Giancarlo Angulo's Blog
I’m turning into a stubborn luddite, ouch. Read the whole mashup, makes you think.
The free arts and the servile arts
February 22, 2009
I have taken it upon myself to mash up the words of Steve Gillmor, posted yesterday at TechCrunchIT, and the words of Andrew Louth, published in 2003 at the Times Higher Education site:
Rough Type: Nicholas Carr’s Blog: The free arts and the servile arts.
Annual trade has now reached $30 billion, tripling in size since 2004. The first phase of the massively expensive ESPO pipeline, connecting oil reserves in Siberia with Russia’s Pacific coast, has been completed and the construction of phase two has been announced. This is rare good news for two economies that have been hit particularly hard by the global financial crisis.
But it’s still not all smiles between the two countries. The violent reaction of Vladivostok‘s workers to the imposition of a tariff on Japanese vehicles in late December displays the importance of Japanese commerce to Russia’s remote Far East provinces. More seriously,a Japanese ship carrying ¥12.8 million worth of medical aid at the request of Russian residents on the disputed Kuril Islands was turned away in January because the Japanese delegation refused to show disembarkation cards, a move that the Japanese consider tantamount to recognizing Russian sovereignty over the Kurils. T
The Japanese claim that the Kuril islands -currently under Russian control – are historically Japanese and were seized illegally by the Soviet Union at the end of World War II. The dispute over the islands has prevented Russia and Japan from signing a peace treaty and officially ending the war.
Until the Kuril issue is resolved, Japan and Russia will continue to be in the contradictory position of building ever closer ties while still officially fighting World War II.
Medvedev and Aso meet to discuss energy, economic cooperation – By Gregory Shtraks | FP Passport.
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in the spirit of Brad Delong‘s Why Oh Why Can’t We Have A Better Press Corp!
The article is partly confusing or badly written.
the key paragraph to understand the way the writer tried to sensationalise this is
He said the research could lead to new training programmes – mental therapies or “push-ups” or medications to make others just as good at dealing with extreme stress.
“So much so we’re now getting to the point where we might be able to train people to do better under high stress and there might be ways to augment their hormonal system, mental health push ups might help to better deal with that stress.”
He said that it was not that the “heroes” were not scared but they just did not exhibit signs of panic.
and from the title
Heroes are born not made, scientists claim
Heroes are born not made, a study claims after it found some people just naturally have more grace under fire.
<Emphasis and underline mine>
They should have posted the actual statements of the study. for all we know Dr Aikins may be claiming this but from my reading of the article he was just saying some people are biologically well suited to handle stress! Maybe i am wrong but I believe i am closer to the truth here!
read the telegraph article here:
Heroes are born, not made
Professor Deane Aikins, a psychiatrist at Yale University, said a small minority of individuals remain cool even in the most stressful circumstances.
His findings, based on research with the military, found that some individuals did not panic because their body naturally protected them.
Unlike the majority of people who were flooded with a stress hormone, they had much lower levels and also showed signs of another hormone that actually calmed them down.
Chris Blattman’s Blog: Heroes are born, not made.
Gregory Clark Is Chairman of the Department of Economics at the University of California at Davis
Greg Clark writes:
Dismal scientists: how the crash is reshaping economics: The current recession has revealed the weaknesses in the structures of modern capitalism. But it also revealed as useless the mathematical contortions of academic economics…. The debate about the bank bailout, and the stimulus package, has all revolved around issues that are entirely at the level of Econ 1. What is the multiplier from government spending? Does government spending crowd out private spending? How quickly can you increase government spending? If you got a A in college in Econ 1 you are an expert in this debate: fully an equal of Summers and Geithner. The bailout debate has also been conducted in terms that would be quite familiar to economists in the 1920s and 1930s. There has essentially been no advance in our knowledge in 80 years.
It has seen people like Brad DeLong accuse distinguished macro-economists like Eugene Fama and John Cochrane of the University of Chicago of at least one “elementary, freshman mistake.”
Well, Greg? Don’t be shy. Be brave! Tell us: Is Fama right? Does the NIPA savings-investment identity guarantee that the stimulus cannot work because of 100% crowding out? Or has he made an elementary, freshman mistake?
Greg goes on:
Bizarrely, suddenly everyone is interested in economics, but most academic economists are ill-equipped to address these issues. Recently a group of economists affiliated with the Cato Institute ran an ad in the New York Times opposing the Obama’s stimulus plan. As chair of my department I tried to arrange a public debate between one of the signatories and a proponent of fiscal stimulus — thinking that would be a timely and lively session. But the signatory, a fully accredited university macroeconomist, declined the opportunity for public defense of his position on the grounds that “all I know on this issue I got from Greg Mankiw‘s blog — I really am not equipped to debate this with anyone”…
Grasping Reality with Both Hands: Gregory Clark Is Chairman of the Department of Economics at the University of California at Davis.
Excellent spirited defense of the stimulus. I have to say the way that the media seems to always need to have a balanced take is making me quesy, its like they live in this fantasy world where nothing is right or wrong. Where sentiments and or opinion is substitute for fact. Where the way a story is portrayed actaully affects the reality of the truth of a story.
On a personal note, isn’t this like fat/black/jewish/british jokes or the like. If you are part of the target of the joke you are exempt from feeling that you are being/racist/anti semitist etc?
Read the whole thing!
Third, Republicans have simply carried on as if the stimulus were filled with pork anyway. In fact, the bill contains either zero pork or a vanishingly tiny amount, depending on how you define the term. But that didn’t stop Rush Limbaugh from calling the bill “porkulus,” showing, for a man of his girth, an unusual lack of self-consciousness about deploying porcine-themed insults.
TRB: In Defense of Waste.
For those who believe in God or even who just believes in life, I’ve come to the belief(too many belief in this sentence) God/the Universe is not conspiring against me at worst it does not care for me/us, thus I try to live life in a manner that if not optimistic at least neutral. I still don’t knwo/understand life but I feel that If I am to continue living here I believe in Love!
Who wants to go to heaven?
Published by Paulo Coelho on February 16, 2009 in Stories
A priest – who saw the devil in the pleasures of life – went to the town tavern and asked everyone there to attend church that evening. Everyone obeyed. With the church filled to the last pew, the priest roared out:
– Stop all this drinking! All those who want to go to heaven, raise their right hand!
The entire congregation raised their hand – everyone but Manoel, who was held by all to be a dignified man who fulfilled all his duties.
Surprised, the priest asked:
– And you, Manoel, don’t you want to go to heaven when you die?
– Of course I do. But I still haven’t experienced the life that God has given me, and you want to take it away from me already!
Welcome to Share with Friends – Free Texts for a Free Internet
Who wants to go to heaven? at Paulo Coelho’s Blog.
This is great news for those still living and probably scornful for those who have already left but still has surviving spouses. Something is better than nothing. On a personal note, my grandfather never accepted anything pensions etc, he was a WW2 veteran, He used to tell me he did it because of his duty to the country and not for anything else, that may sentimentality is impractical but I confess being an impractical man (sometimes)
Lump sum only for living WWII vets
February 17, 2009 1:26 PM
Posted under global nation
Veronica Uy
INQUIRER.net
MANILA, Philippines — Only living Filipino World War II veterans will receive the lump sum payments from the United States, the Department of Veterans’ Affairs section of the American embassy said Tuesday.
“The bill has not yet been signed into law. All we know is that only live Filipino veterans who served in World War II or who have military service are entitled to [the payments], not their surviving spouse. That is our instruction from the central office,” veterans’ representative Kristine Parayno said in a phone interview with INQUIRER.net.
Parayno said their office has not yet received the list of those who can avail of the payments of the procedures for filing claims.
The US Congress passed on Friday President Barack Obama’s $787-billion stimulus package, which included a $198-million allocation for the Filipino veterans.
The bill, which is scheduled to be signed Tuesday in Denver, would grant $9,000 to Filipino veterans living outside the US and $15,000 to those living there.
INQUIRER.net Breaking News » Lump sum only for living WWII vets.
I’m seeing how people enter to this cycle where traumatic experiences start someone to the path of loneliness and the debilitating effects of loneliness to the brain functions produces a feedback effect that may be the reason why people become more lonly/non-lonely later on in life. read the whole thing!
Researchers found that the ventral striatum—a region of the brain associated with rewards—is much more activated in non-lonely people than in the lonely when they view pictures of people in pleasant settings. In contrast, the temporoparietal junction—a region associated with taking the perspective of another person—is much less activated among lonely than in the non-lonely when viewing pictures of people in unpleasant settings.
“Given their feelings of social isolation, lonely individuals may be left to find relative comfort in nonsocial rewards,” said John Cacioppo, the Tiffany and Margaret Blake Professor in Psychology at the University. He spoke at the briefing along with Jean Decety, the Irving B. Harris Professor in Psychology and Psychiatry at the University.
The ventral striatum, which is critical to learning, is a key portion of the brain and is activated through primary rewards such as food and secondary rewards such as money. Social rewards and feelings of love also may activate the region.
Cacioppo, one of the nation’s leading scholars on loneliness, has shown that loneliness undermines health and can be as detrimental as smoking. About one in five Americans experience loneliness, he said. Decety is one of the nation’s leading researchers to use fMRI scans to explore empathy.
Loneliness Affects How The Brain Operates.
Read the quoted page, hope I can get a copy of that rolling stones issue.
The machines will capture everything: the piggyback ride to the grocery store, the bedtime reading of Tom Swift, the moment he and his father rejoiced when the letter of acceptance from MIT arrived.
Rough Type: Nicholas Carr’s Blog: The avatar of my father.
Saudi Arabia appoints female minister
Mon, 02/16/2009 – 9:44am
Encouraging news from the kingdom:
An expert on girls’ education became Saudi Arabia’s first woman minister on Saturday as part of a wide-ranging cabinet reshuffle by King Abdullah that swept aside several bastions of ultra-conservatism.
Nora bint Abdullah al-Fayez, a US-educated former teacher, was made deputy education minister in charge of a new department for female students, a significant breakthrough in a country where women are not allowed to drive.
Saudi Arabia appoints female minister | FP Passport.