Quotations from and comments on "Africans" - The History of a Continent{New Edition} by John Iliffe
"The story begins with the evolution of the human species in Africa, whence it spread to colonise the continent and the world, adapting and specializing to new environments until distinct{?} racial{?} and linguistic groups emerged."
"The skull of the first known hominin, Sahelanthropus tchadensis, was discovered in 2001 by an African student examining the shores of an ancient Lake Chad. Apparently some six or seven million years old < > During the following five million years, a wide variety of other hominims, mostly known as Australopithecines, left remains chiefly in eastern and southern Africa."
"Found at Rift Valley sites < > from 2.6 million years ago < > with remains of a hominim known as Homo habilis."
"Some 1.8 million years ago, a more clearly human creature entered the archaeological record. Homo ergaster{from a Greek word meaning work} was to survive with remarkably little development for over a million years. < > Homo ergaster is also found in Eurasia."
"Scientists have therefore compared the mitochondrial DNA of living people to estimate the point in the past at which human beings shared a single female ancestor. < > most researchers believe that this was between 250,000 and 150,000 years ago, or in the broad period when the first anatomically modern people appear in the fossil record. Initially, these ancestors of modern humans spread within the African continent < > a subsequent expansion took them to parts of Asia by at least 40,000 years ago and from there to Europe.
From 1519 to 1867 there were 11,061,800 slave departures from Africa to the Atlantic.
"In 1807 the British Parliament resolved to abolish the Atlantic slave trade." But "parliamentary resolutions had little impact in Africa."
"In all, the navy captured 1,635 ships and freed just over 160,000 slaves, landing many at the colony in Freetown created in 1787. Yet no fewer than 3,446,800 slaves left Africa for the Atlantic during the nineteenth century ..."
"Whereas in 1948 the National Party{South Africa's apartheid party} had won only 40 percent of votes, in 1977, at its peak, it won 65 percent .."
"Within little more that a decade of the electoral victory in 1977, apartheid lay in ruins."
" ..Prime Minister P.W. Botha had dismissed apartheid in 1979 as 'a recipe for permanent conflict.' Recognising the impossibility of controlling an advanced industrial society by police methods.."
" the new president, F.W. de Klerk, explained in 1990, 'The decline and collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and Russia put a new complexion on things. < > We had to seize the opportunity.'
He legalized the ANC{African National Congress}and released its imprisoned leader, Nelson Mandela, to provide a negotiating partner.
De Klerk had underestimated the ANC. It proved more popular with Africans, more united, and less easy to marginalize ..."
The historical connection and coincidence of the collapse of the Soviet Union and communism in Eastern Europe with the collapse of the apartheid regime in South Africa went unnoticed by many people, but is very thought provoking and instructive.
Friday, November 14, 2014
Tuesday, October 14, 2014
Experimental Blog # 189
Quotations from "And Man Created God" - A History of the World at the Time of Jesus by Selina O'Grady
"At the end of the first century BC, the world was full of gods. Thousands of them .."
"Galilee probably had more holy men, or Hasidim, living a life of poverty and performing miracles and healings than any other district of Palestine. < > As for miracles, people in the ancient world found nothing surprising in the idea of exceptional people performing exceptional deeds ..."
"Most Jews, including Jesus' family, thought they could juggle the demands of being both Jewish and Roman < > Some of Jesus' brothers had Greek names; some Jewish."
"Cults sprang up all over Galilee and Judaea, proclaiming their belief that the kingdom of God was at hand and that the Messiah would appear in their lifetime."
"About one or two years after he started preaching, Jesus and some of his followers joined the hundreds of thousands of Jews from all around the empire travelling to Jerusalem for Passover."
"Yet, according to the biblical historian Geza Vermes, Jesus would probably never have been executed if he had < > not made his religious pilgrimage to Jerusalem. It was in the already tense city of Jerusalem that his opposition to the Pharisees, his association with John the Baptist{his executed cousin}, and the claims made by some of his followers that he was the Messiah became such an incendiary combination to the authorities."
"Jesus was arrested by the Temple guard, which Paul had already or would soon join, and was charged with blasphemy. But blasphemy was a crime only under Jewish not Roman law < > So he was further charged with being a royal pretender, or political agitator, claiming to be the Messiah. This was an act of sedition, which was a crime under Roman law .."
"Pilate passed the buck for the final time and let the mob decide Jesus' fate."
"But why the Roman procurator Pontius Pilate and Caiphas, the Roman-appointed ruler of Jerusalem, and Antipas, Rome's client king, were so keen to escape responsibility for Jesus' execution is unclear. It may have been because Jesus had come to Jerusalem at a time when tensions between Jews and Romans were riding so high that the need to appease both 'sides' was particularly important and particularly difficult. It was unlikely to have been fear of Jesus' popularity, since the crowd standing in the courtyard of Pilate's fortress gave the thumbs down to Jesus."
"At the end of the first century BC, the world was full of gods. Thousands of them .."
"Galilee probably had more holy men, or Hasidim, living a life of poverty and performing miracles and healings than any other district of Palestine. < > As for miracles, people in the ancient world found nothing surprising in the idea of exceptional people performing exceptional deeds ..."
"Most Jews, including Jesus' family, thought they could juggle the demands of being both Jewish and Roman < > Some of Jesus' brothers had Greek names; some Jewish."
"Cults sprang up all over Galilee and Judaea, proclaiming their belief that the kingdom of God was at hand and that the Messiah would appear in their lifetime."
"About one or two years after he started preaching, Jesus and some of his followers joined the hundreds of thousands of Jews from all around the empire travelling to Jerusalem for Passover."
"Yet, according to the biblical historian Geza Vermes, Jesus would probably never have been executed if he had < > not made his religious pilgrimage to Jerusalem. It was in the already tense city of Jerusalem that his opposition to the Pharisees, his association with John the Baptist{his executed cousin}, and the claims made by some of his followers that he was the Messiah became such an incendiary combination to the authorities."
"Jesus was arrested by the Temple guard, which Paul had already or would soon join, and was charged with blasphemy. But blasphemy was a crime only under Jewish not Roman law < > So he was further charged with being a royal pretender, or political agitator, claiming to be the Messiah. This was an act of sedition, which was a crime under Roman law .."
"Pilate passed the buck for the final time and let the mob decide Jesus' fate."
"But why the Roman procurator Pontius Pilate and Caiphas, the Roman-appointed ruler of Jerusalem, and Antipas, Rome's client king, were so keen to escape responsibility for Jesus' execution is unclear. It may have been because Jesus had come to Jerusalem at a time when tensions between Jews and Romans were riding so high that the need to appease both 'sides' was particularly important and particularly difficult. It was unlikely to have been fear of Jesus' popularity, since the crowd standing in the courtyard of Pilate's fortress gave the thumbs down to Jesus."
Wednesday, August 27, 2014
Experimental Blog # 188
Comments on 2 books:
# 1 "Math on Trial - How Numbers Get Used and Abused in the Courtroom" by Leila Schneps and Coralie Colmez
This mother and daughter mathematical team describe 10 historical or recent criminal trials where mathematics, that is, statistics and probability, were seriously misunderstood and/or misapplied to determine guilt or innocence. These math subjects, statistics and probability, turn out to be far more complicated than very many people really understand. This results in that the verdict of innocent or guilty depends on the authority of those explaining the particular math application.
The conclusion seems to be that a jury of peers of the accused can not and does not really decide the case, when such complicated mathematics is used. It might be said that this book subtly suggests that prison is not the right place for all guilty people.
#2 "Thomas Jefferson's Qur'an - Islam and the Founders" by Denise A. Spellberg
About 20 years ago many people were calling Thomas Jefferson a hypocrite. Another way to put the matter is to question whether "actions really, or always, speak louder than words", as the saying goes.
It certainly appears that in the life and work of Thomas Jefferson it was not so. The author, Denise Spellberg, describes Thomas Jefferson's intellectual efforts, that is, his words, in overwhelming detail; and he still seems overwhelmingly intellectually impressive. At the same time, Thomas Jefferson lived his whole long life on the product of African slavery, and not once convincingly spoke or acted against this way of life.
Thomas Jefferson's contemporary, John Adams, was intellectually just the opposite on the matter of African slavery, but he is hardly remembered very positively for anything.
Comments on 2 books:
# 1 "Math on Trial - How Numbers Get Used and Abused in the Courtroom" by Leila Schneps and Coralie Colmez
This mother and daughter mathematical team describe 10 historical or recent criminal trials where mathematics, that is, statistics and probability, were seriously misunderstood and/or misapplied to determine guilt or innocence. These math subjects, statistics and probability, turn out to be far more complicated than very many people really understand. This results in that the verdict of innocent or guilty depends on the authority of those explaining the particular math application.
The conclusion seems to be that a jury of peers of the accused can not and does not really decide the case, when such complicated mathematics is used. It might be said that this book subtly suggests that prison is not the right place for all guilty people.
#2 "Thomas Jefferson's Qur'an - Islam and the Founders" by Denise A. Spellberg
About 20 years ago many people were calling Thomas Jefferson a hypocrite. Another way to put the matter is to question whether "actions really, or always, speak louder than words", as the saying goes.
It certainly appears that in the life and work of Thomas Jefferson it was not so. The author, Denise Spellberg, describes Thomas Jefferson's intellectual efforts, that is, his words, in overwhelming detail; and he still seems overwhelmingly intellectually impressive. At the same time, Thomas Jefferson lived his whole long life on the product of African slavery, and not once convincingly spoke or acted against this way of life.
Thomas Jefferson's contemporary, John Adams, was intellectually just the opposite on the matter of African slavery, but he is hardly remembered very positively for anything.
Experimental Blog # 187
Quotations from "China's Silent Army" - The Pioneers, Traders, Fixers and Workers Who Are Remaking the World in Beijing's Image by Juan Pablo Cardenal and Heriberto Araujo, translated by Catherine Mansfield
" ... at exactly 8:08 p.m. on August 8, 2008, history changed its course. That moment marked the beginning of the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games..."
"September 15, 2008, just three weeks after the end of the Olympics, marked the beginning of the crisis which threatened the downfall of the Western financial system."
"In a little less than a year, China's prestige and position in the rest of the world had taken a 180-degree turn, from treacherous dictatorship to savior of the world's economy."
"In just ten years the country has multiplied its trade with the rest of the world six times, with an increase from $510 billion in 2001 to $2.97 trillion in 2010."
"As there is no welfare state, the Chinese people save over 40 percent of their earnings, which represents the highest rate of savings in the world. < > this huge quantity of deposits is combined with < > "financial repression," which < > means that depositors are forced to lose money with their savings."
"Therefore the magic wand of limitless funding is paid for at great expense by Chines savers ..."
" ... the whole planet can now hear the deafening grinding of the tectonic movements caused by the rise of China < > The new world order is excellent news for many countries in the developing world. China's pragmatism offers undisputable benefits to < > many African countries that today have access to infrastructure which they had never even dreamed of .."
" ... who is capitalizing on the opportunities offered by China if it is not the local populations?
" ... you probably already know the answer: the local elites, whether economic and/or political, in both democratic countries and autocratic regimes."
Friday, August 1, 2014
Experimental Blog # 186
Notes and quotations from "Faraday, Maxwell, and the Electromagnetic Field" - How Two Men Revolutionized Physics by Nancy Forbes and Basil Mahon and "The Age of Radiance" - The Epic Rise and Dramatic Fall of the Atomic Era by Craig Nelson
From "Faraday, Maxwell, and the Electromagnetic Field":
"Faraday's first notion of lines of force, < > grew into Maxwell's sophisticated mathematical theory, which predicted that every time a magnet jiggled, or an electric current was turned on or off, a wave of electromagnetic energy would spread out into space < >, changing the nature of space itself."
" ... something in space must be storing electromagnetic energy and transmitting its forces, .."
"Maxwell had achieved the seemingly impossible - he had derived the theory of the electromagnetic field directly from the laws of dynamics."
"These were the laws of motion that had been discovered by Newton, with one addition - the principle that energy was conserved in any closed system. The concept of energy in space was central to Maxwell's new approach ..."
"It{the mathematics} described how the various quantities interacted with one another and how they varied in space and time."
From "The Age of Radiance":
Of all the scientists referred to in this very comprehensive and probably controversial book, Robert Oppenheimer seems to be a close second to Enrico Fermi.
In the photo section of the book Craig Nelson says that, "Edward Teller{possibly fourth most referred to scientist after Leo Szilard} was the Richard Nixon of physics, testifying against Robert Oppenheimer and leading Ronald Reagan down the path of Star Wars. But many believe his invention if the hydrogen bomb made Alfred Nobel's dream come true, keeping the Cold War cold and the world at peace." The author expresses these opinions more than once in his book.
From "Faraday, Maxwell, and the Electromagnetic Field":
"Faraday's first notion of lines of force, < > grew into Maxwell's sophisticated mathematical theory, which predicted that every time a magnet jiggled, or an electric current was turned on or off, a wave of electromagnetic energy would spread out into space < >, changing the nature of space itself."
" ... something in space must be storing electromagnetic energy and transmitting its forces, .."
"Maxwell had achieved the seemingly impossible - he had derived the theory of the electromagnetic field directly from the laws of dynamics."
"These were the laws of motion that had been discovered by Newton, with one addition - the principle that energy was conserved in any closed system. The concept of energy in space was central to Maxwell's new approach ..."
"It{the mathematics} described how the various quantities interacted with one another and how they varied in space and time."
From "The Age of Radiance":
Of all the scientists referred to in this very comprehensive and probably controversial book, Robert Oppenheimer seems to be a close second to Enrico Fermi.
In the photo section of the book Craig Nelson says that, "Edward Teller{possibly fourth most referred to scientist after Leo Szilard} was the Richard Nixon of physics, testifying against Robert Oppenheimer and leading Ronald Reagan down the path of Star Wars. But many believe his invention if the hydrogen bomb made Alfred Nobel's dream come true, keeping the Cold War cold and the world at peace." The author expresses these opinions more than once in his book.
Tuesday, July 22, 2014
Experimental Blog # 185
Quotations and notes from "The Cold War - A New History" by John Lewis Gaddis
"He{Stalin} acknowledged, in a wistful but revealing comment in 1947, that" {had}"Churchill delayed opening the second front in northern France by a year, the Red Army would have come to France < > {we} toyed with the idea of reaching Paris.""
"Atomic bombs were meant to be dropped, as soon as they were ready, on whatever enemy targets yet remained."
"Truman and his advisors < > encouraged Soviet military officers to tour the ruins of Hiroshima, and allowed them to witness the first postwar tests of the bomb, held in the Pacific in the summer of 1946."
"By 1959, he{Eisenhower} was insisting gloomily that if war came "you might as well go out and shoot everyone you see and then shoot yourself.""!!
"The charges made against Khrushchev" < > "on the day his Kremlin colleagues announced their intention to depose him{October 13, 1964}". " He was accused of rudeness, distraction, arrogance, incompetence, nepotism, megalomania, depression, unpredictability, and growing old."!!
On the night of May 9th, 1970, "unable to sleep, the president of the United States{Richard Nixon}, accompanied only by his valet and a driver, slipped out of the White House to try to reason with students maintaining a vigil in front of the Lincoln Memorial. Nixon was nervous to the point of incoherence, rambling on about Churchill, appeasement, surfing, football, his own environmental policies, and the advantages of traveling while young."
"Most experts would probably have agreed", in 1980, that "the global balance of power < > had been tilting in Moscow's favor through most of the 1970s." But "it has long since been clear - and should have been clearer at the time - that the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact allies were on the path to decline, and that détente was concealing their difficulties."
"He{Stalin} acknowledged, in a wistful but revealing comment in 1947, that" {had}"Churchill delayed opening the second front in northern France by a year, the Red Army would have come to France < > {we} toyed with the idea of reaching Paris.""
"Atomic bombs were meant to be dropped, as soon as they were ready, on whatever enemy targets yet remained."
"Truman and his advisors < > encouraged Soviet military officers to tour the ruins of Hiroshima, and allowed them to witness the first postwar tests of the bomb, held in the Pacific in the summer of 1946."
"By 1959, he{Eisenhower} was insisting gloomily that if war came "you might as well go out and shoot everyone you see and then shoot yourself.""!!
"The charges made against Khrushchev" < > "on the day his Kremlin colleagues announced their intention to depose him{October 13, 1964}". " He was accused of rudeness, distraction, arrogance, incompetence, nepotism, megalomania, depression, unpredictability, and growing old."!!
On the night of May 9th, 1970, "unable to sleep, the president of the United States{Richard Nixon}, accompanied only by his valet and a driver, slipped out of the White House to try to reason with students maintaining a vigil in front of the Lincoln Memorial. Nixon was nervous to the point of incoherence, rambling on about Churchill, appeasement, surfing, football, his own environmental policies, and the advantages of traveling while young."
"Most experts would probably have agreed", in 1980, that "the global balance of power < > had been tilting in Moscow's favor through most of the 1970s." But "it has long since been clear - and should have been clearer at the time - that the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact allies were on the path to decline, and that détente was concealing their difficulties."
Wednesday, July 16, 2014
Experimental Blog # 184
Quotations and notes from "Strange Rebels - 1979 and the Birth of the 21st Century" by Christian Caryl
"As events unfold around us, we interpret what we see through the prism of precedent, and then are amazed when it turns out that our actions never play out the same way twice."
"The upheaval in Iran had an explosive effect on the rest of the Islamic world."
" .. both Washington and Moscow failed to predict the forces that the invasion{of Afganistan in late 1979}would unleash."
"These five stories": the rise of Deng Xiaoping to the "top job" in China, the election of Margaret Thatcher as Britain's prime minister, the choice of Karl Jozef Wojtyla{John Paul II}as the Pope of the Catholic church, the rise of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini as the leader of Iran, and the "budding Islamists" of Afganistan{who eventually defeated the Soviet invaders}, "have much more in common than at first meets the eye."
"The protagonists of 1979 were, in their own ways, participants in a great backlash against revolutionary overreach."
"Marxism < > was not just an academic theory about historical truth; its adherents believed that they held the key to superior economic management as well."
"Westerners did not know what to make of Khomeini. The leaders of contemporary revolutions were supposed to be flamboyant, strident, perhaps even promiscuous or a bit messy - like Mao or Che or the student activists in Paris or Frankfurt in the 1960s."
"As events unfold around us, we interpret what we see through the prism of precedent, and then are amazed when it turns out that our actions never play out the same way twice."
"The upheaval in Iran had an explosive effect on the rest of the Islamic world."
" .. both Washington and Moscow failed to predict the forces that the invasion{of Afganistan in late 1979}would unleash."
"These five stories": the rise of Deng Xiaoping to the "top job" in China, the election of Margaret Thatcher as Britain's prime minister, the choice of Karl Jozef Wojtyla{John Paul II}as the Pope of the Catholic church, the rise of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini as the leader of Iran, and the "budding Islamists" of Afganistan{who eventually defeated the Soviet invaders}, "have much more in common than at first meets the eye."
"The protagonists of 1979 were, in their own ways, participants in a great backlash against revolutionary overreach."
"Marxism < > was not just an academic theory about historical truth; its adherents believed that they held the key to superior economic management as well."
"Westerners did not know what to make of Khomeini. The leaders of contemporary revolutions were supposed to be flamboyant, strident, perhaps even promiscuous or a bit messy - like Mao or Che or the student activists in Paris or Frankfurt in the 1960s."
Saturday, July 5, 2014
Experimental Blog # 183
Notes and Quotations from "The Man of Numbers - Fibonacci's Arithmetic Revolution" by Keith Devlin
"Prior to the thirteenth century < > the only Europeans who were aware of the system{the Hindu-Arabic number system} were < > scholars, who used it solely to do mathematics. < > That state of affairs started to change after 1202", when Leonardo of Pisa completed Liber abbaci, or "Book of calculation".
In 628 Brahmagupta, who lived in Bhillamala northwest India, introduced the number zero in his "mammoth treatise" called "The opening of the universe".
"In addition to its treatment of Hindi-Arabic arithmetic, Liber abbaci covers the beginnings of algebra and some applied mathematics."
"The Hindu-Arabic system took longer to migrate beyond Italy's borders, < > In 1494, the money changers in Frankfurt attempted to prohibit its use just as the Florentines had two centuries earlier .."
"If Shakespeare had not lived, for example, Hamlet would never have been written. In contrast, if Euclid had not proved that there are infinitely many primes, someone else would have."
"Hindu-Arabic arithmetic falls into the category of something waiting to be found."
"Prior to the thirteenth century < > the only Europeans who were aware of the system{the Hindu-Arabic number system} were < > scholars, who used it solely to do mathematics. < > That state of affairs started to change after 1202", when Leonardo of Pisa completed Liber abbaci, or "Book of calculation".
In 628 Brahmagupta, who lived in Bhillamala northwest India, introduced the number zero in his "mammoth treatise" called "The opening of the universe".
"In addition to its treatment of Hindi-Arabic arithmetic, Liber abbaci covers the beginnings of algebra and some applied mathematics."
"The Hindu-Arabic system took longer to migrate beyond Italy's borders, < > In 1494, the money changers in Frankfurt attempted to prohibit its use just as the Florentines had two centuries earlier .."
"If Shakespeare had not lived, for example, Hamlet would never have been written. In contrast, if Euclid had not proved that there are infinitely many primes, someone else would have."
"Hindu-Arabic arithmetic falls into the category of something waiting to be found."
Saturday, June 28, 2014
Experimental Blog # 182
Quotations from "Asia's Cauldron" - The South China Sea and the End of a Stable Pacific by Robert D. Kaplan
" ...the South China Sea shows us a twenty-first- century world void of moral struggles .."
" ... East Asia is all about trade and business."
"There are no philosophical questions to ponder in this new and somewhat sterile landscape of the twenty-first century."
"While the United States has been distracted by land wars in the Greater Middle East, military power has been quietly shifting from Europe to Asia, < > with emphasis on naval forces."
"As a whole, Asia's per capita income rose sevenfold in less than six decades following 1950, reports Asia expert Bill Emmott .."
"Of particular note is the feverish acquisition of submarines ..."
"China has over sixty submarines .."
"India, South Korea, and Vietnam are expected to acquire six more subs apiece < > while Australia will acquire twelve new subs < > Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia will shortly acquire two more subs apiece .."
" .. Asian nations are expected to purchase as many as 111 subs by 2030 .. "
"Vietnam is in a situation similar to that of China: governed by a Communist Party that has all but given up communism, and has an implicit social contract with the population, in which the party guarantees higher or sustained income levels while the citizens agree not to protest too loudly."
" ...the South China Sea shows us a twenty-first- century world void of moral struggles .."
" ... East Asia is all about trade and business."
"There are no philosophical questions to ponder in this new and somewhat sterile landscape of the twenty-first century."
"While the United States has been distracted by land wars in the Greater Middle East, military power has been quietly shifting from Europe to Asia, < > with emphasis on naval forces."
"As a whole, Asia's per capita income rose sevenfold in less than six decades following 1950, reports Asia expert Bill Emmott .."
"Of particular note is the feverish acquisition of submarines ..."
"China has over sixty submarines .."
"India, South Korea, and Vietnam are expected to acquire six more subs apiece < > while Australia will acquire twelve new subs < > Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia will shortly acquire two more subs apiece .."
" .. Asian nations are expected to purchase as many as 111 subs by 2030 .. "
"Vietnam is in a situation similar to that of China: governed by a Communist Party that has all but given up communism, and has an implicit social contract with the population, in which the party guarantees higher or sustained income levels while the citizens agree not to protest too loudly."
Tuesday, June 10, 2014
Experimental Blog # 181
Quotations or notes from "Overbooked - The Exploding Business of Travel and Tourism" by Elizabeth Becker
"In 1950 < > only 25 million trips recorded by foreign tourists < > 25 million tourist trips to foreign countries in 1960; 250 million in 1970; 536 million in 1995; 922 million in 2008; 1 billion in 2012."
" .. the tourism industry contributed $7 trillion to the world economy in 2007 and was the biggest employer, with nearly 250 million associated jobs. {And those figures don't include people who vacation in their own countries.}"
"Tourism creates $3 billion in business every day." This figure seems inconsistent with the $7 trillion right above.
"In gross economic power it is in the same company as oil, energy, finance and agriculture. At least one out of every ten people around the world is employed by the industry .."
"As of 2011, China had 271 billionaires and 960,000 millionaires. < > by 2020, when China is expected to become the number-one destination, tourism will provide over 10% of China's GDP. To keep up with all those tourists, China is expected to need 5,000 additional new passenger airplanes at a cost of $600 billion."
""There is also the bigger issue of saying thank you and please. Some Chinese consider saying thank you and please as somehow degrading.""!?
"The flash points of travel and tourism are the same around the world: local communities feeling powerless in the face of their governments and big industry; < ...........>; civil societies feeling ignored when they try to protect their forests and beaches, neighborhoods and children; ..."
"In 1950 < > only 25 million trips recorded by foreign tourists < > 25 million tourist trips to foreign countries in 1960; 250 million in 1970; 536 million in 1995; 922 million in 2008; 1 billion in 2012."
" .. the tourism industry contributed $7 trillion to the world economy in 2007 and was the biggest employer, with nearly 250 million associated jobs. {And those figures don't include people who vacation in their own countries.}"
"Tourism creates $3 billion in business every day." This figure seems inconsistent with the $7 trillion right above.
"In gross economic power it is in the same company as oil, energy, finance and agriculture. At least one out of every ten people around the world is employed by the industry .."
"As of 2011, China had 271 billionaires and 960,000 millionaires. < > by 2020, when China is expected to become the number-one destination, tourism will provide over 10% of China's GDP. To keep up with all those tourists, China is expected to need 5,000 additional new passenger airplanes at a cost of $600 billion."
""There is also the bigger issue of saying thank you and please. Some Chinese consider saying thank you and please as somehow degrading.""!?
"The flash points of travel and tourism are the same around the world: local communities feeling powerless in the face of their governments and big industry; < ...........>; civil societies feeling ignored when they try to protect their forests and beaches, neighborhoods and children; ..."
Friday, May 30, 2014
Experimental Blog # 180
Quotations and comments from "Tiger Woman on Wall Street" - Winning Business Strategies from Shanghai to New York and Back by Junheng Li
"My conviction that the market is not efficient < > contradicts one of the great canons of modern finance theory: < > Inefficiency exists because accurate information takes time to travel and surface .."
" .. China is essentially caught in a prison of its own success: the staggering and unprecedented achievement of lifting 500 million people out of poverty in a bit more than 30 years."
"By shorting a stock you are effectively expressing your opinion that the business has a risk or flaw that the rest of the market doesn't yet see."
" .. there are two types of short candidates: hypes and frauds."
"In 2009 < > to stave off the impact of the global financial crisis, China pulled its stimulus trigger and released a $4 trillion package for large fiscal projects."
"The world was impressed, < > Commentators everywhere forecast the decline of America, and some even went as far as to make the case that state capitalism should be the new model for the modern era." China was relatively untouched by the 2008 financial crisis and following recession. However, Junheng Li goes into considerable detail in describing China's social problems that she believes will prevent China from taking world leadership completely away from the United States.
"Changes in a stock's market value are typically driven by expectations of a company's earnings - profits distributable to shareholders - quarter by quarter."
Towards the end of her book Junheng Li recounts the very informative history of KFC{Kentucky Fried Chicken} in China. This history includes a description of China's traditional 100-day yellow free range chickens and America's 45-day white "shoebox" chickens. Although America seems to exceed China in numerous "human rights" issues, this "chicken history" would be disquieting for more sensitive animal rights advocates.
"My conviction that the market is not efficient < > contradicts one of the great canons of modern finance theory: < > Inefficiency exists because accurate information takes time to travel and surface .."
" .. China is essentially caught in a prison of its own success: the staggering and unprecedented achievement of lifting 500 million people out of poverty in a bit more than 30 years."
"By shorting a stock you are effectively expressing your opinion that the business has a risk or flaw that the rest of the market doesn't yet see."
" .. there are two types of short candidates: hypes and frauds."
"In 2009 < > to stave off the impact of the global financial crisis, China pulled its stimulus trigger and released a $4 trillion package for large fiscal projects."
"The world was impressed, < > Commentators everywhere forecast the decline of America, and some even went as far as to make the case that state capitalism should be the new model for the modern era." China was relatively untouched by the 2008 financial crisis and following recession. However, Junheng Li goes into considerable detail in describing China's social problems that she believes will prevent China from taking world leadership completely away from the United States.
"Changes in a stock's market value are typically driven by expectations of a company's earnings - profits distributable to shareholders - quarter by quarter."
Towards the end of her book Junheng Li recounts the very informative history of KFC{Kentucky Fried Chicken} in China. This history includes a description of China's traditional 100-day yellow free range chickens and America's 45-day white "shoebox" chickens. Although America seems to exceed China in numerous "human rights" issues, this "chicken history" would be disquieting for more sensitive animal rights advocates.
Wednesday, May 21, 2014
Experimental Blog # 179
Quotations and comments from "You Are Here" - From the Compass to GPS, the History and Future of How We Find Ourselves by Hiawatha Bray and "Dragnet Nation" - A Quest for Privacy, Security, and Freedom in a World of Relentless Surveillance by Julia Angwin
From "You Are Here":
"As I read the street map on my smartphone, the map also read me, broadcasting my movements < > Its server computers timed my footsteps, noted my detours < > A permanent record of our movements over days, months and years, these maps can reveal the most salient details of our lives - political and religious beliefs, suspicious friendships, bad habits."
" ...every cell phone is a little homing beacon that gives the phone company a rough idea of the phone's location. < > it was the decision to build GPS into hundreds of millions of commonplace phones that transformed the technology from a costly curiosity to an everyday necessity < > anybody could own a cheap device that would tell her exactly where she was and exactly how to get where she wanted to go."
" .. GPS was born of the US military's Cold War quest to deliver devastating firepower to exactly the right spot, anywhere on earth."
"Skyhook works where GPS can't - in urban canyons or inside thick concrete walls < > Skyhook markets a hybrid service that combines GPS and Wi-Fi data, offering whichever will give the most accurate result at a given moment."
Our location by latitude, longitude, and altitude is identified by the Internet protocol{IP} addresses of our internet connected devices, sometimes "static" and other times "dynamic".
"For centuries people have been able to disappear. < > the twentieth century made it nearly impossible to live the anonymous life."
"Thanks to our mastery of location, we may never be truly invisible again."
From "Dragnet Nation":
"Dragnets that scoop up information indiscriminately about everyone in their path used to be rare: < > But technology has enabled a new era of supercharged dragnets that can gather vast amounts of personal data with little human effort."
"The rise of indiscriminate tracking is powered by the same forces that have brought us the technology we love so much - powerful computing on our desktops, laptops, tablets, and smartphones."
"The combination of massive computing power, smaller and smaller devices, and cheap storage has enabled a huge increase in indiscriminate tracking of personal data."
From "You Are Here":
"As I read the street map on my smartphone, the map also read me, broadcasting my movements < > Its server computers timed my footsteps, noted my detours < > A permanent record of our movements over days, months and years, these maps can reveal the most salient details of our lives - political and religious beliefs, suspicious friendships, bad habits."
" ...every cell phone is a little homing beacon that gives the phone company a rough idea of the phone's location. < > it was the decision to build GPS into hundreds of millions of commonplace phones that transformed the technology from a costly curiosity to an everyday necessity < > anybody could own a cheap device that would tell her exactly where she was and exactly how to get where she wanted to go."
" .. GPS was born of the US military's Cold War quest to deliver devastating firepower to exactly the right spot, anywhere on earth."
"Skyhook works where GPS can't - in urban canyons or inside thick concrete walls < > Skyhook markets a hybrid service that combines GPS and Wi-Fi data, offering whichever will give the most accurate result at a given moment."
Our location by latitude, longitude, and altitude is identified by the Internet protocol{IP} addresses of our internet connected devices, sometimes "static" and other times "dynamic".
"For centuries people have been able to disappear. < > the twentieth century made it nearly impossible to live the anonymous life."
"Thanks to our mastery of location, we may never be truly invisible again."
From "Dragnet Nation":
"Dragnets that scoop up information indiscriminately about everyone in their path used to be rare: < > But technology has enabled a new era of supercharged dragnets that can gather vast amounts of personal data with little human effort."
"The rise of indiscriminate tracking is powered by the same forces that have brought us the technology we love so much - powerful computing on our desktops, laptops, tablets, and smartphones."
"The combination of massive computing power, smaller and smaller devices, and cheap storage has enabled a huge increase in indiscriminate tracking of personal data."
Saturday, May 3, 2014
Experimental Blog # 178
Quotations and comments from "Uncharted - Big Data as a Lens on Human Culture" by Erez Aiden and Jean-Baptiste Michel
" ..Google has digitized more than 30 million books. That's about one in every four books ever published."
" ..nearly all irregular verbs are very frequent. Although only about 3 percent of verbs are irregular, the ten most frequent verbs are all irregular." The authors explain that very old, but common, verbs were less subject to change when a new linguistic rule was adopted for new verbs. "The use of -ed to signify the past tense emerged in Proto-Germanic, a language spoken between 500 and 250 BCE in Scandinavia."
" ..our idea was to create a shadow dataset containing a single record{n-gram} for every word and phrase that appeared in English books." Except for those "that had been written only a handful of times." These measures are to avoid copyright infringement and "hacking".
" ..what we measure with n-grams is not fame itself but a simplification, a fame facsimile."
The authors have compiled a list of people born from 1800 to 1949 that they call the 150 valedictorians; whose full names have turned up the most number of times in their data base of 500 billion words. However, it seems that the most famous, not great and certainly not most popular, are those people who are often referred to by their last names only.
The top 10, paired with their "valedictorians" are: #1- Adolf Hitler{1889- Jawaharlal Nehru}, #2- Karl Marx{1818- with self}, #3- Sigmund Freud{1856- Woodrow Wilson}, #4- Ronald Reagan{1911- with self}, #5- Joseph Stalin{1879- Albert Einstein}, #6- Vladimir Lenin{1870- Frank Norris}, #7- Dwight Eisenhower{1890- Ho Chi Minh}, #8- Charles Dickens{1812- with self}, #9- Benito Mussolini{1883- William Carlos Williams}, and #10- Richard Wagner{1813- Henry Ward Beecher}.
" ..Google has digitized more than 30 million books. That's about one in every four books ever published."
" ..nearly all irregular verbs are very frequent. Although only about 3 percent of verbs are irregular, the ten most frequent verbs are all irregular." The authors explain that very old, but common, verbs were less subject to change when a new linguistic rule was adopted for new verbs. "The use of -ed to signify the past tense emerged in Proto-Germanic, a language spoken between 500 and 250 BCE in Scandinavia."
" ..our idea was to create a shadow dataset containing a single record{n-gram} for every word and phrase that appeared in English books." Except for those "that had been written only a handful of times." These measures are to avoid copyright infringement and "hacking".
" ..what we measure with n-grams is not fame itself but a simplification, a fame facsimile."
The authors have compiled a list of people born from 1800 to 1949 that they call the 150 valedictorians; whose full names have turned up the most number of times in their data base of 500 billion words. However, it seems that the most famous, not great and certainly not most popular, are those people who are often referred to by their last names only.
The top 10, paired with their "valedictorians" are: #1- Adolf Hitler{1889- Jawaharlal Nehru}, #2- Karl Marx{1818- with self}, #3- Sigmund Freud{1856- Woodrow Wilson}, #4- Ronald Reagan{1911- with self}, #5- Joseph Stalin{1879- Albert Einstein}, #6- Vladimir Lenin{1870- Frank Norris}, #7- Dwight Eisenhower{1890- Ho Chi Minh}, #8- Charles Dickens{1812- with self}, #9- Benito Mussolini{1883- William Carlos Williams}, and #10- Richard Wagner{1813- Henry Ward Beecher}.
Saturday, April 26, 2014
Experimental Blog #177
Notes and quotations from "Day of Empire - How Hyperpowers Rise to Global Dominance - And Why They Fall" by Amy Chua
" ...every single world power in history - was, at least by the standards of its time, extraordinarily pluralistic and tolerant during its rise to preeminence. < > tolerance simply means letting very different kinds of people live, work, and prosper in your society - even if only for instrumental or strategic reasons."
"Because tolerance is a relative matter, even tolerated groups may be subject to harshly inequitable treatment."
"History shows that hyperpowers can survive only if they find ways to command the allegiance or at least the acquiescence of the foreign populations they dominate .."
"Achaemenid Persia was the first world-dominant power in history."
Other empires described at great length are: Imperial Rome, China's Tang Empire, the Great Mongol Empire, the Dutch Republic, China's Ming Empire, the Ottoman Empire, the Mughal Empire{Muslim rulers with Hindu subjects}, and the British Empire.
"Whereas Achaemenid Persia was essentially just a war machine, Rome was also an idea. Inhabitants from the farthest reaches of the empire wanted to be - and became-"Roman." Along the empires remarkable 53,000-mile net work of paved roads and bridges that linked Britons to Berbers, one could find thousands of Roman baths, amphitheaters, and temples, built to the same specifications and filled with toga-clad Roman citizens."
"The Dutch are famous for many things - but these days it's often forgotten that the Dutch once presided over the world's preeminent maritime trading empire .."
"Nevertheless, the contributions of the Jews, Huguenots, and Scots - which would not have been possible without Britain's turn to tolerance - were not only disproportionate but pivotal."
Amy Chua's descriptions of Britain's relations and treatment of Ireland and India are quite stark and grim; as are many other details in this remarkable book.
" ...every single world power in history - was, at least by the standards of its time, extraordinarily pluralistic and tolerant during its rise to preeminence. < > tolerance simply means letting very different kinds of people live, work, and prosper in your society - even if only for instrumental or strategic reasons."
"Because tolerance is a relative matter, even tolerated groups may be subject to harshly inequitable treatment."
"History shows that hyperpowers can survive only if they find ways to command the allegiance or at least the acquiescence of the foreign populations they dominate .."
"Achaemenid Persia was the first world-dominant power in history."
Other empires described at great length are: Imperial Rome, China's Tang Empire, the Great Mongol Empire, the Dutch Republic, China's Ming Empire, the Ottoman Empire, the Mughal Empire{Muslim rulers with Hindu subjects}, and the British Empire.
"Whereas Achaemenid Persia was essentially just a war machine, Rome was also an idea. Inhabitants from the farthest reaches of the empire wanted to be - and became-"Roman." Along the empires remarkable 53,000-mile net work of paved roads and bridges that linked Britons to Berbers, one could find thousands of Roman baths, amphitheaters, and temples, built to the same specifications and filled with toga-clad Roman citizens."
"The Dutch are famous for many things - but these days it's often forgotten that the Dutch once presided over the world's preeminent maritime trading empire .."
"Nevertheless, the contributions of the Jews, Huguenots, and Scots - which would not have been possible without Britain's turn to tolerance - were not only disproportionate but pivotal."
Amy Chua's descriptions of Britain's relations and treatment of Ireland and India are quite stark and grim; as are many other details in this remarkable book.
Tuesday, April 22, 2014
Experimental Blog # 176
Quotations and comments from "The Triple Package - How Three Unlikely Traits Explain the Rise and Fall of Cultural Groups in America by Amy Chua and Jed Rubenfeld
"Indian Americans have the highest income of any Census-tracked ethnic group, almost twice the national average. Chinese, Iranian, and Lebanese Americans are not far behind."
"America's 5 to 6 million Mormons represent just 1.7 percent.{of the U.S. population} Yet a stunning number have risen to the top of America's corporate and political spheres."
"The U.S. Census Bureau used to compile data on religion, but this was largely discontinued after World War II, and today the Census is barred by law from asking mandatory questions about individuals' faith. < > But the fact is that Jews{who are apparently not Census-tracked} are the quintessential successful minority."
"Because the Census does not track religion, there's no authoritative measure of overall Jewish income."
"A few groups in America are not upwardly mobile because they don't want to be. The roughly two hundred thousand Amish living mainly in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana are prime examples."
The "three unlikely traits" that the authors call "The Triple Package" are: a superiority complex, insecurity, and impulse control. The authors also write about the superior economic group performances of the Cuban Americans of Miami and the more recent immigrants from the West Indies and Africa.
"Indian Americans have the highest income of any Census-tracked ethnic group, almost twice the national average. Chinese, Iranian, and Lebanese Americans are not far behind."
"America's 5 to 6 million Mormons represent just 1.7 percent.{of the U.S. population} Yet a stunning number have risen to the top of America's corporate and political spheres."
"The U.S. Census Bureau used to compile data on religion, but this was largely discontinued after World War II, and today the Census is barred by law from asking mandatory questions about individuals' faith. < > But the fact is that Jews{who are apparently not Census-tracked} are the quintessential successful minority."
"Because the Census does not track religion, there's no authoritative measure of overall Jewish income."
"A few groups in America are not upwardly mobile because they don't want to be. The roughly two hundred thousand Amish living mainly in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana are prime examples."
The "three unlikely traits" that the authors call "The Triple Package" are: a superiority complex, insecurity, and impulse control. The authors also write about the superior economic group performances of the Cuban Americans of Miami and the more recent immigrants from the West Indies and Africa.
Sunday, January 26, 2014
Experimental Blog #175
Quotations and notes from "Like a Virgin" - How Science Is Redesigning the Rules of Sex by Aarathi Prasad
" ..the Y chromosome, < > now has only around forty-five genes of the 1400-odd genes with which it began the human species."
"Most mutations, those mistakes in the combined DNA, arise in sperm."
"Recent estimates show that the rate of mutations in males compared to females is < > ten times higher in our primate, humans .."
"So even though the mother's genome still contains all the genes it takes to grow a complete baby from one of her eggs, only some of them are allowed to function. The same is true for some of the father's genes."
" .. many of these genes that are imprinted{only about 80 of the 23 thousand genes can be locked-up} dictate not what we will look like, but are able to manipulate the growth and nutrition of the foetus in the womb."
"It seems that sperm do more than just deliver packets of DNA into eggs - they regulate pregnancy itself."
" .. those eighty genes that are subject to imprinting{depending on whether they come from the father or the mother} have an important say in the development of our brains."
"Recent molecular analysis has shown that among people who carry defects or mutations in genes that are supposed to be imprinted, there is a surprisingly large incidence of cognitive, behavioural, neurological, and psychiatric conditions."
" ..the Y chromosome, < > now has only around forty-five genes of the 1400-odd genes with which it began the human species."
"Most mutations, those mistakes in the combined DNA, arise in sperm."
"Recent estimates show that the rate of mutations in males compared to females is < > ten times higher in our primate, humans .."
"So even though the mother's genome still contains all the genes it takes to grow a complete baby from one of her eggs, only some of them are allowed to function. The same is true for some of the father's genes."
" .. many of these genes that are imprinted{only about 80 of the 23 thousand genes can be locked-up} dictate not what we will look like, but are able to manipulate the growth and nutrition of the foetus in the womb."
"It seems that sperm do more than just deliver packets of DNA into eggs - they regulate pregnancy itself."
" .. those eighty genes that are subject to imprinting{depending on whether they come from the father or the mother} have an important say in the development of our brains."
"Recent molecular analysis has shown that among people who carry defects or mutations in genes that are supposed to be imprinted, there is a surprisingly large incidence of cognitive, behavioural, neurological, and psychiatric conditions."
Sunday, January 12, 2014
Experimental Blog #174
Quotations and notes from "The Quantum Ten" - A Story of Passion, Tragedy, Ambition, and Science by Sheilla Jones and "The Amazing Story of Quantum Mechanics" - A Math-Free Exploration of the Science that Made Our World by James Kakalios
From "The Quantum Ten":
"By the 1960s, the fruitfulness of the math-driven theory and experimentation began to wane. There have been no new fundamental laws of nature discovered since the 1970s ..."
" ... modern physicists would say mathematical logic is truth. Indeed, no idea in modern physics can be considered credible until it is validated by mathematical logic."
" ... this fundamental incomprehensibility of quantum physics has become the proverbial elephant in the living room."
"Enter Louis de Broglie. His wave theory assumed that if a wave could be a particle, a particle could also be a wave. And not only did light exhibit properties of wave/particle duality, so did matter."
"He{Einstein} wanted a physical theory that was based on an objective and visualizable external world, not one that was fundamentally probabilistic, acausal, and random."
" .. matrix mechanics precluded visualization ..."
"He{Schrodinger} believed that physics, at the microscopic and macroscopic levels, was intelligible .."
"{Heisenberg} espoused the view that a mathematical truth was the same as a physical truth, and that metaphors or images were to be shunned."
From "The Amazing Story of Quantum Mechanics":
"There are three impossible things that we must accept in order to understand quantum mechanics:
Light is an electromagnetic wave that is actually comprised of discrete packets of energy.
Matter is composed of discrete particles that exhibit a wavelike nature.
Everything - light and matter - has an "intrinsic angular momentum," or "spin," that can only have discrete values."
"The Schrodinger equation plays the same role in atomic physics that Newton's laws of motion play in the mechanics of everyday objects."
"The Schrodinger equation requires us to know the forces that act on the atomic electrons in order to figure out where the electrons are likely to be and what their energies are."
"What Schrodinger discovered was the quantum analog of Newton's force={mass}x{acceleration}."
"In 1926 Schrodinger was able to mathematically translate one approach{his} into the other{Heisenberg's}, demonstrating that the two descriptions are in fact equivalent."
"Anything bigger than an atom or a small molecule has such a large mass that its corresponding de Broglie wavelength is too small to ever be detected."
"The quantum descriptions of Schrodinger and Heisenberg accurately account for the properties of a single atom ..."
From "The Quantum Ten":
"By the 1960s, the fruitfulness of the math-driven theory and experimentation began to wane. There have been no new fundamental laws of nature discovered since the 1970s ..."
" ... modern physicists would say mathematical logic is truth. Indeed, no idea in modern physics can be considered credible until it is validated by mathematical logic."
" ... this fundamental incomprehensibility of quantum physics has become the proverbial elephant in the living room."
"Enter Louis de Broglie. His wave theory assumed that if a wave could be a particle, a particle could also be a wave. And not only did light exhibit properties of wave/particle duality, so did matter."
"He{Einstein} wanted a physical theory that was based on an objective and visualizable external world, not one that was fundamentally probabilistic, acausal, and random."
" .. matrix mechanics precluded visualization ..."
"He{Schrodinger} believed that physics, at the microscopic and macroscopic levels, was intelligible .."
"{Heisenberg} espoused the view that a mathematical truth was the same as a physical truth, and that metaphors or images were to be shunned."
From "The Amazing Story of Quantum Mechanics":
"There are three impossible things that we must accept in order to understand quantum mechanics:
Light is an electromagnetic wave that is actually comprised of discrete packets of energy.
Matter is composed of discrete particles that exhibit a wavelike nature.
Everything - light and matter - has an "intrinsic angular momentum," or "spin," that can only have discrete values."
"The Schrodinger equation plays the same role in atomic physics that Newton's laws of motion play in the mechanics of everyday objects."
"The Schrodinger equation requires us to know the forces that act on the atomic electrons in order to figure out where the electrons are likely to be and what their energies are."
"What Schrodinger discovered was the quantum analog of Newton's force={mass}x{acceleration}."
"In 1926 Schrodinger was able to mathematically translate one approach{his} into the other{Heisenberg's}, demonstrating that the two descriptions are in fact equivalent."
"Anything bigger than an atom or a small molecule has such a large mass that its corresponding de Broglie wavelength is too small to ever be detected."
"The quantum descriptions of Schrodinger and Heisenberg accurately account for the properties of a single atom ..."
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