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201). Is My Money Safe? Banks are institutions where miracles happen regularly. We rarely entrust our money to anyone but ourselves – and our banks. Despite a very chequered history of mismanagement, corruption, false promises and representations, delusions and behavioural inconsistency – banks still succeed to motivate us to give them our money. Partly it is the feeling ... 202). Narcissism and Evil In his bestselling "People of the Lie", Scott Peck claims that narcissists are evil. Are they? The concept of "evil" in this age of moral relativism is slippery and ambiguous. The "Oxford Companion to Philosophy" (Oxford University Press, 1995) defines it thus: "The suffering which results from morally wrong human choices." 203). The Economies of the Middle East On February 24, 2003, in the Islamic Financial Forum in Dubai, Brad Bourland, chief economist for the Saudi American Bank (SAMBA), breached the embarrassed silence that invariably enshrouds speakers in Middle Eastern get-togethers. He reminded the assembled that despite the decades-long fortuity of opulent oil revenues, the nations of the region - ... 204). Skopje - Where Time Stood Still Frozen at an early morning hour, the stony hands of the giant, cracked clock commemorate the horror. The earthquake that struck Skopje in 1963 has shattered not only its Byzantine decor, has demolished not merely the narrow passageways of its Ottoman past, has transformed not only its Habsburgian waterfront with its baroque National Theatre. The di... 205). The Internet and the Library "In this digital age, the custodians of published works are at the center of a global copyright controversy that casts them as villains simply for doi 206). The Blessings of the Black Economy Some call it the "unofficial" or "informal" economy, others call it the "grey economy" but the old name fits it best: the "black economy". In the USA "black" means "profitable, healthy" and this is what the black economy is. Macedonia should count its blessings for having had a black economy so strong and thriving to see it through the transition. ... 207). Nokia - From Start to Finnish Some companies have at least nine lives, it would seem. Nokia was founded in southwestern Finland, in 1865, by a mining engineer, one, Frederik Idestam, as a wood-pulp mill. An eponymous town formed around it. Independently, the Finnish Rubber Works took on the town name in the 1920s, having been established there in 1898. The Nokia r... 208). The Good Enough Family The families of the not too distant past were orientated along four axes. These axes were not mutually exclusive. Some overlapped, all of them enhanced each other. People got married for various reasons: 1. Because of social pressure and social norms (the Social Dyad) 2. To form a more efficient or synergetic ... 209). Jamaican Overdrive - LDC's and LCD's OverDrive - an e-commerce, software conversion and e-publishing applications leader - has just expanded an e-book technology centre by adding 200 e-bo 210). Why the Beatles Made More Money than Einstein Why did the Beatles generate more income in one year than Albert Einstein did throughout his long career? The reflexive answer is: How many bands like the Beatles were there? But, on second reflection, how many scientists like Einstein were there? Rarity or scarcity cannot, therefore, to explain t... 211). Treatment Modalities and Therapies Narcissism constitutes the entire personality. It is all-pervasive. Being a narcissist is akin to being an alcoholic but much more so. Alcoholism 212). Revolt of the Scholars http://www.realsci.com/Scindex's Instant Publishing Service is about empowerment. The price of scholarly, peer-reviewed journals has skyrocket 213). Nation Branding and Place Marketing - VIII. The Psychology and Demographics of the Consumer VIII. The Psychology and Demographics of the Consumer The country's "customers" are its investors, tourists, traders, market intermediaries, NGOs, and office-holders in other countries and in multilateral institutions. Understanding their psychology and demographics is crucial. Their interactions with one another take place in a comple... 214). The Matrix It is easy to confuse the concepts of "virtual reality" and a "computerized model of reality (simulation)". The former is a self-contained Universe, replete with its "laws of physics" and "logic". It can bear resemblance to the real world or not. It can be consistent or not. It can interact with the real world or not. In short, it is an arbitrary e... 215). The IMF Deconstructed A Dialogue Between Tom Rodwell and Sam Vaknin, December 1998 By Sam Vaknin Author of "Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Revisited" The following is a standard IMF document, taken from its own website. Underlined phrases are related to categories A and / or B (see below). The phrases here are general examples as ... 216). Global Differential Pricing In April 2002, the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Norwegian Foreign Ministry, and the US-based Global Health Council held a 3-days workshop about "Pricing and Financing of Essential Drugs" in poor countries. Not surprisingly, the conclusion was: "... There was broad recognition that differentia... 217). Financial Investor, Strategic Investor In the not so distant past, there was little difference between financial and strategic investors. Investors of all colors sought to safeguard their investment by taking over as many management functions as they could. Additionally, investments were small and shareholders few. A firm resembled a household and the number of people involved - in owne... 218). Switzerland's Cheesy Economy In a series of referenda in 2003-5, Swiss citizens transformed their country forever, economically aligning it with the European Union and opening it up to work migration. It was an uncharacteristic response to increasingly worrisome times. In March 2003, Switzerland's annual rate of inflation dipped to 1.3 percent. Once a cause for ce... 219). The Myth of the Earnings Yield In American novels, well into the 1950's, one finds protagonists using the future stream of dividends emanating from their share holdings to send their kids to college or as collateral. Yet, dividends seemed to have gone the way of the Hula-Hoop. Few companies distribute erratic and ever-declining dividends. The vast majority don't bother. The unfa... 220). The Roots of Anti-Americanism The United States is one of the last remaining land empires. That it is made the butt of opprobrium and odium is hardly surprising, or unprecedented. 221). Microsoft Embraces the Web - Encarta Premium 2006 Earlier this year MSN rolled out a great search engine and now Microsoft has fundamentally revamped its reference products. By committing itself to 222). The Solow Paradox On March 21, 2005, Germany's prestigious Ifo Institute at the University of Munich published a research report according to which "More technology at school can have a detrimental effect on education and computers at home can harm learning". It is a prime demonstration of the Solow Paradox. Named after the Nobel laureate ... 223). The Miraculous Conversion http://www.ideavirus.comThe recent bloodbath among online content peddlers and digital media proselytisers can be traced to two deadly sins. T 224). The Family of Jesus Christ Was Jesus born 2002 years ago? Was he born in year zero? The first year AD was 1 - so, Jesus could not have been born in year zero. The very concept of zero was invented much later. Numerous historical minutia in the gospels indicate that Jesus must have been born before 4 BC. For example, He was said to have ... 225). The Teapot Dome Scandal With the exception of Watergate, there has never been a scandal more egregious and with wider implications than the Teapot Dome affair during the presidency of Warren G. Harding. It involved the secret leasing to private companies of oil-containing tracts owned by the Navy, mainly in Wyoming and California. "Domes" are natural reservo... 226). The Medium and the Message A debate is raging in e-publishing circles: should content be encrypted and protected (the Barnes and Noble or Digital goods model) - or should it be 227). The History of Calendars Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas on January 7. Their "old new year" is a week later, on January 14. It is all Julius Caesar's fault ... The Romans sometimes neglected to introduce an extra month every two years to amortize the difference between their lunar calendar and the natural solar year. Julius Caesar decreed that the year... 228). The Demise of Intellectual Property Three years ago I published a book of short stories in Israel. The publishing house belongs to Israel's leading (and exceedingly wealthy) newspaper. I signed a contract which stated that I am entitled to receive 8% of the income from the sales of the book after commissions payable to distributors, shops, etc. A few months later (1997), I won the co... 229). The Madness of Playing Games If a lone, unkempt, person, standing on a soapbox were to say that he should become the Prime Minister, he would have been diagnosed by a passing psychiatrist as suffering from this or that mental disturbance. But were the same psychiatrist to frequent the same spot and see a crowd of millions saluting the same lonely, shabby figure - what would ha... 230). Internet Advertising - What Went Wrong? Spielberg's blockbuster, "Minority Report", is set in the year 2054. The future - at least according to a team of MIT futurologists, hired by the cinematic genius - is the captive of embarrassingly personalized and disturbingly intrusive, mostly outdoor, interactive advertising. The way Internet advertising has behaved lately, it may w... 231). The Fall and Fall of the P-Zine http://home.wuliweb.com/index.shtml http://www.pshares.org/ The circulation of print magazines has declined precipitously in the 232). The Merits of Inflation In a series of speeches designed to defend his record, Alan Greenspan, until recently an icon of both the new economy and stock exchange effervescence, reiterated the orthodoxy of central banking everywhere. His job, he repeated disingenuously, was confined to taming prices and ensuring monetary stability. He could not and, indeed, would not second... 233). The Armenian Genocide The Armenian massacres in Turkey started in the 19th century and continued well after the Armenian genocide of 1915 in which some 600,000 Armenians perished. The Armenians were also raided by Kurdish tribesmen on a regular basis. An Ottoman military tribunal, convened between 1919-21, even convicted for the crimes members of the administration of t... 234). Typhoid Mary Mary Mallon was a "healthy carrier" of an infectious disease, the first ever reported and observed in the New World. But, since then, and throughout the first two decades of the 20th century, more than 100 people were added annually to the rolls of "healthy carriers" of typhoid in New-York alone. Moreover, though she inf... 235). The Ubiquitous Project Gutenberg - Interview with Michael Hart, Its Founder November 15, 2005 Michael Hart conceived of electronic books (e-books) back in 1971. Most pundits agree that in the history of knowledge and scholarship, e-books are as important as the Gutenberg press, invented five centuries ago. Many would say that they constitute a far larger quantum leap. As opposed to their print equivalents, e-b... 236). The Constitution of the Weimar Republic The Weimar Republic was established in February 1919 in defeated Germany and lasted until March 1933, when it was replaced with Hitler's Third Reich. The Constitution of the Weimar Republic was adopted in August 1919. It created a bicameral house of representatives: the Reichstag, a national assembly, and the Reichsrat, comprised of the representat... 237). The Abdication Crisis Revisited The love affair of Edward, Prince of Wales (Edward VIII) and Wallis Simpson in 1936 is the stuff of romantic dramas. Alas, reality was a lot less inspiring. Even as she was being wooed by her regal paramour - and while still being married to Ernest Aldrich Simpson, who knew of the Prince's attentions and even discussed the adulterous relationship w... 238). Nation Branding and Place Marketing - II. The Product II. The Product What products do countries offer and market and how are they tailored to the needs of specific market segments? In a marketing mix, the first and foremost element is the product. No amount of savvy promotion and blitz advertising can disguise the shortcomings of an inferior offering. Contrary... 239). The Demonetization of the East In December 2002, Poland decided to purchase 48 F-16 Falcons from Lockheed Martin Corporation - an American defense contractor. Pegged at $3.5 billion, this is the biggest defense order ever issued by an east or central European country. The financial package includes soft loans and a massive offset program - purchases from Polish manufacturers tha... 240). Money Laundering in A Changed World If you shop with a major bank, chances are that all the transactions in your account are scrutinized by AML (Anti Money Laundering) software. Billions of dollars are being invested in these applications. They are supposed to track suspicious transfers, deposits, and withdrawals based on overall statistical patterns. Bank directors, exposed, under t... 241). The Disunited Nations Arab nations plan to table a resolution at the United Nations General Assembly condemning the U.S.-British led "invasion" and "occupation" of Iraq and 242). Russia's Vodka Wars Vodka is a crucial component in Russian life. And in Russian death. Alcohol-related accidents and cardiac arrests have already decimated Russian life expectancy by well over a decade during the last decade alone. Vodka is also big business. The brand "Stolichnaya" sells $2 billion a year worldwide. Hence the interminable and inordinate... 243). The Invention of Television The transmission of images obsessed inventors as early as 1875 when George Carey of Boston proposed his cumbersome system. Only five years later, the principle of scanning a picture, line by line and frame by frame - still used in modern television sets - was proposed simultaneously in the USA (by W.E. Sawyer) and in France (by Maurice Leblanc). Th... 244). The Friendly Trend - Technical vs. Fundamental Analysis The authors of a paper published by NBER on March 2000 and titled "The Foundations of Technical Analysis" - Andrew Lo, Harry Mamaysky, and Jiang Wang - claim that: "Technical analysis, also known as 'charting', has been part of financial practice for many decades, but this discipline has not received the same level of academic scrutiny... 245). Euphoric and Dysphoric Phases in Marriage Despite all the fashionable theories of marriage, the narratives and the feminists, the reasons to get married largely remain the same. True, there have been role reversals and new stereotypes have cropped up. But biological, physiological and biochemical facts are less amenable to modern criticisms of culture. Men are still men and women are still... 246). The History of Previous Currency Unions I. The History of Monetary Unions "Before long, all Europe, save England, will have one money". This was written by William Bagehot, the Editor of "The Economist", the renowned British magazine, 120 years ago when Britain, even then, was heatedly debating whether to adopt a single European Currency or not. A century later,... 247). The Talented Mr. Ripley "The Talented Mr. Ripley" is an Hitchcockian and blood-curdling study of the psychopath and his victims. At the centre of this masterpiece, set in the exquisitely decadent scapes of Italy, is a titanic encounter between Ripley, the aforementioned psychopath protagonist and young Greenleaf, a consummate narcissist. Ripley is a cartoonis... 248). On Volatility and Risk Volatility is considered the most accurate measure of risk and, by extension, of return, its flip side. The higher the volatility, the higher the risk - and the reward. That volatility increases in the transition from bull to bear markets seems to support this pet theory. But how to account for surging volatility in plummeting bourses? At the depth... 249). The First September 11 September 11, 2001 was not the first time an airplane crashed into a skyscraper. Actually, such tragedies are more common than is thought. On July 28, 1945, for instance, a U.S. Army B-25 bomber traveling at 200 miles (c. 370 kilometers) per hour in heavy fog crashed into the Empire State Building in New York City. Luckily it was a Sat... 250). The Discovery of Personal Hygiene Personal hygiene was rediscovered only in the late 19th century, having been popular in ancient Greece and Rome almost two thousand years before. Water was considered by the sophisticates - perhaps justly - to be the carrier of disease. Bathing in water was a hazardous exercise. Royalty used milk instead. Others were confined to wet to... Browse Pages: [1] [2] [3] [4] 5 [6]