Here is some info on CERN's Hadron Collider. The scientists put the odds of the Collider destroying dear earth (by inadvertently creating a micro black hole) at 1 in 50 million. Wonder how they calculated those odds.
The Collider definitely looks hideous.
Wired Science's complete Hadron Collider coverage
Large Hadron Collider: Best- and Worst-Case Scenarios
It was turned on Sept 10th but I guess it broke down pretty quickly (nine days) supposedly "because one electrical connection out of 10,000 was badly soldered" (worst excuse ever). To restart next year, billions of dollars later.
Tuesday, October 07, 2008
Wednesday, October 01, 2008
Glorious Unmasking
The ruling elite (Wall Street) and their servants (The Bush-Obama-McCain-Democrat-Republican nexus) have been self-unmasked in a way that no amount of activism/agitation/blogging could have achieved in a hundred years. Watch Obama-McCain squirm, lie, vacillate and be psychopathic as they try to please their true masters while simultaneously pretending to be interested in public welfare.
Of course, there was some confusion/posturing within party ranks which caused the bailout to fail the first time. The bailout bill will pass the next time. Wall Street owns you, you have no choice. Welcome to the world of odious debt.
Private (mortgage) Debt -> Financial Sector Debt -> Insurer -> Insurer -> Insurer .... -> Public Debt. As you can see, to avoid an infinite regression of insuring bad loans, the terminating condition for Wall Street is that everything gets converted to public debt. In other words, Wall Street always has an insurer. The public is essentially being held at gunpoint as an unwilling insurer.
Note that as long as the Financial Sector makes profits from risky loans, they don't make a sound (what profits?). Eventually, due to the high risk, loans are not repaid. In a capitalist society, it is assumed that the lender should take the loss. Note how nothing of that sort ever happens in reality. The current heist by Wall Street only relieves financial sector debt by conveniently converting it to public debt (so that Wall Street can merrily continue going about their obviously nasty business, makes one wonder if they are human beings or some otherworldly freakish aberrations?). Note how Private (homeowner) Debt and Public debt continue to remain a severe problem.
In case this isn't clear, lets make a simple analogy.
This is the guarantee that Wall Street has from their servants in public office.
1) Feel free to go to the casino. Make sure you don't tell anyone it's a casino.
2) Assume an unlimited supply of hassle-free borrowed money with which to gamble. No one will keep any record.
3) If you win, you get to keep all your winnings, in fact you don't even need to report any winnings. Use these winnings for personal pleasures and to help us (your humble servants) get reelected.
4) In case you lose, don't worry, you can keep your earlier profits. If you knew that you were going to lose in advance, first consolidate and distribute all the profits amongst yourselves. Then let shit hit the fan.
5) You don't have to make good on the losses.
6) Someone else will take the fall for the losses.
7) That someone else is fully captive and can be bent at will.
8) That someone else is the public. Most of this public never saw any gains whatsoever, but we'll make them pay up. They'll have to pay up, because we said so. If they make any inconvenient noises about it, we'll pretend to listen, but completely ignore them at the same time. This is the role of public servants: Never solve any problems, maintain power and make soothing noises to pacify the public.
9) In case the public makes so much noise that soothing them via words becomes very difficult, not to worry! We already have all the police and military apparatus in place to squash even the most minor rebellion/protest/revolt. We've even built jails (concentration camps) in advance exactly in case of such a contingency. Ironically, the jails will have been funded by the very people we're going to imprison and maybe torture.
10) The true irony is that in spite of us robbing them blind, the public will continue to seemingly elect us via a meaningless electoral process.
Parting words from George Orwell
Of course, there was some confusion/posturing within party ranks which caused the bailout to fail the first time. The bailout bill will pass the next time. Wall Street owns you, you have no choice. Welcome to the world of odious debt.
Private (mortgage) Debt -> Financial Sector Debt -> Insurer -> Insurer -> Insurer .... -> Public Debt. As you can see, to avoid an infinite regression of insuring bad loans, the terminating condition for Wall Street is that everything gets converted to public debt. In other words, Wall Street always has an insurer. The public is essentially being held at gunpoint as an unwilling insurer.
Note that as long as the Financial Sector makes profits from risky loans, they don't make a sound (what profits?). Eventually, due to the high risk, loans are not repaid. In a capitalist society, it is assumed that the lender should take the loss. Note how nothing of that sort ever happens in reality. The current heist by Wall Street only relieves financial sector debt by conveniently converting it to public debt (so that Wall Street can merrily continue going about their obviously nasty business, makes one wonder if they are human beings or some otherworldly freakish aberrations?). Note how Private (homeowner) Debt and Public debt continue to remain a severe problem.
In case this isn't clear, lets make a simple analogy.
This is the guarantee that Wall Street has from their servants in public office.
1) Feel free to go to the casino. Make sure you don't tell anyone it's a casino.
2) Assume an unlimited supply of hassle-free borrowed money with which to gamble. No one will keep any record.
3) If you win, you get to keep all your winnings, in fact you don't even need to report any winnings. Use these winnings for personal pleasures and to help us (your humble servants) get reelected.
4) In case you lose, don't worry, you can keep your earlier profits. If you knew that you were going to lose in advance, first consolidate and distribute all the profits amongst yourselves. Then let shit hit the fan.
5) You don't have to make good on the losses.
6) Someone else will take the fall for the losses.
7) That someone else is fully captive and can be bent at will.
8) That someone else is the public. Most of this public never saw any gains whatsoever, but we'll make them pay up. They'll have to pay up, because we said so. If they make any inconvenient noises about it, we'll pretend to listen, but completely ignore them at the same time. This is the role of public servants: Never solve any problems, maintain power and make soothing noises to pacify the public.
9) In case the public makes so much noise that soothing them via words becomes very difficult, not to worry! We already have all the police and military apparatus in place to squash even the most minor rebellion/protest/revolt. We've even built jails (concentration camps) in advance exactly in case of such a contingency. Ironically, the jails will have been funded by the very people we're going to imprison and maybe torture.
10) The true irony is that in spite of us robbing them blind, the public will continue to seemingly elect us via a meaningless electoral process.
Parting words from George Orwell
Obedience is not enough. Unless he is suffering, how can you be sure that he is obeying your will and not his own? Power is in inflicting pain and humiliation. Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing. Do you begin to see, then, what kind of world we are creating? It is the exact opposite of the stupid hedonistic Utopias that the old reformers imagined. A world of fear and treachery and torment, a world of trampling and being trampled upon, a world which will grow not less but more merciless as it refines itself. Progress in our world will be progress towards more pain. The old civilizations claimed that they were founded on love or justice. Ours is founded upon hatred. In our world there will be no emotions except fear, rage, triumph, and self-abasement. Everything else we shall destroy — everything. Already we are breaking down the habits of thought which have survived from before the Revolution. We have cut the links between child and parent, and between man and man, and between man and woman. No one dares trust a wife or a child or a friend any longer. But in the future there will be no wives and no friends. Children will be taken from their mothers at birth, as one takes eggs from a hen. … There will be no loyalty, except loyalty towards the Party. There will be no love, except the love of Big Brother. There will be no laughter, except the laugh of triumph over a defeated enemy. There will be no art, no literature, no science. When we are omnipotent we shall have no more need of science. There will be no distinction between beauty and ugliness. There will be no curiosity, no enjoyment of the process of life. All competing pleasures will be destroyed. But always — do not forget this, Winston — always there will be the intoxication of power, constantly increasing and constantly growing subtler. Always, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — forever. ~George Orwell
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