The place where the world comes together in honesty and mirth. Windmills Tilted, Scared Cows Butchered, Lies Skewered on the Lance of Reality ... or something to that effect.
What part of the Great repugican Recession did Mitt Romney not see? Oh that's
right, he didn't see it because nobody in his elite group has been
touched by the Great Recession. Everyone would love to see the national
debt reduced, including Obama. What is even more important now is
improving the employment problem, which should dwarf all other
discussions. Employment may not be an issue for the Romney class, but
it certainly is for everyone else.
It's important to note that what Romney is suggesting when he talks
about cutting the debt is strict austerity. As the world has noticed,
austerity is having a disastrous impact on economies across the UK and
Europe. Austerity works when there's an already growing economy but it
deepens and extends a crisis when an economy is failing.
One can blame Obama for failing to appreciate how serious the banking
crisis was in 2008 (thanks to his delusional economic team) but had he
chopped deeper into the Republican-created debt problem, the US would be
in much worse economic condition today.
To be clear, what Mitt Romney is promoting on the fund raising trail is
the failed policy of austerity. Maybe someone in the Corporate Media
world wants to call him out for this and ask him where such policies
have ever worked in a weak economy? While they're at it, they can also
ask him how removed from the real world he must be if he's managed to
miss the Great Recession.
“I
find it incomprehensible that a president could come to office and call
his predecessor’s record irresponsible and unpatriotic, and then do
almost nothing to fix it,” he said.
Bush began his first term in 2001 with a budget surplus that was wiped
out by the cost of two wars and tax cuts initiated in his presidency,
and the yearly government deficit reached $454.8 billion shortly before
he left office in January 2009. Under Obama, the deficit rose to $1.42
trillion at the end of his first year, and is projected by the
Congressional Budget Office to be $977 billion in fiscal 2013.
At a fundraiser later in the day -- the first of a four- stop, almost
$10 million money tour Romney is making at lavish hotels, country clubs
and private homes around Florida -- the former Massachusetts governor
kept up his criticism of the president and promised his donors he’d run a
more business- friendly government if elected.
Sometimes the market really does work. JPMorgan had been taking such
large positions in the market that others had to know where they were.
Once there's blood in the water, you can count on other sharks stepping
in and joining the feeding frenzy. How's that risk genius team doing at JPMorgan now and why is Dimon still CEO?
The
trading losses suffered by JPMorgan Chase have surged in recent days,
surpassing the bank’s initial $2 billion estimate by at least $1
billion, according to people with knowledge of the losses.
When
Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan’s chief executive, announced the losses last
Thursday, he indicated they could double within the next few quarters.
But that process has been compressed into four trading days as hedge
funds and other investors take advantage of JPMorgan’s distress, fueling
faster deterioration in the underlying credit market positions held by
the bank.
A spokeswoman for the bank declined to comment,
although Mr. Dimon has said the total paper trading losses will be
volatile depending on day-to-day market fluctuations.
Meanwhile
the Federal Reserve is investigating the JPMorgan trades to confirm
that they were within the guidelines of a federally insurance bank.
Dimon currently sits on the board of the NY Federal Reserve, though Elizabeth Warren is calling for his resignation.
The pro-austerity Angela Merkel and her team are giving themselves a pay raise during an economic crisis while the pro-stimulus, anti-austerity government of François Hollande are forcing a pay cut. Huh.
At this point it's probably too late for any option other than default.
Angela Merkel has repeatedly missed critical timing moments for little
more than political posturing at home, so her latest compromise position
is frustrating to say the least. During the previous rescue attempts
she forced Greece to accept lousy terms and harsh austerity, policies
which most knew would destroy the Greek economy. Merkel got what she wanted
and Greece went the way that most economists predicted. Once again,
it's too little, too late and mismanagement of the eurozone by Angela
Merkel. Heaven forbid this mindset is voted in this November during the
US elections.
Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany said
Wednesday that she was ready to discuss stimulus programs to get the
Greek economy growing again and that she was committed to keeping Greece
in the eurozone, signaling a softer approach toward the struggling
country.
The fierce rhetorical salvos out of Germany in the past
week gave way to conciliatory gestures by Merkel, who throughout the
crisis has shown a propensity for managing through brinkmanship. "I have
the will, the determination to keep Greece in the eurozone," she said
in an interview on CNBC on Wednesday, in what appeared to be an attempt
to relax an increasingly tense situation.
If Greek officials are
looking for "stimulus to be pursued for growth in the eurozone, which we
could pursue in the interest of Greece, we're open for this," Merkel
said. "Germany is open for this."
A federal appeals court on Friday upheld a key provision of the
landmark U.S. voting rights law aimed at protecting minorities in states
and local areas with a history of racial discrimination.
It's one of the few good moves to come out of this Justice Department.
Police forces across the US have increasingly been abusing their power
during legitimate protests, including taking away video recordings that
show abusive police behavior. While such tactics may be normal in some
countries, we should never accept that behavior in the US. More via Wired:
In a surprising letter (.pdf)
sent on Monday to attorneys for the Baltimore Police Department, the
Justice Department also strongly asserted that officers who seize and
destroy such recordings without a warrant or without due process are in
strict violation of the individual’s Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment
rights.
The letter was sent to the police department as it
prepares for meetings to discuss a settlement over a civil lawsuit
brought by a citizen who sued the department after his camera was seized
by police.
In the lawsuit, Christopher Sharp alleged that in May
2010, Baltimore City police officers seized, searched and deleted the
contents of his mobile phone after he used it to record them as they
were arresting a friend of his.
In 1987, he was invited to a White House dinner by Ronald Reagan. Few of
the guests appeared to know who he was. During dinner, Nancy Reagan
turned to him and asked what he'd done with his life to merit an
invitation. Straight-faced, Davis replied: "Well, I've changed the
course of music five or six times. What have you done except fuck the
president?"
Indie band Here We Go Magic
is driving across America on tour. Earlier this week, they spotted
legendary director John Waters hitchhiking by the side of the road with a
hat that said "Scum of the Earth." DCist has the story, and a followup
interview with the band.
So what happened once the car pulls up alongside him and he gets in the
van? We pulled up and we saw him and everyone went, "That's definitely
John Waters." We opened the door and I said, "Hello how you doing? Where
ya coming from?" And he said Baltimore. We were like, "Uh huh," totally
knowing that he was from Baltimore. So we said, "Come on in!" He got in
the van and he got all tangled up in the seat belt, it was really
adorable. That was the first thing that happened. We're traveling in a
van and there are all these seat belts that block your way. You know,
the ones that go from the side to the seats in the middle.
So he was totally tangled and he didn't even remove himself. He just
sort of sat down, entrenched in seat belts. He was a perfect gentlemen.
We addressed the fact that we knew it was John Waters and he very calmly
accepted that information. It sort of rolls on from there. The shock of
the event wore off pretty quickly in exchange for the warmth and the
kindness and cleverness of this human being that's now sitting next to
you. He became a human being very quickly. He answered every single
question and he was even a little shy about photos. Finally it was like,
"My mom wants a picture" and "Do you mind if I Tweet this" and he was
fine with it. We were like, "What on earth are you doing this for?" He
was like, "I have a lot of control in my life and I just wanted to let
go of the reins a little bit, have an adventure." He's such a true
artist and it's so cool!
When you're getting to go about your in the morning have you ever
stopped and wondered where and when did shoes come from? Even if you
haven't, the origins of shoes is a rather interesting one.
While landlocked countries are obviously unable to develop a sea-going
blue-water navy, they may still deploy armed forces on major lakes or
rivers. There are a number of reasons a landlocked country may choose to
maintain a navy.
If a river or lake forms a national border, countries may feel the need
to protect and patrol that border with a military force.
In some regions, roads may be unreliable or circuitous, and a river or
lake may be the easiest way to move military forces around the country.
Sometimes, possession of a body of water may actually be contested - for
example, countries around the landlocked Caspian Sea have different
views of how ownership should be divided.
If Earth was a perfect sphere of uniform density, then gravity would be
consistent. But it's not, which means gravity varies wherever you go. A garden gnome from Germany, nicknamed Kern, travels the world to find out how much he weighs in different places.
So far, Kern has journeyed more than 20,000 miles across 15 countries,
by plane, train, ship, bus and car. And as Kern travels, his weight
varies, due to a combination of the spin of the Earth and the fact that
our planet is not round, but more potato-shaped, according to
scientists.
Svante Paabo's genome-sequencing project hopes to point up the
differences that enabled humans, unlike the Neanderthals, with whom they
interbred, to build complex societies.
In a pioneering operation, US doctors took healthy nerves
from the man and used them to bridge the damaged wiring that stopped
signals getting from the man's brain to his hands.
Surgeons at Washington University's school of medicine said the
operation may prove to be a breakthrough for some patients paralyzed by
spinal cord injuries.
The 71-year-old broke his neck in a car crash in 2008 that left him
unable to walk. Though he could still move his arms, he had lost the
ability to grasp or hold things in either hand.
Where two oceans meet, but do not mix! Incredible! When two bodies of water merge
in the middle of The Gulf of Alaska and a frothy foam develops at
their meeting line. It is a result of the melting glaciers being
composed of fresh water and the ocean has a higher percentage of salt
causing the two bodies of water to have different densities and
therefore makes it more difficult to mix.
Retinal
degeneration is a leading cause of blindness. Patients with age related
macular degeneration, retinitis pigmentosa, and diabetes-associated
blindness have [...]
Why settle for dusty ol' Mayan calendars and 12/12/12 apocalyptic visions,
when 2012 has been offering up so many stellar—and planetary—sightings?
We Earthlings have already been treated to nice meteor showers as well
as a magnificent supermoon, and this weekend brings an annular solar
eclipse.
That's not even the best treat:
Venus will be ambling between Earth and the sun in a rare (though
non-earth-shattering) planetary alignment. Sure, the event might look
like a black pimple floating across the face of the sun, but this
celestial rarity once guided adventurous astronomers in their quest to
determine the size of the solar system and yielded the first-ever global
scientific collaboration. Don't blink—Venus doesn't cross our path
again until December 2117.
Annular Solar Eclipse, Jan. 4, 2011
An annular solar eclipse and that ring of fire:
A solar eclipse happens this Sunday, except for the Eastern seaboard
(sorry). It's an "annular" eclipse rather than a total one, which means
the sun's edges peek out from behind the moon, creating the illusion of a
ring of fire. (The word "annular" comes from the Latin word for ring.)
The lower 48 states will have to wait until Aug. 17, 2017, for a total
shutout. This weekend's eclipse
begins
at dawn in southern China. It then sweeps across the Pacific Ocean,
passing south of Alaska, and makes landfall on the Pacific coast near
the California-Oregon border. It ends near Lubbock, Texas, at sunset.
Partial phases of this eclipse will be visible over most of western
North America. (May 9, Space.com)
Those of you in the annular path
should head to higher ground (avoiding clouds and light pollution) and
put solar filters either over your eyes or on your equipment.
Thirty-three national parks will be hosting solar gatherings. Lucky Coloradans get to hang out for free at the University of Colorado at Boulder's Folsom stadium, starting 5:30 p.m. local time, thanks to the Fiske Planetarium.
Below, a chart of solar eclipse times. (Credit: Geoff Gaherty/Starry Night Software/SPACE.com)
May 2012 solar eclipse times
What kind of solar glasses to get:
Designer sunglasses don't cut it. At this late date, check telescope
stores or call your local planetarium. No. 14 welder's glass, carried in
specialty welding stores, works too. Don't forget solar filters for
your camera equipment. Then there's the cardboard method:
The
safest and simplest technique is perhaps to watch the eclipse
indirectly with the solar projection method. Use your telescope, or one
side of your binoculars, to project a magnified image of the sun's disk
onto a shaded white piece of cardboard.
The image on the cardboard will be safe to view and photograph. But
make sure to cover the telescope's finder scope or the unused half of
the binoculars, and don't let anybody look through them. (May 9, Space.com)
If you don't buy binoculars for this weekend, you may want to consider ordering a pair for the transit of Venus.
Transit of Venus, June 8, 2004
Measuring the solar system with the transit of Venus: Yes, there's an app.
With just the tap of a finger on a screen, people can do in hours what
18th-century scientists needed years to do: measure the solar system.
This year's transit of Venus—the second of a pair—begins on the evening
of June 5 for North Americans. Our previous glimpse was in June 2004,
and before that, back in the 19th century. An explanation of this
planetary alignment:
Mercury and Venus are
the only planets closer to the Sun than Earth, both moving faster in
their orbits and passing us regularly. But rather than crossing directly
between us and the Sun, these planets are usually slightly above or
below the Sun as we see them. When they line up just right we see the
round, black silhouette of the planet slowly crossing the Sun, an even
referred to as a "transit." Mercury transits the Sun 13 or 14 times each
century. But Venus transits happen in pairs—two transits eight years
apart—with more than 100 years between each pair. (Transit of Venus, Astronomers Without Borders)
How to see the transit of Venus: Astronomy Without Borders will stream a webcast from Mount Wilson Observatory. See above about solar glasses.
Measuring the solar system the old-fashioned way:
In 1761 and 1769, obsessed stargazers undertook glorious, and sometimes
fatal, journeys, in an orchestrated effort that took 45 years to
coordinate.
In
1716, British astronomer Edmond Halley had called upon scientists to
unite in a project spanning the entire globe. He predicted that on June
6, 1761, Venus would traverse the burning disc of the sun for about six
hours.
At a time when it took six days
to travel from London to Newcastle, dozens of them travelled to remote
outposts of the world to observe the phenomenon, laden with clocks, huge
telescopes and other instruments.
Many risked their lives. With the Seven Years' War [1756-63] tearing Europe apart, they were even sent into war zones. (May 12, The Daily Mail)
Most were not swashbuckling men by any measure, but they risked
traveling with instruments and rum, barely surviving shipwrecks and
warship attacks. In 1761 Venus didn't quite cooperate and messed up the
calculations. The second transit—on June 3, 1769—saw more success.
Sharing the information took years, but the calculated distance between
Earth and the sun wasn't far off the 92,960,000 miles that scientists
agree on today.
More to come: Put this on your night calendar or monitor: Sea and Sky.
Marshall Space Flight Center astronomer Mitzi Adams recommends the
Perseids in August, which always has very bright meteors. "The
conjunction of Venus and Saturn in November (27) should be pretty
spectacular and complements the conjunction of Venus and Jupiter that
occurred in March," she tells Yahoo!.
Forget the bug-eyed green aliens with advanced technology.
Life on
other planets may exist in forms too tiny to see, if mysterious tiny
organisms like those found under our oceans live elsewhere.
It may sound like the plot of a Syfy movie, but it's real: scientists
have discovered that bacteria can survive being buried for 86-million-years
in deep-sea mud.
The scientists jammed a large metal pipe 30 meters into the sea
bottom and used a piston to suck out a long column of reddish clay.
After hauling the sediment onboard, they probed the core with a needlelike
sensor to measure the oxygen concentration in each layer. The researchers
knew how much oxygen should have diffused down into each section of
sediment from the seawater, so any "missing" oxygen meant
microbes had consumed it. Moving deeper through the core is like moving back in time, studying
older and older communities of microorganisms. "We can use the
Pacific as a natural experiment that has been running for 86 million
years," Røy says.
