Syria is Stuck (In The Middle Ages)

I’m thinking of traveling through the Middle East this summer, and in the course of my research, I’ve read a ton about Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria.

The U.S. State Department gives an idea of what Syria’s economy is like:

“Syria is a middle-income, developing country with an economy based on agriculture, oil, industry, and tourism. However, Syria’s economy faces serious challenges and impediments to growth, including: a large and poorly performing public sector; declining rates of oil production; widening non-oil deficit; wide scale corruption; weak financial and capital markets; and high rates of unemployment tied to a high population growth rate. In addition, Syria currently is the subject of U.S. economic sanctions…”

Sounds like a basket case. It’s pretty sad when runaway population growth causes increasing unemployment.

“Agriculture [...] accounts for 25% of GDP and employs 42% of the total labor force.”

I’ve got to say, that’s really sad. It’s 2008 — wave of the future and all — and Syria has nearly half its workforce doing the menial labor of growing and gathering food. I’m pretty sure that the characters on the show Lost manage to employ less than 20% of their population gathering food.

In the United States, only 1.8% of of workers are employed in agriculture, which allows the other 98% to pursue whatever it is they choose.

U.S. State Department – Syria: Background Note

The Face of Tragedy

If this doesn’t put a face to the tragic Sichuan 7.9 earthquake, I don’t know what does.

“A mother collapses after identifying the body of her child discovered from the debris of a primary school in Hongbai town in Shifang in southwest China’s Sichuan province Thursday May 15, 2008. Official media estimates the death toll would reach 50,000 in the earthquake.” (AP Photo)

Give to the rescue effort:

UNICEF

Red Cross

The Day There Was No News

Stumbled upon this at Microsiervos:

Rice Crisis Shows Cracks In Distribution

The worldwide increase in prices for food is a true catastrophe, especially considering its effect upon those in the third world, whose food budgets may not be resilient enough to stomach the rise is prices, and will undoubtedly go hungry.

Confounding the problem is that the world doesn’t have a truly free market for the commodity. Portfolio kindly pointed out the following limitation mandated during WTO negotiations:

“Because of its WTO commitments under the Uruguay Round Agreement, Japan imports a substantial amount of medium-grain rice from the U.S. and long-grain rice from Thailand and Vietnam…But under WTO rules, the government cannot re-export the rice, except in relatively limited quantities as grant aid. So the Japanese government simply stores its imported rice until the quality deteriorates to the point that it is suitable only as livestock feed and sells it to domestic livestock operators…Japan currently has over 1.5 million tons of this rice in storage… Most of this rice is in good condition, and is incurring large storage charges. Japan would be very happy to dispose of this rice to the world market, but it cannot do so without U.S. acquiescence.”

Though 1.5 million tons of rice seems huge, my 10 seconds of Google research indicates it would only provide one day’s worth of global supply to the rice market.

No matter how small the benefit, governments of the world need to work together to alleviate this crisis. Allowing this rice (and all rice) immediately onto the global market should be common sense, and stagnating on this issue could cost lives. One day’s supply might be all that separates a starved village from a living one.

How to Burst the Rice Bubble – Portfolio

Tags: food shortage, rice, rice shortage

McCain Still A Hero

I wrote last week about John McCain’s heroic stand against crop subsidies (such subsidies hinder agricultural development in poor countries.)

Today, I come to you with a story of his heroics in a different light, courtesy of the Wall Street Journal and, oddly enough, Karl Rove (who, it should be noted, I’ve often compared to Joseph Goebbels and the devil).

“Col. Bud Day (Congressional Medal of Honor recipient, fighter pilot, Vietnam POW and roommate of John McCain at the Hanoi Hilton) relayed to me one of the stories Americans should hear. It involves what happened to him after escaping from a North Vietnamese prison during the war. When he was recaptured, a Vietnamese captor broke his arm and said, “I told you I would make you a cripple.”

Private people like Mr. McCain are rare in politics for a reason. Candidates who are uncomfortable sharing their interior lives limit their appeal. But if Mr. McCain is to win the election this fall, he has to open up. Americans need to know about his vision for the nation’s future, especially his policy positions and domestic reforms. They also need to learn about the moments in his life that shaped him. These qualities mattered in America’s first president and will matter as Americans decide on their 44th president.”

The full article is here:

Getting To Know John McCain – Wall Street Journal

Vatican: Aliens Are A-Ok

The Vatican’s chief astronomer says that believing in aliens does not contradict faith in God.

This meshes well with their followers, who institutionalize “childish superstition” and use a book of “primitive legends” as a guide to their way of life rather than resorting to modern reason. (Quotes from the previous statement are attributed to Albert Einstein.)

Aliens? Really? Catholicism will soon make Scientology look downright rational in comparison.

Vatican: It’s OK to believe in aliens
Belief in God ‘childish,’ Jews not chosen people: Einstein letter

Fuel Economy: Boeing vs. Airbus

The new Boeing 787 Dreamliner uses carbon fiber and more fuel-efficient engines to bring down its fuel consumption. Airbus isn’t using the same innovative materials, but has improved aerodynamics in a bid to reduce its fuel consumption.

The Airbus A380, a superjumbo if there ever was one, can seat 853 people in a 100% economy-class configuration, which would seemingly make it more fuel-efficient per passenger (the only metric that matters). However, it’s extremely unlikely that any airline would order a plane configured in this way, so, for purposes of comparison, a 525 or 555 seat configuration is closer to what we’ll see in the real world.

The following table and graph tell the story of Boeing versus Airbus, as measured by range, fuel capacity, passenger capacity, and the statistics generated thereof:

A lot of this information is pretty variable, due to lack of sufficient data (fuel consumption is crudely derived by dividing maximum range by fuel capacity, for instance) and the fact that seating variations can drastically alter statistics like Liters per Kilometer per Passenger. I’ve used normal seating configurations when possible, so as to simulate reality as close as possible.

The data shows that the A380 is not so revolutionary, and is in fact quite comparable to the 747-400 when it comes to fuel consumption per passenger. Also, we see that the 787 is only marginally more fuel-efficient than the upcoming A350, and that, due to the A350′s extra passenger capacity, the 787 comes in second place in fuel consumption per passenger. Boeing promises that the 787 will have lower maintenance and operating costs than its predecessors; hopefully, this savings will make the Dreamliner a more competitive aircraft overall.

This data just goes to show that the new-new things (A380, Dreamliner) are not definitive champions, even right as they’re introduced.

The New Ferrari GT California

It’s not often that Maranello brings us a new galloping horse.

Here are the first photos of the new GT California:

(click to enlarge)

Specs:

Convertible with automatic folding hard-top
4.3L V8 generating 460hp at 7,500rpm
0 to 100 km/h in less than 4.0 seconds
7-speed dual clutch gearbox
Brembo carbon-ceramic brakes are standard

Putin Is Portuguese

“…they want the sometimes prickly Putin sidelined, and can’t grasp why he was such a popular president. That’s a question requiring no kremlinology whatsoever. Putin scored stellar domestic ratings because, over the last decade when he was in office, Russia has risen from nowhere to become the world’s ninth largest economy. Income per head has grown ten-fold in dollar terms – with your average Russian now worth $12,012. In 1999, Putin boasted that by 2015, Russians would be as rich as the Portuguese – Western Europe’s poorest economy. Seeing as the average Russian income was then only 9 per cent of the average in Portugal, his claim was widely dismissed. But Russia has since grown so fast that average incomes are now 60 per cent of those in Portugal, and gaining fast. And if the two economies keep growing at the pace they have over the last decade, Russia’s income per head will overtake Portugal’s in 2014 – a year earlier than Putin’s estimate.”

Beijing and Riyadh will call the shots on ailing dollar’s future

6,666,666,666 Humans

The 6,666,666,666th person alive on earth was born today. If four horseman have just ridden past, don’t panic. Oh, and happy Mother’s Day.

Perhaps the Duggar family is responsible for humanity’s reprehensible overpopulation?

Just putting it out there.

Give War A Chance

This was too good not to post:

Is It Time To Invade Burma? – TIME

Would it be worth it, as measured in net lives saved, to invade Myanmar so that the unnecessary “murder” of civilians without adequate international aid is avoided?

Hezbollah Debt Upgraded by Moody’s, S&P

NEW YORK, May 9 (Reuters) – The takeover of the Muslim half of Beirut by the Iranian-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah on Friday reflects increased Hezbollah dominance in the country and has resulted in Hezbollah’s long term debt being upgraded, Moody’s Investors Service said.

The credit ratings agency said on Friday that Hezbollahs “Baa1″ rating, an upgrade from “Ba2″ (speculative, non-investment grade) was due to a an increased tax base in West Beirut and a stable outlook.

“Given that the hostile neighborhood takeover has added roughly 200,000 to the number of people under Hezbollah control, Moody’s believes that the increased tax receipts combined with reluctance on the part of Lebanese Government fighters to put up a real fight encapsulate the risk of continuing severe political turmoil,” Tristan Cooper, sovereign ratings analyst at Moody’s said in a statement.

Hezbollah has never defaulted on its debt, despite experiencing many destabilizing political shocks, including a 15-year civil war between 1975 and 1990 and a devastating month-long war with Israel in 2006, the statement said.

The agency said it recognizes Lebanon’s poor state of public finances, however the central bank still has a large stock of foreign currency reserves, $10.8 billion in February, or about 45 percent of gross domestic product, which could legitimately be seized by Hezbollah and used to bolster security and buy more advanced weaponry from Iran. While legally constrained from being sold, central bank gold reserves worth $8.9 billion in February also acts as a source of wealth that Hezbollah could tap in case of turmoil.

In addition, the world’s penchant for forceful intervention has over the years become increasingly weak, as incursions in Iraq and Afghanistan have turned into overly long ordeals requiring increasing amounts of resources coupled with strong insurgencies. “Lebanon just doesn’t have enough natural resources, like oil — they don’t even have the geography for a potential pipeline that we usually like to see before we liberate a country,” said former UN ambassador John Bolton.

Moody’s said that while these factors have made the international community resistant to physical intervention, it remains concerned about current developments and is monitoring the situation.

Lebanon’s “B3″ credit rating reflects turmoil-Moody’s

Zimbabwe Issues $250 MM Bill

In April, Zimbabwe launched the $50 million bill, as inflation levels there push 165,000% per year and quickly make last week’s paycheck worthless.

A loaf of bread now costs around $80 million; a bunch of five bananas costs close to $100 million.

Now, they’ve gone ahead and launched the $100 million an $250 million bills.

Imagine living in a country where cash has an expiration date! Zimbabwean bills are all “bearer’s cheques”, which have expiration dates — some as little as one or two months from their printing.

Zimbabwe issues 250 mn dollar banknote to tackle price spiral

Chile’s Chaitén Volcano: Electric Storm

Via National Geographic.

HOT Lanes: An Economist’s Dream

If economists ruled the world, all decisions would be made rationally, incentives would be used to encourage positive behavior, and variable fees would be imposed on consumers to ensure scarce resources aren’t over-utilized.

South of Seattle, an economist’s dream has just been put in motion: solo drivers can now skip the traffic by paying a variable toll to drive in the carpool lane.

Traffic moved smoothly this morning in the car-pool lane of Highway 167 between Auburn and Renton, where solo drivers can buy their way in by paying a variable toll.

Between 5 a.m. and 10 a.m., 339 drivers paid to enter the lane, in fairly light traffic, said Craig Stone, urban corridors administrator for the state Department of Transportation. The tolls, which increase as traffic worsens, reached $2.25, northbound at 277th Street at 7:15 a.m., but Stone said no one used it when it got to that rate. The most anyone paid, he said, was $2. The least anyone paid this morning was 50 cents, while the average paid was $1.04.

Tolls are expected to hit $5 at busy times, and can climb as high as $9.

If the four-year test is successful, the state will likely use congestion pricing on other highways.

This system is flawless. It solves the problem of under-utilization of the carpool lane, rations available capacity by price, and ensures that anybody who needs to get through fast is able to, while lower-priority traffic remain in the general lanes.

I think I’m in love.

HOT lane traffic moving smoothly between Auburn and Renton this morning