Message To Mahmoud Abbas

The Power Of Pictures

Just saw Photo of Israeli couple kissing during meeting with Abbas in Ramallah sparks uproar

What is this young Israeli couple trying to say to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas:

1. When was the last time there was a popular election for his office?
2. Make love not war!
3. Resign quickly and kiss your grandchildren more often!

Live The Golden Rule

Posted: 5/29/2014  Updated: 10/12/2017, 6/11/2014

Update Of 10/12/2017

Never bothered to figure out who is behind these Arizona license plates. Ignorance is bliss until you find out and I just did.

It is the Arizona Interfaith Movement that in November 2007 initiated this Arizona license plate with the motto “Live the Golden Rule”. This movement found that the Golden Rule is central to all major religions or faith. I think, it must be one of God’s eternal principles governing all live in the universe. The beauty of this Rule is awe inspiring!

Update Of 10/12/2017

In the meantime (as of 6/11/2014) I have seen now three cars with such a license plate in the Phoenix, AZ area. Here is a picture of the last one I have seen.

Original Post

This Memorial Day weekend (5/26/2014) I happened to be behind this car at a traffic light stop. As usual, when I have nothing better to do, I glanced at the licence plate to see whether I could make any sense of it. To my great surprise it said at the bottom “Live The Golden Rule”.

To paraphrase James Madison: If there were more humans living daily by the nearly universal Golden Rule, we would not need any government and the world would be a much better place.

Rapid Innovation In Asia

Trigger

Just read “Alibaba’s Big Rivals May Have a Mobile Edge Other big Chinese e-commerce companies, including JD.com, merge social networking, payments, and mobile.”

An Asian Pressure Cooker

In the 1980s it was Japan that impressed the world with its e.g. innovative consumer electronics products.

In the past 10-15 years or so, we have seen rapid advances in South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and China. Hopefully, people and businesses in these countries will adopt new services, products, and functionality and put pressure on the complacent Western World.

Competition is good! The more, the better!

Diabetes Is History

Trigger

Just read “DNA-Based Research May Have Unveiled Long-Sought Diabetes Treatment”

Like cancer, there is a good chance that diabetes will be a menace of the past!

“After decades of searching, researchers may have finally identified a chemical compound that could be used to study and treat diabetes.”

An IDE Inhibitor

“The newly identified IDE [insulin-degrading enzyme] inhibitor could be the starting point for developing a powerful new drug for type 2 diabetes. … The new inhibitor lasts for hours, says Liu.”

“Liu and his team developed the new compound using a novel method called DNA-templated synthesis. This involves linking thousands of different chemical structures to thousands of unique DNA strands, and then taking advantage of the interactions between two strands of DNA to bring the chemical building blocks together to create new ones.”

Another Farming Revolution

Trigger

Just read “Planting Corn at Warp Speed Using High-Tech Tools/A Faster Way to Sow Crops Is Changing Farming” (subscription required)

Need For Speed

When I read this article, I was stunned!

“... growers invest in more-sophisticated machinery to rapidly sow crops in narrow windows of favorable weather.”

“[a farmer] spent $15,000 to retrofit his John Deere 8300 tractor with a Global Positioning System that uses satellites to steer automatically, monitor seed rates and gather and store planting data.”

“... one of the new high-tech tools that helped corn farmers sow 30% of this year's U.S. crop in a single week, covering an area roughly the size of New York, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.”

Deep-Sea Origins of Marine Life

Trigger

Just read “Jurassic Fossils Suggest Deep-Sea Origins of Marine Life”

What Little Humans Know

“The deep sea was long thought to be a lifeless desert. Intense research in the last few decades, however, has revealed that it actually supports one of the highest levels of biodiversity on Earth.”

This article suggests a paradigm change!

Contrast This With Climate Change

There are scientists and politicians out there who claim with a high degree of certainty to know what our climate will be like in 50 to 100 years from now. They want us to believe in anthropogenic global warming.

"A Fierce Green Fire" An Extremely Biased And One-sided American Master

Trigger

Just watched “AMERICAN MASTERS/A Fierce Green Fire” by PBS (Aired: 04/22/2014 Expires: in 9 Days (6/4/14). Asked many times before: Why do these PBS movies expire so early?)

Here is the blurb (emphasis added):

“American Masters: A Fierce Green Fire is the first big-picture exploration of the environmental movement, spanning 50 years of activism. Chronicling the largest movement of the 20th century, the film tells vivid stories about people fighting – and succeeding – against the odds, from the Grand Canyon to Love Canal, from the oceans to the Amazon. A film by Academy Award-nominee Mark Kitchell.”

Extremely Biased And One-Sided Story

This film probably covers most of the well known highlights of environmentalism and the organisations and people involved in it. This film could be considered propaganda or self-congratulatory. It is an ideological narrative divorced from inconvenient facts.

The film is full of interviews of at least of two dozen or so activists etc., but it does not show one interview of a critical or contrarian view. See e.g. Patrick Moore.

The Love Canal Touchstone

Of course, this story features prominently in this film.

However, that this tragic event was almost entirely caused by government entities (like Niagara City, the board of education of that city and so on) was not mentioned at all in this film. The film does not mention that the toxic waste content of the former dump was well known to government entities since 1953 when they purchased love canal. Apparently, the chemical company (Hooker Chemical Company) involved disposed of its waste in way that was legal at the time; followed accepted best practices of the time; and it was approved by government. Was not Niagara Falls in those days (1950s) “one of the capitals of the world’s chemical industry”?

From 1953 onwards, Niagara City built schools and kindergartens on the dump site despite the fact that the chemicals were released and disturbed. It is surprising that it took until the second half of 1970s before the scandal became notorious. In 1957, the chemical company even warned the board of education that their development plans are hazardous and irresponsible. The company even tried to prevent the selling of the land to developers in the late 1950s.

I will not go into details here as they are well documented e.g. article on Wikipedia and by a nine page article “Love Canal/The Truth Seeps Out” published in 1981 by Reason Magazine. It is astonishing that this American Master disregarded this information and misleads the audience. If you read in particular the latter article you will find out that there is a lot more to the story like a hapless chemical company that would not sue journalist Michael Brown’s book “Laying Waste: The Poisoning of America by Toxic Chemicals ” for libel (As an aside: Surprisingly, there is no article on this book on Wikipedia nor does the above Wikipedia article on Love Canal have much to say about this book. There is also no article on Wikipedia about this journalist.).

To Be Continued

I am sure more could be said about the other so called touchstones of environmentalism portrayed in this film, but I do not have the time for further research at the moment.

Wonders Of India: Chanakya

Chanakya

I personally do not remember having ever heard of Chanakya until very recently. I don’t think Indian history is something we Westerners learn much about in school.

He was the political advisor of the famous Indian emperor Chandragupta Maurya. He is said to have been comparable to Thucydides or Machiavelli, although he lived in the 4th Century BC. He may have met Alexander the Great.

The article on Wikipedia about this man is not satisfactory.

Taxila University

Chanakya is reported to have born in Taxila (a.k.a. Takshashila) and that he may have teached at this university. This university is perhaps among the oldest in human history that we know of.

There is also a Taxila museum, but the official website and the Wikipedia article about it are not satisfactory. It is very regrettable that so little appears to be known or easily accessible about this place.

Opus Magnus

It is said that the Arthashastra is the known magnus opus of Chanakya. Again as a Westerner, I can not remember to have learnt anything about this book in school or during my time studying economics.

Hopefully, one day I find more time to learn more about this book.

Billionaires Asking Government To Raise Taxes

Trigger

Just read “Oklahoma Oil Baron Pleads: Raise My Taxes” or “Oil Man George Kaiser Proposes Increase in Oklahoma Oil-and-Gas Tax” published on 5/13/2014 in the Wall Street Journal.

Like the other buffoon Warren Buffet (see e.g. here), George Kaiser wants the government to raise taxes on entrepreneurs like him.

George Kaiser

He is not a Koch brother. However, he is a democrat donor and “about 80% of Mr. Kaiser’s $143,900 in national political contributions since 2010 have gone to Democratic candidates.”

Caveat Emptor

When rich man ask government to raise taxes on other rich man or businesses than they most likely want to reduce competition.

Any rich man is free to give to government or to donate to any purpose as much as he or she wants. There is absolutely no need to raise taxes for oneself and others.

Imminent Food Revolution

Trigger

Just read "The Next Startup Craze: Food 2.0". Among other things it talks about plant-based substitutes for eggs.

The Future Of Food

I have previously blogged about my view of the future here.

To me it seems highly probable that humans are on the cusp to make agriculture as we know it history.

Foods designed and optimized for our personal needs and tastes produced by bacteria or whatever is the future. Food preparation as we know it is perhaps already on its way to the dustbin of history. Humans are fast transcending nature.

We have for decades known about space food, but this was food prepared for a very limited purpose and for only a few people.

Animal Rights Activists Have To Pay Millions To Circus For Phony Claims

Trigger

Perhaps one of the least noticed news of past week (5/12 - 5/18/2014) was a brief notice on page 4 of the Wall Street Journal dated  5/18/2014 (U.S. edition) titled “Legal Settlement/Animal Rights Groups Pay Circus Producers Millions”.

Here the link (subscription required) to a related op-ed by the WSJ. Here is the link to a related blog post by the WSJ.

Here is salient excerpt from the above blog (emphasis added):

“A settlement reached between animal rights groups and the producers of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus serves as a cautionary tale about the consequences of making an allegation in federal court that you have trouble backing up.

The Humane Society of the United States and other animal-rights groups have paid Feld Entertainment a combined $15.75 million to settle allegations by the company that the groups and their lawyers bribed a former circus employee to make up allegations that Feld abused Asian elephants in its circus.

The settlement announced Thursday puts to rest what a federal judge and legal observers described as an extraordinary, 14-year legal battle that began with claims of animal abuse but developed into a costly embarrassment for some of the nation’s leading animal rights organizations.

The two sides reached a deal as discovery was ramping up in Feld’s civil racketeering case against the groups.

Feld brought the case after it emerged that animal rights groups had paid close to $200,000 to Tom Rider, a former elephant cleaner and feeder who claimed the company had abused its elephants in violation of the Endangered Species Act.

The animal rights litigants were already on the hook for Feld’s attorney’s fees after a federal judge last year slapped the groups and their counsel with an unprecedented penalty for making “frivolous,” “vexatious,” and “groundless” claims in court against Feld.”

Animal Rights Activists Involved

Humane Society and American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals were the two groups specifically named in the articles above.

Take Away

1. Bogus, frivolous litigation is to be expected from fanatics.
2. People should always cautiously evaluate claims, in particular in form of images, made by animal rights activists
3. Hopefully, donors to such big name animal rights groups like Humane Society or PETA will wake up
4. We all (animal rights activists included) should be thankful that the owners of these famous circuses fought this long legal battle

A Triumvirate Of Fools And The Great Recession

Hank Paulson, Ben Bernanke, And Timothy Geithner

Finally, with the recent book publication and op-ed by Timothy Geithner, I am able to sort of explain why the world ended in such a Great Recession plus Financial Crisis of 2008. We may have to add Alan Greenspan and others to it.

What do you expect when three fools in power get together to make critical decisions?

In the past I have posted multiple critical blog posts about Hank Paulson and in particular about Ben Bernanke. See e.g. here, here, here, and here.

Today, I have added Timothy Geithner here and here.

Another Triumvirate In Recent History

Pope John Paul II, Margaret Thatcher, and Ronald Reagan. What a difference these three individuals made to world history and so much more.

One should never underestimate the coincidence of leaders coming together at the right time and place and their impact on humanity.

A Prayer

Hope, the people will learn from history and try to make sure that fools are not appointed to critical positions in our society.

New York Times In Admiration On Timothy Geithner

Trigger

Just happened to read  the New York Times book review on Timothy Geithner's “Stress Test“. Thanks to the NYT we learn  more about an incompetent, foolish man who was at the helm of federal government during the time of Great Recession and financial crisis of 2008.

I have previously written another, critical blog post about this man and his new book here.

Salient Excerpts

Emphasis and comments added.

1. “The future Treasury secretary grew up everywhere and nowhere, a bit like a military brat, and came away from his childhood with a certain detachment from the American way of life: “At a local supermarket in suburban Virginia one summer, I was stunned to see an entire aisle stocked with pet food. It seemed bizarre in a world full of starving people.””
   [Thanks to NYT, we get more confirmation that this former U.S. treasury secretary and NY fed chief was and is a naive fool.]
2. “Politically, Geithner was more or less born a left-leaning Republican and appears to have become a right-leaning Democrat. …  As a student at Dartmouth in the early 1980s, he would have called himself a Republican, but “without much conviction.” …  “After The Dartmouth Review . . . published a ­McCarthy-style list of gay students on campus, I ran into a Review writer named Dinesh D’Souza at a coffee shop and asked him how it felt to be such a [expletive].””
   [What a man without conviction and what a bold guy to tell Dinesh D’Souza in College to be an expletive! Is there more such name dropping this book?]
3. “Oddly, for a Republican Ivy League graduate of the 1980s — and even more oddly for a future Treasury secretary — he found Wall Street pointless and the business world faintly ridiculous. He had no particular interest in money. “I did endure one job interview with a management consultant, whose first question was about how I would turn around a small failing beer company,” he writes. “I had no idea.””
   [Again who appointed this incompetent man for such a stellar career in the federal government?]
4. “The square that changed his life was Larry Summers, then a Treasury under secretary, who clearly saw in Geithner someone who would at least pretend not to be intimidated by him. But this part of the Timothy Geithner story — his rise in the world of important people — remains a bit vague.”
   [Was that it?]
5. “He became one of the guys who kept their heads as others lost theirs, defined less by what he was than by what he was not: in trouble. Mervyn King, the former governor of the Bank of England, joked (and as Geithner quotes him joking): “Tim was present at all the crises. But he didn’t cause the crises. The crises caused him.””
   [This is also typical for fools, they do not realize how serious the situation is!]
6. ““The fundamental causes of this crisis were familiar and straightforward,” Geithner writes. “It began with a mania — the widespread belief that devastating financial crises were a thing of the past, that future recessions would be mild, that gravity-defying home prices would never crash to earth.” ”
   [The causes were more like massive government failure in the form of affordable housing for everyone policies combined with recklessly low interest rates and toleration of ridiculous lending standards.]
7. “A few of the important people with a privileged view expressed concerns about the risks being taken, but most said nothing. Geithner counts himself in the minority. “I began asking questions about capital: Do our banks really have enough?” he writes, adding, “I was more worried than many of my colleagues, but I was not nearly worried enough.””
   [Sorry to say, but Timothy Geithner failed his job!]
8. “Interestingly, Geithner has little sympathy for those who wanted to see Wall Street bankers held accountable for whatever it was they had done. “Old Testament vengeance” is his pet phrase for such moralistic sentiments, and he argues persuasively that if he had indulged them, the crisis would only have caused more economic pain and suffering for ordinary people.”
   [What a weird viewpoint! Every day, numerous enterprises in a free market economy go bust for various reasons. If there is overinvestment in an economy fueled by reckless government policies, then more enterprises go bust than usual. ]
9. “He says President Obama very quickly grasped the merits of ignoring the desire for vengeance, and didn’t ask him to pursue some other, more punitive strategy. As if to ensure that no one leaves confused about his point of view on all this, Geithner argues at the end of his book that the only serious weakness of the Dodd-Frank financial reform measures is that they don’t give the federal government enough power to bail out banks in future crises.”
   [It only gets worse! What was going on in their minds, i.e. Geithner and president Obama? Dodd-Frank aptly named after two other characters/senators involved in the Great Recession is one of those massive big government take control laws.]
10. “The decisions he made are easier to criticize than they are to improve upon. I doubt many readers will put his book down and think the man did anything but his best. On his feet he might have stammered and wavered. That in itself was always a sign he was unusually brave.”
    [Thus ends the glowing review by the NYT.]