Observations on current events

The Forces That Shape The Economy:

Greider offers six reasons not to give the Fed even more power...

William Greider: Dismantling the Temple
"...Progressives in the early twentieth century, drawn from the growing ranks of managerial professionals, believed 'good government' required technocratic experts who would be shielded from the unruly populace and especially from radical voices of organized labor, populism, socialism and other upstart movements. The pretensions of 'scientific' decision-making by remote governing elites--both the mysterious wisdom of central bankers and the inventive wizardry of financial titans--failed spectacularly in our current catastrophe. The Fed was never independent in any real sense. Its power depended on taking care of its one true constituency in banking and finance.
A reconstituted central bank might keep the famous name and presidentially appointed governors, confirmed by Congress, but it would forfeit the mystique and submit to the usual standards of transparency and public scrutiny. The institution would be directed to concentrate on the Fed's one great purpose--making monetary policy and controlling credit expansion to produce balanced economic growth and stable money. Most regulatory functions would be located elsewhere, in a new enforcement agency that would oversee regulated commercial banks as well as the 'shadow banking' of hedge funds, private equity firms and others.
The Fed would thus be relieved of its conflicted objectives. Bank examiners would be free of the insider pressures that inevitably emanate from the Fed's cozy relations with major banks. All of the private-public ambiguities concocted in 1913 would be swept away, including bank ownership of the twelve Federal Reserve banks, which could be reorganized as branch offices with a focus on regional economies..."

Health Care:

Could block reform?!? They already have! The pharma industry already made sure that government bulk-buying to lower drug prices was already off the table before the negotiations started.
For-profit insurance is making sure the won't be a government plan that would force them to compete.
The People want affordable, high-quality care, yet the non-human (corporate) interests that can afford to 'invest' in the process (read: pay legal bribes, i.e. make campaign contributions) will make sure their profits shall not suffer. So The People are fools for not being able to buy legislation that is being written in their name?

TIME: How Special Interests Could Block Health Reform

Health Care:

The Observer (UK) - Whistleblower tells of America's hidden nightmare for its sick poor
"When an insurance firm boss saw a field hospital for the poor in Virginia, he knew he had to speak out. Here, he tells Paul Harris of his fears for Obama's bid to bring about radical change..."


Paul Krugman: An Incoherent Truth
"Right now the fate of health care reform seems to rest in the hands of relatively conservative Democrats — mainly members of the Blue Dog Coalition, created in 1995. And you might be tempted to say that President Obama needs to give those Democrats what they want.
But he can’t — because the Blue Dogs aren’t making sense..."

Toward Self-Sufficiency:

TreeHugger.com - Geodesic Dome Solar Greenhouse
"What do you do when you want to grow your own food, but live more than a mile above sea level in Colorado? That's the question my dad wanted to answer when he started this project about a year ago: Living at 7,750 feet above sea level, with a summer growing season of about 80 days between killing freezes, how can you grow your own food? His answer: A geodesic dome solar greenhouse.
Click through to see what it's like to build one for yourself, and how the garden grows inside once you're done..."(slideshow)

Not A Good News Day For Apple:

The Guardian (UK) - Apple factory worker kills himself after disappearance of prototype
"An employee at a factory that makes iPhones in China killed himself after his house was raided and he was allegedly beaten up following the disappearance of an iPhone prototype.
Responding to the allegations today, Apple gave a subtle warning to its suppliers, insisting they are required to treat workers with dignity and respect. The dead worker, Sun Danyong, 25, worked in product communications at Foxconn Technology Group, a Taiwanese firm that makes many Apple products at a massive factory in the southern city of Shenzhen, near Hong Kong..."


KIRO (TV) Apple Downplays Fiery iPod Incidents
"An exclusive KIRO 7 Investigation reveals an alarming number of Apple brand iPod MP3 players have suddenly burst into flames and smoke, injuring people and damaging property.
It’s an investigation that Apple has apparently been trying to keep out of the public eye.
It took more than 7-months for KIRO 7 Consumer Investigator Amy Clancy to get her hands on documents concerning Apple’s iPods from the Consumer Product Safety Commission because Apple’s lawyers filed exemption after exemption. In the end, the CPSC released more than 800 pages which reveal, for the very first time, a comprehensive look that shows, on a number of occasions, iPods have suddenly burst into flames, started to smoke, and even burned their owners..."

Economics:

Paul Krugman: The Joy Of Sachs
"...Over the past generation — ever since the banking deregulation of the Reagan years — the U.S. economy has been 'financialized.' The business of moving money around, of slicing, dicing and repackaging financial claims, has soared in importance compared with the actual production of useful stuff. The sector officially labeled 'securities, commodity contracts and investments' has grown especially fast, from only 0.3 percent of G.D.P. in the late 1970s to 1.7 percent of G.D.P. in 2007.
Such growth would be fine if financialization really delivered on its promises — if financial firms made money by directing capital to its most productive uses, by developing innovative ways to spread and reduce risk. But can anyone, at this point, make those claims with a straight face? Financial firms, we now know, directed vast quantities of capital into the construction of unsellable houses and empty shopping malls. They increased risk rather than reducing it, and concentrated risk rather than spreading it. In effect, the industry was selling dangerous patent medicine to gullible consumers.
Goldman’s role in the financialization of America was similar to that of other players, except for one thing: Goldman didn’t believe its own hype. Other banks invested heavily in the same toxic waste they were selling to the public at large. Goldman, famously, made a lot of money selling securities backed by subprime mortgages — then made a lot more money by selling mortgage-backed securities short, just before their value crashed. All of this was perfectly legal, but the net effect was that Goldman made profits by playing the rest of us for suckers...
...Now the last time there was a comparable expansion of the financial safety net, the creation of federal deposit insurance in the 1930s, it was accompanied by much tighter regulation, to ensure that banks didn’t abuse their privileges. This time, new regulations are still in the drawing-board stage — and the finance lobby is already fighting against even the most basic protections for consumers.
If these lobbying efforts succeed, we’ll have set the stage for an even bigger financial disaster a few years down the road. The next crisis could look something like the savings-and-loan mess of the 1980s, in which deregulated banks gambled with, or in some cases stole, taxpayers’ money — except that it would involve the financial industry as a whole.
The bottom line is that Goldman’s blowout quarter is good news for Goldman and the people who work there. It’s good news for financial superstars in general, whose paychecks are rapidly climbing back to precrisis levels. But it’s bad news for almost everyone else."


Driving Safety:

This story is a clear testament to the power of the cell-phone lobby in Washington, D.C.
When the Feds deemed it important enough to combat drunk driving, they found the political will to withhold highway funds from States that refused to raise the minimum age for alcohol consumption.

Democracy Now! - Headlines for July 21, 2009
"Gov’t Agency Withheld Research on Dangers of Cell Phones & Driving

The New York Times reports the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration under the Bush administration withheld research showing that cell phone use by drivers caused nearly 1,000 fatalities and 240,000 accidents overall in 2002. The agency withheld the evidence in part because of concerns about angering Congress. Clarence Ditlow of the Center for Auto Safety said, 'We’re looking at a problem that could be as bad as drunk driving, and the government has covered it up.' Federal researchers also shelved a draft letter they had prepared for Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta to send, warning states that hands-free laws might not solve the problem. Research shows that motorists talking on a phone are four times as likely to crash as other drivers and are as likely to cause an accident as a drunk driver with a blood-alcohol level of 0.08..."

Energy Efficiency:

Inhabitat » OLED Breakthrough Yields 75% More Efficient Lights
"Researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) recently announced a breakthrough in OLED technology that shatters all prior efficiency standards, reducing the ultra-thin lights’ energy consumption by 75%! That’s no small number - the development stands to raise the bar for energy efficient lighting by leaps and bounds..."


The CIA:

It is as though the CIA thinks it is serving national security goals by lying to The People...

The Raw Story » Judge rules CIA committed ‘fraud’ in suit, may sanction Tenet
"A U.S. District Court Judge in Washington, D.C., ruled in documents made public Monday that Central Intelligence Agency officials committed fraud attempting to cover for the CIA's former station chief in Burma in a wiretapping lawsuit.
The ruling was reported by the Associated Press on Monday afternoon, although the ruling was issued in recent months. The case's result had been sealed from public eyes at the government's request.
'According to court documents unsealed Monday, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth referred one CIA attorney for disciplinary action,' the wire service reported. 'The judge also is considering sanctions against five other current and former CIA employees, including former CIA Director George Tenet.'
The suit alleged that Horn, his family and other DEA operatives were illegally wiretapped by intelligence agencies..."

When Seymour Hersh described an 'Executive Assassination Ring' in March, did anyone think he was kidding?

The Raw Story » Analyst: CIA hit squad explanation ’strains credulity’
"The shocked reaction of Congressional intelligence committee members to revelations of a secret CIA hit squad suggests there had to be more to the story than what the media are reporting, says an international affairs expert.
Michael Brenner, an international relations professor at the University of Pittsburgh, suggested that killings on the soil of allied countries or 'accidents' such as assassinating the wrong person may be among the things lawmakers and government officials are trying to keep quiet.
Brenner also says it's unlikely that the CIA assassination program authorized by former Vice-President Dick Cheney never went into operation..."

Raw Story » Wash. Post Report: CIA operatives threatened to quit over waterboarding
"...Speaking to MSNBC’s Chris Jansen on Sunday, article co-author Joby Warrick said that some interrogators eventually threatened to quit over some of the harsh methods used in interrogations.
Warrick said: 'There was some push and pull that came from surprising places within the CIA as the interrogation program was going forward, including from some of the interrogators themselves whose resistance to things like sleep deprivation and nudity in the beginning — and when waterboarding started some interrogators revolted and said, after four, five days, they refused to do this, some threatened to quit.'
Warrick’s article focuses on two CIA contractors — James E. Mitchell and John 'Bruce' Jessen — largely credited with designing the Bush-era 'enhanced interrogation techniques' that could soon be the focus of an investigation by a special prosecutor appointed by Attorney General Eric Holder.
'These men have been portrayed as eager proponents of coercion, but [a] former US official, whose account was corroborated in part by Justice Department documents, said they also rejected orders from [CIA headquarters in] Langley to prolong the most severe pressure on the detainee,' Warrick’s article states..."

Transportation:

Cargohopper is a privately-held company, according to the comments on the post.

AutoBlogGreen: Cargohopper, a tiny electric 'train' does deliveries in the Netherlands
"It may not be flashy – or an EU Star Wars vehicle with a similar name – but the Cargohopper is saving fuel over in the Dutch city of Utrect. This little electric train – pulled by a tractor that is powered by a 48 Volt 28 hp electric motor – can move three metric tons and 'is able to do the work of 5 to 8 regular (European sized) vans.' WIth all three trailers attached, the Cargohopper is 13 meters (43 feet) long. The Cargohopper can only go 20 kilometers an hour (12 mph), but that's OK because it is used solely as the last step of packages intended for downtown Utrect. The idea was based on tourist trains that look similar and are used in other European cities.
Here's how it works: On the outskirts of town, the trailer containers are loaded at operator Hoek's distrubution center and then brought to the border of the inner city via standard truck. From there, the EV loads the containers on its wheeled wagons and then trundles off to the shops where the goods are needed. On its way back to the outskirts for more goods, the Cargohopper carries recycling materials from businesses. The operators claim that the Cargohopper removes up to 100,000 Van kilometres from Utrect's inner city streets and saves about 30 tons of CO2 per year by displacing roughly 20,000 liters of diesel fuel. Not bad for a little train."

In Politics Always Follow The Money:

POLITICO.com - Exclusive: Conservative group offers support for $2M
"The American Conservative Union asked FedEx for a check for $2 million to $3 million in return for the group’s support in a bitter legislative dispute, then the group’s chairman flipped and sided with UPS after FedEx refused to pay.
For the $2 million plus, ACU offered a range of services that included: “Producing op-eds and articles written by ACU’s Chairman David Keene and/or other members of the ACU’s board of directors. (Note that Mr. Keene writes a weekly column that appears in The Hill.)”
The conservative group’s remarkable demand — black-and-white proof of the longtime Washington practice known as 'pay for play' — was contained in a private letter to FedEx , which was provided to POLITICO..."

Technology:

The Register (UK) - Passport RFIDs cloned wholesale by $250 eBay auction spree
"Using inexpensive off-the-shelf components, an information security expert has built a mobile platform that can clone large numbers of the unique electronic identifiers used in US passport cards and next generation drivers licenses.
The $250 proof-of-concept device - which researcher Chris Paget built in his spare time - operates out of his vehicle and contains everything needed to sniff and then clone RFID, or radio frequency identification, tags. During a recent 20-minute drive in downtown San Francisco, it successfully copied the RFID tags of two passport cards without the knowledge of their owners.Paget's contraption builds off the work of researchers at RSA and the University of Washington, which last year found weaknesses in US passport cards and so-called EDLs, or enhanced drivers' licenses. So far, about 750,000 people have applied for the passport cards, which are credit card-sized alternatives to passports for travel between the US and Mexico, Canada, the Caribbean, and Bermuda. EDLs are currently offered by Washington and New York states.
'It's one thing to say that something can be done, it's another thing completely to actually do it,' Paget said in explaining why he built the device. 'It's mainly to defeat the argument that you can't do it in the real world, that there's no real-world attack here, that it's all theoretical.'
Use of the cards is expected to rise as US officials continue to encourage their adoption. Civil liberties groups have criticized the cards and a travel industry association has called on the federal government to suspend their use until the risks can be better understood..."


The Environment:

While I have my own reservations about Cap and Trade, particularly that it will be the next investment bubble players like Goldman Sachs will exploit to the detrement of the public, Palin continues to show that she is a know-nothing. Her anti-intellectual followers will celebrate her just the same.

Sen. John Kerry: What Gov. Palin Forgot
"Writing in this morning's Washington Post, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin wrote, 'many in the national media would rather focus on the personality-driven political gossip of the day than on the gravity of these challenges.'
Unfortunately, her promise to roll up her sleeves and tackle serious issues is followed by a column that focuses on everything but the single grave challenge that forms the basis of all of our actions: the crisis of global climate change.
Yes, she manages to write about the climate change action in Congress without ever mentioning the reason we are doing this in the first place. It's like complaining about the cost of repairing a roof without factoring in the leaks destroying your home..."


Social Policy:

On this point, the Libertarians at CATO have a solid argument.

Glenn Greenwald: Drug Decriminalization in Portugal: Lessons for Creating Fair and Successful Drug Policies | White Paper
"...data indicate that decriminalization has had no adverse effect on drug usage rates in Portugal, which, in numerous categories, are now among the lowest in the EU, particularly when compared with states with stringent criminalization regimes. Although postdecriminalization usage rates have remained roughly the same or even decreased slightly when compared with other EU states, drug-related pathologies — such as sexually transmitted diseases and deaths due to drug usage — have decreased dramatically. Drug policy experts attribute those positive trends to the enhanced ability of the Portuguese government to offer treatment programs to its citizens — enhancements made possible, for numerous reasons, by decriminalization..."


Israel - Gaza:

The Guardian (UK) Israeli soldiers admit 'shoot first' policy in Gaza offensive
"Israeli soldiers who served in the Gaza Strip during the offensive of December and January have spoken out about being ordered to shoot without hesitation, destroying houses and mosques with a general disregard for Palestinian lives.
In testimony that will fuel international and Arab demands for war crime investigations, 30 combat soldiers report that the army's priority was to minimise its own casualties to maintain Israeli public support for the three-week Operation Cast Lead.
One specific allegation is that Palestinians were used by the army as 'human shields' despite a 2005 Israeli high court ruling outlawing the practice. 'Not much was said about the issue of innocent civilians,' a soldier said. 'There was no need to use weapons like mortars or phosphorous,' said another. 'I have the feeling that the army was looking for the opportunity to show off its strength.'
The 54 anonymous testimonies were collated by Breaking the Silence, a group that collects information on human rights abuses by the Israeli military. Many of the soldiers are still doing their compulsory national service..."

Legendary GM Quality:

This is one of the cars (an inefficient muscle-car, really?) that was supposed to 'save' GM...

AutoBlog: Early Camaro SS manual transmission failures reported, factory hold issued
"Sporadic reports have begun popping up in the Camaro5 forums about issues with V8-powered SS models equipped with the manual transmission. It seems that doing a hard launch or using the launch control system occasionally results in a broken output shaft, a serious failure that will most likely leave the car immobile and in need of repair. We spoke with General Motors spokesman Adam Dennison about the problem and, as this is being written, a factory hold has been put on deliveries of manual transmission V8 Camaros while Chevrolet engineering teams investigate the problem..."

Economic Bubbles:

Matt Taibbi: The Great American Bubble Machine
"The first thing you need to know about Goldman Sachs is that it's everywhere. The world's most powerful investment bank is a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money.
Any attempt to construct a narrative around all the former Goldmanites in influential positions quickly becomes an absurd and pointless exercise, like trying to make a list of everything. What you need to know is the big picture: If America is circling the drain, Goldman Sachs has found a way to be that drain — an extremely unfortunate loophole in the system of Western democratic capitalism, which never foresaw that in a society governed passively by free markets and free elections, organized greed always defeats disorganized democracy.
They achieve this using the same playbook over and over again. The formula is relatively simple: Goldman positions itself in the middle of a speculative bubble, selling investments they know are crap. Then they hoover up vast sums from the middle and lower floors of society with the aid of a crippled and corrupt state that allows it to rewrite the rules in exchange for the relative pennies the bank throws at political patronage. Finally, when it all goes bust, leaving millions of ordinary citizens broke and starving, they begin the entire process over again, riding in to rescue us all by lending us back our own money at interest, selling themselves as men above greed, just a bunch of really smart guys keeping the wheels greased. They've been pulling this same stunt over and over since the 1920s — and now they're preparing to do it again, creating what may be the biggest and most audacious bubble yet..."


Afghanistan:

President Obama indicated being open to looking into this war crime.
The Bush administraton had refused to.

James Risen: U.S. Inaction Seen After Taliban P.O.W.’s Died
"After a mass killing of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Taliban prisoners of war by the forces of an American-backed warlord during the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, Bush administration officials repeatedly discouraged efforts to investigate the episode, according to government officials and human rights organizations.
American officials had been reluctant to pursue an investigation — sought by officials from the F.B.I., the State Department, the Red Cross and human rights groups — because the warlord, Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, was on the payroll of the C.I.A. and his militia worked closely with United States Special Forces in 2001, several officials said. They said the United States also worried about undermining the American-supported government of President Hamid Karzai, in which General Dostum had served as a defense official..."

Domestic Surveillance:

OK, everyone pretend to be surprised...

NY Times: Cheney Is Linked to Concealment of C.I.A. Project
"The Central Intelligence Agency withheld information about a secret counterterrorism program from Congress for eight years on direct orders from former Vice President Dick Cheney, the agency’s director, Leon E. Panetta, has told the Senate and House intelligence committees, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said Saturday..."

Domestic Surveillance:

Eric Lichtblau & James Risen: U.S. Wiretapping of Limited Value, Officials Report
"While the Bush administration had defended its program of wiretapping without warrants as a vital tool that saved lives, a new government review released Friday said the program’s effectiveness in fighting terrorism was unclear.
The report, mandated by Congress last year and produced by the inspectors general of five federal agencies, found that other intelligence tools used in assessing security threats posed by terrorists provided more timely and detailed information.
Most intelligence officials interviewed 'had difficulty citing specific instances' when the National Security Agency’s wiretapping program contributed to successes against terrorists, the report said.
While the program obtained information that 'had value in some counterterrorism investigations, it generally played a limited role in the F.B.I.’s overall counterterrorism efforts,' the report concluded. The Central Intelligence Agency and other intelligence branches also viewed the program, which allowed eavesdropping without warrants on the international communications of Americans, as a useful tool but could not link it directly to counterterrorism successes, presumably arrests or thwarted plots...
...The report states that at the same time Mr. Bush authorized the warrantless wiretapping operation, he also signed off on other surveillance programs that the government has never publicly acknowledged. While the report does not identify them, current and former officials say that those programs included data mining of e-mail messages of Americans. That was apparently what Mr. Gonzales was referring to in his Congressional testimony.
The investigation stopped short of assessing whether the wiretapping program violated the law requiring court-ordered warrants before wiretapping Americans’ communications...
...What the report described as flawed legal opinions by Mr. Yoo and efforts to circumvent the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, the secret court that approves intelligence wiretaps, “jeopardized” the Justice Department’s relations with the court, the report said. The panel also recommended that the Justice Department examine criminal cases that grew out of the program to determine if prosecutors had complied with federal judicial requirements to disclose information to defendants..."

Contempt For The People:

NY Times: Democrats Say C.I.A. Deceived Congress for Years
"The director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Leon E. Panetta, has told the House Intelligence Committee in closed-door testimony that the C.I.A. concealed 'significant actions' from Congress from 2001 until late last month, seven Democratic committee members said.
In a June 26 letter to Mr. Panetta discussing his testimony, Democrats said that the agency had 'misled members' of Congress for eight years about the classified matters, which the letter did not disclose. 'This is similar to other deceptions of which we are aware from other recent periods,' said the letter, made public late Wednesday by Representative Rush D. Holt, Democrat of New Jersey, one of the signers..."

Economics:

The Daily Telegraph (UK) - US lurching towards 'debt explosion' with long-term interest rates on course to double
"The US economy is lurching towards crisis with long-term interest rates on course to double, crippling the country’s ability to pay its debts and potentially plunging it into another recession, according to a study by the US’s own central bank..."

Health Care:

Nate Silver: Special Interest Money Means Longer Odds for Public Option
"As I lamented yesterday, health care is one of those areas where both popular opinion and sound public policy seem to take a backseat to protecting those stakeholders who benefit from the status quo. But can we actually see -- statistically -- the impact of lobbying by the insurance industry on the prospects for health care reform? I believe that the answer is yes..."

Politics:

Todd S. Purdum: It Came from Wasilla
"...Whatever her political future, the emergence of Sarah Palin raises questions that will not soon go away. What does it say about the nature of modern American politics that a public official who often seems proud of what she does not know is not only accepted but applauded? What does her prominence say about the importance of having (or lacking) a record of achievement in public life? Why did so many skilled veterans of the Republican Party—long regarded as the more adroit team in presidential politics—keep loyally working for her election even after they privately realized she was casual about the truth and totally unfit for the vice-presidency? Perhaps most painful, how could John McCain, one of the cagiest survivors in contemporary politics—with a fine appreciation of life’s injustices and absurdities, a love for the sweep of history, and an overdeveloped sense of his own integrity and honor—ever have picked a person whose utter shortage of qualification for her proposed job all but disqualified him for his?..."


Follow The Money:

...or not. The Federal government's protection of Saudi interests is not a new thing. W. deliberately told the FBI to stop investigating Saudi ties to suspected terrorists.

Raw Story: Supreme Court quashes 9/11 lawsuit against Saudis
"The Supreme Court has rejected a class-action lawsuit against Saudi Arabia brought by 9/11 survivors and relatives of those killed in the attacks.
The court’s decision Monday not to allow an appeal of the case to go forward effectively ends an effort by some 6,000 9/11 relatives and survivors to sue the government of Saudi Arabia and several members of the Saudi royal family over the country’s alleged behind-the-scenes role in the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Citing the 9/11 Commission report and numerous other documents, the plaintiffs had argued that Saudi royals were among the largest contributors to charities that funneled money to Al Qaeda, AP reported Monday.
In its decision, the Supreme Court let stand a federal appeals court’s ruling that 'sovereign immunity' — the notion that a country can’t be sued in another country’s courts — means that the lawsuit cannot go forward..."


Technology:

Will the U.S. adopt something similar to prevent unnecessary e-waste?

Reuters: Telecom firms back standard phone charger in Europe
"Top mobile telephone suppliers have agreed to back an EU-wide harmonization of phone chargers, the European Commission said on Monday, hailing the pact as good news for consumers and the environment.
The agreement by Nokia, Sony Ericsson and other industry majors will mean phones compatible with standard charging devices are available in Europe from next year, said the EU executive, which has pushed for such a deal.
'People will not have to throw away their charger whenever they buy a new phone,' said EU Industry Commissioner Guenter Verheugen, estimating that unwanted phone accessories accounted for thousands of tons of waste in Europe each year..."


Energy:

This much potential, combined with the means to store excess electricity as hydrogen, sounds like a real solution that will upset all the right people.

Ars Technica: Potential wind power is 23 times current US electricity use
"A trio of researchers have calculated the sort of yields we might see if the world took advantage of all the wind power available to it. It's a bit of a thought experiment, but the numbers are still impressive: 40 times the current global electric use..."