Unleashed......................

"For millions of years, mankind lived just like the animals. Then something happened which unleashed the power of our imagination. We learned to talk and we learned to listen.Speech has allowed the communication of ideas, enabling human beings to work together to build the impossible. Mankind's greatest achievements have come about by talking, and its greatest failures by not talking. It doesn't have to be like this.Our greatest hopes could become reality in the future. With the technology at our disposal, the possibilities are unbounded. All we need to do is make sure we keep talking."
-Stephen Hawking

image via hugh

Willing...................

"I learned the truth of the Zen saying that if you are willing to travel around the world to meet a teacher, one will appear next door."
-Steve Jobs

Shaping a generation.......Part 6

Fifty years ago, President Kennedy addressed the nation about Russia's attempt to place nuclear missiles in Cuba.  Short version below, full 18:42 minute speech is here.

I refuse to fetch..................

"I visualize a time when we will be to robots what dogs are to humans, and I'm rooting for the machines."
-Claude Shannon

Claude Shannon was one smart dude.  Much of our digital and cellular world has Shannon's work at its foundation.  This Michigan native gets some serious respect from the folks at Wikipedia, who state he:  "is also credited with founding both digital computer and digital circuit design theory in 1937, when, as a 21-year-old master's degree student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), he wrote his thesis demonstrating that electrical applications of boolean algebra could construct and resolve any logical, numerical relationship. It has been claimed that this was the most important master's thesis of all time."  Wow.  Hope that makes thing clear.  

Shannon is also quoted as saying, "Information:  the negative reciprocal value of probability" and "Information is the resolution of uncertainty." If I am doing my calculations correctly that means that the negative reciprocal value of probability equals the resolution of uncertainty.  What?

I'm rooting for the humans.

About my blog................

Relaux...............

The Mighty E...................opening doors and broadening horizons since  May 1, 2006.  Long may he blog! Thanks Doug

a pas de deux forever..................

Dan Fogelberg..............................Dancing Shoes

Gratitude...............

XI.

The sounds of engines leave the air.
The Sunday morning silence comes
at last.  At last I know the presence
of the world made without hands,
the creatures that have come to be
out of their absence.  Calls
of flicker and jay fill the clear
air.  Titmice and chickadees feed
among the green and the dying leaves.
Gratitude for the gifts of all the living
and the unliving, gratitude which is
the greatest gift, quietest of all,
passes to me through the trees.

-Wendell Berry

Shaping a generation..............Part 5

The Lone Ranger...........................................

On the contradictions of innovation............

From the Box of Crayons blog:

"The problem, put bluntly, is this: if Innovation was fighting the Status Quo in an extreme sports cage match, you’d bet heavily against Innovation getting much beyond the opening bell."

image via

Well, this explains a lot...............

“One aspect of this is that rationality of thought imposes a limit on a person's concept of his relation to the cosmos.”
-John Nash

image via apod

Understanding..................

Scott Sumner contrasts Paul Krugman and Milton Friedman - here.  Money quote here:

Never have I been more impressed with the advice I once received: “You cannot be sure that you are right unless you understand the arguments against your views better than your opponents do.
-Milton Friedman

Paradox...................

      God Is A Verb

I see God in
the instruments and the mechanisms that
work
reliably,
more reliably than the limited sensory departments of
the human mechanism.
And God says
observe the paradox
of man's creative potentials
and his destructive tactics.
He could have his new world
through sufficient love
for "all's fair"
in love as well as in war
which means you can
junk as much rubbish,
skip as many stupid agreements
by love,
spontaneous unselfishness radiant.

The revolution has come-
set on fire from the top.
Let it burn swiftly.
Neither the branches, trunk, nor roots will be endangered.
Only last year's leaves and
the parasite-bearded moss and orchids
will not be there
when the next spring brings fresh growth
and free standing flowers.

Here is God's purpose-
for God, to me, it seems,
is a verb
not a noun,
proper or improper;
is the articulation
not the art, objective or subjective;
is loving,
not the abstraction "love" commanded or entreated;
is knowledge dynamic,
not legislative code,
not proclamation law.
not academic dogma, not ecclesiastic canon.
Yes, God is a verb,
the most active,
connoting the vast harmonic
reordering of the universe
from unleashed chaos of energy.
And there is born unheralded
a great natural peace,
not out of exclusive
pseudo-static security
but out of including, refining, dynamic balancing.
Naught is lost.
Only the false and nonexistent are dispelled.

And I've thought through to tomorrow
which is also today.
The telephone rings
and you say to me
Hello Buckling this is Christopher; or
Daddy it's Allegra; or
Mr. Fuller this is the Telephone Company Business Office;
and I say you are inaccurate.
Because I knew you were going to call
and furthermore I recognize
that it is God who is "speaking."

And you say
aren't you being fantastic?
And knowing you I say no.

All organized religions of the past
were inherently developed
as beliefs and credits
in "second hand" information.

Therefore it will be an entirely new era
when man finds himself confronted
with direct experience
with an obviously a priori
intellectually anticipatory competency
that has interordered
all that he is discovering.

-R. Buckminister Fuller

Me too......................

"For most of my life, one of the persons most baffled by my own work was myself."
-Benoit Mandelbrot

Anarchic.............................

"The people who invented the twenty-first century were pot-smoking, sandal-wearing hippies from the West Coast like Steve (Jobs), because they saw differently.  The hierarchical systems of the East Coast, England, Germany, and Japan did not encourage different thinking.  The sixties produced an anarchic mind-set that is great for imagining a world not yet in existence."
-Bono, as quoted in Walter Isaacson's Steve Jobs

A Pat Metheny kind of day............Part the last

Pat Metheny Group...As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls  (Pt 1)




Part two is here

A Pat Metheny kind of day...........Part 4

The Pat Metheny Group.....................Last Train Home

A Pat Metheny kind of day......Part 3

Pat Metheny Group.................................Chris

A Pat Metheny kind of day.........Part 2

Pat Metheny Group..............................San Lorenzo

A Pat Metheny kind of day.....Part 1

Pat Metheny Group......................Are You Going With Me?

Lately it occurs to me.................

Grateful Dead....................................Truckin

As a public service..............

From Ka-Ching! comes a whole host of simple ideas to make life a tad easier.  Many ideas here.  One idea here:

You can thank me later.

Seems true enough.......................

thanks Bilbo

Shaping a generation............Part 4

Tom Terrific and Mighty Manfred the Wonder Dog

A bit off track perhaps...............

“Education is not to reform students or amuse them or to make them expert technicians. It is to unsettle their minds, widen their horizons, inflame their intellects, teach them to think straight, if possible.”

-Robert M. Hutchins

In case you are curious......................

“The aim of science is not to open the door to infinite wisdom, but to set a limit to infinite error.” -Bertolt Brecht

Ethan Siegal explores what came before the Big Bang - here.  Faithful readers will know that this blogger is fascinated by pictures from the Hubble Telescope and the like.  They may also realize that this blogger long ago made peace with the notion that some things are just unknowable. Still...............

thanks maggie's

Vain..........................

thanks mme

Practice.............................

thanks jonco

Sweet............................

A bit of relief at the pump after a season of $3.69 per gallon gasoline.  Felt really smart loading up at $3.18 until we passed Sam's Club where a gallon was priced at $2.98.  Nothing like "cheap" gas to perk up attitudes.

Storm before the calm..................

John Mayer............................Slow Dancing in a Burning Room

The vital link.....................

via

Some things never change................

To the Treasurer of the United States (unsent)

December 26, 1961

Dear Sir:
     I have been  reading the statement of December 13, 1961, the last one I have received.
     I'd appreciate it if you could find a way to place debits and credits so an ordinary citizen like myself could understand what you are trying to show.
     When I am through looking and figuring what you mean I have to set up my own statement.
     Why don't you set up yours so any citizen who understands debits from credits can know what you are doing.  I don't think the financial advisor of God Himself would be able to understand what the financial position of the United States is, by reading your statement.
     And I have been going through them and trying to find out what they mean for twenty-seven years!  I found out but it took all day and half the night to do it.  Make your statement a simple bookkeeping document so that any of us can understand it.

-Off the Record, The Private Papers of Harry S. Truman

Synthesizers...........................

"We are drowning in information, while starving for wisdom. The world henceforth will be run by synthesizers, people able to put together the right information at the right time, think critically about it, and make important choices wisely."
-E. O. Wilson

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A quick review........................

of the history of a few of your favorite spices.........

image via

Might be accurate......................

via

Memories..............................

“Most of our oldest memories are the product of repeated rehearsal and reconstruction.”
-Ulric Neisser

cartoon via

Shaping a generation..........Part 3

The Mickey Mouse Club/DisneyLand..........because we like you

Spread your wings................

Santana...............................One With You

Been this way since 1956.............

The Searchers................................Love Potion #9

It all gets so confusing.................

image via

The blame game...................

Barking Up The Wrong Tree suggests we not play it:

A study conducted by Harvard Medical School psychiatrist George Valliant showed that people who “projected,” or blamed others for their misfortunes, were much less able to adjust to the changing events in their lives…

"Forgiveness, not guilt, increases accountability"

"Resisting blame makes you more productive and happier."

Can I get an Amen.....................?

"There are days when our greatest achievement is avoiding acts of self-sabotage."
-Michael Wade, as excerpted from here, following up on a previous post of his, here:

Only words...........................

Full post is here

Yes, it is.....................

thanks mme

Do as I say, not......................

"Laws are to govern all alike - those opposed as well as those who favor them. I know no method to secure the repeal of bad or obnoxious laws so effective as their stringent execution."
-U. S. Grant

image via

Working on listening...............

image via

Built on punctuality...............

The Kinks.............................. A Well Respected Man  

Not everybody..............................

thanks hugh

A view from the ledge..................

Jeff finds some dandy signs.  His post is here.

Here of late, I'd have to agree...............

The Ventures....................................Walk Don't Run

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

"When I was born, the doctor handed me to my mother and said, 'Mrs. Ziglar, you have a perfectly fine, healthy baby boy.'  Nine days later he picked me up and sadly shook his head, indicating that I was dead.  Yes, I died when I was nine days old.  However, my family has told me that my grandmother walked to me, picked me up, held me in her hands , and started talking to me.  Of course, we all know that she really was not talking to me....and in a matter of seconds breath came back into my body; at age seventy-five it's obvious I lived."

-Zig, The Autobiography of Zig Ziglar

Wonder if I should blog louder..........?

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Dreamers..........................

"All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible. This I did."

-T. E. Lawrence

The world is really divided into two classes: those who divide the world and those who don't, but....

"The world is divided into two classes:  those who believe the incredible, and those who do the improbable."
-Oscar Wilde

image via

Change....................

     "So remember, when people come to you and ask you for help, do so as best you can.  Be kind, be generous, be gracious, be a big person and give of yourself - give your energy.  You don't necessarily have to give your money, but give of your energy.  You can give advice, love, expertise, but don't pick them up.  So when they say, 'What should I do?' ask 'What would you like to do?'  'How do I fix this problem?'  'How would you like to fix this problem?'  'How am I going to get out of this mess?' and  'How would you like to get out of this mess?'
     "You get them to see that the only way up is when they're enthusiastic about their life and their evolution on this earth plane.  When their desire to achieve and perceive and create more is greater than the ego's self-indulgence, obstinacy, and destructive ways, then - and only then - will people change."

-Stuart Wilde, Infinite Self

Shaping a generation...............

Mighty Mouse......................Cartoon theme song and intro

Different eyes........................

"Blessed are the weird people - poets, misfits, writers, mystics, painters, troubadours - for they teach us to see the world through different eyes."

-Jacob Nordby

thanks Michael

Really, I meant to do that.............

thanks jonco

Jobs and houses............................

From Calculated Risk comes this interesting chart comparing the unemployment rate and housing starts.  One interpretation would be that the bursting of the housing bubble and the collapse of  home building in mid-2006 caused the extremely rapid disappearance of over two million jobs.  While the home building industry is no longer comatose, it is not  back on its feet yet either.  Ergo, sluggish re-employment.  Bill McBride opines on the data here.

Twofer................Blue skies

Willie Nelson.......................................Blue Skies





George Strait.......................................Blue Clear Sky

Working my first real job in..............

....downtown Philadelphia way back in 1973, I became accustomed to reading about Arlen Specter.  At the time he was running for (and losing) a third term as District Attorney for the City.  As a result of that early exposure, plus a strong interest in the Supreme Court, I have avidly followed Specter's twisting and turning political career.  Lots of interesting things are being said about him since his death on Sunday.  I think my favorite quote is here:

"..... Sen. Russell Long of Louisiana drawling that 'Ah-len is a hard man to do a favor for…' "

Not sure I would like that for my epitaph.   Full post from whence the quote came is here. 

Senator Arlen Specter              1930-2012

Can I get an Amen............................?

"If I'd known I was gonna live this long, I'd have taken better care of myself."
-James Hubert (Eubie) Blake

Eubie Blake............................Charleston Rag

Bismarck........................

Portrait of Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck by Franz von Lenbach   1890

A few quotes attributed to Otto von Bismarck:

They treat me like a fox, a cunning fellow of the first rank. But the truth is that with a gentleman I am always a gentleman and a half, and when I have to do with a pirate, I try to be a pirate and a half.

Preventive war is like committing suicide for fear of death.

He who has his thumb on the purse has the power.

Politics is the art of the possible.

A conquering army on the border will not be stopped by eloquence.

Politics is not an exact science.

The great questions of the day will not be settled by means of speeches and majority decisions but by iron and blood.

The main thing is to make history, not to write it.  

Anyone who has ever looked into the glazed eyes of a soldier dying on the battlefield will think hard before starting a war.

People never lie so much as after a hunt, during a war or before an election. 

Be polite; write diplomatically; even in a declaration of war one observes the rules of politeness. 



Thanks for the spelling correction, Michael.  We do strive for some semblance of accuracy over here, however..........

Real estate investing the old-fashioned way.....

The Trend Czar bemoans the difficulty of chasing yield in real estate these days.  Essay here.  Favorite excerpt about investing in tertiary markets here:

"The players positioned to master these markets are really the local operators, often family developers or old line firms with deep “home-town” roots. They have been willing to invest in their communities, hold for the long-term, and get rich slowly, husbanding tenants and cash flows."

But Sweetie, I'm working on my blog.....

Yeow....................................

Walter Russell Mead certainly is cranky this morning:

"New York City has been governed by liberals for generations. Surely if blue policies could produce an egalitarian utopia with a strong middle class, we would see it in New York before we would see it anywhere else. If liberals were good at running cities, people from all over the world would be coming to study New York’s public schools, marveling at the extraordinary success with which unionized teachers were transforming the lives of low income kids. Our transit system would be the envy of the world as well; awestruck visitors from benighted places like Shanghai and Tokyo would come to gaze in amazement at the speed, cleanliness and economy of the New York subways. Small business formation would be booming as the bustling economy of manufacturing start ups created opportunities in the inner cities.

Yet, somehow, this isn’t happening. It’s great mystery. Certainly incompetence, crony capitalism, cockamamie regulatory overreach and entrenched unions can’t have anything to do with it. It must be the fault of those horrible Tea Party people in flyover country. They are selfish. They are greedy.  They don’t want to pay their fair share."

Full essay is here.

A new favorite phrase..............

Faithful readers will know that "unintended consequences" are a favorite topic of this blog.  George Wills latest essay offers a new turn on that phrase.  Full essay is here.  Excerpt here:

"Endorsing the axiom (attributed to Napoleon) that one should 'never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence,' Fisher says that TBTF banks 'are sprawling and complex — so vast that their own management teams may not fully understand their own risk exposures, providing fertile ground for unintended ‘incompetence.’ ”

thanks maggies

Drag me.......................

The Rolling Stones..............................Wild Horses

Unfortunately..........................

via

Falling (The $, not gas prices)...................

Tough........................

"I have been up against tough competition all my life. I wouldn't know how to get along without it."
-Walt Disney

Modest......................

"Philosophers should consider the fact that the greatest happiness principle can easily be made an excuse for a benevolent dictatorship. We should replace it by a more modest and more realistic principle — the principle that the fight against avoidable misery should be a recognized aim of public policy, while the increase of happiness should be left, in the main, to private initiative."
-Karl Popper

Choosing.......................

"Warren Hardin of Ohio was chosen by a group of men in a smoke-filled room early today as Republican candidate for President."
-Kirke Simpson

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Nostalgic............................

Ron Ziegler             Richard Nixon's Press Secretary

"This is the Operative White House Position.....and all previous
statements are inoperative."
-Ron Ziegler    April 17, 1973  per The Boston Globe

Send to you.....................

The Beatles.............................All My Loving

Checking in with the Ragamuffin............

Nicole's blog is here

History made easy.....................

A good question......

via

Man......................

"Man is by his constitution a religious animal; atheism is against not only our reason, but our instincts."
-Edmund Burke

This candle....................

I know that I have life
only insofar as I have love.

I have no love
except it come from Thee.

Help me, please, to carry
this candle against the wind.

-Wendell Berry

image via

So true..........................

Whenever I'm in line........................

thank jonco

The joys of parenthood.................

.............with David Kanigan.  Full story here.  Excerpt here:

"The mood has turned in the house.  Like a warm fire softly cackling in the background.  Like Thanksgiving with the sweet aroma of cinnamon and pumpkin filling the house. Like Christmas Eve with carols softly playing in background.  Like tucking your feet in warm cozy slippers."

Repeat after me................

.......................Technology is my friend.