As inequality soars, the nervous super rich are already planning their escapes

Stephan:  I spoke at a conference today made up entirely of socially progressive men and women, each of whom is actively involved in some kind of compassionate life-affirming project or program. They were  mostly in their middle years, with some twenties and thirties. In my presentation I noted the Wealth Inequality Trend, remarking that 80 people have wealth as great as 3.5 billion people. As I stood in line to get the organic lunch -- quite good -- I heard the voice of the French Revolution. A man came up to me and said, "if we talk just about those 80... well, we know where they live, it wouldn't take much to pull them out of their beds. Would it?" Then he added, "If I can think of this, don't you think we ought to assume other people have as well? And that someone might act on it." I thought that indeed, and then I remembered this story I had seen a few days earlier. I run it now because I think the zeitgeist is changing.
 Hedge fund managers are reportedly buying airstrips and farms in remote areas because they think they need a getaway.  Credit: Ken Lambert/AP

Hedge fund managers are reportedly buying airstrips and farms in remote areas because they think they need a getaway.
Credit: Ken Lambert/AP

DAVOS, SWITZERLAND — With growing inequality and the civil unrest from Ferguson and the Occupy protests fresh in people’s mind, the world’s super rich are already preparing for the consequences. At a packed session in Davos, former hedge fund director Robert Johnson revealed that worried hedge fund managers were already planning their escapes. “I know hedge fund managers all over the world who are buying airstrips and farms in places like New Zealand because they think they need a getaway,” he said.

Johnson, who heads the Institute of New Economic Thinking and was previously managing director at Soros, said societies can tolerate income inequality if the income floor is high enough. But with an existing system encouraging […]

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A Special Kind of Plastic Pipe Could Be the Solution for California’s Water Woes

Stephan:  I am always on the outlook for new technologies that could help with what is coming as a result of climate change. Here is a very interesting one, a plastic that can be made into pipes and other things that simply by the nature of the plastic converts saltwater to fresh.  It holds promise as at least a partial solution to some of the problems of drought in agricultural areas. My concern about such a system is what happens to the super-salty flush water. But at least this seems to be a place to start dealing with a horrendous planet-wide problem that is only going to get worse. This story is good news.
Design, Technology Innovation's water pipe that that changes saltwater to pure simply by the nature of the plastic. Credit: Design Technology Innovation

Design, Technology Innovation’s water pipe that that changes saltwater to pure simply by the nature of the plastic.
Credit: Design Technology Innovation

When drought grabs hold of a region—as it has in epic proportions in California—desalination seems like an obvious way to get  the freshwater we need for drinking, cooking, and irrigating crops. But the process of removing salt from saline water is pricey, typically costing twice as much as building a reservoir or recycling wastewater.

What if you could flip the process, extracting pure water vapor from saltwater?

That’s the approach U.K.-based Design Technology & Innovation took to develop a new irrigation system that pumps saltwater into underground pipes but only releases freshwater vapor into the soil—the salt remains trapped inside.

What’s the secret? A special kind of plastic dubbed Dutyion.

“We basically stumbled across a plastic with a particular ability to allow water vapor to pass through it, but virtually nothing else,” said DTI’s Mark Tonkin, […]

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Iceland rises as its glaciers melt from climate change

Stephan:  Here is the latest on rise of the Iceland crust as the result of ice-melt. Like the plates in our skulls the plates of the earth are interlinked and interdependent. The uplift of the Iceland plate will result in accommodations by the other tectonic plates, and possibly more earthquakes and volcanism. This is a kind of second stage result of climate change.   Journal Reference:
  1. Kathleen Compton, Richard A. Bennett, Sigrun Hreinsdóttir. Climate driven vertical acceleration of Icelandic crust measured by CGPS geodesy. Geophysical Research Letters, 2015; DOI: 10.1002/2014GL062446
This global positioning satellite receiver is part of Iceland's network of 62 such receivers that geoscientists are using to detect movements of the Icelandic crust that are as small as one millimeter per year. Langjökull glacier can be seen in the background. Credit: Richard A. Bennett/ University of Arizona

This global positioning satellite receiver is part of Iceland’s network of 62 such receivers that geoscientists are using to detect movements of the Icelandic crust that are as small as one millimeter per year. Langjökull glacier can be seen in the background.
Credit: Richard A. Bennett/ University of Arizona

Earth’s crust under Iceland is rebounding as global warming melts the island’s great ice caps, a University of Arizona-led team reports in an upcoming issue of Geophysical Research Letters.

The paper is the first to show the current fast uplift of the Icelandic crust is a result of accelerated melting of the island’s glaciers and coincides with the onset of warming that began about 30 years ago, the scientists said.

Some sites in south-central Iceland are […]

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Parkinson’s Placebo Drugs Perceived as Expensive are More Effective

Stephan:  The other day I ran a report on the ability of a meditating mind to control cellular function down to the DNA level. Here is another study showing how incredibly nuanced this ability is, and how culturally mediated our thoughts are. The association of efficacy with price is an example of the process.
A new study revealed that Parkinson’s placebo drugs that were believed to be more expensive than regular drugs are much more effective that regular placebo drugs. The study was published in the American Academy of Neurology online issue of Neurology.

The capability to control our bodies down to the DNA level, is incredibly nuanced, as this placebo study reports.

A new study revealed that Parkinson’s placebo drugs that were believed to be more expensive than regular drugs are much more effective that regular placebo drugs. The study was published in the American Academy of Neurology online issue of Neurology.

Dr. Alberto Espay, study author, believes this has to do with the patients’ expectations that play a major role in the effectiveness of their own treatments. Placebo drugs have achieved great results in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease and this new study sheds some more light on why that is.

This is the first study in Parkinson’s disease to test the placebo effects of drug cost. Espay revealed that they wanted to see if the people’s perception of the cost […]

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Liberate 41 Million Americans From Student Loan Debt

Stephan:  Ours children are our future. Can anyone doubt that? Then how is it that we have turned our children into indentured servants graduating from college with a debt burden so great they have no choice but to find work immediately, regardless of whether it is what they want to do or not. When newly minted creators coming out of American colleges have no time or ability to innovate what do you think the effect will be in terms of keeping America at the technological cutting edge? This essay offers some positive direction to resolve this crisis in a positive life-affirming way.
Credit: nycprgirls.com

Credit: nycprgirls.com

President Obama’s proposal for tuition-free community college education, and the broader discussion which it has inspired, confirms our belief that it is time for a comprehensive solution to a $1.3 trillion problem: student debt in the United States.

We strongly support the concept of tuition-free public higher education, and are encouraged by renewed arguments in its favor. But we must also confront what has been done to the last several generations of students. They have been forced to take on debt that is crippling to them, to our economy and our society.

A student debt “jubilee” would reflect both the values upon which this nation was founded, and the economic principles which have sustained it through its greatest periods of growth and prosperity.

It is time for a truly transformative idea:  Let’s Abolish All Student Loan Debt in America.

If you agree, click here to take action.

Jubilees Then and Now

The Liberty Bell represents our nation’s core values, combining personal freedom with community action. The words inscribed on the Bell – “Proclaim liberty throughout the land, and to all the inhabitants thereof” – are from the Book of […]

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