PERSONAL: LOOKING AT A WOMAN

My life has been a blur, a veritable forest of women... thousands even... the glistening body of Brynda Johannsdottir beside a Gjain waterfall in Iceland... a three-day roller coaster ride at the Dnipro Hotel in Kiev with Tatiana and Irina... a life-saving, hypothermia averting night in a sleeping bag with a Sherpa named Honey on the slopes of mountains.. I could go on and on.

Observe a woman  is one of the unsung wonders of the world. Watch the way she touches her hair, how she pushes it back from her face, curving it around the contour of her ear, a subconscious gesture when it gets in her way. And notice your delight when her hair falls right back down again as she leans forward. Some women have no idea the effect they have on men; it is beauty in repose, and it is wonderful

Here’s what I’ve learned in my life: to truly experience anything, to experience things in their entirety, all the senses must be engaged. A woman is like a fine wine of the rarest vintage. It is not enough to merely glance at the wine in the glass, then toss it back without a care or thought. Instead, one needs to take the time to let the wine relax and breathe, to observe its clarity and complexion, to admire its superb body, to draw in its exquisite bouquet with every breath, savoring it deeply, and then—and only then—should one take that first anticipatory sip, drinking it in slowly, mindfully, attuning the senses to all of its quixotic subtleties, its texture, its nuance… experiencing it... breathing it... living it... fading into it.

This is the secret to living and loving: everything must be experienced on all levels, everything must be explored, every invitation accepted, every experience fully immersed. When we travel to another city, why do we stay on the tourist track? How dreary to see the world this way! Far better to discover the rhythm of the place, to touch the city’s fabric with our hands, to absorb its culture through the pores of our skin. Who, after all, can say they’ve been to Paris when the only thing they remember is the Eiffel Tower?

It is the same with women and it is the same with wine.There are some women you encounter in your life that shake your foundations.Because of women,there are poets and artists in the world.Is not the curve of a woman the greatest creation of a benevolent God? Is not the smile of a woman the greatest source of inspiration on earth? How can one possibly resist the disarray of desire that beauty invokes? How can one devote his life to anything but a study of the poetics of women? It makes no sense to me to strive for anything else.

I love women. I don’t give a damn what others think of me. Let analysts analyze. Let psychologists murmur and suggest. and wring their hands. Let man-haters roar. I move through life without apology, without defense, without regret. I am wondrously in love with women, in love with the very idea of women, and if your heart is sincere, you will understand exactly what that means. This is what I live. This is what I love. This is what I believe. This is my religion, my saving grace. This is the air I breathe.

When I am gone and they are scattering my ashes to the wind, let them look up to the sky and say, “Yes, he was a scoundrel, a flaneur, inconsistent, ridiculous, excessive, but oh, he lived a life! A winged life! He loved freedom and beauty above all. His greatest fear was mediocrity. He was immensely curious, charmed, and enchanted, on an adventure, itinerant, having enormous fun in life, never needy, never attached to the outcome, never serious, but always sincere. He was in love with the voluptuousness of life and its immense potential. Above all, he was a lover of women. He loved women completely, from the sea to the sky. He was fascinated by the essence, the glory, and the magical omnipotence of women. He had no other hobbies. Women were his poetry, his music, his reading, his travel, his sport



What am I looking for?

There’s a difference between hot women and beautiful women. Hot women are everywhere; they abound. They are beautified, not beautiful. Beautiful women, on the other hand, are rare and a real mystery. Hotness speaks to our impulses. Beauty speaks to our imagination.Hot women get hit on. Beautiful ones rarely do. Why is this? It’s because men understand hot women; they are a known entity. Men know what to do with them, or more precisely, what they would like to do with them. Hot women have a front side and a back side. No mystery there whatsoever. Beautiful women, on the other hand, possess a complexity, a depth, a nuanced grace, that confuses most men. Men have no idea what to do with them..but I do.

Hot women are attracted to “shiny objects”: money clips, camera lenses, fancy watches. All you have to do is flash it better or more profusely than the next guy and you’re in.Beautiful women do not care about these things at all. They are attracted to only one thing in men: beauty. And what is the beauty in a man? A lifelong devotion to a personal passion, a passion larger than him, larger than her, larger than the whole wide world, a passion that radiates from his pores until the day he dies. This is the beauty of men. And this is why beautiful women are forever in love with starving artists, musicians, dreamers, iconoclasts like myself. They love these men because they, too, possess a certain, rare beauty. They, too, are set apart.A man who loves women is loved by women. This is a law of the universe.

A man who loves women treats all women the same, giving each of them his full attention, kissing their hands and winking all around. It doesn’t matter at all what he says. What matters is the way he says it. When he focuses on a woman, there is no one else in the world. He includes. He shares. He leans in to her, giving of himself, and inviting her to share of herself in return. He smiles with his eyes and his whole being. And he makes sure that every other woman sees the special attention he is lavishing on her,




Does she not sleep? Each time I awaken in the night she is still close to me, smiling at me, stroking my hair. She only smiles, saying nothing, saying everything, surrounding me in her aura of hidden things. She guards me in the night, watching over me, cradling me tight to her breasts, protecting me in my dreams. Her breath-hum is all around me, an unseen force with no beginning and no end, like the hot wind of this beautiful country that created her. I close my eyes and listen to her heartbeat.I can only think that if a man has never experienced a moment like this in his life.Only then has his life been lived, only then can he smile up to God and say, thank You, now I understand, now I have seen the majesty of Your works, I have touched my feet upon sacred ground, and now it is enough, I can kiss the sky and die

WHAT IF?

Some moments can change your life forever. Have you ever wondered, what if...? What if one small decision could change the rest of your life?

What if you had said yes to me ...?  What happens next will determine the rest of their lives. A life filled with love, or a life where you are still where you are now

ARTICLE: 'Star Trek' reveals an important truth about the robot takeover By Manu Saadia,

When discussing my upcoming book on the economics of "Star Trek" with people who have only a passing interest in the show, I have noticed that the issue of work keeps coming back.  More specifically, casual viewers, professional economists and members of the press alike seem to hone in on the (fictional) consequences of automation.

Arguably, "Star Trek" is the only sci-fi franchise that takes automation seriously.

In "Star Trek", the necessity to work to provide for oneself has vanished. "Star Trek" society, as depicted in the show, is perhaps the most popular example of what is called a ’post-scarcity' economy, for lack of a better term.

Blame the replicator. That machine can produce anything on demand and on the spot, from Captain Picard's tea, Earl Grey, hot to clothing, knickknacks and even medicine.

As described by art director Michael Okuda (in "Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual" - yes! there is such a thing), the replicator draws from its tanks of shapeless molecular goo to form objects based on pre-existing designs, stored as data. The requested objects appear out of thin air on the replicator's plate, with the same tingling effect as a the illustrious "Star Trek" transporter of “beam me up, Scotty” fame.

Yet, how the replicator functions, its plumbing so to speak, is probably its least interesting aspect. Besides, you shouldn't take it too literally. This is science fiction, after all.  

What really matters is the replicator's economic powers.

First, the device separates design from fabrication.  Aside from the occasional maintenance, the only real work involved in operating a replicator is intellectual in nature.  It consists mainly in creating software models of objects that can then be stored and readily be produced according to the whims of the machine's users.  It should be noted that in "Star Trek", copyright protection and patents do not seem to exist.  Models stored in a replicator's data banks are DRM-free.



Which leads us to the replicator's second striking economic feature — its ability to turn each and every single thing it materializes into non-rival, non-excludable public goods.  Think of it as the air you breathe.  Your consumption of air does not limit its availability to anybody else, and no-one can restrict access to air through any ad-hoc mechanism.  

Obviously there are some limitations: lines may form in ship's mess hall at chow time, and from time to time an indelicate free-rider might drain the replicator's matter reservoirs by ordering too much stuff.

That being said, as it appears on the show, the replicator invariably delivers its products for free. Case in point: you never see Captain Picard put a coin in a slot on the side of his office machine.  The Enterprise as a whole bears the costs of operating and maintaining the Captain's replicator.  Those costs, matter, energy, and object design are mutualized.

This is clearly the result of a deliberate choice on the part of the United Federation of Planets.  Consider the Ferengis, one of the more colorful species in Star Trek's alien bestiary.  In the hands of Quark, the jocular and profit-obsessed bar owner of "Star Trek: Deep Space 9", the replicator becomes a license to print cash (or rather to press latinum into gold) and to fleece his patrons.



That in turn underlines the last, and perhaps most provocative aspect of the replicator.  The services it provides force profound behavioral changes upon its users.  When technology makes every necessity of life available to the consumer at no immediate cost, then all bets are off. The audience is thrown into a purely science-fictional world where most familiar motivations, greed, the accumulation of wealth and economic competition, no longer apply.

What is the point of conspicuous consumption and luxury for the Enterprise crew when everybody has equal access to all the good things life has to offer? What is the psychological effect on Federation citizens to never experience poverty or financial stress (it is well-known, for instance, that poverty has dreadful consequences on children's brain development)? What happens to people when satiation is the norm and the baseline, rather than a rare occurrence in a life otherwise devoted to struggling and hustling?

Well, for one, the characters on the show are notoriously unrelatable to us.  They never squabble amongst themselves and they rarely display envy, jealousy or acquisitiveness. In fact they all come across as 50 shades of Spock: stoic, rational, devoted to improving themselves and infinitely curious about the universe.

Furthermore, the abolition of the necessity to work has certainly not abolished work itself.  The Enterprise crew is always busy.  



Geordi LaForge, the chief engineer, is constantly hacking away at his warp engine to squeeze more power and efficiency from it.  Deanna Troi, the ship's counselor and therapist, holds regular sessions with her patients. Dr. Crusher and Nurse Ogawa are treating a stream of crew members who sustain injuries playing in the ship's holodeck.  

The Captain is called upon to exercise his talents for leadership and diplomacy. Furthermore, the wider Federation, or at least what we get to see of it, seems inordinately populated by experimental scientists all eagerly trying to invent new devices and to test new theories.  

"Star Trek" presents a world where freedom from material want, brought on by the replicator, compels people to be even more productive and creative.  Not so much for monetary gains as for reputation, glory and the recognition of one's peers.

This at least is not entirely incomprehensible to us 21st century humans.  There are in fact many hints of such incentives and behaviors in our own world, from free software such as Linux and TeX (which enables the sharing of scientific research), to Wikipedia and social networks.  

This does not mean that once the robots have arrived and become self-aware we will instantly live in Star Trek's merry world.  But it may indicate that perhaps the impact of automation will not be nearly as dire as some people predict.