SAR #9093

Without debt creation, stock markets are not viable.

The Great Game's Afoot: While I'm on vacation researching the effect of global warming on Caribbean coral, you could spend the time usually spent enjoying SAR reading up on the geopolitics of petroleum pipelines. Take notes - there won't be a test but it might help you understand the major saber-rattling over the next few years.

Worst: Which is worse, Ticketmaster's day-in day-out banditry and arrogance, or Time Warner Cable's plan to meter internet use? Yeah, monopoly.

Clay Feet: Why does the Reagan myth persist? Republicans tout him, against all evidence, as the best thing since pockets on cowboy shirts. In reality his administrations initiatives were the base for the destruction American economy. Much, if not most, of what has gone wrong in the US of late can be traced directly back to Reagan's policies. But then, if the GOP didn't have failure to brag about, they'd have to keep quiet.

Ethics Lab: Researchers report that while crabs suffer pain, they seldom remember having been steamed or boiled.

At Bats: Bats are still dying by the thousands throughout the northeastern US. In two years at least a half million have succumbed to a new fungal infection, with mortality rates of 75 to 100% in infected colonies. In that a bat eats at least its weight in insects every day, the loss of bats may lead to much greater numbers of agricultural pests.

If A, Then No B: A province north of Beijing which supplies the city with much of its water is facing serious water shortages itself. Within 5 to 10 years Beijing will have to resettle large numbers of its residents.

Ray of Sunshine: The EPA plans "an aggressive review" of permit requests for mountaintop removal coal mining, focusing on the damage to water quality that occurs when the tops of mountains are dumped into streams.