Iran- Iraq war

 The war lasted 8 years  and the reasons for the war was difficult to understand for outsiders. Perhaps something can be learned for the  history, in the context of Russia-Ukraine war.  There is a nice Wikipedia page about the war.   Here is my list of observations.

1. When the war had started, Iran was a clear political enemy of the United States.  Iraq then became a temporary ally and was provided with weapons, logistics, etc to damage Iran.  Several other countries (including the Soviet Union) also helped. There is an interesting video footage on the Wikipedia page of Donald Rumsfeld and Saddam Hussain meeting each other, and negotiating (1983).

2. Both countries came out severely damaged after the war.  The damage was economical, political, humanitarian, cultural, religious,  both between the countries and within the countries.

3. Both countries claimed the victory in the war; Saddam Hussein definitely did. Yet it was  extremely damaging to the country (Iraq)  and may have led to its eventual demise.

Russia after Putin

 Putin needs to go!  True,  but who will come next? Will it be better? As many others I am afraid  that if he will be killed, pushed out or will die of natural reasons, the things will only get worse.  Perhaps, it is the worst thing that he has done to the country-- this statement is actually true.  Whomever will come next will only make it worse. Welcome to the Middle East,  Syria, Iraq family!

US Geopolitics and Hollywood

 The things need to be simple, otherwise it is difficult to understand the movie plot, right?  All the countries must be be divided into 3 categories: Friends, Foes, and `Do-not care-much about'.

How do you determine, which category does  the country belong to?  `It depends on the movie plot; there is no rhyme or reason to it. 

Of course,  there are some underlying politics, business interests, and lobbying groups.  These factors do affect which group does the country become assigned to.

'In My Life'

 The first time I have heard a Beatles   record was 1973 (?); it was 'Come Together' and 'Something'. I do recall a strong impression but then it was mostly forgotten. I started to listen to rock music as a teenager and a lot of good and bad music passed through my head at that time. Beatles did exist there as well but I did not pay much attention to them. Fast forward, 1980, I am a construction worker in Kazakhstan, 20 years old. We did have a tape recorder in dining hall that was playing all the time; White Album was on. And then I  started to realize that 'Blackbird' is truly a great song. Subtile, complex melody, yet very simple. I was hooked after this and started to listen to all their music, I still do.

Science, Show Business and Hollywood

 Science, Show Business and Hollywood

If you go back in time to 19th and then early 20th century, the science was made by very few people. Normally they had funds for their work (e.g., from a benevolent monarch )  and the money was never an issue. Neither was it a problem to have your work made visible. Many of them preferred not to publish, or published in obscure journals. Thus, the groundbreaking work of J.W.Gibbs was published in an obscure scientific journal, which did not prevent him from becoming the seminal scientist in the field of thermodynamics and statistical mechanics. I do not remember how exactly he, an American, which was not the place to make science at the time, became known; I vaguely recall, Maxwell was involved. 

The other little piece of information is: very few people enjoy and are capable of making 'true science' . There are many adjacent fields the require more people of less esoteric skills, such as the technology, business, education etc.

Fast forward to modern times and we are in a completely different world. We have so many people around the scientific fields, claiming to do science, or at least doing it as a part  of what they are supposed to do, as university professors etc.  The new challenges are: to be noticed, to be funded, etc.  

Therefore the motto is: become visible, make yourself known, self-promote etc.

These problems have existed in show business already for a long time, and scientist are happy to learn from Hollywood.

As we know, creating a good plot, a good story for a movie is difficult.  We are out of good stories, everything has been done already. Therefore, we have re-runs: the movie that has been done before is re-made with new actors. I have seen some analogies in science what an old study of 1950 is repeated again, with, or without proper credits.

As we have heard, there are more movies made in India than in the United States.  As nobody is watching movies made in India outside the home country, one perhaps can do a Hollywood version of an Indian movie, with or without proper credit--- nobody will notice!  Similarly, as American scientists get out of new ideas, they are happy to borrow some from obscure  Russian papers of 1950s, and nobody will notice.

Russian-Ukranian war: how does the success look like for Putin?

 As I  learned form my engineering career, before you start doing something major, you need to decide on  this.  Perhaps, a quick war and the political integration Ukraine into Russia was the original plan. Again, all the wrongs of the war, human life lost, long and lasting animosity of Ukrainians towards Russians was considered as a necessary evil. 

As this plan did not work, and the follow-up plan did not work,  the question comes yet again, how does the success look like now?  It will be coming many times,   as no quick resolution is in sight.

Putin

 Regardless the actual ethnicity, is Putin a quintessential Russian character?  Some elements of his character is definitely Russian/Soviet, that is, his overly direct talk, rumblings etc.  that are so politically incorrect and would not be possible in the Western world.  Yet his deadly determination, killer instinct and methodical approach is very Western. Perhaps he learned some of it while on the mission in Eastern Germany. Russian character I know is much more relaxed, disorganized and forgiving. Yet Putin is not like this, he is  well organized and if he wants something he 'stays on task'.

Evolution of Russia after the Collapse of the Soviet Union

 With the recent political developments, brutal war and many human  lives lost, the question comes, why did it go this way. Why this way?  Perhaps we need to look back into Russia of 1989, 1990, 1991 - I was still there. So many 'progressive' developments, hopes, aspirations- of course, corruption, chaos and humiliation of the country was already in place. On the other hand, the country also was opening up and was integrating itself in the world. But if somebody in 1989 would have predicted that in 30 some years, Russia and Ukraine will start a brutal, dysfunctional civil war, Syrian -conflict -like?  Well it does not make any sense! Could not be! 

Yet, if you look microscopically, at every 1-2 year timeframe, everything made sense, everything had some sort of continuity. So, it seems that the evolution was controlled by  microscopic laws that made some sense, into the final state that was completely unexpected.

I presume there are some analogies in physics in dynamics of complex systems. 

American Football and my Classmate, AA.

I grew up Ufa,  which is  a large city in Ural Mountains, Russia.  I had a wonderful time growing up!  This is the story about watermelons and late summer in Ufa, about 1973 timeframe. August  was very hot, and this was the time when watermelons became available in stores.   Normally they brought those in trucks and unloaded them all on the ground, where they were sold to  thirsty August crowds, right there, from the ground, for cash.  Some of them were crack-opened in the process, but what the hell. Watermelons were cheap.

There was  a store selling watermelons right where I lived. As I was passing by, I saw my classmate, AA,  in action.  To give you some  context, he was about 12 years old, not very tall, had puffy cheeks and just a bit chubby.  He had a small watermelon of a size of a volleyball ball in his hands.  As it stands,  he stole this watermelon from the pile and  was running away from the angry crowd!  The scene was unforgettable. I could see the mixture of excitement, fear, happiness and determination  on his face.  He was also going at an  incredible speed for a 12-year old chubby person.  And he had a puffy round face, similar to a watermelon,   which, by the way,  he was squeezing tight in his hands.

I do not believe he needed this watermelon at all, as his parents were well off. However, what an excitement it was! I do not know what happened after this. Perhaps he was caught, or,  the other way around (which is more probable) ,  he was able to run away. 

Many years later, he became a hero of the  war in Afghanistan.   I do not know what happened to him after the war  has ended; he may have become a successful businessman of the new Russia --   Or, as many American veterans, could not fit in--- I do not know.  He always was a trouble maker and had a good imagination, as I remember from the school-- we studied together through the 8th grade.

Perhaps you are wondering, what does the American football have to do with it.   Well, whenever I see an American football player running for the touchdown, holding the egg-shaped ball, squeezing it tight,  I always think of AA.

 Another dark thought about Death

Dying is the final outcome of our life. It should be as natural  as living, breathing, singing, smiling, crying, making love,  etc.  Yet the thing I never thought of is the death at a certain moment of time, on schedule, so to say. For example, you know you will die in 3 years,  or the probability for you to live past 3 years is 1%. How do you feel about it, what do you do?   I remain confused.

 Big companies in US, success and demise of brilliant ideas.

Here is the process I have observed repeatedly:

1. An Inventor/Business Genius (who is s/he? what does he/she need to succeed?)  (to be discussed later)  comes with a brilliant idea that can deliver on unfulfilled need of the society. Perhaps,  there is a need in a flying saucer for the  individual transportation.

2. If he/she has the right mix of talents (business+technical), he/she creates  a new company.

3. After an appropriate induction period, during which,  the company looses money, it starts to make a lot of money. They attract the best technical talent across the world and grow their business. The employees are very happy, creative  and loyal.

3a. The Inventor wants to improve the world and declares it as  the primary goal of the company.    Many things are going well, the people are enjoying the product, their quality of people's life is improving, and the company makes a lot of money. 

4.  Every person in the developed world now owns a flying saucer. To reach non-privileged world, the saucers get cheaper and lower in quality.

5. There are competitive technologies that emerge over time (e.g., Flying Frying Pans, Flying Teapots etc.) However, the Flying Saucer company came to the business first and  dominates the market.

6. After many years of success, the original inventor  of the Flying Saucer moves on to something else to do - perhaps he decides to explore the meaning of life,  or to do something completely different, e.g., making better potato chips. The company meanwhile becomes public and is now controlled by the Board. The Board hires the best CEOs they can find to replace the inventor. 

7. As the original inventor is gone, the company looses ability to make decisions. Nobody really has a long-term interest in the company and a consensus among the business leads is impossible to build. 

7. As the business starts to saturate, the Flying Saucer company realizes that the patents will expire soon and the golden mine will not last forever. Therefore, they ask for the new technologies to be developed by their truly brilliant staff.  And they do develop them! However, every time a new technology is developed, it is turned down, as it is believed not to make enough money. The Board always compares it to the  'golden mine' technology, and they are always of opinion that it is not worth doing.

8. Technical staff get frustrated as they truly are not needed anymore. Some  leave the company; some convert themselves into monsters.   The core expertise of the company now changes to the supply chain management aka, making products cheaper, with marginal quality, squeeze more money out of customers, sell them less for more,  etc. 

9. A new flying technology is being developed by competitors, e.g., magnetic-levitation-on-demand.  This technology is better than the flying saucer technology and gradually replaces it.

10. The flying saucer company declares bankruptcy and goes into the cryptocurrency business.

What is the problem? Why?

1. The curse of free money flow. A successful technology creates a cash flow that spoils the people and changes their mentality. There are no longer under pressure to do the new things, and in a way, rewarded for 'doing nothing' and staying the course.

 2. Lack of personal leadership when the original leader of the company is gone. Inability to make decisions comes with it.

3. Business and technical leadership disconnect-- typically they are different people that do not understand each other.

 Life and Death

As I am getting older, the perspective of meeting the Death becomes more real. I do not think I will live forever; I will die.  I may die soon, and perhaps, very soon?-- I am not sure what to do and how to handle it.  (Yes, there are some health issues, if you are curious). Perhaps, I need to do more things that I enjoy doing, and not to do things that really rub me a wrong way. I have to admit that people normally do not have this  luxury, they fight for their life every day, work hard, in order to bring food  on the table, etc.

New life for me, in a way.  Wish me luck.

 Sticky Tape

If something is broken, how do you fix it? I  know  one person who knows the solution.  This person is my daughter.  Here is her theorem or rather a postulate:

1. Everything can be fixed by a sticky tape.

2. If it somehow did not work, apply more sticky tape.

Although she turned 30 recently,  she still adheres to this train of thought.

You may be wondering, what kind of sticky tape you need to use.  The answer is,  it does not matter.  The one you have nearby will work; just apply more of it.

 This blog is returning back to life!  I plan to publish short notes time and again. Enjoy reading!  Truthfully yours, 

Marquis de Von Labak, Esq.