Book Of Norm

English unions are up in arms over the fact that England is not yet bankrupt. "We almost achieved it back in the 70's, but it looks like our time has finally come. This time, we won't stop until the currency is in free fall, lending rates skyrocket and England achieves what we have always wanted: perfect equality in poverty" said one union leader. Other union leaders spoke about the need to "ignore tomorrow, and milk what we can from the system today." Hundreds of thousands are now on strike, protesting the fact that though the government has avoided layoffs and pays very well, a percentage of their pension is now at risk. Comments from the private sector, where hundreds of thousands lost their jobs because of the stupidity of government include "fuck you you fucking lazy assholes" and "get back to work you money grubbing sods." This reporter of course can only report what has been said, but the comments have been shocking. Amon...

I am developing a new theory of government. More to come on that later - but the basic precepts are around the correct valuation of all actions, and it will be thus called Valuation Theory. This is something I plan on spending a fair bit of time on in the next few weeks, and I hope others end up as interested by it as I am. Norm

Globally, the percentage of individuals with diabetes has doubled since 1980. Now, before anyone hits the panic button, most of this is down to good things. About 70% of the 100% increase is believed to come from the fact that around the world, those with diabetes are living longer. This is a very good thing, due to treatments being made available and new drugs coming to market. The other 30%? That's almost all from getting fatter. Which is why, unsurprisingly, the waistline capital of the world--the US--has the highest percentage of diabetes. Percent of Obese (BMI  >  30) in U.S. Adults ( this is frightening ) On a side note... way to go Colorado! This is interesting. Diabetes is a disease of success (well, the increase in diabetes, diabetes also can occur for other reasons - Type 1 diabetes rarely is related to lifestyle and health). Think about the US 100 years ago. It was 1911, and while the world was going through a massive economic...

Something I have come across that I did not really know much about: Ireland was neutral in WWII. I mean, I kind of knew it, but I had not really focused on it. It is sort of left out of the official histories, largely I think because Ireland is and was so embarrassed by it after the fact. Turns out that 70,000 Irish from southern Ireland did volunteer for UK, which is impressive. But it also just makes me kind of sad to learn that Ireland really did push neutrality through the whole course of the war, including propaganda stating that they their course of action was the best course of action. I wonder how long Ireland would have lasted if the UK fell... 2-4hrs maybe? Some interesting reading, first about a POW camp where certain Americans were interred for the course of the war along with German pilots http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-13924720 And also the wikipedia article covering the Irish neutrality http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_neutrality

Nope, I am not going off on some rant about the benefits of the British Empire, or how Churchill was right. I am talking about survey results, from Jamaica. When asked whether Jamaica would have been better off as a colony of the UK, 60% of respondents agreed and 17% disagreed. A thousand people took part in the survey, out of a population of 2.7m. The poll has a reported margin of error of plus or minus 4%. The survey was undertaken because Jamaica is due to celebrate 50 years of independence next year... I am not quite sure this was the answer Jamaica was looking for.

Actually, I think the statistic which is more impressive is that this is not just the most expensive home in the world, it is also the second most expensive building ever built. Which is frankly ridiculous, considering this is a "private residence." What is this place? Antilia - the home in South Mumbai belonging to businessman Mukesh Ambani, the billionaire Chairman of Reliance Industries. The home will house Ambani, wife Nita, their three children and Ambani's mother.... and 600 full time staff. Ridiculous. The concept of needing 600 staff in a $2 billion home for 6 people right next to one of the world's poorest slums? It makes Carnegie, Mellon, Astor, Morgan, Rockefeller etc etc look like Ghandi.

Right now, Wells Fargo is the largest US bank by branch locations (somewhat surprising to those from the East Coast). It has 6,314 branches. BoA, which has nearly twice the assets of Wells Fargo, has 5,856 branches, and is planning on closing 10% of those to cut costs. JPMorgan currently has 5,268 retail branches, the third-largest network in the U.S. However, it plans on opening 2,000 more. JPMorgan's five-year strategy calls for 525 to 700 new outlets in California, 375 to 500 in Florida, and an additional 800 elsewhere. That is a huge number of branch locations. In addition, they are spending a lot of money on trying to attract retail banking accounts. The big question is of course... why? JPMorgan is not known as a retail-focused bank. They are however the largest bank in United States by sales, profits, assets and market value. They have the largest hedge fund arm of any bank (thanks to the Bear Stearns buyout) at over $50billion in assets. But it seems that the...

NY has approved gay marriage, and I think the only reaction should be "what the hell took so long?" Obviously, from my position as a libertarian I have no idea why the government is even involved with marriage, but if it is, then there is no logical reason why two people who want to get married should not be allowed to do so. Interestingly, one of the big reasons why the state is excited about gay marriage is because of cash. It is expected that gay marriages could help out the marriage industry in the state by 20% this year. In addition, NY "expats" as it were would now be willing to move back to the state from states where gay marriage was already allowed. Finally, the NYC gay community is incredibly wealthy, and that alone is expected to drive both the wedding industry and... of course.. tax revenues.

One of the problems I have right now is that the United States is debating budget cuts which only reduce the deficit. Its like this. Every inning of baseball, the other team is scoring three runs. That is bad. Right now, you have been getting on run every inning (and yes, I know baseball does not work like this, but stick with me). At the end of five innings, you are 15-5 down. It hurts, people start saying you'll never make it. Ending number 1: It hurts. You huddle together and your coach comes up with a brilliant plan. Your coach is a man known for brilliant plans....  The big plan is this: if only we could score two run an inning instead of one, everything will get better. You do this.. and lose 27-13. Ending 2: But you get together, and out of nowhere your coach says "what the hell have you idiots been doing?" and proceeds to tear you all a new one, and tell you to get on with it. Tough love here is the name of the game, and it works. You score more, play ...

July 1st will mark the 90th birthday of the Chinese communist party. And many, those nonagenarians know how to party. Well, they know how to throw money at a problem anyway. As mass celebrations are to be had across  the country. However, what is perhaps more interesting is the party itself. It currently comprises 80MM people, which in any other nation (sans India) would be a big chunk of the population... but in China, it means a large percentage of the middle class are party members, and often middle class because they have been able to ride the coattails of party membership to decent paying and moderately influential jobs in the sprawling and mostly inefficient state-owned enterprises and local governments. Those state-owned enterprises and local governments are, in my opinion, far closer to collapse than many would believe. They have sucked down huge amounts of capital and have a incredibly high default rate. Local governments (which operate much more like local investmen...

Sorry all, I have been caught up in being a lazy bastard the last couple months, and have been focused on the small and somewhat mundane. No longer, Norm is back and is refocused on bringing the interesting, intriguing, beguiling and bizarre to your attention. Lets go.

It seems that eBay is under assault from both Best Buy and now Amazon.  Best Buy says they will buy back your device which they sold to you... though they give you far less than it is worth.  However Amazon is now offering a buy back program which is pretty damn simple (due to their deep running contract with UPS, which handles their shipping and returns) - you print of a UPS label, ship the device to them, and then get an Amazon gift card.  http://www.amazon.com/Trade-In/b/ref=sv_e_0?ie=UTF8&node=2242532011 Looking at the pricing, it seems that they actually give decent money, though I have no idea what they will pay for items which are in real used condition (i.e. scratched and don't look brand new). Still seems that for those who know how, eBay is the better option - but for those just looking to stop their stuff from shuffling towards obsolescence in the bottom desk drawer - this could be a good option. 

I like working. I just don't like working from an office. I like working from wherever I happen to be. I like to travel, and I like to be outside. My Palm Pre and Acer Aspire have given me way more mobility than I ever had before... but still are limited in their battery life. Samsung has set out to change all that with the first solar powered laptop. With a decent sized solar cell in the lid of the lappie, it takes two hours of sunlight for one hour of use - presumably that is the industry standard kind of "use" which means they tested it with wifi off, the screen on its darkest setting, and absolutely no programs running. So, lets say 30mins of real work for 2hrs of solar charging. This is still pretty damn fantastic, albeit for a certain percentage of the population. The reason it is so fantastic is because you can use the netbook to then charge anything USB... which means basically anything other than certain camera batteries. It also has a 50% brighter than usua...

Pretty damn cool. And not just the sculpture, the idea behind it as well. Artificial reefs, when done right, are great things. When done wrong...  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osborne_Reef This is being done to create an underwater diving habitat off of Cancun - this is only one of 400 similar sculptures which have been dropped to create artificial reefs.

Well, wins might be a bit of stretch here. More or less, the Supreme Court decided that the couple million claims that Walmart was facing did not actually constitute a class, because there was no unifying thread. Walmart gives a lot of hiring power to its regional managers, and so there really are no national hiring practices... which makes it pretty damn hard to say that there should be a class action lawsuit against the company. The best news? This is going to screw over hundreds of other ridiculous and frivolous class action lawsuits, and of course future lawsuits. Why do I hate class action lawsuits so much? Well, there are cases which are justified, and this ruling does nothing to those class action suits. What this ruling helps get rid of are the ridiculous suits where tens of thousands or millions of tiny claims which have little relation to each other or often reality are rolled up so that lawyers can make millions. It is quite common in these kinds of lawsuits that the class...

Ok, Gaddafi did not say anything crazy this time. He probably just does not give a shit. We blacklisted 9 Libyan companies, which would be like telling Hitler that we banned the import of BMWs and Siemens fridges. Really, the situation in Libya is completely the US's fault. I understand that there are those who believe the role of the United State should not be to get involved in regional conflicts. They point to Vietnam and Iraq as examples of how the United States gets it wrong. First, I don't think that we were wrong to go into Iraq. We went in for the "wrong" reasons, and we did not handle the situation well once we were there, but fundamentally, the US should be in the business of deposing murderous dictators who slaughter their own people. Let me give you a related example. I believe very strongly in personal rights and freedoms. I also believe that there are situations where the individual is not capable of protecting their own rights and freedoms, and th...

The Greeks are up in arms because their government is attempting to not bankrupt the nation. Seriously. They are rioting over austerity measures which are blatantly necessary to pull the debt ridden nation away from the brink. This is what you get when you borrow too much, work to little, and lie constantly. Unless you are Italy that is, where about 15% of the national GDP comes from the Mafia. I suppose that is one form of diversification. But yes, the Greeks are angry and are trying to topple the current governement. Because clearly, if they can just stop the austerity measures, the government will be able to continue printing money, and they will go on being able to retire in their 50's, get paid for 14months for 12months work (government employees get this) and take 6 weeks of vacation a year. Honestly, the only way that would work is in Russia, where the average life expectancy is the late 60's. Which brings me to a further point: we (and the Greeks) could solve s...

A British marine recently killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan had taken out a $400,000 life insurance policy. Of that, he set aside $80,000 for a veteran's charity and $160,000 for.... a Vegas blowout party for all of his friends to celebrate his life.  He honestly sounds like one hell of a guy. The guts and balls to take out that policy and go in to a war zone at only 23 years old... as a combat medic. He said he regretted nothing in life and was glad to serve. He was described by a superior officer as a "perfect marine." To me, that life insurance policy and will is a glorious fuck you to the Taliban.  Here's to you Royal Marine David Hart.  

WTF HP. WTF. Really, WTF. Everyone who bought the original Pre on Sprint is right around the time for an upgrade. I have been eligible since May and... had nothing to turn to. I have been waiting for the new Pre 3 to come out, assuming that with all the original webOS users on Sprint waiting for the new generation device (since the Pre2 was really just a Pre+) HP would push to have Sprint as one of its launch partners. And... they have not. The Pre was not really a success on Sprint, while the EVO 4G was.. and so Sprint is now pushing the EVO 3D as this years must-have phone. The net result of all this is that I may shortly end up on Android... which would suck, because webOS is the much better operating system (though with weaker apps, I will grant). Damn you HP, damn you.

Wikipedia is a huge store of information. Really good information, on just about everything. I use it all the time, and it provides both entertainment (reading about old military stuff etc) and a heck of a lot of informative articles... But what would you do without the internet? Yes, you could bring the CD of Microsoft Encarta around with you, but really, was 1997 all that awesome? More than that, the breadth of Wikipedia puts everything before it (even the venerable and much loved Encyclopedia Britannica) to shame. I recently got to thinking about the ability to have wikipedia saved offline, as a simple resource and reference guide if ever needed when in the (increasingly small) parts of the world where the interweb does not reach. And well... here it is (don't click unless you know how to use torrents / TPB): http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/6430796/English_Wikipedia_(All_Articles)_-_May_2011 Unsurprisingly, the folks over at The Pirate Bay have already taken care of thi...