Ask a Ninja: "Physics"

In which our favorite Ninja explains his relationship with physics... only wishes gravity wouldn't make him fall back to the ground so fast.

My man

Today U.S. President Barack Obama has won the Nobel Peace Prize... I think he fully deserves it and I wish him all the best with his diplomatic efforts.

UPDATE: of course, with the hindsight of two years after Mr. Obama's election, the let-down could not be more accute. Certainly he finally killed Osama Bin Laden but who cares? so far President Obama has shown an incompetence on all things business and economics which might have made John Maynard Keynes scratch his head... indeed when Mr Keynes was around writing academic papers, the USA had no debt and obviously spending lots of government money to support the economy was a no-brainer. Deleveraging ought to have been the priority of the past two years to avoid the US becoming the next Greece. It might very well be too late now. And even Mr Obama's project to reduce nuclears arms together with the Russians, for which I was previously thankful above, is now foundering. President Obama's only achievement so far it seems, remains to not be George W. Bush. Shame, shame...

Security check for idiots

So last week I happened to travel by air as I often do and once more I found myself feeling extremely frustrated at having to go through all this airport security nonsense that takes forever. It has always seemed to me as though one could easily pass an elephant through these supposedly terrorist-proof checkpoints anyways and that they mostly serve to reassure the public. For instance, when was the last time anyone has heard of a terrorist being arrested at an airport security gate? Not that I can remember.

In any case, if proof is needed that the way security checks are currently done at most airports is a pointless waste of time, including the limits on fluids, let me give it to you plainly just right here, in the hopes that authorities will finally put an end to them. I am sure more people are dying as a result of their travel time being so long and uncomfortable than are dying of terrorist attacks.

In most airports, so far as I have noticed, passengers first have to go through the security checkpoint with the X-ray scanners before entering the departure terminal and then on to their departure gate. Precisely, this is where the problem lies: there is only one common checkpoint for all the departure gates.

So all it takes is for a number of accomplices to each book a seat on a different flight, so as not to attract any suspicion, and then each of them can pass through security with their allowed dose of bomb-making fluid, or parts of a bomb or even parts of a gun. Then they can put it all back together in that great duty-free shopping lounge at Heathrow, for instance in the men's restroom to be discreet, and then the suicide bomber can take it with him to his plane. That simple.

At the very least, if such security checks are to dissuade people for real, they would have to be done at each departure gate, as this would make it much more difficult for a number of people to work as a team without attracting unwanted attention. But then again, this would still not prevent a few really dedicated individuals from going through anyway. So let's just forget about the scanners and let the people fly without having them take their shoes off. It's so annoying to have to do that.

So let me conclude this way: airport security is one more thing that I would definitely dismiss as utter crap, to be added to the list in the previous post.

It's just crap

As my friends will already know, one of my great pleasures in life is to dismiss stuff I dislike as utter crap and for some reason, this minute I totally feel like naming a few of those. Just because. With no specific ordering, I totally think open-source software is crap, and so is the Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid car, as well as Intel's new Larrabee processor architecture. Then again, Obama's economic policy is also total crap and so are most large American banks. In fact, there's so much crap out there right now, I'm at no risk of running out of stuff to dismiss as crap. Which is a good thing!

Just hilarious

Just saw this on FSJ's blog. I kinda feel bad yet I can't help but laugh really hard on this one...

R.I.P. Norman Borlaug

Norman Borlaug, the winner of the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize passed away on Sept. 12 at the respectable age of 95. His life and work were among the most inspiring of all the natural scientists. In short, Mr Borlaug single-handedly saved the lives of hundreds of millions of people in Africa and most notably in India, thanks to his efforts developing high-yielding varieties of wheat.

His method was rather simple, and most of his research took place before the more modern techniques of genetic engineering became available. Essentially he would cross-breed hundreds of varieties of crops and grow each one of them on a small plot, to see which ones gave the best results. His constant nemesis was the wheat rust, a parasite that grows underneath the stem's surface and can propagate very far away, carried by the winds. Dr Borlaug kept finding new varieties of wheat that could resist rust effectively, saving entire populations from starvation.

Thanks to Dr Borlaug's dedication, the doomsday scenario of mass starvation in Africa and India following an exponential population growth at the end of the twentieth century did not come to pass. For this Dr Borlaug will be remembered as one of science's most inspiring life stories.

R.I.P. Melanie Thornton

Now that I'm back at blogging, what better way to reboot than to put up a totally awesome 90's dance video of La Bouche, with vocals by the beautiful Melanie Thornton who tragically died in a plane crash exactly five years ago. I guess it's true the best die young.

Car for idiots

So I was laughing out loud as I was reading this interview of Mr Johan de Nysschen, president of Audi of America, in which he boldly affirms his feeling that GM's Volt plug-in hybrid vehicle is 'a car for idiots,' as few actual buyers will be willing to shell out $40,000 for a car that competes with a Toyota Corolla costing $25,000.

Of course Mr de Nysschen is not at all impartial in this, as he was trying to make the case that his own Diesel vehicles could immediately make a bigger difference for the environment than plug-in hybrid vehicles.

Yet as biased as Mr de Nysschen may be, I'd definitely say he has a point here. Particularly in the USA and Britain, as well as in China, there is no denying plug-in hybrids will have to be recharged with electricity generated mainly by burning coal rather than renewable energy, producing far more emissions than a fleet of regular gasoline engines. Diesel engines, on the other hand, emit up to 25% less carbon dioxide than gasoline engines, while consuming 25% to 35% less fuel.

In this perspective, I would argue that, indeed, Diesel engines are a good idea and that emphasizing Toyota Prius-style hybrid vehicles, which also burn a lot less gasoline, is the way to go until America produces all its electricity from renewable sources, or at least a greater share of natural gas. In any case it is refreshing to hear an auto exec calling GM what they are: a bunch of idiots supported by an even more stupid U.S. administration who've felt bailing them out and funding electric cars was such a great idea. Which it is definitely not.

Hitler rants about the financial crisis

Adolf Hitler is pissed because all his assets have been wiped out in the financial crisis. His financial advisors are in deep trouble...

Dragon breath

Sorry if I haven't been blogging as often as I should have... been busy with other urgent issues the past couple of months. I just thought I should quickly share the latest work from The Economist's KAL... so funny as usual!

Japanese T-shirt folding

I can never get enough of watching this YouTube video... it's got all the hallmarks of a YouTube hit... quirky Japanese lady, silly little music and surprise ending. Like, so cute!

Facebook status-off

Ah the lighter side of technology...

First floating wind turbine

This awesome video from reuters.com presents a report on Norway's Statoil power company's first prototype for a floating wind turbine. Looks awesome to me!

Hroink Hroink!

In the man vs swine battle-we're totally losing, man!

Economist discussion

It's always great to hear the points of views of experts who really do have a critical perspective on their subject. The above video is a case in point: it features economist Joseph Stiglitz and hedge fund manager John Paulson on the financial crisis. Both saw it coming long time ago, and when asked how they came to that view against everyone else's opinion, Mr Paulson simply says it was obvious to him that banks were f**king up royally. Point taken. Perhaps it is simply they both have a sense of humor and the honesty to call crap for what it is.

Whereas most bankers don't have much of a sense of humor.

Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus

Started to laugh uncontrollably watching this!

Death Star zaps Star Trek's Entreprise

Ka-blamo!!

Car dump

Today I was much pleased to receive the visit of this friend of mine from Los Angeles, and it's always a pleasure for me to discuss all things American with somebody who happens to have a strong critical mind and a humorous take on everything.

In particular, we discussed this whole business of cutting edge car design-my friend happens to be an industrial designer-and technology. Needless to say, the two of us are following with much interest both the coming up of Tesla Motors and the going down of General Motors.

To my personal view that the U.S. government ought to pull the plug on what is now Government Motors and Chrysler, my friend opposed his own argument that the U.S. government could not afford to not at least try to keep it going, if anything as a form of welfare toward GM employees who would otherwise be laid off.

After thinking it over, here again is my take on what is going to happen to both Chrysler and GM in the next few months: both are going under, both are going to be broken down and the pieces sold off to the highest bidder.

Welfare toward GM employees notwithstanding, keeping GM and Chrysler going at the expense of wads of taxpayer dollars is simply impossible for the following obvious reason, as I have already argued before: at the current rate, GM and Chrysler together are burning through almost as much cash as the U.S. military operation in Iraq, and such level of expense is completely unsustainable at a time when the U.S. federal debt is hovering above $10 trillion.

At this point, it just seems completely impossible to me that either GM or Chrysler could keep on driving after they've both totalled themselves into a ditch.

UPDATE: following the bankruptcy of Chrysler, I now invite the reader to read this excellent commentary in The Economist online, which echoes many of my own doubts regarding the future of the U.S. auto sector.

The rise of the laser pixels

This article posted on physorg.com describes the work of Cambridge physicists who are developing a new class of microscopic lasing devices using chiral nematic liquid crystals as the lasing medium. The most interesting aspect of this new laser technology is that the frequency of the light emitted can be tuned dynamically by altering the periodicity of the molecular orientation of the liquid crystal medium, for example with a local electric field, as in current liquid crystal displays.

Murphy's law-or shit happens

Last fall I wrote this post in which I decried the U.S. government bailouts of banks and generally the whole idea of an expensive stimulus package financed by deficit spending, as I argued there might be an unexpected catastrophe to deal with in the coming year. This is called Murphy's law-disasters tend to happen in series. In particular, I mentioned the possibility of a flu pandemic.

Well, here it is. It is not yet entirely clear if the current outbreak of swine flu in Mexico will indeed turn out to be the next flu pandemic, similar to the "Hong Kong" flu of 1968 that killed roughly a million people. But at the very least, this is a good reminder that, in the words of Forrest Gump, "shit happens," and precisely, the government's main job it is to take care of this. Any expenditures other than public health, education, transport, law enforcement and public safety should be avoided at all cost.

If the swine flu does indeed turn into a pandemic, this could cost the U.S. government far more than either the economic stimulus package or the bank bailouts and ultimately sink the U.S. economy even further. The problem is, the U.S. government is now completely broke and may simply no longer have the resources to deal with a massive outbreak of flu with hundreds of thousands of potential casualties...

Swedish socialism: it's about blondes

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	M - Th 11p / 10c
The Stockholm Syndrome Pt. 2
thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Economic Crisis Political Humor

In which Daily Show correspondent Wyatt Cenac asks a Swedish member of parliament how many blondes their socialist state would tax from him. It turns out-the answer's two!

Wrecks everywhere

Just as one should have expected violence is exploding once again in Iraq as soon as the first U.S. troops are stepping out of the country, which is why I'm rather skeptical of Barack Obama's promise to get the USA out of there quickly... in any case another hilarious cartoon by The Guardian's Steve Bell!

Sun deal goes awry

Today negotiations for a reported buyout of Sun Microsystems by IBM was finally declared all but dead. This isn't entirely surprising as such a deal probably would never have passed through the net of antitrust regulators, either in the U.S. or the E.U. Even from a business perspective it did not make complete sense for IBM to pay so much money for a competitor that's dying out anyways and does not offer much in terms of I.P. that IBM does not already have in some form or other.

I have been reading all over the business and IT press today how Sun might still be acquired by Cisco or even HP, who have already rejected such a deal. I am more than a bit skeptical in both cases.

However, nowhere yet have I seen mention of a potential deal with Apple. This is quite strange, actually, as both companies are Silicon-valley based and they are both technology-driven. Moreover, Apple with its $24bn in cash could easily afford to buy Sun, and could make very good use of Sun's high-end Sparc chips in its Mac Pro line of workstations... not to mention a great way to further penetrate the enterprise server market... Steve, wake up, man!

Backseat wrecking

Of course I rather like Barack Obama, particularly the fact he's not systematically dismissive of old Europe, but still, I'm willing to bet very good money placed on a shorting position on the dollar for 2010 that Mr Obama's strategy of restarting the U.S. economy by doling out lots of free money will most certainly falter and lead America into a second recession next year... and no, balancing the budget needs not be a Republican thing-Bill Clinton did it.

Furthermore, this whole idea that the Chinese will keep on buying U.S. Treasury notes because they have no other options is nothing but a load of horses**t... when you have a strongly positive trade balance and absolute political control, you can just as easily use the entire Chinese economy as a piggy-bank. In other words, I'm also willing to bet good money that the Chinese government this year will start spending their cash at home to jump-start their own domestic market as opposed to dumping their reserves on America...

Stimulation

I was getting worried that political cartoons wouldn't be as funny under Obama as they were when George Bush was president. Fear no more!

The nano song

Muppets explain nanotechnology in song =)

Cute animals use mobile phones

This very funny Samsung ad-for cute bunnies =)

Happy B'day Mr Kim!

Yesterday North Korea's Dear Leader Kim Jong-Il was having his 67th birthday party, with more than 100 synchronized swimmers and an old-school variety show. Ah I miss the cold war, man-things were so simple back then!

John Hodgman saves the economy

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

You're Welcome - Fixing the Economy

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things With Demetri Martin

Funny Political News
Joke of the Day

Important Things With Demetri Martin

Funny Political News
Joke of the Day

John Hodgman's solutions to fix the economy. I don't want to spoil it so you watch it!!

John Oliver on fixing the economic crisis

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

Solving the Economic Crisis

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things With Demetri Martin

Funny Political News
Joke of the Day

John Oliver explains how we're all f**ked.

Japanese police create wanted man's Mii

The japanese, always ready to find new and unexpected uses of technology, can now claim yet another and (in my opinion) awesome technological first: the police in Kanagawa have decided to dispense with the work of their usual portrait artist and have instead created a Nintendo Mii character for a person they were researching in connection with a hit-and-run traffic accident. No word yet on whether the guy was caught...

Interview with Erno Rubik

I can only but encourage the reader to watch this video from Time Magazine's website. It is an interview of Erno Rubik, creator of the infamous cube, who is also demonstrating his latest brain twister.

Cat and mouse game

Steve Bell's take on U.S. President Barack Obama's strategy to deal with Iran. Ba-rat Obama looks funny enough but the old bag-puss Hillary Clinton's just awesome =)

Citibank of China, anyone?

Amid all the ongoing discussions on the credit meltdown and deep economic recession we are all currently finding ourselves in, one idea has been conspicuously absent from the political debates raging in America at the moment: instead of having the U.S. Treasury borrow a few more trillion dollars from the Chinese and then dump the cash straight into the financial black hole that is Citibank and GM, why not invite Chinese investors to directly buy a stake in and recapitalize these failing U.S. businesses?

In practice allowing Chinese managers to take over Citibank would not make much of a difference for the average U.S. consumer-except they would no longer incur the cost of paying interest over trillions of dollars more in public debt. And presumably they would also avoid suffering the consequences of a plunge in the dollar's value with respect to the yuan, which will soon make all these cheap Chinese goods look not-so-cheap anymore.

Just why is it this option is not being put on the table by the U.S. government? this is a good question, which ought to be asked from them by their citizens. Most importantly, I feel being bought by China would be an excellent punishment for all these greedy Wall Street executives at Citibank and elsewhere...

Global Worries Over U.S. Stimulus Spending

With the Davos World Economic Forum taking place this week, economists from around the world are starting to ask tough questions from the U.S. government about its plans to finance the Obama administration's trillion-dollar stimulus package, according to this article in the NYT.

Indeed, leaders from developing countries such as Mr Ernesto Zedillo, the former president of Mexico, are becoming concerned that their own borrowing needs may soon be drowned in the coming flood of new U.S. Treasury bonds to be emitted by the Obama administration to pay for its stimulus package.

Moreover, there is concern around the world that the value of the dollar might collapse against other currencies, driving both interest rates and inflation up in other countries. And foreign leaders are questioning exactly how Mr Obama intends to pay for all this debt in the long term. To quote the article,

The stimulus was approved Wednesday by the House without Republican support, and could grow larger — mostly likely with additional tax cuts — to attract a bipartisan coalition.

American officials maintain they are aware of the challenge. A top White House adviser, Valerie Jarrett, promised in Davos on Thursday that once the stimulus plan achieved its intended affect, the United States would “restore fiscal responsibility and return to a sustainable economic path.”

Ms. Jarrett, a confidante of both President Obama and his wife, Michelle, is the highest-ranking administration official at Davos.

To be sure, Congress and the White House will ultimately need to refill the government’s coffers, but how they might do that is barely on the radar screen in Washington at this point.

For all the funny caricatures of George Bush I've been posting on this blog, I'm actually starting to miss Mr Bush... always the skeptic, I've long stopped believing Mr Obama will do any better at this point. And at least George Bush was a great subject for caricaturists such as Steve Bell and KAL. Whereas Mr Obama's inauguration party may be shortly followed by a serious economic hangover that may not inspire many a good laugh-even from cartoonists.

KAL's cartoon

hoo hoo hoo ha ha ha wha ha ha!!! Like, so totally funny!! KAL's genius, man!

25 years of Mac

To those of use who are just old enough to remember Apple's original 1984 ad.

Steve Bell's farewell

Steve Bell's farewell to George Bush and Dick Cheney... as an eco-conscious citizen I ask the question: how do you dispose of such toxic political legacy? underground repository in a stable layer of salt that won't move for 100,000 years is a possibility, they would fit right in with plutonium waste. Or dumping them in an active volcano sounds more like it: send them back to where they come from...

Look Around You!

Did you know that germs come from Germany? or that mathematicians have yet to come up with a number bigger than 45 billion? well if you don't you better watch Peter Serafinowicz's spoof 70's educational video Look Around You!

KAL's cartoon

=)

Steve Bell on George Bush

See this very funny interactive slideshow on The Guardian's website, in which cartoonist Steve Bell describes the evolution of his depictions of U.S. President George W. Bush. 'Not a complete idiot, you don't get to that position by being a complete idiot but the values he seems to enshrine are values of ignorance and stupidity and arrogance.' A bit harsh maybe, although most of my American friends would tend to agree... Mr Bell concludes with his picture of George Bush and Tony Blair as two lame ducks walking into the sunset...

In fact I am finding it quite difficult to imagine how a rather personable man like Mr Bush has managed to attract so much negative publicity onto himself and taken so many poor decisions. For the most part I would blame it on really, really bad advice and also perhaps on Mr Bush's contention to do what he believes is 'right.' In politics there is no such thing as being 'right,' and being too sure of oneself is bound to offend people who disagree and live according to different moral values. As it turned out, even the CIA is often patently wrong in its conclusions. Government is not an exact science!

I'm not generally a huge fan of the Guardian, as I find their articles more often then not exhibit a strong leftist bias that's not always of the most reasonable kind. But-I shall miss Steve Bell's caricatures of George Bush, I must say =)

Kim Jong-Il nominates successor

North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Il has apparently nominated his third son Kim Jong-Un, 24, as his successor. Read news report here.

Pets and prizes

The latest cartoon from The Guardian's Steve Bell =)

The case for bigger government

Aside from the article on ewaste, last week's Time magazine also had a featured article by economist Jeffrey Sachs, of Columbia University. I'm generally most interested in Mr Sachs' ideas, as they tend to be quite creative and often provocative. Most of all, I always find I learn interesting new facts and perspectives when I read his essays. In his latest piece, he is arguing, much as I did, that Mr Obama's planned deficit spending 'in the trillions for years to come' is completely unreasonable, as foreign nations like China are rapidly losing confidence in America's public finance system. And Mr Sachs, also as I argued in my own essay, advocates suppressing George Bush's tax cuts for the rich and cutting America's losses in Iraq and Afghanistan immediately.

Mr Sachs then goes on to draw an interesting comparison with Europe when it comes to services that the government can often do better than private business, such as health care and education, and arrives at the conclusion that increasing government investment into such services would in the end save Americans a lot of dollars. Most importantly, Mr Sachs explains how such investment in goverment services ought to be financed through tax increases, as opposed to deficit spending, as President-elect Barack Obama is planning to do. Yet Mr Sachs ultimately refrains from advocating to completely nationalize all education and health care in America as in the EU, as he observes, 'The U.S. will not mimic Europe for many reasons — size, diversity, tradition and, of course, vested interests — but we can learn from Europe.' I couldn't agree more and I would add-Europe can learn from the U.S. in other areas such as encouraging business creation.

On the whole I would say I agree with Mr Sachs' main argument, that in the long run the U.S. will probably have to rely on the federal government more in several areas such as health care and education. Where I respectfully disagree, however, is when he contends that 'deficit spending is needed to help revive the economy from recession'. In fact I completely disagree with the whole idea that, at this point, there is anything at all that the U.S. federal government can effectively do to 'jump-start' the U.S. economy. This is mainly because the economic crisis is now global in scale and other countries' difficulties are already weighing down heavily on the American economy. The whole problem has grown out of its initial national proportions, it is now essentially out of the U.S. government's control and spending a few hundred billion dollars more will not make much of a difference. On top of that, the crisis is being continuously fueled from within the U.S. by all the personal and business bankruptcies that are bound to increase both in numbers and severity this coming year. In that sense, resolving this crisis is really about changing American people's spending habits and this won't happen in a day. And again, as I have been arguing repeatedly, the U.S. Treasury simply has no money left to spend in its coffers and rapidly dwindling credibility with foreign investors to borrow money from abroad, China in particular.

George Bush's farewell conference

Will Ferrell's own version of U.S. President George W. Bush's farewell press conference-now the Tiger Woods guy is taking over =)

101 posts already!

I've just realized I've just passed the 100-post mark, with the Garry Trudeau cartoon. Champagne!

Belief tank

The latest strip from Garry B. Trudeau. I oftentimes find his over-liberal humor a bit wishy-washy but this particular one made me want to roll myself on the floor in laughter =)

The new Lexus HS250h

They may be suffering from the recession but Toyota are showing no sign of slowing down on the R&D front. They have just presented their new Lexus HS250h hybrid car at the Detroit Auto Show and it just looks gorgeous. This looks to me like a fabulous car that is fuel-efficient without sacrificing what a great car is all about: it looks good, it's got all the performance and features you'd want to drive comfortably and safely to work or whatever it is you're doing everyday. And all GM have to respond to that is this little piece of crap they call 'Volt'. The whole range-extended EV concept is total nonsense, and clearly is only there to mitigate the shortcomings of pure EV's. Mr Volta must be spinning in his grave...

Sabotage

My favorite music video of all time: The Beastie Boys' Sabotage. 'Cause it takes place on da streets of LA, dude!

Reuse me long time

This week Time magazine is running an article on this village in China named Guiyu where they recycle tons of ewaste imported from America and Europe. Each year 5,500 local businesses, usually home-run workshops, dismantle 1.5 million tons of discarded computers, cell phones and other electronic gadgets.

They also have the highest levels of carcinogenic dioxins in the world and the children there suffer from widespread lead poisoning. Besides the print article, Time also have an online photo album, from which the above picture (credit: Chien-min Chung) is taken. The sight of all these children running among mountain of ewaste and this old grandma picking out electronic components totally breaks my heart.

I would urge the reader to follow Time's excellent advice and to recycle your electronic gadgets, TV's and computers through responsible businesses who do not export the toxic waste to third-world countries like China. In particular Time mention Sony, Samsung and LG among the brands who accept to recycle old products for free. For cell phones there is greenphone.com and Dell also recycle old PC's if you ship it back to them-it's free.

Cat presents weather

Macht mir spaß!

Resuscitating disintegrating squeletons

You may remember this cartoon by Martin Rowson. Here's the sequel. What's more dead than a regular squeleton? a squeleton that's coming apart, apparently... (copyright Martin Rowson 2009).

China losing taste for U.S. Treasuries

The NYT just published this most interesting article, which details a recent shift in the Chinese government's monetary strategy. With the current economic crisis and the $600 billion stimulus package that they recently announced, it seems China is now intent on spending its enormous cash reserves internally as opposed to buying U.S. Treasury bonds. This could be a serious problem for the U.S. economy-and consequentially for the EU's own economy-since it means borrowing money will become much more expensive for the U.S. government and everybody else, all the more problematically at a time when credit is particularly scarce.

This is definitely another good reason why I think Barack Obama's $800bn 'stimulus' package is really crackpot economics and may very well lead to a catastrophic run from the U.S. debt market in the coming year, especially if people suddenly stop believing in the U.S. Treasury's ability to repay its debt. Indeed, a glut of bonds for sale at unattractive yields and a sliding dollar will only encourage foreign investors to rethink their positions in dollar-denominated bonds generally and U.S. Treasuries in particular. And driving the U.S. national debt ratio closer to 100% of GDP certainly will not help. Mr Obama may claim that not pumping the $800bn into the economy immediately would have dire consequences and keep the recession going for years but it seems to me that adding an extra $800bn to the U.S. national debt may very well do worse-it would literally turn the U.S. debt market into something of a Ponzi scheme, with the U.S. Treasury at the top of the pyramid. Its collapse would be extremely painful and it would be felt far beyond the U.S. of A.

Ponzi vs. Fonzi

The Colbert Report

Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Hiding Gold - David Leonhardt

Colbert at Christmas

Colbert Christmas DVD

Green Screen

Bill O'Reilly Interview

In which Stephen and NYT reporter David Leonhardt explain the subtle difference between a Ponzi scheme and regular free-markets capitalism.

The MacBook Wheel

Apple's revolutionary new laptop does away with the keyboard, so your typing has never been sloppier!
Apple Introduces Revolutionary New Laptop With No Keyboard

Is the € the new $?

This article in Time Magazine is asking the provocative question in this time of economic and financial crisis: is the euro progressively replacing the U.S. dollar as the world's leading currency? generally I would think it's still far from being the case but with Barack Obama's bent on printing a lot of greenbacks to finance his rescue package for the U.S. economy, the question will probably become more and more pertinent.

Unquestionably the swelling U.S. budget deficit will bring a lot of foreign investors to question the soundness of U.S. public finance and to reconsider their investing money into U.S. Treasuries for fear of seeing their value founder with the dollar and perhaps even the U.S. Treasury credit ratings loosing their rock-solid AAA status. As the recent credit crisis has just spectacularly demonstrated, this could very well happen suddendly and catastrophically in the next two years... and what Barack Obama giveth to the middle classes, inflation shall taketh away.

Passing the torch

KAL's latest cartoon-I totally thought I should share this =)

Now-wait a second!

So you thought you'd be able to uncork the Champagne at 12:00:00 yesterday night? wrong! This year a so-called leap-second was added to the last minute of 2008, in order for the time kept with great accuracy by the UK's National Physical Laboratory's atomic clock to stay in sync with our more intuitive notion of time: namely it's noon when the sun's at its highest point in the sky.

If we didn't add this extra second every now and then, in a few thousand years noon might end up at 1pm instead of 12pm! this is due to the fact that the rotation of the Earth around its axis is perturbed randomly by the atmosphere slowing it down, its molten core flowing chaotically, etc...

As a result, this year the timekeepers who are in charge of Big Ben had to adjust its clock to slow it by one second =)

Largest dinosaur find in China

Scientists in China claim to have discovered the largest field of fossilized dinosaur bones ever, in the north-eastern province of Shandong. The researchers, from the Chinese Academy of Sciences have so far recovered more than 7,600 dinosaur bones from the trench, most of which date back to the Cretaceous. According to this article on the BBC's website,

The full details of the findings have not yet been published. But they are reported to include tyrannosaurus and ankylosaurus bones, as well as what could be the largest duck-billed dinosaur ever excavated.

The discoveries are expected to shed light on how the dinosaurs became extinct around the same geological period and the first details are to be published later in the year.

Mr Cyclopède et Superman

Hilarious video segment of French comedian Pierre Desproges, in which he questions whether Superman really is a frenchman. He then proceeds to interview Superman's grandpa and grandma. Must understand French to follow so brush up your français!