Linkfest - Candidate Romney, Economy

Lego Starcraft BattlecruiserHit the link for a sweet Lego gallery based on the Starcraft II Battlecruiser Hyperion. The creation is made up of around 15000 Legos.

GOP Presidential Candidate Decided
Despite what the press may have you believe, the contest for the Republican candidate for President is decided with Mitt Romney. More than likely by the end of the month (probably after South Carolina) it will become official. While Iowa tends to not count for much since Republicans there are very extreme in their views (while ironically frequently benefiting from the government dole), the simple fact he managed to win the state proves what the polls have been showing for a while now. While his victory by only 8 votes is unimpressive, the simple fact he won at all there proves it is locked in. After all he has been the only candidate that has remained steady or slightly grown in the poles for the last year.

Every single one before him, including fake competitor Rick Santorum, have all had wild swings in the polling before falling back behind Romney, usually all occurring in a window that lasts about six weeks. It doesn't even take an expert to guess the results when you have one candidate showing the same steady polling for nearly 52 weeks and 8 others being all over the map in just six weeks. For the press, they refuse to declare victory not because of some grand conspiracy but simply because conflict equals eyeballs. If they were honest and said "Romney is the man" we would all tune out the election cycle until the conventions are held in late summer. By pretending there is still a contest going on they can try to ensure their ratings for a few months longer. Well I am telling you now - ignore the pundits. They have an agenda to pretend ignorance on what is clear to anyone paying attention - that this November your choice between President is Obama vs. Romney.

Trickle Down Economics FailsHit the link for a detailed breakdown proving that Trickle Down economics fails. It is an experiment that the United States has been doing for more than 30 years now with wonderful benefits for the top 1% of the country but none for everyone else. The basic idea is if you give the rich and corporations more money, that will "trickle down" to everyone else through spending via investments, hiring, and so forth. Sounds good right? Except it doesn't answer the question of what happens when the rich hoard the money instead of spending it. If the money just sits in a bank account how can it "trickle down"? Right, it can't. Which is exactly what happened. The top 1% sit on more than 50% of the country’s wealth and does absolutely nothing with it. If they are not going to let it "trickle down", why in the world would you support policies (like yet more tax cuts for the rich) that gives them even more hoarding opportunities? The litmus test to any idea is "will it encourage spending?” Tax cuts do nothing to encourage spending and so it is a bad idea. Trickle down assumes spending is already occurring, but the idea in and of itself does nothing to encourage spending and so is a bad idea.

Greatest Hoax in the History of Money
Worth a read but sadly depressing. It pretty much supports what we already know which is the banking system is broken at a fundamental level and the GOP response of zero regulation will do nothing to address it. It used to be that banks made money by taking people's savings accounts and using that money to invest and loan money to businesses. This cycle encouraged people to save money for big purchases that help drive the economy (car, house, etc.) while giving people the opportunity to start the businesses that fuel the economy. Now though banks make their money through fees and fake schemes like borrowing money from the government nearly interest free then lending money back to the government at excessive interest rates. Yep that is actually occurring. In short, the system is rigged so that banks literally make money by doing nothing and providing nothing with politicians protecting them. How in the world can that be considered the free market at work?

Capturing Light in Motion
Below is a video that seems average but actually shows something amazing. Using software that can record at a trillion frames per second, MIT was able to actually "film" light in motion. While it has been accepted that light moves in waves, the video pretty much proves it beyond any doubt.


Goodbye Jaws Attraction
As January 2nd, after 22 years of service, the Jaws attraction at Universal Studios is no more. It will soon be torn down and replaced with a new ride. Below is a video "simulation" of the now dead ride.