Lies about unemployment

We've examined before the ways in which our government and our politicians lie to us concerning the unemployment rate.  Both sides of the political aisle do so with equal enthusiasm and lack of shame.  Neither the Democratic nor Republican parties want us to know the truth about the unemployment rate . . . because if the entire electorate did know, we'd be so outraged by their mendacity and duplicity that we'd vote the lot of them out of office.  I still hope against hope that Americans will one day wake from their political apathy and do just that . . .

Be that as it may, last week's unemployment report for June tried to persuade us that the 'official' U3 unemployment rate was unchanged at 8.2%.  This is, of course, a bare-faced lie.  The data have been 'massaged' to produce this result.  Here's the most important evidence of that, from no less a source than the Federal Reserve's official statistics.

You can see that the proportion of employed persons as a percentage of the total US population has dropped precipitously since the start of the recession in 2008.  It's never recovered.  What's happened in terms of the unemployment rate is that most of those who've lost their jobs have simply been officially erased from the ranks of the unemployed.  If you haven't applied for a job recently, or have given up trying, or you're underemployed and desperately looking for more work to earn more money to make ends meet, as far as the US government is concerned, you don't count.  You're not considered 'unemployed'.  The broader measure of unemployment, known as U6, does take such people into account - and it's showing an unemployment rate of about 15%, not 8.2%!

Even the U6 rate has been 'massaged' to reflect the best possible picture.  John Williams of Shadowstats, who calculates unemployment using the broad measures that were employed before 'politically correct' adjustments were made to the calculations, believes that the actual unemployment rate right now is about 23%.  It's the blue line marked as 'SGS Alternate' in the chart below.

So, when you hear politicians pontificating that so many tens of thousands of jobs have been created, and the economy's improving, and yada yada yada . . . remember that they're cynically, callously and deliberately lying to you.  The truth is not in them.  If you doubt that, ask the unemployed!

Peter

The ups and downs of excavators

I was amazed at the skill shown by the operator of this 14-ton excavator in getting it down from the top of a silage heap.

Of course, other excavator operators may be less skilled . . .

Oops!





Peter

A somber perspective on Obamacare

Former Communist Ion Mihai Pacepa gives us his unique perspective on the reality of Obamacare and its likely consequences for America.

In my other life in Communist Romania, I managed a large intelligence organization that, among other tasks, was charged with keeping alive a nationalized health care system which in the end bankrupted the country and generated popular contempt. That system, very similar to the Affordable Health Care for America Act, was a bureaucratic nightmare. And it still is a nightmare in the former Soviet empire.

. . .

It is time for us to paddle our own canoe. The first three words in the U.S. Constitution are “We the people.” So let us have “we the people” decide what kind of health care we want, because our tax money is paying for it. In order to make responsible decisions in the November election, “we the people” need to know the truth: the United States is today rated No. 1 in the world when it comes to medical responsiveness and quality of health care, and there is no reason to rush to change our system overnight.

In the U.S., the doctor is king. This is crucial for saving people’s lives. If the doctor thinks there is something wrong with his patient, he can immediately start all kinds of diagnostic tests, get the results as soon as possible, and start treatment immediately. Yet in Great Britain, where the nationalized health care system is managed by bureaucrats, a patient has to wait some 18 weeks for an MRI.

In the U.S., a person can be scheduled for surgery the next day, but in Canada’s nationalized health care system, one has to wait months for a surgery. In the U.S., a doctor’s ability to act quickly without having to wait for bureaucratic approvals can make the difference between life and death.

The Nobel Prize for medicine tells the rest of the story. During the last century, the United States’ free market medical care system was rewarded with 72 Nobel prizes. The Soviet Union, which invented the nationalized health care system, won none. Zero. (Tsarist Russia did get one Nobel Prize for medicine in 1904, for Pavlov’s conditional reflex theory.)

Another truth: the U.S. health care system can and should be improved, but in 2008 and 2009 the country was going through the second-worst economic crisis in its history, and improving the economy should have been the most immediate task. When the Democratic Party came to power, however, it had been so infected by Marxism that it started its reign by nationalizing our health care system. This has always been the first thing Marxist rulers do whenever they take over.

There's much more at the link.  It's well worth reading in full.

Peter

It's time to 'up' the swans again . . .

Most Americans have never heard of a quaint but very historic ceremony conducted on the Thames River in England every July.  It's known as 'Swan Upping'.  The Telegraph reports:

Because they were once royal fare, all swans on open water – bar those at the Abbotsbury Swannery in Dorset – technically belong to the Crown, though this prerogative is exercised only on the Thames and its tributaries. In the 1400s, co-ownership over the Thames swans was awarded to two City of London livery companies, the Dyers and Vintners. Every July a ritual known as Swan Upping takes place on the river to the west of London, so the swans can be counted and claimed.

So, from Monday, July 16, starting at Sunbury, a cheery-looking chap in white ducks, a blazer of the sort of fire-engine red normally seen only at the Henley Regatta and, literally, a feather in his cap, will supervise six old-fashioned skiffs on a five-day progress upriver, gently lifting (“upping”) the swans to count the cygnets and check their health. Broods of swans lie quietly on the riverbank, adults tethered leg and wing with soft twine, while fluffy cygnets, peeping anxiously, are weighed in a rudimentary sling before being checked over and ringed.

There can’t be many more charming ways to have a break in the Thames Valley than to follow the route of the boats, whether for a day’s jaunt or for a longer stay: the whole thing is so absurdly English, the liveries worn and flags flown easily rival those on show at the Diamond Jubilee River Pageant and the Uppers potter past some of our most attractive riverside pubs. The only things missing are Ratty and Mole, or Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog).

“It’s not about providing food for banquets these days, of course,” explains David Barber, the man in the scarlet blazer who is the Queen’s Swan Marker. “It’s about education and swan welfare.” David’s role has existed in some form for 800 years. He is rowed upstream in a 30-year-old mahogany skiff known as the Crown Boat by Royal Swan Uppers in white breeches and red tops. They work with five other skiffs, one royal, two flying the blue Dyers’ flag and two flying the black-and-white flag of the Vintners. All the Swan Uppers are watermen of the River Thames.

The ceremony is in July because at least one of each pair of adult birds will be in moult and unable to fly.

There's more at the link.  Here's a video featuring the Queen's Swan Marker, who explains what the annual ceremony entails.

A fascinating bit of almost medieval history, continued into our present day.

Peter

In Memoriam: Ernest Borgnine

I learned with sorrow that actor Ernest Borgnine died in Los Angeles today.  He was 95 years old.

I'm not much of a cinema-goer, but I can honestly say I've never seen a performance by Mr. Borgnine that I didn't enjoy.  He was an actor of the old school.  His views on acting are summed up well in this 2010 interview, where he discusses what is, to me, his greatest performance in the classic quasi-Western movie 'The Wild Bunch'.

There are too few actors like him today.  May he rest in peace.

Peter

Doofus Of The Day #617

The video below is self-explanatory.

Oops . . .



Peter

A very expressive sign!

Received by e-mail, original source unknown:

Peter

Who paid for this research, anyway?

I'd dearly love to know who decided that this research was worth funding . . .

Moderate amounts of alcohol -- consumed in a social setting -- can serve as a social lubricate, U.S. researchers suggest.

Lead author Michael A. Sayette, professor of psychology at the University of Pittsburgh, said it is usually taken for granted that people drink to reduce stress and enhance positive feelings, but many studies have shown that alcohol consumption has an opposite effect.

Previous studies tested the impact of alcohol on those who drink alone rather than in groups.

"Those studies may have failed to create realistic conditions for studying this highly social drug," Sayette said in a statement. "We felt that many of the most significant effects of alcohol would more likely be revealed in an experiment using a social setting."

There's more at the link.

I can only say, "No s***, Sherlock!"

Now, where can I get funding for a few experiments I have in mind?  They involve alcohol, inhibitions, and the reduction thereof.  Any suggestions?  Any volunteers willing to assist in this highly academic and scientific project?





Peter

Is this the biggest financial scandal in history?

Readers are probably aware of the LIBOR scandal that's been boiling over for the past week or so.  If you haven't been following it, you should!  It first came to light back in February, and has grown to colossal dimensions.  It looks set fair to become the biggest financial scandal in history in terms of the sums involved.  It affects financial instruments with a total value estimated to range from about $350 trillion (yes, that's 'trillion' with a T) to as high as $800 trillion - the latter sum being more than twelve times larger than the annual gross domestic product of every nation on earth put together!

You can find a brief summary of recent developments in this NPR news item, and a more detailed look in this report from The Economist.  Here's an excerpt from the latter.

The number that the traders were toying with determines the prices that people and corporations around the world pay for loans or receive for their savings. It is used as a benchmark to set payments on about $800 trillion-worth of financial instruments, ranging from complex interest-rate derivatives to simple mortgages. The number determines the global flow of billions of dollars each year. Yet it turns out to have been flawed.

Over the past week damning evidence has emerged, in documents detailing a settlement between Barclays and regulators in America and Britain, that employees at the bank and at several other unnamed banks tried to rig the number time and again over a period of at least five years. And worse is likely to emerge. Investigations by regulators in several countries, including Canada, America, Japan, the EU, Switzerland and Britain, are looking into allegations that LIBOR and similar rates were rigged by large numbers of banks. Corporations and lawyers, too, are examining whether they can sue Barclays or other banks for harm they have suffered. That could cost the banking industry tens of billions of dollars. “This is the banking industry’s tobacco moment,” says the chief executive of a multinational bank, referring to the lawsuits and settlements that cost America’s tobacco industry more than $200 billion in 1998. “It’s that big,” he says.

As many as 20 big banks have been named in various investigations or lawsuits alleging that LIBOR was rigged. The scandal also corrodes further what little remains of public trust in banks and those who run them.

There's more at the link.

It looks like there's been wholesale collusion between bankers, traders and regulators in this scandal.  It may demolish the last vestiges of trust in international banks (not that there's much of that left by now . . . )  The term 'bankster' may yet enter general usage, instead of remaining an 'insider' term. I highly recommend keeping an eye open for developing news about this scandal.  It has the potential to bring ruin to banks all over the world - and that means all of us will be affected by it.

Peter

Crime and technology

Here's a very interesting talk at a recent TEDx conference by Marc Goodman.  He addresses the topic of how technology is affecting crime, and how criminals are using it to target us.  I was particularly struck by his account of how terrorists are using technology, with specific reference to the Mumbai attacks of 2008.  You can watch that discussion about 11 minutes into the video.  It certainly gives me food for thought about what I need to do if I'm ever caught in such a situation!

Interesting and very enlightening.

Peter

Now this is an electric car I'd like to drive!

There's a new concept electric car on the road in England.  The Telegraph reports:

Currently code-named T27, this electric car is big enough to carry three people yet small enough to park head-on to the pavement – with three of them fitting into a single bay. However, its design is so abnormal it would look more at home in a children's cartoon, especially when you flip the front end forwards to get in.

Once the slack-jaw crowd disperses, you can settle yourself into the deceptively comfortable, wafer-thin seat that sits smack bang in the middle of things – just like in the McLaren F1. Two seats are nestled either side and can close down to give more storage space than a Mini with its rear bench folded.

Pull the canopy shut and light floods in like a greenhouse. Front and side visibility is first rate, but you need a keen eye to check what's tailing you via the four rear-facing mirrors – the lack of a traditional central one continually catches you out.

There's nothing too fancy about the knobs and dials on the dash and the motor starts with a conventional key. There's a small switch to select the only forward gear, then hit the throttle and the full force of 46lb ft of torque shoves you down the road at a smile-inducing lick. An audible whine accompanies you but so does your grin because this car is really good to drive. The central driving position is so flawless it's criminal this configuration isn't the law, and it allows you to feel every move of the sure-footed chassis underneath.

It's so slim compared with what else is on the road that you start thinking with a biker's brain. The smallest gaps in traffic become "lanes" that open up and tempt you, requiring massive restraint not to dive in.

Its electric power pack has enough juice to see you over 100 miles, 130 if your right foot is made of air. Energy is regenerated every time you slow down and the plug-in recharge takes four hours from flat to full.

. . .

The level of interest the T27 generated on our road test from every age group indicates it appeals to the masses as much as Henry Ford's Model T. And praise doesn't come much higher than that.

There's more at the link.

The car's just a concept at present, but apparently negotiations are in progress to manufacture it at an expected retail price in the region of US $11,000.  It certainly sounds like something that would interest me!  With a practical range of about 100 miles, it becomes a viable commuter even for a sprawling American city - and I like the compact design very much.  For dense urban traffic, particularly at non-highway speeds, there's a lot to be said for it.

Peter

Nudity, paintings, politics and paranoia, continued

Regular readers will remember the brouhaha over a painting of South African President Jacob Zuma with his genitals exposed.  We discussed it during May, adding our amusement to that of many South Africans.

The latest development is a cartoon by South African artist Zapiro, depicting President Zuma as (entirely) a set of genitals, accompanied by a derogatory limerick.  Since this is a family-friendly blog I can't reproduce it without risking offending someone, but if you want to see it, click here.  (WARNING - not safe for work or children!)

Given the President's past, I think the cartoon's hilarious, but the South African government is entirely (and unsurprisingly) unamused by it, while Zapiro is unapologetic.

The government on Friday called for the urgent removal of the latest Zapiro cartoon, which features an erect penis with a showerhead and legs with an accompanying limerick about President Jacob Zuma. "Government calls on Jonathan Shapiro [Zapiro] to withdraw his cartoon, and urges the Mail & Guardian to remove it from its website," government spokesperson Jimmy Manyi said.

The cartoon was a "defamatory attack" on Zuma's character and violated his rights to dignity as enshrined in the Constitution.

. . .

Shapiro said he is sceptical about the social cohesion summit because it is an attempt to encourage conformity rather than real diversity.

"Dissident views are essential for real change.  Irreverence toward leaders who take themselves too seriously is a vital part of democracy," he said in an email issued by his office.

He was responding to criticism of his cartoon, which was published in the Mail & Guardian on Friday.

"If ANC spokespeople feel the cartoon should be ignored then they are free to ignore it," he said.

There's more at the link.

Just goes to show:  if you're a known polygynist, adulterer and serial womanizer, sooner or later it's going to come back to haunt you, especially if you're a politician!





Peter

A business offering toys for big boys!

Full marks to the man who dreamed up this business idea.  I think the small boy inside every man would "Squeeee!" at the very thought!

You can read more about it here, and the company Web site is here.  Suffice it to say that if I lived closer to Minnesota, I'd be a customer!  It'd bring back memories of (some of) my misspent youth . . .

Peter

Technology and the future of human development

Doug Hornig, Senior Editor of Casey Research's Daily Dispatch, offers an interesting review of a book titled 'Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think'.  It examines the promise of technology to transform our lives in the near term.  Here's an excerpt.

Abundance was written by Peter Diamandis in collaboration with journalist Steven Kotler. Diamandis, for those who don't already know him, is a 51-year-old world-class futurist, innovator, and entrepreneur. He has degrees in molecular biology and aerospace engineering from MIT, as well as an M.D. from Harvard Medical School. He's founded or cofounded a staggering array of new companies and organizations, including the X Prize Foundation, Singularity University, the International Space University, and the Space Generation Foundation, among others. In April of this year, his name hit the headlines again as cofounder of his latest venture, Planetary Resources, Inc. – backed by Google's Eric Schmidt and Larry Page, Ross Perot, Jr., and film titan James Cameron, among others. It is dedicated to developing the commercial feasibility of asteroid mining. This guy does not think small.

The book is not full of the pie-in-the-sky dreams of visionaries ungrounded in reality. Rather, it focuses on technology that is right here, right now, or will be in the very near future ...

Diamandis is also a man after our own hearts with his commitment to the free-market system and his disdain for government's invariably botched attempts to "help" people in need. Regarding the latter, he quotes economist William Easterly who points out, "The West has spent $2.3 trillion in foreign aid over the past five decades and still has not managed to get twelve-cent medicines to children to prevent half of all malarial deaths." It'd be difficult to find one sentence that better sums up the ongoing futility of a policy that enriches a few corrupt kleptocrats at the expense of millions of others.

The way forward, Diamandis understands, is through technology. That's what got us out of the caves in the first place, and it is what will forge a future that is bright not only for those nations now privileged, but for everyone. And the first thing that needs be done, as always, is to secure the essentials of life. Food, water, energy, shelter.

Take water, for example – a huge concern in many parts of the world. Diamandis details the work of Dean Kamen, a self-taught physicist, inventor, and multimillionaire entrepreneur who started out devising a more efficient way of getting sterile water to dialysis patients, who need five gallons a day. Then Kamen began thinking more broadly, not just about helping, in his words, "a few tens of thousands of dialysis patients … if I made a different machine … it might help a few billion people."

So he did. In 2003, he perfected the Slingshot – a machine the size of a dorm-room refrigerator, with a power cord, an intake hose, and an outflow hose. It can produce 250 gallons of water a day, using the same amount of energy it takes to run a hair dryer, provided by an engine that can burn just about anything (it's been run on cow dung). It's designed to run maintenance-free for at least five years.

Says Kamen: "Stick the intake hose into anything wet – arsenic-laden water, salt water, the latrine, the holding tanks of a chemical waste treatment plant; really, anything wet – and the outflow is one hundred percent pure pharmaceutical-grade injectable water."

The Slingshot costs about $100,000, but Kamen figures machines could be mass produced to sell for $2,500, with another $2,500 for the engine. Amortized over five years, that pegs the cost of producing nearly 1,000 liters of drinking water per day at a microscopic $0.0027/liter. Kamen has negotiated a deal with Coca-Cola to launch a series of Slingshot field trials. One bright guy has partnered with a global giant that sees the commercial potential, and between them they're poised to resolve an enormous problem that's vexed governments and NGOs forever.

There's more at the link.  The review itself is very informative, and it's making me think seriously about buying the book, too.  Whether or not you do that, I think the information provided is worth thinking about.

Peter

Doofus Of The Day #616

Today's winner is from Bainbridge Island, Washington.

The Grand Old Fourth celebration is always a big deal in this island community, featuring a pancake breakfast, a parade with community-service groups and kids' soccer teams, and of course the annual fireworks show over Eagle Harbor — a show that this year, nine days before the big event, went up in smoke.

Literally. Fireworks for Bainbridge Island's Fourth of July show, along with fireworks for neighboring Poulsbo's show, were packed, organized and stored ready to go in a container at an auto-wrecking yard a few miles away. Then, authorities say, the operator of the wrecking yard decided to go outside and try out his new rifle.

This is the part of the story where everybody winces.

"One of the shots hit a junk car in his yard and must've ricocheted and struck the (container) that contained $80,000 worth of fireworks. Well, within about a second the box contained no explosives," said Ron Krell of Viking Fest, who is helping organize Poulsbo's 3rd of July show. "It exploded, and we had the greatest fireworks show you ever would have wanted to not see."

Residents a mile away from the Belfair wrecking yard reported hearing the explosion last week. When it was over, only a smoking crater and the charred hulk of the container — which was propelled about 20 feet — marked the spot where everybody's Fourth of July plans used to be.

"It went boom," said Jeromy Hicks, investigator for Mason County Fire District 2, who was called to the scene. "I think it was a cascading series of explosions that lasted about a minute. I live a mile and a half away, and it shook my wife out of bed. She said, 'Man, I think we just had an earthquake.' Me, I sleep through anything."

There's more at the link.

I'm still trying to figure out why the owner of a scrapyard would be firing a rifle in his business premises at one in the morning!  I'd hazard a guess that beer was involved . . .





Peter

Rare earth minerals - economic barometer?

We've met rare earth minerals before in these pages.  Briefly, China supplies something like 90% of the world's rare earth element requirements.  They're essential components of almost every high-tech item you can think of - liquid crystal displays, cellphones, missile guidance systems, the lot.

That's why a new policy in China is worth more than passing interest.  The Telegraph reports:

China has started stockpiling rare earths for strategic reserves, a state-backed newspaper said, in a move which may raise more worries over Beijing's control of the coveted resources.

China has already started the purchase - using state funds - and storage of rare earths for strategic reserves, the China Securities Journal said, but did not say exactly when the initiative was launched.

. . .

Major trading partners last month asked the World Trade Organization (WTO) to form a panel to resolve a dispute over China's export limits on rare earths after earlier consultations through the global trade body failed.

The European Union, the US and Japan claim China is unfairly choking off exports of the commodities to benefit domestic industries.

. . .

Gao Yunhu, vice-director of the rare earths office of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said its management of the industry was "in full compliance with WTO rules".

Chinese market players hope the strategic buying will help stabilise prices, which plunged in the first half of this year after companies sold stocks ahead of planned tax changes, the newspaper said.

"Rare earths prices are now at low levels, so China definitely wants to build strategic reserves at this time," a Shanghai-based metals analyst, who declined to be named, told AFP.

"The other reason is that China hopes to control rare earth prices within a reasonable range, so as to encourage the long-term, healthy development of downstream industries."

Government stockpiling could reduce the volume of China's exports of rare earths, the analyst said.

There's more at the link.

There are all sorts of interesting clues hidden in that report.  Consider:

• If world demand for rare earths was still high, prices would not have 'plunged in the first half of this year', as the Chinese source alleged.  Instead, prices would have remained steady, or even increased.
• If prices have 'plunged' this year, it can only mean that demand for rare earths has plunged as well - and that bodes very ill indeed for the high-tech manufacturing sector, which is essentially the only market for rare earths.
• If high-tech manufacturing has also 'plunged', it can only be because orders for high-tech products from First World wholesalers and retailers have declined significantly;  and that will only have happened if consumer demand for such items has declined significantly.  However, the high-tech segment of consumer demand (e.g. computers, tablets, smartphones, high-end TV's, etc.) has traditionally resisted economic decline better than most.  If this sector of the economy is now in decline, it's a harbinger of much more widespread economic difficulties.
• China may, indeed, be increasing its stockpiles of rare earths, taking advantage of lower prices.  However, the funds it's using to do so are funds it would normally have invested in bonds and other sovereign debt investments in Europe and the USA.  If it's now diverting billions of dollars to build up rare earth stockpiles instead, that means its investment in US treasuries will inevitably be less - meaning it'll be that much harder for this country to fund its ongoing debt financing of government (over)expenditure.

All that can be inferred merely from a Chinese policy change on rare earth exports.  Makes you think, doesn't it?

Peter

Some spectacular crashes

A few weeks ago I wrote about the Isle of Man TT motorcycle race.  This year's event is now over, but I came across this very interesting news report about the race, with comments from a rider who's a frequent participant.  It also has footage of some very spectacular crashes indeed!  I recommend watching it in full-screen mode.

As I've said before, you couldn't pay me enough to get me to do that!





Peter

Some amazing photographs of Bryde's whales

I came across a wonderful series of photographs of Bryde's whales in the Daily Mail this morning. Here are a couple of examples, reduced in size to fit this blog.

They were taken in the Gulf of California off the coast of La Paz, Mexico.

There are more (and much larger) photographs at the link.  Stunning pictures, well worth your time to click over there.

Peter

Doofus Of The Day #615

Today's winner is a hapless politician from North Carolina.

Rep. Becky Carney, a five-term Democrat from Charlotte, burst into tears after mistakenly voting with Republicans to override Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue’s veto of the contentious legislation. The measure lifts the ban on hydraulic fracturing as a means for mining for natural gas.

Ms. Carney and other Democrats asked for a do-over, as is common when a member pushes the wrong button. But in this instance, Republicans said no. A change in Carney’s vote would have changed the outcome, which is against the House rules. But Ms. Carney asked for the rules to be suspended so she could change her vote, but got nowhere.

There's more at the link.

Embarrassing for her, particularly since hers was the deciding vote that put the measure 'over the top' to override the Governor's veto.  I wonder what the punishment is for aiding and abetting the 'enemy' (a.k.a. 'Republicans') in that fashion?  Will they make her vote Green for the next year as a carbon offset?





Peter

An interesting artist

I recently came across the art of Gregory Euclide through an article in the Daily Mail.  He lives in Minnesota, where he teaches as well as creates artworks.  I was particularly interested in his 'temporary art' that he creates on whiteboards over lunch, then wipes clean.

It's very Oriental in perspective, where the act of creation is as much of a work of art as the artwork itself.  Even if the latter is destroyed, the creative process remains.

Mr. Euclide's now published a collection of ten of these 'temporary artworks'.  You can see them in the Daily Mail article and as a set on his Flickr photostream, from where I've drawn the two small samples shown above.  I highly recommend clicking on each thumbnail image at the link, then clicking it again to display all sizes, and viewing it in the largest that your monitor can accommodate.

He has other works of art on his general Flickr photostream, and more information on his Web site.  Both are recommended viewing.

Peter

E-books - tracking their readers?

I wasn't surprised to learn that e-books - of which I'm an avid consumer - are also being used to build a profile of their users.  The Wall Street Journal reports:

It takes the average reader just seven hours to read the final book in Suzanne Collins's "Hunger Games" trilogy on the Kobo e-reader—about 57 pages an hour. Nearly 18,000 Kindle readers have highlighted the same line from the second book in the series: "Because sometimes things happen to people and they're not equipped to deal with them." And on Barnes & Noble's Nook, the first thing that most readers do upon finishing the first "Hunger Games" book is to download the next one.

For centuries, reading has largely been a solitary and private act, an intimate exchange between the reader and the words on the page. But the rise of digital books has prompted a profound shift in the way we read, transforming the activity into something measurable and quasi-public.

. . .

The major new players in e-book publishing—Amazon, Apple and Google—can easily track how far readers are getting in books, how long they spend reading them and which search terms they use to find books. Book apps for tablets like the iPad, Kindle Fire and Nook record how many times readers open the app and how much time they spend reading. Retailers and some publishers are beginning to sift through the data, gaining unprecedented insight into how people engage with books.

. . .

Barnes & Noble, which accounts for 25% to 30% of the e-book market through its Nook e-reader, has recently started studying customers' digital reading behavior. Data collected from Nooks reveals, for example, how far readers get in particular books, how quickly they read and how readers of particular genres engage with books. Jim Hilt, the company's vice president of e-books, says the company is starting to share their insights with publishers to help them create books that better hold people's attention.

. . .

Mr. Hilt says that the company is still in "the earliest stages of deep analytics" and is sifting through "more data than we can use." But the data—which focuses on groups of readers, not individuals—has already yielded some useful insights into how people read particular genres. Some of the findings confirm what retailers already know by glancing at the best-seller lists. For example, Nook users who buy the first book in a popular series like "Fifty Shades of Grey" or "Divergent," a young-adult series by Veronica Roth, tend to tear through all the books in the series, almost as if they were reading a single novel.

Barnes & Noble has determined, through analyzing Nook data, that nonfiction books tend to be read in fits and starts, while novels are generally read straight through, and that nonfiction books, particularly long ones, tend to get dropped earlier. Science-fiction, romance and crime-fiction fans often read more books more quickly than readers of literary fiction do, and finish most of the books they start. Readers of literary fiction quit books more often and tend skip around between books.

Those insights are already shaping the types of books that Barnes & Noble sells on its Nook.

There's more at the link.  Interesting and recommended reading.

I wonder whether this sort of information will be made available to authors?  It might help them craft their books to better suit their target demographic.  If it helps publishers, why shouldn't it be used to help those who supply the publishers with their raw material?

Peter

Happy birthday, America! Gird your loins!

On this 4th of July, as an adopted son of this country, I'd like to thank my foster-countrymen for welcoming me into their family.  May all of us celebrate this anniversary with the solemnity it deserves and the joy it merits.

Let us also use it to gird up our loins, mentally, physically, intellectually, morally and spiritually.  We face a threat to the existence of the very essence of this country, what America was intended to be by its Founding Fathers.  That threat has been too long ignored or played down - and that mistake has proved almost fatal.  Today the threat has grown until it seems overwhelming, about to roll over the last vestiges of the ideals upon which this country was established in a giant tsunami of statism, socialism, group-centrism and anti-individualism.  The recent Supreme Court decision about Obamacare was merely its latest manifestation.

However, although many battles - too many - have been lost, I don't believe that the ideals of the Founders have been defeated.  Too many who believed in them have lived and died for them, and the tree of liberty has been watered far too many times.  I don't - I cannot - believe the war is lost.  I shall live the rest of my life doing my best to give active expression to that belief, and keep up the fight.

In 1940, Britain faced military catastrophe.  Winston Churchill said at the time:

His words apply very profoundly to us today.  The danger we face in these United States at this time isn't an invading army, but our enemy is no less relentless and determined, and no less opposed to everything for which we stand.  We fight now for the survival of individual freedom and liberty, individual rights and responsibilities.  Our enemy fights for the extinction of the individual as a political force, and his replacement by the amorphous, deviant, moral morass that is group rights and entitlements.  Wherever the latter has been implemented, it has led to the ruin of the societies that tried it.  This is imminent in Europe, and is very visible in parts of this country as we speak.

The battle between these world views will not cease unless and until one side or the other is victorious - and even then, it may blaze up once more in future generations.  In the American Revolution, it has been said, only a relatively small minority (perhaps 20%) of this country's people supported the struggle (and not all of them actively).  They were opposed by those who remained loyal to Britain, and a vastly greater number who were politically neutral, not supporting one side or the other.  That sounds rather similar in terms of proportions to the political forces opposed to each other at present, doesn't it?

The difference between Revolutionary times and our own is that our battle is not fought with guns, nor can victory be obtained using them, because guns can never implant liberty or inspire it in the hearts of human beings.  They can only defend liberty if it is already there.  In the long run, liberty cannot be forced upon people who choose in their hearts to be slaves.  They will simply surrender it again at the earliest opportunity.  As evidence of this, witness those who whimper daily for more government handouts, and willingly surrender their individual liberties - even their capacity for rational thought - to those who offer to provide and/or increase 'entitlements'.  Such people will always choose the easy way.  Our enemies know that they can always rely on their support at the polls, provided they promise to force others - us - to pay for what the entitlement-seekers want, rather than make them work to earn it themselves.

I suggest we adopt a paraphrase of Winston Churchill's words as our thought for this day.

"Upon this battle depends the survival of [American] civilization ... and the long continuity of our institutions and our [nation].  The whole fury and might of the enemy [is now] turned on us. [They know] that [they] will have to break us ... or lose the war. If we can stand up to [them], all [America] may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted [social theory and politics]. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if [this nation lasts] for a thousand years, men will still say, "This was their finest hour."

Peter

Over 200 mph . . . on ice?

This story dates from February last year, but I hadn't come across it until today.  Eurotuner reported:

Finland’s four-time world rally champion Juha Kankkunen drove a Bentley Continental Supersports Convertible on the frozen waters of the Baltic Sea, off the coast of Finland, at a breathtaking 205.48mph (330.695km/h) to set a new world speed record on ice.

. . .

With the help of his experienced team plus Bentley engineers, Kankkunen overcame the challenges of temperatures as low as -30˚C, sudden snow blizzards and potentially dangerous crosswinds on the 16.5km track on a 70cm/28”-thick layer of sea ice. The record attempt was driven over a kilometer-long measured distance, with the speed certified by officials from the Finland Traffic Police.

. . .

“200mph came up after 5km on sheet ice. Then it was just a question of getting everything right in the timing zone and hoping the snow kept away. There’s nothing to beat driving a Bentley at these speeds; the conditions may be perilous but the car responds so well to the slightest adjustment, which gives you the confidence to push even harder.”

As with the previous record-breaking drive, the Anglo-Finnish team used a car with minimum modifications. A fully-welded, heavy-duty safety rollcage, along with 275/40 R20 Pirelli SottoZero II winter tires and a rear bumper-mounted parachute were the only provisions made. Front and rear spoilers also provided high-speed stability on the treacherous surface.

There's more at the link.  Here's a video clip of the record attempt.

I note they made the run when the sun was barely above the horizon.  Thinking about it, that makes sense - the sun wouldn't have been warm enough to melt the ice, creating a slippery surface.  Not something one has to worry about in an average speed record attempt, no?

Peter

Is it any wonder so many don't trust the police?

Two recent reports of police misconduct have me seething.

1. A policeman in Crestview, Florida has been fired and is under investigation for planting evidence to justify a search warrant - allegedly at the instigation of his supervisor.
2. A complaint by several Nevada Highway Patrol officers alleges that 'drug-sniffing dogs ... were intentionally being trained ... to alert their handlers by cues, instead of by picking up a drug's scent by sniffing ... When a dog gives a false alert, this resulted in illegal searches and seizures, including money and property'.

These are two more examples of how the War On (Some) Drugs has corrupted many police forces, sheriffs' departments and other law enforcement agencies, by offering them a financial incentive (i.e. seizure of drug-related property) to find evidence with which to convict suspects.  Radley Balko has reported many more such incidents over the years, including this one.

I suggest that we remove that incentive as soon and as completely as possible.  If law enforcement agencies don't profit from increased arrests, they won't be tempted to short-circuit the Constitution and laws of this country in order to help themselves.

Peter

'Confessions of a driving instructor'

That's the title of an amusing (and sometimes hair-raising) article in Popular Mechanics.  Here's an excerpt.

"Did you forget your glasses?" I asked the driver as politely as possible, hoping to hide my frustration under a joke. (The other choice was to throw my helmet, which is frowned upon but not unprecedented.) "I left them at home," she said, her right foot planted firmly on the accelerator, and traffic cones flying everywhere. "I can't see a thing!" I prayed, poorly, and said under my breath the motto of right-seat driving instructors everywhere: "Today's a beautiful day to die."

. . .

It was the 15-year-old's initial driving lesson. As we pulled up to the first stop sign in his neighborhood, he pounded the brake pedal and I lurched forward in my seat. "Let's be a bit gentler on the brake," I said, wondering how close I'd come to a skull fracture.

Despite my coaching, the same thing happened at the next stop. And the one after that. "Does your father allow you to drive much?" I asked. "He's afraid to ride with me," the boy replied, at which point I wanted to say, "You think?!"

For 30 long minutes (of the scheduled 60), I tried to smooth out his binary braking, with little success. We returned early to his house so I could show his father some techniques that might make Dad a more comfortable passenger and let the son get some practice before the next lesson. Sure enough, with Dad behind the wheel we approached the first stop sign... and he pounded on the brakes.

There's more at the link.

The article certainly made me wince as I recalled my Dad's irascibility when he was teaching me to drive . . . I now believe he may have had reason for his mood!  It also confirms my intention never, ever to take up driving instruction as an alternate career!





Peter

Is this really a good idea?

I was more than a little taken aback to read this report.

Michigan hopes to keep drunks off the road with the help from a special message in men's bathrooms featuring an attention-getting woman's voice.

Talking urinal-deodorizer cakes have been distributed to Michigan Licensed Beverage Association members in Wayne County, including Detroit, state officials announced. A recorded message will play reminding men who step up to the urinals to call a cab or a friend, if needed, to get home safely.

"Not only do we want to turn some heads and get people talking, we hope everyone takes the message to heart," Michael L. Prince, director of the Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning, said in a statement.

There's more at the link.

Dear Mr. Prince, kindly note the following:

1. If I'm peeing into a receptacle that suddenly starts talking back, it might just be the urination of me!
2. If I'm tired or distracted, and suddenly hear a strange voice emanating that close to my family jewels, gunfire might well result as I attempt to ward off what will probably appear to be the imminent threat of a bite.  (Is there such a thing as 'urinal dentata'?)
3. Any suggestion from a talking urinal that I might need a courtesy driver is unlikely to be well received unless the damn thing can back it up with a urinalysis printout.

Sheesh!  Now Big Brother's even getting in our face (or, I should say, other portions of anatomy) in the boy's room!  Isn't this a classic example of the need to cut back on government overreach?





Peter

How Walmart has changed America

To mark Walmart's 50th anniversary, Time magazine has a very interesting multi-part article titled '10 Ways Walmart Changed the World'.  I'm not sure it's changed the whole world (yet), but I'm sure it's done as the article claims to the economies of the USA and most other First World nations.  I can remember supermarkets getting started in South Africa in the 1960's and 1970's, with chains such as Pick 'n Pay clearly showing the influence of Walmart in their layout, merchandizing, etc.

The Time article goes into several aspects of retail operations that I found very interesting.  (My business background and experience was in the information technology industry, and the companies for whom I worked weren't in the retail environment, so much of this was new to me.)  Among other points of interest were:

Selection:  'When you step in the front door of a Walmart the range of things that’s available within 50 steps of you, 100 steps of you is kind of mind boggling. Fifty years ago, when Sam Walton first started, even the richest person in the world couldn’t step into a room and have access to the range of products that we have now. You can buy potting soil and a Timex watch, and it doesn’t seem weird.'

Data-driven management:  'In 1985, Walton and his chief lieutenant, David Glass, began developing a program called Retail Link. The software, and the hardware that went along with it, took years to perfect, eventually costing $4 billion. This revolutionary system delivered sophisticated information on consumer behavior, drawn from the data imbedded in the barcodes that passed through checkout counters ... At the heart Wal-Mart’s offer to share its software program was a Faustian bargain for suppliers: Use our Retail Link program, play by our new rules and we will be your gateway to sales beyond your wildest dreams. Or refuse, and be shut out of America’s dominant retail chain. In fact, by sharing Retail Link, Wal-Mart gained command over its suppliers and effectively penetrated their executive decision-making.'

The Culture Of Overconsumption:  'Walmart’s push for low prices inevitably led to cheaper goods, once all the inefficiencies were wrung out of the supply chain. As Fishman writes, “Things become so cheap that it’s never worth repairing them.” This led to a culture of disposability as well as overconsumption'.

The Power Of Access:  'What makes Walmart a truly unique company is the way it is able to connect producers with consumers around the world with unimaginable efficiency. It is a force for interconnectivity and globalization in a way that even many Silicon Valley firms aren’t, and a vessel for the rewards and punishments of globalization. As Fishman says, “If you want to make something in Topeka, Walmart can sell it as easily in Costa Rica or China as they can in Kansas. If you’re a single entrepreneur in Mumbai, you don’t need a sales staff at all if you can sell it to Walmart, because they can sell it anywhere.” It’s this interconnectivity that has powered Walmart headlong into a new millennium, where it appears set to continue to thrive despite its size and the tenacity of its critics.'

There are many more insights at the link.  I found them very interesting, and I daresay anyone with even an academic interest in retail sales or marketing will do likewise.

Peter

The wit of Gerard Hoffnung

A few days ago I mentioned Gerard Hoffnung in passing during a post about recent travels.  It seems many of my readers have never heard of him - not surprising, perhaps, considering that he died tragically young.  Nevertheless, he was a much-loved humorist and musician in England during the 1950's.

He's perhaps best remembered for his speech to the Oxford Union in 1958, during which he introduced a comedy sketch that's since become world-famous:  'The Bricklayer's Lament'.  It's been copied and plagiarized by many artists and entertainers, but I much prefer the original.  Here it is.  (To hear Hoffnung's entire Oxford Union address - which I highly recommend - click here.  Be warned, however, that it's almost half an hour in length.)

I sometimes wonder how Gerard Hoffnung might have influenced both comedy and music if he'd been spared to live to a ripe old age.  If you'd like copies of what little of his work has survived, you'll find details at the official Web site established by his widow.

Peter

Doofus Of The Day #614

Today's award goes to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, part of the US Department of Justice.  WLWT-TV reports:

Federal officials have spent more than $8 million storing about $1 million worth of fireworks seized from a northern Kentucky dealer.

The storage costs continue to rise more than three years after a federal judge ordered the return of nearly half the fireworks.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is paying nearly $102,000 monthly to store 44 tractor loads of fireworks at the former Cornhusker Army Ammunition Plant in Nebraska. Some of the fireworks may now be dangerously unstable because they have not been stored properly for five years, the newspaper reports.

Fallout from the investigation forced the ATF to re-evaluate its practices and led a U.S. magistrate judge to recommend sanctions against the federal government.

. . .

"The court will stop short of finding ATF committed a fraud upon the court in filing these affidavits knowing the statements made therein to be false, but does find such assertions were made in bad faith," [U.S. Magistrate Judge Candace] Smith wrote.

In addition to returning the legal fireworks, Smith recommended the government reimburse Droganes the legal fees he incurred in seeking the return of the fireworks. Droganes said he had spent $500,000.

Smith also wants the government to reimburse the $320,000 in rental fees Droganes incurred when federal agents held several overseas shipping containers filled with fireworks for 18 months.

There's more at the link.  Go read the details - they're infuriating!

So, not content with wasting $8 million of taxpayers' money in unnecessary (and, dare I say, egregiously inflated) storage charges, the ATF may now have to fork out another million or so of our money in sanctions and damages!  Why haven't those responsible for this foul-up been sacked?





Peter

A hero who defied conventional standards of courage

Now and again one comes across a hero whose courage is of such an extraordinary order that he towers above others - although he'll usually be the first to deprecate his own achievements and point to others as better examples.  Several examples come to mind:  Charles Upham, Irena Sendler, Eugene Fluckey, Bill Millin, Violette Szabo, John Basilone and many more.

One such hero has just left us.  The Telegraph reports:

Count Robert de La Rochefoucauld, who has died aged 88, escaped from Occupied France to join the Special Operations Executive (SOE); parachuted back on sabotage missions, he twice faced execution, only to escape on both occasions, once dressed as a Nazi guard.

. . .

La Rochefoucauld [then only 19 years old] made contact with the Resistance in the spring of 1942, keen to find a route to join Free French forces in England. He took the pseudonym René Lallier and travelled, via Vichy and Perpignan, to the Pyrenees, where he accompanied two British airmen over the Col de Perthuis into Spain. Immediately arrested, the three spent two months in jail before Major Eric Piquet-Wicks, head of recruiting French nationals for SOE, arrived from the British embassy in Madrid and arranged for the three to be released.

It was at the embassy that La Rochefoucauld was invited to join SOE. “The courage and skill of British agents is without equal,” he recalled the ambassador noting. “It is just that their French accents are appalling.”

After meeting de Gaulle to ask his permission to join British forces (“Do it,” came the reply. “Even allied to the Devil, it’s for La France.”) La Rochefoucauld began his training early in 1943 at RAF Ringway, near Manchester, where he learned to parachute and use small arms and explosives, as well as how to kill a man with the flat of his hand. Experienced safe-crackers were brought out of jail to show the recruits the art of breaking and entering. In June he was considered ready for his first mission.

Dropped into the Morvan with two British agents, including one radio operator, La Rochefoucauld teamed up with a Maquis group near Avallon led by a man who called himself The Pope. After destroying the electrical substation at Avallon, and blowing up railway tracks, La Rochefoucauld was awaiting exfiltration by the RAF when he was denounced and arrested. After a series of interrogations, he was condemned to death.

En route to his execution in Auxerre, La Rochefoucauld made a break, leaping from the back of the truck carrying him to his doom, and dodging the bullets fired by his two guards. Sprinting through the empty streets, he found himself in front of the Gestapo’s headquarters, where a chauffeur was pacing near a limousine bearing the swastika flag. Spotting the key in the ignition, La Rochefoucauld jumped in and roared off, following the Route Nationale past the prison he had left an hour earlier.

He smashed through a roadblock before dumping the car and circling back towards Auxerre on foot under cover of night. He sheltered with an epicier. From Auxerre, friends in the Resistance helped him on to a train for Paris, where he evaded German soldiers hunting him by curling up underneath the sink in the lavatory. “When we arrived in Paris I felt drunk with freedom,” he recalled.

Taking refuge with an aunt and uncle, both of whom had assumed he was dead, La Rochefoucauld spent a month rebuilding his strength before, in February 1944, recontacting SOE, which ordered him to the Calais coast, then on high alert for the expected Allied invasion, to be extracted by submarine. After a successful rendezvous off Berck, La Rochefoucauld enjoyed a convivial evening with the crew, only to find himself obliged to stay on-board for three days while the sub completed a patrol. Those days of confinement, he wrote, were among his “worst of the war”. When the vessel came under depth charge attack, La Rochefoucauld noted later, he had “never been so scared in my life”.

Back in London, however, he found a city celebrating a victory that many assumed was just around the corner. “We were invited to the best houses,” he recalled. “Girls fell into our arms.” By May he was ready to be parachuted back into France, charged with blowing up the vast munitions factory at Saint-Médard near Bordeaux ahead of D-Day.

The mission, code-named “Sun”, saw La Rochefoucauld infiltrate the factory dressed as one of the workers there. Over four days he smuggled in 40 kilos of explosives, concealed in hollowed-out loaves of bread and specially designed shoes. On Thursday May 20, La Rochefoucauld linked the charges and set timers before scaling a wall and pedalling to safety on a bicycle. The blast was heard for miles. After sending a message to London (the reply read simply: “Félicitations”) he enjoyed several good bottles with the local Resistance leader, waking the next day with a hangover.

Cycling to Bordeaux to meet a contact who was to arrange his return to England, however, he ran into a roadblock, taken prisoner, and imprisoned at the 16th-century Fort du Hâ. His explanations that he had been out after dark on a romantic assignation were not believed and, in his cell, La Rochefoucauld considered swallowing the cyanide pill concealed in the heel of his shoe.

Instead he faked an epileptic fit and, when the guard opened the door to his cell, hit him over the head with a table leg before breaking his neck. (“Thank Goodness for that pitilessly efficient training,” he noted). After putting on the German’s uniform, La Rochefoucauld walked into the guardroom and shot the two other German jailers. He then simply walked out of the fort, through the deserted town, and to the address of an underground contact.

Once there, however, he found that joining the rest of his escape line was impossible, as checks and patrols had been stepped up. Then the man harbouring him, whose sister was a nun, suggested that La Rochefoucauld slip into her habit. Thus dressed, he slowly walked through the city, eventually knocking on the door of Roger Landes, code-named Aristide, a bilingual Briton whom he hoped would take care of his return to England. In fact, Aristide’s orders were to hide La Rochefoucauld. D-Day was days away, and he was, by his own admission, “the last of their worries in London”.

He was consigned instead to a woodcutter in the Landes but, bored with the work, joined a local Resistance group. Arrested once more, he was taken to a guardpost only to find himself in a storm of machine-gun fire. It turned out to be coming from fellow resistants, who had launched an immediate operation to free him. He emerged unscathed. “I had what I needed more than anything else,” he said later. “Luck.”

Those were by no means his only exploits.  You can read more about his life at the link.

After 9/11 some Americans were unhappy at the perceived lack of support for this country from France, and began unkindly (and untruthfully) referring to the people of that country as 'cheese eating surrender monkeys' and other epithets in similar vein.  M. de La Rochefoucauld demonstrated conclusively throughout his long and distinguished life that such slanders are anything but appropriate.

May he rest in peace, and may his spectacular example inspire heroes yet unborn.

Peter

More warning signs

I'm not going to bore readers with another long post about economics.  I know many of you find them seriously off-putting, and others just aren't interested.  For those that are, I recommend the following links:


1.  There's a growing and worrying slowdown in manufacturing in Europe, the USA and China.

2.  The problem of bad debt is becoming more serious across Europe, the USA and China.


When you put those pieces together with others we've discussed here in the past (click the tags below for more information), the picture becomes ever clearer . . .

Peter

Cranes at work

A few days ago I wrote about a publicity stunt by Liebherr, where several of their cranes lifted each other into the air in a sort of 'crane chain reaction'.  It seems that someone took video of the affair, and it's now been posted on YouTube.  To make it even more interesting, it seems that the first and smallest crane actually hoisted a model crane on its own sling, making this a five-crane lift - sort of! To see it more clearly, view the video in full-screen mode.

Looks like everyone involved had fun - although I note that the operators of the smaller cranes all left their cabs before their vehicles were hoisted.  Looks like trust only goes so far . . .





Peter

Photographus interruptus?

Courtesy of an e-mail from reader Dave G., here's an illustration of how close one should not stand when filming (some) sports . . .

Peter

Doofus Of The Day #613

Today's award goes to a young man in Germany.

A love-struck young German's romantic plans went awry in a Bavarian village this week after he used fancy paper with a special seal to send a letter to his girlfriend. A neighbour feared it was a bomb and took it to the police.

. . .

When she heard what happened, Pia's mother went to the police to explain that the letter had been sent with romantic intentions. "My mother then told me in the evening that the police had thought it was a letter bomb - apparently the officers looked really scared."

The mother managed to calm the nervous cops, who took no further action.

But Michael was not off the hook - Pia took a dim view of his advances. "I know he meant it nicely, but I have asked him to leave such games in the future," she said.

Michael has apologised to Pia's mother, and added: "I wanted to send the neighbour an apology and a box of chocolates, but who knows what would have happened."

There's more at the link.

Love makes us do funny things, doesn't it? - both funny-peculiar and funny-ha-ha!  I wonder in which category he'll remember this incident?





Peter

"Paint-on" batteries?

The BBC reports that a new technology offers batteries that can be 'painted on' to objects.

The most common batteries are made up of negative and positive halves (the anode and the cathode), a material to separate them, and "current collector" layers at top and bottom to gather up the electric charges moving through.

Many batteries are made in a kind of "Swiss roll" geometry, in which the layers are rolled up into a cylindrical or round-edged rectangular shape.

But as more consumer technology is developed with challenging shapes and sizes, or "form factors", the need for batteries of non-standard shapes is rising.

Flexible paper batteries have been demonstrated, and there is clear interest in "structural batteries" built for example into the surfaces of electric vehicles.

The new work, from Rice University in Texas, US, opens up completely new avenues for putting batteries on nearly any surface in a simple and robust way.

Pulickel Ajayan and his colleagues chemically optimised the recipe for each of their five layers, using blends of chemicals common in lithium-ion batteries as well as novel materials including carbon nanotubes - tiny "straws" of carbon with incredible electronic properties.

But for the process to result in a working battery, all five layers must stick together and work in synchrony, and the tricky step was finding a separator material that kept the whole stack in one piece.

When the team hit on using a chemical called poly-methylmethacrylate, they had a structure that would stick even to curved surfaces.

"This means traditional packaging for batteries has given way to a much more flexible approach that allows all kinds of new design and integration possibilities for storage devices," said Prof Ajayan.

There's more at the link, including a picture of a battery painted onto a beer mug.  Trust brewers to find a way to 'charge' us more . . .





Peter

A novice photographer produces spectacular results

A tip o' the hat to Julie in Australia for forwarding the link to this report.

These amazing images were captured over long sessions up to 15 hours by an amateur photographer from Bendigo, who only picked up a camera two years ago.

Lincoln Harrison regularly heads for Lake Eppalock in Victoria as the sun goes down, sets up his tripod, starts clicking his shutter and captures the passage of stars across the night sky.

His magnificent images bring to mind the Starry Night paintings of Dutch impressionist artist Vincent Van Gogh.

They show stunning spirals created by the earth's rotation, with stars moving through the sky like meteors.

Harrison, 37, bought his first camera in October 2010 to photograph some clothes he planned to sell on eBay.

There's more at the link, including larger pictures, and a gallery of Mr. Harrison's images may be found here.

Thanks, Julie!  Spectacular stuff indeed!

Peter

Melting!

Miss D. and I made it back home this evening . . . but only just!  We drove back through 100°+ heat (a bank's display thermometer was reading 112° Fahrenheit as we drove through the last town before we reached home at about 5.30 this evening).  To make matters worse, there was a major accident on the interstate heading south, which apparently resulted in one death and several serious injuries.  Southbound traffic was shut down completely just over the Kentucky border, and probably will remain so until late tonight.  We were fortunate to be able to cut across the median (with the approval of a patrolling policeman, I hasten to add) and get into the northbound lanes, from where we cut across and down another road.  It added at least an hour to our travel time, but under the circumstances I'm very grateful we made it home at all!

We had a wonderful time with Brigid, Tamara, Roberta and friends.  We'll definitely plan a repeat performance as soon as we can manage it.

I'm going to try to cool down . . . right now I feel as if I'm radiating heat from every pore!  More blog posts will follow later tonight or early tomorrow morning.

Peter