Book Of Norm

Probably more true historically than it is today (criminal law is only part of current civil liberties jurisprudence). But interesting nonetheless: The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all. - HL Mencken

The House has passed tobacco legislation which will for the first time put tobacco products under the review of the FDA. Though I am against increasing the size and oversight of the federal government, I have to support this one, as I see no reason why smoking should be legal. NYT Article. More than 40 years after the Surgeon General first warned that cigarettes were a health hazard, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved legislation on Wednesday that would for the first time give the Food and Drug Administration the power to regulate tobacco products. Citing the long history of warnings about the dangers of smoking , Representative John Dingell, chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee which approved the bill, said that it was hard to believe that the federal government had not yet regulated the tobacco industry. “With this legislation, we change this,” said Mr. Dingell, a Michigan Democrat. The White House has signaled its opposition to the bill. And while ...

Again, this is kind of cheating, but time is scarce. I will put up recipes in the future, with spag-bog figuring prominently, but right now, I just found this, and it looks amazing.. (cheshire is my favorite cheese, think a tastier crumblier cheddar). Cheshire on Ciabatta with Roasted Peppers and Tomatoes Serves 4 1 part-baked ciabatta loaf (plain or with olives) 4 teaspoons sun-dried tomato paste or puree 3 - 4 tomatoes, sliced 100g (4oz) roasted peppers in olive oil or vinegar, drained 1 teaspoon dried mixed Italian herbs salt and freshly ground black pepper 150g (5oz) red or white Cheshire cheese, thinly sliced a few herbs or salad leaves, to garnish 1. Preheat the oven to 200°C / 400°F / Gas 6. 2. Split the ciabatta loaf in half horizontally, then cut each piece in two. Arrange the pieces, cut side up, on a baking sheet. Spread with the sun-dried tomato paste or puree and top with the sliced tomatoes. 3. If the peppers are in thick strips, slice them into thinner ones, then a...

Sometime I will put up what really should be going up here, my views on Bigfoot. But that will take a little time, something I am short on right now, instead I offer up this simple statement: we often have no idea of even large land animals living around us. Case in point, the Wood Bison. Larger than the plains bison, the population was down to 250 in 1900 and was thought to be extinct by the mid-1900's. In 1957, a population was discovered in Alberta, Canada, and the population is now though to be up around 3,500, stable though still small. The interests of cryptozoology generally focus on large animals. While scientists generally accept that we only know 40% of all species globally, most of that is either tiny things in the rainforest or tiny things in the ocean. Anything big should have been found by now, because they are easy to see. This is simply not the case.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/7525725.stm Playing the cello on the top of Scafell Pike.. thats pretty much it. One of my favorite mountains, and my favorite region to hike (the Lake District), but sadly there is not enough of the actual music in the clip..

Another quick one, but one of the more important pieces of information I have come across in a while. The bill to give aid to the 'victims' of the mortgage lenders currently winding its way through the house and senate has had a little something extra tagged on. Yes, any good free thinking person who believes in individual culpability should recognize the lunacy of bailing out individuals bad loans. But there is something more, and in my mind, something less protectionist but much more sinister. Every mortgage borrower will be required to get fingerprinted by the government. It started out that the lenders would need to do so, to protect individuals, keep lenders on file etc. The goverment already does this in a number of other areas (brokers licenses being one). But then, it was slipped in that every single borrower would be required to get fingerprinted. Every one. Now, I have no idea how many individuals that covers. But it is not just a few. Civil liberties indeed.

Sorry for the shortage of new posts, work has kind of taken over my life for a little while. That said, here is the new logo for Vodia Group, soon to be renamed Finaedium: I must admit, it did give me a good laugh.. if only it were not true..

From the Boston Globe, an interesting editorial: http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2008/07/20/the_audacity_of_ego/?p1=Well_MostPop_Emailed2 Barack Obama always was a larger-than-life candidate with a healthy ego. Now he's turning into the A-Rod of politics. It's all about him. He's giving his opponent something other than issues to attack him on: narcissism. A convention hall isn't good enough for the presumptive Democratic nominee. He plans to deliver his acceptance speech in the 75,000 seat stadium where the Denver Broncos play. Before a vote is cast, he's embarking on a foreign policy tour that will use cheering Europeans - and America's top news anchors - as extras in his campaign. What do you expect from a candidate who already auditioned a quasi-presidential seal with the Latin inscription, "Vero possumus" - "Yes, we can"? Obama finds criticism of his wife "infuriating" and doesn't want eith...

From my perspective, I cant agree with the smoking position for a wide range of reasons (related to how I draw a line though the grey area between anarcho-capitalism and total govt. control a little further away from the pure free market than many libertarians), but generally this site is pretty fantastic. Libertarianism with a British perspective.   http://www.thefreesociety.org/

Three things. One I meant to post on a while ago.   1) Why. WHY? is our central bank acting as a regulator of our financial services industry? Who thought that one made sense? Hmm... central bank.. supporting the currency... and regulating the financial industry... thats a logical combination.   2) Freddie and Fannie were and are too bloated. Amazingly it was only a month or two that they were expanded to be able to take on more mortgages in order to "help out" with our current crises. Good bit 'o thinking that.   3) SEC's naked short selling ban. I find this one disingenuous. Naked short selling is already banned. The primes are calling this a firm pre-locate requirement on these stocks, which it is, but I am going to be a little bit more of a pessimist. The thing is, this came after Freddie and Fannie tanked and the US govt agreed to give them unlimited support. My view is that the SEC is 'protecting' Freddie and Fannie from the hedgies t...

If you have not watched Top Gear, watch it. It is the best show on television. Ever. For those who like the show and its anonymous driver, the Stig, a fantastic short article which cropped up on him: The Stig v F1 "Whoever's in that car is a seriously good driver," said Fernando Alonso pre-race at the British Grand Prix last weekend. Alonso was watching a man being driven around in a two seat Santander grand prix car by a mysterious white-clad driver. "I've no idea who he is, but he's definitely ex-F1," Alonso continued. Who was he talking about? The Stig of course! Those of you who were at Silverstone last weekend may have noticed the well-known tame racing driving lapping the circuit before the F1 cars went out to the grid. The Stig had been bought in a Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital charity auction for the princely sum of £35,000, by a man who'd won £5million pounds on the lottery. His 35 grand got him th...

Our two undercapitalized, poorly run, and totally mismanaged quasi-government (there's a shady term if you've ever heard one) housing lenders are getting the unlimited protection it has been so long surmised that they would be given. Freddie and Fannie, both having growth excessively portly in recent years, are in quite a lot of trouble as many of those good eats are turning foul. What is a good government to do but bail them out? Unlike my position on Bear Stearns, I think it is sadly clear at this point that such a lifeline is needed. How we ever got to this point is a different matter entirely. Short story: what the hell is the government doing supplying financing? Long story: everything other than services dealing with public goods (of which buying a nice house is not one) should be private or privatized. End of story.

A direct development of the paper I am working on (specifically due to the Safaricom IPO, the largest sub-Saharan African IPO) I came across this, a great article on the use, benefit, and unexpected demand for mobile phones in the developing world: http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/sep2007/gb20070913_705733.htm   Excerpt: What would a Kenyan farmer want with a mobile phone? Plenty, as it turns out. To the astonishment of the industry, people living on a few dollars a day have proven avid phone users, and in many parts of the world cellular airtime has become a de facto currency. The reason is simple: A mobile phone can dramatically improve living standards by saving wasted trips, providing information about crop prices, summoning medical help, and even serving as a conduit to banking services. "The cell phone is the single most transformative technology for development," says Columbia University economist and emerging markets expert Jeffrey Sachs....

Looking at a possible strike from a strategic standpoint: Most Iranian nuclear facilities are approximately 1,000 miles from Israel. The IAF is really designed for defense (oddly enough). What this means, is that any air strike is going to rely on the 5 to 7 aging KC-707 tankers (basically the same old workhorse the US is trying to replace). Thats not many. As a result, the maximum number of F-15/F-16's will be about 30-40. Splitting these between support (such as taking out the anti-aircraft and command facilities) and the actual bombers will mean that Israel has a very small margin of error for hitting their targets. At the same time, Iran is trying to buy the Russian made SA-20 or "Favorite." This is roughly equivalent to the American Patriot missile system. It has previously not decided to go ahead with a purchase, because it did not want to spend the money (a few hundred million, minimum). However, given the current state of affairs and the price of oil, it is though...

Always liked airships, thought that they got a bad rap for the last 80 years. This is a modern Boeing design meant to operate something like a helicopter, or really in place of one, with a 40 ton lifting capacity and a range of 200 miles, same range as a Chinook, but 4 times the payload, and of course fuel efficiency benefits.

So, Vodia Group is changing its name. Which is probably a good thing, as it was generally taken to be the bastard love child of Vodaphone and Nokia. I will award one full spag-bog pasta dinner for up to 10 people to anyone who can come up with a truly solid and inventive name, even if we do not decide to use it. There you are. A completely subjective, entirely without value and only moderately entertaining competition. You expected more? And no, we cant name the company the "Cougar Hunters."

Which one of these is not like the others? There is actually a case to be made that Obama's campaign seal is actually illegal. Regardless of it being illegal, it is arrogant and inappropriate for a junior senator from Illinois who has done very little so far for his nation.

Good solid quote on his Iraq war opinion: "I'm surprised at how finely calibrated every single word was measured. I wasn't saying anything I hadn't said before, that I didn't say a year ago or when I was a United States senator," Hmm.. he must be putting a lot of time into his senate duties... not that I would ever claim McCain was either, but just interesting that Obama has already forgotten he is still a Senator (and swore that he would serve out his term...)

This one is for my Mom: a Japanese woman avoided getting robbed by offering the knife wielding assailant a cup of tea: http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSN0818516620080708?feedType=RSS&feedName=oddlyEnoughNews

MSCI indices, consistent, and consistently bad news: Developed Markets Standard Core (Price) as of Jul 07, 2008 Annualized Historical MSCI Index Last Day MTD 3 Mo. YTD 1 Yr 3 Yr 5 Yr 10 Yr EAFE 1,916.404 0.73% -2.58% -10.43% -14.95% -16.68% 9.74% 12.61% 3.20% EAFE + CANADA 1,896.394 0.47% -2.86% -9.77% -13.97% -15.24% 10.48% 13.26% 3.70% EAFE ex UK 2,149.531 0.61% -2.43% -10.44% -14.65% -15.57% 10.97% 13.59% 3.84% EASEA INDEX (EAFE ex JAPAN) 1,583.678 0.81% -2.79% -11.50% -16.64% -16.99% 10.62% 13.61% 3.34% EMU 227.835 1.38% -2.22% -13.16% -18.56% -17.03% 12.22% 14.59% 3.24% EMU ex GERMANY 226.822 1.28% -2.43% -14.45% -18.95% -18.77% 10.11% 13.31% 3.28% EU 456.387 1.29% -2.51% -11.98% -17.27% -18.41% 9.94% 12.99% 2.59% EURO 1,340.456 1.44% -1.87% -12.93% -18.78% -16.07% 12.31% 13.99% 2.97% EUROPE 1,767.365 1.13% -2.64% -11.69% -16.68% -17.83% 10.11% 13.08% 2.68% EUROPE GDP 2,231.512 1.24% -2.43% -12.40...

From an article on Starbucks' fall, and coffee drinkers delight in its demise: "There are a lot of people out there who take delight in seeing an icon torn down by the masses." True. Read Atlas Shrugged.

"It's always darkest before the dawn."

Spain and Ireland, both going through housing market crashes after decade long booms are being thrown under the bus by the ECB. Which is not surprising, because the ECB is inflation targeting. Which is great, when thing are good. But when they are bad, it is very very bad. Shocking that the Irish don't love their Brusselian overlords.   http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aKsb7ZbuHM00&refer=exclusive  

This article, granted written from a very polarized Right vs. Left standpoint, does at least bring up an interesting ruling. It turns out that a number of "enemy combatants" were not really combatants at all, but just people the US military picked up for various reasons and really could not figure out what to do with. I am not one to rail on and on about Gitmo, but, in this country, we should not be holding anyone without due process. Looks like the courts agree. Sadly, as they are the furthest thing from Democratic, my faith in the Federal Judiciary (a very distinct group than the politicized state judiciaries) continues to grow as my faith in the other branches of govt. wanes.

Europe - The name actually comes from Greek, and means "she that has a wide vision"   Take it as you will, but I suppose it provides for some interesting analysis given the number of cultures and nations they are currently trying to fit under one roof.   On a separate note, I have always been interested in the differences between what speakers of one language call a nation to the other, especially to those that actually live there. We often don't really think about such things, but it is commonly true that we (as English speakers) still use heavily anglicized names for other nations, and there is an occasional outcry over this. However, to my knowledge, this is true across all languages, with the differences between names often dating back hundreds or thousands of years.

Just listened to Viva la Vida for the first time all the way through, after 'buying' it earlier this morning from the PirateBay, and I was not mightily impressed. This is no X&Y. Its good, with the two radio hits (Viva la Vida and Violet Hill), being the best songs, but its is not a standout album for them, in my opinion. Death and all his friends is another good song, as is Lost?, but the whole album does not have the strength that X&Y did. Still, good music, and glad to finally have a new album from them.

McCain jumped on the prizes for innovation bandwagon (which I am a huge fan of) and promised a $300 million prize for battery development. Now, take anything on the campaign trail with a grain of salt, and if Obama keeps getting gilded by the press, not sure how much chance McCain has... but here you go: “I further propose we inspire the ingenuity and resolve of the American people,” Mr. McCain said, “by offering a $300 million prize for the development of a battery package that has the size, capacity, cost and power to leapfrog the commercially available plug-in hybrids or electric cars.” He said the winner should deliver power at 30 percent of current costs. “That’s one dollar, one dollar, for every man, woman and child in the U.S. — a small price to pay for helping to break the back of our oil dependency.”