Slumdog - go see it

We saw Slumdog Millionaire last night. Wow! What a movie!
It is not for the faint of heart - there are some pretty brutal scenes about the main character's childhood, growing up an orphan, living on his wits in the slums of Bombay/Mumbai. Jamil goes on Who Wants to be a Millionaire? and because he does do well he's accused of cheating. After all, how could a tea boy from the slums know anything?

I've been to India twice, but this certainly was not the India that I experienced being whisked from one fancy hotel to another by a private driver.

Not sure he gets it (on religion)

One blind spot Obama seems to have is in his choice of religious leaders, from hanging out with Rev. Wright to now picking Rick Warren for the Inauguration prayer. Why would you pick a guy who compares same-sex marriage to pedophilia and incest?!

He gets it (on energy & climate)

I'm delighted to see that Obama has created a special office for climate change, along with not putting oil and politics at the forefront for the Dept. of Energy and the EPA. Here's a nice summary:

Dominated by lobbyists for the oil industry, the task force Vice President Dick Cheney convened early in the Bush presidency laid the groundwork for the administration's dangerously antiquated approach to meeting the nation's energy needs.

Its core recommendation -- to open more federal land to oil, coal and natural-gas development -- largely led officials for the next eight years to ignore conservation efforts and the need to develop clean, alternative energy....

Finally, though, the winds are changing. This week, President-elect Barack Obama named his top energy and environmental team. And fortunately, its members signaled their intention to reshape the nation's energy market so it can kick its dependence on unstable, U.S.-hating, oil-rich countries. They spoke of the urgency to invest in green technology and infrastructure projects to help rejuvenate the economy. And they promised that science -- not political expediency -- will drive their efforts.

Belize - The Blue Hole

We just returned from a week in Belize. As a tourist destination it's known primarily as a diving destination. Belize has the longest stretch of the Mesoamerican Reef, which is shares with Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras. This is the 2nd largest reef in the world, after the Great Barrier Reef of Australia.


The most famous dive site in Belize, explored by Jacques Cousteau, is the Blue Hole. The fish life there isn't actually the main attraction. Cousteau discovered that it is a collapsed cave. The bottom is at about 400 feet of depth, which is far too deep for recreational divers. We went to about 130 feet down (plenty deep) where there is an overhang of the original cave ceiling. There you swim among 30 foot long stalactites. It is positively otherworldly.

"Staggering... even by Illinois standards..."

Wow! That's right, Blago was trying to sell Obama's Senate seat. In a state where we half expect our governor's to end up in the Big House, this takes the cake. From a press release by the US Attorney's Office:

Illinois Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich and his Chief of Staff, John Harris, were arrested today by FBI agents on federal corruption charges alleging that they and others are engaging in ongoing criminal activity: conspiring to obtain personal financial benefits for Blagojevich by leveraging his sole authority to appoint a United States Senator; threatening to withhold substantial state assistance to the Tribune Company in connection with the sale of Wrigley Field to induce the firing of Chicago Tribune editorial board members sharply critical of Blagojevich; and to obtain campaign contributions in exchange for official actions – both historically and now in a push before a new state ethics law takes effect January 1, 2009.

Right, definitely want to do this before any new pesky ethics laws come into effect.

At various times, in exchange for the Senate appointment, Blagojevich discussed obtaining:

• a substantial salary for himself at a either a non-profit foundation or an organization affiliated with labor unions;
• placing his wife on paid corporate boards where he speculated she might garner as much as $150,000 a year;
• promises of campaign funds – including cash up front; and
• a cabinet post or ambassadorship for himself.

Can you really blame him for trying to line up his next job when he gets booted from the Governor's mansion? It's a tough job market out there.

Slough cuts climate change emissions

The town of Slough cuts climate change emissions. Should TV's The Office be concerned?: Scientific American Blog

OK, this angle on this article isn't terribly serious, but I'm amazed that Slough (the Scranton of the UK, or perhaps the Schaumburg) has emissions targets for itself, even if they are making them less ambitious. Does Scranton? Does Schaumburg? Will non-major towns in the US keep up?

Guano?

Here's some great commentary on the current suit questioning Obama's status as a natural-born citizen from Huffington Post:

WILLIAMS: The question is what is a natural-born citizen? That's never been legally defined.

Yes! That's because the founders didn't envision the totally batshit citizens we have now!

Clean Coal Ad

This ad is from Al Gore's Reality Coalition. Do you think it's effective? I'm not so sure. It asserts there's no such thing as clean coal, without giving evidence. I just saw it while I was watching This Week. I may not disagree, but I feel like the ad and the accompanying website talk down to the reader/viewer, not trusting we can handle actual information.

Knowing a bit about coal-fired generation, building new coal plants that would allow older ones to be shut down would help the environment. Given that a full one half of US electricity is produced through coal and that we have a lot of coal in the ground, what is Gore's suggestion as an alternative? The US needs a short term solution to its power issue, which can not be satisfied only through alternatives.

20,000 troops on our streets

This makes me uncomfortable. This makes me think also of the on-going issue in Iraq on the different roles for the military and the police.

The U.S. military expects to have 20,000 uniformed troops inside the United States by 2011 trained to help state and local officials respond to a nuclear terrorist attack or other domestic catastrophe, according to Pentagon officials.

There are critics of the change, in the military and among civil liberties groups and libertarians who express concern that the new homeland emphasis threatens to strain the military and possibly undermine the Posse Comitatus Act, a 130-year-old federal law restricting the military's role in domestic law enforcement.

Thoughts? Wade? Ron?

Floods in Venice

George and I were in Venice for our honeymoon about a month and a half ago. Now, it's having near-record-breaking floods - more than 1.5 meters of water (that's 4.5 feet.) Here are some pictures.

UNESCO has been warning for some time that due to rising water levels and subsidence of the land, Venice could be subject to daily floods in the future.

There is always talk of a major project in the lagoon which would consist of barriers that would rise out of the water to keep the flood waters out. It is very controversial and I'm not sure if it is moving forward or not.

Happy Thanksgiving!

There are so many things to be thankful for today:

• Friends and family.
  
• My friend Dhruv was not in Mumbai yesterday.
• The yummy deliciousness of Thanksgiving dinner.
• My new husband (almost 2 months!)
• My mother's return to health.
  

Things to acknowledge about the world's imperfection:

• Your family gathering will not be all harmony. It is simply not human nature for everyone to get along all the time.
• It makes me sad to think of the 100 families that are grieving today in India and wondering where this will lead.

Morning Brief

I'm going to tell you my secret source for valuable and important news: The Morning Brief by Foreign Policy magazine. You can sign up for a daily email here.

My only concern with spreading the word is that now you'll know where I get my material and I'll have to be more industrious from now on. ;-)

Iran Pictures

We don't get too many images of Iran other than political or religious leaders looking stern. I ran across this album of stunning pictures, primarily of architecture and women. It is beautiful.




Visiting Iran

New Projects

Today is a big day!
I gave my notice 2 weeks ago to the job that was sapping my strength and energy. Today is my first (week) day of freedom.
Part of my reason for leaving was that there are so many other things I want to get done which were impossible when my day was filled with doing things I didn't want to do.

So, the new mission:
Get a capital campaign going for my charter school
Write some articles exploring energy and policy
Explore some options of what I want to do in the next chapter of life
Get the body into shape - it's not getting any younger

And the difference is that all of these things sound exciting, interesting, like they'll give me energy rather than draining it all.

Illiberal Democracy

To borrow the title of Fareed Zakaria's book, the passage of Proposition 8 in California was a textbook case of what he called Illiberal Democracy. Direct democracy is usually not better democracy, especially when the majority is voting on rights for a minority. That is, instead, the tyranny of the majority.

Liberal democracy puts safeguards into place for the rights of minority groups. The State of California has failed its gay and lesbian citizens.

Confidence over Competence

I was always taught that if you don't know something that the best response is, "I don't know, but I'll look into it for you." And on the other hand, I've recently been told by my boss that I don't come across to the client with enough certitude about our solutions. I know enough to know that I don't know everything.

I've been thinking a lot lately about the crisis of too-much-confidence in our country and culture. It seeps into every corner of life, from business culture to politics.

Perhaps the greatest manifestation of this is George W. Bush, who didn't need to ask questions, get intelligence or see the other angle because of absolute confidence. Sarah Palin perhaps took this to such an extreme of Confidence over Competence that we'll pull back from this madness. When did confidence become the supreme virtue?

Well, here are a few words from a BBC news article, as well.

[L]ife's not like that and people know that. We know in our heart that it's not black and white ... and yet we pretend with the public that it's absolutely this policy and it will deliver what we want. Politics needs to change in that respect." But will it? Is it imaginable that a prime minister could stand up one day and say: "Look, I think this will work, and I'm going to give it a try, but frankly, I'm not sure."

Some parts of public life also function, less noisily, with subtlety and honesty about the real dilemmas. But we tend to hear less of them than the trumpet blasts of self-assurance. Is it the public that demands certainty, craving bedtime stories to help us sleep soundly rather than face up to the rather obvious fact that the future - and to some extent the present - is unknown? Or is it the fault of journalists who would rip into any minister who confessed to being unsure?

Some years ago, the former Archbishop of York John Hapgood suggested - with one eye on the politics of the time - that the lust for certainty could be a sin.

Slide show of Honeymoon pictures

Obama gets it!

There's speculation that Obama may appoint a Climate Czar, someone based at the White House who will be responsible to pulling together energy and the environment, as well as seeing the bigger picture on how this relates to the economy.

Hallelujah!

In no other country...

The fact that we elected Barack Obama last night is amazing, but let us also remember the magnificence of the American system of government.
As Obama has said from the beginning, "In no other country would my story be possible." And in addition, in very few other countries is a peaceful handover of power possible.

In an article discussing Kenya's declaration of a day of celebration (hey, how come we don't get a day off?), the following:

Tendai Biti, an opposition leader in Zimbabwe, said Obama's victory was inspiring and so was the concession by John McCain, whose fellow Republican George W. Bush will leave the White House on Jan. 20.
"If in Africa, incumbents would accept defeat and would graciously depart from the seat of power, this would be a different continent, and indeed Zimbabwe would be a different place," said Biti, whose party is deadlocked in power-sharing talks with Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe.

 

Obama-mercial

I missed the Obama 30-minute piece last night and I can't really find any scoop on it. Did anyone watch it? How was it? Please enlighten me.

The Candidates on Energy

This article from Wharton compares the energy priorities for both Obama and McCain. As you can tell from their advertising, they are not that far away from each other except for the Palin-inspired "Drill, baby, drill" part.

U.S. presidential candidates John McCain and Barak Obama clash over tax and foreign policy, but their energy proposals are more alike than their campaign rhetoric suggests. Both offer to reduce global warming with a cap-and-trade program, "clean coal" technology and expanded use of wind and other renewable energy. But no matter who wins, energy prices are likely to climb.

There are some differences: Obama emphasizes renewable energy to reduce dependence on foreign oil, while McCain puts more faith in drilling. Obama is less enamored of nuclear power than McCain. Obama supports subsidies for ethanol production while McCain would cancel them and open the market to foreign competitors. Environmentalists tend to favor Obama, while business groups favor McCain.

Whoever wins, it will be nice to have an energy policy that wasn't drafted behind closed doors by Cheney and a secret list of oil cronies.

Honeymoon Pictures

Ah, here we are overlooking the Grand Canal.

Can you believe the Bridge of Sighs has been turned into an advertisement for a car?

George having a coffee in our neighborhood.

It's our honeymoon - how could we not go on a gondola ride at sunset?

A giant glass abacus in Murano - how cool.

Arctic Trade

There's so much news and analysis of both the economy and the elections that I'm not going to compete, but find for you, my faithful followers, other interesting stuff.
There's an article in the Atlantic Monthly talking about the new trade routes that are/will be opening up across the Arctic. It's being compared to the Suez or Panama Canal in terms of allowing ease of trade and transport.

Of course, this will also lead to enormous changes in the economies and ecologies of the entire Arctic.

Venice was marvelous

The honeymoon was wonderful. Venice was wonderful. I had have loved Venice for ages, but I think that George really fell in love with the place.
Typical day in Venice:

• Get up late
• make some coffee, think about what to do for the day
• stroll over to the vapporetto to take us somewhere marvelous
• find some lunch, maybe grilled fish with a half carafe of wine
  
• wander around, look at buildings, glass, the canals
  
• have an aperitivo, a spritz with Aperol
• home for an afternoon nap?
• decide which neighborhood to hit for dinner
• stroll around

I suggested to George that I should stay in Venice while he flew home to teach his class and then return. Alas. This part of the honeymoon is over. I know the honeymoon phase will last much longer.....

We're on our way to the honeymoon.....

Apathy is Deadly

Here's a great website, created by my favorite Ohio State student, George's son: Apathy is Deadly. It has great templates and directions for sending letters about Darfur, foreign aid and climate change to your elected officials.

The sage's strategy

Words from Warren Buffett...

I've been buying American stocks. This is my personal account I'm talking about, in which I previously owned nothing but United States government bonds. (This description leaves aside my Berkshire Hathaway holdings, which are all committed to philanthropy.) If prices keep looking attractive, my non-Berkshire net worth will soon be 100 percent in United States equities.

Why?

A simple rule dictates my buying: Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful. And most certainly, fear is now widespread, gripping even seasoned investors. To be sure, investors are right to be wary of highly leveraged entities or businesses in weak competitive positions. But fears regarding the long-term prosperity of the nation's many sound companies make no sense. These businesses will indeed suffer earnings hiccups, as they always have. But most major companies will be setting new profit records 5, 10 and 20 years from now.

Train of thought

Hat tip to Marcelino.

Mom is home!

Thanks to all of you who've been asking after my mother. She came home yesterday after 5 full weeks in the hospital.

God on Trial

A state senator in Nebraska brought a suit against God.

He said God has made terroristic threats against the senator and his constituents in Omaha, inspired fear and caused "widespread death, destruction and terrorization of millions upon millions of the Earth's inhabitants."

Chambers has said he filed the lawsuit to make the point that everyone should have access to the courts regardless of whether they are rich or poor.

While I'm not exactly sure I follow his full logic on access, the idea is not new. There's a very moving scene in an Elie Wiesel book where the community elders in the concentration camp put God on trial for allowing the persecution and holocaust. If I recall correctly, they find God guilty of negligence.

What's your opinion? Can we/should we call God to account?

Married!

I've been away from my blog for a week now. I've been a little busy!

What is Health?

Given my recent immersion into the world of hospitals, health, weakness, infection and catheters due to the complications from my mother's recent "routine" surgery, this article in the NY Times caught my eye.

Why do we all persist in treating health like a bankable asset? Is it the solidity of our flesh and bone? The lab reports that look like bank statements? Either way, the operant fiction is that with diligent adherence to expert advice, pretty much anyone can sock away a nice little stash of health for the future.

In fact, though, health is the opposite of a commodity. It flits around like Tinkerbell, defying all the best intentions and predictions. No one can really articulate what the word means; no two people understand the concept in exactly the same way. And that includes you and your doctor.

The era of Reagan and Thatcher is over?

Here's a quote from the FT today:

David Rothkopf, a senior Commerce department official during the administration of President Bill Clinton, says the world is at a turning point. "This is a watershed," he says. "This is the end of 25 years of Reagan-Thatcherism, 'leave it to the market, less government is better government'. That is over – period."

Do you agree? Disagree? Is this good? Bad?

An interesting take on the bail-out

From NY Times Executive Suite Blog...

Secretary Paulson has told us since last week that he's late, he's late for a very important date and has no time for a reasonable legislative debate (although willing to indulge in the "hello/goodbyes" of Congressional testimony, provided it doesn't take too long). But instead of following him through the looking glass, like naïve and curious Alice, let's pause and take a peek though the glass before taking the leap of faith the Treasury and Fed are asking of us.

As with Alice's Wonderland, a lot of what Bazooka Hank and Helicopter Ben are saying is lacking in detail or simply doesn't make much sense:

Lessons from Sweden

The Swedes had a similar financial sector melt down in the early '90's. Their solution was for the government to take equity positions in the banks, meaning that when the banks recovered, tax payers got some of the up-side.

Sweden did not just bail out its financial institutions by having the government take over the bad debts. It extracted pounds of flesh from bank shareholders before writing checks. Banks had to write down losses and issue warrants to the government.

That strategy held banks responsible and turned the government into an owner. When distressed assets were sold, the profits flowed to taxpayers, and the government was able to recoup more money later by selling its shares in the companies as well.

Random Quote of the Day

♫ It's just a job. Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound the sand. I beat people up. - Muhammad Ali

5 C's of success

I usually try to get to the source material, but here's a blog entry talking about Indra Nooyi's five C's of success. Seeing that she's CEO of Pepsi, I thought they'd be worth checking out.

1. Competence
2. Courage
3. Communication
4. Compass (as in moral compass)
5. Coaching

I'm so delighted to see Compass in there. In my experience it's generally lacking, which always disturbs me.

Leaving time for other things before you die....

Because things are a bit heavy and hectic in my personal life these days, seems I've been avoiding any comment on recent economic meltdowns, tiresome political shenanigans, etc. In keeping with that, here's a great list from The Times on 10 books not to read before you die. After all....

Most people embarking on a journey into a new book will feel they have to hack through a hundred pages of dense undergrowth before their conscience will allow them to give it up as a lost cause. But how many people feel secure enough in their own judgment even to do that? How many times have we all ploughed on to the end to find there's actually no treasure after all? A book, even a useless one, can take several days out of your life so it's a big investment.

The best way to fight the massed ranks of recommended books is with an offensively glib and, if possible, ill-informed reason for not bothering with them.

I have not been able to avoid Hemingway, Austin and Homer, but the rest I'm doing a good job at!

20 questions for any of us

Foreign Policy magazine has published 20 questions it would like to ask Sarah Palin, assuming, I'm sure, that she will not have answers to many of them. While I don't assume that any of my many illustrious readers are vying to be back-up Leader of the Free World (correct me if I'm wrong), I'm wondering how many the rest of us could answer. I like to think I'm up to speed, but here are a few good ones:

1. Is Iraq a democracy?
2. What is your preferred plan for peace between Israel and Palestine? A two state solution? What about Jerusalem?
3. Do you support the U.S.-India Civil Nuclear Agreement, which would lift restrictions on sales of nuclear technology and fuel to India, a country which hasn't signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty?
4. Other than more drilling, what steps do you suggest the U.S. take in order to move toward energy independence? Do you believe more investment is needed in alternative energy research? If so, how would you recommend this funding be allocated?
5. How would you balance concerns over human rights and freedom in China with the United States' growing economic interdependence with that country?
6. What's more important: securing Russia's cooperation on nuclear proliferation and Iran, or supporting Georgia's NATO bid? If Vladimir Putin called you on the phone and said, "It's one or the other," what would you tell him?

Here are my quick thoughts:
1. No
2. Tough one: would a one-state solution get everyone focused on mutual well-being?
3. India needs power, there's no question of that, and nuclear power might be a good option. Yet, we know they have the bomb and might not mind using it in Kashmir. We need to press them to sign the NPT.
4. Ah, I have so many thoughts - yes, pour lots and lots of money into alternative energy research and even more into energy efficiency/conservation research.
5. Continue with diplomatic pressure. Countries that open up to trade open themselves up to communication and culture. The Chinese people will begin to demand more transparency and a greater political voice as their prosperity increases.
6. Russia would never support Georgia's NATO bid, so get their cooperation on proliferation and Iran.

What are your answers?

Open Secret.org

This site is fascinating. I found it today when looking up a company we just lost a project bid to. 

I also looked up who in my company gave what to all the presidential candidates. Fun.

Cool, big, expensive science

They turned on the Large Hadron Collider today! I love it that pure science still finds a place and funding in this world.

"We will be able to see deeper into matter than ever before," said Dr Tara Shears, a particle physicist at the University of Liverpool.

"We will be looking at what the Universe was made of billionths of a second after the Big Bang. That is amazing, that really is fantastic."

The LHC should answer one very simple question: What is mass?

Palin & McCain

While I'm a huge Obama fan, I thought that I would have been ok with a McCain presidency. His choice of Palin makes his ticket completely unacceptable to me for many reasons. In an op-ed by Frank Rich today, he points out how the choice of Palin brings to light things about McCain which maybe should have made me pause before as well. For example, do we really need another 4 years of running the world's most powerful country by gut-feel rather than analysis? 

Even more fraudulent, if that's possible, is the contrast between McCain's platonic presentation of his personal code of honor and the man he has become. He always puts his country first, he told us: "I've been called a maverick." If there was any doubt that that McCain has fled, confirmation arrived with his last-minute embrace of Sarah Palin.

We all think Green is the province of the young, but...

Here's consumption data showing that those over 55 are twice as likely to buy Green as the average consumer. 

Climate risk in business terms

At the end of the day, engaging business on the level of risk and risk mitigation is the way that change will come. Here's an article on the UN IPCC's next phase. Too bad they're going to take 6 years to come out with their next conclusions.

The United Nations climate panel, which won the Nobel Peace Prize last year, said on Thursday it plans to work with corporate leaders and investors to flesh out the business risks linked to global warming.

With its next major "synthesis" report not due until 2014, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will focus now on renewable energies and also engage with companies about the dangers of a warming planet and ways to confront it.

Ottmar Edenhofer, co-chairman of a IPCC working group, said pension funds were keen to hear which sectors and countries are most threatened by climate change, a phenomenon the panel's scientists have linked to the burning of fossil fuels like oil.

"Their investment decisions depend heavily on that," he said, referring to pension fund managers. "The business community, the investors' community, is really interested."

An IPCC report on the risks and potential of renewable energy technologies is in the works for 2010, Edenhofer added.

IPCC Chairman Rajendra Pachauri dismissed worries a slowing world economy would eclipse concerns about global warming, which the U.N. panel has said will cause more extreme storms, floods, drought, and rising sea levels, among other disasters.

"There is a perception of the public, every time there is an extreme event, to link it to human-induced climate change," he told journalists in Geneva, where the IPCC met this week.

"I don't think there is any danger of this being driven off the radar screen of decision makers and the public at large," Pachauri said.

Border regions and the Taliban

Foreign Policy magazine calls this a "must-read" article, exploring the tribal regions on the borders of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Admittedly, I haven't read it yet.

Palin: Pro-entrepreneur?

And for an angle on Palin I hadn't thought of before. Making life easy for small business is a very good thing for everyone:

"As Mayor and CEO of the booming city of Wasilla, my team invited investment and encouraged business growth by eliminating small business inventory taxes, eliminated personal property taxes, reduced real property tax mill levies every year I was in office, reduced fees, and built the infrastructure our businesses needed to grow and prosper."

Sexism, sexism, sexism

I'm not convinced that Sarah Palin is a great pick as VP, but that aside, I think that the blatant double standard that is being applied to her is appalling.

Can she be VP and mother to five children?
Can McCain be president and father to seven children?

Hmmm, I've heard the first question about 100 times by now and I've never heard the second one.

Economic policy by the Candidates

Here's an interesting summary of McCain and Obama's proposed economic policies from the Council on Foreign Relations. It says Obama proposes big govenment spending programs to increase employment and stimulate the economy, and that very differently, McCain proposes a decrease in corporate taxes, so that they can afford to hire more people.

Interestingly, it says that either one of the them might well be thwarted, either by Congress or by the fact that the economy is in such dire straights that even a lot of government spending might not help dig us out. Also, they think that Obama will adopt a more centrist position once elected.

Thoughts?

Oil, Lobster, Insecurity

It's sad that fuel prices and economic insecurity lead to this, but lobster demand and prices are down, according to the NY Times. One interesting thing noted here is that the fishermen are leaving traps for, say, two days instead of one to save on fuel. I wonder if that's a fuel efficient practice they'll keep for the long term.

So, if you are looking for a treat, why not go for lobster instead of beef or some other food that's also rising in price. Beef, in fact, gets the price bump from both transport costs and the huge rise in grain and feed stock prices.

McCain rolling the dice

There's a good blog entry in the FT today talking about how McCain might be a very scary choice as Commander in Chief:

Opinion polls consistently show that the American public has more faith in Mr McCain as commander-in-chief. He looks like the safe choice for dangerous times.

But this is wrong. Mr McCain will not run a "safe" foreign policy. He adores rolling the dice. His decision to select Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska as his running mate typifies the man. It is a big risk. It could turn out to be inspired. Or it might turn out to be a disaster. But it is not "safe".

Mr McCain approaches international affairs in the same spirit. His instinct is always to take the radical option and to march towards the sound of gunfire.

Brits behaving badly

The NY Times has a big article about the scourge of drunken Brits who descend on the Mediterranean, behave badly, get arrested or injured and basically make a nuisance of themselves.
I don't this comes as any surprise to anyone who's visited Britain or any place in southern Europe. It's become the standard stereotype of Brits.

The only up side is that by comparison, "ugly Americans" aren't so ugly any more.

Olympics - Where is India?

I was looking at this very nifty graphic on the NY Times site, which shows medal counts for all of the modern Olympic Games, and I thought to myself: Where's India??

It is so often compared to it's equally enormous neighbor to the north, China, which won 100 medals. I realized India was essentially missing, not just in this Olympics, but in past ones as well. India won 3 medals, half the number of Uzbekistan, and far, far fewer than Belarus, for example.

Why does India have so few? Tell me your thoughts, I'd love to hear.

Power can make you a jerk

This is a great article in Business Week talking about 1) how we start to behave like the people around us - so surround yourself with good and happy people, and 2) how power can make people into jerks. This sounds exactly like some people I work with. Hits the nail precisely on the head:

A growing body of research—notably by professors Dachner Keltner at University of California, Berkeley, Deborah Gruenfeld at Stanford, and their students—documents that three things happen when people are put in positions of power:

1. They focus more on satisfying their own needs;

2. They focus less on the needs of their underlings;

3. They act like "the rules" others are expected to follow don't apply to them.

A particularly amusing study—undertaken by Keltner, Gruenfeld, and another colleague—shows that giving people just a little more power than their colleagues causes them to eat more cookies, chew with their mouths open, and leave more crumbs. Keltner also cites research showing that power leads people to process information in shallower ways and to make decisions that are less carefully reasoned.

Julia Child was a Spy

Check this out, Julia Child worked for the OSS, the Office of Strategic Services, the forerunner of the CIA, during WWII.

Of course, Julia Child immediately brings to mind French cooking, but my favorite book by her and one of the only cookbooks I regularly refer to is The Way to Cook. It tells you how to poach and how to debone, as well as giving classic and delicious recipes.

Yucky Water as Art

There's an art exhibition in Belgium showing vials of vile stuff that passes for potable water in different parts of the world.

''There is growing concern about the scarcity of water, and the need to save it, but in many countries, it's still taken for granted as something that pours out of the tap,'' said Jane Withers, who co-curated the exhibition with Ilse Crawford. ''People think of water as a clear, neutral product that always looks the same. It doesn't, because it's a living thing, as the samples show. We hope that once people realize this, they'll consider using water more pleasurably as well as more thoughtfully.''

US taking over Georgian Ports!

Now that the cold war is over, are we going to enter a hot war with Russia over Georgia?  The verdict is out. Once we occupy Georgian ports, which is where Russia Black Sea fleet calls home, are the Russians going to try to take the ports back?

Speaking of Architecture

I've finally downloaded my pictures from my trip to Europe, and I was struck by the similarities between the "puzzle wall" at Delphi in Greece and the famous Incan wall in Cuzco.

This top one is from Delphi, which you would have guessed because of the column, I'm sure.

This second one, I found on the web. I'd like to go to Cuzco some day. I've been to Peru twice, but always for work and only to Lima, which is hardly a tourist highlight.

Olympic Architecture

I have to say I love the Olympics. For a wild and crazy Saturday night, we stayed in last night and ate dinner in front of the TV watching swimming and men's gymnastics.

I'm also loving the architecture. Of course, everyone's talking about how massive the investment was, but in some of these cases, the buildings are amazing. The Bird's Nest has become iconic, but I also love the Water Cube.

I know that usage for the facilities after the games has to be part of the plan and is taken into consideration when the city is chosen as host. It's not clear to me that it ever really works out very well. We'll have to wait and see.

So green

I was talking this morning over breakfast with George about EcoCities. There are a number of ambitious plans in the Gulf, as well as China and India, to build ground-up green cities. The solutions feel like overlaying smart technology onto traditional city layout, with public spaces and more room for walking than driving. So when I saw picture, which is the picture of the day from National Geograpic, of a clothesline, it made me think about how many things which in the 20th century we "improved" upon using machines and power, we are now going back to.

On a much less serious note...

In case you haven't seen the Paris Hilton response to McCain, it's great:

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

Western China

A few days ago, 16 police officers were killed in Kashgar, supposedly by a Uighur jihadist group. Here's a good article in the FT talking not only about the incident, but the situation in Xinjiang province overall.

I remember that after September 11th when Bush declared a "war on terror", the Chinese were the first to support it. I'm sure it's so they could legitimize any dissent in western China by the oppressed Uighurs, whose situation as been compared to the Tibetans except that they don't have a photogenic leader to take their cause to the world.

So, what do you think? True or False? One man's freedom fighter is another man's terrorist. Does it just depend on which side of the fence/ocean/ethnic divide you sit on?

A View of Oxford

Here's a cool picture from the BBC showing restoration work on the ceiling of the Sheldonian Theater in Oxford. This is the theater where the graduation ceremonies take place, entirely in Latin, which in my humble experience made it difficult to know when to walk.

Obama's Energy Plan

Hmmm, I liked Obama's refusal earlier in the summer to back the silliness of a summer gasoline tax holiday, but now I'm not sure I'm completely in line with his new thinking. I'm all for weaning ourselves off Venezuelan and Middle Eastern oil within a decade (though I can't imagine that will actually happen.) What I'm no so excited about is the interest in opening up more Alaskan wilderness to drilling for several reasons:

1. There are ample federal lands where oil companies already have concessions and are doing nothing with them
2. We only have so much wilderness - leave it alone!
3. We should be spending that money, yes THAT MUCH money, on conservation technologies and alternative energy technology

The earth is flat?

Here's an article from BBC saying there are people who really believe that the Earth is flat and that there's a vast conspiracy to say that the earth is round.

"People are definitely prejudiced against flat-earthers," says John Davis, a flat earth theorist based in Tennessee.

Imagine!

George Quote

I've been quoting Einstein lately, and here's one from another genius near and dear to my heart.

"It's handy to have fingers." - G

News from NASA

OK, this is good stuff. First and very timely - there will be a solar eclipse tomorrow morning. It will appear full only in very northern places, like Greenland. It's not clear to me if it will be visible as a partial as far south as Chicago or not. Here's the site. (Admittedly, I found this out from my friend's blog - thanks, P.)

Secondly, water has been discovered and tested by the Phoenix rover on Mars.

While we're on the subject of NASA, here's one of my all time favorite pictures: Earth at Night.

Brazil: Country of Tomorrow

There's a bit of dark humor in Brazil that it is always the country of tomorrow, with the implication that tomorrow never seems to come. Here's an article in the NY Times saying that Brazil is experiencing an economic boom. Let's hope it's true at long last.

Obama at U of C

Here's an interesting article in today's NY Times about Obama's time at the University of Chicago's law school. My understanding is that the law school is pretty far to the right, but that by and large they support and like him.

Another Einstein Quote

Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.

I'm working in an environment where people talk about programs and initiatives that are "metric-driven." I understand that it is useful to count things, but sometime it's just a bit much.

Semolina Cake

There was an article in a NY Times Magazine section about a month ago on semolina cakes that I'd left out for George to read. It had a Greek version and a French version. G's ideal version should have yogurt in it, so I've searched around and this one, with lemon from a blog called Cooking Adventures, sounds good to me.

I'll let you know how it is if we actually make it. I never bake, so odds are slim even though it sounds so tasty.

Einstein Quote

Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom.

English summer pudding

A few days ago I bought both red and white currants at a farmer's market and I did what anyone would do - I started looking for recipes for English summer pudding. And I found one on an English food blog called Becks & Posh. It's very simple, cook a bunch of mixed berries for just a few minutes with a bit of sugar then put into a bowl you've lined with white bread. Refrigerate for a few hours while weighted. Good stuff, especially with cream drizzled over it.

Water Footprint

Have you thought about your water footprint? Global water demand will increase by 40% in the next 20 years. 1 in 5 people in the world do not have access to clean water, and municipal water prices are only increasing, 27% in the US over the past 5 years, 48% in Canada.

So, spend $2 and put an aerator in your faucet, put a brick in your toilet tank, plant indigenous plants in your garden, don't worry about your grass.

So much attention on Afghanistan

Is Afghanistan suddenly everywhere in the news after about 4 years out of the news because Obama thinks it's important?

I'm beginning to wonder about the herd mentality of news organizations - a few years ago, everyone had a cover about avian flu, because everyone else did. It was sensational.

Now, everyone has a cover, or at least an article, on Afghanistan. It's been there all along. Was no one paying attention?

A roadside restaurant anywhere in the world

On the coastal road on the west side of the Peloponnesus in Greece, we stopped for the night in an unpromising village 15 kilometers outside the big, ugly port town looking for a hotel. We found quite a nice, modern guest house just above the municipal beach, with a view of the Ionian Sea and olive trees.

For dinner, the proprietor suggested either of the two tavernas on the main road through the village just 2 blocks away. Both had tables in the open air facing the road with the kitchens at the back. The one we chose was lit by an abundance of florescent lights, making it a pool of white in the black night that was otherwise broken mostly by headlights. As we sat down and ordered a very simple, very Greek dinner of souvlaki in pita it occurred to me that I had eaten at this same place by the dusty side of the road in Panama and in Brazil. Each time I’ve wondered, why would anyone want to eat along the side of the road with exhaust fumes and grit? Why wasn’t the restaurant designed with the outdoor seating to the side, or to the back, protected from the road by the building?

Is it that outdoor seating at the back would isolate the patrons from the people passing by? Is this type of set-up more conducive to drop-ins and impromptu gatherings, thereby benefiting the proprietors? If you can see as you pass by that a group of your friends have gathered for a meal or a drink, you’re likely to join them. If on the other hand they are hidden in the back, you may not realize they are there and therefore will not become another paying customer. Perhaps this outweighs any disadvantage that the patrons might want to be secluded from the hustle-bustle and grit. Besides, if that were the case, they might have just stayed home.

So, does such a roadside restaurant only exist in small communities where one is more likely to pass by and recognize other patrons? Or does it exist on thoroughfares where the outdoor roadside presence is advertising, letting passers-by know that a restaurant exists?

I do know that the ones I’ve eaten at tend to have simple, good fare. Perhaps nothing to write home about, but nothing that’s made me ill either.

There is also a different sense of private space in restaurants in much of Europe and Latin America than in the US or Britain. In the US few restaurants would allow people to wander into the restaurant or even any outdoor seating selling flowers, serenades or sunglasses, but sitting for lunch on a Greek Island the passing hawkers approached the diners both inside and outside. Is the restaurant more of a communal space in Europe and Latin America than it is in the US? And by communal space, I mean that it is accessible to all parts of the community, not just the customers.

Friedman on Energy

Once again, Thomas Friedman has it right. A few years ago, Bush announced that we're addicted to oil. Bush, for once, was right. But, instead of doing anything sensible about it, like putting real money behind alternative energy technology or extending the tax credits for solar, wind and geothermal, he refused to ask Detroit to increase their average mpg and has continued his love affair with the Saudis.

Now, just as he's preparing to leave office, he's trying to give his oil buddies two last gifts: he wants congress to allow drilling off-shore and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which will do nothing to bring down oil prices before 2030, and he wants the Saudis to give us more oil in the short term to lower prices, increasing our dependence on foreign oil, which would help to kill alternative energy development at home.

Bush has never had an energy policy, except for the completely shady one drawn up behind closed doors with no names attached, early in his first term. Once again, no leadership, just crony-ism.

And I thought I was the only one feeling ADD...

Here's a great piece discussing the lack of attention and focus that people have in the workplace. I talks about how being distracted and then trying to shift back takes up 28% of an office worker's day. Some companies are also now implementing quiet, unwired rooms for people to use to focus and think.

What a revelation! I find myself answering emails and getting all the small things taken care of, without the time to think, plan and tackle the big stuff.

Most delicious snack ever

I went to a new restaurant in town, Graham Elliot, this week. It was pretty good, but by far the best thing was the popcorn they brought to the table instead of a bread basket. It had truffle oil and parmesean on it. I made it the very next day at home and it was just as good.

Easy, delicious, and you'll get it next time you come to a party.

Lion Cubs

Check out this webcam of new lion cubs at a Norwegian zoo. Very cute.

Great minds really don't think alike

There's a whiff of the lynch mob or the lemming migration about any overlarge concentration of like-thinking individuals, no matter how virtuous their cause.

  - PJ O'Rourke

Obama Abroad

There have been a couple of articles lately talking about how Barack Obama is seen abroad, especially now that he is the nominee.

Last week, Thomas Friedman wrote a piece called Obama on the Nile, discussing how Egyptians see Obama. They're stunned that an outsider could "allowed" to win the nomination. In Egypt, a Copt or a Shi'ite could never expect to become president. They're also pleased that someone with familiarity with Islam might be running the US, unlike the present clueless crowd.

Today, an article in the International Herald Tribune describes how blacks and Africans in France are finding hope in Obama's success. France has never thought it had a race problem in the way the US knows that it does - until a few years ago when the black and Arab kids in the suburbs of Paris exploded into riots. If you're of African or Arab descent in France, the glass ceiling is very low and those who can leave for England or elsewhere.

Ultimately, I think it's really interesting that the rest of the world cares about our politics in a way that we don't care, or know about any one else's. I suppose Americans knew when Blair left and Browne came in, and we noticed the election that brought in Sarkozy, but we didn't think about it very deeply. The rest of the world notices and cares about our politics.

Star-struck

I've never been one, even as a teenager, to have a favorite movie star, but there's something about Angelina Jolie. Is the bod? the Brad? the boldness to adopt kids from here and there? the way she seems to be so sure?

Vanity Fair has an interview with her this month.

Taxis & Brains - similar?

"my brain is like a taxi-it responds when hailed."
-Isaiah Berlin

Do you sometimes feel like your brain's not being hailed much?

Darjeeling - the place

I was talking (well, IMing) with a friend of mine tonight whose family is in the tea biz in India. He sent me these awesome pictures of the area around Darjeeling. I think I want to go.

And a vintage label of some tea that's produced there.

Do real men read?

I went to the Printer's Row Book Fair this afternoon, which is one of my favorite street fairs of the summer. It's always on the same weekend as the 57th Street Art Fair, which is one of my other favorites. (I'll go there tomorrow.)

The Book Fair has readings, used book stalls, obscure publishers, and apparently literacy groups, like Real Men Read. The only troubling thing was that there was no one there - not even a little stack of brochures. I was struck that it appeared that no real men were reading, or even talking about it.

This brings to mind for me the trouble that some of my clients face as well. If you claim to be doing good, but then don't do as well as other people expect you to, you get more criticized than if you'd never tried to do good in the first place. So, do I criticize Real Men Read for not showing up? Maybe they were out actually teaching reading this afternoon.

In my work, I help companies and commercial buildings become greener and the environmental watchdogs are ruthless when someone misses their targets, but are fairly quiet about companies that make no attempts to do the right thing. It hardly seems fair. My father, somewhat cynically, has been known to say "No good deed goes unpunished."

So, am I punishing Real Men Read by pointing out that they're MIA at the Book Fair? Or is it reasonable to hold people who have declared a goal to a higher standard?

Oil - Where does it come from? Where does it go?

Check out this fantastic map done by the FT. It shows big oil producers, consumers, reserves and the movement of trade.

Obama & Henry V

If you've been following the speeches of Barack Obama lately, talking about being on the cusp of history, see if you hear echoes of Shakespeare's Henry V St. Crispin's Day speech.

"This day is called the feast of Crispian:

He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,

Will stand a tip-toe when the day is named,

And rouse him at the name of Crispian.

He that shall live this day, and see old age,

Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,

And say 'To-morrow is Saint Crispian:'

Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars.

And say 'These wounds I had on Crispin's day.'

Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot,

But he'll remember with advantages

What feats he did that day: then shall our names.

Familiar in his mouth as household words

Harry the king, Bedford and Exeter,

Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester,

Be in their flowing cups freshly remember'd.

This story shall the good man teach his son;

And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,

From this day to the ending of the world,

But we in it shall be remember'd;

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;

For he to-day that sheds his blood with me

Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,

This day shall gentle his condition:

And gentlemen in England now a-bed

Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,

And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks

That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day"

Upside Down

From the International Herald Tribune today, a discussion of how the developing world is eating up the developed, with Mexican and Indian companies vying to buy American ones. We need to get used to not being on top....

For a while the world was flat. Now it's upside down.

To understand it, invert your thinking. See the developed world as depending on the developing world, rather than the other way round. Understand that two-thirds of global economic growth last year came from emerging countries, whose economies will expand about 6.7 percent in 2008, against 1.3 percent for the United States, Japan and Euro zone states.

The sharp rise in prices for energy, commodities, metals and minerals produced mainly in the developing world explains part of this shift. That has created the balance of payments surpluses fueling dollar-dripping sovereign wealth funds in countries like China. They amuse themselves picking up a stake in BP here, a chunk of Morgan Stanley there, and why not a sliver of Total.

We of the developed-world Paleolithic species are fair game for the upstarts now, our predator role exhausted. The U.S. and Europe may soon need all the charity they can get.

To place this inversion in focus, it helps to be in Brazil, where winter (so to speak) arrives with the Northern Hemisphere summer, and economic optimism, as exuberant as the vegetation, increases at the same brisk clip as U.S. foreclosures.

What is time?

Check out this documentary called What is Time, My Love? It is set in post-tsunami Sri Lanka with a bossa nova sound track. I haven't watched the whole thing yet, but click on the Watch link and the whole thing is there. It's about an hour long.

Innocence vs. Experience

In 1972, the King of Bhutan proposed the concept of Gross National Happiness as a measure to be maximized in his country, rather than, say, Gross Domestic Product or Per Capita Income.

Indeed, you could say that someone with extensive medical needs going through an expensive court case would contribute greatly to the GDP, but that person certainly is not high on the measure of Gross National Happiness. I've read studies that say that happiness is correlated with income up to a certain basic level, about $40K/family in the US. After that, happiness and income are not well correlated.

On another angle, in the last 5 years or so, Bhutan has opened up to the outside world, allowing television, internet, and travel. I think we would at first assume that this would be a good thing. Greater access to knowledge, news, other ways of being and the global market. While GDP has increased with this openness, Gross National Happiness has decreased.

It brings to mind Blake's dichotomy of Innocence and Experience. Each have their pros and cons. Perhaps as a culture, as a country, Bhutan is making that transition from Innocence with its optimistic happiness to experience with its wisdom/sadness.

So, I have two questions:

1. Do you prefer innocence or experience?
2. Does more money make you happier?
   

Oysters & Oscar Wilde

I was in an oyster place the other day and saw this quote by Oscar Wilde:

The world was my oyster, but I used the wrong fork.

Thank Goodness

Einstein said,

Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school.

What a relief - I just thought I didn't know anything anymore.

Next time you're in Washington....

I was in Washington a few weeks ago and I found the most fantastic bookstore near my hotel in DuPont Circle. Kramerbooks & Afterwards Cafe is awesome. They have books you don't see other places. (I bought about a dozen even though I was going to have to haul them on the airplane.) I also had breakfast there the next day.

So, next time you're in DC, check it out. I highly recommend it.

Yep, $100+/barrel is here to stay

I wrote a post earlier in the month about $200/barrel oil. Here's an interesting piece on the Goldman Sachs analyst whose been at the forefront of these predictions. At the very end of the article there are some interesting quotes by oil companies about where they think oil prices will settle.
Shell: $35-$65/barrel
ConocoPhillips: $90/barrel
Chevron: says Shell's estimate is too low
ExxonMobile: no comment

What does everyone think? Will this stimulate innovation? Or bring the economy to a grinding halt?

'Super spike' oil analyst gains a lot of Wall Street cred

By Louise Story

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Arjun Murti remembers the pain of the oil shocks of the 1970s. But he is bracing for something far worse now: He foresees a "super spike" - a price surge that will soon drive crude oil to $200 a barrel.

Murti, who has a bit of a green streak, is not bothered much by the prospect of even higher oil prices, figuring that it might finally prompt the United States to become more energy efficient.

An analyst at Goldman Sachs, Murti has become the talk of the oil market by issuing one sensational forecast after another. A few years ago, rivals scoffed when he predicted that oil would breach $100 a barrel.

Few are laughing now. Oil shattered yet another record Wednesday, as the price of light sweet crude for July delivery rose above $132 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices are 99 percent higher than a year ago, according to Bloomberg News.

Murti, 39, argues that the world's seemingly unquenchable thirst for oil means prices will keep rising from here and stay above $100 into 2011. Others disagree, arguing that prices could abruptly tumble if speculators in the market rush for the exits.

But the grim calculus of Murti's prediction, issued in March and reconfirmed two weeks ago, is enough to give any American pause: At $200 a barrel for oil, gasoline could cost more than $6 a gallon, or about $1.60 a liter, in the United States. U.S. pump prices are now around $4 a gallon.

That would be fine with Murti, who owns two hybrid cars.

"I'm actually fairly anti-oil," said Murti, who grew up in New Jersey. "One of the biggest challenges our country faces is our addiction to oil."

Murti is hardly alone in predicting higher prices. T.Boone Pickens, the oilman turned corporate raider, said Tuesday that crude would hit $150 this year.

But many analysts are no longer so sure where oil is going, at least in the short term. Some say prices will fall as low as $70 a barrel by year-end, according to Thomson Financial.

...

Murti said he "applauds" investors for driving up oil prices, since that would spur investment in alternative sources of energy.

High prices, he said, "send a message to consumers that you should try your best to buy fuel-efficient cars or otherwise conserve on energy." Washington should create tax incentives to encourage people to buy hybrid cars and develop more nuclear energy, he said.

Of course, if lawmakers heed his advice, oil industry analysts like him might one day be a thing of the past. That is fine with Murti.

"The greatest thing in the world would be if in 15 years we no longer needed oil analysts," he said.

U.S. oil executives questioned

Executives with big oil companies on Wednesday gave a wide range of estimates when U.S. lawmakers asked them how high oil prices should be, Reuters reported from Washington.

At a hearing on oil prices before the Senate Judiciary Committee, John Hofmeister, president of Shell Oil Co., the U.S. arm of Royal Dutch Shell, said that his company could be successful with oil prices at $35 to $65 a barrel, well below the record U.S. crude oil futures price of $132.73 a barrel reached Wednesday.

"I think in a range - somewhere between $35 and $65 a barrel - is what has been consistent in our ability to run a successful company," Hofmeister said.

Executives with Chevron and ConocoPhillips disagreed.

"I believe that the incremental cost of supplies is something above $90 a barrel," said John Lowe, executive vice president of ConocoPhillips.

Peter Robertson, vice chairman of Chevron, also said that Hofmeister's price range was too low to allow companies to break even.

J.Stephen Simon, a senior vice president of Exxon Mobil, declined to give a price estimate.

Global Warming: Bush Impersonation

This is awesome!

Photography Blog

Here is a cool blog on contemporary photography, which I wanted to share. Scroll down, it's interesting stuff. The May 1st posting is about photography on subways. From the time I used to ride the CTA red line and brown line from the Wrigleyville to downtown for work, I've wanted to take pictures of people's hands on the train. When you're lucky enough to get a seat, you're just at eye level with the hands of the people around you holding on the posts. I've never quite figured out how to do that discretely, or to do it in such a way that people didn't think I was just trying to steal their rings.

http://pictureyear.blogspot.com/

Thoughts in the Days of an Economist

A friend of mine, studying economics, has started a blog: http://somthum.blogspot.com/

She likes to refer to Thomas Friedman, as I do, but you'll also discover that she is in love with Ira Glass. (tee hee).

Generational Views of Vietnam

There's a special section on Vietnam in last week's Economist, which made me think about the time I visited there in the summer of 2000. I was traveling with my mother and Vietnam was our last stop during a 3 week trip that focused on China. In China, neither of us had expectations of what we were going to see, and we were both delighted. Vietnam was another story.

Of course I know from textbooks and TV specials and a general knowledge of history about the Vietnam war, but I was too young to know the emotional, political and cultural turmoil that it engendered. My most immediate sources on Vietnam were friends who had gone backpacking there after college in the mid 1990s.

On the other hand, as we were driven from the airport in Ho Chi Minh City to our hotel, the guide casually pointed out the old American Embassy. My mother immediately recalled news footage of people clinging to that last helicopter leaving the embassy roof, knowing that anyone left behind certainly was in terrible peril of death or awful re-education. As we drove into Ho Chi Minh City, I was excited to see a new place and she felt deep shame/guilt about how the US had failed to protect the South Vietnamese who had worked with/fought with the US. Those few days in Vietnam were difficult for her in a way that surprised me. I had never heard her talk about the subject and she was not a hippy or a war protester, but clearly she had very deeply held feelings, which were so different from my own because of our different generations.

Cats & Democrats

I'm not exactly sure it will work out this way, but it's funny. On the infighting in the Democratic Party by Lionel VanDeerlin :

"Oh yes, and anyone who fears that the Democratic nomination fight still under way will help re-elect Republicans should be reminded about cats. We're often under the impression cats are fighting, but next thing you know there are more cats."

Oracle Bones

I've just finished reading Oracle Bones by Peter Hessler, which traces his explorations of, yes, oracle bones, the politics of Chinese characters, the tribulations of Uighur asylum seekers in the US after September 11th, and the demise of traditional neighborhoods in Beijing.

It's a fabulous read. It makes me want to spend time in China, but even more, it makes me want to spend time writing about interesting things. I highly recommend it.

Lifting an 18 cent tax for 3 months is an Energy Policy?

To lift a quote from the article below: "Peter Schwartz of Global Business Network describes ... the true American energy policy today: "Maximize demand, minimize supply and buy the rest from the people who hate us the most.""

I wish I'd written this article. It pretty much says what I was thinking. When Obama was getting pressure to also lift the gas tax for the summer, he made the point that this would save the average person $30, and take away valuable funding for transportation infrastructure.

The energy to be serious, from The International Herald Tribune

By Thomas L. Friedman

Friday, May 2, 2008

It is great to see that we Americans finally have some national unity on energy policy. Unfortunately, the unifying idea is so ridiculous, so unworthy of the people aspiring to lead the United States, it takes your breath away.

Hillary Clinton has decided to line up with John McCain in pushing to suspend the federal excise tax on gasoline, 18.4 cents a gallon, for this summer's travel season. This is not an energy policy. This is money laundering: We Americans borrow money from China and ship it to Saudi Arabia and take a little cut for ourselves as it goes through our gas tanks. What a way to build the country.

When the summer is over, we will have increased our debt to China, increased our transfer of wealth to Saudi Arabia and increased our contribution to global warming for our kids to inherit.

No, no, no, we'll just get the money by taxing Big Oil, says Clinton. Even if you could do that, what a terrible way to spend precious tax dollars - burning it up on the way to the beach rather than on innovation?

The McCain-Clinton gas holiday proposal is a perfect example of what energy expert Peter Schwartz of Global Business Network describes as the true American energy policy today: "Maximize demand, minimize supply and buy the rest from the people who hate us the most."

Good for Barack Obama for resisting this shameful pandering.

But here's what's scary: America's problem is so much worse than you think. We have no energy strategy. If you are going to use tax policy to shape energy strategy then you would want to raise taxes on the things you want to discourage - gasoline consumption and gas-guzzling cars - and you would want to lower taxes on the things you want to encourage - new, renewable energy technologies. We are doing just the opposite.

Are you sitting down?

Few people know it, but for almost a year now, Congress has been bickering over whether and how to renew the investment tax credit to stimulate investment in solar energy and the production tax credit to encourage investment in wind energy. The bickering has been so poisonous that when Congress passed the 2007 energy bill last December, it failed to extend any stimulus for wind and solar energy production. Oil and gas kept all their credits, but those for wind and solar have been left to expire this December. I am not making this up.

At a time when we should be throwing everything into clean power innovation, we are squabbling over pennies.

These credits are critical because they ensure that if oil prices slip back down again - which often happens - investments in wind and solar would still be profitable. That's how you launch a new energy technology and help it achieve scale, so it can compete without subsidies.

The Democrats wanted the wind and solar credits to be paid for by taking away tax credits from the oil industry. President George W. Bush said he would veto that. Neither side would back down, and Bush - showing not one iota of leadership - refused to get all the adults together in a room and work out a compromise. Stalemate. Meanwhile, Germany has a 20-year solar incentive program; Japan 12 years. Ours, at best, run two years.

"It's a disaster," says Michael Polsky, founder of Invenergy, one of the biggest wind-power developers in America. "Wind is a very capital-intensive industry, and financial institutions are not ready to take 'congressional risk.' They say if you don't get the [production tax credit] we will not lend you the money to buy more turbines and build projects."

It is also alarming, says Rhone Resch, the president of the Solar Energy Industries Association, that the U.S. has reached a point "where the priorities of Congress could become so distorted by politics" that it would turn its back on the next great global industry - clean power - "but that's exactly what is happening." If the wind and solar credits expire, said Resch, the impact in just 2009 would be more than 100,000 jobs either lost or not created in these industries, and $20-billion worth of investments that won't be made.

While all the presidential candidates were railing about lost manufacturing jobs in Ohio, no one noticed that America's premier solar company, First Solar, from Toledo, Ohio, was opening its newest factory in the former East Germany - 540 high-paying engineering jobs - because Germany has created a booming solar market and America has not.

In 1997, said Resch, America was the leader in solar energy technology, with 40 percent of global solar production. "Last year, we were less than 8 percent, and even most of that was manufacturing for overseas markets."

The McCain-Clinton proposal is a reminder to me that the biggest energy crisis we have in our country today is the energy to be serious - the energy to do big things in a sustained, focused and intelligent way. We are in the midst of a national political brownout.

Font troubles

I don't mean to be screaming in the posting below, but I can't get the fonts to behave. Apologies.

Oil at $200/barrel means Gas at $10/gal

I remember a few years ago Goldman Sachs published a study discussing oil at $100/barrel and it seemed impossible. Now we've blown right past that and are at $120/barrel. If they're talking about $200/barrel now, we'd best be warned.

What changes would you make if gas cost $10/gallon? Would you take public transportation more? Would you move closer to the train station? Would you stop taking road trips? I'd love to hear.

Think gas is pricey now -- how about oil at $200 a barrel?

April 27, 2008

BY ASSOCIATED PRESS

HOUSTON -- Oil's meteoric rise to near $120 a barrel looks like more than just another economic bubble -- growing demand and tighter supplies are likely to keep prices high. Some analysts say even $200 a barrel would not be out of the question.

The latest price surge -- pushing crude to record heights in recent weeks, and to nearly double its level a year ago -- has some components of a classic price bubble, but growing worldwide thirst for crude -- in large part from rapidly developing China and India -- means consumers likely won't get any relief.

Americans who hoped to ride out temporarily high prices by carpooling or driving less may have to make those habits permanent. Retail gas prices, which at times rise in tandem with crude oil, are in record territory near $3.60 a gallon.

Many observers blame speculators for bidding up the price as a hedge against inflation and as protection from the sinking U.S. dollar.

Widely watched oil price prognosticator Goldman Sachs has said oil could average $110 a barrel by 2010, up from a previous forecast of $80, and that a spike as high as $200 a barrel is possible in case of a major supply disruption.