Don’t make bets you can’t afford to lose when confronting an opponent with unlimited resources who can arbitrarily change the rules.

I don't care if I follow your rules, if you can cheat, so can I.

 

 I won't let you beat me unfairly, I'll beat you unfairly first.

 

Ender Wiggin

Fictional Military Strategist

Geo-Politics and business is Zugzwang

Zugzwang…describes a situation where one player is put at a disadvantage because he has to make a move – the player would prefer to pass and make no move. The fact that the player must make a move means that his position will be significantly weaker than the hypothetical one in which it is his opponent's turn to move.

A player whose turn it is to move who has no move that does not worsen their position is said to be in zugzwang.

In a chess endgame, being in zugzwang usually means going from a drawn position to a loss or a won position to a draw, but it can be from a win to a loss, or a substantial loss of material which probably affects the outcome of the game.

Zugzwang
Wikipedia

I have studied the enemy all my life
 
I have read the memoirs of his generals and his leaders

I have even read his philosophers…

I have studied in detail the account of every damned one of his battles

I know exactly how he will react under any given set of circumstances
and he hasn’t the slightest idea of what I’m going to do

So when the time comes, I’m going to whip the hell out of him

George S Patton

World Trade War 2010

"China to Halt Some Exports to U.S.

China, which has been blocking shipments of crucial minerals to Japan for the last month, has now quietly halted shipments of those materials to the United States and Europe, three industry officials said on Tuesday.

The Chinese action, involving rare earth minerals that are crucial to manufacturing many advanced products, seems certain to further intensify already rising trade and currency tensions with the West.

...“The embargo is expanding” beyond Japan, said one of the three rare earth industry officials, all of whom insisted on anonymity for fear of business retaliation by Chinese authorities.

They said Chinese customs officials imposed the broader restrictions on Monday morning, hours after a top Chinese official summoned international news media Sunday night to denounce United States trade actions.

China mines 95 percent of the world’s rare earth elements, which have broad commercial and military applications, and are vital to the manufacture of products as diverse as cellphones, large wind turbines and guided missiles. Any curtailment of Chinese supplies of rare earths is likely to be greeted with alarm in Western capitals, particularly because Western companies are believed to keep much smaller stockpiles of rare earths than Japanese companies.

China experts said on Tuesday that Beijing’s assertive stance on rare earths might also signal the ascendance of economic nationalists, noting that the Central Committee of the Communist Party convened over the weekend.

...Industry executives said there had been no signal from Beijing of how long rare earth shipments intended for the West would be held by Chinese customs officials.

...Word of the blocked shipments emerged from industry executives on Tuesday after an official China newspaper reported earlier in the day that Beijing planned next year to further reduce its annual export quota for rare earths.

The signals of a tougher Chinese trade stance come after American trade officials announced on Friday that they would investigate whether China was violating World Trade Organization rules by subsidizing its clean energy exports and limiting clean energy imports. The inquiry includes whether China’s steady reductions in rare earth export quotas since 2005, along with steep export taxes on rare earths, are illegal attempts to force multinational companies to produce more of their high-technology goods in China.

Despite a widely confirmed suspension of rare earth shipments from China to Japan, now nearly a month old, Beijing has continued to deny that any embargo exists.

Industry executives and analysts have interpreted that official denial as a way to wield an undeclared trade weapon without creating a policy trail that could make it easier for other countries to bring a case against China at the World Trade Organization.

So far, China seems to be taking a similar approach in expanding the embargo to the West.

Wang Baodong, a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, said on Tuesday that the Chinese government was putting new restrictions on the mining, processing and export of rare earths to protect the environment. But he said that China was not violating any W.T.O. rules in doing so and that it was not imposing an embargo or trying to use rare earths as a bargaining chip.

“With stricter export mechanism gradually in place, outbound shipments to other countries might understandably begin to feel the effect,” Mr. Wang said in an e-mail. “But I don’t see any link between China’s reasonable rare earth export control policy and the irrational U.S. decision of protectionist nature to investigate China’s clean energy industries.”

...The Chinese government office that oversees rare earth policy...has emerged as a bastion of economic nationalism.

...China reduced in July its export quota for rare earths for the second half of the year by 72 percent. Exporters had only six weeks’ of quotas left when China imposed its unannounced embargo on shipments to Japan.

China is preparing further reductions of up to 30 percent in its 2011 quotas compared with quotas issued in 2010..."

Keith Bradsher
New York Times

Happy Chrismahanakwanzafestusolticemas

See everything,

overlook a great deal,

correct a little.

 

Pope John XXIII

 

Be fair, compassionate, tolerant, polite, appreciative, sincere, flexible, grateful, loving, enthusiastic, patient, supportive and responsible.

 

See good in everything and publicize the best in others.

 

The true measure of a man

is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.

 

Samuel Johnson

 

Give your family a better chance to succeed

than your forefathers gave your parents,

and your parents gave you.

Things to Teach Your Kids I

Let them understand how much stuff costs, relative to other stuff.

 

Houses, cars, food etc…

 

Suggestions?

 

If unemployment benefits are ending for many, and Civilians Unemployed for more than 27 weeks is at an all time high, while North Carolina cut Health and Human Services spending by 29% for 2009-2010, how will Greensboro deal with increasing crime as municipal tax revenues fall?

 

Rash of break-ins spurs neighbors into action

 

From Aug. 14 to Sept. 14 , the New Irving Park neighborhood had an average of one home break-in every other day.

 

That’s 16 reported burglaries in 32 days. There were six in June and three in July.

 

Although residents say police have been helpful in trying to stem the outbreak in the well-off neighborhood, homeowners have decided to take up for themselves.

 

Nearly 150 residents packed the front lawn of Erik and Jenny Kiser’s Round Hill Road home Monday to discuss revitalizing a community watch program.

 

“I think people were getting tired of things that were going on,” Jenny Kiser said. There have been car break-ins by night and home break-ins by day, but nobody has seen anything.

 

“We were trying to take a stand,” she said.

 

The neighbors discussed posting more community-watch signs, having regular meetings, organizing the large area into smaller sections and assigning block and street captains.

 

They are also taking more immediate steps such as snapping photographs of suspicious vehicles and writing down license plates.

 

…There’s also another problem: apathy. When crime spikes, people become involved, she said. When it’s not spiking, people become uninterested.

 

Anne Givan ’s home was one of the nine burglarized this month. The recent rash of break-ins has jolted residents into action, she said.

 

“I think that the neighborhood has finally woken up and realized that we have to be precautionary, rather than reactionary,” she said.

 

Dioni L. Wise

Greensboro News and Record, September 20, 2009

Geo-Politics and business is Zugzwang

Zugzwang…describes a situation where one player is put at a disadvantage because he has to make a move – the player would prefer to pass and make no move. The fact that the player must make a move means that his position will be significantly weaker than the hypothetical one in which it is his opponent's turn to move.

 

A player whose turn it is to move who has no move that does not worsen their position is said to be in zugzwang.

 

In a chess endgame, being in zugzwang usually means going from a drawn position to a loss or a won position to a draw, but it can be from a win to a loss, or a substantial loss of material which probably affects the outcome of the game.

 

Zugzwang

Wikipedia

I have studied the enemy all my life

 

I have read the memoirs of his generals and his leaders

 

I have even read his philosophers…

 

I have studied in detail the account of every damned one of his battles

 

I know exactly how he will react under any given set of circumstances

and he hasn’t the slightest idea of what I’m going to do

 

So when the time comes

I’m going to whip the hell out of him

 

George S Patton

Politics = Chess III

In chess, a fork is a tactic

that uses one piece to attack two or more of the opponent's pieces

at the same time,

hoping to achieve material gain

 (by capturing one of the opponent's pieces)

 because the opponent can only counter one of the two (or more) threats.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fork_(chess)

 

If big print can give what fine print takes

can winning the wrong game lose the right one?

Cordesman: The Iran Attack Plan

Iran's acknowledgment that it is developing a second uranium-enrichment facility does little to dispel the view that the regime is developing a weapons program.

 

Israel's political and military leaders have long made it clear that they are considering taking decisive military action if Iran continues to develop its nuclear program.

 

Reporting by the International Atomic Energy Agency and other sources has made it clear that whether or not Iran ties all of its efforts into a formal nuclear weapons program, it has acquired all of the elements necessary to make and deliver such weapons…It became clear just this week that Iran managed to conceal the fact it was building a second underground facility for uranium enrichment near Qom, 100 miles southwest of Tehran, and that was designed to hold 3,000 centrifuges. Iran is developing at least four variants of its centrifuges, and the more recent designs have far more capacity than most of the ones installed at Natanz…

 

…Iran has acquired North Korean and other nuclear weapons design data… Iran has all of the technology and production and manufacturing capabilities needed for fission weapons. It has acquired the technology to make the explosives needed for a gun or implosion device, the triggering components, and the neutron initiator and reflectors.

 

…Hardly a week goes by without another warning from senior Israeli officials that a military strike is possible, and that Israel cannot tolerate a nuclear-armed Iran… President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad continues to threaten Israel and to deny its right to exist.

 

Anthony Cordesman

Wall Street Journal, September 26, 2009

Cordesman: The Iran Attack Plan

Iran's acknowledgment that it is developing a second uranium-enrichment facility does little to dispel the view that the regime is developing a weapons program.

 

Israel's political and military leaders have long made it clear that they are considering taking decisive military action if Iran continues to develop its nuclear program.

 

Reporting by the International Atomic Energy Agency and other sources has made it clear that whether or not Iran ties all of its efforts into a formal nuclear weapons program, it has acquired all of the elements necessary to make and deliver such weapons…It became clear just this week that Iran managed to conceal the fact it was building a second underground facility for uranium enrichment near Qom, 100 miles southwest of Tehran, and that was designed to hold 3,000 centrifuges. Iran is developing at least four variants of its centrifuges, and the more recent designs have far more capacity than most of the ones installed at Natanz…

 

…Iran has acquired North Korean and other nuclear weapons design data… Iran has all of the technology and production and manufacturing capabilities needed for fission weapons. It has acquired the technology to make the explosives needed for a gun or implosion device, the triggering components, and the neutron initiator and reflectors.

 

…Hardly a week goes by without another warning from senior Israeli officials that a military strike is possible, and that Israel cannot tolerate a nuclear-armed Iran… President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad continues to threaten Israel and to deny its right to exist.

 

Anthony Cordesman

Wall Street Journal, September 26, 2009

Have as much fun, with the least amount of risk, as soon as possible, for as long as possible.

Wear flip-flops

Support locally owned restaurants

 

Without deviation from the norm

progress is not possible

 

Frank Zappa

Think outside the box

Take alternate routes

 

Promote, participate and attend neighborhood athletics

 

Chew intellectual cud

Run a car out of gas on purpose

 

Read by miniature Christmas lights

Eat with your neighbors outside

 

Make the mundane entertaining

 

Hope everything happens the way it does

 

Read every book that won the Hugo Science Fiction Award

 

Turn a few options into numerous possibilities

 

Enjoy possibilities of what could be

Begin at a goal and prepare backward

 

Slow down

Make routine trips adventures

Simplify and minimize

Forget what you give

Value what you get

Return what you borrow

Replace what you break

 

Own more of what lasts longer

and less of what doesn’t

Give anonymously

Forgive quickly

 

It is easier the forgive an enemy

than to forgive a friend

 

William Blake

Have as much fun, with the least amount of risk, as soon as possible, for as long as possible.

Wear flip-flops

Support locally owned restaurants

 

Without deviation from the norm

progress is not possible

 

Frank Zappa

Think outside the box

Take alternate routes

 

Promote, participate and attend neighborhood athletics

 

Chew intellectual cud

Run a car out of gas on purpose

 

Read by miniature Christmas lights

Eat with your neighbors outside

 

Make the mundane entertaining

 

Hope everything happens the way it does

 

Read every book that won the Hugo Science Fiction Award

 

Turn a few options into numerous possibilities

 

Enjoy possibilities of what could be

Begin at a goal and prepare backward

 

Slow down

Make routine trips adventures

Simplify and minimize

Forget what you give

Value what you get

Return what you borrow

Replace what you break

 

Own more of what lasts longer

and less of what doesn’t

Give anonymously

Forgive quickly

 

It is easier the forgive an enemy

than to forgive a friend

 

William Blake

Create a higher likelihood of a better present, by securing need and achieving want in the shortest time with the least risk, by thinking of what and when relative to what was, and what could happen after what may happen next.

Efficient does not equal effective

 

Circumstance does not equal performance

 

Ability does not equal justification

Let’s make Greensboro, North Carolina, a place our kids will want to live when they grow up.

In every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions

 on the next seven generations.

Great Law of the Iroquois Nation

On Urban Loop Noise, and what some northern Greensboro neighborhoods are not being told

It is difficult to get a man to understand something

when his salary depends on his not understanding it.

 

Upton Sinclair

 

Local scientist studies the Urban Loop’s noise patterns

\

 

…Highway planners use badly flawed techniques to decide who is eligible for such noise protection.

 

The holes in those techniques became the focus of [Arthur] Ihrig’s months-long quest to understand how the loop — 200 feet from the house he bought in 1973 — could be so loud but not merit noise protection.

 

He found the “A-weighting” scale used by officials to rate traffic noise ignores huge volumes of sound, the kind of low-frequency rumbling from trucks that pierces walls like they aren’t even there.

 

That technique is based on a format developed in the 1930s , the A-scale, that aims to categorize the general human response to different levels of sound.

 

“I think they (highway officials) are using bad science,” Ihrig said. “It’s not valid in a situation like this, where you have extremely loud noise with lots of low-frequency sound.”

 

“He is absolutely right,” said Daniel Maguire, a well-known noise expert based in Indiana. “What they (officials) are saying is, 'We don’t give a rip about low-frequency noise.’ Yet because it’s a highway, that’s the thing they should be most concerned about.”

 

The Greensboro retiree’s findings also resonate with Charles Bruckner, Tar Heel representative of the New York-based advocacy group Noise Free America.

 

“The A-weighting scale doesn’t do anything for the lower end of the (noise) spectrum that carries farthest and actually penetrates walls,” said Bruckner, a Garner resident.

 

...when [Ihrig] switched to another measuring scale, the reading jumped [from 25] to 50 decibels, about the sound level of a nearby clothes dryer, which Ihrig felt was more realistic. The incident shows how lower tones missed by A-weighting can penetrate walls to disrupt daily life, he said.

 

State DOT doesn’t dispute that the A-scale misses lower-frequency sound.

 

…Maguire, the Indiana noise specialist, has found…A-weighting as an arbitrary system never meant to be applied in the way federal authorities now use it.

 

He suggests emulating other nations that have used modern science to develop more realistic ways of measuring the full range of noise impacts.

 

Numerous studies show that low-intensity noise is at least as disruptive and potentially harmful to health as higher tones, he said.

 

Taft Wireback, August 16, 2009

Greensboro News and Record

 

If the noise associated with the Southern half of Urban Loop was much more than advertized, I believe the last section of the Urban Loop through Greensboro’s 3rd District should be cancelled or rerouted North.

 

If Urban Loop noise walls will only be constructed in front of homes built before 1996…?

 

Urban Loop V: More traffic than previously anticipated.

 

City of Greensboro City Council Candidate Information Request VII:

On the Urban Loop

 

Why did who purchase so much of Greensboro’s Urban Loop real estate

so early?

 

Urban Loop IV

 

Urban Loop III

 

Urban Loop II

 

Urban Loop

"I do not recall a case I voted on

where I was intimately knowledgeable about the Urban Loop”

 

City Council member Zack Matheny

said of the two years he served on the city’s Zoning Commission

before his election to the council.

Greensboro News and Record, May 31, 2009

How to stop loiteringaround downtown businesses and parking decks.(Update 1, August 6, 2009)

“Street Teachers”

 

Recruit high school teaching students for internships from local universities.

 

They could wear fluorescent t-shirts with “Street Teacher” in black lettering.

 

When they run into a group of teens etc…, they could teach something, thereby theoretically eliminating the problem.

 

If “Street Teachers” become well known for saving the city money and keeping downtown safer, they could earn tips from adults and be more prepared and likely to land teaching positions.

 

I have a 15 year old.

.

 

Could be a Reality TV show, indirectly promoting downtown Greensboro. 

Loitering a Growing Problem in Downtown Greensboro

 

 A primary concern for most downtown business owners is loitering.

 

"It's not even the crowd that's old enough to purchase alcoholic beverages. We're looking at high school kids, teenagers," said [Police Chief Tim] Bellamy.

 

When calls are made to police about loitering in front of businesses, officers refer to them as "nuisance calls."

 

"We do a lot of 911 dropped calls. That's our #1 call in Greensboro at the parking decks and downtown," said Chief Bellamy.

 

Bellamy said the three decks that they receive the most calls about are two on Greene Street and one on Davie Street.

 

Rocco Scarfone, owner of the N Club and several other downtown businesses, is calling for the city to increase police presence downtown. However, the city says it does not have funding.

 

In downtown Charlotte, as many as 75 officers can be patrolling the streets. The city of Greensboro normally has 7 or 8 officers downtown.

 

myfox8.com

August 4, 2009

City Council Incumbent Zack Mathenyhas yet to respond to a debate challengeas of August 4, 2009 - July 24 = 11 Days

Press Release, July 24, 2009

 

The Committee to Elect George Hartzman openly challenges its' opponents to a public debate.

 

We believe Greensboro’s budgetary condition may encounter a period of consequence, beyond the passage of the State of North Carolina’s  2009-2010 budget.

 

We believe the community could most likely be better off  by experiencing an open debate concerning some tough near-term political choices.

 

Anywhere within District 3.

 

Any time before October 6, 2009’s primary.

 

Moderated by whomever our opponent’s choose, on any topics they choose.

 

(Candidate Jay Ovittore has conditionally agreed to participate)

California Budget

Cuts to public schools are expected to force teacher layoffs,

more crowded classrooms

and scaled-back offerings in art, music and sports.

 

College students will pay hundreds of dollars more per year in fees,

course offerings will shrink and tens of thousands of prospective students

will be turned away.

 

Welfare, health care programs for low-income families

and in-home services for the disabled, elderly and frail

will be reduced.

 

Nearly 40,000 will have their in-home support services terminated.

 

The spending cuts amount to roughly 60 percent of a budget deficit

projected at $26 billion through June 2010.

 

The size of the shortfall is unprecedented,

representing nearly 30 percent of the state's $88 billion general fund.

 

Cities and counties, meanwhile,

have said they might to stop the state

from taking some $4 billion in local tax money.

 

Local governments throughout the state,

hit by declining property and sales taxes,

already are laying off law enforcement officers,

firefighters and other employees,

while trimming park maintenance, library, trash and other services.

 

…The loss of $1.1 billion from the budget package

 

[“A plan to take about $1 billion in transportation funding

from local governments

and a measure that would have allowed new oil drilling”]

 

means Schwarzenegger will use his veto authority

to make even deeper cuts to close the gap.

 

Judy Lin

Associated Press, July 25, 2009

Have as much fun as possiblein the shortest amount timewith the least amount of risk

The heights by great men reached and kept

were not attained by sudden flight

but they

while their companions slept

were toiling upward in the night

 

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

 

Don’t acquire what you don’t need

to convince others you are what you’re not

unless you need to

Give good advice

 

Do not say a little in many words

but a great deal in a few

 

Pythagoras