First Blog

 Of course, you've seen these headsets with visual viewers where the player can see virtual worlds.  It is the latest construct of the Metaverse. It is beyond experience toward a meta-reality.  It is the ultimate of cool. It is perfect and can be used for teaching, for learning, for understanding, and for enhancing your life.  But, it can also be used for subliminal training, subliminal suggesting, and subliminal testing.  The user is completely captivated by the device with no outside influence whatever. Their brains are isolated and  fully open to whatever is transmitted. Nefarious programmers, corporations, and even governments can use these devices to control their customers and populations.  It is time to consider the dark side of these new technologies.  When power and money lay in the balance, it will happen.  Is it already happening? If you're alerted, frightened, and even scared stiff, you should be. There are governments and corporations that see us not as citizens or

Power and Privilege, two power words of our day.  Most people want at least one; some want both. So, is there a difference? Power is a general term that implies the ability to shape conditions, control people, or enhance particular goals. Power has many forms, of which privilege is only one. Privilege is usually conferred, but general power is seized. Here are a few other forms of power.  Privilege Good looks Money Property Ability Knowledge Authority Family Leadership Some people have only one.  Others have a few, but few have all.

A big term these days is “Uncertainty.” This means people are not sure of what’s happening. Another big word is “Manipulation.” This means some quantity is altered on command. Adding one and one, we have “Manipulated Uncertainty.” And this means some agency is manipulating the uncertainty.   It applies to trade, to stock prices, to war, to politics, to materialism, and even to climate. Massive gains are available, as are massive losses. Causes: Too much money, too much polarization, too much hate, too much emotion, too much greed, too much profit, too much power, and too darn easy. Think it new?  Nope. Ancient.

Did you know that is a remote German valley, it was noted that four-thousand-year-old genomes show deep roots of social inequality?   Read the article. See, https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-03046-w You should not be surprised with this “scientific” discovery. In fact… Ever since there was not enough to go around, there was social inequity. “Not enough to go around” is the origin of greed.   Applies to all predator species – even today. Then came wealth, power, prestige, pride, and thus more inequity. However, it is not without value the discovery and validation of the obvious. Anyone pledging to eliminate social inequity is delusional – or lying. Anyone who believes the pitch is something close to stupid. Just a moment's thought reveals how important a family is to many.  It is a place where all are taken care of with some equity.  When it doesn't there arises the concept of patriarch or matriarch. 

Hate to sound pessimistic, but... Whenever anyone thinks they have a solution to the MIddle East, they are wrong. The biggest problem are a religion and leaders that seem willing to sacrifice its people en masse . It has leaders who simply wish arbitrary power with religious sanction. The USA and Europe are essentially unequipped to manage such conflicting desiderata. Europe has simply given up, but the USA continues to try. Expect little and you will not be disappointed. Trump is absolutely magnificent at commercial deals, but Middle East war is different. It is a place where power is everything, and religion is placed in its service. Or is it vise-versa? China, at least, views the world in terms of profit and power. This is not easy but easier. Human rights? Redistribution? Freedom of speech? Come on, already. Not there; never was; never will be. What the West does not realize is these modern Middle East leaders view themselves in historical terms.  At various

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

If you cheat to enter a college, you’ll cheat when you get there. \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ Economists make fortune tellers and astrologers look good.   - Author unknown /////////////////// Never underestimate the power of a well-made argument.   \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ To be the best you can be is a journey – of both you and the term.   Your “best” at age 20 is different from your   “best” at age 40 or at age 60. “Best” is at best a moving target when it comes to you and me. /////////////////// Life’s journey is taken in steps, giant, tiny, sideways, backward , forwards, up, down, and stationary. You’ve heard the expressions, all about the steps you take Going Nowhere. Going somewhere. Going Backward. A giant leap... Heading up. Going in circles.

Feeling pretty sharp today?  Gray cells a-buzzin'?  I've got some problems for you.  The problems can be approached at all levels.  But they are not easy.   A. Suppose you are asked to contribute to a 100 year time-capsule, with the directive it should be something beyond a picture, joke, or comment of the day.  What will you write?  It can be a prediction, a state of being, world conditions, problems solved or unsolved by then, etc.* B. Suppose you have all the power of congress, the President, and the courts for one day. You can pass one law. Your experiment is to describe the law, its desired future impact, and what could go wrong with your law. C. You journey back in time one hundred years, more or less – your choice.  You can do anything. Pass a law, start a war, cure a disease, kill a person, save a person…  Make your selection and predict how the world will have changed at your now-time. *In many ways you operate your own time capsule(s), not for 100 years ah

Power and Money are twin diseases of humanity.   If you’re in politics and want money, you work quietly behind the scenes selling favors, information, and access, i.e. what you can do.   If you’re in politics and want power, you’ll say anything, lies, truth, and bologna, to get it. Does this make the money grubbing politician more honest?   A close call is this contest between these twins known better as, “Do Anything” and “Say Anything.”  The real bad boy's name is "Saydo Anything."   ---------------------- Modern mainstream morality :   If you like the guy, it’s ok if he stands by mute while thousands are slaughtered.   If you don’t like the guy, it is moral turpitude if he doesn’t wash his hands after a bathroom break. ---------------------- Death is an interesting word with a world of meanings.   In war, one can both hope for and dread it at the same time.   Personally, the rules are different.   George Gershwin said it perfectly in Porgy and Bes

So let Angela Merkel make natural gas deals with Russia, personified by Vladimir Putin. Long term, it can only help the USA.  If she can pull the EU toward deals with Russia, then her own and the fundamental EU distrust of Russia can and will likely grow. Poor Angela, with her big pinkish balloon of a globalist world popped, must remain relevant. Historically, Russia has always had an imperial attitude toward every other country, but who cared. For the West, they were too far east to matter; for the East they were too far west.  Sure, they were cozy with France more than a century ago, mostly because the rich needed a cool place to shop. For a few decades in the last century, they enjoyed the power to exert power, their only emotion. Russia, in fact, does not know how to be a friend; even their “friends” don’t like them and certainly don’t trust them. With a Russia-Germany gas deal in place, the Russians, communist or imperialist, will eventually squeeze the busy, mostly har

Success involving good luck comes in equal measure to failure involving bad luck.  Sounds true, but is  it really? He had the wisdom of experience, not of intelligence.   Sounds true, but can it be really? Which is the more powerful motivator.:   Ambition or Politics? Politics or Power? Reward or Position? Action or Reticence? Beliefs or Money? Money or Power? Fame or Power? Answer.  Yes to all of them.  This is what make us so complex.  There is no simple order of priority. Mathematically, we not not ordered or even partially ordered.  Our motivations are not at all ordered much beyond ordering life or death. Even that has issues. To govern by regulations is just another form of dictatorship. 

Drone surveillance.  It is only a matter of one year or two before drones are deployed as “eyes of the police” in troubled cities.  This may be a very good thing.   Drones will have a regular “beat,” just like foot police used to.  Each drone will patrol specific streets.  Once programmed they will need no pilot in control back at the station, just a monitor for activity. They will create video records, identify perpetrators, and probably indirectly reduce crime.     But these little city-size drones need power.   What we will see in the months ahead are drone-charging stations, located high above the city streets, on tops of buildings.  Drones will navigate to them automatically, charge up quickly, and be back on patrol.  Sort of like a coffee-donut break.  Remarkably, and this is only a guess, the charging stations will be called “nests.”  Cheap and tireless, these drone-cops will become a backup for beleaguered in situ officers. Watch carefully.  The possibilities are en

North Korea, NOKO? No worry!  Even the most casual observer will not believe the independent NOKO advance in rocketry to be so unbelievably quick.  Their latest ICBM launch featured a rocket with a look rather similar to a Chinese version.  This suggests China is helping their “bad boy” above the 38 th parallel. But the West persists on focusing on NOKO.  So, NOKO can sell technology to Iran, with China sitting peacefully on the sidelines.  So, China can build military islands in the South China Sea and nobody worries or hardly reports.  So, Kim jung un can play the role of power master.  It is a good bet that China has embedded players in Kim’s inner circle who could act upon command.  Kim asserts and amuses himself by destroying enemies from time-to-time. China is in fact the true key to NOKO.  That oft-described fear of China of being invaded by millions of NOKO refugees is ludicrous.  With no press reporting anything, such an “invasion” would be easily repelled or repress

In a recent report of compensation of university presidents, it is reported that the average annual compensation (in all forms) is just over $428,000 in 2014, up 7% from a year earlier, according to an analysis of 238 chief executives at 220 public universities from the Chronicle of Higher Education, nearly four times what the average full professor makes.   See http://money.cnn.com/2015/06/07/pf/college/highest-paid-public-university-presidents/ That’s a lot of money.   But what is the true compensation?   They suffer universal contempt from the faculty* who think the job is mostly routine, something any (very careful) idiot can do.   They are also living at the whim of their boards that seem to reflect the general public opinion which is about the same as faculty.   Most of them have given up successful research careers, which is what brought them into the business in the first place.   They live in the money world, where all kinds of observation is made about great educatio

An equation for life.   This is a very important relation.  Let A = (your) attitude, P = (your) persistence, and I = (your) intelligence.  In terms of your quantified versions of these In words, your attitude quotient plus your persistence quotient exceeds your intelligence quotient. This simple  inequality demonstrates your attitude and persistence applied to your life can have more effect than your native intelligence.  Indeed, look around you.  Note how some people, idiots in your mind, have achieved what you desire. Now look at their attitude and persistence. That's how they did it.  Indeed I believe in many cases The lesson here is not to give up because you think you don't have the smarts.  Keep at it with a strong and positive attitude and with a relentless spirit for achievement. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- On Power.   Some people crave power far more than fame or wealth, the other two base needs of hum

On theory and belief.  Theories are containers of our beliefs, ideas, and sometimes desires.  They are our vessels of  understanding.  There are levels and criteria for acceptance of theories. When a theory is believable it gets believed.  When a theory fits with one's beliefs it gets believed. When a theory is believable and refutes another but undesired theory, it gets accepted.  Others: When a new theory conflicts with an older and accepted one, it will not be accepted. When two theories collide, there results a conflict between the proponents. When power intervenes, it suspends the search for truth.  When a theory recruits power, open investigation is suppressed. Included are theories of religions of various types, genetics, anthropology, disease, climate change, physics (M-Theory), astronomy, i.e. origins of almost anything. Many have fallen from favor including previous theories of matter, disease, astrology, polytheism, astronomy, alchemy, and more. On power. 

How to run a city. This power model is a for a city, with a mayor, division chiefs, and political operatives.  In a previous blog we described a number of ways leadership manifests itself in our lives.  This is copied below.  The nature of this type of city leadership involves at least six components, with the mayor as its center.  All are important, and all are essential. 1. A quiescent public .  The public must be mollified to inaction on most issues.  They will only become involved, not when the wheels of power are wobbly, but when the wheels have actually fallen off. 2. A cooperative press . The press needs to focus on ancillary matters, distractions, deceptions, and diversions. It must not be investigative about any aberrations of city command. The press acts in the public interest only when the issue or story is unavoidable, and likely when it is pressed by the outside. The press is essential in its willingness to broadcast only "selected truths." 3. A single pa

Nothing to lose vs. Nothing to gain Everyone has heard the expression, “ Nothing to Lose .”   This is the dinner bell for action.   Do it now and why not?   Fight it now. Sacrifice what will.   There can be no limit with such stakes.   This state can cause revolutions, riots, protests, disavowal, frustration, rebellion, and profound fundamental changes in direction.   It is the portal to sacrificing everything, including life and limb. " Nothing to Lose " puts power at risk  History has proved this. But what if there is “ Nothing to Gain ?”   This compresses, depresses, and stultifies any action.    It creates passivity, complacence, and inaction in all unhappy parties.    Why take any action when risk has no rewards, for self, for family, for friends, for community, or for the future?   This is the soporific of maintaining a compliant population.   This is the cynical calculation made by power in any society.   It keeps the population quiescent and inert.   &qu

Our purpose is to develop and analyze a model for the dynamics of political power and control in a social system. The significant feature of social systems is that they are neither purely competitive nor cooperative but some of each. Therefore this model must exhibit both qualities and balance them. It must also permit socio-political phenomena such as coalitions, alliances, anarchy, and revolutions and apply rather generally to various types of political systems. Using generalized logistical models we are able to encompass all these requirements for the case when the system is closed; that is, when all forces are internal to the system. The models developed also apply to shared market economies. Motivation for the model. One of the major historical difficulties in describing the notions of power and control is the inherent difficulty in describing the nature of the human being from this perspective. Interpersonal relations are impossibly complex. There are few if any general rules