Undiscovered Treasures

Have you ever observed that there are these phases in the corporate business world, in which all of a sudden everyone you know turns into a depressive?

It's a bit deceptive though, because there are certain kinds of business people who are not really happy unless they can tell you how they are able to 'see' all the problems, all the negatives, all the downside, and also then complain bitterly about 'how hard their life is.'

D.K. Ludwig -
billionaire builder of supertankers

There was this billionaire back in the Eighties that I recall - you'll remember him: D. K. Ludwig. He specialized in constantly looking dour and miserable and serious and as though carrying the world on his shoulders. On the surface, many of his ventures never were successful in terms of the original stated aims. A strange guy; if you or I had so many failures it would be a wonder we could afford a loaf of bread much less be billionaires. Still, it's what's below the surface with sorts of people, isn't it... I'm in enough trouble as it is so I should best shut up about Ludwig. 

But what about the people who genuinely feel some kind of corporate 'depressive' sense?

I've noticed it would be impossible for them to open their minds to all the other possibilities that exist around them, and which would be positive, beneficial, and uplifting.

From what I've seen of their behaviour, I think they have a hide-bound self-view that dictates very narrowly what kinds of things they must like or what they must aspire to have or to become.

Courvoisier - 'Toast of Paris' event/function/product launch

Of course they worry about insufficient cash, that's only natural.

However one thing - it seems to me - they fail to notice, is how everything they think they want to spend the cash on comes out of what they think they already know about life, and there is never any provision made for things they do not know, or do not know of, yet.

The world is full of as yet undiscovered treasures. And that is the secret of Aladdin's Cave.

Parov Stelar - 'Booty Swing.'

Astroturf And XKeyScore

As you no doubt are aware, there are various covert programs that are 'dropped in' everywhere an on-line computer exists that uses Microsoft. A well-known one of these is 'XKeyScore' which exists on your computer and prioritizes the uploading of data from your computer to the NSA's mega-storage computers.

Real - or brilliant?
What do you think?
It is a game we're talking about...

This program can create a 'lag' in the up-screen loading time each time you type anything that looks like it could contain a URL or anything that might contain your email address or anyone's email address and/or phone number. That is the principle reason why when you buy a new computer it seems quite fast to begin with and then slows down over time. You'll never really find the program itself because they rotate file registry labels so that at one moment they will be 'hkc'-something or other, and then the next they'll be something else. They will leave tell-tale registry footprints that come up as unused or obsolete file pathways.

The data sent is usually just so-called 'meta-data' but they can take whole files including large amounts of text though only when something you have written comes up on a 'selector' list which suggests you have something 'suspicious' that needs to be looked at closely and in detail.

Microsoft has tended to tuck away what used to be a common feature whereby you could easily see at the bottom of your desktop from moment to moment, how much data in packets was being both sent and received. 

What is not so much common knowledge, although there are a few websites where people talk about it, is that the NSA along with its Israeli computing partners (and unfortunately it really is that), hire people who monitor social media of all kinds, and who also participate in the conversations going on. And what is very rarely talked about, is just how many employees are involved in this activity. We are talking in the multiple thousands. Just how much are these people being paid? It couldn't be a normal hourly rate for normal hourly work...? Are these people who have done some kind of deal, such as 'probation/no jail time' and fifty cents an hour-type stuff? Surely not.

Chief of CIA,
Brennan

John Brennan's email being hacked is a silly story, to me. And I don't frankly, believe it.

Oh no. If you are going to hear some real deep insider secrets, you'll hear them in a place like this; only, you won't believe it. 

Condom bombs, eh... Hmn. I already told you about that. I told you that this was the means that assassination weapons were 'moved' into Bahrain during a Formula 1 race, and that an assassination was stalled at the last moment by *** agents. 'Going up,' (the gas filled condom balloon part) is only one half of the story; the other half is the VHALTI device, a small controlled descent-only glider that packs a 'broken-down' weapons payload. It's not only about explosives that 'might' hit some Russian jet in Syria. 'Condom bombs' are not an ISIL invention. I think they were originally a Swedish development as far as actual field unit carry in recent years goes, but the idea's been around for years. 

I think I might have had to delete that post shortly after I posted it.

There are many things that I couldn't possibly post just 'straight out' - not 'just like that.' Meaning, not openly as if I were saying something I believed or something stated as 'a fact,' whether merely baldly asserted or supported by something. 

And the main reason is that I am aware people all have their own outlooks on life, very valid for each person, usually, in terms of their unique individual selves and experiences. People's beliefs are being used these days as the bridge to 'winning them over' to accepting other things sneakily being stuck inside of the whole package. And if I said something that appeared to challenge someone's personal beliefs and so on, it would create dissonance and a (false) bias reaction might result. It's very tempting to believe that you (me, anyone) would always have our wits about us sufficiently to be able to perceive the 'inserted parts;' but it's much more sophisticated than most are led to believe. There are some clever people and clever psychologists involved.

It's all just standard propaganda technique but I don't want to play the game.

I'm happy for you to believe anything your intelligent mind directs you to believe. I'd hope people, whatever side of the political/belief/human structural spectrum they are on, would be able to at the last moment or at a critical moment, sense real danger if it is even within their own cherished belief systems - if these were being deliberately exploited let's say; used against you, as it were.

So I will just tell you which places not to go and you should just not go there. Don't worry about the reasons, they won't be the obvious ones and I'm not going to say what they are anyway.

You probably already will have forgotten which places I said not to go to, previously. 

Do not go to Tel Aviv, Singapore, Bahrain, Saudi or Kuwait. And I really don't care what John Brennan has to say about it. He - and they, have completely gotten lost inside their own nuttiness. The CIA cannot see the forest for the trees. And their strategy will likely be to drop Agent Orange on the trees. Don't go to those places. They are dangerous beyond your wildest imaginings.  

Winner Winx

The four year old mare, Winx, won today's W.S. Cox Plate at Moonee Valley in Melbourne, Australia - and she won it in track record time.

Winx

You see, it's not responsible for someone to suggest before the race that a young mare will win a race like this, against older horses, against male horses, and against the best other horses in the world over the particular distance in question. But that was the case that I believed she could win - yesterday I was 'champing at the bit,' as they say, to say she would win, though at the same time I don't like to feel as if I am 'adding to the burden' by 'declaring' a horse before a race such as the Cox.

But let's look at this - as I hinted at yesterday - another way...  Let's look at it in terms of the cultural and ideological approach that marks the difference between European racehorse owners and trainers - and the Australian approach.

Now European racing people will say different, but my strong impression is that they are really only interested in the money factor, and not in the horses as such.

Yesterday, in the pre-race parade, a thirty year-old past champion of the race - Better Loosen Up - took the field in front of the crowd once more. In 'horse-to-human' years this is about 210 years of age in human years... You have to look after a living thing pretty well to get it to this kind of comparative lifespan.

Better Loosen Up and the great trainer,
David Hayes, whose father Colin Hayes, was
also a great racehorse trainer

The American situation is a little different again, in that they have a much broader-minded approach to medical preparations and treatments that will allow a racehorse to fulfill an athletic and competitive racing career - and so I'm not going to make direct comparisons to the American situation.

It is a reality that there is far greater money involved in the thoroughbred racing scene in England and in Europe than there is, generally, in Australia. Of course there is massive investment in racing in Hong Kong and Singapore and Macau too, but overall, England and Europe possess the wealthiest owners and other participants.

Yet there's many a horse expert, not just myself, who opine that Australian horses are faster, more streamlined in their running and galloping action, and much more intelligently and subtly educated to run and to race. 

So which is best - going for the money in a brute force fashion, or doing it with elegance and 'poetry in motion' so to speak?

There's no contest. Making money - or 'winning' if I may use that analogy - has to include some process that satisfies the mind on the intellectual level and not just on the enumerative monetary basis alone.

Hot air balloon over the Yarra Valley

It's late Spring now in Australia, and the horse-racing scene is filled with events and parties and functions. Alongside the Moonee Valley W.S. Cox Plate day on the same day, the country club at Yarra Valley - where a lot of cooler climate wines are produced - also has its carnival race day, which ends with a party and hot air balloons flying in and fireworks and food and wine, of course.

If you're smart, there are no losers in Australian horse racing, and you can enjoy yourself exceedingly well.

Winners

Tomorrow is the $3 million W.S. Cox Plate run at Moonee Valley in Melbourne, Victoria. A difficulty with considering the chances in this race is how one might 'line up' the form of foreign horses - that is, horses from overseas, including from the Northern Hemisphere - with the form of the local horses competing in the race.

The public wins! Daryl Braithwaite returns by
poplar demand to sing at the Cox Plate tomorrow

This year, the foreign horses' form is what is called 'unexposed,' which is a way of saying they haven't done much or any racing here in Australia. And even though the Cox Plate is a race for only the best horses at their peak ages for racing at Weight-For-Age, and even though the horses from overseas racing tomorrow are the best horses in their regions, the reality of horse racing is that you might get one crop in a particular year for the particular hemisphere (Northern/Southern) that are all outstanding and so the best indeed represent exceedingly good horses, or you may get a year in which all the horses are just average and in this case 'the best' for that year only means the one or ones better than the others of that year.

And so, it may be that the foreign horses are ten lengths better than the best local horses - or, it may mean they are ten lengths less good - and we will not know until after the race is over tomorrow. So I will not be making any predictions this year.

The Cox is a race for middle distance, classic, race horses. Horses that can 'get' a derby distance of 2400 metres, or a very very strong 2000 metres (a mile and a quarter). The Cox itself is over 2040 metres, but they are strongly contested metres all the way!

The situation, however, of assessing Northern versus Southern Hemisphere horses with regard to the fast sprinters, is totally different. It is quite clear that the Southern Hemisphere horses over the last two or even three years are head and shoulders above the Northern Hemisphere horses, and this year in particular, the group of peak age horses (3+ to say 5) is outstanding across the board.

Chautauqua winning the Manikato Stakes
at the night meeting at Moonee Valley this evening

And this makes the horse I told you about late last year - Chautauqua - a very special horse indeed. In fact, he has not lost a race since I confirmed here, my early view that I considered he was a very good horse, and tonight, he displayed, in the words of one Melbourne Racing journalist: 'a mind-blowing performance that demolished a field of other very good horses...'

And you should wonder how I could have picked out this horse especially to showcase in this blog well before he demonstrated his dominant abilities on the track.

Let's keep that a mystery for a while. 

I will make one open observation though, about a specific difference between Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere horse racing, namely that I view many if not most Northern Hemisphere owners and trainers as both brutal and cynical towards their horses, and especially since most of the Winter tracks in England in particular are easily cut up and present tripping hazards with large, raised, sods all over the final furlongs, the agricultural manner in which the horses are intentionally ridden leaves a lot to be desired as far as a true 'Sport of Kings' goes. Kings don't need money so badly.

Australian and New Zealand horses are not 'soft' horses by implication, though. Far from it. 

The Cox is a genuinely 'big-money' type of race, with the breeding value of well-performing runners increasing by millions afterwards. And so, one expectation I have for tomorrow, is the possibility of a 'horse war' brought on by the overseas runners. I expect it to be a rough race. Horses that don't perform well will not go down in my estimation - and horses that do perform well can be viewed as genuinely 'robust' for your future breeding book notes...

The Dark Years

Today, on Max Keiser's television show, Egon von Greyerz made the following rather humorous observation:

"There are some small residential properties in the heart of London that have a $250 million dollar price tag.... And, what, we saw a painting, the other day, a Gauguin or Picasso or something like that go for more than $200 million. So you see, the rich people, what they can do for half a billion dollars - well, they can live in a small empty apartment in London, with nothing inside... and one painting on the wall..."

Egon von Greyerz - he wrote something
called 'The Dark Years Are Here.'

Max went on to say something about The Fed lending into some parallel Universe.

It was all quite droll.

It was really quite funny. I laughed. They went to a break in which we saw a couple of children crying in a war zone or refugee camp or somewhere, in a 'news slice.'

And then we returned to Egon saying to Max that there was no way governments would actually stop money printing now from here on, One, because that was all they knew how to do, and Two, because they spent the money on buying votes. Oh it was cruel.

He was such a nice looking rather mature and timid, if blond, old gentleman. And clearly very wealthy himself.

If I were Julius Caesar - which I am not, thankfully - I would make a bold statement right now that no one would credit.

Anyway. Let's look at our friend Julius. I make it a rule these days never to seriously debate anyone who hasn't read the following books, and been tested by an independent person to indicate that they HAVE actually read them rather then just claiming to have read them (which a lot of facile people, including many modern University professors, do):

The Complete Works of Julius Caesar

The Complete Works of C.G. Jung

Anaximander

The Early Works of Plato (at minimum)

Xenophon

Stuart Hollingdale (if they haven't studied Euclid in detail)

Marsilio Ficino (at minimum, for the Venetian/Florentine Renaissance)

Now have a look at what this advertisement says about the books of Caesar, by Caesar - it says 'forgotten books...' Why forgotten? Are they forgotten, because, as, in the words of the famed Clinton Richard Dawkins, the people of that time were 'ignorant and primitive,' and thus any works by them may not be necessary reading for intellectuals and intelligent modern people generally? 

At some point, the intelligent
person must read this

I can assure you that Mr. Dawkins has NEVER read The Complete Works of Julius Caesar.

And it doesn't matter what he says to you, if you ever get the chance to ask him about it, he has never read it.

Now I know that I may easily turn off some of those who read here, by saying these kinds of things, but they simply must be said - One, because they are a most accurate truth about the modern world and the experts and authorities who take the stage here, and Two, because even the most ardent and committed supporter of any of the several wunderkind examples of today's intellectuals, will have it somewhere in the back of their mind now that all is not necessarily as it seems to be, every time they listen anew to the 'approved thinkers.' 

I mean why, do you suppose, 'the forgotten...?' Forgotten by whom? Encouraged to be forgotten by whom? 

What is actually, forgettable, about them?

The government of Singapore spends atrocious sums of money promoting 'the smart society.'

You will not find them promoting the intellectual society.

So can you make money inside a world that prints paper money endlessly and gives it to a parallel Universe borrower, or to some 'rich person' who buys an empty flat and a painting? And then Mark Toner comes onto your television to give you latest truth from Washington while this is all happening...

Can you make money in such a world?

After Caesar was murdered, Rome carried on, donkeys attended the Senate - although at least they were made to wear the SPQR cloak - and fires and poems and music and insurgencies from slaves and so on attended every Caesar since Julius. And does anyone really much know exactly when the Empire of Rome actually collapsed?

Senatus Populusque Romanus
'for the Senate, and the people of Rome'

When you set out to invest your money, or to attempt to make money, did you start at any of those above books? Or did you jump-cut to The Revised Edition of The Money Masters?

Now there were rich people in ancient Rome post-Caesar, who yet were not at the very top, not actually among the so-called 'elite.' And they thrived. Who were they? What did they do? What did they know?

This question is not semantics. Upon the right answers, depends any possible chance a person has of economic and financial advancement, in today's world.