Should Detroit Bail Out By Selling Van Gogh? - NPR

From the blurb:

 

The city of Detroit owes billions of dollars to creditors. Now, the city's emergency manager is trying to figure out how much the city's assets are worth, including pieces at the Detroit Institute of Arts by painters like Van Gogh, Matisse, and Warhol.

 

To answer the question posed by the article's title, absolutely yes, the city of Detroit should sell their art collection to pay their debt.  If I owed my creditors tons of money then the first thing I would be expected to do by society is to sell off my luxury assets.  I would have no business owning a fine art collection if I couldn't pay my rent or feed my family or meet other financial obligations.

UNICEF says Facebook 'likes' won't save children's lives - The Verge

Unfortunately, our society has gotten to the point where even money donated to charities doesn't save lives or contribute to the lives you intend by donating.  I admit it is synical, but when the executives of charities make handsome six-figure salaries and then they come to modest little me and want me to throw $5 at them?  Not happening.  I guess I'm like Robin Hood that way.  From the rich to the poor.

 

The original article.

Lost tax haven cash enough to end extreme poverty - twice over | Oxfam

In this release from Oxfam, it is estimated that in order to end extreme poverty worldwide, everyone would have to be able to make at least $1.25 per day, or a total of $66 Billion.  That said, Oxfam estimates the total amount of taxes being avoided (and thus kept out of "the public purse") is $156 Billion, or as they say, "enough money to end extreme poverty twice over".  Moreover, that figure doesn't include the total impact of tax avoidance:

The $156 billion (£102 bn) of lost tax revenue estimated by Oxfam is just a fraction of total tax loss, as it only reflects the amount of tax individuals are neglecting to pay and doesn't include the tax dodged by companies that costs poor countries more than $160 billion (£105 bn) a year. 

As noted by The Verge (and is admitted in the Oxfam report):

How reliable Oxfam's estimate is remains unclear; the very nature of tax avoidance makes a solid figure difficult to ascertain.

The solution recommended by Oxfam? Blacklists and sanctions:

Oxfam is calling for a blacklist of tax havens, and agreement that EU member states will impose countermeasures sanctions against tax havens and those using them.

But, how would that help end world poverty?  I don't think that is the point.  The tax figures are compared against world poverty for shock value.  And, frankly, I am shocked.  Just a little more than one dollar a day for everyone in the world would end extreme poverty?  That is shocking and quite humbling.  Nevertheless, would collecting outstanding taxes solve poverty?  Would the tax revenue collected make it into the hands of the world's poor?  Highly unlikely.  The tax revenue that is currently collected barely makes it farther than the bottom of the government's pocket.  Still, the point is made that the uncollected and sheltered money is doing no good, period.

 

As an initial solution, blacklists and sanctions make sense to me.  Yet, why stop at sanctions?  For example, if a U.S. company earning U.S. money from U.S. people moves said money to another country to avoid paying U.S. taxes, why not recoup the lost taxes by enacting an increased U.S. tariff on that country's goods shipped to the U.S.?   If American Big Company (ABC) finds tax shelter in an arbitrary country X, then anything country X expects to export to the U.S. or expects to use in the U.S. (such as company ABC's money in the U.S. stock market) should be subject to a tariff sufficiently large enough to either recoup the lost tax revenue or dissuade country X from allowing company ABC to find shelter there.

 

So far, all of the solutions floating around out there are trying to get company ABC to pay taxes on money they are not legally obligated to pay.  They have the ability and the right to move their money to country X and pay country X's taxes (if any) because that is how the law is structured.  Could the law be changed to force ABC to pay U.S. taxes on all of its earnings?  Yes, but it wouldn't work and could even be detrimental to the economy.  However, instead of going after ABC, why not go after country X?  If country X hurts enough, I wager that company ABC is politely asked to leave.  What if ABC then goes to country Y or Z?  The same solution applies.  Sooner or later, ABC will come crawling back to the U.S. and when they do, they will have to pay their dues.

Microsoft announces live action 'Halo' TV series with Steven Spielberg as executive producer - The Verge

Following this announcement, the most pressing question on the minds of all Halo fans is: Who will be the hottie playing Cortana?

 

What do you think?

 

Off the top of my head, Eliza Dushku? Elisha Cuthbert?  The possibilities are endless.

The gaming headset that (literally) shocks your brain to attention - Ars Technica

Who needs energy drinks when you can just directly shock your brain?  As a modest consumer of energy drinks, however, I have to wonder, Why not do both?  What could possibly go wrong?

13-Year-Old Designs Super-Efficient Solar Array Based on the Fibonacci Sequence - PopSci

This boy, Aidan Dwyer, is inspiring.  I believe that great things can be accomplished if we adults would just step back and view the world as a child once and a while.  Of course, it would help even more if we could view the world as a genius child, like Aidan is.

 

I have oftentimes looked at trees and thought about how each leaf was like a solar panel contributing to the powering of the whole tree.  A tree which grows and sustains itself with no man's assistance; a tree which can withstand tempests and floods and fires; a tree, sown as a seed into the crevice of a rock, which grows and grows and, given enough time, could bring down an entire mountain!  However, I at no point, neither as a child nor an adult with an engineering degree, looked at the leaf configuration of a tree and thought, "Hey, that's Fibonacci!"  But, Aidan sure did.  And he took the concept and ran with it.  I mean, he designed his own tools, for goodness sake!

 

First he determined the ratios representing the spiral pattern of the leaves and branches on an oak tree, using a cylindrical double-protractor tool of his own design. Then he copied the pattern using a computer program, and built an oak tree-shaped solar array out of PVC pipe.

 

Absolutely brilliant.

Scientist accidentally discovers gold extraction method using cornstarch - KSL.com

I have to wonder how many other novel and natural solutions there are out there to complex, largely man-made (or in the case of gold extraction, man-interested) problems.

 

Is it too soon to run out to the thrift store to buy old computers and extract the gold out of them with cornstarch?

Pentagon Continues Use of China Satellite in New Lease - Bloomberg

The question that is immediately raised by this article is, "Are they serious?"  Of course, my first response is, why not just give China the key to the city?  Or in this case, the key to the United States' eyes in Africa?  And in fact, Alabama Representative Mike Rogers, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee's subcommittee that oversees space programs, thankfully had the same gut reaction.  From Bloomberg:

It "exposes our military to the risk that China may seek to turn off our 'eyes and ears' at the time of their choosing," [Rogers] said last month. 

That very important point isn't really addressed by the article, so more research is needed here.  But, doesn't it seem reasonable that China could, if they own the satellite, turn it off at will?  Or, more radical (yet plausible) before the data makes it to Harris CapRock Communications, couldn't China manipulate it to show (or not show) what it wanted?

 

Another argument to address is that some might say, Well, we're talking about Africa here; not necessarily an American hot zone. Yet, I remember reading not that long ago about China hoarding up as many precious metals as it could get their hands on from that continent, to the chagrin of the United States and tech companies everywhere (lithium ion batteries, anyone?  Solyndra?).  Furthermore, Africa is home to places such as Egypt and Libya and is not too far from Syria and the Middle East.  Just because there is no smoke on the mountain doesn't mean the ranger can ignore it.

 

Now, granted, we're only talking about a $10.7 Million lease, so not the biggest fish in the sea as far as defense contracts go.  But, this is just a small example of a big problem: contracting out the defense of America has resulted and is resulting in decisions made with the bottom dollar in mind rather than, oh, say, the defense of America.  Moreover, only recently has the United States needed to rely on other countries' space programs to do the work that they pioneered and held the corner on for decades, namely space and satellite technology.  RIP NASA.  From the article:

"Under close examination, Apstar-7 remained the only satellite solution available that meets AFRICOM's satellite communications requirements, and operational necessity dictated that the lease be renewed," the Pentagon said in yesterday's statement.

 

What a sad commentary on the state of America's space program.  A Chinese satellite is "the only satellite solution available that meets AFRICOM's satellite communications requirements".