Category: Uncategorized

Editorial update!

Your humble author going through the grinder!

Dear Readers,

I am rapidly approaching the point where I have to devote some considerable time and energy to persuading the US

Too many forms!

Government that I am a fit person to enter the USA and get married to my Jeannie!

It involves more form filling than one may imagine plus attending interviews in London, etc., etc.

Without doubt it is going to put that small creative part of my brain under some pressure and as a result I am concerned that regular fresh daily postings on Learning from Dogs may be a challenge.

My hope is that there is always something for you to read on a daily basis because that is the least that should be done for so many loyal supporters of this Blog.

But some of the Posts may be popular ones recycled from the archives, small snippets of items from the news that have caught my eye, or just a beautiful or funny picture to mark another day in all our lives.

If you have something you would like to contribute, then please feel free to email it to learningfromdogs [at] gmail [dot] com  That would be most welcome and really appreciated.

JB Baptism

STOP PRESS: I was granted my fiancé visa by the kind folks at the US Embassy in London on the morning of the 26th October.  Amazing that at my age, one can still feel like a love-sick teenager!

UPDATE:  Arrived back in Payson on the 5th November – what a wonderful feeling that was.  The wedding is just 2 weeks away!

Dealing with the fear of the Known!

Can we ever conquer fear?

In a recent article I discussed the fear of the unknown, linked to the down-turn, redundancies, etc.

Per Kurowski, a great supporter of this Blog, posed the following question.

Great advice… but how do we remove the fear of what is known?

A simple, and slightly flipant answer would be,

“Develop a different relationship with it.”

What I’m saying is that when we are facing the known, and I’m assuming that it’s something unpleasant, our choices are limited. It’s going to happen, so the only thing we can do is change the way we view it.

This brings us back full circle to developing a different relationship with it.

Let’s take the word, ‘fear’.

“All fear is an illusion, walk right through“. I heard Dr David Hawkins say on a CD. Granted, a great trick if you can do it!

Here’s another description of fear: Fear= False Evidence Appearing Real

Fear is generally future-based. We tend to use the past as a learning reference to inform us of what to be afraid of in the future. So human beings live their lives trying to predict and prepare for the future, limited by their past experiences.

Unfortunately, the only way to work with fear of the known is to live in the present! [Just like dogs! Ed.]

Our whole society is geared up to look into the future. We are forever worrying about or planning something for the future.

To begin focussing on the present, try this.

Simply, to start off, become aware of the breath and sensations in the body. This will slowly start to remind us to be present, or embodied, in our own body.

Fear

Problems, fear and spiral thinking, often at 3 or 4 in the morning, are generated in the mind.

Thoughts occur randomly, although we call them, “Our thoughts”, and refer to, “Our mind”.

By dropping out of the thought processes into awareness of the breath and body, the noise stops, even if only for a moment.

So very few people in the world will have even the slightest inkling what these words mean.

If more of us got used to coming out of the mind before making an important decision, and simply sat with the question for a while, the answer would probably present itself.

This will probably raise more questions than it answers but that’s not a bad thing.

By Jon Lavin

[If you have been affected by this Post and would like to contact Jon, he would be delighted to hear from you. Ed.]

Elliot’s schooling – Sir Ken’s view

Sir Ken Robinson’s view

I plan to have my final post on education finished very soon.  However, with my last week of finals and papers at the undergraduate level (which is finally over!) constantly hoarding my time, I have not yet quite been able to truly decide on which side I plan to end up.

My instinct tells me that the costs of the US schooling system far outweigh its benefits, but I feel I must be sure that this is truly a case that can be supported with logic and not simply my own biases coming through.

However, while I continue to ponder, I thought that readers might find this video interesting.  It’s a different take on the nature of institutionalized schooling than is often seen.  It’s on the longer side — approximately 20 minutes long — but I definitely think it is worth a watch for anyone pursuing a clear and well thought-out perspective on education, and it’s actually quite humorous and entertaining.

The video is of a presentation by Sir Ken Robinson, an internationally recognized leader in the development of innovation and human resources.  His thesis statement is as follows:

My contention is that creativity is as important in education as literacy, and we should treat it with the same status.

I hope the Learning From Dogs community enjoys this video.  Upon my return from celebrating my college graduation in Charleston, I plan to present my final finding on whether the costs or the benefits of schooling in the United States outweighs the other.

By Elliot Engstrom

Learning from You!

A change to the Blog

Learning from Dogs published its first Post on July 15th last year.  Since then we have published another 549!

As you will know our standard pattern is to publish two Posts each working day and one per day over the week-ends, some 50 Posts each month.

Since the start of 2010 we have been running at over a 1,000 readers each week, and now regularly have over 2,000 readers a week.  It’s a great vote of thanks for all the hard work put in by the authors.  Thank you, dear reader!

Now this week I have to return to the UK until early June and that is going to make it much more difficult for me to spend time every day being Chief Cook & Bottlewasher for the Blog.

Thus, during this period, we will have to relax the target to publish two Posts every working day.  Hopefully, we will be able to maintain a single Post each day.

However, what would be valuable is to hear just how your own interest in Learning from Dogs would be influenced, if at all, if we were to continue the lower number of Posts (i.e. one a day) after my return in June.

Any feedback, good or bad, will be welcome and much appreciated.  Either by leaving a comment or by emailing the Blog at learningfromdogs (at) gmail (dot) com

Thank you.

EMF? No thanks ….

The politics of monetary funds

The EU Magic Pill

Will Europe snub the IMF and set up its own “Monetary Fund”. Is this yet another “magic pill” that is supposed to solve the sort of problems seen with Greece recently?

The proposed EMF would function as a European equivalent to the IMF; a lender of last resort to financially troubled eurozone governments to ensure the stability of the euro and global markets. Under the direction of the other members of the eurozone, the EMF would dictate fiscal policy to the offending government in return for a bailout.

Its main benefit would be to free the eurozone of the ‘outside’ involvement of the IMF and thus maintain confidence in the ability of Europe to set its own house in order.

(Quoted from here)

I like this bit: “dictate fiscal policy”. The Greeks seem unwilling to accept their own government’s dictates on fiscal policy, so why they would accept anyone else’s is a puzzle.

“maintain confidence in the ability of Europe to set its own house in order” is also very good spin. Just look the language! maintain; confidence;order – all such positive buzzwords.

In fact, what will DEEP DOWN, LONG TERM maintain confidence is doing the right things that you can afford, not lending ever vaster sums and putting a slick gloss on the conditions. “Conditions”? There’s a laugh! There were “conditions” put on Greece’s entry to the EU in the first place. Unfortunately, only lip-service was ever paid to them. Why should anyone believe it will be different in the future?

The last thing we need is yet another vast, Euro-Quango. The IMF is there if required, even if it is a bit tainted through being “international” and a bit too American for some people’s taste. What advantage (apart from vainglory) is there in Europe having its OWN Fund? And LENDING ever more money isn’t the answer; doing the right things IS. For this, you don’t need an EMF.

And what happens when (or is it if?) we get a sustained “boom”? The EMF is still there, doing nothing, waiting for the next BUST. All its highly-paid officials will still be paid for years on end to do nothing – another vast bureaucracy sucking our taxes up like some great cosmic, vacuum cleaner.

Still, if it does come to pass, think of all the extra taxpayer-funded jobs and power that will accrue to Brussels!   Thanks a bundle Greece. Thanks to your humungous over-spending, corruption and general lack of the right stuff we are ALL likely to be lumbered with yet another expensive European cash-gobbling monster institution round our necks.

By Chris Snuggs

The Hypocrisy of Cutting Waste

Cut Waste Later?  How about now?

I honestly cannot understand how President Obama can look the American people in the eye and tell them that Health Care reform will be paid for, in part, by finding savings and reducing fraud in Medicare over the next several years.

President Obama on Health Care Reform

If it is possible to operate Medicare more efficiently, why have we not done it already?  Why must doing it right wait for new programs and new legislation?  Why doesn’t Congress first prove to the American people that it can operate a program efficiently and then come back and ask for more?

Because it can’t, that’s why not.   The plain and simple truth is that it cannot do so now, and will not do so in the future.  So why are we letting our elected officials get away with such a charade?

I just don’t understand it.

By Sherry Jarrell

A useful reflection on the economic crisis.

Will this prove to be an accurate analysis of what happened?

Regular readers of Learning from Dogs will know that Yves Smith of Naked Capitalism is held in high regard by this author.  She was one of the authors mentioned in a recent Post titled Free Speech and then a little later on there was a Post from me specifically praising her.

Last Friday the US Business News Network, BNN, ran a piece which included Yves discussing her new book ECONNED.

Yves Smith - ECONNED

The reason for publishing this Post is that the video clip covering Yves contribution is a very clearly articulated account of how we got ourselves into this economic mess.  For those like this author who don’t really understand many of the sophisticated economic terms used widely elsewhere, this was a refreshing ‘tutorial’.

Do watch it – Yves is brought in around 3 min 45 secs.

By Paul Handover

Assumptions can be fun!

An old aviation theme has a wider message

In flying, mistakes have the power to inflict harm way beyond the immediate significance of the mistake.  Thus the flying community have created a whole load of sayings that serve constantly to remind all those charged with the safe transport of aircraft.  For example we have ‘If there’s any doubt, there’s no doubt‘.  Or ‘There are old pilots and bold pilots, but no old, bold pilots‘.  However the saying that underlines this story is ‘Never assume, always ask!’

Who is that in the LH seat?

His request approved, the CNN News photographer quickly used a cell phone to call the local airport to charter a flight. He was told a twin-engine plane would be waiting for him at the airport.

Arriving at the airfield, he spotted a plane warming up outside a hanger. He jumped in with his bag, slammed the door shut, and shouted, ‘Let’s go‘.

The pilot taxied out, swung the plane into the wind and took off.

Once in the air, the photographer instructed the pilot, ‘Fly over the valley and make low passes so I can take pictures of the fires on the hillsides.‘

‘Why?‘ asked the pilot.

‘Because I’m a photographer for CNN‘ , he responded, ‘and I need to get some close up shots.’

The pilot was strangely silent for a moment, finally he stammered, ‘So, what you’re telling me, is . . . You’re NOT my flight instructor?‘

By Bob Derham

Capitalism and The Daimler-Chrysler Saga: Part 2 of 3

In a new departure for Learning from Dogs, Sherry Jarrell publishes a three-part article on the Daimler-Chrysler merger.  Learning from Dogs is indebted to Professor Jarrell for both giving so freely of her time to the Blog and for sharing such erudite material.

Here is Part Two.  If you missed Part One then it is here.

What does the Daimler-Chrysler merger demonstrate in broader terms?

The 1998 Daimler-Chrysler  “merger of equals” was widely expected to realize both operating efficiencies and better access to international capital markets. Instead, when DCX incorporated it adopted German corporate governance standards.  U.S. institutional ownership in Chrysler was largely replaced by European banks that not only directly monitor the working capital financing of DCX but also may sit on its Management and Supervisory Boards.

Such superior access and corporate control created distinct advantages for large German institutional owners relative to minority owners; foreign shareholders in the U.S. found themselves among this minority group.  These advantages included the ability to: expropriate the private benefits of control from minority shareholders; share these benefits with management, effectively creating a collusion, and; profit from trading DCX shares with superior information.  As a result, minority owners priced their shares less aggressively – i.e., the bid-ask spread widened — to minimize their losses from transacting with controlling shareholders.  As their spread increased, U.S. minority shareholders’ trading costs rose and U.S. trading volume fell as it migrated to Germany, the relatively cheaper trading venue.

The Crossfire: first DCX combined product

The merger between Chrysler and Daimler and consequent changes in corporate governance create an ideal clinical study for isolating our hypothesis about the failure of the enhanced disclosure requirements to effectively compensate for lax corporate governance standards in protecting minority shareholders.

To test this hypothesis, we explored changes in the bid-ask spread that are associated with the change in corporate governance and the control over the flow of information about the Chrysler assets.  We look “inside” the trading mechanism that creates the observed transacted stock price, namely the bid-ask spread, to generate evidence on shifts in the quality and quantity of information available to minority versus controlling shareholders.  The bid-ask spread should grow as minority shareholders learn that traders on the other side of the spread possess superior information about the company, information which is linked to their majority control of the firm and its senior management compensation, asset disposition, and financing and risk-taking strategies.

We find that the decision to merge and become a German stock corporation significantly weakened the protection of minority shareholders, particularly prior owners of Chrysler assets, and led to their expropriation by controlling shareholders and principal creditors of the consolidated firm.  How? We find that the answer lies in the lack of protection afforded minority shareholders by the corporate governance structure of the newly combined DCX entity.

By Sherry Jarrell – Part Three continues tomorrow.

Identifying Bullshit in Science

Well founded suspicions of Sensationalised Science Reporting

Ben Goldacre

One of my daughters gave me a super Christmas present this year, the book  “Bad Science”, by Ben Goldacre.

This is a wonderful work and should be a set book for all “A” level schoolkids. There are chapters on:

  • Brain Gym
  • Homeopathy
  • the Placebo Effect
  • Mainstream Medicine
  • How the Media Promote the Public Misunderstanding of Science
  • Medical “trials”
  • the Pharmaceutical Companies
  • Bad Stats
  • Health Scares
  • the Media’s MMR Hoax

…. plus several others on various very rich charlatans in the field of alternative medicine and other areas. It also contains a concise and terrible account of the insanity of Thabo Mbeki’s nutty ideas on HIV and AIDS, which killed tens of thousands of people. Continue reading “Identifying Bullshit in Science” →