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The Edge has a talk with Wealth of networks author Yochai Benkler on the shortcomings of economic models based purely on (narrowly defined) self interest – THE END OF UNIVERSAL RATIONALITY (via P2P Foundation).

The big question I ask myself is how we start to think much more methodically about human sharing, about the relationship between human interest and human morality and human society. The main moment at which I think you could see the end of an era was when Alan Greenspan testified before the House committee and said, “My predictions about self-interest were wrong. I relied for 40 years on self-interest to work its way up, and it was wrong.” For those of us like me who have been working on the Internet for years, it was very clear you couldn’t encounter free software and you couldn’t encounter Wikipedia and you couldn’t encounter all of the wealth of cultural materials that people create and exchange, and the valuable actual software that people create, without an understanding that something much more complex is happening than the dominant ideology of the last 40 years or so. But you could if you weren’t looking there, because we were used in the industrial system to think in these terms. …

The big question I ask myself is how we start to think much more methodically about human sharing, about the relationship between human interest and human morality and human society.

There are lots of different disciplines where people have been doing work for a long time. In many cases, doing work that was peripheral during the period of the rise of selfish rationality. Really we’re talking about a period from about the 1950s until roughly now, when in economics, in political science, in law, in evolutionary biology, you got an increasing relative importance for explanations that depended on individuals acting in ways that maximize their returns, where their returns largely are assumed, though not universally, to be material with self-interest.

Game theory and mechanism design imagines people as acting with self-interest and guile. Political science builds models that are based on self-interested voters and self-interested Senators and self-interested Congressmen, each one trying to understand what is their interest. Is it to get elected again? Is it to maximize a particular position? And each time you build a system around this idea of individuals interacting, trying to maximize their own returns.

In evolutionary biology, for example, one thing that you saw was the rise of very sophisticated ways of explaining behavior that seemed to be altruistic, purely in terms that redounded to the benefit of the individual organism. This is where reciprocity becomes so important. What we see again throughout all of these different disciplines is that somewhere around the 80s in some places, like organizational sociology, somewhere closer to the 90s, if you talk for example about evolutionary biology and the resurgence of the possibility of multi-level selection and group selection where it’s not all reduced to the individual, there are also components that happen at the group level.

Certainly in the context of political science and the emergence of some studies of commons and common property regimes and collective actions — successful collective action models. In economics, we see a substantial work in experimental economics, like Ernst Fehr’s group in Zurich and Sam Bowles and Herb Gintis in Santa Fe, starting to do experiments that show that people deviate from selfish rationality. That people systematically and predictably behave in ways that are much more cooperative than would be predicted by the game theoretical impact.

You’ve got theoretical economists, like Roland Benabou, Jean Tirole, and Matthew Rabin, who begin to build quite sophisticated models that try to implement very different kinds of motivations, like even a sense of self image and a sense of ‘I’m okay’ relative to the world. (There is a beautiful study, for example, from two or three years ago about knowledge workers. (Bruno Frey and Margit Osterloh)) A sense of what’s normal and moral. A sense of what’s socially preferable. You begin to see even in economics in the ’90s and early ’00s, an increased salience and attention and major complications to(?) efforts to build much more sophisticated models of multiple motivations including pro-(Inaudible) motivations.

In organizational sociology, in management science, you look — Toyota production system was the big ah-ha moment, when Toyota came to the U.S. for the first time and created the first NUMMI plant in GM’s Fremont plant in the early ’80s. All of the stories that used to be “oh it’s Japanese culture, it’s something completely different, it’s not about us,” were flipped. One of the worst performing GM plants in 1980 closes down, opens up two years later under Toyota management, almost the entire same employees said the entire union leadership. Within a couple of years it becomes the most productive plant in the U.S.

Who knows what the situation is now, but as of the numbers last year, it continued to be one of the three most productive plants in the U.S. Same people, same industry, very different organizational structure built a lot less on hierarchy, a lot less on precise specification of exactly what everybody needs to do. Much more on teamwork, much more on supporting normative commitment to innovation, to process innovation. And still relatively very constrained. It is the automobile industry.

We’re not talking about high-tech industries. But there you have a very different orientation in terms of setting up the motivation and relationships among workers, between workers and management. You move from having 70 process engineers on the floor telling each employee exactly what to do, to having none. And having the teams have a lot of autonomy on how they do things.

Moleskine notebooks have a cult following (and extremely good brand PR!). Those little black notebooks are used for many things, and they have even been cleverly adapted by some cooks into recipe organizers (see this neat one from Delicious Days). Well, now Moleskine is responding to those who would like a little more from their black notebooks. They’ve issued several new editions, two of them pointed directly at cooks and wine-lovers.

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Neil Young covers American Idol’s breakout hit “Pants On The Ground!”

Article Tags: Piers Corbyn, Video Link

What is the MO answer for failed Climate forecasts? The problem here is they are in denial of reality.

ALL their forecasts for ongoing warming since 2000, more storms, MORE baking barbecue summers in UK & Europe, milder winters etc have failed. So THEIR MODEL HAS FAILED THEIR PREDICTIONS and so their theory must be scrapped. That should be the end of the matter. Ah but now their next tricks………

(i) Change the facts. The University (!?Yes funded by the taxpayer) of East Anglia has done that but got caught.
(ii) Change the rules ‘We have to wait longer for Climate to be measured’, they now say and the trusty spin machine, the BBC, make a film entitled.How the big freeze fits theories of global warming(gulp, read that again!!).

So how many more deep freeze winters do we need to be sure Global Warming is for real? The film is pseudo-scientific drivel which says this little bit of freeze-up doesn’t matter and implies ongoing world warming when in fact all measurements show cooling since 2002 (including even the fraudulent data from the University of East Anglia which admits it too but has it half as fast as the satellite data which they have not been allowed to tamper with).

Download PDF file to read FULL report from Piers Corbyn

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What’s cooking this long holiday weekend? Do you have plans for your kitchen? Here’s a look back at a few recipes from the past week, from roasted vegetables to lemon garlic chicken. We also have some thoughts on weekend activities and reading, with ideas for fundraising for Haiti, and fun ways to incorporate snow into your cooking.

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Se por fora todos já vimos como será a frente o novo Fiat Uno, a curiosidade então ficou por conta de como será o interior. Mais essa curiosidade chegou ao fim com o flagra feito por um leitor do site Quatro Rodas. O leitor Cleyton Estreano conseguiu trazer a nós fotos inéditas do interior do novo Fiat Uno.

Como podemos perceber o interior do principal lançamento da montadora ítalo-mineira será simplório mais nem tanto como o do atual geração do Uno, nada de muito absurdo para um carro que irá substituir futuramente o carro mais barato do mercado. No painel o sistema de áudio será simples, nada de sistema de áudio de dois andares. As saídas do ar serão redondas e simples também, iguais as usadas pelo novo VW Gol e pelo GM Celta, seus futuros concorrentes. Os botões do ar condicionado lembram os que são utilizados pelo Fiat Bravo em alguns mercados onde o mesmo utiliza sistema de ar condicionado manual, ao invés do digital. Por falar no Fiat Bravo, veio dele também a inspiração para o console central, onde o sistema de som aparenta estar sobreposto ao sistema de ar condicionado.

Uma coisa que pode atrapalhar a ergonomia do carro são os comandos dos vidros elétricos que ficam no console central um pouco acima dos botões do ar condicionado, e essa idéia não pode ter vindo de outro veiculo a não ser do Fiat Panda que inclusive cedeu esses botões para o novo Uno.

Agora vamos às reaproveitações de peças de outros veículos. Além dos botões que foram cedidos pelo Fiat Panda, o pomo do câmbio do carrinho veio do Fiat Palio Fire assim como os bancos do motorista e do passageiro da frente. Da família Palio da atual geração o tanque de combustível foi cedido, o pequeno painel do My Car Fiat com botões de personalização do computador de bordo e faróis de neblina foi emprestado pelo Punto, as alavancas de limpador de pára-brisas e de acionamento dos faróis vieram do Fiat Idea, o painel do motorista é novo assim como o volante, mais ambos tiveram inspiração no painel e volante do Fiat 500.

Mais um ponto fraco do novo Fiat Uno será o porta-malas que será bem apertado, segundo a Quatro Rodas terá apenas 200 litros, mais não se preocupem, pois a Fiat pensou no futuro onde modelos de entrada serão altos e compactos, sendo mais direto mirou no futuro GM Spark que substituirá o Celta.

De resto a suspensão traseira do Uno será com barra de torção ao contrário do que acontece com a geração atual do modelo que é independente e com feixes de mola cedidos pelo antigo Fiat 147.

Fonte: Quatro Rodas

There’s not a lot that’s particularly remarkable about the MD80 mini spy camera – it’s pretty tiny, it records reasonable 640×480 video in AVI format at 25 frames per second, and it can be set to standby for up to 250 hours until it’s activated by a sound, making it a good little spy cam unit. It’s pretty similar to any number of helmet cam/mini video cam units but for one fact – it costs less than US$25 on eBay, delivered to your door. For the price it’s an outstanding product and the sort of thing you could habitually carry around in your car, recording driving conditions for an instant evidence stockpile in case of an accident or incident. And more broadly it’s an example of how Chinese design and manufacturing can get a competitive, quality product to market at a price point that absolutely annihilates the competition, to the point where if you’re still concerned about quality, you might just as well buy five of the things in case four break. Which they’re not doing nearly so much these days…

Tags: MicroSD,
Video Camera

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Some interesting commentary this morning from the International Energy Agency, which released its latest oil market outlook.

While the organization sees global aggregate demand basically unchanged from its last forecast, it’s reducing its estimates for OECD demand, despite the harsh winter and attendant demand for heating oil.

Forecast  global  oil  demand  remains  virtually  unchanged  for  both  2009  and  2010,  as  weaker preliminary  data  for  the  OECD  offset  more  buoyant  readings  in  non‐OECD  countries. Global oil demand is expected to average 84.9 mb/d in 2009 (‐1.5% or ‐1.3 mb/d year‐on‐year) and 86.3 mb/d in 
2010 (+1.7% or +1.4 mb/d versus the previous year). Growth continues to be driven by non‐OECD 
countries, most notably in Asia. Oil demand recovery in the OECD is likely to remain sluggish, despite a 
bout of recent cold weather. 
 
• The OECD oil demand projection is adjusted down by 50 kb/d on average in both 2009 and 2010 
given weaker‐than‐expected preliminary data for Europe and North America. The fall in oil demand in 
2009 is estimated at 4.4% year‐on‐year (‐2.1 mb/d), with demand averaging 45.5 mb/d and remaining 
flat in 2010. However, the forecast faces downside risks for this year, with the largest OECD economies 
(the US, Japan and Germany) featuring a sluggish recovery and persistently weak oil demand. 

Naturally, the picture is a bit better in the non-OECD developing world, yet even there it’s not all roses. A big part of the expected growth is owed to expected continuing Chinese stimulus.

Forecast non‐OECD oil demand has been revised up by roughly 70 kb/d for both 2009 and 2010, 
largely due to higher‐than‐expected Chinese data. Assuming that the impact of China’s government 
stimulus programme continues to be felt during most of this year, non‐OECD demand is expected to 
reach 40.9 mb/d (+3.7% or +1.4 mb/d on a yearly basis), after growing by 2.0% (+0.8 mb/d) in 2009. 

And here’s what they say on the subject of the cold snap:

The cold wave that hit the northern hemisphere in the past few weeks has led many observers to 
predict a surge in oil demand, driven by heating and power generation needs, and an erosion of OECD 
distillate stocks. However, such reasoning overlooks the fact that the already relatively small share of 
oil for heating and power generation is shrinking in the OECD, as oil is gradually replaced by other 
energy sources, most notably natural gas. Moreover, it remains to be seen whether this winter overall 
will be much colder on average than last year’s, which was particularly cold. As such, it would be 
premature  to  boost  our  1Q10  forecast,  which  assumes  similar  weather  conditions  to  those  that prevailed last year. 

The following chart gives a nice look at how different global demand growth across the world looks.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Oil Discovery Under Shallow Gulf Waters Estimated To Be Biggest In Decades
• ExxonMobil Just Struck It Rich In Texas
• John Kilduff: Oil To $100 In The Next Six Months

One of the few special edition Opel vehicles to be launched in the last twelve months by the German carmaker broke cover today, unveiling an exciting paint scheme over the worked out body. The Corsa Color Race edition has been made available for 15,560 euros and in three color choices: Sunny Melon Yellow, Casablanca White and Magma Red, all combined with an interesting checkered styling on the hood.

The exterior modification also include the bodywork, with the Corsa receiving a more muscular… (read more)

REW has an article on India’s plans for solar power – India Approves Solar Implementation Plan.

The first part of a three-phase programme that could see 220 GW of new solar capacity installed in India has been approved, according to a statement from Gauri Singh, joint secretary to the government of India.

Following on from the country’s National Action Plan on Climate Change, the so-called Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM) aims to see solar energy technologies in the country to achieve grid parity by 2022 as well as establish India as a global leader in solar energy.

Phase 1, now approved, will span the remaining period of the 11th Plan and first year of the 12th Plan, up to 2012-2013. Phase 2 will cover the remaining four years of the 12th Plan from 2013-2017 and the 13th Plan from 2017-2022 will be deemed as Phase 3.

Approving the targets, the government intends to foster 1000 MW of grid-connected (33 kV and above) solar plants, 100 MW of roof top and small solar plants connected to the low tension/11 kV grid and 200 MW of capacity equivalent from off-grid solar applications in the first phase of the Mission, till March, 2013.

	Report: GM to build battery-only Volt, Lutz acknowledges range drops when cold Well, duh.		Detroit 2010: Toyota’s 2011 plug-in Prius release date is “aggressive” target So just hold on.
	Ford will increase SUV production because of “low supplies,” increased demand Hey, why not, right?	Other news: Here’s a thought: GM should buy Tesla Report: Fisker will announce battery deal for Karma this week Obama administration shifting transportation priorities to include livibility, environment

AutoblogGreen for 01.15.10 originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 15 Jan 2010 06:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you liked the movie “Avatar”, just wait for the DVD to be released. Director James Cameron says the DVD version of the record-breaking movie will include a scene where paraplegic US Marine Jake Sully gets it on with his love interest, Neytiri.

According to sexy Zoe Saldana, who plays Neytiri, sex for the alien race involves the same process as communicating, namely locking hair with your love interest. The scene was cut from the theater version because the film was aimed at a family audience.

Sounds kinky? Sure. But is it hot? You’ll just have to wait for the DVD to come out.

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During the 4th European Cleaner Racing Conference held in Birmingham, UK yesterday, Lord Drayson unveiled the eCRP 1.0, the first Italian electric superbike that can be bought by teams who want to be part of TTXGP (the world’s first zero carbon, clean emission motorcycle series) for 30.000 euros (£26,725).

The bike is based on 2009’s TTXGP-winning Agni X01 and in order to show their support for the TTXGP, CRP say they will not supply bikes to teams wishing to compete in the rival FIM ePower S… (read more)

The Volkswagen New Compact Coupe presented at the 2010 Detroit Auto Show shows a concept model that will most likely be positioned somewhere between the Scirocco and the Passat CC in the Volkswagen line-up. The series model will possibly be name the Jetta Coupe, and indicates a new design direction for some of the new Volkswagen models coming up.

The design comes from Walter de Silva, and you can see the influence of his beloved Audi A5. The New Compact Coupe, or NCC, is a hybrid vehicle with a 1.4 TSI engine with 150 hp, and an electric motor with an additional 27 hp. It has a top speed of 227 km/hr and can reach 100 km/hr in 8.1 seconds.

Clearly, the Volkswagen NCC has impressive fuel consumption and CO2 emissions figures, using just 4.2 litres of fuel for every 100 km, and producing 98 g/km of CO2. It has a seven speed DSG gearbox and rear wheel drive. A possible New Compact Sedan will also be produced along the same design lines, to substitute the Jetta or even the Passat on the US market. The New Compact Sedan should be a five door, fastback model very similar to the Audi A5, and the NCC should appear in a production version by about 2012.

I’ve been a fan of political talk show host Bill Maher for years, but in the late evening of January 14, 2010, I lost all respect for him from one tweet: “Memo to media: yes Haiti is horrible but you can cover more than one story in the course of a week.”

How selfish can one person be? This is the same person who made wisecracks about former President George W. Bush for not helping out sooner during Hurricane Katrina and Bush sitting around reading books during the 911 attacks. Now when we have a president in office who is actually doing something about an issue so horrible from a 7.0 earthquake that left people dead, homeless and hungry, he wants the media to talk about something else.

The earthquake happened Tuesday, and it was Thursday when he sent this. We still don’t even have a full body count. On tonight’s WGN News, they were showing footage of people trying to remove rubble from a little girl who was trapped, and Bill Maher is tired of hearing about the poorest nation in the world having an earthquake that will only make their economic situation worse.

Not only is President Barack Obama helping, but he also brought Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton on board to help in raising funds for Haitians, and you don’t want to hear about it? I watched several news programs that are covering other topics in addition to Haiti, but I’m absolutely interested in what’s going on in Haiti right now.

Hell, Clinton ignored the entire genocide of the Hutus and the Tutsis. Why not have a president in office who actually cares? Why not have the media finally cover something other than every single detail of Tiger Woods, Lindsey Lohan, Britney Spears and Charlie Sheen?

The media finally got it right, and Bill Maher is yawning in his palm. Unbelievable. Just that quick I lost all respect for this guy, even when he had so many valid points before. And from reading the comments on his Facebook fan page, there are others who agree that his comment was simply too soon and insensitive.

Here are some examples:

Screenshot of Bill Maher’s Facebook fan page

Smithsonian Guggenhiem

Right….Because you would rather f*ck women from Haiti than help them. I get it now! You make a valid point PENIS DRIP! Having said that you have just helped in keeping the dialogue going cause guess what we’re still talking about Haiti. Which means more Help for Haiti!!! What a great thing you’ve done!

Stephanie Peterson

Nice goin’ BILL, you have women hissing, cussing and using vernacular I haven’t heard since I was a bartender.

Burnadine Gaskin

How rude, Bill! You seriously crossed the line on this one. That remark was absurd, lacking in compassion, and wreaks with selfishness; seriously despicable!

Terry Fetterman

2 b honest this was the only news I have cared about for the past 2 days. Not that i have not payed attention to everything else- we all know where to look 2 find the news we need.(hopefully.) but in the face of all our troubles – it could always be worse. the american ego needs this reminder. our heads are hard Bill! we are selfish spoiled children and sometimes its just not about us.

Aljorie Stallings

Go figure to see these comments made by a man who cares so much about IHOP using caged eggs he does a PSA for Humane Society!!! Why not be a celeb to encourage those 2 donate!! Hell I am quite sure your ass knows Wyclef!!!

—

I wonder what Wyclef Jean would have to say about this one, Bill Maher. But more importantly, I wonder why is it Bill Maher (and some of his Facebook fans who agreed with this status) care so little about one of the biggest pieces of news since 2010 started? I expect FOX News to be insensitive about Haiti, but I was caught way out of left field by your selfishness too.

Article Tags: Meetings, Viv Forbes

Please Spread “Carbon Sense” Around. Talk to friends and neighbours. Keep sowing the seeds.

If images are lost or format mangled in transmission, you can link to a print friendly PDF of this newsletter here:

http://carbon-sense.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/climate-is-changing.pdf

Important News:

Climate Change: Fact & Fictions

Lord Monckton & Ian Plimer VS Graham Readfearn & Professor Barry Brooks

Hilton Hotel Lunch, Brisbane 29th January 2010.

To book, fill out the registration form here.

http://carbon-sense.com/2010/01/14/climate-debate-brisbane/

Lord Monckton will star in other functions in all mainland capitals. For details see:

http://carbon-sense.com/2010/01/13/monckton-australia-2010/

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