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Showing posts from January, 2013

The Bull Is Back?

The Dow Transportation Index is at an all-time high .   Last Friday, the Dow Industrial Average "confirmed" the action of the Transports by besting its most recent highest high from October of last year .  At this point both the Dow and the Transports are overbought .  The technical indicators suggest at least a modest consolidation is in order .  But, if you follow Dow Theory as I do, this is a big buy signal.  I won't jump in quite yet, given the extended nature of the technicals ( RSI is at a rather stressed 70 and the Stochastics are at an acute 98 - those numbers always break down, markets go up with those numbers, they come down with those numbers), but the Dow and the Transports are telling us they see no problems ahead .  Unless we get a severe correction to work-off the overbought condition , it looks like it is a good time to buy on any pullbacks. In other words, forget the lackluster nature of the economy , the markets say things are looking up for the

Where's the Innovation?

I blogged awhile back about my concern over prevalent economic forces and conditions that essentially are rendering the need for human employment unnecessary.  Traditionally, emerging markets and innovation have saved the day for capitalism as greater productivity and efficiency reduced the need for workers in established markets.  Last week The Economist tackled part of this serious issue in a splendid, if troubling, lengthy article . The article is primarily a summary from an amalgamation of studies and papers from various economists.  It begins with a recent history of innovation and its implications for economic growth.  Essentially, there was a period of rapid and significant innovation for most of the 20th century contributing to a large generation of wealth and creating a thriving middle class - until things hit the skids about 1970.  I will quote extensively from the article... For most of human history, growth in output and overall economic welfare has been slow and halting.

Wish You Were Here

"The reality was that we were struggling with making the follow-up to Dark Side and we rushed back into the studio to do that.  We put ourselves under sort of ridiculous pressure in a way trying to make a record from nothing." -  Nick Mason "It was disengagement.  It was not being willing to apply yourself sufficiently.  The concentrated activity was rather diluted.  I'm sure for a very pushing, driving sort of person like Roger it was more frustrating than it was for anyone else, although considerably frustrating for all of us." - David Gilmour "I had to fight David for a bit, as he acknowledges completely.  We had completely different ideas and that was a fight that I won.  So, at some point in that process, I came up with the idea that this has to be thematic.  This will make this a more coherent work.  And because it's coherent it will be better than if we just throw all the songs we've been working on together and go boom, there you are, th

Zero Dark Thirty

It isn't easy maintaining dramatic tension when everybody already knows how the story ends.  But, Zero Dark Thirty manages to do this in subtle, gritty, and outrageous ways.  You know Osama bin Laden dies.  You probably even know that one of the two stealth helicopters used for the mission crashes at the bin Laden compound.  But, you do not know the twisting story that leads to that moment and it is a story expertly told to striking effect by director Kathryn Bigelow . Much of the early press about Zero Dark Thirty was about the torture sequences at the front-end of the 2 hour and 37 minute film. Some thought the film actually advocated torture .  Some thought the scenes were gruesome and inaccurately reflected how much such tactics contributed to finding bin Laden.  I disagree.  First of all, I have seen far more grotesque torture scenes in other films.  Check out what they do to Leonardo DiCaprio in the Ridley Scott film  Body of Lies , for example.  Zero Dark Thirty i

Lifeworld and Intersubjectivity: Word Doodles

I have previously blogged about two "word doodles" - Karma and Being . These lie at the heart of my intimate spiritual path. They may or may not mean anything to you or you might choose to disagree with my assessments. I remain open to altering my perspective if my experience or my understanding of experience changes. That collection of intimate experiences can be conceived of as another word doodle, revealed by the philosophical term known as Lifeworld . I first became aware of the Lifeworld project back in the late 1980's by reading the work of Jurgen Habermas , my favorite living philosopher. There is a close association between Lifeworld and culture and language. Habermas wrote in 1981: "...we can think of the lifeworld as represented by a culturally transmitted and linguistically organized stock of interpretative patterns. Contexts of relevance are based on grammatically regulated relations among the elements of a linguistically organized stock of knowl

Watching The Hobbit

Of all the many new films to come out around the Christmas holiday season, I looked forward to Peter Jackson’s first installment of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit more than any other. I noted my anticipation when re-reading the book some time back. My original plans were to see it in IMAX 3D just before Christmas Day. But events conspired against us. My family’s holiday schedules were complicated this year. The theater was sold-out during the dates and times we could most easily attend. So, we waited. New Year’s Eve worked out to be the next best date for us. For the sake of precious time, Jennifer, my daughter, and I decided to forgo the IMAX experience and see the film in "regular" 3D at a nearby theater instead of driving all the way into Atlanta. We chose the first matinee which was at noon. One advantage to seeing the film later than we originally intended was that the hype had run its course. Sure, The Hobbit was a financial boon but by the last day of 2