Weekly Econoreadings

A plethora of bad data

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/quadruple-dip-housing-starts-permits-drop-miss-expectations-houses-under-construction-new-re

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/industrial-production-weakens-misses-consensus-capacity-utilization-peaks

http://pragcap.com/capacity-utilization-indicative-of-weak-economy

US Debt at the limit..

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/us-debt-limit-breach-now-cartoon

S&P country ratings

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2011/05/a-guide-to-sp%E2%80%99s-latest-credit-ratings-by-country/

Flexible solar sheet captures up to 95% of light energy

Using a thin flexible sheet of tiny antennas called nantennas, Patrick Pinhero, an associate professor in the Missouri University Chemical Engineering Department, has been able to  achieve solar energy conversion rates of 90–95%, in contrast to traditional photovoltaic (PV) solar panels, which are only 20% efficient…..

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-05/uom-nsp051611.php

3 things I learnt while my plane crashed

Nothing is as it seems – Grand delusion

You should read this interesting article about what scientists think is “the real” world and “our real” world

You need to register for free to read the whole article

http://www.newscientist.com/special/the-grand-delusion?DCMP=NLC-nletter&nsref=granddelusion