let me splain something to you

i'm all for carbon capture and sequestration. just like i'm for teleportation devices and flying cars. so why is it that newspaper articles treat this like it's something real that exists today, as opposed to what it is - an unproven, untested technology.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/07/business/07gas.html

i wish i knew i how to post video

because i'd post one of the trailers for 'where the wild things are'. instead i'll post this god damn brooks column:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/04/opinion/04brooks.html

Afghanistan

how smart is steve miller? no seriously, how smart is he [especially compared to the idiots who made this video]...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFGZufk4HFs

don't forget:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/04/us/politics/04military.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/05/world/asia/05afghan.html

apparently sarasota is the jam

is there anything worth knowing

read this. and then embrace that the world isn't rational. or continue to believe it is. i will only pity you.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/06/magazine/06Economic-t.html

World to be Swallowed By Black Hole...Or Dragon

There is a non-zero chance that the new particle accelerator being built in Switzerland could create a black hole that destroys the Earth.

"...anything created when the beams meet head-on in the collider will be born at rest relative to the laboratory and so will stick around and thus could create havoc.The new worries are about black holes, which, according to some variants of string theory, could appear at the collider."

Most of the scientists don't think it will actually occur, calling it "a long shot", but two crackpots in Hawaii have sued to stop construction.

Money quote:

"...there is some minuscule probability, he said, 'the Large Hadron Collider might make dragons that might eat us up.'"

I'm Not Going to Say "I Told You So"...

even though I did. See here:

"Also, keep in mind that there may be many more hidden surprises out there, especially if the continued cooling of the housing market leads to greater defaults/delinquencies in the mortgage market. [Specifically I am referring to the possibility of a de-rating of the mortgage backed securities which could conceivably trigger all sorts of hell in the financial markets.]"

So for all those who said that it wasn't possible to see the coming financial crisis, it was.

A good summary from a guy at Goldman Sachs.

Why Fat People Are Fat and I Am Still Scrawny

From the Times:

- "The researchers concluded that 70 percent of the variation in peoples’ weights may be accounted for by inheritance, a figure that means that weight is more strongly inherited than nearly any other condition, including mental illness, breast cancer, or heart disease."

- "The findings also provided evidence for a phenomenon that scientists like Dr. Hirsch and Dr. Leibel were certain was true — each person has a comfortable weight range to which the body gravitates. The range might span 10 or 20 pounds: someone might be able to weigh 120 to 140 pounds without too much effort. Going much above or much below the natural weight range is difficult, however; the body resists by increasing or decreasing the appetite and changing the metabolism to push the weight back to the range it seeks."

And finally:

- "'Those who doubt the power of basic drives, however, might note that although one can hold one’s breath, this conscious act is soon overcome by the compulsion to breathe,” Dr. Friedman wrote. “The feeling of hunger is intense and, if not as potent as the drive to breathe, is probably no less powerful than the drive to drink when one is thirsty. This is the feeling the obese must resist after they have lost a significant amount of weight.'"

Subprime Woes Not Limited to Housing

GM's profit fell 90% in the first quarter of this year. What's interesting about this is that this wasn't due to poorer performance in their automotive division but in their auto finance arm, GMAC. A major driver for the losses at GMAC appear to be loans made to sub-prime borrowers. These weren't auto-loans but apparently subprime mortgages which GMAC originated through their mortgage arm Residential Capital.

Interestingly enough, a similar phenomenon appears to be occurring at Harley-Davidson, where their finance arm is losing a lot of money no delinquent subprime loans.

Key quote:
- "The basic picture is the same, though. Trying to keep the consumption machine going over the last few years, companies (following the Fed's lead) used easy credit to hook consumers who probably shouldn't have been buying expensive things with long term loans. Whether it's housing or motorcycles, the lesson is the same: excessively easy credit is costly in the long run."

I couldn't have said it better myself.

Sustainable Eating

Cool article from the Post about Chefs who are starting to take note of rapidly depleting fish stocks by only serving fish whose populations are not troubled/near collapse.

This story goes pretty unreported, but the basic premise is that we are currently overfishing the ocean to such a degree that many of the fish species which we eat are on the verge of collapse. If the trend goes unabated, there may be a day when you can no longer order the toro sashimi (fatty tuna) or the Chilean Sea Bass in beurre blanc.

Key Quote:
- "scientists are warning that commercial fish stocks could collapse altogether by 2048"

This article doesn't go too deep into the science, but it's a great example of how individual decisions and personal responsibility have to come into play, if we are to begin addressing the myriad environmental challenges we face.

For anyone in the DC area, check out the featured chef's new reentrant, Hook.

For those who are interested in attempting to eat fish more responsibly/sustainably, go here: http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/seafoodwatch.asp