Lies, Damned Lies & Statistics?

Here's a quote by Winston Churchill that I'd never seen before:

The only statistcs you can trust are those you falsified yourself.

Roman Tunisia - Bardo Museum

The Tunis suburb of Bardo is home to the extraordinary Bardo Museum, which houses an enormous collection of mosaics from about the 2nd to the 4th century, spanning the Roman period into the Christian period.


Check out the expression, the individuality, the movement of this face. How do they do that in stone? Incredible.


This is a river god, again with great liveliness and movement.


I took a picture of this because it looks like an alien, and we thought George's son would like it. Apparently, it is a symbol of fertility and prosperity and was common near the entrance of a home to bring good luck.

2 men, 2 grocery carts, 1 television

So, I was having a coffee and croissant with my mother this morning at a cafe in Greektown. My mother looked out the window and said, there are 2 guys with grocery carts and a TV walking down the sidewalk. They were just slowly strolling down the street, occasionally stopping to discuss which direction they should go.

We thought it would make a good opening to a surrealist vignette, or would it make the central plot line of a short story. The question is, what would the back-story be? What were these guys doing?

Carthage

Over the next few days, I'm going to tell you a bit about Tunisia. I just returned from about four days there, and I'll start from the beginning - Carthage. It was founded by the Phoenicians in the 3rd century BC and became a rival of Rome, resulting in the Punic Wars (remember Hannibal taking elephants over the Alps?)

After the 3rd of the Punic Wars, Carthage was completely destroyed. The Romans even sowed the soil with salt to make sure no one could live and farm there - pretty spiteful. Here are a few pictures of what is left of Carthage.

Architectural remnants

A very lovely capital

The Punic Ports - this was the port used by Carthage, the mighty seafaring, trading culture used this itty-bitty bit of water as their port. I guess things were on a different scale back then.

William Blake

Proverbs of Hell.

In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy.
Drive your cart and your plow over the bones of the dead.
The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.
Prudence is a rich ugly old maid courted by Incapacity.
He who desires but acts not, breeds pestilence.
The cut worm forgives the plow.
Dip him in the river who loves water.
A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees.
He whose face gives no light, shall never become a star.
Eternity is in love with the productions of time.
The busy bee has no time for sorrow.
The hours of folly are measur'd by the clock, but of wisdom: no clock can measure.
All wholsom food is caught without a net or a trap.
Bring out number weight & measure in a year of dearth.
No bird soars too high, if he soars with his own wings.
A dead body revenges not injuries.
The most sublime act is to set another before you.
If the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise.
Folly is the cloke of knavery.
Shame is Prides cloke.

Prisons are built with stones of Law, Brothels with bricks of Religion.
The pride of the peacock is the glory of God.
The lust of the goat is the bounty of God.
The wrath of the lion is the wisdom of God.
The nakedness of woman is the work of God.
Excess of sorrow laughs. Excess of joy weeps.
The roaring of lions, the howling of wolves, the raging of the stormy sea, and the destructive sword, are portions of eternity too great for the eye of man.
The fox condemns the trap, not himself.
Joys impregnate. Sorrows bring forth.
Let man wear the fell of the lion. woman the fleece of the sheep.
The bird a nest, the spider a web, man friendship.
The selfish smiling fool, & the sullen frowning fool shall be both thought wise, that they may be a rod.
What is now proved was once only imagin'd.
The rat, the mouse, the fox, the rabbet; watch the roots; the lion, the tyger, the horse, the elephant, watch the fruits.
The cistern contains: the fountain overflows.
One thought fills immensity.
Always be ready to speak your mind, and a base man will avoid you.
Every thing possible to be believ'd is an image of truth.
The eagle never lost so much time, as when he submitted to learn of the crow.

The fox provides for himself. but God provides for the lion.
Think in the morning. Act in the noon. Eat in the evening. Sleep in the night.
He who has suffer'd you to impose on him knows you.
As the plow follows words, so God rewards prayers.
The tygers of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction.
Expect poison from the standing water.
You never know what is enough unless you know what is more than enough.
Listen to the fools reproach! it is a kingly title!
The eyes of fire, the nostrils of air, the mouth of water, the beard of earth.
The weak in courage is strong in cunning.
The apple tree never asks the beech how he shall grow; nor the lion, the horse, how he shall take his prey.
The thankful reciever bears a plentiful harvest.
If others bad not been foolish, we should be so.
The soul of sweet delight can never be defil'd.
When thou seest an Eagle, thou seest a portion of Genius. lift up thy head!
As the catterpiller chooses the fairest leaves to lay her eggs, so the priest lays his curse on the fairest joys.
To create a little flower is the labour of ages.
Damn braces: Bless relaxes.
The best wine is the oldest, the best water the newest.
Prayers plow not! Praises reap not!
Joys laugh not! Sorrows weep not!

The head Sublime, the heart Pathos, the genitals Beauty, the hands & feet Proportion.
As the air to a bird or the sea to a fish, so is contempt to the contemptible.
The crow wish'd every thing was black, the owl, that every thing was white.
Exuberance is Beauty.
If the lion was advised by the fox. he would be cunning.
Improvement makes strait roads, but the crooked roads without Improvement, are roads of Genius.
Sooner murder an infant in its cradle than nurse unacted desires.
Where man is not, nature is barren.
Truth can never be told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd.
Enough! or Too much.

The ancient Poets animated all sensible objects with Gods or Geniuses, calling them by the names and adorning them with the properties of woods, rivers, mountains, lakes, cities, nations, and whatever their enlarged & numerous senses could percieve.
And particularly they studied the genius of each city & country, placing it under its mental deity;
Till a system was formed, which some took advantage of & enslav'd the vulgar by attempting to realize or abstract the mental deities from their objects: thus began Priesthood;
Choosing forms of worship from poetic tales.
And at length they pronounc'd that the Gods had order'd such things.
Thus men forgot that All deities reside in the human breast.

http://www.levity.com/alchemy/blake_ma.html

Who is the real enemy? Iran? or Saudi Arabia?

Iranian-financed guns are shooting at our kids in Iraq, right? They're part of the axis of evil, right? And so maybe we should expand our war into Iran?

The fact is that more Saudi-financed guns are shooting a lot more of our soldiers than Iranian ones. So why aren't we building a case against the Saudi-backed Sunni militants? Could it be because the Saudi royal family are friends with our boy W? Could it be because we get oil from Saudi Arabia?

Why, Mr. President, are we going after the Iranians instead of the Saudis?

To help with the cold....

Because I'm in the middle of an Artic freeze, I thought I'd pull out one of my favorite pictures from my trip to Cyprus last summer. This was a hot, hot day at the harbor in Kyrenia on the Turkish side.

Tribalism, Identity, Da Bears

Well, Da Bears, the Bears, the Monsters of the Midway have lost the Super Bowl! It's so sad.

I just finished reading a book called How Soccer Explains the World by Franklin Foer and it made me think about identity in our post-modern, anonymous, urban/suburban world. I'm not a rabid sports fan, or Bears fan and yet I'm sad and disappointed. Do I identify myself as a Chicagoan and a Bears fan more than I realize? Is it part of what makes me me? Does it give me a group to belong to?

This afternoon, after all, I drank beer and ate BBQ pork with some of my oldest friends and some people I'd never met before and yet we shared in community with a common cause, common beliefs and common ritual.

I believe I am a rational, autonomous individual without need of tribal identity. Maybe I'm wrong.

Happiness, and how to achieve it

Happiness, perhaps it's a trite topic. On the other hand, maybe we talk about it because we experience such a lack of it. Can you aim for happiness? Or should you shoot for satisfaction? Meaning? Accomplishment? and hope that happiness comes along as a side benefit?

I'm contemplating this because of a conversation I had last night with my darling, George. He loves his work. He's a chaired professor, so his motivation is not tenure. He simply loves what he does. He works for at least half the day each day of the weekend because he love it. He doesn't actually talk about his work much, but if he's away from it for too long he starts to miss it.

I wish I loved my work that much. Don't get me wrong, I like my job. In fact, just this week I turned down an offer from a big company you've all heard of to stay where I am, in a tiny little consulting company. But, I wish I loved it as much as George loves his. I suppose most of the people I know work to pay the rent, hopefully in something they don't find too objectionable, but to be faced with someone who loves his work makes me realize there could be more.

Is it a matter of creating it? Is it a matter of being busy enough that I don't have time to think about happiness? I recognize that I'm always happiest at work when I've got a deadline and I'm juggling stuff. Is that just because I don't have time to navel-gaze?

Iran on the Web?

The two most common languages used on the Web will not surprise you: English and Mandarin. The third most common will surprise you: Farsi!

(I hear this during a talk by a guy from the Council on Foreign Relations, so I believe it.)

Your Solopsism is Showing

New word for me, Solopsism: extreme preoccupation with and indulgence of one's feelings, desires, etc. egoistic self-absorption. (dictionary.com)

Is blogging evidence of solopsism? Do I have anything to say that people actually want to hear? Is it self-indulgent?

Hyderabad & a Story With/Without a Moral

In the New York Times travel section this week was a short article on the rise in both tourist and business travel to Hyderabad, India. It reminded me of my first night in India, on a business trip in the summer of 2004, when I almost started a sectarian riot.

I was travelling with a colleague, Amar, a Hyderabad native, and Hyderabad was our first port of call. We had traveled 24 hours from Chicago to Frankfurt to Bombay to Hyderabad. It was exhausting. So, after sleeping most of the day, Amar called me and asked me to go out on the town with him. I was picked up in a Range Rover driven by Amar's real estate developer brother-in-law, his movie-star friend (married), his girlfriend and Amar.

As we walked into the newest dance club in town, by-passing the line, the actor was stopped for autographs and we tried to keep to the shadows to avoid the paparazzi, since his girlfriend was with us. After a long night drinking pricey drinks and dancing, we left the club and my hosts decided I needed a late night tour of the sights of Hyderabad. So, off we drove, drinking Chivas Regal out of the bottle, roof open, weaving around the old women stooped over sweeping the streets. At one point, we made a phone call to a Congress MP who was the friend of the brother-in-law. He and I drunkenly chatted about something or other.

They took me to Charminar, the 400-year old gate in the middle of the poor, mostly Muslim part of town where people were lined up sleeping on the sidewalk. Keep in mind my crowd of rich, drunk Hindus in a Range Rover with an immodestly-clad blonde in the back seat.

There's a small mosque at the Charminar, so Amar and I climbed out to go see it. I was wearing a short skirt, so I wasn't allowed in, but the mosque custodian smiled at me and gave me a small green flag with a white star and crescent. I was happy and climbed back in the car to show off my souvenir. All the guys in the car flipped out and thought is was a Pakistani flag, which it was not. So they climbed back out of the car, woke up a cop and started yelling about being real Indians, etc. People on the sidewalks started waking up. I started yelling "I'm Christian, I'm Christian" and herding my crowd back into the car. By the time we left half the square was awake and starting to move towards the car. And that was how I almost started a riot on my first night in India.

Is there a moral to this story? Is it:

1. Don't drink and drive.
2. Don't go to mosques in short skirts.
3. Understand the history including animosities of the places you're visiting.
4. Don't go out with your girlfriend when there are paparazzi around.
5. Drinking Chivas Regal makes you immune to political violence.
   

Vote, or suggest your own.

Life Lessons of Pinball

A few weeks ago George and I went to dinner with a friend. Afterwards, my friend suggested that we stop by a place around the corner with a pinball machine. I was sceptical - how silly to play pinball, but I didn't want to squash the enthusiasm of the others.

We walked in, I discovered my inner child, I learned that George is a pinball master and I had SO much fun. (Also, inexplicably, I won 3 out of 4 games.) So, George's secret skill at pinball comes from when he was writing his dissertation. He'd reward himself with a pinball game every time he finished a page.

I take life too seriously sometimes, turning up my nose at childish things like pinball. And I had a great time. I need to do that sort of thing more often! Maybe that should have been one of my new year's resolutions as well. Have More Fun!

Happy New Year!

As we enter the New Year, I thought I'd share a few resolutions:

1. Be more patient and accepting, both of myself and others, especially those I love the most. It's so easy to be snippy with the people you see every day. As for being accepting of myself, it's so easy to say, "I should have achieved XYZ by this point in my life and I'm a failure if I haven't." Instead I will say, I am where I am, I am what I am, and I will move forward with my dreams.
   
2. Work out more. Yes, I say that every year and look where it's gotten me.
   
3. Be unafraid of failure and have the courage to take risks, professionally and personally. This allows for the freedom to dream large dreams and think big thoughts. Otherwise, one is limited to risk-free, utterly attainable "silent desperation" that plagues so many who have been beaten down.
4. Have more dinner parties. After all, I love to cook and I love stimulating conversation.

My New Year started with champagne and spanikopita, spiced up with dancing in the living room next to the roaring fireplace (music courtesy of a group of wild Russians with a great iPod.) It's an auspicious start!

I wish all my readers a year energized by your ambitions and dreams, of deep-down satisfaction, and laughter.

Peace: What is it? and how do we get there?

Following the joyous holiday season, filled with love, giving and the occasional fight with a near & dear one, I wonder, What is Peace?

If I struggle to be in harmony with my flesh and blood brother, how can I be in harmony with my metaphorical one?

A Banner Day for Bigotry

Is Barack Hussein Obama really an Islamofascist, Osama bin Laden sympathizer in disguise? Is MN Representative Keith Ellison a threat to the American Way of Life? Give me a break!

CNN wonders out loud if Obama and Osama are connected. MSNBC guests say that his middle name is the same as the former Iraqi dictators and that he dresses like the President of Iran.

Virgil Good, a representative from Virginia, suggests that Keith Ellison, an American-born Muslim convert choosing to use the Quran for his swearing in, is a threat to the American way of life and evidence that we should close our borders to immigration.

Is the media pandering to the lowest common denominator, attracting the ignorant and bigoted? Has Virgil Goode, a representative from Virginia, forgotten that this country was founded on the principles of religious freedom? Yes on both counts.

I suppose it is human nature to create an us-and-them. In the US, vocal racism is no longer acceptable and we don't have Soviet or Communist bad guys anymore. So, apparently it's fashionable and acceptable to bash Muslims.

I am saddened and disappointed by the state of our public discourse.

Am I a Cultural Creative??

Today I'm doing some research on how environmental considerations effect consumer behavior. I've come across some market segmentation buzzwords. Maybe those of you with PR/advertising/marketing experience know all about this, but it's new to me. The first I came across was LOHAS - Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability (lohas.org). I guess it comes as no surprise that the same folks who want to buy a hybrid also do yoga and eat locally-grown food. I'd just never thought of it as a definable group before.

LOHAS.org claims that about 30% of the adult US population falls into this category and that it amounts to a $228.9B market. Closely related are the Cultural Creatives. I checked out culturalcreatives.org, which is essentially selling the book of the same title, which originally coined the term. This is a broader group than LOHAS, constituting a $540B market!

There is a quiz on culturalcreatives.org that helps you determine if you are one of them. It sounds like such a nice title, that I thought I'd try it out. After all, who wouldn't want to be cultured, creative, creatively cultured, etc? So, I gave the quiz a chance:

• Do I care about my relationships? Yep.
• Am I concerned about violence targeting women and children? Of course.
• Do I want to see women reach parity with men in economic and social arenas? Absolutely.
• Am I aware of the problems of the world, such as environmental destruction, poverty, and exploitation? Definitely.
• Would I want to limit economic growth to solve those problems? NO!
• Would I want higher taxes to solve those problems? NO!
• Would I pay higher consumer prices to solve those problems? Quite likely.

So, am I a Cultural Creative? I want the world to be a better place. I've spent a career in alternative energy. I read about foreign affairs and am concerned about education and poverty in the third world, but limiting economic growth is not the solution. Am I a Free-Market Cultural Creative with an MBA? Amartya Sen's well-known book is called Development as Freedom. Micro-loans, expanding economic development, are the keys to solving poverty, exploitation and ultimately environmental degradation.

According to the website, "The Cultural Creatives care deeply about ecology and saving the planet, about relationships, peace, social justice and about self actualization, spirituality and self-expression."

I'm all for those things, but I'm not for protesting the WTO, being a global luddite, or imagining that limited economic growth helps anybody. Please take the quiz yourself and let me know if you are a cultural creative, and how that effects your consumer behavior.

Carbon Tax

I found an interesting paper this morning by Richard Cooper, an economist at Harvard, considering a Carbon Tax in the post-Kyoto world.

http://www.economics.harvard.edu/faculty/cooper/papers/Kyoto_ct.pdf

And for reference, the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change for the UK Treasury that was published a few weeks ago:

http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/media/8AC/F7/Executive_Summary.pdf

Why Dolphin Log?

Dolphins are smarter than we are.

I've always admired them for using their big brains to swim in the ocean, play and eat sushi all day. Much more fun than what I plan to talk about here - energy, international affairs, Central Asia, policy, the Middle East, alternative energy, and some travel.