Phrase of the day: Bread and Circuses

The phrase "Bread and Circuses" describes one of my biggest concerns:

"Bread and Circuses" (or bread and games) (from Latin: panem et circenses) is a metaphor for a superficial means of appeasement. It was the basic Roman formula for the well-being of the population, and hence a political strategy unto itself. In the case of politics, the phrase is used to describe the creation of public approval, not through exemplary or excellent public service or public policy, but through diversion, distraction, and/or the mere satisfaction of the immediate, shallow requirements of a populace. The phrase also implies the erosion or ignorance of civic duty amongst the concerns of the common man (l'homme moyen sensuel). In modern usage, the phrase has also become an adjective to describe a populace that no longer values civic virtues and the public life.
What are some of today's superficial means of appeasement? Mostly our wars. Our needless military adventures. Our "war on drugs." Our wars against each other --scapegoating. Our wars against (our ridicule of) intellectual excellence. Our war against meaningful citizen participation in government "of the People" (i.e., the Citizens United problem). Our wars against most things that are not "American." I'm sure I'm forgetting some of our other wars . . .

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What happened on July 24, 2010?

I recently watched "Life in a Day," a montage consisting of video clips submitted by people from all over the world through YouTube.   It's a unique and fascinating video that you can view here: Here's a brief description from Wikipedia:

Life in a Day is a crowdsourced documentary film comprising an arranged series of video clips selected from 80,000 clips submitted to the YouTube video sharing website, the clips showing respective occurrences from around the world on a single day, July 24, 2010. The film is 94 minutes 57 seconds long and includes scenes selected from 4,500 hours of footage in 80,000 submissions from 192 nations.
As I watched the many clips featuring so many people, it first occurred to me how "different" we are from each other.  As the video continued, though, what became overwhelming is, despite the superficial differences, we are all substantially and deeply similar, regardless of where we live and regardless how we dress and what we eat. In other words, the powerful undercurrent of "Life in a Day" is the lesson taught by Donald Brown, that human animals are incredibly similar to each other. And see here. Brown once asked, “The world’s cultures may be diverse, but diverse compared to what?”

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3 Idiots: “Aal Izz Well”

This may not be the perfect forum for a review, but the film "3 Idiots" is about education versus training, science versus engineering, fear versus hubris (and the happy medium), life and death, love and despair, laughter and tears. And it has colorful Bollywood dance numbers, too! I rented it on a whim, as it was billed as a movie about too-smart engineering students versus the educational system. I was puzzled when it began with English subtitles during the (Indian accented) English dialog. I remembered a 1990's PBS/BBC series on the English language, when some of the impenetrable-to-me accents of the U.K. had no subtitles, but the perfectly intelligible-to-me Cajun and Ebonic dialects did. But as the blend of Hindi and English became apparent, I saw the need. I loved this movie. Once one gets into the esthetic swing of Bollywood productions, it makes perfect sense when serious issues become silly dance numbers, and all characters are played as borderline caricatures. One can observe the essential cultural differences between our familiar American dilute-Christian one-life-to-live and anyone-can-become-president attitude and the Indian institutionalized attitude that reincarnation is the only way to improve your lot except through extraordinary means. Why I think this is appropriate to this forum is the take on education. The protagonist has a scientific mindset that is often at odds with engineering philosophy and even more with institutionalized education. The system of teaching to the test is questioned, as is the principle of square pegs hammered into round holes. Vocation versus avocation is central to this, and expounded toward the end. The 3 Idiots - Official Trailer has embedding disabled, but preview is fun even without subtitles. You get the idea of how English and Hindi have merged in their culture. I defy you to watch it and not have the songs "All izz well" and/or "Zoobi Doobi" stuck in your heads.

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Financial Advisors under the microscope

I recently finished reading Dan Solin's The Smartest Portfolio You'll Ever Own (2011), half of which is a damning indictment of most financial advisers. Solin makes a convincing case that those brokers who claim that they can pick stocks or time the market are selling unadulterated snake oil. In fact, avoid all of the following: Buying individual stocks or bonds. Actively managed mutual funds Alternative investments Variable annuities Equity indexed annuities Private equity deals Principal-protected notes Currency trading, and Commodities trading. Instead, Solin recommends the slow and steady historically documented growth associated with passively managed broad market index funds including many of the low-fee passively managed funds offered by Vanguard. Solin has ample shocking facts and figures to back up his claims and indictments, and he continues the attack on false claims and hidden fees here.

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Crow playing on the rooftop snow

I'm always on the lookout for images of non-human animals using tools. A recent example, including a photo of a gorilla using a stick to test the depth of river water during a crossing. But also consider this crow: And speaking of amazing animals, consider this finding regarding rats:

The often maligned rodents go out of their way to liberate a trapped friend, a gregarious display that’s driven by empathy, researchers conclude in the Dec. 9 Science.

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