Monty Python explain the business of banking. Surprisingly topical.
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Mitt Romney is giving up
Mitt Romney has realised that with every interview, every press conference and every further day in the US presidential campaign, he will embarrass himself more. So he does the only right thing: Mitt Romney withdraws from the presidential race 2012 before having to undergo further embarrassment in the televised debates with President Barack Obama.
“Paul, I am so fed up with the campaign already, please take it over from here.”
Today, Mitt Romney announced that Paul Ryan will be “the next President of the United States of America”, meaning that Barack Obama will be re-elected in November 2012 and Paul Ryan’s chance will come in 2016.
The Greenest Art Museum in the World: Europos Parkas
Yesterday, I found out that the guidebooks which state “Lithuania is perfect for cycling because it is almost completely flat” are wrong. When I cycled the 23 km to Europos Parkas – or “Park of Europe” – from my home in Vilnius, it was one hill after the other. Up and down, up and down. And the same on the way back. But it was a beautiful day trip.
Europos Parkas is an art museum in the forest. It covers a huge area with natural forests, clearings and lakes. There are hundreds of sculptures, but the park is so large that it doesn’t feel cluttered at all. It’s a beautiful place to get lost in and to become surprised by what you can find in this magical forest.
There are exhibits from small
to large.
From massive structures
to delicate ones.
Incorporating the ground,
the water,
and the air.
One of the most famous sculptures is the LNK Infotree for which people could donate old TV sets. Unfortunately, it is no longer visible in its original enormous size, but it is still something impressive to stumble upon during a stroll through the forest.
A few more photos, randomly selected:
I hope you got a feeling for the variety of the art at Europos Parkas. For me, despite the numerous artwork on exhibit, the forest itself was the most beautiful component of this outdoor museum.
(C) for all photos: Andreas Moser on 9 August 2012
More defections in Syria
After defections by the Syrian Prime Minister and Syria’s only astronaut, I am just waiting for one more final defection.
Asma, you can put an end to this terror!
Celebrations at NASA
This is what 2.5 billion $ get you at NASA: a room full of people hugging each other.
And for that, you don’t even get cigars which used to be part of any proper NASA celebration.
Russian TV explains Geography
Living in Lithuania, I also receive some Russian TV channels. On one of them, I spotted this show in which the size of Russia is compared to the size of other countries.
Not so fast, Usain Bolt
Whenever somebody says “Usain Bolt is the fastest man in the world”, I cringe. My sense of logic feels under attack by this sentence – and by similar outrageous statements.
I am not saying that Usain Bolt could not be the fastest man in the world, but I am saying that we can’t know. And I am not even thinking of jet fighter pilots or astronauts falling back to earth. My objection remains valid if I restrict it to people walking or running.
There are 7 billion people in the world, half of them men, and – at a very low estimate – again at least half of them able to run. That’s 1.75 billion people.
Anyone who makes the claim that Usain Bolt is the fastest man in the world would need to know for sure that none of these other 1,750,000,000 people runs faster. How could anybody know?? There could be faster runners who never bothered to compete in races. There could be faster runners who couldn’t afford to compete. There could be faster runners who prefer to keep their talent a secret. If I could run as fast, I still wouldn’t want to come to the Olympics because I don’t like big crowds, for example.
Yes, these are the kind of logical fallacies that irritate me like hell me when listening to the news.
Most Important Investment Advice # 3
James Bond “Skyfall” Trailer
After the rather disappointing first teaser trailer, here is the first full trailer for “Skyfall”, the new James Bond film due for 26 October 2012.
As a big fan of James Bond, it hurts me to say this, but I am not yet convinced. Rather the contrary. Let’s hope the producers are only playing the game of low expectations.
How can you take a villain like him seriously?
= = = = =
UPDATE
= = = = =
I have now seen Skyfall and it was better than expected. Read my review.
Milton Friedman, 1912-2006
If there was a market for Milton Friedman, he would still be around.
To be fair, he actually influenced my economic and political thinking a bit, especially in my younger years. I liked the general liberal outlook and the idea of the negative income tax. But like most economists, he was too simplistic after all, just looking at numbers and models instead of the people. That’s how you end up going to Chile in 1975 and talking about inflation instead of political prisoners. Wrong priority.
The Happy Hermit 