SAR #11300

Simple solutions generally aren't.

RSVP: The holders of $244 billion in Greek bonds will be 'invited' (actual word used) to voluntarily write off $122 billion of them – without recourse to recompense from their CDS insurance, which was designed for just such an event. Wonder what this'll do to the whole CDS thing.

This One's For You: Egyptians demonstrated in Tahrir Square on Friday, protesting the military rule, the continuing and perpetual state of emergency that's existed since 1958, and to show solidarity for the #Occupy protesters who fell victim to police brutality in Oakland.

Mirabile Dictu! Republicans have suddenly discovered that cutting spending – specifically Defense spending – will cost people jobs, people who vote in their districts. So while increasing government spending (say in green energy or infrastructure repair) cannot create jobs (so the GOPer's say), cutting government spending can and will cut jobs. Wonder where those jobs came from in the first place.

Gold Red Star: US satellites have been “interfered with” at least four times in recent years, by computer hackers described as “possibly from the Chinese military”. It wasn't immediately clear why the US leaked the information at this time.

Model Behavior: The reason economic models do not work is that they are 'perfected' by jiggering them until they can 'predict' historical data. Once a model can do that, it is assumed it will work on current data. But the inadvertent errors made in measuring either the calibration data or the current inputs get magnified and invalidate the results. Ditto for climate modeling. The more variables, the more uncertainty.

Just So: "It's difficult to escape the conclusion that Republicans have made a political calculation that requires opposition to any policy that could improve the economy in the near term."

New War/Next War: The US has been flying drones out of a civilian airport in Ethiopia for nearly a year, targeting civilians in al-Shabab, a Somalian group said to be connected to al-Qaeda. Under current usage, blowing up things and killing people isn't 'war' if you claim you are fighting a group and not a nation.

Comes the Dawn: Frau Merkel suddenly realized something must to be done to prevent 'others' from seeking the suddenly popular Greek haircut.

Women's Lib: Henceforth, in the UK and the Commonwealth, the monarch's firstborn will be the heir. Not firstborn son. Firstborn. If the first child of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge is a girl, she will become queen. They're also doing away with the requirement that every descendant of George II seek the monarch's permission before marrying – and they can even marry a Catholic!

Snap, Shot: Wisconsin's Gov. Walker (R) wants to let the citizenry carry concealed weapons into the state Capitol – but taking pictures is prohibited. Strange place, Wisconsin, where politicians are more afraid of having their picture taken than of being shot. Last week, a journalist was reportedly arrested when he tried to videotape several protesters, who were also being arrested for having pro-First Amendment signs pinned to their shirts.

Welcome to the Party: About the time 2 or 3 billion more people will need enormous amounts of energy – mostly petroleum – to run the bulldozers, tractors, trucks, ships and supply the irrigation water, fertilizers, and all the other energy inputs required to produce and deliver food and water, we'll be down to the ever-more-expensive difficult-to-produce oil. To heck with finding the oil, where's the money going to come from?

Stop! This November, the people who want more unwanted children in the world have a “personhood" amendment on the Mississippi ballot. It not only bans all abortions, but by defining a legal person as existing the moment the sperm meets the egg, it would outlaw some types of birth control, including IUDs and 'morning-after' pills, and may make hormonal contraception illegal. And the women availing themselves of these contraceptives could be charged with murder and anyone selling them would be accomplices in mass murder.