Arthur

Arthur is my first friend in London, whom I met and formed a warm friendship with around running until age and injury prevented this shared pastime. Then, Arthur was the project engineer at TRW (now Northrop Grumman) overseeing a joint venture with O2 to provide a closed wireless network to Britain's police force and ensuring 99% availability (consumer mobile is way less). Arthur today remains my go-to pal on anything geeky, and we often discuss the abstract on a good British ramble which we used to do quite regularly pre-kids (our last walk several years ago started at Waterloo station at 8PM, ending well after midnight. More recently we biked to Oxford). Arthur bikes everywhere on his 20 year-old trusty ten speed (geer shifts on bike frame), and has spent the past three years re-wiring his penthouse near Regent's Park, NW1. Recently I asked Arthur to describe electricity for Eitan, and his response:

"Two parts to the answer

1) ENERGY
Energy is a thing that makes things HAPPEN, MOVE OR CHANGE. Examples: toaster, when you run, growing plants, driving a car, heating the kettle, burning a candle, even light from a light bulb is energy, light from the sun.

Every now and then, point out examples of energy in action as you go through the day

Main types: HEAT, MOTION, LIGHT, ELECTRICITY,

Energy is conserved: it moves around between objects and changes type, but it never disappears. Examples:
a. The toaster turns electricity into heat
b. When you run, you turn energy in your food into movement AND HEAT (which is why you feel hot when you exercise)
c. Growing plants take light from the sun and make it into plant stuff (and we get the energy back when we run and "burn off" the plants we ate the day before
d. Motion of car comes from energy in gasoline
e. The kettle makes heat out of electricity
f. Candle makes light and heat out of the energy in the wax (which came from the bees which ate plants which got the energy from the sun)
g. A light bulb makes heat and light from electricity

SO ELECTRICITY IS ENERGY - IT MAKES THINGS HAPPEN

Part 2 ELECTRONS

First, rub two balloons with a piece of wool cloth and show that the balloons repel each other. Explain that there are tiny things called electrons that repel (very similar to little magnets) and that we've just put electrons on the balloons from the wool cloth.

Wires are full of electrons. There's a power plant where they have machines that push on electrons and because the electrons push on each other, a push at the power station appears as a push on the end of the wires in your house (demonstrate pushing electrons by putting Sonnet, Madeleine and Eitan side by side (not front to back) in a line pushing pushing against each other's hands. Then you as the power plant push at one end of the line. Your push should propagate through the line and appear at the other end).

Show wires by examining the plug and cords going to all the electrical devices in the house (including lamps in the ceiling)

So electricity is just pushing electrons. So a push at the power station is a push in your house. All your appliances turn the push into some other kind of energy that is useful. Heat from a kettle, the turning of an electric drill (or if you don't have one, show the motor in the vacuum cleaner turning)

Eitan may not get it all on the first pass, but the concepts of energy and electrons are worth getting used to from early on

Phew!"

Christmas Cheek

The perfect bottom we all work so hard for. This one greets visitors (actually the more interesting side greets visitors). Today is Christmas Eve so not surprsingly the kids barge into our room at around 6AM, which is unfortunate because I "indulged" last night at Dukes. Tony had never been and the hotel in St James's offers the best martini in town. Of course the only one to order is vodka and we had several. Did I mention that Tony spent five years in the Navy before business school? Hmmm never wise to find this out at a cocktail lounge. Before, I spend the day with Arthur at the sciences museum- the perfect date place with him (Arthur is a Senior Engineer working on the Pentagon's missile defense shield). He's in town for some chores and his apartment, which otherwise he rents out as he lives in VA. Normally I tear through the exhibitions on my way to the planes or rocket displays but Arthur is fascinated by the early technology like lathes, steam pressures and telescopes. He ponders each joint wondering why it is useful? and this forces me along for the contemplation. I absorb (mostly) what he says, including an explanation of the first computer and a description of his fathers who had a "calculator press" before Sony took over the world. We also discuss other stuff including the necessity of a large military and techy weapons when the most threatful thing could be a van packed with fertiliser. He agrees, but also our government cannot find itself exposed to a strike without any sort of available defense. Hence Star Wars. Unfortunately for him, he finds himself retooling his program based on timing and budgets and sub-contractor budgets which change at the whim of Congress and especially this and next year. We're talking billions of dollars here. All Arthur wants to do is build or fix things, poor fellow.

From Arthur I join Erik at The Woolsley and we catch each other up before he flies to Southern California for the holidays. Unknown to me before recently, his family (Dad's side) bought up the orange groves in of Orange County starting around 1911 and today they have diversified into many areas and funded a university. From SoCal he will ride his motorcycle to Arizona which sounds pretty cool to me. And then Dukes, oh boy.

Arthur - Stage Next

Arthur and I re connect at Waterloo Station, Platform 17, to walk across London via Euston Station, the Strand, Fleet Street then the City and Shoreditch and finally Bethnal Green, where we catch a train to Richmond. On the way we find a pub.

Arthur, age 59, retired this year following 35 years at TRW and then Northrop Grumman, which acquired TRW, a satellites business, where Arthur one of the lead engineers. He informs me a big challenge, working on a satellite, is the "realisation uncertainty" or knowing what is actually being built. This not so obvious when there are 100s of PhD technicians modifying and tinkering a highly complex objet. 

Arthur is now working through his reading list and working on a house in Los Angeles while he retains his penthouse flat in London NW1.  Over dinner we discuss Plato's reading of Socrates which became, many believe, the foundation of the Bible.

Meanwhile, a badger-cull aiming to kill 70% of the countryside badgers kills only 65% or 940 badgers. This is the lead BBC story, 11AM.

Tax admin: "Do you know what nationality you are?"
Me: "I'm British."
Tax admin: "That's OK, absolutely fine."
Me: "Well thank you."

“Run with the painters. I always did."
--Kurt Vonnegut

Arthur Returns

Arthur and I re-union at Track 18, Waterloo Station, to begin a four hour walk along the Thames Path ending up beyond the Isle of Dogs/ Canary Wharf.  It is always extraordinary to uncover different neighbourhoods and small plaques presenting history long forgotten.

Last we saw Arthur, he was retiring from TRW following 30 years of service. His last project : working on an anti-missile defence program targeting ICBMs in Iran, a project employing over 500 engineers from Fairfax to Irvine, California. In my mind's eye, I picture a bunch of bearded software geniuses arriving at a warehouse with an enormous rocket in the middle, allowing them to tinker. Instead, Arthur informs, it is one of the most sterile environments he has ever worked : silent rows of cubicles and offices bathed in unnatural light. His job to ensure the pieces operate together, also known as 'systems engineering.' This leads to a discussion the Wright Brothers and so on and so forth.

Author in California keeping busy rebuilding his house.

Blades

We skate the day before Christmas at Kew Gardens, which is otherwise closed to the public. Eitan is reasonably confident while Madeleine bull-sure: she races onto the ice, legs flying and arms flopping. Sonnet and I take turns circling the rink and holding them up, which in my case is a house of cards. Sonnet's Alaska meant icy summers while I mostly missed the winter time - without much regret, I may add. At some stage the circling becomes a race and Madeleine cracks the whip: "Faster dad! F-A-S-T-E-R !" It all ends in tears, of course, and hot chocolate.

Before the rink, I re-union with Arthur for a three hour walk along the Thames covering Richmond to Petersham. He is in town to give his belated good-byes after returning to the US in March, departing in a flurry of packing and construction. Arthur finished the redesign of his penthouse in about one month - following several years work where he single handedly reconstructed the electrics. Yes, he is an engineer employed by TRW (now Northrop Grumman) for nearly 30 years. His skills have taken him from satellites to communications, where he helped build the UK's police radio mobile communications network, among other things. And now Washington D.C. building the missile defense shield. Arthur and I met in '97 around running before his knees gave out and injuries caught up with us both. Now, as then, we hike London covering various locations and subjects - Author's generous and curious soul allows me to ask the sciences questions I missed at Berkeley and Brown.

Ladies That Lunch

Arthur and I have lunch at The Wolseley then head across the street to the Royal Academy to see the "Miró, Calder, Giacometti, Braque: Aimé Maeght and his artists" exhibition - here is Aimé (centre) with the Chagalls (picture from Maeght archives). Arthur The Engineer is in town for his Penthouse, which he renovated by himself including electrics and everything. Recall his expertise satellite networks. Since moving to Fairfax, VA, 18 months ago with Northrop he reports that life is not quite so interesting - not surprising following ten years in London where he was building the police's secure-mobile communications network, I suppose. So we have a catch-up then see some wonderful art - Calder always strikes me as shallow but I do love the Braques and Miró (who is new to me) and Giacometti. Ah, Giacometti - his "standing woman" and "dog" are remarkable and totally different from, well, anything. Eight identical smaller bronzes on permenant display at the Tate Modern. As for Aimé, his gallery opened in Paris in 1945 and was to become one of the most influential and creative of the twentieth century.

Top Of The World

Eitan makes a new friend, in this case Arthur who is the son of Sabine, the brother of Paul who is the brother to Bridgette who is married to Shelton who is brother of Stan and father of Sonnet. Any case, Arthur is a "special needs" child - mainly, he is too smart of his public school and so causing stress for his parents. Public schools no doubt cater to the lower end which is unfair to the talented youngsters who otherwise might not have an outlet. But this is someone else's battle - oh boy, as I beg and cajole Madeleine to do her Kumon. She's like weeks behind ("I'll do five tomorrow, I promise" which makes me think of Popeye's Wimpy: "I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.") I tell Madeleine if she does not get her asthmatics under control it will only get harder. Her reply: "It is not my fault, dad." Hmmm. Eitan is not Scot free either as I inform him he will feel the fool for not doing his summer-journal, as required, which rests, Dear Father, mostly blank. He rolls his eyes - "what me worry?" - but I am happy to report he opens the book sans bullying to do some writing. As today is officially the last day of holiday, he has a lot of remembering to do.

We have dinner this evening at a surprisingly good Italian near our hotel by the airport. It is Sopranos style, columns and all - a pianest plays on a stage with a movie screen back-drop of a fireplace and fire. Classic.

Dinner And A Trumpet

Arthur, fiance Ruth, me, Anthony and Sonnet the other night. Photo from Arthur.

So today, my "to do" list something like this: 1. fix garbage disposer (which stopped working one month after the warranty); 2. dismount television monitor and remove hamster-chewed cable; 3. insulate outside pipes (that exploded in the night); 4. Install wireless electricity monitor (because the other brand did not work) and assemble tool-kit. On the last one you can see why. I am learning trial-by-fire where the water "cockstop" located or how to turn off the gas (but this another story). While I diddle, Madeleine at swimming then drama class while Eitan mills about - no football since the arctic weather continues. He knows to stay away from me, too.

Madeleine, who has been campaigning for a trumpet, attends a school lesson and comes home even more jazzed. We have experienced instruments before. The thought of Madeleine playing a trumpet in our house disruptive and I told her so last year probably a bit too directly. Both she and Sonnet pouted but, for Pete's sake, this is not a tool that requires finesse. Besides Sonnet once with me me and not with the terrorists. Better Madeleine play something thoughtful - like a recorder or something. But no, Madeleine has her mind set and so Sonnet takes her to the music store in Richmond to pick one up. She walks in the door just now ... and she is armed.

Madeleine, with her trumpet: "Dad, it seems amazing, but in my first lesson I learned two notes. And I know how to play them." She starts blasting.

Me: "Sonnet, are you out of your mind?"

Sonnet: "Madeleine, don't pay your father any mind."

Madeleine:

Sonnet: "Tell Dad to just go jump in the lake."

Madeleine: "Dad, just go jump in the lake."

Oxford Or Bust

With long-time London friend Arthur Garrison, I bike to Oxford or about 100 kilometres. The trip begins from my house where we meet for a coffee, and passes through Richmond, skirts around Heathrow, crosses the Thames three times while traversing the countryside via Marlow, Fierth, Fingerest, Pishill and other charming and small villages then brings us to our destination via a dual carriageway and rather hard ride in. An occassional random red phone booth is spotted. Seven hours later we are at Oxford Startion and the train ride back to London. Arthur, fyi, is a satellite engineer at TRW and thanks to his mapping, compass reading and odometer, we are not lost even once.

Penguins

To the race track.

Have you ever explained a trillion to a six year old? Not easy. Ronald Reagan made an attempt in his '82 State of the Union Address:

"I've been trying ... to think of a way to illustrate how big a trillion is. The best that I could come up with is that if you had a stack of $1000 bills in your hand only four inches high you would be a millionaire. A trillion dollars would be a stack of $1000-dollar bills 67 miles high."

Four inches would make you a millionaire. During Reagan, the national debt tripled from the $993 billion to $2.6 trillion, or a 174 miles high. Compared with the current White House, however, Reagan was thrifty. Bush has added $4 trillion to the debt making our stack of $1000s 697 miles+119 days left in his term+another trillion-dollars for the bailout. OMG.

So here is what a trillion-dollars gets you these days (besides 10% of our GDP):

- every woman, man and child in the United States $3278

- twelve times what the federal government spends each year on transportation

- ten times what it spends on education

- Six times what Senator Obama has vowed to spend over 10 years for energy independence.

- It is 19% more than NASA's budget for the entire half century the space agency has been in existence.

- It's 38% more than this year's bloated Pentagon budget.

- It's 60% of what's needed to renew and repair America's entire infrastructure of bridges and roads.

- It's 50% of what's needed to provide universal health coverage for all Americans.

(Thank you Daily Kos for the datas)

"In my judgment, the risk of this regulatory approach is simply unacceptable for America's investors."
Arthur Levitt, longest serving Chairman of the SEC, in 1999 or the same year as the Gramm-Leach-Blilely Act

"The public adore me. I haven't got a bad word to say about Paul. Men are falling over themselves to ask me out. My only interest in life is helping others."

Heather Mills, September 22

W'Loo

Update: My mobile-phone photo the the top of the 226 stair knoll (I counted) on the site of the battle, and the famous La Butte du Lion. Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington said of it "They have spoiled my Battlefield." But it offers a panoramic view and puts one in the mind of past actions.

I am in Waterloo this morning and ask a receptionist for advise on things to see before the airport. She advises the battlefield and I thank her for her good idea, which is kind of like being told to see the Golden Gate Bridge when in San Francisco. Or Big Ben in London. So there we go to the or about eight miles Southeast of Brussels .

Waterloo marks to the defeat of Napoleon to the Seventh Coalition, including an Anglo-Allied army under the command of the Duke of Wellington and a Prussian Army under Gebhard von Blucher. It was a decisive ass kicking and ended Napoleon's rule as the French emperor, and the end of his Hundred Days post exile. I was reading about this only last week in Patrick O'Brien's 19th book of his Master and Commander series (Captain Jack ecstatic that Napoleon returns giving him his raison d'etre, even if only for a short while).

Upon Napoleon's return to power in 1815, many states that had opposed him formed the Seventh Coalition and began to mobilise armies. Two large forces under Wellington and von Blücher assembled close to the northeastern border of France. Napoleon chose to attack in the hope of destroying them before they could join in a coordinated invasion of France with other members of the Coalition. And so: Waterloo. According to Wellington, the battle was "the nearest-run thing you ever saw in your life."

Napoleon delayed giving battle until noon to allow the ground to dry. Wellington's army, positioned across the Brussels road on the Mont St Jean escarpment, withstood repeated attacks by the French, until, in the evening, the Prussians arrived in force and broke through Napoleon's right flank. At that moment, Wellington's Anglo-allied army counter-attacked and drove the French army in disorder from the field. Pursuing Coalition forces entered France and restored Louis XVIII to the French throne. Napoleon abdicated, surrendered to the British, and was exiled to Saint Helena, where he died in 1821.

"All I want to know is where I am going to die so I will never go there."

--Warren Buffet

Look Up!

Tonight's full moon, assuming no clouds, is the biggest and brightest to be seen for 15 years. As Arthur recounts, each month the moon makes a full orbit around the earth in a slightly oval-shaped path, and tonight it will swing by at its closest distance, or perigee, passing 221,595 miles away - 17,400 miles closer than average. What's unusual tonight is that the perigee coincides with a full moon making it appear 14% bigger and 30% brighter than most full-moons (the next closest encounter BTW is November 14, 2016 but it won't be a full-moon). Tonight's moon is also notable for rising to its greatest height in the night sky, lying almost overhead at midnight. This is due to the approaching winter solstice on December 21 and, thanks to the tilt of the earth, the moon appears at its highest as the sun is at its lowest. Were that not enough, tonight and for the next several nights is the Geminid meteor shower, one of the year's best displays of shooting stars - up to 100 meteors an hour can fly across the sky. Cool!
Moon photo from National Geographic.

Red House

The Red House, on the corner of York Ave, designed by architect Arthur Young and built in 1904 when there was surely nothing else around.  Since we are on a hilltop, the views of the river (now not visible) would have been superb. It remains a convenient several hundred yards into Richmond Park. Yours for £7M.

Simon

I love this kid, here looking into the backyard at a thunder-storm afternoon and thinking: "no s'mores." Everybody in the same boat and sometimes the rain just comes when least wanted. Madeleine asks if we can use the oven but somehow not quite the same. We promise tomorrow, sunshine allowing, and ice cream tonight at Nellie's in Goshen, CT which we have been to before and is a perfect hole in the wall with all kinds of Nestle's Ice cream. It has suitably cheesey decor and friendly hospitality. Madeleine asks if they have s'more ice cream and we shall see. We shall see. When not yelling at the kids about something (a memorable moment has me removing my glasses so I am not responsible for everybody jumping on Simon smooshed between two couch pillows) we enjoy BBQ spare ribs, which takes me back to Kansas City in '97 and Arthur Bryant's. Bryant's a rib joint founded in the 1920s not too far from the Chiefs football stadium and a simple, enormous grill worked by several enormous black men in dirty, white T-shirts. I think Clinton went there once during a tour of the Midwest (or wherever Kansas is). Sonnet and I passed by on our cross-country post MBA and I still have fond memories, ah yes. So Simon - terrific kid, similar to Madeleine a unique character and always something interesting going on in his head. He, too, has a successful older brother who monopolizes attention which must be countered somehow. Simon often gets away with murder but always brought back to earth by Amado, who is not adverse to yelling or fixing a chore or two. Builds character and keeps the boys out of trouble - something we could do ourselves with a bit more discipline - I think this as Eitan ignores me generally when I ask him to do something. I threaten to withhold ManU vs. Barcelona Wednesday and this usually gets it done.

Madeleine enters with Capucino Crunch ice cream.

Goldfrapp

Here is Goldfrapp who Sonnet and I catch at a sold-out Brixton Academy (lead singer Alison not pictured, photo from the Telegraph). Goldfrapp is a Brit-pop group known for electronic dance music and, ahem, visual theatrics. The band formed in 1999 in London with Alison doing the vocals and synthesizer and Will Gregory also synthesizer (pictured on right). A small symphony quartet sits at one side while the back-up chorus wear ram-sculls and ghostly dresses. Intermittently partially clad exotics prance about the stage showing us their everything; a pole magically appears to add to the, er, levity. Goldfrapp's voice is clear and perfectly suited for her sound - ethereal pops to mind. Adding to the fun are Gareth and Richard, who we saw earlier this year at their nuptuals in Shoreditch. Gareth works at the V&A as a furniture curator while Richard is a recognised fashion designer. In short, the perfect double date for the disco.

Arthur on the earth-moon thing:
"By the way, most people imagine the moon goes around a "stationary" earth. It doesn't. Imagine you put Madeleine into orbit around you using a rope on an ice rink. Although she weighs less than you, you wouldn't be able to stand still. Pretty soon, you'd be going in circles as well. You two would be locked in mutual orbits. your circle would be small and hers would be bigger. In fact, both circles would be centered on the same point on the ice and that point would be between you and her, but closer to you than her because you're heavier. That's what happens with the earth and the moon.

"

Self Portrait VII

We meet James and Emily in Hyde Park on a brilliant summer's day. This the weather I think of when considering England: warm, with large puffy clouds making the blue sky a friendly canvas. Definitely The Beatles and "Yellow Submarine." Britain looks like a cloud after all. Ben, year-five, and Mia, year-three, offer the perfect companions and the children play football and Frisbee until Madeleine clips a 20 somethings head. I drag her over to mumble "sorry" and when I sternly rebuke her for not being more generous she whines: "but I didn't even know her!" Emily is the Executive Producer at the BBC, whose show The Forum is presented by Bridget Kendall and aims "to discuss and challenge big ideas." Recent shows have teamed Environmentalist Sunita Narain, science historian Arthur I Miller, writer Paolo Giordano. Or Sociologist WJ Wilson, philosopher Roger Scruton, film-maker Clemens von Wedemeyer. Or Political economist Deepak Lal, writer & comic AL Kennedy, Tatar poet Ravil Bukharaev. How cool is this? The Forum is on radio, Internet b'cast or podcast. Emily, like Sonnet, has a unique job and totallly great for it. Before The Forum, she was responsible for the BBC Book Club where I recently met Lionel Shriver. And before that, the World Services Religious programming. She rocks.

Madeleine shows me a pea-pod: "Look, Dad, it's perfect. I am going to take it to show-and-tell."

Madeleine collects all sorts of bugs from the backyard putting them into a tuper-ware, covered with Seran Wrap. She adds a few leaves and a grass or two for their comfort. She leaves the encasement by the back-steps, where I find them this morning.

The car radio chimes the BBC's Big Ben announcement of 6:00PM. I ask Madeleine in the back: "what time is it?"
Long pause.
BBC Announcer: "And the news, at 6PM."
Madeleine: "4PM?"

Wedding Post

Sophie, in the backseat and our neighbor Helen's (pictured, center) daughter, gets hitched. I grab my camera and join the neighborhood who line up to wish her well and good luck. Helen herself married to Martin who was born in the house pictured - Martin 80 or so and his mum a Wimbledon champion so he is a member of the club. Not too many people may claim that convenience. Martin knows more about stuff than most people I know and maybe as much as Arthur - on occasion Martin and I have discussed tree-pruning, WWII bombing strategies and gas lamps, which were across London until '64 when replaced by electrics. Helen has become our go-to in case of emergency : like several weeks ago when Aneta and I got our languages mixed up and Madeleine at home, solo, for the afternoon. After a while she marched herself across the yard, knocked on Helen's door, and announced she had been "Forgotten." Inside a moment I get a text on my mobile and a call at work. Madeleine very cool about the whole thing - no tears - but I know she was pretty upset especially since she has seen "Home Alone" and "Home Alone II."

I do five-hours of outside work which I heartily enjoy but today freezing and my hands numb by the end. Since it may snow yet I wanted to get the piles bagged.

Titanic

Hedge funds, who can borrow to "short" stocks and again leverage themselves further, will be the next shock (most have three to 12 month "lock ups" on investor withdrawal allowing a delay to now's market). These "liquid" vehicles have been forced to sell aggressively driving the collapse in equities; further revealing, the stocks where hedge funds hold the largest stakes massively under-perform the wider market: the 50 stocks where hedge funds are most exposed, for instance, slumped 19% in September while the S&P 500 fell 9%. Hedge managers are today forced to liquidate hundreds of billions of positions as thousands of investors, particularly high-wealth individuals, redeem together in fear. The effect intensified by the ongoing withdrawal of credit by prime brokers, further forcing funds to cut positions. Funds-of-hedge funds, who pool capital for the industry, are also a problem thanks to their own leverage which juices returns on the up. Such gearing means that halving the hedge fund industry to $1 trillion will net larger asset sales still. The party continues.

photo from British Film Institute

"Maybe all one can do is hope to end up with the right regrets."
Arthur Miller

"Ever noticed that 'what the hell' is always the right decision?"
Marilyn Monroe in the Daily Telegraph

Shooting Fish In A ..

Madeleine wants a fish and is relentless about it. Her persistence a fine quality. Usually.

Along with everything else, US corporations have been slashing internal, long-term research and development spending, and, most recently, investments in venture backed start-ups and venture funds (my photo from the local pet shop). Where our nation once at the forefront of global innovation, we are being surpassed by places like Korea or China. Consider GM. Those blowhards should own the electric or hybrid market; instead they fought Washington to keep their SUVs while failing entirely to commit anything to the next, next thing. Now they are a fraction of their size and might. GM an easy example, but not alone: AT&T's Bell Labs, IBM's Watson Labs, and XEROX PARC were turbines of innovation and the envy of the world. They were also cool. Imagine being some super-educated geeko with computer science or engineering degrees (sorry Roger on both counts) working in the salt mines - here was the way out. And more: perhaps the closest thing to rock-stardom as these tighty-whities might get. Today, no more.

The data shows: in 1981, US companies with more than 25,000 employees represented approx. 70% of the investment in industrial innovation, according the the National Science Foundation. By 2006, it was 36%. The slack during this time picked up by small companies who absorbed investment: from 10% of US R&D in '81 to 40% today. No surprise. Further, public companies originally venture capital-backed today are 17.5% of the US GDP and have created more than 12 million high-paying jobs over the last 30 years (source: Venturebeat). Without venture capital, we would be Germany. Or Bulgaria. High growth tech businesses re-employed the redundent during America's 1980s downsizing - remember all that m&a and Gordon Geco stuff?

I learned in MBA school that the first thing to shutter, when looking for "efficiencies" to justify a merger or"unlocking value" after the deed done, is the research department. The reason, other than conserving or freeing cashflow, the market - which can do things better than an individual (company). In short, better to buy, or have the option to buy, technology developed on somebody else's risk. It also eliminates the problem of "project creep" which, as Arthur has told me, is what happens when 100 engineers given a free hand. They do what smart people do - explore, test, waste shareholder money.

Today's increasing problem stems from corporate isolation, some arrogance plus a dose of complacency and a pinch of corruption. From the 1980s, substantial R&D cost savings transferred back to venture innovation via m&a and investment partnerships, where a General Partner (GP) managed commitments in return for a share - 20% - of the take. This kept the brain muscle working, gave corporates access to best-of-breed entrepreneurs and universities and made a lot of people rich. All good in our capitalism. Today, I often must argue that venture an asset class given the miserable returns these last ten years but this silly: of course it is, only the best investments not looking for IPOs or mega-exits. Base-hits, ie, smaller deals in capital efficient companies, have always been the industry's bread-and-butter before large cap funds arrived circa 1999 (a large-cap fund making a $50MM investment in one company, for instance, looks for a $1B exit to get its multiple). Smaller, specific deals exactly what buyers want or need. So today, without corporate dollars and tax incentives, we lose the ability to innovate and lead having squandered resources in larger, value destroying funds. Britain has suffered this fate (who recalls the de Havilland? Neither do I but it was the first commercial airline and British). By failing venture, our companies are a fish in a barrel.

Obelisk

I find a strange black obelisk in the V&A courtyard at the center of the museum, which immediately brings Arthur C. Clarke to mind. In this instance, it shines various shapes, patterns and lines and draws a hypnotised audience who watch the colors dance off the wading pool. Cool. Eitan, meanwhile, could care less and in a flash has his shoes off and runs sprints on the lawn - he's been inside the museum for 20 minutes, you see. Any ways the sculpture presents no information on itself, nor am I able to find anything on the V&A's website- maybe Sonnet can help us?

The Victoria & Albert Museum really is fabulous - not your typical showing painting and antiquities, no sir. It is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects. Named after Prince Albert and Queen Victoria, it was founded in 1852, and has since grown to now cover some 12.5 acres and 145 galleries. Its collection spans 5000 years of art, from ancient times to the present day, in virtually every medium, from Europe, North America, Asia and North Africa. Sonnet has her place too and it gives me great pride to walk around the Fashion Gallery with the kids who ask questions about her displays: "Why did you pick that one, mom?" asks Madeleine looking at a pink track suit. Eitan runs past the fancy lingerie when I ask him his favorite pair of pants. Otherwise there is the "Magnificence of the Tsars" described as "the grandeur of Imperial Russia is captured in this display of the dress and uniforms of Emperors and officials of the Russian court. Starting in the 1720s with the lavishly embroidered coats and elaborately patterned silk banyans from the wardrobe of Tsar Peter II, the display spans a period of almost two centuries." I hear a lot of Russian spoken.