Dogs are animals of integrity. We have much to learn from them.
Author: Paul Handover
It has been brought to my attention by a concerned reader of this Blog that there may be some aspects of the above organisation that would be unacceptable to many of you. Whether or not this is true is besides the point. The previous postings and the link to that organisation’s web site have been deleted. We will find an alternative way to offer you a small distraction from the busy day.
The feedback was very much appreciated.
By Paul Handover
At exactly 20:17 UTC/GMT today on July 20th 1969 mankind started a journey to outer space when Neil Armstrong stepped onto the surface of the Moon.
That time translates to:
NASA’s 40th Anniversary Web Site has all the details including the link to a replay of ‘real time’ audio of the event.
By Paul Handover
Let’s start with an admission. For a long time the arguments supporting global warming seemed irrefutable. Al Gore’s film An Inconvenient Truth seemed to popularise what was suspected. We aren’t doing enough to combat planetary warming and it is going to destroy man’s habitat on Planet Earth.
But over the years a few doubts have started to bubble up.
So it was interesting to read in a recent Fortune Magazine article about Professor John R. Christy raising some well-argued alternative views. But, hey, Fortune Magazine would promote an anti-global warming agenda, wouldn’t they!
But a quick Google search came across a fascinating lecture recorded on YouTube with the title, Global Warming – what do the numbers show? It runs for an hour but surely the truth about the state of the planet is worth at least an hour of your time. Watch it.
By Paul Handover
While dishonesty, in all its forms, is ultimately counter-productive (well, that’s the thesis of this Blog) sometimes integrity, as in a steadfast adherence to a strict moral or ethical code, is complicated.
Take, for example, something very clear. A person pays for an item in cash at a checkout and is short-changed. That person has every right to point out the error and receive the correct change. A person pays for an item and is given too much change. A person with intergrity points out the error and pays back the excess change. A person without integrity thinks this is a lucky day and walks out the store feeling pleased. Read the rest of this post
This is an impressive Blog. Impressive because of the number of subscribers and commentators. Impressive because of the credentials of the authors, Simon Johnson and James Kwak, and impressive because of the quality of arguments presented by the authors and commentators and the force of reason that pushes back against the establishment.
Some of the content is quite technical although the Blog does have a good supply of articles to help those starting into the subject of the global economy. But you could do no worse by starting with the article written by Simon and published in May 2009 in The Atlantic. Called The Quiet Coup it is a masterful attempt at trying to explain where the real power lies in the US. (And, as a Brit, I would not be surprised to see the same situation in the UK.)
Then ask yourself the questions: Is there any political integrity left?; Where is this ‘integrity’, or lack of, taking the US (and UK)?; What does the end-game look like?
By Paul Handover
Anyone who has owned a dog will know that there is something very special about the relationship between a dog and humans. Dogs have the ability to provide the purest form of unconditional friendship and for us complicated humans this closeness is so precious. I mean who would have thought ……
Few people go through their lives without periods of great angst and emotional pain. Many at this very moment will be in the middle of situations that, perhaps, could be described as hopeless. What on earth does that have to do with resting and playing? Because, however grim life may look like just now, a period of rest or play makes things better.
Dogs (and many other warm-blooded animals) are masters of resting and playing. Now, of course, it would be wrong to see these behavioural traits in the same way that we regard resting and playing but nonetheless they are great examples for us. When dogs used to live their lives in packs, within the pack would be an Omega dog, the joker dog, whose role was to keep the pack ‘happy’.
One of the things that is apparent when travelling on the European Continent is how many countries still preserve Sunday as a day of rest. Sadly not England and, it is suspected, nor America. Maybe having a day of rest from whatever stresses and strains are in a life has much to recommend it.
So to with play. And here’s a wonderful example of a group of humans having incredible fun and producing a remarkable result. What’s the point? Who knows. But you can be sure that not one of the participants came away from that stage feeling worse than when they went in.
By Paul Handover
Health warning. If aircraft and flying don’t give you a buzz then give this post a miss!
There’s a Forum in the UK that is subscribed to mainly by private pilots but also has a decent share of members from all walks of aviation including pro pilots and Air Traffic Controllers. Love of iconic events in flying is often talked about.
Recently there has been a thread about the last flights of the Concorde including links to radio calls between aircraft and London Controllers.
By Paul Handover
This may be Part 2 of an unending series! It simply beggars belief that no one in Government (I bundle at least the US and UK Governments together, in this regard) appears to have sufficient trust in their peoples to acknowledge the very significant risk of much worse to come.
Nouriel Roubini (aka Dr Doom) has just published a convicing argument that Mounting Job Losses Will Hurt Consumption, Housing, Banks’ Balance Sheets, Public Finances and Lead to Protectionist Pressures
Here’s just a small extract from the article:
If you include partially employed workers and discouraged workers who left the U.S. labor force, for example, the unemployment rate is already 16.5%
(Not sure if the above link can be accessed if one is not a (free) subscriber to RGE Monitor’s regular updates so the full article is included at the end of this post.)
But it’s the same old, same old. Politicians don’t understand the huge damage that is being done to democracy by an apalling lack of political integrity.
Learning from Dogs 