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Diary Illuminates Einstein's Last Years
b00le writes "Several sources carry versions of this story about the diary of Johanna Fantova who shared much of the last years of Einstein's life (and cut his hair) and witnessed his kindness and poltical activisim. The diary does not seem to have been translated from the German yet, but the site has extracts. According to this, Fantova tried to publish the diaries herself and of course failed to find an agent."
Sorry for the ignorance, but why 'of course failed to find an agent'?
perhaps I'm being over-cynical, but I can't help wondering if this is a hoax.
Einstein calling Heisenberg "a big Nazi" is surely too funny to be true. The mistake mentioned in the article (reporting Einstein phoning his sister several years after she was dead) doesn't sound like the sort of mistake a real diarist would ever make.
thoughts, anyone?
... and conscience.
'And all the monkeys aren't in the zoo Every day you meet quite a few...'
... Werner Heisenberg was quite a small man. Why would Albert call him a big nazi?
The Erogenous Zone
I think the main problem is the disproportionate power the five main nations in the UN have. It should be set up far more like the American House of Representatives where each country gets a proportional vote based on some statistic or mix of statistics.
Judging by the rampant corruption within the UN, they'd probally be too busy looting the meagar posessions of the Rwandans than anything else.
Also consider that the disfunctional form of post-colonial African nations was shaped in part by the UN.
Conformity is the jailer of freedom and enemy of growth. -JFK
Its not that genius demands solitude, it is genius that creates solitude.
It's surprising that someone so respected would need to chase a carrot like that.
I'm not sure I get your metaphor. This is how I view Einstein: more comfortable around equations than people. A logical mind finds that people are complex AND annoyingly difficult to understand at their core; equations are complex but are at least a fixed target.
Both can be extremely interesting, but I suspect Einstein ultimately chose solitude because he found most people frustratingly difficult to understand.
Heisenberg's motivations are still arguable. After the war, an amazing number of people suddenly "did not sympathize" with the Nazis, although they worked diligently and enthusiastically for them. Heisenberg may have been a "big Nazi." Wasn't Einstein personally acquainted with the man, and in a position to form a legitimate opinion based on evidence we may not have seen?
Personally, I think Heisenberg was probably sabotaging the Nazi effort, but none of the evidence is compelling. He was such a convincing collaborator that it's hard to tell.
Heisenberg's actions may have intentionally slowed down the Nazi pursuit of the atom bomb, or perhaps he was actually trying hard, and just wrong or (un)lucky. All these men were perfectly fallible.
We're responsible to everyone for what we do, and who we pretend to be and. We're responsible only to ourselves for who we are.
Fiction is a good arena for the unknowable. Kurt Vonnegut's _Mother Night_ is a lovely book about these very problems and even the movie is great.
Assembly is the reverse of disassembly.
You can't just have "a little" government (of any kind). It's all or nothing.
And a World Government would suck because for the first time in history, if the government isn't being nice to you, you have (in the absolute sense) nowhere else to go.
DNA just wants to be free...
Or maybe because the US refused to pay its dues.
No, in the case of Rawanda EXACTLY 10 years ago, the UN had armed troops on the ground that were ready, willing and able to go after the weapons caches and the genocidaires but were ordered not to by the Security Council, led by the US, the UK and France.
As for the dysfunctional africa because of a post-colonial past being the foault of the UN I don't see it. The French had military advisors and soldiers on the ground supporting the Goververment of the dictator that planned and started the genocide. The Belgians turned tail and ran like simpering dogs when they lost soldiers in action (imagine that!). All outside the UN or without their approval. Only Canada, Ghana, Senagal and a bunch of useless Bangledeshi's stayed to try to do anything, under the authority of the UN.
Don't be surprised that you think the UN is corrupt and inept when it is the government of the US that undermines it in every way possible. This is called a self-fufilling prophesy.
Never by hatred has hatred been appeased, only by kindness - the Buddha