Brown Motion

This is not the name of a new saint nor a new pill for erectile dysfunction or to aid in digestion. Rather the three headline grabbing items in the past week. Start with BABA.  A new stock symbol for the world.  A Chinese school teacher who through enterprise and some luck created the world's largest online marketplace called Alibaba.   So now a famous Arabian nights character that not many knew about is made into a household name by a Chinese man going public on the NY stock exchange.   At least popular among those household's that delve into somebody's stock.  A 'khul ja sim sim' moment as the world awaited with bated breath (or whatever version of breath they were breathing) for the equity to begin trading on the exchange. Just like each decade has its blockbuster event - in the 70s it was ABBA for the 10s of this century it is BABA - the largest initial public offering by market capitalization. Initial public included all the black sheep in all familie...

This morning I am thinking of how we deal with available information that bombards us in petabytes on a daily basis and how we have to make sense of it all for ourselves and for our children. This from a semi avid blogger who contributes in kilos to the petas. What got me thinking was an off hand remark from an acquaintance recently. When asked if he had heard about a recent large scale, headline item, power outage in India he remarked that he did not pay much attention to the news - in fact he did NOT listen to them as a rule. That got me thinking. Was he serious or delusional or somehow had more sense than most of us walking around? Recent tragedies including the one in Connecticut just yesterday which had our president step out and say 'Our Hearts Are Broken Today' was headline news. Whether that is something you can ignore or take in stride and move on is what I am trying to determine. For all its achievements humanity stuns us yet again. Media plays an important r...