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anonymous

Science 2.0 Pioneers - 0 views

seedmagazine.com/...science_2.0_pioneers

layscience

shared by anonymous on 21 May 10 - Cached
  • From open-access journals to research-review blogs, from collaboration by wiki to epidemiology by Blackberry, networked knowledge has made more science more accessible more quickly and to more people around the globe than could have been imagined 20 years ago.
  • Varmus is among a cadre of iconoclasts calling for immediate open access to scientific papers. They’re impatient for colleagues to give up their allegiance to the conventional process that they say keeps new research under wraps for too long. And they’re eager for publishers to break out of business models that require a paid subscription to read the most current publications.
  • anonymous on 21 May 10
     
    "From open-access journals to research-review blogs, networked knowledge has made science more accessible to more people around the globe than we could have imagined 20 years ago." By Adrienne J. Burke in Seed on May 20, 2010
anonymous

Rand Old Party - 0 views

www.slate.com/2254489

politics media

shared by anonymous on 21 May 10 - Cached
  • Maddow spent about 20 minutes last night quizzing Paul about his views on the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and he and the Republican Party have spent the last 24 hours cleaning up the mess.
  • He's added to his newsworthiness by claiming his campaign is at the vanguard of the Tea Party movement. That gives him a higher profile still.
  • It also invites the Democratic Party to try to make him the symbol of the entire GOP and means the Republican establishment may have to answer for the things he says.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • But Byrd and current Democrats don't hold those views now. For his part, Paul argues that a 1964 law would not be relevant to issues he'd face as a senator. But that's not exactly right. The questions about his views on the Civil Rights Act grow out of his present-day views about limits on government intervention. That's always an issue in Washington, especially right now, as the Senate debates a bill to regulate financial institutions. At its core, it involves the question of just how far government can go to regulate private enterprise.
  • Democrats need African-American turnout to be high this election. Getting into a debate about civil rights would help that. But they'll also try to keep Republicans responding to Paul's other non-establishment views—such as the need to abolish much of the federal government, including the Federal Reserve and Social Security Administration.
  • Tea Party activists don't like Washington. If you're a Washington politician and you want to stay alive, you need to look like you're on their team. Hence: Embrace Rand Paul.
  • anonymous on 21 May 10
     
    Tagline: "Why Democrats can't wait to use Rand Paul against the GOP." By John Dickerson at Slate on May 20, 2010.
anonymous

Japan: A Novice Government's Political Dilemma - 0 views

www.stratfor.com/..._governments_political_dilemma

geopolitics

shared by anonymous on 20 May 10 - Cached
  • anonymous on 20 May 10
     
    May 20, 2010
anonymous

Russia: The Fate of Conscription - 0 views

www.stratfor.com/...00520_russia_fate_conscription

geopolitics

shared by anonymous on 20 May 10 - Cached
  • Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov was quoted May 19 as saying that Russia could not professionalize its military with contract soldiers.
  • The Russian military has long been large and conscripted. Even today, almost half of Russia’s 395,000-strong active duty army is drafted — and despite significant reforms like dropping the period of conscription from two years to one, the living and working conditions for a Russian conscript remain notoriously abysmal.
  • Stretching from the International Dateline to Europe, Russia spans most of the eastern hemisphere and suffers from extremely long, essentially indefensible borders.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • it is difficult to overstate the depth and complexity of the challenge of military reform in Russia. At every turn, reformists must overcome entrenched vested interests within the military and rigid, outdated paradigms. Even if they accomplish this, they must then face the perennial Russian challenge of defending the indefensible. If Russia can no longer afford or populate a large standing army, it must have one that is more agile and capable.
  • anonymous on 20 May 10
     
    May 20, 2010
anonymous

Despite apparent Iran setback, Turkey expands its reach - 0 views

www.mcclatchydc.com/...ite-apparent-iran-setback.html

geopolitics

shared by anonymous on 20 May 10 - Cached
  • anonymous on 20 May 10
     
    By Scott Peterson at Christian Science Monitor on May 19, 2010. Thanks to Ed Webb for the pointer.
anonymous

Are predictions of endless war self-fulfilling? - 0 views

www.scientificamerican.com/...post.cfm

geopolitics predictions

shared by anonymous on 20 May 10 - Cached
  • The implicit assumption of the entire conference was that there will always be wars.
  • "No," Mansoor replied immediately when I asked him if he thought international war would ever end, as some scholars have recently proposed. He acknowledged that since World War II there have been relatively few international wars and no wars between major powers (although of course the U.S. and the Soviet Union fought through proxies). But he likened our era to the century of relative calm following the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815.
  • There are many more democracies in the world now, and democracies rarely fight against each other (although they obviously fight against non-democracies, as Mansoor pointed out). Moreover, modern media rub our noses in war's ugliness as never before.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • What bothers me most about Mansoor's vision of the future is its potential to be self-fulfilling.
  • anonymous on 20 May 10
     
    By John Horgan at Scientific American on May 19, 2010
anonymous

A New Clue to Explain Human Existence - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...18cosmos.html

layscience

shared by anonymous on 19 May 10 - Cached
  • Physicists at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory are reporting that they have discovered a new clue that could help unravel one of the biggest mysteries of cosmology: why the universe is composed of matter and not its evil-twin opposite, antimatter.
  • In a mathematically perfect universe, we would be less than dead; we would never have existed. According to the basic precepts of Einsteinian relativity and quantum mechanics
  • Maria Spiropulu of CERN and the California Institute of Technology called the results “very impressive and inexplicable.”
  • anonymous on 19 May 10
     
    By Dennis Overbye at The New York Times on May 17, 2010
anonymous

Millennials keep their chins up despite high unemployment in economic downturn - 0 views

www.csmonitor.com/...mployment-in-economic-downturn

generations

shared by anonymous on 19 May 10 - Cached
  • For one, the recession, while the deepest since the Great Depression, is not dragging on so long that all hope of finding a good job has evaporated. For another, there's a decent government safety net now, in the form of food stamps and unemployment benefits. Millennials, moreover, seem destined to become the most educated generation ever and see themselves as having a lot on the ball. And let's not forget the soft landing provided by parents, widely considered the most overprotective, don't-cut-the-apron-strings cohort of parents in US history.
anonymous

Investing in the Poor - 0 views

www.marginalrevolution.com/...investing-in-the-poor.html

economics

shared by anonymous on 19 May 10 - Cached
  • The Unincorporated Man is a science fiction novel in which shares of each person's income stream can be bought and sold.  (Initial ownership rights are person 75%, parents 20%, government 5%--there are no other taxes--and people typically sell shares to finance education and other training.)
  • anonymous on 19 May 10
     
    By Alex Tabarrok at Marginal Revolution on May 19, 2010.
anonymous

What a U.S.-Iran Entente Would Look Like - 0 views

www.stratfor.com/...what_usiran_entente_would_look

geopolitics

shared by anonymous on 19 May 10 - Cached
  • STRATFOR has long been saying that with no viable military options to attempt to curb Iranian behavior, and an inability to put together an effective sanctions regime, Washington has only one choice, and that is to negotiate with Tehran on the issues that matter most to both countries.
  • Iran already has the largest military force in the region — which will only grow more powerful once Tehran is no longer encumbered by sanctions.
  • The United States has been hobbled by the memories of the 1979 hostage crisis for a generation now
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • The trajectory of this hypothesized rapprochement coincides with the trajectory of increasing American military bandwidth. Though American ground combat forces remain heavily committed at the moment, this will change in the years to come.
  • The United States is on this trajectory with or without Iran, but with an American-Persian rapprochement, it is possible on a more rapid timetable and to a greater degree.
  • Europeans, especially the French and the Germans, would welcome a Tehran-Washington reconciliation
  • Russia has no interest in seeing the United States and Iran come to terms with each other.
  • The more distracted the United States is, the more room Russia has to entrench itself in the former Soviet space and keep Europe under its thumb.
  • anonymous on 19 May 10
     
    May 19, 2010
anonymous

The Psychological Diversity of Mankind - 0 views

lesswrong.com/...hological_diversity_of_mankind

longnow

shared by anonymous on 18 May 10 - Cached
  • anonymous on 18 May 10
     
    By Kaj_Sotala at Less Wrong on May 9, 2010. Cochran and Harpending's basic thesis is that the notion of a psychological unity is most likely false. Different human populations are likely for biological reasons to have slightly different minds, shaped by selection pressures in the specific regions the populations happened to live in. Hat tip to Robin Hanson at Overcoming Bias.
anonymous

I, Pencil: My Family Tree as told to Leonard E. Read - 0 views

www.econlib.org/...rdPncl1.html

economics philosophy whimsy

shared by anonymous on 18 May 10 - Cached
  • Actually, millions of human beings have had a hand in my creation, no one of whom even knows more than a very few of the others.
  • There is a fact still more astounding: the absence of a master mind, of anyone dictating or forcibly directing these countless actions which bring me into being. No trace of such a person can be found. Instead, we find the Invisible Hand at work. This is the mystery to which I earlier referred.
  • anonymous on 18 May 10
     
    A fantastic piece (thanks to Adam Gurri) about the mysterious world of the modern supply chain.
anonymous

Seeds of Discontent - 0 views

www.slate.com/toolbar.aspx

sustainability

shared by anonymous on 18 May 10 - Cached
  • It's not inherently good or bad—what matters is how you use it.
  • anonymous on 18 May 10
     
    Tagline: "Should environmentalists just say no to GMOs?" By Nina Shen Rastogi at Slate Magazine on May 18, 2010.
anonymous

Seeds of Discontent - 0 views

www.slate.com/2253787

sustainability

shared by anonymous on 18 May 10 - Cached
  • anonymous on 18 May 10
     
    Tagline: "Should environmentalists just say no to GMOs?" By Nina Shen Rastogi at Slate Magazine on May 18, 2010.
anonymous

Germany, Greece and Exiting the Eurozone - 0 views

www.stratfor.com/...ny_greece_and_exiting_eurozone

geopolitics geography

shared by anonymous on 18 May 10 - Cached
  • the economic underpinnings of paper money are not nearly as important as the political underpinnings
  • The trouble with the euro is that it attempts to overlay a monetary dynamic on a geography that does not necessarily lend itself to a single economic or political “space.”
  • Europe is the second-smallest continent on the planet but has the second-largest number of states packed into its territory.
  • ...14 more annotations...
  • the Continent’s plentiful navigable rivers, large bays and serrated coastlines enable the easy movement of goods and ideas across Europe.
  • Europe’s network of rivers and seas are not integrated via a single dominant river or sea network, however, meaning capital generation occurs in small, sequestered economic centers.
  • southern Europe lacks a single river useful for commerce. Consequently, Northern Europe is more urban, industrial and technocratic while Southern Europe tends to be more rural, agricultural and capital-poor.
  • For centuries, Europe was home to feuding empires and states. After World War II, it became the home of devastated peoples whose security was the responsibility of the United States.
  • To join the eurozone, a country must abide by rigorous “convergence criteria” designed to synchronize the economy of the acceding country with Germany’s economy.
  • two scenarios of eurozone reconstitution that have garnered the most attention in the media
  • Germany would therefore not be leaving the eurozone to save its economy or extricate itself from its own debts, but rather to avoid the financial burden of supporting the Club Med economies and their ability to service their 3 trillion euro mountain of debt.
  • Germany could reintroduce its national currency with far more ease than other eurozone members could.
  • German banks own much of the debt issued by Club Med, which would likely default on repayment in the event Germany parted with the euro.
  • The option of leaving the eurozone for Germany
  • If Athens were able to control its monetary policy, it would ostensibly be able to “solve” the two major problems currently plaguing the Greek economy
  • Athens could ease its financing problems substantially.
  • the first thing the Greeks will want to do is withdraw all funds from any institution where their wealth would be at risk
  • The resulting conundrum is one in which reconstitution of the eurozone may make sense at some point down the line. But the interlinked web of economic, political, legal and institutional relationships makes this nearly impossible. The cost of exit is prohibitively high, regardless of whether it makes sense.
  • anonymous on 18 May 10
     
    May 18, 2010
anonymous

Germany: Creating Economic Governance - 0 views

www.stratfor.com/...y_creating_economic_governance

geopolitics

shared by anonymous on 18 May 10 - Cached
  • Berlin has written some very large checks to ameliorate the economic crisis — Germany’s combined contributions to the Greek bailout and the eurozone rescue fund are about 151 billion euros ($192 billion), not counting the German portions of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) contributions — but in return, Germany wants to redefine how the eurozone is run.
  • The EU project has its roots in the end of World War II and the beginning of the Cold War. As originally conceived it had two purposes. The first was to lock Germany into an economic alliance with its neighbors that would make future wars between Western Europeans not only politically unpalatable but also economically disastrous. The second was to provide a politico-economic foundation for a Western Europe already unified under NATO in a military/security alliance led by the United States against the Soviet Union. The memory of World War II provided the moral impetus for European integration, while the Cold War largely provided the geopolitical context.
  • As STRATFOR has said, the eurozone had a political logic but was economically flawed from the start.
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • the eurozone has thus far been exceedingly economically beneficial to Germany. Berlin’s 151 billion euro contribution to the two bailout funds pales in comparison to the overall boost in exports that Berlin has received since forging the eurozone.
  • Furthermore, if the euro were to fragment or disintegrate, the EU would essentially end as a serious political force. Currencies are only as stable as the political systems that underpin them.
  • A collapse of a currency — such as those in Germany in 1923, Yugoslavia in 1994, and Zimbabwe in 2008 — is really just a symptom of the underlying deterioration of the political system and is usually followed closely by exactly such a political crisis.
  • The immediacy of the crisis is the impetus for such radical changes to Europe’s “economic governance.” French President Nicolas Sarkozy actually proposed something similar in the wake of the September 2008 crisis, but Berlin sternly rejected him at the time. The crisis that has followed, however, has changed Germany’s mind.
  • The bottom line is that Germany and other member states are shelling out cash and breaking EU treaties because it is in their national interests to do so at this particular moment. If they are to institutionalize such rules for the long term, it is inevitable that they will be broken once national interests revert back to the standard concerns of sovereignty over fiscal policy.
  • Once Germany has paid for its leadership of Europe, will it also be willing to enforce its leadership with direct punitive actions? And if it does, how will its neighbors react?
  • anonymous on 18 May 10
     
    May 14, 2010
anonymous

Iran Nuclear Swap Deal Signed - Original Document - 0 views

www.stratfor.com/..._deal_signed_original_document

geopolitics

shared by anonymous on 18 May 10 - Cached
  • anonymous on 18 May 10
     
    Final document as obtained by CNNTurk from the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
anonymous

Greece: Defense Spending and the Financial Crisis - 0 views

www.stratfor.com/..._spending_and_financial_crisis

geopolitics

shared by anonymous on 18 May 10 - Cached
  • the modern Greek state owes its independence to the support of the United Kingdom, which sought to use Greece as a means to balance the unraveling Ottoman Turkey with the rise of Imperial Russia in the early 19th century.
  • With the disappearance of regional power Yugoslavia and the Soviet superpower, however, such support has ended.
  • Greece spends more on defense as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) than any other EU member including the United Kingdom, which maintains a global defense reach, and Poland, which sees itself as needing to be ready to hold out against the vastly superior Russian army.
  • anonymous on 18 May 10
     
    From May 17, 2010.
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