Author: Brian

It’s easier to relate to people than to countries.

Chinese show extreme napping
A German photographer has spent six years taking photographs of Chinese people sleeping in any position and situation.

“Dear Visitor,

I gotta warn you! Before you click through my large collection of photos, you should not forget, what you hear and read daily in the media of your home country about the booming China.

Very often with a strange kind of undertone which is supposed to frighten us, they talk about “The Sleeping Giant”. About “The Birth of the New Super Power” or “Awaken of the Red Dragon”.

The reality looks definitely more peaceful.

Since years I am fascinated by the country and the people. Whenever I linger through the boomtown Shanghai, I carry my snap shot camera with me. Because at every corner you can discover people that either are napping in the strangest positions and situations, or are even snoring, while sunk in a deep sleep. Noteworthy are the missing mattresses and pillows!

The calmness, the flexibility and the adaptability of the ones, who are jointly responsible for the revival of China, are fascinating me. I would be happy, if I can bring over some of these feelings to you.

Enjoy now a selection of my already over 600 photos large collection of SLEEPINGCHINESE.”

‘Palin Think’

Sarah Palin says If Ice Melts, Polar Bears Can Adapt!

Sarah Palin’s wisdom is cold and polar. Without study. Without empathy. Without regard. Without success.

“Palin has the most anti-environment record of any governor in the US.” [link UK’s Telegraph]

But don’t worry. Sarah says if she’s elected she’ll be in charge of the Senate!

Q: Brandon Garcia wants to know, “What does the Vice President do?”

PALIN: They’re in charge of the U.S. Senate so if they want to they can really get in there with the senators and make a lot of good policy changes that will make life better for Brandon and his family and his classroom.

Suicides for whites ages 40 to 64 rose between 1999 to 2005.

Middle-age white men rose 16% to 26.9 per 100,000 in 2005, from 23.1 per 100,000 in 1999. For white women in that age group, the rate rose 19%. For black men ages 40 to 64, the rate rose 5% to 10.4 per 100,000 from 9.9 per 100,000, and for black women in that age group, the rate rose 14%. Researchers found little or no change in the suicide rates for three other age groups: 10 to 19, 20 to 29, and over 65.

From NowPublic:

This documentation includes slave schedules from Sept. 8, 1860, which list as the slave owner, “W.A. McCain.” The schedules list the McCain family’s slaves in the customary manner of the day — including their age, gender and “color,” labelling each either “black” or “mulatto.” The slaves ranged in age from 6 months to 60 years.

Douglas A. Blackmon, author of Slavery By Another Name, which tells of a form of slavery extended well into the Twentieth Century until the start of World War II, through the use of the prison camp system that existed throughout the Southern states in the United States, wrote an article, Two Families Named McCain, that appeared at the Wall Street Journal online on October 17, 2008.

Seriously, what in the fuck is it with John McCain and beauty queens? His first wife, Carol Shepp McCain, was a swimwear model. But she got into an automobile accident and became only normally attractive, so he cheated on her with a 17 years younger beauty pageant winner named Cindy Hensley, whom he ended up divorcing Carol for and marrying. Then she got to be middle aged and a little plastic looking, and what do you know, McCain starts being seen everywhere he goes with, and doing some potentially lucrative favors for, a cheerleader turned bribe lobbyist, named Vicki Iseman, who’s 13 years younger than Cindy. He gets outed on that, cuts off ties with her, and then a couple of months later (after viciously humiliating his wife in front of a group of bikers, to her face) he picks as his “running mate” yet another beauty pageant winner who’s almost half his age.

In its major assessment of the global economy’s health, Deutsche Bank also warned that Britain is even more vulnerable than the US or the euro area, as it predicted that the powerhouses of India and China would fail to support the wider global economy through the downturn.

The banks’ economists Thomas Mayer and Peter Hooper said: “We now expect a major recession for the world economy over the year ahead, with growth in the industrial countries falling to its lowest level since the Great Depression and global growth falling to 1.2pc, its lowest level since the severe downturn of the early 1980s.”

According to the International Monetary Fund, global growth of anything less than 3pc constitutes a world recession. The warning was echoed by Richard Berner of Morgan Stanley, who said: “A global recession is now under way, and risks are still pointed to the downside for commodity prices and earnings.”[The Telegraph]

They say Bush has made noise about new solutions upholding ‘free markets’, but the Europeans sum up their reaction to him:

“We cannot continue along the same lines because the same problems will trigger the same disasters.

“This sort of capitalism is a betrayal of the sort of capitalism we believe in.”

“We have received a letter from Senator John McCain with a request for a financial donation to his presidential election campaign. In this respect we have to reiterate that neither Russia’s permanent mission to the UN nor the Russian government or its officials finance political activities in foreign countries.” – Russian envoy to the U.N., Vitaly Churkin [story]

“Too much of the United State’s counterterrorism security spending is not designed to protect us from the terrorists; but instead to protect public officials from criticism when another attack occurs.”

Read this twice!
“Too much of the United State’s counterterrorism security spending is not designed to protect us from the terrorists; but instead to protect public officials from criticism when another attack occurs.”

“There is a perception in both the private and government sector, that security, both physical and digital, is something you can buy. Witness the mammoth growth of airport security products following 9/11, and the sheer number of vendors at security conferences. With that, government officials and corporate executives often think you can simply buy products and magically get instant security by flipping on the switch. The reality is that security is not something you can buy; it is something you must get.”

“The Bush administration has little by little eroded the Constitution, all in the name of fighting terrorism.”

Bruce Schneier

Oh. If you study treachery; if you are American you study treachery, please also look at this, Publicly-funded self promotion, and be 100% certain only blogs and decent Editors will bring you this link.

About 300 people set out to complete the Pacific Crest Trail [wiki] in a single season, and roughly 60 percent make it. Claire Porter, 26, University of graduate student who grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota, is one of those people. [story]

In just over 5 months, Porter hiked 2,650 miles from Mexico to Canada, traveling most of it alone.

Aside from the beauty through which I walk daily, I think I have finally hit my hiking stride. I know, it certainly took me long enough. I just celebrated 4 months on trail. I have finally allowed myself to slow down to 20 miles a day. As my friends continually remind me, 20 miles is not really “slow.” But, I have had trouble quieting the fiercely competitive side of my nature. Starting around northern California, the faster of my fellow PCT hikers began catching me in earnest. They all had started 3-4 weeks after me, so, needless to say, I couldn’t keep up with them. I tried, and only succeeded in running myself into the ground.

On the other hand, that time has slowly taught me to believe that which I’ve always said: this is my journey, not a race. I am not a failure for not being the best. In fact, this whole endeavor lot more fun when I let my body enjoy itself. It’s extraordinarily odd how I compare myself so harshly to those around me. I seem to wrap my whole self-esteem around success in competition.

I know it’s not just me. Everyone makes the same comparisons; it’s part of our nature. I’m glad to have had this opportunity to learn (again) how to let go of that judgmental view. I think I must be a slow learner, since I’ve had the same opportunity umpteen billion times before!

An endless balance between ambition and self-esteem.

The best thing about separating my performance from my own sense of self-worth is that the only way I can ever fail at something is not to try at all.

500 miles left…

Walking the Wild Coast
Erin and Hig walked 4,000 miles from Seattle to the Aleutian Islands in less than a year.

Their Ground Truth blog starts here.

“This is our crazy plan. This coming June, we plan to walk from our house in Seattle to Unimak Island (the first Aleutian Island, near False Pass, AK).

“It’s about 4000 miles, through some of the most rugged terrain in North America.

“We’ll be carrying small packrafts to cross rivers and bays and fjords along the way. It’s going to take us 9 months, which means that even though we’ll start in June 2007, we won’t finish until 2008, and will have to deal with the fall downpours in the rainforests of Southeast Alaska, as well as the winter storms on the Alaska Peninsula.

“Why are we doing this? It’ll be an awesome adventure and a whole lot of fun.”

A Time of Gifts
A literary fellow, Patrick Leigh Fermor, walked from Rotterdam to Istanbul in the 1930s. What did he say?

“Melancholy is exorcised, chaos chased away and wellbeing, alacrity of spirit and a thoughtful calm take their place.”

“I’m fully in agreement with the argument that if pain is insufferable, then someone should be given help to die, but I feel there’s a wider argument that if somebody desperately wants to die because they’re a burden to their family, or the State, then I think they, too, should be allowed to die.” – Baroness Warnock, a leading British medical ethicist

‘It really is a crazy sight and some don’t even understand how Kevin survives an encounter like that. But maybe he has a magical touch that only a wild animal could possibly understand.’

Kevin Richardson is an animal behaviorist and physiologist at the Lion Park in South Africa. What he calls play many would call madness. Kevin’s daily routine involves working quite intimately with lions, jaguar and hyenas, which he has helped hand raise since they were six months old. [interview] [pics & story at Daily Mail]

Headline:
Woman walks through market holding severed head of man who tried to rape her.

Crowds in a busy market fled in terror as a woman walked among them holding aloft the severed head of a man who had attacked her.

Covered in blood, she held the head high like a trophy, said police – her way of showing that she had delivered her own kind of justice to her attacker.

The gruesome scene was played out in Makkapurva village, India.

Daily Mail

According to police officer Ram Bharose, the unnamed 35-year-old woman had sliced off the man’s head with a sickle she had been using to cut grass near her village.

‘She was getting grass for her cattle when the man came up from behind her and tried to sexually assault her,’ said Mr Bharose.

‘In a bid to save her dignity, she turned on him and during a struggle managed to chop off his head with the sickle.

‘We have no doubts about her story because she had bite marks on her neck and cheek when the man tried to take advantage of her sexually.’

This is the first image of Earth ever taken from the surface of a planet.

Mars Rover Opportunity large pic at solarviews
Earth from the Moon is here.

Somehow, now, reporters aren’t able to get stories in. It was stunning to me how many good, rational people – people I respect – supported going into war in Iraq. And it was stunning to me how many people thought you could go to war against an idea. – Seymour Hersh

George Bush and his administration has made so many errors.

Since 2004,
F.B.I. officials have warned that mortgage fraud posed a looming threat, and the bureau has repeatedly asked the Bush administration for more money to replenish the ranks of agents handling nonterrorism investigations.

But each year, the requests have been denied, with no new agents approved for financial crimes.

For the first time, corporations and their lobbyists are being required to disclose donations they make to the favorite causes of House and Senate members, and a review of thousands of pages of records shows the extent — and lavishness — of this once hidden practice.

During the first six months of 2008, lobbyists, corporations and interest groups gave approximately $13 million to charities and nonprofit organizations in honor of more than 200 members of the House and Senate.

…donors said they were supporting worthy causes, such as scholarships and research. But several also acknowledged that charitable giving is a way to build good will with lawmakers, whose decisions can have a huge effect on their business.

In addition, with new restrictions on the access lobbyists have to lawmakers, the practice provides the lobbyists a way to publicly support — and, sometimes, mingle with — the members of Congress and their staffs.

“It’s a very personal way to curry favor with powerful lawmakers.”

Why is corporate responsibility a failure in this country? Our nation should be a leader in reducing impact.

More than 1,000 power plants and factories around the country use water from rivers, lakes, oceans and creeks as a coolant. At Indian Point plant in New York, the two reactors can pull in 1.7 million gallons of water per minute. Nineteen plants on or near the California coast use 16.3 billion gallons of sea water every day.

It takes thousands of eggs to result in one adult fish. The EPA counts only commercial or recreational species, but shows we lose 1.5 billion year-old fish because of eggs and larvae killed each year at the nation’s large power plants.

Technology has long existed that might reduce the fish kill by 90 percent or more.

Wall Street Journal photo of 100,000 attending Obama rally under the St. Louis Gateway Arch in red state Missouri.

It’s emotionally lifting to read the comments under this photo. Very few of the common trolls dare, but many good hearted Americans reveal they are filled with hope and very, very clear about the country they want ahead.

See? Obama can dance!
[full size]

Historic Comparison of China versus United States GDP

Something else during the Bush years…

Year	GDP(yuan)	GDP Up	Yuan/USD	China GDP	US GDP	China% US
2000	9.92	8.4	8.27	1.2	9.76	12.30%
2001	10.6	8.3	8.27	1.32	10.1	13.10%
2002	11	9.1	8.27	1.45	10.42	13.90%
2003	13	10	8.27	1.64	10.92	15.00%
2004	15.9	10.1	8.27	1.92	11.68	16.40%
2005	18.31	9.9	8.1	2.23	12.42	18.00%
2006	20.94	10.7	7.97	2.67	13.2	20.20%
2007	24.66	11.9	7.6	3.38	13.8	24.50%
2008	27	9.6	6.75	3.95	14.3	27.60%

McCain’s redneck so-called plumber said that Obama can dance. “He was almost as good as Sammy Davis Jr.”

There’s no higher assertion of your freedom than to follow your conscience. – Camilo Mejia, U.S. Soldier

There’s a few points left to reduce George Bush’s popularity poll below today’s 23%.

Destroying FEMA and creating TSA are worth another downward ten points. Here’s a special article at The Atlantic. It’s a kick. Someday, maybe, let’s do it.

Airport security in America is a sham—“security theater” designed to make travelers feel better and catch stupid terrorists. Smart ones can get through security with fake boarding passes and all manner of prohibited items—as our correspondent did with ease.

Comment:
‘The stupid security theater is the major reason I don’t fly. The risk of explosion of my head is just too great.”

Cory Doctorow points out what the Department of Homeland Security is doing to web pages. “Imagine the federal government making you agree to waive your legal rights in order to read about one of its programs!”

Electioneering by McCain and Pickens, sometimes Obama too, say we spend $700 billion importing oil from unfriendly nations, but Canada and Mexico alone account for 30 percent of imports.

Wrong.

According to government agencies that track energy imports, the U.S. spent $246 billion in 2007 for all imported crude oil, a majority of it coming from friendly nations, including neighboring Canada and Mexico.

An additional $82 billion was spent on imported refined petroleum products such as gasoline, diesel and fuel oil. A majority of the refined products came from refineries in such friendly countries as the Netherlands, Canada, the United Kingdom, Trinidad and Tobago and the Virgin Islands.

McCain tricks us with Wall Street Health Care, Wall Street Schools, and again, Wall Street Homes.

‘Yes, let’s help homeowners refinance at today’s appraisal’, he says. McCain is lying big time.

On a $100,000 loan at the current 6.3%/fixed 30, the cumulative/total interest is $122,800. That’s bad enough. But the real story is the rate at which you, the borrower, pay that interest to the lender.
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For about 17 years with that loan, each month you pay more to the bank in interest than to the principal. The highest I:P ratio is in the first payment, and that shifts microscopically each month. On the front end, about 5/6 of each month’s payment is interest. At the end of 10 years, you’ve paid the note down only by about $18,000, and you’ve paid the lender $63,874. You’re halfway through paying the whole interest bundle before you’re even 1/5 through paying your principal down. Around year 20, by the time you are paying about 50-50 each month, the bank has already made as much in interest as they lent you.
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Think about this in light of the current mortgage crisis. The bigger the loan, the more heavily the interest is balanced on the front end. THIS is why they pushed the jumbo ceiling up for Freddie/Fannie. THIS is why they want housing prices to stay up. They want more people in packages NOW to get the interest river flowing again. And this is why they want people in houses NOW before things go down more. They encourage blame–all those greedy people, stupid about mortgages–but the fact is, bankers COUNT on their customers to be arithmetically ignorant.
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Now consider the median CA housing price, $370K. Multiply that 6.3%/30/100K loan by 3.7:
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3.7 x $618.97 = $2,290/mo, you’re thinking, and “How much would I have to make” and so on. But what your lender is thinking is 3.7 x $122,800 = $454,000 in interest over the term of the 30. ***The lender gets $370,000 of that by the time the mortgage holder’s payments just start to break even with interest,*** in year 19! The lender gets their half of their total interest long before you reach half of your principal paydown.
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This is why they encourage people to refinance–to get the interest to reset to the fat part of the curve, the beginning. This is why they encourage people to “trade up” with housing, or to flip. This is the hidden Mobility Tax on people who move every few years, as Americans did thru the ’90s and till recently.
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These numbers don’t include other costs, like tax and insurance. Nor does it cover the fact that a lot of people finance their closing costs. But if you plan carefully, and save, and have discipline, you can effectively reduce your mortgage rate to about 2 percent by aggressive prepayment in the first 1/3 of the loan.
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However you cannot do that while the median price of housing ($370K) is more than 5.4 times the CA FTB’s estimated state median income ($68K).
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Another banking industry strategy is longer loans. If you take the 100K loan to 40 years, as some are suggesting, a 6.3% loan would make the lender a whopping $174,208 in total interest. At the end of the loan, the borrower pays close to twice the principal amount.
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If you borrowed the CA median for 40/6.3%? The total interest would be $644,571. Front end loaded. The first 30 months of this loan would pay under $200 to principal, and nearly $2,000 to the bank. It’d take you nearly 30 years before you were paying more principal than interest each month, and by then, the bank would have gotten $567,528 from you. The more money you borrow, the more heavily loaded on the front end the interest is, and the quicker the banks make their lump. This is why they don’t want affordable housing, or big down payments, or reasonable terms.
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See why they want and still want refinancing?

To wreck our nation, we give banks trillions, and trillions more to keep them.