People Are Just strange

I often find myself thinking that people are really just strange. Perhaps it would be better to say self-centered and thoughtless as opposed to strange for that is what I really mean. I observe this every day and all around me. Here are a few examples:- 1. Yesterday there was an event at the school my daughter goes to. It’s essentially and infants and junior school so the kids and the majority of the parents are young. Of course, as hoards of parents descend on the school, parking becomes a nightmare and the strange behaviour starts. First, I observe two cars ‘battling’ it out for a vacant parking space. Despite one car being there, hazard warning lights flashing and obviously waiting to enter the parking space as soon as the

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How to Waste a Morning in Prague

So today I had to send a letter to the IRS. Since I need it to arrive before December 23rd, I thought I would send it by courier – DHL in fact. Around 10am, I duly set out and drove the 10-minute drive to the airport where DHL have an office. I walk in to the DHL office armed with my reading glasses (their air bills use such small typeface its unreadable) and a pen…. yes, last time I was there they had no pens available! This is the Czech Republic people after all where customer service cannot be translated into the local language because it simply does not exist as a concept….. Entering the office there was what looked like a 15-year old behind the desk and on the

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Banks – The Thieves and Crooks of the 21st Century

Have you ever tried to wire money from one country to another? If you live overseas like me then you can add this issue to the long list of difficulties you will face as an ExPat. Let me explain. Wiring money overseas via a bank is an archaic process so far as I can figure. It takes 24-48 hours to perform this transaction in the days of instant email communication. Why? Next, you will pay the originating bank a fee – usually a fixed fee but it can also be a percentage of the amount being wired up to some maximum (meaning – its NOT cheap). You can set up the transaction to pay the fees on one side or split them between the originator and receiver in most instances.

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Over Population

A couple of years ago I worked for an industry analyst firm CommodityPoint (I now do the same job but for my own firm in partnership with Patrick Reames – Commodity Technology Advisory). I had worked as an analyst in commodities for about 7-years and during that time written many CommodityPoint newsletters known as IssueAlert. CommodityPoint was folded at the end of 2011 by its owners and the websites no longer exist – neither then do the vast majority of those articles unfortunately. However, after 20-minutes of research this morning I managed to find one from 2011 that I believe was fundamentally important. I reproduce it here to ensure it’s survival. The Beginning of the Beginning of the End by Dr. Gary M. Vasey, 14th July, 2011 I’m not one

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Before It Was Never the News (Or Ever Will Be)

You know, I write about things as I see them in my blogs and books. I don’t think I am a great writer but I confess to liking to write and so I do. Occasionally, I get on my high horse and have a rant about something that bothers me and I do try to be controversial from time-to-time in the hope that I find a new audience or two. I have a few folks tracking the blog and the books sell a few hundred copies over the space of a few years. I wish it were different but I am clueless as to how to build an audience beyond simply writing and hoping. I had hoped that The Last Observer would be the one that would find a broader

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Suddenly, Everyone’s an Expert

Have you noticed how, these days, everyone is an expert about everything? Its social media that has done this I think. Stories are floated around woefully lacking in any truth, substance or reality and people read them as if they were gospel. Many feel compelled to benefit us with their encyclopedic knowledge on the subject matter and quite honestly the result makes me laugh at its stupidity … except it doesn’t because people simply can’t tell fact from fiction, truth from lies and they do not know who or what to believe. It is sad and it is dangerous. There is an old movie starring Peter Cook. He works his way up from nowhere to be PM of Britain and, using a combination of theatre and by allowing everyone to

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I Must Just be Getting Old

I recall being a teenager. There was nothing better than a good discussion around a really meaty and controversial topic. On into my twenties, I still had the energy to try to change the world. These days, I look at the world and I fear that it is being discussed and managed by people younger than I. The initiative for change has started to slip from my generation’s grasp as younger and more energetic people try to make sense of the world and figure out where it should go. I ought to be excited by this prospect – but I’m not. With age comes, well I won’t call it wisdom but shall we use the word experience perhaps. Youth is rash and quick to judgement. I know that now. I

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It’s People That Have to Change Not Systems

Apparently and according to Mr. Brand in the New Statesman, it was Billy Connolly who said ‘Don’t vote it encourages them’ and that ‘anyone who wants to be a politician should be banned from being one’. Funny, I thought it was me that said those things and I have been saying those things since my early 20’s. I guess Billy Connolly and I would get along. Of course, I am being facetious. Anything I say is irrelevant as I don’t have an audience like Messrs. Connolly and Brand. But say it I must anyway for the sake of my own sanity. So I will. Something stinks around here. It’s the system. It doesn’t matter if the system is a parliamentary democracy, a representative democracy or a centrally planned economy. The

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Goodreads

I have to say I am entirely disappointed by Goodreads. Goodreads is a website that is supposed to help you discover your next book to read and it has many members. It was acquired by Amazon as well recently. However, the site is poorly designed and I do hope that Amazon are investing a redo because I find it annoying that so many things actually don’t work there. As an author, I also put up an author’s page but I have discovered that this really isn’t worth the effort either and here is why: 1. People are allowed to rate books on a 5-star system. Fine and dandy. The problem is there are no checks built in to see if the reader has actually read the book! So, I can

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New Age Socialism

What exactly is it about following a spiritual path that suddenly brings out the nutty side of people? Do people suddenly leave their brain in a jar by the door? Why do new age people think they need to be nut job environmentalists and socialists? Do they think that to be spiritual requires this? If so then they should reconsider. More or less the first thing we all learn studying magic is about duality and polarity. We learn that everything is polar and that what we need to do is try to balance everything out – reconcile the opposites. It’s not easy to do I will admit but we learn that one polarity is just as bad as the other in terms of what it is not. The Tree of

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