Puppet Masters of the World Unite!

I really hope that they do not. But the article suggests that sometimes organisms are not in charge of their own destiny.

 

It would make a great SF story:

 

A parasite is found to attach itself to the human brain possibly changing the hosts brain chemistry. Once the first parasite is found then others are found. The research is inconclusive. Then it is found that the humans have a blind spot in their psyche for what ever parasite or parasites that infect them. What is the long range effects of this symbiosis? Has our intelligence improved to help us or the parasites? Are we really in charge of our destiny?

 

 

 

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/2008/12/16/the-puppet-masters-medicine-chest/

 

Why do you do the things you do?

 

 

 

 

Xmas Lost and Found

'tis part of the yearly dance

we dress up

we preen

we prance

 

a time of Mass

of holy vows

a time of crass

"holy cows"

 

we buy forgiveness

purchase smiles

wrap up guilt

travel miles

 

all that said

it really being

a magic time

for children's dreams

Good Advice From Robert Reich

http://robertreich.blogspot.com/2008/12/hybrid-vehicle-one-third-bailout-two.html

I agree that we let the financials file chapter 11 and help the Big Three.

bailout blues

The Following is from Daggatt Blog.

 

bailout blues

Yesterday was full of yet more truly boggling bailout news.

The Washington Post reported that those “fiscal conservatives” in the Bush administration managed to slip by a stealth $140 billion tax break for the financial industry in the fog on the financial bailout:

The financial world was fixated on Capitol Hilll as Congress battled over the Bush administration's request for a $700 billion bailout of the banking industry. In the midst of this late-September drama, the Treasury Department issued a five-sentence notice that attracted almost no public attention.

But corporate tax lawyers quickly realized the enormous implications of the document: Administration officials had just given American banks a windfall of as much as $140 billion.

By way of comparison, during the campaign Obama proposed spending $150 billion over ten years to help wean our economy from fossil fuels. That sounds like a lot of money, but it is the equivalent of a mere “five sentence notice” providing the financial industry with yet another tax massive break. “How are we going to PAY for all of Obama’s proposals?” reasonable people ask. Another financial industry tax break … not so much.

Another way of thinking of Obama’s decade-long transformation of America’s energy economy: The cost of bailing out ONE insurance company that is not even subject to federal regulation. It was reported yesterday that the cost of bailing out one company – ONE COMPANY – AIG has now reached $150 billion. Because of its counterparty exposure on derivatives that the federal government was prohibited from regulating:

The federal government announced on Monday an overhaul of its bailout of the insurance giant American International Group, saying it would purchase $40 billion of the company’s stock, after signs that the initial bailout was putting too much strain on the company. …

When the reorganized deal is complete, taxpayers will have invested and lent a total of $150 billion to A.I.G., the most the government has ever directed to a single private enterprise.

Some might say, if a company is too big to fail … it is too big. But that would be interfering with the “free market.”

Oh, and did I mention that HALF of the bailout funds going to the nine biggest banks – funds that were supposed to free up the credit markets and get banks lending again – will be paid out to shareholders as dividends over the next two years:

U.S. banks getting more than $163 billion from the Treasury Department for new lending are on pace to pay more than half of that sum to their shareholders, with government permission, over the next three years.

The government said it was giving banks more money so they could make more loans. Dollars paid to shareholders don't serve that purpose, but Treasury officials say that suspending quarterly dividend payments would have deterred banks from participating in the voluntary program.

Critics, including economists and members of Congress, question why banks should get government money if they already have enough money to pay dividends -- or conversely, why banks that need government money are still spending so much on
dividends.

Treasury Secretary Paulson’s primary concern throughout this crisis, apparently, is to avoid making the federal bailout too painful for bank shareholders. If the big, bad Democrats in Congress hadn’t insisted on equity in exchange for bailout funds, Paulson would have just given the banks a disguised equity infusion by overpaying for bad assets. For example, we wouldn’t want to “penalize” bank executives for the rewards they have “earned” for their brilliant risk-management strategies:

Financial giants getting injections of federal cash owed their executives more than $40 billion for past years' pay and pensions as of the end of 2007, a Wall Street Journal analysis shows.

The government is seeking to rein in executive pay at banks getting federal money, and a leading congressman and a state official have demanded that some of them make clear how much they intend to pay in bonuses this year.

But overlooked in these efforts is the total size of debts that financial firms receiving taxpayer assistance previously incurred to their executives, which at some firms exceed what they owe in pensions to their entire work forces.

And you don’t even want to KNOW where the $2 TRILLION in Fed bailout funds are going. (If you are having trouble comprehending these sums, just think of it as roughly one Iraq War.) Even if you DID want to know, they aren’t telling (presumably because it might cause you to “lose confidence” in the recipients – so you can just lose confidence in the entire system instead). From Bloomberg:

The Federal Reserve is refusing to identify the recipients of almost $2 trillion of emergency loans from American taxpayers or the troubled assets the central bank is accepting as collateral.

Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said in September they would comply with congressional demands for transparency in a $700 billion bailout of the banking system. Two months later, as the Fed lends far more than that in separate rescue programs that didn't require approval by Congress, Americans have no idea where their money is going or what securities the banks are pledging in return.

I feel like I’m coming off as some kind of raging populist. But, seriously, when President Obama takes office and starts talking about things like extending unemployment benefits and children’s health insurance and other economic stimulus measures, we’re going to have to endure a lot of hand-wringing over the cost of those initiatives. Because the recipients don’t have the ability to bring down the global financial system. But let’s put the cost in perspective.

No wonder Obama was elected. Chris Rock summed it up:

"[Bush has] made it hard for a white man to run for president. People are saying, 'After Bush, I'm not sure we can take another chance on a white guy."

Election Angst...

Election angst is not to be mistaken or conflated with all my other angst. The everyday angst of just getting out of bed. The angst of getting old and all the other domesticated angst that populate my life. The angst, that my life is what Socrates was referring to when he said, "an unexamined life is not worth living."

 

Election angst is the fear that what will happen will be exactly the opposite of what I hope and voted for on the national level. The Gore factor once again. The stealing of another election. That knot in my stomach that will not go away until the results tomorrow verify what course we as a country have set for ourselves. 

 

I personally do not think our nation will be able to heal itself if McCain wins. His campaign has shown us that he is not a positive force. He works from fear. His lies are as facile as Bush lies. He divides. He will not make the kind of choices that are needed to bring us back to our pre Bush world leadership role. His anger will put all of us in harms way. His choice of VP is a sample of his decision making ability.

 

Actually I am not looking for an ideologue. I don't want the dogma of party politics to shape our future. I want someone who can lead. Inspire. Has a vision that we all can buy into. To make us better as a nation, as a people, as individuals. Obama seems to have that ability. And more than anything that is the reason I have voted for for him.

 

Having voted for Obama. I now carry the election angst that my vote mean something. That we can rise again after the damage wrought by the neocons and Bush.

Why Ask Why?

I have on my wall here at work a sign with Why repeated 5 times. This is like a Quality Mantra. By asking why 5 times you can, more times than not, get to the root of a problem. I have had this conversation with Dick when we go to lunch...this root of the problem or problem solving world I have inherited makes perfect sense when dealing with business, but boring conversation. Which probably says a lot for the fact that Dick and I have this conversation at all. Plus the fact that asking why 5 times in a social setting could get you clobbered. Am thinking we all have had that 2 or 3 year old looking at us and asking why for the umpteenth time. Our frustration level rises and we end the conversation with, "Because I said so!"

Actually, am thinking that as adults we are socially engineered to except the "Because I said so!"  as the final say on much of what we do and know. Oh it is not exactly stated as "Because I said so!" but much of instruction seems to be impervious to the why line of questioning. We become so unquestioning in much of what we do that I am thinking we do not want to think. Because to question something is the first sign intelligent thought. And by example it is almost a forgone conclusion that if we get an email rant that even remotely meshes with our concept of the universe we will pass it on without even asking one why. We start to become non questioning from that first dismissive "Because I said so!" retort from our parents or other adults. 

 

I am asking myself why I am inflicting this upon you. I know it is not interesting by any stretch of the imagination. And I have rambled horribly without much thought.

 

Again Why.

 

Who knows...did not have anything of real import to say...just seem to think of weird stuff...but in this time of political hyperbole maybe we could step out of our comfort zone and ask the why of some things...

Daggatt Through the Heart

http://daggatt.blogspot.com/2008/10/moyers-interviews-soros.html

 

A snippet of Bill Moyers interview with Soros. Worth the time to read. 

Links to Reality

As usual Brin is spot on and worth the read

http://davidbrin.blogspot.com/2008/09/scary-stuff-political-lamp-is-lit.html


Below a link to Russ Daggats Blog (daggat blog) for Sept 23, 2008 in it he includes a letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders from Warren Buffet from 2002. It describes the "derivatives and the trading activities that go with them: We view them as time bombs, both for the parties that deal in them and the economic system."
http://daggatt.blogspot.com/2008/09/financial-weapons-of-mass-destruction.html prescient

Issues over the Horizon

http://www.rand.org/publications/randreview/issues/summer2008/horizon.html

 

(the following lifted from the Rand website linked above)

Some interesting perspectives on the future, worth a read.

Eleven Emerging Challenges

To celebrate the 60th Anniversary of the RAND Corporation and to uphold its tradition of taking on the big issues of tomorrow, a call went out to all RAND staff around the world, inviting them to propose essays on “important policy issues not currently receiving the attention they deserve in the public debate” — issues, in other words, that might be on the back burner today but will likely become front-burner issues within the next five years.

More than 100 issues were raised. The final product: the 11 essays published here. These were selected either because they highlight major public policy problems that have eluded the mainstream media radar or because they point toward major public policy solutions that have been likewise overlooked — or both.

Despite the wide range of topics, from corporate malfeasance to antimicrobial resistance, common themes emerge. The biggest one is the shaky financial footing that threatens to undermine several pillars of the public interest: Medicare, Social Security, roads, bridges, water systems, power grids, elections, military operations, diplomatic endeavors, and public health. At the same time, there are national and global reasons for hope. There is even a concluding vision of a new and better form of statecraft.

Readers might be tempted to connect the issues outlined here with those being debated on the U.S. presidential campaign trail, but that is not the intent. Our goal is to raise public awareness of several salient issues that will likely grow in prominence regardless of the election outcome.

—John Godges

China outsourcing no longer cheap

http://money.cnn.com/2008/08/11/smallbusiness/china_no_longer_cheap.fsb/index.htm

 

check this out...just is reinforcing some of what am thinking about lately

Questionable Answers....

My thinking lately has been on the price of fuel. I wrote earlier in this blog that I thought China had come to the manufacturing game too late. It should be able to supply itself with consumer goods. But its distance from the US markets could make the cost of transporting goods the prohibitive portion of the total cost. Also that in the US, a regional manufacturing paradigm may have to come into being. Transportation will become the deciding factor of the logistics of distribution.
I may be simplifying this a little but...it is something to think about...does this fuel increase make the resurgence of manufacturing in the US doable in the future?

One more thing on the China juggernaut. The ignored fact that they are degrading their environment on an unprecedented scale. This neglect will have to be faced in the near future. I do not believe that there is a river in China now that does not dry up at some time in the year. The waters are very polluted.

China's manufacturing has been growing a conservative 10% a year. This growth has fueled a middle class growth with expectations of a clean, healthy environment (clean air, clean water, proper disposal of toxic wastes) for their families to be raised in. It is this middle class that will force the Government to face the cleanup issues in the near future. This cleanup will be expensive and may slow down the growth curve we are seeing now.

Windy Detritus

For some reason I started thinking of kites this morning...could be the closeness of March...cannot be that it was windy...I just remember the excitement of picking out the special one, a dragon or lion, some beasty that would surely scare the wind gods into carrying my kite aloft...then of putting together the paper, wood, string construct...being too excited to put a tail on and running outside with my brother and sisters, each with their own kite, each kite a different mythological beast...to try them out...laying the kite on the ground and spooling out string until 10 to 15 feet separated my from my kite...everyone else was busy with their kites...so at first we would each drag around our kites trying to get them to fly...all of us breathlessly running, dragging kites on the ground in hope of them catching some wind and flying...of course this never worked...eventually we would make tails and work together...stand in the pasture waiting for wind...one holding the kite the other with the string...coolness of the spring day nipping our fingers...cheeks red...impatient with the wind gods and their teasingly short gusts...hours were spent...the thrill of getting one kite airborne was the victory that we all were waiting for...

 

...so it was not that it was windy this morning...it was that I was captured for a moment by simpler times...where success was measured by the amount of fun was generated...how do we measure success now? I know for a fact that I do not use a fun factor...money or position seem to have become our standards for success...wonder what life would be like if we continued to measure our successes by the fun factor?

Super Bowl Sunday...

Yes, I did end up at McGuires for the Super Bowl. I had debated whether to go down there or not to watch the game. I do have a history of when watching games that I have a favorite in, that the team I like loses. I came to the conclusion that this attitude was absurd. To think that I have any influence on events like these just by viewing them on tv would be the height of that absurdity. Making me God like in a twisted sort of way.

I know for a fact that I am not a God. So this is a assinine viewpoint.

I got to McGuires after 4 so the game was well under way. I think of the dozen or so people there, 9 favored NYG to win and only 3 for NE. There is an underdog underground in America. We love winners. We worship perfection. Yet the majority in that bar were pulling for the underdog. Perhaps it is not so much an underdog thing as an anti-hubris factor. When winning becomes the norm (and seemingly easy) for a team/person/country...am thinking we all have that kernel of doubt that winning always is a good thing...that they should be brought down a notch, that losing would actually be a good thing for them...the building character thing. I do not know.

This was a game that will for some time be the yardstick to measure future Super Bowls against.

So...I did watch the game. Yes, the team I wanted to win, lost. These facts are indesputable.

What now?

I AM THE GREAT AND TERRIBLE OZ!!!

Hawking Your Where's....

How is everyone this fine cold cold morning...there is a chill factor without there even being a wind...seems the colder it gets...the more I think of warm weather...and that lets me segue into a bubble of remembrance that popped into my pea brain this morning on the way to work...it was spring and for some reason I let my brother talk me into going and photographing a hawks nest with chicks...it was in the High Valley Ranch area north of Selah...as teens we had spent many a summer day up there hunting varmints and drinking beer...the High Valley is high desert steppes...low tuft grasses, bunch grass, sage brush, wild flowers, scrub willows...and an infinite crop of rocks to stumble over that also morph into cliffs and outcroppings...a seemingly constant wind blows across it...we drove as close to the nest as possible and still had a mile to walk to get to it...like I said it was spring...so the wild flowers were in bloom and the steppes were a riot of colors...yellows, purples, blues, gold's, reds...not mixed together but each flower species would be grouped...a patchwork quilt of color...with some intermingling on the edges...the light breeze was cool...we were wearing light jackets over long-sleeved shirts...low topped tennis shoes had me worried about sprains...the ground was littered with rocks and boulders and I have an aversion to sprains...we came to the place where the hawks nest was...we were at the top of a cliff...and after a little searching we found the nest with the chicks...the mother hawk flew off when we were trying to take pictures from above...after that we decided to look at the nest from the bottom of the cliff and started south along the top...the cliff petered out about a hundred yards on...to where we could just step off and reverse our course back to be below the nest...I stepped onto a boulder and then to the ground...at that point the distinctive sound of a rattlers warning could be heard...I do not remember moving...but instantly found myself several feet from where I heard the warning sound...my brother was still atop the boulder...we poked around a bit and found a 6" baby rattler was making the sound...now forewarned we gingerly made our way along the bottom of the cliff...trying to walk on tops of boulders where possible...as we move along the cliff face another warning sounded and we urgently looked around our feet...until I figured out that the rattling was not coming from the ground...it was coming from the cliff face...almost directly in front of me was a two inch wide crack in the cliff...and in that crack were two small rattlers letting me know that I was too close...sometimes nature just is too close for comfort...we did continue on and get a look at the nest from below...but were not happy about the low topped tennies we were wearing...we heard warnings several more times as we retreated...and were very happy to reach the place where we had originally stepped into this snake pit...the whole way back to the rig I was thinking of what could have happened if either one of us had been bitten...I guess it would have just made a story with a different ending...sorry for the detour into the mundane.

Cold Cold Heart...

It is cold here this morning...I am not a winter type person...would rather be snuggled in bed...under covers...and all that that implies...something about heat that attracts me...sun on my skin...beads of sweat rolling down my body...ice cold drink near by...sometimes when working in the yard..a kind of heat stupor overtakes me and time ceases to exist...movements are slow and deliberate...thinking is a minimalist step by step thing...Zen living...in the now...am wondering how close to heatstroke I am when this happens...but I love the way heat saturates the body...filling it with a reptilian kind of satisfaction of absorbing a form of cosmic nourishment...life...

Terminal Suspect

Nothing except work going on here...the Pacific Institute classes were interesting...a goal setting...visualizing...affirmation kind of toolset was presented to us...did not realize how much I used the visualize part (darts)...have not been good at goal setting or affirmation parts...can see the pluses...can see it making a difference in how I approach the world...most changes are meant to be internal on the self improvement scope...I am responsible for my own happiness...improve myself and improve the world around me...making this an 'all about me' concept...my shallowness embraces it...after all it is all about me...right...at least the right to pursue happiness...I am being flippant...which is a defense mechanism...but I can see a path...and do want to be happy and this does meld well with my own Zen...Buddhist...deistic...agnostic...atheistic...mélange of conflicting beliefs...which I don't think is all that different really than most other people...if they were to actually examine their witches brew of beliefs with an open mind...they too would see the conflicts and inconsistencies in their own internal dialogue...anyway...after that rambling and confusing walk through my psyche...which is neither here nor there...just a way to get to my original goal...I come to the important question...do you think these pants make my bum look too big?

Back to Work

Sometimes I think I should not take off any days from work. It seems inevitable that the time off does not refresh me or make me 'want' to go back to work. It instead makes me lazier than I already am. Going back to work becomes a burden. Taking time away from important tasks like reading, napping or just in general slothliness...sweats replacing work clothes as attire of the day...being able to opt out on the shaving routine...snacking on leftover xmas sweets...eating only food that is guaranteed to increase my roundness factor...crumbs stuck to the front of my well worn, wrinkled and stained sweatshirt could give clues to a CSI team as to my last 24 hours of slovenly behavior...all this amidst the fear of having to answer the door to a relative or friend, while looking like an escapee from a rehab facility...one of those places where you hear..."Hi, my name is Rick and I am addicted to junk food." or, "Hello, my name is Rick and my exercise routine consists of walking briskly from the couch to the refrigerator and back, but only during commercials or timeouts."...yea...one of those places...hmmmmm.....you know...maybe I should go to a rehab center...I could meet some totally screwed up pop diva...fall into some kind of mutual enabling love...marry her...then divorce her and get $20000 a week for support...Hey!...that is a great idea...after I finish this I am taking a month off...I have a plan...now where did I put those Cheetos?