Wednesday, December 9, 2015

Vincent van Gogh

Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) was a post-impressionist painter who is known for his strong use of color and texture. He completed over 2000 works.







From top to bottom:
The Sower
Cafe Terrace at Night
Starry Night over the Rhone
Wheat Field with Crows
Starry Night


Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Scapegoat

Wikipedia defines scapegoat as

  "A scapegoat is a person or animal which takes on the sins of others, or is unfairly blamed for problems. The concept comes originally from Leviticus, in which a goat is designated to be cast into the desert with the sins of the community."

Scapegoats are used in other situations as well and the one I am thinking of is in the medical community. The ones that come to mind for me are the terms genetic  and somatoform. These terms are given as reasons for a person's sickness, they are the easiest answer to give but they are really just excuses in a majority of cases. The medical community is a business and a business must provide a transaction, your money for their answer. A comparison would be going to the gas station, you give them money, they give you fuel. If you don't get the fuel then you got cheated.

 I have learned that you cannot give something to someone if you don't have it. The same holds true for the medical system. So if you don't have it, you have to give something and for me the answers  received were shallow.

I do much research in the financial markets and you will see the same tendencies in this business. I read a study in which they compiled the returns of hedge funds in a year. The report found that the average return on the hedge funds were 0%. Hedge funds are some of the most profitable business models around. How do they do it? They do it with sleek marketing campaigns, good salespeople and anticipated results. People hear what they want to hear so this makes for easy targets.

The key to profits is to lack transparency. If you are not transparent then you do not tell the whole story. I found that it is not necessarily what you say, it is what you don't say. Written and spoken words that are carefully crafted have the power to change people, communities and nations.

Caveat emptor is a Latin term meaning buyer beware. The responsibility is yours to ensure the information given to you is accurate - do your homework.