I don't pretend to understand much of this, but he's a key founder of chaos theory and created fractal geometry. Like I said, I don't claim to totally understand either, but I've heard of them. The Sunday Telegraph from a while back has an accessible article on the man. His Wikipedia entry, on the other hand...
He used the geometry of fractals to explain how galaxies cluster, how wheat prices change over time and how mammalian brains fold as they grow, among other phenomena.
I personally got a kick out of this paragraph from the Telegraph:
Mandelbrot was a brilliant student and held a variety of academic positions, before resigning a post in France in 1958 in order to work in IBM's famous ideas factory (a group of oddball intellectuals paid to come up with great innovations). He was already seen as a cross-disciplinarian and a maverick and had created for himself "a very hostile intellectual environment. France does not like people not to belong".
Wells Fargo contends that unlike everyone else in the industry with robo-signing problems, their internal checks and balances are fine. It's possible, but at this point, it's not convincing. The banks are always very casual with details when it's someone else's money and life on the line.
The San Francisco-based bank said on Tuesday it was reviewing some pending cases, but it has maintained that it has checks and balances designed to prevent serious procedural lapses.
In a sworn deposition on March 9 seen by the FT, Xee Moua, identified in court documents as a vice-president of loan documentation for Wells, said she signed as many as 500 foreclosure-related papers a day on behalf of the bank.
Ms Moua, who was deposed as part of a foreclosure lawsuit in Palm Beach County, Florida, said that the only information she verified was whether her name and title appeared correctly, according to the document.
Only in the American insurance industry could this be possible. It's wonderful that GMA helped resolve this "clerical error" but you have to wonder how widespread these errors are across the country.
She's heartbroken because she has endured what no mother should have to endure. While pregnant with twins, she lost one of them at 30 weeks. The other baby, Kinsleigh, was born with serious heart problems.
But Barnes is angry because her insurance company, Aetna, held up paying thousands of dollars in medical charges. The reason? The insurance company said the newborn might have been suffering from a pre-existing condition.
"I don't know how something could be pre-existing in a baby, so it was very shocking to me to see something like that," Barnes told "Good Morning America." "It's a slap in the face. Her medical bills are the last thing I should be worrying about. I should know that my baby is being taken care of."
What a business model. What other industry can get away with increases like this during the worst economic period since the Great Depression? It's a relief to Big Insurance that the White House folded on the public option. But hey, don't let that stop the industry from calling him a socialist and anti-business. Yes, like Wall Street they wanted even more and will stop at nothing until they get it.
The state has given Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield the go ahead to raise premiums by as much as 47 percent for some members, and says health care reform is the reason why.
Attorney General Richard Blumenthal sent a letter to Insurance Commissioner Thomas Sullivan on Oct. 6, asking what he called "excessive" increases were approved without full consideration of all the facts. His letter mentioned rate increases for both Anthem and Aetna.
What are the odds of a story like that coming out on a Friday afternoon? Yes, it would not have been good news for Bank of America either, who bought Countrywide. The reason it would not have been good news for BofA is that despite the horrible AP article that ignores the actual ugly details of the settlement, BofA is funding much of the settlement with the SEC. If you read the AP article you might think that Mozilo has a deep hole in his pocket but no, that will be yet another hole in the pocket of BofA who is footing the bill. How is such a bailout of this guy even possible? Even worse, Mozilo now has the benefit of not admitting guilt which will help buffer him from other lawsuits. It also will make the Justice Department criminal case against him that much more difficult.
Justice in America is obviously for the select few with the deepest pockets. At least the LA Times put some effort into showing what a lousy settlement this was. Where else besides a Banana Republic can one of the central figures in the economic collapse get off so easily? Settlements like this is what infuriates the public.
The deal allowed Mozilo, Sambol and Sieracki to avoid going to trial next week on allegations that they misled investors about the risky loan portfolio and deteriorating financial condition of the Calabasas company, once the nation's top originator of home loans.
The sting of the penalty, however, was dramatically reduced because Bank of America and insurance will foot much of the bill, said John Coffee, a securities-law professor at Columbia University.
"Both sides are engaging in the usual game of making this settlement look better than it appears," he said. "Both sides have an interest in putting the most positive spin on a settlement."
If all you have read of the Chamber of Commerce story are the headlines and snippets, you probably got the bottom line correctly. The "U.S." Chamber of Commerce has very likely been taking foreign money and "investing in" U.S. politicians (and I know you know I mean "donating to") — in massive doses. Shock! say you. Yet more Citizens United money carpet-bombing our electoral process! And this time, foreign!
I raised the spectre here of a descent into client-nation status. When your creditors put money into (buying) your political process, you get the rulers they want, not the ones you want. The U.S. has client nations and rulers all around the world. They don't make the news; only when clients push back — Iraq and Afghanistan — is it news. And then only because of our clearly recognized desire that they be "better" (more submissive) clients. I would venture to guess that most U.S. voters would prefer that Iraq and Afghanistan be better clients. (Needless to say, that's the inverse of "spreading democracy.")
But Rachel raises a more direct point. What is the immediate interest of those foreign contributors to U.S. elections? Well, more outsourced jobs, of course. And that's why I called them the "U.S." Chamber of Commerce; because they are themselves clients, and not of U.S. interests.
"These corporations are trying to pay for a Congress that will keep these policies going" — Celinda Lake in the clip.
There seems to be only two resolutions. The first is a wage-race to the bottom by U.S. labor, so they can compete with third-world sweatshops (and second-world engineering firms). The second is some way of keeping U.S. capital from going overseas. Earlier I noted Ian Welsh's take on this aspect of the issue:
If you can build a factory overseas which produces the same goods for less, meaning more profit for you, why would you build it in the US?
Until that question is adequately answered, by which I mean “until it’s worth investing in the US”, most of the discretionary money of the rich will either go into useless speculative activities like the housing and credit bubbles, which don’t create real growth in the US, or they will go overseas.
Mr. Welsh offers a range of options in his own post here.
You can see this issue through a business lens, or a nationalist lens. Oddly, this time the business lens is also a nationalist lens — if you're rooting for all of our national competitors.
The U.S. [sic] Chamber of Commerce, ladies and gentlemen; here through the end of this century.
The President is heading to Boston to do a couple of events with Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick. According to most polls, Patrick is ahead of his GOP opponent, Charlie Baker. But, it's close. The third party candidate, Timothy Cahill, who was a Democrat, is tanking.
Tomorrow, Obama is heading to Ohio. He'll be in Cleveland at a fundraiser for Governor Ted Strickland. Then, he's heading to Columbus for a DNC fundraiser and a rally on the campus of Ohio State University. Michelle Obama will be traveling with the President. The race for Governor has tightened up over the past couple weeks. But, Strickland is trailing former Congressman/Lehman Bros. Exec. John Kasich.
The Veep is laying low today. Tomorrow, he'll be in Allentown campaigning for John Callahan, who is running in Pennsylvania's 15th CD.
There's not a lot of great news out there. But, keep an eye on Alaska. Democrat Scott McAdams keeps moving up in the polls as teabagger Joe Miller and Lisa Murkowski duke it out.
As of now, DADT is not the law of the land. But, the Obama administration is working hard to bring it back. Everyone agrees that gay servicemembers should not come out.
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A dark video and dark music but wow, what a performance by American Ry Cooder playing slide guitar. He also played on the original recording that Marianne Faithful recorded. For those who may not be familiar with the song, Ry Cooder really gets going a few minutes in.
The rain last night brought in cooler weather last night but at least there's some sun. Another throat bug has messed up my plans for the week but thanks to my favorite meal that I eat when I'm sick (pasta in oil with lots of garlic and chilies) I'm on the mend. I'm radiating garlic out of my pores but I can't argue with success. One more quiet day and I should be ready for a nice ride.
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Supposedly nobody should panic about the lack of fuel though. Why isn't clear, but nobody should worry about it. Maybe the new-fangled airplanes don't really need fuel but run on happy thoughts. BBC:
France is bracing itself for further mass protests over the government's plan to raise the retirement age.
Thousands of students are expected to join a fifth day of demonstrations in less than six weeks. Unions have called for more than 200 marches nationwide.
Strikes have shut most of France's oil refineries and depots and the fuel pipeline to Paris's main airports has been closed.
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