thought of the day while I'm baking a pie for dinner

I think the 'global financial crisis' spells the end of capitalism, just as a few years ago we saw the so-called end of communism.

according to last.fm I've listened to this song 107 times in the last 6 months and watching this YouTube I can now see why:

reading Don Walker

From the legendary songwriter of Cold Chisel...

This extraordinary memoir begins with Don Walker’s early life in rural Australia and goes up to the late ’80s. In mesmerising prose, Don Walker writes of growing up in northern New South Wales, gigging in St. Kilda, hitchhiking through rural Australia, playing for the Hells Angels in Broadford, Victoria, and travelling through Paris, Russia and Central Europe.

Walker evokes childhood and youth, wild times in the ’70s, life on the road and in Kings Cross, music-making and much more. Shots is a stunningly original book, a set of word pictures – “shots” – that conjure up the lowlife and backroads of Australia.

Don Walker is one of Australia’s leading songwriters – first with Cold Chisel and now as a solo performer and with Tex, Don & Charlie. This is his first book.

Academia: keeping the bustards honest?

With the demise of the Democrats in Australia, and the landscape of changes in journalism, I'm pondering a proposal by Marty Lobel and Joseph Goldstein of the Mayer Brown law firm in New York. They propose a new way to prevent future financial meltdowns and suggest a team of academic experts could survey the financial field and warn government of impending problems before they happen.

It can be taken as a given that the best and brightest are in academia (myself excluded), and perhaps that academia attracts experts who are more prepared to take the high moral ground, or are what Lobel-Goldstein charmingly refer to as 'idealistic'. Financial reward is not necessarily their primary career motivation. In my initial reaction, at issue here is the independence of academia.

Academia would probably be more 'independent' than say a credit rating agency (who are paid by the corporates for their reviews, and the financial 'meltdown' possibly exposed their inadequacies in the prediction of financial distress) ; or a private audit/insolvency firm (who always approach such projects as "which of the interested parties do we have relations with and need to (a) get onside with and/or (b) get further work from). The government or journalists often get it right, but are also operating in difficult circumstances. The use of academia could be a new prong in the attack on corporate fraud, financial distress, seniors losing their pensions and workers losing their jobs.

Such a role doesn't belong in the private sector. In a former life with a corporate I was tasked with setting up a model that could identify listed equities that were 'vulnerable' (a polite way of saying 'high risk' or 'near financial distress'). This model used variants from both media, company reports, credit reports and 'word of mouth' - basically anything. The aim was to alert the company the model identified that if someone like me (ie not too bright) could spot it, so could financial analysts. And then my employer would get work going into the company (on behalf of creditors or the company) and sussing it all out. But then I had to move onto other projects and the model became a maintenance and monitoring function. But at the time I thought it would be far better if such a role were handled by academics who weren't interested in getting $$ work out of it and would have more time (and mathematical nouse) to develop it. Academics could also get their thrills working through the complex layers of financials and press that 'vulnerable' companies throw up to mask their true positions.

But on the other hand, academia in Australia has been privatised to the point that the work of academics is sometimes sponsored by the corporate world.... and hence the potential opening for some risk to the independence of academics.

But I still reckon they're the best of a bad bunch and definitely believe there is a role for academics in the monitoring of corporate risk. Only issue then is, if they identify it, what happens next? Would it go to ASIC? If so, should such a 'financial investigations cooperative research centre' of academics by federally funded via ASIC for such a proposal?

Note: I found the Lobel-Goldstein idea while looking at another idea on the excellent blog of John Mecklin. That idea concerned data mining by journalists - and data mining could be used by mathematician academics, actuaries, accountants, economics etc to identify financial distress and risk.

Music future = musician >< fan

Bravo to Ian Rogers of Topspin in a recent speech on music value. He takes the approach that the future of music lies in the artist and the fan. If you are neither artist nor fan then you must question what value you add in the music ecosystem (between artist and fan).

I also liked his comment that when Nine Inch Nails offered Ghosts at five price points he was really asking, “How big a fan are you?” in relation to freemium pricing of content.

twittering

someone twitters a plane crash: http://twitter.com/2drinksbehind?page=2

I'm not sure about this - someone turning to technology at a 'life defining' or possibly life ending moment. Is the value of reading his words worth his effort?

Note also that in Australia we can't use mobiles on board aircraft - it causes crashes.

Christmas evil

Years ago Santa's (Saint Nicholas) job delivering presents to the children of Austria, southern Germany, Switzerland, and north Italy was split into good and evil. Santa carried a big book listing which children had behaved and which had been naughty or lazy. Santa would visit homes and always check his list twice.
While Santa delivered presents to children who had behaved, a ghastly evil, ferocious goat-horned human/beast spirit called the Krampus followed him. Krampus was usually dressed in fur with a long red tongue and tail. Naughty or lazy children were shackled then put into Krampus's bag and spirited away into the night to be hurled into the flames of hell, or he threatened to spank them with birch branches and bad dreams. sometimes he would scare the children to death with his evil looks.

So this year make sure you ask children if they've been good this year.....

last night I learnt

that if you sprinkle nutmeg on a fire it sparkles

Sirens

I'd love to see David Lynch do a movie set in outer space. With lots of floating.....

'Song to the Siren' by This Mortal Coil

On the floating, shapeless oceans
I did all my best to smile
til your singing eyes and fingers
drew me loving into your eyes.

And you sang "Sail to me, sail to me;
Let me enfold you."

Here I am, here I am waiting to hold you.
Did I dream you dreamed about me?
Were you here when I was full sail?

Now my foolish boat is leaning, broken love lost on your rocks.
For you sang, "Touch me not, touch me not, come back tomorrow."
Oh my heart, oh my heart shies from the sorrow.

I'm as puzzled as a newborn child.
I'm as riddled as the tide.
Should I stand amid the breakers?
Or shall I lie with death my bride?

Hear me sing: "Swim to me, swim to me, let me enfold you."
"Here I am. Here I am, waiting to hold you."

"Listen closely to what I tell you now....
First you will raise the island of the Sirens,
those creatures who spellbind any man alive.
whoever comes their way. Whoever draws too close,
off guard, and catches the Sirens' voices in the air...
The high, thrilling song of the Sirens will transfix him...
Race straight past that coast!"

citizen journalism

Was this a secret marketing ploy by News Corp? Or was it real? Wouldn't it be delightful if it was real!

“SPECIAL” NEW YORK TIMES BLANKETS CITIES WITH MESSAGE OF HOPE AND CHANGE

Thousands of volunteers behind elaborate operation

* The New York Times responds:
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/12/pranksters-spoof-the-times/

Hundreds of independent writers, artists, and activists are claiming credit for an elaborate project, 6 months in the making, in which 1.2 million copies of a “special edition” of the New York Times were distributed in cities across the U.S. by thousands of volunteers.
The papers, dated July 4th of next year, were headlined with long-awaited news: “IRAQ WAR ENDS”. The edition, which bears the same look and feel as the real deal, includes stories describing what the future could hold: national health care, the abolition of corporate lobbying, a maximum wage for CEOs, etc. There was also a spoof site, at http://www.nytimes-se.com/.
“Is this true? I wish it were true!” said one reader. “It can be true, if we demand it.”
“We wanted to experience what it would look like, and feel like, to read headlines we really want to read. It’s about what’s possible, if we think big and act collectively,” said Steve Lambert, one of the project’s organizers and an editor of the paper.
“This election was a massive referendum on change. There’s a lot of hope in the air, but there’s a lot of uncertainty too. It’s up to all of us now to make these headlines come true,” said Beka Economopoulos, one of the project’s organizers.
“It doesn’t stop here. We gave Obama a mandate, but he’ll need mandate after mandate after mandate to do what we elected him to do. He’ll need a lot of support, and yes, a lot of pressure,” said Andy Bichlbaum, another project organizer and editor of the paper.
The people behind the project are involved in a diverse range of groups, including The Yes Men, the Anti-Advertising Agency, CODEPINK, United for Peace and Justice, Not An Alternative, May First/People Link, Improv Everywhere, Evil Twin, and Cultures of Resistance.
In response to the spoof, the New York Times said only, “We are looking into it.” Alex S. Jones, former Times reporter who is an authority on the history of the paper, says: “I would say if you’ve got one, hold on to it. It will probably be a collector’s item.”