Secret to Peace

In one of our meetings, someone asked if there ever was a case when diplomacy ever stopped a major conflict. Of course there must have been, but we seldom hear of successful diplomacy. Here is a TED talk about how mediators help to resolve conflicts. The talk starts talking about conflicts in general, and then focuses the conflicts in the Middle East.

WH Petition Makes News

At today's meeting, I mentioned that a gun control petition at the White House site had 130,000 signatures. It now has 158,000 and has become the site's most popular petition ever. The petition is generating it own news buzz, HERE. Of course there are competing and complementary petitions, but none of them have come close in the signature tally.

The WH Petition site has been misused recently with petitions for Texas secession and the Deathstar. But with the Sandy Hook tragedy, the site has become a serious platform for change. Gun control advocates are trying to get as many signatures as possible to send politicians a message.

If you feel need to have you opinion counted, you are encouraged to sign he gun control petition or one of the competing petitions at the site. If you have trouble registering, you can email me for help.

Fracking Explained

We hear about both the promise and dangers of fracking. It could give us energy independance or destroy our water supply, or both. We know that the experts have their own agenda so they cannot be fully trusted, but we have the Internet to find out the facts. Here is a video which explains the fracking process.



The video was from this website which is trying to convince the public that fracking is safe. Here they explain what is in the controversial fracking fluids.

But there are still dangers as explained on this website. The web offers us a way understand the currents issues far better than listening to the screaming heads on TV.

Sandy's Aftermath

Hurricane Sandy has brought home the crisis we are facing due to climate change. There are some law makers who have taken this as a wakeup call, but their efforts are being ignored by main stream media. Well we at least have C-SPAN which will report anything. Here is the hearing conducted by Senator Barbara Boxer about the impact of Sandy.

The hearing is long so here is a spoiler. Boxer received testimony from Senators and Congressmen from the affected states, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Connecticut, mostly Democrats but a few Republicans. They reported how their states were devastated, but that the areas protected by Army Corp of Engineers fared much better. Many Democrats, but no Republicans, linked the super-storm to climate change. Boxer said that she will introduce a new water works bill. The incoming Republican Ranking Member, David Vitter, has pledged cooperation. Oddly enough, the main impediment was the new rule against earmarks which was the main way waterworks were funded. Boxer thinks that she has a way around that problem.

The current Republican Ranking Member, James Inhofe, known for saying that Global Warming was a hoax, was not present at the meeting. 

How Obama Won

Jim Messina, Obama's campaign manager, revealed his strategy in this C-Span interview. Using information mined from the internet, they were able to use their ground forces more effectively, to offset Romney's money advantage. He also discloses the candidate they feared most if he had become the Republican nominee.

Last Best Chance

Some have said that if Sandy does not wake us up to the Climate Crisis nothing will. Obama has said that climate change is real, but it still ranks low among his priorities. In this interview, Naomi Klein says that he needs to be pushed.

Housebound for the Storm

Hurricane Sandy has interrupted the Presidential campaign, the Apple-Google tablet war and our Current Events meeting. We don't know yet how serious the damage will be, but we do know our emergency services will be strained due the wide area that will be affected. Here is a TED Talk about how two sisters used social media to help their community other after it was hit by a tornado.

We can use social media too. If on Monday you are stuck in your home and you miss our lively discussions, you might try coming to this blog and comment on anything that may be on your mind.

Update 10/29/12: Here is a Google Crisis map to track Sandy







This is serious:





Comic Relief:

A Fine Tradition

Just when the presidential race is at its hottest, we take a timeout for humor at the Al Smith Dinner. Here is the entire program from the CSPAN website.

Question 7

Maryland may get to cast historic votes on gay marriage and undocumented students, but the most contested ballot question will be Question 7 to expand casino gambling. This is no doubt because there are monied interests at opposite sides of the ballot. You will be voting on an amendment to the MD constitution which is surprisingly specific on how the gambling casinos are allocated. Here is the text of Question 7.

"Do you favor the expansion of commercial gaming in the State of Maryland for the primary purpose of raising revenue for education to authorize video lottery operation licensees to operate “table games” as defined by law; to increase from 15,000 to 16,500 the maximum number of video lottery terminals that may be operated in the State; and to increase from 5 to 6 the maximum number of video lottery operation licenses that may be awarded in the State and allow a video lottery facility to operate in Prince George’s County?"

The question is best understood if you could see the law that it is trying to amend. Fortunately, we can get the Maryland Constitution on the Internet. The section on gambling is short and is added in its entirety to the end of this post. If you look at section (e), you will see why this question is on the ballot.

Question 7 does not state the exact wording of how the constitution will be amended but the Maryland State Board of Elections gave more specifics in this non-technical summary.

ARTICLE XIX

VIDEO LOTTERY TERMINALS

(added by Chapter 5, Acts of 2007 Special Session, ratified Nov. 4, 2008) SEC. 1. (a) This article does not apply to:

(1) Lotteries conducted under Title 9, Subtitle 1 of the State Government Article of the Annotated Code of Maryland;
(2) Wagering on horse racing conducted under Title 11 of the Business Regulation Article of the Annotated Code of Maryland; or
(3) Gaming conducted under Title 12 or Title 13 of the Criminal Law Article of the Annotated Code of Maryland.

(b) In this article, "video lottery operation license" means a license issued to a person that allows players to operate video lottery terminals.
(c) (1) Except as provided in subsection (e) of this section, the State may issue up to five video lottery operation licenses throughout the State for the primary purpose of raising revenue for:

(i) Education for the children of the State in public schools, prekindergarten through grade 12;
(ii) Public school construction and public school capital improvements; and
(iii) Construction of capital projects at community colleges and public senior higher education institutions.

(2) Except as provided in subsection (e) of this section, the State may not authorize the operation of more than 15,000 video lottery terminals in the State.(3) Except as provided in subsection (e) of this section, a video lottery operation license only may be awarded for a video lottery facility in the following locations:

(i) Anne Arundel County, within 2 miles of MD Route 295;
(ii) Cecil County, within 2 miles of Interstate 95;
(iii) Worcester County, within 1 mile of the intersection of Route 50 and Route 589;
(iv) On State property located within Rocky Gap State Park in Allegany County; or
(v) Baltimore City, if the video lottery facility is:
1. Located:

A. In a nonresidential area;
B. Within one-half mile of Interstate 95;
C. Within one-half mile of MD Route 295; and
D. On property that is owned by Baltimore City on the date on which the application for a video lottery operation license is submitted; and
2. Not adjacent to or within one-quarter mile of property that is:
A. Zoned for residential use; and
B. Used for a residential dwelling on the date the application for a video lottery operation license is submitted.
(4) Except as provided in subsection (e) of this section, the State may not award more than one video lottery operation license in a single county or Baltimore City.
(5) A video lottery facility shall comply with all applicable planning and zoning laws of the local jurisdiction.

(d) Except as provided in subsection (e) of this section, on or after November 15, 2008, the General Assembly may not authorize any additional forms or expansion of commercial gaming.
(e) The General Assembly may only authorize additional forms or expansion of commercial gaming if approval is granted through a referendum, authorized by an act of the General Assembly, in a general election by a majority of the qualified voters in the State.
(f) The General Assembly may, from time to time, enact such laws not inconsistent with this section, as may be necessary and proper to carry out its provisions.

New Medieval Technology

Are you confused by all the new technology? As we are now caught between the iPhone 5 and the iPad mini, we yearn for the good old days when things were simple. But Norm uncovered evidence that adapting to new technology has always been a problem. Here is a YouTube video which shows a monk needing help with the new Gutenberg technology.

Maryland Ballot

Not being a swing state, Maryland has mostly been overlooked in national election coverage. However, the state wide ballot referendum has given the Maryland election national significance. The Maryland State Board of Elections has released the text of the seven ballot measures with a non-technical summary.

Members of our group have agreed to host a discussion of the election at the Bain Center. We need your help to prepare. Please let us know your concerns and opinions of any of the ballot measure, or any other election issue.

Muslim Humor

We spent a lot of time on the recent riots in the Middle East. There seemed to be a feeling that Muslims were different and were inclined to riot. But are Mulims just victims of how our popular media portrays them? Other ethnic groups had similar problems and fought against the stereotype with humor. Here are two TED Talks about the Axis of Evil Comedy Tour, by the founder and one of the comedians.

Drift Draft

We had an interesting discussion today on how the end of the military draft has made it easier for us to go to war. The story of how we as a nation has drifted to a perpetual state of war is the topic of Rachel Maddow's book "Drift".  This book was twice recommended by Ron in past meetings, and I also recommend it. But here is a talk about the book by Rachel Maddow that might be better than the reading book. This video is cued past the introductory speakers, so it takes a little while to start. Please be patient.

Tampa and Charlotte

For those that missed the RNC in Tampa or the DNC in Charlotte, here is a chance to listen to the speech. All the speeches are at the CSPAN Convention Hub. You can listen the speech without all the annoying commentary.

Here are directly links to some the most talked about speeches.

RNC
Clint Eastwood
Mitt Romney
Paul Ryan
Ann Romney

DNC
Bill Clinton
Barrack Obama
Joe Biden
Michelle Obama

My favorites
Julian Castro
Lilly Ledbetter
Emanuel Cleaver
Jennifer Granholm

Did I miss your favorite speech. Let me know and I will put up a link.

Longevity

We spent a lot of time in today's meeting over the question, "How long do you want to live." There are really two issues, a personal one and one for society as a whole. What kind of life can we expect if we live longer, and what would greater longevity lead to overpopulation. Here are two TED talks which address these issues.

1) This talk was recommended by Norm last week. It demonstrates how our phones can be used in medical diagnosis. It is related to today's meeting in that it shows how our personal live can be extended.

2) There was some concern about how longevity would exasperate population growth. Lowell thought that there would be natural population control. Al thought that education will help reduce the birth rate. They were both right. Here is a TED talk which claims that the world population should stabilize at ten billion.

With technology we could live longer, and it now seems that we don't need to feel guilty about increasing the world population. However, there is the problem of outliving your money. Too make matter worst, people fear runaway inflation and blame the Fed. One of the more infamous conspiracy theories is about the Fed's role in the Kennedy assassination was brought up at today's meeting. This story is debunked HERE.

Not About Medicare

Most of today's discussion was about medicare. There were some non-medicare issues.

1) Al Jazeera English - Dory noted that tomorrow there will to be a TV report about Baltimore on Al Jazeera English, as stated in this article in the Baltimore Sun. Most of us don't subscribe to the Al Jazeera cable TV channel, but there is an Al Jazeera website that will probably post the show on a later date. I did find this promo on YouTube. The Baltimore show will be on the program called Fault Lines; here is a link to the Fault Lines page on the Al Jazeera website.

2) The Mormons - It was revealed that Mitt Romney will embrace his Mormon religion during the GOP National Convention. PBS apparently announced that it will rebroadcast its American Experience / Frontline two part special on the Mormons. I don't know the airtime but you can watch it HERE on the internet.

3) WikiLeaks - Julian Assange is has been granted asylum in the Ecuador Embassy in London. In our meeting today, we were not sympathetic to Assange. But I found this interview giving at TED, which at least gives the other side of the story.

Election Websites

With the selection of Paul Ryan as Mitt's VP the election has kicked into high gear. Even though Romney says that he has his own policies, Ryan's budget proposals will no doubt dominate the discussion. If our meeting was any indication of national sentiment, we should see an intense debate until the election. Here are two websites for those that what to follow the election:

1) http://votesmart.org - Ken suggested this website for an objective discussion of the issues.

2) http://electoral-vote.com - This site focuses on the only thing which really counts, the electoral votes. The election forecast is based not on national polling, but on state by state polling.

Mars, the Plan

We already know how it turned out, but here's the plan for those that missed it.

Olympic Impropriety

Every Olympics has had it controversies and London 2012 is no exception. But the London Olympics controversies have been surprisingly blatant. Here is an incomplete list of controversies of the first week. Please let me know if missed anything.

1) Eight badminton players were disqualified for trying to lose. This article explain why. I don't think the tactic was illegal, but with both sides so blatantly trying to lose, the game became a farce and something had to be done.

2) A Chinese swimmer did so well that she is immediately presumed to be doping, even without proof. Is it just "sour grapes" or are so used to this story that we know how it is going to end.

3) A referee blatantly favored an Azerbaijan boxer over a Japanese boxer. The referee's misbehavior was so obvious that we have to wonder how he thought he would not get caught.

4) Amputee South African runner Oscar Pistorius was allowed to competed with special carbon-fiber blades. This was called historic, but it should have been a scandal. How can anybody say that he did not have an unfair advantage.

Climate Change in the news

The Greenland thaw in Lowell's handout was just one of several news items on climate change. There was also this New York Times article on how the heat is threatening our infrastructure, including nuclear power plants. We talked about how the severe storms are knocking out our power grids, but this recent study shows that the storms also hurt the ozone layer.

Understanding Interest Rate Swaps

The recent LIBOR scandal has revealed yet another way the bank gamed the system, this time by manipulating interest rates. Here is a video by the SEIU, Service Employees International Union, which explains how interest rate swaps have hurt local governments.

Update 7/17/12:
The SEIU video only explained how a proper interest rate swap should work, not what the banks actually did. As in Norm's commented below, it seems like the cities made a fair bet with the banks and lost, and they should not be crying because they got what they wanted, a fixed interest rate. The only loss was the opportunity of a lower interest rate.

I added a comment which referenced an article which explains what really happen. But the article is hard to understand, so I am going to try to explain what was missing in the SEIU video that was clarified in the article.

The video implied that the banks and cities simply swapped interest payments. But what actually happened was that the cities bought a kickback which should have offset their variable interest payments. There are actually three payments involved.

a) The variable payments made by the cities to the investors who bought their municipal bonds.

b) The fixed payments from the cities to the banks to entitle them to a variable kickback

c) The kickback from the banks to the cities which should have cancelled the variable interest payments of (a).

But in reality (c) did not cancel (a) because (a) was based on SIFMA, the benchmark rate for municipal bonds, while (c) was based on LIBOR. LIBOR rates went down but SIFMA rates stayed high. So the cities had to pay both (a) and (b) but was not compensated by (b). By manipulating LIBOR the banks was able to squeeze more money from the cities.

The article says that interest swaps were horrible for the cities in other ways:

1) The cities could prepay the bond holders, as they would normally would do when interest rate fall dramatically. But they still had to keep paying the banks for the worthless kickbacks.

2) Had the banks gone bankrupt, the cities would still have to pay the banks even though they would not be getting any kickbacks.

What this shows is that the cities were totally conned by the banks. Had they understood how the interest rate swaps really worked, they would never have taken the deal. This was not a fair bet; it was rigged in favor of the banks.

A Universe From Nothing

The Higgs Boson, predicted by quantum physics, was finally confirmed. The same quantum physics has been used to model the universe. Such is the case in the book "A Universe From Nothing" by Lawrence Krauss. Krauss's thesis is that the scientific explanation of the Universe is so complete that God is no longer needed to fill in the missing parts. He also makes the case that the science so beautiful that we really won't miss the theological explanation. His book originally came from this talk he gave in 2009 at AAI,  a conference sponsored by the Richard Dawkins Foundation. So does mean that the religious right has to deny quantum physics as we'll as evolution?

Update 7/21/12:
Here are two short videos that actually explain what the Higgs Boson is all about. These were the best explanation that I found so far. Part 1 explains why the Higgs Boson was predicted. Part 2 explains how Higgs imparts mass. There seems to be a Part 3 in the works.

Hot enough for you?

I heard that is got pretty hot back in Maryland this week. I was in Virginia but I was caught in the same weather system. I was on my way down on Friday when the lightning storms hit. It was the most lighting I ever seen, though I must admit I don' get out much. Anyway this gives me an opportunity to bring up the climate change issue. Here is a TED talk by NASA scientist James Hanson, who has not given up trying to warn of the danger we are in.

Update 7/21/12:
Is it possible that the Climate Change issue can be revived? Climate Parents is a new movement which focuses on the climate legacy that we will leave to our children. The movement was given air time last Friday on Democracy Now.

This is a new movement, but not a new idea. Here is a moving 2007 TED Talk about a venture capitalist who was moved to act because he was challenged by his daughter.

Mandate Upheld

The news just came out that the Supreme Court has upheld the health insurance mandate, but they called it a tax. The Right will surely be outraged and say that they are being taxed to support the welfare state. Expect more money to flow to the Republicans. Yet it seems that Romney has already maxed out on 'Crazy'. His is already getting more money than he can use.

Update: 7/2/12
I found this article, about how Chief Justice Roberts  came to his decision. It appears that he originally sided with the conservatives but changed his mind because he was concern about the long term credibility of the Supreme Court. What was interesting was that Justice Kennedy tried very persistently to make Roberts come back to the conservative position. Since Kennedy was supposedly the swing vote, it showed that the Affordable Care Act never had a chance if that was true. Until now, Justice Kennedy might have been concerned to be to most powerful man in America. With Roberts changing his vote, is Roberts now the new top dog?

A challenge to the super women myth

Sally wanted to share this cover story from the Atlantic Monthly. Space is available on this blog for anybody who wants to share an article with the rest of the group.

Why Women Still Can’t Have It All

It’s time to stop fooling ourselves, says a woman who left a position of power: the women who have managed to be both mothers and top professionals are superhuman, rich, or self-employed. If we truly believe in equal opportunity for all women, here’s what has to change.

Here is a link to the article and a video interview by the author.

Supreme Court Decision

At today's meeting there was much interest in the anticipated Supreme Court decision. Several member were on their iPads and iPhones checking for the latest news. It was almost a race to see who would break the story first. When I got home I found out that Wikipedia had already reported the Arizona immigration decision.

The big decision on healthcare will have to wait until Thursday. There is already a wikipedia page setup for the case, which I am sure will be updated as soon as the decision is announced. Isn't it great to read about breaking news in an Encyclopedia.

Correction:
With apologies to Norm, the correct answered to his question of how many Justices were nominated by a Democrat President is four, not two as I said. I did not count the two nominated by Clinton, Breyer and Ginsburg. Oddly, the two nominated by Obama, Sotomayor and Kagan, replace Justices appointed by Republicans. So there used to be only two Justices nominated by Democrats.

Obama Supports the Dreamers

We had far too much news to cover. The Obama Dream Act announcement was not brought out until the last 15 minutes of our meeting, and much of our discussion was about the heckler. For those that missed the announcement here is a link to Obama's annoucement.

There was much more to this story. Ron only had a brief time to mention the political implications. Let me use this blog to bring out some points that I wish we had time to cover.

1. Did Obama trap Romney, who has yet to issue an opinion on the Dream Act?

2. Will this encourage Hispanic voter turn-out in keys states like Florida?

3. Is it more likely that Marco Rubio will be picked as Romney's running mate?

4. Was the timing of the announcement to coincide with the Supreme Court ruling on the Arizona immigration laws?

5. Is Arizona now in play?

6. Does this announcement justify Obama's crackdown at the border?

7. Can we now expect Obama to come out in favor of other immigration reform?

Arab Legacy

We had an interesting discussion of the conflict in Syria and other Arab countries. In our frustration we may have blamed the problems on Arabian culture, going back a thousands of years. We forget that a thousand years ago, the Arabs were civilized and the Europeans were the barbarians.

Here is a short TED talk about how the letter 'x' came to represent the unknown. It reminds us that much of our mathematics come from the Arabians and credits it to the logic of the Arabic language.

Cyber Warfare

The virus attack on the Iranian nuclear program was in the news recently, but this is old news. Here is a TED talk about the Stuxnet virus from a year ago. The news may be old but it is still facinating.

Just for Fun

Not to forget that the 'E' in TED stands for Entertainment, here is short talk that is just fun to watch.

Job Creators?

Here is a TED Talk that challenged the conservative dogma that the rich are the job creators. Apparently, it was considered too controversial so it was not entered in the TED website. However, a copy leaked out to YouTube and the video went viral.

Here is the story on the Marketplace website.

Here is a direct link to the talk.

More on JPM Chase

The 2 billion loss at JP Morgan certainly was a topic of interest. Here is a post to continue the discussion:
For Dory and Lowell, this article by Paul Krugman:

Why We Regulate

By PAUL KRUGMAN

One of the characters in the classic 1939 film “Stagecoach” is a banker named Gatewood who lectures his captive audience on the evils of big government, especially bank regulation — “As if we bankers don’t know how to run our own banks!” he exclaims. As the film progresses, we learn that Gatewood is in fact skipping town with a satchel full of embezzled cash.

As far as we know, Jamie Dimon, the chairman and C.E.O. of JPMorgan Chase, isn’t planning anything similar. He has, however, been fond of giving Gatewood-like speeches about how he and his colleagues know what they’re doing, and don’t need the government looking over their shoulders. So there’s a large heap of poetic justice — and a major policy lesson — in JPMorgan’s shock announcement that it somehow managed to lose $2 billion in a failed bit of financial wheeling-dealing.

Just to be clear, businessmen are human — although the lords of finance have a tendency to forget that — and they make money-losing mistakes all the time. That in itself is no reason for the government to get involved. But banks are special, because the risks they take are borne, in large part, by taxpayers and the economy as a whole. And what JPMorgan has just demonstrated is that even supposedly smart bankers must be sharply limited in the kinds of risk they’re allowed to take on.

Why, exactly, are banks special? Because history tells us that banking is and always has been subject to occasional destructive “panics,” which can wreak havoc with the economy as a whole. Current right-wing mythology has it that bad banking is always the result of government intervention, whether from the Federal Reserve or meddling liberals in Congress. In fact, however, Gilded Age America — a land with minimal government and no Fed — was subject to panics roughly once every six years. And some of these panics inflicted major economic losses.

So what can be done? In the 1930s, after the mother of all banking panics, we arrived at a workable solution, involving both guarantees and oversight. On one side, the scope for panic was limited via government-backed deposit insurance; on the other, banks were subject to regulations intended to keep them from abusing the privileged status they derived from deposit insurance, which is in effect a government guarantee of their debts. Most notably, banks with government-guaranteed deposits weren’t allowed to engage in the often risky speculation characteristic of investment banks like Lehman Brothers.

This system gave us half a century of relative financial stability. Eventually, however, the lessons of history were forgotten. New forms of banking without government guarantees proliferated, while both conventional and newfangled banks were allowed to take on ever-greater risks. Sure enough, we eventually suffered the 21st-century version of a Gilded Age banking panic, with terrible consequences.

It’s clear, then, that we need to restore the sorts of safeguards that gave us a couple of generations without major banking panics. It’s clear, that is, to everyone except bankers and the politicians they bankroll — for now that they have been bailed out, the bankers would of course like to go back to business as usual. Did I mention that Wall Street is giving vast sums to Mitt Romney, who has promised to repeal recent financial reforms?

Enter Mr. Dimon. JPMorgan, to its — and his — credit, managed to avoid many of the bad investments that brought other banks to their knees. This apparent demonstration of prudence has made Mr. Dimon the point man in Wall Street’s fight to delay, water down and/or repeal financial reform. He has been particularly vocal in his opposition to the so-called Volcker Rule, which would prevent banks with government-guaranteed deposits from engaging in “proprietary trading,” basically speculating with depositors’ money. Just trust us, the JPMorgan chief has in effect been saying; everything’s under control.

Apparently not.

What did JPMorgan actually do? As far as we can tell, it used the market for derivatives — complex financial instruments — to make a huge bet on the safety of corporate debt, something like the bets that the insurer A.I.G. made on housing debt a few years ago. The key point is not that the bet went bad; it is that institutions playing a key role in the financial system have no business making such bets, least of all when those institutions are backed by taxpayer guarantees.

For the moment Mr. Dimon seems chastened, even admitting that maybe the proponents of stronger regulation have a point. It probably won’t last; I expect Wall Street to be back to its usual arrogance within weeks if not days.

But the truth is that we’ve just seen an object demonstration of why Wall Street does, in fact, need to be regulated. Thank you, Mr. Dimon.

© 2011 The New York Times Company

A Sulfur Cloud to Save Humanity

Climate change is here but we seem to be more willing than ever to ignore the issue. What this means is that we have run out of time to solve the crisis by conventional means. This leave unconventional solutions. The idea of using sulfur dioxide as a sun shield is actually an old idea. Here is a TED talk which examines the science and politics behind this idea.

Frontline Special on the Crash

Here is a link the four part Frontline series on the 2008 economic crash. The series just concluded last Sunday. But thanks to the Internet you can watch the whole thing here.

The Obama at the WHCD

In case you missed the White House Correspondence Dinner or you want to see it again here is a link to the WHCD page at CSPAN. Jimmy Kimmel was the featured speaker but Obama stole the show.

Here are direct links to Obama's performance for his first term: 2012  2011 2010 2009a 2009b

What Happened to Global Warming?

Arctic ice continues to shrink; 2011 had the second lowest ice extent. But we seem more concern about the oil resources that it will uncover. Yesterday was Earth Day, a day to remind us that the new oil riches will be meaningless without a habitable planet.

Here is a TED video about a swimmer who tried to bring world attention to the melting arctic by swimming the North Pole. His talk was in 2009; what happen in the last three years?

The Steve JOBS Act

Did you notice that Obama signed the JOBS Act into law last week? No, this was not the American Jobs Act which the Republicans stonewalled; it is the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act which originated with the Republicans in the House. But it had the support of Obama, half of the Democrat Senators and 70% of the Democrats in the House. Matt Taibbi (famous for calling Goldman Sachs a vampire squid) has been extremely harsh on Obama, HERE and HERE.

Because it touted the success of the Silicon Valley startups, the bill was sometimes called the Steve JOBS Act, even though his company, Apple, was incorporated back in 1977 and is hardly a startup anymore. The law was supposed to free startups from regulation to make it easier to raise capital, but critics say that it was unnecessary to remove many rules which protected investors.

Both Maryland Senators, Cardin and Milkulski, and both Howard County members of the House, Cummings and Sarbanes, voted against the bill. Here is the Senate roll-call and here is the House roll-call.

The Internet, DARPA and Al Gore

Did you know that the Internet was invented by the Department of Defense (DoD)? It was meant to be a highly reliable communication network that would work even after a nuclear attack by dynamically rerouting messages around damaged areas of the country. It was developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) of the DoD. DARPA continues to do amazing research, which is the topic of this TED talk.

But wait, didn't Al Gore invent the Internet, you say with a wicked grin. As it turns out Al Gore never said he invented the Internet. His actual words were, "During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet." The word "creating" was used in a legislative context. Al Gore did take the initiative to fund improvements in the Internet and provide more public access, as explained HERE.

Without someone like Al Gore, the Internet would have remained in the confines of the military. So even though DARPA invented the Internet, Al Gore's legislative initiatives created the Internet as we know it today.

April Fools Asteroid

There actually was an asteroid that passed between the earth and the moon yesterday. The earth was not in danger but this may not aways be the case. Here is a TED talk on asteroid collisions.

The Supreme Court Live

You didn't get tickets to last week's big event at the Supreme Court? Don't fret. The Supreme Court has posted live recordings the health care mandate oral arguments here.

The press has been incredibly harsh on Solicitor General Verrilli, and it seems that he is being setup as the fall guy. I have listened to his Tuesday argument and I don't think he was that bad. Here is a direct link. He does clear his throat as he begins but that does not mean that he choked.

Cheny's New Heart

Lowell suggested this interesting news items that did not make it into today's discussion, Dick Cheney's heart transplant.

As usual Andy Borowitz scooped main stream media with this article.

More on Rush

Has the Rush Limbaugh story run its course? Not quite, see how the Huffington Post uses Twitter to report on the latest exit of Limbaugh sponsors.

Also Andy Borowitz reported about Rush losing a special long time sponsor.

Stay Current with Wikipedia

Where do you go to catch up on a developing story? We have easy access to news articles on the Internet but typically they are not updated once they are released. So when new media fails, try an encyclopedia. Wikipedia already has entries for two of the stories we discussed in today's meeting; on Sargent Bales and Treyvon Martin.

More TED

Three TED talks came up in today's meeting.

1) The first topic was on synthetic life. In 2008, Craig Venter gave a talk at TED about his pursuit of synthetic life and why it is important. Two years later Venter announced that he had succeed.

2) The second topic was about the end of the Encyclopedia Britannica. It was no surprise since we now have Wikipedia which is free. What is surprising is that Wikipedia, which can be edited by anyone, was more accurate than Britannica, edited by a professional staff. We had a previous post about a TED talk by Jimmy Wales, which explained how quality is maintained.

3) The third topic was about trading algorithms and was recommended by Norm. Kevin Slavin's TED talk revealed the sophistication of today's Wall Street traders.


All three topics are about amazing new technology. But will they make our lives better or worse? Should we let them flourish, or should we take steps to control them?

Swarming Robots

Robot warfare continues to be a topic of discussion. Here is a previous post on this blog about drone warfare.

Now robotic warfare is entering a new phase. Instead of a single robot commanded remotely by a human operator, there will soon be swarms of robots that will have some autonomous control. Here is a link to a TED talk about these new robots.

Kony 2012

Here is a link to the Kony 2012 film that was mentioned in today's meeting. There are two stories, one about the crimes of Joseph Kony, the other about how to conduct a citizen movement. The film itself is a topic of discussion here on Wikipedia.

Warning, the film is 30 minutes long and there is a lot of the material is about the personal life of the film's creator. So I'll just tell you that the film is calling for a day of action on April 20. The film covers the techniques used to make itself go viral. We will know soon enough how successful this campaign is.

Limbaugh on the Ropes

The contraceptive story has turned into another "Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot" story. But this time his attack on Sandra Fluke may have gone too far. There is now an Internet campaign to boycott Limbaugh and it continues even after his apology. He is losing sponsors and now the Republicans are trying to distance themselves from him.

There is already a good summary of the controversy on Wikipedia

Rachel Maddow had an interesting take. She said that it is nothing new for Limbaugh to be controversial but he had shown his complete ignorance in how birth control works.

Missed Message

We did not get a chance to talk about the picture inserted in our handout:

How many of you agree?

Editorial - Shrinking Defense Spending Not a Danger

This story was sent to you by: Lowell Sunderland

Mike... would you post this on the blog, pls, with a note that the writer is affiliated with a group that includes peace activist Jean Athey,who spoke back in the fall to SPRING Currents.

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Convert defense cuts into civilian benefits 
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Shrinking the Pentagon gives the U.S. a chance to bolster education, energy and infrastructure

By Charlie Cooper

December 15 2011, 1:10 PM EST

Weapons-makers, ideologues and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta are busy whipping up fears in reaction to scheduled reductions in our bloated military budget. Don't be fooled. These cuts will not put our security at risk, though they will cut into profits and executive pay at certain defense-establishment corporations. 

The complete article can be viewed at:
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bs-ed-defense-cuts-20111215,0,7695343.story 

Disallowed Testimony

Here is the testimony of Sandra Fluke, the Georgetown student whose testimony was not allowed by the Republicans.

Did the Republicans do the right thing? Or has their strategy totally backfired?

Did Obama Back Down?

Have you seen the headline that Obama was backing down on the contraceptive issue? Don't take their word for it. You can let Obama speak for himself. See his seven minute explanation before you condemn him.

So now that you heard his side, do you still think that he backed down?

It's Halftime in America

Here is a link to the Chrysler Superbowl Ad which his causing controversy. You can see that there is an instant poll; you can vote if you like or dislike the ad. As of this writing there are 12,809 likes and 822 dislikes. You can also ad a comment to the You Tube blog. Here is my comment I added as mhirasuna:

"I find it odd that a commercial with such a positive message is being condemned as being political. It is only political if the basis of your campaign is to be negative."

How can we trust Wikipedia

Anyone one who has used Wikipedia is amazed that a free encyclopedia can have so much high quality information. But are dumbfounded when we learn that anyone can edit a Wikipedia article. Why isn't there complete chaos? Here is a TED talk by founder Jimmy Wales which explains how Wikipedia maintains quality control.

Is the Task Force for Real?

At Tuesday's SOTU Obama announced a special DOJ task force to prosecute those who were criminally responsible for the 2008 Meltdown. New York AG Eric Schneiderman was put in charge and the task force had its first meeting on Friday.

At our meeting today, it was suggested that there would be no results until after the election. We have a right to be skeptical, but here is a Schneiderman interview in which he is optimistic to get results in 6 to 8 months. He also said that his own investigation was not put on hold because of the task force, and we could see the results of his efforts fairly soon. While Schneiderman's own investigation covers the robo-signing, the new DOJ task force will investigate all criminal activities that led to the crash.

What do you think? Are we actually going to see results before the election?

State of the Union

Tomorrow is Obama's State of the Union. The White House is making it a four day Internet event, Tuesday to Friday. You can see an enhanced version of the speech HERE. You can see the questions now being voted on to ask the President HERE. Send me an email if you need help to cast your votes or better still enlist the services of your grandchidren.

What About South Carolina

There was so much news last week that we neglected to talk about Newt's comeback in the South Carolina Primary, even though it was listed first on Lowe's sheet. Here is your chance to speak your mind about South Carolina or the upcoming primaries. Who do you think will win Florida. Who do you want to win?

The NeXT Step in Education

As a group, we are concern about the state of education in the US. We have discussed many aspects from the use of computers to the coddling of our children. Last Thursday, Jan 19, marked the entry of Apple into the fray. As expected, Apple's education revolution is based on the iPad, which has its roots in the NeXT computer founded by Steve Jobs back in 1988. Steve Jobs has always had an interest in education and much of Apple's current education initiative was setup by him before his death.

The event was an hour long so here is a seven minute video summary
Here is a link to the entire Apple Education Event. Prepare to be wowed.

We also talked about encouraging self-esteem of our students. Perhaps we are doing it the wrong way. Here is a TED Talk about the need for schools to teach creativity recommended by Norm. The speaker Ken Robinson gives a provoking and entertaining talk.

Huntsman Out, Colbert In

We seem to agree that the Republican primary has been more entertainment than serious news. Jon Huntsman is now officially out, perhaps because he could not withstand being outpolled by Steven Colbert. For those that missed it here is Colbert's announcement.

Drone Warfare

We have had several lively discussions on the use of drones by the military. We have talked about its effectiveness and morality, but there is another issue, the proliferation of military drone technology. Here is a TED talk about this problem in the future of war.

Hope for the New Year

Much of our concern is with bad news. So what about the good news. Where is the hope for the New Year? Personally I see hope in how new technology is promoting new ideas and the best example of this is at the TED website. Here is a TED talk which shows how technology has interconnected us to create a worldwide virtual choir. HERE

This is just art but it demonstrates the power of networking made possible by new technology. To solve our problems, we may need to turn to each other.