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: Motivation
Heresies
About one week ago I wrote a blog entry suggesting that Democracy and Capitalism were inherently incompatible. Thanks to some commenters, it soon become clear to me that the post was dangerously heretical and that I could end up getting … Continue reading
Rising U.S. Healthcare Costs: Figure It Out!
In the United States we think of healthcare as a business proposition. We call it “the healthcare industry”. Is profit and loss the most useful approach to caring for people’s well being?
Here’s a puzzle. See if you can put the pieces … Continue reading
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
The Invisible Hand Board Game
I have invented a new game. The game is called “The Invisible Hand” a la Adam Smith. It is a game of skill that combines the famous Ouija Board game with the old Ball-bearing in the Maze game.
The ultimate aim … Continue reading
Arab Spring Update: I hate being right.
As I said in my post last Feb, “They Coming of the New Caliphate” , and several others as well, it was not very difficult to predict the future on the heels of the “Arab Spring”.
In today’s “Islamists Flood Square … Continue reading
Do You Believe in Invisible Hands?
Democracy and Capitalism are two ideas–two theories—that often get mixed-up when we think about the American enterprise. I often wonder why these two ideas get conflated and I think I may have figured it out.
Both, taken in their purest form, … Continue reading
The Divided States of America: Can the Union Prevail?
The combatants in the Civil War are at it again. They remain divided roughly along the same lines as was the case in 1860. The Union is talking about ways for all Americans to get along together–to preserve the union. … Continue reading
Hostage Situation
SCENE
An intelligence operative sits at a console of sophisticated listening devices. He removes his headset and calls for his boss, the head of U.S. anti-terrorism operations, to come into the room.
Intelligence Operative: Sir, we have an intercept you’re going want to … Continue reading
The “Grouchy Old Man” Theory
The Grouchy Old Man theory is a popular theory that asserts that as a person grows older he or she but mostly “he”, reaches a point in life where remembrance of the past takes on a rosy glow when compared … Continue reading
Saving Lives with FEAR
The United States FDA has come out with a new anti-smoking fear campaign to save people from harming themselves and others. It consists of labeling cigarette packages with gruesome images of dead and dying smokers!
Great idea! Think of all the … 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
Internet Addiction
Ross Douthat, in his NYT essay, “The Online Looking Glass“, ruminates on the idea that we have become a nation of deeply narcissistic people, implying that social networking has lifted self-absorption to the status of a national addiction.
Addiction occurs when … Continue reading
Don’t Motivate, Just Teach!
First, read “Waiting for a School Miracle“, then read this…
The problem with our educational system is that we have deluded ourselves into the idea that learning is a motivational problem. Despite the evidence under our noses, we persist in the … Continue reading
You Can Predict Where This Is Going
The media calls it the “Arab Spring”, implying a rebirth I suppose. But a rebirth of what? It’s really pretty easy to figure out the answer.
The entire region of “rebirth” is fundamentally Islamic and profoundly anti-Western, and to be honest, … 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 →