Normalcy of war

Posted on May 17, 2013 by Tfoui

Washington gets explicit: its ‘war on terror’ is permanent
Senior Obama officials tell the US Senate: the ‘war’, in limitless form, will continue for ‘at least’ another decade – or two
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/may/17/endless-war-on-terror-obama

I almost didn’t blog on this, it is such a ho hum topic today. Our government is not responsive to the people, so shocking! Our government is run to benefit the oligarchy, how unexpected! Our government continues to fight unfunded wars, no one knows how expensive it will be, could we all really be that naive?

Well, I figured I would stick this in here for my reader(s) just for the heck of it. Here is a little blurb to try to encourage you to take a read…

Nobody really even knows with whom the US is at war, or where. Everyone just knows that it is vital that it continue in unlimited form indefinitely.

In response to that, the only real movement in Congress is to think about how to enact a new law to expand the authorization even further. But it’s a worthless and illusory debate, affecting nothing other than the pretexts and symbols used to justify what will, in all cases, be a permanent and limitless war. The Washington AUMF debate is about nothing other than whether more fig leafs are needed to make it all pretty and legal.

The Obama administration already claims the power to wage endless and boundless war, in virtually total secrecy, and without a single meaningful check or constraint. No institution with any power disputes this. To the contrary, the only ones which exert real influence – Congress, the courts, the establishment media, the plutocratic class – clearly favor its continuation and only think about how further to enable it. That will continue unless and until Americans begin to realize just what a mammoth price they’re paying for this ongoing splurge of war spending and endless aggression.

There is an interesting little tid bit at the end regarding the AP scandal, which is rapidly fading from view.

How to get the sheeple to give a damn?

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Towel tossing

Posted on May 17, 2013 by Tfoui

I have been unable to get any interest in my DNA sequencing project (beyond the one lonely investor who offered to help pay for the patent application). It is quite frustrating to be in the situation where just a little time and effort could produce a product that could totally transform medicine, clinical research and forensics, not to mention make a crap load of money, but I can’t afford to do the research (we are over extended on our greenhouse/pool project) so unless something unexpected happens it looks like it will indeed become a vanity patent.

This has caused me to deeply rethink any other projects I have been thinking about working on that would need any external investment (I am still pursuing the aquaponics, or will be once the greenhouse is finished). According to my MBA education and study of business for the last 3+ decades, my project should be a no-brainer for investors. It is a paltry sum to get ownership on what has a high probability (likely greater than 50%) of being worth 10′s of billions of dollars in just a few years. It is exactly like being offered a chance to buy 20% of Google, Apple or Microsoft stock for a couple of hundred thousand dollars. A simple statistical analysis shows that this sort of investment should be made automatically; the future value of the money invested (taking risk into account, of course) is so high there are likely to be no alternatives that could produce such a return.

Unless my aquaponic efforts pay off I think this is the end of any sort of major effort. Over the last 30 or so years I have put in several man years into business proposals and the marketing thereof with nothing to show for it but frustration and while I might be making excuses to salve my fragile ego, I think it has grown even more difficult to find investors over that period.

Its enough to make me start to believe in conspiracy theories!

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The fix is in…

Posted on May 16, 2013 by Tfoui

Everything Is Rigged: The Biggest Price-Fixing Scandal Ever
The Illuminati were amateurs. The second huge financial scandal of the year reveals the real international conspiracy: There’s no price the big banks can’t fix
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/everything-is-rigged-the-biggest-financial-scandal-yet-20130425

Somehow I missed this article and only now became aware of it. It is depressingly eye opening how trivial it is for a handful of people to jerk around 100′s of trillions of dollars worth of securities for their own profit. Fractions of a percent shift would mean millions of dollars in bonuses for the traders and billions of dollars for the banks. But heck, we shouldn’t expect these organizations to operate for free, right? They are in the business to make profit; so what if their stature gives them the access to make more profit than any smaller (say one with ‘only’ a trillion dollars under management) organization? Isn’t that just how the world works? Of course, that is one of the purposes of governments; sadly our governments are basically owned outright by these same people. We will just have to get used to it.

Since it is a long article and I know many of my reader(s) shy away from such, here is a teaser to try to encourage you to make the time…

The idea that prices in a $379 trillion market could be dependent on a desk of about 20 guys in New Jersey should tell you a lot about the absurdity of our financial infrastructure. The whole thing, in fact, has a darkly comic element to it. “It’s almost hilarious in the irony,” says David Frenk, director of research for Better Markets, a financial-reform advocacy group, “that they called it ISDAfix.”

After scandals involving libor and, perhaps, ISDAfix, the question that should have everyone freaked out is this: What other markets out there carry the same potential for manipulation? The answer to that question is far from reassuring, because the potential is almost everywhere. From gold to gas to swaps to interest rates, prices all over the world are dependent upon little private cabals of cigar-chomping insiders we’re forced to trust.

“In all the over-the-counter markets, you don’t really have pricing except by a bunch of guys getting together,” Masters notes glumly.

That includes the markets for gold (where prices are set by five banks in a Libor-ish teleconferencing process that, ironically, was created in part by N M Rothschild & Sons) and silver (whose price is set by just three banks), as well as benchmark rates in numerous other commodities – jet fuel, diesel, electric power, coal, you name it. The problem in each of these markets is the same: We all have to rely upon the honesty of companies like Barclays (already caught and fined $453 million for rigging Libor) or JPMorgan Chase (paid a $228 million settlement for rigging municipal-bond auctions) or UBS (fined a collective $1.66 billion for both muni-bond rigging and Libor manipulation) to faithfully report the real prices of things like interest rates, swaps, currencies and commodities.

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Our robotic future…

Posted on May 15, 2013 by Tfoui

It’s Time to Talk about the Burgeoning Robot Middle Class
How will a mass influx of robots affect human employment?
http://www.technologyreview.com/view/514861/its-time-to-talk-about-the-burgeoning-robot-middle-class/

I am sure that this article is relevant, but not sure that it will have any impact. ‘Robots’ (really, they are automation tools, the term ‘robot’ has too many connotations to be ideally useful in a discussion like this) are replacing humans because in each instance a simple decision is made: can this automation tool save me money or make me more money? If the answer to either question is ‘yes’ then make way for the robot. If both questions get a ‘no’ response, then we keep humans. The biggest issue is that this economic tradeoff line keeps shifting over time and rarely shifts to disfavor the robots, meaning that over time (and time being measured in years, not decades or longer) the economics increasingly favor the use of robots which will translate 1:1 to a decrease in the need for human labor. Unless something comes along to pick up the slack we will wind up with a huge unemployment/underemployment problem in short order (years, not decades) and likely a rebelling against the machine (sort of like Frank Herbert’s Butlerian Jihad). Talk about race riots!

Anyway, I think it is a thoughtful article that is relevant (and increasingly so), but doubt it will have any beneficial impact because there is no monolithic decision making apparatus out there, it is the diffuse aggregate decision making by millions of company owners. And the robot industry is heavily advertising to that group and the author above is a blogger.

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Salt II

Posted on May 15, 2013 by Tfoui

Report questions benefits of salt reduction
http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2013/05/14/report-questions-benefits-of-salt-reduction/?hpt=hp_bn13

Earlier I talked about the ‘deadly’ nature of salt (sodium chloride, the stuff that makes food so tastee) but mentioned I was far from convinced that the rather hysterical proclamations were scientifically valid. The above article talks about a report (I didn’t investigate the organization providing the report, perhaps it was commissioned by the salt industry, perhaps not) that says that rather than finding a health benefit from the extremely reduced salt intake, it actually showed a detriment (not that significant either way). Since salt is absolutely required for a healthy organism, it seems to me that if there is no clear _benefit_ then cutting back further is a mistake even if there is no clear harm. We, as a society, should not be asking our members to make dramatic alterations to their behavior unless there is clear and unequivocal benefit (to society) for doing so. Attempting to eliminate drunk driving is one instance where I feel there is use to society, for instance (though the real problem is the damn humans driving the cars; the other half of the road deaths do _not_ have any influence from drinking).

As a biochemist and as someone who sweats a lot and has problems with low electrolytes (if you are cramping a lot you have an electrolyte imbalance (but are not necessarily low on _sodium_)) I long ago disregarded the blather regarding salt intake. Unless you are hypertensive (have high blood pressure) AND have other risk factors for heart disease, I suggest you take this noise about too much salt with a large grain of salt ;-)

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More on student loans

Posted on May 14, 2013 by Tfoui

Student Debt and the Crushing of the American Dream
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/12/student-debt-and-the-crushing-of-the-american-dream/

I have waxed on the subject of student loans a number of times (see here, here, here and here for just a few examples). When the student loan bubble collapses you will see all sorts of headlines about how this catastrophe was impossible to predict, it is a ‘black swan‘ event, etc., well send any believers here when that happens, please. Not that it will do any good, I am sure, humans are amazingly capable of ignoring the obvious that stands in their way; no doubt all us predictors will be totally ignored as well.

Our society is really dysfunctional with regard to education, of that there is no doubt. Much like our health care, we spend (as a society) way more per capita than any other society, yet we get less in return. Just like the military industrial complex, health care and education represent massive transfers from tax payers to wealthy individuals. Since those very same individuals control our government (through their huge donations to political funds), there is about zip chance of changing anything.

OK, now I will try to climb off my soap box…

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On the cusp of greatness

Posted on May 10, 2013 by Tfoui

Printing Electronics Just Got Easier
A new technique developed by researchers in China allows easier printing of electronic components onto paper.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/13/130509-paper-printed-circuits-electronics-technology-science/

I think the next decade is going to be as eye popping as the last quarter century (in retrospect; I doubt anyone actually sat around the last two and a half decade each day marveling at things). I have talked about the looming technological singularity a time or twain before, this article is just showing how looming it really is. Still, I can’t help but get excited. Though I have been focusing much of my reading research (and bench research from two decades ago) on tiny, ‘nano’ scale objects and molecules, I am impressed with the idea of working at the macro level as well, when it can be done so quickly, independently and inexpensively (well, that last part is probably not quite there yet). Star Trek replicators might still be centuries away, but it is easy for me to see the trail of bread crumbs leading from hither to yon.

This one I really can’t wait for:

Televisions

LG Electronics put the world’s first curved OLED television on the South Korean market this month.

Printed with organic light-emitting diodes, the television is just 0.17 inches (4.3 millimeters) thick.

The new model retails for more than US$13,000, but competition may soon bring sticker prices down. DuPont, for example, has previously announced the ability to print its own 50-inch (1.3-meter) set in just two minutes.

I would love to have a whole wall be a light emitting HD screen. I bet Avatar would be even more amazing on a screen that huge!

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Less privacy = more privacy?

Posted on May 7, 2013 by Tfoui

Crime and Privacy
http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/crime_and_privacy/

I got to admit that Scott makes an interesting argument for more == less. For those too lazy to read the article, here is his summary:

In general, whenever privacy is lost in a democracy, it creates an opportunity for freedom to increase. The mechanism looks like this:

1. A loss of privacy reveals how many people are involved in a particular activity and gives the public a chance to get used to it. (gays, weed, porn, etc.).

2. Law enforcement has no practical way to handle all of the “criminals” who are now exposed. And even trying would look like a bad use of resources.

3. Laws evolve to reflect what is practical. Formerly illegal activities become legal or tolerated because there is no practical alternative.

In the long run, privacy is toast. But what you will get in return is more personal freedom and less crime. That’s a trade that almost no one would voluntarily make, but I think the net will be good.

I can see a bit of what he is talking about and if the trend continues I would have to agree with his basic thesis.

As a side note, I personally doubt that we (as a society) will do away with anonymous currency all together. The government always wants to have a mechanism to untraceable pay their spies, etc., ignoring the influence of organized crime, etc. It may be much more difficult for the average joe to make anonymous transactions, but it can’t be too difficult or the very act of being anonymous will attract attention.

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Drone Court

Posted on May 6, 2013 by Tfoui

The bad joke called ‘the FISA court’ shows how a ‘drone court’ would work
Newly released data show that the government submitted 1,789 eavesdropping requests last year, and none was rejected
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/may/03/fisa-court-rubber-stamp-drones

More ‘droning’ on about the police state. I doubt any of my reader(s) lack an understanding how completely we are embraced already in a police state, so I won’t ‘drone’ on about it…

Another interesting article, but I can’t make any comment about it at all…

Are all telephone calls recorded and accessible to the US government?
A former FBI counterterrorism agent claims on CNN that this is the case
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/may/04/telephone-calls-recorded-fbi-boston

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Is the pendulum beginning to swing back?

Posted on May 2, 2013 by Tfoui

Too-Big-to-Fail Takes Another Body Blow
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/too-big-to-fail-takes-another-body-blow-20130501

I am reading a lot less news because I got booted out of my nice cushy half office and into a shared space with only a single access to the ‘net. Since I get in early I have a brief period where I can look at some news, but I expect my already tepid rate of posting to decrease still further. This article, though, says that there are glimmers of hope that at least one facet of our corrupt public/private ‘government of the people’ might be starting to erode. I advocate reading the whole article (it is nice to read an optimistic article, they are so rare for me lately), but here is a snippet as a teaser…

But the craziest part of the S&P report, to me, is the conclusion. “It is tempting to assume that we would raise credit ratings because higher capital increases creditworthiness to bondholders,” the agency writes. “However . . .”

Here the S&P is saying: “You might think, just because we’re a ratings agency that’s supposed to always think safety and security are good things, that we think increased safety and security for these banks is a good idea. However . . .”

So what’s the “However”? Well, it talks about the banks having a lessened ability to lend (although they’re not lending now – they’re still sitting on over a trillion and a half dollars in excess reserves just in their Fed accounts!), about the growth of shadow banks, about decreased profitability of the big-six banks. But then they come to their big money-shot conclusion:

Under our methodology, we would potentially no longer factor in government support if we believed that once large banks are broken up, we would not classify these banks as having high systemic importance.

Translated into English, what they mean is: If this bill passes, these banks would no longer be Too Big To Fail. So we’d probably have to downgrade them.

Well – duh!

Not only is this an explicit admission that Dodd-Frank didn’t fix the Too-Big-To-Fail issue (Wall Street has long insisted that Dodd-Frank was more than sufficient to deal with the “moral hazard” problem), it’s a crazy thing to say out loud. S&P writes about having to factor out the implicit government backing of big banks as though that would be a bad thing. But if implicit government support is the only thing keeping the ratings of these companies even as high as they are now, that means they really should be rated lower, in a true free market.

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