How accurate are memories?

March 24th, 2010

I’ve been accused of having a selective memory from time to time.. Aside from wondering why I tended to forget what a lot of my friends so clearly remembered, I was also always intrigued about how different people tend to remember certain details of one and the same event differently..

Here is a scientific study that hints at an explanation to how memories are created, altered, and forgotten: How to Erase Fear in Humans.

It seems that neural connections in which memories are stored have to be rebuilt each time a memory is recalled. During this rebuilding, memories can be altered or even erased. I would go so far to say that they ARE altered every time you remember them, as there is always something extra we add to the experience/story. So, basically, the scientists concluded that memories are only as accurate as the last time they were remembered.

1) So why do I forget stuff? — Because I never think about it :) ..
2) And why do people’s memories regarding the same event differ? — Because no one really remebers it accurately, all they have are rebuilt and adapted versions of the actual event..

Could one also conclude from this that the more often you remember something the more innacurate the memory probably is? :)

Is THE ROBIN HOOD TAX a good idea?

March 9th, 2010

A friend of mine sent me an email highlighting the Robin Hood Tax initiative, an idea how a crisis for the banks could turn into an opportunity for the world. I loved the idea at first sight, but then it got me thinking…

I voted NO, and think the Robin Hood Tax is a BAD idea for the following reasons:

1) To begin with, I believe banks would find a way to compensate for any loss in margin on their side. So what, as long as some of their money is used for good? Well, I can’t be sure, but one, or perhaps even any clever way by which they compensate their loss, would result in the printing of more money. And more money flowing around certainly will not solve any problems in the long term – in my view it will just contribute to the bubble-build bubble-burst trend the global financial system seems to be following.

2) Another reason why I think the Robin Hood tax is not such a good idea is the fact that it would directly link such good causes, as tackling poverty and climate change, to something as philosophically dubious as credit derivatives trading. With that, it would only strengthen the role derivatives trading plays in the global economy – an illusion already engulfing so much of world’s energy and creativity – and for what?

Concluding Note

Is there an alternative, ‘solve poverty and stimulate climate change’ solution? So much creativity in the world… I’m sure we can come up with something better that another piece of chewing gum that would majestically fix the leaking roof.

I think the solution to poverty does not lie with banks at all, and if so, certainly not in giving banks more authority, responsibility, or even functionality. In my eyes, banks need to go back to their original function of guarding true value, and redistributing wealth and opportunity, if they are to be part of any solution.

Are you for or against the Robin Hood Tax and why? Leave a response below…

Does a sense of control imrove life and increase life span?

February 17th, 2010

I haven’t been posting much on my FreshNewsBlog lately. Spent most of my time on www.slimtennis.nl instead..

Anyway, this great article reminded me that I like sharing stuff that strikes an interest with me, and this article certainly did. How a Lack of Control Leads to Superstition, A Skeptic’s review of the study “Lacking Control Increases Illusory Pattern Perception”, By Michael Shermer.

In summary, what the article implies, based on scientific study, is that people often tend to identify coherent and meaningful interrelationships among a set of random or unrelated stimuli (such as the tendency to perceive false correlations, see imaginary figures, form superstitious rituals, and embrace conspiracy beliefs) when they have a feeling of lacking control over the matter. In other words, when individuals are unable to gain a sense of control objectively, they will try to gain it perceptually.

I wonder how big this effect is when it comes to religion :) !?

Anyway, this is the most interesting part of the article. One study indicated the following:
In a New England nursing home in which the residents were given plants, but only some had the opportunity to water them. Those residents who were in charge of watering the plants lived longer and healthier lives than the others, even those given plants watered by the staff. The sense of control had the apparent effect on physical health and well-being.

Does this mean what I think it means? We tend to live longer and happier when we have a sense of being in control over certain aspects in our surroundings!?

International Justice?

October 27th, 2009

Hi all, I haven’t posted much lately. I’m quite busy with preparing my first workshop on Mental Tennis Skills – the Dutch speakers can check it out at www.slimtennis.nl.

I couldn’t resists posting some quick fresh news on the below however, as it regards my country of origin…

Florence Hartmann, a French journalist, a well-known defender of Human Rights, was advisor for the Balkans to the ICTY prosecutor Carla Del Ponte when she published her book called Peace and Punishment. In this book she explains a deal that was made between Serbia and the judges of the ICTY in charge of the trial vs. Milosevic.

Because of this the International Criminal Tribunal for ex-Yougoslavia (ICTY) sentenced Florence Hatmann to a € 7000 fine in order to basically send a strong message to those who plan to question their mode of functioning.

Personally I see the logic from the standpoint of the law and the functioning of the ICTY. However, I also do believe that justice and transparancy are above the law. For this reason I signed a petition in favor of Florence Hartmann.

If you would like to express your commitment to the values of International Justice, sign this petition!

Good luck and regards,
Ajdin

Cell Phone Headache

September 22nd, 2009

Has a long conversation over a cell phone ever given you a headache? Research results are still not conclusive on the link between cell-phone use and cancer. Studies have however shown an increase in salivary gland and brain tumors in people using cell phones for 10 or more years (source).

Personally, about a year ago I noticed that each of my long cell-phone conversations ended with a headache. For me this was reason enough to start using headsets as often as I could.

Anyway, the reason for this blog is THIS WEBSITE. The Environmental Working Group (EWG) has released a consumer guide on the radiation levels emitted by over 1,000 cell phones sold. You can read their report here >>.

NokiaE52Unfortunately, I stumbled upon this information just when I was ready to buy that new Nokia E52. The thing is that I wasn’t able to find any information on the Radiation Emission level of this phone. What I did notice is that the predecessor of this phone, Nokia E51 had almost the highest emission level.

So, in short, please consider this information as I’m sure you use a cell phone as well. And do also please help out and leave a comment if you know where I could find the emission level for the Nokia E52..

Thanks and regards,
Ajdin

Scientific Stand-Up Comedy

September 17th, 2009

TED. I hadn’t watched any videos on TED for a while. Even thought I was on the way to kick the addiction, but for some reason I figured I’d watch one. The one turned into a couple, and here I am writing another blog about TED. I already mentioned the abundance of knowledge, positivity, and inspiration that can be found on TED in one of my previous blogs.

Here I just wanted to point you to a great 10 minute video that gets into subjects from physics to philosophy, but is still more Stand-Up Comedy than anything else. I loved it! Especially the Why We Are Here jokes in the end, I thought were great. I said it a few times on occasion, and this video reminded me again, that I like to take everything seriously except life itself ;) ..

Enjoy!

John Lloyd inventories the invisible

Obama & Iran

September 8th, 2009

Recently I posted some challenging information on the Green Revolution in Iran. As an addition to that I’d like you to take 15 minutes in order to view that same information in a different way, namely through the below PowerPoint presentation by Deepjournal’s Daan de Wit. It is in Dutch, although there are some quotes in English as well.


Iran – De Volgende Oorlog
door DeepJournal

I’d like to write my next post about Obama, and what changes his administration has brought. Please notice the remarks hinting certain things in the above presentation as well.

Do note that my intention is not to present my belief of what the Iranian political situation stands for, or should be. I’m merely trying to present an alternative perspective of looking on the situation and how it is being dealt with. A perspective in which thinking is very strategic, stakes very high, and measures hard to comprehend. The tool of it all: manipulation of the masses, propaganda.

I’d love to read your comments..

Regards,
Ajdin

Great Free Internet Tools (2)

August 18th, 2009

Recently I have started a new adventure. I became an independent marketer of iLearningGlobal. You can read more about iLearningGlobal on my other blog, which you can find here >>. Due to this initiative I started communicating, collaborating, and exchanging files with business partners across the world. Since there was no company setting to cover for this, we found tools online which were free and effective in use. Please find a list of my favorites below.

Google Groups
GoogleGroupsGoogle provides a number of great free tools that are all integrated and accessible with the same login as your Gmail account. Once you create a group, you can invite people to it and then share files, create rich customized pages, and start discussions to which all group members can leave comments. It is simple and easy to use.

Box
BoxBox.net provides you with 1Gb of free cloud storage. You create a folder structure, upload files, and also invite other people to collaborate with you in viewing and changing those files. A nice feature is also that for each file you can also just select the URL link and send it to people so they can download your file. It beats sending large files over Email or Skype.

DropBox
DropBoxDropbox also falls in the cloud storage category and shares all the features as Box. The difference is however that Dropbox installs a program on your comupter so that you don’t have to upload files to it. You simply drag and drop them into a Public folder on your computer that Dropbox creates for you. So you simply manage Dropbox with your own Windows Explorer for example. Dropbox gives 2Gb free, with the option of increasing to 5Gb if you invite some friends to use it as well.

DimDim
Try Dimdim for the World's Easiest Onlline MeetingIf in certain cases you don’t want to share files with other people, and would like to simply hold a presentation for them, a presentation in which they can actively participate and also view your screen, e.g. the powerpoint presentation on your screen; then you can use DimDim. It is a free conferencing or webinar tool basically.

Teambox
TeamboxFinally, there is also Teambox, another open-source web-based tool that offers project managing capabilities. Its community/collaboration services include a dashboard where you can see the recent activity of your projects, tasks, calendar, notes, pages, a chat room, fast and easy file-uploads, and interactive drag & drop capability.

I hope you find some of these free tools useful. If you have some great online resources yourself, I’d love to know about it, just leave a comment below.

Thanks and regards,
Ajdin

How Iranian is the Green Revolution?

July 24th, 2009

A few days ago I received this video from a friend. She is Iranian and very passionately involved with the current situation in Iran. The video is a marketing master piece and makes a strong emotional call to action.

I was moved, and decided to contribute by doing some research and posting a Fresh News Blog. In my research I was amazed by the international support for the Iranian Green Revolution; from CNN’s Fareed Zakaria, to Amnesty International, and even the Dutch government.

Then I ended up asking myself the question, “who organizes and funds all these initiatives?”

In 1928, Edward Bernays presented his book Propaganda, the result of extensive scientific research in the techniques of shaping and manipulating public opinion. Reading this book is rather scary when considering how well it describes the mass-manipulative actions of governments and corporations. “The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country.” – Edward Bernays, Propaganda

Why do I find this relevant?

All governments use techniques to manipulate the masses, the masses that stand to loose everything and gain very little in any regime change, the masses that carry most of the risk I believe.

Without passing judgment on the Iranian elections, the demonstrations, the way Iranian current government is handling the demonstrations, the rights and desires of the Iranian people, and without sharing my own belief of what would be good for the Iranian people, I would like to present some sources of information that will hopefully provide a DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE to the mass-media information about the Iranian Green Revolution than that we are being presented with.

  • Overthrowing regimes is not a set of spontaneous actions organized from within a country. Non-violent overthrowing of regimes is a technique considered as an alternative to war and is consciously used by the western government. In documentary A Force More Powerful by Steven York you can watch how exactly this goes into effect. One example is the training and financing of students and protesters who lead the demonstrations.
  • The Netherlands and the USA are the only countries in the world that actually have budgets assigned to stimulating political changes in Iran. E.g., take a look at this NRC Handelsblad article. How much money? It regards numbers such as 85 million USD from the USA and 15 million EUR from the Netherlands in one year. Check out Daan de Wit’s DeepJournal articles on The West and the Iranian Green Revolution 1 >>, 2 >>, and 3 >> for more on this funding of Iranian regime change.
  • US intelligence agents are on the ground in Iran. Are they helping the protesters? Check out this video for an answer on that.
  • Going back to Daan de Wit and his DeepJournal of which I’m a big fan, the subtitle of his Journal is “News Behind the News”. I believe it is exactly that, which we should be looking for in order to truly understand any situation or to at least escape the trickeries of propaganda manipulation that are being used on us. Daan has also written a book called The Next War, The Attack on Iran: A Prelude (translated from Dutch) about which you can find more information here >>.

I’m sure most of us will agree that going to war in order to change a regime shouldn’t be an option. There are of course exceptions, and strangely these exceptions are very often our “leaders” at the highest levels. However, considering the above information, how far do you think Western governments should go in order to change the regime in Iran?

And a better question yet, are there alternatives to their actions? Dare to ask yourself that before getting swooped up by propaganda in any shape or form.

I’d love to read your comments…

Warm regards,
Ajdin

The Netherlands, A Tax Haven?

July 11th, 2009

Yes, a few months ago the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) did put the Netherlands on a tax-haven blacklist. It took a day of very high-up political interventions before it was taken off the list again. Does that show the seriousness of OECD’s tax-haven initiative? Here’s a view on this by a German Spiegel-International journalist in article The World’s Shortest Blacklist.

And just to put things in perspective, the fight against tax-havens is supposed to be part of G-20′s agreed plan for a new cleaner global financial system.

So, why was the Netherlands put on that list? I mean, don’t we pay a lot of taxes in this country?

Well, “we” do, but multinational corporations are allowed to make deals with tax officials. More than 80 such agreements make sure that 8 times the Dutch Gross National Product (GNP) flows tax-free through company holdings incorporated in the Netherlands.

And how do “we”, the average Joe’s and Jane’s, or better yet Joost’s en Marieke’s, make up for it? Here’s just one example:

Actual price of gas: EUR 0,55
Consumer tax (accijns): EUR 0,706
Total excluding VAT (excl. BTW): EUR 1,256
VAT (BTW) 19%: EUR 0,239
Total including VAT (incl. BTW): EUR 1,495

Which means that for 1 liter of gas, costing EUR 0,55 we pay EUR 0,945 taxes. Please also notice that we pay VAT (BTW) on the consumer tax (accijns), which means that we get taxed on a tax. Isn’t this strange?

Can I conclude then that the only way “we” don’t get USED by the system is when we USE the system?

:) Hope you got something to comment on this.. You can do it in the box below.

Thanks and regards,
Ajdin