Home Computer of the Future

The caption reads,

Scientists from the RAND Corporation have created this model to illustrate how a "home computer" could look like in the year 2004. However the needed technology will not be economically feasible for the average home. Also the scientists readily admit that the computer will require not yet invented technology to actually work, but 50 years from now scientific progress is expected to solve these problems. With teletype interface and the Fortran language, the computer will be easy to use.

(Thanks, Thor!) Love the monitor. And as U N Gaitonde asks (see comments below), the double steering wheel was for what?

Keep your eye on that RAND corporation.

Seeing ≠ Believing

Pretty amazing:



(Thanks, Ben!) The "news" segment startng 30 secs. in was for a movie . . . I think.

The Evisceration of the Middle Class

Great article, with supporting references, at Alternet. E.g.,

Paul Buchheit, from DePaul University, revealed, "From 1980 to 2006 the richest 1% of America tripled their after-tax percentage of our nation's total income, while the bottom 90% have seen their share drop over 20%." Robert Freeman added, "Between 2002 and 2006, it was even worse: an astounding three-quarters of all the economy's growth was captured by the top 1%."

. . . [T]he United States already had the highest inequality of wealth in the industrialized world prior to the financial crisis. Since the crisis, which has hit the average worker much harder than CEOs, the gap between the top one percent and the remaining 99% of the US population has grown to a record high. The economic top one percent of the population now owns over 70% of all financial assets, an all time record.

As mentioned before, just look at the first full year of the crisis when workers lost an average of 25 percent off their 401k. During the same time period, the wealth of the 400 richest Americans increased by $30 billion, bringing their total combined wealth to $1.57 trillion, which is more than the combined net worth of 50% of the US population. Just to make this point clear, 400 people have more wealth than 155 million people combined.

* * * * *

[Meanwhile, although US workers are working more hours and have become dramatically more productive, their inflation-adjusted income has declined.] If our income had kept pace with compensation distribution rates established in the early 1970s, we would all be making at least three times as much as we are currently making.

More at the first link above. See also Elizabeth Warren.

Janitors Crash Bankers' Meeting

"At 10 am today, about one hundred janitors and supporters of SEIU Local 26 crashed the National Bankers Association meeting at the Saint Paul City Center. They executed a carefully planned action designed to barge into the bankers’ conference and demand fair treatment of Local 26 workers. Union members quickly surged from their bus parked outside into the atrium of the Hilton, past the conference check in desk and into the ballroom where speakers were addressing hundreds of Minnesota bankers. Security stopped the vast majority of the protesters, but a few made their way into the bankers’ gathering.

The union’s message was conveyed with chanting, air horn blasts and massive signs that exposed the multimillion dollar salaries of top Minnesota bank executives like Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf, who made over $18 million this year. Full-time janitors make as little as $20,200 a year, before taxes, and many face thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket medical costs due to poor coverage, or avoid doctor visits out of fear of incurring big bills."

Social Evolution

Speaking of monopolies (see previous post),

Some cell behaviors – especially those that give the cell group its ability to exploit environmental resources – are cooperative in nature . . . . When genetic relatives are clustered together, cooperative cell behaviors like extracellular enzyme secretion can evolve more easily. Secreted enzymes, in turn, may allow a pathogenic bacterial colony to become more virulent, or a nascent cancerous tumor to become malignant.

. . . . In the three images shown here, the red and blue cell types do not differ in any way other than their color, which is used to determine whether a cell group remains well-mixed, or whether related cells tend to cluster together.

From left to right, environmental nutrient concentration was decreased from ubiquitous, to moderate, to sparse. As nutrient concentration decreases, the tendency for different genetic lineages to spontaneously segregate increases, which favors the evolution of cooperation.

More here; from the Art of Science 2009 Online Gallery, where there are more cool images (thanks, Bob!)

Another Important Piece of the Puzzle: "The New Monopoly Capitalism"

Below is a talk by Harper's and Financial Times contributor, Barry C. Lynn, on how the evisceration of U.S. antitrust laws since Reagan has allowed a concentration of monopolistic power that far exceeds even that achieved during the Gilded Age. The facts laid out shocked even me.

Lynn's new book is titled, "Cornered: The New Monopoly Capitalism and the Economics of Destruction." To skip most of the intro, which I found a bit long, start ca. 5 min. in.

Sounds like Lynn's work dovetails nicely with that of Adam Curtis (see Century of the Self; or click on "Adam Curtis" in the labels in the footer of this post for more info).

Go, Wanda!

Continued at related YouTube links.

Feds Claim Right to Kill US Citizens on US Soil if Suspected of "Terrorism" -- Seriously

Per ABC News, "The director of national intelligence affirmed rather bluntly today that the U.S. intelligence community has authority to target American citizens for assassination if they present a direct terrorist threat . . ." (emphasis supplied; full story at the foregoing link).

To repeat: The U.S. government has arrogated to itself the right to deprive you of your life (let alone liberty or property) without due process of law, if an unidentified authority says they think you "present" a "terrorist" threat.

They are not talking about a situation in which you are actually, presently threatening anyone – e.g., if you were actually pointing a weapon at someone, or holding someone hostage – because in that case, they would have the right to kill you anyway.

No, they are talking about assassinating you ahead of time, because someone says they think you're planning something like that.

So, the entirety of the U.S. is apparently now a Constitution-free zone.