Category: History

Another one of the few who saw the crisis coming.

Steve Keen – Associate Professor of Economics & Finance at the University of Western Sydney.

I know didly squat about economics. I know a lot about the effect of economics in the sense of government policies, of inflation and debt, international trade and much more only in how they have impacted me over a lifetime of working, buying homes, raising a family, running a couple of businesses and now contemplating retirement. I can sum up my personal strategy – LUCK! I have been lucky. The other Post out today shows an example of that luck.

Frankly, economists haven’t figured widely in my role call of people that I admired, probably because I don’t really understand what they are talking about. (That’s why this Blog has a real live economist as part of the team, to help educate me and all the rest of the readers who come to this Blog!)

The other Post on this subject spoke of David Kauders, who clearly saw it coming. Now here’s an economist who also saw it coming, Steve Keen.

Chancellor Angela Merkel

Important lessons from former East Germans.

Have you ever noticed how the most ardent supporters of capitalism and free markets are those who’ve experienced a world without them?

How those who speak out most poignantly against health care reform in the U.S. are those who’ve experienced nationalized health care? No?

If you can, then, take a moment and think back to the coverage, the news, the sound bites. Take a look, perhaps a second look, behind the headlines and I venture that you will find endless examples of this phenomenon. It is those who have done without freedom of choice, free markets, and self-determination who treasure it most, who most understand its value, who’ve lived with the consequences of its absence.

We need look no further than Chancellor Angela Merkel and her recent victory in Germany’s national election.

Chancellor Merkel grew up in communist East Germany and is now leading Germany out of recession with tax cuts and reduced government spending.

We should be listening to what the world is telling us. Very hard, and very quickly. We don’t want to have to lose it before we appreciate what we have.

By Sherry Jarrell

Septembers

How clear, crisp September days echo 1940.

I was born in London some 6 months before the end of World War II. The echoes of that tragic event in human history rang around the torn roadways and ripped buildings of London for many years, certainly for sufficiently long that I was able to remember as a young boy, away on his bicycle, the bomb sites and and the gaps where once buildings had stood.

Sometimes, when the September weather is as it was during the Battle of Britain, it’s almost as though those echoes can still be faintly heard. Maybe all Londoners over a certain age hear them?

Dogs really are smarter!

Fascinating research coming out of Duke University

This Post was stimulated by a link sent to me by Chris Snuggs, who will be joining the author’s team at Learning from Dogs in due course.

The link was to an article published in Time Magazine on September 21st and is available in their online version.

The article is about the extraordinary social skills that have been developed by dogs over the millennia that they have been associated with man. It featured Brain Hare (sort of seems an appropriate name!) Assistant Professor, Evolutionary Anthropology at Duke.

The article is also rather timely as only a few days ago, there was a Post on this Blog about the befriending of a man with a wild wolf, or was it the other way around!

Back to the Time magazine article,

“Understanding a pointed finger may seem easy, but consider this: while humans and canines can do it naturally, no other known species in the animal kingdom can. Consider too all the mental work that goes into figuring out what a pointed finger means: paying close attention to a person, recognizing that a gesture reflects a thought, that another animal can even have a thought.”

The Jaguar XK120 Motor Car

You’ll never feel this way about a modern car!

A few weeks ago I attended a 70^th Birthday celebration for a cousin.

70! Hey this chap has been riding bicycles at competition level, and running marathons for many years, so the surprise party was very upbeat, with two bands keeping everybody dancing. Everything from the Shadows to Roy Orbison.

It was a lovely day so I took my old XK120 Roadster, mainly because another cousin was going along, and he had helped rebuild this car 30 years previously. Actually we arrived together. The XK was running beautifully, but my cousin’s Mercedes had burst a water pipe, and the car park was flooded with coloured radiator water. We laughed that it was the new car that had broken down.

Patrice Ayme, 9/11 anniversary thought

This is not comfortable reading.

Patrice published a Post on his Blog last September 11th. Not being an American it felt wrong to echo that publication by linking to the Post on the 11th as well. No logic, just the way it felt!

But it is so deeply interesting, that not to highlight the Post would be wrong. This Blog, after all, is about integrity. In that process, if the truth is uncomfortable, so be it. And if others think that Patrice doesn’t speak truthfully then they must speak otherwise. You see, integrity is really the pursuit of truth.

Patrice’s subject title is: Why France Is Bad: Profits Define Goodness.

Read an extract from Patrice’s Post

Lehman – 1 year on.

Exactly a year ago, Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy.

I shall avoid the temptation of pontificating on the subject as many, many others, far better qualified, will be doing so!

But two published articles seem to me to be worth visiting, one from October of 2008 from The Economist, and one from The New York Times.

Lastly, a personal comment from friend Dan that shows powerfully how the last year has affected him.

The International Space Station

Almost taken for granted by so many of us.

Thanks to Dan for passing me the link to a fascinating graphic that was recently published in USA Today showing the

time-line of the International Space Station. It has been orbiting above our heads for over a decade! Do click on the link because you will be surprised, unless you work for NASA, how large and complex the ISS now is.

It’s an interesting to consider what has happened since the launch of the first module, Zanya, on the 20th November, 1998. Bill Clinton was then President of the USA; Tony Blair had been British Prime Minister since May, 1997. How times change!

But steadily a group of Nations has worked together to keep this project going and now the end of this magnificent enterprise is within sight. As the NASA web site summarises:

The International Space Station is a partnership of the US, Russian, European, Japanese, and Canadian Space Agencies. The station has been continuously human occupied since Nov 2, 2000. Orbiting 16 times per day at 17,500 miles per hour 250 miles above the ground, it passes over 90% of the world’s surface. When complete in 2010, it will weigh over 800,000 pounds and have a crew of 6 conducting research and preparing the way for future exploration to the moon and beyond.

By Paul Handover

Planet Earth, just a reminder.

This is a beautiful planet and it’s the only one we have.

Yes, I know it’s not original but these pictures still have a haunting beauty about them.

Just look at our world

Hurricane Jimena from space

The International Space Station passed directly overhead the storm.

Here’s what a hurricane looks like from 300 miles above. It has to be described as beautiful.

Here’s what a hurricane looks like from 30 feet away. It has to be described as ugly.

Wednesday, 9th – still no mains water or public sewerage services.

By Paul Handover

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