Somewhere in the new nearby, its a Winter Wonderland

recently, sorta, this

Economic Megaregions - USA

This is kinda cool:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/11/us-commutes-reveal-new-economic-megaregions-map/

Thanks http://www.nationalgeographic.com/

Recently, in the new nearby...

stacking wood

thanks to Lifehacker: http://lifehacker.com/stack-your-firewood-perfectly-to-last-the-winter-with-t-1788061530

Recently, a view...

Confucianism - 6 worthy principles

https://www.ideapod.com/idea/6-Principles-of-Confucianism/56bb08045faac8a26effabc2 

Jen - includes the sense of dignity we should give to ALL living things, especially other humans.

Li - is considered the principle of gain, such as why people will actively seek out personal relationships and what people gain from society as a whole. The idea is to consider what does each person, individually and as a group, gain when they interact with one another.

Yi - the moral obligation to do good. This includes the ability to know and recognize what is right and wrong, and the ability to feel what is right and wrong.

Hsiao - parents should be revered, respected and honored since they created the being in question. Bringing honor to the family and revering someone who has brought honor to you.

Chih - moral wisdom and knowledge of things right and wrong.

Te - the morals of authority. For example, the government has authority if it can maintain economic and social order.

Thanks ideapod.

PS - I worry a little about Te, but this is about Confucianism, not me.

Thanks Wikipedia for the image.

Can banks create money out of nothing?

Another scholarly article on this fascinating topic:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1057521914001070

tl;dr - Yep.

image credit: Chase Bank, Danbury, CT 8/2014 by Mike Mozart of TheToyChannel and JeepersMedia on YouTube, via Flickr

Where are they?

The aliens I mean. There, maybe there:

Thanks to http://phl.upr.edu/projects/habitable-exoplanets-catalog/results  Check that page for lots of background and the enlargeable image.

Yanis Varoufakis on the fragility of democracy

https://www.ted.com/talks/yanis_varoufakis_capitalism_will_eat_democracy_unless_we_speak_up

Yanis articulates well many of the issues of the capture of democracy by capitalism and offers some suggestions for paths forward.

Better than anywhere else I've seen, he describes the cost to the worldwide economy of the mountain of unused capital aggregated via inequality.