|
 Friday, November 15, 2002
Publishers' Attack Free Government Sites [Slashdot]
Companies like Elsevier are fighting for an old busiiness model that will not succeed (i.e. restricting the flow of information and then charging huge amounts of money for access. Something like racketeering but its a business model so it is okay). See ig they go after PubMed next. They will be going against the Scientific Societies. These groups are made up of scientists who want the information to flow and who will do it. Since they will be able to publish, on the web, any appropriate article, scarcity will disappear. Check out Highwire Press to see where the world is going. Will companies like Elsevier try to get the government to stop this? I'm sure they will try but they will not stop it. I justhope we get there in 5 years rather than 50. 1:20:58 PM 
|
|
WSJ. Economists predict consumer spending this quarter will be the lowest in a decade. Things aren't looking that good. We are close to a tipping point.
Personal consumption is expected to grow just 1.1% -- slower than at any time during last year's recession, when the overall economy shrank for three consecutive quarters. It would be the slowest rate since 1993.
Sorry to the folks that like Pelosi for the post made below. She probably is a great person. I am just very sad to see the only viable opposition party retreat into bad habits. Her politics aren't nationally viable by a long shot. This is important given that the country is sliding towards an economic morass.
With Bush for all intents and purposes unopposed, we have a recipe for disaster. Instead of financial stimulus for the average consumer we are going to see tax cuts (the repeal of the estate tax) aimed at people that don't need it and will not spend it (which will serve to push up the deficit and thereby raise long term rates -- adding further downward pressure on the economy). Instead of psychological reassurance that we can return to our economic lives without fear of disruption, we are getting more talk of disruption from an unnecessary war. Instead of confidence building measures dealing with the clean-up of corporate management practices, we are getting a whitewash of the issue. The list goes on... [John Robb's Radio Weblog]
I worry when the Republicans get control of the government and the Wall Street Journal gets pessimistic. Personal consumption growing slower than anytime since 1993. Consumer spending has been the only thing that has kept the economy alive. The President can do things that have huge effects on the economy, things that are not strictly economics. Think Reagan and inflation. He made people believe it could be overcome, and, by believing, it became so. Bush seems to be taking the opposite approach. I hope not. I would suspect that we will be hearing more from the Republicans about the economy. When the WSJ speaks, politicians tend to listen. This is why Carlyle called economics the dismal science. No matter how hard you want to believe that things are going to get better, those economists predict a dismal world. 12:47:45 AM
|
|
Ford: Leadership contest 'not over' [CNN - Politics] Harold is right. Pelosi is a horrible choice. She lives and runs in a reality distortion zone. The positions that get her elected in her district would get her fired in almost every other district in Amercia. As a matter of process, the Dems probably need one or two more humiliating defeats before they are receptive to real change (those things that will make it a better opposition party). After that, it is a long road to retaking the positions of power. Ford sounds like a winner. Pelosi, with all regrets to the people of her district, is a loser on a national scale. [John Robb's Radio Weblog]
This may very well be true but the leaders the Dems had before in the House were losers on the national scale, at least to the ability to retain any sort of control in Congress. They made no gains in a mid-term elections and did not provide any sort of coherent message for their own party. Going extreme worked for the Republicans (I don't mean extreme in the sense that they were beyond the pale but that they moved away from the center to the right, a move that actually gained them more power.) Will the Dems accomplish the same thing? Probably not but it is a natural choice. 12:44:02 AM
|
|
WSJ. US plans to run Iraq for two years or longer after invasion. This is classic realpolitik.
The strategy behind this is to set up a major oil producer as a vassal state. My guess is that this state would 1) not participate in OPEC, 2) pump enough oil to ensure a price of $15 a barrel, 3) award major contracts to US oil companies, 4) pay the US $50-$100 b in cost recoupment, and 5) serve as a staging ground for intervention in other oil producing states that become radicalized as a result of this invasion.
The Bush administration is planning to keep thousands of U.S. troops in Iraq if Saddam Hussein is overthrown, and to create an international civil authority, possibly headed by an American, that would administer the country for at least two years before a new Iraqi government takes full control.
Top Pentagon officials, who opposed broadening the U.S. military's mission in Afghanistan, are some of the most enthusiastic proponents of an ambitious U.S.-led effort to rebuild Iraq and transform it into a stable democratic society, arguing that the undertaking is the key to stabilizing the entire Middle East.
...Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld argued the transitional administration should be headed by an American who reports directly to him, according to one senior U.S. official. [John Robb's Radio Weblog]
This made me look up the definition of realpolitik. So, this is how we will pay for the war. It will also provide greater fuel to attack other oil producing countries who do not fall in line. How stable will the world feeel when we not only control all the nuclear warheads but all the oil supplies also? Maybe Ollie North will get to be the head of the transitional administration, since all the other Iran-Contra conspirators are getting new jobs. 12:39:26 AM
|
|
Garrison Keillor on Fire. Garrison Keillor is flaming. As one of our culture's best story tellers ever, and as someone who has trademarked a transparent gentleness and a genuine civility, this outburst is remarkable. It's short on particulars because, as the end reveals, it comes not from offended reason but from a broken heart. [JOHO the Blog]
Here is the link to Garrison's column. You may have to go through a few ads first to read the premium content. This is no Prairie Home Companion Garrison. This is, to my mind, one of the funniest people alive today but this column is not funny. It is harsh, speaking from the heart rather than the mind. It has none of niceties that normal columns of either political stripe in the mass media. I was really taken aback. I wonder if this will begin to color his comedy. I hope not. 12:30:15 AM
|
|
Cornell. Amit Lal gets a prototype of a nuclear micro-generator working. A generator of this type could power a small device for a decade. This is some of the most exciting technology in play today.
The prototype shown in August was gigantic by comparison with the latest versions, Lal said. An entire device, including a vacuum enclosure, could be made to fit in less than one cubic millimeter, he said. [John Robb's Radio Weblog]
More non-petroleum based power devices. If we would pour just 1/10th the amount of money we are going to use to get Saddam into things like this, we could tell the whole Middle-East, in particular Saudi Arabia, to take a flying f$#%. Let the Saudis deal with their own internal politics when they can no longer use bread and circuses to divert their own population. These governments will fall very quickly then. Because, remember this, most people want to be us. The part of us that values diversity, that can provide a wonderful life for our children, that can move into the future with hope instead of dread, that believes that EVERY human life is valuable. The governments that fear this are the same ones we will be fighting. But, in many cases, the people in those countries are closer to our side than their own government's. Instead of fighting each of these countries by ourselves, most likely killing many potential allies in the process, let's empower those people in each country that WANT to be like us. One way for us to do this is remove ourselves from the petroleum teat, so we can really tell these tyrants to deal with their own people. 12:17:55 AM
|
|
|
|
|
