SWCAMBORNE

“Democracy, more than any other form of government, expresses the will of the people.”

“It is the will of the people that their government overborrow.”

Peter Treadwell

Investing in the Age of Sovereign Debt

A very interesting book

And one more:

“The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled,
 
public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled,
 
and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed, lest Rome will become bankrupt.
 
People must again learn to work instead of living on public assistance.”
 
- Cicero , 55 BC

From Matt B.  with this comment:

So, evidently we’ve learned bugger all over the past 2,067 years.

The LA County Arboretum in Arcadia is a visual feast.  I took these pictures of details during a visit with Lillian and Rebecca during Passover.

The first three photos are of the backyard scuba variety.  The last shows the purpose of our visit which was to see the Olive Tree that we helped to get planted in the new edible garden.

My Brother Tom sent me a link to an Australian web site that purports to sell placebos.

http://www.placebo.com.au/

What a great business idea but not what we are talking about today.

The discussion of the Placebo Effect on the web site got us thinking about other placebos.  The ones that aren’t pills but that make us feel better without any measurable or scientific reason.

One of them is beauty.

We feel better, happier or more joyful in the presence of beautiful things.

Another thing that gives a placebo effect is feeling like we are helping.

So actions like “Raising Awareness” are a placebo for actually doing something.

Which raises the final question: Is god a placebo that for some people makes life worth living?

In 1889 Thomas Curtis Clark wrote “The world of today differs from that of Napoleon more than his world differed from that of Julius Caesar.”  He attributed that change to the railways.

So according to Clark the world had changed more in the nineteenth century than it had in the previous eighteen centuries.  And it is probably true.

So the question is did the rate of change continue in the twentieth century?  And can we expect it to continue into the twenty-first century.

I think it did. To name a few examples: the airplane, the semiconductor, radio, TV and the iPad.

And will it continue?  I’d say yes.  Some examples of what is coming:  Driver-less transportation, the discovery of other life in the universe, the end of starvation, new ethics and drugs that help us control suffering.

What a great time to be alive.  I don’t buy the pessimistic view that our best years are behind us.

Opportunities abound.

Organic everything.

But please explain to me the difference between:

“Organic evaporated cane juice”

and

Sugar?

Apparently selling “health food” is easy and profitable

because the customers are extremely gullible.

“Not admitting a mistake is a bigger mistake.”

Robert Half

“If you have a garden and a library you have everything you need.”

Cicero

Lillian has grown winter vegetables in Pasadena, CA.

Fresh broccoli, despite what you and I believed when we were young, tastes delicious.

We all know what Sticker Shock is.  It is the stunned feeling you get when you see how much something is going to cost versus how much you expected it to cost.

So you already know what Effort Shock is.  It is the stunned feeling you get when it dawns on you how much effort and time it is going to take to accomplish a goal.

This applies to all types of efforts:

• Weight loss
• Physical training
• Getting your advanced degree
• Learning  a new skill (painting)
• Writing your book

Thanks to Jim Geraghty of National Review Online for this eye opening revelation.

In 1928 they built a concrete road in Santa Fe and they were pretty proud of it.

How do I know the year and that they were proud of it?

They inserted a brass plaque in the concrete:

The road is now an orphaned section of Marcy St just East of the intersection with Paseo de Peralta.

So a construction project from 85 years ago is still surviving because it was made from that incredible new product concrete.  But the evolution of the community has passed it by and now it is a little one way block that is mostly used for parking.

The lesson: Don’t be to proud of your accomplishments but do put your name on them.

Sometime in the last month I went over 2000 blog entries on swcamborne.com

When I started in 2006 this was my first blog entry: