Understanding is the Essence of Intelligence

Jean Vincent

Tags

November 25, 2008

Repower America with 100% renewable energies

Within 10 years, Repower America with 100% renewable energies while creating new stable, local, American jobs:


And for those who think this is impossible, check out this article of an American town producing more electricity than it consumes today:
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/04/home-residential-wind-power-rock-port-missouri.php

Comments [0]



November 24, 2008

Open-Standard Cloud Web Services

We need an Open Standard for cloud-computing web services.
 
The standard should enable a user to instantiate computing resources simultaneously from a variety of service providers. It should also enable a user to easily migrate from one provider to another and use other strategies such as least-cost resource allocation.
 
Is there any standard body addressing this need?
 
In the long run, resource allocation from cloud-computing service providers, will be essential to deliver on the ultimate vision of cloud computing - i.e. delivering high-availability computing resource on-demand cost-effectively -.

Comments [0]



November 24, 2008

The financial crisis is overrated, nothing more than cool-air.

In the aftermath of the current financial crisis, some call for the end of the Fed, calling it unconstitutional, and abusing the lack of understanding by uneducated people of the fractional reserve system. They want all investments backed by chunks of matter such as gold or silver.

As much as the financial system failed recently, a monetary system based on notes backed-up by any kind of material (to the exception maybe of steel) would be the end of most investments, due to the lack of enough quantity of raw materials to back the current level of investments needed in a world of 6.5 billion people.

Even if we could back investment loans with gold, silver, or steel, this would mean destroying the environment of our planet even more than ever before up to an unimaginable scale. This could mean so much more mercury (used to extract metals from their ores) in the oceans that all fish would become improper for human consumption. Most marine life would essentially disappear, with far reaching consequences for humanity and the rest of the all terrestrial life, a disaster of far greater magnitude than anything created by man so far.

We need a monetary system backed-up by properly risk-assessed promise of future returns, not chunks of processed matter.

That said the current system needs to be fixed. The good news is it can be easily fixed and it is already fixed. Lending money to people who will never be able to deliver on their future promise to return the money to the bank is simply ludicrous and this no longer happens today.

Sub-prime lending was not even the root cause of the problem. The cause was lending money to people who are very unlikely to ever be able to repay their loans. Sub-prime lending contributed to the problem only because it enabled a dysfunctional risk-assessment system to spread without limits.

Basically, banks have been lending money to people who did not have any assets and no revenues or so little revenues that they would never be able to repay their loans other than by refinancing their homes year over year thanks to a bubble-blowing housing market that had to end someday.

The current crisis was not generated by the Fed alone, it is the result of global dysfunction of the banking system, where US mortgage brokers lent money to insolvent people with the complaisance of the many, if not all, US banks.

In turn these banks have sold this bad debt packaged into deceiving funds with good names (e.g. high-grade enhanced structured leverage fund) where the actual risk was criminally under-represented. The world banking system in turn trusted the American banking system and is now paying a dear price for these naive beliefs, most notably with the bankruptcy of an entire nation, Iceland.

As soon as the banking system stopped lending foolishly and criminally, the basis of the current crisis was gone for good.

The problem now is the aftermath of this mess, and the fears coming from the amplitude of this global disaster, fears of recession, of the return of the great depression and other doom and gloom predictions.

Baseless-fear is as stupid as lending money to insolvent people. Fear leads to halting sound investments and some people wanting to halt investments altogether by going back to a matter-backed financial system.

Once fear will be gone, this current financial crisis will be over. If you want to participate in removing these fears, communicate on the fact that these fears are not backed by anything, certainly not gold or any other chunk of matter.

The current state of fear is cool air blown by the same people that were blowing the hot-air than that lead to the current financial crisis.

If you are in danger of loosing your job or have already lost your job, I understand that this message is hard to accept. But as victims of the cool-air bubble you need to be at the forefront of the battle to fight the current state of baseless-fears.

When talking to your boss, prospect employers, investors, bank, venture capitalists, business angels, never accept the current state of fear to disregard sound investments. But please note that I wrote sound investment, not just any investment for which the risk is not properly assessed.

Meanwhile, Warren Buffet, the richest man on earth, is quietly investing in undervalued sound businesses.

Comments [0]



November 23, 2008

Liberating the data to better understand development

Comments [0]



November 14, 2008

Pachelbel's Canon

Just beautiful, enjoy:

By Trace Bundy.

Comments [0]



November 13, 2008

A Charter for Compassion

 


Religion has focused more and more on a narrow understanding of religious dogma.
...
Every religion as I understand them has a history of intolerance and every religion has principles for overcoming intolerance.
...
The Golden Rule is a golden rule in so many different world religions.
...
We need a Charter for our own souls, for our own sake, but also for the sake of the world, the sake of our perilously divided world, which is in one sense drawn together more closely than ever before.


Watch this short video calling for the adoption of a Charter for Compassion between all human beings regardless of confession whether we are religious people or secular people (subtitles available in 13 languages at this site):
http://dotsub.com/view/767c68bb-db0f-4bf3-87bb-dfce18217f68

Check also their website also including the video:
http://charterforcompassion.com/

Comments [0]



November 11, 2008

Nos Enfants Nous Accuseront, le film



Le plus étonnant c'est l'agriculteur qui dit (2'15 dans la bande annonce) qu'il ne consomme pas ce qu'il produit.

Les décès dus aux cancers sont en augmentation dans toutes les tranches d'age et surtout chez les enfants ou les cancers étaient très rares autrefois. Cette augmentation ne peut pas s'expliquer par des facteurs génétiques, les seules explications possibles sont environnementales: nutrition, stress, autres pollutions (atmosphérique, électromagnétiques, sonores). Chacun de ces impacts environnementaux influent sur plus sur certains cancers que d'autres comme il est bien connu que la cigarette favorise certains cancers. Ainsi les cancers particulièrement favorisés par une mauvaise alimentation sont: estomac, colon, sein, foie, prostate, pancréas, leucémies, etc. Le seul cancer en baisse est celui de l'estomac grâce au réfrigérateur qui a permis la diminution de la salaison pour conserver les aliments.

N'oublions pas non plus que pour lutter contre le cancer, il faut ajouter, en plus du bio, une alimentation équilibrée et cuisine saine. Il faut proscrire toutes les substances cancérigènes ou favorisant le développement du cancer: viandes et légumes grillés, huiles cuites, .... Enfin il est nécessaire d'adopter une alimentation anticancer favorisant les défenses naturelles contre le cancer (comme les cellules NK - Natural Killers - de notre système immunitaire), pour cela les aliments essentiels sont: ail, oignon, curcuma, acides gras oméga-3 (que l'on trouve dans les poissons, l'huile de colza, la graine de lin, les noix).

Pour en savoir plus lire le livre de David Servan Schreiber: Anticancer qui décrit très bien cette épidémie, ses causes nutritionnelles, et surtout les solutions qui sont non seulement préventives, mais aussi (cela est moins connu) curatives.

Pour ceux qui comprennent l'anglais, voir mon billet sur le sujet, qui contient un régime anti-maladies dont le cancer:
Become Healthier, and Stay Healthy.

Comments [0]



November 01, 2008

VOTE 4 HOPE

Fight against pollutions, vote for hope.

We can make the right choices, and meet the challenges that face us.

Safe, Prosperous and Free, all humans are created equal with inalienable rights: Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.

That is the true genius of America:

Comments [0]



October 19, 2008

The Girl Effect

A few words worth a thousand pictures, or when art meets sustainability:


When helping educating a girl in the developing world, each dollar spent yields the highest return in the long term: she will marry later, will have fewer children but with higher education. Women reinvest 90% of their income in their families compared to less than 50% for men.

For more information, visit the Girl Effect Website or their You Tube Channel.

Comments [0]



October 19, 2008

Carbon Capture is a Hoax

We need to add Carbon Capture to the list of false solutions promoted by polluters for the sake of short term profits.

Carbon Capture-ready is nothing more than an excuse for the oil and coal industries to continue to pollute forever.

Carbon Capture facts:

  • Not available before 2020 at best, 2030 more likely
  • Removes only 65 to 79 percents of CO2
  • Reduces power plants efficiency
  • Increases the cost of power plants by 30 to 50 percents

 

True renewable energy power plants are less expensive and the technologies are available today, we don't need to wait until 2020 or 2030.

Comments [0]