Will the Economy Recover Before 2030?

ImageSourceThese optimistic projections should assume that the Obama / Pelosi reich is dismantled no later than 2012. If the US is stuck with Obama's anti-business, anti-energy agenda beyond 2012, the recovery may be put off much, much longer.

California, Illinois, Michigan, and New York should be coloured black -- indicating at least 2040 before any meaningful recovery can take place, unless all of their politicians are turned over to Oynklent Green [OTC:OYNK] immediately. The way things are going, Oynklent Green may be the only people who can force your politicians to work for you.

Wake Up Little Mousie -- Time to Dance

“Their relentless drive is not a mood disorder,” Jones said. “There is a strong affective and emotional component to the feeling that you always want to do something. They can’t imagine doing nothing.” _ImpactLab

Some people thrive on 4 - 6 hours of sleep a night, and find the energy to stay on the go -- day after day after day. How do they do it? Chances are, they do it because they like to be going. Why? The answer may be genetic.

...a genetic variation found in people who seem to need only about six hours’ sleep—compared to the often recommended 7½ to eight hours—was put into mice to create a colony of “insomniac” rodents. Like humans with the variation, which is called DEC2, mice who received the variant gene appeared to function normally even though they got less sleep than a control group that didn’t have the DEC2 variation. _ImpactLab

Great. As if the furry little vermin weren't active enough already. Instead of giving the "stay going longer" gene to mice, how about giving it to me?

The discovery arose after a 68-year-old woman contacted Jones’ collaborators to volunteer for sleep research, telling him she had an unusually early morning wake-up time. Both the woman and her daughter go to bed between 10 and 10:30 p.m. and wake up between 4 and 4:30 in the morning. Yet, their 18-hour day does not affect their energy level or ability to function.

“The mom is very energetic and extremely active,” Jones said. “In fact, it makes me feel tired to hear about the activities she does every day.”

The woman just returned from a 50-day cruise, dances several nights a week, and plays bridge every day. Intrigued by the woman’s ability to operate on less sleep, Jones contacted colleagues at UCSF, who examined the woman’s DNA and identified the DEC2 variation.

...The researchers precisely monitored when the mice were slumbering, and then interrupted their sleep cycle to see how it would affect them. Even with less sleep, the insomniac mice were more active than a group of control mice who didn’t have the DEC2 variation. The researchers determined this by monitoring how long both groups of mice spent running in wheels inside their cages, and the insomniac group spent an average 1 ½ more hours turning the wheels than the control group.

This heightened functioning raised the question of whether the insomniac mice slept deeper than the controls. But the Stanford group monitored their sleep and found it was no deeper than that of the control group.

The study begins to shed more light on two related aspects of sleep: the biological clock that lets people sleep in harmony with the cycle of day and night and the body’s sleep homeostat—a mechanism in a different part of the brain that tracks how long people are awake and asleep. Genes such as DEC2 are found in both the homeostat and biological clock. Yet, while some of those genes work in the homeostat, they do not appear to have a function in the biological clock. _IL

This type of gene therapy may be a useful treatment for depression. Depressed people tend to either sleep too much, or sleep too little with corresponding fatigue. Being able to sleep significantly less while feeling energetic and eager to carry out normal activities, sounds like the opposite of typical depression.

Time will tell. And no doubt, there are other similar genes that interact with the body and brain's need for regular sleep.

I am not sure how well such persons could adapt to polyphasic sleep -- a method of breaking up a night's sleep into short, multiple naps throughout the day. There is a lot of research to be done into ways humans can free themselves from the chains of compulsion that rule so much of our lives.

By the way, optimal functioning on less sleep is another method of life extension. I want to work in as many effective methods as possible.

In a Few Years, College Professors May Have to Work For A Living

It can be difficult to distinguish a tenured college professor from a person living in comfortable retirement. Sinecured professors can be quite mad and dysfunctional, yet be guaranteed a well paid career and pension, with benefits, for very little work. That cushy situation may change fairly quickly, however.

Students starting school this year may be part of the last generation for which "going to college" means packing up, getting a dorm room and listening to tenured professors. Undergraduate education is on the verge of a radical reordering. Colleges, like newspapers, will be torn apart by new ways of sharing information enabled by the Internet. The business model that sustained private U.S. colleges cannot survive.

...When this happens -- be it in 10 years or 20 -- we will see a structural disintegration in the academy akin to that in newspapers now. The typical 2030 faculty will likely be a collection of adjuncts alone in their apartments, using recycled syllabuses and administering multiple-choice tests from afar.

...Students who would never have had access to great courses or minds are already able to find learning online that was unimaginable in the last century. _WashingtonPost_via_ImpactLab

And the professors who have squandered their privileged position and "academic freedom" for the chance to indoctrinate a constant flow of inexperienced and vulnerable young brains -- they may have to learn to provide value for their wages, for a change.

Top Climatologist Scoffs at Global Warming Alarmists

China's top climatologist Xiao Ziniu suggests that global warming alarmists at the IPCC [and in the Obama administration] are grossly exaggerating the risks of recent warming trends.

"There is no agreed conclusion about how much change is dangerous," Xiao said. "Whether the climate turns warmer or cooler, there are both positive and negative effects. We are not focusing on what will happen with a one degree or two degree increase, we are looking at what level will be a danger to the environment. In Chinese history, there have been many periods warmer than today."

The IPCC warns a 2C rise substantially increases the risks of floods, drought and storms. _Guardian

Of course, the IPCC and other alarmist climate modeling groups such as NASA GISS, and Obama's EPA will cry "wolf!" as many times as necessary to receive generous funding grants, and ever more political power.

But there will always be climatologists who refuse to be bought off by the political steamroller du jour, in this case catastrophic anthropogenic global warming.

To keep up on what is happening with the global warming scam, consult these blogs frequently:

Tom Nelson
Watts Up With That???
Climate Audit
Climate Skeptic
Climate Science
Climate Depot
Icecap

The President's Favourite Community Organisation

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
The Audacity of Hos
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Healthcare Protests

Jon Stewart asks "where were all the real journalists on this story?" Why is it that time after time, whenever more shady facts come out that reflect badly on Obama, the mainstream media tries to hide behind the curtains? It seems the US needs a different way of learning about current events. The skank media they have just doesn't cut it.

ACORN is Obama, and Obama is ACORN. The two movements are joined at the crux, and when the time comes for the president to throw the quasi-criminal community organisation under the bus -- he may hesitate. Once that denial and betrayal has taken place, existential confusion may well set in.

More information about ACORN agenda

H/T Instapundit

You'd Never Know the World from the Skank Media

If any of these links lead to stories that clash with what you have heard in the mainstream media, welcome to the world. The modern news media is not in business to tell you what the world is like, or what is really happening in the world. When the skank media is not slanting the news to sell advertising space, it is collaborating with political insiders to help a helpful friend remain in positions of power.

The stock market is not the economy

Putting horns on a bear doesn't make him a bull

Subtext of a false recovery

Yet more subtext

All the things that created the crisis are still in play H/T SimoleonSense

Derivatives are still a stone around the economy's neck

High energy costs will hamstring economic recovery


Volcker not optimistic for quick recovery

Banks fail, economy shrinks

Keynesian stimulus wrong approach

The fake housing recovery

Stealthy bugout through enemy territory

Cheap, High G, High Volume Space Launch

For humans to move from the cradle of their existence into the larger universe, they will need to move a large mass of life support materials and systems out of the planetary gravity well. Using chemical rockets, this task appears prohibitive almost to the point of impossibility. But using cleverly applied elecromagnetism, it might work.

Brian Wang links to a PDF proposal by Alexander Bolonkin and M. Krinker, that describes a novel system for moving large masses of support materials into orbit, cheaply.

The research shows the magnetic launcher can be built by the current technology. This significantly (by a thousand times) decreases the cost of space launches. Unfortunately, if we want to use the short rail way (412 m), any launcher request a big acceleration about 7.5x10^3 g and may be used only for unmanned, hardened payload. If we want design the manned launcher the rail way must be 1100 km for acceleration a = 3g (untrained passengers) and about 500 km (a = 6g) for trained cosmonauts. PDFSourceBolonkin Krinker

The design as laid out in the PDF document above, utilises homopolar faraday disc generators, and a large bank of flywheels for storing the large energies needed for high G magnetic launch. More from Brian Wang:

If this magnetic launcher costs 50 millions of dollars, lifetime of installation is 10 year and mountain is $2 millions of dollars per year. The launcher operates 350 days and launches 100 kg payload every 30 min (This means about 5000kg/day and 1750 tons/year). Then additional cost from installation is $2.86/kg then total cost is $6/kg.

The installation consists of a space apparatus, power drive stations, which include a flywheel accumulator (for storage) of energy, a variable reducer, a powerful homopolar electric generator and electric rails. The drive stations accelerate the apparatus up to hypersonic speed. The estimations and computations show the possibility of making this project a reality in a short period of time (for payloads which can tolerate high g-forces). The launch will be very cheap at a projected cost of 3 ─ 5 dollars per pound....

Bolonkin ideas to reduce costs:

1. Fly-wheels (25 tons and 710 m/s max rotating speed) from artificial fiber.
2. Small variable reducer with smooth change of turns and high variable rate.
3. Multi-stage monopolar electric generator having capacity of producing millions of amperes and a variable high voltage during a short time.
4. Sliding mercury (gallium) contact having high pass capacity.
5. Double switch having high capacity and short time switching.
6. Special design of projectile (conductor ring) having permanent contact with electric rail.
7. Thin (lead) film on projectile contacts that improve contact of projectile body and the conductor rail.
8. Homopolar generator has magnets inserted into a disk (wheel) form. That significantly simplifies the electric generator.
9. The rails and electric generator can have internal water-cooling.
10. The generator can return rotation energy back to a flywheel after shooting, while rails can return the electromagnetic energy to installation. That way a part of shot energy may be returned. This increases the coefficient of efficiency of the launch installation. _NextBigFuture

Versatile Ferrocement

Members in good standing of the Society for Creative Apocalyptology must demonstrate proficiency at a number of skills. One of the most important skills necessary for the creative survival of an apocalypse is the ability to design and build durable shelter. A number of construction techniques are taught, but one of the most useful construction methods is ferrocement.

Using ferrocement construction, a skilled craftsperson can build comfortable shelter, construct water storage over a large range of sizes, build air-tight food storage facilities flooded with CO2 or other inert gas for long-term storage, construct a sturdy boat or yacht, or carry out any number of other creative building projects.

Most forms of ferrocement construction involve the bending of steel rebar and the manual application of various types of cement. The larger the rebar required for the job, the more expensive and difficult the project will be. One variation of ferrocement construction -- the monolithic dome -- utilises an inflatable polymer form. A thickness of insulating foam is spray applied to the inflated form, then a layer of crossing steel rebar is constructed inside the foam. Then shot-crete (sprayed concrete) is applied over the steel rebar, contiguous with the foam, and forming the inner layer of the dome. (sometimes another layer of foam is applied to the inside for extra insulation)

Ferrocement houses -- particularly when dome shaped and / or earth sheltered -- survive hurricanes and tornadoes, when other forms of construction nearby have collapsed and disintegrated. Earth-sheltered and dome ferrocement are also considered relatively secure in earthquakes.

The monolithic dome style construction is typically used for dome-shaped homes, but can actually be utilised for any shape that is compatible with an inflated form. The monolithic technique can be used for storage buildings as well as homes, and can even be safely situated under 30 feet of earth, if dome shaped.

Shelter is a top priority. The ability to construct rapid improvised shelter is drilled into SCA trainees, of course, but serious members of the Society are in this for the long haul. Long term construction methods that are most likely to see a member through a difficult apocalypse (or even one not so difficult) are just another part of the training.

Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.

The Society for Creative Apocalyptology is a wholly owned subsidiary of Al Fin Enterprises, which maintains all rights to the name, and copyrighted training materials.

Consciousness Bottleneck: Out Like a Light

Scientists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have discovered a new cluster of neurons in the mesopontine tegmentum which seem to control the state of consciousness of the brain.

In an article published in the Journal of Neuroscience, the scientists, Marshall Devor, the Cecile and Seymour Alpert Professor of Pain Research, graduate student Ruth Abulafia and research associate Dr. Vladimir Zalkind describe their discovery of an area of the brain that participates in the control of "alert status."...

.....microinjection of tiny quantities of certain anesthetic drugs into this newly discovered "center of consciousness" in laboratory rats induced a profound suppressive effect on the activity of the cerebral cortex.

.....this knowledge could contribute to the ability of medical science to treat disorders of consciousness and its loss, such as insomnia, excessive sleepiness and even coma. Perhaps by direct electrical stimulation of the cells in question, it might prove possible to arouse a patient from coma. _ScienceDaily

The scientists are describing this new nerve cluster as a controller of the "alert status" of the brain. Other localised brain centers -- such as the locus ceruleus -- are also important to the control of the level of alertness of the brain. We will have to wait and see whether other scientists can confirm these findings, and if so, how the new neuronal cluster connects with other, better known brain centers and regions. Since these findings come from the study of the rodent brain, the race will be on to find an analogous nerve cluster in the human brain.

Finding a safe method of reversibly turning out the lights in the brain would have profound implications far beyond safer methods of surgical anesthesia.

It's Not Working

The [Manpower US Employment Outlook] survey results depict an economy that is gasping for breath. Dazed companies are either frozen in fear or shedding staff in anticipation of the brilliant plans of the Democrats: sweeping new energy taxes (Cap-and-Trade); socialized medicine (with brutal mandates for small businesses); forced unionization (card check); and a reduction in consumer spending (with the expiration of the across-the-board Bush tax cuts). _DR

Only 12% of employers expect to increase employment Q4 09. 88% will reduce employment, hope to maintain at current levels, or have not decided yet.Plummeting tax receipts tell the tale that the journalistic "rah rah boys" at CNN, NYT, and WaPo are afraid to tell.

Heading into the Christmas season, Obama is looking a lot more like the Grinch than like Santa Claus.

No recovery in sight

Ghost recovery, lost at sea

You Know the Million People Who Marched on DC on 9/12? They Were Just a Figment of Your Imagination

The best estimates for crowd numbers for last weekend's march on DC range from 500,000 to 1,000,000 people. But ask a brain-scarred lefty from DU or Kos, and they'll tell you what really happened on 9/12: It was all a conspiracy done using digital graphics tricks.

You can't make these people up, they are too fanciful.

You might see similar dialogue at JornoList and other similar forums. A veritable parade of idiocracy. But that's what happens when universities and mainstream media try so hard to limit the intellectual sphere to a single point of view. University graduates become academically lobotomised, and incapable of accepting the reality of other points of view.

Oh,yes -- do you want to know what may be motivating those 1,000,000 people who marched on DC last Saturday are just figments of your imagination? You should.

Obama Plans US Energy Shut-Down -- The Chinese Are Not Nearly So Foolish

Image SourceWithout energy, an entity will die. This is true for plants, animals -- and for nations.

During the campaign, Obama promised to shut down coal fueled power plants -- and he is doing just that.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If somebody wants to build a coal-fired plant, they can. It's just that it will bankrupt them because they're going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that's being admitted. _R&D

Under the Obama administration, offshore oil, oil shales, nuclear power, and other reliable forms of baseload power are not having much success either. Obama seems to believe that shutting down the US energy supply will make him a better leader, and the US a better country.

The Chinese are a good deal more intelligent, apparently, and understand that a nation's energy supply is the life's blood of its industry. That is why the Chinese are planning a vast new energy future for the 21st century.

Brian Wang has covered China's ambitious nuclear energy plans. China has large contracts with Areva, Mitsubishi, Westinghouse, and other nuclear power contractors, to build a large array of newer generation, safer nuclear power plants.

China is also becoming a leader in the implementation of clean coal gasification power.

Under a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Shell and Shenhua, the two parties will explore opportunities to jointly develop more advanced coal gasification technology. In addition, they will discuss the possible application of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology. A joint working team will be set up to implement the agreement.

Shenhua has built the world’s first million-tonne level direct coal liquefaction project in China’s Inner Mongolia, equipped with two gasifiers using Shell’s coal gasification technology to produce hydrogen from coal.

The Shell-Shenhua MoU was signed alongside government meetings between China and the Netherlands on sustainable energy cooperation. Officials from the National Energy Administration of China and the Ministry of Economic Affairs of the Netherlands witnessed the signing, after their meeting concluded with a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in the field of energy between the two government departments.

Shenhua Coal to Liquid and Chemical Co. Ltd. is a subsidiary company to Shenhua Group Corporation Limited. Shenhua Group is the world’s largest coal company. It not only builds coal-to-liquid and coal-chemical projects, but also develops CCS, hydrogen power and renewable energy technology.

Shell has been developing and commercializing coal gasification technology since the 1970s with a total of 26 licensing agreements signed worldwide. Shell has signed 19 licensing agreements with different Chinese users. Eleven plants using Shell coal gasification technology, including Shell’s joint venture with Sinopec in Yueyang of Hunan Province, have been started up.

Gasification equipment. The SCGP is a dry-feed, oxygen-blown, entrained flow coal gasification process which has the capability to convert virtually any coal or petroleum coke into a clean medium Btu synthesis gas.

In SCGP, high pressure nitrogen or recycled syngas in used to pneumatically convey dried, pulverized coal to the gasifier. The coal enters the gasifier through diametrically opposed burners where it reacts with oxygen at around 1,600 °C. The gasification temperature is maintained to ensure that the mineral matter in the coal is molten and will flow smoothly down the gasifier wall and out the slag tap. The hot syngas exiting the gasifier is quenched to below the softening point of the slag and then cooled further in the syngas cooler. _GCC

China is the world's larges coal producer, and the US has the largest coal reserves. Australia, Russia, and India also have large coal reserves.

Using gasification, it is possible to turn any type of coal -- even low quality coal -- or carbonaceous material, into clean synthesis gas. Syngas can be fired like natural gas, or turned into more complex fuels, chemicals, or polymers.

China's system of government and economy once suffered under tremendous disadvantages with respect to the government and economy of the US. As the government of the US continues to eviscerate the US economy, any advantages the US enjoyed are beginning to slip away.

Even under a global regime of poverty, someone will be on top. At the rate the Obama administration is going, the one on top will be China.

Cross-posted to Al Fin Energy

Exciting New Method of Finding New Oil & Gas Wells

Update: Neil Craig has much more

An exciting new oil & gas discovery technique has been developed by scientists at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. The new technique improves the chances of hitting paydirt from 20% up to 70%. The improved odds should take some of the risk out of fossil fuel discovery, and put back some of the profit.

Together with two research colleagues, Vladimir Kutcherov has simulated the process involving pressure and heat that occurs naturally in the inner layers of the earth, the process that generates hydrocarbon, the primary component in oil and natural gas.

According to Vladimir Kutcherov, the findings are a clear indication that the oil supply is not about to end, which researchers and experts in the field have long feared....

The degree of accuracy in finding oil is enhanced dramatically – from 20 to 70 percent. Since drilling for oil and natural gas is a very expensive process, the cost picture will be radically altered for petroleum companies, and in the end probably for consumers as well.

“The savings will be in the many billions,” says Vladimir Kutcherov. _SD

The research also suggests that oil and gas can form deep in the Earth, without any fossil intermediaries from plants or animals. The process can be completely abiotic, in other words.

It is certainly a relief to learn that the oil supply is not about to end. The suggestion is that humans have not yet discovered the truly huge oil and gas fields yet. That being the case, talk of an irreversible peaking of oil production may be rather premature. Time will tell.

More information and discussion from Jennifer Marohasy

Low-life is as Low-life Does

Below are two photographs of the DC mall. Guess which photo is from after the September 12 Tea Party, and which photo shows the mall after Obamas inauguration.


The difference between celebrations by stakeholders and celebrations by freeloaders is the aftermath. Anyone who has rented property has probably experienced this difference of mindset.

The trick in renting property profitably is to filter out the freeloader mentality before signing the rental contract. The trick in electing and building good government is quite similar.

Photos from Gateway Pundit via American Thinker

Nuclear Fusion Alive and On the Prowl

For those of you who thought that human controlled nuclear fusion was 50 or 100 years away, M. Simon reports a new $8 million contract awarded to EMC2 to extend their research on the Bussard Polywell IEC fusion approach. (via Brian Wang)

From the descriptions it is clear that the IEC fusion devices are far simpler than the ITER tokomak fusion devices. It is also simpler than nuclear fission reactors. So success would mean faster transformation, but it would still take five to ten years for big infrastructure impact to the point that oil would start to be significantly displaced. Plus it would first hit coal for electricity. Unlike current fission reactors which take 4-6 years to build, these IEC fusion reactors might be buildable in 1-3 years. There is still the issue of licensing and regulatory approvals. It is not clear what that licensing/regulatory process would be but it should be shorter than nuclear fission licensing as the IEC fusion is easier to shutoff and does not have nuclear fuel or waste.

The full scale IEC fusion reactors would be about 4 meters in radius and weigh about 14 tons and generate 1GW and 8 meters for about 128GW. Power will be 5-20 times cheaper. _NextBigFuture

This is small science at its best, where individuals can make a difference for the better.

More links from IEC Fusion Technology Blog:
An Introduction to Fusion Energy for Students of Science and Engineering

Bussard's IEC Fusion Technology (Polywell Fusion) Explained

Basics of fusion from American Thinker

The Google Talk from Bussard himself, explaining to Google techs and engineers the history of IEC and his own hopes for the technology:



Update 14Sept09: Brian Westenhaus presents more information and comments on new IEC funding

Calculus in 20 Minutes

Calculus is a prerequisite to most worthwhile courses of study in university. The calculus videos at Khan Academy are fairly focused and succinct. Other fairly good free online calculus courses are available at YouTube-EDU from a choice of schools. But if you are in a hurry to learn calculus, I have seen no quicker online method than the following 2 videos. H/T Carpe Diem

Close to A Million People Throng DC In an Attempt to Slow Down the Runaway Obama Spending Train

"It looks like Saturday's event is going to be a huge gathering, estimates ranging from hundreds of thousands to 2 million people," Doug Thornell, an aide to Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., wrote in a memo obtained by FOXNews.com. _FoxNews

I woke up this morning unaware of any big rally planned in DC. Apparently, several hundred thousand other persons were much better informed. Today's DC gathering must be the largest Tea Party so far.

Meanwhile, even members of the president's party are wondering whether an economic depression is the best time to overhaul health care, 1/6 th of the US economy.

After Obama's address to a joint session of Congress Wednesday night, [Senator] Feinstein remained skeptical about the wholesale overhauls to the nation's health care system that Obama contemplates.

"I just find that if you're going to remake a sixth of the American economy, it's very difficult at this time of great economic angst," Feinstein said in an interview with The Chronicle.
_SFGate

Skepticism over the Obama / Pelosi cap and trade scheme is even greater, among informed observers.

If you worry about what Congress could do in its health-care legislation, you should be terrified by the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill. It's legislation that would gut the economy and likely cost millions of Americans their medical insurance.

Nearly 15 million Americans are now looking for work, bringing the official unemployment rate to 9.7 - the highest in 26 years. If the Senate passes Waxman-Markey, that rate will go much higher. Employment and access to health insurance are inextricably linked.

There's no debating a cap-and-trade system would harm the economy. The only question is how costly it would be.... _SacBee

The answer: Obama's proposed reforms to the energy and health care sectors would devaste an economy that is already reeling from earlier actions by Obama and the US Democratic Party controlled Congress. Imagine an already devastated economy being ravaged even more by Dear Leader and his zombie horde. Not a pretty picture.Image Source

Educating for Oblivion, Surviving on the Dole and Cheap Spirits

If you want to make an enterprise antiquated, unresponsive to real world needs, make it a part of the government. Perpetuate the institution regardless of any actual success in real world terms. Do that for enough of society, and before long people have forgotten that other means exist besides government, for solving real world problems. By then, it is too late. Oblivion of the mind has set in. Russia is slightly farther along that road than the US, but the new US government is making great strides to catch up.

In 2008, 35.7 percent of the country’s GDP came from manufacturing, natural resource mining, agriculture, construction and housing and utilities. But only 14 percent of today’s students will major in engineering, 3.2 percent in geology and 2.9 percent in agriculture science. At the same time, 45 percent of students will choose business, management and law as their major focus of study. The problem is that Russia’s financial and legal sectors account for only about 8 percent of GDP. Clearly, there are not enough jobs for all of these students dreaming of becoming wealthy — or even middle-class — bankers and lawyers.

Moreover, higher education has lost much of its value. In Moscow in 2007 and 2008, 10 percent of university graduates — 90 percent of them women — did not work at all after graduating, and another 24 percent took jobs that did not require a higher education. Fewer than 50 percent started careers in their area of study. The situation is the reverse in the United States, where 94 percent of graduates holding degrees in business administration found jobs in their profession, 86 percent of engineers did likewise, as did 76 percent of those specializing in agriculture. What’s more, the percentages were the same for the first three years after graduation. If these statistics apply to Moscow — where an excessively high percentage of the country’s business activity and wealth are concentrated — just imagine how worse the situation is in the regions.

Thus, Russia is churning out far more graduates than it needs..... _MT_via_LaRussophobe

Russia's population has an average IQ just below 100, like the United States. With that IQ distribution, it is likely that over half of Russia's college student population do not actually belong in a challenging university course of study. Just as in the US, college is seen as the way to succeed for everyone, when quite obviously that cannot be true. Not everyone can be above average -- particularly at least 1 standard deviation or more above average, which is required for success in a demanding college degree.

Russia cannot modernize its economy without first modernizing its entire educational system — and its universities, in particular. Russia needs to move away from the goal of “higher education for the masses” and restructure the system to train specialists who can help the country gain a strategic global position in manufacturing and innovation-driven sectors. One place to start is for colleges and universities to make their admissions requirements stricter, which will lower the number of students admitted. This is the best way to move from high quantity to high quality. _MT

But rather than create a society where opportunities for success abound, Russia continues as a corrupt oligarchy of insider power. Recent assassinations of journalists who were outspoken critics of Russia's Dear Leader, proclaim a lack of openness seen only in countries like North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela, or China.

But the US could easily trend in that direction. Its educational system is already well along the path. The journalism community of the US has largely adopted a subservient position to the current governmental regime, without needing to be threatened. Of course, the US needs a national medical system like Russia's -- where bureaucrats can forget to order critical TB drugs and doom hundreds of thousands to needless deaths.

Russia's population is shrinking steadily, and will be only 1/3 the population of the US in a few decades. Its medical system is crap, its journalistic media is crap, its educational system is crap, and its military is crap. Russia cannot man its own vast mineral resources infrastructure, and is letting many billions of resource dollars slip away each year from crumbling machinery due to neglect.

Psychologically and spiritually, Russia is engaged in a slow but sure suicide. Its educational system is playing a crucial role in maintaining the downward course. Its journalistic media are keeping quiet, staying subservient. Its bureaucratic health care system is likely killing more people than it is saving.

Meanwhile, everyone praises Dear Leader.

Economy's Dark Clouds

To maintain as many of your assets as possible through difficult times, you will want to understand some of the dangerous undercurrents you may face. The starred links below contain several links to other articles and resources that you may find helpful.

Market Rally About to Lose Momentum

Economic Boom Not Around the Corner ***

Economy Skating on Thin Ice ***

Commercial Real Estate Hurting

IMF: Unemployment to Keep Going Up

Available financial information is contradictory, as always. One of the great challenges in life is learning to outgrow the programming one received in school. Experience is the best teacher, but to receive maximum benefit from experience one needs to maintain an open mind -- until experience teaches you it is time to make a firm judgment.

Chinese Scientists Study to Bring Down US Power Grid

Wang and colleagues at Dalian University of Technology in the Chinese province of Liaoning modelled the US's west-coast grid using publicly available data on how it, and its subnetworks, are connected....Their aim was to examine the potential for cascade failures, where a major power outage in a subnetwork results in power being dumped into an adjacent subnetwork, causing a chain reaction of failures. Where, they wondered, were the weak spots? _NewScientist

An electrical power grid is like a living organism, often delicately balanced between stasis and chaotic activity. Every power grid has its weak points, and those who might wish to bring the grid down -- for whatever reason -- will want to study those weaknesses.

Ian Fells at Newcastle University recommends using Semtex explosive on transmission lines located near a power station, for robust effectiveness in bringing down a power grid. Other enterprising power saboteurs have simply removed the anchoring bolts for the line tower.

Other approaches have included shorting across the different phase lines, shorting out the transformers, and hitting power grid control equipment with an electromagnetic pulse.

Local power outages -- although inconvenient for customers and often expensive to repair for utility companies -- are manageable as long as they are limited in size. Even a larger outage that involved an entire state, province, or region, could be managed over time with assistance from non-involved regions.

A much larger outage that involved multiple regions, including most major cities of North America, would be a hug problem. Particularly since such an attack would almost certainly occur in conjunction with significant conflicts elsewhere on the globe. Such distant conflicts could tie up the US military -- usually one of the first organisations on the scene in a global emergency -- and prevent it from assisting.