The USA leads the world in the size of it’s prison population. And not by just a little bit either.
The US prison population almost trebled between 1987 and 2007. A new study of US prisons has found that numbers of people in jail are at an all-time high, with more than 1% of the adult population behind bars. The Pew Center report calls the US the global leader in the rate at which it imprisons its citizens.
Over 2.3 million people were being held this year, it said - far ahead of other countries with large prison populations like South Africa, China, Russia and Iran.
The USA prison population at 750 prisoners per 100,000 in population compares to South Africa’s 341 per 100,000, Iran with 222 per 100,000, and China, a nation often cited by the US as having an unacceptable level of human rights violations, at 119 per 100,000. Among our politician population we probably have the greatest number of hypocrites of any nation on earth as well.
It’s not that the US crime rate is so much greater than other nations. It is that in the US sentencing is so much harsher for minor violations. The Pew Report claims that the growing prison population “is saddling cash-strapped states with soaring costs they can ill afford, and failing to have a clear impact either on recidivism or overall crime”.
The numbers were “especially startling”, according to the Pew Center report, for some groups in the population. “While one in 30 men between the ages of 20 and 34 is behind bars, for black males in that age group the figure is one in nine.”
The following has quickly become a classic video showing the state of education in America. You want to think that Kellie Pickler, of American Idol fame, has to be kidding.
But as you watch the video for the second or third time one comes to believe that, nope, Kellie is absolutely serious as one of millions of dumb Americans who seem to think that it is fine to be ignorant of the world around them.
Thankfully, there are still many exceptions to the dumb and dumber only turned in to their own narrow world millions of TV and entertainment celebrity worshipping addicts out there. The cute smart kids on the game show “Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?” are evidence of that.
There has long been evidence of entrenched anti-intellectualism in America. But the degree of ignorance exhibited by celebrity Kellie Pickler is worrisome. If kids follow her example the US economy will only fall further behind other nations whose educational systems still place a premium on producing top rate scientists, doctors, engineers, and business people in a highly competitive world.
Americans are increasingly in serious intellectual trouble — in danger of losing their hard won cultural capital to a virulent mixture of anti-intellectualism, anti-rationalism and low expectations. The state of education in America is not good. Being dumb in a world that places a premium on smartness and expecting to remain near the top of the heap is really dumb indeed.
Japanese alternative energy development is a serious subject in a heavily industrialized county that imports just about all of its energy requirements. Because it is such a serious matter for the Japanese they have given alternative energy more thought and research than most nations.
Japan is a densely populated country, and that makes the Japanese market more viable for alternative energy development compared with other markets. In Japan your energy distribution network doesn’t have to be very long in order to serve a significant market area.
The possibility of continued use of wind energy is enhanced if we go offshore. It is more expensive because the construction of foundations is expensive. But often the wind is stronger offshore, and that can offset the higher costs. We’re getting more and more return on our equipment. The price per kilowatt hour produced will be lower, due to the fact that the turbines are being used more efficiently.
In Japan there is increased interest in wind energy. If you compare it to other renewable energy sources, wind is by far the most competitive today. If we’re able to utilize sites close to the sea or at sea with good wind machines, then the price per kilowatt-hour is competitive against other sources of energy, so says Svend Sigaard, who happens to be president and CEO of the world’s largest wind turbine maker, Vestas wind systems out of Denmark.
Vestas is heavily involved with investments of capital, effort, and expertise into helping Japan expand its wind turbine power generating capacity. It is seeking to get offshore installations put into place in a nation that it says is ready for the fruits of investment into alternative energy research and development.
The Year From Hell roared in with a vengeance and attacks the stock market as one of its first orders of business.
The U.S. New York Stock Exchange kicked off the new year in record style. The Dow fell 220 points, the biggest first trading day of the year point drop in the history of the index and the worst opening percentage loss since 1983.
Then on Friday the Commerce Department releases the Non Farm Payroll (NFP) report and the AP reports soon afterwards that “The unemployment number jumped from 4.7 percent in November to 5 percent in December, the highest since November 2005 after the Gulf Coast hurricanes dealt the country a mighty blow. Payrolls – both private and government – grew by just 18,000 last month, the worst showing since August 2003, when the economy suffered job losses as it struggled to recover from the 2001 recession.â€
The stock market was quick to respond. The DJIA lost another 256.54 points only to be outdone by the NASDAQ in percentage terms. The NASDAQ was down 98.03 points to 2504.65, a jaw dropping, bone jarring, Â 3.77%. For the first week of the year the Dow dropped 4.2% and NASDAQ was down by 6.4%. Happy New Year indeed investors.
I may have to go back to my drawing board and come up with another estimate of losses to be guesstimated for 2008. My earlier guesstimate of a 25% drop in the Dow may prove to be too conservative.
The perfect terrifying financial storm is brewing for the US economy and for the US stock markets. Wealth is being transferred from West to East. The falling dollar will make sure that this process continues as cheap American assets in weak dollar terms continue to be snapped up by foreign investors.
The brave new digital world we live in as 2008 begins requires yet another precaution, that you scan your hotel rooms for secret camera devices before engaging in any, well, intended to be private activity.
The Malaysian Health Minister Chua Soi Lek has admitted that he is the man who features in two widely circulated DVDs within Malaysian of an unmarried couple having sex in a hotel room. Actually, Mr Chua Soi Lek is married, just not to the young lady “friend” who co-stared in the video.
“I am the man in the tape,” Mr Chua, 60, told reporters.
“The girl is a personal friend.”
“I would like to emphasise I did not make the tape myself,” he added.
“Who [did] this is not important. What is most important is that my family, wife and children have accepted my apology.”
With the widespread use of tiny high resolution surveillance cameras the risk of being recorded without being aware that you are being recorded is very real. Then with the Internet surfers going wild over video recordings you may find that your actions that were intended to be private, whatever they may be, are being viewed by millions of folks who may even be prompted to give you a rating.
While your actions may be completely legal, and performed with your married husband or wife, having millions of viewers watching your private sex acts on Internet video porn networks could be highly embarrassing, that is if you ever found out about it.
The highest risk of something like this happening to you are probably if you are traveling in Asia and staying at less than first class hotels. Probably the lower the hotel classification the higher the risk.
