Tom McCarthy’s Remainder (2005), hysterical realism and a journey that leads to nowhere!
I’d grabbed McCarthy’s Remainder (2005) randomly from a row of books in a bookshop in Tokyo and read the summary. Apparently, it’s hero had had some sort of life-threating accident and was trying to reconstruct his life after it, in a new search for identity. Coming from a risky hiking accident in September 2016, when I had almost, literally, rolled into an abyss, that was enough to sell the story for me. I paid and turned the next corner, towards a nearby park, where I sat in a bench and started reading straight away. Now, that I have finished the novel, I can say it was a boring read, yet, I can’t say I am too disappointed. I didn’t read it with any expectations, just wanted to follow the story of a fellow life-threating-accidents club member. And that exactly...
Read MoreEinstein’s Magnum Opus, The field equations of general relativity
This article is written as a celebration of the 110th anniversary of the first appearance of one of the most elegant theories that describe our Universe: Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity. After publishing his special theory of relativity (dealing with systems of reference moving with constant velocities), along with other monumental theories in 1905, Einstein would roll up his sleeves to attempt (and succeed) to formulate a more general theory that would include gravitation (and thus, accelerating systems). For that, he had to work with his close friend, the mathematician Marcel Grossmann, who was competent in the mathematics Einstein needed to form his extended theory, differential geometry. On November 25, 1915, Einstein publicly announced that he had...
Read MoreLearning to look beyond projections
“Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens” Karl Jung It was a breezy November afternoon as I was rushing to the train station, making my way towards southmost part of Shinjuku, Tokyo, to meet Y., who had reserved us a couple of seats on the right wing for the biggest projection mapping show in the world. After being postponed due to a typhon in October, it was rescheduled for November 12th. We had a pleasure to view the projection show consisting from 19th finalist coming from all over the world. The projections were dancing all over a castle like structure, creating a surreal environment that immediately made me feel like I had landed in a scene of Blade Runner (1982) or in a rather Murakamiesque universe. I had to look into Y.-s pretty face, to...
Read MoreThe engineering student who prevented a disaster in the middle of Manhattan
This article goes out for the architects and engineers out there, who sometimes don’t realize how important their work is, but also for everyone else, to point out how doing your best can be enough to make a substantial change in this world. It is about the Citicorp Center Tower building (now called 601 Lexington), which you can distinguish in New York’s skyline, from the triangular shaped top, in the picture above. In 1978, an undergraduate student in the Civil Engineering and Operations Research Department of Princeton University wrote her thesis, titled, “Implications of a Major Urban Office Complex: The Scientific, Social and Symbolic Meanings of Citicorp Center, New York City”. In her thesis, this initially mysterious student, addressed in detail...
Read MoreThoughts, through a train window…
“…With two tickets torn in half And a lot of nothing to do Do you miss me, Miss Misery, Like you say you do?…” Counting the lights, the trees, the lovers, the people, the neighborhoods, the cities, as I go by. The math suggests that the average yearly train delays in Japan is only about a minute. The trick is, I know, on the way you average. Cause, every morning my commuter rapid stops a dozen time in-between stations, waiting for the trains already on the upcoming station, to keep moving. And I am always late. And the Ms. K., the secretary raises eight fingers to remind me of what time I was supposed to be there. Paper memories. Yeah, I know. The teachers are supposed to come before the students. So, Ms. Misery, did you add all the card you can play?...
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