...more recent posts
How to Explain Enronomics to Kids
Feudalism - You have two cows. Your lord takes some of the milk.
Fascism - You have two cows. The government takes both, hires you to take care of them, and sells you the milk.
Communism - You have two cows. Your neighbors help take care of them and you share the milk.
Totalitarianism - You have two cows. The government takes them both and denies they ever existed and drafts you into the army. Milk is banned.
Capitalism - You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull. Your herd multiplies, and the economy grows. You sell them and retire on the income.
Enron - You have two cows. You sell three of them to your publicly listed company, using letters of credit opened by your brother-in-law at the bank, then execute a debt/equity swap with an associated general offer so that you get all four cows back, with a tax exemption for five cows. The milk rights of the six cows are transferred via an intermediary to
a Cayman Island company secretly owned by the majority shareholder who sells the rights to all seven cows back to your listed company. The annual report says the company owns eight cows, with an option on one more.
the follow book will become part of the LB (Lovevibe-Brown) Library some time next month....i have been searching for years for an old alchemy print w/o any luck, Linda bought Alex this great book a couple weeks ago (sorry good Doctor) and I have engrossed in it, it seems to get the prints you gotta get the books....as you can imagine its rare, the 3rd book to change hands in the last 25 years....
ABRAHAM ELEAZAR. URALTES CHYMISCHES WERCK, Welches Ehedessen von dem Autore Theils in Lateinischer und Arabischer, theils auch in Chalaeischer und Syrischer Sprache Geschrieben...
Erfurt: Augustinus Crusius, 1735. 2 parts in one vol, 8vo, frontis. & 15 full-page engravings by J.E. Boeck, full-page woodcut, and woodcut diagrams throughout. [Bound with:] Zoraster. Clavis Artis des Beruehmten Juden und Rabbi Zoroasters. Jen: Joh. Gebast. Rudolph, 1738. Full vellum, lightly rubbed. A fine copy.
¶ First Edition of one of the major 18th century works on alchemy, by an author who wrote under the name of Abraham Eleaszar, the supposed author of the ancient alchemical ms found by the famous 13th century alchemist Nicolas Flamel. The engravings are said to be after illustrations in the manuscript found by Flamel. Ferguson devotes much space in trying to determine if it is authentic or note.Duveen pp.1-2: “The curious engravings are interesting examples of symbolic illustration.” Ferguson I, pp.2-3 (the Young Collection had only the second edition of 1760 but states the plates are far better int he first). Caillet pp.31-32. Ritman Library, The Silent Language, 49. Verginelli 1. Ouvaroff had only the second edition. Not in Dorbon or Jouin & Descreux; not in de Guatita or Manly Hall collections.
TTake the famous "which beatle are you" test
"For Whom the Bells Toll is a national initiative to have religious organizations throughout the country toll their bells whenever there is an execution."
good doctor you posted this at some point...?
hope everybody had a grand day yesterday, light on the posting and heavy on the getting outside, linda and i did
we walked all over red hook, all along the waterside and some of the side streets near the water, i fell in love, for so long i thought i wanted to live on sugar mountain but now its 173 beard st red hook brooklyn, whomever owns this home is extreemly lucky, hard to get arround yes but, thier backyard must smell of salt air all the time, on thier roof looking out at the water cant be a bummer either!!, couple other nice spots on beard and van brunt!!
Greg O'Connell from what i hear bought the whole waterfront inc lots of cival war era buildings buildings in the 70's for 500K, a friend rents a building from him and we saw some other renovated spaces AWESOME!!! he donated some of the space too including this and he has plans for a trolley museum, a fishing pier, etc....
he owns a lot of red hook and cobble hill near the water, he built for the same friend a restaurant/bar that will open soon.
first floor bar, 2nd floor restaurant (one of the partners cames from march restaurant), 3rd floor is the roof with more table, all 3 floors look out at unloading container ships and lower manhattan--NICE
i love brooklyn and wish i could buy in red hook today (or ever)
i had better get to work!!!
The search for the Ivory-billed Woodpecker is on!
MTV To Give Ozzy 'Real World' Treatment
Ozzy Osbourne and family will be the focus of a new MTV reality series, "The
Osbournes," set to debut March 5. The weekly show will follow the
family--including his wife/manager, Sharon, and teenage children Jack and
Kelly--for six months.
its ok jim, youll find true news again.
I'm posting this here in case anybody with an account doesn't read /systemnews.
We've had a few problems over the last day or two with some comments going haywire and continuing to show up on the front page as [x new comments] even when there appears to be no comment at the specified location.
This problem was due to a bug introduced while making an upgrade. It has been fixed, but you still might have a [new comment] notification on your front page that won't go away no matter how many times you click on it. Here's what to do:
Go here: /settings. You might have to scroll down quite a ways before you see anything, but the top option is to 'zero all [new post] and [new comment] counters.' Check the box and then click on 'clear'. This should solve the problem and then take you back to the main page.
Let me know if you are still experiencing any problems.
Dear folks,
Finally, the strange year of 2001 has been passed. Now we are able to dust ourselves off and move on. But do not look away from reflection of the last year tragedy. Many unanswered questions are still floating in the air.
This year, The Lonely Samoans will try hard to bring you love and peace at least for a moment, also ask questions to deep inside of ourselves.Some said we can't stop fighting because humans are animals, we are run by animal instinct. Do you believe that? I don't!!!
Please bring your love, it will be good to see you there.
Thursday, January 17th. 10pm.
@ CB's Gallery 313 Bowery.
Tel:(212)677-0455
$5 cover.
Samoa
Hey Bill, look out your window.
Apparently Jerry Garcia's perspiration could eat through chrome nickel plating in three weeks. "I'm not kidding you, this is like what bumpers of cars are made out of you know, it's resistant. But gold, he didn't react to, and it lasted a long time." Make of this what you will.
Wow. This doesn't look good for the boys in charge. Looks like a new book is about to come out. Richard Butler will have an op-ed piece in the NY Times this weekend on the issue. He (Butler) said this on CNN by way of explanation:
The most explosive charge, Paula, is that the Bush administration -- the present one, just shortly after assuming office slowed down FBI investigations of al Qaeda and terrorism in Afghanistan in order to do a deal with the Taliban on oil -- an oil pipeline across Afghanistan.
Now let's see. The White House has appointed National Security Council Advisor Zalmay Khalilzad to serve as Special Presidential Envoy for Afghanistan. Apparetnly he worked for Unocal. As did Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan's interim Prez. (Although this thread has some arguments as to why this might not be as ridiculous as it sounds.)
Kind of makes this whole conspiracty theory thing I linked to on 9/24 (alas, on a private page, because I was actually chicken) seem not that crazy.
Kind of makes you wonder who was in attendance at the secret Cheney energy summit? They've gone to some crazy lengths to surpress that information.
uuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
HOT TRENDS TO WATCH IN 2002:
Some could sizzle, others could fizzle. We'll revisit these calls a year from now to see how they panned out.
Blogging: From Jim Romenesko's MediaNews to Hylton Jolliffe's Corante, blogging is all the rage these days. (Ed's note: A blog is a Web log providing commentary and linked pointers to other sites) . Blogging has grown in popularity because they are simple to maintain and cheap to produce. Some cover niche topics with quick blurbs of news with links to other sites while others are wide-ranging, covering every conceivable topic. In 2002, we believe corporate America will fully introduce itself to blogging, creating a profitable side industry. The New York Times sold out ad inventory for its DealBook e-mail blog launch and there are indications other publishing giants will follow suit. The concept of blogging as a viable business is still an experiment. But, in 2002, the sheer popularity will make it a hot trend.
dsl connection established! (so far only on my computer - movin' on to wheel's next.) speedy quick. i like it. have not yet figured out the router setup that jim says is the way to go - which will allow us to wirelessly connect from the garden and around the house. baby steps. going to go find some big files to download.
coming down the mountain
the Chuck Zito experience
Doc Searls points to this Terry Jones (Monty Python) article in the Telegraph which gets right to the heart of the problem with our present "war on terrorism" which, as far as I can tell, is not actually a "war" nor particularly on "terrorism."
WHAT really alarms me about President Bush's "war on terrorism" is the grammar. How do you wage war on an abstract noun? It's rather like bombing murder.It's about time for the comedians to take some whacks at this thing (although Jones' article is quite serious.)
its a happy new year, no bombs were set off, we can try to live life w/o fear, but it just dawned on me that two of my super hero's died last year, kesey and lilly....
Residents of Lindhurst and Jersey City have been advised to boil their tap water for 3 mins. due to a sewer break.