Un-tapped Talent_New Star UK is a Scot_Scot of the year 2009

Never to late for Fame:

I have just hear Susan Boyle sing. Sue at 47 years old from Blackburn near Bathgate, West Midlothian, in Scotland is deservidely exploding on all TV screens here in France for her perfomance in the UK edition of New Star. I have placed a permanent link photo and video link on the top LHS menu bar and repeated the link below:

Susan Boyle_New Star UK_Scot of the year 2009 LINK-html

Best wishes Sue.

Deforestation_ A Joke to Illustrate a very Serious and Fundamental Global Problem_Human Economic System in Question

The story may bring to mind serious issues brought up on a couple of my other blogs where I have brought readers attention to the works notably by Jared Diamond and J-M Jancovici.

This short story goes like this:
A lumber-jack comes to our well forested locality La Nièvre in France looking for a job.

The recruiter asks, "Well sir what are your references, for example, where did you work before?

The Lumber-jack replies, "In the Sahara".

The recruiter exclaims: In the Sahara desert!" There are no trees in the Sahara".

The lumber-jack: "That's right sir, that's because I was there before".

Related topics:
1. cf. for example Jared Diamond's tale of How Civilisations Collapse. scroll down to posts.
2. What is significant Innovation, What to Innovate, Where to Innovate, How to Innovate_ Back to Basics
3. Jared Diamond's 5 point Framework to decipher why Societies Collapse, spot the advanced warning signs_ why and how Societies Survive past and present.
4. Video capture widget trials and start of a Forsight-Hindsight Video Series
5. Energy Autonomy, Renewable Energies in France _ Get your projects in France going. Seeking a French partner or building a Consortium?
6. Guns, gems and steel: The Fate(s) of Human Societies

Financial Institutions_No comment or minimun comment, just simple calculations and questions

The New York Times (NY Times) published an article following the
up-roar over the subsidised AIG company management bonuses of 165 Million$ which they describe as "small change."

NY Times article published under the header, "The Fine Art of Political Distraction" and republished by the french newspaper Le Monde in their weekend supplement in english, Sat. 28 March 2009.

Could the NY Times and Le Monde be the real culprits guilty of Distraction?
Bonuses for Management of what? Gigantic Budgets! Seriously or Tongue in cheek sarcasm?

The small change comment arises from comparisons with
1. Announced US budget 787 Billion $ to boolster economic recovery (of which the sustainability remains, largely, to be defined not to mention proven I believe)
2. Add to this 700 Billion $ to "shore-up" (pun on the the rising sea level warnings?) shaky financial institutions.

Let's see:
-787 Billion $ = 787 000 OOO OOO$ (in US and most commonly used Scientific Community units)
-700 Billion $ = 700 000 000 000$

165 Million $ = 165 000 000$ or 1/6th of a Billion$ in the AIG bonus package
(How many golden parachutes and golden-handshakes are we focusing on at AIG and Assocs and what is the spread from maximum eg. 16 guys at 10M$ and 1 at 0.5M$ to some other hand-out? ).

NY Times describes AIG as a shaky financial Institution dare we repeat this?

How many other Financial Institutions are involve in such hand-outs
700 000 000 000 / 165 000 000 = 700 000 / 165 = 4242.42 approximately 4000.

What is clear is that the concentration of wealth continues to be "highly concentrated" whatever the calculation method used.

How many shaky financial institions are in the so called Gravey Queue. 4000 ? More? Less? And to what extent? AIG and they are not alone is the standard (International Standards Organisation ISO for the engineers amoung us) . There are several examples. It's a pity I did not take a hear count. It does very look easy to shallow up huge budgets (such as hundreds of billions of US$)

I am no expert in these matters which is certainly why I and the rest of the world are asking such questions.

One theme that has seldom emerged is "what if the bills are paid by the often longstanding highly paid directors of these financial institutions," by definition people with a good credit rank- and credit allowed at much lower rates than the general public-the famous "Joe Blog." One observer insists that neither the general public- (payers) nor the politicians who must study,legislate-decide have not a clue (like me) as to how banks work (surely an understatement if ever there was one) This observer whose name and references I did not scribble down at the time, considers that, yes indeed, the leading Bankers should foot the bill by through re-lending to their institution their "hard earned capital". At a guess I would say this must amount to roughly "700 Billion US$ in the USA alone) Through time and if they correct their past errors, these "managers" will in a relatively short time recover much of their re-investment. I'll let the specialists do some calculations on the return on capital through compound interest rates.

Still what on earth will our huge earners do with such massive capital remains to be seen. We know by now what our pollution and GHG emissions records are.

One group Forbes appears to have an idea. Some billionaires offer job?
a) The World's Billionaires
Edited by Luisa Kroll, Matthew Miller and Tatiana Serafin, 03.11.09
b) The Jobs?

Do the numbers of Jobs Offered balance Jobs Lost, Job Seekers? This must wait for some more enquiries and some very simple calculations.

A last quote (and two links) from J-M Jancovici and Grandjean:
"Human Economy is essentially about how mankind transforms limited natural resources to make useful desirable products and services."
[Link1] and [Link2].

Innovation and Creativity from a recent blog source via EntreCard

Taking one's self too seriously is not good policy for Creativity and Innovation.

I am most indebted to David Farrimond for his links and introduction to his non-vulgar humerous approach and work.

A few rapid personal picks.

IDEA GENERATION THEORY -Full Menu and Game


Game Direct Link

EMBRACE FAILURE

NB does not mean:
"Do not seek success and its rewards", but rather should be consider as a means to re-gain the elasticity, necessary to rebound. "The ups and downs of life like cars gas guzzlers or the clean car, still in the "pipeline" need rubber like elasticity."

Embrace Failure (Prose- almost poetry)

But do seek success
For and in, it's own,
rich Rewards.

Most economical
Don't you think.
No stress on me
Fat-Cat-Lid, comical
laugh's Inwards.

Re-gain that elasticity,
So necessary to rebound.
"The ups and downs of life
Need rubber like tenacity."

Gas guzzlers or clean
Car dreams , alike!
The latter lacking liquidity.
The Fat and the lean

Are still, very much,
"in-the-pipeline"

Prose or poetry? My franco-Scots playing tricks on my mind
for prose : pro - ose (ose in french means dare)
MacDiarmid must be turning in his grave!

France vs Scotland, 3rd Half-time was not rugby! Collision reported between British Nuclear Submarine, towed to Faslane Scotland and French Sub! Jobs

This information mix "Two Nuclear Submarines collide in the Atlantic and Drug Seizure on an Atlantic Island" is worse than mixing Scotch and Wine!

The 3rd Half in 2 half time team sports refers to after-match celebration in a bar. Here there the collision between the two packs could have had "dire" consequences! (aftermath)

A French nuclear submarine is reported to have been involved in a collision with a British nuclear submarine . "Revelations..."

West Indies: 600 kg of cocaine seized !

What a coincidence the collision took place in the middle of the Atlantic. Readers are, of course, free to draw their own conclusions.

my translation from french in Yahoo News lead 16 Feb. 09 (in french)

Collision nucléaire
Un sous-marin nucléaire français serait entré en collision avec un sous-marin nucléaire britannique. » Révélations

Antilles : 600 kg de cocaïne saisis

A short summary of the reported "incident":

BRITISH and French nuclear submarines that collided deep under the Atlantic could have sunk or released deadly radioactivity, it emerged (and luckily not submerged).
according to the UK, The Sun, newspaper's By TOM NEWTON DUNN,Defence Editor.

The Royal Navy’s HMS Vanguard and the French Navy’s Le Triomphant are both nuclear powered and were carrying nuke missiles.

The Vanguard, one of Britain’s four V-Class subs forming our Trident nuclear deterrent, each armed with 16 ballistic missiles was last night towed into Faslane in Scotland, with dents and scrapes visible on her hull. Triomphant limped to Brest with extensive damage to her sonar dome.

Vanguard She was last night towed into Faslane in Scotland, with dents and scrapes visible on her hull. Triomphant limped to Brest with extensive damage to her sonar dome.

The technical angle:
Naval sources are claimed to have said it was a millions-to-one unlucky chance both subs were in the same patch of sea.

Warships have sonar gear which locates submarines by sound waves.

But modern anti-sonar technology is so good it is possible neither boat “saw” the other.

Too good to be true?:

Jobs

SOURCE

Source, En Français

Introducing Snap Shots from Snap.com - Enhanced Widget Functionality

I just installed a nice little tool on this site called Snap Shots that enhances links with visual previews of the destination site, interactive excerpts of Wikipedia articles, MySpace profiles, IMDb profiles and Amazon products, display in-line videos, RSS, MP3s, photos, stock charts and more.

Sometimes Snap Shots bring you the information you need, without your having to leave the site, while other times it lets you "look ahead," before deciding if you want to follow a link or not.

Please feel free to comment upon this widget or my widget approach in general.

Should you decide this is not for you, just click the Options icon in the upper right corner of the Snap Shot and opt-out.

Top Self-help - Free ebooks from Questia

Questia has the following eye catching offer available: "Build A Better Life! 15 free books on Success, Health and Prosperity - Questia.com" today: Monday, December 29, 2008.
Tell your friends and join me. Tell me which of the titles-subjects appealed to you best.

LINK

By the way it is our first snow fall here in Nevers, France.

Happy new year all

Cool Gifts for a Happy Xmas - Food for Guns in LA - Heads cool as Economy Cools

Cool Gifts - Heads cool as the Economy cools.

LOS ANGELES – A program to exchange guns for gifts brought in a record number of weapons this year as residents hit hard by the economy look under the bed and in closets to find items to trade for groceries.
The annual Gifts for Guns program ended Sunday in Compton, a working class city south of Los Angeles that has long struggled with gun and gang violence. In a program similar to ones in New York and San Francisco, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department allows residents to anonymously relinquish firearms in return for $100 gift cards for Ralph's supermarkets, Target department stores or Best Buy electronics stores.

Turning in assault rifles yields double that amount.
More...

Comment Starter - What happens to the the hardware now: checked for origin and arms traffic control, re-use by military, re-melted for quality civil use, other.

Whatever, it is good to see that sensible people rate acquiring food peacefully above taking it by force. Keep-up the good work - discuss widely.

Source: "Lean times, SoCal residents trade guns for food" - Print Version By THOMAS WATKINS, writer for AP

Will this, one day, save the Bard… from Neurodegenerative disease - Millenium Projects ?

At the turn of decade, the century and the millennium a traumatized scientist wrote a couple of poems:
The first poem, written in 1999 was called: POETSACS. It reflects a hotch-potch of problems at the time. Most are still with us (ref 3 below) and Crusades are still required.

POETSACS

Suppose for a minute that French, Germans, I.A.N. & others bend but have a point.
To thine own self be true…

(Thou canst not, then, be false to any man)

Suppose for a minute that industries ills have come to an end

With B.B_eef joint.

To thine own self be…

Suppose that "Brit." Farmers look for jobs as coalminers

Steelworkers, engineer shipyard welders…

The list is long of Northern night* deadline chimers

The butcher, the baker, the candlestick makers.

To thine own self....

This last job - could this be futures only economic Key?

For the short and not the long wave model let us prey,

On prions and the deil's like,

No, (not) the purse of any Syke.

To Thine...

Lest come they may,

As come they might,

Human frailty,

Mad moo

Too!

J. A. © (1999).


This following article-abstract from The Economist 13 Sept 2007 holds hope for us and shows, once again, how one line of fundamental research driven by serious economic crises "Mad Moo, medical name BSE-Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy" with terrifying repercussion on health sheds new light on the family of Neurodegenerative diseases.

" SEEMINGLY different diseases can sometimes share a common cause. Tumours of all sorts, for example, are clusters of cells run out of control, dividing incessantly. Over the past decade, another unifying medical principle has emerged. It holds that many diseases of the central nervous system—including Alzheimer's, Huntington's and Parkinson's diseases—also share a mechanism. Instead of non-stop proliferation, the theme in this case is rubbish-disposal gone wrong. "

SOURCE

1. My poem.
2. Neurodegenerative disease ref The Economist 13 Sept 2007
3 A CRUSADE UP-DATE and associated sites check "iansa.org and "Arms Control.org

Music to my ears - Times arrow ever cast -Take a PEEK

Music to my ears -

Times arrow ever cast

Sounds for the deaf and for the solitary golfer by -6°C/267 degrees Kelvin.
(In an early autumn morning, temperature about -6°Celsius/267 degrees Kelvin)

The sun shone an the first green and the second tee.
The young oak looked on amused at these futile gests.
Her leaves, golden, spoke; tinkling, tinkling, falling free,
Floating in the early frosted air to a final tinkled rest.
I strained my ear to listen to natures tune,
From tee to tee and tree to tree ever since,
I realize the uniqueness my experienced “roon.”*

*(roon= round of golf in Scots vernacular)
My poem - poem by a scientist © JA “Times arrow ever cast”


Science in disguise – Music to my ears or is it? Take a “Peek for casting”.

DISCLAIMER

By a Franco-Scots trained metallurgist whose appreciation of plastics is limited and reports on such “substances”** starting from a mind-frame defined by "the metallurgists" motto as “I hate plastics!” - except for Bio-Degradable ISO-NF International Stds. Org. - Norme Francais...plastic carrier bags recycled for home rubbish-The Best. And like all Scots I like a rebate- “Debate svp on what follows-comment!”  Here I slip from a true natures experience on a short golf-practice to prose on science,technology,engineering, materials selection and art not forgetting some humour.

Korea golf ball mould supplier Sung Hyoung Precision has begun coating its mould cores with polyarylethethetone (Peek)

The coatings scratch and wear resistance properties are claimed to extend the service life of mould to six times that of those covered with fluoropolymers or metal platings. The polymer is a linear, semi-crystalline thermoplastic

The main ingredient is a linear, semi-crystalline thermoplastic that does not require a primer or multiple layers.
Such “petroleum derivitives” have of course many other industrial applications “unfortunately” but to be fair, the UK polymer producer offers several online case studies relevant to their products and applications.

Global Outlook-start: UK-China.

Global Application Development Services To support OEMs-Original equipment manufactrers and coaters with the development and commercialization of these coatings in their application design, The PEEK manufacturer has two application support service facilities; The Asia Innovation and Technology Centre (AITC)The Asia Innovation and Technology Centre (AITC), located in the Xinzhuang Industry Park in Shanghai, China and the The Coatings Application Development Center (VADC), located at the company headquarters in Thornton Cleveleys, Lanchashire, United Kingdom. Both centers provide customers with expertise and support in materials specification, training, prototyping, testing, and research.

NB. Life Cycle Analysis:

Granta Design's new Eco Audit Tool enables identification of the energy emissions from a product at different phases in its lifecycle, based on the materials and processes used; eg. material, manufacture, transport, use, disposal.

LHS-Fig. Histogramme Energy vs Lifecycle phase

Sources
-Materials World (MW) Print edition only – All MW. full online content –Link.
-Engineering Talk

-Life Cycle Analysis Eco-Audit All the links Images are due to Granta Design.

**For a discussion on Materials versus Substances cf my link:
"The Material Chemists-Definition of Materials Chemistry"

Industrialists websites:
Victrex "Peeks"
Sung Hyoung Precison