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gloom and doom...

new year
In a sense, it's the same question: when someone mentions '2012' in years to come, what memories will it conjure in your mind? It's no easier to answer than it was back in January. Some obvious subject-headings suggest themselves, now as then: the Olympics; the Leveson inquiry; the re-election of president Obama; and, presumably, some aspect of the Middle East's travails. The rest is speculation.There will, inevitably, have been deeper themes: turning-points and watersheds for which future historians will use '2012' as shorthand. But it's far too early to pick them out. Was this the year that the first nail was hammered into what would become the coffin of British press freedom? The year the eurozone crisis hit rock bottom? The year the US finally faced up to the perils of climate change? Perhaps. Or perhaps all three propositions are closer to being the opposite of the truth.Only time will tell. In retrospect, we can look back at 1812 and recognise instantly that this was the year when the outcome of the hitherto endless-seeming Napoleonic wars was determined. It may not have seemed so obvious at the time; just as it probably wasn't obvious that the assassination that same year of a serving British prime minister would never really lodge itself in public memory. But the death of Spencer Perceval, unlike the failed invasion of Russia, didn't change history.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/review-of-2012-our-writers-and-tweeters-look-back-at-a-years-news-from-space-to-the-jungle-8424648.html

more or less of the same...

If one goes on looking seriously at predictions for the world in 2013, one would become immensely depressed... Knowing that one's hardening arteries will be one year older can also have that effect on one...

Lucky one is still able to self-medicate with champagne or red-ned whichever one can afford... I would suggest that things could improve somewhat, except that Tony is eager to place his mitts on the levers. He is ready to make more of a nuisance of himself and destroy a few too many things of value. That is enough to upset a fragile hopeful vision of the future. Nooo, not Tony, please!

But one has to go on nonetheless and push this barrow full of bricks uphill... It's a new year coming our way in which more of the same — which is most likely — may not be as bad as we think... It actually could be a blessing in comparison to what crap the experts predict...

celebration fires...

While Sydney had the "usual" fireworks — I mean the super spectacular display of pyrotechnics ever — in Paris, the people got joyful and burned 1193 cars... Apparently this has not made the world mass media press, except the French Le Monde...

Happy New Year, 2013...

your dog is gay...

Removal of controversial 'insult' clause from Public Order Act is a victory for campaigners


LAST UPDATED AT 12:42 ON Tue 15 Jan 2013

THE BRITISH public will soon be free to call a police horse gay, insult Scientology or growl at a dog without fear of prosecution, after Home Secretary Theresa May announced a fundamental change to the Public Order Act.

Section 5 of the act allowed the police and courts to determine what is insulting. It will now be amended in what campaigners have called a victory for free speech, The Guardian reports.

The act, which covers both the spoken and written word, will be altered so that a person can only be found guilty of an offence if they use threatening or abusive words or behaviour. No longer will "insulting" words or behaviour be covered.

Read more: http://www.theweek.co.uk/uk-news/51002/free-call-police-horse-gay-section-5-reformed-last#ixzz2I4eEJIDX

 

Freedom, at last...

your economist is artful...

 

If you go through the credentials of Australia’s Federal MP’s, you will see that there are lots of lawyers, plenty of former trade unionists and a great many people who have Economics degrees. The reason for this is that, for a career politician, if you are want to understand what the people in Treasury or the Reserve Bank are talking about, you need to understand their robotic jargon, which is essentially what an Economics degree allows.

As economist Joan Violet Robinson said:

“The purpose of studying economics is not to acquire a set of ready-made answers to economic questions, but to learn how to avoid being deceived by economists.”

read more: http://www.independentaustralia.net/2013/business/finance-2/the-art-of-economics/

As I have claimed before on this site, political and economic sciences are not sciences but artful dodger diddles... No science is involved at all... since no repeat of experiment is possible.
See toon at top...