Volume 14, Number 1 - 1/15/11

FUTURE FACTS - FROM THINK LINKS

DID YOU KNOW THAT...

• A paper published by the University of

Manchester and Indiana University showed that
the number of emotional words on Twitter could
be used to predict daily moves in the Dow Jones
Industrial Average.
• The earth's magnetic pole is slowly heading
toward Russia (at almost 40 miles per year),
according to scientists.
• Polymer threads coated with stem cells might
one day heal damaged cardiac muscle.
• The Dimitrie Leonida National Technical
Museum in Romania hosts a battery that has
run continuously since 1950.

PUNCTUATIONS
by John L. Petersen

Welcome to 2011! All indications point to this being a

very interesting year. Here are a couple of things that
have come my way in the last couple of days that point
toward a new configuration of the familiar landscape.

CYBEREVOLUTION

Tom Burgin sent along an interesting piece in

FORBES by Jeffrey Carr on the fall of the government
in Tunisia and the role of the Internet in providing the
communications platform for that upheaval. I'd A Vision for
recommend this to you. 2012: Planning
for Extraordinary
Then my friend DK Matai at ATCA posted this Change
fascinating summary of the same event: by John L.
Petersen
Tunisia: A Digitally Driven Leaderless Revolution
Revolution in The Air

World watches nervously as protests bring down a

government and force its longstanding leader into
exile.

Former senator
and presidential
candidate Gary
Hart has said "It
should be required
reading for the
next President."

Digitally Driven Revolution

Extremely Fast Moving 21st Century Revolutionary

Dynamics

1. WikiLeaks exposure of corruption in Tunisia

confirms public distrust
2. Out of control food inflation becomes an
accelerant to smouldering discontent
3. Spark of the first few food and anti-corruption
riots flickers out of control
4. Amplification of riots by mobile telephones,
blogs, Facebook, Twitter and Youtube
5. Rapid evolution of self-assembling dynamic
networks in streets enabled in digital space
6. Proliferation of food riots in different towns and
cities across the country
7. Digital incubation and catalysis of
disgruntlement over two to three weeks
8. Large scale mass protests erupt in capital
overwhelming fears of government reprisal
9. Spontaneous combustion in under 48 hours
10. President flees and revolution gathers
 momentum

24/7 Digital Incubators and Catalysts

• Self-organising communication systems

facilitate self-assembling dynamic networks
without the need for individual leaders;
• Mobile telephones communicate global news,
immediate local news, peer-to-peer text
messages, multimedia video, voice and images;
• Protesters use Blogs, Facebook, Twitter,
Wikileaks documents, YouTube and other digital
tools to organise, mobilise and report;
• Facebook and Twitter mean that a mass of
information and intelligence, not always reliable,
is integrated about events even in remote parts
of the country;
• Web based email and 24/7 local and
international news;
• Flat screen multi-channel worldwide television
gives 24/7 live coverage of events; and
• Information and intelligence picked up inside
and outside a country may readily intertwine
with events in neighbouring countries or
elsewhere.

Copy Cat Digital Infections

• What are the chances of worldwide copy cat

digital infections via self assembling dynamic
networks?
• This digitally driven leaderless revolution has
demonstrated a prototype which has been
watched by peoples everywhere in the world;
• Points to vulnerability of authoritarian regimes
not only in the Arab world but also amongst
other critical powers; and
• Most vulnerable to digitally driven leaderless
revolutions are undemocratic countries, in such
diverse places as the Islamic world and China,
North Korea, Burma and Central Asia.
Underlying Causes

• This 21st century digital revolution is not driven

by irreconcilable tribalism, religion, abuse of
human rights or gender; and
• This is about corruption, extremely high
unemployment, out-of-control food and fuel
prices and the disruption of the daily lives of
ordinary people.

Background: Spreading Food and Fuel Riots

• Tunisian protests began when unemployed

graduate set himself on fire after his fruit and
vegetables stall was confiscated;
• Food prices are now at an all time high, and are
trending higher, indicating that this may be only
the beginning of the food riot problem;
• Surging food and fuel prices are sparking
skirmishes and riots across the world;
• Outbursts ignite concern that the world is due for
a repeat of the 2008 food protests that rocked
countries as far apart as Haiti, Senegal and
Bangladesh;
• China and India, like much of emerging Asia,
are grappling with an escalating inflation
problem. That problem is rising food costs which
are disproportionately hitting the lower to middle
income Chinese and Indian consumers; and
• Rising food and fuel inflation has sparked
violence across the Middle East, Africa and Asia
as well as South America over the last few
weeks, as demonstrators protest the high cost of
staple commodities like sugar, corn and rice as
well as fuel.

Conclusion

Digitally driven leaderless revolutions have potential to

generate chaos.
I'm told that protests are starting in Jordan and other
Muslim leaders are concerned about this trend.

So, do you see the symmetry with the last

communication revolution? The last time technology
came along and changed the essence of how human
beings communicated ideas was when Gutenberg
invented his movable type and mass-production books
showed up. People began to become aware of and
learn things that were impossible before.

What happened then? Well, it was the beginning of the

end of the predominance of the then governing entity,
the Roman Catholic Church. All kinds of new religions
and governments sprung up because there was
significantly increased transparency.

So now we've got the transparency of Twitter,

Facebook, YouTube and WikiLeaks and we are
watching the same kind of uprising by the people
against oppressive governments.

Governments (and big corporations, unions,

universities and other organizations, for that matter)
have two ways to respond to this increased
transparency: 1) realize that they've got to do business
in a way that will withstand the illumination of increased
sunshine or, 2) strengthen their control and defenses to
try to assure that these kinds of cyber evolutions don't
happen to them.

Now, you tell me, how will most governments respond

to this?

I don't think it will work. The cat's out of the bag.

People now know what they can do. We're into really
new space that could quite literally engender the social
underpinnings for a world that operates in a new way.
Perhaps we're seeing the birth of a new world.

Kinda neat, don't you think?

FINANCIAL DISRUPTION

There is other systemic change in the works. In the

financial arena rather amazing behavior has emerged
from all parties to process. Chris Martenson's
admonition is Don't Worry; They'll Just Change the
Rules. Chris explains how that the banks, the
government, the Fed and the press are all complicit in
systematically ignoring the fact that there is a gigantic
pool of very rapidly growing assets held by the Fed that
are essentially uncollectable - that the US is hurtling
towards bankruptcy. All the players (with a couple of
individual exceptions like Congressman Ron Paul and
economist Thomas Sowell) are pretending that it
doesn't exist . . . and in the process the system
muddles along, essentially waiting for the charade to
be exposed.

Might WikiLeaks have a role to play here? Might it shed

light on the internal inconsistency of this system and
facilitate its demise?

This is a fascinating study of social behavior in the face

of extraordinary change. Rather than honestly
assessing the system and adapting - changing
behavior - many, if not most, people would rather cast
a blind eye at the problem and hope that it goes away.

Well, this one's not going away. In fact, the tea leaves
suggest that the path we're on will likely lead to the
inevitable bankruptcy of the country - there's no way
out. Here's the logic from Gonzalo Lira who explains
Why Democracies Will Always Go Bankrupt.

CLIMATE CHANGE

Want some more change this year? Here's another big

one. A couple of days ago, every state in the US
except Florida had snow. Does that suggest
something? Tom Burgin again provided this:

Been getting into the science of what our English pal

Piers Corbyn has been using to predict weather.

He uses solar wind as core event and lunar infractions

with sun spot and other solar activity such as magnetic
storms and their direct influence on the planet.
It's really interesting.

Next three years winters will be violently cold.

Cooler weather till 2036 - almost a mini ice age to that

turning point.

Data Verifies hypothesis and examines his past record

(20 years)

This guy is on to something.

Suggests migration to high altitude zone on the

equator, as earthquakes, extreme weather and other
events are gonna be rather heavy if this model turns
out the way it seems to be suggesting.

Oh and get some nice warm coats!!

East coast weather not gonna be pretty down ur way

…

You can pay him for his services and some agricultural
companies have made vast fortunes out of following
his advice.

It's not 100% but 84.46 is a darn site better than the
12% the loony global warming nuts can muster…..

Makes u think!!

Well, enough good news.

Listen, I don't send these things along to frighten you,

but rather to make you aware that change is coming so
that you can prepare. How can you get ready if you
don't know? If you're not aware and anticipating these
kinds of things, you'll be surprised - and these
surprises are so big that responding after the fact will
be very, very hard and painful. Chris Martenson has a
bunch of stuff on physical preparation.

Of course, I suggest you also work on your personal

self as all of this change is not just political, economic
and climatic. A significant aspect of adapting to the
shift is becoming someone new - a new human -
seeing yourself and the larger context through a new
lens. It's an extraordinary opportunity - and imperative
== for personal development.

INSTITUTIONAL CHANGE

Hedge Fund Will Track Twitter to Predict Stock

Moves - (Bloomberg - December 22, 2010)
The Derwent Absolute Return Fund Ltd., set to start
trading in February with an initial 25 million pounds
($39 million) under management, will follow posts on
the social-networking website. A trading model will
highlight when the number of times words on Twitter
such as "calm" rise above or below average. A paper
by the University of Manchester and Indiana University
published in October said the number of emotional
words on Twitter could be used to predict daily moves
in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. A change in
emotions expressed online would be followed between
two and six days later by a move in the index, the
researchers said, and this information let them predict
its movements with 87.6% accuracy. Link to original
academic study.

A World after WikiLeaks - (BBC News - December

16, 2010)
Prediction: things will be different after WikiLeaks, but
not in ways we might expect. We have called forth the
network age, and yet carried on in our daily lives as if
nothing has really changed. What really matters is that
the disruptive power of the internet has been
conclusively demonstrated, and the old order has been
provoked to respond. This is democracy's Napster
moment, the point at which the forms of governance
that have evolved over 200 years of industrial society
prove wanting in the face of the network. Napster was
neutered by court action in the US, but its failure
inspired peer-to-peer services that were far harder to
control. The sharing of music is now unstoppable, and
Wikileaks and the organizations that come after it will
ensure that the same is now true of secrets.
NEW REALITIES

Science Observes Water Acting Weird - (Daily

Galaxy - December 24, 2010)
Exotic new states of water caused Harvard researchers
to question what we really know about one of the most
common and abundant substances on the planet. First
there was the discovery that you can actually burn salt
water if you zap it with just the right radio frequency,
fueling hopes that plain old seawater could someday
be converted to abundant clean energy. Now
researchers are finding that water forms a floating
bridge when exposed to high voltages. Other
researchers also recently discovered that you can
make water stay frozen at very warm temperatures if
you coat it with a special diamond mixture.

Magnetic North Pole Shift Affects Tampa Airport -

(AOL News - January 7, 2011)
The earth's magnetic pole is slowly heading toward
Russia at almost 40 miles per year, according to
scientists, but one of the places this is affecting is the
Tampa Airport. Airport officials closed the main runway
for a week to adjust the taxiway signs taking into
account the magnetic shift based on FAA request.

Planck Telescope Observes Cosmic Giants - (BBC

News - January 11, 2011)
The Planck space telescope has identified some of the
largest structures ever seen in the Universe. These are
clusters of galaxies that are gravitationally bound to
each other and which measure tens of millions of light-
years across. Astronomers say the Planck observatory
has made more than 20 detections that are brand new
to science and has confirmed the existence of a further
169 galaxy clusters. "The clusters contain up to a
hundred galaxies, and each galaxy has a billion stars,"
said Dr Nabila Aghanim of the Institut d'Astrophysique
Spatiale in Orsay, France.

Mammoth Could Be Reborn in Four Years -

(Telegraph - January 17, 2011)
Previous efforts in the 1990s to recover nuclei in cells
from the skin and muscle tissue from mammoths found
in the Siberian permafrost failed because they had
been too badly damaged by the extreme cold. But a
technique pioneered in 2008 by Dr. Teruhiko
Wakayama, of the Riken Centre for Developmental
Biology, was successful in cloning a mouse from the
cells of another mouse that had been frozen for 16
years. Now that hurdle has been overcome, Akira
Iritani, a professor at Kyoto University, is reactivating
his campaign to resurrect the species that died out
5,000 years ago.

GENETICS/ HEALTH TECHNOLOGY/

BIOTECHNOLOGY

Cause of Male Baldness Discovered - (BBC News -

January 4, 2011)
Experts say they have discovered what they believe is
the cause of male pattern baldness. It is not simply a
lack of hair, but rather a problem with the new hair that
is made. A manufacturing defect means the hair
produced is so small it appears invisible to the naked
eye, giving the classic bald spot or receding hairline.
The US team said the fault lies with the stem cells that
make new hair. It may be possible to cure male
baldness by restoring the normal function of these
cells, the experts hope. Ultimately, they hope to be
able to develop a cream that could be applied to the
scalp to help the stem cells grow normal hair.

Cell-Seeded Sutures to Repair the Heart -

(Technology Review - December 16, 2010)
Over the last decade, scientists have experimented
with using stem cells to heal or replace the scarred
tissue that mars the heart after a heart attack. While
the cells do spur some level of repair in animals,
human tests have resulted in modest or transient
benefits at best. Now researchers have developed a
new kind of biological sutures, made from polymer
strands infused with stem cells, that might help
surmount two major obstacles to using stem cells to
heal the heart: getting the cells to the right spot and
keeping them there long enough to trigger healing.
Alzheimer's Blood Test 'Fishes' for Signs of
Disease - (BBC News - January 6, 2011)
A new technique could lead to a blood test for
detecting Alzheimer's, a US study claims. The small
trial used thousands of artificial molecules to "fish" for
the disease. Researchers hope to use this method to
diagnose other diseases earlier, including lung and
pancreatic cancers. The Alzheimer's Research Trust
said it could result in a new test, but more research
was needed. The technique relies on the immune
system's ability to recognize foreign material.

Safer Joint Replacements - (Technology Review -

December 13, 2010)
Infections resulting from joint-replacement surgeries
are costly and potentially deadly. Now researchers at
MIT are developing coatings for medical implants that
can be loaded with multiple drugs, including antibiotics
that are released over time. The process involves
layering antibiotic films, which are released over the
short term, onto a permanently antibacterial polymer
designed to prevent infection over the long term.

ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES/CLIMATE

Shift in Earth's Orbit Transformed 'Green Sahara'

into Planet's Largest Desert - (Daily Galaxy -
December 22, 2010)
The Sahara, the world's largest desert, was once fertile
grassland. This fact has been common knowledge in
the scientific community for some time, but scientists
are still grappling with historic data to determine
whether that transition took place abruptly or gradually.
Changes in the Earth's tilt are believed to have made
the Sahara go dry. While scientists are still trying to
find out if the slow shift in orbit had rapid or gradual
environmental consequences, they say Earth's orbit will
continue to change today and into the future.

Scientists Engineer Thunderstorms over Abu

Dhabi - (Natural News - January 16, 2011)
In Abu Dhabi, scientists have successfully manipulated
entire weather systems, causing up to fifty downpours
of rain across the Al Ain region the desert nation over
the last year. A team of scientists working for Sheikh
Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the president of United
Arab Emirates, have erected entire fields of giant
ionizers to generate waves of negative ions which rise
into the lower atmosphere and attract dust particles.
The dust particles, in turn, attract condensation from
the ambient air, and when enough condensation is
achieved, the clouds can't hold the water anymore and
a downpour of rain is unleashed. The whole system
was devices by the Swiss company, Metro Systems
International.

The Gulf of Mexico is Dying - (Global Research -

December 26, 2010)
Beneath the opening emotionalism, the geological
explanations are complex and worth the time needed
to examine them. Although the many deductions may
be difficult for the layperson to apprehend at first, to the
trained eye there are inescapable conclusions which
are simply the result of cause and effect. In other
words there is no dispute around the most serious
geological changes which have occurred, and continue
to occur, in the region around the Macondo wells. The
original predicament (an 87 day gushing well) was
extremely serious and, although the well has been
capped, the larger existing situation is becoming
progressively worse.

Aflockalypse or Normal Mass Bird Deaths? -

(Gather - January 7, 2011)
It's being called an aflockalypse. The stories about
mass animal deaths began getting visibility on New
Year's Eve, when a large flock of red-wing blackbirds
fell from the sky in Arkansas. That was followed rapidly
by 2 million fish in Chesapeake Bay, 150 tons of
Vietnamese red tilapia, and 40,000 crabs in Britain. Not
to mention sparrows in China and jackdaws in Sweden.
The Christian Science Monitor reports that Federal
records indicate there's a mass animal death akin to
the blackbirds about every other day on average in
North America. However, other sources are raising
the question of government testing as a cause of the
bird deaths in Arkansas and neighboring Louisiana. But
according to wildlife disease specialist LeAnn White,
we're seeing a fairly standard cluster of mass animal
deaths.

Earth's Magnetic Pole Shift Unleashing Poisonous

Space Clouds Linked to Mysterious Bird Deaths -
(Natural News - January 16, 2011)
Here is another hypothesis for the bird deaths: a report
from the Russia's Ministry for Extraordinary Situations
(MCHS) warned that the weakening Earth
magnetosphere due to the shifting magnetic poles was
allowing "poisonous space clouds" to enter deep into
Earth's atmosphere where it is coming into contact with
birds. These "space clouds" are called noctilucent
clouds, which exist at very high altitudes (roughly 50
miles) and accumulate space dust from micrometeors
and other sources. Noctilucent clouds exhibit very high
radar reflectivity meaning these clouds create a very
large radar signature on weather tracking systems. On
New Year's Even when birds began falling out of the
sky in Arkansas, the National Weather Service in North
Little Rock documented an unusual phenomenon on
their radar monitors. "There are some indications that
we're picking up a non-precipitation target," said
Science and Operations Officer Chris Buonanno at the
NWS. He went on to explain that the radar signature
definitely was not indicative of a cloud or rainstorm. It
was something altogether different. At or around the
same time this radar image appeared, birds began
falling out of the sky.

Central Arkansas Growing Weary of Relentless

Tremors - (CNN - December 28, 2010)
More than 500 measurable earthquakes have been
reported in central Arkansas since September 20,
ranging in magnitude from a barely noticeable 1.8 to a
very noticeable 4.0 (recorded on October 11),
according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Geologists
can't say whether they'll stop anytime soon. "I think
everyone recognizes that there is an increased number
of seismic events occurring in and around this area. If
you look at the maps, at least circumstantially, there
appears to be evidence that they may be related to
disposal operations," said Shane Khoury, deputy
director and general counsel for the Arkansas Oil and
Gas Commission. "But we also know that this is an
area that is historically active."

Land Fizzing Like Soda Pop: Farmer Says CO2

Injected Underground is Leaking - (Canadian Press
- January 11, 2011)
A Saskatchewan farm couple whose land lies over the
world's largest carbon capture and storage project says
greenhouse gases seeping from the soil are killing
animals and sending groundwater foaming to the
surface like shaken soda pop. The gases were
supposed to have been injected permanently
underground. Cameron and Jane Kerr own nine
quarter-sections of land above the Weyburn oilfield in
eastern Saskatchewan. They released a consultant's
report Tuesday that links high concentrations of carbon
dioxide in their soil to 6,000 tons of the gas injected
underground every day by energy giant Cenovus
(TSX:CVE) in an attempt to enhance oil recovery and
fight climate change.

COMMUNICATIONS/COMPUTING

Thought Controlled iPad App - (New Scientist -

January 5, 2011)
The future lies in thought-controlled interfaces. At least
that's what InteraXon, a tiny Toronto startup, is hoping
to convince everyone. One of its prototypes is a
modified version of Zenbound, an iPad game that
requires players to wrap a rope around wooden models
by tilting and moving the device. InteraXon has
partnered with designer Secret Exit to produce a demo-
only version where movements are instead controlled
by wearing a pair of headphones. The headphones are
equipped with a pair of sensors that sit against the
user's left ear and forehead, forming a circuit that
gauges electrical signals occurring in the brain. The
signals are relayed to the iPad through an attached
Bluetooth dongle. Alpha brainwaves increase as the
player relaxes and beta waves jump while focusing.
Getting good at Zenbound is thus not unlike playing
golf, InteraXon chief executive Ariel Garten says.
What Might Google Do With Data from Chrome OS?
- (Technology Review - January 3, 2011)
In early December, Google sent out thousands of free
laptops as part of a program to test Chrome OS, an
operating system that relies on the Internet for all its
software applications. Computers running Chrome OS
don't let users download data or install applications.
Instead, everything happens in the cloud. So the laptop
- called the CR-48 - needs very little storage space, but
it requires a constant Internet connection, and it has
3G wireless connectivity built in. The design of Chrome
OS changes such fundamental things as where a
user's data resides and how it is managed. It also gives
Google access to an unprecedented amount of user
data. The company hasn't said how it will use this
information, but some clues can be found in the
company's previous products and in the rights it has
reserved in the Chrome OS terms of service. Google
makes the vast majority of its billions of dollars of
annual income by delivering advertising tailored to its
users' behavior and interests as revealed by their
searches, the contents of their e-mail messages, and
their browsing history. Chrome OS could take this to
the next level.

Most Internet Users Willing to Pay for Privacy -

(Atlantic - December 22, 2010)
If you hate those Internet ads that appear to know your
interests, you aren't alone. Two-thirds of Americans do
not want advertisers to be allowed to target ads based
on their web browsing history, according to a new poll
from Gallup. In fact, 61% care so much about their
privacy that they aren't willing to sacrifice it in exchange
for more free content paid for by targeted ads.

ENERGY DEVELOPMENTS

The Bloom Box: An Energy Breakthrough? - (CBS -

February 18, 2010)
In the world of energy, the Holy Grail is a power source
that's inexpensive and clean, with no emissions. Over
100 start-ups in Silicon Valley are working on it. One of
them, Bloom Energy, manufactures a little power-plant-
in-a-box they want to put literally in your backyard.
You'll generate your own electricity with the box and it'll
be wireless. The idea is to one day replace the big
power plants and transmission line grid. Twenty large
companies have quietly bought and are testing Bloom
boxes. The first customer was Google. Four units have
been powering a Google datacenter for 18 months.
They use natural gas, but half as much as would be
required for a traditional power plant. John Donahoe,
eBay's CEO, says its five boxes were installed nine
months ago and have already saved the company
more than $100,000 in electricity costs.

Economic Optimism? I'll Take That Bet - (New York

Times - December 27, 2010)
Five years ago, Matthew R. Simmons, (a member of
the Council on Foreign Relations, the head of a
Houston investment bank specializing in the energy
industry, and the author of Twilight in the Desert: The
Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy) and
a New York Times columnist entered into a $5,000 bet.
Simmons expected the price of oil, then about $65 a
barrel, to more than triple in the next five years, even
after adjusting for inflation and offered to bet $5,000
that the average price of oil over the course of 2010
would be at least $200 a barrel in 2005 dollars. You
probably know which way the bet paid, but the details
make for interesting reading.

A Battery That Has Produced Energy Continuously

Since 1950 Exists in Romanian Museum - (IB Times
- December 27, 2010)
The Dimitrie Leonida National Technical Museum in
Romania hosts a weird kind of battery. Built by Vasile
Karpen, the pile has been working uninterrupted for 60
years. "I admit it's also hard for me to advance the idea
of an overunity generator without sounding ridiculous,
even if the object exists," says Nicolae Diaconescu,
engineer and director of the museum. The invention
cannot be displayed because the museum doesn't
have enough money to buy the security system
necessary for such an exhibit but it has been exhibited
at scientific conferences in Paris, Bucharest and
Bologna, Italy. One suggestion is that it runs by
extracting energy out of radio waves.
The Solar Panels Are Free as Long as You Pay for
the Power - (Technology Review - January 5, 2011)
How to get photovoltaics on a company's roof without
putting them on the books: a startup called SunEdison
is making companies an offer they can't refuse-
employing a financial model that could give solar the
edge it needs if it's to provide a significant portion of
the world's energy. Under SunEdison's plan, a
company gets solar panels on its retail rooftops at no
upfront cost and without any monthly equipment fee.
Instead, it agrees to pay SunEdison a preset rate for
the power the panels generate over a period of 20
years. "The bottom line is that we're able to purchase
solar energy off our rooftops for less than electricity off
the grid," says Mark Buckley, Staples's vice president
for environmental affairs.

TRANSPORTATION

Ford to Add Automatic Shutoff to All Models - (USA

Today - December 27, 2010)
Ford Motor has announced that it will add technology
to all its conventional cars to shut off their engines at
stoplights. The so-called start-stop technology will cut
gas use by 4% in most cars, and by up to 10% in
vehicles that spend a lot of time idling at stoplights.
Every time a driver comes to a stop, the engine will
shut off. It will start again automatically as soon as the
driver presses the accelerator. The technology puts
Ford well on its way to meeting more stringent fuel-
economy standards in the U.S. for 2016 that could
make the same technology pretty standard on vehicles
by most automakers. It's a cheap way to save more
gas - at least compared with hybrids and battery-
electric cars. During shutoff, the heater and air
conditioner work as normal so drivers will not sacrifice
comfort.

Mercedes-Benz Unveils Electric Sports Car -

(Inhabitat - January 13, 2011)
The new supercar features four electric motors. It has a
killer kick of 526 hp, 649 lb-ft of torque and is capable
of going from zero to 62 mph in just four seconds flat,
all features that no one was really paying attention to
because we were too busy ogling the jaw-dropping
paint job on this sweet ride - a retina-searing electric
yellow! The driving program is incredibly flexible,
simple and effective. In the Comfort setting, the SLS
utilizes just 40% of the motors' capability and is hyper
aware of inputs. In Sport drive, the throttle response
gets a bit sharper, and 60% of the power and torque
are up for grabs. If you're feeling adventurous, you can
take it a step higher with the vehicle's highest
performance mode: Sport+. With Sport+ you get a
super-aggressive throttle and 526 hp, which is the car's
total capacity. An additional mode, Manual, simulates
Sport+, but forgoes any use of regenerative braking.

NASA unveils extraordinary ideas for the aircraft of

2025 - (Daily Mail - January 17, 2011)
NASA has awarded contracts for three concept
designs for quiet, energy efficient aircraft that
potentially could be ready for flight as soon as 2025.
The designs came about after NASA revealed it was
aiming to develop a line of 'super planes' that are
faster, larger, quieter - and burn fuel more efficiently
and cleanly than their present counterparts. Criteria set
by NASA meant that each design had to fly up to 85
per cent of the speed of sound, cover a range of about
7,000 miles and carry between 50,000 and 100,000 of
payload; either cargo or passengers. Check out the
photo mock-ups.

AGRICULTURE/FOOD

U.S. Conspired to Retaliate against European

Nations If They Resisted GMOs - (Natural News -
December 24, 2010)
A recent batch of diplomatic cables released by
Wikileaks reveals what can only be characterized as a
U.S.-led conspiracy to force GMOs (genetically
modified organisms) onto European countries by
making those countries pay a steep price if they resist.
The cable reveals the words of Craig Stapleton, the US
ambassador to France: "Country team Paris
recommends that we calibrate a target retaliation list
that causes some pain across the EU since this is a
collective responsibility, but that also focuses in part on
the worst culprits. The list should be measured rather
than vicious and must be sustainable over the long
term, since we should not expect an early victory..."

Renamed Aspartame Certified Organic - ( P Dazzler

- December 24, 2010)
In 1998, Monsanto applied for FDA approval for a
monster molecule, "based on the aspartame formula"
with one critical addition: 3-dimethylbutyl [listed on
EPA's most hazardous chemical list]. Neotame is
touted as being 13,000 times sweeter than sugar. In
2002, Monsanto's Neotame molecule was approved by
the US FDA over formally registered objections of the
Aspartame Consumer Safety Network and others.
(Long term effects on humans are unknown.) The food
labeling requirements required for aspartame have now
been dropped for Neotame, and no one is clear why
this was allowed to happen. Neotame has been ruled
acceptable, and without being included on the list of
ingredients, for: USDA Certified Organic food items
and Certified Kosher products.

Leaked Memo Sheds Light on Mysterious Bee Die-

offs and Whose to Blame - (AlterNet - December 10,
2010)
A leaked EPA memo, dated November 2, 2010,
focuses on Bayer CropScience's request to register
(i.e. legalize) its pesticide clothianidin for use on
mustard seed and cotton. Clothianidin was first
registered in May 2003, but its registration was
conditional on safety testing that the EPA said should
be completed by December 2004. Only, as the latest
memo points out, the study, when it was done (long
after 2004), was inadequate in demonstrating that
clothianidin does not pose a threat to honeybees.
Unfortunately, with the EPA's failure to ensure
clothianidin's safety before allowing its use on corn and
canola, it fell to beekeepers to discover why their bees
were dying, and how the EPA allowed clothianidin on
the market.
SECURITY

Just Keeping You Safe: The Checka Checks In -

(Freedom in Our Time - December 18, 2010)
At least one member of the security force of the
Department of Homeland Security has, "as a routine
matter", been making unannounced visits to
workplaces. Specifically, Mr. Mark Cerchione, whose
title according to his business card is "Inspector for
Region 10 of the East Command for the Department of
Homeland Security's National Protection and Programs
Directorate, Federal Protective Service" paid a visit to a
workplace located next to the offices of the Natural
Resource Conservation Service, an outpost serving
various federal regulatory agencies. Apparently
surveillance in the name of national security now
extends to examining neighboring businesses as
potential threats. It also extends to fear tactics that
have been all too common in other countries - see
article.

Rape Victim Arrested for Refusing TSA Pat Down -

(Raw Story - December 24, 2010)
A 56-year-old woman who says she is a rape victim
and who could not receive a body scan because of a
pacemaker was arrested and banned from Austin-
Bergstrom International Airport Wednesday after
refusing to receive a pat down from a Transportation
Security Agency (TSA) officer. The American Civil
Liberties Union (ACLU) said it received over 900
complaints from travelers in November who were
subjected to the new screening procedures of the TSA.
"Under the newly implemented enhanced pat-down, a
TSA officer slides his or her hands over an individual's
breasts, buttocks, groin, and inner thighs, and inserts
his or her fingers inside the entire circumference of the
pant's waistband," a lawsuit filed against Homeland
Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and TSA
administrator John Pistole stated.

TRENDS OF GOVERNANCE

Obama Administration Readies Indefinite Detention

Order for Guantanamo Detainees - (Washington
Post - December 21, 2010)
The administration has long signaled that the use of
prolonged detention, preferably at a facility in the
United States, was one element of its plan to close
Guantanamo. An interagency task force found that 48
of the 174 detainees remaining at the facility would
have to be held in what the administration calls
prolonged detention. See also attached "photo gallery"
of the prison camps of Guantanamo Bay. The detainee
operation began with a makeshift chain-link-fence
compound called Camp X-Ray. It has since expanded
to seven permanent prison camps, including Camp 7, a
CIA-run facility for "high-value" detainees at an
undisclosed location on the island of Cuba.
Additionally, please see this.

GLOBAL RELATIONS

Fifteen Facts about China that Will Blow Your Mind

- (Business Insider - December 15, 2010)
Among those facts: China has about 3.4 million active
military personnel compared to America's 1.4 million.
Moreover, in some key spaces, China might even have
a tech advantage: "After years of conjecture, details
have begun to emerge of a "kill weapon" developed by
the Chinese to target and destroy U.S. aircraft carriers.
"The size of the missile enables it to carry a warhead
big enough to inflict significant damage on a large
vessel, providing the Chinese the capability of
destroying a U.S. aircraft carrier in one strike.

LIFE STYLE/SOCIAL TRENDS AND VALUES

Michael Moore Talks WikiLeaks, Assange's Rape

Charge on Rachel Maddow - (AlterNet - December
22, 2010)
Michael Moore and Rachel Maddow came together in a
meeting of the minds for a special edition of her show.
They discussed WikiLeaks and his assistance in
Assange's bail, of course. But perhaps most
importantly, Moore addressed the accusations that he's
been dismissive of Assange's rape allegations, amid a
firestorm of criticism from those who have felt betrayed
and appalled by his dismissal of the charges as
"hooey" on Keith Olbermann's show. In this video clip,
he clarifies his position.

Minor in Consciousness and Transformation at

George Mason University - (George Mason
University - no date)
The 16-credit undergraduate minor in Consciousness
and Transformation is unique to major universities and
offers students an enrichment of whatever career path
for which they are preparing. It will enable students to
discover how awareness, mindfulness, and meaning
play a pivotal role in the way that individuals,
organizations, and society undergo transformational
change.

End of Days in May? Believers Enter Final Stretch -

(MSNBC - January 3, 2011)
A movement of Christians loosely organized by radio
broadcasts and websites, independent of churches is
convinced by their reading of the Bible that the end of
the world will begin on May 21, 2011. To get the word
out, they're using billboards and bus stop benches,
traveling caravans of RVs and volunteers passing out
pamphlets on street corners. Cities from Bridgeport,
Conn., to Little Rock, Ark., now have billboards with the
ominous message, and mission groups are traveling in
countries from Latin America to Africa to spread the
news outside the U.S.

CONTACT AND THE EXPLORATION OF SPACE

New Zealand Releases UFO Files - (AOL News -

December 24, 2010)
It's close encounters of the kiwi kind as hundreds of
formerly classified UFO reports, spanning nearly 60
years, have been released by the government of New
Zealand. More than 2,000 pages of documents are
included in the files which detail encounters by the
public, military personnel and commercial pilots.
We Exist in One of Many Universes - (Daily Galaxy -
December 20, 2010)
In the most recent epic study on "pre-Big Bang
science" Stephen M. Feeney and colleagues from the
UK, Canada, and the US have revealed that they have
discovered four statistically unlikely circular patterns in
the cosmic microwave background (CMB). The
researchers think that these marks could be "bruises"
that our universe has incurred from being bumped four
times by other universes. If they turn out to be correct,
it would be the first evidence that universes other than
ours do exist.

American Astronomical Society Meeting -

(Astronomy - January 13, 2011)
Scientists have announced curious things happening
within the Crab Nebula (aka M1). Actually, they are
focusing on the Crab's pulsar - a stellar remnant left
over from the supernova explosion that created the
beautiful nebula. This pulsar emits radiation over broad
wavelengths, and astronomers had long considered
the pulsar stable in X-rays. So much so that scientists
would calibrate their X-ray detectors using the Crab
pulsar. It turns out, however, that's probably not a good
idea. Colleen Wilson of NASA's Marshall Space Flight
Center announced that her team has seen the Crab's
energy emission decrease by 7% since 2008. And this
wasn't the only oddity discovered about the Crab.

DEMOGRAPHICS

Gap Between Rich and Poor in U.S. Drawn Along

Geographic Lines - (Bloomberg - December 15,
2010)
Douglas Besharov, a professor at the University of
Maryland's School of Public Policy noted, "There used
to be a much wider spread of incomes within
geographic areas than there is now. There's much
more of a clumping together." The Washington
metropolitan area emerged as the wealthiest and most
educated region of the past five years. The only three
communities with median household incomes higher
than $100,000 are in suburban counties in Virginia.
The 10 communities with the highest incomes are
located on the East Coast - Maryland, New Jersey,
New York and Virginia - with the exception of Douglas
County in Colorado. Among counties with median
household incomes of less than $25,000, the bottom
10 are in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia and Kentucky.

200 Years, 200 Countries, 4 minutes - (You Tube -

November 27, 2010)
On an invisible screen, statistics come to life when
Swedish academic Hans Rosling illustrates the
relationship between average income and health
(longevity) over the last 200 years across 200
developed and developing countries.

The Rise of the New Global Elite - (Atlantic -

January/February, 2011)
Quoting Alan Greenspan: "… in the wake of the
recession, high-income individuals, large banks, and
major corporations had experienced a 'significant
recovery' while the rest of the economy was stuck and
still struggling." What we were seeing, he argued, was
not a single economy at all, but rather "fundamentally
two separate types of economy," increasingly distinct
and divergent. Whether they maintain primary
residences in New York or Hong Kong, Moscow or
Mumbai, today's super-rich are increasingly a nation
unto themselves. The details supporting the truth of
that assessment make this article worth reading.

NEW TOOLS/NEW PROCESSES

Hany Farid vs. Photoshop - (Business Week -

December 29, 2010)
Hany Farid, a Dartmouth computer scientist and
forensic imaging specialist has come up with a way to
tell whether a digital photograph is authentic. All digital
cameras have electronic signatures-minute variations
of resolution and image compression in the images
they produce. Farid and his students received
permission from photo-sharing site Flickr to download
millions of images and build a signature database of
every one of the 10,000-plus digital camera models
ever made. To verify a picture, Farid's system checks it
against that database to identify the equipment used. It
then looks for any variations in the signature, which
would indicate alteration. If the system finds traces of
Adobe Photoshop, which also leaves a signature, that's
a sure sign of picture alteration.

ECONOMY/FINANCE/BUSINESS

Satellite Images of the Ghost Cities of China -

(Business Insider - December 10, 2010)
The hottest market in the hottest economy in the world
is Chinese real estate. The big question is how
vulnerable is this market to a crash. One red flag is the
vast number of vacant homes spread through China,
by some estimates up to 64 million vacant homes.
Here are satellite photos of these unnerving places,
based on a report from Forensic Asia Limited: city after
city full of empty streets and vast government
buildings, some in the most inhospitable locations. It is
the modern equivalent of building pyramids.

$2T Debt Crisis Threatens to Bring Down 100

American Cities - (Guardian - December 20, 2010)
Overdrawn American cities could face financial
collapse in 2011, defaulting on hundreds of billions of
dollars of borrowings and derailing the US economic
recovery. Nor are European cities safe - Florence,
Barcelona, Madrid, Venice: all are in trouble. New
Jersey governor Chris Christie summarised the
problem succinctly: "We spent too much on everything.
We spent money we didn't have. We borrowed money
just crazily. The credit card's maxed out, and it's over."

Alabama Town's Failed Pension is a Warning -

(New York Times - December 22, 2010)
The struggling small city of Prichard on the outskirts of
Mobile was warned for years that if it did nothing, its
pension fund would run out of money by 2009. Right on
schedule, its fund ran dry. Then Prichard did something
that pension experts say they have never seen before:
it stopped sending monthly pension checks to its 150
retired workers, breaking a state law requiring it to pay
its promised retirement benefits in full. The situation in
Prichard is extremely unusual - the city has sought
bankruptcy protection twice - but it proves that the
unthinkable can, in fact, sometimes happen. And it
stands as a warning to cities like Philadelphia and
states like Illinois, whose pension funds are under
great strain: if nothing changes, the money eventually
does run out, and when that happens, misery and
turmoil follow.

Are We Committing Economic Suicide? - (William

Pfaff Blog - January 5, 2011)
As 2011 begins, people still talk about the crisis of the
western economy as though we have been the victims
of a blight from nowhere. No individual is held guilty for
anything. Certainly not the leaders of finance or
business who insisted that markets know best, or the
political leaders who empowered them. One element in
the national suicide attempt was the Virtual Corporation
theory, which encouraged the improvisation of
essentially ephemeral management entities to exploit
specific business opportunities singly or in alliance.
Despite its opportunistic advantages, this destructured
the national economy.

PROVOCATIVE IDEAS

Will the Commons Become Tragic? - (Huffington

Post - December 27, 2010)
In an op-ed piece, Gary Hart observes that it is quite
possible that the greatest human challenge in this
century will be how or whether we humans can fairly
share what belongs to all. Aristotle stated the issue: "...
what is common to the greatest number has the least
care bestowed upon it. Everyone thinks chiefly of his
own, hardly at all of the common interest." Our
economic system is built on the proposition that
markets allocate resources best. But what is true of
private resources may not also be true of public
resources, those we hold in common.

It's Madness - Madness I Tell You! - (Paranormalia -

January 12, 2011)
Daryl Bem, a highly-regarded Cornell University
psychology professor, has described nine experiments
that he carried out over the past eight years. The one
that attracted the most attention involved getting
students to look at a computer screen that showed two
curtains and to guess which one had an erotic image
behind it. In fact both spaces were blank, and the
image was randomly assigned by the computer after
the subject had guessed. Bem says that volunteers
showed a slight tendency to identify the space with the
'rewarding' sexy picture, by a margin of 53%. In trials
where the picture held no particular interest the results
were the 50% expected by chance. In a
parapsychology journal the report might not have
attracted much notice. But it has been accepted for
publication in the mainstream Journal of Personality
and Social Psychology, which makes it earth-
shattering, apparently.

FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH - articles off the beaten

track which may - or may not - have predictive
value.

The Animal World Has Its Junkies Too - (PJ Online

- December 17, 2010)
Research scientists have used many animal species in
investigating mind-altering drugs, but it may come as a
surprise to learn that animals in the wild - from starlings
to reindeer - also make use of psychoactive
substances of their own accord. In their use of
hallucinogenic plants is where animals really go to
town. There is evidence from around the world of
animals deliberately consuming such plants, and
legends about plants used in sacred rituals often
include references to animals introducing them to
mankind. One such species is the reindeer, which goes
to great lengths to search out the hallucinogenic fly
agaric mushroom (Amanita muscaria) - the one with
the white-spotted red cap that garden gnomes like to
sit on.

Top 5 Exotic Free Energy Systems - (Pure Energy

Systems - January 5, 2011)
This website specializes in unconventional or "exotic"
modalities such as magnet motors, overunity
electromagnetic motors, gravity motors, cold fusion,
and vortex technologies. Here are five of the best
exotic technologies we've found so far, which are
closest to the market.

JUST FOR FUN

Polar Bears Get the Better of Spy Cameras - (BBC

News - December 27, 2010)
The cameras used for a documentary on polar bears
were designed to be as unobtrusive and resilient as
possible. For the documentary, "Polar Bear: Spy on
The Ice" hi-tech "spy cams" were used to get as close
as possible to the bears during summer in the Arctic
islands of Svalbard. But while they were built to
withstand temperatures as low as -40C, in the end
most of the cameras could not cope with the curiosity
displayed by their subjects. The video clip puts the
situation in perspective.

A FINAL QUOTE...

Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes

into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it
arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've
learned something from yesterday. - John Wayne

A special thanks to: Kenton Anderson, Diane

Brandon, Bernard Calil, Jackie Capell, Kevin Clark,
Frank Egan, Kevin Foley, Chas Freeman, Ursula Freer,
Kurzweil AI, Jeanne Mozier, Michael Ostrolenk, Diane
Petersen, Stu Rose, Cory Shreckengost, Joel Snell,
Woody Wodraska and all of you who have sent us
interesting links in the past. If you see something we
should know about, do send it along - thanks.
johnp@arlingtoninstitute.org

CONTACT US

Edited by John L. Petersen

johnp@arlingtoninstitute.org
www.arlingtoninstitute.org

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