It turns out that people are not always rational. They don’t always do what’s in their own best interests, even when the benefits are completely clear to a development economist.
Or to put it another way – they’re not poor because they’re poor. They’re poor because they’re embedded in a culture of stupid.
h/t Bob
Heads will roll: Vancouver Sun accidentally republishes piece by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard.
Russian authorities have opened a piracy case against Greenpeace environmental activists who attempted to scale an OAO Gazprom OGZPY -1.70% oil platform in the Barents Sea last week to protest Arctic drilling.
Russia’s Investigative Committee, the federal law-enforcement body conducting the probe, vowed Tuesday to bring to justice all those involved in the incident “regardless of their citizenship.” Under Russian law, piracy carries a penalty of up to 15 years in prison.
[This] photo of Liberal leader Justin Trudeau running alongside his new ‘star’ ex-Lt-General Andrew Leslie is being questioned as a complete fraud.
It was apparently taken at the Sept 22 Army Run in Ottawa (see here) but the issue is that the bib Trudeau is wearing (#20603) is supposedly registered to a Leslie Philippa in the female 25-29 age bracket.
h/t Marina
h/t Joe Bastardi
David Suzuki on the very first question is revealed as a complete know-nothing. His questioner tells him that the main climate data sets show no real warming for some 15 years.
Suzuki asks for the references, which he should have known if he knew anything of the science.
His questioner then lists them: UAH, RSS, HadCrut and GISS – four of the most basic measurement systems of global temperature.
Suzuki asks what they are.
h/t ron in kelowna
Sacha Korn is an East German-born musician, manager, consultant, and record label owner whose opinions — about the EU’s propaganda and false promises, about how children have been raised to apologize for being German, about the dehumanizing of regular folks who hold non-state-approved views by calling them “right” — have caused the Reductio ad Hitlerum fallacy to be tossed around by his critics.
After Google-translating numerous articles about him I found no statements of his that would justify the accusation; he did invite a collective gasp when he said he’s at the point where doesn’t even know what the N-word actually means anymore due to its overuse (sorta like the word “racist” over here), and he’s been accused not deleting blog comments that his accuser deemed offensive, etc., but that’s about it.
Korn, for his part, says he considers his views to be neither left or right, but rather those of a generation “that has no desire to be f***ed.”
Anyway, I really just wanted to play Korn’s techno-pop-ish and flat (like a millpond) version of the Deutsche Nationalhymne, expanded to include all three verses. It’s like “O Canada”, but it’s German, eh?
The comments thread is open, as always, for your Reader Tips.
Hmmmm…. Stephen Harper won’t address the UN General Assembly when it gathers in New York this week, just as he didn’t address it last year or the year before.
Monte Solberg: Warming talk cools
All of this should be good news, and yet not everyone is happy. For some reason, many climate change warriors seem disappointed that things aren’t quite as bad as they thought. If so, they probably won’t want to hear about the Arctic ice cap either.
Khadr waiting, waving, smiling. Can see his dimples from across the courtroom.
— Chris Purdy (@ChrisPurdyCP) September 23, 2013
Poland Confiscates Half Of Private Pension Funds To “Cut” Sovereign Debt Load.
The Kenyan police are essentially live-tweeting their operation to take back the Westgate mall: @PoliceKE
— Ryan Lizza (@RyanLizza) September 23, 2013
It took just two days and a small collection of everyday household items for a group of German hackers to bypass the fingerprint sensor on an Apple iPhone 5S.
Chaos Computer Club, based in Berlin, took a high-resolution photograph of a fingerprint from the side of a glass.
They then scanned it, before laser printing it onto a transparent sheet and covering it in woodglue. Once the glue had dried, they peeled off the print copy and pressed it on the scanner.
Men, women and children were lined up and then gunned down with AK-47s after failing to name the Prophet Mohammed’s mother or recite passages from the Koran – sure-fire proof they were ‘kafirs’, or non-believers.
Others fled and sought refuge in shops, bank vaults and store rooms as grenades exploded and bullets fired around them.
More about the victims at BBC.
Could’a been a contender.
Gordon Knight, via email;
Its been six months since our SDA mention. Your site brought a lot of traffic, and I think we’ve got enough material for an update. […] Our latest article is here.
Pull quote? “But a Canadian regulatory entity has no business using Canadian taxpayer dollars to send the people of Taipei to watch Batman remakes.”
Things We’ve Learned Since May 6th:
Companies have contacted us to advise that CSA has been demanding that they make payments to CSA because these companies are quoting from, teaching, posting or otherwise using the rule of law. As CSA has the power to harm these entities if they don’t pay, and as the demand for payment is legally baseless, we consider these to be demands for protection money. RestoreCSA issued a Public Notice to targeted entities on May 27th.
We have learned that CSA has de facto powers of taxation on construction activity in Canada.
The office of Geoff Regan, MP has submitted an Order Paper in Parliament demanding answers from the Standards Council of Canada on the actions of CSA.
CSA has sent three threat letters since the launch of RestoreCSA.com, we’re averaging one threat every ten days.
CSA has threatened us with a new lawsuit over our latest video, entitled “Payments.” This video covers the topic of CSA members paying money in exchange for influence over the law. They are really cross with us over this one.
CSA had the lawyers for the Telus Convention Centre send us a threatening letter in advance of the CSA AGM, advising that if we attended their event they would “append you without warrant.”
CSA has been discovered lobbying Industry Canada for protection from civil litigation. This is ironic, because they’re trying to get a degree of immunity from legal proceedings while simultaneously suing us at PSKnight Co. Detail and fed filing here.
CSA will only answer with a “yes” or “no” to anybody’s Code questions, and they take up to three years to give that one word answer. Detail here.
PSKnight submitted an Open Letter to the CEO of CSA suggesting a meeting during the CSA AGM to discuss collaboration on efforts to reform the CSA organization.
CSA and its affiliate demand “imprisonment” for companies which counterfeit certifications, yet CSA was counterfeiting certifications for eight years. Detail here and here.
Access to Canadian law is now run out of Cleveland, Ohio. We have to call the United States for permission to use or access Canadian law. Detail here.
CSA generates about $22MM per Code cycle, just on sales of access to electrical law. Detail here.
CSA is exempted from most federal accountability and transparency laws. They also exempt themselves from their own accountability and transparency standards. Detail here.
CSA is claiming ownership of the acronym “CSA”. That is, nobody is allowed to use this acronym without CSA approval. Detail here. The trouble is that over there are over 500 legal and legitimate uses for that acronym. List is here. In Canada, the Canadian Space Agency and a few others have rejected CSA’s claims. Detail here.
CSA has been threatening RestoreCSA’s internet service provider and managed to get our website shut down for a couple of days. Detail here. CSA also sent a threat letter to the wrong IT company. Detail here.
CSA is caught washing their website of anything that looks incriminating. Detail here.
And, CSA is now generating over a quarter billion per year in revenue. That’s a lot, for an electrical regulator.
And believe it or not, there’s more: Canadian standards group accused of negligence in certifying modular homes
If Mitt Romney had a grandchild, he may look like this. Indeed, his newest grandchild, Kieran James Romney, has been adopted … into a loving family that will care for him and nurture him and raise him to be a fine young man. End of story? Not if you’re one of a number of Leftists who couldn’t let this event go without spewing out a little venom.
If one day Chelsea Clinton adopts a black child, do you think any of these same people would ever dare say such things?!
As any male Siberian hamster can tell you, it’s now officially fall. Tonight, to commemorate the autumn equinox, we present the late Eva Cassidy’s truly lovely interpretation of the très melancholy classic Autumn Leaves.
The comments are open, as always, for your Reader Tips.