Turnaround Artist :-)

Surprise: we are living in the most peaceful times in human history

"The world we live in is, first of all, at peace — profoundly at peace. The richest countries of the world are not in geopolitical competition with one another, fighting wars, proxy wars, or even engaging in arms races or “cold wars.” This is a historical rarity. You would have to go back hundreds of years to find a similar period of great power peace. I know that you watch a bomb going off in Afghanistan or hear of a terror plot in this country and think we live in dangerous times. But here is the data. The number of people who have died as a result of war, civil war, and, yes, terrorism, is down 50 percent this decade from the 1990s. It is down 75 percent from the preceding five decades, the decades of the Cold War, and it is, of course, down 99 percent from the decade before that, which is World War II. Harvard professor Steven Pinker says that we are living in the most peaceful times in human history." Fareed Zakaria

An Old Russian Joke

A wife is sitting near her dying husband. "Masha, do you remember how I was fired and couldn't find a job for 3 years? You stayed with me then." "Yes, darling, I remember." "Masha, do you remember how I was drunk and got my car smashed up in an accident? You were visiting me in the hospital for 5 years." "Yes, honey, I remember." "And now when I'm dying you are sitting here with me." "(Crying) Yes, my treasure!" "Masha, I'm starting to believe you bring me bad luck..."

"Sex Strike" in Colombia

From Agora Financial's 5 Min. Forecast

"... from Colombia, we see that a “sex strike” has achieved its objectives: The government has agreed to pave a road.

The “strike of crossed legs” began in late June, with 300 women in Barbacoa refusing their husbands sex until the road connecting the remote town to the rest of the country was paved:

Now that’s a protest…

The town of 40,000 is linked to the outside world via a treacherous mountain road stretching 35 miles to the nearest town. Even in the best of times, the trip took four to six hours. But after heavy rains and landslides in the last year, it’s more like 10-12.

Under pressure from the town’s deprived men, the National Roads Institute has given in: Construction is set to begin Oct. 11.

And just to make sure the government keeps its word, the strike is set to continue until then: “The Barbacoan community,” says a statement from the women, “is aware that there have always been many promises made here that have never been kept.”

Tough crowd…"

Uh-Oh IV

From September 2011 issue of Currency Capitalist:

Wrong Again, Economists

"Every month the Wall Street Journal publishes a survey of economists. In January, the headline read 'Economists Optimistic On Growth.'

At the time economists were optimistic. They expected the U.S. economy to grow by a respectable 3.3% in the second quarter.

But they were wrong. The U.S. GDP came in at 1.3% for the second quarter, less than half that. And this is just the initial estimate that will be revised later.

Export figures for the second quarter were recently revised lower. Since exports play a key role in GDP growth, this revision in exports will result in a lower GDP number for the second quarter.

So when the revised second quarter GDP numbers come out in late August (after we go to press), I expect to see another pathetic number.

The GDP number for the first quarter was already revised down from 1.9% to an anemic 0.4%. That’s a huge revision. If the second quarter suffers a revision of the same magnitude, we will dip into negative growth.

Again, these economists are looking at the same data that I am, but they’re still optimistic. In fact, as recent as three months ago, economists still expected the U.S. economy to grow by more than 3% this year.

Economists at Goldman Sachs still maintain to this day that the chance of another recession is only 33% in the next nine months.

Unfortunately, history doesn’t agree.

Right now, our year-over-year GDP growth stands at a very concerning 1.6%. If you go back all the way to 1950, you’ll see that every time our GDP growth dropped below 2%, our economy was either already in a recession…or we fell into one within a year.

In other words, history is already predicting another recession. Just nobody wants to come out and say it. "

Uh-Oh III

Video Link

Blame politicians or ourselves?

"Very seldom are people willing to blame themselves for the problems they create. They always want to blame someone else: the Chinese, Republicans, Democrats. It’s a natural, normal human response, but blaming someone else does not solve the problem.

...

We can blame politicians a little bit, but the bulk of the blame lies with the American people. That was kind of an epiphany for me. During the 1980s, I would occasionally have lunch with Senator Jesse Helms from North Carolina. He knew that I was highly critical of agricultural subsidies, handouts to farmers.

Something Jesse Helms told me at one of our luncheons made me realize some things I had not realized until then. He said, “Walter, I agree with you 100% that these farm subsidies ought to be eliminated.” But then he asked, “Can you tell me how I can remain the senator from North Carolina and vote against them? If I do what you say, I would be voted out of office.”

Applying his observation today, we can note that the biggest expenditures by the federal government are Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and prescription drugs. Along with other entitlements, these expenditures amount to almost 60% of the federal budget. The beneficiaries of these programs vote in large numbers. Politicians who talk about cutting these programs are going to run into trouble. We have to get the American people, as much as politicians, to respect the Constitution.

...

Keep in mind something that Richard Nixon said to John Ehrlichman, who warned that Milton Friedman, an economist and Nobel laureate, advised against the policy Nixon was pursuing. Nixon’s response was, “Milton Friedman is not running for reelection.” These people in Washington have commitments and responsibilities that I don’t have. I don’t owe anybody anything, so I can be perfectly honest. When you are trying to get reelected, or appointed to a high-level position, or hoping to have a high-paying job when you leave government, you just can’t say the sort of things I am free to say.

...

We have to ask ourselves, “Are the American people any different than the Romans, the British, the French? Are they different from Spain or Portugal?” These were all once great empires that went down the tubes for bread and circuses, for huge spending. There is every indication that Americans will go the same way."

-- Walter Williams in the Casey Report

Life

The Status of Debt-Reduction Talks So Far

Collaboration

iPhone Controlled Cannon Tosses Beer From the Fridge

from Casey Research:

"At the end of the day, folks, we need a break. So is it too much to ask that we not have to trudge all the way to the refrigerator in the kitchen, in order to reward ourselves with the adult beverage of our choice?

Thought not.

Luckily, there are clever hackers out there who have been pondering the same question, and Carnegie Mellon grad student Ryan Rusnak, surely suffering as we have, arrived at an ingenious solution. He married an iPhone to a retrofitted dorm fridge, added a few off-the-shelf parts and… drum roll, please… came up with something we always knew we needed. A beer cannon.

That’s right, you simply touch your phone screen to select the brand of brew you want at that moment (works with soft drinks and iced tea, too, of course), then press the Fire! button, and the cannon will shoot an ice cold can across the room and right into your hands.

Best of all, basic directions for building your own cannon – which’ll set you back about $400, a small price to pay for this kind of convenience, in our opinion – are posted here, and the app to operate it can be downloaded from the iTunes store for free."

HA! II

HA!

A Union Army Soldier's Letter to his Wife

Sullivan Ballou, a 32-year-old soldier in the Union Army, to his 24-year-old wife:

"July 14, 1861
Camp Clark, Washington

My very dear Sarah:

The indications are very strong that we shall move in a few days -- perhaps tomorrow. Lest I should not be able to write again, I feel impelled to write a few lines that may fall under your eye when I shall be no more ...

Sarah my love for you is deathless, it seems to bind me with mighty cables that nothing but omnipotence could break; and yet my love of Country comes over me like a strong wind and bears me irresistibly on with all these chains to the battle field.

The memories of the blissful moments I have spent with you come creeping over me, and I feel most gratified to God and to you that I have enjoyed them for so long. And hard it is for me to give them up and burn to ashes the hopes of future years, when, God willing, we might still have lived and loved together, and seen our sons grow to honorable manhood, around us. I have, I know, but few and small claims upon Divine Providence, but something whispers to me -- perhaps it is the wafted prayer of my little Edgar, that I shall return to my loved ones unharmed. If I do not my dear Sarah, never forget how much I love you, and when my last breath escapes me on the battle field, it will whisper your name. Forgive my many faults and the many pains I have caused you. How thoughtless and foolish I have often times been! How gladly would I wash out with my tears every little spot upon your happiness. ...

But, O Sarah! If the dead can come back to this earth and fit unseen around those they loved, I shall always be near you; in the gladdest days and in the darkest nights ... always, always, and if there be a soft breeze upon your cheek, it shall be my breath, as the cool air fans your throbbing temple, it shall be my spirit passing by. Sarah do not mourn me dead; think I am gone and wait for thee, for we shall meet again ... "

Ballou was killed a week later in the first battle of Bull Run.

Ric Elias: 3 things I learned while my plane crashed | Video on TED.com

Ric Elias: 3 things I learned while my plane crashed | Video on TED.com

Ralph Langner: Cracking Stuxnet, a 21st-century cyber weapon | Video on TED.com

Ralph Langner: Cracking Stuxnet, a 21st-century cyber weapon | Video on TED.com

Theater of the Absurd: The Irish Bailout

Link if above video does not play: Ireland Hot Spots 1



Link if above video does not play: Ireland Hot Spots 2

A few things I appreciate about America ...

Electricity that's always on, A Shower with good water pressure, Instant on hot water, broadband, a car horn I rarely have to use, ...

The Uranium Reactor

From Casey's Energy Report:

"The typical nuclear fuel cycle starts with refined uranium ore, which is mostly uranium-238 but contains 3% to 5% uranium-235. U-238 is the most common uranium isotope but does not undergo fission, which is the process by which the nucleus of the atom splits and releases tremendous amounts of energy. By contrast, U-235 is not very prevalent but is fissile. As such, uranium ore must be enriched to boost the proportion of U-235.

Once in the reactor, U-235 starts splitting and releasing high-energy neutrons. The U-238 does not just sit idly by, however; it transmutes into other, fissile elements. For example, if an atom of U-238 absorbs a neutron, it transmutes into short-lived U-239, which rapidly decays into neptunium-239 and then into plutonium-239.

When the U-235 content burns down to 0.3% the fuel is spent, but it contains some very radioactive isotopes of americium, technetium, and iodine, as well as plutonium. This waste fuel is highly radioactive and the culprits, these high-mass isotopes, have half-lives of many thousands of years. As such, the waste has to be housed for up to 10,000 years, cloistered from the environment and from anyone who might want to get at the plutonium for nefarious reasons."

DIFFERENT WAYS OF LOOKING AT THINGS

From Casey's Daily Dispatch:

Two guys were discussing popular family trends on sex, marriage, and family values.

Bill said, “I didn't sleep with my wife before we got married, did you?”

Larry replied, “I'm not sure, what was her maiden name?”

***

“Mr. Clark, I have reviewed this case very carefully,” the divorce court judge said, “and I've decided to give your wife $775 a week.”

“That's very fair, Your Honor,” the husband said. “And every now and then, I'll try to send her a few bucks myself.”

***

An old woman goes to the wizard to ask him if he can remove a curse she has been living with for the last 40 years.

The wizard says, “Maybe, but you will have to tell me the exact words that were used to put the curse on you.”

The old woman says without hesitation, “I now pronounce you man and wife.”

***

Two reasons why it's so hard to solve a redneck murder:

1. The DNA all matches.

2. There are no dental records.

***

A blonde calls Delta Airlines and asks, “Can you tell me how long it'll take to fly from San Francisco to New York City?”

The agent replies, “Just a minute.”

“Thank you,” the blonde says and hangs up.

***