Daily Archives: September 18, 2013


Nassim Taleb and Daniel Kahneman discusses Antifragility at NYPL

Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s Home Page has a link to the video Nassim Taleb and Daniel Kahneman discusses Antifragility at NYPL.


I always find it easy to understand the concept and the value of what he is promoting. I also have a devil of a time figuring out how to achieve the concept and its value.

This talk is no exception. However, there is a hint that the how to is discussed more in his new book, Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder, than in his previous books.

Even understanding the difference between anti-fragile and robust took a fair amount of perseverance as I watched the video. In the end, I am very glad that I did not quit. Had I seen the full title of the book beforehand, it might have helped a little.


Obama Blasts GOP ‘Extortion’ And Threat Of ‘Apocalypse’ Over Debt Limit

Talking Points Memo has the story Obama Blasts GOP ‘Extortion’ And Threat Of ‘Apocalypse’ Over Debt Limit.

Obama is determined not to repeat the mistake he made by letting Republicans use the debt ceiling as a bargaining chip. He likened the GOP’s position to a hypothetical Democratic Congress demanding that a Republican president agree to tax hikes in exchange for lifting the borrowing limit. Earlier this year, when the debt limit deadline was coming up, Obama refused to negotiate, and as a result, Republicans caved and raised it.

The point is that refusing to negotiate with the House Republicans is the correct strategy.  It worked before, and it will work again.  If the Republicans were to carry out their threat, the impact would be that enough voters would vote to turn the House back to a Democratic majority.  Its a heads Obama wins, tails the Republicans lose situation.


U.N. calculations of poison rockets’ paths implicate Syrian guard unit

McClatchy has the story U.N. calculations of poison rockets’ paths implicate Syrian guard unit.

“If the U.N. inspectors correctly calculated the trajectories, it certainly seems to indicate that the chemically armed rockets were fired from government-controlled land,” said Peter Bouckaert, Human Rights Watch emergencies director and weapons expert. “It’s clear and convincing evidence.”
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Austin Long, a security and weapons expert at Columbia University, said his back-of-an-envelope tabulations since the U.N. report came out indicated that the Republican Guard, which is thought to control the chemical stockpiles, very likely moved one rocket system to a secure location near the base and launched.

I have given you links to the biographies of the experts quoted in the article.  Perhaps this will help you to figure out if these are trustworthy experts.  In this house of  cards it is hard to figure out whom to believe.