War, genocide, etc / Wal-Mart hit by the rising price of oil / Really effective…

War, genocide, etc

A new film has come out about the events in Rwanda some ten years ago. The film is based on Romeo Dallaire's book Shake hand with the devil. The film's website tells more about the story. Surprisingly, Dallaire's book is one of the books we are reading for the course Ethics, Literature, and Authority in the fall. You may also read a review of the film in the Guardian Weekly.

Wal-Mart hit by the rising price of oil

Both revenue and profit of Wal-Mart are now lower than forecasted. They say that the price of oil is hitting them. I think I wrote about this earlier: when the gas gets more expensive, Wal-Mart is not the cheapest place to shop anymore. At some point, even Americans start to calculate how much a trip to a far way Wal-Mart costs (say, one owns a SUV with 10 miles / gallon mileage. Wal-Mart is 20 miles away. 40 miles means 4 gallons of gas. At $4/gallon, that would be $16 dollars, which is not insignificant price to pay for going to shopping). Thus, price conscious shoppers will not frequent Wal-Mart anymore, revenues go down, it becomes harder to run the large stores. This is a death spiral for Wal-Mart as we know it: it is already the cheapest store, paying the lowest prices to its suppliers, and exploiting its employees as much it can. Thus, it cannot really cut its cost and prices so much that visiting it would make economic sense. This is getting interesting. (and in addition: the higher the prices of oil, the higher the transportation costs in W-M supply chain, as in any supply chain. I do not know whether W-M's supply chain is especially energy intensive or not) See for example an article in the Guardian.

Really effective security measures

According an article in today's Boston globe the always vigilant authorities have add also the terrorists-to-be to their no-flight lists. In several occasions, those dangerous 1-year old terrorists have been prevented from boarding the planes. It is good to know, that the TSA is up to its task, since I am going to fly to Finland on Friday. I am so happy to know that no explosive babies will be able to board my plane. What is a bit more worrisome is that the masterminds behind these terrorists were able to get some forged documents faxed to the authorities and the terrorist was, after all, able to board the plane. Too bad. I am so happy that some of the sales taxes I am paying here are used in making my life much safer that it would otherwise be.

Temperature makes a difference

I had not realized how big extra effort how weather causes when cycling. Today was the first cool day since I started to train seriously, and the difference was significant. I do not have speedometer, but I would say that the average speed was up with some 5km/h. Cycling was so easy, I hardly was out of breath. I cycled all the way to Watertown, around it and back, and still a little tour in the South End. A note: it is incredible, how poor roads are in Cambridge. Cycling there is almost too hazardous. How come Cambridge is too poor to take of the roads? Has the mayor been bribed by the SUV-manufacturers? One would need an SUV to drive there.

On "Talk and Talkers"

"Talk and Talkers" in an essay by Robert L. Stevenson describing and celebrating the joys and pleasures of good talk, of having someone to talk about myriad topics, to battle for and against concepts, ideologies, and beliefs. I read it first thing this morning, while listening to the 5th and 7th symphonies of Sibelius, and all my angst went away. Reading the article felt like drinking from a quell of wisdom, peace, and liberty. For today too much talking is about mundane issues: work, money, career. A proper citizen cares for those issues, too, but concentrates in other issues: becoming a better, and more complete human being. I encourage you to read the essay yourself. Some quotes follow.

In short, the first duty of a man is to speak; that is his chief business in this world; and talk, which is the harmonious speech of two or more, is by far the most accessible of pleasures. It costs nothing in money; it is all profit; it completes our education, founds and fosters our friendships, and can be enjoyed at any age and in almost any state of health.
Communication is no longer by words, but by the instancing of whole biographies, epics, systems of philosophy, and epochs of history, in bulk. That which is understood excels that which is spoken in quantity and quality alike; ideas thus figured and personified, change hands, as we may say, like coin; and the speakers imply without effort the most obscure and intricate thoughts. Strangers who have a large common ground of reading will, for this reason, come the sooner to the grapple of genuine converse. If they know Othello and Napoleon, Consuelo and Clarissa Harlowe, Vautrin and Steenie Steenson, they can leave generalities and begin at once to speak by figures.
The best teachers are the aged. To the old our mouths are always partly closed; we must swallow our obvious retorts and listen. They sit above our heads, on life's raised dais, and appeal at once to our respect and pity. A flavour of the old school, a touch of something different in their manner - which is freer and rounder, if they come of what is called a good family, and often more timid and precise if they are of the middle class - serves, in these days, to accentuate the difference of age and add a distinction to gray hairs. But their superiority is founded more deeply than by outward marks or gestures. They are before us in the march of man; they have more or less solved the irking problem; they have battled through the equinox of life; in good and evil they have held their course; and now, without open shame, they near the crown and harbour.

It is for the reasons stated in the last quoted paragraph, that I so much cherish having old professors and experts taking part in our classes.

Alun perin julkaistu kuukausikoosteessa "Blogs from July to September 2005".