Oh, Those Violent Genes! Genetic Landscapes of Violence

There are neighborhoods that you know to avoid, if you want to keep your wallet, your vehicle, your life, and any loved ones who accompany you. Likewise, there are entire cities, countries, and regions of the world which intelligent people will only visit for very good reason -- accompanied by ample protection.

If one makes the association between the human makeup of such neighborhoods, cities, countries -- and the people who inhabit those places -- one is apt to be labeled a "racist" in the worlds of politically correct groupthink.

But when the modern scientific worlds of genetics and cognitive science come together and declare an association between particular gene sets, and specific types of violent behaviours, intelligent people are given a glimpse behind the curtain of political correctness, into the grist and blood of an important underlying reality.

Flow Chart of Violence

The flow chart of violence above is taken from the article "Genes for susceptibility to violence." It provides a glimpse at some of the different factors which may contribute to the decision (conscious or unconscious) to commit violent acts. The MAO-L genotype refers to the specific monoamine oxidase A (MAO-A) promoter variant which is at least 10 times more common in people of African descent than in most other population groups, and which seems to predispose to both violence and antisocial disorders.

The MAO-L genotype is not the only gene variant which may predispose to violent behaviours, as you can see below:

Natural Born Killers

The table above looks at a number of gene variants which have been associated with violent and other antisocial behaviours. It was taken from an article first published in : Aggression and Violent Behavior 14 (2009) 286–294.

The full set of genetic factors which play into violent behaviour will not be compiled for quite some time yet. Since we have barely discovered the underlying genetic foundations of impulse control, intelligence, executive function, cognitive assessment of threat, susceptibility to fear conditioning, etc., it will take a number of decades to fill in the outlines -- and much more to fill in the gaps.

Natural Born Killers

The excerpt above comes from the summary of the article "Natural Born Killers: The Genetic Origins of Extreme Violence." It is meant to help explain the difference in rates of violence between men and women. The reference to "impulse control" makes an important point: Even humans who are genetically predisposed to anti-social behaviours can exert self-control to abort impulses toward violent behaviours before they are carried out.

And since "impulse control" itself is largely genetically determined, we see that if an individual is genetically inclined to harbour violent impulses -- and is additionally genetically inclined to have low impulse control -- the likelihood of that person exhibiting violent behaviours is much higher than in a person who exhibited only one of the two genetically determined traits.

Parenthetically, blacks typically display lower levels of impulse control than other population groups.

Catalyst Model of Antisocial Behaviours

The image above was first published in The Journal of Social Psychology, 2010, 150(2), 160–180. PDF download of article.

The catalyst model of violence was devised by violence researcher Christopher Ferguson. It attempts to illustrate the multiple factors -- genetic and environmental -- which come together to generate violent and anti-social behaviours.

The image suggests a one-way flow from predispositions on the left, to violent behaviours on the image far right. But the actual processes involved -- genetic, emotional/cognitive, and environmental -- are far more complex, with multiple circular feedback loops interacting with each other.

If one looks at the geographical map of violent crime, it is easy to infer that genetic factors -- probably many genetic factors -- interact to cause higher rates of violence among African-derived populations.

Blacks have higher genetic prevalence of some of the factors that predispose to impulsive violence, are genetically inclined to have lesser control of these impulses -- both in terms of executive function and IQ. As the complex components of violence are further uncovered, we will learn more about the reasons for the large discrepancies in rates of violence between African-derived populations, and other human populations.

For although the PC groupthink police will tell you that it is racist to think about such things, in the real world understanding these differences may save your life, and the lives of people you care about.

The Wisdom of Human Ritual; Don't Leave Home Without It

The ritualistic inclination is built into our species, as you can learn from the profound but simple experiment described below.

Imagine you are a five-year-old being led into a small office. A woman with a warm smile shows you an assortment of strange objects. Some of them are shiny. You feel like playing with them. That’s OK, that’s allowed. Soon the friendly lady takes the objects away and says she wants to show you a video. On the screen is another woman. She has an identical set of objects lined up neatly in a row and she’s doing odd things with them — she lifts one and taps it on another, then puts it back and takes something else, twirling it in a peculiar fashion before replacing it. This goes on for some time. Then the strange objects are pushed back towards you and the lady says: ‘It’s your turn.’ What would you do?

If you were a five-year-old, you would imitate at least some of the actions you observed in the video. No instruction would be necessary. And yet, the behaviour doesn’t appear to achieve anything. The psychologist Cristine Legare and I have been working together for several years trying to understand why young test subjects bother to copy it. Our starting point is that they treat it as a convention of some kind. That is to say, they adopt what we call ‘the ritual stance’, imitating without questioning the purpose of the actions.

In our experiment, however, the behaviour of the woman in the video is ambiguous. Children can't be sure it if is oriented to a goal or not. A surprisingly simple shift helps them to decide: we just alter the last move in the sequence. If the woman puts the last object into a box, it looks like the whole procedure was just a ‘funny’ way of putting an object away. We call this the ‘instrumental condition’. On the other hand, if the objects all end up back where they were originally placed, the whole action sequence appears not to have any tangible purpose. We call this the ‘ritual condition’. When the start and end states are identical, children are more confident that the demonstration on the video should be interpreted as a kind of ritual. And guess what? They copy it much more faithfully, and are less inclined to try out variations on their own initiative. _Harvey Whitehouse

Ritual Mosaic Humans value ritual from their earliest years. The need for human ritual only grows with the years. It seems to have always been that way.

Whether we consider the aborigines of Australia, the Native Americans, the ancient Hindus and Egyptians, or our own European ancestors, we find a world-wide preoccupation with ritual action that cuts across all races, religions, and cultures. We could even say that human culture is primarily a culture of ritual. _Culture of Ritual

Yet in our modern scientific world, the human need for ritual is typically denied and scoffed at, as an unnecessary residual of a more superstitious age.

But only a little thought and reflection should tell us that the further from religious belief and culture that we travel, the more necessary our grounding and passage of time rituals become.

Each culture, society, community, and family will have its own rituals based upon a unique history. Depending upon the ritual one is observing, one is either connecting with his family, community, society, culture, nation, or all mankind.

Rituals were once an unthinking part of daily life for every human living within a society or culture. In the modern scientific age, however, rituals must be consciously employed for their underlying purposes, or they become neglected and forgotten. The loss of grounding that occurs with the withering away of ritual is tragic -- for all that it is rarely noticed.

In The Dangerous Child Method of Education and Child-Raising, ritual is given a prominent role -- particularly in the toddler years, and in the years prior to puberty. Puberty itself is a passage, and deserves its own rite. And so on, through the years of passages that constitute human existence.

Daily rituals should also be utilised, from the earliest years. Here is a brief look at some "mindfulness rituals," meant to ground and vitalise one's daily existence.

1. Sit in the morning. When you wake up, in the quiet of the morning, perhaps as your coffee is brewing, get a small cushion and sit on the floor... I’ll ... just sit, and focus on my breathing going in and out. I’m an absolute beginner when it comes to meditation, but this always starts my day right.
2. Brush your teeth... Try fully concentrating on the action of brushing, on each stroke of each tooth, going from one side of the mouth to the other. You end up doing a better job, and it helps you realize how much we do on autopilot.
3. Eat mindfully. Turn off the TV, put away the computer and mobile devices, even put away the book or newspaper... unless you do this, you are not truly appreciating your food. I like eating... mindfully, paying attention to each bite. It makes the food taste better, and I eat slowly and with gratefulness.
4. Wash your bowl. When you’re done eating, wash your dish immediately. Do it while paying full attention to your washing, to the water and suds.
5. Drink tea... Make your own tea ceremony — prepare the tea carefully and mindfully, pour it slowly, sip it with thoughtfulness. See if you can set aside one time each day to do this, and it will transform your day.
6. Walk slowly. I like to take breaks from work, and go outside for a little walk. Walk slowly, each step a practice in awareness. Pay attention to your breathing, to everything around you, to the sounds and light and texture of objects.
7. Read in silence... Have no television or computers on nearby, and just immerse yourself in the world of the novel. It might seem contradictory to let your mind move from the present into the time of the novel, but it’s a great practice in focus...
8. Look at someone gratefully. Each day, find someone you care about. Instead of just seeing what you always see, really look at the person. Try not to do it creepily. See this person for the miracle that she is, and be grateful for her existence. If you’re feeling generous, tell that person how thankful you are for her.
9. Work with focus. Start your workday by choosing one task that will make a big difference in your work, and clearing everything else away. Just do that one task, and don’t switch to other tasks. _Leo Baubata

These particular "rituals" are based upon the practise of "mindfulness," which is usually associated with zen. But in Dangerous Child training, we incorporate mindfulness rituals without any particular trappings, other than those which might be particularly salient to the child.

There is something trance-like in the observation of many rituals. But rituals can just as easily liberate one from a default state -- a "spinning of the wheels" trance which the brain can easily fall into. Mindfulness rituals in particular tend to help break us out of the many unthinking default trances into which our minds can easily sink.

If meaningful rituals are incorporated into our daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly lives, we are more likely to have a subtextual "soundtrack", mapping system, or system of life indexing, which helps us to better understand where we have been and where we may be going.

Most of us are somewhat familiar with religious ritualism. But many forms of pagan ritual preceded all forms of organised religious ritual as far back in time as we can go. And it is interesting to observe the return of much of this pagan ritual across various parts of modern societies.

As humans try to make sense of an increasingly secular existence, it is crucial for us to understand the importance of our underlying need for ritual -- both on a daily basis, and to mark critical events and transitions in our lives.

To make the most sense of this need, we must go back and understand how rituals naturally came about, and how these native rituals were modified and adapted to meet the needs of different cultures, civilisations, religions, and societies.

Putting the Corrupt University System Out of Our Misery

US college students can end up hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt at the end of their university experience, with very little to show for it. Even middle and lower tier universities are growing exorbitantly priced, without providing students, parents, or society, value for their financial sacrifice.

In fifty years, if not much sooner, half of the roughly 4,500 colleges and universities now operating in the United States will have ceased to exist. The technology driving this change is already at work, and nothing can stop it. The future looks like this: Access to college-level education will be free for everyone; the residential college campus will become largely obsolete; tens of thousands of professors will lose their jobs; the bachelor’s degree will become increasingly irrelevant; and ten years from now Harvard will enroll ten million students.

... universities that have spent the past few decades spending tens or even hundreds of millions to offer students the Disneyland for Geeks experience are going to find themselves in real trouble. Along with luxury dorms and dining halls, vast athletic facilities, state of the art game rooms, theaters and student centers have come layers of staff and non-teaching administrators, all of which drives up the cost of the college degree without enhancing student learning. The biggest mistake a non-ultra-elite university could make today is to spend lavishly to expand its physical space. Buying large swaths of land and erecting vast new buildings is an investment in the past, not the future.

...The biggest obstacle to the rapid adoption of low-cost, open-source education in America is that many of the stakeholders make a very handsome living off the system as is. In 2009, 36 college presidents made more than $1 million. That’s in the middle of a recession, when most campuses were facing severe budget cuts. This makes them rather conservative when it comes to the politics of higher education, in sharp contrast to their usual leftwing political bias in other areas. Reforming themselves out of business by rushing to provide low- and middle-income students credentials for free via open-source courses must be the last thing on those presidents’ minds.

Nevertheless, competitive online offerings from other schools will eventually force these “non-profit” institutions to embrace the online model, even if the public interest alone won’t. And state governments will put pressure on public institutions to adopt the new open-source model, once politicians become aware of the comparable quality, broad access and low cost it offers. _The End of University as We Know It

Modern universities are memorials to mediocre education, corrupt excess, and academic intolerance. The $1 trillion in student loans which hobble young people at the start of their adult lives is being revealed as a dangerous financial bubble. The university system now occupies a central part of the ongoing US financial misery -- and heaven help the US taxpayer if Obama includes universities in his next round of multi- $trillion bailouts.

The system is corrupt and rotting to the core, and cannot last. It is time to build an affordable, trimmed down replacement system that returns value for money spent. It is time to put the rotten and corrupt university system out of our misery.

World Bank and US National Intelligence Council Agree: This Will Be the Chinese Century

When the bureaucrats and analysts of the World Bank and the US NIC agree that the US is on the way down, and China is on the way up, then it must be true, nicht wahr?

On Monday, the National Intelligence Council released its fifth “Global Trends” report. Among its conclusions, the study predicted that the Chinese economy would surpass the American one to become the world’s largest “a few years before 2030.” 

The report, a blend of analysis from the American intel community and experts in almost 20 other countries, is consistent with most assessments of the subject. The World Bank, for instance, made the same prediction (pdf) this year.

_World Affairs Journal

Predictions about the ultimate decline of the US -- and the end of a global Pax Americana -- ring true, as long as the nation follows its current political, cultural, immigration, and economic policies. But what about China's ascendancy?

... a growing number of China watchers have been raising the alarm that all is not well in the world’s second-largest economy. Indeed, any discussion of China these days would be far more foresighted to focus on the growing challenges and potential dangers that the new leadership is facing.

Leadership divisions and scandals...

Slowing economic growth...

Irresolvable territorial disputes...

Environmental disasters in the making...

No New ideas...

...Should China’s new leadership merely muddle along for the next decade, then the next turnover of power in 2022 may take place under much more unsettled and less promising conditions. How will the PLA respond to a China that is growing weaker on the world stage or one whose goals are being frustrated by other nations? Will the leadership stick together if growth continues to slow or debt loads increase such that financial crises plague the nation in the coming years? These are questions to which Western and Asian governments should be paying close attention, and they should be figuring out which metrics are most important for understanding China’s current trajectory. _TheDiplomat

It doesn't look as if the authors of the reports from the World Bank or the NIC took all of the listed factors into account when they made their predictions.

An interesting critique of the NIC report

One of the most disturbing aspect of modern scholarly reports such as those from the World Bank and the NIC, is the lack of intellectual depth and diversity that goes into them. Groupthink has wormed its way into all levels and functions of governments, intergovernments, and NGOs -- just as groupthink is in control of most academic and media institutions. And ideological groupthink is merely an excuse for not thinking.

Meanwhile, back in China, the new leadership appears to be doubling down on the mistakes of its most recent predecessors.

...the three principal reasons for China’s growth over the last three decades—continuous reform, benign international environment, and favorable demography—no longer exist. And Chinese leaders cannot just wave a wand and create new conditions for growth. In fact, the anti-reformist bent of the newly unveiled Politburo Standing Committee, the apex of Chinese political power, makes positive change look unlikely.

The triumph of the hard-liners means that, when China needs economic reform the most, the political system will be least able to deliver it. China has progressed about as far as it can within its existing political framework. Today, there is a growing recognition that fundamental economic restructuring cannot occur unless there is far-reaching political reform, reform certainly more ambitious than the “inner-party democracy” that leaders like to talk about. Yet meaningful political reform is completely off the table, as the disappointing lineup of the new Standing Committee makes clear.

China is now trapped in self-reinforcing—and self-defeating—feedback loops. In one of these loops, a slumping economy is creating a crisis of legitimacy. The legitimacy crisis, in turn, is causing a wide-ranging political crackdown. The crackdown makes reform impossible. The lack of reform prevents long-term economic growth. _ World Affairs

China's government is beginning to act as if it believes that the dragon is the new global hegemon. It is clear that China's leaders wish to throw the country's weight around on the global stage. The new leadership should be watched closely for signs of belligerent intent, as China continues a rapid build-up of its military infrastructure.

One of the elementary rules of foreign policy is when you are in a hole, stop digging. But judging by their recent behavior, Beijing’s foreign policy mandarins and national security establishment are clearly in violation of this rule...

At around the same time as the diplomatic uproar over the new Chinese passport design, the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) conducted its first successful landing and take-off operations from its retrofitted aircraft carrier. The televised test might have boosted the Chinese military’s image and self-confidence, but the message this event sent around the region, given China’s hardline position on territorial disputes and its neighbors’ fears of the PLA’s growing military capabilities, cannot be very reassuring.

But that is not the end of the actions taken by China recently that are likely to cost Beijing’s new government dearly. A few days before Japan’s Diet elections on December 16, which are expected to produce a right-wing government with deep antipathy toward Beijing, the Chinese government escalated its challenge to Japan’s territorial claims to the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands by flying an official, albeit unarmed, maritime surveillance plane over the airspace of the disputed islands. As expected, the move incensed Tokyo and can only be expected to bolster the Liberal Democratic Party’s (LDP) chances and lend more credence to their call for a tougher policy toward China. _TheDiplomat

The future is one of the most difficult things to predict. We know this, because predictions of the future are almost invariably wrong in many or most aspects.

Large bureaucracies in governmental, academic, inter-governmental, commercial, etc. institutions must continue to attempt to chart their paths ahead. To do this, they must continue to make future predictions -- even if they are invariably wrong in most meaningful ways.

What can you as a single individual do? Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.

High Tech Date Rape: The World Warps Strange

As women have become more educated, more sophisticated and worldly wise, they have come to demand more wealth, accomplishment, and sophistication from their men. These increased demands have proven burdensome to the majority of men, who have been put at a relative disadvantage in terms of education and work, due to affirmative action and other government mandates. In addition, most men do not find it within themselves to be classy dressers, suave charmers, or masters of smooth seduction.

In the old days, a smooth serenade, or a moving poetry recitation, might have worked -- even if the man were struggling above his pay grade, so to speak. But the modern woman does not give in so easily, as her more sentimental forerunners might have done. And besides, most modern men are neither musically talented nor poetically gifted.

Due to these and other disadvantages, many men have been driven to the use of date rape drugs, including copious quantities of alcohol. But there is nothing particularly memorable or satisfying about taking advantage of a woman lost in a deep stupour. In addition, the legal penalties can be severe and lasting.

A safer and more sophisticated approach to taking control of an inauspicious mismatch, involves the use of conversational trance induction -- or hypnosis. This is a very effective approach, but it requires a certain amount of training, in addition to innate talents of empathetic sensing and projection, along with exquisite control of one's voice and body language. Only a relative few men can be masters of these techniques.

This brings us to a rapidly developing field of neuroscience known as transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). With TMS, one can place an electro-magnetic coil over a particular area of the forehead of an attractive but dismissive woman, instantly turning rejection into ready compliance. TMS is capable of disrupting the normal inhibitory and behavioural control and decision-making of the pre-frontal cortex (PDF) and associated regions.

Yes, I can already hear you asking: "How can I get her to hold still long enough to place the coil over the exact location required to get her to submit?"

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation

Now, thanks to clever scientists in Spain, you don't have to. Utilising advanced theories of meta-materials, these Barcelona physicists have devised a way to turn materials formerly thought of as "invisibility cloaks" into devices capable of projecting electromagnetic fields over a distance.

You may begin to see the potential. Concealed within the obscure physics are the makings of an electromagnetic field projector, with the potential to initiate limited behavioural control over a distance.

Beyond energy transmission, the researchers suggest the ability of the shell to concentrate magnetic fields into a small space could enhance the accuracy of magnetic sensors. This could extend the reach of a medical research technique called transcranial magnetic stimulation, in which parts of the brain can be temporarily activated or deactivated by magnetic fields. _PhysicsWorld

Of course, the implications of this type of remote brain control go far beyond the trivial example of "date rape." In fact, this type of control over the impulses and inhibitions of other people -- even large groups of people simultaneously -- is exactly the tool that politicians, advertising companies, community organisers, religious prophets, college professors, and other shady characters have longed for since the coming of homo sapiens.

In the age of meta-materials and other counter-intuitive technologies, the world is beginning to warp strangely odd. And yet, none of us are given a pass to sit out these developments and await a later, safer, less startling technological environment. It would likely be a long wait, regardless.

New technologies work out of sight, out of mind, beyond our conceptual grasp, for the most part. And even in the face of widespread economic disaster, such technologies -- and even stranger ones -- will continue to be developed somewhere, by some organised group or another.

It sounds as if we will need to become more dangerous than ever just to live in the coming world -- but in a good way, of course.

H/T NextBigFuture

Extreme Bugout Vehicle: Carry Your Survival Colony With You Anywhere

The Aeros rigid body airship uses a novel buoyancy management system to provide the ability to carry up to 66 tons of freight or passengers, with a range of 3,000 nautical miles, and the ability to land and take off vertically from any flat surface. Cruising speed is 110 knots, with better fuel economy than other aircraft with heavy lift capability.

The company has built a half-size prototype, and is working with the US FAA on legal-technical-regulatory aspects of the craft before building a full-sized version.

If the vehicle operates to specifications, it would be an ideal method of building an "instant community" in the middle of nowhere. Such a capacity would be invaluable to militaries, as well as to survivalists, colonists, "new nation activists," and others who wished to be able to quickly install a sophisticated infrastructure in a remote location using pre-fabricated and pre-packaged materials and equipment. Example: Intershelter Popup Dome Shelters are lightweight and assume compact form for shipping.

The airship should also allow for fairly quick and massive relief and re-supply in disaster situations.

Aeroscraft

The commercial models will have a cruising speed of 110 knots over a range of 3000 nautical miles.

“It is the speed that the market and customers need,’’ he [Aeros CEO Igor Pasternak] says.

One of the keys to the new platform is its buoyancy management system. This allows the weight of the vehicle to be adjusted to suit conditions and operational needs. It is completely different from a "blimp" or something like the Hindenburg which needed a hitching post. With the Aeroscraft, there is a gas envelope above a freight chamber which reduces the buoyancy until the craft is 50 feet above the ground. Then you land it as you would a helicopter.

“The concept of the operation is absolutely new. When it comes in for a landing, say 100 feet or 50 feet and it touches the ground, at this moment you become heavier than air,’’ he says.

“From the structure stand point, all of us are familiar with the Hindenburg and Zeppelin designs, continues Pasternak. “This is different. We built a space frame that sits inside of the vehicle and around the frame we built a rigid cell. The function of the rigid cell is to have it work with the aerodynamic laws. It’s a very simple approach. _Gizmag

The video below provides a graphic animation of the Aeros buoyancy management system, which allows the craft to land and take off vertically, and to pick up and deliver up to 66 tons of cargo or passengers from most locations -- regardless of how far it is to the nearest airport.

The military applications are apt to catch on, if the craft can operate at high enough altitudes out of range of most ground fire. Remote piloting capability would also be an ideal feature for military use.

This is an airship buoyancy concept that has been thrown around at the Al Fin Aerospace Institute for a number of years, but the Institute is not likely to submit any prior claims to the idea. ;-)

Out of All Geniuses, Why Are So Few Female?

The lifelong effects of early exposure to sex hormones are characterized as organizational, because they appear to alter brain function permanently during a critical period. Administering the same hormones at later stages has no such effect. The hormonal effects are not limited to sexual or reproductive behaviors: they appear to extend to all known behaviors in which males and females differ. They seem to govern problem solving, aggression and the tendency to engage in rough-and tumble play-the boisterous body contact that young males of some mammalian species display. __Sex Differences In the Brain

What is genius? It is an extraordinary level of skill and accomplishment which goes far beyond the commonplace. Genius refers to the ability to push human accomplishment beyond its present limits.

In an exhaustive historical study of human genius across a range of human endeavour from science to art: Human Accomplishment: The Pursuit of Excellence in the Arts and Sciences, 800 BC to 1950, very few female geniuses made the lists.

Murray ranks the leading 4,000 innovators in several fields of human accomplishment from 800 BC to 1950. In each field Murray identifies a number of sources (leading encyclopedias, histories and surveys) providing information about the leading figures in the field. The rankings are made from information in these sources. A raw score is determined based on how many sources mention and on how much space in each source is devoted to a person. Then these raw scores are normalized so that the lowest score is 1 and the highest score is 100. The resulting scores are called "Index Scores".

Women invariably come up short.

A Small Gender Curve Shift With Large Consequences for Genius
More

The same relative shortage of female genius is discovered in lists of science Nobel Prize winners, in lists of top mathematical prize winners, and in most any other objective and meritocratic measure of accomplishment where men and women are free to compete for the prize.

This gender disparity -- although real and enduring -- is far from politically correct. In the PC skankstream, the lack of parity cannot be allowed to stand unchallenged. A recent challenge to the reality of the gender imbalance in genius, comes from Scientific American -- once a science journal, but now largely a political organ of the skankstream:

For most of history women in the Western world were denied opportunities to seek higher education and develop their talents.

The dearth of women at the top of their fields is now often the result of compromises made for the sake of family, rather than differences in ability.

Women who seek eminence face difficult choices regarding when to invest in their careers versus their personal lives. More cultural and institutional support for women could dispel the lingering gender disparities. _SciAm

A brief summary is available at the link, but most of the article is hidden behind a paywall.

While women have already surpassed men in overall achievement of college and graduate level degrees, something keeps them from matching men in proportionate numbers at the top levels in the fields which are very difficult to master.

Journolistic and pseudo-scientific skanks attempting to explain this female shortfall have a limitless bucket of excuses from which to draw. And they are never short of grand plans and schemes for "correcting" this disparity. But when the ultimate explanation for the shortage of female genius and grand female accomplishment is finally seen to rest at the biological level, the PC skankstream will have to take a different approach -- if it is to be taken seriously.

The biological explanation fits the data best of all -- although it is the least politically correct.

There is now a growing literature to suggest that, in addition to similarities between male and female brains, there are marked sex dimorphisms in brain morphology, neurochemistry, hard-wiring, and functional outcomes (De Vries and Boyle, 1998; Simerly, 2005; Cahill, 2006; Cosgrove et al., 2007). Moreover, increasing evidence suggests that estrogen can have different (sometimes opposite) effects as well as similar effects in male and female subjects, probably because of underlying brain dimorphisms that occur in some brain processes but not others.

... substantial evidence in humans and experimental animals documents sex differences in specific cognitive and behavioral tasks (De Vries, 2004; Cahill, 2006; Cosgrove et al., 2007). Whether males or females have the advantage depends on the task. For example, men generally outperform women on visuospatial tasks, quantitative tasks, and targeted motor skills, whereas women excel in verbal skill tasks, perceptual tasks, and fine motor skills... _Estrogen in the Brain (& Sexual Dimorphism)

A large and growing body of scientific evidence describes significant statistical differences in the brain structure and function of males vs females. This "sexual dimorphism" of brain strucutre & function begins very early in development, and continues throughout childhood, receives a big boost in puberty, and generally carries on through adulthood and to the end of life.

It is no surprise that such significant statistical brain differences would result in significant statistical differences in behaviour and accomplishment. It is politically inconvenient to a radically feminised establishment inside government, academia, media, and popular culture, yes. But no surprise.

We will have to watch and see how many more tens (and now hundreds) of billions of dollars are wasted on the futile attempt to overcome the built in biological differences between the brains of men and women.

Meanwhile, boys of potential genius are being neglected by tax-supported institutions, because their potential does not fit the narrative.

If you have boy children and girl children, be sure to give each of them full opportunity to choose their own course in life -- without regard to political correctness. And be sure to make them as dangerous as they wish to be.

It is never too late to have a dangerous childhood.

Out of All the Possible Futures . . .

The future is not set in stone. There are always a number of possible futures -- strange attractors -- ceaselessly battling each other for the opportunity to evolve into a transient reality and instantiation.

Mega-Egali-Dystopia

As crucial elections pass and the world moves more deeply into a narrowing set of futures, a few things become more clear. Almost none of the possible futures which have been predicted by pundits, bureaucrats, visionaries, and speculative writers, are likely to come about. That is because the future cannot be created deliberately in the manner of conventional construction. Instead, the future must be facilitated and channeled by the erection of specific, well-placed constraints, keeping in mind the natural forces underlying the movement of humans through time.

The set of constraints being erected by the great powers as of today, combined with apparently inexorable demographic forces at work across the globe, increase the likelihood of a global dystopia of poverty, low intelligence, and constant, low-level violence.

The world’s urban population is expected to grow by 2.6 billion people between 2011 and 2050, bringing the total number of urbanites to 6.3 billion. This urban expansion will be especially burdensome for developing countries, where 82 percent of the world’s population currently lives...

Slum populations are expected to grow significantly in the future, and UN HABITAT projects that 6 million more people live in slums every year.

The World Health Organization identifies the rapid increase of urban populations, especially slum populations, as the most important issue affecting health in the 21st century. The agency cites overcrowding, lack of safe water, and improper sanitation systems as the primary factors contributing to poor health among the urban poor. Slums often become breeding grounds for diseases like tuberculosis, dengue, pneumonia, and cholera, and slum dwellers contract water-borne or respiratory illnesses at much higher rates than people in rural areas do.

Cities and their slums will continue to grow as long as rural populations continue to migrate to cities to find economic and other opportunities, such as access to cultural amenities, education, and health care. _Worldwatch_via_GCC

Across the more developed world -- from North America to Europe to Oceania to East Asia -- populations are aging, fertility is falling far below replacement, and these generally more intelligent and accomplished societies of the world are embarking upon a grand experiment of group extinction. These populations which accomplished so much over a fairly short period of time, appear to have chosen to fade away.

Decline of Average Global IQ Over Time

...nearly all of the world's annual demographic growth - close to 95 percent - is occurring in less developed regions. Top seven contributing nations are India, 22 percent; China, 9 percent; Nigeria, 5 percent; Pakistan, 4 percent; Indonesia, 3 percent; Brazil, 2 percent; and Ethiopia, 2 percent

...African birthrates... stand at more than 4 children per woman, with some countries, such as Mali, Niger and Uganda, continuing to have rates above 6 children per woman. Such fertility rates, though expected to decline, translate into rapid population growth for most sub-Saharan African countries for the coming decades. For example, with a current fertility rate of 5.5 children per woman projected to decline to 3.5 children per woman by 2050, Nigeria's population of 162 million more than doubles to 390 million over the next 40 years.

...The consequences of these major demographic changes affect every aspect of human society, including food, natural resources, economic well-being, security, revenue, politics, employment and healthcare. Neither political rhetoric nor wishful thinking can dispel the enormous impacts. _Demographic Trends Shaping the World

Of those who are left after the depopulation of the advanced world -- the primitive tribal societies of Africa and Asia along with the emerging nations -- only China is likely to have the wealth, resources, technological expertise, and infrastructure to persist in creating grand visions of great futures.

And China is virtually certain to split at the seams into competing factions -- some of them based in modern China, others based overseas in Africa, Latin America, and areas that were formerly part of Russia, Oceania, and Europe.

Already we see the beginnings of "the coming anarchy" across the middle east, central Asia, and sub Saharan Africa. The fault lines for civil wars are setting up across a number of countries in Latin America. The forces of secession are erupting from the UK, across Europe, penetrating deeply into the US and Canada, and are likely to grow in intensity as global instability builds. The schisms -- both old and new -- are building, reaching well into the emerging BRICS -- Russia, China, India, Brazil -- and throughout the first and third worlds.

Up until now, the US has been an anchor to which Europe, Oceania, and Latin America could grudgingly hold -- and an oppositional brace against which Russia, China, and their satellites and hangers-on could orient. But it is clear that the US cannot sustain its role as world-policeman, world financial guarantor, world guardian of the trade lanes, world rescuer in times of war and natural disaster, or world anchor.

The US is now undergoing a designed stealthy undertow and dissolution of internal cohesion and external power that is slowly releasing more and more parts of the world to their own fates. A slow destruction which was already occurring through blind corruption and ambition is now taking place by craft and planning. That intentional process of dissolution of cohesiveness and strength can only accelerate with the re-selection of the current US president for yet another 4 year rule.

The moderating powers of Europe, North America, and Oceania on world affairs are dissipating.

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity. _WB Yeats . . . The Second Coming

There is no need for peak oil, climate catastrophe, resource collapse, global overpopulation, and all the other bugaboo tools of leftist scare-mongering -- all of those meant only to facilitate the grab of power and resources, after all.

Violence, Fertility, and Low IQ Most Prevalent Among Third World People

Everything needed for a collapse of civilisation after the style of Mao, Pol Pot, or Kim, is contained within the weaknesses of human nature combined with the demographic forces at work around the globe.

Parts of the "civilised world" are likely to cohere and fortify themselves against the coming anarchy. Other parts will ally themselves with the anarchy, in an attempt to bring down the remaining foci of a livable future. Much will depend upon where one happens to be when the camels' backs begin to break.

This is where I am supposed to write: "And then I woke up, and it was all a dream."

But was it really? The shape of the shakeout above is only one out of all the possible futures. Yet the forces of dissolution and anarchy are certainly hard at work. They have always been and always will be as long as humans are what they are. Pax Americana was never meant to last forever, just as Pax Romana and Pax Brittanica could not last.

Those periods of transition can be a bit difficult, and quite unpredictable. You have choices: You can choose to fight a courageous holding action, a la The Tea Party movement and the like. You can take your chances and try to profit from the turbulent volatility in markets around the world. You can sit on your laurels and accept whatever comes. Or you can find a good place to hunker down. If you choose to hunker, be advised that there are no guarantees as to how long you will have to wait for TEOTWAWKI. You may find yourself hunkered for quite some time. ;-)

Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.

Brain Drain vs. Womb Drain: Which Will Deplete Russia First?

Russia is vast and rich, with abundant resources -- both human and natural. Russia should not be in decline. And yet, the bear's life blood is seeping out, as its best young men and women look abroad to escape the growing despair and futility.

Russia's ongoing demographic crisis affects the dying bear in many ways. More.

Not only is Russia suffering a "brain drain," it is also suffering a "womb drain" -- a steady out-migration of its fertile young women.

One aspect of the Russian womb drain is the Russian Bride phenomenon. Every year, thousands of young Russian women go through official emigration channels in order to escape the dead-end of modern Russia.

A darker aspect of Russia's womb drain is the steady out-flow of young Russian women looking for jobs as models and actresses -- but who end up as "hostesses," escorts, strippers, lap-dancers, and prostitutes in clubs and dives around the world.

In 1994–2009, according to the official data, Russia was left by nearly 900,000 women—because of an intensive female emigration, stimulated by various employment agencies abroad. A considerable part of the women, on the pretext of helping to find a well-paid job abroad, was criminally involved in the sex industry and other illegal activity

It is reasonable to assume that the real number of women emigrated from Russia is 1.5–2 times greater than the official data.

The reproductive losses caused by female emigration from Russia are indirectly estimated at 833,000 children that will not be born in the nearest 5 years. [15] _Demographia.ru

Russia's demographic decline has spawned a number of creative "solutions." One Russian feminist, author, and TV personality has proposed a large scale importation of young men from India, to serve as husbands for young Russian women.

Indian bridegrooms can help ward off a Chinese demographic invasion in Russia, says the feminist: “If we do not balance off the Chinese with Indians, Africans or aliens, by 2050 China will annex Russia’s Siberia up to the Ural Mountains.” _The Hindu

This sad portrait of Russian demographics from 2002, was thought to have been made obsolete by Vladimir Putin's bold new approach to governance. Unfortunately, as this update shows, Russia's decline is not so easily reversed.

High death rates combined with low birth rates have led to an ongoing decline in absolute numbers of ethnic Russians. Immigration into Russia from surrounding primitive areas and third world countries paints a false picture of Russian population resurgence -- but the underlying human capital of Russia's core population is being lost.

It is almost as if Putin and his cronycrats have given up on Russia's future, and are merely seeking to stash away as much of Russia's wealth as possible before the population overflow from neighboring countries -- including China -- sweeps across the empty Russian landscape.

Russia is aging rapidly, and losing its working-age population. By 2030, Russia is set to lose 17 million skilled workers. No one knows how these crucial workers will be replaced -- or if it is even possible to replace them.

Naked Businessmen and Businesswomen Flee China, Russia

Large numbers of China's wealthy businesspersons and government officials have already moved their families and much of their assets overseas. Such persons are known as "naked officials" and "naked businessmen" in the parlance of rumours and off the record conversations about China trends.

Now more and more of these naked men and women are angling to join their families overseas, and renouncing their Chinese citizenship.

According to the 2011 Private Wealth Report, 27% of Chinese entrepreneurs worth more than 100 million RMB ($15.9 million) have already emigrated, while another 47% say they are considering doing so. The number of these so-called “naked businessmen” is massive. The main reasons for businessmen emigrating are: their children’s education, protecting assets, and preparing for retirement.

Increasingly, the general Chinese public has grown aware of this dramatic trend. Last year, out of 5,000 investment immigration visas issued by the U.S., Chinese people accounted for two-thirds of them.

Undoubtedly, the most dazzling fact in all of this is that over 70% of China’s privileged have either emigrated or are on the way to emigrate. It is definitely not normal for 70% of a country’s wealthy class to want to leave the place where they were born and made their fortune. When we connect this piece of news to another study conducted a few years back in which it was said 80% of China’s wealth is in 20% of people’s hands, then it is easy to imagine the scale of the loss of China’s national wealth. _BI

The same phenomenon has been taking place in Russia, since the coming of the Putin power grab and persecution of perceived competitors over the past several years. London has been a particular destination for these naked Russians -- and Putin is not happy about it.

A failing Russian economy is fuelling a brain drain in favour of the British capital, while the City of London’s reputation for light-touch regulation is proving another draw.

...The relative ease of London life means that many Russian businessmen with interests in their home country prefer their families to live here while they make the four-hour commute to Moscow by executive jet. They are also keen to send their children to British schools such as Eton – half a dozen sons of oligarchs started there this year.

“The Russians come to London because it is pleasant and safe,” says Andrew Wordsworth, partner in the Mayfair-based private investigators GPW, whose clients include British-based Russians.

... In the eyes of Vladimir Putin, president of the Russian Federation, Britain’s willingness to provide sanctuary for that group of disaffected Russians known as the London Circle, headed by his friend-turned-mortal-enemy Boris Berezovsky, makes it a hostile power. _Telegraph

These trends are not particularly auspicious omens regarding the futures of China and Russia. But if one is well connected to the corrupt power centres of either country, it is still possible to milk their tattered carcasses.

China Times reported that according to a recent study conducted jointly by the Hurun Research Institute and Bank of China, 60% of China’s richest, (i.e. with assets worth of more than 10 million RMB - $1.6 million) are either applying to emigrate or have already done so.

“Only half a million dollars is enough to obtain a Green Card through the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program. That’s the price of a Beijing apartment. It’s worth it!” confided a man called Zhang.

Giving their children a better educational environment, safeguarding their wealth, and preparing for their retirement are the three major reasons given by these naked businessmen, according to South Weekly.

...According Austar, one of China’s biggest emigration agencies and also one of China’s most prosperous businesses in recent years, the six most popular destinations for China’s naked businessmen were Canada, United States, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and the U.K.

In 2009, of all the investment visas in the U.S., 53% came from China. While in 2008, Canada approved more than 10,000 investment visas, of which 70% came from China. _WorldCrunch

More: Why is China suddenly starting to unravel?

Obama Makes All American Blacks Look Bad

Humans tend to be "purposeful systems," who sub-consciously (and sometimes consciously) adopt goals and formulate plans toward a goal or an ideal.

Any human-created systems can be characterized as "purposeful system" when it's "members are also purposeful individuals who intentionally and collectively formulate objectives and are parts of larger purposeful systems".^[5] Other characteristics are:

• "A purposeful system or individual is ideal-seeking if... it chooses another objective that more closely approximates its ideal".^[6]
• "An ideal-seeking system or individual is necessarily one that is purposeful, but not all purposeful entities seek ideals",^[6] and
• "The capability of seeking ideals may well be a characteristic that distinguishes man from anything he can make, including computers".^[7]

_Purposeful Systems and Ideal Seeking

We cannot become better than our own image of the ideal. If our picture of the perfect is distorted and corrupted, so will our own paths through life be distorted and corrupted.



Obama makes blacks look bad in the same way that Mohammed makes Muslims look bad, Hitler made Nazis look bad, and Mao made Maoists look bad.

When Russians set Putin as their ideal, they cannot become better Russians than Putin. When American blacks set Obama as their ideal, it will be most difficult for them grow beyond the narcissistic and otherwise limited dimensions of their ideal.

But for most American blacks, the problem is much worse than being limited by a corrupted ideal. American blacks not only see Obama as an ideal, they also see him as a saviour and redeemer. Specifically, they tend to believe in a "salvation by faith," rather than a "salvation by works." In other words, most American blacks believe that Obama will save them just by his existence as president -- without any significant effort on their own part to improve themselves. Most humans prefer to receive benefits for little effort on their own part, of course.

Such a dysfunctional belief in an effortless salvation would be bad enough if it were held by a more competent, intelligent, less impulsive, and less violent group. But in the case of African descended blacks, such a blind belief in a saviour figure is disastrous. And if that saviour figure happens to be a narcissist ideologue such as Obama -- with many strong notions but few skills or competencies -- blacks are in a serious pickle.

Goal-setting and intentionality are important ways in which humans can improve their lot in life. If the mechanisms of goal-setting, purposefulness, and intentionality, are diverted and corrupted by dysfunctional ideals and and false premises and beliefs, the entire life's trajectory becomes dysfunctional and malfunctional.

Dangerous Children are brought up to understand that they themselves are responsible for who they are to become. They are not likely to look to others to save them from themselves and their poorly set life trajectories.

It is never too late to have a dangerous childhood.

All Cyborgs Now: Hippocampal Pacemaker in Alzheimer's

This article is adapted from an article published on Al Fin Longevity




Johns Hopkins researchers are implanting electronic "pacemaker" devices in the brain fornix -- the nerve input to the hippocampus -- in Alzheimer's patients. This study is a follow-on to an earlier Canadian study which showed promising results for such a procedure.

The surgery involves drilling holes into the skull to implant wires into the fornix on either side of the brain. The fornix is a brain pathway instrumental in bringing information to the hippocampus, the portion of the brain where learning begins and memories are made, and where the earliest symptoms of Alzheimer’s appear to arise. The wires are attached to a pacemaker-like device, the "stimulator," which generates tiny electrical impulses into the brain 130 times a second. The patients don’t feel the current, Rosenberg says.

For the trial, all of the patients will be implanted with the devices. Half will have their stimulators turned on two weeks after surgery, while the other half will have their stimulators turned on after one year. Neither the patients nor the doctors treating them will know which group gets an early or later start.

"Deep brain stimulation might prove to be a useful mechanism for treating Alzheimer’s disease, or it might help us develop less invasive treatments based on the same mechanism," Rosenberg says.

By 2050, the number of people age 65 and older with Alzheimer’s disease may triple, experts say, from 5.2 million to a projected 11 million to 16 million, unless effective treatments are found. _Johns Hopkins _via_ ExtremeLongevity

The actual deficit in Alzheimer's involves multiple breakdowns in both neural pathways and processing centres of the brain. A "brain pacemaker" which keeps the hippocampus primed and healthy, should help tremendously in the early and middle stages of the disease. It may even prolong the early and middle stages -- postponing the final decline of mental function.

But to actually cure Alzheimer's disease, scientists will need to understand the underlying processes and predispositions much more clearly.

In the meantime, any route to improvement and mitigation is likely to be welcome, by most sufferers and their families.

Daily Mail report on this story

A Massive Upswelling of Unfashionable Wealth

Green energy is fashionable -- but it will bankrupt anyone who depends on it. Hydrocarbons such as oil & gas are most unfashionable -- but they are poised to drive a massive industrial and economic renaissance in North America, if fashion-conscious political elites could hold their noses tightly enough to allow the economic resurgence to happen.

US domestic oil production has jumped by 18 per cent in the past year as the shale boom has expanded, and in the first eight months of this year oil imports were 800,000 barrels a day fewer than a year earlier. America's oil exports rose over the same time by 300,000 barrels a day, so net imports have fallen in just one year by 1.1 million barrels a day, or about 6 per cent of total consumption. If that pace if sustained the International Energy Agency's prediction of self sufficiency for the US by 2030 will prove to be conservative.

Oil production from shale in the US is rising much more strongly than expected because the boom itself is working to shift production into liquids. _TheAge

This puts US President Obama in the position of having to make a hard choice -- something he is not known for doing, if he can avoid it. Nevertheless, Obama's fiscal policies are driving the US into an unprecedented deep pit of debt, while his regulatory policies are destroying economic opportunity across the width and breadth of the private sector. If Obama lets the energy & industrial boom happen -- in spite of his close ties to the green / political / academic / faux environmental complex -- he will lose friends among the fashionable, but will also finally allow a much-delayed economic recovery to begin across much of the US.

The six fastest-growing jobs for 2010-11, according to Economic Modeling Specialists International, are related to oil and gas extraction. In total, nine of the top 11 fast-growing jobs in the nation over the past two years are tied in one way or another to oil and gas extraction.

Over the decade, the energy sector has created nearly 200,000 jobs in Texas, as well as 40,000 in Oklahoma, and more than 20,000 in Colorado. Growth on a percentage basis is even higher in North Dakota, which saw a 400 percent increase in these jobs, as well as Pennsylvania, where jobs increased by 20,000.

The energy revolution presents Obama with the clearest path to drive this critical boost to greater economic growth. New technologies for finding and tapping resources, such as fracking and other new technologies to tap older oil fields, could make America potentially the largest oil and gas producer by 2020, according to the International Energy Agency. _Joel Kotkin

A massive upswelling of unfashionable wealth awaits a number of decisions by US President Obama. Now that his re-selection is a fait accompli, what is he waiting for?

4 Million Switches to Control 20,000 Genes: An Ongoing Revolution in Biology

We are living on a planet that has been transformed by biology into a birthplace and cradle of proto-intelligent life. The biological transformation of our world is still at a very early stage. The true wonders of our ongoing biological revolution have barely been hinted at.

When the ENCODE Project announced that so-called "junk DNA" actually contains millions of gene control switches to control roughly 20,000 genes, the educated public was suddenly made aware of something that working biologists have known for decades: We humans are not in Kansas anymore, Toto.

The human genome is packed with at least 4 million gene switches that reside in bits of DNA that once were dismissed as junk but that turn out to play critical roles in controlling how cells, organs, and other tissues behave. The discovery, considered a major medical and scientific breakthrough, has enormous implications for human health because many complex diseases appear to be caused by tiny changes in hundreds of gene switches.

The findings are the fruit of an immense federal project, involving 440 scientists from 32 global labs. As they delved into the junk — parts of the DNA that are not actual genes containing instructions for proteins — they discovered it is not junk at all. At least 80 percent of it is active and needed. _BG

Protein Transcription Factors: One of Many Factors in Gene Switching

Just when the educated public thought it was beginning to understand how cells work, they are told that the mechanisms of life are orders of magnitude more complex than they previously believed.

miRNA in Cancer Cell Signaling Circuit w/ Oncovirus

The secret to complex life is not just the mechanisms of DNA transcription to RNA, and RNA tranlation to proteins. Complex life is an astounding swirl of circular logic and control circuits of cell signaling. Some genes are constantly being switched on and off, while other genes are silenced permanently or over long periods of time.

But we are discovering ways to alter the natural order of cell signaling and gene switching -- and that ability to change the natural scheme of things amounts to a building revolution in our biological world.

Here is a quick example of a discovery in cell switching which may lead to the ability to quickly repair damage to heart muscle from hear attacks:

MicroRNAs are short segments of RNA whose purpose is to cause genes to switch on and off. To find out which ones are responsible for causing heart cells to divide, the team studied 875 of them taken from a human heart and implanted into rodent muscle. In so doing they found 204 of them that reactivated cell proliferation and 40 and that did so strongly. They then chose the two strongest and injected them into the hearts of live mice that had been caused to suffer damage to their hearts, using a harmless virus as a carrier.

After two weeks, the mice that had been injected with the MicroRNAs showed less damage than prior to the treatment, indicating regeneration had occurred. After two months, the damaged tissue area had been reduced by half. The team also noted that contraction strength improved as did other heart functions that were measured.

The research team concludes by suggesting that their method of using MicroRNAs to induce regeneration of damaged heart tissue might be used someday soon to treat heart attack victims... _MXP

Abstract of study in Nature

Heart disease is the primary cause of death in most developed countries. The ability to rapidly heal heart muscle damage after heart attacks would likely prolong the productive lives of hundreds of thousands of people in the developed world every year.

Cell switching effects of micro RNA and Transcription Factor networks (PDF)

When we consider a world where humans have achieved the mastery of cell signaling and gene switching, we are not necessarily looking at a world of immortal, universally brilliant, and physically powerful humans. We should look at these things in relative terms, rather than in absolutes. Compared to monkeys, humans are longer-lived and quite capable in a broader range of activities and environments.

Likewise, compared to modern humans, those future people who have achieved mastery over biology will live longer lives, and possess a significantly broader range of aptitudes and capabilities over a greater number of environments.

Biology has its shortcomings, of course. We are likely to discover ways of bypassing and substituting for, much of the evolved complexity of biological cells, organs, and organisms for the sake of improved reliability.

But that will have to be done in a carefully considered and cautious manner. We have to be sure that we do not sacrifice too much resiliency for the sake of reliability within a narrow niche of functioning. No one wants to be a Dodo bird.

Which is Better? Mining Oceans for Platinum, or Mining Asteroids?

Platinum from space The Earth's oceans contain a massive amount of platinum, worth many $trillions. So why do people keep talking about mining the asteroids for platinum?

Lets do some basic calculations to explore this:

The approximate concentration of Platinum in seawater is about 2.34E-10 grams per liter. That’s a 2 with 9 zeros before it, a very small number:

0.000000000234 grams per liter

On the other hand, lets consider how many liters of water there are in the ocean: 1.3E21 liters

That’s a 1 with 21 zeros after it, a very big number!

1,300,000,000,000,000,000,000 liters

Multiply this together, and we end up with approximately 300,000 tonnes of Platinum in the seawater. At today’s price for Platinum (about US$1600 per ounce), this is $16 Trillion, or a $16 million million. That is a kingly sum.

Sounds attractive, right? But now we need to process all the water in all the oceans, and it’s a big task. We’re going to need to pump a lot of water, so lets get a big pump.

How about something Niagra Falls-sized?

Flow rate of Niagra falls: 5.7E6 liters per second.

It would only take 7 million years to work through all the [sea]water on Earth (if we had a pump and processing plant that big). This will certainly introduce some other problems. So, lets be a little more reasonable and say we could process 1 millionth of the ocean (1.3E15 liters) in 7 years, with a processing plant with the flow rate of Niagra Falls (still quite a challenge).

We’d then have about 300 kg of Platinum, with a market value of around $16 Million.

Thankfully, in asteroids similar to LL chondrites and iron meteorites that have been studied here on Earth, the concentration of precious metals like Platinum is a BILLION times higher than the ocean.

Conclusion: While asteroid mining is a big task, its much more tractable than processing enormous amounts of seawater! _Planetary Resources

The ocean is certainly a lot closer and more accessible than the asteroids. But taking that approach is a little bit like the drunk who lost his keys in a dark alley, but decided to look for them a block away under the street light -- because the light was better. Convenience can be the crutch that prevents things from getting done.

If we had to get the platinum from seawater we could, given enough time and resources. But getting platinum and other valuable materials from the asteroids will begin to make a lot more sense, once humans have done the difficult preliminary work, and once they have established a permanent private industrial presence in space.

This is not a job for governments. The job of governments is to get out of the way, so that larger possibilities for the future of humanity can be developed. Governments would have their hands full just guaranteeing basic protections and equitable justice for their own citizens -- if they could only restrict themselves to the few justifiable rationales for governments in the first place.

More at the Planetary Resources website

Raising Taxes on the Pillars of Society: Is that Your Bright Idea, Genius?

US President Obama is on a roll. After being selected for another 4 year term in the White House, the president is on a crusade to "tax the rich." Except that isn't really what he is doing. The rich will hardly be touched by Obama's compulsive drive to raise taxes. It is the upper middle class who will pay through the nose.

The people whose wallets will be drained in the new war on “the rich” are high-earning, but hardly plutocratic professionals like engineers, doctors, lawyers, small business owners and the like. Once seen as the bastion of the middle class, and exemplars of upward mobility, these people are emerging as the modern day “kulaks,” the affluent peasants ruthlessly targeted by Stalin in the early 1930s.

...The income tax hit may not be the only pain inflicted on these areas in the President’s drive for greater “fairness.” Moves to curb mortgage interest deductions for affluent households also would fall predominately on these same areas.

... For the most part, the economies of the key blue regions are very dependent on the earnings of the mass affluent class, and their spending is critical to overall growth. Singling out the affluent may also reduce the discretionary spending that drives employment in the personal services sector, retail and in such key fields as construction. _Joel Kotkin

In his piece excerpted above, Joel Kotkin is focusing on the destructive impact of Obama's great "pseudo tax the rich" plan on the "Blue States," Obama's strongest supporters. But the destructive impact of Obama's economic policies have fallen on all the states from the time of his first signature on a bill, and the first executive order.

It is not just Obama's "bait and switch" tactic that is so repulsive. It is the malignant nature of his attack against the upper middle class -- the job creating class -- that should be condemned and opposed.

Obama came to the White House with an internalised mission to destroy the heart of his political opposition. To do that, he had to begin dismantling the opportunity society, and the basic personal and economic freedoms from government caprice that were guaranteed by the US Constitution. He has been generally successful, but had he not been re-selected for a second term, many of his more damaging policies could have been either reversed or mitigated. Now, the damage that is being done is likely to have a multi-generational impact.

You could -- as Joel Kotkin does -- refer to this selection of Obama for 4 more years as a "pyrrhic victory" or "suicide pact" on the part of the blue states and Obama's most fanatical followers. But a lot of people suspect that Obama actually cheated -- and that he had a lot of organised help.

Either way, it would be best to get ready for a bumpy ride.

Anticipations of a Secret Private Manned Moon Launch

Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die _Tom Delaney, Blues and Jazz Composer.

Internet rumors have been swirling for several weeks of a secret venture backed by private entrepreneurs that would return people to the moon’s surface. It seems that the veil will finally be lifted this week, during a press conference in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 6.

“The Golden Spike Company invites you to attend a game-changing announcement about the future of commercial human space travel to the Moon,” reads the announcement for the media briefing. ”Executives from the company will describe the team, the mission architecture, and the business model.”

...The Golden Spike Company is registered in Colorado to planetary scientist and aerospace engineer Alan Stern, who ran NASA’s science directorate from 2007 to 2008. Stern also worked in the private spaceflight sector that year, as an independent research representative for Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin. In a 2011 interview he said, “I hope that in 10 to 20 years’ time, we are on the hills of human return to the moon, so that we could then go on with humans to explore the solar system. I think this is our destiny.”

Golden Spike is a reference to the ceremonial spike driven into the rails connecting the U.S. transcontinental railroad in 1869, which helped open up the American West. _Wired

Going to space is expensive, risky, and politically / legally fraught with peril. But if the great private space rush is to ever take place in search of outer space wealth and resources, someone has to go first.

Meanwhile, SpaceX' Elon Musk has dreams of interstellar flight

Curiosity Rover finds methane and more on Mars

The engines of the Skylon spaceplane pass a test, which brings hypersonic flight closer to reality.

In addition, it looks as if a large amount of water ice may have been located on the dark side of Mercury.

Space is the mother lode of riches, in terms of precious metals, base metals, and the important volatiles that will keep people alive in the alien environment of space. Space also represents the "high ground," which gives a military advantage to the nation that first establishes a strong permanent presence outside Earth's gravity well.

Private individuals and groups have essentially no standing before the international legal organisations that determine space law. It will be interesting to see how well the ambitions of Earth's new mega-billionaires -- and would-be trillionaires -- can be constrained by thuggish and corrupt organisations such as the UN and the like.