Friday, December 21, 2012

(letter, PR, ending)

Nasrin Sotoudeh writes to us explaining her hunger strike. (human rights in Iran)
PRessTV politicized reporting on human rights in USA. (human rights in USA)
(Public Relation-esh TV)
BBC reports on semi-open discourse on Guantanamo (human rights in USA)

protect hunger write
politicize right shied
wink end party

Thursday, December 13, 2012


<S. 3254: National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013> using

<Guantanamo> and <Evin Prison> where <Nasrin Sotoudeh> is held using social monitoring networks

authorization Evin Fiscal
security Sotoudeh Guantanamo
defense prison networks

Monday, November 26, 2012


//via meadia points to a American majority who view using overwhelming force in war.
//the beast finds objectionable what overwhelming force would mean in the specific case of Gaza.
//the beast restates objection and finds a more articulate voice to the objection.
//Greg lays out what overwhelming force would mean in Gaza.
//the TAI rebuts that the original article was an attempt to understand a segment of America and not a recommendation of policy.

//It's admirable to broaden your scope of understanding and to find insight into different aspects of the American psyche. However, while relating a unique mind set within that psyche, it is incumbent upon the writer to also point out that application of that mind set to the current specific situation would be clear lunacy or a best bad policy.
A responsible writer must do this because a naive reader, such as myself, might conclude that the specific policy derived from this mind set is viable and not morally repugnant.

Saturday, November 17, 2012


Hussman Funds
//market return/risk persistently low or lowest//

Asian Development Bank

//if you want erotica, best to hired professionals data miners. turquoise. cyan//

Wednesday, October 10, 2012


The elections are coming.
Why have we framed the debate as Sesame Street vs. Big Oil Tax subsidies?
Because it is easy to understand.
Why have I framed the 8M vs 4B dollars in spending cuts as an investment choice?
Because it frames it in terms my Right Hand can understand, and induce sympathy.
Value vs. Growth investing. What do you do in a secular bear market?

Why do we invest so much emotional content into a person/team/country?
We put so much of ourselves into them, whether they want us with them or not.
And we suffer when they/we lose.

I have stopped doing this.
It hurts too much when they lose. When they become too weak and disappear with age.
It is just a game, yet not a game of survival anymore. 
I've stopped following sport teams.
I've stopped assimilating my political leaders into me, making their success my own.
I have only so much emotional content.
I'd rather invest it in something else.

Wednesday, September 19, 2012


 The Writer's Almanac.Cezanne.oscillation.inside/outside
(1)Lord of the Flies.Golding.dormant virus.virulent.Nobel prize.
(3) Bruno Hauptman.Lindbergh.kidnapping.
(4) Scott Fahlman;)


Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Journal: still December 1986

Here is my last 1986 entry. It is just before I went to college or University as they say here in Europa. I know I have returned to these notes before, rereading them to get a sense of where to go next without losing direction of where I had wanted to go. I guess that is what I am doing now, but the difference is I do it with you. Signature...

August begins
with a cool breeze
rustling Magdeburg leaves. 
Scattered heatwaves
heals a few beating
days but now
back in to the stir,
the future unknown,
braving it alone
ironically with you

//19-December-1986, 7:08
A long delay, I know but things have been hectic. I did go to the winter dance in a nice suit Lil borrowed from Kenny. Baggy pants, black tie, baggy white shirt, and a black coat. I look pretty nice. Karen had on white lace dress, not a long dress. Everything went smoothly until after dinner and we went to the dance I remembered that I had forgotten the tickets. I felt pretty stupid, dumb, lame,...etc. I hope she didn't mind. You know I try not to let other people's ideas of me make do what they want but I'm very self-conscience. I notice what people say about me. Anyway we dance took picture, not in that order. Then afterward we were going to go down to Westwood in Tessie's limo but no headlights, too much hassle, so I stay at Karen's and talked to about 12:30 then went home. That's when the trouble came. I thought I was so smart to park in the garage. But the only parking place in the garage was to the right, and I had never parked there before. Turning in, I scatch the right side of the car. this is too painful, ha, ha, sob... I'll just continue after I get back from my job, that's right I got a job.

Hmmm. And then there is no more entries until 1989. I don't comment on how I cried (the few times I remember crying when young) after my Dad saw the scratch/dent in the door. I already felt horrible and guilty and when he started yelling in anger, I cried... in Ba Ngoi's room. Probably he felt bad afterwards. I am him now, and would have also immediately felt sorry for losing my temper and yelling a my son for something that all teenagers do, making mistakes.

There is no remarks about working a Discount Desk, my first job. Sylvia (not even sure if I'm spelling her name right) worked there too, the girl I went to the prom with. No notes about the actual prom. I got drunk and Sylvia had to take me home, and I slept on her Mom's couch. No notes on studying for the SATs or my friends, playing tennis on the team, driving my old, second hand car around. Driving down Venture Blvd with Tommy and Thuan looking for Turkish coffee. Getting ready for UCLA. Living my first quarter in Dykstra Hall. Rushing the fraternity. Nothing. It is fading in my memories. I don't live those glory days. I don't know anything about anyone from those days. It all seems soooo distance now. Figuratively and literally, half a world away.

Enough for today. Perhaps tomorrow we go to 1989. Today, I try to catch that plastic bag hovering in updraft, suspended in space-time.

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Journal: December 1986

Wow. 1986. I would have been 17 years old. As the years rush by, more and more readers will not have been born yet. Are you in my cohort? Can you relate to my memories? Signature...

Day 1

Stochastic today is good
reason to start counting one,
two, three, thee, and me as should
be, we children of the fun.
Can I tell you a secret
whispering in future meet?

Vicini once said to go
back to the beginning when
bow breaks on river low
Waiting there for a friend
who randomly is born
on beating electric storm.

Here are the actual copied entries. They were written on paper!!!

4-December-1986, 7:03
Sorry, I didn't write last night but I just fell asleep when I was reading my biology book, Keaton not Curtis for Mrs. Cohen. I didn't ask K---- because she didn't get to school until 2nd period and then all day I couldn't find the right moment. Anyway, I'll try today.

4-Dec., 11:26
I got a date to the winter dance. Now my only worry is to get 18 dollars for the ticket and maybe 30-40 more for dinner. There was also tennis try-outs. Not many excellent players. That's all folks, and got a Biology test tomorrow in Biology, English test too, and I still haven't done my Calculus homework.  Boy I'm going to be up for a long time.

9-Dec., 7:05
Sorry for the delay but nothings been happening except that my car broke down. Now I have to go to school with mom. The winter dance is 3 days away and I know now, no tucks. I hope my sister can borrow something from J----. K----'s going to wear all white that means I want something in black, naturally. I also have to get her a corsage and pay for dinner. Thats a lot of money but I'll find a way, I always do.

I apologize to myself often, don't I? I read like any typical teenage blogs now-a-day, doesn't it? Yet there wasn't even a sky to look for clouds yet!

Do teenagers even blog anymore? They SnapChat and post Vines, to micro-Tumblr, or Pinterest.

Monday, March 5, 2012


This issued by Romney campaign,

Republican presidential hopefuls Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum and Ron Paul also criticized Limbaugh's remarks during Sunday show appearances and on the campaign trail. Eric Fehrnstrom, an advisor to Mitt Romney, said the candidate thought Limbaugh's apology was "appropriate."

"I think there is extreme rhetoric on both sides of the political spectrum. I think the political process is best served if everybody tones it down. Not only those on the right, but also intolerant voices on the left," Fehrnstrom said.
Being an introvert, I asked myself if I could seek out Left-wingers, talk show hosts, who have gone to the extreme rhetoric. I must say that I am hesitant to use the word "rhetoric" in connection with anything Rush Limbaugh says. Rhetoric implies at least some amount of critical thought.

I will search...

Doubtlessly, I will find plenty of blogs.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012



Antoni Tapies -> tapias:google pic search
     -> result: linked image
         -> newArtist(Samuel Aranda)

Antoni Tapies -> Catalan
     -> newArtist also Catalan
          -> @Marta also Catalan;

Samuel Aranda -> picture.above jpg.

     ->Art of the Arab Spring -> @Mahmoud @Bahar @Nabil @Artin

Sunday, February 12, 2012


//moved and reposted from Brian//
//Infiltration easy. Psychological impact large. Reminds me of Vietcong infiltration. It is very difficult to stop. Pakistan has a real long-term problem, and the US is asking it to fight the long war. The US is asking Pakistan to fight the war that itself and the Soviet Union could not win.//
//Drone missiles and Pakistan blood//

Pakistan has faced growing US pressure to launch a major ground offensive in the nearby tribal region of North Waziristan, considered a haven for Islamist insurgents.
Islamabad has denied accusations that it is not doing enough to fight the Taliban in the north-west, pointing out that more than 2,400 of its soldiers have died fighting militants since 2002.
Pakistan supported the Taliban regime in Afghanistan from 1996-2001, but later became an ally of the US when it led an invasion in 2001.


//sectarian violence. again with the Christian vs Muslims. As MLK said, the most effective tool of the Pharaohs was to get the slaves fighting amongst themselves. Although not that simple, also tribal dynamics again. Our tribe vs. your tribe. And farmer vs nomadic//

Muslims are generally from the Hausa- or Fulani-speaking communities. They are often nomadic people who live from rearing animals or petty trade.

The mainly Christian Berom, Anaguta and Afisare groups have traditionally been farmers.

Some Christian farmers feel they are under threat, as Hausa-speaking Muslims come down from the north looking for pasture for their animals.



//China's exploitation of Africa's resources. Repeat of European exploitation//
//Capitalist bully, Communist bully, same same, but different. The african countries will get something out of it for sure, but is this the most efficient and productive was to do things? In the long, long, run?

stream(Ivory Coast.election)

 //moved from Brain;

On one side is incumbent Laurent Gbagbo, a Christian from the centre of the country who is considered a true citizen by his supporters. On the other is Alassane Ouattara, a Muslim from the north of the country whose supporters hail him as a champion of equality.

Monday, January 23, 2012


News feed with keyword search:
africa economy,
real disposable income
africa mobile phone
greek financial
US debt restructuring mortgage
china consumer confidence

News feeds from sites:
SPIEGEL ONLINE - International (german)
RIA Novosti (russian)
NY Times - Home
BBC News - Home
World - Google

stream(currency.real disposable income)

IMF boss Christine Lagarde

She also said the European Central Bank should "provide the necessary liquidity support to stabilise bank funding and sovereign debt markets."
And she repeated her view that "across-the-board, across-the continent, budgetary cuts will only add to recessionary pressures".
//debts not going away anytime soon.//

//this article says nothing! income inequality since 1980s please! Need comparison, and specific income across income quintiles please to actually see the disparity, instead of "hiding" it in per-capita. This overall average is of course down in this recession times. Am I missing something here?//

//fake money already exist. Hallo?! credit cards!//

Sunday, January 15, 2012

stream(credit agency)

>query: Who are these agencies and how much trust can we put into their analysis?


//Global debt investors favor SA bonds almost as much as "safe" US bonds. An indication of growth of SA or decline of US?

Treasury last week had no difficulty in disposing offshore of $1.5bn worth of government bonds with a 12-year maturity. The auction attracted bids worth $3bn and the bonds were sold at a 4.66% rate of return.
This rate was only 270 basis points higher than that investors receive on US government bonds with a 10-year maturity.
This means that investors require only 2.7 percentage points more in interest than that offered by US bonds – which are regarded as a safe haven – to lend the South African government money.
Henk Viljoen, head of fixed-interest investments at Stanlib, says the return is considerably lower than the rates Spain and Italy have to pay.
“As South Africans, we can pat ourselves on the back that we can now borrow at rates that compete with the yields from countries we have always looked up to.”

//US transnational company.profits funnel back to US.
//Do profits "trickle down" to help rebuild SA's infrastructure? Education?

>random correlation: WalMart entering South Africa ->query: Why could it not enter Germany?

//new president.poverty.drug-trade driving violence.US cocaine use driving violence.US policy of stability without investments in infrastructure. Stability only to enable predatory nature of capitalism. Where is the trickle-down effect in Guatemala?
//US cocaine use.Mexican drug cartels.violence.Guatemala corridor.violence.Market forces are strong. Main driving force is US drug consumption.
>query: if we believe in capitalism, then how due we change DEMAND. We have been futilely fighting SUPPLY with not much effort in DEMAND.
>solution: NOT JAIL TIME but large fines! If caught using cocaine, then lean on pay, (ie a drug tax!)
>association query: why always this focus on SUPPLY side economics?

Guatemala has one of the highest murder rates in the world, with much of the violence blamed on criminal street gangs.
Its security forces have been battling against the rising influence of Mexico's powerful drugs cartels, who use it as a corridor for smuggling South American cocaine.
Mr Perez Molina, who leads the right-wing Patriotic Party, campaigned on a promise to restore security with an "iron fist" approach
//iron fist like Bashar? no. constitutional limit. If Molina is partially successful, will he try to change constitution so he can stay in power.
//irrational culture-of-personality: "only I can lead the country out of crisis"


//Iran preemptive smack! But as you can see, France and UK are not the biggest importers anyways//

(taken from BBC, which was taken from US EIA)
//sanctions.oil: threat+Iran.nuclear.destabilizing.middle-east;

The US said on Thursday Zhuhai Zhenrong was one of three international firms to be punished for dealing with Iran.

Later on Saturday, Beijing denounced Washington's decision to punish Zhuhai Zhenrong.
"Imposing sanctions on a Chinese company based on a domestic (US) law is totally unreasonable and does not conform to the spirit or content of the UN Security Council resolutions about the Iran nuclear issue," Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said.

 //doesn't China have veto power in UN Security Council resolutions? And Russia?

Washington has accused Zhuhai Zhenrong of being the largest supplier of refined petroleum products to Iran.
The US state department said the sanctions - preventing the firms from receiving US export licences, US Export Import Bank financing or any loans over $10m from US financial institutions - were part of efforts to persuade Iran to rein in its nuclear ambitions.

The sanctions on Iranian oil exports are of particular concern to China, which is under pressure to secure enough energy supplies to keep its economy going.
Iran is currently China's third largest supplier of oil, followed by Angola and Saudi Arabia.
 "If the oil producing nations on the Persian Gulf decide to substitute Iran's oil, then they will be held responsible for what happens," he added, in the Sharq newspaper's report.
 >query: what EXACTLY will happen? Iran currently does not have nuclear weapons...

##.january.2012.old blog.
//i was thinking about this in 2006.Forbes article.randomly found while testing Googles blog search.//

//i should copy the content, because the links are never permanent! like this one. it is gone.#query: AI short term memory?//

//kin-self vs. community.Islam.God
In recent years, there have been a number of bomb blasts and shootings targeting the minority Shia community, carried out by Sunni militants.



> city of Ramadi hit by attacks on police station

It is early still. Again, like Syria, Muslims killing Muslims. Kin-self vs Community.greater-self.God
query: how to stop the violence with force? Unrealistic?
The AFP news agency quoted two police officers, speaking on condition of anonymity, as saying that two car bombs went off near the Dawlah Kabir Mosque in central Ramadi at around 11:30 local time (08:30 GMT).
A third car bomb also went off in the city centre, and a fourth car bomb detonated near the police building a short while later.
Two suicide bombers then blew themselves up inside the building before armed insurgents moved in.
Clashes were continuing into the afternoon, the officers said.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012


//Business leader says government is in Catch-22 and has about 6 months before collapse, and that sanctions are also destroying the economy. Therefore, when Bashar is gone, the international community is responsible for rebuilding the infrastructure/economy which was collateral damage in this hardball diplomacy. The trick is to help without appearing to influence the eventual choice of the Syrian people, who of course will also be divided.//

Faisal al-Qudsi, the son of a former Syrian president, told the BBC the military action could only last six months and then there would be "millions of people on the streets".
//crisis continues. Bashar will not let go.
>query: is outside military invention good? even if Arab?

On Saturday, the ruler of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, said Arab countries should send troops into Syria to end the bloodshed.

"For such a situation to stop the killing... some troops should go to stop the killing," he told US television channel CBS for a programme to be aired on Sunday.


//bbc guide

//really Bashar?
President Assad's speech, broadcast live from Damascus University, was his third televised address since protests against his rule began in March, and lasted nearly two hours.
"Regional and international sides have tried to destabilise the country," he said.
"Our priority now is to regain the security in which we basked in for decades, and this can only be achieved by hitting the terrorists with an iron fist.
"We will not be lenient with those who work with outsiders against the country."

Monday, January 9, 2012


//role of empathy. empathic drive

//the role of aggression, us vs them innate in our biology. Jared Diamond: The Third Chimpanzee, and Gun, Steel and Germs.//

//religion can be used for both. complex nature of us: cooperativity.mutualism.empathy vs aggression.self.kin vs all others are bad (and for most of our evolution this is a good rule of thumb for survival!)
//Christopher Hitchens thinks religion, for the most part, drives this aggression, nonempathic nature of us. Partly right.

>conclusion: we are a complex, balancing duality.

Books (2008 - 2011)

//I guess its been awhile since I listed the books I've read.

The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing
Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff's, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore's

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami
Fooled by Randomness by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Castle in the Forest by Norman Mailer
Of Mice & Men (again) by John Steinbeck

Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
Rainbows End by Vernor Vinge

The Drunkard’s Walk by Leonard Mlodinow
Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World by Michael Lewis
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks
Kiln People by David Brin
The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon
Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan
Squirrel meets Chipmunk by David Sedaris


##.january.2012.der Spiegel
//nuclear offshoring because of slow wind development,1518,805505,00.html

Sunday, January 8, 2012


//quick primers for skeptics

Tuesday, January 3, 2012


>prediction: As economic conditions deteriorate, the old dynamics starts again.
/*(old dynamics): highly nationalistic people who have been marginalized by their nation revert to violence to express their anger at being marginalized.  In this case, there are very good reasons why they have been marginalized. Everything repeats but what is the new wrinkle? What are we missing in this reiteration? How do we minimize the threat without marginalizing the people.*/

>random correlation: A Clockwork Orange.
//that is not the solution!,1518,797569,00.html

 //Does this sound like some American's? USA is going to shit. I don't have a job, but I have a gun.

Monday, January 2, 2012


//the Euro will get stronger?
>qeury: Who is Fitch? =>FB.note


Ratings agency Fitch has said it doubts a comprehensive solution to the crisis can be found and urged more decisive action from the ECB.

>random correlation = Christian Noyer is also governor of the Bank of France

//prediction(2012.jn): Renminbi floats in five years.
//prediction(2012.jn): It will take more than five years to modernized China's banking system.

//conclusion: dissonance 
>query: what are the odds for the two scenarios? 

##.january.2012.iran.nuclear proliferation.regime-change.diplomacy

Reflecting possible fears about liquidity and the flight of hard currency, Iran over the past few months has restricted cash withdrawals and only allows those travelling abroad to take $2,000 a year.US sanctions already forbid imports of Iranian oil. France is pressing the EU to follow suit. Iran sells large volumes to China, India, South Korea and Japan but Italy, Spain and Greece are also big importers and an EU embargo would pile further pressure on the Iranian economy.
//random correlation: France pressuring ->query: Why not Germany?

//fake currency in India.

The STRs, which gave rise to a reasonable ground of suspicion that the transaction may involve the proceeds of crime or financing of activities related to terrorism or were made in circumstances of unusual complexity, increased three times in 2010-11 as compared to 10,067 in 2009-10 fiscal.

The FIU report, submitted recently to the Finance Ministry, stated that "private Indian banks contributed majority of CCRs".

//currency trading.making money on sanctions.

Demand for the greenback at the central bank auctions has risen since November to about $200 million to $300 million a day, compared with about $160 million in the prior 12 months, the deputy central bank governor, Mudher Salih, said in an interview in Baghdad Jan. 10.