Monday Business Edition

This is the future Paul Krugman keeps warning us about.

Japan Goes From Dynamic to Disheartened

The Great Deflation

By MARTIN FACKLER, The New York Times

Published: October 16, 2010

For nearly a generation now, the nation has been trapped in low growth and a corrosive downward spiral of prices, known as deflation, in the process shriveling from an economic Godzilla to little more than an afterthought in the global economy.

…

The classic explanation of the evils of deflation is that it makes individuals and businesses less willing to use money, because the rational way to act when prices are falling is to hold onto cash, which gains in value. But in Japan, nearly a generation of deflation has had a much deeper effect, subconsciously coloring how the Japanese view the world. It has bred a deep pessimism about the future and a fear of taking risks that make people instinctively reluctant to spend or invest, driving down demand – and prices – even further.

…

After years of complacency, Japan appears to be waking up to its problems, as seen last year when disgruntled voters ended the virtual postwar monopoly on power of the Liberal Democratic Party. However, for many Japanese, it may be too late. Japan has already created an entire generation of young people who say they have given up on believing that they can ever enjoy the job stability or rising living standards that were once considered a birthright here.

…

Economists said one reason deflation became self-perpetuating was that it pushed companies and people like Masato to survive by cutting costs and selling what they already owned, instead of buying new goods or investing.

“Deflation destroys the risk-taking that capitalist economies need in order to grow,” said Shumpei Takemori, an economist at Keio University in Tokyo. “Creative destruction is replaced with what is just destructive destruction.”

Business News below.

Now with 48 Story goodness.

1 TNK-BP says to acquire BP’s Vietnam, Venezuela assets

AFP

1 hr 52 mins ago

2 Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton axe iron ore merger

by Talek Harris, AFP

Mon Oct 18, 2:21 am ET

3 Europe gets ‘cold feet’ over budget fines

AFP

1 hr 55 mins ago

4 France seeks to calm fuel fears as strike momentum builds

AFP

Sun Oct 17, 3:14 pm ET

5 AIA seeking up to 20 billion dollars in IPO

by Joyce Woo, AFP

Sun Oct 17, 3:32 pm ET

6 OPEC caught in dollar crossfire

by Ben Perry, AFP

Sun Oct 17, 1:36 am ET

7 China carmakers’ plans raise overcapacity concerns

by Boris Cambreleng, AFP

Sun Oct 17, 6:45 am ET

8 Irish glass-making city shattered by economic crisis

by Frederic Pouchot, AFP

Sun Oct 17, 4:22 pm ET

9 Germany to help Japan obtain vital rare earths

AFP

Sat Oct 16, 9:15 am ET

10 IMF meets central bank chiefs in Shanghai

by D’Arcy Doran, AFP

2 hrs 34 mins ago

11 Global leaders mull joint governance ahead of G20

by William Ickes, AFP

Sun Oct 17, 9:59 pm ET

12 SE Asia should ‘de-dollarise’, but slowly: experts

by Michelle Fitzpatrick, AFP

Sun Oct 17, 1:10 am ET

13 Wall of money leaves Asia swimming against tide

by Daniel Rook, AFP

Sun Oct 17, 1:00 am ET

14 French workers take to the streets as airport fears ease

by Dave Clark, AFP

Sat Oct 16, 4:02 pm ET

15 BHP and Rio scrap $116 billion iron ore joint venture

By Sonali Paul, Reuters

Mon Oct 18, 3:30 am ET

16 China vows breakthroughs to secure growth

By Chris Buckley and Wang Lan, Reuters

1 hr 51 mins ago

17 Will G20 change its currency tune?

By Emily Kaiser, Reuters

Sun Oct 17, 3:02 pm ET

18 AIA to shut IPO book early on strong demand: sources

By Denny Thomas and Kennix Chim, Reuters

30 mins ago

19 ECB’s Trichet rejects Weber view on bond buying

By James Mackenzie, Reuters

Sun Oct 17, 2:29 pm ET

20 Foreclosure mess to test stocks’ rally

By Edward Krudy, Reuters

Sun Oct 17, 12:08 pm ET

21 Two Fed officials favor aggressive easing options

By Kristina Cooke, Reuters

Sat Oct 16, 1:46 pm ET

22 Apple’s earnings to showcase one-two punch

By Gabriel Madway, Reuters

Sat Oct 16, 7:42 am ET

23 Fiscal 2010 deficit thins to $1.29 trillion

By Donna Smith, Reuters

Sat Oct 16, 12:59 am ET

24 Mozilo settles Countrywide fraud case at $67.5 million

By Alex Dobuzinskis and Dan Levine, Reuters

Fri Oct 15, 9:02 pm ET

25 Lehman bankruptcy a $1 billion payday for advisers

By Caroline Humer, Reuters

Fri Oct 15, 5:08 pm ET

26 Flat U.S. card delinquencies warn of elusive recovery

By Maria Aspan, Reuters

Fri Oct 15, 4:47 pm ET

27 GE posts sales slump, rattles recovery hopes

By Scott Malone, Reuters

Fri Oct 15, 2:57 pm ET

28 Bankers balk at AOL-Yahoo deal scenario

By Nadia Damouni and Jennifer Saba, Reuters

Fri Oct 15, 12:16 pm ET

29 Oil workers defy French govt demand to open depots

By GREG KELLER, AP Business Writer

6 mins ago

30 EU ministers struggle over budget rules

By GABRIELE STEINHAUSER, AP Business Writer

2 hrs 38 mins ago

31 TV viewers ensnared in Fox, Cablevision rate duel

By VERENA DOBNIK, Associated Press Writer

Mon Oct 18, 6:34 am ET

32 Disabilities no longer a death sentence for pets

By TOM BREEN, Associated Press Writer

Mon Oct 18, 5:49 am ET

33 Pa. man to give $1K for each jobless worker hired

By PATRICK WALTERS, Associated Press Writer

Sun Oct 17, 9:30 pm ET

34 Canada-US pipeline on hold amid oil’s recent woes

By JAMES MacPHERSON and JOSH FUNK, Associated Press Writers

Sun Oct 17, 1:23 pm ET

35 Trump stymied in bid to build at NY’s Jones Beach

By FRANK ELTMAN, Associated Press Writer

Sun Oct 17, 2:30 pm ET

36 Hard-hit British heartland braces for cuts

By JILL LAWLESS, Associated Press Writer

Sat Oct 16, 12:55 pm ET

37 Hawker Beechcraft machinists vote against contract

Associated Press

Sat Oct 16, 5:23 pm ET

38 So you bought a foreclosed home. Now what?

By DAVE CARPENTER, AP Personal Finance Writer

Fri Oct 15, 5:28 pm ET

39 Hispanic winemakers still rare but finding success

By OLIVIA MUNOZ, For The Associated Press

Mon Oct 18, 5:25 am ET

40 Secret donations and gift tax – a new conundrum

By JIM KUHNHENN, Associated Press Writer

Mon Oct 18, 4:00 am ET

41 $900,000 for a 3-bedroom … in Haiti?

By JONATHAN M. KATZ, Associated Press Writer

Sun Oct 17, 3:46 pm ET

42 Chile miners: From world fame to humble homes

By FRANKLIN BRICENO and EVA VERGARA, Associated Press Writers

Sun Oct 17, 3:42 pm ET

43 With New England trains, ‘high-speed’ is relative

By STEPHEN SINGER, Associated Press Writer

Sun Oct 17, 2:53 pm ET

44 Gov’t: No increase for Social Security next year

By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER, Associated Press Writer

Fri Oct 15, 8:05 pm ET

45 Ohio co. seeks to buy Northrop Grumman shipyards

By ALAN SAYRE, AP Business Writer

Fri Oct 15, 7:31 pm ET

46 Bernanke tilts debate on key roots of unemployment

By CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER, AP Economics Writer

Fri Oct 15, 6:15 pm ET

47 GE 3Q profit drops 18 pct, sales of equipment fall

CHRIS KAHN, AP Business Writer

Fri Oct 15, 5:43 pm ET

48 Mattel sees cautious Christmas after 3Q net rises

By MAE ANDERSON, AP Retail Writer

Fri Oct 15, 5:33 pm ET

This is your morning Open Thread. Pour your favorite beverage and review the past and comment on the future.

October 18 is the 291st day of the year (292nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 74 days remaining until the end of the year.

On this day in 1767, Mason and Dixon Draw a line.

Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon complete their survey of the boundary between the colonies of Pennsylvania and Maryland as well as areas that would eventually become the states of Delaware and West Virginia. The Penn and Calvert families had hired Mason and Dixon, English surveyors, to settle their dispute over the boundary between their two proprietary colonies, Pennsylvania and Maryland.

In 1760, tired of border violence between the colonies’ settlers, the British crown demanded that the parties involved hold to an agreement reached in 1732. As part of Maryland and Pennsylvania’s adherence to this royal command, Mason and Dixon were asked to determine the exact whereabouts of the boundary between the two colonies. Though both colonies claimed the area between the 39th and 40th parallel, what is now referred to as the Mason-Dixon line finally settled the boundary at a northern latitude of 39 degrees and 43 minutes. The line was marked using stones, with Pennsylvania’s crest on one side and Maryland’s on the other.

Background

Maryland’s charter granted the land north of the entire length of the Potomac River up to the 40th parallel. A problem arose when Charles II  granted a charter for Pennsylvania. The grant defined Pennsylvania’s southern border as identical to Maryland’s northern border, the 40th parallel. But the terms of the grant clearly indicate that Charles II and William Penn assumed the 40th parallel would intersect the Twelve-Mile Circle around New Castle, Delaware when in fact it falls north of Philadelphia, the site of which Penn had already selected for his colony’s capital city. Negotiations ensued after the problem was discovered in 1681. A compromise proposed by Charles II in 1682, which might have resolved the issue, was undermined by Penn receiving the additional grant of the ‘Three Lower Counties’ along Delaware Bay, which later became the Delaware Colony, a satellite of Pennsylvania. These lands had been part of Maryland’s original grant.

In 1732 the proprietary governor of Maryland, Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore, signed a provisional agreement with William Penn’s sons which drew a line somewhere in between, and also renounced the Calvert claim to Delaware. But later Lord Baltimore claimed that the document he signed did not contain the terms he had agreed to, and refused to put the agreement into effect. Beginning in the mid-1730s, violence erupted between settlers claiming various loyalties to Maryland and Pennsylvania. The border conflict between Pennsylvania and Maryland would be known as Cresap’s War.

The issue was unresolved until the Crown intervened in 1760, ordering Frederick Calvert, 6th Baron Baltimore to accept the 1732 agreement. Maryland’s border with Delaware was to be based on the Transpeninsular Line and the Twelve-Mile Circle around New Castle. The Pennsylvania-Maryland border was defined as the line of latitude 15 miles south of the southernmost house in Philadelphia.

As part of the settlement, the Penns and Calverts commissioned the English team of Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon to survey the newly established boundaries between the Province of Pennsylvania, the Province of Maryland, Delaware Colony, and parts of Colony and Old Dominion of Virginia.

After Pennsylvania abolished slavery in 1781, the western part of this line and the Ohio River became a border between free and slave states, although Delaware remained a slave state.

 1009 – The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, a Christian church in Jerusalem, is completely destroyed by the Fatimid caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, who hacks the Church’s foundations down to bedrock.

1016 – The Danes defeat the Saxons in the Battle of Ashingdon.

1081 – The Normans defeat the Byzantine Empire in the Battle of Dyrrhachium.

1210 – Pope Innocent III excommunicates German leader Otto IV.

1356 – Basel earthquake, the most significant historic seismological event north of the Alps, destroyed the town of Basel, Switzerland.

1386 – Opening of the University of Heidelberg

1561 – Fourth Battle of Kawanakajima – Takeda Shingen defeats Uesugi Kenshin in the climax of their ongoing conflicts.

1599 – Michael the Brave, Prince of Wallachia, defeats the Army of Andrew Bathory in the Battle of Selimbar, leading to the first recorded unification of the Romanian people.

1648 – Boston Shoemakers form first U.S. labor organization.

1748 – Signing of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle ends the War of the Austrian Succession.

1767 – Mason-Dixon line, survey separating Maryland from Pennsylvania is completed.

1775 – African-American poet Phillis Wheatley freed from slavery.

1851 – Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick is first published as The Whale by Richard Bentley of London.

1860 – The Second Opium War finally ends at the Convention of Peking with the ratification of the Treaty of Tientsin, an unequal treaty.

1867 – United States takes possession of Alaska after purchasing it from Russia for $7.2 million. Celebrated annually in the state as Alaska Day.

1898 – United States takes possession of Puerto Rico.

1912 – The First Balkan War begins.

1914 – The Schoenstatt Movement is founded in Germany.

1921 – The Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic is formed as part of the RSFSR.

1922 – The British Broadcasting Company (later Corporation) is founded by a consortium, to establish a nationwide network of radio transmitters to provide a national broadcasting service.

1925 – The Grand Ole Opry opens in Nashville, Tennessee.

1929 – Women are considered “Persons” under Canadian law.

1936 – Adolf Hitler announces the Four Year Economic Plan to the German people. The plan details the rebuilding of the German military from 1936 to 1940.

1944 – Adolf Hitler orders the establishment of a German national militia.

1944 – Soviet Union invades Czechoslovakia.

1944 – Adolf Hitler orders the public funeral procession of Nazi field Marshall Erwin Rommel, commander of the Deutsches Afrika Korps

1945 – The USSR’s nuclear program receives plans for the United States plutonium bomb from Klaus Fuchs at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

1945 – A group of the Venezuelan Armed Forces, led by Mario Vargas, Marcos Perez Jimenez and Carlos Delgado Chalbaud, staged a coup d’etat against then president Isaias Medina Angarita, who is overthrown by the end of the day.

1954 – Texas Instruments announces the first Transistor radio.

1964 – The 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair closes for its first season after a six-month run.

1967 – The Soviet probe Venera 4 reaches Venus and becomes the first spacecraft to measure the atmosphere of another planet.

1968 – The U.S. Olympic Committee suspends Tommie Smith and John Carlos for giving a “black power” salute during a victory ceremony at the Mexico City games.

1968 – Bob Beamon sets a world record of 8.90 m in the long jump at the Mexico City games.

1977 – German Autumn: a set of events revolving around the kidnapping of Hanns-Martin Schleyer and the hijacking of a Lufthansa flight by the Red Army Faction (RAF) comes to an end when Schleyer is murdered and various RAF members allegedly commit suicide.

1989 – East German leader Erich Honecker resigns.

1991 – Azerbaijan declares independence from USSR.

2003 – Bolivian Gas War: President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, is forced to resign and leave Bolivia.

2007 – Karachi bombings: attempted assassination of Benazir Bhutto.

(4 pm. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

“Questioning growth is deemed to be the act of lunatics, idealists and revolutionaries. But question it we must.”

“the only thing that has actually remotely slowed down the relentless rise of carbon emissions over the last two to three decades is recession.”

— Tim Jackson

British Economist Tim Jackson studies the links between lifestyle, societal values and the environment to question the primacy of economic growth.

He currently serves as the economics commissioner on the UK government’s Sustainable Development Commission and is director of RESOLVE – a Research group on Lifestyles, Values and Environment. After five years as Senior Researcher at the Stockholm Environment Institute, Jackson became Professor of Sustainable Development at University of Surrey, and was the first person to hold that title at a UK university.

He founded RESOLVE in May 2006 as an inter-disciplinary collaboration across four areas – CES, psychology, sociology and economics – aiming to develop an understanding of the links between lifestyle, societal values and the environment.

In 2009 Jackson published “Prosperity without Growth: Economics for a Finite Planet”, a substantially revised and updated version of Jackson’s controversial study (.PDF, 136 pp.) for the Sustainable Development Commission, an advisory body to the UK Government. The study rapidly became the most downloaded report in the Commission’s nine year history when it was launched in 2009.

Filmed in July at TEDGlobal 2010, here is Tim Jackson’s economic reality check, a 20 minute talk he gave for the TEDGlobal audience…

I want you to imagine a world, in 2050, of around nine billion people, all aspiring to Western incomes, Western lifestyles. And I want to ask the question — and we’ll give them that two percent hike in income, in salary each years as well, because we believe in growth. And I want to ask the question: how far and how fast would be have to move? How clever would we have to be? How much technology would we need in this world to deliver our carbon targets? And here in my chart. On the left-hand side is where we are now. This is the carbon intensity of economic growth in the economy at the moment. It’s around about 770 grams of carbon. In the world I describe to you, we have to be right over here at the right-hand side at six grams of carbon. It’s a 130-fold improvement, and that is 10 times further and faster than anything we’ve ever achieved in industrial history. Maybe we can do it, maybe it’s possible — who knows? Maybe we can even go further and get an economy that pulls carbon out of the atmosphere, which is what we’re going to need to be doing by the end of the century. But shouldn’t we just check first that the economic system that we have is remotely capable of delivering this kind of improvement?

..transcript below..

Transcript:

I want to talk to you today about prosperity, about our hopes for a shared and lasting prosperity. And not just us, but the two billion people worldwide who are still chronically undernourished. And hope actually is at the heart of this. In fact, the Latin word for hope is at the heart of the word prosperity. “Pro-speras,” “speras,” hope — in accordance with our hopes and expectations. The irony is, though, that we have cashed-out prosperity almost literally in terms of money and economic growth. And we’ve grown our economies so much that we now stand in a real danger of undermining hope — running down resources, cutting down rainforests, spilling oil into the Gulf of Mexico, changing the climate — and the only thing that has actually remotely slowed down the relentless rise of carbon emissions over the last two to three decades is recession. And recession, of course, isn’t exactly a recipe for hope either, as we’re busy finding out. So we’re caught in a kind of trap. It’s a dilemma, a dilemma of growth. We can’t live with it; we can’t live without it. Trash the system or crash the planet. It’s a tough choice. It isn’t much of a choice. And our best avenue of escape from this actually is a kind of blind faith in our own cleverness and technology and efficiency and doing things more efficiently. Now I haven’t got anything against efficiency. And I think we are a clever species sometimes. But I think we should also just check the numbers, take a reality check here.

So I want you to imagine a world, in 2050, of around nine billion people, all aspiring to Western incomes, Western lifestyles. And I want to ask the question — and we’ll give them that two percent hike in income, in salary each years as well, because we believe in growth. And I want to ask the question: how far and how fast would be have to move? How clever would we have to be? How much technology would we need in this world to deliver our carbon targets? And here in my chart. On the left-hand side is where we are now. This is the carbon intensity of economic growth in the economy at the moment. It’s around about 770 grams of carbon. In the world I describe to you, we have to be right over here at the right-hand side at six grams of carbon. It’s a 130-fold improvement, and that is 10 times further and faster than anything we’ve ever achieved in industrial history. Maybe we can do it, maybe it’s possible — who knows? Maybe we can even go further and get an economy that pulls carbon out of the atmosphere, which is what we’re going to need to be doing by the end of the century. But shouldn’t we just check first that the economic system that we have is remotely capable of delivering this kind of improvement?

So I want to just spend a couple of minutes on system dynamics. It’s a bit complex, and I apologize for that. What I’ll try and do, is I’ll try and paraphrase it is sort of human terms. So it looks a little bit like this. Firms produce goods for households — that’s us — and provide us with incomes, and that’s even better, because we can spend those incomes on more goods and services. That’s called the circular flow of the economy. It looks harmless enough. I just want to highlight one key feature of this system, which is the role of investment. Now investment constitutes only about a fifth of the national income in most modern economies, but it plays an absolutely vital role. And what it does essentially is to stimulate further consumption growth. It does this in a couple of ways — chasing productivity, which drives down prices and encourages us to buy more stuff. But I want to concentrate on the role of investment in seeking out novelty, the production and consumption of novelty. Joseph Schumpeter called this “the process of creative destruction.” It’s a process of the production and reproduction of novelty, continually chasing expanding consumer markets, consumer goods, new consumer goods.

And this, this is where it gets interesting, because it turns out that human beings have something of an appetite for novelty. We love new stuff — new material stuff for sure — but also new ideas, new adventures, new experiences. But the materiality matters too. Because, in every society that anthropologists have looked at, material stuff operates as a kind of language, a language of goods, a symbolic language that we use to tell each other stories — stories, for example, about how important we are. Status-driven, conspicuous consumption thrives from the language of novelty. And here, all of a sudden, we have a system that is locking economic structure with social logic — the economic institutions, and who we are as people, locked together to drive an engine of growth. And this engine is not just economic value; it is pulling material resources relentlessly through the system, driven by our own insatiable appetites, driven in fact by a sense of anxiety. Adam Smith, 200 years ago, spoke about our desire for a life without shame. A life without shame: in his day, what that meant was linen shirts, and today, well, you still need the shirt, but you need the hybrid car, the HDTV, two holidays a year in the sun, the netbook and iPad, the list goes on — an almost inexhaustible supply of goods, driven by this anxiety. And even if we don’t want them, we need to buy them, because, if we don’t buy them, the system crashes. And to stop it crashing over the last two to three decades, we’ve expanded the money supply, expanded credit and debt, so that people can keep buying stuff. And of course, that expansion was deeply implicated in the crisis.

But this — I just want to show you some data here. This is what it looks like, essentially, this credit and debt system, just for the U.K. This was the last 15 years before the crash. And you can see there, consumer debt rose dramatically. It was above the GDP for three years in a row just before the crisis. And in the mean time, personal savings absolutely plummeted. The savings ratio, net savings, were below zero in the middle of 2008, just before the crash. This is people expanding debt, drawing down their savings, just to stay in the game. This is a strange, rather perverse, story, just to put it in very simple terms. It’s a story about us, people, being persuaded to spend money we don’t have on things we don’t need to create impressions that won’t last on people we don’t care about.

(Laughter)

(Applause)

But before we consign ourselves to despair, maybe we should just go back and say, “Did we get this right? Is this really how people are? Is this really how economists behave?” And almost straightaway we actually run up against a couple of anomalies. The first one is in the crisis itself. In the crisis, in the recession, what do people want to do? They want to hunker down. They want to look to the future. They want to spend less and save more. But saving is exactly the wrong thing to do from the system point of view. Keynes called this the “paradox of thrift” — saving slows down recovery. And politicians call on us continually to draw down more debt, to draw down our own savings even farther, just so that we can get the show back on the road, so we can keep this growth-based economy going. It’s an anomaly, it’s a place where the system actually is at odds with who we are as people.

Here’s another one — completely different one: Why is it that we don’t do the blindingly obvious things we should do to combat climate change, very, very simple things like buying energy-efficient appliances, putting in efficient lights, turning the lights off occasionally, insulating our homes? These things save carbon, they save energy, they save us money. So is it that, though they make perfect economic sense, we don’t do them? Well, I had my own personal insight into this a few years ago. It was a Sunday evening, Sunday afternoon, and it was just after — actually, to be honest, too long after — we had moved into a new house. And I had finally got around to doing some draft stripping, installing insulation around the windows and doors to keep out the drafts. And my, then, five year-old daughter was helping me in the way that five year-olds do. And we’d been doing this for a while, when she turned to me very solemnly and said, “Will this really keep out the giraffes?” (Laughter) “Here they are, the giraffes.” You can hear the five-year-old mind working. These ones, interestingly, are 400 miles north of here outside Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria. Goodness knows what they make of the Lake District weather. But actually that childish misrepresentation stuck with me, because it suddenly became clear to me why we don’t do the blindingly obvious things. We’re too busy keeping out the giraffes — putting the kids on the bus in the morning, getting ourselves to work on time, surviving email overload and shop floor politics, foraging for groceries, throwing together meals, escaping for a couple of precious hours in the evening into prime-time TV or TED online, getting from one end of the day to the other, keeping out the giraffes.

(Laughter)

What is the objective? “What is the objective of the consumer?” Mary Douglas asked in an essay on poverty written 35 years ago. “It is,” she said, “to help create the social world and find a credible place in it.” That is a deeply humanizing vision of our lives, and it’s a completely different vision than the one that lies at the heart of this economic model. So who are we? Who are these people? Are we these novelty-seeking, hedonistic, selfish individuals? Or might we actually occasionally be something like the selfless altruist depicted in Rembrandt’s lovely, lovely sketch here? Well psychology actually says there is a tension, a tension between self-regarding behaviors and other regarding behaviors. And these tensions have deep evolutionary roots. So selfish behavior is adaptive in certain circumstances — fight or flight.

But other regarding behaviors are essential to our evolution as social beings. And perhaps even more interesting from our point of view, another tension between novelty-seeking behaviors and tradition or conservation. Novelty is adaptive when things are changing and you need to adapt yourself. Tradition is essential to lay down the stability to raise families and form cohesive social groups. So here, all of a sudden, we’re looking at a map of the human heart. And it reveals to us, suddenly, the crux of the matter. What we’ve done is we’ve created economies. We’ve created systems, which systematically privilege, encourage, one narrow quadrant of the human soul and left the others unregarded. And in the same token, the solution becomes clear, because this isn’t, therefore, about changing human nature. It isn’t, in fact, about curtailing possibilities. It is about opening up. It is about allowing ourselves the freedom to become fully human, recognizing the debt and the breadth of the human psyche and building institutions to protect Rembrandt’s fragile altruist within.

What does all this mean for economics? What would economies look like if we took that vision of human nature at their heart and stretched them along these orthogonal dimensions of the human psyche? Well, it might look a little bit like the 4,000 community-interest companies that have sprung up in the U.K. over the last five years and a similar rise in B corporations in the United States, enterprises that have ecological and social goals written into their constitution at their heart, companies, in fact, like this one, Ecosia. And I just want to, very quickly, show you this. Ecosia is an Internet search engine. Internet search engines work by drawing revenues from sponsored links that appear when you do a search. And Ecosia works in pretty much the same way. So we can do that here. We can just put in a little search term. There you go, Oxford, that’s where we are. See what comes up. The difference with Ecosia though is that, in Ecosia’s case, it draws the revenues in the same way, but it allocates 80 percent of those revenues to a rainforest protection project in the Amazon. And we’re going to do it. We’re just going to click on Naturejobs.uk. In case anyone out there is looking for a job in a recession, that’s the page to go to. And what happened then was the sponsor gave revenues to Ecosia, and Ecosia is giving 80 percent of those revenues to a rainforest protection project. It’s taking profits from one place and allocating them into the protection of ecological resources.

It’s a different kind of enterprise for a new economy. It’s a form, if you like, of ecological altruism — perhaps something along those lines. Maybe it’s that. Whatever it is, whatever this new economy is, what we need the economy to do, in fact, is to put investment back into the heart of the model, to re-conceive investment. Only now, investment isn’t going to be about the relentless and mindless pursuit of consumption growth. Investment has to be a different beast. Investment has to be, in the new economy, protecting and nurturing the ecological assets on which our future depends. It has to be about transition. It has to be investing in low-carbon technologies and infrastructures. We have to invest, in fact, in the idea of a meaningful prosperity, providing capabilities for people to flourish.

And of course, this task has material dimensions. It would be nonsense to talk about people flourishing if they didn’t have food, clothing and shelter. But it’s also clear that prosperity goes beyond this. It has social and psychological aims — family, friendship, commitments, society, participating in the life of that society. And this too requires investment, investment, for example, in places, places where we can connect, places where we can participate, shared spaces, concert halls, gardens, public parks, libraries, museums, quiet centers, places of joy and celebration, places of tranquility and contemplation, sites for the “cultivation of a common citizenship” in Michael Sandel’s lovely phrase. An investment — investment, after all, is just such a basic economic concept — is nothing more nor less than a relationship between the present and the future, a shared present and a common future. And we need that relationship to reflect, to reclaim hope.

So let me come back, with this sense of hope, to the two billion people still trying to live each day on less than the price of a skinny latte from the cafe next door. What can we offer those people? It’s clear that we have a responsibility to help lift them out of poverty. It’s clear that we have a responsibility to make room for growth where growth really matters in those poorest nations. And it’s also clear that we will never achieve that unless we’re capable of redefining a meaningful sense of prosperity in the richer nations, a prosperity that is more meaningful and less materialistic than the growth-based model. So this is not just a Western post-materialist fantasy. In fact, an African philosopher wrote to me, when “Prosperity Without Growth” was published, pointing out the similarities between this view of prosperity and the traditional African concept of ubuntu. Ubuntu says, “I am because we are.” Prosperity is a shared endeavor. Its roots are long and deep. Its foundations, I’ve tried to show, exist already, inside each of us. So this is not about standing in the way of development. It’s not about overthrowing capitalism. It’s not about trying to change human nature. What we’re doing here is we’re taking a few simple steps towards an economics fit for purpose. And at the heart of that economics, we’re placing a more credible, more robust, and more realistic vision of what it means to be human.

Thank you very much.

(Applause)

Chris Anderson: While they’re taking the podium away, just a quick question. First of all, economists aren’t supposed to be inspiring, so you may need to work on the tone a little. (Laughter) Can you picture the politicians every buying into this? I mean, can you picture a politician standing up in Britain and saying, “GDP fell two percent this year. Good news! We’re actually all happier, and a country’s more beautiful, and our lives are better.”

Tim Jackson: Well that’s clearly not what you’re doing. You’re not making new out of things falling down. You’re making news out of the things that tell you that we’re flourishing. Can I picture politicians doing it? Actually, I already am seeing a little bit of it. When we first started this kind of work, politicians would stand up, treasury spokesmen would stand up, and accuse us of wanting to go back and live in caves. And actually in the period through which we’ve been working over the last 18 years — partly because of the financial crisis and a little bit of humility in the profession of economics — actually people are engaging in this issue in all sorts of countries around the world.

CA: But is it mainly politicians who are going to have to get their act together, or is it going to be more just civil society and companies?

TJ: It has to be companies. It has to be civil society. But it has to have political leadership. This is a kind of agenda, which actually politicians themselves are kind of caught in that dilemma, because they’re hooked on the growth model themselves. But actually opening up the space to think about different ways of governing, different kinds of politics, and creating the space for civil society and businesses to operate differently — absolutely vital.

CA: And if someone could convince you that we actually can make the — what was it? — the 130-fold improvement in efficiency, of reduction of carbon footprint, would you then actually like that picture of economic growth into more knowledge-based goods?

TJ: I would still want to know that you could do that and get below zero by the end of the century, in terms of taking carbon out of the atmosphere, and solve the problem of biodiversity and reduce the impact on land use and do something about the erosion of topsoils and the quality of water. If you can convince me we can do all that, then, yes, I would take the two percent.

CA: Tim, thank you for a very important talk. Thank you.

(Applause)

On May 16, 2009 a collaboration between the British medical journal The Lancet and University College London released the first UCL Lancet Commission report, assessing the impact of global warming on global health, and on populations.

Titled Managing the health effects of climate change (.PDF), the year long study highlights the threat of climate change on patterns of disease, water and food insecurity, human settlements, extreme climatic events, and population migration. The report also highlights the action required by global society to mitigate the health impacts of climate change.

“Climate change,” the report concludes, “is the biggest global health threat of the 21 century.”

The report presents the two distorted maps shown below  – density equalizing cartograms depicting a comparison of undepleted CO2 emissions by country for 1950-2000 versus the regional distribution of four climate sensitive health consequences (malaria, malnutrition, diarrhea, and inland flood-related fatalities).

expand image

The first image shows the world in terms of carbon emissions. America, for instance, is huge. So is China. And Europe. Africa is hardly visible.

The second map shows the world in terms of increased mortality — that is to say, deaths — from climate change. Suddenly, America virtually disappears. So does Europe. Africa, however, is grotesquely distended. South Asia inflates.

In Barack Obama’s commencement address Sunday May 17, 2009 at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, Obama exhorted the graduates to recognize that “that our fates are tied up, as Dr. King said, in a ‘single garment of destiny.'” and “Your generation must decide how to save God’s creation from a changing climate that threatens to destroy it.”

But the peoples of the world are not bound equally.

“Loss of healthy life years as a result of global environmental change (including climate change) is predicted to be 500 times greater in poor African populations than in European populations,” states the UCL Lancet Commission report bluntly.

Super-Typhoon Megi hits northern Philippines

Super-Typhoon Megi has made landfall in the northern Philippines, lashing the area with heavy rains and winds of more than 225km/h (140mph).

The BBC

Thousands of people in the path of the storm have fled their homes, emergency services are on high alert and schools have been closed in many areas.

It is the strongest storm the Philippines has faced for four years.

In 2006, a storm with winds of 155km/h triggered mudslides, burying villages and killing about 1,000 people.

‘Preparing for war’

The northern provinces of Cagayan and Isabela are on the highest storm alert.

One man in Cagayan was reported missing after he fell into the fast-flowing Buntun river. The man was named as Vicente Decena, a candidate in next week’s local elections.

Socrates – a man for our times

He was condemned to death for telling the ancient Greeks things they didn’t want to hear, but his views on consumerism and trial by media are just as relevant today

Bettany Hughes guardian.co.uk,  

Two thousand four hundred years ago, one man tried to discover the meaning of life. His search was so radical, charismatic and counterintuitive that he become famous throughout the Mediterranean. Men – particularly young men – flocked to hear him speak. Some were inspired to imitate his ascetic habits. They wore their hair long, their feet bare, their cloaks torn. He charmed a city; soldiers, prostitutes, merchants, aristocrats – all would come to listen. As Cicero eloquently put it, “He brought philosophy down from the skies.”

USA

New Post poll finds negativity toward federal workers



By Lisa Reinand Ed O’Keefe Washington Post Staff Writers  

More than half of Americans say they think that federal workers are overpaid for the work they do, and more than a third think they are less qualified than those working in the private sector, according to a Washington Post poll.

Half also say the men and women who keep the government running do not work as hard as employees at private companies.

The critical views of federal workers – just one in seven of whom works in the D.C. area – echo the anti-Washington sentiment roiling the midterm elections, as some Americans lose confidence in their government to solve the country’s problems.

U.S. Companies Are at Risk of Spying by Their Own Workers

 

By CHRISTOPHER DREW

Published: October 17, 2010  

Huang Kexue, federal authorities say, is a new kind of spy.

For five years, Mr. Huang was a scientist at a Dow Chemical lab in Indiana, studying ways to improve insecticides. But before he was fired in 2008, Mr. Huang began sharing Dow’s secrets with Chinese researchers, authorities say, then obtained grants from a state-run foundation in China with the goal of starting a rival business there.

Now, Mr. Huang, who was born in China and is a legal United States resident, faces a rare criminal charge – that he engaged in economic espionage on China’s behalf.  

Europe

Weak Merkel stokes xenophobia as she fights for political survival





By Tony Paterson in Berlin Monday, 18 October 2010

 

Chancellor Angela Merkel has branded Germany’s attempts to build a multicultural society an “utter failure” in an unprecedented speech designed to revive her own and her conservative party’s flagging popularity and regain the initiative in an increasingly hostile public debate about immigration.

Ms Merkel, who normally scrupulously avoids courting xenophobic opinion, bluntly told a meeting of young members of her ruling Christian Democratic party that the “Multikulti” notion of people from different cultural backgrounds living happily side by side simply did not work.

France: Saudis warn of new al-Qaeda threat

Saudi Arabia has warned France it is the target of an imminent al-Qaeda attack, French Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux has said.

The BBC  

He said Saudi intelligence agencies spoke of a threat to Europe, and “France in particular”, from Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

France is already on high alert following warnings of possible attacks aimed at France, Germany and the UK.

The Eiffel Tower was evacuated twice in September over security alerts.

“I can tell you – and it’s not information that’s been made public yet – that even a few hours, a few days ago, [we received] a new message, from the Saudi [intelligence] services, indicating to us that Al-Qaeda on the Arabian Peninsula was certainly active, or expecting to be active,” Mr Hortefeux said in a joint radio and television interview.

Middle East

Iran brokers behind-the-scenes deal for pro-Tehran government in Iraq

Fears over Iran’s influence after secret talks involving Syria, Hezbollah and the highest authorities in Shia Islam>

Martin Chulov in Baghdad guardian.co.uk,  

Iran has brokered a critical deal with its regional neighbours that could see a pro-Tehran government installed in Iraq, a move that would shift the fragile country sharply away from a sphere of western influence.

The Guardian can reveal that the Islamic republic was instrumental in forming an alliance between Iraq’s Nouri al-Maliki, who is vying for a second term as prime minister, and the country’s powerful radical Shia cleric leader, Moqtada al-Sadr.

Netanyahu accused over stalled talks to free Shalit





By Donald Macintyre in Jerusalem Monday, 18 October 2010

The family of Gilad Shalit, the soldier seized by Gaza militants in 2006, sharply criticised Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday for not securing his release despite the disclosure that a German mediator had renewed contact with both sides.

Amid some confusion over the status of current negotiations, Hamas and Mr Netanyahu separately confirmed that the senior German official charged with mediating a prisoner exchange had recently been in touch with both Israel’s government and the Islamic faction.

Asia

Gunmen kill 25 people during Karachi election

Attack raises tensions in Pakistan’s largest city as voters cast ballots to replace a provincial lawmaker murdered in August

Associated Press The Guardian, Monday 18 October 2010  

Gunmen have killed at least 25 people in Karachi over the weekend, raising tensions in Pakistan’s largest city as voters cast ballots yesterday today to replace a provincial lawmaker murdered in August.

Police said they were still investigating the motives behind the shootings, but many so-called “target killings” have been linked to gangs controlled by the city’s main political parties, which have been feuding for much of the the last 20 years.

Video shows Papuans being tortured  

 

Tom Allard in Jakarta

October 18, 2010

A graphic and disturbing video shows a Papuan man being poked in the genitals with a fiery stick as he is interrogated by a group of men who appear to be members of Indonesia’s security services.

The video has come to light as the Indonesian government faces continuing criticism about abuses by its security forces in Papua, scene of a long simmering separatist struggle.

The Papuan man, stripped naked, bound and with one of the interrogators placing his foot on his chest, is being asked about the location of a cache of weapons. After he tells his interrogators it has been hidden in a pigpen, one of them screams at him: ”You cheat, you cheat.”

Africa

DR Congo women march against rape

 

Olive Lembe Kabila, wife of Joseph Kabila, president of the Congo, led protest against sexual violence in eastern city.



Aljazeera

Thousands of women have marched against sexual violence in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where the miseries of war have been compounded by mass rapes.

About 1,700 women who had attended a week-long forum on peace and development in Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu province, joined in the march on Sunday, which was led by Olive Lembe Kabila, the wife of the president, Joseph Kabila.

The atmosphere of the march was colourful and peaceful, and many demonstrators carried banners with slogans such as “No to sexual terrorism”.

“Coming here is important because violence towards women is used systematically as a weapon of war,” Miriam Nobre, an organiser of the march with the World March of Women, said.

Latin America

Mexico closely watches Calif. marijuana vote

Skepticism emerges on whether legalization would financially harm traffickers  

By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD



MEXICO CITY – In two weeks, Californians will decide whether to legalize small amounts of marijuana for recreational use, in a vote that polls show could be close.

Now, for a change in the drug war, it is Mexico wondering about the possible spillover, this time of an idea. Will such a bold step by its neighbor to the north add momentum to a burgeoning movement here for broad drug legalization?

Ignoring Asia A Blog  

Most people never give concrete a second thought.  This is a mistake.  Concrete is one of the most versatile and widely used building materials known, and it has been known for a long time.  Concrete like materials have been unearthed in ancient Egypt, and the Romans made extensive use of it.  Concrete structures over 2000 years old are still in use today.

Roman concrete is very different than modern concrete, and it did not weather well.  Thus, Roman structures were often faced with stone or brick to increase durability.  This defect has been overcome with modern materials and production techniques.

What we call concrete is a mixture of cement (usually Portland cement), fine aggregate (sand), and coarse aggregate (gravel or, in very large jobs, stones up to several inches wide).  These materials are mixed with water to form a castable or pourable mixture that has the ability to take the shape of a form or mold.

Generally, the ratio of the ingredients is around 1:3:5 cement:fine:coarse or so, with no more than 50 pounds of water for each 100 pounds of cement.  More aggregate makes a weaker concrete, which is OK for some work.  Less aggregate makes a stronger concrete, but the cement is the most costly part of the mix so for the sake of economy, as much aggregate as possible, consistent with the project, is always used.  Sometimes dishonest suppliers will substitute substandard concrete and this has lead to quite of number of engineering disasters, particularly when buildings and other freestanding structures are involved.

Most projects have specifications for the compressive strength of the final product.  Standard US practice is to make cylinders around six inches in diameter and a foot or more long.  These cylinders are then put in a press fitted with a pressure indicator and then crushed.  The pressure at which the concrete cylinder fails is the compressive strength for the concrete.  If it does not meet the specifications, the mix is modified until it does.

Concrete typically has a compressive strength of around 3000 pounds per square inch, give or take, depending on the ultimate use and how long it has cured.  Thus, a six inch diameter column (28.27 square inches) should not fail until loaded to around 85,000 pounds, a little over the maximum weight of a fully loaded tractor/trailer.  Of course, a generous safety margin is used when concrete is used for construction.  While concrete has excellent compressive strength, its tensile strength is much lower, only around 350 psi or so.  That same six inch column would thus fail with only about a 10,000 pull on it.

Enter reinforced concrete.  It turns out that steel has excellent tensile strength, but is relatively expensive compared to concrete.  However, bars or meshes of steel embedded in a much larger mass of concrete gives the combined material both excellent compressive and tensile strength, so except for the most basic of small structures, most concrete work is done with reinforced material (there is a subset of this that will be covered in a little while).  It is reinforced concrete the formed the Hoover dam, most concrete highways, and large buildings.  This makes it possible to have extremely good strength whilst minimizing the amount of expensive steel that has to be used.

Steel has another property that makes it uniquely suited to be embedded in concrete:  its coefficient of thermal expansion is almost exactly that of modern concrete.  This might sound like a big deal, but it is.  It the coefficient of steel were significantly smaller, as a structure got warmer, the “hole” where the steel is would enlarge (remember, expansion of cylindrical solids occurs radially), so the steel rod would pull away from the concrete.  If the coefficient of steel were significantly larger, as a building heats us, the steel would expand faster than the concrete, cracking it where the reinforcement rod was.  Either case would weaken the structure.  Since sound concrete is essentially waterproof, steel reinforcing rods tend not to rust, which would also cause the concrete to crack (rust has a greater volume than steel), allowing even more water to enter.  That the coefficients of thermal expansion are so close, the marriage of steel and concrete is possible.

Another kind of reinforced concrete is prestressed concrete.  In this variant, one or more steel bars with bolts and flanges are put under tension and concrete poured around them in a form.  After the concrete cures, the tension is released and as the steel bars try to shrink to their original length, the flanges distribute the force over the length of the concrete object.  This greatly increases the strength of the concrete.  This technique is often used in bridges and can reduce the bulk of them significantly.  Think about it this way.  You want to move books from one shelf to another.  If you take both hands and push on a row of books, you can move a dozen or more (if they are not too heavy) at a time, the middle books being kept in place by the compression from the end books.

Modern concrete did not appear until around the mid 1800s, and it was not very good then.  The properties of concrete are most due to the cement from which it is made, and until fairly recent times making cement was a hit or miss prospect since little was known about how and why it works.  Since cement is so important, let us take a little time to review how it is now made.  We will discuss Portland cement, the most common kind.

Portland cement got its name because the finished concrete resembled in color and texture the popular building stone quarried around Portland, England.  It is make from some source of calcium carbonate, usually limestone and a source of silicon bearing material, like clay or shale.  Lighter colored materials are preferred, but there is not a whole lot of suitable clay or shale that is light in color due to iron in it, so most Portland cement has a definite bluish tinge.  Manufacturing process vary somewhat, but the basics are all the same.

The rock is crushed until it is quite finely pulverized and the calcium and silicon materials are mixed carefully.  Usually a few per cent of gypsum is also added to retard setting to a useful time, so that it does lock up before it can be poured.  These materials are then run through a rotary kiln that is strongly heated with fuel oil, natural gas, or coal.  Often near the end of the kiln, extra powdered coal is injected to raise the temperature.  The mixed materials first dehydrate, then carbon dioxide is driven from the limestone, and finally everything melts into a glass like material, called clinker in the trade, because it has a ringing sound when discharged.  After reaching the clinker state, cold air is passed over the clinker to cool it.  Once cool, the clinker is ground until it is extremely fine, finer than flour, and sent to storage until packing and shipping.

As you can see, cement manufacture is extraordinary energy intensive.  Fuel costs are by far the largest costs associated with a cement plant.  Some plants supplement their fuel supply with hazardous waste that otherwise go to an incinerator for disposal.  One of the reasons that construction costs have risen is directly due to the cost of fuel for making cement.  In addition, cement plants are extremely efficient producers of carbon dioxide, both from burning enormous amounts of fuel AND the carbon dioxide that is released from the limestone as it is decomposed into calcium oxide and carbon dioxide.  Thus, the environmental footprint of concrete construction is larger than most people realize.  Fortunately, cement is the minor ingredient in concrete, since only around 10%, give or take, of finished concrete is cement.

When cement and aggregate is mixed with water, the chemistry is extremely complicated.  As the ground clinker rehydrates, hundreds of new compounds are formed, many of them high polymers of silicates.  These polymers grow around the aggregate, enmeshing them in what becomes an extremely hard, rigid material.  In a cement truck, keeping the wet cement turning keeps the length of the polymer chains fairly short by shearing forces, so the concrete in the truck will stay pourable longer than if were kept still.  However, there is a limit to it, and it is possible for concrete to harden in the truck.

As concrete cures, it gets hot.  For backyard projects this is hardly noticeable, but for big jobs it can cause severe problems.  Special cements that have a lower heat output have been developed to minimize this tendency, and large dams, for example, are usually constructed of low heat concrete.  The problem with heating is that it tends to evaporate the water in the mix, causing cracks and voids.  Low heat concrete is not usually quite as strong as standard Portland concrete in small applications, but since the final pour has more integrity in large jobs with low heat concrete, the structure is stronger.  On the other hand, special cements have been developed to release significantly MORE heat than standard Portland mixes.

The setting speed of concrete is a function of temperature.  Like most chemical reactions, the rate just about doubles with every 10 degrees Celsius temperature rise.  Thus, the hotter the environment, the faster it sets.  At near freezing temperatures, the rate of setting becomes extremely slow.  High heat concrete helps to compensate for low temperature work because of its internal temperature.  We shall get back to this in a minute.

Setting and curing are two very different things.  Setting refers to the time required for concrete to harden such that it will keep its shape.  Curing refers to the time required for concrete to reach its specified strength.  Standard concretes take 28 days to cure (by the ASTM standard), and the strength can more than double from when it was only set.  Actually, good concrete slowly gains strength essentially forever, because even cured concrete slowly absorbs carbon dioxide from the air, becoming even stronger.  Like setting, curing is also a function of temperature.  There is some speculation that the concrete used on the Deepwater Horizon well had not fully cured when the wellhead gave way, and you have to remember that the temperature 5000 feet below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico is near freezing.  The low temperature also caused the problem with the methane hydrates clogging the original cap.

Concrete is remarkably resistant to environmental assaults.  The only things that really damage it chemically are acids and certain alkali waters and soils.  Concrete tanks for acid service must have liners to protect them, but a special cement is available to protect concrete from alkali soils and waters.  One thing that does damage concrete badly is freezing and thawing, and this a exacerbated with the use of ice melting salts.  I am sure that you have seen sidewalks that have deteriorated badly from repeated freezing and thawing.

There is a remedy for that, however.  Air entrained concrete has a material added to it (the nature of the particular ingredient varies) that causes tiny bubbles to form while the concrete is being mixed.  If you try to make it yourself, better rent a proper mixer since it is hard to get enough agitation with a hoe and wheelbarrow to entrain enough air to do the job.  From three to seven percent air does the job.  Air entrained concrete has some other advantages, so it is used in other situations than just freeze thaw conditions.

The Romans used a neat trick when they built the Pantheon, the largest domed structure built until very recent times.  They used high strength, heavy aggregate concrete at the bottom to bear the load, but for the top of the dome they switched to pumice for the aggregate to save weight.  Without that trick, the top of the dome would  have been too heavy to support itself.  That was pretty good engineering, since it has stood for nearly 2000 years.

In the early 20th century concrete was used more and more for residential and commercial construction projects, and concrete buildings are common today.  One advantage is that they can be built relatively quickly, and with the proper reinforcement and design such buildings can withstand tornadoes and earthquakes.  Concrete is so vastly superior to brick or block as far as strength goes that there is really no comparison.  Frank Lloyd Wright pretty much pioneered the use of cast in place concrete for construction, just another one of his visionary insights.

There are many more facets to concrete, much too broad to cover here.  I do hope that the next time you look at a concrete structure that you have a little better appreciation as to what goes into such a common, but such a remarkable, material.  Because of its combination of properties, its adaptability to a wide variety of conditions, and its relatively low cost, concrete is truly the wonder material.

Well, you have done it again.  You have wasted many more perfectly good einsteins of photons reading this rocky post.  And even though Carl Palidino stops those “horsey” emails when he reads me say it, I always learn much more than I could possibly hope to teach by writing this series.  Please keep comments, questions, corrections, and other items coming.  Remember, no scientific of technology issue is off topic here.

Warmest regards,

Doc

Featured at TheStarsHollowGazette.  Crossposted at Docudharma.com

Well, your host for Prime Time ek hornbeck is off this evening so Prime Time is being hosted by yours truly, TheMomCat, tonight. Don’t be too hard on me since I don’t watch TV all that much. So this will be an abbreviated edition tonight with some Live Blogging of Game 2 of the MLB Playoffs with San Francisco at Philadelphia in Game 2 of the NL Championship Series which starts at 8 PM.

Since it is in Fox here in NYC those of you unfortunate enough to have Cable Vision as your cable provider you are out of luck unless you have a converter and rabbit ears. Cable Vision and Fox are still duking it out over how much Fox wants from Cable Vision for the privilege of airing their channels.

I am also not much of a sports fan, so feel free to comment along with me as I call the balls and strikes. Just keep in mind I have no clue as to who the top players are and absolutely no favorite in this ball game.

Now my attempt at the Unusual Suspects for your viewing pleasure.

Spike: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation marathon

A&E: Paranormal State and Psychic Kids: Children of the Paranormal

AMC: Rubicon Season Finale, Mad Men Season 4 Finale

BRAVO: Real Housewives of Atlanta x 2, Real Housewives of Beverly Hills

Food: Food Network Challenge, Next Iron Chef, Iron Chef America

Comedy Central: Employee of the Month

History Channel: Irt Deadliest Roads x 2, Swamp People

WE: Bridezillas x2, Amazing Wedding Cakes

IFC: Sling Blade

FX: The Waterboy, Forgetting Sarah Marshall

ABC Family: Ever After, Mean Girls

TBS: Hulk

Discovery Channel: Life x 3

TLC: Sister Wives marathon

USA: Law & Order: Special Victims Unit marathon.

For those who have HBO and Showtime:

On HBO: Boardwalk Empire: “Nights in Ballygran”, Bored to Death : “I’ve Been Living Like a Demented God” and Eastbound & Down : “Chapter 10”

On Showtime: Dexter : “Practically Perfect”, Dexter  Beauty and the Beast, Weeds and The Big C

Our Chief News Editor, ek hornbeck, is off this evening. Tongight’s Evening Edition is brought to you by c’est moi. TheMomCat. ek will return tomorrow evening.

Moonlight Meteor Shower Spawned By Halley’s Comet

A junior version of the famous Perseid meteor shower thought to have originated from the remains of Halley’s Comet will hit its peak over the next week, but the light of the moon may intrude on the sky show.

This upcoming meteor display is known as the Orionids because the meteors seem to fan out from a region to the north of the Orion constellation’s second brightest star, ruddy Betelgeuse.

The annual event peaks before sunrise on Thursday (Oct. 21) but several viewing opportunities arise before then for skywatchers in North America.

1. Foreclosure problems “shameful”: Housing Secretary

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama’s housing secretary said on Sunday “it’s shameful” that financial institutions may have made the housing crisis worse by improperly processing foreclosures.

Shaun Donovan, secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, said in a column on the Huffington Post website that a comprehensive review of the foreclosure crisis was under way and that the administration would respond with “the full force of the law where problems are found.”

2.Gunman kill 29 in Pakistan’s Karachi as election held

KARACHI (Reuters) – Gunmen shot to death at least 29 people in Pakistan’s commercial hub Karachi over the weekend, deepening tensions as a by-election was held to replace a lawmaker who was murdered in August.

Violence broke out Saturday night when gunmen opened fire in several parts of the southern Pakistani city of 18 million ahead of the vote. At least 29 people have been killed since then, police said.

3.Saudis say al Qaeda targeting France: minister

PARIS (Reuters) – Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux said on Sunday that France had been warned by Saudi Arabia that al Qaeda was targeting Europe and especially France.

“Several hours or days ago, there was a new message from the Saudis that said al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula was without doubt active or planning to be active in Europe, especially France,” he told French radio RTL.

4.ECB’s Trichet rejects Weber view on bond buying

RIMINI, Italy (Reuters) – European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet took issue with recent comments on ECB policy by Bundesbank chief Axel Weber, saying they did not represent the views of the central bank’s governing council.

In an interview with Italian daily La Stampa on Sunday, Trichet said the governing council as a whole did not agree with Weber’s remark last week that the ECB’s government bond-buying program had not worked and should be scrapped.

5.Two of four trapped Ecuadorean miners found dead

QUITO (Reuters) – Two of four men trapped in an Ecuadorean mine cave-in were found dead on Saturday in the latest accident to hit the industry in Latin America.

Contrasting with the jubilation at this week’s rescue of 33 miners in Chile, the two Ecuadorean miners’ bodies were brought out to disconsolate relatives and officials at the small gold mine in Portovelo near the Peruvian border.

6.American held in Iran for 30 months says to sue group

TEHRAN (Reuters) – An Iranian-American released after 30 months in a Tehran jail  said he was duped into handing money to a U.S.-based group considered a terrorist organization in Iran and that he might now sue them.

Reza Taghavi was held in May 2008 for giving $200 to Tondar, (Thunder), a group which aims to overthrow the Islamic Republic and restore the Iranian monarchy that was ousted in the 1979 revolution, according to its website.

7.Gates: No sensitive info in Wikileaks Afghan papers

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Defense Secretary Robert Gates  said the unauthorized release of some 70,000 classified documents about the Afghanistan war did not reveal sensitive information, but could endanger Afghans who helped the United States, U.S. media reported Sunday.

Gates made his assessment in an August 16 letter to Senator Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, after the website Wikileaks released the documents in July. The New York Times and CNN both were given access to the letter.

8.Syrian, Saudi leaders met to discuss Lebanon, Iraq

RIYADH (Reuters) – Syrian President Bashar  al-Assad held on Sunday talks with Saudi King Abdullah that analysts and diplomats had expected to tackle tension in Lebanon over a U.N.-backed tribunal and the political void in Iraq.

Assad’s second trip to the world’s top oil exporting country this year is the latest sign of a thaw in bilateral relations.

9.France seeks to calm fuel fears as strike momentum builds

PARIS (AFP) – France sought Sunday to calm fears of petrol shortages, with the oil industry admitting it cannot hold on forever as strikes against pension reform intensified ahead of another wave of mass protests.

Officials tried to head off panic buying of petrol amid the rolling strikes and protests that saw hundreds of thousands take to the streets for the latest day of action against President Nicolas Sarkozy’s key reform on Saturday.

10.Super typhoon roars towards Philippines

MANILA (AFP) – Typhoon Megi gathered strength as it barrelled towards the northern Philippines on Monday, with authorities evacuating thousands of villagers to safer ground hours before it was to hit land.

State weather forecasters said Megi has developed into a super typhoon and was expected to slam into the extreme northern Philippines by Monday and then cut westwards towards the South China Sea.

11.Obama on nationwide blitz with vote two weeks off

WASHINGTON (AFP) – US President Barack Obama on Sunday pursued a coast-to-coast campaign blitz through key battlegrounds, looking to energize Democrats and stave off a likely drubbing in looming midterm elections.

“This is a tough political environment,” he told a cheering crowd during a campaign trip on Friday in Delaware, home patch of Vice President Joe Biden. “I need you all to keep on fighting.”

12.Privacy a Facebook priority, says director Randi Zuckerberg

DUBAI (AFP) – User privacy is the priority for Internet social networking site  Facebook, which has come under fire from users for its privacy settings, the company’s director of market development said on Sunday in Dubai.

“Privacy, I would say, is the number one most important thing for our company, and we’re always listening to feedback,” Randi Zuckerberg, the sister of Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, said on the first day of the GITEX information and communication technology exhibition.

13.Chile heroes return to mine for emotional mass

COPIAPO, Chile (AFP) – Chile’s mining heroes returned to the scene of their record-breaking survival for an emotional celebratory mass on Sunday, announcing plans for a foundation dedicated to better mine safety.

Thirteen survivors, accompanied by partners and children, took part in a private service after visiting the tent city where relatives refused to give up hope, waiting anxiously for 10 long weeks for their safe return.

14.Top 400 charities see billions less in donations

WASHINGTON – A new ranking of the nation’s 400 biggest charities shows donations dropped by 11 percent overall last year as the Great Recession ended – the worst decline in 20 years since the Chronicle of Philanthropy began keeping a tally.

The Philanthropy 400 report to be released Monday shows such familiar names as the United Way and the Salvation Army, both based near Washington, continue to dominate the ranking, despite the 2009 declines. The survey accounts for $68.6 billion in charitable contributions.

15.Navajo closer than ever to electing woman leader

WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. – Lynda Lovejoy walks past throngs of parade-goers in her traditional, crushed velvet dress and moccassins, her campaign button on the sleeve. Speaking through a microphone, she says she’ll bring fresh perspective to the Navajo government if elected president.

Her supporters shout, “You go girl!

16.Sports fans ensnared in Fox, Cablevision rate duel

NEW YORK – For the fourth time this year, Cablevision’s 3 million subscribers in New York and Philadelphia are at the mercy of one of its disputes with networks, and caught in the middle are sports fans who missed playoff baseball and Sunday’s New York Giants game.

Negotiators for Cablevision and Fox parent News Corp. failed to reach an agreement over rates Sunday, more than a day after their deal expired amid negotiations for a new one. Cablevision has blacked out Fox’s channels and programming while they discuss how much Cablevision will pay to carry them.

17.More intellectually disabled youths go to college

WARRENSBURG, Mo. – Zach Neff is all high-fives as he walks through his college campus in western Missouri. The 27-year-old with Down syndrome hugs most everybody, repeatedly. He tells teachers he loves them.

“I told Zach we are putting him on a hug diet – one to say hello and one to say goodbye,” said Joyce Downing, who helped start a new program at the University of Central Missouri that serves students with disabilities.

18.Discovery of GPS tracker becomes privacy issue

SAN FRANCISCO – Yasir Afifi, a 20-year-old computer salesman and community college student, took his car in for an oil change earlier this month and his mechanic spotted an odd wire hanging from the undercarriage.

The wire was attached to a strange magnetic device that puzzled Afifi and the mechanic. They freed it from the car and posted images of it online, asking for help in identifying it.

19.Lincecum sparks Giants over Phillies

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) – Tim Lincecum outdueled Roy Halladay in one of the most highly anticipated pitching match-ups in years as the San Francisco Giants beat the Philadelphia Phillies 4-3 in the opening game of the National League Championship Series on Saturday.

San Francisco outfielder Cody Ross provided the offensive fireworks with two solo home runs off Halladay, who surrendered four runs over seven innings and took the loss.

Game 2 tonight at 8 PM. Live Blog in Prime Time

New Rule: The Only Difference Between DeMint and Fred Phelps is DeMint is Afraid to Carry the Sign

h/t Video Cafe @ Crooks & Liars

(2 pm. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

Maybe President Harry S. Truman should have invited Hideki Tojo to the White House for tea and advice. President Obama thinks that it is just fine to invite former Secretary of State, Condoleeza Rice, to the Oval Office to consult with her on Russia, disarmament and other issues. This woman should be in a cell in the Hague for the rest of her life along with George W. Bush, Richard Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld for war crimes.

It was Condoleeza Rice who was Bush’s National Security advisor at the time, said in 2003 during the run up to the Iraq war that Sadaam Hussein had “the infrastructure, nuclear scientists to make a nuclear weapon,” and

“The problem here is that there will always be some uncertainty about how quickly he can acquire nuclear weapons. But we don’t want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud.”

It was with Rice’s blessing in Situation Room meetings that included Cheney Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell, CIA Director George Tenet and Attorney General John Ashcroft that water boarding and other methods of “enhanced interrogation” were approved and became the norm.

So as Glenn Greenwald points out that instead of prosecuting the “Bush officials who broke the law and instituted a worldwide torture regime”, President Obama has appointed “some of them to occupy the highest positions in my administration and then meet with others in order to drink from the well of their wisdom on a wide range of foreign policy matters.”

No, Glenn, it is not “very childish, shrill and unpragmatic” of you or anyone else to demand that

“the person who presided over the Bush White House’s torture-approval-and-choreographing meetings and who was responsible for the single most fear-mongering claim leading to the Iraq War” be held accountable by this President and the Justice Department which is so hell bent to uphold laws that are discriminatory, unpopular and, most likely, unconstitutional.

But, Ms. Rice gets to have tea in the Oval Office and is consulted by President Obama. All is forgiven.

This is your morning Open Thread. Pour your favorite beverage and review the past and comment on the future.

October 17 is the 290th day of the year (291st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 75 days remaining until the end of the year.

On this day in 1986, President Ronald Reagan signs into law an act of Congress approving $100 million of military and “humanitarian” aid for the Contras. Unfortunately for the President and his advisors, the Iran-Contra scandal is just about to break wide open, seriously compromising their goal of overthrowing the leftist Sandinista government in Nicaragua.

Congress, and a majority of the American public, had not been supportive of the Reagan administration’s efforts to topple the Sandinista government in Nicaragua. Reagan began a “secret war” to bring down the Nicaraguan government soon after taking office in 1981. Millions of dollars, training, and arms were funneled to the Contras (an armed force of Nicaraguan exiles intent on removing the leftist Nicaraguan regime) through the CIA. American involvement in the Contra movement soon became public, however, as did disturbing reports about the behavior of the Contra force. Charges were leveled in newspapers and in Congress that the Contras were little more than murderers and drug runners; rumors of corruption and payoffs were common. Congress steadily reduced U.S. assistance to the Contras, and in 1984 passed the second Boland Amendment prohibiting U.S. agencies from giving any aid to the group.

The affair was composed of arms sales to Iran in violation of the official US policy of an arms embargo against Iran, and of using funds thus generated to arm and train the Contra militants based in Honduras as they waged a guerilla war to topple the government of Nicaragua. The Contras’ form of warfare was “one of consistent and bloody abuse of human rights, of murder, torture, mutilation, rape, arson, destruction and kidnapping.” The “Contras systematically engage in violent abuses… so prevalent that these may be said to be their principal means of waging war.” A Human Rights Watch report found that the Contras were guilty of targeting health care clinics and health care workers for assassination; kidnapping civilians; torturing and executing civilians, including children, who were captured in combat; raping women; indiscriminately attacking civilians and civilian homes; seizing civilian property; and burning civilian houses in captured towns.

Direct funding of the Contras insurgency had been made illegal through the Boland Amendment the name given to three U.S. legislative amendments between 1982 and 1984, all aimed at limiting US government assistance to the Contras militants. Senior officials of the Reagan administration decided to continue arming and training the Contras secretly and in violation of the law as enacted in the Boland Amendment. Senior Reagan administration officials started what they came to call “the Enterprise,” a project to raise money for their illegal funding of the Contras insurgency.

 539 BC – King Cyrus The Great of Persia marches into the city of Babylon, releasing the Jews from almost 70 years of exile and making the first Human Rights Declaration.

1091 – T8/F4 tornado strikes the heart of London.

1346 – Battle of Neville’s Cross: King David II of Scotland is captured by Edward III of England near Durham, and imprisoned in the Tower of London for eleven years.

1448 – Second Battle of Kosovo, where the mainly Hungarian army led by John Hunyadi is defeated by an Ottoman army led by Sultan Murad II.

1456 – The University of Greifswald is established, making it the second oldest university in northern Europe (also for a period the oldest in Sweden, and Prussia)

1604 – Kepler’s Star: German astronomer Johannes Kepler observes a supernova in the constellation Ophiuchus.

1610 – French king Louis XIII is crowned in Rheims.

1660 – Nine Regicides, the men who signed the death warrant of Charles I, are hanged, drawn and quartered.

1662 – Charles II of England sells Dunkirk to France for 40,000 pounds.

1771 – Premiere in Milan of the opera Ascanio in Alba, composed by Wolfgang Mozart, age 15.

1777 – American troops defeat the British in the Battle of Saratoga.

1781 – General Charles Cornwallis offers his surrender to the American revolutionists at Yorktown, Virginia.

1797 – Treaty of Campo Formio is signed between France and Austria

1800 – Britain takes control of the Dutch colony of Curacao.

1806 – Former leader of the Haitian Revolution, Emperor Jacques I of Haiti is assassinated after an oppressive rule.

1814 – London Beer Flood occurs in London, killing nine.

1860 – First The Open Championship (referred to in North America as the British Open).

1888 – Thomas Edison files a patent for the Optical Phonograph (the first movie).

1907 – Guglielmo Marconi’s company begins the first commercial transatlantic wireless service between Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, Canada and Clifden, Ireland.

1912 – Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia declare war on the Ottoman Empire, joining Montenegro in the First Balkan War.

1917 – First British bombing of Germany in World War I.

1931 – Al Capone convicted of income tax evasion.

1933 – Albert Einstein, fleeing Nazi Germany, moves to the U.S..

1941 – For the first time in World War II, a German submarine attacks an American ship.

1941 – German troops execute the male population of the villages Kerdyllia in Serres, Greece and burn the houses down.

1943 – Burma Railway (Burma-Thailand Railway) is completed.

1945 – A massive number of people, headed by CGT and Evita, gather in the Plaza de Mayo in Argentina to demand Juan Peron’s release. This is known to the Peronists as the Dia de la lealtad (Loyalty Day). It’s considered the founding day of Peronism.

1956 – The first commercial nuclear power station is officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II in Sellafield,in Cumbria, England.

1961 – Scores of Algerian protesters (some claim up to 400) are massacred by the Paris police at the instigation of Nazi collaborator Maurice Papon, then chief of the Prefecture of Police.

1964 – Prime Minister of Australia Robert Menzies opens the artificial Lake Burley Griffin in the middle of the capital Canberra.

1965 – The 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair closes after a two year run. More than 51 million people had attended the two-year event.

1966 – A fire at a building in New York, New York kills 12 firefighters, the New York City Fire Department’s deadliest day until the September 11, 2001 attacks.

1966 – Botswana and Lesotho join the United Nations.

1968 – Black American athletes make a silent protest against racism at the Olympics

1970 – Montreal, Quebec: Quebec Vice-Premier and Minister of Labour Pierre Laporte murdered by members of the FLQ terrorist group.

1973 – OPEC starts an oil embargo against a number of western countries, considered to have helped Israel in its war against Syria.

1977 – German Autumn: Four days after it is hijacked, Lufthansa Flight 181 lands in Mogadishu, Somalia, where a team of German GSG 9 commandos later rescues all remaining hostages on board.

1979 – Mother Teresa awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

1979 – The Department of Education Organization Act is signed into law creating the US Department of Education and US Department of Health and Human Services.

1980 – As part of the Holy See – United Kingdom relations a British monarch makes the first state visit to the Vatican

1989 – 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake (7.1 on the Richter scale) hits the San Francisco Bay Area and causes 57 deaths directly (and 6 indirectly).

1998 – At Jesse, in the Niger Delta, Nigeria, a petroleum pipeline explodes killing about 1200 villagers, some of whom are scavenging gasoline.

2000 – Train crash at Hatfield, north of London, leading to collapse of Railtrack.

2003 – The pinnacle is fitted on the roof of Taipei 101, a 101-floor skyscraper in Taipei, allowing it to surpass the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur by 50 meters (165 feet) and become the World’s tallest highrise.

2006 – The United States population reaches 300 million.