The commodity and emerging market booms
are breaking in unison, leaving no more bubbles
left to burst. Almost every corner of the world
is now being drawn into the vortex of debt deflation.

But it will not spare us a decade-long toil
of pitiful growth – or none at all –
as we purge debt. The world stole prosperity
from the future for year after year,
with the full collusion of governments,
regulators, and central banks.

Now the future has arrived.

— Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, Telegraph.co.uk: Do our rulers know enough to avoid a 1930s replay?

In this country as in no other,
we have learned to treat
our houses as tradeable,
money-making assets,
instead of as primarily
just our homes,
where we live – even,
as people used to say,
where the heart is.

Anybody who has simply wanted
to live like that
over the past decade
has been made a fool of
by the market.

The effect on how we regard
where we ourselves eat, sleep
and have our being has
in some ways
been worse.

For a while at least,
it’s over.

— David Sexton, This Is London

We’re in a period where house prices
are clearly adjusting to a new level,
and buyers and sellers are struggling
to find out what that new level is.

The market will determine it,
not us or the government.

Once we’ve reached that level,
prices should normalise.

But that does not mean
back to levels seen early last year
that were clearly excessive.

— Mervyn King, governor of the Bank of England, quoted in The Guardian.

Religion has actually convinced people
that there’s an invisible man.
Living in the sky.
Who watches
everything you do
every minute
of every day
of your life.

And he has a list of ten things
he does not want you
to do.
And if you do any,
any, of these ten things,
he has a special place
full of fire and smoke and ash and torture
where he will send you
to suffer and burn
and scream and cry
forever and ever
until the end of time. …

But he loves you.

George Carlin ( 1937-2008 ) “There Is No God”, You Are All Diseased (1999)

Of course if you want to slander America, you can look at it one way.

But you go down –
what you need to do –
I think I suggested you do this at a press conference –
if you go down to Guantanamo and take a look at how these prisoners are treated –
and they’re working it through our court systems.

We are a land of law.

— George W Bush, interview with Adam Boulton, Sky News

A Yes or No verdict in Thursday’s Lisbon Treaty referendum
will have far-reaching implications for Ireland
and its European Union neighbours.

If voters accept the amendment to the Irish constitution
then the charter will usher in a new era
of streamlined decision-making for the 27 member states.
Rejection at the polls will influence
the ratification processes of other countries
and effectively kill the Treaty
dead.

— Press Association: Far-reaching impact of referendum, 12 June 2008

The fact
that threats
of damnation,
torture and
other extreme
punishment are
used routinely is
clear evidence that
existing laws are
insufficient.

We call on the Prime
Minister to clarify the
existing harassment laws by
adding clauses outlawing any
form of threat, supernatural or
otherwise, aimed at
children; and to provide
guidance to the
police and other
authorities on the
enforcement of
these
laws.

– Petition to prohibit religious bullying aimed at children; website of No. 10 Downing Street

even 3D cybersex,
a significantly sized can
in its own right,
is often based on
someone else’s
intellectually protected
content

user-generated strap-ons
successfully monetized
through
permissions-based
virtual world
filesharing.

– C Sven Johnson, Future Imperfect, quoted at Futurismic

new myth to bust

nalgene
catsup
thermite
ethanol
caffeine
hampsters
guns

pekingese dog sleds
exploding toasters
cow tipping
free energy levitation made at home
exploding pinto’s
stop, drop and roll

bloody marry
bloody marry
bloody marry

gasoline melting structural steel
deadly chicken bacteria
6 crackers in 1 minute
exploding tomato paste
soda that stains teeth and faeces
dog’s mouth cleaner
tennis ball or cellphone unlocking car
pressurised human exploding

traffic signals
free energy
fainting goats
over unity
floating beer
perpetual motion
bra burning

bologna on a car hood
reflection from the eye
man on the moon
penny from the empire state
finger in the barrel
grape in a microwave
shot in a crucifix
voices of dead on tape
soap in the sheets
cellphone on a plane on a treadmill

did this get done yet?

– a selection of questions from the MythBusters Fan Forum, where fans can post suggestions for future shows.

The earth we inhabit
is not a permanent planet.
It is, frankly, a disposable planet —
it is going to have a very short life.
It’s been around six thousand years
or so — that’s all —
and it may last
a few thousand more.
And then the Lord
is going to destroy it.

I’ve told environmentalists that if
they think humanity
is wrecking the planet,
wait until they see
what Jesus does to it.

This earth was never
ever intended to be
a permanent planet —
it is not eternal.
We do not have to
worry about it being around
tens of thousands, or
millions, of years from now
because God is going to create
a new heaven and a new earth.

– John McArthur: Evangelicalism and the Environmental Movement