tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62363562024-03-07T08:41:11.907+00:00Reasons to be ImpossibleA down at heels balls to the wall communist blog so ultra left even Pannekoek's mother wouldn't recognise it. Be reasonable, demand the impossible.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger497125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6236356.post-30207170313910129062015-01-28T11:01:00.000+00:002015-01-28T11:01:09.019+00:00Rugby league returns!So, I need to get back into the blogging habit.
It's a curious thing, that Skolars' two pre-season friendlies may be their biggest gates of the season. Wigan XIII (the kids) at the Honourable Artillery Company is a great season opener, and certainly draws in the crowds. Having the Broncos to the New River also brought a great crowd two (and it was good to hear they were in full voice).
It was good to be back New River, and my regular seat. Enfield was nice, but the green view around the ground on White Hart Lane is hard to beat.
Skolars played well in both games, only losing by respectable margins, rather than 60-nil drubbings (although it was clear from the error strewn Broncos that they are clearly not a Super League team, but maybe the test of the season will tell. They only need to escape the Championship and recruit. Last season showed what the core of their support is, and that will stay while they're in the Championship, and they can only grow from here). A bit of flash basketball throwing here and there they could cut out, bu the basics are in place, and only pace and size will tell against them (and it will). I look forward to some humdingers.
(Oh, and seems the New River has been renamed New Camp. Ho Hum).
It took me a little while to adjust my head from watching union matches (kept expecting kicks to touch and ten minutes standing around for the next set piece). The pace has been terrific, as well as the physical courage. A new season, loads to enjoy.
Howay the Skolars!
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6236356.post-32445513731692897152012-11-15T13:48:00.003+00:002015-01-29T08:04:11.330+00:00On a workers wage...<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20243493">faintly heartening BBC story</a> doubtless there is some lurking evil somewhere, but a President prepared to stick by his principles (hardly a workers wage, since his wife has property, but still, sometimes the littlest steps make the biggest differences).<blockquote>The president and his wife work the land themselves, growing flowers.
This austere lifestyle - and the fact that Mujica donates about 90% of his monthly salary, equivalent to $12,000 (£7,500), to charity - has led him to be labelled the poorest president in the world.</blockquote>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6236356.post-31095452635742883872012-09-04T15:20:00.000+01:002015-01-29T08:05:35.434+00:00Blown away..."CHINA’S political elite has been shaken by a lurid new scandal over the death of a senior official's son who crashed his Ferrari during what appeared to be a sex session with two women." (story <a href="http://www.independent.ie/world-news/asia-pacific/chinas-political-elite-shocked-at-ferrari-sex-death-mystery-3219077.html">here</a>).<br></br>So, that kind of speaks for itself, doesn't it. All the analysis of the whispers from the corridors of the Chinese government are neither here nor there. It is symptomatic of a sort of decadence within the second generation ruling elite, the ones with privilege gifted them. (It also shows how the accoutrements of wealth, including almost ritual sexual performances and prestige objects (like Ferraris) are now in available to the elite). For the ruling party, of course, it is the symbolism that matters, if only a handful of their number are so debauched, they will come to stand is as a metonym for the whole.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6236356.post-57709620118050289572012-07-13T11:47:00.000+01:002015-01-29T08:06:13.538+00:00Brown trousers timeAccording to the BBC: <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18824088">Chinese growth is falling</a>. Now, you might say, wow, 7.6% growth (however much of that is real), but China has been growing much faster than that recently. Given it's scale, its importance to the world economy, China doesn't actually have to go into recession in order to cause a great deal of damage. <a href="http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/international-politics/2012/07/kevin-rudd-west-isnt-ready-rise-china">Here's former Aussie PM Kevin Rudd explaining why</a>. Couple this with <a href="http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/german-economy-shows-dangerous-sign\
s-of-weakening-a-842240.html">warning squeaks from Germany</a> and we may be seeing the world crisis move into a new phase: first the shock, then the slow down.
Bob alone help us if China goes into negative growth (or, such negative growth that it can't massage the stats to look positive). I have my tins of beans and sacks of porridge ready.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6236356.post-77311433213777636932012-07-12T13:17:00.000+01:002012-07-12T13:17:21.204+01:00Papal endorsementOfficial: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/titanic-vatican-popes-leaks-2012-7">the Pope loves Fanta</a> - so much, he splashes it around. Nasty accident there, could sink the Titanic.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6236356.post-78729504962234291222012-07-03T14:32:00.002+01:002012-07-03T14:32:29.918+01:00Bradford bullIt's always terrible whenever a swathe of lay-offs is announced. It's always sad when a <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-league/18686404">town's club dies</a>. I have to confess, at first I thought about digging into my pockets to help the dig-out fund for the Bulls. I checked who owned them, decided they were privately owned, and kept my cash in my pocket. If they were a co-op or a supporters trust I've have chipped in. But I didn't see why I should help someone make a profit (either directly or ultimately).</br></br>On top of that, what with the mess at <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/18687492">Rangers</a>, I've become less tolerant. Financial mismanagement of a club is cheating, it keeps them in place when other clubs who are working hard and managing on a shoestring could step up and benefit from the earnings. So many families rely on a club for their incomes, it is despicable to play fast and loose with that. Even star league players aren't super rich in this country.</br></br>I hope a new club arises from the ashes, even if it has to start from rock bottom. <a href="http://forums.rlfans.com/viewforum.php?f=19">This link</a> leads to a very pissed off fans forum. And they rightly are. I hope that the game with Broncos goes ahead this weekend, even if it has to be played on some local rec.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6236356.post-47063690615173261282012-07-02T16:33:00.001+01:002012-07-02T16:37:10.400+01:00Double trouble... (London Broncos v. Leeds Rhinos & London Skolars v. Barrow Raiders)I was lucky enough to have two home games to watch this weekend: <a href="http://www.code13rugbyleague.com/2012/07/02/powell-apologises-for-broncos-collapse/">Broncos v. Leeds</a> and <a href="http://www.totalrl.com/forums/index.php/topic/231067-today-in-london/">Skolars v. Barrow</a>. Both games seemed to illustrate the concept of the score not reflecting the match (Broncos were murdered 12-58, while Skolars managed a more creditable 17-30)). They also illustrate the fact that a terrible damage can be done to the score line in a very short time.</br></br>The first twenty five minutes of the Broncos match were scoreless: indeed, the London side were mostly camped out in the Leeds half, and the West Yorks team locked a shadow of the sides I've seen. Broncos' tackling was efficient and their rucking was tight. They just seemed to lack finishing, relying on dink kicks that were inevitably scooped up on the line. Leeds' first try was disallowed for a forward pass: but it did show how they could cut Broncos apart ion the wing. The visitors were ahead at half time, and despite London scoring first, began to build a steady lead.</br></br>Then came the last ten minutes. Leeds drove home try after try, and suddenly a close match became a drubbing. The worst thing was they were soft tries: not bulldozered over the line but gaps exploited mercilessly. The dreaded fifty mark loomed and was approached with terrible inevitability. Ten tries are hideous to be on the receiving end of. The Southern side just, almost literally, took their eye off the ball, and their spirit crumpled. The victor's coach, however (admittedly an ex-manager of the then Harlequins) said afterwards that the score didn't reflect the work and the quality of the contest for most of the match.</br></br>Much the same could be said for Skolars. They're mitigation is they were up against the top of the league side who only are slumming it in Championship One because of financial difficulties (tomorrow I'll have a rant about the Bulls, don't let me forget). They were 11-0 up at half time (including a cheeky drop goal). The match had been tight and scoring opportunities few. Then, second half, the league leaders remembered what they were there to do, they drove through three in succession (in the space of 9 minutes). From there on the struggle resumed, but Skolars had men sent off. The perennial strugglers clawed one back, before a final two tries finished them off. The bonus point slipped out of grasp. The thirteen point gap in no way represents the real gap between the teams: the difference was those nine minutes and the entirely preventable third try. At this rate, the occasional cries of Skolars' fans that their is the best team in London might just, terrifyingly, and for all the wrong reasons, be correct.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6236356.post-3692640870501768922012-06-19T10:51:00.001+01:002015-01-29T08:06:34.561+00:00BabelingI've been waiting for something truly shiny to bring me back to the keyboard. Try this for size:<blockquote>Main specification of <a href="http://www.broad.com:8089/english/down/en_sky_city.pdf">SKY CITY ONE</a> (PDF)
<li> Building area: 1,610,000 m2
(Plot ratio: 50)
<li>Land area: 32,400m2 (180×180)
<li>Building storey: 200
<li>Total height: 666m
<li>Earthquake resistance level:
Level 9 ①
<li>Construction material:
Approx. 400 kg/m2 ②
<li>Energy consumption:
90kWh/m2a ③
<li>Indoor air ventilation:
100% fresh air, 99% purification,
ventilation frequency 5-10
times/h in occupancy
<li>Fabrication term:
4months for fabrication,
2 months for installation
<li>Occupancy capacity:
Rated 70,000 people,
Maximum 100,000 people</blockquote> That's right, a building 666(!) Metres high to house 70,000. That's roughly the population of my home town. Put another way, you could house the entire UK population in just 1,000 of these things. That certainly points towards a rewilding prospect, which would have carbon absorbtion benefits. That said, I hope there is good noise insulation.</br></br>But, note the hierarchy built into it's plan, expensive rich apartments at the top, plebs below. Ideology in concrete, despite it's claim that "World’s top ten highest skyscrapers are built only for the rich. SKY CITY is shared by the rich and the common."</br></br>They are, apparently, seriously proposing to have this thing up in two months. Although, I note from <a href="http://www.gizmag.com/broad-sky-city-one/22983/">this report"</a> The Chinese authorities have yet to give the go-ahead. Still, a fascinating concept.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6236356.post-24064676079548994622012-01-25T11:42:00.000+00:002012-01-25T11:42:48.794+00:00Whisky galoreBiofuels get a bad rap for distorting agriculture and pricing food out of reach of poor people. So, here's a good <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-16701335">Biofuel story</a>:<blockquote><i>A new company has been formed to commercialise a process for producing biofuel made from whisky by-products.
Edinburgh Napier University's Celtic Renewables Ltd will initially focus on Scotland's £4bn malt whisky industry to develop biobutanol and other chemicals.</i></blockquote>Admittedly, Whisky itself is non-essential (although, arguably, it is a useful storage mechanism for calories). Reusing byproducts, though, strikes me as a useful process. Again, as with the tide power below, diversity and inspiration will produce more and newer different ways of achieving the ends. So long as the biofuel industry remains a natural dependent variable on the whisky production, then it shouldn't produce distortions in the food market.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6236356.post-52684431596506498002012-01-23T16:55:00.000+00:002012-01-23T16:55:24.822+00:00Bob-bob-bobbing alongAnother innovative energy <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-16676818">production method</a>:<blockquote><i>The Searaser machine works by using wave energy to pump water up to container tanks and the water is then released to a hydro-electric turbine.[...]He said that a full size machine would be about 1m wide and 12m deep and cost up to £250,000.</i></blockquote>That's quite an affordable option to throw into the mix, and it has the capacity to smooth out demand, maybe with other forms of power (and of course, the principle applies, why not use wind driven pumps in land to stock up reservoirs?) Now, 230,000 homes isn't a huge number (<a href="http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/statistics/pdf/1172133.pdf">this doc</a> suggests there are 21 million households in the UK, and that's set to grow by 250,000 per year) but it is a start; and new technology begets new technology. Maybe more sites can be found?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6236356.post-55761906109416070422012-01-19T09:24:00.001+00:002012-01-19T09:54:01.804+00:00Requiescat in PascoeI've been busy (what an excuse -- I've been idle) but I do have to stop by an blog the death of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reginald_Hill">Reginald Hill</a>. When I heard on Sunday, I went and count how many of his books I have on my shelf (twenty two, came the answer). I had a wee phase of trying to collect all the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalziel_and_Pascoe">Dalziel and Pascoe</a> novels. I had stopped because they were taking up too much space (especially as I was buying the hardback of each new one as they came out -- Hill was one of the handful of authors whose books I do buy the first available imprint of).</br></br>
Reading his books was a physical pleasure. Could feel the enjoyment flowing through me: the mixture of mirth, dread and anticipation. He plotted to perfection (especially <i>Midnight Fugue</i>). He managed to combine high literature and low genre effortlessly. He was able to move from police procedural, to locked room and English country manor mysteries without breaking his fictional world. He also managed to keep the series alive, fresh and changing without ever 'jumping the shark' and being ridiculous or making silly changes. Unlike Christie, he seemed to actually like his bread and butter characters.</br></br>
Throughout, he managed to inject a liberal and progressive sensibility into what is often a bastion of reaction. "It's a war on the streets" and all that. Dalziel was a reactionary pig, and Hill knew it, but humanised such a man.</br></br>
I'll also throw in a mention of the perfectly villainous but also utterly ambiguous Franny Roote who was "persecuted" by Pascoe. I guess we'll never find out the truth about him now.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6236356.post-74543937418588241622011-12-15T15:07:00.001+00:002011-12-15T15:07:49.816+00:00Taxing issuesFrom the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-16009268">BBC:</a><blockquote><i>Over a five year period up to 2010 (the latest data available) the number of UK taxpayers with an annual taxable income over £10m more than doubled from 131 to 274. </i></blockquote>In 2010 they owed £2.1 billion between them. This is a good and hard data. Whilst it doesn't cover all the super rich (after all, some manage to arrange their affairs so they don't have to pay tax on their super incomes); but we know that these 274 people had more than £10 million in earnings in 2010. My rough maths makes that a total of over £5 billion in annual income (or roughly £18 million each) that the tax was paid on. Note the curious fact that the figures increased dramatically after a fall due to the 2008 crisis. Now, inflation will be playing a big part in all this, but it does suggest some are benefiting nicely from the crisis, thank you. Now, some might be footballers, not all will be capitalists qua capitalists (a few barristers and lawyers might sneak in there) but it shows that out of 60 million, much fewer than 1% are doing very well indeed.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6236356.post-2483416745924353492011-12-13T16:08:00.001+00:002011-12-13T16:08:32.253+00:00A cute oneI love steam engines me. Even <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16147965">little ones</a>. Well, micro-scale Stirling Engines. Of course, as they say, it's not a perfectly reliable power source; but imagine if they break through and we can have powered nano/microscale devices?
I know I should flag up the Higgs Boson, but I'm waiting for final confirmation. In the meanwhile, this is a breakthrough to celebrate in a small way.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6236356.post-62240369548399230302011-12-10T12:24:00.001+00:002011-12-11T12:26:31.109+00:00About those tins of beans......I think I'd add a tin helmet to the shopping list. My favourite source, <a href="http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,802308,00.html">Der Spiegel</a> strikes again:<i><blockquote>This October was the third straight month Chinese exports decreased. Along with it, the hopes of German manufacturers that Asia's growth market might help lift them out of the global crisis as it did in 2008 are also evaporating. This time China faces enormous challenges of its own -- a real estate market bubble and local government debt -- that could even pose a risk to the global economy.</blockquote></i> The Germans can't borrow, and Chinese growth is about to hit the skids. *Gulp*</br></br>It's worth reading that article in full. In world terms, this is the crisis spreading from the financial sector into the real economy of manufacturing: coupled with a massive balance of trade gap. Remember, China holds much of the dollar debt in the world, and it has been China that has helped prop up the debt bubble in America in order to keep its markets going.</br></br>I also note the mention of the ghost cities -- so reminiscent of Ireland's boom/slump situation (and, I believe consistent with David Harvey's model of capitalist crisis).</br></br>Part of what this shows is that even state capitalism and pump priming isn't enough to end the crisis: we've seen austerity here and spending for growth there, eventually, someone has to admit that a market economy just doesn't work for the majority of humanity. In the meantime, get tying kitchen knives to broomsticks and start a pike practice squad in your street:you may be needing it soon.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6236356.post-29209452372940914762011-12-06T11:43:00.001+00:002011-12-06T12:40:15.917+00:00Cometh the SingularityFrom the BBC: <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-15772240">Scientists at MIT replicate brain activity with chip</a>:<i><blockquote>Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have designed a computer chip that mimics how the brain's neurons adapt in response to new information.</blockquote></i>As <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Searle">Searle</a> noted in his <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_room">Chinese room essay</a>, the only route to Artificial intelligence is to build a physical brain. Well, it looks like what MIT have done. here's the ominous bit:<i><blockquote>Such systems could be much faster than computers which take hours or even days to simulate a brain circuit. The chip could ultimately prove to be even faster than the biological process.</blockquote></i>That is, super human intelligence may be around the corner, and with it, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity">singularity</a>. Rapture those nerds. Come what may, this could very well lead to massive break throughs in computing and our knowledge of human intelligence and neuroscience.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6236356.post-37012380233202701862011-12-05T15:54:00.001+00:002011-12-05T16:08:36.484+00:00The ongoing agricultural revolutionAt last I am moved by a story to write: <a href="http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,800376,00.html">German Urban Farms</a> the company's website is <a href="http://www.frischvomdach.de/english/">here</a>.<blockquote><i>The Frisch vom Dach, or Fresh from the Roof project, plans to create a 7,000-square-meter roof garden, complete with a fish farm, to provide Berliners with sustainable, locally-grown food....</p>The fish will be sold as food and, crucially, their excretions, especially the ammonia excreted through the gills, will be converted into nitrates. That will serve as fertilizer for the plants growing in green houses above the fish tanks. In turn, the plants will purify the water for the fish. The system for sustainable food production is known as "aquaponics."</i></blockquote>The first instance of vertical farming, or industrial farming. Bringing the countryside into the city. As the <i>Spiegel</i> article points out, this model is low energy, unlike the more science fictional dreams of vertical farms. It also fits in with the permaculture crowd. That said, it does offer the prospect of advancing the cause of re-wilding (and of driving urbanisation faster).</p>I'd be interested in how much their prototype container farm manages to produce, since the idea of mass producing and distributing a container/greenhouse strikes me as being an efficient way to spread food production massively.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6236356.post-79855320158048668792011-11-24T08:39:00.001+00:002011-11-24T09:48:49.032+00:00Buy beans!The time may have come to start hoarding tins of baked beans, wearing furs and running around in a post apocalyptic landscape:<blockquote><i>Germany has been considered a safe haven of financial stability amid the ongoing euro crisis -- but that may be changing. Growing mistrust from investors seems apparent after what has been described as a "disastrous" government bond auction on Wednesday. Just two-thirds of the German bonds sold, leaving analysts concerned but not panicked</i>[<a href="http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,799550,00.html">Spiegel</a>].</blockquote>I suggest now is precisely the time to panic, while the analysts are being cautiously worried. If we leave panicking till everyone is doing it, we'll have to fight for those tins of beans with our teeth.<br></br>The fucking Germans cannot borrow money! the country that escaped recession, the one that is still growing, the one that has been bailing everyone else out. Now, the <i>Spiegel</i> article suggests this may be a lack of confidence in the Eurozone as a whole, and of some of the fundamentals in the German economy; but it also has an expert suggest:<blockquote><i>"Because of the low rate of return in Germany, some investors are now cautiously going to countries that they had recently avoided," he added. "In France, or even in Ireland, chances for returns are certainly promising."</i></blockquote> that's right, it's more profitable to lend to risky countries because you get more interest. There is the cause of this mess in the first place: it's more profitable to lend to people who a less able to pay back (until the day they actually default that is, at which point you own their soul).</br></br>More to the point, though, this seems to me to reflect that there may not be as much money floating around generally: surely, normally, someone, someone, would want to pick up safe, unprofitable low hanging fruit.</p>Start breaking out the old family blunderbus: the apocalypse is here.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6236356.post-63076211398413874832011-11-03T13:12:00.000+00:002011-11-03T14:08:50.860+00:00Occupying my time...OK, so, clarification time. I didn't want to give the impression that I was against the #Occupy movement, or even thought it was just the usual suspects: my point is that our obligation, and even my own inclination, is to raise the issue of challenging for political power; and that unless the movement spreads into something that reaches into every street, then it will be smothered -- one way or another.</br></br>Let's put it this way, the image of Tahrir Square, and the Arab spring on which it is modelled were very dramatic. But the substance of the Arab spring happened the other week, with the election of the new government, the final grasping of the levers of political power by the new Ennahda Government in Tunisia (and the same old military in Egypt).</br></br>The old Trotskyist image of the steam and piston comes to mind: the popular protests were the steam on which the piston of the Islamist/Military parties came to power. Doubtless that image is still motivating Trotskyists here.</br></br>What I hope for, though is that we all become not steam, but small cogs, wielding a share in a precision mechanism in which we all can fine tune and control (and which we can brake by our refusal). Note how quietly the elections have gone, but how oh so determining they were in the future direction. The devil is in the detail.</br></br>Of course, in <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-15568057">Oakland</a> the protest has spread and taken the form of a "General Strike" -- lets hope our can do the same come N30; but I'm going to keep banging the tedious drum for the necessity for political action.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6236356.post-22433919003816926912011-10-21T09:28:00.000+01:002011-10-21T09:28:41.059+01:00Settled<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15373071">According to the BBC</a>:<blockquote><i>The Earth's surface really is getting warmer, a new analysis by a US scientific group set up in the wake of the "Climategate" affair has concluded.</br>[...] Funding came from a number of sources, including charitable foundations maintained by the Koch brothers, the billionaire US industrialists, who have also donated large sums to organisations lobbying against acceptance of man-made global warming. </br>[...]Since the 1950s, the average temperature over land has increased by 1C, the group found.</i></blockquote>Although there are caveats -- the work hasn't been peer reviewed, for example -- because its claims are not extraordinary, and corroborate previous studies, this suggests to me that this is copper bottomed science. Now, the scepticism about AGW -- whether this change is driven by humans or by sun spots -- will remain, but it has fewer boltholes to run into.</br>Whatever one's politics, one will have to take climate change into account, and responding to it will become the governing imperative of the century. Hopefully now no-one (especially a front rank politician) will be able to dispute climate change science with any credibility.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6236356.post-42296512135424613252011-10-20T14:03:00.003+01:002011-10-20T14:05:11.291+01:00Occupy the WorldOK, so - time to get grumpy. The occupy thing is cute. It's reaching out, and getting people to take notice; but it's not enough. </br>I was at Occupy LSX last weekend, and it struck me that the easy way to occupy the stock exchange is:<blockquote><li>Win the elections.<li>Send the riot police to occupy the stock exchange.</blockquote></br>That is -- political action will get results. Now, I'm not saying the grumpy leftist thing of: "we need a programme". Not at all. What I'm saying is simply that a political party (or parties - hell, why doesn't someone register 'Occupy the Council' as a party name?) is an effective outcome.</br> Look, it costs <b>nothing</b> to contest a council seat (OK< if you want to print leaflets it'll cost a hundred quid) -- but if the occupiers can turn themselves into nominators then that is something.</br> An absence of policies is a good thing, a determined movement of 'Vote the scoundrels out' will send shock waves through the political elite like no bugger's business. Once we've occupied the seats of power, then lets debate what to do -- in a way compatible with the democratic impetus of the #Occupy movement. But, but but. Political action is needful, elst it turn into simply pleading with the powerful.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6236356.post-18806937529699117042011-10-07T14:39:00.000+01:002011-10-07T14:39:41.667+01:00Chase me...<a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jul/20/business/la-fi-grocery-loans-20110720">Clue 1</a></br>
<a href="http://www.jpmorganchase.com/corporate/Home/article/ny-13.htm">Clue 2</a></br>
<a href="http://www.jpmorganchase.com/corporate/Home/article/ca-15.htm">Clue 3</a></br>
</br>The answer? Pink washing - all are promotional pieces taken from the JP Morgan Chase - the financial collossus: not that you're know it from looking at their website. You'd think they were a charitable foundation. The most significant bit of charity, though, is:<blockquote><i>From the end of 2010 through the first quarter of 2011, JP Morgan Chase donated an unprecedented $4.6 million to the New York City Police Foundation, in the form of 1,000 new patrol car laptops, security monitoring software in the NYPD's main data center, other technology resources, and funding. The gift was the largest in the history of the foundation and will enable the New York City Police Department to strengthen security in the Big Apple.</i></blockquote>Very charitably, they have strengthened the hand of the state. of course, this is what happens when the capitalists are against paying taxes - they have to pay directly for their protection. The good citizens of New York will have the clear pleasure of knowing that the police on the streets are the paramilitary wing of JP Morgan Chase.</p>So, when they volunteer to help us out, and fix the problems of the market, we need to remember they do so on the basis of protecting the market. Charity is private property trying to treat the ills of private property.
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6236356.post-16111952788376348572011-09-22T15:23:00.000+01:002011-09-22T15:23:56.905+01:00The revolution is still on...So, according to Oxfam, there is a <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-15013396">land rush on in Africa</a>:<blockquote><i>It says up to 227m hectares (560m acres) have been sold or leased worldwide since 2001.</p>Half of all deals that have been verified are in Africa, amounting to an area the size of Germany - 35m hectares, Oxfam says.</i></blockquote>The example given for 227 million hectares is the area of the entire of Western Europe. That is, there is an ongoing agrarian revolution, driven by the market. Now, some of that is uprooting some pretty unfair land distributions in any case: but, as some writers, from Charlie onwards have noted, Capitalism is the agrarian revolution. Dissolving peasant economies and turning land over to market use is what capitalism does. Of course, Oxfam wants peasants to stay peasants, whereas what will happen to them is that they will become proletarians - with all that that entails. Given the parlous state of the world economy, some of that entailment is starvation. of course, given the parlous state of the world economy, investment in land seems a very good idea.</p><a href="http://policy-practice.oxfam.org.uk/publications/land-and-power-the-growing-scandal-surrounding-the-new-wave-of-investments-in-l-142858">The report's abstract says</a>:<blockquote><i> Oxfam’s research has revealed that residents regularly lose out to local elites and domestic or foreign investors because they lack the power to claim their rights effectively and to defend and advance their interests.</i></blockquote>The report states in its executive summary:<blockquote><i>The recent rise in land acquisitions can be explained by the 2007–08 food prices crisis, which led investors and governments to turn their attention towards agriculture after decades of neglect.</i></blockquote>Of course, biofuels get a mention, but then, and this will be a fillip to vegetarians:<blockquote><i>Across the globe, diets are changing towards more land-intensive products, such as animal proteins (meat, dairy, eggs, and fish) and convenience foods.</i></blockquote>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6236356.post-5587167425252453642011-09-20T15:28:00.002+01:002011-09-20T15:33:02.748+01:00Who needs fusion?<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14976893">Whoop! Whoop!</a><blockquote><i>US researchers say they have demonstrated how cells fuelled by bacteria can be "self-powered" and produce a limitless supply of hydrogen.</p>[...]</p>In their paper, Prof Logan and colleague Younggy Kim explained how an envisioned RED system would use alternating stacks of membranes that harvest this energy; the movement of charged atoms move from the saltwater to freshwater creates a small voltage that can be put to work.</i></blockquote>As they say, it isn't economic - but then, no technology is when it's first invented. All economics tells us is how easy something is to achieve with the current technology/infrastructure. Changing that means that costs fall, and new processes become economic. Hopefully, this could develop faster than Fusion: after all, we're already at the proof of concept stage here, and the input costs will be lower than building a fusion plant. Energy from sea water. Wow. <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2011/09/12/1106335108">From their abstract</a>:<blockquote><i>There is a tremendous source of entropic energy available from the salinity difference between river water and seawater, but this energy has yet to be efficiently captured and stored. Here we demonstrate that H2 can be produced in a single process by capturing the salinity driven energy along with organic matter degradation using exoelectrogenic bacteria.</I></blockquote>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6236356.post-73992408828062306092011-09-16T11:31:00.002+01:002011-09-16T11:31:51.279+01:00Follow up...<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-14930747">More on infant mortality:</a><blockquote><i>A campaign encouraging women in China to give birth in hospital has cut newborn deaths by half, says a study in The Lancet.</p>Researchers from Beijing and London found that babies born in hospital were two to three times less likely to die in their first month than those born at home.</p>[...]</p>The neonatal mortality rate in China fell from 24.7 per 1000 livebirths between 1996 and 1998, to 9.3 per 1000 between 2007 and 2008.</i></blockquote>This seems to confirm my points in yesterday's post - it has taken a co-ordinated effort and modern technology/infrastructure to make this change (and, presumably, cutting neonate mortality in China has contributed significantly to the global trend). The fact that rural infant mortality is significantly higher seems to confirm this. Obviously, there may be other feed-in factors (better nutrition, education, hygiene, etc.) but they are the vectors of development.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6236356.post-21723310274552619502011-09-15T15:21:00.000+01:002011-09-15T15:23:22.061+01:00Credit where dueOK, this is worth a second post today. <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-14930778">Infant mortality is falling</a>: <blockquote><i>The number of children under five who die each year has plummeted from 12 million in 1990, to 7.6 million last year, the UN says.</i></blockquote>The report is <a href="http://www.unicef.org/media/files/Child_Mortality_Report_2011_Final.pdf">Levels & trends in child mortality : report 2011</a>: "Nearly 21,000 children under five died every day in 2010—about 12,000 fewer a day than in 1990." That's 12,000 additional survivors per day, and it's taken 20 years. Further: <blockquote><i>Globally, the four major killers of children under age 5 are pneumonia (18 percent), diarrhoeal diseases (15 percent), preterm birth complications (12 percent) and birth asphyxia (9 percent).
Undernutrition is an underlying cause in more than a third of under-five deaths. Malaria is still a major killer in Sub-Saharan Africa, causing about 16 percent of under-five deaths.</i></blockquote>these are of course, mostly preventable. Just to concretise that, of the 21,000 dying everyday, 7,000 are due to starvation and starvation related diseases. As I've observed on this blog before, for a handful of dollars anti-Malarial netting could be distributed. Saving far more lives than any bomber squadron ever could.</p>So, theme of the day, within capitalism, through a concerted effort (not via the mysterious workings of the invisible hand) the hideous slaughter of poverty is being reduced. We could, and should, be able to go further and faster.</p>Just as an end note, let's not forget that the so-called global crisis (and it's impact on food prices) could well reverse this trend. Further, though, I don't know what could be more deserving of being called a crisis than 7.6 million annual deaths through poverty. It should be top of the news everyday: today, 21,000 infants will die. <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-14902877">This report</a> shows the corrosive effects of udnerdevelopment:<blockquote><i>According to the World Health Organization some three-quarters of medical devices given by rich countries to developing nations remain unused. </p>[...]</p>Prof Chris Lavy, an orthopaedic surgeon who has spent time in Africa, said: "One of the newest hospitals in sub-Saharan Africa was built with infrared sensors to turn the taps on in the operating theatres.</p>"Wonderful idea, but is it really appropriate in a country where there are no other infrared controlled taps and no engineer to fix them? Within a year most of them had failed, some of them in the off position, and some of them in the on position." </i></blockquote>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0