Coming to LAX: 13 ‘comfort dogs’ for frazzled fliers Los Angeles Times
This ‘alien’ mushroom is like something from a horror movie …and it’s in Britain Metro. With photos….
When Does Bargaining Become Fraud? Bloomberg
Big Winners as Fed Raises Rates: Foreign Banks WSJ
After Math Error, Fitch Doubles Student-Debt Downgrade Estimate Bloomberg
US banks hit by cheap oil as Opec warns of long-term low FT
Obama’s foreign policy goals get a boost from plunging oil prices WaPo
Why Big Oil Should Kill Itself Project Syndicate
The 6 major adverse shocks that have hit the U.S. macroeconomy since 2005 Washington Center for Equitable Growth
China overshadows global outlook for 2016 FT
Europe?
Mr. Schäuble’s ultimate weapon: The restructuring of European public debts Brookings
Seismic Political Shock in Spain NYT
The Plane Crash Conspiracy Theory That Explains Poland Foreign Policy
Poland’s Walesa calls for early election, sees democracy at risk Reuters. (And see “David Gilmour – Live in Gdansk 2008”)
China Cosco Is Sole Bidder for Stake in Greece’s Piraeus Port WSJ
The gauge of history The Economist. Train travel in Russia
Holidaze
Boston Dynamics’ Robo-Dogs Pulling a Sleigh Is a Terrifying Glimpse of Christmas Future Gizmodo. Owned by Google. Of course.
Can you spot the panda hidden among all the snowmen? Independent
Australian government urges holidaymakers to kill two-factor auth The Register
Why the best bargains for women might be in the men’s section Sidney Morning Herald
2015 Lists
The 10 Best Lists of 2015 Vulture. The meta! It b-u-r-n-n-n-s-s!
2015’s Best TV: I Hate Top Ten Lists, but O.K., Fine, Here’s a List The New Yorker
What a year: The Top 10 moments in politics of 2015 McClatchy
Four Readings On Health Philanthropy: A Holiday Potpourri Health Affairs
Big Brother Is Watching You Watch
NSA Helped British Spies Find Security Holes In Juniper Firewalls The Intercept
Pennsylvania Cop Charged with Fabricating Ambush on Herself, the Ninth Cop This Year to Fabricate Such a Story (Updated) Photography is Not a Crime
Moral Panic: Who Benefits From Public Fear? Psychology Today
The last time an American tycoon exploited terrorism Pando Daily (unlocked by GU).
U.S. Cold War Nuclear Target Lists Declassified for First Time National Security Archive
2016
Bernie Sanders: To Rein In Wall Street, Fix the Fed Bernie Sanders, NYT. Bloomberg summary.
Poll: Against Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump Would Get ‘Schlonged’ Rolling Stone. ‘Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished…
Judge upholds Seattle’s ‘gun violence’ tax Reuters
U.S. plans raids to deport families who surged across border WaPo
Class Warfare
Buybacks fueled by cheap credit leave workers out of the equation Reuters. Thanks, Janet!
Did the Great Recession Lead to the Great Vacation? CEPR. Important take on our “new normal” of a permanently lower labor force participation rate.
And it’s not a “great vacation.” Disemployment is a human tragedy played out across the country, and, via “hysteresis,” a fantastic waste of human capital, so called. Disemployment should also be a savage indictment of the elites who threw millions on the trash heap by the policies they chose, but of course that will never happen. Could use a better headline, CEPR!
Home is where the cartel is Interfluidity
[T]here is a fundamental contradiction at the heart of housing capitalism. We encourage people to take on highly leveraged, undiversified exposure in homes with promises that they are good “investments”, meaning they will increase or at least retain their values over time. We also claim that housing is a consumption good that should be efficiently provided, a good for which competitive markets should expand supply to drive prices down to a technologically declining marginal cost of production. Housing cannot be both of those things at once.
The Firm as a Time Lord Conversable Economist
5 Reasons Why You Should Build A Small Business — Not A Start-up Medium. I’m so sick of hearing about start-ups.
24 Pull Requests: The journalism edition Another Word For It
Is T-Mobile degrading online videos? YouTube thinks so. San Francisco Chronicle
Study Finds Mechanism That Causes Normal Cells to Become Cancerous WSJ (original).
Knitters With Hopelessly Knotted Yarn Call ‘Detanglers’ for Help WSJ. I can think of plenty of other problems to “detangle”!
Retrotopia: A Gift to be Simple and Too Little, Too Late The Archdruid Report
Antidote du jour (Kokuanani):
A Christmas chow.
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
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Dean Baker is being sarcastic with the Great Vacation headline–might want to take another look.
And a couple of movie recommendations: Best of Enemies where Gore Vidal mops the floor with a clearly nervous and unglued William F. Buckley and Trumbo where blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo (eventually) mops the floor with red-baiter Hedda Hopper. It isn’t entirely fanciful when Bryan Cranston finally quips: “I am Spartacus.” Thumbs way up.
Thanks for the links and have a great XmasEve.
I for one look forward to our fungi overlords.
At least they don’t babble on about public-private partnerships.
At least my frustrating user interface workflow is not federally mandated.
https://acountrydoctorwrites.wordpress.com/2015/12/19/all-i-want-for-christmas-seven-things-i-wish-my-emr-could-do/
Pat Lang: Christmas in Vietnam.
http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2015/12/christmas-1968.html
“Bernie Sanders: To Rein In Wall Street, Fix the Fed ”
I predicted this headline. You can put any candidate name up there but its all bovine excrement.
Name the last Prez that was able to follow through with the big promises.
Personally, I could do without the dogs in airports. To me, they aren’t the least bit therapeutic.
: (
x1000
Dog lovers think that everyone loves dogs, and/or that everyone must put up with their boorish, smelly presence by default.
And those of you with children think they need to be tolerated.
Why not add a loving comment on Christmas?
“Aren’t they bringing back the Poor Houses? Bah Humbug!” Ebeneezer Dimon and Jacob Blankfiend.
By “their boorish, smelly presence,” I take it you mean the dogs?
First, as someone who does not celebrate the holiday, thanks for the links.
On “Study Finds Mechanism That Causes Normal Cells to Become Cancerous”; the gene they point out is isocitrate dehydrogenase. Basically it helps DNA express itself by removing methly groups from DNA and is a key enzyme in the Krebs Cycle. The enzyme uses Magnesium and Maganese as cofactors. A deficiency in Magnesium or Manganese will slow the enzyme activity and DNA will be hypermethylated which changes gene expression and possibly causing cancer. Increasing Magnesium intake will speed up the IDH enzyme and will remove the methyl groups from the histones allowing for gene expression. When an IDH gene has a mutation or a polymorphism it will need more Magnesium and maganese to operate with the same efficiency and it is what accounts for the variation of cancer outcomes.
For more on histone methylation see https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Histone_methylation
Note that it frustrates me because this is nothing new!
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21130701
But what frustrates me more is that these “scientists” will never mention the role that Magnesium or Manganese deficiency plays in the enzyme activity of IDH1 and IDH2.
I want to add to that a study that came out a few days ago linking low Magnesium to pancreatic cancer.
http://www.genengnews.com/gen-news-highlights/more-magnesium-could-equal-less-pancreatic-cancer/81252128/
Medicine is so far behind because it constantly neglects the role that vitamin cofactors have on gene expression. But may e the is a feature and not a bug.
Everyone can stop worrying about Trump being President because he already is. Bowe Bergdahl, a year after his Taliban release is now suddenly on trail, Obama has reversed himself on negotiating with Russia and Assad and given up on regime change, a crackdown on foreign visas is now underway and the White House has just announced stepped up deportation of Central American immigrants. By the time the general election starts, assuming it’s Clinton vs. Trump, Obama will be in full Trump mode including hot tub outings with Putin in the Siberian wilderness and calling Europeans losers for their failure to close their borders to immigrants. Obama is constantly morphing into the shape of his greatest critic at any particular moment in time.
As was noted by Rolling Stone, Bernie is the only one who can Schlong Trump. Clinton’s negatives are just too high to win. Trump’s attacks, literally below Hillary’s belt (bathroom breaks and schlonging), are both mocking and au current. The current state of our popular culture is a non-stop stream of lowbrow bathroom humor that produces the biggest bucks and biggest gut-busting laughs. Nothing is sacred, not even politics, as if it ever was.
Maybe some of his supporters believe he should be called Jesus (the Spanish pronunciation) Trump.
You left out turning back a Muslim family on their way to Disneyland at the London airport. However wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for the hot tubs. Those two really don’t like each other.
‘Obama will be in full Trump mode including hot tub outings with Putin in the Siberian wilderness.’
Entirely plausible. But Putin and Trump are already riding the steppes together [jpg image]:
http://tinyurl.com/hs7bzb9
Really wish I could un-see that.
Good heavens!
Re 10,000 “families” crossing the border illegally. Perhaps some of these children should be taken away from their illegal alien parent for the benefit of the children? Place them in the U.S. foster care system. There are tens of thousands of infertile Americans–thanks G.M.O.s–who want to adopt. We know couples who have been waiting years to adopt.
This could work both ways at the border. Aliens who are deported are protected and excused in a mantle of protection by howls of outrage about “families being broken up”. Is there some reason that they can’t take their U.S. born children home with them when they are deported? These kids could also be placed in the U.S. foster care system if the alien parents don’t want to return to Mexico or Central America with them.
All these children could benefit from that and it would assimilate them to American society rather than just allow more welfare dependent burdens on the U.S. that they and their single parent would and usually become when the alleged “family” remains intact. It is hypocritical to excuse the incoming wave of unskilled foreign labor and then lament the lack of living wage jobs for America’s poor.
As to Iowa, “The Moline, Illinois-based tractor maker, hit hard by a slumping farm economy, has shed hundreds of workers as sales and profit have fallen.” No, it’s not the “farm economy”, it’s because Deere retains ownership of the software on it’s overly complicated and fragile products. It’s illegal per federal law to hack the controls on your own property that you have bought. Farmers lose days of production waiting for a Deere “tech” to come out to their field and do the equivalent of turning a screw on a carburetor. Farmers don’t want Deere technogarbage and they are boycotting the company. Who wants to buy Deere stock? They are loaded with debt and with technogarbage products, their stock is a sure long term loser.
p.s. Screw Monsanto.
Some people might want to adopt a French kid. Maybe hang around a Disney World hotel and wait for a French mom to drop one on American soil? That would work.
Archdruid is always a good read. Thanks for link to push me there.
Minor quibble that Sydney is spelled with a “y” not an “i”. Otherwise interesting article re the costs of things marketed to women v men (girls v boys).
Seasons Greetings to one and all.
Regards to the ratings on student debt securities, at the very least Fitch determined their error prior to any downgrades taking place.
Gotta love that bidness model, it’s only an opinion of course.
Hah! I know how Alexander III of Macedon would detangle those knots!
Chows. They are my least favorite dog breed.
But want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas anyway, despite my Chow prejudice.
Good eat’in, Christmas Chow is.
Proof that Ancient China traded with Meso America. The Aztecs and related cultures also use canine protein, calling it, “Chow-wow-ahhh.”
Sorry, perpetual, for whatever bad experiences you’ve had. Chows, like most breeds, are a reflection of their owners and how the owners raise them. It’s not the fault of the dog itself.
We’ve rescued chows for 35 years and have attempted to raise them to be sweet and obedient. You do need to be a good “alpha” to them. But having raised two kids, it’s all about the same. Far too many chows are given up [and hopefully end up in rescue] because they are adorable little lions/fuzz-balls as pups, but grow into DOGS. Then the troubles begin.
Personally, I hate the small yappy breeds that are always trying to pick fights with larger dogs. But to each his/her own. And happy holidays.
Didn’t think I’d like it, but the meta-list is great! Particularly like the list of weird presidential candidates, I think I’ve found who I’m voting for!
EMPEROR FREDERICK LINDSEY LOHAN GOKU 2016!!!!!!!
China…Cosco…Greece’s port Piraeus.
China’s contact with Greece dates back more than 2,000 years, even before they ran into Persians, when they sent soldiers to look for Tian Ma and met Bactrian Greeks along the way. There, they discovered Buddhism and, afterwards, many Gandharan monks traveled to Chang An to spread the teachings of Tathagata.
Perhaps this is Deja Vu all over again.
Bernie Sanders Accuses Hillary Of Being Too Cozy With Big Pharma And Health Care Industry
In a feisty fundraising email sent to supporters on Wednesday, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders accused Hillary Clinton of being too cozy with health care and pharmaceutical companies, asserting that the Democratic front-runner has taken more money in campaign contributions from those industries than the top three Republican presidential candidates combined.
“Now, and let’s not be naive about this, maybe they are dumb and don’t know what they are going to get?” Sanders wrote of the health care and pharmaceutical companies. “But I don’t think that’s the case, and I don’t believe you do either.”
The email marks perhaps the most aggressive shot Sanders has taken at Clinton, who has endorsed Obamacare. In contrast, the 73-year-old democratic socialist supports a single-payer, nationalized health care system.
According to Sanders, one factor holding Clinton back from supporting single-payer — which he asserts will guarantee health care to all — is that the former secretary of state “has received millions of dollars from the health care and pharmaceutical industries.”
http://dailycaller.com/2015/12/23/bernie-sanders-accuses-hillary-of-being-too-cozy-with-big-pharma-and-health-care-industry/
Bern, Pharma, Bern!
Indeed, a pox on all their houses.
Anyone who profits from human suffering is an enemy of humanity.
Boston Dynamics’ Robo-Dogs Pulling a Sleigh Is a Terrifying Glimpse of Christmas Future Gizmodo. Owned by Google. Of course.
I think a few Czech Wolf dogs would pretty quickly out flank these, knock ’em over and reduce them to several pieces before getting bored. And you can run them on “alternative fuel”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czechoslovakian_Wolfdog
The Czechoslovakian Wolfdog is very playful, temperamental, and learns easily. However, it does not train spontaneously, the behavior of the Czechoslovakian Wolfdog is strictly purposeful – it is necessary to find motivation for training. The most frequent cause of failure is usually the fact that the dog is tired out with long useless repetitions of the same exercise, which results in the loss of motivation.
— me as a kid, then well, as an adult
Venezuela disease spreads to Africa:
This is the horror of fiat currencies: they trade like penny stocks, going to absurd extremes of under- and overvaluation. Governments try to smooth the spikes, but end up either running out of forex, or getting swamped with so much that it creates a bubble.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe has authorized Chinese yuan as part of its currency basket, having wisely given up on the fiat currency game after making every Zimbabwean a millionaire (in worthless Z-dollars). Our Randy Wray coulda fixed that …
This is a very incomplete information about many countries in Africa. As Nicholas Shaxson describes at some length in his book Treasure Islands, they are in most cases net capital exporters due to exploitation by multinationals and local insiders when developing economies should be net capital importers.
No doubt. The late kleptocratic billionaire Mobutu Sese Seko still casts a long shadow.
Inherently, the discretionary nature of capital controls creates winners and losers, some of whom are simply looters.
Sounds like a window of opportunity for Uncle Sam to roll in with a fistful of dollars for some new Africom military bases. FCPA will ensure that every penny is accounted for. /sarc
So the issue, then, isn’t fiat money at all, but capital flows?
No, this is the horrors of allowing unlimited liquidity and unconstraint capital flows. Get the causality right.
Same thing HAS happened under fixed exchange or gold standard.
Communiqué from American exceptionalist Steven Breyer — we’re born to rule!
‘Maintain the rule of law,’ enthuses Breyer, in our post-constitutional, martial law, NSA-monitored Potemkin democracy.
Lofty rhetoric, from a lowly rubber stamp.
We need to be able to enforce our statues (and the status of our global reserve currency).
Luckily we have the exceptional means. Not many countries can make that claim.
Not “the” rule of law, but, “a” rule of law…
The Star Chamber that appointed our Dear Leader in 2000 and 2004, packed with misogynistic fairy tale believers and gender fascists, issuing a “law of the land” that is now widely ignored and unenforced, unless of course you are not of the moneyed class…what could possibly go wrong?
if he can hang on for 200 more years James T. Kirk will be born.
Trinidad Central Bank Chief Dismissed, State Media Report
Trinidad & Tobago’s central bank Governor Jwala Rambarran has been fired, state television C News reported late Wednesday, without giving an explanation.
While the central bank didn’t respond to a request by Bloomberg News for comment, the move follows a controversy that erupted this month when
Rambarran disclosed the names of companies that have been among the biggest purchasers of U.S. dollars in the Caribbean nation.
Finance Minister Colm Imbert said he was contacted by
business representatives who complained the comments represented a breach of privacy.
On Dec. 8, the central bank rejected those accusations in a statement.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-12-24/trinidad-central-bank-chief-dismissed-state-media-report
how much $ trade ??hmmm…
“Why Big Oil Should Kill Itself” —
After an opening paragraph like that, I can’t be expected to take anything in this piece seriously, right?
…Right?
2 trillion! Wow I feel so lucky.
Any rational far-seeing government would soak up the energy dividend by whacking a $2 a gallon tax on hydro-carbons to fund sustainable, cleaner ways for everyone to get around. Not Republicans of course. Because American Exceptionalism.
US banks hit by cheap oil as Opec warns of long-term low
And we all believe OPEC that oil will not revert to the mean until somewhere over the rainbow ..riggght?
http://inflationdata.com/Inflation/Inflation_Rate/Historical_Oil_Prices_Chart.asp
http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2008/10/led-light-cfl-b.html
Viva Las Vegas: LEDs and the energy efficiency paradox
(File under Human behavior)
Venezuela’s President Maduro gets a brainwave from Frank Roosevelt (circa 1936), followed by a Kumbaya moment:
That singalong musta been a riot. Like watching Kim Jong Il and a cast of thousands belt out My Way with a chorus of chipmunks.
Re. two factor authentication: It seems that everyone is keen to move the second factor of two-factor authentication to the mobile phone which in Europe means you get charged for the roaming. Reliability of receiving the SMS is an excellent point though, which I shall make to my bank, which insists on retiring functioning tokens. Thanks for posting the link.
RE. women shopping in the men’s section: I even do this for clothes, especially running gear, to get things that match my needs (women’s shorts are a criminal 7 inch, men’s normally a more comfortable 11 inch), and sweaters (men’s sweaters tend to be double ply, so warmer, but women tend to need the warmer clothes). Of course it does not work for all items (!), but where it does I will happily save the money.
Merry Christmas to Yves, Lambert and all the readers.
Personal observation only, mind you, but I believe that women’s clothing is dearer than men’s because half of all items bought are returned, and the other half is left in the changing room. Hence the difference can be accounted for in re-stocking costs.
Me, and other men of my acquaintance, know what we want, buy it and wear it.
Please do not bring those flibbertigibbet clothes buying habits into the men’s section, pushing up costs for all of us.
@efschumacher
This is a holiday so I will be polite, and say, ‘sexist nonsense’. Studies undertaken over the past few decades on this topic always come to the same conclusion… (greedy) men running businesses charge women more for the same services because 1) they can, 2) they think of women as defective men and thus, their clothes need not be as good, last as long, wear as well, or be cleaned for the same price. That you choose to blame women for being overcharged pretty much illustrates my thesis.
As a person of the female gender, who has been by trade a farmer, stagehand, mechanic, gardener, and other types of things requiring heavy duty gear, it has always been harder to find smaller sizes that weren’t cheap and tacky or in submissive pink. As a member of a large family, and now as a retailer these many decades, I have observed men dither and fart around trying to decide on which color of socks to buy, or the brand of TV, or (my favorite) spend a half hour deciding which type of fan-spray attachment for the garden hose to buy. And then bring them back for returns.
But hey, it’s the womens’ fault.
~~~~
I’m not particularly a dog person, but anything that brings some life and empathy to the horrors of modern day airports is a good idea, and unless I read the articles wrong, nobody is forcing passengers to play with the dogs or take them home; they are there as de-stress support personnel. Far nicer for the rest of the passengers than the old version of stressy passengers flying drunk.