Tag Archives: greek

Physics – Aristotle, R. P. Hardie & R. K. Gaye

by Myrna Posted on December 6, 2018

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Physics

Aristotle, R. P. Hardie & R. K. Gaye

Genre: Science & Nature

Price: $1.99

Publish Date: August 15, 2012

Publisher: Linkko Publishing

Seller: Lulu Enterprises, Inc.


“The first of those who studied science were misled in their search for truth and the nature of things by their inexperience, which as it were thrust them into another path. So they say that none of the things that are either comes to be or passes out of existence, because what comes to be must do so either from what is or from what is not, both of which are impossible.”…. Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. Aristotle's Physics is one of the early foundational of physics that offered a coherent, logical, and natural explanation of motion and change within the physical world. It is a collection of treatises that deal with the most general philosophical principles of natural or moving things, both living and non-living. It discusses the principles and causes of change, movement and motion.

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Physics – Aristotle, R. P. Hardie & R. K. Gaye

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The Newest Eco Food Trend: Blended Burgers

by ArnulfoM54 Posted on April 12, 2018

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Though many environmentalists understand that red meat isn’t always green, it can be tough to forgo a juicy beef burger for its vegetarian alternative when dining out.

The all-or-nothing approach is common when it comes to red meat consumption, but restaurants are now taking strides toward a sustainable happy medium.

Introducing Blended Burgers

The newest trend in sustainable burgers is the blended burger — a beef patty blended with mushrooms. It still has real meat for those who just don’t want to give it up, but its carbon footprint is significantly smaller.

While you’ll find these burgers popping up on menus at sit-down restaurants everywhere, they’re just gaining steam in the fast-food world. Sonic, which has more than 3,500 restaurants across 45 U.S. states, was the first national fast-food chain to adopt this healthier burger alternative, which rolled out nationwide last month. Their version is called the Signature Slinger, and it’s made from three simple ingredients: 100 percent beef, savory mushrooms and seasonings.

Starting under 350 calories and at $1.99, the Sonic Signature Slingers combine beef and mushroom into one patty. Photo: Business Wire

It was a smart move. As the demand for sustainable food rises and more folks choose natural beef sources, quick-serve restaurants find themselves between a rock and a hard place. Fast food is known for being cheap, but sustainable beef isn’t. Because mushrooms are relatively low in cost, the blended burger could mean higher-quality, antibiotic-free, hormone-free beef without a spike in price.

All About That Taste

Blended burgers typically have significantly fewer grams of fat, carbs and calories compared with their all-beef counterparts. But now for the big question: What about the taste?

The James Beard Foundation has partnered with the Mushroom Council to host The Blended Burger Project, a contest and movement encouraging chefs to create their own mushroom-beef blended dishes. Competitors’ dishes are judged in terms of their creative use of mushrooms, flavor profile and overall presentation. With more than 200 enthusiastic participants in 2017, the contest is well on its way toward balancing nutrition, sustainability and flavor in America’s food system.

As previous award winner Stephanie Izard points out in an interview with the James Beard Foundation, “you shouldn’t have to sacrifice flavor in order to think sustainably.”

Mushrooms have a meat-like consistency and are incredibly juicy. So, when it comes to meat substitutes, they’re a no-brainer. They add a mild umami-flavored kick to burgers and give dishes unparalleled depth.

“Mushrooms have really come into their own as a solution to changing dietary patterns, earning their place on the plate with their nutrient quality, flavor impact and incredible functionality,” said Greg Descher, vice president of strategic initiatives and industry leadership at the Culinary Institute of America, in the company’s study on mushroom-beef blending.

A Sustainable Outlook

Who will offer a blended burger next? While McDonald’s recently announced some big steps to reduce carbon emissions — the equivalent of taking 32 million cars off the road for a year — the announcement did not include any menu changes.

Getting McDonald’s on the blended burger bandwagon would make a huge difference. With 37,000 locations around the world, there’s no denying the impact of the fast-food behemoth.

“Where McDonald’s goes, usually the rest of the restaurant industry eventually follows,” said Sara Senatore, a senior research analyst at a restaurant investment research firm, in an interview with The Washington Post.

Fortunately, McDonald’s has recognized the environmental impact of beef production and plans to address sustainable agriculture practices in its green initiatives. It remains to be seen just how the company will do that, and how other meat-serving establishments will address their undeniable environmental impact.

While a blended burger may not be a perfect solution, it’s a great option for meat eaters. Given the success of Sonic and other restaurants using this approach, we hope more eateries will join this sustainable movement.

Would you try a blended burger? Let us know in the comments.

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The Newest Eco Food Trend: Blended Burgers

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The Dry Bulk Market Is More Exciting Than You Think

by ChangMTQhgv Posted on April 27, 2017

Mother Jones

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The Wall Street Journal has an intriguing story today on its front page:

When stocks rose after last year’s presidential election, DryShips Inc. left the market far behind. The little-known Greek dry bulk carrier’s epic one-week rally pushed its shares up by 1,500% for no apparent reason. The rally quickly unwound after the shares were briefly suspended by Nasdaq, but the run-up appears to have made possible a flurry of financial maneuvers that may earn the company’s founder a huge windfall, according to calculations by The Wall Street Journal, while small investors suffered hundreds of millions of dollars in losses. Since they peaked, DryShips’s shares are down by 99.9%.

The Journal provides a handy timeline of events surrounding DryShips. I’ve added the line in red:

Somebody was sure excited about the prospects for bulk shipping in the Trump era. This is especially mysterious since DryShips announced that it was defaulting on its loans (“suspending principal and interest payments”) right before the huge price runup.

Oddly enough, when I went looking for the performance of other dry bulk carriers at around the same time—fully expecting to find that DryShips was indeed unique—I found another carrier with a very similar profile. Right after the election, stock in Globus Maritime skyrocketed 900 percent for a day or two:

Very strange. I guess the dry bulk market is not a place for amateurs.

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The Dry Bulk Market Is More Exciting Than You Think

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Trump’s Commerce Secretary Pick Led a Secret Wall Street Fraternity

by IlanaOtt24 Posted on December 1, 2016

Mother Jones

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On Wednesday, Donald Trump announced that he’d tapped billionaire investor Wilbur Ross to be his commerce secretary. Ross is known as the “king of bankruptcy,” a moniker he earned thanks to his longtime business of buying troubled companies for cheap, often in manufacturing industries like steel or coal, and then restructuring them to turn a profit. “Wilbur Ross is a champion of American manufacturing and knows how to help companies succeed,” Trump said in a statement announcing his nomination of Ross.

But Trump neglected to mention one of Ross’ other credentials: He’s connected to some of the world’s most powerful investors and businessman via a secret Wall Street fraternity called Kappa Beta Phi.

In January 2012, New York Times reporter Kevin Roose snuck into the society’s annual black-tie induction ceremony, which was led by Ross, who at the time was the fraternity’s “Grand Swipe.” The fraternity, Roose wrote in his 2014 book, Young Money, was founded at the beginning of the Great Depression, and since then the induction ceremony had been subject to the utmost secrecy. The group’s mantra, according to Roose, is “What happens at the St. Regis stays at the St. Regis.”

It’s not hard to see why. At the 2012 event, Roose witnessed outlandish behavior by Ross and other financial tycoons that demonstrated vulgarity, greed, and a Wall Street callousness toward the nonwealthy masses. Some attendees made homophobic, racist, and sexist jabs about the likes of Hillary Clinton and former Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts. Others joked about the financial crisis. One even wore a Confederate flag hat. And when Roose was outed as a reporter partway through the night, Ross himself took Roose into the St. Regis hotel’s lobby and tried to convince him not to print the story by offering himself up as an “anytime” source for Roose’s future reporting.

While leading the event, Ross wore purple velvet moccasins embroidered with the fraternity’s Greek letters. The group’s name is an inversion of the college honor society Phi Beta Kappa, whose ruffled-sleeve logo, Ross said on the ballroom stage, is a “tacit confession of homosexuality.” The main event of the night was the induction of 21 “neophytes” into the fraternity. Roose described what happened when the inductees, who were required to dress in drag costumes that included leotards and sequined skirts, took the stage:

Paul Queally, a private-equity executive with Welsh, Carson, Anderson, & Stowe, told off-color jokes to Ted Virtue, another private-equity bigwig with MidOcean Partners. The jokes ranged from unfunny and sexist (Q: “What’s the biggest difference between Hillary Clinton and a catfish?” A: “One has whiskers and stinks, and the other is a fish”) to unfunny and homophobic (Q: “What’s the biggest difference between Barney Frank and a Fenway Frank?” A: “Barney Frank comes in different-size buns”)…

Warren Stevens, an investment banking CEO, took the stage in a Confederate flag hat and sang a song about the financial crisis, set to the tune of “Dixie.” (“In Wall Street land we’ll take our stand, said Morgan and Goldman. But first we better get some loans, so quick, get to the Fed, man.”)

The performances continued, including a parody of ABBA’s “Dancing Queen” called “Bailout King” and a comedic skit depicting a debate between the 99 percent and the 1 percent. When Roose pulled out his phone to record part of the inductees’ performance, he caught the eye of one of his billionaire table-mates, Michael Novogratz. He angrily asked Roose who he was, which left Roose with no choice but to disclose that he was a reporter. Novogratz grabbed Roose and tried to pull away his cellphone. That’s when Ross stepped in to attempt damage control:

Once we made it to the lobby, Ross and Lebenthal reassured me that what I’d just seen wasn’t really a group of wealthy and powerful financiers making homophobic jokes, making light of the financial crisis, and bragging about their business conquests at Main Street’s expense. No, it was just a group of friends who came together to roast each other in a benign and self-deprecating manner. Nothing to see here.

But the extent of their worry wasn’t made clear until Ross offered himself up as a source for future stories in exchange for my cooperation.

“I’ll pick up the phone anytime, get you any help you need,” he said.

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Trump’s Commerce Secretary Pick Led a Secret Wall Street Fraternity

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There’s a New Planned Parenthood Video, But There’s Just Nothing There

by MargariBlohm Posted on July 29, 2015

Mother Jones

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Another day, another video hit job on Planned Parenthood. Apparently the strategy here is to release new videos every three or four days and hope that mere repetition is enough to convince people that something—something—must be wrong here. Over at National Review, Ian Tuttle is disturbed:

At the 10:22 mark of the Center for Medical Progress’s latest video, released today, there is a picture of a hand. By the curve of the thumb and the articulation of the fingers, one can see that it is a right hand. It was formerly the right hand of an 11.6-week-old fetus; it is now part of the various organic odds and ends being sifted through on a plate in the pathology lab of a Planned Parenthood clinic.

….I keep calling it a hand. Maybe I shouldn’t….But I see a hand — five fingers and lines across the joints, like you learn to sketch in art class. I see a hand in form no different from my own. Or no different from Horowitz’s hands, or Edison’s, or Michelangelo’s.

The most famous image Michelangelo painted was of hands: God’s hand extended to Adam’s….The sculptor Auguste Rodin spent much of his life fashioning hands….Rodin prefigured Heidegger’s observation: “My hand . . . is not a piece of me. I myself am entirely in each gesture of the hand, every single time.”….Galen of Pergamon, the great Greek physician, in his treatise On the Use of the Various Parts of the Body, noted that to man alone had the Creator chosen to give the hand, the only instrument “applicable to every art and occasion”:

….The gods, the arts, survival, history — all that we are has required, literally, many hands. In the hand, the whole man, and in the man, the whole cosmos.

Now, in a pie dish, for sale.

That’s very poetic, but like the video itself, tells us nothing. Yes, Planned Parenthood donates fetal tissue to medical research facilities. They charge enough to cover their costs, nothing more. Among the tissue they donate are hands. And this is not a sinister “black market,” as the video claims: It’s done in the open with the permission of the mother, and the tissue is transferred only to qualified researchers.

The idea behind the video, of course, is that it’s supposed to automatically trigger disgust in us. And it does. After all, most of us felt a little disgusted when we dissected frogs in 9th grade biology. It’s just part of human nature, and the Planned Parenthood haters are smart to take advantage of it.

But you know what? I’m an organ donor. I’m not sure my organs are actually safe for harvesting anymore, but if they are, then my body will be chopped up and used for its best and highest purpose when I’m dead. Some organs will be used for transplants, I hope. Some will be given to research laboratories. Some may end up as the raw materials for other stuff. If I were alive and watching, I’d probably feel pretty queasy. And yet, no one really blinks an eye at the routine job of harvesting organs and tissue from dead people who have given their permission.

This is no different. It’s every bit as altruistic and admirable as harvesting useful tissue from adults. Period.

So far, the worst anyone has come up with from these videos is that some of the Planned Parenthood folks caught on tape used a “tone” that was unfortunate. Give me a break. This is the way any doctor talks among other health care professionals. They’re experienced enough to talk plainly about their work in private, and they make jokes about it like any normal person. It’s simply wrong to pretend that this is anything ominous.

And that hand on the pie dish? Who knows? It might save someone’s life someday.

POSTSCRIPT: And I’ll repeat what I said before. If you think abortion is murder, then of course you object to the use of organs and tissue from aborted fetuses. If you don’t, then you think it’s fine. There’s nothing new going on here. It’s just a slightly different twist on the same fight between pro-lifers and pro-choicers that’s been going on for decades

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There’s a New Planned Parenthood Video, But There’s Just Nothing There

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The IMF Throws a Monkey Wrench Into the Greek Soap Opera

by RacheleBruche Posted on July 15, 2015

Mother Jones

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The Greek drama continues. Just as it appears that Greece has capitulated to every demand short of selling off the Parthenon, one-third of the Troika1 is having second thoughts:

The International Monetary Fund threatened to withdraw support for Greece’s bailout on Tuesday unless European leaders agree to substantial debt relief, an immediate challenge to the region’s plan to rescue the country.

The aggressive stance sets up a standoff with Germany and other eurozone creditors, which have been reluctant to provide additional debt relief.

Reluctant? Yeah, I guess you could put it that way. But it would be a mite more accurate to say that it will be a cold day in hell before Angela Merkel agrees to any debt relief for Greece.

In any case, there’s a weird kabuki-like character to this whole thing. Everybody agrees that Greece will never pay back all the debt it owes. Just not gonna happen. So why don’t Greece’s creditors bite the bullet and face reality? It’s not because the Germans and others are stupid and don’t realize they’re never getting all their money back. It’s because….

Well, it’s not entirely clear why. Officially, Germany says that under EU treaties it’s illegal to forgive debt. I’m not sure anyone really believes that, though. Unofficially, no one wants to write down the debt because it’s the thing that keeps Greece under the EU lash. The only reason Europe can demand draconian austerity measures from Greece is because they can threaten to withhold the loans Greece needs to keep servicing its massive debt. This would throw Greece into default and economic chaos—which is precisely the threat that forced Greece to accept the European terms for a new bailout a few days ago.

Still, why not write down a big chunk of the debt? There would still be enough left to keep Greece under control. This is where things get even fuzzier. One answer is that it sets an uncomfortable precedent. If Greece gets a big debt writedown, why shouldn’t Portugal and Spain and Italy? Another answer is that the size of the Greek debt really does matter, if only cosmetically. Europe wants Greece to cut its spending and run a balanced budget. The bigger Greece’s debt service, the more it has to cut spending to achieve balance.

Does any of this make sense? Sure, from a certain point of view—namely that of a European public that’s fed up with Greece and doesn’t want its leaders using their tax dollars to pull Greece’s fat out of the fire. But the IMF doesn’t have to worry about European public opinion. It wants to face reality and just admit what everyone already knows. And here’s the reality. First, even with a big writedown, Greece will still be safely under the Troika’s thumb. Second, from an economist’s perspective all that matters about Greece’s finances is that it achieves primary budget balance—that is, balance not counting debt payments. So the IMF doesn’t care about squeezing the Greek budget beyond all reason based on an artificial debt number.

In any case, the IMF has supported debt relief for some time, but has only now decided to go public as a way of exerting pressure on Europe. Will it work? No telling. As always, stay tuned. The soap opera never ends.

1For those of you who haven’t been following this stuff religiously, the Troika consists of the EU, the European Central Bank, and the IMF. These are the three entities that Greece owes money to.

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The IMF Throws a Monkey Wrench Into the Greek Soap Opera

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Greece Surrenders to Europe — For Now

by SebastiHussey Posted on July 13, 2015

Mother Jones

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Well, it appears that Greece has accepted the European deal. This means austerity as far as the eye can see, and no guarantees from Europe except that negotiations over the real agreement will begin soon. Greek opinion on the street was mixed:

Miltiades Macrygiannis, proprietor of an antiques store in Athens, Art and Craft Interiors, said he was hopeful and relieved that a so-called Grexit — a Greek exit from the eurozone — appeared to have been avoided. But he was also disgusted.

“It’s simple: We wasted five months,” Mr. Macrygiannis said. In the end, he added, the austerity measures that had to be taken appeared to be worse than what the creditors had been willing to give five months ago, when the new Greek government took office.

All true. And banks will remain closed for at least another week until Greece passes legislation implementing the preconditions just to get talks started. After that, who know? But Grexit is still a live possibility. Alexis Tsipras has chosen against it for now, but there’s no telling if he’ll remain opposed once the Europeans really start twisting the knife.

In any case, if he’s smart he’ll start up all the plans for Grexit so he’s ready to go if that’s the way things turn out. There’s not much point in keeping it secret, either. Everyone knows it’s a real option now, so he might as well have drachmas and government IOUs ready to go if the day comes. Grexit may never come, but if it does, there’s no point in making it even more chaotic than it has to be.

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Greece Surrenders to Europe — For Now

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Alexis Tsipras’ Secret Plan for Bailing Out Greece Has Been Brilliant

by StaciAndersen Posted on July 10, 2015

Mother Jones

Some anonymous drone at Free Exchange notes the damage done by the Greek decision to call a referendum on the European austerity proposals:

A lamentable feature of the Greek crisis of the past few months is the extent to which it has restoked national antipathies, on the part of both the Greeks and the Germans….But it is not just political damage that the referendum has done to Greece’s cause. The decision to call it and the extraordinary uncertainty that generated at home as well as abroad inflicted a body blow to the economy by causing the banks to be closed now for two weeks as the ECB capped the emergency central-bank lending that was allowing cash to be withdrawn by anxious Greeks fearing a return to the drachma that would slash the value of their deposits. As a result Greece now needs more money and over a longer period — €53.5 billion ($60 billion) until 2018.

Such is the bad blood on both sides, particularly the Greeks and the Germans, that there is still scepticism about whether they can come together at this latest eleventh hour.

Hmmm. Here’s a Slatepitchy suggestion. Maybe it’s all going according to plan. Consider this. It’s late June and prime minister Alexis Tsipras is trying to negotiate an agreement with the Europeans. It doesn’t go well, but he knows he has no choice but to swallow hard and accept their terms. As galling as it is, it’s the only way to save Greece. But he knows that if he simply signs off on the agreement, his party will revolt and parliament will reject it. So he comes up with a cunning plan.

The plan is this: piss off the Germans beyond the bounds of reason. Step 1: denounce the European proposal and call a referendum. Step 2: Go home and campaign loudly for a No vote on the proposal. Step 3: The Germans, now so angry they’re practically shaking with rage, press the ECB to cut off Greek banks, causing economic chaos. Step 4: Tsipras wins the referendum, thus getting the backing of his people. Step 5: Tsipras cools his heels for a day or two to let the economic chaos really sink in. Step 6: Tsipras heads to Brussels. After making everyone wait a few more days just to show that he can’t be pushed around, he tables an austerity plan that essentially caves in completely to the European proposal that he knew he’d have to accept eventually. Step 7: Tsipras returns home to Athens, where economic chaos has become so severe that no one cares anymore what’s in the damn proposal he just agreed to. They just want the banks to open and the local pharmacies to have stocks of insulin. Step 8: He signs the proposal. Step 9: The ECB opens the spigots, life gets back to normal, and Tsipras is a hero.

Not likely, you say? Tsipras isn’t that smart? Probably so. Still, it’s quite likely that Tsipras isn’t as stupid as some people are making out. He knew perfectly well that defaulting would lead to economic chaos and an exit from the euro, but he also knew that Greeks didn’t really believe this in their guts. They needed a demonstration. So he gave them one. If his goal all along wasn’t Grexit, but (a) an agreement with Europe that (b) would be accepted by the Greek population, he did a pretty good job.

Very clever, Mr. Tsipras!

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Alexis Tsipras’ Secret Plan for Bailing Out Greece Has Been Brilliant

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Greece Caves In

by DenisBolt94 Posted on July 9, 2015

Mother Jones

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Our story so far: On June 22nd, Greece proposed an austerity package of spending cuts and tax increases worth about €8 billion over two years. European leaders called it a credible proposal, the first they had ever seen from Greece. By June 24th, they had changed their tune. They were roughly OK with the €8 billion figure, but didn’t like the Greek tax and spending plans for getting there. Later in the day, the Europeans responded by making substantial changes to the Greek proposal and sending back a heavily red-lined revision.

The Greek prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, was apoplectic, arguing that what mattered was meeting the deficit target, not meeting it in specific ways. “This odd stance seems to indicate that either there is no interest in an agreement or that special interests are being backed,” he said. Two days later he abandoned the talks and called a referendum on the European proposal. Last Sunday the Greek population overwhelmingly rejected the European plan 61-38 percent.

So how did that work out for Greece? Not so well:

Under a 10-page blueprint completed late Thursday, the country said it would undertake austerity measures worth between 12 billion and 13 billion euros ($13 billion to $14 billion), including raising taxes on cafes, bars and restaurants.

The amount is significantly higher than the package of cuts that Greek voters rejected in a hastily called referendum on the bailout Sunday. But nearly two weeks of a banking shutdown that has brought the economy to a virtual standstill have left this Mediterranean nation with few other options to avoid sliding into bankruptcy.

The Greek blueprint for pension cuts and VAT increases is essentially copied word-for-word from the June 24 European proposal. There may still be sticking points elsewhere (I haven’t done an exhaustive line-by-line comparison of the two documents), but VAT and pensions were always the key areas of difference. Combine those concessions with the higher deficit target in the new blueprint and Greece hasn’t just caved in to the Europeans, it’s all but prostrated itself and begged not to be kicked out of the eurozone.

Or so it seems. There’s always the possibility of gotchas hidden away in a stray word or two. But at a first glance, it looks like total capitulation. Two weeks of bank closings and import stoppages has given the Greeks a vivid taste of what life would be like if Europe forced it to abandon the euro—as it seemed they were all too willing to do—and that short taste was quite enough, thank you very much. Viewed through that lens, apparently another few years of German-enforced austerity didn’t look so bad after all.

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Greece Caves In

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Greece’s Big Fat No

by Lucile2956 Posted on July 5, 2015

Mother Jones

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It appears that the Greek referendum is headed toward a landslide No vote. With about half of the votes counted as I write this, the No vote is very strongly in the lead and Greece’s interior ministry has released an official projection showing the No side winning 61 percent of the vote.

There are a couple of takeaways from this. First, I obviously don’t know squat about the Greek temperament. Let’s see now. What exactly is it that I said a few days ago? Oh yes, here it is:

In the end, the Greek public will be unwilling to back Tsipras in Sunday’s referendum and will vote to accept the European deal as is. The potential catastrophe of default and leaving the euro is just too scary for most of them to contemplate….So that’s my prediction. Unless Tsipras caves completely beforehand, the referendum will be held on Sunday and Greeks will vote to stay in the euro and accept Germany’s terms. It will basically be an unconditional surrender.

In technical terms, that was totally fucking wrong. Instead of caving in, the Greeks told Europe to take a hike. They refused to accept the austerity plan put in front of them and instead voted to support prime minister Alexis Tsipris’s effort to demand better terms. In general, that means they want Europe to (a) offer debt relief, (b) permit the Greek government to pass a higher budget supported by higher taxes; and (c) go a little easier on pension cuts.

The second takeaway is….oh forget it. Why listen to me anymore after this predictive debacle? Anyway, I don’t think anyone even knows what’s next now. Tsipris obviously has a vote of confidence and will stay in power. Angela Merkel and the rest of the Troika will have to decide whether to make a few concessions or simply refuse and let Greece twist in the wind. I honestly have no idea what they’ll choose. And the ECB will have to decide whether to keep Greece’s banks on life support for a while longer.

Stay tuned. It’s going to be a fascinating few weeks for those of us who don’t actually live in Greece and have to personally face the possibility of economic catastrophe.

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Greece’s Big Fat No

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