Day: December 16, 2015

SMH: A True Tragedy……

What Happens in Macbeth?

Macbeth is a war hero. He’s the owner of a spotless reputation and the undying gratitude of his King and country. Until the simple title Thane of Cawdor causes him to throw it all away and become Shakespeare’s bloodiest tyrant and most conniving villain, leaving us to wonder how a man so ‘full o’ the milk of human kindness’ became a man whose hands were so covered in blood they could never be wiped clean.

Continue Reading…..

A major theme to Macbeth is that blind ambition is bad and will only result in destruction. In Lord of the Flies, we also see how ambition, especially the drive for power, can cause corruption. Jack becomes more and more savage with the more power he has over the boys. Before the boys are rescued in the final pages of the book, Jack is so savage that he wants to kill anyone who opposes him, namely Ralph. Macbeth became so corrupted by power once he had it, he was willing to do anything to hang on to that power including killing Macduff’s family.

We’ve covered this before but for the benefit of those at Bay City Hall….

Slabbed has been the subject of at least one departmental meeting over at City Hall regarding leaks according to lore and certain commenters. Regarding Slabbed New Media and leaks about the most I can say is we’re good at it and have been for years. Still, that won’t stop the speculation as to the identity of the Bay City Hall leaker so I’ll fuel it via video embed below the jump, enjoy. Continue reading “We’ve covered this before but for the benefit of those at Bay City Hall….”

“Journos”

There is a reason Nassim Taleb hates “Journos“.

Here’s Everything That Could Go Wrong in 2016 ~ Bloomberg

Investors can’t ignore this or other so-called Black Swan scenarios following a year that surprised the world with record refugee flows and brutal terror attacks. In 2016, unexpected events will take on heightened importance as the Fed ends an era of ultra-cheap credit. Markets will lose the cushion that’s shielded them from geopolitical shocks such as the Arab uprisings and the annexation of Crimea.

You gotta appreciate the way the authors tackle QE describing it as a market risk mitigation tool. Such is a fools game but that is not what attracted me to the piece. What did attract me was the authors terming the events they predict as “Black Swan” scenarios linking Taleb’s book where he coined the phrase. Here is what the cover to the book says:

A Black Swan is a highly improbable event with three principal characteristics: It is unpredictable; it carries a massive impact; and, after the fact, we concoct an explanation that makes it appear less random, and more predictable, than it was.

So yes, Cortez showing up was certainly a Black Swan type event for the Aztecs but not necessarily for Cortez. The again the Aztecs did not have Bloomberg getting them the news. I just question terming the unlikely predictions for 2016 as Black Swans since the writers predicted them.

Speaking of predictions, Black Swans, Normal Distributions and Fat Tails has anyone seen Karen Clark these days?