On The Many Flaws Of Constitutional Democracy

Posted: 4/29/2017

Talking about the tyranny of the majority in a democracy to freely borrow this famous phrase from Alexis de Tocqueville. Majority in a democracy means 51% can tell the other 49% what they have to do and what they cannot do and the 51% does it all the time.

On the many flaws of constitutional democracy:

1. Let’s be bluntly honest, often democracy is not much better than mob rule, just a bit more civilized
2. The ever expanding power & control of an incessantly larger central government
3. The separation of the three branches of government is not seldom a fancy fiction. Too often judges are only too willing to accommodate the policies of the other two branches and to conspire against individual freedom
4. The ceaselessly growing number of laws & government regulations affecting every aspect of our lives are slowly strangulating individual liberty and businesses
5. The ever expanding welfare state (universal, unconditional basic income for everyone is only the latest iteration). This is frequently not much more than outright vote buying!
6. Elites of lifelong, career politicians dominate government and parliaments
7. Western constitutions & democracy offer way too few and way too ineffective safeguards to protect individual liberty (Friedrich Hayek's The Constitution of Liberty, Chap. 14, is entitled "The Safeguards of Individual Liberty). Something to be keenly aware of, every minute of your life!

Carbon Dioxide Recycling Or Transformation Is Fast Becoming Reality

Posted: 4/27/2017  Updated: 7/9/2017, 6/7/2017

Update Of 7/9/2017

Just read Nanotechnology reveals hidden depths of bacterial 'machines'.

Here a salient quotes from the above article (emphasis added):

1. “... Cyanobacteria are a phylum of bacteria that produce oxygen and energy during photosynthesis, similar to green plants. … Unique internal 'machines' in cyanobacteria, called carboxysomes, allow the organisms to convert carbon dioxide to sugar and provide impacts on global biomass production and our environment. ...”
2. “... For the first time, the researchers were able to biochemically purify active carboxysomes from cyanobacteria and characterize their carbon fixation activity and protein composition. They then used electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy to visualise the morphology and internal protein organization of these bacterial machines. … “
3. “ … Furthermore, the intrinsic mechanical properties of the three-dimensional structures were determined for the first time. Though structurally resembling polyhedral viruses, carboxysomes were revealed to be much softer and structurally flexible, which is correlated to their formation dynamics and regulation in bacteria. … “

What does this all mean? Cyanobacteria appear to be one way to reduce CO2 in the atmosphere on a large scale and convert CO2 into other useful chemicals. Very soon these Cyanobacteria can probably be programmed to do this and other jobs more efficiently.

Update Of 6/7/2017

Just read Cheap catalysts turn sunlight and carbon dioxide into fuel

This could be a game changer. Swiss scientists from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne have come up with a cheap way to split CO2 into CO and Oxygen, which then are processed into e.g. methanol. As an energy source they were using solar panels. The necessary catalyst and electrode are cheap and plentiful. This process is reported as very efficient.

Trigger

Just read Scientist invents way to trigger artificial photosynthesis to clean air.

Human Ingenuity Defeats Global Warming Hoax Anytime

All this carbon dioxide hysteria humanity was made to suffer for many years now will hopefully soon come to an end.

It is actually only a matter of time until researchers come up with some way to use bacteria, yeast, fungi or whatever to convert carbon dioxide into some useful chemical. This research has been ongoing and promising.

The above article describes how a MOF (metal organic framework) made of Titanium can be used in a way similar to photosynthesis to convert carbon dioxide into two reduced forms of carbon, formate and formamides.

And this is only the beginning!

Hot Recent Science & Technology Articles (34)

Posted: 4/24/2017

1. Mars rover spots clouds shaped by gravity waves (“NASA’s Curiosity rover … Well into its fifth year, the rover has now shot more than 500 movies of the clouds above it, including the first ground-based view of martian clouds shaped by gravity waves … Gravity waves, common atmospheric ripples on Earth that result from air trying to regain its vertical balance … ”)
2. Rewriting Life  Protein Hints at a Fountain of Youth in Blood  It’s another tantalizing finding in an area of anti-aging research that has had mixed results. (“... researchers discovered that older mice had low levels of a protein called osteopontin, and that stem cells injected into the mice quickly aged. The reverse—putting old stem cells into a dish filled with osteopontin—appeared to rejuvenate them. … What it comes down to is that no one knows what it is about young blood that causes the rejuvenation effect—or whether blood is even the most important part of the equation.”)
3. Molecule kills elderly cells, reduces signs of aging in mice (Closing in on the fountain of youth. “... Now, researchers have developed a molecule [there is no description of the molecule] that selectively destroys these so-called senescent cells. The compound makes old mice act and appear more youthful, ...”)
4. Most Cancer Cases Arise from "Bad Luck" Environment and heredity are smaller players than researchers previously believed (This article generated some controversy! In my understanding, this boils down to the law of great numbers or statistics. Cells that divide frequently, suffer more from inevitable, random mutations than other cells)
5. It wasn't just Greece: Archaeologists find early democratic societies in the Americas (Sounds more Spartan than Athens to me! “The candidate for political office stood in a plaza, naked, bracing himself against the punches and kicks. … People for whom he had risked his life in war after war hurled blows and insults from all directions. ... Trained as a warrior, he knew he had to stay calm to reach the next phase of his candidacy. This ordeal ... was merely the beginning of the long process of joining the government of the Mesoamerican city of Tlaxcallan, built around 1250 C.E. …, Mexico. After this trial ended, the candidate would enter the temple … and stay for up to 2 years, while priests drilled him in ... moral and legal code. He would be starved, beaten with spiked whips when he fell asleep, and required to cut himself in bloodletting rituals. But when he walked out of the temple, he would be more than a warrior: He would be a member of … senate, one of the 100 or so men who made the city's most important military and economic decisions.”)
6. Earth’s Lost History of Planet-Altering Eruptions Revealed Geologists unearth signs of major volcanic events stretching back 3 billion years (“Enormous volcanoes vomited [sic!] lava over the ancient Earth much more often than geologists had suspected. Eruptions as big as the biggest previously known ones happened at least 10 times in the past 3 billion years, an analysis of the geological record shows. … Technically, the eruptions are known as ‘large igneous provinces’ (LIPs). They can spew more than one million cubic kilometres of rock in a few million years. By comparison, the 1980 eruption of Mount St Helens in Washington state put out just 10 cubic kilometres. … These large events also emit gases that can change atmospheric temperature and ocean chemistry in a geological blink of an eye. A modelling study published last month suggests that global temperatures could have soared by as much as 7 °C per year at the height of the Siberian eruptions …  Sulfur particles from the eruptions would have soon led to global cooling and acid rain; more than 96% of marine species went extinct. … On average, LIPs occur every 20 million years or so. The most recent one was the Columbia River eruption 17 million years ago, in what is now the northwestern United States. … Venus, Mars, Mercury and the Moon all show signs of enormous eruptions, Gregg notes. On the Moon, LIP-style volcanism started as early as 3.8 billion years ago; on Mars, possibly 3.5 billion years ago. But without plate tectonics to keep the surface active, those eruptions eventually ceased.”)
7. Nanoscale logic machines go beyond binary computing (“... the possibility of a new class of tiny analog computers that can solve computationally difficult problems by simple statistical algorithms running in nanoscale solid-state physical devices … The new nanologic machines consist of individual phosphorous atoms that are precisely positioned and embedded in a silicon crystal at a density of about 200 billion atoms per square centimeter. Single electrons randomly move in and out of the atoms due to quantum tunneling. Since each atom can hold one or two of these electrons, and each electron can occupy a few different energy levels, each atom can occupy one of four possible states. Each atom is constantly transitioning between its four states according to a certain set of probabilities, corresponding to the random movement of electrons tunneling in and out of the atom and changing their energy levels.”)
8. Glass shield may protect water bears from dehydration (“... their ability to survive droughts by drying up and then rehydrating years or maybe even decades later … During the process, they essentially lose all the water in their body and cells. The creatures also start pumping out unique, amorphous proteins that form a glasslike material inside of their cells, ... The material may encase and shelter vital molecules, such as other proteins, until the dry spell is over.”)
9. World’s first full-body PET scanner could aid drug development, monitor environmental toxins (“... Obviously when developing new treatments, pharmaceutical companies have a target of interest. But the problem when you get into human clinical trials is toxic side effects in other parts of the body. And so one thing that EXPLORER [full body PET scanner] does that I think will be very exciting for drug development is that we can radioactively label that drug and watch where it goes in the body over time. We can see its concentration in every single tissue and organ in the body. Drug companies are very excited about that prospect ...”)
10. Running away from Einstein (“Einstein's theory of gravity may have to be rewritten, after researchers at the University of St Andrews found a gigantic ring of galaxies darting away from us much faster than predicted. This 10 million light year-wide ring made up of small galaxies is expanding rapidly like a mini Big Bang. The team believe our neighbouring galaxy, Andromeda, once flew past our own galaxy at close range, creating a sling-shot of several small galaxies. … ”)
11. https://phys.org/news/2017-03-wi-fi-rays-light100-faster-overloaded.html (This could be huge! Powerful indoor optical wireless networks)
12. The Tiny Robots Will See You Now
13. Brain is 10 times more active than previously measured, researchers find
14. The K factor
15. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/can-facebooks-machine-learning-algorithms-accurately-predict-suicide/
16. https://phys.org/news/2017-03-world-oldest-fossils-unearthed.html
17. Optical clocks hit the road
18. Bumble bees are surprisingly innovative
19. Brain Imaging Identifies Different Types of Depression Biological markers could enable tailored therapies that target individual differences in symptoms (Hopefully, this finally is a breakthrough in being able to properly diagnose depression! “The researchers used a noninvasive technique called functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure the strength of connections between neural circuits in the brain. Analyzing fMRI scans from more than 1,000 people, of whom about 40 percent had been diagnosed as depressive, the team identified four subtypes of depression. If confirmed in additional studies, the findings could enable clearer diagnoses and pave the way for personalized therapies targeting brain networks found to be awry in individual patients. … the fMRI-based subdivisions could be linked to particular symptoms. Patients falling into the first two subtypes reported more fatigue whereas those in the other two reported more trouble feeling pleasure. This subtyping has implications not just for diagnosis but potentially for non pharmaceutical treatment. Relative to groups two and four, people with depression subtype 1 were three times as likely benefit from a newer therapy known as transcranial magnetic stimulation, or TMS. ”)
20. Seven Earth-sized planets around a tiny star (We are not alone! Only 39 light years away “An international team has discovered that the ultracold dwarf star TRAPPIST-1 is orbited by seven planets comparable to Earth in size. For all but the outermost planet, the researchers were also able to obtain density estimates and concluded that the data “broadly suggest rocky compositions.” Most intriguingly, all the planets could potentially house liquid water on at least limited regions of their surfaces. ”)
21. An alternative to opioids? Compound from marine snail is potent pain reliever (Good news! Perhaps finally a powerful non-addictive pain killer? “Conus regius, a small marine cone snail common to the Caribbean Sea, packs a venomous punch, capable of paralyzing and killing its prey. In this study, the researchers found that a compound isolated from snail's venom, Rg1A, acts on a pain pathway distinct from that targeted by opioid drugs. Using rodent models, the scientists showed that α9α10 nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChR) functions as a pain pathway receptor and that RgIA4 is an effective compound to block this receptor. The pathway adds to a small number of nonopioid-based pathways that could be further developed to treat chronic pain. Interestingly, the duration of the pain relief is long, greatly outlasting the presence of the compound in the animal's system.”)

The European Union Has Failed

Posted: 4/24/2017

This will be a concise, brief post!

The European Union has failed, because:

1. The believe an ever larger European Union (United States of Europe) could become a countervailing power to the U.S. was misguided and delusional from the beginning
2. The super fast enlargement to 28 countries over a span of few decades was daring
3. Too many major European agreements were seriously violated in order to continue and without repercussions and regret
4. The monetary union and single market was imposed irresponsibly
5. The once so much heralded subsidiarity principles was recklessly abandoned
6. Countries that do not play along have been either bullied or receive vast amounts of money
7. The heavy handed top down approach to form a unitary superstate has reached its limits
8. Historically, the Europe was special because of its enormous variety and the many competing powers from city states to nation states. This important lesson was ignored
9. What did I forget?

Huge Taboo Of Female On Male Domestic Violence

Posted: 4/22/2017

Women Are Not Angels

Anyone, who believes women are angels or that women are so much more merciful and caring is seriously mistaken! I have previously blogged about this subject of violent women e.g. here.

Trigger

Just read Wenn Frauen zuschlagen Hunderttausend Frauen in Deutschland sind von häuslicher Gewalt betroffen. Was wenige wissen: Auch Zehntausende Männer leiden darunter. Unsere Autorin hat eine Täterin und ein Opfer getroffen. (in German; excellent article)

Underreporting Probably Rampant

In the above article, we learn that in 2015 about 23,000 men in Germany alone were suffering from domestic violence inflicted on them by their female partners as reported. I was totally stunned to read that. Not only that, some of these attacks by women on their male partners are quite vicious and bloody requiring sometimes a hospital visit.

The above article describes:

1. Out of fear, many male victims are very reluctant to come forward, seek help, or report their suffering. Significant numbers of the male victims become depressive etc.
2. Many of the male victims do not fight back even they are often physically much stronger than the female aggressor. They act out of chivalry or because they do not want to hurt their partner despite the violent attack
3. Many of the male victims are just too shy or introvert, some of them still love their partners and have difficulties to separate etc. Other men, who learn of the suffering of someone they know, are dismissive or make fun of the victim etc.
4. Frequently these violent relationships go on for years
5. When police officers are called by male victim, they would often remove the male victim from the home not the female perpetrator despite visible signs of violence and despite the male victims reporting the violence committed against them

Terrorist Bomb Attack For Greed In Germany

Posted: 4/22/2017

Brief Background

On April 11, 2017, three bombs loaded with nails detonated almost simultaneously at the roadside targeting a coach bus driving by. The bombs were remotely triggered.

The bus was carrying the team members and staff of a major league German soccer team (Borussia Dortmund). Fortunately, little harm was done due to technical mistakes made by the perpetrator. Three letters were left behind to suggest that this terror attack was of Islamist origin.

Motivation

German police on or about 4/20/2017 arrested the suspect, an electrical technician with Russian background.

The police investigation into this crime revealed:

1. The suspect planned his crime meticulously in every detail and purchased 15,000 put options on the major league’s team stocks. He was expecting to make a million Euros or more profit from his attack, the more soccer players etc. were injured or killed (This major league soccer team is the only German team listed on the stock exchange).
2. The three bombs were expertly built
3. The three letters and the particular target gave away the first hints to the police that this was not a typical Islamist terrorist attack.

Fortunately, even a very clever criminal is not a genius and makes plenty of mistakes.

Lessons Learnt

To disguise a crime for profit as an Islamist terrorist attack is quite a new and worrisome phenomenon. This time, the criminal was in some respects a dilettante, but next time?

More common are, of course, throughout history, fake terrorist attacks with lots of victims for political purposes. Like e.g. Putin the Terrible has demonstrated according to various reports.

Sources

1. Anschlag auf BVB-Bus Um 5.30 Uhr klingelte die GSG 9 Der Mann, der den Anschlag auf den Mannschaftsbus von Borussia Dortmund verübte, hat die Tat sorgfältig geplant – und doch viele Fehler gemacht. Am Nachmittag wurde Haftbefehl gegen ihn erlassen
2. Wetten auf fallende Kurse So wollte der Verdächtige am BVB-Anschlag verdienen Der Anschlag auf den Mannschaftsbus von Borussia Dortmund soll von einem Aktien-Spekulanten begangen worden sein. Er wollte durch einen Kursverlust der BVB-Aktie einen Millionengewinn erzielen. Wie geht das?

The Incredible Arrogance Of Chancellor Merkel

Posted: 4/22/2017

Just read this article in one of Germany’s leading newspapers:

Bundesregierung will weiter für Ächtung der Todesstrafe kämpfen Nach der ersten einer Reihe von Hinrichtungen im amerikanischen Bundesstaat Arkansas kritisiert die Bundesregierung abermals die Vollstreckung der Todesstrafe. Diese sei „eine unmenschliche und grausame Form der Bestrafung (in German). Unfortunately, I could not find these letters. The above article did not provide a link.

Merkel saw it necessary to write a letter to the governor of Arkansas because of the series of executions scheduled there. In this letter, the German government appealed to the governor to commute the death sentence and that capital punishment is a cruel and inhumane punishment. Similarly, the German foreign ministry intervened as well, so did the German ambassador in Washington, DC.

Such an arrogance by Merkel to lecture the governor of Arkansas is incredible!

This woman has made so many profound mistakes since she became chancellor in 2005 it is high time for term limits in Germany. One of her last big mistakes was negotiating and signing the terrible Iran nuclear treaty with the Obama administration in July of 2015.