Indonesia here I am

Ate yesterday in an Indonesian restaurant. The owner was German. Surprised? Again asked myself how come that in my professional life never met a person from Indonesia? Over two hundred million people and nobody daring to talk to me?

gingrich and myself

I like his merchandising of ideas, sometimes.  Realize also that we share a common trait - not being able to shut the mouth. Whatever idea comes, if it seems interesting,  spill it out.  Gives a look of high inconsistency and was accused of being everything, from right to left, from high to low...Just trying to be entertaining. Mostly entertaining myself....

No bananas, giving thanks.

I buy banans from this stand. The guy who sells is of dark skin, from India or from the islands. Not sure if he owns the stand. Sells everyday of the week. At all hours. Went to buy bananas today, Thanksgiving day. For my mother.  He was not there. Spending the day with the family. A good holiday. Whatever his other gods and altars, this immigrant peddler understood the spirit of this American day.

99%

I was about fourteen and good at math. My mother, a psychologist, was using me to do all the stats for for her research papers as statistics had penetrated the social sciences.  Since then the doctoral hierarchy in humanities has shifted towards those good at numbers. Statistics provide these arts a scientific gloss. And penetrated the popular culture. Now most people describe social and human  situations and conditions in terms of percentages or other simplified statistical terms. The deeper understanding gets lost. Due to misunderstanding or manipulation, even the simpler explanations associated with the statistics are more often wrong. Less than 50% right!   SEMIDOCTS

OWS! welcome to NY politics.

Occupy Wall Street was so busy dealing with the problem of protecting their tents and encampment at Zucotti that they forgot developing a mission, a working idea. Of course, politics in New York City are always  about  real estate.

Green Markets

Green markets are popping up everywhere, but mostly in gentrified neighborhoods. Selling supposedly organic veggies. At higher prices. Ugly tomatoes. Small peddlers dressed as farmers.  Potatoes so wrinkled I would not know how to peel. Insufficiently  baked muffins. And people buy them. Not for what they are but for what they mean, Occupy Wall Street tents are not unlike these markets.  They seem to mean.

End of the party?

Was it a party? Is it a party? They did not produce one memorable speech. Or specific idea.  Do you actually need two months to prepare a speech? Just 99%. Is this all about statistics? Tents versus high-rises?
It's like you go to school just to meet friends. To have a party. Seems they did not finish the work before the term ended.

Another ant and grasshopper version...

In our version the ant marries the grasshopper. A great wedding. The ant had stored  enough food to last for the rest of their life. The grasshopper stops singing and dancing, the ant stops saving food. They spend their days reading books offered at sale prices by the Chicago University Press.

eleven eleven eleven

Lucky date. Counting your blessings? One, one, one....

Counts for the White House

Watched last night the Occupy White House  show. Seven Dwarfs and the sometimes Red Dressed ...Total eight dwarfs ( but who needs to count).
One who was the first at everything, but lost his local election count.
One that can count only till nine and doesn't remember his blondes.
Another one who would not count to five, but forgot the third marching order.
One who can count in Chinese, which will be handy when we surrender.
One who treated his own dog so bad, so one fear how he will treat us.
One who provides comic relief with his honest off the wall principles.
One who would cut funding for his own students.
and her (who doesn't count anymore).

Day Saving Time

Moved the clock this weekend. To trick the sun. Celebrating the Great October Revolution in November.  Extreme effort of trickery.  Now called Unity Day.
We are saving time, or the day, or what?

The end of the story

Everybody knows how the current financial and economic problems will be solved. Such articles about the gap in income and wealth are just prep work. Everybody knows but is afraid to spell it....inflation.

Who should occupy Wall Street

 The paper seems preoccupied lately with the ruling class. Sorry for the NYTimes, but dealt with the high IQ issue in my blog yesterday, clearly ahead of Douthat. (is this paper going to survive? for the record, on its record? ). Douthat proposes Wall Street be occupied by a class that has some humility. Not neccessarily capable to handle  math, as this subject  is difficult (as the NYT suggested the day before), but an oligarchy humbled by a deeper understanding of reality. Another columnist  says, humbled by paying more taxes.
Agree. How much IQ does one need for accounting?  But proper accounting requires...Accounting to whom?

professionary

An exchange on LinkedIn on what the word profession (or professional)  means. None of the participants actually mentioned ethics. The managing class!

(Nuclear) Options On Wall Street

A good number of scientists  and engineers, graduates from the best schools, work now on Wall Street.. Some with PhD s in nuclear science.  The best and the brightest, squeezing the last cent from every transaction. Ten years of hard work to count cents. Or are they in secret preparing Abombs to blowout the European economy

freaks afraid of fracking

While the teapartiers ignore science, there is another extremism, descending from the  hippie world view, that views technical development as destroying the Earth. For these professionists of environmental supremacy the word chemical is synonymous with poisonous. Fracking is a terrible word for them. Combining the commonly used word cracking with its more technically used synonym fracture, it seems perfect to scare.  Ironically they do not see the natural in natural gas. Using isolated examples and playing on deeper  fears they are fracking the truth about shale exploration.

go west young men

Go west. It's warmer there. Mean getting hot there.

Race de Cain

Baudelaire came to my mind and the opportunity to show off my french education...
Race de Cain, coeur qui brule,
Prends garde a ces grands appetits

Yes, high tech lynching. By his fellow republicans who leaked to the left wing press...Everything happens for a treason.