Colorless Green Ideas

The news sources continue to attempt to relate that the sinking of a warship - will not have serious consequences in North/South Korean relations.. it is a classic example of how the governments of every country excluding North Korea - have a vested interest in explaining away heinous acts of murder when it does not tow the official political party line - it underscores the application of propaganda both to its own people, and the world. North Koreans rely completely on a military - controlled national radio and broadcast network. In their country, no reports are allowed that are not first screened by the Military for their content. They have been broadcasting now for weeks that the North did not sink the South Korean warship. Soon, perhaps -they will broadcast that the south has taken a stab at them. And that the North should fight back. Some have said that the only way to defuse this situation is to attempt to reach the North Koreans directly. Some are , at time of writing -

How can we, as readers - know if and when a war will be reported in the modern press? What is a hallmark of real conflict? This is a serious question, because there are several news media entertainment channels who continually run 'Amber Alert' tickers at the base of their screen, and supplant their news coverage with sensationalism and news-media-entertainment. They have modified the art of journalism - as they practice it - to become a form of entertainment and are generally somewhat unreliable. So what are the real indicators? First, lets qualify this to imply war between any two countries - one of which may have nuclear capability. After all, conventional war is good copy. Does anyone remember 'shock and awe'...? The nonstop coverage of a conventional bombing campaign. We can rely upon any news source to attempt to cover such stories. But war that involves either a nuclear capability - or may somehow threaten market stability - incorporate any of the coun

The South Koreans, do not strike me as a people - that can adequately grasp the level of abstraction and power required to be able to keep the north koreans from sabre rattling about their latest offshore kill. This is not to say that they can't avert war - but looking back, it's not surprising that their inability to quell the inevitable had an effect on the markets. The North, seemingly wishes conflict. And has done so for years. They were the ones that torpedoed the South Korean vessel, a few days ago - and then claimed that they didn't do it.. Today the south took steps to increase sanction and bring about diplomatic parity but it all fell away like water from a duck's back. In "1984", there is a backstory conflict between EastAsia and WestAsia. Society would be interrupted by telecast from Big Brother - who would appear, and warn us that the war would have a certain impact on our markets, our livelihood, or the availability of certain products. It

The design, for the author of The Golden Compass. Has always been. Killing God.

Well, my grant review came back and I lost. It really hurts. I did score well on some elements of my research, but not well on others. The criticisms that seem to stay with you are the ones that don't necessarily line up with the ones you can always improve. For example, one reviewer called me out on the fact that I'm working on a timeless research problem. An age old question. This is the one that stuck with me. This review and research grant application was almost tactical in nature - to be honest. I had filed it by mistake, having only prepared the 75 pages needed - the week previous. The majority of the work I wrote into this application came from the first phase of the work that we did, and the critiques were all about that work. It was filed under the wrong grant number, in the wrong department - and to be honest, I knew that I was in a den of snakes. Well, they bit me. And the poison worked its way to my heart. Last night I had a nightmare. It was a very scary dr

Is not just another day.

The bull outfit was just a costume. My second buy this year will go in, sometime around tomorrow. The stock took a drubbing today, knocked back almost 3% - which is huge for NYSE:PEP. This stock is on its way to a strong finish this year, its chief competitor marking up record sales. Hopefully the markets can just keep crashing today and tomorrow. See? If someone had actually hit the 'donate' button on this blog, I would have given you the clue. But it's ok. This last maneuver just paid for my kids college education... I am not taking this money for my own fun. I am trying to get a non profit off the ground, with the donation... anything that I take in off the blog here will go to help start a non profit organization to help kids get a college education. I've actually been toying with the idea of steering my nonprofit directly towards the funding of college education for all high school or college age kids, regardless of descent. The charter for my NPO is to try

Today, a black icky tarball substance started floating up on Florida shores - killing much wildlife. This substance is different, in nature - than the substance that is pouring forth ten times worse than we ever thought - out of the gulf - and making an oil slick the size of a small state. It puts an exclamation point on the upcoming win for the Greens in Colombia - this kind of party, and its politics - are needed desperately. We do not progress by a dependence on oil. Because it is used in plastics, it will have a place. But the concept that we can keep going without pushing the American political landscape into one of real change - is as false as the ideal and hope that a non-environmentally based party will prevail in Colombia in the upcoming election. The torch has been passed. And , being in the 21st century - it's not burning oil to stay lit. Personally, I find the concept that the massive oil tar that is heading up on the beaches in Florida - to be someone completely

Celebrating Noam Chomsky's Decision to stand up to those in Israel - who tried to get him to register his speech and gain clearance from the IDF before he spoke at a University on the West Bank - and yesterday, when he did not do so - banned him. Can we take a moment to let this sink in, please? This is a so-called American ally- who has taken action against free speech. I chose this clip ca. 2008, as it is a good one to sum up the state of the healthcare issue, and open items that should be a platform element for the election year 2010. In it, Noam articulates a strong case for the Alan Grayson Amendment - a simple buy into Medicare that funds the system and allows us to buy inexpensive insurance immediately. It must be reiterated - not only from prominent scholars such as Noam Chomsky - but also from the electorate (weighing in at 74% in favor) how broad, and wide - the support for a National Health Service truly is - and the work that needs to be done to get such a system i

In a survey released today, Google's Android O/S just knocked the Apple iPhone off the top of the list (exluding RIM/Blackberry) of the installed O/S - this is a really good thing, considering what Apple is trying to do in the iPad/iPhone and O/S system space with maneuvers like removing all flash, and trying to control the content on the net. My dream platform of a Nexus One on Boost Mobile at unlimited everything for 50.00 a month is still just a dream. And why? Because the carriers killed it off. They refused to support the phone - when it was sold off the Google store / and now Google has shut down their online store to sell them. However, the Operating System lives on - and with it a chance to keep things open. The Boost Mobile network is a fairly decent network, capable of the speeds needed to keep the phone working properly but its a different type of network than what can be released out of HTC, the manufacturer that is making the Nexus One. However, if Boost make

Does smell like a sound sound like a color to you..?

Priority is elusive. But it can be a key as to how we can make each day count. There is a vulnerability to the main characters in "500 Days of Summer". The protagonist - Summer (equivalently, Sid Vicious) .. is capable of only self inflicted pain and relationships with the semi-professional. She lives her life outside of that simple priority list. God. Family. Work. As does he. And as have I. The last six years of my life, to be exact. None of us really know why things just happened around her. But its likely because she made them happen. Summer is a Miracle. But the kind of miracle a woman can create. And as the main character of a film - it is a haunting reminder of just how easy it is to forget where we are and what we need to do. What if you only have one chance? When life suddenly barrels in from out of the dark and it reads our mind and our heart and tears us open? What happens, when the white lion of thought comes for us in the midst of our chores and

This morning the mother of the six kittens we have is dead. The kittens are barely three weeks old. I wanted to title this post 'Flightless Bird' because for some reason when I was playing with them this morning I was humming Iron and Wine to myself. After my son was off to school (my last leaves at 7:30) I heard the kittens crying from their hiding place. One adventurous kitten cow kitty - a little black and white spotted kitten - was wandering far and being very loud. Scared. Being only three weeks old, they are too curious and frisky to be clear headed about their hunger - they will need to make a food distinction between killing food and food as part of another living being - right now , food is mother and mother is food and there is no food. They are one and the same And there lies the lesson, doesn't it? I put my head down on my desk and just rocked my head slowly back and forth and closed my eyes. It's going to be home office today for me.... sigh.

I hate Christians I hate Christianity I hate priests that rape a child I hate celibacy and other damage to the human gene I hate agrarian mysticism planting seeds of aphorism I hate rigid thinking that yields intolerance I hate evangelists they're interchangeable, like batteries I hate theologians they can't face deus ex machina I hate giving people my money in exchange for sitting in their building I don't really like giving people my money anyway thats just the kind of person I am I hate the way they make coalitions and try to stamp out civil union I hate the way they stand there, two faced telling everyone their holy position I hate how all of this is a justification to build more guns and weapons I hate how everyone seems to think the end of the world will happen in Jerusalem A filthy little hole in the desert that has some wall you can cry on and a stupid temple and Islam and Palestine I hate Christianity I am a Christian

All of this happened, more or less sister double chromosone picked me up by my arm slung me around like a doll All of this happened, more or less said Kurt Vonnegut the force of the blow pushing me against her dress Breakfast of Champions I didn't do good at math - I don't know why Every day I starved A bully stole our lunch money I remember my friend and I would play Sticking stems into holes on the ground watching little doodlebugs bite down Make the other one die The doodlebugs that fought hardest live on to spring and that southern anthem sings Sometimes the weak Can become the strong

I've been kidding her about how much time she spends on YouTube. By and large, its been a creative effort - on her behalf. A very nice thing she does, really. But she's young, and her time scheduling is way out of balance. She spends all of her time on YouTube - her new friend has to pry her away. But tonight I took a video of her... fighting her way to get to her computer. It takes a diamond, to cut a diamond... Most of my success in raising my 13 yr old daughter has come from leverage. Thanks to this footage. I now have all the leverage I need. And she knows it. What if I made a video, out of a little girl beating up her Dad to get to YouTube? Think it would go viral..?

Thank you Texas, for your donation of 30.00 to the cause. I am dedicating it to stopping child labor around the world. And you wanted to know what I am going to do with the stock market, so I will tell you. Cover my short position. I covered last Friday. I now have long positions on NYSE:PEP - which is the only stock that I play. PEP rebounded with a 3% jump in less than a single day. Before the big 2008 crash, NYSE:PEP was tracking 80 - at 66.00 a share its a damn good buy. Although PEP is trading at or near its 52 week high, the 2 year and 3 year charts show that this trading range was crossed several times and again - with the stock trading over 80.00 a share before the big crash of 2008. You asked about the broad market and what would we do if we were playing a spider. The overall broad market is going to be running a deflationary scenario - the indices will wall up behind 10k, 11k, 12k and bounce back down. Until everyone is certain that financial instability is out o

Je n'ai pas le temps de perde la tête - pour nous sauver de nous mêmes .. Cherche la femme - l'age n'est pas importante. Elle est dangereux - tous les age - non? (Merci pour l'argent, mon ami-francaise - c'est bon? oui?)

This is your blog. Now. Not mine. Anytime anyone hits donate. I will write a post. And it will be on whatever comment you add there off the donate button. Any subject. Anything. Analysis. Verse. Images. Video. Private. Ascii Art. Graphics Design. Pr0n . Anything. Remember - any amount. Satisfaction guaranteed. I fully realize this makes me a whore. But then again, the first time I realized - I was lucky enough to learn fairly quickly that it put me in good company.

4:35 pm : The best monthly jobs report in four years couldn't keep sellers from sending stocks to their fourth straight loss, which contributed to the stock market's worst weekly performance in one year. Despite persistent weakness overseas amid continued contagion concerns, stocks managed to attract some modest support as some speculated that a rebound may be in order after the stock market sank some 6% during the course of the three previous sessions. The worst of that loss came Thursday, when the Dow's intraday drop of almost 1000 points was blamed on the failure of computerized trades and electronic networks. In response, both the NYSE and Nasdaq cancelled trades from a 20 minute time block that saw prices greater than or less than 60% away from the consolidated last print price. However, stocks were unable to sustain the early bid. News that nonfarm payrolls for April surged 290,000, the largest increase since March 2006, couldn't even secure support for stocks

For a limited time only... Yesterday we saw the most massive drop in the Dow in all time - the largest single drop in intraday trading in index history - and every newspaper and magazine article writes about how things are going to be great today, and how the session was just "volatile".. And almost every major news outlet writes that everything points to a higher open today..? Then, today, we see yet another massive bloodletting. Where some stocks crashed more than 60%.. and so the response is that the exchanges decide to cancel all trades during a certain time..? I honestly don't believe this has much to do with a trading irregularity. To be honest, all I really want to do is to apply the math I know in hard research .. I am sitting on pins and needles right now awaiting news of my grant. Please feel free to hit donate on the blog here if anything I've done has helped you out. It will help me alot. Thanks.

A major feature of 2008 that most of the lobbyists, special interests, and people who want you to think that it always costs 200 billion zillion dollars to get elected to Federal Government - is the fact that one of the most popular political ads of that calendar year - was in fact made by a supporter - The 'Vote Different' ad that featured an Orwellian image of a primary candidate / and ended with a logo for Barack Obama. This was all produced and dispersed at a cost of almost nothing - and the unmistakeable footprint of fan video. This kind of thing is both a trademark and a form of protection. We have built in antivirus when it comes to fake viral videos. Somehow, human beings can tune into the real thing and separate the originators, from the imitators almost every time. Fake viral videos crash and burn. The same thing that happened in America - is now happening in Colombia. Facebook is playing a major role, as are the Fans. This election is truly people powered. And r

Words cannot capture a human life Food cannot sustain the human soul Water cannot quench thirst for knowledge Blood cannot transmit the essence of man We pass on traits Not our minds Not our selves Poetry captures a shadow that goes to ground without light or sound a hologram that grows from the ripple of our lives that disturbed these waters and then no more a desert rose that says "I occurred" thorn pierced for reference to dream of rain and gardens in the desert sun What makes up memory? What makes up self? l’etre et neant a lonely hunter? shadow veiled the answer availed A human life is not a dream It is an awakening It is the sound of our heart breaking All the world a stage You and I Merely Players If you dare to capture a human life to remember cherish hold the golden light that shines as you grow old spaceweaver , A to T C to G you in me me in you when its over it's over we leave nothing but a b

For some reason one of the best friends I ever made , over the summer - as unlikely a friendship you would ever find - was with someone from Colombia. And now my daughter's closest friend is also from Colombia? I hope that the Green Revolution succeeds there. It would be cool to have one place on the planet whose government actually works.

I wandered home through silent streets and fell into a fitful sleep escape to realms beyond the night Dream, can't you show me the light? I stand atop a spiral stair An oracle confronts me there He leads me on my tearful way through astral nights and galactic days I see the works of gifted hands that graced this strange and wondrous land I see the hands of men who raise with hungry mind and open eyes They left our planets long ago the elder race still learn and grow their power grows with purpose strong to claim the home where they belong

Recovers, to post a net loss of 300 points. I said before, I am a bear - at this point - and this is why. But I'm not a chart guy. I am not planning this off my overlay work that I did with the Nikkei vs. Dow/ its more a kind of gut reaction that the financial issues can be a bit more viral than they would appear to be.... America, remember, started this whole thing. Greece and the financial market collapse pending there - keeps it going. This is important to me because I have two years of stock to post to my kids fund. And thats the only reason I'm doing the analysis. I know there are people out there that made a ton of money off me. I posted this trendline 2 days in advance. That was plenty of time to have your options in. Note: This drop was so huge, that the press coverage is almost unanimous in its rationalization of it all. There was a trading glitch in a single stock that accounted for 170 points of the 900 but even then - with this accounted - it is the singl

Dear Satan, Lucifer - Angel of Light, Beelzebub, Lord of Darkness, Devil CC: Saint Peter Ok, before we get started here - I have to ask you a serious question. What is with you, and housecats? You let your demons eat them for snacks, and you make them yowl and cry in the middle of the night and convince our founding fathers you're talking - when they have sex. Why did you make a pain thing into their lives, that goes along with sex? Ok, I've heard it all before about how this is supposed to be 'part of God's plan'... I find it hard to believe that God alone designed the penis of the male cat to be barbed - so that the female can only ovulate when she experiences the sharp pain of it within her - that was your design, wasn't it? Please at least clear that up for me, before we get started. Also, I would like to know - what is it about lying, that gets you off? Why is it that you enjoy telling untruths? Why would you weave a tangled web of deception inste

We see alot of "innovations" in America - some dark. For example, some may recall the Bush Administration asking you (through millions of dollars spent in public campaign) .. to support the President's Policy of "Pre Emptive Self Defense" . And lately, you may have heard that Steve Jobs will not support Flash, nuking almost all of the currently available video content - right off the net. The smoking gun became a glowing crater. The underlying idea behind this latest 'innovation' is fun to trace. First, we have to realize that Steve really isn't in the business of building computers anymore. He's in the entertainment business. iTunes, and Pixar are his mainstay businesses. He's in bed with all the major DMCA people. And he is not trying to invent a better computer. He's trying to invent a way that he can control what you see and hear. Because that's what his stakeholders want. Flash is by and large an open standard. Steve w

A friend of mine once timeshifted the Dow and the Nikkei and showed me the graph. Now, if you do a straight overlay here's what you get. Purple is the Dow, Blue is the Nikkei. But thats not the graph he showed me. The graph he showed me was the Nikkei over full historical range, and the Dow Timeshifted back ... lookie.. It was a pretty impressive thing to see the lineup between the two. I don't really understand the reason for him showing me this, however, it was 2006 and I told all my friends to head into Gold. One actually took my advice, but he blew all his money on drugs. The rest kind of shrugged it all off and went to real estate. Based on the 5 year timeshift the Dow has more downside potential. I told a friend of mine to liquidate the Mutual fund - if anything, with two kids going to college I felt it was a good call. The reason I lined up the Nikkei to Dow today was to call out that even if the Asian markets will follow European markets - the government o

I love this little game I get to play with NYSE:PEP every year. The company is so well managed, and stable - they quietly bought up the zero cal drinks, the health waters, and everything else out there that people will buy when they drop caffeinated carbonated sugar water as the drink of choice. They bought up quaker oats, and .. ok... the list goes on. Its a well managed company. But it moves like a battleship. If you're clever, you can find your way to a good buy almost every year. There are two things that influence PEP. The first, is whatever Coca Cola is doing - these two companies, Pepsi and Coke - have been at each others throats since time immemorial. The second is the broad economy. And now that Greece is looking like epic fail on the financials market... we're going to be good to go with a buy here pretty soon. With Obama in the White House, being a bear is going to be tough. Things look pretty good for a little bearishness in the near term though. I'm ju

The password for the April 15th counterattack against Amakusa Shiro's rebel-led forces holding siege to the Tokugawa clan -was a password whose only variance lay in the tone in which it was stated. The password was meant to be given - to coordinate forces against a massive army that had laid siege to the Tokogawas. Amakusa Shiro - a 16 year old general - led this large army - under the banner of Christianity. The Tokugawa had before, succeeded in capturing some of the advancing Christians and cutting open their bellies - found only seaweed and barley. The first rule of logistics is - if you can't supply it, it dies. They had to move while the Christians were starving. An Army of 40,000 men would never have been so easy to defeat would this were not the case. The password was designed to be given at just the right moment. The password was - however, triggered by signal fire. Those responsible for the initial signal were actually lighting a fire to test the signal and

I lie awake I've gone to ground I'm watching porn In my hotel dressing gown Now I dream of you But I still believe There's only enough for one in this Lonely hotel suite The journey's long And it feels so bad I'm thinking back to the last day we had. Old moon fades into the new Soon I know I'll be back with you I'm nearly with you I'm nearly with you When I'm weak I draw strength from you And when you're lost I know how to change your mood And when I'm down you breathe life over me Even though we're miles apart we are each other's destiny On a clear day I'll fly home to you I'm bending time getting back to you Old moon fades into the new Soon I know I'll be back with you I'm nearly with you I'm nearly with you When I'm weak I draw strength from you And when you're lost I know how to change your mood And when I'm down you breathe life over me Even though we're

In the year 1005, the English Language had undergone several major variations. Heavily dependent on Latin - the scribe would be responsible for writing down whatever records need be kept. The common people spoke an entirely different language than that in which records and written journals of their transactions. The first standard of any language, is its spelling. Without it, words cannot be accurately transcribed. However, this is a modern notion. In the year 1005, and in the intervening years between 1005 up until 1500 , spelling was fluid. The language of the common people - that found its way into writing - was largely a transciption of sounds and accents. They transcribed language phonetically - applying the representation that they felt best approximated the sound that they heard. As accents differed, so did the representation. The concept of a standardized spelling was alien - there was no right, or wrong way - to spell. In actual speech, we have something called Feedback

So, you're thinking about Love, again. Eh? Time for an intervention! Snap out of it, boy. Love is a big waste of time. You lay around all weekend, taking long naps and dreaming of her... This sort of weekend-wasting thing can happen even when you have no illusions whatsoever. That's the insidious part. Women instinctively know you're the kind of person that doesn't just want a woman .. they know you need a woman. They have an almost unerring sense of womanly direction that life with you would be fun and at the same time deeply fulfilling. You're putting out the wrong signals. Smear some axle grease and essence of fried chicken all over yourself. Lay around in the livestock pen for a while. Talk about the Republican party. The worst part about you is that you are the kind of person who has a long history of being proud of the woman in your life. You have to cut that out. They want conflicting things... they want you strong but sensitive.. I'd

Someone just asked me, a while ago - whether or not I supported the current war. It suddenly dawned on me that nobody ever asked me if I supported the War in Iraq. Wow. I wonder if I'm hanging around with the right crowd? Honestly - the people I was hanging around with - their support was implicit. And at the same time, I divided my time almost equally to people whose opposition was implicit. The ones I had over for dinner were actually busy trying to help people out on either side - busy trying to find the facts. The most surprising element of this question was that the person who asked me the question is likely conversant in Arabic. I could tell by the prosody and placement of the question. Such skill must pay well these days. Or not. At any rate, I don't know if the question is even relevant anymore. Things are winding down in-theater. I suppose I am against any war, and especially wars of convenience. But I always support the troops. They're the ones that are

His story began in Minnesota. A land taken straight from the pages of Charlie Brown. Flat, open and the sun always seemed to be shining. Down the street, where the great pumpkins ripened and grew orange and round - was a small patch of earth where cucumber was born. His life began as a yellow flower, that elongated to a string bean. The soft minnesota rain bathed the vine in sweet liquor that helped him to grow strong. When he was grown, they named him Larry. His best friend was a tomato, and they loved to hang out together. One day the Tomato revealed to Larry an important state secret. Larry, Do you Love Your Country? ... said the tomato. He said. Yes. Well, you've done well in school. I think you're ready. There is a top secret group of people who are planning to destroy our country. They're going to take methos and pepsi and seal them up into bottles. Thirty of them, in thirty different cities all across the nation. They're based in Mexico. So. Larry got

Mostly relating to the fact that I've done something to my foot that I'm not quite sure - and that an old friend of mine I met near the horses today told me you're just going to want to stay off it (it ain't broken, son).... I've been on a movie marathon. The last of which was Synecdoche, New York. This film is all over the place. It is mainly based on two things - first, that art (in general) can somehow mirror life and second, a man can face the myriad of things that can build into himself or build around himself to destroy him. It is a kind of arrogance that comes mostly from assuming time travels in a straight line. The opening scene of a clock confirms this. And then, almost as if we're watching dailies - the scenes unfold one after another. A daughter that becames fully tattooed at age four seems to echo a sort of hidden fear - a symbol of the inflammation that spreads across the last part of our life when we can no longer contain the joy of life into