FRIDAY MORNING RAMBLE: The No Mo Fomoco Edition

Australian (and New Zealand unionists boast how Australian unions have made labour rates in Australia among the world’s highest.  Perhaps they should also reflect how they’ve made Australian manufacturing among the world’s most uncompetitive. So much so that even billions of dollars in government subsidies—amounting to tens of thousands of dollars per car—isn’t enough to save car manufacturing in Australia.  Or any manufacturing at all…
Ford closure shows subsidies a waste of money – C.I.S.
Ford to shut down its Australian manufacturing operation – Sinclair Davidson, CATALLAXY FILES 
How the Australian Government is Using the Car Industry to Rob You Blind – Murray Dawes, MONEY MORNING AUSTRALIA, Feb, 2013
Cats statement on Ford closure – GEELONG CATS
Holden crashes, taking our money with it – Andrew Bolt, April, 2013

But who in the end killed the Ford Falcon and the Holden Commodore? You did, consumers did, because in the end you just stopped buying them…

I think this was fairly obvious at the time, wasn’t it?  Unless you were a journalist being played.
Was Aaron Gilmore an inside political hit job? – DAILY BLOG

Dodgy Don McKinnon is rewarded with another gong for his 55 years in the public trough. What a crock.
Sir Don McKinnon wins World Class New Zealand Award (sic) – TVNZ

For years politicians and activists have been saying if their tobacco bans save just one life  they will have been worth it.  So who about when they cost a life?
If it saves only one life... oops. – Eric Crampton, OFFSETTING BEHAVIOUR

Given the low-income market it targets, and the high loan-to-value loans it’s been making, is Kiwibank shaping to be our own Fannie Mae disaster?
1-in-3 risk of Kiwibank credit rating cut – NZ HERALD

You see, these are the sort of charter school effects about which the unions are truly worried.
Charter schools in Boston score higher on key tests: Other schools have better 4-year graduation rates – BOSTON GLOBE

Labour and the Lib Dems don't care about eliminating poverty, and the Tories and UKIP don't care about free markets—and they are as one when it comes to demonising immigrants. Why? Because foreigners can’t vote.
Why British Pols All Agree on Immigration – Jamie Whyte, WALL STREET JOURNAL

Here’s a neat performance poem celebrating immigration, that owes a lot to an equally neat book by economist Philippe Legrain called  Immigrants: Your Country Needs Them:

We now know the name of the poor bastard slaughtered in broad daylight by barbarians wielding meat-axes and the Koran (an appropriate combination). Keeping Stock celebrates Lee James Rigby’s short life.
Photo of the Day – KEEPING STOCK

Obama, David Cameron, and London mayor Boris Johnson close their eyes and ears, hum a tune, and pretend the “lone wolf” (hah!) hadn’t explicitly ascribed his killing to Islam. The bastards.
London mayor: "it is completely wrong to blame this killing on Islam" – JIHAD WATCH
Obama condemns London jihad attack without naming Islam or jihad – JIHAD WATCH
UK jihad murderer was convert to Islam, went to meetings of jihad group – JIHAD WATCH
A whole pack of lone wolves. "Two more arrests made in brutal hacking death of British soldier – JIHAD WATCH

Here’s the only real hero of the day: the cub scout leader who jumped off a bus to help the victim, and ended up talking down further slaughter—all while the police apparently sat on their hands.
Mum talked down Woolwich terrorists who told her: 'We want to start a war in London tonight' – TELEGRAPH

A superb interactive infographic produced by the Herald (take a bow, folks) showing regional New Zealand house price affordability over time. Unfortunately, it doesn’t go back to before Geoffrey Palmer’s Resource Management Act was introduced—but ask yourself what happened around 2001…
Infographic: Home affordability vs income – NZ HERALD

“The news that Auckland Council is actually taking a serious look at paying all employees, and ensuring all contractor employees are paid, a ‘living wage’ should be greatly disturbing to all ratepayers,” says Affordable Auckland.
Unliveable Rates from "Living Wage" – AFFORDABLE AUCKLAND

And you think Auckland, with a house price/income multiple of over 7 is expensive—and it is. Try buying a house in Shenzhen, Shanghai or Beijing!
Real Estate Bubbles In The U.S. And China - Difference And Implications – SEEKING ALPHA

The National Government’s bureaucratic, elitist and unworkable “Christchurch Central Blueprint” has done more to grow the suburbs than the central city—as folk flee the centre and fill up the remaining places in the ‘burbs. But could the Planner’s Blueprint be quietly heading for the trash can, where it belongs?
Projects could be scaled back – Key – STUFF

The Oklahoma tornado which killed 24 people was  around 8 to 600 times more powerful than Hiroshima. NASA has released footage showing the devastating storm system from space.
Bigger than Hiroshima: Monster tornado measuring 17 miles long and 1.3 miles wide... – UK DAILY MAIL

“According to the alarmists’ logic, because a tornado occurred and because the earth has gradually warmed in the century-plus since the end of the Little Ice Age, global warming must cause tornadoes – even when we are experiencing the fewest number of tornadoes in recorded history.”
After Oklahoma City Tragedy, Shameless Politicians Unsheath Global Warming Card – James Taylor, FORBES

No, there’s never been hurricanes of this magnitude before. Except in the past.
New England Hurricanes: The Great Hurricanes of New England 1635, 1815, 1938 – ABOUT.COM

PS: With Oklahoma having an affordable median house price/income multiple of just 3.1, would you take a bet that Oklahoma would not recover faster than Christchurch, with a severely unaffordable median house price/income multiple of 7.0?

The failure of the Auckland Plan to reflect the simple aspirations of Aucklanders for home ownership and predominantly low-rise suburban lifestyles and promote instead the lofty compact city vision held by its planners and policy-makers made its unravelling inevitable. And now it’s started.  Rationing land to squeeze the city upward was always going to create problems.
The Question was never "whether?" Just "when?" The Unravelling of the Auckland Plan – Phil McDermott, CITIES MATTER

Mind you, there’s noting wrong with three-storey houses and apartments, as most Aucklanders already know.
Apartments aren’t the only 3 storey buildings – AUCKLAND TRANSPORT BLOG

Bernard Hickey of mainstream flatulence and Interest.Co.NZ asks Hugh Pavletich why he’s so in favour of releasing fringe land, and so against high density, public transport, Smart Growth? Pavletich returns, with a serve.
I am not for or against any form of development. Surely that is clear. The focus must be on two major issues … – CANTABRIANS UNITE 
Be Clear On Housing Issues Nick Smith – SCOOP

Who hasn’t been assailed by estate agents about this nonsense. Long overdue common sense:
Let's get rid of property CVs – Alistair Helm

While the media are all a-flurry about a 3d-printed gun, the technology of 3d-printing is already saving lives.
Baby's Life Saved With Groundbreaking 3-D Printed Device That Restored His Breathing – SCIENCE DAILY

Yes, true story. For over one-hundred years, human productivity has been making good things easier to buy—one reason that even with doom and gloom, you and I have a better standard of living now than even the richest folk with all their servants did even one-hundred years ago.

There has been a growing shift worldwide in favour of assets relative to bank deposits. Which, when you think about it, is precisely what you’d expect when currencies are being destroyed and bank accounts are being raided daily.
Bank balances and gold – Alasdair Macleod, COBDEN CENTRE

For a few years now, legislators have been worrying themselves over the fact that some people have been able to avoid paying sales taxes to them…
The Phony “Fairness” of the Internet Sales Tax – Fergus Hodgson, STATELESS MAN

Yes, this actually is a question I’m often asked.
Regulating banks the Austrian way – David Howden, COBDEN CENTRE

The Obama Administration is now so engulfed in scandals—lies and revelations about IRS auditing political groups, Justice Department wire taps on journalists, ObamaCare failure, #Benghazi and on—whatever programme they might have is a dead duck. But what’s interesting about the government, says Michael Hurd, is not the scandals coming to light but the things that never became scandals—yet should have.
Individual Rights Belong to Everyone – Dr Michael Hurd, DAILY DOSE OF REASON

Short summary:
Climate Science Is In The Crapper – REAL SCIENCE
Five Reasons The Global Warming Scare Is Fading – INVESTORS BUSINESS DAILY

“Alarmism is based on ignorance of the earth's natural cycles.”
Facts debunk global warming alarmism – Bob Carter, THE AUSTRALIAN

There is upheaval on both global warming and oil…
“Peak Oil Is Dead”: M. A. Adelman Revisited – Robert Bradley, MASTER RESOURCE

“I learned to write by writing.”
- Neil Gaiman

For decades, the promise of cold fusion has hung like a Holy Grail in front of scientists and researchers. With
roughly 10,000 times the energy density and 1,000 times the power density of gasoline, a new device suggests the Grail might not be far away—and if so human life, the arguments about human energy use, will have changed for ever!
Cold fusion reactor independently verified, has 10,000 times the energy density of gas – EXTREME TECH

The results of the first real-world contests between quantum computers and standard ones are in. Almost. Or not.  Or both.
Faster, slower—or both at once? – ECONOMIST

Demolished too soon?  Recent demolitions in the States has prompted memories of previously demolished architectural gems. Here’s a list of eleven like Frank Lloyd Wright’s Larkin Building (above) that were taken too soon. Well, eight.  (The Smithsons, Kevin Roche and Minoru Yamasaki still have a lot to answer for).
Demolished Too Soon: 11 Buildings That Should Still Be Standing! - ARCHITIZER

Motella marks, and bemoans, a growing new accommodation sector that technology has made possible. But what will it do to motels?
Yet Another New Accommodation Sector – MOTELLA

Seventy years after the Scopes Monkey Trials (Google it, and then rent the movie), Georgia state is finally getting to grips with atheism.
Atheist group sending books to Georgia state parks – Jim Galloway, ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION

But stone-age superstitious rot still survives in Rome.
Video emerges of Pope Francis reportedly performing an exorcism in St Peter’s Square – INDEPENDENT

If you like a little intellectual gamesmanship and a little intellectual history, you’ll enjoy seeing Aaron Ross Powell shredding—utterly eviscerating—the arguments made by Sarah Conly allegedly justifying more nannying by government. Fun.
Paternalism and Barbarism – ON LIBERTY STREET

Debt still can’t buy growth. See above.
Chart Of The "Keynesian Normal": America's Tragic Divergence – ZERO HEDGE

When (phony) news about the economy improving sends the stock market all-a-tumble, you now down is now up in the New Economy of the 2010s.
The Words That Sent the Stock Market Tumbling – E.P.J.

Rumour has it this helpful chart was hanging up on the wall as a helpful reminder at the latest Federal Reserve Bank Open Market Committee meeting:

Perhaps they (and every economics department in the world) should have this engraved over their portals; repeat after me:

“Credit is not...a magic piece of paper that reverses cause and effect,
and transforms consumption into a source of production.” 
– Ayn Rand, “Egalitarianism and Inflation”

Historian Scott Powell reckons “This is by far the best basic presentation of why Japan is going to go ‘boom’ I have seen, and why it matters to the rest of us--and that includes anything by Kyle Bass. I especially appreciated understanding how Japan's actions are helping the US treasury market, and even the European markets, and how they are related to the price of gold. This is worth rewatching many times.”

The Apartment Therapy site has its “Small Cool” Competition running again, throwing up great ideas for small spaces. Some of last year’s entries might give you ideas too.
Small Cool Lessons: Discovering Small Space Design Ideas That Really Work – APARTMENT THERAPY
All posts and 2013 entries - APARTMENT THERAPY

You don’t have to be old enough to shave to be old enough to thrive at university.
How to nurture a genius – NZ HERALD

Porn is good for America. And everywhere else.
Porn Is Not the Problem—You Are – PSYCHOLOGY TODAY

How mathematical geniuses won the war. And how one wartime mistake spotted by one of those geniuses has crucial lessons for everyone on “survivor bias.”  Learn from failure!
Survivorship Bias – YOU ARE NOT SO SMART

Yes, "Urban Dictionary" is being increasingly cited in the courtroom.
For the Word on the Street, Courts Call Up an Online Witness – NEW YORK TIMES

POLITICIANS. Always check hoardings before the media put you in front of them:

Calm, sane, compassionate advice. Rare these days. Unlike adultery.
Should the Children Know You've Had an Affair? – PSYCHOLOGY TODAY

See, who wouldn’t want to play a sport where you can do this! (Story of the speccie here)

Time for Ed Kuepper…

… and some more Basie (yes, I posted the whole gig last week, but this stonking 1965 ‘Jumping at the Woodside’ is hot).

As they say, the blues ain’t nothin’ but a good man feeling bad.

If you haven’t seen Diana Damrau sing the “Queen of the Night” aria from Mozart’s Magic Flute, you haven’t lived.
So start living.

[Hat tips Tim Blair, Geek Press, Cantabrians Unite,  Hugh Pavletich, Climate Depot, Whale Oil, Peter Klein, radleybalko, Michael McDonough, David Wessel, Financial Times, Paul Hsieh, Ayn Rand Bot, Adam Smith Institute, TheIndyWorld, courtney lambert ‏, Justin Templer, Lenore Skenazy, H Connell, Jon Winokur, The Footy Freak, Fergus Hodgson]

Thanks for reading.
Have a great weekend.
PC