No care-cash for Greece:
"...Even German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, who said he didn’t “want to make it more difficult for them,” concluded Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras will have a “difficult” time selling the agreement at home. That’s because Tsipras’s populist rhetoric of ending austerity was overpowered by the united front he faced.
A “complete political surrender to the world of reality” was how Erik Nielsen, London-based global chief economist of UniCredit Bank AG, put it. Societe Generale SA and Berenberg Bank both labeled it a “u-turn” by Tsipras, who won election Jan. 25 promising an end to budget cutting. "
Greece needs to shape up. Simple.
***
Speaking of Germany:
"Late last year, as the German Bundeswehr was considering rebooting its expensive, failed Euro Hawk drone program, the army of the country with the fourth largest economy in the world fielded its newest armored vehicles in a major military exercise in Norway with broomsticks painted black and lashed in place of missing machine gun barrels. That detail was part of a German Defense Ministry report leaked to Germany's public television network ARD that exposed widespread shortages of basic combat equipment."
Back during my Uni (that's right, my short hand for University) days, scholars from Germany came to speak at a European political science class I took. One student (from the Greek student association), during question period, went off on an embarrassing trek over praising Germany. If they stuck their dicks out he would have sucked them. As it were, they looked at him perplexed and thanked him for his kind words and proceeded to paint a rather sober picture of what ailed Germany at the time. The country was but a few years removed from reunification and the challenges were great.
I don't think things are that much better. Call me a Euro-pessimist at this time.
Anyway.
It all adds up to one thing: Asking for American help and support.
Germany's army is roughly the size of Italy's army at about 180k. Britain and France are slightly larger at around 200k. All (including Japan) spend about 1-1.5% of GDP on the military except for the UK who spend about 2%.
Perspective: France under Napoleon's Grande Armee had close to 600 000 men.
My how the mighty have fallen.
***
In the 'duh' and 'no kidding' category:
"Gallup's annual World Affairs survey shows that only 48 percent of those identifying as Democrats sympathize more with Israelis in tensions in the Mideast than with Palestinians. In contrast, 83 percent of Republicans side with Israelis. The figure for all Americans is 62 percent."
***
Limpet Man, Limpet Man does whatever a sea snail can spins a web, any size:
"Spider silk may lose its claim as the strongest known natural material after researchers found that limpet teeth have more mettle.
Spider silk is hailed by scientists for its strength and structure, but researchers in Britain have discovered that limpets -- snail-like sea creatures with conical shells -- have teeth with structures so strong they could be copied and used in making cars, boats and planes.
"Until now we thought that spider silk was the strongest biological material because of its super-strength and potential applications in everything from bullet-proof vests to computer electronics," said Asa Barber, a professor at Portsmouth University's school of engineering, who led the study."
***
McGill students can't calculate averages. I no believe! I'm constantly told we're not as dumb as Americans!
The children are our future.
Seriously. As I've said in the past, the general ignorance on full display about economics and finance I read is shocking as it is frightening. If you can't count, you're especially vulnerable to all this 'pay your fair share' bull shit rhetoric.
***
New York Times in lap tops in 1985:
"The limitations come from what people actually do with computers, as opposed to what the marketers expect them to do. On the whole, people don't want to lug a computer with them to the beach or on a train to while away hours they would rather spend reading the sports or business section of the newspaper. Somehow, the microcomputer industry has assumed that everyone would love to have a keyboard grafted on as an extension of their fingers. It just is not so."
"...But the real future of the laptop computer will remain in the specialized niche markets. Because no matter how inexpensive the machines become, and no matter how sophisticated their software, I still can't imagine the average user taking one along when going fishing. "
BOOYA!
And in 25 years we'll be reading the same thing from these Times only it will be bout global warming.
Kidding aside, not the end of the world. He made a call. He missed. Big deal.
Bob Ryan thought Michael Jordan was going to be a flop. The Toronto Maple Leafs passed on Bobby Orr. Economists and meteorologists notoriously miss their marks while climate change scientists have been spectacularly wrong about the 'future of the planet.'
History is filled with misses. In fact, we miss more than we hit.
If I were to guess what our historical batting average is, I'd say about .275. The big ones we predicted were outliers more than anything. Look at it this way, career average of .275 with a couple of solid .300 seasons.
"...Even German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, who said he didn’t “want to make it more difficult for them,” concluded Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras will have a “difficult” time selling the agreement at home. That’s because Tsipras’s populist rhetoric of ending austerity was overpowered by the united front he faced.
A “complete political surrender to the world of reality” was how Erik Nielsen, London-based global chief economist of UniCredit Bank AG, put it. Societe Generale SA and Berenberg Bank both labeled it a “u-turn” by Tsipras, who won election Jan. 25 promising an end to budget cutting. "
Greece needs to shape up. Simple.
***
Speaking of Germany:
"Late last year, as the German Bundeswehr was considering rebooting its expensive, failed Euro Hawk drone program, the army of the country with the fourth largest economy in the world fielded its newest armored vehicles in a major military exercise in Norway with broomsticks painted black and lashed in place of missing machine gun barrels. That detail was part of a German Defense Ministry report leaked to Germany's public television network ARD that exposed widespread shortages of basic combat equipment."
Back during my Uni (that's right, my short hand for University) days, scholars from Germany came to speak at a European political science class I took. One student (from the Greek student association), during question period, went off on an embarrassing trek over praising Germany. If they stuck their dicks out he would have sucked them. As it were, they looked at him perplexed and thanked him for his kind words and proceeded to paint a rather sober picture of what ailed Germany at the time. The country was but a few years removed from reunification and the challenges were great.
I don't think things are that much better. Call me a Euro-pessimist at this time.
Anyway.
It all adds up to one thing: Asking for American help and support.
Germany's army is roughly the size of Italy's army at about 180k. Britain and France are slightly larger at around 200k. All (including Japan) spend about 1-1.5% of GDP on the military except for the UK who spend about 2%.
Perspective: France under Napoleon's Grande Armee had close to 600 000 men.
My how the mighty have fallen.
***
In the 'duh' and 'no kidding' category:
"Gallup's annual World Affairs survey shows that only 48 percent of those identifying as Democrats sympathize more with Israelis in tensions in the Mideast than with Palestinians. In contrast, 83 percent of Republicans side with Israelis. The figure for all Americans is 62 percent."
***
Limpet Man, Limpet Man does whatever a sea snail can spins a web, any size:
"Spider silk may lose its claim as the strongest known natural material after researchers found that limpet teeth have more mettle.
Spider silk is hailed by scientists for its strength and structure, but researchers in Britain have discovered that limpets -- snail-like sea creatures with conical shells -- have teeth with structures so strong they could be copied and used in making cars, boats and planes.
"Until now we thought that spider silk was the strongest biological material because of its super-strength and potential applications in everything from bullet-proof vests to computer electronics," said Asa Barber, a professor at Portsmouth University's school of engineering, who led the study."
***
McGill students can't calculate averages. I no believe! I'm constantly told we're not as dumb as Americans!
The children are our future.
Seriously. As I've said in the past, the general ignorance on full display about economics and finance I read is shocking as it is frightening. If you can't count, you're especially vulnerable to all this 'pay your fair share' bull shit rhetoric.
***
New York Times in lap tops in 1985:
"The limitations come from what people actually do with computers, as opposed to what the marketers expect them to do. On the whole, people don't want to lug a computer with them to the beach or on a train to while away hours they would rather spend reading the sports or business section of the newspaper. Somehow, the microcomputer industry has assumed that everyone would love to have a keyboard grafted on as an extension of their fingers. It just is not so."
"...But the real future of the laptop computer will remain in the specialized niche markets. Because no matter how inexpensive the machines become, and no matter how sophisticated their software, I still can't imagine the average user taking one along when going fishing. "
BOOYA!
And in 25 years we'll be reading the same thing from these Times only it will be bout global warming.
Kidding aside, not the end of the world. He made a call. He missed. Big deal.
Bob Ryan thought Michael Jordan was going to be a flop. The Toronto Maple Leafs passed on Bobby Orr. Economists and meteorologists notoriously miss their marks while climate change scientists have been spectacularly wrong about the 'future of the planet.'
History is filled with misses. In fact, we miss more than we hit.
If I were to guess what our historical batting average is, I'd say about .275. The big ones we predicted were outliers more than anything. Look at it this way, career average of .275 with a couple of solid .300 seasons.
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