King Obama? It Has a Certain Ring to It!

DirectorBlueThe US is in desperate economic straits. Under the Obama administration, deficits are rising at record rates, while unemployment continues to eat away at the public's sense of well-being and confidence. Clearly something drastic must be done before the entire nation is sold into slavery, but what?

Elect Obama King!

Last night Col. Ralph Peters was on Bill O'Reilly's show, talking about Libya. Peters thinks we should act on behalf of the rebels there, but he expressed skepticism that President Obama will ever do anything. "Obama loves the idea of being President," Peters said, "but he can't make a decision."

I think there is a lot of truth to that, even in domestic policy, where Obama has passively deferred to Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi on all legislative matters. One can debate whether action is appropriate in Libya or not, but Peters is certainly right when it comes to foreign policy--it is a safe bet that Obama will do nothing, because doing something would require a decision.

That got me thinking: Obama enjoys being president, and he especially treasures the symbolic significance of being the first African-American president. That's how his supporters feel, too. I haven't heard anyone defend his actual performance in a long time, but there is still widespread satisfaction with the symbolic value of his presidency. So why don't we make him king? If being the first African-American president has symbolic value, just think what it would mean for the first King of the United States to be African-American! Plus, Michelle would be a queen and Malia and Sasha would be princesses. How cool would that be?

....The king would have no duties beyond golf, so Obama would be perfect for the job. Our king would need a place to live, of course--we need to coax Obama out of the White House--so I'm thinking one of those big houses in Newport, Rhode Island would be ideal. Safely out of the way.

....we could hold a special election and choose a real president.....On no account would our new constitutional arrangement allow Joe Biden to succeed Obama. He would make a terrific viceroy, or possibly court jester.

Sure, it seems like a radical solution. But consider the alternative. The more I think about it, the better I like it: Obama for King! _Powerlineblog

Besides playing golf, King Obama can be official spokesperson for the official movement to save the environment. The promotion of magic solar energy beans, in particular, would suit the King's persuasive persona and trustworthy demeanour. Saving the entire world as King has got to beat destroying the world's sole superpower, as a mere president.

Let's be honest about Mr. Obama's prospects for doing any type of responsible work at all in his life, on his own. Such prospects are essentially non-existent -- a point that should have been clear well before the 2008 US elections. But we will let that point slide for now.

The important thing is to try to salvage as much as we can from the ongoing debacle popularly known as the Obama regime. It seems clear that the only way to do that is to appoint -- or elect -- Barack Obama King! Then elect a real president who can build the type of tough-love, hard-decision-making US government that is needed.

"President for life" has an unfortunate third worldish sound to it, while "King for life" sounds perfectly natural and normal. As king, Obama would not have to stand for re-election every 4 years like a commoner. And just imagine . . . Queen Michelle . . . for real.

Published earlier at abu al-fin

Centripetal China in Chaos

ChinaHardLanding CSMonitor
Fewer people may be eyeing China recently, in light of the unrest in Arab countries and the devastating natural disasters and aftermath in Japan. Yet China holds a big piece of the puzzle, as to how the future will turn out. Best not to forget it.

For example, a fascinating method of financing a commodities and real estate boom:

...companies importing copper are indeed buying it on deferred payment terms. For example, 1,000 tonnes of copper bought using a 180-day LC means the companies don’t have to pay the bank issuing the LC for 180 days after the shipment arrives in China.

During that time, though, the copper can be pledged as collateral for cash — and the funds raised are free to be invested any which way the company wishes.

As our source points out, with real estate and commodities having gained 20 to 30 per cent, or more, in some six-month periods, this could have been an extremely profitable activity in the last couple of years. _FT

Western investors may well be lured in by outward signs of economic growth which are actually based upon shifty loan schemes resembling something Bernie Madoff might have dreamed up. When all the loose ends of this "infrastructure to nowhere" are pulled in, what will be left?

....China's export-led economy is due for a hard landing. Instead of 9.8 percent, its growth in the fourth quarter of 2010, China's GDP could decline toward a recessionary 6 percent. That will slow domestic job growth, choke off the expansion in the rest of Asia, and rattle investors around the world.

It also will no doubt burst the global commodity bubble, which would be bad news for commodity exporters, ranging from Brazil and Canada to Australia and New Zealand.

A hard landing in China is very likely for two reasons. For one, Beijing's policy tools are crude. In the wake of a real estate bubble, a jump in consumer inflation from negative territory in 2009 to 4.9 percent in January 2011, and a rise in food prices to a politically untenable 10.3 percent, China has slammed on the brakes. Eight times since January 2010, the central bank has raised reserve requirements – a sledgehammer tool the Federal Reserve here hasn't used in decades.

Another reason for a hard landing: In a part command/part market-driven economy like China's, any economic policy is hard to enact. _CSMonitor

Even the best of markets will behave chaotically from time to time, and require painful corrections. But China's economy is even less of a market economy than that of the US. Too much relies upon top-heavy dictates based upon little more than educated guesses, tainted by nationalistic and ideologic bias. The "Knowledge Problem" always has the last laugh.

It is always good to look at how power is distributed in a society, before one attempts to predict the society's future:

Key in the survival of political systems is not democracy in the western sense but a diffusion of power over generations, a leadership that reacts to popular concerns, and room for upward socio-economic mobility. China has all of those.

Unlike in the Middle East, where strongmen and family dynasties who have ruled for decades on end have become the focal points of anger, there has been remarkable diffusion of power in China. None of the powerful families, like those of past leaders Deng Xiaoping, Ye Jianying, or Chen Yun, have had offsprings promoted above a certain rank in the Standing Committee of the Politburo.

That ranking is far more important than titles like Vice Premier or Minister. For instance, Prime Minister Zhou Enlai during the Mao era was ranked at number seven in the Party hierarchy in the 1970s. The offspring of political figures mostly enter business, as there is more money and personal freedom there. _ShaunRein

Rein's insight is key. In a "one-child society" such as mainland China's, wealth and power do not diffuse and propagate through the generations in the same way as they do in societies with extended families -- aunts, uncles, cousins, siblings, etc. The urge to wealth and power tend to take on a sense of immediacy and urgency which may be partially sublimated and diluted in societies which provide a greater sense of immortality through one's extended progeny.

Nationalism becomes more prominent as well, which in the face of a growing "male dominant society," could easily lead to international frictions and more frequent brushfire wars and conflicts -- in an attempt to diffuse the growing bottom-up pressure from a male "youth bulge."

The speculative fever which has driven China's economy since the collapse of its export markets in 2008, is built upon multiple inter-locking layers of corruption at most levels of government -- but particularly at regional and local levels. National leadership tends to look the other way as long as economic numbers look good, and as long as China's military and technological strengths appear to grow. Everything else is built upon the economic numbers, at this point.

Never forget that China -- like the late USSR -- is an empire, comprising multiple ethnic regions and relying upon the stripping the resources of multiple client states in the region. Also never forget that China's recent economic, technological, and military resurgence was largely fueled by massive outside investment, which continues throughout the last few years of global financial and economic turmoil. Never forget that China's wealth is incredibly lopsided demographically and geographically. China's historical tendency to break apart into warring centres of power should never leave one's mind when contemplating possible fates of the middle kingdom.

Better Genes, Better Brains

Better brains tend to run in families. The crucial brain determinants of life success -- IQ and Executive funtion -- are between 60% and 80% heritable. Exciting new tools for studying the genomics of the brain, such as the Allen Human Brain Map (read more here), are being used in conjunction with imaging tools such as diffusion tensor imaging, to study the individual nature of how human brains manifest underlying genomes.

A recent study from Australia looks at how genetics influences the efficiency of how human brains are wired -- and how well they work.

“Some brains are wired better than others, and 60% of the differences can be explained by genetic factors,” said lead author Alex Fornito from the Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre at the University of Melbourne. “The novelty is that we now have new methods to identify different aspects of brain network organisation. Previously it was very difficult to try and map these connections.”

...“We found some of the strongest effects in the prefrontal cortex, where up to 80% of the differences between people were attributable to genes. The prefrontal cortex plays a vital role in planning, strategic thinking, decision-making and memory.”

Previous work has shown that people with more efficient brain connections score higher on tests of intelligence, and that brain network cost-efficiency is reduced in people with schizophrenia, particularly in the prefrontal cortex. _Cosmos

Finding the links between genes and intelligence, or between genes and impulse control, requires extensive research and great deal of time. At the US NIMH, the Functional Neurogenomics Program is dedicated to teasing out the numerous connections between the genome and all aspects of brain function. Likewise, in research centers around the world, scientists are hard at work discovering how differences in our genes create differences in our brains, which create differences in the worlds which each of us experiences.

This is not merely an academic problem. The endeavour holds keys to unlocking many of the most vexing problems of human societies worldwide.

What Compelled 20+ Black Men to Rape One 11 year old Girl?

Gang Rape Suspects
The gang rape allegedly occurred months ago, but is just now hitting the news more widely, due to attempts by NY Times reporters and black activists to make the accused into victims, and the 11 yo victim into the perpetrator.

Steve Sailer takes the NYTimes to task for its one-sided coverage of the story. And for good reason. More from Jezebel.com, which does a better job of covering the story than the NYTimes!

In December, police learned of the assault when an elementary school student told a teacher about a cellphone video featuring one of her classmates. Authorities say that on November 28, the girl was offered a ride by a 19-year-old who took her to his house, then ordered her to take her clothes off, saying she's be beaten if she didn't. She was raped by several men and boys, then moved to the trailer where more assaults occurred as the attackers took cellphone videos and photographs.

The New York Times published a story today about how the case has torn apart the town, and the paper chooses to focus on the plight of the accused men. The author says the town is wondering "how could their young men have been drawn into such an act?" as if they were tricked into gang raping a child. Then there's this quote:

"It's just destroyed our community," said Sheila Harrison, 48, a hospital worker who says she knows several of the defendants. "These boys have to live with this the rest of their lives."

Though, of course, the accused are innocent until proven guilty, it's hard to believe that anyone's first concern would be about how the men will live with what they did. It's even more incredible that the Times decided to include the quote in the story, but it doesn't end there. _Jezebel

Black men commit far more violent crime than men of other races, although the reasons for this difference are not entirely clear. Some attribute the differences to hormonal levels, other focus on low intelligence levels. Al Fin sociologists feel that "a culture of resentment" running rampant inside black communities and cultures is at least partially responsible for high crime rates among black men.

One additional factor which must be discussed is the issue of "impulse control", one part of pre-frontal lobe "executive function." Michael Gottfredson and Travis Hirschi published a detailed look at the relationship between impulse control and crime. It should be noted that executive function -- like IQ -- is highly heritable. It should also be noted that the developmental window for optimising executive function through training, is open between the ages of roughly 4 to 8 years of age. In communities where the illegitimacy rate is roughly 70%, early childhood training is likely to be poor to non-existent.

Here's a quick look at one particular hormone, testosterone:

Take testosterone in a prison. Dabbs' team found that criminal violence and aggressive dominance among women in prison is linked to higher levels of testosterone. An earlier study of male inmates found testosterone levels to be highest among male inmates convicted of violent crimes such as rape, murder and assault. Variables such as age, social factors and other hormones were seen as important in these studies.

Take testosterone and 'delinquency'. Comparing college students with men and women of similar age in a "delinquent urban subculture" (identified as skinheads, bouncers, bartenders, strippers), "delinquents" had higher testosterone levels than college students. (Personally, boxing the range of research subjects into a "delinquent urban subculture" sounds questionable, but anyway...)

Take testosterone in the workplace. Dabbs' team examined the salivary testosterone in seven vocation groups of men, as well as an unemployed group. They found that actors and footy players had higher levels than religious ministers. Dabbs related testosterone to dominance and antisocial tendencies, which in turn, he suggests, effect vocational preferences in subtle ways. Other studies reveal traditional 'white collar' workers possess lower testosterone than traditional 'blue collar' workers. _abc.net

Many more factors are involved, and free testosterone is not the only androgenic hormone in circulation. In addition, androgenic receptors come in different types, and different receptor types may influence behavioural reaction to any given testosterone level differently.

We know from examples such as the Wichita Massacre and the Knoxville Horror, that there is almost certainly an element of racial hatred involved when such gang rapes are combined with murder. Young women students who are raped and murdered on and near college campuses in American cities are often the victim of whatever combination of racial hatred, hormonal imbalance, low impulse control, and low intelligence which may drive young black male crime.

In the case of the young Texas girl, at least she was not murdered. I am personally more concerned about her future welfare than that of the rapists. It is true, however that society is going to have to live with these bad boys for many years. So it would be best for society to stop covering up this type of crime, stop making excuses for the perpetrators, and get to the bottom of what is driving this all-too-common type of interracial crime.

More: Here is the NYTimes story about the gang rape, published about 3 months after the assault, written more like a PC cover-up than a belated news report. Contrast this excuse-making "coverage" with the unrelenting attacks by the NYT against the Duke lacrosse team players who were later found innocent of all charges against them.

Update -- 14March2011 -- Meanwhile in Sweden: 20 Muslim Immigrants Gang Rape 11 yo Swedish Girl and Gang Rape and Genocide in Cote d'Ivoire and on it goes in ghetto after township after shanty town

High Pre-Natal Testosterone Exposure & Genius, ADHD, Autism

"There seems to be some evidence that excessive prenatal exposure to testosterone facilitates increased connections in the brain, especially in the right prefrontal cortex," said Mrazik. "That's why we see some intellectually gifted people with distinct personality characteristics that you don't see in the normal population."...Mrazik's notion came from observations made during clinical assessments of gifted individuals. _SD

Genius is more commonly seen in males than females, and males certainly receive much higher pre-natal exposures to testosterone than females, on average. In addition, high pre-natal exposures to testosterone have also been associated with increased rates of ADHD and autism, two disorders more commonly seen in males than females, like genius.

ADHD has recently been associated with greater creativity:

A new study in the Journal of Personality and Individual Differences found adults with ADHD enjoyed more creative achievement than those who didn’t have the disorder.

“For the same reason that ADHD might create problems, like distraction, it can also allow an openness to new ideas,” says Holly White, assistant professor of cognitive psychology at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida and co-author of the paper. “Not being completely focused on a task lets the mind make associations that might not have happened otherwise.” _SB

Of course one would need to unravel all the different associations involved. Just as not all males are geniuses, neither are all persons with ADHD exceptionally creative. The situation cries out for extensive genetic analysis in conjunction with an analysis of hormonal history, family history, and life experience. Here's more on a particular gene, RORA, associated with autism.

"Autism has a huge sex bias, and it's been proposed that higher levels of fetal testosterone may put a fetus at risk," said study researcher Valerie Hu, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. "We've provided an explanation of how this works."

Normally, RORA's job in cells is to turn on several other genes, Hu said. When a cell has high levels of testosterone, RORA levels run low, which affects every gene that RORA is supposed to turn on. The researchers based their findings on tests of neurons growing in lab dishes.
The research does not show that low levels of RORA cause autism, only that they are associated with the condition, Hu said. But other research has suggested that a RORA deficiency could explain many of the effects seen in autism. _MSNBC

...more is known about what derails the brain’s normal development, thus charting what makes gifted people gifted is very much a new frontier. Mrazik hopes that devices such as the Functional MRI scanner will give them a deeper understanding of the role of neurobiology in the development of the gifted brain.

“It’s really hard to say what does put the brain in a pathway where it’s going to be much more precocious,” he said. “The next steps in this research lay in finding out what exact stimuli causes this atypical brain development.” _Eurekalert

Asperger's Syndrome is 9 times more common in males than females, and is also thought to be associated with male genius.

But Professor Simon Baron-Cohen, of Cambridge University, says it is more accurate to describe this creativity as "systemising" - a strong drive to analyse detail.

"This might be in mathematics, machines, natural phenomena or anatomy, to identify rules that govern a system and any variations in that system."

While those whose strength lies in rational analysis are by no means exclusively male, it is described as a male brain trait compared with the so-called female ability to empathise - a characteristic weak spot for those with Asperger's.

"The condition does tend to affect men more than women, especially among those who are high-functioning. Males outnumber females nine to one in this diagnosis," he says. _PDF BBC PDF

If politically influential feminists truly wish to eliminate the gender gap in math-intensive areas such as physics, advanced engineering, theoretical computer science, and other hard sciences and technical fields, perhaps they should legislate pre-natal testosterone levels for all fetuses. The world would lose a great deal in variety and emotional colour, but achieving such a leveling would no doubt give these feminists a tremendous sense of accomplishment.

Use the Strong Force, Luke -- The Strong Force

Images from Wikipedia "forces" and "quarks"

The image above portrays 3 "quarks", particles which when combined make up larger particles such as neutrons and protons. Quarks come in different varieties, and are bound together to form larger particles by "gluons." Gluons moderate the so-called "strong nuclear force," which may hold one answer to a limitless source of energy.

Humans get most of their energy from chemical reactions, moderated by the electromagnetic force. Such chemical energy is far less potent (less dense) than nuclear energy -- either fission, fusion, or LENRs (low energy nuclear reactions). The forces moderating nuclear reactions are far more powerful than the electromagnetic forces moderating chemical reactions -- which is why smart fission can provide humans with abundant energy for thousands of years, and fusion power is essentially limitless in human terms. But to truly take best advantage of fission, fusion, and LENRs, we need to understand the nuclear forces better.

...Despite many hundreds of well-functioning nuclear power plants, our understanding of nuclear forces is only empirical, and empirical knowledge is always imperfect.

For example, in producing nuclear energy, the decay reactions repeat many times, with the imperfections of every repetition resulting in a loss of predictive power of computations. This hampers the optimisation process, and is one of the main reasons why several large projects investigating energy production using more abundant uranium-238 or thorium (fast breeder reactors) were closed in Europe and the United States before they achieved the expected level of performance.

Another problem is the nuclear waste that emerges when energy is produced in the decay process. The waste can be substantially, or even completely, reduced if we could use an alternative form of nuclear decay that is triggered by externally accelerated particles. Here, too, however, we need more precise knowledge of the properties of nuclear processes.

The force binding atomic nuclei is a special case of the "strong force", one of the four fundamental forces in nature, and is extremely difficult to investigate, because it acts very quickly and violently. Around 50 years ago, it was proposed to study the strong forces by firing protons at each other at very high energies.

...Several large accelerator research centres were built, and the scattering of particles at high energies revealed a fascinating structure of matter. New particles, called gluons, were found to mediate the strong force. Their discovery should provide a clue to precise knowledge of the strong force.

At short distances, gluons create an attractive force that is pretty weak and well understood. But, at larger distances, comparable to the proton radius, the force becomes really strong, and a very large number of gluons is involved, forming complicated structures that are not well known today. Therefore, for some time, it was not expected that the properties of the strong force could be directly derived from the properties of gluons.

In the last few years, however, experiments at the HERA accelerator in Hamburg, Germany, have observed the strong interaction effects in slow motion, which could open a way to a precise understanding of the strong force.

...The appearance of such clear gluonic structures was unexpected; the experiments at HERA were not designed to study them. But the precision experiments required to measure the strong force can be designed and built with known technology. So two large groups of physicists - one concentrated around the Brookhaven and Jefferson National Laboratories in the United States, and the other around CERN in Geneva - are proposing to restart the investigation of electron-proton interactions.

The study of these interactions should provide a precise understanding of the strong force....A precise understanding of the strong force could be just as important, opening new ways to use nuclear-energy resources while solving the problems of safety and nuclear waste. _AlJazeera

Humans are slightly advanced monkeys, swinging from meager knowledge trees, flinging gobs of shite at each other and hooting into the night. It's going to take some time, discipline, and work to move forward.

Taken from an earlier article published at Al Fin Energy

Betting on Oil Prices? Beware the Speculative Squeeze

Oil is selling higher than it should do. Speculation is just one of the reasons, but a significant one. After being bailed out, pardoned for their crimes, and otherwise given another chance, the uber-speculators are back for more devastation and booty at your expense.

Kevin Kerr, president of commodities firm Kerr Trading International, pulled no punches, calling the current price levels “simply a money grab and fear trade.”

“Speculators in the energy markets right now have a lot of risks to consider but unfortunately it can get overdone and I hope that the various funds and large speculative entities will take a step back and really evaluate the true fundamental picture. We do have plenty of oil on the market right now and while some fear premium is certainly legitimate, in my opinion it is not a justification for over $100 right now,” he said.

Kerr said the escalating violence in Libya, as rebel forces attempt to oust long-time dictator Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi, raises legitimate concerns for “real disruption,” but still does not justify the current prices.

Kerr also warned of the global impact resulting from artificially high oil prices: “Speculators and funds who are driving up the price of oil based on fear premium and the weak dollar will hopefully evaluate the implications for driving the price much higher than it really needs or deserves to go, at least at this stage,” he said.

Finally, Kerr recalled “the extreme liquidation” that followed the last precipitous rise in oil prices, when a barrel passed $147 in the summer of 2008 and then plunged below $40 in a matter of months.

“I would like to say that rampant speculators learned from what happened in 2008 but it seems fiduciary responsibility and true market fundamentals are still on the back burner,” Kerr concluded. _FoxBiz

The speculator-premium is closer to $30 a barrel than $15, according to Al Fin analysts. But then, the price of oil has been bouncing around like a pinball. The news media is happy to jump on every rumour, and oil traders are squeezing each one for every penny possible.

The discord sweeping Arab lands is quite real, justified, and long-overdue. The blowback from this discord onto global markets is likewise real, and will require serious planning and adjustment to compensate -- at least for the short term.

But the screeching hysteria coming from every peak oil doomer and hobbyist is just a bit overdone. The smart money understands that political disruptions to oil supply are temporary setbacks. Better analysts likewise understand that total energy reserves are growing, rather than shrinking, and that for the next decade or two, civilisation is not at risk from long-term energy shortages on either the supply or the demand side.

But political forces are a real danger, and the greatest danger comes from corrupt political agencies and factions -- including the US Federal Reserve and Treasury Department. US President Obama's grand strategy of energy starvation is not helping very much, either.

As for the energy speculators, they never sleep, they can game the system in ways you never dreamed of, and the only reason they haven't picked your pockets yet is because you're probably not worth it. Don't make it easy for them.

The name of the game for most people in the age of Obama is asset protection, and doing what you have to do to get ready for a changing of the guard and the return of opportunity eventually.

Shining a Light On A Truly Brave, New World

There is a tide in the affairs of men
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat,
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures. _JuliusCaesar (IV.ii.269–276)

Sometimes the difference between success and disaster hinges upon a small decision. But making hard decisions requires courage -- or does it? Perhaps the requirement for making tough decisions is the ability to overcome the anxiety and fear that decision-making often entails? And the key to overcoming anxiety and fear may be as close as the nearest light source.

"I've never seen anything like it," says Kay Tye, a postdoctoral researcher in Deisseroth's lab and lead author on the study. Mice are naturally fearful of exploring open areas, she explains. Under normal circumstances, the animal "will poke its nose out and then scurry into a corner," says Tye. "But when you turn on the light, the animal begins exploring the platform with no visible signs of anxiety. Then you turn the light off, and it scurries back in to the corner."

...The researchers engineered mice to express light-sensitive proteins in specific cells in the amygdala that send out neural wires, known as axons, to different substructures. Using a specially designed fiber-optic cable implanted in the animal's brain, researchers found that aiming the light to activate one specific circuit had an immediate and potent effect on the animal's behavior.

..."Our understanding of the more precise circuitry within the amygdala is just now beginning to take off," says Kerry Ressler, a neuroscientist at Emory University who was not involved in the study. "Optogenetics, where scientist can activate specific cell populations and even parts of cells, is a powerful approach to dissect how the amygdala modulates fear and anxiety."

Ki Ann Goosens, a neuroscientist at MIT who was not involved in the study, says the research could help explain individual variation in baseline anxiety levels. "The findings tell us that this circuit contributes to an individual set point for anxiety," she says. _TechnologyReview

Tiny brain circuits can make all the difference in a person's life. A society comprising fearful, anxious, security - fixated persons, will have a far different destiny than a society made up of of imaginative, thoughtful, and courageous persons.

Perhaps it is no accident that most western societies find themselves clinging to present security at the expense of their own futures. That is the way of a cringing and shrinking death at one's own cowardly hands.

Besides a mastery of fear and anxiety, persons will also require wisdom and logical thinking skills, if they wish to catch the tide at its flood, sailing on to fortune. Logic must have both courage and wisdom, or it will be left either paralysed, or will find itself a force of wasted -- or even destructive -- effort.

Research can only reveal tiny, disconnected pieces of the current conundrum. But an integrated solution requires a wider-ranging mind than one finds in most lab rats, dependent on government funding and constraints of all kinds. Rather than huddling together in institutions and special-interest lobbies and unions, people of the next level will require courage, wisdom, logic -- and competence.

One must not only know what needs to be done when, and have the courage to do it, but also know how to do it properly and effectively.

In Chernobyl, 60 Year Old Men Appear "Not a Day Over 30"

18March2011 Brian Wang has more on this story

"Radiation is good for you," one of them tells me. "Every year I get younger," says another. And another: "I work here so when I come home glowing my wife will think I'm a god."

A particularly hearty-looking man who works as a janitor asks me, "How old do you think I am?"

"Sixty," he answers himself....he looks not a day past 30. _Outside

As of January of this year, Chernobyl is now open to tourism. Over most of what is now the Chernobyl wildlife haven, radiation levels have returned near normal. The wild animal population is thriving, and the people there do not seem to be doing so badly themselves. Particularly so long as they have an ample supply of homemade vodka.

Residents of Chernobyl are not the only ones who claim health benefits from low dose exposure to ionizing radiation. Skim through the research regarding "radiation hormesis" referenced here and here, and you may begin to develop a bit of healthy skepticism toward the "zero tolerance policy" of modern environmental protection law toward low level radiation.

More on hormesis:

Hormesis is the term used to describe biological phenomena that are often adverse or detrimental but become beneficial when applied at low levels. The concept of biological hormesis is as important as that of homeostasis for the survival of the organism. The basic biological trait is the organism�s ability to resist and adapt appropriately to both internal and external stresses, and the hallmark of aging is the organism�s inability to withstand stress. The hormetic phenomenon in aging is characterized as beneficial responses to stress through the physiological adaptations, as exemplified in lifespan extension by irradiation and calorie restriction. Thus, hormesis in aging is the biological adaptive function to resist or blunt the age-related deleteriousness. Such a remarkable biological hormetic effect was shown experimentally by exposing mice to a low dose of gamma irradiation, which extended the lifespan of mice rather than shortening by turmorigenesis. The plausible explanation on this interesting radiation hormesis is that the irradiated mice were able to resist better, because the mild radiation itself is the most effective factor in conditioning for the activation of adaptation. In response to stress, an organism is expected to go through three distinct phases: alarm reaction, resistance phase, and exhaustion phase. According this schema, the adaptability can be developed during the resistance period. This notion is in line with the evolutionary view on the survival for the fittest theory, for which the only possible way to attain the survivability is through the organism�s metabolic and defensive adaptation to deleterious stress. _InnoVita

More on hormesis and ageing from an abstract in Ageing Research Reviews:

Hormesis in aging is represented by mild stress-induced stimulation of protective mechanisms in cells and organisms resulting in biologically beneficial effects. Single or multiple exposure to low doses of otherwise harmful agents, such as irradiation, food limitation, heat stress, hypergravity, reactive oxygen species and other free radicals have a variety of anti-aging and longevity-extending hormetic effects. Detailed molecular mechanisms that bring about the hormetic effects are being increasingly understood, and comprise a cascade of stress response and other pathways of maintenance and repair. Although the extent of immediate hormetic effects after exposure to a particular stress may only be moderate, the chain of events following initial hormesis leads to biologically amplified effects that are much larger, synergistic and pleiotropic. A consequence of hormetic amplification is an increase in the homeodynamic space of a living system in terms of increased defence capacity and reduced load of damaged macromolecules. Hormetic strengthening of the homeodynamic space provides wider margins for metabolic fluctuation, stress tolerance, adaptation and survival. Hormesis thus counter-balances the progressive shrinkage of the homeodynamic space, which is the ultimate cause of aging, diseases and death. Healthy aging may be achieved by hormesis through mild and periodic, but not severe or chronic, physical and mental challenges, and by the use of nutritional hormesis incorporating mild stress-inducing molecules called hormetins. The established scientific foundations of hormesis are ready to pave the way for new and effective approaches in aging research and intervention. _ARR

How much is too much, when it comes to radiation? That is difficult to say, at lower doses. Certainly if it is possible to build resistance against radiation and other sources of normal wear and tear, wouldn't most people want to do so?

A dangerous dose is hard to pin down. Worldwide, for most people, those daily microrems add up to about 360 millirems per year. Scientists agree that humans can safely handle 1,000 a year. Astronauts on the International Space Station receive 18,000 millirems of cosmic radiation over six months—but it's once in a lifetime, so it's seen as an acceptable, voluntary risk. But edge that up to 30,000 millirems and you're looking at what caused increased cancer rates among the blast survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And yet animals can handle even more than this: large mammals and birds are generally safe with 36,000 per year, small ones with even higher doses, and reptiles with higher still. The more complex the animal, the more sensitive it is. _Outside

Of course, animals spend more time outside under the ionizing radiation of the sun, than most modern humans. Perhaps the natural radiation protection exhibited by animals is a manifestation of hormesis?

As long as government-sanctioned science shies away from the topic of "safe levels of low level radiation," we may find it difficult to learn about this topic. With government becoming the largest financier of scientific research, human science is falling into something of a rut. Government bureaucracies are by nature conservative and self-serving. Naturally the science which such bureaucracies are willing to finance and publish, will be the kind of science which justifies the existence and mission of such bureaucracies. They're the government. They're here to help you. Or else.

How will we all survive after the house of cards crashes down? If there is life after a Chernobyl apocalypse, perhaps there could even be life after mega-government breakdown? It may be time for individuals to begin planning for interesting times ahead.

See you in Chernobyl?

IQ and Human Capital: The Limits of a Particular Society

In a recent NextBigFuture article, Tech/Science blogger extraordinaire Brian Wang takes a cautious look at the IQ of nations and possible relationship between a nation's wealth and its average population IQ. Brian's modest observations were greeted by a veritable firestorm of politically correct monkeys lobbing handfuls of shite in comments. This is par for the course, whenever contemporary university "educated" people are confronted with uncomfortable observations.

The facts, of course, remain the same, regardless of wounded sensibilities or ideological indignation. The problem for society is that their brightest youth are increasingly unable to deal with minimally digested data. Instead, these "brightest lights" must have their data thoroughly processed and filtered, and slanted in the correct orientation. Given the convergence of significant problems facing the youth of today and tomorrow, this trend toward an Idiocracy -- even among the brightest humans -- is becoming a serious problem.

If not for their "Smart Fraction," most nations would be in much more difficulty than at present.

For example, in Brazil, it is the Japanese who are the highest-achieving group. They were brought in as indentured labourers to work the plantations after slavery was abolished in 1888. Yet, today, the Japanese outscore Whites on IQ tests, earn more, and are over-represented in university places. Although they are less than one percent of the total population, they comprise 17 percent of the students at the elite University of Sao Paulo.

In Caribbean countries such as Cuba, Trinidad, and Guyana, it was the Chinese and South Asians who were brought in after the end of slavery. Subsequently, they too began to do well, with the Chinese excelling and the South Asians placing intermediate to Whites and Blacks.

...seven studies of Jews in Britain yield a median IQ of 110. In educational achievement, East Asians in Britain also outperform the indigenous Whites.

Similarly in Australia, East Asians (mostly Chinese and Vietnamese) average higher than Whites in IQ, educational achievement, and earnings. Lynn describes pockets of ethnic Chinese elsewhere in the world such as in Mexico, Argentina, and especially Hawaii, where they also do well.

In Canada too, there is an IQ hierarchy: Jews (109), East Asians (101), Whites (100), Amerindians (89), and Blacks (84).

These results are remarkably consistent over time, place, and situation, irrespective of the original status of the people, or the language, history, and political organization of the country concerned. _Global Bell Curve Review

Racial stratification of multiethnic and multicultural societies is a well-known -- if generally left unsaid -- fact of everyday life. The smarter groups are the "smart fraction" who typically run the high tech and most demanding segments of society. The political "inside group", on the other hand, tends to occupy most civil service positions and other "placeholder" or "feather-bedding" jobs.

In other words, the smart fraction gets things done, while favoured groups receive a free ride. But since the obvious truth is uncomfortable to favoured groups and politically correct insiders, no one ever comes out and expresses it -- at least not in polite company.

Brian Wang provides a rare and valuable service on the internet, by exposing a general audience to much of the cutting edge of technology and science -- in easily understood language. His website has become quite popular for its considerable value. But well-indoctrinated quasi-zombies of the psychologically neotenous and academically lobotomised variety, do not take well to having their deepest prejudices contradicted. The empire of indoctrination fights back in Brian's comments.

Cross-posted to Al Fin the Next Level

It would be worth your while to read through researcher Volkmar Weiss' treatment of this issue. His comparison of national IQ's using the PISA test, and his hunt for "high-IQ genes" are provocative, and food for thought.

Generally, the differences between Lynn-Vanhanen IQ, PISA IQ and Educational IQ do not exceed plus or minus two points. Whereas Lynn-Vanhanen IQ is based on IQ tested samples (in some countries even on a single, small and local sample), and PISA IQ is based on large and representative samples of schoolchildren, Educational IQ is based on data of the total adult population. The data on educational attainment, scaled as Educational IQ, and PISA results confirm, in most cases within the limits of measurement error, the results of a century of IQ testing, summarized by Lynn and Vanhanen (2002, 2006). Whoever active in the field of educational economy had ever imagined such a possibility?

However, not in all countries educational attainments are well calibrated to allow international comparisons. Obviously, the Educational IQ of the United States does not fit with its Lynn-Vanhanen IQ and PISA IQ. Because of the decline in the value of a US college education arising form increases over time in the number of persons graduating from college, there is a stronger deflation of educational degrees in the United States than in other OECD countries. Also Scandinavian degrees seem be more deflated than degrees in the Netherlands. _VolkmarWeiss

Indeed, the correlation between IQ testing, achievement tests by schoolchildren, and educational attainment by adults is nothing short of astounding. Only a total nincompoop could argue against the relevancy of the concept of IQ given those widespread and consistent findings.

As global demographic trends continue to enforce a downward trend in global average population IQ (yes, Virginia, despite the "Flynn Effect"), the significance of these findings should wipe the PC complacency from the faces of even the most indoctrinated. Should, but probably won't. PC is a powerful and killing dogma.

Oregon State University Center of Political Corruption Scandal

More 8March2011: Jerry Pournelle looks at this issue and concludes that something is very rotten in the state of Oregon. (h/t Instapundit)

Specific members of the Oregon State University administration and fraculty have apparently joined with US Congressman Peter DeFazio (D-Oregon) in what appears to be an act of blatant political payback against DeFazio's opponent in the November 2010 election for US Congress in Oregon's 4th District, Dr. Art Robinson.

Inconceivably -- in an unprecedented act of vindictiveness -- the DeFazio loyalists at OSU appear to have targeted the children of Dr. Robinson -- students in the OSU graduate school -- for prejudicial treatment, including dismissal without cause from their programs, and appropriation of their work without credit or attribution.

Political corruption and ideological bias within state-run educational systems may be widespread, but this level of blatant vindictiveness against children of a political opponent is almost certainly unprecedented. Here is more from Dr. Robinson:

OSU administrators think they can violate ethical academic standards of professional conduct, break formal OSU rules and regulations, and even violate U.S. laws with impunity because, in any resulting litigation, they would be defended by lawyers from the Oregon Department of Justice, assuring that only students with huge sums of money and many years to invest in litigation can oppose them. The Robinsons do not have those huge sums of money, and, moreover, they want to complete their education – not receive money in exchange for the destruction of their education and opportunities.

...As things stand today, Jack Higginbotham and his students and staff, along with Joshua Robinson are in immediate danger. Bethany Robinson is slated for dismissal soon after and without the Ph.D. that she has nearly completed. The dismissal of Matthew Robinson may not be far behind. And the danger to Professor Higginbotham's other students is likewise very high.

Please don't let this happen!

Please notify OSU of your interest in this matter and urge the university to stop its destructive actions against Joshua, Bethany and Matthew Robinson and against Professor Jack Higginbotham, the remarkable president of the OSU faculty senate who has risked his career to help them!

Contact information for the OSU nuclear engineering department is:

Phone: 541-737-2343
Fax: 541-737-4678
mailto:joan.stueve@oregonstate.edu

Mailing address:
116 Radiation Center,
Corvallis, OR 97331-5902

Please also contact the president of OSU, Edward Ray:

Phone: 541-737-4133
Fax: 541-737-3033
mailto:pres.office@oregonstate.edu

Mailing address:
600 Kerr Administration Building
Corvallis, OR 97331-2128

Here is the e-mail address of the OSU vice president for university relations and marketing, Todd Simmons mailto:todd.simmons@oregonstate.edu.

For more information or to take further action, please visit OregonStateOutrage.com. _ArtRobinson_via_GreenHell

When members of a particular ideology occupy faculty and administrative offices in such overwhelming proportions, the temptation to go beyond the academic mandate -- to exercise greater power than has been authorised by their position -- can become overwhelming. At first glance, this is what seems to have happened to the over-zealous OSU faculty and staff, in their efforts to please Congressman DeFazio -- who helps to determine their budgets and remuneration -- by punishing the children of DeFazio's opponent.

Stay tuned for more details as they become available.

Ancient Oil Sleuths Track Tectonic Twists and Turns

Rivers of the Modern World
Most crude oil comes from ancient marine organisms which bloomed, died, sank, and were covered by sediment to transform under conditions of heat and pressure into petroleum. The organisms required sunshine, CO2, and nutrients -- plus sedimentary cover. These conditions were best met in tropical seas which received nutrient-rich outflows from either rivers or rich sea currents and upwellings.

But rivers supply both nutrients and sediment, so it makes sense to look to areas which were offshore from ancient river deltas. Above, you can see the main rivers of the modern world.

ImageSource
But the continents of the Earth were not always in their current relationship to each other. 250 mya the continents were situated close together in a formation now referred to as Pangaea. The geology of the landmasses of that time were somewhat different, meaning that different rivers flowed into different seas.

This movement of the continents in relation to each other is caused by plate tectonics, a dynamic phenomenon which is largely controlled by actions at the bottom of the seas.

The graphic above is meant to illustrate possible sites for "abiotic oil" deposits, but if you look carefully at the oceans, you can find seafloor ridges which are ground zero for the motion of the continents. New seafloor -- as molten lava which cools and solidifies in contact with seawater -- is pushed upward from beneath the ocean crust, causing a spreading of the ocean crust outward. Eventually the ocean crust is pushed into contact with thicker continental crust, where it subducts -- dives downward into the mantle. This subduction is associated with volcano formation, and other geologic changes, such as slow movement of the continental plates.

ImageSource
This "dance of the continents" is likely to bring the land masses together again in the future, over and over again in different formations. This is important in relation to where very old oil deposits are likely to be found, and where large future deposits of oil are likely to be formed in their turn.

For example, why is oil often found in deserts and arctic wastes?

Oil and gas result mostly from the rapid burial of dead microorganisms in environments where oxygen is so scarce that they do not decompose. This lack of oxygen enables them to maintain their hydrogen-carbon bonds, a necessary ingredient for the production of oil and gas. Newly developing ocean basins, formed by plate tectonics and continental rifting, provide just the right conditions for rapid burial in anoxic waters. Rivers rapidly fill these basins with sediments carrying abundant organic remains. Because the basins have constricted water circulation, they also have lower oxygen levels than the open ocean. For instance, the Gulf of California, an ocean basin in development, is making new oil and gas in real time today. The Gulf of Mexico is also a great example of new oil and gas formation in a restricted circulation environment (see image at right above).

The same plate tectonics that provides the locations and conditions for anoxic burial is also responsible for the geologic paths that these sedimentary basins subsequently take. Continental drift, subduction and collision with other continents provide the movement from swamps, river deltas and mild climates--where most organics are deposited--to the poles and deserts, where they have ended up today by coincidence. In fact, the Libyan Sahara Desert contains unmistakable glacial scars and Antarctica has extensive coal deposits--and very likely abundant oil and gas--that establish that their plates were once at the other ends of the earth (see image at right). _SciAm

Similar detective work may lead prospectors to rich petroleum deposits lying between Norway, Iceland, and Greenland. By the same logic applied to more recent timelines, oil and gas in the South China Sea is likely to be discovered.

As the SciAm article above explains, when a river flows into a limited basin -- such as the Gulf of Mexico -- oil and gas formation are most likely to occur due to rapid sedimentation. But thanks to plate tectonics and shifting continents and river-beds, many areas where rivers once flowed into limited basins have become something completely different, today.

It is no challenge to find oil where crude is already seeping to the surface. That was the case in the early days of oil discovery in the US, the Persian Gulf, and Central Asia. But to find the oil of ancient seas -- that is a challenge. Particularly since that is where most of the world's oil awaits.

Taken from a recent article at Al Fin the Next Level

The Earth is floating on a sea of hydrocarbons. We are approaching a time when we will be able to "recycle" the carbon we consume, into yet more hydrocarbons and high value chemicals. For more invormation on such trends, be sure to follow the Al Fin Energy blog.

Government Unions to Taxpayers: "Me Master! You Slave!"

One can see the economic future of at least half the states and cities of the US, by looking at California. Nowhere in the US is the power of unions so total and uncontested, and nowhere is the Democratic Party so dominant. And nowhere in the US is the economic future so rutted into a predictable  path to total collapse. The complete fusion of government unions with the US Democratic Party presents a picture of corruption and an apparent impossibility for meaningful reform which staggers the logical mind.

The Democratic Party has folded Sacramento into one of the tightest one-party grips in contemporary American politics. In November, bucking the national trend, Democrats in California won not just the governorship but 51 Assembly seats to Republicans’ 29, 24 state Senate seats to Republicans’ 14, and every statewide office. With the passage of a referendum lowering the number of legislative votes required to approve a state budget (from a two-thirds majority to a simple majority), California is that rarest of land masses for the 2011 Democratic Party: conquered territory. State Democrats have freedom to rule virtually unchallenged by the scattered, rusticated Republicans.

As 72-year-old Jerry Brown enters his second governorship, he has an agenda to match that power, with visions even greater than those that haunted his two-term administration of the 1970s and ’80s: building 20,000 megawatts of renewable power, laying a new high-speed rail network that will connect the state’s major cities, forging a statewide infrastructure for alternative energy, hiring thousands of green employees. The new governor’s environmental agenda is ambitious, untenably expensive, and indelibly popular with voters and lawmakers.

Yet when Brown looks out on Democrat-controlled California, he seems less like Caesar at the Rubicon than Wojciech Jaruzelski at the Gdansk Shipyard. Brown is champion of a workers’ party with monopoly control, yet all his plans are being derailed by a labor movement nobody can harness. _Reason

The unions’ political triumphs have molded a California in which government workers thrive at the expense of a struggling private sector. The state’s public school teachers are the highest-paid in the nation. Its prison guards can easily earn six-figure salaries. State workers routinely retire at 55 with pensions higher than their base pay for most of their working life. Meanwhile, what was once the most prosperous state now suffers from an unemployment rate far steeper than the nation’s and a flood of firms and jobs escaping high taxes and stifling regulations. This toxic combination—high public-sector employee costs and sagging economic fortunes—has produced recurring budget crises in Sacramento and in virtually every municipality in the state. _CityJournal

California may be more beholden to government unions than most US states, but it is far from alone. Michigan, Ohio, New Jersey, Illinois, New York, and a score of other states are deeply wrapped within the web of government union power, and may find it ultimately impossible to escape doom.

...public-sector workers are spoiled rotten. Government employees earn 21% more than private ones and are 24% more likely to have access to health care. Only 21% of private workers enjoy a defined-benefit (DB) pension, which guarantees retirement income based on years of service and final salary. But 84% of state and local workers still receive DB plans.

All this might be grand if states and cities could afford it, but they cannot; unlike the federal government, they have the pesky obligation to balance their budgets. The recession has already drained pension funds. _Economist

US governments are corrupted by ties to government unions from the top to the bottom. Good government is impossible under these conditions, much less a viable economic plan for commercial prosperity.

The enslavement of taxpayers by government unions is virtually complete in California, and at least a handful of other states. But the Obama government wants to put every US state into the same position as California and Illinois. It is not clear that the nation could recover from such a disastrous plan, if achieved.

More: Even the NYTimes is beginning to see the handwriting on the wall for government unions. Anyone still pro government union by now, simply has no brain. Such people are generally referred to as zombies, in the age of Obama. ;-)

Robot Doom? If You Can See Them You Can Fight Them

The fear of "robot apocalypse" is but one of the many fears of doom which trouble the dreams of modern humans. New speculations over the US Navy's development of swarm robots is feeding into this deep anxiety (Brian Wang has more details).

Out of dozens of US Navy technology solicitations, "N11A-T037 Desktop Manufacturing with Micro-robot Swarm" has been the focus of concern. One can almost imagine swarms of warrior robots pouring out of desk-top factories around the world, eager to fight and kill for robot conquest and glory.

Sure, some designs for swarm robots are quite benign and even beneficent, but anyone familiar with science fiction understands what can happen when mobile machines are made more powerful, as well as capable of reproducing themselves and coordinating action among themselves.

The actual danger will not come from hulking, clanking robots that you can see, however. Such robots require too much material and too much energy to create, maintain, and move to the kill zone. No, when robots decide to exterminate humans, the swarm that gets you will be the one you cannot see -- until it is too late.

You see, it will be far more economical and effective for self-assembling robot exterminators to come in the guise of wind- and water-borne micro-bots and nano-bots. Consider Josh Hall's wonderful vision of nano utility fog, but instead of creating a wonderful fantasy world for humans, the fog binds them, chokes them, shreds them, then uses their remains as raw material to make more fog.

Of course, it would be wasteful for nano-conquerors to commit wholesale genocide against groups of humans. It might be smarter for them select the humans likely to be useful, then simply perform nano-neurosurgery to make them more compliant to their overlordship.

Imagine invasive nano-fog which is capable of giving impromptu IQ and physical aptitude tests to any persons it finds, then passing instant judgment on them -- terminate or transform. Resistance is futile, if you can not see them coming.

Robert Freitas' inspiring conception of Nanomedicine reveals the optimistic side of human vision. But for every profound and competent optimistic visionary, there are hundreds of dull doomers and would-be doomers. And at least a few very bright dreamers who might be turned to the dark side with sufficient incentive.

The good thing about nano-weapons is that they are likely to have an expiration date. If you can outlast their destructive phase, you should be alright until the next swarm is unleashed.

Anyone who incorporates powerful networked molecular-level replicators or desk-top fabs into their technological vision, will always be vulnerable to an internal threat from devices that can always be tampered with or hacked.

Once "desktop manufacturing" or 3-D fabs become sophisticated enough, the programming for such "killer nano-fog" can be sent to the fab over the net from anywhere. As soon as a desktop fab can create an entirely autopoietic nano fog, there will no longer be a need for the fab. The fog can recreate itself using targeted raw material it comes upon in its wind- or water-borne travels.

If the very air you breathe and the water you drink is infested by nano-bots of doubtful provenance, where will you find safety? While you may think you will be safe in a deep underground bunker, you should remember how easily the Stuxnet worm penetrated Iran's deep bunkers.

Basing your survival upon the idea that "the commons" will always be free and safe, may not be the best plan. Humans are at the top of the survival chain in one sense, but they are badly outnumbered by insects and microbes. If swarm intelligences which can assume the sizes of insects and microbes get it into their minds to topple the homo king of the mountain, the slide to the bottom may leave you more than bruised.

Playthings of the Gods

Technology Review
Leon Chua -- father of Amy Chua -- conceived the memristor in a paper back in 1971. The memristor is a resistor with a memory of an earlier state. It behaves differently, depending upon its history. Because inter-neuronal synapses typically also behave differently, depending upon their histories, the memristor is often seen as a building-block for creating more brain-like computers. Researchers are already simulating what a memristor-based computing system might look like:

Memristors are resistors that "remember" the state they were in, which changes according to the current passing through them. They are expected to revolutionise the design and capabilities of electronic circuits and may even make possible brain-like architectures in silicon, since neurons behave like memristors.

Today, we see one of the first revolutionary circuits thanks to Yuriy Pershin at the University of South Carolina and Massimiliano Di Ventra at the University of California, San Diego, two pioneers in this field. Their design is a memristor processor that solves mazes and it is remarkably simple.

...Pershin and Di Ventra begin by creating a kind of a universal maze in the form of a grid of memristors, in other words an array in which each node is connected to another by a memristor and a switch. This can be made to represent any regular maze by switching off certain connections within the array.

Solving this maze is then simple. Simply connect a voltage across the start and finish of the maze and wait. "The current flows only along those memristors that connect the entrance and exit points," say Pershin and Di Ventra. This changes the state of those memristors allowing them to be easily identified. The chain of these memristors is then the solution.

That's potentially much quicker than other maze solving strategies which effectively work in series. "The maze is solved in a massively parallel way, since all memristors in the network participate simultaneously in the calculation," they say. _TechnologyReview_via_NextBigFuture

One of the problems with asking a physicist, engineer, or computer scientist to devise a brain-like computer, is that persons trained strictly within these disciplines are not likely to know which elements of brain functioning should be "simplified" or "abstracted", and which elements should be closely copied.

The pursuit of artificial intelligence is rife with failed promises and predictions, over the past 60+ years. If we are not to go at least another 60 years without meaningful success, we will need researchers who are cross-trained in multiple disciplines relating to the problem.

The research described in the Technology Review article above was based upon the simulation of an array of memristors -- not on an actual memristor circuit. But even with real memristors, the circuit is simplistic in the extreme. The idea that one could assemble large numbers of simplified "synapses" into something that might behave like a biological brain -- in any meaningful way -- appears silly to anyone with even a basic understanding of how the brain works. And yet such silliness represents one of many parallel hopes for a so-far failed endeavour: artificial intelligence.

The synapse is not the basic unit of human intelligence or consciousness. The basic unit of human consciousness is something far less substantial and more ephemeral. It exists at multiple logical levels above the synaptic level. It is dependent upon the simultaneous function of trillions of synapses of distinctly multiple types, involving efferent, afferent, and re-entrant activity at multiple logical levels.

What the researchers describe in the Technology Review article is the simulation of a toy. Not the toy itself -- a simulation of the toy. The human brain is not a toy. Unless, of course, you are a god.

Whoever It Was, Obama Owes Them a Huge Debt

The attacks, according to the report, were part of a three-phase strategy.

The first phase was the deliberate inflation of oil prices in 2007 that generated as much as $2 trillion of excess wealth for oil-producing nations, 'filling the coffers of Sovereign Wealth Funds, especially those that follow Shariah Compliant Finance.'

In the second phase, untraceable investors attacked financial institutions such as Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers in a 'bear raid'.

The term refers to a strategy where investors try to force the value of companies down through malicious rumours or complex financial trades that impact its stock price.

The report says that as the crisis began, 'virtually overnight' two relatively small brokers emerged to trade, 'trillions of dollars worth of U.S. blue chip companies.'

Crucially, these as yet unidentified investors are currently the number one traders in, 'all financial companies that collapsed or are now financially supported by the U.S. government,' according to Mr Freeman. _DailyMail

ImageSource
Ever since before the great deflation of 2008, rumours have been flying about mysterious investors who interfered with global financial markets to intentionally push them to the breaking point. Whatever the truth of the reports and rumours, it is likely that Mr. Obama and his US Democratic Party would have fared much less well in the 2008 elections, without the big 2008 autumnal economic crash.

Terrorists and other 'financial enemies' were likely responsible for the near collapse of the U.S. financial system in 2008, a new Pentagon report has concluded...

...The report also concludes that untraceable actors undertook a three-tiered attack beginning in 2007, and that 'Phase III [of the attack] may be under way right now.'

'In addition, these same actors have clearly demonstrated the means to carry out such an attack.

'There is sufficient justification to question whether outside forces triggered, capitalised upon or magnified the economic difficulties of 2008.'

The report concluded that: 'Without question, there were actors who had the motive to harm the U.S. economy.

The report was commissioned in early 2009 by the Pentagon's Irregular Warfare Support Program - which prepares U.S. government and military agencies for emerging non-traditional threats...

...Attacks on banks, especially Lehman Brothers which collapsed in 2008, caused interbank lending to seize up and stock markets around the world to collapse.

The U.S. government then had to step in and bail the system out.

Following this, the 'third phase' has seen the massive U.S. public debt now threatening the primacy of the dollar as a global currency.

'Such an event,' the report says, 'has already been discussed by finance ministers in major emerging market nations such as China and Russia as well as Iran and the Arab states.

'In short, a bear raid against the U.S.financial system remains possible and may even be likely.'

The report also points to evidence by former U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, who said in 2008 that the Russian government had made a 'top-level approach' to the Chinese, asking them to dump shares in American mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae - forcing both into insolvency. _DailyMail

In the short period of time between the US Republican National Convention of 2008, and the great financial crash, Mr. Obama saw his impressive lead in the polls evaporate. It was only after the crash that his lead returned, and remained strong through the elections. Mr. Obama carried along a tsunami of Democratic Party legislative candidates on his coat-tails, giving him the most solid same-party control of congress of any US president since Bill Clinton in 1992.

Unfortunately, Mr. Obama used that solid control to pass budgets, laws, regulations, and fiats which virtually guarantee a perpetual worsening of the US economy and competitiveness for as long as the malign influence of these changes remain -- most likely many years after he is gone.

U. of Gothenburg Substantiates Al Fin Theory of Self Esteem

Current popular psychology books distinguish between self-esteem and self-confidence. It is also believed that it is possible to improve self-esteem without there being a link to how competent people perceive themselves to be in areas they consider important.

This is in stark contrast to the results of a new study carried out by researcher Magnus Lindwall from the University of Gothenburg's Department of Psychology and colleagues from the UK, Turkey and Portugal. _SD

The Al Fin theory of self esteem simply states that a child must acquire competence in order to feel confident. Once the child feels competence-inspired confidence, true self esteem is apt to follow. Promoting self-esteem without competence-based confidence is damaging to a child's mental and emotional growth process.

This theory contradicts a large body of popular psychology work -- which is largely implemented in theories of education and child psychology. The damage that has been done to generations of children who have been misguided and badly raised as a result of these educational and psychological methods, is incalculable.

Now research from the University of Gothenburg confirms Al Fin's theory.

The current study, involving 1,831 university students from the four countries, focuses specifically on self-perception of the body -- for example, how strong or fit the test subjects consider themselves to be and how attractive they believe their bodies to be...

..."In general, our study -- along with plenty of other research in the field -- paints a completely different and more complicated picture of self-esteem than that set out in best-selling popular psychology books," says Lindwall. "These books are often based on a person's own experiences and anecdotes rather than systematic research. Self-esteem is just not as simple as that, otherwise interest in the concept wouldn't be so great." _SD

Of course, Al Fin got his ideas from people such as William James, Maria Montessori, and so on -- in other words, from the giants of early psychology, education, and childhood development. How tragic that politically correct psychology and university schools of education aided by a monolithic system of government education, have conspired to regress and pervert education, child psychology, and child-rearing to the destruction of generations of children.

Al Fin has been calling for a complete re-working of theories of education and child-rearing for many years -- in part based upon his theory of self esteem. The tragedy is that all of this devastation and destruction of competence could have been prevented. Our societies would be doing far better if that had been so.

Dead Dog Resurrected in Oklahoma -- Dog Messiah?

Daily News
On what could become known as "Easter Sunday" for dogs, young canine "Wall-E" returned from the dead at a shelter for homeless dogs in Oklahoma. The pup was given a lethal dose of medication and left for dead in a bin, along with four siblings. But only Wall-E rose from the dead the next day -- a Sunday. Hundreds of humans are vying for the opportunity to own Wall-E, rather than to allow the puppy to be put to death a second time. Even for a dog, dying once in Oklahoma should be quite sufficient.

The black-and-white pooch was one of five young dogs put to sleep Saturday at a shelter in Sulphur, Okla., News 9 in Oklahoma City reported. Each dog was checked and confirmed to be dead, then the 3-month-old and his four siblings were placed in a trash bin.

On Sunday morning, an animal control officer looked into the bin and discovered that the one pup somehow survived.

"He was just as healthy as could be," Scott Prall told News 9.

..."He is a delightful Pup, about 3 months old, is surprisingly healthy except for a heavy infestation of Hookworm for which he is undergoing treatment," Marcia Machtiger wrote in a special website she created for the animal.

She stresses that if a home for Wall-E isn't found soon, he could wind up back at the shelter -- where he very well might end up being euthanized again.

However, Kloski writes that "hundreds" of families already have volunteered to give Wall-E a place to live. _DailyNews

Wall-E is more than just a celebrity canine. He has become a religious symbol for both homeless and mistreated dogs everywhere. "Strike me down and I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine . . ."

Humans had best listen.

Simmering Panic over Loss of US Reserve Currency Status?

More: Is the US Dollar Still a Safe Haven? asks the same question in less strident tones. Clearly Americans elected a wrecking crew in 2008 to run their government, rather than responsible leadership. A deep fatalistic Carteresque malaise appears to be smothering the American Dream. Is the economic prophecy of doom displayed in the video below a realistic scenario?

The video above lasts over 1 hour, presenting a message of impending collapse of the US dollar and the US economy due to hyper-inflation and the loss of US dollar reserve currency status. But is the idea realistic, or even frightening?

There are rumours that China plans to shift to a new gold-backed international reserve currency to replace the US dollar. If that happens, will the resulting monetary shock overturn the US economy?

First, China may be holding a lot more US securities than it has admitted up until now. It will not be easy for China to throw these securities away, or do anything to significantly depreciate their value. Second, the US dollar may not be so easy to replace.

...the definition of reserve currency: "A foreign currency held by central banks and other major financial institutions as a means to pay off international debt obligations, or to influence their domestic exchange rate."

Foreign Currency Reserve Factors

1. Trade Volumes
2. Trade Deficits
3. Currency Manipulation
4. Hot Money

_Mish

Mish then goes on to explain how the US dollar fits into the four factors as an international reserve currency. It will be difficult -- but not impossible -- to replace.

But even if a better reserve currency can be created, will the utter devastation predicted by the video above actually come to pass inside the US? Mish has a lot to say about that as well. In a two word summary: "no disaster."

The true disaster to be faced is the US fiscal and monetary policies of the Obama government, combined with suicidal US energy, business, and foreign policies. Those are the things to worry about.

Should you be worried? Sure, if you are unprepared you should worry just enough to motivate yourself to become prepared. Do not expect a government or organisation to take care of you. That's your job.

As mentioned previously on multiple occasions, precious metals are a vital part of any integrated preparation for a prolonged chaos of an economic or other type. Food, water, medicines, backup power supplies and lighting, backup heating, sanitation, a low profile, etc. etc. are all crucial for the short term. For a longer term disruption, skill competencies, materials, food-growing capacity, water-purification, organisation into groups for trade and defense, etc. become more important.

The Obama regime is still in power. Any meaningful long-lasting financial recovery is out of the question -- although pockets of economic sanity may crop up in parts of the US willing to face the creeping rot head-on, such as Wisconsin.

Hope for the best. Prepare for the worst.