Robotics - playing fetch has never been weirder
July 19, 2008 – 2:04 pmhere’s to robot dogs/mules.
amazing.
Technorati Tags: Boston Dynamics, Robot, Big Dog
Scathing, Lucid, Brilliant Dismemberment of the Obamessiah by “the Hammer”
July 18, 2008 – 7:52 pmCharler Krauthammer, that is.
Some people say, “The emperor has not clothes” and they’re right, but not poetic.
Others, like Krauthammer, say it with such bite, such wit, and such conviction, that you can only say, “Wow, that’s going to leave a mark.” And then cringe on behalf of the target.
Read his most recent op-ed, here. He is spot on about Obama and his audacity and emptiness.
The truth, many are realizing, is that the “would be” emperor has no clothes.
Krauthammer just says it best.
Technorati Tags: obama, krauthammer, barack obama
Chuck Schumer fails IndyMac Bank
July 11, 2008 – 9:09 pmThis is some choice info from the IndyMac story . . .
IndyMac, which once employed 10,000, fell prey to a classic run on the
bank, and regulators singled out Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) for
helping fuel massive withdrawals. On June 26, the Schumer said in
letters to the FDIC, the OTS and two other federal agencies that
IndyMac may have “serious problems” with its loan holdings.
Nice job there …
IndyMac Bank fails
July 11, 2008 – 9:00 pmIt won’t be the last. Sadly.
I’m having visions of the bank run in “It’s a Wonderful Life” only there’s no George Bailey at the helm.
Technorati Tags: bank failure, indymac bank, indymac
Offense Taking is an Artform
July 11, 2008 – 12:20 pmAnd this woman is a master-class artist!
But maybe I’m just the pot calling the kettle black . . .
First step to being a master-class offense taker? Fail to understand language. Check.
Second step to being a master-class offense taker? See all communication through the prism of race (or gender, or political affiliation, etc.). Check.
Here’s a preview into the article:
In my talk, I included the time-honored saying, “the pot calls the kettle black.” Afterward, the African American woman who was the leader of the training program (a good friend of mine, incidentally), came to me in something of a dither. “Do you realize what you said?” she asked. “That is very offensive to black people.”
I said, “Look, Linda, the saying refers to a pot and a kettle hanging on hooks over a fire. That’s the way they cooked in medieval times. It means that both pot and kettle become blackened by the fire. The analogy is that when you criticize someone else while ignoring your own faults, this is like the “pot calling the kettle black.” Both pot and kettle are black. Of course, she simply responded that it doesn’t matter what the real meaning of the saying is . . .
(HT: The Corner)
Technorati Tags: race, offense taking, humor
The misleading, but effective, meme you’ll be hearing for the next 5 months
July 11, 2008 – 9:50 amIn visual form (see the graphic below).
Politics is interesting, if for nothing else than the sinister way politicians imply that (1) some politicians are responsible for all bad in the world and (2) some politicians are responsible for all good in the world and (3) all politicians believe they’re in the second category while their political adversaries are in the first.
Most politicians are incompetent. They’re experts in (a) making outrageous promises that are incompatible with economic law and human nature in exchange for votes, (b) ingratiating themselves with special interests and (c) pressing the flesh at cocktail parties in order to carry out (a) and (b).
Oh yeah, and they’re good at voting themselves pay increases.
The skills you need to get elected are primarily a combination of charisma and the ability to look someone in the eye and tell them a falsehood. The skills to you need to run an organization are integrity and the ability to look someone in the eye and tell them the truth.
As to the graph below, long-tern inflation is a monetary phenomenon. Short-term inflation is a fixed-supply/rising-demand phenomenon that is usually short lived and usually remedies itself.
I have a belief that we’re in a commodity bubble (in the short term, but a rising trend in the long term). The price of crude oil will likely plummet at some point in the next 8 months. By more than half.
Technorati Tags: gas prices, politicans, politics, inflation, monetary policy
The way to be free from worry is to panic
July 11, 2008 – 9:14 amI had to laugh out loud when I read this quote from Cullen Hightower today.
We experience moments absolutely free from worry. These brief respites are called panic.
Anyone who knows me is aware that this pretty sums my personality.
I’ve pretty much never met a worry I didn’t like, and if a worry is really lucky, it gets to be one of my panics.
Great resource for learning soccer skills
July 10, 2008 – 3:56 pmVideos are great!
Technorati Tags: soccer
Microfinance going Megaprofit
July 8, 2008 – 4:15 pmI’ve been a little obsessed with microfinance ever since I read Banker to the Poor a few years ago. It’s the story of how Muhammad Yunus and his Grameen Bank used micro-finance (really, really small lonas) to help poor people (primarily woman) make a subsistence living in Bangladsh - they would lend to them when no one else would, allowing them to acquire the capital they needed to produce a good that could be exchanged for their necessities in life.
Very touching story and worth reading.
Today in the Economist I read about a publicly-traded for-profit company that is making a tidy sum doing micro-lending - ComportamosBanco. They’re criticized by some, but I actually come down on the side of this bank. By doing this for-profit, they’ll develop the market further, reaching more of the world’s poor, more quickly.
You can read the article here. Worth five minutes of your time.
Technorati Tags: muhammad yunus, grameen bank, microlending, microfinance, microcredit, banker to the poor
If you want to learn more about Minarchism, look no further
July 8, 2008 – 11:14 amAs many of you know, I am, essentially, a minarchist. Not an anarchist, a minarchist. Which I guess is kind of like a mini-anarchist, meaning a little bit of an anarchist (hey, there’s no government like no government”!).
The difference between minarchists and anarchists is that minarchists DO believe in a form of a “state”, while anarchists don’t.
The form of government in Minarchism is also known as a “Night Watchman State”.
Many libertarians are minarchists, and some are anarchists.
Both Minarchists and Anarchists agree that governments largely screw up economic transactions whenever they intervene, and that economic transactions between peoples who are not under duress or coercian (read: threat of force against their will) should not be interfered with by the “state”.
Minarchists believe the role of the state is essentially to protect private property and the rights of individualsm, and to do very little else.
Ron Paul is probably the most high profile minarchist in the US today. Most of the Austrian Economists - whose views I believe are, by and large, economic “gospel” and do more to explain human behavior than any other discipline - are minarchists. To learn more about Austrian Economics, read this.
And to learn more about minarchism, read this!
Technorati Tags: minarchism, night watchman state, anarchism, government, austian economics
