Transportation Security Administration — protecting with perverts

Or so it seems from a recent TSA job posting with this tagline –

‘A Career Where X-Ray Vision And Federal Benefits Come Standard’

From the link:

That’s the slogan the Transportation Security Administration is apparently using to entice people to apply for jobs as airport screeners. Now that they’re preparing to expand the use of whole body imaging scanners, which can produce moderately detailed nude images of travelers, maybe they should consider a tagline that doesn’t sound like it’s designed to recruit voyeurs.

Hit the link for a screenshot of the actual ad. And just to be clear, I’m using the word “protecting” very, very loosely in the header.

“Doomsday Clock” moved back to six ’til

Didn’t even know they kept this vestige of the Cold War up any longer.

From today’s inbox:

‘Doomsday Clock’ Moves One Minute Away From Midnight

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Adjusts Clock From 5 to 6 Minutes Before Midnight; Encouraging Progress Seen Around Globe in Both Key Threat Areas: Nuclear Weapons and Climate Change.

NEW YORK, Jan. 14 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Citing a more “hopeful state of world affairs” in relation to the twin threats posed by nuclear weapons and climate change, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (BAS) is moving the minute hand of its famous Doomsday Clock one minute away from midnight. It is now 6 minutes to midnight.  The decision by the BAS Science and Security Board was made in consultation with the Bulletin’s Board of Sponsors, which includes 19 Nobel Laureates.

BAS announced the Clock change today at a news conference in New York City broadcast live at http://www.turnbacktheclock.org/ for viewing around the globe.  The new BAS Web platform allows people in all nations to monitor and get involved in efforts to move the Doomsday Clock farther away from midnight.

In a statement supporting the decision to move the minute hand of the Doomsday Clock, the BAS Board said:  “It is 6 minutes to midnight. We are poised to bend the arc of history toward a world free of nuclear weapons.  For the first time since atomic bombs were dropped in 1945, leaders of nuclear weapons states are cooperating to vastly reduce their arsenals and secure all nuclear bomb-making material.  And for the first time ever, industrialized and developing countries alike are pledging to limit climate-changing gas emissions that could render our planet nearly uninhabitable.  These unprecedented steps are signs of a growing political will to tackle the two gravest threats to civilization — the terror of nuclear weapons and runaway climate change.”

Created in 1947 by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, the Doomsday Clock has been adjusted only 18 times prior to today, most recently in January 2007 and February 2002 after the events of 9/11. By moving the hand of the Clock away from midnight — the figurative end of civilization — the BAS Board of Directors is drawing attention to encouraging signs of progress.  At the same time, the small increment of the change reflects both the threats that remain around the globe and the danger that governments may fail to deliver on pledged actions on reducing nuclear weapons and mitigating climate change.

The BAS statement explains: “This hopeful state of world affairs leads the boards of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists — which include 19 Nobel laureates — to move the minute hand of the Doomsday Clock back from five to six minutes to midnight.  By shifting the hand back from midnight by only one additional minute, we emphasize how much needs to be accomplished, while at the same time recognizing signs of collaboration among the United States, Russia, the European Union, India, China, Brazil, and others on nuclear security and on climate stabilization.”

The statement continues:  “A key to the new era of cooperation is a change in the U.S. government’s orientation toward international affairs brought about in part by the election of Obama.  With a more pragmatic, problem-solving approach, not only has Obama  initiated new arms reduction talks with Russia, he has started negotiations with Iran to close its nuclear enrichment program, and directed the U.S. government to lead a global effort to secure loose fissile material in four years.  He also presided over the U.N. Security Council last September where he supported a fissile material cutoff treaty and encouraged all countries to live up to their disarmament and nonproliferation obligations under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty …”

Lawrence Krauss, co-chair, BAS Board of Sponsors, foundation professor, School of Earth and Space Exploration and Physics departments, associate director, Beyond Center, co-director, Cosmology Initiative, and director, New Origins Initiative, Arizona State University, said:  “The time to begin to free ourselves from the terror of nuclear weapons and to slow drastic changes to our shared global environment is now.  We encourage scientists to fulfill their dual responsibilities of increasing their own, as well as the public’s understanding of these issues and to help lead the call to action.  We urge leaders to fulfill the promise of a nuclear weapon-free world and to act now to slow the pace of climate change. Finally, we call on citizens everywhere to raise their voices and compel public action for a safer world now and for future generations. Even though we are encouraged by recent developments, we are mindful of the fact that the Clock is ticking. “

Stephen Schneider, member, BAS Science and Security Board, professor of environmental biology and global change, Stanford University, co-director, Center for Environment Science and Policy of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, and senior fellow, Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, said:  “We can no longer prevent global warming — it is upon us. Rapidly melting polar icecaps, acidification of the oceans, loss of coral reefs, longer droughts, more devastating wildfires, and sea level rise that threatens island nations and seacoasts everywhere are clear signs of change in Earth’s climate. Disruptions of the monsoon seasons in India and China already threaten crop yields resulting in more frequent and severe food shortages than in the recent past … If we continue ‘business as usual’ our habitat could be disrupted beyond recognition, with consequences for our way of life that we cannot now foresee.  Without vigorous and immediate follow-up to the Copenhagen conference and well-conceived action we are all threatened by accelerating and irreversible changes to our planet …”

Jayantha Dhanapala, member, BAS Board of Sponsors, president, Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, and chair, 1995 UN Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Conference, said: “In the saga of human history civilizations have been threatened both by natural causes and by man-made folly. Some have survived by making the necessary rational responses to the challenges. Others have gone under leaving only their ruins. Today it is the entire planet that stands imperiled by the danger of nuclear weapons and the real risk of climate change inexorably threatening our ecosystem. Both impending disasters are within our capabilities to remedy. The opportunity must be seized now out of a recognition that these are global dangers that transcend national boundaries.”

Pervez Hoodbhoy, member, BAS Board of Sponsors, professor of high energy physics, and head, Physics Department, Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan, said:  “We may be at a turning point, where major powers realize that nuclear weapons are useless for war-fighting or even for deterrence. Threats to security are more likely to come from economic collapse, groups bent on terrorizing civilians, or from resource scarcity exacerbated by climate change and exploding populations, rather than from conflict between nuclear-armed superpowers.  Against these new threats, nuclear weapons are a liability because their possession by a few countries stimulates desire in other countries and complicates things immensely.”

Kennette Benedict, executive director, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, said: “The emerging trends in international cooperation will provide a basis for collaborative problem-solving for a safer world.  But a handful of government officials, no matter how bold their vision, will not be able, on their own, to deal with the threats to civilization that we now face.  Leaders and citizens around the world will need to summon the courage to overcome obstacles to nuclear security and climate protection.  That is why we have created TurnBackTheClock.org to allow citizens around the world a means by which to get involved and to inspire leaders to take action.”

RECOMMENDED ACTION STEPS

The BAS statement outlines the need for action on the following:

–  Developing new nuclear doctrines that disavow the use of existing
nuclear weapons, reduce the launch readiness of U.S. and Russian
nuclear forces, and remove them from the day-to-day operations of
their militaries;
–  Finishing the job of consolidating and securing military and civilian
nuclear material in Russia, the United States, and elsewhere and
continuing to eliminate the excess;
–  Completing negotiations, signing and ratifying as soon as possible the
new U.S.-Russia treaty providing for reductions in deployed nuclear
warheads and delivery systems;
–  Upon signing of the treaty, immediately embarking upon new talks to
further reduce the nuclear arsenals of Russia and the United States;
–  Completing the next review of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty in
May 2010 with commitments to weapons reduction and nuclear
nonproliferation by both the nuclear haves and have-nots;
–  Implementing multinational management of the civilian nuclear energy
fuel cycle with strict standards for safety, security, and
nonproliferation of nuclear weapons, including eliminating
reprocessing for plutonium separation;
–  Strengthening the International Atomic Energy Agency’s capacity to
oversee nuclear materials and technology development and transfer;
–  Adopting and fulfilling climate change agreements to reduce carbon
dioxide emissions through tax incentives, harmonized domestic
regulation and practice;
–  Transforming the coal power sector of the world economy to retire
older plants; and
–  Vastly increasing public and private investments in alternatives to
carbon-emitting energy sources, such as solar and wind, and in
technologies for energy storage, and sharing the results worldwide.

ABOUT BAS AND THE CLOCK

Founded in 1945 by University of Chicago scientists who had helped develop the first atomic weapons in the Manhattan Project, The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists subsequently created the Doomsday Clock in 1947 as a way to convey both the imagery of apocalypse (midnight) and the contemporary idiom of nuclear explosion (countdown to zero). The decision to move the minute hand of the Doomsday Clock is made by the Bulletin’s Board of Directors in consultation with its Board of Sponsors, which includes 19 Nobel Laureates. The Clock has become a universally recognized indicator of the world’s vulnerability to catastrophe from nuclear weapons, climate change, and emerging technologies in the life sciences.

Source: The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

Web Site:  http://www.turnbacktheclock.org/

How to really start cutting small business costs

Overall this is a decent case study article on controlling costs at a small business, and a lot of the advice and actions are sound — things like renegotiating with a major supplier to get a better price.

But this particular step to cut costs for a gourmet ice cream maker seems a bit over the top:

… We also advised them to put an end to the “Do It Yourself” Sundae offered in the stores. Customers were making lavish use of sprinkles and whipped cream, and it was killing the profit on each item sold.

Wow. Those must have been some super-premium sprinkles and whipped cream to significantly put a dent in the bottom line.

The latest Fed Beige Book sees …

… well, beige. Things aren’t getting worse, but they aren’t really getting all that much better either.

From the link:

“While economic activity remains at a low level, [economic] conditions have improved modestly” according to the Federal Reserve’s Beige Book released in advance of the Federal Open Market Committee’s January 26-27 monetary policy meeting. The Beige Book said the “improvements are broader geographically” than they were at the beginning of December. The Beige Book reiterated concerns about the labor market.

The Beige Book was compiled on the basis of reports at the 12 Federal Reserve districts as of January 4. While the Beige Book provides an anecdotal snapshot of the economy, it is rarely cited in the minutes of the FOMC meetings, though the minutes note participants also refer to anecdotal reports.

The details of the report were less optimistic than the opening paragraph.

Is China committing massive corporate cyber espionage?

Looks like all that recent Google news has a bit deeper, and broader, roots than first reports indicated.

From the second link:

It’s a problem that the U.S. lawmakers have complained about loudly. In the corporate world, online attacks that appear to come from China have been an ongoing problem for years, but big companies haven’t said much about this, eager to remain in the good graces of the world’s powerhouse economy.

Google, by implying that Beijing had sponsored the attack, has placed itself in the center of an international controversy, exposing what appears to be a state-sponsored corporate espionage campaign that compromised more than 30 technology, financial and media companies, most of them global Fortune 500 enterprises.

The U.S. government is taking the attack seriously. Late Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton released a statement asking the Chinese government to explain itself, saying that Google’s allegations “raise very serious concerns and questions.”

“The ability to operate with confidence in cyberspace is critical in a modern society and economy,” she said.

Using nanotech to attack cancer

Via KurzweilAI.net — Nanotechnology continues to be a major player in treating cancer.

Nanoparticle Cocktail Targets and Kills Tumors

PhysOrg.com, Jan. 13, 2010 Researchers at the National Cancer Institute’s Centers of Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence have developed a “cocktail” of two different nanometer-sized particles that work in concert within the bloodstream to locate, adhere to and kill cancerous tumors. One nanomaterial was designed to find and adhere to tumors in mice and then sensitize tumor cells for the second nanoparticle, which kills the tumors. Read Original Article>>

Tech sector to rebound in 2010

At least according to Forrester Research.

From the link:

The analyst firm expects U.S. IT spending to grow by 6.6 percent in 2010 after plummeting 8.2 percent in 2009. On a global basis, IT expenditures will jump 8.1 percent in U.S. dollars and 5.6 percent based on local currencies.

Forrester is making its predictions even though final data for the fourth quarter of 2009 isn’t in yet. It’s basing that confidence on recent signs of economic recovery around the world, including strong earning reports from vendors such as Oracle (ORCL) and the increased availability of credit.

Everybody’s workin’ for the weekend

Looks like there really is something behind the old trope.

Yeah I know this will make three releases in a row, but I haven’t done a release dump in quite a long time.

The release:

‘Weekend Effect’ Makes People Happier Regardless of Their Job, Study Says

From construction laborers and secretaries to physicians and lawyers, people experience better moods, greater vitality, and fewer aches and pains from Friday evening to Sunday afternoon, concludes the first study of daily mood variation in employed adults to be published in the January 2010 issue of the Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology. And that ‘weekend effect’ is largely associated with the freedom to choose one’s activities and the opportunity to spend time with loved ones, the research found.

“Workers, even those with interesting, high status jobs, really are happier on the weekend,” says author Richard Ryan, a professor of psychology at the University of Rochester. “Our findings highlight just how important free time is to an individual’s well-being,” Ryan adds. “Far from frivolous, the relatively unfettered time on weekends provides critical opportunities for bonding with others, exploring interests and relaxing — basic psychological needs that people should be careful not to crowd out with overwork,” Ryan cautions.

The study tracked the moods of 74 adults, aged 18 to 62, who worked at least 30 hours per week. For three weeks, participants were paged randomly at three times during the day, once in the morning, the afternoon and the evening. At each page, participants completed a brief questionnaire describing the activity in which they were engaged and, using a seven-point scale, they rated their positive feelings like happiness, joy, and pleasure as well as negative feelings of anxiety, anger, and depression. Physical symptoms of stress, such as headaches, digestive problems, respiratory ills, or low energy, also were noted.

The results demonstrated that men and women alike consistently feel better mentally and physically on the weekend. They feel better regardless of how much money they make, how many hours they work, how educated they happen to be, or whether they work in the trades, the service industry, or in a professional capacity. They feel better whether they are single, married, living together, divorced, or widowed. And, they feel better regardless of age.

To tease out exactly why weekend hours are so magical, the researchers asked participants to indicate whether they felt controlled versus autonomous in the task they were engaged in at the time of the pager signal. Participants also indicated how close they felt to others present and how competent they perceived themselves to be at their activity.

The findings indicated that relative to workdays, weekends were associated with higher levels of freedom and closeness: people reported more often that they were involved in activities of their own choosing and spending time with more intimate friends and family members. Surprisingly, the analysis also found that people feel more competent during the weekend than they do at their day-to-day jobs.

The results support self-determination theory, which holds that well-being depends in large part on meeting one’s basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. This study, conclude the authors, “offers one of the first substantive and theory-based explanations for why wellbeing tends to be more favorable on the weekends: People experience greater autonomy and relatedness, which are, in turn, related to higher wellness.” By contrast, write the authors, the work week “is replete with activities involving external controls, time pressures, and demands on behavior related to work, child care and other constraints.” Workers also may spend time among colleagues with whom they share limited emotional connections.

The study also raises questions about how work environments can be structured to be more supportive of wellness. “To the extent that daily life, including work, affords a sense of autonomy, relatedness, and competence, well-being may be higher and more stable, rather than regularly rising and falling,” the researchers conclude.

The weekend effect study was coauthored by Jessey Bernstein, professor of psychology from McGill University, and Kirk Warren Brown, professor of psychology from Virginia Commonwealth University.

About the University of Rochester

The University of Rochester (www.rochester.edu) is one of the nation’s leading private universities. Located in Rochester, N.Y., the University gives students exceptional opportunities for interdisciplinary study and close collaboration with faculty through its unique cluster-based curriculum. Its College, School of Arts and Sciences, and Hajim School of Engineering and Applied Sciences are complemented by the Eastman School of Music, Simon School of Business, Warner School of Education, Laboratory for Laser Energetics, Schools of Medicine and Nursing, and the Memorial Art Gallery.

Life in a parallel universe?

Maybe so.

The release:

Across the multiverse: FSU physicist considers the big picture

Alejandro Jenkins writes in Scientific American that life may exist — in other universes

		IMAGE: Alejandro Jenkins is a researcher at Florida State University. Click here for more information.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. ⎯ Is there anybody out there? In Alejandro Jenkins’ case, the question refers not to whether life exists elsewhere in the universe, but whether it exists in other universes outside of our own.

While that might be a mind-blowing concept for the layperson to ponder, it’s all in a day’s work for Jenkins, a postdoctoral associate in theoretical high-energy physics at The Florida State University. In fact, his deep thoughts on the hypothetical “multiverse” — think of it as a mega-universe full of numerous smaller universes, including our own — are now receiving worldwide attention, thanks to a cover article he co-wrote for the January 2010 issue of Scientific American magazine.

In “Looking for Life in the Multiverse,” Jenkins and co-writer Gilad Perez, a theorist at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, discuss a provocative hypothesis known as the anthropic principle, which states that the existence of intelligent life (capable of studying physical processes) imposes constraints on the possible form of the laws of physics.

“Our lives here on Earth — in fact, everything we see and know about the universe around us — depend on a precise set of conditions that makes us possible,” Jenkins said. “For example, if the fundamental forces that shape matter in our universe were altered even slightly, it’s conceivable that atoms never would have formed, or that the element carbon, which is considered a basic building block of life as we know it, wouldn’t exist. So how is it that such a perfect balance exists? Some would attribute it to God, but of course, that is outside the realm of physics.”

The theory of “cosmic inflation,” which was developed in the 1980s in order to solve certain puzzles about the structure of our universe, predicts that ours is just one of countless universes to emerge from the same primordial vacuum. We have no way of seeing those other universes, although many of the other predictions of cosmic inflation have recently been corroborated by astrophysical measurements.

Given some of science’s current ideas about high-energy physics, it is plausible that those other universes might each have different physical interactions. So perhaps it’s no mystery that we would happen to occupy the rare universe in which conditions are just right to make life possible. This is analogous to how, out of the many planets in our universe, we occupy the rare one where conditions are right for organic evolution.

“What theorists like Dr. Perez and I do is tweak the calculations of the fundamental forces in order to predict the resulting effects on possible, alternative universes,” Jenkins said. “Some of these results are easy to predict; for example, if there was no electromagnetic force, there would be no atoms and no chemical bonds. And without gravity, matter wouldn’t coalesce into planets, stars and galaxies.

“What is surprising about our results is that we found conditions that, while very different from those of our own universe, nevertheless might allow — again, at least hypothetically — for the existence of life. (What that life would look like is another story entirely.) This actually brings into question the usefulness of the anthropic principle when applied to particle physics, and might force us to think more carefully about what the multiverse would actually contain.”

“Looking for Life in the Multiverse” can be purchased, or accessed by Scientific American subscribers, at the magazine’s Web site. The January issue of the magazine is also on sale now throughout the United States.

“Having an article in Scientific American is a magnificent accomplishment, but being selected for the cover story is special indeed,” said Mark Riley, chairman of the Department of Physics at Florida State. “My congratulations to Dr. Jenkins and our High Energy Physics Group.”

Jenkins has degrees from Harvard University and the California Institute of Technology, and he previously conducted postgraduate research on the topic of alternative universes while at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Despite all of his training, however, the Scientific American article was unexpected.

“I am very proud of our research, but to be honest, I think that this had something to do with the fact that people are naturally intrigued by speculative ideas about cosmology and the ‘big picture.’

“The idea of parallel universes, in particular, is one that many people find exciting,” Jenkins said. “The current season of (the Fox-TV comedy) ‘Family Guy’ recently premiered with an episode called ‘Road to the Multiverse,’ which was premised on the idea that one can visit other universes — although that seems impossible given what we know about physics. Nevertheless, whether other universes actually exist is a question that has consequences for our understanding of physics in this world. I think our research raises important questions in that regard.”

###

Online poker newbies take note

Here’s some free advice courtesy of research from Cornell University.

The release:

Online poker study: The more hands you win, the more money you lose

ITHACA, N.Y. — A new Cornell study of online poker seems counterintuitive: The more hands players win, the less money they’re likely to collect – especially when it comes to novice players.

The likely reason, said Cornell sociology doctoral student Kyle Siler, whose study analyzed 27 million online poker hands, is that the multiple wins are likely for small stakes, and the more you play, the more likely you will eventually be walloped by occasional – but significant – losses.

This finding, Siler said, “coincides with observations in behavioral economics that people overweigh their frequent small gains vis-à-vis occasional large losses, and vice versa.” In other words, players feel positively reinforced by their streak of wins but have difficulty fully understanding how their occasional large losses offset their gains.

The study, which was published online in December in the Journal of Gambling Studies and will be published in a forthcoming print edition later this year, also found that for small-stakes players, small pairs (from twos to sevens) were actually more valuable than medium pairs (eights through jacks).

“This is because small pairs have a less ambiguous value, and medium pairs are better hands but have more ambiguous values that small-stakes players apparently have trouble understanding,” said Siler, a long-time poker player himself.

Siler used the software PokerTracker to upload and analyze small-stakes, medium-stakes and high-stakes hands of No-Limit Texas Hold’em with six seats at the table. The game has simple rules and “any single hand can involve players risking their entire stack of chips,” Siler said.

The research not only examined the “strategic demography” of poker at different levels of stakes and the various payoffs associated with different strategies at varying levels of play, but also “speaks to how humans handle risk and uncertainty,” said Siler, whose look at online poker combines aspects of behavioral economics, economic sociology and social science theory. “Riskiness may be profitable, especially in higher-stakes games, but it also increases the variance and uncertainty in payoffs. Living one’s life, calibrating multiple strategies and managing a bankroll is particularly challenging when enduring wild and erratic swings in short-term luck and results.”

In online poker, a multibillion dollar industry, Siler concluded that the biggest opponent for many players may be themselves, “given the challenges of optimizing one’s mindset and strategies, both in the card game and the meta-games of psychology, rationality and socio-economic arbitrage which hover beneath it,” he said.

###

Foresight 2010: the Synergy of Molecular Manufacturing and AGI coming January 16-17

Along with the usual presentations, this year’s conference celebrates the 20th anniversary of the Foresight Institute’s founding.

From the link:

Foresight 2010: the Synergy of Molecular Manufacturing and AGI

• Saturday, January 16 and Sunday, January 17, 2010
• Sheraton Palo Alto Hotel
• 625 El Camino Real, Palo Alto, CA 94301

Join us in for an exciting conference focused on the Synergy of Molecular Manufacturing and general Artificial Intelligence and celebrate the 20th anniversary of the founding of Foresight.Register online here. The two day conference rate is $175 with discounts for early registration!

Several rapidly-developing technologies have the potential to undergo an exponential takeoff in the next few decades, causing as much of an impact on economy and society as the computer and networking did in the past few. Chief among these are molecular manufacturing and artificial general intelligence (AGI). Key in the takeoff phenomenon will be the establishment of strong positive feedback loops within and between the technologies. Positive feedback loops leading to exponential growth are nothing new to economic systems. At issue is the value of the exponent: since the Industrial Revolution, economies have expanded at rates of up to 7% per year; however, computing capability has been expanding at rates up to 70% per year, in accordance with Moore’s Law. If manufacturing and intellectual work shifted into this mode, the impact on the economy and society would be profound. The purpose of this symposium is to examine the mechanisms by which this might happen, and its likely effects.

This announcement also made today’s KurzweilAI.net newsletter:

Foresight 2010: the Synergy of Molecular Manufacturing and AGI

KurzweilAI.net, Jan. 12, 2010 The Foresight 2010: the Synergy of Molecular Manufacturing and AGI conference will be held January 16-17, 2010 in Palo Alto, CA. Topic will include Roadmaps to Nanotechnology, Feynman’s Path: A top-down roadmap, Roadmaps to general Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, Autogeny: Principles underlying exponential manufacturing andintelligence, Additive manufacturing: A roadmap to nanofactories, Open source in manufacturing and AI, Accelerating change, and Space development. For those unable to attend, video will be streamed for free at http://www.techzulu.com/live.html.

More on Google and China

Who’d a thunk I’d be doing two posts on Google and China today? First Google apologizes for a copyright breach issue in China (?!), and now the Mountain View company is threatening to pull out of China because of claims the Asian behemoth breached Google email accounts of human rights activists. Whatever else is going on here, I don’t see any changes to China’s overarching attitudes toward individual privacy or intellectual property — well, at least the intellectual property of non-Chinese citizens.

I understand Google wanting to do business with such a massive market, but it made serious concessions regarding censorship when it went into China so it can’t be all that shocked when China decides to just go out and do whatever it wants.

(Quick joke for Robot Chicken fans — Darth Vader: I’ve changed the terms of our deal. Pray I don’t change it further. Lando: Man, this deal keeps getting worse all the time.)

From the second link:

The company disclosed in a blog post that it had detected a “highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure originating from China.” Further investigation revealed that “a primary goal of the attackers was accessing the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists,” Google’s post said.

Google did not specifically accuse the Chinese government. But the company added that it is “no longer willing to continue censoring our results” on its Chinese search engine, as the government requires. Google says the decision could force it to shut down its Chinese site and its offices in the country.

A word/concept combo you don’t see very often …

… China and copyright protection.

From the link:

Google (GOOG) has apologized to a Chinese authors’ group over its scanning of books by local writers into an online search system, moving to defuse copyright concerns around the project in China.

Taxes and the self-employed

As a freelance writer for many years I’ve been dealing with the ins-and-outs of filing taxes through the Schedule C self-employment form. With the state of the economy many more taxpayers are newly minted self-employers and get to wrestle with all the tax implications that status brings. Here’s a nice, quick overview of self-employment and federal income tax with some strategic advice thrown in for good measure.

My best advice? Obtain the services of a certified CPA, preferably an individual you can sit down with sometime in the next six weeks or so — do not wait until the last minute — to discuss your particular situation and how to take advantage of every tax opportunity available to you. After trying both ways (on my own or with tax software, and using a professional) the amount spent on CPA services is almost always easily covered by the saving the professional finds with your return.

I’m getting this post up this early in the year because if your employment status changed last year there is no time to procrastinate or delay getting everything in order well in advance of the ides of April.

From the link:

It used to be that the vast majority of people worked in staff jobs.

But in a tough economy, the number of independent contractors, temps, part-timers, and freelancers expands.

If you become a contingent worker, you’ll need to rethink your taxes. For someone used to being on staff, “It’s a mindset shift,” says Eddie Gershman, a partner in Deloitte Tax’s private client group. The common perception is that you’ll pay more tax if you work for yourself, since you’ll cover the employer portion of Social Security and Medicare taxes. While you will be on the hook for that self-employment tax, the tax advantages to working for yourself can soften the blow. Here’s how to get the most out of deductions:

Gambling and investing

Looks like the skills that make for a strong poker player can help you improve your investing strategies. (I should quickly add the title could be a little misleading because I consider poker a gambling game of skill, not chance. Much like investing.)

From the link:

The psychological issues that drive investing and gambling decisions aren’t merely similar. They are “identical,” says Andrew Lo, director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Laboratory for Financial Engineering and one of the leaders in the field of behavioral finance (listen to our podcast with Lo). It’s easy to find investment professionals and professional poker players who agree. Says poker pro Daniel Negreanu, who holds four World Series of Poker bracelets and two World Poker Tour Championship titles: “Having emotional stability and emotional control is key to both investing and poker.”

Curious about electronic tax payment options from the IRS?

Then this two page PDF from AICPA.org is just the ticket.

From the link:

Practitioners know that e-filing tax returns

has advantages: It documents the filing

date, reduces time at the post office, and

saves postage. For additional convenience,

consider having business and individual clients

enroll in the IRS’s free electronic payment

program, known as EFTPS. EFTPS

allows businesses and individuals to pay

federal taxes via the internet or over the

phone. It eliminates the hassles of writing

checks and taking them to a financial institution

or mailing payments to the IRS;

payments are withdrawn directly from an

enrolled bank account.

I’m not happy with the banking industry either, but …

… Geithner is absolutely correct on this tax proposal. All this would do is further economically depress the very people it’s designed to protect.

From the link:

With popular anger building as big banks show profits and pay sizable bonuses while unemployment remains high, the Obama administration has come under pressure at home and abroad to support a financial transactions tax on institutions and to heavily tax their executive compensation.

But the United States, led by the Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner, has been opposed, arguing that a transactions tax would simply be passed on to customers and a bonus tax could be easily circumvented.

Congrats to the Cardinals and the Ravens

As fun as yesterday’s wildcard weekend games were to watch, they both look pretty perfunctory next to today’s contests. Even though the result was the same — one and done — the Packers did something today the Patriots couldn’t pull off. Both teams were just punched in the face very early in each game, but the Packers came back with a vengeance through masterful coaching and quarterback play to force overtime.

At the end of this day of football the Arizona Cardinals beat the Green Bay Packers 51-45 in overtime on an Aaron Rodgers fumble and touchdown return by the Cards. Easily the game of the weekend with insane offensive play from both teams.

In the early game the New England Patriots were absolutely dismantled by the Baltimore Ravens, 33-14. And really the score looks a bit generous for the Pats, a team that looks to be on the downside of a good run. Baltimore was impressive and heads to Indy next week with a lot of confidence against a team they’ve had success against in the past.

All in all, a great opening weekend for the NFL playoffs this year.

Doesn’t it seem like the Pats have been a bit star-crossed …

… ever since Spygate broke a couple of years ago? Defensive leader, linebacker Tedy Bruschi suffers a stroke about three years before the story comes to light as an opening karmic salvo against the cheating team by the gods of football. Then last year the franchise, quarterback Tom Brady, loses just about the entire 2008 season to a major knee injury dooming the team to missing the playoffs. Last week star wide receiver Wes Welker blows a knee right before this year’s playoffs. And now today’s display.

What if Spygate went much, much deeper than anyone realizes. Here’s one scenario:

(Note for conceptually and hyperbole challenged readers: the following is satire [see definition number two from the link] and not actual conjecture, analysis or inside information,)

Recall back in the summer of 2005. Patriots owner Bob Kraft meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and hands the world leader his ring from the recent Super Bowl victory over the Philadelphia Eagles for examination. After looking the ring over and trying it on, Putin calmly and smilingly slides the ring into his pocket saying nothing. Essentially daring Kraft to protest this blatant and public theft, and act of total disrespect.

What if, instead of some sort of cultural misunderstanding or just simple robbery by Putin, this act was Putin’s gangster way of exacting a little more flesh from a business associate. Very possibly beyond simple in-stadium cameras trained on opposing sidelines, the New England Patriots engaged the services of Russia’s spy apparatus – namely spy satellites engaged to not only catch signals called, but possibly even sideline conversations through lip-reading technology coupled with real time satellite images capable of pinpoint resolution.

Of course, once you go down that particular rabbit hole, where does it end? Black ops agents infiltrating other NFL teams? Subtle disabling hits (think poisoning — we all know post-USSR Russia has experience and expertise in this field) against opposing players and coaches?

And consider the bitter irony of a team named the “Patriots” getting into bed with the United State’s bitter cold war foe. No wonder the football gods frowned, conferred and rendered a dark judgement asunder.

May the fall of the cheating, and possibly traitorous, New England Patriots be cold, bitter and very, very long.

(Yeah, I know I used “bitter” a lot there in the last two grafs. Maybe it’s the bitter taste in my mouth from these dark revelations.)

Congrats to the Cowboys and the Jets

Dallas destroyed the Eagles for the second consecutive week with a final score of 34-14, and finally won a playoff game in the new century. In the other rematch from last week, the Jets rolled the Bengals 24-14. One similarity between the first two games of this year’s playoffs was the play at QB — Romo and Sanchez looked good and McNabb and Palmer looked, well, not so good. Palmer was absolutely dreadful. At least McNabb can place some blame on a solid Dallas D.

All in all an excellent start to the second season. Today’s games should be fun.

Get a free online education with Khan Academy

I came across this post at Metamodern discussing a very interesting, and utile, online resource — Khan Academy. If you’re looking for short, to-the-point online lessons (more than 1000) on mathematics ranging from basic arithmetic and algebra to differential equations, physics, chemistry, biology and finance, this is a great resource.

From the first link:

I got a pointer to a free, online educational resource today.

It deserves more attention.

The eyeballs of a few million students might be a good start. Students in elementary school, grad school, rural Africa… places like that.

It consists of 1000+ brief lectures on YouTube.

It centers on math, but goes beyond.

” … perhaps the most beautiful structure in mathematics.”

Via KurzweilAI.net — Do hit the “Read Original Article” link for this entire interesting intersection of mathematics, string theory and practical physics.

Most beautiful math structure appears in lab for first time

New Scientist Physics & Math, Jan. 7, 2010 A complex form of mathematical symmetry linked to string theory has been glimpsed in the real world for the firsttime, in laboratory experiments on exotic crystals. The structure is also the basis for another proposed theory of everything advanced in 2007 by surfer-physicist Garrett Lisi, who refers to E8 as “perhaps the most beautiful structure in mathematics“. Read Original Article>>

From the New Scientist link:

Radu Coldea of the University of Oxford and his colleagues chilled a crystal made of cobalt and niobium to 0.04 °C above absolute zero. Atoms in the crystal are arranged in long, parallel chains. Because of a quantum property called spin, electrons attached to the atom chains act like tiny bar magnets, each of which can only point up or down.

Strange things occurred when the experimenters applied a powerful 5.5-Tesla magnetic field perpendicular to the direction of these electron “magnets”. Patterns appeared spontaneously in the electron spins in the chains – in a simplified example with three electrons, the spins could read up-up-down or down-up-down, among other possibilities. Each distinct pattern has a different energy associated with it.

The ratio of these different energy levels showed that the electron spins were ordering themselves according to mathematical relationships in E8 symmetry.

Eric Drexler on the NRC’s molecular manufacturing recommendation

Drexler is widely seen as as one of, if not the, father of nanotechnology, and two of his books, “Nanosystems: Molecular Machinery, Manufacturing, and Computation” and “Engines of Creation: The Coming Era of Nanotechnology“  are considered seminal works in the field.

This post from his blog, Metamodern, is about the National Research Council study on molecular manufacturing and Drexler himself describes this post as “arguably the most important post of the series, or of this blog to date.”

Here’s the first few graphs from the link:

A formal, Federal-level study has examined the physical principles ofhigh-throughput atomically precise manufacturing (aka molecular manufacturing), assessing its feasibility and closing with a call for experimental research.

Surprisingly, this recommendation smacks of heresy in some circles, and the very idea of examining the subjectmet strong opposition.

The process in outline: Congress voted to direct the U.S. National Research Council, the working arm of the U.S. National Academies, to conduct, as part of the lengthy Triennial Review of the National Nanotechnology Initiative, what in the House version had been described as a “Study on molecular manufacturing…to determine the technical feasibility of the manufacture of materials and devices at the molecular scale”, and in response, the NRC convened a study committee that organized a workshop, examined the literature, deliberated, and reported their conclusions, recommending appropriate research directions for moving the field forward, including experimental research directed toward development of molecular manufacturing.

(Hat tip: Next Big Future)

If you do your own taxes …

… remember a whole slew of tax provisions — credits, deductions and others — expired at the end of 2009.

From the link:

The ringing in of the new year at midnight on Dec. 31 also signaled the expiration of several tax provisions. The biggest was the estate and generation-skipping tax regime, which is repealed for 2010. Various bills have been introduced that would revive the estate tax in its 2009 form, but as of Jan. 1 no extension has been enacted, and the estate and generation-skipping taxes, at least temporarily,  no longer exist.

DVD recommendation: “Watchmen”

I’m not going to review the film, or go into the extensive backstory of the comic (and later, graphic novel) and the cultural significance of this work of art. The link goes to the thorough Wikipedia page on the work. I will say I was absolutely blown away by this film. I had no expectations going into watching “Watchmen” (heh, heh), but simply put, it’s one of the best films I’ve sat through on DVD in a long time.

If you like comic book movies with a lot of meat in the story and depth to the characters it’s a must-see, and if you didn’t catch it in the theater, but thought the trailers and ads looked at least mildly interesting, absolutely see this movie.

Here’s an Amazon link to the version I caught, Watchmen: The Director’s Cut (Two-Disc Special Edition).

9/11 didn’t happen under Bush’s watch?

Man, it sure seems like he was POTUS in September 2001.

This bit of revisionist history — the idea Bush was not president when 9/11 occurred – seems to be something of a right-wing meme. So far it’s come from Mary Matalin, Dana Perino and Rudy Giuliani.

You could make the semantic argument that the terrorist attacks were’t under Bush’s “watch” because he’d only been in office for less than seven months (although there is very solid evidence his domestic defense team knew about the threat and did nothing to act on the intel), but to take one example from above — Giuliani’s — the quote is very direct: “We had no domestic attacks under Bush. We’ve had one under Obama … ” And of course 9/11 wasn’t the only domestic terrorist attack during Bush’s presidency. Two high profile examples are the shoe bomber and the anthrax attacks distributed via the U.S. Postal system soon after 9/11.

This type of political linguistics no longer works in the age of online video. At one time a political actor could make a crazy, carefully worded statement to a small publication, make certain the deeper point and the blatant lie got into the media stream and then later spin your original quote around to explain what you really meant by the words “Bush’s watch.”

Not any more. When that quote is preserved for all to watch online at will — all three links above go to video of the statement in question — there is no way to spin your words unless you want to admit to either being quite confused, ignorant or a blatant liar.

Yes, there is a fringe of the GOP base that will hear these quotes and completely forget the Bush 43 administration presided over the worst domestic terrorist attack in U.S. history, plus a few more to boot. That base won’t win elections. These lies won’t entice any swing voters, and could absolutely force those voters away from the party. That does seem to be what the GOP has become at this point. Catering to a dwindling base at a moment in U.S. political history where the Republican Party could be making great strides back to the fore.

Update — Rudy’s already working to spin this one, but this comment from “dave” from the link is a great response to the entire issue:

According to Rudy, it appears the republicans define “terrorism” much in the same way Clinton defined “sexual relations”.

With that in mind, would you rather be represented by a politician who dissembles about personal behavior with no broader implications, or a politician who does the same on issues of national security?

Mood lighting and outdoor living

What is the single best way to set a mood with lighting indoors, or out? I’m guessing an almost universal answer would be the soft, flickering glow of a natural fire. The source can be as varied as warm fireplace, a campfire, a single candle on a tabletop or even what was most likely one of mankind’s first inventions after harnessing fire — the torch. If you are an outdoor living aficionado you’re looking to spend as much time in you outdoor living space as possible, and with a wide variety of atmosphere and mood.  When thinking about lighting options, don’t look past patio torches. They are time-tested and can be very attractive as decor alongside the utility of firelight.

Outdora offers a variety of outdoor torches including hanging torches, standing torches and table top torches with fuel options as varied as propane, candle, lamp oil, and for anyone looking for a bit of insect repellent to go along with the light, citronella oil. Just imagine the look and effect of a series of garden torches strategically placed around your outdoor living space.

Standing torches are available in a number of designs including tiki-style, colonial-style that can replace other outdoor lighting and torches designed to be placed in large planters. Hanging torches are exactly what they sound like — torches meant to be hung, creating the impression the light is floating in mid-air. Hanging torches have a lantern look with decorative openings to allow the light to escape. Another torch with a perfectly descriptive name is the table top torch. These torches are meant to be place on a table and come in several styles including lantern and oil lamp.

Whatever type of outdoor torch strikes your fancy, it’s sure to make your outdoor living space a little more interesting, a bit more mysterious and certainly more romantic.

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Dems electoral road in 2010 gets a bit more tough …

… with yesterday’s announcements that Senators Chris Dodd of Connecticut and Byron Dorgan of North Dakota aren’t going to defend their seats in November. That’s a lot of combined years of Congressional experience stepping back from the table. The Democrats are finding owning all of D.C. isn’t a walk in the park, and holding a governing coalition together is pretty tough.

Make no mistake, the elections are still quite a ways off and political winds blow notoriously fickle, but Obama’s first year in office has been tough on the Democrats. Blue Dogs are under attack both at home in the ballot box and from progressive purists in the blogosphere who are acting no less self-destructively than far-right GOPers who want to purge RINOs from the shrinking Republican tent.

If — and this possibility became a bit more probable with yesterday’s news — the Democrats suffer shockingly large defeats at the polls in November and (gasp!) actually lose control of the Senate, I wonder if the loony progressives who are hell-bent on battling a pragmatic and realistic president from their own party and appear to value ideology over governance will feel some measure of blame?

Probably not, and they’ll still be confused on why they’ll continue to be known as Defeatocrats.

Twitter looks to be settling in for the long haul

This is a great quote from this NYT article:

“The history of the Internet suggests that there have been cool Web sites that go in and out of fashion and then there have been open standards that become plumbing,” said Steven Johnson, the author and technology observer who wrote a seminal piece about Twitter for Time last June. “Twitter is looking more and more like plumbing, and plumbing is eternal.”

Around a year ago Twitter really started heating up for a solid year of hype and headlines, a make-or-break condition for most emerging technology. And now that it’s 2010? Twitter still looks strong. Still no actual business model to speak of, and no real money aside from venture funds, but the service itself is rolling along very nicely and has found niches all over the cultural and political map.

Here’s another informative excerpt from the link:

At first, Twitter can be overwhelming, but think of it as a river of data rushing past that I dip a cup into every once in a while. Much of what I need to know is in that cup: if it looks like Apple is going to demo its new tablet, or Amazon sold more Kindles than actual books at Christmas, or the final vote in the Senate gets locked in on health care, I almost always learn about it first on Twitter.

The expressive limits of a kind of narrative developed from text messages, with less space to digress or explain than this sentence, has significant upsides. The best people on Twitter communicate with economy and precision, with each element — links, hash tags and comments — freighted with meaning. Professional acquaintances whom I find insufferable on every other platform suddenly become interesting within the confines of Twitter.

Ray Kurzweil interviewed by h+

Via KurzweilAI.net — Hit the link below for Kurzweil’s interview with h+, the futurism/transhumanist magazine.

Ray Kurzweil: The h+ Interview

H+ Magazine, Dec. 30, 2009 Consciousness, quantum computing, complexity, artificial intelligence, and reverse engineering the brain are among the diverse topics covered in an interview with Ray Kurzweil, where he reveals he’s working on a book called How the Mind Works and How to Build One. Read Original Article>>