OK, you blew it. You were supposed to load up with whatever this year’s superduper toy was weeks ago, while it was still in stock. But you got distracted, as usually happens this time of year, and now you’re stuck. And your marriage, and your children’s permanent affections, are now at risk.

Fortunately, Wired comes to the rescue. Specifically, good old GeekDad, who reviews toys and all sorts of other stuff for Wired. And he’s got a list of the five best toys of all time. You might have a quibble here and there, but you can’t deny he’s on to something. Your only problem now is gussying them up as Christmas presents for kids who expect something either (a) glowing, (b) electronic, or (C) alive. But that’s what wrapping paper is for, isn’t it?

George Whitman probably is an unfamiliar name to most Americans, but practically any American who has spent any at all time in Paris has at least wandered through the Shakespeare & Company bookshop, of which Whitman was the owner and proprietor. He was 98, and knew everyone. He had been a bit less mobile the past few years, but you could usually see him sitting around upstairs somewhere, puttering, or just sitting and talking. What an amazing set of memories, which are now no longer with us. Full story »

Here’s a bit of a surprise–moldy applesauce going into baby food and school lunches. MSNBC fills us in:

A Washington state fruit processor that supplies the nation’s schools and a baby food maker is under scrutiny by federal health regulators for repackaging applesauce contaminated with several kinds of potentially dangerous, multi-colored molds, msnbc.com has learned.

Repackaging? What the hell is that?

Food and Drug Administration officials this week posted a warning letter to Snokist Growers of Yakima, Wash., saying the company cannot ensure the safety of moldy applesauce and fruit puree that has been reconditioned for human consumption.

Wait–I thought it was just repackaged. What is this? Full story »

Well, whoever it is who gave us this as our logo, and these guys as our mascots, is still around, because the new batch of official London 2012 Olympics posters was released a little while ago, and they’re pretty dreadful. Uninspired is probably a better word, since they’re among the most boring posters you will ever see. It clearly follows from the fact that whatever committee this was decided to go for name artists, rather than run some sort of competition. So we’ve got the gaggle of usual suspects. Here’s probably the best of the bunch, from Adrian Hamilton:

And here’s the lot. Full story »

The Occupy movement seems as if it has the potential to do great things. While it professes no leadership, it has galvanized the left—and a growing part of the middle, possibly—in ways that no other issue has over the past decade—since the invasion of Iraq, actually. And galvanize it has—it’s a worldwide phenomenon now, here in London at St Paul’s Cathedral, and elsewhere. It has provided a focus for the anger—outright rage, in many cases—at the lack of accountability of the financial and political elite for the crisis of a couple of years ago, and the state of the economy now, at a time when it is god-awful difficult for many families in America and many other industrial economies to make ends meet, or just to stay in place. People are going backwards, and they know it. One can only admire the determination and focus of the people involved. One can only feel outrage at the indifference, so far, their protest has engendered in the corporate media and the policy elites. The tragedy in Oakland is symptomatic of a deep sickness in American culture, one that the financial and political elite seem perfectly comfortable perpetuating at the expense of both people and planet.

And yet, and yet…. Full story »

Seriously.

It depends on what you mean by “save.”

Recently The Financial Times ran a story (“Shale gas boosts US manufacturing“) discussing the fact that a number of companies, both American and non-American, were either re-opening chemical or fertilizer plants in the United States, or were building new plants. This trend has emerged as the result in the significant fall in the price of natural gas in the US as compared with other regions. As the FT noted,

Dow Chemical plans to open new US ethylene and propylene plants later this decade, and restart a Louisiana ethylene cracker closed in 2009. Royal Dutch Shell announced a chemical plant in the gas-rich Appalachian mountain region to make ethylene and petrochemicals. Sasol of South Africa last week unveiled a plan to convert gas into diesel fuel in Louisiana.

In the fertiliser industry, Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan is investing $158m to restart a Louisiana anhydrous ammonia plant shut in 2003, when gas prices were climbing. Aluminium company Ormet is dusting off a nearby plant shuttered in 2006.

This is a turnaround from activity a decade ago, as the FT notes, when companies were closing plants and moving operations elsewhere. Full story »

God, did Mrs W and I hate the 1980s. This was the most horrible decade of our lives. Not personally, actually–our kids were growing up, and that certainly kept us busy and delighted. I accidentally became an elected public official of the State of New Jersey, which was a hoot for a while until we moved to Massachusetts. I changed careers as I was approaching 40, leaving academics to go into finance, and it pretty much worked out personally. But the decade was just a complete loser. No, worse—it actually set us back as a country and a society. Milton Friedman, Ronald “evolution is just a theory” Reagan, the gutting of anti-trust enforcement, the endless fascination with the wealthy, the Tisch-Steinberg wedding, the rise of Donald Trump, Oscar de la Renta and his “Living well is the best revenge” motto, Nancy Reagan, the trashing of the unions, Madonna, the rollback of sensible environmental enforcement, Barbara Bush, the elimination of all the measures that would have probably made us energy self-sufficient by now, James Watt, Studio 54, the cocaine epidemic on Wall Street, “cocaine chic” brought to us by Calvin Klein advertising, the fact that there was barely any music to listen to…the list goes on.

And then there was the art.
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Bert Jansch, guitarist extraordinaire, died two days ago, the same day as Steve Jobs. While both changed my life in positive ways, I’d have to say that Jansch’s influence was better. And I say that even as I sit here tappping away on my MacBook, charging up my iPod. Jobs gave me more interesting tools to live my life. Jansch gave it a bit more meaning than it would otherwise have had.

Jansch was in the forefront of the great British folk revival of the 1960s. This has been admirably described in Colin Harper’s excellent biography of Jansch, Dazzling Stranger. Full story »

The wonderful little Estorick Collection, which was established to display modern Italian art, and normally does just that, has a wonderful show designed to present the poster art of Edward McKnight Kauffer. Kauffer revolutionized poster design in Britain after WWI, and was one of Britain’s most important artists during the 1920s and 1930s, before his forced departure back to America following the entry of Britain into the European War in 1939. Kauffer was an American who went to Paris to study art (funded by a philanthropist named McKnight, whose name Kauffer adopted in acknowledgement), and, as an American, could find no work in Britain after the war began, and had to return to the US, which he bitterly regretted doing. This would have been before dual citizenship was possible, of course, and Kauffer had not undertaken UK citizenship.

Anyway, the art. Why should we care? And why now? Well, there has been something of a Kauffer revival going on over the past decade, and visiting the Estorick exhibit tells us why. Full story »

We noted back in 2009 an historic event. An oil tanker made its way from South Korea to Rotterdam—by way of traveling across the Northeast Passage, that region from the Bering Straight to the northern tip of Norway. This is major. For hundreds of years, nations have been searching for a Northwest Passage across North America, and this stimulated the imagination of generations of Englishmen and others as few other enterprises have done. And for hundreds of years, Russia has had two obsessions—the role of the north in the Russian character, and, as a far more practical matter, access to a year round warm weather port. I can’t speak to the first, but the second appears on its way to becoming reality.

The north, that vague unknowable land, that vague concept, that place of mystery, silence, purity, solitude and the Northern Lights. Oh, and the dumping ground for the world’s nuclear waste, air pollutants and chemical contaminants. That magnet myth, for exploration, for voyages of discovery back in the days when nations believed in voyages of discovery as expressions of national pride. Whatever it is, it is going to be trashed in pretty short order. The place is dying a slow death. Well, being murdered is more like it. Full story »

Sounds like a dream ticket, actually. The Kew Bridge Steam Museum, one of London’s little treasures, has been having an exhibition of Steampunk art, which ended this weekend. After this, the bulk of it will be heading up to Lincoln for the big annual Steampunk festival there in September. Actually, much of it looked familiar, and indeed, quite a bit of it was also at the Steampunk exhibit up in Oxford last year we wrote about.
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Lord knows what Rupert Murdoch and his son James were thinking a couple of weeks ago when they provided their bullshit testimony to Parliament over the phone hacking scandal at the now defunct News of the World. But if the documents released by Parliament yesterday are any indication of what information still has yet to emerge, either both were lying outright to Parliament, or neither one has a clue regarding what goes on the organizations they each run—News Corporation in the case or Rupert, and its subsidiary News International and its British satellite broadcasting subsidiary BSkyB in the case of James. In either event, the recent expressions of support by the BSkyB board for James are starting to look a bit premature, as does Rupert’s refusal to split his current Chairman/CEO roles at News Corp.
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It looks as if Rick Perry is either the guaranteed Republican nominee already, or else this year’s Fred Thompson. Sadly, since he’s only been a declared candidate for a couple of days, it’s probably a bit too early to say. But Perry has the right chops—he’s already implied that Obama doesn’t love America, and that Ben Bernanke should be given some sort of Texas treatment if he tries to stimulate the economy, since that would be “treasonous.” He’s vindictive, dumb as a post, a rigid Creationist, a global warming denier, and completely in bed with the oil industry. And, of course, thinks secession might be the solution, although to what, exactly, isn’t clear. Oh, I wish and hope. Anyway, what’s not to like? Oh, and he has never lost a political campaign, including when the Bush group supported Sissy Farenhold in her campaign against him for governor a couple of years ago. Really, what’s not to like here?

I’m certain this tells us something important about the state of political discourse in America right now that Perry seems to now be the leading contender for the nomination.
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Lots of ink and many bits are currently being spilled analyzing S&P’s downgrade of the credit ratings of the United States to AA+ from AAA late Friday. Most of the talking heads in America continue to pretend to not to understand the dynamic of this action, and S&P, which hasn’t covered itself in glory over the past several years, admittedly, is taking a lot of flak for this—even Warren Buffett disagrees, and of course, Buffett is never wrong (except for those times when he is). Paul Krugman, with whom I normally agree, takes a number of pot shots, but I think misses the larger picture. Eschaton has an elegant little summary that a number of people, including Krugman, think summarizes what our reaction should be (and Eschaton, aka Duncan Black, is also an economist).
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The Norwegian Church is an attractive 100-year old building in Rotherhithe, full of little maritime touches, south of the Thames. Back when London was a busy port, Rotherhithe was one of the main areas of port business. Whistler used to go there in the 1870s and 1880s to draw and paint. Today, it’s a pleasant enough lower middle class area, one of many in London, but it retains something of its maritime legacy. Including the Norwegian Church and Seamen’s Mission, right down the street from the Finnish Church. There are Norwegian Churches in all sorts of port cities, in fact. Liverpool has one. Cardiff. Edinburgh. Norwegians take their Christianity seriously. 80% of the country is a member of the Church of Norway.

So it was a fitting setting for today’s Memorial Service to the victims of a very evil man, Anders Behring Breivik, who last Friday blew up part of Oslo, leaving eight people dead and many maimed and injured. He then proceeded to spend 90 minutes stalking and murdering 68 teenagers at a retreat on Utøya island, all in the name of a some mythical armed struggle against multiculturalism. Full story »

Last January we expressed some concern about the potential mischief that could arise when Congress had to get around to dealing with the debt ceiling. That was, what, six months ago? As anyone following recent developments in this area knows, this has not been going well. Through an interesting combination of Republican stupidity, mendacity and willful ignorance, Democratic miscalculation (mainly by Obama, driven by his need to prove he’s “bipartisan”), and Treasury sloppiness, we—that is, the United States of America—now face the prospect of defaulting on our debt, and losing our triple-A credit ratings, if there is no agreement to raise the federal debt ceiling. Now, what are the odds of these two events? Default? Frankly, not likely. As Paul Craig Roberts (hardly a raging leftie) has stated:

The US government will never default on its bonds, because the bonds, unlike those of Greece, Spain, and Ireland, are payable in its own currency. Regardless of whether the debt ceiling is raised, the Federal Reserve will continue to purchase the Treasury’s debt. If Goldman Sachs is too big to fail, then so is the US government.

That pretty much sums it up. And you can be damn sure that Treasury Secretary Geithner is making certain that, whatever else might not get paid in the event that there is no debt ceiling increase, US government bonds will be paid, no matter what.

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There have been any number of further developments since our last post, and this shows signs of accelerating to the point of being out of Murdoch’s control entirely. Well, let’s face it—in the UK, it pretty much is. Rebekah Brooks resigned on Friday, and was arrested on Sunday. Murdoch’s long time deputy Les Hinton, who ran News International at the time of peak phone hacking, and more recently ran Dow Jones for Murdoch, also resigned. Brooks’s arrest means her testimony to Parliament tomorrow may be compromised—how convenient for someone, maybe the police?

Let’s not forget that in all the unseemly haste to somehow pin this all on PM David Cameron (of whom I am not a fan, by the way, but still), that all of this pretty much happened while Labour was in power, and Labour pretty much did nothing. And that the Metropolitan Police force has been deeply compromised, as evidence by the head of the MPC, Paul Stephenson, resigning yesterday. And the Assistant Commissioner, John Yates, resigning today. Full story »

OK, so I got a Kindle. This is a major step, for someone who is as much of a book junkie as I am. Actually, more like a book magnet. And after decades of buying books, they add up. Especially since I’m a packrat, as Mrs W never tires of pointing out, and living in a flat with limited space, it leads to books three deep in the bookshelves, that sort of thing. Of course, there’s the occasional cull, but that just clears out space for a while that fills up again. Then there’s the feeling that while I’m not likely to read any Dan Brown ever again—once was enough—there’s still no reason to believe that a single tree should ever be sacrificed for a Dan Brown book, as Mrs W once commented. Elitist, I know, but there it is.

So I thought about this for a while, and a couple of years ago we borrowed one for a long weekend from the son-in-law, and Mrs W really liked it, but that was in the US, and for a while there the availability of titles in the UK was pretty sparse. Full story »

This just keeps getting better and better. Alexander Cockburn is right—this is just like Watergate. The steady drip, drip, drip of bad news. The iconic hate figure, a man who pretty much singlehandedly created a global media empire against very significant odds, which in any other context might be seen as plucky and admirable in some way, but who wrecked that accomplishment through political blowback once some transparency revealed the depths to which members of his organization would go. (There’s that whole Fox News thing too, for good measure.) The scuttling of politicians for cover, or at least better defensive positions. And a few heroes popping up, occasionally from unexpected quarters.

So what’s happened since our last update? Well, what hasn’t happened? Except for Rebeka Brooks’s resignation, which Rupert has said is not gonna happen. We’ll see—some folks are giving it until Wednesday. In other expected and unexpected developments, Andrew Coulson, former News of the World editor and former press advisor to Prime Minister David Cameron, has been arrested, question, and released. Full story »