The End of Excess: Is This Crisis Good for America?

In the early 1980s, around the time Ronald Reagan became President and Wall Street’s great modern bull market began, we started gambling (and winning!) and thinking magically. From 1980 to 2007, the median price of a new American home quadrupled. The Dow Jones industrial average climbed from 803 in the summer of 1982 to 14,165 in the fall of 2007. From the beginning of the ’80s through 2007, the share of disposable income that each household spent servicing its mortgage and consumer debt increased 35%. Back in 1982, the average household saved 11% of its disposable income. By 2007 that number was less than 1%.

Site – http://www.time.com

The End of the American Era

With the unprecedented $700 Billion USD bailout of wall street, we are reaching the end of the ‘American Era’.  What we are actually experiencing is a massive shift of wealth and power in the world due to the worst monetary policy in history.  This isn’t anything new to history.  How did America became the superpower that it was pre 2000?  In the 19th century Britain was the dominate world power, but after WWII Britain had accrued so much debt fighting in the war that it had to hand over power to America.   Thus, in the 20th century America is the dominate world power.  Now the balance of power is shifting again.  America has too much debt (10 trillion+) with up to 50% of it being borrowed from foreign countries.  After a temporary global slowdown to reconcile this change we will witness the rise of the new super powers in the 21st century lead by China and India.

Site – http://money.cnn.com

Bush’s War

It is the war the defined the presidency, and a plan to respond that became a war about a war. Tonight the inside story of those epic battles. The first night of a special two part FRONTLINE seris. Bush’s War.

From the horror of 9/11 to the invasion of Iraq; the truth about WMD to the rise of an insurgency; the scandal of Guantánamo Bay and Abu Ghraib to the strategy of the surge — for seven years, FRONTLINE has revealed the defining stories of the war on terror in meticulous detail, and the political dramas that played out at the highest levels of power and influence. Now, on the fifth anniversary of the Iraq invasion, the full saga unfolds in the two-part FRONTLINE special Bush’s War. Veteran FRONTLINE producer Michael Kirk draws on one of the richest archives in broadcast journalism — more than 40 FRONTLINE reports on Iraq and the war on terror. Combined with fresh reporting and new interviews, Bush’s War will be the definitive documentary analysis of one of the most challenging periods in the nation’s history.

Site – http://www.pbs.org

LHC Doomsday Fear Sparks Lawsuit

The builders of the world’s biggest particle collider are being sued in federal court over fears that the experiment might destroy the planet. The Large Hadron Collider, or LHC, is due for startup later this year at CERN’s headquarters on the French-Swiss border. It’s expected to tackle some of the deepest questions in science. Some folks outside the scientific mainstream have asked darker questions as well: Could the collider create mini-black holes that last long enough and get big enough to turn into a matter-sucking maelstrom? Could exotic particles known as magnetic monopoles throw atomic nuclei out of whack? Could quarks recombine into “strangelets” that would turn the whole Earth into one big lump of exotic matter?

Site – http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com

Congress and the Singularity

“Nanotechnology: The Future is Coming Sooner Than You Think” is the title of a report [PDF] published this month by Representative Jim Saxton (R-NJ), Ranking Member of the Joint Economic Committee, United States Congress. The paper, authored by Dr. Joseph Kennedy, Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University, says:

Site – http://crnano.typepad.com

National Priorities Project

According to the National Priorities Project (NPP), $378 billion has already been spent or allocated for the Iraq war – despite the Bush administration’s promise that this conflict would cost $50 billion. NPP Research Director testified at a congressional forum, $378 billion could pay for the following: health care coverage for all uninsured children during this entire war; four-year scholarships to a public university for all of this and next year’s graduating seniors; hire more than 6 million teachers; build 700 new elementary schools in each state; every american could get free gas for a year; construction of 500,000 affordable housing units; the Coast Guard’s estimate on funds needed for port security; tripling the energy conservation budget in the US Department of Energy; and reducing this year’s budget deficit by half.

Site – http://nationalpriorities.org

Scientists look to place a pro-science president

Frustrated by their government’s position on the environment, climate change and stem cell research, a group of US scientists have decided to take matters into their own hands and actively promote the election of a president in 2008 who is more receptive to science. Scientists and Engineers for America plunged into politics last week with the aim of campaigning for particular candidates, starting with the 2006 mid-term elections. SEA says that “scientists and engineers have a right, indeed an obligation, to enter the political debate when the nation’s leaders systematically ignore scientific evidence and analysis.”

Site – http://www.newscientist.com

All you need is ubuntu

Bill Clinton told the Labour conference to get into ubuntu. Eh? Ubuntu. That was what Bill Clinton told the Labour party conference it needed to remember this week. “Society is important because of Ubuntu.” But what is it? Left-leaning sudoku? U2’s latest album? Fish-friendly sushi? No, it’s a word describing an African worldview, which translates as “I am because you are,” and which means that individuals need other people to be fulfilled.

Site – http://news.bbc.co.uk

Bush dismisses Clinton critique as “finger-pointing”

President Bush on Tuesday dismissed as “finger-pointing” criticism from his predecessor Bill Clinton of his counter-terrorism efforts in the months leading up to the September 11 attacks. Clinton, angrily defending his own administration’s attempts to capture or kill Osama bin Laden, had accused the Bush administration of doing far less to stop the al Qaeda leader before the 2001 hijack plane attacks.

Site – http://today.reuters.com

Video – http://www.youtube.com

What war with Iran would look like

The first message was routine enough: a “Prepare to Deploy Order” sent through Naval communications channels to a submarine, an Aegis-class cruiser, two minesweepers and two minehunters. The orders didn’t actually command the ships out of port; they just said be ready to move by October 1. A deployment of minesweepers to the east coast of Iran would seem to suggest that a much discussed, but until now largely theoretical, prospect has become real: that the U.S. may be preparing for war with Iran.

Site – http://www.cnn.com

Internet giants suffer defeat in US Congress

US Internet giants have suffered a defeat in the US Congress where an amendment on “Internet neutrality” was rejected by a Senate committee studying telecommunications reform.

Site – http://news.yahoo.com

Senate panel proposes Net user ‘bill of rights’

The latest Net neutrality provisions in a mammoth Senate communications bill stopped short of giving Internet companies and consumer advocacy groups all the assurances they’ve requested.

Site – http://news.zdnet.com