Find of the day

[Skybird]

Alan Greenspan, 1966: "Gold and economic freedom"

Under a gold standard, the amount of credit that an economy can support is determined by the economy's tangible assets, since every credit instrument is ultimately a claim on some tangible asset. But government bonds are not backed by tangible wealth, only by the government's promise to pay out of future tax revenues, and cannot easily be absorbed by the financial markets. A large volume of new government bonds can be sold to the public only at progressively higher interest rates. Thus, government deficit spending under a gold standard is severely limited.
(...)
The financial policy of the welfare state requires that there be no way for the owners of wealth to protect themselves. This is the shabby secret of the welfare statists' tirades against gold. Deficit spending is simply a scheme for the confiscation of wealth. Gold stands in the way of this insidious process. It stands as a protector of property rights. If one grasps this, one has no difficulty in understanding the statists' antagonism toward the gold standard.

full text: http://www.321gold.com/fed/greenspan/1966.html

[Aktungbby]

Just to stay on thread: from todays paper! I was going to post it but your topic beat me to it! http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/lifestyle/2014/07/18/millions-in-booty-from-california-gold-rush-recovered-from-ss-central-america/

full text: http://www.321gold.com/fed/greenspan/1966.html

Buy gold sell silver, sell gold buy silver.
Buy Randian voodoo ideology.

[Aktungbby]

http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/documents/1876-1900/william-jennings-bryan-cross-of-gold-speech-july-8-1896.php In conclusion: "You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns, you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold."

[Catfish]

Originally Posted by Tribesman

Buy gold sell silver, sell gold buy silver.
Buy Randian voodoo ideology.

After having read the book (why oh god why) i wonder how this pointless and fantasy piece of sh.. can influence or 'inspire' anyone with a clear mind or any empathy. This 'philosophy' must be the wet dream of all fascists and locust apitalism

Originally Posted by Catfish

After having read the book (why oh god why) i wonder how this pointless and fantasy piece of sh.. can influence or 'inspire' anyone with a clear mind or any empathy. This 'philosophy' must be the wet dream of all fascists and locust apitalism

That's the thing with ideologies, they require a mind that is not clear.
They all have their "oh yes that's it " moment but fall apart on the "but then, but how about, what if and hold on that don't work at all" moments.
People who swallow the ideology have a mind that is clouded by the "oh yes" moment and can not only get no further but don't wish to get any further as they are happy in the cloud of deluded bliss they wallow in.

Yeah - shiny rocks are the answer to all the world's problems. They must be. They're rocks. And they're shiny...

[Skybird]

Beethoven: Piano Concerto 5, movement 2



Reading the comments you see that it is not fully clear who pianist and orchestra were. All I can say is it is a stunning recording due to its atypical slow pace - most recordings almost race through this piece to show how fast the pianist can play. But the slow pace models the fragile beauty of this piece by almost forcing the listener to pay attention to sequences of notes/tones that often escape his attention if being played faster.

Our modern world accelerates more and more. Classic music from the past nowadays gets played 30-40% faster than like it was intended by the composer at the time he was living, a known phenomenon in music history. What this pianist does is he deccelerates it again - and it is as if all world around becomes wide and open again.

What is this beauty that touches us from outside? What is it that gets touched by it in our inside?

[Sailor Steve]

Nice link, and nice summation. I'm not sure I agree about the speed, but that's what music is for. We judge it on how it affects us, and it affects us differently. Thanks for sharing that.

[Oberon]

I must admit I've noticed a difference in speeds in how people play Beethovens Symphony no 7 movement 2 in Allegretto. I prefer the slightly slower version, as heard in 'The Kings Speech'.

Faster


Slower


There's not a great deal in it, but I sometimes pick up on these things.

[Skybird]

Sandy Springs, Georgia - The city that outsourced everything

http://my.firedoglake.com/freemarket...ed-everything/

Keep the taxes where they have been raised. Local cities/regions then NEED to compete, and perform better, to attract tax payers.

Keep the taxes where they have been raised

Coventry is nowhere near Georgia. I suppose Cranbury Boston and San Francisco are quite a bit closer than Britain, but it certainly isn't keeping the tax money in Georgia.

[Skybird]

NASA - CME event of 2012

Puts some things into perspective, and shows how fragile and easy to break our technology-craving civilization is.

What happened:


What could it have meant:
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news...ul_superstorm/

If an asteroid big enough to knock modern civilization back to the 18th century appeared out of deep space and buzzed the Earth-Moon system, the near-miss would be instant worldwide headline news. Two years ago, Earth experienced a close shave just as perilous, but most newspapers didn't mention it. The "impactor" was an extreme solar storm, the most powerful in as much as 150+ years.
"If it had hit, we would still be picking up the pieces," says Daniel Baker of the University of Colorado.

After such an event hits Earth, those who had lived before in primitive circumstances would find it easier to survivive and to fight others than those who only know a world and a fight for survival depending on the tools of hightech civilization. That is true for the individual. That is true for nations.

[Catfish]

Asteroids are the universe's best reminder, that we should forget our ridiculous wars, forbid religious nutheads, send all egomaniacs in jail and finally do some real [sic!] research.

[Aktungbby]

Originally Posted by Catfish

Asteroids are the universe's best reminder, that we should forget our ridiculous wars, forbid religious nutheads, send all egomaniacs in jail and finally do some real [sic!] research.

Not if you're William the Conqueror and need Devine inspiration! from the Bayeux Tapestry; comet detail(Haley's actually) from the panel "We now know that the comet-star in the sky was Halley's Comet making one of its 76-year cyclical appearances. In the Tapestry, an attendant rushes to tell Harold of the celestial happening as he sits upon his throne. The comet appears at the upper left. The portrayal acquires a sense of foreboding as empty long boats appear below the scene. These no doubt presage the invasion fleet William will employ to cross the Channel. The Tapestry implies that the appearance of the comet expresses God's wrath at Harold for breaking his oath to William and assuming the throne. Retribution will be found in the invasion fleet." NORSE GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG BBY...move over Siegfried!