Picture-Perfect Wednesday (on Thursday)

Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone.

- John Maynard Keyes

A special visit from Washington

On Thursday, yet another example of the ignorance that pervades the political sphere became apparent to me. In fact it came knocking upon my doorstep.

Indiana State University was "lucky" enough to get a visit from Sen. Hillary Clinton's senior health adviser, Andrea Palm. Ms. Palm is a New York native who served as legislative assistant under the late California representative Robert Matsui. She now advises Hillary on matters of national health.

And she does this without a single shred of experience in healthcare. During the Q&A session, my very first question asked, "What are your healthcare credentials?" And would you believe that her answer?

"Absolutely none."

What is Sen. Clinton thinking? Ms. Palm's assignment as health adviser seems to be nothing more than a doling out of advanced position to a "good 'ol gal" from New York. And judging from the political blabbermouthing and sweeping generalizations that Ms. Palm demonstrated during the Q&A, Hillary's health panel is in serious trouble. Luckily, she isn't being paid too much... here is her salary breakdown.

In my opinion, none of the audience's questions were answered satisfactorily. Ms. Palm spent her time talking around issues without addressing them forthright. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, what do I expect from what is obviously a "yes-woman".

But when taking a look at Obama's health adviser, credentials are obviously much more important to this young presidential candidate. In February there was a debate between Ms. Palm and Obama's adviser, Dr. Maxwell Bloche at Case Western U. I only wish I could have seen the fireworks this man (who possesses both an M.D. and a J.D.) threw at her insubstantial platform.

A note to Hillary: if you want to be an effective leader, surround yourself by people that will give you the straight story, not these nodding heads that do nothing but parrot your unfocused platform.

Simply stunning...

Here's a GREAT article about the economic legacy Bush & Co. is leaving behind at the end of this year.

Be sure to scroll down to the bottom of the article for a rundown of the actual numbers. It's quite disgusting.



As a bonus, there's a PDF poster available for download.

Picture-Perfect Wednesday

War doesn't determine who's right - only who's left.
-Bertrand Russell

(P.S. I know I haven't posted this week... Life is hectic, but I have not forgotten about you. Expect posts to become more frequent in May; ala when finals are over.)

Picture-Perfect Wednesday

Divide and rule, a sound motto. Unite and lead, a better one.
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

I like this guy's style

Here's one for the Hoosiers.

Hopefully Obama's got a better jump shot than bowling arm.

Apparently Obama is a hoops fan and is using this to his advantage in the Hoosier State. He will be competing in a 3-on-3 basketball game against an Indiana high school student that signs up the most friends to vote and two of his chosen friends. Obama's team will include the college student who brings in the most voters and a mystery opponent (possibly Calbert Chaney, who announced the contest)...?

Here's my predicted match-up:

Team Obama-Rama
1. Barack Obama
2. A.J. Graves
3. Me
- Calbert Chaney as 4th man for when I break my ankle

Team Rock the Vote
1. Gordon Hayward (Brownsburg senior who hit the 2008 championship winning shot)
2. Greg Oden (bad knees and all)
3. Damon Bailey

Results: Team Obama-Rama wins by last second teardrop by Obama in OT

Limitless Chinese ambition...

By now you might have gathered that I have a slight obsession with China. This country is a force that is gaining unprecedented momentum everyday. Their massive manpower combined with ever increasing organization and productivity makes for one very strong nation.

This month in National Geographic the Wenzhou people are profiled. The Wenzhou hail from a province (Zhejiang) on the far eastern coast of China bordering the East China Sea. What is unique about this culture is the EXTREME business sense and entrepreneurship these people demonstrate. I honestly can't believe some of the things I am reading in this article.

"Recently, Wenzhou's Fortune Weekly conducted a survey of local millionaires. One question was: If forced to choose between your business and your family, which would it be? Of the respondents, 60 percent chose business, and 20 percent chose family. The other 20 percent couldn't make up their minds."

This is astounding! It is a culture that upholds industry and production above anything else. In Zhejiang, every town has a specific good that it produces. Instead of the centralized manufacturing that occurs in the rest of the world, China is focusing on specialty factories that dominate entire towns. Take these specific examples from the article:

Qiaotou's population is only 64,000, [note: this is about the pop. of Terre Haute] but 380 local factories produce more than 70 percent of the buttons for clothes made in China. In Wuyi, I asked some bystanders what the local product was. A man reached into his pocket and pulled out three playing cards—queens, all of them. The city manufactures more than one billion decks a year. Datang township makes one-third of the world's socks. Songxia produces 350 million umbrellas every year. Table tennis paddles come from Shangguan; Fenshui turns out pens; Xiaxie does jungle gyms. Forty percent of the world's neckties are made in Shengzhou.

And this increasing industrialization means BIG changes for Chinese infrastructure and population dynamics. What was once a rural and agrarian country is now growing at enjoying economic growth exceeding 11% annually!!! And this juggernaut has had the fastest growing economy for over 25 years running!!! And this is growth is having a profound effect on Chinese migration:

The economy is fueled by the largest migration the world has ever seen: An estimated 140 million rural Chinese have already left their homes, and another 45 million are expected to join the urban workforce in the next five years.

Those are some truly phenomenal numbers. Keep in mind that 140 million is about half of the ENTIRE U.S. POPULATION! And this massive migration has forced the construction of instant "just-add-water" cities that include dormitories for workers, factories, and basic necessities in a just a few months. In some cases, roads are built before manhole covers, streetlamps, or sidewalks are available and workers are moved into a city months before hospitals and clinics are opened.

And the money for these ventures is coming from loans by state-owned banks that are funded through the central government. Normally this sort of growth is slowed by lowered demand for goods, but in China's case there has been no abating the world's insatiable hunger for consumer products. Remember, these are the people that built The Great Wall, a structure that is visible from space and was constructed between 200 BCE and 1600 AD (long before any modern machinery was available). As long as the rest of the world is consuming, China is going to continue growing...

Truth in comic form

Hmmmm...

A Picture-Perfect Wednesday

Patriotism is the conviction that your country is superior to all others because you were born in it.
-George Bernard Shaw

More damning evidence against Wal-Mart

Here is a link to a story last week concerning Wal-Mart's attempt to reclaim over $400K in insurance payouts from a Missouri woman who suffered a brain damage in a car wreck.

Thanks to Erynn for the link and if you see any stories like this, post em in the comments or email them to me! I'll post 'em on the frontpage!


FOLLOW-UP:
Apparently, Wal-Mart didn't like all the bad press they were getting over this story and have decided to rescind their claim on the money! I am very surprised, honestly. Perhaps there is a glimmer of hope that this fucked up corporation can turn things around...

From the article -

"Occasionally, others help us step back and look at a situation in a different way. This is one of those times," Wal-Mart Executive Vice President Pat Curran said in a letter. "We have all been moved by Ms. Shank's extraordinary situation."

Keeping perspective

One of my interests is keeping track of world population and consumption dynamics. This ties in with the whole idea behind Peak Oil, the rapid acceleration of Asian markets, and American over-consumption. Here in the U.S. we are so used to having what we want, when we want it, I think it can be easy to forget that not everyone in the world has such luxury.

Let's run some numbers.

The entire population of the world is estimated by the UN at 6,671,226,000 (6.6 billion)

Countries ranked by population:
1. China - 1.32 billion (about 19.84%)
2. India - 1.12 billion (about 16.95%)
3. United States - 300 million (about 4.6%)
4. Indonesia - 225 million (about 3.5%)
5. Brazil - 186 million (about 2.8%)

A 2005 study stated that 86% of the world's energy consumption comes from non-renewable fossil fuels (petroleum, coal, natural gas). This is troubling. As a species, humans are ravenously consuming resources that have taken trillions of tons of biomass and millions of years to accumulate. It's like a kegger where everyone is doing kegstands but didn't bring money to buy more beer. And America is the loud, fat obnoxious guy who considers it his personal mission to drink more beer than anyone else IN THE WORLD.

Energy consumption by country (in thousand barrels oil per day):
1. United States - 20,687
2. China - 7,273
3. Japan - 5,159
4. Russia - 2,861
5. Germany - 2,665

Obviously there is a disparity here as China has over FOUR TIMES as many people, yet still consumes less than us. From our perch as the only world superpower, it's easy for us to get away with this. But I don't believe we are going to be the only one for long. The next 50 years are going to be very pivotal in human history as powers are already shifting and tensions between nations are becoming strained as petroleum dwindles.

The only solution I see is wiser energy policy. This includes a two-step approach:

1) Use less energy!
- this is a no-brainer. Efficiency will be our friend once energy prices begin to climb to unmanageable levels. Instead of hulking SUVs and infrastructure built around road travel, take a cue from Europe and consider rail transit (which is another blog post all by itself) or

2) Research new energy sources!
- another obvious one. This whole situation can be made manageable if we look to the future without oil and begin to probe new avenues. This is happening already, but this process could be helped by wiser investing in research (the government investment in biofuel is ridiculous and cost ineffective). If we use fossil fuels as a springboard to advance research in new energy production methods, we could make it out of the crisis yet.