From 1948 to 1982, average compensation in the financial sector ranged between 99 percent and 108 percent of the average for all domestic private industries. From 1983, it shot upward, reaching 181 percent in 2007.

The great wealth that the financial sector created and concentrated gave bankers enormous political weight—a weight not seen in the U.S. since the era of J.P. Morgan (the man). In that period, the banking panic of 1907 could be stopped only by coordination among private-sector bankers: no government entity was able to offer an effective response. But that first age of banking oligarchs came to an end with the passage of significant banking regulation in response to the Great Depression; the reemergence of an American financial oligarchy is quite recent.

Bird on the beach at East Grand Terre Island, LA. Photo source: AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, Thursday, June 3, 2010.

Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) on Tuesday blocked a bill Democrats have put forward to raise the liability cap from $75 million to $10 billion. He said on the Senate floor he agrees the cap should be raised, but the Senate should “wait and see where the cap should be.”

The computer made in-game using Little Big Planet’s development system. Crazy.

With the recent passage of Arizona’s fascist immigration law, there will be more laws coming that place the blame for our economic woes on immigrant populations, instead of on the military industrial complex filled with no-bid contracts for Halliburton. Take a quick read of FactCheck.org’s report and you will have the ammunition needed to confront those who will trot out the tired “Immigrants cost American Jobs” party line.

The British Petroleum offshore oil rig disaster has now generated an oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico larger than the state of Rhode Island. Not only will this disaster eclipse the drunken exploits of the Exxon Valdez but it has now started wash up on Louisiana’s shores. It is leaking 200,000 gallons a day and will take 3 months to fix. Anyone from this point on who argues that offshore oil drilling can be done without environmental impact is either ignorant or an asshole.

Update – May 11 Now larger than Connecticut.

Orange announces an amp integrated with a Windows PC that they are calling the OPC. I’m not sure where this is going or if the hard drive will be safe with huge amplifier magnets nearby, but I am certainly intrigued…

Last week, a 700-foot Chinese coal ship rammed into the world’s largest coral reef, dumping 4 tons of heavy fuel and causing a 3 km oil slick. This is the nightmare scenario to an ecosystem already under siege by global warming and over-fishing.

Here is an update on events posted April 13, 2010: Damage will take 20 years to disappear.

“Their mission is to mimic a full mission to Mars and back as accurately as possible without actually going there: Mars500 will be the first full-duration simulated mission to Mars, starting in a special facility in Moscow next summer. 250 days for the trip to Mars, 30 days on the surface and 240 days for the return journey, totalling 520 days.”