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POPSEnvironmental Activists Are Trying To Exploit Wall Street Bailout Bill
.......energy or natural resource development projects that the Greens oppose. Once the U.S. Government owns the securities (and, thereby, the property) an omnipotent Paulson could essentially take the land out of circulation by "preserving" it as public land. He could even claim — through the economic device of "contingent valuation" — that the acquired land has more value as pristine public land than as, say, an energy or logging project. Contingent valuation uses opinion surveys to value intangible assets for which there is no market, such as scenic views and crystal-clear air. Respondents are asked hypothetical questions like, "How much would you pay to preserve a seashore view from oil drilling?" or "How much is it worth to keep a forest pristine and un-logged?" Though the whole process is pretend — the respondents know they won't actually spend any of their own money for this preservation — the government uses the method to establish monetary values of preserved la
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POPSPublic Participation GIS This approach to development of the city and surrounding areas is exactly what we need. The people must be empowered with the information that is typically held by the government, development organizations, and those with developed computer skills and high-speed internet access. PPGIS will facilitate the participation of marginalized members of society in the creation of the ecocity. It can be integrated with accessibility software and accessed from libraries, computing centers, and other designated points in the neighborhood, and should be integrated with a user-friendly interface —such as google maps, rather than the more technologically and geographically -oriented interface employed in typical online GIS sites.
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POPSCongress OKs Bill to Improve Broadband Access Such an analysis might provide some insight as to why the U.S. -- the birthplace of the Internet -- lags behind other developed countries in broadband usage. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development ranks the U.S. 15th for broadband penetration. Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., who sponsored a similar bill that passed the House earlier this year, supported the legislation. "This initiative will help us ascertain whether the nation is achieving its broadband policy goals because, unfortunately, our current knowledge on the state of broadband deployment, speed and affordability in the U.S. is grossly and inexcusably lacking," Markey said.
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POPSSocial welfare programs do not keep a country from prosperity
The Nordic states have also worked to keep social expenditures compatible with an open, competitive, market-based economic system. Tax rates on capital are relatively low. Labor market policies pay low-skilled and otherwise difficult-to-employ individuals to work in the service sector, in key quality-of-life areas such as child care, health, and support for the elderly and disabled. The results for the households at the bottom of the income distribution are astoundingly good, especially in contrast to...American social policy. The U.S. spends less than almost all rich countries on social services for the poor and disabled, and it gets what it pays for: the highest poverty rate among the rich countries and an exploding prison population. Actually, by shunning public spending on health, the U.S. gets much less than it pays for, because its dependence on private health care has led to a ramshackle system that yields mediocre results at very high costs.
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POPSFidel Warns That It Would Be A Disaster If Chávez Was Assassinated " Venezuelan oil is not sugar cane. It is a product which, although market prices were low at the time, such was the volume and quality that it generated a huge income in a currency that possessed tremendous acquisitive power for decades," read Chávez. "Your country achieved certain levels of industrial development," continued Fidel Castro in the letter that the South American leader said he would read in sections. "On your own merits and with tremendous popular support, you are assuming leadership of a people who received very little for what they produced," noted Fidel in his message, in reference to Chávez’ electoral triumph in 1998. "There was a surplus of workers, there was unemployment, the consumerism of the rich, their Yankee-style stores and services, they forced you to sell the workforce, they subjected it to inflation, they shamelessly sold your hard currency reserves" In contrast, Cuba relied solely on its income from sugar cane.
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POPSGapminder Gapminder is a non-profit venture promoting sustainable global development and achievement of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals by increased use and understanding of statistics and other information about social, economic and environmental development at local, national and global levels.
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POPSWhy Google Releases Half-Baked Products Basically, Nick Carr is arguing that Google is exploiting something like the long tail in its product releases. It may only have a few hits--products like Gmail, for instance--but the cost of development is low enough that even a marginal traffic bump to its ads makes new features worthwhile. Hence all the Google products that seem to be languishing in semi-obscurity, like Knol, Android and Open Social.
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POPSHappy? "Economic gains that bring more food, clothing, shelter, medical care and longer life can result in a substantial increase in subjective well-being for poor societies, he says. But once a society reaches a certain threshold, further economic growth brings only minimal gains. Among the richest societies, increases in income are only weakly linked with higher levels of subjective well-being. While economic growth helps promote happiness for some, democratization and rising social tolerance contribute even more. Democracy provides more choice, which promotes happiness. Support for gender equality and tolerance of people who are different from oneself are also strongly linked, not just because tolerant people are happier, but because living in a tolerant society enhances everyone's freedom, Inglehart says."
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POPSTurn Off Foreign Aid? The next administration should also immediately reduce U.S. support for international organizations, such as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the United Nations and the World Bank, which have programs that discourage economic growth.
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POPSChavez To Discuss Joint Banking Venture During Moscow Visit The socialist leader, an outspoken critic of Washington and opponent of neoliberalism, has focused his foreign policy on bolstering ties with countries outside the U.S. sphere of influence since coming to power nine years ago. Chavez said last week he expected to meet Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and discuss a number of industrial and technological projects as part of a visit aimed at boosting bilateral relations. PetroCaribe is a regional energy security alliance between Caribbean countries and Venezuela established in 2005. The alliance enables its 17 member countries to purchase Venezuelan oil under a flexible credit payment system.
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