[Here's the orginal: http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/214]
Michael Pollan, the author, gives an extrodinarily insightful TED talk on how much we can gain if we change the perspecive regarding how we view nature.
I must admit, generally prefer the more technical to the philosophical, but at its basis, technical comes from a philosophical outlook, and Pollan’s shift in looking at nature is quite exciting. Definitely check it out, even though it is longer than the usual internet video.
This is why I always use the “enviro”-type laundry detergent.
http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/magazine/16-12/st_whatsinside
I am a vegetarian, and I have very good reasons, and while I think this is great, I can’t deny that the makers are a little crazy.
I can’t embed flash games in a wordpress-hosted blog, but here is the link.
This is way too good. An Israeli research team has developed a non-lethal weapon that is in fact a horrible horrible smelling, yet totally organic, substance that can be sprayed on protesters or what-have-you.
Iʻve been opposed to a consumption tax (called the “Fair Tax” by proponents) because I had never seen a proposal where it could be made to be progressive.
A couple of reasons are usually given for advocating consumption taxes in favor of income taxes:
The basic proposal would be a national sales tax. Since rich people spend more, they would pay more taxes. In reality, this would shift the tax burden from rich people to poor people.
But I recently read a very interesting proposal that advocates a consumption tax as a way to encourage saving, while also addressing the issues of keeping it progressive. The idea was to tax the difference between the personʻs earnings and the change in their savings accounts, i.e. their consumption. This amount could be taxed at a progressive rate. So if the person spent $20,000 in the year it could be taxed at some rate x, and if they spent $120,000 it could be taxed at some higher rate y. There would be some logistical kinks to work out, like would it hurt people who invest in things like gold coins and art? But I really like the idea.
Many people really do not understand what bankrupcy means. Bankrupcy means that an entity does not have enough money to continue to pay its debts, and files for protection under bankruptcy law. It seems like airlines go bankrupt every few years. Kmart went bankrupt. Texico went bankrupt.
If General Motors files for bankruptcy protection it does not mean that it will totally disappear. The dealerships will not vaporize. The assembly lines will not vanish into thin air. The company will go into a harsh restructuring and emerge as a company the can *hopefully* actually make some money. Because as it is run now, it would have to be bailed out indefinitely because it cannot make any money!! This is way different than AIG, Fannie, Bear, WaMu, and Wachovia. If the financial system explodes, like a real total collapse, the world as we know it would be over. (In the Great Depression the unemployment was 25%, and we donʻt have a farm economy anymore to help absorb labor anymore!)
If GM goes into bankruptcy, they renegotiate their union deals, layoff a bunch more people, plunge forward with the Volt, and hope to emerge as a new company. Face it–people will get laid-off by GM whether or not they get a bailout. A bailout would just extend the inefficiency, bleeding and pain. The incompetence over the last 20 years of GM management would be paid for by the US taxpayer. This is not cyclical. They suck.
Hugo Chavez, the socialist leader of Venezuela, gave a shout-out to President Bush during the last episode of huge government interventions in the market.
I thought it was worth a post.
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I’m not big on calling everything “creepy”, but for this one, I have to. Found on a Yahoo! page. Can you say Photoshop? This may or may not have been the creepy version that had a magic-wand type thing that changed the face from one to the other back and forth.
I know, I know, the Phils win the Series, Obama wins the election, and this is the next post that we write?
Genetic variation is the key to evolving, adaptation, and survival. When conditions change, or a new germ evolves, certain members of a species will have slight variations that allow them to survive better than others.
As factory farming dives head-first toward eliminating as much variation as possible in trying to find the largest, cheapest yields, variation has been sent to the shitter. The most recenly researched victim is the factory chicken–bred to grow quickly and large[sic].
Some scientists are now working on schemes to try and infuse variant genetic material back into the chicken gene pool. This will help the chicken withstand devastating germs and bird-flus. And consumer pressure on sustainable farming techniques is keeping small pockets of chickens further away from the factory pressures that lead to less variation.
Today’s absolutely essential Democracy Now! details the similarities of Obama and McCain’s approach to the bailout, Obama’s Wall Street-friendly economic leanings, the difference between “debt nationalization” and socialism, and what will be an increasing pressure to look at actual socialist solutions as the risk of industry collapse, particularly the auto industry, increases.
A must listen!
In an act of stunning stupidity, a man being arrested for using a student metro card on the subway in Queens, NY wrestled with the officer and shot two people before being disabled. The man said that he was afraid that he would be deported if he were arrested.
First I want to acknowledge how extreme and dumb his reaction was. It’s not like he was going to get away. But I want to focus on another part of the story. He said that he was scared of being deported. It seems like a clear indication that the tightening immigration rules is putting illegal immigrants on edge. And they often feel like it is safer to risk living outside of the law than to take their chances living within the law, because the law does not respect them.
Yet the tightening of rules ignores the fundamental and everyday living of this country that depends on new workers. Immigration restrictions hurt America.
It’s a website that simulates sporting events 10,000 times and averages the outcomes into predictions. I was very interested in their prediction that Ryan Howard had a 30% chance of hitting a home run, and Manny Ramirez had a 20% chance. Now anyone can see that currently Manny is crushing baseballs and Howard is rolling over balls to second base that he should be driving to left field. I like stats as much as anyone, but this is a clear small-sample-size variation (ie. Manny is hot and Howard is not). BUT! Then I though how cool it would be if that prediction was taking into account the amount of walks that Manny is getting. Because he is swinging so well, Ramirez received three walks last night in game 4. Howard has walked that many times in the whole postseason. If walks were taken into account, as well as the reletive hot streaks of the hitters, I think I would agree with the prediction. Neato!
***UPDATE***
Manny did hit a home run, not Howard. And the Phillies won. 1 point for random variability.
These kinds of things just. don’t. happen.
Determining the value of environmental assets is notoriously difficult, and one of the reasons that the environmental movement has largely relied upon emotional appeals. But people are starting to get more serious about trying to quantify the benefits that the natrual ecosystem gives us.
A recent study by a group of European economists has been the latest to try to quantify the value. The study put the estimated cost of environmental destruction at $2-5 trillion. Obviously, this is a lot, but it is not necessarily wrong. There are many variables involved, and up for interpretation, so none of these studies are unanimously received. But many natural systems are extremely valuable, such as the water-purification of forests and wetlands, pollination by bees and insects, and erosion prevention by plant roots.
Recently New York City has had to expand their land preservation program in the Catskill watershed in order to prevent the need to build additional treatment facilities, which can cost billions of dollars. Land preservation is a fraction of that cost.
While there may not yet be consensus about how much things like deforesation and over-fishing cost, there is a consensus that they cause serious economic harm, and the better we get at being able to count the value, the better we will get at integrating preservation of ecosystems into our world economy.
Thank you Gmail!
I’m a big fan of drying my laundry on a rack (I don’t have a back yard). In the winter it gets vital humidity into the apartment, and over the last 8 years when I have been doing it, I’ve probably saved a few hundred dollars.
The Project Laundry List is an organization trying to persuade people to get back into the lost routine of line-drying and rack-drying. I really recommend it!
The banks have always needed capital, not liquidity. And now it seems like the treasury is prepared to invest directly in the banks.
Banks hold lots of assets (like deposits). They then use these assets to make loans, providing the vital financial lube. Banks can usually lend out 10 times their assets without any problem (notice how bank runs are so terrifying to an economy). This crisis came about because banks had billions in mortgage backed assets. When home prices declined, the assets declined in value. Banks still had the same amount of outstanding loans, but with lower assets. (Investment banks like Bear and Lehman had like 35 times more debt than assets) The way to rectify the situation is for the bank to raise money, and return to a good loan-to-asset balance. Banks raise money by selling new stock. This hurts current shareholders by diluting their ownership share, and has been highly resisted, but it is the only way to get banks the capital footing they need.
If they won’t do it on their own, maybe they will be forced to. This power of the treasury, to invest directly in banks, was one of the ones added to bailout after it went around the second time.
Marc B
Brad L
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