Sojka's Call

The word that shall not be named. I really hate this word so much it pains me to even type it out for this post because it only empowers its' use. This word has become so overused especially in reviews of books. Maybe people think it denotes some kind of intellectual superiority or demonstrates their vocabulary knowledge. But, as in this post which will take you to the offending word that shall not be named, I am not the only one who wants to scream every time they hear or read this word. And, if you use this word in a comment to the post, it better be really funny or I will delete your comment. If you are ever tempted to say or write this word, look for something better - there surely is a better way to express yourself than this horrible word. Thank-you for your kind consideration. And, if anyone knows how to have stupid words eliminated from the dictionary, let me know. I wish there was a word arbiter that someone could appeal to that would review your claim and if valid...

Many people have a problem leaving a comment on Blogger when they don't have a Google account or do not want to sign in. Here is a procedure for leaving a comment with your first name (real or fictitious) or anonymously.

A leading scientist from the University of Berkley California who was one of the biggest skeptics of global warming and anthropogenic (human caused) global warming and previously funded by the Koch brothers has now reversed his opposition to both conclusions. I was one of those people who from looking at the data could agree that the earth was in a warming trend, but, thought there was scant evidence of anthropogenic causes. This new information is something that the educated voter and consumer should look at and decide on their own what to do. What can we do? First, make up your mind about the data and conclusions. You don't have to be a scientist to look at data, analysis and conclusions written by a scientist. If the evidence is clear, you will be able to see this and make up your own mind. Don't let the "experts" make you think this is something beyond your understanding. First, here is a video interview with Richard Muller the leading scientist who had previo...

My passing interest in hermits led me to watch this documentary called Amongst White Clouds. If you have 5 minutes watch from minute 20 to 25 http://video.google.com/   This hermit talks about reality and nature and though he does not use the words of science like in the article below, I think the message is the same. Let me know what you think. Reality doesn't exist; at least not in the way that we usually think of it. Dr. Jorge Martins de Oliveira writes,   “Our perception does not identify the outside world as it really is, but the way that we are allowed to recognize it, as a consequence of transformations performed by our senses.  We experience electromagnetic waves, not as waves, but as images and colors. We experience vibrating objects, not as vibrations, but as sounds. We experience chemical compounds dissolved in air or water, not as chemicals, but as specific smells and tastes. Colors, sounds, smells and tastes are products of our minds, bu...

In the recent NY Times Op-Ed by Maureen Dowd, Is Pleasure a Sin? which highlights the current discussion of "Just Love: a Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics,” a book by Sister Margaret Farley — a 77-year-old professor emeritus at Yale’s Divinity School, past president of the Catholic Theological Society of America and an award-winning scholar, we once again are confronted with organized religions attempt to control human activity that many argue is personal and not subject to religious laws. I would go further and say that this applies not only to sexual activity but the use of recreational drugs like marijuana, psilocybin mushrooms, peyote, etc that all at least mimic spiritual experience and many would argue, actually induce real spiritual experience. Why does the United States have laws against sexual acts still on the books of several states? It is still unlawful in many states for heterosexual couples to engage in certain sexual acts even if married and in their own h...

An old New England saying is that a farting horse never tires . Could it be true for the economy as well? I was reminded of this saying when reading the article below by First Trust Advisors. Maybe the fits and starts and hiccups the economy is seeing should be seen as good news and we should change our focus. What do you think? The Plow Horse Rolls On Turn on the television, pick up the newspaper, search the Internet and you will find story after story about Greece, JP Morgan, austerity, the labor force, student loans, California, the G-8, or the Facebook IPO.  Just about every bit of the coverage is negative. 

This link to an video interview with Dan Milllman has some very insightful words by Mr. Millman. In the past, certain friends have accused me of being a pacifist because of my opposition to various United States military operations in other countries. Try as I might to convince them that is not true, they continue to hold that mistaken belief. Mr. Millman summed up my basic philosophy at 6:40 into the interview. He stated the following. Let me define the term Peaceful Warrior. All of us are seeking to live with a peaceful heart but there are times when we need a warrior spirit. If we have to fight, let’s fight for something and not against something.  There is a much different spirit in fighting for something than fighting against something, rebelling, angry – fighting against something. I am not an idealist/pacifist.  In other words I would not let someone beat me to death, my family to death, because of my philosophy of non-violence. I believe in kindness whenever po...

It’s Real Growth, Not Just Sugar  Check out the link above, the data Wesbury presents and his argument about the role of new technology. My intuition says he is right but I have been fooled before.

Politics in the US have gotten mean. It seems that more of the meanness is coming from the Republican side, but, then I see this study by Jesse Graham, Brian A. Nosek, and Jonathan Haidt at the University of Virginia that says most likely my liberal bias is blinding me to the caring nature of my conservative friends. They investigated the moral stereotypes liberals and conservatives have of themselves and each other and made an interesting discovery. In reality, liberals endorse the individual-focused moral concerns of compassion and fairness more than conservatives do, and conservatives endorse the group-focused moral concerns of ingroup loyalty, respect for authorities and traditions, and physical/spiritual purity more than liberals do.  They found out that both liberals and conservatives correctly identified the other groups values but exaggerated them. What a surprise?! The surprise was that conservatives and moderates were more accurate than the liberals. Liberals exagge...

In When did our Politicians Stop Representing The Voters? Part 1 we discussed the Republican side and now in this Part 2 we look at how well the liberal side of the electorate is represented. To say that most liberals feel underwhelmed by President Obama is an understatement. Many feel downright betrayed.  The Johnathan Chait article   in the New Yorker traces liberal disappointment with any Democrat residing in the Whitehouse all the way back to FDR! And, now it is not surprising to see the same disillusionment by the left with President Obama. There never really was a honeymoon for the President - the howling started before he was inaugurated.

My email friends and I have some very spirited exchanges about politics bordering on acrimonious and sometimes going over the line. About half of them will vote for whomever the Pubs put up, 40% want the best candidate and 10% will vote for Obama. Those in the Pub camp keep pointing to government regulations as their deciding factor. The rest want someone who will be good for the economy primarily. They asked me for my opinion.

Trying to compare GDP per capita by country and then include other likely drivers is difficult. On the one hand you have countries like Liechtenstein and Luxembourg near the top of the list who are not relying on natural resources to drive their economy. Then there are the various Arab states and Norway who are benefiting from oil. My thoughts are to expand this into a matrix and include each country's debt as % of GDP, % of GDP spent on military, total population, health care as % of GDP, primary industry, form of government, and corporate tax rate. Then I would like to run a multiple linear regression to see if there are any attributes that are statistically valid determinants of GDP. Let me know if there are any other attributes you believe should be included.

Did you watch the debates last night? If you did maybe you were trying to remember the George Santayana quote "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it". Ron Paul was one of the four who apparently learned from our Iraq mistake about bad intelligence and urges caution about dealing with Iran. Santorum, Romney, and Gingrich are either stupid or have ulterior motives like keeping the US war machine cranked up. I really would like to have a favorable opinion of Romney but he keeps giving me big reasons to take pause. But, attacking Iran at this point in time does not make me feel safer. Over at the economic blog Angry Bear we find this little blurb and see a short writeup about the lunacy.  Last night Gingrich openly questioned how smart our Joints Chief of Staff General Martin Dempsey is in regards to future military adventures. Only the politicians know. What could the Generals know? Ron Paul, Ron Paul, Ron Paul................

Two interesting articles came to my attention. The first one by David Frum, former WSJ and Forbes writer, speechwriter in Bush II administration, and American Enterprise Institute (a Pub think-tank) policy writer. He wrote When Did the GOP Lose Touch With Reality ? The second was by Jonathan Chait, currently a writer for New York Magazine, on liberal disappointment with Obama called When Did Liberals Become So Unreasonable ? He writes that if liberals are always disappointed with the Dem president maybe it has something to do with unrealistic expectations. This subject makes me feel a little crazy. If the GOP has lost touch with reality and by extension, the far-right side of the population and if we see far-left liberals as unreasonable which is fairly easy for most folks to understand and when we look at our dysfunctional congress that abdicates its responsibility to the executive branch, refuses to tackle the real problems with deficits, executive branch war making, corporate t...

In this interview of economist, Lacy Hunt by Kate Wellin, the current world economic status is reviewed with particular attention to the U.S. The primary focus is current government debt levels and what those mean to future prosperity. The interview also goes into economic theory and comparison of the U.S. situation with Europe which is actually buying Uncle Sam some time. But, time is running out and if the latest budget proposal from President Obama does not scare the bejeezers out of you,

Link to Brin's blog here...... David Brin is just making so much sense lately. He slices and dices supply-side economics and trickle-down economics to pieces. We all knew on one level they did not make sense. It was like someone telling you that eating cookies will make you thin because all that sugar is going to hype up your metabolism and then your body will burn it off. Yea right!

In this part 2 article, Dr Brock goes further into the 2008 economic crisis that still grips the world today. He also attempts to craft win-win solutions that are not partisan politic driven. I have not read the book yet so my notes are based on the two teaser articles written so far.  Understanding game/bargaining theory and the noted background writing of Mordecai Kurz would help the interested person more fully comprehend what Dr Brock used to build his model.

This post is based on the musings in a Bruce Charlton post regarding IQ and leadership in different societies. First consider IQ scores by country .  Then look at a map of IQ score averages. First Charlton supposes what is the probable level of IQ needed for leadership. His reasoning is logical. Suppose that the threshold IQ for effective leadership is about 105 (roughly the top one third of the population of England, when IQ is normed at 100 average and with a standard deviation of 15). In other words, by IQ 105 I mean a level of general intelligence (as measurable by capacity for abstract and systematic thinking, ease of memorising, swiftness of calculation etc.) which is somewhat but not much above average for European natives. (This is roughly the IQ of an effective foreman, police or Army Sergeant, or a master craftsman - somebody with potentially high technical skills, good practical reason and tactical nous.) I am suggesting that IQ 105 is the threshold for 'int...

Since I don't have cable I usually go out to a restaurant or bar to watch the Super Bowl. Hopefully, NBC's website will not crash or slow down to a crawl. Link to this post.... Super Bowl 2012: Everything You Need to Know About Watching It Online

The following is an article from the John Maudlin website on the current political and economic deadlock in the US specifically, but, that is gripping most of the western world. It is most likely too much for most people to think about since it will take longer than 5 minutes to read and digest. The comments on Maudlin's website are interesting as well. With a couple exceptions, the comments posted so far about the article display the very gridlock gripping our country that the book attempts to find a way through. Are the entrenched thought patterns most people have so comfortable that trying something new on for just a few minutes becomes painful enough that they must lash out emotionally? Personally, I found the discussion about inductive and deductive reasoning very interesting. After working 30+ years in manufacturing plants mostly at an engineering and management level, i saw the problems of using data to solve problems. Over and over, in lengthy meetings, people would sh...

After eighteen years of struggle, practice, stopping practice for a month or two, and some outward success with my Tai Chi, this fall brought a breakthrough. One morning, not initially more unusual than other daybreaks, there was a formidable sensation of energy coming from the thigh area and being directed by the waist and flowing into my arms. The feeling of power and control was initially mind-boggling. It was so beyond anything previously experienced I was in awe of what was happening. I just kept doing set after set and used the energy to answer questions of how a move should correctly be done. The energy was so real my mind’s eye could clearly picture it flowing from place to place in the body. By the afternoon of this day, I started to look for answers in my many Tai Chi and Qigong books. Was this chi?