Yup

Flop gear: the failure of Formula 1 - FT.com:

"Formula 1 racing is a sexy sport … so how come it’s also so incredibly boring? Seriously, it takes a particular kind of genius to take something whose components include astonishing cars, vast amounts of cash, high-speed chases, fit drivers and hot women hangers-on and turn it into an afternoon of mind-crushing dreariness."

Yup

Flop gear: the failure of Formula 1 - FT.com:

"Formula 1 racing is a sexy sport … so how come it’s also so incredibly boring? Seriously, it takes a particular kind of genius to take something whose components include astonishing cars, vast amounts of cash, high-speed chases, fit drivers and hot women hangers-on and turn it into an afternoon of mind-crushing dreariness."

Office in My head

I know how this feels : office full of people (topics) in my head

Javier Bardem On A 'Biutiful' Acting Career : NPR:

"DAVIES: I mean it's a really dramatic role. And one of the things that's fascinating to me about it is that it takes place in Cuba but much of the dialogue is in English. How is acting in English different from acting in Spanish for you?

Mr. BARDEM: It's a different, it's a totally different situation and it's like here, I'm trying to express myself and share some opinions and be relaxed and giving you what I think, giving you some thoughts about what I feel or what I think and there's this office in my brain full of people working at the same time that I'm talking to you trying to not, I mean, be wrong with the intonation, with the words and so it's very exhausting."

Change you can believe in ...

Restrict domestic drilling but open SPR, but no, it's not political ...

White House taps reserves with eye on votes - FT.com:

"The decision to release oil from the SPR caused surprise in Washington, with analysts saying it was unprecedented because the US has released oil only twice before – after the 1991 Gulf war and after hurricane Katrina.
Even after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the Bush administration decided against using the SPR on the grounds that oil supplies were not affected.
Since the Libyan conflict has been going on for almost four months, the move fuelled suggestions that the administration’s motives are purely political.
The White House denied this, saying oil was being released because the president was concerned about the “greater tightness” in the market because the conflict in Libya had taken 140m barrels out of global supply. Hurricane Katrina resulted in the loss of only 38m barrels, a senior administration official said."

Change you can believe in

Water boarding is evil, targeted assassinations are OK.

A weak America roars but retreats when the going gets tough | The A-List | Must-read views on today’s top news stories – FT.com – FT.com:

"Imagine how these same liberals would have reacted three years ago if it had been George W. Bush who had been ordering a campaign of targeted assassinations – not to mention overriding legal advice on the decision to launch air strikes against the Libyan government."

What can happen to hype

Can Think's electric car revolutionize the auto industry? - August 1, 2007

"There is a fundamental shift happening that is going to require new business models," says Ed Kjaer, an electric vehicle veteran who runs the EV program for Southern California Edison. "The timing is right. We are on a path now toward electric cars, and there is no going back."

Norwegian EV maker Think files for bankruptcy - AutoWeek: today


"Tiny electric car maker Think Global AS filed for bankruptcy today in its home market of Norway after attempts to keep the company going through recapitalization and restructuring failed, the company said in a statement. It is the fourth time Think has collapsed financially in its 20-year history"

Juxtaposition

Fascinating visit this week


Computer History Museum | At the Museum


and just finished reading


Bob Lutz's book 'Car Guys vs Bean Counters' (excerpt)


Columnists | Lutz says business theorists hurt auto industry more than UAW | The Detroit News


"...it is the management style of the big car makers that was the principle reason for the domestic industry's demise, led by theorists with impressive MBA degrees from the top universities who had massive IQs but no common sense, in Lutz's view.

"For the better part of my career, I have seen what these bright, analytical, dispassionate, data-driven geniuses have done to our country's industry and commerce. Through a relentless pursuit of 'winning strategies' and elaborate 'missions, values and goals' statements - which incidentally, consume vast amounts of non-value-added time - these modern MBA graduates reject the obvious as being 'simplistic' and believe that elaborate alternative scenario planning and 'test wells' will provide a better (if not logical) answer," he says.

'Throw the intellectuals out'

"(Successful entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs of Apple and Britain's Sir Richard Branson) have a blissful lack of awareness of the analytical science of business. Uninfected by the MBA virus, they simply strive to offer a better product, one that delights the customer. They control costs, of course. And they tolerate a necessary level of bureaucracy. It's essential. But the focus is on the product or service ... thus the customer. American business needs to throw the intellectuals out and get back to business!"

So is there a disconnect? 

Not really

In business, you need passion for the product and/or service.

But, the age of the computer allows fast, detailed collection and analysis of data, which can (and should) be used to sharpen focus, improve speed to market, communications and all in all make business better.

I would agree with Lutz that data and analysis should not run the business

Computers and systems are tools

Lutz vs the MBA's

Just like economics is not a "science" maybe business isn't either

Make delightful products, and or deliver delightful service and your company will work.

Beguile with quality not baffle with BS

"Lutz reckons that his experience is not just applicable to the automotive industry, but to business generally.

"Shoemakers should be run by shoe guys and software firms by software guys and supermarkets by supermarket guys. With the advice and support of their bean counters, absolutely, but with the final word going to those who live and breathe the customer experience. Passion and drive for excellence will win over the computer-like dispassionate, analysis-driven philosophy every time," Lutz said."

Columnists | Lutz says business theorists hurt auto industry more than UAW | The Detroit News:

"For the better part of my career, I have seen what these bright, analytical, dispassionate, data-driven geniuses have done to our country's industry and commerce. Through a relentless pursuit of 'winning strategies' and elaborate 'missions, values and goals' statements - which incidentally, consume vast amounts of non-value-added time - these modern MBA graduates reject the obvious as being 'simplistic' and believe that elaborate alternative scenario planning and 'test wells' will provide a better (if not logical) answer," he says.

'Throw the intellectuals out'

"(Successful entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs of Apple and Britain's Sir Richard Branson) have a blissful lack of awareness of the analytical science of business. Uninfected by the MBA virus, they simply strive to offer a better product, one that delights the customer. They control costs, of course. And they tolerate a necessary level of bureaucracy. It's essential. But the focus is on the product or service ... thus the customer. American business needs to throw the intellectuals out and get back to business!"

excerpt

This book is about what happened to America’s competitiveness, and why. Most of the examples and observations are from the automobile sector, for the simple reason that that’s what I know best, and I was a participant in the decades-long decline of General Motors. But the creeping malignancy that transformed the once all-powerful, world-dominating American economy from one that produced and exported to one that trades and imports is now common to all or most sectors.

It really boils down to a matter of focus, priorities, and business philosophy. Leaders who are predominantly motivated by financial reward, who bake that reward into the business plan and then manipulate all other variables to “hit that number,” will usually not hit the number, or, if they do, then only once. But the enterprise that is focused on excellence and on providing superior value will see revenue materialize and grow, and will be rewarded with good profit. Is profit an integral part of the business equation and a God-given right, no matter how compromised the product or service? Or is the financial result an unpredictable reward, bestowed upon the business by satisfied customers?

To some restaurant owners, people booking reservations weeks in advance is a sign that “we did something wrong.” Perhaps the food is too good . . . best to back off a bit on the quality of the meat and produce. Ease off on the butter! We’ll reduce cost, improve margins! And the customers, presumably, will keep coming, right?

But to other owners, the excess demand is a sign of success, of the formula working, of customers appreciating the value of their efforts. In this case, profit can be increased by selective higher pricing to keep the waiting times reasonable while gaining a premium reputation. Want to guess which restaurant will be in business longer, and be more successful?

surprise surprise

Unemployment and construction trades

Jobless Rate Below Average in 25 States - Real Time Economics - WSJ:

"Joblessness has mostly fallen nationwide but the pace of improvement has varied widely. Western states, many of which were battered by the housing bust, are still plagued by high unemployment rates. Meanwhile, conditions have improved greatly in the Midwest, helped along by a strong manufacturing recovery. The Midwest and Northeast reported the lowest jobless rates regionally."

History

Visited the Computer History Museum yesterday


Wow
It's all there


Flashbacks to my own, meager, exposure 
Brief video covers most of it for me
The Art of Writing Software - CHM Revolution


Fortran - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia "Formula Translation" and the need to develop a language higher than machine language (binary code) 


I hired on to do punch cards for MSU Grad Students while in high school, learning a bit of Fortran in the process


Later, pretty much passed on Cobol COBOL - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia and picked up a bit of Basic BASIC - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia to run on my first Apple II

While I managed to develop a basic financial oriented program (as if my lines of code could be describe as such) that would plot cyclic data patterns (stocks) it was cumbersome and not time efficient. I could manage to follow a handful of stocks, updated at the end of the day.


Then: VisiCalc 1979

Bob Frankston and Dan Brinklin

Harvard MBA candidate Daniel Bricklin and programmer Robert Frankston developed VisiCalc, the program that made a business machine of the personal computer, for the Apple II. VisiCalc (forVisible Calculator) automated the recalculation of spreadsheets. A huge success, more than 100,000 copies sold in one year.





Spreadsheets !!!


A higher level of data manipulation and I was home
Been working with spreadsheets ever since. 
When "macros" were introduced, I commented "looks like code - I don't do code anymore"

Home Ownership Matters ???

From Lansing Business Monthly


Plethora of inconsistent thought, so I'll reply (in red)


Home Ownership Matters

Recently there have been some in the media and academia questioning the value of homeownership. They ask if perhaps we would be better off as a nation of renters. This couldn’t be more wrong. Homeownership provides a litany of benefits for our nation, our community and for individual homeowners.

From the national perspective the 67 percent of American households that are homeowners pay 80 to 90 percent of individual federal income taxes which support programs that benefit all Americans. Research shows that for every home purchased $60,000 is pumped into the economy for furniture, home improvements and related items. Housing accounts for 15 percent of our gross domestic product.

GDP ... really?

Ongoing promotion of a consumer economy, without reference to source of products.

Does this help American production?

For our community, homeownership is critically important. In late 2010 the National Association of REALTORS® and Harris Interactive surveyed 1,880 homeowners and 1,115 renters about their community and quality of life. Though no causal relationship could be established, there is a strong correlation between owning a home and community satisfaction, quality of life, community connection, civic engagement and volunteerism.

"no causal relationship" ... then state correlation

Data please. What about urban areas where there are many long term renters.

Homeowners are often the glue that holds a community together. They do not move as often, vote and volunteer more, and bring stability to neighborhoods which helps reduce crime and support upkeep. Homeowners report enjoying a better quality of life, are happier and healthier, and feel a greater sense of control over their lives.

do not move-but now talent is tied down - double edged sword

According to a recent white paper by the National Association of REALTORS® titled “The Social Benefits of Homeownership” owner’s children tend to do better in school and stay in school longer.

unbiased source!

For the individual, besides the quality of life and health benefits, there are significant financial benefits of home ownership as well. Data from the Federal Reserve show a very real and extreme disparity in wealth between owners and renters. In 2007, the median net worth of home-owning families was $234,200 compared with $5,100 for renting families. The disparity has existed for many years and will continue to exist despite a decline in home values. Why is this?

health?

disparity of wealth - no chicken and  egg reasoning here!

A homeowner’s equity in a home links a piece of their financial portfolio to the long-term growth of the economy. As our economy improves, homeowners will benefit. Real estate has greatly outperformed the stock market over the past 10 years despite declining values. With real estate you get to live in and enjoy your investment daily.

what benchmarks?

housing bubble followed the stock market bubble of the late 90's 

now housing prices down the last 5 years about 30% while S&P is about flat since 2000 (not including dividends), my conclusion - total BS 

S&P 500 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

No provision for transaction costs, realtors, closing costs, finance costs.

The portion of the mortgage payment that goes to principal repayment is not a cost of home ownership, it is forced monthly savings. As a forced monthly savings it is disciplined and largely painless.

forced monthly savings - if your property increases in value and we aren't even talking liquidity, which doesn't exist in today's market.

compare to constant dollar investments - invest the same amount in equities every month, if the prices are high, you buy less, if prices are low, you buy more shares.

Home ownership costs are generally stable while rents rise on the average of 3 percent a year. Renters are paying the landlord’s mortgage and homeowners pay themselves. Homeowners can also deduct mortgage interest and property taxes from their federal income tax. No wonder homeowners’ net worth is so much higher.

ownership costs - let's talk property taxes ...

will grant that there is a tax policy bias towards home ownership
if one does a bit of research, you would find that the genesis of tax law came about during the Great Depression, with an eye to both stability of the workforce for employers and assistance to this same population who otherwise had become more migrant
simply - to try to head off social unrest


today, you can have ossification of the work force where they cannot move to where there are better jobs if they are tied to failing property, having placed too much of their investment in an illiquid asset.

Here in Greater Lansing the opportunity for home ownership is better than it’s been in decades. Due to declines in average selling prices over the past four years and low mortgage rates we haven’t seen in 50 years, affordability here is remarkable. The average household income in Lansing would qualify for the conventional purchase of the median-priced home in most communities and low down payment FHA loans put houses in reach that would not have been possible for buyers just a few years ago. In fact, for first-time buyers, investors and move-up buyers it is hard to imagine a better time to buy.

opportunity for home ownership is better = prices are down

Improvements in the local economy including insurance company and auto-related hiring, declining unemployment and increased construction spending coupled with recovering IRAs and investment portfolios will contribute to a rise in confidence which will lead to rising home prices and sales volume. Anyone who has considered buying and qualifies for a mortgage should seriously consider participating in the American Dream now and begin to enjoy the many benefits of home ownership. Additionally, the national and local governments should do everything possible to support home ownership because it really does matter.

we are in the mess with home prices, in large part because of a national obsession, both parties, for increased home ownership - getting people who cannot handle home ownership into homes.

the market is suffering the hangover from a bubble of Brobdingnagian proportions 

nationally, almost a quarter of all homeowners are "under water" (owe more than their homes are worth)

Number Of Underwater Mortgages Rises As More Homeowners Fall Behind

further comment : 
US Housing Crisis Officially As Bad As Great Depression - CNBC
It's official: The housing crisis that began in 2006 and has recently entered a double dip is now worse than the Great Depression.

Prices have fallen some 33 percent since the market began its collapse, greater than the 31 percent fall that began in the late 1920s and culminated in the early 1930s, according to Case-Shiller data.

and 

"Yet other factors are constraining the market.

After the fallout from the subprime debacle, in which millions lost their homes when they defaulted on loans they could not afford, banks changed underwriting standards.

More than four in every five mortgages now require a down payment of 20 percent, and credit history standards have tightened. At the same time, foreclosures continue at a brisk pace, pushing more supply onto the market and pressuring prices downward."

Debbie Barnett is the president and owner of Tomie Raines, Inc. The company was founded in 1977 and Barnett has owned the company since 2002. She began her real estate career and was an award-winning agent with two other local firms before joining Tomie Raines, Inc. in 1995. Barnett also owns TRI Title Agency and Tomie Raines Home Warranty Company.

High Oil Prices ...a drag on the economy

Guess you can't have your cake and eat it too.
The administration cannot afford, for votes, to admit policy of high oil prices

For Obama, High Oil Prices Have a Green Lining - BusinessWeek:

"Truth be told, higher prices are what it takes to change the energy consumption habits of large numbers of Americans. 'Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe,' Energy Secretary Steven Chu told The Wall Street Journal in 2008 when he was director of the University of California's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Chu has backed away from that view since taking office."

Housing?

Paraphrase "when will they ever learn?"

Housing vs productive work.

Housing drives sprawl, a consumption mentality, a debt driven economy, work force tied to location.

Wrong.

The Economy and D.C. - Renewed Weakness - NYTimes.com: "Of course, doing no harm will not be enough. The economy needs help, like direct federal job creation and options for homeowners to reduce the principal on troubled loans."

Because

Doc Searls Weblog : Poetry

It's time

Housing ? hah

Tom Keene Talks to Ed Yardeni - BusinessWeek:

"What flavor of crisis are we having right now?

All in all, we are still trying to dig out from under all the debt that accumulated over the past decade.

The 10-year yield is now around 3 percent. What does that say about expectations for slow growth?
The bond yield to me is the market's assessment of what the growth rate is for nominal GDP on a year-over-year basis, and 3 percent is pretty pathetic.

We come to June with 9 percent unemployment. What portion of that is structural, and what is cyclical?
There's a structural component. There's still a lot of people who were employed in housing industries who just haven't moved on.

It seems the next hurdle for housing is straightening out the paperwork.
No, it's not. It's mold and mildew. You are right that there's all this paperwork. It takes forever to foreclose on a house, and it's not even clear if you've got the right papers. So the buyer might say, well, I'm not convinced that everything's legal here. And so houses are on the market that are owned by the banks, they're sort of in limbo, and they're starting to deteriorate in quality. It's a major problem.

When do we get back to normal with housing?
Look, it could be seven, it could be 10 years, all total."

Investments

Wall Street’s biggest secret - MarketWatch

Value wins, invest in profit-producing assets.

"This free lunch proves that the market is far from perfectly “efficient.” Haugen himself argues it drives “a stake through the heart of the efficient market hypothesis.”

Even members of the efficient market cult have been forced to concede some of these points. For decades they maintained that to earn higher returns, you needed to take on more volatility, or “risk.” Then they looked again at the data and realized it wasn’t quite true. They admitted, instead, that small companies had done better than large companies. And value stocks had done better than growth stocks – even though they entailed less risk."

Energy Debate

Nuke-em and Gas-em

What is really needed is conservation and application of technology

The Cost of Renewable Energy Sources - NYTimes.com:

"Such profligate use of resources is the antithesis of the environmental ideal. Nearly four decades ago, the economist E. F. Schumacher distilled the essence of environmental protection down to three words: “Small is beautiful.” In the rush to do something — anything — to deal with the intractable problem of greenhouse gas emissions, environmental groups and policy makers have determined that renewable energy is the answer. But in doing so they’ve tossed Schumacher’s dictum into the ditch.

All energy and power systems exact a toll. If we are to take Schumacher’s phrase to heart while also reducing the rate of growth of greenhouse gas emissions, we must exploit the low-carbon energy sources — natural gas and, yes, nuclear — that have smaller footprints."

Not No Nukes, but rather New Nukes

What's next for nuclear power: Nathan Myhrvold - Fortune Features:

"When your kids are afraid of the dark or the bogeyman under the bed, the appropriate thing as a parent is to be sensitive to their fears but also not to panic yourself. And in the same way, society has to draw conclusions based on engineering and science about what actually happened in Japan, what could have been done differently, how serious an issue this would be in other places, and make a rational decision on nuclear power. I am confident that a rational decision would say, 'Nuclear power is a super-important part of our future.'"

Demographics rule

Robert Doll: The Bullish Case for the U.S. Economy - WSJ.com

Europe slips and slides, Japan is worse, China will slow

US wins

Long Term Thinking - on sprawl

The topic of planned "sprawl" has been gnawing at me, and the argument(s) for re-urbanization

Found this to be interesting Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

Is dispersal obsolete? - Dec 1954 - Google Books Result

1) cities as more "Green" - elevators are the most fuel efficient mode of transportation (other than walking/biking)
2) cities = civilization (see Stuart Brand on how 3rd world slums still beat rural life in the developing world)
3) transportation - light rail/busses etc may not be efficient when you seek to disperse population - still thinking that one through
We do know that the Interstate system was build with the potential of war in mind.

We're now over two decades past the fall of the only nuclear competition (Soviet Union) and therefore the rationale for dispersal 
Give it a decade or more for the "facts" to become obvious, then we have 9/11 (I know of people who left NYC for the hinterlands of New England out of fear of repeat attacks) 

Layer on the "affordable housing" fiasco that led to the financial crisis ... sprawl may be history.

Interesting conversation with Bernard Winograd last week (he and Carol are becoming residents)
Blame for the push to increase home ownership shared by both political parties, changing demographics impacting housing

Thought percolating is how to tie these threads into a coherent narrative and show some of the deeper impetus for suburbs 

One advantage of age - I can recall the Cuban Missile Crisis, (and other events) growing up with knowledge that violent end of the world as we knew it was a real possibility 

Whoops

what happens when big, rapidly spinning things "go wrong"

2009 Sayano-Shushenskaya hydro accident - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

AW&ST referenced it as possible case of cyber-error, but maybe there were other causes

Just a placeholder

This is pretty much a placeholder

Growing Local? Then Grow Job Skills | Our Voices

The point I was trying to make is that it's important for members of the food chain know where they stand in the value ladder. Do what you are best at, don't try to do everything.

Balderdash

Cluelessness on the part of the NYTimes

As Housing Goes, So Goes the Economy - NYTimes.com:

"Since the problems in housing are not self-curing, a government fix is in order. But the Obama administration’s main antiforeclosure effort has fallen far short of its goal to modify three million to four million troubled loans."

Housing is not productive, and has been so abused (used as an ATM for consumerism ) that we have a totally mis-oriented economy.

Destruction of savings, sprawl, and, of course, the pollution of the financial markets (with mis-use of derivatives)


Try this
Angst in the United States: What's wrong with America's economy? | The Economist


Plenty of blame to share, and time for politicians to come back to the middle


"Meanwhile, the biggest dangers lie in an area that politicians barely mention: the labour market. The recent decline in the jobless rate has been misleading, the result of a surprisingly small growth in the workforce (as discouraged workers drop out) as much as fast job creation. A stubborn 46% of America’s jobless, some 6m people, have been out of work for more than six months. The weakness of the recovery is mostly to blame, but there are signs that America may be developing a distinctly European disease: structural unemployment."


And we have 
America's jobless men: Decline of the working man | The Economist: 
"Why ever fewer low-skilled American men have jobs" - because policies help discourage low skilled workers. 


"When work doesn’t pay

Policies have created perverse incentives for both groups. The older dislocateds often try hard to be declared officially disabled, even though it can take up to three years and cost several thousand dollars in legal fees, not least because this brings access to Medicare, a government health-insurance scheme. (Many low-wage jobs do not come with health insurance.) But this is also a one-way street to permanent detachment from the workforce. In recent years the government has tried to encourage disability recipients to return to work, for instance by promising that they can stay on Medicare for several years. This scheme, says Larry Katz of Harvard University, has been “utterly ineffective”.

For the younger group, one cause of discouragement is the earned-income tax credit (EITC), America’s main anti-poverty tool, which tops up poorer people’s pay and thus rewards work. It is skewed towards those with children. The maximum EITC top-up for a childless person is less than $500 a year. Families with one child get more than six times as much; those with two, more than ten times. Single, low-skilled men therefore face a lower effective real wage than low-skilled women with children and have less incentive to work.

Child-support rules also discourage poorly skilled men from working. Many are absent fathers, whose child-support payments are often deducted directly from their pay. Some states levy an extra charge to cover welfare payments to the mother. In a dozen states men continue to accrue child-support obligations if they are in prison, from which they can emerge owing thousands of dollars. Deductions can amount to 65% or more of their wages."

Also Kansas City Fed's Hoenig Sees Need to Lift Rates - WSJ.com : 

Mr. Hoenig said more thrift among American consumers would be a good thing in the long term.

"We've created a generation of instant gratification because our savings rate, which was running at eight percent for years and years...fell to two percent or less," he said. "If you look at countries, those that stay great...they have reasonable savings rate [s]."

Treating your house like an ATM is not savings - it's consuming ...

How it all fits

Couple pieces on Futurology
Ray Kurzweil
Futurology (1): The new overlords | The Economist

and Michio Kaku
Futurology (2): Suspension of disbelief | The Economist

potential for ever accelerating advancements in science and technology

All of this is possible, but, if this is not the path that is followed, and we go more regional than global, one needs to be prepared.

So very tempting

Don't know when, but short gold is so very tempting.

Up the stairs, but down the elevator shaft ...

FT.com / Lex - Gold: the bubble’s popping will be nasty: "There should be no big problems for the ETFs and their marketmakers; they could operate safely in liquidation mode. And physical buyers could be found to absorb the additional supply from the ETFs – at some price. But to clear the market, it is likely that the price would have to fall.

Predicting the top of the gold bubble is foolhardy. It is safer to predict that the bubble’s popping will be especially nasty."

Bill gets this one right

Rare, for me, kudos to Bill

It's the teachers that count, not their unions

Behind Grass-Roots School Advocacy, Bill Gates - NYTimes.com

the long arc

FT.com / FT Magazine - Henry Kissinger talks to Simon Schama:

"What Kissinger took from Elliott was that without grasping the long arc of time, any account of politics and government would be shallow and self-defeating. That long view is on full display in the China book, which insists – entertainingly – on going back to the origins of Chinese classical culture and on through the many dynasties of the Middle Kingdom before even touching the epoch of decline, dismemberment and revolution. Kissinger smiles at the scene with which he opens his book, in which Mao gathered together the leaders of the party to listen to his account of a war that occurred during the Tang dynasty. “It would be like one of our leaders going back to the wars of Charlemagne.” And you get the feeling that Kissinger believes that it would do them no harm if they did. Instead he laments that “contemporary politicians have very little sense of history. For them the Vietnam war is unimaginably far behind us, the Korean war has no relevance any more,” even though that conflict is very far from over and at any minute has the capability of going from cold to hot."

Oh those crazy frenchmen

Belief in conspiracy when it comes to Dominique Strauss-Kahn, and the hotel maid ... well 

FT.com / Comment / Opinion - Salutary insights into the French way of flirting:

"Virility is a sign of a successful politician. One who seduces women is also deemed likely to be able to seduce the public. And the French do like seduction: not the cliched bed-hopping kind of Hollywood imagination, but a subtler, more playful exchange between the sexes that lacks the tension often found in male-female relationships in English-speaking countries."

Gold-debuged

This time, I agree with Soros - more risk than reward

FT.com / Commodities - Soros sharpens gold bubble debate:

Soros sharpens gold bubble debate
By Jack Farchy and James Mackintosh
Published: May 20 2011 19:20 | Last updated: May 20 2011 19:20
The ultimate asset bubble is gold . . . 

It may go higher but it’s certainly not safe and it’s not going to last forever . . . 

Gold has shown tendencies to go parabolic and usually bubbles tend to end in that parabolic rise before the collapse.

George Soros – who made the statements above at various points last year – has been one of gold’s most strident critics and also one of its largest investors.

EDITOR’S CHOICE
In depth: Gold - May-20

Mexican central bank buys 100 tonnes of gold - May-04

Lex: Gold and the dollar - Apr-20

Gold pierces $1,500 to set fresh high - Apr-20

Gold hits fresh high on US debt warning - Apr-18

Global Overview: Investors seek out havens - Apr-15

But now the billionaire financier has dumped a large portion of his gold investments, according to regulatory filings released this week and people with knowledge of the fund’s activities."

PT Barnum

Sadly ... he's still going to be making noise

Trump Bows Out, but Spotlight Barely Dims - NYTimes.com: "Donald J. Trump announced on Monday that he would not seek the presidency, a development less important for the Republican field or his national political future — if he ever had one — than for what it said about a media culture that increasingly seems to give the spotlight to the loudest, most outrageous voices."

Make love not war ... continued ...

Dominique Strauss-Kahn ... on the right
Does this F..ker look older than me (votes on FB are yes)  
So much for European "make love not war"


The tragedy is that this may well impact the Euro-weak players may loose their champion

Europe : Make Love not War

Great timing

Strauss-Kahn Arrest Comes at a Fragile Moment for the I.M.F. - NYTimes.com:

"Its hard to imagine a worse time for the International Monetary Fund to be without a forceful European leader.
Related

Sinking under a mountain of debt, Greece is on the verge of requesting more help from the European Union and the international fund. Ireland’s economic recovery from its banking crisis remains a distant prospect at best. And once an international aid deal is concluded for Portugal, the question shifts to whether Spain’s much larger and increasingly stagnant economy may need a financial lifeline.

Indeed, the most bitter twist for Dominique Strauss-Kahn is that his personal crisis comes at a time that the I.M.F.’s influence globally is at a many-decades peak, especially within Europe, his own stomping ground."

gathering storm II

gathering storm II, a photo by John Hoagland on Flickr.

a bit different ...

gathering storm

gathering storm, a photo by John Hoagland on Flickr.

Bit of weather this AM

Yes But

Keep Calm and Carry On - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Cheetos Lip Balm moment

Erin Burnett's Goodbye

WWF Politics?

Politics of smack down vs rational thought - well, it should make the media happy.

Democrats Form Super PACS For 2012 : NPR:

"Democrats railed against big-money political advertising groups in 2010. Now, they're forming their own network of such groups for 2012."

on Republicans

Sometime last year - she gets it right

Meghan McCain on the GOP:

Rather than the party of openness and individual freedom, it is now the party of limited message and less freedom.

Along with ideological narrowness the important PR battle is being lost.

Rather than leading us into the exhilarating fresh air of liberty, a chorus of voices on the radical right is taking us to a place of intolerance and anger

On how to have a discussion

A Code of Conduct for Effective Rational Discussion — LimbicNutrition Weblog

Easter Dinner

Quiet day with my bride

Steak 'n Shake

Because
A National Hamburger Chain We Can Be Proud Of - Taste of America: Six Things I Want to Eat in 2011 - TIME: 


(note: photo not of Steak & Shake burger)

There are some great hamburger chains in the U.S. — places whose patties are beefy, juicy and fresh, and are served nestled between halves of a properly airy and toasted bun. But sadly, they are all regional chains — Steak 'n Shake in the Midwest, Smashburger in the mountain states, the Counter in Southern California. When will a national burger chain come into being that serves something along these lines? I believe that this is the year. Too much money is being made by these minichains for the big national ones to ignore their success. Last year's stunt burgers and other marketing initiatives are over; now the long climb toward genuine quality control begins. But who will be the ones to pull it off?"

link collections

‘Longevity Project’ - Review - In 80-Year Study, Good News for the Diligent - NYTimes.com

Review & Outlook: The Obama Speech Downgrade - WSJ.com

Obama’s Young Mother Abroad - NYTimes.com

Online Help for Those Who Want to Make Tangible Stuff - NYTimes.com

FT.com / Comment / Opinion - Tighten your seatbelts: 2011 could be worse than 2010

Endurance

found tonight, use to manage this stuff ... 24hr racing, 4PM Saturday to 4PM Sunday

e pluribus unum

Soros, Bretton Woods II And The Twilight Of The Gods - Ralph Benko - A Golden Age - Forbes:

"Rather than State-controlled or Big Business-controlled economies … why not look to the people?

On February 7, 2000, The New Yorker’s John Cassidy wrote in a piece both brilliantly insightful and rigorously honest, “The Price Prophet,” that “It is hardly an exaggeration to refer to the twentieth century as the Hayek century.”

Not Keynes. Hayek.

Cassidy encapsulates the core insight of Hayek as follows.“This view of capitalism as a spontaneous information-processing machine—a ‘telecommunications system’ was how Hayek referred to it—was one of the great insights of the century. It may have been implicit in the work of some previous economists, notably Adam Smith, but Hayek was the first to spell it out. Even left-wing economists, who regarded capitalism primarily as a system of social exploitation, were eventually forced to concede the acuity of Hayek’s analysis….”"

Glut

Planning on making a killing with all your "stuff" on e-Bay?

Think again - simple supply & demand

Supply is high and growing - means crash in prices.

Downsizing Boomers Looking to Sell Their Stuff - SmartMoney.com:

"With some 8,000 Americans turning 65 every day, on average, and the senior population expected to double by 2050, millions are facing a massive, multifaceted purge that's turning out to be much tougher than they thought it would be. And millions more find themselves in similar quandaries as they deal with the truckloads they've inherited from packrat relatives. Indeed, whether they're leaving an heirloom china set at the local consignment store or packing a stately grandfather clock off to Sotheby's, many are discovering that the resale market is glutted with household goods. And oriental rugs are only the beginning. Got a home full of middle-market, traditional-style furniture to sell? Dealers say that stuff's plunged 50 to 75 percent in value."

North

Caribbean ?

Aegean, that wine dark sea?

Nope

Lake Michigan, looking due north, Good Harbor Bay this afternoon

Huh?

File under Whisky Tango Foxtrot

Who dealt this mess?

1 - F-ing thousand? ? ?

Libyan Rebel Insider Points to Weaknesses - NYTimes.com: "And now, as they try to defeat Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s armed forces and militias, they will have to rely on allied airstrikes and young men with guns because the army that rebel military leaders bragged about consists of only about 1,000 trained men."

Case Closed

Something like a Volt, despite being simply an overweight, overpriced Cruze, maybe, but straight electric - nope.

Long-term Nissan Leaf update: Hey, buddy, can you spare a plug? - AutoWeek Magazine:

"If you have an electric car, you have to plan out longer trips on Mapquest or Google Maps to make sure they're doable. It's math so simple even I could do it. But didn't."
and ... drumroll

"The lesson here? Just as you can't or shouldn't bring a knife to a gunfight, don't try to go farther than your EV can go on a charge. At least unless you are sure there's a 240-volt charger somewhere on your route with a J1772 plug."