Friday, May 30, 2014
Thursday, May 29, 2014
Wednesday, May 28, 2014
Random charts - effects of oil and gas prices
Source: The Future of Shale Gas II – Will Russia Collapse?
A discussion of "... if and how growing shale gas production might foster political instability in the Middle East and the European neighborhood.."
Great quotes - voting
“Anybody who does not vote is giving the kiss of life to the
terrorists. Those who do not come out are traitors, traitors,
traitors who are selling out this country.”
- Mustafa Bakry, Egyptian politician and talk show host, see Egypt Scrambles to Raise Turnout in Presidential Vote. Yup, the same person of "Americans will be killed in the streets" fame..
Saturday, May 24, 2014
Passages watch - first look
Received my Kickstarter-funded, William Shatner-inspired Passages watch in black (no 063 of 999) ... Love it, though in retrospect perhaps I should have chosen the rose version...
Nuclear weapons update...
Following the signature of the New START Treaty between Russia and the United States, the Obama administration trumpeted the 'achievement' and hyped the 'reductions' in nuclear weapons...
My March 28th, 2010 blog entry 'Yawn' noted at the time:
- As others have pointed out (e.g. here and here) the cuts are somewhat more modest than the numbers touted (a 30% reduction in deployed strategic warheads, an over 50% reduction in strategic nuclear delivery vehicles), due to current force levels and the way things are counted...
- The new agreement continues the practice of only limiting "deployed" warheads and also delivery vehicles (missiles, nuclear bombers), but says nothing about other elements of the nuclear stockpile (e.g. warheads in reserve, those awaiting dismantlement, non-strategic nukes, etc.) In fact the agreement appears to say nothing about the need to actually eliminate any warheads.
- While the point above may be well understood by 'those in the know', given the (predictably) shoddy coverage provided by the mainstream media the vast majority of U.S. citizens could be forgiven for thinking that the two countries are making big reductions in their nuclear arsenals and/or that the U.S. and Russian nuclear stockpiles will be shrinking to 1,550 warheads... as opposed to possibly staying at their current , significantly higher levels
Now an article, US Nuclear Weapons Stockpile Number Declassified: Only 309 Warheads Cut By Obama Administration, informs us that:
"... After a transparency hiatus of four years, the Obama administration has declassified the size of its nuclear weapons stockpile: 4,804 warheads as of September 2013. The new stockpile size is 309 warheads fewer than the 5,113 warheads that the administration in 2010 reported were in the stockpile as of September 2009...
Yet only 309 warheads fewer in four years! Not exactly the “dramatic”
reductions promised by Barack Obama during the 2008 election campaign... In fact, the numbers demonstrate one, for the Obama administration,
uncomfortable fact: it has yet to make a noticeable dent in the
stockpile. Big stockpile reductions over the past 30 years have all
happened during Republican presidents (see table above). Although the
Clinton administration dismantled over 11,000 retired nuclear warheads,
it did not make significant reductions in the remaining stockpile or the
number of warheads deployed on launchers. After the W Bush
administration cut the stockpile nearly in half and offloaded more than
half of the warheads deployed on strategic launchers, the Obama
administration’s policies so far have had only a modest effect on the
size of the stockpile and the number of warheads deployed on strategic
launchers..."
Fun with numbers!
Friday, May 23, 2014
Thursday, May 22, 2014
Random charts - the Internet
Source: The Secret History of Hypertext
"When Vannevar Bush’s “As We May Think” first appeared in The Atlantic’s
pages in July 1945, it set off an intellectual chain reaction that
resulted, more than four decades later, in the creation of the World
Wide Web.
In that landmark essay, Bush described a
hypothetical machine called the Memex: a hypertext-like device capable
of allowing its users to comb through a large set of documents stored on
microfilm, connected via a network of “links” and “associative trails”
that anticipated the hyperlinked structure of today’s Web.
Historians of technology often cite Bush’s
essay as the conceptual forerunner of the Web. And hypertext pioneers
like Douglas Engelbart, Ted Nelson, and Tim Berners-Lee have all
acknowledged their debt to Bush’s vision. But for all his lasting
influence, Bush was not the first person to imagine something like the
Web..."
Tuesday, May 20, 2014
Great quotes - drone strikes
"For the most part drone strikes have been an effective way of prosecuting
people that are legitimate targets..."
- New Zealand Prime Minister John Key disagreeing "...with critics who say drone killings are execution without trial, in
which ordinary people are massacred..."
The good, the bad, and the ugly
The good:
The bad:
And the ugly...
Source: Poll: Americans Associate Health Industry with High Costs
The bad:
And the ugly...
Source: Poll: Americans Associate Health Industry with High Costs
Sunday, May 4, 2014
Not "OSCE observers"
A full week after the OSCE had clarified that those detained were not "OSCE observers" the media keeps on reporting about the detained, and now released "OSCE observers." A case of lazy reporting? Of stupidity? Or 'propaganda'? Occam's Razor would suggest the former...
Of course, when the Russians engage in similar tactics, the U.S. immediately labels it rank propaganda...
Of course, when the Russians engage in similar tactics, the U.S. immediately labels it rank propaganda...
Saturday, May 3, 2014
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