Slate: Here's an article that talks about why WTO protestors are bogus. It was written by Paul Krugman, who has a lot of intelligent things to say about this subject, because he has the ability to count and is not afraid to use it. At some point there was a debate between Krugman and some political theory luminary (I think Will Saphire) on whether or not counting was important (it is). There is a large gulf between students of the humanities and students of the sciences which students of the humanities often do not appreciate, which centers around the importance of counting. Numbers reveal axiomatic truth. CP Snow wrote an essay on that as well, of course, which I will also try to dig up.

US regulators accused of overstepping authority: The Financial Times (again) ran this story about idiot congressman Billy Tauzin accusing US regulators examining America Online's proposed $127bn merger with Time Warner of overstepping their legal authority. It is always so frightening when people who know nothing of economics voice opinions on things economic in nature. Now I suppose I have to put my money where my mouth is and find a good article talking about why this sort of regulation is necessary.

Protesters besiege IMF meeting: The Financial Times ran this story today about demonstrators in Prague rioting to hold up a conference between the IMF and World Bank. There seems to be a certain chicness to demonstrating these days, as evidenced by the sort of person who attended both the Seattle and DC demonstrations earlier this year. Not quite sure why. Perhaps it lends a simulacrum of authenticity of otherwise banal lives. A couple of economists have more to say about that, I'll link to some of their articles soon.

The Observer: Cooking is one of the fine arts; the transformation of cream, butter and cheese into an alfredo is as remarkable as the transformation of clay into an ashtray. Christopher Walken has obviously taken this to heart as he cooks up his special T.N.T. Shrimp Appetizers in this story. What does this have to do with the future? Well, i just hope that it will involve more cooking.

Case for globalization: The Economist goes out on a limb to make a bold stand for globalization, pointing out (quite correctly) that globalization helps poor nations become richer. Indeed, every poor country that has become wealthy has done so through closer ties with the rest of the world (Japan, Korea, Hong Kong). They also point out that globalization is not irreversible, and that the thoughtless actions of the righteous, cowardly, and comfortably well-off can mean real misery and poverty for the genuinely poor. Says something about the state of the intellectual left when its greatest triumph is the further impoverishment of the world's destitute.

Welcome to winterspeak.com, a weblog that focuses on how humans will interact (with each other, between nations, with digital information) over the next 25 years. The signs are all around us and appear, like bubbles, on the Web. Expect a post every day or so. Hope you'll keep dropping by.