The latest in organic solar cells

Another subject I haven’t had the opportunity to cover in a while. I really get the impression that basic research into advanced solar cell technology has passed a critical point where it’s when, and not how — and more importantly, the when part is now sooner than later.

The release:

U of T chemistry discovery brings organic solar cells a step closer

Inexpensive solar cells, vastly improved medical imaging techniques and lighter and more flexible television screens are among the potential applications envisioned for organic electronics.

Recent experiments conducted by Greg Scholes and Elisabetta Collini of University of Toronto’s Department of Chemistry may bring these within closer reach thanks to new insights into the way molecules absorb and move energy. Their findings will be published in the prestigious international journal Science on January 16.

The U of T team — whose work is devoted to investigating how light initiates physical processes at the molecular level and how humans might take better advantage of that fact — looked specifically at conjugated polymers which are believed to be one of the most promising candidates for building efficient organic solar cells.

Conjugated polymers are very long organic molecules that possess properties like those of semiconductors and so can be used to make transistors and LEDs. When these conductive polymers absorb light, the energy moves along and among the polymer chains before it is converted to electrical charges.

“One of the biggest obstacles to organic solar cells is that it is difficult to control what happens after light is absorbed: whether the desired property is transmitting energy, storing information or emitting light,” explains Collini. “Our experiment suggests it is possible to achieve control using quantum effects, even under relatively normal conditions.”

“We found that the ultrafast movement of energy through and between molecules happens by a quantum-mechanical mechanism rather than through random hopping, even at room temperature,” explains Scholes. “This is extraordinary and will greatly influence future work in the field because everyone thought that these kinds of quantum effects could only operate in complex systems at very low temperatures,” he says.

Scholes and Collini’s discovery opens the way to designing organic solar cells or sensors that capture light and transfer its energy much more effectively. It also has significant implications for quantum computing because it suggests that quantum information may survive significantly longer than previously believed.

In their experiment, the scientists used ultrashort laser pulses to put the conjugated polymer into a quantum-mechanical state, whereby it is simultaneously in the ground (normal) state and a state where light has been absorbed. This is called a superposition state or quantum coherence. Then they used a sophisticated method involving more ultrashort laser pulses to observe whether this quantum state can migrate along or between polymer chains. “It turns out that it only moves along polymer chains,” says Scholes. “The chemical framework that makes up the chain is a crucial ingredient for enabling quantum coherent energy transfer. In the absence of the chemical framework, energy is funneled by chance, rather than design.”

This means that a chemical property – structure — can be used to steer the ultrafast migration of energy using quantum coherence. The unique properties of conjugated polymers continue to surprise us,” he says.

 

###

 

Greg Scholes and Elisabetta Collini are with the Department of Chemistry, the Institute for Optical Sciences and the Centre for Quantum Information and Quantum Control at the University of Toronto. The research was funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

The latest in cloaking tech

Haven’t blogged on this subject in a while. It’s always fun to cover, though.

The release:

Next generation cloaking device demonstrated

		IMAGE: Pictured is the new cloak with bump, left, and the prototype, right. Click here for more information.

DURHAM, N.C. – A device that can bestow invisibility to an object by “cloaking” it from visual light is closer to reality. After being the first to demonstrate the feasibility of such a device by constructing a prototype in 2006, a team of Duke University engineers has produced a new type of cloaking device, which is significantly more sophisticated at cloaking in a broad range of frequencies.

The latest advance was made possible by the development of a new series of complex mathematical commands, known as algorithms, to guide the design and fabrication of exotic composite materials known as metamaterials. These materials can be engineered to have properties not easily found in natural materials, and can be used to form a variety of “cloaking” structures. These structures can guide electromagnetic waves around an object, only to have them emerge on the other side as if they had passed through an empty volume of space.

		IMAGE: This is David R. Smith with the new cloak device. Click here for more information.

The results of the latest Duke experiments were published Jan. 16 in the journal Science. First authors of the paper were Duke’s Ruopeng Liu, who developed the algorithm, and Chunlin Li. David R. Smith, William Bevan Professor of electrical and computer engineering at Duke, is the senior member of the research team.

Once the algorithm was developed, the latest cloaking device was completed from conception to fabrication in nine days, compared to the four months required to create the original, and more rudimentary, device. This powerful new algorithm will make it possible to custom-design unique metamaterials with specific cloaking characteristics, the researchers said.

“The difference between the original device and the latest model is like night and day,” Smith said. “The new device can cloak a much wider spectrum of waves — nearly limitless — and will scale far more easily to infrared and visible light. The approach we used should help us expand and improve our abilities to cloak different types of waves.”

Cloaking devices bend electromagnetic waves, such as light, in such a way that it appears as if the cloaked object is not there. In the latest laboratory experiments, a beam of microwaves aimed through the cloaking device at a “bump” on a flat mirror surface bounced off the surface at the same angle as if the bump were not present. Additionally, the device prevented the formation of scattered beams that would normally be expected from such a perturbation.

The underlying cloaking phenomenon is similar to the mirages seen ahead at a distance on a road on a hot day.

“You see what looks like water hovering over the road, but it is in reality a reflection from the sky,” Smith explained. “In that example, the mirage you see is cloaking the road below. In effect, we are creating an engineered mirage with this latest cloak design.”

Smith believes that cloaks should find numerous applications as the technology is perfected. By eliminating the effects of obstructions, cloaking devices could improve wireless communications, or acoustic cloaks could serve as protective shields, preventing the penetration of vibrations, sound or seismic waves.

“The ability of the cloak to hide the bump is compelling, and offers a path towards the realization of forms of cloaking abilities approaching the optical,” Liu said. “Though the designs of such metamaterials are extremely complex, especially when traditional approaches are used, we believe that we now have a way to rapidly and efficiently produce such materials.”

With appropriately fine-tuned metamaterials, electromagnetic radiation at frequencies ranging from visible light to radio could be redirected at will for virtually any application, Smith said. This approach could also lead to the development of metamaterials that focus light to provide more powerful lenses.

The newest cloak, which measures 20 inches by 4 inches and less than an inch high, is actually made up of more than 10,000 individual pieces arranged in parallel rows. Of those pieces, more than 6,000 are unique. Each piece is made of the same fiberglass material used in circuit boards and etched with copper.

The algorithm determined the shape and placement of each piece. Without the algorithm, properly designing and aligning the pieces would have been extremely difficult, Smith said.

 

###

 

The research was supported by Raytheon Missile Systems, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, InnovateHan Technology, the National Science Foundation of China, the National Basic Research Program of China, and National Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province, China.

Others members of the research team were Duke’s Jack Mock, as well as Jessie Y. Chin and Tie Jun Cui from Southeast University, Nanjing, China.

The sins of Bush 43

Steve Chapman has an excellent article up at Reason on where the Bush 43 years have gone wrong.

Here’s two very telling issues:

The Budget. Bush represented the alleged party of small government, yet under him, federal outlays exploded. During his presidency, spending was up by 70 percent, more than double the increase under Bill Clinton. When Bush arrived, the federal government was running surpluses. Since then—not counting the horrendously expensive financial bailout—the national debt has nearly doubled. You can’t blame Congress for all this: Bush was the first president in 176 years to go an entire term without vetoing a single piece of legislation.

Executive power. Conservatives are supposed to believe in strict limits on government power, but Bush pushed incessantly to expand the prerogatives of the president. He asserted the right to ignore laws banning torture and restricting wiretapping. The Supreme Court found that his imprisonment of captives at Guantanamo Bay violated the Constitution by denying them the right to challenge their detention in court.

Where torture has led the US

The US institution of torture under the Bush 43 regime is a subject I’ve done plenty of blogging about. I think overturning a policy of non-torture put into place by then General George Washington will be on the most prominent legacies, and worst black marks on any US president, for George W. Bush.

Here’s a rountable debate on the “Torture’s Blowback” from the New York Times.

From the second link:

Susan Crawford, the senior Pentagon official who dismissed charges against Mohammed al-Qahtani, a Guantánamo detainee, said in a published report on Wednesday that she had concluded that he had been tortured by interrogators. “His treatment met the legal definition of torture. And that’s why I did not refer the case” for prosecution, Ms. Crawford told The Washington Post. We asked these experts — most of whom were in our previous debate on the legal challenges of closing Guantánamo — how this admission of torture might affect that closure and the prosecution of other detainees.

And following are portions of the discussion.

From

David Cole is a professor at Georgetown University Law Center, and the author, most recently, of “Justice At War: The Men and Ideas That Shaped America’s ‘War on Terror,’” and the essay “Closing Guantanamo,” published in Boston Review:

Susan Crawford’s admission that Mohammed al-Qahtani was tortured, and that as a result she had to drop the military’s prosecution of a man thought to the 20th hijacker in the Sept. 11 attacks illustrates just how costly the Bush administration’s short-sighted and immoral policies of coercive interrogation have been.

More than seven years later, it is not clear those practices have stopped any particular attack, but the Bush administration has yet to obtain a conviction against any of those behind the terrorist attacks.

From

Andrew McCarthy, a former federal prosecutor and author of “Willful Blindness: Memoir of the Jihad,” is legal affairs editor at National Review.:

As someone who has supported the military commission system, I must concede that it has performed abysmally, and Wednesday’s news reflects more of the same.

A short recap of its failings: The judge in the first military commission trial incorrectly instructed a jury on the definition of a “war crime” (a concept one would have thought rather basic to a “war crime” trial). The same judge gave the defendant — who had been a confidant and bodyguard of Osama bin Laden himself — a get-out-of-jail-free card. (I’ve been critical of various aspects of using the criminal justice system to counter terrorism, but one thing cannot be denied: terrorists convicted in our courts have gotten appropriately severe sentences — decades or more in prison.) Finally, a general in the appointing authority (the body that oversees the commission process) suggested that statements derived from waterboarding could be used as evidence.

And from

Diane Marie Amann is a professor of law and director of the California International Law Center at University of California, Davis. In December she observed Guantánamo military commissions proceedings on behalf of the National Institute of Military Justice:

Last month, I was in the gallery of the Guantánamo courtroom built for the trial of the 9/11 case. I saw six defense tables, but there were only five defendants. There had been no official explanation for the absence — until now. Susan Crawford’s conclusion that Mr. Qahtani, the sixth man, was tortured — confirming what anyone following military commission proceedings already assumed — raises anew questions about what effect illegal interrogations will have on this and other post-9/11 cases.

Dallas’ Frogtown — a true tale of prostitution

This article was written a number of years ago and by chance never ended up published to the best of my knowledge. I was paid my kill fee and moved on.

I thought it might be of interest to my blog readers — imagine a city-sanctioned red light district in Dallas, Texas …

“Frogtown”
By David Kirkpatrick
“The City of Dallas approves ordinance to OK prostitution” — a headline you expect never to read? It probably didn’t make the papers of the day, but in 1910 that headline would be correct.
 
Dallas was a bustling city in the early 20th century with many similarities to the Dallas of today. The earlier burg was full of commerce and civic activity, and was a transportation hub. Darwin Payne, professor emeritus, SMU, and author of several books on Dallas, opens “Big D: Triumphs and Troubles of an American Supercity in the 20th Century,” with a quote that could apply today. Payne writes, “In 1907 a local businessman rendered this thumbnail portrait of Dallas: ‘A city of skyscrapers, resounding with the roar of trade.’” But the Dallas of 100 years ago had one thing today’s city does not — Frogtown, a red light district that operated within shouting distance of the Old Red Courthouse, Dallas’ civic center at the time, with the full blessing of the city’s leadership.

(head below the fold for the rest of the story)

Congress looking into nanotech safety

Hope this doesn’t stifle innovation. Congress sticking fingers into anything is usually a recipe for problems. Of course the source for this report is a pretty biased group in terms of wanting more oversight over nanotechnology.

The release from a few minutes ago:

Nanotech Safety High on Congress’ Priority List

New House bill addresses need for more risk research, oversight

WASHINGTON, Jan. 15 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The House Science and Technology Committee today introduced legislation that highlights the growing attention on Capitol Hill for the need to strengthen federal efforts to learn more about the potential environmental, health and safety (EHS) risks posed by engineered nanomaterials. Nanotechnology is an emerging technology that promises to usher in the next Industrial Revolution and is the focus of an annual $1.5 billion federal research investment.

The new bill (H.R. 554) is almost identical to legislation that passed the House last year with overwhelming bi-partisan support by a vote of 407 to 6. The Senate was expected to mark up similar legislation, but lawmakers ran out of time during the session.

Introduction of the bill comes only months after former Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) official J. Clarence (Terry) Davies authored a report that makes a series of recommendations for improving federal risk research and oversight of engineered nanomaterials at EPA, the Food and Drug Administration and the Consumer Product Safety Commission. The report published by the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies (PEN), Nanotechnology Oversight: An Agenda for the Next Administration, offers a host of proposals for how Congress, federal agencies and the White House can improve oversight of engineered nanomaterials; see: http://www.nanotechproject.org/publications/archive/pen13/.

“We know that when materials are developed at the nanoscale that they pose potential risks that do not appear at the macroscale,” says David Rejeski, PEN’s director. “This new bill shows that lawmakers recognize both nanotechnology’s enormous promise and possible problems. The legislation reflects mounting Congressional interest in understanding potential risks in order to protect the public and to encourage safe commercial development and investment.”

The House bill comes only weeks after a National Research Council (NRC) panel issued a highly critical report describing serious shortfalls in the Bush administration’s strategy to better understand the EHS risks of nanotechnology and to effectively manage those potential risks.

The NRC report, Review of the Federal Strategy for Nanotechnology-Related Environmental, Health and Safety Research, calls for a significantly revamped national strategic plan that will minimize potential risks so that innovation will flourish and society will reap nanotechnology’s benefits in areas like medicine, energy, transportation and communications.

About Nanotechnology

Nanotechnology is the ability to measure, see, manipulate and manufacture things usually between 1 and 100 nanometers. A nanometer is one billionth of a meter; a human hair is roughly 100,000 nanometers wide. In 2007, the global market for goods incorporating nanotechnology totaled $147 billion. Lux Research projects that figure will grow to $3.1 trillion by 2015.

The Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies is an initiative launched by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and The Pew Charitable Trusts in 2005. It is dedicated to helping business, government and the public anticipate and manage possible health and environmental implications of nanotechnology. For more information about the project, log on to www.nanotechproject.org.

Source: The Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies
   
Web Site:  http://www.nanotechproject.org/

Fed’s latest Beige Book is bleak

Not too surprising to tell the truth.

From the link:

Investors looking for some good news in the Federal Reserve’s latest report on economic activity around the nation would be well advised not to bother.

Upbeat information was in short supply in the report, essentially a summary of anecdotes from the central bank’s business contacts, released Tuesday.

The report, known informally as the Beige Book, found that the U.S. economy continued on its downswing in early December through early January.

It is hard to gauge the speed of the economy’s descent from the report, but the pace did not seem to be slackening.

Areas that had been strong suits for the economy — the service sector, the energy sector and, until lately, commercial real estate — offered no respite from the general gloom.

Conditions in the labor market were especially poor, with layoffs, hiring freezes, pay freezes and salary reductions commonplace.

Both commercial and residential real estate are suffering from tighter credit standards and a drop in lending activity.

Obama caves to Congress on jobs credit

I hope this doesn’t become a pattern. I’ll give Obama the benefit of the doubt and hope his economic team is asking for something the Democratic Congresss doesn’t want to give, so this move is part of quid pro quo.

From the link:

Aides to President-elect Obama have agreed to drop an unpopular idea to provide a $3,000 tax credit for companies hiring new workers from the economic stimulus package, setting up a new round of lobbying for tax cuts that could replace it, lawmakers said Jan. 13.

“Every member has five ideas” for how to replace the jobs creation tax credit, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) told reporters after a meeting with Obama aides. Baucus did not elaborate on possibilities for replacing the credit, but other Finance Committee members floated suggestions for further expansions of renewable energy tax credits and a tax credit of up to $4,000 to help middle-class households pay for college.

The tax elements of the package have been expected to cost about $300 billion over two years, and the total package is projected to be at least $775 billion.

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) told reporters he is pushing to convert to a tax credit the deduction of up to $4,000 that is currently allowed for higher education expenses under the tax code, to provide assistance to individuals earning too much to get help from Pell grants but too little to afford tuition. The provision would cost an estimated $3 billion to $4 billion per year, Schumer said.

Committee members rejected the jobs creation tax credit amid concerns that it would be impossible to implement fairly and may not be stimulative since it would merely treat the symptoms of the economic slowdown, rather than its cause.

One million foreclosures in 2008

A ridiculous number. Especially given that Wall Street was handed money that is doing absolutely nothing. The Fed and really all of D.C. completely fell down on the job with this. I’m betting history will not be very kind looking back in a few years.

From the link:

SACRAMENTO, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–January 14, 2009–About 1 million homes were lost to foreclosure in 2008, up nearly 63.5 percent from 2007, according to the U.S. Foreclosure Index from ForeclosureS.com, a leading real estate information provider.

In this first look at complete 2008 statistics, the Index also shows nearly 2.1 million pre-foreclosure filings last year, up nearly 62 percent from 2007. Pre-foreclosure actions can include notice of default and/or foreclosure auction leading up to an actual foreclosure.

Month to month, foreclosed properties repossessed by lenders spiked in December, up 19.3 percent to 97,841 from November, when 82,033 properties were foreclosed. The December increase followed two months of steady declines, but December still was 6.1 percent below the peak foreclosure month of September. Pre-foreclosures, which had been slowing until December, also climbed to 190,467 in December, up 11.9 percent from November.

All regions of the country showed increases in lender-owned properties and pre-foreclosure filings in December, ForeclosureS.com analysis shows.

U.S. FORECLOSURE INDEX:
YEAR TO DATE PRE-FORECLOSURE FILINGS BY REGION
Pre-foreclosures		YTD 2007				YTD 2008				Change
Region		Filings		Per Household		Filings		Per Household
Midwest		185,073		1.69%		228,849		1.98%		23.6%
Southeast		383,697		2.31%		735,417		4.29%		91.7%
Northeast		190,832		1.14%		235,745		1.34%		23.5%
Southwest		528,399		2.09%		883,006		3.60%		67.1%
Other States		3,476		0.60%		6,034		1.03%		73.6%
Nationwide		1,291,477		1.85%		2,089,051		2.95%		61.8%
*Percentage of every 1,000 households in state

U.S. FORECLOSURE INDEX:
YEAR TO DATE REO FILINGS BY REGION
REO		YTD 2007				YTD 2008				Change
Region		Filings		Per Household		Filings		Per Household
Midwest		182,176		1.13%		195,057		1.24%		7.1%
Southeast		146,068		0.89%		253,126		1.49%		73.3%
Northeast		26,333		0.24%		41,250		0.25%		56.7%
Southwest		241,544		0.93%		501,641		1.99%		107.7%
Other States		1,056		0.21%		1,496		0.27%		41.7%
Nationwide		597,177		0.85%		992,570		1.34%		66.2%
*Percentage of every 1,000 households in state

On a quarterly basis, the Index also shows that the number of properties lost to foreclosure, 266,986, and pre-foreclosure filings, 528,241, both dropped in the fourth quarter, 9.2 and 2.4 percent respectively, compared with the third quarter.

“While the sheer number of about 1 million foreclosures is staggering, it was not unexpected,” says Alexis McGee, foreclosure expert, educator, author, and president of ForeclosureS.com. “Since July, we anticipated that we would see about 1 million foreclosures this year.”

“But there is good news – a variety of indicators show that some housing markets are bouncing back and we should see substantial improvement in 2009,” McGee says. “I think 2009 will surprise many people who have bought into the gloom-and-doom agenda.”

“In some areas like California, the housing recovery already has begun,” McGee says. “Inventories of unsold homes will drop quickly this year as people realize that today’s deals on homes are the best they’ll likely see in their lifetimes, both in terms of affordable prices and low interest rates!”

“The earlier declines in foreclosures and pre-foreclosure filings were likely the result of changes in state laws that slowed down the foreclosure process for many homeowners. But lenders played catch-up with foreclosure filings at year-end as December’s numbers indicate,” McGee adds.

“Don’t expect another tidal wave of foreclosures this year, either, just because more adjustable rate mortgages are due to reset,” she says. “Current mortgage rates are at 30 year lows and dropping. Those who qualify will be able to refinance and enjoy lower monthly payments, not higher ones. Those that can’t will end up either selling their homes pre-foreclosure or losing them to foreclosure. But I am anticipating our market can absorb this inventory.”

McGee said her optimism for 2009 is driven in part by positive housing market indicators, including:

Housing affordability. Thanks to drops in home prices and mortgage rates, housing is the most affordable it’s been since February 1994, when a mortgage on a median-price home equated to 18 percent of the median income. Credit Suisse estimates today’s mortgage payment on a median price home in October represented 16.7 percent of median household income based on a 6.23% mortgage. At current 5% interest rates and dropping houses affordability is more likely under 15% of the median income.

Growing U.S. population. The Census Bureau projects with births, deaths and immigration U.S. population will increase by one person every 14 seconds in 2009. More people mean more demand for housing.

Coming housing shortage. Housing construction has plummeted. Housing starts hit record lows in November, off 18.9 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 625,000 units. New building permits plunged 15.6 percent. That’s great news for housing markets because with fewer homes being built at the same time population — and housing demand — is exploding, the shortfall has to be made up somehow. In this case, it opens the door for the nation’s one million foreclosures to be easily absorbed in the market, and housing supply finally to catch up with demand.

Buyers for foreclosure properties.Tighter housing supplies mean buyers will look to foreclosure homes as viable purchase options. “We are so under building right now that whatever new foreclosures do hit the market, I see them offsetting the losses of new housing we need but are not getting,” says McGee.

Unemployment is an issue, but not as large as some think. “The unemployment rate released by the government for December was consistent with economists’ consensus estimates and came in considerably better than a private forecast released in early January,” McGee says. At 7.2%, unemployment is just shy of the 7.8% experienced during the 1990-1991 recession but still well below our double-digit levels of the early 1980s.

The following charts provide additional information on trends from the latest U.S. Foreclosure Index from ForeclosureS.com:

U.S. FORECLOSURE INDEX:
TOP 10 STATES IN NUMBERS OF REO FILINGS
State		Filings		Per Household*
California		260,709		2.27%
Florida		107,833		1.71%
Texas		70,037		1.17%
Arizona		65,898		3.47%
Michigan		62,419		2.09%
Georgia		53,423		2.55%
Ohio		47,544		1.22%
Nevada		37,043		4.99%
Colorado		30,132		1.96%
Illinois		27,957		0.74%
*Percentage of every 1,000 households in state

For all of 2008, California still tops the list in terms of number of REO filings with nearly 1 ½ times as many filings as No. 2 and 3 on the list, Florida and Texas.

On a per household basis – often the best way to judge trends – California ranks a distant fifth with 22.7 of every 1,000 households lost to foreclosure in 2008. That’s behind Nevada (49.9 for every 1,000 households in the state); Arizona (34.7 of every 1,000 households); Mississippi (25.6 per 1,000); and Georgia (25.5 per 1,000). On a quarterly basis, however, California’s 4 th quarter REO filings (54,198) plunged 39.44 percent from third quarter (89,501).

House Democrats ready $850B stimulus

We all knew it was coming, but get ready. The House is putting the finishing touches on a $850 billion stimulus package.

Wow.

From the link:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Wednesday that Democrats are close to finalizing the details of an economic recovery package.

Pelosi declined to give reporters any details of the bill, but said she is more confident that Congress would reach the mid-February deadline for getting a bill to Obama’s desk.

“It’s about four words — jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs,” she said.

The overall price tag for the package is $800 billion to $850 billion, with $300 billion to $325 billion designated for tax cuts and $500 billion to $525 billion dedicated to infrastructure spending and aid to the states, according to a senior House Democratic aide.

It’s possible an announcement will be made on Thursday, the aide said.

Masterpieces from Spain’s Prado …

… in close-up detail on Google Earth. Very, very cool.

From the link:

Masterpieces from Spain’s El Prado museum went on display in microscopic detail on Google Earth on Tuesday, in what was hailed as a first for a major international museum.

“This technological advance will provide access to the works to anyone from anywhere in the world,” Prado director Miguel Zugaza said during an official presentation of the project.

Among the 14 canvases available for inspection online is Diego Velazquez’s Las Meninas depicting the infanta Margarita and her courtiers, regarded as his greatest work and one of the best-known paintings at the two-centuries-old Prado.

Other works art lovers can examine in detail from their computers are Francisco de Goya’s El Tres de Mayo, Hieronymus Bosch’s triptych The Garden of Earthly Delights and paintings by Rubens, Titian, Rembrandt and El Greco.

“This is the first time in the world that this is being done,” said the head of the Spanish branch of US Internet giant Google, Javier Rodriguez Zapatero.

Other major museums like the Louvre in Paris allow Internet users to zoom in on their works, but not with the same image quality as that provided by Google Earth, a virtual map program that uses satellite information and photography

The Google Earth images have a resolution of 14,000 megapixels, about 1,400 times greater than a picture taken on a standard 10 megapixel camera. They were stitched together from thousands of high-resolution photographs of the paintings.

Bankruptcy reform is driving foreclosures

After the shenanigans of the last couple of years, I think the banking industry needs government oversight to stand on its neck for a year or two. Clearly bankers are incapable of taking charge of themselves.

Bankruptcy is a powerful tool that never should have been altered for individuals. It shouldn’t be abused, but sometimes it is necessary.

From the link:

There’s no shortage of blame for the mortgage crisis that drove the economy into the ditch.

But here’s a fresh culprit: the 2005 bankruptcy reform act, which was strongly pushed by the credit card industry.

So say three researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, who argue that the legislation shifted risk from credit card lenders to mortgage lenders, helping trigger the surge in home foreclosures.

Before Congress passed the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005, households could erase their unsecured debts by filing for Chapter 7 liquidation. That freed up income that distressed homeowners could use to make mortgage payments.

The new law, however, forced better-off households seeking bankruptcy protection to file under Chapter 13. That chapter requires homeowners to continue paying their unsecured lenders.

In other words, say the Fed researchers, cash-strapped homeowners who might have saved their homes by filing Chapter 7 are now much more likely to face foreclosure.

“Is it just coincidence that the surge in subprime foreclosures that has rocked financial markets came right after the bankruptcy reform in 2005?” they asked. “Is that surge just about falling home prices, bad mortgage decisions and weak economic conditions?

“No and no.”

Newsflash — Bush admits mistakes

If he actually owned up to every single goof, error in judgement and criminal act, the presser would last a couple of days.

From the link:

“Clearly putting a “Mission Accomplished” banner on an aircraft carrier was a mistake,” the president said, referring to his 2003 speech on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln as it returned home from its mission in Iraq. “It sent the wrong message; we were trying to say something differently but nevertheless it conveyed a different message.”

Worried about retirement funds?

Unless you’re going pretty exotic with your investments, there shouldn’t be much concern.

Hedge funds are basically the casino of investment vehicles — you only play with money you can afford to lose. At least that’s the theory. Mutual funds? I suggest just sitting tight and don’t even think about that money right now. The markets will improve eventually.

From the link:

REVELATIONS that hedge fund investors lost millions of dollars in the Bernard L. Madoff scandal have made many people nervous about their own money, even when it is held in plain-vanilla instruments like mutual funds.

Do mutual fund investors actually have cause to worry that their nest eggs could disappear?

 

There are no guarantees, of course, and there are plenty of ways to lose money in mutual funds. But compared with investors in hedge funds or other alternative instruments, mutual fund investors have less cause for concern about outright fraud, according to Russel Kinnel, director of research at Morningstar.

”Mutual funds are pretty well protected from fraud,” Mr. Kinnel said. ”There is much greater transparency in reporting and oversight. They don’t hold their own securities, and they don’t ask you to take it on faith.”

That may not have provided much comfort in the declining market of the last year, in which most mutual funds fell sharply. Aside from the direction of the overall market, poor investment decisions and high fees can eviscerate fund performance.

Can you guard against huge losses under these circumstances? Not entirely. Many mutual funds had miserable returns last year. Mr. Kinnel cites as an example the horrendous performance of several former Regions Morgan Keegan funds. The Select High Income fund, for example, fell 75.8 percent last year, while Select Intermediate Bond was down 84.5 percent. (Since August, the funds have been managed by Hyperion Brookfield Asset Management and have been renamed Helios Select High Income and Helios Select Intermediate Bond.)

Nanny state in action — New York-style

All I can say is man. Really.

From the link:

Can taxing junk food solve the obesity crisis? This controversial idea has never been given a real-world tryout, but the combination of a budget busting fiscal crisis and a citizenry that keeps getting fatter is causing legislators and executives around the world to give a so-called “obesity tax” serious consideration. New York Governor David Paterson is the most serious of all, proposing in his 2009 state budget that an 18% sales tax be levied on non-diet soda and sugary juice drinks. Such a tax, he says, would raise $404 million in the fiscal year starting in April, and $539 million in the year after that—all to be earmarked for obesity-fighting public health programs.

Search engines contribute to medicine

Believe it or not.

The release from yesterday:

Digital Communication Technology Helps Clear Path to Personalized Therapies

LA JOLLA, Calif., January 9, 2009 — Researchers at the Burnham Institute for Medical Research (Burnham) have shown that search algorithms used in digital communications can help scientists identify effective multi-drug combinations. The study, led by Giovanni Paternostro, M.D., Ph.D., was published in the December 26, 2008, issue of PLoS Computational Biology.

Using the stack sequential algorithm, which was developed for digital communications, the team of scientists searched for optimal drug combinations. This algorithm can integrate information from different sources, including biological measurements and model simulations. This differs from the classic systems biology approach by having search algorithms rather than explicit quantitative models as the central element. The variability of biological systems is the fundamental motivation for this strategy.

“Combination therapies have demonstrated efficacy in treating complex diseases such as cancer and hypertension, but it is difficult to identify safe and effective combination treatment regimens using only trial and error,” said Dr. Paternostro. “As personalized medicine moves from the present emphasis on diagnosis and prognosis to therapy, the problem of searching for optimal drug combinations uniquely suited to the genetic and molecular profile of each patient will need to be solved. This research is a first step in that direction.”

Current methodology for identifying effective combination therapies involves exhaustive testing. However, the exponential expansion of possibilities precludes exploring large combinations using this approach. For example, many chemotherapy regimens include six drugs from a pool of 100. A study that included all combinations (including partial combinations containing only some of these compounds) at three different doses would have to digest 8.9 x 10¹¹ possibilities. The problem requires a new approach rather than more efficient screening technology.

In the study, a small subset of the possible drug combinations identified using the algorithms were tested in two biological model systems. One system studied improvement in the physiological decline associated with aging in Drosophila melanogaster (fruit flies) and the other system tested for selective killing of cancer cells. In both cases, effective drug combinations were identified by combining the algorithm with biological tests.

“Our work was greatly helped by collaborators with expertise in medicine, engineering and physics from Burnham, University of California, San Diego and Michigan State University,” said Dr Paternostro. “We especially benefited from suggestions from Dr. Andrew Viterbi, inventor of the Viterbi algorithm so widely used in digital communications, who pointed to parallels between this biological problem and signal decoding.” Dr. Andrew Viterbi cofounded Linkabit Corporation and Qualcomm Inc., with Dr. Irwin Jacobs. He is currently the president of the venture capital firm, The Viterbi Group.

This work was funded by the Ellison Medical Foundation, National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.

About Burnham Institute for Medical Research
Burnham Institute for Medical Research is dedicated to revealing the fundamental molecular causes of disease and devising the innovative therapies of tomorrow. Burnham, with operations in California and Florida, is one of the fastest growing research institutes in the country. The Institute ranks among the top four institutions nationally for NIH grant funding and among the top 25 organizations worldwide for its research impact. Burnham utilizes a unique, collaborative approach to medical research and has established major research programs in cancer, neurodegeneration, diabetes, infectious and inflammatory and childhood diseases. The Institute is known for its world-class capabilities in stem cell research and drug discovery technologies. Burnham is a nonprofit, public benefit corporation. For more information, please visit www.burnham.org.

No Fannie or Freddie foreclosures for the month

Good news for people in trouble with mortgages through these two.

From the link:

The government-controlled home loan giants said the extension will allow borrowers facing foreclosure to keep their homes as it works with mortgage servicers to find options for troubled mortgage holders under the Streamlined Modification Program.

Freddie and Fannie began the modification program in December, aiming to create more affordable mortgage payments for borrowers at risk of foreclosure. The program applies to borrowers who have missed three payments or more, own and occupy their homes, and have not filed for bankruptcy.

Under the program, borrowers can reduce their interest rate, extend the life of the loan or defer payments on part of the principal.

The extended hiatus on foreclosures will give Fannie more time to launch a new policy that will allow renters in company-owned foreclosed properties to stay in their homes, Fannie said in a news release. Details of the new policy have not been announced.

Unemployment going up

Man, this is a Friday full of cheer. If nothing else, it’ll make you want to hit a bar ASAP.

More people are out of work and that is now an official trend..

From the link:

The number of laid-off U.S. workers who are continuing to draw unemployment checks jumped more than expected to 4.6 million at the end of December and is likely to keep climbing this year _ fresh evidence that Americans are finding it increasingly difficult to get a new job amid a deepening recession.

The Labor Department’s report Thursday also said first-time applications for jobless benefits dropped to 467,000 last week. But economists largely described that decline as a distortion, reflecting the government’s difficulty in making seasonal adjustments over the holiday period. Even with the dip, the figure still signaled trouble in the labor market. A year ago, initial claims stood at 330,000.

Persistent economic woes _ housing, credit and financial crises _ along with a flurry of layoffs announcements in the opening days of 2009 all point to another terrible year for jobseekers, economists said.

The government’s report showed that the number of people continuing to collect unemployment benefits rose by a sharp 101,000 to 4.6 million for the week ending Dec. 27, the most recent period for which that information is available. It was worse than the 4.5 million level of claims that economists had expected.

Hunker down for a long recession

I’m guessing this is going to be too little, too late. At least this financial crisis will get pinned securely on the Bush 43 administration and its failed policies.

From the link:

President-elect Barack Obama said Thursday the deepening American recession could stretch years into the future if Congress fails to act quickly on his call to pump hundreds of billions of federal dollars into the U.S. economy.

In the speech at George Mason University in Virginia, near Washington, D.C., Obama cast blame on “an era of profound irresponsibility that stretched from corporate boardrooms to the halls of power in Washington.”

However, failing to right those wrongs could have grave implications for all Americans, Obama said. He warned the country could face double-digit unemployment and $1 trillion in lost economic activity if the government fails to act at once.

“I don’t believe it’s too late to change course, but it will be if we don’t take dramatic action as soon as possible,” Obama said. “A bad situation could become dramatically worse.”

The address marked the fourth day running that Obama has urged fast action on huge spending in response to the worst U.S. economic slide since the 1930s Great Depression. It was his first appearance directly aimed at taxpayers and the highest-profile pitch for the giant spending plan.

The Fed equals fail

This news isn’t really news for anyone who’s been paying attention.

From the link:

The U.S. Treasury has done nothing to ensure a $700 billion financial bailout fund is used to stabilize the weak mortgage market, which caused the U.S. economic crisis, a congressional watchdog said on Friday.

Elizabeth Warren, who heads a congressionally appointed oversight panel, told ABC news there was no evidence the Treasury had used money from the Troubled Asset Relief Program to support the housing market by avoiding preventable foreclosures.

“There’s just no money that’s gone in that direction. This one’s not even arguable,” she said. “The TARP funds themselves have not been used in this way despite congressional statutes requiring them to do so.”

In a draft of a report to be released on Friday, the panel said the Treasury has failed to reveal its strategy for stabilizing the financial system and had done little to track how the money was used.

It cited “significant gaps in Treasury’s monitoring of the use of taxpayer money,” including asking financial institutions to account for what they have done with taxpayer funds.

It also questioned whether Treasury has fulfilled its obligations to Congress.

“For Treasury to take no steps to use any of this money to alleviate the foreclosure crisis raises questions about whether Treasury has complied with Congress’s intent that Treasury develop a ‘plan that seeks to maximize assistance for homeowners,’” the panel said in the report.

The panel said the Treasury hasn’t used any of TARP’s first $350 billion tranche to help borrowers refinance or deal with mortgages that have a face value that is more than the current market value of their homes.

“Treasury needs to be clear as to what, if anything, it has done, and if it insists on taking credit for private sector efforts, it must explain what ‘help’ means,” the draft report said.

Happy birthday, Elvis

Today’s the birthday of the King.

10 financial frauds

Interesting article, and yes, Enron comes in at number two.

From the link, here’s the mother of all financial fraud:

1. Charles Ponzi was one of the biggest swindlers in US history, and gave his name to the Ponzi “pyramid” scheme allegedly used by Bernard Madoff on Wall Street. Orchestrated after the First World War, Ponzi’s fraud centred on “international postal reply coupons”, designed to allow mail to be sent internationally. By acquiring these coupons abroad and exchanging them for higher value postage stamps in the US (essentially a form of arbitrage), Ponzi was able to make around a 400 per cent profit. Though this was not illegal, Ponzi advertised for investors to his scheme, promising them fantastic returns. He paid handsome windfalls to a handful of investors, which brought people flocking to his newly-formed Securities Exchange Company [SEC]. People mortgaged their homes and poured their savings into the company, which was accumulating colossal liabilities. Existing investors were paid off with the money of new investors. At the peak of his fraudulent scheme in 1920, Ponzi was making around $250,000 per day, an enormous sum for the time. The authorities slowly came to realise that, in order to cover all the investments made in the SEC, there would have to be 160,000,000 postal coupons in circulation. There were in reality only 27,000. Ponzi was indicted on 86 counts of mail fraud and sentenced to five years in prison in 1920.

I chose this one because Ponzi and Ponzi Schemes are all over the news in regards to the Madoff business.  Figured anyone who wasn’t familiar with the details would enjoy the history.

Woolworths, RIP

The last Woolworths stores lock the doors forever today.

From the link:

THE last remaining Woolworths stores will close their doors for the final time at the end of trading today.

The closures bring to an end a massive clearance sale which even saw the stores’ fixtures and fittings sold off at bargain prices.

The collapse leaves 27,000 workers out of work.

The firm’s 807 stores have been closing in tranches throughout the final weeks of December after selling off stock, fixtures and fittings at discount prices.

The final 200 were expected to close yesterday but administrator Deloitte gave the chain a brief reprieve to shift the remaining stock and allow final arrangements to be made.

Deloitte would not confirm how much money has been raised by the stock sale but many stores have been emptied by bargain hunters.

It has held talks with other retailers to take on the leases of around 300 Woolworths stores and hopes to sell off the Ladybird children’s clothes and Chad Valley toys brands.

Dragons’ Den entrepreneur Theo Paphitis showed an interest in buying parts of the collapsed chain but said it had not been possible to reach a deal with administrators from Deloitte.

Small business and health care

Looks like an Obama-led reform of health care might help one group in need — small business owners. For all the rhetoric Bush 43 threw around about helping all levels of business, the reality is he helped one group — big business. Very big business. He let small business rot in the dark for eight years, aside from some perfunctory tax cuts.

We’ll see what Obama can do to rectify the situation. Can’t be worse, that’s for certain. This is one more reason he got my vote this year. Over the last few years it feels the GOP has gone from pro-business, to just pro-Big Business and everyone else be damned.

From the link:

Last year: The cost of providing health insurance to employees continued to skyrocket, jumping by an average of 5.7% per employee after a 6.1% hike in 2007, according to a study by consulting firm Mercer. A survey by the National Federation of Independent Businesses found that health care was the number-one concernof small business owners, prompting the NFIB to become a major backer of an advertising campaign calling on the presidential candidates to make health reform a priority.

This year:President-elect Obama has endorsed a sweeping reform plan that would create a new National Health Insurance Exchange to allow more businesses access to insurance pools. Such pools can both negotiate for better overall rates and offer relief to small companies that might otherwise see their premiums soar because of a single sick employee. In Congress, various bills are kicking around, but these may end up being swept aside by the recent “Call to Action” issued by Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.). It echoes Obama’s plan, but with the added wrinkle that coverage would be mandatory. That’s a controversial measure, but one that health experts say is key to keeping premiums low – and it could help get insurance companies on board.

Banks still aren’t lending

Remember that big ‘ole bailout of the financial sector, that little exercise in corporate socialism, that was supposed to thaw the credit freeze and get money flowing freely once again? Like pretty much every move taken by an inept Fed, our tax dollars are sitting in the coffers of banks and not flowing anywhere.

We may be in uncharted waters economically, but the bailout ought to be a public outrage. Our money, really our future, was taken from us forcefully by an incompetent government agency and handed to banks which are now doing nothing more than hoarding the dollars.

Nice.

From the link:

Despite all the government’s best efforts in recent months, big banks still aren’t lending money freely. One sign of the crunch: New loans to large companies slumped 37% in the three months ending Nov. 30 from the preceding three months. “Banks are being extremely cautious,” says Edward Wedbush, chairman of the Los Angeles brokerage Wedbush Morgan Securities.

The industry is getting flak for hunkering down. After all, the Treasury has injected $187.5 billion into the nation’s largest banks, including Citigroup (C), Bank of America (BAC), and JPMorgan Chase (JPM). The recipients of taxpayer money, say critics, should be required to open up their coffers. “The bad news [is] Treasury has no way to measure whether taxpayer funds are being used to increase lending,” Representative Barney Frank (D-Mass.), chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said in December. “The much worse news [is that Treasury] does not even have the intention of doing so.”

Banking chiefs defend their position. They argue that the government funds are designed to shore up capital and support lending, but that they have no obligation to make new loans. “It’s not a one-to-one relationship,” says BofA CEO Kenneth D. Lewis. “We don’t write $15 billion in loans because we got $15 billion from the government.”

Right now there’s little financial incentive to make fresh loans. In the current unease, new corporate loans are immediately marked down to between 60¢ and 80¢ on the dollar, forcing banks to take a hit on the debt. It’s more lucrative, then, for them to buy old loans that are discounted already.

Health care reform …

… is coming. Let’s hope it’s a decent system.

And that’s an honest hope. Even as a libertarian I recognize the system as it is has broken. Insurance has become a roadblock to the process of medicine, and to a reasonable allocation of money through the process. I’m no fan of regulation, but some order in this house might just be in order.

From the link:

Former Senator Tom Daschle pledged on Thursday to work with lawmakers of both parties in a grass roots, ideology-free campaign to revamp the nation’s struggling health care system.

“We will be guided by evidence and effectiveness, not by ideology,” Mr. Daschle told the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions after saying that he wanted “to work with each of you” on ways to improve health care for all Americans.

“When it comes to health care, we really are in it together,” Mr. Daschle said, adding that to do nothing — or too little — about the spiraling costs of health care, the growing legions of the uninsured and substandard medical treatment in some areas is simply unacceptable.

The Wal-Martization of the US

A fascinating visual of Wal-Mart growing to 3176 stores between 1962 and 2007 across the United States.

Hit the link for the time-lapse animation.

E-paper ramping up

Photonic crystals may be the secret to the real-world application of e-paper.

From the Technology Review link:

Researchers at the University of Toronto, in Ontario, have increased the speed of their new color-changing material tenfold. The material, which uses photonic crystals, reflects bright, intense light of any color from red to blue, switching color based on the voltage applied to it. The technology could enable brighter, flexible color displays for electronic readers and billboards.

“To get color changes that go across from UV all the way to near infrared–it’s the only material on the planet that can do it,” says chemistry professor Geoffrey Ozin, who led the new work. “All I’m doing here is with one material tuning the voltage.”

Reading devices such as the Amazon Kindle, the Sony Reader, and Plastic Logic’s new reader use a black-and-white e-paper from Boston’s E Ink. E-paper reflects light instead of emitting it, which makes it less power hungry and easier to read in bright sunlight. Displays using a color version of E Ink’s technology are expected to reach the market in the next few years, but their pixels will be divided into three subpixels, with red, green, and blue filters. Light from the subpixels is mixed in varying intensities to produce different colors. “That means you just have one-third of the [pixel] area that displays red,” says Jacques Angele, cofounder of the French e-paper company Nemoptic. “So you reduce brightness by a factor not far from three.”

The key advantage of the new technology is that the photonic crystal making each pixel can be tuned to emit different colors. “In principle, they should be able to get good brightness more similar to printed paper, compared to current e-paper technology,” Angele says. Increasing the speed with which the material changes color moves it one step closer to practical applications.

Pick a color: A new material made from photonic crystals changes color when different voltages are applied to it. Credit: Daniel Puzzo, University of Toronto

GPS for golfers

Garmin is marketing a GPS unit, the Approach G5, specifically for golfers. The device is being introduced at this week’s CES expo.

Sounds like a cool device. Looks like today is golf-blogging day …

From the first link:

Golfers, take note. Garmin’s newest GPS line may not improve your handicap, but at least you’ll know exactly where the greens are. The Approach G5, the first Garmin touch-screen handheld designed for golfers, will come preloaded with detailed maps for thousands of U.S. golf courses–no subscription required.

With a tap on the waterproof 3-inch touch screen, golfers will have access to precise information on their current location as well as distance and position data about fairways, hazards, and greens, Garmin says. Two AA batteries will power the device.

Ten tech mistakes

This list from CIO.com is really more like ten tech social blunders. Funny and mortifying.

From the link, number three is particularly tough:

Tech Embarrassment 3: The Audience Is Listening

Christopher Buttner, founder of PRThatRocks in Northern California, had just finished a 2-hour speaking engagement in front of a large university crowd when he dashed off to the loo for a long-awaited respite. With his wireless microphone still on.

“I had to go so badly that when I made it to the urinal, I let out an incredibly loud moan of pleasure, augmented by the sound of streaming water-on-water,” he writes. “The wireless lavalier mic I was wearing was still broadcasting live through the PA system in the lecture hall. My lecture, and subsequent moment of relief, was also being recorded.”

When he returned to the hall, Buttner received a standing ovation. And, apparently, immortality. “I think my moaning sound sample, and various water-on-water audio clips, are used in a sound library somewhere at a major digital recording institute in Northern California,” he says.

How to avoid having this happen to you: If you can’t remember to unclip the mic, be sure to strap on a Motorman’s Friend.