Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Cab Thoughts 2/18/15

"I'm not sure I'm ready to have fun yet."--child on sideline of tennis camp 
 
 
Elizabeth Gould at the Rockefeller University demonstrated that new cells arise in the adult brain-particularly in a region called the hippocampus, which is involved in learning and memory. In rats, between 5,000 and 10,000 new neurons arise in the hippocampus every day. (Although the human hippocampus also welcomes new neurons, we do not know how many.) Their production can be influenced by a number of different environmental factors. For example, alcohol consumption has been shown to retard the generation of new brain cells. And their birth rate can be enhanced by exercise. Many if not most of them disappear within just a few weeks of arising. (Of course, most cells in the body do not survive indefinitely.) She writes, "From our work in rats, the answer seems to be: they are made 'just in case.' If the animals are cognitively challenged, the cells will linger. If not, they will fade away."
 
"Nimrod" is an interesting word. It can mean a mighty hunter, mighty ruler, or mighty stupid. Perhaps we should all clamor for all the leaders of the world have their titles changed to "nimrod." Its origin: In the Bible, Nimrod was a great hunter and king of Shinar who was a grandson of Ham and a great-grandson of Noah.
 
A retired American military officer, William J. Astore, writes about his concern over what he feels are changing societal factors that have influenced the American view of war: Mercs, an uncritical press, America's long wars creating a feeling of constant war as a new normal. Mercs can certainly be seen as a "war lobby" but there have always been that element in war. I think war has become outsourced by society and until the society is made a participant--war tax, rationing--it will never be assessed properly. And war, in the minds of Americans, always have a moral tinge bleeding in from WWII.
 
Who was.....Major Walsin-Esterhazy?
 
Canada is about to approve physician-assisted suicide. Why physician-assisted? Why should the profession of healing get involved?
 
An interesting article questions the rise of intense Nazi criticism, an intensity and slant on Nazism that is relatively new. One explanation is that the vagueness of the modern world cries out for definitions, well established and obvious moral positions. Nazism, the society it created, the world of the Third Reich and the people who lived through it all appear as a kind of moral drama where the issues are laid out starkly before us with a clarity we are no longer able to achieve in the morally complex, confusing and compromised world we live in today. So the interest in Nazism is a sort of modern therapy?
 
According to Vanguard Group, over a 40-year career, someone who invests 9% a year of a salary that starts at $30,000 into a balanced fund that charges 0.25% annually will save 20% more than if he or she pays 1.25% in fees. 



On January 13, 1898 French writer Emile Zola published "J'Accuse," his editorial attacking the French army over the "Dreyfus Affair," in the newspaper L'Aurore. The letter exposed a military cover-up regarding Alfred Dreyfus. Dreyfus, a French army captain, had been accused of espionage in 1894 and sentenced in a secret military court-martial to imprisonment in a South American penal colony. Two years later, clear evidence of Dreyfus' innocence and the guilt of Major Walsin-Esterhazy surfaced, but the army suppressed the information. Zola's letter exposed the corrupt, bigoted and mendacious  conviction.
Zola's letter provoked national outrage on both sides of the issue, among political parties, religious organizations, and others. Supporters of the military sued Zola for libel. He was convicted and sentenced to one year's imprisonment, but he fled France. In 1899, Dreyfus was pardoned, but for political reasons he was not exonerated until 1906. Shortly after Dreyfus' pardon, Zola returned to France, where he died in 1902.
This should be a cautionary story to anyone who believes in the objective and honest behavior of groups in general and states in particular.



Africa has twice the land mass of Europe but less coastline. This is said to be a big factor in the retardation of Africa's commercial development.
 
Karl May was a German write in the late 19th Century. He set his novels in the American old west and the Orient, presenting them as travel literature based on his experiences. It was, of course, all made up. May's books, which have now sold more than 200 million copies around the world, were an established part of every child's reading.
 
How could a man in Brian Williams' position be retained for a minute by any group that held its integrity of importance? So, what does that mean about the priorities of the news industry?
 
In 1775, Benjamin Franklin published "An Imaginary Speech" in defense of American courage. Franklin's speech was intended to counter an unnamed officer's comments to Parliament that the British need not fear the colonial rebels, because "Americans are unequal to the People of this Country [Britain] in Devotion to Women, and in Courage, and worse than all, they are religious." Franklin was terrific with the Women and Courage part but struggled a bit with the religious part.
 
It will be interesting to see if the Democrat use of filibuster this week raises charges in the press of gridlock and obstructionism.



The world is going to be about $2.37 trillion smaller in 2015 than most expected at the start of the year as a consequence of the U.S. dollar's strengthening. This is not insignificant, as it represents 3.2% of last year’s estimated global GDP. For perspective, that would be as if an economy of the size between Brazil’s and the UK’s would have just disappeared.
 
Who did Pulitzer-winning playwright David Mamet call "our greatest contemporary philosopher?" Thomas Sowell. Sowell was a high school dropout, tried out for the Brooklyn Dodgers, was magna cum laude at Harvard.
 
According to some, Franz Schubert’s “Winterreise” is the greatest, and the most bleakly melancholy, of all song cycles. In a series of sung soliloquies (with piano accompaniment), a young man recalls how he was compelled to leave his beloved, wander forlornly into the mountains and gradually resign himself to death. Based on 24 poems by Wilhelm Müller, this desolate “winter journey” was composed at the end of Schubert’s short life: He died at age 31 in 1828, almost certainly because of syphilis.



Madonna showed up at the Grammys in a peculiar outfit, part exhibitionist, part performance. Very reminiscent of politicians who have the mixed need to be both distinctive and representative of their political part.
 
Golden oldie:
http://steeleydock.blogspot.com/2013/07/adding-to-zero-sum.html



A distinguished British economist named Lionel Robbins gave the classic definition of economics: Economics is the study of the use of scarce resources which have alternative uses.



In August 2014, San Francisco 49er defensive end, Ray McDonald, was arrested on suspicion of domestic violence. The investigation was complicated by a San Jose police officer who moonlighted for the 49ers and was at the crime scene even before officers answered the 911 call. The San Jose Police Department subsequently suspended all off-duty employment with the 49ers. At the time, the team employed 17 officers, the San Jose Mercury News reported. 17!



It is not fracking that bothers the Left--fracking has been a common technology for 60 years--it is the success of fracking. The question is why.
 
By 1850, the Methodist church had grown from obscurity to become the largest denomination in America and one of the largest institutions of any kind in its day -- largely because it systematically reached out to isolated settlers in America's backcountry. The religion was spread by circuit riders, believers of every profession, who brought the message to isolated hamlets and towns. He brought a code of behavior (The Methodist Discipline) that reinforced family and community values in a violent society. The Discipline laid down rules against swearing, drunkenness, sexual license, and ostentatious dress and enforced John Wesley's maxim, 'Cleanliness is next to godliness.' It provided a way for ordinary people to reorder their lives, even when living in hardship conditions.
 
After Miss Universe Paulina Vega expressed a desire to help end her native Colombia's 50-year civil war, she received an invitation from FARC rebels to join truce talks. Who said that homicidal maniacs couldn't have a sense of humor?



Another tax change in Obama's new budget, in addition to the 529 education tax change, is an attack on the Roth IRA.
 
AAAaaaaannnnndddddd......a graph:
 
  Chart of the Day

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