Obama's actually right

Peace will not come through statements and resolutions at the UN. Only wars of aggression, crimes against humanity, and the murder of innocent men, women and children do.

While asking for full membership at the UN is a positive thing, as long as things are decided by the five veto-wielding so-called superpowers, the UN is as good as non-existent. In fact, at least the child-trafficking and other abuse would stop if it were disbanded.

September 19, 2011

One of my pet phobias is large objects. It's not exactly a phobia per se, but more of a slight shiver that runs down (or up?) your spine for a fleeting moment and you quickly think of shining happy thoughts to distract yourself. I think this had its genesis in the movie The Independence Day in which, if I remember correctly, a spaceship a few miles in diameter fills the sky above Washington, DC.

Now just imagine that it's not a spaceship, but the planet Jupiter, and that it's not a few miles in diameter, but is 71,492 fricking miles from one end to the other, and is so big that your entire sky is but a closeup of the planet's terrain.

You don't have to imagine this, actually. You can see a simulation video.

Sweet dreams, here I come.

Speculators Behind 2008 Oil Shock

Via Rigorous Intuition:

Leaked Documents Reveal Major Speculators Behind 2008 Oil Price Shock

Last month, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) leaked confidential data about oil speculation to a number of media outlets, including the Wall Street Journal. Ordinarily, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the regulatory body that oversees futures trading, does not provide identities of speculators to the public. However, the data leaked by Sanders provides a rare snapshot into the trading volumes by major speculators right before the oil price spike in the summer of 2008.

As experts from Stanford University, Rice University, the University of Massachusetts, and authorities have concluded, rampant oil speculation was the prime driver of the record high prices for crude oil three years ago.

Ahem.