Just because it's "legal' doesn't mean it's right!

I note that several commentators and apologists for the NSA's spying on the electonic communications of US citizens and residents are claiming that it was legal, authorized by the Patriot Act and/or other legislation.

This is spurious.

For something to be 'legal' merely means that a law has been passed designating it as such.  Congress could pass a law tomorrow declaring that we have too many elderly people, and therefore anyone who's turned 70 must turn themselves in for euthanasia.  That law would make their killing 'legal' - but not moral, or ethical, or right, under any system of ethics or morals of which I'm aware.

The point at issue in the NSA spying scandal is not whether or not it was legal.  It's whether or not it was right.  I state, flatly and without reservation, that it was wrong - that it was in violation of both the letter and the spirit of the US constitution.  I don't give a damn whether or not hair-splitters agree with me on that point.  If I found someone trying to aggregate information about the contents of my mailbox by inspecting every item as it was delivered, I'd stop him by any means necessary, because he's invading my privacy.  I don't need a law to define that, nor do I care whether he - or those who sent him - define privacy differently to me.  I know what privacy means to me, and what it meant to our Founding Fathers.  Can you imagine what Washington, or Jefferson, or Jackson would have done if they'd found their personal, private communications being monitored like this?  That says it all, right there.

To maintain that such overreach is 'necessary' is to ignore the basic element in this whole affair.  Necessity doesn't define morality.  Is it right or wrong?  By any civilized standard of which I'm aware - and that doesn't include the tortuous machinations and confabulations of politicians and bureaucrats - it's wrong.  Period.  End of discussion.

Peter

The latest on the F-35 boondoggle

I've written several times before about the monumental boondoggle that the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II strike aircraft has become.  Things show no sign of improvement.

The latest summary of this colossal white elephant comes in a five-part series from Winslow Wheeler in Time magazine:

1. The New Era of Good F-35 Feelings
2. Alphabet Soup: PAUCs, APUCs, URFs, Cost Variances and Other Pricing Dodges
3. The Deadly Empirical Data
4. Different Planes, Common Problems
5. On Final Approach to Fighter Fiscal Sanity

They're all very interesting and worth reading, but the crunch comes in the final article.  Here's an excerpt.

The breakdown of each year’s procurement spending and authorized production yields an annual F-35 unit production cost. For 2014, F-35As will cost $188.5 million each; F-35Bs and Cs will average $277.9 million each, and all F-35s will cost, on average, $219.3 million.

Claims by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Air Force Lieut. General Christopher Bogdan, the F-35 program chief, that the F-35’s per-plane cost is “coming down” and “continues to come down,” respectively, are not accurate.

. . .

The history of combat-aircraft acquisition warns us that F-35 unit costs will be much higher than are currently projected by the Pentagon and Lockheed-Martin, and will remain well above what can be characterized as affordable.

The data reported to the public and Congress on F-35 costs and production, from the Defense Department’s comptroller, do not conform to the data in other Pentagon reports. Even the number of F-35 units authorized to be produced, and the number to be delivered, are in dispute.

Without a complete and independent audit of the F-35 program, including any costs that may not now be a formal part of the program as reported in Selected Acquisition Reports, it is impossible to discern which F-35 cost reports, if any, are accurate, and precisely what F-35 costs are today and will be in the future.

. . .

American taxpayers, the U.S. military services, and foreign purchasers — all of whom have been promised F-35 aircraft for as little as $85 million each — are in for a rude awakening. When real F-35 purchase prices unfold in the future, they may be as much as they are today—averaging more than $200 million per aircraft.

It remains inevitable that as actual costs sink in, fewer aircraft will be purchased.

This toxic stew of the F-35’s high cost, abetted by concurrent production, lagging performance and continuing design problems, has put U.S. and allied air power into a dive.

The dive will steepen so long as F-35 production at the currently-projected rates continues.

There's more at the link.

To add insult to injury, David Axe details the size and extent of Lockheed Martin's publicity machine, which constantly seeks to put a positive 'spin' on the F-35 program and keep government money flowing to it, despite the program's many and well-known errors, problems and delays.  As Andrew Cockburn points out, the campaign even appears to extend to putting pressure on local politicians and 'buying' favorable politicians.  It's my personal opinion that this entire public relations effort is nothing more than an attempt to fraudulently deceive the US electorate about the waste of their money that the F-35 program has come to represent.

I repeat what I've said before.  I believe the entire F-35 program has become bloated, ineffective and corrupt.  I think the whole thing should be shut down before it does irreparable damage to the USAF and the air defense of the United States and its allies.  We can do much better, at a far more reasonable cost.

I suppose there's one positive thing about it, though . . . China has allegedly stolen much of the design of the F-35 through cyber-espionage.  Its recently-unveiled Shenyang J-31 'stealth' jet fighter prototype appears to incorporate many features of both the F-35 and the earlier F-22.  If China's copying this boondoggle, perhaps it, too, will waste much of its air force's substance on a white elephant.  That, at least, may allow the USAF to fight China - if matters should ever come to that - with an aircraft equal in inferiority to the enemy's!





Peter

A rare look at aircraft wake turbulence

Wake turbulence is what an aircraft leaves behind it as it passes through the air.  Wikipedia has a good introductory article about it, if you're interested.  Normally it can't be seen, of course, but when atmospheric conditions are just right the shimmering effect of wake turbulence becomes visible.  This video of aircraft landing at Madeira airport gives us a rare glimpse of this phenomenon.  I recommend watching it in full-screen mode.

That also illustrates why larger aircraft have zones behind them of 'wake vortex separation', where other aircraft aren't supposed to fly - up to 8 nautical miles in the case of 'superheavy' planes like the Airbus A380.  The turbulence they leave in their wake can be so severe as to damage another aircraft or cause its pilots to lose control if it runs into it.

Peter

The economic warning lights are flashing brightly

Regular readers will know how often I've spoken of current economic news and events, so I won't bother repeating it all here.  Suffice it to say that right now there are three reports that very seriously concern me.  Any one of the factors they describe, or more than one of them working together, has the potential to knock over our fiscal and economic house of cards.

First, the top court in Germany is currently hearing arguments on whether or not that country's participation in and support for the European Monetary Union's fiscal bailout/rescue policies is legal in terms of Germany's constitution.  If it rules in the negative, Germany will be forced to halt its funding of those programs, which will instantly bring them to a grinding halt.  That, in turn, may cause the collapse of the Eurozone, already mired in other economic woes.  This case is of absolutely critical importance not only to Europe, but also to the rest of the world - because if the Eurozone collapses, the financial and economic damage will ripple outwards around the globe.

Second, I've already spoken about the dangers confronting Japan's economy.  Kyle Bass describes the current situation there as 'adding a Ponzi scheme to a Ponzi scheme', and warns that 'They already spend 50% of tax revenue on debt service. If [interest] rates [on Japanese bonds] go up, it's game over.'  Phoenix Capital goes even further, asking 'Will Japan trigger a global financial meltdown?'

This is what it looks like when a Central Bank begins to lose control. And what’s happening in Japan today will be coming to the US in the not so distant future.

If you think the Fed is not terrified of this, think again. The Fed has pumped over $1 trillion into foreign banks, hoping to stop the mess from getting to the US. As Japan is showing us, the Fed will fail.

Investors, take note… the financial system is sending us major warnings…

If you are not already preparing for a potential market collapse, now is the time to be doing so.

There's more at the link.  I think Phoenix Capital is right to be worried, as a fiscal collapse in Japan would have a similar effect on the world economy to a collapse of the Eurozone.

Finally, Karl Denninger provides what he calls 'A SEVERE Storm Warning' about the US economy.

Note that the absolute level of debt to GDP ... refuses to go under 350%; it has now started rising again but is entirely coming from two sectors -- business credit and the Federal Government.

The problem with this paradigm is that we're doing the same thing that led to the 2008 blowup -- we've learned exactly nothing.  In real terms our GDP is in fact contracting by about $500 billion a quarter, after adjusting for debt expansion -- that's $2 trillion a year, more or less.

This is real purchasing power out of your pocket.

. . .

This is all bad.  The imminent danger signals, however, are found here:

The gap between corporate equity prices and tangible assets is greater now than it was in 2007 -- materially so.  Equity values are higher and tangible assets are lower.

This is not (yet) to the level of 1999/2000, but it's getting there and we didn't have to go that far last time to get a nasty blow-up.  All it takes is something going wrong -- like, for instance, in Japan or Europe.

Again, more at the link - and, as indicated above, the chances of something going wrong in either Japan and/or Europe, right now, are pretty darn high.

Folks, I've been predicting serious economic meltdown for some time now, as have many other authorities.  Read the signs of the times for yourselves, and make up your own minds.  Right now, I believe we're balancing precariously atop an economic house of cards.  One tap on any of the cards, and . . .

Peter

"The criminal mind"

That's the title of a very interesting article in the Wall Street Journal today.  As a former prison chaplain, I'm intensely interested in what makes criminals tick, and ways to better understand, treat, and 'recondition' them.  The article analyzes how new scientific discoveries are changing our understanding of why criminals act as they do, and how we can change both sentencing and release policies to better help them and protect society.  Here's an excerpt.

The field of neurocriminology—using neuroscience to understand and prevent crime—is revolutionizing our understanding of what drives "bad" behavior. More than 100 studies of twins and adopted children have confirmed that about half of the variance in aggressive and antisocial behavior can be attributed to genetics. Other research has begun to pinpoint which specific genes promote such behavior.

Brain-imaging techniques are identifying physical deformations and functional abnormalities that predispose some individuals to violence. In one recent study, brain scans correctly predicted which inmates in a New Mexico prison were most likely to commit another crime after release. Nor is the story exclusively genetic: A poor environment can change the early brain and make for antisocial behavior later in life.

. . .

It is growing harder and harder ... to avoid the mounting evidence. With each passing year, neurocriminology is winning new adherents, researchers and practitioners who understand its potential to transform our approach to both crime prevention and criminal justice.

. . .

This brings us to the second major change that may be wrought by neurocriminology: incorporating scientific evidence into decisions about which soon-to-be-released offenders are at the greatest risk for reoffending. Such risk assessment is currently based on factors like age, prior arrests and marital status. If we were to add biological and genetic information to the equation—along with recent statistical advances in forecasting—predictions about reoffending would become significantly more accurate.

There's much more at the link.  Highly recommended reading.

There's always the potential for misuse of these discoveries, of course.  An overly 'Big Brother' administration might decide that if someone who's never committed a crime in his or her life shows evidence of brain traits or characteristics similar to those of hardened criminals, he or she should be 'preventively' detained, or have their civil liberties curtailed as a precaution.  That's not acceptable, and hopefully never will be - but it's a risk.  I'll be interested to see how scientists and specialists propose to deal with it.

Peter

What Big Brother's latest overreach reveals

We've all been deluged with reports of scandals emanating from our bloated, out-of-control 'Big Brother' government in recent weeks, including:

• The IRS illegally targeted conservative, religious and right-of-center groups and individuals;
• The NSA intercepted nearly all electronic communications within and outside the USA, ignoring our right to and expectation of privacy in flagrant, blatant disregard of the US Constitution and legal jurisprudence;
• The Administration appears to be deliberately delaying, obfuscating and ignoring inquiries into the Benghazi affair, in an attempt to protect key players within its ranks, up to and including President Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton;
• The Department of Justice obtained journalists' phone records, and even claimed that one journalist might be a co-conspirator in the leaking of classified information, in efforts to clamp down on the leaking of secret and confidential information to the news media.  Its behavior has been called 'criminalizing journalism'.
• Going further back, the current Administration is ramming through changes to health care laws and regulations that override religious objections to various procedures, forcing organizations and individuals with such reservations to nevertheless provide and/or pay for health care that violates them.  As Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Philadelphia has observed, "The day when Americans could take the Founders' understanding of religious freedom as a given is over. We need to wake up."

There's been a mass outpouring of indignation over these excesses - and rightly so.  However, most of this verbal diarrhea completely misses the point.  These latest scandals are merely the most visible and in-your-face symptoms of a problem that's been growing for almost a century, ever since President Franklin D. Roosevelt pushed through his 'New Deal' legislation.  The problem is that politicians have used administrative organizations, structures and powers to make the people dependent on government handouts and largesse.  'Big Government' has become a self perpetuating monstrosity.  (Please follow all those links for some very interesting and enlightening discussions.)

It begins with entitlement programs and aid to favored groups - those who can reliably deliver votes.  For decades politicians have tried to ensure their own re-election by promising milk and honey, wine and roses to whoever will vote for them and/or their party - and they've succeeded.  Today less than 20% of Congressional and Senate seats change occupants in a typical election, despite rampant (and blatant) corruption, nepotism and malfeasance among our elected leaders.  (To name just one example of these evils, Congress exempted itself from insider trading legislation.  When called on that, it repealed its protection . . . but only until public attention turned elsewhere.  As soon as it could, it repealed its repeal, so that today Representatives and Senators and their staffs can once again trade using inside information without fear of prosecution.)  Look at the number of Representatives and Senators who've grown rich in office.  Think that's due to their lavish salaries?  Nope.  Think again.

Trouble is, this focus on aiding the 'poor' and 'underprivileged' rapidly changed focus.  The so-called 'American Dream' was originally about equality of opportunity;  that everyone in this country had the same opportunity to 'make it', given hard work and dedication.  The apostles and preachers of Big Government corrupted this to equality of outcome;  namely that rewards should be evenly distributed as far as possible, without this distribution necessarily being commensurate with ability or effort.  (In so many words, it's a modern quasi-Socialist version of Marx's infamous dictum, 'From each according to his ability, to each according to his need'.)  Taxation has become little more than a tool for redistribution of wealth, with the 'rich' demonized as 'not paying their fair share', despite the fact that they're already paying by far the largest proportion of all taxes on individuals in this country.  That's politically irrelevant.  They still have more than the 'poor', therefore, by definition, they're not contributing enough.  Q.E.D.

This attitude of 'Big Brother knows what's best for you' has since expanded to include the 'security state'.  In the face of the terror attacks of 9/11, the US government's knee-jerk reaction was to tighten the reins, curbing individual civil liberties and Constitutionally-guaranteed rights in an effort to improve the safety and security of society as a whole.  It did so by basically ignoring the Constitution, passing legislation such as the Patriot Act and then employing the whole power of the State to ensure that it was applied.  When courts struck down certain provisions of such legislation, the authorities either appealed against their rulings, or passed new legislation to reimpose such provisions, or blatantly and actively ignored the rulings and continued to do as they saw fit.  The latest scandals are merely the latest symptoms of the latter attitude.  "We're in charge - we know what's best for you - we're going to do it, whether you like it or not, and if you object, you're part of the problem.  So there!"

Two oft-repeated quotations sum up the current situation.  I'm sure my readers have seen both of them on far too many occasions for comfort.  Indeed, they've become clichés today . . . but that doesn't mean they're not as true now as they've ever been, if not more so.

The first is by Benjamin Franklin, who famously observed:

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

The American people have done precisely that - and today, the results are clear to see.  If the US electorate consents to this abdication of liberty by re-electing those responsible for enacting the laws that have permitted it, it will prove conclusively that it 'deserves neither liberty nor safety', and demonstrate that the ideals of our Founding Fathers are effectively dead, along with the provisions and values of the US Constitution.

The second quote is from C. S. Lewis, who pointed out:

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

The tragedy is, many of those who authorized the excesses revealed in the recent scandals, and many of those who perpetrated them, probably sincerely believe that they're acting for the good of those victimized by their actions, and for the good of society as a whole.  Last year saw a widely publicized call by a so-called 'Professor of Constitutional Law' to actually ignore the US Constitution in order to accomplish what he saw as necessary for the good of the country.  The fact that the authority of those who govern us, and their very election to office, is derived from that same Constitution, appeared to never even enter into his head.  If the authority of the Constitution is destroyed, whether by omission or commission, so is the authority of those who hold office in terms of it, and the legality and legitimacy of their actions.

Perhaps it's best to close with another quotation from the inimitable Ben Franklin.

The deliberations of the Constitutional Convention of 1787 were held in strict secrecy. Consequently, anxious citizens gathered outside Independence Hall when the proceedings ended in order to learn what had been produced behind closed doors. The answer was provided immediately. A Mrs. Powel of Philadelphia asked Benjamin Franklin, “Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?” With no hesitation whatsoever, Franklin responded, “A republic, if you can keep it.”

Can we keep our Republic, in the face of these scandals?  The response of the American people will tell us that.  If they fail to throw out those who've legalized and/or perpetrated and/or tolerated these crimes . . . then our Republic is doomed.  So is our Constitution, and the traditions handed down to us by our Founding Fathers.

There will be those who refuse to accept this.  I'm one of them.  I swore an oath.

I ... do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.

I will keep my oath.  It wasn't just empty, meaningless words to me.  I will never accept or co-operate with attempts to ride roughshod over what I swore to support and defend, or negate those principles I hold dear.

Unfortunately, those of us who think that way appear to be in an ever-diminishing minority right now.  Whether or not we - and our principles - can survive this crisis, remains to be seen.

Peter

EDITED TO ADD:  As Old NFO asks, 'What's the last straw?'

Why are they surprised?

I note a report claiming that 'Homeschooling [is] growing seven times faster than public school enrollment'.  Here's an excerpt.

A recent report in Education News states that, since 1999, the number of children who are homeschooled has increased by 75%. Though homeschooled children represent only 4% of all school-age children nationwide, the number of children whose parents choose to educate them at home rather than a traditional academic setting is growing seven times faster than the number of children enrolling in grades K-12 every year.

As homeschooling has become increasingly popular, common myths that have long been associated with the practice of homeschooling have been debunked.

Any concerns about the quality of education children receive by their parents can be put to rest by the consistently high placement of homeschooled students on standardized assessment exams. Data demonstrates that those who are independently educated generally score between the 65th and 89th percentile on these measures, while those in traditional academic settings average at around the 50th percentile. In addition, achievement gaps between sexes, income levels, or ethnicity—all of which have plagued public schools around the country—do not exist in homeschooling environments.

There's more at the link.

I can only say that if I had children, rather than entrust them to the untender mercies of the public school system in the USA, I'd willingly pay through the nose to send them to a quality private school, or homeschool them if there was no private school available.  Our public school system has become a nightmare of bureaucratic inertia, political correctness and overbearing authoritarianism.  Consider these headlines:

• Outrage: Fla. Schools Conduct Iris Scans on Children Without Parental Consent
• Cops Take School Kids' DNA in Murder Case (without parental consent)
• Police interview of student upsets parents (because they weren't notified)
• Nurse refuses student inhaler during asthma attack
• 7-Year-Old Boy Reportedly Suspended for Making ‘Gun’ Out of School Pastry

With stupidity like that rampant almost throughout the education system, why would any parent who loves his or her child(ren) trust it to look after them?





Peter

Keep a wary economic eye on Japan

The tottering Japanese economy is shaping up to be a bellwether for the world economy as a whole.  John Mauldin has published a series of articles about it that summarize recent developments better than anything I've read in the mainstream press.  In chronological order, they are:

1. All Japan, All the Time
2. The Mother of All Painted-In Corners
3. Central Bankers Gone Wild
4. Banzai! Banzai! Banzai!

In each case, follow the link to read the beginning of the article, then click the 'Download' button to either read online, or download to your computer, an Adobe Acrobat document in .PDF format of the entire article.  They're worth reading.

In the latest article, Mr. Mauldin says the following:

For the last three weeks, I have been making what I personally think is a rather strong case that the Japanese have embarked on what may be simultaneously the most outrageous, intriguing, and desperate monetary policy experiment by a major economic power in history.  The Japanese are rapidly coming to their own Endgame, the end of their ability to borrow money at interest rates that are economically rational. If interest rates on Japanese bonds rise to a mere 2.2%, 80% of tax revenues will go just to pay the interest on their debt. At a 245% debt-to-GDP ratio, they are in desperate straits, and they know it. And desperate times call for desperate measures.

To get to where they want to go, to grow their way out of their deflationary problem, the Japanese need both inflation and real growth. Real growth can come from massively increased exports, and inflation can even come from an increase in export prices. Both results can be obtained by weakening the yen. As I have shown, they need to devalue the yen by 15-20% a year for many years in order to break through to the other side.

. . .

I truly do feel sorry for retirees in Japan. I am reminded of that wonderful Japanese movie from the '50s, The Ballad of Narayama. It depicted ubasute ... a custom allegedly practiced in Japan in the distant past, whereby an infirm or elderly relative was carried up a mountain or to some other remote, desolate place and left there to die.

While not as straightforward, the last 20 years of policy choices are producing results that are going to feel to the elderly as if they have been abandoned.

There's much more at the link.  Bold, underlined text is my emphasis.  Sobering reading.

The reason I highlighted that last sentence is that what we're seeing in Japan right now is coming to the USA and Europe as well.  It's as inevitable as sunrise or sunset, because we're basically following the same path, fiscally speaking, that Japan has done over the past few decades.  They're anywhere from ten to twenty years ahead of us, depending on which country(ies) we're talking about.  Consider:

• The US government is deliberately devaluing the dollar, just as Japan is deliberately devaluing the yen.
• Our debt levels, whilst still far lower than Japan's catastrophic numbers, are climbing higher and higher with no sign whatsoever that our politicians can or will do anything to rein them in.
• Just as Japan's older population is going to find government support (i.e. programs equivalent to Social Security, Medicare, etc.) diminishing, either through cuts in the actual amounts or through inflation destroying the value of the benefit, so ours is too.  Already the 'official' rate of inflation is deliberately under-calculated, so that benefits indexed to inflation are not keeping pace with the actual rise in prices experienced by those receiving them.  That's going to get worse as we go along.

Like I said . . . Japan is a bellwether for the rest of the world economy.  Pay attention, and prepare accordingly.

Peter

So that's why Finns are such good racers!

Finland has produced some of the best racing drivers in the world.  Greats like Keke Rosberg, Mika Häkkinen, Kimi Räikkönen and others are well-known in Formula One, and the world rally championship has seen giants like Ari Vatanen, Tommi Mäkinen and Juha Kankkunen.

For so small a country to produce so many dominant figures in motorsport is astonishing . . . or it was, until I found this video clip of crashes during Finnish rallies over the past few years.  I recommend watching it in full-screen mode.  With carnage like this, it's amazing to think that anyone finished the races at all!  Furthermore, those who did finish - and win - them were the ones who went on to become better and better, and ultimately break into international racing.  They learned the hard way, so to speak.

I guess those who survived that background thoroughly deserved their later success!





Peter

Some steampunk music to sing you to sleep

Sorry about the lack of posting today.  I've been so busy the past couple of weeks preparing manuscripts, covers, etc. that I decided today was time to recharge my batteries.  Miss D. and I spent the morning walking around Nashville Zoo, enjoying time together, having fun with frisky critters (and hordes of noisy over-excited sugar-high kids), and generally relaxing.  This evening we went round to Oleg's place, where I cooked supper for the three of us plus another mutual friend.  Oleg and I tackled the preliminary design for the cover of Book 2 of my military/space-opera science fiction series.  So far, so good!  I'll give you a teaser glimpse of it when we've made more progress.

Miss D. and I are back home, both rather tired, and ready for an early night.  I'll leave you with a fun new music video from Caravan Palace.  Wikipedia describes them as "a French Electro swing and Gypsy Jazz band based in Paris".  If that makes sense to you, good!  Their music seems like a cross between jazz, ragtime and steampunk, and I think this video gives it very creative expression.

Look for more blog posts in the morning.  Until then, sleep well, y'all!

Peter

Protectionism rears its ugly head in bookselling

I'm cynically amused by demands from 'traditional' booksellers in France and England that their governments protect (which usually means 'subsidize') them in the face of the threat from online retailers such as Amazon.com.  For example, the Guardian reports:

Tim Godfray, chief executive of the Booksellers Association, said Britain's bookshops, closing down at a rate of more than one a week, consider Amazon "the main threat to their business". He warned that if Amazon continues its "relentless expansion" even more bookshops will be driven out of business, and publishers and agents will also be forced to shut up shop, he said.

. . .

More than 73 independent booksellers closed down last year, bringing the total number of UK bookshops to 1,028, compared to 1,535 in 2005.

Jane Howe, owner of Broadway Bookshop, in east London, said: "We really need the government to do something to protect independent bookshops. We are the heart of the community – sometimes you are the only person that a customer has spoken to all week.

"If the government want to keep any type of integrity in any high street they've got to support small businesses. It would be really wonderful if they took notice of what France is trying."

There's more at the link.

What they mean, of course, is that they want the state to subsidize their outdated, inefficient business models.  The world has moved on from bricks-and-mortar storefronts in many fields of commerce.  Remember the 1980's and 1990's?  Computer and electronics stores were springing up like mushrooms as far as the eye could see.  How many of them are still there?  Precious few.  Electronics purchases are now overwhelmingly made online.  The same is happening to bookstores right now - and to traditional publishers as well.  Amazon is eating their lunch;  but not only are they failing to do anything about it, they don't seem to know what to do about it.  It's a sorry sight.

Joe Konrath put matters into profane perspective recently.  Addressing his message to the entire publishing and bookselling industry, he wrote:

Blaming Amazon for your eventual downfall is like blaming a lion for being king of the jungle.

If you don't like apex predators, get the hell out of the food chain.

Here's the thing, all you whiners. You had your shot. And you blew it.

Hardcovers cost too much. So do paperbacks. As media goes, paper books cost too many dollars per hour of entertainment they provide.

The return policy for books is archaic, wasteful, and stupid. It encourages overspending, overbuying, and underselling.

Underestimating the importance of digital was suicide. Then trying to prevent its widespread adoption via windowing titles, the agency model, high prices, and DRM was just throwing gas on a fire.

Treating authors like s***, when authors are essential to the process, is bad business.

Treating readers like s***, when readers are essential to the process, is bad business.

Bookstores and publishers and distributors are NOT essential to the process. You should have evolved.

Why didn't the Big 6 invent online bookstores and ereaders? Why didn't the ABA?

Amazon INNOVATES. That's the thing you whiners don't understand. They're not dominating because they undercut you on price. Price is just one way to please customers. Service is another. Value is another. But the biggest one is technology.

Anyone can sell for cheap. Not anyone can single-handedly jump-start the digital revolution. Not everyone can create an online store that is not only a pleasure to shop at, but where it is fun to spend time.

Amazon is going to eat you all for lunch because they aren't thinking about how to make money tomorrow. They're thinking about how to make money in 2018.

They're doing all the stuff you never did--hell, they're doing stuff that you never even thought of. They're all about pushing it forward. They're all about gathering and analyzing data. They're all about challenging themselves to do better, to focus on the future, to learn from the past. They're all about pleasing the customer (and I heard from no less than half a dozen Amazonians that they consider authors to be their customers.)

They experiment. They change. They evolve.

Again, more at the link.

All these calls for 'protection' and/or subsidies are farting against thunder.  The business world has changed, is changing, and will continue to change.  Unless you change with it, you're going to end up like the buggy whip industry.

I'm seeing this at first hand with the publication of my first novel - on Amazon, naturally enough.  I set the price at $2.99, for three reasons:

1. I wanted to break into a market already overcrowded with alternatives.  A low price is one way to do that (as Marko's just proved with the smashing success of his first novel).
2. Even at that low figure, Amazon offers a high enough royalty percentage to give me more money per sale than a conventional publisher would offer me if they'd published my book at five times that price!  Amazon can do that because it's built a far more efficient infrastructure.
3. In today's economy, I know potential readers are struggling to find spare cash for entertainment.  If I price my book at or below the price of a standard cup of coffee at Starbucks, I can appeal to a much broader market than if I price it at the cost of lunch at a restaurant - but again, conventional publishers won't do that.  They're still insisting on pricing their e-books at much higher prices.

Amazon's approach has worked for me so far, and I think it'll go on working.  The conventional publishing and bookselling industry can't survive on margins that low . . . which is why more and more 'indie' authors like myself are going it alone, and doing very nicely, thank you.  It's a new world out there.  Dinosaurs need no longer apply.

Peter

Precision guidance for terrorists' weapons

In all the brouhaha over the Benghazi affair last year, many people lost sight of unconfirmed reports that the incident revolved around attempts by the USA to either buy back missiles the State Department had previously supplied to Islamic militants, or to supply Libyan weapons - including surface-to-air missiles - from Libya, via Turkey, to Islamic revolutionaries in Syria.  Reports about both allegations have dried up since then, and I daresay there's heavy pressure from on high to make sure they stay dried up.  Frankly, I find both reports at least potentially credible, given the official blind eye turned by the Obama administration towards (and possibly its covert support for) US groups supporting the so-called  'Arab Spring' uprisings across the Middle East.

The proliferation of such precision-guided weapons is alarming, because they're growing smaller, more portable, much more accurate, and much easier to use.  Recent developments include:

• Boeing has announced that it's developing a version of its precision-guided 'Small Diameter Bomb' (a lightweight 250-pound weapon usually carried in racks of four by strike aircraft such as the F-15 or F-16) that can be carried by light counter-insurgency aircraft such as the Brazilian Embraer EMB-314 Super Tucano, a propeller-driven plane currently slated to be supplied to the Afghan Air Force by the USAF.  A single bomb of this type could conceivably also be carried by armed light aircraft such as the Cessna 208 Caravan, which is currently flying with the Iraqi Air Force, equipped with AGM-114 Hellfire missiles.  If smaller, lighter aircraft like these could carry it, there's no reason it could not be fitted to other light aircraft or small transports - even, potentially, in the belly of commuter airliners, where it could be carried to its target without being detected until it was too late to stop it.  Furthermore, equivalent systems such as Israel's Spice 250 glide bomb are coming onto the market, offering similar capabilities to anyone with the money to buy them.
• Standard 'dumb bombs' have been equipped for years with 'strap-on' kits to turn them into 'smart bombs'.  For example, the USA's Paveway systems have been sold to air forces all over the world.  Now other countries are supplying their own equivalents, without the export safeguards imposed by first-world suppliers.  To name just one, South Africa developed its 'Umbani' strap-on guidance kit, including wings to extend the range of the bomb by gliding, and recently announced a deal to license their production in the United Arab Emirates.  The kit is specifically optimized for lighter, slower aircraft such as jet trainers rather than fast attack aircraft - precisely the sort of planes that are likely to be found in third world air forces.  Dozens of jet trainers are even flown by US civilians - and they're still capable of being armed.  Several other countries are working on developing similar systems.  Other old-technology weapons are also being upgraded (for example, 'dumb' 2.75" rockets are being upgraded with screw-in guidance systems to convert them into precision weapons).  This means that precision guidance capabilities will soon proliferate out of any feasible control.  They'll become more and more available to terrorists, who can take advantage of lax third-world security controls to purloin them from military bases.
• Lightweight guided missiles capable of taking out any vehicle in existence are becoming smarter, smaller, and more widely available from more and more suppliers (including countries that will sell them for hard cash to all comers, no questions asked).  Already we've seen surface-to-air missiles fired at an Israeli airliner by terrorists.  (In response, Israel is fitting its airliners with anti-missile technology.)  How long will it take before the same thing happens to an airliner on its approach to or take-off from a major US city?  When will a Presidential motorcade be targeted by someone with the equivalent of a TOW missile?  It's frighteningly easy to smuggle such weapons across our porous borders.  Frankly, I'm surprised such attacks haven't happened already!
• Even small arms are acquiring greater precision and accuracy.  For example, a 'smart rifle' has just gone into production, almost guaranteeing hits by novice operators at out to a thousand yards or beyond.  Some argue that such weapons shouldn't be sold to civilians at all.  I'm not among them - heck, if I could afford one of those 'smart' rifles, I'd buy it tomorrow! - but the risk of one of them ending up in the wrong hands has to be acknowledged.

I fear that the proliferation of precision-guided weapons is making the world a much more dangerous place for all of us.  The day can't be far off when such weapons are employed against civilians by terrorists.  Imagine what small guided missiles could do to, say, an electrical substation, or a pumping station serving a critical oil or gas pipeline or sewage system.  The attackers could stand off, far outside the reach of local security, and cripple such facilities at will.  With the advent of 'smart' mortar bombs or ground-launched versions of 'smart' aircraft bombs, this will become even easier for them.

I hope the authorities are trying to figure out how to handle this threat . . . because I'm willing to bet my pension that terrorists are planning to use 'smart' technology against us!

Peter

How to annoy your British friends

Buzzfeed has published 'The 17 Best Ways To Annoy A British Person'.  Examples include:

5. Actually take the last biscuit when they ask you if you want it.
8. Violate the sanctity of a queue.
17. Ask them if they’re Australian.

There's more at the link.  As a British-colonial expat, I can assure you that most of them will work!  Note to self - I must make sure Miss D. and Oleg don't see that article . . .



Peter

The future of 'traditional' employment?

Several articles over the past few days, when taken together, paint an alarming picture for those trapped in 'old-school' jobs - yet also hold out new opportunities for those prepared to 'reinvent' themselves by committing to a new approach.  That's going to take guts, and willingness to commit to building a long-term future for ourselves as individuals rather than 'corporate slaves' - but I think it's increasingly obvious that therein lies our only hope to eke out better than a subsistence-level existence.

First, in 'The Age Of Smart Machines', the Economist points out:

Two things are clear. The first is that smart machines are evolving at breakneck speed. Moore’s law—that the computing power available for a given price doubles about every 18 months—continues to apply. This power is leaping from desktops into people’s pockets. More than 1.1 billion people own smartphones and tablets. Manufacturers are putting smart sensors into all sorts of products. The second is that intelligent machines have reached a new social frontier: knowledge workers are now in the eye of the storm, much as stocking-weavers were in the days of Ned Ludd, the original Luddite. Bank clerks and travel agents have already been consigned to the dustbin by the thousand; teachers, researchers and writers are next. The question is whether the creation will be worth the destruction.

. . .

There is a good chance that technology may destroy more jobs than it creates. There is an even greater chance that it will continue to widen inequalities. Technology is creating ever more markets in which innovators, investors and consumers—not workers—get the lion’s share of the gains.

This resonates with me.  I was a computer operator, then programmer, then systems analyst, then project leader and manager, back in the 1980's.  The work I did then, and the tools I used (programming languages, hardware and software, etc.), are effectively dinosaur-era compared to what's out there today.  I'd need months, if not years, of re-training before I could do those jobs today;  and no company would be prepared to pay for me to get that training.

As if to reinforce the Economist's point, the Los Angeles Times reports:

"Growth in GDP has been positive, but not exceptional," UCLA economists wrote in their quarterly Anderson Forecast. "Jobs are growing, but not rapidly enough to create good jobs for all."

The report, which analyzed long-term trends of past recoveries, found that the long-anticipated "Great Recovery" has not yet materialized.

Real GDP growth — the value of goods and services produced after adjusting for inflation — is 15.4% below the 3% growth trend of past recoveries, wrote Edward Leamer, director of the UCLA Anderson Forecast. More robust growth will be necessary to bring this recovery in line with previous ones.

"It's not a recovery," he wrote. "It's not even normal growth. It's bad."

That has long-term implications in the face of technological advancements that continue displacing workers, Leamer said. And the country's education system isn't adequately developing the workforce of the future, he said.

"Regrettably we reward teachers if their students can regurgitate the information on standardized tests," he wrote. Future workers will need creative and analytical thinking skills for 21st century jobs, he said.

Bold, underlined text is my emphasis.  The article makes a vital point.  If we're not educating our children to take their place in the changing workforce, how will they ever become economically self-sufficient?  Are we breeding a generation who will remain dependent, either on their parents (who can ill afford it), or on the State?

Dependence on the State isn't likely to work very well, either, as those relying on Social Security to fund their declining years are finding out.  If that's your retirement plan, you're doomed to disappointment - and possibly to poverty.  CNS News informs us:

The Social Security program faces $9.6 trillion in unfunded liabilities over the next 75 years, which is up $1 trillion from last year’s projection of $8.6 trillion, according to the latest report from Social Security’s board of trustees.

. . .

That $9.6 trillion shortfall equals approximately $83,894 per household based on the Census Bureau's latest estimate that there are 114,430,000 households in the country.

However, “[e]xtending the horizon beyond 75 years increases the measured unfunded obligation,” according to the report. “Through the infinite horizon, the unfunded obligations, or shortfall, equals $23.1 trillion in present value, which represents 4.0 percent of future taxable payroll or 1.4 percent of future GDP.”

Again, this has been forecast for years, along with calls from many parties for reforms to the Social Security and Medicare system.  However, desperate retirees (whose votes are a powerful force in US politics) have so far blocked any major reforms.  That can't continue - because when there's no money to pay the bills, they won't be paid.  No matter how much those on Social Security want their monthly payments to continue at their present level, that's not going to happen.  Those of us nearing the age when we can apply for Social Security had better get used to the idea that we're not going to get anything like the benefits that have been promised to us by our politicians.  They're unaffordable.

Finally, in 'Nine Things You NEED to Know to Survive the New Economy', James Althucher notes:

Supply and demand is starving the middle class. Population is going up, but high-quality jobs are being outsourced, globalized, mobilized, and roboticized.

I'm on the board of a $600-million revenue company in the temp staffing space, Corporate Resources (CRRS). Revenue growth last year was 35% despite job growth being about 0%. There's a reason for this.

The Fortune 500 is firing you. All big companies are systematically firing all of their employees. I'm exaggerating, of course. Maybe.

But that's why temp staffing as an industry is going through the roof. The big companies don't want employees. Why not? They don't want to deal with Obamacare. They don't want to pay the high salaries that aging baby boomers demand, and too many employees are having sex with each other. With temp staffers, they don't have to deal with all of the issues.

Sobering thoughts . . . but that's the reality of the workforce today.  There are millions of Americans in part-time, temporary work, who'd love to get full-time jobs with benefits;  but they probably never will.  Those jobs are gone, and won't be coming back.

If we want better than a hand-to-mouth hourly-paid existence, we're going to have to take charge of our own futures and reshape our own working environment.  For most of us, that'll involve a mixture of what work we can get in the formal sector, coupled with private initiatives in the informal sector, where our labor and skills can be bartered for things we need, or applied to earning opportunities outside the corporate world.  (Yes - that's what I'm trying to do by building my writing career.)

Peter

The most important video of the year?

Courtesy of an e-mail from reader G. M., I was led to this speech by 'futurologist' Juan Enriquez at the recent 2013 Fiscal Summit.  I cannot sufficiently emphasize its importance.  It addresses not only current fiscal problems, but also the emergence of technologies that will drastically change our economic (and living) environment.

My only concern is that current fiscal problems may hobble the emergence of the technologies Mr. Enriquez identifies.  If our economy goes to hell in a handbasket, everything he predicts will come to a grinding halt (here in our own back yard, at least) while we devote all our time, energies and resources to simple survival.

Despite that unpleasant thought, this is an extraordinarily important presentation.  It's a must-watch for anyone concerned about the future, whether individual, local, regional, national or world-wide.

Peter

The eerie sounds of Earth

Some time ago, NASA pointed out:

Some spacecraft have instruments capable of capturing radio emissions. When scientists convert these to sound waves, the results are eerie to hear.

Earlier this year the agency released this short video converting the Earth's radiation, picked up by the Voyager space probes, into sounds.  It's quite fascinating.

See Psalm 8:3-4 . . .

Peter

Editing my trousers to the bone . . .

Work proceeds apace to bring out a print edition of 'Take The Star Road'.  It should be available by mid-June, all being well.  I'm being helped very much by Grace Bridges, an online correspondent and friend of long standing.  She's the owner of Splashdown Books in New Zealand, a small independent press.  She's helping with the preparation of the .PDF file for the print version, as she's used to preparing manuscripts for publication in that way, which is saving me a lot of time and effort.  I'm using the time she's freed up for me to continue editing and preparing Book 2 of the series, which will be out in mid-July, hopefully in simultaneous print and e-book editions.

Readers may not realize just how much effort goes into preparing a book for publication (at least, if you're doing it all yourself).  You've got to liaise with alpha and beta readers, and incorporate their feedback into revised editions of the book;  edit very critically and very carefully to catch mistakes;  format the book for different forms of output;  make arrangements for cover art and design, interior layout, etc.;  and so on.  I've been running pretty much non-stop since the beginning of April to get TTSR ready for publication in mid-May, and thereafter trying to get the print version ready and prepare the second book.  I don't think I'll have time to relax in the short term, because as soon as all that's finished it's on to Book 3, which I hope to have out by mid-November.  (That may be a bit optimistic, but I'll try!)  Miss D. is being very helpful and supportive, particularly as an alpha reader and demanding critic.  She doesn't let me get away with waffle or slackness, which is an excellent thing!

Thank you again, dear readers, for all your support with Book 1.  It was launched in the afternoon of May 14th, and over the remainder of that month, it sold well over a thousand copies.  Sales volume isn't declining, either;  it's on a steady upward trend, and its reviews on Amazon are generally very pleasing.  I could never have achieved results like that without your help and support, and I'll always be grateful to you for giving me such a lovely start to my fiction career!  I hope Book 2 will be an even better read, and an even better performer in terms of sales.

I apologize for fewer blog posts than usual - but I'm sure you understand that I'm working so hard on the books that the blog has to take a back burner for a short while.  I'll try to get back to normal as soon as I can!

Peter

Milestones for Boeing and the US Army

Boeing has announced that the 2,000th AH-64 Apache attack helicopter has come off the assembly line.  This can't be the 2,000th to be newly manufactured - nowhere near that number have been built - but most older models have been or are being 'remanufactured', some more than once, to bring them into line with the latest standard.  I'm therefore assuming that the 2,000th airframe was probably an older model going down the line for the second or third time.

Nevertheless, it's quite an achievement.  The AH-64 is the world's pre-eminent attack helicopter.  Nothing else comes close, as India found out during its recent competition to select an attack helicopter for its armed forces.  The latest Russian offerings were rejected out of hand as being completely outclassed by the latest Apache variant.

Here's a Boeing video about the latest version of the Apache, the AH-64E Guardian.

Almost simultaneously, Kenn Christenson has produced a video tribute titled 'First Attack: History of the 1st Battalion 227th Aviation Regiment', which is currently equipped with Apache helicopters.  It covers 50 years of service by this US Army unit, from Vietnam to Afghanistan.  It's over half an hour in length, but I found it well worth watching.

Looks like the Apache will be serving well into the 21st century. It's done yeoman service thus far.

Peter

Too funny!

Courtesy of an e-mail from reader S. W., we learn of the availability of - wait for it - a 55-gallon drum of personal lubricant.  It's touted as 'natural', but quite frankly, when you've got 55 gallons of the stuff, that seems pretty unnatural right from the start!

The comments from readers are classic.  I can't possibly reproduce many of them in a family-friendly blog like this, but being African-born and -bred, this one reduced me to helpless laughter:

As a Fertility Specialist for Pachyderms, this was exactly what we needed to help rebuild elephant populations all over sub-saharan africa. It's not all just Medications and IVF treatments. Some times you need a loudspeaker, a Barry White CD and a 55 Gallon drum of Lube.

Never mind the lube - the thought of elephants listening to Barry White was bad enough!

Go read all the reviews, and laugh your head off . . .





Peter

A murder in Syracuse

A recent murder in Syracuse, NY has started something of a furore over the difference between bland, politically-correct police and media reports, and the true facts of the matter.  The basic story is outwardly straightforward.  Two teens have been charged with manslaughter following the death of a bystander whom they (and others in their group) attacked without warning or provocation in a game known as 'Knockout'.  A news report quoting the police may be found here.

A local blogger, Matt Forney, has a much more informative report.  Here's an excerpt.

Here are the facts, for those of you keeping score:

1. These “teenagers” were black. Whenever a news story fails to mention the race of the perp, it’s because they’re either black or Latino. This attack happened in the South Side, a run-down, primarily black ghetto where convenience store owners have to put bars on their windows to deter theft and the only booming businesses are pawn shops and payday loan sharks. Put two and two together.
2. The man they killed, Michael Daniels, was white.
3. These black teenagers were playing Knockout King, a game where you go around finding white people to beat up and put in the hospital. It’s also called “polar bear hunting”, and you can figure out why.
4. There are literally hundreds of documented cases across the U.S. in the past 5-6 years of black teenagers swarming on hapless white people and putting them in the hospital for kicks, sometimes even killing them. Ex: Carter Strange.

Additionally, as commenters at the Post-Standard pointed out, the story’s author, Ken Sturtz, omitted the graphic details of what these “teenagers” did to Daniels. They didn’t just beat him to death, they popped his eyeball out of its socket and laughed about it.

There's more at the link.  It's worth your time to read the whole thing.

I've written before about the changing urban self-defense environment and the growing need to be able to defend yourself.  These reports from Syracuse are merely the latest in a very long list of them.  The problem of black-on-other-races violence is becoming more and more acute wherever groups of feral, unemployed youth gather in our major cities.  It's not confined to one city, or one state, or one region;  it's nation-wide.

I'm neither interested in nor concerned with whether or not it's politically correct to speak about this.  The facts speak for themselves.  Be warned, and conduct yourselves accordingly.

Peter

Doofus Of The Day #706

Sean over at 'An NC Gun Blog' has a horror story about an instructor who seemingly couldn't or wouldn't pay any attention to the most basic firearms safety rules, precautions and guidelines.  Having trained at many shooting schools on two continents, and being a multiply qualified firearms instructor myself, I can tell you I got cold shivers reading his account.  Go read the whole thing for yourself, as well as his father's brother's corroborating testimony.

After reading Sean's report, I can only say that I won't even consider taking a firearm training course from Lethal Weapons Training Academy in Pennsylvania.  Instead, I can only confer upon them a Doofus Award.  I trust my readers will draw their own conclusions.





Peter

A waltzing rally car?

This video clip, taken at the 2013 Carlow Rally in England, shows an entrant spinning wildly as he hits a slippery patch on the road.  Language alert - some of the spectators' comments are a bit off-color!

Amazingly, he was able to get going again after that!  He was very lucky not to bend his car around several obstacles . . .

Peter

A steampunk-like rocket launch

NASA's Image Of The Day gallery contains many photographs of interest to followers of space travel and the like (even aspiring SF authors like yours truly).  On May 28th the latest flight in the Expedition series to the International Space Station launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.  The next Image Of The Day was this photograph of the launch.

A small reproduction like that can't do justice to the scene.  You'll find the NASA original here, where you can also download it in its original size of 5,006×3,744 pixels (an amazing 100 times greater area than the image above, and great for screen wallpaper).  In the full size image, the steelwork of the launching platform has an eerie, almost steampunk-like look in the glare of the rocket exhaust.  It's quite fascinating.  Kudos to the photographer, Bill Ingalls, who captured the moment perfectly.

Peter

Dubai timelapse

Another great timelapse video, this one of a part of the world I've never visited.  I recommend watching it in full-screen mode.

Amazing to think of what it must have cost to bring all that water into the middle of a desert city . . . and still costs, to keep it flowing!

Peter

EDITED TO ADD:  Reader C. M. sent me a link to a number of photographs of Dubai in the 1960's and 1970's, before it was developed to the extent shown in the video.  Quite a contrast!

A fiery start!

Older readers may remember flying aboard the last generation of piston-engine airliners such as the Douglas DC-6 and DC-7 or the various models of the Lockheed Super Constellation.  These aircraft typically used turbocharged and/or supercharged piston engines, producing several thousand horsepower.  For example, later models of the Super Constellation were equipped with Wright R-3350 18-cylinder radial engines fitted with turbo-compound (i.e. turbine-boosted) technology, as illustrated below.

(Image courtesy of Wikipedia)

Due to their large (and large number of) cylinders, and the pressurized injection of fuel and air at high power settings, their exhausts usually produced a lot of flame and sparks on take-off, as illustrated in this evening ascent of a Qantas Super Constellation at the Avalon air show in 2011.  I recommend watching the video in full-screen mode.

It's a spectacular view from the ground - and I'm here to tell you, it's even more spectacular looking out at the shooting flames and sparks from inside the cabin!  Unless you know what's going on and realize that they're quite normal, it can give you quite a fright!

I've flown in DC-3's, -4's, -6's and -7's (the latter just as 'sparky' as the Super Constellation, if not more so) in many parts of Africa.  Modern jetliners may be faster, quieter and much more efficient, but there's still a certain nostalgic magic in the old birds . . .

Peter

Governments getting greedier . . .

For years we've had a problem in the USA with state governments seizing 'dormant' accounts (defined as 'dormant' in their own terms) and 'administering' the funds in them for the presumed owners.  Very often that means simply spending the money on the state's own needs, knowing that in many cases no claim will ever be lodged.  Trouble is, more and more people are finding their deposit accounts, safe deposit boxes, etc. raided and confiscated, and have a terrible time getting back what's theirs.  If it's property such as jewelry, etc., that's often sold - sometimes for ridiculously low prices - and the owners never recover what's theirs.  What's more, they have no recourse except to claim back the cash value received, because the state(s) have passed laws making such confiscation 'legal'.

It now appears that the Australian government is doing the same thing.   Reader Snoggeramus warns us of a Brisbane woman who lost more than $150,000 in that way.  It seems that other nations are doing likewise - for example, the British Virgin Islands (long an offshore banking haven) is moving in that direction.  Add to that talk of a 'deposit tax' on European bank accounts, and things are suddenly looking a lot less safe for many depositors around the world.

I've written before about the need to keep a certain amount of cash on hand.  One response to the risks outlined above is to increase the amount of cash one keeps on hand, rather than in a bank.  I don't have a lot (certainly nothing approaching real wealth), but I'm damned if I'll leave it in a bank whose soundness and integrity I can no longer trust, thanks to interference from rapacious and greedy governments!  We certainly aren't earning enough interest on our savings (much less than the rate of inflation, whether the artificially-low 'official' figure or the real one) to justify leaving them in the bank;  and if others find their assets in the bank suddenly taxed or confiscated, we'll be immune to their troubles.

Peter

A labor of automotive love!

I was amazed to learn of a Hungarian man who's built a car made almost entirely of wood.  The Telegraph reports:

Istvan Puskas is making a mark with a car created almost entirely out of wood, built it over four months in his workshop in Tiszaors, Hungary.

The fuel tank is an old beer barrel and even the suspension and gearbox are made out of wood.

The car is powered by an engine from a Polish-made Fiat 126, while the steering wheel came from an old Mercedes Benz vehicle.

"I love to work with wood. And I like to create unique things which attract interest from people," says Mr Puskas.

There's more at the link.  Here's a video report showing his creation.

OK, that's pretty impressive - but if he ever has an accident, I reckon he'll be picking splinters out of his backside for weeks . . .





Peter