Andrea Matranga's Blog

Oh, wouldn't it be great to have RA's that find stray pages from government accounts and bring them to you? From Ibn Khaldun, discussing how judges and priests generally don't become rich (emphasis added). I discussed this with an excellent man. He disagreed with me about it. But s ome stray leaves from the account books of the government offices in the palace of al-Ma'mun came into my hand . They gave a good deal of information about income and expenditures at that time. Among the things I noticed, were the salaries of judges, prayer leaders, and muezzins. I called the attention of (the person mentioned) to it, and he realized that what I had said was correct. He became a convert to (my opinion), and we were both astonished at the secret ways of God with regard to His creation and His wise (planning) concerning His worlds.

How many times have you looked at the bottom of the first page of an economics paper, and read something like "we would like to thank X, Y, and Z for useful comments and corrections. All remaining mistakes are our own", where X, Y and Z are well known scholars, usually named in decreasing order citation count. Well, step back and let 14th century polymath Ibn Khaldun show you how its done: In a way, at-Turtushi aimed at the right idea, but did not hit it. He did not realize his intention or exhaust his problems.  We, on the other hand, were inspired by God. He led us to a science whose truth we ruthlessly set forth. If I have succeeded in presenting the problems of (this science) exhaustively and in showing how it differs in its various aspects and characteristics from all other crafts, this is due to divine guidance. If, on the other hand, I have omitted some point, or if the problems of (this science) have got confused with something else, the task of correcting ...

H.R. Haldeman was the White House Chief of Staff for President Nixon. As the Watergate/Pentagon Papers scandal was slowly unfolding, he at one point tried to explain how the revelations damaged the administration. In doing so, he accidentally composed the most damning accusation of his own administration's wrongdoing: "But out of the gobbledygook, comes a very clear thing: you can’t trust the government; you can’t believe what they say; and you can’t rely on their judgment; and the implicit infallibility of presidents, which has been an accepted thing in America, is badly hurt by this, because it shows that people do things the president wants to do even though it’s wrong, and the president can be wrong."  If anybody has done a better job of summarizing the failures of the Nixon administration in five lines or less, I am not aware of it. Though of course, the best summary in five WORDS or less was given by Nixon's famous one-liner: "I am not a crook! Which,...

Much ink has been spilled over the publication of "No Easy Day" , the book authored by a former Navy Seal detailing how Bin Laden was killed. The Department of Defense is obviously  quite upset  with information coming out which was supposed to remain in. To me the story is mainly a reaffirmation of why I don't believe in conspiracy theories of the "We never went to the moon" or "CIA planned 9-11" varieties. If it involves the intelligence community, and there isn't a tell all book on the Amazon best-seller list authored by one of the main participants, I say it never happened.

This is the "Northern Line" of the London tube: It should be clear that whoever designed the tube system in London had a pretty hazy notion of the geometric concept of "line".

Registering for a reader pass at the British Library: Registration Officer: "Are you a PhD student?" Me: "Yes, would you like to see my student card?" Registration Officer: "It's ok. Nobody ever lies about doing a PhD." Incidentally the staff at the BL is amongst the most polite and friendly I have ever encountered.

Premetto che sono vari mesi che cerco di scrivere questa cosa con piu' ordine, ma l'argomento e' talmente ampio che poi mi areno e non continuo. Quindi esporro' semplicemente alcuni obbietivi auspicabili, e poi cerchero' di spiegare perche' credo che siano problemi tecnicamente risolvibili. Sulla fattibilita' politica di quanto discutero', preferisco non esprimermi in questa fase. Obbiettivi: Stimolare la domanda. Ridurre i costi della politica e incentivare un'amministrazione morigerata dello stato. Migliorare la posizione fiscale dello stato. Creare una piattaforma per valorizzare il patrimonio artistico nazionale Come fare: Annunciare che l'apparato statale italiano viene spostato in una nuova localita'. Io la farei qui , ma se conoscete altri luoghi pianeggianti con ottimi collegamenti autostradali e ferroviari esistenti, ditemi pure. Espropriare i terreni agricoli a valore di mercato, costruire case, ed offrirle a prezzo di...