Month: September 2010

living standards

GDP is a crude measure.
The big deal in this chart is human welfare, how we compare globally.

This is a ‘welfare metric’ combining data on consumption, leisure, inequality and mortality. It’s not a Happiness & Satisfaction GDP, but compares what we have that helps us get by.

[pdf] Beyond GDP? Welfare Across Countries and Time, the work of Peter Klenow with Chad Jones, September 2010.

Maybe we bellyache a wee bit much.

ghastly milliseconds

Macabre & marvelous.

The NYTimes has compiled a slideshow capturing the atomic bomb on film.

Peter Kuran compiled How To Photograph an Atomic Bomb.

The California Literary Review offers several additional photos.

“100 Suns” by Michael Light is profoundly stunning too.

Indeed, how do you photograph an atomic bomb? Under this atomic fireball —milliseconds after detonation— are tanks and trucks and jeeps planted for instant destruction.

Please notice the crescent-shaped shock wave already returning from the ground in a split of second. Pondering Potent Power … wot.

like being in a pit

Some rants well bejewel rage.

Chris Hedges:

There are no longer any major institutions in American society, including the press, the educational system, the financial sector, labor unions, the arts, religious institutions and our dysfunctional political parties, which can be considered democratic. The intent, design and function of these institutions, controlled by corporate money, are to bolster the hierarchical and anti-democratic power of the corporate state. These institutions, often mouthing liberal values, abet and perpetuate mounting inequality. They operate increasingly in secrecy. They ignore suffering or sacrifice human lives for profit. They control and manipulate all levers of power and mass communication. They have muzzled the voices and concerns of citizens. They use entertainment, celebrity gossip and emotionally laden public-relations lies to seduce us into believing in a Disneyworld fantasy of democracy.

The menace we face does not come from the insane wing of the Republican Party, which may make huge inroads in the coming elections, but the institutions tasked with protecting democratic participation. Do not fear Glenn Beck or Sarah Palin. Do not fear the tea party movement, the birthers, the legions of conspiracy theorists or the militias. Fear the underlying corporate power structure, which no one, from Barack Obama to the right-wing nut cases who pollute the airwaves, can alter.

If the hegemony of the corporate state is not soon broken we will descend into a technologically enhanced age of barbarism.

h/t Zo. Oh so do capture exquisite snippets.

giants registry

Barebones but progressing, here’s a terrific Mission Statement:

This blog is intended as a tool to identify the most powerful and influential people in the world — criminals, academics, politicians, and even possibly a well-regarded philanthropist or two. Will we end up with a pyramid? Concentric rings? Let’s find out. Those advocating lynch mobs are not welcome.

With any luck, we’ll be able to paint a picture of the true pecking order of society, and with that knowledge be able to prevent it from causing further catastrophic damage.

Existing lists of The 100 Most Influential are helpful and we should definitely link to them, but let’s dig deeper to find out the names behind the names; who marches to whose drum. Please provide valid arguments and evidence. Doesn’t have to be fancy and poetic, but please make it intelligible and informative.

We know nothing about the rich. We have no idea what a $1,000,000,000 can do. For that matter, commas and zeros is a lost frontier in a world too unable.

treaty re-enacting for all

Stephen Baldwin:

As a committed pacifist, I oppose all of those grim “reenactment groups” that stage the battles of yesteryear in period costume and with authentic weaponry. It is neither entertaining nor educational to glorify war and conflict in this manner, especially when such ersatz musketeers and dragoons might more profitably employ their weekends mowing neglected lawns, and particularly when they live next-door to me.

Consequently, I am forming my own “Treaty of Versailles” reenactment group.

With the addition of a few large mirrors here and there, our reenactments can be performed in the comfort of our own homes.

And furthermore, since reenactment of the treaty merely requires a brief signature on a piece of paper, the entire production can be completed in under five minutes, leaving members plenty of free weekend time to mow that lawn and get a start on many other household chores besides.

the right is so wrong

Jobs. The IMF is warning governments that there will be no recovery until jobs restart. The IMF is urging governments to start factoring back-to-work policies into their overall equation for stoking growth. The IMF is warning governments that unemployment is fanning unrest.

• Countries that have so far avoided the harsh judgment of financial markets could afford a small increase in debt to ward off persistent joblessness…

• Such a move could pay for itself in the form of increased economic activity…

• Rising long-term unemployment is a crisis…

• the United States, too, should consider subsidies to help the long-term unemployed…

• Countries that need to rebuild credibility should first reallocate spending to get the long-term unemployed and young people back into the labor market.

Countries need to rebuild credibility? There’s a thump on the head to deliver to Congress!

Republicans holler that taxes and regulations bridle business. Oh do they holler. But is that true?

If it is true that lower taxes = lower unemployment, why do facts show otherwise? Nearly all apolitical economists see this clearly.

Congressional tweaking has been sorry leadership for decades. Lazy and brain dead tax cuts do not lead to more hiring.

Stumping Busting: revealing the lies of politicians. Not good television but gee whiz we are mired in baloney.

Comment snippet: “The fear of social unrest is the only thing that might work. There sure is no response to the pain and suffering of others.”

revenue theatrics

We are ignoring serious attack:

Consider what the Limbaugh crowd is saying about climate: not only that that the world’s scientists and scientific institutions are systematically wrong, but that they are purposefully perpetrating a deception.

Virtually all the world’s governments, scientific academies, and media are either in on it or duped by it. The only ones who have pierced the veil and seen the truth are American movement conservatives, the ones who found death panels in the healthcare bill.

It’s a species of theater, repeated so often people have become inured, but if you take it seriously it’s an extraordinary charge. For one thing, if it’s true that the world’s scientists are capable of deception and collusion on this scale, a lot more than climate change is in doubt.

These same institutions have told us what we know about health and disease, species and ecosystems, energy and biochemistry. If they are corrupt, we have to consider whether any of the knowledge they’ve generated is trustworthy. We could be operating our medical facilities, economies, and technologies on faulty theories. We might not know anything!

—David Roberts

cheap liability

A world’s top utility. What can it do when old pipe explodes?

Julio has 3rd degree burns on his ear and second degree burns on his hand and his back. He’s signing papers saying he’ll pay the medical bills “if no one else would”. The clinic made him sign. Richard is also filling out forms. He’s offered cookies. Loretta was burned fleeing her home. She’s in an auditorium filling out forms. She’s offered a box of chicken. Les is 78. He’s outdoors on the sidewalk waiting.

With everyone else, the utility is here to help.

Oh. The utility arranged to have clothes on hand too. Good of them. No?

link puppies

I can’t stand it sometimes. Nothing to it for aminals.
Us humans? Our links are arguments.

disruption shills

“If we don’t change the way we do democracy, nothing else is possible.”

‘The high-leverage issue of unlimited corporate power.’
‘Our focus should address a radical change in assumptions.’
‘We must use power to radically limit the role of concentrated power.’
‘We somehow have to change awareness sufficient to create a critical mass.’
‘It’s imperative that we actively use unfolding disasters to generate changes.’

Oh, geesh. Frustration without experience is despair.

Should we all adopt the old saw, er, the new truth: Reuse. Recycle. Revolt?

disruption skills

Worldwide, engineers are only 3.5% of the population but 20% of all militants & terrorists.

Odd Op Ed at NY Times:

They say they believe in freedom and share our values. They say a few bad apples shouldn’t bring down judgment on their entire kind. Don’t be fooled.

Though they walk among us with impunity, they are a group that is notoriously associated with fundamentalist political beliefs and terrorist violence.

They are engineers!

Over the past few decades, of 404 violent Islamist men trained beyond high school (some in jail, some not), 44% were engineers.

Grab their slide rules, er, steal their laptops and run.

Yo! Communist & anarchist groups have almost no engineers.

immunity kissing

Oooo sooo sexy.

“Kissing transmits germs from man to woman. After about six months of kissing she becomes immune to the bad stuff in the man’s body. By the time the baby is born, it is immune to the things the parents are immune to. Sperm just don’t cut it when it comes to transmitting immunity.”

If unkissers’ offspring did not more often die away would we all be unkissed?

Their argument is simple:

the real party

Fraud! You want fraud? You can’t handle fraud.

American politics and the American economy reached some kind of turning point around 1980. What shifted is that Congressmen are now much more receptive to the opinions of the rich.

Business interests in all sectors organized a takeover of political power that pushed organized labor and other groups protecting middle-class interests to the sidelines and made possible decades of policies that have enriched the super-rich at the expense of everyone else, including the merely affluent. Finance was simply the biggest and most profitable of these sectors–and, we would emphasize, the one best able to hold the government hostage in a financial and economic crisis.

A cycle of politics as old as the Republic, and to a pathology in our politics that is as profound as any that our Republic has faced.

Comment snippets:

A pattern of bribery. Biological altruism does not scale. :::burp::: See the forest for the trees? Man-oh-man, it’s thick with parasitical vines. :::cough::: This liaison with lobbyists is just fancy money laundering. :::arrgh::: I am afraid that you are right. :::sigh:::

politics and pathology

“What if Obama is so outside our comprehension that only if you understand Kenyan anti-colonial behavior can you begin to piece together his actions?” Gingrich asked. “And Kenyan is, of course, code for nigger, replies Bill Maher.

Hey America! Nuts is more costly than debt!

too forgiving of predators

Mysteries in the muck of politics and economics are not so terribly difficult really:

We are too generous and forgiving of the predations of the ruling classes. Too many scholars and pundits fail to be useful to society since they collude with the ruling classes to conceal the true costs of the ham handed incompetence of bureaucrats sharply focused on their essentially trivial concerns.

Oddly overlooked, government by the people for the people also means creating government, not merely choosing players, not merely bellyaching, but building institution and agency as you like it. There’s the failing of trivial consumers and there’s the rub of citizenship.

Americans should be ashamed of local insolvency and vulnerable sovereignty. Exercised governing is a Capitol Hill on every hill. There’s little preventing all the power they’ll require.

precarious abounding

Koran-burning stunt. “Elite media gatekeepers have abandoned their moral mandate to stigmatize uncivil discourse. Many outlets reward it.” —Rick Perlstein

“Obama is losing his grip on the country, because he’s too sane for these times.” —George Packer

Supreme Court decision allowing corporations to spend freely on political causes strengthens an ‘economy of corruption‘ in Congress. Extraordinary that this court could think otherwise. —Lawrence Lessig

“I know if I rest, I’ll slide downhill fast. I laugh at myself trying to keep a bold front. It’s become my habit. I just carry on.” —Lee Kuan Yew, the man who made Singapore

large awe spinning

I often think of centurys’ sailors having no bloody idea what power they’ll encounter. Click pics for a stunning view of Hurricane Earl from the Space Station and another of 1999’s Floyd via satellite.

crawl-onomics

Here’s the problem as economist Edward Harrison puts it:

1. The private sector (particularly households) is overly indebted. The level of debt households now carry cannot be supported by income at the present levels of consumption. The natural tendency, therefore, is toward more saving and less spending in the private sector (although asset price appreciation can attenuate this through the Wealth Effect). That necessarily means the public sector must run a deficit or the import-export sector must run a surplus.

2. Most countries are in a state of economic weakness. That means consumption demand is constrained globally. There is no chance that the U.S. can export its way out of recession

3. without a collapse in the value of the U.S. dollar. That leaves the government as the sole way to pick up the slack.

4. Since state and local governments are constrained by falling tax revenue and the inability to print money, only the Federal Government can run large deficits. 5. Deficit spending on this scale is politically unacceptable and will come to an end as soon as the economy shows any signs of life (say 2 to 3% growth for one year).

Therefore, at the first sign of economic strength, the Federal Government must raise taxes and/or cut spending. The result will be a deep recession with higher unemployment and lower stock prices.

Slog. Accept it. Shortfall, however sloppy, will be made up by the federal government.

We will not return to what failed. We will slowly reduce the bleeding of energy overhead and carve a new horizon of services and trade. Watch for it. Patiently.

an order of wrong

The problem with mass politics today is that we increasingly have no idea what is myth and theater, and what is really true.

[BBC’s essay on powerful modern myth.
It is the idea that underneath all the chaotic violence that marks the modern world there are hidden patterns, networks of terror that are orchestrated by America’s deadly enemies.]

The problem with mass politics today is that we increasingly have no idea what is myth and theater, and what is really true.

One day when hierarchy flattens to our nature, fools will be us all.

toddler and tiger

Emotion is way-y-y much more than we imagine.