Won't Be CNN Headlines

May 27, 2008
Feminist Alice Walker’s daughter on how terrible of a mother she is:


Great example of how a woman was put on anti-depressants for a purely situational depression. (She and her husband moved to France. She didn’t speak French and her husband started hanging out a lot without her. Their marriage fell apart).

What else could be done with the money?

As we are poised to spend billions on tackling the uncertain issue of global warming, the question must be asked, what else could be done with the money?

There are a limited number of resources to tackle the world's problems. Should global warming be the number one issue? That's what the Copenhagen Consensus is asking:


WSJ -The pain caused by the global food crisis has led many people to belatedly realize that we have prioritized growing crops to feed cars instead of people. That is only a small part of the real problem.

This crisis demonstrates what happens when we focus doggedly on one specific – and inefficient – solution to one particular global challenge. A reduction in carbon emissions has become an end in itself. The fortune spent on this exercise could achieve an astounding amount of good in areas that we hear a lot less about.

Research for the Copenhagen Consensus, in which Nobel laureate economists analyze new research about the costs and benefits of different solutions to world problems, shows that just $60 million spent on providing Vitamin A capsules and therapeutic Zinc supplements for under-2-year-olds would reach 80% of the infants in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, with annual economic benefits (from lower mortality and improved health) of more than $1 billion. That means doing $17 worth of good for each dollar spent. Spending $1 billion on tuberculosis would avert an astonishing one million deaths, with annual benefits adding up to $30 billion. This gives $30 back on the dollar.

What Passes for Science These Days

Livescience.com -

The dire situations in cyclone-battered Myanmar and quake-tossed southwestern China and the impulse of many to offer relief have a lot to do with human nature. Our hunter-gatherer ancestors likely did it, and non-human primates do it......

• No mention of religion?

...Though the decision to help tends to be rooted in our evolutionary history and driven by emotions, a weighing of costs and benefits takes place, though not consciously...

• No mention of religion?

Empathy is a capacity we use freely with those close to us, but can disappear when there are competing interests," de Waal said. "For example, if letting in aid organizations undermines one's power (as may be the case with a military dictatorship), the empathy may be suppressed or not emerge at all."

• The only thing standing in the way of their empathy is their desire to hold power? Not that they lack empathy?

Greenhouse Gas Math Problem

The short answer. Those, like John McCain, who want to reduce face a little problem of math. McCain and others want to "reduce carbon emissions in 2050 by 60% of 1990 levels." Here the problem in a few easy steps:

• First, the population growth means the per capita carbon emissions reduction is much less that 60%, closer to 80%.
  
• Carbon emissions mainly come from transportation (about 10-20%) or electricity usage (80-90%) when fossil fuels are burned.
  
• The only way to reduce carbon emissions is to reduce fossil fuel combustion.

1. Ignoring some costs and consequential economic problems, here's what could be done without completely changing your lifestyle (what is suggested for you to do):
   
2. Everyone drive a hybrid - reduce carbon via driving by 50%
   
3. Everyone install solar panels - reduce carbon via electricity by 15%
   
4. Install more wind farms - reduce carbon via electricity by another 5%
   
5. Build more nuclear plants - reduce carbon via electricity by another 20%
   

Okay, so if everything that is suggested is done (ignorning costs) you get at best a 40% reduction. The other 40% must come from demand reduction. Less travel, less air conditioning, etc, will hurt both the economy and the nation's health (remember deaths caused by the heat wave in France?).

How's Castro Liking Retirement?

On February 18th, Castro "announced" he would permanently retire, in a newspaper article, and the press made a big deal about it. In all of the coverage I saw, not one person even speculated that he could be dead already and his death was being hidden to allow Raul Castro to consolidate power. The guy hasn't been seen in public for about 2 years and not one journalist even speculates a remote possibility that Castro might possibly be dead already. The only other possibility is that he is gone mentally and doesn't even understand his surroundings. Both scenarios make his newspaper articles ridiculous frauds.

I'd say in another 3 months or so, they'll announce that Castro is dead. My guess is August 13th, his birthday. Then they'll make a big specticle of his funeral with round-the-clock coverage.