Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Atlanta here I come!!!



I just received (this Tuesday) confirmation of my affectation to Emory University in Atlanta for next Spring Semester (January 2010 - June 2010)!!!! :D

A little presentation of Emory:
Emory was founded in 1836 and has been called a "New Ivy" by Kaplan and Newsweek. Its "Goizueta School Of Business" BBA program was ranked the 5th best undergraduate business school in the US by Businessweek, above NYU 's "Stern" (8th), UNC at Chapel Hill's "Kenan-Flagler" (12th), and UC Berkeley's "Haas" (11th). UPenn's Wharton is still number one, followed by McIntire, Mendoza and Cornell. With its $5.5 billion endowment, Emory U is known for being a research-intensive university, especially in medecine (their pre-med program is amazing), as they invest a lot in cancer and AIDS research ($1.6 billion in 2008/09).
Among notable faculty are former president Jimmy Carter, His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso, novelist Salman Rushdie ( writer of "The Satanic Verses") and many others.
Alumni include Christopher McCandless (the main subject of "Into The Wild"), Peter Buck (lead guitarist of R.E.M, -dropped out-), and several prominent politicians and businessmen (Andy Slater- CEO of Capitol Records, Duncan L. Niederauer - CEO of the NYSE, etc) as well as writers and scientists.

I feel so lucky to be able to experience a community with such a rich history of excellence. I will definitely try to make the most of these 6 months, Atlanta here I come! :P



Thursday, February 5, 2009

Right-brained or Left-brained?


You see the dancer rotating counter-clockwise?
You are left-brained! (like most people)

The dance rotates clockwise?
You are right-brained!

*LEFT-BRAINED people are analytical, rational, logical, sequential, objective. Generally the way of thinking is structured and clear-cut. They will understand by building the big picture from its components.

*RIGHT-BRAINED people are random, intuitive, holistic (big picture oriented), synthetical, subjective. They will see the big picture and then consider its different parts.

Personally, I am right-brained (not just proven by this test, but by several others as well). The thing with this dancer test is that you can "switch" the rotation if you try hard enough (you'll find it easier looking at the shadow below), so you really have to trust your first glance to define which operating mode is usually yours.

Optical illusions!

Because we love them! (At least I do ^^)









Don't worry, I've checked them all very carefully, they are not animated gifs but real optical illusions. You can actually stop the "motion" if you concentrate hard and stop moving your eyes. Most of these illusions actually depend on the brain's own anticipations and the approximative visual information of the peripheral sight. By unconsciously/ mechanically sweeping over the image while looking at it, you merely imprint the approximative vision in your very short-term memory, the brain easily modifies this vague information, and holds it for hard fact, in order to fit the conclusion it calculates can be drawn: motion. Colors, shapes and the different priorities subconsciously set to each of these elements define the imaginary motion more precisely (orientation, 3D conversion, etc). And there you have it!

Monday, February 2, 2009

Verum Addo Pacis

Structures rip open and break

Yet the inside remains intact

The dove is gradually rising.

 

Long live the glad upraising

Of love where hate is

Of joy where despair is.

 

And when the night comes

We won’t be scared, bathed

In the sacred peace, that

Burning feeling of comfort.

 

The sky won’t be clouded.

The light blinding, but it’s the only way

You know it’s the only way.