The amazing intelligence of crows Joshua Klein (hat tip reader Richard)
Light pollution forms ‘eco-traps’ BBC
Was Tycho Brahe Murdered by a Contract Killer? Der Spiegel (hat tip reader Ilja)
Troubled Technologies: An ’09 Watch List Internet Evolution
8 years in 8 minutes Keith Olbermann (hat tip reader Paul)
Global imbalances and the Triffin dilemma John Kemp, Reuters (hat tip Rajiv)
Britain fact of the day Tyler Cowen (hat tip reader Tim)
State Tax Revenues Fall as Recession Bears Down Wall Street Journal (hat tip reader reynoj)
The Growing Foreclosure Crisis Washington Post. Prime delinquencies now exceed subprime.
Bankers First Felix Salmon (hat tip reader Tim)
Time to take the banks into full public ownership Willem Buiter
Survey Shows Consumer Skepticism as Economy Slows WSJ China Journal
Antidote du jour:
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That painter must be getting paid by the hour…Or, perhaps he has not hear of airless spray equipment?
Oohh poor Yves, I don’t know where to begin with this photo. Ladder on plastic, on polished wood floor, no one spotting the ladder for him, on his tip toes, 240mm roller with no extension pole to aid in control or reach, death or severe injury to ensue and the ever present painters life support system, his boom box lol.
Hope you have talked about the quality of the final finish too, always a sticky point in the end game.
@River airless is ok for the first coats, but for a job like this cut and roll on the final water base paint produces the best finish, especially the ceilings (the roller gives a eggshell texture to the finish and help hide imperfections and defuse the light (softer) better, although a HVLP (high volume low pressure) spray gun would work well on the walls for a fine finish, automotive like.
Skippy
What a story about Tycho Brahe!
A suggestion is made of harpsichord music at the Prague dinner that became like to Brahe’s last supper, but had he dined in the palace of his supposed nemesis, King Christian IV of Denmark, the music would likely have been provided by none other than lutanist John Dowland, favorite of Sting and Elvis Costello, and composer of more or less the first version of “96 Tears:”
Flow My Tears
Flow, my tears, fall from your springs!
Exiled for ever, let me mourn;
Where night’s black bird her sad infamy sings,
There let me live forlorn.
Down vain lights, shine you no more!
No nights are dark enough for those
That in despair their lost fortunes deplore.
Light doth but shame disclose.
Never may my woes be relieved,
Since pity is fled;
And tears and sighs and groans my weary days
Of all joys have deprived.
From the highest spire of contentment
My fortune is thrown;
And fear and grief and pain for my deserts
Are my hopes, since hope is gone.
Hark! you shadows that in darkness dwell,
Learn to contemn light
Happy, happy they that in hell
Feel not the world’s despite.
Do you think Brahe might have taken a hint from those lyrics?
Suggested Caption to Picture
“If only Mr. Lehman realized that a sly little terrier named ‘Geithner’ was about to pull the drop cloth out from under him”
Geithner will not pull the drop cloth, to the contrary:
http://mast-economy.blogspot.com/2009/01/bull-run-begins-this-week.html
watch out for the bulls in the other corner…
Brown to announce (another) bank bailout:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7836259.stm
You should keep an eye on Robert Peston’s blog. Best source for breaking UK financial stories:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/robertpeston/
Here’s a vote for no more obnoxious, self obsessed geeks crowing to their brethren at TED lectures.
Crows are a lot brighter than that crew of smug sycophants.
“The amazing intelligence of crows – Joshua Klein”
Not nearly as amazing as the research conducted at the Institute of Animal Cognitation which discovered, in a more sophisticated experiment than the peanut/vending machine, that crows could be trained to essentially run “banks”, taking in deposits, and than lending the material at a profit, all while accounting for the material extremely accurately.
One researcher noted however, that although the crows are as good at running banks as humans, that lack the imagination to take advantage of the TARP and other Federal bail out programs. The research stated that crows are apparently gentically incapable of making loans that cannot be paid back.
This sort of blows me away for some reason, but one should nonetheless, walk erect and maintain a positive attitude and then go about the day as if all is well: cars for sale
I’m sorry that this is related to nothing on topic or off, but I do have a suggestion for President (elect) Obama: What if tax revenue was used to pay people to keep these cars clean, as in wash and wax them? That might create millions of jobs for years!
Skippy, will you come paint my house, please? ;^)
Finally a main stream media article that is critical of Geithner in terms of his tax issues – (well sort of critical)
Nominees and double standards
A WOMAN with Timothy Geithner’s baggage would have a tough time surviving the nomination process for US Treasury secretary.
Geithner – who, as President-elect Barack Obama’s choice to head the Treasury Department, would also oversee the Internal Revenue Service – failed to pay $34,000 in federal taxes ($43,200 with interest). He also employed an illegal immigrant in his home.
A list compiled by the Associated Press reveals a string of women who were forced to withdraw as candidates for top Cabinet posts because of arguably less-severe problems…
Well, it’s at least nice to see that Buiter agrees with me- 10 months ago. It’s clear that ideological taboos against interfering with “free markets” have been shaping and hampering the response to the financial meltdown virtually exclusively, with the delusional expectation that banks would and could be re-capitalized “privately”, (even though the only likely sources would be SWFs, once burned, twice shy, or speculative funds from off-shore havens, which are deeply enmeshed in the chicanery that caused the crisis). Even Sheila Bair’s “bad bank” proposal seems exclusively aimed at “private” re-capitalization, which guarantees precisely that it wouldn’t work, since the only viable pricing mechanism without “lemons” gaming would require that bank equity and bond-debt-converted-to-equity would fund the “bad” bank, on the basis of the toxic assets being genuinely “dead”. else it just a covert subsidy for “private” markets. And, all the while, “private” capitalization would just increase the concentration of banking into the dysfunctional giants, which is very much part of the root problem and the opposite direction from what is really necessary. But I suppose those who believe in the supreme functional efficiency of “private” markets don’t really believe in functional efficiency at all.
…not to worry. I’m sure the painter
is just touching up a few spots.
No need to bring in the airless
sprayers or the firetrucks. But
the TARP under the ladder is of
great concern.
Skippy, that ceiling is so high no one is going to notice the finish except another painter. :)
The painter is milking it…getting paid by the hour. Shoot it from four directions with an airless and be done with it…and he needs a long wand and shorter ladder plus a helper to call 911 in case he screws up.