Ecomonic report card by Simon Johnson
Economist Simon Johnson has just issued a detailed report card of the economic condition of the U.S., as well as many other countries, and it's not pretty.
Large and Small
I previously posted on the magic of "Power of Ten," a book that inspired me with images of things both very large and very small. Here's another wonderful set of images to illustrate the relationships among things that are large and s
F22 capabilities
Though I am totally against the current U.S. military actions in Afghanistan and Iraq, I can still appreciate the incredible technical capabilities of U.S. weaponry--in this case, the F22 fighter aircraft. I've never before seen aircraft doing many of these maneuvers.
Warming to Climate Claims
As Washington D.C. gets record snowfall, climate denialists cackle with glee. It was a cool summer, and now a cold winter. So, they wonder, where is this global warming?
"People," I want to condescendingly say, "look at the sun." Weather girls of all genders and persuasions are mentioning that this is the coldest winter in 11 years. Notice that? Are they unaware that there is an 11 year cycle of solar warming and cooling that corresponds to -- and can be measured by -- sunspots? So it's like saying with implied importance that this is the coldest month since 12 months ago. The spots are just starting up, much like the days getting longer at the end of December. Here is a nice look at the sunspot phenomenon.
It is intuitively confusing that dark spots mean more heat. But the pair of images here shows visible and ultraviolet views of the same scene. Those dark spots are tunnels into the gamma-hot regions of the sun. Our eyes can only see one octave on the spectrum. Both hotter than blue and cooler than red ranges are invisible. Dark. Red hot is the coldest temperature that gives off light. (Read about Black Body Radiation if you want to know how this is known.)
Another detail that climate denialists get wrong is the meaning of heavy snowfall. If you get heavy precipitation, it implies much moisture aloft. That is, many more megatons of water are evaporated. By heat.
So before you point to a low local current temperature as evidence against global warming, please look at the time scale that climatologists use, like the Temperature record of the past 1000 years, or even for the last century and a half:
This is why Elizabeth Warren is one of my heroes
Elizabeth Warren is doing exactly what she was hired to do--speaking up for ordinary Americans:
Banks and brokers have sold deceptive mortgages for more than a decade. Financial wizards made billions by packaging and repackaging those loans into securities. And federal regulators played the role of lookout at a bank robbery, holding back anyone who tried to stop the massive looting from middle-class families. When they weren't selling deceptive mortgages, Wall Street invented new credit card tricks and clever overdraft fees.This is more than I can say for Barack Obama. He should be taking full advantage of his bully pulpit and cranking on Wall Street and the financial "services" industry, but he is only giving lip service. This makes me wonder why he isn't using that silver tongue week after week to shame Congress into enacting reform. And he shouldn't wait for the banks and Congress to give him support for reform. Screw the banks, and enact reform. Don't wait for the banks to get in line. We need credit card agreements that people can read and understand, for starters. We are more than a year into Obama's Presidency and nothing significant is happening to clean up our corrupt financial system. This young President needs to go read his campaign speeches to remind himself of what he needs to do. And if Congress is so corrupt that none of his campaign promises can be accomplished, then shame Congress, week after week.