Monthly Archives: June 2011

Nassim Nicholas Taleb & the Black Swan

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A book by Taleb, THE BLACK SWAN, sounds interesting and definitely thought (if not angst) provoking.

A few excerpts:

The Black Swan: Quotes & Warnings that the Imbeciles Chose to Ignore

Nassim Nicholas Taleb: The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable (April 2007)

For the last 12 years, I have been telling anyone who would listen to me that we are taking huge risks and massive exposure to rare events. I isolated some areas in which people make bogus claims –epistemologically unsound. The Black Swan is a philosophy book (epistemology, philosophy of history & philosophy of science), but I used banks as a particularly worrisome case of epistemic arrogance –and the use of “science” to measure the risk of rare events, making society dependent on very spurious measurements. To me a banking crisis –worse than what we have ever seen — was unavoidable and NOT A BLACK SWAN, just as a drunk and incompetent pilot would eventually crash the plane. And I kept receiving insults for 12 years!

Quotes From the Black Swan (written b. 2003-2006) that the IMBECILES did not want to hear

to read the quotes, go to:    http://www.fooledbyrandomness.com/imbeciles.htm

 

 

Wheat Crops Threatened by Fungus

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Years of work loom to save world wheat from fungus

Posted 2011/06/09 at 8:07 pm EDT

WASHINGTON, June 9, 2011 (Reuters) — A devastating wheat fungus is active in 11 countries in Africa and the Middle East, according to scientists striving to develop resistant varieties before the fungus can attack fields around the globe.

A farmer drives a combine to harvest wheat in Zouping county, Shandong province, May 30, 2011. REUTERS/China Daily

Up to 90 percent of the world’s wheat is susceptible to the strain of stem rust, called Ug99, first detected in Uganda in 1999. The oval, brick-red lesions of stem rust sap wheat plants and cut yields by 50 to 70 percent over wide areas and can destroy entire fields

to read more, go to:    http://www.newsdaily.com/stories/tre759011-us-wheat-fungus/

Wallow Fire Spreads to New Mexico

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Wallow Fire: Firefighters Brace for Winds as Fire Crosses Into New Mexico

PHOTO: Huge AZ Wildfire Spreads, Health Conditions Worsen

Arizona Wildfire 2011
AUTO START: ON | OFF

 

June 11, 2011

 

Firefighters are bracing for high winds today as they continue to battle anArizona wildfire that has spread over more than 600 square miles as it crossed the border into New Mexico, authorities said.

The Wallow Fire in eastern Arizona is still keeping nearly 10,000 people out of their homes. The blaze started late last month and is 6 percent contained.

to read more, go to:    http://abcnews.go.com/US/wallow-fire-firefighters-brace-winds-fire-crosses-mexico/story?id=13819115

Snow in Namibia Desert

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Snow falls in the desert of Namibia, Africa this week

Published on June 9, 2011 11:20 pm PT
– By Kevin Martin – Senior Meteorologist
– Article Editor and Approved – Warren Miller


TheWeatherSpace.com) — I wouldn’t believe it if I didn’t see it, snow has fallen in the African Desert of Namibia.
While snow in Namibia is not unheard of, it is a rare event. It snows on average in Namibia every 10 years.

It appears that the air mass over Central Namibia was cold enough to put the temperatures into the 30s. This combined with the drier low levels of the desert can cause snow to fall to the desert floor.

to read more, go to:    http://www.theweatherspace.com/news/TWS-06_10_2011_namibiasnow.html

 

Creation and Thinking

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Can Thoughts Make Things Happen?

Posted: 06/10/11 09:01 AM ET
by Peter Baksa, Author – The Point of Power

As a pragmatic truth-seeking philosopher, I was very skeptical when I first encountered the Law of Attraction (LOA). Many things I’ve seen really stretch my credulity. But the more I think about it, the more I see nuggets underneath the hype that make sense to me, if reformulated a bit. While I wouldn’t go so far as to say the Buddha was a Law of Attraction proponent, I do think there is some common ground to be found between the two.

We create our world through our thoughts. Max Plank, Albert Einstein, Steven Hawking all seem to agree that the universe/god is actually a set of laws and principles that we can count on to create our world. Steven Hawking and Richard Feynman both speak in terms of M Theory and String Theory to further postulate how thoughts become matter. Our minds are essentially idea machines that refine our thoughts into electrical impulses which communicate with the same source energy that creates everything from nothing.

To read more, check out:   http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-baksa/law-of-attraction_b_873666.html

 

Food Pyramids fr/Around the World

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10 Food Pyramids From Around The World

Posted: 06/10/11 10:20 AM ET
by Food Republic
foodrepublic.com

The US Food Pyramid may be dead, but many countries around the world still look to the pyramid to convey nutritional advice for its citizens. Americans now can get used to the new MyPlate design — which is similar to Spain, Australia and Britain’s, by the way — but in China, Poland, and elsewhere, we’ve found some creativity.

We also found a lot of similarities between the ways countries tell their citizens to eat — and some differences. While most of the guidelines propose a similar ratio of proteins, grains, fruits, vegetables, and dairy to the U.S.’s MyPlate, some contain regionally specific advice. It is clear that dietary images worldwide struggle to strike a balance between comprehensive but chaotic information (see Germany’s 3D pyramid) and simple design with few specifics (see Hungary’s house).

To read more and see some of these other Food Pyramids, go to:   http://www.huffingtonpost.com/food-republic/food-pyramids-around-the-world_b_874409.html#s288487&title=UKs_Eatwell_Plate

 

TWS Warns of New Hacker

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New form of hacker surfaces, Websites are being taken for ransom

Published on June 9, 2011 10:55 pm PT
– By Jim Duran – Writer
– Article Editor and Approved – Warren Miller

(TheWeatherSpace.com) — An Indonesian hacker was responsible for the downtime of TheWeatherSpace.com, and TWS is warning all on the Internet about this.

The Website, Social Network Passwords, and E-mail accounts were held ransom on Thursday. These accounts were accessed through a GMAIL account setup to control some of the activities. They have been switched from that account to secure server accounts.

No files were accessed on the Website control panel. The hack was done by changing GoDaddy.com nameserver destinations and GoDaddy has secured it so no Website information was taken.

to read more go to  :http://theweatherspace.com/news/TWS-06_10_2011_hacked.html