Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Random charts - shale gas effects

 
 
 

Source: The Geopolitics of Shale Gas (237-pg PDF)

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.”


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

"... 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!

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

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...