Freeorder News — Explorers Foundation

			St. John's College, Annapolis & Santa Fe

St. John’s College is a co-educational, four year liberal arts college known for its distinctive "great books" curriculum.

St. John's is a single college located on two campuses, one in Annapolis, Maryland, and another in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The campuses share an identical curriculum (changes must be approved by both halves of the faculty) and a single governing board. Each campus is limited to well under 500 students, and the faculty-student ratio is 1 to 8.

The all-required course of study is based on the reading, study, and discussion of the most important books of the Western tradition. There are no majors and no departments; all students follow the same program.

Students study from the classics of literature, philosophy, theology, psychology, political science, economics, history, mathematics, laboratory sciences, and music. No textbooks are used. The books are read in roughly chronological order, beginning with ancient Greece and continuing to modern times.

All classes are discussion-based. There are no class lectures; instead, the students meet together with faculty members (called tutors) to explore the books being read.

St. John's College

			efGlyphs:

			486 Creating Residential Colleges within Universities - four foundations on which campus life can be rebuilt 002 Socrates' Way, by Ronald Gross - seven master keys to using your mind to the utmost 000 The Laws of Form, by G. Spencer Brown - "We take as given the idea of distinction ..."

			efVortex Socrates : fearless simple-minded inquiry •••

Peace Through Governance

One Earth Future's (OEF) vision is a world beyond war within one hundred years, achieved by implementing more effective systems of global governance.

The current system of global governance, with only nation-states as legitimate actors in international relations, clearly no longer effectively address global problems. OEF will encourage new architectures of global governance that include business societies and civil societies in addition to nation-states in the decision-making process. OEF believes that these inclusive structures will be more effective and efficient at solving global problems •••

			There will be transformative applications that need all the bandwidth they can get. Medical, transportation, defense, gaming, simulations and who knows what. As computers become more powerful, we need to be able to send more data to the cloud where they can crunch data and return it to us. That is the value of an open internet. The things we can't imagine today. The applications that are just dreams because they don't have enough horsepower and bandwidth to work today. I want the internet to be a platform for amazing. Not Gilligan’s Island reruns. —Mark Cuban, quotation taken from "Internet's Future: Transformative Applications, Not Ubiquitous Entertainment" at •••

			Tenth Amendment Center ••• — limiting Federal Government to what it actually is authorized to do

			March 10, 2010: Wyoming Governor Signs Sovereignty Resolution •••

			The Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution:

			"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." The Tenth Amendment Center is a national think tank that works to preserve and protect the principles of strictly limited government through information, education, and activism. The center serves as a forum for the study and exploration of state and individual sovereignty issues, focusing primarily on the decentralization of federal government power.

			efVortex Cato : limiting & reversing government obstruction & predation •••

			Vortex Cato is driven by interest in assuring that governments do not progressively or suddenly deprive their citizens of freedoms needed by explorers. It is named after an anti-federalist writer opposed to the ratification of the American Constitution. The Constitution, especially the Bill of Rights, was conceived as a cage for a dangerous beast, and in many ways has served and still serves that purpose. Nevertheless, the participants in this vortex believe that obstruction and predation is on the rise and must be reversed. Thanks to the Cato Institute for inspiration. Look up the word "kleptocracy" - it's useful in our times. -leif smith

			efVortex SLIM: lean & open government ••• — the relationship between The Tenth Amendment Center and SLIM is entirely in the mind of the editor of Freeorder News; there is no other connection. I think both have the intent of remoulding governments to better serve all citizens, and that includes explorers (most of us, in one way or another). -leif

Society of Lean Implementation Malcontents. Our mission in life: the SLIM Wait Loss Program

Lean Government is a systematic process that makes customers happy by listening to them. It makes local governments more efficient and effective by empowering employees to develop better ways to perform their processes. Rinse. Repeat.

Increase value – eliminate waste. Who decides how and what to change? The people who do the work. They know it best. How do you know it works? You measure carefully before and after to monitor the changes. ••• < click here for exciting details!

			Rabbit hole for the day: Pleomorphism ••• — I don't know the significance of this, but it is certainly interesting, much praised and derided ... probably an instructive argument. I came across the concept when a friend gave me a book by Robert O. Young and Shelly Redford Young, The pH Miracle. —leif efVortex Methuselah : healthy & long life •••

			The Regenerative Medicine Foundation ••• — a not-for-profit organization created to advance new treatments and therapies based on tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. We believe that integrating life science and engineering disciplines will bring new clinical approaches to patients for the treatment of diseases affecting a wide range of tissues and organs. Conference: April 6 - 8, Winston-Salem, NC. Keynote, "What's Next for the Clinic", Robert Lanza, MD. efGlyph 397 "A New Theory of the Universe", by Robert Lanza - biocentrism builds on quantum physics by putting life into the equation "The conclusions I have drawn place biology above the other sciences in the attempt to solve one of nature's biggest puzzles, the theory of everything that other disciplines have been pursuing for the last century. Such a theory would unite all known phenomena under one umbrella, furnishing science with an all-encompassing explanation of nature or reality." — Robert Lanza

Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, Part II, Chapter IV, "The Sanction of the Victim", Hank Rearden, steel maker, is brought before a tribunal accused of selling steel to a buyer not approved by the government. His response to the situation is remarkable and fascinating. The court tries to compel him to offer a defense and he refuses: "But the law compels you to volunteer a defense!" Rearden responds, "That is the flaw in your theory, gentlemen." Highly recommended, perhaps while reading the book noted here yesterday. •••

			Scott McNealy was the founder of Sun Microsystems. His letter of goodbye to "the gang" at Sun after the Oracle acquisition is worth reading •••. An excerpt (thanks to John Scott for pointing this out):

			'Sun, in my mind, should have been the great and surviving consolidator. But I love the market economy and capitalism more than I love my company. 'And I sure "hope" America regains its love affair with capitalism. And except for the auto industry, financial industry, health care, and some other places (I digress), the invisible hand is doing its thing quite efficiently. So I am more than willing to accept this outcome. 'And my hat is off to one of the greatest capitalists I have ever met, Larry Ellison. He will do well with the assets that Sun brings to Oracle.'

			It was not lack of regulation that led to the current financial crisis. It was too much regulation. To understand how the US Government corrupted the banking industry through over-regulation read Architects of Ruin by Peter Schweizer.

Nuru International was founded by Jake Harriman, a former Special Operations Platoon Commander with the U.S. Marines. After fighting the war on terror around the world, Jake became convinced that the only way to end terrorism is to end extreme poverty. He left the Marines and enrolled at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business to create an organization to end extreme poverty.

Nuru works amongst the rural poor in the developing world. We’re currently working in Kuria, Kenya, and it is from the local language that we got our name: Nuru is a Kiswahili word meaning light.

When Nuru was invited into the community, we mobilized the local farmers into groups. We then trained local leaders using an innovative leadership development model that equips the poor to become the answers to their own problems.

Continued •••

			efVortex Cheetah : entrepreneurial Africa •••

An approach to economics: Ask yourself what happens if the origins of goods are conserved by a general and regular observation of boundaries assuring that producers maintain control of whatever goods they produce until they consume, give, or exchange them. Then assume that such respect for boundaries is extended to those who receive goods as gifts or in exchange. If such boundaries are maintained a result occurs that Hayek describes as an "extended order" utilizing more information and intelligence than is possible any other way. An explanation of the generation of this order, beginning with the simplest concepts of individual human actions is provided by Murry N. Rothbard in Man, Economy, and State. This is the economics explorers must understand if we wish to make and preserve a world in which we can live well while expressing the virtues characteristic of explorers. The Ludwig von Mises Institute has made this book available as a free pdf download ••• (table of contents, small file), ••• (large file, 1370 pages, 12.7 MB) — an essential book in the library of Explorers Foundation.

A completly new concept for a folding bicycle, made for urban transportation ••• —thanks to Steve Alexander, San Diego, for this link.

			Peter McLaughlin is part of a vanguard group in the new field of Positive Psychology** studying the role of positive emotions in business, such as optimism, zest, resilience, and gratitude. The research is clear: positive emotions help you live longer, have better health, work more productively, and make more money. •••

			**The field Positive Psychology was spearheaded by Peter’s colleagues Martin Seligman, Ph.D., of the University of Pennsylvania; and Chris Peterson, Ph.D., University of Michigan.

			Using Positive Psychology:  Success and Fulfillment in Business and Life Available in Keynote Presentations, Half-Day Seminars, and Full-Day Programs efVortex Eudaimonia : joyful life •••

			The Illustrated Road to Serfdom, by F. A. Hayek ••• — an extreme compression of one of the most important and influential books of the last century.

			Paul Zeiger teaches yoga for Parkinson's, Denver, Colorado •••

			Updated efVortex Methuselah : healthy & long life ••• — contents of this vortex reflect an active discussion and investment strategy.

			"Book math -- does e-publishing cost less" •••, from "Endless Knots", a blog by Jessica Lipnack

			Virtual School, a Brad Cox website, section on economics: "articles that have most shaped my thinking" •••

			"Organizations are like fish with people as their cells. They evolved to thrive in the ocean, the high-viscosity world of the industrial age. These fish must now change into fowl to thrive in the zero-viscosity world of the information age, a new world in which space and time have collapsed to a dot. Most of them won't make it, for evolution doesn't work that way." —Brad Cox, Superdistribution: Objects as Property on the Electronic Frontier.

Brad Cox created Objective-C, the computer language that makes the heart of Mac OS X's Cocoa. This notebook owes its existence to Objective-C as employed by Jason Adams and the programmers at Circus Ponies.

			efVortex Lancaster : entrepreneurial education •••

			Bobby McFerrin hacks your brain with music ••• — TED: pentatonic scale intuitively understood by everyone. Explorers Foundation: Everything we do begins from the point of view of a single person living with modes of being (virtues) characteristic of the explorer: curiosity, sensitivity, intensity, integrity, wonder. That's how we see the world. It's from that point of view that we provoke constructive evolutions of open space and devolutions of closed space. We do it through ventures that generate freeorder (forges) ••• (definitions of open and closed space).

			Global Greengrants: Grantee Profiles India: Organic Farming Saves Lives and Land , by Hilary Byerly, July 27, 2009 •••

			efVortex Leopold : soil, water, air, flora, fauna, geneosphere •••

			Cato University 2010: ABOUT THIS YEAR'S PROGRAM, July 25-30 — Confronting Grasping Government Cato University 2010 takes a solid, two-stage approach to examining urgent contemporary issues. First, it provides a complete, energetic immersion into the foundations of libertarianism and individual liberty. These economic, philosophical, and historical principles are then focused into an incisive analysis of the genuine threats confronting them – and each of us – from vast, dangerous government growth. Each ascending step of a grasping government forces a descending step in the nation's freedoms and founding principles. As financial institutions, health care, housing, transportation, privacy, and much more, are grasped by government tentacles, what historical precedents, proven perspectives, present-day realties, and individual options can be wielded in response? We hope you'll join us to explore and learn. •••

			efVortex Cato : reversing governmental predation & obstruction •••

"Political Unification: A Generalized Progression Theorem", by Jörg Guido Hülsmann, is a study of the logic of the continuous extension and intensification of government power, published in the Journal of Libertarian Studies, Summer 1997. •••. The footnotes in this article are a rich source of further readings. The author subsequently wrote The Last Knight of Liberalism, a biography of Ludwig von Mises, published by the Ludwig von Mises Institute in 2008.

			Lexington Green says: F.W. Maitland taught us that private organizations which held their assets as trusts were the foundation of modern civil society. He objected to the rise of corporations as the main means to organize private businesses for this very reason: The pernicious idea would arise that private initiative is allowed at the sufferance of the state. Maitland’s analysis of this issue is summarized and elaborated in a brilliant long essay by Alan Macfarlane, "F.W. Maitland And The Making Of The Modern World" •••

			James Bennett responded: Lex commented on that Somin post about whether corporations are "creatures of the state". He makes a point that both of us talk about, that the common-law mechanism of the trust provided a viable non-state option for business that was more common through most of the history of the English-speaking nations, and that the corporation in common law jurisdictions took on many of the features of the trust. The link to Alan Macfarlane's essay on F.W. Maitland, which discusses this history and its implications, is particularly useful because hardly anybody understands this point.

			Related: efVortex Anglosphere •••

			"A bill has been introduced to the Senate that would drive up the cost of dietary supplements and restrict your access to them. This bill seeks to give the FDA arbitrary control over what supplements you are allowed to have." —For details and good tools for taking action in opposition, please see Life Extension Foundation •••, an effective advocate for the freedom of individuals to choose their own health services and supplements.

			Related: efVortex Cato : reversing governmental predation & obstruction •••

			Nandasiri Wanninayaka, a fully entrepreneurial educator, rural Sri Lanka, Horizon Lanka

			Mr Wanninayaka decided to say goodbye to government teaching career. He resigned from the job as a government schoolteacher. Due to the parents’ pleas to continue education for their children, he started a “school” - a totally independent one - under a huge mango tree in his garden for the interested students. From then onwards, Mr Wanninayaka was able to bring Horizon Lanka to what it is today by fighting against all odds. •••

			efVortex Lancaster : entrepreneurial education •••

			Michael Yon, an entrepreneurial journalist covers the war in Afghanistan ••• —Michael Yon Online Magazine

			How this project is funded

			When people read about a potential book deal, or a proposed television show based on my work, they naturally assume: “He must be making a killing!” It’s a natural assumption. It also happens to be completely wrong. I have never gotten a penny from any movie or television deal, proposed or otherwise. Anything that might increase the audience for these soldier stories that I post on my website gets my attention. But anything that even hints of outside editorial control, or smacks of someone spinning this material to promote a commercial or political agenda, gets shown the door. I’m not trying to suggest that I am independently wealthy, or that I have taken a vow of poverty. It’s just I value my independence and the credibility it brings me with the people who trust me with their stories. But this work is both dangerous and incredibly expensive and without a steady level of income I could not continue to do it. Because so many misconceptions are out there about nonexistent “big money” deals, I thought it might make sense to clarify how I get the funds I need to do this job that increasingly, it seems, I am the only guy committed to doing. So, for those who wonder how this project is funded, read on: •••

			efVortex Guardian : defense of open space •••

			Inscribed on the stone walls of the main entry to the Chicago Tribune Building

			efGlyph 223 ••• All the inscriptions on the walls of the main entry to the Chicago Tribune building.

			efGlyph 498 ••• Paul Johnson's Introduction to America's Great Depression, by Murray N. Rothbard

			Afro-American Symphony, William Grant Still (1895-1978), Karl Krueger & Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, on iTunes ••• William Grant Still received Rosenwald Fellowships in 1939 and 1940 — The North Star: Julius Rosenwald's Impact Upon Black America, by Charles Wesley Burton and Laura Dancey Burton, at Amazon •••

			America's Great Depression, by Murray N. Rothbard, available as a free pdf file ••• thanks to the Ludwig von Mises Institute •••. The introduction to this Fifth Edition is by historian Paul Johnson. Depression's scrip returns for building community By NICHOLAS RICCARDI, Los Angeles Times August 12, 2009 ••• (thanks to Caitlin Ewing, of FLOW •••)

			Six story high green wall, Pittsburgh ••• (article in "World Landscape Architect)

			Imad-ad-Dean Ahamd, of Minaret of Freedom, writes: "In his posthumously published survey of the history of economics, Murray Rothbard traced the origins of free market thought as understood by the 'Austrian' school back to the thirteenth century scholastics and sixteenth century Spanish economists. We find interesting parallels to these views in the contemporaneous and preceding Islamic tradition. We call for an extension of Rothbard's work to the Islamic contemporaries and predecessors of the Christian scholars that he studied." ••• efGlyph 456 : The Spanish Roots of the Austrian School - an interview with Jesús Huerta de Soto ••• Greece and the Drachma: "The Greeks must be rueing the day they whacked the drachma: If Hellenic pride is currently at a low ebb, just wait until the EU steps in", says Boris Johnson, writing in the Telegraph.co.uk, 15 Feb 10 ••• thanks to the Cobden Center •••

			The Indian government has established its own body to monitor the effects of global warming because it “cannot rely” on the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the group headed by its own leading scientist Dr R.K Pachauri. •••

			"Peace Through Light", by Richard Fernandez ••• — on directed energy weapons, concluding with: And in politics, what will it mean if raw power generation becomes a measure of military might? What will the market for carbon credits be in such a world? Whither will windmills go? Nobody knows. But nobody ever did. As we move well into the second decade of the 21st century we might look back on the vision of a poet who strained to look into the future and saw only vast and indistinct shapes. Modern man can no more see the future than Tennyson could. And that is perhaps a mercy.

			Men, my brothers, men the workers, ever reaping something new: That which they have done but earnest of the things that they shall do: For I dipt into the future, far as human eye could see, Saw the Vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be; Saw the heavens fill with commerce, argosies of magic sails, Pilots of the purple twilight dropping down with costly bales; Heard the heavens fill with shouting, and there rain’d a ghastly dew From the nations’ airy navies grappling in the central blue.

			I always learn something from Richard's essays. He's one of the best thinkers we have. —leif Belmont Club ••• (Richard Fernandez)

			"What is Social Anthropology?", by Alan Macfarlane, University of Cambridge ••• (30 minute video)

			efGlyph 180 Alan Macfarlane - the making & riddle of the modern world & other contents of Alan Macfarlane's website, including free downloads of his books (the products of a diligent, original, important, and generous mind): • Yukichi Fukuzawa and the Making of the Modern World (Published originally in 'Making of the Modern World', Palgrave 2002) • F.W. Maitland and the Making of the Modern World (Published originally in 'Making of the Modern World', Palgrave 2002) • Baron de Montesquieu and the Making of the Modern World (Published originally in 'Riddle of the Modern World', Macmillan 2000) • Adam Smith and the Making of the Modern World (Published originally in 'Riddle of the Modern World', Macmillan 2000) • Alexis de Tocqueville and the Making of the Modern World (Published originally in 'Riddle of the Modern World', Macmillan 2000) • Thomas Malthus and the Making of the Modern World (Ebook only)

			2008 Julius Rosenwald, biographical information ••• (Wikipedia), ••• (Sears archive)

			Booker T. Washington's autobiography, Up from Slavery, is now available on iTunes U. at no charge •••

			Swine Flu Pandemic — hoax?

			Wolfgang Wodarg, interviewed by Alex Jones •••

			http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfgang_Wodarg

			A 1979 "60 Minutes" program on an earlier swine flu campaign •••

			Enlightenment, Immanuel Kant, 1785 •••

			Jerry Emanuelson, on vaccines (some pro, some con, all good thinking), added to efVortex Erasmus ••• "How much more FDA abuse can Americans tolerate?" -Life Extension Magazine, March 2010 •••

			Debate Over Vaccines ••• — Mike Adams, Editor of NatualNews.com ••• "When it comes to vaccines, Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carrey get it. They see how the pharma industry is engineering a campaign to silence Dr. Andrew Wakefield in order to suppress the publication of startling new evidence linking vaccines to severe neurological damage. "At great risk to their professional careers, Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carrey have found the courage to dare to tell the truth about vaccines and autism. Despite the vicious attacks by the pro-vaccine zealots who will stop at nothing to destroy anyone who challenges conventional vaccine mythology, McCarthy and Carrey have issued a powerful, inspired statement that reveals the truth behind the Big Pharma smear campaign that is intent on destroying the reputation of Dr. Andrew Wakefield before he can publish the final results of this important new study." A statement from Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carrey in defense of Dr. Wakefield ••• (original source of the statement)

			Arab Women's Leadership Forum, Dubai •••

			efVortex Ijtihad •••

			Emirates Airline Festival of Literature, March 10 to 13, 2010, Dubai Festival City •••

			Dubai Culture •••

			"The Indian government has established its own body to monitor the effects of global warming because it “cannot rely” on the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ..." ••• —Telegraph.co.uk

			Lion Rock Institute, The Independent Free Market Think Tank in Hong Kong

"Best Practice", published (collecting articles for the first issue now) by The Lion Rock Institute •••, is a quarterly journal that sheds light on the best practices in international public policy. Published in Hong Kong, "Best Practice" is well positioned as a gateway to developments and recommendations in law and policy, making it the essential guide for leading developments in public policy. Subscribers receive members’ benefits and special rates to LRI events.

"Moving the Window of Political Possibility" •••, by Andrew Work, Lion Rock Institute, Hong Kong

			Positivity, by Barbara Frederickson — a review by Jessica Lipnack, 18 April 2009 ••• — the power of positive emotions to generate the strange attractor at the center of high-performance creative teams. The cheerful cultivation of chaos in search of emergent and unexpected order. (leif's mangling of Jessica's thoughts) Barbara Frederickson, Positive Emotions and Psychophysiology Lab, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill •••

			A fine article about The Bloomsbury Review®, in recognition of thirty years of publication, by Colleen Smith, in The Denver Post, December 31, 2010 ••• The Bloomsbury Review® •••

			"A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy..." Alexander Fraser Tytler, Scottish lawyer and writer, 1770 We must find a way to achieve a self-limiting democracy that provides for peaceful replacement of poor managers of government with better ones.

			This lecture, "There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom," by physicist Richard Feynman, delivered on the 29th of December, 1959 at at the annual meeting of the American Physical Society at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) began the development of nanotechnology ••• — It may turn out to have been one of the most consequential lectures ever delivered. Singularity University •••

			"Not only would an independent Vermont survive," says Naylor, "It would thrive, because it would free up entrepreneurial forces heretofore held in abeyance. We're not preaching economic isolationism." —Thomas Naylor, as quoted by Christopher Ketchum in Time Magazine, January 31, 2010, "The Secessionist Campaign for the Republic of Vermont" •••

			Dr. Joseph Mercola interviews Donnie Yance about his integration of studies in nutrition, herbal medicine, pharmaceuticals, and identification of genetic variation and deliberate modification of genetic expression. •••

			Team Rubicon is a self-financed, all-volunteer, rapid response, vanguard style medical rescue team that operates in the supposed 'denied' areas of post earthquake Port au Prince. The former Marines, soldiers, firefighters/EMTs, medics, RNs, and PAs of Team Rubicon are unpaid. 100% of your donations goes towards purchasing medical/rescue supplies, medicine, food, water, local transportation and local translators/guides. •••

			Wil Shipley, creator of Delicious Library, an application for the Mac and iPhone, writing on the origins of the wooden bookshelf as an active presentation of library contents, and it's migration to the iPad's iBooks bookshelf ••• sheds light on the relationship between a large corporation, the law it must live with, and a creative outside designer whose work fits the needs of the corporation, in this case, of Apple, Inc. —Wil, thanks for the bookshelf, it's a beautiful idea beautifully executed in Delicious Libray, where I first saw it and was delighted by it. Well Done! -leif

			Jonathan Ive talks about Apple's iPad •••

			Acton Institute: A History of Liberty ••• — short biographies highlight the life and thought of central characters in the history of liberty

			Ibn Khaldun (1332 - 1406) — Ibn Khaldun, considered the greatest Arab historian, is also known as the father of modern social science and cultural history. Sources: “The Political Economy of the Classical Islamic Society” by Imad A. Ahmad, and Ibn Khaldun's Philospohy of History by Mushin Mahdi (University of Chicago Press, 1971).

			John Zube's monumental list of sources and readings in the philosophy of liberty •••

			"Panarchy", by Paul Emile de Puydt, first published in French in the Revue Trimestrielle, Brussels, July 1860 •••

			"Panarchy", as published in the "Rampart Journal of Individualist Thought", Fall 1966 •••

			Question: Did de Puydt and Frederic Bastiat ••• know or know of one another?

			"Ivorian tax-free rebel city flourishes" —BBC, January 8, 2010 ••• (thanks to Max Borders •••)

			Spontaneous order continually arises from chaos once those in the habit of issuing commands are no longer able to do so. This article about Ivory Coast illustrates the principle.

			New York Times — Memories of Sugar Hill: In a time of discrimination and segregation, young people growing up in an area of Harlem known as Sugar Hill right before and after World War II found success and inspiration all around them. Explore the people who lived in Sugar Hill and hear the stories of those who grew up there. •••

			In 1937, Aaron Douglas received a Rosenwald Fellowship. The North Star, by Charles and Laura Burton

PERC's Enviropreneur Institute is an intense, two-week educational experience in Bozeman, Montana, for environmental entrepreneurs who want to have a better understanding of how business and economic principles can be applied to environmental problems.

Breitbart reports •••: "Hong Kong remains the world's freest place to do business while the United States has lost its claim to an unrestricted economy, according to an annual report published Wednesday. Hong Kong, a former British colony which was returned to China in 1997, edged out rival Singapore to claim top spot for the sixteenth consecutive year in the 2010 Index of Economic Freedom."

Heritage Foundation's 2010 Index of Economic Freedom ••• (or click the image)

Breitbart ••• (Breitbart is a new media competitor to old mainstream)

Einstein Plus Two, by Petr Beckmann

Dr. Beckmann's description of the book, from the inside cover:

			"In 1921, Leigh Page, professor of mathematical physics at Yale, proved that the Maxwell equations could be derived without any further assumptions by applying the Lorentz transformation to Coulomb's Law. This was regarded as a triumph of the Einstein theory; yet it also proved that the Einstein theory stood on a single law that has never been verified at high velocities without circular logic. Little attention has been paid to another possibility: that the successes of the Einstein theory are merely due to the Lorentz transformation compensating for an inverse-square law that becomes inaccurate at high velocities. "This book is based on the assumption that the velocity that matters, the velocity that will make the Lorentz force and the Maxwell equations valid, is not that with respect to an observer, but that of charges (and masses) with respect to the traversed field. "This results in a theory that satisfies the relativity principle without having to distort space and time. It derives all the experimentally verified phenomena following from the Einstein theory, plus two more: the quantization of electron orbits (also the Schrödinger equation and new insight into the nature of Planck's constant), which hitherto had to be postulated, and the Titius series, for which no dynamic explanation has hitherto been available."

			On the orbit of Mercury, on page 171, Beckmann writes: "... Einstein was not the first to derive the Mercury formula. It had been derived 17 years earlier by Paul Gerber [1898] by classical physics using the same assumption that I am using now — the propagation of gravity with velocity c. For readers who find this hard to believe, Gerber's final expression is reproduced here: ...". After reprinting Gerber's formula as it appeared in Zeitschrift für Mathematik und Physik, vol. 43, p. 103, Beckmann notes that this formula is now known as "the Einstein formula". Library of Congress Catalog Card No.: 85-82516 ISBN 0-9111762-39-6

John O'Sullivan's talk at the Heritage Foundation about his book, The President, The Pope and the Prime Minister. His account of Pope John Paul II's visits to Poland during the 1980s is fascinating and instructive •••

efVortex Chopin : Poland •••

			Airship Ventures — Zeppelin Tours of San Francisco Bay, Los Angeles and the Moneterey Coast ••• Esther Dyson writes of her airship trip over New York City ••• Sliderule, by Nevil Shute Norway — autobiography of an aviation engineer and the story of two airships

			"In 1924 he made a change of critical importance in both his life and his writing. He moved to Vickers, Ltd. and began working on the R-100 airship they were developing under government contract. He was the Chief Calculator for this project, and very much later the Chief Engineer. The R-100 project was central to Norway's life, and perhaps even to his career as a novelist. Briefly, the R-100 was one half of a two-airship effort. It was the privately constructed airship, built in competition with the government-constructed R-101. The R-100 was a very successful design which proved itself on a round-trip flight to Canada. The R-101, plagued by poor design decisions and an overly high public profile, crashed in a terrible accident over France during its inaugural flight to India. The differences between these two airship projects shaped much of Norway's thinking about society." — quoted from the website of the Nevil Shute Norway Foundation •••

			Patrick Henry's great speech of March 23, 1775 •••

			The History of English Law before the Time of Edward I to be republished by Liberty Fund •••, April 2010

			First published in 1895, Sir Frederick Pollack and Fredrick William Maitland's legal classic The History of English Law before the Time of Edward I expanded the work of Sir Edward Coke and William Blackstone by exploring the origins of key aspects of English common law and society and with them the development of individual rights as these were gradually carved out from the authority of the Crown and the Church.

			Pierre Goodrich and the origins of the Liberty Fund •••

			Online Library of Liberty •••

			Life Extension Manual •••, by Jerry Emanuelson •••, Futurescience, LLC •••

			Life Extension Manual, Table of Contents •••

			Related: efVortex Methuselah •••

			George Will addresses a dispute that has divided conservatives for decades — about the proper role of the courts under our Constitution. True conservatives, Will concludes, will demand a principled "judicial activism." They will insist that courts exercise their authority to resist "the conscription of individuals, at a cost of diminished liberty, into government's collective projects. ••• (Cato Institute Commentary)

			Alan Macfarlane introduces the concept of social anthropology •••

			efGlyph 180 Alan Macfarlane - the making & riddle of the modern world & other contents of Alan Macfarlane's website

			The Third Anglosphere Century: The English Speaking World in an Era of Transition, by James C. Bennett, published in 2007 by the Heritage Foundation, now available as a pdf file ••• (500 KB download)

			Links to Wikipedia articles on Johan van Oldenbarnevelt & Jacobus Arminius added to efVortex Archer. A new glyph, taken from Rothbard's Conceived in Liberty, explains why these Dutch Republicans have become important to us. See efVortex Archer •••

			efGlyph 495: Dutch Republic, early 1600s •••

			Nandasiri Wanninayaka "Wanni" writes from Sri Lanka:

			Please watch this video clip on YouTube. This program was done by YATV. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XalVQSUOuRo Also read the article about Mahavilachchiya eVillage in Groundview magazine in Sinhala, English and Tamil. Visit www.horizonlanka.net to download the PDF files of the article.

Nandasiri Wanninayaka ("Wanni"), founder of Horizon Lanka Academy •••

			Inspired by Wanni, and his friend, Mark Frazier, Explorers Foundation helped to fund the construction of a radio tower to give this remote school in northeast Sri Lanka constant high-speed network access. More on Horizon Lanka •••

			The State Sovereignty Movement •••

			The Road to Serfdom — Year #2 in Amazon’s Top 1,000 Posted on the "Hayek Scholar's Page" by Greg Ransom on January 3, 2010 Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom is currently #459 among all books sold at Amazon.com. Week after week throughout 2009 Hayek’s perennial bestseller was among Amazon’s top 1,000 best sellers, most usually in the #200 – #600 range.

			Glyph 494 ••• added to Glyphery: about Jean-Philippe Rameau's treatise on harmony, Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, and the theories of Adam Ferguson and F. A. Hayek about things the result of human action but not of human design.

			The Great Day Out at the Farm, Sunday, February 28, 2010, Sculpture Park, Kaipara Harbour, New Zealand

				New Zealand Center for Political Research •••

			"Calorie-dense toxic foods are abundant, cheap and heavily advertised." The editorial in the February 2010 issue of "Life Extension" magazine advocates calorie restriction and/or consumption of substances which have effects on gene expression similar to calorie restriction. The expectation is that this will give us longer and healthier lives. "Life Extension" is published by the Life Extension Foundation, a great defender of choice in health decisions. •••

			"Africa's Cheetah Generation Rises on the Net" by Rob Salkowitz, 22 April 2009 •••

			Ghana Cyber Group, article on the Cheetah Generation •••

			TED Africa •••

			In June 2007, TED held its first conference in Africa, titled "Africa: The Next Chapter." Thought leaders from across the continent gathered with counterparts from around the globe to build new and lasting collaborations. Talks from TEDGlobal will appear here over the coming year, as part of the vigorous conversation unfolding worldwide, starting with Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, George Ayittey, Euvin Naidoo, and William Kamkwamba.

			TED: "Eleni Gabre-Madhin on Ethiopian economics" ••• (video: 21 minutes)

			Economist Eleni Gabre-Madhin outlines her ambitious vision to found the first commodities market in Ethiopia. Her plan would create wealth, minimize risk for farmers and turn the world's largest recipient of food aid into a regional food basket.

			About Eleni Gabre-Madhin •••

			MagCloud: where you can publish your own printed magazine •••

			How It Works Create: The publisher creates a magazine in a design program. Any program that can put out a letter-sized, multi-page PDF will work. Upload: The publisher uploads the PDF to MagCloud, fills out the description, and order a proof. At this point, no one can see it besides the publisher. Proof: MagCloud prints, binds, and mails the proof to the publisher. Proofs can take up to 2 weeks to arrive, though most arrive faster. Publish: The publisher reviews the proof and changes as needed. If approved, the publisher names their price. MagCloud charges 20 cents per page, the publisher chooses anything beyond that. Buy & Sell: When the issue is published, people can buy it on the MagCloud website. Buyers will need to have a credit card or PayPal account to buy. Print & Mail: When someone buys an issue, MagCloud prints, binds, and mails to the buyer. Orders can take up to 2 weeks to arrive, though most arrive faster. Publishers Get Paid: Publishers can check their sales online at any time. Once a month, MagCloud pays publishers any collected royalties via PayPal.

			An Astonishingly Inventive Mind

			Watch Pranav Mistry drag an image from an ordinary piece of paper into a computer window. Not possible, right? Another great video from TED: Pranav Mistry: The thrilling potential of SixthSense technology •••

			What Has Government Done to Our Money?, by Murray N. Rothbard ••• (access to full text)

			Introduction to Fourth Edition by Llewellyn H. Rockwell I. Introduction by Murray Rothbard II. Money in a Free Society 1. The Value of Exchange 2. Barter 3. Indirect Exchange 4. Benefits of Money 5. The Monetary Unit 6. The Shape of Money 7. Private Coinage 8. The Proper Supply of Money 9. The Problem of Hoarding 10. Stabilize the Price Level? 11. Coexisting Moneys 12. Money-Warehouses 13. Summary III. Government Meddling With Money 1. The Revenue of Government 2. The Economic Effects of Inflation 3. Compulsory Monopoly of the Mint 4. Debasement 5. Gresham's Law and Coinage 6. Summary: Government and Coinage 7. Permitting Banks to Refuse Payment 8. Central Banking: Removing the Checks on Inflation 9. Central Banking: Directing the Inflation 10. Going Off the Gold Standard 11. Fiat Money and the Gold Problem 12. Fiat Money and Gresham's Law 13. Government and Money IV. The Monetary Breakdown of the West 1. Phase I: The Classical Gold Standard, 1815-1914 2. Phase II: World War I and After 3. Phase III: The Gold Exchange Standard (Britain and the United States) 1926-1931 4. Phase IV: Fluctuating Fiat Currencies, 1931-1945... 5. Phase V: Bretton Woods and the New Gold Exchange Standard (the United States) 1945 1968 6. Phase VI: The Unraveling of Bretton Woods, 1968-1971 7. Phase VII: The End of Bretton Woods: Fluctuating Fiat Currencies, August-December, 1971 8. Phase VIII: The Smithsonian Agreement, December 1971-February 1973 9. Phase IX: Fluctuating Fiat Currencies, March 1973-? A sharable glyph on this book: http://explorersfoundation.org/glyphery/119.html

			Our Challenge with Freedom, Olivier "O" Tryba •••

			Our challenge with Freedom today is that we think of freedom as an idea, perhaps an ethic, an ideal, a morality, a philosophy. Listen to what people say about freedom today: almost as soon as they speak of it, they speak of confining it. They affirm freedom – but with fences – and they want to reassure you that they are not advocating freedom without fences. Oh no! “We are ALL agreed that we don’t mean THAT kind of Freedom!” Our challenge with Freedom in the modern world is that genuine Freedom is not an idea, philosophy or ethic, regardless of how many books have been written on the topic. Freedom is a neurology. Freedom is a state of unconditional trust in our Beingness. It is a way that the defensive & vigilant structures of the brain grow into connection with the right-now knowing of the heart when we are welcomed at birth, into the arms & skin & breasts of our mothers and the trust of our people. They grow to warn us of true danger and to invite us into the delight of true connection, rather than growing to alert us perpetually that we are a danger to ourselves, which is what happens in the West. Please reread this last sentence, and then TASTE it experientially. Freedom is the neural link between the Heart that Knows and the Brain that Thinks. This heart-brain-mind neural link, established in our first hours, day & months after birth, is that which will determine whether we live Life in the Freedom to Know from the Heart, or if we live Life trapped in the beliefs our Brains get filled with. ©2009 Olivier “O” Tryba

			The Laws of Form, by G. Spencer Brown

			A path to wisdom beginning in deepest ignorance •••

			Daniel Pink's new book, Drive, was published a few days ago •••

			"Most of us believe that the best way to motivate ourselves and others is with external rewards like money—the carrot-and-stick approach. That’s a mistake, Daniel H. Pink says in, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, his provocative and persuasive new book. The secret to high performance and satisfaction—at work, at school, and at home—is the deeply human need to direct our own lives, to learn and create new things, and to do better by ourselves and our world." —above web page

			Recommended by Peter McLaughlin (efVortex Eudaimonia •••)

			happiness, joyful life, postive psychology, quest serving collaboration and governance •••

			Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) Summer Seminars •••

			The mission of the Foundation for Economic Education is to “inspire, educate, and connect future leaders with the principles of a free society.” The programs department at FEE plays an important role in that work, offering annual summer seminars that challenge students of freedom with those ideas that lie at the heart of our prosperity. Attending one of these seminars shapes the intellect and prepares one to be an advocate for liberty. The applications for the 2010 Summer Seminars will be online January 1, 2010. The deadline to apply is March 31, 2010

			"Atlas Shrugged at Fifty" by Barbara Branden •••

			Builder Challenges — Contests to find & reward breakthrough projects •••

			"The Builders Manifesto," by Umair Haque •••

			Mongolia — The Zorig Foundation •••

			Jonathan Gullible, by Ken Schooland, a very simple introduction to liberty, now in 39 languages •••

			Ideas from Jonathan Gullible presented in Mongolian •••

			There is no relationship that we know of between the Zorig Foundation and Jonathan Gullible. If you know of one we would be interested in learning about it.

			The same ideas presented in 38 other languages •••

			In 1645, Plymouth, Massachusetts, "... William Vassall, a leading merchant, presented to the General Court of Plymouth as well as to that of Massachusetts Bay a petition for complete religious liberty—to grant 'full and free tolerance of religion to all men that will preserve the civil peace and submit unto the government.'. 'All men' meant exactly that, including Familists, Roman Catholics, and Jews." —Murray N. Rothbard, Conceived in Liberty, Vol. 1, Ch. 36. — Dr. Floy Lilly reading chapter 36 •••. Audio of all four volumes ••• (in progress).

Dorothy Carpenter and her biography of William Vassall •••
efVortex Archer : the history of freeorder, an arrow in endless flight •••

			"Perceptual Salience and the Creative Powers of a Free Civilization •••" by Michael Strong, July 2005

			Prospects for endless productive novelty, Hayek's contribution to 21st century

			"Both with respect to cognition and with respect to political/economic theory, the endless prospects for productive novelty in perception and value creation are the core Hayekian contributions to the 21st century. From this perspective, the full impact of the Hayekian perspective is not past, but has hardly yet begun to be perceived. ... Hayek’s work is not a dated reflection of moribund arguments; it is a prophetic vision of a world of radical change that has not yet come into being. "Hayek’s theory of cognition is a rarity insofar as he explicitly describes a process whereby new insights and new understandings come into being. Most cognitive theorists and epistemologists attempt to explain how we know what we know. But one of the most striking facts about Western civilization is that we are constantly knowing new things. Indeed, over time, we come to know dramatically new things. As a consequence, our perceptual and experiential reality is constantly changing at a dramatic pace, and yet we hardly realize it."

			"At no time in history has there been greater public interest in Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged. And its message has never been more urgent. The torrent of destructive, statist policies emanating from Washington represents a crisis—and an opportunity. Through the Atlas Shrugged Initiative, we intend to capitalize on the soaring grassroots interest in Ayn Rand and her ideas." —Ayn Rand Institute •••

			The Panic of 1819, by Murray N. Rothbard

			Added this book to efVortex Mulligan : the market for media of exchange

			Vortex Mulligan is about sound money, about monetary systems that are not tools for thieves, about money that is not a method of plundering the savings of productive people for the benefit of the politically favored. Mulligan was rightly known as an honest banker, one who took good care of the money entrusted to him and who told the truth about what he did with it.

			"Bastiat's Iceberg," a fascinating article on economic crisis, recommended by The Cobden Center (for honest money and social progress). Toby Baxendale, at The Cobden Center •••, on 21 December 09, writes: "Sean Corrigan of Diapason Commodities Management packs more sound applied economics into this report than ever." Download the report here. [this will trigger the download of a 1.6 MB pdf file] — Tony Baxendale's summary & commentary is excellent! •••

			The Manifesto of Entrepreneurial Democracies, by Alexandre Raab

			"A small gem of a book which treats some very old and very new ideas with luminous intelligence." -Peter Brimelow, Senior Editor, Forbes Magazine. I agree. -leif

			Update, January 14, 2010: We have just learned that the Manifesto will be republished. Meanwhile, please try to find a copy of this wonderful book through a used book service. It is truly worth your time. -Leif

			Experimenting with DimDim for hosting online Explorers Foundation meetings on a variety of topics. Please let me know if you are interested. leifsmith [AT] explorersfoundation [DOT] org

			Book your place in space and join over 300 Virgin Galactic astronauts who will venture into space •••

			HONG KONG, March 3, 2009 - The Lion Rock Institute is pleased to announce that on February 27th, in the House Committee of the Legislative Council, the administration confirmed that the competition law will be postponed due to “technical issues.” This is a big moment for The Lion Rock Institute. Lion Rock has been educating the public on the fallacies of this law and initiating public debate from its very inception. From the outset, The Lion Rock Institute was one of the leading critics of the proposed competition law while most others were indifferent to government role in hindering competition. Now, however, a chorus of critics has grown, speaking out against the proposed law as Lion Rock paved the way with their messages: Monopolies need government law; Competition law would be disastrous for Hong Kong; The business sector, government and the consumer alike would lose out to vested interests; Like so many others, competition policy would have the exact opposite effect than intended. Lion Rock is in support of greater competition, but only so long as the playing field remains fair. The law remains faulty without a focus on the broader need to develop competition policy that involves reform of government and legislation. Lion Rock created CARE Hong Kong (Coalition Against Regulatory Expansion in Hong Kong) to further the debate, gathering a group of international experts, all who were astonished to find the world’s freest economy planning such a law, to submit comments to the government. Over the last months, with HKCER (Hong Kong Centre for Economic Research), Lion Rock hosted competition luncheons dedicated to furthering the debate and highlighted the myriad problems with existing laws. The Lion Rock Institute is in this fight for the long run. They will continue to spread their message, disseminating the hypocrisies of this law to the public and demonstrating the grave danger Hong Kong will find itself in should it adopt a competition law.

			Related Publications: The Lion Rock Institute Submission to the Government for Consultation on Competition Law; CARE HK Submission to the Government for Consultation on Competition Law ••• Related News Articles: (WSJ) How to Make Hong Kong Uncompetitive; (SCMP) Exchange with Government on Competition Law •••

			efGlyph 491: Afghanistan and Iraq — Books by Rory Stewart — insights into the complexities of tribal politics: The Places in Between, and The Prince of the Marshes and Other Occupational Hazards of a Year in Iraq.

			A crazy Scotsman walks from Herat to Kabul in the immediate aftermath of the fall of the Taliban in 2002. Sleeping on villagers' floors, relying on the generosity of those who have little to feed him, living by his wits when confronted with hostile and suspicious local people, and adopting a retired fighting mastiff as his traveling companion, the experiences he describes are funny, tragic, surprising and profoundly informative. In The Places in Between, Rory Stewart recounts trials and adventures in places and with people that we will never otherwise meet. The Prince of the Marshes and Other Occupational Hazards of a Year in Iraq tells the story of Stewart's stint as deputy governor of Amara and then Nasiriyah, provinces in the remote marsh regions in the southern part of Iraq. As an appointee of the British Foreign Office, he tries to comprehend the complex political, economic and cultural lay of the land in order to deliver infrastructure, systems of representative governance and security. In the small province of Amara, fifty-four new political parties emerged following the fall of Saddam. Sheikhs, bandits, gangsters, armed resistance fighters, tribal leaders at war with each other for centuries, and educated, secular factions all jockeyed for power, influence and access to the inconceivable amount of money poured into Iraq by the coalition. His account of the futility of those efforts resulting in the region's decline into violence and strong-arm rule, is searingly honest, pragmatic and heartfelt. For the student of human nature, leadership and governance, Stewart's story beckons us to explore the assumptions behind the mostly positive intentions from which we preach. Rory Stewart is currently living in Kabul directing the Turquoise Mountain Foundation, an NGO training artists and craftspeople in pottery, calligraphy, woodworking, jewelry-making and architectural restoration to revitalize Murad Khane, a section of Kabul rich in architectural beauty and history which had fallen into decay. —Lara Ewing Himber

			Patently Apple: Celebrating Apple's Spirit of Invention. They imagine. They explore. They inspire and invent.

			"Augmented Reality, Pranav Mistry, inventor of SixthSense, a wearable device that enables new interactions between the real world and the world of data. Mistry is a PhD student in the Fluid Interfaces Group at MIT's Media Lab. Here you will find both a collage of photos and a TED-India video presentation about the Thrilling Potential of SixthSense Technology."

			A TED video of Pranav's presentation of SixthSense ••• — this is the video embedded in the above "Patently Apple" page. If you watch this, prepare to be astonished and delighted. -leif

			"The Human Continuum — The Brilliance of Being Human, •••" —Olivier Tryba at Deep Freedom Now

			How human lives begin, whether in a world of connection, or in one of separation, of flight-or-fight.

			"It has now been demonstrated that the newborn’s experience in the first hour of life after birth leads to profound developmental choices in that child’s life: they will either gear up to thrive in connection or to survive in a fight-or-flight world, a world where mothers are not present even at birth to ensure connection during the first hour of life." Deep Freedom Now — a collection of thought and observation of great value to all who treasure explorers and their lives of adventure. -leif

			The Teenage Liberation Handbook •••, by Grace Llewellyn — how to quit school and get a real life and education

			Unschooling Children — Not Back to School Camp ••• — the work of Grace Llewellyn and friends

			Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) •••

			"Educational Institutions or Re-education Camps?" by Nathaniel Cornelius, Winner of FIRE's 2009 "Freedom in Academia" High School Essay Contest:

			If, as a hoax, someone had replaced the facts of Hayden Barnes' story with a tale of repression from 18th- or 19th- century France, it might not have raised many eyebrows. Barnes was expelled from Valdosta State University after making a collage satirizing university President Ronald Zaccari's support for a $10,000-a-space parking garage. His story would have fit perfectly well in a regime where, for example, the artist Honore Daumier was jailed for an unflattering caricature of King Louis Philippe. Similarly, the University of Delaware's bizarre orientation program could have just as easily been the invention of a mad interrogator from Stalinist Russia, where those who did not applaud long enough at the dictator's favorite concerts risked execution. Stalin himself would have appreciated how Delaware's orientation program forced students to display support for every official ideological tenet or political opinion. .... [more]

FIRE Announces Winners of $15,000 'Freedom in Academia' Essay Contest - FIRE
www.thefire.org
PHILADELPHIA, December 15, 2009—Today, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) announces the winners of its 2009 "Freedom in Academia" high school essay contest. More than 2,700 students submitted essays for the contest. ...

1946: Milton Friedman and George Stigler, "Roofs or Ceilings?" (Irvington-on-Hudson, NY: Foundation for Economic Education, 1946), a brochure, with an introduction by the founder and president of FEE, Leonard E. Read, printed in an edition of 500,000 copies. Although Rothbard learned of FEE through this brochure and attended FEE seminars beginning in September, 1946, he did not learn of Ludwig von Mises until the publication of Human Action in 1949. (Hülsmann's biography of Mises •••