Wednesday Exposition

World can be powered by alternative energy in 20-40 years – Stanford. I'm little dubious about solar doing much good in this country, but maybe wind makes up for it. Either way the bigger problems are political, not scientific.

Public Safety Alert – Crooked Timber. It is almost impossible to overstate how deeply crazy some of the newly elected officials in the US are.

Wachovia Bank pays trivial fine for laundering massive amount of drug money. – Naked Capitalism. "[Wachovia] paid federal authorities $110m in forfeiture, for allowing transactions later proved to be connected to drug smuggling, and incurred a $50m fine for failing to monitor cash used to ship 22 tons of cocaine."

Canadian conservatives promise corporate tax cuts as study reveals they don't spur growth – Globe & Mail. Meanwhile, in the Great White North, we are having an election because the government was censured in Parliament for the first time in Canadian history. They basically lied about about the cost of new fighter jets and some programs, and the minority government fell because of it. Former Prime Minister Stephen Harper has been warning the electorate of the dangers of coalition government.

For our American cousins, if none of the above makes sense, I recommend Canada, how does it work?

I know my British friends understand the intricacies of parliamentary democracy, so for you I thought this might help explain some of my home country's political nuances: