(Sun River, OR) So here we were quietly wandering around this fine resort in the middle of Oregon, next to some gorgeous mountains:
…and this weird thought pops into my head as we ducked into the bar and grill in the shopping area to grab a quick, light dinner:
Has anyone ever correlated athletic performance to foods in this curious way:
Would eating a diet of fish improve the performance of swimmers?
Would eating a diet including lots of rabbit (or deer) – both known for quickness and running – improve the performance of runners, since that’s what those animals do well?
Or, if someone is trying to get in lots of “air time” antics, like in high-diving and perhaps trampoline or gymnastics, would eating lots of bird (chicken, duck, turkey, etc) have any impact on their ability to either stay aloft with more grace, or accomplish more in mid-flight/fall as in the twisty moves of high divers?
Yeah, I know…sheeh….there goes Ures truly off on another one of his wild tangents, but silly as it may seem (and easily debunked, perhaps) I don’t recall seeing any actual test data on this point.
Sorry if this offends the vegan readers of this site, but it’s well-documented that in ancient societies, tribal people ate the hearts of enemies and occasionally burned the blood of enemies and also occasionally leaders in order to absord at some chi/qui/qi smoked DNA level a bit of the essence of who that was. Cannibalism, however distasteful (and however poor the “finger food” jokes) may have had some basis in tribal beliefs.
Which got me to my Olympic ponder: Could I improve my life by eating those foods that would augment my naturally odd sense of humor, surliness, and wit? I’m thinking something like hyena, for example.
Just a thought – but maybe worth a few minutes of research.
Olympic Oddities
From readers:
“hi george, just a quick heads up — i thought it was very odd that, as of this morning, you cannot find a single video posted on the web of the entire, unedited version of the London 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony. NOT ONE. you cannot find it on the BBC site, YouTube, or NBC. all you can see on NBC is edited clips — NOT A SINGLE VIDEO of the very beginning of the program, where the children’s choir performs “Jerusalem,” either. don’t you find that a little strange? you can find hundreds of clips of the entire 2008 Bejing Opening Ceremony — but the complete 2012 Opening Ceremony has been removed or blocked on every posting. wonder why??? ”
Maybe that New Jerusalem in London hymn part of the ritual? But keep looking - everything ends up on the net eventually. Kind of like a big disposal or trash compactor in many ways…
And a reader in the Philippines writes…
“Dear George, I got alarm bells ringing ! You mentioned that Closing rites for the Olympics is on August 12. I was at a meeting today with the organizer trying to get us to agree for the next meeting date. Someone said August 12. Another jokingly mentioned that that was the date when the End started and all the catastrophes began in the movie, “2012″. When I asked him if indeed that was so. He said yes, because it had impressed him as he had watched the movie made three years ago just recently. I tried to find confirmation if indeed August 12 was the date in the movie but I could not find any, short of watching the movie. Anyway, too strange a coincidence. ”
Yes, on the weird pile, for sure.
Other Inquiring Minds
From a reader:
“Over the years I have been watching law enforcement in general slowly degenerate into a third world style operation that won’t do it’s job and just feeds you a load of crap. I’ve personally found this out where I’ve had someone rip me off had the cops be augmentative and obstructionist with me until something bad happened and when the cops had the person in the back of their patrol car they told me they had warrants on every one involved and that they were takeing them in but after the cops left they released them at their earliest convenance. That’s right the cops found a way to drop the ball even when they had the person doing the crime in the back of their patrol car and I’ll bet I’m not the only one with a story like this considering how many departments and jurisdictions have dropped the ball and B.S.ed me over this one matter.Now at the very least this is a major case of apathy and incompetence on the cops part. But I have to ask are the police really this screwed up on their own or are there a lot more cops as well as the people who hold the cops leash on the take then we realize because as you’ve said everthing is a business model and there are people who benefit from the justice system being ineffective. Something you may want to look into.”
Already have, at least as far as I need to: Of course, crime is a business model!
Anyone who doesn’t see that can’t do the math. Let me help.
Count up the number of people employed as law enforcement front line workers. City, county, state, feds and all those special agents of this or that agency – like game wardens, right? Now, about double that since there are so many people involved in the back end operations, even before trial once some infraction has been detected. OMG that is a big number, right?
If it is not big enough, just make more things illegal. God-given wild plants, for example. Or, like the fellow down in the Grants Pass, OR area which made headlines here in the Oregon papers: His crime? Collecting rainwater that fell on his property. Nope, if crime gets too low regulate something new and the hiring binge continues.
Then, as I have explained previously, there are at least three lawyers employed in every criminal (and most civil) cases: One for the prosecution or plaintiff, the defense, and the buy in the middle who’s not telling the jury about their right to ask questions, nullify laws if they don’t really fit, and so forth.
Then, because lawyers are only thinkers (or so goes the marketing of the legal system) we have an equal number of back-end workers who type the briefs, make the phone calles, do the legal research and generally make a fraction of the money and really do most of the work. It’s just they can’t sign Esq.
Then we have all the manufacturing jobs that come with crime: Police cars, radios, handcuff, even doughnuts to some degree.
We certainly can’t leave out the retirement funds for all these folks – that’s where the real money is. And since few people know that government hides all kinds of cash money under the rug for expansion purposes, we have all the accountants who don’t reveal CAFR (comprehensive annual financial reports) which usually show government is so far from broke as to make your head spin.
What’s really going on is sleight of hand here: Government puts the budget forward and whines poor, and then operates to something completely otherwise and pockets the difference. Look up CAFRs and then get involved in local government operations as a sure way to piss off the local wannabes of the PTB.
Back to point: You want to change this system?
Why, good luck: The unemployment rate would be 4 to 8 percent higher without institutionalized crime as an industry. Are you a freakin’ idiot? Of course crime is a racket and it doesn’t pay. But please, for the love of God don’t go rocking the boat by asking these embarrasing questions. Everything is a business model and can we just let it go at that?
Without crime, the global economic system would collapse, since it’s built on crime, particularly of the financial fraud type. Oh, and if you’re worried that some day we will all wake up to be either working the crime side, or in the box somewhere because we’re unrepentant questioners of authority? Well, sure, can’t make an omlett without breaking a few eggs.
So long as I’m not the egg.
Read up on the Stasi. Then look up “design pattern.”
There as some questions best left unasked. Like why are all those armoured personnel carriers being bought? You won’t like the answer, but at least you can still quietly go about your business…until I turn you in nm for asking, of course.
With Your Meds
Not to feed too much into the paranoia on the ‘net but this is an especially pertinent email along the same lines:
“Contrary to popular belief the rumors of military families being told to prepare for martial law is false. They are not telling the families, but are diseminating orders. I don’t know the level of disclosure, but my father who is serving 30+ years in the military recieved orders back in March that they will be transitioning from an assault force to an occupation force that will specialize in “civil retainment” and “structural support.” I already feel quite uneasy about stating this, and will most likely lose sleep so I hope you appreciate it. There is validity to the argument that soldiers won’t risk telling their families. It’s quite common from my experience. Also, it can be very easy to keep secrets with the right motivation. By the way, many soldiers are upset with the sequence of events in the past 3 years. Let us hope their boiling frustration is not misguided.”
Ah, but of course. Which is why a certain large national retain outfit has those mobile crane/watch towers pop up every so often to “deter crime.”
Foreplay. Desensitizing the peeps. But that’s OK, the intent is to feed people when the money’s no good. I trust you know when under a nickel’s worth of purchasing power (less than 5%) of what the dollar bought before the Fed took over back in 1913?
Rent us our money, promote the interest/usury scam and pretend it’s honest banking. Now why would people be pissed when it all blows up?
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Wanna read some seriously subversive material that supports the idea that it really does all blow up at some point? Try on the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency quarterly derivatives report. Highlights?
• Insured U.S. commercial banks and savings associations reported trading revenues of $7.0 billion in the first quarter, 5% lower than $7.4 billion in the first quarter of 2011. Trading revenues in the first quarter of 2012 were 178% higher than in the fourth quarter of 2011.
• Credit exposure from derivatives fell in the first quarter. Net current credit exposure decreased 12%, or $53 billion, to $377 billion.
• Trading risk exposure, as measured by Value-at-Risk (VaR), at the 5 largest trading companies totaled $564 million, 16.7% lower than in the first quarter of 2011.
• For the third consecutive quarter, the notional amount of derivatives held by insured U.S. commercial banks and savings associations fell. Notional derivatives fell $3 trillion, or 1.2%, from the fourth quarter of 2011, to $228 trillion. Notional derivatives continue to fall due to trade compression efforts in credit and interest rate contracts.
• Derivative contracts remain concentrated in interest rate products, which comprise 81% of total derivative notional amounts. Credit derivatives, which represent 6% of total derivatives notionals, fell 5% to $14 trillion.
And a cheerful chart?
So with notional values still about 12 times total US GDP does this mean some common sense is returning? Ha!
Theory Thursday: Maybe the dough is sliding offshore into accounts which are not reported to the OCC….
If the boyz are smart enough to hide bonus payments through tax-free offshore proxies, you think they can’t figure out how to move the derivatives craps game around to show whatever they want it to? Think of it this way: If I have a gambling problem and want to appear reformed, I would just give my stake to a friend, have them place the bets offshore somewhere and show only an IOU on my books. See? Legit-looking deposit with paper to prove it! I’m not a gambler after all, lol.
Too big to fund, too big to fail, too complicated for sheep anyway.
Birthday Excuse
This is one of those days when I’ve already exercised a huge amount of self-restraint: It’s my little sister’s birthday.
I resisted the urge to call her about 1 AM to say “Wanted to be the first to wish you happy….”
As the day comes along, I will no doubt get busy and forget to call, but for the record, I remembered. Then day intrudes.
Sister’s answer? “Thank you for the BD greetings. And the gift! (gift being NOT calling me at 1AM. ”
Life on the Road
As anyone should be able to figure out by now, this living out of a suitcase (several) is getting old after a month and some days. Never done anything this crazy in my life…or have I?
Anyway, we will be in Twin Falls ID on Friday. Not sure where we will be staying, but somewhere near the airport. We are slowly working our way back to Texas and should be there sometime early next week. Can’t believe all the crap involved in this trip. Definitely not a one-bagger weekend.
It was always one of my dreams to aimlessly wander around the country, stopping here, there, and anyplace that looked interesting. Now, I can say “Been there, done that.” The baggage aspect is a mutha.
A look at the Cascades or south central Oregon for the scrapbook featuring a fine bit of the back of my head…
Write when you break even…
George Ure (email comments to george@ure.net)
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Investing as a Knowledge Engineering Problem
(Tacoma, WA) Imagine for a moment that you have met someone who has mental problems, but is also a wealth of information. Perpetually, this problem is worried to death about the end of civilization in the coming year to 18-months (timeframes vary) but usually they are wrong about specific details, though sometimes they are shockingly right. Who is this “person?” Why, it’s the internet, of course! And what’s making investing incredibly difficult at the moment is a “bow wave” of fear that rides just of into the future some months. Can it be reduced to a knowledge engineering problem? Some discussion of the point after a check of morning headlines.
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