Capt Guide, the Marine at the helm of the Navy Construction Battalion at FOB Payne in Afghanistan thinks it is important for the “Seabees” to have something to love, honor, and nourish.

“Since pets are not allowed in the theater, he sent guys out to the river valley to find us a tree,” said Seabee CECS (SCW) Thurmond Oliver, who is on his 6^th deployment. The whole C.B. detachment was sent in as part of President Obama’s order to send 30,000 more troops in Afghanistan.

Oliver says the first tree the guys brought back was worse than the Charlie Brown Christmas tree. “It looked liked the guys planted it upside down. It was not up to Captain Guide’s standards,” he said.

So the Captain sent the Seabees out to find another.

“The second one was a good lookin’ tree. But it came with a visitor.” Oliver said referring to the poisonous Viper snake that had hitchhiked in on the tree’s branches.

The Seabees built a large, wooden planter for their tree and set forth caring for it. It was doing well, until one fateful day.

CECS (SCW) Thurmond Oliver

“The guys were taking turns watering the tree,” Oliver explained, “and one day the Seabee whose turn it was used water from the showers. That’s chlorinated. Naturally, the tree died. So, here we have tree number three.”

The guys made a wooden sign for their pet project, calling it “The Joshua Tree”.  But that’s not a reference to the funky looking trees that grow at the national park near the Marine combat center in Twenty-nine Palms, California.

“Captain Guide’s first name is Joshua, so we named it after him. It’s his legacy. It was his dream that we’d have a tree,” said Oliver.

Things are not looking good for Seabee tree number three. Due to a road job outside the wire, it hasn’t been properly watered in a few days. The leaves that were once green are turning brown, blending in with the dust and dirt all around them.

“I think it’s doing as well as that snake on a board over there,” Oliver joked, pointing to a snakeskin nailed to a 2×4 piece of wood.

But Capt Guide is not giving up hope.

“I have faith in that tree. We’re gonna bring her back,” he said, “We’re gonna baby her.”

The guys are using coffee grounds as fertilizer in hopes of perking the tree back up.

“It gives the guys something green to look at,” Capt Guide said, admitting having the tree named after him is a bit embarrassing.  But he’s willing to take some ribbing for the good of the cause.

“As fun and entertaining this is, having a living tree is meaningful around here.”

Capt Joshua Guide with The Joshua Tree

Mangoes and sticky rice – oh how my heart swoons!  After a heated meal of Thai food – heightened by the bright flavors of kaffir lime, lemongrass and painfully hot chili peppers – nothing soothes the palate quite like a warm bowl of gently sweet and slightly salty mangoes and sticky rice. I like to serve this dish after a meal of coconut shrimp soup with chilies and lime or even on its own as a breakfast.  It satisfies like little else, and like many of the desserts featured at Nourished Kitchen, it is only mildly sweetened with natural and unrefined sweeteners.

Mangoes and sticky rice is classically served with polished, refined white rice, but the dish’s nutrient profile can be improved by using sprouted or soaked brown rice without compromising the ultimate flavor or texture of the dish.  Like all grains, brown rice contains antinutrients which bind up minerals preventing their full absorption and the simple act of soaking or sprouting rice can improve the body’s ability to better absorb grain’s full complement of minerals – particularly zinc and iron. You can read more about soaking grain or learn the benefits of sprouted grain.  This recipe for mangoes and sticky rice is also rich in coconut oil – a remarkable and wholesome fat that’s rich in lauric acid – a fatty acid known for its antimicrobial activities and that is thought to boost the immune system.

Mangoes and Sticky Rice

Faintly sweet and slightly salty, mangoes and sticky rice is a classic Thai dessert – often served as a special treat at the end of the meal.  This beautiful combination of sweet-salty coconut milk and ripe mangoes nourishes the body and satisfies the tastebuds.  The sweet-salt flavor is essential to the true and classic flavors of this dish.  Don’t forget, if you like this and other recipes from Nourished Kitchen, please consider signing up for How to Cook Real Food – our new online cooking class.(…)
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Very cool findings about light-activated nanoshells.

The release:

Optical Legos: Building nanoshell structures

Self-assembly method yields materials with unique optical properties

		IMAGE: Heptamers containing seven nanoshells have unique optical properties. Click here for more information.

HOUSTON — (May 27, 2010) — Scientists from four U.S. universities have created a way to use Rice University’s light-activated nanoshells as building blocks for 2-D and 3-D structures that could find use in chemical sensors, nanolasers and bizarre light-absorbing metamaterials. Much as a child might use Lego blocks to build 3-D models of complex buildings or vehicles, the scientists are using the new chemical self-assembly method to build complex structures that can trap, store and bend light.

The research appears in this week’s issue of the journal Science.

“We used the method to make a seven-nanoshell structure that creates a particular type of interference pattern called a Fano resonance,” said study co-author Peter Nordlander, professor of physics and astronomy at Rice. “These resonances arise from peculiar light wave interference effects, and they occur only in man-made materials. Because these heptamers are self-assembled, they are relatively easy to make, so this could have significant commercial implications.”

Because of the unique nature of Fano resonances, the new materials can trap light, store energy and bend light in bizarre ways that no natural material can. Nordlander said the new materials are ideally suited for making ultrasensitive biological and chemical sensors. He said they may also be useful in nanolasers and potentially in integrated photonic circuits that run off of light rather than electricity.

The research team was led by Harvard University applied physicist Federico Capasso and also included nanoshell inventor Naomi Halas, Rice’s Stanley C. Moore Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering and professor of physics, chemistry and biomedical engineering.

Nordlander, the world’s leading theorist on nanoparticle plasmonics, had predicted in 2008 that a heptamer of nanoshells would produce Fano resonances. That paper spurred Capasso’s efforts to fabricate the structure, Nordlander said.

The new self-assembly method developed by Capasso’s team was also used to make magnetic three-nanoshell “trimers.” The optical properties of these are described in the Science paper, which also discusses how the self-assembly method could be used to build even more complex 3-D structures.

Nanoshells, the building blocks that were used in the new study, are about 20 times smaller than red blood cells. In form, they resemble malted milk balls, but they are coated with gold instead of chocolate, and their center is a sphere of glass. By varying the size of the glass center and the thickness of the gold shell, Halas can create nanoshells that interact with specific wavelengths of light.

“Nanoshells were already among the most versatile of all plasmonic nanoparticles, and this new self-assembly method for complex 2-D and 3-D structures simply adds to that,” said Halas, who has helped develop a number of biological applications for nanoshells, including diagnostic applications and a minimally invasive procedure for treating cancer.

###

Additional co-authors of the new study include Rice graduate students Kui Bao and Rizia Bardhan; Jonathan Fan and Vinothan Manoharan, both of Harvard; Chihhui Wu and Gennady Shvets, both of the University of Texas at Austin; and Jiming Bao of the University of Houston. The research was supported by the National Science Foundation, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the Department of Defense, the Robert A. Welch Foundation, the Department of Energy and Harvard University.

PhysOrg covers this story here.

Feast your eyes in these detailed videos of the beast that is designed to match-and-crush 5th generation American combat jets. It’s the Sukhoi PAK-FA, and it comes loaded with some amazing technology from the other side of the fallen wall. More »










F-35 Lightning II – Military – Aviation – United States – Aircraft

Beleaguered owners of Samsung’s Behold II have been up in arms lately as it has become clear that Samsung would not in fact be providing an upgrade to Android 2.0 or beyond, despite their previous promises. Tonight, word comes from Samsung of an update to the phone: from 1.5 to 1.6. I’d say this is a bittersweet moment for Behold II owners, but my guess is it’s much more bitter than sweet, as it’s been the better part of a year since 1.6 was state of the art.

Give Samsung some credit for making the announcement right amongst those most upset about the situation, in a thread on AndroidSPIN’s forums:

“To All:

“Samsung Mobile and T-Mobile USA are planning to update the Behold II to Android 1.6 which provides access to Google Maps Navigation, Google Voice Search capability and quick search box for Android.

“The update will also supply additional benefits including Swype, an improved Media Player, updated core Android applications and improved Bluetooth capabilities. However, the Behold II is not upgradeable beyond Android 1.6.”

There you have it: an upgrade to 1.6 to soften the blow of definitely not ever upgrading any further. 1.6 certainly an improvement over 1.5, and throwing in Swype and a few extras is nice and all, but I’ve got to think that ultimately this only fans the flames of folks who are already angry that Samsung’s promise of 2.0 has not been fulfilled. Making it worse, the idea that it’s not technically possible to upgrade the Behold II past 1.6 rings false.

Lending credence to the announcements authenticity, a link to the forum post was tweeted by an official Twitter accounts of Samsung.

We’d love to hear how Behold II owners are feeling about this development in the comments!

Might We Suggest…

• Canadians Complained, HTC Listened
  
  So it would appear that the “IWantMyOnePointSix” (twitter:@IWMOPS) group has had their voices heard.  In the coming months, both HTC Dream and HTC Magic owners will be seeing upgrades to their curr…

by Chris Jenks

[The following is a guest-post by Lt. Col. Jenks, the Chief of the International Law Branch in the Army’s Office of the Judge Advocate General — KJH]

At a workshop held in Beirut earlier this month, officials from the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) attempted to explain the basis for the tribunal’s in absentia provisions.  At the same time, Judge Cassese, President of the STL, claimed that “[h]uman rights are the raison d’être of the tribunal,” and that “[w]e must ensure that the rights of all – the defendants, the witnesses and the victims – are respected, and are respected equally. We must find a way of punishing the guilty but respect their rights to a fair trial.”

Well intentioned though the workshop may have been, what has yet to be acknowledged and thus not addressed is that the STL’s in absentia provisions are unprecedented and some aspects likely violate human rights norms.

The STL is the first tribunal since the IMT at Nuremburg to allow “total” in absentia proceedings, meaning that the accused may never make an appearance. Other U.N. tribunals have allowed “partial” in absentia, meaning that the accused initially appeared but was unwilling or unable to attend subsequent proceedings.

As if the first point was not enough, the STL allows for total in absentia proceedings based on notifying the accused of the indictment through “publication in the media or communication to the State of residence or nationality.” Such a trial would almost certainly violate the fair trial rights of the ICCPR (see Maleki v. Italy, U.N. Human Rights Commission Communication No. 699/1996) and the European Convention (see Sejdovic v. Italy, 42 Eur. H.R. Rep 17). While the STL affords someone convicted in absentia the possibility of a retrial, the STL is of finite duration and those tried in absentia may not surface for years. Regardless, curing a violation does not alter its creation, and through no less than a U.N. sponsored tribunal.

Even if the STL doesn’t hold a single in absentia proceeding (although conducting the workshop suggests otherwise), in a way the damage is already done – there is now precedent, through the STL statute, for a UN tribunal that conducts total in absentia proceedings and based on notice “otherwise given.” Moreover, if the right of the accused to be present at trial is now negotiable what other, previously sacrosanct, rights, are eligible for bartering?

The U.N. considered and rejected the ICTY holding total in absentia trials. At the time, the U.N. Secretary General said that “[a] trial should not commence until the accused is physically present before the International Tribunal.” The SG went on to discuss the “widespread perception” that total in absentia trials would not be consistent with the ICCPR. Indeed. Now, according to the United Nations Security Council, the STL is to be a tribunal “of an international character based on the highest standards of criminal justice.”  Unfortunately, and in more than one sense, that remains to be seen.

For a more academic discussion of these issues, see my essay “Notice Otherwise Given: Will in Absentia Trials at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon Violate Human Rights?”  It’s available here.

In a recent edition of The Daily Reckoning, Bill Bonner observed, “The world turned against them at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. But if the world turns long enough, it comes back to where it began.” He was writing about India. But he could have been writing about China…or Nicaragua…or any one of a number of emerging markets.

In the next 1,618 words, I’ll share few insights about both China and Nicaragua. These insights share no particular connection to one another, other than the observation that economies do not stand still. The “emerging markets” of one generation are the “developed markets” of the next generation, and vice versa.

Change is the one of the great constants in investing. Opportunity makes its nest like a tramp pigeon, never in the same place for very long. There is always something new happening. Asked about his worldview, Mark Mobius, the famous emerging markets investor, once replied: “Things change… You know, that’s it in a nutshell.” And in this swirl of change lies some big chances at profits.

For example, last year China passed the US as the world’s largest market for automobiles. First time ever that’s happened. There were 13.5 million vehicles sold in China last year – a 40% increase. There are now over 40 million vehicles in China. According to the China Economic Review, over 2,000 cars roll onto the road every day in Beijing alone.

China’s steps seem to mirror what happened in the US in the 1950s. China wants to use roads to knit the country together and open up trade between its distant provinces and cities. To that end, the Chinese are laying highways like nobody’s business. By the end of 2008, China had an estimated 60,000 km of highway. The US has 75,000 km. Over the next few years, China plans to have 85,000 km of roads.

This is having some amazing effects. For instance, China recently built a highway from Lhasa, Tibet, which runs all the way to the Nepali border. Along this road is the city of Shigatse, a formerly sleepy town where tourists may stop to gaze at ancient monasteries on their way to Mount Everest. But today, it is also a place where people get rich running freight services along the 515-mile highway.

An Economist correspondent traveling this way recently wrote:

In the past few years, hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent improving the road. This has included covering its gravel sections with asphalt, which has greatly facilitated cross-border trade. On the Lhasa-Shigatse section, which winds along a valley lined by sand dunes and spectacular peaks, Han Chinese from the interior have opened little Sichuanese restaurants catering to the lorry drivers.

The easy mixing of peoples and the freedom to pursue their own ends leads people to trade. Business expands. The quality of life rises. The roads are doing their work. The cars and trucks are coming. Where are the opportunities?

The first thing most people think of is the automakers. GM, for all its struggles, is having no trouble selling cars in China. Sales were up 67% in 2009, to a record 1.83 million units. Other carmakers are having similar success. The problem here is it doesn’t make much sense to buy, say, GM, because you like its car business in China. There is too much else going on there.

I’m more interested in investment ideas that are a step removed from actually building the cars. All those cars will eat up a lot of metals of all kinds, for example. They will also burn a lot of fuel.

Dig deeper and you’ll find China loves methanol as an alternative fuel to blend with gasoline to lower emissions. China blends more than a billion gallons of methanol in gasoline annually. And its appetite for methanol is growing more than 16% a year. Methanol, made from coal or natural gas, is China’s ethanol. Such thinking led us to our methanol play, Methanex (NASDAQ:MEOH).

I recommended this stock one year ago to the subscribers of Capital & Crisis, when US methanol prices hit a temporary low of $200 a ton. Today, the price is about $350 a ton. Not surprisingly, therefore, the MEOH stock price has more than doubled during the last year.

But the stock is still relatively cheap. At current methanol prices, Methanex could generate over $800 million in EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization). The total enterprise value – or the theoretical price to buy the whole company on the market – is only $2.9 billion. So it trades for only 3.6 times this potential EBITDA. That’s pretty cheap.

Another way to look at it is to think about replacement costs – or what it would cost you to build Methanex from scratch. Methanex trades for just under $400/tonne of methanol capacity. That’s less than replacement cost of about $700/tonne. There is still a lot of upside here.

Shifting to another continent, and another type of observation entirely, change is also unfolding rapidly in Nicaragua.

Nicaragua has always been a place of intrigue, mostly because of geography. Before the Panama Canal, this was the place where people thought of building a canal. As a result, American involvement in Nicaragua goes way back. Militarily, the first Marines landed here in 1912 and occupied it until 1933. And the Somoza regime, a dictatorship created and supported by the US, ran the country until the Sandinistas took over in 1979. (If you are interested in learning more, I encourage you to read Nicaragua: Living in the Shadow of the Eagle by Thomas Walker.)

As a result of the Sandinista era, most Americans probably have a poor opinion of Nicaragua. But it is a beautiful country with its volcanoes, lakes and a lush tropical climate. The people are friendly, and Nicaragua is safe to travel through. The food is great and so are the beaches. It’s also a young country with more than half of the population under 25 years old. (Nicaragua also makes one of the world’s best rums, Flor de Caña – “flower of the [sugar] cane.” I enjoyed it neat and in the national drink, el macua, made with guava juice.)

I recently visited Nicaragua and saw a bit of the country – Leon, Managua and Granada – before settling in at Rancho Santana. The latter is a development project on a spectacular 3,000-acre property on the Pacific Coast near Rivas. Stretches of it remind me of Big Sur with its dramatic coastline.

The sad thing is that Nicaragua ought to be a rich country. Nicaragua was once a prosperous place of some renown. In the 19th century, for example, Granada was the most prominent city in Central America, a rich trading city holding down a key spot in global commerce. But the country’s economic trajectory took a turn for the worse during the 20th century.

Nevertheless, the country’s rich natural resources remain. Nicaragua has lots of good land for growing things. The soil supports a wide variety of crops and livestock. Coffee in the north. Bananas, papayas, mangoes, sugar cane and more grow everywhere else. Nicaragua is also the largest country in Central America and among the least densely populated.

Nicaragua has another special resource: It is among the most water-rich countries in the world. (I’ve been making my way through Steven Solomon’s new book Water, which is a fat tome on the history of water from ancient times to the present day). In a world where water scarcity is an issue, Latin America stands out for its water wealth. It has 28% of the world’s renewable water and only 6% of its population. Solomon writes that the “super Water-Have countries such as Brazil, Russia, Canada, Panama and Nicaragua [have] far more water than their populations can ever use.”

Lake Nicaragua, one of the largest lakes in the world, is the future water supply of Central America. There are many rivers and lakes, which make useful internal waterways. And Nicaragua has access to both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. Nicaraguan waters are also great for fishing.

Nicaragua holds great potential for wind, geothermal – from volcanoes all along the western half of the country – and hydroelectric power. In fact, Rancho Santana is trying to become self-sufficient in energy. There are ridges there where the wind blows constantly. A wind feasibility study done there lately scored as high as it could. The conditions are ideal. Finally, Nicaragua has great timber resources, as well as mineral resources such as silver and gold.

Present-day Nicaragua also illustrates one of the global trends we’ve been examining during the last few months: the “penthouse gypsy” trend. This term refers to people with money who go where they (and their money) are treated best, wherever in the world that may be. Increasingly, they are no longer in the US or Europe. It may be hard to believe, but there are plenty of penthouse gypsies down in Rancho Santana.

Why not? They are able to diversify out of the US, where tax rates are surely going much higher. They get cheap, stunning real estate. Property taxes are hardly anything. You can live very well down here on not much money. I have a good friend who moved to Nicaragua five years ago for this reason.

Most Americans worry about confiscation of property. But that risk seems remote after talking to people here. Tourism is the No. 1 cash cow of what is still a poor country. Even Ortega doesn’t want to do anything to upset that cash flow. (He owns several hotels.)

As far as enforcement of contracts, the IMF and World Bank rank Nicaragua third among all Latin American and Caribbean countries. Foreign direct investment in Nicaragua is soaring – up fourfold since 2000.

I can’t say my trip to Nicaragua yielded a hot stock tip or big investment insight. But I learned a lot about a part of the world I hadn’t explored before. Hopefully, my notes here help you see the opportunities that are out there in this great big world – if only we look at it with fresh eyes.

Chris Mayer
for The Daily Reckoning Australia

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• Capitalism and Capitalists
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• Water Supply of America is Becoming Unreliable
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Luke Timmerman wrote:

YongoPal, a Web startup that enables English conversations between people Korea and the U.S., won the grand prize of $25,000 at tonight’s University of Washington Business Plan Competition. Empowering Engineering Technologies, a company that seeks to help disabled people to walk again, won the $10,000 second place award, while Emergent Detection and Febris each won $5,000 prizes. I wrote about the last two companies last month, during an earlier round of the competition, when I served as a judge.

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UNDERWRITERS AND PARTNERS

Hey, is this a great recovery…or what?

Stocks fell again yesterday. The Dow went down 69 points, closing below 10,000. Gold rose $15…closing above $1,200.

The two are still $8,800 apart. But give them time. They’ve been working their way closer for the last ten years. They’ll get there…

Single family house prices fell for the 6th month in a row, reports The Washington Post.

And get this: “Private pay shrinks to historic lows as government payouts rise,” says USA Today.

This is the big story. As a share of personal income, never before has the private sector contributed so little. Thank god for the government. Without those checks from the feds, we’d all be broke.

The story as told by USA Today:

“Paychecks from private business shrank to their smallest share of personal income in US history during the first quarter of this year, a USA Today analysis of government data finds.

“At the same time, government-provided benefits – from Social Security, unemployment insurance, food stamps and other programs – rose to a record high during the first three months of 2010.

“Those records reflect a long-term trend accelerated by the recession and the federal stimulus program to counteract the downturn. The result is a major shift in the source of personal income from private wages to government programs.

“The trend is not sustainable, says University of Michigan economist Donald Grimes. Reason: The federal government depends on private wages to generate income taxes to pay for its ever-more-expensive programs. Government-generated income is taxed at lower rates or not at all, he says. ‘This is really important,’ Grimes says.”

That’s the trouble, isn’t it? The feds don’t really have any money. They don’t make anything. They don’t create any wealth. So they can only send us checks by taking the money from us – one way or another.

And that, dear reader, is the story of the most important trend of our time. The feds are taking a bigger and bigger share of the economy. And the bigger the share they get, the less the rest of it is worth. Because an economy run by politicians and bureaucrats is not a healthy economy. It’s a sick economy…it limps along. It wheezes and coughs. And if the trend towards more and more federal control continues…the economy finally dies.

If you want the government to take care of you, said Jefferson, “you will soon want bread.” He didn’t say it exactly that way. We improved it.

The feds don’t make decisions on the basis of fair play and rational economic choices. Instead, they’re political choices – such as bailing out the big banks because they are said to be “too big to fail,” or bailing out the big auto companies because they employ too many voters, or bailing out the mortgage industry because too many people would lose their houses if the mortgage industry were allowed to go whither it should.

Even in the best of times an investment is a risky thing. Sometimes it will produce a positive return (above the real cost of funds). Sometimes it won’t.

Imagine what happens when decisions are made by functionaries, political appointees and GS-12s? Capital is then allocated to the wrong projects for the wrong reasons…which result in the wrong outcomes.

Bad economic decisions produce bad economic results. Bad economic results lower the value of capital assets…and make almost everyone in the economy poorer.

We say, “almost everyone,” because the government’s employees, lobbyists, and contractors are in a class apart. They are the ruling party and its apparatchiks. While everyone else gets poorer, they get richer.

And more thoughts…

“Tax increases. Spending cuts.” That’s the name of the game in Europe.

The OECD is calling for them. The IMF is requiring them. Politicians are promising them.

Just yesterday, Italy came forward with $30 billion worth of spending cuts.

Reading the paper, you might think Europe’s leaders have the matter under control. Every day seems to bring fresh promises. But remember, these are the same people who failed to keep within Europe’s fiscal targets 57% of the time – even when the going was good.

How will they do with their backs against the wall? Better, most likely. But not good enough. The euro-feds will make plenty of gestures. But in the end, it just won’t make sense for people to give up present benefits in order to respect promises made by a generation of spendthrift politicians to a ruthless bunch of speculating bankers. The political left, which is leading the opposition to ‘austerity’ measures, will become more and more attractive to more and more voters. It will be harder and harder to cut spending.

This will force governments in the direction of least resistance.

They will “print money…go bust…and go to war,” says Marc Faber. “We are doomed.”

*** Oil is still spilling into the Gulf of Mexico at an unknown rate.

“Plug the damn hole,” says the nation’s chief executive to his aides. Why does he bother? His aides don’t know anything about plugging oil leaks under the ocean. And those people who do know something about it have been unable to fix the leak.

Mr. Obama is not only America’s president. He also presides over the biggest single user of oil in the world – the US military. The pentagon uses twice as much oil as the entire nation of Ireland. It sends soldiers in oil-burning airplanes to places of no apparent importance where they drive around in oil-burning machines for no apparent reason.

Naturally, oil becomes not just another commodity, but a strategic commodity…worth fighting for. Then, foreign wars use up the oil they were expected to protect.

But geopolitics is far beyond our understanding…and even farther out of our range of interest. We will just observe that the law of diminishing returns applies to just about everything. The farther offshore the roughnecks go…the deeper the sea and the higher the waves…the more the costs, the greater the risks and the lower the marginal returns. The return from Deepwater Horizon must be starkly negative…

The farther afield US armies go, too, the greater the costs, the higher the risks, and the lower the marginal returns.

“Why not just buy oil on the open market?”

Well, it’s clear you don’t know anything about geopolitics either, dear reader…don’t you know that our enemies might try to cut us off from vital oil supplies? That’s why Germany and Japan lost WWII! We were able to cut of their fuel…

“But weren’t Germany and Japan fighting for access to oil? Didn’t their politicians say they had to invade Poland…and the Philippines…to protect their vital supplies?”

No…they were aggressors. They were bad people…

“But if they hadn’t been the aggressors they wouldn’t have been bad people, right?”

That’s right…

“Then, we wouldn’t have cut off their access to oil!”

Oh, never mind. You’ll never understand geopolitics, will you?

Regards,

Bill Bonner
for The Daily Reckoning Australia

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by Julian Ku

From this NYT story, the upcoming report to the U.N. Human Rights Council on U.S. drone strikes seems fairly restrained.  The main pushback is to end CIA involvement in drone strikes, on the theory that CIA operatives are not privileged belligerents.  This is indeed, the strongest legal argument against drone strike, at least to me, but it seems also pretty easily fixable.  Still, I wonder what the rest of the report says? And whether the Obama Administration will heed the calls to change their policy (or indeed, whether this report makes it harder for the to do so).

A senior United Nations official is expected to call on the United States next week to stop Central Intelligence Agency drone strikes against people suspected of belonging to Al Qaeda, complicating the Obama administration’s growing reliance on that tactic in Pakistan.

Philip Alston, the United Nations special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, said Thursday that he would deliver a report on June 3 to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva declaring that the “life and death power” of drones should be entrusted to regular armed forces, not intelligence agencies. He contrasted how the military and the C.I.A. responded to allegations that strikes had killed civilians by mistake.

Let me now share what the Judging Panel and the SharpBrains team found most impressive from each Winner and Finalist of the 2010 Brain Fitness Innovation Awards, accompanied by some additional information on each of these 10 noteworthy initiatives and case studies.

Grand Prize Winner

USA Hockey, Inc., is the National Governing Body of the sport of ice hockey in the United States. With a membership of nearly 600,000 players, coaches, officials and volunteers that span all 50 states, USA Hockey seeks to promote the growth of hockey and provide the best possible experience for all participants by encouraging, developing, advancing and administering the sport.

Project Scope: The National Team Development Program (NTDP), a USA Hockey body, is a full-time development program aimed at preparing under-18 student-athletes for participation on US National Teams. Its efforts focus both on high-caliber participation on the ice and individual skill development. The program is composed of two squads: the US National Under-18 and Under-17 Teams.

During the past hockey season, the NTDP implemented a cognitive training system designed to help hockey players develop perception and decision-making skills called The Hockey IntelliGym. Designed to enhance ‘Hockey Sense’—or the way players gather information from their surroundings, make and execute decisions—The Hockey IntelliGym training system utilizes a software-based training environment with customized algorithms that adjust training programs to individual players according to ability and progress. Players engaged in a twice-a-week cognitive training regimen that became an integral part of their overall training program during which time cognitive scientists monitored players’ performance and provided coaching staff with analyses and progress reports. Among statistical figures measured, the most notable was the win ratio of teams involved, as IntelliGym trained team won more games.

The IntelliGym program took more than two years and $2 million to put together with the collaboration of Applied Cognitive Engineering (ACE) and was enabled by a grant from the BIRD Foundation who scientifically reviewed the plan and financially supported it.

Project Leader: Scott Monaghan, Director of Operations, USA Hockey National Team Development Program

Selected comments by Judging Panel: Excellent team approach between specialist, coach and player. Great concept and need, and  insights/model could apply very broadly to skill development. The adaptation of cognitive training to this particular sports domain is clever and can be generalized to a wide range of other activities. I was impressed with the USA Hockey National Team Development Program and their Hockey Intelligym. To develop/adapt such a program and clearly demonstrate it’s impact on real-life performance, is fantastic. There is also a great opportunity to expand this to even more athletes and sports and to everyday life.

Silver Prize Winners

Allstate (NYSE: ALL) is the nation’s largest publicly held personal lines insurer. Allstate is reinventing protection and retirement to help individuals in approximately 17 million households protect what they have today and better prepare for tomorrow.

Project Scope: Allstate embarked on a journey with Posit Science Corporation to evaluate the interest in and effectiveness of Posit Science’s software—leveraging technology shown in National Institutes of Health funded studies to improve visual processing skills important for safe driving—to test a software program (Insight) in Pennsylvania. Selected drivers, 50 years and older, were invited to help validate the impact cognitive training has on driving safety.

The project was a “proof of concept” for what may turn out to be a significant effort by Allstate to prevent injuries and save lives, enable older people to maintain their independence longer and provide peace of mind to adult children faced with difficult decisions as parents age. The most important reduction was in insured losses and resulting injuries, trauma and disruption to the lives of those involved in auto collisions. After observing the accident behavior of those who completed the Posit program, relative to a well selected control group, Allstate saw a measurable decline that was statistically valid.

Project Leader: Tom Warden, Assistant Vice President, Allstate Research and Planning Center

Selected comments by Judging Panel: The potential impact of this program is second to none. I was impressed with Allstate’s project and their results that showed that the Posit Science software positively impacted the accident records of those completing the program. Allstate should be commended for trying something new and different and for creating such an initiative. Pretty soon I can imagine brain fitness discounts alongside safe driver and other discounts.

Nationwide, based in Columbus, Ohio, is one of the largest and strongest diversified insurance and financial services organizations in the U.S. and is rated A+ by A.M. Best. The company provides a full range of personalized insurance and financial services, including including auto and life insurance, pensions, health and productivity services, and more.

Project Scope: Nationwide Mutual Insurance worked with benefits provider OptumHealth and their partner Brain Resource to add a Web based brain training tool (MyBrainSolutions) to help employees enhance positivity, emotional resilience and deal with others more effectively — all key elements to productivity. More than 500 employees enrolled in the company’s ‘Healthy Holiday Challenge’ during the first week. The results of the new resource led to more positive behavior changes and greater productivity among the workforce.

As part of the MyBrainSolutions launch, associates were asked to register, take a baseline brain assessment, accumulate a target number of points during a 30-day period and then take a second brain assessment. The company found that aspects of positivity, emotional resilience and social skills improved in the short 6-week initiative and saw small changes in productivity were noticeable as well. 87% of those participating in the program indicated they were planning to take additional steps to improve health after participating while 33.5% wouldn’t have accessed other resources to address health and wellbeing if it weren’t for the initiative.

Project Leader: Kathleen Herath, AVP Health & Productivity

Selected comments by Judging Panel: Harvard Business Review estimated a couple years ago that $150B is lost annually as a result of lost employee productiity. Given all of the life events and transitions that individuals experience each year that can distract, this provides a feasible and attractive lever for employees to take advantage of. Employers of the future that can implement innovative models such as these to adapt to the changing needs of employees, enhance employee productivity, and help to redefine what work means by infusing the professional with the personal will win, and have as a reward loyal employees, a happy culture, and an overall higher performing workforce. The positive self-report measures were impressive as well as the improvements in such a short period of time. Seems to have potential for replicability with scalable, low-cost programs. In principle this approach could have large societal benefits. Implementing cognitive training in a work place is novel and taps into the desire to optimize professional functioning as well as stave off decline.  The emotional and self-regulation training is extremely important in the workplace setting.

Rest of Top 10 Finalists

(Note: out of the 40 organizations that submitted entries to the inaugural 2010 Brain Fitness Innovation Awards, 10 became Top 10 Finalists. Here we want to recognize the organizations which, while not winning the overall contest, did impress the judging panel with the quality of their ongoing initiatives. They are ordered by the approximate age of their end user population, from younger to older:

Most Innovative Special Ed School

Arrowsmith School offers a comprehensive suite of cognitive programs for students with learning disabilities, targeting 19 areas of the brain most commonly involved in learning. The Arrowsmith Program, which originated in Toronto, is now offered in schools in Canada and the US.

Project Scope: Help remediate Learning Disabilities by developing and implementing a proprietary suite of neuroplasticity-based exercises in 3 formats: computer-based, auditory, pen and paper.

• Project Leader: Barbara Arrowsmith, Director
• Selected Comments by Judging Panel:  How easy would it be to say “they’s not smart enough” or “they’re making excuses”, instead of “they have a cognitive shortcoming that can be addressed.” The target audience of 5-10% of school children with learning disabilities can now have a fighting chance if models like these can be scaled through policy and/or replication. This gets my vote as the model creates almost immeasurable lifetime impact for those fortunate enough to be reap all the cognitive benefits of the program. Arrowsmith efforts since 1979 puts them in a class of their own as pioneers. Arrowsmith also has a process learning from and refining its initiatives. Program can be built further on very solid foundations.

Most Innovative Behavioral Health Provider

University Behavioral HealthCare (UBHC) was established in 1971 as a division of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) and is one of the largest providers of behavioral healthcare services in the country.

Project Scope: Remediate cognitive impairments associated with severe mental illness by developing and implementing an innovative curriculum and proprietary manual for cognitive rehab support groups, combining best of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, cognitive training, and social skills training.

• Project Leader: Steven M. Silverstein, Ph.D., Director, Division of Schizophrenia Research & Director of Research
• Selected Comments by Judging Panel: Noteworthy person-centered approach, focused on how to impact quality of life with self-empowerment tools and social support.

Most Innovative Foundation

The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safetyhas a mission to identify problems, foster research that seeks solutions, and disseminate information and educational materials that promote good safety practices.

Project Scope: Improve driving safety among older adults by  promoting and testing visual processing training program InSight by Posit Science.

• Project Leader: Peter Kissinger, President and CEO
• Selected Comments by Judging Panel: Very high quality program Innovative. Eminently scalable. Benefits users, AAA, and community at large – very good synergy.This approach grounds cognitive training in an activity that for many is critical to independence. The tie to insurance will motivate the training which may increase road safety and have broader benefits for cognitive health.

Most Innovative Hospital

Saint Luke’s Brain and Stroke Institute, part of Saint Luke’s Health System in Kansas and Missouri, covers the entire spectrum of care including acute intervention, prevention of complications, secondary prevention and neurorehabilitation.

Project Scope: Help extend healthy independent living and address cognitive impairments by making accessible a Brain Fitness Center that combines education, assessments, lifestyle advice and targeted neurocognitive and mindfulness-based training.

• Project Leader: John Corbaley, M.S., M.A., CCC/Sp., Director, Brain Fitness Center, Saint Luke’s Hospital of Kansas City
• Selected Comments by Judging Panel: Saint Luke’s program was impressive in a number of ways. I liked that they worked with multiple discplines to create a holistic program focused on improved brain health through cognitive training, nutrition and exercise as well as other activities. It is no surprise that they have a wait list of users eager to join their program.

Most Innovative Adult Education

Oakland Unified School District has a mission to ensure that all students graduate as caring, competent, and critical thinkers, as well as fully-informed, engaged, and contributing citizens, prepared to succeed in college and career. Adult and Career Education services empower adults through through education and training.

Project Scope: Extend healthy independent living (for new pilot: improve academic success among at-risk students) by offering a Brain Fitness Class that combines curriculum, discussions and computerized cognitive training (by Posit Science, for older adults; by Lumos Labs, for new pilot with young adults).

• Project Leader: Teri Barr, Brain Health Program Coordinator
• Selected Comments by Judging Panel: Strong approach to overcome some of the age boundaries among targeted populations. What I love the most about this wonderful success story is how this program has been able to appeal to individuals across socio-economic, demographic, and educational backgrounds, and in the process deliver both real and perceived value. One way I think it has done this is through presenting a multi-faceted value proposition (i.e., build cognitive health + build community + have fun in the process) in a single setting. Lessons learned were also very well articulated, and the approach of combining high-tech with high-touch I thought was ingenious and realistic given the context.

Most Innovative Mental Health Association

The Mental Health Association of Rockland County, in New York State, is a non-profit organization with a mission to prevent mental illness and foster mental wellness through community outreach, direct service and advocacy for legislation and programs.

Project Scope: Extend healthy independent living by offering a cognitive health series of live events to engage the community with a stigma-free, proactive brain fitness message, supported by professional training, socialization platforms and cognitive training (by CogniFit).

• Project Leader: Karen Oates, Director
• Selected Comments by Judging Panel: So great to see a Mental Health Association promoting this important project and allying with so many groups and organizations, including CogniFit, in doing so. Great that they have been able to overcome the stigma so often associated with aging and mental fitness through the project. With the manual and pamphlet, there are excellent replication possibilities.

Most Innovative Health Plan

SCAN Health Plan has been focusing for more than 30 years on the unique needs of people with Medicare and is now the country’s fourth largest not-for-profit Medicare Advantage plan. The company currently has nearly 120,000 members in California and Arizona.

Project Scope: Extend healthy independent living by developing the concept of a “SCAN Van” to deliver health screenings & education combined with physical and cognitive exercise (Wii gaming; touch screen-based cognitive training by HappyNeuron) in places where seniors gather.

• Project Leader: Lena Perelman, Director of Community Outreach
• Selected Comments by Judging Panel: A clever plan for the delivery of cognitive exercises. SCAN’s is innovative not only because its mobile but because it presents a more holistic approach to brain health with its “multi-pronged” program.

Here you can learn more about the 2010 Brain Fitness Innovation Awards.

About a decade ago, if you followed the technology space, you might recall a series of articles about a professor at the University of Reading, named Kevin Warwick, who made himself famous by implanting a computer chip in his arm, declaring himself an expert in “cybernetics” and figuring out ways to get way too much press for nothing special. The Register, amusingly, dubbed him “Captain Cyborg” and regularly mocked his various exploits. We haven’t heard much about Warwick in a while, but when I saw a bunch of folks chatting about a BBC article concerning the “first human infected with computer virus,” I was immediately reminded of Warwick. Reading through the article, it was no surprise to find out that this “experiment” is actually being conducted by a colleague of Warwick’s, Mark Gasson — who according to Warwick’s own bio lead the research group that Warwick works in.

The story is — as with all captain cyborg stories — a lot less than the headline suggests. Gasson wasn’t “infected with a computer virus.” He took a chip that had a computer virus and stuck it in his arm, just like Warwick has done n the past. The parallels to an actual virus are minimal, and the usefulness for anything is even less than that. Gasson presents this as useful for considering the implications for implanted technology such as pacemakers, but that’s nothing new. People have talked about potential technology issues from the wireless interface to pacemakers for years. Doing some sort of publicity stunt with an implanted computer chip doesn’t further that discussion along.

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Here is your delicious list of luxury exotic car rentals at all the cool cities like Las Vegas, Los Angeles, St Louis Mo, Miami, and other places. With all these cool and luxury exotic cars, it will definitely make your holiday like a real happy holiday. Have you ever imagine yourself driving a Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren in Tampa Florida or Hawaii during your holiday? If driving a cool exotic car at is your dream, why not try to rent one on your beautiful holiday with your love one?

Exotic car rentals

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Celebrities, filming purposes, wedding with exotic cars, corporate purposes, and many others situation will happen when you need to rent exotic cars.

You wish to drive Aston Martin but lack of budget to buy one, you still can consider short term exotic car rentals to fulfill your dream. Let’s check out where you can find a good one around you.

Sometimes you need exotic cars as a gift for yourself or to your friend, fiancée or spouse, or for a night on the town with client.

Where to find exotic car rentals

New York and Miami’s exotic car rental

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Los Angeles car rentals

Beverly Hills Rent-A-Car is a good place to look for Mercedes-Benz, Jaguar, BMW, Porsche, Cadillac, Corvette, Hummer, Viper, or any other nice cars if you are looking to rent a luxury car in Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, Phoenix, Scottsdale, Santa Monica, Orange County, Newport Beach, Malibu, Marina Del Rey, Hollywood, West Hollywood, and Palm Springs. On special request we can deliver to San Francisco and Las Vegas.

Rent exotic cars from airport

There are many car rentals companies provide service where you can rent an exotic car from them and they will send the car to airport according to your arrival time. This will save up a lot of time for you. That’s the advantages of getting exotic car rentals.

Source: Cars, Fast Cars, Cool Cars, Sports Cars

About 100 Karma plug-in hybrid cars will be built this year by Fisker Automotive Inc. and Valmet Automotive that will be used for testing purposes, according to Ray Lane, managing partner at storied U.S. venture capital fund Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (a major investor).

These cars will be tested internally and crash tested, among other testing methods. Some customers will receive the cars to test them on real roads. Production of the Karma cars is set to be ramped up next year. Lane, an early stage investor in Fisker, said that it has plans to produce 70 to 100 vehicles this year at Valmet’s factory, which is the manufacturer of the Porsche Boxster and Cayman as well as Think’s City minicar. Testing will start this year while mass production will begin in February, with a goal of 15,000 vehicles to be built annually. The Karma, a rechargeable luxury sports car that has a price tag of $87,900 in the US and 78,780 euros ($96,415) in Europe, is claimed to be able to go 80km (about 50 miles) on a single charge in electric-only mode. But in hybrid-mode, the car has a total range of 482km (300 miles).

[via autonews – sub. required]

Source: Car news, Car reviews, Spy shots