EUA

Video: Limbaugh laughs at Japan disaster, suggests Gaia struck on purpose because country was environmentally aware « Climate Progress:

LIMBAUGH:  The Japanese have done so much to save the planet … and yet Gaia levels them [laughs], just wipes them out. Wipes out their nuclear plants, all kinds of radiation. What kind of payback is this? That is an excellent question. They invented the Prius. In fact, where Gaia blew up is right where they make all these electric cars. That’s where the tsunami hit. All those brand new electric cars sitting there on the lot. I like the way this guy was thinking. It’s like — it’s like Gaia hit the Prius and [Nissan] Leaf place. It’s like they were in the crosshairs, if we can use that word, it does. What is Gaia trying to tell us here? What is the mother of environmentalism trying to say with this hit? Great observation out there, Chris.

You just can’t make this stuff up.  Indeed, this would be hard to believe — even for Limbaugh — if it weren’t all on video.

[....]

AmericaBlog adds a useful explanation for those reading this from outside of America:

And for any Japanese media out there, you need to understand that this man is the number one radio personality for Republicans in our country. Every Republican presidential candidate and every Republican White House goes on Limbaugh’s radio show to try to curry his favor. Even the head of the Republican party does what Limbaugh wants. This isn’t just some crazy right-wing American guy. He’s a leader in the Republican party, and supported by all the leaders of the Republican party. You’re being attacked by a lead member of the Republican establishment in America. Let’s see if any Republican leaders have the courage to criticize Limbaugh for his comments. More likely, you’ll see them interviewing on his show again soon.

"- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Sem comentário

• Quadrennial Defense Review Should Spark Interagency Climate Conversation « Climate Progress: "The Center for American Progress recently argued that Northwest Africa is a region to watch in regard to climate and its impact on security and policy, both for the United States and the European Union. The outlook in the region is particularly worrisome according to Blair: “The effects of climate change in North Africa are likely to exacerbate existing threats to the region’s water and food resources, economies, urban infrastructure, and sociopolitical systems. Cities probably will face deteriorating living conditions, high unemployment, and frequent civil unrest. Climatic stress coupled with socioeconomic crises and ineffective state responses could generate localized social or governmental collapses and humanitarian crises. Climate change will likely increase the already substantial migration of North Africans to Europe. The region also will serve as a route for transmigration if Sub-Saharan Africans flee severe climatic stress.” A recent report by the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies also concludes that transit migration through the Maghreb—Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Mauritania—to other locations contributes to the destabilization of Northern African societies. This instability in turn provides an operating environment for the rapidly growing regional branch of Al Qaeda, which operates in Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Libya, Mauritania, Mali, Chad, and Niger. “From their low point following 9/11, terrorist incidents in the Maghreb and Sahel have climbed to a staggering 204 in 2009, a new high level of intensity. This escalation represents a 558 percent increase in terrorist operations that have killed more than 1,500 people and wounded 6,000 others,” writes Yonah Alexander in the report."

Correlação significativa?

Weights of the average American turkey and human male: Fattened up | The Economist

Sem comentário

Jacques Chirac says in memoirs he was a big admirer of Thatcher - Times Online " [...] Jacques Chirac, the former President, says in his memoirs that he was a big admirer of the “Iron Lady”, and that their friendship in the late-1980s made President Mitterrand envious. According to Mr Chirac, Prime Minister under Mitterrand, the British Prime Minister even confided her fears over the mental abilities of President Reagan, her closest ally."

"[...] In November 1987 Mrs Thatcher told him of fears for Reagan on the eve of a Washington summit at which Mikhail Gorbachev, the Soviet leader, would agree to limit intermediate nuclear forces. “Ronald Reagan did not appear to her to be intellectually or physically up to a long bout of negotiation,” he writes. [...]"

"Climate Cover-Up: A (Brief) Review"

"We often allude to the industry-funded attacks against climate change science, and the dubiouscast of characters involved, here at RealClimate. In recent years, for example, we’ve commented on disinformation efforts by industry front groups such as the “Competitive Enterprise Institute, theCato Institute, the Fraser Institute, and a personal favorite, The Heartland Institute, and by industry-friendly institutions such as the Wall Street Journal editorial board, and other media outlets that assist in the manufacture and distribution of climate change disinformation.

When it comes to the climate change disinformation campaign, we have choosen to focus on the intellectually bankrupt nature of the scientific arguments, rather than the political motivations and the sometimes intriguing money trail. We leave it to others, including organizations such asSourceWatch.org, the sleuths at DeSmogBlog, authors such as Ross Gelbspan (author of The Heat is On, and The Boiling Point), and edited works such as Rescuing Science from Politics to deal with such issues.

One problem with books on this topic is that they quickly grow out of date. Just over the past few years, there have been many significant events in the ‘climate wars’ as we have reported on this site. Fortunately, there is a book out now by our friends at DeSmogBlog (co-founder James Hoggan, and regular contributor Richard Littlemore) entitled Climate Cover Up: The Crusade to Deny Global Warming that discusses the details of the contrarian attacks on climate science up through the present, and in painstaking detail. They have done their research, and have fully documented their findings, summarized by the publisher thusly:

Talk of global warming is nearly inescapable these days — but there are some who believe the concept of climate change is an elaborate hoax. Despite the input of the world’s leading climate scientists, the urgings of politicians, and the outcry of many grassroots activists, many Americans continue to ignore the warning signs of severe climate shifts. How did this happen? Climate Cover-up seeks to answer this question, describing the pollsters and public faces who have crafted careful language to refute the findings of environmental scientists. Exploring the PR techniques, phony “think tanks,” and funding used to pervert scientific fact, this book serves as a wake-up call to those who still wish to deny the inconvenient truth.

Continuar a ler em RealClimate: Climate Cover-Up: A (Brief) Review

Gostava de saber onde se situaria Portugal neste gráfico

• The idiot box Free exchange Economist.com

Um história relacionada com o festival da canção da Eurovisão

Ler a história completa em "A Eurovision story" A Fistful of Euros, e as conclusões que se podem retirar daí:

"Rovshan Nasirli, a young Eurovision fan living in the Azerbaijani capital Baku, says he was summoned this week to the country’s National Security Ministry — to explain why he had voted for Armenia during this year’s competition in May.

“They wanted an explanation for why I voted for Armenia. They said it was a matter of national security,” Nasirli said. “They were trying to put psychological pressure on me, saying things like, ‘You have no sense of ethnic pride. How come you voted for Armenia?’ They made me write out an explanation, and then they let me go.”

A total of 43 Azeris voted for the Armenian duo Inga and Anush, and their song, “Jan-Jan.” Nasirli, like others, used his mobile phone to send a text message expressing his preference, little imagining his vote would eventually result in a summons from national security officials. (By contrast, 1,065 Armenians voted for the Azerbaijani team, apparently without consequence.)"

Sem comentário - não sei se já tinha referido a história, mas não se perde nada em repeti-la, se tal for o caso

Council for Secular Humanism: "Incredibly, President George W. Bush told French President Jacques Chirac in early 2003 that Iraq must be invaded to thwart Gog and Magog, the Bible’s satanic agents of the Apocalypse.

Honest. This isn’t a joke. The president of the United States, in a top-secret phone call to a major European ally, asked for French troops to join American soldiers in attacking Iraq as a mission from God.

Now out of office, Chirac recounts that the American leader appealed to their “common faith” (Christianity) and told him: “Gog and Magog are at work in the Middle East…. The biblical prophecies are being fulfilled…. This confrontation is willed by God, who wants to use this conflict to erase his people’s enemies before a New Age begins.”"

Sem comentário

"[...] As an article of Faith, it is 'pretentious' to believe in global warming" Climate Progress:

"In April, Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL) said he knows with 100% certainty that humans can’t cause devastating sea level rise because God said in the Bible he would “never again” devastate humans with a flood again (see Rep. Shimkus: “Man will not destroy this Earth. This Earth will not be destroyed by a flood.” Rep. Barton: “I wish I had another dozen John Shimkuses on the committee.”).

Now, as ThinkProgress’s Lee Fang reports, Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-TX) has extended that doctrine. Armey told GOP members of Congress on Capitol Hill yesterday that because “the lord God almighty made the heavens and the Earth … to his satisfaction … it is quite pretentious of we little weaklings here on earth to think that, that we are going to destroy God’s creation.”"

Cristiano Ronaldo: mercados eficientes e valor da transferência em termos reais

"Cristiano Ronaldo, perhaps the best soccer player in the world and still only 24 years old, was sold by Manchester United to Real Madrid for 94 million euros (that’s just the transfer fee, and has nothing to do with his salary).

Ronaldo: “I think it’s a fair price. If Manchester and Real agreed on the price, there is nothing to add.”

Eugene Fama could not have put it any better. Perhaps Ronaldo has an investment banking career in his future.

Update: tkt points out in the comments that Zinedine Zidane was actually more expensive in real terms. If I recall correctly his transfer fee was over 70 million euros in 2001, so that’s almost certainly right."

- tirado de "The Efficient Market for Cristiano Ronaldo « The Baseline Scenario

Enquanto isso, nos EUA ...

"When a Fox News anchor, reacting to his own network’s surging e-mail traffic, warns urgently on-camera of a rise in hate-filled, “amped up” Americans who are “taking the extra step and getting the gun out,” maybe we should listen. He has better sources in that underground than most.

The anchor was Shepard Smith, speaking after Wednesday’s mayhem at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. Unlike the bloviators at his network and elsewhere on cable, Smith is famous for his highly caffeinated news-reading, not any political agenda. But very occasionally — notably during Hurricane Katrina — he hits the Howard Beale mad-as-hell wall. Joining those at Fox who routinely disregard the network’s “We report, you decide” mantra, he both reported and decided, loudly.

What he reported was this: his e-mail from viewers had “become more and more frightening” in recent months, dating back to the election season. From Wednesday alone, he “could read a hundred” messages spewing “hate that’s not based in fact,” much of it about Barack Obama and some of it sharing the museum gunman’s canard that the president was not a naturally born citizen. These are Americans “out there in a scary place,” Smith said."

- continuar a ler (é bastante incómodo, mas esperemos que não venha a ser nada de importante) em Op-Ed Columnist - The Obama Haters’ Silent Enablers - NYTimes.com

Enfim...

"Workers cover the Zugspitze glacier with mets on June 3, 2009 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. Germany's highest mountain, the Zugspitze (2,962 metres), is getting a special shield to protect its glacier from melting."

- visto em Friday Photo: Keeping cool FP Passport.

Educação: ... no entretanto, o que alguns vão fazendo...

- ver e ler em China to cheaters: you're being watched FP Passport,

Portugal e a descriminalização das drogas

"In 2001, Portugal became the only EU-member state to decriminalize drugs, a distinction which continues through to the present. Last year, working with the Cato Institute, I went to that country in order to research the effects of the decriminalization law (which applies to all substances, including cocaine and heroin) and to interview both Portuguese and EU drug policy officials and analysts (the central EU drug policy monitoring agency is, by coincidence, based in Lisbon). Evaluating the policy strictly from an empirical perspective, decriminalization has been an unquestionable success, leading to improvements in virtually every relevant category and enabling Portugal to manage drug-related problems (and drug usage rates) far better than most Western nations that continue to treat adult drug consumption as a criminal offense."

- Ler em The success of drug decriminalization in Portugal - Glenn Greenwald - Salon.com

Divertido e instrutivo

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

CNBC Gives Financial Advice

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things With Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Joke of the Day

- tirado de Your moment of zen Free exchange Economist.com

Vejam!

- via Climate Progress » Blog Archive » Must see video of Greenland melting.

Exemplar

"China said it would subsidise the sale of 100 million energy-efficient light bulbs this year to cut energy use and pollution, double the number subsidised in 2008 [...]

The government had offered subsidies for 50 million bulbs last year.The increase will "cushion the impact of the global financial crisis on producers of energy-efficient light bulbs" and "strive for bigger energy-saving and pollution-reduction results," the statement said.

The central government introduced the promotion programme last year, giving out 280 million yuan (40.9 million dollars) for subsidies of 50 percent for retail sales and 30 percent for bulk purchases, it said."

- Continuar a ler em China ramps up subsidies for energy-efficient light bulbs (Climate Ark News Archive)

Safa-se o consolo...

- Ler em Climate Progress » Blog Archive » Dilbert joins the climate realists.

A conjuntura interpretada à luz de MC Escher

- via The Economy According to MC Escher The Big Picture

Leituras diversas sobre a crise

Esta nota abrange um conjunto de leituras - das mais recentes para as mais antigas - tendo como denominador o modo como a crise está a ser discutida nos EUA.

• Op-Ed Columnist - Paul Krugman - Decade at Bernie’s - NYTimes.com"
  
  

  "[...] the policies currently on offer don’t look adequate to the challenge. The fiscal stimulus plan, while it will certainly help, probably won’t do more than mitigate the economic side effects of debt deflation. And the much-awaited announcement of the bank rescue plan left everyone confused rather than reassured."
  
  




• The trouble with Obama's rescue The Obama rescue The Economist
  
  

  "For all those shortcomings, the stimulus plan gets one big thing right. Given the pace at which demand is slumping, a big, and sustained, fiscal boost is vital for America’s economy. This package, albeit imperfectly, administers it.
  
  

  That makes the inadequacy of the financial rescue all the more regrettable. Fiscal stimulus, indispensable as it is, cannot create a lasting economic recovery in a country with a broken financial system. The lesson of big banking busts, such as Japan’s in the 1990s, is that debt-laden balance-sheets must be restructured and troubled banks fixed before real recoveries can take off. History also suggests that countries which address their banking crises quickly and creatively (as Sweden did in the early 1990s) do better than those that dither. This is expensive and painful, but cautious, penny-pinching governments end up paying more than those that tread boldly."
  
  




• Economist's View: "No Ordinary Recession"
  
  
  
  
  
  
  "Axel Leijonhufvud says fiscal policy will not be effective until private sector balance sheets are recapitalized. However, "the American ideological taboo against 'nationalisation' ... stands in the way of dealing with the matter in the straightforward way": No ordinary recession, by Axel Leijonhufvud, voxeu.org."
  
  

  
  
  




• Op-Ed Columnist - Failure to Rise - NYTimes.com
  
  

  "[...]So far the Obama administration’s response to the economic crisis is all too reminiscent of Japan in the 1990s: a fiscal expansion large enough to avert the worst, but not enough to kick-start recovery; support for the banking system, but a reluctance to force banks to face up to their losses. It’s early days yet, but we’re falling behind the curve."
  
  




• FT.com / Columnists / Martin Wolf - Why Obama’s new Tarp will fail to rescue the banks
  
  

  "Has Barack Obama’s presidency already failed? In normal times, this would be a ludicrous question. But these are not normal times. They are times of great danger. Today, the new US administration can disown responsibility for its inheritance; tomorrow, it will own it. Today, it can offer solutions; tomorrow it will have become the problem. Today, it is in control of events; tomorrow, events will take control of it. Doing too little is now far riskier than doing too much. If he fails to act decisively, the president risks being overwhelmed, like his predecessor. "

• What the centrists have wrought - Paul Krugman Blog - NYTimes.com
  

  "The short answer: to appease the centrists, a plan that was already too small and too focused on ineffective tax cuts has been made significantly smaller, and even more focused on tax cuts."
  
  


• Economist's View: Paul Krugman: On the Edge

  "Would the Obama economic plan, if enacted, ensure that America won’t have its own lost decade? Not necessarily: a number of economists, myself included, think the plan falls short and should be substantially bigger. But the Obama plan would certainly improve our odds. And that’s why the efforts of Republicans to make the plan smaller and less effective — to turn it into little more than another round of Bush-style tax cuts — are so destructive."

• FT.com / Comment / Opinion - Obama must fight the protectionist virus
  
  
  

• 
  
  FT.com / Columnists / Martin Wolf - Why dealing with the huge debt overhang is so hard
  

  "How much debt is too much? Nobody knows. But the governments of highly indebted high-income economies – such as the US and UK – think they know the answer: more than today. They want even more credit to flow to their struggling private sectors. Is that an attainable ambition and, if so, how might it be achieved?"