The Public's Calling

Um, Take a Message

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Serial Killer

The Sequel

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 ~ Weren't lead, tobacco and asbestos all once in the dock peddling the same you-can't-prove-it line?

Whatever became of them anyway?

Tesla

Entrepreneur Funding Follies

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 ~ Should the government try to play venture capitalist?

Some think not, and they sure made hay over Solyndra. But—surprise!—we're not hearing from these same second-guessers now that Tesla has paid off its loan early.

The criticism of government playing VC is inapt anyway, and besides, do they really behave like VCs?



(h/t Mark Suster, Both Sides of the Table)

Buildings With Integrated Wind Generation

Beyond Turbines

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 ~ Here comes another unusual-looking building, the Strawscraper, which employs a hair-like covering which the wind ruffles to produce electricity:

The system utilizes Piezoelectric technology, which turns movement into electricity that can be stored for later use. The hair’s tiny movement is safe for birds and humans and isn’t noisy like traditional turbines can be. But Strawscraper isn’t all about the brains, it also has the beauty. The hair covering the building creates the illusion of movement, giving the normally static city skyline the illusion of motion.

While London's Strata Tower is still "expected" to generate perhaps 8% of the building's energy needs, after three years there is as yet no indication of the actual power produced. Perhaps sensibly, a power estimate is not being offered for the Strawscraper.

My prediction? It looks a lot like a scratching post, so beware giant predatory Siamese cats.

It's Hard Raising Money

Serial Startups

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 ~ Or so it seems.

Never Give Up

The Entrepreneur Credo

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 ~ I like this infographic:

The dip, as in the graphic, looks, and especially when you are in it, feels, more like a yawning chasm, even an abyss. True to the optimism of entrepreneurs, however, when you are there, things are looking up!

And it's still better than working for the Man.

Climate Change Flooding

Jakarta is Under Water

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 ~ "Analysts worry the flooding could affect economic investment."

Ya think?

US Gun Laws

An Interactive Guide

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 ~ The Guardian has created an excellent state-by-state summary of US gun laws.

The regional differences are stark, but as the accompanying notes point out, the patchwork nature of gun laws and regulations descends down to a very local level. If you want to get around restrictions, and are willing to shop for a venue, you can find one to suit.

Welfare Incentives—III

Dependency

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 ~ No question there are those who rely on handouts for their very survival. That said, there is equally no doubt that some at street corners and freeway off-ramps sporting "God bless" signs aren't begging, but are earning a living, or even supplementing one.

Legions of corporate persons engage in a similar exercise, infesting the off-ramps (and on-ramps) of Capitol Hill, making lofty (if vague and unprovable) claims about jobs as they buttonhole lawmakers in search of hand-outs. God bless!

Seeing the Light

Heavy Traffic Signals

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 ~ I wonder how Google's self-driving car would handle this?

The End

Rewarded by the Journey?

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 ~ Perhaps you've been looking for this? Or perhaps this? Or this? Or this? Or maybe this?

Whatever you do, don't press the button and ruin it for the rest of us.

Climate Change Clown

"Lord" Monckton

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 ~ Fitting, and long overdue:

The hereditary peer, who is not a member of the House of Lords, took the chair of Myanmar and spoke into the microphone against U.N. climate change protocols.

After a short speech, in which he was booed, he was escorted out of the meeting by UN guards.

He is understood to have claimed there is no global warming in the last sixteen years, and therefore the science needs to be reviewed.

Claiming to represent Asian coastal nations, he is understood to have said: “In the 16 years we have been coming to these events there has been no global warming at all.”

Such buffoonery by Monckton is not new.

Monckton had his credentials to the conference permanently revoked, and his visa cancelled. He was to leave the country in 24 hours.

(h/t Grist)

Climate Change Attitude Echoes

Here We Go Again

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The Invisibility of Knowledge

Ignorance Abounds

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 ~ My first philosophy teacher insisted humankind was growing more ignorant. Quite apart from us dim-witted students in front of him, he had a simple explanation.

He would first draw a circle on the board. (He had a remarkable ability, much enjoyed by his students, to stand with his back to the board and whirl his arm about to create a perfect circle without once looking at what he was drawing.) The inside of the circle represents all that we know. Outside is all that we do not. The boundary represents our awareness of what we don't know. As the circle expands in the course of growing human knowledge, so does that boundary. The more we learn, the greater the realization of our own ignorance.

Perhaps we're not getting more ignorant, but just more aware of how little we know. Ignorance certainly abounds these days, and especially during our election season, but that's a subject for another post.

Instead, here is a great TED talk on what we don't know; it's a bit sprawling, but amusing and thought-provoking:

Protection Racket

The Allocation of Social and Financial Risk

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 ~ What they don't tell you about capitalism (as currently practiced):

Gore Vidal, the recently demised American writer, once famously quipped that the US economic system is "free enterprise for the poor and socialism for the rich".

Since the outbreak of the global financial crisis in 2008, not only has the US lived up to Vidal's caricature but the whole of the rich capitalist world has become more "American". The poor are increasingly exposed to market forces, with tougher conditions on the diminishing state protection they get, while the rich have unprecedented levels of protection from the state, with virtually no strings attached.

Vidal had it right, but it is more pernicious, since the rich don't just get to socialize their losses, they are actively protected from the corrective market forces that make capitalism theoretically efficient. As one wag put it:

Free-market capitalism is for the poor. Job creators prefer market-free capitalism.

Where's It Wednesday—CI

Where in Seattle is this?

Answer next week.

Details on the weekly Where's It Wednesday puzzle here.
Other weeks' puzzles here.
Answer to last week's puzzle, after the jump.

Dinosaur Fossils

Are Investors Paleontologists?

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 ~ Hey! Turn around and check out the view...

Our Abundant Energy

Abundant Language

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 ~ Energy is important.

So no surprise much is written about it. But what is surprising is how powerful and deliberate the messaging about it is. That messaging is, in a word, abundant.

It seems no one can talk about drilling without phrasing it as the development of "our abundant oil and gas" resources. You hear it in the Senate, in the House, from the API, from the US Chamber of Commerce, from industry periodicals, from the Obama Administration.

Other words in the English language for relative plenitude are, well, abundant, but when it comes to our oil and gas resources "abundant" is the overwhelming word choice by politicians, lobbyists and journalists.

It's almost as if someone circulated a memo with the talking points and key messaging language!

So why don't we hear so much about our "abundant wind resources" or our "abundant solar resources"?

Fostering Entrepreneurship—II

Going It Alone

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 ~ We need an ecosystem for best results. While important, persuasion will only get you so far towards entrepreneurial success.

However, there are limits to capital efficiency.

Well, How Did We Get Here?

Same As It Ever Was

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