The Art Neuro Weblog

Always on the Run
Sometimes these news items seem totally unsubstantiated. Here is one on some operation going on in the Pakistan Hills. Amongst the things claimed, the target, al-Zawahiri, 52 is painted thus:

Egyptian-born al-Zawahiri, 52, helped mastermind the September 11 attacks and planned numerous other atrocities

Is it just me, or does this strike you as weird? How do they know this? How do we know this? From the same faulty 'security' sources that allowed the attacks of September 11 to take place? What the hell is this claim? Without running to conspiracy theories, this statement looks really out of place. The whole Osama bin Laden hysteria also reminds me of the portraits of Goldstein in Orwell's '1984'. So in case you've missed it, we've arrived in the feared destination; and having arrived we seem to be just loving it.

Crisis of Masculinity
While we still live under the alleged Crisis of Masculinity engineered by our federal politicians, we have this little article today to think about. Maybe these footballers should get part-time jobs teaching primary school children. It would solve two crises with one move.

Robert S. McNamara
We at this blog have been having heated e-discussions about this gentleman for the last few days. What triggered it was this article, together with a screening of 'Thirteen Days' on Channel 9 recently. While Baby Boomers who fondly remember their marches against the war in Vietnam seem to hold him responsible for the said war, my Gen-X take on this man is substantially different. Having watched 'JFK' recently, I'm convinced that McNamara was railroaded by LBJ into that war, and that the Baby Boomers are howling at the wrong man, if not the wrong cause.
How so? McNamara is the man who recommends to JFK to pull troops out of Vietnam. JFK agrees and issues the directive. This creates the reason for the assassination. After the assassination, the US increases its commitment to the Vietnam War, signed for by LBJ. So we ask this question: "If you were Robert McNamara who recommended the pull-out, saw the President commit to that course of action, and then had his brains blown out, would you then stand in the way of LBJ and the trigger-happy generals?"

But here we sit in 2004, 40 years on, and it is clear the lessons of history have not been learnt. Pax Americana is still a MIC pipe dream, and can only be brought about by these forever wars in such places as Afghanistan, Iraq and possibly into the future, Syria and Iran. Sure, go blame McNamara for Vietnam, but by hell you've got the wrong man.

Moneyball Stuff
Last year I read 'Moneyball' like every good baseball fan. For those not moved by baseball, it's a book that chronicles the rise of the Oakland Athletics in spite of their budgetary limitations. One of the crucial concepts in the book was how General Manager Billy Beane and his assistant Paul DePodesta concentrated on rational, statistical analysis and concentrated on acquiring talent who suited their needs. In order to do so, Beane and DePodesta had to exploit market inefficiencies and seek out the under-valued talent. What made this move controversial was how the men seemed to (in the book's description anyway) demolish traditional (read entrenched) 'baseball wisdom' wholesale. By applying their hard-nosed rationalist approach they were at least able to avoid making bad choices, which by logical reasoning turned out to be making the right choices.
A year after its release, its impact is still felt around the traps.

Rather than recount the whole book, I thoroughly recommend non-baseball fans to have a read of the book and think about the nature of their accomplishment. There are lessons to be drawn for many other ventures and businesses.
From time to time, if I spot anything that has to do with the young players featured in Moneyball, I'll post it up.

- Art Neuro