Today’s links to interesting news and analysis. If you find this useful, please pass it to a friend or colleague.
- “The Failure of Surveillance Cameras“, Steve Chapman, Reason, 6 May 2010 — “When it comes to preventing and solving crimes, cameras are about as useful as a pet rock.”
- Interesting article, but unclear on why people use GDP as the metric: “The Rise and Fall of the G.D.P.“, New York Times, 10 May 2010
- Slowly the obvious becomes visible (probably due to our strategic defeat in Iraq): “Pentagon rethinking value of major counterinsurgencies“, McClatchy Newspapers, 12 May 2010 — Still delusionally optimistic, but a slow step towards reality.
- Recommended reading: “We Need a ‘GED’ for College Students“, Chad Aldeman, The Quick and the Ed, 13 May 2010
- Dumb on several levels: “The EPA’s New ‘Tailoring Rule’”, Matthew Yglesias, ThinkProgress, 14 May 2010 — These regulations would be a gift to Republicans, raising prices to prevent something half the nation does not believe in. Even better: “it’s still better than letting the planet burn.”
- Another step on the institutionalization of a new morality in western society, James Bowman, 14 May 2010
- But it’s just money(ours) … “Many Homeland Security initiatives are called flops“, Los Angeles Times, 14 May 2010 — And these looked so good in the newspapers!
- We must raise taxes; cutting spending (i.e., foreign wars, star wars) is unthinkable! “The IMF’s New Fiscal Monitor“, Bruce Bartlett, Captial Gains and Games, 14 May 2010 — The beast must be fed.
- Slowly the truth emerges about fabricated climate data: “Crisis in New Zealand climatology“, Barry Brill, blog of Quadrant Online, 15 May 2010 — “The warming that wasn’t”
Today’s feature articles
(10) As a reporter Yon compares to most journalists today like Ernie Pyle to a flock of 1940’s débutantes: “Penguins of Afghanistan & A few Words on Charlie Company“, Michael Yon, 13 May 2009
(11) NOAA leans humility
- Their old slogan: “NOAA’s mission is to understand and predict changes in the Earth’s environment…”
- Their new slogan: “NOAA understands and predicts changes in the Earth’s environment…”
- (from Watts Up with That)
(12) An interesting picture of BP’s Plan “C” to stop the oil leak
Plan A was containment dome, now abandoned. Plan B was the top hat, now temporarily sidelined. Plan C consists of a “riser insertion tube”, as seen below. Next week’s Plan D: inject material into the blowout preventer on the seabed, attempting to block the flow of oil. The news media has done a terrible job of reporting on these programs; the offical Deepwater Horizon Response website provides useful information — but not much of it.
Fortunately the hysterical forecasts have so far proven false, such as this by Wayne Madsen (of the Wayne Madsen Report): “The Cover-up: BP’s Crude Politics and the Looming Environmental Mega-Disaster“, OilPrice, 6 May 2010 — Excerpt:
WMR has also learned that 36 urban areas on the Gulf of Mexico are expecting to be confronted with a major disaster from the oil volcano in the next few days.
