rbeleza

Dear sir or madam, The best and most objective description I can give about myself is: I am a brain, or part of brain, which seems to control a person. Whether that person and everything else exists as an objective and separate reality is anyones guess. I suppose thats the most I can say for myself, epistemologically speaking. I live in an universe, which may or may not be infinite in extension, and may or may not be part of an infinite or finite set of universes. All I can say is that it appears to have had quite the singular beginning (at least in regard to its set of physical laws, large spatial dimensions and time and fundamental forces), but it may or may not have an ending. So far I can tell it is isomorphic and has overall zero curvature in large scales. Down to the ground, Im a Brazilian/Italian Lawyer. Hubble also started as a Lawyer, Descartes made the same mistake and Pierre de Fermat was a Judge. I dont mean to imply Im nowhere as brilliant as such great minds, but I also started out as a Lawyer. I was born in Brazil and took an interest in Mathematics, Sciences, Life, the Universe and Everything from a very early age. But the country is an inhospitable place to pursue a scientific career. So I did the same as everybody else, I needed a diploma to have a decent salary, and turned to the Social Sciences - specifically Law. I practiced it for a while (specializing in Tax Law), until I was approved in a public exam to exercise the office of Legal Analyst in São Paulos Regional Labour Court of Law, the second largest Court in the country, with about 6,000 employees. Studying Law gave me a privileged view of western Philosophy. I know my Heraclitus, Parmenides, Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, St. Augustine, Bacon, Ockham, More, Descartes, Leibniz, Locke, Hobbes, Voltaire, Hume, Rousseau, Diderot, Kant, Jefferson, Franklin, Hegel, Spinoza, Stuart Mill, Marx, Sartre, Bentham, Weber, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Popper, Kuhn, Rawls, Heart, Russell, Kelsen, Wittgenstein, Strauss, Lacan, Arendt, Chomsky, Searle, Heidegger, Adorno, Gadamer and Dworking. I can quote Feynman as easily as St. Thomas Aquinas. I worked closely with Judges and that made me realize (together with tons of reading) how Law is misunderstood in Brazil and treated undemocratically. So I gave up Law and went back to one of my true passions: Mathematics. Having attained a somewhat comfortable living, I was able to afford a return to College, and Im on my way to majoring in Math. Im already halfway through the course. Since I also have a propensity towards computers and programming languages, I have recently started learning Data Science as a means of facilitating a career change and possibly getting a new job abroad. Indeed I have changed careers. I still work for the Court of Law, but in the Information Technology department, researching and providing legal and technical support in the acquisition of new technology to help the Court achieve its goals with society. I have been planning to leave Brazil since our Democracy took a turn for the worst, during 2016. The democratically elected president was deposed by a corrupt Congress, supported by mass media monopolies, the richest classes in society and a faction of the Judiciary Power. Since then, every social achievement of the last decade has been undone. Equality has run down, the rich are paying fewer taxes, labor rights and social security are under threat of being right out revoked. Fascism is at an all times high; women, young black people, LGBT groups and other minorities have never been so persecuted. Those who speak openly against the government are treated with hostility, if not open violence. I have suffered persecution in my workplace for my political views. I wish you never have to go through that in your country. A Judge has illegally wired the former President and illegally leaked her private conversations to a media monopoly, in the eve of her impeachment trial in Congress. The Judge wasnt fired or arrested for such crime he was praised by his peers, his superiors and the general population. The same Judge ordered the arrest for inquiry of a Journalist, simply because the press professional criticized the Magistrate actions in a blog. A civil servant went through the same ordeal for posting critics against the Judge in his Facebook account. Students and teachers have been severely reprimanded and beat up by the police during peaceful protests. The right to go on a strike is also under threat of simply being erased. Corruption is running loose since the impeachment and the traditional press has all but silenced about it. There are no more protests coming from the middle class. All that you might have read in The Guardian, The Intercept, El País, Der Spiegel, Der Berliner Zeitung, Le Monde, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, its all true. Brazil has more violent deaths per year than Syria. The police promotes genocide against young black men in slums and poor suburbs. More than half of all residences in the country have no sewer access. To sum it up, its a nation which cant seem to live for more than 30 years in Democratic stability, thus I am in dire need to move out with my wife. As a civil servant, I enjoy a good salary and job stability similar to tenure; still Im willing to trade it all to live in a Democracy again. To raise our future children in a place they can go to school without fear of getting killed. I have been robbed 3 times, one of them at gun point. My wife has been robbed with a gun to her head. And we have always lived in relatively safe areas. In March, 2017, a little girl in Rio de Janeiro was shot dead in a public school during gym class, caught in a crossfire between the police and drug dealers. Such tragedies have become common and many have stopped caring. Its a madhouse and nobody will admit their madness. A state of permanent institutional schizophrenia. It is quite the bad spot, but I do have Italian citizenship due to Italian ancestry, and we have already applied for my wifes citizenship. Im a very quick learner. Online IQ tests usually place me among 5% to 2% of the population (although Im very well aware that just tells Im good at IQ tests). Im not afraid of learning new things. It is actually quite enjoyable to me. I dont think of my age as an obstacle, it gives me unique perspective. Science is prolonging our lives; I think its only natural to try more than one career of field of study. It is never too late to start over, to start anew, to start again. I only have this life, so I have an obligation to myself to try that which makes me happy. Most of all, I consider myself a skeptic, a free thinker and a humanist. I value reason and critical thinking above all. I may not have attained my Math degree yet, and may not have a diploma from a College or University in Europe. But hey, Shakespeare was not a scholar either. No, Im not insinuating Im anywhere near the Bard, but he was able to innovate and revolutionize because he was outside of the University, not wasting his time filling up grant forms or learning to how make things the traditional way. I used to practice Karate. I like jogging, watching old flicks, horror movies, Science Fiction, I read comic books to this day and Im decent at pencil drawing. I'm a book worm. Im a big fan of xkcd and Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal. I frequently read Scientific American, Nature, PLoS One, Popular Science, Gizmodo, IFL Science, Physicsworld.com and others. I like videogames. I used to play the electric guitar, but I had to sell mine when I got married. It was a blue Epiphone Les Paul Standard. I had it since I was an intern at a Law Firm. I kept my good old acoustic guitar though. I love Rock and Roll, Punk Rock, Heavy Metal, Blues and Jazz (Bebop, Bossa Nova, Jazz Fusion and a few others). Im fluent in English. I have been approved in proficiency tests. I read more books in English than in Portuguese or any other language (they are more numerous and cheaper in my Kindle). I have always been the know-it-all at work, with my friends, among my family. I find it quite funny; I simply enjoy reading and learning. So, I an opportunity opportunity to change careers, to do something which would make me happy and proud, to move to another country and live in a democracy again, to afford a little house for me, my wife, our future children and our dog. And, if possible, to able to continue studying Mathematics. I apologize for this lengthy introduction. Its not like you could just call me for an interview, so I tried to say the most about myself without becoming tedious (I hope). Of course I am available for Skype call, Whatsapp call, Google Hangouts or anything youd prefer. If you bestow me the honor of working for your organization, I would just need about 4 weeks to arrange my exoneration from Brazillian Civil Service and organize my relocation. Many thanks for bearing with me. Kind regards, Rodrigo Beleza Marques