Despite my own misgivings about wind power it seems to be taking off globally. This is a good thing – the more clean energy the better. I am still not convinced that wind is the ultimate solution, but it certainly does help.
This graph and excerpt from The Economist shows that global wind power production is climbing exponentially. Also, USA has now become the largest wind power producer in the world.
We often have ships like the one picture above (source) berthed off Cape Town. Because of their conspicuous appearances they generate a lot of interest.
The Cape Ports website has some information:
I just read that both Madame Zingara’s and Carlucci’s are going under. This is highly unfortunate because both are great restaurants.
Summary:
Hopefully buyers step in or the owners can escape bankruptcy.
Get more information here.
The front page of the Cape Times today detailed a story about a world record Zambezi shark being caught 5.5km up the Brede River. I did a bit of Googling and found more information and pictures:
Awesome stuff. You can get more information from this article
The Economist has this article reviewing experimental results that suggest people are more likely to procrastinate when given abstract tasks:
The experiments
Three individual experiments were used to test the hypothesis. In each experiment test subjects were offered a reward (a few dollars) to complete a task within 3 weeks. Half were given a concrete task and the other half an abstract task.
The results
In all of the experiments the researchers found that those given concrete tasks were:
Interpretation
The article itself doesn’t include much in the way of interpretation. I would think it quite obvious.
UPDATE: A friend pointed out that this illustration is in fact a dishonest misrepresentation of the figures. If it really is from Bloomberg then I am shocked!
He noticed that the illustration uses the diameter of the circles to illustrate the relative market caps. In other words the height of each circle represents the market cap – not the area (size) of the circle.
This is a problem because we naturally compare the sizes (areas) of the circles. However, if you double the height of a circle you actually increase the area of the circle four times!
To see what I mean consider the graph below of the shrink in JP Morgan’s market cap. On the left is the original graph with diameter representing market cap. On the right is the correct graph showing market cap as area.
This shows clearly why the original graph is so shockingly bad. Could be a mistake, but I doubt it.
I recently received this graphic view of the massive shrinks in the market caps of major global banks. The source is supposedly J.P. Morgan via Bloomberg, but I can’t vouch for its accuracy.
Click for a larger version.
There are many analyses of Obama’s inauguration speech out there. Predictably, I like the one from The Economist. You can read the transcript of the speech here.
On the tone of the speech:
On the environment and energy:
On foreign policy:
I liked Barack’s inauguration speech. It wasn’t as inspiring as expected, but what he said had real substance and was the kind of stuff that I wanted to hear. From what I’ve seen so far (not much) he is going to be a president I’ll like.
My favorite line?
“We will restore science to its rightful place”
I love it. After 8 years of Bush’s ideological and political meddling in science and science related policy this is something that I really, really wanted to hear.
George W Bush may or not be a complete idiot. Surely you can’t actually get through Yale and become president if you really are a moron?
But he definitely has said some idiotic things over his 8 years as president. The BBC has this awesome collection of ‘Bushisms’. Very funny.
Here are some of my favorites.
Recently in London an evangelical Christian group ran a campaign of bus adverts for their website which claims that: all non-Christians will burn in hell for eternity.
Don’t be shocked. This is of course what should be believed by those who take the bible literally. (If you don’t then what makes you think you can pick and choose which parts you like!)
In response a British writer (Ariane Sherine) launched a campaign to run a positive ‘atheist’ bus campaign. The public pledged over £140,000 in support and now that campaign is a serious reality.
Buses all over Britain now display this message:
Nice. I like it. Catchy, friendly. Good stuff.
There has been quite a lot of debate about the use of the word “probably”. They went with “probably” because
You can learn more on the campaign website FAQ or on the Wikipedia article