There's gold in them thar, um, well, you know

The prefecture of Nagano, Japan, expects to make about 15 million yen this year mining gold. From sewage. Their incinerated sludge has a higher gold content than Japan's leading gold mine.

So next time you find yourself neck-deep in doo-doo, remember to look for the golden lining.


Technorati tags: Gold, Sewage

Banking on thin air

TIME.com is running an interesting article on the American banking crisis and why bailout money has been disappearing like water on a hot stove. The banks are actually in worse shape now than they were before the bailout. Reassuring, eh?

I'm not going to rehash the whole thing here. You know where to find it. The most interesting thing in it as far as I'm concerned is how the underlying cause - banks lending massive amounts of money they don't have. Before 2004, banks could lend 15 times more money than they actually had (which strikes me as pure lunacy right off the bat). Then the SEC lifted even that restriction and things got even worse. Compound the problem with high-risk loans and you have the recipe for disaster.

"Changing the net-capital rule was an unfortunate misjudgment by the SEC," says former SEC official Lee Pickard. "It's one of the leading contributors to the current financial crisis."

That has got to be the understatement of the year. What the banks were banking on was the inevitability of unending good times. And you thought banks were institutions of stodgy good sense. Not when you dangle an easy buck in front of them, they're not. Common sense and integrity get left behind in the dust.

All of which leads me to the conclusion that if you abandon common sense, no matter what your computer models tell you, sooner or later reality will bite you in the rear. I wish I could say that things look hopeful for common sense, but I'm not inclined to be optimistic. Having rubbed elbows with the right people is still much more important than showing signs of common sense or integrity. Just ask Timothy Geithner. Despite all the change that's been promised, being an insider is what still really counts, and insiders scratch each others' backs.


Technorati tags: Banking, Economics

This is just too much fun

Some enterprising blogger pokes fun at advertising. ADmonishments will probably never lack for material. I think I will be making regular visits to this one.

Here's a recent offering.



Because nothing says clean like KKK.

Check it out.

Thanks to the author of The Superfast Reader for pointing me in that direction.


Technorati tags: Advertising

The captain is the last to leave the ship

Or the airplane.

Flight 1549 was obliged to land in the Hudson River earlier today, after an unfortunate encounter with a flock of geese. Everyone survived.

At a press conference soon after the incident, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said that the plane's pilot Chesley Sullenberger, 57, who used to fly F-4 aircraft for the U.S. Air Force, walked up and down the aisle twice to make sure no one was left on the plane.

His airplane is floating in the middle of a river on one of the coldest days of the year, and Sullenberger checks the plane not once, but twice, to make sure everyone got out safely.

Tell me again why I'm not justified in holding on to a little idealism? There are demonstrably people who still know - and live - the meaning of the words duty, responsibility, and selflessness.


Technorati tags: Flight 1549, Heroism, Good news

Do Not Call!

That's it! I've had it. I signed up on the Canadian Do Not Call List. I am so sick of getting umpteen calls a day from telemarketers - half of them fraudulent - that I could scream. Registering on the DNCL was the first proactive step I have taken. Unfortunately it was just a small one.

The problem is that most of the telemarketers are calling me from the US, and the American DNCL won't let me register. I know, I tried. It keeps telling me to correct my area code.

I used to see advertisements on TV, back when I still watched TV, for a doohickey that would detect computer-dialed phone calls and automatically block them, sending back a message that your phone number is invalid, which would delete you from their database. Are those gadgets still on the market? What are they called and where do I find them?

I've tried a google search, but all I'm finding is the machines to MAKE those annoying calls.

Or do you have any other tips for me, other than systematically asking every telemarketer to remove me from their call lists? And how do you ask a recording to do that?


Technorati tags: Telemarketers, Do Not Call

Leadership with skewed perspective

"It's just to show again how they try to undermine the union, and to try to negotiate with our members instead of trying to negotiate with the union," said president André Cornellier, adding the union will hold a meeting for members Monday at 10 a.m. ET and urge them to reject the deal.

Bolding mine. Here is a union president who is saying clearly that the union is not the members.

So who is the union then, Mr. Cornellier? Seeing as he is very angry with the City of Ottawa for taking out advertising space to inform his union membership directly of the offer on the table before they vote on the same offer, it is clear that he considers the union to be the union executive, not the members.

(For those who crave a little background, the transit union has been on strike for several weeks, and the federal government has ordered the union to submit the City's latest offer to a vote by the membership, which the union leadership had been refusing to do.)

This would be a great opportunity for union-bashing, but that's really not the issue here. This attitude of "l'État c'est moi" is hardly unique to union leaders. Company executives, government leaders, pastors, school administrators - they all can fall into this trap and frequently do. Most of them have the brains not to express it so baldly in public.

André Cornellier needs to realize that he is a servant of his members and that THEY ARE the union. If he is so confident that the City's offer is unacceptable, he has nothing to worry about. His public pugnaciousness on this issue seems to indicate a fear that they will not toe the line he has drawn in the sand. It sounds to me like leadership that I would be eager to reject if I were a member of his union.

Are you in a position of leadership? What do you do to prevent yourself from taking on this arrogant attitude? It's such an easy slippery slope to slide down. Or do you see this attitude in the leaders over you? Does it cause you to lose confidence in them? Should it?


Technorati tags: André Cornellier, Ottawa bus strike

I am reluctantly changing my mind

I hate conspiracy theories. Especially big conspiracy theories. I rarely give them the time of day. I don't read about them, I avoid conversations about them, and listen with glassy-eyed politeness when such conversations are imposed on me. Nutbars see conspiracies everywhere and some of them are pretty persuasive. I have better things to do with my time than to even try to debunk them.

At the repeated urging of a family member or two, I have finally taken the time to consider the evidence presented by Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth. This is a group of professionals who have made a scientific analysis of the collapse of the three buildings in the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 and found the official explanations not only wanting, but impossible.

These are not wild-eyed ranters and ravers, but bespectacled, balding men in business suits with Power Point presentations and a lot of hard evidence, the kind of thing I can respect. This is not the sort of presentation that normally brings me close to tears, but in this case I found myself struggling a time or two. The implications are horrific.

Here is Richard Gage, founder of the organization, giving one of his recent public presentations. Be forewarned, this is lengthy. Explore their website if you prefer. You will find no political theorizing, no demonization, but a great deal of skepticism toward official explanations, and a lot of science. The basic thesis? That the towers were brought down in a controlled demolition, not in a spontaneous collapse. They present ten characteristics of controlled demolitions that were demonstrably present, and none of which can be explained by official theories.

There are now well over 500 architects and engineers publicly demanding a new, independent inquiry. What do you think?


Technorati tags: Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth, World Trade Center

Oh du froehliche

A German boys' choir - the Regensburger Domspatzen - singing a cappella for Christmas Eve. This is one of my favourite German carols that doesn't get wide play in English. I'm not sure if it was originally written in German or not, but ever since my high school German teacher made us learn it and lead the school in singing it (speaking euphemistically) I've had a soft spot for it nonetheless.



The choir (the Regensburg Dome Sparrows) goes back more than a thousand years, which in itself inspires thoughts of eternity, doesn't it?

And I would like to wish all readers of this blog a very merry and blessed Christmas and a happy Chanukah season.


Technorati tags: Christmas music, Oh du froehlich, Regensburger Domspatzen

Mary, Did You Know?

I came out of my cultural cave to discover this modern Christmas carol just recently, years after everybody else, apparently. I don't know the singer here either, but I very much like what I see. The simplicity of the music is a perfect foil for an acoustic guitar accompaniment and I have a long-established preference for alto voices. Kathy Mattea invests this with passion too, which counts a lot for me.



This carol struck me for another reason. I wrote a carol myself years ago with a similar theme, except I addressed the questions to Jesus, asking him if he told his mother.


Technorati tags: Mary, Did You Know?, Christmas Music, Kathy Mattea

Joy to the World, Yes Sir!

Aretha Franklin puts the joy in "Joy to the World" Yes sir!

Ignore the inexplicable jingly bits at the beginning and end.




Technorati tags: Christmas Music, Joy to the World, Aretha Franklin