Utopia, you are standing in it!

When it comes to historical documentary series over the past 30 years the undisputed master has been Ken Burns. His blockbuster 9-part The Civil War broke new ground in the way documentaries were produced. After that game changer anytime a new Ken Burns doc was announced it became appointment viewing for history buffs and casual fans alike. He and his production company have since become synonymous with PBS with each work guaranteed to be a critical and commercial hit. Because I am a history geek I thought today would be a good day to shine the spotlight on Ken Burns.

The Civil War (1990): The 9 part series that transformed a humble documentarian into a household name. Over 30 million viewers were captivated by his telling of this dark period in American history. Creating a technique dubbed the “Ken Burns effect” he brought a new perspective to archived material allowing…

There have been some incredible long-range sniper records set over the years in Afghanistan, often by Canadian teams. Distances of two or three miles are not unknown in the thin air and barren countryside that makes such shooting a little easier than in sea level rainforests.

But you don’t hear much about such things in the civilian world, so this news from the Cowboy State of Wyoming is interesting, At 4.4 Miles, Wyoming Team Sets New Rifle Shot World Record:

From the pull of the trigger, roughly 24 seconds elapsed before forward spotters heard the telltale plunk of a 422-grain copper bullet piercing the thin metal target.

The shooter was 4.4 miles away, a distance so great, the Earth’s rotation came into play.

It was a new world record for a rifle shot, set by the Jackson-based Nomad Rifleman team led by Schott Austin and Shepard Humphries. The shot was…

Mark Twain noted reports of his death had been greatly exaggerated. So too, the ‘death’ of coal-fired power.

For years, the wind and sun cult have been bleating triumphantly that ‘coal is dead’. Energy markets, however, don’t share their peculiar worldview.

Thermal coal prices are off the charts, with record demand driving record prices: Australian thermal coal prices hit $US$400 ($548 a tonne) in March, with prices still on the rise. For an energy source that should be suffering rigor mortis, coal is displaying a remarkable resilience.

Newcastle coal sets record as global energy crisis deepens
The Australian
Perry Williams
5 September 2022

One of Australia’s biggest commodity exports has surged to record levels, with the price of Newcastle coal soaring to all-time highs as miners cash in amid a deepening energy crisis in ­Europe.

The thermal coal rose to a new high with Newcastle futures trading above $US440 ($648) a…

Fracking: note the deep shaft
The battle of the crises – energy and climate. One real, one…not so much. Silence continues on the renewables intermittency question.
– – –
The Government’s climate change tsar was told he needs to ‘live in the real world’ after he warned Liz Truss against lifting the fracking moratorium despite the energy crisis, reports the Daily Mail.

Lord Deben said approving fracking would have no impact on energy prices – and urged her to focus on renewables instead.

The Prime Minister is set to end the ban on the gas extraction method today, after pledging to take action during the leadership campaign.

Scotland and Wales still rely on large amounts of gas, but their governments don’t want to be reminded of that as it tarnishes their imaginary climate halos. Arguing that there are no worthwhile benefits to be had looks lame when gas shortages are currently forcing global prices ever higher. If there’s public resistance they will have to accept their energy bill pain for the foreseeable future.
– – –
Britain on Thursday formally lifted a moratorium on fracking for shale gas in England that has been in place since 2019, saying strengthening the country’s energy supply was an “absolute priority”, reports Reuters (via Climate Change Dispatch).

Energy prices have soared in Europe after Russia invaded Ukraine, and Britain is subsidizing bills for households and businesses at a predicted cost of more than 100 billion pounds ($113 billion).

New Prime Minister Liz Truss said earlier this month that fracking –…

By Paul Homewood

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-59105963

The silly man apparently does not realise that extreme weather has always been the norm!

A month before he wrote that article, the following paper was published:

Path Lit by Lightning: The Life of Jim Thorpe
by David Maraniss
672 pages
Simon & Schuster
Published: August 2022

“Path Lit by Lightning: The Life of Jim Thorpe” by David Maraniss was published last month and has spent most of its life as a New York Times best-seller. Maraniss is associate editor at The Washington Post and the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of thirteen books including biographies of Roberto Clemente, Vince Lombardi, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.

Jim Thorpe (1887-1953) is a name only somewhat familiar to most members of my generation. More familiar to me are sports icons such as Earl Campbell, Rickey Henderson and Carl Lewis. But during his own time, and for decades thereafter, the myth and legend of “about five-eighths Indian” Jim Thorpe was widely known. And the story of his life, legacy and resting place has only been settled within…

Cultural differences between countries are quite large, and likely affect differences in economic development. But how did these differences arise in the first place? Consider recent history: it’s not a stretch to believe that Europeans who immigrated to the US were generally individualistic, adventurous, entrepreneurial people who potentially did not fit in well with their existing society; they were possibly non-conformist, less obedient that those who stayed.

Values such as individualism, innovativeness and entrepreneurialism gave these immigrants an edge in the longer term, and this made the US very successful, even relative to Europe. Can such a story apply over the much longer term? Can it explain how cultures diverged thousands of years ago?

The rate of time preference or in other words long-term orientation has been found to be an important determinant of human behavior. Generally, it is associated with better educational outcomes, and even better physical and emotional health. On an aggregate level it can affect differences in GDP across countries.

This post presents a new paper that asks how differences in time preference arose. Clearly, we see substantial variation in time preference across countries, so the question is what caused this.