Want an education in Economics?

Click on the quote above.

From Kevin McElroy for Wyatt Investment Research.

Click the chart above for the story.

In November of 1955 C. Northcote Parkinson published a fairly short, and whimsical ... I'm trying to suck you into reading the thing here ... essay for The Economist which began as follows,

"It is a commonplace observation that work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion."

Those words quickly became known/famous as "Parkinson's Law"

I was disappointed to discover "Parkinson's Law" having in the late 90's thought to have discovered and expressed this idea so perfectly myself ..... as follows,

"Crap expands to fill available space."

I called it "Roany's Rule".

I live in a relatively small house on a pretty big lot with my little packrat of a Wiffer, three boys, two weiners and an aussie.

And as you might expect, it is jam packed with crap.

I could easily afford two or three times the house that I have now, and as a matter of fact, we own three hundred or so front feet on the river only about a half a mile from here, along with a full blown set of plans for a house about twice the size of the one I'm writing from now and three fairly old but probably still good quotes to build it.

I have not built it ... yet ... for two reasons;

1.  Cheap bastard ... the thought that I'm upside down about a hundred and twenty five grand the instant I turn the key irritates me to no end.

2.  I'm not completely certain that I want any more crap.

So anyway, I'm sitting here last night pondering the fact of my being a cheap bastard along with my lack of appetite for more crap, when it all came clear.

Roany's Rule ..... Ok Ok ..... Parkinson's Law.

The simple reason you never, ever, under any set of circumstances, ever ... never ......... neverever ... raise taxes.

Government expands to consume available income.

We had seen this interactive some days ago, and had made a mental note to post it ...................... sigh.

Thanks to Lynn M. for recalling it to our attention.

Click the map for this simply done interactive.

It's a big, bad world out there.

Here's a little something to put you into the proper frame of mind for a Monday morning.

Thanks to our favorite atheist Debby K. for finding this one.

There it is.

My youngest just whipped it up out there in the garage ....... kidding.

Ok, before we begin, we are cheerfully conceding that we have no idea what anyone is talking about here, and that this one seemingly might be a little tough to explain even if we did.

To begin, from Wikipedia.

Cold fusion refers to a proposed nuclear fusion process of unknown mechanism offered to explain a group of disputed experimental results first reported by electrochemists Martin Fleischmann and Stanley Pons. 

It is sometimes termed "Low Energy Nuclear Reaction" (LENR) to avoid the negative connotations associated with the original name.

Those negative connotations are the result of the fact that Fleischmann and Pons never published and their results were never duplicated.

Wikipedia continues.

The field originates with reports of an experiment by Martin Fleischmann, then one of the world's leading electrochemists, and Stanley Pons in March 1989 where they reported anomalous heat production ("excess heat") of a magnitude they asserted would defy explanation except in terms of nuclear processes. They further reported measuring small amounts of nuclear reaction byproducts ...

 The media reported that nuclear fusion was happening inside the electrolysis cells, and these reports raised hopes of a cheap and abundant source of energy. Hopes fell when replication failures were weighed in view of several reasons cold fusion is not likely to occur, the discovery of possible sources of experimental error, and finally the discovery that Fleischmann and Pons had not actually detected nuclear reaction byproducts. By late 1989, most scientists considered cold fusion claims dead, and cold fusion subsequently gained a reputation as pathological science.

With regards to that publishing issue, and subsequent inability to reproduce the experiment, excuses/explanations, take your pick, were subsequently offered.

Now ..... flash forward to January, 2011.

From Pure Energy Systems.

 Eng. Andrea A. Rossi and Professor Sergio Focardi of the University of Bologna (one of the oldest universities in the world), have announced to the world that they have a cold fusion device capable of producing more than 10 kilowatts of heat power, while only consuming a fraction of that. On January 14, 2011, they gave the Worlds' first public demonstration of a nickel-hydrogen fusion reactor capable of producing a few kilowatts of thermal energy. At its peak, it is capable of generating 15,000 watts with just 400 watts input required. In a following test the same output was achieved but with only 80 watts of continual input.

They don't always use the term "cold fusion" do describe the process, but often refer to it as an amplifier or catalyzer process.

Focardi states:

"Experimentally, we obtained copper; and we believe that its appearance is due to the fusion of atomic nuclei of nickel and hydrogen, the ingredients that feed our reactor. Since hydrogen and nickel 'weigh' with less, copper must have released a lot of energy, since 'nothing is created or destroyed.' Indeed, the 'Missing Mass' has been transformed into energy, which we have measured: it is in the order of a few kilowatts, two hundred times the energy that was the beginning of the reaction." 

They also claim to be going into production, with the first units expected to ship by the second half of October of this year, with mass production commencing by the end of 2011. The first units will be used to build a one megawatt plant in Greece. This one megawatt plant will power a factory that will produce 300,000 ten-kilowatt units a year.

This would become the world's first commercially-ready "cold fusion" device. Licensees are mentioned, with contracts in the USA and in Europe. Mass production should escalate in 2-3 years. Presently, Rossi says they are manufacturing a 1 megawatt plant composed of 125 modules. These modules should begin shipping by the end of October. On January 31st, 2011, Rossi wrote: "The cost to produce the catalyzer is 1 cent per MWh generated; the life expectancy is 20 years; the cost impact is between 1 and 1.5 cents per MWh."

And then from New Energy and Fuel

Now just to raise the stakes the application discloses that at the time of presentment the inventive apparatus, installed on October 16, 2007, is “at present perfectly operating 24 hours per day, and provides an amount of heat sufficient to heat the factory of the Company EON of via Carlo Ragazzi 18, at Bondeno Province of Ferrara, Italy.”

To quote my dear old friend Mr. Genari, who replied as follows in response to a completely different set of questions,

"Ima don' know, Ya know?

But we are considering looking into a license.

From Dutchsinse.com which we're beginning to really like a lot, even though we're not real sure about most of it.

If you're the impatient type, like we are, scroll forward to 1:00, or if you're the extremely impatient type, like we are, scroll forward to about 1:28.

Because Capitalism provides you with the opportunity to go out there and buy the crap you want.

For example ... from CNN Money

Sales of luxury doomsday bunkers up 1,000%

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- A devastating earthquake strikes Japan. A massive tsunami kills thousands. Fears of a nuclear meltdown run rampant. Bloodshed and violence escalate in Libya.

And U.S. companies selling doomsday bunkers are seeing sales skyrocket anywhere from 20% to 1,000%.

Northwest Shelter Systems, which offers shelters ranging in price from $200,000 to $20 million, has seen sales surge 70% since the uprisings in the Middle East, with the Japanese earthquake only spurring further interest. In hard numbers, that's 12 shelters already booked when the company normally sells four shelters per year.

"Sales have gone through the roof, to the point where we are having trouble keeping up," said Northwest Shelter Systems owner Kevin Thompson.

UndergroundBombShelter.com, which sells portable shelters, bomb shelters and underground bunkers, has seen inquiries soar 400% since the Japanese earthquake. So far sales of its $9,500 nuclear biological chemical shelter tents are at an all-time high -- with four sold in California last week, compared to about one a month normally.

Hardened Structures said inquiries have shot up about 20% since the earthquake -- particularly for its apocalyptic 2012 shelters, radiation-protection tents, and nuclear, biological and chemical (NBC) air filters.

Whether you need it or not.

As opposed to the crap some government guy thinks you ought to have.

GM sells just 281 Chevy Volts in February, Nissan only moves 67 Leafs

Peruse Chevrolet's February sales release, and you'll notice one number that's blatantly missing: how many Chevy Volts were sold. The number – a very modest 281 – is available in the company's detailed data (PDF), but it apparently isn't something that GM wants to highlight. Keeping the number quiet is understandable, since it's lower than the 321 that Chevy sold in January.

Nissan doesn't have anything to brag about here, either (and it avoided any mention of the Leaf sales in its press release). Why? Well, back in January, the company sold 87 Leafs. In February? Just 67.  Where does that leave us?

Well, here's the big scorecard for all U.S. sales of these vehicles thus far:

Volt: 928

Leaf: 173

As always, click the photos for each piece in it's entirety.

... and the earth is strong.

We posted the aerial of this the other day, and don't usually go back and revisit, but .....

Damn!!!!!