If we're not "a nanny state," then we've become a nation of overcautious risk managers, also known as wimps. They don't play American football in China, but I believe that if they did, not only would they have played this game, but 300,000 fans would have marched barefoot through the drifts for 15 miles to get to the stadium, drilling each other with advanced calculus problems as they walked.
In a few years, they'll come here and conquer what's left of America while we huddle on our TV-room couches to keep safe and warm, watching "A Christmas Story" on TBS for the ninth time after a forecast of flurries has canceled the entire NFL schedule.
#7
Due to public safety concerns in light of today's snow emergency...
Yeah right...like they really care about the average schlub hitting the ditch. On the other hand, how many luxury suite holders were unable to book a flight into Philly due to the weather?
Andy Xie's latest sees the liquidity war getting worse in 2011.
America will continue to pump the financial system with liquidity via tax cuts and quantitative easing. China will keep the yuan cheap and avoid clamping down on inflation.
The tense equilibrium can't last for long, as either sovereign debt or inflation gets too heavy to bear. Whoever lasts longer, wins.
#2
On the other hand, if China has a hard landing, the U.S.'s trade deficit can drop dramatically, maybe by 50 percent, due to lower import prices.
Does that mean we can expect to see even more prastic clap from China when we go to WalMart?
Posted by: Abu Uluque (new computer) ||
12/28/2010 12:20 Comments ||
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#3
If China has a hard landing, would would all those trillions we owe them disappear?
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
12/28/2010 13:58 Comments ||
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#4
America's finances would be in great shape if extorted union pension liabilities were reduced. During California's fiscal crisis - or catastrophe - it was learned that 5 ex cops were raking in over $500,000 per year in pensions, while working on the side. LA cops get pensions equal to 90% of wages (over the last 5 years of a 25 year service). The Feds need to support State moves against the extortionist, and go after their own at the same time. Reminder: court officers - including judges, cops and prosecutors - form less than 0.2% of America's population. Knock those parasites down a couple of notches, and the country will get fiscal stability.
Modern man may have evolved in the Middle East rather than Africa, it has been claimed, after the discovery of remains said to be more than 400,000 years old.
#6
Interesting. That is roughly the period where the Sumerian texts place the first appearance of A.DA.MU (human being), at about 115 Shar (1 Shar = 3600 year period). These A.DA.MU (able servant) were produced from indigenous MidEast troglodytes (paleostinians?), by admixture of Anunaki genetic material (whoever the Anunaki were). The goal was to create an intelligent, yet docile servant breed that would then be employed in south African mines, after a revolt of lower Anunaki that went on a strike because of appalling working conditions.
Male and female were produced (E.BA.KI -- from the mud of earth, while BA also means a rib) and the term was later used to designate females (E.BA).
The experiment was riddled with problems from inception. The designers did not consider some unintended consequences. The females were taking on traits of Ninhursag, a female donor of the genetic makeup. She was, in modern parlance, a bit slutty. About a half of E.BA were hypergamous, with a strong pull towards a brute physique or upper levels of social hierarchy--simply a faulty wiring working its ways in the hindbrain.
E.BA started to inbreed with the troglodytes (first sin--bestiality, as seen by Anunaki, I am not sure about the apple and snake significance, though the snake may be a representation of a helix and the apple is a fruit of tree of knowledge--the story of A.DA.MU on Sumerian cylindrical seals contains both elements--the snake is actually double snake, e.g. double helix and the tree may represent intelligence, while the reference of recognition of being nekkid may be an obscure notion of recognition of sexuality). That was not the end of it. E.BA couldn't keep their knees together when approached by lower Anunaki (second sin)--despite almost certain death at childbirth because the mixed breed fetuses has a larger skull circumference.
Anunaki devised a strict set of laws that governed the social interaction and behavior of A.DA.MU/E.BA.
In time, Anunaki left as they depleted the supply of bi-atomic heavy metals and perhaps also due to the political situation in their homeland (so the Sumerian materials say) and left the mankind to their own devices, as attempts to "cleanup" (= getting rid of the genetic experiment) after the mining ceased were not successful.
The troglo/human mix merged into the general population and the Anunaki/human mix did not survive the recurrent famines that followed after Anunaki departure, because of their food intake requirements.
The rules that were set by Anunaki kept the humans going most of the time. Only when these rules are disregarded through pride (haughty, arrogant mind set), like at the end of Babylonian Empire, during the sunset of Roman period, or present, when females are able to express their hypergamous wiring, the trouble and strife follows.
The males do not see any advantage in forming long term relationship with harpys that can't even assure the offspring paternity and population starts to decline, wiping out the fragile scaffolding of the civilization. In time, only the lineages that are based on less hypergamous females will carry on. The civilization will re-emerge. But the seed of the demise will be there at the inception, on a borrowed time, eating at the foundations. In a millennium or two, people will forget the rules and the reason why they exist, thinking these are backward and insult to their sensibilities, and the cycle will repeat itself.
#8
or the teeth might be from an offshoot of Neanderthal (there is abundant evidence of Neanderthal habitation in the mideast during this period).
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
12/28/2010 12:20 Comments ||
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#9
Lord Garth, true that, used troglodytes instead. However, there are differences between HSS and HSN teeth and I suspect that the researchers involved can tell them apart.
#11
So now we have a new species in Siberia contemporaneous with Homo sap. and H. neanderthalis,(Denovians, or something like that), the Hobbits, and a significantly earlier emergence of Homo sap.
Abraham emigrated from Mesopotamia, he wasn't born in Canaan.
#12
Gorb, some Indian sources postulate a devolution of man rather than evolution. But, there is a bit of evidence that the modern man is a designer creature. No matter how one splices it (pun intended), the fusion of 2-3 chromosomes is a unique feature that is only documented in our species.
#13
TW, I am but a humble messenger. The Sumerian sources say what they say and I am just retelling the skeleton of it.
And yes, Abram was a city of Ur official that moved into Ka'nan and morphed into Abraham. A lot of the Sumerian narrative went with him. It got a bit condensed and garbled in time. If one wants the story in it's original form, Sumerian sources are the way to go.
#14
Agreed that there is a clear derivation in the Genesis creation and pre-flood stories from Sumerian roots, twobyfour. But the bits about bi-atomic heavy metals, and your last two paragraphs referring events long beyond the Sumerian period? And while I have no problem with mines "south, in Africa", mines "in South Africa" strikes me as a bit of a stretch back when ideas of geography were fairly hazy once one got beyond regional trading partners.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/28/2010 15:59 Comments ||
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#16
TW, Sumerian AB.ZU (down end/down tip--is likely referring to south Africa, (not to South Africa). It is more a matter of conjecture, of course, but the mines in Zimbabwe and further south were in use decidedly at least about 60ky BP. The standard explanation is that because of red ochre, but red ochre was easily obtainable by surface mining.
As for the bi-atomic form of metals... This is more likely than what Sumerian sources say (gold--though it can be also in bi-atomic form). The existence of bi-atomic (rather than mono-atomic) forms is not presently acknowledged in text books for both, but they do exist. It is a special physical state that is unstable (not like isotopes, though you need a lot of energy to form this state, and it decays over time by splitting into mono-atomic open configuration that for most of the elements means oxidization or more complex bonds with other elements. salts etc.). Bi-atomic metals have interesting properties that are unlike metals. They are also non-metallic in appearance, more akin to white ash. There is one seal that depicts miners with an image of two connected dots. It is doubtful that the workers mined O2 (oxygen).
As for the events long past the Sumerian period. If the story of Anunaki is correct and the makeup of humans is as these stories claimed, then wouldn't it be obvious that this specific makeup would come about again and again?
Whenever a form of feminism appears in the society, it is a sure sign of decline and unraveling, it may be more of a symptom tha a cause, but the result is the same. This is valid for all three periods mentioned. One important aspect needs to be stressed out, the feminism is not meant as a concept of equality, but of a female privilege. The Babylonian period may be more of a conjecture though some indications of an established female privilege are present. But the Roman period and our days, there is little doubt that this factor plays a significant role.
#17
I have a feeling that this may have been what you were dubbing as silliness: "The males do not see any advantage in forming long term relationship with harpys that can't even assure the offspring paternity..."
Google "marriage strike".
My 24 years old daughter deals with this issue on a regular basis. Once she even meekly mentioned a marriage, her 3 consecutive BFs bailed out. Can you guess why?
It sucks for her, but I understand why they are doing it.
#18
I would bet on the fertile environments in mid Africa, as the ideal spot for human evolution. The Middle East wasn't populated until irrigation was developed.
#20
fossil remains indicate the primitives were incapable of intelligent communication, but they could ululate with the best of em
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/28/2010 19:01 Comments ||
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#21
Where do students in the US believe civilization began?
My guess is a few centuries ago in New England!
Seriously i came back from a visit to my cousins in Dulles, Virginia and their kids knowledge of the rest of the world geography and history is terrible!
World Geography/history not being taught in standard education is a disgrace!
Posted by: Paul D ||
12/28/2010 19:19 Comments ||
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#22
Paul D, the lack of serious geography & history curriculum provides a pool of pliable and conformist "citizens". Fertile minds you can stuff with almost anything (AGW, anyone?).
Here in Canuckistan it is not as bad, but I still had to homeschool in addition to the school curriculum because I couldn't stand a thought my daughter would be nearly illiterate.
#23
These oh so smart scientist find a tooth and start speculating about human beginings; yet no one can figure out where Obama was born ~50 years ago.
#24
twobyfour, send your daughter down to Cincinnati. The men here prefer wives to girlfriends -- it allows them to concentrate on their careers. ;-)
PaulD, your guess was both foolish and rude. American schoolchildren are taught world history in the primary grades, and again at the secondary level, but you're quite right -- that doesn't constitute civilization. (See how easy it is to flippantly dismiss everything not-us as ignorant and worthless?) Actually, the trailing daughters not only got world history in the primary grades, but also a course in the main religions of the world: Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism. They'd learnt about paganism of the Classic period when they studies the Classic period. It was quite interesting to read the web pages the sixth years created as their final "report" on the subject.
Go read The Anti-American Obsession by Jean François Revel. You've spouted off quite ignorantly about Americans quite a few times, and it's become tiresome. It's time you exerted yourself a little to become educated on the subject... and as the book is only about the length of a short novel, and written in the simple American style, you should be able to handle it easily.
airandee, the paleontologists say something like, "fossils are merely how teeth create more teeth," referring to the fact that most fossils consist of no more than a tooth or two, from which the paleontologists reconstruct the entire creature. The actual quote is much more clever, but I can't think of it right now.
#25
PaulD, my apologies. I am the one who was rude. I somehow didn't read the second part of your post, about your young American cousins in Dulles.
When we were in Germany I was shocked by what their children learnt about America and the world beyond Europe. I'm sure it's the same in Britain -- in 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff, which is a selection from twenty years of letters between her and the staff of a London book shop at the address of the title, one of the shop clerks admitted to never having known that England owned the U.S. -- back in 1959, when education everywhere was more demanding than it is nowadays.
Again, my apologies for not checking my comprehension before posting. It is a fault I'm trying to work on.
#26
TW, kinda true about paleontologists. However, if you have a few teeth that re practically indistinguishable from modern human teeth, the likelihood that you are dealing with a modern type of a human being is nearly 100%.
Re my daughter... She was not inclined to listen to my life lessons until now. She is now at the point when she is able to accept that parents may actually know a thing or two. It will work out, with my gentle steering.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
