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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- Lip Reading Babies: Utter nonsense!
Category Archives: Conversations
The Wrong Story
Apropos of my post yesterday on the perils of nuclear power—a form of extreme energy production—Naomi Klein gives a wonderfully lucid explanation of how our dominant cultural story of an infinitely abundant world that will tolerate our most extreme efforts … 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
John Lennon: Getting ahead of the game
“It’s fear of the unknown. The unknown is what it is. And to be frightened of it is what sends everybody scurrying around chasing dreams, illusions, wars, peace, love, hate, all that—-it’s all illusion. Unknown is what it is. Accept … 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
Letter to an Old Friend and Colleague
Dear Old Friend,
I know what you mean about wanting to get involved in some sort relevant project. Just sitting on the sidelines watching the world go to hell is driving me crazy too.
I read something a few months back in … Continue reading
Dancing Feet
I just finished reading Out of Our Heads: Why you are not your brain by Alva Noe. The point of his little book is one that I have been trying to make for years—That consciousness is best understood as a … 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
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
A Good Question
The materialistic and selfish quality of contemporary life is not inherent in the human condition. Much of what appears “natural” today dates from the 1980s: the obsession with wealth creation, the cult of privatization and the private sector, the growing … Continue reading
Revolution, the Internet and WMDs
I am wholly in agreement with Frank Rich’s column in the NYT, “Wallflowers at the Revolution”. The smarmy punditry that passes for news on the American scene makes me cringe. In our sound-bite society, Americans are long on explanation and … Continue reading
Story Wars Again
I was working on a post to be titled “Can Capitalism Save the World?”, and decided to check out TED Talks for some juicy tidbits pro or con. I stumbled upon a talk by Naomi Klein who, in her TED … Continue reading
The Meaning of Life
Tom Kando, a cyber-acquaintance of mine, wrote a blog entry the other day about getting hit by a car while bicycling in the foothills of California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains, “The Meaning of Bad Luck: Shit Happens”
He concluded:
“So what does my … Continue reading
Foxhole Trust
When my family and I were cruising the world aboard our sailboat, we spent about 3 months in the San Blas Islands. The people of this region are the Kuna Indians and they call their homeland, Kuna Yala (the land … 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 →