Cancun, Yucatan Peninsular Mexican Carribean, Mexico

A melange of sights, sounds and culture. Mexican carribean beach resort, Mexican hospitality, swim with the dolphins, Xcaret (Esh-ca-ret) park with natural sights, cultural sightseeing capped with a two hour spectacular theater production Mexico Espectacular (Me-hi-co E-specta-cu-lar) depicting the journey through the pre-Hispanic cultures (Mayan, Aztec etc) to the post-Spanish mixed-race Hispanic medley of dance, song and color.

Markets are instrumental, not intrinsic, for human flourishing.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/18/opinion/capitalism-and-the-dalai-lama.html

Snow on Cherry Blossoms

Cherry Blossoms, already delayed several weeks by long cold winter, are confused by the overnight gentle sprinkling and coating of white powder along with freezing temperatures. Hopefully it will not start snowing again come October.

Rolling Stone interview with Bill Gates

Do you believe in God? 

I agree with people like Richard Dawkins that mankind felt the need for creation myths. Before we really began to understand disease and the weather and things like that, we sought false explanations for them. Now science has filled in some of the realm – not all – that religion used to fill. But the mystery and the beauty of the world is overwhelmingly amazing, and there's no scientific explanation of how it came about. To say that it was generated by random numbers, that does seem, you know, sort of an uncharitable view [laughs]. I think it makes sense to believe in God, but exactly what decision in your life you make differently because of it, I don't know.

http://m.rollingstone.com/culture/news/bill-gates-the-rolling-stone-interview-20140313

Puppet strings in the theater of statistics

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/25/opinion/sunday/how-long-have-i-got-left.html?ref=opinion

Oxfam: 85 richest people as wealthy as poorest half of the world

Winnie Byanyima, the Oxfam executive director who will attend the Davos meetings, said: "It is staggering that in the 21st Century, half of the world's population – that's three and a half billion people – own no more than a tiny elite whose numbers could all fit comfortably on a double-decker bus."

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/jan/20/oxfam-85-richest-people-half-of-the-world

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:U.S._Distribution_of_Wealth,_2007.jpg

Driving the middle road

Capitalist systems are winning the world over including communist China and Russia, we recognize the invisible hand driving it forward, we don't want people to be addicted to social welfare and mooch off, we know it is not always going to be fair, there will be luck and perseverance and hard work and failures and sparks of innovation, and we know greed is good metaphorically speaking in that it greases the wheels of capitalism, we know government cannot be the means and the end to betterment.

However, unbridled, naked, reckless greed can as well drive us back to the jungle life whence we evolved from.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/19/opinion/sunday/for-the-love-of-money.html?hp&rref=opinion