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The chapters in a book have a physical beginning and a physical end. But their contents flow backwards into the story before, flow forwards into the remaining story and will continue to weave into the story contents beyond the book itself. Book in photo above courtesy of Bahati Mabala, A Trail of My Shadows .

1. Is it possible to create an international political party? If so, where does this leave the role of "international" ideologies (such as democracy, capitalism, etc.) and institutions (the UN, the World Bank, etc.)? 2. Is all the information circulated within Government public domain? Thanks Nabil, Inayat, Muntazir, Ayham and Hamza for the (as always) good company.

I found these Google interview questions and suggested responses from a WSJ article. Examples of some questions: You're in a car with a helium balloon on a string that is tied to the floor. The windows are closed. When you step on the gas pedal, what happens to the balloon—does it move forward, move backward, or stay put? A book has N pages, numbered the usual way, from 1 to N. The total number of digits in the page numbers is 1,095. How many pages does the book have? A man pushed his car to a hotel and lost his fortune. What happened? [My favorite] Responses here (thanks, WSJ!).

Risk, it appears, is not mitigated even if one is able to disconnect oneself from the result of invested effort. It seems risk can only be mitigated if all constituents of any effort or event are relieved from the potential of harm. The responsibility of everyone dealing with this risk, therefore, lies on one who initiates the risky event, however disconnected they are from the result.

Green is the true color of the coffee bean. The bean is harvested in Central and South America, Eastern Africa and Southern Asia. Green is the only natural color of the coffee bean, since What comes next is human-inflicted. Gold is the coffee bean's color after a little bit of heat. It is poured into closed heating tubs, and after about 5 minutes, the coffee bean is roasting at around 150 degrees celcius. Here, the it is transforming into something it is not familiar with. Brown. This is the color of the coffee bean after about half an hour of roasting, in the same heating tubs, now churning at over 200 degrees celcius. Brown is when the coffee bean has no green left in it. What comes next is variable and unknown to the bean. All it knows is that it is getting hotter and it is being churned around and around and if it doesn't keep up it'll probably end up in a scraps pile away from the other beans it looks similar to. Darkened brown. How brown will depend on how much longer...

Risk generally concerns exposure to danger or harm. Here, danger or harm is assumed to be undesired by an individual or group. But if there is a way to disconnect a self - either the individual's self or a group's self-identity - from the potential resulting event, does this mean the risk is mitigated?

If we can change time, we can also change how we do/act. If we change how we act, how representative are we of everyone else? If we are very representative, we can change time collectively. If we are not representative, how will we change anything?