Short Takes
- Lip Reading Babies: Utter nonsense!
January 17, 2012 | 8:54 pmSays psychologist David Lewkowicz of Florida Atlantic University, who led [a] study published yesterday…
’The baby in order to imitate you has to figure out how to shape their lips to make that particular sound they’re hearing,’’
Can you “figure out” why this is utter nonsense? I should as obvious as monkey see, monkey do. With this sort of thing passing for science, we are surely doomed.
- The Mark of Cain
November 9, 2011 | 3:13 amWatching Herman Cain duel with his female accusers is like watching the Jerry Springer Show. Not a pretty picture. If you partake, be sure an wash you hands afterwards.
- The Truth About Sovereign Debt
November 1, 2011 | 4:01 pmDuring the housing bubble people bet on rising home prices by taking out loans on to-good-to-be true terms and investment banking made bets on the rising home prices by lending on to-good-be-true terms. Everyone drank the Kool Aid. Prices went down. Having made bad bets, home owners should default on their loans and bankers should take their losses. This is the simple-minded logic of every-man-for-himself market economics.
The nations that joined the EU placed bets on rising economic prosperity that would come from joining the EU and adopting the Euro and borrowing from the EU banks on to-good-to-be-true terms. The EU investment bankers made speculative bets on EU member nations by lending them billions on to-good-to-be-true terms. The borrower economies went down not up. Everyone drank the Kool Aid and having made bad bets the borrowers should default on their loans and the bankers should take their losses. This too, is the simple-minded logic of every-man-for-himself market economics.
So how do the bankers hold the world hostage to their bad bets? They claim they are too big to fail. In other words, the only game they know is heads they win, tails we lose.
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Archive for Short Takes »
- Lip Reading Babies: Utter nonsense!
Category Archives: Great Thinkers
Bill Moyers Interviews Jacob Hacker & Paul Pierson on Engineered Inequality
If you haven’t seen this interview, it is well worth watching. After watching it, give some thought to follow up questions below.
Jacob Hacker & Paul Pierson on Winner Take All Politics from BillMoyers.com on Vimeo.
Follow-up Questions:
If inequality is engineered by … Continue reading
Deming’s System of Profound Knowledge (SoPK)
Even if you are not involved in business management and know and care nothing about the ideas of the great teacher, Dr. W. E. Deming , the following discussion of what he resorted in his later years to calling, a … Continue reading
It don’t mean thing if it ain’t got that swing
FWIW — The following riff was prompted by Barbara King’s post on NPR’s 13.7 blog, “Homo Narrans: Humans As Story-Tellers (And Listeners)“, in which the nature of memory came up.
In a comment, Barbara wrote, “…But does every story originate solely … Continue reading
Atomic Economics
I have always thought I had a fairly good understanding of economic theory but, as is the case for many of us, over the past five years my acquaintance with the subject has grown much deeper. In Economics, there are … Continue reading
Starling Patterns
There’s no true fixed point of reference in life. The observed and the observer in interaction, constantly vary. There is only relation between patterns. And for a knowing creature, patterns carry meaning.
“We are but whirlpools in a river of ever-flowing … Continue reading
Ph.D. Not Required To Solve Our Economic Problems
Like the rest of us, Nobel Prize winning economist Dr. Paul Krugman, whom I nominated some time ago as “Best in Breed”, is having dismal thoughts.
“I’m still trying to make sense of this global intellectual failure. But the results are … Continue reading
The Ear and the Mind
Tip of the hat to the very astute Tim Higgins for opening a discussion of Deming with the following quotes.
W. E. Deming said,
A body is not one single organ, but many. Suppose that the foot should say, “Because I am … Continue reading
Hidden Morality
I think there is no single idea in the work of Dr. W. E. Deming’s more important than his assertion: “A SYSTEM has an AIM”. This is the crux of the “Understanding of a System” component of his System of … Continue reading
Terminal Velocity
Just because the law of gravity dictates that in free fall we will achieve terminal velocity and go splat, does not mean that we must obey that law by hurling ourselves from high places.
I don’t have a very … Continue reading
Deming’s Pop Psychology
In his later years Deming tried to explain the full scope of his work with his model for a “System of Profound Knowledge” (SoPK). He explained that such a system must embrace a theory of knowledge, appreciation of a system, … Continue reading
Defend Your Rights, You Lose!
W. E. Deming saw the assertion of rights as a losing proposition but American society is built upon rights such as those set forth in the Constitution’s Bill of Rights and the vast and complex body of laws that make … Continue reading
“The customer made me do it”
Part of the disinformation dispersed by free market evangelists is the idea that customers determine what will be produced and sold in the marketplace. In other words, if customers like “it”, they will buy “it” and “its” producers will profit. … Continue reading
All Knowing is Prediction
If you have followed this blog for very long you know that I see the process of prediction at the root of human consciousness. It is not that prediction is first among equals or first among lesser processes. Human knowing—human … Continue reading
Hello Dalai, this is Jody, Dalai
Some say warring is an unavoidable aspect of human nature. Some say it is not. Others say if there, it can be erased from the human songbook. Whether we war because it’s in our nature or we are tricked into … Continue reading
Democracy OR Capitalism?
Democracy and Capitalism are two very big ideas. Democracy is an idea about a method people can use to govern themselves. Capitalism is an idea about how some people think we should produce and distribute wealth among people.
So what do … Continue reading →