text:
Mercedes A-class AMG: more power than RS3
The forthcoming Mercedes A-class AMG's will be more powerful than the Audi RS3 says AMG's boss
Mercedes' AMG division has called on the services of its High Performance Engine (HPE) offshoot in Brixworth, Northamptonshire, for engineering help in the development of the upcoming A-class AMG's turbocharged 2.0-litre, four-cylinder engine.
Set to make its world debut at the Paris motor show in September, the four-wheel-drive mega-hatch is set to receive a heavily reworked version of Mercedes' existing M271/M274 petrol engine.
The unit features the same 7mm wall thickness and 90mm bore centre space as Mercedes-Benz HPE had envisaged for its stillborn turbocharged 1.6-litre Formula 1 engine. This powerplant was under development before the world motorsport governing body, the FIA, ratified conflicting turbocharged 2.4-litre V6 engine rules for the 2013 F1 season.
AMG's decision to involve HPE in the development of the engine follows tough engineering targets laid down by its boss, Ola Kallenius — a former head of HPE. He has insisted that the turbocharged 2.0-litre unit produce more power than the 335bhp turbocharged 2.5-litre, five-pot engine in the Audi RS3 Sportback and the 316bhp turbocharged 3.0-litre straight six used by BMW's forthcoming M135i hatch. The new BMW hot hatch is earmarked to make an appearance at the Geneva motor show in March.
Further details remain scarce, although Autocar sources suggest the engine will receive a bore and stroke of around 83mm x 89mm, hinting at a capacity of 2.0-litres.
Despite earlier plans to provide the new engine with pressure-wave turbocharger technology from Swiss firm Hyprex, it is now set to run a more conventional exhaust gas-driven twin-scroll turbocharger in combination with the latest in piezo-guided direct injection.
Mercedes-Benz A-Class 2013-2018
Can the latest Mercedes A-Class's slick conformity outweigh the old model's originality?
As well as appearing in the A-class AMG, the new engine is earmarked for the larger CLC AMG and CLC Shooting Brake AMG, both scheduled to be launched next year. The engine and running gear are being tested in a B-class test mule, the B-class sharing its underpinnings with the CLC.
Renowned for turning out Mercedes' F1 engines, as used by McLaren, Force India and its own factory-backed team, HPE is becoming increasingly involved in the engineering of the German car maker's production car engines. Along with the A-class AMG's engine, HPE has been approached to help in the development of the upcoming SLS E-Cell's all-electric driveline.
Re: Mercedes A25 AMG: more power than RS3
[quote Autocar] Mercedes' AMG division has called on the services of its High Performance Engine (HPE) offshoot in Brixworth, Northamptonshire, for engineering help in the development of the upcoming A25 AMG's turbocharged 2.0-litre, four-cylinder engine.
Set to make its world debut at the Paris motor show in September, the four-wheel-drive A25 mega-hatch is set to receive a heavily reworked version of Mercedes' existing M271/M274 petrol engine.
Read the full article[/quote] Well, whoppee doo!, so Mercedes have joined the hot hatch brigade with a car that's carisma-less,really,cars that are supposed to be fun should look fun.
Let's wait and see the official pics of the a25 amg before its condemned
Looks quite exciting. A bit of a sleeper. If it was called the 'A20AMG', I'd prefer it.
[quote Fidji]If it was called the 'A20AMG', I'd prefer it.[/quote]
What difference does 5 make?
[quote PRODIGY]
[/quote] About as much as Jason Plato driving an MG in the BTTC this season!
It's the dishonesty that the Germans display that annoys me (the Japanese and French are at it as well now, but the Germans are the worst offenders). My last two cars have been wrong. My C250CDI was a 2.1 and my current C350CDI is a 3.0. BMW are worse though - the upcoming '50d' engines will be 3.0s! Also, calling a 2.0 3-Series a 328i is stupid. It just annoys me for some reason. Maybe I've got OCD...
Boris911
[quote Fidji]
[/quote]Even more reason just to remove the badging completely.
[quote Boris911]Even more reason just to remove the badging completely[/quote]
I like your thinking...
enda1
[quote Fidji]It's the dishonesty that the Germans display that annoys me (the Japanese and French are at it as well now, but the Germans are the worst offenders). My last two cars have been wrong[/quote]
Audi in fairness still tell the truth about the engine size
petrolheadinrussia
If you put a whopping V8 5 litre under the hood I still wouldnt want this ugly duckling - anyone prepared to fork out some 5 figure more than the standard have to have a very weird sense of humour and be lacking taste totally - oh I know its for the American market!! ( only kidding)


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Balenciaga Explores Fanatical Behavior for Fall/Winter 2020
PFW Fashion Week
In Lieu of a Show, Balenciaga Does a Music Video for Spring 2021
5 Minutes with Kristen Stewart
by Grace Gordon
Savoir Flair's Shoot for Balenciaga Goes into the Heart of Darkness
Fear is not a frequent companion to fashion week, except the kind you'll find when attending shows in the middle of a global pandemic. But fear quickened the pulse at Balenciaga Fall/Winter 2020, when the lights came up in the theater at La Cité du Cinéma to reveal Demna Gvasalia's high priestesses (and priests) of doom. The sky above was overcast. A storm was coming. Illuminated by jaw-dropping ceiling projections, the looks that led the show were black and threatening. Violins in swooning minor chords made the whole thing feel like the crescendo of a horror film. The victim? All of humanity.
As the show progressed, so did the scenery on the ceiling. There were churning oceans, a swarm of crows (incidentally, a gathering of crows is called a "murder"), and finally Earth as seen from space, slowly eclipsed by blackness. Event horizon. The apocalypse is nigh. In some ways, the spectacle of the set distracted from the clothes, but the "end is near" message was found in them, too. With rapidly melting ice caps, blazing continents, scary viruses, and unhinged politicians confronting us on the news every day, one had to wonder: are these the clothes you wear to Earth's funeral? Or is Gvsalia simply trying to provoke us? He's good at that.
Photo: Courtesy of Imaxtree
Fanatical behavior was explored in the collection. Pathological denial of science-backed evidence that the climate has changed for the worst joined with the lionizing of big business and supported by reality-defying leaders whose greed has proven to be bottomless are all responsible for delivering humanity to the brink of existence. Gvasalia riffed on the cults of sports, religion, and obsession through the use of football jerseys, austere clerical robes, and dresses that were fully covered with shoes, gloves, and leggings that were all part of the gown.
The spectacle of the set distracted from the clothes, but the "end is near" message was found in them, too.
One model, whether intentionally or not (it was hard to tell), walked the runway with 'AirPods' jammed firmly in his ears. What was he listening to? His world was insular. Groupthink, insularity, and fanatical devotion to bad ideas are contributing factors to the blind eye we've all turned to our world's decay. "It's not my problem."
There were also a lot of suits in the show, and they were all good. Some were rigorously molded to the body. According to the show notes: "Silhouettes defy convention, accentuating a garment's technical construction, the body of its wearer, and the space between the two." Balenciaga achieved this by erasing the space completely. Others had protruding pagoda shoulders that jutted high up to the ears. There are a lot of big shoulders at the FW20 shows, but most of them were wide. These were tall.
A hellscape emerged at the finale, with a sky lit on fire. Looks took on a more bourgeoisie quality. Maybe these folks had the good sense (read: money) to wait out the apocalypse. Such heavy-handed social commentary would fall flat if Balenciaga wasn't intent on sustainability and inclusivity. As part of Kering's Fashion Pact, they are, and they're doing better by the world all the time. Still, it's hard to define the line between justice and commerce, but the topic is certainly worth debating.
After 20 Years of Icon Status, This Balenciaga Bag Has Gotten a Facelift

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


"She's a feisty one," they told me.
My son entered into this world less than three hours later at 6:50 p.m., premature but healthy. As the contractions came again, even more powerful as my body worked to bring down a second baby, I heard it in the air: breech. Yet, through 10 long minutes of me fighting the instinctive urge to push through waves of intensity as the doctor who assisted our delivery struggled to flip, turn and manually get a hold of our baby, my daughter was born breech at 7 p.m., premature but healthy.
"She's a stubborn one," our delivery doctor told me.
"You're going to need a strong name for this one, Mom," the nurses said.
Twin B, as she was called, continued to prove her grit through the next 48 hours. A strong name would be needed, yes, for our small but mighty one who had presented herself to this world in her own feisty fashion. A name for our spirited one who initially required respiratory assistance, but breathed independently in less than 12 hours. Our quick study, born just shy in gestation of knowing how to suckle in order to eat, who learned how and then fed expertly.
I'd find myself gazing at our newborn little girl, thinking of all that I hoped for her. I hoped that she'd grow to be strong of body and mind. I hoped that she would find happiness, and that she would know joy, love and true friendship. I hoped that life wouldn't knock her down too hard, and I hoped that she'd always get back up. I hoped that she'd never lose faith, and I hoped that she'd never lose hope.
"So, have you decided on a name yet?" a warm and friendly nurse in the neonatal intensive care unit asked.
I smiled at the nurse.


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Georg Engelmann (* um 1575 in Mansfeld; begraben 11. November 1632 in Leipzig) war ein deutscher Organist und Komponist des Frühbarock.

Leben und Werk
1539 immatrikulierte sich Engelmann an der Universität Leipzig. Um 1596 wurde er Organist an der dortigen Paulinerkirche. Engelmann war Universitätsmusikdirektor an der Universität Leipzig und ab 1625 Thomasorganist in Leipzig.

Engelmann gab drei Hefte mit eigenen fünfstrophigen Paduanen und Galliarden für Streicher (Leipzig 1616–1622) und das Sammelwerk Quodlibeticum novum latinum (Leipzig 1620) heraus. Darüber hinaus schrieb er einige Gelegenheitswerke.

Publikationen
 Paduanas et Galliardas, Leipzig 1616–1622
 Quodlibeticum novum latinum, Leipzig 1620

Literatur

Weblinks

Einzelnachweise

Komponist (Deutschland)
Klassischer Organist
Musiker (Leipzig)
Komponist (Barock)
Deutscher
Geboren im 16. Jahrhundert
Gestorben 1632
Mann

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Dagra Kham is a nonindustrial world, that requires extensive imports of outside technology to maintain a modern, star-faring society.
Dagra Kham has a good quality starport.
Dagra Kham possesses a Technology Level of TL–0.
Dagra Kham has no well-defined government structure.


If you don't know where to download The Drums Brutalism for free – it's the right place. The mp3 files are compressed into the single zip file, so you can download The Drums Brutalism at a time. So now you can listen to The Drums Brutalism offline, universal mp3 format can be played on every mobile device. Thanks to our blog you can easily download The Drums Brutalism for free on you device. Music files are compatible with all devices, so you can listen The Drums Brutalism full album on any device. All songs from The Drums Brutalism are 320 kbit/s quality. So if you ask your self where can i download The Drums Brutalism, now you can do it for free. The The Drums Brutalism release date is April 5th 2019. Now you can download The Drums Brutalism for free, and enjoy music.


Added aarch64 to the architectures, no need for others to update.
This package works on aarch64 systems. You could add it on the supported systems.
For coincidence, the main developer of guile adviced me to do so, too.
The default CFLAGS (-O2 and so on) don't get set if you explicitly set it to "".
Why the depends are different than 'guile' package?
I am disowning this package, as well as 'guile-devel', due to lack of time.
StefanHusmann: Thanks, I've disabled the strip option for now. It seems to break for all the .go files.
Since the .go files are ELF object files now (instead of GUILE object files), there must be some issue with how these files are being generated. Interesting note: `eu-readelf -d foreign.go` creates a floating point exception, so maybe there's an issue with the ELF dynamic section in each .go?
I would like to explore the issue a little further but don't have much time at the moment.
I needed options=('!strip'), otherwise makepkg fails to strip some files ending on .go.


In this lesson, world-acclaimed artist Steve Huston tackles one of art�s most complex and elusive subjects: the human figure.
In order to draw, paint, or sculpt the figure, you need to know what it looks like. Steve gives you an essential crash course of the structure, proportion, and gender variations of the figure. You will learn how to simplify and construct the figure from simple characteristic shapes and forms for more direct, readable, and powerful figurative art.
New Masters Academy: Constructing the Human Figure download full.free New Masters Academy: Constructing the Human Figure from nitroflare lumfile rapidgator turbobit letitbit uploading extabit ryushare shareflare littlebyte filesuploader.


Exfoliation is a key element of any effective skincare regimen. This is how you remove the dead skin cells off your body so that your healthy skin can receive the nutrients it needs to replenish and heal. It can also then adequately and efficiently absorb any new healing ingredients you put onto it, so your skin can look and feel radiant, smooth and healthy! Imagine trying to water a garden that had a pile of dead leaves covering it. You would end up with a pile of soggy dead leaves and a garden bed that is still dry as a bone, right?! Likewise, you NEED to remove the dead skin cells from your body first, before you do anything else.
There are many different ways to exfoliate. One can use a chemical exfoliator, such as Alpha Hydroxy Acid, or one can use a physical exfoliator that actually (gently) scrapes the skin, such as chia seeds, cranberry seeds etc. Of course, one can also use tools to aid in the process, such as a sponge or, in this case, a blade!
I never thought I would put a blade to my face, but the Exfolimate is actually not a blade, it just looks like it. It is specifically designed to be safe and gentle on your skin and it's not sharp, so it won't cut your skin. They make one for use on your face, and one for use on your body. Then for the body is larger that the facial one, which is great because you need a smaller size to navigate the unique landscape of your face, nose, etc.
The secret to the design is microgrooves on the surface that really clarifies your pores but gently lifting and removing away dead skin cells and debris like dirt and oil. Remember, it takes skin at least 28 days to turn over so you will see results after about that time. Another great thing about this, is that you don't need any chemicals to exfoliate, you just use Exfolimate and water!
I used the Exfolimate in the shower to make it easy. It's meant to be used on moist skin in the shower, while your pores are open, and even comes with a cord to hang it up in the shower when you're done using it. It's easy to rinse off and does not rust. To use it, you put it against your skin at a 90 degree angle and gently glide it along your skin, it will gently exfoliate your skin while also massaging it and increasing circulation to the skin surface. You won't see skin coming off, I promise! It is meant to be something you see over time.
Using this daily, I did notice that my skin felt softer and smoother. You have to be careful though, it can make your skin extra sensitive to the sun, so make sure you continue your sun protection. Overall, this is definitely worth getting. It's easy to use, gives you results and is chemical free!
*Disclaimer: I received these products free for testing purposes.


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In addition to searching for reliable sites that offer high-quality free picks, you should also make an effort to go to various other sports and gaming sites offering critical insights into betting in the form of forums, blogs and reviews. These pointers will assist you to obtain a detailed understanding of the game of your liking and also help hone your betting strategy to win more money on a smaller stake. Taking part in a forum will also help you to exchange your views with other players.
Most reputed sites offering sports handicapping picks and tips have at least one expert handicapping manager that may be well-conversant with the actual game and in addition a specialist in betting. These websites also feature computer software that allow users to input all relevant data linked to each forthcoming game and also track all past game results in order to predict future results quite accurately. Such software can be downloaded absolutely free or could even be provided to you as being a premium product.
No software can predict 100% accurate results however, if the picks which you utilize manage to win most of your bets and that too with huge amounts of cash then you are certainly on course. You should stick to a particular website that has genuine managers on board and should follow their picks over a continuous basis so that you win most of your bets in the long run.
One particular website that can help you with sports handicapping picks is www.kelsosportshandicapping.com. Kelso offers tips on various sports like baseball, basketball, football, and horse racing, among others. You are able to win an increasing number of your bets depending on the experience and expertise of such sites. This website can provide you with online newsletters that can help analyze trends and also provide you with other tips which will turn you into a specialist handicapper. You may also keep watch on the latest scores of your preferred games on this site read more.
Winning progressively more bets is quite difficult and when you can find tips and picks that can help fill your kitty then you may certainly turn into a very happy bettor. You can avail of sports handicapping picks from reputed websites and turn from a nervous amateur to a seasoned pro in just a very short time.


Ravela is a conscious brand committed to making a positive impact in the world while offering stylish comfort that inspires a love for life.
To maintain our connection and harmony with the Earth, we proudly use all organic cotton. We believe in supporting artisans, so every piece is handmade in Peru. Because we care, a portion of our profits support rescuing women and children who have been trafficked.
Producing, designing and purchasing Ravela is much more than feeling good about what you wear. We believe that all beings and things are connected. Making conscious choices regarding what we wear has an impact beyond what we can imagine.
Becoming healthier, reading food labels and opting for organic also includes what we put on our skin–the largest organ of the body. Reading clothing labels is just as important when making decisions that impact our health and well being. Wearing natural and organic fibers, also keeps us more connected to our Mother Earth.
We are intentional about every step of the process–from the buying of organic fabrics to shipping supplies made from recyclable material, from supporting fair trade production to giving back to causes we believe in–all for the greater good of our planet.
All of our organic cotton jumpsuits are handmade in Peru with our organic cotton and fabric sourced in Peru too. We believe in fair fashion and slow fashion so we know our artisans are treated and paid well to produce Ravela's organic cotton jumpsuits.
Our transparency is certified through Provenance and we are a part of the fashion revolution movement of #whomademyclothes to ensure fairtrade.
Comfy, cozy, chill and chic.
As busy women, we liked the idea of creating a clothing item that feels good and can be worn everywhere and anywhere based on choice of accessories and shoes.
The stylish versatility and comfort of this jumpsuit was exactly what our daily lives need and so we chose to share it with you.
Yesim, a Dusseldorf native, global citizen, fashion aficionado, and speaker of 8 languages has lived, worked and studied in plethora of cultures in her lifetime.
Born into a family of true entrepreneurs, she was always exposed to creativity, ad hoc decisions and to global connections. Despite, her dad insisting she only concentrate on academia, her true passion and fulfillment always resided in creating.
During travels to international yoga retreats, she began her true journey and started finding inner peace. Her love of aesthetics has led her to develop a fashion statement for those inspired by yoga and comfortable style. The tragic loss of her brother a few years back, a clothing entrepreneur in his own right, have inspired her to continue the family tradition of creating outstanding lifestyle concepts.
Her qualifications, both a PhD and an MBA, anchored by her entrepreneurial roots have given her the self-trust to bring Ravela to fruition.
Apart from this, Yesim loves dancing street tango and flamenco and is on board of several non profits in Atlanta. She adores her 11-year-old son, Lemi, who attends the Atlanta International School.
As a healer, MD, transformational coach, yoga and meditation teacher, speaker and writer, Nikki Starr is a natural born entrepreneur and dedicated to empowering people to live a more conscious life. By the age of 25, she traveled the globe touching every continent, inspiring her to take action to help the planet.
In the fall of 2014, Nikki Starr appeared on the FOX reality television show Utopia about creating a new society. She is currently a part time resident of Damanhur Community in Italy because she believes in creating a better world together.
She always knew she would create a conscious line of products and clothing because she believes in voting with our dollars and resourcing materials in the healthiest possible ways for ourselves and the environment. Ravela is a collaboration of her passion and values to create products that honor sustainability and foster a more harmonious planet, enhancing all of our relations, especially with the Earth.
As passionate, on the go, globetrotting women, we created Ravela to positively impact the world while providing a chic, comfortable, versatile jumpsuit we both love. Collaborating and merging our talents to create this conscious brand we believe in that supports artisans, causes and sustainability is a dream come true!
Our journey began in January 2015, when Yesim enrolled in Nikki Starr's Initiation Program. This healing experience helped Yesim overcome the loss of her brother–a fashion designer–who is part of the inspiration for Ravela.
Our relationship continued to grow when Yesim attended Nikki Starr's spiritual yoga retreats in Nicaragua and Tulum, Mexico where we casually discussed the potential of partnering on projects together in the future.
One day in the summer of 2017, while we both happened to be in NYC, Ravela was born. It was important to us to incorporate our ideals and values into the company–everything with awareness, purpose and intention.
We practice the spiritual principle of giving and receiving, so we give a portion of our profits to causes we believe in to make the world a better place. When deciding which cause to give to, interestingly we both independently chose women and children trafficking–another sign we felt this endeavor was meant to be.
We are so grateful for the many synchronicities that have graced the birth of Ravela.
May you enjoy your Ravela jumpersuit.
May it support you in continuing to create a life you love.
May all beings feel love and compassion.


The Kristoff Corojo Limitada is carefully crafted in true boutique fashion in the Dominican, utilizing the finest most patiently fermented Cuban-seed tobaccos. Greeting you on the outside, a Nicaraguan Corojo wrapper shimmering with oily goodness. Beneath this leaf awaits a long-filler core of Nicaraguan and Dominican Habano tobaccos, secured by a Nicaraguan Habano binder. This triple dose of Habano dishes out medium to full-bodied stogie exuding hints of leather, spice, roasted nuts, and a spicy-sweet finish. In short - pick up a few of these, and I guarantee you will find them highly enjoyable.
Love the sweet notes. Simply put...AWESOME.
Easily my favorite cigar. Came nicely packed. Fresh!
This is hands down my favorite cigar of all time. The flavor is absolutely AMAZING, it's beautifully wrapped, and smells fantastic. The burn is a very slow and very smooth, unmatched in any cigar I've smoked. It has a great blend of spices and tobacco infused cedar. Anytime someone asks for a recommendation, I always suggest this handsome cigar. Definitely a must have in any humidor!
This is one of my all time favorite cigars. Every time I go to the local sports bar to watch a MMA fight, I make sure I have at least one of these with me. If the price were to be cut by 50%, it is probably the only cigar I would ever purchase. Well, maybe not. There are a few others I really like, but this one is near, if not on the top, of my list.
I've tried several cigars in the Kristoff series, but the Corojo Limitada is without a doubt my absolute favorite. And it's not just my favorite Kristoff cigar... the Kristoff Corojo is one of my absolute favorite smokes. A wonderful cigar, the Corojo Limitada is rich with flavor, but not in an overly complex manner. It's a smooth, enjoyable smoke. Great flavor, but not an unnecessarily heavy cigar. I would ABSOLUTELY recommend this to ALL cigar smokers whether you've ever tried a Kristoff or not. Go ahead and buy a whole box; you won't regret it.


By a narrow margin, the European parliament endorsed talks between the Spanish government and the Basque separatist organisation Eta in October. That month Eta was alleged to have stolen weapons in France, endangering the fragile ceasefire and peace process.
MPs from the Spanish Socialist Workers' party (PSOE) began secret talks with Eta (Euskadi ta Askatasuna, Basque homeland and freedom), in June 2005 in spite of Eta's violent past. The media reported this February that both parties agreed in principle to peace negotiations. As in the Northern Ireland peace process. political and military issues would be kept formally separate.
The underground military organisation announced a "permanent ceasefire" this March. Then in June the prime minister, José Luis Roderíguez Zapatero, told the Congress of Deputies, the lower house of the Spanish parliament, that his government would start a dialogue with Eta, excluding political issues (Basque independence). These, he insisted, could "only be resolved with the legitimate representatives of the popular will". He said he would submit to "the decisions of the citizens of the Basque country, freely taken with respect for legal norms and procedures".
This means that any change to the autonomous status of Spain's Basque country, or Basque autonomous community of Euskadi, must be compatible with the Spanish constitution. Basque nationalists across the spectrum welcomed this declaration. Zapatero said that any decision taken by the Basques must reflect a significant consensus within a "range of parties" representing all shades of political opinion.
For years the Basque Socialist party (PSE), the Basque branch of the PSOE, talked discreetly to Batasuna, the party regarded by both the Spanish authorities and the European Union as the political wing of Eta. In November 2004 Batasuna published a series of peace proposals, the Anoeta declaration, upon which the current negotiations are partly based. The Spanish government is engaged in ceasefire negotiations with Eta which involve the release of 462 Eta prisoners (a further 149 are held in French prisons), the return of exiles and the reintegration of dozens of activists.
Full article: 2 980 words.
(1) According to the Spanish interior ministry, since June 1968 Eta has killed 817 (478 police or soldiers, 339 civilians). Its last fatal attack was in May 2003.
(2) See Cédric Gouverneur, "Northern Ireland's apartheid", Le Monde diplomatique, English language edition, July 2006.
(3) Radical separatists demand the inclusion in negotiations of Navarre, which is a distinct autonomous community, and the Basque region of southwest France.
(4) Batasuna ("unity") was declared illegal in 2002.
(5) Police action has included the use of torture. See the reports issued by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights; the Council of Europe; Amnesty International's annual reports. According to figures released by the Eta prisoners' support organisation Askatasuna, more than 100 "etarras" have been killed by security forces since 1974.
(6) Cédric Gouverneur, "Spain: anti-terrorism begins at home", Le Monde diplomatique, English language edition, May 2003.
(7) In April 2006 Otegi was sentenced to 15 months' imprisonment for "glorifying terrorism". He has appealed.
(8) See Ignacio Ramonet, "The Catalan affair", Le Monde diplomatique, English language edition, February 2006.
(9) In December 2004 the Basque parliament adopted this plan by 39 votes to 35; in February 2005 the Madrid parliament rejected it by 313 to 29.
(10) According to the UN report on worldwide torture, only 11 Eta prisoners are now held in the Basque country. See El País, Madrid, 13 October 2006.
(11) Political, trade union and other organisations representing all shades of opinion (but excluding the PP) have formed a Commission for Conflict Resolution in an attempt to start a dialogue.
(12) Euskera operates within five legal frameworks. France does not officially recognise its use in administrative and legal processes. In the Spanish Basque country its official parity with Castillan has prevented its erosion. Navarre is divided into three zones, bascophone, mixed and non-bascophone; Euskera is an official language only in the first zone.


text:
Wiele hałasu o nic () – nakręcony we Włoszech film komediowy z 1993 w reżyserii Kennetha Branagha, ekranizacja komedii Wiele hałasu o nic Williama Szekspira.

Obsada
 Kenneth Branagh – Benedick
 Emma Thompson – Beatrice
 Richard Briers – Leonato
 Keanu Reeves – Don John
 Kate Beckinsale – Hero
 Robert Sean Leonard – Claudio
 Denzel Washington – Don Pedro, książę Aragonii
 Michael Keaton – Dogberry
 Imelda Staunton –	Margaret
 Brian Blessed – Antonio

Fabuła
Książę Aragonii Don Pedro wraca ze zwycięskiej wojny. Tymczasem Hero i Claudio zamierzają się pobrać. Wraz z księciem postanawiają wyswatać swoich przyjaciół - Beatryce i Benedicka. Obydwoje są wrogami instytucji małżeństwa, a na dodatek nie przepadają za sobą. Planom księcia i jego przyjaciół przeciwstawia się Don John, który nie chce dopuścić do zaślubin.

Linki zewnętrzne

Filmowe adaptacje utworów Williama Shakespeare'a
Brytyjskie melodramaty
Brytyjskie komediodramaty
Amerykańskie melodramaty
Amerykańskie komediodramaty
Filmy w reżyserii Kennetha Branagha
Filmy wytwórni The Samuel Goldwyn Company
Amerykańskie filmy z 1993 roku
Brytyjskie filmy z 1993 roku


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The New Economy and the Future of Work
The future is already here
About Kevin Rhodes And This Blog
The New Economy
Work, Jobs, Career
The Future of Law
The Culture of Law
Tag: Neoliberal Economics
Economic Fundamentalism
We saw last time that the goal of Chicago School free market economics was to promote "noncontaminated capitalism," which in turn would generate societal economic utopia:
"The market, left to its own devices, would create just the right number of products at precisely the right prices, produced by workers at just the right wages to buy those products — an Eden of plentiful employment, boundless creativity and zero inflation."
The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, Naomi Klein (2017)
To the School's free market advocates, these ideas were pure science:
"The starting premise is that the free market is a perfect scientific system, one in which individuals, acting on their own self-interested desires, create the maximum benefits for all. If follows ineluctably that if something is wrong with a free-market economy — high inflation or soaring unemployment — it has to be because the market is not truly free."
The Shock Doctrine
Scientific method requires that theories be falsifiable: you have to be able to objectively prove them wrong.
"The philosopher Karl Popper argued that what distinguishes a scientific theory from pseudoscience and pure metaphysics is the possibility that it might be falsified on exposure to empirical data. In other words, a theory is scientific if it has the potential to be proved wrong."
But Is It Science? Aeon Magazine, Oct. 7, 2019.
But how do you prove an economic theory based on "uncontaminated capitalism" in an economically contaminated world?
"The challenge for Friedman and his colleagues was not to prove that a real work market could live up to their rapturous imaginings…. Friedman could not point to any living economy that proved if all 'distortions' were stripped away, what would be left would be a society in perfect health and bounteous, since no country in the world met the criteria for perfect laissez-faire. Unable to test their theories in central banks and ministries of trade, Friedman and his colleagues had to settle for elaborate and ingenious mathematical equations and computer models."
Mathematical equations and computer models aren't the same as empirical data collected in the real ("contaminated") world. If falsifiability is what separates scientific knowledge from belief-based ideology, then Friedman's free market theory is the latter. Some scientists are worried that this spin on scientific theorizing has become too prevalent nowadays:
"In our post-truth age of casual lies, fake news and alternative facts, society is under extraordinary pressure from those pushing potentially dangerous antiscientific propaganda – ranging from climate-change denial to the anti-vaxxer movement to homeopathic medicines. I, for one, prefer a science that is rational and based on evidence, a science that is concerned with theories and empirical facts, a science that promotes the search for truth, no matter how transient or contingent. I prefer a science that does not readily admit theories so vague and slippery that empirical tests are either impossible or they mean absolutely nothing at all…. For me at least, there has to be a difference between science and pseudoscience; between science and pure metaphysics, or just plain ordinary bullshit."
But Is It Science?
The Chicago School believed so ardently in the free market theory that its instructional approach took on the dynamics of belief-based indoctrination:
"Frank Knight, one of the founders of Chicago School economics, thought professors should 'inculcate' in their students the belief that economic belief is 'a sacred feature of the system,' not a debatable hypothesis.'"
This dynamic applies to every ideology that can't be falsified — verified empirically. The ideology then becomes a fundamentalist belief system:
"Like all fundamentalist faiths, Chicago School economics is, for its true believers a closed loop. The Chicago solution is always the same: a stricter and more complete application of the fundamentals.:
Journalist Chris Hedges describes the dynamics of "secular fundamentalism" in I Don't Believe in Atheists. (The book's title is too clever for its own good — a later version adds the subtitle "The Dangerous Rise of the Secular Fundamentalist.")
"Fundamentalism is a mind-set. The iconography and language it employs can be either religious or secular or both, but because it dismisses all alternative viewpoints as inferior and unworthy of consideration it is anti-thought. This is part of its attraction. It fills a human desire for self-importance, for hope and the dream of finally attaining paradise. It creates a binary world of absolutes, of good and evil. It provides a comforting emotional certitude. It is used to elevate our cultural, social, and economic systems above others…. The core belief systems of these secular and religious antagonists are identical."
Thus we have Nobel prize-winning economist Milton Friedman famously saying, "Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself" — a statement entirely in keeping with the Mont Pelerin Society's idealistic Statement of Aims, which we looked at last time.
And thus we also have Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz countering with his thoughts about economics in a contaminated ("pathological") world:
"The advocates of free markets in all their versions say that crises are rare events, though they have been happening with increasing frequency as we change the rules to reflect beliefs in perfect markets. I would argue that economists, like doctors, have much to learn from pathology. We see more clearly in these unusual events how the economy really functions. In the aftermath of the Great Depression, a peculiar doctrine came to be accepted, the so-called 'neoclassical synthesis.' It argued that once markets were restored to full employment, neoclassical principles would apply. The economy would be efficient. We should be clear: this was not a theorem but a religious belief."
As we also saw last time, historical socialism and communism join free market capitalism in their fundamentalist zeal. In fact, some think that economics in general has become today's dominant cultural form of belief-based thinking. More on that next time.
Author Kevin RhodesPosted on December 5, 2019 December 5, 2019 Categories The New EconomyTags belief, belief system, Chicago School of Economics, cultural belief system, economic policy, economics, falsifiability, free market, fundamentalism, ideology, Joseph Stiglitz, Milton Friedman, Mont Pelerin Society, Neoliberal Economics, Neoliberalism, scientific method, scientific theory, secular fundamentalism, utopiaLeave a comment on Economic Fundamentalism
Progressive Capitalism
Torn dollar bill image source and license.
We've been looking at economic winners and losers in the zero-sum economy — particularly in the context of higher education, where cultural belief in the importance of college and post-graduate degrees on upward mobility and success in the job market is driving behavior that harms both parents (the college admissions scandal) and the economic and mental health of their children (student loan debt, general anxiety disorder, depression, suicide).
This series of blog posts is now in its third year — throughout, we've seen how hyper-competitive capitalism and its staunch faith in the implicit justice of the "free" market is causing other economic loses. For example:
the stagnation of middle class real incomes;
the rise of the numbers of statistically poor people in the U.S.;
the dismantling of compassionate social safety nets in favor of expensive, counterproductive, and humiliating replacements;
the rise of the "rentier" economy in which formerly public benefits have been privatized, making them accessible only to those who can afford them through the payment of economic "rents";
the end of the American ideal of upward social and economic mobility;
the high cost of housing and the death of the American dream of home ownership;
the elimination of "normal" jobs through off-shoring, outsourcing, and the delegation of productivity to intelligent machines;
the advent of the short-term, contract-based "gig economy" with its lack of fringe benefits and its precarious prospects for sustainable income;
economic inequality that favors the wealthiest of capitalists at the expense of the bottom 90% (or 99%, or 99.9%, depending on your data and point of view);
the creation instead of an insular top-level "meritocrat" socio-economic class;
the new state of "total work" and the "monetization" of goods and services;
rising rates of career burnout, mental illness, and suicide resulting from social isolation and the vain struggle to find meaning and purpose at work;
the rise of corporate nation-states with economic and policy-making power that dwarfs that of many governmental nation-states;
the private (non-democratic) social policy-making initiatives of the wealthiest elites;
Nobody meant economic policy to do this, but it has, for roughly the past 30-40 years. Good intentions; unplanned results.
We've seen that both plutocrats and progressives advocate for systemic change, while status quo inertia weighs in on the side of those who don't see what all the fuss is about, since capitalism is undeniably the best economic option and always has been, and besides it's still working just fine, thank you very much. Instead of meaningful discourse, we have a predominant nostalgic, populist doubling down on the neoliberal socio-economic cultural ideology that jet-propelled post-WWII recovery but finished running its course in the 1970s, while the retrenchers and the media slap those who beg to differ with the kiss-of-death label "progressive." As a result, we're left with incessant lobbing from one end of the polarized spectrum to the other of ideological bombs that originate in data and analysis skewed by cognitive biases, intentional blindness, and fake news . Economic policy-making resembles WWI trench warfare — a tactical grinding down of the opposition and the numbing and dumbing of everyone else. It was a bad idea then, and it's still a bad idea now.
I had no idea this is what I was getting into when I decided three years ago to research and write about the new economy and the future of work.
It's in the context of this toxic environment that Economics Nobel Laureate Joseph E. Stiglitz, offered his "progressive capitalism" alternative, based on "the power of the market to serve society." Progressive Capitalism Is Not an Oxymoron: We can save our broken economic system from itself, New York Times (April 19, 2019). His article, like virtually all of the economics books and articles I read these days, begins with a long parade of evils and ends with a handful of policy ideas. His version of the former is by now quite familiar:
"Despite the lowest unemployment rates since the late 1960s, the American economy is failing its citizens. Some 90 percent have seen their incomes stagnate or decline in the past 30 years.
"This is not surprising, given that the United States has the highest level of inequality among the advanced countries and one of the lowest levels of opportunity — with the fortunes of young Americans more dependent on the income and education of their parents than elsewhere.
"There is a broader social compact that allows a society to work and prosper together, and that, too, has been fraying. America created the first truly middle-class society; now, a middle-class life is increasingly out of reach for its citizens.
"We confused the hard work of wealth creation with wealth-grabbing (or, as economists call it, rent-seeking).
"Just as forces of globalization and technological change were contributing to growing inequality, we adopted policies that worsened societal inequities.
"Even as economic theories like information economics (dealing with the ever-present situation where information is imperfect), behavioral economics and game theory arose to explain why markets on their own are often not efficient, fair, stable or seemingly rational, we relied more on markets and scaled back social protections.
"Politics has played a big role in the increase in corporate rent-seeking and the accompanying inequality.
"Markets don't exist in a vacuum; they have to be structured by rules and regulations, and those rules and regulations must be enforced.
"We are now in a vicious cycle: Greater economic inequality is leading, in our money-driven political system, to more political inequality, with weaker rules and deregulation causing still more economic inequality.
"If we don't change course matters will likely grow worse, as machines (artificial intelligence and robots) replace an increasing fraction of routine labor, including many of the jobs of the several million Americans.
"The prescription follows from the diagnosis: It begins by recognizing the vital role that the state plays in making markets serve society.
"Progressive capitalism is based on a new social contract between voters and elected officials, between workers and corporations, between rich and poor, and between those with jobs and those who are un- or underemployed.
"Part of this new social contract is an expanded public option for many programs now provided by private entities or not at all
"This new social contract will enable most Americans to once again have a middle-class life.
"The neoliberal fantasy that unfettered markets will deliver prosperity to everyone should be put to rest.
"America arrived at this sorry state of affairs because we forgot that the true source of the wealth of a nation is the creativity and innovation of its people."
His point seems to be that merely reciting litanies of economic woes won't bring about systemic relief — for that, we need to embrace an essential factor:
Paradigms only shift when culture shifts:
new ideas require new culture to receive them,
and new culture requires new belief systems.
Systemic change requires cultural change — remodeled institutions and revised social contracts that tether ideas to real life. Trying to patch policy ideas into the existing socio-economic system is like what would happen if a firm were to abruptly change its products, services, and strategic and marketing plans without bothering to change its mission statement, values and beliefs, and firm culture.
Like that's going to work.
Coming up, we'll look beyond policy bombs to the higher ground of revised cultural beliefs, starting with next week's search for the "public" that's gone missing from the Republic.
Author Kevin RhodesPosted on October 31, 2019 October 30, 2019 Categories The New Economy, Work, Jobs, CareerTags belief systems, Capitalism, career, college admission scandal, competitive, competitive capitalism, cultural belief systems, culture, economic inequality, economic policy, economic rents, economics, gig economy, inequality, jobs, Neoliberal capitalism, Neoliberal Economics, Neoliberalism, populism, populist, progressive, student loans, upward mobility1 Comment on Progressive Capitalism
Free Market Professionalism
10- 15 years ago I discovered the Wannabe Economy.
It's staffed by speakers, writers, facilitators, hosts, coaches, consultants… awake, aware, alive, attractive people ready to show us how to have it as good as they do. I needed their help. I dove in, gobbled up their wares.
At one point, I tried to be a Wannabe provider myself (books and workshops). But then doubt started stalking me: was I promoting sustainable change or just trashing people's lives? How would know? I meant well, but so do lots of harmful people. The Wannabe Economy didn't have an existential crisis: it championed personal responsibility and trusted the marketplace to sort things out.
The pitch is, "Do this, get that" — here's the secret, the key, the code. the password, the knock. This gets you in. We want in, so we lay our money down. We feel grateful. We go for it. Then what? It's all on us — personally responsibility, remember? — so if it works, we did it right, and if it doesn't, we didn't. We don't call our guru to account; instead, we buy more.[1]
Why? Because we want desperately to play until we win. The sellers are invariably charismatic, assured, happy, rich — or appear to be. We believe in their sincerity, look for and find evidence that they live what they're selling. (They're making money selling to us, but we miss that point.) So we keep shelling it out, keep trying to finesse our way to the promised land. Meanwhile, our guides have no skin in the game — not our game, at least. There's no investment, only well wishes.
I suspect that 99.999% of the helpers in the self-help industry genuinely want to help. But it's a business, after all, not charity.[2] There's no mens rea for buyer's remorse in the Wannabe Economy. You pays your money, you takes your chance. Caveat emptor.
And, more pertinent to this blog, what I just described has become how "professional" services are bought and sold. Capitalism serves up both the Wannabe Economy and Free Market Professionalism.
Any problem with that?
In two words, trust and accountability, which are reducible to one word: professionalism. And professionalism is taking a beating in the free market. That's the message of this article: Why A Market Model Is Destroying The Safeguards Of The Professions. It's written by a German academic mostly about the medical profession, but it applies to other professions as well.
"Wasn't there a time when professionals still knew how to serve us – a cosy, well-ordered world of responsible doctors, wise teachers and caring nurses? In this world, bakers still cared about the quality of their bread, and builders were proud of their constructions. One could trust these professionals; they knew what they were doing and were reliable guardians of their knowledge. Because people poured their souls into it, work was still meaningful – or was it?
"In the grip of nostalgia, it's easy to overlook the dark sides of this old vocational model. On top of the fact that professional jobs were structured around hierarchies of gender and race, laypeople were expected to obey expert judgment without even asking questions. Deference to authority was the norm, and there were few ways of holding professionals to account.
"Against this backdrop, the call for more autonomy, for more 'choice', seems hard to resist. This is precisely what happened with the rise of neoliberalism after the 1970s, when the advocates of 'New Public Management' promoted the idea that hard-nosed market thinking should be used to structure healthcare, education and other areas that typically belonged to the slow and complicated world of public red tape. In this way, neoliberalism undermined not only public institutions but the very idea of professionalism.
"This attack was the culmination of two powerful agendas. The first was an economic argument about the alleged inefficiency of public services or the other non-market structures in which professional knowledge was hosted.
"The second was an argument about autonomy, about equal status, about liberation – 'Think for yourself!' instead of relying on experts. The advent of the internet seemed to offer perfect conditions for finding information and comparing offers: in short, for acting like a fully informed customer.
"These two imperatives – the economic and the individualistic – meshed extremely well under neoliberalism. The shift from addressing the needs of citizens to serving the demands of customers or consumers was complete.
"The imperatives of productivity, profitability and the market rule.
"We are all customers now; we are all supposed to be kings. But what if 'being a customer' is the wrong model for healthcare, education, and even highly specialised crafts and trades?
"What the market-based model overlooks is hyperspecialisation, as the philosopher Elijah Millgram argues in The Great Endarkenment (2015). We depend on other people's knowledge and expertise, because we can learn and study only so many things in our lifetimes. Whenever specialist knowledge is at stake, we are the opposite of a well-informed customer. Often we don't want to have to do our own research, which would be patchy at best; sometimes, we are simply unable to do it, even if we tried. It's much more efficient (yes, efficient!) if we can trust those already in the know.
"But it can be hard to trust professionals forced to work in neoliberal regimes.
"Responsible professionalism imagines work-life as a series of relationships with individuals who are entrusted to you, along with the ethical standards and commitments you uphold as a member of a professional community. But marketisation threatens this collegiality, by introducing competitiveness among workers and undermining the trust that's needed to do a good job.
"Is there a way out of this conundrum? Could professionalism be revived? If so, can we avoid its old problems of hierarchy while preserving space for equality and autonomy?"
Good questions that deserve engaged, real-time answers from people with skin in the game.
[1] For a scathing description of this particular consumer behavior in the Wannabe Economy, see 11 Billion Reasons The Self Help Industry Doesn't Want You To Know The Truth About Happiness (Hint: Unhappy People Buy Things) Inc. (Oct. 19, 2017).
[2] Although it is very much a religion — I write more on topics like that in another context.
Author Kevin RhodesPosted on June 6, 2019 June 2, 2019 Categories The New Economy, Work, Jobs, CareerTags accountability, Capitalism, doctors, economics, economy, ethics, experts, free market, Lawyers, legal profession, medical profession, Neoliberal Economics, Neoliberalism, professionalism, self help industry, self-help, trust2 Comments on Free Market Professionalism
Anybody else remember when "networking" was something you did at cocktail parties? That was before it became a fact of computerized life — see this pictorial history . The idea of old-style networking mostly gets eye rolls these days — too much objectifying, I'd guess — but it's not dead yet: as this promo for Social Media Marketing World 2020 makes clear.
The standard cocktail party question is, of course, "What do you do?" Turns out we've been asking and answering that question the same way for 114 years — ever since German sociologist and political economist Max Weber published The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.[1]
"We use the word 'capitalism' today as if its meaning were self-evident, or else as if it came from Marx, but this casualness must be set aside. 'Capitalism' was Weber's own word and he defined it as he saw fit. Its most general meaning was quite simply modernity itself: capitalism was 'the most fateful power in our modern life'. More specifically, it controlled and generated 'modern Kultur', the code of values by which people lived in the 20th-century West, and now live, we may add, in much of the 21st-century globe.
"The idea that people were being ever more defined by the blinkered focus of their employment was one he regarded as profoundly modern and characteristic.
"The blinkered professional ethic was common to entrepreneurs and an increasingly high-wage, skilled labour force, and it was this combination that produced a situation where the 'highest good' was the making of money and ever more money, without any limit. This is what is most readily recognisable as the 'spirit' of capitalism
"It is an extremely powerful analysis, which tells us a great deal about the 20th-century West and a set of Western ideas and priorities that the rest of the world has been increasingly happy to take up since [the end of WWII and the advent of neoliberal economics]."
What Did Max Weber Mean By The 'Spirit' Of Capitalism? Aeon Magazine (June 12, 2018)
"What do you do?" was culturally relevant for most of the 20th Century, when jobs as we normally think of them were still around — but not so much today, especially for the new socio-economic lower class known as "the precariat."
"Globalization, neo-liberal policies, institutional changes and the technological revolution have combined to generate a new global class structure superimposed on preceding class structures. This consists of a tiny plutocracy (perhaps 0.001 per cent) atop a bigger elite, a 'salariat' (in relatively secure salaried jobs, 'proficians' (freelance professionals), a core working class, a precariat and a 'lumpen precariat' at the bottom.
"The precariat, which ranks below the proletariat in income, consists of millions of people obliged to accept a life of unstable labour and living, without an occupational identity or corporate narrative to give to their lives. Their employers come and go, or are expected to do so.
"Many in the precariat are over-qualified for the jobs they must accept; they also have a high ratio of unpaid 'work' in labour — looking and applying for jobs, training and retraining, queuing and form-filling, networking or just waiting around. They also rely mainly on money wages, which are often inadequate, volatile, and unpredictable. They lack access to rights-based state benefits and are losing civil, cultural, social, economic and political rights, making them supplicants if they need help to survive."
The Corruption of Capitalism: Why Rentiers Thrive and Work Does Not Pay, Guy Standing (2017)
I Googled "how to answer 'what do you do?'" and got lots of articles about how to give your answer the right spin and turn the question into meaningful conversation — mostly directed at job applicants and people who hate their jobs — but the question's relevance as an accurate reflection of Kultur is lost to the "gig economy" where the precariat hang out. It could be worse, though: you could be a member of the "lumpen precariat." Again from Guy Standing:
"Below the precariat in the social spectrum is what might be called a 'lumpen-precariat,' an underclass of social victims relying on charity … Their numbers are rising remorselessly; they are a badge of shame on society."
I've written before about how I made an ill-timed (at the height of the Great Recession) and otherwise disastrous exit from law practice for a new creative career that bombed,[2] while at the same time dealing with an as-yet-undiagnosed onset of "Primary Progressive MS" (the most degenerative kind you can get). During those years, I barely slowed down as I crashed through "precariat" on the way down from "salariat," before ending up on the roles of the "disabled," a lumpen subclass. I did some awkward old-style networking during those years, and eventually developed my own Q&A. When asked "what do you do?" I would simply describe what I'd been doing that day. When it was my turn, I simply asked, "Who are you?"
Great conversation starters, as it turned out.
Photo is from Nimble Bar Co., re: how to throw an unforgettable party.
[1] Naturally there's been lots of argument about whether the work ethic was Protestant or Catholic… and if Protestant, if it would be more properly "Calvinist" or "Puritan." Sigh.
[2] For the full story, see my book Life Beyond Reason: A Memoir of Mania, available here as a free download and on Amazon for cheap. It's a short, quick read, I promise.
Author Kevin RhodesPosted on May 23, 2019 May 20, 2019 Categories The New Economy, Work, Jobs, CareerTags Calvinist Work Ethic, Capitalism, computer networking, gig economy, Guy Standing, Kultur, Max Weber, Neoliberal capitalism, Neoliberal Economics, Neoliberalism, networking, precariat, Protestant Work Ethic, Puritan Work Ethic, social networking, spirit of capitalism, The Corruption of Capitalism, What do you do?Leave a comment on "What Do You Do?"
"Men are born free, yet everywhere are in chains."
Jean-Jacques Rousseau,
The Social Contract & Discourses
What do Fortnite, New Year's Day, and the USA have in common?
They all exist because we believe they do.
Political theorists call this kind of communal belief a "social contract." According to Rousseau, that's the mechanism by which we trade individual liberty for community restraint. Similarly, Thomas Hobbes said this in Leviathan:
"As long as men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in the condition known as war, and it is a war of every man against every man.
"When a man thinks that peace and self-defense require it, he should be willing (when others are too) to lay down his right to everything, and should be contented with as much liberty against other men as he would allow against himself."
In Fortnite terms, life is a battle royale: everybody against everybody else, with only one left standing. As Hobbes famously said, that makes life "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short." As a recent version put it, "For roughly 99% of the world's history, 99% of humanity was poor, hungry, dirty, afraid, stupid, sick, and ugly."[1] A social contract suggests we can do better.
Can we really create something out of nothing, by mere belief? Yes, of course — we do it all the time. My daughter can't figure out why New Year's Day is a holiday. "It's just a day!" she says, unmoved by my explanation that it's a holiday because everyone thinks it is. Same with Fortnite — as 125 million enthusiasts know, it's not just an online game, it's a worldwide reality. And same with the United States — the Colonies' deal with England grew long on chains and short on freedom until the Founders declared a new sovereign nation into existence:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness."
The new nation was conceived in liberty, but there would be limits. Once the Revolutionary War settled the issue of sovereign independence[2], the Founders articulated a new freedom/chains balance:
That social contract + 250 years of history = the USA. We are a nation borne of imagination and belief, continually re-defined and updated through interpretations and amendments to the terms of our social contract.
Our economic system works the same way. Adam Smith's capitalism survived the trip to the new world, produced astonishing quality of life improvements in the 19th and 20th Centuries, and then was recast into the neoliberal framework that powered the world's recovery from WWII. That version of our economic social contract thrived for three decades, but began to falter in the face of several unforeseen developments:
the democratization of knowledge in the information age;
accelerated automation, mass production, and eventually robotics;
software that at first only did what it was told but later morphed into machine intelligence; and
globalization, which shrank the world, homogenized culture, opened international trade, and recast national borders.
Neoliberalism couldn't keep up. Tensions rose until the year 2016 became a worldwide referendum on the social contracts of democracy and neoliberalism. New social contracts would have required a new freedom/chains balance. 2016's response was, "Not on my watch."
That's the context into which universal basic income would now be introduced. For that to happen, the American Dream of independence and upward mobility fueled by working for a living must give way to a belief that basic sustenance — job or no job — is a human right so fundamental that it's one of those "self-evident" truths. As we've seen, that radical belief is slowly changing the North Carolina Cherokee Reservation's culture of poverty, and has caught the fancy of a growing list of techno-plutocrats. As Mark Zuckerberg said, "Now it's our time to define a new social contract for our generation." Law professor James Kwak makes the same point[3]:
"We have the physical, financial, and human capital necessary for everyone in our country to enjoy a comfortable standard of living, and within a few generations the same should be true of the entire planet, And yet our social organization remains the same as it was in the Great Depression: some people work very hard and make more money than they will ever need, while many others are unable to find work and live in poverty.
"Million if not billions of people today hunger to live in a world that is more fair, more forgiving, and more humane than the one they were born into. Creating a new vision of society worthy of that collective yearning … is the first step toward building a better future for our children."
[1] Rutger Bregman, Utopia for Realists (2016),
[2] In Hobbes' terms, social contracts end the battle royale. Ironically, they often also create war as ideals of one contract conflict with another's.
[3] James Kwak, Economism (2017).
Author Kevin RhodesPosted on December 27, 2018 December 26, 2018 Categories The New EconomyTags Artificial Intelligence, basic income, Declaration of Independence, Democratization, Fortnite, globalism, Janet Kwak, Leviathan, machine intelligence, Neoliberal Economics, Neoliberalism, New Year's Day, robotics, Rousseau, Rutger Bregman, social contract, Thomas Hobbes, U.S. Constitution, universal basic income, utopia1 Comment on A New Social Contract
Archeconomics
I made up the term "archeconomics." I'm using "arch" in the sense of "first principles" — e.g., as in "archetype." An "arch" is the larger version of the smaller expressions of itself — e.g., not just a villain but an arch-villain, not just an angel but an archangel. Life goes big when an arch-something is at work: experience expands beyond circumstance, meaning magnifies, significance is exaggerated.
Archeconomics is therefore the larger story behind economics.
I ended last week's post by referring to the larger story behind the rentier economy. As usually happens when I'm on a research trail, several commentaries have appeared in my various feeds lately that look beyond the usual opinionated mash of current events and instead address over-arching ideas and issues. All of them deal in one way or another with the current status and possible future of the liberal worldview — an arch-topic if there ever was one.
The term "liberal" in this context doesn't refer to political liberal vs. conservative, but rather to historical liberalism, which among other things gave us post-WWII neo-liberal economics. Mega-bestselling author Yuval Noah Harari describes this kind of liberalism in his latest book 21 Lessons for the 21st Century:
"In Western political discourse the term "liberal" is sometimes used today in a much narrower sense, to denote those who support specific causes such as gay marriage, gun control, and abortion rights. Yet most so-called conservatives also embrace the broad liberal worldview.
"The liberal story cherishes human liberty as its number one value. It argues that all authority ultimately stems from the free will of individual humans, as expressed in their feelings, desires, and choices. In politics, liberalism believes that the voter knows best. It therefore upholds democratic elections. In economics, liberalism maintains that the customer is always right. It therefore hails free-market principles. In personal matters, liberalism encourages people to listen to themselves, be true to themselves, and allow their hearts — as long as they do not infringe on the liberties of others. This personal freedom is enshrined in human rights."
If you read Harari's books Sapiens and Homo Deus. you have a sense of what you'll find in 21 Lessons, but I found it worth reading on its own terms. Two recent special magazine editions also take on the fate of liberalism: Is Democracy Dying?" from The Atlantic and "A Manifesto for Renewing Liberalism" from The Economist. The titles speak for themselves, and both are offered by publications with nearly two centuries of liberal editorial perspectives.
Another historical liberal offering from a conservative political point of view is "How Trumpism Will Outlast Trump," from Time Magazine. Here's the article's précis:
"These intellectuals are committed to a new economic nationalism … They're looking past Trump … to assert a fundamental truth: whatever you think of him, Donald Trump has shown a major failing in the way America's political parties have been serving their constituents. The future of Trump's revolution may depend on whether this young group can help fix the economy."
Finally, here's a trio of offerings that invoke environmental economics — the impact of the global ecology on global economics being another archeconomics topic. The first is a scientific study published last week that predicted significant environmental degradation within a surprisingly short time. Second is an article about the study that wants to know "Why We Keep Ignoring Even the Most Dire Climate Change Warnings." Third is last week's announcement that the winner of this year's Nobel Prize in Economics is an environmental economist.
Some or all of those titles should satisfy if you're in the mood for some arch- reading.
Next time, we'll return to plain old economics, with a look at how the low income social strata is faring in all the dust-up over rentiers and economic inequality, robotcs and machine learning, and the sagging paycheck going to human labor.
Author Kevin RhodesPosted on October 18, 2018 October 16, 2018 Categories The New EconomyTags 21 Lessons For The 21st Century, economic inequality, economics, inequality, Liberalism, Neoliberal Economics, Neoliberalism, rentier, rentier economy, Yuval Noah Harari1 Comment on Archeconomics
The Matthew Effect
"For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have abundance;
but from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away."
The Gospel of Matthew 25:29, Revised Standard Version
Economists call it the Matthew Effect or the Matthew Principle. Columbia sociologist Robert K. Merton used the former when he coined the term[1] by reference to its Biblical origins.[2] The more pedestrian version asserts that the rich get richer while the poor get poorer.
According to the Matthew Effect, social capital is better caught than taught, better inherited than achieved. That notion is borne out by current economic and demographic data[3] showing that the only children with a statistically relevant shot at experiencing a better standard of living than their parents are the ones born with a silver spoon in their mouths — or, as David Graeber says in Bullshit Jobs, the ones "from professional backgrounds," where they are taught essential social capital mindsets and skills "from an early age."[4]
Statistics are susceptible to ideological manipulation, but bell curves conceptualize trends into observable laws of societal thermodynamics. The Matthew Effect bell curve says it's harder to get to the top by following the Horatio Alger path: you're starting too many standard deviations out; your odds are too low. On the other hand, if you start in the center (you're born into the top), odds are you'll stay there.
That might depend, however, on how long your forebears have been members of the club. Globetrotting wealth guru Jay Hughes has spoken and written widely of the concept of "shirt sleeves to shirt sleeves in three generations." According to the aphorism, if the first generation of a family follows the Horatio Alger path to wealth, there's a 70% chance the money will be gone by the end of the third generation, which means the social capital will be gone as well. That first generation might defy the odds through hard work and luck, but odds are they won't create an enduring legacy for their heirs.
My own law career was an exercise in another folk expression of the Matthew Effect: "you can take the boy out of the country but you can't take the country out of the boy." (No, that's not me in the photo — I just thought it made the point nicely.) My career finally hit its stride when I created a small firm serving "millionaire next door" clients — farmers, ranchers, and Main Street America business owners who became financially successful while remaining in the social milieu where they (and I) began. Nearly all of those families created their wealth during the post-WWII neoliberal economic surge, and are now entering the third generation. I wonder how many are experiencing the shirt sleeves aphorism.
Curiously, my transition out of law practice was also dominated by social capital considerations — in particular, a social capital misfiring. I had a big idea and some relevant skills (i.e., some relevant human capital — at least other people thought so), but lacked the social capital and failed to make the personal transformation essential to my new creative business venture.[5]
In fact, it seems the Matthew Effect might be a larger theme in my life, not just my legal career. In that regard, I was surprised to find yet another one of my job stories in Bullshit Jobs. This one was about a townie who took a job as a farm laborer. His job included "picking rocks," which involves tackling a rocky field with a heavy pry bar, sledge hammer, pick axe, spade, and brute strength, in an effort to remove the large rocks and make it tillable. I'd had that job, too. I was a teenager at the time, and it never occurred to me that it might be "completely pointless, unnecessary, or pernicious" (Graeber's definition), which is how the guy in the book felt about it. In fact, when I told my parents about my first day of picking rocks over dinner, my dad was obviously so proud I thought he was going to run out and grill me a steak. Obviously I'd made some kind of rite of passage.
Picking rocks is just part of what you do if you work the land, and there's nothing meaningless about it. I enjoyed it, actually — it was great training for the upcoming football season. I can scarcely imagine what my law career and life might have been like if I'd felt the same way about my first years of legal work as I did about picking rocks.
The Matthew Effect has far-reaching social, economic, legal, and ethical implications for the legal profession, where social capital is an important client- and career-development asset. Next time we'll look at another lawyer who, like David Boies, rose from humble origins to superstar status, and whose story brings a whole new set of upward mobility issues to the table.
[1] Merton was originally trying to describe how it is that more well-known people get credit for things their subordinates do — for example, professors taking credit for the work of their research assistants — the professors enriching their credentials at the expense of their minions' hard and anonymous work. Merton might just as well have been talking about law partners taking credit for the work of paralegals, law clerks. and associates.
[2] As for why "Matthew" when the other Synoptic Gospels (Mark and Luke) have the same verse, I suspect that's in part because Matthew is the first book in the New Testament canon, but it may also substantiate a derivative application of Merton's law made by U of Chicago super-statistician Stephen Stigler, known as the Law of Eponymy, which holds that "No scientific discovery is named after its original discoverer." I.e., later arrivals collect the accolades the" original discoverer" never did. In that regard, Mark's gospel is believed to have been written first, with Matthew and Luke's coming later and deriving from it. That would make Mark the true original discoverer. That this economic phenomenon is not called the "Mark Effect" is therefore another example of Stigler's law.
[3] See, e.g., the "Fading American Dream" graph and the "Geography of Upward Mobility in America" map in this NPR article.
[4] The phenomenon has been widely reported. See this study from Stanford and our trio to new Meristocrats from a few weeks back: Richard V. Reeves and his book Dream Hoarders and his Brookings Institute monograph Saving Horatio Alger (we looked at those last time). The second was philosopher Matthew Stewart, author of numerous books and a recent article for The Atlantic called The 9.9 Percent is the New American Meritocracy. The third was Steven Brill, founder of The American Lawyer and Court TV, author of the book Tailspin: The People and Forces Behind America's Fifty-Year Fall–and Those Fighting to Reverse It and also the writer of a Time Magazine feature called How Baby Boomers Broke America.
[5] I've told that story elsewhere, and won't repeat it here, but if you're interested in more on this issue, a look at that particular social capital disaster might be illustrative. See my book Life Beyond Reason: A Memoir of Mania.
Author Kevin RhodesPosted on August 30, 2018 April 17, 2019 Categories The New Economy, Work, Jobs, CareerTags economics, estate planning, human capital, Neoliberal Economics, social capital, The Matthew Effect, The Matthew Principle, upward mobilityLeave a comment on The Matthew Effect
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about to get on one of Japan's many groovy, vintage or retro-looking, local trains!
1. from Kumihama or Shotenkyo stations: (maybe Atsushi-san will be able to drop you there, or you can (hitch-)hike there or ride and lock the bicycles at the station until you come back - getting on the train and buses with your bikes might be possible and fun, but I wouldn't try that before checking AND making sure it's allowed. Anyway, take an early Kyotango local train bound to Amino and change there for a local bus to Tate Iwa (= "standing rock"). Walk straight off the station and you'll find a bus stop immediately on your left. The waiting time is about 20 minutes and there are several buses, so before jumping on one, check with the driver it's actually bound to Tate Iwa. The trip to Tate Iwa is quiet and you'll spend most of your time looking at the coast throughout the window.
Tate Iwa, aka the standing rock: panoramically yours ; with a happy, hippie and grassy foreground ; from a distance ; with the desert island mode on.
2. Tate Iwa standing rock: as the driver should remember your question, you're pretty sure not to miss the stop, but it's a tiny village by the sea and you wouldn't imagine that's where you're headed! The interest is on the beach, East of the village. A beautiful and picturesque basaltic rock formation, surrounded by more cliffs and raw beaches. On each side of the little bridge, you'll find some (open) bathrooms and a campsite just minutes from the rock, which could work great for a night as long as you have minimum camping gear. There's mosquitoes and not much more, but the place is nice and clean enough. Well, "clean" must depend on the weather and currents, because that day, the beach wore a thin layer of plastic and fishing trash marking the highest tide. Just at the bus stop is a restaurant (could be a hotel too?) but it was closed the day we were there. Buses pass every hour-and-a-half or so, so you'd better check it upon arrival and make sure not to miss the one you intend to hop on!
the super-busy Kyotango local bus: pick a seat and enjoy the ride ; the issue is NOT with monkeys but with wasps! ; our bus at its un-bus-stop.
3. Kyogamisaki lighthouse: from Tate Iwa, it's difficult to get lost as you'll follow the same bus line until the terminus, that is: the Kyogamisaki lighthouse itself! Facing uphill from the bus stop, take the only secondary road (on the left) at the corner of a dirt car park. You'll walk about 1,4 km (less than a mile) up and down along this road to the viewpoint and lighthouse. You may be passed by some cars and coaches, be careful and make yourself seen because the road is narrow and some curves sharp. Except for the trails going to the lighthouse and to a higher viewpoint, there is honestly not much to do there. Again: it'll satisfy the contemplative ones.
the ragged coast and open sea from the lighthouse viewpoint. end of the road!
This said, the coast is beautiful and wild, the air fresh and the next bus is one-and-a-half to two hours later. Check it upon arrival and again, don't miss it. You'll have a chance to hitch-hike, but it could make the trip much longer... If you've taken food with you, it's time for a snack. Else, it's time to pity yourselves. We hid our backpacks in the bushes by the bus stop so we wouldn't have to carry them around, but if you take them with you, a bivouac night at the viewpoint or close to the lighthouse could be nice and nobody should ever bother you... Your bus will be waiting on the other side of the road almost one hour before the schedule, but they won't let you on anyway, as you're supposed to get on at the actual bus stop, on your side of the road and at the exact time. As a general rule, don't try and get off the established procedures in Japan, neither because you think your point is logical or fair, nor because you think it's just easier your way! Westerners sometimes have a (probably well-earned) reputation of compulsive trespassers and one of the most famous kotowazas (諺) says deru kugi wa utareru, "the nail that sticks out is hammered down". Which can be understood not only as "keep your head low or society will take care of it for you", but also as "any initiative will be pointed at (and public shaming will do the rest)".
4. To Amanohashidate: the bus will take you all around the Kyotango coastline, with its ragged cliffs and remote fishermen villages. Again, you won't get lost as it is the terminus. You may want to stop in Ine, famous for its fishermen funaya houses. Funaya inn is your option to spend a night there, google it! The ride is pleasant and if you do that on the same day, you get there early in the afternoon (around 3 pm), with still plenty if time to enjoy Amanohashidate.
fishermen village ; funaya houses ; water and more water ; not-so-traditional condo ; island and birds ; one of the many spoilers along the way!
The 2.4 km of absolutely flat trail shouldn't take you more than one hour including your picture and beach stops. Of course, you may want to dip in the sea at any point: apparently it's admissible/tolerated/allowed (tick the right box). Finally, there's a cable car/funicular on each side to go see the views from above and look backwards from between your legs to actually see the bridge in the sky... Several boat tours on the bay, including speed boats, will fulfill the needs of the horsepowaholics.
6. Once you reach the other side (Amanohashidate): there are a couple of temples, shops and bars on the way to the train station just minutes away from the bridge. Everything looked pretty touristy and expensive, so we didn't spend a lot of time "in town", but took a nice nap by the temple.
7. From Amanohashidate train station: you can take a direct train either back to Amino, then to Shotenkyo and Kumihama, or to Fukuchiyama and Kyoto (what we did, but that story may not be suitable for all audiences...). And of course, if you're lazy or don't have time to take the whole local bus tour around the peninsula (which is really great if you enjoy day dreaming while looking throughout the window, but we can think of friends of ours who'd find that boring to death!), well you can always take a round trip with the direct train: Kumihama/Shotenkyo to Amanohashidate and back. Pack a lunch or buy your cheap bento at the supermarket just opposite the caiburu caru parking lot and you're ready to go! By the way, with the food being rather expensive in Japan, this is a #GreatTraveler'sTip: most supermarkets sell fresh sushi, sashimi, salads and bentos everyday, whose shelf-life is of a few hours. It means they start to discount some progressively as the day passes. After 6pm, you're sure to find yummy raw fish, grilled meat, vegetables, rice currys, udons and such with a 20 or 30 % off. Unlike what we do "at home", in Japan we usually had light breakfast and lunch and made sure to reach dinner hungry, celebrating it with solemn gratefulness every evening!
clouds over Miyazu bay ; bird theory ; bird practice ; panoramashidate ; holy hand fans ; pine in b&w ; late ride on a Wong Kar Train.
8. Talking in silver (aka the costs): Kumihama to Amino: 290 yens ; Amino to Tate Iwa: 200 yens ; Tate Iwa to Kyogamisaki: 200 yens ; Kyogamisaki to Amanohashidate: 200 yens (on local train and buses). Amanohashidate-Shotenkyo direct trains: between 850 and 1100 yens (regular vs. express).
Total = 1800-2000 yens per person approximately for the round trip. Our food and water for the excursion were as cheap as another 1500 yens for the two of us, dodging the "local" restaurants for tourists.
And as a special bonus only for the brave, another #GreatTraveler'sTip: check the amazing website www.hyperdia.com for all your Japanese train timetables, schedules, platform changes and fares! It's unbelievable how complex the Japanese train network is and how hyperdia makes it easy (obviously, the site is absolutely free and we're not endorsed at all, not by them and to the date, not by anyone else than ourselves!). Just type in your departure and arrival stations and it'll suggest ALL the possible options, from super express deluxe shinkansens to the crappiest, slowest, most local countryside trains. There's a series of boxes you can tick/untick, allowing you to swap the expensive options (including the limited express that has a special fare) and pick among the super slow super long super authentic super cheap ones... Whatever your budget is, if there's a train for you, it's there!
Voilà, if you go there, let us know what you thought and how you liked it.
And if you happen to be staying at Atsushi-san's, say hello and send kisses from us to the whole family!
Tous les 22 octobre - date anniversaire de son établissement comme capitale - la ville de Kyoto célèbre l'un de ses trois principaux festivals: le Jidai Matsuri (時代祭, "festival des âges"). Il s'agit d'une imposante (et interminable!) procession qui circule à travers le centre depuis le Palais Impérial jusqu'au sanctuaire shinto de Heian Ginju., établi en même temps que ce matsuri et responsable de son organisation.
deux des près de deux mille protagonistes du Jidai Matsuri de Kyoto!
Ce 22-ci ne faisait pas exception à la règle et le hasard (un peu aidé, il faut le dire, par la génétique flamande et le sens inné de l'organisation/planification de Wallis) a voulu que l'on débarque en début de matinée d'une escapade autour de la péninsule de Kyotango - dont on reparlera bientôt, c'est promis - à la gare centrale. Prises d'assaut par des milliers de touristes, curieux, fidèles et enthousiastes, eux aussi attirés par cet événement-clef de la vie culturelle et spirituelle de Kyoto, les rangées de casiers de consigne (aussi imposantes et interminables que le Jidai Matsuri lui-même) nous ont fait tourner en rond et en bourrique pendant environ quarante minutes avant de tomber, comme par miracle, sur un couple sur le départ qui libérait le sien (de casier). Faut dire que la compétition était âpre et que les places étaient plus chères que sur le parking du Guinardó après 19 heures. Mais ouf, ça c'était fait! Sac à dos déposés, on était donc prêts à aller voir le défilé (et peut-être aussi à se faire engueuler, mais on connait la chanson et nous la fait pas...).
Et voilà! Sauf erreur de notre part, il n'y en a aucun de répété, même si on n'est jamais à l'abri d'un copier-coller malencontreux. Ils sont dans l'ensemble presque dans leur ordre de passage, donc anti-chronologique. On a pris la liberté d'en déplacer seulement quelques-uns pour des critères eshétiques et d'équilibre de la mosaïque: ils nous le pardonneront, les historiens rigoureux aussi et vous de même; enfin, on espère. Le(s)quel(s) préférez-vous, ou vous impressionne(nt) le plus?
Plein de bises depuis Kagoshima, Kyushu (et oui: le temps passe, on se déplace et l'automne s'installe ici au sud du sud du Japon, même s'il nous laisse pour l'instant pas mal de répit...)!


text:
Auditor: 100 Mass. Dams Are Rated Unsafe Or Poor
One hundred dams owned by 62 cites and towns in Massachusetts are rated in unsafe or poor condition, according to a report issued Tuesday by outgoing state Auditor Joseph DeNucci.
DeNucci said that should one of the dams fail, it could cause a loss of life or significant property damage.
A spokeswoman for the state Department of Conservation and Recreation, which encompasses the Office of Dam Safety, said the findings are not a surprise to overseers or a risk to the public.
"I think people should be concerned about unsafe dams around them, but they should rest assured the state is keeping an eye on them," said Wendy Fox of the DCR.
Worcester County had the largest number, with 32 suspect dams. Middlesex had 14, while Norfolk had 13 and Bristol had 11.
Engineers' inspections found that 94 of the 100 dams are in poor condition, with six rated as unsafe. Two of the unsafe dams are in Foxborough; the others are in Athol, Bolton, Danvers and Dudley.
The Office of Dam Safety within the Department of Conservation and Recreation regulates about half of the 3,000 dams in Massachusetts.
DeNucci finishes his term next week. He will be replaced by a fellow Democrat, Suzanne Bump.
-- Here's the report (on Scribd):
http://www.scribd.com/doc/46669334/State-Auditor-s-Report-100-Mass-Dams-Are-Rated-Unsafe-Or-Poor
The Associated Press is a nonprofit cooperative wire service that covers news happening across the globe.


Summer Beach Dress Up | Miniclip And Mini clip More Online Free Miniclip Games Play Now!
Frankie and her friends are going to the beach this afternoon to get some sun tan because the want to have a little more color in their skin. The other girls are ready to go but Frankie is a bit late because she couldn't decide what to wear to the beach. Take a look through Frankie's clothes and choose a summer one for her. She is not that good when it comes to fashion but with your help she can be the master of it. Enjoy a last summer day to the beach because the autumn is almost here!