“Saving labor, producing more goods with fewer man-hours, is widely perceived not as progress but as a danger. I call this the make-work bias, a tendency to underestimate the economic benefits of conserving labor. Where non-economists see the destruction of jobs, economists see the essence of economic growth: the production of more with less.”
–Bryan Caplan
GM and Ford are once again begging at the doorstep of every honest, tax-paying American. Just two months ago, Congress gave the Detroit Three $25 billion dollars worth of bailout money, and now they want more. They say this time it’s different; this time, with only $50 billion, they can become profitable. The worst part is GM’s argument for the bailout: they say if the taxpayers don’t bail them out, it’ll spell horrible doom for the economy.
Now, I could go off on an economics lesson about how moving workers and resources from a less productive activity to various other more productive activities is a very good thing, and has great benefits for society. I could quote economists talking about how preserving jobs in unproductive business is actually a bad thing and hurts the economy. But people generally aren’t interested in stuff like that. So I’ll take it in another direction.
In Fort Lauderdale, FL, 46-year-old Brian Nelson was stopped on Oakland Park Boulevard last Tuesday night and cited for violating Florida Statute 316.271, excessive use of the horn. Celebrating Barack Obama’s presidential victory, Nelson had been jubilantly beeping his horn every few blocks on the North Federal Highway until Officer Raymond Martucci pulled him over. Receiving a ticket as well as a $90 fine, Nelson was so incensed by Officer Martucci’s audacity that not only did he e-mail Mayor Jim Naugle’s office, but he also put in a phone call to the police department’s internal affairs unit, complaining about the “unfair targeting.” On Thursday, police spokesman Sgt. Frank Sousa acknowledged that “The incident is being reviewed by the agency…He [Nelson] has the same due process rights as any other citizen and can appeal the ticket in court.”
Off the record, independent legal analysts advise Nelson to delay any further action until President-elect Obama has formally taken office so that in addition to stripping Ofc. Martucci of his badge, Nelson may also receive a $90 government handout.
Today, Ford published its third quarter financial reports, revealing a total net loss of $129 million, or 6 cents a share, for the past three months. Gross, Ford North America posted an operating loss of $2.9 billion and as of 12:21pm today, the price of one share of Ford stock was officially listed as $1.91.
As of September 30, 2008, Ford has a reported $18.9 billion in cash reserves, $10.7 billion in committed credit lines (both secured and unsecured), and is steadily losing about $2.6 billion a month. Extending one of their own a courageous vote of confidence, industry analysts at the Detroit Free Press estimate that if Ford continues at its current rate, they’ve only got enough cash to keep afloat for the next seven months. By their approximation, the Blue Oval will walk the Green Mile by April 2009.
MCN has reported that the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) wants to ban motorcycles from UK roads. The ACPO’s recommendation was published in a report by the Transport Committee on Road Safety.
The ACPO memo calls for the creation of no-motorcycle zones and points to power caps. It states: “There is a need for radical thinking in respect of motorcycles, including consideration of engine capability and the creation of protection zones where all motorcycles other than those specifically permitted would be prohibited.”
Ironically, the association based its call for a ban on the false claim that production motorcycles are available with top speeds of over 200mph. In fact not a single production motorcycle has ever broken the 200mph barrier.
New software developed by scientists at UC San Diego allows anyone to make duplicate keys from a single photograph. Keys can be cloned from any type of photograph, like a cell phone’s camera, and even from pictures taken over distances of hundreds of feet away. The pictures are scanned into a computer, and the software (called Sneakey) detects the exact contours of the key to create a duplicate, no matter the angle or distance at which the photos were taken.
This actually doesn’t really surprise me. I’ve been interested in bump keys and lockpicking for a long time, and a guy I once worked with showed me his method of copying a key just by looking at it. All he needs is a key blank and a hand-file. It’s just a matter of understanding that there are only a few different settings for each pin in a lock, and each bump on a key represents one of those settings. The software does the same thing, although with much greater accuracy.
I jest, of course. The footage above was actually captured by an Australian citizen’s personal home security system, though the driver of the vehicle that caused the collision was indeed inebriated.
But for creative illustration purposes, it might as well have been me behind the wheel of that green little hatchback [[hiccups, takes swig from flask hidden in desk drawer]].
Recently, when the Phillies won the World Series, we had some lunatic car-flippers here in the streets of our good city. That’s not all they did though, in addition to the numerous cars that were lovingly flipped, vandals kicked in marble planters and destroyed bus stop shelters and smashed in storefront windows. It was some real good old fashioned celebratory destruction. GO PHILS!
“I think everyone should be outraged. I know I’m outraged as lifelong Philadelphian,” Captain Mike Costello of the Philadelphia Police said. I’m not really outraged as much as I am completely unsurprised, since I really have no faith in my fellow man. One thing that I am surprised at, however, is the fact that one guy is actually getting reimbursed for his flipped car… by the people of Philadelphia.
Oil is a dirty word. It’s foreign and expensive and pollutes the air and the water; and those bastards at Exxon are profiting from selling us that filthy liquid. Damn them for selling a product we all buy. Point is, there’s money to be made in personal transport. It doesn’t matter if it’s oil or hydrogen or electricity fueling our movement, something will always be there to fill the gap and get us around. Right now, it’s starting to look like lithium-ion batteries may fill that gap, at least for a little while. They have one of the best efficiency to weight ratios of any battery technology so far, so we’ll probably see a lot more of them in the future.
Lithium batteries already power most mobile devices and laptops since they’re so light, and the comparatively underpowered electric cars need a fairly lightweight power source. But if electric cars become as widespread as gas-powered cars are now, or even a fraction as widespread, does the world have enough lithium to keep up? And where is it all coming from?
“Who will govern the governors? There is only one force in the nation that can be depended upon to keep the government pure and the governors honest, and that is the people themselves. They alone, if well informed, are capable of preventing the corruption of power, and of restoring the nation to its rightful course if it should go astray. They alone are the safest depository of the ultimate powers of government”
- Thomas Jefferson
As you may or may not be aware, the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution contains an exception to the unreasonable search and seizure laws. It allows invasive searches at border checkpoints that wouldn’t be allowed anywhere else. It’s always been that way…but here comes the scary part: federal statute 8 CFR 287.1 (a)(1-3) defines the border zone as actually encompassing an area within 100 miles inland of the actual border, with the possibility of extending it further under certain circumstances. This zone has become known as the “Constitution-Free Zone”
Ok, you’re thinking, “100 miles, that’s not that bad… the US is a big country, we have plenty of space, right?” Wrong. That 100 mile extension puts nine of the top 10 largest metropolitan areas completely inside the Constitution-Free Zone. More than that, 12 states are completely within the zone: Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont. In California, 99.73% of all residents are living in the Constitution-Free Zone; more than that, 2/3rds of all US citizens are living in the zone, and at any time they can be deprived of their Constitutional rights.
A federal judge ruled today that NYC can’t force taxi operators to switch to hybrid technology. The city has over 13,000 yellow taxicabs. Nearly 1,500 of them are already hybrids because their owners decided, because of market pressures instead of government pressures, to use hybrids.
The rule that NYC was trying to enforce would have required all taxicabs coming into service achieve a fuel-efficiency city rating of 25 miles per gallon or higher, rising to 30 m.p.g. by Oct. 1, 2009. The Crown Vic, workhorse of the taxi fleet, gets 13 mpg.
