I think everyone needs to stare in awe at a 12th Sigma event

Even in this time of everyday turbulence, sometime I simply must stop to smell the roses for a few minutes. A 12th sigma event is one of those times.

Why we think we can tame a hurricanes is beyond me?

So the ECB is buying bonds and Europe went overdrive with the STOXX 50 up almost 9%, the Euro back above 1.29, gold down a bit and oil following with a lackluster 3.5%.

Of course one must ask: where does this money come from?

Now if any of you can explain this last last link to me I would be most grateful. Trying to understand when things are QE and when they are not can be most maddening.

... And of course you could have predicted Jesse's take of all this.

Krugman can be so darn helpful at times... I may not always share his values but I'm very fond of him and I do think one day we minions of the blogoshere should bestow on Paul (and a few others, like Jesse) honorary "thank you" degrees or something.

PS- Interesting older Yves piece on Naked Capitalism for the fractalholics amongst us.

Health care has definitely been bubbling for 40+ years now ;-)

Can you derive Ought from Is?

Sean Carroll says nonsense

More "Have we lost our marbels?" links

Salaries

Benefits

And the real SOS screaming emergency in all of this: now they are outpacing professionals... Them's fighting words! ;-)

Anyone care to guess what percentage of GDP consumption total public spending now constitutes here in the US?

PS- While I totally support this, I don't think it will make much of a difference anymore. What percentage of public consumption goes to things that politicians can actually touch?

PPS- Another fractal fanatic

"The more things change, the more they stay the same" ;-)

PPPS- Now this one really pisses me off! I had no idea. Did any of you?

Krugman thinks Greece will withdraw from the Euro anyway

The fact he even thinks it means others are thinking it too...

The first rule of disasters is don't panic.

The second rule of disasters is if you are going to panic, you better be the first to do so.

Britain is not in much better shape and with a public sector that now accounts for more than 52% GDP, Britain has issues.

This is quite interesting in light of the following report from the UK's own NHS, health access disparities have significantly increased in the UK despite equality being a primary goal of the NHS.

So what will happen to US banks?

Have they sufficiently looted the US Treasury to withstand a collapse of US treasury funding?

I guess the better question to ask is: where are the stable war-chests?

This is getting scary. Maybe Edwardo is correct and we should all keep some physical bullion in a can at home.

... My wife will never agree to this btw.

Symmetry and Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking

Artistic Merit

Might I suggest some Netflix choices?

Visually stunning, The Fall offers art without too much art geek obnoxiousness.

Kind of a Russian thriller with a style a la Matrix, Nightwatch and its sequel Daywatch. I didn't invest too much into following the supernatural plot, but I still enjoyed.

Mongol was made by a Russian director using mainly locals for the cast. I can't speak for historical accuracy, but being Genghis Khan didn't look all that fun.

And for equal parts martial arts and plain art, Hero (English Title) was worth the time.

For Dr John: the problem of prediction

As I said, we can't :-(

Another one for Okie

A great website to explore.


And this is really a great video series shamelessly lifted from their site:





Be well

Yet another practical use for fractals

Think of the mischief you can do with this.

Harry Potter, watch out



You simply gotta love anything named "metamaterials"

PS- this one is for Okie

... I said I'd share with Okie how quarks are fractal and thought an actual image might make the point best of all. But then I realized I'm not sure there are any images of quarks- this is the most microscopic actual fractal image I could find. If any of you ever come across any actual images of quarks, please share.

For Budding Fractalists

This is a great website to share with your little ones to start the addiction at an early age.

Never too young to get the little ones hooked. ;-)

Oil Spills

Here is a very interesting Nature article from 2008 on the issue of oil spills.

I'm always interested in reading these from the perspective of prediction. Prediction accuracy is a very real issue to all of us as I'm sure we can all agree.

FWIW, I had no idea 160,000 tons of hydrocarbons were released from the sea floor annually. It does make sense.

"That is more than 53 times the total for offshore extraction and about 4.5 times as much petroleum as was released when the Exxon Valdez tanker ran aground in Alaska in 1989. That said, the natural sources are far more diffuse and thus not necessarily as disruptive as concentrated slicks."

Here are also some images from NASA's JPL satellites. They estimate the current spill releases 5000 barrels/day though I have read reports the number may be much higher.

... FWIW, I never know what to think when I read such reports since I absolutely know such reports can be true and at the same time I also absolutely know the news media makes a living off hype. That old prediction thingy keeps rearing its head.

Also, if you too were having the same conversion troubles I had, 1 metric ton is 7.2 barrels so a 5000 barrel/day spill is approx 694 oil-tons/day.

Finally, here is today's Nature article on the impact.

Sad

The Time Paradox

And yet another reason I REALLLYYY hate Rush Limbaugh

H/T Paul Krugman

Thought of the day

Unexplainable.

It is hard to even come up with a reasonable account for such behavior. I would be interested in the thoughts of others as to the opinions offered in the article. I will say the Chinese take little time in handing out punishment. I found it interesting they make mention of all the people in China with "mental health disorders" but in the next paragraph make mention that there was "no history of mental illness" in the executed murderer. Why even mention "mental health disorders"?What horror.