Freeorder News — Explorers Foundation December 16, 2010, Noon, Milwaukee, click triangles and ••• links

			Combating piracy off the coast of Somalia and elsewhere United Nations Radio — 09/04/2010 ••• (interview with Bob Haywood, One Earth Future Foundation) "Maritime piracy off Somalian coast Maritime piracy, especially off the coast of Somalia has increased alarmingly over the past two years. Despite the presence of a multinational naval fleet in the Gulf of Aden, the pirate attacks continue to increase and ransoms for crews and ships have reached millions of dollars. The One Earth Future Foundation, which aims to promote peace through governance, has proposed a solution to this crisis. Diane Bailey spoke to Bob Haywood, Executive Director of One Earth Future Foundation to find out why the problem of piracy is so difficult to root out and what can be done about it." One Earth Future Foundation •••

			India's downtrodden "untouchables" are to open a temple to a "Goddess of the English language" in honour of Lord Macaulay, an architect of the British Empire.

			From telegraph.co.uk By Dean Nelson in New Delhi Published: 9:00PM BST 27 Oct 2010 Leaders of India's low-caste Dalits are to celebrate the opening of a temple shaped like a desktop computer to inspire "untouchable" children to improve their prospects in life by learning English. They believe learning English will open up new opportunities for India's 160 million Dalits in higher education and high-status government careers. Dalits are India's most persecuted caste... Complete article •••

			"Is English the Language of India's Future," by Peggy Mohan ••• "An Anglosphere Primer," by James C. Bennett, 2001 ••• — the first of Bennett's articles on the Anglosphere

			"The 20th century had the sad distinction of being the era when government and economics became (seemingly) inextricably intertwined - an even more dangerous development than the previous marriage of church and state. One of the great achievements of the Founding Fathers in the US was their constitutional separation of church and state. This absolute separation has since been sadly eroded but it still stands as one of the laws which governments must obey and thus as an impediment to the pursuit of power. With economics in general and money in particular, the opposite is the case. Here, there is no constitutional or any other kind of barrier to keep the government out of the lives and the pockets of its citizens. The justification for this has evolved into modern orthodox economics. It is taught by (almost) all institutions of “higher” learning and practised by (almost) all economic decision makers both inside and outside government." — William Buckler, in his newsletter, "The Privateer". Anyone who can write this is worth knowing about and reading. The current issue may be downloaded without charge from http://www.the-privateer.com/freebie.html

			Reason.tv asks, "Have this year's negative political ads really 'taken dirty to a whole new level', as CNN's Anderson Cooper frets?" No, apparently not. We are not even close. Listen to the statements Jefferson and Adams made about each other around the time of the 1800 presidential election ••• (video, about 1.45 minutes). The words of Jefferson and Adams, with sources •••

			Manipal University, Southwest India — wilderness into a sanctuary of education

			"Manipal, today, is a knowledge powerhouse and a brand name in higher education. Over five and half decades ago, one man, Dr Tonse Madhava Anantha Pai, had a vision which ensured that everything he did then, was consigned to posterity, making sure that generation after generation of students enjoy the fruits of his labour till eternity on this lateritic plateau. And the students will, forever, have one name on their lips, that of Manipal. "Manipal University is a name to remember, not just across the length and breadth of India, but worldwide. The fact that students from 52 countries are studying here is a testimony to this fame. "Fired by the desire to provide health care and other essential services to the people of this region, Dr TMA Pai transformed the plateau into what it now is. He turned the wilderness into a sanctuary of education. "In 1953, he set up Kasturba Medical College, the first private medical college in the voluntary sector. And, with that began the story of Manipal University. Then, in 1957 came the engineering college, the dental college, pharmacy college and so on and so forth. Initially, these institutes were affiliated to different universities. "Dr TMA Pai passed on the baton of leadership to his son, Dr Ramdas M Pai who is the present President and Chancellor of the University. "Located on the west coast of South India, Manipal was a barren wasteland, a plateau with wild animals. It was this plateau that Dr TMA Pai decided to change. His vision for Manipal covered a wide spectrum of interests because he himself donned many hats. He was a physician, an educationist, a banker and above all, a philanthropist at heart. "Then in 1993, MAHE was accorded a deemed university status under Section 3 of the UGC Act 1956, by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India. Today, it has 20 constituent institutions comprising medical, dental, engineering, architecture, nursing, allied health, pharmacy, management, communication, information science, hotel management, biotechnology, regenerative medicine etc. The university offers Bachelors’, Masters’ and Doctoral degrees in various specialties. "At the time of recieving the deemed university status, only five professional institutions existed. Encouraged by the new status, the University grew by leaps and bounds. The emphasis has always been, and still is, on quality education, which is why the degrees offered by the university are recognised world over. The University provides excellent educational facilities to over 17,000 students in its constituent colleges. It also has an active alumni base of over 65,000 students across the world."

			OCT 14 2010 Obama, India and the 21st Century Anglosphere ••• Along with the United States and the United Kingdom, India could be the major player in a 21st century partnership of the English-speaking countries. Closer contact with the “Anglosphere” would possibly align Indian institutions and regulations closer to those of mature democracies — BY M.D. Nalapat, DIRECTOR, DEPARTMENT OF GEOPOLITICS, MANIPAL UNIVERSITY "An Anglosphere Primer," by James C. Bennett, 2001 ••• — the first of Bennett's articles on the Anglosphere

			efGlyph 480: Murray N. Rothbard tells the story of Colonial America from a perspective especially interesting and useful to those who love liberty.

			China has also borrowed from its own playbook. President Hu’s 2007 trip to Zambia was to announce the first of seven African special economic zones: two in Nigeria, two in Zambia and one each for Egypt, Ethiopia and Mauritius. They are modelled after China’s coastal SEZs, which helped lure investment and kick-start the Chinese economy. The first of these, a $900-million venture in Chambishi, has 13 Chinese-owned companies, most engaged in mining and processing copper, and employs some 6,000 people. A second zone opened near Lusaka last year, where Chinese companies are assembling electronic goods, computers, TVs and cellphones for export. ••• —Michael Strong •••

			Michael Yon ••• — entrepreneurial journalist, writes:

			It saddens me greatly to read on my own pages mindless slanders against the entire Muslim world. There are some bad ones, just as there are bad Jews, Hindus, and Christians. Yet tonight, like many nights, I sleep under protection of Afghan Muslims. They will protect me with their lives. They are good men.

			The Warmth of Other Suns, by Isabel Wilkerson •••

			Mennonite Disaster Service •••

			"The Mennonite Disaster Service sent skilled carpenters down to New Orleans to rebuild after Katrina. Now volunteers from the Pennsylvania-based group are helping to revive the Hopkins Street District in New Iberia, La. -WSJ's Joel Millman reports." ••• — Wall Street Journal, September 18, 2010, (subscription required) "Volunteers with Mennonite Disaster Service of Colorado have been meeting with local church officials in the Boulder, Colorado area discussing an MDS response to the recent fire in that area. As the fires die down and residents return to their homes, MDS will work with homeowners to determine if there is clean up work that MDS can be involved in." ••• (MDS website)

			Ideas Matter: Great ideas useful to explorers, current and aspiring ••• — a project of the Free to Choose Network •••

			Clipped from the Ideas Matter blog for September 6, 2009: vascularization of living and economic systems, constructional dynamics, constructional economics, correlation between flow and prosperity:

			Bejan thinks if we open our eyes, we'll see constructal dynamics operating virtually everywhere. Branching trees are evolved towards vascularization, so are human cardio-vascular systems, so are river systems, transportation networks, swimming fish, branching trees, economies and so on... In concepts that parallels those of classical liberalism, Bejan warns us that these systems are 'designed' this way for a reason. When we go monkeying with that design - say, for the sake of "social justice," we may find negative unintended effects result. This should be no surprise to the those who admire Hayek. In any case, Constructal theory is an interesting lens through which to view modern economics. Indeed, the time may be right for a 'constructal economics'. I go on: A Constructal economics could go a long way towards explaining why some people own and control a lot of resources while many own and control only a few. Constructal economics might explain some of the long-tail phenomena (power law distributions) identified by Chris Anderson in the retail sector. And Constructal economics could go a very long way - augmenting Austrian Economics - in explaining why government intervention in the economy creates so many problems and distortions. Systems need to flow. The correlation between flow and prosperity should never be ignored. And flow is rarely the product of human design, but the aggregate of human actions carried out according to simple rules.

			"Nullification begins with the axiomatic point that a federal law that violates the Constitution is no law at all. It is void and of no effect. Nullification simply pushes this uncontroversial point a step further: if a law is unconstitutional and therefore void and of no effect, it is up to the states, the parties to the federal compact, to declare it so and thus refuse to enforce it. It would be foolish and vain to wait for the federal government or a branch thereof to condemn its own law. Nullification provides a shield between the people of a state and an unconstitutional law from the federal government. "The central point behind nullification is that the federal government cannot be permitted to hold a monopoly on constitutional interpretation. If the federal government has the exclusive right to judge the extent of its own powers, warned James Madison and Thomas Jefferson in 1798, it will continue to grow—regardless of elections, the separation of powers, and other much-touted limits on government power." From pages 3 & 4 of Nullification: How to Resist Federal Tyranny in the 21st Century •••, by Thomas E. Woods, Jr., published 2010. Woods is a Senior Fellow at the Ludwig von Mises Institute •••

			The Online Library of Liberty ••• — A magnificent project by Liberty Fund ••• "U.S. law firms are losing international business to the Brits" ... "international jurisdictional competition ultimately will be the great leveler when it comes to tax, regulation and litigation" ••• (truthonthemarket.com, thanks to Jim Bennett)

			"Google is a distributed entity, a two-way membrane, a game-changing tool on the order of the equally handy flint hand ax, with which we chop our way through the very densest thickets of information." ••• (New York Times, thanks to Mike Lotus)

			Michael J. Totten interviews Paul Berman on his book, The Flight of the Intellectuals, with fascinating concentration on Tariq Ramadan •••

			A rich and thoughtful essay by Larry Arnhart on human nature, and intrinsic and evolved values - in CATO Unbound, July 12, 2010 •••

			"Amid the pessimism infusing the current state of the economy, the best and brightest of our species are pushing on. The seeds of nearly unimaginable scientific breakthroughs are quietly germinating underground. Already, we see the new shoots emerging in many fields. Some of these shoots will grow into trees. The fruit they produce will, in turn, provide epic profits for the investors who water and care for them." —Patrick Cox, Breakthrough Technology Alert, an investment letter, 31 August 2010.

			In an article on Darwin, CATO Unbound, 12 July 2010 •••, Larry Arnhart mentions friendly societies: "In Great Britain, friendly societies were self-governing associations of manual laborers who shared their resources and pledged to help one another in time of hardship. In this way, individuals could secure their social welfare and acquire good character through voluntary mutual aid without the need for governmental coercion."

			After the Fall: Saving Capitalism, from Wall Street — and Washington, by Nicole Gelinas, Encounter Books, 2009 — "... a precision missile that neatly and elegantly takes the thing to pieces—and lays the ground for a better structure." —Amity Shlaes, author of another fine book, The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression About the author, Nicole Galinas •••

			http://www.the-rathouse.com/ ("Welcome to my Rathouse - named in honour of the Rathaus, the Great Hall of Vienna." —Rafe Champion) From the introductory page: We do not live by bread and technology alone because our lives gain meaning and purpose from the morals, mythology and metaphysics of our non-material heritage. We absorb these animating principles from our contacts with parents, teachers, preachers and peers, also from religion, art, literature, science, business, sport and politics. This non-material heritage contains a mixture of good and bad ideas, and a society that loses the capacity to subject these myths and traditions to imaginative criticism is likely to die. Constant efforts are required to eliminate error and muddled thinking because the risk is ever-present that the bad will drive out the good. The task of imaginative criticism falls to all thinking people, although it has been institutionalised with certain organisations such as the universities and with occupational groups such as acdemics, including philosophers. This process of institutionalisation has almost proved fatal and it sometimes seems that the institutions and groups who have the most responsibility for the health and vigour of our thinking have in fact done much to mutilate and debilitate our heritage. This has been described as 'the treason of the intellectuals'. This process deserves further investigation in the hope that it can be reversed.

			Sir William Harcourt, a prominent Liberal politician in the Victorian era, said this about liberalism in 1872: If there be any party which is more pledged than another to resist a policy of restrictive legislation, having for its object social coercion, that party is the Liberal party. (Cheers.) But liberty does not consist in making others do what you think right, (Hear, hear.) The difference between a free Government and a Government which is not free is principally this—that a Government which is not free interferes with everything it can, and a free Government interferes with nothing except what it must. A despotic Government tries to make everybody do what it wishes; a Liberal Government tries, as far as the safety of society will permit, to allow everybody to do as he wishes. It has been the tradition of the Liberal party consistently to maintain the doctrine of individual liberty. It is because they have done so that England is the place where people can do more what they please than in any other country in the world...It is this practice of allowing one set of people to dictate to another set of people what they shall do, what they shall think, what they shall drink, when they shall go to bed, what they shall buy, and where they shall buy it, what wages they shall get and how they shall spend them, against which the Liberal party have always protested.[1] [1] The Times (31 December 1872), p. 5. This quotation is taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_Party_UK — 25 Aug 2010 Thanks to Gary Hoover — http://hooversworld.com

			Jon Lauck, Prairie Republic: The Political Culture of Dakota Territory, 1879-1889. Travis Kavulla's review, August 2, 2010, in NR Digital, begins, 'What happens when hundreds of thousands of people flush into a massive open prairie in the course of a decade, transforming a place the size of Ireland into farmland carved up into parcels about ten city blocks wide and long? One would think social discord and economic domination by a clique — and that, for a long time, has been the view of “progressive” historians on the matter.' — Luack tells a different story.

			What Is The Goal Of Social “Policy”? As the Austrian economists, notably Ludwig von Mises, never tired of pointing out, government interference with the processes of the free market does not work. To quote Mises from his short book, Planned Chaos - “...interventionist measures are doomed to failure. This means that the interventionist measures must needs result in conditions which from the point of view of their own advocates are more unsatisfactory than the previous state of affairs they were designed to alter.” (Emphasis by the author) That would be true if improving the standard of living of everyone was genuinely the goal of those who covet the power to interfere with the markets. But that is NOT their goal. If it was, they would long since have given up on the idea that they can “run” an economy. If it was, they would NOT cling so tenaciously to the power to force everyone to abide by their edicts - ultimately at the point of a gun. Interventionism does “work” - very well - for those who aspire to or who already have and do not want to give up political POWER. In fact, it is a prerequisite for gaining such power in the first place. In short, what “works” for people in their everyday lives interacting with others does NOT “work” for a government which wants to dictate how people go about living their everyday lives. SUBSCRIPTIONS: In AUSTRALIAN Dollars Trial: 5 issues (once only) $A 25 © 2010 - The Privateer http://www.the-privateer.com capt@the-privateer.com (reproduced with permission)

			"If it can’t be measured, future governments can’t pander. I imagine that Stephen Harper’s view, Canada should be a country of individual initiative, not one of collective dependence “justified” through the collection of data." — Stephen Taylor, writing in The National Post, of Prime Minister, Stephen Harper's campaign to limit the power of government over Canadian citizens. The article, "The beginning of the end of the Canadian welfare state" •••

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			http://tedfellows.posterous.com

			Helen Szamuely, from her blog •••

			A review of Peter Bauer and the Economics of Prosperity, "A prophet who should be honored" ••• July 5, 2010: "Yesterday was, just in case any reader missed it, Independence Day. Naturally, one is ambivalent about it. After all, the rebellious colonies declared their independence and, perhaps, one should not feel too happy about it. The truth is that it was the third great English Revolution and, as such, should be celebrated by all." Walter Russell Mead's article gives an excellent if, necessarily inadequate summary of traces of American history that one can find in London. "Your Freedom and Ours: A blog about politics and other things but always from the right perspective" •••

			The relationship between cellular pH and voltage, impacts on health, the Tennant Biomodulator and its use •••

			If the collaboration between established medicine and government regulatory agencies does not become more effective new knowledge & practices will eliminate billions of dollars of revenue. For the sake of economic health competition must be suppressed. -leif

			Added this to efVortex Methuselah : healthy & long life •••

			From Yasuhiko Genku Kimura, today: “True friendship is mutual celebration of the best in life, not mutual commiseration of the worst, based on mutual esteem. You know who your true friends are not by who extend their sympathy when some misfortune befalls on you but by who share the joy with you when you are at the height of your achievement, success, or happiness. Be a true friend and be worthy of having a true friend.” (YGK Daily quote 7/2/10) •••

			China: lack of regulation leads to rapid medical advances in stem cell treatments •••

			Excellent New York Times article on the Singularity, by Ashlee Vance, June 11, 2010 •••

			"In the 1990s, Paul Romer revolutionized economics. In the aughts, he became rich as a software entrepreneur. now he’s trying to help the poorest countries grow rich—by convincing them to establish foreign-run “charter cities” within their borders. Romer’s idea is unconventional, even neo-colonial—the best analogy is Britain’s historic lease of Hong Kong. and against all odds, he just might make it happen." —The Atlantic, July/August 2010 ••• Ken Hagerty and Theodore Roosevelt Malloch, July 18, 2007, "Free Cities: How to create freedom and opportunity for illegal immigrants in their own countries" ••• —the Weekly Standard (thanks to Michael Strong) Michael Strong's talk at the Seasteading Institute Conference, 2009, "Free Zones: An Additional Option for the Cambrian Explosion in Government" •••

			This could be the beginning of the end of FDA censorship of truthful, scientifically-supported health claims ••• (Natural News, Mike Adams, the Health Ranger)

			Intrinsic motivation more powerful than rewards (extrinsic) in knowledge work ••• (a TED talk)

			A new model for ventures dependent on imagination and creative thinking relies on intrinsic motivation more than on extrinsic rewards such as money. Businesses can become frameworks for self-actualization. A TED talk by Dan Pink. (thanks to Mark Frazier for this)

			Intrinsic motivation more powerful than rewards (extrinsic) in knowledge work ••• (a TED talk)

			A new model for ventures dependent on imagination and creative thinking relies on intrinsic motivation more than on extrinsic rewards such as money. Businesses can become frameworks for self-actualization. A TED talk by Dan Pink. (thanks to Mark Frazier for this) http://www.danpink.com/

			German Magazine Reveals Drug Companies' Influence to Engineer Swine Flu Fake Pandemic ••• (Dr. Mercola)

			Revealing the mechanisms of kleptocracy and crony capitalism, abhorent to advocates of free markets. Our congratulations to Polish health minister, Ewa Kopacz, who was not fooled and declined to participate.

			The Republic Of Plato, translated by Allan Bloom ••• A review by Jackson K. Eskew (on Amazon) What a pleasure it would have been if, as a political philosophy major, I had been assigned this translation. Bloom's essentially literal translation sweeps away the "dynamically equivalent" dross of popular translations such as those of Cornford, Lee, and Grube/Reeve which, in the name of "contemporary relevance" and "readability," dumb down this work almost beyond recognition and, more insidiously, distort Plato's meaning to conform with contemporary prejudices. Bloom explains all of this brilliantly in his Preface, at one point writing: "Plato intended his works essentially for the intelligent and industrious few, a natural aristocracy determined neither by birth nor wealth, and this translation attempts to do nothing which would contradict that intention." Strong medicine, but it does the trick beautifully. Also included is a lengthy and excellent interpretive essay (indeed, the book is worth buying for this alone), along with many exhaustive and deeply perceptive textual notes. complete review (and others) at Amazon ••• (thank to Pat Wagner for finding this book and review)

			Don Boudreaux, May 27, 2010, in TribLive (Pittsburgh) writes: 'Just as every day is followed by a setting sun, every financial turmoil is followed by seething politicians blaming the economic woes on "speculators."' ••• (entire column)

Is Telomere Erosion a Mechanism of Species Extinction?
REINHARD STINDL
Institut für Medizinische Biologie, Medizinische Universität Wien, Währingerstrabe 10, 1090 Vienna, Austria.

A well-known downside of the gradualistic model of slow, steady change by natural selection acting on genetic variation is that it cannot account for rapid transitions, catastrophic extinctions and spectacular radiations. Consequentially, these observations had long been attributed to the imperfection of the fossil record (Gould and Eldredge, ’93). In 1972, Eldredge and Gould offered an alternative interpretation for the mysterious paleontological observations. In their view, evolution proceeds through periods of stasis followed by periods of rapid evolution (punctuated equilibrium) (Gould and Eldredge, ’93). Accordingly, species are rapidly established in periods of instability and resistant to essential changes thereafter (Gould, ’82). Since gradualists have always had a hard time explaining long-term phenotypic stability, Gould suggested that the answer to stasis could come from internal genetic regulatory mechanisms (Gould, ’82).

As long ago as 1897, the great paleontologist Alpheus Hyatt claimed that evolutionary lineages had periods of rise (epacme), expansion (acme), contraction, and extinction (paracme), comparable to an individual’s passage through the cycles of youth, maturity, old age, and death. He was convinced that decline and extinction are programmed into the history of species (Hyatt, 1897). Gradual telomere shortening to a critical threshold followed by populationwide chromosomal instability, and the sporadic creation of new stable karyotypes in the offspring due to chromosome healing may be the internal (genetic) regulatory mechanisms Gould and Hyatt were looking for. ••• (the complete paper; the quotation is an excerpt from the conclusion; thanks to Jerry Emanuelson and Gayle Pergamit for finding this paper)

			"PJM has received a leaked internal document confirming Spain realizes its green failures, just as Obama pushes the American Power Act based on Spain's program." •••

			"España admite que la economía verde que vendió a Obama es una ruina: El Gobierno español filtra un informe que reconoce las nefastas consecuencias económicas de la apuesta por las energías renovables" ••• [Spain admits that the green economic policy it sold to Obama is ruinous: The Spanish government leaked a report recognizing the harmful consequences of the focus on renewable energy] — La Gaceta, Viernes, 21 de mayo de 2010, published weekly in Ybor City (Tampa, old cigar district), Florida

			About La Gaceta and Ybor City, an interview with the editor, Patrick Mantiega ••• (video link in right column)

			Louis James, Editor of The International Speculator, interviewed Doug Casey, March 5, 2010. Here is a brief excerpt on the debt of the Greek government ••• (full interview) Doug: ... What they should do is default on their debt. And I don't just mean a gentle default, like Argentina's of a few years ago, in which people got some fifteen or twenty cents on the dollar back – I mean a 100% default. And that would be a good thing. L: How so? Doug: First of all, it would punish people stupid enough, or immoral enough, to lend governments money. They don't deserve to get their money back – they've been supporting these governments and their bad habits… L: Some of which involve killing people. And all of them make tax-slaves out of their subjects. Sounds like just desserts to me. Doug: Yes. Why should future citizens be effectively made into serfs in order to pay for the excessive consumption of people today? It's completely unjustified to foist the debts of the father on the sons and daughters. Most of that money has been totally wasted. A huge amount of what's been spent on foreign aid has been siphoned off by officials in the recipient countries. Just as much has gone into the pockets of "consultants" from the West, in payment for giving them rotten advice. Huge amounts have been skimmed in profits of companies who sold them projects that should never have been undertaken. So I say, default on it. Absolutely! To start with, it would bankrupt the IMF and World Bank, which would be a good start. L: And the consequences? Doug: Almost all good. full interview To understand the typical reaction to this imagine a modern physicist proposing to a pre-Newtonian that a satellite be put into orbit. Casey's proposal raises a thousand questions. Our question must be this: Are there a thousand good answers? —leif

			New Threats to Freedom, a collection of important and far seeing essays, edited by Adam Bellow •••

			The authors •••

			"We hear a lot of expressed concern about conserving environment. But no one talks much about producing it. Why not manufacture it competitively and sell it in the free market like other goods and services—and even bundle it with product support? As a matter of fact, exactly that is being done. Designer environment is relatively new on the market, but its manufacturers stand behind it, and we will doubtless be seeing much more of it in the future." —Spencer MacCallum, "The Enterprise of Community: Social and Environmental Implications of Administering Land as Productive Capital". For a copy of this paper, go here •••

			The story of the discovery of nutritional sugars, told by Sam Caster, founder of Mannatech ••• I am currently exploring claims that consumption of a complex of eight nutritional sugars causes the release into the blood of a large number of adult stem cells. Seems improbable, but if one has eyes, one looks; and I'm finding interesting things. —leif

			Gambling with Other People's Money How Perverted Incentives Caused the Financial Crisis Russell Roberts \| Apr 28, 2010

			http://mercatus.org/publication/gambling-other-peoples-money — thanks to Michael Strong for this and for the item in yesterday's news. Ayn Rand suggested complete separation of government from economy. We are beginning to see why. —leif

			The Looting of America’s Coffers ••• By David Leonhardt March 10, 2009

			"Sixteen years ago, two economists published a research paper with a delightfully simple title: “Looting.” "The economists were George Akerlof, who would later win a Nobel Prize, and Paul Romer, the renowned expert on economic growth. In the paper, they argued that several financial crises in the 1980s, like the Texas real estate bust, had been the result of private investors taking advantage of the government. The investors had borrowed huge amounts of money, made big profits when times were good and then left the government holding the bag for their eventual (and predictable) losses." ... continued at •••

			Why the AMA Wants to Muzzle Your Doctor

			http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703961104575226323909364054.html http://docs4patientcare.org/why-docs

			Nuru International ••• — social entrepreneurship, listeners and weavers who integrate people of varied abilities to create new capital At Nuru, we’re excited to share with you the clean water solutions planned for two more areas in the district of Kuria, Kenya. Two wells are planned for Nyangiti village and the town of Isibania. Villagers in Nyangiti have been forced to use polluted natural springs and rivers and are eagerly anticipating a safe, clean water source. Water is very scarce for families in the town of Isibania, and their only water has come from polluted shallow wells. Nuru is ensuring that clean water stays in the community for generations to come, and individuals like the 1500 who joined us for BH2O+ are making our work possible. ••• Nuru International on Vimeo — Nuru International is pioneering the next generation of methods in the fight end extreme poverty. To check out Nuru's vlogs from staff in Kuria, Kenya, visit: vimeo.com/nuruvlogs Explorers Foundation plans to present Nuru International with one of our Cobden-Bright awards given for reducing barriers separating explorers.

			Masdar Venture Capital & Masdar Clean Tech Fund ••• — "Abu Dhabi’s “Masdar Clean Tech Fund” just completed its first closure, and was successful in raising an impressive $265 million. The fund is co-managed by Masdar Venture Capital and DB Climate Change Advisors, and is looking to build a diversified venture capital and private equity portfolio that will include some of the world’s most promising and pioneering clean tech and renewable energy companies. The Fund is made up of commitments from the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, the Consensus Business Group, Credit Suisse and Siemens AG." — quoted from "BusinessIntelligence Middle East" ••• (thanks to Gayle Pergamit, Agua Via, for this) Virgin Earth Challenge ••• — "The Virgin Earth Challenge is a prize of $25m for whoever can demonstrate to the judges' satisfaction a commercially viable design which results in the removal of anthropogenic, atmospheric greenhouse gases so as to contribute materially to the stability of Earth's climate." — This is interesting even if you happen to be skeptical of claims of man-made global warming. We know of one great technology that is competing for this prize. (thanks to Jim McNelly, Renewable Carbon Management for this)

			Another threat to supplements on Capitol Hill — Life Extension Foundation ••• "The threat of a regulatory stranglehold over dietary supplements has intensified. "The urgent issue we face today is language U.S. Representative Henry Waxman inserted into the Wall Street Reform Bill (H.R. 4173). This bill has been passed in the House of Representatives and Waxman hopes the Senate will pass the bill with language that gives FTC bureaucrats arbitrary authority to impose crippling requirements that will drive up the costs of supplements or remove them from the market entirely. "If this legislation is passed, our fear is that many supplements will disappear or that Americans will be unable to afford their supplements and will succumb to a host of deficiency-related diseases." —Life Extension Foundation's defensive action pages Go here to help stop this expansion of destructive power ••• This is very important. The pharmaceutical companies will not stop until they find a way to enlist the government to stamp out competition. Explorers Foundation is pro-market but not always pro existing business/government collaborations. Thanks! —leif

      Apple Worldwide Developers Conference

      June 7-11, San Francisco, Moscone West

			Give Out Loud ••• — This venture is being created by a network marketing company. When well run these companies can be good teachers and developers of ability and understanding of business. When poorly run — well, that's understood. —leif

			OUR VISION We will be the world's largest online giving community of choice. ... Imagine... a world where giving and advocacy are mainstream and a form of self-expression. OUR MISSION To inspire an international community of over 10 Million philanthropic people to be vocal and active about their cause. A virtual community of people raising world consciousness; co-creating solutions for sustainable change. OUR GOALS Develop a platform for individuals and corporate companies in diverse industries where they can colaborate together in support of causes for a common good. Create a platform for charities with different missions to work together for a common purpose. Create a platform for tracking donations and the overall impact of turning donors into fundraisers and the effect it has on bringing about change. "Be the change you want to see in the world." Mahatma Ga

			Nandasiri Wanninayaka "Wanni", founder of Horizon Lanka Academy, 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.

			Explorers Foundation helped fund the construction of a radio tower to give this remote school constant high-speed network access.

			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 State Sovereignty Movement ••• — explorers, who dislike the idea of commanding or of being commanded, must be interested in strategies for limiting and diminishing the power of the State, and sometimes the best way to do this is to counter the power of one authority with that of another, in this case the authority of a national government with that of state governments. —leif

Patrick O'Brian's 5,000+ page novel (in twenty-one volumes) of the friendship, struggles and triumphs of Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin, wonderfully and surprisingly written. -leif — 'In a cover story in The New York Times Book Review published on January 6, 1991 ... Richard Snow wrote that Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin naval adventure novels are "the best historical novels ever written. On every page Mr. O'Brian reminds us with subtle artistry of the most important of all historical lessons: that times change but people don't, that the griefs and follies and victories of the men and women who were here before us are in fact the maps of our own lives.' —from a W. W. Norton & Company obituary of the author, Patrick O'Brian (1914-2000) •••

At Nakheel we are driven by the same vision as first expressed by the late Sheikh Rashid Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, UAE Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, and carried through by Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice President and Ruler of Dubai.

Nakheel shares that vision and that feeling for humanity. We are inspired as people, and inspire others to achieve remarkable things. We are making a huge contribution to the improvement of people's lives and opportunities.

Our developments have become true icons across the world. Reference points for creativity, ingenuity and daring. Now we are taking corporate responsibility to a new level, in the way we look after our people, our customers and our environment. Nakheel is where vision inspires humanity.

As our Chairman, H.E. Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem puts it:

"Nakheel is more than a company - it is a belief. A belief that defies ordinary thinking... when conventional wisdom says no we say yes and make it happen."

			"Family Types and the Persistence of Regional Disparities in Europe", Gilles Duranton, Andrés Rodríguez-Pose and Richard Sandall ••• — "The role of institutions as factors shaping human activity has attracted enormous attention in recent years. It has become increasingly clear that institutions, such as political systems (Acemoglu, Johnson and Robinson 2001 and 2005), the legal rights of the individual (North 1990), or the various forms of ‘social capital’ amongst groups (Putnam, 1993 and 2000; Storper, 1997 and 2005) can have a significant bearing on a society’s ability to generate innovation, wealth, and growth. Yet, despite this growing interest, there is little consensus about either the type of institutions that have the greatest impact, or how institutions and their effects evolve over time. This paper examines the role within Europe of an often overlooked institution, the family, and concludes that its importance in determining socio-economic outcomes may have been greatly underestimated. Furthermore, the use of an historical data set allows us to present hypotheses regarding the persistence and evolution of institutions and their influence on contemporary European social and economic disparities." — The map on page 8 is interesting. We were told of this paper by James Bennett. —leif

			The Newfoundland Rangers (1935-1950) ••• — "During the 15-year existence of the Newfoundland Ranger Force, from 1935 until 1950, 204 men enlisted. The Rangers served in the outport and remote areas of Newfoundland and Labrador, providing the main link between the people and their government."

			Gary Hamel's Management 2.0 ••• (a Wall Street Journal blog) — interesting ideas on management -leif

The Latest from Café Hayek ••• << go here to subscribe

Demsetz on Economic Man
POSTED by DON BOUDREAUX on APRIL 17, 2010

One of my all-time favorite economists is U.C.L.A.’s Harold Demsetz. I’m finally getting around to reading his 2008 collection of essays, From Economic Man to Economic System.

The first essay in this book is entitled “Where Economic Man Dwells.” It’s vintage Demsetz. Here’s a slice from pages 8-9, in which Demsetz discusses “the caricature of economic man created by the model’s critics”:

			"Consider again the persons depicted in Puccini’s opera [La Boheme]. The landlord is cast as a dolt and narrow-minded seeker of [apartment] rent; no matter that he has invested considerable sums in providing living spaces to those in need of them. His artist-tenants, on the other hand, are viewed as kind, fun-loving pleasure seekers. They acquire such pleasures by delaying payments of the rent due the landlord, which is narrow-mindedly seeking to use the funds of someone else, and by succeeding in bilking an elderly, past lover of coquettish Musseta. Now, I ask you, which of these two classes of characters is the more narrow-mindedly self-seeking? They both seek their self-interests. The difference between them is in the methods employed. The landlord supplies living space and offers contractual arrangements to use this space, expecting thereby to receive funds from tenants. The elderly lover buys lunch for others out of past remembrances of romance and present hopes of renewing this romance. The artists, on the other hand, pursue self-interests in duplicitous ways, delaying performance on the rental agreement that provides them with living space and deceiving an elderly seeker of romantic engagement. Critics of economic man generally visualize the landlord-type as the only person who fits the caricature they have fashioned."

			Martin, a character in Patrick O'Brian's novel, The Letter of Marque, quotes from Aristotle's Poetica, "The nature of tragedy's action has always required that the scope should be as full as can be without obscuring the plot, and that the number of events making a probable or necessary sequence that will change a man's state from unhappiness to happiness or from happiness to unhappiness should be the smallest possible", and Martin then observes how remarkable it is "that not only was the change from evil to good eminently possible in tragedy, but that Aristotle put it first." —pg. 179 in the W.W. Norton and Company paperback edition, ISBN 0-393-30905-3.

			The Manhattan Institute's Center for Medical Progress provides an excellent source of freeorder oriented analysis of health care systems •••

			The Center for Medical Progress is dedicated to articulating the importance of medical progress and the connection between free-market institutions and making medical progress both possible and widely available throughout the world. We encourage the development of market-based policy alternatives to sustain medical progress and promote medical innovation. The Center for Medical Progress also publishes www.MedicalProgressToday.com, a web magazine devoted to chronicling the connections among private sector investment, biomedical innovation, market friendly public policies, and medical progress.

			Assisting Entrepreneurial Schools •••

			A Global Network of Marine Protected Areas

			Chris Anderson, Curator, TED, writes on "Ocean hope at Mission Blue: A collaboration experiment comes good" ••• — part of a project to "ignite public support for a global network of Marine Protected Areas, hope spots large enough ... to restore the blue heart of the planet," says ocean explorer, Sylvia Earle ••• — "Sylvia Earle has been at the frontier of deep ocean exploration for four decades. She's led more than 50 undersea expeditions, and she's been an equally tireless advocate for our oceans ..."

			Anarchy Is the Solution to the Evil Idiocy of the State

			In Whiskey & Gunpowder for April 14, 2010 ••• — Louis James interviews Doug Casey, "Anarchy Is the Solution to the Evil Idiocy of the State." An excerpt from an extensive interview: If people aren’t open-minded enough to even consider an alternative view, they’re their own worst problem, not my ideas. In point of fact, anarchism is the gentlest of all political systems. It contemplates no institutionalized coercion. It’s the watercourse way, where everything is allowed to rise or fall naturally to its own level. An anarchic system is necessarily one of free-market capitalism. Any services that are needed and wanted by people — like the police or the courts — would be provided by entrepreneurs, who’d do it for a profit. Look, I’d be happy enough if the state — which is an instrument of pure coercion, even after you tart it up with the trappings of democracy, a constitution, and what-not — were limited to protecting you from coercion and absolutely nothing more. That would imply a police force to protect you from coercion within its bailiwick. A court system to allow you to adjudicate disputes without resorting to force. And some type of military to protect you from outside predators. Unfortunately, the government today does everything but these functions — and when it does deign to protect, it does so very poorly. The police are increasingly ineffective at protecting you; they seem to specialize in enforcing arbitrary laws. The courts? They apply arbitrary laws, and you need to be wealthy to use them — although you’re likely to be impoverished by the time you get out of them. And the military hardly defends the country anymore — it’s all over the world creating enemies, generally, of the most backward foreigners. In a free-market anarchy, the police would likely be subsidiaries of insurance companies, and courts would have to compete with each other based on the speed, fairness, and low cost of their decisions. The military presents a more complex problem, beyond our range here.

			Whiskey & Gunpowder ••• — devoted to surviving the predations of kleptocratic governments: "The independent investor's daily guide to gold, commodities, profits and freedom." efVortex Guardian : defense of open space •••

John Deere Pavilion, Moline, Illinois

			Tariq Ramadan, author of books and articles about Islam, will speak at The Minaret of Freedom Institute's eleventh annual dinner, Tuesday, April 27, 2010, Bethesda, Maryland ••• — his topic: "Is Liberty an Islamic Value?" About Tariq Ramadan •••

			The Minaret of Freedom •••

			A search of the web reveals interesting controversy about Ramadan. See articles by Daniel Pipes. — explorers consider everything. -leif efVortex Ijtihad : independent thinking, scholarly research •••

			Remembering Katyn, by Gabriella Stern: http://randomnotes.newswires-americas.com/?p=7100 Reconciliation: http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/european-journal-the-magazine/id288958128 "Katyn", the movie, New York Times: http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/448946/Katyn/overview 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 •••

			Heritage Foundation Creates a Grassroots Advocacy Organization •••

			"The Heritage Foundation ... stated mission: To build an America where freedom, opportunity, prosperity and civil society flourish. "America stands at the crossroads. We can become just another European-style welfare state or we can switch course and return to our roots of personal liberty, limited government and responsible stewardship. Charting our course will require intellectual firepower and grassroots political heft. With the creation of Heritage Action, we aim to harness the energy of both."

Winnie the Pooh won the internal competition at Apple to be the one free book provided in iBooks on the iPad and iPhone. A. A. Milne, the author, is, somewhere, profoundly astonished. Bear fails to see the significance. Piglet is alarmed. Kanga and Roo are hopping excitedly from icon to icon. Tiger may or may not be trying to make the iPad crash. Owl anticipated that the book would be chosen. Christopher Robin is telling his dad to buy Apple stock, Eeyore is not impressed, no, not at all.

Deutsches Museum, Munich – Masterpieces of Science and Technology

			Thanks to Robert Himber, who recommends this museum very highly.

"Mismanaged carbon is also a great planetary problem because humus depletion results in crop failure and hunger. In the third world and in the technical civilization, dependence on fossil carbon is no solution. We have seen enough of the results of chemical dependency in our culture. But studies show that once organic matter levels drop below two percent, even chemical fertilizers begin to lose their effectiveness. But my point is not "anti-chemicals" as is the cry of some in the organic agriculture movement. I call for the affirmation of the positive, the abundant use of compost and humus, and am convinced that once soil carbon is properly managed, the use of chemicals will gradually be diminished." — Jim McNelly, Renewable Carbon Management, in "Bio-Conversion," 1996 •••

			Michael Strong writes of Jim McNelly's journey from apprentice to master composter. See efGlyph 482 Be the Solution: How Entrepreneurs and Conscious Capitalists Can Solve All the Worlds Problems efVortex Leopold : soil, water, air, flora, fauna, geneosphere •••

			It's OK to Leave the Plantation: The New Underground Railroad, by C. Mason Weaver ••• (link to YouTube video) — no one is going to recruit the author of this book into an army of mindless victims, and when what he is saying catches on the era of easy assembly of such an army will be over. The Mason Weaver Show •••

George Ayittey, author of Africa Unchained, and source of the "Cheetah" image ••• (a TED talk) — Ayittey describes a new generation of Africans and tells us of the difference between Cheetahs and Hippos. The free zones, ports, and cities forseen in yesterdays articles will be refuge and home for many Cheetahs of Africa and Zorros of Mexico. The Hippos will watch in astonishment, and some of them will wish they were young again to pursue a different life.

Spencer MacCallum, efGlyph 392 Somalia - Clan Owned Freeports as Multi-Tenant Income Properties — an essay building on the work of Michael van Notten, a citizen of Somalia •••

"ZONAS LIBRES PARA MEXICO," Ricardo Valenzuela •••

Consider Ricardo's ideas in conjunction with those of Paul Romer, Mark Frazier, James C. Bennett, and Spencer MacCallum: efVortex Openworld : freezones, freeports, free cities •••

			Paul Romer, on poverty, the way out ••• — an article in Prospect Magazine.

In the 8th Century, near what are now Scotland and England, Benedictine monastic scribes created a Bible that today is one of the longest surviving monumental manuscripts in the Western world.

Nearly 1,300 years later, renowned calligrapher Donald Jackson approached the Benedictine monks of Saint John's University and Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota, with his life-long dream: to create the first handwritten, illuminated bible commissioned since the invention of the printing press. The Saint John's Bible uses ancient materials and techniques to create a contemporary masterpiece that brings the Word of God to life for the contemporary world.

The St. John's Bible •••
efGlyph 358 — on the St. John's Bible •••
The Order of St. Benedict •••

			The future of medicine, as seen by medical pioneers using Apple technology ••• — an article from "Patently Apple: Celebrating Apple's Spirit of Invention. They imagine. They explore. They inspire and invent."

			Paul Romer, on poverty, the way out ••• — an article in Prospect Magazine. efVortices: Openworld •••; Cheetah •••; Zorro •••

			Management consulting services offered by Lara Ewing, and by Pat Wagner, have been added to efVortex Eudaimonia •••

The Urban Farm at Stapleton, Denver ••• — "Improving the lives of children living in high-risk, urbanized neighborhoods by helping to create a sense of positive self-regard and self-reliance, a strong work ethic, and hope." (thanks, Corny Snyder)

Feed Denver: Urban Farms and Markets ••• — "We are dedicated to empowering people to feed and sustain themselves through urban farming, creating local access to food, training, and economic opportunity.

"Feed Denver: Urban Farms & Markets builds community-based urban greenhouse farms and markets to improve year-round access to fresh food, create training opportunities and jobs for youth and adults, support food production micro-enterprise all of which impact our local economy while strengthening and securing the foodshed of Metropolitan Denver." (thanks, Corny Snyder)

The U.S. Lighthouse Society ••• — "Although the almost 300-year-old era of manned light stations in this country has come to a close, those remaining symbols of our maritime heritage can, and should be, preserved for the enjoyment of future generations. With this in mind, the United States Lighthouse Society was founded to assist in the restoration and preservation of America's lighthouses and to help qualified local groups in their efforts to return the nation's lighthouses to the public domain."

Sand Island Lighthouse, Alabama

			"The Pharmacratic Inquisition" is a provocative film from Gnostic Media that makes the argument that virtually all of the mythology, symbolism, and story of Jesus and related Christian traditions relate to two basic subjects: astrology and shamanism ••• — explorers fear no questions, but when we ask it does not indicate belief; it indicates interest. -leif

The Rouge was the largest integrated factory in the world when completed in 1928 ••• — The Rouge measures 1.5 miles (2.4 km) wide by 1 mile (1.6 km) long, including 93 buildings with nearly 16 million square feet (1.5 km²) of factory floor space. With its own docks in the dredged Rouge River, 100 miles (160 km) of interior railroad track, its own electricity plant, and ore processing, the titanic Rouge was able to turn raw materials into running vehicles within this single complex, a prime example of vertical-integration production. Over 100,000 workers were employed there in the 1930s. (Wikipedia). The Rouge is a creation almost as impressive as a symphony orchestra, and almost as complex in its origins. The photo of Henry Ford is taken from an extraordinarily perceptive biography of Henry Ford, The Wild Wheel •••, by Garet Garrett.

			Sierra Sciences ••• — cure aging or die trying

			West Bank Story (2006) — A humorous and wise retelling of West Side Story showing the power of commerce to make friends of enemies as the proprietors and worker in an Israeli and a Palestinian fast food shops discover mutual aid ••• (a 21 minute video).

The producers of "West Bank Story" •••

			Peace Through Commerce (FLOW) ••• — Peace Through Commerce® is an integrated outreach, education, and engagement program which illuminates the contribution that commerce, trade, and economic development make toward building sustainable peace.

Emma Goldman comments on the Bolsheviks (1921-22) and describes our own times •••

VSS Enterprise's first 'captive carry' flight!
Virgin Galactic announced today that VSS Enterprise has completed her inaugural captive carry flight from Mojave Air and Spaceport.

Corning Museum of Glass

			efGlyph 060 Black Inventors Before the American Civil War - episode 127 from John Lienhard's Engines of Our Ingenuity

F. A. Hayek, “The Use of Knowledge in Society,” American Economic Review, XXXV, No. 4; September, 1945, pp. 519–30 ••• —A fundamental and influential essay with implications for a social order fit for explorers.

"What is the problem we wish to solve when we try to construct a rational economic order? On certain familiar assumptions the answer is simple enough. If we possess all the relevant information, if we can start out from a given system of preferences, and if we command complete knowledge of available means, the problem which remains is purely one of logic. That is, the answer to the question of what is the best use of the available means is implicit in our assumptions. The conditions which the solution of this optimum problem must satisfy have been fully worked out and can be stated best in mathematical form: put at their briefest, they are that the marginal rates of substitution between any two commodities or factors must be the same in all their different uses.

"This, however, is emphatically not the economic problem which society faces. And the economic calculus which we have developed to solve this logical problem, though an important step toward the solution of the economic problem of society, does not yet provide an answer to it. The reason for this is that the “data” from which the economic calculus starts are never for the whole society “given” to a single mind which could work out the implications and can never be so given."

			A website for Hayek beginners and scholars •••

efGlyph 280 "The Enterprise of Community," by Spencer Heath MacCallum - Social and Environmental Implications of Administering Land as Productive Capital. — Important reading for anyone interested in the creation of free zones.

Ricardo Valenzuela writes in Spanish and English (different topics in each language). His two blogs are listed below. Ricardo is a strong ally of the Explorers Foundation, and we are working on a number of interesting projects.

efGlyph 433 Puerta de Anza — A Door to Prosperity, June 2008: a Mexico-U.S. free port

			REFUGIO LIBARAL: CREEMOS EN MERCADOS LIBRES PARA GENTE LIBRE, EN LA PROSPERIDAD DE LAS NACIONES A TRAVÉS DEL LIBRE COMERCIO, POLÍTICAS MONETARIAS SANAS Y EN IMPUESTOS RACIONALES. EN LA AUTONOMÍA INDIVIDUAL EN CONTRA DE DICTADORES Y DEFORMADAS CONDUCTAS DE MAYORÍAS MOMENTÁNEAS. ••• INTERMEX POWER: WE BELIEVE IN FREE MARKETS AND FREE PEOPLE. WE STANDS FOR FREE TRADE AND SOUND MONEY; AGAINST CONFISCATORY TAXATION AND THE OPPRESSION OF COLLECTIVISTS; AND FOR INDIVIDUAL AUTONOMY AGAINST DICTATORS, BULLIES AND EVEN THE TEMPERS OF MOMENTARY MAJORITIES. •••

			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 •••, pp. 884-887)

			http://www.fee.org/pdf/books/Roofs_or_Ceilings.pdf Referred to in the above article: OPA = Office of Price Administration - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

			Yoga for those living with Parkinson's disease ••• added to efVortex Methuselah •••

			The School of Salamanca, by Marjorie Grice-Hutchinson, 16th Century Spanish Economics •••

			These Spanish theologian-economists expounded views that seem precursors to those of the modern Austrian School. Related: efVortex Mulligan : the market for media of exchange

			Information, Error Correction, Return from Lies (twitter, 12Dec09)

			The job of the Explorers Foundation is to build a world fit for explorers and to fit ourselves to live in such a world. George Benckenstein's work is recommended. -leif ... Thanks to SocratesCouch (twitter). George Benckenstein, Digital Media & Social Marketing Strategist - flat world evangelist •••

			Benckenstein: Return on Influence — The Real ROI •••

			Next time you hear people talking about history repeating itself, I’m hoping you will think about this. None of us remember the era when all commerce was localized — meaning, anyone you did business with lived in your immediate community. There was no such thing as advertising, marketing channels and brands. You did business with people you knew. It was not an “information economy” and nothing was mass produced. It was a Trust Economy. So what am I talking about when I say that history repeats itself? …welcome back to the Trust Economy. —George Benckenstein

			DEAD AID: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa, by Dambisa Moyo •••

			In the past fifty years, more than $1 trillion in development-related aid has been transferred from rich countries to Africa. Has this assistance improved the lives of Africans? No. In fact, across the continent, the recipients of this aid are not better off as a result of it, but worse—much worse. In Dead Aid, Dambisa Moyo describes the state of postwar development policy in Africa today and unflinchingly confronts one of the greatest myths of our time: that billions of dollars in aid sent from wealthy countries to developing African nations has helped to reduce poverty and increase growth.

			Nullis in Verba ("on no one's word"), the motto of The Royal Society

			"The rise of the unskeptical scientist" ••• —JoNova

Once upon a time, a scientist and a skeptic used to be one and the same thing. Actually, it still is. The motto of The Royal Society — the longest lived scientific association in the world, is Nullius in Verba — “On no one’s word” (take no one’s word for it). T he Climate Industry marketing has tried to turn “skeptic” into a dirty word. So in perfect symmetry, if we are Skeptical Scientists, they are obviously:

the Unskeptical Scientists
(or “Unskeptics” for short).

What could be more appropriate?

It covers all bases; is true to its form, and if you think being a skeptic is so unattractive, it’s flattering —right? I can see them queuing up now to print the badges proclaiming themselves as the proud people who are not skeptics. So in the spirit of helpfulness I’ve done them up their very own T-Shirt and Badge —copyright free. ••• —JoNova

			••• "The Future Of Climate Alarmism Is Bogus Statistics" —Dr David Evans and Joanne Nova Examination of the raw temperature data, and adjustments made to it, from Darwin, Australia. The author thinks the adjustments, which produce "evidence" of large global warming, should be explained but are not. The comments on this article contain some good challenges to the author's claims: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/12/08/the-smoking-gun-at-darwin-zero/

			Murray N. Rothbard — Hallmarks of a Free Society, 1981

Hallmarks of a Free Society

To the extent that the following conditions are approached in any given society, the people of that society are free. To the extent that these conditions are absent, the people are oppressed.

    ⁃    No Conscription.
    ⁃    No Taxation.
    ⁃    No Censorship.
    ⁃    No Spying.
    ⁃    No Restraint of Trade.
    ⁃    No Registration of Citizens.
    ⁃    No Travel Restrictions.
    ⁃    No Laws Against Victimless Acts.
    ⁃    A Hard Currency.
    ⁃    Citizens Have the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.

The Libertarian Forum, June-July 1981
http://mises.org/journals/lf/1981/1981_06-07.pdf

			Kickstart - creating new enterprises in Africa •••

			1882, Kansas City: William Volker, starting with small resources, begins his business in wholesale household furnishings. 1946: The Volker Fund becomes the principal sponsor of a meeting at Mt. Pelerin, Switzerland, organized by F. A. Hayek to rebuild the fortunes of Classical Liberalism. •••

			"What Does It Mean To Be Entrepreneurial?" —Gary Hoover, on Hoover's World, Fall 2009 •••

			SpaceX hosts preliminary training for NASA ISS astronauts in preparation for Dragon spacecraft rendezvous and station berthing •••

			Seasteading

			The Seasteading Institute •••; The Mission •••

			The Seasteading Conference, 2009 •••

			Michael Strong on the Cambrian Explosion of Governments ••• David Friedman on seasteading and polycentric law •••

			Barishnikov Arts Center •••

			The Baryshnikov Arts Center (BAC) was established in 2005 to house the core activities of the Baryshnikov Dance Foundation, incorporated in 1979 by Mikhail Baryshnikov. BAC serves as a creative laboratory, meeting place, and performance space for a vibrant community of artists from around the world.

			ef glyph 488: How to make a good business deal. Advice from Paul Kayser, founder of El Paso Natual Gas

			Steve Forbes gives a talk on learning to use the right words: say "capitalism"; don't hide, learn to occupy the high moral ground by advocating principles and policies that allow people to improve their lives. •••

			May 28, 1923, 6 am. West Texas: In the middle of what seemed to be nowhere, Santa Rita No. 1 announces herself.

			"The Pipeliners," by Frank Mangan, 1977: Guynes Press, El Paso, Texas — the story of a business in natural gas.

			"Behind every corporation are, after all, the people who built the organization, not the faceless shell that many Americans imagine corporations to be, but a structure of people with hearts, muscles, minds, and vision." —Frank Mangan Santa Rita No. 1 — University of Texas •••

			Old Europe (5000 to 3500 BC): A Lost European Culture, Pulled From Obscurity •••

			"Before the glory that was Greece and Rome, even before the first cities of Mesopotamia or temples along the Nile, there lived in the Lower Danube Valley and the Balkan foothills people who were ahead of their time in art, technology and long-distance trade." —New York Times, John Noble Wilford, November 30, 2009

			Exhibition at New York University •••

			Dubai - history and current crisis •••

			In 1985, the emir decreed the opening of the Jebel Ali Free Zone, which is now also part of Dubai World. The Free Zone offers easy permitting, good infrastructure and little taxation, right next to a port with easy access to the Middle East and to India. Plenty of Mumbai businessmen spend their weeks in Dubai and come home to India on weekends. Related to efVortex Openworld

			Chad Parish, at the Ludwig von Mises institute, just let us know that the audio chapters of Murray N. Rothbard's Conceived in Liberty, read by Dr. Floy Lilley, are now accessible through new web pages: •••. Conceived in Liberty is a history of the colonies that became the United States, as perceived by a master provider of tools for explorers, for all of us who wish freedom of thought, expression, and action. The perspective offered in these volumes will contribute to the formation of a new and better idea of who we are and what we can become. Great stories with great heroes are the ground of everything, and you will find them here in richness that will astonish. This is not the story of our origins as usually told. Prepare to be surprised.

			Three Twitter sources to sample, and a link to Liberty Fund, a book publisher and seminar organizer.

			SocratesCouch (Twitter): Favorite source of books on history of liberty and foundation ideas related to freedom: Liberty Fund LibertarianMike (Twitter): Excellent selection of quotations bearing on liberty. Mike is a great editor. Openworld (Twitter): Mark Frazier posts many things bearing on the emergence of freeorder.

			Added: Methuselah Foundation

			Added: Hülsmann's article on the logic of government expansion.

			St. John’s College is a community dedicated to liberal education. Such education seeks to free men and women from the tyrannies of unexamined opinions and inherited prejudices. It also endeavors to enable them to make intelligent, free choices concerning the ends and means of both public and private life. At St. John’s, freedom is pursued mainly through thoughtful conversation about great books of the Western tradition. The books that are at the heart of learning at St. John's stand among the original sources of our intellectual tradition. They are timeless and timely; they not only illuminate the persisting questions of human existence, but also have great relevance to contemporary problems. They change our minds, move our hearts, and touch our spirits. Related vortex: Erasmus

			Alfa Demmellash, Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer ••• CNN Heroes, Alfa Demmellash •••

			http://www.kauffman.org/

			In August of this year, I was pleased to publish the news that the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) will be investigating the role of vitamin D in protection against swine flu. The agency began a study last year on the role of vitamin D in severe seasonal influenza, which it is now adapting to the H1N1 swine flu virus. Carole Baggerly, a major proponent of vitamin D, was the primary person responsible for this amazing, ground breaking decision. After donating one year of her time to convince Canadian government officials to do this, she deserves hero status for her efforts. Her tireless work has helped push a whole nation towards the truth. She is an incredible role model and source of inspiration for all of us as to the power of what one person can do if they are committed to a noble cause. Carole Baggerly's Grassroots Health: A Public Health Promotion Organization •••

			I am an academic naturalist and evolutionary biologist with professional interests in systematics, biodiversity, and the history and theory of the historical sciences. I am an advocate for the creation of small, cross-sectional, faculty-led residential colleges and house systems within larger universities as a means to improve higher education. I established and maintain “The Collegiate Way: Residential Colleges and the Renewal of University Life” (collegiateway.org), the leading international resource on the residential college movement. I have sixteen years’ experience in residential college life and administration at Harvard University, the University of North Carolina, and Middlebury College, and am a frequent speaker and consultant to public and private institutions in the United States and abroad that are exploring the collegiate model. Your inquiry is welcome. To see what residential colleges can do for your institution please explore the Collegiate Way website, and to keep up with recent developments in the residential college movement pay a visit to the Collegiate Way news blog.

			The link above is: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/11/24/Superstar-CBS-Reporter-Blows-the-Lid-Off-the-Swine-Flu-Media-Hype-and-Hysteria.aspx This kind of journalism is at the foundation of a free society. When you listen to, or read this, please remember that the President of the United States declared a National Emergency based on things that were not true. Sharyl, thank you. You are a real journalist, and I hope you will inspire others to pick up the old torch. And thank you Dr. Joseph Mercola for your interview with Attkisson and for posting it for our illumination. —Leif

Find out what's happening here at Heritage Farm. Our new blog gives you updates on what's being harvested, planted and processed. It's also a great place to find practical tips for gardening and saving seed for the home gardener! Since 1975, Seed Savers Exchange members have passed on approximately one million samples of rare garden seeds to other gardeners. We are a non-profit organization of gardeners dedicated to saving and sharing heirloom seeds.

Visit our Blog

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

			Steve is Chief Deputy Treasurer for Boulder County, Colorado. He says, "SLIM stands for Society of Lean Implementation Malcontents. Our mission in life: the SLIM Wait Loss Program." — Lean and open government: "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." The contents of vortex Slim are intricately intertwined with those of vortex Eudaimonia.

			Chris Peterson, of the Foresight Institute, on November 21, wrote (a portion of her email): Some of us have become resigned to a new age of total surveillance, seeing it as inevitable. Others feel that privacy is an important tool in the protection of civil liberties, and are willing to sacrifice other benefits to maintain that privacy. We can have the benefits without the downsides, IF we're smart about it But as the graphic on the Open Source Sensing home page suggests, we may not need to give up either security or privacy/civil liberties. Consider the lesson of electronic voting: we have learned that the software and data handling need to be open, but the raw data -- who voted for whom -- need not be public, as long as we understand and trust the voting process itself. It need not be public, and it should not be public. It's the process, not the raw data, which should be open. This same principle can apply to sensing when privacy is impacted: let's make the process open, not the raw data. All we need is the desired answer ("Is bioweapon X here?"), not total knowledge of all events ("John just attended an unapproved political meeting" or "Susie's been smoking something naughty"). We need clever systems design: how to get it?

Boris Pinsker to Tom Palmer, over coffee in Moscow, while discussing how to bring liberal institutions to Russia:

It is easy to turn an aquarium into fish soup.
But to turn fish soup into an aquarium is a more challenging task.

—Palmer's Realizing Freedom

Realizing Freedom: Libertarian History, Theory, and Practice, Cato Institute 2009 •••
Reason TV, Interview with Tom Palmer •••
Atlas Economic Research Foundation •••
Atlas Global Initiative for Free Trade, Peace, and Prosperity •••

			Within each tribe forges will discover and link with explorers, who are the small bits of fire that can unite all tribes in a concert of civilizations. Open Network points of presence (intakes, discovery points, outposts on a multi-dimensional frontier) scattered richly throughout the world and in every tribe will be our primary tool of discovery. This simple devotion to individual sovereign spirit must not be compromised. The fate of civilization depends on it.

			Through the tribes runs a sparse fabric of threads forming an emerging image of the concert of civilizations that will be home for explorers of every race and conviction.

			http://gatesofvienna.blogspot.com/2009/02/pick-tribe-any-tribe.html

			Mark Frazier, of Openworld, in a discussion hosted on the Economist Magazine website, suggests that Singapore can seed creation of success-sharing free zones:

			Why doesn't Singapore become the lead champion/beneficiary of Paul Romer's Charter Cities movement? It could help seed a new generation of Singapores, Songdos, and Hong Kongs by offering its know-how in transparent administration/liberalized visas to awaken assets in many poor countries. A policy of partnering to develop free zones on "greenfield" sites might help ease immigration pressures and tensions in Singapore itself. These partnerships could also lead to massive land value gains that could generate new income for Singapore (and its residents?) as well as for health and education initiatives in the host countries. Although demagogues in sponsoring nations might have initial concerns about Singapore's role in these these success-sharing developments, the fears could be eased by developing the free cities on a "build-operate-transfer" (BOT) basis that progressively conveys equity in the developments to social ventures in the respective sponsoring countries. More information on this approach is outlined at http://www.openworld.com. For more on the idea of free zones and free cities see efVortex Openworld, in which Mark Frazier was one of the earliest participants. Also, take a look at the entry below for November 12th.

			Recently added: The Networking Game, by Pat Wagner & Leif Smith, 1980, presented on SlideShare.

			efVortex Kira Argounova

			Video on Salvare, Hospital at sea, your healthcare alternative.

			efVortex Methusela •••

			We are especially interested in Charlemagne, Muhammad, and the Arab Roots of Capitalism, by Gene W. Heck.

			Gateway to Entrepreneurial Tomorrows, Inc. •••

			Getting to Maybe by Frances Westley, Brenda Zimmerman, and Michael Quinn Patton, is a confluence of Blink, The Tipping Point, and The Fifth Discipline. It is inspiring, thoughtful, and instructive. Using examples of life-changing movements initiated by individuals with a vision (like Grameen Bank's Mohammed Yunus, Live Aid's Bob Geldof, and Candy Lightner of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, the book lays out its theory of how social innovation spreads. It reminded me of my work with the NLP Disney Dream Model — Start with a passion and Vision; Design a plan (get others involved); Run into Obstacles; Stand back and be still — ask questions and explore the landscape; Revise or Exit the dream, according to the new information (be open to the outcome); and continue the cycle. For anyone who needs inspiration and hope or guidance on how to move forward with ideas — this is a gem! Jan Prince, NLP Coach http://www.janprince.com & http://toolsfortransforming.com

			I object to the 1,900-page House healthcare bill precisely because it's 1,900 pages long. That's too much complexity. I object because the word "regulation" appears in this bill 181 times, "tax" is there 214 times, and "fees" is used 103 times. I hate these words and I won't feel too good about you either if you inflict them on me. I object because you're not going to read this bill before you vote on it, or sit with the federal code to look up and read all the parts of existing law that the bill will change. I object because the bill will require federal bureaucrats to write hundreds, or even thousands of pages of regulations to fill in the details, and because I'll have to pay for lawyers and accountants, either directly or indirectly, to interpret and comply with this mess. I object because many of my healthcare choices will be dictated by a "Health Choices Commissioner" and an "Inspector General for the Health Choices Administration." I won't be able to elect or fire either of these people, and I do not want them in my life. I object because this bill costs too much, and because you're hiding the true cost in a variety of fraudulent ways. I object because this bill contains numerous Trojan Horses that will eventually kill free market healthcare in favor of complete government control. I object because it is increasingly clear to me that my supposed representatives really represent their own party leadership first, special interest lobbyists second, and me not at all. Please stop to consider that this bill will be imposed on me at the point of a policeman's gun. If I do not want to pay for it, or comply with it, armed men will eventually knock on my door to force me to submit. Do not do this too me! If you pass this bill, or anything like it, I will never forgive you. Jim Babka, President DownsizeDC.org, Inc.

			Jim Babka thanks David Harsanyi, Denver Post, for writing the article that inspired his letter.

			http://reason.com/archives/2009/10/30/masterfleece-theater/ — Harsanyi's article

			http://www.dambisamoyo.com/ http://explorersfoundation.org/glyphery/471.html — Africans Want to Be Entrepreneurs — Dambisa Moyo, author of Dead Aid — interviewed June 10, 2009

			http://www.freemarketfoundation.com

			Explorers Foundation supports every individual's freedom to choose, at all times, and in all matters. Thoughtful challenge to the universal applicability of this position is possible, and is of interest to us.

			Dr. Russell Blaylock: Swine Flu — One of the Most Massive Cover-ups in American History. This is the best summary I've found. -leif

			http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/11/03/What-We-Have-Learned-About-the-Great-Swine-Flu-Pandemic.aspx

			Katie Couric's account of her unsuccessful request to the CDC for information pertinent to H1N1.

			http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/10/27/couricandco/entry5427136.shtml

			Dr. Joe Mercola — interview with Barbara Loe Fisher

			Obama Declares Swine Flu Emergency ••• Posted by: Dr. Mercola October 27 2009

			National Vaccine Information Center, Vaccine Safety Conference: ""Show Us the Science & Give Us a Choice."

			http://www.nvic.org/Events/Vaccine-Conference-2009/overview.aspx

			Swine Flu Cases Overestimated? - CBS News — October 21, 2009 Links on mandatory vaccination have been provided by Pierre de Rochemont, Austin, Texas •••

			"In the past, many believed you either went into 'public service' to do good, or you 'went into business' to make money. Few realized that the long-term success of business depends on serving people, not making money. Few realized that perhaps the best way to serve the public was through free enterprise. Whole Foods Market founder John Mackey, visionary thinker Michael Strong, micro lender Muhammad Yunus, and a few others understand these truths. Be the Solution is the best single book to read to understand the emerging ways in which entrepreneurs can change the world." —Gary Hoover, serial entrepreneur, founder of Hoover's Business Information Service, Hooversworld.com •••