Bloody Tourists

People in Barcelona, Spain are marching in protest at the flood of tourists that are turning their city unlivable for them according to this article.  This is not a unique thing either: as pointed out in the article, Venice is almost depopulated now: only tourists go there. 
This looks to be disturbingly common - eventually every city with cheap, easy travel connecting it will get this surge of drunken backpackers, rubbernecked sightseers and cheap flophouse dwellers which will make a big mess. This is crazy. Another hopeess attempt to make business that depends on foreign money coming into the country supporting such "industries" as gambling and drinking . . . . leaving a big mess behind.
I agree that we all need jobs but this is not what I call a legitemate industry to keep a country going - not unless the country is something like a tiny pacific island that has no other industries.

Ah, but why worry? soon the housing bubble will burst and the waste matter will hit the ventilation device  . . . .  and maybe the Yanks will start World War Three. . . . . . but the Super- Rich will be fine in their secret hideout in the New Zealand Alps, far from nasty atomic fallout, secure in the knowledge that they have bought their immortality  . . . . a bit like a very old telly show made in Enzed in the seventies, called "The Alpha plan". 

They haven't figured on the locals though: once WW3 hits, tribes of big, muscular, really pissed off  Maoris won't be stopped by electronic gadgets for long - they are a resourceful people, if it's Angry Maoris vs. technogeek billionnaires, I'm betting on the Maoris. ;)

It's Not Happening

This is a direct quote from The Register:
In a frankly-startling interview given to radio shock-jock Alan Jones, the PM (Tony Abbott) said among other things:

• “What we've managed to do through this, admittedly imperfect ... is reduce the growth rate of this particular sector as much as the current Senate would allow us to do”.
• “What we did recently in the Senate was reduce, Alan, reduce, capital R-E-D-U-C-E the number of these things that we are going to get in the future.”
• “I would frankly have liked to have reduced the number a lot more.”
• And, in spite of there being no scientific research that wind farm noise endangers health: “I do take your point about the potential health impact of these things; when I have been up close to these wind farms not only are they visually awful but they make a lot of noise”.

I can only theorise that either (a) He is following a script provided by some unseen master ro (b) he is a mistake and not fit to run a chook raffle.
See here for all the details

But then this thursday there was a global meeting of climate contrarians - it looks like Tony is making the same noises as the members of that gabfest did. Yeah right, just like smoking is prefectly safe - or so the spindoctors told us all.  . . .which brings me to this:
Merchants of Doubt, a film by the same man who made Food, Inc. all about the Spin Doctor business and how they twist things around to con people into thinking pretty much anything they want them to think . . . . . .    (thanks to Boing Boing for that link!)

Sign of the times: This young man became a pro racing driver at this year's Le Mans 24 hr by training in a game. I kid you not. Expect more of this in future.

Finally, today's newspeak from Wired, a site that I once visited often, but not so much now - it seems to have slumped:

 

Until now the only "solids" I did went down the toilet. Where do they get this stuff?

Two Theives and a liar

I just discovered that the NYSE is going to list rates for Bitcoin.
If you have not been looking, Bitcoin is a purely electronic currency that carries with it an index of where each amount came from and where it resides, and that index is freely available.
The value of a Bitcoin was originally set by the difficulty of "mining" it, that being computationally intensive since Bitcoins are basically a huge complex number (without going into detail).
I have been follwing the whole thing because the money system as it exists now has become a huge mess and yet we all depend on it for everyday life. Locally things look okay at the moment but our currency is linked to all others just as our "economies" are linked so if one falls apart it will affect everyone connected too.

The title of this post comes from a song by Gary Clail many years ago. Here are the lyrics:
--------------------------------------------------------------

"I’ve done a few dealings in the city
met a number of stockbrokers
and i can tell you in all my life that i’ve never seen
such dishonesty and greed
it’s like a big betting shop a bookies a casino
where the’re all screwing each other and the rest of the world"

the devil is here in the city
and the city wakes up with the devil
the devil is here in the city

the poor man comes and can’t get a look in
the poor man comes and he can’t get a shout
the rich man comes in his brand new car
bought on credit from a leasing house
the con men come and try to have us over
selling us shares that we already own
accountants came and juggled with the numbers
that’s how they became two thieves and a liar
that’s how they became two thieves and a liar
that’s how they became two thieves and a liar

the devil is here in the city
and the city wakes up with the devil

the poor man comes and can’t get a look in
the poor man comes and he can’t get a shout
the rich man comes in his brand new car
bought on credit from a leasing house
the con men come and try to have us over
selling us shares that we already own
accountants came and juggled with the numbers
that’s how they became two thieves and a liar
that’s how they became two thieves and a liar
that’s how they became two thieves and a liar

pack it up?, pack it up, pack it up, pack it in

the devil is here in the city
and the city wakes up with the devil

"when the jews and italian communities went to america right
they landed in a new country that was ripe for organisation and for rackets
now in this country thats not possible
because the real power the real money the real rackets
have been going on over here for hundreds of years
all stitched up and passed on from generation to generation
and the american gangsters right,
theyr’e still struggling to get the respectability that theyr’e after
but we’ve had three centuries headstart on those buggers
and look haven’t we done a beautiful job of it an’ all
i bet you there are millions of people right that think
that the blokes who work here in the city are really good blokes
hard working who have got the economy of this nation deep in their hearts
what a load of cobblers it’s the best confidence trick in history"

the devil is here in the city
and the city wakes up with the devil

the poor man comes and can’t get a look in
the poor man comes and he can’t get a shout
the rich man comes in his brand new car
bought on credit from a leasing house
the con men come and try to have us over
selling us shares that we already own
accountants came and juggled with the numbers
that’s how they became two thieves and a liar
that’s how they became two thieves and a liar
that’s how they became two thieves and a liar

the devil is here in the city
and the city wakes up with the devil

-------------------------------------------------------------

I thinnk the song is quite accurate, and lately things have only got worse: Now governments across the globe are madly printing money trying to claim that it will all be fine . . . . . . but it cannot possibly turn out that way.  

For a while I thought maybe something like Bitcoin would replace the funny munny but as soon as it becomes another speculation item for the stock markets it is doomed. Market speculation destroys the whole point of actual markets where money is borrowed to improve productivity or products - and here I mean actual, physical products only.

Even Rupert Murduch agrees that things have gone badly wrong: