The future

Bad as things are, let’s keep some perspective and listen to someone who takes a long view. A view so long it covers several hundred light years in distance. Here’s William Borucki, principal investigator for the Kepler Mission and a space scientist at the NASA-Ames Research Center, talking to Ira Flatow on NPR’s Talk of the Nation, from December 23rd. Asked whether he’s worried about the prospect of future missions in light of economic difficulties and budget cutbacks, Mr Borucki responded:

I believe that in Europe and the United States, we'll look seriously at our problems, and we will solve them and that we will get back to a much more productive, happy time in the future.

Blimp and the City

From The Complete Colonel Blimp, a collection of David Low’s cartoons edited by Mark Bryant and published by Bellew Publishing 1991. More of Low’s Blimp in this earlier post.

See also Francis Sedgemore on David Cameron’s recent EU performance, From Chamberlain to Churchill to Blimp. My apologies to Francis for being so slow in finding the appropriate illustration.

While we’re on that fortnight-old subject, I found the following worthwhile reading: Joe Lynam, business correspondent for BBC News, asking Is the City worse off after David Cameron’s EU veto? Chris Dillow asking Why defend the City? And Peter Ryley’s summing up:

Cameron has upset everybody by vetoing a treaty imposing the wrong remedy on the basis of a wrong diagnosis even though he agrees with the diagnosis and is busy applying the same wrong remedy to the British economy.

Cartoon copyright © Low Estate/Solo Syndication.

Mahanagar

Mahanagar by Satyajit Ray, as a YouTube playlist here.

Wealth creation and renumeration

Watching the documentary Inside Job (see previous post) put me in mind of the Lucky Luke comic album Jesse James, drawn by Morris and written by Goscinny, also writer of the original Asterix stories. In Goscinny’s version, Jesse James is inspired by reading about Robin Hood, but this inspiration creates a problem in dealing with the proceeds of his crimes. In the excerpt below, his brother Fank James has the solution. (Click to enlarge.)

The above scans are from the Brockhampton Press edition, translated by Frederick W Nolan. Cinebook are currently publishing good value paperbacks of most of the Lucky Luke stories. I recommend them for all ages.

Lucky Luke excerpts copyright © 1968 Dargaud S.A. English-language text copyright © 1972 Brockhampton Press Ltd.

Charles Ferguson on corruption in academic economics

Below, two clips from Inside Job, Charles Ferguson’s Academy Award winning documentary on the 2008 Crash, and following them, an interview with him that includes a focus on the issue of corruption in academic economics.

Stuff for sale

Screenprints for sale! Small but perfectly formed! Cheap at the price! Drawings and paintings! And books, of course. Some in Dutch, and French even. More to come! All in my new Print Shop!

Tell your friends! Tell your enemies!

And for Londoners wanting to examine the merchandise before buying, some of the prints are also on sale at Eenymeeny, 8 Campdale Road, in Tufnell Park, N7.

“They killed the goose”

For the times that are in it. The whole thing, as a playlist, here.

Related radio: Toxie, from This American Life.

Model economics

The last in this little series of THES drawings, from March 25th 1994, illustrating a pair of articles on economics and relevance, responsibility, and conscience, by David Walker and Edward Fullbrook.

August in the city

The family are off to the seaside, but I’m still here, trying to concentrate on work despite this incessant buzzing in my head.

Above, ‘Panic Caused by a Mosquito in Piccadilly Circus,’ from The Strand Magazine, 1910, via Paul.

Ruination

The John S. Cook & Co. Bank in Rhyolite, Nevada, 1906, rephotographed by Piet Schreuders in 2010. From Piet’s Flickr collection.

Piet has recently put together a new website showcasing his graphic design work and giving a glimpse of his various projects, on composers Raymond Scott and Leroy Shield, paperback painter James Avati, the geography and history of London as seen through Beatles photographs, and many other particular interests. So get out of the heat and visit pietschreuders.com.

Earlier Piet posts here, here, and here.

Image copyright © Piet Schreuders.

Numbers

First, a poll from April by the Jerusalem Media & Communication Centre, a Palestinian NGO. On voting intentions should there be an election, it gave a figure of 16% support for Hamas in Gaza compared with 42.7% for Fatah. 40.9% of respondents in Gaza said the West Bank government was doing a better job than the Gaza government, compared with 26% saying the reverse.

And yet quite a number of people seem under the impression that Hamas is the more popular party with the Palestinian population, at least judging by commenters at the New Statesman. (Via Bob.)

Everyone knows that the Gaza flotilla killings were a massive defeat for Israel in the battle for public opinion, but how big a defeat? Michael J Totten links to a poll:

Forty-nine percent (49%) of U.S. voters believe pro-Palestinian activists on the Gaza-bound aid ships raided by Israeli forces are to blame for the deaths that resulted in the high-profile incident.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 19% of voters think the Israelis are to blame. Thirty-two percent (32%) more are not sure.

More here. It would be interesting to see polls from other countries.

Michael Totten also links to another poll story from a year ago:

A survey conducted by the Boston Review in its May/June issue shows that nearly 25% of American non-Jews blame “the Jews” a moderate amount or more for the financial crisis.

Original story here.

Mick Hartley brings news of further criticism of the survey published by The Lancet in 2006 claiming a death toll of 600,000 in the Iraq War. The survey has now been questioned by Professor Michael Spagat of the Department of Economics at Royal Holloway, University of London:

Professor Spagat's research analyses the high-profile Burnham et al (2006) survey that estimated 601,000 violent deaths in the Iraq war and says it is unreliable, invalid and unethical and resulted in an exaggeration of the death toll.

According to the study all credible evidence suggests that a large number of people have been killed in the Iraq war. However, injecting inflated and unsupportable numbers into this discussion undermines our understanding of the conflict and could incite further violence”, says Professor Spagat.

More here. Earlier posts on the Lancet survey here and here.

Finally, at Ghosts of Alexander, AfPak Conference: Opinion Polls Make You Dumb. (Oopsy.)

Financial frolics

The personal finance pages are not the most amusing section of a newspaper even in good times. These drawings were an attempt to give levity to such dull care, all commissioned for the Sunday Telegraph around the turn of the century.

With a couple of them, I’ve happily forgotten what the point of it all was.

These were all rendered in ballpoint pen and liquid watercolour washes.

Something to do with balancing risk and reward, I guess.

Even on a nice country walk there is no escape from financial worry.

Always consult an independent financial advisor, like this one.

More financial advice in this earlier post.

On the NATO Channel

Via The Helmand Blog, three films on Afghan women in business:

More video from the warmongering western imperialists: Women of Hope, and A Clinic Called Maryam.

Lean times

Investment advice

Above, a nest-egg, or more simply, an egg.

Below, here it is again with all the other eggs, in one basket. The mistake is an obvious one, and it's not even a very sturdy looking basket.

Counting chicks would certainly be most premature in these circumstances. But should you be lucky enough to be see your investment mature, then simply counting will not be enough to ascertain the true value of your capital gain. Below is a device that you may find helpful.

All images from The Henwife by the Hon. Mrs. Arbuthnott, published by Thomas C. Jack, 45 Ludgate Hill, London, in the year 1887.