Mark Perry has a great post discussing the sleight-of-hand that is performed (perhaps unintentionally, though I doubt it) when politicians and interest groups discuss trade.

Starting with the fallacy that countries, not individuals, engage in international trade, it's then much harder to realize that it's individual American companies and consumers who are penalized, taxed and disadvantaged by trade protection. By understanding that only individuals ultimately trade, it's then much easier to see that trade barriers typically protect a concentrated, small but well-organized group of inefficient domestic producers from more efficient foreign competition, while imposing huge and significant costs on other Americans - domestic companies that buy imported inputs and ultimately millions of U.S. consumers.

In that vein, Perry has rewritten some relevant recent news articles:

What if Economists Wrote News Articles on Protectionism and Trade?

CES.

Consumer Electronics Show, 2010, opening this week in Vegas.

Discuss amongst yourselves: The electronics and technology unveiled this coming week will do more toward lifting people out of poverty than...well...probably anything else this year. Certainly more than churches or government initiatives will--and way more than any NGO.

1) I don't know what sustainability means.

2) I'm not sure about social justice, either.

3) Design--I'm good with that.

Very important guide if you're considering going in to development literature. Some random excerpts:

Make sure you show how Africans have music and rhythm deep in their souls, and eat things no other humans eat. Do not mention rice and beef and wheat; monkey-brain is an African's cuisine of choice, along with goat, snake, worms and grubs and all manner of game meat. Make sure you show that you are able to eat such food without flinching, and describe how you learn to enjoy it--because you care.

Never have a picture of a well-adjusted African on the cover of your book, or in it, unless that African has won the Nobel Prize. An AK-47, prominent ribs, naked breasts: use these. If you must include an African, make sure you get one in Masai or Zulu or Dogon dress.

In your text, treat Africa as if it were one country. It is hot and dusty with rolling grasslands and huge herds of animals and tall, thin people who are starving. Or it is hot and steamy with very short people who eat primates. Don't get bogged down with precise descriptions.

All the best to all The Institute Community!!! May the Lord continue to bless you all!!!

I saw Avatar a week or so ago and its total world immersion is second to none. That makes it a must see.

My issue is with humans being a threat to nature or some parasite disturbing the balance of life. The idea that man is a parasite is a moot point as

Biologist P. W. Price estimated that over 50 percent of today's species are parasitic. (The figure has risen from the deep paleologic past and is expected to keep rising.) from Bootstrapping Complexity Must read

The nature-vs.-human paradigm is a false one. Humans will be used as instruments to spread life through the galaxy and increase its complexity. So, people, please stop with the mystical voodoo crap of deep ecology. Life is about increasing complexity and growth, not some ideological view of the past.

You will cry. A lot. There are many people who have the privilege of working with really hurting high school kids like this....

Hey, I need some Protestants folks to take a look at this Catholic statement on Grace and Justification in the Catholic Catechism and highlight where you object and why?

Here's the link.

Post any objections, questions, here!! Thanks for the help!