When I was just a lad of ten, my father said to me, “Come here and take a lesson from the lovely lemon tree.” “Don’t put your faith in love, my boy”, my father said to me, “I fear you’ll find that love is like the lovely lemon tree.”
Lemon tree very pretty and the lemon flower is sweet But the fruit of the poor lemon is impossible to eat. Lemon tree very pretty and the lemon flower is sweet But the fruit of the poor lemon is impossible to eat.
One day beneath the lemon tree, my love and I did lie A girl so sweet that when she smiled the stars rose in the sky. We passed that summer lost in love beneath the lemon tree The music of her laughter hid my father’s words from me:
Lemon tree very pretty and the lemon flower is sweet But the fruit of the poor lemon is impossible to eat. Lemon tree very pretty and the lemon flower is sweet But the fruit of the poor lemon is impossible to eat.
One day she left without a word. She took away the sun. And in the dark she left behind, I knew what she had done. She’d left me for another, it’s a common tale but true. A sadder man but wiser now I sing these words to you:
Lemon tree very pretty and the lemon flower is sweet But the fruit of the poor lemon is impossible to eat. Lemon tree very pretty and the lemon flower is sweet But the fruit of the poor lemon is impossible to eat.
The other day, I was talking to a friend of mine about the Z3 theorem solver and he mentioned the inverted Pyramid puzzle. I told him: “I think this can be solved with Z3” and hence this blog post.
So what’s the inverted pyramid puzzle?
Imagine the following pyramid with 4 rows:
10 9 8 7
6 5 4
3 2
1
The numbers in that triangle are just placeholders for the sake of explanation.
The goal of the puzzle is to find the right order for those numbers in the triangle in such a way that:
For the 4th row, we must have whatever is at the position denoted with [number] subtracted from its neighbor equals the value of the next row’s value beneath the top 2 numbers (note: we take the absolute value of the subtraction). So:
For now, here’s a solution for the inverted pyramid with 4 rows:
8 10 3 9
2 7 6
5 1
4
The numbers configuration from above satisfies the conditions explained above.
Please note that the only numbers accepted in the pyramid are [1..Sigma(rows)]. Sigma denotes the sum of the arithmetic series going from 1 to rows. Continue reading “The inverted pyramid puzzle”
You have your Lebanon and I have mine. You have your Lebanon with her problems, and I have my Lebanon with her beauty. You have your Lebanon with all her prejudices and struggles, and I have my Lebanon with all her dreams and securities. Your Lebanon is a political knot, a national dilemma, a place of conflict and deception. My Lebanon, is a place of beauty and dreams of enchanting valleys and splendid mountains. Your Lebanon is inhabited by functionaries, officers, politicians, committees, and factions. My Lebanon is for peasants, shepherds, young boys and girls, parents and poets. Your Lebanon is empty and fleeting, whereas My Lebanon will endure forever.
Regarding the presidential battle, Trump will lose and win at the same time. Time will reveal how that will be possible.
Targeted and organic actions towards Nancy Pelosi.
A sudden health hiccup will cause Trump to alter his agenda.
The US navy will be engaged and its side effects act as a reminder of the infamous Marines attack in Lebanon during the 80s.
The US air space will be violated using advanced means.
A US State will threaten to become independent.
Pompeo will not be protected by the US defense against certain events.
The Bidens will face events that will radically change their destiny.
Michelle Obama will be in the spotlight.
A catastrophe involving the destruction of a big building.
New questions marks regarding the methods used to kill El Baghdadi.
Lebanon
Lebanon of tomorrow won’t look the same anymore like the Lebanon of yesterday. A new, rich, unique and interesting experiment will be created in and by Lebanon.
Lebanon will not be really divided but there will be different parts of Lebanon having their own characteristics and rules, for example:
Civil marriage will be allowed in one area but not the other.
The currency might be different.
The square footage of Lebanon will be different.
They said that the 2019 Lebanese revolution is a she. That’s true and that she will give birth to many different revolutions.
I see two “explosions” happening, one is symbolic with respect to leadership and major decisions and the other is a real one.
The revolutions will have so many results and there might even be female martyrs or bloodshed (not just male bloodshed). The revolution will be a long-term project that will yield change very slowly.
The masterminds of the revolution will be revealed.
Religious institutions shake-ups: some religious figures will be detained along with their properties. Some of them will flee.
There is bankruptcy in Lebanon. Partly real and partly artificial. The missing money will return to their owners.
The economy will reboot even if slow at first, it will pick up with time.
The central bank of Lebanon will be a big legal ground: it will be prosecuted and will prosecute and lead to imprisonment.
They will find petrol in Lebanon.
More young men will immigrate but the destination countries’ own men are also immigrating due to financial and other calamities.
There will be a sudden interest in investing a lot of money and opening businesses in Lebanon.
A big event relating to the US embassy in Lebanon.
The bodyguards of Nabih Berry will themselves need help.
Tripoli will play a big role in the revolution and rejuvenation of Lebanon.
In an unexpected turn of events, the line of communication between the militia in the South and the presidential palace will be suspended.
A commandeering relationship will be delegated to a lady from the Aoun last name.
A terrorist cell will wake up to shake the safety of the Lebanese society.
Chatter, unrelated to the world of art, concerning Ziad El Rahbani.
A very costly revenge operation will target military heads.
The Vatican will have to do a direct intervention into Lebanese affairs.
The Russians will have a big role in the Lebanese affairs.
Orchestrated return of “random” explosions to target businessmen, politicians and people in the revolution.
A confrontation between Hezbollah and the US army will take place.
Australia will invest in Lebanon.
Hezbollah will go through a period where it endangers itself and Lebanon.
In this blog post, I will show you how to deobfuscated a ConfuserEx protected .NET application.
Unfortunately, there is a lot of videos on YouTube about how to deobfuscate such programs but these videos are so complicated and the instructions are either convoluted or do not yield a good result.
Open the program with dnSpy (or drag and drop it):
At first inspection, we can tell there’s obfuscation due to the name of the entrypoint at line 4 (being so cryptic). Additionally, if you click on the “ConfusedTest.exe” node, you will see more attributes and the obfuscator name (ConfuserEx v1.0.0-4-g3fd0d55):
Going to doctors in the US yields a prescription drug per visit. If you dare to mention a given pain, then you walk out with a pain killer. You mention a stomach ailment, you walk out with another weird prescription drug.
If you undertake a surgical operation, you get to collect a bouquet of pain killers and anti-inflammatory drugs.
You can tell already that I am not a big fan of medications. Have you ever tried to read the side-effects of the prescription drugs?
Imagine how many toxins the drugs release in your system. Imagine how much damage they incur while they help you with a given problem. What’s the risk of addiction when you take certain pain medications?
Have you tried mentioning alternative medicine or herbs to your doctor? They ridicule you and shun the whole alternative medicine approach.
Money: The root of all evil as they say. We are motivated by money and for many, the means justify the end.
Sex: The primal instinct that drives the human populace. Sex sells. Sex seduces. How many great men fell because of treachery and bad decisions due to sex and lust?
Power: The thing that one cannot have enough of. Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Can we learn to live outside this trio? Everything in moderation and we can make it.
A life where we try to serve others while sustaining ourselves is a good life. A life where we only take what we need is a fair one. If we use sex of reproduction and to cherish our partner, we won’t have a degenerate society and unwanted babies and hence the murders through abortion, etc.
Power? What about empowerment? Empowerment sounds more noble and better than “power”. To empower others by teaching them and educating them is a very noble thing. Power alone is selfish, but power for the sake of sharing is good and noble.
I bought myself the noise masking sleepbuds from BOSE to combat loisy upstairs neighbors who stomp all the time at night and early morning:
I tried them for two nights and I like the technology, unfortunately, I did not keep them because they were not comfortable for side sleepers.
The sleepbuds fit well in the ear and produce soothing music (you have a big selection from the phone app), however I found that any external speakers that can generate white noise can do the same effect.
It’s been said, on the first day of their marriage, wife and husband decided and agreed not to open the door for anyone!
On that day first, husband’s parents came to see them, they were behind the door.
Husband and the wife looked at each other, husband wanted to open the door, but since they had an agreement he did not open the door, so his parents left.
After a while the same day, wife’s parents came, wife and the husband looked at each other and even though they had an agreement, wife with tears on her eyes whispered, I can’t do this to my parents, and she opened the door.
Husband did not say anything, years passed and they had 4 boys and the fifth child was a girl.
The father, planned a very big party for the new born baby girl, and he invited everyone over.
Later that night his wife asked him what was the reason for such a big celebration for this baby while we did not
do it for the others!
The Husband simply replied, because she is the one who will open the door for me!
Keeping up with every year’s tradition on this blog, I am doing a preliminary translation of the 2020 world predictions by 
