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The Chinese Wheelbarrow
john posted in other, technologies, Whole Earth Database on January 5th, 2012

The Chinese wheelbarrow via Low-Tech magazine.

Chinese wheelbarrows with sails.

Another great article from one of my favorite blogs. Note that despite his admiration for the Chinese wheelbarrow design, they have the same back-twisting problem of our one-wheel wheelbarrows.

Note also that this might actually be a use for computer-controlled unicycles. He speculates that the roads were poor and narrow, allowing for only a single wheel. A computer-controlled one-wheel balancer would be able to negotiate the narrowest of trails. Of course you might object that any society still capable of building them would have a transport system, but what about niche uses, like Afghanistan or trekking Antarctica?

Carrying a passenger

The Chinese wheelbarrow – which was driven by human labour, beasts of burden and wind power – was of a different design than its European counterpart. By placing a large wheel in the middle of the vehicle instead of a smaller wheel in front, one could easily carry three to six times as much weight than if using a European wheelbarrow.

The one-wheeled vehicle appeared around the time the extensive Ancient Chinese road infrastructure began to disintegrate. Instead of holding on to carts, wagons and wide paved roads, the Chinese turned their focus to a much more easily maintainable network of narrow paths designed for wheelbarrows. The Europeans, faced with similar problems at the time, did not adapt and subsequently lost the option of smooth land transportation for almost one thousand years….

Read much more.

Europe: Danger Of A Systemic Collapse Is Far Greater Today
john posted in other, The Emperor is Naked on December 29th, 2011

via Chris Martenson Blog

Why New Danger Of A Systemic Collapse Is Far Greater Today Than At Almost Any Time .

Martin Weiss: Some stock investors never seem to learn. They hope and pray for a new government rescue from Washington or Brussels. They wait with bated breath for each official sign of money printing, interest-rate cuts, or financial bailouts.

Then, as soon as something is finally announced, they breathe a sigh of relief, applaud with enthusiasm, even buy a stock or two.

But it’s a fool’s game. Because within a few months — or even just a few days — the government rescue crumbles, investors run for cover, and, ironically, they begin a whole new cycle of hoping and praying for the NEXT big rescue.

Just this year alone, European authorities have held 19 high-level emergency meetings … proposed dozens of rescue packages … and delivered an endless stream of promises.

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Why Oil Prices Are Killing the Economy – Blogs at Chris Martenson
john posted in other on December 21st, 2011

Why Oil Prices Are Killing the Economy – Blogs at Chris Martenson.

A discussion of how oil prices affect the economy, including some (polite) explanation of the technical economists positions who disagree that it does.

Have rising oil prices just put the final coffin nail in the entire 2009-2011 economic recovery?

Given the slowdown in China, the new recession in Europe, and the rocky bottom in the US economy, it certainly seems that way.
Oil’s Relentless March Higher

Oil prices emerged from their spider hole over two and half years ago. Having fallen from the towering heights of $148 a barrel in the summer of 2008, the early months of 2009 saw a return to prices in the $30s. Interestingly, during that great oil crash, the price of West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil (WTIC) spent only 20 trading sessions below $40. That is the exact price that most analysts only three years prior believed oil could never sustain as the world would pump “like crazy” should prices ever reach such “impossibly high levels.”

Given the enormous debt troubles the West is currently facing and the fact that oil has averaged over $100 during several months this year, it does seem reasonable to suggest that, once again, the economy has been pushed off a ledge by oil. Let’s take a look at oil prices over the past several years.

Worse Than 2008 – Blogs at Chris Martenson
john posted in other on December 21st, 2011

Worse Than 2008 – Blogs at Chris Martenson.

Martenson talks about the gathering storm attacking market confidence. There is a great graphic from the BBC showing who owes what to whom.

One of the most important things we need to track is simply untrackable, and that is market perception. When faith in a faith-based money system vanishes, the game is pretty much over.

If you have been reading my work (or anyone else’s) with a decent macro view, you likely lost your faith in the system a while ago and marvel that it can continue along for another moment, let alone all the years it has been creaking towards its eventual date with reality. But along it creaks, day after day, week after week, and month after month, threatening to wear down the observant and vigilant before finally letting go.

2011: The Last (Debt-Consumerist) Christmas in America
john posted in other, Peak Bling on December 21st, 2011

2011: The Last (Debt-Consumerist) Christmas in America.

Bitter and pointed look at debt ballooning and false affluence. Basically the author points out how little of growth in the last decades was value-added ( my phrase) and how much of it was just debt inflation. He doesn’t allow for the fact that the US is the largest or second-largest exporter still, but its a rant not an overview.

So how does a society deal with the End of Debt-Driven Consumerism, the End of Cheap Oil and the End of Work when it also means The End of Affluence, even for many of those with jobs? How does government deal with declining tax revenues and rising interest rates?
The death throes of the debt-based consumerist lifestyle are already visible beneath the glossy propaganda of “rising revenues this Christmas season.” Those revenues were obtained by selling goods at below cost, in the absurd hope that income-strapped, over-indebted consumers would make profitable “impulse buys.” As Mish has documented, the “impulse buys” are being returned even before Christmas to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.
The Fed is desperately attempting to re-inflate the debt bubble by lowering interest and mortgage rates and buying up all sorts of semi-toxic/impaired debt. What the Fed dreads is the reality we all feel and see: fear of the future due to diminished wealth and insecure incomes. If your assets have fallen in value, you feel poorer because you are poorer. Borrowing more at any interest rate will not make anyone feel wealthier.
People who fear their income may plummet due to layoffs or their hours being cut are not in the euphoric mood to borrow more, and banks which cannot dare to lose more money loaning to people who will default have cut off credit to millions of previously rabid consumers of debt. Ask yourself this simple question: how much stuff could people buy if they could only spend surplus cash, after all their expenses and debt servicing payments were paid in full?
And let’s not forget that much of what is purchased in this consumerist frenzy is needless, superfluous crap. My wife saves the most egregiously gift-buying-frenzy advertising circulars, and one from Bed, Bath & Beyond caught my eye.
There is no difference between this “1001 Best Gifts” from BB&B and a parody of consumerist excess. Hmm, how about an “executive standing valet” rack of wood and plastic for $99.99?
To make this poor-quality contraption, a forest somewhere in a Third-World kleptocracy was cut down and precious, irreplaceable oil was burned shipping the lumber to China and from that factory to the U.S. across 6,000 miles of Pacific Ocean.
We know this spindly piece of garbage will break in a matter of days, weeks or maybe if the owner is especially careful, months; then the legs will break loose of the base, the towel bar will pull out, etc. and the “we cut down a priceless rain forest to make this” piece of human handiwork will be put on the curb where a diesel-burning garbage truck will haul it to the landfill along with all the spoiled food Americans throw out.
The 16-bottle wine cellar/cooler from China (labeled Cuisinart for your consuming pleasure) for $199.99 might come in handy storing something once it’s unplugged–but a cardboard box will probably do just as well.
I for one will not mourn the last debt-consumerist Christmas in America. Good riddance to the flaunting of borrowed money and the heedless, desperate purchase of valueless “goods” as gifts for an insolvent nation awash in too much of everything but common sense, integrity, gratitude, accountability and healthy living.

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