The Great Game

And Now You Wake

2008-01-12T02:07:00.001-05:00

Yoshido Brother: Rising

Get Your Inner Mao Going

2008-01-05T16:53:00.000-05:00

This company takes your photo and paints you into a Chinese propaganda poster. Seriously, communism never stood a chance.

A Serbian Celtic Band

2008-01-05T02:38:00.001-05:00

Damn the Kid Can Play

2007-12-20T18:28:00.001-05:00

Quote

2007-11-08T21:24:00.000-05:00

The volcano under Yellowstone, properly known as a caldera, remains as healthy today as it was the last time it blew Idaho, Wyoming and Montana over the international date line. To give a sense of proportion, volcanoes resemble calderas in the same way that an electric Razr scooter and an Airbus A380 both fall in the category of powered transportation.

-- Tim F

The Foggy Dew

2007-10-29T17:33:00.000-05:00

Adblock

This is one of my favourite tunes.

There is No God: A Geographical Proof.

2007-10-29T12:16:00.000-05:00

In this article I intend to show a way of examining the behavior of ideas about the divine and how that can be used to draw conclusions about the veracity of these ideas. The key tool that I use is to consider each person to be a semi-effective point detector. I assume that each person has a chance to recognize the truth of the divine. Everyone also has chance of creating a spontaneous incorrect detection or detecting the divine at all. For our purposes, false detections can have any cause; madness, charlatanry, and honest mistakes are all possible explanations. This list should not be considered exhaustive.

The next assumption is that the divine is universal. This means that every detection of the true divine will be similar. False detections can take any form. False detections of the divine need not be similar to each other nor must they be similar to to true detections of the divine. From a detection perspective false detections are noise. Since we want to find the truth we must remove this noise from our signal. Once we have done that we can then see what the truth of the divine is.

There is a complication we encounter immediately. Ideas of the divine are not only gathered from the world around us. We also communicate these ideas from person to person. Therefore, any one persons ideas of the divine are caused by two different possible sources: Individual detection of the divine and being taught by other people. For our purposed knoweldge of the divine that transmitted through human communication is additional noise that we must compensate for.Human communication requires contact between people. As such we would expect knowledge of the divine to spread along trade routes and paths of conquest. This spread will resemble a plume radiating outward from its source.

We have two different types of sources: an universal true source and many individual false sources. We, as a thought exercise, can map these two types of sources. The true source would appear as many different point sources whose plumes when they come into contact would be nearly indistinguishable. This indistinguishability would be caused by the similarity of each detector's experience. The end result would be that the true source would appear like an area source. The plume of false sources would individually identifiable since the false sources have greater variability in the experience of their detectors. Therefore false sources of divine truth would appear as point sources. This animation illustrates that all the major religions are point source phenomena.

If a religion spread like a point sourced plume then it cannot be universal. if it is not universal, it cannot represent a universally true depiction of the divine.

Is there any interpretation of the divine that has an area sources? Is there one with multiple, similar, independent appearances? There is one: Atheism. Atheism has appeared independently in both in Mediterranean antiquity and in ancient India (here, here) and well as it current modern appearance. Hence, Atheism represents the one idea of the divine that comes closest to universality in geographical distribution and is therefore the most likely to be true.

How high can it go? The Loonie at 1.20.

2007-10-27T18:55:00.000-05:00

A number of analysts at the Canadian banks have said that they expect the loonie to stabilize or decline a bit against the US dollar. This view is probably mistaken. In fact, the loonie will probably continue to climb relative to the USD. 1.05 by the end of the year is likely and 1.20 by November 1, 2008 is entirely possible.

The majority of the movement between these two currencies is caused by change in the American dollar relative to all currencies. The immediate cause of this problem is the subprime mess and the unwinding of the property price bubble. I think neither of these two events are finished yet. Property price bubbles usually take years to wind down and the property bubble is fuelling the subprime collapse. Until the property bubble is deflated the financial mess will continue.

The bigger picture is that the current account deficit dam has broken. America's finances have been unsustainable for a number of years. Main commentators have pointed out that the current account deficit was unsustainably large. It was just a matter of time before the current account deficit would provoke at sustained decline (possibly even a precipitous decline which we have been spared to date). The signs of this adjustment abound: Countries are unpegging their currencies which is cutting demand for the American dollar, as well as Iran's decision to accept yen for oil. All of these facts point towards a sustained decline of the US dollar.

The Canadian economy is in a much better situation and is likely to remain that way for the near future. Oil, gold and wheat are all strong right now. Gold is will remain strong as long as the American economy is in decline. Wheat prices are being driven up by the biofuels movement and world wide oil production has declined from its peak in 2006. Manufacturing has been hurt by the rising dollar but job growth is strong across the country. The fact that the growth has been lead by educational services suggests that we can expect an increase in Canada's productivity in the next few years since educational services suggests grow in training.

In short there is little reason for the current trends to reverse. and at these rates we can expect the loonie reaching unheard of levels against the greenback.

Update:

I found this article that also tell how Russia, Iran and Venezuela are moving there foreign currency reserves over to Euros.

Three big oil producing nations — Iran, Venezuela and Russia — have all been moving much of their foreign currency reserves from dollars to euros in recent months.

At this point I would not want to be sitting with large amounts of US dollars.

Update II:

The Loonie hit 1.0469 USD today and we have two more months in this year.

Mutant Offspring of Half-Life and Diablo to Conquer the World

2007-10-27T11:52:00.000-05:00

On Halloween a new game will be released. This game, Hellgate: London, is going to be a out of the ballpark hit. It has been a long time since I have played a game this well designed and this smoothly executed. Not only is it beautifully designed but the game is supremely well architected. The gameplay is familiar enough to make it easy to learn but fresh enough to be interesting. The story and setting are likewise fresh and interesting. In games like this the devil is in the details and flagship studios has nailed those extremely well. The main problem with this game is the hours, day (weeks and months) of my life it is going to steal. When I played the beta, I did find a few annoying bugs but there were less then I expected, and this was the beta.

For the details, Hellgate: London is a technomagic action rpg that can be played in a first or third person. One of the first things you will notice is how much like the Diablo series this game feels like. This isn't surprising since a large number of the team that made Diablo are on work for flagship studios. This is not to say it is one of the thousands of Diablo knock offs that have come and gone since that masterpiece hit the market. No, this game raises the bar much like Half-Life did for shooters. In fact, you can play Hellgate: London like a shooter if you so choose. Just choose the Marksman class and have all the sniper rifle and rocket launcher fun you want.

Which brings us to the topic of the classes. Hellgate: London has six classes split between three types. That is two classes in each type for those of you who can't do math. The types are templars (melee fighters), cabalists (mages) and hunters (guns). Melee classes are not my thing so I barely touched them. They seem okay; guardians are your classic tank and blademaster is your melee dps classs. The most annoying bug I encountered effected the melee classes. You had to stand still to swing your weapon. The gunfighters can run and shoot but not the melee classes.

The Hunters rock; Marksman is your gunfighter, your various shooting stances and explosives are your little friends. I recommend getting explosive grenade quickly and using freely. The hunters also have the only stealth in the game. The hunter class is engineer; one of the two pet classes in the game. Engineers get robots, a main drone that you can enhance with found equipment. Yes, you can load your drone with a rocket launcher but I found that machine guns work the best. The drone doesn't know how to lead a shot so direct fire weapons are more effective in its hands. Engineers also get a few number of bots, small floating robots with more limited and specific abilities. Your first engineer ability is call inhibitor bots, which are a cluster of three bots that shoot a continuous ray that slows your opponents slightly and more importantly point out incoming opponents for you.

The last set of classes are the cabalists: the Evokers and the Summoners. The Evokers are a nuking mage class whose spells have different optimal ranges. Your first spell, spectral bolt, is a great example of this. It launches a pretty ball of pinkish-purple light at your opponent which does respectable damage. At about 8 metres away from you it splits into about eight balls which seems to do the same damage as you original bolt. Once the bolts pass 15 metres they are so spread out and moving so randomly that it is blind luck to hit anything. These rings of optimal attack effectiviness very much colour the gameplay of the class. Summoners are another pet class which commands demons instead of robots. Every summoner can command one major demon (they eventually have three to choose from) and a horde of little elementals. Keeping the major demon alive and timing the use of its special abilities are the key to success with this class.

Lastly I'd like to mention that this is a very beautiful game. Its art design is visually impressive. The music is subtle and the voice acting is good. It particular the character Luscious Alvin is a major treat.

American's Disturbed By Canadian Millitary Build-Up

2007-07-10T10:15:00.000-05:00

I cracked up when I saw this article in the HuffPo. It is interesting to look at the Canadian military perspective on these icebreakers (via Galloping Beaver below)

Canada announced plans Monday to increase its Arctic military presence in an effort to assert sovereignty over the Northwest Passage - a potentially oil-rich region the United States claims is international territory.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper said six to eight patrol ships will guard what he says are Canadian waters. A deep water port will also be built in a region the U.S. Geological Survey estimates has as much as 25 percent of the world's undiscovered oil and gas.

"Canada has a choice when it comes to defending our sovereignty over the Arctic. We either use it or lose it. And make no mistake, this government intends to use it," Harper said. "It is no exaggeration to say that the need to assert our sovereignty and protect our territorial integrity in the North on our terms have never been more urgent."

The Galloping Beaver points out that these new toy boats are neat but not what our military wants:

Steve Harper has done it again. Without a comprehensive defence review in place, without a white-paper and contradicting the methods laid out by the Canadian navy to secure the Arctic, he has decided to tell the navy what type of ships they will have to form a fleet.
The federal government will fund the construction of six to eight new Arctic patrol ships to help reassert Canada's sovereignty over the North, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Monday.
The ships will be custom-built, state of the art and made in Canada, Harper said during a ceremony at Canadian Forces Base Esquimalt on Vancouver Island.
Based on the only existing defence policy the military has to use, the Canadian navy produced this strategic planning document entitled Leadmark: The Navy's Strategy for 2020. (Which has now disappeared from the navy's frontpage on the DND site.)
Nowhere in that document will you see a specific requirement identified by the navy for any ice-resistant ships. Which means that the Harper government has inverted the process and is now telling the navy, not what needs to be done, but exactly how to do it.

In truth, the Canadian navy would love to have Arctic patrol ships... after all other requirements and resource demands are met. They would also love to have the people to man them, or has it been lost on this government that there are really only nine crews to run twelve frigates?

Being Imperial

2007-07-09T23:10:00.000-05:00

From Andrew Sullivan:

My sense is that the Anbar tribes are both repelled by al Qaeda's excesses (ably chronicled here by Michael Yon) and see the US as a decent short-term ally in their eternal war with the Shia. So they're worth backing ... for a while. I've come to believe that the larger attempt to create a viable, normal state out of post-Saddam Iraq is a mug's game. Only a serious imperial power could do it - with sufficient troop levels (close to three times what we have available) and Saddam-levels of brutality. Our options are therefore now limited to the old enemy-of-my-enemy game. Mercifully, this is the Middle East, and so the supply of temporary, untrustworthy enemies of our enemies is close to endless. We should get out of Iraq central and try and play a smart game of picking the enemies-of-our-enemies-du-jour. Of course, a smart game requires another administration and another president. And you lose a war with the president you have, not the president you might like. Oh, and don't blame me. I endorsed the other guy.

A MAD Reminder

2007-06-19T13:47:00.000-05:00

I have recently stumbled upon a neat little online newspaper called exile. Its english language and Moscow based giving a rather differnent perspective upon the world.

In a recent article they have discussed the American attempt to develop nuclear first strike capability and render the mutual assured destruction doctrine (MAD) irrelatvent. The loss of MAD would mean that America would be able to attack any country in the world with nuclear weapons... and get away with it. This concept combined with the excellent and moral quality of the American leadership of the last few years, is enough to keep me awake at night. I really don't want to live in a world dominated by jack-booted American fascists armed with first strike capable nuclear weapons.

The end of the Cold War has spawned a lot of surprises that no one could have imagined, one of those being the mass nuclear-amnesia that has afflicted most of the civilized world. This has become painfully obvious in the recent debate over U.S. missile-defense installations in Eastern Europe.

Consider last week's Economist editorial "Vlad and MAD," the magazine's latest in a string of "get tough with Russia" articles. The editors point to Putin's pre-G8 summit statement that Russia would respond to the stationing of ABM systems in Poland and the Czech Republic by targeting Eastern Europe with nuclear rockets as a sign that, "The era of mutual assured destruction (or MAD) which supposedly ended when the red flag came down, could return."
That the MAD "era" ended in 1991 would be news to U.S. and Russian nuclear launch commanders. Since the end of the Cold War, neither side has even for a moment removed its missiles from their pre-'91 hair-trigger footings. MAD did not end with the Cold War because MAD was not an "era," a state of mind, a policy, or even a doctrine. MAD is a fact, one that exists when two mature nuclear powers face each other across oceans armed with a triad of nuclear missiles, bombers, and submarines. MAD simply means that if one side surprise attacks, the other side can mount a devastating second-strike in response. Not so long ago, every schoolboy and girl understood this. Now, apparently, even Economist editors can't keep their Armageddon acronyms straight.
If this phrase rings a bell, it's because of the small firestorm created last year when two American academics, Keir A. Lieber and Daryl G. Press, published "The Rise of U.S. Nuclear Primacy" in the March/April issue of Foreign Affairs. The authors argued that the United States is consciously refining its nuclear forces so as to be able to knock out Russia's rump arsenal and command and control system, thereby achieving first-strike capability, or "primacy," for the first time since the early 1960s. They do not argue or imply that such an attack is in the offing, but merely state that the looming fact of U.S. nuclear primacy is potentially destabilizing and is essential to keep in mind when framing flashpoints in the U.S.-Russian security dialogue - flashpoints like missile defense. Since this larger context has gone missing lately, with U.S. officials and editorialists haughtily dismissing Russian concerns as "ridiculous" and "anachronistic," it seems like a good time to revisit their article.

Lieber and Press marshal publicly known information about U.S. and Russian nuclear forces to make their case. Against a post-Cold War background of a shrinking and rusting Russian nuclear triad,
The U.S. nuclear arsenal has significantly improved. The United States has replaced the ballistic missiles on its submarines with the substantially more accurate Trident II D-5 missiles, many of which carry new, larger-yield warheads. The U.S. Navy has shifted a greater proportion of its [nuclear subs] to the Pacific so that they can patrol near the Chinese coast or in the blind spot of Russia's early warning radar network...

The authors continue in this vein with a long and wonky litany detailing improvements in systems ranging from the B-2 bomber to ICBMs. They conclude, "[T]hese steps look like a coordinated set of programs to enhance the United States' nuclear first-strike capabilities. The current and future U.S. nuclear force...seems designed to carry out a preemptive disarming strike against Russia or China."

Let me repeat that: The current and future U.S. nuclear force...seems designed to carry out a preemptive disarming strike against Russia or China.

That's what two serious American academics said in Foreign Affairs last year. And yet when Putin objects to the ABM system, his fears are dismissed as "ridiculous" by the West's political and editorial elite, who react like impatient parents whose child claims there is a monster under the bed.

Hurricane on Wheels

2007-06-08T08:51:00.000-05:00

How you ever thought, "I just need a hurricane right now?" Now you can get one, delivered on a trailer. How cool is that?!

Researchers at the University of Florida (UF) have developed a portable wind and rain simulator that can create a hurricane environment in a laboratory setting for scientific study. The unique device, reaching wind speeds equivalent to those of Hurricane Katrina, is equipped with eight industrial fans powered by four marine diesel engines. The simulator is mounted on a trailer and will be used on vacant homes to test building products, urban landscapes, and anything else that might be affected during a storm.

The specifics:

The simulator is outfitted with eight five-foot-tall industrial fans, each weighing approximately 1,200 pounds and stacked in two rows. The fans will be powered by four 700-horsepower marine diesel engines, a type of boat engine. The transfer of power from the engines to the fans is controlled by an innovative hydraulic drive system designed by Linde Hydraulics Corporation and Cunningham Fluid Power. Once the engines are redlined, they turn a set of hydraulic pumps that drive fluid through the motors housed in the fans, which spins the fans, explains Masters.
The wind from the fans will pass through a custom-built duct that enables it to accelerate to the desired speed. At the end of the duct are rudders that allow the researchers to direct the wind. Inside the rudders is a water-injection system to simulate wind-driven rain.

Wow, What a Political Move!

2007-06-08T07:39:00.000-05:00

I do not trust Valdimir Putin, but when a leader does a act this elegant, this smooth one can only just sit back and clap. Here is the original story.

Russian President Vladimir Putin turned the tables on Washington today by suggesting the United States use a Russian-controlled radar instead of US anti-missile hardware in central Europe.

At a meeting with US President George W. Bush during a Group of Eight summit, Putin proposed that the United States and Russia jointly use a radar in Azerbaijan as part of an anti-missile shield that would protect all of Europe.
"We can do this automatically, and hence the whole system which is being built as a result will cover not only part of Europe but the entire Europe without an exception," Putin said.
"This would also ... allow us not to redirect our rockets (to targets in Europe) and, on the contrary, allow us to create conditions for joint work," he said.

Russian-Estonian Cyberwar

2007-05-20T09:22:00.000-05:00

The Guardian has an article about the growing conflict between Estonia and Russia. Estonia is a NATO country. Article 5 of the NATO treaty says an attack against one is an attack against all. This means the a war between Russia and the West may be brewing.

A three-week wave of massive cyber-attacks on the small Baltic country of Estonia, the first known incidence of such an assault on a state, is causing alarm across the western alliance, with Nato urgently examining the offensive and its implications.

While Russia and Estonia are embroiled in their worst dispute since the collapse of the Soviet Union, a row that erupted at the end of last month over the Estonians' removal of the Bronze Soldier Soviet war memorial in central Tallinn, the country has been subjected to a barrage of cyber warfare, disabling the websites of government ministries, political parties, newspapers, banks, and companies.

Nato has dispatched some of its top cyber-terrorism experts to Tallinn to investigate and to help the Estonians beef up their electronic defences.
"This is an operational security issue, something we're taking very seriously," said an official at Nato headquarters in Brussels. "It goes to the heart of the alliance's modus operandi."
Alarm over the unprecedented scale of cyber-warfare is to be raised tomorrow at a summit between Russian and European leaders outside Samara on the Volga.
While planning to raise the issue with the Russian authorities, EU and Nato officials have been careful not to accuse the Russians directly.
If it were established that Russia is behind the attacks, it would be the first known case of one state targeting another by cyber-warfare.

If the Russian state was smart, and I think Putin (as evil as he is) is rather smart. Then they would make sure that it is no part of the state that is attacking Estonia. Instead, they will claim it is criminals acting out of nationalism that are beyond the control of the Russian government. This way it is difficult for NATO to officially blame Russia for the attack.

As a further note, Estonia is part of what the Russians call their near abroad. This has been Russia's traditional sphere of influence. They have been the hegemon in the Eastern Baltic since the time of Peter the Great. They see NATO's penetration into this region as both an insult and a threat. The humiliation of Russia's loss of influence is a powerful motivator. I think that the humiliation is a more important factor than any national security calculations when it comes to Russia's dealings with the West and Its western abroad.

This situation is an important one. What Russia is trying to do is beat Estonia in line. Russia is trying to show that it is more important than NATO is and that Estonia must do what it says. In essence Russia is trying to turn Estonia into a client state. Since Estonia is a member of the EU and a member of NATO, we cannot allow this to happen. A NATO member is under attack we must defend. Now, it is under a non-traditional attack, which suggests a non-traditional response. What that would be I leave to others who are more creative then me.

Canadian Press Spreads Lies

2007-05-03T11:28:00.000-05:00

Cathie takes down a conservative shill who was spreading lies about the Vancouver Safe Injection site. Shorter version: Who should we believe the top medical journal in the world or an propaganda piece by hack? I thought so too.

A Question of Survival and of Low Hanging Fruit

2007-05-03T10:14:00.000-05:00

Dealing with climate change is a matter of survival, period. Economic growth is good, it makes the lives of our leaders easier because it allows them to avoid zero sum economics. But, ultimately climate change threatens the survival of our civilisation. This is what Jim Baird and Stephen Harper do not understand.

Furthermore their threats that it is environment or the economy is simply wrong. Canada is the most energy inefficient country in the world. We are wasteful compared to the other developed countries. This means we have not yet taken the easy steps towards a more efficient economy. Guess what happens when we do? We get a booming economy, because our productivity increases. That is what efficiency does. Especially when we can get good of the shelf technologies that can easily drop our energy consumption by 25%. We still haven't done the easy steps, we haven't picked the low hanging fruit.

We need to do this for our survival and we will benefit from doing it. Why then are our leaders trying to make us fear these necessary steps?

Nota Bene: Dave at the Galloping Beaver has taken a blast at Jim Baird. It is what inspired me to take a shot at them as well. Here is the money quote:

I do not care about recessions and economic loss. We have survived them in the past. If you happen to find you cannot adapt our growth based economic system or your political ideology to climate change, FIND A NEW FUCKING SYSTEM [hint: there are many experts in alternative systems that can help you; academia is full of people who study these things]. I do not care if this means I can no longer drive a car. I do not care if this means I must plant crops on my lawn, or give up single malt Scotch (well, that’ll hurt a bit, but given a choice, I’d go with, you know, life), or move across the country, or pay more taxes, or take the train, or whatever. Sacrifices are necessary.

Quote and Comment

2007-05-03T09:15:00.000-05:00

"We won this war four years ago. The question is when we end the occupation,"

Senator Jim Webb

When Harry Reid made his comment that America was losing the Iraq war, the Right wing media jumped on him. He would probably have been destroyed politically if he was not so completely and obviously right. The some in the liberal blogosphere realized that calling the conflict in Iraq a war plays into the right's talking points. However, the word occupation is both more accurate and loaded with lots and lots of negative connotations. What is interesting is how quickly Jim Webb has picked up on the term. Watch it become the Democrats's new talking point on Iraq.

As a further side note. It is interesting how Jim Webb has become one of the democrats leading spokesmen, given that he is a former Reagan official.

Are the Drug Laws Making Pot Stronger?

2007-05-03T09:03:00.000-05:00

A reader at The Daily Dish has made this observation:

It's been a long time since I was a pothead, but in the old days a lot of us assumed that pot was getting stronger as a direct result of the drug laws. The penalties are based on weight, not on the amount of THC in the pot. So if you can get more bang out of a certain mass of weed, you're better off.

When I was smoking we were mildly cognizant of the line between simple posession and intent to deliver. I think that you get charged with the latter for a few reasons - if you had your weed divided into a number of plastic bags, or whatever. But there was also a weight limit. If you had more than such and such an amount, it was intent to deliver.

If alcohol were illegal, and the penalties were based on the fluid volume of the booze, no one would drink beer. It wouldn't make any sense.

America's Great Leap Left

2007-05-03T07:59:00.000-05:00

America has been decades been substantially more conservative then the rest of the developed world. This conservative tilt in American politics is coming to a end and a generation long shift to the left is beginning.

One of the goals of the Bush administration was to make the Republicans into the permanent ruling party in America. This has backfired spectacularly. Today, the Democrats enjoy a 30 point lead over the Republicans among the under 30's. Given that that is the age when most people form their life long political affiliations, the democrats have gained an electoral advantage over Republicans that can last a generation.

This has happened before. The Great Depression happened under a Republican President, Herbert Hoover, and it haunted the Republican's for a generation. George Will recently commented on this:

[It] took 30, 40 years for the Republican Party to get out from under Herbert Hoover. People would say, "Are you going to vote for Nixon in '60?" "No, I don't like Hoover."

Further more the Democrats are stronger then the republicans on the issues that the younger voters care about. In particular, Republicans have been obstructing any attempts to tackle Climate Change, which is the hot button issue for younger voters. Should the Democrats forcefully seize this issue, younger voters will be thanking them for the next 40 years.

Even the older voters may be up for grabs as well. Health care costs are ballooning to the point that the median American household is being hurt financially by regular health care costs, let alone the costs of major emergencies. This effect is being felt across all of middle America and is fuelling a middle class revolt. Should the Democrats seize this issue, they can also expect to own the support of the Baby Boomers for at least a decade.

All of this suggests a sustain shift away from the conservative politics that has dominated America since Ronald Reagan was elected. The rest of the world is looking forward to the return of a sane America. It is about time.

America's Army Losing Able Soldiers Do to Bigotry

2007-05-03T07:08:00.000-05:00

Not only has the American military lost over 10,000 soldiers to its discrimination against gays, it is now losing atheists as well. You would think during a time of war that you would try to keep you soldier on board, especially high value people like Arab linguists (Of which they have lost close to a third to internal discrimination). This is rank stupidity and is hurting the nations ability to fight. This quote below is from an atheist soldier. His full story is here.

This only further confirms that the problem of bigotry towards atheists in the Army is a systemic one. The Army not only looks the other way when officers and supposed leaders disparage soldiers because they lack a belief in the supernatural, the Army systematically ignores formal EO complaints by atheists and refuses to enforce its own regulations. Now, being the efficient machine it is, the Army is training its EO reps to ignore legitimate EO complaints by atheists at the lowest possible level. I am so glad I submitted my resignation as an officer. The Army has disgraced itself by protecting bigots and allowing unlawful discrimination to continue.

Gonzales Can be Impeached

2007-05-03T06:55:00.000-05:00

Quick note from a NY times article.

Article II of the Constitution grants Congress the power to impeach “the president, the vice president and all civil officers of the United States.” The phrase “civil officers” includes the members of the cabinet (one of whom, Secretary of War William Belknap, was impeached in 1876).

Essentially any government officer can be impeached by congress. This could include a mail clerk from Elk Horn, North Dakota, but in practice it serves as a way for congress to assert its oversight over the executive.

The question is, will public pressure build in time to nail these bushite buggers before the next election?

If you think that it is unnecessary to impeach them now given that there is less then two years left in their mandate. Please remember that if they are being impeached then they are going to be occupied and their ability to commit mischief will be largely curtailed.

Secondly, impeachment sends a message to the world, "Bush is not representative of us. We actually think he is evil. Sorry, it took us this long to get him." This is a valuable message to send and will accelerate the rehabilitation of America's international reputation.

Quote and Comment

2007-05-02T12:40:00.000-05:00

Andrew Sullivan had this quote up on his site

It is not a "moral compromise" to shoot an enemy combatant in wartime. It is just, assuming a just war. However, the mass slaughter of civilians that Barnett cites aboves is not "justifiable". It too is not a moral compromise. It is simply and solely evil: a "crime against man and God" according to the Church. Barnett is calling a largely religious and prolife readership to enthusiastically accept grave evil. He is, in short, a false prophet,

I agree with the sentiment expressed in this quote but I have a concern with the opening:

It is not a "moral compromise" to shoot an enemy combatant in wartime. It is just, assuming a just war.

To draw upon John Robb and especially Rupert Smith, we have entered a time where most wars are wars of choice and not wars of survival. A war of survival permits greater violence and greater error in the application of that violence. A war of choice are much less likely to be just and are much more likely to land in shades of moral greyness. It is possible to be fighting more than war in the same space and time, with one being just and the other not. The Afghan War provides us with an example. Consider an insurgent whose goal is to driven NATO from Afghanistan, she is fighting for national liberation and possibly also against the corruption of the Kabul government. Her cause would, arguably be just. The NATO soldier who is hunting the Taliban and Al Qaeda forces behind the 9/11 attacks is also engaged in a just war. Is it just for the NATO soldier to kill the liberator? This assumes that the liberator is not a member of either the Taliban or Al Qaeda.

It is morally grey and hinges upon status of the occupying forces and the legitimacy of the Afghan government.

When are you dead?

2007-05-01T22:53:00.000-05:00

I stumbled upon this article and my jaw hit the floor. The openning paragraph set the stage:

Consider someone who has just died of a heart attack. His organs are intact, he hasn't lost blood. All that's happened is his heart has stopped beating—the definition of "clinical death"—and his brain has shut down to conserve oxygen. But what has actually died?

Interesting question when you think about it. What is death? The religous answer, "When the soul leaves the body." is completely useless in this regard. The obvious scientific answer is that the cells in the body have died. A logical answer and in the case of heart attack victims a wrong answer (at least initally).

What they saw amazed them, according to Dr. Lance Becker, an authority on emergency medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. "After one hour," he says, "we couldn't see evidence the cells had died. We thought we'd done something wrong." In fact, cells cut off from their blood supply died only hours later.

If conventional wisdom is wrong, then what is the actual cause of death?

Because once the cells have been without oxygen for more than five minutes, they die when their oxygen supply is resumed.

At this point I remembered just how bad some science journalists can be so I did a little digging and I found the press release . It started to give actual numbers.

When cells are deprived of oxygen for an hour there is only 4% cell death. After four hours, cell death is only around 16%. Both of these numbers are low. The amazing thing was once we re-introduced oxygen to the cells they died off rapidly to almost 60% cell death.

The obvious approach then is to find a way to restart people's hearts that does not include a massive flood of oxygen to the system. The approach they were taking consists of cooling the patient to provide a slower start to their metabolism. Even though this type of treatment is only in its infancy it already has seen a respectable impact:

Immediate cooling cardiac arrest victims increased their survival by 16%. That’s a very significant improvement which could mean thousands of lives saved each year as we get faster and better at cooling patients.

The doctors behind the study were not expecting this type of result. Their goals were much less ambitious:

“If I can get a cardiac arrest patient in front of me within five minutes, I have a good chance of saving them,” said Becker. “But the chances of that are slim due to the average response time of Emergency Medical Services, which tend to take between 10-20 minutes to get you to a hospital. The thrust of my work is to take that five minutes and stretch it into 15 minutes.”

Equal Marriage: Anything Less is Just Evil

2007-05-01T19:58:00.000-05:00

This was Andrew Sullivan's Blog. Just a little reminder of the heartbreak and soul destroying oppression that the opponents of gay marriage support.

I remember a story told by a friend during the plague years. He was visiting a dying friend in hospital and a couple of beds down the ward from his friend, the curtains were drawn around a patient. From behind the curtains, he could hear a man softly singing a show-tune. "Well, at least that guy's keeping his spirits up," my friend remarked. "Actually," his dying friend replied, "the man in that bed died this morning and was taken away by his family. That's his boyfriend. The family won't let him go to the funeral or ever see his spouse's body again. They've kicked him out of their apartment. It wasn't his name on the lease. So he's just sitting there, singing their favorite song to an empty bed. It's the last time he'll get that close to his husband. The nurses didn't have the heart to tell him to leave yet. He's been there for hours."

This is the type of story that makes me want to put my fist thought the wall.

Dinner Party in the Sky

2007-05-01T14:50:00.000-05:00

I have a restaurant idea for you. Lets serve people food 50 m off the ground with no floor or walls. Good idea, yes.

As you can see from the photo, this already exists.

Impeachment Watch

2007-05-01T14:19:00.000-05:00

Here is a bit of news on the impeachment front. Please note the reference to public pressure. The democrats will not impeach Bush unless they think that they can actually succeed. The limit is the Senate where they will need a lot of support form the Republicans. Naturally, the Republicans will not be in favour of impeaching Bush unless there is overwhelming public support.

Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) revised the much publicized statements he made yesterday and told National Public Radio late on Monday afternoon that impeaching President George W. Bush was "on the table."

"I'm just saying that's one of the options that Congress has on the table, I'm getting more and more calls from the public about impeachment," the long-time Congressman

Climate Change and Government Lies

2007-05-01T13:51:00.000-05:00

This article looks at the level of climate change that governments say that they are willing to accept and compares it to the level of CO2 that they are trying to reach. There is a big gap between the two. Big like an melting ice sheet.

This isn’t easy to follow, but please bear with me, as you cannot understand the world’s most important issue without grappling with some numbers. The average global temperature is affected by the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. This concentration is usually expressed as “carbon dioxide equivalent”. It is not an exact science – you cannot say that a certain concentration of gases will lead to a precise increase in temperature – but scientists discuss the relationship in terms of probability. A paper published last year by the climatologist Malte Meinshausen suggests that if greenhouse gases reach a concentration of 550 parts per million, carbon dioxide equivalent, there is a 63-99% chance (with an average value of 82%) that global warming will exceed two degrees(5). At 475 parts the average likelihood is 64%. Only if concentrations are stabilised at 400 parts or below is there a low chance (an average of 28%) that temperatures will rise by over two degrees.

The IPCC’s draft report contains similar figures. A concentration of 510 parts per million (ppm) gives us a 33% chance of preventing more than two degrees of warming(6). A concentration of 590ppm gives us a 10% chance(7). You begin to understand the scale of the challenge when you discover that the current level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere (using the IPCC’s formula) is 459ppm(8). We have already exceeded the safe level. To give ourselves a high chance of preventing dangerous climate change, we will need a programme so drastic that greenhouse gases in the atmosphere end up below the current concentrations. The sooner this happens, the greater the chance of preventing two degrees of warming.
But no government has set itself this task. The European Union and the Swedish government have established the world’s most stringent target. It is 550ppm, which gives us a near certainty of an extra 2°C. The British government makes use of a clever conjuring trick. Its target is also “550 parts per million”, but 550 parts of carbon dioxide alone. When you include the other greenhouse gases, this translates into 666ppm carbon dioxide equivalent (a fitting figure)(9). According to the Stern Report, at 650ppm there is a 60 – 95% chance of 3°C of warming(10). The government’s target, in other words, commits us to a very dangerous level of climate change.

To quote Mike Dunbar, "Time to get into the business of adaptation"

World Wide Asset Bubble Redux

2007-05-01T12:37:00.000-05:00

I highlighted an article a few days ago about the possibility that we are now in a world wide economic bubble. If it is true then we are in for scary times. Today I found another article that hints at the same problem. This time it is the Governor of Bank of Canada, David Dodge that has expressed concern.

Mr. Dodge indicated he was more concerned about the global liquidity glut and its fuelling of takeover activity by private-equity funds.
Private equity pools and hedge funds "seem to have an inexhaustible supply" of liquidity behind them, driving a trend to "take companies out of the public domain," Mr. Dodge said.

A glut of liquidity will tend to drive the up the price of real assets. Raghuram G. Rajan explained this in a speech in indonesia:

The mismatch between unabated global desired savings and lower realized investment, between the amounts available for finance and the flow of hard assets to absorb it, has led to a liquidity glut which has pushed long term real interest rates the world over lower. This has spilt over into markets for existing real and financial assets — real estate, high-risk credit, private equity, art, commodities, etc — pushing prices higher. Indeed, casual empiricism suggests that the most illiquid markets, where typically there are few transactions, and small infusions of liquidity can have substantial effect, have been pushed the highest.

Shorter version: Assets prices rise when there is too much money around. Sounds like this talk of a a global economic bubble sounds a bit more real.

Here is another example:

Worldwide, an abundance of liquidity has lured investors into riskier assets in search of higher returns. Though there is no agreement on how to measure liquidity, using the global supply of dollars as a proxy, The Economist estimates that in the past four years it has risen by an annual average of 18%, probably the fastest pace ever.

And Alan Greenspan has also warned of it.

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan warned on Wednesday a global glut in liquidity would result in a fall in asset prices. Greenspan, speaking to a financial conference in Seoul via satellite, ... said the market value of assets worldwide had been rising faster than nominal gross domestic product globally due to a decline in real long-term interest rates over the years and a significant fall in real equity premiums.
“A good part of this expansion is a direct function of the decline in real equity premiums,” Greenspan said. “That cannot go on indefinitely.” He said asset prices would begin to fall, but did not predict when that would happen. “I am reasonably certain that what we are looking at today is an abnormal situation,” he said...

Conclusion: We are in an asset price bubble so big and so broad that we could the forest for the trees.

Shorter Conclusion: Oh Shit.

Rise of the Loonie

2007-05-01T12:20:00.000-05:00

I have had a sense that the Canadian dollar was going to become a dark horse contender for global business currency. The Canadian economic (Oil exporter) and political (Boringly stable) situations seems to me that they would encourage the adoption of the loonie (A colloquialism for $CDN). However, I have been a bit hesitate to admit this analysis since I was afraid I was being blinded by a bit of patriotism.

It seems I may be on to something. The Globe and Mail had an article today about the rise of maple bonds (Bonds issued in Canadian dollar). It notes that Canada has a number of factors that favour it:

Canada's supremacy as the capital market of choice for companies as diverse as New Zealand's Telecom Corp. and Iceland's Kaupthing Bank has a lot to do with the federal government's obsession with balanced budgets, some of the lowest interest rates available anywhere, a sinking currency against the euro and a two-year-old law that lets pension funds own as much foreign debt as they want without a tax penalty.

Now the total is still much smaller than debt issued in American dollars, But the growth rate is large.

While the $21.3-billion of so-called Maple bonds represent 10 per cent of the Yankee debt sold by international issuers in the United States last year, the Canadian market is growing twice as fast and may exceed $50-billion in 2007.

This is a trend that will be worth following.

A Great Documentary

2007-05-01T01:15:00.000-05:00

This is Jonathan Miller's A Rough History of Disbelief. It is a history of atheism in the western world. Unlike Richard Dawkins's The Root of all Evil? this is a history not an evangelical work.

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.

America's Two Economies

2007-04-30T13:57:00.000-05:00

I have been looking (sort of) a good piece on America's schizophrenic economy. I have been hearing about a) how good the country is do (High GDP growth, high stock market) b) how poor the middle class is doing, working long harder hours just to stay in place. Here is the piece that is paints the picture of life on the ground in America right now. This more than anything is why the Bushites are failing.

My sense is if you make a half a million a year or more, you're feeling pretty good about how things are going. You're benefitting from higher worker productivity and lower costs for the companies you hold stock in, and your portfolio's soaring. So you're able to shop at Neiman-Marcus and Tiffany's. We depend on you to keep those consumer spending numbers high. You haven't noticed that eggs are more precious than hens teeth, and that onions now top a dollar a pound. You don't lay awake at night wondering how you're going to afford to send your kids to college. Even if Junior is a delinquent and flunking out of his third private high school, you know you'll find a college somewhere that'll take him, because you can afford the full load of tuition and room and board.

On the other hand, the rest of you aren't so happy. You're the worker being squeezed to support that growth in corporate productivity, so you're being worked harder and longer for the same pay (if you're lucky). And, what with groceries and gas going through the roof, and the value of your house declining, you're probably losing ground in your long term financial planning. You've been priced out of the market of sending your kids to a private college unless you hand over the keys to your house and the account number of your 401(k). So you stay on top of your kids to make sure they can compete academically and get admitted to a good public university. You shop at Marshalls or TJ Maxx, and yes, those hackers have your credit card number. Let's not even talk about how much you're spending on health care. We used to call you middle class.

Notice all the references to inflationary effects: "groceries and gas going through the roof" and "You haven't noticed that eggs are more precious than hens teeth, and that onions now top a dollar a pound." This is what we call bad news. I had stumbled across an article that was suggesting that America's official inflation numbers were created using Enron style accounting. I suspect that real consumer inflation is a bit higher that the official numbers.

This is the type of thing that makes people angry and desperate. I remember 1993 election here in Canada were Jean Chretien didn't not have much of a plan for running Canada but he did offer hope. People grabbed that hope with both hands and swept the Liberals to power. It was a middle class revolt. That is what is brewing in America: a middle class revolt.

Another Reason to Like Turkey

2007-04-30T10:28:00.000-05:00

I wish this would happen south of the 49th.

Police said more than 1 million people rallied in Istanbul on Sunday in defence of Turkey's secular system and against the military's threat of intervention amid a political crisis over presidential elections.
"Turkey is secular and will stay that way," chanted the protestors, who carried Turkish flags and portraits of the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
"We want neither Sharia, nor a coup, but a fully democratic Turkey," they said.
The crowd also called for the resignation of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Islamist-rooted government which many accuse of raising tensions over presidential elections.

A Prince and a Jaguar

2007-04-30T00:27:00.000-05:00

This is interesting, first it shows that "gift-giving" or bribery of officials continues after they leave office. Secondly, it shows a degree of elegance in Saudi diplomacy. Both the Harper government and Bush administration have been a bit ham-fisted in their diplomacy. I imagine, when the history of Saudi diplomancy is written it will show how effective it has been.

A few nights after he resigned his post as secretary of state two years ago, Colin L. Powell answered a ring at his front door. Standing outside was Prince Bandar, then Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States, with a 1995 Jaguar. Mr. Powell’s wife, Alma, had once mentioned that she missed their 1995 Jaguar, which she and her husband had traded in. Prince Bandar had filed that information away, and presented the Powells that night with an identical, 10-year-old model. The Powells kept the car — a gift that the State Department said was legal — but recently traded it away.

Freedom doesn't mean what you think it does.

2007-04-29T21:05:00.000-05:00

I was reading orcinus when I came across this quote. I thought I would share it with you:

Christian Americans talk a lot about preserving their freedoms. Now, over the centuries in America, more than a few of them have declared that the mere existence of other beliefs infringes on their freedom -- that is, their freedom to inflict violence and terror on the "unbelievers." Somewhat sensibly, however, the law has generally recognized that our freedoms do not include the right to take away others' freedoms at will.

Putin From Inside

2007-04-29T16:44:00.000-05:00

This article has an interesting take on Putin that suggests he is much more popular in Russia then is suggested in the media here in the West. There is a sense in the North America that he is a unpopular dictator. Both characteristics may not true. He is still within the democratic constitution (more the most part) and he is apparently deeply popular (something about making people's lives better). Here is the money quote:

While Russian law bars Putin from seeking a third term, he is so popular at home that many Russians would relax the rules to allow him to seek a third term. He has said that he intends to step down, though Russia watchers speculate that he will land in a position that keeps him close to the center of power...

"I think the Russian people would support Putin staying in power indefinitely," says Dmitri Trenin, deputy director of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace's Moscow Center. "If you look at the way people live today compared with when he came to power, they will say that living standards are twice as high. More importantly, there's a sense of stability that has replaced the chaos of the 1990s. They will also say that Putin has restored some pride and respect for Russia abroad."

Why is the West Uniting a Muslim Nation?

2007-04-29T13:05:00.000-05:00

How many times have you read or heard that Muslims are this or the Islamic world is like ? Countless times in radio, television and on the net. Besides being generalizations that are usually based in no experience (i.e. total fantasies -- What does a loud mouthed radio host know about the Islamic world? Do I hear any of you saying, "Fuck all?") Most of the commentary in the West is driven by ignorance and arrogance. This combination may be actually creating the enemy that commentators are fearing: a united anti-western Islamic nation.

The smarter of the these pundits will point to the concept of the clash of civilizations put forward by Samuel Huntington. The short description version of Huntington's thesis is as follows:

It is my hypothesis that the fundamental source of conflict in this new world will not be primarily ideological or primarily economic. The great divisions among humankind and the dominating source of conflict will be cultural. Nation states will remain the most powerful actors in world affairs, but the principal conflicts of global politics will occur between nations and groups of different civilizations. The clash of civilizations will dominate global politics. The fault lines between civilizations will be the battle lines of the future.

One of the main problem of this approach is that it is a self-fulfilling prophecy. The Muslim dominated world is very heterogeneous. There are deep divisions in this cultural group (Not the least being the divide between Sunni and Shia that most Bush Administration officials still don't understand). In fact one of the only things that unities all members of this religious-ethnic group is attacks upon the group by xenophobic Westerners.

Consider for a moment what may be the most emblematic example of tendency: the French Muslim youth. If you are born in a country to citizens of that country then you should be a full participate in the society of that country. This is most definitely not true of french youth of Muslim decent. They are deeply alienated from french society by a number of cultural and political attacks upon their community. Try to imagine living in a society to into which you were born rejecting you as an outsider, a foreigner. Imagine how that would rot your soul. Are you now surprised when french youth of Muslim decent gather around an identity of being Muslim. If you are thrown into a group against your will, that group will become a voice for the common grievance of rejection.

This is true for all Muslims. By attacking them for being Muslims, we are creating an identity of being oppressed for being Muslim. This identity and the grievance that goes with it becomes a rallying point for the large number of disaffected youth in the Islamic world. The question really becomes what sort of leader is going to use this identity as a base for their rise to power? There is one person already that is trying to do this: Osama bin Laden. In fact his attacks on the West have been in part to cause the West to attack Muslims and build the identity of victims of of an overbearing imperial West.

One of the great things about living in the West is the diversity. It doesn't matter whether it is diversity of thought, diversity of lifestyle, or diversity of religion. Why not then make diversity be one of our tools in this conflict we are facing. Lets stop building Bin Laden's Caliphate and instead start supporting those people who wish to have the autonomy to live their lives as they see fit. Osama's vision is only compelling to those who either wish to see or are forced to see the Muslim world as monolith. Let us not enter this struggle on his terms. Let us reveal the diversity of the Muslim world and show the world how false Bin Laden's vision is.

Two recent examples: here and here.

This Picture Cost a Student Her Degree

2007-04-29T09:56:00.000-05:00

Millerville University has decided that this photo, posted on MySpace promotes underage drinking and therefore Stacy Snyder should not get her degree in education.

What The Fuck?!

And this is their business, how?

It is her life to live not theirs. No to mention that drinking alcohol is completely fucking legal. They are trying to block her career, her vocation, her deepest profession desire, because she has done something she is allowed to do?

What fucking busybodies!

This incident does serve to illustrate one of Sara Robinson's points in her brilliant essay series on authoritarian personalities. That the authoritarians are nosy, always looking into other peoples lives. Their communities are kept in line because of their willingness to gather information about each other and to judge each other.

Stacy Snyder's story makes me think that she has encountered an authoritarian christian of some sort.

Go West, There is Oil In There Plains

2007-04-29T00:43:00.000-05:00

I love this headline:

Go west in the great Canada oil rush of '07

It is from a Guardian article about a ad campaign to recruit workers for Alberta.

[Canada]* has launched a campaign to attract 100,000 new citizens in an appeal reminiscent of the great colonial migrations of the middle of the 20th century.

Canada is the only developed country with a mass immigration policy. Imagine politicians in the States or Europe pushing a policy like this. And then try to imagine that the local media not caring about this story. That is Canada for you, the most pro-immigrant country in the world.

Workers and their families from scientists and machinists to doctors and carers are being urged to move to the province of Alberta to help cope with the demand for jobs fuelled by the oil boom. Canada already takes in about 250,000 immigrants a year - about 1 per cent of the population - but the opening of massive oil sands in the western province means that even that boost cannot meet surging demand for specialist and support jobs.

* spelling mistake in the Guardian

Walmart Builds Its Own Spy Agency

2007-04-28T23:31:00.000-05:00

This article tells about how Walmart is building its own intelligence service. I am not sure I can count how many ways this idea disturbs me. Walmart doesn't exactly have a clean record when it comes to its treatment of its customers, suppliers and workers. I can just imagine what they might want with spooks (activists and union recruiters beware).

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has been recruiting former military and government intelligence officers for a branch of its global security office aimed at identifying threats to the world's largest retailer, including from "suspect individuals and groups".

Wal-Mart's interest in intelligence operatives comes at a time when the retailer is defending itself against allegations by a fired security employee that it ran surveillance operations against targets including critics, dissident shareholders, employees and suppliers. Wal-Mart has denied any wrongdoing.

Wal-Mart posted ads in March on its own web site and sites for security professionals, including the bulletin of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers, for "global threat analysts" with a background in government or military intelligence work.

Now hiring former cops as security officials is not that unusual. But this goes a fair bit beyond normal store security.

But Steven Aftergood, who runs the government secrecy project for the Washington-based Federation of American Scientists, said Wal-Mart's efforts appear to go beyond what most companies are doing, raising questions about corporate intelligence work outside of the oversight process in place for government spying.

"It's a troubling new departure in corporate security. We're not just talking about security, we're talking about intelligence operations," Aftergood said.

Given how much information Walmart has about most of us. We should maybe be worried.

Harrison told a meeting of security professionals last year that Wal-Mart was learning to defend itself by using the vast information it routinely collects about its employees, shoppers and suppliers.

Wal-Mart's union-backed critics said culling customer data for intelligence was disturbing.
"The idea that Wal-Mart is creating its own personal CIA should make every American -- Wal-Mart customer or not -- nervous about whether Wal-Mart is invading their privacy or could do so in the future," said Chris Kofinis, spokesman for WakeUpWalMart.com.

Edit: Walmart isn't the only company making a spy agency. Blackwater is as well.

Climate Change Hit Austrailia

2007-04-28T17:20:00.000-05:00

This article tells about the everyday experiences caused by Austrailia's megadrought, which is probably a product of climate change.

World wide Asset Bubble

2007-04-28T16:24:00.000-05:00

Jeremy Grantham, one of the world's most respected investment advisers, has come to a scary conclusion. That we are facing a worldwide asset price bubble. Basically, the same thing that happened in the nineties with the tech bubble but across almost all asset classes. The counter argument would be that the rise of China and India are driving the price increases. But these to views are generally not exclusive. Asset bubbles tend to get started by real improvements in the economy they then spin out of control due to irrational exuberance.

While euphoria sweeps stock markets here and worldwide, there are at least a few voices of dissent.
One, unsurprisingly, is legendary value investor Jeremy Grantham -- the man Dick Cheney, plus a lot of other rich people, trusts with his money. Grantham, chairman of Boston firm Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo, has been a voice of caution for years. But he has upped his concerns in his latest letter to shareholders. Grantham says we are now seeing the first worldwide bubble in history covering all asset classes.
Everything is in bubble territory, he says.
Everything.
"From Indian antiquities to modern Chinese art," he wrote in a letter to clients this week following a six-week world tour, "from land in Panama to Mayfair; from forestry, infrastructure and the junkiest bonds to mundane blue chips; it's bubble time!"
"Everyone, everywhere is reinforcing one another," he wrote. "Wherever you travel you will hear it confirmed that 'they don't make any more land,' and that 'with these growth rates and low interest rates, equity markets must keep rising,' and 'private equity will continue to drive the markets.' "....

And what could bring this mother of all bubbles down?

Grantham sees two big potential catalysts that might turn this bull market into a bear: a surge in inflation, leading to higher interest rates, and a squeeze on profit margins, which are currently running way above long-term averages.
As for timing, he concedes that's impossible to predict. But here's the kicker: Even Grantham thinks you probably need to be bullish right now. The reason? Most bubbles, he notes, go through a short but dramatic "exponential phase" just before they burst. Like Japan in 1989 or the Internet in early 2000.
"My colleagues," wrote Grantham, "suggest that this global bubble has not yet had this phase and perhaps they are right. ... In which case, pessimists or conservatives will take considerably more pain."

Jon Stewart Interviewed by Bill Moyer

2007-04-27T15:56:00.000-05:00

Watch the clip here. It is worth your time.

Car Bombs Are Not Violence

2007-04-26T19:16:00.000-05:00

... according to the Bush adminstration. Let me repeat that... Car. Bombs. Are. Not. Violence.

Here is the story:

U.S. officials who say there has been a dramatic drop in sectarian violence in Iraq since President Bush began sending more American troops into Baghdad aren't counting one of the main killers of Iraqi civilians.

Car bombs and other explosive devices have killed thousands of Iraqis in the past three years, but the administration doesn't include them in the casualty counts it has been citing as evidence that the surge of additional U.S. forces is beginning to defuse tensions between Shiite and Sunni Muslims.

You Can't Handle the Truth

2007-04-26T17:39:00.000-05:00

The Truth

In which we attempt to particupate in a google bombing

Hope and Horror

2007-04-26T09:04:00.000-05:00

This is interesting and scary. Though the method that they us may be able to be adapted to find these people and see what we can do to help them.

For five months after her car crash, an English patient displayed "no reproducible evidence of purposeful behavior" and was declared vegetative. Then she was asked, during an fMRI scan, to imagine playing tennis and walking through her home. The scan lit up with patterns that in healthy brains signify language, movement, and navigation. A follow-up report cited anecdotal cases in which Ambien woke brain-damaged people from prolonged unresponsiveness. The happy implication is that some people we thought were finished may be salvageable. The horrifying corollary is that until we find these people, they're buried alive in their skulls.

Pirates Hits of 2006

2007-04-26T08:59:00.000-05:00

Follow this link to see a map of where there was pirate attacks in 2006. Yes, I said pirate.. as in shiver-me-timbers pirates. It is a real and growing problem.

See it here.

Habitable Planet Found?!

2007-04-24T09:14:00.000-05:00

A planet has been found that might be habitable. Details below.

The planet has a radius only 50 percent larger than Earth and is very likely to contain liquid water on its surface...

...this planet takes only 13 days to complete one orbit round its star. It is also 14 times closer to its star than the Earth is from the Sun.

However, since its host star, the red dwarf Gliese 581, is smaller and colder than the Sun - and thus less luminous - the planet lies in the habitable zone, the region around a star where water could be liquid!

And it is close to us. Actually very close (as in 30 closest star close).

Gliese 581, is among the 100 closest stars to us, located only 20.5 light-years away in the constellation Libra ("the Scales").

This is slower than light close. It could be possible to get there.

I expect that a lot of astronomers will be taking a closer look at it. The question is how long until someone gets a look at the atmosphere. A thermodynamic disequilibrium would mean life.

Quote

2007-04-22T14:49:00.001-05:00

Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.

- Terry Pratchett

Quote

2007-04-22T14:45:00.001-05:00

You know the world is going crazy when the best rapper is a white guy, the best golfer is a black guy, the tallest guy in the NBA is Chinese, the Swiss hold the America's Cup, France is accusing the U.S. of arrogance, Germany doesn't want to go to war, and the three most powerful men in America are named 'Bush', 'Dick', and 'Colon'.

- Chris Rock

Quote

2007-04-22T14:36:00.001-05:00

Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes, that way when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes.

- Jack Handey

Oh Shit...

2007-04-22T00:30:00.000-05:00

If America's problems in Iraq were not bad enough this comes out:

Turkey's top general called yesterday for military intervention in northern Iraq in comments that will increase regional tensions - already high after a series of verbal exchanges between Turkish and Kurdish leaders.
General Yasar Buyukanit, Turkey's chief of staff, said he believed that Turkish troops had to move across the border to combat rebels from the Kurdish Workers party (PKK).

Ankara accuses the Kurdish regional government of northern Iraq of harbouring the rebels - an allegation the regional government denies.

"From the military point of view, a [military] operation in northern Iraq must be made," said Gen Buyukanit. He added, however, that he had not yet submitted a request to parliament and that "no political decision has been made yet".

This is Turkey's way of saying, "If you don't sort this mess out we will intervene to serve our interests. Our interests and yours do not coincide."

If America leaves Iraq, Saudi Arabia might enter the fight to support the Sunni, Iran to support the Shia and Turkey to crush the Kurds.

This might just be a major regional war.

And Russia will be laughing all the way to the bank.

If I Was Iranian...

2007-04-22T00:15:00.000-05:00

I would be demanding that my government develop nuclear weapons. The Cunning Realist agrees:

Scenario: China, the world's preeminent superpower, invades and occupies Canada on a false pretense and lets it descend into civil war. The U.S., a developing nation without nuclear weapons, watches from next door. Then a senior Chinese official who could soon be the country's next president starts singing songs about "bombing the U.S." at political rallies. He gets laughs and applause.

As an American, would you or would you not demand that Washington develop the ultimate deterrent against that madness?

This just looks cool

2007-04-20T16:25:00.000-05:00

Yes, I am sleepy now.

It's called the transport and it may be the ultimate place for a nap... or other activity.

Well Played Activism

2007-04-20T15:08:00.000-05:00

How Divorce Improves Marriage

2007-04-20T15:05:00.000-05:00

This is a neat article about the effect of divorce on marrige. The key paragraph explaining the mechanics of the process is below.

[The] availability of divorce has increased with unilateral divorce, which allows either member of the couple to dissolve the union. The change has been associated with lower rates of female suicide and domestic violence, and fewer wives murdered by their husbands. Unilateral divorce shifts the bargaining power to the person who is getting less out of the marriage and thus is most likely to leave. The partner getting more from the marriage has to work harder to keep the other person around, which can be good for the marriage and good for the couple. In other words, unilateral divorce benefits victims and potential victims.

Dinesh D'Souza: VT Ghoul

2007-04-20T14:52:00.000-05:00

Dinesh D'Souza is hardcore social conservative that has, in the recent past said a few things that were particularly hateful towards the socially more liberal. A recent example is his attempt to link atheisism to the Virginia Tech massacre. One of Andrew Sullivan's guest bloggers takes him down beautifully here.

Where did Dinesh D'Souza acquire this remarkable talent for opening his mouth wide enough to fit his entire foot in clear down to the small intestine? I'm appalled enough to see the gun controllers, immigration nuts, and so forth crawling out of the woodwork to hawk their pet causes atop the still-warm corpses of the Virginia Tech victims. But at least there was some vaguely arguable relevance. Using it as an excuse to bash atheists . . . well cut off my legs and call me shorty, the discourse just hit a previously unsuspected new low.

I Hereby Predict: Presidential Election 2008

2007-04-20T09:15:00.000-05:00

I have decided it is time for me to write down my prediction for the 2008 presidential election in the US. I believe that America will have its first female president. Not Hilary Clinton, but rather Nancy Pelosi. At which point I should hear you crying, "But she is not even running for president." No, by tht time she will already be president. George Bush is going to get impeached. The Democrats will be forced to impeach him because of the results of their investigations. The challenge will be getting enough republicans in the senate to support the impeachment. This will not be as difficult as it sounds since there are 21 republican senates up for re-election in 2008. They will be forced to impeach if they wish to keep their seats. Ergo, Bush and Cheney will be gone and Nancy Pelosi will be president.

Lives Lost at Virginia Tech

2007-04-19T14:32:00.000-05:00

I have stumbled across a online memorial to those whose lives were taken from them by sick twisted deranged man. Honestly, seeing the faces, the smiles, the life, it changes how you see the events. 33 stops being a number and becomes lives.

I wish we could do the same for the war in Iraq. Show the faces, tell of the lives, and understand the loss. Make the horror not about numbers because then we can forget, then we can step away. We should not, must not, forget that these are people's lives, hopes and dreams shattered in a cold staccato of violence.

We, humans, are better than this. We can be better. We must be better.

Jacob

Americans Are Not Gun Crazy

2007-04-19T08:51:00.000-05:00

Contrary to popular believe here in Canada, Americans are not gun crazy. America's crazy gun laws are a product of the strength of the gun lobby because if the average American had their say... well, adios firearms would be the result:

Americans feel less safe rather than more safe as more people in their community begin to carry guns. By margins of at least nine to one, Americans do not believe that 'regular' citizens should be allowed to bring their guns into restaurants, college campuses, sports stadiums, bars, hospitals, or government buildings.

Be Polite, It Scares the Bank Robbers

2007-04-19T01:36:00.000-05:00

At some point I should make a list of the little rules I have come up with. One of which says the world is two thirds common sense and one third counter intuitive. This story fits the counterintuitive. Well, at least until you think about it. Honestly, who hasn't been put off by an overly friendly salesperson.

Excessive friendliness is the key to the "Safecatch" system created by FBI Special Agent Larry Carr. The premise is that an overdose of courtesy will unnerve would-be robbers and get them to rethink the crime.

"If you're a legitimate customer, you think, ‘This is the friendliest person I've met in my life.' If you're a bad guy, it scares the lights out of you," said Drew Ness, a vice president of Bellevue-based First Mutual Bank, who advocates the approach.

Carr, who has taught the method to employees at 16 Washington banks over the past few years, credits the system in part for the drop in Seattle bank robberies from 80 in the first three months of 2006 to 44 during the same period this year. On Tuesday, he ran a training session for employees at a First Mutual branch in Seattle.

A Polite Letter From the Smithsonian

2007-04-19T00:19:00.000-05:00

Trying not to laugh... might wake neighbors.

Dear Sir:

Thank you for your latest submission to the Institute, labeled "211-D, layer seven, next to the clothesline post. Hominid skull." We have given this specimen a careful and detailed examination, and regret to inform you that we disagree with your theory that it represents "conclusive proof of the presence of Early Man in Charleston County two million years ago." Rather, it appears that what you have found is the head of a Barbie doll, of the variety one of our staff, who has small children, believes to be the "Malibu Barbie".
It is evident that you have given a great deal of thought to the analysis of this specimen, and you may be quite certain that those of us who are familiar with your prior work in the field were loathe to come to contradiction with your findings. However, we do feel that there are a number of physical attributes of the specimen which might have tipped you off to its modern origin:

1. The material is molded plastic. Ancient hominid remains are typically fossilized bone.

2. The cranial capacity of the specimen is approximately 9 cubic centimeters, well below the threshold of even the earliest identified proto-hominids.

3. The dentition pattern evident on the "skull" is more consistent with the common domesticated dog than it is with the "ravenous man-eating Pliocene clams" you speculate roamed the wetlands during that time. This latter finding is certainly one of the most intriguing hypotheses you have submitted in your history with this institution, but the evidence seems to weigh rather heavily against it. Without going into too much detail, let us say that:

A. The specimen looks like the head of a Barbie doll that a dog has chewed on.

B. Clams don't have teeth.

Link

If You Thought Gibraltar Was Big...

2007-04-19T00:07:00.000-05:00

How about a tunnel under the Bering Strait?

Russia plans to build the world's longest tunnel, a transport and pipeline link under the Bering Strait to Alaska, as part of a $65 billion project to supply the U.S. with oil, natural gas and electricity from Siberia.

The project, which Russia is coordinating with the U.S. and Canada, would take 10 to 15 years to complete, Viktor Razbegin, deputy head of industrial research at the Russian Economy Ministry, told reporters in Moscow today. State organizations and private companies in partnership would build and control the route, known as TKM-World Link, he said.

A 6,000-kilometer (3,700-mile) transport corridor from Siberia into the U.S. will feed into the tunnel, which at 64 miles will be more than twice as long as the underwater section of the Channel Tunnel between the U.K. and France, according to the plan. The tunnel would run in three sections to link the two islands in the Bering Strait between Russia and the U.S.

A Harrowing Story

2007-04-18T22:56:00.000-05:00

Dave over at the Galloping Beaver has written an essay about his family's experiences as soldiers. It is fairly long and deserves to read in it entirety.

We have sent yet another generation of young men and women off to become permanently scarred with first-hand knowledge of war. In time they will return and those who have had to experience the worst war has to offer will pay heavily. They will experience the dismissal of their difficulty to deal with the turmoil in their minds and the humiliation of having to try to beat back depression, anxiety and a simmering anger.
They will look into the abyss and, as a so-called enlightened society looks on knowing nothing of what agony exists in their minds, wonder what lies at the bottom.

Fear

2007-04-18T22:50:00.000-05:00

I stumbled on this description of terror in the face of guns.

Once, whilst travelling in Asia I managed to end up on the wrong end of half a dozen AK-47s held by soldiers whom I had every reason to believe had authority to shoot me dead. The only thing that stopped my adrenalinised sprint to safety was a carelessly placed barbed wire fence that leaped up and hugged me (it was dark enough not to see it until I was literally wrapped in it). There were no heroic thoughts, just a sudden blanching flash of deep dread that I was about to die, immediately followed by a limbic desire to get far away from the men with rifles as fast as humanly possible.

Is George Bush a Traitor?

2007-04-18T22:24:00.000-05:00

Is George Bush a traitor? To answer that you have to know what treason is. In America, finding the answer is easy. You simply look it up in the constitution where the Founding Fathers wrote up the definition for all to see:

SECTION 3. Clause 1. Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open court.

<link>

From this we can see there are two ways to commit treason: By levying war or by adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. The question is has George Bush done either? The answer is possibly both. Aid and comfort has seen more precedent than levying war. In fact there is a test for whether or not it can be proven that a person has committed treason. This test date back to World War two and the cases: Cramer v. United States, Haupt v. United States and Kawakita v. United States . It lists:

Intention to betray the United States,
An overt act,
Testified to by two witnesses,
Which gave aid and comfort to the enemy.

<link>

The right-wing pundits have suggested that any number of people have committed treason in the last few years. Though truthfully their arguments would not pass the above test. In particular, the first component of the test protects legitimate dissent. Specifically acts “which do aid and comfort the enemy . . . but if there is no adherence to the enemy in this, if there is no intent to betray, there is no treason .“ This means that it is necessary to prove an actual intent to betray America and that betrayal by accident or incompetence does not meet the test. Jane Fonda's visit to North Vietnam is an example of an incident that meets three of the tests (overt act, witness, and aid) but not the fourth since her intent was display opposition to the war and not to betray America.

This means that despite the fact the Bush's leadership has greatly aided Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden. That he has not committed treason unless he has deliberately decided to assist Al Qaeda. I do not believe that George Bush is secretly an Al Qaeda member. Frankly I consider the thought to be ridiculous. If there is no adherence, there is no treason. End of story.

Or not.

Al Qaeda is not America's only enemy. Enemies need not be shadowy foreign terrorists. Enemies can also be domestic. Timothy McVeigh, the Weathermen and the Confederate states all were domestic enemies. May it is possible for a president to be an enemy of America?

The president is the head of state in America. Some people would argue that the head of state is the embodiment of the state and therefore cannot be an enemy of the state for they are the state. In America, this is not true since the head of state is not vested with ultimate authority. The fact that the congress can impeach a president demonstrates that a president is not the final and highest authority in the country. If there is a higher authority then it is possible to be an enemy of it. Therefore a president can be an enemy of America.

If a president is an enemy of America? How does that happen? Who or what is the authority that is that is attacked? The highest authority in America is the Constitution. It is to uphold the Constitution that the president swears during their inauguration, and it is the Constitution that they can betray.

Has George Bush intended to betray the constitution of the United States? Can we prove it? The Supreme Court has commented on the issue of intent. It has stated:

Intent need not be proved by two witnesses but may be inferred from all the circumstances surrounding the overt act.

<Link>

We have on record a number of comments that show Bush and his administration's contempt for the constitution.

GOP leaders told Bush that his hardcore push to renew the more onerous provisions of the act could further alienate conservatives still mad at the President from his botched attempt to nominate White House Counsel Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court.

"I don't give a goddamn," Bush retorted. "I'm the President and the Commander-in-Chief. Do it my way."

"Mr. President," one aide in the meeting said. "There is a valid case that the provisions in this law undermine the Constitution."

"Stop throwing the Constitution in my face," Bush screamed back. "It's just a goddamned piece of paper!"

<Link>

Not proof, but it is circumstance.

He wages war without required Congressional declarations. He orders spying that is in direct conflict with the 4th Amendment. He permits tortures and extraordinary renditions that violate the 8th Amendment

<Link>

Not proof, but it is circumstance and maybe a pattern

Bush's anti-Constitutionalism was on full display today, as he echoed claims by his aides that it is somehow inappropriate for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California, to travel to Syria...

...The Constitution makes clear that the Congress has broad authority to actively participate in foreign and military affairs. After all, the founders created the legislative branch as the first defined branch of government and afforded to it the power "to regulate commerce with foreign nations," "to define and punish... offenses against the law of nations," "to declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water," and "to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof."

<Link>

Wow, this is getting to be quite a list, isn't it.

For the current President, "enforcement of the laws to restore public order" means to commandeer guardsmen from any state, over the objections of local governmental, military and local police entities; ship them off to another state; conscript them in a law enforcement mode; and set them loose against "disorderly" citizenry - protesters, possibly, or those who object to forced vaccinations and quarantines in the event of a bio-terror event.

The law also facilitates militarized police round-ups and detention of protesters, so called "illegal aliens," "potential terrorists" and other "undesirables" for detention in facilities already contracted for and under construction by Halliburton. That's right. Under the cover of a trumped-up "immigration emergency" and the frenzied militarization of the southern border, detention camps are being constructed right under our noses, camps designed for anyone who resists the foreign and domestic agenda of the Bush administration.

<Link>

What we have here is a clear pattern of contempt for the constitution. All of these acts are attempts to increase the power of the office of president without going through the steps needed to change the constitution.

There have been previous attempts by presidents to extend the power of the executive. Examples include:

The Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798, Lincoln's suspension of habeas corpus, the suppression of free speech during and after World War I, the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, McCarthyism, and the wiretapping of Vietnam-era dissenters

<Link>

A number of these have been brought to court and in a number of cases they have been upheld. None of these have been considered treasonous. Therefore overreaching the constitutional powers of the executive alone is not an act of treason. The key word here is act. None of the above constitutional abuses meet the test for overt act mentioned above. They can provide circumstance to prove intent but they are not the act needed to trigger treason.

Enter the prosecutor scandal.

In this scandal, it appears that a number of US prosecutors have been fired because they were now willing to selectively target democrats and ignore republican maleficence. The purpose of these firings was to win elections and create permanent republican control of government.

If it is proven true then Bush and his cronies will have deliberately attempted to subvert democracy and will have possibly committed election fraud. As well, if proven, it may meet the test for treason.

We have evidence that Bush and his conspirators wish to subvert the American Constitution (intent, check!). We have an overt act, subversion of the US prosecutors (overt act, possibly check!) to aid a conspiracy (enemy, check!) to control the American government (aid and comfort, check!).

And with two witnesses... we may have treason.

Update: I am not the only person with this idea. An American general is saying the same thing here.

Is this what I think I see

2007-04-18T21:34:00.000-05:00

This is scary. This guy is calling for the millitary to seize power in the US. He is calling for a coup.

It is now time for the U.S. military to act against a dangerous regime that is in material breach of one of the most important legal instruments in the world--the U.S. Constitution. And it is not Sadaam Hussein, Kim Jong Il, or Fidel Castro who threaten the Constitution.
George Bush, Dick Cheney, and every Cabinet member swore an oath to protect and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. But what happens when the domestic threat is from the very people who swore to defend the Constitution?...
...Hollywood has long pondered, through movies like Seven Days in May, what might happen to America if an extra-constitutional situation were to arise. While most of these cinematic presentations focused on power-hungry generals seizing control from democratically-elected presidents, no one in Hollywood ever really considered the possibility of generals imbued with democratic values ousting a President who was bent on seizing unconstitutional powers. However, this is exactly the nightmarish scenario that is beginning to arise in Washington.

Okay, it was written before the last election when the Democrats won control of congress. It is still a scary document.

I Just Have to Read This Book

2007-04-17T23:49:00.000-05:00

I saw a review for a book called Men in Black: How the Supreme Court is Destroying America. It seems that this book might not be the best work in history. From the review:

I use the word "book" with some hesitation: Certainly it possesses chapters and words and other book-like accoutrements. But Men in Black is 208 large-print pages of mostly block quotes (from court decisions or other legal thinkers) padded with a foreword by the eminent legal scholar Rush Limbaugh, and a blurry 10-page "Appendix" of internal memos to and from congressional Democrats—stolen during Memogate. The reason it may take you only slightly longer to read Men in Black than it took Levin to write it is that you'll experience an overwhelming urge to shower between chapters.

Why You Should Wear Seatbelts

2007-04-17T13:59:00.000-05:00

This is an excellently written piece on why you should wear a seatbelt by a eloquent paramedic. The full piece is worth your time.

In a collision, you have three or four sub-collisions all taking place in sequence. First, the vehicle hits some object. The vehicle abruptly slows, but unrestrained objects inside it continue at the same speed, in the same direction. Then the unrestrained body hits the interior of the vehicle, and starts to slow. That’s the second collision. That body’s internal organs are still moving at speed until they hit the inside of the chest (or get cheese-sliced by their supporting ligaments—and that’s where you get things like bisected livers or aortas). The fourth collision is when the bowling ball you left on the rear deck hits you in the back of the head, because that continued at the same speed in the same direction. Newtonian physics: Learn it, live it, love it.

Red Square Nebula

2007-04-17T13:41:00.000-05:00

No, its not communist.

It is detailed in the latest issue of Science. Money quote:

“If you fold things across the principle diagonal axis, you get an almost perfect reflection symmetry,” said study leader Peter Tuthill from the University of Sydney in Australia. “This makes the Red Square nebula the most symmetrical object of comparable complexity ever imaged.” The Red Square’s extreme symmetry suggests the star’s surroundings are extremely still and not buffeted by external stellar winds or other turbulence...

The new findings suggest the system’s perfect form results from an even outflow of gas. “The reason the Red Square remains so symmetrical is that there is no material that has interfered with the outflow, so it has preserved the symmetry it was born with,” (said researcher James Lloyd of Cornell University).

A Family Business Dies, After 14 Centuries

2007-04-17T12:03:00.000-05:00

The business Kongo Gumi ended last year. It has had an impressive run: 14 Centuries.

The world's oldest continuously operating family business ended its impressive run last year. Japanese temple builder Kongo Gumi, in operation under the founders' descendants since 578, succumbed to excess debt and an unfavorable business climate in 2006.

A Civility Article

2007-04-14T10:42:00.000-05:00

Read it here.

Civility: The New Virtue

2007-04-14T10:36:00.000-05:00

The O'Reilly article and Imus incident both point to a desire for civility in America public discourse. Two points are hard to make into a trend. Lets hope.

The culture has changed since Imus started in radio. White straight men don't control everything any more, and they don't get to set the rules for public discourse with the same finality they once did. What we've seen here is, I think, a genuine reflection of the new American mainstream. Most Americans simply find the spectacle of a rich white bigot beating up on young black female achievers after a crushing tournament loss to be gratuitously cruel and unfair. Punishing someone for calling college women "whores" - especially those who have beaten the odds and are role models for other back girls and women - is not a new step in political correctness. It's applying a very old American standard of fairness and decency, which now applies to all Americans, regardless of race or gender. This was the voice of mainstream America speaking. It's not what it once was. I wonder whether many of Imus's buddies realize that yet.

Quote

2007-04-14T09:31:00.000-05:00

The admission of need for something called a Bloggers Code of Conduct is about more than just the Web. The deeper import of what may be happening here should be evident in Mr. O'Reilly's remark, which was the final sentence in a long New York Times article on the subject last Sunday: 'Free speech is enhanced by civility.' It is difficult for me to imagine a more revolutionary sentence. One might call it 'subversive.' 'Free speech is enhanced by civility.' The revolution comes at the end of that sentence. Free speech we know about. Civility we have forgotten. Ask Don Imus.

Daniel Henninger

Why We Fight

2007-04-12T12:32:00.000-05:00

PZ Myers has a reaction up to the fact that a school board has dropped the teaching of the holocaust to avoid offending Muslims. He sees this as part of a larger issue. The money quote is below:

this struggle in which we're engaged is more than a fight against a few specific clowns — it's for a broader ideal of striving towards a truth, against those who want to twist perception of reality to support short-sighted, selfish, and silly beliefs. It's not just science, it's history, politics, culture. If you side with the primacy of faith over reason in science, there is a long list of other virtues you will also be sacrificing on your altar.

I am a fair bit more "live and let live" then Myers is, but I agree with the principle.

Why Bruce Lee is Great

2007-04-11T11:19:00.000-05:00

A poll in Japan placed Bruce Lee in the top 100 people of all time. Andrew Su;;ivan comment on this and some his readers responded with derision. Then this response came. From this take, the idea is much more reasonable.

Your reader's remark about Bruce Lee not being worthy of the top 100 list is very Western-centric. Beyond just being a martial artist, many Asians (largely Chinese) see Lee as the first propagator of Chinese values and worldviews in the Western world (unlike most Western films like 'Breakfast at Tiffany's", or even the TV show 'Kung Fu' which Lee was turned down for over the white David Carradine). Lee was the first cultural missionary-hero to millions in the East, not just the cultural artifact we in the West see him as.
You might also read one of his books for more insight into this amazing man. Chuck Norris makes foolish videos about how evolution shouldn't be taught in the classroom, while Bruce Lee graduated with honors with a degree in Western philosophy, and injected a great deal of his writings on martial arts with both Eastern and Western philisophical concepts. Don't forget that martial arts is not just a mess of punches and kicks - there's a much deeper aspect to it.

Finally, for what he is known to most of the world: martial arts. Lee revolutionized hundreds of years of martial arts beliefs in a single lifetime. He broke free from the forms of Wing Chun and provided martial freedom in Jeet Kune Do. In a sense, he invented martial pragmatism.

Quote

2007-04-11T11:14:00.000-05:00

All great religions, in order to escape absurdity, have to admit a dilution of agnosticism. It is only the savage, whether of the African bush or the American gospel tent, who pretends to know the will and intent of God exactly and completely. "For who hath known the mind of the Lord?" asked Paul of the Romans. "How unsearchable are His judgments, and His was past finding out." "It is the glory of God," said Solomon, "to conceal a thing." "Clouds and darkness," said David, "are around Him." "No man," said the Preacher, "can find out the work of God." ... The difference between religions is a difference in their relative content of agnosticism. The most satisfying and ecstatic faith is almost purely agnostic. It trusts absolutely without professing to know at all.

H. L. Mencken

Republicans are Scared of Women

2007-04-10T14:06:00.000-05:00

This article points out how much the authoritarian male fears women of power. A telling quote below:

The most confrontational part of the day came when Gore was being questioned by Oklahoma senator, famed global warming skeptic and former chairman of the environment committee James Inhofe, in a battle of wits that was not exactly an equal match. Inhofe had trouble getting Gore to answer questions the way he wanted to, and kept interrupting him and complaining about the limited time he was given.
After some back and forth between Inhofe and Gore, the new chair of the committee, Barbara Boxer of California, put a hand on Inhofe's arm and said, "I want to talk to you a minute, please." After Boxer suggested that Inhofe give Gore the time to answer his questions, Inhofe replied, "Why don't we do this: at the end, you [Gore] can have as much time as you want to answer all the questions..." Boxer then interrupted: "No, that isn't the rule. You're not making the rules. You used to when you did this," she said, holding up the chair's gavel. "Elections have consequences. So I make the rules."
Boxer spoke with appropriate authority: not angry, not loud but unmistakably firm. There was no doubt who was in charge in that room. You could almost see the steam coming out of Inhofe's ears, not only because he had been deprived of his power, but because he was deprived of it by a woman. She even held up the gavel, the symbol of that power, and practically taunted him with it. Freud couldn't have scripted it much better.

Rants

2007-04-10T13:28:00.000-05:00

I found this rant on Cathie's blog which was quoted by some from some else and so on. Just enjoy:

On the other hand, one of the better things about our recent crop of teeth-gnashingly conservative politicians is a direct result of this omnipresent narcissism: when they finally implode, they do it in style. Tom DeLay compares his plight to that of the Holocaust, thereby Godwining himself smartly over in the corner where nobody's even been watching. Hastert and the entire Republican Majority vanished not just because of their complete inaction on the steadily disintegrating Iraq War, but when they weren't willing to take even trivial steps to stop one of their own from attempted child buggery. Libby goes and gets himself indicted and then convicted simply because the White House hates critics with such a McCarthyite passion that they can't not attempt to punish them. Gonzales has the entire Justice Department melting around his ears, and appears to be in no position to do a damn thing about it. Conservative shock pundits like Savage or O'Reilly or Little Annie Coulter have taken to immolating themselves for any tiny shreds of self-absorbed publicity. Gingrich -- oh, sweet Heaven, Newt Gingrich himself! -- went supernova long ago, but now is back as conservative white dwarf star: insignificant in the national landscape, but still burning bright as legend in his own mind. And he even packed a sack lunch of old scandals for us to all share, as if in recognition that you can't be a nationally known conservative these days without a display of truly spectacular immorality and sordid personal baggage.

Why Vimy

2007-04-10T13:19:00.000-05:00

Vimy Ridge is the national millitary story for Canada. But most Canadian don't know why. This article will explain it for you.

Malkin Spins so Hard Her Head Hurts

2007-04-10T13:09:00.000-05:00

"Judge rejects Padilla torture argument," - a Michelle Malkin post today.

"U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke stressed in a 12-page order filed late Monday that she was not passing judgment on the torture allegations. Rather, she said the effort to dismiss the case for 'outrageous government conduct' was faulty on legal grounds," - the second paragraph of the AP story Malkin was linking to.

From Andrew Sullivan.

Hippy Islam

2007-04-10T13:05:00.000-05:00

This article proves that chemically assisted peace is not just a western phenomenon:

The issue of substance abuse, intoxicants and Islam rose to the Turkish media's attention recently when police carried out a raid on the home of private citizen Nazif Kamil Orde in Istanbul for the benefit of current-affairs documentary program Arena. They smashed their way into the home of the man newspapers have nicknamed "the junkie teacher" - Esrarc Hoca - a self-styled imam who interspersed his lessons on Islamic philosophy with some strong tokes on a lit joint and encouraged the young followers sitting around his living room to do likewise. He extolled the virtues of cannabis and said no one could make him stop - smoking was his duty to God.

The headlines screamed "A joint in one hand, the Koran in the other", and more than 32,000 people have watched the video clip of him being arrested broadcast via the Web on Hurriyet Video. Esrarc Hoca's behavior has largely been interpreted as the actions of a drug pusher trying to drum up business, and he has made himself somewhat of a joke to serious media pundits with such over-the-top statements as "My child will learn to roll joints and smoke at the age of six," "How can you outlaw weed? God orders us to smoke it," and "Friends, you can't take away the gun on a Muslim's belt, the horse beneath him or the joint in his hand."

Law and Hockey

2007-04-09T17:44:00.000-05:00

Toronto, Ontario - A seven year old boy was at the centre of a Toronto courtroom drama yesterday when he challenged a court ruling over who should have custody of him. The boy has a history of being beaten by his parents and the judge initially awarded custody to his aunt, in keeping with the child custody law and regulations requiring that family unity be maintained to the degree possible.

The boy surprised the court when he proclaimed that his aunt beat him more than his parents and he adamantly refused to live with her. When the judge suggested that he live with his grandparents, the boy cried out that they also beat him. After considering the remainder of the immediate family and learning that domestic violence was apparently a way of life among them, the judge took the unprecedented step of allowing the boy to propose who should have custody of him.

After two recesses to check legal references and confer with child welfare officials, the judge granted temporary custody to the Toronto Maple Leafs, whom the boy firmly believes are not capable of beating anyone.

I am not a big sports fan but I have lived in Toronto enough to enjoy this joke

<Link>

Quote

2007-04-09T17:42:00.000-05:00

A year ago my approval rating was in the 30s, my nominee for the Supreme Court had just withdrawn, and my vice president had shot someone," President Bush said Wednesday night during the annual gathering.

"Ah," he said, "those were the good ol' days.

George Bush

Internal Fight Over Torture

2007-04-09T16:00:00.000-05:00

"No. 1, it’s not going to work, No. 2, if it does work, it’s not reliable. No. 3, it may not be legal, ethical or moral. No. 4, it’s going to hurt you when you have to prosecute these guys. No. 5, sooner or later, all of this stuff is going to come to light, and you’re going to be embarrassed."

Col. Brittain P. Mallow

Read about the fight in Gitmo against torture.

A Quote, A Blogstorm and My Thoughts

2007-04-09T14:27:00.000-05:00

That is one of the mistakes a lot of people make — believing that uncensored speech is the most free, when in fact, managed civil dialogue is actually the freer speech. Free speech is enhanced by civility

Tim O'Reilly via Andrew Sullivan.

This quote is a lovely example of an interconnected story. The O'Reilly article is about a code of conduct that Tim O'Reilly (the definition of internet guru) and Jimmy Wale (founder of wikipedia) have created and are trying to promote.

Now this code is in response, in part, to the incident involving Kathy Sierra. Kathy Sierra is a tech writer and blogger that has received death threats due to the fact that she has deleted offensive, obnoxious and abuse comments from her website. I had noticed the Sierra incident on Ornicus.

Well, Andrew Sullivan is hardcore pro-free-speech, and he saw the above article quoting O'Reilly and decided to fire off a shot. Sullivan didn't seem to realize that he was taking a aim at one of the most revered figures in techie portion of the internet. He has been on the receiving end of quite the blogstorm. He has posted some of the responses so far (here and here).

The thing is both O'Reilly and Sullivan are making correct points. Sullivan is correct in observing that free speech doesn't exist when there is censorship. O'Reilly is correct in his observation that censorship can be imposed through intimidation without the participation of authority. O'Reilly's code of conduct is an attempt to frame when it is permissible to censor so as to limit the effectiveness of intimidation. I suspect that O'Reilly has thought this one through more then Sullivan has, however Sullivan's point is very important and should not be dismissed.

Russia Would Want an American-Iranian War

2007-04-09T13:40:00.000-05:00

Short answer: $200 a barrel oil

Edit: The unofficial Politburo of the new Russia is filled with ex communist oilmen. These people realize Russia's main source of strength is oil. High oil prices only serves to increase Russia's power.

The Russia leadership would like to gain control of the Russian border states (also called the near abroad). These are Russia's traditional sphere of influence and Russia keenly feels the loss of influence in this region.

A war between America and Iran would almost certainly lead to Iranian missile and terrorist attacks on the oil facilities in the Arabian peninsula. As well Iran would probably also be able to stop shipping through the Straits of Hormuz. These attack could easily result in oil prices of $200 to $300 a barrel (Much higher if America begins to suffer hyperinflation*).

Oil wealth would give Russia economic leverage to begin to get control of its near abroad and counter Russia's perceived humiliation at the hands of the West.

Russia also knows the America and Israel do not want to see Iran develop nuclear weapons. America's influence in the region would be greatly curbed. Israel, however, would face an existential threat. A small number of nuclear weapons delivered by rocket from Iran's Hezbollah allies could physically destroy Israel (a plain of radioactive glass) with Israel beening able to mount a successful counter attack (due to the short flight time of the incoming missiles. Israel might only have minutes to react). As such Israel could be forced into a war with Iran to insure its own existence.

Not pretty, I know.

* China is very dependent on imported oil. China also has about a trillion US dollars in the bank. I would expect China to use this money to get oil in the event of such an oil crisis. These would lead to a flood of US dollars on the market oversaturating supply and creating a scenario ripe for hyperinflation.

And Japan has about the same amount of money and is more dependent on oil imports then China is.

Is Peak Oil Here?

2007-04-09T13:24:00.000-05:00

Is this the year that peak oil arrives? One expert says yes and backs it up with facts.

The EIA projects that all the world's oil producers will increase their oil production hugely by 2030. They see Saudi Arabia shooting up to 17.1 million barrels a day when, in fact, Saudi production fell 7 percent just over the past year alone to 8.4 mm/b/d. They see Mexico shooting way up, despite the announcement last year by Pemex that the Cantarell field (60 percent of Mexico's total production) is crashing at a minimum rate of 15 percent a year. They see Russia zooming way up, despite the fact that Russia is probably past the 70 percent mark of its original total reserves.

Scary thoughts.

Peak oil has a bright side. It will make renewable energy much more economical and put us a long way down the road to solving the problem of climate change.

The Pope Has a Choice

2007-04-09T11:10:00.000-05:00

Kevin Dowling is the Roman Catholic bishop of the diocese of Rustenberg in South Africa. He is forcing the pope to make a choice between humanity and authority.

Dowling is the Bishop over a community called Freedom Park. It is a migrant worker town supplying the nearby platinum mines with labour. The men come for the work with moderately good pay. The women come because the men have money. Prostitution is ubiquitous. This environment is perfect for the spread of HIV.

Dowling has realized that he will not be able to build a culture of faithfulness any time soon and that HIV is an immediate problem. Therefore he is giving out condoms.

The official church condemns condoms as evil. Its doctrine would lead to thousands of needless deaths in Freedom Park and enable the massive spread of HIV as the migrant workers travel to other parts of Africa.

These leaves the Pope with a decision. Will he focus on the humanity of the people of Freedom Park and endorse Bishop Dowling's approach as the best for the community at this time? Or will Benedict choose to push the absoluteness of the church's position and authority?

My bet: Benedict goes for power over humanity and chooses to be complicit in the destruction of thousands of lives.

The article is here.

What does liberal mean?

2007-04-09T09:04:00.000-05:00

One interesting quirk of the english language is how in North America liberal refers to someone on the social left, and in Continental Europe it means someone on the economic right. This is an example from Sweden.

Marching Powder

2007-04-09T09:01:00.000-05:00

Marching Powder is a book about a prison in Ecuador. This link is to a slide show about the prison. Take your time to go through it. You will find it interesting.

Vive Les Nukes

2007-04-09T08:56:00.000-05:00

I am not a big fan of nuclear energy. My attitude is best described by paraphrasing a famous Canadian quote:

Nuclear if necessary, but not necessarily nuclear.

Here is an article about the french nuclear industry.

Mount Chimborazo, Highest Place on Earth

2007-04-09T08:42:00.000-05:00

"Did you know Mount Chimborazo is the highest place on Earth."

"What? Hey haven't you heard of this little place called Everest?"

"Yep, 29,000 ft above sea level, big mountain."

"And Chimborazo is 20,000 ft above sea level... ergo Everest is higher."

"No."

"29,000 is bigger then 20,000, unless you are smoking crack."

hides crack pipe

"The problem is sea level... its not level. It bulges out at the equator. If we took distance from the center of the earth then the results are different. Chimborazo is standing on a 1.5 mile high bulge which then makes it higher then Everest."

<Link>

Super Cheap Solar Cells

2007-04-09T08:28:00.000-05:00

If these numbers are right then we have a revolution on our hands:

Solar cell technology developed by the University’s Nanomaterials Research Centre will enable New Zealanders to generate electricity from sunlight at a 10th of the cost of current silicon-based photo-electric solar cells.

The problem with solar cells right now is the capital cost (Which is universally the problem with alternative energy and is a comment that will get people nodding with sagely in the right circles).

At 1/10th the current cost solar cells will be the cheapest source of power in almost all regions of the globe. In Toronto, you are currently looking at ~$0.30 per kWh for solar (and a market rate of $0.06 per kWh. At $0.03 per kWh solar will be the cheapest source of power in fucking Canada (okay, really southern Canada, but the point still stands). We have no source of power in this province that gets anywhere close to $0.03 per kWh. This is a big fucking deal. <Link>

Canada and Small Government

2007-04-08T14:47:00.000-05:00

Poll after poll has indicated that by and large Canadians support single payer health care and want it to work. They support action against climate change and want the government to actually do something. While they may be critical of inefficiencies in the delivery of services, they think the government has a role to play in delivering them. The reason Harper is tapdancing around the middle and trying to look like a moderate is precisely because he knows the majority of Canadians don't share his original ideological vision. <Link>

Men Don't Matter

2007-04-08T14:35:00.000-05:00

Feministe pulls out her razor sharp wit and heads into the jungles of Wingnuttia. The results are beautiful.

On any given day, one isn’t likely to find common cause with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He’s a dangerous, lying, Holocaust-denying, Jew-hating cutthroat thug — not to put too fine a point on it.

But he was dead-on when he wondered why a once-great power such as Britain sends mothers of toddlers to fight its battles.

Sending fathers of toddlers to fight and die is apparently a-ok, because men really don’t matter, at least when it comes to parenting. Or dying.

And rest of the article is here.

Which reminds me, there is a growing meme in Christofascia that Iran "does some things right." It is hesitant idea, and it may only be subconscious but there are example of it (that I am too lazy to track down).

Gratutious Sex Related Post

2007-04-08T14:32:00.000-05:00

A witty comeback... of course some targets involve fish and barrels

Terrorist Can't Be White

2007-04-08T14:08:00.000-05:00

Little did the Burlington Township Police Department think that their scenario for a terrorist drill would lead to an explosion of madness lead by right wing screech hag* Michelle Malkin. Their alleged mistake: basing the scenario on an attack by a right-wing christofascist militia group. Apparently in Malkin's delusional fantasies terrorist can't be white. Please ignore Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City bombing. Malkin's frothing incoherence is given appropriate smackdowns here, here and here.

GreenCamp Logo

2007-04-08T13:42:00.000-05:00

I want to thank Ryan Thomas for making this cool logo for GreenCamp. It rocks.

Erlang Style Concurrency

2007-04-08T11:01:00.000-05:00

This is just a good article covering the state of innovation in the computer industry and the development of computer science as an introduction to why a really cool programming language isn't used much, and it is amusing in a geeky kind of way