China Almost Single Handedly Pulls Africa Out Of Poverty

Posted: 6/30/2017

Trigger

Just read this recommendable report by the McKinsey Institute: The closest look yet at Chinese economic engagement in Africa. This report focuses on eight major countries of sub-saharan Africa.

I have read over the years a number of reports how China was active and engaging in various countries in Africa, but this McKinsey report finally made me aware of the tremendous scope and scale of China’s economic efforts in Africa.

Phenomenal Scale And Scope

China’s efforts are as awesome as or comparable to the U.S. has been pulling China out of poverty with the beginning of Deng Xiaoping reforms starting in the late 1970s or the famous Marshall Plan that helped Western Europe to overcome the economic devastation of World War II.

Shame, in particular, on the European Union (perhaps except the UK and France) who engage more in the business of strangulating the African economies with their socialism, central planning, and foremost their excessive environmentalism.

A Summary

Based on the above report by McKinsey may I try to summarize as follows (emphasis added):

1. In the last two decades China became Africa’s most important economic partner
2. “Across trade, investment, infrastructure financing, and aid, no other country has such depth and breadth of engagement in Africa. Chinese “dragons”  - firms of all sizes and sectors - are bringing capital investment, management know-how, and entrepreneurial energy to every corner of the continent.”
3. “Foreign direct investment has grown even faster over the past decade, with a breakneck annual growth rate of 40 percent.”
4. There are more than 10,000 privately owned Chinese companies operating in Africa
5. “Chinese firms operate across many sectors of the African economy.”
6. “In manufacturing, we estimate that 12 percent of Africa’s industrial production - valued at some $500 billion a year in total—is already handled by Chinese firms. In infrastructure, Chinese firms’ dominance is even more pronounced, and they claim nearly 50 percent of Africa’s internationally contracted construction market.”
7. “At the Chinese companies we talked to, 89 percent of employees were African, adding up to nearly 300,000 jobs for African workers.”
8. “In the first, the revenues of Chinese firms in Africa grow at a healthy clip to reach around $250 billion in 2025, from $180 billion today. ”

President F. D. Roosevelt Kowtowed To Stalin

Posted: 6/21/2017

Anyone following my blog post quickly realizes that my opinion of President F. D. Roosevelt can be summarized as follows: He was a reckless, awful, and most socialist president of the United States.

Just watched this great YouTube video on the life of Churchill: CHURCHILL: 3 of 4 ~ The Beginning Of The End

Clearly, Churchill was aware of Stalin’s intentions to conquer and dominate eastern Europe.

At the infamous conference of Yalta, the reckless, irresponsible, and terminally ill President F. D. Roosevelt gave Poland to the USSR. He declared to Stalin that the U.S. would withdraw most U.S. troops immediately after the defeat of Hitler. What a fool!

Regeneration Of Damaged Heart Tissue

Posted: 6/19/2017

Just read:

Israeli scientists successfully regenerate damaged hearts

Weizmann Institute study finds molecule prevalent in embryonic cardiac tissue promotes rapid healing in adult mice, as well as in human cells

Here is the news release by the Weizmann Institute of Science: Young at Heart: Restoring Cardiac Function with a Matrix Molecule Administering “young matrix” molecules to damaged mouse hearts led to muscle repair

This article is significantly more detailed!

This could be huge!

Some salient quotes from first article (emphasis added):

1. “While heart regeneration in mammals has been observed during the prenatal stage, it is virtually impossible for the blood-pumping organ to heal after birth.”
2. “Researchers studied a protein called Agrin, common in fetal hearts, which rapidly disappears after birth. They now believe Agrin, which resides in the space between prenatal heart cells, controls the process of cardiomyocyte regeneration.”
3. “When tested in lab cultures, Agrin was seen to promote cardiomyocyte growth in the tissue of adult hearts — both mice and human.
4. And when injected into the damaged hearts of live mice, Agrin appeared to heal them and restore them to regular working order within weeks, greatly reducing scar tissue and replacing it with new healthy muscle cells.”

President Trump Upsets The Lifelong Career Politicians

Posted: 6/18/2017

The Situation

Unfortunately, over decades Western democracies have significantly degenerated or decayed by developing an entrenched caste of lifelong career politicians. Most of these politicians have not not much to show and remain rather unaccomplished! Many of them are just useful idiots and needed to vote as told.

Elections in Western democracies turn out to be too slow a process to weed out those politicians. These politicians often engage in measures to fortify their position and to make it more difficult to challenge them through the electoral process.

But I am digressing ...

The Example Of Donald Trump

Once in a while somebody comes along and challenges the proverbial applecart. Trump with his financial means, entrepreneurial spirit, and cleverness is such a man. Coming virtually out of nowhere, widely underestimated as a lightweight contender  and so on … The rest is history.

Thanks to the amendment in the U.S. Constitution that limits the presidency to two terms, there are more opportunities for men and women like Trump.

Why The Endless And Ferocious Witch Hunt Against President Trump?

One reason clearly is that he upset the applecart described above. All lifelong career politicians in both parties are upset by him. Sounds too simple? Maybe not!

Follow the money trail! To be a lifelong career politician is a highly lucrative job! They are invested in their jobs!

Implications

There ought to be more term limits applied to all elected politicians in Western democracies. More citizens ought to have a chance to lead!

Why Are Chinese So Smart?

Posted: 6/18/2017

Trigger

I was always interested in why is it that some populations have disproportionately more highly intelligent people than others. Something that in our so politically correct times in the West cannot be anymore discussed so easily.

I readily admit that I sure have missed some populations here. I bet there are also African peoples who display this phenomenon, but I do not know much about it yet. But there were certainly also e.g. exceptional kingdoms in African history.

I apologize to any people not mentioned here (e.g. Russians, Indians, Germans, French, Portuguese, Greek, Japanese, Koreans, Mexicans and many others).

Disclaimer

This post has absolutely nothing to do with any form of racism or any form of supremacy etc.!

First, About Jews

There are genetic factors; a historical tradition of and high regard for discourse and learning; constant persecution over the centuries; a very strong cohesion and storytelling; forced into modern, highly sophisticated professions like merchants or banking or jurisprudence or medical professions and so on.

Second, About Hungarians

I might be wrong, but for a small size population like the Hungarians it is surprising to realize how many outstanding scientists or mathematicians were Hungarians (Edward Teller,  John von Neumann). Unfortunately, I have not checked how many of them were Jews as well. It also appears that the Hungarian background is not always easy to detect (e.g. I had no clue that Milton Friedman’s parents were immigrants from Hungary and he was Jewish, and I am a big fan of him, or was it e.g. him that contributed to my impression that some Hungarians made outstanding achievements to humanity).

Unfortunately, I have not much a clue why these people have such an outstanding number of super intelligent men and women. Hungarians surely speak a peculiar language. Was the Austrian-Hungarian empire involved? Probably!

Now, To The Chinese People

I am sure, there are other reasons: e.g. large population, higher probability of some super smart people among them (likewise India); one of the oldest civilizations on earth (likewise India); oldest philosophies of learning and wisdom; ancient tradition of inventions and more …

Then, there is the unique, very old written and oral language of the Chinese. One of the most intractable, major languages for Westerners on this planet.

Just to memorize all of the about 2-3,000 different Chinese characters in common use despite their similarities and common features is a mind boggling feat of the brain. Beats any Western crossword puzzle or other mind or memory training games etc. any time.

Chinese is a tonal language with four major tones and one neutral tone. Can you imagine the number of permutations of characters and tones this allows for? Absolutely mind boggling! If you think Western classical music is a complex composition, try Chinese language.

Just to give an example, the Chinese phonetic word wei has, to my admittedly very limited understanding of the language, about a total of 400 differently spelled words and meanings associated with it, very, very roughly equally distributed over the four major tones. Of which about 80 words are in frequent, if not daily use and are recognised by many Chinese people.

I wonder how much wiring of neurons in the brain is necessary just to master this language?

The Chinese people still have to recover from several hundred years of self inflicted isolation from the rest of the world and from over 70 years of communist dictatorship, but the sleeping giant is awakening …

However, the complex Chinese language is also arguably the greatest obstacle for Chinese people to become world citizens. Perhaps automated natural language translation or artificial intelligence will help to bridge the language divide in the future. We can only hope the Chinese people will one day voluntarily adopt the simpler 26 alphabetical characters like we use in the West. A reverse adaptation is a bit unthinkable ...

What About The Scottish, Or Italians

I would believe that also the fairly small populations of the Scottish as well as others have a disportionately high incidence of very intelligent people (e.g. Adam Smith, James Clerk Maxwell, James Watt, Alexander Graham Bell, Lord Kelvin).

Italians, I regret that they may have reached their zenith perhaps a few centuries ago. I might be mistaken, but Italians (but also Greeks) might be an example where over history the output of very intelligent people has actually declined. Which Italians come to mind after Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo Galilei or Niccolo Machiavelli?

Why Humans Need A Computer Brain Interface Fast

Posted: 6/18/2017

Will I Be A Witness In My Remaining Lifetime

Blessed are those who have perfect photographic memory lasting over long periods of time. But, I am afraid, few people do.

A computer brain interface would go way beyond photographic memory to tapping into and fast processing of all the available knowledge ever collected by humans in the past.

I have little doubt that one day our brains (plus our body) are integrated with computers in some form or shape. Computers may evolve into biological computers as well.

Huge Benefits

Let me attempt to collect some benefits here (by far not exhaustive):

1. Instantaneous and independent self education about any subject conceivable and in any depth you may choose in the shortest amount of time possible. Denis Diderot would be truly amazed!
2. Lies will have even shorter legs than today. Propaganda and demagoguery of the kind we have experienced in the past to fool people will become a lot more difficult
3. Self-diagnosis and self-treatment of medical issues will be much easier. Mental and physical health will be constantly checked up by the computer

Caveat Emptor

As any other technology, it can be abused! There will be powers that will attempt to do exactly that! Citizens beware!

Life Is Full Of Strange Coincidences

Posted: 6/18/2017

Yesterday, my wife and I visited a PetSmart Store in our neighborhood for fun. We discovered they even had life crickets, small and large at 14 and 15 cents each, for sale in a box.

Today, I turned on one of my favorite classical music stations on the Internet (WQXR) and voila, the first piece they played was Georg Telemann’s Cricket Symphony (TWV 50). Until this moment, I did not even know that such a symphony even existed.

Life is full of surprises and coincidences!

Obscene How The Left And The Democrats Want President Trump To Be Assassinated

Posted: 6/13/2017 Updated: 5/14/2017

Update Of 5/14/2017

Guess, this blog post of mine was not a day to early. Very prescient!

Within a few hours of posting this blog, the American people woke up this morning to find out that a man who who publicly expressed his hate towards President Trump and was a follower of socialist Bernie Sanders became the perpetrator of a mass shooting. His victims GOP members and staff of the U.S. Congress, being shot at multiple times during the morning baseball practice, several people were injured. The shooter is believed to have died in the ensuing shootout with police.

Unconscionable Incitement Of Violence

Pray for President Trump that no psychopath attempts to kill him! Pray for the Secret Service not to fail the president!

The left and their enablers, the Democrats, on the other hand, are trying, almost every day, incessantly everything to fuel or incite violence directed at the president. This is truly despicable!

The Sick And Dangerous!

Latest we learn of this Shakespeare Caesar play in New York, which alludes to Trump as Caesar.

Then there was this deranged comedian Kathy Griffin with a picture of herself and a severed head of the president. Earlier, there was Madonna wishing to blow up the White House! This is very sick and dangerous!

Endless False Accusations!

Then there is the constant barrage of false claims by Democrats that the president ought to be impeached, that he obstructed justice, that he violated the emoluments clause of the U.S. Constitution, that he colluded with the Russians and so on. Endless, false accusations without a scintilla of evidence!

It is outrageous!

The Way Too Many Republican Cowards

Worse of all, the Republicans are very timid to pushback against this daily cabal since Trump’s inauguration! They are playing along like fools! It is too serious to be ignored!

Reagan Forgotten

A stark reminder, Reagan was nearly assassinated in 1981! It is high time to remind the elected representatives of all parties that this is a very serious matter! This witch hunt against the president needs to end, ASAP!

On Mandatory Child Immunization

Posted: 6/11/2017

Trigger

Recently read: Null Toleranz für die Impfgegner Das Verhalten der Impfgegner ist irrational und ideologisch. Freilich muss auch irrationales Handeln erlaubt sein, doch ihr Verhalten bedroht das Leben anderer. Da hilft nur noch Zwang. (Partial translation: Zero tolerance for immunization opponents … only government coercion can help)

It appears there are more efforts in some western countries by governments to enforce more strict childhood immunization programs, e.g. in the U.S. and Germany.

Voluntary Or Government Compulsion?

Presumably, most parents would voluntarily agree to have their children properly immunised for the love of their children. Only immunized children are protected, most parents probably understand this very well.

Presumably, only a minority of parents believe in exaggerated or false claims of vaccines being dangerous for their children. Here better education by private and government institutions would certainly help.

I would argue that there is no compelling reason for government mandated compulsion of child or any other group immunization unless a severe crisis presents itself. General Government compulsion is based on or exploits exaggerated fears.

Government forced immunization is totally outdated in the 21st century!

Herd Immunization

Apparently, not 100% of the population need to be immunized to prevent an outbreak of a contagious disease (see e.g. here, here). For e.g. measles it is reported that a 95% coverage of immunization would be sufficient.

However, a less than 100% immunization rate increases the risk that vulnerable members of the population (e.g. children, who for medical reasons cannot be immunized or older adults etc.) get infected. However, what is the probability?

Immunization Schedules For Adults

This could be indeed a neglected subject of public health. How many adults realize that they need to be vaccinated again?

More private and public education on this subject would not hurt!

Victim Of Their Own Success

Beautiful argument! It goes like this “Vaccines prevent serious infections so effectively that many parents mistakenly believe the diseases are no longer a threat in the United States” (source).

This would call for more and better education of parents by private and public institutions about the real risk that long, largely controlled child diseases could come back to haunt if childhood immunizations keep dropping.

This would also call for private and government efforts to spread more childhood immunizations around the world. Or to achieve complete eradication!

More Research To Defeat These Pathogens Once And For All!

Like with antibiotic resistance it is high time to devote more private and public funding to diagnose and defeat these pathogens as early and thoroughly as possible with least side effects. Finally, in the early 21st century, humans have the technological means to do it. Just do it! (pardon me Nike)

Where are Bill & Melinda Gates or other billionaires to step forward!

Big Disclaimer

I am not a doctor nor have I ever had any significant training in medicine! I am a lay person on medical topics.

Federal Court Smacks Obama On Drones

Posted: 6/7/2017

Trigger

Just read Court Ruling: The FAA Can't Make You Register Your Drone. The U.S. Court Of Appeals for the district of Columbia Circuit could not have been more plain spoken about the incompetence of the Obama FAA. This new FAA regulation was highly controversial when it was promulgated and when it became effective in December of 2015. Obama’s FAA also apparently upset a long standing practice as to the regulation of model aircraft.

Obama Was An Awful Unlawful And Stupid President

This stupid ideologue of a president tried to retard an imminent technical revolution when his FAA came out with this drone registration mandate for consumers.

This case zeroes in on and magnifies what an incompetent president Obama was!