Vardaman Virtual Forestry Company
FRIDAY REPORT OF 08/04/06
The Most Direct, Frequent Link to Knowledge Workers in the Eastern Forest Economy
“GLOBAL FINANCIAL STABILITY”
from “Buttonwood”
Our quotes are from an article in the 08/01/06 issue of www.economist.com:
“A working paper on cross-border bank contagion in the euro-zone recently by the ECB does not make comfortable reading. It suggests that a crisis in banking confidence could be all the more contagious if investors start to think that, as the paper puts it, ‘banks’ assets may be opaque and balance sheet data and other publicly available information may be uninformative.’
“Regulators do not like to talk about this. Nor are they keen to play out such scenarios. It is more comfortable for them to believe in a world where enlightened self-interest leads to co-operation not anarchy. So for Panglossian regulators who believe financial institutions obey the laws of society rather than the jungle, Buttonwood offers the following ditty:
‘Never smile at a crocodile
No, you can’t get friendly with a crocodile.
Don’t be taken in by his welcome grin
He’s imagining how well you’d fit within his skin.’”
Read more Buttonwood columns at http://www.economist.com/buttonwood
“Lebanon Oil Spill Makes Animals Casualties of War”
by Mati Milstein in Tel Aviv for NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC NEWS
“Add bluefin tuna and green turtles to the casualties in the Hezbollah- Israel conflict.
“Green groups are calling an oil spill along Lebanon’s Mediterranean shore the largest environmental crisis in the country’s history. The spill came after Israel planes struck a Lebanese power plant, dumping 15,000 tons (13,600 metric tons) of oil into the eastern Mediterranean. The massive spill has since spread along the length of Lebanon’s coastline. Neighboring Syria has also reported oil spots on its beaches. ‘Depending on the winds and sea currents, the spill could reach Turkey, Greece, and Cyprus,’ warned Wael Hmaidan of Lebanon’s Green Line Association environmental group.
“Lebanon’s eastern Mediterranean coastline is an important marine environment. In July green turtle eggs begin to hatch on Lebanon’s beaches, and baby turtles scramble frantically across the sands for the refuge of deep waters. Oil now covers the beaches, and Hmaidan says the baby green turtles – an endangered species – will suffer extremely high fatalities.
“Lebanese environmental groups said that bluefin tuna – a significant commercial species in the region that has already suffered from overfishing – are also being threatened by the spill…”
To read the entire article, click on http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/07/060731-lebanon-oil.html
“NOT SO SHOCKING”
Our quotes are from the 07/27/06 print edition of “THE ECONOMIST”:
“High-tech entrepreneurs unveil a sporty electric car
“Ask people if they would buy a new electric car and most will respond blankly. After all, electric cars have not been seen in large numbers for nearly a century, and the golf carts and milk floats that represent electrified transport today are hardly the sort of vehicle to win many people over.
“Tesla Motors aims to alter that perception. The venture, based in California and financed by Elon Musk, the founder of PayPal, and Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the co-founders of Google, has unveiled a two-seat sports car. It will cost $89,000, and Tesla aims to sell a couple of thousand of them before introducing a cheaper, four-seat version.
“The car’s design alone is likely to turn old-fashioned notions of electric vehicles on their head. Beyond that, Tesla makes three audacious claims. The first is that the vehicle accelerates from nought to 100km (60 miles) per hour in just four seconds. That is faster than a Ferrari. The second is that it can travel 400km on an overnight charge from an ordinary 240 volt socket. The third is that it is more environmentally friendly than a petrol-driven equivalent.
“There is no doubting its breathtaking quickness. And the range of 400km is a heroic accomplishment, made possible by the use of advanced lithium-ion batteries and lightweight carbon-fibre bodywork. Dr. Musk, the firm’s chairman, concedes that racing Ferraris all the time would reduce the range somewhat, but points out that, using the American government’s methodology, the car’s fuel efficiency is the equivalent of 52.5km per litre of petrol (135 miles per American gallon.) The average new American car gets less than 12km per litre…
“Tesla, though, aims to be even greener than that, according to Dr. Musk. The firm plans to offer optional solar-photoelectric systems, to be set up as a car port at home, that will be able to power the cars for 80km a day without having to draw on the grid. Given that the average driver travels less than this, the idea promises, as Dr. Musk puts it, to ‘make our cars energy positive’ – for those with Santa Monica’s reliable sunshine at least.
“There was one gripe, though. Some of the petrolheads at Tesla’s launch party complained that the silence of the electric motor was too alien. They missed the grunt and growl of an internal-combustion engine. A Tesla engineer nearly came back with an idea: ‘We’ll program the software to have a variety of engine roars, just like ring tones on mobile phones.”
To read the entire article, click on http://www.economist.com/science/PrinterFriendly.cfm?story_id=7218442
“PUZZLING OUT THE TRUTH”
from THE ECONOMIST of 07/27/06
“A century after its characterization by Alois Alzheimer, senile dementia remains almost untreatable. But there is hope…
“Medical advance means that other diseases are failing to cull the population before Alzheimer’s destroys people’s minds. And Alzheimer’s is both expensive and lingering. In America, the average cost of looking after someone with the disease between diagnosis and death is at least $174,000.
“At the moment, 4.5m Americans have Alzheimer’s. By 2050, if nothing changes, that number will have trebled. But if a treatment that delayed the disease’s onset by seven years were to be available by the end of decade, the number of sufferers would decline by 40% by the middle of the century. Hence the importance of understanding how Alzheimer’s works, the better to devise a treatment…
“Researchers have known for some time that the long-term use of aspirin and ibuprofen, which belong to a group of drugs called non-steroidal anti-inflammatories, roughly halves a person’s risk of developing Alzheimer’s…
To read the complete article, click on http://www.economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?story_id=7218403
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