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November
Edition
Original Articles
on
FOREIGN and DOMESTIC
POLICY
POLITICAL and MEDIA ANALYSIS
Links to Revealing References and News Sources
Highlighted
Article
The Challenge
of the New Statism
The liberal
democracies have experienced financial shocks and reacted, but
not as free market advocates expected. Adam Smith's name is not
being loudly spoken in the world's central banks. Instead we
have western governments recommending federal interference in
their poorly regulated economies and incorporating methods similar
to those that guide New Statist nations, such as China and Russia.
This phenomenon reveals that Francis Fukayama, who received commendation
for his 1989 philosophical tract: The End of History, might have
spoken too fast.
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The
Challenge of the New Statism
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Rapid Decline of
the Print Media
It's
happening and quickly, conventional print are slowly reducing
and folding. The NY Times has slimmed down, as if on a diet -
except it;s not a diet - America's most venerable newspaper is
being starved of subscribers. October 29, 2008 has become an
anniversary date for the journals. On that date, the Christian
Science Monitor became the first major US newspaper to abandon
print and focus on online publishing.
As the public
shifts towards Internet news, Internet opinions, and Internet
comments, the public learns that intelligent observers and clever
interpreters of events exist outside the conventional media.
The public is getting educated, but that's not all - web surfing,
rather than reading newspapers at breakfast, is good for the
brain
BBC News, 14 October 2008
Internet use 'good for the brain'
A University
of California Los Angeles team found searching the web stimulated
centres in the brain that controlled decision-making and complex
reasoning. The researchers say this might even help to counteract
the age-related physiological changes that cause the brain to
slow down.
As the brain ages, a number of changes occur, including shrinkage
and reductions in cell activity, which can affect performance.
It has long been thought that activities which keep the brain
active, such as crossword puzzles, may help minimise that impact
- and the latest study suggests that surfing the web can be added
to the list.
Lead researcher Professor Gary Small said: "The study results
are encouraging, that emerging computerised technologies may
have physiological effects and potential benefits for middle-aged
and older adults. "Internet searching engages complicated
brain activity, which may help exercise and improve brain function."
The shift from
print to electronic doesn't radically change the one-sided and
conventional reporting. However, like Dorothy being swept away
from Kansas, the new look stirs a new perception. Unfortunately
most of the gems of wisdom are found among a myriad of articles
on the more radical websites - Dissident Voice, Countercurrents,
Opinion Journal, Oped News, and others, and for good reason;
these sites contain the expressions denied to them by conventional
media.
The demise
of he printed page solicits some unanswered questions:
What will happen
to advertising?
How will the
public be informed of trends?
Our minds will
improve, but how will our eyesight be affected?
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Observations
Business
media bow to a variety of investment experts who opine on the
direction of the stock market. Problem- they have different opinions
and rarely give an analysis to support their conclusions.
Question: What benefit is expert opinion if experts differ and
give no adequate reason for their differences?
Note some opinions of
Oct. 18.
Wantrobski
Sees Possible 4-Month Rally for U.S. Stocks
Weissenstein Sees Stock Market Volatility Through 2008
RBC's Marc, Entropy's Brady See More Stock Volatility
Phil Orlando Favors Consumer-Staple, Health-Care Stocks
Canaccord's Ross Sees Further Drop in Stocks, Dow 7,200
According
to Market Watch, March 7, 2008, Goldman Sachs, a once popular
investment house and advisor to millions predicted oil prices
could rise to $200/barrel. The same Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
downgraded ZTE Corp., China's second largest telephone-network
equipment manufacturer, to a price target of HK$35 (763 HK),
after the company stock fell HK$3, or 21 percent, to HK$11.50.
Qualifications
for a stock expert:
Just say the stock market will either go up, down, remain the
same or be volatile.
Memorable Prose
MAN
has created gods in his own likeness and being himself mortal
he has naturally supposed his creatures to be in the same sad
predicament. Thus the Greenlanders believed that a wind could
kill their most powerful god, and that he would certainly die
if he touched a dog. When they heard of the Christian God, they
kept asking if he never died, and being informed that he did
not, they were much surprised, and said that he must be a very
great god indeed. In answer to the enquiries of Colonel Dodge,
a North American Indian stated that the world was made by the
Great Spirit. Being asked which Great Spirit he meant, the good
one or the bad one, “Oh, neither of them,” replied
he, “the Great Spirit that made the world is dead long ago.
He could not possibly have lived as long as this.” A tribe
in the Philippine Islands told the Spanish conquerors that the
grave of the Creator was upon the top of Mount Cabunian. Heitsi-eibib,
a god or divine hero of the Hottentots, died several times and
came to life again. His graves are generally to be met with in
narrow defiles between mountains. When the Hottentots pass one
of them, they throw a stone on it for good luck, sometimes muttering,
“Give us plenty of cattle.” The grave of Zeus, the
great god of Greece, was shown to visitors in Crete as late as
about the beginning of our era. The body of Dionysus was buried
at Delphi beside the golden statue of Apollo, and his tomb bore
the inscription, “Here lies Dionysus dead, the son of Semele.”
According to one account, Apollo himself was buried at Delphi;
for Pythagoras is said to have carved an inscription on his tomb,
setting forth how the god had been killed by the python and buried
under the tripod.
Sir James
George Frazer:
The Golden Bough
Interesting Images
Jiuzhaigou Valley which
means “Valley of Nine Villages.”
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