Archive for July 2022
Personal lifestyle of “This is my business affairs” versus community styles that requires an “Explanation” and exposition. The case of Antoun Saadi
Posted on: July 21, 2022
A few people adopt, at certain period in life, a style (physical exhibition) that does Not match the common agreement among the community.
For example, if a community expect of an adult (regardless of genders) to wear a headdress when outside, and if this style is Not theoretically hurting anyone physically or mentally, should this person maintain his silence and never respond to all the complaints and recriminations emanating from the community?
For example, if someone decides to grow a beard that is Not common to the lifestyle of the community, should this person wave away all the recriminations on the basis that his Style is Not hurting anyone physically or mentally, and his decision is a personal decision and is Nobody business?
Mind you that I excluded the “emotional baggage” consequences because it is precisely Emotions that are targeted in this defiance adventure for both sides. It is implicitly assumed that once emotions are exposed and disturbed …then the rational mind will kick in… Do Not take this assumption for granted, even after evaluating the community “emotional intelligence“, deeply rooted in myths and traditions.
A few tries to “toughen” their physical and mental resistance to all kinds of “nature” forces and harsh exigencies, on ground that we should be ready to endure life many hardships.
Examples of these “toughening” decisions are sleeping almost naked in cold weather, swimming/taking cold shower in cold water, camping in the wild, fasting protocol, ….
The list of these examples can grow long in all kinds of personal decision in clothing and mannerism…
Those early decisions of “defying” common acceptable behaviors could be the bases of a long-term idea and plan to form and constitute a small group/clan that is ready to join an “ideology” or a set of ideas…
Frequently, if these decisions are Not researched and based on firm “facts”…a person can be harmed in his safety and health.
The other facet of the coin is when this “personal” lifestyle has a definite symbolism that is known experienced by the community…
In that case, the lifestyle is No longer a “personal” decision but require an extensive explanation for the position.
If a style convey a set of behaviors/belief system that is Counter to the agreement of a community…then remaining silent and “sticking to the 5th right” of Not commenting is No longer admissible, unless the person is actually Not aware of the consequences or knowledgeable of the tacit meaning of this symbolism.
Note: The martyred Leader Antoun Saadi who founded the Syria National Social Party experienced on himself many versions of hardships that a person will be confronted with.
He started as a young person to experience societal hardships and continued throughout his short life, packed with prison terms and forced exiles.
Leader Saadi taught by personal behaviors, confronting relentlessly the social historical limitations in feudalism, sectarianism, economic degradation and education, and consistent reliance on foreign interventions for political alliances
Saadi learned that he was set up by Syria President to hand him over to Lebanon security delegation, and yet, in mid way to his plan to go into another exile toward Jordan, he decided to return in order to safeguard the members dignity and Party standing in the spirit of the new society.
Note 2: I learned recently that this trip toward the borders with Jordan was false and a bunk story. Saadi was handed over to the Syrian secret services from where he lodged in Damascus.
Is USA transforming Europe into the nuclear line of confrontation: Italie is being targeted to host USA newer nuclear bombs
Posted on: July 20, 2022
“L’Europe se trouve ainsi transformée par les USA en première ligne de confrontation nucléaire avec la Russie”
Sous peu en Italie : Les nouvelles bombes nucléaires made in USA
Publié par wikistrike.com sur 16 Juillet 2022,
« La production de la bombe nucléaire B61-12 commence » : annoncent depuis les États-Unis les Sandia National Laboratories.
La B61-12, qui remplace la précédente B61 déployée par les USA à Aviano (Région Frioul-Vénétie-Julie) et Ghedi (Brescia) et dans d’autres bases européennes, est une arme d’un type nouveau.
Elle a une tête nucléaire avec 4 options de puissance, sélectionnables en fonction de l’objectif à détruire.
Elle n’est pas larguée à la verticale, mais à distance de l’objectif sur lequel elle se dirige guidée par un système satellite.
Elle peut pénétrer dans le sous-sol, explosant en profondeur pour détruire les bunker des centres de commandement dans une première frappe (first strike) nucléaire.
Les B61-12, classées comme « armes nucléaires non-stratégiques », seront déployées en Europe -Italie, Allemagne, Belgique, Pays-Bas, Grande-Bretagne et probablement d’autres pays- à distance telles qu’elles peuvent toucher la Russie.
Elles ont ainsi des capacités offensives analogues à celles des armes stratégiques.
Un autre système d’arme nucléaire, que les États-Unis se préparent à installer en Europe contre la Russie, est constitué de missiles à portée intermédiaire avec base à terre.
Ils peuvent être lancés aussi des installations « bouclier anti-missiles », déployées par les USA dans les bases de Deveselu en Roumanie et de Redzikowo en Pologne, et depuis 5 navires de guerre qui croisent en Méditerranée, Mer Noire et Mer Baltique au bord de la Russie.
Confirmées par le fabricant-même, Lockheed Martin, qui confirme les capacités offensives de ces installations.
Illustrant les caractéristiques du système de lancement vertical Mk 41, utilisé à la fois dans les installations terrestres et navales, il précise que le système est en mesure de lancer « des missiles pour toutes les missions, que ce soit pour la défense ou pour l’attaque à longue portée, y compris des missiles de croisière Tomahawk ». Ceux-ci peuvent être armés de têtes nucléaires.
L’Europe se trouve ainsi transformée par les USA en première ligne de confrontation nucléaire avec la Russie, plus dangereuse encore que celle de la guerre froide.
Bref résumé de la revue de presse internationale télévisée Grandangolo Pangea de Byoblu
traduction Marie-Ange Patrizio
This open letter for taking seriously the downgrading of public university and schooling system is totally applicable to what the Lebanese are experiencing for a decade, regarding the level of yearly funding degradation of public schools at more funding facilitation of private schooling institutions and universities
كتاب مفتوح إلى سيادة الرئيس بشار الأسد من الدكتور زهير جبور
د. زهير جبور16 يوليو، 2 Zuhair Jabbour
سيادة الرئيس بشار الأسد المحترم
تحية طيبة؛
كنت قد كتبت لكم أكثر من مرّة في شؤون الإصلاح، لكن هذه المرّة سأكون أكثر صراحة في موضوع حيوي أعتبر أنه من اللامسؤولية أن يسكت عنه أي أكاديمي يعرف مدى حساسيته، لأنّه سيحدّد مستقبل سوريا لعقود عديدة، إنه حال الجامعات والمدارس السّورية!
أقرُّ بداية بأني سأكون بمنتهى السّذاجة أن آمل بإصلاح التعليم أو أي قطاع آخر بمعزلٍ عن الاصلاح السياسي الذي هو منطلق وأساس كلّ إصلاح،
ولكن على الأقل يمكننا إيقاف التدهور الرّاهن في حال التعليم في سوريا، لأن استمرار هذا التدهور سيكون كارثيًا علينا خلال وقت قريب وذلك وفق كل منظومات المقاييس والمؤشرات العالمية الموضوعية والجائرة!
ليتكم التقيتم بأساتذة الجامعات وعلمائها بالقدر نفسه من لقاءاتكم بعلماء الدين (مع يقيني أن أغلبهم ليس عالمًا في الدين، بل مؤدي طقوس وشعائر، لأن أغلبهم لم يقدم بحثًا واحدًا أصيلاً في علم اللاهوت)
والمسألة ليست هنا، بل في أن ّ دورات العنف تتكرّر في سوريا كل ربع قرن أو أكثر ولم يستطع علماء الدين إيقاف ذلك.
إن ما يوقف العنف هو مناعة الدولة ومؤسساتها،
ومناعة الدولة بقوتها، وقوتها بازدهارها اقتصاديًا وغنى حياة مواطنيها،
ولا غنى ولا ازدهار إلا بالإنتاج العلمي والمعرفي والتقني والزراعي على نحو خاص.
وكل هذا يتوقف على إنتاج علماء الجامعات السورية وخريجيها في حقول الفيزياء والرياضيات والمعلوماتية والبيولوجيا والزّراعة والاقتصاد والهندسة.
لا أحسب أن مستشاريك لامسوا يومًا، ولو لمرة واحدة، وبشكل علني، مسألة التعليم.
ولو كانوا فعلاً منشغلين بهذه المسألة الحيوية لوضعوا البيانات الحقيقية بين أيديكم، ولو فعلوا ذلك، فإني أشك بأنّ الأمر كان سيستمر على هذه الحال، لأنه ليس من مصلحة أي سوري استمرار هذا الوضع، بل من مصلحة خصوم سوريا
وهي ليست المرة الأولى التي أدق فيها ناقوس الخطر، بل بدأت ذلك في مقال طويل في صحيفة تشرين عام 2002 عن أنّ مدارسنا في خطر ثم أردفت ذلك بسلسلة من المقالات في صحفنا السورية دون جدوى!
وخاطبت السيد وزير التعليم العالي الحالي داعيًا إياه أكثر من مرّة إلى مناظرة علنية على التلفزيون السوري وإتاحة الفرصة للمداخلات لمعرفة حقيقة ما يجري في جامعاتنا ومدارسنا، ولكنه لم ينبس ببنت شفة،
وإنما يجب أن أعترف بأنه أبدى براعة في التخلّي عن الكثير من الكفاءات الجامعية الخبيرة وبمرتبة أستاذ بحجة أنه لا يوجد شواغر!
وبالطبع تقاسم التقصير الإداري مع وزارة التنمية الإدارية!
إن مأساتنا في أن من يملكون زمام التعليم العالي والأساسي ليس لديهم أي مشروع جدّي لاستنهاض التعليم والبحث العلمي في سوريا للانتقال من التصنيف الحالي الذي لا يليق ببلد النور والأبجدية وأرقى حضارات التاريخ لأن أغلبهم يعمل بعقلية الموظف الصغير وعقلية الحفاظ على منصبه!
إنّ جامعاتنا غنية بالحكماء والخبراء القادرين على النهوض والارتقاء بها إلى مصافّ الجامعات العالمية برؤيا جديدة تجنبنا الفشل وتجعلنا أقرب للنجاح،
شرط أن تتاح لهم الفرصة بعيدًا عن كل التدخّلات والسلوكيات المنافية لروح الجامعة!
Senec وختامًا، استشهد برأي الحكيم الروماني سينيك:
ليس لأنّ الأمور صعبة لا نقدم على تغييرها، بل هي تصبح صعبة لأنّنا لا نقدم على تغييرها !
مع فائق تقديري واحترامي
الدكتور زهير جبور، الأستاذ في جامعة تشرين
” * نقلاً عن صفحة الدكتور جبور وبالاذن منه
Lacking Communication skills? Scientists and mathematicians Not taken seriously?
Posted on: July 18, 2022
How to Teach Math and Science
Daubechies published an article called Ingrid Daubechies and the Importance of Mathematical Communication.
She tells the story of how Ingrid Daubechies published a paper on wavelets that led to them becoming an industry-standard in several industries.
Daubechies cites her attempt to make it easy to read and put into practice as one of the main reasons it had such an impact. (I don’t want to quote too much because it’s a short article.)
Where I Come In
When I read the article, there was a line that stuck out to me.
Daubechies’s background in physics helps her communicate mathematics in a way that scientists and engineers can understand. But for mathematicians without that background, it may be hard to figure out what will make their research more understandable to non-specialists.
I started writing a short response to this line.
Like everything I write, it grew quickly (The Road to Quantum Mechanics, the last three articles of The Limit Series, and the Entropy Trilogy were going to be one article for each series.).
At the end of the response, I had written roughly a thousand words in an hour or two, which is fast even for me. At that rate, I realized that I could make an article out of the response if I continued to flesh out the ideas.
This is that article.
An Experiment
Here’s an excerpt from System of a Down’s song Toxicity:
You, what do you own the world? How do you own disorder, disorder?
Now, somewhere between the sacred silence, sacred silence and sleep
Somewhere between the sacred silence and sleep
Disorder, disorder, disorder
I want you to write down or type up what you think of when you read these lyrics. Make sure it’s something you can’t change so you don’t change your answer.
The Three Archetypes of Science Communication
I want to start by talking about the different levels of science communication.
As in many fields, coming up with rigid classification systems is bound to lead to some problems. For this reason, I’m going to talk about archetypes instead of trying to force examples into boxes.
Each archetype has a role, creating a whole greater than the sum of its parts.
Pop Science
Pop science refers to science for the masses as entertainment.
It can be a great way to get people interested in science and expose them to new ideas. For example, one of my first encounters with Physics came from this video.
Before you judge the video, remember that Game Theory made it in 2013.
In the video, Matthew Patrick (a.k.a. MatPat) talks about a game mechanic from the game series Assassin’s Creed, known as a leap of faith.
It involves jumping off of high buildings into hay to escape enemies and return to the ground without having to climb back down.
Feel free to scroll down if you start getting motion sickness.
In the video, MatPat talks about different topics, but one, in particular, stood out to me.
Based on the height of the fall and the time it took to fall, MatPat calculated the gravity using standard kinematics (Δs = at² / 2). He found that Assassin’s Creed 2 had a gravitational acceleration of around 12.4 m/s² without accounting for drag. I wanted to account for drag.
I spent a week or so doing research on the topic. I looked up how to calculate drag coefficients. I found the equations for drag.
After assuming linear drag, I got a gravitational acceleration of around 12.5 m/s².
This story is pop-science at its best. The video got me interested in an idea. I then used free resources online to learn about differential equations and concepts like a drag.
I was able to put my knowledge to the test by calculating some value. While the experience didn’t make me into a full-blown Physicist, it gave me a head start when I took classes in college and high school.
The Pitfalls
I’m hardly the first to talk about pop science and the video below is great for understanding the problems with pop science.
As I’ve said in multiple articles, pop science often simplifies topics beyond the point of usefulness.
In some cases, it can even introduce more confusion and even contribute to scientific disinformation campaigns so common that people have written papers about specific examples.
Another video on a specific example of bad pop-science.
To make matters worse, pop science is supposed to get people into science, but it provides no way to do stuff with what you’ve learned.
Introduce Technical Descriptions
As a start, pop science shouldn’t be afraid of introducing some technical descriptions.
A few relevant math equations here and there or links to more detailed resources won’t hurt anyone. As a benefit, seeing math in the safe context of pop science can help overcome the math anxiety that haunts so many people.
Moving Forward
When talking about Physics in one of my first articles, I said
People often talk about physics as if it were merely a set of facts and equations: F=ma, energy can neither be created nor destroyed, E = mc², stars are giant balls of hydrogen fusing into helium and heavier elements, etc.
These facts and equations can either form the base of our understanding or result from our understanding, but to do physics is to connect the two. In other words, learning physics requires learning techniques and guidelines alongside facts and equations.
People say pop science is great for getting people into science, but it can only get people into science if it has some way to go forward with the topics covered.
After you watch a video or read an article, there should be something you can do with what you’ve learned.
If you’re talking about climate change, try giving people a climate model to play around with. If you’re talking about a simple equation, you could start with the complex equation and show the simplifications.
What to Aim For
There’s a wide variety of topics you could go into, but I think any of the videos below are some of the best examples of pop science.
Note that while equations are present, they’re not the focus. You can read the comments and find people who enjoyed the video without understanding the equations.
This video breaks from standard depictions of general relativity to better illustrate the concepts. Furthermore, it uses a lot of multimedia skills to illustrate difficult to understand concepts.
Yes, I am a hack promoting my own content. Anyway, half of this video consists of a simulated explicit example.
This video does a great job answering questions students might have in math class. Why aren’t we taught the cubic formula? Why should I care about imaginary numbers?
The best answer to the question “Why?”.
Try to analyze what makes these videos work, how they’re alike, and how they’re different.
Expert
You’ll find expert science communication in scientific journals and papers.
Experts in the field have already seen all the stuff beginners have seen. They also have the background to not need everything explained in the field.
For these reasons, expert science communication often focuses less on the flashy parts and more on the technical parts.
The Pitfalls
Expert science communication often makes tenuous connections to background information needed to understand the field.
In an ideal world, you could read a paper and understand it with no effort. In a less ideal world, you can read the cited papers until you do.
In our world, you may Not understand what’s going on even if you read the cited papers and the papers cited by the cited papers.
Solutions
Not every paper needs an application or a textbook of background, but you should explain how your paper fits into the larger field.
If all you’re doing is citing a simple fact like “CO₂ emissions went down by x% in 2020,” then you can state the fact and move on. If you’re citing a more complex idea like an algorithm, give a short worked example of the algorithm.
(Papers of experiments in “social/psychological” fields should include a section that explains how the results could be applied, especially in matters of safety/health consequences for re-design of objects/services)
Intermediate
The gap between pop science and expert science communication isolates scientists from the public. Beginner science communication often lacks a way forward while expert science communication lacks a path to it.
To solve this problem, we need to connect the two. Connecting the two is what I call intermediate science communication. Most of my work is intermediate science communication and textbooks are a typical example.
The Pitfalls
Intermediate science communication has the same pitfalls as pop science and expert science communication but to a lesser extent.
To do intermediate science communication, you have to know a lot like an expert, but you have to think like your audience.
It can also be quite difficult to research because most people prefer to do expert or beginner science communication.
Solution
To reach as wide an audience as possible, I often link to a large number of resources. Some resources are remedial while others are for experts. As for researching, you’ll often end up having to do your own derivations.
What to Aim For
These videos are similar to the videos given in the pop-science section, but they require a bit more mathematical background and get technical.
This video takes something people are interested in and uses it as a starting point to talk about Information Theory.
This entire video consists of explicitly worked examples and includes code to help viewers do something with the knowledge.
This video definitely leans towards expert science communication, but it does a great job connecting different ideas together.
This video shows a complete derivation along with an explanation. It helped me to understand a concept I needed to understand in my Road to Quantum Mechanics series.
This video contains most of a derivation.
As I’ve said before, most of my articles would also count, though I tend to lean towards expert science communication.
General Tips
Now, I want to talk about tips that work for all levels. Some tips work better for some levels than other levels.
I wrote part of this section of the article as a response to the original article, but I’ve rewritten parts of it to align with the rest of the article. I’ve also added several new parts that don’t show up in the original.
Respect and Humility
Say you decide to learn a new language. You pick up an app, hire a tutor, or do whatever you need to do. One of your lessons says that the language puts objects before the verb instead of after as in your native language. You decide that the language is being stupid, so you continue to do your lessons in Subject Verb Object order. You later learn that the language doesn’t use articles (a, an, the). You decide that the language is being stupid again, so you decide to invent your own articles for the language. After a year of lessons in this fashion, you visit a country in which they speak the language you’re learning. You try to talk with them and they look at you funny before leaving. Clearly, they don’t understand your brilliant new fixes to the language.
I hope everyone can see that you would be a complete jerk. Not only would you have an incredible disrespect for the language you’re learning, but your arrogance would prevent you from learning.
If you had approached the language with respect and humility, you would have learned to communicate more effectively.
How to Learn Respect and Humility in Communication
If you want to learn to communicate effectively, you have to start with respect for the subject. You also need the humility to understand what you don’t know. In this section, I want to put you on a path to becoming a better communicator.
Read What the Masters Have Written About Writing…
I recommend picking up a style guide like Strunk & White’s The Elements of Style.
It’s a little old, so you might have to throw out some outdated advice. I only know English (and Latin), so I can only recommend resources for English (and Latin).
Every language should have its own specific guide on writing well and some advice can differ from language to language. For example, you should avoid using the passive voice in English but it doesn’t matter in Latin. I’ve also heard that Medium might have an article or two on writing advice, so you might want to check there. I’ve heard good things about Stephen King’s On Writing, though I have never read it. Lastly, read Politics and the English Language.
…Until You Learn When to Break the Rules
You should follow their advice to the letter long enough to break your bad habits. After a while, you’ll start to realize why they said what they said and you won’t need to follow strict rules.
For example, authors recommend using as few adverbs as possible for beginner writers. (You can use the Hemingway Editor to help.) Doing so forces beginners to use strong nouns and verbs.
Sounds Tedious
Like all skills, writing requires work and discipline. You’re going to spend a lot of time when you start agonizing over every detail. As time goes by, you’ll learn which details to focus on.
Look at What Other People Have Done
There’s nothing new under the sun. To quote T. S. Elliot:
One of the surest of tests is the way in which a poet borrows. Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different.
The good poet welds his theft into a whole of feeling which is unique, utterly different from that from which it was torn; the bad poet throws it into something which has no cohesion.
A good poet will usually borrow from authors remote in time, or alien in language, or diverse in interest.
These ideas apply to science communication (and science in general). When you want to explain something, look for every explanation you can find. Take the parts of each explanation you think are best and combine them into a cohesive narrative.
Understand the Meaning of Words
In my AP Literature class, we’d often have to write essays and we’d often have to edit the essays others had written. I was awful at timed writing, but man could I edit.
You gave me four pages of timid or weak sentences and I’d give you three pages so strong and streamlined that they would go on to win a state swimming championship.
I was editing a paper once and I found a sentence that had the word “adhere” in it even though it didn’t fit the sentence.
To make my point, I looked up the definition of “adhere” and wrote every possible meaning on the back of the paper. When I returned the paper to the author, I gave them some commentary and explained why I made the edits I made.
When I got to the word “adhere,” I showed them the definition and respectfully asked them which definition fit the sentence. They looked over the definitions and couldn’t find one, so I told them to use a different word.
Science communicators use words that don’t fit for many reasons. They may not know a better word. They may not understand the material well enough to find the right word, so they have to rely on what others say. In either case, they need to learn more to make sure what they’re saying fits what they mean.
Don’t Force an Explanation
Someone once described love like a fart: If you have to force it, it’s probably crap. Writing is similar.
Bad writers often fixate on bad explanations. I want to give you an extreme example so you can see the problem.
Say someone asks you about radio waves. You have to compare them to something the person asking knows, so you say radio waves are “like red light, but redder.” This explanation can make sense if you define “redder” to mean “redshifted” in the sense that radio waves have less energy and a longer wavelength.
If you explain it, it’s a bad comparison. People understand “redder” to mean “closer to a pure, intense red” like how the image below gets redder as you travel from left to right.
For this reason, the concept of being redder than red doesn’t make sense.
Metaphorical language should be part of the explanation and not need to be explained. To make matters worse, you could have used the explanation of the simile instead of the simile and it would have been easier to understand.
Don’t Force a Word
You should have written down what you thought of when you read the lyrics to Toxicity at the start of the article. In case you haven’t, here are those lyrics again.
You, what do you own the world? How do you own disorder, disorder?
Now, somewhere between the sacred silence, sacred silence and sleep
Somewhere between the sacred silence and sleep
Disorder, disorder, disorder
Maybe you thought of a futile attempt to control an uncontrollable world.
Maybe you thought of some kind of mental disorder.
Maybe you thought of a zombie state between sleeping and death.
You know what you didn’t think of? The logarithm of the number of microstates corresponding to a given macro-state. You know why? Because disorder has nothing to do with microstates or macro-states unless you define disorder to mean entropy.
At that point, saying entropy is a disorder is the same as saying entropy is entropy. Not helpful.
What Does X Get Me?
At every point where you have a choice to make in writing, you should ask yourself “What does doing X get me?” What does defining entropy as disorder get you? Is anyone going to hear you say entropy is a disorder and go “Ah, it must be proportional to the logarithm of the number of microstates corresponding to a given macrostate.”?
As with the forced simile, you can cut out the middle man. For entropy, you could use whatever definition you made up for disorder and lose nothing. Seriously, go find any video or article that talks about entropy and cut out any line that says “entropy is/measures disorder” and ask yourself what is lost.
On the other hand, if you say something like entropy measures the likelihood of a state or the number of ways a state can exist, then the audience at least knows that you’ll need counting or probability. Furthermore, it gives you a simple way to explain the origin of the Second Law of Thermodynamics.
Don’t Use the Word “Utilize”
It’s an exact synonym for the word “use” and it even comes from the same root word. You’re already talking about technical stuff. You don’t need to make yourself sound artificially technical unless you’re doing a bit like in the video below.
As a rule, prefer the simplest word that best fits what you want to say.
Learn Other Topics
Learning other topics can allow you to bring in ideas that aren’t normally associated with the original topic. These new ideas give you a unique approach to the topic that helps your work leave lasting impressions on readers.
Learn Other Skills
Learning other skills can allow you to present ideas in a new way. I can use my programming experience to make images like
and videos like
I can also implement Numerical Methods to back up my claims about Physics as shown in the gif above. And the fact that I can make gifs out of videos is because I have experience with command-line tools like ffmpeg.
Use Worked Examples
If possible, worked non-trivial examples are one of the best ways to make a topic understandable to as many people as possible. I don’t just mean a plain English description of the topic, I mean getting into the weeds and doing the work.
For example, say a paper describes an algorithm for a new kind of matrix decomposition. Showing all the steps for the matrix decomposition for two or three non-trivial matrices will make the paper much easier to understand.
Structure of Examples
In general, the structure for the worked examples would be something like
- Here’s a trivial example with all the steps worked out.
- Here’s something less trivial with the steps that differ from the trivial example worked out.
- Here’s a non-trivial example with all the steps that differ from the two previous examples worked out.
You can add examples if you need them, but you shouldn’t go below two examples.
Non-Existence Proofs
You can even give examples for non-existence proofs by giving examples that might seem to work, but don’t. These examples might be the most important. If you ever teach limits in Real Analysis, I’d recommend giving an example where you use the wrong value for a limit in an (ϵ, δ) proof as I did in a previous article.
An Example is Worth a Thousand Words
Worked examples can even include information not included in the body of the paper. For example, I found a paper that claimed that you could write every matrix in a finite field as a sum of a periodic and nilpotent matrix. I could use this decomposition in my series on finite fields if the nilpotent and periodic matrices commute.
The author did not mention whether the matrices commuted in the paper, but if the paper had a few worked examples, I could check if the example matrices commute. If any of them didn’t, I would know that I couldn’t use the decomposition.
Explicit, Searchable Names
Using explicit names that other people can look up is another great way to help people find more information. I spent several days finding something akin to a derivation of an equation in a paper because the author called the important parts of the equation “coupling coefficients” instead of using full names like “electro-striction tensor.”
I spent weeks trying to find proofs for certain properties of Sturm-Liouville operators. If any of the resources said “Sturm-Liouville Comparison and Separation Theorems,” I would have spent an hour at most. For this reason, I started writing searchable terms in bold in my two main series.
Conciseness
To be concise is to give a lot of information clearly and in a few words. The purpose of conciseness is twofold.
First, using fewer words means the reader wastes less time.
Second, the more work a reader has to do, the more likely they are to misunderstand the text.
Processing each word requires some work, so using fewer words means fewer chances for a misunderstanding.
What’s the Problem?
While pop-science often satisfies both of these goals by leaving out technical mathematical derivations, many papers satisfy neither of these goals. Having to read entire textbooks to find the few paragraphs of background information needed to understand how to implement a single algorithm is a huge waste of time, so the compressed nature of papers fails this goal.
Redundancy
Standard text in the English language can be compressed to around an eighth of the size. For example, I could compress 1,000 characters of text to around 125 bytes. You’ll find similar statistics for almost any language.
From the work of Claude Shannon, we know that this redundancy functions as a method of error correction or noise reduction.
Entropy is not disorder and you can compress text more than what’s said in the video, but eh.
I bring this fact up because scientists and mathematicians write papers in a compressed format. This format is so compressed that they’re borderline illegible unless you’ve trained to read the papers in the relevant field.
It’s like trying to read a zip file byte by byte. I could do it if I had the decompression algorithm and some paper, but it would be much faster to read if it were written in plaintext.
In this sense, using fewer words has increased the amount of work the reader needs to do, leading to a net gain of possible misunderstandings.
Cohesion
I’ve already talked about the gap between pop science and expert science, but expert science has gaps within itself. In this section, I want to suggest some ideas to help promote cohesion within expert science.
Background Information
Including more background information within a paper would help all audiences understand your paper. Each author has their own specialties, idiosyncrasies, and points they want to emphasize.
Having many authors cover the same material would allow the good parts of one author’s version to compensate for the flaws of another.
For this reason, I say that the best teacher is two teachers. (I also say it to give English teachers an aneurysm.)
Read the Citations
I know someone will say that you’re supposed to read the cited papers to find the relevant background information. Then, you read the papers those papers cite, and repeat the process until you understand the original.
Doing so would be like trying to learn a language by reading a dictionary and a grammar rule book. While dictionaries and grammar rule books have their uses, they’re no substitute for reading the language in its natural environment.
In their current state, papers are often written as islands connected to each other by single sentences. If you’re a programmer, you could draw an analogy between the way scientists write papers and spaghetti code.
To give you a sense of what it feels like, imagine how confusing this article would be if I mixed up all the sentences. Even if I put a link to the previous sentence in next to the sentence, you still couldn’t read it. While the information is still there and it is all related, there’s no cohesion.
Textbooks
Textbooks are part of the answer to the point about cohesion, but they’re only for papers written decades ago. In practice, going from a textbook to a modern paper can be quite difficult.
Modern Textbooks
For this reason, some people should collect all the ideas from related papers into a cohesive structure every few years.
It doesn’t need to have ideas from every paper ever written in the field, but it should try to put ideas into some kind of tree structure and establish some background information.
How Would You Even Write this Textbook?
Pick a few modern papers important to the field and put them at the end of the textbook. Then, write all the background information you would need to understand these papers. Put this background information in the first half.
Add related papers to the end of the textbook. Write the background information you would need for the new papers, then put it in the first half. Repeat this process until you have a decently-sized textbook.
Institutional Problems with the Science Communication Pipeline
I’ve talked about personal things you can do, but we often have institutional problems. Institutions pressure scientists to publish as many papers as possible. The science journalism machine pressures scientists to publish spicy, positive results.
Journals don’t look at retraction studies or negative results. Recommendation algorithms and our monkey brains pressure science journalists to write clickbait. This clickbait consists of exaggerating or adding claims not found in the source.
The audience eats up the clickbait, which leads to them being liable to read more clickbait. Their desire for clickbait makes writing clickbait more profitable. You can find a full discussion here.
Summary
Science communication is one part science and one part communication. You need both to do the job well. I’ve listed some of the major things you can do to become better in science communications, but I’ve left many things out.
I recommend you talk to science communicators you like and observe what made their communication effective. If you have any suggestions or explanations that made a topic clear to someone, let me know in response. Since I started with Feynman, I’m going to leave you with Feynman’s words on teaching.
Promotion
If you liked this article, you’d probably like Ingrid Daubechies and the Importance of Mathematical Communication, the article that inspired this one.
As a bonus, one of my responses to that article has a lot of links about Information Theory. If you want to support me, you can read and share all my articles, which you can find on my website. You can also sign up for Medium and make me your referred member.
Lastly, I’m going to be streaming this week. If you have any questions about my articles or other topics or want to see some programming or article writing, feel free to drop into the stream.
The Ancients? Empires that created political and social organizations and invented most of current sciences and technologies
Posted on: July 17, 2022
Ten Things the Ancients Did Better than Us
September 2020
Just a couple of decades ago, the people of ancient civilizations were viewed as simple, primitive people. However, numerous discoveries since then have revealed a number of surprising facts about ancient cultures, namely that many of them possessed advanced knowledge of metallurgy, mathematics, chemistry, astronomy, and more.
With this knowledge they forged steel stronger than anything else seen until the Industrial Revolution, created a recipe for concrete so durable that their buildings would endure for millennia longer than the constructions of today, cut stones and assembled walls so precisely that attempts at modern-day replications have failed.
Scientists are still scratching their heads over some of the amazing accomplishments of ancient civilizations. Here we feature ten of them.
1. Aqueducts and hydro technology
Who would have thought that 21 st century governments would be looking to 1,500-year-old technology for guidance on how to solve water access problems? But that is exactly what is happening in Lima, Peru.
Peru has been facing a severe water crisis as chronic problems, such as polluted water supplies, and environmental change combine to undermine the water security of the entire country.
However, a new plan has been put forward by Lima’s water utility company, Sedapal, to revive an ancient network of stone canals that were built by the Wari culture as early as 500 AD, in order to supply the population with clean, unpolluted water.
The Wari built an advanced water conservation system that captured mountain water during the rainy season via canals.
The canals transported the water to places where it could feed into springs further down the mountain, in order to maintain the flow of the rivers during the dry season.
Many ancient civilizations are known for their advanced construction of cisterns, canals, aqueducts, and water channelling technology, including the Persians, Nabataeans, Romans, Greeks, Harrapans, and many more.
2. Steel
Over 2,000 years ago, ancient people in the Levant were forging swords made of steel so advanced that blacksmiths would not come close to creating anything of equal quality until modern times.
The metal was so strong that the swords could slice straight through objects made of other metals.
The steel, known as Damascus steel, was produced out of a raw material, known as Wootz steel, from Asia. Other materials were added during the steel’s production to create chemical reactions at the quantum level. It was first used around 300 BC, but was produced en masse in the Middle East between 1100 and 1700 AD.
The secret of making the Middle East’s Damascus Steel only re-emerged under the inspection of scanning electron microscopes in modern laboratories.
3. Concrete
Today’s concrete structures are typically designed to last between 100 and 120 years.
However, the Romans built structures from concrete 2,000 years ago that have maintained their structural integrity to this day. So what was their secret?
The Romans made concrete by mixing lime, volcanic rock, and seawater.
The combination of the three instantly triggered a chemical reaction in which the lime incorporated molecules into its structure and reacted with the ash to cement the whole mixture together.
The ancient seawater concrete contains the ideal crystalline structure of Tobermorite, which has a greater strength and durability than the modern equivalent.
As well as being more durable, Roman concrete was also more environmentally-friendly compared to today’s concrete.
Conventional modern cement requires heating a mix of limestone and clay to 1,450 degrees Celsius which releases significant amounts of carbon into the atmosphere. In contrast, Roman cement used much less lime and made it from baking limestone at 900 degrees Celsius, requiring much less fuel.
4. Road-building
These days, we’d be lucky to get a decent highway built within a year. But it was not always this way. Ancient people recognized the importance of roads and networks linking together cities and settlements across regions and countries… and they built them fast! (The city of Ur in southern Iraq empire paved its road)
Qhapaq Nan, otherwise known as the Main Andean Road, is a huge network of roads once used by the mighty Inca Empire that extends over more than 30,000 kilometres.
It was the backbone of the Inca Empire’s political and economic power, connecting production, administrative, and ceremonial centres of pre-Inca Andean culture.
The Incas of Cuzco achieved this unique infrastructure on a grand scale in less than a century, extending their vast network across what is now Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.
The Romans too are known as expert road builders. About 1.7 million square miles of territory was covered by the Roman roads, which were made with gravel, dirt, and bricks made from granite and hard lava. Many ancient roads are still used today.
5. Stone Cutting
Around the world, we can find numerous examples of ancient stone-cutting so precise that they rival creations of the modern day produced with advanced machinery.
One prime example can be found at Puma Punku, an ancient archaeological site in Bolivia – dated by some historians to 15,000-years-old – that contains such incredible stonework that it looks as if the stones were cut using a diamond tool.
Enormous blocks weighing up to 800 tons, consist of perfectly straight edges that lock perfectly into each other and contain no chisel marks. Attempts to replicate the precision of the stonework have failed.
6. Agriculture
Human sacrifice is typically the first thing that comes to people’s minds when they think about the Aztecs and other Mesoamerican cultures.
However, there is much more to these civilizations than this practice. One of their innovations was the chinampa agricultural system, the so-called ‘floating gardens’ which can be found on the shallow lake beds in the Valley of Mexico.
A chinampa plot was constructed by staking out a rectangular enclosure into the marshy lakebed. The enclosure would then be fenced in by joining the stakes with wattle.
After that, the fenced in area would be filled with mud and decaying vegetation. In order to prevent the roots from becoming water-logged, it was important that the fill brought the chinampa plot above the lake level.
Canals surrounding the chinampa plots formed an illusion that these agricultural lands were floating on water, hence its misattribution as ‘floating gardens’.
To further stabilize these plots of land, willows were planted around the perimeter. This is due to the dense root system which, over time, anchored the retaining walls of the structure and reduced the effects of erosion.
In order to ensure that the chinampas produced good harvests throughout the year, it was vital that the supply of water was well managed. During the rainy season, flooding would have been a problem. Hence, a sophisticated drainage system, which included dams, sluice gates and canals, were put in place to counter this problem.
By using human excrement to fertilize the crops, the Aztecs were also able to create a healthier living environment as the city’s wastewater would have also been treated.
The system of agriculture and waste water treatment seen in the floating gardens of Mexico, was so advanced that there have been attempts (unsuccessfully) to implement it in modern times.
7. Walls
The Inca civilization is well-known for its advanced masonry work, much of which can still be seen today in Machu Picchu and Sacsayhuaman in Peru.
Their large dry stone walls display huge blocks that had been carefully cut to fit together tightly without mortar and with levels of precision unmatched anywhere else in the Americas.
The stones are so closely spaced that a single piece of paper will not fit between many of the stones. This precision, combined with the rounded corners of the blocks, the variety of their interlocking shapes, and the way the walls lean inward (to prevent damage in the event of an earthquake) have puzzled scientists for decades.
The method used to match precisely the shape of a stone with the adjacent stones is still unknown and attempts to recreate the technique have all failed.
8. City planning
In the last century, numerous ancient cities have been unearthed that have astounded scientists and urban planners alike.
When archaeologists discovered the 5,000-year-old site of Mohenjo Daro in Pakistan, what they found was unprecedented in the region – the city demonstrated an exceptional level of civic planning and amenities.
The houses were furnished with brick-built bathrooms and many had toilets. Wastewater from these was led into well-built brick sewers that ran along the centre of the streets, covered with bricks or stone slabs.
Cisterns and wells finely constructed of wedge-shaped bricks held public supplies of drinking water. Back in its day, the city would have been home to around 40,000 inhabitants.
In the same era, but on another continent, another great city was being constructed – Caral.
Located in the Supe Valley in Peru, Caral is a 5,000-year-old city that consisted of huge monuments, including pyramids, plazas, amphitheatres, temples, and residential areas.
They had extensive agriculture, ate a varied diet, developed the use of textiles, used a complex system for calculating and recording, built water supply, and developed an intricate irrigation system.
Architects are currently looking to Caral for inspiration in city planning.
Japanese architects intend to incorporate building designs that they implemented to protect their people from earthquakes. The people of Caral suspended their houses in baskets filled with stones that dissipated earth movement and prevented collapse.
9. Astronomy
From star constellations painted on ancient Greek ceramics to Native American rock art depicting solstices , star charts in ancient Japanese tombs , Australian Aboriginal dreamtime stories reflecting known astronomical events , and a 10,000-year-old megalithic calendar in Scotland, there is no doubt that ancient civilizations around the world possessed an extraordinary understanding of the cosmos and its movements.
But just how they were able to so precisely and accurately record cosmological events without the technology we possess today still eludes scientists in many cases.
What is certain is that recent discoveries have revealed just how advanced ancient cultures were when it came to astronomical knowledge, and that they were far from the primitive people they were once thought to be.
10. Weapons
While there is no doubt that modern-day weapons are far more superior to their ancient counterparts in their ability to unleash mass death and destruction, there exist a number of powerful ancient weapons that still elude scientists as to their construction and capabilities.
Greek mathematician, engineer, inventor, and astronomer, Archimedes (287 – 212 BC) is reported to have created a heat ray weapon (sometimes called the ‘death ray’) to defend against ships attacking Syracuse, an historic city in Sicily.
According to 2nd century AD author Lucian and centuries later, Anthemius of Tralles, the weapon was made of large reflectors (possibly made from polished bronze or copper), which were used to focus sunlight onto approaching ships, causing them to catch fire.
Although its existence has been hotly debated among historians, a number of tests have accurately proven that such a weapon is possible.
In 1973, the Greek scientists Ioannis Sakkas set up 70 mirrors with a copper coating, which were pointed at a plywood model of a Roman warship at a distance of 50 meters. When the mirrors were focused accurately, the ship burst into flames within seconds.
An article from the yearly event of the Martyrdom of Leader Antoun Saadi on July 8.
Posted on: July 15, 2022
.حسن حمادة – Hassan Hamade | Facebook
دماء انطون سعاده سوف تطهر الأرض من تجار الطوائف و المذاهب .
دماء 8 تموز شعلة الحريه سوف تحرقهم حرقا و تطهر الأرض من نجاستهم .
لا دين لهم غير المال ، و لا تقوم سلطتهم إلا على التفرقه بين الناس و على إفقار الناس و تحويلهم إلى عبيد رق داخل المعتقلات الطائفية المذهبيه اللعينه
و تقديس سلطة البنوك و اصحابها المرابينو تسخير البلاد للأجنبي و تعميم الفقر و الذل .
هذه ثمار نظامهم اللعين القائم على الفساد و الإفساد و ادعاء التدين .
دماء 8 تموز ستظل تلاحقهم لتنزل بهم العقاب الذي يستحقون ،
عقاب يليق بهم و بميثاقيتهم المقرفه لا تسمعوا اقوالهم فكلها كذبو لا تفعلوا أفعالهم فكلها جرائم و انحطاط .
دماء انطون سعاده تلعنهم و تدفعهم دفعا ليستقروا في مزبلة التاريخ.
كل المآسي التي نعيشها من صنع نظامهم الذي صنعه الإستعمار الفرنسي لتسهيل مرور مخطط التهويد .إ
نهم عبيد المال ليس إلا ،
فلا تسمعوا اقوالهمو لا تفعلوا أفعالهم .
معتقلاتهم الطائفية سوف تدمر على رؤوسهم الخبيثه
A proof that being poor is Not a condition for Not obtaining Perfect scores in exams: Case of Diyala Gharib
Posted on: July 14, 2022
ديالا غريب...
الطالبة التي أبكت الملايين….
طالبة متفوقة جمعت 239،1 من 240
يعني خسرت فقط جزء من العلامة..
ديالا تعيش في بيت بالآجار مع أمها واختيها الاثنتين…
ديالا هذا العام الذي تفوقت فيه بهذه العلامة الخارقة انتقلت بين ثلاث بيوت من بيت لبيت بحثاً عن بيت رخيص الأجار….
أم ديالا تعمل (لفايه) بالبيوت لتحصل مال تدفع أجرة المنزل وتشتري طعام لبناتها…
أم ديالا كانت تذهب للمكتبات تبحث عن أوراق مرميه وفيها جزء ابيض ليتدرب ويكتب بناتها عليها..
أم ديالا كانت تبحث في المكتبات ليعطوها أقلام مستعملة لأنها كانت تمر بأوقات لاتسطيع شراء أقلام لبناتها….
ديالا كانت تذهب للعمل مع أمها في البيوت لتساعدها في الحصول على ثمن الطعام والشراب….
ديالا لم تستطع أخذ دروس خصوصية ولا اتباع دورات…
ديالا كانت تجوع في أيام عندما كانت صديقاتها يتحدثون عن الأكلات التي تغذي الدماغ وتساعد في الذاكرة…
ديالا كانت تتألم من برد الشتاء لأنهم أمضوا الشتاء بدون مدفأة….
ديالا كانت تتألم من أصابعها المتجمدة والتي تورمت من شدة البرد القارس…..
ديالا قالت أنها خاضت معركة مع الجوع مع الفقر مع البرد مع البكاء
بيت لايحوي سوى أربع اسفنجات وطنجرتين قديمتين وغاز….
كل هذا الفقر
كل هذا الجوع
كل هذا البرد
كل هذه المعاناة
كل هذا الخذلان
وصنعت نتيجة أشبه بالمعجزة بعلامة شبه تامه……
How do we currently comprehend Antoun Saadi teaching?
مغامرة العقل الثانية
كيف نفهم سعاده راهناً؟
نظام مارديني Nizam Mardini Send an email
قراءة فكر أنطون سعاده من منظور فلسفي ومن زاوية الدراسات فن، ولكنها ليست فن الممكن، مادامت تتحرك ضمن فضاء الخيال وتتغذى على السؤال ودهشته،
فكل قراءة هي جواب على تساؤل ما، وبهذا المعنى هي تفكير إشكالي يتأسس على الهدم والبناء، تفكير لا يروم إعادة استنساخ الواقع كما هو، بل إبداع جديد للواقع.
من هنا ستبدو القراءة مسكونة بتساؤلات جوهرية:
كيف يمكن مواجهة واقع وطننا في جانبه المأساوي؟ وهل من الحكمة أن يتنازل الإنسان عن أحلامه وعن هويته ويرضخ لشهوة الأصنام وتناقضات الواقع التي حطمها سعاده؟
وهل الهروب من الواقع إلى الخيال والتحرر من “اللوغس” وضوابطه المنطقية والسفر في عوالم “الميثوس” جنون أم حكمة؟
أسّس سعاده عبر استشهاده حالةً من الحضور المعرفيّ تمثّلت
أوّلاً بإنتاج معرفة “مزعجة” فكّكت ما وراء الوجه البشريّ المتوحّش الاستبدادي/ الاستعماريّ، ومكّنته من أداء دور سوسيولوجيّ العموم، أي السوسيولوجيّ الّذي ينتج معرفة عن الناس/ المجتمع.
إنّ لغة سعاده لحظة استشهاده ليست أبداً بتلك اللغة الصعبة، بل إنّها لغة الناس الّتي حملت هموم التغيير،
كما حملت وعياً بواقعهم اليوميّ ومعاناتهم التراكميّة، وهو ما كشفه لمحاميه حميد فرنجية فيما دفعه لتأسيس الحزب السوري القومي الاجتماعي: “بعد درس أوليّ منظّم قررت أنّ فقدان السيادة القومية هو السبب الأول في ما حل بأمتي وفي ما يحل بها”.
لهذا أرى أن محاولة الإمساك بأجوبة لهذه التساؤلات ستدفعنا إلى النظر في شكل قراءة راهنية سعاده أولًا ثم التوغل في مضمونها.
ففي الذكرى 73 لاستشهاده، كيف يمكن لنا أن نفهم رسالة المعلم أنطون سعاده؟
هل هي مغامرة العقل الثانية التي يجب أن نتبعها لقراءة وفهم رسالته بعيداً من الأساطير وهو القائل: «ما جئتكم بالمعجزات »؟
لمعرفة المستقبل كما يستشرف سعاده يجب أن تكون قراءتنا عقلية لأنّ «عظمة نصّ أنطون سعاده ليست في ما يقوله حرفياً، بل في ما يمكن أن يقوله الآن وسيقوله في المستقبل» يقول الشاعر أدونيس.
بهذه الرؤية فإنّ القراءة العقلية المنفتحة لتعاليم المعلم ستجعل النص غنيّاً وخلاقّاً ومفتوحاً، خصوصاً أنّ هذا النص لم يأتِ بهدف تعطيل العقل الذي اعتبره سعاده أنه الشرع الأعلى للإنسان، فلماذا يعمل الكثير من القوميين على تعطيل هذا العقل عبر التعامل مع النص وكأنه مقدّس؟
بديهي أنّ ثمة إشكاليات كثيرة في فهم رسالة المعلم سعاده، وأنا أقصد بالمعلم تحديداً بعيداً من ترداد مصطلح ولقب الزعيم الذي أصبح بديهياً باعتباره المؤسس وواضع مبادئ النهضة القومية الاجتماعية.
ولكن قبل الدخول في قراءة وفهم ظاهرة إطلاقه حركة العقل في بلادنا، نرى أنفسنا أمام أسئلة بُنيوية لا يمكننا كقوميين الهروب منها في مواجهة الراهن.
أهمّ هذه الأسئلة هي:
هل يبدو فكر سعاده وهو النهضوي علمياً، يتسع لكلّ فئات مجتمعنا وعابراً للانتماءات المختلفة؟
هل هو ملائم لهذا التبدّل الهائل في الأفكار والقيم والاتجاهات في الألفية الثالثة؟
هل نحن في حاجة إلى إعادة استكشافه كمفكر وصاحب نظرية متكاملة؟
ومن الأسئلة الراهنة:
هل أصبح المسرح السوري كله هذه المرة ساحة لعقيدته في عصر العولمة؟
ثم كيف نقرأ فلسفة سعاده قراءة عصرية؟
كيف نجعله متوافقاً مع المستجدات والمتغيّرات؟
في ضوء هذه الأسئلة كيف نفهم ما قاله سعاده: إنّ المبادئ ليست قوالب نهائية للعقل وليست أصناماً جامدة، بل هي قواعد لانطلاق الفكر.
قدّم مفكرو الحزب السوري القومي الاجتماعي، دراسات وأبحاثاً ووجهات نظر تقرأ فكر سعاده من جوانب متعدّدة، من ضمنها فكرة الزعامة وتأثيرها في بناء المؤسسات حتى الشهادة «أنا لا يهمّني كيف أموت، بل من أجل ماذا أموت»،
جملة اختصرت دوره كمعلم حتى في الشهادة. ونحن هنا ملزمون بِاتباع تعاليمه لأنها مرتبطة بالحقائق العلمية، والحقائق كما هو معلوم: وجود ومعرفة بها.
لا شك في أنّ الأسئلة هي مجسّات المعرفة، وتجليات الفكر الفعّال، وهي مؤشرات عبقرية المعلم وخلقه الذي نحن في صدده،
ودائماً ما كان العباقرة يطرحون أسئلة مهمة ومنذ الطفولة. فالأسئلة مفاتيح للإضاءة، ولا يطرحها غير العقل الفعّال والنظام المصمّم على العمل، وعلى البحث عن العلل والأسباب والعقبات والظواهر التي تعيشها بلادنا، لتطوير الحياة والفكر من دون المسّ بالثوابت، لأنّ التطوّر هو الناموس العام للحياة الإنسانية.
لكن هذا التطوّر، من حيث هو حركة إنسانية إلى أمام، يفترض أيضاً قوى روحية، معرفية وقيمية، وقوى مادية، طبيعية ومنتجة تحققه كما يرى الأمين هنري حاماتي.
ولأنّ المعرفة خارج العقل مثل التلاوة التي تلامس العواطف، فإنّ قراءة سعاده تنفذ إلى القلب والعقل معاً.
ولأنّ سعاده هو صاحب قضية وجودنا هذه، فهو ابن المدرسة العلمية: يؤسّس عقليتنا المجتمعية على الحقائق العلمية، مثلما يقيم مذهبه الاجتماعي السياسي على هذه الحقائق.
منهج التفكير القومي الاجتماعي، يتمثل في أسلوب التعامل مع الحقائق العلمية، لفهم أحوال الاجتماع البشري والتصدّي لقضاياه، هو منهج يقوم على قانون العوامل والحالات الذي يعتبره سعاده القانون الأساسي للاجتماع البشري، ومنهجاً شمولياً يُلزِم استقراء كلّ العوامل والنواميس الممكن استطلاعها واستعمالها، إضافة إلى كونه منهجاً يقدّم أرحب مدى لإطلاق العقل في القضية، ومنهجاً يرى التطوّر حاصل تفاعل القوى المادية والروحية.
كما في العديد من المجتمعات الغربية فإنّ سعاده ينطلق من ملاحظة أنّ دراسة المجتمعات أيّ علم الاجتماع، أخذت حيّزاً كبيراً في الغرب، لكنها ظلت مهملة في بلادنا، لذلك عمد إلى البحث في هذا المضمار بالذات لأهميته في توضيح نشوء الهوية القومية وتطورّها، كما تقول الدكتورة صفية سعاده.
إنّ التمكن والتعامل مع فكر سعاده بصيغة الماضي في ضوء التحديات الراهنة هو كمن يحاول الحصول على معلومات من مسافر قادم من بلد غريب وبعيد، بلد يختلف كثيراً في تحوّلاته ونظرته عمّا لدينا.
ولذلك يتحتم علينا بذل الجهد إذا أردنا حقاً فهم رسالة سعاده، لكن ليس كمن يحملها ذلك المسافر، بل بصيغة الراهن وذلك لسبب وحيد وهو أنّ نصوص سعاده هي مصدر غني لفهم التحوّلات التي تجري في الهلال السوري الخصيب.
ندرك تماماً أنّ أيّ قراءة لفهم فلسفته يجب أن تبقى مصانة إلى درجة «التقديس»، طالما تنساق في تطلعاتها ضمن إطار البحث عن أفق فكري يحتفي بعقل الإنسان، لا أن يستعبدُه.
مهمة القوميين في هذه المرحلة هي إطلاق حركة العقل كما أرادها سعاده أولاً، ومن ثم تحليل وإسقاط فكره الغني على الواقع بتحوّلاته الخطيرة على وحدة أرضنا وشعبنا وحمايتهما،
وبذلك نكون أوفياء لا لمنهج سعاده فحسب، بل لجوهر رسالته ولما جاء من أجله ورحل باكراً.
هل يصلح فكر سعاده لتطوير مستقبل بلادنا؟
نعم، ولكن علينا بالمعرفة وقراءة كافة الأفكار والفلسفات لا البقاء في الدائرة الحزبية المغلقة، بل جعل الدائرة الحزبية مركز انطلاق لفهم العالم على ضوء فهمنا للتعاليم.
An extract from a long poem: Related to how leader Antoun Saadi was executed/Martyred on July 8, 1949 in a mock trial
Posted on: July 12, 2022
قدّاسُ الهلاك
مختارات من ملحمة الشاعر فايز خضّور
فايز خضّور (Fayez Khaddour)
دارتْ وأنهتْ هذه الأفلاكُ دورتها،
ولم تهدأ شجاراتُ الجدال الرخوِ، حولَ كنوز مجدكَ،
حولَ مَنْ يرثُ العقيدةَ، كي يحُرِّفها، ويحتكرَ الرِّيادَهْ…!!
وتعاوَرَ المتنازعينَ ضُمورُ وجْداناتِ شرذمة، رَأَتْ في الغَدْرِ مغنمَةً،
فألهبتِ الوطيسَ، تقانَصَتْ، وتنابذَت برخائصِ الألقاب
واقتتلَتْ على نَيْل الشماتةِ، مِنْ خصومٍ حاقدينَ …!!
فنالَ أضألُها نِفايَةَ رُخْصِهِ، وانكبّ يلعقُها، ويُوغلُ في
المكائدِ ـ
ليس محسُوداً على عَفَن الوليمةِ، شخْصُهُ،
وحُثالةٌ مِنْ شخصهِ، منبوذةٌ تتسوَّلُ الغفرانَ…!!
في دَمِنا مناعاتٌ تصُدُّ قبولَ (هذا الشخص)، منكرةً لهُ،
ولِمَنْ مَعَهْ…!!
النَّهضةُ المثلى بساحَتِنا
ومنْ نبضتْ بخافِقهِ جُذورُ يمينهِ القَسَميِّ،
عادَ برغبةٍ، مِنْ رامةِ التضليلِ، يحفِزُهُ المصيرُ الحرُّ،
والتسْيارُ في أسرابِ أمتهِ. يُعمِّدُ يومهُ الداجي شَرارُ الزوبعهْ…!!
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سَعادَهْ…
عليكَ السلامُ، ومنكَ السلامُ، ويهفو إلى راحتيكَ السلامْ.
فَعُذراً إذا ما خَدَشْنا وقارَ طقوسِ العبادَهْ.
وفوَّرَ تَنُّورُ غيظِ الأنامْ…!!
رفيقي. أنا واقفٌ:
مُتعِبٌ، مُتعَبٌ، وحزينٌ
وما بي اشتياقٌ، إلى مَفرِشٍ أو وسادَهْ…!!
وما بي جُنوحٌ ـ طموحٌ، إلى مَحفَلٍ أو قيادَهْ…!!
وما بي احتياجٌ إلى حافزٌ أو قلادَهْ…!!
ولكنني لا أطيقُ طلاقَ الخِتامْ.
وحقِّ دماءِ العِمادَهْ. …!!
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قاتمُ ياسمينُ دمشقَ، ومكتئبُ العِطرِ، والأوجُهُ المشرقاتُ
مرقَّشةٌ بالشحُّوبِ…!! وصوتُ المؤذِّنِ مُحتَبِسٌ.
والنواقيسُ راعِفةٌ. والمصلُّونَ أقعدَهُمْ جَبَلٌ مِنْ
خشوعٍ. ورانَ على قهقهاتِ السُّكارى. وجَلْجَلَةِ
القصفِ، والأُنْسِ، في مُمْتِعاتِ الأماسي، ستارٌ
كتيمٌ مِنَ الوَقْرِ، والعجَبِ الفاجعيِّ… فَمَنْ أدْخَلَ الكونَ
قبو الحِدادْ.؟!
مُعْتمٌ، يا ضياءَ الفراتَيْنِ، ليمونُ يافا
وقمحُ الشمالِ الأسيرِ. وبدرُ الهداية غَلْغَلَ
في نفَق النومِ، واختالَ زحفُ السَّوادْ…!!
يا دفاترَ أيامنا البيضِ. ها هي قُدَّامَكُنَّ الوسيلاتُ مشحوذةٌ: مَطَرٌ، أمْ دَمٌ، أمْ مِدادْ…؟!
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لَمَسَ الربيعُ سُفوحنا،
ضجرانَ من هرب النجوم إلى مدار الشُّحِّ.
فاستغنى، وقتَّرَ في زيارتِهِ وعَجَّلْ…!!
حُبَّاً مَنَحْنا حُرَّ نهضتِنا إليه، خيولَ عُرْسٍ.
نعتلي سَرْجَ الحضارةِ وانتشرْنا
في دُجى الأكوانِ، نُولِمُها ضياءً، نُهمِلُ العَثَراتِ،
نُمهِلُها إلى حينِ، ونُنشِدُ: أيُّها الفادي تمهَّلْ…!!
وصَلَتْ إلى شَفَة الجحيمِ.
وغوَّرتْ في القاعِ شانئِةُ العداوةِ.
واستبدَّتْ لعنةُ الأقدارِ بالأيامِ:
تَحصِدُها، وتطويها، وتُلقِمُها، إلى (سيفٍ ومِنجَلْ) …!!
وتَهَالَكَتْ مِنْ عُمْرنا السنواتُ كابيةً.
تَعَاوَرنا بها الطاغوتُ والمتبجِّحونَ،
وأدعياءُ الدولة العظمى، ولوَّنتِ القباحةُ زِيَّها، والصبحُ أَلْيَلْ…!!
وتغامَزَ المتناورونَ، وبيَّتوا خَطْباً،
وهمْ يستنكرونَ تساءلوا: مَنْ ذلكَ النَّمِرُ البريعُ،
يَغُصُّ مرصوصَ الصفوفِ.؟! فجاشَ مِرْجَلُهُمْ وجَلْجَلْ…!!
نَمِرٌ من الأرْز المقدَّس، صاغَهُ التاريخُ في رَجُلٍ، بآلافٍ… وأَرَجَلْ…!!
لانَتْ له الصَّهَواتُ، أجْمَحُها وأشمَسُها. وما لانتْ إرادتُهُ العنيدةُ.
في صِراعِ السَّبقِ. لكنَّ الخيانَةَ خادَعَتْهُ،
وعاجَلَتْهُ، وأوْثَقَتْهُ، وأعْدَمَتْهُ بِزَنْقَةِ المضمارِ.
كان حقيقةً للحُلْمِ: ودَّع قاتليهِ، لأربعينَ وخمسِ
خُطْواتٍ، منَ الدنيا. فناداهُ الخلودُ معَ الشهامةِ: أنْ تَرجَّلْ…!!
لم يكنْ فظأّ غليظَ القلب.
فانفضُّوا صَغَاراً مِنْ حواليَهْ.
اتِّقاءً لافتضاحِ الضامرينَ اللاهثينَ، الزَّحْفَطونِّيينَ صوبَ المهزَلَهْ…
واجتناباً لاحتمالِ الحُكْمِ إبراماً، بحقِّ الناشزينَ المستسيغينَ
الحكايا الزائلهْ…!!ِ
لم يكنْ يوماً، حليفاً للقضايا الباطلَهْ…!!
لم يرواغْ مرَّةً،
في ممكنٍ أو مستحيلٍ، لم يُخاصِمْهُ سَدادُ الرأيِ،
في صُنْعِ القرارِ الحقّ: حَسْماً كان، مثلّ المقصَلَهْ…!!
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كان لحنُ الوداع (بتموّزَ)، معزوفَةً من (مَقَام) الرصاصْ…!!
(حلَّقتْ) في اهتزازاتِ أوتارها جوقةُ العازفينْ.
(طَرِبتْ) مِنْ قراراتها، وجواباتِها، طُغْمةً المحفليِّينَ، والحاشَيهْ..!!
بعدها استَأْذَنتْ شهرزادُ لبتْر (الحديث المباحْ):
رَكَعَتْ في فرِاش الغوايةِ، يَسْكُنُها هَلَعٌ، من صدى (الغاشيَهْ)…!!
يا قناديلَ تموزَ، لم تَدْرِ قارئةُ البختِ، أن ضميرَ الحصى، في (مجال الرمايةِ)،
عَطَّلَ إصغاءَهُ للأزيز، وأحْنَتْ جبالُ الصنوبر قاماتِها:
نَدَماً وأسىً وافتقاداً. وقطَّرَتِ الصمغَ دمعاً، وأوقَفتِ
الفَجْرَ، عاتبةً ومؤنِّبَةً: يا رفيقَ ولادتنا، عَطَبٌ هائلٌ،
قد أَلَمَّ بوجهِ الصباحْ. ..!!
والعناقيدُ ما حَصْرَمَتْ بعدُ، في عُنُقِ الداليهْ…!!
يا قناديلُ تموز. شهرُكِ كرّمه الدهرُ، وَعْدَ غِلالِ الجراحْ…
والسِّلالُ مُولَّهة بالقطافِ، وحَضْنِ الجنى.
والرعاةُ المطيعونَ ضَلُّوا الشِّعابَ، وما ارشدَتْهُمْ إلى النبع قيدومَةُ الماشيَهْ..!!
ثمرٌ حامضٌ ومريرٌ، ومزمارٌ أُنْسِ المراعي، يُتَهْتِهُ بالميجنا…!!
وطني، أنتَ حِصْنُ النبيِّينَ.
قُداسُ جيشِ الجنازاتِ، سَيَّافُ حَشْدِ الطغاةِ.
وجبَّانةٌ للجُناةِ. وعِرزالُ عشقٍ، لحِدَوِ العصاةِ الكماةِ.
ومجدُكَ تاجٌ، وعَرْشُكَ شمسً الخلاصِ، وعَدْلُ القِصاصْ…
Nada Bejjani Raad
« Mon fils, ne t’en va pas »
Pas maintenant. Pas quand nous sommes fâchés.
Fais comme si rien ne s’était passé.
Attends que la poussière retombe.
La veille, quand tu es rentré après cette longue absence… j’avais le cœur qui dansait. Au fond de moi, c’était une explosion.
Quand tu n’es pas là, je perds mes mots, je me fourvoie et, pour que j’avance, il me faut désormais marcher dans tes pas.
Certaines nuits, quand le vent sifflait trop fort, j’oubliais jusqu’à ton prénom.
Et puis ce souffle qui s’est levé, venant du port (Port of Beirut catastrophe).
Ce souffle de verre, cette hécatombe de vies brisées en étoile. Le sang coulait à flots et on ne savait où donner du regard.
Dans les rues, jusqu’à l’aube, tu as erré hagard.
Oublie ce que tu as vu.
Notre ville souvent assassinée… Notre ville comme un millefeuille où passe en accéléré le temps qui, ailleurs, met des plombes.
C’est de mourir cent fois que nous sommes si vivants et chaque instant volé a, ici, le goût de l’éternité.
Mon fils, pourquoi t’es-tu figé ?
D’où vient cette pesanteur ?
Cette mort avant l’heure, est-elle la fois de trop ?
Qu’il est dur ce moment où, suspendu dans le vide, l’homme s’arrête de marcher.
Cette ville dévastée en un battement de cil, c’est le mauvais œil, les dieux qui sont jaloux.
Il est des fêlures qu’on ne peut ressouder, des plaies qui suintent comme des stigmates.
Mais, avec le temps, nous avons scellé un pacte.
Le mauvais œil n’aura pas prise sur notre destinée.
Hier, en fermant les volets, le souffle de la montagne est monté jusqu’à moi. Egrenés en lacets, les villages alentour palpitaient comme des flammes. Dans le ciel, l’étoile du berger s’est levée comme avant.
Ce soir, la lune est pleine et fait du bruit en marchant.
Chaque vie est une victoire, chaque jour une bénédiction et la mort d’Adonis, une affaire de saison. (Oui je meur a chaque saison et ne veut pas attendre la saison prochaine au Liban)
Au jardin de ton père, les amandes sont ouvertes et la figue que tu cueilles est perlée de lait.
Qu’importe que l’on rase l’herbe que tu as foulée, que l’on fauche ta ville et déterre tes morts.
Nous sommes la chandelle qu’on ne peut pas moucher, la moule accrochée à son rocher. Nous sommes le peuple qui danse sur la bouche du volcan. (I wish we had a volcano to visit)
Même si, depuis toujours, tu es tourné vers la mer…
Condamné à porter le Liban en bandoulière, en escarbille au cœur.
Condamné à bâtir le pays des autres (Exactly our people destiny: the countless warrior empires that conquered us since antiquity and abused of us for the construction of these “uncivilized” warriors)
Ici, il nous faut construire sur le sable. (Moush dakeek. Only our political system is built on sand)
Mais tant que la lumière se lève de notre côté, rien ne pourra nous arriver.
See Translation
Adonis Diaries 
