Eschanomics

Atrios has been on an econ kick lately. Not sure what's up with that.

technorati tags:Atrios, Economics

We'll stop your cola

Interesting article in the Post about the diplomatic sparing over genocide in Darfur - aparently the ambasador of the Sudan is threatening our cola supply:

What's more, the good and peaceful leaders of Sudan were prepared to retaliate massively: They would cut off shipments of the emulsifier gum arabic, thereby depriving the world of cola.

"I want you to know that the gum arabic which runs all the soft drinks all over the world, including the United States, mainly 80 percent is imported from my country," the ambassador said after raising a bottle of Coca-Cola.

A reporter asked if Sudan was threatening to "stop the export of gum arabic and bring down the Western world."

"I can stop that gum arabic and all of us will have lost this," Khartoum Karl warned anew, beckoning to the Coke bottle. "But I don't want to go that way.

It's been a while since I've heard of such retaliatory sanctions, at least as far as they don't relate to oil. Though I do know someone who will tell me that we're all suffering from a terrible dearth of North Korean cold noodle dishes.

technorati tags:Darfur, Sanctions, Coke, Sudan

Blogging

Just realized that as I while away my time waiting for an AIM discussion to resume, I may as well return to the blog. I'm somewhat inspired by Interested Soldier's brief resumption, though I assume he's since been silenced again by the man.

Most of my friends have fled the district for different time zones, so I guess it will be up to me to hold down the fort until they return. My former housemate will also be abandoning his Shaw blog as he's headed back to the burbs, so I may have to take that mantle. It strikes me as important to offer some counterballance to the dominant blg discourse here, which focuses mostly on crime and racial tensions.

And while we're talking about discourse, yesterday I picked up a copy of Al Gore's new book, The Assault on Reason. It has been calling my name ever since I read an excerpt in Time, but the clincher was finding out on Saturday that he delves more deeply into neuroscience in the book. Advancements in neurology have brought us to the brink of understanding that, as my brother puts it, social science is the real hard science. We've had numerous discussions about the physiology of the brain as it relates to socil behavior, and I wanted to see what Mr. Gore had to say. So far, it's pretty good. Check it out if you have the chance.