About that regulatory itch..............

     "Regulation is another area in which we have failed to put innovation at the center of our thinking.  There are good regulations and bad regulations and lots of debate over which is which.  From an innovation perspective, however, this debate misses a key point.  Let's assume that all regulations are good.  The problem is that even if each regulation is good, the net effect of all the regulations combined may be bad.  A single pebble in a big stream doesn't do much, but throw enough pebbles and the stream of innovation gets dammed.   The patent thicket we illustrated in Figure 1 (editor's note: added and explained below) has an analog, the regulation thicket.
-Alex Tabarrok, Launching the Innovation Renaissance

This chart (taken from here) was used by Tabarrock in his
chapter about the sorry state of patents.  The above chart
attempts to show all the patent infringement lawsuits that
have been filed over "smartphones."  I believe his point is that
complexity imposed upon innovation hinders it.

Mobility...............

It probably is a mistake to compare the Great Recession with the
Great Depression, so.......I am not going to.  But, we would be
remiss in not pointing out one of the Great Differences.  One of the
most re-played images of the 1930's was the Okies, fleeing the
dust bowl, heading for their grapes of wrath future in California.
It was almost a mass migration, as folks and their families fled
from territories of no hope to a distant land of maybe some hope. 
The country was mobile.  "The transient knew in his bones
that things were no better ahead than they had been behind,
but somehow the movement itself seemed positive. It was
something, however a hopeless thing, to do." (excerpted)

Fast forward 80 years.  Unemployment and under employment
are the talked about problems of this day.  What is missing is the
migration, the movement from areas of no work to areas with
some work.  According to my favorite economic futurist Jeff
Thredgold, "manufacturers cannot fill 600,000 skilled
positions, or 5% of all current manufacturing jobs....".  One
of the reasons given is the mis-match in location, skilled workers
not living in proximity to where their skills are needed.  The
culprit - the moribund residential real estate market and the
amazing number of people (25%) who owe more than their home
is worth.  Just when mobility would give hope, "the movement
of Americans is at its lowest level since World War II." 
Blame it on the real estate.

On exploring..................

Thanks Ka-Ching!

Mind Itself..........

     "Let me give you an illustration.  People have eyes, by which they can see all sorts of forms, like long and short, square and round, as so on; then why do they not see themselves? Just perceiving forms, you cannot see your eyes even if you want to.  Your mind is also like this; its light shines perceptively throughout the ten directions, encompassing all things, so why doesn't it know itself?
     "Do you want to understand?  Just discern the things perceived, you cannot see the mind itself.
     "An ancient said, 'The knife does not cut itself, the finger does not touch itself, the mind does not know itself, the eye does not see itself.'  This is true reality."

-Instant Zen:  Waking Up in the Present
Translated by Thomas Cleary

photo courtesy of

tergiversate................

This word for the day is brought to you by Mr. Webster
and the third edition of his New College Dictionary:

tergiversate    v.     1  to desert a cause, party, etc;  become a
                                      renegade; apostatize     2  to use
                                      evasions or subterfuge;  equivocate

as in:

He tergiversated the green ideology when he realized that global
warming was preferable to global freezing.
                 

Mismatch.................

"In 2009 the U. S. graduated 37,994 students with bachelor's degrees in computer and information science.  Not bad, but here is the surprise:  We graduated more students with computer science degrees 25 years ago!  In comparison, the U. S. graduated 80,140 students in the visual and performing arts in 2009 - more than double the number of 25 years ago!

"Few fields have been as revolutionized in recent years as microbiology, but in 2009 we graduated just 2,480 students with bachelor's degrees in microbiology - about the same as 25 years ago.  Who will solve the problem of antibiotic resistance?

"The U. S. graduated just 5,036 chemical engineers in 2009, no mare than we did 25 years ago.  In electrical engineering there were 11,619 graduates in 2009, about half the number of 25 years ago."

"Bear in mind that over the past 25 years the total number of students in college has increased by about 50%...."

"In 2009, for example, we graduated 94,271 students with psychology degrees at a time when there were just 98,330 jobs in clinical, counseling, and school psychology in the entire nation.  The latter figure isn't new jobs - it's total jobs."

-Alex Tabarrok, Launching the Innovation Renaissance

thanks Alex

It is no wonder that...........................

......Seth Godin's blog is widely read and highly respected.  He
offers a different way of thinking about things..........daily.    A
smattering of excerpts from recent posts for your enjoyment:

"As usual, when confronted with two obvious choices, it's the
third choice that pays."
1/3/12
--------------------------------------------------------------

"This notion of lockstep started to inform all elements of our
culture. Not just what time rush hour was (what a bizarre
concept) but how old you should be to go to college and to
get a job and to get married and to have kids and to retire."

"........ The decision to work at a different rate than others
can be a significant competitive advantage.

"Celebrate New Year's when you want to, and as often as you
choose. They're your resolutions, not ours."
1/1/12
---------------------------------------------------------------

"So stop thinking about how crazy the times are, and start
thinking about what the crazy times demand. There has never
been a worse time for business as usual. Business as usual is
sure to fail, sure to disappoint, sure to numb our dreams.
That's why there has never been a better time for the new.
Your competitors are too afraid to spend money on new
productivity tools. Your bankers have no idea where they can
safely invest. Your potential employees are desperately
looking for something exciting, something they feel
passionate about, something they can genuinely engage in
engage with.

"You get to make a choice. You can remake that choice every
day, in fact. It's never too late to choose optimism, to choose
action, to choose excellence. The best thing is that it only
takes a moment -- just one second -- to decide."
12/31/11
--------------------------------------------------------------

"As soon as you accept that just about everything in our
created world is only a few generations old, it makes it a lot
easier to deal with the fact that the assumptions we make
about the future are generally wrong, and that the stress we
have over change is completely wasted."
12/29/11
--------------------------------------------------------------


"I'm often stunned by the lack of questions that adults are
prepared to ask."

"Is the weather the only thing you can think to ask about?
A great question is one you can ask yourself, one that
disturbs your status quo and scares you a little bit."
12/27/11
--------------------------------------------------------------

"If your plan will only succeed if there is no turbulence at
any time, it's probably not a very good plan (either that or
you're not going anywhere interesting.)"
12/22/11

If this is true............I'm in trouble

"But, just like I had to eat all of the vegetables on my plate
when I was a kid – - I bought the book, so I had to read it."

This quote was lifted from David Kanigan's latest book review.
One of the more undisciplined areas of my life falls under the
heading of "book buyer."  Over the years, I have bought books
because they were highly recommended by a trusted source,
because they looked interesting, because they felt good in my
hand, and just because.  My observant daughter, seeking to
fatten her purse, once told me that I needed to pay her $.25
for every book I bought until I had read all the ones that I had
bought but not read.  Not falling into that trap.  If I stopped
buying (or downloading) books today, the supply of unread
books would provide sustenance for years to come.  And yet...
yesterday I downloaded a book David recommended.  Go
figure.

More stuff I never knew................................ or, the Framers swing and miss

     "In 1796, Hamilton made a bolder move against Adams, a harbinger of the intraparty conflict that would break out among Federalists in 1800.  He tried to manipulate the Electoral College system to deprive Adams of the presidency and get his own favored Federalist Thomas Pickney, elected to the position instead.  Hamilton's scheme took advantage of the complex and sometimes seemingly perverse mechanics of the original electoral system.
     "In their conception of the Electoral College, the Framers foresaw an elite group of well-qualified electors exercising their collective judgment in picking the best-qualified President and Vice President from an open field of leading figures across the country.  Through this process, the Framers hoped to avoid both the formation of national political parties, which were never mentioned in the Constitution, and the development of coordinated partisan voting.

-Edward J. Larson, A Magnificent Catastrophe: The Tumultuous
Election of 1800, America's First Presidential Campaign

Opening paragraphs............

"In an era when nearly every college president bore a triple-
barreled name, none carried as potent a charge as Nicholas
Murray Butler.  To his intimates the president of Columbia
University was 'Murray': to the associates who saw him found
the school's Teachers College in 1887 at the age of twenty-
five he was 'Nicholas Miraculous.'  His employees simply
called him President (when they didn't refer to him as 'Czar
Nicholas'), his acquaintances, Doctor.  The editors of Life
named him 'one of the most erudite men of his time.'  None
of this necessarily contradicted Senator Robert M.
La Follette, who said Butler was a 'bootlicker of men of
fortune.'  Theodore Roosevelt was even blunter: he
considered him 'an aggressive and violent ass.'"

-Daniel Okrent,  Great Fortune: The Epic of Rockefeller Center

Caught in the middle...................

"While we persistently look forward for tomorrow's technologies to solve our problems, we often find ourselves simultaneously looking backward, reexamining ancient wisdom on how to understand and enjoy ourselves and others in the process."
-Robert V. Adams, as quoted in the introduction of Thomas
Cleary's Instant Zen: Waking Up in the Present

photo courtesy of

operose.............

This word for the day is brought to you by Mr. Webster
and the third edition of his New College Dictionary:

operose         adj.             1  done with or requiring much toil     
                                               2  very busy; industrious

as in:

2012 was going to be a very operose year for those in the
real estate business.

How could I have missed it?

Faithful readers will know that this blog loves music written prior
to the break up of the Beatles.  Careful readers will have realized
that R..E. M., while not quite meeting that requirement,  is still
much loved none-the-less.  Rob, at the Hammock Papers,
appropriately noted that yesterday was R.E. M.'s lead singer
Michael Stipe's 52nd birthday.  Belated birthday wishes are in
order.

No wonder they're mad............

     "More than half of the college graduates in the humanities end up in jobs that do not require a college degree.  Not surprisingly, these graduates do not get a big 'college bonus.'  A college graduate who finds a job requiring a college degree had median annual earnings in 2009 of $21,000, but for the majority who end up in jobs not requiring a college degree, median annual earnings were only $14,000."
-Alex Tabarrok, Launching the Innovation Renaissance

About perspective...............

"So many Americans still admired Louis XVI for his role
in their struggle for independence that his portrait
continued to hang in a position of honor at the U.S.
House of Representatives in 1800 - more than seven
years after his own people had overthrown and
beheaded him."
-Edward J. Larson, A Magnificent Catastrophe

Mme Scherzo simplifies life..................

this goodie found amoung other treasures here

Making light of the dismal science.................

Yoram Bauman takes a delightful rip at Mankiw's "10 Principles"

banausic...............

This word for the day is brought to you by Mr. Webster
and the third edition of his New College Dictionary:

banausic   adj.     1  merely mechanical   2 materialistic
                                    3 mundane or utilitarian

as in:

He was going to comment about his new year's resolutions,
but figured the last thing that was needed was another
banausic post.

On passion.................

  "'It is not easy to express the inexpressible,' he answered with a laugh.  'Holmes is a little too scientific for my tastes - it approaches to cold-bloodedness.  I could imagine his giving a friend a little pinch of the latest vegetable alkaloid, not out of malevolence, you understand, but simply out of a spirit of inquiry in order to have an accurate idea of the effects.  To do him justice, I think that he would take it himself with the same readiness.  He appears to have a passion for definite and exact knowledge.'"

-Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study in Scarlet

We live in amazing times.  For a mere $.99 you can have this wondroustale downloaded on your Kindle and meet Holmes in person.

On teaching, knowledge, and personal power.....

     "Knowledge is power.  From Florence in the 14th century
to Great Britain in the 19th and the United States in the 20th,
the leading economic power has always been the leading
educational power."

     "It's astounding that in the 21st century about 25% of men
do not graduate from high school in the U. S.  Even more
astounding, the number of high school dropouts has increased
since the 1960's, when about 18% of men dropped out."

"In 2010, the unemployment rate among high school
dropouts was close to 15%.

     "At times, teacher pay in the United States seems more
like something from Soviet-era Russia than 21st-century
America.  Wages for teachers are low, egalitarian, and not
based on performance.  We pay physical education teachers
about the same as math teachers despite the fact that math
teachers have greater opportunities elsewhere in the
economy.  As a result, we have lots of excellent physical
education teachers but not nearly enough excellent math
teachers.  The teachers unions oppose even the most
modest proposals to add measures of teacher quality to
selection and pay decisions.

     "Soviet-style pay practices helped to eventually
collapse the Soviet system, and the same thing is
happening in American education."

-as excerpted from Alex Tabarrok's Launching the Innovation
Renaissance: A New Path to Bring Smart Ideas to Market Fast

Book learning worth learning.........

The postman brought me my very own copy of Nicholas Bate's
Be Bold 101.    A small sample for your enjoyment:

41.  get exercise in a society which takes exercise away;
42.  find facts in a society which drowns in opinions;
43.  take ownership in a culture which generates excuses;
44.  take time for civilization in a civilization which has no time
       to be curious;
45.  wander barefoot on the beach;

Thanks Nicholas

Back to the drawing board................

thanks Hugh

American history........................or, some things change, and some things don't.............

     "No candidates openly campaigned for the presidency in 1796 or even publicly declared their interest in holding the job.  Washington had acted that way in 1788 and 1792, and his would-be successors were careful to emulate him.  Jefferson remained at Monticello; Adams went home to his farm near Boston.  Others conspired on their behalf, typically without consulting them.

     "As it turned out, Adams secured votes from 71 of the 139 electors - or one more vote than he needed for the requisite majority - in what was to be the last old-style presidential election.  Jefferson was the runner-up with votes from 68 electors, and, as the Constitution then stipulated, he became the Vice President.

     "Adams swept the northern states, gaining votes from every elector in New England, New York, and New Jersey.  Delaware also went for Adams.  Jefferson carried the South and the West, except for votes for Adams from one elector in Virginia and another in North Carolina.  The two nascent parties had secured regional bases of support, where they dominated state and local parties as well.  The middle states of Pennsylvania and Maryland split their votes and emerged as key political battlegrounds of the future.  For the only time in American history, partisan opponents served together as President and Vice President."

-Edward J. Larson, A Magnificent Catastrophe

benedict............

This word for the day is brought to you by Mr. Webster
and the third edition of his New College Dictionary: 

benedict    n.     a recently married man, esp. one who seemed
                              to be a confirmed bachelor.

as in:

Dr. Watson was a benedict, whose honeymoon was interrupted
by the machinations of both his friend Holmes and the Professor
Moriarty.

"Backstory:  http://improveverywhere.com/2011/08/22/say-something-nice/

Like us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/improv.everywhere

"For our latest mission we constructed a custom wooden lectern with a megaphone holster and an attached sign that read, "Say Something Nice." The lectern was placed in public spaces around New York and then left alone. We wanted to see what would happen if New Yorkers were given the opportunity to amplify their voices to "say something nice." This project was produced by Improv Everywhere as part of the Guggenheim Museum exhibition stillspotting nyc."

thanks jonco

Marketing techniques for the new year....

I'm thinking this might be worth a shot.  My first reaction
was "photoshop", but if you go to the source and read the
comments you will find otherwise.

Thanks Tyler

On the proper intolerance of tolerance..........

Worth pondering....................

"Technology. A wonderful tool that should not be allowed
to take over our lives."

"Remember: 'Where we're going we don't need roads'!"
-Steve Felix


"Success will go to those with the best questions, not those
with the cleverest answers."
-Tom Asacker, from his very excellent post Predictions for 2012


"It's just like the evidence that shows the most dangerous
people are those that have been taught some financial
literacy. They're the ones who go out and make the worst
mistakes. It's the people that realize, 'I don't know anything
at all,' that end up doing pretty well."
-Tyler Cowen, from this TED talk


"It’s a good metaphor for what life in this universe is: a situation we’re stuck with. We were born far along in its existence and we will die long before it changes or ends. Its conditions were created in a distant past beyond our comprehension through organic, emergent forces powerful beyond our measure. The sooner we can get over this, come to terms with it, and accept our infinitesimalness, the sooner we may be able to live properly and with perspective."
-Ryan Holiday

The gift of optimism.............

     "It is a primary task of parents throughout their lives to
convey to the young a sense of optimism.  Whatever other
obligations we have to our children, a conviction that we can
achieve happiness amid the losses and uncertainties that life
contains is the greatest gift that can pass from one generation
to the next.  Like all the values we wish to teach our children -
honesty, commitment, empathy, respect, hard work - the
supreme importance of hope is taught by example."

-Gordon Livingston,  Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart

A poem for Monday.................

Jim Croce's Time in a Bottle

If I could save time in a bottle
The first thing that I'd like to do
Is to save every day
Till Eternity passes away
Just to spend them with you

If I could make days last forever
If words could make wishes come true
I'd save every day like a treasure and then
Again, I would spend them with you

But there never seems to be enough time
To do the things you want to do
Once you find them
I've looked around enough to know
That you're the one I want to go
Through time with

If I had a box just for wishes
And dreams that had never come true
The box would be empty
Except for the memory
Of how they were answered by you

But there never seems to be enough time
To do the things you want to do
Once you find them
I've looked around enough to know
That you're the one I want to go
Through time with

declivitous.................

This word for the day is brought to you by Mr. Webster
and the third edition of his New College Dictionary:

declivitous        adj.      fairly steep

as in:

With 99 weeks of unemployment checks in front of
him, his desire to seek new work took a declivitous
turn.

or

 As he came out of the mountains, the sign on the
declivitous roadway suggested he test his brakes.

A pause to refresh.................

"Humans need stopping and starting points to chart progress.
The end of the year offers us a brief stopping point before
getting back into the game. Enjoy yours."

-Cultural Offering, on the importance of December 31st and
January 1st.  Kurt's full essay is here.

Best wishes for a happy, healthy, and prosperous 2012.

From the ragamuffin...................

"Get this if you don’t get anything else - the spiritual
life begins with accepting God’s wholehearted love
for our wounded, broken, surly, frightened, sorry
selves. There is no other starting point."

-Brennan Manning

Thanks Nicole

On being mindful..............

A SIMPLE LOVE/METTA MEDITATION

We begin practicing this love meditation on ourselves:

May I be peaceful, happy and light in body and spirit.
May I be safe and free from injury.
May I be free from anger, afflictions, fear and anxiety.

After that we can practice on others (he/she):

May he/she be peaceful, happy and light in body and spirit.
May he/she be safe and free from injury.
May he/she be free from anger, afflictions, fear and anxiety.

After that we can practice including our selves with others (we):

May we be peaceful, happy and light in body and spirit.
May we be safe and free from injury.
May we be free from anger, afflictions, fear and anxiety.

"Thich Nhat Hanh encourages us to practice metta meditation in the first three days of the new year. On the first day we practice for ourselves. On the second day we practice for the other person(s) we love. On the third day we practice for the other person (or institution) that makes us suffer."

From the Jade Page Press blog.  Thanks Nan

Sunday's verse..................

          In governing people and serving nature,
          nothing surpasses thrift and moderation.

     Restraint begins with giving up one's own ideas.
         This depends on virtue gathered in the past.
If there is a good store of virtue, then nothing is impossible,
      If nothing is impossible, then there are no limits.
           If a man knows no limits, he is fit to lead.

This is the way to be deeply rooted and firmly planted in the
        Tao,  the secret of long live and lasting vision.

59th Verse
Tao Te Ching
as interpreted by Wayne Dyer
Change Your Thoughts - Change Your Life

Out of the realm of abstraction.........

WRM has written series of essays (Yule Blog 2011-2012)
about God, faith, and the meaning of Christmas.  His New Year's
Eve entry, sub-titled Personal Meaning, is here.  Excerpt here:

"I won’t try to speak for Islam or Judaism, but to understand where Christians are coming from with this whole God thing, it’s probably more useful to think about the heart of the universe than its king. If you think of God as the source of the meaning that flows through people’s lives you will come closer to how Christians think of him than if you think of God as the universal lawgiver or even as the creator.

"Christmas takes the universal creator out of the realm of abstraction and brings him into our world. God is the baby in the heart of his family, the adored child whose presence gives new meaning and hope to the parents and friends. This is not God as the Punisher and the Avenger; it is God giving himself to the world out of uncontrollable, unstoppable love. For Christians, the familiar scene around the manger is among other things a way of saying that we can be at home in the universe; despite the immensity of stars and space stretching away from us on every side, the universe makes sense – and we are loved."

On doing today's work today.....

"Every day is either a successful day or a day of failure; and it is the successful days which get you what you want........"

"You cannot foresee the results of even the most trivial act; you do not know the workings of all the forces that have been set moving in your behalf.  Much may be depending on your doing some simple act; it may be the very thing which is to open the door of opportunity to very great possibilities. You can never know all the combinations which Supreme Intelligence is making for you in the world of things and of human affairs; your neglect of failure to do some small thing may cause a long delay in getting what you want.

"Do, every day, ALL that can be done that day."

"You are not to overwork, nor rush blindly into your business in the effort to do the greatest possible number of things in the shortest possible time.  You are not to try to do tomorrow's work today, nor do a week's work in a day. It is really not the number of things you do, but the EFFICIENCY of each separate action that counts.

"Every act is, in itself, either a success or a failure.
"Every act is, in itself, either effective or inefficient.
"Every inefficient act is a failure, and if you spend your life in
doing inefficient acts, your whole life will be a failure.'

"On the other hand, every efficient act is a success in itself, and if every act of your life is an efficient one, your whole life MUST be as success."

Wallace D. Wattles,
as excerpted from The Wisdom of Wallace D. Wattles

Arms entwined........................................

U2..............................................................New Years Day

Hmmmmmmm...........

On perfection...............

Irrevocably controlled.............

     "Opportunity has spread its wares before you.  Step up to the front, select what you want, create your plan, put the plan into action, and follow through with persistence.  'Capitalistic' America will do the rest.  You can depend on this much - capitalistic America insures every person the opportunity to render useful service, and to collect riches in proportion to the value of the service.
     "The 'system' denies no one this right, but it does not and cannot promise something for nothing, because the system, itself, is irrevocably controlled by the law of economics which neither recognizes not tolerates for long, getting without giving."
-Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich

On excess baggage.............

"It is much easier in America to earn a lot of money than
it is to accumulate wealth.  Why is this the case?  Because
we are a consumption-oriented society."

".......many status oriented artifacts can be a burden, if not
an impediment, to becoming financially independent.  Life
has its own burdens.  Why add excess baggage?"

-Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko,
The Millionaire Next Door

.....as vintage wine......

Frank Sinatra.................................It Was A Very Good Year



Thanks Kurt

Coruscate................

This word for the day is brought to you by Mr. Webster
and the third edition of his New College Dictionary:

coruscate     v.      to give off flashes of light; glitter; sparkle
 
as in:
 
The ice covered branches coruscated as the sun peeked
through the cloud cover.

Mainstream Media's favorite time of the year....

thanks will

Megan McArdle talks real estate............

A day after admonishing us folks to save more, she offers up
some suggestions on where to invest those saved dollars.  One of
her suggestions is rental residential real estate.  Full essay is here.
Given her advice about real estate, one would think she has had
some experience.  It is advice worth pondering.  A few samples:

However, real estate can be a great way to diversify your
portfolio if you are careful about it. The stock market may
be down, but your tenants will still be paying you some
rent every month.

a. Don't flip. I shouldn't really need to explain this now,
should I? Buy for rental income, not capital gains.

d. Budget for repairs.

e. Budget for empty months.

f. Do regular inspections No matter how lovely your tenant is,
they may be destroying your house without even knowing it--
not changing air filters, attracting pests, letting leaks grow.

h. Expect to manage it. A solid real estate investment can
earn you ten percent a year--but you have to work harder
at it than you do leaving the money in the market.

j. Check potential tenants thoroughly.........Lazy landlords
get hurt.

m. Know how many properties you can manage. First of all,
know your limits. There are benefits to scale (you can have
a handyman on retainer if you have enough apartments, and
he'll probably give you a discount). But there are also
drawbacks--each apartment takes time.

o. Landlording is a business............ Do not buy because you
like a property; buy because it will offer you a reasonable
return after expenses.

It's a simple portfolio, and it won't make you rich without
working. On the other hand, we should all be pretty sick
of get-rich-quick schemes by now.

On knowing what we don't know.............

An excerpt from Randy Pausch's The Last Lecture:

    Shatner stayed for three hours and asked tons of questions.  A colleague later said to me:  "He just kept asking and asking. He doesn't seem to get it."
    But I was hugely impressed.  Kirk, I mean, Shatner, was the ultimate example of a man who knew what he didn't know, was perfectly willing to admit it, and didn't want to leave until he understood it.  I wish every grad student had that attitude.
    During my cancer treatment, when I was told that only 4% of pancreatic cancer patients live five years, a line from the Star Trek movie The Wrath of Khan came into my mind.  In the film, Starfleet cadets are faced with a simulated training scenario where, no matter what they do, their entire crew is killed.  The film explains that when Kirk was a cadet, he reprogrammed the simulation because "he didn't believe in the no-win scenario."
     Over the years, some of my sophisticated academic colleagues have turned up their noses at my Star Trek infatuation.  But from the start, it has never failed to stand me in good stead.
     After Shatner learned of my diagnosis, he sent me a photo of himself as Kirk.  On it he wrote:  "I don't believe in the no-win scenario."

About those resolutions...............

Mathew Ferrara suggests we think about the ground work
needed to make them real before we commit to them - again. 
Full post here.  Excerpt here:

"First, the best resolutions build upon our existing strengths. They might involve trying something new or pushing our limits, but they must build upon a solid foundation. Think about something you know how to do, enjoy doing, then decide to turn up the volume. Do more of it. Do it better, or faster, or more consistently. If you can send a rocket around the world, aiming it for another planet isn’t that much harder. Set yourself up for success by leveraging your existing knowledge, skills and motivations."

The Bulls and Bears weigh in on residential real estate.........

Some bulls:

Hedge funds run by Caxton Associates LP, SAC Capital Advisors LP, Avenue Capital and Blackstone Group LP have been buying housing-related investments, betting on a rebound. And formerly bearish research firm Zelman & Associates now predicts a housing pickup, as does Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

A bear:

"The smartest money in the world has been carried out on stretchers betting on a true recovery for housing," says Mark Hanson

The above quotes were channeled by the Calculated Risk blog
from a WSJ article.   Faithful readers will remember that we
believe the market recovery for new construction of single family
housing is still a year away.  We are heartened, however, by
this chart from CR.   This is good news!

Be it further resolved........

The word for the day....................

This word for the day is brought to you by Mr. Webster
and the third edition of his New College Dictionary:

velitation    n.     a hostile encounter; skirmish or dispute

as in:

The velitation in Washington over government spending
shows no sign of abating.

In this part of the world, we are celebrating Michael Wade's commitment to the blogosphere. Thanks Michael!

Be it resolved...............

Quotes worth pondering...................

"Gauguin complained that “thought does not exist” in
Impressionism. It doesn’t, but the Impressionists had no goal
except to open people’s eyes; and they opened enough of
them to reinvent art altogether."

"As my eyes lose their focusing strength, I can appreciate
the vision of impressionistic painters. There’s a softening
of not just what we see, but what we are, when we enjoy
the later years."
-Mme. Schezro, adding the second paragraph to this post


"A man standing in the broken shards of his life doesn't have any use for people picking up each piece and wondering aloud if this bit wasn't so bad. They never understand that the whole thing was worth something once but the pieces are nothing and you can never reassemble them again into anything."
-Greg Sullivan, dba Sippican Cottage, excerpted from here.


"The wise fool can be cryptic. He'll say the best way to see something is with your ears. Initially, this may seem weird, but after you've thought about it, you might agree that listening to a story conjures up more images than watching television."
-Roger von Oech, as excerpted from here
 
 
"Of course, this is the problem with most New Year's resolutions – that the only thing between us and our goals is self-discipline."
-Penelope Trunk, from this blog post

Captured by your style..............

Atlanta Rhythm Section.................................. So Into You

The word for the day................

This word for the day is brought to you by Mr. Webster
and the third edition of his New College Dictionary:

tutelary        adj.     1.  that watches over or protects
                                      2.  of or serving as a guardian
 
as in:
 
He thanked the tutelary spirit that helped him navigate safely
for six hours though the heavy traffic on the turnpike.

Opening paragraphs..............

"From my first breath in this world, all I wanted was a good
set of lungs and the air to fill them with - given circumstances,
you might presume, for an American baby of the twentieth
century.  Think about your own first gasp: a shocking wind
roweling so easily down your throat, and you still slipping
around in the doctor's hands.  How you yowled!  Not a thing
on your mind by breakfast, and that was on the way."

-Leif Enger, Peace Like A River

The gift......................

"...knowledge of our own mortality is the greatest gift God
ever gives us.
    "It is so easy to waste our lives: our days, our hours, our minutes.  It is so easy to take for granted the pale new growth on an evergreen, the sheen of the limestone on Fifth Avenue, the color of our kids' eyes, the way the melody in a symphonyrises and falls and disappears and rises again.  It is so easy to exist instead of live.  Unless you know there is a clock ticking. So many of us changed our lives when we heard the biological clock and decided to have kids.  But that sound is a murmur compared to the tolling of mortality."

-Anna Quindlen, A Short Guide to a Happy Life

photo courtesy of

Luddites of the world, Unite!

On listening to yourself...........

thanks Jessica

I hope you are willing..........................

Orleans.....................................................Dance With Me

The word for the day

This word for the day is brought to you by Mr. Webster

and the third edition of his New College Dictionary:

croque-monsieur   n.     a sandwich filled with ham and cheese,
                                      either dipped in egg batter or buttered
                                      on the outside, and toasted or grilled.

as in:

After shoveling snow for an hour in the freezing cold, he
was delighted to find that his sweetie had fixed him a
croque-monsieur for lunch.

Opening paragraphs..............

    "On May 18,1860, the day when the Republican Party would nominate its candidate for president, Abraham Lincoln was up early.  As he climbed the stairs to his plainly furnished law office on the west side of the public square in Springfield, Illinois, breakfast was being served at  the 130-room Chenery House on Fourth Street.  Fresh butter, flour, lard, and eggs were being put out for sale at the City Grocery Store on North Sixth Street.  And in the morning newspaper, the proprietors at Smith, Wikersham & Company had announced the arrival of a large stock of silks, calicos, ginghams, and linens, along with a new supply of the latest styles of hosiery and gloves."

-Doris Kerns Goodwin, Team of Rivals

weakness as a strength.................

thanks Hugh

On leaving children behind.................

WRM suggests its time to rethink the Bush era leave no child behind law.  I have always thought that as a society, and as parents, we have asked schools to do things that they are simply not capable of doing.  Oh, and by the way, don't you dare discipline my little angel.  And then we wonder at the results.  Full post here.  Excerpt here:

"We need to be a little bit more honest with ourselves. Schools didn’t cause America’s biggest social problems, and schools can’t cure them. A public school doesn’t take in sow’s ears and put out silk purses; a school inevitably reflects the strong and weak points of the society and culture around it.

"A neighborhood of weak families will rarely have strong schools. School reform is important and we have a long way to go, but until America finds ways to address its broken homes, we will not be able to fix our broken schools."

On bringing your own dignity.......

     "Politicians are fond of telling us that work gives people
dignity.  I agree.   Having work to do and the means to make
a living for oneself and one's family is important.  But it is
only half the equation.  What we haven't been told nearly
enough is that people give work dignity.  There are no
unimportant jobs, just people who feel unimportant doing
their jobs.   That's probably why B. C. Forbes, the legendary
founder of Forbes magazine said, 'There is more credit
and satisfaction in being a first-rate truck driver than in
a tenth-rate executive.'"

-Mark Sanborn,  The Fred Factor

Both scary and not a moment too soon...

And it will be all right....................

Firefall.............................................Just Remember I Love You

The word for the day...................

This word for the day is brought to you by Mr. Webster

and the third edition of his New College Dictionary:

abecedarian     n.   1. a person learning the alphabet; beginning
                               student.   2.  any beginner or novice.

as in:

The teacher repeated A....B....C....D...., and soon the
abecedarian caught on and learned all of the letters of the
alphabet.

Editor's comment:   Surely you jest.  This is a word?  Good grief.

THINK.................

The really smart people at IBM have been thinking again.  Here
is the first of five "futuristic imaginings" that they believe we will
see in five years.  Not so sure about this first one, though. 
Sounds like a perpetual motion machine................

Opening paragraphs.............

"It is dark.  He does not know where he is.  And then he sees
pale light from the street soaking in above the drawn drapes.
It is not a light to see by, but only makes the darkness visible.
He has slept, to his surprise, but has wakened in the same
unease that kept him sleepless long after he went to bed
and that remained with him in the dream."

-Wendell Berry, Remembering

He's got a lot to answer for................

Born this day in 1791, Charles Babbage was a mathematician
who didn't like mistakes.  "Computers" of his day were people
who did computing, i.e. adding, subtracting, multiplying and
dividing.  Babbage noticed a high error rate in the creation of
numerical tables and logarithms by such human computers. 
Being mechanically oriented and adept, Babbage proposed,
designed, and attempted to build machines that would do such
computing correctly.  He called his first such machine "a
difference engine."  He later attempted to construct an "analytic
engine."  For his efforts he is considered a "father of the
computer."   

Babbage was also an inventor (the cow-catcher attachment for
the front of locomotives, and an ophthalmoscope), a
cryptographer, a writer, and a philosopher.  His contemporaries
must have been impressed by his smarts, as halves of his brain
are still on display at two London museums.

"Difference Engine No. 2", constructed in1989–91, using Babbage's
plans and 19th century manufacturing tolerances.



Part of Babbage's difference engine, assembled after his death
by Babbage's son, using parts found in his laboratory




















images courtesy of wikipedia

Caveat emptor...................

Swim the deepest seas.........................

Grass Roots.........................................I'd Wait a Million Years

Monday's Poem..........

Looking For a Sunset Bird in Winter

The west was getting out of gold,
The breath of air had died of cold,
When shoeing home across the white,
I thought I saw a bird alight.

In summer when I passed the place
I had to stop and lift my face;
A bird with an angelic gift
Was singing in it sweet and swift.

No bird was singing in it now.
A single leaf was on a bough,
And that was all there was to see
In going twice around the tree.

From my advantage on a hill
I judged that such a crystal chill
Was only adding frost to snow
As gilt to gold that wouldn't show.

A brush had left a crooked stroke
Of what was either cloud or smoke
From north to south across the blue;
A piercing little star was through.

-Robert Frost
 
photo courtesy of

The word for the day..........

This word for the day is brought to you by Mr. Webster
and the third edition of his New College Dictionary:

divagate   v.   1.  to wander about    2.  to stray from the
                        subject; digress

as in:

His focus blurred by one too many egg nogs, Santa began
divagating when Mrs. Claus asked him where he had been
all night.

Wonders of His love.......................

Mannheim Steamroller..................................Joy To The World




Michael Bolton.........................................Joy To The World




Chris Tomlin...........................................Joy To The World

The Christmas Verse

1  And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a
decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be
taxed.

2  (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was
governor of Syria.)

3  And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.

4  And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of
Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is
called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage
of David:)

5  To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great
with child.

6  And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were
accomplished that she should be delivered.

7  And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him
in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because
there was no room for them in the inn.

8  And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in
the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

9  And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and
the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they
were sore afraid.

10  And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I
bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all
people.

11  For unto you is born this day in the city of David
a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

12  And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe
wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

13  And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of
the heavenly host praising God, and saying,

14  Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good
will toward men.

15  And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from
them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us
now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is
come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.

16  And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph,
and the babe lying in a manger.

17  And when they had seen it, they made known abroad
the saying which was told them concerning this child.

18  And all they that heard it wondered at those things
which were told them by the shepherds.

Luke  2:1-18
King James Version
The Holy Bible

Merry Christmas.................

Bringing peace to all the world..........

The Royal Gaurdsmen.................Snoopy vs The Red Baron