Linkage

• Beautiful new see-through frog puts whole heart on display (TreeHugger) Remarkable.
• Intellectual Property Is Real Money (Jacobin) Dean Baker makes the same point that I have: The expansion of IP protections has created a drag on the economy while increasing inequality.
• The Real Threat To Europe Is Neither America Nor Russia (Ian Welsh) Another writer agrees with me, and finds that the problem is the Germans.
• Inside Tehran's monument to US 'arrogance' (Al Jazeera) The Old Tehran US Embassy turned into anti American museum. Nice troll.
• Nine tenths of England's floodplains not fit for purpose, study finds (Guardian) Natural floodplains serve to ameliorate flooding in other areas. Add residential and agricultural development, and they stop working.
• Revolving Door Continues to Swing: Obama Alumini Land on Their Feet (Naked Capitalism) Another promise that Obama made and never intended to keep.
• Coal Ash Is More Radioactive Than Nuclear Waste (Scientific American) Restoring King Coal is not good policy.
• Obama: a Hollow Man Filled With Ruling Class Ideas (Counterpunch) A review of both Barack Obama and the recent biography Rising Star: The Making of Barack Obama. Hollow man is a pretty good description of the Obama legacy.
• The U.S. Has Forgotten How to Do Infrastructure (Bloomberg) A discussion of the fact that building and maintaining infrastructure in the US costs multiples of what it would cost in other advanced industrial societies. Never mentions the problems of corruption, which has to be a part of the equation.

Here is the transparent hearted frog: