DBD 12.22.11 The Twelve Days of Cal-mas

Nicely done. I’m going to start singing this version instead.

Matt Barkley is going to have a press conference this afternoon, apparently to announce his intentions about coming back for one more year at SC versus going pro.

I’m sure you’ll all join me in hoping that he’s coming back for one more year. That Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl berth should have been ours, dammit!

How Bad Ideas Worsen Europe’s Debt Meltdown

Defenders think that devaluing would fool workers into a bout of "competitiveness," as if people wouldn’t realize they were being paid in Monopoly money. If devaluing the currency made countries competitive, Zimbabwe would be the richest country on Earth. No Chicago voter would want the governor of Illinois to be able to devalue his way out of his state’s budget and economic troubles. Why do economists think Greek politicians are so much wiser?

The latest plan calls for Europe to be tougher in enforcing deficit rules that are similar to the ones that they blithely ignored for 10 years. Sure, a directive from Brussels is really going to get the Greeks to shape up. Imagine how well it would work if the International Monetary Fund or the United Nations tried to veto U.S. budget deficits. (That is, if our Congress passed budgets to begin with.) This plan is mostly a way to let the ECB save face and buy up bad debt with freshly printed euros.

More fiscal union hurts the euro. Think of Poland or Slovakia. Using euros was once a no-brainer: It made sense to use the same currency as all the other small countries around them, just as Illinois wants to use the same currency as Indiana.

Now, it’s not so clear: If using this currency means signing up to bail out Greece and Italy, then maybe adopting the euro isn’t such a good idea. A common currency without a fiscal union could have universal appeal. A currency union with a bailout-based fiscal union will remain a small affair.

Italy finalizes austerity package

Following is a factbox on the 30-billion-euro austerity package to balance the budget in 2013 and ease the debt crisis passed Thursday.

The package contains budget cuts of 20 billion euros and growth-boosting measures worth 10.

Umm… well this is gonna be awkward

Credit Suisse calculates the supply of assets that markets deem safe has fallen to $12 trillion from $22 trillion in the past four years. Emerging-market foreign-exchange reserves, the primary source of demand, have risen to nearly $7 trillion from $4 trillion in the same period.

So what?

“In the financial system,” says Mohamed El-Erian, co-chief investment officer of bond-market heavy Pimco, “you cannot replace something with nothing.” For now, this benefits governments in the U.S. and (to the consternation of France) the U.K., which can borrow cheaply because they are drawing so much frightened money. Bill Gross, the other half of the Pimco team, describes the U.S. Treasury as “the cleanest shirt in the dirty-laundry pile.”

Longer term? That’s hard to know.

Also, a really important sentence at the end:

Today, for the first time in generations, it is time to contemplate a world without a risk-free asset. The consequences of that are truly hard to fathom.

[1]

But amid a highly fractured GOP field, Mr. Paul has held the lead in three of the last four publicly available polls of GOP voters in Iowa, with support ranging from 20% to 28%.

“Ron Paul has the highest floor here in Iowa,” said Tim Albrecht, an aide to Iowa Republican Gov. Terry Branstad. “The name of the game is to bring in the new supporters. Ron Paul has successfully expanded his base this time around much more than he did last time.” In 2008, Mr. Paul finished fifth, with 10% of the vote.

His unusual coalition of supporters was on display Wednesday as Mr. Paul appeared before more than 100 people in a hotel conference room here. When he was introduced as the man who would cut $1 trillion in federal spending in his first year in office, the crowd erupted in applause.

Pac-12 Conference features four teams in the top-10

The California women’s gymnastics team was picked to finish seventh in the inaugural Pac-12 Preseason poll, the conference announced on Wednesday. The Bears tied for seventh place with Arizona State with 11 votes in the poll conducted by the league’s eight head coaches.

UC Extension was picked as the preseason favorite to capture the regular-season title.

Under the direction of first-year head coach Danna Durante, Cal returns all but one gymnast from a 2011 season that saw the Golden Bears place sixth in the league. The Bears had three individuals advance to the NCAA Regionals with all three of them returning in 2012.

[1]

Syrian military forces have killed hundreds of people in two days of tank and mortar shelling in the country’s north, antigovernment activists reported, reversing dissident soldiers’ recent bid to carve out a safe zone in towns near the border with Turkey.

Tanks sprayed antiaircraft rounds through neighborhoods while machine gun-wielding troops stormed homes looking for activists, sending residents of at least three towns fleeing to orchards in Jabal Zawiya, a vast northwestern region in Syria’s Idlib province, according to one resident who fled the area.

The commander of the Free Syrian Army, the largest grouping of defected Syrian soldiers, said he ordered his dissident troops to withdraw under what he called the worst crackdown in Syria’s nine-month uprising against President Bashar al-Assad.

Officials Offer Rare Concession to Chinese Protesters

Chinese officials appear to have at least temporarily calmed protests in a southern fishing village on Wednesday by offering an unusual set of concessions that include extending recognition to protest leaders.

The move will likely be watched closely by China’s leaders as well as in other restive parts of the country to see whether officials keep the promises protest leaders say they made, and whether the compromises bring a permanent end to the nation’s boldest episode of civil unrest this year.

Serious questions remain, such as when and how local officials might return. The fate of the leaders of the protest will also be closely watched. In the past, Chinese authorities have mollified protesters only to arrest the leaders later to make examples of them.

If Wednesday’s meeting leads to a definite end to the protests, it could set an example in a nation where public unrest is common. Experts said the concession to recognize elected village leaders in particular could be viewed by petitioners elsewhere as a reward for civil disobedience—and by Communist hard-liners as bowing to an isolated case of unrest. While some local communities in China elect their government representatives, the process is firmly controlled by the authorities and challenges to the Communist Party aren’t tolerated.

Womens’ lacrosse hosts fundraiser play day

The Cal lacrosse team hosts the 4v4 Queen of the Turf Play Day fundraiser and Clinic at Berkeley High Sunday, Jan 29, 2012. Come for a fun day of lacrosse to break in those sticks for preseason! Teams may consist of 5-9 players (bring a goalie!), or you can sign up to play individually and we’ll form a team for you!

All participants must be current US Lacrosse members. I don’t know what that means but you should figure it out before you go.

tour the University of California Botanical Garden- 1:30 PM

With paid admission, we offer free docent-led tours year-round on Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays at 1:30 PM.

Explore the Garden’s incredible diversity of plants from six continents, including environments as diverse as deserts, tropical forests, redwood forests, and wetlands. Each tour is a unique experience focused on plants at their seasonal best, a variety of themes, and your interests.

Bullets Across the Bay: the SF Bay Area in Crime Fiction

Ever since the publication of Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon in 1930, San Francisco has been recognized as the birthplace of modern crime fiction. Using materials from numerous campus libraries, Bullets Across the Bay examines the Bay Area as a popular setting for mystery and detective novels and highlights the richness of UC Berkeley’s collections for the study of genre fiction.

Open during the operating hours of Doe Library.

At Union Square, after going ice skating!

It made me so happy! And they were so good!

Nothing better than starting the day with the news that our vacuum pump may explode.

Of course, the schedule is heavily booked due to school break.

So, if you see torches and pitchforks in Union City due to rioting parents, I might advise Best Buy, Target, or Walmart for all of your looting needs. Imma giver like that.

NFL finally realises technology exists

Relax football fans. The days of missing the big plays while you’re peering into the fridge are over. Now you may be able to take sports’ biggest game with you.

NBC and the National Football League announced today that for the first time they will stream the Super Bowl, scheduled for Feb. 5, plus two wildcard playoff games and the Pro Bowl. The online stream will be available at NBCSports.com and NFL.com through SNFExtra, a web package of technologies built to stream NBC’s Sunday Night Football games.

Stole this from a friend’s facebook page… My thought was, man formerly known as Mike Hunt finally changes his name so people will quit making fun of it.