multiple viewpoints.

But why he painted that way? There is a good example. When seen from side, a circular cone is triangle, whereas when seen from above, it’s circle. Both the triangle and the circle are the real of the circular cone. It’s not either one is right. To capture and express the truth of existence, he painted that way.

The era he lived was when the art works painted just realistically were not sold. To make a difference and go one step ahead from other artists, Picasso needed to establish new style.

The two big waves of modern art are Cubism of Picasso and Fovism of Matisse.

Cubism pursued the truth and law of existence in the intellectual way, whereas Fovism pursued the inner sense and feeling of human beings in the sensuous way.

Cubism is intellective and Picasso is the man of technique, whereas Fauvism is wild and Matisse is the man of sense.

Picasso (Wikipedia)

The Weeping Woman (Wikipedia)

Cubism (Wikipedia)

現代アート、超入門! (Amazon)

知識ゼロからの西洋絵画入門 (Amazon)

Portrait of Madame Matisse (The green line)

2009-12-25T00:00:00.001+09:00

The nose line is green and the hair is blue. The right side of face is red and the left side is yellow. The background is red, purple and green. These colors are impossible in the real world. Moreover, the touch is so rough and the detail isn’t cared at all. This isn’t beautiful. So, when he exhibited it, he was criticized and called “Fauverie (wild beast)”. But, it’s obvious that the world of Matisse isn’t based on the real world. So, there must have been some his intention.

Matisse had the different way of thinking for art, especially for coloring. He thought the color is so important to express the inner feeling of the subjects, rather than to make the subjects look like real as much as possible.

He had no intention to paint the subject as it is. To express his own art, he needed to paint it as he wanted, even if the coloring wasn’t real. The color of the real world didn’t matter to him. He put colors as his sense wants. For the first time in the history, the colors were freed from the real world.

The style of free coloring and dynamic touch was called “Fauvism”

I think “Portrait of Madame Matisse (The green line)” is unusual and not beautiful. I don’t think I want to put it on the wall of my room. But, in the sense that he freed the coloring, I can understand its importance. Having said that, I prefer the following “Goldfish” to “Portrait of Madame Matisse (The green line)”

Matisse (Wikipedia)
Fauvism (Wikipedia)
Portrait of Madame Matisse (The green line) (Wikipedia)

現代アート、超入門! (Amazon)
知識ゼロからの西洋絵画入門 (Amazon)

Contemporary Art - Anything is Possible

2009-12-24T00:00:00.019+09:00

Contemporary art is, in brief, the art after 20th century. More precisely, the art of technology and city.

When 19th century ended and 20th century began, the society changed drastically. From car, train, airplane, picture, printing, transmission, telephone to electronics, computer, nuclear power, space development, the technology developed and our life changed so drastically. The metropolices were born in many places in the world and people began to live there.

Accompanying with the change of the world, the sense of value of people changed too. As a consequence, people got unsatisfied with the art after Renaissance and began to want new art for new era. That’s Contemporary art.

Hearing new art for new era, it might sound good, but it’s not always good. The two world wars we had in 20th century are the worst things. Not going so far, the relationships between people in the city life were diluted and it became difficult to find out relaxation, happiness and meaning of life. Contemporary art sees such negative aspects as well as positive aspects.

As a result, contemporary art got difficult. It’s not always beautiful, Sometimes we can’t understand. Art changed.

So, in the world of contemporary art, anything is possible. The super diversified art. It’s so difficult to catch up, but I think it so interesting.

Contemporary Art (Wikipedia)

現代アート、超入門! (Amazon)

Birthday

2009-12-23T00:00:00.010+09:00

7 July 1915 was the 28th birthday of Chagall, and the wedding ceremony was coming to a few weeks later. On the day, the fiancee dressed up herself and decorated his atelier while he was out.

When he came home, he was so surprised and pleased. After he kissed her, he began to paint to capture and express the moment of supreme happiness in his life.

Because the upper body of man is twisting in an impossible way and he is in the air, this art work isn't what express the real world. It expresses the world in his dream.

This is the art of dream.

Very nice.

Chagall (Wikipedia)

齋藤孝のざっくり!美術史 (Amazon)
知識ゼロからの西洋絵画入門 (Amazon)

Jeanne Hebuterne in a Yellow Sweater

2009-12-22T00:00:00.008+09:00

The eyeballs of woman aren’t painted. Although eyes are the place where the personal character and facial expression are most reflected, the eyeballs aren’t painted in this art work. Because of it, Modigliani succeeded in separating the model from real world and expressing the mysterious air.

Without the eyeballs, the eyes are painted in blue. And I wonder what the blue eyes express and see. It seems to be said that the blue eyes are the blue sky and see nothing. Moreover, given that the eyes are void, the blue eyes look like the blue stained glass in church. As the inside of church is the sacred place, the inside of the eyes look sacred too.

In general, the eyes see the outside of the world, whereas the blue sky is seen by the eyes. Namely, the eyes are the window that bridges the inside and outside of oneself. But in this art work, the eyes lost its function to see the world and becomes the blue sky to be seen. Interesting switch.

We can see the infinite blue sky in her eyes and feel relaxed. The source of relaxation resembles the motherhood. It's not sexual but maternal, we can feel relaxed regardless of sex, man and woman. Moreover, woman can feel like being mother Maria.

But, truth be told, although the blue eyes are so interesting, I don't think this art work beautiful as a whole.

Modigliani (Wikipedia)

齋藤孝のざっくり!美術史 (Amazon)

The Kiss

2009-12-21T00:00:00.022+09:00

This art work succeeded in expressing the moment of supreme happiness.

The first thing that came into my eyes is not man and woman but the background expressed with a lot of gold leaf.

The source of idea seemed to be Japanese art works exhibited in Europe. After Sakoku, Japan put many Japanese art works to appeal to Europe. As a result, there seemed to be Japanese boom in Europe in late 19s.

It is said that Impressionism in France learned from two dimentional style like Ukiyo-e, but Klimt learned from more like Byōbu, Lacquerware, and Kimono. When I come to think of it, I think the clothes of man and woman look like having Japanese air.

Another thing I noticed is that man’s cloth is painted with square and straight line whereas Woman’s cloth with circle and curved line. I think this way of expression is very matching with the characteristics of man and woman.

Klimt (Wikipedia)
The Kiss (Wikipedia)

知識ゼロからの西洋絵画入門 (Amazon)

The Scream

2009-12-20T00:00:00.019+09:00

We weren’t born because we wanted to be born. This world can’t always be the way we want it to be. There are so many irrational things out there in the world. Munch painted such an anxiety of people thrown out in this world.

The fear is concrete but the anxiety is abstract. We don’t know the true source of anxiety. The anxiety depresses us as if it’s dark and heavy air. We can’t free from and forget the anxiety. That’s the anxiety.

In the red sky of the above-left part, the little words are written, “Could only have been painted by madman”.

In the sense that Munch expressed the inner feeling by the distinct form of deformation, the genesis of Expressionism by Kirchnerand others is expected.

Hello my darkness.

For your information, "The Scream" is used in Emoji of Japanese cell phone.

Munch (Wikipedia)
The Scream (Wikipedia)

知識ゼロからの西洋絵画入門 (Amazon)
齋藤孝のざっくり!美術史 (Amazon)

Divan Japonais

2009-12-19T00:00:00.015+09:00

In late 19th century of Paris, there seemed to be Japanese boom. Although there were many artists affected by Japanese Ukiyo-e, Lautrec was outstanding. The clear lines, two-dimentional coloring, dynamic deformation and composition ignoring perspective. There was no one except him who truly understood the essence of Ukiyo-e in the sense in which not only technical methods but also the fact that he lithograghed and advertised shops and dancers.

The fresh style of him had contributed to the new genre called commercial art generated from mass society.

Lautrec (Wikipedia)

知識ゼロからの西洋絵画入門 (Amazon)

Mont Sainte-Victoire

2009-12-18T00:00:00.021+09:00

Cezanne is called “Father of modern art” and the effect he had on the world of art was so much. The time he was painting almost coincided with Impressionism, but he was different from them.

The paintings of impressionism changed the existing world of art, by painting directly the light projected on the retina. Focusing on the subjective view, it freed the sense from the real world limitation, but it lost the existence of things at the same time on the other side.

Then, Cezanne tried to balance both the subjective sense and the existence of things. He once said “painting the world with circular cylinder, ball and three-sided pyramid”. And he painted "Mont Sainte-Victoire" by restructuring the world in the geometric way. Normally, when we paint we draw the whole design and put colors on it, but he painted as if by putting colored post-it and formed the whole design. This style seems to have lead to Cubism by Picasso and Abstract Art.

Cezanne (Wikipedia)

知識ゼロからの西洋絵画入門 (Amazon)

Bal du moulin de la Galette

2009-12-17T00:00:00.019+09:00

I like "Bal du moulin de la Galette" of Renoir so much because it’s so lively and full of happiness.

Why the paintings of Renoir is so lively seems to be deeply connected with the fact that Renoir himself was lively and enjoyed life. It seems that he was very lively and purely enjoyed paintings whether his works sold well or not. Painting was the most delightful activity for him.

Seeing his paintings, I feel some kind of happiness. I think it’s because the subject of his paintings is full of happiness, such as people enjoying eating or dancing. The dynamics of his works doesn’t match with Japanese culture, but the essence of happiness is same. Although different people have different sense of value, there is a thing different people have in common. It’s the essence of happiness painted in Renoir’s works.

Renoir (Wikipedia)
Bal du moulin de la Galette (Wikipedia)

知識ゼロからの西洋絵画入門 (Amazon)

Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?

2009-12-16T00:00:00.021+09:00

At the time, the art world was booming of the southern country like Tahiti. Although Gogh went to southern France instead of Japan, Gauguin tried to make a difference by going to the true southern country Tahiti.

Tahiti has the fullness of life and warm atmosphere western countries don’t have. People never hunger. It’s as if paradise. Compared with the life in Tahiti, we might lose the meaning of working hard. In such a completely different world from western countries, Gauguin painted "Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?".

It is said that humans were expelled from Eden because they ate the forbidden fruit of knowledge. After that, by establishing the civilization, humans have survived until now. Gauguin must have doubted the modernized western world and tried to seek for the meaning of life in unmodernized Tahiti.

Like Gogh, Gauguin was valued after his death and the free coloring style had effect on Fauvism by Matisse.

Paul Gauguin (Wikipedia)
Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? (Wikipedia)

知識ゼロからの西洋絵画入門 (Amazon)

Sunflowers

2009-12-15T00:00:00.023+09:00

Yellow was the color Gogh loved most. It’s the color of sun and at the same time the color of life.

The sunflowers contain withering ones as well as flowering ones. It seems to be said that Gogh expressed the fact that time must go by.

Sunflower seems to be the symbol of art, love and religious devotion in the western tradition. That might be one of the reasons he loved sunflower.

By the way, the dynamic structure and coloring in this work is affected by Japanese Ukiyo-e. The reason he went to Arles in southern France was because he thought the vividness of Ukiyo-e comes from Japan which is located in south and expected to get the air by going to Arles instead of Japan, which is too far for him to go.

He was so overreactive that he didn’t go well with the society. The most famous episode is that he cut off his own ear when Gauguin pointed out that the shape of the ear in Gogh’s self-portrait is something wrong. It’s going too far that we can’t understand him. But when we see from the opposite side, he was so pure and honest to himself.

The overreactiveness of Gogh is the source of tragedy but at the same time it might be the source of art.

The more vivid the color of yellow is, the more sad I feel.

Gogh left beautiful works and big effect on the art world, like sunflowers left so many seed after they withered.

Vincent Van Gogh (Wikipedia)
Sunflowers (Wikipedia)

知識ゼロからの西洋絵画入門 (Amazon)

Woman with Parasol

2009-12-14T00:00:00.005+09:00

The face of woman isn’t portrayed. Because of it, the woman melts in the scenery and the light and color are getting more vivid. Monet had pursued the light and color for his life.

One more interesting thing is that the shadow has colors. The color of shadow isn’t black, but the complementary color of the things.

Like Monet, the style to portrait as the artist see, not as it is, is Impressionism. The background of the genesis of Impressionism seems to have been pictures. Before the invention of pictures, art had been trying to capture the real as much as possible. But because of pictures, the purpose of art was collapsed. Needless to say, if the purpose of art is to express the real as it is, we human can’t win pictures.

That’s why, Impressionism was born to seek for new ground of art, which was devoted to express as the artist feels it, not as it is.

Claude Monet (Wikipedia)

知識ゼロからの西洋絵画入門 (Amazon)

Liberty Leading the People

2009-12-13T00:00:00.016+09:00

The theme of this is July Revolution of 1830. People rebelled against kingship after Napoleon. The battle scene is painted.

The woman holding up the tricolor flag is the statue of liberty. It is a personified symbol of France. The man standing left of her seems to be said Delacroix himself. As this is based on the real fact, it seemed to be kind of sensation at the time.

As the battle scene is too real and cruel, there seemed to be some criticism about him. But he argued, saying “There should be a variety of beauty. Cruel scene can be art.”

It seems that he didn’t have political opinion so much, so what he wanted to express was the passion to fight against existing old sense of value rather than political opinion.

Eugène Delacroix (Wikipedia)
Liberty Leading the People (Wikipedia)

知識ゼロからの西洋絵画入門 (Amazon)

The Milkmaid

2009-12-12T00:00:00.019+09:00

In the simple and humble house, a woman is pouring milk. An usual daily scene. There is something soft and silent air.

The mechanism by which Vermeer gave such air to this work is the lightning. His works often portrait the scene of inside house. Via the glass window, the soft and indirect light sheds into the house. That’s why he is called “Light airtist”.

By the way, the latitude of Netherland is so high and as a result the light is watery. It’s as if the light via Shoji, a traditional door in Japan. Vermeer is so good at capturing such light.

It’s so good to see dynamic work like Night Watch, but it’s also good to see static work.

Vermeer (Wikipedia)
The Milkmaid (Wikipedia)

知識ゼロからの西洋絵画入門 (Amazon)

Night Watch

2009-12-11T00:00:00.016+09:00

At the time in Netherland, a group portrait was kind of trend. The budget was collected by each person and they were portrayed so that each person’s face is painted equally and clearly. But Rembrandt was different. He portrayed the moment of action as if snapshot and gave it story.

As the spotlight doesn’t shed equally to everyone, it strengthens the light and dark contrast. Moreover, there is a face hidden by other’s hand. As a matter of course, there seemed to be complaints from model people in this work.

The lighting method to shed light from 45-degree above is called Rembrandt light. It’s a classical lighting method and still often used today because it’s effective to express the three dimensional appearance.

By the way, at the time, there seemed to be tulip bubble. People invested so much money in the bulb of tulip and gained so much money. Now that I see it that way, the face of people looks kind of confident. Needless to say, the bubble collapsed in the end.

Rembrant (Wikipedia)
Night Watch (Wikipedia)

知識ゼロからの西洋絵画入門 (Amazon)

5 Years Cycle of JPY/USD

2009-12-10T00:00:00.000+09:00

Amazon Kindle is $259. It’s priced in USD not JPY. So, for Japanese people like me, the cost depends on foreign exchange. The stronger JPY is, the cheaper I can get it.

Today’s rate of JPY/USD is about 88, so I need to pay 22792(=$259×88) JPY. If the rate is 100, I need to pay 25900 (=$259×100) JPY. If the rate is 80, I need to pay 20720 (=$259×80) JPY.

My best scenario is that JPY/USD goes down from 88 to 80. I can save 2072 (=22792–20720) JPY.

It’s not that I want to save 2072 JPY. It doesn’t matter to me Whether there is 2072 JPY or not. It’s a game for me.

It is said that there is 5 years cycle of JPY/USD. And the next bottom is coming at next Feb. Of course, the past pattern doesn’t necessary assure the future and I know there is a problem in this scenario. It's an error of the cycle. There is some error in the cycle. If the error happens this time, the other day's 84 JPY/USD becomes the bottom. But I want to bet for the errorless scenario, because of two reasons.

The first reason is based on many reasons from the present economy, but I want to skip it here because the margin is too narrow to describe it here.

The second reason is because now I’m thinking everything in the world has a cycle. I think the essence of cycle is Fibonacci Number (Blogged on 13 Nov 2009). I think everything in the world tries to be balanced, and the behavior can be described by Fibonacci Number. Now I’m thinkking that’s the way it is.

Now, I want to buy Amazon Kindle as soon as possible, and it’s so hard to resist it. But I have many paper books in my house I’ve bought but haven’t read yet. As long as there are unread books, I’ll be able to resist my desire to buy Amazon Kindle before JPY/USD becomes 80. But when I have finished reading such unread books, I’m not confident to wait until JPY/USD becomes 80.

I wonder which is earlier, that I’ve finished reading unread books, or that JPY/USD becomes 80.

It’s just a game.

I’m going to challenge to myself, whether I can or can’t wait until it tweets.
Little Cuckoo (Blogged on 30 Nov 2009)

eBook Wars

2009-12-09T00:00:00.007+09:00

The other days, new compromise settlement about Google Books was settled and books other than America, England, Canada, Australia are excluded.

Although the Japanese writers association or something (I don’t know the collect name) might be relieved, because of this settlement, it is assured that Japan will be defeated in the next big market, eBook. A part of right holders in Japan complained and didn’t agree with Google Book project, so Japanese readers are enforced to be left far behind the global trend of eBook. I think, Google books can be positive for selling, but it can’t be negative for selling. I can’t understand what and why the objectors are afraid.

Against pirates, music industry selected a charged delivery like iTunes, not lawsuit. As a result, in this industry, Apple’s iTunes is far ahead, and Japan is left far behind.

In the long run, it’s self evident that the current paper books will be replaced with electrical books at least in the next 10 years. Like music industry in Japan, as long as book industry in Japan is against new technology and trend to hold the existing right, they and poor readers including me will be left far behind the world.

It’s the same pattern as usual that has been repeated again and again in Japan. Japanese right holders, most of them are old people, are really fool. The same and typical pattern. Coming this far, I can’t help laughing.

At least in this respect, Japan is helpless.

Into The English Books

2009-12-08T00:00:00.023+09:00

Google Book Search has more than million digital books. Of course, these books are free.

Amazon has Kindle. It has more than 300,000 eBooks and more than 500,000 Kindles has been shipped so far.

Apple doesn’t deny the rumor that Apple is going to introduce something for eBooks.

The Internet has been replacing newspaper and this trend doesn’t seem to stop. Compared with newspaper, book is not replaced so much, but it’s because there has been a limitation that there is no device we can read easily in our hands with. So, if there is a device like Amazon Kindle, it’s much much comfortable to read than voluminous paper books.

Now, Amazon Kindle is coming. I want Amazon Kindle, but there is a huge frustration. Japanese Books are excluded from Amazon Kindle. It’s because Japanese writers association or something (I don’t know the correct name) is against it.

Now, I’m thinking of buying Amazon Kindle. (About when I buy it, I have a plan. I’m going to blog about it in the near future.) When I get Amazon Kindle, I will read more and more English books with Amazon kindle, and I will read less and less Japanese books.

I think Japanese book industry is going to lose Japanese readers like me. What a fool. I think it's self evident that the paper books will be replaced by electrical books sooner or later. It's the trend of the Internet era. It's not the strongest that survives. But the one most adaptable to change. The fools like Japanese right holders won't be able to survive. It's natural result of their foolishness. They will get what they deserve.

When I bought Amazon Kindle, I’m going to read Chris Anderson’s latest book, Free at first. He seems to propose Freemium minted by combining Free and Premium. It’s a service model that attracts customers with a basic service for free and charge with an advanced service for fee.

I think Google books are a very good example of the first basic service for free. I think Google books can be a strong content that drives people to buy books in real. It’s impossible that Google books act as negative factor for selling.

The Story of Financial Euphoria

2009-12-07T00:00:00.020+09:00

Looking back the history of financial euphoria, the repeated pattern can be summarized into the followings.

1. Extremely short memory of finance

However big the mistake is, it's forgotten soon. As a result, the same or almost same story has been repeated and new generation has gotten into the financial euphoria.

2. Geniuses before the crash

In capitalism, money is thought to be linked with intelligence. It is thought that the more money he or she has, the more success he or she made and the more intelligence he or she has. There are invariably geniuses before the crash.

3. Leverage

The oldest example is bank and money. The bank can lend the borrowers money more than the bank has. The bankers thought that it never happens that all depositors withdraw the money at the same time. Because of this discovery, it was thought that there is no limit in the credit creation of money. But, when some bad news that makes people worry comes, too many depositors come to withdraw money at the same time, and the limit of the leverage is revealed.

4. Seemingly something new

Tulip Mania, John Law, South Sea Company, Wall Street Crash of 1929, Black Monday (1987), Japanese Asset Price Bubble, Dot-Com Bubble, Subprime Mortgage Crisis, and this time Dubai debt crisis.

These bubbles have been invariably viewed as something new. People has said "This time is different". But it's not different. Superficially, it might seem different, but essentially, there are common things. The too short memory of finance, the geniuses before the crash, and leverage.

In the end, the bubbles have been repeated based on these common things.

These truths has been always ignored

Human beings can't learn from history, at least in finance.

新版バブルの物語 (Amazon)

Challenge Against Financial Euphoria

2009-12-06T00:00:00.024+09:00

We’re living in the world getting more and more global. So, when something happens somewhere in the world, it affects all around the world soon, and its effect is sometimes so huge. As no one can live alone, no country can live alone. As a result, the effect of bubble and its crash immediately reaches all around the world.

The euphoria that drives us mad has occurred repeatedly and the persons, the companies, and the entire financial industry have been exposed to the risk. Nevertheless, there is no prevention measure. Except being cautious.

Every investor believes that only oneself is wise until the moment the crash happens. But is it truly impossible to make money through and exit from the financial bubble before it crashes? I wonder it's not impossible if I learn the essence of the financial euphoria that has generated and crashed repeatedly.

Now, I’m investing in Gold and Silver, because many central banks in the world are printing too much paper currency much more than ever before. There is crazy amount of printing money. When paper currency was printed too much, it had been invariably degraded, sooner or later. Cash is trash. History has proven it already.

I think, in the next five to ten years, there will be the financial euphoria of Gold and Silver. So, I’m going to challenge to make money and exit before the bubble bursts.

“Every investor believes that only oneself is wise”

When I am preached that way, I become to want to challenge it.

The more it’s difficult, the more I get excited.

I’m not interested in the easy things.

To make money from the financial euphoria and exit before it crashes, I’m going to learn the history of bubble and extract the common things that have repeated again and again.

To be continued…

新版バブルの物語 (Amazon)

Words of Wisdom - Galileo Galilei

2009-12-05T00:00:00.008+09:00

And yet, it moves.

それでも地球は回っている。

ーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーー

This is the word he said when he was being put under arrest by Catholic church because of the Copernican theory.

I wonder how much sorrow he had when his belief was rejected by the illogical opinions of others.

And yet, he didn’t change his claim and kept his belief.

I see the strength of his will there.

I want to live like him.

Even if my opinion doesn’t match the general opinion of society, I want to believe myself.

Galileo Galilei

Words of Wisdom – Spencer Johnson

2009-12-04T00:00:00.010+09:00

What would you do if you weren’t afraid?

Who Moved My Cheese?: An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life (Amazon)
チーズはどこへ消えた? (Amazon)

Who Moved My Cheese? - The Power of Story

2009-12-03T00:00:00.012+09:00

“Who moved my cheese?” was written by Spencer Johnson. It’s a story about the importance to change. At first I thought it’s typical self-enlightenment book and didn't expect anything, but the moment I started to read it, I got into this book.

The reason is because this book has the power of story. This book tells us the importance to change indirectly by the story, not directly by the logical and preachy explanation.

In this story, four imaginary characters are used. Two mice, Sniff and Scurry, and two littlepeople, Hem and Haw.

Sniff sniffs out change early.

Scurry scurries into action.

Hem denies and resists change as he fears it will lead to something worse.

Haw learns to adapt in time when he sees changing can lead to something better.

These four characters represent the simple and complex parts of ourselves. All of us have four characteristics of them.

These four characters are living in a maze. They are living on eating cheese in a cheese station. In this story, cheese is used as a metaphor of our important things like, success, achievement, love, family, comfort zone or things like that. Everyday they go to the cheese station to get cheese, but one day, all of a sudden, the cheese vanishes. To this change, four characters behave differently according to their character. Through the four different behaviors, this book teaches us the importance to adapt the change and change oneself.

If I was preached directly and logically about the importance to change, I would be bored, but interestingly, I could accept easily and straightforwardly the importance to change. I think it’s because this book teaches us it indirectly, not directly.

I thought when I want to tell someone something, I would be better to tell indirectly with a simple story. The more simple, the better.

I thought I understand the strength of indirect explanation by story and the weakness of direct explanation by mouth at last.

I thought I want to read more and more stories.
I thought I want to write some story someday.
I thought I want to be a liar who makes up good lies (Blogged on 25 Feb 2009).

By the way, this book has been sold more than 20 million copies worldwide and Amazon’s all-time #1 bestselling book.

To be continued…

Who Moved My Cheese?: An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life (Amazon)
チーズはどこへ消えた? (Amazon)

A Revolving Lantern - The Brain At The Maximum

2009-12-02T00:00:00.000+09:00

It is said that when people get prepared to die in car accident or something, people remember the whole life in the moment like a revolving lantern. As if playing back the scene captured by high-speed camera, people would see the long entire life by fast-fowarding in such a short moment. Although I’ve never experienced things like that, I think it true.

If the brain could do such thing, we wouldn’t use the potential of the brain at a maximum in daily life. In the normal state, we limited the potential of the brain, but when we are put into the extreme situation, the limit would be off and the potential of the brain would show to the maximum extent possible.

Compressing the entire life into the moment. Time is compressed. It’s the same as the relativity theory of Einstein.

Embracing the Wide Sky (Blogged on 1 Nov 2009)

General relativity (Wikipedia)

Short Sight - The Eyes of Impressionism

2009-12-01T00:00:00.000+09:00

Seeing at the world through the short sighted eyes is equal to seeing through the eyes of Impressionism.

When short sighted people see the illuminations of night city without glasses, the scene becomes full of light. Our eyes are capturing the shape and color of things by projecting the wave of light that is reflected by the things at our retina. But, short sighted eyes capture the wave of light short of retina and the focus becomes blurry. In other words, short sighted eyes are seeing the light itself, without adjusting the focus.

The world capturing the light itself. It becomes possible by the eyes of impressionism like Monet or Renoir.

Impressionism (Wikipedia)
Claude Monet (Wikipedia)
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (Wikipedia)

齋藤孝のざっくり!美術史 (Amazon)

Little Cuckoo

2009-11-30T00:00:00.002+09:00

From Sengoku to Edo period, there were three men who governed Japan. In order of time, Nobunaga Oda, Hideyoshi Toyotomi and Ieyasu Tokugawa. There is no Japanese people who don't know about these three men, because we learn them in a class of history again and again from elementary to high schools.

The three men have different personality and there are interesting sayings with a little cuckoo that describe well about their personality.

Nobunaga said
"If a little cuckoo wouldn't tweet, I would kill it."

Hideyoshi said
"If a little cuckoo wouldn't tweet, I would make it tweet."

Ieyasu said
"If a little cuckoo wouldn't tweet, I would wait until it tweets."

Three different answers.

Personally, I like Hideyoshi, because I want to control my life by myself.

For your information, the man who governed Japan for the longest time among them was Ieyasu.

Which type are you?

Oda Nobunaga (Wikipedia)
Toyotomi Hideyoshi (Wikipedia)
Tokugawa Ieyasu (Wikipedia)

The Lack of Art History

2009-11-29T00:00:00.001+09:00

Like me, most Japanese people don’t have the knowledge of art enough to understand art like western people. Perhaps one reason is because we Japanese people learned and accepted the history of art at a time at the Meiji restoration. As a result, we couldn’t undergo the process and stream of art history.

From classics to modern art, through many changes and process, art has developed. Unless we understand things like that, we can’t understand the art like Fountain of Marcel Duchamp.

As a matter of fact, at first, I couldn’t understand Fountain of Marcel Duchamp. I couldn’t understand it until I learned the history of art. But I don’t think I understood it truly, because I think there is a big difference with or without the context of long history. I understood it at a time without any context.

I think I can understand it superficially, but I think I will never be able to understand it essentially.

Marcel Duchamp (Wikipedia)
Fountain (Wikipedia)

ツーアート (Amazon)

Rapid Change of Japan

2009-11-28T00:00:00.006+09:00

For about 250 years, from 1600 to 1850 (approximately), Edo government had closed and isolated Japan from other countries. In retrospect, the good point of national isolation is the isolation was good to generate Japanese original cultures, whereas the bad point of it is Japan lagged far behind western countries.

In 1986, the Meiji restoration began in Japan. Japan tried to change and catch up to the western countries. It was a drastic change. From the viewpoint of change, it was great success. There seems to be no countries that changed so rapidly. Because of this change, now Japan is one of the richest countries in the world.

But from the viewpoint of culture, Japan lost a lot. Through the Meiji restoration, Japan learned western science and industrial technology, on the other hand, however, Japanese original culture was lost little by little.

In Japan, there is a four-character phrase、温故知新 (The pronunciation : On Ko Chi Shin. The meaning : Finding new wisdoms through old things)、but in terms of the scenery of Tokyo, there is no such spirit. The buildings in Tokyo has completely modernized and the old style of Japanese buildings has completely lost. On the other hand, however, although I’ve never been to Paris, London, or New York, it seems that although they changed the inside of buildings, they don’t change the outside so that they can maintain the old style or spirit or something. As a result, it seems that the new and old buildings exist together in harmony in western countries.

Rapid change in Japan and gradual change in western countries.

There is a difference like that.

I don’t know which is better...

Of course, I don't have to compare it...

ツーアート (Amazon)

Meiji Restoration (Wikipedia)

Lost Identity in Japan

2009-11-27T00:00:00.002+09:00

When we Japanese people think about Japanese culture, we think from the way western people image Japan, not from the way Japanese people image Japan.

We are looking at Japan through the eyes of western people. The life style of Japan has already westernized.

Where is the identity of Japanese people?

ツーアート (Amazon)

Function - The Style of Art

2009-11-26T00:00:00.001+09:00

Function is “f” of “y=f(x)”. I learned it at junior high school. “y=2x + 1” is linear function and ”y=x^2 + 3x + 1” is quadratic function. In belief, when x is determined, y is also determined at the same time. Function is the way of conversion.

The most important thing is not what number we chose as x, but the shape of function. Even if x is same, if the shape of equation is different, y will be different. Whatever number we chose as x, y is determined based on the shape of function.

The style of art is like a function. Even if the motif of art is same, different artists will create different works. The way of conversion is the style of art.

When we draw the additional line between art and mathematics, we can see the world differently. That’s what I pursue.

An Additional Line of Thought (Blogged 13th Feb 2009)

齋藤孝のざっくり!美術史 (Amazon)

The Art of Universe

2009-11-25T00:00:00.002+09:00

Jackson Pollock painted "Number 6" by the method called "Dripping". Because he just dripped paints, there is no such things as above, below, good, bad, or whatever.

I think he taught us that we are free. Because there is nothing, anything is possible. We can do whatever we like to do.

He did nothing except dripping paints, there is no intention of human. It's as if the paints themselves developed into some kind of life by themselves. It's as if the art of universe or the brain.

What if we portrayed, with computer graphics, all tracks of all known stars and painted it with a variety of colors (we can change the color as we want, because it’s programmed by computer). I think it can be the art of universe.

What if we portrayed, with computer graphics, all tracks of all neural transmitter substances and painted it with a variety of colors (we can change the color as we want, because it’s programmed by computer). I think it can be the art of universe too, because our brain is wider than the sky like the infinite in the finite.
Embracing the Wide Sky (Blogged on 1 Nov 2009)

I want to see such two arts.

齋藤孝のざっくり!美術史 (Amazon)

Ant Art

2009-11-24T00:00:00.003+09:00

There is an art that followed and portrayed the track of an ant, which is called “Wandering Position”

I think this is good art. I think it succeeds in capturing kind of nature. Nature is unselfish. That’s the point I think good.

I wonder what ants are thinking when walking. I wonder if there is some program that governs the movement of ants. Because ants are creature too, I think they are moving with some intention. I don't think it completely random.

How about ant nest? I wonder if there is some law that governs ants when creating nest. When we capture the developmental process of ant nest and colored it, I think it can be another art of ant.

How about ant line? Same as above.

I thought ant is very interesting.

Ant (Blogged on 2 Jan 2009)

Elephant Art

2009-11-23T00:00:00.005+09:00

There is a painting painted by elephant. It’s so good, but one question came to my mind. What is a good art?

When we think it art, it becomes art, but when we don’t think it art, it doesn’t become art. Art is like God or religions.

Generally speaking, we think that good art has some messages from the artists and in which we tend to see the value of good art.

But there is no message in the paintings by animals. There is no rule. Of course there might be something because human has to educate animals, but it is sure that there is neither message nor rule.

Thinking that way, I think it hard to define what good art is.

In my opinion, I think, at least, one of the essences of good art is unselfishness, like paintings by animals. There is no thought of private gain and calculation. When the art is created that way, I think it can be good art.

To be honest, this elephant is better at painting than I. >_<

ツーアート (Amazon)

The Art of Void - Suibokuga

2009-11-22T00:00:00.018+09:00

Suibokuga is an art painted with sumi ink (Japanese black ink) on white paper.

In Zen, one black circle painted with sumi ink on white paper expresses the universe. Similarly, Suibokuga expresses the world with only sumi ink and white paper. It’s not only the tradition of Zen but also the thought to capture the world as simple as possible.

What the black and white world creates is suppression. You want to paint the mountain green and the river blue at heart, but you must try to find out the beauty of simpleness. That’s why, the more the method is limited, the more the technique to express the subtle difference is developed.

The beauty of Suibokuga world which is trying to express more with less sumi ink is completely different from that of western art world which is trying to express more with many colorful inks to fulfill the white paper. The western art is the beauty of density whereas the Suibokuga art is the beauty of void.

Suibokuga doesn't dare to fill the void, as if saying the depth of the world lies in the void. In Suibokuga world, it is viewed arrogant to fill the paper all with oneself. That's why, Suibokuga artists need to vanish themselves and to be nothing. Then, the world looks full of void. When we feel calm by watching Suibokuga, the calm feeling comes from the beauty of void.

By the way, this galaxy is also full of void.

In this sense, Suibokuga and galaxy connected in me.

Suibokuga (Wikipedia)

齋藤孝のざっくり!美術史 (Amazon)

The Art of Void - Ryōan-ji

2009-11-21T00:00:00.015+09:00

Especially in Japanese sense of beauty, the void is so important. For example, the beauty of the garden of Ryōan-ji depends on where the stones are put. However, where the stones are put is equal to where the void is created.

It’s good to pursue kind of balance or symmetry, but it’s also good to pursue kind of unbalance or asymmetry. There is an infinite possibility of how to put the stones.

It’s the art of subtraction not addition. I think this way of thinking is Japanese style, which is different from western culture.This is the art of void.

Ryōan-ji (Wikipedia)

齋藤孝のざっくり!美術史 (Amazon)

ANSWER 2

2009-11-20T00:00:00.023+09:00

I’ve been distressed at the inequality in this world. 20% people are using 80% resources on the planet. A few rich people and many poor (If the world were a village of 100 people (Blogged on 10 Jul 2008)). The factor that determines our destiny is which countries we are born not how hard we make an effort. In some countries, children have to be soldiers and kill each other (a long way gone (Blogged on 17 Aug 2009)). This world can’t always be the way I want it to be. There are many inequalities out there in this world. I can’t stand it but I have to admit that this is the reality.

Of course I know I can’t do everything, but even if it’s a tiny little power, I’ve been doing what I can do to help people in trouble.
(It's only music, but we like it (Blogged on 21 May 2008))
(The power in our pocket (Blogged on 2 Jul 2008))
(Take Action - One Thing I Can Do (Blogged on 7 Oct 2009))
(One Thing I Don't Have To Do - one step and more - (Blogged on 15 Nov 2009))

Recently I found out Kiva that gives us the system and opportunity to microfinance to the entrepreneurs in the developing countries. And I found a silver lining there.
(Philanthropy 2.0 (Blogged on yesterday))

Because RED, Volvic, UNICEF and Room to Read are based on purchasing and donating, the sustainability is fragile. In order to keep on purchasing and donating, I have to keep on earning. It’s hard. But microfinance is lending not giving, so it’s more easy and sustainable. When I got repayment, I can lend it to other entrepreneurs like the movie “Pay It Forward (Wikipedia)”.

I decided to keep on lending money via Kiva for the rest of my life. I can’t do everything, but if I cooperate with others who have the same spirit, we can do something.

≒Zero × ≒Infinity ＝ Something (Blogged on 12 Feb 2009)

Collecting the goodwill of people and forwarding it to the future again and again.

I want to add it to my ANSWER (Blogged on 9 Nov 2008)

Philanthropy 2.0

2009-11-19T00:00:00.022+09:00

The old and traditional philanthropy was one way. When we donate, we feel we did a good thing. But that’s the end. We don’t know what effect our money will do.

I want to call it Philanthropy 1.0 like Web 1.0 in which information was always provided in one-way road from the big media to us ordinary people. But in the world of Web 2.0, we got the power to express what we want to express and information pathway became two-way road. We are getting connected via the Internet much more than ever before.

Now I want to call microfinance of Kiva Philanthropy 2.0, because Kiva established two-way road between lenders and borrowers with the Internet. On the website of Kiva, we lenders can always see the current situation, like how much money raised so far, how much it needs to the goal, how much re-payed so far. And we can know what people are lending on the Kiva website. We can see the profile of them and there is kind of sense of togetherness like SNS (Facebook, myspace. SNS is the best example of Web 2.0). Moreover we can send a message to borrowers and if we are lucky we have a response from a borrower in the distant countries. The meaning of “If we are lucky” is that they don’t necessary have the education of English. When they don’t have English literacy, the response depends on the translation of local staff.

In the developing countries, only $1000 can be a help for most entrepreneurs in need of borrowing. And one shot of lending via Kiva is $25, there is no need to lend $1000 by one person. The lending is diversified to 40 people (40 people × $25 = $1000). That’s why each one can lend casually. That’s the greatness of Kiva. ≒Zero × ≒Infinity ＝ Something.
(The Long Tail - ≒Zero × ≒Infinity ＝ Something (Blogged on 12 Feb 2009))

The goodwill of us and the motivation of them can go together in harmony. This might be able to be Web 3.0 in which the world of the real and the Internet can go together in harmony.

Although I’m not super rich, I’m not interested in pursing money to live rich. I can’t get excited about it. Instead, I feel more happy when I spend money on others.
(Spending Money On Others Promotes Happiness (Blogged on 10 Dec 2008)).

Again, one shot of lending via Kiva is $25. So it’s very easy to get involved in Kiva. And because it’s lending not donating, we can get repayment and lend it again to others like forwarding email. The lending never ends. We can keep on doing good things and feeling good again and again. I think money can buy happiness.

One expensive dinner, one CD and one taxi ride of us can make the world a better place in real.

By the way, the online lending system of Kiva is supported by PayPal. And there are many many supporters like Google, YouTube, Yahoo, Facebook, Myspace, Microsoft and so on. Kiva is running by the collection of goodwill of people (Kiva supporters).

Kiva (Official)
Microfinance (Wikipedia)

Web 2.0 (Wikipedia)

Kiva – online microfinance

2009-11-18T00:00:00.016+09:00

Kiva is an NGO founded in 2005 in Sanfransisco that established for the first time in the history the online system of P2P (person to person) microfinance to lend money to entrepreneurs in the developing countries. Kiva means “unity agreement” in Swahili. Since its foundation, more than 350,000 people got involved in Kiva and lent more than $100 million to the entrepreneurs in the developing countries. The repayment period is one year and its repayment rate is still more than 97% without hiring gang. Kiva is one of the top ideas in 2006 selected by Time magazine.

When it comes to microfinance, the most famous is Grameen Bank of Muhammad Yunus who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006. Grameen Bank have lent more than $8 billion to more than 7 million people and the repayment rate is still 98% so far.
(The problem is difficult but the solution is so simple (Blogged on 13 Apr 2008))
(The Bonsai Tree (Blogged on 27 Apr 2008))

Although there are some differences between Kiva and Grameen Bank, the biggest difference is the relationship between lenders and borrowers. Kiva is P2P (Person to Person) whereas Grameen Bank is B2P (Bank to Person). What enabled Kiva to establish P2P microfinance is the Internet. The Internet is so great. That’s why I love the Internet.

The common thing between them is no warranty lending system. Both are based on goodwill. This is so great too.

"You can't get a dollar without a dollar to quest next dollar."
(Muhammad Yunus (Wikipedia))

Kiva (Official)
Grameen Bank (Official)
Microfinance (Wikipedia)

Blogger's High

2009-11-17T00:00:00.016+09:00

It is said that sometimes runners become “Runner's high” in which they get high and in the trance state because of endorphin, one of neural transmitter substances, which is secreted in the brain and functions like morphine.

I guess when a good art is created, the artist is in the state like runner's high. I guess they are driven by some inner urge in them. I guess they create it because they want to create it, not because they are forced to do it. I guess they are just following their passion and inner voice. I guess they confirm the life and existence of themselves by creating art works. I guess when they are creating art works, they are getting “Artist's high”.

I think when I’m blogging I’m in “Blogger's high”. When I’m blogging, I’m just following my inner voice and creating something new. Of course, I know it’s far from the activity of artists, but I think I’m feeling the essence of creating something new like artists.

Runner's High (Wikipedia)

ツーアート (Amazon)

Fooled By Appearance

2009-11-16T00:00:00.011+09:00

I had been fooled by appearance. I have to admit it. So today I’m gonna blog about it as a lesson for myself.

There is a female fashion model, Marie. Until these days, I thought she is a typical celebrity in the bad meaning. Of course, she looks beautiful, but for me she looked too showy and I thought she has no interest for the things that have nothing to do with her. I thought she is just enjoying gorgeous life and not paying attention to people in trouble. But that’s not the case.

She held a photo exhibition (It seems her hobby is photograph and she has been taking pictures personally for years). And she donated the earned money from the photo exhibition to Room to Read. Great is she did it personally by herself. She found Room to Read and sympathized with the philosophy of Room to Read. She called and visited Room to Read Japan and offered her donation. I don’t think it a typical self-advertisement because she did it all by herself personally.

Although I didn’t like her before, now I became to like her.

I had been fooled by appearance.

やらなくてもいいこと - one step and more - (Official)
人気モデル、マリエが自分で企画した
チャリティー写真展『やらなくてもいいこと -one step and more-』

Room to Read (Global)
Room to Read (Japan)
ご寄付の方法（5.ブックオフに不要な本を送付）

Room to Read (Blogged on 8 May 2008)
Leaving Microsoft to Change the World (Blogged on 27 March 2009)

One Thing I Don’t Have To Do - one step and more -

2009-11-15T00:00:00.025+09:00

I love reading books. I can’t live without reading books. For me, reading books is equal to drinking water, so I’m reading as if drinking water.

But, there is a problem I can’t avoid facing. That’s the space to preserve books. As the space in my room is limited, sooner or later, I reach the point I can’t preserve books anymore.

One solution is to sell books I finished reading to book stores. I think selling books is very good for everyone, because I can regain the space to put new books, and because someone who meets the book I sold can enjoy the book as a new reader. Moreover, it’s also good for books themselves. I think it unfortunate for books to be in the bookshelf without being read by anyone. I think books will be happy by being read by someone rather than being in the bookshelf without being read. That’s why I think selling books is very good. I hope more and more books circulate and meet many people in the world.

And recently, I found a very good project. It struck on my heart. That’s the partnership between Bookoff, the leading used bookstore in Japan, and Room to Read, the leading NGO for education in the developing countries.

When I sell my books at Bookoff, I can get money in return. It’s usual. There is no problem. But, there is an option. I have a choice to turn down the money and donate it via Bookoff to Room to Read. The partnership between Bookofff and Room to Read give us the opportunity to contribute for education in the other countries outside Japan.

I think one of the biggest problems of donation is we don’t know how to do it. I think there are many people who want to donate but don’t know how to do. So, I think the first thing NGO should do is to establish and give the easy way to get people involved in them.

From the viewpoint like this, I think the partnership between Bookoff and Room to Read is very nice.

Of course it’s not kind of obligation to donate when selling books at Bookoff. It’s OK to get money. I have no intention to blame people who didn’t donate. Selling books itself is very good thing and donation is an option. I think that’s what we don’t have to do.

But, I want to do what I don’t have to do, if I can help people in trouble.

Room to Read (Global)
Room to Read (Japan)
ご寄付の方法（5.ブックオフに不要な本を送付）

Room to Read (Blogged on 8 May 2008)
Leaving Microsoft to Change the World (Blogged on 27 March 2009)

やらなくてもいいこと - one step and more -

Silver Ratio

2009-11-14T00:00:00.004+09:00

There seems to be Silver Ratio as well as Golden ratio.

The plus integer of quadratic equation, "x^2=2x+1", 1 + root 2, is called silver number and the ratio of it, 1 : root 2, is called silver ratio.

The most easy example of silver ratio is the size of papers we use everyday.

The paper size defined as A4, A3, B5, B4 and so on, are based on silver ratio.

(I think A4 is the size we use most in our daily life)

The ratio of vertical and horizontal line is 1 : root2, Silver Ratio.

Very interesting.

By the way, why the paper size was determined to Silver Ratio. Is there any reason it must be Silver Ratio? Is it impossible to use Golden Ratio?

Of course there is no reason we insist on Golden Ratio.

I just wondered.

Silver Ratio (Wikipedia)

Fibonacci Number

2009-11-13T00:00:00.028+09:00

Fibonacci number is the sequence of number described below.

0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, 377, 610, 967…

That is, the number is addition of the two former numbers.

0+1=1
1+1=2
1+2=3
2+3=5
3+5=8
5+8=13
8+13=21
and so on...

Fibonacci number is seen in so many things in this world. For example, placement of sunflower seed, branching of tree, whirlpool pattern of snail and galaxy, spiral track of hawk getting close to preys…

There are universally countless examples out there in the world. More surprising to me was the fact that Fibonacci number is seen in the movement of stock price and randomly selected number tables(anything is OK, for example, some statistical number statement or some accounting table).

Although unbelievable, the universe can be understood by this mathematical numbers. The reason seems to be unknown so far, but there seems to be two way of thinking about the reason why mathematics can explain the things so well.

1. Mathematics itself exists regardless of human and the only thing human can do is to discover it.

2. Mathematics is the invention by human and the result that matches well with the observation survived by means of natural selection.

By the way, what I’m so interested in these days is the whirlpool of bath. When I took off the stopcock in order to dispose the bath water, they sink in the form of whirlpool, not ant-lion. Simply thinking, the water should sink like the sand of ant-lion, but that’s not the case. The water sinks all the way in the form of whirlpool. I guess that might be the matter of efficiency. When the water sinks the whirlpool might be more efficient than ant-lion.

Now, I think that everything from Fibonacci number to the universe behaves just to be balanced. That seems to be the way everything is.

Fibonacci Number (Wikipedia)

Golden Ratio

2009-11-12T00:00:00.020+09:00

The plus integer of quadratic equation, "x^2=x+1", (1 + root 5) / 2, is called Golden Number and the ratio of it, 1 : (1 + root 5) / 2, is called Golden Ratio.

Simply, 1:1.62 (or 5:8) is Golden Ratio.

Mona Lisa is portrayed with Golden Ratio. When the shapes of eyes, nose, and face are surrounded by a rectangle, the ratio of the horizontal and vertical lines becomes Golden Ratio.

There are so many examples of Golden Ratio. Venus de Milo, Triumphal arch, and Parthenon have Golden Ratio. It is said that, like Venus de Milo, human body can be most beautiful when the bellybutton is balanced with Golden Ratio to the above and the below.

The ratio of vertical and horizontal lines of book, note, credit card, and business card are also Golden Ratio.

By the way, interestingly, the Golden Ratio seems to be the ratio between the sequential numbers called Fibonacci number.

To be continued...

Golden Ratio (Wikipedia)

Mona Lisa

2009-11-11T00:00:00.008+09:00

Mystery smile. Smiling or not. Whenever we look at it, it looks different than usual. That seems to be the reason why Mona Lisa is the best masterpiece of western art history.

The mechanism by which mystery smile is generated is Sfumato, a way to portray the object with gradation and light-dark tone of colors, without drawing any line. Because of it, all parts of face looks fit well with skin, which is generating mystery smile, half smiling and half not.

It seemed to take so long to complete it because it needed to lay on colors many times. Leonardo da Vinci seemed to carry it along with him throughout his life.

And one more thing, Aerial perspective. The background of Mona Lisa is dark and mysterious. The father it is, the lighter and the more blue he portrayed. Aerial perspective is also a method established logically by him.

Leonardo da Vinci said, “Line doesn’t belong to anything, doesn’t occupy anything.”

By the way, there is a mysterious law in this masterpiece. That’s “Golden Ratio”.

To be continued...

Mona Lisa (Wikipedia)
Leonardo da Vinci (Wikipedia)
Sfumato (Wikipedia)
Aerial Perspective (Wikipedia)

The System of Number

2009-11-10T00:00:00.009+09:00

Why do we use decimal(base-10) number system? I think it’s because we have 10 fingers. I think our ancestor used 10 fingers when they count.

By the way, why do we have 10 fingers? If we have 12 fingers (each hand has 6 fingers), did we use duodecimal (base-12) number system? I came to think that duodecimal number system might be useful than I expected.

We often count with the unit of dozen, 12. In the first place, however, why do we see dozen as one unit? Is it because time is made of two sets of 12 hours per day? One year is also made of 12 months. One minute is 60 seconds and one hour is 60 minutes. The number 60 can be divided by 12. It seems that our time is made of the multiple of 12. But why must it be 12? I heard our ancestors determined one day is 24 hours and established solar calendar, based on astronomical observation. Then does the number 12 have something to do with universe? Is it saying 12 is the number of the infinite universe?

By the way, 10 is divided by only 2 and 5 except 1 and 10 itself, but 12 is by 2, 3, 4 and 6 except 1 and 12 itself. 12 might be more useful when we calculate something than 10.

By the way, as we know, computer works with binary(base-2) number system, 1 or 0. So simple. In binary system, the number goes like 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024….. When it comes to computer, we often see 256 MB or something. I guess it has something to do with binary number system.

But I don’t like binary system, because it can’t express the between 1 and 0. It’s “Black or White”. As Woz said, this world is gray scale. So I want to express gray color as well as black and white. I think we should think in gray scale. If everything in the world were described black or white, I think it would lead to conflicts.

Decimal (Wikipedia)
Duodecimal (Wikipedia)
Binary (Wikipedia)

Surrogate Brain - Storing Every Life Memory

2009-11-09T00:00:00.006+09:00

Gordon Bell, a computer scientist, has been doing an interesting thing. He's been creating the digital archive of his life and he calls it "Surrogate Brain"

The method is like this.

A tiny camera around his neck takes images every minute. An audio recorder tapes every conversation. More than 100,000 emails, 58,000 photos, thousands of recorded phone calls and logs of every website he has visited since 2003 are stored.

And there seems to be the pros and cons of the matter.

Some praises him saying that he's pioneering the new future world.

Others claims that memorizing everything might be harmful to forgive someone or something. Forgetting is important for forgiveness.

Memorizing or Forgiving.

Difficult question.

But in most cases, the answer is both, not either one. I think that way.

First Rate Intelligence
Believe Multiple Things

The Biology of Creativity

2009-11-08T00:00:00.026+09:00

I blogged before about what is originality?(Against spontaneous generation). Recently, I learned the interesting story that deepens my thought about it. It’s about the biology of creativity, which is written in “Embracing the wide sky”.

According to the book, the essence of creativity is the hyperconnectivity between neurons. Although I don’t know concretely, each part of brain seems to have each role and get activated by each specific event. That is, there seems to be kind of tendency the connection is formed. So, the more the connection is unusual, the more it is likely to be creative.

One example is Kekule who got the idea that Benzen is a closed and hexagonal structure. In his daydream, a snake was biting its own tail. It was a flash of lightning and it gave him the answer. Benzen and a snake biting its own tail, the unusual combination generated the unusual connection of neurons in his brain.

One more interesting thing is a defect in the brain is helpful to generate such hyperconnectivity. When the brain has some defect, the electric signal can’t go on the typical signal pathway, so it has to go the different direction. That leads to the unusual hyperconnectivity.

This idea is supported by many scientific giants, because they seems to have had some defect in the brain.

Vincent van Gogh, Lewis Carroll, Edgar Allan Poe, Gustave Flaubert, Fyodor Dostoevsky were living with brain seizures or mental illness (mental illness is explained by brain defect).

It is also said that Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, Nikola Tesla, Gregor Johann Mendel may have had autism.

Mendel, who established genetics, counted in total more than 10,000 plants, 40,000 blossoms and 300,000 peas. A present scientist said "Virtually no one except a person with autism could do this."

Who changed the world might be geniuses with brain defects. Then what is genius? Is it bad thing to have defects regardless of brain?

The truth of humanity might be in the contradiction between ability and disability.

Now I’m interpreting like this, but I’m not sure whether it’s correct. So if I’m misunderstanding or you know more, please let me know!

Embracing the Wide Sky: A Tour Across the Horizons of the Mind (Amazon)

The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two

2009-11-07T00:00:00.009+09:00

How many digits can we memorize the number, when it’s shown in short time period? The digit seems to converge to seven, plus or minus two. It seems to be the limit of our short-term memory.

But, then, can’t we memorize more than it? I don’t know the answer but I found an interesting and helpful way of thinking. That is to separate the number into chunks and connect them with other things.

For example, in the case of 19897653113, it’s so helpful to think like below.

1989→the year
765→descending order of numbers
3113→a numerical palindrome

As the size of long-term memory seems to determined by short-term memory, chunking and connecting with other things are helpful to bridge short and long term memory and induce a long lasting and stable memory.

By the way, it might be useful to help readers understand the book, writing with seven chapters with seven paragraphs with seven sentences. For me, it seems possible, but is it real? I want the scientific evidence.

The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two (Wikipedia)

Embracing the Wide Sky: A Tour Across the Horizons of the Mind (Amazon)

Memory in Brain

2009-11-06T00:00:00.015+09:00

What specifies each memory in the brain to each event? Now, I came to a conclusion that the answer is the combination of the neural connections. When we remember something, the electric signal downs the road of neural connections. The pathway of the signal determines the specificity of the memory in the brain.

Who gave me this answer is my boss, so I can’t show any scientific evidence, but when I heard it, I thought it reasonable and persuasive.

(If you know scientific evidences or I misunderstood, please let me know. I’m waiting for your teaching!)

But, now I wonder How we human can prove it?

If you know the answer, please let me know!

By the way, there is one more thing I knew about the memory in brain. It was written in “Embracing the Wide Sky: A Tour Across the Horizons of the Mind (Amazon)” (Great book!)

That is, the memory in the brain is the result of reconstruction, not the result of maintenance.

It seems that we’re not keeping our memory always on. It’s basically off. When we need to remember, we reconstruct it. It’s not pulling facts from the brain, but rather reconstructing. It’s not fixed.

Our memory is aided by interest, knowledge, emotion at the time of the event and the subsequent reconstruction. By thinking that way, we can explain error, illusion, or misconception in our memory. Our memory is malleable rather than fixed. It’s affected by the present as much as by the past.

I guess the mechanism by which our memory is affected by other things is that the electric signals don't always descend the same pathway. I guess the signal tends to go on the wrong direction especially at the periphery of the signal pathway.

The memory in the brain is not fixed and can’t avoid being affected by other things.

Very interesting and glad to meet the book, "Embracing the Wide Sky: A Tour Across the Horizons of the Mind (Amazon)".

Embracing the wide sky (Blogged 1st Nov 2009)