Government is the great fiction through which everyone endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else.--Bastiat
Christmas Tree Party tonight.
In 2018, the Nigerian government spent more on subsidies on petrol than on health, education, or defense.
In the past decade, US crude oil production more than doubled. By mid-2019, US production was rated at over 12 million barrels/day, surpassing Russian and Saudi Arabian output as the world’s largest.
Academic studies suggest that global oil prices would have been higher by $10 to $50 per barrel if there had not been a fracking boom in the US. Given the scales involved, even with conservative estimates on the price impact, the US upsurge in unconventional oil production has probably led to the biggest transfer of wealth in history. Largely at the cost of reduced oil revenues to OPEC and Russia, benefits have primarily flowed to the world’s largest oil markets in the US, China, India, Japan, and South Korea as well as the US unconventional oil producers.
The biggest transfer of wealth in history. Imagine.
CD sales still make up 78% of music revenue in Japan (compared with less than 30% in the UK).
A study of female sex workers in Vancouver’s Downtown East Side found that 26 percent of the sampled group was HIV-positive. Another report indicated that the figure was above 30 percent, noting these infection rates are the highest in the Western hemisphere and on par with transmission rates in the poorest African nations.
Edmund Burke once defined patronage as “the tribute that opulence owes to genius.”
Some blind people can understand speech that is almost three times faster than the fastest speech sighted people can understand. They can use speech synthesisers set at 800 words per minute (conversational speech is 120–150 wpm). Research suggests that a section of the brain that normally responds to light is re-mapped in blind people to process sound.
This is a picture of Rod Stewart's train layout he has built over the last 23 years.
He has been in a number of model magazines and was the subject of a recent BBC article:
https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-50403561
A Time for Diogenes
Diogenes of Sinope was a Greek philosopher and a founder of the Cynic School. He was born around 400 B.C. and spent most of his life living in his barrel outside the city-state of Corinth. He believed that men and women lived a life dictated by rules and taboos and therefore no one was really truthful or honest. He is often depicted as walking with a lantern in search of an honest man.
Ms. Warren offers a national medical plan that budgets 43 trillion dollars over the next ten years. TRILLION! Mr. Sander's plan budgets over 70 trillion. TRILLION! These fabulous expenses are not even remotely possible yet many seemingly sensible-looking people nod solemnly along in agreement.
A university professor recently asked what advance she thinks the world could well do without replied, "Agriculture." She apparently longs for 7.7 billion hunter-gatherers roaming the wild earth. Nobody screamed.
Hilary arranges a deal to trade information on Trump with the Russians and Trump is accused of collusion with the Russians.
Vaping leads to a few curious deaths and becomes a focus of great concern. Tobacco cruises on.
The threats of global warming can be met only with turning the human energy engine off--off--and replacing the absent fossil fuel with an energy source we do not have and few use. Apparently freezing to death in the dark is preferable to really hot summers. But we can not use nuclear power which would work.
The difference between males and females is how they are raised.
We buy Che Guevara T-shirts.
What we are seeing is an increase in the number of areas of life where the suspension of disbelief is a requirement for non-fiction. From Hilary collapsing on the street to Trump's "perfect call" to dueling climate prophesies, more and more of daily living demands we not look too hard at what is said or is happening.
Diogenes in this culture would also be looking for a satirist.
Christmas Tree Party tonight.
In 2018, the Nigerian government spent more on subsidies on petrol than on health, education, or defense.
In the past decade, US crude oil production more than doubled. By mid-2019, US production was rated at over 12 million barrels/day, surpassing Russian and Saudi Arabian output as the world’s largest.
Academic studies suggest that global oil prices would have been higher by $10 to $50 per barrel if there had not been a fracking boom in the US. Given the scales involved, even with conservative estimates on the price impact, the US upsurge in unconventional oil production has probably led to the biggest transfer of wealth in history. Largely at the cost of reduced oil revenues to OPEC and Russia, benefits have primarily flowed to the world’s largest oil markets in the US, China, India, Japan, and South Korea as well as the US unconventional oil producers.
The biggest transfer of wealth in history. Imagine.
CD sales still make up 78% of music revenue in Japan (compared with less than 30% in the UK).
A study of female sex workers in Vancouver’s Downtown East Side found that 26 percent of the sampled group was HIV-positive. Another report indicated that the figure was above 30 percent, noting these infection rates are the highest in the Western hemisphere and on par with transmission rates in the poorest African nations.
Larry Page and Sergey Brin, co-founders of Google, have announced they are stepping down from running the online giant's parent company.
The pair will leave their respective roles as Alphabet's CEO and president but will remain on the company's board.Edmund Burke once defined patronage as “the tribute that opulence owes to genius.”
Some blind people can understand speech that is almost three times faster than the fastest speech sighted people can understand. They can use speech synthesisers set at 800 words per minute (conversational speech is 120–150 wpm). Research suggests that a section of the brain that normally responds to light is re-mapped in blind people to process sound.
This is a picture of Rod Stewart's train layout he has built over the last 23 years.
He has been in a number of model magazines and was the subject of a recent BBC article:
https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-50403561
A Time for Diogenes
Diogenes of Sinope was a Greek philosopher and a founder of the Cynic School. He was born around 400 B.C. and spent most of his life living in his barrel outside the city-state of Corinth. He believed that men and women lived a life dictated by rules and taboos and therefore no one was really truthful or honest. He is often depicted as walking with a lantern in search of an honest man.
Ms. Warren offers a national medical plan that budgets 43 trillion dollars over the next ten years. TRILLION! Mr. Sander's plan budgets over 70 trillion. TRILLION! These fabulous expenses are not even remotely possible yet many seemingly sensible-looking people nod solemnly along in agreement.
A university professor recently asked what advance she thinks the world could well do without replied, "Agriculture." She apparently longs for 7.7 billion hunter-gatherers roaming the wild earth. Nobody screamed.
Hilary arranges a deal to trade information on Trump with the Russians and Trump is accused of collusion with the Russians.
Vaping leads to a few curious deaths and becomes a focus of great concern. Tobacco cruises on.
The threats of global warming can be met only with turning the human energy engine off--off--and replacing the absent fossil fuel with an energy source we do not have and few use. Apparently freezing to death in the dark is preferable to really hot summers. But we can not use nuclear power which would work.
The difference between males and females is how they are raised.
We buy Che Guevara T-shirts.
What we are seeing is an increase in the number of areas of life where the suspension of disbelief is a requirement for non-fiction. From Hilary collapsing on the street to Trump's "perfect call" to dueling climate prophesies, more and more of daily living demands we not look too hard at what is said or is happening.
Diogenes in this culture would also be looking for a satirist.
No comments:
Post a Comment