Late Wednesday Open Thread

by DoDo Wed Jun 16th, 2010 at 12:00:10 PM EST

It's open at last...

Late Wednesday Open Thread | 62 comments (59 topical, 3 editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: Late Wednesday Open Thread (4.00 / 3)

Switzerland over Spain. Wow.

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

by Drew J Jones (pedobear@pennstatefootball.com) on Wed Jun 16th, 2010 at 12:04:02 PM EST

More evidence (4.00 / 8)

the euro is doomed.

by Magnifico on Wed Jun 16th, 2010 at 12:45:42 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: More evidence (4.00 / 2)

Spain falls to the Banksters. An omen?

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

by Drew J Jones (pedobear@pennstatefootball.com) on Wed Jun 16th, 2010 at 03:29:59 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: More evidence (4.00 / 10)

I've been frightened with how quickly Europe's welfare states are being dismantled. Without elite support there is nothing to backstop them until they fall back to where public violence picks up, and I didn't realize how non-existent that elite support is.

you are the media you consume.

by MillMan (millguy at gmail) on Wed Jun 16th, 2010 at 03:40:46 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: More evidence (4.00 / 4)

Neither had we in Europe.

By laying out pros and cons we risk inducing people to join the debate, and losing control of a process that only we fully understand. - Alan Greenspan

by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Wed Jun 16th, 2010 at 04:48:54 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: More evidence (4.00 / 5)

We've been banging on for five years here about how communication towards the elites (Serious™ media, pundits and think tanks) has monolithically offered the frame of the inefficiency of the State, the need for market solutions, and of inevitability of the natural demise of the welfare state.

And here we are. They all believe it.

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Wed Jun 16th, 2010 at 04:50:46 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: More evidence (4.00 / 2)

I'd jokingly said to Mig a few weeks back that the Continent was now having its Thatcher/Reagan Era.

Really must stop making those kinds of jokes. They keep coming true.

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

by Drew J Jones (pedobear@pennstatefootball.com) on Wed Jun 16th, 2010 at 04:58:18 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: More evidence (4.00 / 6)

In my case it's a matter of having a thorough intellectual understanding of what you just said but not having come to grips with it emotionally or experientially. The last event to catch me out like that was the ultra-xenophobic reaction to 9-11 in the US.

As far as the same thing going on in the US - I understand it emotionally / experientally because I'm around libertarian and conservative types on a regular basis.

you are the media you consume.

by MillMan (millguy at gmail) on Wed Jun 16th, 2010 at 05:03:30 PM EST
[ Parent ]

That's exactly it! (4.00 / 2)

I'm in permanent cognitive dissonance : these are people I know and respect and thought I understood, and they are spouting all this dangerous nonsense, just like after 9/11... it hurts, and it offends me.

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

by eurogreen on Thu Jun 17th, 2010 at 02:39:36 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: More evidence (4.00 / 3)

We were fortunate when Bush tried to privatize Social Security. Krugman, DeLong and Baker put that paper out debunking the myths almost immediately. The left and center rallied around it under the "There Is No Crisis" banner. Bush was never able to get any air.

But in Europe right now the fear of becoming The Next Greece has now combined with myths about national debts and public ignorance about interest rates, and nobody in the punditocracy who'd be at all interested in debunking the myths seems to have the education to do so.

Zapatero's bowed to it, Gordon Brown at least put up something of a fight and was promptly kicked out of office, and now we're left with...Nicholas Sarkozy's possible -- one can hope anyway -- fear of the French public, apparently.

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

by Drew J Jones (pedobear@pennstatefootball.com) on Wed Jun 16th, 2010 at 05:07:57 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: More evidence (none / 0)

...adding: Not that the right hasn't succeeded in dismantling much of the welfare state here over the last 30 years, but they've never been able to dismantle the Big Three.

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

by Drew J Jones (pedobear@pennstatefootball.com) on Wed Jun 16th, 2010 at 05:09:30 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Ah the French street... (none / 0)

can it save the world? I feel somewhat demoralized, that's not a good sign.

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

by eurogreen on Thu Jun 17th, 2010 at 02:41:11 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Whoaaaah Switzerland!!! (4.00 / 5)

Switzerland-Spain 1:0.

I repeat: Switzerland-Spain 1:0!

The biggest surprise of the tournament so far. (Well, Spain and France were the two "big" teams I expected to fail, but not this early.)

The first half was more or less predictable: slow-starting Spain could not master a good defense. Then early in the second half came the Swiss goal (which I managed to miss...) -- at that point, shots were 14:2... But then, instead of hunkering down, and in the face of a double substitution by Spain, Switzerland went on attack! Barnetta, Nkufo, Grichting were scaring the Spanish defense, and then came Derdiyok, who bypassed Piqé and Puyol in two steps, and Casillas would have had no chance had the ball been directed just a little bit further to the left. Then Switzerland withstood the final storms of almost six minutes overtime...

In the battle of the semi-retired Champions-League-winning coaches, Ottmar Hitzfeld (ex Bayern München) defeated Vicente del Bosque (ex Real Madrid).

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Wed Jun 16th, 2010 at 12:10:49 PM EST

Re: Whoaaaah Switzerland!!! (4.00 / 3)

really tense match, as Spain was on the attack nearly all the time. Spain fail? What made you think that? Hitzfeld calls Spain team of the century or something.

The goal was all about 2nd effort

Let's not forget that Spain had some good shots, Alonso hit the crossbar in one powerful shot.

Derdiyok was impressive. Chile should look out if Frei gets healthy.

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

by Crazy Horse on Wed Jun 16th, 2010 at 12:59:53 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Whoaaaah Switzerland!!! (none / 1)

Spain fail? What made you think that?

I thought that they just cruised too much in seventh heaven through qualifiers and friendlies to be prepared to play under pressure again against an opponent who means it. But I was expecting that to happen in the knockout stage... (As for France, one word: Domenech. And he didn't disappoint my expectations... ruining the French attack again.)

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Wed Jun 16th, 2010 at 01:31:27 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Whoaaaah Switzerland!!! (none / 1)

Domenech seems to be on a mission to ensure France fial to progress. Henry foiled him in the qualifiers, so now he must ruin them in the group matches.

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Wed Jun 16th, 2010 at 01:44:27 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Whoaaaah Switzerland!!! (4.00 / 2)

I'm an official Domenech hater and consider him mainly responsible for the mess that is the French side. But I don't honestly think he's alone to take the blame. There's a fair amount of infighting between the attackers in particular. It appears there would have been more had Benzema been selected.

Of course, the boss should be able to sort these things out and get the team playing together. Some hope with Domenech.

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Wed Jun 16th, 2010 at 02:17:50 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Whoaaaah Switzerland!!! (none / 0)

I think Zidane said just that in a recent interview which I can't find now.

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Wed Jun 16th, 2010 at 06:19:19 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Hands off my pal Raymond (none / 0)

He's the world's only Surrealist football coach.

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

by eurogreen on Thu Jun 17th, 2010 at 02:44:16 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Whoaaaah Switzerland!!! (4.00 / 2)

Yea, very good match. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I couldn't believe how little threat Spain posed for much of the match, it was like the Swiss had set them a puzzle they just couldn't fathom.

They woke up in the last 5 - 10 minutes, but it was really too late by then.

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Wed Jun 16th, 2010 at 01:08:17 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Whoaaaah Switzerland!!! (4.00 / 2)

Now watched the Swiss goal on replay, on several replays. One word: insane... Had Fernandes not gotten to scoring and accidentally putting a scar on Piqué's face, I think Casillas's unlucky move that sent Derdiyok flying would have been a penalty.

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Wed Jun 16th, 2010 at 01:25:04 PM EST
[ Parent ]

It was a slapstick comedy goal (none / 0)

A fitting punishment for the Spanish, whose football is altogether too beautiful.

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

by eurogreen on Thu Jun 17th, 2010 at 02:45:37 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Late Wednesday Open Thread (4.00 / 3)

Yale Environment 360: Zero-Carbon Economy in UK Possible Within 20 Years, Report Says

Britain can become a zero-carbon economy within two decades by shifting to renewable power generation, overhauling public transportation, and relying more on locally produced food, according to a new study. That shift does not have to drastically alter lifestyles, said Rob Hopkins, founder of Britain's Transition Towns movement and author of the study by the UK's Centre for Alternative Technology.

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

by ceebs (ceebs (at) eurotrib (dot) com) on Wed Jun 16th, 2010 at 01:05:15 PM EST

Re: Late Wednesday Open Thread (none / 1)

Just cos it's technically possible doesn't mean it is politically possible.

Especially in a country with such a blind hatred of green policy.

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Wed Jun 16th, 2010 at 01:10:57 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Late Wednesday Open Thread (none / 1)

I guess you'd admit that showing it's technically possible is perhaps a step on the way to making it politically possible?

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Wed Jun 16th, 2010 at 02:23:10 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Late Wednesday Open Thread (none / 1)

I don't know. showing something is possible simply gives the opposition a rallying point to work against.

As Millman says above, he is staggered at the lack of support the European social contract has among our elites, similarly with regard to alternative energy sources, which threaten elite revenue streams.

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Wed Jun 16th, 2010 at 04:15:57 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Late Wednesday Open Thread (none / 0)

Helen:

showing something is possible simply gives the opposition a rallying point to work against

Perhaps we should get cunning and show it's impossible.

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Wed Jun 16th, 2010 at 04:42:21 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Late Wednesday Open Thread (none / 1)

Heads they win, tails we lose

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Wed Jun 16th, 2010 at 04:57:28 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Late Wednesday Open Thread (4.00 / 5)

i too was struck by millman's comment, direct hit to the solar plexus, in fact.

the very european concept of noblesse oblige is being vaporised before our eyes.

and yes, your comment nailed the biggest source of the problem, and as the tantrics say, the way back up is the same way as we went down, that is ENERGY.

that's why J's work is so important, that's what ET is for, imo, to back him up. CH too.

not that he needs it, lol. still, it's amazing to see the way forward writ so clear in what he's doing.

yes, it still enriches the elite, but at least the biome gets a break, and prepares the ground for the logical next steps afterwards, which would be useless to broach yet, as the general public still believes so many lies.

which is the other great reason for ET's existence, all the great blogging done here does so much to unmask...

it's the energy, stupid. once that's sorted we'll all be able to think a lot clearer, right now most people are in sad shape, when they're not manically trying to deny it.

the elites think they have enough thugs to push their agenda down our throats, but that kind of naked exploitation has less chance than ever of working out the way they want, as it never has for long, and we have more tools to combat it.

and with reality cranking up the stakes daily, it's just a matter of time before they have to make their move, time is running out for obfuscation, the media smokescreens they've been lurking behind, playing us all for a right bunch of wallies.

it won't stand, and all but the most desperately deluded know it in their gut, and will support sane(r) alternatives as they present themselves.

into the breach! green agitprop rulz.

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty

by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Wed Jun 16th, 2010 at 05:02:16 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Late Wednesday Open Thread (none / 1)

Mail - Fifteen killed as flash floods caused by torrential rain hit France

Torrential rain caused rivers in the Var region east of Marseilles to rise by up to 8ft, forcing hundreds of people to seek safety on the roofs of their homes.
Hundreds more were trapped in their floating vehicles as water flooded roads in towns and villages on Tuesday evening.

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Wed Jun 16th, 2010 at 01:18:25 PM EST

Clinton and deepwater offshore drilling (4.00 / 6)

Reuters: Special Report: Deepwater spills and short attention spans

In 1982, Washington imposed a moratorium on drilling in some federal waters, which was renewed and expanded annually for about a decade, putting 462 million acres of federal waters off limits by 1992.
By then, however, oil companies were keen to go deeper as areas still open to drilling off Texas and Louisiana in shallower waters had been thoroughly explored. What stopped them was the prohibitive cost of getting into deeper waters.
So the industry pushed for lower fees on oil and gas production, known as federal royalties, to support more aggressive deep drilling. They found an unlikely ally in President Bill Clinton and his Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary, who threw their support behind an initiative to temporarily cut royalties on deepwater oil and gas production to spur the industry.
The result was the Deepwater Royalty Reduction Act of 1996 that triggered a rush into new areas in the Gulf of Mexico that had previously been dismissed as uneconomical.

Oil is so much cheaper than wind, solar, geothermal, low-impact hydro, tidal, and so forth. I wonder why?

by Magnifico on Wed Jun 16th, 2010 at 01:22:54 PM EST

Re: Clinton and deepwater offshore drilling (none / 1)

Am I the only person here who think the media obsession with this oil spill is waaaay overblown, and that Nobel-Jesus would do much more good if he spent his (probably fake) populist energies on the banksters? The oil will all be gone in a few years even if there are no clean-up efforts. The Gulf is warm and full of oil eating bacteria, as there are lots of natural oil seeps. It would be a lot worse if this happened in the Arctic where oil can hang around a lot longer.

Don't believe me? Well, remember Ixtoc I? My point exactly...

There are far greater threats to the Gulf of Mexico than this oil spill, namely the massive eutrophication and overfishing. But those are gradual processes that don't look as sexy on the evening news...

Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.

by Starvid on Wed Jun 16th, 2010 at 04:34:40 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Clinton and deepwater offshore drilling (4.00 / 2)

It is possible you are. Actually it's an awful lot of oil, somewhere between 80 and 160 million gallons of oil and that pollutes an awfully huge volume of water. And it kills most of the large wildlife in that volume.

It doesn't help that the dispersant BP insist on using is actually toxic to wildlife, causing extra problems. Plus dispersants don't actually get rid of the oil, they simply spread it more thinly, ie into a larger volume of water.

So the problem of overfishing isn't solved by this as it doesn't just render the fish unpalatable to humans, it actually just kills them.

eutrophication is a problem but, again, this oil spill doesn't help that in any way. It is an added problem.

But forget the impact of the oil on local biosphere, the economic impact of this on the entire region is colossal. These are huge tourist areas, bringing in hundreds of millions of dollars, the entire economy of the south east of the US is heavily bolstered by money that is now going elsewhere. Millions of people feel that economic impact right now and others know it's coming down the pipe and there's nothing they can do.

Frankly something that impacts millions of people is newsworthy. That's why it's getting attention. Maybe you don't give a stuff about a lot of people whose lives are just about to become much harder through no fault of their own, but it's still worthy of our attention

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Wed Jun 16th, 2010 at 04:55:16 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Clinton and deepwater offshore drilling (none / 0)

It'll pass. Ixtoc I covered the beaches of Texas with oil to the horror of the tourist industry, but then came hurricane Frederick and it all went away.

Sure, the dispersant seems really stupid. The solution to pollution isn't always dilution. And yes, the oil kills lots of animals and fish. But far more are killed by the fishermen. When Saddam Hussein filled the Persian Gulf with oil in 1991, lots of fish died and all fishing ceased for a few years. Then when people checked they noticed the fish stocks were far bigger than before the oil spill. The lack of fishing had a hugely bigger positive effect on the ecosystem than the negative effects of the actual oil spill were.

Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.

by Starvid on Wed Jun 16th, 2010 at 05:10:20 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Clinton and deepwater offshore drilling (4.00 / 6)

Plus dispersants don't actually get rid of the oil, they simply spread it more thinly

One of the expert witnesses in the congressional hearings said something to the effect that the effect of the dispersants was merely cosmetic, making the oil less visible. He went on to say they actually made matters worse, not better, because the dispersed microdroplets were virtually impossible to clean up, where the ugly tarry clumps could at least be boomed or skimmed or pumped up.

We all bleed the same color.

by budr on Wed Jun 16th, 2010 at 06:02:01 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Clinton and deepwater offshore drilling (none / 1)

you'd rather the media avoided the biggest natural disaster since chernobyl?

BP agrees.

as for the ixtoc, you should have seen the interview i saw the other night with a mexican fisherman talking about how many years of tarry hell, and how much suffering that spill caused.

as for which threat to the gulf is the greatest, that's a bit like discussing which is going to kill the patient first, the cardiac disease or the diabetes...

to me the most interesting part of this narrative is its making people face where their pension funds are coming from, (polluting their children's patrimony).

once we break that chain of ignorance, corporations will all have to look in the mirror more.

there are many companies just as rapaciously scofflaw as BP, and i bet some are getting nervous watching their shares getting ready to follow BP's karmic swandive...

seeing cameron's reaction the other day was fun too.

what ain't fun is reading fishgrease's diaries at the orangerie. reality is outpacing fiction again, just like....9/11.

how many BP's will it take till pension fund managers flock to J's company and the like, for safe, blue chip investments?

BP have been screwing the planet so bad, for so long, with such impunity, and they ain't the only snakes in the woodpile by a long shot.

it might be worth the gulf shutting down for 20 years to humble some more of these these titans, or they'll turn the whole planet into a toxed-out warzone.

it pays so well for them, and those dear grannies and grandpas who would be eating catfood without BP's divvies.

this is what the sunset of an era looks like...

were we not so fucking beholden to them, we would have kicked these multinationals off their thrones by now, instead of seeing our elected officials grovelling to them.

couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of creeps, can you imagine a post-corporate (as we know the word) world?

the writing's on the wall. even the blind are starting to put the 2 & 2 together.

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty

by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Wed Jun 16th, 2010 at 05:22:29 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Clinton and deepwater offshore drilling (none / 0)

This is hardly the greatest environmental disaster since Chernobyl. It's very easy to find far worse disasters than this one. For example the constant and ongoing eutropification and overfishing in the Gulf of Mexico, and in many other places.

This thing will resolve itself in a year or three, time which the fish stocks of the Gulf can replenish themselves from the rapacious overfishing.

Why does no one care about them, but obsess over this spill? Because the spill is better TV and has a clear scapegoat, the giant eeeeeeevul oil company. It's not as fun when ordinary people understand they are the ones responsible, due to their consumption of fish and farm produce (and gasoline) combined with their utter lack of interest in forcing their elected representatives into creating strong regualtion.

Don't misunderstand me. I'm not saying fishing or farming (or offshore drilling) must stop. I'm saying it has to be done in a responsible way, which requires tough regulation. Today that's not the case in the Gulf of Mexico.

Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.

by Starvid on Wed Jun 16th, 2010 at 05:36:12 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Clinton and deepwater offshore drilling (4.00 / 3)

I'm not saying fishing or farming (or offshore drilling) must stop. I'm saying it has to be done in a responsible way, which requires tough regulation. Today that's not the case in the Gulf of Mexico.

Hey, nobody's arguing against that. And the same goes for the Mediterranean and the european Atlantic coast. It's just that the current model of captialism under which we operate doesn't do stuff like effective regulation. Forget the US, just look at the disaster that is the EU fisheries policy. Nobody legislates for a finite earth, our lords and masters do not comprehend bounded systems.

So every resource is exploited till exhaustion and then, like locusts, they move on to the next free meal.

Anybody with eyes to see and brain to think can see that, but a significant and powerful minority did not rise to such influence by being reasonable or by accepting justice and fairness. Their capitalism is winner takes all where legality is for losers to argue about after the facts have been settled.

But if you believe this oil spill helps any, then believe away.

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Wed Jun 16th, 2010 at 05:54:56 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Clinton and deepwater offshore drilling (4.00 / 4)

I think I'll reserve judgement for as long as the estimates keep doubling. But yes, BP is not yet at the top of my long list of corporations in need of euthanasia.
As to the populist outrage: definitely fake.

Spillage; Or, Obama deploys the hankie (Stop Me Before I Vote Again)

...Our nation faces a multitude of challenges. At home, our top priority is to recover and rebuild from a recession that has touched the lives of nearly every American. Abroad, our brave men and women in uniform are taking the fight to al Qaeda wherever it exists. And tonight, I've returned from a trip to the Gulf Coast to speak with you about the battle we're waging against an oil spill that is assaulting our shores and our citizens.

Look over there: Recession, war, Terraists

by generic on Wed Jun 16th, 2010 at 05:57:20 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Clinton and deepwater offshore drilling (4.00 / 6)

You dismiss it as "sexy" but there are legitimate reasons this story has legs:

Hurricane Katrina PTSD. Louisiana has just begun to literally recover from that. The rest of us have just begun to psychologically recover from it. Disaster is one thing. Unprecedented disaster after Unprecedented disaster another. It's the difference between why people have a bad day and why they decide to become alcoholics.
It's not just a spill. A continuous flow of oil has been shooting into the ocean from its original source, below the earth (where people used to think Hell was located, btw) for 2 months and no one knows how to stop it. We put a man on the moon, but... Confounding, humbling, scary.
Innocent animals covered in oil make us sad. And mother earth vengeful.
Karma. Accidents happen, but we've been saying for years we need to reduce our dependence on oil. Taxes didn't motivate us, war in the Middle East didn't motivate us. It's like the person who keeps saying they need to install a smoke detector and never do and then their house burns down. It sucks more than if your house had just burned down with a smoke detector in it.
It's the latest, hugest example of the giant companies allowed to go unregulated, cut corners, act irresponsibly, destroy the livelihoods of thousands and get a rap on the knuckles while the average citizen struggles to do the right thing and loses their job, home, pension, dreams savings anyway. There is a lot of anger already. BP can mew about being scapegoated, but they are the ones who decided to take such a major risk with no plan in place for how to deal with something going wrong. And they decided to do it where people were already feeling brutally fucked over. Fuck them.

So, saying this story is overrated is rather like saying Shakespeare's MacBeth is overrated. Maybe it is. If you are a nihilist with no soul or appreciation for symbolism and the cruelty and fragility of the human condition.

Or illiterate.

"Pretending that you already know the answer when you don't is not actually very helpful." ~Migeru.

by poemless on Wed Jun 16th, 2010 at 06:26:54 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Clinton and deepwater offshore drilling (4.00 / 2)

thanks poemless.

TMT=Too. Much. Testosterone.

must be all the bouncing soccer-ball following...

wouldn't it be nice to have an ET sports section, and give us back our old OT's?

these juxtapositions of global oilpocalypse and footie comments are doing my head in, its just like the fucking TV. what's next, chevron ads on the front page too?

exxon valdez every 4 days, thousands more screwups like this waiting in the wings.

/rant

and o-man floundering like an oiled up pelican.

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty

by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Wed Jun 16th, 2010 at 06:58:30 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Clinton and deepwater offshore drilling (4.00 / 2)

Hard to equate progressives discussing the football World Cup with chevron ads here. Thought you liked to celebrate diversity. testosterone?

Well, some of us know full well how predatory capitalism has destroyed modern sports, but still enjoy watching the human body perform various feats of strength and agility. Just last night i was trying to imagine what it would be like to have been in Greece during the heydey of the Olympic games.

Not everyone agrees that Dave Alvin is an amurkan treasure, and that AC/DC is the mark of the beast. some people think Frank Gehry is cool, others believe there's nothing more elegant than a tipi. Some people haven't bought a theater ticket in decades, others understand the power in live performance.

Some people like tropical Costa Rica, others swear by cold Finnish forests. Me i like to live with my feet in Dixie and my head in the cool blue North.

One hour of minor scales, melo. (if you wish to avoid a round footie instrument kicked into your solar plexus.)

jeez, i call for gardeners to arise, and liberate golf courses worldwide. make the bankers watch NASCAR 24/7.

(still love ya, man)

Testosterone and humour are linked. Or so says Professor Sam Shuster, of Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital in the UK who asserts that men are naturally more comedic than women because of the male hormone.
Testosterone: The Professor believes that humour emerges from aggression caused by the male hormone and thus accounts for there being more male comedians than female ones.

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

by Crazy Horse on Thu Jun 17th, 2010 at 01:23:39 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Clinton and deepwater offshore drilling (none / 0)

yup, i apologise, was coming down with a fever and had a p-a brainfart. sports are great, i was raggy and should have unsaid what i wrote.

plenty of room for all interests, ET is a big house.

a true auto-didact polymath would not turn his nose up at anything, let alone something that fascinated so many intelligent colleagues, tho' mostly lost on me.

i am very interested in the correlation of sports to politics, nationalism, and group hysteria, and the replicated historical compulsion of fascism to worship athletic prowess.

i rarely see such a seedy crowd of humans as flock to the business side of sports, as you allude.

even music and oil bizpeeps tend to have more class.

and don't get me started on how many bodies i treat with massage who gave up the rest of their life's range of joint motion, just to please their coaches in college/high school.

great pic, truly epically mindblowing!

love ya too, CH

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty

by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Fri Jun 18th, 2010 at 09:37:07 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Clinton and deepwater offshore drilling (none / 1)

Starvid:

This is hardly the greatest environmental disaster since Chernobyl

The Spill, The Scandal and the President | Rolling Stone Politics

The median figure for Crone's independent calculations is 55,000 barrels a day - the equivalent of an Exxon Valdez every five days. "That's what the plume team's numbers show too," Crone says. A source privy to internal discussions at one of the world's top oil companies confirms that the industry privately agrees with such estimates. "The industry definitely believes the higher-end values," the source says. "That's accurate - if not more than that." The reason, he adds, is that BP appears to have unleashed one of the 10 most productive wells in the Gulf. "BP screwed up a really big, big find," the source says. "And if they can't cap this, it's not going to blow itself out anytime soon."
Get your daily dose of political muckraking from Matt Taibbi on the Taibblog.
Even worse, the "moratorium" on drilling announced by the president does little to prevent future disasters. The ban halts exploratory drilling at only 33 deepwater operations, shutting down less than one percent of the total wells in the Gulf. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, the Cabinet-level official appointed by Obama to rein in the oil industry, boasts that "the moratorium is not a moratorium that will affect production" - which continues at 5,106 wells in the Gulf, including 591 in deep water.
Most troubling of all, the government has allowed BP to continue deep-sea production at its Atlantis rig - one of the world's largest oil platforms. Capable of drawing 200,000 barrels a day from the seafloor, Atlantis is located only 150 miles off the coast of Louisiana, in waters nearly 2,000 feet deeper than BP drilled at Deepwater Horizon. According to congressional documents, the platform lacks required engineering certification for as much as 90 percent of its subsea components - a flaw that internal BP documents reveal could lead to "catastrophic" errors. In a May 19th letter to Salazar, 26 congressmen called for the rig to be shut down immediately. "We are very concerned," they wrote, "that the tragedy at Deepwater Horizon could foreshadow an accident at BP Atlantis."
Tim Dickinson blogs about all the news that fits, from the Beltway and beyond on the National Affairs blog.
The administration's response to the looming threat? According to an e-mail to a congressional aide from a staff member at MMS, the agency has had "zero contact" with Atlantis about its safety risks since the Deepwater rig went down.

no comment

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty

by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Wed Jun 16th, 2010 at 07:02:47 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Clinton and deepwater offshore drilling (none / 0)

I replied to your post on Vissarionites.

by FarEasterner on Wed Jun 16th, 2010 at 07:35:03 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Rail accident in Austria [repost] (4.00 / 2)

In the early hours of today, a freight train transporting Suzuki cars derailed on the descent from the Arlberg tunnel in Austria. Only the locomotive driver was lightly hurt, but material damage was significant. So far it is known that the train oversped, because it couldn't be slowed down "properly" on the descent.

[This comment is a repost with reduced images; I toggled the original because too big hotlinked images were a problem; image source & credit: Vorarlberg Online]

Apparently, only the locomotive braked, the train didn't. The only way this could happen is if the brake system was disabled on the car next to the locomotive, and the train personal omitted a proper brake check before departure.

There is a precedent: on 26 February 2002, a piggyback train with a car with disabled brakes at the end was turned at the station where there was a change in train operators, the new train personal didn't check brake function at the end of the train, and thus couldn't brake at Wampersdorf (near Vienna) when another train stopped ahead of it, 6 dead.

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Wed Jun 16th, 2010 at 02:09:03 PM EST

Re: Rail accident in Austria [repost] (none / 0)

thanks for reducing the size of images.

by FarEasterner on Wed Jun 16th, 2010 at 04:37:15 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Rail accident in Austria [repost] (none / 1)

nice PR for sux-uki's structural strengths...

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty

by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Wed Jun 16th, 2010 at 07:01:11 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Late Wednesday Open Thread (none / 1)

Oh for those complaining about Vuvuzelas, if you have a graphic equaliser on your TV, try turning the 300Hz band down to nothing, and miraculously the crowd noise is louder than the horns.

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

by ceebs (ceebs (at) eurotrib (dot) com) on Wed Jun 16th, 2010 at 02:34:42 PM EST

Re: Late Wednesday Open Thread (none / 0)

Obviously tonights game it's not quite as effective as some others.

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

by ceebs (ceebs (at) eurotrib (dot) com) on Wed Jun 16th, 2010 at 02:35:32 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Late Wednesday Open Thread (none / 0)

The technicians of my TV channel must have applied some similar trick, because the crowd could be heard in all three matches today (even the South Africa match). But it isn't perfect: sometimes there are high-pitched overtones that remain, sometimes when the vuvuzela-blowers channge gear the whole fails, sometimes it seems as if single vuvuzelas can be heard (maybe ones that are off-tune).

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Wed Jun 16th, 2010 at 06:23:31 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Late Wednesday Open Thread (none / 0)

I recently updated my version of Firefox, and now I can't use the "+4"-rating button anymore! Now it says "Rate all" instead. What to do?

PS. The Swedish National Debt Office came with a new prognosis today. The deficit is essentially eliminated and the budget already balanced, while the national debt will fall to 37 % at the end of 2010 and to 32 % at the end of 2011. :)

Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.

by Starvid on Wed Jun 16th, 2010 at 02:49:28 PM EST

Re: Late Wednesday Open Thread (4.00 / 2)

If you've got FF 3.6, take a look at the Tribext page for TBG's 3.6 patch.

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Wed Jun 16th, 2010 at 03:00:48 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Late Wednesday Open Thread (4.00 / 2)

Thanks, it worked!

Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.

by Starvid on Wed Jun 16th, 2010 at 03:06:54 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Late Wednesday Open Thread (none / 0)

Now I can't quite justify it but...

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