I am number 1.  

Ynet

In biblical times they could be found on every street corner, preaching God's word to sinners in a rumbling voice and shining eyes. A new course opening this week aims to restore passed glory and train the next generations of Jewish prophets - for the first time since the days of the Second Temple.

[...]

So what does one need to know to become a modern prophet? According to the course's syllabus, the future prophets will learn about face reading, dream interpretation and ways to achieve divine spirit.

The school's core studies also include an introduction on the angels' ways of communication and participation in our lives.

The course will take place on Tuesdays at the Palterin Shel Melech spiritual center in Tel Aviv. Each participant attending 10 one-hour lectures will receive a prophet's diploma. Registration costs NIS 200 (about $52).

The name of the school is the "Cain and Able School of Prophets". I prophesize that it won't end well.

this morning. They had their first November with no rain in Texas weather history. Temperature may go to 26C today.

Here in the Columbia River Gorge, we have not had a hard freeze as yet. No snow either. I think that I read that we had the longest stretch with no rain (July through October) in our weather history, too.

On the other hand it was one of the most colorful Autumns that I've seen here (33 years). The Vine Maple are always gorgeous, but they seemed to be brighter than usual in the forests. The more remarkable colors were the golds of the Cottonwoods - very Aspen-like this year - and the red-browns of the Oregon White Oaks. Most years, they're kind of dull yellow and brown-brown, respectively. I generally ascribe it to the Autumn rains.

Traveling to Yakima for the various campaign events was an eye-opener for me. It's quasi-desert on about 1/4 of the trip - sort of prairie taken over by sagebrush - but there are millions of Balsamroot Daisies and Lupines just waiting for the appropriate conditions to carpet the place. Very fun year, if non-average.

paul spencer

Stumbling and mumbling: ECONOMISTS AS DENTISTS (November 23, 2012)

Is the "crisis" in economics one of the content of the discipline, or rather of its social function? I ask because of a point made by Ronald Coase:

The degree to which economics is isolated from the ordinary business of life is extraordinary and unfortunate (hat tip to Paul).

It's certainly unfortunate, because the economics that can help people with the "ordinary business of life" is actually thriving.As I've said in the IC, there's a tremendous amount economics can offer to investors.We know the distribution of asset returns and therefore their risks. We know the cognitive biases that can lead to widespread poor investment performance, and we can both quantify their effects and identify some of the stock market anomalies they generate. And we know about the maths of how to diversify. All this, and more, allows us to give useful investment advice.

...

But is it even logically possible to foresee the future? G.L.S Shackle thought not, because individuals' choices, which are what determine economic outcomes, are not forecastable - and his argument has been ignored rather than rebutted. And Gary Gorton has said that "Financial crises are not predictable", in part because they arise from cascade-type behaviour which cannot be foreseen.

...

Instead, I suspect there's another reason why economics is thought to be in crisis. It's because, as Coase says, (some? many?) economists lost sight of ordinary life and people, preferring to be policy advisors, theorists or - worst of all - forecasters.

For some reason, I don't find "economists as inverstment advisors" all that useful. Surely the problem is not that economists tried to advise policy, but that they did from scientifically unsound and ideologically motivated positions.

And the post tries to sell us a Keynes that would have been content with being an investment advisor, which he clearly wasn't.

I distribute. You re-distribute. He gives your hard-earned money to lazy scroungers. -- JakeS

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/12/private-manned-mission/

Secret Moon Mission?

Ilunga

Tshiluba (Southwest Congo) - A word famous for its untranslatability, most professional translators pinpoint it as the stature of a person "who is ready to forgive and forget any first abuse, tolerate it the second time, but never forgive nor tolerate on the third offense."
Read more at http://matadornetwork.com/abroad/20-awesomely-untranslatable-words-from-around-the-world/#xYdqXzjGHl 537Zva.99

Presseurop: Hague verdicts stoke old war feud (3 December 2012, TYGODNIK POWSZECHNY, Poland)

Although it's been more than two weeks since the acquittal of the Croat generals Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markač - accused of committing war crimes during the Serb-Croat war in the 1990s - emotions in the region have continued to run high. Each side explains their release differently; for the Serbs, it is a scandal and yet more proof of the anti-Serbian bias and one-sidedness of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY). For the Croats, the ruling came as confirmation of the legitimacy of Operation Storm, which took place in the summer of 1995, when Croatian forces retook much of the territory previously seized by the Serbs, and a triumphal victory in an ongoing Balkan dispute: who was the victim in the war and who the aggressor.

...

The acquittal and subsequent release of Gotovina - who is a national hero - and Markač, was received with extraordinary enthusiasm in Croatia. In most cities the reading of the Hague verdict was broadcast live on large screens in public places. Many viewers prayed silently in anticipation of the ruling. After the acquittal, the madness began. Veterans cried openly, and so did the women and the war-wounded.

...

Everyone was surprised, though, by Ante Gotovina's comment, when he was asked by the Belgrade tabloid daily Kurir if he himself would call upon Serbs to return to Krajina: "How can I call upon anyone to return to their own home? It's their home! They [Serbs] are citizens of Croatia. They are with us. We are together. We must go on. The future belongs to us. The past is past."

Gotovina's public statements visibly distancing himself from the most belligerent and nationalist elements in politics and popular culture are leaving the right wing puzzled. Now even some start calling Gotovina himself a traitor. Meanwhile, Serbian government rhetoric and diplomacy have hardened substantially.

I distribute. You re-distribute. He gives your hard-earned money to lazy scroungers. -- JakeS