The 2006 All City Swim Meet is underway. I snapped a few photos today:
Category: Current Events
NOBEL ECONOMIST ROUNDTABLE: ON GLOBAL WARMING AND GLOBAL FINANCIAL IMBALANCE
ON GLOBAL FINANCIAL IMBALANCES
Milken: A number of countries around the world — the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Norway, Taiwan — have built up tremendous reserves relative to the size of their country. Most of them have not made the mistake of Japan, where deploying that surplus within the country through, for example superfluous road or bridge construction, caused massive increases in prices in the 1980s.
All in all, there is at least $25 trillion worth of surpluses in the world today that is invested short-term. It is pretty hard to find anything to put a trillion dollars into except U.S. government and private bonds or mortgage-backed securities.
Where do you see this capital being deployed? Do you see it just compounding away, or do you see them following the mode maybe of Singapore where the government is creating its own industrial companies?
BurkaBlog
Living in the “Metroplex” years ago, I enjoyed (and still do) reading Texas Monthly. Senior Executive Editor (where do the titles come from?) now has a useful blog that is worth checking out and subscribing to [RSS].
Back to the Future: The Suez Crisis
The Economist publishes a timely look back at the Suez Crisis:
The Suez crisis, as the events of the following months came to be called, marked the humiliating end of imperial influence for two European countries, Britain and France. It cost the British prime minister, Anthony Eden, his job and, by showing up the shortcomings of the Fourth Republic in France, hastened the arrival of the Fifth Republic under Charles de Gaulle. It made unambiguous, even to the most nostalgic blimps, America’s supremacy over its Western allies. It thereby strengthened the resolve of many Europeans to create what is now the European Union. It promoted pan-Arab nationalism and completed the transformation of the Israeli-Palestinian dispute into an Israeli-Arab one. And it provided a distraction that encouraged the Soviet Union to put down an uprising in Hungary in the same year.
Fixed Gear Bikes Illegal in Portland
An Oregon judge has ruled that fixed-gear bicycles — which use the rider’s leg-power to brake them — are illegal, and must be outfitted with traditional lever/caliper brakes. The cyclist who was ticketed for the offense fought it in traffic court, and was represented by a pretty sharp attorney, judging from the partial transcript here. It seems obvious that “fixies” should be lawful, since they can satisfy the statutory requirement that bikes be “equipped with a brake that enables the operator to make the braked wheels skid on dry, level, clean pavement. strong enough to skid tire.” Nevertheless, the judge ruled against the cyclist — I hope she appeals.
UW Football PR heats up
Interesting: Both the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel and the Wisconsin State Journal ran features today on new UW Football coach Bret Bielema.
I recently saw well tanned UW Athletic Director Barry Alvarez and Bret (also well tanned) riding around in Barry’s two seat convertible on a gorgeous Madison evening. Would have been a great photograph – had I been carrying a camera….
Google Knows Who You Really Are
It’s always fun to learn whole new layers of technology. What I’m posting about here is probably known by a lot of people, but my recent involvement in two new start-up companies has really started to have me think about the breadth and depth of data mining occurring on the Internet involving personal behavior and habits. And one of the largest harvesters of all of that personal information is Google. There are already others who cover this much better than I … Google Watch is one … however I still wanted to blog about this.
MGE Email on Thursday’s Power Outages
Via an MGE email (responding to my email notifying them of our power outage):
MGE projects that most customers reporting an outage will have electricity restored yet today. Some customers may not be restored until Friday.
For crew safety, work will stop at 11 p.m. tonight and resume early Friday morning.
Fifteen crews from Milwaukee and Green Bay are helping MGE. Crews report extensive damage and a massive number of trees down on power lines in the service area. Most of the restoration at this point involves working at individual sites—clearing trees and branches, in some cases setting new poles and then reestablishing power.
If your lights are still out and you have not reported the outage, please call the MGE customer center at 252-7111.
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mge@mge.com
Madison Gas & Electric Company
www.mge.com
I’ve been critical of MG & E in the past (highest rates in the state and political payoffs). I’m glad they are using email to communicate with their (mostly captive) customers. Interestingly, I’ve not seen any mention of the outages on their website. Fortunately, they’ve done a nice job getting power back on.
Beirut Bridge Destruction VR Scene
Travis Fox: Beirut Bridge Destroyed by Airstrikes.
The Friday Line: Top 10 2006 Governor’s Races
7. Wisconsin: Yes, we know about this poll, which showed Gov. Jim Doyle (D) ahead of Rep. Mark Green (R) by 13 points. But the numbers were greeted with skepticism, even by many Democrats. (The poll should be taken with a grain of salt for several methodological reason — it was in the field for an unusually long time and tested adults rather than registered or likely voters.) Ethics questions continue to hover around Doyle’s administration, and typically reliable Democratic base groups — the labor community and black voters to name two — are not terribly excited about helping the incumbent win a second term. Make sure to read Post politics dean David Broder’s take on this race. (Previous ranking: 5)