Seven questions that keep physicists up at night – space – 23 October 2009 – New Scientist.
It’s not your average confession show: a panel of leading physicists spilling the beans about what keeps them tossing and turning in the wee hours.
That was the scene a few days ago in front of a packed auditorium at the Perimeter Institute, in Waterloo, Canada, when a panel of physicists was asked to respond to a single question: “What keeps you awake at night?”
I love knowing just how much more there is to learn about Everything! Everything!!! Even though it can make my mind feel it’s veering a bit too close to the edge of sanity. If there is one.
BBC NEWS | South Asia | Carnage as car bomb hits Peshawar.
AT THE SCENERiffatullah Orazkai, BBC UrduThe scenes inside the emergency ward of Lady Reading were both horrific and heart-rending.So great were the number of casualties that there was a shortage of beds, with many people being treated on the floor.
One unattended four-year-old boy’s condition appeared to be particularly distressing. His head and legs were covered with deep wounds.
Security goes steroidal when some political figure slinks into town. But who provides security for us common folks from the opportunistic hellraising that ever greets their arrival?
This SUCKS.
Alone in the office now.
It’s a public holiday.
It’s almost 8 o’clock.
It’s not that I don’t have tomorrow to do it; it’s just that I’d rather not heap the sorrows of today onto the evils of tomorrow.
I may have entertained myself with the thought of some murderous sort of person creeping up behind me and embedding an axe in the back of my head, spilling my blood and brains across the proofs I am now sighing over. This is why I prefer pencil to red ink these days.
That painful period of constipatory inertia when you’re perched on the precipice of a kilotonne of work but have to sit down and plot your way through it — I’m there.
A sad moment: when you realise people aren’t as [adjective] as you thought they were. I have to move from disillusionment to acceptance.
I was cordially informed of the craziest publishing deadline I’ve ever heard in my so-called life. CRaZy! Krazy with a K, it’s that nutty!
But let’s look at the crazy-good side of things.
1. I get to witness the peculiar untruth of the line “If I can only get through this, I can get through anything in the future!” I thought that with the insane university conference project, and I thought that with working at the orange building. But the truth of it is that there will always be greater and worse challenges lying in wait.
2. I get to see that I do not run this race alone — that crazy numbers of knowns and unknowns are cheering me on — that’s how I get through and perhaps even rise beyond the greater and worse challenges that loom ahead. The potholes have a myriad blessings layered upon them.
3. I get to know more about what it means to revel inwardly amidst apparent misery, to appreciate how the yoke I bear is actually superbad, in the good sense. Whether I fall, fail, flail, flop, flunk, flop or flag along the way, I feel … free. To sing, to dance, to make coffee. To pause, to praise, to pray. To break bread with friends. To read, to write, to accept the helping hand. To dedicate all that I plan. To be lifted in spite of myself. I’m kind of excited to see what’s going to happen, because …
You can tell the world about this
You can tell the nation about that
Tell them what Jesus has done
Tell them that the Comforter has come
And He brought joy, great joy to my soulWell, He took my feet out of the miry clay
(Yes He did, yes He did)
And He placed them on the Rock to stay
(Yes He did, yes He did)You can tell the world about this
You can tell the nation about that
Tell them what Jesus has done
Tell them that the Comforter has come
And He brought joy, great joy to my soulWell, my Lord done just what He said
(Yes He did, yes He did)
He healed the sick and He raised the dead
(Yes He did, yes He did)You can tell the world about this
You can tell the nation about that
Tell them what Jesus has done
Tell them that the Comforter has come
And He brought joy, great joy to my soul
4. Yes, most of all I get to see … it’s not about me, me, me. Eye get to see is fine with mee.
“Everybody needs somebody to love” (beware of the click — might get your jive muscles hurting!) … well and good enough to have people in your life to love and laugh with. But when the dark clouds loom overhead, and the rain starts pouring, or perhaps the rain has been pouring for an age till the flood’s up to neck level now, and your friend’s just treading water to survive, having never learnt to float in the sea of love, that’s sometimes still and sometimes stormy … I’ve learnt that I’ve got to learn how to listen then. And listen well. Fishing and ferreting won’t do — that’s just treating the person like a problem to be solved. So I really appreciate these (sometimes piercing!) words of wisdom from the Samaritans by way of the Prisoners’ Friends’ Association, of all people:
You are NOT listening to me when:
- You do not care about me.
- You say you understand before you know me well enough.
- You have an answer for my problem before I’ve finished telling you what my problem is.
- You cut me off before I’ve finished speaking. [T.F.T. says: Convicted!]
- You finish my sentences for me. [T.F.T. says: Convicted!]
- You feel critical of my vocabulary, grammar or accent. [T.F.T. says: 2.5 years in HK has cured me of this sort of arrogance — I hope!]
- You are dying to tell me something. [T.F.T. says: Convicted!]
- You tell me about your experience making mine seem unimportant.
- You are communicating to someone else in the room. [T.F.T. says: What if I'm frantically asking God for help?! But point taken.]
- You refuse my thanks by saying you really haven’t done anything. [T.F.T. says: I guess this is something validation … but I don't really get it.]
You ARE listening to me when:
- You come quietly into my private world and let me be me.
- You really try to understand me even if I’m not making much sense.
- You grasp my point even when it’s against your own sincere convictions.
- You realise that the hour I took from you has left you a bit tired and drained.
- You allow me the dignity of making my own decisions even though you think they might be wrong.
- You do not take my problem from me, but allow me to deal with it in my own way.
- You hold back your desire to give me good advice.
- You do not offer me religious solace when you sense I am not ready for it.
- You give me enough room to discover for myself what is really going on.
- Accept my gift of gratitude by telling me how good it makes you feel to know that you have been helpful.
