Intelligence is Inherited, More Than You Know

THE first images to reveal the quality of the brain's wiring show that more aspects of intelligence are inherited than previously known. The finding hints at ways to boost intelligence. _NewScientist

Image SourceIntelligence is between 50% and 80% heritable. Probably closer to 80 than 50. It has been difficult to locate specific genes and gene clusters that account for differences in intelligence between matured human brains, but scientists keep trying.

The speed of brain processes correlates with IQ, and brain speed is partially determined by the integrity of the myelin wrapping around nerve axons that make up the communication pathways (white matter) in the brain. To explore the issue of inheritance and brain speed further, UCLA researcher Paul Thompson conducted a twin study comparing 23 sets of identical twins with 23 sets of fraternal twins.

It is clear that intelligence is at least partly genetically determined. This was supported by the discovery in 2001 that the volume of the brain's grey matter, made up of "processor" cells, is heritable and correlates with certain elements of IQ (Nature Neuroscience, DOI: 10.1038/nn758). The amount of white matter, which provides the connections between these processors, has since been shown to be heritable too (Journal of Neuroscience, vol 26, p 10235).

...By comparing brain maps of identical twins, which share the same genes, with fraternal twins, which share about half their genes, the team calculate that myelin integrity is genetically determined in many brain areas important for intelligence. This includes the corpus callosum, which integrates signals from the left and right sides of the body, and the parietal lobes, responsible for visual and spatial reasoning and logic (see above). Myelin quality in these areas was also correlated with scores on tests of abstract reasoning and overall intelligence (The Journal of Neuroscience, vol 29, p 2212).

...Identifying the genes that promote high-integrity myelin could lead to ways to enhance the genes' activity or artificially add the proteins they code for. This may in turn provide therapies for multiple sclerosis, autism and attention deficit disorder, which are associated with degraded myelin. Intelligence enhancement in people who just want help passing an exam, say, is also "within the realm of possibility", Thompson reckons. _NS

So you can see that high heritability for intelligence can make it easier for biomedical scientists to intervene in order to raise intelligence levels. As long as the underlying causes of higher intelligence are held to be mysterious, humans are doomed to exist in a low IQ state.

The leftist ideologues who frequently occupy university faculty and staff positions are opposed to the study of human biodiversity, and population / genetic differences in brain function. Such leftist Luddism in high places is one of the majour obstacles in the path to a better future for all humans. And now the US has to live with a leftist Luddite president who is also a fascist, economically. Quite a setback to the human enterprise, but not insurmountable.

Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.

Bonus: This study shows that the human brain collects traces that reveal the steps to navigate a landscape -- virtual landscapes and probably real landscapes as well. This suggests that good enough brain imaging combined with clever and powerful psycho-informatics technology will allow psychoneurologists to trace much of a person's inner life, before long. Lie detectors will be easy. Testing intelligence using interactive imaging will be easy. Reproducing a person's entire inner mental world will take a bit longer.

Visualizing Intelligence & Genetics of Fear

Brain imaging is improving so quickly that soon we may be able to measure intelligence using brain scans, and simply skip the IQ tests altogether.

... lesions in the left frontal cortex were associated with lower scores on the verbal comprehension index; lesions in the left frontal and parietal cortex (located behind the frontal lobe) were associated with lower scores on the working memory index; and lesions in the right parietal cortex were associated with lower scores on the perceptual organization index.

Somewhat surprisingly, the study revealed a large amount of overlap in the brain regions responsible for verbal comprehension and working memory, which suggests that these two now-separate measures of cognitive ability may actually represent the same type of intelligence, at least as assessed using the WAIS.

The details about the structure of intelligence provided by the study could be useful in future revisions of the WAIS test so that its various subtests are grouped on the basis of neuroanatomical similarity rather than on behavior, as is the case now.

In addition, the brain maps produced by the study could be used as a diagnostic aid. Clinicians could combine the maps with their patients' Wechsler test results to help localize likely areas of brain damage. "It wouldn't be sufficient to be diagnostic, but it would provide information that clinicians could definitely use about what parts of the brain are dysfunctional," Adolphs says.

The converse--using brain-scan results to predict the IQ of patients as measured by the Weschler test--may also be possible. Although the results wouldn't be as clear-cut as they are in patients with brain lesions, Adolphs says, "you could take a large sample of healthy brains and measure the relative volumes of specific brain areas and draw some associations with these IQ factors." _Eurekalert

This study used scans of persons with brain lesions to correlate with Wechsler test scores. Future brain scans will reveal far more detail anatomically and functionally. As spatial and temporal resolution of brain imaging improves, the newer brain imaging should provide far more insight into the neural correlates of intelligence.

On another topic, research into the neuroscience of fear is revealing the importance of genetic polymorphisms in the experience and recovery from fear and anxiety in everyday life.

The results showed that while the participants with the shorter version of the serotonin transporter gene developed a very strong physiological fear response to picture A, participants with a longer version of the gene did not. In addition, a variation in the gene coding for the COMT enzyme was associated with fear extinction - volunteers with this particular variant were able to very quickly overcome their fear while volunteers with the other variant failed to do so.

The researchers note that these findings have very interesting implications for understanding gene-environment interactions and that "genes may act through the environment by making carriers of particular gene combinations more likely than other individuals to easily pick up and retain fear of stimuli associated with threat and trauma." The authors go on to suggest that these findings may indicate that individuals with specific polymorphisms may be more susceptible to anxiety disorders by being more prone to developing fear and being less likely to overcome that fear by common cognitive behavioral treatments which are based on the extinction principle. _SD

We are all unique in our responses to our different environments. While some are certainly predisposed genetically to experience more fear and anxiety in response to ordinary everyday experiences, we should all be allowed to learn how to overcome fear and anxiety responses in order to be able to pursue our life's goals. In the absence of such training to overcome innate anxiety responses, individuals can be prone to obsessing on perceived external obstacles to success. Such obsession on externals makes it almost impossible to understand the far more important internal obstacles to reaching satisfactory plateaus of achievement.

Making the Right Choices When Time is Short

H/T Kurzweilai.net

The above is a vivid computer animation / recreation of Flight 1549's adventure involving a flock of Canada Geese and an unscheduled landing in the Hudson River. The animation is accompanied by radio transmissions between pilot and air trafic controllers (ATC), and between ATC and ATC. Follow the events in real time and decide how long it would have taken most pilots to make all the right choices -- in time.

Such finely detailed competence is generally domain-specific, although persons who learn to think clearly in stressful situations can often transfer that skill to a range of situations. Pilots, surgeons, EMS workers, ICU / ER workers, supervisors in large power and industrial plants, heavy construction engineers and supervisors, etc. etc. all need to be competent to keep people alive, healthy, and prosperous.

It doesn't help when the political leadership is not only incompetent, but doggedly insistent on following a path of economic destruction.

Becoming More Fully Human: Music Training

Most children are being short-changed in brain development. Much of the potential of that multifunctional tool for survival -- the human brain -- goes undeveloped due to neglect by parents, teachers, communities, and entire societies. One important human brain function -- emotional competency -- can be more fully incorporated into the developing brain via music training.

Musicians heard an emotion-packed, complex sound with an enhanced sensitivity, and they also were less distracted by simple sounds, according to the study, published in the current issue of the European Journal of Neuroscience.

"What we found in this study is both an enhancement and an economy of resources varies as a function of the extent of musical experience," Kraus said. "The more years the person has been playing an instrument, and the earlier the person began musical training, the larger the effect."

Although many other studies have tried to show the beneficial effects of musical training, the researchers said their findings "provide the first biological evidence for behavioral observations indicating that musical training enhances the perception of vocally expressed emotion." The findings have implications far beyond the world of music.

"The same neural transcription process that is enhanced in musicians is found to be deficient in some children with language disorders such as dyslexia and autism," Kraus noted.

The research suggests that something as basic as musical training may be a useful therapeutic device, along with other more traditional techniques.

..."Our results provide evidence for a subcortical role in the processing of emotional cues by showing that auditory brainstem responses to emotionally salient vocal sounds are dynamic, shaped by life-long, multisensory experience with auditory signals," the researchers note. "These responses are not hardwired but malleable with extensive auditory training."

In other words, we aren't just who we are. We're also what we have done. _ABCNews

The brain goes through very rapid growth and modification in the first few years of life. By the time a child's brain is 5 years old, most of his brain is already shaped by early experiences. But important developmental windows will open and close over the next several years -- and a child's mind is not fully matured until the middle 20s.

We know that infants not exposed to sight or sound in early infancy will lose much of their brain's ability for fine distinction of auditory and optic stimuli if later restored. Children who are not exposed to language in the early years will never develop any language skill. Children not exposed to music before the age of 10 or 12 will find it difficult to achieve mastery from later training. The same opening and closing of developmental windows applies to frontal lobe functioning: the best time to teach a child pre-frontal executive functions that are so vital to life success, is between the ages of 4 and 6-7. Waiting any later will doom a child to lesser degrees of success than he would have otherwise been capable of.

The brain has its own schedule of development and maturation. If caretakers of children are not willing to work within those developmental windows that are constantly opening to some functions and closing to others, too bad for the child.

Electric Cars: How Soon and What Kind?

Electric storage batteries cannot store enough energy to transport an electric powered automobile very far. This is a serious drawback, and one of the reasons that some people are predicting that it may be more than 50 years before electric cars are taken seriously by most of the buying public.

Brian Westenhaus takes a look at new competition for EESTOR, the maker of a mysterious hybrid battery : supercapacitor. He discusses a "Reticle Carbon", a new electrode material for ultracapacitors that may give electric cars a big boost. As described by Brian, the technology looks fascinating. They may have to wait for financing, however, in this extreme economic slowdown of 2009.

One California startup plans to boost the range of electric cars by placing charging machines at convenient locations. They call them "vending machines for charging electric cars." An important development for California, where daily commutes can be far and long. These special re-charging stations may become more practical if new, super-fast re-charging batteries come on the scene.

For those wondering, Elon Musk's Tesla electric car is still out there working, planning to make a big splash soon.

Hybrids are a necessary link in the development chain, combining internal combustion engines with electric motors. Here is an interesting look at the hybric car, going back to the 1800s.

Some electric car enthusiasts are promoting a "battery swapping" approach to extending range, but executives at Mercedes are giving that idea a thumbs down. Mercedes is promoting permanent lithium ion batteries with a driving range of just over 100 miles.

The bottom line is that traditional internal combustion engine automobiles are in no immediate danger of being replaced by all-electric cars. So far, hybrids have not lived up to their promise, and are more expensive in both short and long term calculations, when taking into account battery replacement.

Al Fin's prediction? Fuel cells that run on all types of hydrocarbon including ethanol and methanol will begin to replace the ICE within 10 years. The new power plants may very well also incorporate newer, lighter hybrid ultracapacitor : battery storage packs for extended boosting power when passing or accelerating onto a turnpike. Fuel cells are on a rapid developmental trajectory, as are ultracapacitors and batteries. But all electric (battery only) autos are an impractical solution looking for a cause. First come hybrids. Then come fuel cells paired with ultracapacitor:nextgen battery hybrids. Only carbon hysteria delusions underlie the persistent demands for all-electric (battery only) cars.

Cross posted at Al Fin Energy

Escape the System Like Jason Bourne

Multiple passports, moving assets, lock-picking, escape and evasion, foraging, even how to cross borders without detection (one preferred location: McAllen, Texas, page 390)–it’s a veritable encyclopedia of for those who want to disappear or become lawsuit-proof global citizens… _ 4DWW

The author of the best seller "The 4-Hour Workweek" devoted a recent long post on his blog (via Keelynet.com) to the topic of how to slip the system:

I took Spencer’s advice and opened an account with a Canadian bank that had a branch in St. Kitts. Since both Canada and St. Kitts are part of the British Commonwealth, he’d explained, I would have easy access to my money if anything happened in America. Unfortunately, in the process, I discovered that keeping international accounts secret is now illegal: the IRS requires Americans with over $10,000 in foreign accounts to file an annual report disclosing not just the amount of money and the banks it’s kept in, but the account numbers.

Meanwhile, Spencer was moving forward with his ten-year plan. He started an Internet business in Singapore, enabling him to open a private banking account in the country, which he claimed was fast becoming the new Switzerland. Though he hadn’t gotten his St. Kitts passport yet either, Spencer had done more research into buying an island.

“I’m looking at islands in the north, around Iceland, because no one will think of looking for anyone there,” Spencer said, his thick lips spreading into a self-satisfied smile. “If I can get some other B people [billionaires] to go there with me, we can build underground homes and use geothermal energy.”

“What about your submarine?”

“It’s a great way to move between islands undetected, but we’re running out of time. We need to move faster. This is only the beginning.”

“How bad do you think it’s going to get?” Spencer seemed to understand the economy at a higher level than most people did, perhaps because he knew so many of the people who ran it.

“I don’t think the whole country’s going to collapse, but we’re looking at the worst economic disaster in America since the Great Depression. What I’m also concerned about is the increase in violent crime that’s going to accompany this.” _4-HourWorkWeek

To get the information straight from the horse's mouth, check out the book "Emergency" by Neill Strauss.

I’ve begun to look at the world through apocalypse eyes. It usually begins in airports. That’s when I get the first portent of doom. I imagine explosions, sirens, walls blown apart, bodies ripped from life. Then, as I gaze out of the taxi window on my way home, I see people bustling around on their daily routine, endless rows of office buildings and tenements teeming with activity, thousands of automobiles rushing somewhere important. And it all seems so solid, so permanent, so unmovable, so absolutely necessary. But all it would take is one war, one riot, one dirty bomb, one natural disaster, one marauding army, one economic catastrophe, one vial containing one virus, to bring it all smashing down.

We’ve seen it happen in Hiroshima. In Dresden. In My Lai. In Rwanda. In Baghdad. In Halabja. In New Orleans. Our society, which seems so sturdily built out of concrete and custom, is just a temporary resting place, a hotel our civilization checked into a couple hundred years ago and must one day check out of. It’s an inevitability tourists can’t help but realize when visiting Mayan ruins, Egyptian ruins, Roman ruins. How long will it be before someone is visiting American ruins? _Emergency

Update: Dennis Mangan has also taken a look at this topic and has some interesting comments.

Drug Legalisation as a Last Resort?

Image SourceIllegal drugs are fueling crime, terrorism, and violent insurrection around the world. High profit from producing, transporting, and selling drugs with artificially inflated prices, is one of the worst de-stabilising forces in the modern world.

.....prohibition itself vitiates the efforts of the drug warriors. The price of an illegal substance is determined more by the cost of distribution than of production. Take cocaine: the mark-up between coca field and consumer is more than a hundredfold. Even if dumping weedkiller on the crops of peasant farmers quadruples the local price of coca leaves, this tends to have little impact on the street price, which is set mainly by the risk of getting cocaine into Europe or the United States.

Nowadays the drug warriors claim to seize close to half of all the cocaine that is produced. The street price in the United States does seem to have risen, and the purity seems to have fallen, over the past year. But it is not clear that drug demand drops when prices rise. On the other hand, there is plenty of evidence that the drug business quickly adapts to market disruption. At best, effective repression merely forces it to shift production sites. Thus opium has moved from Turkey and Thailand to Myanmar and southern Afghanistan, where it undermines the West’s efforts to defeat the Taliban.

Al Capone, but on a global scale

Indeed, far from reducing crime, prohibition has fostered gangsterism on a scale that the world has never seen before. According to the UN’s perhaps inflated estimate, the illegal drug industry is worth some $320 billion a year. In the West it makes criminals of otherwise law-abiding citizens (the current American president could easily have ended up in prison for his youthful experiments with “blow”). It also makes drugs more dangerous: addicts buy heavily adulterated cocaine and heroin; many use dirty needles to inject themselves, spreading HIV; the wretches who succumb to “crack” or “meth” are outside the law, with only their pushers to “treat” them. But it is countries in the emerging world that pay most of the price. Even a relatively developed democracy such as Mexico now finds itself in a life-or-death struggle against gangsters. American officials, including a former drug tsar, have publicly worried about having a “narco state” as their neighbour.

....Legalisation would...drive away the gangsters; it would transform drugs from a law-and-order problem into a public-health problem, which is how they ought to be treated. Governments would tax and regulate the drug trade, and use the funds raised (and the billions saved on law-enforcement) to educate the public about the risks of drug-taking and to treat addiction. The sale of drugs to minors should remain banned. Different drugs would command different levels of taxation and regulation. This system would be fiddly and imperfect, requiring constant monitoring and hard-to-measure trade-offs. Post-tax prices should be set at a level that would strike a balance between damping down use on the one hand, and discouraging a black market and the desperate acts of theft and prostitution to which addicts now resort to feed their habits. _Economist_via_BrianWang

How would one go about legalising drugs in a world where the "war on drugs" generates so much income on both sides of the law? Very carefully. A pampered population such as those that exist in Europe, North America, and Oceania, are apt to behave rather unpredictably if suddenly given access to very powerful drugs that can potentially make them feel better, smarter, and more powerful than they have ever felt in their lives. For many, psychological addiction would happen almost instantly, with physical dependency following in due order.

Al Fin has long favoured a graded approach to legalisation, beginning with marijuana and moving to low potency forms of other plant-derived drugs. The amount of cocaine originally in Coca Cola, for example, was far less of a threat to public health and order than cheap beer and many video games freely available. And so on. The issue needs very careful and dispassionate review and revision.

What is happening in Mexico is an illustration of what is happening in many other countries of the world, including Afghanistan. Terrorism, bloody insurrection, crime, etc. are all being financed by high drug prices in Europe, North America, and other more developed parts of the world. The drug war is a failure even if it succeeds -- especially if it succeeds. The higher the prices paid for drugs, the more profits earned by drug cartels and criminal terrorist organisations. In addition, the higher the prices for safer drugs such as marijuana, the more likely children and adolescents are to experiment with dangerous substitutes such as gasoline, toluene, airplane glue, and other rapid brain killers.

Mexico is sinking under the weight of criminality, a large part of which is financed by side effects of "the drug war." It is human nature to seek out risky behaviours and experiences of altered consciousness. An enlightened society would attempt to make such innately motivated experimentation and recreation more survivable, with fewer dangerous spinoffs such as drug cartel violence.

Meeting the Pirate Threat on the High Seas

Piracy is once again a serious threat to world shipping -- even to the leisure cruise industry. Ad hoc approaches to defending a ship from well armed pirates in high speed boats have achieved variable results. Current maritime laws prevent crews from using lethal force against armed invaders. Summary justice on the high seas -- immediate execution -- while effective in earlier ages, is prevented by modern international law.

Here is one non-lethal approach for preparing ships in advance for this threat:

Engineers have modified a firefighting robot to fend off attacks by pirates. It can ‘wash away pirates along with their weapons’ and even sink their boats.

The device is based upon a design for extinguishing fires on seagoing vessels and in ports. It was developed by the Centre of Firefighting Robotechnics in Petrozavodsk, a city in northern Russia.

A total of 12 such robots are needed to protect a ship. In automatic mode the system monitors its sector and if motion sensors detect an attack, a water cannon shoots at an approaching boat. Cameras also allow the robot to be operated manually from the bridge.

The water cannon is powerful enough to wash away boarding pirates and even sink their motorboats.

The manufacturer says a freighter company in Murmansk has ordered a number of their novel robots for testing.

The increased number of attacks in the Gulf of Aden off the African shore has forced several countries, including Russia, to send warships to patrol the troubled waters. _RussiaToday

High pressure salt water might just be the ticket, if properly targeted -- and if the systems are properly maintained. Of course pirates would immediately attempt to develop counter-measures to this new threat to their livelihood.

Interesting question: In the course of defending their ships, would crews be obligated by international law to rescue any pirates that end up thrashing about in shark-infested waters after a failed attempt at piracy?

Stem Cell Renaissance? Behind the Hype . . . .

President Obama's long anticipated and much heralded signing of new federal guidelines for the financing of embryonic stem cell research will help US scientists learn more of the mysteries of embryonic cell differentiation and manipulation. But in reality, the effect of the new rules will be far less significant for the future of regenerative medicine than most gullible news consumers will ever know.

.....the president’s support of embryonic stem cell research comes at a time when many advances have been made with other sorts of stem cells. The Japanese biologist Shinya Yamanaka found in 2007 that adult cells could be reprogrammed to an embryonic state with surprising ease. This technology “may eventually eclipse the embryonic stem cell lines for therapeutic as well as diagnostics applications,” Dr. Kriegstein said. For researchers, reprogramming an adult cell can be much more convenient, and there have never been any restrictions on working with adult stem cells.

For therapy, far off as that is, treating patients with their own cells would avoid the problem of immune rejection.

Members of Congress and advocates for fighting diseases have long spoken of human embryonic stem cell research as if it were a sure avenue to quick cures for intractable afflictions. Scientists have not publicly objected to such high-flown hopes, which have helped fuel new sources of grant money like the $3 billion initiative in California for stem cell research.

In private, however, many researchers have projected much more modest goals for embryonic stem cells. Their chief interest is to derive embryonic stem cell lines from patients with specific diseases, and by tracking the cells in the test tube to develop basic knowledge about how the disease develops.

Despite an F.D.A.-approved safety test of embryonic stem cells in spinal cord injury that the Geron Corporation began in January, many scientists believe that putting stem-cell-derived tissues into patients lies a long way off. Embryonic stem cells have their drawbacks. They cause tumors, and the adult cells derived from them may be rejected by the patient’s immune system. Furthermore, whatever disease process caused the patients’ tissue cells to die is likely to kill introduced cells as well. All these problems may be solvable, but so far none have been solved.

Restrictions on embryonic stem cell research originated with Congress, which, each year since in 1996, has forbidden the use of federal financing for any experiment in which a human embryo is destroyed. This includes the derivation of human stem cell lines from surplus fertility clinic embryos, first achieved by Dr. James Thomson of the University of Wisconsin in 1998.

President Clinton contemplated but never implemented a policy that would have allowed N.I.H.-financed researchers to study human embryonic stem cells derived by others. Research was able to begin only in August 2001, when President Bush, seeking a different way around the Congressional restriction, said researchers could use any lines established before that date.

Critics said the distinction between the Clinton and Bush policies lacked moral significance, given that each was intended to get around the Congressional ban, based on a religious and moral argument. The proposed Clinton policy amounted to: “Stealing is wrong, but it’s O.K. to use stolen property if someone else stole it.” The Bush policy was: “Stealing is wrong, but it’s O.K. to use stolen property if it was stolen before Aug. 9, 2001.”

Mr. Obama has put the proposed Clinton policy into effect, but Congressional restrictions remain. Researchers are still forbidden to use federal financing to derive new human embryonic stem cell lines. They will, however, be allowed to do research on new stem cell lines grown in a privately financed lab. _NYT

More research on embryonic stem cells will help scientists understand the intricate mechanisms of cell development. The knowledge spinoffs from this research will stretch far beyond regenerative medicine (RM) to cancer treatments, life extension technologies other than RM, and a much deeper understanding of biological mechanisms in general.

But all of that would have occurred without that much celebrated penstroke yesterday. And it is undeniable that the flow of NIH funds to non-embryonic stem cell research has been a boon to technologies that are more immediately applicable to the everyday regenerative cell and tissue treatments of the future -- treatment using the patient's own cells.

Science under Obama is every bit as political as science under any other president -- and will probably only grow more political with time. Obama's promotion of carbon penalties (disguised as "cap and trade") are a politicised hyping of the pseudo science of catastrophic global warming from anthropogenic CO2. Obama's carbon hysteria-based political meddling in the energy industry is likely to make Americans far more miserable, leaving them with far less resources to deal with exigencies, than if he had done nothing at all.

So let's celebrate the abundant biological future that will eventually come to us via all the avenues of research being followed. And let us not fall for the hype surrounding the gilded age of Obamanation.

A Mega-Crisis Waiting to Happen: Why Now?

The ongoing global financial crisis had been predicted for several decades. Many analysts believed the Carter depression of the late '70s would be the beginning of a decades-long collapse. But then Reagan happened. By reducing tax rates and ending price controls, Reagan allowed the economy to recover and to start growing again.

Unfortunately, the built-in time bombs and booby-traps inside the economies of North America and Europe were destined to grow along with the economy, creating dangerous and unstable bubbles of debt -- government, pension, corporate, and private debt. These bubbles have only just begun to burst, as they must. Had they burst earlier, the recovery would not be as difficult. Had the bubbles burst a few years later, the recovery would be even harder. Why are they in the process of bursting now? Why now? And why is the current US government putting all current and future resources of the US into patching up the bubbles -- instead of beginning the hard recovery from the necessary burstings?

Following, is some news from yet another bubble in the process of preparing to burst. Read it all to understand the breadth of the problem within the US alone:

A government retirement plan can’t go bankrupt, even if it’s insolvent; state treasuries must put up the money if a fund runs dry.

So we are now facing the first actual set of hard choices in several generations. Choices that increasing look like they can no longer be passed to the future. The future is here, it has arrived. Will states decide to pay their retirement obligations, pave roads, educate children, or feed the hungry? These are the choices that now sit before us and I remain skeptical that we will successfully borrow our way out of the predicament this time.

It would seem that decades of intellectually weak and fiscally negligent political leadership has finally caught up with us. _PensionDisaster

Everything seems to be falling apart at once. Is there a reason why the financials crashed when they did -- mid September 2008 -- and continued crashing at an accelerating rate as the winter of 2009 sank into cold, ice, and depression?

5) Uncertainty. Who is now our Commerce Secretary? Which cowards is the Attorney General talking about? What did Geithner mean about pernicious oil and gas companies? What is with this Solis, and card check? How hard is it to ensure a Richardson or Daschle is clean? In other words, market watchers see after five weeks chaos, and think there is no sure and steady paradigm in which they can make careful business decisions and anticipate with some surety future risk.

So the perfect storm forms, and millions of individuals come to millions of identical conclusions: “Cut your losses with these guys, and get your cash out before it gets worse” rather than “Wow, what bargains! I gotta get in before the window of profit opportunity closes.” _Obamafusion

It seems as if the new US administration has made all the wrong moves, with suitable false bravado, fully backed by US news and entertainment media, and burned out university faculties of the social sciences. "Dear Leader, The Messiah, cannot be allowed to fail -- he is too precious, the hope of the world." ;-)

Thinking like that can get the whole world flat busted. If ever there was a time to cut losses, allow corrupt losers to fail, and start to build the foundations for a new beginning, it is now. But the incompetent naifs at the top of the US government cannot let go of their grand dreams of social engineering -- they plan to do an "extreme makeover" of US society, US government, and even the US Constitution. They know what is best for all the rest of us, and they will save us even if we all end up impoverished, wet, cold, and starving. As legends in their own minds, they know best.

And that is why it is happening now. Why it is all happening now, at approximately one time. Many expected it to happen 30 years ago. Some expected it 16 years ago. But it is finally happening, because the big money -- finally, even Warren Buffett -- understands that the current US leadership does not know what in the focque it is doing. It does not know what it is doing, so it is following the maxim: "do anything! even if it's wrong." And since they have been waiting to do an extreme re-engineering of the US practically all their lives, that is what they have settled on.

Jim Rogers and Peter Schiff continue to have interesting commentary on current financial events. Simoleon Sense blog covers a wide range of financial, investment, and monetary news and views.

Bonus: Read how Obama supporter Jim Cramer has been savaged by the Obama administration along with the news and entertainment media, for making a few extremely timid criticisms of Obama's grandiose plans for a mega-makeover of the US in the middle of a depression.

Rebuilding a Damaged Brain and More

After strokes and other types of brain damage, entire areas of brain can die and be replaced by fluid filled cavities or depressions. Scientists at Kings College London are experimenting with a biodegradable polymer matrix that may someday re-build the damaged brain after strokes, abscesses, and other types of brain damage.

Scientists say that the key to the advance, published today in the journal Biomaterials, is the use of a biodegradable polymer called PLGA, which ensures that the stem cells remain in the area of stroke damage and establish connections with surrounding brain tissue. By reducing the number of stray stem cells, the system is likely to be safer as well as more effective than other methods, the researchers add.

...The researchers injected particles of the PLGA polymer loaded with neural stem cells directly into the stroke cavities. Once inside the brain, the particles link up to form complex scaffolds. Modo's team used MRI scans to pinpoint where the stem-cell injections were needed and to monitor the development of new brain tissue. "Over a few days we can see cells migrating along the scaffold particles and forming a primitive brain tissue that interacts with the host brain," says Modo. "Gradually, the particles biodegrade, leaving more gaps and conduits for tissue, fibers, and blood vessels to move into." The next step, he says, will be to add the growth factor VEGF, which should encourage blood vessels to enter the new tissue and speed its development into mature tissue.

...The key to the advance was the ability of the new polymer to encourage the growth and differentiation of the neural stem cells at three different scales, says Modo's colleague Kevin Shakesheff, a tissue engineer at Nottingham University. "At the large scale, it enables the void formed by the injury to get new blood vessels very quickly, which is vital if the new tissue is to survive. At the cellular level, the scaffold surface allows stem-cell receptors to attach to it. And at the molecular level, it will allow cells to mix with the right growth factors." _TechnologyReview

Another fascinating area of brain research involves the use of ultra-short electrical pulses to affect nanopores in the nuclear membranes of neurons, while leaving the nanopores of the cell membrane intact. This specificity appears to have interesting effects on the behaviour of neurons individually and as a group.

When an electric field is applied to a cell, a charge starts to build up on the cell membranes. After a few microseconds, the charge is so high that holes (or "pores") start to form in the cell wall, an effect called electroporation. This allows material (in particular calcium ions) to pass through, affecting the function of the cell. With shorter pulses there is not enough time to affect the cell. But electroporation can affect the structures within the cell such as the nucleus, known as organelles.

"Because the organelles are much smaller than the cell itself... they reach their maximum charge much more quickly," Center founder Karl H. Schoenbach explains in an article. " Ending the pulse after the organelles are charged up, within a few hundred nanoseconds but before large pores appear in the cell’s own membrane, lets you focus the electric field’s effects on the organelles, such as the nucleus, while leaving the cell membrane relatively untouched. That, in turn, lets you do the complex and varied things medical science is interested in, such as killing tumor cells or triggering an immune system response."

So on the one hand ultra-short pulses can be used to selectively destroy cancerous cells. But they can also produce much more effective stunning effects.

A paper from the Center on Neuromuscular disruption with ultrashort electrical pulses compares 450-nanosecond pulses with multi-microsecond Taser pulses and found that the shorter pulses were more effective for suppressing voluntary movement, and used less energy. Another study found that even shorter, 60-nanosecond pulses could stun rats.

But the most significant is a paper which found that it was possible to incapacitate cells for a prolonged period -- "our study provides experimental evidence that even a single 60-ns pulse at 12 kV/cm can cause a profound and long-lasting (minutes) reduction of the cell membrane resistance (Rm), accompanied by the loss of the membrane potential." _Wired

I understand if a readers eyes fog up while reading fine print in italics dealing with scientific topics, particularly late at night when they really should be in bed asleep. But it might be worth one's time to contemplate the implications of research on ultra-short electrical pulses on neurons individually and in aggregate.

I will come back to both of these topics in the future.

Neuronal Correlates of "First Impressions?"

Scientists at NYU and Harvard are claiming to have mapped sites of neural activity involved in the forming of first impressions on meeting another person. How does one meet a new person while firmly ensconced inside an fMRI machine? Read on:

The Nature Neuroscience study sought to investigate the brain mechanisms that give rise to impressions formed immediately after meeting a new person. It was conducted in the laboratory of Elizabeth Phelps, an NYU professor of psychology and neuroscience and one of the co-authors. The study's lead author was Daniela Schiller, a post-doctoral fellow in NYU's Department of Psychology and its Center for Neural Science.

...To explore the process of first impression formation, the researchers designed an experiment in which they examined the brain activity when these participants made initial evaluations of fictional individuals. The participants were given written profiles of 20 individuals implying different personality traits. The profiles, presented along with pictures of these fictional individuals, included scenarios indicating both positive (e.g., intelligent) and negative (e.g., lazy) traits in their depictions.

After reading the profiles, the participants were asked to evaluate how much they liked or disliked each profiled individual. These impressions varied depending on how much each participant valued the different positive and negative traits conveyed. For instance, if a participant liked intelligence more than they disliked laziness, he or she might form a positive impression. During this impression formation period, participants' brain activity was observed using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Based on the participants' ratings, the researchers were able to determine the difference in brain activity when they encountered information that was more, as opposed to less, important in forming the first impression. _PO

I give the researchers a B for effort. But I give them an F for making claims beyond what their study actually demonstrates. The problem is that they were only "simulating" the meeting of a new acquaintaince. Within the difference between simulation and reality lies an entire universe of distinction.

The same problem with over-reliance on simulations and models underlies the huge global financial crisis that President Obama is currently turning into a depression. The same over reliance on make believe underlies the quasi-scientific climate catastrophe religion looming over the vital energy supplies of the western world.

I understand that there are limits to realism when it comes to the scientific dissection of natural mechanisms, using hypotheses and experiment. But scientists need to be modest in their claims, taking into account the corners they have to cut in order to conduct experiments.

Simoleon Sense Blog: For Evolved Readers

Very few blogs have earned Al Fin's highest rating. If you take a few minutes of every day this week to follow Simoleonsense blog, you will understand why that blog is the latest recipient of the Al Fin Medal of Blog Advancement. Consider this posting: Weekly Wisdom Roundup #18. That single posting contains 28 juicy links, each leading to mind expanding information relevant to modern concerns.

The sheer breadth of topics covered by Simoleon Sense is staggering. Both the linked information and the blog commentary are of highest quality, totally free of the sarcasm and snark about which so many readers complain to Al Fin in emails. In fact, Simoleon Sense may be very much like what Al Fin blog would be, if Al Fin were to take the responsibility of blogging more seriously.

If you enjoy Al Fin blog, you will probably have your mind blown from a regular reading of Simoleon Sense.

Surviving the Obama-Pocalypse

1. Do not expect help from the authorities.
2. Learn how to provide basic services yourself

• Food
• Electricity
• Heat
• Drinking Water
• Shelter
• Sanitation
• Transportation Fuel
• Basic Maintenance
• News, unbiased current events
• Education
• Self-Defense
• Self-Government
• System of trade, barter, exchange, markets
  

And so on . . . It is extremely important that you begin to form a community -- no matter what size -- of persons who are tuned into the necessity of building an alternative infrastructure.

Here is the "rule of threes", basic rules of thumb:

1. Humans cannot survive more than three hours exposed to extreme low-temperature.

2. Humans cannot survive more than three days without water.

3. Humans cannot survive more than three weeks without food. _ApocalypseEx

Here is information on the game of "geocaching", a skill that mobile survivors and mobile surviving communities may find handy. All you need is a GPS and a sense of adventure.

Geocaching is a high-tech treasure hunting game played throughout the world by adventure seekers equipped with GPS devices. The basic idea is to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, outdoors and then share your experiences online. Geocaching is enjoyed by people from all age groups, with a strong sense of community and support for the environment. _Geocaching

Finally, what is the most compact, high nutrition store of food known? Sprout seeds. Just add water in the proper amounts at the proper times in the proper straining container, and you turn low bulk seeds into high bulk, high nutrition sprouts.

As always, if you have an interest in survival topics, be sure to check in with survivalblog on a regular basis.

Two financial commentators I recommend following are Jim Rogers, and Peter Schiff. Take their warnings seriously. You still have some time. Use it well.

Obama On Verge of Mental Breakdown

Allies of Mr Obama say his weary appearance in the Oval Office with Mr Brown illustrates the strain he is now under, and the president's surprise at the sheer volume of business that crosses his desk.

"Obama is overwhelmed. There is a .... tension between his ability to attend to the economic issues and his ability to be a proactive sculptor of the national security agenda.

"That was the gamble these guys made at the front end of this presidency and I think they're finding it a hard thing to do everything." Telegraph

The simple fact is that Barak Obama was not prepared to be US President. He was not prepared to be US Senator, for that matter, but in the Senate a member can spend most of his time running for president -- occasionally sparing the time to vote "present" on important issues -- and still be considered a US Senator in good standing. A president is expected to stay on top of things, and to actually ... you know ... make decisions.

Up to this point, Nancy Pelosi and Rahm Emanuel have been making almost all of the decisions for Mr. Obama. Obama makes decisions about vacations, parties, eating out, and setting the thermostat near 80 degrees F. Or perhaps Michelle makes those decision -- who knows?

White House insiders say Obama may not be getting enough sleep. What -- twelve hours a night is not enough? Perhaps a bit of modafinil might help, but I suspect that a nice long vacation is what the president really needs. Say, a forty year vacation in Hawaii? Perhaps he could run for president of the Honolulu Marxist Association? That might suit him to a tee.

Image h/t Rob's No Bull Zone

Lake Superior During an Ice Age? Last Tuesday

Due to the recent cold spell and below normal temperatures for much of the winter of 2008-2009, ice covers nearly all of Lake Superior. Only small areas of open water remain. This image was taken on Tuesday, March 3rd. _WattsupWithThat

Judging by past geologic history as read through ice cores, the Earth could enter a new ice age in as little as ten years. The sun has been behaving a bit sluggishly over the past couple of years, and we really do not understand the triggers of an ice age in any depth.

Imagine if your hometown were like Lake Superior is now -- 365 days a year, for years on end. Crops would not grow in the frozen fields, food supplies would run low. Keeping the roads, train tracks, and airfields clear of ice becomes harder the longer that glaciation conditions last. Food could be airdropped in, weather permitting, but supplies of heating and transportation fuel would run low.

Power transmission lines would fail under crushing loads of ice, and repair efforts would be constantly hampered by cold and gale force winds. Under President Obama, nuclear power is being curtailed and fossil fuels are being made artificially scarce by ruinous carbon regulations, restrictions, and taxes. And unfortunately, this president hears only the voices of revolution inside his head. For the sounds of the real world, his ears are made of tin.

President Doom-bama? Are Liberals Freaking Out at Obama's Overt Leftism?

Stuart Taylor is a respected liberal legal scholar and author who has supported Obama out of a belief that Obama was "one of us." By "one of us", Taylor meant that he thought that Obama was really a "good liberal", and not a wild-eyed leftist like those right winger extremists had been claiming. But even a "baby leftist" can start to wake up. Being taken for a chump is not easy to admit, but Taylor may be beginning to comprehend how easily he has been led down the path.

I have taken certain liberties with the excerpted text below, from Taylor's timid "mea culpa." Text inside the square brackets is editorial comment from Al Fin. _Al Fin

Having praised President Obama's job performance in two recent columns, it is with regret that I now worry that he may be [crafting] what looks more and more like a depression and may engineer so much spending, debt, and government control of the economy as to leave most Americans permanently less prosperous and less free.

Other Obama-admiring centrists have expressed similar concerns. Like them, I would like to be proved wrong. After all, if this president fails, who will revive our economy? And when? And what kind of America will our children inherit?

....But with the nation already plunging deep into [gratuitous] debt to [drown] the crippled financial system and [devastate] the economy, Obama's proposals for many hundreds of billions in additional spending on universal health care, universal postsecondary education, a massive overhaul of the energy economy, and other liberal programs seem grandiose and unaffordable.

With little in the way of offsetting savings likely to materialize, the Obama agenda would probably generate trillion-dollar deficits with no end in sight, or send middle-class taxes soaring to record levels, or both.

All this from a man who told the nation last week that he doesn't "believe in bigger government" and who promised tax cuts for 95 percent of Americans.

The president's suggestions that all the necessary tax increases can be squeezed out of the richest 2 percent are [devious and ] deceptive and [designed] to stir class resentment. And his apparent cave-ins to [leftist revolutionary] interest groups [will] change the country for the worse.

Such concerns [will] help explain why the Dow Jones industrial average plunged 17 percent from the morning of Inauguration Day (8,280) to its close on March 4 (6,876). The markets have also been deeply shaken by Obama's alarming failure to come up with a clear plan for fixing the crippled financial system -- which has loomed since his election four months ago as by far his most urgent challenge -- or for working with foreign leaders to arrest the meltdown of the world economy.

Stuart Taylor

[more at Taylor's original, unedited posting linked above]

Cross posted at Al Fin Potpourri

Obama to Receive Brain Implant?

Image SourceBarak Obama's addiction to the teleprompter is becoming a sore point with White House insiders. Not the addiction itself, but rather the fact that people are beginning to notice. In fact, Mr. Obama cannot give a simple four minute announcement without spoon-feeding from a teleprompter.

This unseemly dependency has prompted White House aides to pursue a less conspicuous way of feeding the president his lines. That is how the idea of a brain implant for Mr. Obama came up in conference recently. Caught between a rock (Mr. Obama's inability to speak publicly without prompting) and a hard place (the fact that Mr. Obama's handicap is being noticed beyond deniability), the White House Office of Perpetual Campaigning is considering the technology option. The only question now seems to be, "how to do it?"

A bionic eye implant may seem at first glance a plausible plan. But a few moment's thought should make it obvious that the "camera glasses" Mr. Obama would have to wear to make the bionic eyes work would be an unsightly obstacle to the president's facial expression magic.

When faced with the shortcomings of plan A, one White House counsel suggested a brain implant without the glasses. But there was the problem of how the implant would receive the signal transmitting the president's speech to his brain. Would he wear an antenna on his head? "No," scoffed another aide, "The president's hair is too short to conceal an antenna and power supply for the implant."

"Then what about using an implant that uses photoelectrodes instead of electrical signals? You could covertly beam the speech to an array of fiberoptics cunningly concealed in the president's hair!" yet another aide enthused.

"I've got a better idea," interjected Rahm Emanuel over the intercom. "How about using a focused ultrasonic brain stimulator? You wouldn't need any kind of receiver or antenna then!"

Everyone turned to look at the only scientist in the group, a neuropsychologist on loan from MIT. What did he suggest? "Well, there have been some embarrassing side effects from brain implants in the past. If the president started to ... you know ... in the middle of a State of the Union Address, or in high level talks with the Chinese Premier ... "

For a moment, there was only silence in the room as White House aides contemplated the enormous risks of their mission. Then, over the intercom came the voice of WHCOS Emanuel: "we could always include a 'kill switch' in the device signal." The suggestion was greeted with gasps and moans. "No, no, not that kind of a kill switch. Just a type of 'reset switch' that causes him to lose consciousness temporarily so that a medical team can rush him out, in case he starts to do something too embarassing."

With that explanation, the tension blew out of the room as from a runaway balloon. They were all in agreement, it would be done. Just how it would be done, and who could be trusted to do it secretly was another matter, for another conference. But that is how government works. That is just how government works.

Obama's War Against Innovation & Creativity

In fact, not only the stimulus package itself, but the higher taxes that it will require....are likely to reduce the number of entrepreneurs in America. _CityJournal_via_FreedomPolitics_via_NewsAlert

Entrepreneurs -- particularly inventor/innovator entrepreneurs -- are the carriers of "creative destruction" in capitalist economies. Creative entrepreneurs bring in the new and cause the obsolescence of the old. Without them, societies become stagnant and stuck -- like the tribal societies of the third world, and the hyper-bureaucratic societies of Russia, Europe, and North Korea.

"Stimulus is not part of the language of economics," says Arizona State University economics professor Edward Prescott. I talked to Prescott just hours before Obama set the presidential pen to the stimulus bill. "There is an old, discarded theory that's been tried and failed spectacularly, which is where that language of stimulus comes from." The stimulus bill, Prescott told me, "is likely to depress the economy."

...[Edmund]Phelps is disturbed by the thought that we may be shifting from an entrepreneurial economy toward a lobbying economy. "A lot of potential entrepreneurs, who were contemplating making an innovation and launching it in the marketplace, will now think, 'Well maybe the safer thing to do is to try to get that government contract.' ... And nobody does the innovation. They're all too busy trying to get the government contract." _TheWeek_via_FreedomPolitics

This is the other side of the "wealth and the IQ of nations" story. If a country is ruled by ideologues who lack basic wisdom and competence, then time-proven wisdom of the market is apt to be overturned by special interest social engineering. The end result is a severe distortion of the marketplace, with much-diminished innovation, entrepreneurship, and productive job-creation.

Markets understand these underlying dynamics far better than legislative, executive, or judicial branches of government understand them. The unbridled growth of government -- such as we are presently seeing -- is the death of markets and the economy. Hence the growing movement of capital away from the US and the US Dollar, toward economies where the market is still being allowed to work, more or less.

These interventions....tend to unsettle consumers, investors, and entrepreneurs by vividly demonstrating how political discretion can so suddenly throw everything up for grabs. "The scary thing is," Prescott says, "when this doesn't work what do they do? Start panicking and throwing good money after bad?" _TheWeek

Here is an interesting look at some of the deep, underlying assumptions made by various players in this game (via SimoleonSense)

IQ and the Science of Nations

CarpeDiemWe are accustomed to making the correlation between the average IQ of a population and its GDP. We also understand that nations with low average IQs can often "make-do" if it has a smart fraction, or market dominant minority.
WikipediaSo it makes sense that other national characteristics besides wealth would track the average population IQ. Spiegel offers an example in a recent article that looks at genetic modification of crops as a possible answer to world hunger.
SpiegelThe map accompanying the article points to the parts of the world where the most progress is being made in the genetics revolution. Not coincidentally, genetics "hotspots" correlate with the countries with highest population IQ in the maps above.

As long as you understand that oppressive states such as North Korea and Russia will be outliers -- due to the suppressive effects on free inquiry of tyrannical governments -- you can take virtually any area of cutting edge science and create a similar map.

IQ is important. It is important between countries and within countries. It is important between families and within families. The only other brain metric more important than IQ, is executive function (EF). EF plays a greater role in personal success than IQ, although both are important if one wants to be on the cutting edge.

Of course if you are powerful enough, you can be wealthy without having a high IQ. The leaders of third world nations possessing vast mineral wealth may be more intelligent than the average citizen of their countries, but still have IQs under 100. A few leaders of the oil/gas and mineral-rich nations of Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America come to mind.

What about BH Obama? What is his IQ? No one knows. His grades and test scores have been sealed for his protection. But if Obama ever wants to dispell common rumours concerning his low intelligence, and publicly take an IQ test, scoring as well as he can, he should look over "How to Score Above Average in IQ Tests". It might help. Obama's IQ is likely higher than that of his wife, but that isn't saying very much. ;-)

Virtual Reality Cocoon Promises All 6 Senses

Called a Virtual Cocoon, the round-room device provides a far more realistic delivery of virtual experiences via total sensory input. This device positions the occupant in a chair before a nearly 360 degree screen where s/he becomes completely immersed in not only a visual and audio presentation encompassing almost the full view, but also one where the occupant has skin sensations, smells and tastes. _TGDaily

Alright, perhaps I exaggerated by one sense. But a 5-sense VR chamber is impressive enough, even without the ability to see tomorrow's lottery numbers. If the developers of the technology from the Universities of York and Warwick can actually bring a quality product to market within a reasonable time at a reasonable price, the economically downtrodden consumers of Planet Earth may well jump through hoops for a short interval of realistic escape.

The team is working on enhancing the interaction of the five senses, so that they mimic real life more closely. No one sense should be over- or under-stimulated, and while this device is impressive the scientists acknowledge there is much room for improvement. _TGD

The most promising technology for VR is the "utility fog" concept from Josh Hall. But it may be several years yet before that technology is proven safe and convincing. In the meantime, several techniques have been invented to allow someone in VR to walk or run significant distances in a small space, using treadmills, moving floors, or large rotating spheres.

Haptic gloves and suits would allow someone in VR to experience touch and feel, which if convincing could go a long way toward driving the acceptance of VR in the marketplace. Haptics so advanced as to transmit a light "feather touch" from one participant to another via electronic link might be the first step toward the electronic bordello and house of sin. The addition of smell and taste to sight, sound, and touch, might be either a bonus or a turnoff, depending upon the quality of the experience.

The ultimate in VR may come when safe brain interfaces are developed which can bypass the external senses. The ability to create a vivid "waking dream" experience without actually moving, would require technology significantly beyond what today's gaming industry can produce. But at this point, I doubt they will stop trying.

Paying Attention, Making Sense of It

To understand and learn from our experiences, we need to be able to

1. pay attention to what is happening,
2. remember sequences of events, and
3. try out different causative scenarios

-- while continuing to attend to real world events as they occur around us. Some people are better at paying attention than others (via Simoleonsense).

Attention and working memory are centered on the pre-frontal cortices, but involve many other parts of the cortex and sub-cortex. They are important features of both intelligence and executive functions. Being able to focus on a task (learning or acting) despite distractions from the outer and inner worlds, is a complex skill that often separates the highly successful from less successful persons.

Intelligence as measured in IQ tests is highly heritable (between 50 and 80%). Executive functions of the pre-frontal lobes also seem to be highly heritable, but may be more trainable than IQ. Interestingly, since short term memory and attention can be trained in children between the ages of 4 and 7 years, both EF capacity and IQ scores can be raised in young children with proper training. It is too early to tell whether such gains will be long-lasting.

The fact that we seem to have the ability to favourably alter a young child's trajectory in life should offer us some hope for the future. Though the current Obama / Pelosi reich will do nothing to upset the powerful teachers' unions or public employee unions, eventually the current fascist rule in the US will pass, and more thoughtful and progressive leadership may come about.

But honestly -- only a fool would wait for an enlightened leadership to come about before utilising what is known to help those he cares about. The current perfect storm of fascism in the US is slowly teaching Americans the difference between the government and the country. The dumbed down, academically lobotomised, psychologically neotenised, slow learning citizenry of the US is becoming at least dimly aware that the government is not their parent, is not their god, is not worth believing or honouring. They are ever so slowly learning that the US government is more their enemy now than at any time in the nation's history.

Such knowledge should stimulate at least a little nascent self-sufficiency. And just because today's Americans are dumbed down, incompetent perpetual adolescents, there is no reason why future Americans should be forced into the same dead end.

The Ultimate Multi-Function Survival Tool

Image Source
The human brain is the ultimate tool for survival in a changing environment. Since the brain is constantly evolving in response to experience, it is never exactly the same as before. This means that we can shape our experiences to improve desired brain functions.

Specialists in brain function such as Michael Merzenich, in the Google Talk video above, have developed sophisticated software training tools to develop a medley of brain functions necessary for high level thinking and learning. Dr. Merzenich claims that the current incarnation of his software tools can subtract roughly 11 years of age-related mental decline from the average middle-aged or elderly brain. For anyone past the age of 50, an 11 year improvement is quite significant.

The expense of Merzenich's Posit Science software limits the application to research, institutional use, and moderately affluent users. But competing companies are entering the brain training arena, and making strong claims for the efficacy of their own products, compared to the Posit Science regimen.

The Posit Science and Mind Sparke programs both employ training protocols that can help mitigate and reverse the mental declines associated with aging. The programs differ in four broad respects:

1. Relative Training Time Required – Posit Science requires 65 to 80 hours of training over a 3 month period. Mind Sparke’s integrated exercise trains several functions simultaneously and requires just 20 hours over a three month period.
2. Training Targets – Mind Sparke’s training program targets two brain functions that the Posit Science programs do not -- multi-tasking skills and simultaneous left-brain / right-brain processing.
3. Training of Natural Listening Skills – The Mind Sparke program does not train natural ('real life') listening comprehension. (This can be supplemented by mindfully engaging in everyday tasks and activities that require prolonged attention and focus.)
4. Relative Cost – The Posit Science program bundle costs a total of $690. Mind Sparke Brain Fitness Pro costs less than $60.

....Posit Science and Mind Sparke customers report similar subjective benefits from their training – improved focus and concentration, improved memory, and improved visual processing. Mind Sparke’s customers (a broader customer base in terms of age range) have also reported improved mathematical ability, a boost in puzzle-solving ability and improved hand-eye coordination and musical proficiency. _MindSparke

Links to 10 top websites for brain training games and information

Brain-Mind web resource -- provides background for understanding how the brain works

As does McGill's "Brain Top to Bottom"

Preparing for An Obama Depression Down Under

Interest in surviving through hard economic times to a new prosperity at the other end is not limited to North America. Australia is enjoying a similar interest in survival skills and planning. The concluding section of the article below, talking about group co-preparedness, is particularly important to keep in mind.

"There has been a surge in interest recently," says Simon Beer, whose website, survival.org.au, has practical tips in bush skills, fire starting and food gathering. "Climate change, peak oil, the economic situation - people are seeing we're headed for catastrophic changes." In 2001, he moved from McMahons Point to the Blue Mountains, where he grows his own vegetables and collects tinned food. He says: "When resources become scarce, people fight, nations fight."

Traffic has also been brisk on Aussurvivalist.com, which has a graph showing the group's opinion "as to possible causes and likelihood of a major catastrophe in the next 10 years". Economic collapse rates at 87 per cent. The website's founder, John Monico, would not talk to the Herald but writes of being interested in survivalism ever since watching The Day Of The Triffids and reading John Christopher's post-apocalyptic novel, No Blade Of Grass. "I have stepped up my level of preparedness," he writes, "due to increasing global uncertainty and the needs of my family."

Most Aussurvivalist members are white and male: more than a third are ex-military or serving. There is a lot of discussion about guns, coupled with a lingering contempt for wider society.

However, Russ Grayson, co-founder of Transition Sydney, says: "We can accomplish more by co-operating in groups and communities rather than acting alone and heading for the hills".

Formed last year, Transition Sydney has several hundred members, and affiliates in Brisbane, Adelaide and the Sunshine Coast, who are preparing for a post-oil world by developing local solutions to food production and distribution, clean energy, water harvesting and recycling.

"We develop prototypes that can be scaled up in case of emergency," Grayson says. "Survivalists are usually on the fringe, but this is a mainstream movement. That's the only way [we can] meet the challenges ahead, by working together." _AustralianSurvival

Being a part of a larger group that has developed its survival and "make-do" skills will increase one's odds of survival immensely. The need for a Society of Creative Apocalyptology is growing to critical levels, and Al Fin should be chastised for his tardiness in widely implementing a full-scale SCA.

Special Bonus: The ATAX and the Survival Keychain tools will give you the multiple survival functions that may make the difference between surviving the attack of the Obama zombies, or being another statistic of the O.D.

Basic Survival Keychain

* Leatherman Squirt, 2oz, $40
* Princeton Tec LED Light, .23oz, $4
* RadDetect PRD 1250, .9oz, $129
* black mini-Bic in leather, .5oz, $1
* Whistle/Compass, .7oz, $6
* Benchmade Rescue Hook, 1.2oz, $18
* CRKT KISS serr/tanto, 2.2oz, $15
* Buck 754 NRG Knife/Bottle Opener, 1.2oz, $15
* Fisher Stowaway Pen, .17oz, $8
* Peter Atwood's Titanium Prybaby, .8oz, $60
* mini Al 'Biner, .1oz, $3
* ___________________________________
* Total: 8.5oz $289
Source

Safe Thorium Reactors: Plentiful, Safe Energy for Hundreds of Thousands of Years

The human brain is a pattern recognition engine. Thanks to evolution, humans are made to recognise problems and to find ways to solve them. By creatively recognising better ways to feed, clothe, and shelter each other, humans have societies of varying levels of wealth and prosperity.

The prosperity of human society depends upon their ability to creatively and skilfully use energy in large amounts. The summer of 2008 was a clear example of the blow to human economies when energy is priced too high, creating artificial energy scarcity. (political peak oil) Unfortunately, the governments of Europe, Australia, and the United States are united in the scheme to make energy permanently scarce. This philosophy is unsustainable -- incompatible with human prosperity or any concept of a singularity.

Brian Westenhaus has posted an excellent treatment of the molten fuel thorium reactor, and its many safety features. The "Google Talks" video above comes from Brian's article, and discusses the molten fuel thorium reactor in depth -- with pertinent comparisons to competing designs. Go check out the article in full.

Speaking of nuclear energy, be sure and visit Brian Wang's website to learn more about affordable nuclear space launch! If we can live through the age of the hyper-Luddite Obama zombie, we may just make it to the age of limitless possibilities on the other side.

Cross-posted to Al Fin Energy

Update: For much more information on the movement to implement the liquid fueled thorium reactor, see this Brian Wang NextBigFuturePost

Tallest Building, Largest Ship

Despite global economic doldrums, Kuwait is building a 3,284 foot tower-construct destined to make the 2,300 foot Burj Dubai feel like an also-ran. The new Mubarak towers will consist of three interlocking spiral towers with moveable aelerons on the trailing edges. The construction is meant to serve the practical purpose of making efficient use of real estate for housing purposes. As described, the building will almost contain self-contained cities within a city -- like an urban arcology.

Although the three-pronged design keeps the high-rise from swaying, it doesn’t counter the choppy winds that whip around the uppermost stories, which can cause damaging vibrations. So Kuhne is trying something never before done on a building: giving it vertical ailerons, the normally horizontal flaps on the trailing edge of aircraft wings that control rolling motion. The ailerons, which are only three to six feet wide, run the full length of each edge of the towers and mechanically adjust to redirect the changing winds around the structure and scatter the vortices, mitigating vibrations.

The Mubarak’s size is intended to accommodate Kuwait’s explosive population growth, with seven 30-story neighborhoods stacked atop one another, each with apartments, offices and hotels, and four-story “town squares” linking them. Even the height has a cultural significance, Kuhne says. “One thousand and one meters for [the classic Arabian fairy tale] One Thousand and One Nights. It’s the difference between bragging rights and telling a story.” _PopSci

In Florida, the world's largest ship -- The Oasis of the Seas -- is being constructed. Although not exactly a seastead, it is approaching the size of an actual "floating city." It will have room for 6300 passengers, and features an outdoor tree-filled park.

Royal Caribbean engineers widened the hull and split the box in half, erecting two six-story towers of cabins on either side, with enough space between them to fit the football-field-size park.

To maneuver this new giant, three 20-foot-tall propellers pull rather than push the boat through the water. The propellers are mounted on swiveling pods along with electric motors (powered by diesel generators in the ship) delivering the equivalent of 30,000 horsepower. This system is more efficient, because it eliminates the need for a long drive shaft, which typically creates drag under the ship. The propellers can rotate 360 degrees, so they also act as the steering system, allowing the captain to make adjustments in port of as small as one foot. _Popsci

The ship will feature a huge central atrium offering views of a central recreational area.

It is easy to conceive of a few small design changes that could turn the Oasis of the Seas into a full-fledged seastead, capable of sustaining a full-time living, working population at sea for extended periods of time. All that is lacking is the workable business model that would provide the income to replace expected passenger fees.

Just Call Him Robin H. Obama, Jolly Green Mess.

Image SourcePerhaps it is time for America to tell Obama and his zombies that we get the joke. He won. His zombie-handlers in the Senate and the House won. It's their party and they can re-distribute wealth and make payoffs to cronies if they want to. But somewhere in all the trillion dollar deficits, you would hope that the zombie-masters would apply some genuine stimulation to the real economy. Not paybacks to big Democratic Party donours and supporters. Not an expansion of welfare back to pre-reform levels. Not an economy-killing energy policy that drives us all even deeper into recession. We have too much of that from the Jolly Green Messiah already. The real economy is being choked out of existence in the midst of unprecedented government spending -- of other people's money, and of money that does not even exist.

Federal policy is damaging the economy’s prospects. It fails to provide the needed tax incentives for investment in factories and equipment, incentives that were central to efforts to revive the economy during the Kennedy-Johnson era and under Ronald Reagan. But government spending can’t lead the way to sustained recovery, because its stimulating effect will be offset by anticipated higher taxes and the need to finance the deficit.

Heavy-handed federal intervention into the management of companies from banks to auto makers will also delay recovery. And misguided efforts to help distressed homeowners by permitting courts to rewrite the terms of mortgages will cause banks to limit mortgage lending, which will prevent housing from contributing to the recovery. _NYT

The US economy is nothing like it was in the 1930s. In some ways, it is much worse. When confidence in the US dollar finally erodes away, there is nothing to stop the economy's fall but a vast vacuum created by trillion dollar deficits -- courtesy of Dear Leader Obama-Messiah. These are the times for making alternative plans. Hope for the best. Plan for the worst.

Meanwhile, China is sinking billions of dollars into investments in the Caribbean and Latin America, building influence in the backyard of Obama and his zombie horde. Russia is likewise solidifying military alliances with Venezuela and Cuba. Weak presidents -- like Carter was and Obama is -- open the door to their country's enemies. China and Russia would be no kind of enemy at all, were they to turn down this opportunity. And despite significant problems at home, neither Russia nor China would dare pass up a chance to weaken the influence of the mutual bane to their individual dreams of world hegemony.