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
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
Negotiating Techniques
Today, President Obama, speaking before American Israel Public Affairs Committee, explained that in his speech on the subject of the Middle East was not reported correctly. He said…
“The borders of Israel and Palestine should be based on the 1967 lines … Continue reading
Piecemeal Peace and Israel’s Predicament
Tired of talk about the Israeli-Palestinian problem? Well maybe it’s time to actually try thinking for a change.
President Obama has put our foot down. The United States’ position is that the Palestinian problem shall henceforth be known as the Israel … Continue reading
Eyewitness Report From The Front Lines
Eyewitness Report – The noon-time summer heat was almost unbearable as we approached the urban battleground. The air was filled with smoke. We rolled down the car windows and crept slowly through the boulevard intersection, headed west to east. Bill … Continue reading
When Something’s Rotten in Denmark
“Know your enemy and know yourself, find naught in fear for 100 battles. Know yourself but not your enemy, find level of loss and victory. Know thy enemy but not yourself, wallow in defeat every time.” — Sun Tzu, The … 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
No Room for Improvement
I came of age in the 1960s. If nothing else, it was a time of hope. It was time when many people of all ages believed that our mission in life was to make things better and that we as … Continue reading
When They Mean What They Say
How quickly American, British and European attention has shifted from the complexities of the mess they have created in the Middle East to flies in the ointment—Bashar al-Assad of Syria and Moammar Gadhafi of Libya. If these bad guys can … 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 →