My weekly Guild Wars 2 community round-up at GuildMag is now online. This week’s collection of links covers the Guild Wars 2 first anniversary, the current event (Clockwork Chaos), the return of the Super Adventure Box and the usual assortment of blog posts, videos, podcasts, and fan fiction from around the GW2 community.
August 30, 2013
This week in Guild Wars 2
Comments Off on This week in Guild Wars 2
Economic Darwinism – you’re soaking in it
Charles Hugh Smith on the next big financial crisis and the way we’ve carefully put the worst people in place to cope with it:
Brenton Smith (no relation) recently identified a key driver of the next financial crisis: Economic Darwinism. Just as natural selection selects for traits that improve the odds of success/survival in the natural world, Economic Darwinism advances people and policies that boost profits and power within the dominant environment.
As Brenton explains in his essay The One Phrase That Explains the Great Recession, “The Federal Reserve’s 20-year policy of easy money created an environment virtually assured to select bankers, bureaucrats, educators, and elected officials who least understood the consequences of a credit crisis.”
In other words, a hyper-financialized environment of near-zero interest and abundant credit rewarded those people and policies that succeed in that environment. Once the environment changes from “risk-on” to “risk-off,” the people and policies in charge are the worst possible choices for leadership, as the traits that enable successful management of credit crises have been selected out of the leadership pool.
This has political as well as financial consequences. As Brenton noted in an email exchange, Economic Darwinism creates an “incestuous relationship between Wall Street and Washington D.C., where success on Wall Street leads to a career in D.C.” This is a self-reinforcing process, as all those who are unwilling to keep dancing during the risk-on speculative orgy are weeded out of both the financial and political sectors, while those who dance the hardest gain political power, which they use to keep the music playing regardless of the increasing risks or consequences to the nation.
Comments Off on Economic Darwinism – you’re soaking in it
A profitable way to deal with annoying calls
At the BBC News website, Joe Kent profiles today’s hero in the ongoing battle against annoying telephone solicitations:
A man targeted by marketing companies is making money from cold calls with his own higher-rate phone number.
In November 2011 Lee Beaumont paid £10 plus VAT to set up his personal 0871 line — so to call him now costs 10p, from which he receives 7p.
The Leeds businessman told BBC Radio 4’s You and Yours programme that the line had so far made £300.
Phone Pay Plus, which regulates premium numbers, said it strongly discouraged people from adopting the idea.
Mr Beaumont came up with the plan when he grew sick of calls offering to help him reclaim payment protection insurance (PPI), or install solar panels.
He said: “I don’t use my normal Leeds number for anyone but my friends and family.”
Once he had set up the 0871 line, every time a bank, gas or electricity supplier asked him for his details online, he submitted it as his contact number.
He added he was “very honest” and the companies did ask why he had a such a number.
He told the programme he replied: “Because I’m getting annoyed with PPI phone calls when I’m trying to watch Coronation Street so I’d rather make 10p a minute.”
He said almost all of the companies he dealt with were happy to use it and if they refused he asked them to email.
Comments Off on A profitable way to deal with annoying calls
Trade negotiations are so secret that MPs are denied access to the information
Techdirt‘s Mike Masnick says that even congressmen have (limited) access to ongoing Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiation documents, but that even the NDP’s trade critic can’t get that level of information here:
Don Davies is a Canadian Member of Parliament who notes that he’s been denied access to information about the ongoing TPP negotiations, of which Canada is supposedly a member:
“The TPP is a sweeping agreement covering issues that affect many areas of Canada’s economy and society — including several areas of policy that have never been subject to trade agreements before,” said Davies. “By keeping Parliament completely in the dark on negotiations the Conservatives also leave Canadians in the dark and, for an agreement of this magnitude that is abnormal and unacceptable.
“If the US can allow its legislators to see the TPP text, there is no reason that Canada can’t,” Davies said.
In this case, it’s doubly ridiculous. Davies is a member of the NDP party, which is not in power, but his role is as the Official Opposition Critic for International Trade. In other words, he’s basically the trade policy expert for the NDP, and as such, you’d think he should at the very least be included in the details of ongoing negotiations. Yet again, though, it seems that the main negotiating parties involved in the TPP have realized that the best way to get across an agreement they like is to keep it as secretive and non-transparent as possible, especially from critics. This is the exact opposite of how democratic governments are supposed to work.
Of course, the addition of Canada to the TPP has always been done in a way to keep our neighbor up north as a silent partner to the US’s position. You may recall that the US didn’t let Canada join until well into the negotiating process, and as part of the invite, Canada was told that it had to accept all negotiated text without question, even though it wasn’t allowed to see it yet. And, related to that, they had to agree to future texts during some meetings where they weren’t allowed to attend.
Comments Off on Trade negotiations are so secret that MPs are denied access to the information
Vikings eke out a win against Tennessee in final preseason game
Head coach Leslie Frazier took no chances in this fourth preseason game: almost none of the starting players even put in a token appearance. What looked like a serious injury to backup offensive lineman Seth Olsen seemed to justify Frazier’s caution — Olsen went down and didn’t get back up again. The trainers rushed on to the field, followed shortly by the EMS team. Olsen was carried off the field, but was seen to be moving his arm. While the injury appears to be much less serious than first indications, it was a scary moment. Tom Pelissero has more:
The injury occurred when Olsen dived to make a low block downfield on a screen pass to teammate Joe Banyard. It appeared a Titans defensive lineman’s right knee struck Olsen in the head before he landed face-down on the turf.
There was a roughly 10-minute delay as a medical team worked to pad Olsen’s head and strap him down, with the Vikings’ entire team forming a semicircle on the field. Olsen was conscious as he left the field on the gurney and raised his left hand to acknowledge the crowd.
“You could see all our guys getting on a knee and just praying for him and just hoping for the best,” Vikings coach Leslie Frazier said. “When those moments come and they bring that stretcher out, you have no idea what’s going on. So, we were all just hoping for the best, and fortunately, things worked out that way.”
The Vikings initially announced Olsen had a neck injury, but Frazier clarified after the game the diagnosis was a concussion.
With almost all the first team sitting out the game, the second- and third-string got a final chance to make their case for sticking when the final cuts come down (cut-down to 53 players is tomorrow). Marcus Sherels (who took time off to attend his father’s funeral last week), being challenged for both his DB spot and special teams role, had a very good game including setting a team preseason record with a 109-yard kickoff return for a touchdown. Joe Banyard made his case for sticking with the team with 64 yards on the ground, 52 yards receiving and a TD.
Ben Goessling has a few other players on the bubble:
- Desmond Bishop probably had his best night of the preseason in his third game back from a torn hamstring, making seven tackles and pulling down two Titans players in the backfield on Tennessee’s first drive. It’s worth noting that Marvin Mitchell, who has started at weak-side linebacker all through training camp, didn’t play on Thursday night, as the Vikings treated him more like a starter than a player who has much to prove. But Bishop might have done enough to guarantee himself a roster spot, at the very least.
- While Sherels stole the show for the Vikings, Bobby Felder had a night he’d probably rather forget, spraining his ankle shortly after getting beat a 50-yard pass in the third quarter. X-rays on Felder’s ankle were negative, but he probably would have liked to finish his preseason with a stronger impression after playing well early.
- Fullback Zach Line, who didn’t have to do much lead blocking in college, provided a nice example of it on the Vikings’ drive for the go-ahead field goal. He and DeMarcus Love combined on a nice kick-out block on Banyard’s 19-yard run. Line didn’t show the pass-catching skills he’d displayed early, but he’s probably done enough that the Vikings would at least consider using a practice-squad spot on him.
Comments Off on Vikings eke out a win against Tennessee in final preseason game
