"There are no rules of architecture for a castle in the clouds." - G.K. Chesterton
Daniel Boorstin’s 1958 volume, The Americans: The Colonial Experience: The Georgia project was not abandoned because its settlers had found America unpromising but, on the contrary, because what its settlers wanted was opportunity – with all its risks – and what they were given was a plan. The opportunities of the New World could not be encompassed by any plan, however selfless or noble, devised by Old World imagination.
Here’s the eternal contrast: Society as an outcome – nearly a stage play – scripted by well-meaning elites (but directed by rogues) versus society as an open-ended process, scripted and directed by no one, ensuring each individual maximum scope to craft his or her own life’s course constrained only by the equal opportunity of each of the countless other individuals to attempt to craft his or her own life’s course.
"Great myths die hard. And I think what we're witnessing today is the slow death of one of the great myths of human history: this idea that centrally planned command economies work, that they're even feasible, and that they can be successful.
It's one of these enigmatic mythologies of the last hundred years in particular that we've been grappling with, and here we are today yet again thinking about this. Let's remember that in the last hundred years a lot of blood has been shed over this mythology. And here we are today, how did we get here again? --Mark Spitznagel, hedge fund manager
Influenza (n.): 1743, borrowed during an outbreak of the disease in Europe, from Italian influenza "influenza, epidemic," originally "visitation, influence (of the stars)," from Medieval Latin influentia (see influence). Used in Italian for diseases since at least 1504 (as in influenza di febbre scarlattina "scarlet fever") on notion of astral or occult influence. The 1743 outbreak began in Italy. Often applied since mid-19c. to severe colds.
Only 30 out of 196 countries grant citizenship upon birth. This is called as 'Unrestricted Jus Soli', Latin for 'right of the soil'. I think there are exceptions: children born to foreign diplomats, those born on foreign ships, those born to hostile enemy combatants. I do not think illegal immigrant parents qualify as exceptions although I have heard it said the original 14th Amendment drafters did not want to include the children of illegals.
Who is....Dorothy Parker?
From the Census Bureau: "Hurricane Katrina is the costliest U.S. hurricane on record, and the deadliest to strike our nation since 1928. After initially making U.S. landfall on Aug. 25, 2005, in South Florida as a Category 1, it moved into the Gulf of Mexico, rapidly intensified into a Category 5 and made its second landfall early the morning of Aug. 29 in Plaquemines Parish in Southeast Louisiana as a strong Category 3 with sustained winds of 125 mph."
Golden oldie:
In an explosion of bravado and protectionism, a year ago the Russian government introduced an embargo on food imports from Western countries. This embargo raised domestic food prices and contributed to a major decline in real incomes. Now, any imported food is publicly burned. The state never does things in opposition to the betterment of all the people but is willing to damage most for a few.
Funny line on who to sell your soul to: Satan has forbidden fruit of his own to distribute, while the state, in the last analysis, has absolutely nothing to offer that it has not already expropriated from its subjects.
The industrial age in the U.S. accelerated in the decades after the Civil War. But the unlimited working hours and abominable working conditions brought a virulent counter-reaction in the form of a militant socialist movement. There were the usual inevitable conflicts. The Marxist wing felt the capitalistic economy would fall by its own inherent contradictions but need a government caretaker. (The Anarchists were so opposed to a hierarchy they refused to attend he Marxist national meeting in Europe because the group elected a president.) The Socialists wanted "State Socialism" where the state controlled everything. The Anarchists saw self-governing communities and workplaces, free of judges and laws, its police forces and armies.
"Ray Donavan" is doing more damage to the Catholic Church than DaVinci Code.
Dorothy Parker was a New York reviewer famous for her acerbic wit. It was Parker who, commenting on an early and uninspired performance by Katharine Hepburn in a Broadway play, 'The Lake,' said that the actress 'ran the gamut of emotions from A to B'; she also, feeling dislike for Countess Margot Asquith because the Countess had written a book which seemed too narcissistic, took care of her by commenting 'The romance between Margot Asquith and Margot Asquith will live as one of the great love affairs of literature,' and adding that the book was 'in four volumes, suitable for throwing.'
Obama used his executive power to rename Mount McKinley as Denali, restoring an Alaska Native name to the tallest mountain in North America, thus confusing people for generations. Perhaps generations of confusion will be his legacy.
On Sept. 5, 2014, Russian agents crossed into Estonia--NATO territory--and kidnapped an Estonian security official. After a closed trial, Russia recently sentenced him to 15 years.
AAAAAAaaaaaannnnnnddddddd.....a picture of Spiral Galaxy M96 from Hubble:
Daniel Boorstin’s 1958 volume, The Americans: The Colonial Experience: The Georgia project was not abandoned because its settlers had found America unpromising but, on the contrary, because what its settlers wanted was opportunity – with all its risks – and what they were given was a plan. The opportunities of the New World could not be encompassed by any plan, however selfless or noble, devised by Old World imagination.
Here’s the eternal contrast: Society as an outcome – nearly a stage play – scripted by well-meaning elites (but directed by rogues) versus society as an open-ended process, scripted and directed by no one, ensuring each individual maximum scope to craft his or her own life’s course constrained only by the equal opportunity of each of the countless other individuals to attempt to craft his or her own life’s course.
"Great myths die hard. And I think what we're witnessing today is the slow death of one of the great myths of human history: this idea that centrally planned command economies work, that they're even feasible, and that they can be successful.
It's one of these enigmatic mythologies of the last hundred years in particular that we've been grappling with, and here we are today yet again thinking about this. Let's remember that in the last hundred years a lot of blood has been shed over this mythology. And here we are today, how did we get here again? --Mark Spitznagel, hedge fund manager
Like the mandarin, whose long fingernails demonstrated his distaste for, and ability to evade, physical labor, many politicians and intellectuals have an inherent dislike of the market economy with its emphasis on work, entrepreneurial risk, and money.--William Marina. Mandarins!
Early in Amazon's development they were ordering and selling books but the publishers required a 10 book order, much more than the startup needed. But they found a loophole; although they had to order 10 books, they did not have to receive 10. So they ordered the one book they needed and 9 copies of an obscure and unavailable book on lichen.
Only 30 out of 196 countries grant citizenship upon birth. This is called as 'Unrestricted Jus Soli', Latin for 'right of the soil'. I think there are exceptions: children born to foreign diplomats, those born on foreign ships, those born to hostile enemy combatants. I do not think illegal immigrant parents qualify as exceptions although I have heard it said the original 14th Amendment drafters did not want to include the children of illegals.
Who is....Dorothy Parker?
From the Census Bureau: "Hurricane Katrina is the costliest U.S. hurricane on record, and the deadliest to strike our nation since 1928. After initially making U.S. landfall on Aug. 25, 2005, in South Florida as a Category 1, it moved into the Gulf of Mexico, rapidly intensified into a Category 5 and made its second landfall early the morning of Aug. 29 in Plaquemines Parish in Southeast Louisiana as a strong Category 3 with sustained winds of 125 mph."
The hurricane caused more than 1,300 deaths and up to $150 billion in damages to both private property and public property. I think it did much more than that; it revealed American weakness in infrastructure and leadership, exposed a class of inept citizens completely unable to care for themselves--a revelation that must have been shocking internationally, and raised questions about American behavior that even the press had difficulty discussing. Interestingly, the date of the hurricaine also the anniversary of the death of Richard Jewell, a man with a remarkable story in itself in a way strangely similar to Katrina in its hysteria, factionalism and bigotry.
Golden oldie:
In an explosion of bravado and protectionism, a year ago the Russian government introduced an embargo on food imports from Western countries. This embargo raised domestic food prices and contributed to a major decline in real incomes. Now, any imported food is publicly burned. The state never does things in opposition to the betterment of all the people but is willing to damage most for a few.
GM last Thursday was fined $900 million for covering up its faulty ignition switches that caused at least 124 deaths and hundreds of injuries. And then there is Volkswagen, which yesterday took out a record charge of 6.5 billion Euros, one which many think will be insufficient before all it set and done, following its own snafu involving manipulating emissions tests to make its cars appear "cleaner" than they were. A very cynical view on this appeared recently and follows:
To summarize Volkswagen's biggest mistake: it was not poisoning the environment, it wasn't even getting caught. It was this:
To summarize Volkswagen's biggest mistake: it was not poisoning the environment, it wasn't even getting caught. It was this:
Funny line on who to sell your soul to: Satan has forbidden fruit of his own to distribute, while the state, in the last analysis, has absolutely nothing to offer that it has not already expropriated from its subjects.
During the Renaissance over half the population spoke Castilian in Spain or French in France, and both languages had long been in use for administration and literature. In Italy nearly everyone spoke in dialect, not just peasants and artisans and the urban poor, but merchants, aristocrats and even monarchs. The works of Dante and his fellow Tuscans Petrarch and Boccaccio, advanced the cause of the Florentine vernacular in the later Middle Ages, as did Galileo. In 1861, when the Italian peninsula was finally united into a single political entity, only 2.5 percent of "Italians" spoke the Italian language.
The State Department will release roughly 7,000 pages of Hillary Rodham Clinton's emails, including about 150 emails that have been censored because they contain information that is now deemed classified. So........
The industrial age in the U.S. accelerated in the decades after the Civil War. But the unlimited working hours and abominable working conditions brought a virulent counter-reaction in the form of a militant socialist movement. There were the usual inevitable conflicts. The Marxist wing felt the capitalistic economy would fall by its own inherent contradictions but need a government caretaker. (The Anarchists were so opposed to a hierarchy they refused to attend he Marxist national meeting in Europe because the group elected a president.) The Socialists wanted "State Socialism" where the state controlled everything. The Anarchists saw self-governing communities and workplaces, free of judges and laws, its police forces and armies.
The question is always the replacement of the existing structure and the answer is usually murder.
"Ray Donavan" is doing more damage to the Catholic Church than DaVinci Code.
Dorothy Parker was a New York reviewer famous for her acerbic wit. It was Parker who, commenting on an early and uninspired performance by Katharine Hepburn in a Broadway play, 'The Lake,' said that the actress 'ran the gamut of emotions from A to B'; she also, feeling dislike for Countess Margot Asquith because the Countess had written a book which seemed too narcissistic, took care of her by commenting 'The romance between Margot Asquith and Margot Asquith will live as one of the great love affairs of literature,' and adding that the book was 'in four volumes, suitable for throwing.'
Obama used his executive power to rename Mount McKinley as Denali, restoring an Alaska Native name to the tallest mountain in North America, thus confusing people for generations. Perhaps generations of confusion will be his legacy.
On Sept. 5, 2014, Russian agents crossed into Estonia--NATO territory--and kidnapped an Estonian security official. After a closed trial, Russia recently sentenced him to 15 years.
AAAAAAaaaaaannnnnnddddddd.....a picture of Spiral Galaxy M96 from Hubble:
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