On the Path to Competence
On the Path to Competence
Posts
Preschool learning
Two interesting articles on the topic. This one by Alison Gopnik and this one by Lisa Guernsey
Urge for going
A powerful play by Mona Mansour about Jamila and her Palestinian family stuck in a refugee camp in Lebanon.
Of Gods and Men
One of the most powerful and mesmerizing pictures to date.. A story about 8 Trappist Monks in a North African Monastery are pressurized by Islamist elements and the government to leave. The country foundered in a state of terror, with beheadings, throat-slashings and large-scale massacres an almost daily feature of life. These grim circumstances provide the setting for “Of Gods and Men,” a beautiful, somber and rigorously intelligent new film by the French director Xavier Beauvois. Though it takes place in the recent past, “Of Gods and Men” has an unmistakably timely resonance, evoking as it does both the messy wars on terror and the rebellions currently convulsing North Africa and the Middle East. And yet while it takes pains to be historically authentic, the film, closely based on the true story of a group of French Cistercian Trappist monks caught up (and ultimately killed) in the violence, also keeps an eye on less worldly, temporal concerns.
Cricket and South Asia
All about Cricket! From 3QD Cricket is emblematic of South Asia. It distinguishes the region qua region from almost anywhere else – East Asia, West Asia, Africa, the Americas, Europe. So at this time when three of the four teams in the World Cup semifinals are South Asian, it is opportune to wrap some thoughts about risk, strategy and design in the metaphor of cricket.
thought for today
When you have a problem to solve, instead of turning over in your head all the possibilities, all the consequences, all the possible things one should or should not do, if you remain quiet with an aspiration for goodwill, if possible a need for goodwill, the solution comes very quickly. And as you are silent you are able to hear it. When you are caught in a difficulty, try this method: instead of becoming agitated, turning over all the ideas and actively seeking solutions, of worrying, fretting, running here and there inside your head - I don't mean externally, for externally you probably have enough common sense not to do that! but inside, in your head - remain quiet. And according to your nature, with ardour or peace, with intensity or widening or with all these together, implore the Light and wait for it to come. In this way the path would be considerably shortened. - The Mother [CWMCE, 9:423-24]
Spy Games by Scott Horton
An interesting read about Raymond Davis the CIA spy who shot two Pakistani men in the back killing them.
Japan
No time for grief as Japan struggles under the triple whamy of earthquake, tsumami and nuclear diaster.
Certified Copy
A poignant new film by Abbas Kiarostami starring Juliette Binoche and William Shimell. Shimell is a man who does not see beyond his own head and lives inside of it most of the time. Binochet is a woman of the world juggling her career and son. The movie is a journey of their trip through the Tuscan countryside. I liked his one line about we are two stuck in our ways to make any compromises now. The dialoges are powerful and reflected portraits of a middle aged marriage gone wrong. This along with Blue Valentine have cast a devastating blow to the illusion and institution of marriage.
