"We are beginning to wipe out the line that divides the practical from the ideal," FDR announced in 1937, as unemployment stood at 15 percent, "and in so doing we are fashioning an instrument of unimagined power for the establishment of a morally better world."
Mom is making "the last stand of summer" and going to the PGC when she can. We went last night and had dinner. Her office put out a letter praising the work she had done on the merger-buyout she created and has nurtured. They look pleased and confident in it. Quite an achievement.
Chris hates his baseball team so much he might quit it.
The number of Russian nuclear monitoring stations that have gone silent has doubled to four, an international arms-control official said, heightening concerns that Russia is trying to hide evidence from an explosion at a missile-test site earlier this month.(wsj)
60% of S&P 500 stocks offer dividend yield of 1.7%, beating 10-year U.S. Treasurys
"Space cadet" is a term from Robert Heinlein’s 1948 novel Space Cadet. Why the second sense of the term, meaning goofy and disconnected from reality? The book inspired TV and radio shows and comics and the term became popular. Eventually, the meaning shifted and now a space cadet is one who is spaced out or has their mind in space, probably as a result of drug use. Earliest documented use: 1948. Other words coined by Robert Heinlein that have become words in the English language are grok and waldo.
“The temperature obtained by collecting measurements of air temperatures at a large number of measuring stations around the globe, weighing them according to the area they represent, and then calculating the yearly average according to the usual method of adding all values and dividing by the number of points.”
On this day in 1619 the first slaves arrived in America. This is going to be pushed in the NYT's new campaign as the real date of the real founding of America in its attempt to undermine the country's foundation to rebuild it in some other image.
Shlaes, Updike and Us in the Middle
One morning, as Amity Shlaes relates in her book, "The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression," FDR informed his "brain trust" that he was considering raising the price of gold by 21 cents. His advisers asked why 21 cents was the appropriate figure. "It's a lucky number," stated Roosevelt, "because it's three times seven." Henry Morgenthau, a member of the "brain trust," later wrote: "If anybody knew how we really set the gold price through a combination of lucky numbers, etc., I think they would be frightened."
Novelist John Updike defended FDR from Shlaes' critique:
"The impression of recovery — the impression that a President was bending the old rules and, drawing upon his own courage and flamboyance in adversity and illness, stirring things up on behalf of the down-and-out — mattered more than any miscalculations in the moot mathematics of economics. Business, of which Shlaes is so solicitous, is basically merciless, geared to maximize profit. Government is ultimately a human transaction, and Roosevelt put a cheerful, defiant, caring face on government at a time when faith in democracy was ebbing throughout the Western world. For this inspirational feat he is the twentieth century's greatest President, to rank with Lincoln and Washington as symbolic figures for a nation to live by."
These two disparate views capsulize the distinctions in current American political "thought." In one, a flint-eyed critical view sees superannuated confidence in government intentions and abilities that, at times, seem clownish. The other, the charming confidence in the power of good intentions and its attendant healing power of appearance.
Mom is making "the last stand of summer" and going to the PGC when she can. We went last night and had dinner. Her office put out a letter praising the work she had done on the merger-buyout she created and has nurtured. They look pleased and confident in it. Quite an achievement.
Chris hates his baseball team so much he might quit it.
The number of Russian nuclear monitoring stations that have gone silent has doubled to four, an international arms-control official said, heightening concerns that Russia is trying to hide evidence from an explosion at a missile-test site earlier this month.(wsj)
The Brits have a recruitment crisis, new figures suggest, as modern soldiers are no longer willing to move around the world. Government data released on Thursday revealed that the strength of the British military fell for the ninth year in a row. The figures also showed that recruitment is increasing but retention is falling. A survey of those leaving the armed forces reveals that the recruitment crisis is largely down to personnel being unwilling to uproot their families to move posting.
A light year is a length equal to the distance traveled by light in one year in a vacuum, about 5.88 trillion miles.
60% of S&P 500 stocks offer dividend yield of 1.7%, beating 10-year U.S. Treasurys
"Space cadet" is a term from Robert Heinlein’s 1948 novel Space Cadet. Why the second sense of the term, meaning goofy and disconnected from reality? The book inspired TV and radio shows and comics and the term became popular. Eventually, the meaning shifted and now a space cadet is one who is spaced out or has their mind in space, probably as a result of drug use. Earliest documented use: 1948. Other words coined by Robert Heinlein that have become words in the English language are grok and waldo.
“The temperature obtained by collecting measurements of air temperatures at a large number of measuring stations around the globe, weighing them according to the area they represent, and then calculating the yearly average according to the usual method of adding all values and dividing by the number of points.”
But a “temperature can be defined only for a homogeneous system,” says Andresen. The climate is not regulated by a single temperature. Instead, “differences of temperatures drive the processes and create the storms, sea currents, thunder, etc. which make up the climate”.While it’s “possible to treat temperature statistically locally,” says Science Daily, “it is meaningless to talk about a global temperature for Earth. The globe consists of a huge number of components which one cannot just add up and average. That would correspond to calculating the average phone number in the phone book. That is meaningless.”
California requires barbers to study full-time for nearly a year, a curriculum that costs $12,000 at Arthur Borner’s Barber College in Los Angeles. I wonder where that great idea came from.
On this day in 1619 the first slaves arrived in America. This is going to be pushed in the NYT's new campaign as the real date of the real founding of America in its attempt to undermine the country's foundation to rebuild it in some other image.
Shlaes, Updike and Us in the Middle
One morning, as Amity Shlaes relates in her book, "The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression," FDR informed his "brain trust" that he was considering raising the price of gold by 21 cents. His advisers asked why 21 cents was the appropriate figure. "It's a lucky number," stated Roosevelt, "because it's three times seven." Henry Morgenthau, a member of the "brain trust," later wrote: "If anybody knew how we really set the gold price through a combination of lucky numbers, etc., I think they would be frightened."
Novelist John Updike defended FDR from Shlaes' critique:
"The impression of recovery — the impression that a President was bending the old rules and, drawing upon his own courage and flamboyance in adversity and illness, stirring things up on behalf of the down-and-out — mattered more than any miscalculations in the moot mathematics of economics. Business, of which Shlaes is so solicitous, is basically merciless, geared to maximize profit. Government is ultimately a human transaction, and Roosevelt put a cheerful, defiant, caring face on government at a time when faith in democracy was ebbing throughout the Western world. For this inspirational feat he is the twentieth century's greatest President, to rank with Lincoln and Washington as symbolic figures for a nation to live by."
These two disparate views capsulize the distinctions in current American political "thought." In one, a flint-eyed critical view sees superannuated confidence in government intentions and abilities that, at times, seem clownish. The other, the charming confidence in the power of good intentions and its attendant healing power of appearance.
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