Author: Brian

A prescient and contrary view of upcoming California candidate for governor: eBay: Where It’s Gone Wrong.

ZDNet’s Dana Blankenhorn:

As long as the glaciers are with us, the effects of global warming are somewhat muted.

Once they’re gone you’re cooked.

Think about that next time some asshat right-winger tries to tell you that the evidence of your eyes isn’t real.

The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology says heavy batteries are not the best way forward because of cost, weight and finite lithium.

Its “recharging road” buries power just under the surface.

Vehicles suck up power from the strips via induction without coming into direct contact.

The system would allow smaller batteries or extended range for electric vehicles.

A prototype at KAIST’s campus already powers a bus service.

The fraud of Reagan Republican trickle-down economics cannot be more clear.

One-third of all pay, the percentage of total wages and salaries, is paid to top executives, reports the Wall Street Journal.

The increased wealth at the top was combined with an absence of real economic growth in the middle.

Real median wage in the United States has been stagnant for twenty five years, despite an almost doubling of GDP per capita.

And one-half of all income gains went to the richest 5 percent of households.

Billions more perks and pay is off federal radar screens that measure wages and salaries.

Because of the $106K Social Security tax cap, EconomicPopulist points out:

In other words, not only are executives robbing the rest of the country blind, much of their share no longer contributes into the social security fund nor encumbered health care, education or our safety net.

A class war has already been fought and already won.

A Rebirth of American Plutocracy?

“Twice in the past century wealth was taken from the middle class and concentrated at the top among the wealthiest Americans. This reversal of fortune occurred once in 1927 and again in 2007, and both times it caused the economy to collapse into Depression.”

Oregon municipalities generously volunteered to help test sewer water for methamphetamine, cocaine, and ecstasy, a relatively simple and cost-effective approach to measuring community drug use.

U.S. oil refiners face major cuts
much pump price volatility ahead
gasoline refining capacity is a sloppy sector

We so often hear that the world is running out of water.

People are dying from lack of water. Rivers are dewatered from lack of water. Because of this we need to take shorter showers.

Well, no. More than 90 percent of the water used by humans is used by agriculture and industry. The remaining 10 percent is split between municipalities and actual living breathing individual humans. Collectively, municipal golf courses use as much water as municipal human beings.

People aren’t dying because the world is running out of water.

Activist Derrick Jensen says, “They’re dying because the water is being stolen.“

And/Or as Matthew Josephson’s Robber Barons draws on the worries of the well-known radical Thomas Jefferson,

freedom came to mean “the natural right of every citizen to satisfy his acquisitive instinct by exploiting the national resources in the measure of his shrewdness.”

And the strong, as in the Dark Ages of Europe, and like the military captains of old, having preempted more than others, having been well seized of land and highways and strong places, would own because they owned.

Chieftains would arise, in the time-honored way, to whom the crowd would look for leadership, for protection, finally for their very existence. They would be the nobles of the new feudal system, for whom the great mass of men toiled willingly.

These barons resembled their forerunners, since they traced their ownership back, as Veblen has said, to the “ancient feudalistic ground of privilege and prescriptive tenure…to the right of seizure by force and collusion.”

Wild, wild fraud. The Economist charts data from the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. A cautious reading might be required because much of these are suspicious activity reports, i.e. large cash deposits and sector monitoring.

The short list. Details haven’t yet been released. Tens of thousands of seniors and children would lose access to healthcare, local governments would sacrifice several billion dollars in state assistance this year and thousands of convicted criminals could serve less time in state prison. Welfare checks would go to fewer residents, state workers would be forced to continue to take unpaid days off and new drilling for oil would be permitted off the Santa Barbara coast.

“We’ve accomplished a lot in this budget,” said Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

“This is a budget that will have no tax increases, a budget that is cutting spending…. We’re also very happy that in this budget we make government more efficient.”

And he’s scooping funds from county and town tax holding accounts under an odd embargo only in California. Why destroy one governing body when his Republican zeal can squash hundreds?

start at the top and work up?

Energy Secretary Steven Chu

I recently joined Facebook because I want to talk with you directly about solving the energy and climate change challenge and ensuring America’s leadership in a clean energy economy. I hope you will check out my new page at http://www.facebook.com/stevenchu

But I also want to hear from you about what you’re doing in your communities and the steps you think we should take as a nation. I hope we can have a true dialogue because every American can and must play a role in this effort.

Another bump on the street for ethanol.

Several tests have indicated that distillers grains contain antibiotics.

Bacterial organisms present during distillation can sometimes out-compete yeast in the breakdown of sugar.

The easiest way to kill these bacteria is to use antibiotics.

Most ethanol plants factor recovering part of their costs by selling fuel-making waste as a proportioned feed ingredient for livestock, swine and poultry. One 56 pound bushel of corn produces 18 pounds, 2.72 gallons, of ethanol and approximately 17 pounds of distillers grains.

Samples of DG requested from 60 ethanol plants revealed the presence of four types of antibiotics: penicillin, virginiamycin, erythromycin and tylosin.

The FDA hasn’t clamped down on antibiotics in ethanol distillation, but this may change.

A growing number of medical authorities fear that traces of antibiotics have leaked through feed and manure into drinking water to promote the growth of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Runoff is a severe challenge, plus our wastewater plants are designed to remove simple nutrients from water, not drugs and chemicals that are increasingly discharged into waterways.

OK.
The big energy user in the food system is the kitchen refrigerator not the tractor.

OK.
Living Grapes Rolling On The Sea Floor.

motive before purpose

The surface of Mars was molten for more than 100 million years after it formed, preventing any early life evolving on the planet, reports Aussie science.

the outcome of the 149th British Open

Q: What’s the difference between praying in church and praying on a golf course?
A: On a golf course you really mean it.

Churlishly, I was rather pleased that Tiger Woods failed to make the cut.

He’s obviously a great golfer, but somewhat deficient in common humanity. At any rate, his interactions with the public have a clinical air, and he often displays a kind of sulky petulance when his expectations — either of himself or of a particular course — aren’t met.

One suspects that the softest part of him is the enamel on his perfect teeth.

I wonder if Pandora planned this all along:

Ron Paul’s bill to audit the Fed, just three pages long, has 274 co-sponsors — every House Republican and almost 100 Democrats — and counting.

“People are upset,” he says. “People are demanding more transparency of the Fed, and they’re supporting me on this.”

background at Wall Street Journey, er, Journal

I don’t know what to think about this. We have no history managing The Bank. Hell, lawmakers have a poor record leading the poor, and barely restrain hustlers in every sector.

Plus most Americans know very little about wealth, can’t name the rich beyond Donald Trump, and know much less about our economy. A rabid committee from our vote-bent electoral districts makes me nervous.

On the one hand, there might be much fun ahead and new progress erasing another King George. On the other hand, I worry there’s grandstanding or revenge without great charter. These folks moan small. And it’s a very poor Tea Party to set us off.

You say they navigate how?

He describes seafarers from the island of Puluwat in the South Pacific who navigate the open ocean using subtle swell patterns.

Interestingly, the Puluwatese say the best way to monitor swells is with the testicles, which are exquisitely sensitive to the movements of the boat. [via NYTimes]

Wikimapia adds these snippets, more about the balls of Puluwat.

The atoll and the island are named the same; Puluwat.

The men here are the most aggressive and toughest amongst the Micronesians. The contest of manhood here is to grasp hands and then to cut your own forearm with your machete. Your opponent then makes a larger or deeper cut in his own arm. Alternating turns back and forth until the lesser man lets go of his opponent. Some of these guys carry horrible self inflicted scars on their arms.

Be courteous and firm but don’t try to tell these guys what to do.

And more on navigating the soft, the warm and the wet.

The wayfinder, with no mathematical model wedged between him and his environs, concentrates 100% of his attention on his place in the sea and sky.

With this one-pointedness, he processes all of his data on his course, speed, the current, etc.

Instructions for psychologically locating one’s piko and for staying centered there have been passed down through the centuries in chants.

The technology of wayfinding is the patterns of nature, and these patterns reach to the stars.

This is considered the center of one’s body and being, so that it–not the brain–is the point from which to live. [via passengerplanet.com “softwarm.html”]

Sounds Greek to me.

in these places for perceived reasons

to keep Mideast oil supply lines open… to keep Islamic maniacs busy in their own backyard instead of on US territory… to keep Iran in a vise

Russia has long desired a southern port. Could Ahmadinejad be seeking status and arms in a political configuration to the north?

Clinical Depression Update, yes, Clinical

“Both tricyclic antidepressants and SSRIs are effective for depression treated in primary care” (not massively effective I hasten to add, but it’s something) while the exercise one concluded that “Exercise seems to improve depressive symptoms in people with a diagnosis of depression, but when only methodologically robust trials are included, the effect sizes are only moderate and not statistically significant…”

from a neuroscientist studying antidepressants for a living

National Cattlemen’s Beef Association testifying at the U.S. House:

The U.S. has the safest food supply in the world, which is an achievement worth noting. Science is a critical component of the beef industry and through science-based improvements in animal genetics, management practices, nutrition and health, beef production per cow has increased from 400 pounds of beef in the mid 1960s to 585 pounds of beef in 2005.

Yeh but, pounds of safety?

It ain’t socialism done it: The lion’s share of the US deficit now comes from the United States petroleum import bill.

Emergic:

In essence, India suffers from a lack of critical thinking on several key issues of national importance.

The thinking that goes on happens within the confines of government – the civil service and the cabinet. There is almost a complete absence of groups outside the formal establishment who develop new policy ideas and actively engage with policy makers to see the ideas through.

As a result, it is no secret that India as a nation has not realized its potential even after six decades of Independence.

Our

1. agriculture is in dismal state;
2. internal security is compromised with alarming impunity;
3. manufacturing sector is not robust enough to employ the vast semi skilled work force;
4. education is highly regulated;
5. health services are woefully insufficient, and;
6. infrastructure is grossly inadequate.

A nation of over a billion people is ruled by absolute adhocism.

We are invariably held hostage to one of the pressure groups operating to service the narrow interest of its members.

The risky habit of livestock antibiotics in the USA is finally managed.

In a move that caught the livestock industry by surprise, the Food and Drug administration this week called for ending the use of antibiotics for growth promotion in livestock and requiring veterinary approval for all other uses of the drugs.

Antibiotic use “should be limited to those situations where human and animal health are protected,” said Joshua Sharfstein, the FDA’s principal deputy commissioner.

Sharfstein announced the policy changes that would end the farm usage of seven classes of antibiotics, including penicillins and tetracyclines, except to treat ill animals. [that’s smart]

No surprise to me. Europe condemned usage years ago. Excess antibiotics in billions of animals as well as mis-management by humans accelerates the selection of drug-resistant bacteria. We don’t need that one bit.

Antibiotic use in livestock begins at weaning. It’s all about efficiency and weight. Without the normal weeks of a mother’s fortified milk, the young intestine is vulnerable to harmful bacteria. It takes time to populate a healthy gut with a balance of beneficial bacteria, therefore early use of antibiotics have been thought to reduce illness, increase efficient digestion and thus sponsor growth.

Many agri-firms and their pocketed corporate-centric Republicans are bellyaching, although several top firms stopped using hormones and antibiotics years ago.

Meat might go up 2%. The industry’s more important challenges, if Wall Street offers credit, are imminent increases in process energy prices, extensive refrigeration costs, and volatile transportation fuel.

Obama gets things done. A news article said he already has 135 major projects in Congress, plus several thousand agency rules are being adjusted or re-written in order to reduce spending, increase deliverables and fix thirty years of trumpeted neglect.

Hug ’em and help ’em.

More than 40 percent of the US soldiers from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars seen at VA hospitals suffer from mental health disorders or psychosocial behavioral problems, a new study shows.

Forbes

Seal’s team collected data on 289,328 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who sought health care at VA medical centers from 2002 to 2008.

Among these returning vets, 106,726 were given mental health care. That’s nearly 37 percent of veterans.

“When the definition is expanded to include diagnoses of mental health disorders or psychosocial behavioral problems such as homelessness, or both, 43 percent…

Those over 40 were at significantly higher risk for PTSD than their colleagues under 25.