Tag: Capitalism

Starting a business

Looks like a nice series from USA Today newspaper.

Just happened to be staying in a hotel last week that offered free copies of USA Today.  Too mean to buy my own copies!

Anyway, that Monday was the start of a small business entrepreneur’s series running for 6 weeks.

Don’t worry if you missed the paper version, all available online.  Week One is here, Week Two here.  Bookmark it if you want to follow all 6 weeks – seems well thought out and mostly relevant to both sides of the Pond.

By Paul Handover

Unfamiliar territory for stockmarkets

Stockmarkets in very foreign territory

On August 6th, a Post was published on this Blog with the title of This is going to end in tears!

It was prompted by an article by Karl Denninger and a footnote piece from Dave Rosenberg of Gluskin Sheff.

Also included were the US and UK prices for 4th August (about 7am MT) more for my own curiosity than anything else.  They were:

Dow Jones 9295, S&P 500 1,001, NASDAQ 2002, FTSE 100 (now closed) 4671.

By comparison, here are the figures for these markets (all closed at time of writing) for the 18th September.

Dow Jones 9820, S&P 500 1,068, NASDAQ 2133, FTSE 100 5173.

Well another fascinating muse from Mr Rosenberg was in this morning’s inbox and important extracts are below:

Read Rosenberg’s comments

Lehman – 1 year on.

Exactly a year ago, Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy.

I shall avoid the temptation of pontificating on the subject as many, many others, far better qualified, will be doing so!Leyman

But two published articles seem to me to be worth visiting, one from October of 2008 from The Economist, and one from The New York Times.

Lastly, a personal comment from friend Dan that shows powerfully how the last year has affected him.

Read more of this Post

CCTV cameras in Britain!

Britain’s excessive use of CCTV cameras and the shocking waste of money.

Even before leaving England a year ago, this was a subject that made me feel uneasy, to say the least.

Anyway, a recent article in The Daily Telegraph pointed out just what a complete cock-up this ‘investment’ in cameras CCTV camerahas been.

Britain has 1 per cent of the world’s population but around 20 per cent of its CCTV cameras!  Scary.

And don’t even think about the implications of RFID – Radio Frequency Identification.

G’rrrr.

By Paul Handover

Patrice Ayme and truth

Intelligence at the core of humanism

A while ago a comment on Baseline Scenario jumped off the screen at me.  I was intrigued because the author of this comment used words with power and insightfulness.  That author was Patrice Ayme.  It’s a nom de plume. [NB. Not it isn’t, see comments below] The sub-heading at the top of this Post is from his Blog.  Here’s an extract from the About section of that Blog.

This is a site that tries to find out what is really happening, and what is not, what is right and what is wrong, on many important questions, and in all sorts of ways. In other words thinking is applied relentlessly, the way evolution made it, as the ultimate instrument of domination of anything in sight (be it domination of oneself, of one’s own ideas and emotions, or domination of the universe). Thinking evolved to predict effectively and ambitiously, not to cower in a corner, modest and dazed. Prometheus’ punishment was a regrettable misunderstanding: we did not steal fire from someone, we created our mastery of fire, and fire made us what we are, as we wished. Mastering fire was not a sin, the Greco-Romans were wrong on that one. Fire was part of what we have evolved to be; masters of the universe, for better or worse.

Read more about Patrice

Cell phones and cancer

Is the mobile telephone industry being honest?

A report released by the International EMF Collaborative last week has some disturbing information in it; that cell phones (mobile phones in Europe) are more likely than not to be a causative factor in some cancers, most notably brain cancers.

That information will not come as a surprise to anyone as rumours have been circulating for many years.  What is driving-while-on-cell-phoneworse (if brain cancer wasn’t bad enough) is a growing view that the cell phone industry may have been trying to skew the results in favour of the industry.  If proven, that sort of corporate behaviour underlines the value of integrous living as the only way of creating a society fit for all.

The International EMF Collaborative claims that the Interphone study, which begun in 1999, was “intended to determine the risks of brain tumors, but its full publication has been held up for years. Components of this study published to date reveal what the authors call a ’systemic-skew’, greatly underestimating brain tumor risk.”

Know of young people using cell phones? Then read more and pass this Post on to them.

Read more about this study

STS 128 is away!

Shuttle Discovery launches without a hitch.

At 23.59 EDT, Shuttle Discovery lifts off from launch pad 39-A at the Kennedy Space Centre.

sts 128 launch

America frequently gets a bad press around the world but events like this are a reminder of the pioneering spirit of the American people. Long may that continue.

By the way, ever wondered what it is like to be inside the Shuttle during a launch?

Read more of this Post

Senator Edward Kennedy, a big loss for all of us.

Veteran US Senator, Edward Kennedy, dies at the age of 77.

Senator Kennedy had been battling a brain tumour for a long time; his death makes this a very sad day.

The BBC has a good tribute to him.

James Kwak of Baseline Scenario makes his tribute personal, and all the better for it.

I have nothing new or insightful to add, but it feels wrong to go back to blogging without paying respects to Ted Kennedy. When I was younger and perhaps more idealistic, I used to carry around a copy of his speech at the 1980 Democratic National Convention. He was a man who cared about the poor, the unemployed, and the sick, even as their cause became less and less fashionable over the past four decades. He believed that justice went beyond formalistic legal rights and extended to economic and social conditions as well. The Senate needs another person like him, but sadly will not find one.

Senator Edward Kennedy.
Senator Edward Kennedy.

By Paul Handover

This is a spoof, isn’t it?

Big brother may be watching

But in this case it is a mythical pizza house.  (Includes sound as well)

Anyway, watch this futuristic scene courtesy of the American Civil Liberties Union.

By Paul Handover

The sub-prime crisis

British humour

One aspect of British culture is their dry sense of humour.  In terms of satire, for over a decade three people have held pole positions: Rory Bremner, John Bird and John Fortune.  WikiPedia has a very good summary.

Bird and Fortune have also recorded a series of ‘interviews’ focusing on some of the idiocies of life.

Here’s a classic about the sub-prime crisis.  Slightly dated but no less funny for that.

More from these incredibly, clever guys from time to time.

By Paul Handover