links for 2008-12-10

• Information Arbitrage: We, The People, Deserve Better
  We, the People, are the owners of the US Treasury, the Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and represent the “full faith and credit of the US Government.” Therefore, solutions to the financial crisis that use our money should benefit us, and reflect a risk-adjusted market rate of return for the capital used. The measure should be what a rational, arms-length investor would demand for scarce capital in a time of crisis, not what Treasury Secretary Paulson together with CEO of the bailed out institution deem appropriate
  (tags: finance economy crisis)
• IT Conversations | Jon Udell's Interviews with Innovators | Howard Bloom (Free Podcast)
  Many of us feel that the Web is ushering in a new era of global consciousness. But Howard Bloom thinks life has been a collective mind from the very beginning. He made the case in his book "Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind From the Big Bang To the 21st Century." Host Jon Udell speaks with Bloom who reviews the themes of that book — group selectionism, complex adaptive systems, collective learning — and considers what has, and hasn't, changed since the book was published in 2000.
  (tags: globalbrain emergence bloom web science technology complexity)
• History & info – Daylight Saving Time idea from Benjamin Franklin
  Rationale and original idea

  The main purpose of Daylight Saving Time (called "Summer Time" in many places in the world) is to make better use of daylight. We change our clocks during the summer months to move an hour of daylight from the morning to the evening. Countries have different change dates. Glide your cursor over the map to see how changing the clocks affects different latitudes.

  (tags: energy chart efficiency daylight dst history)