Not A Mystery

Just finished listening to “Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman” by John Krakauer.

It’s a well written and timely (believe it or not) account, which I can recommend.

Like the men whose epic stories Jon Krakauer has told in his previous bestsellers, Pat Tillman was an irrepressible individualist and iconoclast. In May 2002, Tillman walked away from his $3.6 million NFL contract to enlist in the United States Army. He was deeply troubled by 9/11, and he felt a strong moral obligation to join the fight against al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Two years later, he died on a desolate hillside in southeastern Afghanistan.

Not knowing anything about Pat Tillman except for a few newspaper reports about multiple investigations into his death by Friendly Fire, I picked the book because I was a fan of Krakauer’s, having enjoyed both “Into Thin Air” and “Under the Banner of Heaven”.

And I wasn’t disappointed by Krakauer’s honest, multi-dimensional portrayal of Tillman from the time he was growing up in the Bay Area until his death in Afghanistan. The book reflects a huge amount of research into what documents were publicly available, along with extensive interviews of the Rangers who trained with Tillman and were on the scene when he was killed. When you add to that the fact that the Tillman family cooperated and made Pat’s personal diaries available, the result is a credible account of his character and what motivated his decisions.

All that would have made a fine book by itself, but Krakauer also relates the history and a detailed account of what was going on in Afghanistan and Iraq simultaneously in another part of the world. These two parallel universes are merged throughout the book to create a great perspective on the person and the larger conflict.

Krakauer goes deeper into the story by attempting to explain how a series of stupendously stupid decisions could possibly have been made by the military to cover up the fact that Tillman was killed by Friendly Fire. This has gotten him ‘Blow Back’ from some military reviewers; whose argument is simply that he’s not qualified to make judgement calls on the military.

While I agree with the point that Krakauer doesn’t have the military chops to pass judgement in that area, in my opinion they miss the point. The case he makes is that politics and public pressure created an atmosphere where Tillman’s death became a Media Event and a Propaganda Event in the midst of a very complicated war. And I believe Krakauer does have the chops to make a value judgement in that area, and he presents a very credible case.

Krakauer wrote the last chapter of the book in January 2009 from Forward Operating Base Tillman, on the Afghanistan / Pakistan border, which was named for Pat. Krakauer accurately nailed everything that has come to pass over the succeeding 9 months regarding the war with insurgents and the Taliban in the tribal and border areas.

Forward Operating Base Tillman

This book is a great listen, and especially timely now as we consider the future path in Afghanistan.

These days a cup of coffee can cost more than a bottle of wine.

Which is why the “Buck Brothers” have become a household name.

4 Bucks is shorthand for Starbucks, given that the cost of a typical visit can run us $4.

2 Buck Chuck is the Charles Shaw wine that Trader Joe’s sells $2/bottle.

And I thought that was the whole family, but imagine my surprise when I discovered an errant “love child”.

Stick with me on this one for a minute while I try and explain.

In doing a simple image search on Google, looking for a picture of a Chas Shaw bottle of wine, I entered “2 Buck Chuck” into the search box.

Remember that Google is pretty smart, but it’s still just a computer. Anyway, the result of that search was … wait for it …  6-1/2″ Buck Chuck for Hardinge CNC Lathe, which is great if you work in a machine shop, but not so good in a wine bar!

And here we have a third Buck Brother, he looks to be a tall dude, over 6 feet. Actually 6 1/2. And Google picked him out because of the ’2 Buck Chuck’ embedded in the description!

6-1/2“ Buck Chuck

A Great Vintage?

As they say,

On the internet, nobody knows you’re a dog … or a Buck Chuck!

For sure.

Ignoring the very weird background graphic, what are we to make of the results of a survey taken by the Reputation Institute and reported in The Economist on National Self-Image?

The Reputation Institute who performed the survey, specializes in Corporate Reputation Management, and according to their website:

Reputations are perceptions people have of an individual or organization, be it a company, a city, or a country. These perceptions form as a result of the personal experiences that people have, the messaging they see and hear, and the third party conversations they are exposed to.

Reputation strategy is competitive strategy. Reputation initiatives drive stakeholder perceptions, which drive the likelihood of eliciting supportive behaviors, and fuel business results. Leveraging reputation allows clients to build advantage in the marketplace and reduce risk exposure.

I’m not entirely comfortable with the phrase “Reputation Management”. If you take the statements above at face value, it looks (to me) like we are into some serious Consultancy Voodoo.

But let’s just say we don’t know enough to make a judgement, and talk about the Survey.

In Dan Ariely’s book “Predictably Irrational”, he performed a number of experiments showing that if you “own” something you generally place a much higher value on it than most other people. One obvious example is real estate; another is season tickets to a famous sport franchise.

• Should we assume the same bias when people are asked about their own country? Would we get better, more objective answers, when we ask about other countries?

So let’s pair off, and get some real Reputation Rankings by asking each of these about the other:

• Israel and Iran
• India and Pakistan
• Turkey and Kurdistan
• Republicans and Democrats

There are some things you can Manage, and some things that take longer.

But no matter what, you gotta love the Aussies, happy with themselves in 1st Place and here’s a video link to demo the Aussie Spirit!

This is a milestone of sorts, our 100th post at Not A Mystery.

And so you probably say, “Big Deal”.

Fair enough.

Anyway we’ll take some time to review a few of my favorite posts. Here we go:

4011 Means Bananas

The Big 4011 Is Not A Freeway In LA allowed me to combine two of my life issues: [1] I simply cannot speak any foreign languages, and [2] Some of the automated gizmos we have to deal with every day sometimes take on a life of their own. Also I was able to get in a little dig at the French which is always a kick.

HRH As Prince

Let Them Eat Cake, And Walk It Off garnered an awful lot of hits. Perhaps because folks shared my infatuation with this picture of HRH The Prince of Wales.

The Sarko

A Day Late And A Dollar Sarko’d was a summation of a series on The Big Mac Index, at a time when the President of France was in the news. I really wanted to figure out how to get Carla Bruni into the post, since she’s a lot prettier than Sarko.

Publishers?

You Book Publishers Think You Are Sooo Intellectual This is even more timely now than when we did a series on electronic book readers. Pretty much what we’ve predicted has come to pass, and the publishing industry still can’t seem to find its derrière with both hands.

Blades Not Brains

The Swiss, Blades For Brains You’ve got to wonder where the priorities are in LA and Bern.  The ‘victim’ in the case has for years requested the authorities to give it up and leave Polanski alone. Really, it’s time to move on.

Super-Size Everything

Don’t Stop Now, Let’s Just Put Everything In Oil Drums! We’d all feel better if Congress had to live with our Health Insurance and if the nitwits who design Super-Sized detergent containers did their own laundry.

Death Can Be Profitable

What’s Better Than A Reverse Mortgage? Death Bonds! We were way ahead of the curve on Life Settlements. This was the original post that beat the NY Times by 3 months. You will read more and more about these Financial “Products” in the next few years.

There are lots more FAVS, if you would like click on the “FAV” link in the TAG CLOUD on the right side of this page.

And thanks for coming!

Sometimes odd facts can impress people. Every once in a while I give it a shot.

When I was Skyping with Matthew last week I casually mentioned  that during WWII the production line for B-24 Bombers at “The Run” (a production line set up by Henry Ford 34 miles SE of Detroit along a creek named Willow Run) rolled out an airplane every 63 minutes. And that they recruited Midgets (‘Little People‘) to work in the cramped wing spaces.

He called my bluff by saying everyone knew that, but by the way, was I familiar with Mini Kiss?

It’s a good thing I hadn’t gone ‘all in’ because he cleaned my clock on that one.

Cute? Don't Even Think of Going There.

For the two of you out there who are not familiar with this Tribute Band, here is a link to an interview on The Daily Show with the (now famous) group. This may be TMI and a tad long, but the ending is worth the wait.

Or, for a quicker hit, you can just take your pick of these Mini Kiss videos at youtube.

Now I can’t even use my favorite phrase anymore,

The short answer would be…

So now I’m on the hunt for larger, weirder facts.

And since Mattew is responsible for this shared small-bit, a final shameless plug for his website, TreasuredFinds.com, your home for Sterling Jewelry and Gifts.

And I’ll give you a hint, it’s not the Devil.

Let’s start with the 10% part. From an interview published in the WSJ with Bonnie Bassler, microbial geneticist at Princeton University:

… scientists are learning that microbes interact with humans in complex and often-useful ways. For starters, humans have one trillion cells of their own, but 10 trillion cells of bacteria. “At best,” says Dr. Bassler, “you’re only 10% human.”

And regarding the Long Tail, from Wikipedia we get:

“The Long Tail” is a concept put forth by Chris Anderson in an October 2004 Wired magazine article which described the niche strategy of businesses, such as Amazon.com or Netflix, that sell a large number of unique items, each in relatively small quantities.

What the Long Tail observes is that under the right circumstances a usually silent majority can invoke their rights and get their just desserts.

If we start with the fact that only 10% of the cells in our body is us, then perhaps it’s just possible that we only serve for the pleasure of the other 90%.

Another example is described in “The Selfish Gene” by Richard Dawkins.

The contention is that the genes that get passed on are the ones whose consequences serve their own implicit interests (to continue being replicated), not necessarily those of the organism, much less any larger level.

He also introduced the concept of self-reproducing ideas, or memes, which (seemingly) use humans exclusively for their propagation.

Which leads to the more interesting question of where the Head Ends and the Tail Begins.

Mae West was known for her bawdy quips, such as that famous Pocket Pistol quote.

She made this remark in February 1936, at the railway station in Los Angeles upon her return from Chicago, when a Los Angeles police officer was assigned to escort her home. She first delivered the line on film in She Done Him Wrong, and again to George Hamilton in her last movie, Sextette (1978).

But if Mae West was still around today, she might change her line to,

Is that a Car Key in your pocket, or are you just glad to see me?

Things have gotten out of hand (so to speak) when it comes to car keys. I didn’t know this until the other day when I was given a loaner while my own car was being serviced.

Guess Which One Does High-Def Video?

This goes right into our category of “When Did I Ask You To Super-Size Me?” posts.

In the middle of this picture is the Car Key in question. Am I really expected to carry this around in my pocket, or even better, wear it on a gold chain around my neck? Compare it to the old fashioned key to my Toyota Tacoma Truck on the right. N’uff said.

Or better yet, compare it to my latest digital camera, the Canon SD780 IS, shown on the left. The Canon shoots 12.1M pixels snapshots, and also does Hi-Def Video.

The Car Key opens a door and starts a car. (Which by the way, my Tacoma key can also accomplish.) Of course the new key also has a Panic Alarm and remote controls. But to work that it has a battery which can go dead at any time. In which case no doors, and no starting.

I knew I was getting old a while back when I came across a young woman in a car park who was unhappy because she couldn’t get into her vehicle. The battery in her remote had died and the door wouldn’t open. Luckily I was able to help by pointing out that the key on the remote fob would actually open the door as well as start the car.

Pistols or Progress, take your pick.

What is it about Warren Buffett that The Economist doesn’t like? Not only do they associate him with income inequality, they don’t even give him a credit in the footnotes. Plus, I don’t believe those are his hands holding that cash.

This is a mash-up of the first degree, and I would support Warren in a defamation claim as it makes him look like Mr. Greed.

Warren's Picture Used Without Attribution

And to even imply greed isn’t very fair if you look at recent history,

In June 2006, Buffett gave approximately 10 million Berkshire Hathaway Class B shares to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (worth approximately US$30.7 billion as of 23 June 2006) making it the largest charitable donation in history and Buffett one of the leaders in the philanthrocapitalism revolution.

You could have let Warren work for you and gain some of that wealth yourself (to give away),

According to “Rich Dad’s Guide to Investing”, written by Robert Kiyosaki, “if you had invested US$10,000 in the company in the 1950s, it would have been worth more than $200million today”.

And OK, suppose you didn’t have $10,000 in the 1950′s. You could have invested $1,000, and the result would be sitting on (only) $20 million while you read this.

But I missed that train.

Note: There’s a bit more to this than meets the eye. If you have time (sic!), note that the data came from Saez & Piketty and check out Emanuel Saez’s website, plus this Op-Ed in the Wall Street Journal. We call this ‘behind the scene eco-politics’, where ‘eco’ is short for ‘economics’.

We’ve always been a fan of The Darwin Awards,

A Darwin Award is a tongue-in-cheek honour named after evolutionary theorist Charles Darwin. Awards have been given for people who “do a service to Humanity by removing themselves from the gene pool” (i.e. lose the ability to reproduce either by death or sterilization in a stupid fashion) … “The Awards honor people who ensure the long-term survival of the human race by removing themselves from the gene pool in a sublimely idiotic fashion.”

If you’d like some examples, there is the Darwin Awards website.

The only trouble with the Darwins is that you pretty much always know the ending of the story; the subject kills themselves in a stupendously stupid fashion.

The other day we discovered the Ig Noble Prize, which attracts us because of its diversity.

Ig Nobel prizes, awarded to scientific achievements that “cannot and should not be reproduced,” are presented in the week before the real Nobel prizes are announced and are sponsored by the science humor magazine “Annals of Improbable Research.”

Of this year’s Ig Nobels, our favorite was in the category of Public Health, awarded to Elena N. Bodnar, Raphael C. Lee, and Sandra Marijan of Chicago, Illinois, USA, for inventing a brassiere that, in an emergency, can be quickly converted into a pair of protective face masks, one for the brassiere wearer and one to be given to some needy bystander.

Even better, Paul Krugman our favorite Nobel Laureate in Economics [who also writes on the Opinion Page of the NY Times], personally donned the device during the recent awards ceremony at Harvard University.

Bodner With 3 Real Nobels, Krugman On The Far Right

Not only did Bodnar, Marijan, and Lee receive their Iggy, they also were granted a US Patent.

Terror Attacks Or Swine Flue, We Are Protected

The only downside is that if they ever commercialize this product, it will not be exportable because of its Dual Use Technology.

So we’ve reached a milestone of sorts. America’s Pinata and Yours Truly are splitting the sheets. It’s sad but appropriate that I post this on Open Line Friday.

After many years of a warm and cozy relationship, we’ve come to the point of irreconcilable differences. This may change down the road, but my long-standing subscription to Rush 24/7 is now over and not renewed.

I will miss our time together via his Podcasts, where I have spent literally thousands of hours listening to Rush while I’ve worked out at the gym. And I’d like to also send a final shout-out to Bo Snerdly for his work over the years, particularly during the 2008 Presidential Campaign.

So now I’ve got to find a new work-out buddy. At the moment I’m thinking I will replace Rush with Adam Carolla, who does have a killer podcast.

(F2U Rio Linda, a Podcast is something you listen to on an iPod or other digital player, so you can listen when you want, where you want. By the way, a 1 hr. Rush segment is only 35-40 minutes when you strip out the adverts and hourly news.)

I’ve copied my logged-in web page at rushlimbaugh.com below, so you can see for yourself my certified ditto-headness. Look for yourself right in the middle of that image and you will see that El Rushbo is proclaiming:

Dittos Robert Gelber!

Showing Off My Credentials

Because we’ve declared this blog a Politics-Free Zone, I won’t go into the details. But I hope with this gesture I now have established the chops to speak for both the Left and the Right, even as I refrain.

I have to admit to being a little misty eyed right now, so I will go back to one of the most popular posts on our blog, the infamous Rio Linda Collection to calm my nerves.

And now for me, every day is Open Line Friday.

Note: Matthew had been trying to get me to listen to Adam Carolla for several years when I discovered his podcasts for myself, and then called Matt to suggest he listen. At which point he almost lost his cookies in frustration. So to make him feel a little better you should go to his website, TreasuredFinds.com, your home for Sterling Jewelry and Gifts.

TMI (“Too Much Information”) Syndrome now has a Big Brother, and he’s called “Lifelog“.

The term Lifelog was coined by Gordon Bell, and it refers to the concept of recording everything you are exposed to every day; and I mean everything. We are on the cusp of realizing the digital equivalent (as I predicted) of the Collyer Brothers.

What if you could remember everything? Soon, if you choose, you will be able to conveniently and affordably record your whole life in minute detail. You would have Total Recall.

It should be noted at this point that Bell is considered something of a visionary in the computer field, so we can’t write him off as a complete nutter just yet. He’s even written a book on the subject, “Total Recall“.

On the other hand we have this quote from Bill Gates:

“What would happen if we could instantly access all the information we were exposed to throughout our lives?”

Turns out that for years Microsoft has had a project called MyLifeBits, doing exactly that. And unfortunately, with today’s digital technology and cloud storage, it’s within the realm of possibility given a little push from the Micro-softies.

And (drum roll)  here it is, another gorgeously intuitive Microsoft user interface!

MyLifeBits User Interface. Breath-Taking Isn't It?

Really, our only hope is that Apple takes over and turns it into iLifeBits.

But why Gordon?

Why, Oh Why, Oh Why?

[Interesting footnote: Bell's book, "Total Recall" was co-authored with Jim Gemmell, and features a Foreword by Bill Gates. Originally Amazon's web site correctly identified both authors. A few days later however, the authors were  listed:  "by Bill Gates (Foreword), Gordon Bell (Author)" with no mention of Gemmell, although his name is clearly visible on the image of the book. At this writing Barnes & Noble has the correct listing, so I've linked to BN, although if you want to check Amazon here's the link.  I'm sure all this will eventually show up in Bell's LifeLog (sic).]