The Dionysus Statistic

Croesus knew the stories about King Midas and how he bathed for a long time in the river Pactolus to wash off his 'power' of turning everything to gold. As a thinking person, he must have realized that where there was smoke there may be fire, and, investigating, he found that the river in question was full of electrum, the volcanic alloy of silver and gold. And more than that too, evidently, he also was a believer in innovation and technology - such as it was back then - and utilized new ideas about separating gold from silver and other metals in the naturally-occurring alloys in order to make a very well-respected currency. This coin, called the stater, or standard, was actually made of less gold than other similar coins, but of a much higher purity.

A touch of gold, but only a touch,
and not too much!

It cost about 1/2 an ounce of gold per month to pay the salary of a soldier, and Croesus was able to preserve his power and position because of his ability to earn seigneurage on the money that he minted, and thus pay for a lot of soldiers.

Eventually though, his wealth attracted the attention of the lunatic Cyrus 'the Great'(!), who tried to kill him, and by some accounts did kill him.

I think there are a couple of points still relevant to the modern era that may be taken from the Croesus/Midas/Dionysus fables or folkloric histories:

One, that it pays to go where there is a lot of electrum flowing, if you seek to have gold.

And secondly, it probably also pays to keep your wealth as quiet as is practical to do; and this is not a rare idea of course.

What we are confronted with today, is a somewhat new environment in which a lunatic form of government, has succeeded in drawing off massive amounts of currency from the normal internal domestic flows of money and trade, and so it is not so easy to locate any 'river Pactolus' of the modern time...

Turkey, famous for roses,
gold, and King Midas - who was also a rose grower

The god Dionysus, being, as he is hard to grab hold of and stick into a laboratory in order to discover if he exists or is just a figment of someone's imagination - is not necessarily the agency of miraculous incident that one ought to focus on primarily to find out what 'Midas' will be created next, and therefore into whose bathing stream we ought to wade.

The more complex, the more 'attention deficit,' the more hyperactive, the more buzzing, the world gets, seemingly, the more accidents happen - and the more too, humans seem to be in the pathways of hurricanes and things like that.

On the one hand, given the tsunamis, the hurricanes, the floods, the earthquakes, the storms, the fires, and the acts of terrorism and/or revolt, it is notable that virtually no important person has ever been killed in one of them - no one, say, like any particularly important country's leader, or a major banker or industrialist or financier, or some judges or leading counsel.

Dionysus in ecstasy,
a moment from handing out a miracle or two

But, being a thinking and a logical person, I would venture to suggest that it is only a matter of time. And then I think, there is a certain kind of human psychology about political leaders and despots and tyrants and things, that it would pay to understand about, because there is nothing so humorous - or profitable - as to watch when a book-maker (turf accountant/ odds quote-r) looks around with that expression of: 'I didn't organize that! What just happened!'

The Croesus Mindset

There is so much interpretation and re-interpretation of history nowadays, that it is virtually a waste of time doing things like suggesting: 'the TRUTH about so-and-so REALLY was...'

And besides, how is it possible to encapsulate someone's whole life into a few short phrases or sentences or even a book?

Better to look at a lesson from history, or a particular complex idea expressed by way of some particular incident out of history.

And so in this piece I'd like to just look at one or two simple things we know about the legendarily wealthy King Croesus of Lydia (Turkey, today). We know he got gold from the river Pactolus, in which by myth or legend before him, King Midas washed in order to rid himself of the problematic blessing from the god Dionysus, which was namely that everything he touched would turn into gold.

The gold coin of King Croesus -
what are those symbols?!

We know he used innovations of the time, to do with separating silver from gold by heating the mixtures with plain salt - and issued fairly pure gold coins.

And we know that he instituted a treasury inside the Delphic Oracle of the Pythia.

What is less commonly known is that although the main Oracular centers took in gifts, they also distributed them out as well...

In Dodona, where the sacred Oak grove was, that also issued oracular pronouncements, 'mysterious gifts wrapped in straw would arrive from the Hyperboreans." Now the Hyperboreans lived in a place virtually no one had ever been to, way up North where it was both snowy as well as permanently in sunlight, full of pleasant corn fields and where no one got old, et cetera, et etera.

Croesus was a master of trading and he instituted and supported trade centers in his main home cities of Sardis and Ephesus.

In Winter, the god Apollo left the Delphic Oracle and holidayed in Hyperborea, with the gifts left behind, those mysterious ones wrapped tightly in straw, left to pacify the Delpheans in his absence.

And what is this all about?

...My point is to do with Midas, though. And not so much to do with what Croesus did after he got his main wealth.

Who is this Midas, really, and what is the myth about him based on - is it psychological, or magical and unreal; a fantasy of the human social mind?

Croesus, the Richest King Part 1

So... Following on from the last item here...

The basic idea is that behind virtually every obvious, open, public symbol of some important cultural - especially cultural - belief, is the form of the idea or belief that makes actual sense and functions in reality.

Why this is so is sometimes due to a malicious intent by groups of people, or a leader or ruler of people, to hide his own shortcomings and to mask the ways of unseating him.

In our present times, it is possible to think of it as somewhat similar to a program virus - something not for the benefit of the recipient at all. It is possible to think about social and political and even economic processes and 'topography' in terms of computer programs as a useful schema for our understanding of the human systems in which we abide.

Some of the things that one might suppose should be rather innocuous, are very sinister and have malicious meanings and objectives.

I am reminded of the recent two movie set about the 300 Spartans at Thermoplyae. In these we have a female admiral by name 'Artermisia' playing a role in support of Cyrus the Great, and then we have the Spartans themselves fighting what would appear on the surface to be a brave, also foolhardy and ultimately mortally-fated albeit heroic and strategically successful battle against Cyrus.

And thus, the entire modern generation of young minds see what they see and take away the lessons and ideas shallowly underlying the story structure as it has been presented in these entertainments.

Demonstrating of course, the validity of Plato and Aristotle's views about the insidious nature of entertainment when used as propaganda.

You see, Cyrus is at all times the ruler in spite of the Spartans' efforts. And you will even see this idea in things like Wikipedia. And so, yes, if you are prepared to lose your own life, then you may be heroic... The ultimate in senseless madness and foolish ideological fervor.

But this is not history and nor yet is it the 'truth behind the facade' - as I have been generalistically indicating about, that is available to those who search more deeply.

A modern day Australian
rider and archer...

Croesus, the world's richest man, endowed the Delphic Pythia (an oracle) with gold and treasure, because he was impressed at how astute and accurate and correct her oracular answers were to his questions. And much later on, some history records that he was murdered by the same Cyrus as mentioned above - who wished, apparently, to see whether the god Apollo or perhaps Dionysus, would come down to save his friend and favoured 'world's richest man' as he was about to be engulfed in flames.

Now the Pythia (there were several) were extremely beautiful women; this is attested without challenge in all records and accounts. If you go by the usual accounts, although the world's richest man was silly enough to give stacks of money over to this oracle because he thought she was always correct, she never was able to warn him about Cyrus, only the world's most brutal and lunatic and rampaging everywhere, tyrant. A minor oversight.

The usual accounts also opine that the Pythia were women with the lower bodies of serpents.

I would say, though, that the word they are looking for is, 'fumes,' or perhaps 'whisps,' but not serpent. Her lower body lay hidden in mists or whisps of gas or smoke.

Artemisia - although there was a Greek lady with that name who sailed military ships - also has the meaning of 'a female archer.'

A certain 'Toumyris' (Tamara - 'daughter of The Dark'), a Queen of the Massegetai Scythians, defeated Cyrus in battle, and cut off his head, dipping it in the blood of her own warriors, with the words: 'I told you that I would quench your thirst for blood, you asshole.'

And that, is what actually happened to Cyrus. The Scythians - or 'the Archers' - (the Artemisians) completely routed Cyrus. And they were lead by Tamara, the Archer Queen.

What really happened at Thermopylae is something that can wait for another day. Suffice to say at this point though, that it bears no resemblance to the modern movie with its magical CGI.

But if you are interested in wealth, then it is Croesus, and not Cyrus, that you would be best advised to inquire about. But as you can see also, many accounts use sophistry in focussing on the false attributes of Cyrus, and fabricate the destiny of Croesus in comparison, in order to lead you off the trail.



 

Secrets Of The East

There was many a day as a very young child, that I clambered over and under and around the cannon out front of the Eastern and Oriental Hotel in Penang. There are plenty of cannon still dotted around various locations in Penang, none of which have ever been used in earnest. Fort Cornwallis, not too far from the E & O Hotel, is one of the most well-known cannon emplacements on the island.

Eastern and Oriental Hotel,
aw still a great place!

Penang is an unusual place because technically, it was never any regional Sultan's actual island, and there are genuine cultural ties back in history to China and also to India via fleets from those places in days of the very ancient past.

Up in the hills, almost mountains, in fact, there are religious centers of major significance both to traditional Hindu people and also to Taoist - or at least Shangdi-style Chinese.

Today, when one is apt to hear a wide complaint that the world is becoming flattened, and deliberately flattened too, by out-of-control bureaucracies and mindless, juvenile in the historical sense, mono-cultural materialism, reminding myself of some of the ancient places in Penang is instructive.

The Chinese Temple of Supreme Bliss - but locally and colloquially also known as the 'Snake Temple' (because part of its name contains the word for 'snake') - is something that probably not even that many present-day Penang locals know accurately about. But here is a very fine example of what distinguishes the potential for social and cultural depth that human society possesses - and what the purposes of such depth is.

The Temple of Supreme Bliss -
the superficial temple...

THE actual Snake Temple though, 'She Miao,' is a much smaller, different place nearby, which is specifically and literally a temple to well, not a snake deity, but to something to do with ancient mysterious, seething, gaseous and ever-expanding energies, sometimes deadly, sometimes beneficial. Like all temples, this one goes through its materially up and down phases - and to a large extent, over many years, it has functioned as a kind of a small, open-to-the-public, reptile zoo of sorts, and this has been the means for its commercial basis of survival.

At the moment, it is seeing an 'up' moment, where everything has been extensively refurbished and up-graded; it looks good, especially in the evenings, but not forgetting though, that even in the day-time, the insides are kept rather dark because there are snakes hanging out in the rafters there!

'Something' is burned in the place that keeps the snakes, most of which are particularly deadly, somnolent.

Anyway, strange to tell, the snake image has a fundamental place in the Chinese version of the Adam and Eve story...

And, when the leaders of the ancient world, had lost their way, and become devoid of a moral standard that Heaven could abide, the God of Heaven... ...destroyed them.

Big Data, Small Establishment

I'm sorry that I use so many old fashioned English phrases and styles of speaking. I'm sure there's probably some more modern way of saying 'the numbers of agents employed in the field/behind the desk' - but 'establishment' is the only way I know how to say that in a short form.

Ed Snowden's point that one ought to accept that the NSA has equipment that makes at least 1 trillion guesses a second - say, about your password, for instance - is a good, a very good lesson on 'big data.' There is an irresistible attraction for government to fall in love with the next new thing, and certainly the next big thing, 'big data' being one of its absolute current favourites. Chemical lasers another one,  but that's for another day.

Charlie Hebdo, really?!

What can you do with a machine that makes 1 trillion guesses a second? Well, to really make use of the potential value, one needs another program, or system, at least, that channels questions and answers, like a kind of tree diagram or chart, towards a final strategic goal.

Without such a program or system, the process volume and speeds are just noise.

Of course, it is very tempting to look down upon the modern world of little people from this 'big data' perspective.

For one thing, it does reflect in a realistic way to political leaders, the modern world as it is - lots of people, no individuals, no individual power that can impact on the whole mass... Yep. Big Data is the thing.

Every now and then you get a few anomalous instances in which one or a few people get hold of some really super critical information or knowledge, and then, all you have to do, is eliminate them as active agents of information being spread.

Journalist Don Hale, on his
bike, from where is briefed by MI6,
on what he can say, and what his failure to co-operate,
will cost him.

One has to look at journalists such as Don Hale, or even Julian Assange for that matter, as being hyper-problematic for anyone in power who genuinely has guilty secrets that could not be forgiven by the public at large. I think we tend not to understand though, on account of so much tragic 'drama' in films and news, what a genuinely twisted and long-reaching, guilty secret really is anymore.

They are not anywhere near as simple as, 'oh, here are some pedophiles in government and in the police and the judiciary.' No no no. The media can give the impression that this is what constitutes such vile secrets.

Oh no no no. It's the psychopathic malice, the long-term planning, the cunning, the complex linked chains of ulterior motives. Not just the extent of it in high places and how it has corrupted career police. It's the volcano of degradation and the complexity of the evil that it would expose... It's who and what the primary school teachers are, as much as that these are the places where children are; the latter is merely the obvious.

You know, when an entire senior police force goes headlong into campaigns of deliberate distortion that obliterate people's rights and even their lives, for the sakes of people outside of their own, there is much sin involved. And I'm grateful for Richard Dawkins interpretation, from the scientist's point of view, as to what 'sin' is - I caught a bit of his recent documentary screened on FOX(lol). But he's way out of his depth here. 

Mini Cooper has a new,
preposterous and impractical Augmented Reality
'extra' - beautiful images though. Big organisations are
always deluded by their own arrogance.

Big Data - is the Achilles Heel of modern Western and of course, newly developed other governments. They all think it is the holy grail.

You see, you got to understand about Assange, for example... His background, is basically the same as Diana Spencer's.

The reason he knows stuff is because, well, he knows stuff! Not because he got it from some internet set-up! No. Felix Dennis set him up with the idea, because Felix, is (was) the computer nerd in the first place long before Assange was in short pants. And gave him the money too because he was already a zillionaire in the first place.

It just all turned out to be a gift that keeps on giving, that's all. Wikileaks is a great idea that works for a number of reasons, some of which are really silly, so silly not even 1 trillion guesses would alight upon the correct set. Not that you would know, anyway.

Bank this though - Big Data leads to fewer people on the establishment; and fewer CIA personnel certainly. Frankly, that's not a good thing. 

The Amber Moment

'Here we are, trapped in the amber of the moment, there is no why.' Kurt Vonnegut.

I'm sure just the other day I noticed the idiot scion Jacob Rothschild in one of the private boxes at the Vienna State Opera -  just when the great Anna Netrebko re-took to public performances after a suggestion a year ago from some wise head for her to cancel her US appearances right before the Ukraine junta got its ass kicked in Donbass.

Sony's new floating audio speakers
Come in to my place, we have these here (just use your
imagination!) What will we be playing on them - wait till you
get to the bottom of this page...

Can Jacob R. have a single clue about what constitutes artistic beauty? I doubt it.

Of course (though not really 'of course' but all the same,) I was not at the concert physically although I did watch the authorized live streaming pay-for-view channel showing it.

Netrebko's voice has deepened with maturity and is easily one of the stars in the timeless operatic sky now - she exhibits the voice confidence, the diction and phrasing of the complete expert in practice and theory.

In the midst of all of today's ugliness, is there beauty still? I have a small problem in that every now and then I still manage to turn up some old capital that has a dollar value and apart from those, I look around every day and see no outside economic prospects and no economic or 'merchanting' inspiration outside of my own treasure cabinet...

Alina Somova showing tons of plastique

Art is always somewhat of a prostitute to money. I have no doubt that Rothschild J., has met Netrebko in person - these people are usually part of the after-performance soiree. And I hope he gives very generously to things like the Wiener Staatsoper. One is never to know these things, whether such morons suddenly withdraw their cash because of some politics.

I mean, you could be overheard talking about Alina Somova having a ton of plastique in a New York airport and suddenly be arrested and questioned about it! That is the state of education of the lunatics who have wrested power across the worldwide stage and sent the world back into a world at war. No doubt, in Singapore, such would not be the case, since they are all so so very educated there.

Florence and The Machine Cosmic Love - Seven Lions Remix

It's really the Dance of The Sugar Plum Fairy at the start, but don't tell.

Get past 1 min 15 secs for the lyrics.

Ah yes. Is there beauty still? Well that depends on whether you are stuck in permanently traditional patterns or whether you can hear the variations in artistic expression.

We are all 'stuck in the amber of the moment.' The dinosaurs provide the resin, and the creatures with wings are preserved. The lizards never had wings and so, they have all died out.

FLORENCE + THE MACHINE LYRICS

"Cosmic Love"

A falling star fell from your heart and landed in my eyes
I screamed aloud, as it tore through them, and now it's left me blind

The stars, the moon, they have all been blown out
You left me in the dark
No dawn, no day, I'm always in this twilight
In the shadow of your heart

And in the dark, I can hear your heartbeat
I tried to find the sound
But then it stopped, and I was in the darkness,
So darkness I became

The stars, the moon, they have all been blown out
You left me in the dark
No dawn, no day, I'm always in this twilight
In the shadow of your heart

I took the stars from my eyes, and then I made a map
And knew that somehow I could find my way back
Then I heard your heart beating, you were in the darkness too
So I stayed in the darkness with you

The stars, the moon, they have all been blown out
You left me in the dark
No dawn, no day, I'm always in this twilight
In the shadow of your heart

The stars, the moon, they have all been blown out
You left me in the dark
No dawn, no day, I'm always in this twilight
In the shadow of your heart

Let's Raise The Stakes

I'm sure you want something from these pages that you can use yourself - something that will really make you some money in this present era of low circulation velocity of the Money Supply.

Well I will try and do that soon, but first, there are one or two small items that need urgent attention.

Richie Benaud died,
so I'm in a hurry (Packer leaves Manhattan Hotel).
Where Strauss-Kahn once was...

Riding high on the US President's very recent warm embrace of the new Cuba (as I told you that he would do about a year ago), Britain's rogue elements of its MI6 and 'cut loose' ex-MI5 operators, are swinging from chandeliers as they insert themselves back into Cuba via their fake 'cigar shops' around the world (but not UK, of course!). And those of you who read here consistently over time will know, I have been harping on about this Cuban thrust for some time and how the UK 'five-star' people have been planning their adventures back into Cuba a la pre F. Castro: 'Jewish mafia' casinos, contraband and unregistered export of cigars, substitution racket alcohol, sex slavery. (That's straight out of an Ian Fleming novel by the way so please don't throw 'anti-Semitic' at me!)

Bearing in mind the not-that-long-ago superlative Mark Ellison QC report on criminal corruption in the highest ranks of the British Special Branch, and the peculiar political misuse of the so-called 'Special Demonstration Squad' - let's be frank - the caught-on-video absurd stupidity of Security and Intelligence leaders like Malcolm Rifkind and Jack Straw (sent us to war because of 'chemical weapons of mass destruction...') underscores my main point that there are huge and powerful utterly out-of-control private money interests abusing Secret Intelligence and Police Services around the world, and whose main objectives are just plain mercantile theft and fraud and racketeering for personal and private corporate gain. Makes me wonder what politicians have already done for more than just a measly $5,000. Merck and Co, anyone? Anyone? Anyone know what I'm talking about there? Guess not.

Ellison's report was about the covering up of murder, and the strong likelihood that various journalists were murdered to stop them from exposing criminality and sexual impropriety (at best!) high up in government and bureaucracies.

Ah, but you don't see much of Ellison and the follow-up inquiries and charges featuring in much pop news and media, do you?

Nikolai Patrushev

Never mind. But I'd ask you to imagine, let's say, Nikolai Patrushev, head of Russia's Security Council, being video-d in a sting asking for $5,000 per half a day's 'work' giving 'access' to government! I think... NOT!

Anyhow...

This is what's happening right now. Apart from the Diamond Disk, core drilling escapade busting into the Hatton Garden 'safety deposit boxes' (a bit Ocean's Eleven, d'you think maybe), these rogue agents and groups are moving in on billionaire James Packer. What we are talking about is a Thatcher-era, virtually mercenary, one-time UK Secret Service bunch of crooks, operating behind fake medical practices and ex-South African law firms now operating in Australasia. Now the simple fact is, they couldn't do any of this if not for the stupid Aussie Federal Police's active co-operation (too stupid to understand that these guys ARE NOT YOUR FRIENDS, BOYS).

Billionaire casino boss, James Packer

And so, over the last year or so, they have been shifting slowly into Sydney upper crust society, taking up their positions for the sting on Packer.

Now, those of you who have read here over say the last oh god, years perhaps - what odds do you give that I am wrong, or that poor old James Packer will survive this?

It's the internet world now. Unless someone 'important' asks me or tells me to stop laying all of this out, I'll just keep right on here until people's noses bleed and they all fall over in the ensuing, certain, faint.

...Which ought to give you the clue that there are certain people who are giving me the green light.

Operation 'Old Hat'

The White House hacking story was released - or broke - on the 8th of April.

And you read something suggesting that kind of thing here on the 2nd of April.

I know I shouldn't do this because there are some rules one of which says 'don't harass people who might end up as your opponents.'

The actor Gary Oldman doing a
Spy Master - or analyst's - face

So but what's the actual point of hacking private or at least confidential email and files of people who are in the higher circles of the White House? That's the basic question Russian media is asking in an attempt to cast doubt on suggestions the Russian government has some hand in the recent hackings.

You may recall a so-called 'Operation Aurora' in which the US government accused China and North Korea of hacking US government computers back at that time. Every year a new hacker!

There are two (well three if you include the real objectives) main aspects of the hackings, both of the White House, and currently, of TV5Monde in France.

Firstly, there are the actual people who are doing the hacking (more on this presently).

And secondly, there is the way in which general media releases the stories.

Back to the first aspect - everyone hacks everyone else; yes the Russians do it, and the Chinese, definitely Japan does it as well, the Germans have a system but it doesn't include actual computer and internet hacking of US government files, and the British have a (possibly illegal) backdoor anyway. One particular foreign country has a low latency process straight into US secret computer files and internet traffic.

None of the countries except the last one have the least bit of real access to the mainstream Western media. The CIA's media channels are too well-known for any of this to have been from them.

And so Admiral, apart from the source of info about what you had for dinner last weekend, would you like to understand what this is all about? (I'm sure you do know, but some readers here who are citizens and taxpayers might not).

In the case of a genuine external hacker, they will want to know who in the White House was talking to whom about arms sales to Saudi Arabia over the last year or two. And they will be able to tell simply by observing who jumped when the hack story came out - whether they even actually hacked anyone or not!

And in the case of the supposed Islamic State hacking of a French TV Station - cui bono.

For in this case it wasn't about information as such, it was a 'denial of service' operation. The media has theorized very quickly that Islamic State just wants to irritate and harass the French people and the French media. 

Her ex-boss was given a new identity...
As well as a fake funeral,
but you're not allowed to know that.

What strikes me as completely odd, rather than just report the facts, the media appears hell bent on speculating about who is doing things! North Korea does Sony, Russia does the White House, and Islamic State does French TV. Cases all solved. So there you go, just run along now sonny. No need for the FBI or anything like that; Rupert will tell us right off the bat.

Where is Gerald Ronson, by the way? Does anyone know? What is he up to these days? I see Ed Miliband goes to his charity do's. I wonder whether Gerald and his mates at J. Rothschild will end up with the UK bits of Total. The last time he tried this kind of stuff with his mates he went to jail, but then, European Court judges ended up saying the British Courts and prosecution were all wrong. Just shows what low latency (in this case high up in the various judiciaries) can procure for you and what harm it can do to unsuspecting people like Jesselyn Radack by comparison.

Operation 'Old Hat.' Is that what it's called? Never saw that in any mainstream Western media now did you! 

Winner's Talk

Well, on Friday the 17th of November of 2014, and again on Friday the 13th of February 2015, I posted about an Australian racehorse called 'Chautauqua.'

This afternoon, Chautauqua beat the best sprinting racehorses in the world over 1200 metres and collected the main prize money for the TJ Smith Stakes - the top sprint race in Australasia -  a race worth 2.5 million dollars in total prize money and held at Randwick Racecourse in Sydney.

Chautauqua wins $2.5 million TJ Smith Stakes

It won, coming from last at the turn, and it won by what looked to me pretty much like a nostril - but it was a clear nostril.

It was not the favourite by any means at all and paid a very healthy dividend to those who backed the horse - about 5/1, and even 8/1 on track at moments.

So what makes it possible for someone like me to 'know' beforehand? 

It's easy for critics to say, oh well you could tip a lot of horses and then bang on when one of them wins.

But as those of you know who have been reading at this place for awhile, I don't do that kind of thing; Chautauqua was one of only two or three I have ever mentioned - and as you will know, all of them have won, and big money races too.

So what makes it possible? And are the techniques similar to or the same as what you will have to use to make more standard 'investments' in financial markets.

Race horse betting markets are financial markets. They just occur over a highly compacted time-frame on the day of the given race, or any given race, in question.

And what horses like Chautauqua prove time and time again, is that the 'market' and the apparent, and publicly-known professionals are regularly quite incorrect in their assessments and analysis.

Seafood cassolette,
good riverboat fare... 

I remember talking to a great Western Australian bookmaker a long time ago - Eddie McAppion - who asked me once: 'this race is impossible to sort out, no one knows what will win this one - if only I knew which horses to lay... What do you think?' (To lay means to attract more money for some horses as the bookmaker, in the belief those will lose the race, and thus win the bookmaker extra money).

And I told him that I thought the mare Bungling would win and moreover, she would win in a photo finish by a nose - the shortest possible official margin.

'Ridiculous!' He said. 'No one knows that kind of thing.'

Anyway, as you will have guessed Bungling did in fact win in a photo coming through along the inside rail and literally by a nose in a photo finish.

Afterwards, he questioned me as to whether this was luck or something else, and I said an experienced trainer had once told some kids arguing about the relevance of a 'parrot nose' on a racehorse, whether this had something to do with the line of breeding and indicated some bloodline - he'd said to them: 'no, but an extended front lip could help you in a photo finish.'

Now this all sounds completely ridiculous but I'll draw your attention to an old movie starring Cameron Diaz and Al Pacino 'On Any Given Sunday.' D'you remember the coach's speech about the difference between winning and losing being a matter of inches? But that the inches were all around you... In front of your face, between your fingers, at the ends of your arms, where your eyes were looking, everywhere.

Black Russian cocktails - after you win,
never before.

Eddie was so irritated at me, that even in the photo, where bookies were offering odds on which horse got up, he bet against me. And of course lost. And was irritated all the more.

I like to position myself in investing, in the role of the gambler, and not the 'house.' And I'll tell you why. Being the house is about an oligarchy. And oligarchies create fat, slow, envious, lazy, angry people at the tops of those systems. Their capacities to enjoy themselves is extremely constrained, and a lot of what they do is underscored with fear and jealousy and even a kind of rage. And often, they resort to cheating to 'win.'

And that's the best thing you can ever hope to have, as an investor, because it is when the so-called supremely powerful fuck up, and they do it big time.

I could tell you how it is possible to pick winning race horses from such a long way out. But seriously, that would involve some real serious talk!






.

Black Velvets

Patrick Macnee of John Steed/The Avengers fame introduced the idea that the Chelsea Boot was 'the thing' for a well-dressed man.

And, I see Daniel Craig in a pair the other day in one of the shoots in Rome. Not sure Fleming ever considered the Chelsea Boot for Bond but hey, so what, this is 2015.

I mean for god's sake, who even knows what being a real bon vivant is, anyway?!

A 'Black Velvet' cocktail

One may read that Bond ate 'dressed crab' and downed 'Black Velvets' but has anyone you know eaten dressed crab recently? Apparently, even Maryland crab dishes served in Maryland hardly ever have actual Maryland crab in them now. It's more likely to have seafood filler made in a factory owned by Goldman Sachs or Warren Buffett in Vietnam. 

And so, if it comes to fantasy Bond - which it all pretty much is these days - or fantasy bon vivants, I think frankly we can kick a few asses here.

Of course, I'm sure you all know that this current adventure in Yemen is entirely, and I do mean entirely a scam to sell weapons to a few of the ME countries. Do you know how many actual armed fighters the Ansar Al Zaidi army has? We're talking easily over a million. And so 500 dead in the air bombing by the House of Saud against the 'House of Houth' (which the media is calling the voting public of all of Yemen) is a touch silly to be brutally honest. But that hasn't stopped a massive build-up of naval warships from a dozen Western countries zoning in on the Gulf of Aden. If there were a real Bond and he had on a Chelsea Boot it could do no better than being sent rapidly up the backside of Salamander, King of Saudi Arabia. Won't happen of course.

Actual MI6 are more interested in participating in the flow of gravy from the new, open Cuba, and the anxious King Salamander and his minions purchasing extravagant amounts of special, intelligent, pin-point targeting weapons - now that Yemen, like Egypt actually had democratic elections for once. Jesus, we can't be having that around here!

Anyway... 

Baked, Stuffed Crab - excellent!

Personally I prefer baked crab to dressed crab, and although you will not easily find it on the internet, deviled baked crab is the most amazing thing. Baked crab is difficult to prepare and execute well; time-consuming to present  - and you see that by flipping through pics on the net of it. It seldom looks any good in these photos... But, it is simply one of the most amazing dishes if you ever have the chance to get a good version of it. 

Yes, a Black Velvet cocktail - champagne and Guinness stout - is perfect with virtually any crab dish, and certainly with oysters and caviar too. But I think we can go a bit further and try what is known as a Riga Black Balsam with our baked crab.

And our strictly fantasy bon vivant may prefer a pair of Gaziano & Girling benchmades.

Gaziano & Girling's

All of these little things will, I'm quite certain, be appreciated by Admiral Mike Rogers, current head of the NSA, who has a sense of humour, and, as I believe, has even got himself a little disinformation section who go around nightclubs in Dubai spreading rumours about alien landings off Yemen. I kid you not.

Our Bond is of course, unemployed by - unemployable - by any of your usual Western governments. 

Admiral Mike Rogers favourite dinner dish is... yes, you guessed it, baked crab.

Check your cooks, Mike; check your lowly, lowly, cooks. Get some food tasters. Even buy some of those chemical detector units from Germany (I think C. Melchers can source that for you). Better buy them from Germany too, and not from Israel, who don't like you.

Good Production Design v. Script

I'm sure a few of you have seen by now, the early release teasers for the latest Bond movie 'Spectre.' Spectre was originally created by Kevin McClory not Ian Fleming, but we shan't hold that against anybody.

I have to say that from what I have seen this is the first time in the new era of Bond that I have seen excellent production design qualities in one of the newer iterations of the Bond story in film.

Craig finally looks right

And, the action sequences involving Daniel Craig are much more advanced, complex and sophisticated than all of that silly train-top running and just general running that seemed to be the vogue at the time for all of the action stars from Cruise to Matt Damon and everyone in between including Jackie Chan!

But that doesn't mean to say they aren't going to once again completely stuff up the film due to a dreadful script and story-line. However, it is a good sign that the early production design is so good. For once at last in these recent years, Bond appears in a certain glimmer-shadow of elegance, wearing clothes that actually fit the actor and not the actor attempting to fit some fixated concept and image of 'James Bond.'

As far as remaining faithful to books, if you put a stopwatch on the amount of time the Bentley Continental was actually seen in Casino Royale I don't think you'd get more than a few seconds, not even. And yet, for all the claims that the recent directors are sticking to the books, they jump-cut the Bentley into this same old flash-flash pseudo-drama visual scam that modern directors appear to believe will pass for excitement and thrill.

'Spectre' is not exactly any Ian Fleming story or book as such, although it featured as the main 'villainous thing' in a short story and a number of books.

What will it - the movie - turn out to be in the end?

Fleming's idea of dinner

You have some great actors there - Bellucci, Craig... And some average ones and some complete unknowns for the present. A vast budget. Really great production design, from all indications. 

But these people behind the production have never shown any respect for writers at any time in the past, everyone knows real writers get paid nothing - even Eszterhas had to use camera angle tricks to get a professional money-earning reputation!

A real fictional villain - smash his face, James,
take his watch off him! Shoot his ass with your Walther PPK.

We were all lucky that Fleming's wife came from the literary family who owned the London Daily Mail. Fleming was not a good writer but he still was one.

Make me a believer, Sam Mendez. I'm giving you a big chance. But don't think you're a writer, because you aren't one. Get one. The production design deserves it.

Writers, real writers are more powerful and mysterious than you know... Think the Bhagavad-gita, Ulysses, the Gospels, the fucking Koran for godsakes! Buy a writer, Sam. It will be worth it.