Monday, March 14, 2011

Bits and pieces 3-14-11

If it bleeds it leads. So we will be contiually harranged about what may happen at the nuclear power plants.

In the meantime our media will ignore the real interesting story of how well the Japanese people are dealing with this, and why they are doing so.

But then that would require real knowledge, introspection and study.

Something the press has never done well, if at all.

I worked for two very large Japanese corporations in the twilight of my career and what I discovered was that almost everything I had been told about the Japanese was not true. While they were polite, almost to a fault in some cases, they didn't suffer fools very well. And while they respected age, age was supposed to be able to demonstrate it deserved that respect. And while they were patient, they expected results based on what you you were willing to committ to.

Three very good "traits" if you ask me.

Over the 11 years since I left I have lost track of all of them. Several I know remained in the US. Others returned home. I pray they are all well.

In the meantime back in the Land of the Big Gedunk. (That's CONUS in Navy speak.)

The prols are becoming even more restless.

Source: TalkingPointsMemo.com

New York Federal Reserve President William Dudley on Friday tried to calm people's nerves about rising food prices by reminding them that other products -- like iPads -- are getting cheaper.

"Today you can buy an iPad 2 that costs the same as an iPad 1 that is twice as powerful," Dudley said in Queens, Reuters reports. "You have to look at the price of all things."

But better iPads don't put food on the table, audience members reminded him. "When was the last time, sir, that you went grocery shopping?" one person asked. And, perhaps most succinctly, another told him, "I can't eat an iPad."

Link

The article goes on to air the Fed's claim that we can expect a 4% food price hike this year.

Somebody is lying, or else they can't factor in a 75% run up in energy costs to the price of food. Somehow I think the former is the correct answer.

Returning to things more personal, as if the cost of eating could be less personal........

I have seen two old friends leave us behind in the past 6 weeks.

The herd thins.

And I listen more intently to any rustle in the weeds that surround the old body. "Here there be Tygers" is what they use to write at the edge of maps showing unknown lands. And we all have an unknown land in our future.

Where did the time go?

With all the wars and devastion going on I find it difficult to find a sci fi story that out does reality. Maybe one that has a story about how mankind will always forge ahead.


Planet Stories
September 1953

And that would be "The Ark of Mars," by Leigh Brackett. I have no memory of the story, but the theme was that mankind would overcome all problems. I think that is why I liked scifi. I was as poor as a church mouse and had to work to just have spending money.

But I knew I was going on to better things.

BTW - Brackett was also a screen writer. Next time AMC shows "Rio Bravo" look for her name in the credits at the end of the film.



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"Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them." - Karl Popper

“Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants. It is the creed of slaves.” - William Pitt

"Logic. There is little logic among the cultural elite, maybe because there is little omnipresent fear of job losses or the absence of money, and so arises a rather comfortable margin to indulge in nonsense." - Victor Davis Hanson