And that number may go up to 43 million
But who cares: can someone please tell these ungrateful sods their stocks are up like 70% since the Fed became the market in March 2009.
1 in 8 on food stamps, 40 million people
Who is behind the 25,000 deaths in Mexico?
Charles Bowden and Molly Molloy
With at least 25,000 people slaughtered in Mexico since President Felipe Calderón hurled the Mexican Army into the anti-cartel battle, three questions remain unanswered: Who is being killed, who is doing the killing and why are people being killed?
Because it’s not only narcos who are being killed. Too often it is just ordinary Mexicans “who magically morph into drug cartel members before their blood dries on the streets”
The Army can be every bit as savage towards civilians as the cartels.
Here is the US policy in a nutshell: we pay Mexicans to kill Mexicans, and this slaughter has no effect on drug shipments or prices.
This war gets personal. A friend calls late at night from Juárez and says if he is murdered before morning, be sure to tell his wife. It never occurs to him to call the police, nor does it occur to you.
No one asks or answers this question: How does such an escalation benefit the drug smuggling business which has not been diminished at all during the past three years of hyper-violence in Mexico?
Such madness really seems to benefit no one. Lots more money can be made by all when things are peaceful. So why the ultra violence, which can only be bad for business.
The government has only investigated a tiny number of the 25,000 murders. Why is this? Are they overwhelmed? Compromised? Something else? Bowden, who has covered Juarez for fifteen years, seems to hint at something, but I’m not sure what. Maybe he’s not sure either.
Maybe the sad truth is, the government of Mexico is hollowing out and can no longer fulfill its basic function of protecting citizens.
Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion could produce massive power for Hawaii
A heat engine is placed between warm water gathered from the ocean surface and cold water pumped from deep under the sea. Heat moves from the warm reservoir to the cold one, generating energy that can spin turbines to produce electricity.
The temperature differential in Hawaii is greater than elsewhere too, that means more potential power. 24/7 too.
Largest wind farm ever in US coming to California
On Tuesday August 3, the Alta Wind Energy Center (AWEC) officially broke ground in Tehachapi Pass. When completed, it could be three times larger than any existing wind farm in the US, and will output a mammoth 3 gigawatts.
By comparison, a good-sized coal plant or nuclear reactor can produce 1 gigawatt, so we are talking huge amounts of power, enough to power 600,000 homes. There will be hundreds of modern turbines spread across thousands of acres, most of which is private land.
Ranchers and landowners will get a major source of continuing revenue. Thousands of jobs will be created. The area will certainly experience an economic boom. Tehachapi Pass is a mountain pass between the Tehachapi and Sierra Nevada mountain ranges. It connects the San Joaquin Valley to the Mojave Desert. Differences in temperature between the two regions create wind. Hot air from the desert rises and cooler air rushes in to replace it. The pass acts as a funnel, speeding up the wind. Thus, it’s a perfect location for wind turbines.
The same type of process happens near Palm Springs and Altamont. But those areas already have lots of turbines, and most of them are older and small. The turbines that will be installed in Tehachapi are much larger and state of the art.
Forget Instarefi: Here Comes Instaloanforgiveness
Rumors are flying that Obama may order Fannie and Freddie to forgive $770 billion in underwater mortgages, thus giving his Wall Street benefactors yet another huge gift and perhaps bolstering Democratic chances in November.
At this point one thing is certain: as long as the Treasury can keep issuing trillions in new debt without a glitch, there will be nothing to stop the administration, now in its pre-midterm death throes, from throwing the kitchen sinks, and 9 other it bought on margin, at every imaginable problem. The Obama administration is about to take this country down in flames by spending hundreds of billions, trillions, tens of trillions on anything and everything, just like your garden variety drowning man clutches at straws.
Obama. The Amazing Waffle Man
He opposes gay marriage but supports equality. Pass me a pretzel, please, because this is seriously convoluted logic.
LGBT community asks Obama to pick a side.
Russia wildfires devastating
The extreme heat wave in Russia has spawned a multitude of fires. Over 600 are burning now, some in peat bogs (which will be difficult to extinguish) and one fifth of the grain crop has been destroyed due to fire and drought. 3,500 homes have been destroyed so far, with 50 dead.
I’ve lived in southern California when three or four big fires were going simultaneously. Living where dozens of fires are active is, well, has this ever happened before?
Putin recently said Russia needs to do more to combat global warming. So do we all.
Google does evil
So much for Google’s “do no evil” corporate philosophy. Their CEO publicly supported net neutrality as recently as February too.
AZ sheriff asks for donations for semi-auto weapons for his deputies
Pinal County AZ Sheriff Paul Babeu has consistently said his deputies are outgunned by drug cartels. Now he’s asking for private citizens to donate $200,000 to arm 200 deputies with semi-autos. He says asking the feds or country supervisors for the money would take too long.
Is he grandstanding? No. One of his deputies was killed recently in the desert presumably by narcos, and he has previously said that they, not US law enforcement, control parts of the desert in his county. There have been high speed chases and shootouts too. The cartels do have automatic weapons. One deputy spent $3,000 of his own money for an assault weapon.
It’s getting crazy.
iPhone app. Evernote
Evernote is becoming indispensable for me. You can make text and audio notes, take photos, then save them grouped by category with tags. It’ll sync to the desktop app. Both are free (although a $5 a month plan allows you more storage and other features.) There are getting to be a multitude of third-party add-ons, always a sign an application has achieved critical mass. It’ll search text within snapshots too, like within a business card.
A companion app Fastever, allows you to new a new note quickly.
Google Wave, we hardly knew you
Google kills Google Wave, proving yet again that Google really doesn’t get social networking. Wave was complicated, odd, not intuitive, and had no edge over Facebook or Twitter.
From the Prop 8 ruling
“Proposition 8 cannot survive any level of scrutiny under the Equal Protection Clause,” wrote [Chief Judge] Walker. “Excluding same-sex couples from marriage is simply not rationally related to a legitimate state interest.”
Judge invalidates Prop 8, allows gay marriage in California
U.S. District Chief Judge Vaughn R. Walker said Proposition 8, passed by voters in November 2008, violated the federal constitutional rights of gays and lesbians to marry the partners of their choice.
