Principles of Economics

Peter Jocis shared New Economics Institute's photo.

October 30

Principles of Economics

DAMM ! How did we get back to Nero's Rome? "maximize those profits, any which way you can get away with, maximize the EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization) for our INVESTORS - namely the 2 % who already own 98% of the world's wealth"

TL;DR? John Stuart Mill hearts coops.

Scientists: We've Entered a New Epoch, the Anthropocene

Trouble With Physics: Fuel 2000 & Beyond

*Nuclear Energies are on standby and far more readily accessible than through fission or fusion

*The conversion factor between matter and energy is precisely equal to the quantity C, velocity of light

*The quantity C is the pivotal point about which the natural laws become manifest

*An energy differential equal to C between two reference points suspends the natural laws

*An energy differential in excess of C between two reference points, the laws appear to operate in reverse

*The natural laws are Relative: that is, the value of one can be altered between any two reference points by altering the value or relationship of the other. This last fact should always be borne in mind when we hear some dogmatist solemnly declare that we are forever barred from reaching the stars by the hopelessly great degree of separation which exists between us, or that the gravity field is disabled with only one pole.

As a people fail to understand evolutionary parameters which are conveniently "lacking/missing" in suppressed energy science today (fundamental Trouble With Physics), future legends of our time will reflect a repetitive history of the 'rise & fall of civilizations': "the people followed the errs of the kings, and in a short span of time, lost their freedom, their land, their temples, their lives" When the concept of Freedom disconnects from responsibility, it magically transforms to FreeDumb, the killer of civilizations.

Mild shock and disbelief barely registered in the nation of the most productive, overworked, underpaid, underinsured, vacation deprived, low paid slave/workers in the world, as they watched their bridges fall down, while their taxes, gas and energy costs continued skyrocketing to uncharted realms, as the masses stagnated in unmovable traffic, and government departments threatened to close due to lack of funds - On the bright side, the worldwide corporate 2% greedy guts, individually, had aplenty, more wealth than 30 nations combined, apiece.... irrelevant to who is paying for their errors (as in subprime loans)

Scientists: We've Entered a New Epoch, the Anthropocene
Researchers Believe an Era of Overwhelming Human-Caused Change in Earth Needs New Name
COLUMN by LEE DYE Jan. 2, 2008 —
We humans are having such a dramatic impact on our planet that some leading scientists think the current era needs a new name. We're no longer in the Holocene epoch, they say. We're now well into what they are calling the Anthropocene.
This planet is being changed by human activities in ways that will continue to alter Earth for millions of years. The most obvious example is global climate change precipitated by the release of greenhouse gases from fossil fuels, but there are many more, some so obvious it's hard to think of them as insidious threats to our environment.
But they are indeed, according to the leader of the Anthropocene movement, Nobel laureate Paul J. Crutzen, who is said to have coined the word during a science meeting in 2000. Crutzen, former chief of atmospheric chemistry at the Max-Planck-Institute in Germany and now a part-time professor at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, is out with a new paper that leads off with a provocative question: "Are Humans Now Overwhelming the Great Forces of Nature?"
The paper, published by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in the current issue of the journal Ambio, begins with this warning:
"Global warming and many other human-driven changes to the environment are raising concerns about the future of Earth's environment and it's ability to provide the services required to maintain viable human civilizations. The consequences of this unintended experiment of humankind on its own life support system ..full text

US eyes boom in nuclear reactors

What to do, what to do with the waste in our petrified and stale concept of nuclear? As common sense in science is lost with the continued stagnation of our energy base and deep troubling theoretical foundational issues in physics, so too, Civilization's Survival Parameters fly out of sight, out of mind, along with the values and morals inherent within new scientific understanding which new energy systems would reveal. Scientific Stagnation bodes an ill wind to evolution, sustainability, and survival as "cycles of humiliation, dumbing us down, violence & resource wars" join hands with global warming and ecological imbalance to precipitate the historical "rise and fall" - a Tsunami accelerating toward us with a far more spectacular event than the legends and myths of 'Atlantis and Lemuria"........ had more people known, Energy from Corn (or going backwards to a dimwitted concept of nuclear) sounded a wee bit kindergartenish and senile for the twenty first century......the Future may have had a chance.


US eyes boom in nuclear reactors
By Laura Smith-Spark BBC News, Washington 10-11-07











Almost three decades have passed since the last application was filed to build a new nuclear reactor in the US. Now, up to 30 are expected in the next three years.
As time has passed, memories have faded of the 1979 radioactive leak at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania that threw the US nuclear industry into disarray.
Meanwhile, energy security concerns and worries about climate change have reshaped the debate, and financial incentives and a new licensing process have altered the economics.
The first full application for two new reactors, in southern Texas, was submitted at the end of September.
Another four are due by the end of the year and a dozen in 2008, many in south-eastern states, the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) said.
The earliest could be in operation by 2015.
A range of factors is fuelling the renewed enthusiasm:
The introduction of a new fast-track combined construction and operation permit, making new reactors easier and cheaper to build
A tax credit, introduced in the 2005 Energy Policy Act, of 1.8 cents per kilowatt hour for the first 6,000 megawatts generated by nuclear plants
Risk insurance adding up to $2bn for the first six plants to be built, protecting companies against the cost of delays in construction
Multi-billion-dollar loan guarantees
A likelihood that the cost of emitting CO2 will rise as the battle against climate change intensifies
But the impending flood of applications is fuelling a new row over whether nuclear power represents a bold step to address 21st Century needs or a mistaken return to flawed 20th Century technology ..... full text