Sense amongst Madness - Wit amongst Folly

My dear Albert,

Yesterday I received your dear letter and was very happy with it. I was already afraid you wouldn’t write to me at all any more. You told me when I was in Zurich, that it is awkward for you when I come to Zurich. Therefore I think it is better if we get together in a different place, where nobody will interfere with our comfort. I will in any case urge that each year we spend a whole month together, so that you see that you have a father who is fond of you and who loves you. You can also learn many good and beautiful things from me, something another cannot as easily offer you. What I have achieved through such a lot of strenuous work shall not only be there for strangers but especially for my own boys. These days I have completed one of the most beautiful works of my life, when you are bigger, I will tell you about it.

I am very pleased that you find joy with the piano. This and carpentry are in my opinion for your age the best pursuits, better even than school. Because those are things which fit a young person such as you very well. Mainly play the things on the piano which please you, even if the teacher does not assign those. That is the way to learn the most, that when you are doing something with such enjoyment that you don’t notice that the time passes. I am sometimes so wrapped up in my work that I forget about the noon meal. . . .

Be with Tete [Albert's brother] kissed by your

Papa.

Regards to Mama.

from  http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/06/14/einstein-letter-to-son/

Here are three Victoria homes of note, now suffering Mr. Market’s spanking.

• “Eagles Landing.” 3275 Campion Rd . Originally listed at $10.8 million. Now $6.7 million.
• “Ardmore Hall.” 9344 Ardmore Drive. First listed at $13 million, then reduced to $8.4 million, then $7.99 million, and (this week) $6,188,000.
• “Villa Madrona.” 660 Lands End Road. It hit the market at $19.2 million, became $18.7 million, then $9.9 million, and (this week) $6,998,000

The total dollar reduction for these three homes is almost $27 million, for an average decline of 57.5%. Bankruptcy trustees are circling like vultures?

Benedict Evans  of Enders Analysis, in a presentation called Publishing and Platform Wars: Big Tech Players, Their Strategies, and How they Impact the Publishing Business, took a look at the ways Apple, Android, Amazon and the like are positioned to impact publishing now and into the future.

Short version – Mobile is eating the world.  Long version here

In the dream, he is in a bookshop.  It is a dark, filthy place, with a low ceiling and a drooping staircase that leads up to a small attic.  The shelves bend their backs under the weight of dusty volumes   A heady smell of incense from the back room mingles with a whiff of dust and mould in the air.

Matjek squints at the handwritten shelf labels in the dim light.  They have changed since the last time, and list esoteric topics.  Fire-eaters. Human Cannonballs. Poison Resisters.  Wall of Death Riders.  Multiple Mental Marvels.  Escapolosists.

His pulse quickens, and he reaches for a small volume in curly, golden letters.  He loves the stories in his dreams, although he can never quite remember them when he wakes up.  He opens the book and starts reading.

The cannon ball man never loved her, even though he told her so many times.  His only true love was flying, that sensation of being blasted out of the mouth of the great iron thing that his grandfather cast out of metal that was said to come from a rock that fell from the sky.  he wanted a wife like a thing he should have, another tool to keep the great mechanism he and the cannon formed together in working order, but love was the wrong word for it-

Matjek blinks.  It’s not the right story.  It does not lead to the thief.

He jumps when someone coughs behind him and he slams the book shut.  If he turns around, he will see the lanky shopkeeper sitting behind the counter, looking at him disapprovingly, eyes wild, grey chest hairs peeking out from the buttonhole of a stained shirt, unshaven face full of malice.  Then he will wake up.

Matjek shakes his head.  Tonight, he is not just a dreamer.  He is on a mission.  Carefully, he replaces the book in the shelf and starts walking up the stairs. (more…)

Hate getting interrputed while thinking?  Here is the perfect thing – this clever device detects your brainwaves, and when the wearer is concentrating, communicates wirelessly with your phone and blocks all calls!

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-04-18/innovator-ruggero-scorcionis-app-uses-brain-waves-to-block-calls

One of my top 5 writers is Polish Science Fiction writer Stanislaw Lem (1921 – 2006), perhaps best known for his amazing work, the 1961 Solaris, later made into a movie with George Clooney.

One of the most famous scenes, and typical of Lem, is

“What is happening here?”
“I can tell you what is happening, but I don’t think that would tell you what’s happening.”

and

“We came to study Solaris.  It is studying us”

Both of which sum up Lem’s work.   Brilliant, interesting and completely different.

He has been called the most widely read science fiction writer in the world, with his books translated into 41 languages and over 27 million copies sold.

His works explore philosophical themes; speculation on technology, the nature of intelligence, the impossibility of mutual communication and understanding, despair about human limitations and mankind’s place in the universe.  Heavy going, but worth the effort.  Although – if you don’t like philosophical themes, Lem is definitely not for you. (more…)

Wonderful photo-essay slideshow of the Philadelphia newsroom. Takes a few minutes to load.

http://willsteacy.com/projects/deadline/

Cyprus? Let’s see…, a 2-week old government that cut a deal with the troika. A little over a week later, the Finance minister responsible for the deal has resigned and president Anastasiades’ son in law stands accused of transferring €21 million out of Laiki Bank to a UK bank one week prior to the deal (along with at least 100 other well connected savers).

Less than a week after the bailout deal was announced, Cyprus was handed extra time to implement the deal’s measures, and depositors are cut for much higher percentages than “estimated”. This is a set pattern, not an unfortunate course of events. It’s like Groucho’s line: “These are my principles!. And if you don’t like them, I have others…”. Turns out, the entire deal was a con game from the get go, and the entire eurozone is well on its way there too.

The IMF “gives” €1 billion because Cyprus has such a great set of economic “reform” measures, i.e. fire who you can, cut pensions and benefits where you can, raise taxes and sell your most valuable public assets. Cypriots have no idea what’s going to hit them. Oh, and the president announced that a casino will be opened soon.

Michalis Sarris, the Finance minister who brokered the troika deal and resigned, had a 30-odd year career at World Bank, and has an earlier term in the same post from September 2005 till March 2008. He was also a longtime non-executive chairman at Laiki Bank during the time it made the investments that brought it down, and became more actively involved at the bank in 2012 to “cleanse” it in order to comply with the troika bailout. Either a man who knows how to get the job done or a man who raises a few suspicions, take your pick.

From http://theautomaticearth.com/Finance/the-only-way-forward-for-europe-is-splittsville.html

Whither now publishing?  Indeed!   The list of old media companies slowly sinking grows longer.

Time Warner is trying to sell its stable of ‘iconic’ magazines,  People, InStyle, and Real Simple, among others, while retaining Time, Sports Illustrated and Forbes.  Oh, but they would be spun off into a separate company for ‘tax purposes,’ which really means they lose money.

Readers Digest has filed for bankruptcy, for the second time in 4 years. (more…)