Tidbits From The Web Tidbits From The Web...: April 2010

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Tidbits From The Web #68



Pixels destroy NYC... (props to Schteke)
Pentagon coverup continues...
I am feeling a bit lightheaded...
Make some bubbles...curb global warming...
Jurassic 5 swing set animation...
Stop drinking diet soda...
Beware the 3 horsemen of the depression!
In debt we trust...
iPad in a car dashboard...
Judaism discovered...or uncovered... (watch all 6 parts if you can)
Visual genius...Storm Thorgerson...
The lost decade financially speaking...
Beware a false flag terror attack!
ObamaCare rotten egg...
Who are the Raelians?
Do you hate days like this?
Government gets larger whilest private sector gets smaller...
The magical time of day...
American Pop...
Google Maps lets you find biking trails...
Game of the week...Super puzzle gallery...
Where dogs come from...
The story of Gage...
5 secrets to aging well...
Introducing the green Coke bottle...
Start you day with uplifting thoughts...
Lady Gaga indie rock style...
WTF...oh yeah I feel better...


The Sphinx hides a secret...





New Reality TV Show Shows People Will Kill Others When Told To...


Zone Xtrême is a reality TV show in which the contestants, when they get answers wrong, are hit with an electric shock. The shocks get more and more powerful as the contestants scream with pain until, on occasion, they appear to have died.

But there's a twist: in fact, Zone Xtrême is a set-up, and it's the people administering the shocks that are being tested -- the "contestants" are actors, the audience is fake, and the entire series isn't reality TV but a documentary.

It is, in essence, a repeat of the famous experiments by Yale psychologist Stanley Milgram, who, in the wake of horrifying revelations about Nazi Germany, was studying people's obedience to authority.

French commentators see in the documentary (called Le Jeu de la Mort, or "the game of death") a terrible revelation about the effect of reality TV on society -- has reality TV come to the point where it can convince people to kill?

I’ve previously written about the dangers TV pose to the young minds growing up in society today, and if this faux show-documentary is any indication, it seems most people are in dire need of redirecting their attention to healthier pursuits.

Research has shown that watching TV has a major impact on your brain chemistry. The longer you watch the TV screen, the easier your brain slips into a receptive, passive mode, meaning that messages are streamed into your brain without any participation from you.

This is an advertiser’s dream, and could be used for more nefarious purposes as well – creating and maintaining passive, dumbed-down citizens, who, as this show illustrates, may be capable of little more than following orders, no matter where they come from.

It’s a great reminder to THINK about what you and your children are watching, and how much…





This video should be required viewing for every member in Congress, every teacher in the United States, and every parent with children in public education. The video compares the U.S. public education system with that in Europe, and with magnet and charter schools vs. districts where there is no competition.

The results are shocking.


Remember this video everytime you pay any type of tax...




Knowledge

What Is It?

Today's feature was developed by a blogger who photographs unusual objects that he has been buying for quite a while, then posts them on the Net as puzzles for visitors to figure out what they are. The site is usually updated once or twice a week so the puzzles do not get stale. As our blogger states "I guarantee that you'll see some things that you've never seen before." You'll have fun trying your hand at formulating your own solutions!



Water Jet Cutting


Water jet cutting provides a versatile, cold cutting option that basically is a super-sonic erosion of flat-stock materials. Brian Sherick of Flow International talks about the advantages of water jet cutting over plasma or laser cutting in machining operations.




The standard for testing on tissue has been live animals; you need a large study to determine data. Putting aside the ethical considerations, that gets fairly expensive. SynDaver Labs has developed synthetic tissue that is so real, you can simulate surgery. Dr. Christopher Sakezles gives us an overview of how testing in the medical field is going to change.


Parkinson’s research advances device and drug therapies

Though the causes of Parkinson’s remain unknown, treatments are advancing greatly in three categories: delivery, electronic, and medicinal.



Insight

Who gossips to you will gossip of you.

--Puerto Rican Proverb

Gossip is when you hear something you like about someone you don't.
--Earl Wilson



Today's Quotes

EXCELLENCE

"No one ever attains very eminent success by simply doing what is required of him; it is the amount and excellence of what is over and above the required that determines the greatness of ultimate distinction." -Charles Kendall Adams

"All I want to do is just go out there and play hard. If I do that, good things will happen. It's as simple as that." -Carlos Pena

"Some people have greatness thrust upon them. Few have excellence thrust upon them - they achieve it. They do not achieve it unwittingly by doing what comes naturally and they don't stumble into it in the course of amusing themselves. All excellence involves discipline and tenacity of purpose.'" -John William Gardner

“Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody else expects of you. Never excuse yourself. Never pity yourself. Be a hard master to yourself - and be lenient to everybody else.” -Henry Ward Beecher



Fun

GPS
Scene: A conversation between two of my friends.

Friend #1: Are you visiting us tomorrow? Do you need directions?

Friend #2: I'm all set. I have the address, a GPS, and a GPS override.

Friend #1: What's a GPS override?

Friend #2: My wife.





Whiskey & Gunpowder
By William J. Anderson

March 29, 2010
Frostburg, Maryland, U.S.A.




It’s Not Just Neocon Stupidity Anymore


More than seven years ago – what seems to be an eternity now – Charles Krauthammer spoke to a Hillsdale College gathering which was celebrating the “success” of the U.S. war in Afghanistan and was about to celebrate the “success” of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. I read the speech after it came out and then had real concerns, but little did I know those concerns would be mild compared to the reality that has become the United States of America today.

Like so many other government programs, wars in which a stronger army invades a weaker country bring the “good effects” first, and only later do we see the “bad effects.” One recalls the German invasion of Poland in 1939, the Nazi express on the Western Front in the spring of 1940, and the early successes of the German invasion of the U.S.S.R. in 1941. One does not have to search far to see what was happening to the Wehrmacht in 1945 to gauge the “success” of the German retreat.

(Not-so-ironically, “Wehrmacht” originally meant “home defense” forces, just as it is ironic that the U.S. Department of War became the U.S. Department of Defense after World War II, and the number of U.S. “defense” excursions overseas, not to mention military bases overseas, has multiplied into something perverse that cannot economically be sustained.)

Thus, it was in that heady, self-congratulatory atmosphere in which the Neoconservatives were claiming “victory,” and they greatly applauded Krauthammer’s speech. Instead of offering critiques, I will include portions of that speech and let Krauthammer’s words speak for him:


At the end of the Cold War, the conventional wisdom was that with the demise of the Soviet Empire, the bipolarity of the second half of the 20th century would yield to a multi-polar world. You might recall the school of thought led by historian Paul Kennedy, who said that America was already in decline, suffering from imperial overstretch. There was also the Asian enthusiasm, popularized by James Fallows and others, whose thinking was best captured by the late-1980s witticism: “The United States and Russia decided to hold a Cold War. Who won? Japan.”



Well, they were wrong, and ironically no one has put it better than Paul Kennedy himself, in a classic recantation emphasizing America’s power: “Nothing has ever existed like this disparity of power, nothing. Charlemagne’s empire was merely Western European in its reach. The Roman Empire stretched farther afield, but there was another great empire in Persia and a larger one in China. There is, therefore, no comparison.”


He continues:


We tend not to see or understand the historical uniqueness of this situation. Even at its height, Britain could always be seriously challenged by the next greatest powers. It had a smaller army than the land powers of Europe, and its navy was equaled by the next two navies combined. Today, the American military exceeds in spending the next twenty countries combined. Its Navy, Air Force and space power are unrivaled. Its dominance extends as well to every other aspect of international life―not only military, but economic, technological, diplomatic, cultural, even linguistic, with a myriad of countries trying to fend off the inexorable march of MTV English.


And continues:


…September 11 demonstrated a new kind of American strength. The center of our economy was struck, aviation was shut down, the government was sent underground and the country was rendered paralyzed and fearful. Yet within days, the markets reopened, the economy began its recovery, the president mobilized the nation and a unified Congress immediately underwrote a huge worldwide war on terror. The Pentagon, with its demolished western facade still smoldering, began planning the war. The illusion of America’s invulnerability was shattered, but with the demonstration of its recuperative powers, that sense of invulnerability assumed a new character. It was transmuted from impermeability to resilience―the product of unrivaled human, technological and political reserves.


But, he saves the best for later: “So we bestride the world like a colossus.”

And so it is that more than seven years later, the U.S. economy is in freefall, and the current government – elected in large part because of the recklessness of the Bush administration that Krauthammer so praises – is placing huge financial burdens upon the economy that it cannot support. The wars continue in Afghanistan and Iraq, except they no longer are wars of invasion but, instead, are wars of occupation, and no matter how ruthless the occupier might be, in the long run a war of occupation cannot be victorious for those people who don’t belong there.

Krauthammer’s praise of U.S. “unilateralism,” which is a nice term for “bullying,” was popular that night with his audience. It was full of people who believed that “American exceptionalism” means the use of military power wherever the government damn well believes it can – and should – be used. It means floating bonds around the world and expecting the rest of the world to pick up our spending tab.

Ultimately, it means bankruptcy and humiliating defeat. True, publications like The Nation can claim that as long as our government printing presses remain operational, the USA never will go bankrupt because it can pay its creditors with paper – if it chooses to pay them at all. Paul Krugman claims that we can play “beggar-they-neighbor” against China and the only consequences will be felt by the Chinese.

In other words, it no longer is just the Neocons being arrogant and aggressive. The “torch” of political power has passed from the Republicans to the Democrats, but the arrogance and delusion of Washington, D.C., continues. Perhaps it is fitting that Krauthammer gave his speech to a Hillsdale College gathering, but the meeting was held in D.C.

Krauthammer declared that all the USA had to do was to demonstrate its “power” and the rest of the world would quake and humbly follow in obedience. Republicans – and later Democrats – have followed his not-so-sage advice and we see what lies before us: financial ruin and poverty. Just as there really was no “Argentine exceptionalism” of the 20th Century, as that once-great country inflated itself into poverty and ruin, so will be the reality of the Neocons’ “American exceptionalism” unless Americans come to realize that our present path of war abroad and reckless spending at home will destroy all of us.

Regards,
William Anderson
LewRockwell.com









The Bursting of a Super-Bubble





Vitaliy N. Katsenelson
Vitaliy N. Katsenelson
The world looks at China with envy. China’s economy grew 8.7 percent last year, while the world economy contracted by 2.2 percent. It seems that Chinese “Confucian capitalism” – a market economy powered by 1.3 billion people and guided by an authoritarian regime that can pull levers at will – is superior to our touchy-feely, democratic capitalism. But the grass on China’s side of the fence is not as green as it appears. In fact, China’s defiance of the global recession is not a miracle – it’s a “super-bubble.” When it deflates, it will spell big trouble for all of us.

To understand the Chinese economy, consider three distinct periods: “Late-stage growth obesity” (the decade prior to 2008); “You lie!” (the time of the financial crisis); and finally, “Steroids ’R’ Us” (from the end of the financial crisis to today).

Late-stage growth obesity

About a decade ago, the Chinese government chose a policy of growth at any cost. China’s leaders considered strong GDP growth essential for political survival and national stability. Because China lacks the social safety net of the developed world, unemployed people aren’t just inconvenienced by the loss of their jobs, they starve; and hungry people don’t complain, they riot and cause political unrest.

Remember the 1994 movie “Speed?” A young cop (Keanu Reeves) had to save passengers on a bus that would explode if its speed dropped below 50 m.p.h. Well, China is like that bus with 1.3 billion people aboard. If the Communist Party can’t keep the economy growing at a fast clip, the result will be catastrophic.

To achieve high growth, China has kept its currency, the renminbi, at artificially low levels against the dollar. The cheap renminbi makes Chinese-made even cheaper to buyers around the globe. Thus, China became a significant exporter to the developed economies.

Normally, if free-market economic forces were at work, the renminbi would have appreciated and the US dollar would have declined. However, had China let this occur, demand for its products would have declined, and its economy wouldn’t have grown at roughly 10 percent a year, which it did during the past decade.

The more China sold to the United States, the more dollars it accumulated, and thus the more US Treasuries it bought, driving our interest rates down. US consumers responded to these cheap goods and easy, inexpensive credit by going on a buying binge, further boosting Chinese economic growth.
However, companies and countries that grow at very high rates for a long time will inevitably suffer from late-stage growth obesity. Consider Starbucks: In 1999, it had 2,000 stores and was adding 1.8 stores a day. In 2007, when it had 10,000 stores, it had to open 5.5 stores a day in a desperate bid to keep growth rates up. This resulted in poor decisions and poor quality – a recipe for disaster.

In China, political pressure for full employment has led to similar late-stage growth obesity. In 2005, China built the largest shopping mall in the world, the New South China Mall: Today it’s 99 percent vacant. China also built up a lavish district in a city called Ordos: Today, it’s a ghost town.

You lie!

All good things come to an end, and great things come to an end with a bang…or a pop. When the financial meltdown erupted in 2008, US and global banks started dropping like flies. Economies everywhere suffered contraction. Even China’s.

During the crisis, Chinese exports were down more than 25 percent, tonnage of goods shipped through railroads was down by double digits, and electricity use plummeted. Yet Beijing insisted that China had magically sustained 6 to 8 percent growth. In other words, China lies…or maybe it just doesn’t tell the truth. The country’s ruling elite go to great lengths to maintain appearances, including censoring media and jailing those who write anti-government articles. That’s why we have to rely on hard data instead.

Steroids ‘R’ Us

Today the global economy is stabilizing, thanks to Uncle Sam and other “uncles” around the world. But the consumers of Chinese-made goods are still in debt, unemployment is high, and banks aren’t lending. You might think the Chinese economy would be growing at a lower rate. But no, it is growing again at nearly 10 percent, as though the financial crisis never occurred.

Though this growth appears to be authentic – electricity consumption is back up – it is not sustainable growth, because it is based on an unprecedented stimulus package and extraordinary government involvement in the economy.

In the midst of the financial crisis, in late 2008, Beijing fire-hosed $568 billion stimulus program into the Chinese economy. That’s enormous! As a percentage of GDP, it would be like a $2 trillion stimulus in America, nearly triple the size of the one Congress passed last year.

This story gets even more interesting. Unlike Western democracies, whose central banks can pump a lot of money into the financial system but can’t force banks to lend or consumers and corporations to spend, China can achieve both at lightning speed.

The government controls the banks, so it can force them to lend, and it can also force state-owned enterprises (one-third of the economy) to borrow and to spend.

But government’s are notoriously inept at allocating capital in the private sector. And the Chinese government is no exception. Political decisions (driven by the goal of full employment) are often uneconomical, while instances of corruption and cronyism result in “stimulus projects” that squander wealth, rather than create it.

To maintain high employment, for example, China has poured money into infrastructure and real estate projects. This massive effort explains why the Chinese keep building new skyscrapers even though existing ones are still vacant. The enormous stimulus has exacerbated problems that already existed, threatening to turn China into a less shiny, but more drastic, version of debt-riddled Dubai.

Ominously for the rest of us, what happens in China doesn’t stay in China. A meltdown there – or even a slowdown – would have severe consequences for the rest of the world.

A sever Chinese slowdown would tank the commodity markets, for examkple. While demand for industrial goods would fall off a cliff. At the same time, China’s appetite for dollars would likely drop – putting pressure on the greenback’s value and driving US interest rates higher. No more 5 percent mortgages and 6 percent car loans. No more shortcuts to prosperity...for either China or the U.S.

We look at China and are mesmerized by its 1.3 billion people, its achievements of the past decade, its recent economic resiliency, and its ability to achieve spectacular results on the fly. But we have to remember that economic bubbles are usually just a good thing taken too far. The Chinese economy is no exception. Its long-term future may be bright, but in the short run, we’ve got a bubble on our hands.

Everyone wants a shortcut to prosperity, but there isn’t one. China has been trying to bend the laws of economics for a while, and with the control it exerts over its economy it may seem that it has succeeded. But China’s recent success is partly a mirage, which will dissipate into a painful reality. No, there is no shortcut to prosperity – not for individuals and not for nations.

Vitaliy Katsenelson
for The Daily Reckoning


Scattering Under the Light of the SEC
Why America hates Goldman Sachs

Eric Fry
Eric Fry
Reporting from Laguna Beach, California...

If you shine a light on a cluster of cockroaches, they scatter and hide. But when you shine a light on a cluster of investment banking con men, they simply stare back and reply, "The SEC's charges are completely unfounded in law and fact and we will vigorously contest them and defend the firm and its reputation."

As the entire investing world knows by now, Goldman Sachs is the latest cockroach to scuttle under the spotlight. Last Friday, the Securities and Exchange Commission accused Goldman of defrauding investors out of $1 billion.

The details of the SEC's complaint allege that Goldman failed to disclose "vital information" about a mortgage-back security called Abacus. The SEC said: "Unbeknownst to investors, Paulson & Co. [a hedge fund]...which was posed to benefit if the [securities in Abacus] defaulted, played a significant role in selecting which [securities] should make up the portfolio...In sum, Goldman Sachs arranged a transaction at Paulson's request in which Paulson heavily influenced the selection of the portfolio to suit its economic interests."

Goldman responded in classic fashion - crying "Foul!" and claiming that it is the victim of a gross misunderstanding. Does anyone really believe them? To rephrase the question, does anyone really believe that this single instance of alleged fraud is the only such instance?

This question reminds us of another truism about cockroaches: There's never just one. Any financial firm that is capable of committing a fraud as egregious and flagrant as the one the SEC's complaint describes is certainly capable of committing a second fraud...and maybe even a third or a fourth...or a fortieth.

The fraud the SEC identifies in its complaint against Goldman is not a mere "Oops!" It is a fraud that every licensed stockbroker in the land would recognize as a career-ending no-no.

"The product was new and complex," explained Robert Khuzami, a director from the SEC's Division of Enforcement, "but the deception and conflicts were old and simple."

In other words, a lie is a lie.

Nevertheless, your editor is content to let due process run its course...and to wait as long as necessary for the guilty verdict to arrive.

Whatever the ultimate verdict, Goldman is already "guilty by association" in the eyes of most Americans. It is guilty by its close association with the practices that precipitated the financial crisis of 2008. It is also guilty by its close association with the powers in Washington who decided which firms would receive billions of dollars of emergency assistance (i.e. Goldman Sachs) and which would be allowed to fail (i.e., Lehman Bros.). And most of all, it is guilty by its close association with the obscene sense of entitlement that characterizes Wall Street pay practices.

In short, America hates Goldman Sachs.

So the fact that Goldman may have actually committed a large-scale fraud is a very big deal. Suddenly, the Goldman-haters are carrying loaded weapons...and the ensuing firefight might produce some significant volatility in the financial markets.

For starters, this event might produce a very convenient excuse for a very pronounced selloff. But Goldman is not merely an excuse for a stock market selloff; Goldman is the stock market...and it is also the commodity market and the Treasury market. Goldman is the biggest market maker in the US stock market and among the biggest players in every major commodity market. Goldman is also one of the largest primary dealers of Treasury Securities.

So maybe it is no fluke that most commodities tumbled Friday, right along with the stock market. Gold and crude oil both tumbled more than 2%. And as this new week begins, Goldman's troubles are mounting.

Citing Goldman's "moral bankruptcy," Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown called for a full inquiry by Britain's Financial Services Authority in conjunction with the SEC. Germany also said it would ask for detailed information about the case. Both governments had to bail out banks that lost hundreds of millions of dollars on investments marketed by Goldman.

None of this will be good news for the stock markets of the world. And yet, none of this is really a surprise either. Nearly two years ago, in a column entitled, "The Goldman Sachs Phenomenon," your California editor remarked, "The American financial system still possesses too much talent and creativity to operate prudently... Consider yourselves forewarned!" We are re-publishing this column in today's edition of The Daily Reckoning.

Just two months before this column first appeared, JP Morgan Chase had acquired the failing Bear Stearns. As part of the deal the Federal Reserve took responsibility for $29 billion in toxic assets from the Bear Stearns portfolio - effectively handing a $29 billion subsidy to JP Morgan, and establishing a precedent for the hundred-billion-dollar subsidies that would flow to Wall Street's largest firms just six months later.

We smelled a rat back then...and the rat doesn't smell any better now...


Bits & Pieces


HAVE FAITH

Both faith and fear may sail into your harbor, but allow only faith to drop anchor.

Author unknown


The world has a way of giving what is demanded of it. If you are frightened and look for failure and poverty, you will get them, no matter how hard you may try to succeed. Lack of faith in yourself, in what life will do for you, cuts you off from the good things of the world. Expect victory and you make victory.

Pristine Bradley


Peace, love, and happiness...until next time...



Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Tidbits From The Web #67



Symphonies...
What does your card of destiny say about your career?
Skip those annoying DVD/Blu-ray trailers...
America...this is why you are fat...
World's biggest man boobs... (props to Jeff)
Nuit Blanche...
Play Hidden Expedition:Everest...
Beware the mark of the beast...
Police cruisers...then and now...
Snow circles?!
Funny warning signs...
Keep your eye in the sky for new satellites...
19 ways to stave off heart disease...
Soon you'll be able to use your smartphone for vital signs...
White Stripes play a one note show...
Chocolate is good for you...
Soon the tax revolt will begin...
"Let us rap"...a $25K peanut butter sandwich winner...
Rock...paper...scissors...glove?
2 billion reasons why we pay to check our bags...
Obama's dwindling resource...
Satan's dog...
Information folios of collected articles about suppressed, dormant, or emerging sciences, technologies, inventions, theories, therapies, and miscellaneous alternatives that offers some hope to help liberate humanity from its stupidity...
Muppets -- Stand By Me...disturbing...yet funny...
Can you eat the Land, Sea and Air Burger?



Augmented reality mapping...






This video itemizes the fundamental legal questions that the Census Bureau refuses or fails to answer about its collection and use of personal information from every American.

Without any apparent authority, the Census Bureau has expanded its information-gathering activities. The Constitution allows the government to count people once every 10 years, but does not require any American to be counted, or to provide any information at all.



Danse Dance...

Danse Dance
Uploaded by jvallee. - Independent web videos.


Today's Message

THREE STEPS TO ENHANCING YOUR PERSONAL PERFORMANCE!
by Jerry Clark

1. CLARITY OF OUTCOME: Before you begin any endeavor, know in advance exactly what you expect your outcome to be. By getting clear on your outcome, you will be using the awesome force of what I call the FUTURE PULL. In other words, the future you create for yourself pulls you closer to it and empowers you to take the proper actions in the present. So before you do anything else as it relates to your personal or professional life, take time to get crystal clear on what your desired outcome will be. See it in your mind’s eye until you feel really emotional about it.

2. CONSOLIDATION OF POWER: This is a fancy term I learned back in 1982 while studying martial arts. It simply means FOCUS. Since you have a certain amount of time, energy and money to devote toward accomplishing your outcome, it’s important to know which activities you should direct your resources toward. If you don’t take the time to determine which of the multitude of possible activities will provide you with the highest payoff, you might find yourself squandering much of your resources. Thus, apply the 80/20 rule here. The 80/20 rule states that 80% of your results will come from 20% of your activities. Therefore, it’s important for you to CONCENTRATE your efforts on the 20% of the activities that will get you 80% of the results. Most people concentrate on the 80% of the activities that will get them only 20% of the results. In a nutshell, 80% of your time should be spent on the following activities: (a) using and sharing your products; (b) exposing people to your opportunity; (c) attending and promoting events; (d) engaging in personal development; and (e) learning and teaching the system your company and support team members have set up for you. These are the high-payoff or revenue-producing activities. You can file your product orders and clean out your desk after hours, that is, during non-revenue-producing time.

3. COMMITMENT TO DISCIPLINES: This is where you actually EXECUTE your action plan. Once you know which areas you will be focusing on, you can get busy by moving ahead in those areas. It’s important to remember that consistency is the key at this stage. By doing the small, simple disciplines on a daily basis, eventually the compounded effect will kick in and you will COLLECT YOUR OUTCOME. Every day in every way, you’re either performing simple disciplines or simple error in judgments. Apply this simple three-step process and watch what happens to your personal performance levels.

Knowledge

Palaeography Tutorial

"Palaeography is the study of old handwriting. This web tutorial will help you learn to read the handwriting found in documents written in English between 1500 and 1800." If you have ever tried to browse through old documents and realized that the handwriting in not as easy to decipher as modern day printing, use the Paleography Tutorial to help with the transcription process. You'll find tips on reading and translating, a Quick Reference section, ten different tutorials of 'varying levels of difficulty' with their associated historical backgrounds and, last but not least, practice documents so that you can become an expert palaeographer yourself. Before exiting, check your skill level by trying to save the woman in the 'Ducking Stool Game.' Fortunately, you can have a second go or the poor woman would be doomed from the start!



ScanEagle Unmanned System
http://ct.email.engineeringtv.com/rd/cts?d=33-86048-894-433-2001-5238979-0-0-0-1-2-192 Insitu’s ScanEagle unmanned aircraft system (UAS) is a low-cost solution with a small operational footprint that delivers high-quality imagery for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR). ScanEagle, developed in partnership with Boeing, is currently in service with the U.S. Department of Defense, the Australian Defence Force, and other allied foreign militaries.



5 Tips for Becoming an Early Riser

early riser

Here are five tips that can help you rise and shine earlier, easier:

  1. Choose to get up before you go to sleep. You’re not very good at making decisions when you’ve just woken up. This is not the time to be making decisions about whether or not you should stay in bed! If you want to be a consistently early riser, try making your decision to rise at a specific time before you go to sleep the night before.
  2. Have a plan for your extra time. Let’s say you’ve actually made it out of bed 2 hours before you normally would. If you don’t have something planned to do with your extra time, you risk falling for the temptation of a “morning nap” that wipes out all the work you put into getting up.
  3. Make rising early a social activity. Wouldn’t it be great to join an early breakfast club, running group, or play chess in the park at 5 AM?
  4. Don’t use an alarm that makes you angry. If we’re all wired differently, why do we all insist on torturing ourselves with the same sort of alarm each morning? Experiment a bit and see what works best for you. Light, sound, smells, temperature, or even some contraption that dumps water on you might be more pleasant than your old alarm clock.
  5. Get your blood flowing right after waking. It doesn’t take much to get your blood flowing and chase the sleep from your head. Just pick something you don’t mind doing and go through the motions until your heart rate is up. Jumping rope, push-ups, crunches, or a few minutes of yoga are typically enough to do the trick.



The Padlock Hack

How to open...your own lock you forgot the combination to




From America's global moral authority to Alec Baldwin & Kim Basinger's love for one another, some things just can't be broken. Padlocks, however, are no longer among them, thanks to the Padlock Hack Sheet.
Desecrating the sanctity of locker rooms and hilariously-oversized luggage trunks the world over, Hack's a terrifyingly simple step-by-step guide to cracking the code for any combination-based padlock, bringing you within trembling twists of that sweet, sweet bounty of French III textbooks. Verified by a crack team of scientists interns, follow these simple steps:
Step 1: Starting at 0, gently pull down as though opening the lock, then slowly spin the dial counter-clockwise until it sticks. If the number is a whole number (i.e. not resting in between two numbers) record it, continuing the process until you reach 0 again. At this point you should have 5 whole numbers.
Step 2: Four of the five numbers will end in the same digit -- the one that doesn't is the last number in your lock's three-number combo. Since certain numbers on a padlock are inextricably linked, this number narrows down the possible combinations to 100 -- aka one season on Melrose Place.
Step 3: Trial-and-error out the combination grid linked below, and pull the lock open.
Step 4: Swim through bounty Scrooge McDuck-style.



Pixelate: 8-Bit NYC

With hopes of inciting the “same urge for exploration, abstract sense of scale, and...unbounded excitement” you felt playing old school video games, this lo-fi NYC map’s presented Legend of Zelda style, but in order to get the Boomerang you'll have to hit Alan's Video Alley on 9th.

Explore the city in abstraction at 8BitNYC.com



10 Ways to eat more Mediterranean


Most of the Mediterranean countries, including Italy, Spain and Greece to name a few, have it right when it comes to eating delicious, wholesome and healthy foods. More than just a way to drop a few pounds, the Mediterranean diet is considered an actual lifestyle focused on healthy eating, regular physical activity, low stress and finding pleasure in daily living. If you need a lifestyle overhaul, particularly one that promotes heart health and fights cancer, the Mediterranean diet is a mouthwatering place to start. Here's what you need to know about living more Mediterranean.

Mediterranean Cuisine

10 ways to adopt The Mediterranean Diet

Here’s how to incorporate the Mediterranean diet into your lifestyle.

1. Enjoy Healthy Fats

By now most people realize that not all fats are bad for you. In fact, your body needs fat to function properly, but the key is consuming healthy fats. For example, the Mediterranean diet utilizes olive oil instead of butter or lard. Quality extra virgin olive oil can be drizzled over salads, vegetables and pasta, and even used in baking in place of other fats. Just be cautious of how many tablespoons you consume; all oils are high in fat and calories.

2. Reduce Red Meat Intake

The Mediterranean diet focuses on lean proteins, like seafood, as opposed to red meat, which is high in saturated fat and cholesterol. Red meat can be eaten in limited amounts -- try once or twice a week – or replace meat dishes with fish. Fatty fishes, such as salmon and tuna, are good choices since they are rich in heart-healthy omega-3 fat. Poultry is another lean source of protein.

3. Eat Plenty of Fruits and Vegetables

As with any sensible diet and healthy lifestyle, eating fruits and vegetables is highly recommended. Fruits and vegetables can be consumed throughout the day as healthy snacks, cooked as a main dish while meat plays the side, and fruits make naturally sweet healthy desserts. Try to reverse your way of thinking that meat and protein always needs to be the center of a meal; instead, make heartier vegetable dishes, which will fill you up for fewer calories and fat. Also, at least twice a week make your entire day or one meal vegetarian – get your protein fix from beans and nuts.

4. Go Ahead, Enjoy Nuts and Grains

Contrary to popular belief grains are not the enemy. Even though whole grains are high in carbohydrates, they are also high in fiber and healthful nutrients. Bread, pasta and rice are part of the Mediterranean diet, but are consumed in moderation and made with whole grains and/or partnered with wholesome ingredients. Other grains to consider: quinoa, couscous, bulgur and oats. Nuts are also a terrific way to enjoy healthy fats and protein. Because they are also high in calories, be cautious of how many you consume. A handful each day will usually do the trick. Just be sure to stick to raw, unsweetened or lightly salted nuts.

5. Spice Things Up

Using as little salt as possible when you cook is always good advice, but it is especially important if you have high blood pressure or heart disease. Instead of flavoring your foods with salt, cook with fresh or dried herbs and spices. They can add a lot of flavor without putting your health at risk.

6. Consume Eggs and Dairy in Moderation

Dairy and eggs can be high in cholesterol and calories, so eating them in moderation and choosing low-fat dairy options is a sensible way to include them in your diet. Limit your intake of eggs to three to four per week and consider eating the entire egg since many of the essential nutrients are in the yolk. Limit your dairy intake of low-fat cheeses, yogurts (Greek yogurt is especially healthy) to a serving or two per day.

7. Drink Up

A nice element of the Mediterranean diet is the green light to have a glass of red wine each day. Red wine has long been associated with heart health.

8. Be active

A key component of the Mediterranean diet is incorporating physical activity into your daily lifestyle. When the weather is nice, head outside for a workout, walk to work, play with your kids, or go for a hike. Engage in active sports like skiing, biking or even playing soccer or another sport. You can also going to the gym or even play on a Wii. Whatever you do, make sure you move every day; it is good for your body and mind.

9. Sleep well

Along with daily physical activity, you need to get a good amount of rest. Between seven and nine hours of sleep each night is recommended for good health. Sufficient shut-eye will improve your physical health but it is also beneficial for your mind and can reduce your stress levels.

10. Love Life

Perhaps the best thing about living more Mediterranean is the inherent love and zest for life. Reducing stress can help you enjoy life more, and the reverse is also true: enjoying life more can reduce your perception of stress-inducing events. A good way to adopt this mindset is to put aside a few minutes each day just for yourself to think, deep breathe and really listen to the peace in your world. Keeping stress levels low is essential to healthy living and simply making a conscious effort to be healthy, happy and to laugh every day will let you enjoy life more.

Insight

LEARNING


We have to abandon the idea that schooling is something restricted to youth. How can it be, in a world where half the things a man knows at 20 are no longer true at 40--and half the things he knows at 40 hadn't been discovered when he was 20?

Arthur C. Clarke


Learning is not worth a penny when courage and joy are lost along the way.

Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi


PROVERBIAL WISDOM


A true word needs no oath.

Turkish proverb


Everyone is kneaded out of the same dough, but not baked in the same oven.

Jewish proverb

Today's Quotes

DESIRE/MOTIVATION

“Champions are propelled by desire, not compelled by fear.” —Denis Waitley

“Let us not be content to wait and see what will happen, but give us the determination to make the right things happen.” —Peter Marshall

“The key that unlocks energy is desire. It’s also the key to a long and interesting life. If we expect to create any drive, any real force within ourselves, we have to get excited.” —Earl Nightingale

“Humans have the remarkable ability to get exactly what they must have. But there is a difference between a ‘must’ and a ‘want.’ ” —Jim Rohn


DISCIPLINE

“It’s not what you do once in a while; it’s what you do day in and day out that makes the difference.” —Jenny Craig

“No steam or gas drives anything until it is confined. No life ever grows great until it is focused, dedicated, disciplined.” —Harry Emerson Fosdick

“Self-respect is the root of discipline: The sense of dignity grows with the ability to say no to oneself.” —Abraham Joshua Heschel

“Affirmation without discipline is the beginning of delusion.” —Jim Rohn





The First American Brain Drain
by Addison Wiggin
Baltimore, Maryland

Baris Guzel is the kind of fellow who used to find his future in America. Not anymore.

Guzel is a 25-year-old student from Turkey working on his master's degree in engineering management at Duke University. He and four friends plan to launch a company offering a free online tool that would allow website operators to poll their readers.

It might work, it might not. That's what American entrepreneurship is all about. Or it used to be. Unfortunately for America, Guzel is thinking about opening his venture in Germany.

"It is hard for foreigners to get a job these days [in the US]," he explains to Business Week. "In Germany, it is easy to obtain a working visa."

Guzel's story says a lot about America's future - and how you need to invest during the coming decade. It's a brutal truth: America is losing some of its most promising entrepreneurial talent - the legions of young foreigners who come to study at US universities.

In recent years, foreign students snagged 60 percent of engineering doctorates in the United States. If you widen the pool to doctorates in engineering, mathematics, computer science, physics and economics, foreigners still accounted for 50 percent. Immigrants were CEOs or lead technologists at over 50 percent of Silicon Valley startups in the last decade. Immigrants co-founded Google, eBay, Intel, and Yahoo, among others.

Time was when these students exited the academy, they stayed stateside. Ninety-two percent of Chinese Ph.D.s in science and engineering remained in the United States for at least five years after their studies - and 85 percent of Indians.

No more. One of Guzel's professors, Vivek Wadhwa, goes so far as to say "the United States may be experiencing the first brain drain in its history."

In 2009, Wadhwa was among four researchers from Duke, Harvard, and Berkeley who compiled a survey of more than 1,200 foreign-born students for the Kauffman Foundation. The number of Chinese who plan to stay is now just 54 percent, while the number of Indians who expect to remain is 58 percent.

What's more, only seven percent of Chinese students surveyed and 25 percent of Indian students believed the American economy's best days still lay ahead. But overwhelming majorities of both Indian and Chinese students believed their home country's best days still lay ahead.

No doubt that's linked to their perceived job prospects. And that perception is colored by the successes their countrymen already achieved after returning home.

Wadhwa and his colleagues previously surveyed foreign students who'd already returned to their home countries. "Only 10 percent of the Indian returnees held senior management positions in the United States," he says, "but 44 percent found jobs at this level in India. Chinese returnees went from 9 percent in senior management in the United States to 36 percent in China. Opportunities for professional advancement were considered to be better at home than in the United States by 61 percent of Indians and 70 percent of Chinese."

P.J. Lavakare's experience backs up those numbers. He's an Indian "pioneer" of this migration pattern. He earned a Ph.D. from the University of Rochester on a Fulbright scholarship in 1963 and returned home to shepherd generations of young Indians through the same process. Nowadays, he says, "attractive job offers in the Indian corporate sector have given a new dimension to the mobility of Indian scholars who are now considering returning to India to take up challenging and lucrative assignments in the growing multinational sector in India."

That is, instead of taking a low-paying job in an Indian university, they can take a relatively high-paying one at a multinational corporation.

Follow The Capital, Follow The Brains

Most Americans would have a hard time wrapping their minds around this domestic "brain drain." The US has always been the land of opportunity... the beacon of hope... for the rest of the world. Or so we've grown up telling ourselves.

After all, "brain drains" are what used to happen to other countries - Warsaw Pact fossils living under Moscow's thumb, or the soft-socialist nations of Western Europe.

But if the kind of people who helped build Google, Intel, and eBay now choose to do the same in the countries where they came from, then it pays to follow the money - and the brains. In other words, if you haven't yet expanded your investment horizons beyond US-based companies, there's no better time than now to start - because the Googles of tomorrow will likely be found outside American shores.


Is Your Money What You Think It Is?
By Doug Casey and Louis James
La Estancia de Cafayate, Argentina

Louis: Doug, last time we spoke, you said quite a bit about debt, in the context of your expectation that the euro is on its way out. At the end of that conversation, you mentioned, of course, that the problem is not limited to Greece, nor the eurozone. America as a country has become a world-class debtor, and many Americans seem to think a maxed- out credit card is a reason to get a higher credit limit, not to economize. It's like a global epidemic. Let's talk about debt.

Doug: Sure. This is a story that's going to end very badly for a lot of people. I've said this before, in many different ways, but I think it's worth saying again...Most people just don't get what money really is - and what it isn't. They take it as a given, as part of the cosmic firmament. But it's not. A prime example of this is the mistaking of debt for money. This is why the entire world's monetary system today is headed for a disastrous failure. And this is absolutely inevitable. There's no way around it.

Louis: Why?

Doug: Because you can't use debt as money. As I've pointed out before, Aristotle, in the fourth century BC, was the first person to define what money is. And what is it? It's a store of value and a medium of exchange.

The paper we use today is a medium of exchange - it got that way because governments made it illegal not to accept it - but it's not a good store of value. And it's rapidly and radically becoming less of a store of value. What we use as money today is actually not money; it's currency. Technically, that's simply a word that indicates a government substitute for money.

What does make for good money? Again, Aristotle gives us the answer. It's something that has five characteristics: it's durable and divisible, consistent and convenient, and has value in itself. And for these reasons, gold is almost certainly the best thing to use for money. Not because I say so, nor because Aristotle said so, but because, over time, people have found it to be the most durable, divisible, consistent, convenient, and inherently valuable thing to use. Silver is also good, but it's less durable because it corrodes. And less convenient, in that it takes about 60 times more of it - at the moment - to offer the same value as gold. Copper is the next traditional step down the ladder.

Louis: That, plus one reason that's pertinent today but was not a problem in Aristotle's world: gold can't just be printed up on the arbitrary whims of those in power.

Doug: That's the big one. Using metals as money takes the whole matter out of the hands of the government and its bureaucrats.

Louis: But we don't use gold today...

Doug: No, it's as though a bunch of friends without any real money started exchanging IOUs for money, and then after a while forgot that the IOUs were supposed to represent, and be redeemed in, real money.

The problem with this is that, in the case of the IOUs between friends, paper is based solely on hope and trust. One can move away, or die, or turn dishonest, or become insolvent - many other things could happen. A guy stuck with a dead man's IOU has nothing.

With government IOUs, or currencies, it's worse, because they can increase the number of IOUs in circulation without telling anyone - that's what inflation is. Since the government creates the IOUs, it gets the benefit of spending them before the inflation they create raises prices, which is basically stealing from the people. And, of course, sometimes governments do "die," leaving the holders stuck with nothing, just as with the IOUs between friends. In fact, it's arguably far more likely that such problems will arise from trusting a government to print IOUs than from trusting a friend.

Louis: Most people feel that they should do right by their friends - government's don't have friends, and most see their citizens as being property, like cattle. Therefore, inflating the currency isn't a crime in their view, just a tool for controlling the dumb masses. But it's really taxation without representation.

Doug: Sadly so. And since the institution of government is based on force, on compulsion, they feel they have every right to do what they want. They sanitize all types of criminality by saying it's in "the national interest" or some such poppycock.

Louis: Okay... but these currencies have worked for a very long time. Why are you right about this and the rest of the world wrong? Why is it inevitable that government currencies will fail?

Doug: [Chuckles] Because governments are not living persons who care and can be motivated to do the right thing. They are collections of individuals - politicians and bureaucrats, not exactly the most desirable types - who pursue their own interests. Regardless of the rhetoric, their interests coincide with the public good only on occasion, like a broken clock being right twice a day. Even in the most enlightened times - even in the best of times - governments have huge incentives to spend more than they take in. These are not the best of times; the population has been trained for generations to expect subsidies and freebies as their due, without regard to who pays or how they will be paid.

I'll give you an example. When I was on the Phil Donahue Show, the day before the national elections in 1980, I was making the same philosophical points I am now. I explained how they, the taxpayers, would pay for all the goodies - like Social Security and unemployment compensation - that they wanted. A middle-aged guy in the audience asked: "Well, why can't the government pay for these things?" And the rest of the audience roared approval.

It was then that I first realized that resistance was futile and the situation was basically hopeless. And that someone who can seem perfectly sensible when he's discussing sports, or the weather, or the state of the roads, was likely to be a moron when it came to economics. And that when he became part of a crowd, it was even worse: he might transform into an imbecile or even an idiot.

Anyway, the dollar has existed for many years, even though it's degraded over time - first with the creation of the Federal Reserve in 1913, then with the repudiation of domestic gold redeemability in 1933, then with the repudiation of international redeemability in 1971. Even though the government has created trillions of new ones, the dollar is still thought of as some kind of a cosmic standard. In point of fact, it's no better than the Argentine peso and will have the same fate.

These IOUs have a quite ephemeral reality and are far too easy to create - there's literally no limit at this point. We don't even have to actually print them anymore, they're created by computer strokes - so it's unrealistic to expect fiscal restraint on the part of any government over time. It's just too tempting to spend money to make people feel richer than they really are, buying votes.

Louis: Looking at the deficits and national debt, it certainly seems so.

Doug: The national debt - when was the last time you heard any average person worry about the national debt? Americans have become so used to carrying huge loads of debt around - right out of college with student loans - that it doesn't even occur to them that there could be any reason for concern over the national debt. It's an abstraction, like the number of light years to the Andromeda Galaxy.

People used to at least pay attention, though most would say, "It's not a problem, we owe it to ourselves." But that was always a delusion. Some people, organized in a club called the government, borrowed it from some other people. But now it's even more dangerous, because the US government owes it mostly to foreigners: the Chinese, the Japanese, the Taiwanese, and so forth. Americans, who at least theoretically have some interest in keeping the US government straight, are tapped out. So they've gone to borrow from other societies.

Louis: As dire as the scenario you paint may be, is it enough to cause currencies to stop functioning as means of exchange?

Doug: They probably won't stop functioning as means of exchange. At least not right away.

Even during Germany's infamous hyperinflation of the 1920s, or Zimbabwe's more recent one, in which there were so many zeros after the ones on the bills you couldn't even count them - people still used the governments' paper currencies. They still used them! When I was last in Zim, three years ago, we already had to pay for gas with backpacks full of notes; most inconvenient. In the case of Germany, there were still ten- and twenty-mark gold coins available, if not exactly in circulation. People forget that the mark, the franc, the lire, the dollar all used to be names for a certain amount of gold. [Like the pound, all were measures of weight. - ed.]

When World War I started, Germany went off the gold standard - it used to be about five marks equaled a dollar. By 1923 there were trillions to the dollar. Only the Germans who either kept those gold coins under a mattress or had foreign bank accounts still had liquid capital by 1923; everybody else was wiped out. So people didn't spend their gold if they could avoid it.

That's what Gresham's Law is all about. If there is a "legal tender" money - a paper money - floating around, you try to pay your obligations in it. You try to get rid of the hot potato. But you try to get paid in the good stuff and hold on to it. The Weimar inflation of Germany was an utter disaster for that country; it led to all kinds of nastiness.

Louis: So many people think of Weimar Germany and Zimbabwe as aberrations from far lands, if they think about them at all. Interesting that Germany is at the heart of the euro now, facing Gresham's Law again.

Doug: It's been true since at least the days of Rome. But I wonder if it won't be much more serious this time. All the world's major currencies are issued by governments of countries that are much more urbanized, with economies that rely mostly on services. In the US, the UK, the eurozone, and Japan - all of their currencies are in big trouble for various reasons, and there's relatively little production of what you might call the basics.

Back in the 1920s, or even a few years ago in Zimbabwe, half of the people still lived on farms, and a lot of people didn't even have bank accounts, let alone credit cards and pension funds. The demise of the dollar and other paper currencies has got to be much, much more serious than these episodes in the past.

To be continued...


Could a Little Boy Be Proof of Reincarnation?

The following story is excerpted from an ABC News article. Even those of you who are skeptical will likely think twice about reincarnation after you read this!

Nearly six decades ago, a 21-year-old Navy fighter pilot on a mission over the Pacific was shot down by Japanese artillery. His name might have been forgotten, were it not for 6-year-old James Leininger.

Quite a few people - including those who knew the fighter pilot - think James is the pilot, reincarnated.

From an early age, James would play with nothing else but planes, his parents say. But when he was 2, they said the planes their son loved began to give him regular nightmares. "I'd wake him up and he'd be screaming," Andrea told ABCNEWS' Chris Cuomo. She said when she asked her son what he was dreaming about, he would say, "Airplane crash on fire-- little man can't get out."

Andrea says her mom was the first to suggest James was remembering a past life. In one video of James at age 3, he goes over a plane as if he's doing a preflight check.

Another time, Andrea said, she bought him a toy plane, and pointed out what appeared to be a bomb on its underside. She says James corrected her, and told her it was a drop tank. "I'd never heard of a drop tank," she said. "I didn't know what a drop tank was."

Then James' violent nightmares got worse, occurring three and four times a week. Andrea's mother suggested she look into the work of counselor and therapist Carol Bowman, who believes that those who have passed can be reborn.

With guidance from Bowman, they began to encourage James to share his memories - and immediately, Andrea says, the nightmares started to become less frequent. James was also becoming more articulate about his apparent past, she said.

Bowman said James was at the age when former lives are most easily recalled. "They haven't had the cultural conditioning, the layering over the experience in this life, so the memories can percolate up more easily," she said.

Over time, James' parents say he revealed extraordinary details about the life of a former fighter pilot - mostly at bedtime, when he was drowsy. They say James told them his plane had been hit by the Japanese and crashed. Andrea says James told his father he flew a Corsair, and then told her, "They used to get flat tires all the time." In fact, historians and pilots agree that the plane's tires took a lot of punishment on landing.

Andrea says James also told his father the name of the boat he took off from - Natoma - and the name of someone he flew with - "Jack Larson." After some research, Bruce discovered both the Natoma and Jack Larson were real. The Natoma Bay was a small aircraft carrier in the Pacific. And Larson was living in Arkansas. "It was like, holy mackerel," Bruce said. "You could have poured my brains out of my ears. I just couldn't believe it."

Bruce became obsessed, searching the Internet, combing through military records and interviewing men who served aboard the Natoma Bay. He said James told him he had been shot down at Iwo Jima. James had also begun signing his crayon drawings "James 3." Bruce soon learned that the only pilot from the squadron killed at Iwo Jima was James M. Huston, Jr. The little boy saw himself as "the third James."

Bruce says James also told him his plane had sustained a direct hit on the engine. Ralph Clarbour, a rear gunner on a U.S. airplane that flew off the Natoma Bay, says his plane was right next to one flown by James M. Huston Jr. during a raid near Iwo Jima on March 3, 1945. Clarbour said he saw Huston's plane struck by anti-aircraft fire. "I would say he was hit head on, right in the middle of the engine," he said.

Bruce says he now believes his son had a past life in which he was James M. Huston, Jr. "He came back because he wasn't finished with something."

Take good care, everyone!
Terry and Linda Jamison
The Psychic Twins

www.psychictwins.com


Bits & Pieces

THE FUTURE

As a historian, I think about the past. But, as a parent, I think about the future.

Alice Greenwald


The time to get primed for the future is when you're still in your prime.

Author unknown


CHUCKLES

When everything is coming your way, you're probably in the wrong lane.

Tom Snyder


I've been uplinked and downloaded. I've been inputted and outsourced. I know the upside of downsizing; I know the downside of upgrading. I'm a high-tech lowlife. A cutting-edge, state-of-the-art, bicoastal multitasker, and I can give you a gigabyte in a nanosecond.

George Carlin


Peace, love, and happiness...until next time...