Brain in a jar

Another episode where I feel a whole lot of sympathy for Tony. We take a trip to the memory lane to his childhood and we see scenes from he grew up. He learns that his dad and uncle are very good at beating up people who owes money to them. Junior and Johnny boy chasing a guy named Rocco with a car and beating him up together is almost the same as Tony and Christopher chasing and beating up the guy who worked at HMO company in the pilot episode. The reference to “history repeats itself” is made a couple of times and Tony’s obsession with history channel is being built up.

People are not evil but mostly the circumstances and environment makes them evil is a belief of mine. Here in this episode that point of view is argued in a contrived way but still it is convincing.

No Paulie sighting in this episode. As a consolation prize, we’ll need to remember how he stole a coffee maker from the Starbucks-like store just to show them not to profiteer from Italian culture.

The way that Dr. Melfi giggles at Tony’s “I don’t let people wag their fingers at me” as a response to a prostate test is not too dissimilar about how I feel about Tony. It just interesting and fun to be around him. It is so refreshing to see him not take anybody’s bullshit. Those conflicting feelings are the difference of this show from almost all others. Even in Breaking Bad I lost my sympathy to Walter White after he got into the “empire business”. 

But Tony? I love him while I see that I should not be. 

I know that this is a work of fiction and contrived but I think it has real parallels about how I think about people. There are not good people or bad people but there’s good or bad actions. And there’s not really math between the big bad actions canceling small good actions. There’s no end math that you can do for deciding a person’s ultimate value.

At the halfway milestone in the first season we come to the episode that is universally liked and discussed. The one that Meadow asks Tony “Are you in the mafia?” and the one where Tony very graphically strangulates an older Mafia associate to death.

Probably it would not be an exaggeration to assume that we would not be seeing Vic Mackey shoot another cop in the pilot episode The Shield and we would not be seeing Walter White kill a drug dealer with U-Lock in a basement in Breaking Bad. Probably those scenes would be much softer without “The College” being so critically acclaimed.

The look on Tony’s face while he is killing the man is mixed with hatred and excitement and possibly satisfaction. And it is forced so bluntly on to us as the viewers. Afterwards we are left with conflicted feelings about feeling sort of good for Tony and Meadow when they had a ⅓ of a heart to heart about Tony’s job. How on earth did we feel so much empathy and/or sympathy for this killer sociopath?

This is the magic of The Sopranos and Tony Soprano character. We like him, we laugh at his jokes, we feel empathy for him. But then 2 scenes later. Boom. He is squeezing some wires around a guy’s neck whom also happens to have a daughter and a wife.

One thing that makes this show so special for me is the presentation of inconsistencies in the way these characters live their lives. It is pushed to extreme with Tony’s murders and violence but nevertheless all of us do some good acts and some pretty horrible ones.

Watching Tony I can maybe come close to understanding how a person can become a violent sociopath and live with himself and keep cracking jokes with his daughter.

The second storyline with Carmela and Father Phil also shows similar traits. We see the conflicts in Carmela and Father Phil and how one is always tempted to be a hypocrite and explain away the hypocrisy very easily.

I have come to accept that all people are hypocrites and that’s just the way humans are. I think watching The Sopranos multiple times helped me come to that opinion as much as books of Jonathan Haidt and Daniel Kahneman.

Notes:

- Father Phil cannot hold his wine too well. It was so funny how he did a bottoms up of the communion wine

- After some honesty both Tony and Carmela were reset to their normal factory settings at the end of the episode.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoXKd-x3VPA

As we approach the half point in the season Dr. Melfi and Tony’s relatiomship become more complex. Tony asks a loser cop to follow and research Melfi and he takes it to himself to beat up Melfi’s boyfriend under wrong assumptions. “What a moron” says Tony. Bunch of crime story lines show similarities to Coen brother’s movies. Not sure who inspired who but stupid criminals gettin into weird situations is always fun to watch.

This violent episode makes Melfi open up to Tony in a way she had not done before and in a sort of unprofessional way. She’s getting under the spell of Tony and his world. Melfi thinks that Tony’s violent world is not that uncommon when she runs into violence elsewhere. Of course she does not know that Tony’s is indirectly responsible for the horrors she and her date went through.

Tony reading a book about how to deal with elder people imBada Bing is why this show is one of the funniest. Junior getting dressed up to Jackie’s funeral just missing a sign that says ‘I am the new boss’ and being happy like a kid.

Livia not admitting she wants the macaroons and like clockwork spouting that she’d just rather die is very quaint.

Not much Paulie funnines in yhis episode. Let’s remember how he overexplained his very obvious joke about Chris in the pilot for a comsolation chuckle.

Step by step Sopranos is building the characters and the conflicts that’s going payyoff big time through this season and later. We see how devious and manipulative Livia is while she gives the defacyto execution order for Brandon. It’s also funny that Chris is only saved by doing a favor to his great aunt. ‘He put up my storm windows one year’

Tony getting philosophical about the meaning of life and getting paranoid about the paintings around him will be repeating pattern. From time to time he will keep questioning life, his choices, good vs evil and similar complex concepts. Chase is slowly building the language of the show.

Paulie is funny as always recommending clinical trials and stem cell therapy to Jackie Aprile right after Jackie was complaining about junior #2 talking about cancer all the time.

Paulie is never not funny.

We get introduced to my favorite chracter Paulie on this episode. The way that he gets pissed off at the Starbucks type coffeeshop is one of the many funniest scenes to come.

Tony picking up a stolen DVD player and taking 2-3K from christopher’s tribute to junior. The whole system is based on trimming a little from the top.

We also get the Livia catchphrase “Oh poor you!”.

One of the best TV series pilots starts with this shot. We get a glimpse of how violent and sociopathic Tony is as well as how funny and charming he can be sometimes. Cycnical and funny comebacks and the joy on his face when he chasing the insuarance guy who owes the money. And we see all the crap that he needs to deal with. His mother, wife, daughter, nephew, uncle. Feels like how can he not be depressed with all of this. And the interest he has for the ducks is charming and warm. He has built a ramp into his pool for the little ducks. What an awesome guy:)

“Kendi isteksizliğime ‘zaruret’ , 'imkansızlık’ gibi adlar koymaya, şarkla garp arasında ölcüsüz mukayeseler yapmaya… ”

“Çünkü samimiyet tek başına olan iş değildir. ”

“Lodos rüzgarlarının kozmik saat ayarları üzerindeki tesiri, Sosyal monizm ve saat, Saniye ve sosyete”

“Çünkü bu bağımsız saat ne ayar, ne islah ve tamir kabul ederdi. ”

“Hepimiz ömrümüzün kısalığından şikayet ederiz; fakat gün denen şeyi bir an evvel ve farkına varmadan yaşamak için neler yapmayız. ”

“O seneyi bu saat yüzünden, ertesi seneyi yolda bulduğum çok eski başka bir saat yüzünden aynı sınıfta geçirdim.”

“Bana kalırsa bu çalışma hayatına tam intibak edememekten gelen bir şeydir, demişti. Hayat kendi şeklini yaratmazsa böyle olur. Bu kahve hakkında sizi dinlerken ben, çoğunu tanıdığım bu insanları hep bir çeşit aralıkta yaşıyormuş gibi düşündüm. İsterseniz onlara kapının dışında kalanlar da diyebiliriz”

“Fakat hayır, bütün bunları yapabilmek, kendisini alışkanlıklarının dışında denemek için başka türlü adam olmak lazımdı. Koşmak, kımıldamak, atılmak, istemek, isteyişinde devam etmek lazımdı. ”

Luck is a public good. There’s a certain amount of it that is shared between people by chance:) So if you have more of some thing (money/intelligence/beauty/strength/etc) compared to other people, that makes it so much more likely that you consumed more than your share of luck. So “you didnt build it” might not be completely right but it is probabilistically right.

Internette tartistigimiz bir arkadas bir soru sordu. Fikirlerimi toplayip uzunca bir cevap yazdim. 

Tartışmanın özü: taksim gezi parkında ağaçlr kesilmeyecek ve daha da yeşillendirilerk modern proje yapılack burda sorun nerde ?

Bir cok sorun var ve birbirine baglantili. Bir cok insan hukumetin “modern” diye tanimladigi yapilanmalardan memnun degil. Bir cok insan bu gune kadar bu tip projelerde yapilanlara bakip hukumetin “agac kesmiycez, guzellestiricez” sozune guvenmiyor. Basbakan da oraya ne yapilacagi konusunda bir cok farkli mesajlar verdi konusmalarinda. Dedikleri “Tam bilmiyorum ama her en olursa olsun benim dedigim yapilicak” diye anlasiliyor  bir dolu insan tarafindan (ben de boyle goruyorum). Bunun yaninda bir cok insan Basbakan'in nerdeyse her konuda “ben ne dersem o olucak” seklinde gorunen tavrina karsi. Bu proje, bundan once baglantili bir dolu gelismenin, icraatin ve bunlarin algisinin bardagi dolduran son damlasi haline geldi.  Bu sorunlar projeye ozel olan tepkinin nedeni bana gore.

Biraz da bu park direnisinin neden bu kadar yanki buldugunu ve daha genis ve gorece uzun soluklu protestolara neden oldugunu aciklamaya calisayim. 

Burda (phoenix, amerika'da) bana Turkiye'de neler oldugunu soranlara soyle diyorum. Turkiye MIsir Libya gibi degil, hukumetimiz secimle geldi ve insanlarin %50'ye yakininin destegiyle. Ama hukumet, ozellikle son bes senedir kendisine oy vermeyen yuzde elli yokmus gibi davraniyor. Biz boyle goruyoruz. Ne zaman AKP'ye oy vermeyen kisiler seslerini yukseltmeye kalksa, polis baskisiyla/siddetiyle ve medya sansuruyle eziliyorlar. Seslerini duyurumanin her yolu siddetle ve baskiyla kapatiliyor. Demokrasi 4 senede bir secim ortasinda krallik degil bana gore. Halkin 50'sinin oyunu almis bir basbakan, halkin diger %50'sinin de guvenini kazanmak zorunda. En azindan iyi niyetle kazanmaya calismak zorunda. Fikirleri aciklikla dinlemek ve cogu problemde orta yolu bulmak zorunda. Ama bizim gordugumuz basbakan eline gecen her firsatta bu iki tarafin farkliliklarini on plana cikarip anlayis ucurumunu daha da buyutmeye calisiyor. Evet AKP'nin oylari her secimde artti ama bunun maliyeti insanlarin birbirini daha da farkli ve hatta dusman gormesi oldu. Bunu biraz acayim: 

AKP secmenleri karsiya bakip,  (tahminimce sayica cok az olan) basortululere agza alinmaz hakaret edenleri goruyor. Onu cogu zaman butun %50'ye genelliyor. AKP'ye oy vermeyenler de AKP'ye bakip tahminimce sayica cok az kisinin destekledigi “her kadin carsafa girecek” seklinde bir tavir goruyorlar. Onlar da onu diger %50'ye genelliyorlar. Bu anlayis ucurumu nedeniyle iki taraftaki radikkaller daha da artiyor ve orta yol bulmak, insanlarin biririne anlayisi guveni azaliyor.

Bana gore politikacilarin gorevi boyle ucurumlari kucultmek onlarin uzerinde kopruler kurmak ve insanlari birine yaklastirmaktir. Halkin buyuk cogunlugu (%50 degil %80i mesela) kendini ulkede yapilanlara ortak hissetmezse, ilerleme olsa bile yapilanlar kolaylikla yikilir. Ama hem AKP'ye hem de CHP'ye bu ucurumun arasini acmak benzersiz bir oy kuyusu gibi geliyor. Bu yuzden iki taraftan da diger tarafin en radikallerinden ornekler dinliyoruz. 

Bu park protestosu “aa bak kafirler camide icki icmisler” ya da “aa bak seriatcilar zorla carsaf giydirmisler, oruc tutmayani dovmusler” ezberlerini bir nebze de olsa bozmayi basarmistir. Iki tarafta da ezberi saglam olanlar  ezberlediklerini bagirmaya devam da ettiler ama bir cok kisi bence ezberini sorguladi biraz. 

Bu park protestosunun bir cok sehirde boyle yanki bulmasinin toplumsal nedeni budur bana gore. Buna bir de polisin akla hayale gelmiycek siddeti ve medyanin ilk uc dort gun suskunlugu eklenince isler bu hale geldi. 

Bilmem derdimi biraz anlatabildim mi?

Tesekkurler,

Cem

“It’s critical to have a diversity of models,” I was told by Kerry Emanuel, an MIT meteorologist who is one of the world’s foremost theorists about hurricanes. “You do not want to put all your eggs in one basket.” One of the reasons this is so critical, Emanuel told me, is that in addition to the different assumptions these models employ, they also contain different bugs. “That’s something nobody likes to talk about,” he said. “Different models have different coding errors. You cannot assume that a model with millions and millions of lines of code, literally millions of instructions, that there isn’t a mistake in there.”

Darse Billings quote from Signal and Noise.
“There is no other game that I know of where humans are so smug, and think that they just play like wizards, and then play so badly,” he told me. “Basically it’s because they don’t know anything, and they think they must be God-like, and the truth is that they aren’t. If computer programs feed on human hubris, then in poker they will eat like kings.”

This kind of false sense of entitlement is not unique to poker. It is common in every field that has some stochasticity in measuring performance. People are result oriented if their results are good but blame luck and other factors if their results are bad.

http://webdocs.cs.ualberta.ca/~darse/
http://www.amazon.com/dp/159420411X

The argument that religion is some sort of a parasite and that’s why it has survived so long within natural selection will die much earlier than religion.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/24/opinion/the-moral-animal.html?_r=0

I don’t know why these kinds of claims give me so much pleassure but it does. Most published results are wrong in the medical field. If you further qualify it with not wring and useful where does that leave us? 10%?

http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pmed.0020124

Exponential increase of false positives.
“This is why our predictions may be more prone to failure in
the era of Big Data. As there is an exponential increase in
the amount of available information, there is likewise an
exponential increase in the number of hypotheses to
investigate. For instance, the U.S. government now
publishes data on about 45,000 economic statistics. If you
want to test for relationships between all combinations of
two pairs of these statistics—is there a causal relationship
between the bank prime loan rate and the unemployment
rate in Alabama?—that gives you literally one billion
hypotheses to test.”