This caused me a ton of aggravation at the Boston Hack Day when trying to install Vagrant (for which FFI is a dependency). I ended up wasting so much time that I switched machines to work around the problem.
I had a similar problem, and a workaround at http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=529663 helped me. In short, try to install the gem with: $ rake=/usr/bin/rake gem install ffi.
I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.