Because I choose to…

Agent Smith: Why, Mr. Anderson, why? Why, why do you do it? Why, why get up? Why keep fighting?

Do you believe you’re fighting for something, for more than your survival? Can you tell me what it is, do you even know? Is it freedom or truth, perhaps peace – could it be for love?

Illusions, Mr. Anderson, vagaries of perception. Temporary constructs of a feeble human intellect trying desperately to justify an existence that is without meaning or purpose. And all of them as artificial as the Matrix itself. Although, only a human mind could invent something as insipid as love.

You must be able to see it, Mr. Anderson, you must know it by now! You can’t win, it’s pointless to keep fighting! Why, Mr. Anderson, why, why do you persist?

Neo: Because I choose to.

— XX —

Movie Quote from The Matrix Revolutions (2003)

Book: No Shortcuts to the Top

For me, how I reach the top is more important than whether I do.
– Ed Viesturs

A very inspiring book about a man who has a true respect for the awesome forces of nature and the insignificance of man in comparison. Viesturs lives by an unyielding motto, “Reaching the summit is optional. Getting down is mandatory.” He once turned back 300 feet from the top of Everest in a storm, only to returned a few laters to the conquer its peak. Everest claims the life of one climber for every two who reached its summit.

In this day of sophisticated gadgetry and scientific advancement, what is particularly interesting about Viesturs is that he climbs without the use of supplemental oxygen. Viesturs maintains that his goal is not only to reach the summit — but do it well. Mountain climbing, he maintains, should be about personal goals, to challenge how one can perform, to experience the mountain as it is without reducing it man’s level.

This book is in essence Ed Viesturs’ biography on his quest to become the first U.S. climber to reach the top of all fourteen 8,000 meter peaks without oxygen.

No Shortcuts to the Top: Climbing the World’s 14 Highest Peaks by Ed Viesturs, David Roberts

and I’ll often stop and think about them …

There are places I remember all my life,
Though some have changed,
Some forever, not for better,
Some have gone and some remain.

Though I know I’ll never lose affection
For people and things that went before,
I know I’ll often stop and think about them,
In my life I’ll love you more.
In my life I’ll love you more.

— XXX —

In My Life – The Beatles
By John Lennon and Paul McCartney
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India – a signatory to the ITER project

ITER .. what’s that you ask ?? Well ITER — OR International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) has been in the planning and development stages for more than ten years; it is well supported by most of the world’s leading countries that include the U.S., China, India, Russia, Japan, South Korea and the European Union.

The key concept behind the ITER project is “to establish an experimental fusion reactor that seeks to emulate the power of the sun“. The project will cost €10bn ($13bn, £7bn), will take 10-years, and will be built in the south of France. If all goes well, the first commercial power from fusion reactors should be available around 2045.

Fusion research has so far used far more energy than it has generated, however if successful here is what it aims to accomplish.

ITER would fuse atomic nuclei at extremely high temperatures inside a giant electromagnetic ring to produce electricity from a fusion reaction.

• Deuterium, the major fuel required to operate the reactor, will be extracted from seawater
• The project is expected to result in inexhaustible and cheap supplies of energy
• Fusion power plants will not generate greenhouse gases or any other gases that harm the environment
• Critics, however, doubt its viability and say it will be at least 50 years before any commercially viable reactor can be built

An initial forecast for the construction of the 500 MW reactor is cost about $6.41 billion and take 10 years to complete.

More about the ITER project here, here and here.

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