I can see the rationale behind the trillion dollar stimulus package. If you don't do it, you risk a deep recession, a global recession. Better a trillion now than two trillion tomorrow.
But to rely totally on the stimulus package would be to miss the mark. White collar crime style irresponsible behavior brought this about. The number one would be the Iraq War. The Iraq War has been the biggest white collar crime in history. Hitler killed six million Jews, Bush killed a million and a half Iraqis. After a half century of further civilization, a million and a half today probably is equivalent to six million back then. The white collar crime of the Iraq War - a trillion or so dollars - got mirrored in bad Wall Street behavior.
But the number one lesson to be learnt is that global finance is just like global warming, just like global terrorism, there is no national solution, not even by the mighty power of America. So the number one solution can not be the trillion dollar stimulus package, necessary as it is. The real challenge is, so how do you create a new global financial architecture? Minor tinkering with the IMF and the World Bank will not do.
When the dust on this financial mess settles, more of the global power is expected to have shifted to China. There is no free lunch.
What is Apple Inc.'s plan if CEO Steve Jobs dies? Los Angeles Times No American CEO is more intimately identified with his company's success. Jobs is deeply involved in every facet of Apple development and design, and he's justly admired for his instinct for the human-factor engineering of Apple products. He is Apple's visionary and carnival barker. ..... The Jobs role that Apple may find hardest to fill is that of one-man Supreme Court, settling disputes between warring engineering camps by decree. There have been countless battles at Apple over such things as how many buttons a mouse should have and what keys should be on its keyboards. The ultimate authority belongs to Jobs. ..... Google and its Android mobile phone operating system. ......... a CEO whose talents and personality are so inextricably entwined with a signature American brand. Writing the Web’s Future in Numerous Languages The next chapter of the World Wide Web will not be written in English alone. Asia already has twice as many Internet users as North America, and by 2012 it will have three times as many. Already, more than half of the search queries on Google come from outside the United States. ....... Quillpad, an online service for typing in 10 South Asian languages. Users spell out words of local languages phonetically in Roman letters, and Quillpad’s predictive engine converts them into local-language script. ...... India, whose online population Jupiter says is poised to become the third-largest in the world after China and the United States by 2012 ....... Wikipedia now has more entries in Indian local languages than in Korean. ...... Even among the largely English-speaking base of around 50 million Web users in India today, nearly three-quarters prefer to read in a local language ..... “Localization is the key to success in countries like India" ....... Google engineers are also plugging away on voice recognition, translation, transliteration and digital text reading that it plans to apply to other developing countries. Obama says got "choked up" leaving Chicago Reuters Sprint WiMAX misses Chicago launch, now aiming for 2H 2009 Boy Genius Report Think your WiFi is fast? WiMax is coming to Chicago The Windy Citizen Google Hopes to Open a Trove of Little-Seen Books New York Times Revenue will be generated through advertising sales on pages where previews of scanned books appear, through subscriptions by libraries and others to a database of all the scanned books in Google’s collection, and through sales to consumers of digital access to copyrighted books. Google will take 37 percent of this revenue, leaving 63 percent for publishers and authors. ........ The settlement may give new life to copyrighted out-of-print books in a digital form and allow writers to make money from titles that had been out of commercial circulation for years. Of the seven million books Google has scanned so far, about five million are in this category. ........ Even if Google had gone to trial and won the suits, said Alexander Macgillivray, associate general counsel for products and intellectual property at the company, it would have won the right to show only previews of these books’ contents. “What people want to do is read the book” ......... When the agreement was announced in October, all sides hailed it as a landmark settlement .......... In May, Microsoft ended its book scanning project, effectively leaving Google as a monopoly corporate player....... Students and faculty at universities who subscribe to the database will be able to get the full contents of all the books free. ......... a lot of reading is going to happen on screens Google Unlocks G1 Android Mobile Phone NewsOXY Bachchan's aura built on sheer talent, performances: Amir Press Trust of India Russians Raise Ukraine Gas Bill New York Times How the SEC Can Prevent More Madoffs Wall Street Journal Dell Elevates Insiders in Strategy Change Wall Street Journal 'Marley & Me' stays No. 1 at box office Los Angeles Times
Towards the end of the Jesse Jackson event, one elderly volunteer kept emphasizing upon me the point that it was okay to take Bloomberg's money if he gives ... democracyforum.blogspot.com/2005/10/jesse-jackson-on-martin-luther-king.html
I rooted for Fernando Ferrer when he ran for Mayor. One day I found myself in the Bronx, and this old, Hispanic dude approached me and said in all earnesty: "Take Bloomberg's money if he gives it to you, just don't do the work!"
I don't know what he saw in me but apparently he knew me better than I knew me back then. It helped that Bloomberg who changed from Democrat to Republican changed from Republican to Independent.
I am declaring myself an Independent for Bloomberg. He will win a third term easy.
He is a billionaire. I am going to be a billionaire.
He is Mayor. I am a bigger political talent than him.
He is Jewish, Jesus was a Jew. I am a Madhesi, Buddha was a Madhesi.
He has been a very good Mayor.
He is for Caroline Kennedy for US Senate. So am I.
He is no Michael Corleone, he is Michael Bloomberg. I am Barackface.
The Plenty of Fish Compatibility Predictor (CP) measures five broad relationship variables that are each essential for building romantic relationships. People don't need to score "high" on each of these characteristics to be in a fulfilling relationship. What's important is how your profile interacts with the profile of a potential romantic partner -- or what is commonly called “chemistry.” Based on decades of empirical research in the social sciences, the CP captures the five key ingredients that can determine whether or not two people have the “right” psychological chemistry. The relationship variables are: Self-Confidence, or the degree to which a person feels comfortable with him or herself. People that are high in self-confidence tend to be assertive and competent in both their private and public relationships. People that are low in self-confidence tend to be reticent and somewhat anxious. Family Orientation, or the degree to which a person supports and values the family. People that are family-oriented tend to want or already have children, are very close to their immediate relatives and prefer cooking at home to eating at a restaurant. People that are not family-oriented tend to be individualistic, unconventional and very much enjoy attending parties and social functions. Self-Control, or the extent to which a person exerts control over various aspects of life. People that are high in self-control tend have strong emotional reactions to things and try to regulate those feelings by micromanaging and attending to specific details. People that are low in self-control are usually relaxed, even-tempered and lenient. Openness, or the extent to which a person is open to and dependent upon others. People that are high in openness tend to like a wide range of things (e.g., food, music, movies, etc.), in part because they are concerned with pleasing other people. In contrast, people low in openness are very independent and opinionated; they know what they like and aren’t apt to change their opinion. Easygoingness, or a person’s work ethic and degree of mental flexibility. People that are high in easygoingness are very relaxed, broadminded and unaffected by change. In contrast, people low in easygoingness tend be hardworking, firm, and sometimes inflexible. IMPORTANT: Before reading your profile, remember that the report is based on generalizations from research on an international validation sample. Some feedback may not apply to your case. For instance, we know that overall those scoring "moderate or high" on Family Orientation tend to either want children soon or are open to the idea in the future. However, this generalization may not be accurate for all moderate and high scorers. Use these results for self-awareness and self-reflection...and hopefully as a conversation piece with other Plenty of Fish members!
Your Chemistry Test Results
Self-Confidence
As someone with high self-confidence, you feel quite comfortable interacting with other people. Indeed, you find the company of others very stimulating and enjoy meeting new people. Your relaxed demeanor in groups makes people around you comfortable too. Perhaps because you feel comfortable talking about yourself, others tend to enjoy being around you and perceive you as socially competent.
The confidence that helps you feel comfortable talking to people also spills into your own personal beliefs about yourself. Although you have several strengths, it’s likely that you also acknowledge and accept your weaknesses. But unlike some people, you take full responsibility for your actions—you rarely regret things you’ve done in the past and are not embarrassed easily.
Perhaps the defining feature that sets you apart from most people is the exceptionally high standards that you set for yourself. Your competence in social gatherings as well as at work should provide ample evidence for this. With these characteristics, it’s very likely that people come to you for advice and generally think of you as someone with leader-like qualities.
Family Orientation
As someone who is oriented to familial matters, you value the company of family-members and domestic life. If you have children already, you enjoy spending time with them very much and work hard to be a good parent. If you don’t have children, you very much desire having children in the future. And your preference for cooking and entertaining guests at home will likely ease the transition into parenthood.
You take pride in maintaining and cultivating a healthy family and work hard to achieve this. This natural tendency is easily illustrated by your preference for doing things around the house as opposed to going out to clubs and restaurants.
What really sets you apart from people that are low in family orientation is that you know how to manage your frustrations and work well on your own. This means that you are well-equipped to manage a family without letting all the work that is involved wear you down. However, as someone with strong family values, all the work that is involved in maintaining a tidy home and well-stocked kitchen might occasionally make it difficult for you to finish everything that you need to do.
Self-Control
The self-control personality dimension captures the way in which a person regulates and directs him or herself. Being low in self-control can be both good and bad. Occasionally people may be compelled to follow their intuitions and give in to their temptations, and your degree of self-control makes this likely to happen more often than not. This can be good in circumstances where being relaxed and open are important. However, in situations where it is necessary to be focused and careful, you might find that you do or say things that may be inappropriate.
As someone who exerts little control over your actions, you may find that you commit social blunders that might offend other people and get yourself in trouble. For example, if you’re given responsibility to work on a project that requires close attention to detail, you may be likely to overlook important details because you have difficulty staying focused. Consequently, you might feel more comfortable delegating such tasks to other people who are more detail oriented. Being able to recognize such characteristics in yourself and having more detail-oriented people do such tasks could be an effective way to manage your own stress level.
Low self-control may diminish your effectiveness at work. Acting too relaxed can make it difficult for you to focus on projects that require organized sequences of steps or stages. Thus, your ability to accomplish may be inconsistent. Indeed, it’s possible that you might be criticized periodically for being unreliable or unable to “stay within the lines.” Nonetheless, you may still experience many short-lived pleasures and never be thought of as boring.
Openness
As someone high in openness, you have a strong appreciation for beauty, both in art and nature. Indeed, it’s likely that you are easily absorbed in music and art, as well as natural phenomena. Another aspect of your openness is your emotional insight; that is, you probably have good access to and awareness of your own emotions.
Another aspect of the openness dimension is the tendency to think about abstract concepts and ideas. This thinking style may take the form of artistic and metaphorical use of language, and/or music composition or performance. Thus, it is likely that, either in your work or spare time, you enjoy activities that get your “creative juices” flowing.
Your tendency to be open-minded can have advantages and disadvantages. For instance, when there are no clear rules about how to approach a particular problem, your openness makes it easier for you to identify new ways to solve problems that might not be very obvious to people that are not as open as you are. In contrast, you may be bored easily in situations that lack high amounts of intellectual stimulation. In such cases, you might have difficulty excelling on projects that do not provide much stimulation or require much creative thinking.
Easygoingness
Easygoingness refers to one's ability to relax. Based on your score, you appear to work and play hard. The benefits of being moderate in easygoingness are that you achieve success through hard work, but you also know when and how to relax. Your colleagues and friends likely consider you as reliable and fun to be around.
Being moderate in easygoingness can cause you some stress, however. For example, you may sometimes find it difficult to complete tasks thoroughly and efficiently, which can cause stress for both you and the people around you. You may occasionally experience stress by working hard to reach your goals, but you value having fun and just relaxing. Knowing how to balance both work and play is a gift, and you have the key ingredients for doing this.
You have enough mental flexibility to think creatively and enough focus to implement those ideas well. This might be epitomized by your occasional difficulty focusing on subtle details, but the ease with which you’re able to adjust to changes in your life.
As someone who is neither rigid nor careless, you likely get along with most people well. On the one hand, you recognize the value of working hard and therefore consider such qualities in others beneficial. On the other hand, you know how to relax and thus appreciate people that know how to do this too. Chances are your friends and colleagues perceive you as someone that works hard, but also knows how to have a good time.
How does your personality affect your love life?
With your strong degree of confidence, it’s no surprise that you get along well with most people. Indeed, it’s self-confidence that allows people to feel comfortable interacting with others without feeling insecure and vulnerable. For this reason, you shouldn’t have much difficulty in romance, at least not initially. Your social skills will likely help relieve any anxiety your romantic partners might have on those first few dates. However, over time, the high standards that you have for yourself could potentially frustrate your partner.
Given how much you value family life, you probably get along best with people who share your values and beliefs. In fact, it’s likely that you maintain close connections with members of your immediate and distant family. For this reason, you would probably be most satisfied in a romantic relationship with someone who also values domestic life. Being in a relationship with someone who enjoys going out to parties and staying-up late at night might be fun, at least initially; yet it’s likely that you will find this tiring over time. Thus, it might be easier and more satisfying for you to develop a long-lasting relationship with a person who also enjoys spending time at home and desires starting a family. On first dates, perhaps you might suggest to your partner that the two of you spend a quiet night having dinner at one of your respective homes instead of going out to a restaurant or club.
As someone who is more relaxed than most people, you’re likely be attracted to most people. However, your free-spirited nature might make being in a relationship with a person that is more rigid than you difficult because you might perceive the person as being too uptight and controlling. For this reason, you may ultimately be most satisfied in a relationship with someone that is shares your level of self-control.
Your openness probably makes it easy for you to respect and appreciate people that are different from you. However, when it comes to romantic relationships, your openness might make it difficult for you to tolerate people that cannot appreciate diversity as much as you. Therefore, you may be happiest in serious relationships with people that share your open-mindedness. But, your openness might occasionally cause a certain degree of dependency on your end because you may be so open that you easily adopt the preferences and habits of your partners and gradually relinquish things that make you so unique.
January 5 Court Date: Request For Case Dismissal Based on Voluntary Pledge
December 26, 2008
9:30 AM, Part C
100 Centre Street
New York, NY 10013
2008 NY 040082
Mr. Youngblood.
Thank you for taking the time to appear on my behalf in court on December 18. I would like to offer this voluntary pledge based on which I request that you push for a case dismissal.
Voluntary Pledge
Not mentioning the ERC name at my Barackface blog going into the future. (http://democracyforum.blogspot.com)
Not showing up for DL21C events.
Quiet Pledge *
Not mentioning the name of any NYC young progressive at my Barackface blog going into the future.
Not going to political events in general.
* This is me saying to myself and to my business partner I wish to focus on my tech startup like a laser beam.
Please arrange for me to address the judge directly for one minute on January 5.
This is the woman I am looking into right now. This is not Elizabeth Caputo, this is Red Rose.
