Moonlapse

http://webcast.berkeley.edu/courses.php?semesterid=27 There's some interesting courses that I haven't seen in the previous semesters: Shakespeare Modern Physics: From the Atom to Big Science The Making of Modern Europe, 1453 to the Present Introduction to Design of Human Work Systems and Organizations Information Law and Policy Existentialism in Literature and Film American Politics:Campaign Strategy - Media Developmental Psychopathology Introduction to Practical Reasoning and Critical Analysis of Argument Unfortunately, I can usually only keep up on a couple at a time.

I'm not sure of precisely what you are asking, but if you are worried about other people getting into your account on a computer that you've used, you should make sure to uncheck the login option to automatically log you in. There is also a 'Delete cookies set by this board' link near the bottom of the forum index that you can also use to make sure that your information is removed from the computer. If you are worried about hackers, the best thing to do is have at least two uppercase letters, two lowercase letters, two numbers and two special symbols in your password, and do not use the same password for everything. Hope this helps.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/

I think in the next year it will become more obvious that we need to adopt the kind of foreign policy/fiscal policy that Ron Paul is promoting, regardless of whether or not he has any success.

It's global warming!!! I mean climate change!!! I mean climate destabilization!!! Call your congressman!!

I think that if free market education was continually allowed without central manipulation, it would take about as long to get out of this mess as it did to get into it: 100+ years. In the meantime a lot of errors would be made, but at least the cumulative effect would be productive.

I agree. If there's one thing that will ensure the prolonged survival of overly expensive services at low quality, it's a government enforced monopoly. Any real competition and free choice would greatly reduce expensive and defective schooling.

My daily driver is an 11 year old Civic sedan which has been rammed by idiot drivers on two occasions, has navigated some formidable off-road trails in order to go camping (I'll have to dig up some pics), has forded through a 3 foot deep torrent of water crossing the interstate, and has gotten me though numerous blizzards and ice storms without fail. Needless to say, it's seen better days but it's a beloved little machine.

Yes, the Flight and Failure of St Anthony. My profile photo is an interesting section of the background detail of The House of Ill Fame.

To be honest, I can no longer remember the reason for leaving the Moesian border out, or whether or not it is an error. There were countless aspects of the map that had to be compromised due to its 300+ year time frame, and this might have been one of them. For the question on Epirus, I'll quote from Michael Grant's Guide to the Ancient World: The differences in direction of the hash marks around Germania Magna and the eastern provinces is purely for aesthetics based on the shapes of the provinces being outlined. The determining feature of temporary expansion is not color or direction but the fact that it has a gradual fade. Thanks for the feedback!!

All I can say is that you have my utmost admiration because if the human race turns out all right, it will be because of parents like you. At the moment, I'm personally too afraid to voluntarily bring any kids into the world, for their own sake.

It's just a new confirmation of the view that I have adopted which essentially states that forced mass schooling in the United States was designed from its very beginnings not to educate, but to manufacture human resources using a pragmatic, institutional 'machine' which by its very nature lacks any empathy or conscience. This was done for the 'common good' because it creates in the masses the potential for corporate efficiency and consumerist conditioning which are required to accommodate mass production. Both primary and secondary schooling, or instruction, were inspired by the systems set in place in the Kingdom of Prussia as attested to in Horace Mann's writing and by the rise of research universities in the German model such as Johns Hopkins, Stanford, the University of Chicago, etc. The entire overhaul was undemocratically driven into government policy primarily by the educational foundations controlled by Rockefeller, Carnegie, Morgan, and Ford. In fact, there was strong opposition and rebellions from the lower class citizens who were supposedly the main beneficiaries of the new policies. I'm sure the intents were not malicious, but the effects were not misunderstood either. I see it as the efforts of these exceptionally capable and successful men (some of whom were self educated) to make the system work better in the same way you would improve a mechanical system. The problem with this is that it leaves no room for real education and that mechanical systems can never treat humans as humans and still be efficient at producing the intended results. Research universities can surely crank out discoveries useful to industrial progress using positivist methods, but resources would be badly wasted if they also attempted to create classical intellect. People who are unable to thrive in this system of labels, grades, and hierarchies are essentially separated out like chaff, even if they have intellectual potential. The result as I see it is that this system produces the kind of people who are better managed by experts than having to manage themselves, which undermines our old tradition of democracy and self-sufficiency. Consider what Walt Lippmann has said:

The 1931 Page-Barbour Lecture by Albert Jay Nock The Theory of Education in the United States

Well Moon, if they have a bit of common sense (rare, these days) and somehow manage to escape with a good sense of personal responsibility, I think they turn out OK. Especially if they have a good friend or two who will help them through the issues that their childhood will have invariably left them with. Yeah, my wife is like that. She was responsible for herself and her idiot older siblings, while her parent were, and still are IMO, functioning like kindergarteners. Sort of 'scared straight' by the appalling example set by mom and dad.

Sweeet!

Ohhh god, don't get me started. Justly and consistently delivered physical discipline is painful for a very short amount of time, yet it creates self-discipline, the life-long benefits of which cannot be understated. This is especially powerful when paired with positive reinforcement of self-disciplined behavior. Self-discipline has to be one of the most important aspects of living a fulfilling life. Yet, physical discipline not only draws an incredible torrent of unsolicited criticism, it can potentially entitle the State to assume ownership of your child. Pain is a remarkably beneficial thing, we owe to it the existence of life and the ability to experience happiness. Here's a recipe for the worst kind of abuse, completely legal and guaranteed to drastically lower your child's ability to enjoy life and increase their potential to spread misery to others: Generally treat your child as a nuisance. Only show them love as a means to manipulate or obligate them. Only discipline them when you need to release your own stress, insecurity, humiliation, anger, etc and be sure to do it for extremely petty offenses for which you yourself are most guilty. Discipline them by tearing down their self-esteem, playing mind games, turning their words back on themselves, and generally making them confused, frightened, and unsure until you break their will. Once you break them down, tell them you love them. Let them get away with almost anything because you don't want to have to deal with providing guidance. Try to ignore them unless you have something negative to say or something unpleasant for them to do. Exploit any trust they give you. Use them against your spouse. Only give them what they want when they throw fits. Never be satisfied with accomplishments and spike any praise you give with some belittlement. If they try to resist manipulation, make them feel guilty. Support them only when they do not take responsibility for themselves. I'm not a parent, I've simply paid attention to how ninety-something percent of parents I see interact with their children. I was eating dinner at a restaurant several nights ago and I was completely astonished to see a parent paying full, loving attention to his two amazingly well behaved young children. I was also astonished by the fact that I was so astonished, then it actually enraged me and I became despondent. What is going to happen to all these kids?

I think the time frame for that to play out would be measured in decades.

You're welcome! The Mises Institute has a lot of stuff, if one is interested in that sort of economics. http://www.mises.org/resources/3322

Most universities have recently restriced access to their actual course lecture podcasts. Instead, they now typically offer boring crap or political keynote lectures. However, Berkeley still offers public access to complete semester course lectures going back several years. Hopefully, they keep it up. http://webcast.berkeley.edu/courses.php

I don't think that trade is unbalanced--in an ideal world, we could get $100 worth of imports for just $1 worth of exports (a pipe-dream, I know). Nor do I think that a growing service economy is bad either. More engineers designing robots and fewer people working like robots is a good thing--for workers and the economy both. The last issue is an interesting one that I haven't given much thought. The problem is how to measure inflation that doesn't show up in government statistics. However that's done, it's hard to see why the manufacturing sector in particular should be reporting inflated earnings. Shouldn't hidden inflation boost everyone's nominal bottom line? The dollar is currently sinking against commodities and other currencies. If this continues and especially if China unpegs its currency from the dollar, all of the manufactured stuff that we import and consume is going to get expensive. No matter which way I look at it, I can't rationally expect the dollar not to continue dropping in value, especially when the Fed is dropping rates. This is going to bring out the real imbalance, because we will desperately need the ability to not only manufacture our own goods to replace the ones we currently import, but make enough to export so that the US can still have a functioning economy. However, we currently don't have the up-to-date industrial infrastructure to do this (except maybe in places like Michigan), and it will require a lot of capital to create. Where do we get that capital? We are in debt, individually and as a nation, up to our eyeballs. Few people are really saving money, and those that are probably have their savings and investments in US dollars. We've already been using incredible amounts of capital from China and Japan and Saudi Arabia. What happens when they realize that they made bad investments? What happens when the dollar is no longer used as reserve currency and all that money comes back to the US? Much of the recent manufacturing growth was related to the growth of the housing bubble. There were an incredible amount of houses built where I live in the past couple of years (the view out my window is covered by cookie cutter houses almost to the horizon, the values of which are steadily dropping) and lots of people pulled equity out of their homes based on unrealistically high values in order to make home improvements (or in some cases just to consume things they didn't want to save for). Americans have a lot of personal debt, and even though the cost of that debt will become cheaper with inflation, savings and investments will also drop in value and people will have to be able to be able to pay for the increased cost of the basic living essentials like energy and food and a lot of stuff made in China. The recent GDP numbers released by the Department of Commerce are based on 0.8% annualized inflation (first line in Table 4), instead of the typical and understated ~2-3%. Yet, the dollar is near record lows against other currencies and commodity prices in dollars are near record highs. The Fed has lowered interest rates. I can't see that inflation is even as low as 3%, so what does that do to GDP growth numbers? What does that do to every other statistic that the government prints? If its hard to see why the manufacturing sector should be reporting inflated figures, is it also hard to see why inflated GDP figures should be reported when 'consumer confidence' is touted as such an important factor? After all, consumer spending constitutes about 70% of the GDP.

Four and eight (sometimes six) spoke wheels are common celtic symbols. The celtic cross is a Christianized wheel. Look at these very old celtic crosses, which are often just wheels on top of a pillar. The god Jupiter Taranis:

I'll second water, yoga, and a good massage.

What sort of content would the business blog entries contain? Who would author it? Who is the main audience?

What is the definite purpose of having the blog in the first place?