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
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
Tinkering with Human Beings
In his NTY article, “Fixated by Screens, but Seemingly Nothing Else“, Dr. Perri Klass sets out to “clarify” the problem of Attention Deficit Disorder (ADHD). He starts with a little story…
{A} mother had brought in a note from her son’s … Continue reading
Business 101 for the New Economic Age: The Efficiency Myth
“The 14 points for management in industry, education, and government follow naturally as the application of this outside knowledge (SoPK), for transformation from the present style of Western management to one of optimization.”
W. E. Deming
When W. E. Deming spoke of … Continue reading
The truth about TRUTH
“…truth is one species of good, and not, as is usually supposed, a category distinct from good, and coordinate with it. The true is the name of whatever proves itself to be good in the way of belief and good, too, … Continue reading
Betting the Farm
NYT, April 12, 2011 - The condition of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi reactors in Japan is “static,” but with improvised cooling efforts they are “not stable,” the chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission told a Senate committee on Tuesday.
Reading between the … Continue reading
Iconic Revolutionary Images and Slogans
The following images along with their captioned slogans, are iconic representations of the major revolutions in recent history. Each reflects a shared vision of a desirable future that was powerful enough to warrant peoples’ sacrificing their lives. The power of … Continue reading
Phileas Fogg’s “Winning” Strategy
Jules Verne specialized in imagining the future and his fantastical stories remain popular today among children and adults alike. In 1873 he wrote the tale “Around the World in 80 Days”, in which the illustrious Phileas Fogg, a very modern … Continue reading
Prisoners Of Our Own Device
We are prisoners of our own device—our Kingdoms of Lies. But all creatures are prisoners of their own device—flying, crawling, burrowing, etc. etc. Our device is to reflect our active experience in the world in story-telling and to move forward … Continue reading
May All Your Hallucinations Be Bright
I find the crass commercialism of Christ’s birthday celebration rather off-putting. This year it’s the media thing about Christmas being the salvation of American consumerism that’s getting me low.
Economists are hopeful, report the media. The good news is that sales … Continue reading
Collapse: The Movie
It is not possible to continue infinite consumption and infinite population growth on a finite planet.
Michael Ruppert
I have a vivid memory from my time as an undergraduate student back in 1968. I was sitting in the office of Dr. Nick … Continue reading
It’s the Story Stupid!
Okay, I know that in most peoples’ minds, I am going over the top with this but Obama’s capitulation (compromise?) to the rich and powerful reminds me of the story of the plight of the Jews in the Warsaw ghetto.
The … Continue reading
Story Wars
There’s a mind-boggling story that says we are a nation at war. We are warring against evil-doers in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Korea, etc. etc. We are in a nebulous global war against terrorists of various stripes and colors. We … Continue reading
Tarzan and other Feral Children
Feral children was a subject that garnered my attention during my undergraduate studies in symbolic interaction. I did a good deal of reading and discovered to my disappointment, that reports of children raised by animals have been greatly exaggerated, mostly … 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 →