The Scandinavian

Arstechnica on the economic growth impact of peak oil production

2012-01-26T10:38:00.001+02:00

Unfortunately, since most governments are unwilling to admit the prospect of indefinite economic stagnation due to our reliance on fossil fuels, they've been unable to generate the political will to even begin these efforts.

Full article: We've hit "peak oil"; now comes permanent price volatility

We put enough preservatives in our food to embalm an elephant

2012-01-09T07:28:00.001+02:00

What Happens To Old And Expired Supermarket Foods

With the current economic troubles, expired foods are increasingly becoming a part of America’s diet. Salvage stores are seeing a steady uptake in business from cost conscious consumers.

Full Story: Forbes

A hypothesis about the future of retail

2012-01-02T14:17:00.000+02:00

SF Writer Charles Stross makes some acute observations about the current retail business environment and ceteris paribus the future of, perhaps not only retail, but service and manufacturing as well.

Walking around various British cities over the past couple of years I've noticed an increasing number of vacant shop fronts (some in prime retail situations). I've also noticed a disturbing loss of diversity in our high streets, as quirky local shops give way to cookie-cutter national chains. I have, like most people, had the frustrating experience of trying to work out whether my mobile phone contract or the airline flight I'm been booking is actually the cheapest one that meets my needs, or whether I'm being gouged by a computer somewhere. And so I'm trying to put the pieces of the jigsaw together because I'm interested in guessing what our retail experience is going to look like in 10 years' time—the traditional "if this goes on ..." exercise beloved of science fiction writers.Which leads me via the following chain of logic to a hypothesis about the future of retail.

Full Story: Part 1: Charlie's Diary
Part 2: High Street Blues

How to prepare a typical scandinavian christmas supper

2011-12-25T01:51:00.001+02:00

Post-apocalyptic Pop Art

2011-12-16T14:36:00.000+02:00

Can on display in a former Canadian nuclear bunker.

Combining Andy Warhol and Fallout! Absolutely awesome!

Via Warren Ellis: Exploring A Canadian Nuclear Bunker

Krugman absolutely nails it in 1996. Mind blown.

2011-11-17T12:44:00.001+02:00

White Collars Turn BlueBy Paul KrugmanPublished: September 29, 1996New York Times

Marketing dispute

2011-11-14T12:22:00.001+02:00

The Norwegian tourist board is unhappy about an attempt by its counterpart in Finland to market the country using a video of the northern lights. The Norwegians claim the Finns are trying to "steal" the celestial phenomenon from them.

[Spiegel] Aurora Furore: Who Owns the Northern Lights?

Quote of the Day

2011-11-08T15:08:00.001+02:00

What we need now is really bold leadership from European politicians and the ECB. Also peace, love, brotherhood, and a pony for everyone, which seem about equally likely.

— Paul Krugman, New York Times, 7 November 2011

Full Story: New York Times
Via: Fabius Maximus

Political Psychology: When the System goes on the couch

2011-11-08T12:40:00.001+02:00

Science, being what it is, trades in generalities. Just as there is no science of this recession, there is no science of why I just ate a cookie, or of the workings of John McCain's noble mind. There is, I am sad to say, no Palinology, and thus no general explanation for Sarah Palin, good or bad. However, there exists a well-developed branch of psychology that studies personality, as well as a rich field called industrial and organisational psychology, which I imagine has a good deal to say about personality and management style. If Mr Ambinder so far has not found the science, perhaps he was looking in the wrong place by looking to political science. That said, political psychology is a fascinating and burgeoning area of study within political science. It's even useful. If, for example, you wish to understand what's going on, psychologically speaking, when politicians, bureaucrats, pundits, and your brother-in-law deny that a policy (the stimulus, say) has failed because, really, it almost worked, then you will certainly gain from Philip Tetlock's illuminating work on "Close-Call Counterfactuals and Belief-System Defenses".

Full Story: Journalism and political science

Comments disabled

2011-11-02T13:08:00.002+02:00

The amount of Spam hitting CV these days is getting annoying. I am disabling comments for the time being.

An odd, romantic, story

2011-11-01T13:12:00.000+02:00

The protest movement that began with Occupy Wall Street is very clear about what it is against - an international capitalism that is cruel, unfair and untenable. But the movement refuses to say what it is for.

Full Story: Dream On - Adam Curtis [BBC]

The Division of Europe

2011-11-01T10:25:00.001+02:00

At 7:45 p.m., European Council President Herman Van Rompuy could no longer avoid the embarrassing and unpleasant task of throwing out 10 people. Friendliness was called for, of course, and nice words. But so too was firmness: Their presence was no longer required, and they were asked to leave the assembly hall of the Justus Lipsius building in Brussels.

Full Story: Spiegel International

Hey, at least we got the iPhone!

2011-10-24T14:37:00.001+03:00

Approximately how far have humans traveled from the surface of the Earth in your lifetime? [e.g., since 1980 or so]

a) 600 km (low Earth orbit, 0.1 times the Earth radius)
b) 6,000 km (about the radius of the Earth)
c) 36,000 km (geosynchronous orbit; about 6 Earth radii)
d) 385,000 km (about the distance to the Moon; 60 Earth radii)
e) beyond the Moon

Answer here: http://physics.ucsd.edu/do-the-math/2011/10/why-not-space/

Leslie Nielsen is the Man

2011-10-17T13:24:00.000+03:00

Finns celebrate Fail Day

2011-10-14T09:33:00.003+03:00

Seriously.

The national day of failure is celebrated in Finland on Thursday. The day aims to encourage people to start up businesses even if it means taking risks and possibly failing.

Finns embrace failure Thursday: YLE

Sure beats helping young people start up businesses by creating a good business environment...

Quote(s) of the Day

2011-10-11T15:19:00.001+03:00

"It is neither desirable nor is it remotely likely that civil liberty will occupy as favored a position in wartime as it does in peacetime. But it is both desirable and likely that more careful attention will be paid by the courts to the basis for the government's claims of necessity as a basis for curtailing civil liberty. The laws will thus not be silent in time of war, but they will speak with a somewhat different voice."

Chief Justice William Rehnquist: All the Laws but One: Civil Liberties in Wartime, 1998

"Many think it not only inevitable but entirely proper that liberty give way to security in times of national crisis that, at the extremes of military exigency, inter arma silent leges. Whatever the general merits of the view that war silences law or modulates its voice, that view has no place in the interpretation and application of a Constitution designed precisely to confront war and, in a manner that accords with democratic principles, to accommodate it."

Justice Antonin Scalia: Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, 2004

Source: [Wiki] Inter arma enim silent leges

AP: Sarah Palin says she will not run for president

2011-10-06T09:30:00.000+03:00

Full Story: Associated Press

Oh hell, one can't one get a break?

After months of leaving her fans guessing, Palin said in a statement that she and her husband Todd "devote ourselves to God, family and country."

The Dean is disappointed.

Well, #¤&%. Goodbye coalition government?

2011-10-05T07:37:00.000+03:00

NO OTHER TAKERS

Under the complicated collateral model, which found no other takers than Finland, Athens will lend Greek banks its own sovereign bonds which will be swapped into other Greek government bonds and transferred to an investment bank for sale.

The revenue from the sale will be put into an escrow account and invested in triple-A bonds, which are the collateral.

The collateral applies to 40 percent of Finland's total share of the loans, 2.2 billion euros ($2,9 billion).

But in order to secure its guarantees, Finland must first pay its share of 1.4 billion euros into Europe's permanent stability fund (ESM) in one tranche instead of five, meaning more interest costs.

It will also accept smaller profits from the temporary stability fund (EFSF), and in case of a default, the collateral will be frozen for 30 years.

It is as complicated as it sounds and was designed to make Finland's demand so expensive that no other euro zone country would ask for the same. To that extent, it has worked.

Full Story: Reuters

Phil "Bad Astronomy" Plait takes on claims about FTL neutrinos at CERN

2011-09-23T08:55:00.002+03:00

I’ll note that the scientists will be presenting these results tomorrow at a conference at CERN. We’ll learn more then. It’s not clear to me if these results are being published, or have been peer-reviewed, or what. As usual, we’ll need to have other scientists either confirm this result using other equipment, or show where things went wrong. That’s how science works. And the scientists involved are asking for criticism here! That’s just so; incredible results need to be tested incredibly well.

So don’t let your imagination run away with this just yet. This result will, in my opinion, probably turn out to be incorrect for some reasons dealing with measurement. Faster than light travel is still a dream, even though I wouldn’t say it’s impossible… just very, very, very, very unlikely.

Source: Faster-than-light travel discovered? Slow down, folks. Bad Astronomy

This is quite possibly the nerdiest headline I've ever written, but I digress. If proven to be true the findings published by the CERN scientists are pontentially world changing. Not only would the book on physics have to be rewritten, the findings would completely alter the benchmark humanity has set for itself by what we believe technologically to be possible, besides blowing ourselves into radioactive smitherines.

Or, if you wanted to give this an economics angle, this could be some media stunt to make the multi-billion CERN project seem relevant again since they can't seem to be able to nail down the Higgs Boson.

On nuclear war

2011-09-21T08:30:00.000+03:00

That same morning, with Komer’s approval, I drafted another question to be sent to the Joint Chiefs over the president’s signature, asking for a total breakdown of global deaths from our own attacks, to include not only the whole Sino-Soviet bloc but all other countries that would be affected by fallout. Again their answer was prompt. Komer showed it to me about a week later, this time in the form of a table with explanatory footnotes.

In sum, 100 million more deaths, roughly, were predicted in East Europe. There might be an additional 100 million from fallout in West Europe, depending on which way the wind blew (a matter, largely, of the season). Regardless of season, still another 100 million deaths, at least, were predicted from fallout in the mostly neutral countries adjacent to the Soviet bloc or China: Finland, Austria, Afghanistan, India, Japan and others. Finland, for example, would be wiped out by fallout from U.S. ground-burst explosions on the Soviet submarine pens at Leningrad. (The total number of “casualties”—injured as well as killed—had not been requested and was not estimated; nor were casualties from any Soviet retaliatory strikes.)

The total death toll as calculated by the Joint Chiefs, from a U.S. first strike aimed primarily at the Soviet Union and China, would be roughly 600 million dead. A hundred Holocausts.

I remember what I thought when I held the single sheet with the graph on it. I thought, this piece of paper should not exist. It should never have existed. Not in America. Not anywhere, ever. It depicted evil beyond any human project that had ever existed. There should be nothing on Earth, nothing real, that it referred to.

- Daniel Ellsberg, frm.Military analyst, RAND Corporation

Full Article: U.S. Nuclear War Planning for a Hundred Holocausts

Quote of the Day

2011-09-18T23:28:00.000+03:00

The conventional wisdom among the elite is still that the current slump “cannot be as bad as the Great Depression.” This view is wrong. What we face now could, in fact, be worse than the Great Depression—because the world is now so much more interconnected and because the banking sector is now so big. We face a synchronized downturn in almost all countries, a weakening of confidence among individuals and firms, and major problems for government finances. If our leadership wakes up to the potential consequences, we may yet see dramatic action on the banking system and a breaking of the old elite.

- Simon Johnson, Chief Economist of the International Monetary Fund 2007-2008

Full Article:The Quiet Coup - Atlantic Magazine

Quote of the Day

2011-09-16T15:32:00.001+03:00

Never state the problem. State how to solve the problem.

- Sean "Day[9]" Plott

Quote of the Day

2011-09-13T14:46:00.000+03:00

We need to build the physical constraints of a finite biophysical environment into our economic theory.

- Herman Daly, "We Need A Crisis, And A Change of Values"

Quote of the Day

2011-09-06T11:01:00.000+03:00

"The beauty of money is it creates a system of people leaving each other alone by mutual agreement."
- Jaron Lanier, Interview

The Heavy - How You Like Me Now?

2011-09-05T12:17:00.003+03:00

Quote of the Day

2011-09-01T13:12:00.001+03:00

" A sound banker, alas! is not one who foresees danger and avoids it, but one who, when he is ruined, is ruined in a conventional and orthodox way along with his fellows, so that no one can really blame him.

- John Maynard Keynes

Vladimir Putin shows us how to look presidential

2011-09-01T10:32:00.001+03:00

If nobody pulls this stunt in the 2012 US Elections I will be very disappointed.

ExxonMobil to Form Russian - United States Alliance

2011-08-31T15:47:00.000+03:00

Chris Weafer, chief strategist for Moscow-based Troika Dialog Bank, says that given Exxon’s lobbying pull in Washington, the deal is “a major prize for Putin and has very direct implications for U.S. relations. It is a major step that puts the ‘reset’ back on track. Moscow has a new major ally in Washington.”

[FP] Horse-trading with Russia wins Exxon the Arctic gold

The Volkswagen Golf will start being interesting again once everyone is driving Porsches.

2011-08-31T10:14:00.000+03:00

Yesterday, I dug out my old Nokia phone from a drawer. Finally I can make phone calls again! Is there life without Apple? I'm not sure, but I'm sure going to give it a try.

Confessions of a Former Apple Fan

GDR Jokes

2011-08-31T07:23:00.000+03:00

The teacher asks: "Fritzchen, what is the difference between capitalism and socialism?" Fritz replies: "Capitalism is the exploitation of man by man. Under socialism, it is the other way around."

Wikipedia East Germany Jokes

Quote of the Day

2011-08-30T09:45:00.001+03:00

"It won't be enough to have a loose confederation of states bound by a currency union. That was Maastricht, and that failed. Those of us in the euro-zone group have to move from being a confederation to a genuine federation! We need more integration when it comes to fiscal, economic and even social policies. There ultimately has to be a United States of Europe."

- Joschka Fischer, fmr. Minister of Foreign Affairs of Germany
Source

Oh, it's on like Donkey Kong!

2011-08-24T12:26:00.000+03:00

Germans Merkel rejects special treatment for Finland in Eurozone guarantees -
Source

Did you know that...

2011-08-15T21:48:00.002+03:00

The first ever Finnish feature film, made in 1907,The Moonshiners, was about two men secretly brewing alcohol in the forest.

Xenophobe's guide to the Finns

Music! Muuusiiiic!

2011-08-12T23:41:00.001+03:00

"Aint no Rest for the Wicked" by Cage the Elephant

Quote of the Day

2011-08-12T13:36:00.000+03:00

"Speed has never killed anyone. Suddenly becoming stationary, that's what gets you."

--Jeremy Clarkson

Amazon UK's riot gear sales soar: Aluminum bats up 6,000%

2011-08-09T22:27:00.000+03:00

"This bat is perfectly weighted and will suit any UK shop-owner looking to protect their property," reviewer Harry Fish wrote about the suddenly popular Rucanor bat. "Thanks to the ergonomic handle, one easy swing should be enough to shatter patellas, skulls or any other bone on your targeted looter."

CNN Money

You are removing the only thing that gives people something to dream about tomorrow.

2011-08-08T09:29:00.001+03:00

Loose ends

2011-07-29T10:02:00.001+03:00

Former News of the World staff offered jobs in Siberia and Finland [guardian.co.uk]

2011-07-28T15:04:00.000+03:00

Journalists who lost their jobs when News International closed the News of the World have been offered News Corp posts as far afield as Russia, South Africa, Siberia, Finland and Dubai

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/28/news-of-the-world-staff-offered-siberia-jobs

Incredible! How dare they?!

Well, this is awkward...

2011-07-27T21:23:00.000+03:00

The Onion

MOSCOW, USSR—Less than a week after the return of the Atlantis orbiter marked the end of the U.S. space shuttle program, the crowded streets and textile factories of Moscow erupted in celebration as the USSR officially declared victory over the United States in the Space Race.

USSR Wins Space Race As U.S. Shuts Down Shuttle Program

Nokia Debt Cut to Two Grades Above Junk by Moody’s [Bloomberg]

2011-07-27T12:55:00.000+03:00

“This deterioration has been caused by a loss of competitiveness of Nokia’s Symbian-based smartphone portfolio and the transition of its operating systems to the Windows Phone platform,” Moody’s analyst Wolfgang Draack said in the statement, which also cited “increasing price pressure and gaps in the company’s mobile-phone portfolio that are now being filled.”

Source: Bloomberg

North Korea said to kill 30 of its negotiators with South Korea [FP]

2011-07-21T14:24:00.001+03:00

SK Government source: "About 10 partners of inter-Korean talks with the South were executed by firing and about 20 others were said to have died in traffic accidents."

"As of now, the North has no partners to talk with the South. There will likely be major change in inter-Korean relations."

Article: Foreign Policy, Fri 15 July

So much for not killing the messenger.

What I think about most EU (or US for that matter) politicians about now.

2011-07-20T22:55:00.001+03:00

Hey Custodian: FYI I can almost taste victory

2011-07-20T14:03:00.002+03:00

http://politicons.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/20110710-0102391.jpg

Quote of the day Special Edition: The Day The Economist Ran Out of Ideas

2011-07-18T12:32:00.000+03:00

"The best explanation for the sharp slowdown in the jobs market is the confluence of bad luck that hit the economy this spring"

- G.I. The Economist - America's labour market

Did you know that The Economist used to be a serious, relatively credible and enlightening publication?

Coming Soon to a pedestrian near you

2011-07-14T12:02:00.001+03:00

A picture worth more a thousand words

2011-07-06T00:27:00.000+03:00

Middle East theater of war

Via: Wartard

A worthy goal

2011-06-18T08:28:00.002+03:00

Quote of the day

2011-06-06T09:08:00.000+03:00

McDonald’s recent high-profile initiative to hire 50,000 new workers resulted in over a million applications—numbers that give McDonald’s a lower acceptance rate than Harvard.

Full story: Could Fast Food Automation Replace Low Wage Workers? [Econfuture]

This about sums it up [ONION]

2011-05-31T23:33:00.000+03:00

Report: Economy Failing Because U.S. Built On Ancient Indian Burial Grounds

Surveillance cameras to monitor flying squirrels in Central Finland

2011-05-19T18:35:00.000+03:00

A row of poles is expected to reduce traffic deaths of flying squirrels

"A promising amount of droppings has been found even by the poles”, Auvo Hamarus notes optimistically.

Full Story: Helsingin Sanomat

Ursula Le Guin reviews Embassytown

2011-05-12T15:30:00.000+03:00

Some authors fill a novel with futuristic scenery and jargon and then strenuously, even stertorously, deny that it's science fiction. No, no, they don't write that nasty stuff, never touch it. They write literature. Though curiously familiar with the tropes and conventions of the despised genre, they so blithely ignore the meaning of terms, they reinvent the wheel with such cries of self-admiration, that their endeavours seem a doomed effort to prove that one can write a novel without learning how.

China Miéville knows what kind of novel he's writing, calls it by its name, science fiction, and exhibits all the virtues that make it an intensely interesting form of literature. It's a joy to find this young author coming into his own, and bringing the craft of science fiction out of the backwaters where it's been caught lately between the regressive drag of publishers marketing to a "safe" readership and the bewildering promises of change and growth offered by postmodernism in all its forms and formlessness. Embassytown is a fully achieved work of art.

Full review: Embassytown by China Miéville – review.

Per Aspera Ad Astra

2011-05-11T12:13:00.001+03:00

Quote Of The Day

2011-05-05T14:47:00.001+03:00

“You know you never defeated us on the battlefield”

”That may be so,” he replied, “but it is also irrelevant.”

— Conversation on 25 April 1975 in Hanoi between Colonel Harry G. Summers, Jr. (Chief of the U.S. Delegation, Four Party Joint Military Team) and Colonel Nguyen Don Tu (Chief, North Vietnamese Delegation), from Introduction to On Strategy: A Critical Analysis of the Vietnam War by Harry G. Summers Jr. (1982)

Source: About the strategic significance of bin Laden’s execution, and the road not taken [Fabius Maximus]

On the world credit crisis

2011-05-05T12:51:00.001+03:00

"I ask myself, ‘Why is it that several dozen people saw this crisis coming for years?’ I described it as being like watching a train wreck in very slow motion. It seemed so inevitable and so merciless, and yet the bosses of Merrill Lynch and Citi and even [U.S. Treasury Secretary] Hank Paulson and [Fed Chairman Ben] Bernanke — none of them seemed to see it coming.

I have a theory that people who find themselves running major-league companies are real organization-management types who focus on what they are doing this quarter or this annual budget. They are somewhat impatient, and focused on the present. Seeing these things requires more people with a historical perspective who are more thoughtful and more right-brained — but we end up with an army of left-brained immediate doers.

So it’s more or less guaranteed that every time we get an outlying, obscure event that has never happened before in history, they are always going to miss it. And the three or four-dozen-odd characters screaming about it are always going to be ignored. . . .

So we kept putting organization people — people who can influence and persuade and cajole — into top jobs that once-in-a-blue-moon take great creativity and historical insight. But they don’t have those skills.”

-- Jeremy Grantham, Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo (GMO). 2008. Source: Wiki

Finnish Beer Fix – Kippis!

2011-04-17T02:25:00.000+03:00

see more There I Fixed It">

The Libyans Marty!

2011-04-16T09:17:00.000+03:00

As far as the fighting goes, you've got to respect Gadaffi's forces. After the initial retreat from Benghazi, they regrouped and wisely adjusted their tactics. Tanks were obviously major targets of NATO air power so it was best to park them in urban areas where they're harder to spot and target (due to NATO's RoE which involve not wasting civilians although you'd have to be a pretty retarded civilian to stay in your house watching TV with a T-72 parked in you backyard). Gadaffi is using his tanks in Misurata quite wisely it seems because they're proving difficult for air strikes to kill. And urban areas are not somewhere you'd usually deploy tanks but the Libyan army seems pretty shrewd and is adapting to NATO on the fly. Of course this means Misurata is a pretty ugly mess, with thousands of civilians trapped inside and no discernable front line. Footage seems to reveal a mini Stalingrad with opposing forces occupying random buildings and snipers having a field day. One clever tactic by Gaddafi's forces that made me giggle was their use of pick up trucks, pretty much the one thing NATO can't bomb since everyone and their mother in the rebel army uses one. When the rebels had a similar idea and booted up a tank of their own, NATO promptly bombed it killing five and admitted to a 'targeting error' but refused to say 'sorry'.

Full Story: War Tard

Intel to open R&D center in Finland, hire 200 engineers

2011-04-13T14:07:00.000+03:00

An Intel spokeswoman said the company has started hiring hardware and software engineers.

This comes at a time when Nokia has said that it will announce large job cuts, expected to be as high as 5,000, at the end of April.

Full Story: Intel to start R&D centres in China, Finland

How to a create a job

2011-04-11T09:49:00.003+03:00

Podcast

NPR Planet Money: How Do You Create A Job?

Quote Of The Day

2011-04-08T10:20:00.000+03:00

"Anyway, a book that starts and middles and ends pleases me."

- China Mieville

Arctic ozone hole causes UV concerns for Scandinavians

2011-04-06T09:55:00.000+03:00

The WMO's announcement is intended to serve as a warning for those in Scandinavia and Central Europe: their expectations for how long they'd need to be out in the sun before getting a burn may not match reality this spring.

Ars Technica: Unusual northern winter puts ozone hole above the Arctic

TI to buy National Semiconductor

2011-04-05T12:14:00.000+03:00

Texas Instruments has announced that it intends to acquire National Semiconductor for $25 per share, or about an 80 percent premium over the $14 and change at which NYSE:NSM was trading at earlier in the day. The combined entity will be a major force in the analog semiconductor market, as TI will add NatSemi's analog business to its own, which was already considerable

Ars Technica: TI gains analog fab capacity with National Semiconductor buy

Quote of the Day

2011-03-31T23:30:00.001+03:00

“You look at the data when you want to understand what’s going wrong. You do not look at the data because you want to understand why you’re performing well."

Why Leaders Don’t Learn from Success - Harvard Business Review

How many historians does it take to change a light bulb?

2011-03-19T11:56:00.001+02:00

There is a great deal of debate on this issue. Up until the mid-20th century, the accepted answer was ‘one’: and this Whiggish narrative underpinned a number of works that celebrated electrification and the march of progress in light-bulb changing. Beginning in the 1960s, however, social historians increasingly rejected the ‘Great Man’ school and produced revisionist narratives that stressed the contributions of research assistants and custodial staff. This new consensus was challenged, in turn, by women’s historians, who criticized the social interpretation for marginalizing women, and who argued that light bulbs are actually changed by department secretaries. Since the 1980s, however, postmodernist scholars have deconstructed what they characterize as a repressive hegemonic discourse of light-bulb changing, with its implicit binary opposition between ‘light’ and ‘darkness,’ and its phallogocentric privileging of the bulb over the socket, which they see as colonialist, sexist, and racist. Finally, a new generation of neo-conservative historians have concluded that the light never needed changing in the first place, and have praised political leaders like Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher for bringing back the old bulb. Clearly, much additional research remains to be done.

-- amaxen

Via Reddit: /r/history

Understanding Fukushima Daiichi

2011-03-18T09:31:00.002+02:00

Following the events at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactors in Japan has been challenging. At best, even those present at the site have a limited view of what's going on inside the reactors themselves, and the situation has changed rapidly over the last several days. Meanwhile, the terminology involved is somewhat confusing—some fuel rods have almost certainly melted, but we have not seen a meltdown; radioactive material has been released from the reactors, but the radioactive fuel currently remains contained.

Over time, the situation has become a bit less confused, as cooler heads have explained more about the reactor and the events that have occurred within it. What we'll attempt to do here is aggregate the most reliable information we can find, using material provided by multiple credible sources. We've attempted to confirm some of this information with groups like the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Department of Energy but, so far, these organizations are not making their staff available to talk to the press.

Full Article: Ars Technica: Understanding Japan's nuclear crisis

Makes sense.

2011-03-01T08:19:00.002+02:00

How many lawyers does it take to change a lightbulb?

Monday Old School Breaks

2011-02-28T14:39:00.000+02:00

HEL Underground

2011-02-26T13:15:00.001+02:00

Julian Treasure: The 4 ways sound affects us

2011-02-25T13:37:00.000+02:00

Kim Jong Il between the ROK and a hard place

2011-02-25T10:16:00.001+02:00

....China has growing concerns about the development of the situation in this country. China does care what the transformation of the North Korean regime will be like as it possesses nuclear weapons. It is in the interests of China that this process is developed as "quietly" as possible, because aggravation on the Korean Peninsula is not good for it and can cause serious harm to China's economy.

In this regard, experts do not rule out "blitz" Chinese intervention, whose goal would be to outrun the South Koreans. Pyongyang is seriously afraid of this, and it is not an accident that the Army Corps are being deployed on the border with China.

Full Story: Pravda; Sergei Balmasov, Vadim Trukhachev

I pity the fool

2011-02-25T08:01:00.002+02:00

From Qaddafi to Thatcher: How to hire mercenaries¨[FP]

2011-02-24T09:43:00.000+02:00

As Libya cracks down on the ongoing protests against Muammar al-Qaddafi's government, reports have surfaced of African mercenaries attacking protesters and massing to defend the capital city of Tripoli. "They are from Africa, and speak French and other languages," said Ali al-Essawi, the Libyan ambassador to India who resigned this week. Libyan police in the town of Benghazi who have turned against the Qaddafi regime have reportedly captured foreign soldiers who are "black, spoke French and were identified by wearing yellow hats" stated an ABC News report. According to varying reports, the foreign mercenaries employed by Qaddafi may be from Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Niger, Mali, Sudan and, even Eastern Europe. So how does one go about hiring mercenaries on such short notice these days?

Full story: Foreign Policy, FP EXPLAINER: How Do You Hire Mercenaries?

Jackie Speier

2011-02-21T14:11:00.001+02:00

Via Cynical-C

With every trip I've taken to the US over the past 30 years, things have gotten a little worse every time.

2011-02-18T08:29:00.000+02:00

I've been to Russia before the cold war ended. I've been all over the middle east. I've been to China. I've travelled all over Europe. I've been to Cuba and I've been to Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Nicaragua.

What all of these places have in common is that going there was a far more pleasant experience than going to the US. Yes, you read correctly: going to the US is more unpleasant than going to Soviet era Russia or even Iran 10 years ago. Sure, you sometimes have to bribe people, but at least I've not had gear stolen off me during security checks or had people break my gear without at least compensating me.

Post: Why I stopped travelling to the US and I largely stopped doing business in the US. [Reddit]

Current Value feat. Saiba - Clear Blue Water | ShineTek videomix [SUNSHINE]

2011-02-15T16:06:00.000+02:00

Attack ad by summer

2011-02-14T10:55:00.003+02:00

Britain and the Nordic World

2011-02-11T13:42:00.000+02:00

ALMOST exactly a year ago, I found myself reporting the fuss in Brussels about the failure of the Lisbon Strategy, the European Union's 10-year plan to make Europe "the most dynamic and competitive knowledge-based economy in the world capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion, and respect for the environment by 2010". All around me, Euro-pundits, Eurocrats and European parliamentarians chorused, as one, that the roots of the problem lay in process: national governments had ducked reform because the EU lacked the legal tools to make them reform.

Full Story: The Economist

Obama Pushes Job Creation

2011-02-08T13:42:00.000+02:00

Following his State of the Union address, President Barack Obama has turned his attention to job creation. The Onion

Meanwhile in Norway

2011-02-08T12:49:00.000+02:00

Burgernomics

2011-01-25T10:31:00.000+02:00

McDonald’s said it expected its costs to rise 2 percent to 2.5 percent this year in the United States and 3.5 percent to 4.5 percent in Europe.
The chief financial officer, Peter J. Bensen, said McDonald’s would “raise prices where it makes sense” to offset some, but not all, of the cost increases. McDonald’s did not give a commodity forecast for Asia and its other markets.

Source: New York Times- Profit Edges Up at McDonald’s, and Its Prices Will, Too

What is Burgernomics? The Economist- Big Mac Index

Steampunk Palin

2011-01-21T12:12:00.000+02:00

Picture in your mind the most insane possible story that could be contained in a book named Steampunk Palin. Go ahead, take ten seconds or so to imagine it perfectly in your mind's eye. Use this cover image for help.

Full Story: 'Steampunk Palin' Comic More Insane Than You Imagined

Quote Of The Day

2011-01-18T12:48:00.000+02:00

"The wars of the future will not be fought on the battlefield or at sea. They will be fought in space, or possibly on top of a very tall mountain. In either case, most of the actual fighting will be done by small robots. And as you go forth today remember always your duty is clear: To build and maintain those robots"

- The Simpsons episode 187, May 1997

Predicting the future

2011-01-10T09:07:00.001+02:00

Predicting the future is essential to modern life. When we buy a house, we’re essentially predicting that the surrounding neighborhood isn’t about to go to seed; when we start a business, we’re predicting that what we’re selling will find a buyer; when we marry, we’re predicting our mate won’t turn into an appalling, intolerable bore. Every decision, from going to a party, to voting, to professing belief in a higher power, is tightly bound to our confidence about what will happen next.

We reserve a special place in society for those who promise genuine insights into the future — who can predict what will happen in business, in sports, in politics, technology, and so on. The media landscape is rich with these experts; Wall Street pays millions of dollars every year to analysts to put a precise dollar figure on next year’s company earnings. Those who manage to get a few big calls right are rewarded handsomely, either in terms of lucrative gigs or the adoration of a species that so needs to believe that the future is in fact predictable.

Full Story Boston.com: That guy who called the big one? Don’t listen to him.
Inside the paradox of forecasting

Inspired

2011-01-07T09:22:00.003+02:00

Sauna and society

2011-01-05T14:44:00.001+02:00

Finns always take all guests into the sauna. Everyone goes to sauna together, and naked. It is a grave offence to bath in the sauna with any clothes on. That angers not only Spirit of the Sauna (Gnome, Brownie) but the finnish host as well. Normally, the host would have to kill the offender with the knife ("puukko") or the axe ("kirves")! Fortunately that is not done while in the sauna; that would be considered working, and working in sauna is also forbidden. But, knocking the offender out with a solid blow from a thick block of firewood (usually birch) is okay.

There is an exception: negotiations, political and business deals can take place in the sauna. In fact, all the important decisions in Finland are always made in the sauna; as long as there are no women present. If there are naked women in the sauna, negotiations are not possible, unless the women are paid servants or escorts. The one who breaks a promise or a deal made in the sauna, will lose his honor.

From: The Foreigner's Guide to Finland

Made ya think!

2011-01-04T22:12:00.000+02:00

‎"To hold a pen is to be at war."

5,000 Dead Blackbirds Had ‘Hit Something Very Hard’

2011-01-04T18:13:00.001+02:00

5,000 Dead Blackbirds Had ‘Hit Something Very Hard’

Great Movie

2010-12-30T14:58:00.006+02:00

...

2010-12-29T13:01:00.001+02:00

Via SMBC

Track of the Day

2010-12-23T12:54:00.003+02:00

What a way to end 2010: Assange vs. Zuckerberg!

2010-12-23T10:39:00.001+02:00

Read Any Good Books Lately? [Cynical-C]

2010-12-22T19:36:00.002+02:00

Via Cynical-C Blog

Quote Of The Day

2010-12-21T10:11:00.001+02:00

"Perception is reality."

-Bill O' Reilly

Finnish Jacuzzi

2010-12-17T09:30:00.000+02:00

The Ant Tribe (NY Times)

2010-12-12T12:17:00.000+02:00

In a kind of cruel reversal, China’s old migrant class — uneducated villagers who flocked to factory towns to make goods for export — are now in high demand, with spot labor shortages and tighter government oversight driving up blue-collar wages.

But the supply of those trained in accounting, finance and computer programming now seems limitless, and their value has plunged. Between 2003 and 2009, the average starting salary for migrant laborers grew by nearly 80 percent; during the same period, starting pay for college graduates stayed the same, although their wages actually decreased if inflation is taken into account.

Chinese sociologists have come up with a new term for educated young people who move in search of work like Ms. Liu: the ant tribe. It is a reference to their immense numbers — at least 100,000 in Beijing alone — and to the fact that they often settle into crowded neighborhoods, toiling for wages that would give even low-paid factory workers pause.

Full Story: China’s Army of Graduates Struggles for Good Jobs, New York Times

Quote Of The Day

2010-12-09T15:13:00.000+02:00

"The Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire."
-- Voltaire

How Man Makes Salad

2010-12-03T14:37:00.003+02:00

A Guide to Understanding Metal

2010-12-03T10:26:00.001+02:00

Very useful information to have when living in Scandinavia: Link http://kuvaton.com/browse/15687

Campaign 2012: President Palin?

2010-12-01T12:55:00.000+02:00

According to the right-wing narrative, the calamity that’s befallen the white working class is due to the global and intellectual elites who run the mainstream media, direct the government, dispense benefits to the undeserving, and dominate popular culture. (The story and targets are not substantially different from those that have fueled right-wing and fascist movements during times of economic stress for more than a century, here and abroad.)

Sarah Palin has special appeal because she wraps the story in an upbeat message. She avoids the bilious rants of Rush, Sean Hannity, and their ilk. But her cheerfulness isn’t sunny; she doesn’t promise Morning in America. She offers pure snark, and promises revenge. Over and over again she tells the same snide, sarcastic, inside joke, but in different words: “They think they can keep screwing us, but (wink, wink), we know something they don’t. We’re gonna take over and screw them.”

-- Robert Reich: Sarah Palin’s Presidential Strategy, and the Economy She Depends On, Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Quote Of The Day

2010-11-30T10:07:00.001+02:00

"When the best that the children of a revolution can do for the defense of their inalienable protection against unwarranted search and seizure is to issue the pathetic moan, "Don't touch my junk," a low point of humiliation has been reached."

--Christopher Hitchens, via Slate