European Tribune - Community, Politics & Progress.

A UK resident detained at Guantanamo Bay has won a High Court ruling that the government should disclose material which he says backs his torture claims.
Binyam Mohamed, who is facing terrorism charges, says the documents support his case that the evidence against him has been obtained through torture.
Mr Mohamed, 30, has been held at the US military prison in Cuba for four years.
The judges said the information relating to him was "not only necessary but essential for his defence".

Life should consist in at least fifty percent pure waste of time, and the rest doing what you please.

by ceebs (bunchofwankers (at) gmail (dot) com) on Thu Aug 21st, 2008 at 11:30:29 AM EST

Re: Thursday Open Thread (none / 1)

Hi you guys.

Read today they are going to do a 410 MW uprate at the local nuclear power plant. The uprate alone will supply enough energy to power the entire county, 3 TWh.

Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.

by Starvid (arvid.hallen at gmail.com) on Thu Aug 21st, 2008 at 12:25:35 PM EST

Nobel Laureate Agrees w/ J (4.00 / 3)

Bloomberg has a sweet Doom n' Gloom article which includes this gem from Joseph Stiglitz:

Speaking at the same event, Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz of Columbia University blamed U.S. and international regulators such as former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan for failing to restrain an explosion in financial innovation and lending that led borrowers to rack up debt they couldn't repay. He criticized guidelines known as Basel II for encouraging too much self-regulation of banks.
``It was a massive failure of the brains of the economy,'' said Stiglitz. ``There was a party going on and the regulator with the same mindset of those in the party didn't want to be a party pooper.''

Thought J would get a kick out of it.

Skennah Kowa

by Crazy Horse on Thu Aug 21st, 2008 at 12:41:45 PM EST

Re: Nobel Laureate Agrees w/ J (4.00 / 2)

Here is the video of the Economic Sciences Nobel laureates panel discussion with Myron Scholes, Joseph Stiglitz, Mohammed Yunus and Daniel McFadden.

"Systemic Risks in Financial Markets"

You will also find other videos from the Nobel Laureates 2008 meeting in Lindau.

"Ne te courbe que pour aimer..." René Char

by Melanchthon on Thu Aug 21st, 2008 at 01:30:13 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: This one is for Jerome (4.00 / 2)

I came across this via Laura Rozen:

The CFTC [Commodity Futures Trading Commission], which learned about the nature of Vitol's activities only after making an unusual request for data from the firm, now reports that financial firms speculating for their clients or for themselves account for about 81 percent of the oil contracts on NYMEX, a far bigger share than had previously been stated by the agency. That figure may rise in coming weeks as the CFTC checks the status of other big traders.

"Beware of the man who does not talk, and the dog that does not bark." Cheyenne

by maracatu on Thu Aug 21st, 2008 at 12:55:30 PM EST

Re: This one is for Jerome (none / 0)

Well... Does this really mean anything? Speculators are there to provide liquidity to the market, so it's not very strange if they have a large market share. There's a lot more trading of paper oil than real oil.

Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.

by Starvid (arvid.hallen at gmail.com) on Thu Aug 21st, 2008 at 12:59:30 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: This one is for Jerome (none / 0)

Gee I dunno. You figure it out.

In the face of this:

JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia (AP) -- The U.S. energy secretary said Saturday that insufficient oil production, not financial speculation, was driving soaring crude prices.
[...]
"Market fundamentals show us that production has not kept pace with growing demand for oil, resulting in increasing prices and increasingly volatile prices," Bodman told reporters. "There is no evidence that we can find that speculators are driving futures prices" for oil.

I would think so.

[...as reported in Moon]

"Beware of the man who does not talk, and the dog that does not bark." Cheyenne

by maracatu on Thu Aug 21st, 2008 at 01:39:04 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: This one is for Jerome (none / 1)

Speculators are there to provide liquidity to the market

Um, no, that's the role of market-makers.

A vivid image of what should exist acts as a surrogate for reality. Pursuit of the image then prevents pursuit of the reality -- John K. Galbraith

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Fri Aug 22nd, 2008 at 05:51:09 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: This one is for Jerome (none / 0)

By adding their capital to the market, they do increase liquidity. They also reduce spreads and strengthen price signals, thereby increasing the efficiency of the market.

:: ::

In theory.

Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.

by Starvid (arvid.hallen at gmail.com) on Fri Aug 22nd, 2008 at 07:42:24 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: This one is for Jerome (none / 1)

You know your standard theory.

How do you reconcile higher "efficiency" with higher price volatility? The "true" price can't fluctuate as much as the "market" price does, and speculators increase volatility.

So if the tracking error increases, how can you claim price signals are strengthened? Because overshoot is good?

A vivid image of what should exist acts as a surrogate for reality. Pursuit of the image then prevents pursuit of the reality -- John K. Galbraith

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Fri Aug 22nd, 2008 at 08:04:01 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: This one is for Jerome (none / 1)

I think I very carefully will ignore your question. ;)

Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.

by Starvid (arvid.hallen at gmail.com) on Fri Aug 22nd, 2008 at 09:10:37 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Lovely example of circular reasoning (4.00 / 3)

Ten minutes ago, the headlines in the Commodity Futures section at Bloomberg:

...at the same time, the Currencies section:

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

by DoDo on Thu Aug 21st, 2008 at 03:10:22 PM EST

Re: Lovely example of circular reasoning (none / 0)

huh ...

Looks like one can speculate in the Oil Market by playing in the dollar currency market.

Och nu den svenska kocken bakar en Alaskan älg jägare. Bonk! Bonk! Bonk!

by ATinNM on Thu Aug 21st, 2008 at 03:20:17 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Lovely example of circular reasoning (4.00 / 2)

Speaking of which...

I'm not quite an hour into "There Will Be Blood," the Daniel Day-Lewis starring film about the birth of the oil industry. Fookin' Brilliant. The parallels to the birth of the wildcattin' wind industry are spooky. Seems to be much to learn here, to understand, the connection with money and power and deceit.

J, it's not a family film, but a great vacation evening is in store for you...

and all. (No spoilers please.)

Skennah Kowa

by Crazy Horse on Thu Aug 21st, 2008 at 04:19:57 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Lovely example of circular reasoning (none / 1)

It probably just means that one news item is a few hours later than the other. I regularly see articles on CNN about why the dollar has gone up, just after it fell, and vice versa. That's what happens when you have to give plausible-sounding explanations to very short-term movements.

by gk (g k quattro due due sette "at" gmail.com) on Fri Aug 22nd, 2008 at 06:01:18 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Lovely example of circular reasoning (none / 1)

Please ignore my previous comment - I confused the item on the Canadian dollar with the U.S. one...

by gk (g k quattro due due sette "at" gmail.com) on Fri Aug 22nd, 2008 at 06:02:30 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Thursday Open Thread (4.00 / 3)

Looks like they're going for the terror vote, Sky news are reporting White powder in the mail at McCain HQ in Denver.

Life should consist in at least fifty percent pure waste of time, and the rest doing what you please.

by ceebs (bunchofwankers (at) gmail (dot) com) on Thu Aug 21st, 2008 at 06:02:34 PM EST

Re: Thursday Open Thread (none / 1)

White powder?

Narco vote, surely...

by ChrisCook (cojockathotmaildotcom) on Thu Aug 21st, 2008 at 06:38:10 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Thursday Open Thread (none / 1)

How convenient that it should happen at the end of a day in which Obama has beaten McCain like a rented mule, and when the GOPers seem to be blowing all of their ammunition.

And just in time for the nightly news broadcasts.

Where's your motherf*%&ing flag pin?

by Drew J Jones (blahblahblah@blahblahblah.com) on Thu Aug 21st, 2008 at 06:43:54 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Thursday Open Thread (none / 1)

Well for one thing, it isn't Bruce Ivins.

Life should consist in at least fifty percent pure waste of time, and the rest doing what you please.

by ceebs (bunchofwankers (at) gmail (dot) com) on Thu Aug 21st, 2008 at 06:57:23 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Thursday Open Thread (none / 1)

Neither was the first round of anthrax attacks. You don't think details like Ivins being dead would stop them here, do you?

Where's your motherf*%&ing flag pin?

by Drew J Jones (blahblahblah@blahblahblah.com) on Thu Aug 21st, 2008 at 07:18:20 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Funny (none / 0)

So what are the veep contestants doing in their spare time? 23/6 News has the answer.

Thought it was good for a few laughs.

Where's your motherf*%&ing flag pin?

by Drew J Jones (blahblahblah@blahblahblah.com) on Thu Aug 21st, 2008 at 07:20:20 PM EST

Re: Thursday Open Thread (none / 0)

Does anyone have experience with the Red One digital camera?

Och nu den svenska kocken bakar en Alaskan älg jägare. Bonk! Bonk! Bonk!

by ATinNM on Thu Aug 21st, 2008 at 08:24:14 PM EST

Re: Thursday Open Thread (none / 0)

Peter Jackson shot a short (12 min?) film using two prototypes (Boris and Natasha) of the Red One. The entire shoot took 3 days. Can't find the full thing but here is a trailer:

For $17,500 (!!!!!!!!) this looks an amazing deal.

Och nu den svenska kocken bakar en Alaskan älg jägare. Bonk! Bonk! Bonk!

by ATinNM on Thu Aug 21st, 2008 at 08:39:24 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Thursday Open Thread (none / 0)

$17,500? Yep.

I was talking to an ad company about these digital capture systems a couple of weeks ago, and they'd been testing angular resolution. Most systems produced a true resolution between HD and 2K, so even though this is a nominal 4K system, the real performance will be less because of the lossy compression and noise.

Still - if it's around 2K, it's still a bargain compared to giant optics strapped to big reels of emulsion, and good enough for entry level feature film work.

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Thu Aug 21st, 2008 at 09:10:49 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Thursday Open Thread (none / 0)

In practice you lose as much as 10% of the signal when going from Analog to Digital. Going from 4k in to 2k stored means they're throwing 50% of the signal away. That smells like they either doesn't know what they are doing or they've 'broken' The Red One so it won't compete with their next generation camera -- The Elite, I think it's called. I'll bet they deliberately broke it.

Wanna start ET Studios?

;-)

Och nu den svenska kocken bakar en Alaskan älg jägare. Bonk! Bonk! Bonk!

by ATinNM on Fri Aug 22nd, 2008 at 01:30:07 AM EST
[ Parent ]

ET Studios (none / 1)

You two should talk to Sven pronto.

A vivid image of what should exist acts as a surrogate for reality. Pursuit of the image then prevents pursuit of the reality -- John K. Galbraith

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Fri Aug 22nd, 2008 at 05:49:36 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: ET Studios (4.00 / 2)

Stranger rides into a conflict torn town under a reign of terror (TERROR! Hits the audience where it lives!) a robber baron and his gang of thugs. The Man With a Brain, through calm and reasonable discussion, liberates the townspeople.

High Concept.

I gotta million ideas. 999,999 of 'em ain't worth a damn.

:-D

Och nu den svenska kocken bakar en Alaskan älg jägare. Bonk! Bonk! Bonk!

by ATinNM on Fri Aug 22nd, 2008 at 11:31:15 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Thursday Open Thread | 37 comments (37 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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