the Ascent of Money

How to grow your own fresh air

Researcher Kamal Meattle shows how an arrangement of three common houseplants, used in specific spots in a home or office building, can result in measurably cleaner indoor air.

Taleb Says U.S. Banking System Is `Designed to Blow Up'

link

Flying Suits in Norway

wingsuit base jumping from Ali on Vimeo.

Dr. Strangelov, er Petrov, screams fire

..in the crowded Credit Default Swap theatre.

In a one-hour and eight-minuter talk, Dr. Petrov discusses in fairly good depth, the basics of credit default swaps. Furthermore, he discusses how the system is corrupt and will collapse at any moment.

He also, at about the one-hour mark, mentions your own, loveable, Earthling Doug Noland as having warned the masses that this would happen. He also quotes Nouriel Roubini and Peter Schiff as sounding the alarm as well.

Finally, he states that junk bonds will cause the ultimate demise of the CDS market.

(One note: This talk was given recently, however, he is using an outdated number for the outstanding notional dollar amount of CDS at $45 trillion. The number is now $62 trillion and growing daily, according to the latest B.I.S. report.

All-in-all, an interesting, informative talk. (For those Earthlings with ADD, just fast-forward to the last eight minutes or so of the talk, where he gets into the juicy parts.)

TED