I admit it. I miss Michael Jackson. His music defined my youth … my twenties… my middle age.
I forget that’s he gone. And when I’m reminded, I’m saddened. I know I didn’t really know him as a person. I know that all I ever saw was the public persona he put forward. But he seemed like such a gentle soul to me. An enormously talented artist who never got the chance to grow up, to have real friends, to escape the expectations of those around him.
Michael Jackson on stage
In the months before his death, I heard the rumors that everyone else did: that he was tired, old, slow, and drugged out. But I just watched “This Is It,” the documentary made of the rehearsals for his last series of concerts, and Michael Jackson, at 50 years old, was still incredible. So so talented and so creative. He directed every note, every dance step, every nuance. And his singing and dancing — his presence on the stage — is beyond words. The man may have been eccentric, private, troubled and misunderstood, but the world has never seen a talent like him, and likely never will again.
I really miss Michael Jackson. Maybe it’s that his music takes me back to a time when I was younger and more free-spirited, but I don’t really care. I just know that, to me, the world was a better place with him in it.
It is quite normal now to have diagnosis in hospital, by machine, the same as we have come to accept for cars and aircraft, but how about English Language Proficiency testing?
In aviation, the international language is English, and in 1997 the International Civil Aviation Organization recognised the need to establish a level of English Proficiency as it had been established that there had been numerous accidents and incidents as a result of a poor level of understanding between Pilots and Air Traffic controllers.
As of March 2008, a system of testing was introduced covering Comprehension, Pronunciation, Fluency, Structure, Vocabulary, and Interaction, with a rating of 1-6 where Level 4 is considered Operational. If of Level 5 you gain an extended period of 6 years between testing; and at Level 6 you are considered an expert, and the validity period is indefinite.
The method of testing is by an on-line computer voice activated exercise. You have a headset, and computer screen, and a keyboard, and a series of activities lasting around 30 minutes, and at the end you are marked by the machine and given your result.
The program is of American origin, my invigilator was from the Philippines, and the person in charge of the testing was German. Continue reading “Assessment by machine”→
Mr Sepp Blatter demonstrating how a foot may be placed in a mouth!
John Terry
Sepp Blatter, or Blabber as he is more affectionately known, is never at a loss for words, and generally good entertainment value. However, this week he surpassed himself with a pontification of pretty unsurpassing silliness about the moral values of South-Western Europe.
For those who do not follow the minutiae of British football, John Terry, Captain of the English football team, was unfortunate enough to have his name dragged through the media in connection with his adultery, or as some alleged, serial adultery. Now the question of whether it is anyone else’s business what the Captain of England does in his “private” life is an interesting one, but I am today more concerned with Blabber’s response, and two things struck me about it in particular.
Fifa president Sepp Blatter has claimed that in some countries, John Terry would have been applauded rather than sacked as national team captain for having an alleged affair.
First of all, I am puzzled as to why Blabber feels he can elect himself as spokesperson for the whole of “latin” Europe? He is a football functionary, not a moralist. I must say that had I been latin I would have found his remarks offensive. As an Italian lady was quoted as saying: “If my husband slept with my sister I would not find it in the least amusing or applaudworthy.”
Secondly, let us suppose – for the sake of argument – he was right to say that
Sepp Blatter, FIFA
latins would have applauded Terry’s behaviour. This would mean that the vast majority of European Catholics were totally and utterly hypocritical. After all, “Christians”, nominal or otherwise, still go in vast numbers to churches for weddings, baptisms and funerals, don’t they? Here in Bavaria, whenever you pass someone in the street you say “Gruss Gott.” Is Blabber really saying that all these people just take the easy bits of Christianity and laugh at the tricky stuff, like adultery, rich people and eyes of needles, treating their neighbour as thy brother and so on?
And that IS in effect what he said. Insults don’t come a lot grosser, do they? In fact, this was a DOUBLE WHAMMY. First he insulted all of Catholic Europe and simultaneously he insulted all the Anglo-Saxons by describing the furore over Terry’s philanderings as “Anglo-Saxon in nature”. And of course, the term “Anglo-Saxon” is one of fairly strong abuse, especially among the French elite. This by the way has always amused me, since most of the Germans started off as Saxons, and the Germans are very PC, whereas the British certainly are not PC, even if half of us originally CAME from Saxony!
As for adultery, well, let’s be clear, it isn’t “good”, is it? OK, “There but for the grace of God go I.” , “Let no man cast the first stone”, “Forgive and Forget” and so on, but for society it isn’t really desirable that people should treat their marriage vows as casually as Blabber seems to think half of Europe does, is it?
In Britain for a start (but we are not alone) there is the lowest level of marriages for over 100 years and very high levels of divorce, This isn’t “good” for society, is it? And of course, I’m thinking especially of the children involved.
And when you marry, you make vows. Do these now mean nothing to people like Blabber, who thinks that Catholic latin Europe would laugh at Terry’s adultery?
Well, people in positions of power and responsibility should reflect more before they speak, because many lesser mortals may make the mistake of giving their remarks a credibility they do not deserve.
And of course, the Captain of England is a role model, and – possibly unfairly – not only on the field.
As a child I was given quite a reasonable amount of freedom, and so a bicycle was my mode of transport, I was quite fit, was good at running, and in both cases did well in competition. In fact my memory of man’s first landing on the moon in 1969, was as a result of a 100 mile cycle ride that day when I got sunburnt down one side!
Then came the middle years … Motorbikes, cars, some running now and then, but only modest use of the bike, perhaps more recently of late, so that I can go out with the children, and a regular daily walk with the dogs. Continue reading “Reversing the trend”→
In a recent article, Moody’s announced that it may have to reduce the AAA rating of U.S bonds because of excess spending and historic debt levels of the U.S. government under President Obama.
Moody’s Investors Service Inc. said the U.S. government’s AAA bond rating will come under pressure in the future unless additional measures are taken to reduce budget deficits projected for the next decade.
The U.S. retains its top rating for now because of a “high degree of economic and institutional strength,” the New York- based rating company said in a statement today. The ratios of government debt to the U.S. gross domestic product and revenue have increased “sharply” during the credit crisis and recession. Moody’s expects the ratios to remain higher compared with other AAA-rated countries after the crisis.
What this means in practical terms is that the cost of borrowing by the U.S. government will rise, which will increase spending via more borrowing or higher taxes or more money creation to pay for the higher interest costs. Sound like a vicious cycle to you?
Has anyone noticed the absolute irony of the world capital market having a seat at the table that assesses the viability of Obama’s policies? Obama, who has spent the last year denigrating free markets and capitalism, and has laid the blame for the credit crisis squarely at the feet of those greedy capitalists, now has to deal with a rating agency, which plays a pivotal role in the functioning of those very capital markets, evaluating the creditworthiness of his policies and those of his budget director, Peter Orszag, pictured here.
Peter Orszag, Obama's Budget Director
How wonderfully ironic!
The U.S. would not be the first. Ireland was recently downgraded, and Japan lost its AAA rating from Moodys in November of 1998; both faced higher borrowing costs as a result.
There is currently a merry old ding-dong spat going on between the German and Swiss governments. Basically, someone has got hold of information about German citizens with bank accounts in Switzerland where they are hiding large sums on which they should pay German taxes.
This or these enterprising whistleblower(s) are offering to sell this data to the German government for a hefty fee. The German government is on the point of accepting to buy this “illegally-obtained” information from the (from the Swiss point of view) criminals who have stolen their secret bank data.
This story raises a large number of fascinating questions. It has long been common knowledge that Switzerland offers banking facilities with few questions asked. Any self-respecting criminal or tax evader has or had a secret, numbered Swiss account.
What has always amazed me is how they have got away with this for so long, stuck as they are in the centre of Europe. How is it possible that other countries have allowed Switzerland to become a haven for money obtained illegally in other countries?
For it is clearly immoral to profit from the illegal activities of foreign nationals, isn’t it? What exactly is the difference between this behaviour and “receiving stolen goods”? Worse, we have to remember that the largest sums come from drugs. Anyone willing to look after (or launder) drug money is complicit in the misery and deaths of millions of drug addicts worldwide. Yet the Swiss have pulled off this trick for decades. The Swiss banking (and government) fraternity has never shied away from shady dealings, being until the end of WWII covert supporters of the Nazis.
Well, Angela Merkel is going to do a deal with presumably Swiss “criminals” (according to the Swiss government) in order to recoup money it is owed by German criminals (according to Germany). What a merry old moral maze we have here. But in truth, the world is now too small and inter-connected to allow either tax evasion on a vast scale or the safeguarding of criminal funds.
Switzerland has to decide whether to remain as a supporter of tax evaders and gangsters (including of course African Presidents who have ripped their countries off in a big way) OR to join the real, civil, honest and inter-connected world.
The rest of us should stop tolerating this connivance with crime. “Client secrecy” is no excuse for condoning and profiting from crime.
More on the whole Nazi gold in Switzerland story is here.
Ever since I can remember, the biblical life span has always been three score years plus ten, and 70 sounds quite old to me !
Sometimes if people attempt to guess my age, older folks might be generous and say something kind with a built in feel good factor, children on the other hand will come up with huge numbers, which might be not so much of a joke !
In reality the above is just a simple sum of 365 x 70 = 25,550 plus some 15 to 19 days to cover leap years, lets say 25,570 days in all.
For me it is currently 365 x 12 plus the few days to my birthday, plus 3 leap year days, which if all goes well is 4,425 days left. This I have found to be somewhat sobering, but it has also helped me to become focused, something which until recently has never been the case. [Not as sobering as the 1,730 left for the editor!]
I try and make use of each day, being more careful to enjoy the time, exercise, keep up to date with tasks, and make headway with things that count. My priorities have changed, and now spending time with the family, and not wasting
No, not the author!
time with trivia has become my motivation.
This is not doom and gloom, it is reality, but it also helps me stick to the important things, rather than being side-tracked on something which is a waste of time.
The count down is on, and I am reminded of a little saying which used to be on the mantle piece of my Grand Parents home, which read.
We are going through unprecedented troubled times and the way ahead looks very uncertain. The whole world could be participating in the ‘lost decade’ that Japan experienced previously.
But this article is not about doom and gloom! It is about recognising the commitment to open and honest reporting being undertaken by (at least) these three individuals. Three commentators that this author follows in admiration and awe.
Learning from Dogs has nothing like the following of James Kwak, Yves Smith and Karl Denninger but the LfD authors do have an inkling of the work involved in writing not one but often several articles each day. It is a huge commitment.
James Kwak
First James Kwak of Baseline Scenario. Simon Johnson is, perhaps, the more well-known of this duo that comprise Baseline Scenario but it is James that puts in the leg-work. Here’s a taste of a recent article from James:
Radio Stories
I spend a lot of time in the car driving to and from school, so I end up listening to a lot of podcasts (mainly This American Life, Radio Lab, Fresh Air, and Planet Money). I was catching up recently and wanted to point out a few highlights.
Last week on Fresh Air, Terry Gross interviewed Scott Patterson, author of The Quants, and Ed Thorp, mathematician, inventor of blackjack card counting (or, at least, the first person to publish his methods), and, according to the book, also the inventor of the market-neutral hedge fund.
Large chunk snipped ……
I finally got around to listening to Planet Money’s interview with Russ Roberts from December. Russ Roberts and I are pretty sure to disagree on almost any actual policy question. But what I liked about his interview was that he basically admitted that policy questions cannot be settled by looking at the empirical studies. On whether the minimum wage increases or decreases employment for example, he says that he can poke holes in the studies whose conclusions he doesn’t agree with, but other people can poke holes in the studies he agrees with. In Roberts’s view, people’s policy positions are determined by their prior normative commitments.
I don’t completely agree. I don’t think that these questions, like the one about the minimum wage, are inherently unanswerable in the sense that the answer does not exist. But I agree that empirical studies are unlikely to get to the truth, particularly on a politically charged question, because there are so many ways to fudge an empirical study. As one of my professors said, there are a million ways you can screw up a study, and only one way to do it right. But I agree with the general sentiment. We are living in an age of numbers, where people think that statistics can answer any question. Statistics can answer any question, but they can answer it in multiple ways depending on who is sitting at the keyboard.
Help!! Is there a financial Wizard out there somewhere? I need your input! My bank, the Société Générale, is advising
Société Générale
its customers that “a global economic collapse” is very possible within the next two years and that we should make “defensive preparations” for it.
Is this a sign of the bank losing its mind (and they did lose £5 billion a few years ago at the hands of a rogue trader) or do they know something that other pundits don’t?
Where is the Guru that can tell me where I should put my money now? Under the mattress? And in which form? Shirt buttons?
They say gold will skyrocket as the only thing buyable worth buying! And there’s me having just sold all mine at what I thought was the top of the market!!!! Oh Dear …..
Most of the readers of Learning from Dogs will be aware of the global embarrassment that Toyota is facing as a result of the recall of the Toyota Prius model. As described partly on the UK website of Toyota:
Toyota have announced a recall on the latest, third-generation Prius built before 27 January 2010. This will involve 8,500 cars in the UK.
To date, there have been no accidents linked to this issue reported in Europe. No other Toyota or Lexus models are affected by this latest recall action in Europe.
Toyota GB would like to apologise to its customers for any concern this issue has caused.
The recall is being taken in response to reports of inconsistent brake feel during slow and steady braking on bumpy or slick road surfaces when the anti-lock braking system (ABS) is actuated.
Well a few days ago, a friend of mine sent me a text message on my cell phone. It read, “Just driving my new Toyota Prius. Chat later, Can’t stop.”
And I see the Jeremy Clarkson/James May team from BBC’s Top Gear programme are also having a little poke at Toyota. James May was reported to have said:
‘You have to laugh a bit don’t you,’
‘Maybe if you’re going to try to save the world through your car you have to accept that some sacrifices have to be made and one of them is stopping.’
Learning from Dogs 