MetaFilter posts tagged with growth

For kids

kliuless — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 19:43:25 -0800

The story of stuff and how it's currently being played out between the political economies of China and the US (G2 'Chimerica') in an illuminating Fallows vs. Ferguson cage match. + B O N U S SAGAN

growth theory

kliuless — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 02:00:09 -0800

The New Kaldor Facts: Ideas, Institutions, Population, and Human Capital [pdf] - "For now, we think that progress is likely to be most rapid if we follow the example of the neoclassical model and treat institutions the way the neoclassical model treated technology... Further out on the horizon, one may hope for a successful conclusion to the ongoing hunt for a simple model [1] of institutional evolution. Combining that with the unified approach to growth outlined here would surely constitute the economics equivalent of a grand unified theory..." [2, viz. previously] This might, as it were, be a subset of collective cognition (or, possibly, autism [3]).

Fantastic Voyage into Angiogenesis

monospace — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 12:36:05 -0800

"Angiogenesis is critical for tumors to grow beyond a few millimeters, and for cancer to metastasize to other parts of the body. Cancer cells use the blood vessels as conduits to other areas of the body, where a single cell can set up camp and begin forming a new tumor. Stop angiogenesis, and you stop cancer." (via) I'm no scientist, but I think the Flash presentation at the second link is simply too stunning to pass up.

Reform School Boys and Girls

wittgenstein — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 11:35:55 -0800

John Pfaff. Five Myths about Prison Growth.

Prophesy of economic collapse 'coming true'

stbalbach — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 10:15:40 -0800

In 1972 the Club of Rome published the famous book Limits to Growth that predicted exponential growth would eventually lead to economic and environmental collapse. It was criticized by economists and largely ignored by politicians. Now Graham Turner at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in Australia has compared the book's predictions with data from the intervening years. According to Turner (PDF report) changes in industrial production, food production and pollution are all in line with the book's predictions of collapse in the 21st century. According to the book, the path we have taken will cause decreasing resource availability and an escalating cost of extraction that triggers a slowdown of industry, which eventually results in economic collapse some time after 2020.(via; previously; previously)

On Growth and Form and Constructal Theory

twoleftfeet — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 02:17:49 -0800

On Growth and Form (1917) was D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson's pioneering effort to explore the mathematical principles that underlie biological form. He studied the similarity between the shapes of a jellyfish and a drop of ink, a splash and a hydroid, between dragonfly wings and bubble froth, the growth of radiolaria and snowflakes, the spirals of nautilus and mollusk shells and sheep horns. More recently, Adrian Bejan's Constructal Theory aims to explain all biological shape from one thermodynamic principle. This month there is an interview with Bejan for the layman. The central principle of Constructal Theory - for a finite system to persist in time (to live) it must evolve so currents can flow easier through it - has been used by Bejan and his coworkers to predict the structure of trees and other natural networks (such as why a river looks like a tree), to understand running, swimming, and flying (PDF), to explain why university rankings won't change, and generally, to think about the design of every thing that flows and moves. You can learn more about Constructal theory from TreeHugger's four articles, from the Constructal Portal, and from Bejan's books. Bejan's website lists his (over 450) academic publications.

What should I do with my life?

vytae — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 09:45:03 -0800

"If I make enough money now, I can quit and do what I really love later." "If I just think hard enough, I'll finally figure out what I want to do with my life." "I know people in this career path lose their souls, but I'll be different." "What if I try a new career, and it turns out I don't like it?" Po Bronson tackles some of the thoughts that keep people from pursuing a career they would really love. The article (one-page version) is based on his New York Times bestseller, What Should I Do With My Life? The writing is several years old, but the question seems to spring eternal.

WSJ - New Limits to Growth Revive Malthusian Fears

sjjh — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 12:26:50 -0800

Spread of Prosperity Brings Supply Woes: Slaking China's Thirst Malthusian catastrophe does appear to be at hand, as foreseen by the Club of Rome in 1972 publication of "The Limits of Growth"

Did Vladimir Putin really turn around Russia's economy?

gregb1007 — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 02:34:30 -0800

Did Vladimir Putin really turn around Russia's economy? Washington Post's Fred Hyatt attempts to refute the conventional wisdom that Putin was responsible for Russia's turnaround from the economic instability of the "disastrous" 90s by offering a thorough counter argument to prove that Putin's effect on the economy was just the reverse. Hyatt believes that Russia's astonishing economic recovery should not be credited to Putin, but in fact to the fiscal solvency brought about by the reforms that were carried out in the late 90s by Yeltsin's prime minister Yevgeny Primakov.*1. Furthermore, he argues that Putin's crackdown on the free press and on independent businesses has had a disastrous impact on the economy by discouraging foreign investment. The result was stalled economic growth whose rate has dropped far behind that of the other former Soviet republics despite enormous growth in oil revenues. *2 *Primakov served as Yeltsin's prime minister in 1998-1999. *Russia's rate of growth used to be the 2nd best out of all former 15 Soviet republics when Putin took power in 2000, but dropped to 13th best by 2005. It can be argued that the Russian economy grew under Putin, but the rate of growth was highest just when he came to power and that his rule had the effect of dampening it.

“It's one minute before 12.”

Bora Horza Gobuchul — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 18:22:47 -0800

“The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function.” (RealVideo) Al Bartlett, retired University of Colorado Professor of Physics, gives a stunning hour-long old-school lecture (overhead projector!) on exponential growth and its inevitable results. The full title of the lecture is “Arithmetic, Population and Energy”, so yes, it does eventually deal with peak oil, but not until three-quarters of the way in. MP3, if you'd prefer an audio version. More from Barlett. Previous FPPs on the exponential function on the blue and the green.

From Red to Green

infini — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 02:24:38 -0800

"The model of economic development that we are currently pursuing is unsustainable. Our energy consumption per unit of GDP is seven times that of Japan, six times that of America, and even 2.8 times that of India. China’s labour productivity is less than 10 per cent of the world total, and yet our emissions are over 10 times higher than the global average." ~ Pan Yue - deputy director of China's State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA). Part of a new generation of outspoken Chinese senior officials, Pan has given rise to a tide of environmental debate, attracting enormous attention and controversy. Read his articles here : - China: economic powerhouse, environmentally unsustainable - part one and part two

A storm brewing...

allkindsoftime — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 08:25:05 -0800

How much is too much? Here in Manhattan I can choose from exactly 197 Starbucks locations. Currently Starbucks continues to open 5 new stores a day. Its nice to have choices, but is anything sacred anymore? Hell, even National Slow Down Week (courtesy of Adbusters.org) has coffee in the picture.

If you can read this, you can help.

allkindsoftime — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 09:03:40 -0800

Tomorrow morning at 7:46am, the US Population Clock will hit 300 million. As the world population continues to grow at a similar rate to ours, perhaps its time to start asking some questions. After all, if you can read this post, chances are you don't live in Africa, where "more than 2,500 children are dying each day," simply for lack of access to fresh drinking water. Its so easy not to worry about when you're not the 1 in 5 who can't get a clean drink. But there's lots of ways you can help.

Limits to growth redux

wilful — Sun, 12 Feb 2006 15:39:43 -0800

State of the World 2006 , an annual research report prepared by the Worldwatch Institute, has just been released, with a special focus on China and India. Although Limits to Growth type predictions have had their critics, many of the stats and projections presented have a certain brutal inevitability about them.

Yuck

bob sarabia — Mon, 30 Aug 2004 15:08:16 -0800

Womans flesh grows over her wedding ring via waxylinks

sprawl suburbs

thedailygrowl — Fri, 30 Apr 2004 23:42:22 -0800

Boom! A master planned community. Boom! A big-box mall! Our Sprawling, Supersize Utopia. This article, by New York Times columnist David Brooks, takes a look at exploding suburbs and exurban migration. This migration is nothing new, author Joel Garreau wrote extensively about it in his 1991 book Edge Cities. The phenomonon really took off after World War II, during the period of post war prosperity, and is best represented by this famous postwar American suburb. A veritable army of "suburban sprawl critics" has emerged over the years including Jane Jacobs and James Howard Knunstler plus many others including some who are predicting the immenent demise of suburbs because of oil depletion. For Brooks the critics of suburbs "just regurgitate the same critiques decade after decade, regardless of the suburban reality flowering around them" but you can't dismiss what the architect Paolo Soleri says about American society that "we have a society that is moving very rapidly to the super-, super-, super-consumptive."

Good news for 308,000 American citizens and one President.

msacheson — Fri, 02 Apr 2004 11:45:13 -0800

U.S. job growth strongest in 4 years in March. Non-farm payrolls climbed 308,000 in March, the Labor Department said, the biggest gain since April 2000. However, the unemployment rate actually ticked upward from 5.6%, the two-year low seen in January and February, to 5.7% in March. Note in passing that this took place during the Bush administration!

taz — Sun, 01 Sep 2002 00:27:46 -0800

Employing a rather breath-taking counter, Netsizer claims to track the growth of the internet (users and hosts) in real time based on a methodology briefly and unsatisfyingly explained here. According to Netsizer the number of internet users already tops 800 million, but the Cyber Atlas is projecting 700-950 million users in 2004. Does anybody really know what's going on?

kliuless — Wed, 13 Feb 2002 13:12:15 -0800

Make way for the Mormons :) Reports of religions' demise have been greatly exaggerated. The Economist reports, "[w]ithin four decades, one in 20 Americans may be a Mormon and there may be 50m or more worldwide. How will outsiders react to the next world religion?" Minivans, trampolines and canned food, hooray!

vanderwal — Mon, 26 Mar 2001 04:41:26 -0800

Washington DC Metro Popularity is Possible Problem as physical limitations may hinder expansion and usability in future years.