Akkam’s Razor

• Cartype : Carbon Motors - Carbon Motors Corporation is a new American automaker that is developing and will manufacture, distribute, and service the Carbon E7, the world's first purpose-built law enforcement patrol vehicle.
• Voter turnout didn’t set record: Democrats’ passion wasn’t matched by GOP - Turnout in last week's election increased from four years ago but fell far short of some forecasts largely because many Republican voters either stayed home or left blank the presidential section of their ballots.

  In states won by President-elect Barack Obama, turnout was more than five percentage points higher than in states won by Republican John McCain, according to a Globe analysis of data compiled by a pair of researchers who study voting patterns in US elections.

Where to begin? For starters, Dear Leader provides proof positive of exactly how bad things are, reiterating that “we have nothing to fear but fear itself“. The comments are not very Presidential and are sure to shake the confidence of both the American people, institutions, and our global partners.

Bush’s dire words will have consequences. For starters, there’s this little bit of great news from China [Reuters] followed by a swift reversal/denial [also Reuters]:

Chinese regulators have told domestic banks to stop interbank lending to U.S. financial institutions to prevent possible losses during the financial crisis, the South China Morning Post reported on Thursday.

Make no mistake, it is coming. They are clearly in panic mode [nakedcapitalism via Economist's View]:

“We have lost control,” said Hale, quoting [Federal Reserve Chairman] Bernanke. “We cannot stabilize the dollar. We cannot control commodity prices.”

(Please note that they really could never control it anyway, regardless).

The NYT says:

The head of the Treasury and the Federal Reserve began discussions on Thursday with Congressional leaders on what could become the biggest bailout in United States history. While details remain to be worked out, the plan is likely to authorize the government to buy distressed mortgages at deep discounts from banks and other institutions. The proposal could result in the most direct commitment of taxpayer funds so far in the financial crisis that Fed and Treasury officials say is the worst they have ever seen.

From FirstShowing:

The Wave is an compelling German film that premiered at Sundance earlier this year. It’s about a high school teacher who sets up an experiment to demonstrate to his students what life is like under a dictatorship, but it soon spins horribly out of control when he forms a social unit with a life of its own.

Assuming this is the same version (it isn’t) - I saw a 1981 broadcast version of the Wave (as an ABC Afterschool Special, broadcast in primetime) in high school psychology class in 1989/1990 [available in two parts on YouTube].  Both the upcoming and prior video versions of The Wave were based on a book, which was in turn inspired by a 1969 real-life Paolo Alto, California high school ‘experiment’.

A couple of semesters ago, I read a Businessweek article on Home Depot then-CEO Bob Nardelli’s plan to turn around Home Depot.  BW glowingly reported on Nardelli’s personnel changes and differing style, with his strong preference for hiring former-military persons in key rolls.  Anecdotally speaking, a masters program classmate who was also a Naval Academy graduate mentioned that Home Depot had indeed made a push for hiring employees who were formerly Officer Grade to run their stores, casting the opportunity as entrepreneurial.  Businessweek gave several hints as to what was coming in their description of Nardelli’s style:

• Study Guides and Strategies
  (tags: learning education study productivity studying howto reference)
• Men Evolving Badly: Entertainment & Culture: vanityfair.com
  American manhood is in crisis, judging by a surge of manifestos such as The Decline of Men, The Disposable Male, and Save the Males. Performing his own culture check, from High Noon to The Simpsons, the author crashes the pity party.
  (tags: books culture essay)
• FDIC: Statistics at a Glance
  Statistics at a Glance provides the latest quarterly and historical data for FDIC-insured institutions, the BIF and SAIF insurance funds, and the number of FDIC employees beginning with the June 2001 issue.
  (tags: banking Statistics federal FDIC savings loan thrift mortgage subprime)

You may recall my prior post about John Yoo and the politicization of the Justice Department.  One of the things several bloggers have mentioned, after reading through the content and footnotes of Yoo’s 81-page torture memo (drafted when he was a rising star in the Office of Legal Counsel) was the notable absence of a particular hallmark case…

But before that, take a gander at this post at Lawyers, Guns, and Money, regarding Bush, Chertoff, and the border fence, referencing a NYTimes column:

• 10 films the US Government would rather you not see. | The Skeleton Project
  (tags: Politics Video movies government Film)
• Insight: The next crisis will be over food
  “We think we could go into crisis mode in many commodities sectors in the next 12 to 18 months
   . . . and I would argue that agriculture is key here.”
  (tags: food finance Economics economy politics development prices)
• Leading thinkers identify biggest challenges facing humanity
  guardian.co.uk — Reversing the effects of ageing, reprogramming genes to prevent diseases and producing clean energy are some of the biggest challenges for the next 50 years, according to a group of leading experts.
  (tags: future technology science World Humanity tech toread)