Call the Nobel Committee! In Monday’s column, I explained the hard lesson about lifestyle and loans from the National Bank of Dad. As luck would have it, this morning serves up the important lesson that…you’re going to love this….Idiocy is Fractal!!!
Yessir, we start this morning realizing that the behavior of our children is just a downsized version of our own, which is a downsized version of our city/county and this, in turn is downsized from State and then National government.
And my final proof that idiocy is fractal in nature? (That is, the same patterns go on at all levels…) Well here you go:
“Greece secures bailout to avoid debt default.”
The Monthly Port Check
Let me see: January inbound down 5.5% at Long Beach while outbound was down 8.2%. Los Angeles was up 5.25% on inbound and 5.9% on outbound. So flat to a tad down.
Meantime the Baltic Dry index is hovering midway between grim and disastrous.
Still, the market is looking to open up a tad, but I wouldn’t count out a downside reversal. Someone is bound to sober up at some point and see what’s happening: flat sales…which means no profit growth which means no greater fools…which means….(bring on the war to kick-start this puppy again!).
War on Purim?
Remember a few weeks back when we were speculating that the Purim, the Jewish day or revenge/deliverance, might be an interesting time for war to break out (March 8 this year)? Well, here’s another place where that’s coming up…
Interesting thing is that the observance is when (sayeth Wikipedia) “According to the Book of Esther, Haman, royal vizier to King Ahasuerus planned to kill the Jews, but his plans were foiled by Mordecai and Queen Esther.” If I were the marketing officer NuWar, it’d be a simple “leading role switch” from Haman to Tehran’s leaders…
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Coincidental about this also being the day (Mar 8) that the internet gets shut down to people with DNS_Changer virus on their computers?
Moonquakes? And one 12 Mi. from New Madrid…
Curious story about ‘em in the UK’s Register here. But it’s like I always used to say: Seismology has a shaky future…
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Earthquakes in eight places up the west side of California yesterday…nothing really big, but from Chiapas, Mexico, northward.
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There was also a 4.0 shake at about 4 AM today up in Missouri around Sikeston according to the USGS maps here.
Well, wouldn’t you know it: A check of the map and the quake turns out to be 12.3 miles from where? New Madrid!
This is one of those interesting little quirks of how science works. Sometime – eons ago, I suppose, the geologists all got together and decided on (as was explained to me by one gubbermint ‘fish-al “standard landmarks” for quakes.
Which is why we can have a quake 12-miles from New Madrid this morning and it doesn’t show up in the automated report. I first got onto this after looking at an almost 7.0 at Amchitka Island up in Alaska, since that was where we blew off a bunch of underground nukes. I thought to myself “My, ain’t that curious that Amchitka isn’t used as a landmark. And seems, neither is the widely known location of New Madrid.
Weird stuff this science stuff? Or, part of perception management to keep people from freaking out? That question may hound me till lunchtime…
Mortgage Settlement
All that hoopla about the national mortgage settlement? A copy of the settlement docs on the National Mortgage Settlement website is still marked “coming soon” as of this morning. Can it be that long, or is there tough to write language which will end in a homeowner BOHICA? Time will tell I’m supposing….
I imagine it’s going to be hard to call it a settlement of X dollars though if the banksters have crafted it just so that no actual cash comes out of their pockets…only future fees, refi’s and such.
Can’t have us armchair cynics and lots of interested lawyers reading it prior to states signing off on it…care to bet there is a “this is a one time settlement” clause of some kind. Wonder how many states are going to roll over and go Patriot Act on this one (i.e. not read, just blindly rubber stamp it)?
Road Rage Control Program
The Mother Jones report out on “Nuclear Weapons on a Highway Near You” has me wondering it that’s not the ultimate less in containing road rage. Got the goanies to flip off the 18-wheeler driver who has a 1 megaton response?
Nano-Transistors Vs. Happiness
I have a hard time coming up with a lot of excitement about the reported breakthrough in nano-transistors which could make computers a billion times faster.
Near as I can figure it, this won’t buy me much since….
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I still only type at about 100.
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DragonSpeak is often waiting on me to complete a thought when I play that version of speak & spell.
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I don’t need to get junk mail any faster.
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Iran, India, Pakistan, et al don’t need to model nuclear weapons any faster.
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Military planners don’t need battle plans done much faster.
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While such computers might open up new frontiers of medicine through such fields as gene manipulation, isn’t that what Hitler was driving toward?
Near as I can figure it, the faster transistor will end up on the scrap-heap of history…just like how atomic power, we were assured in the 1950′s would make “power too cheap to measure.”
The proponents of new tech items are smart…I’ll give them that. But they often as not fail miserably when it comes to wise. Worldwide humans are engaged in a dog-eat-dog race to….what?
Elaine was saying it last night…”Whatever happened to the 1970′s and early 1980′s?” People just had fun.
Today, people don’t do fun anymore. Everything is PC, everyone’s got a thinner skin and a me, me, me self-centeredness that boggles the mind. WTF? What’s the point of living to be 150 or having trillions of GB of RAM if all it does is make you work harder, longer, and in the end die with fewer memories of really great times?
The world has lost its way. People have come to focus more on process than outcome, more on form than substance.
Given a choice between a day fishing, or being at anchor surrounded by nature, perhaps augmented with just the right biochemicals, or a billion times faster junk mail, it’s an easy choice.
The only way into the future I’d really be onboard with would be a national Fun Initiative…so we could get away from our present “Best makers of war” and “Best uyser of resource” paradigm and substitute something a little more emotionally appealing: “Country of Maximum Fun and Freedom!”
I know that’s never going to sell, but if people aren’t having fun – what’s the frigging point? Everyone’s going to die…yeah, got it. But some will die miserable and some will have had a fine ride which on playback will be like wine in the (choice is yours here:) bardo, heaven, well of souls, yada yada…
We realize, around here at least, that many of our so-called leaders are stand up guys. It’s just that with a wink & a nod, we don’t say their last names too often. Comics.
I’m not trying to be Ned Ludd here, but higher tech hasn’t translated into a world of happier people yet…so care tell me again, why are we focused so much on that?
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Right now is the only time I’ll be able to fit this kind of thought into words…since the rest of today’s 14-hour day is already pretty well scheduled.
I’m pleased as punch to report that re-write of the old cowboy song (Home on the Range) “Drones, Drones on the Range…” was finally performed in public up in the Midwest somewhere (memory is gone, sorry). But the feedback is good:
G, had a meeting last Monday and didn’t get to play “Drones on the Range” last week. Played it tonight and when one plays in a bar and the incessant yakking quits so they can hear the words, It usually means that you have hit the nail on the head. Everybody liked it. I followed it up with a little gem I wrote a couple of weeks ago ” Vote em out on Election Day” which went over pretty good. I may have to record it and send a copy your way. Thanks,
Let us know where and when…I’ll talk to my consigliore about having a regional readers meeting at the bar ahead of the show…you know, an open mic kind of thing perhaps. Even a bit of stand-up comedy, like selected passages from the Congressional Record…that kind of thing….
More after this:
