date:20150805

Regarding this report: Alpha Natural Resources, a Onetime Coal Giant,
Files for Bankruptcy Protecton [sic]

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/04/business/energy-environment/alpha-natural-resources-a-onetime-coal-giant-files-for-bankruptcy-protecton.html?_r=0

Below are some interesting quotes from the article which point out the
vulnerability of large energy companies to relatively small downturns in
their business. This coal company along with several others is in grave
condition because the market for coal has fallen by 15% since 2008. In some
other industry with less overhead and lower capital investments, an
industry-wide loss of 15% over seven years would be a problem but it would
not trigger bankruptcy. The desktop and laptop computer business has
declined by similar numbers in the last 5 to 10 years but it is not causing
such large problems. McDonald's has also been losing business, and it is in
trouble, but it is nowhere near bankruptcy

If cold fusion comes along and takes away even a few percent of the
business from fossil fuel and electric power companies, and it becomes
clear that in the long term it will take a larger share, I predict this
will have a drastic effect on these industries. These companies can only
operate on a large scale. There is no point to sending an oil tanker
half-full or even 90% full. You cannot operate a coal mine profitably for
only 4 hours a day. If the demand for baseline electricity falls below the
level provided by a nuclear reactor, the power company will be in huge
trouble because nuclear plants cost millions of dollars a day whether you
use them or not.

I think this may be good news for cold fusion. It means the fossil fuel
companies will be vulnerable. Of course the oil companies have billions of
dollars stashed away, and great political power and influence in the
Congress. But I think this money and power will be rapidly depleted. Look
how quickly the coal companies ran through their stash of cash, and look at
how little influence they now have in Congress, just a few years after
their peak of production and high profits. Big coal is already on the ropes
so it cannot easily fight cold fusion. I predict that big oil will not take
cold fusion seriously and they will not begin to fight it soon enough to
crush it in the early stages. If you do not crush something like this
quickly, it will soon grow beyond your control. Once it gets into a few
niche markets it will be profitable and it will grow rapidly, soon moving
out to take over mainstream markets.

There will be powerful corporations in favor of cold fusion. They will want
to sell it, taking profits away from the coal and oil companies, which will
be like taking candy from a baby. By the time the oil companies realize
they are bleeding, they will be mortally wounded. That is what happened to
the coal companies. Just a few years ago they were riding high. They
ignored fracking, and they bet that wind and solar would go nowhere, and
that the Chinese market would expand indefinitely. As I said, taking
business away from such people is like taking candy from a baby. It is like
watching Walmart, Target and Amazon.com bludgeon Sears to death. You feel
sorry for the hapless management.

It should be much easier to take business away from a coal company with
cold fusion than it has been with wind and solar power, because cold fusion
will not need a subsidy and it can be done on a small scale. (Wind only
works on a large scale.) Cold fusion will also clobber the wind and solar
industries. I predict they will also realize this too late to prevent it. I
have heard anodyne comments from industry experts at ICCF conferences and
elsewhere that we need an integrated energy system and all sectors will
have a role to play. This is ridiculous. It is like looking at the first
electronic calculators and small computers in 1979 and saying I am sure
there will be room in the marketplace for slide rules, mechanical
calculators, and the abacus; we need an integrated data processing market
where everyone plays a part. No, we don't. Anyone trying to compete with
electronic calculators in 1975 was doomed.

(The abacus is not a pretend example. Abacuses were in widespread use in
Japanese banks well into the 1970s. The cashiers used them. Of course they
were a ridiculous waste of manpower and time, and they forced the bank to
do the same transaction two or three times before it finally reached the
computer. Japanese institutions tend to waste manpower.)

QUOTES FROM ARTICLE:

The coal industry suffers from multiple problems. Natural gas prices have
swooned in recent years, leading many utilities to switch from coal. The
Obama administration on Monday unveiled a set ofEnvironmental Protection
Agency regulations that could close hundreds more coal-fired generation
plants.

At the same time, China, which consumes 45 percent of the world’s coal, is
steeply reducing the burning of coal to combat urban air pollution. And the
strength of the

[Vo]:Desubcription

2015-08-05 Thread Hauke Hein



--- Enviado con Outlook.com, Real Life Real Timeª Mobile ---

Re: [Vo]:A 21st Century Case for Gold: A New Information Theory of Money.

James Bowery jabow...@gmail.com wrote:


 The SPLC may or may not have been directly involved in the assassination
 but it is clear they had the means, motive and opportunity.


 With a time machine, not doubt. MLK was assassinated in 1968. The SPLC
 was founded in 1971.


 True the SPLC could not have acted as a legal person as it did not exist,
 but its antecedents certainly did exist in the form of the natural person
 who comprised it and then proceeded . . .


You said they had hundreds of millions of dollars. They did not. They were
ordinary lawyers and a book publisher. They were nobodies, with no
influence or power. The lawyers had taken on many civil rights cases but
they were paid little. However, they were then and are now well regarded by
people in the civil rights movement. Apparently you think civil rights
leaders have no sense of judgement and they are extremely stupid and
incapable of recognizing their own worst enemies. I have known some of them
personally for decades, and I can say with assurance that you are
completely batty on this subject.

You are living in a fantasy world. I will not comment again on your
conspiracy theories.

- Jed

Re: [Vo]:A 21st Century Case for Gold: A New Information Theory of Money.

Lennart Thornros lenn...@thornros.com wrote:

Money is not the issue.
 The way they are handled and looked upon is.
 As a .ashfield said there is inflation just that we use all sorts of
 methods and stats to hide it.


No, there is not inflation, and if there were, there are no methods or
stats that would hide it. Such notions are another example of
preposterous conspiracy theories. If there were inflation, it would be in
the interests of many powerful people in the Congress, on Wall Street, at
banks and elsewhere to measure it. They would not keep their findings
secret.

In particular, right wing economists would plaster this data on the front
page of the Wall Street Journal. Some of them have been saying for years
that inflation is just around the corner, it will happen Any Day Now, and
we have to take drastic steps to avoid it. They have been looking high and
low for evidence of inflation to prove they are right. So far they have
found none.

Where there is a lack of demand, high unemployment, the banks pay
practically no interest, and ordinary consumers are growing poorer year by
year, inflation is unlikely. These conditions cause deflation instead, as
they have done in Japan for the last 20 years. The Abe government is trying
hard to go the other way and inflate by 2% per year. I do not think it is
working.

- Jed

Re: [Vo]:A 21st Century Case for Gold: A New Information Theory of Money.

James Bowery jabow...@gmail.com wrote:


 True the SPLC could not have acted as a legal person as it did not exist,
 but its antecedents certainly did exist in the form of the natural person
 who comprised it and then proceeded . . .


 You said they had hundreds of millions of dollars.


 I said they have, in the present tense, hundreds of millions of dollars.


But they did not have any money in 1968, when you allege they masterminded
an assassination. They had no money or influence, except among a small
group of people working in civil rights. They were just a couple of
threadbare lawyers and a book publisher. Such people do not mastermind the
assassination of a world famous Nobel Prize winner. Or, if they do, the
police catch them.

- Jed

Re: [Vo]:A 21st Century Case for Gold: A New Information Theory of Money.

I wrote:

2007 $5.1 trillion
 2006 $4.6 trillion *THAT SHOULD BE 2008 -- the year of the crash*
 2010 $4.7 trillion
 2014 $5.8 trillion (finally recovered)


Government income declined from $5.1 to $4.6 while government expenses went
through the roof, because the government bailed out the banks, GM and Wall
Street with the TARP program. Fortunately, most of that money was paid
back, including interest. $455 billion spent, $442 billion paid back, 98.9%
recovery.

http://www.treasury.gov/initiatives/financial-stability/reports/Pages/TARP-Tracker.aspx

Government expenses also increased because of safety net expenses such as
unemployment payments and food stamps. It would have been a 1929-type
catastrophe if that had not happened.

- Jed

[Vo]:Unsubscribe

2015-08-05 Thread Hauke Hein



--- Enviado con Outlook.com, Real Life Real Timeª Mobile ---

Re: [Vo]:A 21st Century Case for Gold: A New Information Theory of Money.

Lennart Thornros lenn...@thornros.com wrote:


 It cannot be true that you think there is no inflation..


There has been very little overall inflation. Obviously, some things have
gotten expensive, but others are cheaper. For example, eggs are expensive
because of avian influenza. On the other hand, coal, oil and gas are record
low costs (relative to other commodities, adjusted for inflation). People
spend a lot more on fossil fuel than on eggs.



 What about my exampla. If there is no inflation why does the government
 need to increase taxes and fees??


Some governments increased some taxes and fees after 2008 because the
economy collapsed and government income declined drastically. Not because
there was inflation. Overall, government collected less money than it did
before the crisis. Totals:

2007 $5.1 trillion
2006 $4.6 trillion
2010 $4.7 trillion
2014 $5.8 trillion (finally recovered)

http://www.usgovernmentrevenue.com/year_revenue_2014USbn_16bs1n#usgs302



 Yes there are tendencies at deflation because of all manipulations.


No one can manipulate something as large as the U.S. economy enough to hide
something like general inflation. No one has that kind of power. The U.S.
GDP is $17 trillion. You cannot deliberately suppress (or enhance) the
price of any commodity or group of commodities enough to make a difference.
Eggs could cost $10 each and it would barely register. It would be swamped
by the falling cost of natural gas, coal and oil.



 As I said before there is a hidden inflation.


No, there isn't. No one can hide significant inflation. You are repeating a
right-wing urban myth. You can only hide very small inflation for products
that economists in the government, the banks, investment companies and
elsewhere do not monitor. The price change of any commodity that plays a
measurable role in the economy, such as eggs, will be noted by the
economists. They have computers. Supercomputers. They monitor prices and
the overall economy in enormous detail.



 Fees and other governmental charges are increasing.


No, they are not, and even if they were, this is a small part of the
economy compared to natural gas, which is plummeting in price, as I said.

- Jed

Re: [Vo]:A 21st Century Case for Gold: A New Information Theory of Money.

On Wed, Aug 5, 2015 at 8:22 PM, Jed Rothwell jedrothw...@gmail.com wrote:

 James Bowery jabow...@gmail.com wrote:


 The SPLC may or may not have been directly involved in the assassination
 but it is clear they had the means, motive and opportunity.


 With a time machine, not doubt. MLK was assassinated in 1968. The SPLC
 was founded in 1971.


 True the SPLC could not have acted as a legal person as it did not exist,
 but its antecedents certainly did exist in the form of the natural person
 who comprised it and then proceeded . . .


 You said they had hundreds of millions of dollars.


I said they have, in the present tense, hundreds of millions of dollars.

Re: [Vo]:A 21st Century Case for Gold: A New Information Theory of Money.

2015-08-05 Thread Lennart Thornros

Money is not the issue.
The way they are handled and looked upon is.
As a .ashfield said there is inflation just that we use all sorts of
methods and stats to hide it.
The people hiding it are the same as the guys that said banks do not need
to pay interest that way they can get out of bankruptcy without any shame.
Call them central bank or something else. If I remeber right the US does
not have a central bank so . . . the name is irrelevant. Of course the
people who handles the large amount of money. which they can skim in
fiftyeleven different ways without it is visible at any stage, they  like
status quo.
The good thing is that they are as little aware, because they have no
interest to find out, that there is technology that can replace them and
there 'service' in a heartbeat without losing anything in any regard.
Someone said that we can wit for the revolution. Yes, that  is true and the
loser is . . .
To seriously say that one is in politics for the better for the nation in
general is a joke if you do not deal with issues like: totally insane and
outmoded and  tax laws,  a military that has its own agenda, a welfare
system that cost almost as much to administrate as it provides, etc. Nobody
comes up with straight forward answers. Donald Trump takes points by being
upfront. I have not many pluses fro him but that is something the
politician should learn from him.
We are hearing the internal drama between our servants (the politicians),
which mostly is noise to mask that they really do nothing to solve apparent
problems.
I think there is great proof of inflation among governmental offices. To
get a copy of my Naturalization (just the name) document cost more than
it did to get the original a decade ago.I am sure governmental fees are not
included when they calculate inflation.
I also think that  Alain's references have a lot of merit. In the colonial
time it was possible to hide the 'rich' world . Today we have so good
communication that there is no protection for discrimination. Nationalism
cannot take expressions and actions to separate nations. That idea is going
to be dead long before we will see revolution. I agree with ashfield that
there is a religious factor. Yes, but the fact that there is a difference
of possibilities makes a good soil for such religious ideas to grow. This
is not 1775 and some explorer travelling around the world and make colonies
out of uninformed tribes. Now it is Microsoft explorer getting the
information equally easy in both directions.
If we go back to the 'dark ages' we had small kingdoms everywhere. It did
not work to keep those kingdoms separate except fro a few (Lichtenstein,
Luxembourg, San Marino) that verifies the rule and survive by being
compliant.
I agree that UBI is a possible solution. It actually have capitalistic
philosophies and would reward initiatives. My only fear is that there is no
good mechanism to handle the distribution. I know that becoming part of the
government would make it without merits.

Best Regards ,
Lennart Thornros

www.StrategicLeadershipSac.com
lenn...@thornros.com
+1 916 436 1899
202 Granite Park Court, Lincoln CA 95648

“Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment
to excellence, intelligent planning, and focused effort.” PJM

On Wed, Aug 5, 2015 at 1:27 PM, James Bowery jabow...@gmail.com wrote:



 On Wed, Aug 5, 2015 at 2:13 PM, Jed Rothwell jedrothw...@gmail.com
 wrote:

 James Bowery jabow...@gmail.com wrote:

 Martin Luther King Jr.'s final advice, before he was assassinated, was to
 follow Henry George's advice to attack poverty directly with a citizen's
 dividend.  They shot MLK because he proposed a race-neutral approach to
 souther poverty and if there is one thing the Souther Poverty Law Center
 cannot abide . . .


 They did not shoot him. One person did. There was no conspiracy.


 Mrs. Coretta Scott King welcomed the verdict, saying , “There is abundant
 evidence of a major high level conspiracy in the assassination of my
 husband, Martin Luther King, Jr. And the civil court's unanimous verdict
 has validated our belief. I wholeheartedly applaud the verdict of the jury
 and I feel that justice has been well served in their deliberations. This
 verdict is not only a great victory for my family, but also a great victory
 for America. It is a great victory for truth itself. It is important to
 know that this was a SWIFT verdict, delivered after about an hour of jury
 deliberation. The jury was clearly convinced by the extensive evidence that
 was presented during the trial that, in addition to Mr. Jowers, the
 conspiracy of the Mafia, local, state and federal government agencies, were
 deeply involved in the assassination of my husband. The jury also affirmed
 overwhelming evidence that identified someone else, not James Earl Ray, as
 the shooter, and that Mr. Ray was set up to take the blame. I want to make
 it clear that my family has no interest in retribution. Instead, our sole
 concern

[Vo]:A 21st Century Case for Gold: A New Information Theory of Money.

2015-08-05 Thread Mats Lewan

I've always had doubts about economists understanding of how technology
influences and changes the world and the society over time, and consequently
also its financial and monetary realities. 

 

Renowned economist and author, George Gilde, has written the book 'A 21st
Century Case for Gold: A New Information Theory of Money', which is
discussed by Ray Kurzweil in this piece: 

 

http://www.kurzweilai.net/ask-ray-renowned-economist-and-author-george-gilde
rs-new-information-theory-of-money 

 

I think it brings out some fresh ideas on the failure of established
economic theory. 

 

Personally I'm particularly interested in the aspect of Bitcoin with a fixed
amount of money supply, making it similar to gold. Potentially this could be
an important feature if the value of human work drops to zero through
automation and the value of products and services falls drastically for the
same reason. It could be what makes Bitcoin or some similarly designed
crypto currency a winner. 

 

Note that Kurzweil points out to Gilde that supply of gold is not guaranteed
to remain fixed, in the prospect of efficient transmutation technology. A
refined algorithmic crypto currency might be more future-proof, although, as
Kurzweil writes: I have concerns about the validity of bitcoin's mining
algorithm, and the extent to which this can ultimately be algorithmically
subverted.

 

 

Mats

 http://www.animpossibleinvention.com www.animpossibleinvention.com

[Vo]:LENR on a Chip

2015-08-05 Thread Jones Beene

This is an advanced technology for communications using SPP, but can a
similar technology be used to drive the LENR reaction?

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-08/miop-mrc080315.php

This assumes that the Ni-H reaction, or one variety thereof, responds to an
optoelectronic pulse. Combine the SPP driver with a TEG converter, and the
iPhone makes its own power. Apple may realize the connection, even at an
early stage.

Very exciting situation if the big chip companies should get involved, and
why not - with Tesla motors situated across the bay?

Re: [Vo]:A 21st Century Case for Gold: A New Information Theory of Money.

Mats,
Thanks for the link. A most interesting criticism of current economic
theory. Clearly our fiat money system has high risk but I'm not so sure
that Gilders has the answer.
I touched on the problem, together with a lot of other problems, in a
piece I wrote /Advances in technology that will change your life/. See
attached Word file.

Regards,
Adrian Ashfield

On 8/5/2015 3:20 AM, Mats Lewan wrote:

I’ve always had doubts about economists understanding of how
technology influences and changes the world and the society over time,
and consequently also its financial and monetary realities.

Renowned economist and author, George Gilde, has written the book /‘A
21st Century Case for Gold: A New Information Theory of Money’/, which
is discussed by Ray Kurzweil in this piece:

http://www.kurzweilai.net/ask-ray-renowned-economist-and-author-george-gilders-new-information-theory-of-money

I think it brings out some fresh ideas on the failure of established
economic theory.

Personally I’m particularly interested in the aspect of Bitcoin with a
fixed amount of money supply, making it similar to gold. Potentially
this could be an important feature if the value of human work drops to
zero through automation and the value of products and services falls
drastically for the same reason. It could be what makes Bitcoin or
some similarly designed crypto currency a winner.

Note that Kurzweil points out to Gilde that supply of gold is not
guaranteed to remain fixed, in the prospect of efficient transmutation
technology. A refined algorithmic crypto currency might be more
future-proof, although, as Kurzweil writes: /“I have concerns about
the validity of bitcoin’s mining algorithm, and the extent to which
this can ultimately be algorithmically subverted.”/

Mats

www.animpossibleinvention.com http://www.animpossibleinvention.com

Advances in technology that will change your life.docx
Description: MS-Word 2007 document

Re: [Vo]:A 21st Century Case for Gold: A New Information Theory of Money.

Gilder's ideas in this latest book may be fresh, but his career is far from
it -- including some very stale ideas such as supply side economics
(which even some of its major proponents eventually admitted was
destructive to the middle class that Gilder supposedly championed from his
early days as an author) and being a major participant in the DotCon era
bubble.

On Wed, Aug 5, 2015 at 3:20 AM, Mats Lewan m...@matslewan.se wrote:

 I’ve always had doubts about economists understanding of how technology
 influences and changes the world and the society over time, and
 consequently also its financial and monetary realities.



 Renowned economist and author, George Gilde, has written the book *‘A
 21st Century Case for Gold: A New Information Theory of Money’*, which is
 discussed by Ray Kurzweil in this piece:




 http://www.kurzweilai.net/ask-ray-renowned-economist-and-author-george-gilders-new-information-theory-of-money



 I think it brings out some fresh ideas on the failure of established
 economic theory.



 Personally I’m particularly interested in the aspect of Bitcoin with a
 fixed amount of money supply, making it similar to gold. Potentially this
 could be an important feature if the value of human work drops to zero
 through automation and the value of products and services falls drastically
 for the same reason. It could be what makes Bitcoin or some similarly
 designed crypto currency a winner.



 Note that Kurzweil points out to Gilde that supply of gold is not
 guaranteed to remain fixed, in the prospect of efficient transmutation
 technology. A refined algorithmic crypto currency might be more
 future-proof, although, as Kurzweil writes: *“I have concerns about the
 validity of bitcoin’s mining algorithm, and the extent to which this can
 ultimately be algorithmically subverted.”*





 Mats

 www.animpossibleinvention.com

Re: [Vo]:Why are there still so many jobs?

2015-08-05 Thread Lennart Thornros

Axil and Jed,
I think this is an issue. I do not think that the solution will come easy
but it will come - more or less good.
My thought; why do we need to participate in this war? who benefits?
Thinking a little outside the box. What is it that we need to protect in
the US, that people in Spain do not need to protect.
As I can see it the nations have an interest because they want to keep the
tax money in this nation and not in another nation. However, that interest
goes away if we have a more apt tax system.
The other group that have this interest of conquer and divide id the
criminals.
A specialist in France or Japan or Chile will have very similar capacity to
destroy or defend the infrastructure we are talking about. Why do they want
to destroy what their colleague has built? It is not like they can steal
anything they can just be equally well off. If they all built
infrastructure than there would be only benefits.
I will make an example so it becomes more clear. I guess otherwise I will
have someone saying that I am naive and express wishful thinking.
In Europe the railway system was built and designed in more or less each
country by itself. I have never heard of that different nations tried to
destroy each others rail system (except during war, which where induced
because of factors beyond the rail systems). Instead the different nations
found ways to find standards or design systems to handle the different
distance between the rails for example. There was no real benefit in
keeping a nation specific system. Moving trains around the continent or
data and knowledge around the world - what is the difference. I like this
LENR community as there is input from Russia, Italy, Japan, Greece, Romania
US, etc. Seldom is there a voice for keeping other nations away from the
knowledge.

Best Regards ,
Lennart Thornros

www.StrategicLeadershipSac.com
lenn...@thornros.com
+1 916 436 1899
202 Granite Park Court, Lincoln CA 95648

“Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment
to excellence, intelligent planning, and focused effort.” PJM

On Tue, Aug 4, 2015 at 5:17 PM, Jed Rothwell jedrothw...@gmail.com wrote:

 Axil Axil janap...@gmail.com wrote:

 As the extent and importance of automation grows in the life of a nation,
 so to will the number and importance of the people who create, attack, and
 protect that automation infrastructure.


 I doubt this will be a problem much longer. It would be easy to improve
 security with a better design for the internet and some other key
 technology. It is just a matter of passing laws and spending the money. It
 should have been done 10 years ago. This crisis reminds me of the crisis
 with steam engine boilers in the late 19th century. There were many boiler
 explosions because there no standards, inspections or codes. The ASME was
 founded in 1880 to deal with the problem. It established codes and
 standards, and the situation improved, but the problem was not solved until
 the codes were written into laws until the early 20th century. After that,
 the problem abated and boiler explosions are extremely rare today.

 See:

 https://www.asme.org/about-asme/engineering-history

 At present there is not much incentive to improve internet security. No
 one wants to pay for it. The other big problem is credit cards, which are
 robbed by the millions. The credit card companies probably figure it is
 cheaper to accept the losses than to fix the problem. They do not take into
 account that theft is annoying the public, and some of the losses are not
 discovered and thus paid for by consumers instead of the credit card
 issuer. They are finally introducing the EMV credit card security standard
 which will greatly reduce theft.

 Many other hazards and scourges can be reduced with technology. Most
 pollution could easily be reduced. The danger of casualties from fire can
 be practically eliminated with smoke detectors. We do not fix these
 problems because it costs money, not because we don't know how to fix them.

 That is not to suggest that all technical problems might be easily fixed.

 - Jed

Re: [Vo]:A 21st Century Case for Gold: A New Information Theory of Money.

Quoting Gilder's book preview In economist Milton Friedman’s famous
equation MV=PT...

Gilder should learn to use Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irving_Fisher#Monetary_economics

On Wed, Aug 5, 2015 at 7:53 AM, James Bowery jabow...@gmail.com wrote:

 Gilder's ideas in this latest book may be fresh, but his career is far
 from it -- including some very stale ideas such as supply side economics
 (which even some of its major proponents eventually admitted was
 destructive to the middle class that Gilder supposedly championed from his
 early days as an author) and being a major participant in the DotCon era
 bubble.

 On Wed, Aug 5, 2015 at 3:20 AM, Mats Lewan m...@matslewan.se wrote:

 I’ve always had doubts about economists understanding of how technology
 influences and changes the world and the society over time, and
 consequently also its financial and monetary realities.



 Renowned economist and author, George Gilde, has written the book *‘A
 21st Century Case for Gold: A New Information Theory of Money’*, which
 is discussed by Ray Kurzweil in this piece:




 http://www.kurzweilai.net/ask-ray-renowned-economist-and-author-george-gilders-new-information-theory-of-money



 I think it brings out some fresh ideas on the failure of established
 economic theory.



 Personally I’m particularly interested in the aspect of Bitcoin with a
 fixed amount of money supply, making it similar to gold. Potentially this
 could be an important feature if the value of human work drops to zero
 through automation and the value of products and services falls drastically
 for the same reason. It could be what makes Bitcoin or some similarly
 designed crypto currency a winner.



 Note that Kurzweil points out to Gilde that supply of gold is not
 guaranteed to remain fixed, in the prospect of efficient transmutation
 technology. A refined algorithmic crypto currency might be more
 future-proof, although, as Kurzweil writes: *“I have concerns about the
 validity of bitcoin’s mining algorithm, and the extent to which this can
 ultimately be algorithmically subverted.”*





 Mats

 www.animpossibleinvention.com

RE: [Vo]:A 21st Century Case for Gold: A New Information Theory of Money.

2015-08-05 Thread Orionworks - Steven Vincent Johnson

Adrian,

 

I read your paper. It's very good. For a six page WORD doc it manages to cast 
significant light on the socio-economic complexities our society is in the 
process of inheriting such as advancing robotics, AI, and automation. The Vort 
Collective has been debating many of these issues for years. 

 

I retired last December. In a sense, I have now graduated to the status of a 
person who enjoys UBI via through the economic mechanisms of retirement 
annuities and social security. I'm a reasonably lucky citizen of the United 
States. I have acquired modest UBI allowing our household to pay the bills, 
feed our two cats and keep them entertained, and perhaps even take a budget 
vacation every other year. It distresses me that too many in our society aren't 
as lucky as our household has been. Being lucky should NOT be a major factor 
in how one hopes to live the remaining years of their lives with some dignity.

 

With advanced automation, robotics and AI, it seems reasonable for me to 
predict that the retirement age will come earlier and earlier. Eventually we 
will stop calling it retirement when we start retiring in our mid 30s. 
Perhaps we will call it: Reaching the Age of Maturity.  Before reaching 
maturity society may require us to choose from a selection of mandatory 
services we must perform in service to society. We may be required to do this 
service for perhaps up to 10 - 15 years, like joining the peace core, or 
building essential infrastructure like roads  bridges. This is to assure that 
essential infrastructure remains intact. Of course, during your years of 
mandatory service, you will be given UBI. However, in order to share in the 
collective wealth of the nation for the rest of your remaining years you must 
first give unto it according to your experience, unique skill sets and 
education. 

 

After one reaches the age of Maturity you are given permanent UBI status for 
the remaining years of your life. It is up to you to make the best of the rest 
of your remaining years. I remain optimistic that most will attempt to do just 
that. Start up a unique and eccentric business. Become a popular well 
sought-out artist or musician within your local community. Perform theoretical 
research in some obscure subject that eventually becomes a key component that 
helps explain how to fold space and make space travel between stars 
economically possible. RAISE A CHILD FROM INFANCY TO ADULTHOOD. If you don't 
think that isn't a full-time job! I think most of us will have a strong desire 
to leave our planet in a better place before we finally head for the recycling 
bin ourselves.

 

Regards,

Steven Vincent Johnson

OrionWorks.com

zazzle.com/orionworks

Re: [Vo]:A 21st Century Case for Gold: A New Information Theory of Money.

Quoting Gilder's book preview Wealth is created by learning curves that
result from millions of falsifiable experiments in entrepreneurship...

Gilder's attempt to impress us with his ability to pedantically parrot
Popperian dogma confuses experiment with hypothesis.

On Wed, Aug 5, 2015 at 9:57 AM, James Bowery jabow...@gmail.com wrote:

 Quoting Gilder's book preview In economist Milton Friedman’s famous
 equation MV=PT...

 Gilder should learn to use Wikipedia:

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irving_Fisher#Monetary_economics

 On Wed, Aug 5, 2015 at 7:53 AM, James Bowery jabow...@gmail.com wrote:

 Gilder's ideas in this latest book may be fresh, but his career is far
 from it -- including some very stale ideas such as supply side economics
 (which even some of its major proponents eventually admitted was
 destructive to the middle class that Gilder supposedly championed from his
 early days as an author) and being a major participant in the DotCon era
 bubble.

 On Wed, Aug 5, 2015 at 3:20 AM, Mats Lewan m...@matslewan.se wrote:

 I’ve always had doubts about economists understanding of how technology
 influences and changes the world and the society over time, and
 consequently also its financial and monetary realities.



 Renowned economist and author, George Gilde, has written the book *‘A
 21st Century Case for Gold: A New Information Theory of Money’*, which
 is discussed by Ray Kurzweil in this piece:




 http://www.kurzweilai.net/ask-ray-renowned-economist-and-author-george-gilders-new-information-theory-of-money



 I think it brings out some fresh ideas on the failure of established
 economic theory.



 Personally I’m particularly interested in the aspect of Bitcoin with a
 fixed amount of money supply, making it similar to gold. Potentially this
 could be an important feature if the value of human work drops to zero
 through automation and the value of products and services falls drastically
 for the same reason. It could be what makes Bitcoin or some similarly
 designed crypto currency a winner.



 Note that Kurzweil points out to Gilde that supply of gold is not
 guaranteed to remain fixed, in the prospect of efficient transmutation
 technology. A refined algorithmic crypto currency might be more
 future-proof, although, as Kurzweil writes: *“I have concerns about the
 validity of bitcoin’s mining algorithm, and the extent to which this can
 ultimately be algorithmically subverted.”*





 Mats

 www.animpossibleinvention.com

Re: [Vo]:A 21st Century Case for Gold: A New Information Theory of Money.

Quoting Gilder's book preview Average American households incomes and net
worth...

Gilder's ignorance of the importance of median (or even mode) as opposed to
average of these variables might be written off as a mere mental typo were
it not for the fact that choosing average over median (or even mode) favors
the further centralization of wealth that he was a party to under supply
side economics -- a policy that not only contributed to the destruction of
the middle class but also to the demographic collapse of the Nation of
Settlers in the US.  That demographic collapse is prosecutable as genocide.

On Wed, Aug 5, 2015 at 10:12 AM, James Bowery jabow...@gmail.com wrote:

 Quoting Gilder's book preview Wealth is created by learning curves that
 result from millions of falsifiable experiments in entrepreneurship...

 Gilder's attempt to impress us with his ability to pedantically parrot
 Popperian dogma confuses experiment with hypothesis.

 On Wed, Aug 5, 2015 at 9:57 AM, James Bowery jabow...@gmail.com wrote:

 Quoting Gilder's book preview In economist Milton Friedman’s famous
 equation MV=PT...

 Gilder should learn to use Wikipedia:

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irving_Fisher#Monetary_economics

 On Wed, Aug 5, 2015 at 7:53 AM, James Bowery jabow...@gmail.com wrote:

 Gilder's ideas in this latest book may be fresh, but his career is far
 from it -- including some very stale ideas such as supply side economics
 (which even some of its major proponents eventually admitted was
 destructive to the middle class that Gilder supposedly championed from his
 early days as an author) and being a major participant in the DotCon era
 bubble.

 On Wed, Aug 5, 2015 at 3:20 AM, Mats Lewan m...@matslewan.se wrote:

 I’ve always had doubts about economists understanding of how technology
 influences and changes the world and the society over time, and
 consequently also its financial and monetary realities.



 Renowned economist and author, George Gilde, has written the book *‘A
 21st Century Case for Gold: A New Information Theory of Money’*, which
 is discussed by Ray Kurzweil in this piece:




 http://www.kurzweilai.net/ask-ray-renowned-economist-and-author-george-gilders-new-information-theory-of-money



 I think it brings out some fresh ideas on the failure of established
 economic theory.



 Personally I’m particularly interested in the aspect of Bitcoin with a
 fixed amount of money supply, making it similar to gold. Potentially this
 could be an important feature if the value of human work drops to zero
 through automation and the value of products and services falls drastically
 for the same reason. It could be what makes Bitcoin or some similarly
 designed crypto currency a winner.



 Note that Kurzweil points out to Gilde that supply of gold is not
 guaranteed to remain fixed, in the prospect of efficient transmutation
 technology. A refined algorithmic crypto currency might be more
 future-proof, although, as Kurzweil writes: *“I have concerns about
 the validity of bitcoin’s mining algorithm, and the extent to which this
 can ultimately be algorithmically subverted.”*





 Mats

 www.animpossibleinvention.com

[Vo]:LENR news, just a bit commented for Aug 5, 2015

2015-08-05 Thread Peter Gluck

See this, please:

http://egooutpeters.blogspot.ro/2015/08/mainly-info-for-aug-5-2015.html

Peter
-- 
Dr. Peter Gluck
Cluj, Romania
http://egooutpeters.blogspot.com

RE: [Vo]:A 21st Century Case for Gold: A New Information Theory of Money.


Steven,
I read your paper. It's very good. For a six page WORD doc it manages 
to cast significant light on the socio-economic complexities our society 
is in the process of inheriting such as advancing robotics, AI, and 
automation. The Vort Collective has been debating many of these issues 
for years.


Thank you for your kind words.  I have to confess I thought I was 
replying to Mats Lewan not to Vortex, so I was surprised to see it, 
complete with attachment, appear on Vortex.  Maybe thanks to an 
administrator who fixed it.


My basic concern is the state our politics has got into.   I can't see 
any of the present bunch handling the problems that I foresee until 
forced to by riots or a revolution.  The thought of having to support 
large numbers of unemployed is completely foreign to them.
The good news is that Aftenposten, Norway's largest newspaper , has 
reported they have expert third party confirmation that Rossi's 1 MW 
thermal LENR plant is working well.  It is now at about 168 days of the 
350 day trial.  If, as now looks likely, LENR works, it should solve a 
lot of problems.


Adrian

Re: [Vo]:LENR on a Chip

2015-08-05 Thread Bob Cook

LENR on a ChipJones--

The SSP’s are very exciting with their huge magnetic local B fields which can 
change, rapidly touching (creating) many different resonances influenced by the 
B field.  It promises engineering control of the energy states of the local 
coherent system as a function of time--just what a good LENR device needs to be 
practical. 

And. IMHO, the changing B field  creates the coupling associated with the 
coherent system’s spin state, all during the small time increment the 
appropriate resonances occur,  to allow the transition of mass energy to phonic 
energy and/or low frequency EM energy.   

This is basically what NMR devices do with brut force—yet mundane--magnetic 
coupling to accomplish nuclear spin energy transitions of relatively small 
magnitudes AND CORRESPONDING  SMALL MASS CHANGES OF A NUCLEUS UP AND DOWN. 

The small magnitude transitions are consistent with what is seen in LENR 
experiments, as well as, Rossi’S industrial device.  Gammas from classic, 
uncoupled (except within a nucleus) nuclear energy transitions are not apparent 
in any significant quantity in LENR.  Neutrons that have significant energy 
resulting from two  or few particle reactions also are not evident, since 
conservation of linear momentum is not involved when spin mass energy and 
associated angular momentum are the parameters that are conserved, IMHO.

Understanding the very short, if any,  time constants for the coherent system 
will be key in designing useful systems.  This may well be the crux of 
understanding the “new physics” of LENR. 

Bob Cook. 




From: Jones Beene 
Sent: Wednesday, August 05, 2015 5:36 AM
To: vortex-l@eskimo.com 
Subject: [Vo]:LENR on a Chip

This is an advanced technology for communications using SPP, but can a similar 
technology be used to drive the LENR reaction?


http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-08/miop-mrc080315.php


This assumes that the Ni-H reaction, or one variety thereof, responds to an 
optoelectronic pulse. Combine the SPP driver with a TEG converter, and the 
iPhone makes its own power. Apple may realize the connection, even at an early 
stage.


Very exciting situation if the big chip companies should get involved, and why 
not – with Tesla motors situated across the bay?

Re: [Vo]:A 21st Century Case for Gold: A New Information Theory of Money.

2015-08-05 Thread Alain Sepeda

I share some vision.

note that UBI is not oposed to working...
UBI make people less afraid to take risk, and they make them always wanting
to work more to have more... but not at any cost in term of comfort.
people will work hard to have a nice leisure time, employing people who
will work hard for the leisure of others.

another point i always see forgotten is that people may earn money from
robots, like farmers earn money from land, land lord from real estate,
retired people from shares and securities;

society with less work (the cited paper says it will not be soon) will mean
people will earn their like through capital, maybe in the form of some UBI,
and some enterprise and IP.

the evolution of career you imagine is not far from the one you see in
emerging countries, where younger people work hard , as independent
workers, as salarymen, then build some capital, buy a shop or a car or a
room, and work hard to manage them ... when getting older. until they let
someone manage them and retire earning just the dividends...

our concept of salary and company is very restrictive in western countries,
and led to the Marx vision of class war, with big centralized capital,
soviet-like organization of management, and helpess salarypeople needing
huge protection by strong state.

I urge people to read about third world capitalism of the poor
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/hernando-de-soto/piketty-wrong-third-world_b_6751634.html
and how it breaks established discriminations
http://www.cato.org/publications/policy-analysis/capitalisms-assault-on-the-indian-caste-system

in http://thenextconvergence.com/ the book the next convergence, the
beginning explains how low growth and low technology progress led to rich
becomming slightly richer at the expense of the weaker, while during big
change, the dice are rolled agains, and rich people may miss the revolution
just being slightly richer in absolute value, far from the lucky/smart who
embraved the revolution...

today in the west conservatism benefit the rent owners, not only in
absolute value, but at the expense of others.

2015-08-05 16:55 GMT+02:00 Orionworks - Steven Vincent Johnson
orionwo...@charter.net:

Adrian,

I read your paper. It's very good. For a six page WORD doc it manages to
cast significant light on the socio-economic complexities our society is in
the process of inheriting such as advancing robotics, AI, and automation.
The Vort Collective has been debating many of these issues for years.

I retired last December. In a sense, I have now graduated to the status of
a person who enjoys UBI via through the economic mechanisms of retirement
annuities and social security. I'm a reasonably lucky citizen of the United
States. I have acquired modest UBI allowing our household to pay the bills,
feed our two cats and keep them entertained, and perhaps even take a budget
vacation every other year. It distresses me that too many in our society
aren't as lucky as our household has been. Being lucky should NOT be a
major factor in how one hopes to live the remaining years of their lives
with some dignity.

With advanced automation, robotics and AI, it seems reasonable for me to
predict that the retirement age will come earlier and earlier. Eventually
we will stop calling it retirement when we start retiring in our mid
30s. Perhaps we will call it: Reaching the Age of Maturity. Before
reaching maturity society may require us to choose from a selection of
mandatory services we must perform in service to society. We may be
required to do this service for perhaps up to 10 - 15 years, like joining
the peace core, or building essential infrastructure like roads bridges.
This is to assure that essential infrastructure remains intact. Of course,
during your years of mandatory service, you will be given UBI. However, in
order to share in the collective wealth of the nation for the rest of your
remaining years you must first give unto it according to your experience,
unique skill sets and education.

After one reaches the age of Maturity you are given permanent UBI status
for the remaining years of your life. It is up to you to make the best of
the rest of your remaining years. I remain optimistic that most will
attempt to do just that. Start up a unique and eccentric business. Become a
popular well sought-out artist or musician within your local community.
Perform theoretical research in some obscure subject that eventually
becomes a key component that helps explain how to fold space and make space
travel between stars economically possible. RAISE A CHILD FROM INFANCY TO
ADULTHOOD. If you don't think that isn't a full-time job! I think most of
us will have a strong desire to leave our planet in a better place before
we finally head for the recycling bin ourselves.

Regards,

Steven Vincent Johnson

OrionWorks.com

zazzle.com/orionworks

Re: [Vo]:A 21st Century Case for Gold: A New Information Theory of Money.


Alain,
I share some vision.

It was not clear what source you were referring to in your reply. The 
paper that was attached to my earlier reply or Steven's comment on it.


I agree with you that UBI looks like it may be an answer, but as I 
suggested, the wise thing to do would be to try a limited experiment 
first.  Perhaps in some more isolated city in the US to see what the 
actual problems with it are.


The problem of course how UBI would be funded. History shows that some 
wealth distribution is required and considering that the majority of our 
politicians are rich and funded by even richer patrons, it seems 
unlikely they would consider that.
Aside from that, doing away with all the social security programs and 
the expensive administrations that run them, plus withdrawing our armed 
forces from all over the world and just planning on defending America, 
would go a long way towards that.  Again, very unlikely politically.


I agree with your link What Piketty Gets Wrong About the Third World 
has a good point as does Capitalism’s Assault on the Indian Caste 
System but I think religion plays a big role too, although personally I 
can't understand why.  Maybe it is just too easy for the demagogs to use.
Consider that President Obama is on about his new clean coal regulations 
helping children with asthma.  CO2 has no bearing on that at all.  What 
about the hundreds of thousands that DIE in Africa because they have no 
electricity and the West won't lend them money to build fossil fired 
power stations?  Sigh


Adrian.

RE: [Vo]:A 21st Century Case for Gold: A New Information Theory of Money.

2015-08-05 Thread Chris Zell

I recall that the notion of a basic guaranteed income actually came up during 
the Nixon administration.  They kicked around the idea of getting rid of the 
whole welfare establishment and just hand out cash instead.  Reagan also 
observed the huge expense of welfare as opposed to the actual benefits getting 
to the recipients.

I don't know how such an arrangement comes into being while we suffer under the 
opposite condition of most wealth being tightly centralized.  How does this 
change without violence or revolution against the oligarchs? We're gonna need a 
miracle.

Re: [Vo]:A 21st Century Case for Gold: A New Information Theory of Money.

Martin Luther King Jr.'s final advice, before he was assassinated, was to
follow Henry George's advice to attack poverty directly with a citizen's
dividend.  They shot MLK because he proposed a race-neutral approach to
souther poverty and if there is one thing the Souther Poverty Law Center
cannot abide, it is something that would reduce their race-baiting
fear-mongering with which they extort money from wealthy Jews that fear
US-based neo-Nazi holocaust.

A deal was cut with guys like Jesse Jackson and the SPLC to keep the
emphasis on racial preferences under affirmative action rather than a
citizen's dividend so they could continue to pound on working class
southern whites as the scapegoats for social ills.  Gilder is basically
just keeping up the conservative side of that false dilemma by promoting
socialization of the cost of protecting property rights so the rich get
richer.

On Wed, Aug 5, 2015 at 1:48 PM, Chris Zell chrisz...@wetmtv.com wrote:

 I recall that the notion of a basic guaranteed income actually came up
 during the Nixon administration.  They kicked around the idea of getting
 rid of the whole welfare establishment and just hand out cash instead.
 Reagan also observed the huge expense of welfare as opposed to the actual
 benefits getting to the recipients.

 I don't know how such an arrangement comes into being while we suffer
 under the opposite condition of most wealth being tightly centralized.  How
 does this change without violence or revolution against the oligarchs?
 We're gonna need a miracle.

Re: [Vo]:A 21st Century Case for Gold: A New Information Theory of Money.

a.ashfield a.ashfi...@verizon.net wrote:


 Thanks for the link.  A most interesting criticism of current economic
 theory.  Clearly our fiat money system has high risk but I'm not so sure
 that Gilders has the answer.


I know little about economics, but limiting the amount of money based on
the amount gold we have -- or the number of bitcoins -- seems like utter
lunacy to me. It never worked in the past. There are two reasons:

1. The money supply has to increase when there is more economic activity
and more people, or you get severe deflation. This happened in the U.S. and
other countries on the gold standard. Severe deflation is a bad thing.

2. The supply of bitcoins is actually limited, by the algorithm. That
straitjacket will work. The supply of gold is not limited in any practical
sense. The ocean is filled with the stuff. Mountains on earth and probably
meteors and other planets are too. There are probably billions of tons of
gold in the solar system and I am pretty sure we could soon find a way to
transmute other elements into it, or convert energy (sunlight) into it. Put
it this way: If we had 100 years to come up with a trillion tons of gold to
escape from the sun going supernova, I expect we could do it.

If gold becomes the standard of money, people will put enormous effort into
mining gold, extracting it from ocean water, or transmuting other elements
into it. This effort will be an terrific waste of time, talent and money.
There are many things more useful than gold such as purified silicon,
wheat, or clean water. We should be putting our efforts into making things
that people need, not soft metal that will sit in vaults unused.

It would make a lot more sense to base the money supply on sand (silicon)
or kilowatt hours of generating capacity, or some other useful commodity.
Heck, it would make more sense to base it on soybeans, because they are
good for you and they have many practical uses.

There is no material thing on earth on in the solar system with any
permanent value, or any intrinsic value. Anything and everything we want --
materially -- can be made available to us in unimaginably large quantities.
I mean billions of tons per person, if we have a use for it. We could
eventually pave the highways of the Earth and Mars and other planets with
gold -- if gold happens to be a good paving material, which I doubt is the
case. The only thing standing between the human race and unlimited wealth
is ignorance, foolishness and lack of imagination. As Arthur Clarke wrote:

In this inconceivably enormous universe, we can never run out of energy or
matter. But we can all too easily run out of brains.




 I touched on the problem, together with a lot of other problems, in a
 piece I wrote *Advances in technology that will change your life*.  See
 attached Word file.


I like it! I agree. See also Martin Ford's first book and website, both
here:

http://www.thelightsinthetunnel.com/

- Jed

Re: [Vo]:A 21st Century Case for Gold: A New Information Theory of Money.

James Bowery jabow...@gmail.com wrote:

Martin Luther King Jr.'s final advice, before he was assassinated, was to
 follow Henry George's advice to attack poverty directly with a citizen's
 dividend.  They shot MLK because he proposed a race-neutral approach to
 souther poverty and if there is one thing the Souther Poverty Law Center
 cannot abide . . .


They did not shoot him. One person did. There was no conspiracy. If there
were one, the SPLC would never in a million years have anything to do with
it. They are not in favor of poverty.

- Jed

RE: [Vo]:A 21st Century Case for Gold: A New Information Theory of Money.

2015-08-05 Thread Chris Zell

I don’t see how society can tolerate the inherent power of extreme wealth even 
if all other problems of income inequality can be explained away.

If campaign contributions were controlled or eliminated,  there could still be 
outright bribery.  As with elite bankers, what do laws matter if there is no 
enforcement?
The way it’s handled now is thru fees for speaking engagements or easy director 
jobs at compliant corporations. On the negative side, they can use the NSA to 
control politicians thru surveillance.   This is why I immediately believed 
accounts in England about the elite there being involved in pedophilia and 
murder. It’s the same control mechanism as the Mafia – “making your bones”.

Re: [Vo]:A 21st Century Case for Gold: A New Information Theory of Money.


Jed,

I know little about economics, but limiting the amount of money based 
on the amount gold we have -- or the number of bitcoins -- seems like 
utter lunacy to me. It never worked in the past. There are two reasons:


Kurzweil seems to think it may be possible to break the Bitcoin 
algorithm too.


Having the dollar value based on something with a fixed quantity 
obviously will not work.   The only thing in its favor is that the 
central bank can't then screw things up.  That being the case surely it 
would be better to have it based on a basket of other currencies or at 
least write some laws to limit money expansion to match some measure of 
actual economic expansion.  I know, I know, the politicians would find 
some way around it whatever is done.


Adrian

Re: [Vo]:A 21st Century Case for Gold: A New Information Theory of Money.

I wrote:


 It would make a lot more sense to base the money supply on sand (silicon)
 or kilowatt hours of generating capacity, or some other useful commodity.


Here is an interesting quiz:

1. In England circa 1800, what was the most valuable material per gram:

iron, diamonds, or gold?

Answer: Iron, when it was worked into the blue steel springs of marine
chronometers, used for navigation. England led the world in chronometer
production. At the peak of their value, chronometers were worth about 1/3
the cost of a ship. They were the high tech gadgets of that era, like
computers are today. The spring was the most critical part, and the hardest
to make.

2. Today, what is the most valuable substance on earth:

silicon, gold, or uranium?

You know the answer: silicon, when converted into something like an Intel
processor. A tiny bit of it is worth hundreds of dollars. Demand is so
great, you can sell it practically unlimited quantities. If NAND
semiconductor memory (SSD) replaces hard disk storage, here is the size of
the market: There are, at present, more bytes of hard disk storage than
there are grains of sand on all the beaches of the earth. Think about that.
Compared to gold, computer storage is a Niagara Falls of money. The thing
is, people want it. It is useful. Companies such as Google use it to earn
money. You can't do that with gold.

(I am not sure it would be a good idea to base the money supply on the
number of bytes of disk storage available because every single byte on
earth could be stored in 7 mL of DNA, which is cheap, to say the least.)

The value of any material is a function of the knowledge and skill added to
the material, and the usefulness of it.

As for diamonds, they are made of carbon and synthetic ones will soon be of
better quality and larger size than the natural ones, so the cost of
diamonds per kilogram will eventually be about the same as natural gas
(which is what they are made of). Women's clothing will be decorated with
thousands of them, worth a few hundred dollars at first, and later $20. I
hope they will make a good semiconductor substrate. I hope eyeglasses and
iPads can be coated with thin film diamond to make them scratch resistant.
That will make diamond broadly useful again for the first time since the
demise of the diamond record player stylus.

There is no reason to think that in the distant future gold will not be
available for $20 a ton, for anyone who have some use for a ton of gold.
The notion that gold might automatically put a limit on the money supply is
based on 18th century technology. I know little about economics, but I can
tell that the economists and gold bugs who entertain such notions know
*nothing* about technology, and nothing about the future.

- Jed

Re: [Vo]:A 21st Century Case for Gold: A New Information Theory of Money.

a.ashfield a.ashfi...@verizon.net wrote:


 The only thing in its favor is that the central bank can't then screw
 things up.


I am not aware that a central bank is screwing things up now. There has
been no inflation in the US in many years so obviously they are not
printing or circulating too much money. There has been no inflation in
Japan since 1972 when I first went there. Things like food, a 100-yen Kirin
Lemon softdrink, books and automobiles cost about the same now as they did
then. However the economy is not doing well. It has been in the doldrums
since the 1980s so I suppose inflation might be a good thing for them. P.M.
Abe's economic policy (Abenomics) aims for 2% inflation.



   That being the case surely it would be better to have it based on a
 basket of other currencies . . .


That would be an imaginary standard. The other currencies are not limited
by anything other than policy.



 or at least write some laws to limit money expansion to match some measure
 of actual economic expansion.


I gather that economic expansion sometimes depends on expanding the money
supply first. First you issue money, then the economy expands in response
to that. That's what P.M. Abe is hoping for, and it seems to be working. It
would be a mistake to prevent that from happening. It would have been a
disaster after the 2008 crash, and it was a disaster after 1929.

- Jed

Re: [Vo]:A 21st Century Case for Gold: A New Information Theory of Money.

a.ashfield a.ashfi...@verizon.net wrote:

How does this change without violence or revolution against the
oligarchs? We're gonna need a miracle

This situation has happened many times in history. It results in either a
revolution or the appearance of some charismatic leader that is able to
persuade the government it must be done.

In a democracy, you have to persuade the public that it must be done, not
the government. In the case of the US, the charismatic leaders who changed
the course of economic history most were Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin
Roosevelt. They were prominent members of the oligarch class.

Everyone knew they were, but the voters did not hold that against them
because they were obviously in favor of reform and spreading the wealth.
FDR in particular was called a traitor to his class. Many wealthy people
despised him. Not all of them, though. When I was young I knew many wealthy
people who idolized FDR and considered him the savior of the capitalist
system.

That is called enlightened self-interest. It still exists. This is why, for
example, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett are in favor of the inheritance tax.

As robots and computers improve, human labor will gradually become worth
nothing. Every sensible person will see that we need a new economic system
based on something other than the exchange of labor. Perhaps some stupid,
greedy wealthy people will fail to see this, but I expect most of them will
eventually come around, they will not stand in the way of a reform that
allows the wealth to be shared equitably.

In his latest book, Martin Ford points out that all of us contributed to
the development of computers and robots with our tax money. As I have often
pointed out, much of the technology was paid for or directly developed by
Uncle Sam. In that sense we all own it, so we should all benefit from it. I
think Bill Gates would agree.

Societies seldom destroy themselves when there is an obvious and relatively
painless way to prevent a catastrophe. Implementing a universal income
would be relatively painless. I know that many conservatives would yowl and
carry on in opposition to it, but I think that is theatrics. There is
significant conservative support for a universal income. See:

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/08/why-arent-reformicons-pushing-a-guaranteed-basic-income/375600/

- Jed

Re: [Vo]:LENR on a Chip

2015-08-05 Thread Axil Axil

Regarding: With thanks to Jones Beene who sent this paper and thinks it can
be applied -in some way- to LENR:

MIPT researchers clear the way for fast plasmonic chps:

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-08/miop-mrc080315.php

Jones’ concept is strong and true in that LENR is not bound to any element
like hydrogen or topology like cracks. Engineering can meet and express the
fundamental requirements of LENR design if the basic causes of LENR are
understood.

The SPP behavior that has not yet been recognized by plasmonic science is
the ability of SPPs to produce a positive feedback loop that compensates
for the energy losses due to diffusion through  the offsetting gains
produced by non linear energy production. This ability to amplify the
chemistry based catalytic activity of SPPs is not yet in the province of
plasmonic research.  When nano-particles setup the SPP to amplify their
power and force SPP wave forms to loop onto themselves in a vortex, it
produces a short lived “Dark Mode” configuration that acts just like a
celestial black hole that draws energy into itself from its surroundings.
This ability to attract, concentrate and store new energy involves at least
two distinct although related mechanisms.

First, SPPs  concentrate and reorient the spin of photons then project the
magnetic single pole beam so formed from one of the poles of the vortex.
This beam both destabilizes and then transports energy from the affected
matter back along the path of the beam through the action of quantum
teleportation. This mechanism can act at a considerable distance away from
the vortex. Next, the SPP soliton can share, transfer and accumulate
 energy through quantum mechanical entanglement with clusters of matter of
arbitrary size. This instantaneous gleaning of energy from many distinct
sources occurs within a spherical zone around the vortex.This duality
of causation in the results observed in the LENR reaction leads to
understandable confusion. But this multiplicity in the results as produced
by the fundamental cause of LENR are unified by a commonality of
characteristics linked to a common origin of the effect..

These common and universal conditions include the thermalization of gamma
radiation, the rapid to instantaneous stabilization of radioactive
isotopes, lack of neutron emissions, and the wide variation of seemingly
random transmutation results which includes fusion of light elements into
heavier elements and fission of heavy elements into lighter ones, remote
reaction at a distance from the location of the LENR reaction, and
instantaneous cluster fusion involving huge numbers of sub-reactions that
occur instantly and collectively.

Even though the LENR reaction oftentimes occurs concurrent with the
presence of hydrogen isotopes, hydrogen in not required as a fundamental
cause of the reaction as shown in the experiments done at Proton 21 where a
ball of copper is blasted with a high powered arc discharge, and the carbon
dust experiments performed using microwaves conducted by George Egely, the
new editor of infinite magazine. In the Proton 21 experiments in
nano-particles involved are copper based and in the Egely case the
nano-particles are based on carbon. In the Papp reaction. The nano
particles are based on chlorine and noble gases.

LENR has made itself known in our world ever since the days of young Tesla
when electricity has be made powerful enough to generate nano particles
from matter. Since we have brought Egely’s name up, Egely has written a
wonderful series of articles explaining how SPPs have produced LENR for
over a century in many diverse and now long forgotten systems going back to
the times and work by Tesla. They are well worth a read and as follows:

http://www.egely.hu/letoltes/Fusion-by-Pseudo-Particles-Part1.pdf
http://www.egely.hu/letoltes/Fusion-by-Pseudo-Particles-Part2.pdf
http://www.egely.hu/letoltes/Fusion-by-Pseudo-Particles-Part3.pdf


On Wed, Aug 5, 2015 at 8:36 AM, Jones Beene jone...@pacbell.net wrote:

 This is an advanced technology for communications using SPP, but can a
 similar technology be used to drive the LENR reaction?

 *http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-08/miop-mrc080315.php*
 http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-08/miop-mrc080315.php

 This assumes that the Ni-H reaction, or one variety thereof, responds to
 an optoelectronic pulse. Combine the SPP driver with a TEG converter, and
 the iPhone makes its own power. Apple may realize the connection, even at
 an early stage.

 Very exciting situation if the big chip companies should get involved,
 and why not – with Tesla motors situated across the bay?

Re: [Vo]:A 21st Century Case for Gold: A New Information Theory of Money.


Jed,

“I am not aware that a central bank is screwing things up now. There has 
been no inflation in the US in many years so obviously they are not 
printing or circulating too much money.”


But they have in not obvious ways.  Making money and lending it the 
banks at zero interest and for the banks to make billions in interest 
lending back?
Mainly it is allowing the government to borrow money that isn’t there.  
What’s our national debt?  18 trillion?  That’s $56k for every person in 
the US.


“There has been no inflation in Japan since 1972 when I first went 
there. Things like food, a 100-yen Kirin Lemon softdrink, books and 
automobiles cost about the same now as they did then.”


So far so good said the man falling from a skyscraper.   Japan's debt is 
230% of GDP  What happens when interest rates increase?


“I gather that economic expansion sometimes depends on expanding the 
money supply first. First you issue money, then the economy expands in 
response to that”


It depends on how the money is spent. It surely doesn’t follow that 
simply increasing the money supply grows the economy. Into whose pocket 
does the money go?


Much to be said for UBI.

Adrian

Re: [Vo]:A 21st Century Case for Gold: A New Information Theory of Money.


Jed,

In a democracy, you have to persuade the public that it must be done, 
not the government.


I know that's the theory, but when the media is all owned by rich people 
and the choice presented to the plebs is vote for Tweedledum or 
Tweedledee. I remain pessimistic.  My wife says I'm too pessimistic and 
she may be right.


Probably a wealth tax is required.  How do you think that would fly in 
Congress?


Adrian

RE: [Vo]:A 21st Century Case for Gold: A New Information Theory of Money.

2015-08-05 Thread Chris Zell

FDR was nearly the victim of a fascist coup that is usually left out of history 
textbooks.   And we do have nasty inflation in services, which is often 
overlooked in gov. stats. (NPR). Wages have suffered relative deflation as 
minimum wage will not pay for rent ( properly) in any of the 50 states. I 
understand that this may extend to all counties now.

I am tempted by the viewpoint that society is like a 3 year old child just 
before bedtime.  There is much commotion and resistance and yelling – and then 
sudden capitulation.   We are seeing and hearing all sorts of craziness in 
resisting changes that our world must make.  I believe that the Soviet Union 
and Fascist Spain ended because their leaders lost all faith in the system – 
followed by sudden change.  In this, perhaps there is hope.

RE: [Vo]:A 21st Century Case for Gold: A New Information Theory of Money.

2015-08-05 Thread torulf.greek



_Wealth is created by learning curves that result from millions of
falsifiable experiments in entrepreneurship..._ 

Its says noting about
the quality of this experiments. Some may really create new value but
some only redistribute value. 

Even with gold its may be more safe to
invest in old dept than in new technology. Or in extracting gold as Jed
said. 

I think this only is a new version of the old mantra the
government must do as little as possible. 

Yes central banks can screw
tings up but they can also assuage things then the market screw things
up. 

On Wed, 5 Aug 2015 20:53:52 +, Chris Zell  wrote:   

FDR was
nearly the victim of a fascist coup that is usually left out of history
textbooks. And we do have nasty inflation in services, which is often
overlooked in gov. stats. (NPR). Wages have suffered relative deflation
as minimum wage will not pay for rent ( properly) in any of the 50
states. I understand that this may extend to all counties now. 

I am
tempted by the viewpoint that society is like a 3 year old child just
before bedtime. There is much commotion and resistance and yelling - and
then sudden capitulation. We are seeing and hearing all sorts of
craziness in resisting changes that our world must make. I believe that
the Soviet Union and Fascist Spain ended because their leaders lost all
faith in the system - followed by sudden change. In this, perhaps there
is hope.

Re: [Vo]:A 21st Century Case for Gold: A New Information Theory of Money.

Chris Zell chrisz...@wetmtv.com wrote:

FDR was nearly the victim of a fascist coup that is usually left out of
history textbooks.

It was left out of every history book I know, and I have read a lot of 'em,
plus original sources.

And we do have nasty inflation in services, which is often overlooked
in gov. stats. (NPR).

Not since the 2008 crash as far as I know. That is when the government
began increasing the money supply to counteract the crash.

Wages have suffered relative deflation as minimum wage will not pay for
rent ( properly) in any of the 50 states.

Again, not since 2008. The minimum wage lost value between 1997 and 2007.
It remained at $5.15 that entire time, and for long periods previously.

There is no question that overall wages have decreased relative to other
earnings since the 1970s. (Other earnings are things like profits from
Wall Street and CEO stock options.) Wages have also decreased relative to
productivity. See:

Workers' salaries are at the lowest percentage of GDP since 1929

http://www.dougsguides.com/content/whats

I do not know of any conservative or liberal economists who dispute those
numbers. They dispute the causes and proposed cures.

This does not bode well for the economy or society. I do not see how you
can run a mass-production based modern economy if the workers cannot afford
to buy the products of that economy. I agree with Henry Ford on that. If
this trend continues, people will not be able to buy cars, computers or
tomatoes or whatever you are making. What is a wealthy person going to do
with 20,000 personal computers, or a truckload of tomatoes? In what sense
is that wealth? The only thing you can do with the products of a mass
production industrial society is sell them to lots of people. If people
cannot buy them, the CEO and stockholders of Intel and Archer Daniels
Midland do not make any money.

If cold fusion works, people will not want to buy the output of the fossil
fuel and electric power companies. They will go bankrupt for the same
reason Archer Daniels Midland will if people cannot afford to eat. The loss
of demand looks the same from the point of view of the corporation.
Speaking of which, see:

Alpha Natural Resources, a Onetime Coal Giant, Files for Bankruptcy
Protecton [sic]

Alpha Natural Resources, once a powerhouse of the American coal industry,
filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Monday so it may emerge from
the grip of a $3 billion debt at a time when utilities are switching to
natural gas and coal prices are plummeting.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/04/business/energy-environment/alpha-natural-resources-a-onetime-coal-giant-files-for-bankruptcy-protecton.html?_r=0

The Japanese and European medieval economies or the economy of Afghanistan
today were not based on mass production. They could function with a small
number of wealthy people and many impoverished people. It wasn't pleasant,
but they were stable for long periods.

- Jed

Re: [Vo]:A 21st Century Case for Gold: A New Information Theory of Money.

On Wed, Aug 5, 2015 at 2:13 PM, Jed Rothwell jedrothw...@gmail.com wrote:

 James Bowery jabow...@gmail.com wrote:

 Martin Luther King Jr.'s final advice, before he was assassinated, was to
 follow Henry George's advice to attack poverty directly with a citizen's
 dividend.  They shot MLK because he proposed a race-neutral approach to
 souther poverty and if there is one thing the Souther Poverty Law Center
 cannot abide . . .


 They did not shoot him. One person did. There was no conspiracy.


Mrs. Coretta Scott King welcomed the verdict, saying , “There is abundant
evidence of a major high level conspiracy in the assassination of my
husband, Martin Luther King, Jr. And the civil court's unanimous verdict
has validated our belief. I wholeheartedly applaud the verdict of the jury
and I feel that justice has been well served in their deliberations. This
verdict is not only a great victory for my family, but also a great victory
for America. It is a great victory for truth itself. It is important to
know that this was a SWIFT verdict, delivered after about an hour of jury
deliberation. The jury was clearly convinced by the extensive evidence that
was presented during the trial that, in addition to Mr. Jowers, the
conspiracy of the Mafia, local, state and federal government agencies, were
deeply involved in the assassination of my husband. The jury also affirmed
overwhelming evidence that identified someone else, not James Earl Ray, as
the shooter, and that Mr. Ray was set up to take the blame. I want to make
it clear that my family has no interest in retribution. Instead, our sole
concern has been that the full truth of the assassination has been revealed
and adjudicated in a court of law… My husband once said, The moral arc of
the universe is long, but it bends toward justice. To-day, almost 32 years
after my husband and the father of my four children was assassinated, I
feel that the jury's verdict clearly affirms this principle. With this
faith, we can begin the 21st century and the new millennium with a new
spirit of hope and healing.” - See more at:
http://www.thekingcenter.org/assassination-conspiracy-trial#sthash.9vJnTrqr.dpuf

 If there were one, the SPLC would never in a million years have anything
 to do with it.

 The SPLC may or may not have been directly involved in the assassination
but it is clear they had the means, motive and opportunity.

They are not in favor of poverty.


Your naivete is touching.  They are documented sociopaths enjoying hundreds
of millions in endowments from their donor base that they psychologically
torment by keeping poor blacks and poor whites at each others' throats.

Re: [Vo]:A 21st Century Case for Gold: A New Information Theory of Money.

James Bowery jabow...@gmail.com wrote:


 They did not shoot him. One person did. There was no conspiracy.


 Mrs. Coretta Scott King welcomed the verdict, saying , “There is abundant
 evidence of a major high level conspiracy in the assassination of my
 husband, Martin Luther King, Jr. . . .


Yes, I know. I think she was nuts. People often believe crazy, unfounded
nonsense and conspiracy theories. That includes famous people, good people,
and well-educated people who should know better. For example, Robert
Kennedy Jr. is opposed to the use of vaccines. He has campaigned against
them and said outrageous things that no college educated person with
knowledge of science or medicine should ever say, such as:

They get the shot, that night they have a fever of a hundred and three,
they go to sleep, and three months later their brain is gone. This is a
holocaust, what this is doing to our country.


http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article17814440.html


That is not even slightly true. It is true that on extremely rare occasions
vaccines cause reactions, including fevers. If anyone -- child or adult --
develops something like a 103°F fever after getting a vaccine or any other
drug, you can be sure that patient will be rushed to the hospital. They do
not just go to sleep. In nearly every case such high fevers turn out to
be unrelated to the drug that was administered but nowadays no one would
take that chance. If the parent had enough sense to call a doctor or the
vaccine hotline, there would be an ambulance at the house in 10 minutes.

Vaccines prevent millions of illnesses and thousands of deaths for each
severe reaction they cost. The only people who object them are innumerate
and scientifically illiterate fools.

- Jed

Re: [Vo]:A 21st Century Case for Gold: A New Information Theory of Money.

James Bowery jabow...@gmail.com wrote:


  If there were one, the SPLC would never in a million years have anything
 to do with it.

 The SPLC may or may not have been directly involved in the assassination
 but it is clear they had the means, motive and opportunity.


With a time machine, not doubt. MLK was assassinated in 1968. The SPLC was
founded in 1971.

- Jed

Re: [Vo]:A 21st Century Case for Gold: A New Information Theory of Money.