Yearly Archives: 2009


Friday Ark #229

We’ll post links to sites that have Friday (plus or minus a few days) photos of their chosen animals (photoshops at our discretion and humans only in supporting roles). Watch the Exception category for rocks, beer, coffee cups, and….?

Visit all the boarders, Link to the Ark and check back for updates through Sunday afternoon!

You can board the Friday Ark by submitting your post here, leaving a comment or a trackback to this post or emailing fridayark AT themodulator.org.

You can find previous editions at the not quite up to date Arkives page.

Cats

Birds

Dogs

Other Vertebrates

Invertebrates

In Memoriam

  • x

Didn’t Make It

Exceptions (inclusion not guaranteed)

  • x

Extra, Extra: All Ark boarders are invited to shout out at the Friday Ark Frapper Map.

Cat folks: remember to submit your links to:

Birders: I and the Bird: A Blog Carnival for Bird Lovers is published every 2 weeks.

For the spineless: Circus of the Spineless. A monthly celebration of Insects, Arachnids, Molluscs, Crustaceans, Worms and most anything else that wiggles.

Dog folks: remember to submit your links to:

  • The Canine Carnival hosted by Pamibe last year is on hiatus an looking for a new sponsor
  • The Carnival of the Dogs hosted by Mickey’s Musings
  • has been out of operation since July 2007

For other current carnivals check out The Blog Carnival and The TTLB Uber Carnival


Duh….

Cisco’s John Chambers finally gets it:

“It is now clear that we are in a global economic slowdown,” Chief Executive John Chambers said Wednesday in a call with analysts. He said …

I wonder where he has been for the past 2 years.

That quote is taken from a Wall Street Journal article only partially available to non-subscribers. There is a longer story available at the New York Times but it does not have the above quote in it.


Benefits of the Financial System

The Economist summarizes the opening of Martin Wolf’s, Fixing Global Finance, as follows:

Finance allows the creation of vast enterprises out of the combined capital, supplied at modest cost, of millions of people. It permits upstarts to launch companies, challenging the power of incumbents. It allows people to smooth their spending over a lifetime. It facilitates risk sharing and insurance. Empirical studies confirm that these advantages are real.

I take it those empirical studies did not take into account the current economic crisis wherein we are all benefiting from the facilitated risk sharing.
Yes, those vast enterprises, governments and large businesses, have done wonders: count the wars, count the environmental destruction, count the devastated indigenous peoples, notice the vast income and wealth discrepancies.

We do need a financial system but perhaps one that does not facilitate disasters.


Does DQ Still Have an Appointment?

Who is DQ?, you ask.
All I know is that DQ works (ed) for the UK Department for Work and Pensions which posted an appointment advertisement in the January 17 edition of The Economist.
I suspect DQ is responsible for website and advertising layout.
At the bottom of the ad is some text asking DQ a question:

[DQ – will the website say “Apllicants for GES posts must be UK Nationals, Commonwealth citizens or European Economic Area nationals with an unrestricted right to reside in the UK”?]

DQ’s answer was apparently “no” as no such language is to be found on the website.
I don’t think the questioner expected that the question would be left embedded in the print add either: two stikes for DQ.
For the curious: a reduced form of the original print add is below the fold. The extra language is toward the bottom of the “Assistant Economists” add on the right side of the page. Click on it for a full size version.

Wondering why this post exists: I found it amusing…:)

(more…)