Posted in Daily notes on Mar 15th, 2010
Many people do not trust te experts. who have brought war, bank failure, population, and increasinglyly thratening technologies they can’t afford. The anger at lost jobs, children dead in the two wars, all add up. here is some first hand reporting about that world.
George Packer, A Reporter at Large, “Obama’s Lost Year,” The New [...]
Posted in Daily notes, key issues, sustainability on Mar 15th, 2010
This is quite excellent. Very GardenWorld.
Other worlds are possible Other Worlds are Possible – the new economics foundation
This report argues that our chances of triumphing over climate change will rise dramatically if we change the context within which we ‘fght its fre’. More than that, it suggests that we are already surrounded [...]
Posted in Daily notes on Mar 11th, 2010
How come a big ice age happened when carbon dioxide levels were high? It's a question climate sceptics often ask. But sometimes the right answer is the simplest: it turns out CO2 levels were not that high after all.
The Ordovician ice age happened 444 million years ago, and records have suggested that CO2 levels were [...]
Posted in Daily notes on Mar 10th, 2010
Even if your favorite gadget isn't flaunting them, rare earth metals are vital to all sorts of high-tech gizmos, from your flat-panel TV and computer hard drive to the hefty batteries that power the Toyota Prius. But over 95% of the world's rare earth comes from China; and late last year, China told the world [...]
Posted in Daily notes on Mar 10th, 2010
It was a good year to be rich. Or ultra-rich, for that matter.The number of U.S. households with a net worth of $1 million or more — excluding wealth derived from a primary residence — grew 16 percent last year, according to a new report by the Spectrem Group, a Chicago-based consulting firm. After a [...]
Posted in Daily notes on Mar 9th, 2010
The power of the climate narrative and the empire falling – are they synching each other? Well, while figuring it out, here is one.
By Chris Hedges
There are no constraints left to halt America’s slide into a totalitarian capitalism. Electoral politics are a sham. The media have been debased and defanged by corporate owners. The working [...]
Posted in Daily notes, sustainability, world stuff on Mar 9th, 2010
Bad news.
Across Vietnam, high temperatures and parched rivers are setting off alarm bells as the nation grapples with what’s shaping up to be its worst drought in more than 100 years. At 0.68 meters high, the Red River is at its lowest level since records started being kept in 1902. With virtually no rainfall since [...]
Posted in Daily notes on Mar 8th, 2010
The krugman article ends,
For someone else, this loss might be a devastation, but even though for thirty years thinking deeply about economics was all Krugman really cared about, he has let it pass out of his life without regret. “I think he’s happy,” his friend Craig Murphy says. “A much happier person now than when [...]
Posted in Daily notes on Mar 8th, 2010
Pretty revealing, and of course not a interesting as understanding the ehy of what people actually do. Which won’t fit math because math is intrinsically cold.
It isn’t that freshwater types believe that actual people are perfectly rational—they just believe that making that assumption enables a more rigorous economics than is possible without it. After all, [...]
Posted in Community, Daily notes on Mar 8th, 2010
For silicon valley, what next, as it seems to be faltering.
Later on, Krugman became interested in economic geography, in the related question of why there were regional specialties—why, in the United States, for instance, were cars produced in Detroit, carpets in Dalton, Georgia, jewelry in Providence, and chips in Silicon Valley? Again, the answer turned [...]