Top Diaries

The Void.

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Mon Aug 13th, 2012 at 03:18:01 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Monday Open Thread (4.00 / 4)

No, but at this rate I'll probably have beer withdrawal symptoms when I get back to blighty.

An interesting tour of Berlin today, talking in the sights and a couple of pubs.

The Holocaust memorial was very moving and powerful. And The Wall is always with us, still marked by bricks where it's been dismantled. That said, the checkpoint charlie thing is just a circus these days.

Some monuments you have to know are there or you could walk right by them; the book burning memorial in Bebel Platz is one such. Just a single plexiglas tile in the middle of a square looking down on empty bookshelves. No plaque, no explanation.

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Mon Aug 13th, 2012 at 03:12:16 PM EST
[ Parent ]

I spent a WE in Berlin earlier this year. Having lived in the city during the 70s with my family, one of the striking changes was the absence of "der Mauer" (and yet the scars are ever present): here is a memorial on Bernauer Strasse; the iron bars on the bricks laying represent the wall and the picture on the building a "Vopo" fleeing to the West in 1961.

I have also noted that the large 100m-wide buffer zone (visible on the picture) that East Germany cleared behind the wall is now becoming prime development land: there was plenty of construction work going on right there.

Europeans think a hundred miles is a long way. Americans think a hundred years is a long time.

by Bernard on Tue Aug 14th, 2012 at 07:06:47 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Daily chart: Cars on a diet | The Economist

LIKE their owners, cars have been piling on the pounds in recent decades. When the Volkswagen Golf was launched in 1974 it weighed 0.75 tonnes and was 3.8 metres long. By 2008, when the mark six Golf was launched, its weight had soared by more than 50% and it had stretched by 38cm. Apart from making their cars roomier, motor manufacturers have added all sorts of gadgets and safety devices and each of these has meant a gain in weight. Finally, however, the pressure from regulators to make cars more fuel efficient, and the rising cost of materials are combining to make carmakers slim down their models. The mark seven Golf, to be unveiled at the Paris Motor Show in September, should weigh 80kg less than its predecessor, reckons AlixPartners, a consultancy.

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

by ceebs (ceebs (at) eurotrib (dot) com) on Mon Aug 13th, 2012 at 01:07:06 PM EST

Best example of that is the Mini. when it was introduced in the 60s it was tiny, even by those standards. Now it's a beefed up version possibly twice the size

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Mon Aug 13th, 2012 at 03:13:54 PM EST
[ Parent ]

That's not really a fair comparison, because even though those two cars share the name "Mini," they aren't remotely comparable.

A better comparison would be the Austin Maxi to the new Mini.

1975 Maxi: 2200 pounds, 158" overall length.
2012 Mini: 2500 pouns, 146" overall length.

So the story holds some water.

In U.S. cars:

1958 Chevy Bel Air: 3300 pounds
2012 Chevy Malibu: 3800 pounds

by asdf on Mon Aug 13th, 2012 at 04:03:33 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Dare i say?

Geek alert. what are these pounds things of which you write? Surely the 58 Chevy was more expensive in Britain ? ( Adjusted for whatever.)

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin

by Crazy Horse on Mon Aug 13th, 2012 at 05:33:01 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Uh, don't you know, "a pint's a pound the world around." You metric system people have no idea how well the Imperial system hangs together.

For example, you have your made-up "hectares," but we have a sensible "acre," where one acre is a piece of land 1 furlong x 1 chain. Exactly what is needed when you are ploughing with an ox in a communal field.

3 feet = 1 yard
22 yards = 1 chain
10 chains = 1 furlong
8 furlongs = 1 mile

Not memorizing this information, as well as the various l-s-d units, has contributed mightily to the decline of the modern world. Everyone knows that primary school is for beating these conversions into the heads of the youth, and it is an interesting commentary on modern life that any Cockney bookie could, in the 1960s, go to to the horse track and make conversions in his head not only of money, but also of odds. Quick now, which is a better bet if your horse wins, a Guinea at 3:2 or ten bob at 5:4?

You decimal system enthusiasts just lucked out that the industrial revolution came along when it did, allowing your made-up measurement system to work out, but when the world reverts to the Dark Ages and we all go back to subsistence farming, the time-tested practical units will come back into vogue.

No, the decimal money system is not good, either. Try finding an American dime in the bottom of your pocket some time. It's the size of a farthing and worth just about as much.

by asdf on Mon Aug 13th, 2012 at 06:45:56 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Having learned those measures (22 yds = 1 chn but also 1 cricket pitch, fact of major importance), I swear that Cockney bookmakers' odds weren't on the primary school curriculum. But we were forced to become adept at the manipulation of fractions, which helps.

(3:2 are always better odds than 5:4...)

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Tue Aug 14th, 2012 at 03:10:23 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Perceived fraud in the benefits system | Inequalities

It's impossible to understand political attitudes towards the benefits system without thinking about `deservingness' - that is, whether claimants are seen to be deserving. (Regular readers will know this is one of my abiding interests). This week I want to quickly look at a key aspect of this: how much fraud people think there is. To do this I'm using particular questions from the acclaimed British Social Attitudes series, which - astonishingly - I've never seen used before.
The questions come from the 2007 survey:
Out of every 100 people receiving sickness or disability benefits, how many do you think are falsely claiming the benefits?
And out of every 100 people receiving unemployment benefits, how many do you think are falsely claiming the benefits?
[All results below are weighted and exclude 'don't knows']

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

by ceebs (ceebs (at) eurotrib (dot) com) on Mon Aug 13th, 2012 at 01:47:20 PM EST

A presentation on Modern Monetary Theory, by Dick Wagner, largely borrowed from Stephanie Kelton: This Could Change Everything.

If you are not convinced, try it on someone who has not been entirely debauched by economics. — Piero Sraffa

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Mon Aug 13th, 2012 at 03:18:04 PM EST

Some (definitely) random thoughts on MMT:

In only X years versions of MMT will be conventional wisdom
MMT will be used to justify different and conflicting political positions
The conventional wisdom version of MMT will not look like what its developers expected it to be.
the people who continue to lever Shock Doctrine policies will be able to use MMT as justification for full employment under neo-slave conditions, because most people won't understand anyway.
We're still pretty fucked, because economics is about power.
the presentation Migs cited was very well done.

Me not certain that the above random reflections weren't influenced by seeing (in a fair trade t-shirt store) the underside of a skateboard advertising a fair trade clothing maker. The skateboard showed Frau Merkel clutching her skateboard in her arms, and over her head was the name of the company, BLEED.

Under her sneakered feet it did not say Griechenland. (But maybe we shouldn't give up on the young yet... they might still get it.)

to be clear, as i do try to be, what i saw was an actual skateboard with the above image.

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin

by Crazy Horse on Mon Aug 13th, 2012 at 04:15:54 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Perhaps this was all influenced by Karin's visit this weekend, where she stated that Bremen's Viertel was populated by Bio-Eltern raising Bio-Kinder in Bio-Strollers. (Bio means organic.)

That's not entirely true of course. There were other people not raising Bio-Kinder, but they weren't as visible, as they generally weren't pushing strollers (Kinderwagon). I did not see even one Kinderwagon with PV panels.

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin

by Crazy Horse on Mon Aug 13th, 2012 at 04:25:05 PM EST
[ Parent ]

I did not see even one Kinderwagon with PV panels.

This is why people in the EU can't have nice things.

Ever since I learnt about confirmation bias I've started seeing it everywhere

by ATinNM on Mon Aug 13th, 2012 at 05:00:15 PM EST
[ Parent ]

food enlightenment/revolution coming from educated middle classes is to be expected, isn't it?
the working classes are too knackered to lift their noses far from the grindstone to learn about it, the unemployed can't afford it, the rich are still mired in the illusions of 5 star michelin sumptuousness, no change coming down that truffle-marinated pike.

so every field outside town that still has ladybugs in it, or butterflies, may only be that way because of the income from these earnest urbanite status seekers trying to live the bio-life within the shadow of the ruhr.

i always wondered if the green movement's success in germany was because the amount of pollution from their industrial society's failure to protect the environment was too undeniable for some sociopolitical reaction not to occur.

easy to mock the birkenstockers, and the Reformhaus (!) on every corner, but the lotus grows from the mud.

a lot of biobiz is a scam, but the organic movement is an elite one not by design, but by stupidity, avarice, cupidity and crooked politics. with all the unemployment, there could be government sponsored organic farming, which would give the kids something to be proud of, healing the earth and the well-being of their nation.

working chem ag fields is ignominious, cancerous work.

so roll on bio-strollers, hook up the PV panel to a rotating mobile to stare at while mom or dad are trying to focus on something like crossing a road full of truck fumes and hurried shoppers.

It's a fine line between homage, parody, and consumer opportunism. Jess Walter

by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Mon Aug 13th, 2012 at 05:46:47 PM EST
[ Parent ]

U.S. House Majority Leader Goes Bonkers:

the lotus grows from the mud, yes.

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin

by Crazy Horse on Mon Aug 13th, 2012 at 05:52:31 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Paul Ryans wants to turn the US into the Eurozone (4.00 / 4)

Via Mark Thoma's blog: What did Ayn Rand teach Paul Ryan about monetary policy? (WaPo, Brad Plumer, August 13, 2012)

In 2005, Paul Ryan explained that he often looks to Ayn Rand's novel "Atlas Shrugged" as inspiration for his views on monetary policy. "I always go back to, you know, Francisco d'Anconia's speech, at Bill Taggart's wedding, on money when I think about monetary policy," he said in a speech to the Atlas Society. So what are Ryan's views on this front? And what do they have to do with Ayn Rand?
...
Perhaps Ryan's most unconventional opinion on monetary policy came in the summer of 2010, when he told Ezra Klein that the Federal Reserve should actually raise interest rates even as the U.S. economy was still struggling: "[T]here's a lot of capital parked out there, and we need to coax it out into the markets," he said. "I think literally that if we raised the federal funds rate by a point, it would help push money into the economy, as right now, the safest play is to stay with the federal money and federal paper."
...
Ryan, however, has been consistent in his view that the Fed should do whatever it takes to fight inflation -- and stop trying to fret over the unemployment rate. In 2008, Ryan sponsored a bill that would repeal the Federal Reserve's "dual mandate" to tackle both inflation and high unemployment. Instead, under his bill, the Fed would focus only on "price stability."

Including an ironic chart showing that the Fed is "on target for inflation but not unemployment". But since when do Randians bother with facts?

If you are not convinced, try it on someone who has not been entirely debauched by economics. — Piero Sraffa

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Mon Aug 13th, 2012 at 03:36:18 PM EST

Re: Paul Ryan wants US to be like Eurozone (4.00 / 5)

And, while we're on the topic of Ayn Rand, here's Mark Ames of Exile: ATLAS SHRIEKED: AYN RAND'S FIRST LOVE AND MENTOR WAS A SADISTIC SERIAL KILLER WHO DISMEMBERED LITTLE GIRLS (FEBRUARY 26, 2010)

So what, and who, was Ayn Rand for and against? The best way to get to the bottom of it is to take a look at how she developed the superhero of her novel, Atlas Shrugged, John Galt. Back in the late 1920s, as Ayn Rand was working out her philosophy, she became enthralled by a real-life American serial killer, William Edward Hickman, whose gruesome, sadistic dismemberment of 12-year-old girl named Marion Parker in 1927 shocked the nation. Rand filled her early notebooks with worshipful praise of Hickman. According to biographer Jennifer Burns, author of Goddess of the Market, Rand was so smitten by Hickman that she modeled her first literary creation -- Danny Renahan, the protagonist of her unfinished first novel, The Little Street -- on him.
...
But with Rand, there's something more pathological at work. She's out to make the world more sociopath-friendly so that people like Ayn and her hero William Hickman can reach their full potential, not held back by the morality of the "weak," whom Rand despised.
...
Too many critics of Ayn Rand would rather dismiss her books and ideas as laughable, childish, hackneyed, lame, embarrassing-"Nietzsche for sorority girls" was how I used to dismiss her. I did that with the Christian Right, like a lot of people who didn't want to take on something as big, bland and impervious as them. Too many of us focused elsewhere-until it was too late and the Christian fundamentalist crazies took over America. So this time I'm paying more attention-late as usual, but maybe there's still time to head off the worst that's yet to come-because Rand's name keeps foaming out of the mouths of the Teabagger crowd and the elite conservative circuit in Washington. Ayn Rand is the guru, and they are the "Rand Family" followers carrying out her vision. The only way to protect ourselves from this thinking is the way you protect yourself from serial killers: smoke the Rand followers out, make them answer for following the crazed ideology of a serial-killer-groupie, and run them the hell out of town and out of our hemisphere.

If you are not convinced, try it on someone who has not been entirely debauched by economics. — Piero Sraffa

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Mon Aug 13th, 2012 at 03:41:14 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Paul Ryan wants US to be like Eurozone (none / 0)

This just out today: Paul Ryan's Guru Ayn Rand Worshipped A Serial Killer Who Kidnapped and Dismembered Little Girls (August 11, 2012 )

To celebrate today's announcement that Ayn Rand fanboy Paul Ryan will in a few months' time be a heartbeat from the presidency--and to honor this special moment, marking the final syphilitic pus-spasms of America's decline and fall-we are reposting for your edification Mark Ames' 2010 article about the man behind the Rand: Ayn Rand's unrequited adoration of a notorious serial killer, William Edward Hickman. Yes, Vice President-to-be Paul Ryan owes his entire "moral" worldview to a lowly groupie of serial killers, a 1920′s prototype of today's "Joker" wannabees. Yes folks, in a few months' time Americans will finally be able to stand up and declare: "We are all serial-killer groupies now."

If you are not convinced, try it on someone who has not been entirely debauched by economics. — Piero Sraffa

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Thu Aug 16th, 2012 at 10:52:46 AM EST
[ Parent ]

see those cute things rising in your champagne? (none / 1)

Migeru:

"[T]here's a lot of capital parked out there, and we need to coax it out into the markets,"

i know, let's blow a new bubble... gotta be something to get folks to bet on, when all else fails. any tulip breeders out there, get busy!

but first... eradicate medicare, that'll get the old gits' money into the casino betting their shirts.

It's a fine line between homage, parody, and consumer opportunism. Jess Walter

by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Mon Aug 13th, 2012 at 05:21:01 PM EST
[ Parent ]

your champagne? (none / 0)

Or, take it away from the rich and give it to the poor.

by asdf on Mon Aug 13th, 2012 at 05:31:26 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: your champagne? (none / 0)

certainly comrade, that's definitely going to work out perfectly!

It's a fine line between homage, parody, and consumer opportunism. Jess Walter

by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Mon Aug 13th, 2012 at 05:51:36 PM EST
[ Parent ]

cute things rising in your champagne? (none / 1)

More like "we need to increase the state subsidy to idle rentier capital. Also, too, loanable funds fallacy. And pancakes!"

If you are not convinced, try it on someone who has not been entirely debauched by economics. — Piero Sraffa

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Mon Aug 13th, 2012 at 07:50:38 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: cute things rising in your champagne? (4.00 / 2)

"Pro-cyclical monetary policy. And ponies!"

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Tue Aug 14th, 2012 at 03:16:05 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: cute things rising in your champagne? (none / 0)

~~deluge-up~~ trickle down yer leg theory.

golden showers of bullpiss. unicorns!

It's a fine line between homage, parody, and consumer opportunism. Jess Walter

by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Tue Aug 14th, 2012 at 03:56:37 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Monday Open Thread (4.00 / 5)

On its website and in an email Monday, House Speaker John Boehner's office said President Obama needs to take personal responsibility for the drought ravaging the Midwest.
Obama, "continues to blame anyone and everyone for the drought but himself," reads a release from Boehner's office posted online and distributed to reporters Monday.

Ever since I learnt about confirmation bias I've started seeing it everywhere

by ATinNM on Mon Aug 13th, 2012 at 04:34:08 PM EST

You of all people should know that Boehner who dropped the Umlaut is correct in this instance. It is obvious Hussein Obama is guilty of causing the drought, as anyone reading Leviticus 7:3 with four strikeouts would know.

Once again you try to conflate politics with reality, a road travelled with trepidation by only the strong.

On Obama's real Kenyan birth certificate, occupation is listed as "drought producer." And if i must say, and my helicopter pilot tells me i must not say this, Obama was groomed to produce droughts, without doubt.

Or not.

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin

by Crazy Horse on Mon Aug 13th, 2012 at 04:58:47 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Once again you try to conflate politics with reality ...

Think after 30+ years I'd learn. But I don't.

... a road travelled with trepidation by only the strong.

Ever since I learnt about confirmation bias I've started seeing it everywhere

by ATinNM on Mon Aug 13th, 2012 at 05:05:10 PM EST
[ Parent ]

2 Chronicles 7 explains how it all works.

by asdf on Mon Aug 13th, 2012 at 06:15:30 PM EST
[ Parent ]

First we have to make a "Molten sea" ten cubits in diameter from brim to brim, and thirty cubits in circumference.

A neat trick considering that make Π = 3. And, alas, we've lost the technology.

Ever since I learnt about confirmation bias I've started seeing it everywhere

by ATinNM on Mon Aug 13th, 2012 at 07:09:13 PM EST
[ Parent ]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baptism_for_the_dead#The_Church_of_Jesus_Christ_of_Latter-day_Saints

Yer not much of a Mormon.

First off, a simple matter of mathematics isn't going to stand in the way of anything. Second off,

In the practice of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a living person, acting as proxy, is baptized by immersion on behalf of a deceased person. After giving a short prayer that includes the name of the deceased individual, the proxy is immersed briefly in the water, then brought up again. Baptism for the dead is a distinctive ordinance of the church and is based on the belief that baptism is a required ordinance for entry into the Kingdom of God.

Every temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) contains a baptismal font on twelve oxen that is modeled after the molten sea. The LDS Church performs baptisms for the dead in these fonts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molten_Sea

by asdf on Mon Aug 13th, 2012 at 07:22:25 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Uff dah

Ever since I learnt about confirmation bias I've started seeing it everywhere

by ATinNM on Mon Aug 13th, 2012 at 08:48:18 PM EST
[ Parent ]

You just need to draw the circle on a sphere...

If you are not convinced, try it on someone who has not been entirely debauched by economics. — Piero Sraffa

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Mon Aug 13th, 2012 at 07:48:46 PM EST
[ Parent ]

:-þ

pfftthhhh

Ever since I learnt about confirmation bias I've started seeing it everywhere

by ATinNM on Mon Aug 13th, 2012 at 08:50:27 PM EST
[ Parent ]

A spherical cap 1-3/π radii deep should do it.

If you are not convinced, try it on someone who has not been entirely debauched by economics. — Piero Sraffa

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Tue Aug 14th, 2012 at 05:03:02 AM EST
[ Parent ]

http://www.thatvideosite.com/v/5852

if the methane ur-bubble got struck by lightning, could the oceans boil?
i think i read it in revelations...

It's a fine line between homage, parody, and consumer opportunism. Jess Walter

by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Tue Aug 14th, 2012 at 03:59:31 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Irish attempt to understand Olympic sailing... (none / 0)

You would think that living on a small island would cause people to have somewhat of a clue about how sailboat racing works... :-)

by asdf on Mon Aug 13th, 2012 at 10:13:37 PM EST