Cab Thoughts 2/26/14

"Cosmically, I seem to be of two minds, the power of materialist science to explain everything—from the behavior of the galaxies to that of molecules, atoms, and their sub-microscopic components—seems to be inarguable and the principal glory of the modern mind. On the other hand, the reality of subjective sensations, desires, and—may we even say—illusions composes the basic substance of our existence, and religion alone, in its many forms, attempts to address, organize, and placate these. I believe, then, that religious faith will continue to be an essential part of being human, as it has been for me.” --John Updike

In 1952, 38,000 people contracted polio in America alone, according to the Centers for Disease Control. In 2012, there were fewer than 300 reported cases of polio in the entire world. From 1920 to 1980, an average of 395 people per 100,000 died from famine worldwide each decade. During the 2000s, that fell to three per 100,000, according to The Economist.

The Voynich Manuscript (c.15th-16th centuries) have baffled and intrigued researchers for decades. It contains an indecipherable writing with mysterious illustrations. It has been bought and sold throughout Europe over the centuries. A new explanation of the manuscript has emerged from an unlikely source: Botanists. Arthur Tucker and Rexford Talbert studied the 302 plants depicted in the Voynich Manuscript and concluded that 37 of the plants were possibly of central American origin. And the text that has long mystified scholars may actually be an extinct dialect of Nahuatl from central Mexico, possibly Morelos or Puebla.

In 1900, African Americans had an illiteracy rate of nearly 45%, according to the Census Bureau. Today, it's statistically close to zero. In 1940, less than 5% of the adult population held a bachelor's degree or higher. By 2012, more than 30% did.

Chargers, most commonly cell-phone chargers, are hotels' most commonly left-behind items.

Golden Oldie:

http://steeleydock.blogspot.com/2010/03/managers-of-commerce.html

Comte brought an aggressive form of “humanism” to nineteenth-century France, inclining toward a form of worship that replaced the God above with Good Men below. His kind of humanism created chapels (one still exists in Paris) filled with icons of the admirable: Héloïse, Abélard, Galileo. It’s still a cozy space. Instead of making us God-size, he made faith us-size. ( Adam Gopnik)

Is it true that the moment of voting in the British Parliament is called the "division?"

Cupid is the god of desire, erotic love, attraction and affection. His name is literally "desire." He is often portrayed as the son of the love goddess Venus. In Greek he is Eros. cupidity: noun eager or excessive desire. It does not have an erotic connotation but means a desire to possess something; greed; avarice. In the Slavic languages it has become "to boil."

 

 

The Argentine Central bank preliminary data has over-stated reserves by an average $257 million per day since the government began devaluing the peso Jan. 22, compared with an average $15 million in the previous month.

The central bank declined to comment on the discrepancy. They did, however, have a fire, a fire of unknown origin that destroyed an archive of bank documents in Argentina's capital on Wednesday, according to the Washington Post.
The destroyed archives included documents stored for Argentina's banking industry, said Buenos Aires security minister Guillermo Montenegro.

Money in the 1700's was simply a tradeable IOU or debt which one signed and could be called; those that incurred too much debt entered prison--although that seems to be more a punishment than a solution. Two out of three people who left England for America were debtors; Virginia and North Carolina, hungry for settlers, promised five years' protection from Old World debts. When a man was arrested for debt, his wife and children often went to prison with him, having no place else to go. Debtors in New York City's prison -- where a man and his family might stay for years -- established their own constitutions and courts and elected their own sheriffs, to enforce the laws.

Two commissions of inquiry on Vatican finance are reporting their recommendations for reform and preparations get underway for a summit on family issues that will deal with the widespread rejection by Catholics of church teaching on contraception, divorce and gay unions. This could be momentous--but there is always a third act with Jesuits.

Who is....Sir John Franklin?

A federal jury has found Ray Nagin guilty of bribery, fraud and money-laundering during his two terms as mayor of New Orleans from 2002 to 2010. (A shopping spree in New York cost more than half a million dollars.) A confidential and independent report commissioned by the Defense Department found that "corruption and mismanagement within the New Orleans city government diverted money earmarked for improving flood protection." He was one of Bush's big critics after Katrina. No politician should raise questions of political competence as no airline should criticize another's safety record.

You need an annual income of $34,000 a year to be in the richest 1% of the world, according to World Bank economist Branko Milanovic's 2010 book The Haves and the Have-Nots. To be in the top half of the globe you need to earn just $1,225 a year. For the top 20%, it's $5,000 per year. Enter the top 10% with $12,000 a year. To be included in the top 0.1% requires an annual income of $70,000. America's poorest are some of the world's richest. So, where do we start to make things better?

Another number to add to the total of inexplicable and unexplained lists: Reporters Without Borders’ 2014 World Press Freedom Index purports to measure freedom of the press world-wide. The U.S. dropped to No. 46th. What this means, I have no idea.

"The book is tongue in cheek. It's very ironic ... and I'm not a fan of mysteries, so to prepare for this experience of writing a mystery I started reading the most successful ones in the market in 2012. ... And I realized I cannot write that kind of book. It's too gruesome, too violent, too dark; there's no redemption there. And the characters are just awful. Bad people. Very entertaining, but really bad people. So I thought, I will take the genre, write a mystery that is faithful to the formula and to what the readers expect, but it is a joke." Isabel Allende said this in anticipation of the release of her new book, "Ripper". She is getting just lambasted by mystery writers and readers. Book stores are returning her book.

AAAAAaaaaaaannnnnnddddd.......tracks on Mars: