I want to be successful.
A phrase that is said by almost everybody.
It's a basic human nature to want to be successful and to prove yourself
worthy. Yet so many people strive with success because of so many
different reasons. One of those reasons is not knowing what success is.
It's pretty common for a person to look up to the people around him
to define his goals and needs without ever taking the time to look
deeply inside himself.
So many people start a journey towards big goals ,that they don't really care about, just because of peer pressure. After all when a person doesn't really know what he wants he can easily think that he will want what others want.
Yes so many people care about money but does this mean that success is all about getting rich?
If you answered this question with 'no' then you got it wrong and if you answered it with 'yes' then you also got it wrong.
The right answer is 'it depends'.
It depends
In order to know what success means for you a proper level of self understanding
needs to be achieved. Why do you think many people feel dissatisfied
when they reach some of the goals they were after for years?
The answer is very simple, those people didn't really want those
goals but they were just following the rules defined to them by other
people. If you spent your whole life going after money then became very rich you will still not feel happy if money wasn't extremely important for you.
If you don't want to have kids then got married and had three kids
because everyone told you that a child will make you happy then
certainly you will become miserable.
The mistake most people make is that they assume that they are very
similar to everyone around them and as a result they pursue the same
exact goals others follow only to find themselves unhappy in the end.
So what is success?
the right answer is : It depends
It depends on your own very special needs.
It depends on your own unique wants.
It depends on your own personality.
There can hardly be success without self understanding
The first step for success is not writing down your goals. The first
step for success is knowing what your goals are. Without a proper level
of self understanding you will fail to find out what you really want and
as a result you might never achieve success.
Once you get to know yourself perfectly you will be able to tell the
difference between what you really want and what you thought you wanted
because everyone else wanted it.
If in the end you discovered that you want some of the things that
many people want ,such as money and fame, it will still be perfectly
right for you because now you know you really want those things.
Success is like happiness,
it depends greatly on who you are. People failed to find one definition
for happiness simply because each one of us is different and because
what makes a person happy won't make the other happy.
Success follows the same rule.
Find out what you want and get it. This is success.
Circulation of Jokes about presidents indicate that they are losing support
In almost every country , except the ones where freedom of speech is
banned, people joke about politicians and presidents. After all if you
Googled the name of any president then added the word 'Joke' you will
easily find jokes about that president.
Those jokes aren't usually a sign of danger but what might be really
dangerous is the sudden increase in the number of those jokes. Before i
can tell why politicians should pay close attention to the number of
jokes being said about them i first have to quickly explain why jokes
make us laugh.
In my previous article Why we find some jokes funnier than others i explained how each joke is formed of two major components.
The first component of a joke is the funny part , the twist or the
part that intends to make a person laugh. The second component of the
joke is the message it conveys or the psychological need it helps people
fulfill.
In my previous article Why some men like to tell jokes about women
i explained how men who want to put women down , for a reason or
another, find jokes about women much funnier than those who don't. This
is also why women themselves don't find the jokes about them as funny as
men find them to be.
In short, a joke only appeals to a person if it helps him satisfy an
important psychological goal that he wanted to reach such as putting a
certain group down, feeling superior or achieving any other goal. See
also Assessing a person's believes using jokes.
What about presidents and politicians?
A person who likes a certain president is less likely to spread a
joke about that president because one of the joke's components will go
against his beliefs. Many jokes for example try to make presidents seem
incompetent. If a person liked the president a part of him would resist
sharing the joke because he doesn't want to show him as incompetent.
In my previous article Why you share some posts and not others i explained that we only share the posts that match our beliefs even if they were jokes.
So if a person hated a certain president or didn't like him the
chance of sharing a joke about him will become very high. The joke in
such a case isn't just an amusement tool but it's also a way this person
uses to attack that president indirectly and to release some of the
frustration he is feeling towards him. See also why people make fun of others.
Why the increase in number of jokes is a warning sign for the president
If the jokes about a president started being circulated more often on
social media then this means that the following is happening:
1) People are becoming frustrated: The more the people joke about a president the more it's a sign that they are frustrated of his actions
2) They no longer believe in that President: Most of the people who share jokes about others do it because they no longer believe in them
3) Tension is building up: As tension builds up people use jokes to ease the tension and feel better
In short, if the jokes about a certain president spiked all of a sudden then it might be a great sign of danger.
How to tell someone you are not interested in them
Sometimes we find ourselves in an embarrassing situation where a
person we aren't interested in constantly chases us. In such a case we
might experience a mixture of guilt and annoyance as this person
persistently keeps trying to initiate contact or get close to us.
Many people don't know what to do in such a situation then end up
messing things up by doing one strong action all of a sudden. There is a
very common mistake that so many people do which is keeping the ones
who like them close even if they aren't interested in them.
People do that for various reasons which include wanting to feel
loved, feeling bad for the person who likes them or keeping their
options open.
The problem with all of those reasons is that they always lead to bad
endings. Either you will have to push that person away all of a sudden
in an aggressive way or either you will get attached to someone that you
don't really like only to breakup later. See also should you be friends with your ex.
In a previous article i said that we tend to like the people we see often. This is why it's very dangerous to stay around a person who likes you if you don't like them back.
How to tell someone you are not interested in them
There are many things you can do to tell a person you are not
interested in them in a polite way. Many people are smart enough to
realize that you are sending signs that show lack of interest and so in most cases the person will back off on his own if you did those things.
The first thing you need to do is to stop appearing around that
person if possible. If you can avoid the places this person goes to ,at
least for some time, that would send them a signal that you are not
interested.
Next don't ever initiate any kind of contact. Many people turn to the
ones who like them when they feel down in order to feel worthy or get a
self esteem boost. This behaviour sends the wrong signal to the person and motivates them to pursue you even more.
If that person contacted you , which is very likely to happen, then
be nice and distant. Be nice that he doesn't think that you are a snob
but also reply with short answers.
Don't reply right away because this also might signal interest. One
of the best things you do can is to reply an hour later or even a day
later. By that time most people will realize that you are not really
interested in them.
What to do with pushy people
Sometimes a person can be so pushy. Some people might try to call you
more than once or even bump into you by coincidence. In such a case you
have not to answer the calls and you have to always seem in a hurry
when you meet the person.
If the person tried to extent the conversation you should tell them
nicely that you have to leave. If you did that more than once you will
be sending a clear sign of lack of interest. See how chatting can show that you are interested.
If everything else failed you can start being less nice gradually
until the person gets the message. You could for example remove the
smiles you used to send during chatting , you could reply many days
later or you could ignore their messages all together.
What about telling a person directly?
If that person never told you directly that they liked you then
telling them you don't like them back is a big mistake. The first thing a
person will do when you tell them that you are not interested is that
they will say that they were never interested and that it was just in
your head.
Also telling a person directly that you don't like them might hurt
their feelings and result in bad emotions such as guilt. The best thing
to do is to let those people lose hope on their own by sending some of
the signals described above.
Friday, December 4, 2015
Conspiracy Theory Thursday — Was Bob Marley Killed By The CIA?
Bob Marley Killed By The CIA Bob Marley,
the iconic Jamaican Rasta musician died prematurely at the young age of
36 on May 11 1981. The cause of his death is listed as melanoma cancer,
however there have always been questions about the circumstances
leading up to his death. Music Monday—The 20 Best Bob Marley Covers
The Theory
Late in 1976 rival political factions were warring in the streets of Kingston, Jamaica
with only Bob Marley calling for peace. In December of that year three
gunmen burst into Marley’s house on Hope Road armed with semi-automatic
firearms and rifles. They fired indiscriminately at Bob, his wife and
friends. The singer was shot in the arm and his life was saved only by
the heroism of his manager Don Taylor who took most of
the bullets meant for him. Bob’s bodyguards were off duty that night and
no-one was caught or charged with his attempted murder.
At some point in the late 70′s Marley toe became injured. The injury
turned into cancer that then spread throughout his body and eventually
killed him.
The ‘Proof’
The CIA wanted him dead. Marley was spreading his religious views
and activism through his music and he was believed to be able to
influence Jamaican politics by endorsing a candidate, such was the trust
the Jamaican people had in him. He was inciting a revolution—not with
violence and war but with peace and thoughts.
It is widely accepted that one of the people who shot at Marley in
1976 was a popular CIA operative. He didn’t wear a mask and was known
as a popular crime figure in those days.
On the day of the shooting there were strangers lurking near the
house. A photographer and Marley insider had taken some photos of
Marley standing in the front garden and the lurkers made Marley
nervous—he told the photographer they appeared to be ‘scouting’ the
property. In the photos the suspicious characters’ features were too
blurred to identify. The film and prints were stolen before the
photographer could get them further examined.
After the assassination attempt Bob retreated to the hills of the Blue Mountains to get ready for the politically charged Smile Jamaica concert that he and the Wailers were determined to play, despite their injuries. He was joined by Black Panthers film director Lee Lew-Lee who was making the documentary, All Power To The People about American race relations.
A rumor was circulating that the CIA were going to finish Marley
off. The source of the rumor was the agency itself. The Wailers were
setting out on a world tour and CIA agents had informed Marley that
should he return to Jamaica before the election, he would be murdered.
Only a handful of Marley’s most trusted insiders knew of the band’s
whereabouts before the festival. A man arrived at the compound and
managed to talk his way through security saying he was a photographer
and had arrived with the film crew from the USA. He told Bob how
excited he was to film the event (although it was noted he didn’t have
any camera equipment with him). It transpired that the ‘cameraman’ was Carl Colby, son of the now late CIA director William Colby.
At some point during that day a gift was delivered for Bob—a pair or
boots. When Bob tried on the boots he screamed out in pain. When Lee
Lew-Lee and Marley inspected the boot they saw there was a piece of
pointed copper metal embedded in the toe part.
Had the wire been treated chemically with a carcinogenic toxin?
This isn’t as far-fetched as it sounds. It has since been revealed
that one of the 600 attempts by the CIA to kill Fidel Castro involved placing highly toxic poison thallium salts in his shoes.
Fast forward to five months later. In 1977 Marley was playing soccer in France
and another player stepped on the same toe spiked by the copper wire
and damaged it really badly. The toe wouldn’t heal and when Marley
consulted a doctor, it transpired it was cancerous. Marley refused to
have the toe amputated due to his Rastafarian beliefs and the cancer then metastasized throughout his whole body.
Marley followed an ‘ital’ diet of primarily fruits and vegetables
and loved to play soccer. How likely is it that someone with good diet
and exercise would get cancer—in his toe??
The CIA kept extensive records on Marley and his movements. There
is firm speculation that there was a CIA operative on the inside of
Marley’s entourage feeding the information. These records have still
not been fully made public.
Marley was steered by a member of his entourage towards Dr Issels, a ‘holistic comprehensive immunotherapist’, who subjected him to a load of crazy medial treatment in Switzerland.
He was given blood transfusions, hyperthermia and illegal injections
of THX (cell therapy). He was put on a restricted diet until he weighed
only 70lbs.
Marley’s mother witnessed some of the injections and felt Dr Issels
was unnecessarily rough and causing him considerable pain. His friends
were alarmed by his treatment and believed the treatments were killing
him.
Thursday, December 3, 2015
Former NBA Star Lamar Odom Fighting for Life
Former NBA star Lamar Odom was hospitalized in Las Vegas after he was found unconscious due to cocaine overdose.
Last updated on Thursday, 15 October, 2015 13:22 IST
Las Vegas: Nevada
police said Wednesday that workers from the Nevada brothel where Lamar
Odom was found unconscious reported in a 911 call that the former NBA
star had been using cocaine.
The
35-year-old Odom remained hospitalized in Las Vegas Wednesday, with his
ex-wife Khloe Kardashian at his side, while an investigation continued
into the allegations of drug use by the ex-Los Angeles Laker.
Odom was found unconscious at the Love Ranch brothel and taken to Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center by ambulance.
NBC
News reported Wednesday night that sources told them that Odom suffered
brain damage and at least one stroke and is on a ventilator.
Police
spokesperson Sharon Wehrly said they received a 911 call from two
workers at the brothel who said a man was discovered unconscious and had
been using cocaine.
"During that call, the reporting parties
informed the Nye County Sheriff's Office dispatch the male had been
using cocaine," Wehrly said. "They confirmed his usage on Saturday but
was unsure if it had continued.
"They also informed dispatch that
he had used up to 10 tabs of sexual performance enhancer supplements
over the last three-day period. He was unconscious but breathing.
"He had blood coming from his nose and his mouth, along with a white substance."
Wehrly
said police detectives obtained a search warrant allowing them to
collect a sample of Odom's blood. That blood was drawn Wednesday and was
shipped to a lab for testing.
Odom's former Laker teammate Kobe Bryant, Kardashian and Reverend Jesse Jackson are among those who have visited the hospital.
Bryant left during the Lakers' 107-100 pre-season exhibition loss to Sacramento in Las Vegas to be with Odom.
Odom
and Bryant, 37, were Lakers teammates from 2004 through 2011, helping
Los Angeles capture NBA titles together in 2009 and 2010. Odom had not
played in the NBA since 2013.
"I pray this morning for my brother," Odom's former Miami Heat teammate Dwyane Wade said on Twitter.
"Dear God he's one of the good ones. PLEASE watch over him and listen to his heart speak #PrayersForLamar."
Odom played 14 NBA seasons with four teams, comprising the Lakers, Heat, Los Angeles Clippers and Dallas Mavericks.
In 2011, he won the NBA's Sixth Man of the Year Award.
Kobe Bryant Says he Will Retire at End of 2015-16 Season
Kobe Bryant made the announcement in a post on The Players' Tribune on
Sunday. The third-leading scorer in NBA history wrote a poem entitled
"Dear Basketball" to announce his decision.
Last updated on Monday, 30 November, 2015 18:47 IST
Kobe
Bryant went straight from high school in suburban Philadelphia to the
Los Angeles Lakers in 1996, and he earned five championship rings and 17
All-Star selections.
Los Angeles: NBA star Kobe Bryant has decided to retire after this season, ending his 20-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers.
The
37-year-old Bryant made the announcement in a post on The Players'
Tribune on Sunday. The third-leading scorer in NBA history wrote a poem
entitled "Dear Basketball" to announce his decision.
"My heart can
take the pounding. My mind can handle the grind. But my body knows it's
time to say goodbye," Bryant wrote. "And that's OK. I'm ready to let
you go. I want you to know now. So we both can savor every moment we
have left together. The good and the bad. We have given each other all
that we have."
Bryant went straight from high school in suburban
Philadelphia to the Lakers in 1996, and he earned five championship
rings and 17 All-Star selections during two decades with the franchise -
the longest tenure with one team in NBA history. Bryant also won two
Olympic gold medals.
But Bryant's last three seasons have ended
early due to injuries, and he played in only 41 games over the previous
two years. He has struggled mightily in the first 15 games of this
season with mostly young teammates on a rebuilding roster, making a
career-worst 32 percent of his shots and dealing with pain and
exhaustion every day.
In recent months, Bryant repeatedly said he
didn't know whether he would play another season, clearly hoping for a
rebound in his health and the Lakers' fortunes.
Neither has happened, and the ever-impatient Bryant didn't wait any longer to decide his future.
"Kobe
Bryant is one of the greatest players in the history of our game," NBA
Commissioner Adam Silver said. "Whether competing in the Finals or
hoisting jump shots after midnight in an empty gym, Kobe has an
unconditional love for the game. I join Kobe's millions of fans around
the world in congratulating him on an outstanding NBA career and thank
him for so many thrilling memories."
Even during his late-career
struggles, Bryant's fans have remained devoted to the 6-foot-6 star who
won titles alongside Shaquille O'Neal in 2000, 2001 and 2002 before
teaming with Pau Gasol for two more in 2009 and 2010. Only 13 players in
league history played on more championship teams than Bryant.
The
Lakers (2-13) hosted the Indiana Pacers on Sunday night, and coach
Byron Scott said Bryant intended to play, even after playing 34 minutes
at Portland on Saturday night.
"I know his purpose is to finish
out this season and play," said Scott, Bryant's teammate during the
1996-97 season. "It's always sad when greatness decides to hang it up.
... I thought he had at least another year in him."
Bryant is the
NBA's highest-paid player this season with a $25 million salary bestowed
on him by grateful Lakers owner Jim Buss despite his recent injury
problems. Bryant has been tirelessly devoted to the franchise,
repeatedly declaring he would never play for another NBA team despite
the Lakers' wholesale rebuilding process following the disastrous
2012-13 season with Dwight Howard and Steve Nash.
But Bryant's
departure will allow the Lakers to finish straddling the past and the
future, with young prospects Julius Randle, D'Angelo Russell and Jordan
Clarkson taking on leading roles rather than deferring to their
superstar teammate.
Bryant repeatedly declared that he didn't want
a farewell tour in the style of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar or Derek Jeter, his
friend and The Players' Tribune founder. Yet the Lakers' eight-game
road trip beginning next week is almost certain to begin a prolonged
goodbye to Bryant, one of the NBA's most popular and most divisive
players.
"It's tough to see one of the absolute greatest
competitors go through this," Miami guard Dwyane Wade told The
Associated Press on Sunday, prior to Bryant making his announcement.
"You can put a team around a guy to help a guy, especially late in his
career. They're just not in position right now to do that. He's won five
championships, so no one feels bad for him from that standpoint. But
from a standpoint of seeing one of this era's greatest players go out in
a rebuilding process, it's tough."
Bryant already has received
long ovations on road trips this season, particularly in places like New
York and Miami where crowds sensed that they might be seeing him as an
opponent for the final time.
The Lakers' next road game is in
Philadelphia - perhaps not coincidentally, given the otherwise strange
timing of Bryant's announcement.
"Philly is where I grew up,"
Bryant told AP in an interview in Miami earlier this month. "It's always
a different emotion there than anywhere else."
Bryant was the
first guard ever to be drafted directly out of high school, taken 13th
overall by the Charlotte Hornets and traded to the Lakers. Although he
won the dunk contest at All-Star weekend as a rookie, his Lakers didn't
become title contenders until coach Phil Jackson arrived in 1999 and
built a three-time champion around Kobe and Shaq.
Bryant made a
fourth NBA Finals appearance in 2004 despite his preseason arrest for
sexual assault and subsequent legal proceedings that sometimes required
him to fly from Colorado to Los Angeles on game days. The assault case
against Bryant was dropped in September 2004, but his behavior affected
his reputation.
Bryant scored 81 points against Toronto on January 22, 2006, the second highest-scoring
LeBron James Multimedia Site Boosted by USD 15.8 Million Investment
Basketball star LeBron James's multimedia site called "Uninterrupted"
was launched earlier this year, and is hosted by sports site Bleacher
Report, a Turner Sports subsidiary.
Last updated on Thursday, 03 December, 2015 13:54 IST
LeBron
James is currently in fifth place in the offensive league leaders list,
averaging 25.6 points per game in the 2015-16 NBA season.
New York: Warner
Bros Entertainment and Turner Sports have invested USD 15.8 million in
basketball great LeBron James' multimedia site "Uninterrupted". (LeBron James Joins Oscar Robertson on NBA Elite List, Leads Cleveland Cavaliers Past Orlando Magic)
Launched earlier this year, "Uninterrupted" is hosted by sports site Bleacher Report, a Turner Sports subsidiary. (LeBron James, Kevin Love Lead Cleveland Cavaliers Past Milwaukee Bucks)
Sports
stars upload videos, usually a minute or two long and filmed by
themselves, to disclose something about their lives or other subjects
that interest them.
In addition to NBA great James, Draymond Green
of the Golden State Warriors and Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)
star Ronda Rousey are frequent posters.
The investment from the
Time Warner divisions will help the platform develop exclusive content,
boost the brand's profile and expand "Uninterrupted" into new tech
platforms such as a mobile app, a statement said.
"The best thing
about 'Uninterrupted' is there are so many creative opportunities for
athletes to tell their stories," James said in the press release.
"I'm
excited to be partnering with important, innovative companies like
Warner Brothers and Turner to keep building 'Uninterrupted' as a place
for athletes to go to connect with fans and share their stories in a
different way."
Serie A: Juventus Set to Add to Pioli Woes
Juventus' 3-0 win at Palermo on Sunday, their fourth consecutive league
victory, hoisted Massimiliano Allegri's men up to fifth place in Serie
A.
Last updated on Thursday, 03 December, 2015 11:54 IST
Juventus celebrate after scoring vs Palermo in Serie A.
Milan: Resurgent
champions Juventus travel to crisis-hit Lazio on Friday looking for a
fifth consecutive victory that would reduce the gap on leaders Napoli
and possibly cost Stefano Pioli his job.
The champions' trip to
the Italian capital has been brought forward a day due to Juve's
Champions League trip to Sevilla next week and, going on recent form,
the smart money is on the Bianconeri.
Juve's 3-0 win at Palermo on
Sunday, their fourth consecutive league victory, hoisted Massimiliano
Allegri's men up to fifth place in Serie A.
They may be seven
points off the pace but it is a remarkable turnaround given Juventus
were only a handful of points above the drop zone six weeks ago.
Yet
despite Lazio's current troubles, Juventus midfielder Claudio Marchisio
has warned of a possible backlash: "We have to be wary of Lazio exactly
because they're going through a difficult time.
"On a positive
note, we're preparing the match in the best way possible with two extra
days compared to what we've had in recent weeks."
With Paul Pogba
suspended and Sami Khedira still sidelined, Allegri is expected to
deploy a rarely-used 3-5-2 formation to help shore up his injury-hit
midfield, with either Alvaro Morata or Mario Mandzukic set to partner
Paulo Dybala up front.
Pioli, meanwhile, is reported to be hanging
on to his job by a thread only months after transforming a mediocre
Lazio into arguably the league's most impressive team at the end of last
season.
Lazio have blazed a trail through their Europa League
group to secure their place in the last 32 by finishing top with a game
to spare.
But their hopes of qualifying for any European
competition next season look severely compromised after five defeats in
their last seven league outings dropped Pioli's men to 10th place, six
points above the drop zone.
Indeed Lazio have taken only one point
from their last five games, after managing to hold Palermo to a 1-1
draw at home a fortnight ago.
Pioli admits he can't fathom his side's failure to spark but said he is confident they can turn the screw.
"In
our last two games, in the Europa League and against Empoli we've
played well. But the numbers say otherwise," Pioli said after last
week's 1-0 defeat away to Empoli.
"Our results recently have been
terrible and so is our standing in the league. But I have faith in my
work and the squad and we're all determined to turn things around."
Leaders Napoli are not in action until Sunday's visit to Bologna.
Oscar Pistorius Convicted of Murder by South African Appeals Court
Oscar Pistorius was convicted of manslaughter for shooting girlfriend
Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine's Day 2013. He was released from jail on
October 19 after serving one year of a five-year sentence.
Oscar Pistorius has maintained that he mistook Reeva Steenkamp for an intruder when he opened fire with his pistol.
Bloemfontein: Oscar
Pistorius was convicted of murder by a South African appeals court on
Thursday, but it overturned a lower court's conviction of the
double-amputee Olympian on the lesser charge of manslaughter for
shooting girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp to death in 2013. (Reeva Steenkamp's Mother Moves on as Oscar Pistorius Deals With Punishment)
Justice
Lorimer Eric Leach of the Supreme Court of Appeal delivered the ruling
by the five-judge appeals court in Bloemfontein and directed the trial
court, the North Gauteng High Court, to impose sentence. (Oscar Pistorius Reports for First Community Service)
"The accused ought to have been found guilty of murder," Leach said to the courtroom, in which Steenkamp's mother sat.
A
15-year prison sentence is the minimum punishment for murder in South
Africa. However, the law allows for a lesser sentence to be imposed in
exceptional circumstances.
Pistorius was placed under house arrest
in October after serving one year in prison. He had been sentenced to
five years in prison for manslaughter. His lawyers can also argue that
he should be shown leniency because he is disabled.
Pistorius, 29,
killed Steenkamp in the early morning of Valentine's Day. He insisted
he thought she was an intruder behind the door of a toilet cubicle in
his home. The prosecution said Pistorius shot Steenkamp during an
argument.
Leach said regardless of who might have been behind the door, Pistorius should have known someone could be killed if he fired.
"The identity of his victim is irrelevant to his guilt," the judge said.
Under
the concept of "dolus eventualis" in South African law, a person can be
convicted of murder if they foresaw the possibility of someone dying
through their actions and went ahead anyway.
Reeva Steenkamp's
mother, June, sat quietly in the courtroom during the announcement,
which was carried on television. Pistorius was not there.
Pistorius,
a multiple Paralympic champion, became one of the world's most famous
athletes and the first amputee to run at the Olympics and the
able-bodied world championships.
He was known as "Blade Runner" for his carbon-fiber running blades.
"The matter is referred back to the trial court to consider an appropriate sentence."
FIFA Vice Presidents From Paraguay, Honduras Arrested: Senior FIFA Official
The Swiss government earlier announced that two unnamed FIFA officials
were detained on suspicion of taking millions of dollars in bribes.
FIFA said "actions" had been taken by the U.S. justice department and vowed to continue cooperating with investigators.
Zurich: The
two FIFA officials detained in Zurich on Thursday on suspicion of
corruption are vice presidents Juan Angel Napout of Paraguay and Alfredo
Hawit of Honduras, a senior FIFA official said. (Soccer World Rocked by U.S., Swiss Arrests of FIFA Officials for Graft)
"The
two who were arrested are Juan Angel Napout from Paraguay and Alfredo
Hawit Banegas from Honduras," the FIFA official, who did not want to be
named, told AFP. (FIFA to Hold Crucial Meeting for Reviewing Reform Package)
Napout
is president of the South American Football Confederation while Hawit
is president of the Confederation of North, Central America and
Caribbean Association Football. (FIFA Ethics Committee Seeks Life Ban Against Michel Platini)
The
Swiss government earlier announced that two unnamed FIFA officials were
detained on suspicion of taking millions of dollars in bribes.
"The
high-ranking FIFA officials are alleged to have taken the money in
return for selling marketing rights in connection with football
tournaments in Latin America, as well as World Cup qualifying matches," a
Swiss justice ministry statement said.
The ministry did not name the pair but said it would do so later in the day.
The
corruption scandal rocking FIFA since May has seen the organisation's
longtime president Sepp Blatter suspended and under criminal
investigation in Switzerland, while Michel Platini, once seen as his
likely successor, is also suspended and facing a life ban from football.
Manchester City to Pursue Pep Guardiola, Lionel Messi in 2016
If the plan comes through, it will link up Lionel Messi with former
Barcelona chief tactician Pep Guardiola, under whom the Argentina star
won the 'FIFA World Player of the Year' awards four times. The duo also
won three La Liga and two European Champions League titles.
Pep Guardiola and Lionel Messi during the UEFA Champions League 2010-11.
London: English
football heavyweights Manchester City have decided to allocate $400
million to acquire the services of Bayern Munich head coach Pep
Guardiola and Barcelona's Argentine forward Lionel Messi.
The cash
will be funded by the club's parent company City Football Group, after
selling 13 percent of the Citizens shares to Chinese investors, reports
Efe.
According to a report published on Wednesday by Daily Mirror
here, City will allocate the amount, which will be acquired from the
Asian company, as well as its new English Premier League (EPL) deals, to
sign Guardiola and Messi.
If the plan comes through, it will link
up Messi with former Barcelona chief tactician Guardiola, under whom
the Argentina star won the 'FIFA World Player of the Year' awards four
times. The duo also won three La Liga and two European Champions League
titles.
Last summer City invested $224 million to add new players
to their roster, such as Kevin De Bruyne, Raheem Sterling, Fabian Delph
and Nicolas Otamendi, while City's chief executive Ferran Soriano and
director of football Txiki Begiristainthe have been targeting Guardiola
since their arrival in 2012.
City, current leader of the EPL,
announced on Tuesday that a Chinese consortium, composed of China Media
Capital and CITIC Capital, will pay $400 million for 13 percent of the
club's parent company of City Football.
Lionel Messi Left Out of FC Barcelona's Copa del Rey Squad
Lionel Messi was sidelined for most of October and November due to a knee injury sustained in late September.
Barcelona: FC
Barcelona coach Luis Enrique has left Lionel Messi out of his squad for
the European champions' Copa del Rey clash against minnows Villanovense
on Wednesday.
The
holders need a win at the Camp Nou to progress to the last 16 after an
under-strength Barca side was held 0-0 in the first leg by third-tier
Villanovense five weeks ago.
Gerard Pique, Sergio Busquets, Ivan Rakitic and Jordi Alba are also handed a rest.
However, Luis Suarez, Neymar and Andres Iniesta have been included after missing the first leg.
Is Neymar the Man to End Cristiano Ronaldo-Lionel Messi Monopoly?
Neymar Junior has been shortlisted for the prestigious FIFA Ballon d'Or award alongside Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.
While
the debate on who is currently the world's best footballer between
Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi rages on, a certain Brazilian by the
name of Neymar da Silva Santos Junior has staked claim and threatens to
break the monopoly at the top.
It's about time someone ended the
monopoly shared by Ronaldo and Messi, who have won almost all accolades
there are to win for a world-class footballer. Neymar has been shortlisted for the prestigious FIFA Ballon d'Or award
alongside Ronaldo and Messi. And while many naysayers might still feel
that it's a straight fight between the Portuguese and the Argentine once
again, there are still some who look beyond just 'goals scored' by a
player and believe that the 23-year-old from Brazil deserves the award.
Ronaldo,
who has claimed the award in the last two years, will be aiming to win a
fourth time, having won in 2008 as well. Messi is looking for a fifth
success after sweeping the board between 2009 and 2012.
Kaka, the last Brazilian winner
It
was a Brazilian, Kaka, who was the last to win the Ballon d'Or award in
2007 before the start of the Messi-Ronaldo monopoly, and wouldn't it be
poetic justice that another footballer from the land of the Samba,
dethrones the duo? (Brazil Legend Ronaldo Backs Neymar to Win Ballon d'Or Award)
After
his move from Brazilian club Santos that was embroiled in a transfer
fee scandal, Neymar was given a slim chance to carry on his with his
trailblazing ways in the more 'physical' European football.
Much
to the dismay of his critics, the Brazilian hit the ground running,
going on to net 14 goals in his first season as Barcelona missed out on
the La Liga title on the final day, though Neymar was largely absent for
their run-in as a result of injury.
All eyes were on Neymar with
Brazil hosting football's showpiece event, the World Cup in 2014. And he
didn't disappoint his countrymen, scoring four goals in the World Cup.
However, his tournament was cut short when he suffered a fractured vertebra during Brazil's 2-0 quarterfinal victory over Colombia.
With
Neymar injured, his importance for the national team came to the fore
as Brazil suffered their worst ever World Cup defeat, a 7-1 dismantling against Germany in the semifinals.
Again
the naysayers returned with their knives out, giving Neymar little
chance to do well in the 2014-15 season after his injury. But once again
he proved them wrong! (Luis Suarez Deserves Ballon d'Or Nomination: Messi)
Neymar was out of action for almost two months last year due a backbone injury suffered during the 2014 FIFA World Cup.
Back with a bang from World Cup injury
Neymar
returned from the back injury and helped lead Barcelona to a second
treble, including 22 goals during the 2014-15 La Liga campaign and the
final strike for the Catalans in their 3-1 Champions League final triumph over Italian outfit Juventus.
Messi
was once again crowned La Liga's best player for the 2014-15 season
while Neymar was chosen as the best player from the Americas.
This
season, however, Neymar has taken it upon himself to sweep all the
awards and honours. The Brazilian maestro has relished Messi's brief
absence in the squad through injury, and is currently the top scorer in
La Liga with 14 goals, two ahead of Barcelona teammate Luis Suarez.
Following
the appointment of Rafael Benitez as Real Madrid manager, Ronaldo has
fallen off the boil, and is in fourth place with nine goals.
Messi, meanwhile, has struggled due to injury, and managed just four goals.
This
could be Neymar's year with Barcelona comfortably in the lead in La
Liga and looking virtually unbeatable in the UEFA Champions League. But
this can only happen if the majority of the football world end their
love affair with Ronaldo and Messi.
Yes, they might have been the
best of the best in the past eight years, when they have swept all the
awards, but it's no more a question of 'if' they will be dethroned but
rather 'when'.
Wednesday, November 25, 2015
A Century Ago, Einstein’s Theory of Relativity Changed Everything
Photo
Credit
Chad Hagen
PRINCETON, N.J. — By the fall of 1915, Albert Einstein was a bit grumpy.
And
why not? Cheered on, to his disgust, by most of his Berlin colleagues,
Germany had started a ruinous world war. He had split up with his wife,
and she had decamped to Switzerland with his sons.
He
was living alone. A friend, Janos Plesch, once said, “He sleeps until
he is awakened; he stays awake until he is told to go to bed; he will go
hungry until he is given something to eat; and then he eats until he is
stopped.”
Worse,
he had discovered a fatal flaw in his new theory of gravity, propounded
with great fanfare only a couple of years before. And now he no longer
had the field to himself. The German mathematician David Hilbert was breathing down his neck.
So Einstein went back to the blackboard. And on Nov. 25, 1915, he set down the equation that rules the universe.
As compact and mysterious as a Viking rune, it describes space-time as a
kind of sagging mattress where matter and energy, like a heavy sleeper,
distort the geometry of the cosmos to produce the effect we call
gravity, obliging light beams as well as marbles and falling apples to
follow curved paths through space.
This
is the general theory of relativity. It’s a standard trope in science
writing to say that some theory or experiment transformed our
understanding of space and time. General relativity really did.
Since
the dawn of the scientific revolution and the days of Isaac Newton, the
discoverer of gravity, scientists and philosophers had thought of
space-time as a kind of stage on which we actors, matter and energy,
strode and strutted.
With
general relativity, the stage itself sprang into action. Space-time
could curve, fold, wrap itself up around a dead star and disappear into a
black hole. It could jiggle like Santa Claus’s belly, radiating waves
of gravitational compression, or whirl like dough in a Mixmaster. It
could even rip or tear. It could stretch and grow, or it could collapse
into a speck of infinite density at the end or beginning of time.
Scientists have been lighting birthday candles for general relativity all year, including here at the Institute for Advanced Study,
where Einstein spent the last 22 years of his life, and where they
gathered in November to review a century of gravity and to attend
performances by Brian Greene, the Columbia University physicist and World Science Festival
impresario, and the violinist Joshua Bell. Even nature, it seems, has
been doing its bit. Last spring, astronomers said they had discovered an
“Einstein cross,”
in which the gravity of a distant cluster of galaxies had split the
light from a supernova beyond them into separate beams in which
telescopes could watch the star exploding again and again, in a cosmic
version of the movie “Groundhog Day.”
Hardly
anybody would be more surprised by all this than Einstein himself. The
space-time he conjured turned out to be far more frisky than he had
bargained for back in 1907.
It
was then — perhaps tilting too far back in his chair at the patent
office in Bern, Switzerland — that he had the revelation that a falling
body would feel weightless. That insight led him to try to extend his
new relativity theory from slip-siding trains to the universe.
According
to that foundational theory, now known as special relativity, the laws
of physics don’t care how fast you are going — the laws of physics and
the speed of light are the same. Einstein figured that the laws of
physics should look the same no matter how you were moving — falling,
spinning, tumbling or being pressed into the seat of an accelerating
car.
One
consequence, Einstein quickly realized, was that even light beams would
bend downward and time would slow in a gravitational field. Gravity was
not a force transmitted across space-time like magnetism; it was the
geometry of that space-time itself that kept the planets in their orbits
and apples falling.
It
would take him another eight difficult years to figure out just how
this elastic space-time would work, during which he went from Bern to
Prague to Zurich and then to a prestigious post in Berlin.
In
1913, he and his old classmate Marcel Grossmann published with great
fanfare an outline of a gravity theory that was less relative than they
had hoped. But it did predict light bending, and Erwin Freundlich, an
astronomer at the Berlin Observatory, set off to measure the deflection
of starlight during a solar eclipse in the Crimea.
When
World War I started, Freundlich and others on his expedition were
arrested as spies. Then Einstein discovered a flaw in his calculations.
“There are two ways that a theoretician goes astray,” he wrote to the physicist Hendrik Lorentz.
“1) The devil leads him around by the nose with a false hypothesis (for
this he deserves pity) 2) His arguments are erroneous and ridiculous
(for this he deserves a beating).”
And
so the stage was set for a series of lectures to the Prussian Academy
that would constitute the final countdown on his quest to grasp gravity.
A Breakthrough Moment
Midway
through the month, he used the emerging theory to calculate a puzzling
anomaly in the motion of Mercury; its egg-shaped orbit changes by 43
seconds of arc per century. The answer was spot on, and Einstein had
heart palpitations.
The
equation that Einstein wrote out a week later was identical to one that
he had written in his notebook two years before but had abandoned.
On
one side of the equal sign was the distribution of matter and energy in
space. On the other side was the geometry of the space, the so-called
metric, which was a prescription for how to compute the distance between
two points.
As
the Princeton physicist John Wheeler later described it, “Space-time
tells matter how to move; matter tells space-time how to curve.” Easy to
say, but hard to compute. The stars might be actors on a stage set, but
every time they moved, the whole stage rearranged itself.
It wasn’t long before Einstein received his first comeuppance.
In
December 1915, he received a telegram from Karl Schwarzschild, a German
astrophysicist serving at the front in the war, who had solved
Einstein’s equation to describe the gravitational field around a
solitary star.
One strange feature of his work was that at a certain distance from the star — to be known forever as the Schwarzschild radius — the equations would go kerblooey.
“If this result were real, it would be a true disaster,” Einstein said. This was the beginning of black holes.
That
Einstein’s equations could be solved at all for a single star baffled
him. One of his guiding lights had been the Austrian physicist and
philosopher Ernst Mach,
who taught that everything in the universe was relative. Einstein took
Mach’s Principle, as he called it, to mean that it should be impossible
to solve his equations for the case of a solitary object.
“One
can express it as a joke,” he told Schwarzschild. “If all things were
to disappear from the world, then according to Newton Galilean inertial
space remains. According to my conception, however, nothing is left.”
And yet here was a star, according to his equations, bending space all by itself, a little universe in a nutshell.
Designing a Universe
Like
most of his colleagues at the time, Einstein considered the universe to
consist of a cloud of stars, the Milky Way, surrounded by vast space.
What was beyond? Was the universe infinite? And if so, what stopped a
star from drifting so far that it would have nothing to relate to?
To
avoid such problems, Einstein set out in 1917 to design a universe
without boundaries. In his model, space is bent around to meet itself,
like the side of a tin can.
“I
have committed another suggestion with respect to gravitation which
exposes me to the danger of being confined to the nut house,” he
confided to a friend.
This
got rid of the need for troublesome boundaries. But this universe was
unstable, and the cylinder would collapse if something didn’t hold its
sides apart.
Photo
“It would be unsatisfactory, in my opinion, if a world without matter were possible.” - Albert EinsteinCredit
Ferdinand Schmutzer/ÖNB-Bildarchiv, via, Picturedesk
That something was a fudge factor
added to the equations Einstein called the cosmological constant.
Physically, this new term, denoted by the Greek letter lambda,
represented a long-range repulsive force.
The
happy result, Einstein thought, was a static universe of the type
nearly everybody believed they lived in and in which geometry was
strictly determined by matter.
But it didn’t last. Willem de Sitter, a Dutch astronomer, came up with his own solution describing a universe that had no matter at all and was flying apart.
“It would be unsatisfactory, in my opinion,” Einstein grumbled, “if a world without matter were possible.”
If
the cosmological constant couldn’t keep the universe still, then forget
about it and Mach’s Principle, Einstein said. “It dates back to the
time in which one thought that the ‘ponderable bodies’ are the only
physically real entities,” he later wrote to the British cosmologist
Felix Pirani.
But it was too late. Quantum mechanics soon invested empty space with energy. In 1998 astronomers discovered that dark energy, acting just like the cosmological constant, seems to be blowing space-time apart, just as in de Sitter’s universe.
In
fact, most cosmologists agree today that not quite all motion is
relative and that space-time does have an existence independent of
matter, though it is anything but static and absolute. The best example
are gravitational waves, ripples of compression and stretching speeding
through empty space at the speed of light.
A Century Ago, Einstein’s Theory of Relativity Changed Everything
PRINCETON, N.J. — By the fall of 1915, Albert Einstein was a bit grumpy.
And
why not? Cheered on, to his disgust, by most of his Berlin colleagues,
Germany had started a ruinous world war. He had split up with his wife,
and she had decamped to Switzerland with his sons.
He
was living alone. A friend, Janos Plesch, once said, “He sleeps until
he is awakened; he stays awake until he is told to go to bed; he will go
hungry until he is given something to eat; and then he eats until he is
stopped.”
Worse,
he had discovered a fatal flaw in his new theory of gravity, propounded
with great fanfare only a couple of years before. And now he no longer
had the field to himself. The German mathematician David Hilbert was breathing down his neck.
So Einstein went back to the blackboard. And on Nov. 25, 1915, he set down the equation that rules the universe.
As compact and mysterious as a Viking rune, it describes space-time as a
kind of sagging mattress where matter and energy, like a heavy sleeper,
distort the geometry of the cosmos to produce the effect we call
gravity, obliging light beams as well as marbles and falling apples to
follow curved paths through space.
This
is the general theory of relativity. It’s a standard trope in science
writing to say that some theory or experiment transformed our
understanding of space and time. General relativity really did.
Since
the dawn of the scientific revolution and the days of Isaac Newton, the
discoverer of gravity, scientists and philosophers had thought of
space-time as a kind of stage on which we actors, matter and energy,
strode and strutted.
With
general relativity, the stage itself sprang into action. Space-time
could curve, fold, wrap itself up around a dead star and disappear into a
black hole. It could jiggle like Santa Claus’s belly, radiating waves
of gravitational compression, or whirl like dough in a Mixmaster. It
could even rip or tear. It could stretch and grow, or it could collapse
into a speck of infinite density at the end or beginning of time.
Scientists have been lighting birthday candles for general relativity all year, including here at the Institute for Advanced Study,
where Einstein spent the last 22 years of his life, and where they
gathered in November to review a century of gravity and to attend
performances by Brian Greene, the Columbia University physicist and World Science Festival
impresario, and the violinist Joshua Bell. Even nature, it seems, has
been doing its bit. Last spring, astronomers said they had discovered an
“Einstein cross,”
in which the gravity of a distant cluster of galaxies had split the
light from a supernova beyond them into separate beams in which
telescopes could watch the star exploding again and again, in a cosmic
version of the movie “Groundhog Day.”
Hardly
anybody would be more surprised by all this than Einstein himself. The
space-time he conjured turned out to be far more frisky than he had
bargained for back in 1907.
It
was then — perhaps tilting too far back in his chair at the patent
office in Bern, Switzerland — that he had the revelation that a falling
body would feel weightless. That insight led him to try to extend his
new relativity theory from slip-siding trains to the universe.
According
to that foundational theory, now known as special relativity, the laws
of physics don’t care how fast you are going — the laws of physics and
the speed of light are the same. Einstein figured that the laws of
physics should look the same no matter how you were moving — falling,
spinning, tumbling or being pressed into the seat of an accelerating
car.
One
consequence, Einstein quickly realized, was that even light beams would
bend downward and time would slow in a gravitational field. Gravity was
not a force transmitted across space-time like magnetism; it was the
geometry of that space-time itself that kept the planets in their orbits
and apples falling.
It
would take him another eight difficult years to figure out just how
this elastic space-time would work, during which he went from Bern to
Prague to Zurich and then to a prestigious post in Berlin.
In
1913, he and his old classmate Marcel Grossmann published with great
fanfare an outline of a gravity theory that was less relative than they
had hoped. But it did predict light bending, and Erwin Freundlich, an
astronomer at the Berlin Observatory, set off to measure the deflection
of starlight during a solar eclipse in the Crimea.
When
World War I started, Freundlich and others on his expedition were
arrested as spies. Then Einstein discovered a flaw in his calculations.
“There are two ways that a theoretician goes astray,” he wrote to the physicist Hendrik Lorentz.
“1) The devil leads him around by the nose with a false hypothesis (for
this he deserves pity) 2) His arguments are erroneous and ridiculous
(for this he deserves a beating).”
And
so the stage was set for a series of lectures to the Prussian Academy
that would constitute the final countdown on his quest to grasp gravity.
A Breakthrough Moment
Midway
through the month, he used the emerging theory to calculate a puzzling
anomaly in the motion of Mercury; its egg-shaped orbit changes by 43
seconds of arc per century. The answer was spot on, and Einstein had
heart palpitations.
The
equation that Einstein wrote out a week later was identical to one that
he had written in his notebook two years before but had abandoned.
On
one side of the equal sign was the distribution of matter and energy in
space. On the other side was the geometry of the space, the so-called
metric, which was a prescription for how to compute the distance between
two points.
As
the Princeton physicist John Wheeler later described it, “Space-time
tells matter how to move; matter tells space-time how to curve.” Easy to
say, but hard to compute. The stars might be actors on a stage set, but
every time they moved, the whole stage rearranged itself.
It wasn’t long before Einstein received his first comeuppance.
In
December 1915, he received a telegram from Karl Schwarzschild, a German
astrophysicist serving at the front in the war, who had solved
Einstein’s equation to describe the gravitational field around a
solitary star.
One strange feature of his work was that at a certain distance from the star — to be known forever as the Schwarzschild radius — the equations would go kerblooey.
“If this result were real, it would be a true disaster,” Einstein said. This was the beginning of black holes.
That
Einstein’s equations could be solved at all for a single star baffled
him. One of his guiding lights had been the Austrian physicist and
philosopher Ernst Mach,
who taught that everything in the universe was relative. Einstein took
Mach’s Principle, as he called it, to mean that it should be impossible
to solve his equations for the case of a solitary object.
“One
can express it as a joke,” he told Schwarzschild. “If all things were
to disappear from the world, then according to Newton Galilean inertial
space remains. According to my conception, however, nothing is left.”
And yet here was a star, according to his equations, bending space all by itself, a little universe in a nutshell.
Designing a Universe
Like
most of his colleagues at the time, Einstein considered the universe to
consist of a cloud of stars, the Milky Way, surrounded by vast space.
What was beyond? Was the universe infinite? And if so, what stopped a
star from drifting so far that it would have nothing to relate to?
To
avoid such problems, Einstein set out in 1917 to design a universe
without boundaries. In his model, space is bent around to meet itself,
like the side of a tin can.
“I
have committed another suggestion with respect to gravitation which
exposes me to the danger of being confined to the nut house,” he
confided to a friend.
This
got rid of the need for troublesome boundaries. But this universe was
unstable, and the cylinder would collapse if something didn’t hold its
sides apart.
Photo
“It would be unsatisfactory, in my opinion, if a world without matter were possible.” - Albert EinsteinCredit
Ferdinand Schmutzer/ÖNB-Bildarchiv, via, Picturedesk
That something was a fudge factor
added to the equations Einstein called the cosmological constant.
Physically, this new term, denoted by the Greek letter lambda,
represented a long-range repulsive force.
The
happy result, Einstein thought, was a static universe of the type
nearly everybody believed they lived in and in which geometry was
strictly determined by matter.
But it didn’t last. Willem de Sitter, a Dutch astronomer, came up with his own solution describing a universe that had no matter at all and was flying apart.
“It would be unsatisfactory, in my opinion,” Einstein grumbled, “if a world without matter were possible.”
If
the cosmological constant couldn’t keep the universe still, then forget
about it and Mach’s Principle, Einstein said. “It dates back to the
time in which one thought that the ‘ponderable bodies’ are the only
physically real entities,” he later wrote to the British cosmologist
Felix Pirani.
But it was too late. Quantum mechanics soon invested empty space with energy. In 1998 astronomers discovered that dark energy, acting just like the cosmological constant, seems to be blowing space-time apart, just as in de Sitter’s universe.
In
fact, most cosmologists agree today that not quite all motion is
relative and that space-time does have an existence independent of
matter, though it is anything but static and absolute. The best example
are gravitational waves, ripples of compression and stretching speeding
through empty space at the speed of light.
Einstein
was back and forth on this. In 1916, he told Schwarzschild they did not
exist, then published a paper saying they did. In 1936, he and his
assistant did the same flip-flop again.
Nobody said this was easy, even for Einstein.
He set out to do one thing, namely make all motion relative, Michel Janssen,
a science historian at the University of Minnesota, told a Princeton
gathering this month. He failed, but in the process succeeded in doing
something very interesting, unifying the effects of acceleration and
gravity.
The
story goes to show, he said, that Bob Dylan was right when he sang
“there’s no success like failure,” but wrong that “failure is no success
at all.”
Einstein’s
greatest success came in 1919, when Arthur Eddington did the experiment
that Freundlich had set out to do, and ascertained that lights in the
heavens were all askew during an eclipse, bent by the sun’s dark
gravity, just as Einstein had predicted.
Asked
what he would have done if general relativity had failed, Einstein
said, “Then I would have been sorry for the dear Lord. The theory is
correct.”
And still the champ.
Einstein
was back and forth on this. In 1916, he told Schwarzschild they did not
exist, then published a paper saying they did. In 1936, he and his
assistant did the same flip-flop again.
Nobody said this was easy, even for Einstein.
He set out to do one thing, namely make all motion relative, Michel Janssen,
a science historian at the University of Minnesota, told a Princeton
gathering this month. He failed, but in the process succeeded in doing
something very interesting, unifying the effects of acceleration and
gravity.
The
story goes to show, he said, that Bob Dylan was right when he sang
“there’s no success like failure,” but wrong that “failure is no success
at all.”
Einstein’s
greatest success came in 1919, when Arthur Eddington did the experiment
that Freundlich had set out to do, and ascertained that lights in the
heavens were all askew during an eclipse, bent by the sun’s dark
gravity, just as Einstein had predicted.
Asked
what he would have done if general relativity had failed, Einstein
said, “Then I would have been sorry for the dear Lord. The theory is
correct.”
