On the serious and complicated business of being a kid:

Carson Black, analyst who exposed massive fraud in (former) stock market darling,  Canada/Chinese forestry giant Sino-Forest  :

“I even combed my hair forward for a ‘Dumb and Dumber’ look.  I tried to sound really dumb and speak even more slowly than usual.  I went in with a rumpled appearance.  I just tried to seem like an idiot”

New polling out this week shows that Americans are frustrated with the world and pessimistic about the future. They’re losing patience with the economy, with their prospects, with their leaders (of both parties).

What’s actually happening is this: we’re realizing that the industrial revolution is fading. The 80 year long run that brought ever-increasing productivity (and along with it, well-paying jobs for an ever-expanding middle class) is ending.

It’s one thing to read about the changes the internet brought, it’s another to experience them. People who thought they had a valuable skill or degree have discovered that being an anonymous middleman doesn’t guarantee job security. Individuals who were trained to comply and follow instructions have discovered that the deal is over… and it isn’t their fault, because they’ve always done what they were told.

This isn’t fair of course. It’s not fair to train for years, to pay your dues, to invest in a house or a career and then suddenly see it fade. Read full article at Seth Godwin Blog

A fascinating look at the Elite and an examination of how firm their grip on the status quo is from Charles Hugh Smith.

Turns out there are quite a few people who want things to stay exactly the way they are. A surprising number of different groups actually – which is better than just a few.

The Elite would like to keep everything as is – for now at least. Never underestimate a Black Swan event where something totally unpredictable changes everything, like 9/11, the rise of the Internet, Google, or Facebook. Or, maybe… a vegetable seller in Tunisia.

Paradoxically, the firmer the Elite keep their grip, and the more they control, the more likely they are to lose everything in a chance event.

Following up on my recent post on Commenting Online, the Vancouver Sun reports on the growing trend of legal action against online comments. Seems that just because you are ‘online’ doesn’t mean you can say whatever you want!

Hotels incensed by critical travel reviews have threatened legal action, commenters on a newspaper’s website have found themselves sued, and anonymity is fast-disappearing as a safeguard for loose-lipped and libellous online comments.

“In posting things online, [a lot of people] often have this illusion that they are anonymous,” said Bryan Baynham QC of the commercial litigation group at Harper Grey LLP.

“The reality is that there is often information identifying you.”

Read more:

Here is some great contrarian advice for bloggers from Anis Shivani is the author of Anatolia and Other Stories (2009). And come to think of it, great advice on living a creative life.

1. Disobey the system
2. Ignore Publicity
3. Shun Crowds
4. Seek Unemployment
5. Converse only with the Classics
6. Refuse Recognition
7. Don’t Pursue a Niche
8. Aim for Zero Audience
9. Accept Failure
10. Think Small

Details and full article here

One of my favorite blogs, The Satorialist, a fashion blog by Scott Schuman in New York. A satorialist, is a person interested in sartorialism, which is an interest in matters of or relating to the tailoring of clothing.

Always interesting to see how normally intelligent people, or so I assume, suddenly become complete jerks when they go online.

Paul Krugman at NYT recently updated his comments rules. A little hilarious. Or even funnier is dailykos comments which are posted as the Saturday Hate Mail-a-palooza. Basically if you call him stupid or use profanity you get deleted.

Dr. Krugman is a Nobel Prize winning economist and clearly a very smart guy. Why bother arguing about economics with a Ph.D. from MIT?

Now if Dr. K. wanted to hold forth on Marketing or other subjects unrelated to economics, then I would probably take issue but arguing about economics?

From the Automatic Earth a pessimistic and sobering message for the new year. Although I don’t like to dwell on the negative, there is truth that can’t be denied.

Time for reflection. Whether you’re stuck at JFK or Charles de Gaulle, smugly snowed in with friends and loved ones, freezing in the dark because your bills ain’t getting paid, surfing in the Pacific or scraping for food in the tropical heat , whether you’re Julian Assange or Michail Khodorkovsky, we can all use some time to think about how we got here, wherever here is. Why do we do what we do, why do we let others do to us what they do?

As our world is increasingly being gutted from within, morally, economically and politically, as we have handed control over our essential needs to a few handfuls of semi-psychopaths who have never had to think about what is essential and what is not, we might do well to ponder why, throughout history, we have always gladly and willingly surrendered control over our fates and lives, as soon as someone, anyone, held up a picture that was so rosy it was clearly too good to be true.

We always have and always will find a way to believe in that picture no matter how incredible it looks. Today’s themes are familiar ones: recovery and economic growth, laced with a spiced-up sauce of fear of different people, different religions, different lands, and topped off with a promise of better days ahead. We’re genetically programmed to buy it all hook, line and sinker. We can’t help ourselves. In the meantime, all the wealth we have left continues to be stolen from underneath our very eyes. By the very people who promise us recovery and better days. And we can’t see it, we refuse to reflect. Our need to believe functions as a giant blind spot.

We are the ultimate tragic species. We can watch ourselves destroy all we have, and all we dream of, but we can’t stop ourselves from doing it