Invasion of America ~ Timelapse Map of US...

Kottke spots eHistory's timelapse map of the Invasion of America...

"Between 1776 and 1887, the United States seized over 1.5 billion acres from America's indigenous people by treaty and executive order. Explore how in this interactive map of every Native American land cession during that period."

(Of course, this is rather deceptive, since the French, Spanish, Russians, newly-independent Mexicans, and others played key roles. And it's worth comparing this to the conquering ravages of the Aztecs, Incas, Persians, Arabs, Alexander, Imperial Russian, Victorians, etc, etc, including especially Genghis Khan and his Mongol Hordes.)

Remember Pearl ~ Surprise, Failure, & Lessons

Imperial Japan's infamous attack on US forces in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii 72 years ago today killed thousands and expanded WWII greatly. But it was such a surprise and so devastating largely because of unconcerned, inattentive, and incompetent intelligence, military, and government authorities, much like 9/11 sixty years later. Let that be the ultimate lesson:  visionary leadership, eternal vigilance, and creative ability are all three together paramount for civilization to survive the forces of malice and perfidy and indeed thrive towards human greatness, overcoming the evil irrationalities of colonial imperialism, religious fanaticism, and political collectivism.

Cry Freetown ~ Samura on Sierra Leone Civil War

Earlier today I posted promo videos emphasizing the emerging and promising future possibilities for Sierra Leone and its peoples. But we should never forget that just over a decade ago this beautiful country was being hacked apart by rebels and defenders alike in a brutal civil war. Photojournalist Sorious Samura was caught in the middle of it all and captured some truly horrifying footage. His Cry Freetown documentary pulls no punches and demands your attention...

Fingerprints of Fraud ~ WSJ on Russia's "Votes"

Gregory White and Rob Barry write of Russia's Dubious Vote in the WSJournal and spotlight the many Fingerprints of Fraud...

"A comprehensive examination of the full results from Russia's nearly 100,000 voting precincts reveals statistical anomalies that experts say are consistent with widespread vote-rigging. These irregularities could cast doubt, by one rough measure, over as many as 14 million of the 65.7 million votes reportedly cast. [...] statistical analysis revealed phenomena that scholars who study vote data say are suggestive of vote-rigging.‬ "These are sometimes called the fingerprints of fraud," said Alberto Simpser, professor of political science at the University of Chicago. "If they all point in the same direction," he said, referring to statistical as well as observer and other evidence, "that's a very strong case."‬ The results are studded with groups of precincts that report exact round numbers for voter participation -- say, a turnout of 70%, 75% or 80%, up to 100%. Several groups of precincts also report similarly high round numbers of voters for United Russia. Such round figures occur significantly more frequently than nearby figures -- a phenomenon statisticians say is highly unlikely to come from a random distribution of numbers.‬"

Also includes explanation of methods and summary kleptographic...

Eco-Label Rankings ~ Key Aquaculture Standards

Thanks to Pew Environment for New Study Puts Eco-labels to the Test about the University of Victoria's How Green is Your Eco-label?

"...which uses a well-established quantitative methodology derived from the 2010 Global Aquaculture Performance Index to determine numerical scores of environmental performance for 20 different eco-labels for farmed marine finfish, such as salmon, cod, turbot, and grouper. These scores were used to rank performance among the various eco-labels. [...] “Eco-labels can help fish farmers produce and consumers select environmentally preferable seafood, but only if the labels are based on meaningful standards that are enforced,” said Chris Mann, director of Pew’s Aquaculture Standards Project. “Seafood buyers at the retail or wholesale level should demand that evidence of sustainability be demonstrated, not merely asserted.”

See here summary of how standards performed overall...

O'Leary Slams EU ~ Ryan Air Innovation Formula

Thanks to International Liberty's Dan Mitchell for spotting the In-Your-Face Smackdown of Europe’s Bureaucratic Empire by Ryan Air's Michael O'Leary. Brilliant evisceration of unmitigated bloatocracy!

Giving Thanks ~ Ingersoll's 1897 Epic Sermon!

Thanks to Cynical-C for spotlighting Ingersoll's 1897 epic Thanksgiving Sermon! This is just an excerpt, my favorite parts...

"Standing here at the close of the 19th 
century -- amid the trophies of thought -- the triumphs of genius -- here under the flag of the Great Republic -- knowing something 
of the history of man -- here on this day that has been set apart for thanksgiving, I most reverently thank the good men. the good women of the past, I thank the kind fathers, the loving mothers of
 the savage days. I thank the father who spoke the first gentle 
word, the mother who first smiled upon her babe. I thank the first
 true friend. I thank the savages who hunted and fished that they 
and their babes might live. I thank those who cultivated the ground
 and changed the forests into farms -- those who built rude homes
 and watched the faces of their happy children in the glow of
 fireside flames -- those who domesticated horses, cattle and sheep
 -- those who invented wheels and looms and taught us to spin and
 weave -- those who by cultivation changed wild grasses into wheat 
and corn, changed bitter things to fruit, and worthless weeds to
 flowers, that sowed within our souls the seeds of art. I thank the 
poets of the dawn -- the tellers of legends -- the makers of myths
 -- the singers of joy and grief, of hope and love. I thank the
 artists who chiseled forms in stone and wrought with light and
 shade the face of man. I thank the philosophers, the thinkers, who
 taught us how to use our minds in the great search for truth. I
 thank the astronomers who explored the heavens, told us the secrets 
of the stars, the glories of the constellations -- the geologists 
who found the story of the world in fossil forms, in memoranda kept 
in ancient rocks, in lines written by waves, by frost and fire -- the anatomists who sought in muscle, nerve and bone for all the 
mysteries of life -- the chemists who unraveled Nature’s work that
 they might learn her art -- the physicians who have laid the hand 
of science on the brow of pain, the hand whose magic touch restores
 -- the surgeons who have defeated Nature’s self and forced her to
 preserve the lives of those she labored to destroy. I thank the discoverers of chloroform and ether, the two 
angels who give to their beloved sleep, and wrap the throbbing
 brain in the soft robes of dreams. I thank the great inventors -- those who gave us movable type and the press, by means of which
 great thoughts and all discovered facts are made immortal -- the
 inventors of engines, of the great ships, of the railways, the 
cables and telegraphs. I thank the great mechanics, the workers in
 iron and steel, in wood and stone. I thank the inventors and makers
 of the numberless things of use and luxury. I thank the industrious men, the loving mothers, the useful
 women. They are the benefactors of our race. The inventor of pins did a thousand times more good than all 
the popes and cardinals, the bishops and priests -- than all the
 clergymen and parsons, exhorters and theologians that ever lived. The inventor of matches did more for the comfort and
 convenience of mankind than all the founders of religions and the 
makers of all creeds -- than all malicious monks and selfish
 saints. [...] I thank the statesmen who have preserved the rights of man. I
 thank Paine whose genius sowed the seeds of independence in the
 hearts of ’76. I thank Jefferson whose mighty words for liberty 
have made the circuit of the globe. [...] I thank the great scientists -- those who have reached the
 foundation, the bed-rock -- who have built upon facts -- the great
 scientists, in whose presence theologians look silly and feel
 malicious [...] I thank the 
scientists one and all [...] I thank the heroes, the destroyers of prejudice and fear -- the dethroners of savage gods -- the extinguishers of hate’s
 eternal fire -- the heroes, the breakers of chains -- the founders
 of free states -- the makers of just laws -- the heroes who fought 
and fell on countless fields -- the heroes whose dungeons became
 shrines -- the heroes whose blood made scaffolds sacred -- the 
heroes, the apostles of reason, the disciples of truth, the
 soldiers of freedom -- the heroes who held high the holy torch and
 filled the world with light. With all my heart I thank them all."

Amen!

Fishy Business ~ Globe Seafood Fraud Expose...

Great Globe journalism spots rampant fraud in the seafood sector. In their cover-story expose piece on this seriously Fishy Business, Jenn Abelson, Beth Daley, and Scott LaPierre reveal it's On the menu, but not on your plate...

"...among the findings of a five-month Globe investigation into the mislabeling of fish [were] that Massachusetts consumers routinely and unwittingly overpay for less desirable, sometimes undesirable, species -- or buy seafood that is simply not what it is advertised to be. In many cases, the fish was caught thousands of miles away and frozen, not hauled in by local fishermen, as the menu claimed. It may be perfectly palatable -- just not what the customer ordered. But sometimes mislabeled seafood can cause allergic reactions, violate dietary restrictions, or contain chemicals banned in the United States. The Globe collected fish from 134 restaurants, grocery stores, and seafood markets from Leominster to Provincetown, and hired a laboratory in Canada to conduct DNA testing on the samples. Analyses by the DNA lab and other scientists showed that 87 of 183 were sold with the wrong species name -- 48 percent."

Thanks to Ian Lamont for emphasizing this great example of a strong and vibrant Fourth Estate in action.

Simultaneous Strategies ~ Chile Mine Rescue Rx

Sloan Management Review has a great piece by Michael Useem, Rodrigo Jordán and Matko Koljatic on How to Lead During a Crisis: Lessons From the Rescue of the Chilean Miners...

"When 33 Chilean miners were rescued after being trapped underground for 69 days, the world cheered. Here’s [lessons] from key leadership decisions made during the mine cave-in crisis. [...] The executive decisions of [Chilean Mining Minister] Laurence Golborne during the rescue of the 33 miners thus offers an unusual opportunity, since he and his top team members agreed in interviews to describe the decisions they made during the rescue."

There are many interesting elements to the story but I find this a particular nugget of gold...

"In the aftermath of his decisions to take charge and to create the top team, Golborne turned his attention to the final goal of locating and then extracting the lost miners. Here he adopted a practice of redundancy, pursuing two or more simultaneous strategies so that if one faltered or failed, time would not have been lost in developing the other options. This is a practice found in other fast-moving management environments. For locating the miners, Golborne created two drilling teams. One would seek to drill a hole down to a ventilation shaft not too far above the miners’ location. The second would work to drill an opening all the way to where the miners were trapped. [...] With both gains and setbacks anticipated, Golborne embraced a policy of fully disclosing not only the drillings’ successes but also their failures. On the premise that openness must be complete and consistent for his own leadership to be credible with the key stakeholders, every time a drilling problem emerged, Golborne made a point of candidly informing the relatives and the media. “The decision of transparency was a conscious decision made early on. There were too many people, we could not hide anything,” he explained. “If we did, we would lose their confidence.”

The bottom line...

"Several final implications for crisis leadership become evident. First, an unequivocal focus on the objective of resolving the crisis serves to energize and motivate the team. Second, disciplining the team’s decisions around achieving that goal can be vital when there is little room for error. Third, given the press of time and uncertainties of outcome, creating multiple alternative paths for resolution of the crisis optimizes the likelihood that one will ultimately succeed. And fourth, the full and timely disclosure of all vital information serves to help ensure that the crisis leader retains legitimacy in the minds of all stakeholders."

"Fairy Story" ~ Hawking on Heaven and Religion...

Ian Sample in the Guardian shares exclusive interview with cosmologist Stephen Hawking who asserts...

"There is no heaven or afterlife [...] that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark. [...] "We should seek the greatest value of our action." [...] "I have lived with the prospect of an early death for the last 49 years. I'm not afraid of death, but I'm in no hurry to die. I have so much I want to do first."

Blunt, honest words from a remarkable intellect unbroken by the irrational religiosity all around us.

Dying Sucks ~ The Cruel Reality of Decline...

We're all born with aging genetically "programmed" in -- or, at least, it hasn't yet been evolutionarily selected against. Perhaps God and the Devil are both bloody Darwinians? And when you compound aging with the environmental ravages and behavioral burdens we bear or self-inflict, it's little wonder that our bodies and brains wither away too soon. But worst of all, in the final stretch, when we can consciously see our flame flickering low, the cruel reality of our decline and doom really hits home. That's dying and it sucks. P.S. I'm going to do something about this too. As far as I'm concerned, Gerontechnology merits a 12 figure global R&D budget. Governments planet-wide burn that much per year in tax dollars on military "defense" killing people, so it's not crazy to instead invest at least as much money on something that's the constructive exact opposite.

Oily Promises ~ Daily Show on the Presidents...

Bob Kokorda and Ohad Folman spot Daily Show take on Oil Dependency...

Pharaoh Resigns ~ Is This To Be Believed?!

An Egyptian liberty movement moment...

Pothole City ~ First-World Goes Third-Rate...

In the NYTimes, Corey Kilgannon is On Patrol for the Casualties of Potholes...

"With melting snow, road salt and snowplows teaming up to assault the roadways since late December, many street surfaces are crumbling and becoming pockmarked with potholes. As fast as the city fills them, new ones open up -- little roadside craters that can cause untold damage to vehicles. And if those vehicles happen to be in the East Bronx, their drivers may encounter Mr. Cruz, a tow truck driver who patrols that territory. “New York is Pothole City right now,” Mr. Cruz said. “Everyone is driving through an obstacle course. These streets will take your car away in a heartbeat.”

Third world infrastructure. Should not be this way...

CATO Responds ~ Dissecting Obama's Speech...

CATO responds to President Obama's State of the Union with penetrating dissections...

Dutch Retreat ~ Civil Rights Going Up In Smoke...

Stanley Pignal in the FT writes that the Dutch look at weeding out cannabis cafés, a sign of growing civil intolerance and a major setback in the path towards liberty and freedom of choice for all humanity...

"...the fragrant haze found in the city’s 200 or so establishments could be dispersed under plans by the incoming government, which is looking to roll back the “tolerance policy” that has allowed such coffee shops to operate since 1976. Coinciding with a tightening of laws around prostitution -- another tolerated industry -- the authorities’ new stance on cannabis is raising questions as to whether Dutch society is moving away from laisser-faire traditions, which have included some of the earliest gay-friendly policies in Europe and the provision of free contraception to teenage girls. Certainly the outlook for coffee shops is bleak. Among the few policies that the three parties in the new coalition agree upon is the need to cut back on, if not entirely abolish, coffee shops."

This regressiveness is regretable. WTF fellow Dutch people?!

Nobel Chinese ~ Saluting Peaceful Liu Xiaobo!

Chinese intellectual, writer, human rights activist, and political prisoner Liu Xiaobo has been honored as Nobel Peace Prize winner 2010 for...

"his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China."

This is a major honor for Liu and the Chinese people, one which the illegitimate, unelected, and dictatorial Politburo fears and has therefore condemned and censored via their Great Firewall. Regretably, none of the billion-plus Chinese citizens in-country can read my post because of this narrow elite's irrational and uncivilized reaction. This is stunningly contradictory to the Poliburo's assertions about China's Peaceful Rise. And given their recent aggressive assertiveness, one has to wonder whether their true intentions are not far more evil and rapacious. In any case, Nobelist Xiaobo deserves the civilized free world's unstinting praise and support.

Architorture Be Gone ~ Cal Poly Abandons Crap

Lawrence Biemiller writes in the Chronicle that Cal Poly Pomona will take the courageous move of abandoning crap architorture... The so-called "landmark" is Antoine Predock's 1993 Classroom Laboratory Administration Building which is so bad it apparently...

"...taxed operational budgets and personnel due to a number of construction flaws and mechanical-system failures. [...] Even after a major renovation, the CLA would remain difficult to navigate, waste internal space, be energy inefficient and subject to future mitigation issues."

MIT has its own unfortunate share of artrocities, including the disasterous Stata Center by incompetent starchitect Frank Gehry -- MIT had to sue for damages and repairs -- the unlivable Simmons Hall dormitory by Steven Holl and even more recent boondoggles such as the new Media Lab by Maki and the new Sloan building, both of which are tragically flawed. Maybe they too will be demolished in due time. Just like this other "Landmark"...

Future Levant ~ King Abdullah on Daily Show

Interesting to see Jordan's King Abdullah tell truth on Daily Show!

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Exclusive - King Abdullah II of Jordan Extended Interview
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

Lasting Words ~ Mother's Message To Her Kids...

Globe's Bryan Marquard writes of Karyn Slomski's Lasting Words...

"Nearly four years had passed since Karyn was diagnosed with cancer, and she had learned several days earlier that the final treatment wasn’t working. What she did not know was that she had just 10 days left to live. "We really didn’t even think we’d ever get this far. We’re lucky," Karyn said. [...] Karyn gathered her family in the living room of their Auburn house to be recorded in a video so that years from now, Brendan and Maggie will be able to see her smile, listen to her sing, and hear her words of love. The video, she told her giggling children, was just a memento of the moment. “They don’t know the next part,’’ Karyn, who was 38, told the Globe that day. The next part began early yesterday, when Karyn died at home."

That's heartbreaking. We simply must go Human 2.0 -- bolstering the sagging, invigorating the depressed, treating the ailing, and curing the seemingly incurable. This means massive research and development on translational medicine in the realms of oncology, gerontology, neurotechnology, and more. The overwhelming majority of human suffering and death continues to be due our lack of transformative knowledge about viable alternative pathways. Here's to Karyn, with love. You will be remembered...