Saturday, January 5th, 2013
ALAN HONICK with GORDON ORIANS, - Pacific Standard
Stephan: This is a really well-worked out deconstruction on how fairness arose. It makes very good sense, and is consistent with human nature.
Click through to see the videos.
Does fairness come standard with every newborn, or is it something that we (hopefully) develop as we mature? Here’s a multimedia attempt to answer that question.
Evolutionary biologist Gordon Orians and I are working on a project to investigate the origins and evolution of the human sense of fairness, and the role it plays in modern social, economic, and political institutions. I recently gave a talk on the subject.
To begin the talk, I asked the audience members to recollect their first encounter with the concept of fairness. I had formed a fledgling hypothesis, and wanted to put it to the test.
As people raised their hands, I called on them to share their memories. A pattern quickly emerged:
‘I had to take the rap for something my sister actually did!
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Saturday, January 5th, 2013
PAUL KRUGMAN, Nobel Laureate - Op-Ed Columnist - Truthout.org
Stephan: I went to my gym the other night -- I usually go about 7:30 -- and, while I was there I got into a conversation with the owner, Jim, who I like. He is very conservative, and it was the first time I had seen him since before the holidays. We talked and very quickly he began worrying over what he was sure was the coming hyperinflation. The conversation stimulated me to write something about this and, when I was doing the research for the piece I came across this. Paul Krugman explains it better than I could, and addresses the larger issue about the importance of operating on facts.
So many of the country's policies are built on ideology or theology, and not facts. Most of what's wrong with us, as a nation, arises from our unwillingness to hear the truth, and act on it rationally.
Some readers may recall the Peter-Schiff-was-right campaign of 2009, a sort of public-relations blitz claiming that Mr. Schiff, an Austrian-oriented commentator, had foreseen the financial crisis. It wasn’t really true even then; still, Mr. Schiff became a fixture of right-wing television shows, constantly warning that expansionary monetary and fiscal policies were about to produce hyperinflation.
Well, Cullen Roche, who writes the Pragmatic Capitalism blog, recently caught a TV host actually putting Mr. Schiff on the spot, pointing out that he’s been predicting that hyperinflation since 2008. So where is it?
Good question.
And I’d like to pursue the question a bit more, not just or even mainly about Mr. Schiff’s assertions, but more broadly about the role of predictions – including wrong predictions – in economics.
What’s crucial to understand, I think, is that there are two kinds of erroneous predictions. One kind of error, which everyone makes all the time, involves what you might call extraneous forces.
If the economist making the prediction didn’t know that there was going to be a war in the Middle East, or a confrontation over the debt ceiling, or whatever, his forecast may well be very badly wrong; too bad, but that doesn’t really speak to his underlying […]
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Saturday, January 5th, 2013
BRADY DENNIS, - The Washington Post
Stephan: Here is some excellent news, providing these proposals become new regulations, and are enforced. They constitute a significant positive change in food safety. But it will be several years before they become enforceable rules. You have to start with a first step though so, bravo for the Obama administration.
The Obama administration moved ahead Friday with the first major overhaul of the nation’s food-safety system in more than 70 years, proposing tough new standards for fruit and vegetable producers and food manufacturers.
The long-awaited proposals by the Food and Drug Administration are part of a fundamental change aimed at preventing food-borne outbreaks – caused by everything from leafy greens to canteloupes to peanut butter – rather than simply reacting to them. Every year, contaminated foods sicken an estimated 48 million Americans and kill 3,000.
The rules, which span 1,200 pages, are aimed at creating safer conditions from farm to fork. Produce farmers would be required to ensure that their crops aren’t contaminated by bad water or animal waste. Some will likely be compelled to build fences to keep out wildlife and to provide adequate restrooms and hand-washing facilities for field workers.
Food-processing companies would be required to design and document an exhaustive regimen of sanitary measures – from pest control to bathroom cleanliness to what workers wear on the factory floor.
‘It’s a big leap forward in applying modern, preventive measures across the whole food supply,
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Saturday, January 5th, 2013
KWEI QUARTEY, - Asia Times (Hong Kong)
Stephan: The Chinese are interested in raw materials, and not in creating culture in other countries. This is what the emerging multipolar world is going to look like. It is a world where the old solutions and triumphalist attitudes will not serve us.
Ghana held its general elections on December 7 and 8, 2012, re-electing incumbent President John Dramani Mahama. However, Nana Akufo-Addo, flag-bearer of the opposition New Patriotic Party, is challenging Mahama’s narrow win and intends to contest the result in court, a legal process that is sure to be prolonged. The verdict could potentially challenge Ghana’s generally stable and peaceful political environment. What will not change are the country’s close economic ties to China.
On my trip to Ghana in 2011, I observed Chinese foremen at the construction sites of the now completed George W Bush Highway. The massive Ministry of Defense building in Ghana’s capital, Accra, was constructed with a US$50 million Chinese grant. The Bui Hydroelectric Dam is a collaborative project of the government of Ghana and SinoHydro, a Chinese construction company. In 2012, China invested in a new Ghanaian airline that serves domestic routes, and it is likely that the China Airports Construction Corporation (CACC) will be involved in building Accra’s new international airport.
Ghana is not the only African country in which China operates. Indeed, China is the largest financier on the entire continent. Chinese corporations, financial institutions, and the government have invested billions of dollars in large new […]
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Friday, January 4th, 2013
MARY PEMBERTON, - USA TODAY/The Associated Press
Stephan: I am assuming you have seen something about this. If not look at Google News. This is an update, and should be a major wakeup call, and result in the end of oil drilling in the Arctic. This story could, in a heartbeat, end up being worse than the Exxon Valdez. If they can get the rig off the island where it has run aground, without the diesel fuel tanks breaching, it will be an act of grace. I cannot believe that except for Rachel Maddow on MSNBC, the corporate media is not treating this event proportionally.
Click through to see the video.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — High seas and strong winds prevented crews from boarding an oil drilling ship to check for any damage after the large vessel went aground off an uninhabited island in the Gulf of Alaska.
A Coast Guard plane and a helicopter flew over the Kulluk on Tuesday, but severe weather didn’t permit putting marine experts on board the drilling rig, which had grounded on a sand and gravel beach in stormy seas.
Federal on-scene response coordinator Capt. Paul Mehler said the Royal Dutch Shell drilling rig is carrying about 143,000 gallons of diesel and about 12,000 gallons of lube oil and hydraulic fluid, and appeared stable.
‘There is no sign of a release of any product,’ Mehler said during a news conference.
A team of company, Coast Guard and local officials said they were mobilizing spill response equipment and preparing a plan in the event of a spill in the Partition Cove and Ocean Bay areas of the island. The area is home to at least two endangered species, as well as harbor seals, salmon, and sea lions.
The storm eased Tuesday, with gusts up to 35 mph and waves up to 30 feet high, and similar conditions were expected Wednesday. Officials were […]
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