Hey, Einstein... who's your congressman ?

In recent years, there has been a trend for the training of scientists to enter into public service leadership positions. Perhaps the most recent and most notable is US DOE Secretary Steven Chu. Secretary Chu is considered a Washington-outsider with an objective analytic outlook on America's energy issues. Really, you think so ? Even as a scientist, Dr. Chu had his own scientific predilections at Stanford and SLAC; why would he not have a political oppinion. So, the thinking in the science community has been to get others like Dr. Chu into public service leadership posts. Dr. Chu was appointed by the President, but it's alot harder to win an election. Another physicist, Bill Foster ( from Fermilab ) was formerly a Democratic congressman from Illinois and served one term then lost in his incumbent race to a Republican.

Some advocates for scientists in Congress say that scientists should enter the public service in order to vote on legislation and $100 million budgets that effect science and education. But transforming a professional scientist to become a professional politician would require some special training beyond advocacy. Why not just gather scientists to advocate for their causes and put their money where their mouths are and campaign for actual politicians who will be on their side. We need more scientists not scientists becoming politicians. Bigger science and smaller government would be better.

For more reading, see the NY Times:  

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/09/science/09emily.html?_r=2&ref=science

"My looks are not great" - Yoshihiko Noda, new PM of Japan...

“My looks are not great... If elected, I wouldn’t have a great support rate.” This was the campaign slogan of the new prime minister of Japan - Yoshihiko Noda. Certainly if this were a general election by the Japanese public, he would not be a winner. But this was a political stalemate produced by the Diet of Japan. Good luck. Noda at best will keep the peace and the pace of recovery going for at least a year. It seems like most governments around the world, the Japanese Diet is also "broken". The Japanese people are at all time high of discontent towards their legislators, but still there is not enough pressure against the representatives to do anything radical for change or growth. The governing model is broken indeed and some leadership must emerge. Perhaps it is time for a true people's party to emerge spurred by the disaster and recovery form the tsunami. This is an opportunity for the US to fully engage Japan, it best peace-loving ally in the world, to create whole new industries, cities, jobs, and innovate traditional businesses. After the tsunami, Japan does not look so great, but with support - the recovery is full speed ahead. 

Here's some expert Q&A from Prof. Michael Green at CSIS:  

http://csis.org/publication/japans-new-prime-minister

The Burroughs Welcome Fund - supporter of the biomedical sciences

The Burroughs Wellcome Fund (BWF) is a private, independent biomedical research foundation based in Research Triangle Park (RTP), North Carolina.RTP is one of the most prominent high-tech research and development centers in the United States. It was created in 1959 by state and local governments, nearby universities, and local business interests. RTP has attracted many foreign universities to also come and join the North Carolina region which has boosted the local economy.

The Burroughs Wellcome Fund is dedicated to advancing the medical sciences by supporting research and other scientific and educational activities.This sort of general vision is common among organizations promoting science and the careers of young researchers. However, more specifically BWF looks to support young investigators who are working in, or entering, fields in the biomedical sciences that are poised for significant advance but currently " undervalued and underfunded". The development of scientists early in their careers is crucial to independent and curiosity-driven discoveries.

The Burroughs Welcome Fund http://www.bwfund.org/

NYT - "All Together Now" By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

Published: August 27, 2011

HOLD onto your hats and your wallets. Since the end of the cold war, the global system has been held together to a large degree by four critical ruling bargains. Today all four are coming unstuck at once and will need to be rebuilt. Whether and how that rebuilding happens — beginning in the U.S. — will determine a lot about what’s in your wallet and whether your hat flies off.

Now let me say that in English: the European Union is cracking up. The Arab world is cracking up. China’s growth model is under pressure and America’s credit-driven capitalist model has suffered a warning heart attack and needs a total rethink. Recasting any one of these alone would be huge. Doing all four at once — when the world has never been more interconnected — is mind-boggling. We are again “present at the creation” — but of what?
 Let’s start with the Middle East, the world’s oil tap. Libyans just joined Tunisians, Egyptians and Yemenis in ousting their dictator, while Syrians and Iranians hope to soon follow suit. In time, virtually every Middle East autocrat will be deposed or forced to share power. The old model can’t hold. That model was based on kings and military dictators capturing the oil revenue, ensconcing themselves in power — protected by well-financed armies and security services — and buying off key segments of their populations. That lid has been blown off by an Arab youth bulge that today can see just how everyone else is living and is no longer ready to accept being behind, undereducated, unemployed, humiliated and powerless. But while this old Middle East system — based on an iron fist and a fistful of petro-dollars holding together multiethnic/multireligious societies — has broken down, it will take time for these societies to write their own social contracts for how to live together without an iron fist from above. Hope for the best, prepare for anything.

Bloomberg - Labor Expert Is Right Choice to Lead Obama’s Economic Team: View

Aug. 28, 2011

With unemployment stuck above 9 percent, the U.S. needs all the job-creation expertise it can get. For that reason, President Barack Obama’s choice of Alan Krueger, an eminent labor economist, to head the Council of Economic Advisers is an inspired one.
Krueger, a Princeton University professor, has built his academic career on the study of labor markets, wage structures and long-term unemployment. He also has strong policy-making credentials. During the first two years of the Obama administration, he served as chief economist at the Treasury Department, where he helped devise the first stimulus package, the cash-for-clunkers effort and the Build America Bond program.
Krueger has shown that he understands the need for a strong government role as an anti-recessionary force, especially after a contraction brought on by a severe financial crisis. He also has made clear that there can be no meaningful job recovery if business confidence isn’t restored.

WaPo - Suspected North Korean cyberattack on a bank raises fears for S. Korea, allies

By Chico Harlan and Ellen Nakashima, Published: August 29

SEOUL — After nearly half of the servers for a South Korean bank crashed one day in April, investigators here found evidence indicating that they were dealing with a new kind of attack from an old rival: North Korea.
South Korean officials said that 30 million customers of the Nonghyup agricultural bank were unable to use ATMs or online services for several days and that key data were destroyed, making it the most serious of a series of incidents in recent months. But even more troubling was the prospect that a belligerent neighbor had acquired the tools to disrupt one of the world’s most heavily wired nations — and that even more damaging attacks could be in store.

Cspan - cyber security

James Lewis, Catherine Litronte, and Alan Paller talked about U.S. ability to thwart and prevent attacks on private and public computer systems.

Didn't Sell in May? You Still Might Want to Get Out Now

On Wednesday August 17, 2011, 3:52 pm EDT

If you chose not to take the advice to sell in May and go away, you missed the hands-down trade of the year. But there's still time to act, because more selling likely awaits.
A CNBC.com report on April 19 advised that the popular market maxim would be in full gear for a market that was "setting up nicely" for a big sell that soon commenced after the May 2 highs.
Back then, Walter Zimmerman, chief market strategist at United-ICAP, cited a "perfect storm" of factors coming together, an "embarrassment of riches for potential things to go wrong" that would trigger a major selloff that would last until at least November.
Zimmerman got his storm: Accelerated fears of eurozone debt default contagion, terrible news on unemployment and housing, and a vicious political battle over raising the national debt ceiling, all of which conspired to send the averages nearly into bear market territory.
On Wednesday, Zimmerman stuck to his thus-far prescient forecast and said he expects more damage to come.
"The economic indicators are unexpectedly bearish from all quarters," he said. "So the reality is starting to set in that this is more than just a little soft patch. When and if the market takes out the lows from earlier this month it will really start to sink."

Michael D. Tanner on deficit reduction on C-SPAN's Washington Journal

Michael Tanner talked about the various ways that the newly created joint congressional Select Committee on Deficit Reduction could go about reducing the deficit, and he responded to telephone calls and electronic communications. Mr. Tanner has been a proponent of making changes to Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.

The elect Committee on Deficit Reduction was created on August 2, 2011, as part of the Budget Control Act of 2011 and comprises six Democrats and six Republicans. Mr. Tanner has been a proponent of making changes to Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.

C-SPAN Radio's Nancy Calo read news headlines at the end of the program.

WSJ - Which Way to Retirement?

Monday, August 15, 2011

provided by

If you are on the verge of retirement, the past few weeks must have seemed like a horror movie. Just when you thought you had emerged from the wreckage of 2008 with your savings intact, another market storm erupted.
Lynette Robinson, a 65-year-old executive director of a consortium of colleges, was planning on retiring this November —until her investments took a hit this past week.
"The really sad thing is that I am back where I was after the 2008 crash," says Ms. Robinson, who lives in Boston. Now she is considering other alternatives, including working longer or taking on work as a consultant.
"It's scary because you are going along one path and then suddenly you have to shift your plans," she says.
The worst thing you can do now is panic. Hitting the "sell" button on your stock portfolio, after the Dow Jones Industrial Average has fallen 11.1% in three weeks' time, could hurt you more than anything else. Not only would you be locking in losses prematurely to preserve capital you might not need for years, but you also would miss out on any future rally.
"If what this crisis has done is focus your attention on the fact that stocks are risky, make a note to act on that knowledge later," says Alicia Munnell, director of the Boston College Center for Retirement Research. "But don't sell now."
That doesn't mean you should sit tight, however. If you are consumed by worries, there are other steps you can take right away, from ramping up on "alternative" investments and annuities with guaranteed payments to restocking your cash accounts and rethinking your budget.
Here's what to do now.

Low T-bill Yields Suggest US Recession Likely: Strategist

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Low-Tbill-Yields-Suggest-US-cnbc-856125359.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=8&asset=&ccode=

On Tuesday August 16, 2011, 2:36 pm EDT

With the 10-year Treasury yield reaching lows not seen since the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008, some experts argue that a volatile economic climate with a recession is now likely.
"It is much more structurally worse now than in 2008. Back then it was about liquidity. Today we don't have much in the way of ammunition left at the Fed. We now have a better than 50 percent chance of the US economy entering a recession ," said JJ Burns, chairman at JJ Burns.
"Looking back, quantitative easing one worked and we needed it. I don't think QE2 worked and now we're up to quantitative easing three and it is not going to work. There are few bullets left," Burns told CNBC.
US Treasurys rebuffed the downgrade of US debt by credit rating agency Standard & Poor's from triple-A to AA+ earlier this month as yields continued to fall and reached 2.03 within the last week before recovering to hover around 2.28 percent Tuesday. It is those lows, the result of a flight to safety, that have prompted speculation of a worsening economic climate.
"Some out there think we have never been out of a recession, I don't think the US can avoid it. Businesses are beginning to hunker down and are not hiring and it's a case of trying to shore up what they have just to keep their businesses running," Burns said. "Unemployment is likely to persist and we are in a frugal economy right now."

Chronicel for HE - Visa Applications Soar for Indian Students Who Want to Study in U.S.

http://chronicle.com/article/Visa-Applications-Soar-for/128466/

EducationUSA at USIEF

Students learn about opportunities to study in the U.S. at an information session at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi.

Enlarge Image

By Karin Fischer

Visa applications from Indian students seeking degrees in the United States are up sharply, and international-education experts say a confluence of factors, from a booming economy to stricter immigration restrictions in other top destination countries, are fueling the growth.
Applications from prospective Indian students soared 20 percent in the 2011 fiscal year, compared with the previous year, according to figures from the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi. The State Department issued more than 24,500 visas to Indian students in the 2010 fiscal year.
It's too soon to know just how many of those students will show up on American campuses for the fall semester, as application numbers tend to exceed actual enrollments. Some students will choose to stay at home or go elsewhere; others won't meet consular approval.
But the visa-application figures suggest there is a resurgence of interest from India, the second-largest source of foreign students in the United States, after a couple of years in which enrollments stagnated or, at the graduate level, declined.
Indeed, the visa totals don't take into account applications processed in July and August, two of the busiest months for college-student submissions.
"The U.S. is becoming more attractive," said Rahul Choudaha, director of development and innovation at World Education Services, a nonprofit organization that specializes in foreign credentials and trends. Mr. Choudaha's group has seen a 24-percent increase in requests from Indian students during the first half of 2011 to have their credentials reviewed and verified.
Right now, American colleges are as popular in India, Mr. Choudaha said, "as a Harry Potter movie."
One of the biggest factors behind the growth, Mr. Choudaha and recruiters on the ground agree, is the tightening of immigration regulations in Australia and Britain, which could make it more difficult for international students to obtain visas and to remain in those countries after graduation to work. A series of high-profile assaults on Indian students in Australia also dampened interest in study there, and student-visa applications from India plummeted nearly 63 percent this past year, according to a new Australian government report.
The United States, Australia, and Britain are the three most popular destinations for Indian students going abroad.
"The UK has changed its rules, and students don't want to go there," said Gouri Shankar, the marketing head for Global Educational Consultancy, a Bangalore-based independent recruitment agency. As for Australia, after the 2009 attacks, "students are still scared of going," Mr. Shankar said.