L&P in the News - Fighting by Boko Haram in Northern Nigeria

     The northern parts of Nigeria are in a totally different linguistic group, Afro-Asiatic->Chadic->Hausa than the heavily populated parts of Nigeria, which are a variety of Niger-Congo->Atlantic-Congo

     Naturally this makes effective communication between the regions difficult, and the efficacy of rules promulgated in Atlantic-Congo languages in Hausa lands doubtful.

Language and Peace: Some Research from Google

     . Includes some beautiful graphs.

     What do I see? That German seems to be a very central language (first graph) without a very strong bias (does not appear in graph which shows 50x overlinkage).  Hindi is clearly isolated, perhaps feeling set upon by its language conscious government.  Officially? Why not German as the global language?  It is a great language for philosophy.  The Nazi past is problematic, but they, above most others, seem to be dealing with it, and it isn't like English does not have its own, imperialist present.

Language and Peace in the News: Catalan

     Catalan, while a Romance language, is not Spanish.

     The NY Times reports a million Catalonians joined hands to press for secession.  It is unclear what percentage are Catalan-speakers, but clearly this secession event maps perfectly to the thesis of Language & Peace.  See the Catalonia page for more.

I'm not sure if Ben Bernanke is being stupid, or knows he's being evil.

     Interest rates are low, which is great for most large corporations.

     Unemployment rates are high, which is good for most large corporations.

     What the Federal Reserve Board, and Chair Ben Bernanke, have said, in no uncertain terms, is that the interest rates will go back up if the unemployment rates go down.

     So, any rational, large corporation will try not to hire anyone in order to keep interest rates low.

     And Ben Bernanke pretends this is supposed to help unemployment rates?  Is he stupid, or just evil?