FRIDAY MORNING RAMBLE: Test Day Edition

Test Day? It’s the first day a cricket test has been played at Eden Park for … years! It won’t last long, so don’t hold back. Here’s some things to read in between watching wickets fall.

To say that the tensions within the European "Union" are getting unbearable would be an understatement.
Cyprus President To Rehn: "I Told You Tax Wouldn't Pass. Regards To Mrs Merkel" – Tyler Durden, ZERO HEDGE

Ever wondered what a one-million dollar bus shelter would look like? Me too.
How Much Is A Bus Shelter Worth? – THE AUCKLAND BANNER

Since everyone has become an instant expert…
Five Principles of Urban Economics: Things we know and things we don’t – CITY JOURNAL

And can we now stop talking bollocks about remake our cities with “creative clusters.” The so-called creative class of intellects and artists was supposed to remake cities and revive urban wastelands. Now the evidence is in—and the experiment appears to have failed.
Richard Florida Concedes the Limits of the Creative Class – DAILY BEAST

D’you remember a Prime Minister talking about us NOT being a world leader on this?
So who has an ETS? According to the World Bank – not many. – Sinclair Davidson, CATALLAXY FILES
Climate: Time to Shift Verb Tenses – POWER LINE

Ever wondered what a George Bush nude painting would look like … ?
The Recently Revealed, Nude Self-Portraits of George W. Bush: A Critique – VANITY FAIR
The four most interesting revelations from the hacked Bush emails – SALON

Speaking of hacked emails, another data dump reveals more sordid secrets of the world’s rock star climate scientists, signalling Climategate 3.0 …
Another hockey stick smashed – ANDREW BOLT
Climategate 3.0: Mann, Jones plot to eliminate Little Ice Age, Medieval Warming Era from IPCC report – JUNK SCIENCE
Too many links to post ... – GOOGLE

Riding Mass Transit Is Like Inviting 20 Random Hitchhikers Into Your Car. Discuss.
26 Things You'll See On Public Transportation – BuzzFeed

“The British Government … has passed a law that effectively censors the entire world’s media. And they’ve done this simply because they are ignorant of the very laws they’re trying to change. Which is, I think you’ll agree, a little disturbing, that politicians would casually negate press freedom just because they don’t know what they’re doing.”
The British Government Has Decided To Censor The Entire World's Press And Media – Tim Worstall, FORBES

UK politicians would be right at home in Asia and Australia.
The National Interest – TIM BLAIR

China’s richest man has a strong statement for those looking to invest there: “The capital markets in China suck.”
China's Wahaha Billionaire Says Capital Markets "Suck" – ZERO HEDGE

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is apparently “the adult in the room” when it comes to dealing with the current slow recovery from the Great Recession… with the exception of Obama’s 2009 stimulus, only Bernanke and the Fed have worked tirelessly to “keep the US economy afloat”—even as the Bernanke Fed has morphed from a  lender of last resort “into a central planning agency with a corporate welfare department.”
Bernanke: The Good Engineer? – John P. Cochran, MISES DAILY

By the way, there is an interesting paradox at work as central banks suppress interest rates: The only way central banks can keep interest rates low is to buy the bonds issued by their respective governments. But the more bonds they buy with new money, the more likely it is interest rates will go up in any case. And the more debt govts issue, the less able govts will be to every pay these debts back.
What Could Cause Interest Rates to Rise? – Charles Hugh-Smith – ZERO HEDGE

“As the title of the work suggests, Simmons believes that, most often, government creates far more problems in the economy than it solves.”
REVIEW: Beyond Politics: The Roots of Government Failure, by Randy Simmons – Ari Armstrong, OBJECTIVE STANDARD

Is Washington, D.C. the only place where you can “cut” spending while spending vastly more than you were in the past? I wish it were so.
Why the fiscal sequester scheme is actually bullshit – Richard Salsman, FORBES

Let’s stop celebrating Keynes and Krugman.
Not Keynes Or Kuznets Or Krugman But Cowperthwaite – Sean Corrigan, ZERO HEDGE

You want proof that Keynesian economics is insane. Well, here it is.
Keynesian insanity reaches a new peak – Steve Kates, CATALLAXY FILES

Keynesian economics in one graphic:

“Ever since John Locke developed the theory of natural individual human rights, there has been an ongoing attempt to change his idea to something very different… But instead of relying on people’s good will and generosity to help out those in need of various goods and services, the positive or welfare rights doctrine reintroduces the old regime that people in society aren’t free agents but serfs.”
Welfare Rights Are Wrong – Tibor Machan, TIBOR’s SPACE

If good government is like a guard dog, properly trained and tied up constitutionally to protect your rights instead of doing you over, then is this what governments look like now:

There was reason wartime Germans were called ‘Hitler’s Willing Executioners.’ Because as new evidence emerges, the story they couldn’t see the Holocaust just became much less convincing.
The Holocaust, Everywhere – NOODLE FOOD
Two millennia of European antisemitism explained -- and more! – NOT PC, 2007

Why I hate guns:

LOL!

As we were saying, Twitter is now seven years old. Luck Twitter changed that original logo.
Twitpic - TWITTER
How We Covered Twitter: 7 Headlines for 7 Years – WALL STREET JOURNAL

More on the benefits of alcohol: wowsers suffer more from Fibromyalgia.
Alcohol, Fibromyalgia, and Quality of Life – SCIENCE DAILY

I’ve retired. Time to “give something back.” What a crock!
‘Give Back’ Is One Of The World’s Most Impoverishing Commands – Don Watkins, FORBES

“But puritans haven't vanished. They've merely changed the subject.”
The Tyranny of the Virtuous – BASTIAT INSTITUTE

A Frank Lloyd Wright house in Millstone, New Jersey, wants to move to Florence, Italy. True story.
Frank Lloyd Wrong? – MONOCLE

The simple band aid was invented in 1920. Two Taiwanese students just gave it an upgrade (click to enlarge):

Answering the important questions:
"How do farts behave in low gravity?" – QUORA

Anarchist arguments lose again.
A strange anarchist argument against Hobbes – Gene Callahan, CRASH LANDING

Amity Shlaes provides a long-overdue assessment of an underrated and misunderstood president: Calvin Coolidge, aka Silent Cal.
Singular Cal – CITY JOURNAL

The Coolidge re-evaluation is also a good time to re-evaluate the lessons of the “Laffer Curve.”
Art Laffer and Calvin Coolidge – ON LIBERTY STREET

New maps of the cosmic microwave background are coming out today!
Coming soon: Planck unveils the cosmic microwave background  - EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY

Where would NZ be without the underwater communications cables linking us to the rest of the world.  Ever wondered how they are built and protected?
Protecting the Submarine Cables That Wire Our World – POPULAR MECHANICS

Time to celebrate the greening of the planet, says Rational Optimist Matt Ridley.  It’s greening not despite, but because of our reliance on fossil fuels.

And, by the way…
Fracking is Wonderful – John Stossel, BASTIAT INSTITUTE

Not me.
Are You Good at Following Flowcharts? – COLLEGE HUMOUR

But this, from 1854, is fascinating.
The First Modern Organizational Chart – Peter Klein, ORGANIZATIONS & MARKETS

The answer to this question is "No", according to the Bible anyway.
Jesus H. Christ: Does anyone know his name? – DWINDLING IN UNBELIEF

Are Objectivists libertarians? The Ayn Rand Institute (now) says “yes.”
Are Objectivists Libertarians? – Robert Tracinski, TRACINSKI LETTER

The perfect online tool for travellers, especially skinflint fricking NZers. In two flavours:
How Much Should I Tip? (Vanilla Version)
How Much Should I F***ing Tip? (Hilariously Offensive Version)

Help for the helpless.
Where To Start When Creating A Home Color Scheme – APARTMENT THERAPY
How To Confidently Choose Paint Colors: Mark's Foolproof Methods – APARTMENT THERAPY

The life of a student opera-singer:

A note to other friends:

Whole Foods’s John Mackey on Whole Foods, Conscious Capitalism, and Life Beyond the Profit Motive:

Hat tip Capitalistm, Small Dead Animals, Chris Keall, Geek Press, Don Watkins, Melanie Tollemache, Kelly McNulty Valenzuela, Peter Smale, CoNZervative, Tarrynne, Small Dead Animals, Noodle Food,

Thanks for reading, and have a great weekend.
PC

PS: Thanks to PSP for hospitality, and for handing me a tennis trophy yesterday at their Annual Architects Tennis Tournament. Very enjoyable.

PPS: Since I now only have DB’s alleged beer products to choose from at my local tennis club, could the answer be to try cider. What doest the jury think?
Cider: Made like Wine, Drunk like Beer – Neil Miller, MALTHOUSE