In late 2001-early 2002, some outside accountants began looking at Enron, and what they realized was that Enron had been leaving costs off the books. [...] When they got done with the accounting, they discovered that Enron was essentially worthless. [...] Enron was bankrupt.

We are doing exactly what Enron did, except on a far larger scale: leaving costs off the books. Eventually someone will have to pay those costs. If not us, then our children. But like Enron, we too will have to make adjustments. You can’t continually leave costs off the books without eventually getting into trouble.

The key is to get the market to tell the environmental truth. We are all economic decision-makers — we rely on market signals. [...] The problem is the market is giving us bad information, and we are making bad decisions.

Brown goes on to quote Øystein Dahle, his successor as World Watch Institute Chairman of the Board:

Socialism collapsed because it did not allow the market to tell the economic truth.

Capitalism may collapse because it does not allow the market to tell the ecological truth.

Sends shivers down my spine.

Barack Obama, in an email to his supporters:

Tonight marks the end of the American combat mission in Iraq.

As a candidate for this office, I pledged to end this war responsibly. And, as President, that is what I am doing.

Since I became Commander-in-Chief, we’ve brought home nearly 100,000 U.S. troops. We’ve closed or turned over to Iraq hundreds of our bases.

As Operation Iraqi Freedom ends, our commitment to a sovereign, stable, and self-reliant Iraq continues. Under Operation New Dawn, a transitional force of U.S. troops will remain to advise and assist Iraqi forces, protect our civilians on the ground, and pursue targeted counterterrorism efforts.

By the end of next year, consistent with our agreement with the Iraqi government, these men and women, too, will come home.

Ending this war is not only in Iraq’s interest — it is in our own. Our nation has paid a huge price to put Iraq’s future in the hands of its people. We have sent our men and women in uniform to make enormous sacrifices. We have spent vast resources abroad in the face of several years of recession at home.

We have met our responsibility through the courage and resolve of our women and men in uniform.

In seven years, they confronted a mission as challenging and as complex as any our military has ever been asked to face.

Nearly 1.5 million Americans put their lives on the line. Many returned for multiple tours of duty, far from their loved ones who bore a heroic burden of their own. And most painfully, more than 4,400 Americans have given their lives, fighting for people they never knew, for values that have defined our people for more than two centuries.

What their country asked of them was not small. And what they sacrificed was not easy.

For that, each and every American owes them our heartfelt thanks.

Our promise to them — to each woman or man who has donned our colors — is that our country will serve them as faithfully as they have served us. We have already made the largest increase in funding for veterans in decades. So long as I am President, I will do whatever it takes to fulfill that sacred trust.

Tonight, we mark a milestone in our nation’s history. Even at a time of great uncertainty for so many Americans, this day and our brave troops remind us that our future is in our own hands and that our best days lie ahead.

Thank you,

President Barack Obama

UPDATE: Snippets of President Obama’s message were taken from his full “End of the Combat Mission in Iraq” speech. It’s only 18 minutes, and I highly recommend you watch it.

It’s easy to feel inadequate when you compare yourself to the very best, but even they weren’t born with those skills and they wouldn’t have them if they never started.

It’s awfully irresponsible to say all that stuff about recovery without also mentioning that you can’t even count the blocks that are still half-full of empty, broke-down houses, or that [Brad] Pitt’s 50 new houses dot an area that lost 4,000—an area people sometimes compare to Hiroshima because its torn-up roads, total lack of streetlights, and abundance of overgrown lots contribute to a vast and penetrating emptiness.

Hiroshima.

Bird’s eye view of Hiroshima before and after we dropped the bomb; New Orleans before and after Katrina.

I’ve decided not to publish any more books in the traditional way. 12 for 12 and I’m done. I like the people, but I can’t abide the long wait, the filters, the big push at launch, the nudging to get people to go to a store they don’t usually visit to buy something they don’t usually buy, to get them to pay for an idea in a form that’s hard to spread… I really don’t think the process is worth the effort that it now takes to make it work. I can reach 10 or 50 times as many people electronically. No, it’s not ‘better,’ but it’s different. So, while I’m not sure what format my writing will take, I’m not planning on it being the 1907 version of hardcover publishing any longer.

Important distinction: this doesn’t mean Seth won’t be publishing books at all. It means he won’t be publishing them via traditional means.

… right?

That said, Ticketmaster is infamous for their website’s poor user experience, from price gouging to profiteering on made-up tasks like “convenience fees,” thus I imagine smaller bands and events need little incentive to flee to a more compassionate competitor like Tempo Tickets. Consider my interest piqued.

Contrary to the popular image of the Pilgrim Fathers, the early settlers of the Plymouth Colony in present-day Plymouth, Massachusetts, did not dress in black, wear buckles, or wear black steeple hats.

There is no evidence that Vikings wore horns on their helmets.

Sugar does not cause hyperactivity in children.

And other busters.