Leaving billings Montana. Is that all oil refineries? Charles got Lots of attention at the gas station. Six hours to Bismarck. I don’t know if I can pull another six tonight.
Did you know that all of Europe will fit inside of the USA east of the mississippi? This country is big… And I’m taking the short northern route.
Source date (UTC): 2011-12-23 01:24:00 UTC
Leaving Bozeman Montana. Can I make north Dakota in one day of driving?
Source date (UTC): 2011-12-22 23:12:00 UTC
IN NEED OF A CONE OF SILENCE
Sitting in a restaurant having breakfast. Overhearing a conversation next to me. A woman is planning her divorce over the next two years; including how she will increase her expenses, quit her job, take all the cash, run up the credit cards, lie to her husband in the process so that he doesn’t suspect anything. She’s asking her friend for advice on how long she can probably prolong the situation to get the maximum return.
Source date (UTC): 2011-12-21 11:45:00 UTC
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/alarm-as-dutch-lab-creates-highly-contagious-killer-flu-6279474.html”WE DON’T HAVE TO WEAPONIZE IT. THE BIRDS ARE DOING THAT FOR US”
I had the nasty flu that killed so many people back in 1977, and my health has never fully recovered. I don’t know if the conspiracy nuts are right or wrong in suggesting that the Swine Flu escaped the lab. But either way it wasn’t very fun.
I also got the flu that killed a few hundred people in Europe in the winter of 1996-1997. (It made for an interesting vacation. I soldiered onward anyway. I lost 25 pounds because of it.)
H5N1 (the bird flu) only has an R0 (reproductive rate) of 1.14+. But it had a 60% mortality rate. (They call it ‘morbidity rate’ in the literature.) The relatively low rate of transmission was due to the fact that you had to be in pretty close contact to get it. I’ve seen a few other studies where the measured reproductive rate reached over 2.0 (although they were smaller samples.) The common flu we get every year seems to come in at around 2.
But these researchers have bred an aerosol variant (one that can be spread by sneezing for example). And sure, the really scary diseases have R0’s of 5 to 15. But let’s just say that that we go from 1.14 to 1.6, to something like 2.2 to 4.
I mean, Soderberg’s movie is scary enough as it is.
Source date (UTC): 2011-12-19 21:02:00 UTC
http://modeledbehavior.com/2011/12/19/whats-changed-on-climate-change/Changes to The Signals On Climate Change
Source date (UTC): 2011-12-19 09:02:00 UTC
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/19/opinion/krugman-will-china-break.htmlCHINA CRASH
I’d originally predicted that the China bubble would pop over Christmas of 2010 — a year ago now — based upon the relationship between prices, inventory and incomes. I’m not sure I was wrong about when it popped, even if it’s taking a long time to become visible. But It’s certainly happening right now. In 50 of 70 Cities prices are in free fall. What I don’t know, is how their economy will ‘recalculate’ prices and actions. Totalitarians are great at spending money, but now people are schooled, trained, invested, and habituated to a future that can’t exist. Recalculating a new future is going to be expensive and likely painful for them, as much as it has been for us.
2012 will be a very, very, interesting year. It’s the 1870’s and the 1930’s all over again. And we’re finally seeing the big guns in economics calling this a DEPRESSION. Finally.
Source date (UTC): 2011-12-19 08:58:00 UTC
http://www.capitalismv3.com/index.php/glossary/#schumpeterian%20intellectualsECONOMISTS AS THE ACOLYTES OF TOTALITARIANISM
“Once people decided that they wanted to make a living from giving economic advice, they needed customers. The government was the obvious target. The new class of professional economists said that politicians could spend the taxpayer’s money willy-nilly, even on total waste. And, that all their remaining economic problems could be solved, without cost or effort, by monetary manipulation, in time for the next election. This proved to be a big seller, and it remains so today.” (- Courtesy of Forbes)
See: Schumpeterian Intellectuals in my Glossary of Political Economy
Source date (UTC): 2011-12-19 08:30:00 UTC
GEEK HUMOR:
QUESTION: What’s the difference between an economist and a used car salesman?
ANSWER: Only the used car salesman knows when he’s lying to you.
(Courtesy of Newmark’s Door)
Source date (UTC): 2011-12-19 07:34:00 UTC
FB isn’t really going to replace the profile pages with Timeline? I mean, it’s HORRIBLE. Is there a way to turn it off?
Source date (UTC): 2011-12-17 10:44:00 UTC
Why can’t you edit your own FB Posts?
(Too many grammatical errors between the keyboard and the chair.)
Source date (UTC): 2011-12-16 15:14:00 UTC