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"What's
wrong with this picture?" This can be construed
as a mere statement implying that there is nothing
wrong with this picture or am asking a tag question?
It all depends on how you perceive me. I am
not saying anything because I have not made
up my mind yet. I am still waiting for consequences
to be had and history to unfold.
In the picture above, Mr. Obama, the President
of the United States of America is standing
in the second row almost in the corner near
to the Prime Minister of India (in turban).
He is not in the first row, next to the host,
the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Never
before have I seen a group photo of world dignitaries
where the President of America happened to stand
in the second row in a corner with the leaders
of the developing countries. Does that signal
a decline in America's status? Is America no
longer superior to the rest of the world? I
don't know nor am I making any statement.
While paying a visit to the queen, Mr. Obama
made a two-handed handshake with her and Mrs.
Obama put her arms around the queen. These gestures
irritated the British as they considered those
to be against the proper protocol. The queen
of Great Britain is considered above everyone
else by her loyal subordinates. Did the Obamas
make a statement to the world that the British
royalty was not superior to anyone else? I do
not know nor am I making any statement.
Today,
I got the news of my friend, Leany's sad demise.
By the way, 'Leany' is an ethnic name. It has
nothing to do with my friend's physical appearance.
Ironically, Leany only ate to live, but instead
of living, he died. My only sorrow is that Leany
could not fulfill his lifelong dream of forming
a 'Gastronomic Anonymous' group - a fellowship
of men and women to help others relinquish good
food in favor of fads and other crap. Life,
perhaps, was too short for Leany to rid humanity
of good eating and drinking." If good food were
sex, Leany preached celibacy by forcing others
to abstain. Whenever I think of Leany, I visualize
a cucumber in thick glasses. This should come
as nobody's surprise that Leany's favorite drink
was homemade cucumber juice. The morning meal
in Leany household was actually a mourning meal
- seaweeds, soybeans and, of course, cucumber
juice. Lunch consisted of crispy lettuce wraps.
Dinner time at Leany's looked like a raw-food
café` with disgusting servings of sea-vegetable
harvested off the coast of Japan, loaded with
vitamins and minerals and Yerba tea, high in
antioxidants with carrot flax crackers for extra
taste and nutrition. Leany was left to himself
walking a righteous but lonely path for the
rest of his life.
On July 4, 1776, our founding fathers were
not celebrating independence by eating hamburgers
and hot dogs. These staples in the American
diet only became popular around the turn of
the last century. Instead, a soldier's daily
ration during the American Revolution included
a pint of beans, a pint of milk, a pound of
beef (or fish), and a pound of bread. The average
soldier also consumed six ounces of butter a
day. This amounted to 3000 to 4000 daily calories
- more than many obese people consume today.
In spite of this enormous daily calorie intake,
obesity was not nearly as rampant as it is today.
This is because daily life in those days was
enormously active - people walked, rode horses,
and generally expended a lot of calories in
their every day jobs and chores. Today, by contrast,
we live in an era of leisure, saturated with
TV, video games, and a lot of doing nothing.
"There are no atheists in foxholes" was widely
spoken during World War II - and no one denied
it. Recently, an atheist was writing negatively
about Christianity and aligned himself with
Jews. How wrong can you be? If there is a fence
separating the believers from the Godless, Jews
are on the same side of the fence as Christians
and Muslims. Judaism, Christianity and Islam
honor one God. But, it is my hope to tear down
all fences.
I have no fear of death because of my deep
faith in God and in the hereafter. Atheists,
however, must dread death because, to them,
it is the absolute end. I invite them, no, I
implore them, to join me in this belief to ease
their fears when they age or when a fatal illness
falls upon them. If I am wrong and Heaven does
not exist, they have lost nothing by believing;
however, if there is Heaven, there is the possibility
the Pearly Gates will be open to them because
they believed. Believing is a no loss situation.
In a time and place long ago, there were hard-times
in which people hoarded whatever food they could
find, hiding it even from their friends and
neighbors. One day a wandering traveler came
into a village and began asking questions as
if he planned to stay for the night. "There's
not a bite to eat in the whole town," he was
told. "Better keep moving on."
"Oh, I have everything I need," he said. "In
fact, I was thinking of making some stone soup
to share with all of you." He pulled a cauldron
from his wagon, filled it with water, and built
a fire under it. Then, with great ceremony,
he drew an ordinary-looking stone from a velvet
bag and dropped it into the water. By now, hearing
the rumor of food, most of the villagers had
come to the square or watched from their windows.
As the traveler sniffed the "broth" and licked
his lips in anticipation, hunger began to overcome
their skepticism.
Despite growing attention in the world media
and expanding aid efforts by global organizations,
the world hunger crisis continues to worsen
as many of our communities struggle with daily
hunger and starvation. The basic staples that
feed the world, wheat, rice, and corn are becoming
more and more expensive. Even so, it is essential
that we stay away from cheap foods - although
tempting, this may cause your health to deteriorate.
To make matters harder for the consumer, the
FDA does not check for non-organic contaminants
such as heavy metals, that may be present in
produce, fish and dietary supplements. In fact
only 1 percent of imported food is even tested
at a U.S. port. Moreover, savvy suppliers sometimes
reroute products (especially seafood) to an
inland port such as Las Vegas, where there are
no FDA inspectors. This means that food may
cross an ocean several times before it even
gets to your dinner table. For example, the
United States allows the importation of processed
chicken from China - meaning that chickens are
bred and killed in Mexico, shipped to China
frozen, and then returned for sale in the United
States. Yuck!
Creole Jambalaya originates from the French
Quarter of New Orleans, in the original European
sector. It was an attempt by the Spanish to
make paella in the New World, where saffron
was not readily available due to import costs.
Tomatoes became the substitute for saffron.
As time went on, French influence became strong
in New Orleans, and spices from the Caribbean
changed this New World paella into a unique
dish. In modern Louisiana, the dish has evolved
along a variety of different lines. Creole Jambalaya,
or red Jambalaya as it is called by Cajuns,
is found primarily in and around New Orleans,
where it is simply known as "Jambalaya." Creole
Jambalaya includes tomatoes, whereas Cajun Jambalaya
does not.
The looming global food crisis has been anticipated
by global experts for years. Food shortages
and high prices can be blamed on many factors,
including climate change, reduced availability
of land for agriculture, growing populations
in the poorest parts of the world, increased
demand from a growing middle class in China
and India, rising fuel costs, and the development
of biofuels. Wheat, corn and rice prices have
more than doubled in the past two years. Rice
shortages of have been especially volatile,
and some major exporting nations like Indian
and Vietnam are putting exporting bans in place.
We will never willingly run out of food. Shortages
are always man made (artificial). John Jeavons'
book "How to Grow More Vegetables and Fruits
(and Fruits, Nuts, Berries, Grains, and Other
Crops) Than You Ever Thought Possible on Less
Land Than You Can Imagine." A typical suburban
backyard is large enough to feed at least 15
adults. We are not talking crops only, not poultry.
2006 data indicates there is 1.15 acres of arable
land per person, worldwide (i.e. 7.68 billion
acres / 6.68 billion people).
Food is an integral element of any culture.
Historically the production of food has preoccupied
the American labor force. In 1790, nine out
of ten workers were employed as farmers. People's
primary job was getting enough to eat. Just
50 years later, in 1840, it had shifted to merely
two out of three workers who were employed to
grow food. Another 40 years saw this drop to
less than half, and another 30 years after that,
in 1910, it was less than a third. At the end
of the last century we were witness to this
figure dropping to less than three workers out
of a hundred. This remarkable achievement of
industrialization and ingenuity also coincided
with the transformation of food as an occupation
to food as a preoccupation. In extreme cases,
this preoccupation has turned deadly. The mental
condition anorexia nervosa compels its victims
to control their food intake to the edge of
starvation, sometimes resulting in death. At
the other extreme are people who are super obese.
Some of these people weigh in excess of hundreds
of pounds over ideal body weight -- some even
topping out at over a thousand pounds. The term
"morbidly obese" is not just hyperbole, it describes
a very real consequence of this lifestyle.
Ian Ayres, a Professor at Yale Law School and
a famous economist, enlightens the readers of
Super Crunchers by presenting the concepts of
data mining, regressions, randomized trials
and other statistical theories in a practical
way with very interesting case studies.
Though I should not categorize Super Crunchers
as a text book of statistics, I am compelled
to state that Ayres has clarified the statistical
terms for me in the least mundane way that I
have ever come across after having taken statistics
in five semesters during my schooling.
Ayers makes his readers feel that statistics
is a tool that anyone can use. He also makes
us realize how inundated life has become with
data and that "quantitative prediction is reshaping
business and government."
(Excerpts from Michael Pollan's book 'The Omnivore's
Dilemma) The meal at the end of the industrial
food chain that begins in an Iowa cornfield
is prepared by McDonald's and eaten in a moving
car. The myriad streams of commodity corn, after
being variously processed and turned into meat,
converge in all sorts of different meals people
eat at KFC, or Pizza Hut or Applebee's or bought
at the supermarket. Industrial meals are all
around us, after all; they make up the food
chain from which most of us eat most of the
time. Chicken nuggets constitute its own genre
of food for American children, many of whom
eat nuggets every day. A lot of thought goes
into a nugget, that and a lot of corn. Of the
thirty-eight ingredients it takes to make a
McNugget, thirteen are derived from corn: the
corn-fed chicken itself; modified cornstarch;
mono-. Tri-, and diglycerides; dextrose; lecithin;
chicken broth; yellow corn flour; filler; vegetable
shortening; hydrogenated corn oil; and citric
acid as a preservative
This is my firm belief, based on my life's
experience, that with the exception of saints,
artists and athletes, any educated person with
average intelligence is capable of performing
any average job such as running a country, running
a company or running a financial institution.
So, what makes an average Joe or Jane different
from powerful people like Hank Paulson, Senator
Shelby, Dick Flud, Martin Sullivan, James Cayne,
Angelo Mozilo, Stan O'Neal, Chuck Prince, Allen
Greenspan, Franklin Raines, Arthur Laffer, and
Phil Gramm? The answer is networking and being
at the right place at the right time
The
Think Club Publications has chosen The Trillion
Dollar Meltdown - Easy Money, High Rollers and
the Great Credit Crash by Charles R. Morris,
published by Public Affairs, New York for the
Book of the Year Award for 2008. Think Club
Publication is a forum to encourage independent
thinking among fellow human beings. This annual
award is given to the author whose idea or ideas
can contribute to the resolution of contemporary
human problems based on his or her original
and independent thinking.
Barack Obama's resounding victory has brought
even the most cynical observers of party politics
to dare to hope, believing that they will soon
be witnessing the most progressive presidential
administration of their lifetime. This hope
rests largely upon Obama's personal history
as a community organizer. There are several
aspects of Obama's personal history which would
seem to indicate empathy for those less fortunate.
One, of course, is the fact that he is a black
man in a racist society. Another is that he
grew up in Indonesia (a poor Asian country)
and Hawaii (the most racially diverse and economically
stratified state.) More significant, however,
is Obama's political history. Obama is the product
of a progressive grassroots tradition. At Occidental
College in the early 1980s, he became immersed
in the anti-apartheid movement. Though there
have certainly been student activists from the
late 1960s who later moved well to the right,
left-wing campus activism was not nearly as
trendy during Obama's college years, which were
during the heyday of the Reagan Era, when College
Republicans were often the largest and most
visible political group on many campuses
We are human animals. We are inherently bad.
Therefore, we have rules, laws and codes of
conduct to abide by. Our thoughts, feelings
and behavior, if good, are shaped by our individual
experiences and environment. Good behaviors
are learned behaviors. They are not innate.
Human nature tends to be evil in a 'state of
nature.' It can be virtuous and moral only in
a controlled environment. Basically, all humans
are evil. If left alone, evil is inescapable
and will turn everyone evil. This is evident
in mob tendencies where law and order fail.
This is evident among powerful people because
'power corrupts and absolute power corrupts
absolutely.' This is evident among people who
can get away unpunished.
"The fool doth think he is wise, but the
wise man knows himself to be a fool."
-William Shakespeare,
"As You Like It", Act 5 scene 1
I truly believe that brilliance or mediocrity
can be a matter of perception and it can vary
widely under different circumstances. It is
also possible for mediocrity to be thrust upon
someone who has achieved greatness on his own
merit. Ironically both condemnation and commendation
can be projected onto anyone even by the most
incompetent, insincere and insipid of people.
The last time I talked to you, I wanted to work
on winning the Nobel Peace Prize. I have since
changed my mind just like the economists do
with their forecasts. You guessed right, now
I have decided to become an economist and spare
this great nation a few dimes. I know I'm not
qualified, but if you let me, I promise that
I will perform as well as any economist has
in recent memory - at a fraction of the cost.
That's called comparative advantage. Let the
billion-dollar economists worry about winning
another Nobel Prize or turning the obvious into
incomprehensible
The news of my retirement has spread in the
shape of my imminent demise all over the globe.
My aunt called me from a remote Himalayan village
in India and demanded an answer to her question,
"Now that you have retired, what are you doing
in America?" It is true that most of us didn't
come here because we loved America. Initially
the idea was to earn 'mucho dinero' and then
return to our villages in the old country, anyway.
For my aunt, America is a big town where money
grows on trees, Now that I have retired and
might have raked enough leaves, it was time
for me to return to my old village and prepare
for death like many of my uncles and their cousins
did.
YES! Let's be clear, a bridge loan is not the
same thing as a bailout. Industries get into
trouble from time to time, especially during
lean economic times. Today, the financial markets
are in a precarious position due to the mortgage
meltdown. People are not buying cars and the
money supply has dried up for those who would
be willing to buy a car. The global car industry
is in recession. France, Sweden, India and other
countries are helping their auto industries
with cash infusions. In the U.S. not only the
U.S. car manufacturers but all other manufacturers
are experiencing a 30 to 40 percent downturn
in sales.
NO!
The Big Three are in big trouble, and they have
themselves to thank for it. November 19th, the
CEO's of the major auto makers flew to Washington
in three separate private jets to ask for a
$25 billion handout. Without it they claimed
they could fail by the middle of 2009 - costing
millions of jobs and triggering a depression
like no other.
I remember when caller id was first being
offered as an option on home telephones. There
was a bit of an uproar over the perception that
this would violate the privacy rights of people
placing calls. I never quite understood why
calling someone anonymously was a privacy right.
Nevertheless, the ability to block the caller
id from displaying on the phone of the person
you are calling was implemented, dial *67 before
making a call. Right or wrong, this does illustrate
that fact that there is a deep seated desire
in all of us to keep a part of ourselves hidden
from the outside world, and to have control
over what is revealed about us.
Family Reunion
There is a family reunion in which the following
are in attendance: a father, a mother, a son,
a daughter, an uncle, an aunt, a brother, a
sister, a cousin, a nephew, and a niece. But
just four people are there. How could this be
so?
What Is It?
I went into the forest and I got it. When I
got it I looked for it, but couldn't find it,
so I brought it home in my hand. What is it?
Mystery Word
What is it that when you take away the whole
you still have some left? (Hint, think of a
single word) .
Purchase
COD by sending email to:info@thethinkclub.com Send
a check for $12.50 (US) payable to
Think Club Publication At
PO Box 451, Bloomfield Hills, MI 48303-0451,
USA
"What's
wrong with this picture?" This can be construed
as a mere statement implying that there is nothing
wrong with this picture or am asking a tag question?
It all depends on how you perceive me. I am
not saying anything because I have not made
up my mind yet. I am still waiting for consequences
to be had and history to unfold. 
Today,
I got the news of my friend, Leany's sad demise.
By the way, 'Leany' is an ethnic name. It has
nothing to do with my friend's physical appearance.
Ironically, Leany only ate to live, but instead
of living, he died. My only sorrow is that Leany
could not fulfill his lifelong dream of forming
a 'Gastronomic Anonymous' group - a fellowship
of men and women to help others relinquish good
food in favor of fads and other crap. Life,
perhaps, was too short for Leany to rid humanity
of good eating and drinking." If good food were
sex, Leany preached celibacy by forcing others
to abstain. Whenever I think of Leany, I visualize
a cucumber in thick glasses. This should come
as nobody's surprise that Leany's favorite drink
was homemade cucumber juice. The morning meal
in Leany household was actually a mourning meal
- seaweeds, soybeans and, of course, cucumber
juice. Lunch consisted of crispy lettuce wraps.
Dinner time at Leany's looked like a raw-food
café` with disgusting servings of sea-vegetable
harvested off the coast of Japan, loaded with
vitamins and minerals and Yerba tea, high in
antioxidants with carrot flax crackers for extra
taste and nutrition. Leany was left to himself
walking a righteous but lonely path for the
rest of his life. 
"There are no atheists in foxholes" was widely
spoken during World War II - and no one denied
it. Recently, an atheist was writing negatively
about Christianity and aligned himself with
Jews. How wrong can you be? If there is a fence
separating the believers from the Godless, Jews
are on the same side of the fence as Christians
and Muslims. Judaism, Christianity and Islam
honor one God. But, it is my hope to tear down
all fences. 
In a time and place long ago, there were hard-times
in which people hoarded whatever food they could
find, hiding it even from their friends and
neighbors. One day a wandering traveler came
into a village and began asking questions as
if he planned to stay for the night. "There's
not a bite to eat in the whole town," he was
told. "Better keep moving on." 
Creole Jambalaya originates from the French
Quarter of New Orleans, in the original European
sector. It was an attempt by the Spanish to
make paella in the New World, where saffron
was not readily available due to import costs.
Tomatoes became the substitute for saffron.
As time went on, French influence became strong
in New Orleans, and spices from the Caribbean
changed this New World paella into a unique
dish. In modern Louisiana, the dish has evolved
along a variety of different lines. Creole Jambalaya,
or red Jambalaya as it is called by Cajuns,
is found primarily in and around New Orleans,
where it is simply known as "Jambalaya." Creole
Jambalaya includes tomatoes, whereas Cajun Jambalaya
does not. 
Ian Ayres, a Professor at Yale Law School and
a famous economist, enlightens the readers of
Super Crunchers by presenting the concepts of
data mining, regressions, randomized trials
and other statistical theories in a practical
way with very interesting case studies. 
(Excerpts from Michael Pollan's book 'The Omnivore's
Dilemma) The meal at the end of the industrial
food chain that begins in an Iowa cornfield
is prepared by McDonald's and eaten in a moving
car. The myriad streams of commodity corn, after
being variously processed and turned into meat,
converge in all sorts of different meals people
eat at KFC, or Pizza Hut or Applebee's or bought
at the supermarket. Industrial meals are all
around us, after all; they make up the food
chain from which most of us eat most of the
time. Chicken nuggets constitute its own genre
of food for American children, many of whom
eat nuggets every day. A lot of thought goes
into a nugget, that and a lot of corn. Of the
thirty-eight ingredients it takes to make a
McNugget, thirteen are derived from corn: the
corn-fed chicken itself; modified cornstarch;
mono-. Tri-, and diglycerides; dextrose; lecithin;
chicken broth; yellow corn flour; filler; vegetable
shortening; hydrogenated corn oil; and citric
acid as a preservative 
The
Think Club Publications has chosen The Trillion
Dollar Meltdown - Easy Money, High Rollers and
the Great Credit Crash by Charles R. Morris,
published by Public Affairs, New York for the
Book of the Year Award for 2008. Think Club
Publication is a forum to encourage independent
thinking among fellow human beings. This annual
award is given to the author whose idea or ideas
can contribute to the resolution of contemporary
human problems based on his or her original
and independent thinking.
Barack Obama's resounding victory has brought
even the most cynical observers of party politics
to dare to hope, believing that they will soon
be witnessing the most progressive presidential
administration of their lifetime. This hope
rests largely upon Obama's personal history
as a community organizer. There are several
aspects of Obama's personal history which would
seem to indicate empathy for those less fortunate.
One, of course, is the fact that he is a black
man in a racist society. Another is that he
grew up in Indonesia (a poor Asian country)
and Hawaii (the most racially diverse and economically
stratified state.) More significant, however,
is Obama's political history. Obama is the product
of a progressive grassroots tradition. At Occidental
College in the early 1980s, he became immersed
in the anti-apartheid movement. Though there
have certainly been student activists from the
late 1960s who later moved well to the right,
left-wing campus activism was not nearly as
trendy during Obama's college years, which were
during the heyday of the Reagan Era, when College
Republicans were often the largest and most
visible political group on many campuses 
We are human animals. We are inherently bad.
Therefore, we have rules, laws and codes of
conduct to abide by. Our thoughts, feelings
and behavior, if good, are shaped by our individual
experiences and environment. Good behaviors
are learned behaviors. They are not innate.
Human nature tends to be evil in a 'state of
nature.' It can be virtuous and moral only in
a controlled environment. Basically, all humans
are evil. If left alone, evil is inescapable
and will turn everyone evil. This is evident
in mob tendencies where law and order fail.
This is evident among powerful people because
'power corrupts and absolute power corrupts
absolutely.' This is evident among people who
can get away unpunished. 
The last time I talked to you, I wanted to work
on winning the Nobel Peace Prize. I have since
changed my mind just like the economists do
with their forecasts. You guessed right, now
I have decided to become an economist and spare
this great nation a few dimes. I know I'm not
qualified, but if you let me, I promise that
I will perform as well as any economist has
in recent memory - at a fraction of the cost.
That's called comparative advantage. Let the
billion-dollar economists worry about winning
another Nobel Prize or turning the obvious into
incomprehensible 
The news of my retirement has spread in the
shape of my imminent demise all over the globe.
My aunt called me from a remote Himalayan village
in India and demanded an answer to her question,
"Now that you have retired, what are you doing
in America?" It is true that most of us didn't
come here because we loved America. Initially
the idea was to earn 'mucho dinero' and then
return to our villages in the old country, anyway.
For my aunt, America is a big town where money
grows on trees, Now that I have retired and
might have raked enough leaves, it was time
for me to return to my old village and prepare
for death like many of my uncles and their cousins
did. 
Why
Will I Not Vote?
Leaving
General Motors
We
Must Vote
Hot
Flat and Crowded
Wait
'til I Win the Nobel Peace Prize
Should
the Electoral College be Abolished?
Substance
Over Symbalism
Forgotten
Mathematics
Baden
Baden Bollywood
Pay
It Now
A
Nation of Wimps
Obama's
Nomination And The World Press
Should
Athletes Be Role Models?
Truth
And Perception
There
Is No Stopping India Now
Giving:
How Each Of Us Can Change The World
Creating
A World Without Poverty
Angel
Inside
Jugaad
- An Introduction
Laughter
In Real Life
The
United States Of North America
Women
Are Angels
Who
Is Afraid Of Hispanic Majority?
The
Next World War?
Women's
Accomplishments
Is
It Time For A Woman President?
Einstein