Tuesday, December 30, 2014

... Fritter and Waste the Hours in An Offhand Way ... .

Media Image
Far from me to cite Roger Waters or whoever came up with the by - line here :  Russia is angry about finances, its leaders are angry at these things including at their oil prices and how that affects national policy in Eastern Euroe, and Tom Petrie has gone on the air telling everyone the petrol - behemoth Saudis have different aims than just minting cash with what they produce in announcing policy changes themselves today that don't really work out for Moscow right now but for others; somehow this has to affect the Russians who even under communism just did / do things for moneys as much as possible, almost strictly under the circumstances.  Their getting into a currency value peeing contest with other currencies that compete for value in every way, not to mention newer and newer ways every day, and on the part of the Russian leadership who's really upset, again, about oil prices, again, and that their "monopolistic" policies however well - oiled domestically that are not marching on in the overall oil markets gives cause to their seemingly angrier and angrier moods.  What to do?  The Russian leadership undoubtedly has a solution to this and this included in their open market actions during the last week, though this prolongs the peeing contest and constitutes an appeal to all for mercy on the ruble that might not appeal itself to much more than former soviet satellites and political clients for the time being.  You have to love the drama of this.  What is the market bid price of a ruble today, by the way?

Sunday, December 28, 2014

With the Cacaphony of Health News Lately -- Remember!


Media Image
In the Spirit of Christiaan Barnard. 

From one and only one thorough reading of Dr. Barnard’s last book as published in 2001, it does appear that there is credence of sorts to current admonitions about different health issues and his medical purview which was the human heart during the time he was alive.  It does appear by many measures, starting with transgenerational mass media like the “Beatles” (and their analogs) and the effects all their lives had on all our hearts, to more specific and individualized traits that each of us has, and Christiaan Barnard, in any review of his notes, saw not the catastrophe of human foibles leading to health issues, but the potentialities of taking the bad with the good, and hopefully for the good to prevail, especially concerning things like habit – forming substances and various behaviours around these and their derivatives that could be changed and then one’s individual health re – acquired.  One example of this is about smoking, in which Barnard chides the reader not about inundating oneself in tobacco and smoke, but suggests a number of time – honored palliatives and old – wives cures before suggesting seriously that one just “stop”. 

It might have been one of Barnard’s great and highly valuable observations that much around the health condition of any individual has to do directly with conditioning of various sorts that is really beyond the ordinary powers of the regular person to determine and to resolve apart from what one has the time to glean through the media itself, regular channels and the like.  In fact, the human health condition, and especially on the atomized individual level, is so complex and complicated that all Barnard could hope to do in attempting to reach most people would obviously be suggesting not actual medicines, drugs, compounds and so forth, but rules for personal use and behavior that honored the ethics of Aesclepius in helping his audience in their various health foibles and presumably poor habits with suggestions, if not strong ones at times, for changes or re – enforcing different behaviors,  it is possible the condition therefore of the health of each of us is not a closed system of inputs and outputs, processing of things and other predetermined processes, but a state of affairs that for each of us largely depends upon our habits and resolve to keep up the good ones and dispense with the bad. 

This calls for some moral and other uses of human judgment, other reasons for which Barnard finally published a book for the masses and health issues that takes from many, humanistic disciplines, and addresses human health issues, many of them apart from ordinary genetic and
Media Image
other pre – dispositions, actually from a “game changer” standpoint where if one has the resolve, one is always in a position not necessarily of direct choice but of volition about health issues and resolving them to ameliorate one’s state or condition before one’s physician or nurse practitioner.  It is a real leap to suggest that many, many health issues are resolved not by medicine itself, but by preventive behaviours, but this is apparently in fact what Barnard held as true in his 2001 text without going into it all.  Many even simple diseases or symptoms, while we are led down a garden path by things sometimes including not paying attention to symptoms, when they are telltale do warrant a medical visit and then simple changes in habit and behavior.  Eating ones vegetables is one such “game changing” factor, both literally and metaphorically as far as un – tidy behaviors are concerned, and for each of us as individuals, of which the following obvious examples :  Drinking and drugging, smoking, self – imposed stress (taking on too much at hand) or pressure and its derivative, anger in all its forms; eating fatty foods; negative or destructive preoccupations or thinking, often as engendered by mass media; trying to do too much with too little time; avoiding the chance to relax and the peaceful, bucolic interludes we all need in place of jerky and other activities of industrial – strength noise and chaos that one makes the norm for cheap thrills sometimes; avoiding exercise and so on.  With the New Year just around the corner, is this not something to take to heart or keep in mind?  Before doing anything about this, take a good look at oneself and remember that along with seeming choices there is strength of resolve and its power is in our ability to choose, yes, but to stick with things.  Great! 

Saturday, December 20, 2014

More Discussion about Cybersecurity.

It is possible and probable that snooping, phishing, spoofing, and other forms of hacking will just become more de rigueur since this major hacking, again, of the giant SONY's computing / data facilities and some other observations that have made their way into the public eye, even more so now than before :  That people do these things as there is no virtue in them really, save for instance for oversight and rule - making and enforcing purposes, when they have the ability and time available (for everyone in fact) to proceed in these activities, sometimes for the purposes of one's own amusement.  How could this be -- breaking and entering a house might now be the same as simply "hacking" another's computer.  Why?  The house in question, and it might be your house, is so full of computing appliances, controls and other devices that change your living environment and then that report to a data center, for example, that almost everybody's home is a danger point if one worries about controlling access to data on any level. 

Certainly security, and internet and computer security are important for everyone including especially property owners; and even including those who rent their homes, workplaces, vehicles and so on.  What is the to - do really if data and information products, and the information in them is properly designed and used in this information commons that we all have as part of the totality of the internet?  There should not be, save for the internet has become a haven for things that are not just simple and innocent M2M electronics and communication :  This internet of things is a place of the drudgery of proper computer operations, applications and systems; and data gathering and storage - typical technological scope here, though also, and in greater part, the "Internet of Things" is a place of electronic hazard, chaos and even mayhem that causes in many ways corporations and society to be shaken badly when things are not and do not go right.  The SONY hacking situation is one such
annoying and disconcerting example of this sort of thing and the thing that has people angered is the actual hackers will never be caught and they use rogue situations and computing power to allow for such things, very negative and destructive in the least.  The disconcerting and unsettling, angry thing about this is it's more and more frequent, and occasionally a large - scale business is affected by this sort of thing and the silent alarms connected to the internet of things call out and officials and the like just scratch their heads, waiting for IDS reports and the like, probably.  The process of countermanding such things is prohibitive as we are all still learning about this type of technology and its use and only "experts" really understand the accents and inflections of the science of computer intrusion and hacking and they pay themselves pretty well by the various events same create and cause havoc and annoyance with under the circumstances. 

There is currently some discussion among the leaders in the IS community about changing the structure and infrastructure of telecommunications and wired and wireless technology that makes it so easy for some individual or individuals to wreak havoc on everyone, essentially first as a scare tactic and then to really hold us all hostage, perhaps through some integration of hacking efforts to utilities and other activities, in the end in scandals and crimes that will corrupt even best efforts to use the web properly and in the way free people want it to work.  Something must be done with how computers and machines and the like communicate and talk to each other -- and without suggesting an overall change that might make everyone angry due primarily to the work involved and the expenses as well :  Hacking defenses can be built in to devices and so forth that are telltale of where the attacks are from and that these details are not made available to more people is additionally disconcerting and in some respects a public safety issue as much as when some party in the old days would use the neighbors' telephone to gab about you and your long vacation and so on.  Remember as well the ERM and smaller risk frameworks we are all in that have us calculating chances of adverse events upon leaving for work each day, or even stepping out of doors when it's misty or foggy, or in warmer weather even.  The effects of the recent hack on SONY are over - burdensome psychologically and without a doubt due to this have destroyed at least a few private executives, the individuals on their coattails, their overseers, and other stakeholders such as those charged with a watchful eye to such things and their oversight and the way they activate their defenses to protect first a business and then all of us from the annoyance of lost, corrupted, stolen, deleted and destroyed data and so on.  We now need among corporate America and its regulators and other stakeholders concerning these sorts of things, a kind of computing "Elvis", or "Spiderman", or similar iconic ideal and deterrent that will just tell the offenders to cram it systemically then next time anyone tries such a thing.  In you all our hopes rest, what with all the education and other activities that will lead to this, again, ideal out there and the feasibility of it.  By this column and its writing to - day, I do solemnly and solely at first, and without dismissing the kind of objectivism that might be necessary here, propose these fighting words against hackers and their ilk.  "Okay"? 

Chairman Camp's Tax Reform Plan and its Impact on the Economy

Chairman Camp's Tax Reform Plan and its Impact on the Economy



As might have been discussed more, publicly and privately, in the event David Camp (R - Michigan) stayed in Congress.  A good read in view of the apparent coming revisions by the U.S. conservative party.  Great!

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

A Dismal Showing for Defense in the Day; and Really Disaster (Pouf!) for the Agressor in the End.

While the author here has tried for two or so days to capture, in fact after having been to Hawai'i, the spirit of the destructive effects and remembrance thereof of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Oahu on December 7, 1941, I cannot, really.  As a person from the U.S. and having been to that place, on most days a wonderful place, sunny and with highlights for sightseers and tourists these days, the harbor itself does not appear to have changed much even from pre - War days, much less from when air traffic started over to Honolulu in earnest and then in other places in Hawai'i.  Links of very passable editorials appear below, of which from an edition of a U.S. national paper.  Every American should salute at the thought of it, and that it appears apart from some military personnel and their families in years like 2014 and a camaraderie from some tourists, the portrayal of the Arizona Memorial and others on December 7 might have been one of wanting to relegate the overall importance of what happened there versus stirring the heart and mind against the power of rapacious tyranny of the time.  Our military defenses have been fighting two wars for more than a decade, extremely expensive in both monetary and psychological / emotional currencies and other intangibles.  This needs make us remember the meaning of what aggression and destruction there was at Pearl Harbor so long ago and the sacrifices of the War in the Pacific that ended the threat of the Axis powers at the time.  This
Media Image
perhaps means more today than ever as the comparisons of the ranting of the despots and capital criminals of the day who ran countries and who went to defeat are no legend, nor are they fairy tales, nor anyone's fantasy about how to or the way to win at conflicts.  There are things today that have not been resolved and that will never be, even as the result of the very peaceable resolution to Japanese surrender aboard the Missouri; and as much is in every story and every even detailed mosaic one assembles about WWII and the Pacific and Axis belligerents.  One cannot deny the unbiased pride of those who fought for peace -- as much should be accorded them in looking at the subject of Pearl Harbor and its analogs.  It is regrettable that brother and friend were pitched against brother and friend, and families clashed over alliances and ideologies not to mention international borders and then on battlegrounds, land, sea and air.  As much a symbol of this is in that fateful (at one time) harbor for those interested and motivated enough to go and visit now, and even more through the years, and at present for the dissuasion of others against despotic tyranny, militarism, and bloody clashes wherever they are in the vein of military aggression and destruction at the whim of fascists who would have "empire". 

NY Times articles -- "Unsung Heroes", Pearl Harbor movie - 2014, news coverage, Pearl Harbor remembrance 2014.

Coverage of Arizona Memorial Ceremony - December 7, 2014.

Saturday, November 29, 2014

Yes, While Finally Learning “Eckho Movskii” Is Just Radio -- "Hard Choices", A Memoir by Hillary Rodham Clinton.


Hard Choices, H. R. Clinton (2014, Simon and Schuster) in more than 600 pages including the index of the book, covers much of the foreign policy of the Obama administration, enough in its narrative and illustration to crowd out some of the past the former Secretary’s famed career at Yale and thereafter, and some other things she might speak of in another book someday.  This political book, by a well – known U.S. official is for everyone interested in finding out how an efficient and effective U.S. State Department is run based upon Obama policies and the efforts of very capable people starting at the top.  The text examines a number of evident themes in current events today, including the status and development of the Third World as some know it, the role of government in fighting corporatism without being anti – business, the continued important of the “smart power” of the U.S. State Department in a radical if not ever – changing political landscape, and its functioning in a major way in a world where America is not overly – liked nor overly – admired.  The narrative also examines the themes of being a major executive person and a lady at that, and 
Media Image
handling personal and professional matters many times with disagreeable (essentially) despots, family and personal life, overall career goals and the way modern politics has a capacity to change not the DNA of our system, but at least somewhat the role politics and policy play everywhere for the U.S., not just at home.  Choices themselves, be they on the executive level or deeply personal, above all do not make themselves and in many cases and despite the urgency and imperatives of modern life at the head of the masses, require a decisive and sharp administrative intellect for anyone and in all events given the importance of the issues presented in the book, extremely weighty and difficult in all their factors and facets, implications and meanings, motivations and ideological and more foundations.

After an introduction, the author briefly explains the overall importance of her 2008 presidential campaign for everyone, not just for the status of achieving people everywhere or as precedent for things to come, or in examining various protocols or other details one might remember.  Maybe the most difficult job the author of this esteemed autobiography had at the time, even before her State Department appointment was the tearless and joyless concession to the man who became the 44th U.S. president.  Thereafter, another gut – wrenching challenge had to be met on whether or not the author would serve as the 67th U.S. Secretary of State (2009 – 2013) in an administration having many people contributing to the Clinton 2008 primary election defeats.  The text also speaks of Secretary Clinton’s reliance on the expertise of Richard Holbrooke (d. 2010), Robert Gates, Senator George Mitchell and others for expertise and good counsel, taking the edge off things some etimes and other times adding what luck was possible under the circumstances.  The text goes into detail and explains in cogent language the two major foreign policies of the Obama administration affecting the U.S. internationally at this point outside the Western hemisphere and apart from Europe – the “pivot” with respect to P.R.C. and the Asian continent in general and the “reset” in politics and policy with the Russian Federation that calls for an avoidance of clashes, starting with public language, of the defenses of both U.S. and Russia.  The text does not offer any significant narrative on why the Russian Federation’s leadership does not like the “reset”, though this might be because this would fill an entire volume given it calls upon the responsibilities of the Russians internationally, something that might be difficult to accept for the brusque and brazen image they portray to all.  Part V of the text is a heart rending and complicated narrative pursuit of recalling and examining policies toward Africa, the Middle East and the arab spring especially in Egypt and Libya.  The book also has a number of photos that are greatly captivating of which the very photogenic Clinton family; and associates and friends.  There are sections on the recent polices concerning Iran and Syria, though there does not appear to be in the text an overriding attention to the seemingly independent and divisive ground or grass roots politics and policy in these countries against Israel, and even against the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.  The book ends in Part VI and an epilogue that are less labor – intensive in their reading compared to Part V that at its worst illustrates the paradoxes and grand ironies of the areas of concern.  The final chapters of the narrative examine resolvable and consensus issues like world climate change and energy and how this is linked to jobs, productivity and full employment (all this without proposing an economics growth model.)  Other final topics include policy toward Haiti and its recent earthquake, human rights especially in Eastern Europe and P.R.C. and other places as well including Southeast Asia.  There is even a very readable chapter on diplomacy in the age of (information) technology.  Overall a very informative read on current events, extremely well – written and a page – turner at the same time.  How’d she do it? 

Friday, November 28, 2014

An Exercise in the Painful for PRC Authorities and Worse in Its Penalties Than "Graphite".


Media Photo
IMAGES HERE, AND OTHER CONTENT -- BETTER THAN I COULD PRODUCE AND COMMENT ON MYSELF :  EDITORIALS, ETC., TODAY ARE THOSE OF OTHERS.




The Height of Paranoia :  Chinese Leadership and More Hong Kong Arrests (not for doing this at home).

 From the Internet Today (November 28, 2014):  News about Hong Kong Protests November

bing.com/news


Market Watch · 1 day ago

... baton as he confronts pro-democracy protesters at Mongkok shopping district in Hong Kong November 26,2014. HONG KONG—Police cleared the most volatile… -- Making Sense Of Hong Kong Pro-Democracy Protests – Analysis




 

A Word from blogger Professor Alvin Rabushka (click here) … .
 
 
Media Photo
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Media Photo
 

Friday, November 21, 2014

Something I do not get (current consensus on U.S. Immigration Policy).

After hearing the speech by the U.S. president yesterday, it is important for people like me, for example, to not be so concerned as to "blow a gasket" as a good friend and attorney mentions when things like this come up for people.  Now that the U.S. immigration issues along with its customs and homeland security bureau issues have really come of age, probably more for kids than for adults given the rights of newborn of foreign parents, for example, within the borders of the U.S. right now, or what the president wants to make them, there is a difficulty staring us all down, and that is a full - fledge immigration issues crisis.  This might be brought upon the country by, again, more and more so - called immigrants arriving in jet flights to places like Seattle and Los Angeles, or Atlanta, New York, or any major coastal area airport and then mainly just sitting - in at the air facilities either waiting for transport to a new assumed domicile or waiting for other things such as detention by U.S. immigration authorities -- distasteful and insufferable for some, but for others a no - brainer solution to their own issues as immigrants everywhere.  These sorts of shenanigans are unavoidable given the talk as broadcast yesterday as well as the oft - spoken phrase of responsible parties under the circumstances at times :  "It would happen anyway", and its variants.  What happened to the sage proverbs and courage, fortitude and morale fibre concerning the destruction of the world and related political self - destruction of some of its peoples and the U.S. "It didn't happen here" in the spoken words of our leaders who had, in days not so far in the past, guaranteed a safe homeland that discouraged hooligans and the acting out of various groups and individuals who from the get - go with feet in the airframe bound for the U.S. already demand entitlements in intractable ways included the cursing out of those of us who've lived here long enough to know not to curse and swear at others, not as a moral or ethical rule primarily, but that it smacks of the wholly irrational and unreasonable and is by far and away alienating for the literate and educated among the many honest and forthright,
Media Image
common - sense people who abound here to begin with.  Why, given the complications of the world at this point, be in the business of canning that and selling it to those who might scrape together half and loan the other half of the cost for it, if that; and of course there will always be some who can loan the entire cost of anything and same will have to loan moneys to complete the angry tasks of learning and internalizing American ways. 

In the law, and I mention this as a person who is not a jurist, there are some things that allow for various interpretations of statute including various semantic devices the U.S. president as a law professor and his colleagues and associates, themselves as jurists and well - educated legal people who have been honorably placed at their posts through elections and appointment confirmations, ... , are familiar with and are apparently using to avoid the immigration crucible that more than ever will impact American homes in the future, and everyone's.  The sort of crucible the U.S. presidential policies right now in a simple way are attempting to avoid will cheapen the U.S. / American commonweal and will give cause for those informed and provoking such a thing to question, even from the great heights of their proud towers, the value of life itself, and not just for the unborn, but for babies all the way up through the stages of growth and maturity to adults and the elderly.  The U.S. presidential policies have seen such a crisis looming since the idea of the war on terror began, even the idea of population control under Roe vs. Wade presented themselves in private and scientific journals our current leaders now read:  That was a long time ago, mind you.  Our democratic leadership attempts to address, and somewhat successfully to date, the macabre and sinister, creepy issues of immigration as they unfold in the modern world to hold the "door open" for at least a while until the commonweal is satisfied for a while with current status quo and ratings are up, and then in all appearances the door is slammed shut with those hairy consequences as well.  This simple politic has to stop as practiced by the current administration and that of most of the 1990's insofar as our people are motivated one way or the other to face a very complicated immigration problem set and to decide upon necessary restrictions, and not the uncalled for "mass" changes and psychology, very weighty might I add here, this features today.  How can this be done?  It can be done as simply and creatively as the writing of policies that keep people cramming into airframes in flights to La Guardia, etc., and other major air hubs:  Restrict air traffic and access to exit visas, and if one starts on this today, the airline industry will suffer to cancel eventually a few flights only, and overall profitability will ne'er really have been affected compared to the consequences of flying those initial one - way tickets and those of other immigration schemes.  The exit visa issues require cross - border agreements and U.S. monitoring, undoubtedly, and this might initially cause more gridlock in the capitol, but our representatives and the like, and the U.S. chief executive, stand to realize eventually the immigration problem we currently have is systemic and can be solved systemically.  What is applicable to air traffic and immigration might also and simply find application to ocean and land traffic, including foot traffic as well for illegals and those in immigration, too.  With this kind of "blanket" and systemic solving of what one knows to be the actual societal feature in the U.S. as a country to which one is able to immigrate easily, one can completely avoid, not postpone but completely avoid the massed gatherings and foreign movements, the terrorist movement as an undercurrent here, that are the curse of our current system of immigration in America; and that incidentally have many prospective immigrants in their football stadium gatherings calling for our deaths and for a supplanting of American society and its future with one envisioned, i.e., by the Marxists of old (as reformed by the end of the cold war, yet sadly still Marxist), some Islamo - political deity, or other power lacking a real constitution and the like -- all sad and sorrowful avenues, yet ones people outside our "village" wish for right now.  There are indeed others, and legitimate people, who make immigration attempts to enter U.S. territories, and honestly, besides terrorists and hooligans, criminals and destructive radicals; and the thing is to find them in the immigration crowd and allow their petitions, and to discourage the destructive, criminal types from trafficking our borders.  To wit, given the issues here around exit visas and the like, there is trafficking in counterfeit travel documents and seals, etc., everywhere:  The thing to do about that is to centralize exit visa activities not in some bureau in town, but to center them at air facilities, especially for those with one way or open ended tickets.  There are analog processes and rules for the same practices and other transport channels.  How about an executive order along these lines, and one that when well thought out and composed might trump the impending crisis, and one that is earmarked and predictable for "sooner or later".

Sunday, November 9, 2014

An Excellent Portrayal of "No Happy Reward" (If This Review Is Not Innovative and Original, I Apologize).


THE INNOVATORS, by Walter Isaacson (2014, Simon & Schuster)



Media Image


INFORMALLY: Though this text is an excellent one and one that makes the attempt, it is impossible to capture the spirit of what one might call the character and genius (read geniuses) of what has come to be known as Silicon Valley, CA. There is an entire set of circumstances and confluence of events and other factors that led, and has and had led to every single inch of technological discovery over the years, and in reading this valuable book one gathers the sense of this and the criticality and indeed the overall gravity and seriousness of modern consumer and other technological discovery and implementation. All this despite the apparent clowning and colorful carrying on (read again, irreverence) of different personalities at various places including at Apple, Pixar, ORACLE and others. Walter Isaacson, in this well – prepared and researched text does make an outstanding effort to capture in a comprehensible image, with all the implications of that, the history of the different figures that are memorable and worth commemorating about the place.



Though there are literally dozens upon dozens of people who contributed to what the author of this text proposes as a chain or cascading and crowding of brilliant people oriented toward technological innovation and invention, themselves, their families, their honorable associates, and their extended families and friends, all sometimes even inching their way through things, individually or in groups, or making leaps and bounds as has been done over the years with IC's and the like, each of the major people one might propose by this narrative has been and is simply larger than life and in all evidence and obviously of greater mind and spirit, sometimes than is imaginable by the line and rank and file. For some this book is like a who's who or even a dogged and informative summary only of what could have started out as a ten thousand – page text. For others, the story is simple enough and captures the tone and aura of the place or places that are Silicon Valley, indeed quite nicely, and as yet leaving much of the technical and complicated jargon, the acronyms, even the buzz words of the day out of the writing in order to adequately portray these uncommon and very capable business and technology leaders as they need to appear. Despite the dozens and dozens of people mentioned here, all noteworthy, and not just the prize – winners, the following really stand out for the time being, and you might beg to differ, of which comments and other words invited: Hopper, von Neumann, Terman, Shockley, the Intel founders, the ARPA and related projects, the Hayes modem, the Apple Company, Inc., founders; the Microsoft founders and their team(s,) and many, many others, and certainly including those over the years who have notably left the door open to all whereas in such places often the connotation of such things is the exit door remains always open as derivative of this in most cases.


Media Image


Isaacson gives very adequate and detailed explanations and narratives, again, of how the innovators here recall their work and the cut – and – try methods and processes used in addition to the breakthroughs of equal, or lesser import that included not only variations and improvements to technologies but to the cost structure of delivering these at a reasonable price to business and consumer end – users. In the end, and even for most people who know of and who have read this text, there might be one or two, maybe more, businesses that stand out as excellent in the technology hotbed itself, and for me this is companies like Varian, VersaTec, Cray, and then Pixar Studios, even ORACLE and Lockheed as well among the all in all. An excellent read even for the "just curious", and worth the price in time and place of reading to any level of detail. Great!

Saturday, November 8, 2014

Blog mini - entry : Progress of Hong Kong Protests -- Mid - November 2014.

Select coverage (please read):

Yahoo! News - recent.

Article and another article from Guardian, U.K.

Recently from C.N.N. -- and more from C.N.N.

See here!  People of our mind subject to insidious ignominy of their authorities now day and night (pictures below).


Media Image




Media Image
 
 

Armistice Day -- Again, Not Far Away (Far from Me).

Media Image
Media Image


New York Times Article - previous.
Wall Street Journal Article.
World War I - imagery in stills.
FlandersHouse - New York.
Recent blog entry - ... .
 

Berlin, 2014.

Twenty - five years ago, almost to this day, the Berlin Wall as constructed in the early 1960's and fortified many times thereafter was rendered moot as symbol of soviet / Marxist dominion in Western Europe and dismantled, though not overnight:  As a finality that rings in the ears of every soviet person attentive in the day, sections of the wall were taken down and taken away by people with ordinary sledgehammers, jackhammers, and then with cranes and other machines to clear the way for the 40,000 or so refugees from the east that would come over to West Germany in the first month after the wall fell, and then more after that.  The initial responses of the East German authorities at the time first to the burgeoning demonstrations and then to the dismantling of that physical barrier between East and West are well documented and most people by now have seen at least some of them on the television and heard of the great big party at the dismantling of the Berlin Wall was at the time.  Today, and chiefly the area of the Potsdamer Platz, Checkpoint Charlie and associated bridge and other places so dramatically portrayed in the media in the past are simply memories that are kept in small museums at different points along the former path of the wall.  On this day, as one awaits the official anniversary of the dismantling of the wall, in Berlin, the former location of the wall and its path through that town is marked by approximately seven thousand lit balloons that will be released upward into the sky upon official commemoration.

The monetary costs of re - unification, unforeseeably, have been quite high and many parts of East
Germany, especially in Saxony and Thuringia, are permanently economically depressed and no rent can even be made from the land there, apparently.  The burden however, of the challenges that capitalism and freedom suggest and then propose to society, as promised originally in the regimes of Bush, Helmut Kohl, and Gorbachev, have allowed for a brighter future for Central Europe as it is now less of a political pawn to the soviets as then constantly uprooted and even poisoned, and allowed as well for Western Europe is a departure of the politics of buffer states and again a greater socio - economic promise for all.  This has not been nor will it be without its issues as the guarantees of free society to all, everywhere, and not just at this point as commemorated in Central Europe, at first incipient in places and then more prominent are not reified without the efforts of all contributing people on every rung of the social ladder.  It is seemingly greatly easier to change the actions of a person with rewarding incentives, and as is the case with Berlin, much more difficult and as has been done here, to change the mindset of centralizing and enriching the paternalistic state, for one, into an attitude of one and all as to the greater potentialities presented by definition in the economic activity of capital and the overall benefits of this to everyone; even to those on the coattails of those who originally allowed for and then have made possible the Berlin of today. 

New York Times Article - November 7, 2014.
One Berlin Refugee Center.
One Berlin Wall commemorative museum.
 

Saturday, October 25, 2014

Smoke A Little Dope? -- Say WHAT? -- The Recipe of Bolsheviks of Old.

AS LONG AS SOMEONE HAS MENTIONED (IN CALIFORNIA) “LEARN TO SMOKE A
Media Image
LITTLE DOPE”, …  (look at these characters).


With the winding down of the wars as formerly prosecuted in the Middle East (principally in Afghanistan and Iraq), presumably as well the so – called “war on drugs” is being relaxed for the time being and thus a principal conflict as carried on by the U.S. Military and somewhat by coalition partners for more than thirteen years so far, and to every pessimist and naysayer, seems to have been without the kind of social and economic utility that one expects from traditional “boots on the ground” - type warfare since even the time of Clausewicz. It is important to note the current military and paramilitary conflicts in Northern Iraq and Syria, again involving tribal warfare and that of warlords, probably will not taper off for a while, whether or not the US continues or avows the causes of people like the Kurds and so forth. Since some time ago, and even before the Iran / Iraq war of some time ago, the Kurds were fighting the occupiers of their territories, presumably Kurdistan, and those occupiers were the same groups now involved in the strife in that area again. The Kurds are a minority in a Northern Middle East territory that were a bother and therefore marked for extinction by neighbors, of which the Iraqi Hussein regime during the late 1970's and early to mid – 1980's. No one wants to remember the essentially peaceful Kurds having to take up arms to defend their homes against invaders and / or flee their homeland by way of any means possible, including by the airlines to parts unknown where they assimilated and disappeared into crowded populaces, as did the culture of Kurdistan they carried with them, and most of home was forgotten by those refugees who actually managed to escape the forces invading at home. The attitude of the invaders and the Syrians, etc., opposing the Kurds and rebels in those areas to – day is they are good for nothing and need make way for the “postmodern” and hegelian (even those who read Engels) everyman from the delineated areas and their corresponding military forces, many of whom worship the former soviet military model and some of its views and practices still pervasive in Russian Federation society at this time still. This includes perhaps an unofficial phalanx of ruling society featuring “urbane” types, a political party structure that imitates immovable royalty and some other things Lenin and Leon Trotsky would be proud of today.


October is a terrific month for conflict, of which the resolution of the sudden chaos and abandon of the Russian Revolution (1917), and that of the very long Chinese Communist Revolution that ended in 1949. It is also the month of the famous Yom Kippur War, the Battle of Trafalgar, the beginning of the Long March of the Chinese Revolution, that of the Battle of Passchendaele, the First Battle of Ypres, and ironically that of the Treaty of Westphalia that ended the Thirty Years War in 1648. The list goes on of notable things without there being a laundry list of disaster after disaster. That the Middle East wars are winding down, as are the legacy of 2000 – 2008 statecraft and the democratic Cold War legacy as former communist states withdraw into themselves as led into it by the Russian leadership, and the tampering as well with the war on drugs are anything but peaceful portents: People just continue to get more and more wound at the prospect of facing opposing leadership as they get older given the Cold War and other conflicts showed the deficiencies of the forgetfulness and continuous renewal of things as represented by the international left, including an elitist permissiveness for things like trafficking of various sorts. That the left today even in the US is preoccupied with curing social ills and socioeconomic inequities, it is perhaps a paradox the left started these sorts of things in their modern form and in concentrating on these issues with public and solicitous private campaigns, it glorifies and highlights these sorts of things that are at best perfidious, lousy intrigue and extremely hazardous, and destructive at their most benign. Comments invited.

Monday, September 29, 2014

Hong Kong, P.R.C.

Presently in Hong Kong, PRC.
Media Photo

Though there have been no recent anniversaries, not of the 1950's Central and Eastern Europe national unrest, nor of the 1968 political and societal protests in places like Czechoslovakia and France, and in the U.S. against the war in Southeast Asia, though maybe of the end of the Tian An Men movement in 1989; the protest in Hong Kong at this point though not covered at length in the Western press, might be as formidable as any of the former ones that espoused and personified in their leadership a greater and greater annoyance with respect to nationalism and politics sponsored frequently within the borders of where the unrest takes or took place. The protests in Hong Kong have been going on since some days ago, and the major U.S. news services might just have picked up the story this morning for the weekend news. For various and sundry technical reasons, many of the citizens of Hong Kong would like to have "the United States of America" as Jim Lehrer so judiciously and artfully mentioned the attitude of the Tian An movement during 1989 at the time on his news hour. Hong Kong has a municipal or civic governance review that is coming up in an election where only CPC / Bei jing - approved candidates will be allowed to submit their candidacy to a vote. The conflict here is the same as the again age - old scuffle between town and country everywhere, or as has been the case in communist regimes, the provinces out of alignment with the Center, and local and national Chinese authorities have futilely demanded for the protesters to disperse, of which no great giving in of the populace at this point. Police have appeared briefly on television spraying protestors presumably with pepper spray while attempting to land a number of same in detention, or while attempting to yank light - gauge steel fencing out of the hands of protesters trying to gain ground.

The cast of characters in the Chinese administration is authoritarian with respect to the protests and hardly comical, and the protesters have leaders like Leung Kwok - hung (a fierce, pro - democracy activist) and Cardinal Joseph Zen (former Catholic bishop of Hong Kong). Leung has approved of the protestors staying in place with the attitude of civil disobedience, and Zen advocates people returning to their normal lives after leaving the scene of the demonstrations, indicating that taking a position adversarial to the Chinese government is futile given the impossibility of dialogue with Chinese leaders. The idea of the protesters is to deaden business activity in town, and thus their positions in the Hong Kong financial district. The protest apparently had been triggered by the format of some elections in town, but cap off some long standing anti - Bei jing sentiment there as well. Hong Kong is a special area of P.R.C. that has kept its character as a Western and fiercely entrepreneurial, free business area since its handover to P.R.C. from UK in 1997. It does appear that young people in the region dislike the loyalties of some in local administration to power - grabbing associated with the Chinese capitol, and the local government right now in town is apparently very unpopular due to this and distrust of the capitol in Hong Kong and other places in China. The protesters, in comprising their "Occupy Central" movement threaten the commerce and business in the financial district of Hong Kong, and have united religious leaders, student and university leaders and high - profile professionals in their efforts. These public personalities have assured at least for the time being that the sit - in will continue and this insisting on restricting business and commercial activities and access to same by the presences of the protestors in centrally located places downtown -- the expectation is this will force Bei jing leaders and local leaders who are on the Bei jing tether to first discuss and then negotiate democratic reform and a continuance of Hong Kong in its productive and businesslike, entrepreneurial ways of old.

There have been rallies against the movement Occupy Central, and not everyone around is in the pitched demonstrations against Bei jing governance and rule - making. The idea as indicated by concerned CPC parties is that Hong Kong will lose its reputation as a safe and tidy, and business - oriented mecca for professional people given the effects, short - and long - term of the demonstrations. Characteristically and officially, the demonstrators are marginalized by government polls that detail not everyone is in favor of keeping Hong Kong as it is, and that many of the people who've read or heard of the protests do not understand the town's special economic and business status before the communist regime. Upon some reading on the subject of possible electoral action and reform by Bei jing and the screening out of pro - reform candidates, the requirements for candidates as fulfilled to stand for election do appear a little cheesy, and some CPC officials blame the US and UK for influencing the opposition demonstrations and protests. The use of physical force by local security agencies and apparently the local army are worrisome and make the situation akin to the Bei jing administration offering the Hong Kong people something they might not, nor should not refuse. Though the Chinese administration has denied that only its own candidates have been approved (strictly speaking) for the ballot contest to come that will elect representatives from town, the process of candidate submissions does appear to follow that particular line, but then one returns to the letter of criteria for the [presumably pro - capitol] candidates who will be appointed to run, and then be nominated in the election. Around and around it goes as the Chinese administration appears to be playing quite a bit of defense in its public relations and maybe even in minimizing media coverage of these very serious and meaningful demonstrations and protests there.

SEARCH PROTEST AND DEMONSTRATION EVENT COVERAGE ON :
A. WWW.CNN.COM

B. WWW.WSJ.COM

C. WWW.REUTERS.COM

D. WWW.USATODAY.COM

Sunday, September 21, 2014

No Need to Really Read This Entry - Ther're Plenty of Them Out There ... .

Recently, and because I have seen more and more people in robes and so forth, even Caucasian and
Media Image
more Western people, I picked up a book on Buddhism that happened to be about the austere and strict form of that religious practice, read "Southern" Buddhism, versus the more popular "Mahanayan" faith that's in places that really interest more people about it and so forth.  Sort of like picking up a missal from the Orthodox Catholic faith when you just want to watch the "700 Club" once in a while on the tube.  The text I picked up in paperback and read through was originally, not the one I own, but in the beginning and in 1896 no less, published as a comprehensive study that probably made its author completely mortal by the date of its publication.  The text is very detailed and talks greatly about the merits, the strict ones, of this massively - scaled and intelligent faith; though it is difficult at times, and the text is in plain English, to distinguish the tone and intentions of the teachings of the "Great Teacher" as he is portrayed.  The closest I really came to Nirvana or any fulfillment with this  text, as in fact such things lead sometimes to a sort of similar resolution to things, if not to a kind of Nirvana itself immediately or eventually, was akin to my once having been in the presence of a famous economist who I know mistook me not for a student of sorts of his, but for a laundry or other delivery person.  The value of such texts is they make one reflect on such events and therefore the tone of the book becomes the more serious and worth contemplation apart from the de - reflective and gross things the "dhamma" can lead to at times, maybe even in a minority of cases.  There are many Buddhists who are extremely achieving and fine people, but for example, I would not really trust the idea of giving one, and this not just because Buddhism is from where it's from, rocket launch codes or nuclear secrets -- Buddhism is not really a faith in which those types of things are appropriately secure.  If you cannot tell this, maybe move somewhere where there are lots of Buddhists, great people that they are.

There are some actually great principles of the Buddhist faith that hearken to an agrarian and earthy existence starting some time ago and that are completely compatible with this yet today in places, and with urban and bustling settings of the metropolis and so forth as well.  I know less and less actually about the desirable things of it now I have read more about the austere, priestly version of the faith and realize that in no way do people join this faith without seriously thoughtful commitment, and one might believe that those born into it are accursed and disadvantaged though they are not.  The richness of mind of many Buddhists, their patience and conservatism in many ways, their dedication to contemplation and prayer beats the islamo - believers in all their own varieties hands and pencils down every time.  Though many will disagree, and this is by all means a provocation to the reader here and one's own construct of the role of such things in their popular interpretation:  I submit to you after having read about him in the Theravada tradition, that the Buddha as we knew him in his various incarnations and personae, and in his current incarnation if I am not wrong as from Dharamsala, India; that Buddha as our friend from the East was not and is not a Christ symbol.  Perhaps the correct solution about what he represents to us, and literally and metaphorically, other than being in the role of a great spiritual leader and Teacher lies in some innovative psychological and philosophical approach to the faith that needs to be new in 2014, or as renewed and re - hashed in 20l4 (let us here choose gestalt or depth psychology as that is safe away from useless, specious and burdensome dialogues and analysis, or even the philosophical approach of deconstructive character without and devoid of spirit:)  The representation of the Buddha today, and with minimal study one might agree, has really very little to do with the symbolism of the Christian New Testament and the life nor the symbolism of the Christ and his followers; and has much more to do with the great following of the ancient Hebrew leader Moses has in the appropriate books of the Christian Old Testament and Old Testaments themselves everywhere.  This fits quite nicely with what I have read heretofore, including the eternal suffering that Buddhism internalizes, the delivery it promises from the conflicts, curses and vagaries of existence, and the promise of tomorrow it has for so many people who lead an existence much like that of the biblical Abraham, or similar individuals as illustrated in the Bible books where Moses appears or is mentioned.  Buddha, dear, comments invited, especially given your lessons on the emphasis of life on compassion and its promise for individual and collective salvation.  Remember as well your extremely powerful symbolism and cultural facets, and the way of the righteous you follow.  Have a great day. 

Thursday, September 11, 2014

Belated book review (again) -- Andrew and Gordievsky, 1990.

Media Photo
Belated Book Review -- text by Andrew and Gordievsky, 1990.

This non - fiction historical / political KGB spy bureau story has to do with the workings of the international espionage and other Cold War games mostly between the bureaus in U.K. and the K.G.B. as based then in Moscow, U.S.S.R. from about the time of the soviet civil war to the 1980's.  The beginning of the text gives a brief summary of security services under the Tsar that their own terror(s), deportations, exiles, and the like.  As the K.G.B., the Tsarist espionage bureaus were oriented to foreign operations and intelligence.  The Tsarist spies at the revolution were followed by the Chekists who, with a utopic vision as their license, worked hard to confiscate property, conduct foreign and domestic spying, resolve the loose ends from the civil war, battle capitalists and their secret services, find wreckers and traitors, etc., and so on.  By the end of 1920, the Chekist Feliks Dzerzhinsky promised the soviet leadership the Cheka was in control of all aspects of life in U.S.S.R., and Cheka in 1922 was subsumed into the GRU that later was incorporated into the Internal Affairs Commission. The GRU became a soviet federal agency with the formation of the soviet union.  The text goes into the various personalities and cast of characters respectfully portrayed therein, but nonetheless in illustrating the dangerous traits of soviet espionage over the years.
Soviet institutions such as the Comintern and others are shown in the book as established to further first Cheka, ... , and then K.G.B. aims.  Western surveillance of these is also discussed, and the crossing as well that went from one side to the other over the years, however infrequently and the resulting political developments.  The Stalin years were portrayed as particularly mortal concerning soviet spy successes, gangsterism, even setbacks with respect to world events and the communist spy heads at the time -- Yagoda, Yezhov, Beria, ... .  Through all this, and possibly and probably into the Khrushchev and Brezhnev times, soviet spying traditionally was done with military goals in mind.
After allowing the reader some formation into soviet spying organizations, the authors proceed to tell how the communists in Eastern Europe on the state level proceeded over time to expand and empower their range and operation locations through administrative penetration and political and other influences.  This included groups assigned to Poland and Eastern Europe, Western European targets, and this in America (Northern and in Latin areas), Africa, South and Southeast Asia, the far East, the island nations, and so on.  As the organizational networks were built and were successful apparently, and continued to grow, more people, departments and directorates were added in Moscow and in the various operational fields.  The text examines many cases of spying activity in which there were clearly soviet successes including from the founding of the K.G.B
through the years of the Great Depression and WWII with the allies, and later against adversaries.  The effectiveness, for example of the soviets in defensive - type spying and in the area of ciphers is illustrated as remarkable given what people were working, and had to work with in the day.  It is important to note the most effective spying by the K.G.B. in its time, domestic and especially abroad had to do with people who were lax with security, whose guard was down, and who frequented Moscow and the other U.S.S.R. capitols. 
After the defeat of the Nazis, the Cold War themes of penetration and influence were used in obtaining things like military and spy / intelligence secrets, of which the apparent and frequent duplication of U.S. and U.K. military and nuclear projects during the 1950's and thereafter.  Destalinization of the U.S.S.R. at the time nor abated nor accelerated this process.  The text goes on to discuss 1956 Hungary, Yugoslavia's Tito, Cuban missile crisis, 1968 Prague, and other soviet policy failures as additional extraordinary cases.  As approaches to Cold War conflict became more and more standardized internationally, soviet spying activity included sponsorship of political / administrative groups and alliances with groups and administrations outside the mainstream and with those having little international administrative participation.  This might be said to be one of the multi - national competencies of the K.G.B. at the time that contrasted with the mishandling of Berlin and Warsaw and appurtenant issues.  The achievements, and the losses acutely as well added to East - West rivalries that began crumbling the U.S.S.R. after its unsuccessful incursion into Afghanistan starting in 1979.  The 1980's including the Gorbachev years are comprised by a laundry list of events, favorable and unfavorable to the K.G.B., that subtracted from its reputation abroad given the winding - up of the Cold War, that in all events had Russian spy jobs at a premium at home.  A long read that depicts soviet adventurism on every page just about, with a good index and summary organizational and other tables.

Monday, September 1, 2014

Another Belated Review: Bio of Robert Oppenheimer (Knopf, 2005)


AMERICAN PROMETHEUS (2005,) by Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin.

This monumental and greatly detailed text about a titan of nuclear science
Media Image
in the day, and as to one whose life was as varied and colorful as that of a scientist could be, whose life again had been a blessing and a curse but that nonetheless fit the bill of anyone who modeled and romanticized popular science; depicts the human side of a once deified public figure who was at once an unassuming scientist and at the same time an extraordinary and political and organizational charmer.  J. R. Oppenheimer was a gifted son of a gifted businessman with strong ties to the old countries of Europe, especially pre – world war Germany.  Though JRO was born in New York and raised in its Upper West Side, his father had emigrated from the Frankfurt area of FRG and his mother’s family was from Maryland.  JRO was raised in New York and shone in the scientific area and in mathematics as a young person.  His parents were able to cultivate his genius by sending him to study at various technical centers including those in U.K. and in Germany on and off again until late in the 1930’s.

Throughout most of JRO’s adult life there were two major themes that included nuclear science and communism.  He and his generation of scientists are responsible for the birth of the nuclear arms race as many of us know it today.  His trials about communism also fulfill our image and how many remember the 1950’s U.S. anti – liberal movement.  The nuclear bombing of Japan, and his judicial trial during 1953 – 54 brought public attention, sometimes greatly negative in nature, into the personal realm for him, things that would disrupt the life of any responsible and bright character as he was, attributes and foibles at the same time.  Science at the time of Oppenheimer was a practical and political jungle full of mythical beasts, imaginary and real, benign and greatly threatening.  It is strange the public figure of the day most responsible for popularizing nuclear science and the related dilemmas of the arms race was subject to, and this in the U.S., the ominous forces of society gossip and social pressures among his friends and colleagues that led to the end of his career as a scientist, essentially when he lost his security clearance in the 1950’s. 

Perhaps more to blame here than his 1954 bureaucratic trials was the overall deterioration of U.S. / soviet politics at the time:  this agonized and humiliated many, and provoked the castigation and ruin of a number of public figures vulnerable to such things.  For many as well, the attack on liberalism at the time comprised an attack on America’s values, and this presumed assault exposed the bureaucracy at the time as more and more paternalistic and condemning of the character and personalities of some.  For many of those examined and even subject to trial proceedings, their brilliance, stoicism, and personal self – assurance and integrity led frequently to bewildering and defeating, magically destructive antagonisms, first from officialdom and then from everybody.  This is / was perhaps due, and this on most pages of this definitive and again detailed text, to JRO’s personal life informing his scientific studies, achievements, and overall scientific work before his audiences, and those who watched and monitored the Oppenheimers closely.  An outstanding book.

Periodic Interest: Modern Day Hiroshima? ... and the 'Shinto - priest...

Periodic Interest: Modern Day Hiroshima? ... and the 'Shinto - priest...: Original March 2011 story in the international news. ... of someone who lived through Hiroshima. Media Photo.

Periodic Interest: Perhaps The Most Important Thing to Remember about...

Periodic Interest: Perhaps The Most Important Thing to Remember about...: ...  is Hiroshima was the first. Hiroshima - August 6, 2010 - morning.

Saturday, August 30, 2014

book review -- to do (for everybody.)


Another in The Facets of Jobs And Friends -- CREATIVITY, by Edwin Catmull (Random House, 2014.)

Many books are published about technology every day, general and technical, on new and legacy
Media Image
technologies alike.  The story of Pixar Animation above all, regardless of its affiliation to show business and other well - known and well - connected people, needs be considered as that of a classically super - successful growth company that Steven Jobs, Ed Catmull, and others husbanded through all the possible permutations of organizational life according to their own edicts, and with the dynamism that in the day, along with company goals, held businesses together despite the many competitive and economic forces, including non - market overtones and influences sometimes, that would have such businesses fly apart from their own internal energies as generated by the inventive, innovative, and continuously creative tone that pervades the company culture and its story amid other, more ephemeral start - up adventures.  From the way Mr. Catmull introduces his company, it is difficult to determine from a reading of the text whether or not the original business was the purview of Mr. George Lucas (Hollywood and Napa,) or Steven Jobs (Silicon Valley).  People like me know from the way the story of this wonderful company is begun in the text, that LucasFilm for various and original reasons in the old days needed a fresh production company, and Steven Jobs was in control if not in personal possession along with his associates of the required software and hardware "stuff" to accede to the great demands of Lucas animated production ideas and projects.  The overall special character of Pixar over time has changed in scope as the market power of the business has changed, at people like Catmull and his buddies are in some respects just supposed to be cartoon guys, though this view only burnishes in a simplified way the technical and even greater imaginative character of these people along the trajectory of their business from a narrowly functional animation company to a megastudio and blockbuster standard for media through Hollywood at this point.

Pixar produced a number of giftedly animated "Toy Story" and other productions of equally, and quite hard - hitting impact for movie audiences and young people above all.  Some of the themes as presented in the Pixar films, such as those in the relation between Cowboy and Buzz Lightyear in "Toy Story" or even the depiction of Hopper in "A Bug's Life", and there are many more such examples, that evoke the virtues and vagaries of human character along with various background.  This is perhaps an important part of Pixar's films as intoned by Mr. Catmull and Mr. Jobs that approaches things like finances and even software functionality as a set aside given the aims of film projects themselves to have themselves a highly memorable character along with educating and entertaining, and other imperative items, at the same time.  One opens this text, simply and directly presented as it is, to find first a story of a typical media start - up, and then one presided by both individually cultivated genius and the same of worldly industrial strength, that has become a proverbial "Star of India" in its animated productions in Los Angeles, past, present and possibly and probably future given the way Hollywood has captured and openly employs Pixar's company and employee culture.  This read is greatly captivating and hopeful from beginning to end, and depicts a business in which the overall goals and hard work of those in charge have made themselves and everyone around them more than just elite and extremely successful.  The text is also not lost on business and management processes as so enumerated for the reader or for anyone looking into this and related stories.  It is possible that Steven Jobs, Mr. Catmull and so forth, had believed the powers ruling business leadership and innovation, etc., originally had a kind of cookbook, and this outside the Socratic and other imperatives that run through this narrative.  It is also possible these people, and just by their nature, captured at least some of that cookbook in their methods and practices.  As much is on every in this outstanding and compelling story of this media company that has captured the physics of human imagination in many ways.