Please note the order of operations:
1. Break it down
2. Build it up
3. Stop

The good news is, we really only need to work on #3.

[Flight of the Conchords]

The Occupy movement spontaneously created something that doesn’t really exist in the country: communities of mutual support, cooperation, open spaces for discussion … just people doing things and helping each other.  -  Noah Chomsky

Perhaps what also didn’t exist was an entity of sufficient complexity to compete with the corporate and political structures at work in this country.  Compared with yesterday’s conglomerate chart, it looks like Occupy Wall Street‘s NYC General Assembly is starting to hold its own when it comes to tentacles…

(click to enlarge)

(And what is it they say about the side that isn’t getting paid?)

Wish you were in NYC?  Be there online.

[Chart by Jack Smith via Mapping the Movement]

(click to enlarge)

Do we really have to play this out or can we just count up the money, name a winner and move on?  We don’t even need most of this stuff.

[Chart source unknown via forgotten path]

You go left for a dash (dah), right for a dot (dit).  Pick a letter below, walk through it once above, and all will be clear.

Why learn Morse code? -… . -.-. .- ..- … . / -.-. — -.. . … / .- .-. . / -.-. — — .-..

Think of it as binary for humans.

And the possibilities…  Imagine if we all really invested ten minutes a day learning Morse code over the next few months and then spent the rest of our lives occasionally going out to restaurants and banging on the table the whole time while not saying a word.

If you’ve got a better idea, .–. .-.. . .- … . / … …. .- .-. . / .. – / .. -. / – …. . / -.-. — — – . -. – …

[LearnMorseCode.com]

Luckily, a new search engine has come along that gives you a chance to dig deeper without having to bother with a second page.  Meet Million Short, where you can exclude the top 100 – 1,000 – 10,000 – 100,000 – and yes, 1,000,000 web sites from your search results.

There are so many angles to explore.  While leaving out the top million sites is interesting, knocking out the top 100 is… a revolution.  All that effort to get there and now you’ve got a simple tool to completely ignore them.  Take out the top 10,000 and it’s like driving through a city without seeing a single chain store.

Welcome back to the Great Unknown!

[via Hacker News]

There have been calls to stop doing business with Bank of America.  There’s a petition and song about breaking up the bank.  It was ranked #5 among America’s least reputable companies and named the second worst company in the country two years in a row.  They tried to raise debit card fees, backed down from the resulting outrage, and yet are already working more fees back in.  And now, as the possibility of their own credit rating getting a downgrade looms, their CEO’s pay has quadrupled…

Where do you even begin cleaning up that mess?  An apology would be a start, but this one turned out to be a bit of economic fan fiction.  Meanwhile, Bank of America continues doing business, such as being the largest financier of the U.S. coal industry, which earned their stadium in Charlotte a recent rebranding campaign.

Aside from generating 42% of the electricity produced in the U.S. during 2011, there’s not much good to say about coal either.  If you’re tired of the usual laundry list of coal’s consequences, then maybe a report from Harvard pegging the best estimate of coal’s annual cost to the U.S. public at a third of a trillion, $75 billion in Appalachia alone, might be of interest.

The most alarming thought, however, is the simple combination of a desperate bank and a literally dirty business.  If no one is walking away from money on a good day, Bank of America will likely be the last to admit that it’s $4.3 billion coal business is as toxic as it’s purchase of Countrywide, a contender for the worst deal in history.  …  That’s why they’ll probably need a little help.

If you’d like to join in breaking the news to them, there’s a protest going down, a petition going around and a good chance you haven’t heard the end of this story.

[Stock Chart from Google Finance, Image from Rainforest Action Network via WeArePowerShift.org]

Perhaps the essence of the Liberal outlook could be summed up in a new decalogue, not intended to replace the old one but only to supplement it. The Ten Commandments that, as a teacher, I should wish to promulgate, might be set forth as follows:

1. Do not feel absolutely certain of anything.

2. Do not think it worth while to proceed by concealing evidence, for the evidence is sure to come to light.

3. Never try to discourage thinking for you are sure to succeed.

4. When you meet with opposition, even if it should be from your husband or your children, endeavor to overcome it by argument and not by authority, for a victory dependent upon authority is unreal and illusory.

5. Have no respect for the authority of others, for there are always contrary authorities to be found.

6. Do not use power to suppress opinions you think pernicious, for if you do the opinions will suppress you.

7. Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.

8. Find more pleasure in intelligent dissent than in passive agreement, for, if you value intelligence as you should, the former implies a deeper agreement than the latter.

9. Be scrupulously truthful, even if the truth is inconvenient, for it is more inconvenient when you try to conceal it.

10. Do not feel envious of the happiness of those who live in a fool’s paradise, for only a fool will think that it is happiness.

It’s quite the ‘eat your vegetables’ kind of list. But what would the other side of this coin look like?  Would the essence of the Conservative outlook of the time really sound something like…

1. Feel absolutely certain about everything.

2. It is worth while to proceed by concealing evidence, because there’s a chance the evidence won’t come to light and until then it will benefit you.

3. Discourage thinking.

4. When you meet with opposition, overcome it by authority and not by argument, for you might lose the argument.

5. Have respect for authority, for they are right.

6. Use power to suppress opinions you think harmful, for it will suppress them.

7. Fear to be eccentric in opinion, for though an opinion might one day be accepted, until then it will be suppressed.

8. Find pleasure in passive agreement.

9. Be scrupulously untruthful, even if the truth is convenient.

10. Envy the happiness of those who live in a fool’s paradise.

What a frightening experiment.  You could see why no one would promote such a set of ideas explicitly, but, other than tactically, could anyone truly believe in them?

[h/t Marginal Revolution]

With the economy, it’s difficult to imagine either party promoting themselves, but given the likelihood that they will, here’s Businessweek’s recap of Obama’s efforts to straighten the ship…

(click for full size version)

Now we just need a chart on how this relates to reality.

If you can watch all 30 minutes and 59 seconds of it, with the sound, actually watching it.

Good luck.

Also available with narration and a tour.

[NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center via Laughing Squid]

Consider the question again after looking at The Center for Public Integrity‘s Corruption Risk Report Card for state governments in the U.S….

Who would get the job with a transcript like that?  Unfortunately, those are the jobs’ ratings!  Now, fill the role with a human, factor in that power tends to corrupt and how power without status can produce worse results.  Where are our expectations now?

The Center for Public Integrity’s plan is to bring attention to the specific risks of corruption and move along the slow process of reform.  They’ve already helped accelerate efforts in five states and have set it up so you can help do the same in yours.

Check out your state’s results and click to send them on to your representatives so they know you know they know, you know?