Atomic Level Imagery

I am reposting this piece just released by the UC Berkeley media outreach.

Atomic level images of a chemical reaction. A breathtaking achievement.  I can imagine the satisfaction the researchers behind this felt when they saw these images.  They can see the atoms, before and after they reacted. Amazing.  It would be like standing on the moon,  looking at the earth and being able to see something the size of a pinhead. I see a Nobel Prize for lead researcher Felix Fischer and his team. 

Scientists capture first images of molecules before and after reaction

By Robert Sanders, Media Relations | May 30, 2013

 

BERKELEY — 

 

Every chemist’s dream – to snap an atomic-scale picture of a chemical before and after it reacts – has now come true, thanks to a new technique developed by chemists and physicists at the University of California, Berkeley.

 

Using a state-of-the-art atomic force microscope, the scientists have taken the first atom-by-atom pictures, including images of the chemical bonds between atoms, clearly depicting how a molecule’s structure changed during a reaction. Until now, scientists have only been able to infer this type of information from spectroscopic analysis.

 

Non-contact atomic force microscope (nc-AFM) images (center) of a molecule before and after a reaction improve immensely over images (top) from a scanning tunneling microscope and look just like the classic molecular structure diagrams (bottom).

 

 

“Even though I use these molecules on a day to day basis, actually being able to see these pictures blew me away. Wow!” said lead researcher Felix Fischer, UC Berkeley assistant professor of chemistry. “This was what my teachers used to say that you would never be able to actually see, and now we have it here.”

 

The ability to image molecular reactions in this way will help not only chemistry students as they study chemical structures and reactions, but will also show chemists for the first time the products of their reactions and help them fine-tune the reactions to get the products they want. Fischer, along with collaborator Michael Crommie, a UC Berkeley professor of physics, captured these images with the goal of building new graphene nanostructures, a hot area of research today for materials scientists because of their potential application in next-generation computers.

 

“However, the implications go far beyond just graphene,” Fischer said. “This technique will find application in the study of heterogeneous catalysis, for example,” which is used widely in the oil and chemical industries. Heterogeneous catalysis involves the use of metal catalysts like platinum to speed reactions, as in the catalytic converter of a car.

 

“To understand the chemistry that is actually happening on a catalytic surface, we need a tool that is very selective and tells us which bonds have actually formed and which ones have been broken,” he added. “This technique is unique out there right now for the accuracy with which it gives you structural information. I think it’s groundbreaking.”

 

“The atomic force microscope gives us new information about the chemical bond, which is incredibly useful for understanding how different molecular structures connect up and how you can convert from one shape into another shape,” said Crommie. “This should help us to create new engineered nanostructures, such as bonded networks of atoms that have a particular shape and structure for use in electronic devices. This points the way forward.”

 

Fischer and Crommie, along with other colleagues at UC Berkeley, in Spain and at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), published their findings online May 30 in the journal Science Express.

 

From shadow to snapshot
Traditionally, Fischer and other chemists conduct detailed analyses to determine the products of a chemical reaction, and even then, the actual three-dimensional arrangement of atoms in these products can be ambiguous.

 

“In chemistry you throw stuff into a flask and something else comes out, but you typically only get very indirect information about what you have,” Fischer said. “You have to deduce that by taking nuclear magnetic resonance, infrared or ultraviolet spectra. It is more like a puzzle, putting all the information together and then nailing down what the structure likely is. But it is just a shadow. Here we actually have a technique at hand where we can look at it and say this is exactly the molecule. It’s like taking a snapshot of it.”

 

An atomic force microscope probes a molecule adsorbed onto a surface, using a carbon monoxide molecule at the tip for sensitivity.

 

Fischer is developing new techniques for making graphene nanostructures that display unusual quantum properties that could make them useful in nano-scale electronic devices. The carbon atoms are in a hexagonal arrangement like chicken wire. Rather than cutting up a sheet of pure carbon – graphene – he hopes to place a bunch of smaller molecules onto a surface and induce them to zip together into desired architectures. The problem, he said, is how to determine what has actually been made.

 

That’s when he approached Crommie, who uses atomic force microscopes to probe the surfaces of materials with atomic resolution and even move atoms around individually on a surface. Working together, they devised a way to chill the reaction surface and molecules to the temperature of liquid helium – about 4 Kelvin, or 270 degrees Celsius below zero – which stops the molecules from jiggling around. They then used a scanning tunneling microscope to locate all the molecules on the surface, and zeroed in on several to probe more finely with the atomic force microscope. To enhance the spatial resolution of their microscope they put a single carbon monoxide molecule on the tip, a technique called non-contact AFM first used by Gerhard Meyer and collaborators at IBM Zurich to image molecules several years ago.

 

After imaging the molecule – a “cyclic” structure with several hexagonal rings of carbon that Fischer created especially for this experiment – Fischer, Crommie and their colleagues heated the surface until the molecule reacted, and then again chilled the surface to 4 Kelvin and imaged the reaction products.

 

“By doing this on a surface, you limit the reactivity but you have the advantage that you can actually look at a single molecule, give that molecule a name or number, and later look at what it turns into in the products,” he said.

 

“Ultimately, we are trying to develop new surface chemistry that allows us to build higher ordered architectures on surfaces, and these might lead into applications such as building electronic devices, data storage devices or logic gates out of carbon materials.”

 

____________

 

The research is coauthored by Dimas G. de Oteyza, Yen-Chia Chen, Sebastian Wickenburg, Alexander Riss, Zahra Pedramrazi and Hsin-Zon Tsai of UC Berkeley’s Department of Physics; Patrick Gorman and Grisha Etkin of the Department of Chemistry; and Duncan J. Mowbray and Angel Rubio from research centers in San Sebastián, Spain. Crommie, Fischer, Chen and Wickenburg also have appointments at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

 

The work is sponsored by the Office of Naval Research, the Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation.

 

 

 

 

Blue Whale Encounter

Years ago, I was out with friends on a boat a few miles off the coast of Santa Barbara, California.  We were there to see blue whales.  We were not disappointed. 

Blue whales are the biggest animals that have ever lived; bigger even than the largest dinosaur.  They grow to nearly 100 feet in length and 190 tons, that's tons, in weight.  They are baleen whales, which means they feed on tiny crustaceans called krill.  Less than an inch long, the krill that morning were countless in number, thick like a blanket at least a foot deep just below the water's surface.  The whales swam with their mouths agate, taking in huge amounts of krill, then straining out the seawater with the baleen that they had instead of teeth.  We couldn't see much of the whales, just their backs as they skimmed the water's surface. What we could see, just that small portion of their backs, was probably twelve feet or more across, giving some indication of how large these animals were.

Blue Whale

Blue whales were hunted relentlessly by whalers in the late 19th through the mid 20th centuries. Now, they are protected.  Though their numbers are a fraction of what they were before humans began to exploit them,  they do seem to have rebounded to levels that assure their survival.

I was in awe of the blue whales that I saw in the ocean near Santa Barbara that day.  I just wished then that I could have seen more of them than a small portion of their backs.  Recently, I stumbled across a video on You Tube that features underwater video of a blue whale. It's wonderful.  I don't know how big this particular whale is. I like to think it's really big, close to 100 feet in length.  We are the first generation to be able to see these creatures as they are. I hope that means we will always protect them.


Here is a link to an wonderful video with underwater footage of a blue whale... http://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_897791&feature=iv&src_vid=9pjI2XkmoL0&v=WAwzjnhTsjI

Robert Bateman

I am a fan of noble creativity of all types.  Painting images is an art form that reveals itself in countless ways.  I have a particular affection for wildlife art that showcases living creatures in ways that celebrate their beauty and grace in their natural habitat.

For more than thirty years, I have been a fan of the brilliant, Canadian wildlife artist, Robert Bateman.  

Robert Bateman

Whether capturing the majesty of a lounging snow leopard...

Or a goldfinch in a meadow...

 

 or Elephants looming over their landscape...

or wolves looking for a meal in the wilderness...

Robert Bateman's art celebrates the wild creatures he paints with elegant reflections that are worthy of the natural world he reveres.  Bateman's work is a gift that will be ever more appreciated as time goes on.  If you aren't familiar with his work,  go to the links below and become a fan yourself.


Here is a link to Robert Bateman's website...  http://www.robertbateman.ca/index.html


Here is a link to a video about Robert Bateman...  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dE2ZMF1C7ZA
  

Here is a link to a video about the new Bateman Art Centre in Victoria, British Columbia  --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PM9QD5Gjtkk&feature=player_embedded#!

Why I Admire Women Pilots

For most of the time since the Wright Brothers first flew at Kittyhawk in 1903,  aviation was considered a man's business.  Probably because in the early years it was risky, and well outside the traditional roles for women.  Even so, a few women found ways to get past the gatekeepers, right from the beginning

1908 - Therese Peltier  (USA)  -  first woman to pilot an aircraft
1910 - Raymonde De Laroche (France) - First woman to have a pilot's license
1921 - Bessie Coleman - First African American (male or female) to have a pilot's license

Amelia Earhart, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Pancho Barnes,  and Jackie Cochran  achieved notable milestones in the early decades of aviation.  They were not the only ones, but women in the cockpit were rare until world war two.   During that war, with male pilots in short supply, the Women's Army Service Pilots were organized.  Women were trained to pilot every type of aircraft, including fighters and bombers, and were tasked with flying them to wherever they were needed for the war effort.

WW II WASPs with B-25 bomber

After the war, the WASPs were disbanded and women were denied the access they had so admirably earned.  They were given no chance to fly for the military and almost no opportunity to fly commercially for the airlines.

I have a special place in my heart for lady pilots.  The best news is they are no longer a rare commodity.  These days, there are women flying every type of aircraft. Most airlines around the world now have female pilots. The senior ones are captains assigned to many different aircraft types, including jumbo jets. 

More than thirty years ago, when I was living in Los Angeles, I developed a wonderful friendship with a young woman named Cindy Rucker.

Cindy Rucker

Cindy was remarkable in so many ways.  She was an accomplished musician and graphic artist,  but the thing she was most passionate about; the thing she loved above all else was aviation. I first met Cindy when I was flying out of Pioneer Aviation at Van Nuys Airport in Southern California's San Fernando Valley.  It was early in Cindy's career as a Boeing 727 pilot with Western Airlines.




Western Airlines Boeing 727

Cindy was female hire number six for Western. The road to airline employment has very difficult for her.  She spent every dollar she had on building flying time. Later, she took the 727 flight engineer ground school, and eventually became an instructor, teaching the course to male pilots who were getting hired ahead of her.  It was the seventies and the feminist movement was picking up steam.  Cindy was finally hired by Western as a 727 flight engineer in 1977.   Once she began flying a regular schedule, things went well for her.  She purchased a Stolp Acroduster, a single place biplane designed for stunt flying.  On April 26th, 1981, Cindy was flying the Acroduster at an airshow in El Mirage, California.  Tragically, she was doing a maneuver close to the ground and something went wrong.   I knew she was flying the show that weekend, but was working and out of touch when the media reports came through. I didn't find out about Cindy's death until three weeks later.  It was devastating, and made worse because I had no chance to say goodbye. I had to mourn her loss privately.

A newsletter published by Stolp, the manufacturer of her Acroduster biplane, included the following quote about flying aerobatics from an interview with Cindy. She said, "Fear doesn't enter into it for any of us...who wants to die?  But I'll admit, for me, facing death is the way to know you're truly alive."  Cindy Rucker was a wonderful friend, and an exceptional human being.  Her determination, and courage were remarkable.

A few years later, as my own career as a media writer/producer was blossoming, I spent considerable time developing a TV reality series called Women with Wings.  I found an Air Force C-5 Galaxy jumbo transport pilot, an Air Force F-15 Strike Eagle pilot, a Norwegian Air Force helicopter pilot, an Indian Airlines first officer,  a Northwest Airlines 747 jumbo Captain, and an Alaskan Eskimo bush pilot; all women, all willing to tell their stories and inspire young girls and boys to believe in themselves and their possible dreams. Unfortunately,  I was unable to generate any enthusiasm with broadcasters for the idea, and I had to move on to other things.

These days,  many women are serving as pilots in the world's militaries, and as commercial pilots with the airlines.  Women are flying the most advanced aircraft and the newest air transports, including the Airbus A-380 jumbo jet. Little girls who are growing up with a passion for flying know the door is open to them.

Air Force F-15 Fighter Pilots

Airline Captains

 

If Cindy Rucker were still with us, she would be a veteran airline captain flying the newest generation of Air Bus or Boeing jetliner.   She earned her place in the cockpit,  I think in heroic fashion. She helped pave the way for the current generation of female professional pilots.

Given the opportunity, women have proven themselves worthy and entirely competent in their work as aviators. As I write this, these women with wings are getting it done quietly, and mostly without fanfare.  They're just getting it done. As a pilot myself, I know how much they enjoy going to the office.  In the cockpit, gender should be, and now mostly is, irrelevant. 

Whenever I cross paths these days with a woman pilot, I think of Cindy Rucker.  She would be so proud of her flying sisters. As for me, what I feel is admiration.


Here is a link to ISWAP, the International Society of Women Airline Pilots... http://www.iswap.org/


Here is a link to a video about a young woman Lufthansa Airlines aviator,   co-piloting the A380 jumbo jet, the largest airliner in the world. By the way, Lufthansa also has a female A380 captain.  This video is in German, but don't let that put you off. It's a very engaging video... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDSE9b9fzRg

Here is a video about Lt. Colonel Nicole Malachowski, the US Air Force's first female Thunderbird pilot....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmYYmaxZNNg

Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

An old adage to be sure, but it certainly applies at every direction and turn. Genuine achievement starts with an idea that fits a need. Very often, it begins with one person, or a handful of committed individuals.

When I look at history, I see a pattern that roughly equates to two steps forward, one step back. Humans have been around for not quite half a million years.  For about 95% of that time, we were primitive hunter-gatherers living off of what nature provided.  During all of that period, the numbers of humans never got to more than a few million individuals.  About 10,000 years ago, we embraced agriculture and began to dwell in permanent communities. A whole range of new human dynamics emerged. Recorded history began as we learned to read and write.  About two hundred years ago, a hare's breath in the chronology of human existence, the 'Industrial Era' began in Europe.  The pace of change accelerated.  Ingenuity and invention flourished.  Human knowledge expanded exponentially.  Every step of the way,  there have been setbacks.   War, disease, famine, every kind of misfortune have marked the annals of history.  Despite our travails,  we have progressed in dramatic fashion from our roots as primitive cave dwellers. We have taken two steps forward for every step back.

Humans now dominate the Earth and its biosphere.  Our numbers exceed seven billion, and we are still adding 75 million more humans to the population every year, each requiring a share of the planet's finite bounty for survival. Because of this, we are exploiting the planet's air, water, land, and biological resources relentlessly.   We are abusing the earth's natural fabric to a degree that is not sustainable; not even close.

So, where does that leave us?  At the moment, on a  civilization scale, the evidence suggests we are regressing.  The challenges we face are formidable and unprecedented.  We must learn to live within the planet's ability to provide. We must reconnect and become worthy stewards of the natural world we all depend on for survival. Some say it's already too late. Some say humanity is in a tailspin from which we cannot possibility emerge. I don't believe that.

 If we are to overcome the negative inertia that is dragging us down, we must embrace a common resolve to live within our means.  We must pull together to build a world that is worthy of our species;  a world in which all life is afforded respect and dignity.  In that world, men and women coexist as equals in all ways.  In that world, we embrace our cultural and ethnic differences, and accept our place as nurturers of the biosphere.   The impediments to this admittedly idealistic vision are mostly political.  On the ground level, where the rubber meets the road, we are held back from the 'common good' by a seriously corrupted political system.  We fail to deal with global scale challenges like climate change, deforestation,  overexploitation of  our oceans, loss of precious top soil, and rapidly diminishing supplies of fresh water because so many of the people we elevate as leaders are sociopaths with selfish, narrow  motives, who are largely unresponsive to the need for change. 

So, 'Nothing ventured, nothing gained'. How does this adage apply?   Those of us who recognize the regressive road we are on,  if we haven't already done so, must step up.  First by recognizing the unprecedented, civilization scale challenges we face,  then by casting aside apathy and indifference and becoming part of the solution. A very good start in the right direction comes with spending some time thinking about and appreciating the natural forces at work in our lives.  This is how we find inspiration.  This is where we will find solutions. This is the road we must travel to make things right and assure a worthy future for generations to come. 

___________________  

 

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.     Margaret Mead

 

Upcycle - Living Like Dersu

The sub-title for Upcycle, the new book by William McDonough and Michael Braungart, is Beyond Sustainability, Designing for Abundance.  McDonough is a celebrated, American architect/designer. Braungart is a German born design chemist. In this book, they tell the story of Dersu, hero of a Japanese movie, Dersu Uzala.  In this movie, Dersu is a woodsman who becomes guide to explorers passing through his remote forested region.  When a storm comes up, he leads them to shelter in a long disused cabin deep in the wilderness.  There they find dry firewood stacked inside, waiting to be used to warm the place.  After the storm,  Dersu is shocked when the explorers prepare to leave without replenishing the firewood for the next visitors. This is a wonderful metaphor for the way the society we know exploits the earth's resources relentlessly, without regard to the impact on those that will come after.

McDonough and Braungart believe that we humans must go beyond just lightening our footprints on the earth we are totally dependent on. We can, indeed we must, actually leave things better off when we depart than they were before we arrived.  It's a wonderful. idealisitic paradigm for living. 

Upcycle is not the first book from McDonough and Braungart.  A decade ago, they published Cradle to Cradle.  It offered their first reflections on learning to live with the biosphere instead of cravenly exploiting it and leaving it exhausted for future generations.   We have been mindlessly exploiting our planet's land, water, air, and biological resources for a very long time.  That is clearly no longer a viable approach to living. 

In their latest book, the authors seem almost giddy as they present case after case of upcycle thinking that showcase design processes that actually leave things better off than they were before the processes were initiated.  Improving what we were gifted with by generations that came before seems like a very worthy paradigm for humans to embrace.

The ideas showcased in Upcycle are not entirely new.  Urban farming in high rise structures or even below ground, using cost effective, artificial light sources has been around for awhile and has been demonstrated in various settings.  The Dutch model of growing food in greenhouses is especially compelling. What is new is the focus on designing processes and products that make the resources used in those processes and products readily available for recycling at the end of useful life. 

Here's an example from the book. Michael Braungart analyzed a TV set to see how many chemicals went into its production. The answer was 4,360. Most TV sets these days still end up in landfills. They are simply not designed to be reduced to reusable resource form at end of life.  Michael Braungart participated in a program with Phillips Electronics that resulted in the Econova TV, which was designed to be easily disassembled at end of life. It is also PVC-free and its cables are halogen-free.  This is a big leap forward.  All products and processes should be designed this way.  

Here is a lovely quote from the book...

The goal of the Upcycle is a delightfully diverse, safe, healthy, and just world, with clean air, water, soil, and power - economically, equitably, ecologically, and elegantly enjoyed.

I find this to be an incredibly noble sentiment and a motivation entirely worthy of we humans as a species.

I give this book my highest recommendation. I also include William McDonough and Michael Braungart on my list of most admired people. 

Flying with an Airshow Pilot

Rennie Price is a professional airshow pilot flying out of Aurora Airport about 30 minutes south of Portland, Oregon, where we live.   I had the great privilege of flying today with Rennie in his Sukhoi SU29, one of the world's premiere aerobatic performance aircraft.  It was a totally awesome experience.

Sukhoi  SU29

 

 

Retired from piloting Airbus A320 airliners, Rennie now splits his time between flying airshows in his Russian built Sukhoi and flying business clients in an Astra jet, and when he's not doing either of those things, he's an FAA flight examiner and instructor at the most advanced levels.  Rennie is exactly what you might expect of a pilot who has logged 23,000 hours of flying time. He has a warm, cheery personality, and seems eager to share the joy of flying with aviation buffs like me.

Rennie Price

We were fortunate to have a beautiful morning to fly. Sunny skies with lots of puffy cumulus clouds to dance around. Getting strapped into the passenger seat of the two place SU29 was a bit of a chore.  After dawning a parachute,  I climbed up on the wing, and settled into the front seat. It's a tight space. The harness that holds you in has shoulder and leg straps that link together with double waist belts.  It's a very snug fit, as it should be in an aircraft designed and built specifically for flying aerobatics.  Next came the helmet linked by intercom with Rennie, who was in the pilot's seat right behind me.

 

Fifteen minutes later, the Sukhoi lifted off from the Aurora airport runway and quickly gained altitude. We headed east toward Mount Hood.  Once we were clear of the airport traffic pattern,  Rennie allowed me to take control of this most nimble and responsive aircraft. I was feeling a unique blend of  exhilaration and apprehension.   I hadn't piloted a stick and rudder airplane since I was tooling around in a Citabria more than 30 years ago.

The Citabria is a docile plane, designed to do limited aerobatics like loops and rolls in a fun but very forgiving way.  Comparatively speaking, the Citabria is a frisky donkey and the Sukhoi is a triple crown worthy thoroughbred race horse.  The Sukhoi has a large radial engine and big control surfaces, making for quick and unambiguous response to movement of the stick and rudder.  

As we climbed to a safe altitude for aerobatics, Rennie urged me to do some tight turns around one puffy cloud then another.  What a thrill.   Then, after he demonstrated  a roll,  I took the stick and rolled the Sukhoi a couple of times myself.  My effort was clumsy and graceless at first, but it got better with Rennie's patient coaching.  I rolled left a couple of times then to the right a couple of times. Awesome fun.  At that point, I was feeling a bit queasy.  After taking a moment to settle myself, we tried a couple of loops. What a blast. Finally,  Rennie executed a hammerhead; a very cool maneuver where you point the nose straight up then kick in right rudder just before running out of airspeed.  It was wonderful fun. 

A few minutes later, we were back on the ground.  As it turns out, we were only in the air for about 30 minutes. But what a splendid time it was.  I couldn't have asked for a more accommodating and patient facilitator for this experience than Rennie Price. He is an aviator at the top of his profession. To be able to share this experience with him was a great privilege.

These days, flying is an expensive hobby.  I'm not sure what the future holds for me in this arena,  but I still have my pilot's license.  I probably need about 15-20 hours of dual flight time to regain my competence.  If the stars align right, and such a course becomes financially feasible,  I still have the hunger to fly.  My time with Rennie Price only confirmed that fact.

Here is a link for Rennie Price's pilot training and airshow website   http://www.hammerheadaerobatics.com/

Here is a link to a video that features Rennie performing in his Sukhoi SU29 at an airshow...  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjgiRFhYgXA

The Top 10% Plus $5.6 Trillion, the Rest of Us Minus $669 Billion

I pulled the following piece off of the Alternet News Service.  The numbers are staggering, and seriously maddening.  A small portion of the population, less than 10%,  are using their money and political influence to line their pockets at the expense of everyone else.

Only two kinds of people would try to gloss these numbers over. Those who fall into that 10% that have benefited wildly from the distortions they have encouraged in our systems of finance and governance and that small but noisy cabal of 'Tea Party' types who are victims along with the rest of us but are too wedded to their perverse worldview to process the facts staring them in the face.

It always comes back to the same thing.  To fix our badly broken economic model, we first have to fix our system of governance by removing the ability of corporations and greedy rich folks to corrupt our politics with their money and improper influence. 


_________________

The Rich Have Gained $5.6 Trillion in the 'Recovery,' While the Rest of Us Have Lost $669 Billion

May 3, 2013 |  Les Leopold, Alternet

 

Oh, are we getting ripped off. And now we've got the data [3] to prove it. From 2009 to 2011, the richest 8 million families (the top 7%) on average saw their wealth rise from $1.7 million to $2.5 million each. Meanwhile the rest of us -- the bottom 93% (that's 111 million families) -- suffered on average a decline of $6,000 each.
Do the math and you'll discover that the top 7% gained a whopping $5.6 trillion in net worth (assets minus liabilities) while the rest of lost $669 billion. Their wealth went up by 28% while ours went down by 4 percent.

It's as if the entire economic recovery is going into the pockets of the rich. And that's no accident. Here's why.

 

1. The bailouts went to Wall Street, not to Main Street.

 

The federal government and Federal Reserve poured trillions of dollars into Wall Street through a wide variety of financial maneuvers, many of which were hidden from view until recently. When we add it all up, it's clear that most of the money floated right into Wall Street. (Fannie and Freddie were private institutions that also considered themselves part of the Wall Street elite.)

 

 

 

2. Wall Street is Washington, Washington is Wall Street.

 

Those who shuttle back and forth between Washington and Wall Street designed the basic policies that both led to the crash and that responded to it. Hank Paulson, Bush's Secretary of the Treasury, served as chairman of Goldman Sachs before going to Washington. Timothy Geithner, Obama's Secretary of the Treasury, headed the regional Federal Reserve Board in New York (a board composed of Wall Street's Who's Who) before joining the Obama cabinet.

Countless government officials and congressional staffers can't wait to leave public service for lucrative jobs on Wall Street. Their collective mindset is that the world can't function properly unless the richest of the rich get richer. Any and all policies should therefore protect our biggest banks, rather than hinder them. And, of course, both parties are in hot pursuit of Wall Street campaign cash. Little wonder the so-called "recovery" transferred wealth from us to them.

 

3. The Federal Reserve banks on trickledown.

 

The Federal Reserve's ongoing stimulus policy comes down to this: The goal is to reduce interest rates on bonds of all kinds so that money flows into stocks. The more money that goes into the stock market, the higher go the stocks. Rising stock prices leads to what economists call the wealth effect -- those who see their stocks rise dramatically feel richer and spend more. That's supposed to trickle down to the rest of us: The rich spend more, businesses recover and then, maybe, hire more people. It's working beautifully for the super-rich but obviously not for the rest of us.

But wait, don't most of us own stocks either directly or through our pension funds and 401ks? Dream on, says this chart:

 

 

 

 

4. Washington fails to create enough jobs.

 

Wall Street's gambling spree tore a gaping hole to our economy. In a matter of months more than 8 million workers lost their jobs due to no fault of their own. What these elite financiers did to us is unconscionable, and they haven't had to pay a dime for the damage they caused. Although the stimulus programs prevented the slide from deepening, it was far too small to put America back to work. So now we're facing the highest levels of sustained unemployment since the Great Depression. The biggest victims of Wall Street greed are the long-term unemployed.

 

 

Source: Business Insider: http://www.businessinsider.com/unemployed-for-more-than-26-weeks-population-ratio-january-2010-2 [4]

 

 

5. Government goes on a job-killing spree.

 

After Wall Street crashed the economy, businesses failed, workers lost their jobs and state and local tax revenues collapsed. In a just world, Wall Street would have been taxed to make up the difference. Instead, public employment was slashed. This further cut back on consumer demand, reduced tax revenues and then created pressure for another round of government job cuts. Of course, the Tea Party right loves the idea of crushing government jobs and public employee unions as well. But the main result is to increase unemployment, which in turn puts downward pressure on wages and increases profits for the wealthy.

 

As Michael Greenstone and Adam Looney point out ("A Record Decline in Government Jobs: Implications for the Economy and America's Workforce" [5]), "we are in unchartered territory when it comes to government employment." The chart below from their Brookings article shows that among the major state and local job categories, only firefighters saw an increase.

 

Occupation	Employment (2009)	Employment (2011)	Change in Employment	Percent Change in Employment
Teachers	3,942,700	3,721,938	-220,762	-5.6%
Policemen	666,579	610,427	-56,125	-8.4%
Fire fighters	233,051	277,158	44,107	18.9%
Emergency responders	69,370	39,170	-30,200	-43.5%
Air-traffic controllers	23,959	17,128	-6,831	-28.5%

Overall, the combination of state, local and foolish federal cutbacks are collapsing public employment like never before. And again, whenever unemployment increases, it places downward pressure on the wages and reduces the wealth of the many, while the few are enriched.

6. The big banks have become even bigger criminal conspiracies.

 

Not only did we bail out too-big-to fail banks with public money and get nothing back in return, but Washington allowed them to grow even bigger. The biggest banks now have oligopoly power to rig prices. They also can illegally collude in order to siphon off more wealth from the rest of us. (For some juicy details, see Matt Taibbi's "Everything is Rigged: The Biggest Price-Fixing Scandal Ever." [6] ) The corruption and cheating are reaching epic proportions as they gamble with insured deposit money, partner with loan sharks, money launder for drug cartels, and foreclose on homeowners who are up-to-date on their payments. All of that dirty money goes to the rich. (See "Are Big Banks Organized Criminal Conspiracies?" [7])

 

 

Source: Federal Reserve http://www.ffiec.gov/nicpubweb/nicweb/Top50Form.aspx [8]

 

 

7. Hedge funds run wild.

 

 

In 2012, the top hedge fund manager "earned" in one hour as much as the average family makes in 21 years. The top 10 hedge fund managers made as much in one year as 196,000 registered nurses. What exactly do these hedge fund honchos do? Much of it comes from what normal people call cheating -- some of it legal, some of it borderline, and much of it criminal. But they're hard to catch. They profit from illegal insider tips, highfrequency trading, rumor-mongering, front-running trades, special tax loopholes and even by creating financial products that are designed to fail so that they can collect the insurance. They have their hands in our pockets 24/7. (See "America's New Math: 1 Wall Street Hour = 21 Years of Hard Work For the Rest of Us." [9])

 

 

8. The rise of the Ayn Rand Right.

 

The Tea Party brought a new viciousness to the national dialogue. Not only do they hate the government, but also, they hate the poor. Using the twisted logic of Ayn Rand, they see the world divided into winners and losers -- and screw the losers. Not only do they oppose social programs like Social Security and Medicare, they also don't believe that government should work on behalf of the collective good. In fact, they see any and all collective efforts as an affront to personal liberty. They want a world where the creators rule and the moochers suffer. They would rather the rich rob us blind, than have the government try to stop the financial cheating and deception. If Wall Street destroys your job -- too bad. Go get another one and don't expect the government to help.

 

9. The silencing of Occupy Wall Street.

 

For a few short months, the hundreds of Occupy Wall Street encampments dramatically shifted the national debate. Wall Street was in the crosshairs and "We are the 99 percent" spread into our consciousness. It's still there, but Occupy Wall Street isn't...at least not in the potent form that shook the rich and powerful. We don't have time here to discuss whether it was silenced by repressive authorities, or if it primarily caved in due to internal weaknesses in strategy and tactics. But this much is certain: a mass movement to take on Wall Street makes a difference.

 

***

The solutions are simple, but the fight is hard.

The Robin Hood Tax

The best way to move money from Wall Street to Main street is through a financial transaction tax -- a small charge on each and every sale of stocks, bonds and derivatives of all kinds. Consider it a sin tax on Wall Street's many vices. Such a tax could raise enough money so that every student in this country could go to a two- or four-year public college or university, tuition-free Just think what the elimination of increasing student debt would do to the lopsided wealth statistics. Just think of what that would do for jobs as colleges expanded to deal with the demand. It's not a wild-eyed demand: 11 countries are about to adopt such a tax. (See robinhoodtax.org [10])

Public State Banks

A second critical strategy to end Wall Street as we know it is to form 50 public state banks on the model of the Bank of North Dakota. These would function as real banks rather than the rigged casinos that pass for banks on Wall Street. State banks are designed to support community banks that, in turn, lend to local businesses. Most importantly, the public bankers would be paid reasonable salaries rather than gouging themselves at the trough. (See "Why is Socialism doing so darn well in Deep Red North Dakota?" [11])

The Public Banking Institute [12] is paving the way as its leaders (Ellen Brown and Marc Armstrong) help some 20 states explore the idea. They need and deserve our support. And for all you Fed haters, they also are formulating some very cool ideas about how to dramatically transform our central bank. (More on that in a future piece.) Most importantly, we all need to find a common way to protest Wall Street's rule over the economy and over Washington. This isn't about redistributing their wealth. It's about getting ours back.

---

Source URL: http://www.alternet.org/economy/rich-have-gained-56-trillion-recovery-while-rest-us-have-lost-669-billion

Links:
[1] http://www.alternet.org
[2] http://www.alternet.org/authors/les-leopold-0
[3] http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2013/04/23/a-rise-in-wealth-for-the-wealthydeclines-for-the-lower-93/
[4] http://www.businessinsider.com/unemployed-for-more-than-26-weeks-population-ratio-january-2010-2
[5] http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/jobs/posts/2012/08/03-jobs-greenstone-looney
[6] http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/everything-is-rigged-the-biggest-financial-scandal-yet-20130425
[7] http://www.alternet.org/corporate-accountability-and-workplace/are-big-banks-bunch-organized-criminal-conspiracies
[8] http://www.ffiec.gov/nicpubweb/nicweb/Top50Form.aspx
[9] http://www.www.alternet.org/corporate-accountability-and-workplace/americas-new-math-1-wall-street-hour-21-years-hard-work-rest
[10] http://robinhoodtax.org/
[11] http://www.alternet.org/corporate-accountability-and-workplace/why-socialism-doing-so-darn-well-deep-red-north-dakota
[12] http://publicbankinginstitute.org/
[13] http://www.alternet.org/tags/wealth-distribution-0
[14] http://www.alternet.org/tags/occupy-0
[15] http://www.alternet.org/tags/wall-street
[16] http://www.alternet.org/tags/banks
[17] http://www.alternet.org/tags/wealth
[18] http://www.alternet.org/tags/stocks-0
[19] http://www.alternet.org/tags/economy-0
[20] http://www.alternet.org/tags/public-banking-institute
[21] http://www.alternet.org/tags/income
[22] http://www.alternet.org/tags/math
[23] http://www.alternet.org/tags/money-0
[24] http://www.alternet.org/tags/bailouts-0
[25] http://www.alternet.org/tags/wealth-chart
[26] http://www.alternet.org/tags/breakdown-0
[27] http://www.alternet.org/tags/federal-reserve
[28] http://www.alternet.org/tags/trickle-down-1
[29] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B

Tickling a Hedgehog

Hedgehogs are funny little creatures. They appear to be some kind of rodent that has armored fur covering much of its body.   In fact they are not rodents. They belong in a mammalian family known as Erinaceidae.  If you want to know more than that, click on this link.

Despite their prickly armor,  some people seem to like having Hedgehogs as pets.  It's not hard to understand when you see the sweet interaction between this little 'Hedgie' and its human tickle giver.

Here is a link to tickling a hedgehog...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIEdetUheyI

How Sewer Money Wins Elections

Here's a link to a very cool infographic that shows how unregulated campaign contributions and influence money corrupt the American political process... http://letsfreecongress.org/

Madame President

It appears the stars are aligned for Hillary Clinton to become our first female President in 2016. I'm sure her election would be a very good thing. I do have some concerns. 

 

Hillary Clinton

 

The kind of President we desperately need is one with enough courage and conviction to lead us out of the dark, uncertain times we are in.  That's going to require a new paradigm for governance that unequivocally puts the common good ahead of narrow interests.  I like to think that Hillary Clinton can provide that kind of enlightened leadership.   I will not pretend that I don't have my doubts.   

I would not be happy if Hillary set up a center-right government. The same kind we had with Bill Clinton and now, even more so with Barack Obama.  Each of these guys is a seriously pragmatic politician.  Clinton was and Obama is saddled with a corrupt and dysfunctional political system that serves big money interests above all else. The legalized bribery built into our political process makes it impossible to fix the economy,  take care of our people, and protect the environment we all depend on.  My concern is that Hillary Clinton would be more of the same, delivering at best the bland and largely ineffective brand of incremental change we're used to and which is the basis of so much voter skepticism about lawmakers in Washington.

I say again; our system of elected governance is built on a model of legalized bribery.  Until that issue is addressed aggressively, we're screwed.  I just wish I felt better about Hillary Clinton being the kind of transcendent leader that could and would lead that fight for genuine change. Perhaps she will be.  Sorry to say,  I have my doubts.

Another politician, who also happens to be a female, would be my choice if I alone could pick the next President.  Elisabeth Warren is a first term senator from the state of Massachusetts.   She was a Harvard law professor before being voted into the Senate.  As part of the first Obama administration, she played an important role in reshaping our financial regulatory structure. 

 

Elisabeth Warren

 

Elisabeth Warren is one of the few populists in elected office who understands how Wall Street, the Fed,  and big money fiscal policy actually work.  She has courageously challenged the powerful financial cabal that resists every effort to redraw the  corrupted system of governance that is still the rule.

I think Elisabeth Warren would make an awesome President.  At this point, she is the only politician I would vote for over Hillary Clinton.

If you don't know who Elisabeth Warren is, please take some time to educate yourself.  

Here is a link to her Senate webpage...  http://www.warren.senate.gov/

 

 

 

Willie Nelson Dials 420 on Gandalf

Willie Nelson has been a country music icon for as long as I can remember.   He may also be the world's most famous 'Doobie' brother.   I just discovered this video on You Tube.   It's a hoot. 

Here's 80 year old Willie Nelson auditioning for the role of Gandalf in the  'Cheech and Chong' version of  Tolkien's Ring Trilogy.

 

 

 

Here's the video. It's Willie, toked and tuned in to Hobbitry.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTE5RYTT3Zo&feature=player_embedded

If the Portugese can do it, why can't we?

The American corporate media all seem to tell the same story when it comes to clean, renewable types of energy like wind, solar, hydro, and geothermal.  When they tak about it at all,  the  stories are shaded to make it seem too expensive, not reliable, decades away from contributing more than minimally to America's energy needs.

I spent two decades writing and producing for the media on renewable energy. Put me on record: the corporate media are selling a line of B.S. when they diminish the potential of renewable energy.  In the Spring of 2013, wind and solar have become competitive economically with hydrocarbon fossil energy sources like coal and oil.

Right now in 2013,  Portugal, a lovely country on the western third of the Iberian Peninsula,  gets 70% of its electricity from renewable sources of energy. The Portuguese are on their way to eliminating their remaining coal-fired power production.

Germany and Denmark are also rapidly replacing fossil fuel power plants with clean, renewable sources of energy.  Nuclear power is on the way out in many European countries.  In fact, the European Union has embarked on a bold course that will substantially replace its dirty fossil powered energy production with clean, renewable technologies over the next few decades.  They have shaped public policy to make it happen, and they have authorized billions of Euros in funding to cover the cost.

If the Portuguese and their European brethren can do it, why can't we?  The reality is, we are all earthlings. That makes us subject to the same primary dynamics where energy is concerned. The cost of our dependence on  fossil fuels like coal and oil has become too high.  Moreover, our use of dirty hydrocarbon fuels is directly linked to global climate change, the greatest threat to human civilization ever known.

The Portuguese and the Europeans are showing the way. They are proof positive that a concerted transition away from coal, oil, and nuclear power can be done.  It needs to happen in the US as well. Why then is America mired in its dependence on fossil fuels?   Why can't we strive for the same brand of clean, renewable energy independence the Europeans are working toward? 

It all boils down to politics.  Big oil in America is the richest industrial cartel in the history of the world.  They use their money and influence to make the rules where energy is concerned.  They put their interest ahead of the welfare of the American people. That's not going to change until we the people demand that our government put our welfare ahead of corporations and the super rich.

I pulled the following article from the Think Progress website....

_________________


Is 70 Percent Renewable Power Possible? Portugal Just Did It For 3 Months

 

By Ryan Koronowski on Apr 14, 2013 at 9:06 am

 

 

Portugal’s electricity network operator announced that renewable energy supplied 70 percent of total consumption in the first quarter of this year. This increase was largely due to favorable weather conditions resulting in increased wind and water flow, as well as lower demand. Portuguese citizens are using less energy and using sources that never run out for the vast majority of what they do use.

 

 



Alto Lindoso (Image credit: Energeias de Portugal)

Hydropower supplied most: Hydroelectric power supplied 37 percent of total electricity — a 312 percent increase compared to last year.

• Wind turbines broke a record: Wind energy represented 27 percent of the total share, which is 60 percent higher than last year. This is 37 percent above average and good for the highest amount generated by wind in Portugal, ever.
• 2.3 percent less energy used: Energy consumption has fallen every year since 2010 and is now at 2006 levels. Some of the drop this quarter was due to fewer working days and a warmer winter, but even controlling for those factors, there was still a drop of .4 percent.
• Not so much solar: Solar energy supplies only .7 percent of total energy demand, according to 2012 figures (Q1 2013 figures were not available for solar). This constitutes 225.5 MW in total photovoltaic capacity.
• Dropping the fossil fuel habit: Portugal’s electricity had 29 percent less coal and 44 percent less gas in it from 2012 figures. The country must import the fossil fuels it burns.
• For sale: Portugal exported what would have been 6 percent of total electricity consumption to other countries. It will also be able to sell a chunk of its allotted carbon credits offered by the EU’s carbon trading system.

Actually 70 percent isn’t unheard of for Portugal. For a few hours in 2011, Portugal was entirely run on renewable power. Yet this was the first time so much was sustained for a quarter.
Portugal’s investment in modernizing its electricity grid in 2000 has come in handy. Like in many countries, power companies owned their own transmission lines. What the government did in 2000 was to buy all the lines, creating a publicly owned and traded company to operate them. This was used to create a smart grid that renewable energy producers could connect to (encouraged by government-organized auctions to build new wind and hydro plants). In 2010, the New York Times reported on Portugal’s renewable energy push that started in earnest in 2005:

Five years ago, the leaders of this sun-scorched, wind-swept nation made a bet: To reduce Portugal’s dependence on imported fossil fuels, they embarked on an array of ambitious renewable energy projects — primarily harnessing the country’s wind and hydropower, but also its sunlight and ocean waves…. Nearly 45 percent of the electricity in Portugal’s grid will come from renewable sources this year, up from 17 percent just five years ago.

There was a massive amount of skepticism over the plan at the time. The Prime Minister at the time, José Sócrates, noted that the nation’s network of electric car charging stations elicited ridicule — including former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Burlusconi who jokingly offered to build him an electric Ferrari. While a totally electric version isn’t available, the fastest Ferrari ever was unveiled last month, and it’s a hybrid.
Some locals complained about higher utility bills or the green economy bypassing them, while others were thrilled. The Mayor of Moura explained that the reason his town got the nation’s largest solar plant was because it “gets the most sun of anywhere in Europe and has lots of useless space.”
So now that it demonstrated the ability to generate 70 percent renewable energy for 3 months, where does Portugal go from here? Oddly enough, it does not have much in the way of offshore wind capacity — only 2 MW. The recent economic situation and austerity programs have endangered not only jobs and commerce, but continued investment in renewable energy and electric vehicles. Yet saving on the cost of having to import fossil fuels will be helpful for decades to come, and as its economy improves, it will have a strong renewable electricity grid to rely upon.
Other countries have been making steps of their own on renewable power production. The U.S. had a record-breaking year for wind energy in 2012, growing by 28 percent. Sweden is looking to have no dependence on oil by 2020. Australia could be looking at 100 percent renewable energy by 2030. Global solar power world will soon be a net-positive energy source.