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: Theory of Knowledge
Who’s a Hack?
Dr. W. E. Deming, the physicist, statistician, business consulatant I most respect and admire, used to caution his audiences, beware of hacks. So who’s a hack and how can we know if you or I or us or they are … Continue reading
A Sailor’s Imagination
I am imagining a great sailing ship named the SS Profit. She is the instrument of ambitious commerce, transporting great volumes of cargo bought in some port at the lowest price possible and sold in another as high as possible. … Continue reading
Things Go Wrong
NYT, Dec. 7, 2011 – Japan Split on Hope for Vast Radiation Cleanup
In the United States, the average person gets six millisieverts of radiation a year. Around the Fukushima plant, officials evacuated areas where people would have gotten an estimated … Continue reading
Recipe: How to Succeed at Capitalism
NYT: JOHANNESBURG — An advocacy organization that helped to establish an international certification program to prevent the sale of so-called blood diamonds withdrew from the coalition on Monday, saying the effort was no longer effective.
Global Witness, is the first advocacy … Continue reading
Our Powerful Striding Minds
I hold to the idea that as mindful creatures we are naturally given to a joyous disposition. Our minds have come into being as our means for soaring high above a world that bubbles forth, enabling us to navigate our … Continue reading
Egypt Goes Islamist
NYT, December 1, 2011: CAIRO — Islamists claimed a decisive victory on Wednesday as early election results put them on track to win a dominant majority in Egypt’s first Parliament since the ouster of Hosni Mubarak…But a big surprise was … Continue reading
What’s Wrong with the Scientific Method
I’ve been involved in an online discussion about Deming’s model for creating knowledge (aka continuous improvement) called PDSA. Most correspondents have argued that PDSA is just another version of the “scientific method”.
PDSA is not the scientific method and for good … Continue reading
Fall Lines
I have started following NPR’s 13.7: Cosmos and Culture blog, primarily because Alva Noe is a contributor. Noe is the author of the book “Out of Our Heads” that impressed me greatly and I discussed in my entry “Dancing Feet” … Continue reading
Wagging the Dog
Dare I say it? Dare anyone say it?
Seriously now, do you really believe that the Right is about to choose Herman Cain to represent them in the 2012 election?
I can’t be the only one who is on to their game.
Clearly … Continue reading
Which Comes First, the Public or the Private Sector?
Okay, okay! Some of you who have read my previous blog entry are thinking to yourselves that my explanation of private v. public begs the question of the which comes first, public or private jobs?
Allow me to give you a … Continue reading
OWS Unites Against Cannibals
Is the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) “movement” a glimmering counterpoint to the rise of the brown-shirted, reactionary Tea Party? Are we witnessing at long last the drawing of battle lines between the dark cannibalistic forces of militant self-interest and beneficent … Continue reading
Heaps and Heroes
I find it disturbing that the long anticipated passing from the ravages of pancreatic cancer of Steve Jobs, Apple Computer’s headman, has occasioned so much rhapsodic eulogizing. The majority opinion seems to be that this man’s accomplishments as a marketing … 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
Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean…
My “Master Control” toon-mix in yesterday’s post has got some people to thinking that I am becoming overly paranoid, but being paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you, whether that be today, tomorrow, or in some unanticipated future. … 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 →