June 2008
amazing little sound toy
Here’s one I made earlier. Hit “unmute” to hear it.
http://www.dyspxl.com/gallery/orbs/296-theme-song
This… plus solar and internet
The South Pacific country of Vanuatu has been voted the happiest place in the world so what makes its inhabitants such a happy lot?
Not having to worry about money - the secret of Jean Pierre’s happiness (photo: James Mair)
Jean Pierre John is living the dream. That popular fantasy of owning one’s own island, complete with swaying coconut palms, coral sea and tropical forest, is his for real.On the island called Metoma, in the far north of Vanuatu, Jean Pierre can look around and truly say that he is master of all he surveys.
This single fact would put Jean Pierre in an exclusive club, you would think, one made up of billionaire businessmen, royalty and rock stars.
But Jean Pierre is none of these things. In fact, he could not be more different.
On Metoma, Jean Pierre and his family live in thatched huts.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/7427768.stm
On famine and farming
http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/27/27992/1.html
Discussing globalization and the food supply. Wrong on many, but not all, points. I’m still thinking this through.
Why there are rice shortages in England and America
(from a conversation with David)
The thing about just-in-time JIT in all of its manifestations is that it induces system fragility because it encourages optimization against a static frame. The assumption is that things will be tomorrow much as they are today.
Worse, systemic underpricing of risk is an evolutionarily stable strategy over the long periods when nothing bad happens, because those who underprice risk out-compete those who price it correctly. It’s like operating a business without insurance, and calling the saved money profit.
This means that when a crisis comes nobody is left who planned appropriately. They were all priced out of the market by the people who underpriced risk and called their errors “profits.”
I don’t know what you do about this, but it seems fairly widespread and might be responsible for a lot of economic volatility in the long run.