Friday Open Thread

The Central Libor Question: Do We Want to Save Our Banks or Our Societies?
Let's be bluntly honest here, why don't we: both Geithner and King are simply lying. And even if we can't prove they are lying, we can certainly state that their words lack all plausibility. That is because Libor is arguably the most important number in the financial industry of the past two decades, and people who reach positions such as the ones Geithner and King hold, MUST have known for a long time what was going on with Libor.
Along the same lines that you don't win a Nobel prize in physics if you don't know that E = MC squared, you don't get the world's top jobs in overseeing banking and finance if you don't know what and who is involved in Libor. If only because it would make you a potential threat to those profiting from it.

But our string is not a rope, just a frayed knot.*

*Old joke: A rope walks into a bar.

The bartender says: "Are you a rope? We don't serve ropes in here!

The rope responds: "Nope, a frayed knot."

As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."

by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Fri Aug 3rd, 2012 at 12:32:45 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Crazy Horse (4.00 / 10)

In the Shadow of Wounded Knee - Pictures, More From National Geographic Magazine

After 150 years of broken promises, the Oglala Lakota people of the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota are nurturing their tribal customs, language, and beliefs. A rare, intimate portrait shows their resilience in the face of hardship.

More pictures here:

In the shadow of Wounded Knee: Inside the Pine Ridge reservation of South Dakota | Mail Online

The Oglala Sioux Tribe occupies a seemingly prime piece of South Dakota -- a vast, scenic reservation that stands near a crossroads for tourists visiting Mount Rushmore, the Badlands, the historic Old West town of Deadwood and other popular sites.
But don't look for museums, hotels, restaurants or even many bathrooms here on the Pine Ridge Reservation, because the Lakota make little effort to attract visitors or tourism dollars, despite the fact that they are one of the nation's poorest tribes.
A generation after many other native American sought to harness their history for profit, the Oglala Sioux are still debating how much culture they are willing to share.

by Fran (fran at eurotrib dot com) on Fri Aug 3rd, 2012 at 12:17:38 PM EST

Re: Crazy Horse (4.00 / 12)

"The people of Pine Ridge have sovereign status as an independent nation," White Plume said. "I take that to mean I am free to make a living from this land." So in spite of reportedly stern warnings from Robert Ecoffey, the superintendent for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) on Pine Ridge, who pointed out that Oglala Sioux sovereignty is limited and does not include the right to violate federal laws, the White Plumes planted an acre and a half of industrial hemp using seeds collected from plants growing wild on the rez. A few days before the crop was due to be harvested, in late August 2000, agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration, the FBI, the BIA, and the U.S. Marshals Service swarmed the place in helicopters and SUV s and shut down the hemp operation. The crop went feral. "It was an experiment in capitalism and a test of our sovereignty, but it seems the U.S. government doesn't want to admit that we should have either," White Plume said. Then he laughed in the way of a man who knows that he cannot be defeated by ordinary disappointments.

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

by Crazy Horse on Fri Aug 3rd, 2012 at 12:37:15 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Crazy Horse (4.00 / 6)

No other comment (except vielen Dank, Fran):

I hope all of you at some point in your lives get to read, "In the Spirit of Crazy Horse," by Peter Matthiessen.

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

by Crazy Horse on Fri Aug 3rd, 2012 at 12:39:46 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Crazy Horse (none / 1)

looking forward to reading it

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

by ceebs (ceebs (at) eurotrib (dot) com) on Fri Aug 3rd, 2012 at 04:20:40 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Crazy Horse (none / 1)

"Then he laughed in the way of a man who knows that he cannot be defeated by ordinary disappointments."

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

by Crazy Horse on Fri Aug 3rd, 2012 at 05:35:26 PM EST
[ Parent ]

the perils of social media (none / 0)

Ive been sent links to things about the guy that book is about for a year or two. however the guy who sends them also sends me loads of alex jones videos and other general conspiracy/new age nuttiness so id half a mind it was just more of the same. book ordered now though.

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

by ceebs (ceebs (at) eurotrib (dot) com) on Sat Aug 4th, 2012 at 04:53:26 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Crazy Horse (none / 0)

I put it on my wish list on Amazon.de.

'tis strange I should be old and neither wise nor valiant. From "The Maid's Tragedy" by Beaumont & Fletcher

by Wife of Bath (kareninaustin at g mail dot com) on Sat Aug 4th, 2012 at 12:54:22 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0)

Odd game, basket-ball. Never seems to end. I started watching, there were 57 seconds left to play. That took about twenty minutes, then they added five minutes of extra time.

France 80-77 UK, wimmin.

_{It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue
- Queen Elizabeth II}

by eurogreen on Fri Aug 3rd, 2012 at 04:54:04 PM EST

Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0)

They should score basketball by how many times you attempt the basket and miss. Most of the times it's "everybody run down to one end, drop the ball in the basket, then everybody run to the other end, drop the ball in the basket, etc., etc." The interesting moments are when one of the 8 foot tall freaks accidentally misses...

by asdf on Fri Aug 3rd, 2012 at 06:19:57 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0)

I'm not a big basketball fan, but I don't think that's the way it's been played since the late-'90s/early-'00s when the game was basically a matter of teams trying to find centers big enough to limit Shaq (or at least strong enough to foul him and ensure he wouldn't also make the shot).

Nowadays it seems to be dominated by shooting guards and small forwards like Kobe and LeBrick. Seems to be much more of a shooting game than a dunking game now.

The NBA and NFL always seem to be on opposite sides of the "big and strong" vs "small and fast" cycle. The NFL has gone back to the former since Jimmy Johnson went away and we've had to endure the rise of Parcells people like Belichick and Saban.

Be nice to America. Or we'll bring democracy to your country.

by Drew J Jones (pedobear@pennstatefootball.com) on Sat Aug 4th, 2012 at 10:10:23 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0)

...adding: This may be different in the Olympics, where there's obviously going to be some obscene talent disparities (as Nigeria can attest). In London the great teams from countries that care about basketball are just going to run circles around the not-so-great.

Be nice to America. Or we'll bring democracy to your country.

by Drew J Jones (pedobear@pennstatefootball.com) on Sat Aug 4th, 2012 at 10:12:25 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Friday Open Thread (4.00 / 2)

If Dodo lived in the U.S...

by asdf on Fri Aug 3rd, 2012 at 06:16:54 PM EST

Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0)

Precious.

'tis strange I should be old and neither wise nor valiant. From "The Maid's Tragedy" by Beaumont & Fletcher

by Wife of Bath (kareninaustin at g mail dot com) on Sat Aug 4th, 2012 at 12:55:38 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 1)

Hehe...

But, if I lived in the U.S., this would be more like me:

I think I didn't report on ET yet but I was subject to a police check during train photography in Austria a second time [the first was back in 2009]. It was along a narrow-gauge railway, at a road crossing. A police car stopped in front, the officer walks up to me,

Policeman: "What are you doing here?"
Me: "I'm a tourist!" <do-you-have-eyes-in-your-head look while holding up the camera hanging on my neck>
Policeman: "But then where is your car?"
Me "I travelled by train!" <points at the tracks>
Policeman: "Ummm... can you identify yourself?"

He then walked back with my passport and took a long time checking it – I'm sure they found a record of my detainment in 2009. But he gave it back with a simple greeting, fortunately just before the train I waited for came.

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Sat Aug 4th, 2012 at 05:28:36 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0)

If that guy had not has his camera running, he would have been put into the patrol car and held overnight...

by asdf on Sun Aug 5th, 2012 at 12:47:45 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0)

He wrote

Railfans and Police Don't Mix - YouTube

I finally had the guts to catch one of our 'encounters' on camera. The camera was hanging around my neck, hence the odd angle and shakiness.

I don't think the police realised that the camera was running. In case of arrest, they can tell him to erase it anyway, can't they?

BTW, do you think too that the policeman's 25-foot rule for demarcating RR right-of-way was made up?

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Sun Aug 5th, 2012 at 02:39:16 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 1)

There was a notable case in Sweden the other year where a guy in the subway who caught an encounter essentially got the choice of deleting it and spending the night in jail on trumped-up drug charges. He deleted but fortunately he realised that just deleting does not remove so with the help of his blog readers he later restored the video and up it up online.

A vote for PES is a vote for EPP! A vote for EPP is a vote for PES! Support the coalition, vote EPP-PES in 2009!

by A swedish kind of death on Sun Aug 5th, 2012 at 06:51:02 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0)

Were there consequences for the officers?

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Sun Aug 5th, 2012 at 07:21:43 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 0)

IIRC, only of the slap-on-the-wrist kind.

A vote for PES is a vote for EPP! A vote for EPP is a vote for PES! Support the coalition, vote EPP-PES in 2009!

by A swedish kind of death on Sun Aug 5th, 2012 at 05:32:35 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 1)

Checked, the officers were charged but freed because although the bloggers accout was more credibile there was not enough evidence and not every word could be heard on the videoclip. And the blogger had a politcal agenda since he was involved in an organisation that is pro free public transport (which was the reason he was filming in teh first place). Etc and so forth.

The bar of unreasonable doubt applied. Standard practise when cops are accused as far as I can tell.

A vote for PES is a vote for EPP! A vote for EPP is a vote for PES! Support the coalition, vote EPP-PES in 2009!

by A swedish kind of death on Sun Aug 5th, 2012 at 05:42:49 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Friday Open Thread (none / 1)

I've never heard of any 25 foot rule for demarking the right of way. The ROW is owned by the railroad, and you're either on it or not on it.

In rural areas of the U.S., the ROW can be pretty wide--400' (about 100 meters) is typical. In urban areas it's narrower, I think they normally want about 50' (15 m) just because that's what is needed for clearance and maintenance. And obviously when the ROW crosses a road, it effectively becomes 0' in width.

But in practice, people go onto the railroad ROW all the time.

by asdf on Mon Aug 6th, 2012 at 11:49:22 AM EST
[ Parent ]

So was the cycling "incident" discussed? (none / 0)

Is there any hint of embarrassment in the UK over it?

Wind power

by Jerome a Paris (etg@eurotrib.com) on Fri Aug 3rd, 2012 at 06:43:57 PM EST

Re: (none / 0)

Much discussed and debated about wether there should be embarassment. I'm split on this.

main problem is UCI track rules are rubbish, and How the comissaires have made some decisions based on the rules as they are published totally escapes me.

In this case all they say is "In the event of a mishap the race shall be stopped and restarted." with no clue as to how you define a mishap

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

by ceebs (ceebs (at) eurotrib (dot) com) on Fri Aug 3rd, 2012 at 07:51:42 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: (none / 0)

Whatever the letter, the spirit was clearly unsporting just as much as the badminton players deliberately losing.

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Sat Aug 4th, 2012 at 01:50:56 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: (none / 0)

As I say Im split. Clearly it was unsporting. But also theres a level of being impressed at a British team that a British team actually takes winning seriously (its just not British is it)

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

by ceebs (ceebs (at) eurotrib (dot) com) on Sat Aug 4th, 2012 at 04:46:10 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: (none / 0)

Taking winning seriously means not making a bad start, for example?

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Sat Aug 4th, 2012 at 08:07:25 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: (none / 0)

yes definitely, but if the rules say you can have two goes at a start, and you screw the first one up.

But the UCI really needs to tighten up the track racing rules, so they are less open to interpretation or straight up gamesmanship/cheating

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

by ceebs (ceebs (at) eurotrib (dot) com) on Sat Aug 4th, 2012 at 08:40:45 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: (none / 0)

ceebs:

the rules say you can have two goes at a start

No, they say

ceebs:

a mishap

which is an unfortunate accident (the "hap" bit is the same as in "happen" and "happenstance"). That excludes a choice of having a new start, or deliberate acts to provoke one.

Not that I think the British team wasn't the best. But they were getting home side refereeing there.

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Sat Aug 4th, 2012 at 08:59:06 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Rowing (none / 0)

Now add the coxless pair's "technical hitch" in the rowing. The British pair got off to a bad start, so claimed a (patently bogus, according to rowers) technical problem to get a new start to the race.

Britain: we invented fair play so the rest of the world has rules to follow.

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Sun Aug 5th, 2012 at 03:47:23 AM EST
[ Parent ]

wtf? (4.00 / 4)

The worst Olympics ever: The offensive Wenlock and Mandeville | Harrison Mooney | Sport | guardian.co.uk

It simply isn't possible to criticise these Olympics without mentioning Wenlock and Mandeville, the offensively terrible, anthropomorphic characters London has named the official mascots of the Games.
These phallic bugbears fitted out in foppish puffery are by far the worst mascots of any Olympics, and I say this while trying to suppress my memories of Atlanta's amorphous blob Whatzit (later renamed Izzy), which ushered in the trend of using no creative effort whatsoever on mascot design. Britain has brought this trend to its logical conclusion.
Now, mascots are a mere accessory of the Olympic Games, a cheap merchandising tactic, and they're almost always terrible. Thankfully, with only a few weeks to grow fond of them before they fill up the bargain bin, they're almost always forgettable as well. But that's what makes the colossal failure of Wenlock and Mandeville so jaw-dropping. Britain has somehow managed to take a relatively unimportant aspect of the Olympic Games and turn it into an unforgettable and indelible full-scale embarrassment. The release of these creatures on its own should have been enough to know Britain is unfit to host the Games.

_{It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue
- Queen Elizabeth II}

by eurogreen on Fri Aug 3rd, 2012 at 08:52:17 PM EST

Re: wtf? (4.00 / 3)

well if this

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Corgi-GS62108-Officer-Wenlock-Figurine/dp/B004LLEHJY

and this

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/London-2012-Olympic-Mascots-Mandeville-Wenlock-Police-Officer-Pins-Box-/28 0916559276

and this

http://www.johnlewis.com/231252413/Product.aspx

don't freak the fuck out of you....

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

by ceebs (ceebs (at) eurotrib (dot) com) on Fri Aug 3rd, 2012 at 09:14:19 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: wtf? (none / 1)

Those horrors just speak of surveillance-security-surveillance.

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Sat Aug 4th, 2012 at 01:51:43 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: wtf? (4.00 / 7)

Also available as a soft toy:

Soft Policeman

1 star review:

I ordered this toy for my daughter's rather unruly stuffed animal collection, thinking that a police surveillance drone would add diversity to her cartoon figures, farm animals, corporate giveaways, and safari dolls. Within minutes of unpacking, it had called for backup, and by the time we escaped into the living room there were three dozen of these figures, equipped with plexiglass shields and tasers, clearing a path down the hallway and crowding all of her other animals in between a bookshelf and her dresser.
Over then next half hour, they sorted all the other stuffed creatures into official Olympic sponsor mascots, and everything else. The unendorsed products were then shuffled into the closet, which was locked with a time delay lock expiring after the closing ceremony. When my daughter complained, they grafted a water cannon onto the baby's walk-and-ride, and drove us from the house. We left the neighborhood as they were installing the missile battery on our roof, but the last we saw, they were loading my daughter's stuffed Tigger into a CIA rendition aircraft while muttering something about Tamil extremists.
Grabbing my tax refund from the mailbox as I left, I was surprised to find that the refund I was expecting had been cancelled, and replaced for a bill of 9.3 billion Pounds Sterling.
I recommend this product for anyone looking for a final solution to their children's messy rooms.

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Sat Aug 4th, 2012 at 06:16:25 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Friday Open Thread | 38 comments (38 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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