Excerpt: "And what of the people born on dates that no longer exists in the new calendar, such as 31 January, or during Newton Week? Henry suggests they celebrate on either 30 January or "consider themselves to be born on the fourth of July" (which falls on a Wednesday)."

An it doesn't stop there: "And he is not stopping with dates - Henry says the entire world should operate on Greenwich Mean Time. People in the eastern US, for example, would have to get used to eating their midday meals when the clocks read 1700. "People are adaptable if benefits are there," says Henry."

That'd be a confusing set of changes for a while. -Pk

Novel calendar system creates regular dates

Written in response to a Washington Post article in early December '04.

Excerpt: "China is already Iran's top advanced weapon supplier, including cutting edge missile technology and weaponization of nuclear, chemical and biological materials."

Cheers, -Pk

Ahwazi: the Controversial Iranian-Chinese Oil Deal!

I would hope for more raw data and a longer list. I've got stocks to monitor you see. ;-)

Seriously though, I'd rather have a longer list with more data and a seperate column on the politics of it. Cheers, -Pk

The Center for Corporate Policy's Top Ten War Profiteers of 2004

Some people believe that PY2005 (Political Year 2005) will be the year of Social Security in the States. Edward H. Crane of CATO (Libertarian "think tank") consolidates a lot of pro-privatization views in this piece.

Excerpt: "Individual accounts should be as large as feasible, ideally at least half of payroll taxes. There are several proposals in Congress now, including one by Rep. Sam Johnson, Texas Republican, based on work by the Cato Institute, that show how this can be done in a fiscally responsible way."

Cheers, -Pk

Social Security Reform Now

Excerpt: "The battle against the Iraqi terror is not being reported accurately. One reason is that the American military cannot release information then have about the enemy, as that would let the terrorists know what is known about them. This is a war of information. The terrorists depend on secrecy for protection. They must remain invisible to survive."

We've all read tens of these types of analysis. This one can be considered a pre-primer to some of the recent pro-war/invasion books. Although it doesn't discuss the regional political implications at all (dissapointing miss in ~any~ war article). Cheers, -Pk

The War in Iraq That Isn't Reported

The illustration alone is worth posting this article. I won't comment as I might be a bit too lengthy. Draw your own conclusions. Cheers, -Pk

Capitalism and its Role in American Society’s Plunge into the Abyss.

Excerpt: "To summarise: After World War II, opinion was socialist while practice was free market; currently, opinion is free market while practice is heavily socialist. We have largely won the battle of ideas; we have succeeded in stalling the progress of socialism, but we have not succeeded in reversing its course. We are still far from bringing practice into conformity with opinion. That is the overriding non-defence task for the second Bush term. It will not be an easy task, particularly with Iraq threatening to consume Bush's political capital."

There is a sad comedy to all this. We won! We won! Lets start doing what they were doing during their decline! Yay! Cheers, -Pk

Scrapbook: Battle for free-market agenda is only half won

Excerpt: "The rising popularity of shark cartilage extract as an anti-cancer treatment is a triumph of marketing and pseudoscience over reason, with a tragic fallout for both sharks and humans, according to a Johns Hopkins biologist writing in the Dec. 1 issue of Cancer Research."

I remember a family friend nearly fifteen years ago pumping his young daughter full of shark cartilage pills. The list of snake-oil products grows everyday and sometimes with tragic consequences.

I don't particularly like the researchers stance on electronic media but the point remains.

I'm tired so I'm going to go put on my magnetic bracelet and drink my micro-clustered/ionized water while listening to my earth resonance CD. All while eating myself to death anyway. Cheers, -Pk

Shark Cartilage Cancer 'Cure' Shows Danger Of Pseudoscience

Business/Science/Misc.

While here in the US we're still muddled with mental roadblocks about Nuclear the rest of the world (recently Finland too) are bidding out Gen III+ (and IV?) reactors requests.

"China plans to increase its nuclear generating capacity from 8,700 megawatts to 36,000 megawatts by 2020, a plan that calls for the building of at least one 1,000 megawatt nuclear reactor a year over the next 16 years."

While the article says "US-based Westinghouse" it should be noted that Westinghouse is owned by British Nuclear Fuels. And there is no GE bid in this with their Gen III+ ESBWR.

I best stop now before I rant for real. Cheers, -Pk

China to decide on tenders for four nuclear reactors in February

Excerpt: "With its new economic resources China has embarked upon a military traverse from reliance upon mass to devotion to quality, with stress upon war in space, the oceans, and the ether--three areas of unquestioned American superiority."

Is this more old-Pentagon thinking of near-peer? Or is this a reality that we have to consider along with current terrorism reconfigurations? While some people would like to believe China is not a threat I think it's important to note the Chinese-Iranian connection in recent months. On this topic the author, Mark Helprin, writes: "An example of China's growing power to interfere with crucial U.S. interests is the new Sino-Persian $100 billion trade agreement, the perfect complementarity of which--manufactures and military goods in exchange for oil and Islamic endorsement--is echoed by the fact that, at present, the chief American counter to Iranian nuclear weapons development is the threat of a trade embargo, which China need not observe, through the Security Council, over which China has a veto."

I wonder what Thomas P.M. Barnett will have to say about this article. (Hours later there is http://www.thomaspmbarnett.com/weblog/archives2/001284.html on Barnett's blog. I knew he had to have seen the WSJ article.)

Cheers, -Pk

Beyond the Rim - 'We ignore China's growing military and economic power at our peril.'