The topic for next[editor's note, by Migeru] this month's ET film blog is

Contemporary Russian Film (1991-) : Everything But the Kitchen Sink.  

First, if you have not yet, please read the main introductory diary here.  Basically, you just see a movie and come back here and talk about it in a few weeks.

Now, I would like to take the time to answer some Freqently Asked Questions.
 

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Panic over commodity shortages continues to emerge as the dominant factor in the global markets, with both end user and speculative buyers of corn, soybean, cotton, rice and a host of other commodities taking note of what's happening with the wheat shortcomings. Commodity markets are now seen as the main factor behind price rises. But rising fuel prices, Chinese demands and a lack of infrastructure to deal with extreme weather in countries such as Bangladesh and Australia have also played their part.

Farmers and food executives have appealed fruitlessly to federal officials for regulatory steps to limit speculative buying that is helping to drive food prices higher.  "Casino capitalism has taken a seat at the table of the poor" said EU Socialist Group leader Martin Schulz yesterday, "this is immorality carried to the extreme. This is why we need international controls on financial markets."

Meanwhile, some Americans are stocking up on staples such as rice, flour and oil in anticipation of high prices and shortages spreading from overseas.

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Text moved below the fold - Weekend bump for your viewing pleasure! - In Wales

On this date in history:

1904 - Birth of Salvador Dalí, a Spanish surrealist painter and a skilled draftsman, best known for the striking and bizarre images in his surrealist work. (d. 1989)

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Here it is!

Original text put below the fold. Story bumped because the discussion is still active and useful. -- Jérôme

Whoo! Saturday bump up! - In Wales

On this date in history:

1760 - Johann Peter Hebel,was a German short story writer and dialectal poet (d. 1826)

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Hello there.

This ball, our ball. What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals--and yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? Man delights not me-- nor woman neither, though by your smiling you seem to say so.

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The eagerness over the past few days by pundits and financiers to call the financial crisis essentially over has been quite remarkable. I've been collecting articles all saying the same thing and have selected a few here.

A LOT of heavy-hitters have spoken in almost identical terms on the topic:

Paulson sees end of credit crunch

US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has said that the worst of the credit crunch may have passed.

Financial crisis mostly over, Dimon says

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- The financial crisis that began last summer and rocked markets is mostly over, the chief executive of JPMorganChase & Co.  said Thursday. "I look at it as like 75-85% done," said CEO Jamie Dimon.

Worst of US credit crisis over but economy to remain weak

SINGAPORE : John Thain, the newly-installed chief executive of US investment bank Merrill Lynch, has lent his voice to the view that the worst of the US credit crunch is over.

Several prominent people, including well-known investor Warren Buffet, have said over the last few days that the credit crisis in the US has eased.

Greenspan says worst of credit crisis over

(Reuters)--Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said on Thursday that the worst of the credit crisis is over, according to sources who attended a speech he delivered in New York.

On this date in history:

1741 - Giovanni Paisiello, was an Italian composer of the Classical era.(d. 1816)

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Climate change targets ‘an excuse for inaction’ – Policy Exchange

A new report (pdf!) by the leading thinktank Policy Exchange today reveals that despite promising to “put concern for the environment at the heart of policy-making” the Government looks likely to miss over half of the green targets it has set since 1997.

(...)

As targets have been missed, the authors identify a disturbing new trend that has emerged: targets being used not as a measure of action, but in lieu of it. New targets are either so vague as to be meaningless or so aspirational as to be unrealistic. Meanwhile, old targets have been cunningly reformulated so that the public does not realise these targets have been failed.

It's Thursday.

Yes, yes it is.

The world needs to start another revolution, IMO, to preserve, conserve and manage freshwater supplies in the face of huge growing demands from population growth, irrigated agriculture, unregulated industries (in most parts of the world) and sheer wastage: a Blue Revolution. Although this concept is not new, it should be given serious thought.

Just as the Green Revolution transformed agriculture in the 1960s, a Blue Revolution ought to galvanize this earth into action, and everyone, from those in government to the multinationals and from the self-employed to the workforce and those at home should play a role as there is no more water on earth now than there was 2,000 years ago, when the population was less than 3% of its current size. Glib? It's worse than that as per-capita water consumption is rising twice as fast as the world's population.  

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More and more interest is shown on ET in food and agriculture, given the tension that has reigned on commodity markets for some time now, and the high food prices that are the result. These are essential questions in any case, as essential as those regarding energy, to which they're profoundly linked. Not long ago ATinNM suggested we try to put together some position papers, using the Debates box to keep the thread in view.

Elsewhere, asdf posted a comment that (following links through) led to an MIT project rather uglily called the Collaboratorium, that plans to pool knowledge and discussion on climate change. They will have sophisticated tools like computer simulation at their disposal, unlike us, but they propose a scheme for discussion I thought we might ado/apt, (or at least try!). As asdf's comment makes clear in a quote:

Dr. Klein's group is designing an "argument tree" in which contributions must fit into one of four categories: issues needing addressing, options for resolving them, information supporting an option and information rebutting one.

I don't think we can reproduce this formally in a discussion thread, but we can attempt to order the discussion by keeping it in mind. We can start with an main issue or question, and I suggest

Can the world feed its population?

which can be defined and discussed -- by saying, for instance, that "world" here may mean the planet Earth, but also the set of institutions and powers that make up what is sometimes called the international community, it being understood that the latter is strictly limited in its ability to pull rabbits out of the former's hat; and that "population" is dynamic. We can see that the question lights up major topics for discussion: demographics, ecology, agronomy, economics, trade and transport policy, agricultural structure and methods, global versus local, policy elaboration and application and institutions ad hoc, etc.

On this date in history:

1914 - Romain Gary,was a French novelist, film director, World War II pilot, and diplomat.(d. 1980)

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How's things?

This is a rhetorical critique of the anthology Ecosocialism or Barbarism, edited by Jane Kelly and Sheila Malone, an introductory text in ecosocialist thought apparently meant for European audiences.  In it, I suggest that its main problem is that it skimps upon the presentation needed to anticipate objections to its main arguments, and so I suggest amendments here.

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