Ape Man

Initial reports are almost always wrong. And in the case of disasters, they are almost always wrong in a way that makes you think that things are worse than they are. I have to think that some of this is going on with the reports coming out of Haiti. I mean, I am sure that […]

I think the term “mentally ill” is one of the worst terms people ever came up with. It really fails to do insanity justice. The problem is that when you think of illness, you think of something that makes you weak. You think of something that is unambiguously bad. But the things that we collectively […]

Few things in this life fascinate me as much as insanity does. So as you can imagine, I read a recent article in the New York Times called “The Americanization of Mental Illness” with interest. The main thrust of the article is the observation that people express their “mental illness” in different ways in different […]

One has to wonder what this year will bring in the way of news stories. It seems reasonable to bet that one of the big stories will be the first sovereign default of a country that’s in the EU. I am thinking of Spain, Greece, Hungary, and any of the Baltic states. It’s possible that […]

The plague seems to be sweeping the land. For some reason, I had this naive hope that we were over that. However, four guys all called in sick within a short period of time, and most of them are not the type to call in sick unless they are dying. Or at least, sick enough […]

It’s funny how things change. If you will remember, I was worried about a friend of mine. Now he is being groomed to be a supervisor. It’s funny how some things never change. I am still worried about him. It’s tough enough supervising a group of people for the first time. It is even tougher […]

I was asked…. How accurate do you consider this statement about the gold standard and the Great Depression (from wikipedia): Economic studies have indicated that just as the downturn was spread worldwide by the rigidities of the Gold Standard, it was suspending gold convertibility (or devaluing the currency in gold terms) that did most to […]

I think that most people really have no idea of how evil people can really be. Or maybe I am just naive. Maybe people really do know and I just underestimate the people around me. But I really think that most people have no idea. I just don’t think that people have the kind of […]

There are two things that I think make for great writing. The first is honesty and the second is simplicity. Both of these things are far harder to pull off then at first it might appear. We are not by nature honest creatures. When we talk with others we put on masks and we filter […]