CDOQ

Today is the last day to legally buy and sell foie gras in California. Will the French stop visiting California? 

People seldom lose the ability to follow instructions from authority. 

As long as inequality in demand, ability, risk, and production is core of economics, I don't see hierarchy disappearing from organizations. 

Give me enough time and money and I can make you need things that don't exist yet. 

Cultures always  fascinate me. How do they develop? How do they change? How the meaning of an action is different in different cultures? Why people are not very good at seeing things from another perspective (influenced by another culture)?  To continue learning about cultures, I just finished reading a book -  Figuring Foreigners Out -which gives very pragmatic advice on understanding and adapting to new cultures. Thanks to my teacher, Donna Stringer , for recommending the book. Following are some edited excepts that explain fundamentals of culture:  1. Culture is the shared assumptions, values, and beliefs of a group of people which result in characteristic behaviors. And, cultural generalizations are necessarily statements of likelihood and potential, not of certainty.  2. An instance of behavior has no particular meaning other than what the people who witness that behavior assign to it. Behavior means what we decide it means - very often it means nothing at all. 

Nothing happens "in general"; things only happen in context , in specific  circumstances . - C. Storti 

Why do humans find it easier to remember the truth vs the lies? Is it result of evolution? Does any other species lie?

I wonder how much progress the societies would have made if the leaders always acted on prevailing public opinions.