First Blog

Time is a really big four-letter word.  We talk about it, write about it, measure it, but really no one quite knows what it is.  Consider by analogy the fish living in water.  Does it know or recognize the water.  For the fish, water is almost unrecognized and surely unknown. Like time is for us. It is not known whether time has a direction.   This means we don’t know if time is reversible.   Most think time does have the proverbial arrow – no reversal.   Physicists are especially interested in time, and what it means. Railroads live by it.   Airlines mostly ignore it. Doctors never heard of it. Sometimes what a thing means is reflected in how we use it or modify it, as with an adjective. For time, there is a long list of at least fifty modifiers.   Here are some of them. They betray both our confusion and our understanding of time.   Look at all our needs for this basic quantity/concept in our lives. ample   first   long   olden   short  

Today’ topic. Manipulation by the Chinese. It is well known and proved the Chinese manipulate:  Their currency to avoid the problems of tariffs and other trade matters. Companies to steal their intellectual property. The management of other countries through loans. Internal communications of countries by Huawei.  It is NOT well known the Chinese may be manipulating stock markets by manipulating the trade talks, possibly by short selling. This signals that a few in China are amassing great fortunes as the trade talks lumber along - ineffectually. This implies that while fortunes are being made, there will be no clear resolution or agreements to even the simpler issues of trade. Simple plan for Chinese wealth*: They say “No go,” and the markets tumble. They say “Let’s talk,” and the markets rise. *When you know the when, you stand to make a fortune.  W hile all talk about uncertainty , the point is the Chinese may also manipulate uncertainty.   It

We all have enemies.  More than you think. From Sun Tzu, in his notable Art of War , we learn “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”   This was not really original to Sun Tzu but a well understood aphorism at the time. Not all of us are going to war in the sense of physical battles.   However, all of us have enemies of one form or another.   For almost everything you do, there is an enemy that wishes to defeat success.   You have your personal enemies, private enemies, and unknown enemies.   Below we list a group common to us all.   Effectively, while they appear to be opposites, it is stronger to say that one defeats the other, or undoes it, or overturns it, or destabilizes it.   Enemies. The enemy of XXX is YYY. For example the enemy of belief is d

Your brain is nature’s first attempt to manage big data. a. Too much and it dysfunctions. b. Some brains get filled but get cluttered like a dump. c. The best examples are those who can tease out what's needed when it's needed.  d. Some have the power to discard the irrelevant. e. Many keep working, always working on a problem.   f. Problem solving ability?  Use it or lose it.  g. Solving the hypothetical is like working out. It is possible that newer developments and needs by humanity to survive in the age of data, the next step in evolution has begun. It will favor a brain with adaptive, algorithmic sensibility.  It may be a rapid transition. In a previous evolutionary step, the brain with abilities to seek different food was favored. The hunter was born. To make and use tools to kill was another step to favor the hunter. The tool maker evolved.

Where can you find distinguished economists? Usually they can be found late at night standing on street corners smoking reefers.  Not to be confused with pimps or drug dealers.  (So ask for some ID.) It's not that their theories are wrong, it's that their dead wrong. Nobel laureates do the same while sitting in a used Chevy. (e.g. NY Times)

I like words, and what they can do. History has shown that words are the prime-movers of change in this world, particularly after the 15 th century.   Your well being depends on someone’s words, coming from somewhere, and coming with an artistry.   It is best to become acquainted with word, and their pure power over your life. So… What are you? Word-abhorer – You’re scared of words. Word-misoneist – You hate new words. Word-wonk – You like to learn new words. Word-smith – You can use words with skill. Word-thinker – You think in words, more than images. Word-master – Lovingly, you can massage, manipulate, and message with manifold words. Words-worth – you’re a famous poet, slightly deceased. 😊

Imagine finally having time to do what you want, but then find there is nothing you want to do.

8/19/19. The French government is proposing a 3% digital tax on media providers such as Facebook, Google, and others.   It will be based on their number of users and corporate locations.   This signals the EU discovery of new tax structures based on digital communication.   So watch out for new taxes to be proposed to users, providers, developers and the like. Gamer’s Tax, for those gamers that spend multiple hours online playing games. E-mail Tax. For email users. Will be likened to postal stamps. Cloud Tax. For all users that routinely transmit information from devices to cloud servers. Connectivity Tax.   This will be likened to typical utility taxes such as trash, sewer, and electrical power. Server Tax. To tax users using high demand streaming services. Free Apps. Those with a commercial connection will be taxed. Checkers to be exempt.     These taxes will arrive one-by-one, after the first is charged. Within a decade, the costs will multiply, creating sur-taxes amo

Riddle of the Day I am an opportunistic omnivore, numbering in the millions nationwide. I can personally dig down three feet looking for food. I carry disease. I erode soil. To me a lawn is just like a salad. I have a huge presence in southern Texas. I weigh about 165 pounds on average. What am I? (Scroll down for the answer.) ------------------------ Expression of the day:  As a judge, he/she proved to be the sphincter of justice.  ---------------------- Feral Pigs (Look it up. Scary)

In the great race, luck is also a runner, but you never know how far it will go. You don’t want to be the best looking horse in the glue factory. -- anon They say all librarians are shelf-aware.  -- anon Sometimes, the only way to prevent something is to predict it.  ---------------------------- Some politicians, like a crowd of high-schoolers in the cafeteria, prefer to shoot spitballs  even  at  political ghosts, picking little issues, picking dumb issues, picking weak issues. Too much spit is flying about. Let’s call it, “Politics by Spit.”

Found on the classroom board one morning last week....   Advice from heaven: Do what you want to do. Advice from earth: Do what you can do. Advice from middle-earth: Be open to possibilities. So… Where do you live? When you figure this one out, you're on your way.

Whatever side you’re on you know the word “fake.” The current favorite is “fake news.” There is more. Fake cigarettes, fake education, fake medical procedures, fake IDs, fake money (crypto), fake luxury products, and fake drugs all take their rightful place in our lives. The latest fake may already be here.   That is fake, fake meat, which is fake meat blended with real meat.   Advantages: reduces production costs, no regulations, easy to do, hard to detect. Disadvantage: dishonest (but who cares). The exposé   of this might be called fake on fake news. 😊 Feeling bad for vegans and veggies everywhere.   ------------------ More fakes now exposed. US Presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke affects all your senses; his stupidity can be seen, smelled, heard, felt, and ugh, tasted. He wears his stupidity like a bad after-shave. We have: a fake presidential run. If Beto and Bill (de Blasio) ran together, their net support would decrease. Fake times two. ---------------

Drowning in modern hate, many seek love not knowing what it is or where to look.   Years from now, the lost generation of our times may describe those so saturated by hate they were unable to find love. Not unlike those of past generations who were shattered by war, hate ultimately causes a loss of human identity.   Everything in their life, it will be written, was filtered through their hate, diminishing regular human relations, being unable to disassociate even the simplest event from their hate.   Hate, it will be reported, was highly contagious. Well documented are many examples of people consumed by horrors of war, obsessed with making money, or so wrapped with some beliefs that no form of normalcy was possible. The lost generation of the 1920’s came from World War I. The Catholic inquisition, beginning in the 12 th century was hosted by priests saturated with a compulsion to control religious dissent or combat heresy.   The French Revolution was captured new commoner class

There are two ways to solve a problem. A. You can either get what you want, or you can want what you get.—Ralph Barton Perry B.More graphically, you can shoot your arrow at the target, or you can move the target to where you shoot your arrow. However, in politics you never get what you want, but always hope to want what you get.

On this earth, there are many who do good, doctors, nurses, teachers, ministers, and countless other warm-hearted people. Their helping sustains nations, making life livable, making life a joy while taking joy in selflessness, making honesty a constant virtue.   Another class of citizens are the do-gooders , mostly with their goal to do good for themselves by doing something for others.   They gossip, cheat, preach, rumor, condemn, include, exclude, and depress all for their good. For do-gooders, the “for me” dominates the “for you.” These do-gooders are here forever.   Diving a little deeper… If your goal is to do good, and you have no basis for what good is, you may execute simplistic acts for which there is little reason and particularly pragmatism.   You could be seduced by a facet or two of a logical, social, or political complex of great depth.   Only when the need to do good is tempered on the anvil of contemplation can the result have lasting consequence and to be

You want more?  You want programs that cost too much? You want to get elected?  Our national candidates have found a way.  Just CHANGE THE MATH!  STEP 1. From now on...