Daily Digest 8/23 - Labradors Hone In On Hidden Fortunes, Reliance On Natural Gas Sparks Concern

Economy

The Price of Gold Breaks Above $1625 for the first Time in Three Months (Taki T.)

The data also showed that deposits shrank by 6.59% compared with a year earlier, the steepest annual decline on record, reflecting how hard-hit Spaniards are burning through their savings and that capital flight from Spain is intensifying.

Capital outflows from Spain more than quadrupled in May to €41.3 billion ($50.7 billion) compared with May 2011, according to figures released by the Spanish central bank.

Are People Being Thrown In Psychiatric Wards For Their Political Views? (Arthur Robey)

When psychiatric science becomes co-opted by a political agenda, an unhealthy alliance may be created. It is science that will always be the host organism, to be taken over by political viruses…. [P]sychiatry may come to resemble a new organism entirely -- one that serves the ends of the criminal justice system.

Mass grave in London reveals how volcano caused global catastrophe (Chris M.)

Mass deaths required capacious burial pits, as recorded in contemporary accounts. In 1258, a monk reported: "The north wind prevailed for several months… scarcely a small rare flower or shooting germ appeared, whence the hope of harvest was uncertain... Innumerable multitudes of poor people died, and their bodies were found lying all about swollen from want… Nor did those who had homes dare to harbour the sick and dying, for fear of infection… The pestilence was immense – insufferable; it attacked the poor particularly. In London alone 15,000 of the poor perished; in England and elsewhere thousands died."

Nose for money: Labradors home in on hidden fortunes (Thomas C.)

Officers reported that a Chinese businesswoman flying out of the airport was caught with €100,000 stuffed in her underwear, while shoe heels, dolls and tampons have also been used as hiding places. A second Chinese entrepreneur was rumbled after rolling €200,000 worth of €500 notes and inserting them into cigarettes.

Energy

Reliance On Natural Gas Sparks Concern (David B.)

“It does lead to concerns about the reliability of the electric system and the reliability of [getting] gas to gas customers if we don’t do careful planning,” LaFleur said. “I don’t think there’s a reason to panic, but I absolutely think there’s a reason to plan.”

Grid Power And The Death Of the Automobile (James S.)

Interestingly, instead of investing in the power grid, India embarked earlier last decade on a massive highway project, known as the Great Quadrilateral. This created a kind of grand, national circular whose “four and six-lane, 3,625 miles run through 13 states and India's four largest cities: New Delhi, Calcutta, Chennai (formerly Madras), and Mumbai (formerly Bombay),” according to a 2005 New York Times article. The piece continues, describing the ongoing, 15-year effort (to be completed this year) as “the most ambitious infrastructure project since independence in 1947 and the British building of the subcontinent's railway network the century before.”

Shale Growth in other Nations: How Realistic is it? (James S.)

Today we are awash in natural gas and our entire energy strategy is being turned on its head by the prospect of abundant supply and low—very low—prices. The market forces that created this boom are at work today correcting the market excess as more E&P companies shift their drilling from natural gas to oil and natural gas liquids attracted to their higher prices. We also expect to see some of this excess natural gas turned into LNG and exported to global markets which have higher prices.

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