US Admin Lacks Biz Plan to tacle deficit

2009 October 14

The Smart List: 12 Shocking Ideas That Could Change the World

2009 October 14
clipped from www.wired.com

The Smart List: 12 Shocking Ideas That Could Change the World


Warning: The ideas expressed here may be dangerous. For this year’s list, we walked right past the usual suspects and went looking for trouble. We wanted radicals, heretics, agitators—big thinkers with controversial, game-changing propositions. We found a prison reformer who wants to empty jails, an economist who thinks foreign aid hurts more than it helps, and a military theorist who believes the US should launch preemptive cyberattacks, right now. Then there’s secretary of defense robert gates, who wants to win wars, not just prep for them. Risky? Sure. But this is no time to play it safe.
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Ideas that shocked the world are not really shocking @ all. I think what we should note: end aid to Africa is not a new idea at all. Ending long term aid would be a goal,but far from ideal for some countries now.
I don’t know the idea of autistics would be appealing to most people. Personally, I think some merit must be placed on their ability to choose what they would like to pursue instead. IT fields usually called as ideal for autistics, but I cannot conclude all are created the same. Lets those folks decide for themselves.
Human cloning: I would like to say, I am not too keen on human cloning, I am more into the idea of: Cryonics.
In terms of taking risks, it all depends on your own personality and your situations or your disposition! Are there ever such a term as: smart risk? I wish!

US debt now to $1.4trillion!

2009 October 7
by midori01

The US budget deficit more than tripled to a record $1.4 trillion (£877bn) in the year to 30 September, according to US Congress estimates.
It was revised from 1.6$trillion from their end of the fiscal year. Yikes its still quite a lot of trillion!
The last deficit was recorded $459billion, meaning billion, from 2008! Yikes!
We would like to know what we could buy or go though wards, someone would know the gritty stuff soon, I hope! Certainly, it would buy some social programs, and we do know the cost of war(Iraq) do cost trillions!
What do you think the amount of debt proportional to the US population?
via BBC News

What Should School Be

2009 September 28
by midori01

School changed since I went a decade or so ago.

The following video, there are children singing praises of President Obama.

Note: Although it was not mentioned very much on the mainstream media besides in the conservative media, the questions would be: what do school teach children?  Is school a place of feeding ideas of one’s agendas?  Is school a place of educating different philosophies?  Is school a place to discuss about current politics?

Source: Conservative Issues via Fox

9 Environmental Boundaries We Don’t Want to Cross

2009 September 23

Anthrome_map_v1

Picture via Encyclopedia of Earth

Nine boundaries were identified including climate change, stratospheric ozone, land use change, freshwater use, biological diversity, ocean acidification, nitrogen and phosphorus inputs to the biosphere and oceans, aerosol loading and chemical pollution.
I do not know typical people would understand the mixed results that scientists come out with.
Global Warming Could Cool N. America in a Few Decades? http://ow.ly/qMbw (via National Geographic)
Earth is a complex planet that constantly are changing, true are our environment are in need to be cleaned up, but without the whole world’s cooperation, or understanding the fact that it would harm our overall health, our food supplies, until then, our Earth would remain questionable.
For the whole article read: http://www.stockholmresilience.org/planetary-boundaries

The Queen Mother: The Official Biography

2009 September 18

The Queen Mother: The Official Bio by William Shawcross is as official as it may come.  It may come as ironic to another royal film right now that is now touring at the film festival circuit in Toronto on Saturday, Sept 19, The Young Victoria.

Now lets see about the Queen Mother’s book: it was exclusively accessible to the author on letters, correspondences, tapes, interviews and diaries.  The England folks thus far gave blunt reviews.  I don’t know how I can before I read this 1,  book.  I did find a bit surprising that the royals would allow the access of the Queen Mom’s private thoughts.

In our society, we do increasingly forget about our past historical figures, sometimes, these people do serve very important point of the history and cultural purposes, at times, even people’s hopes and dreams.

I wonder how would Queen Mum be remember in a 100 years from now?

ref: AFP

President Clinton Toronto’s Address

2009 August 31
by midori01

President Clinton and Hilary went to the late Senator Ted Kennedy funeral, then he afterwards to Toronto. His speech was on: Embracing Our Common Humanity. I had a little or some idea what the speech was going to be about, but to my surprise, he did not mention about North Korea. There were quite an applause on his speech about AIDS, health and rural issues. What I have to point out about his talk was that he did not become a brilliant speaker out of the blue. His recent diplomatic mission once again illustrate how quiet diplomacy are frequent yet in the media, we only see big news on our 24 hrs ticker. His speech might be disappointing to some because he did not directly point to Canada to do more on Global Warming or the economic inequalities. Yet if you did attended to the speech itself, the tone and the mannerism of his speaking would tell a lot more of what he meant. Since most did not attend, it would be conveyed by the third parties or news medias impressions. Our critical thinking could be very one sided and perhaps not as informed as it should be. Some do bother to do more research and obtain more knowledge about the President. The last talk with Former President George W was not received well, but we really would need to study the issues of the topics discuss if we are genuinely interested.

President Clinton did make me think after he spoke.  I know he was trying to get funds for his foundation, but without really saying so, some may already know that fact and would criticize him for that.  Some may think his speech was good that they are a bit star struck on Bill Clinton.

In the debate of American Health Care: Clinton acknowledged that debate is still on and he does hope the bill will pass by this year.   Reason behind debate: money, who would want to give up the private health care into public when money can go into better treatments or spending on other things.  (Sounds like treatment before prevention!)

To Put Billions $$$ in a Context

2009 August 18
David McCandless, an information designer based in London, was flummoxed by all the talk being bandied about, over government programs running into the billions. So he created a chart of the entire mess. As he writes over at Information is Beautiful:

This image arose out of a frustration with the reporting of billion dollar amounts in the media. That is, they’re reported as self-evident facts, when, in fact, they’re mind-boggling and near incomprehensible without context. But they can start to be understood visually and relatively, IMHO.
via Fast Company
Picture credit: David McCandless

clipped from www.informationisbeautiful.net

The Billion Dollar Gram
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Rent vs Owning a Home of Your Dreams

2009 August 16

In the Wall Street Journal, an article “Why the New American Real Estate Dream Is Renting“? It’s time to accept that home ownership is not a realistic goal for many people and to curtail the enormous government programs fueling this ambition.
This reality may be harsh, but when we go back to prior to the 20th century, most people rent. The lands belonged to the kings, landowners, princes and the folks that had titles. In Canada, before the Europeans occupied the lands, natives had the land, the land belonged to them. Til this day it still belong to the natives. It was suppose to pass though one generation to another. Sadly it did not happen that way.
Now these natives in some parts have leases to their land.
Is renting going to create another class of folks?
Is renting going to solve the mortgage crisis?
Here are some of my thoughts.
Some folks are still going to borrow to rent their homes. It is not about what people could afford to purchase a home or not. Its about the income of a person that did not adjust accordingly to the inflation since the industrial revolution or since there were cars.

History of Real Estate

Food Firm Sound Alarm on Sugar Shortage

2009 August 15

Crossposted via Vox

Sugar prices are in the all time high. We are also consuming in an all time high loads of sugar, therefore, the demand of the sugar are high too. The drought in India drive the price of sugar even higher. No wonder my significant other quit eating chocolate expect for an occasional hot coco. I still would eat a nice ethical chocolate bars, but it would not be without sugar. The truth is that people would start cutting down on real sugar if the prices continue to go up or the name brand would substitute real sugar with glucose-fructose! Ewww! I can taste the difference and in no way I would buy chocolate with those in it. Drinks may be okay, but food, you can tell a great deal of difference. Even my pop prices are already in an increase, yikes!
clipped from www.cbsnews.com

It could get a lot easier to reduce the amount of sugar in your diet, if some of America’s biggest food companies are to be believed.

Several giant food producers sent a letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack warning that the U.S. might “virtually run out of sugar” of the country didn’t reduce import restrictions on the increasingly expensive commodity, according to a Wall Street Journal report $ Thursday.
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