Twitter: @wuhlax
Scratches to Sketches
Wednesday, 31 August 2011
Bipartisan group says end environmentally harmful subsidies to save tax dollars - PowerSource | Blog on EDN
http://www.edn.com/blog/PowerSource/41269-Bipartisan_group_says_end_environmentally_harmful_subsidies_to_save_tax_dollars.php
How e-bikes got sexy | Peter Walker | Environment | guardian.co.uk
The electric bike, now that's a winner!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/bike-blog/2011/aug/31/cycling-haibike-electric-bike
Twitter: @wuhlax
Tuesday, 30 August 2011
Linden Street Figure Drawing (Emeryville, CA) - Meetup
Community devoted to drawing the figure in Linden.
http://www.meetup.com/Linden-Street-Figure-Drawing/
Twitter: @wuhlax
Nyack Sketch Log: Wet and Wild Rogue Elephants | Nyack News and Views
Small town musings!
http://www.nyacknewsandviews.com/2011/08/bb_wetandwildelephants/
Twitter: @wuhlax
Monday, 29 August 2011
UN warns of mutant strain of bird flu virus - Asia-Pacific - Al Jazeera English
Again, the world will have to deal with the possibility of a major virus outbreak, and this time originating from Vietnam so FAO reports. It's the bird or avian H5N1 variety, the most deadly! http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2011/08/2011829165436251177.html Twitter: @wuhlax
UN warns of mutant strain of bird flu virus - Asia-Pacific - Al Jazeera English
Again, the world will have to deal with the possibility of a major virus outbreak, and this time originating from Vietnam so FAO reports. It's the bird or avian H5N1 variety, the most deadly!
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2011/08/2011829165436251177.html
Twitter: @wuhlax
Coeliac UK in search for Gluten-Free chef of the Year - Chester Chronicle
Here is your big chance! http://www.chesterchronicle.co.uk/chester-news/local-chester-news/2011/08/25/... Twitter: @wuhlax
Top Banks Confront Leaner Future by Cutting Jobs - NYTimes.com
Banks became irresponsible businesses by not assuming responsibility for their actions. They embraced gambling and many are simply fronts for organized crime and money laundering operations.
The efforts of government and banks in the building of a country housing bubble, a gambling casino for property, shows how stupid and irresponsible this genertion of young American so called educated bankers were despite the lessons of the Texas bailouts of the 1980s, and possibly they realized that they would be bailed out as this habit of bailing out and gambling in housing and construction sectors persists even to today!
It's thecwidespread prevalence of socially sick and addictive processes such as gambling and fighting that make areas of America so inhospitable today!
Twitter: @wuhlax
Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease
Such a diet may be sufficient, though not absolutely necessary. Question of which steps are safe when moving away from what is sufficient.
Avoid:
Meat
Dairy
Oils
Food with mothers and faces
Emulate Steven Jobs and Bill Clinton to name two!
http://www.heartattackproof.com/
Twitter: @wuhlax
Sunday, 28 August 2011
Zinio Reader: Bendy ‘plasmon’ beams focus better than light alone
Bendy 'plasmon' beams focus better than light alone
Light cannot squeeze down smaller than half its wavelength, but waves of electrons can – now these can be steered in real time
BENDY beams of light and matter can now be steered in real time, paving the way for devices with a focus sharper than anything possible using light alone.
From microscopes to optical circuits, tools that rely on beams of light are held back by a fundamental rule: light cannot be focused to a point smaller than half its wavelength. This diffraction limit affects how small an object can be imaged and makes super-fast optical computers – which would use light rather than electrons for processing – impractically large.
Waves of matter can be squeezed smaller, however. Light hitting a metal excites waves of electrons on its surface, called plasmons. These travel along the surface and have wavelengths that can be much smaller than the light's diffraction limit. But until now, rigid gratings have been needed to direct and steer plasmons to a given point so that they could image something there.
Waves of electrons on a metal's surface span a tiny fraction of the wavelength of light
Peng Zhang at the University of California, Berkeley, and colleagues can now bend beams of plasmons to their whim. They sent laser light through a screen on which a pattern was displayed. This pattern split the light into beams that interfered with each other to create what appeared to be a single beam that arced through space.
This so-called "Airy beam" then hit a gold film, where it excited surface plasmons and steered them along the surface according to the arc of the light (Optics Letters, DOI: 10.1364/OL.36.003191). The new set-up means it is possible to steer the plasmons to a focus simply by changing the pattern on the screen, allowing this focal point to range over an object rather than having to move the object itself.
"If we can focus light much smaller than a wavelength, then we can use it to fabricate much smaller integrated circuits, do much more accurate imaging, all those kinds of things," Zhang says. "That's our dream."
The new scheme is "quite an elegant way of generating 'Airy plasmons'", says Alexander Minovich at the Australian National University in Canberra. He says the set-up could also be used to grab and move nano-sized particles.
Twitter: @wuhlax
Gadhafi's troops killed nearly 150 prisoners, witness says - CNN.com
Not pleasant reading!
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/08/28/libya.massacre.report/index.html
Twitter: @wuhlax
Gaddafi's end … and Libya's new beginning | World news | The Observer
The end proves the point that the Libyan uprising was winnable!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug/28/gaddafi-end-libya-new-beginning?CMP=twt_gu
Twitter: @wuhlax
Zinio Reader: Heal thyself: Self-hypnosis
Heal thyself: Self-hypnosis
Hypnosis may help pain management, anxiety, depression, sleep disorders, obesity and asthma, not to mention some nasty skin conditions
Hypnotherapy has struggled for scientific acceptance ever since Franz Mesmer claimed in the 18th century that he could cure all manner of ills with what he termed "animal magnetism". "The whole field is plagued by people who don't feel research is necessary," says Peter Whorwell of the University of Manchester in the UK.
Whorwell has spent much of his professional life building a body of evidence for the use of hypnosis to treat just one condition: irritable bowel syndrome. IBS is considered a "functional" disorder – a rather derogatory term used when a patient suffers symptoms but doctors can't see anything wrong. Whorwell felt that his patients, some of whom had such severe symptoms they were suicidal, were being let down by the medical profession. "I got into hypnosis because the conventional treatment of these conditions is abysmal."
Whorwell gives patients a brief tutorial on how the gut functions, then gets them to use visual or tactile sensations – the feeling of warmth, for example – to imagine their bowel working normally. It seems to work – IBS is the only condition for which hypnosis is recommended by the UK's National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence. Despite this, Whorwell still has trouble convincing doctors to prescribe it. "We've produced a lot of incontrovertible research," he says. "Yet people are still loath to agree to it."
Part of the problem is that it isn't clear exactly how hypnosis works. What is clear is that when hypnotised, people can influence parts of their body in novel ways. Whorwell has shown that under hypnosis, some IBS patients can reduce the contractions of their bowel, something not normally under conscious control (Journal of Psychosomatic Research, vol 64, p 621). Their bowel lining also becomes less sensitive to pain.
Hypnosis probably taps into physiological pathways similar to those involved in the placebo effect, says Irving Kirsch of the University of Hull, UK. For one thing, the medical conditions that the two can benefit are similar, and both are underpinned by suggestion and expectation – believing in a particular outcome. The downside is that some people do not respond as strongly to hypnosis as others.
Most clinical trials involving hypnosis are small, largely because of a lack of funding, but they suggest that hypnosis may help pain management, anxiety, depression, sleep disorders, obesity, asthma and skin conditions such as psoriasis and warts (Papeles des Psicólogo, vol 30, p 98). Finding a good hypnotherapist can be tricky as the profession is not regulated, but hypnotising yourself seems to work just as well. "Self-hypnosis is the most important part," says Whorwell.
Jo Marchant is a freelance writer based in London
Twitter: @wuhlax
Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis: Obama Seeks Holy Grail of Housing, Proverbial Free Lunch, Gain With No Pain; It's Another Bank Bailout in Disguise
Mish is, of course, absolutely right as usual. There is nothing more dangerous than fantasy world programs for stimulating housing. If refinancing is to be accomplished it needs to be accompanied by debt forgiveness by the banks, say 50 percent refinancing and 50 percent debt forgiveness, plus alteration of the mortgage to secure the loan on the person rather than the property!
Twitter: @wuhlax
GDP Is a Lie – It’s Time for a New Measure of Economic Growth - Money Morning
This is another claim that statistics lie. Money Morning in my view needs to go back to economics class. I have a hard time keeping a straight face when reading the rubbish that money morning includes in this blog piece. It sounds convincing, but is really very far off the mark. The author in money morning wrongly claims that GDP as measured wrongly values growth. By choosing another measure, he claims to remove or reduce a bias. The logic is very short term, but even then is silly! The problem is associated with the valuation of the government sector at cost rather than a market value. Putting a market value on government spending would certainly alter the growth numbers, but the valuation if long term might be excessively high given that government spending often begins growth. Should the private sector spend during this gestation and invention research period, it would lose money heavily so the private sector, eg pharmaceuticals, who rely on university and government subsidized research, does nothing but wait around for the basic research and the unprofitable costs to be covered by government. For example, if the private sector spent money on welfare it would loose profit or income, but the poor person would continue living and add to a country's costs. Eventually the poor person who is educated might contribute to society and part of the income would need to be ascribed to the welfare provided by the private sector. Since firms don't do welfare much, nor even sustain pensions, the market valuation of growth by the private sector is markedly exaggerated. This is only the tip of the ice berg for the lack of growth that would follow a shut down of government. There would be so little shared research that few firms would compete and negative grow might actually follow. Th Marxist prediction of zero profit would most certainly follow because without invention and sharing of information nothing new would happen. The autos would be like Russian Soviet era cars without design. Since the government supports the R and D of the military sector, the leadership of hat sector would be lost and the private sector would get even less of spin offs such as new materials and things like lasers. We would not see iPads. But, there is no ideal method for valuing growth. The present GDP exaggerates the contribution of the private sector while understating that of the government sector. The system of measurement proposed by the writer for Money Morning below would exaggerate the growth contribution of the private sector beyond belief! Read, and then give your view! http://moneymorning.com/2011/08/23/gdp-lie-time-for-new-measure-of-economic-g... Twitter: @wuhlax
GDP Is a Lie – It’s Time for a New Measure of Economic Growth - Money Morning
This is another claim that statistics lie. Money Morning in my view needs to go back to economics class.
I have a hard time keeping a straight face when reading the rubbish that money morning includes in this blog piece. It sounds convincing, but is really very far off the mark.
The author in money morning wrongly claims that GDP as measured wrongly values growth. By choosing another measure, he claims to remove or reduce a bias. The logic is very short term, but even then is silly!
The problem is associated with the valuation of the government sector at cost rather than a market value. Putting a market value on government spending would certainly alter the growth numbers, but the valuation if long term might be excessively high given that government spending often begins growth.
Should the private sector spend during this gestation and invention research period, it would lose money heavily so the private sector, eg pharmaceuticals, who rely on university and government subsidized research, does nothing but wait around for the basic research and the unprofitable costs to be covered by government.
For example, if the private sector spent money on welfare it would loose profit or income, but the poor person would continue living and add to a country's costs. Eventually the poor person who is educated might contribute to society and part of the income would need to be ascribed to the welfare provided by the private sector. Since firms don't do welfare much, nor even sustain pensions, the market valuation of growth by the private sector is markedly exaggerated.
This is only the tip of the ice berg for the lack of growth that would follow a shut down of government. There would be so little shared research that few firms would compete and negative grow might actually follow. Th Marxist prediction of zero profit would most certainly follow because without invention and sharing of information nothing new would happen. The autos would be like Russian Soviet era cars without design. Since the government supports the R and D of the military sector, the leadership of hat sector would be lost and the private sector would get even less of spin offs such as new materials and things like lasers. We would not see iPads.
But, there is no ideal method for valuing growth. The present GDP exaggerates the contribution of the private sector while understating that of the government sector. The system of measurement proposed by the writer for Money Morning below would exaggerate the growth contribution of the private sector beyond belief!
Read, and then give your view!
http://moneymorning.com/2011/08/23/gdp-lie-time-for-new-measure-of-economic-growth/
Twitter: @wuhlax
No bread, no beer, let’s eat: students with celiac disease get creative at meal times (w/video) | The Red and Black
Excessive wind may be your clue. As to why so many are developing wheat or gluten sensitivity, that is a mystery yet to be explained by science, which is pretty clueless so far!
Twitter: @wuhlax
Saturday, 27 August 2011
Artist's Choice by Demco Mfg Inc
I have been having the hardest time of my life trying to buy your Artist's Choice Series 55 Sketch 100 pad AR91247.
I have googled for hours without success and I can't remember the store where I bought my last pads.
As an artist this is very frustrating and the Internet gets one no where.
Can you help by directing me somewhere or is it impossible?
Wuhlax
Twitter: @wuhlax
Libya leader's hypocrisy revealed to the world makes Libyans angry!
Apparently effective income per head is much lower than the mathematical ratio would suggest. The problem is lack of distribution of income. It is this political hypocrisy that doomed Gaddaffi to ignominy? Who was this guy who robbed the poor and said he did otherwise. The total hypocrite!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14680207
Twitter: @wuhlax
Friday, 26 August 2011
Sand and Singapore | ASEAN Beat
Strange but true!
http://the-diplomat.com/asean-beat/2011/08/26/sand-and-singapore/
Twitter: @wuhlax
US should raise taxes to help fix deficits, say business economists - CSMonitor.com
You could start with a really high gasoline tax with incentives to electric cars! You could link mortgages to people. You could remove the tax subsidy on mortgage interest. You could tax billionaires. You could have a tax on leveraged borrowing that bites.
Twitter: @wuhlax
China's military power: Modernisation in sheep's clothing | The Economist
Nothing like a good fight to keep these military guys happy whilst the rest of us think fighting is at the root of all evil!
Twitter: @wuhlax
What are Booktracks?
Curious use of sound to make book reading more fun!
http://www.businessinsider.com/booktracks-2011-8
Twitter: @wuhlax
Sense of Justice!
There is a big difference between a society that is primed to be suspicious and allows it's citizens to fire all sorts of weapons at each other, and a society that muddles through to get at the truth.
As a victim myself to the primed justice in America, I feel it is too full of traps for unwary people, especially those who are used to very different and more humane norms.
The American system of fighting through things rather than seeking a balance of less aggressive emotions, bleeds a higher level of damage where too many are made victims not of the crimes committed, but of the justice seeking process itself. No, I don't think justice is so important that it is allowed to damage. I think justice should be available, but proceed without making those seeking justice victims of the process.
America has a lot to learn about being a just community and about the processes of achieving justice. It's not fun to work or live in America because of all the fighting that takes place, one way or another. It's not good enough to say that the fighting achieves justice, because it doesn't. What is left out is the fact that process of achieving justice in America is unjust and real justice is never achieved.
America is destined to remain the unjust society until it can figure out just processes for achieving justice. Fighting is not the answer.
Twitter: @wuhlax
WikiLeaks reveals China's failure to measure dangerous pollution | Environment | guardian.co.uk
Sad state of affairs when business opportunities to fight pollution abound and people do not have relevant facts of the need or potential demand!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/aug/26/wikileaks-china-dangerous-pollution
Twitter: @wuhlax
Thursday, 25 August 2011
India according to Patrick French .... Well worth reading!
 Patrick French (@PatrickFrench2)25/08/2011 07:45 AM I withdraw every mean thing I ever said about Economic & Political Weekly: here's a great review from Prof Pulin Nayak http://t.co/zPGqsE9 |
Twitter: @wuhlax
Wednesday, 24 August 2011
Libya - What deals?
 WikiLeaks (@wikileaks)24/08/2011 08:44 PM WikiLeaks reveals Libyan arms bid | Canberra Times http://t.co/fa0P7Kx |
Twitter: @wuhlax
Bot-Breakdown: Deconstructing a Twitter-Spam Marketing Campaign | Epicenter | Wired.com
Read how the twitter spammer operates:
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/05/twitter-spam-marketing/2/
Twitter: @wuhlax
The Curious Link Between H1N1 Flu and Narcolepsy – TIME Healthland
In the event you might be interested!
Twitter: @wuhlax
PlayPolitical.com - Liberal Democrats: Nick Clegg: "What we're seeing are the final stages, the last stand" of Gaddafi's regime
I really do hope so. Perhaps, if we say it enough times, it will surely come true!
Twitter: @wuhlax
Blogging successfully!
 Darren Rowse (@problogger)23/08/2011 06:54 PM Traits of Successful Bloggers #8... do you have it? http://t.co/5Yir5OW |
Twitter: @wuhlax
Qaddafi's Mastery of Chess Gives an Advantage in a Desperate Game for Check Mate
The King and Queen in Qaddafi's chess board are still alive and active, it would seem, and while many pawns are removed, the Knights of the opposition are searching high and low for any sign of the King, Queen, Knights and Bishops. One Castle has fallen, but one remains though inoperative.
Qaddafi's Knights jump all over the place popping up here and there!
Meal times and dusk lead to pawns retreating which is not in the rules. However, with the demise of the Castle, the opposition to Qaddafi have created many Knights with powerful weapons and mobility!
Twitter: @wuhlax
Tuesday, 23 August 2011
Are you wearing toxic clothes?
 TreeHugger.com (@TreeHugger)23/08/2011 03:25 PM Big-Brand Clothing Found Laced with Toxic Chemicals http://t.co/favKjaM |
Twitter: @wuhlax
Cameron needs head examined!
 CSMonitor.com (@csmonitor)23/08/2011 02:56 PM #Cameron proposes evicting #British #rioters and families from public housing. That's collective guilt. OPED: http://t.co/dn7UEKM |
Twitter: @wuhlax
Angry Birds Expands into TV
 nytimesbusiness (@nytimesbusiness)23/08/2011 02:53 PM Gadgetwise Blog: A New Roost for Angry Birds: Your Television http://t.co/C5LqQ2b |
Twitter: @wuhlax
Marc Andreessen on Why Software Is Eating the World - WSJ.com
As we move more and more into a service oriented employment economy .....
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903480904576512250915629460.html
Twitter: @wuhlax
The fall of Tripoli: With a rebel yell | The Economist
Wow! It's wonderful to see the Gaddafi regime bite the dust and a just war win through! Well done friends ....
Twitter: @wuhlax
Iron deficiency anemia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Note the complex connection to copper and zinc!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_deficiency_anemia
Twitter: @wuhlax
As the dream of economic growth dies, a new plan awaits testing | George Monbiot | Comment is free | The Guardian
Do not agree with supposition!
It's not that growth cannot occur. It's that it has to be paced so as to allow firms to die as they obsolesce. Under socialist systems the death of firms is not fast enough nor the birth if firms. Capitalism does the trick, but it tends to be excessively geared to overshooting. It performs too well and gives us the bumpy ride and forces unpleasant adjustment.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/22/economic-growth-environment
Twitter: @wuhlax
Britain's entrepreneurial spirit is being strangled | Polly Toynbee | Comment is free | The Guardian
Some loans are not for property!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/22/small-business-banks-entrepreneurialism
Twitter: @wuhlax
DSK walks, but Nicolas Sarkozy will run | Anne Daguerre | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
The DSK story goes on and we are lesser for it!
Twitter: @wuhlax
Dominique Strauss-Kahn: prosecutors ask judge to dismiss sex charges | World news | guardian.co.uk
Innocent? We know he has a reputation for fast encounters!
DSK was prosecuted to the full based on the shaky evidence of the alleged victim. The logic of her claims was doubtful from the start. DSK needs to reform his character and this experience should be a warning to others who would step over social boundaries so blatantly!
Twitter: @wuhlax
Monday, 22 August 2011
The Vocabulary on My Autocorrector is Rubbish
I am the first to admit that when using the iPad I make a whole lot of spelling mistakes. I don't make many word mistakes. They are made by the autocorrecting software built into the iPad. The dictionary really needs to be upgraded for me. Am I so bright or have a better vocabulary than the dictionary! Others would say not, but I wonder?
Twitter: @wuhlax
The Education Bubble is Worse than the Housing Bubble - Economist Arthur Lake Claims
Tony Blair takes the position that the London riots are a highly specific problem seeking a highly specific solution! This is not about moral decay either so I think Cameron is just as wrong!
We are all mystified by the call to violence that a police action judged inequitous/unjust brought about. Perhaps, the response has a lot to do with the stimulus, which is an assessment by people that their economic situation is unjust. This is very real. If enough people believe this, such as students who had aspirations for education but who were disappointed with costs, they would riot if the correct stimulus were applied.
The Bubble of Education Costs:
Today we have levered inflation of the education sector which is another balloon about to explode world wide. Why in hell can't people be educated out of libraries and the comfort of their own homes. Or why can't Apple iPad schools not be educating students at 1/100 the cistern of universities. It's a bubble waiting to burst big time. If Bill Gates can succeed, so can almost anybody using an iPad and information on the Internet. Truly employers better get used to self educated people because they will put them out of business if not employed. Demand a certificated and bleed your company's profits away. Self education is the wedge that will burst the present bubble of education costs.
Multiple reasons:
I think the riots may have been due to more than one stimulus and require solutions at many levels of social administration not just specifics. The disconnect between people's aspirations and what was and is being experienced is primarily an economic disconnect. There is most definitely an injustice associated with the life experience of home ownership and job ownership, both related to employment.
While the house price inflations of 2000-2010 were not as bad as the inflation of Germany in the mid twenties, the effect cannot be underestimated, nor can the sense of misery associated with unemployment that also characterised the mid 1920s. Then, the world experienced riots between struggling labour and established employed. Marxism fought fascism, and fascism won some places while Marxism won others.
Project forward these issues that damaged societies in Europe and you have a profound sense of injustice. Sure English and German society were prosperous, but the under society were not. The liberal party all but disappeared in Britain, while in Germany the upper class lost it's legitimacy as did those Jewish families that ventured from the flight to gold and the appreciation in property values.
Recognise that the real issue was not the absence of property which led to the calls for lebensraum, but the absence of a just way for those in the under economy to acquire property at a price they could afford.
Britain's pressure pot riots have a general solution, but they require thinking outside of the normal boxes of specifics and generalities. The main issue was the use of the property market to create growth, but the rise in prices occurred too rapidly and was overtaken by speculation, divorces, two income families, and leveraged borrowing.
The Disconnect Between Property Acquisition and Incomes:
Let's get real economic growth is measured in terms of houses and cars. Much of it is due to inward migration.
There has been mostly crappy growth in Europe. Ugly cities with pollution are not growth, just more crap. American growth has been population driven and products have been crappy junk from China disguised as production but really retailing.
Incomes could not pay for housing and widespread demand went unsatisfied. In America, house prices don't rise because there is so much land or lebensraum, but there property prices went through the roof.
Using property for growth and employment still is seen in America and Britain as a viable economic policy despite the absence of jobs with incomes outside the housing industry to pay for the magnificent properties being built.
Lord Keynes would have said the real problem was effective demand, and an absence of real jobs. He would have focused on total demand just as the economists of Obama and Blair do/did! They would only get part of the picture!
Schumpeter at Harvard would have said the old industries need to die first to make way for new. Microsoft has to die to make way for Apple. That's what the stock Market is all about. It's as much about growing companies as killing them off. Too much leveraging allows the walking dead compaies to survive and a capitalist economy becomes clogged up. The toilet won't flush out the crappy companies to make way for good stuff.
Pricing Education High is Inflation and is as bad as a leveraged housing Market!
It's utter stupid inflation Mr Cameron! You need to see that addiction to leveraged housing market has been replaced by a leveraged education Market. Both have squeezed out those at the lower ends of the income streams.
So my solution as an economist is to recognise that Schumpeter was right and Keynes was right, but that neither are understood because the present lists of economists have crap understanding about leveraged growth. How do I know? I just read and look at TV, and watch the riots!
Un-leverage all the markets that are sodomy in disguise:
Housing and construction
Corporate takeovers
Education
Bailouts for walking dead companies
Inward migration
MPs expenses
Obsolete technology
Do the HP thing and recognise the tough choices!
Email me: wuhlax@gmail.com
http://m.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/20/tony-blair-riots-crime-family?cat=commentisfree&type=article
Twitter: @wuhlax
Blair speaks out on what caused British riots and how to deal with them. To one economist, Arthur Lake, very wrong!
Tony Blair take the position that the London riots are a highly specific problem seeking a highly specific solution! This is not about moral decay either so I think Cameron is just as wrong!
We are all mystified by the call to violence that a police action judged inequitous/unjust brought about. Perhaps, the response has a lot to do with the stimulus, which is an assessment by people that their economic situation is unjust. This is very real. If enough people believe this, such as students who had aspirations for education but who were disappointed with costs, they would riot if the correct stimulus were applied.
The Bubble of Education Costs:
Today we have levered inflation of the education sector which is another balloon about to explode world wide. Why in hell can't people be educated out of libraries and the comfort of their own homes. Or why can't Apple iPad schools not be educating students at 1/100 the cistern of universities. It's a bubble waiting to burst big time. If Bill Gates can succeed, so can almost anybody using an iPad and information on the Internet. Truly employers better get used to self educated people because they will put them out of business if not employed. Demand a certificated and bleed your company's profits away. Self education is the wedge that will burst the present bubble of education costs.
Multiple reasons:
I think the riots may have been due to more than one stimulus and require solutions at many levels of social administration not just specifics. The disconnect between people's aspirations and what was and is being experienced is primarily an economic disconnect. There is most definitely an injustice associated with the life experience of home ownership and job ownership, both related to employment.
While the house price inflations of 2000-2010 were not as bad as the inflation of Germany in the mid twenties, the effect cannot be underestimated, nor can the sense of misery associated with unemployment that also characterised the mid 1920s. Then, the world experienced riots between struggling labour and established employed. Marxism fought fascism, and fascism won some places while Marxism won others.
Project forward these issues that damaged societies in Europe and you have a profound sense of injustice. Sure English and German society were prosperous, but the under society were not. The liberal party all but disappeared in Britain, while in Germany the upper class lost it's legitimacy as did those Jewish families that ventured from the flight to gold and the appreciation in property values.
Recognise that the real issue was not the absence of property which led to the calls for lebensraum, but the absence of a just way for those in the under economy to acquire property at a price they could afford.
Britain's pressure pot riots have a general solution, but they require thinking outside of the normal boxes of specifics and generalities. The main issue was the use of the property market to create growth, but the rise in prices occurred too rapidly and was overtaken by speculation, divorces, two income families, and leveraged borrowing.
The Disconnect Between Property Acquisition and Incomes:
Let's get real economic growth is measured in terms of houses and cars. Much of it is due to inward migration.
There has been mostly crappy growth in Europe. Ugly cities with pollution are not growth, just more crap. American growth has been population driven and products have been crappy junk from China disguised as production but really retailing.
Incomes could not pay for housing and widespread demand went unsatisfied. In America, house prices don't rise because there is so much land or lebensraum, but there property prices went through the roof.
Using property for growth and employment still is seen in America and Britain as a viable economic policy despite the absence of jobs with incomes outside the housing industry to pay for the magnificent properties being built.
Lord Keynes would have said the real problem was effective demand, and an absence of real jobs. He would have focused on total demand just as the economists of Obama and Blair do/did! They would only get part of the picture!
Schumpeter at Harvard would have said the old industries need to die first to make way for new. Microsoft has to die to make way for Apple. That's what the stock Market is all about. It's as much about growing companies as killing them off. Too much leveraging allows the walking dead compaies to survive and a capitalist economy becomes clogged up. The toilet won't flush out the crappy companies to make way for good stuff.
Pricing Education High is Inflation and is as bad as a leveraged housing Market!
It's utter stupid inflation Mr Cameron! You need to see that addiction to leveraged housing market has been replaced by a leveraged education Market. Both have squeezed out those at the lower ends of the income streams.
So my solution as an economist is to recognise that Schumpeter was right and Keynes was right, but that neither are understood because the present lists of economists have crap understanding about leveraged growth. How do I know? I just read and look at TV, and watch the riots!
Un-leverage all the markets that are sodomy in disguise:
Housing and construction
Corporate takeovers
Education
Bailouts for walking dead companies
Inward migration
MPs expenses
Obsolete technology
Do the HP thing and recognise the tough choices!
Email me: wuhlax@gmail.com
Twitter: @wuhlax
Geological Team Lays Claim to Oldest Known Fossils - NYTimes.com
So life just needed a place to start being so much a part of the universe. We are not so unusual nor alone!
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/22/science/earth/22fossil.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha2
Twitter: @wuhlax
Downgrade Apple from 'neutral' to 'unfavorable'? Seriously? - Apple 2.0 - Fortune Tech
Right on the money! Apple is not gold?
Twitter: @wuhlax
Brick Bodies/Lynne Brick's - Baltimore, MD - Build Your Body With Brick!
http://www.brickbodies.com/
Comparable on London England - See Howard Malin entries here:
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-938132-eton-boys-take-over-the-town.do
http://www.longshotltd.com/Press.aspx
Twitter: @wuhlax
Gold Advances to Record as Economy, Debt Concern Spurs Demand
Is Gold itself becoming a bubble or ballooning speculative market that will eventually hurt buyers, or should one be buying silver?
http://www.moneynews.com/Headline/gold-record-/2011/08/22/id/408118?s=al&promo_code=CE2D-1
Twitter: @wuhlax
How HP’s 2,000 WebOS Patents Could Reshape Everything
So what are you waiting for RIM?
http://www.businessinsider.com/hps-2000-webos-patents-and-how-they-could-reshape-everything-2011-8
Twitter: @wuhlax
Sunday, 21 August 2011
Tornado in Goderich Ontario
 LEVONews (@LEVONews)21/08/2011 11:34 PM One dead, 37 injured after tornado hits #Goderich, Ontario http://t.co/BgXRfkX |
Twitter: @wuhlax
Goderich Tornado
 Dan Hayward (@danielhayward)21/08/2011 11:04 PM One person dead, number of injuries unknown, many buildings damaged by tornado in Goderich ON. http://t.co/qqHkjY0 Praying. |
Twitter: @wuhlax
Saturday, 20 August 2011
New systems coming down wind!
 Peter Ralph (@WindPowerSystem)20/08/2011 06:15 PM Brilliant new 'Twitter Inspired' Alternative Energy blogging site launched by MyWindPowerSystem.com http://t.co/0B82CRS Say what you think! |
Twitter: @wuhlax
Tripoli under attack
We are cheering for the rebels to oust dictator Ghadafi and put him on trial for war crimes. Down with dictators!
 CBS News (@CBSNews)20/08/2011 06:08 PM Libyan rebels take fight to Tripoli, coordinated assault with NATO...developing story http://t.co/Ih9hU1M #Libya |
Twitter: @wuhlax
Iran sentences 2 American men to 8 years in jail in blow to hopes for freedom - The Washington Post
Not Jack Bauer nor the skate manufacturer. Who guesses that Shane is not a spy for America. Pretty obvious that it would be too dangerous with such a name so suspect it is Iranian injustice at work! What do you feel?
Twitter: @wuhlax
Friday, 19 August 2011
Housing markets: Low rates, no interest | The Economist
Sounds like an echo of my views!
http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2011/08/housing-markets&fsrc=nwl
Twitter: @wuhlax
Thursday, 18 August 2011
Solar manufacturers Having to Drop Out as Panel Prices Fall
Not all is rosy in the solar panel industry as it matures and new technology hits established firms!
 TIME.com (@TIME)17/08/2011 10:20 PM Cloudy days for the solar industry | http://t.co/D4Yc7k5 |
Twitter: @wuhlax
Wednesday, 17 August 2011
Lieberman: I Might Not Back Obama in 2012
What do you think of this man, Lieberman? Is he finally being honest? Or, is he just very confusing and not leadership material?
Twitter: @wuhlax
Washington's Road to Financial Perdition!
This points to an article that is much too loose with obvious facts?
http://w3.newsmax.com/fir/money_mischief/?promo_code=CD95-1
Twitter: @wuhlax
On the World Entering a new Economic Hell
This situation is much worse than that of the 1930's.
It happened with many more Chicago PhDs looking on! It required many Harvard and MIT PhDs to create the financing technologies and software. It will require more than Princeton or Cambridge and Oxford PhDs to sort out.
In fact, one has to recognize that there is no solution in the conventional sense.
We are heading deeper and deeper into the mire of desperation at a time when innovation is racing faster and faster. It's a new monetary world that cannot be met with anything we have tried before.
Our only real hope is massive cooperation which is nowhere to be found. Once the trap was sprung, we cannot return to what we knew.
We now enter economic equations that require balancing by sacrifice.
It's no good to riot, but those that have will need to share and the safer they will be the sooner that is realized!
There is nothing special about America that prevents the contagion of desperate measures.
 Newsweek (@Newsweek)17/08/2011 08:39 AM 2002 Nobel Economics Laureate Vernon L. Smith on Insolvency, Policy, and Economic Stress http://t.co/QBhNaFF #TheRoadAhead |
Twitter: @wuhlax
Tuesday, 16 August 2011
Monday, 15 August 2011
Why Inflation is Our Biggest Looming Problem!
This video is a must view! It's long but spot on.... Do not ignore the possibility of serious structural adjustment ahead!....
http://w3.newsmax.com/a/aftershockb/video.cfm?s=al&promo_code=CD59-1
Twitter: @wuhlax
Sleep
 NYTimes Science (@nytimesscience)15/08/2011 05:10 PM Well Blog: Common Sleep Problem Raises Dementia Risk http://t.co/Wujd3n3 |
Twitter: @wuhlax
Red Meat Issues for Diabetes 2
| NYTimes Science (@nytimesscience) 15/08/2011 05:10 PM Well Blog: Swapping Meat for Nuts to Lower Diabetes Risk http://t.co/FQTez6T |
Twitter: @wuhlax
Sunday, 14 August 2011
Saturday, 13 August 2011
Pastel Portrait - Halle Berry - from theportraitart
Check out this video on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKBdsSCDJDs&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Twitter: @wuhlax
Speed painting portrait Britney Spears
Check out this video on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgkS2j2d82k&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Twitter: @wuhlax
Painting Original Abstract Portrait in acrylics by artist Martina Shapiro
Check out this video on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_yOiXIzJDM&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Twitter: @wuhlax
Friday, 12 August 2011
Penny Auction Websites are a Lot of Work, with Avalanche and Tipping points to understand?
My thumbs down except for the true addicts!
Most buyers don't have the time and skills needed to get the bargains seemingly offered on penny auction websites.
First you buy bids.
A single bid can cost over fifty cents.
One bid counts for one cent on the price the penny auction website price. That's possibly why they are called penny auctions and not because you can really buy stuff for pennies. The revenue going to the seller is a big multiple of the penny price and probably over 50 times.
So you have to do some math and what seems cheap may be 50 times or more as expensive. But you are not the only one placing bids and really odd things can happen so have your psychology text next to you. Bystander effects occur when others stand by waiting for you to exhaust your 'little' pile of bids. Some people will have major piles.
After your bid you wait while others get a chance to bid, even at the closing se one's when all the fun begins. You try to minimize your number of bids, but what if the bidding ends as the number of bidders visible increases exponentially. Some lucky guy wins by surprise to everyone who thought the game was unending!
It's a perverse bystander psychology that operates to run the numbers higher and higher until the inevitable point when people give up, not because they are far from winning, but because they are extremely close. This is the tipping point to the end of the contest!
The sites show you the math and they give you an out which is to just pay their asking price for your item and credit your bids at the sum of the cost price of the bids.
If you want to bid for something pricey like a camera or iPad, you will find it is very hard work to get it.
You may make a small number if bids, but you will probably have acquired skills with tedious effort akin to playing a complex computer game!
All the warnings needed are posted, but it's not for those that are not used to doing probability math!
Try a hypergeometric statistical theorem and add in bystander psychology along with the difficult mathematics of avalanches and you might win consistently.
Twitter: @wuhlax
Wednesday, 10 August 2011
Tuesday, 9 August 2011
It's An Insurrection Not a Riot!
What do you think when you hear the explanation expressed so very clearly on YuTube? We may be at an historical moment and the consequences as grave as the French revolution of 1798. The problem may be poor political understanding of history.
Galbraith explained the moment and you will understand. Churchill and Keynes understood the moment. To understand, you need to have sought deeper than the conventional truth! The stress poor people are experiencing is beyond their ability to cope. We are forcing people into a mold that they are not capable of sharing.
It is the seeds of war that we are sowing so efficiently by not taking notice. We are so interconnected that it is unbelievable the shared sorrow we may be forced to experience.
History repeats within a new frame and we are experiencing a history repeating, but the violence could be unbelievable and we could be just as unprepared as before the first great war?
Prepare to be shocked by the truth!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biJgILxGK0o&sns=em
Twitter: @wuhlax
London riots: the underclass lashes out - Telegraph
This is a must read article! Brilliant analysis! Spot on!
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/8630533/Riots-the-underclass-lashes-out.html
Twitter: @wuhlax
Monday, 8 August 2011
Singularity: Kurzweil on 2045, When Humans, Machines Merge - TIME
The problem is that earth may no survive until then!
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2048299,00.html
Twitter: @wuhlax
The Seeds of War Were Sown in 2004
 The Money Game (@themoneygame)08/08/2011 02:09 PM Serious People Are Starting To Realize That We May Be Looking At World War III by @RickyKreitner http://read.bi/qBm5hg |
Twitter: @wuhlax
The Dark Side of the Art Selling Business as Viewed by a Professional
If you think you would like to work in a high end gallery store be aware of the possible downside!
http://www.artbusiness.com/arttarget2.html
Twitter: @wuhlax
Sunday, 7 August 2011
We are afraid!
The fault rests in the overloading of our instinctive investment inclinations to the neglect of a broad range of things we should be investing in. We watch people starve, yet stay safe as bystanders. It's truly bizarre! What is a human being that seeks security so much. Wh are we so afraid of our shadow?
http://thenewsdiva.visibli.com/share/TOKRrV
Twitter: @wuhlax
History repeats in Tottenham
 Storyful (@Storyful)07/08/2011 09:50 AM Quoted in the #tottenhamriots of 1985 and 2011:@normalNEVER, @lolwarlol, @JamesTurnerdj, @laracarbonara & @per_nyberg: http://stryfl.com/7ra |
Twitter: @wuhlax
Saturday, 6 August 2011
Images of Tottenham Shocking!
| Storyful (@Storyful) 06/08/2011 09:26 PM #Tottenham is burning! Updating our story here: http://t.co/Vd7qHcs #Tottenhamriot |
Serious riots tonight in Tottenham, north London after shooting on Thursday
 Telegraph Politics (@TelePolitics)06/08/2011 07:57 PM Blog: The disturbances in Tottenham tonight are profoundly depressing http://tgr.ph/pl8rF3 by @toadmeister |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)