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."
Tuesday, July 22, 2014
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."
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