Beaches on Cape Cod

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Cape Cods beaches are considered among the best in the world, especially those along the Cape Cod National Seashore, a 40-mile stretch of unspoiled sandy beach in Outer Cape Cod. With 559.6 miles of unspoiled coastline, Cape Cod offers many beautiful sandy beaches for you to enjoy.

Cape Cod tests all public bathing beach waters. Monitoring results from previous seasons indicate exceptional water quality on Cape Cod, and the Cape Cod National Seashore beaches are part of the Blue Wave Campaign for quality. FInd additional beach water quality information here.

Listed below are just some of thepristine Cape Cod beaches in our area!

BARNSTABLE Covell Beach, Craigville Beach Road, Centerville Dowses Beach, E. Bay Road, Osterville Kalmus Beach, Ocean St., Hyannis Long Beach, Long Beach Road, Centerville Loop Beach, Ocean View Avenue, Cotuit Sandy Neck Beach, Sandy Neck Road, West Barnstable Sea Street (Keyes), Ocean Ave., Hyannis Veterans Beach, Ocean St., Hyannis Craigville Beach, Craigville Beach Road, Centerville

BOURNE Monument Beach, off Shore Road Scusset Beach, off Sagamore Rotary via Scusset Beach Road Town Beach, Buttermilk Bay off Rte. 28 and Head of the Bay Road Sagamore Beach, Standish Road

BREWSTER Breakwater Beach, Breakwater Beach Road Crosby Landing Beach, Crosby Lane Ellis Landing Beach, Ellis Landing Beach Robbins Hill Beach, Long Road Sheep Pond Beach, Fisherman's Landing Road Paine's Creek Beach, Paine's Creek Road

CHATHAM Cockle Cove Beach, Cockle Cove Road off Rte. 28 Hardings Beach, Barn Hill Rd., from Rte. 28 North Beach, southern end of Nauset Beach on Atlantic Ocean (only accessible by boat) Ridgevale Beach, Ridgevale Road off Rte. 28 Chatham Light Beach or South Beach, Shore Road by Chatham Light

DENNIS Chapin Memorial Beach, Chapin Beach Road Cold Storage Beach, Cold Storage Road Corporation Beach, off Rte. 6A to Corporation Road Howes Beach, Howes Street West Dennis Beach, West Dennis Beach Road Mayflower Beach, off Rte. 6A to Bayview Rd. to Dunes Road

EASTHAM Coast Guard Beach, off Rte. 6, Coast Guard Beach Road First Encounter Beach, Samoset Road Coast Guard Beach, off Rte. 6, Coast Guard Beach Road

FALMOUTH Menauhant Beach, off Rte. 28 and Central Avenue, E. Falmouth Surf Drive Beach, on Surf Drive Road, off Main & Shore Streets Old Silver Beach, off Rte. 28A and Quaker Road, N. Falmouth

HARWICH Red River Beach, off Depot Rd. or Uncle Venies Rd. from Rte 28 Pleasant Road Beach, Pleasant Road

MASHPEE South Cape Beach State Park, Great Oak Road

ORLEANS Nauset Light Beach, located off Rte. 6 and Beach Road Skaket Beach, located off Rte 6A and Skaket Beach Road

PROVINCETOWN Harbor Beach, off Commercial Street; no parking facilities Long Point Beach (can be reached by foot or boat) Race Point Beach, off Rte. 6, Race Point Road Herring Cove Beach, end of Rte. 6

SANDWICH Town Neck Beach, off Town Neck Road and Rte. 6A Sandy Neck Beach, off Rte. 6A on the Barnstable/Sandwich town line

TRURO Ballston Beach, Rte. 6 to North Pamet Road Corn Hill Beach, Corn Hill Road on Cape Cod Bay Head of the Meadow Beach, off Rte. 6, Head of the Meadow Road Corn Hill Beach, Corn Hill Road on Cape Cod Bay

WELLFLEET Cahoon Hollow Beach, off Rte. 6 Marconi Beach, off Rte. 6; boardwalk and dramatic dunes Mayo Beach, Kendrick Street White Crest beach, off Rte. 6

YARMOUTH Bass Hole or Grays Beach, off Center Street from Rte. 6A Sea Gull Beach, off South Sea Ave. from Rte. 28 Sea View Beach, South Shore Drive Bass River/Smugglers Beach, South Shore Drive

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Beaches on Cape Cod

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Aerospace Engineering Blog

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Outsourcing is a loaded term. In todays globalised world it has become to mean many things from using technology to outsource rote work over the internet to sharing capacity with external partners that are more specialised to complete a certain task. However, inherent in the idea of outsourcing is the promise of reduced costs, either through reductions in labour costs, or via savings in overheads and tied-up capital.

I recently stumbled across a 2001 paper[1] by Dr Hart-Smith of the Boeing Company, discussing some of the dangers and fallacies in our thinking regarding the potential advantages ofoutsourcing. The points raised by Hart-Smith are particularly noteworthy as they deal with the fundamental goals of running a businessrather than trying to argue by analogy, or blind faith on proxy measurements. What follows is my take on the issue of outsourcing as it pertains to the aerospace industry only, loosely based on the insights provided by Dr Hart-Smith, and with some of my own understanding of the topic from disparate sources that I believe are pertinent to the discussion.

That being said, the circumstances under which outsourcing makes economical sense depends on a broad spectrum of variables and is therefore highly complex. If you feel that my thinking is misconstrued in any way, please feel free to get in touch.With that being said lets delve a bit deeper into the good, the bad and the ugly of the outsourcing world.

Any discussion on outsourcing can, in my opinion, be boiled down to two fundamental drivers:

Using these two points as our guidelines it becomes clear very quickly under what conditions a company should decide to outsource a certain part of its business:

Note, that in either case the focus is on receiving extra value for something the company pays for rather than on reducing costs. In fact, as I will explain below, outsourcing often leads to increases in cost, rather than cost reductions. Under these circumstances, it only makes sense to outsource if this additional cost is traded for extra value that cannot be created in house, i.e. manufacturing value or technical value.

Reducing Costs

Reducing costs is another buzzword thatis often used to argue pro outsourcing. Considering the apparent first-order effects,it makes intuitive sense that offloading a certain segment of a business to a third party will reduce costs via lower labour costs and overheads, depreciation and capital outlays. In fact, this is one of the allures of the globalised world and the internet; the means of outsourcing work to lower-wage countries are cheaper than ever before in history.

However, the second-order effects of outsourcing are rarely considered. The first fundamental rule of ecology is that in a complex system you can never only do one thing. As all parts of a complex system are intricately linked, perturbing the system in one area will have inevitable knock-on effects in another area. Additionally if the system behaves non-linearly to the external stimuli, these knock-on effects are non-intuitive and almost impossible to predict a priori. Outsourcing an entire segment of a project should probably be classed as a major perturbation, and as all components of a complex engineering product, such as an aircraft, are inherently linked, a decision in one area will certainly effect other areas of the project as well. Hence, consider the following second-order effects thatshould be accounted foras a result of outsourcing as certain line of a business:

Therefore there is an inherent clash between trying to minimise costslocally, i.e. the costs for one component in isolation, and keeping costs downglobally, i.e. for the entire project. In the domain of complex systems, local optimisationcan lead to fragility of the system in two ways. First, small perturbations from local optima typically have greater effects on the overall performance of the system than perturbations from locally sub-optimal states. Second, locally optimising one factor of the system may force other factors to be far from their optima, and hence reduce the overall performance of the system. A general heuristic is that the best solution is to reach a compromise by operating individual components at sub-optimal levels, i.e.with excess capacity,such that the overall system is robust to adapt to unforeseen perturbations in its operating state.

Furthermore, the decision to outsource the design or the manufacture of a specific component needs to factored into the overall design of the product as a early as possible. Thus, all interfacing assemblies and sub-assemblies are designed with this particular realityin mind, rather than having to adapt to this situation a posteriori. This is because early design decisions have the highest impact on the final cost of a product. As a general rule of thumb, 80% of the final costs are incurred by the first 20% of the design decisions made, such that late design changes are always exponentially more expensive than earlier ones. Having to fix misaligned sub-assemblies at final assembly costs orders of magnitude more than additional planning up front.

Finally, the theory of constraints teaches us that the performance of the overall project can never exceed that of its least proficient component. Hence, the overall quality of the final assembly is driven by the quality of its worst suppliers. This means that in order to minimise any problems, the outsourcing company needs to provide extra quality and technical support for the subcontractors, extra employees for supply chain management, and additional in-house personal to deal with the extra detail design work and project management. Dr Hart-Smith warns that

With all this extra work the reality is that outsourcing should be considered as anextra cost rather than a cost saving, albeit, if done correctly, for the exchange of higher quality parts. The dollar value of out-sourced work is a very poor surrogate for internal cost savings.

Outsourcing Profits

Hypothetically, in the extreme case when every bit of design and manufacturing work is outsourced the only remaining role f0r the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) of the aircraft is to serve as a systems integrator. However, in this scenario, all profits are outsourced as well. This reality is illustrated by a simple example. The engines and avionics comprise about 50% of the total cost ofconstructionof an aircraft, and the remaining 50% are at the OEMs discretion.Would you rather earn a 25% profit margin on 5% of the total work, or rather 5% profit margin on 25% of the total work? In the former case the OEM will look much more profitable on paper (higher margin) but the total amount of cash earned in the second scenario will be higher. Hence, in a world where 50% of the work naturally flows to subcontractors supplying the engines, avionics and control systems, there isnt much left of the aircraft to outsource if enough cash is to be made to keep the company in business. Without cash there is no money to pay engineers to design new aircraft and no cash on hand to serve as a temporary buffer in a downturn. If there is anything that the 20th century has taught us, is that in the world of high-tech, any company that does not innovate and purely relies on derivative products is doomed to be disrupted by anew player.

Second, subcontractors are under exactly the same pressure as the OEM to maximise their profits. In fact, subcontractors have a greater incentive for fatter margins and higher returns on investment as their smaller size increases their interest rates for loaned capital. This means that suppliers are not necessarily incentivised to manufacture tooling that can be reused for future products as these require more design time and can not be billed against future products. In-house production is much more likely to lead to this type of engineering foresight. Consider theproduction of a part that is estimated to cost the same to produce in-house as by a subcontractor, and to the same quality standards. The higher profit margins of the subcontractor naturally result in a higher overall price for the component than if manufactured in-house. However, standard accounting procedures would consider this as a cost reduction since all first-order costs, such as lower labour rate at the subcontractor, fewer employees and less capital tied up in hard assets at the OEM, creates the illusion that outside work is cheaper than in-house work.

Skin in the Game

One of the heavily outsourced planes in aerospace history was the Douglas Aircraft Company DC-10, and it was the suppliers who made all the profits on this plane.It is instrumental that most subcontractors were not willing to be classified as risk-sharing partners. In fact, if the contracts have been negotiated properly, then most subcontractors have very little downside risk. For financial reasons, the systems integrator can rarely allow a subcontractor to fail, and therefore providesfree technical support to thesubcontractor in case of technical problems. In extreme cases, the OEM is even likely to buy if subcontractor outright.

This state of little downside risk is what NN Taleb calls the absence of skin in the game [2]. Subcontractors typically do not behave like employees do. Employees or risk-sharing partners have a reputation to protect and fear the economic repercussions of losing their paychecks. On the one hand, employees are more expensive than contractors and limit workforce flexibility. On the other hand, employees guarantee a certain dependability and reliability for solid work, i.e. downside protection to shoddy work. In Talebs words,

So employees exist because they have significant skin in the game and the risk is shared with them, enough risk for it to be a deterrent and a penalty for acts of undependability, such as failing to show up on time. You are buying dependability.

Subcontractors on the other hand typically have more freedom than employees. They fear the law more than being fired. Financial repercussions can be built into contracts, and bad performances may lead to loss in reputation, but an employee, by being part of the organisation and giving up some of his freedom, will always have more risk, and therefore behave in more dependable ways. There are examples, like Toyotas ecosystem of subcontractors, where mutual trust and skin in the game is built into the network via well thought-out profit sharing, risk sharing and financial penalties, but these relationships are not ad hoc and are based on long-term relationships.

With a whole network of subcontractors the performance of an operation is limited by the worst-performing segment. In this environment, OEMs are often forcedto assist bad-performing suppliers and therefore forced to accept additional costs. Again from NN Taleb [2],

If you miss on a step in a process, often the entire business shuts down which explains why today, in a supposedly more efficient world with lower inventories and more subcontractors, things appear to run smoothly and efficiently, but errors are costlier and delays are considerably longer than in the past. One single delay in the chain can stop the entire process.

The crux of the problem is that a systems integrator, who is the one that actually sells the final product, i.e. gets paid last and carries the most tail risk, can only raise the price to levels that themarket will sustain. Subcontractors, on the other hand, can push for higher margins and lock in a profit before the final plane is sold and thereby limit their exposure to cost over-runs.

ROE

The return on net assets or return on equity (ROE) metric is a very powerful proxy to measuring how efficiently a company uses its equity or net assets (assets liabilities; where assets are everything the company owns and liabilities include everything the company owes) to create profit,

The difference between high-ROE and low-ROE businesses is illustrated here using a mining company and a software company as (oversimplified) examples. The mining company needs a lot of physical hard assets to dig metals out of the ground, and hence ties up considerable amount of capital in its operations. A software company on the other hand is asset-light as the cost of computing hardwarehas exponentially fallen in line with Morse Law. Thus, if both companies make the same amount of profit, then the software company will have achieved this more efficiently than the mining company, i.e. required less initial capital to create the same amount of earnings.The ROE is a useful metric for investors, as it provides information regarding the expected rate of return on their investment. Indeed, in the long run, the rate of return on an investment in a company will converge to the ROE.

In order to secure funding from investors and achieve favourable borrowing rates from lenders, a company is therefore incentivised to beef up its ROE. This can either be done by reducing the denominator of the ratio, or by increasing the numerator. Reducing equity either means running a more asset-light business or by increasing liabilities via the form of debt. This is why debt is also a form of leverage as it allows a company to earn money on outside capital. Increasing the numerator is simple on paper but harder in reality; increasing earnings without adding capacity, e.g. by cost reductions or price increases.

Therefore ROE is a helpful performance metric for management and investors but it is not the ultimate goal. The goal of a for-profit company is to makemoney, i.e. maximise the earnings power. Would you rather own a company that earns 20% on a business with $100 of equity or 5% on company with $1000 of tied up capital? Yes, the first company is more efficient at turning over a profit but that profit is considerably smaller than for the second company. Of course, if the first company has the chance to grow to the size of the second in a few years time, and maintains or even expands its ROE, then this is a completely different scenario and it would be a good investment to forego some earnings now for higher cashflow in the future. However, by and large, this is not the situation for large aircraft manufacturers such as Boeing and Airbus, and restricted to fast-growing companies in the startup world.

Second, it is foolish to assume that the numerator and denominator are completely decoupled. In fact, in a manufacturing-intense industry such as aerospace, the two terms are closely linked and their behaviour is complex, i.e. their are too many cause-and-effect relationships for us to truly understand how a reduction in assets will effect earnings. Blindly reducing assets, without taking into account its effect on the rate and cost of production, can always be considered as a positive effect as it always increase ROE. In this manner, ROE can be misused as a false excuse for excessive outsourcing. Given the complex relationship in the aerospace industry between earnings and net assets, the real value of the ROE ratio is to provide a ballpark figure of how much extra money the company can earn in its present state with a source ofincremental capital. Thus, if a company with multiple billions in revenue currently has an ROE of 20%, than it can expect to earn an extra 20% if it employs anincremental amount of further capital in the business, where the exact incremental amount is of course privy to interpretation.

In summary, there is no guarantee that a reduction in assets will directly result in an increase in profits, and the ROE metric is easily misused to justify capital reductions and outsourcing, when in fact, it should be used as a ballpark figure to judge how much additional money can currently be made with more capital spending. Thus, ROE should only be used as a performance metric but never as the overall goal of the company.

A cautionary word on efficiency

In a similar manner to ROE, the headcount of a company is an indicator of efficiency. If the same amount of work can be done by fewer people, then the company is naturally operating more efficiently and hence should be more profitable. This is true to an extent but not in the limit. Most engineers will agree that in a perfect world, perfect efficiency is unattainable as a result of dissipating mechanisms (e.g. heat, friction, etc.). Hence, perfect efficiency can only be achieved when no work is done. By analogy, it is meaningless to chase ever-improving levels of efficiencyif this comes at the cost of reduced sales. Therefore, in some instances it may be wise to employ extra labour capacity in non-core activities in order to maintain a highly skilled workforce that is able to react quickly to opportunities in the market place, even if this comes at the cost of reduced efficiency.

So when is outsourcing a good idea?

Outsourcing happens all over the world today. So there is obviously a lot of merit to the idea. However, as I have described above, decisions to outsource should not be made blindly on terms of shedding assets or reducing costs, and need to factored into the design process as early as possible. Outsourcing is a valuable tool in two circumstances:

First, certain components on modern aircraft have become so complex in their own right that it is not economical to design and manufacture these parts in-house. As a result, the whole operation is outsourced to a supplier that specialises in this particular product segment, and can deliver higher quality products than the prime manufacturer. The best example of this are jet engines, which today are built by companies like Rolls-Royce, General Electric and Pratt & Whitney, rather than Airbus and Boeing themselves.

Second, contrary to popular belief, the major benefit of automation in manufacturing is not the elimination of jobs, but an increase in precision. Precision manufacturing prevents the incredibly costly duplication of work on out-of-tolerance parts further downstream in a manufacturing operation. Toyota, for example, understood very early on that in a low-cost operation, getting things right the first time around is key, and therefore anyone on the manufacturing floor has the authority to stop production and sort out problems as they arise. Therefore, access to automated precision facilities is crucial for aircraft manufacturers. However, for certain parts, a prime manufacturer may not be able to justify the high capital outlay for these machines as there is not enough capacity in-house for them to be utilised economically. Under these circumstances, it makes sense to outsource the work to an external company that can pool the work from a number of companies on their machines. This only makes sense if the supplier has sufficient capacity on its machines or is able to provide improved dimensional control, e.g. by providing design for assembly services to make the final product easier to assemble.

Conclusion

After this rather long exposition of the dangers of outsourcing in the aerospace industry, here are some of the key takeaways:

Sources

[1] L.J. Hart-Smith.Out-sourced profits the cornerstone of successful subcontracting. Boeing paper MDC 00K0096. Presented at Boeing Third Annual Technical Excellence (TATE) Symposium, St. Louis, Missouri, 2001.

[2] N.N. Taleb. How to legally own another person. Skin in the Game. pp. 10-15.https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/50282823/employee.pdf

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Futurism Wikipedia

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Futurismen var en kulturell riktning inom konst, litteratur, musik och arkitektur. Den efterstrvade ett radikalt uppbrott frn tidigare traditioner. Futurismen grundades 1909 av Filippo Tommaso Marinetti.

Marinetti publicerade det frsta futuristiska manifestet i Le Figaro i februari 1909, i vilket han proklamerade krig mot traditionalismen. ret drp utgavs tre manifest, dribland mlarnas "Tekniska manifest". Futurismen hyllade maskinen, frkastade ldre tiders konst och fresprkade nedrivning av museerna. Futuristiska mlningar framstllde gestalter och freml i rrelse; poesin begagnade sig av ett "industriellt" bildsprk, en grammatik och ett ordfrrd som medvetet frstrts i onomatopoesins tjnst. Den politiska fascismens ideologi sgs ha tagit starka intryck av futurismen och uppmuntrade till flera av punkterna i det futuristiska manifestet.

Futuristerna publicerade ett antal manifest angende musik dr de bland annat fresprkade oljud, atonalitet, polyfoni, mikroljud och den moderna stadens ljud som bilar och flygplan framfr traditionalismens musik. Kompositrerna skulle verge imitationen och influenserna frn frr och istllet komponera fr framtiden.

Luigi Russolo konstruerade s kallade oljudsmaskiner (intonarumori) som de framfrde konserter med. Senare band s som brittiska Whitehouse, japanska Merzbow och svenska Brighter Death Now kan hrledas till futurismens ider om musik.

Kring 1910 vxte en futuristisk gren fram i Ryssland. Man kan datera dess fdelse till 1912 d poeterna Majakovskij och Chlebnikov publicerade manifestet En rfil t den offentliga smaken.[1]Vladimir Majakovskij var en rysk poet som med dikten Ett moln i byxor frn 1915 demonstrerade den nya futuristiska stilen, fartfylld och telegramartad, fr det ryska avantgardet. Hans mest knda dikt r dock 150 000 000 (titeln syftar p Sovjets dvarande folkmngd) vari han hyllar den nya staten. Den ryska futurismen delade sig sedan i tv grenar: ego-futurismen i Petersburg och kubo-futurismen i Moskva.[1] Ego-futurismens namn kommer frn det fokus p jaget som riktningens fretrdare hade. Den ledande ego-futuristen var Igor Severjanin som debuterade 1913 med diktsamlingen Den skskjudande bgaren.Han blev enormt populr och valdes 1918 till poesins kung i Moskva.[1] Kubo-futurismen hnger samman med kubismen och syftade till att framstlla ting s som de framstod i det inre medvetandet och inte som de tedde sig fr de yttre sinnena.[1] Gemensamt fr de ryska futuristerna var radikalismen och viljan att provocera. Man gnade sig bland annat t galna, fantasifulla, anarkistiska phitt - det vi idag kallar happenings.[1]

Litterarrt gnade sig futuristerna t sprkliga normbrott. De ville befria sprket frn den litterra traditionen och vardagssprkets konventioner och p s stt gra det autonomt.[2] Futuristerna frskte inom poesin bearbeta sprket p stavelseniv - en poet sgs ha framfrt en dikt bestende enbart av stavelsen "ju".[2] Inriktningen p textens autonomi gav impulser till den gren inom litteraturforskning som kallas rysk formalism. Denna gren satte texten i fokus och underskte dess ljud och form och vad det var som egentligen gjorde den till en text.[2]

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Futurism Wikipedia

Ph.D. in Nanoengineering | Joint School of Nanoscience and …

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Nanoengineering Core Courses (12 credit hours)Simulation and ModelingMethods in Nanoscience and Nanoengineering (3)

Fundamentals of Nanoengineering: Chemical Biochemical Principles (3)

Fundamentals of Nanoengineering: Physical Principles (3)

Fundamentals of Nanomaterials(3)

Laboratory Rotations (4 credit hours)

In the first two semesters of study, students will rotate through four research labs (seven weeks in each lab) to become familiar with research at JSNN and to provide training in laboratory techniques needed for dissertation research. With the advice of the advisor/committee and permission of the faculty member responsible for the lab, students will select labs based on their interests.

Professional Development Seminars (2 credit hours)

In the first two semesters of study, students will take professional development seminars that will expose them to a variety of research and professional development topics such as intellectual property issues, confidentiality, ethical issues in nanoscience, writing successful grant proposals, effective presentation and writing skills, etc.

Qualifying Examination

Students will take a qualifying exam on their knowledge of the fundamentals of nanoscience at the end of their first year of full-time student in order to continue in the program.

Advanced Nanoengineering Electives (12 credit hours)

Beginning in their second year in the program, each student will be required to take four doctoral-level elective courses:physics, chemistry, engineering, mathematics,computer/computational Sciences and Engineering, and biology.These courses are designed to provide students with the scientific preparation to carry out their dissertation research and to enable them to work in an industrial or government research environment or to teach and do research in a traditional academic department.

Dissertation Research (12 credit hours)

By the end of the first year, students will select a dissertation advisor and prepare a dissertation proposal. Students will present their proposals to a general JSNN audience in the form of a seminar and defend the proposal in the form of an oral exam.

Dissertation research begins in the second year and students will take a minimum of 3 hours of dissertation research each semester.

Students will complete a written dissertation of their research and give a public oral presentation of the completed work. The student also must defend orally the dissertation to the dissertation comment. The seminar and defense must occur in the same term that the student applies for graduation.

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Kissinger, Eugenics And Depopulation – Rense

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Dr. Henry Kissinger, who wrote: "Depopulation should be the highest priority of U.S. foreign policy towards the Third World." Research on population control, preventing future births, is now being carried out secretly by biotech companies. Dr. Ignacio Chapela, a University of California microbiologist, discovered that wild corn in remote parts of Mexico is contaminated with lab altered DNA. That discovery made him a threat to the biotech industry. Chapela was denied tenure at UC Berkeley when he reported this to the scientific community, despite the embarrassing discovery that UC Chancellor Berdahl, who was denying him tenure, was getting large cash payments - $40,000 per year - from the LAM Research Corp. in Plano, Texas. Berdahl served as president of Texas A&M University before coming to Berkeley. During a presentation about his case, Chapela revealed that a spermicidal corn developed by a U.S. company is now being tested in Mexico. Males who unknowingly eat the corn produce non-viable sperm and are unable to reproduce. Depopulation, also known as eugenics, is quite another thing and was proposed under the Nazis during World War II. It is the deliberate killing off of large segments of living populations and was proposed for Third World countries under President Carter's administration by the National Security Council's Ad Hoc Group on Population Policy. National Security Memo 200, dated April 24, 1974, and titled "Implications of world wide population growth for U.S. security & overseas interests," says: "Dr. Henry Kissinger proposed in his memorandum to the NSC that "depopulation should be the highest priority of U.S. foreign policy towards the Third World." He quoted reasons of national security, and because `(t)he U.S. economy will require large and increasing amounts of minerals from abroad, especially from less-developed countries ... Wherever a lessening of population can increase the prospects for such stability, population policy becomes relevant to resources, supplies and to the economic interests of U.S. Depopulation policy became the top priority under the NSC agenda, Club of Rome and U.S. policymakers like Gen. Alexander Haig, Cyrus Vance, Ed Muskie and Kissinger. According to an NSC spokesman at the time, the United States shared the view of former World Bank President Robert McNamara that the "population crisis" is a greater threat to U.S. national security interests than nuclear annihilation.In 1975, Henry Kissinger established a policy-planning group in the U.S. State Department's Office of Population Affairs. The depopulation "GLOBAL 2000" document for President Jimmy Carter was prepared. It is no surprise that this policy was established under President Carter with help from Kissinger and Brzezinski - all with ties to David Rockefeller. The Bush family, the Harriman family - the Wall Street business partners of Bush in financing Hitler - and the Rockefeller family are the elite of the American eugenics movement. Even Prince Philip of Britain, a member of the Bilderberg Group, is in favor of depopulation: "If I were reincarnated I would wish to be returned to earth as a killer virus to lower human population levels" (Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh, leader of the World Wildlife Fund, quoted in "Are You Ready for Our New Age Future?" Insiders Report, American Policy Center, December 1995). Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has been proposing, funding and building Bio-Weapons Level 3 and Level 4 labs at many places around the U.S. even on university campuses and in densely populated urban locations. In a Bio-Weapons Level 4 facility, a single bacteria or virus is lethal. Bio-Weapons Level 4 is the highest level legally allowed in the continental U.S. For what purpose are these labs being developed, and who will make the decisions on where bio-weapons created in these facilities will be used and on whom? More than 20 world-class microbiologists have been murdered since 2002, mostly in the U.S. and the UK. Nearly all were working on development of ethnic-specific bio-weapons (see Smart Dust, Roboflies &). Citizens around the U.S. are frantically filing lawsuits to stop these labs on campuses and in communities where they live. Despite the opposition of residents living near UC Davis, where a Bio-Weapons Level 4 lab was planned, it had the support of the towns mayor. She suddenly reversed her position after a monkey escaped from a high security primate facility on the campus where the bio-weapons lab was proposed. Residents claimed that if UC Davis could not keep monkeys from escaping from their cages, they certainly could not guarantee that a single virus or bacteria would not escape from a test tube. The AWOL monkey killed the project (see Smart Dust, Roboflies&). Population is a political problem. The extreme secrecy surrounding the takeover of nuclear weapons, NASA and the space program and the development of numerous bio-weapons labs is a threat to civil society, especially in the hands of the military and corporations. The fascist application of all three of these programs can be used to achieve established U.S. government depopulation policy goals, which may eliminate 2 billion of the worlds existing population through war, famine, disease and any other methods necessary. Two excellent examples of existing U.S. depopulation policy are, first, the long-term impact on the civilian population from Agent Orange in Vietnam, where the Rockefellers built oil refineries and aluminum plants during the Vietnam War. The second is the permanent contamination of the Middle East and Central Asia with depleted uranium, which, unfortunately, will destroy the genetic future of the populations living in those regions and will also have a global effect already reflected in increases in infant mortality reported in the U.S., Europe, and the UK. References Birth defects: The Tiny Victims of Desert Storm,Life photo-essay (1995), http://www.life.com /Life/essay/gulfwar/gulf01.html. Statement by Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh, http://homepage.mac.com /kaaawa/iblog/C337802379/E1557478132/. Smart dust, roboflies, microbugs: UC is spying on youby Leuren Moret, San Francisco Bay View, Feb. 26, 2003, http://www.mindfully.org /Nucs/2003/Berkeley-Library-Classified22feb03.htm. San Francisco Bay View National Black Newspaper 4917 Third Street San Francisco California 94124 Phone: (415) 671-0789 Fax: (415) 671-0316 editor@sfbayview.co http://www.sfbayview.com /110304/ucregents110304.shtml

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War Against The Weak – Home Page

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THE BEST BOOK ON EUGENICS. Edwin Black has written what may well be the best book ever published about the American eugenics movement and the horrific events it spawned. Combining exhaustive research, a very readable style, and just the right touch of moral outrage, Black splendidly conveys the evil depth and breadth of eugenics philosophy, the pseudo-science and social theory that unleashed a half-century of war against society's most vulnerable citizens.

Wesley Smith National Review

Gregory Mott Washington Post Book World

Gregg Sapp Library Journal

Daniel Kevles New York Times Book Review

Adrienne Miller Esquire Magazine

Starred Review Publishers Weekly

Ray Olson Booklist

Tony Platt Los Angeles Times Book Review

David Plotz Mother Jones Magazine

Paul Ranier Der Spiegel

Nancy Schapiro St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Carl Zimmer Discovery

Cynthia Dettelbach Cleveland Jewish News

Steve Courtney Hartford Courant

Mark Lewis Tampa Tribune

Jack Fischel The Forward

Amy DeBaets Ethics and Medicine

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War Against The Weak - Home Page

Nice Beaches – Best Beaches in Nice – Nice France Beaches

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Nice France Beaches

In Nice France beaches run along the entire seafront. The Nice beaches are some of the most visited of all French Riviera beaches. They extend uninterrupted for more than four miles, following the Promenade des Anglais from the international airport all the way to the foot of the Chteau in the Vieux-Port (old port).

A great suggested itinerary for a day in Nice France would be spending a morning seeing some of the Nice attractions and an afternoon by the Nice beaches. Like many other French Riviera beaches, the Nice beaches are covered with galets, hard round marble-like pebbles sometimes as large as golf balls. The rocks have been worn smooth by the sea, but can still be uncomfortable to tender feet. Flip-flops or more stylish French beach shoes are highly recommended. For sunbathing, consider taking a padded mat or renting a sun lounger available at all the best beaches by Nice.

The best beaches by Nice are often private. The fifteen private Nice beaches alternate with the public areas. Most are clustered at the more scenic, western end of the bay close to old Nice. Some belong to seafront Nice hotels such as the Beau Rivage. Others welcome anyone willing to pay to 10 to 20 euros for a half-day or full-day pass. Renting a chaise longue, mattress, or parasol is extra. Outside food is also prohibited in these private areas - the best beaches by Nice expect you to buy food from their own restaurant. This is a good idea if you want to enjoy a day of luxury on a French beach; it can be very pleasant (though expensive) to have drinks brought right to your seat. Be sure to request a place on the premier ligne, closest to the Mediterranean and its cooling breeze. One quality private beach is the Castel Plage (plage is the French word for beach) at the foot of the Chteau, but all the private areas offer a welcome respite from the crowds and loud children on some of the other Nice beaches. If you only have a few days to spend on a French beach, paying for the private area can be well worth the cost.

A tip for a cheaper visit to the Nice beaches is to settle in on your own pad along the fence to a private beach. You can consume your own food and drink but still enjoy the music and atmosphere of the best beaches by Nice. If you visit the private Nice beaches for a sandwich, they will let you use their bathrooms. There are also free showers at regular intervals along the public Nice beaches. Sleeping on the Nice beaches used to be common, though illegal. It has become more difficult with the introduction of bright nighttime lights.

The sunbathing on French Riviera beaches often shocks American visitors. It is not unusual for women on a French beach to sunbathe topless, though on Nice France beaches full nudity is prohibited.

In Nice France beaches are most crowded in July and August, the standard vacation months in Europe. If you are visiting the Nice beaches in these months, you may need to call ahead to reserve a lounger or parasol. A visit to the French Riviera beaches is an essential part of any Cte d'Azur vacation and the best beaches by Nice are as good as any French beach.

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Nice Beaches - Best Beaches in Nice - Nice France Beaches

The Islands – Crown Heights – Brooklyn, NY – Yelp

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The Islands really isn't the type of place you should go on a first date. That's not to say that it isn't good, but the fact that the dining area is an attic-sized room with poor ventilation, less-than-ideal lighting, and variable service doesn't make it the best setting for a seamless meal. For those of us who don't live near Prospect Heights and can't take advantage of their take-out service, however, dining in is the only option for a chance to try the Jamaican fare.

I was able to wander in thanks to the recommendation of a friend, after stepping inside the first floor, which holds the kitchen and a small counter area, we were able to head upstairs into the dining room to snag the one remaining table. The space is tight, and we could clearly overhear our neighbors' conversations; again, it's a venue to visit solely for the food, and not for the ambiance nor service. There were extended periods of time that the lone server was gone for as she probably doubled up on tasks in the kitchen or on the phone. Thankfully, we were able to get our orders in after deciding on a side and an entree to share.

The Mac & Cheese is worth an order, a cube of pasta that's generously doused in creamy, well-seasoned melted cheese. Most importantly, there's a layer of crisp crust left on the top, the remnants of being properly baked in the oven to produce the much-needed textural contrast. One is enough to share, or make an appetizer of as we did, since the entrees are more than substantial.

The main dishes are served in two sizes, a small and a large, and a large is certainly large enough to consistute two meals. We ended up splitting a large order of the Jerk Chicken, which was a wise decision; the plate consists of three pieces of chicken, rice with peas, and a lightly dressed side salad. The star of the plate is clearly the chicken; braised to an unbelievably tenderness so that it pulls off the bone at the prodding of the pork and marinated in a mixture of various spices, honey, barbecue sauce, and the creeping heat of scotch bonnets, it's an addicting and delicious bite. You'll be tempted not to share, but given the sheer portion of the plate, it's an inevitable outcome.

Also of note is that The Islands accepts Cash Only, and has an additional $2 charge for dining in. Regardless, it's certainly worth a visit for those looking for authentic Jamaican cuisine; just be sure to bring your appetite.

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The Islands - Crown Heights - Brooklyn, NY - Yelp

Italian Futurism: An Introduction – Khan Academy

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Can you imagine being so enthusiastic about technology that you name your daughter Propeller? Today we take most technological advances for granted, but at the turn of theUmberto Boccioni, Unique Forms of Continuity in Space, 1913 (cast 1931), bronze, 43 7/8 x 34 7/8 x 15 3/4" (MoMA) last century, innovations like electricity, x-rays, radio waves, automobiles and airplanes were extremely exciting. Italy lagged Britain, France, Germany, and the United States in the pace of its industrial development. Culturally speaking, the countrys artistic reputation was grounded in Ancient, Renaissance and Baroque art and culture. Simply put, Italy represented the past.

In the early 1900s, a group of young and rebellious Italian writers and artists emerged determined to celebrate industrialization. They were frustrated by Italys declining status and believed that the Machine Age would result in an entirely new world order and even a renewed consciousness.

Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, the ringleader of this group, called the movement Futurism. Its members sought to capture the idea of modernity, the sensations and aesthetics of speed, movement, and industrial development.

Marinetti launched Futurism in 1909 with the publication his Futurist manifesto on the front page of the French newspaper Le Figaro. The manifesto set a fiery tone. In it Marinetti lashed out against cultural tradition (passatismo, in Italian) and called for the destruction of museums, libraries, and feminism. Futurism quickly grew into an international movement and its participants issued additional manifestos for nearly every type of art: painting, sculpture, architecture, music, photography, cinemaeven clothing.

The Futurist paintersUmberto Boccioni, Carlo Carr, Luigi Russolo, Gino Severini, and Giacomo Ballasigned their first manifesto in 1910 (the last named his daughter ElicaPropeller!). Futurist painting had first looked to the color and the optical experiments of the late 19th century, but in the fall of 1911, Marinetti and the Futurist painters visited the Salon dAutomne in Paris and saw Cubism in person for the first time. Cubism had an immediate impact that can be seen in BoccionisMateriaof 1912 for example. Nevertheless, the Futurists declared their work to be completely original.

Umberto Boccioni, Materia, 1912 (reworked 1913), oil on canvas, 226 x 150 cm (Mattioli Collection loaned to Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice)

The Futurists were particularly excited by the works of late 19th-century scientist and photographer tienne-Jules Marey, whose chronophotographic (time-based) studies depicted the mechanics of animal and human movement.

A precursor to cinema, Mareys innovative experiments with time-lapse photography were especially influential for Balla. In his painting Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash, the artist playfully renders the dog's (and dog walker's) feet as continuous movements through space over time.

Giacomo Balla, Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash, 1912, oil on canvas, 35 1/2 x 43 1/4 " (Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo)

Entranced by the idea of the dynamic, the Futurists sought to represent an objects sensations, rhythms and movements in their images, poems and manifestos. Such characteristics are beautifully expressed in Boccionis most iconic masterpiece, Unique Forms of Continuity in Space (see above).

Nike (Winged Victory) of Samothrace, c. 190 B.C.E. 3.28m high, Hellenistic Period, marge, (Muse du Louvre, Paris) The choice of shiny bronze lends a mechanized quality to Boccioni's sculpture, so here is the Futurists ideal combination of human and machine. The figures pose is at once graceful and forceful, and despite their adamant rejection of classical arts, it is also very similar to the Nike of Samothrace.

Futurism was one of the most politicized art movements of the twentieth century. It merged artistic and political agendas in order to propel change in Italy and across Europe. The Futurists would hold what they called serate futuriste, or Futurist evenings, where they would recite poems and display art, while also shouting politically charged rhetoric at the audience in the hope of inciting riot. They believed that agitation and destruction would end the status quo and allow for the regeneration of a stronger, energized Italy.

These positions led the Futurists to support the coming war, and like most of the groups members, leading painter Boccioni enlisted in the army during World War I. He was trampled to death after falling from a horse during training. After the war, the members intense nationalism led to an alliance with Benito Mussolini and his National Fascist Party. Although Futurism continued to develop new areas of focus (aeropittura, for example) and attracted new membersthe so-called second generation of Futurist artiststhe movements strong ties to Fascism has complicated the study of this historically significant art.

Essay by Emily Casden

Additional resources:

Unique Forms in the Continuity of Space at MoMA

The Futurist Manifestos and related materials

Charles Bernstein reading the Futurist Manifesto at MoMA (video)

Boccioni's Materia in the Peggy Guggenheim Collection

tienne-Jules Marey at MoMA

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Italian Futurism: An Introduction - Khan Academy

Futurism (song) MuseWiki: Supermassive wiki for the band Muse

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Additional information

The song itself is about a futuristic world, hence the pre-release name of "Electro Empire", and fits into the theme of Origin of Symmetry, but wasn't included due to its difficulty to play live. The song was otherwise called "Spectrum" and "Tesseract" whilst in production; tesseract being the name given to the 4-dimensional shape analogous to a cube.

The song features a powerful bass line and is similar to Hysteria's. According to Matt in a tweet, Futurism led to the idea for Hysteria bassline.

An alternative interpretation is that the song is about a near-future world formed as a result of modern developments, particularly the way social networking in fact keeps us apart from people ("grounded, boxed in") and the use of technology makes us like "silent gods".

After playing the song twice in 2015, Matt cited Futurism and The Groove as two examples of b-sides he felt were better than some album tracks.[2]

The first seconds of the song bear a distinct resemblance to the song "Too Many Puppies" by Primus which has been occasionally played by Muse as a riff.

A first version of Futurism was performed live for the first time at Reading Festival 2000 in 2000, in which lyrics of the song were slightly different (the original live version is also one of only four Muse songs that contains swearing). Despite the band said it can get difficult to play, the song was performed live for the second time ever at Zepp Tokyo in 2013.

Other performances of the song were during the Psycho UK Tour in 2015, in Newport and in Exeter.

Futurism is actually an italian art movement started by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti in 1909. It containained the first glmpse of what is now known as modern art. The whole article can be found here: [2]

Apostasy and apathy still rules Yeah you know it's cool Just suck and see A future turns us into silent gods And I won't miss you at all

Grounded Boxed in Like the evil in your veins Grounded Boxed in I am stuck with you

Fate can't decide Alignment of the planets in your hands Come on crush our plans Just suck and see A future that won't let you disagree And I won't miss you at all

Grounded Boxed in Like the evil in your veins Grounded Boxed in I am stuck with you

Feel it, hear it, right apathy you are, see it, be it, you'll see

Apostasy and apathy still rules Yeah you know it's cool Can't wait and see A future turns us into silent gods And I won't miss you at all

Grounded Grounded Like the evil in your veins Grounded Boxed in I am stuck with you

Pursue Alignment of the planets in your hands Come on and fuck my plans Can't wait and see A future won't just let you disagree Won't miss you at all

Grounded Boxed in Like the evil in your veins Grounded Boxed in I am stuck with you

Be it, Be it, Be it, Be it

Go back to Origin of Symmetry

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Futurism (song) MuseWiki: Supermassive wiki for the band Muse

Futurism – Art Movements

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An Italian avant-garde art movement that took speed, technology and modernity as its inspiration, Futurism portrayed the dynamic character of 20th century life, glorified war and the machine age, and favoured the growth of Fascism.

The movement was at its strongest from 1909, when Filippo Marinettis first manifesto of Futurism appeared, until the end of World War One. Futurism was unique in that it was a self-invented art movement.

The idea of Futurism came first, followed by a fanfare of publicity; it was only afterwards that artists could find a means to express it. Marinettis manifesto, printed on the front page of Le Figaro, was bombastic and inflammatory in tone set fire to the library shelves flood the museums suggesting that he was more interested in shocking the public than exploring Futurisms themes.

Painters in the movement did have a serious intent beyond Marinettis bombast, however. Their aim was to portray sensations as a synthesis of what one remembers and of what one sees, and to capture what they called the force lines of objects.

The futurists representation of forms in motion influenced many painters, including Marcel Duchamp and Robert Delaunay, and such movements as Cubism and Russian Constructivism.

Representative Artists: Filippo Tommaso Marinetti Giacomo Balla Umberto Boccioni Carlo Carr Gino Severini

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Futurism - Art Movements

Top Beaches in New York City – Explore New York

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Outdoors & Recreation by Heather Liang, 05/14/2014 [Updated 05/13/2015]

While a trip to the beach might not automatically spring to mind when many visitors plan their trips to New York City, it's actually one of the most enjoyable, authentic and affordable experiences you can have during a summertime stay. The City boasts 14 miles of beaches, the majority of which are easily accessible by public transportation, and we've organized these urban oases by borough for our handy guide to NYC sands. While Staten Island and Brooklyn remain the most beach-rich boroughs, Manhattan, the Bronx and Queens all have something special to bring to the tableincluding fishing spots, waterfront beer gardens and picnicking escapes on Governors Island. The City's beaches are open beginning Memorial Day weekend, and they close on Labor Day; lifeguards are on duty 10am6pm during the season. Read on for more details and information on what to do and see at some of NYC's best sand-and-surf destinations.

Due to ongoing restoration efforts, parts of some beaches may be closed. Be sure to check nyc.gov/parksfor updates.

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Top Beaches in New York City - Explore New York

National Capital Astronomers, Washington, D.C. Metro Area

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HOME | Telescope Making Workshops | Exploring the Sky | Contact Info | Star Dust Archive | Links

Serving science and society since 1937. The National Capital Astronomers (NCA) is a non-profit, membership supported, volunteer run, public service corporation dedicated to advancing space technology, astronomy, and related sciences through information, participation, and inspiration, via research, lectures and presentations, publications, expeditions, tours, public interpretation, and education. NCA is the astronomy affiliate of the Washington Academy of Sciences. We are also members of the Astronomical League, in fact NCA members helped form the Astronomical League a long time ago.

NCA has for many years published a monthly newsletter called Star Dust that is available for members. Besides announcement of coming NCA meetings and a calendar of monthly events Star Dust contains reviews of past meeting and articles on current astronomical events.

NCA is a very unusual astronomy organization. All are welcome to join. Everyone who looks up to the sky with wonder is an astronomer and welcomed by NCA. You do not have to own a telescope, but if you do own one that is fine, too. You do not have to be deeply knowledgeable in astronomy , but if you are knowledgeable in astronomy that is fine, too. You do not have to have a degree, but if you do that is fine, too. WE ARE THE MOST DIVERSE local ASTRONOMY CLUB anywhere. Come to our meetings and you will find this out. WE REALLY MEAN THIS!

NCA has regular monthly meetings September through June on the second Saturday of the month.

Public transportation: Directions/maps to the UMD Observatory Inclement weather: In case of severe weather (tornado/snow/impassable roads), a notice will be placed on the Observatory Website on the day of the meeting. (Be sure to refresh/reload the page to make sure you are seeing an updated page.)

Most meetings will be held at the University of Maryland Astronomical Observatory in College Park, Maryland.

7:30 pm at the University of Maryland Observatory on Metzerott Road.

Speaker: Dean Howarth and Jennifer Horowitz

Abstract: William Herschel moved from Hanover, Germany to Bath, England, to work as a musician and composer. He was quite successful there, and he pursuaded his sister Caroline to join him in Bath, both as a companion and to join in his musical endeavors. William became an avid amateur astronomer in his spare time. Caroline participated, too, and eventually became an enthusiastic and very skilled observer, participating in William's important discoveries, and then making many of her own. Discovery of Uranus, ending the fruitless attempts by Kepler and others to associate the five previously known planets with the five regular polyhedra.

William was the first to map out the uneven distribution of stars on the celestial sphere. The individual stars that we can see by eye through a telescope are all in our local neighborhood of the Galaxy, so this was the first rough map of the Galaxy, long before we knew that the Milky Way is only one island galaxy, and not the whole Universe.

The talk this evening will share some of the Herschels' stories regarding the discovery of Uranus and comets. But the talk will also point out ... and to speak on the importance of cooperation between like-minded men and women of science. How the primacy of discovery is balanced with peer review and even critique...and scientific societies (like the Royal Society, or even the NCA!) promote a community of discovery. This cosmopolitan ethos was peaking in the 18th century as scientists from across the globe were "citizens of the cosmos".

Bio: Dean Howarth is a veteran physics teacher from northern Virginia. He has created a unique living history program for his students, showing vividly how our understanding of the world has developed. He has extended this activity into a community service, with performances at museums and historic sites. As the Natural Philosopher, Dean recreates episodes in the history of science. His web site is http://www.livinghistoriesofscience.com .

Using a large repertoire of replica scientific devices, specimens, and demonstrations, his living history lessons have been performed at a number of regional museums, schools, historical sites, and festivals. Besides showing the roots of our present understanding, these performances also show how the public first heard about new discoveries.

Mr. Howarth will be joined by one of his former students, Jennifer Horowitz, who is currently pursuing her undergraduate degree from the College of William & Mary. As a student re-enactor, she has performed at Mount Vernon, the Smithsonian Castle, the USA Sci & Engineering Festival, and the Arlington Planetarium.

Weather-permitting, there will be observing through the telescopes after the meeting for members and guests.

Telescope-making and mirror-making classes with Guy Brandenburg at the Chevy Chase Community Center, at the intersection of McKinley Street and Connecticut Avenue, NW, a few blocks inside the DC boundary, on the northeast corner of the intersection, in the basement (wood shop), on Fridays, from 6:30 to 9:30 PM. For information visit Guy's Website To contact Guy, use this phone #: 202-262-4274 orEmail Guy.

Exploring the Sky is an informal program that for over sixty years has offered monthly opportunities for anyone in the Washington area to see the stars and planets through telescopes from a location within the District of Columbia. Sessions are held in Rock Creek Park once each month on a Saturday night from April through November, starting shortly after sunset. We meet in the field just south of the intersection of Military and Glover Roads NW, near the Nature Center. A parking lot is located next to the field. Beginners (including children) and experienced stargazers are all welcome-and it's free! Questions? Call the Nature center at (202) 895-6070 or check: Exploring the Sky @ Rock Creek. Download the flier!

NCA constitution and by-laws current as of August 28, 2005 they need some changes so we can continue to be a healthy organization. NCA constitution and by-laws revision as of October 25, 2005 proposal.

HOME | Telescope Making Workshops | Exploring the Sky | Contact Info | Star Dust Archive | Links

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National Capital Astronomers, Washington, D.C. Metro Area

Artificial intelligence news, articles and information:

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TV.NaturalNews.com is a free video website featuring thousands of videos on holistic health, nutrition, fitness, recipes, natural remedies and much more.

CounterThink Cartoons are free to view and download. They cover topics like health, environment and freedom.

The Consumer Wellness Center is a non-profit organization offering nutrition education grants to programs that help children and expectant mothers around the world.

Food Investigations is a series of mini-documentaries exposing the truth about dangerous ingredients in the food supply.

Webseed.com offers alternative health programs, documentaries and more.

The Honest Food Guide is a free, downloadable public health and nutrition chart that dares to tell the truth about what foods we should really be eating.

HealingFoodReference.com offers a free online reference database of healing foods, phytonutrients and plant-based medicines that prevent or treat diseases and health conditions.

HerbReference.com is a free, online reference library that lists medicinal herbs and their health benefits.

NutrientReference.com is a free online reference database of phytonutrients (natural medicines found in foods) and their health benefits. Lists diseases, foods, herbs and more.

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Goethe-Universitt Molecular Medicine (Master of Science)

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Overview Conditions of admission Applications

Overview

The overall objective is an in-depth education of molecular and cellular basics in the operation of the human organ system as well as pathogenesis and therapy of human diseases. One focus of the education will be in the fields of drug research, cardiovascular research and oncology/immunology. Through broad professional education and teaching of different methodical and conceptional areas, students will learn to individually perform research in basic sciences as well as clinical-translational research (klinisch-translationale Forschung) in molecular medicine. The Masters program in molecular medicine will convey students the required knowledge and skills, train individual scientific thinking and lead to responsible behavior as a Scientist.

Information from the department Study regulations

Master of Science Molecular Medicine

The standard length of study for the Master of Science degree is 4 semesters.

German and English

The study programme starts at the beginning of the winter semester.

Dr. Simone Horst Tel.: 069-6301-87860 Email: simone.horst@kgu.de

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Conditions of admission

If the university entrance qualification for the consecutive Masters programme (namely the Bachelors degree) has not yet been completed, you can apply for the programme with a transcript of records on the basis of at least 144 credit points. This provisional certificate must be issued by an office authorised to award grades or issue certificates. If a student is admitted, this will be on a provisional basis.

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Applications

01.05. - 15.06.

Online applicationportal for Masters programmes

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Goethe-Universitt Molecular Medicine (Master of Science)

Genetic Engineering (song) – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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"Genetic Engineering" is a song by British band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, released as the first single from their fourth studio album Dazzle Ships. Frontman Andy McCluskey has noted that the song is not an attack on genetic engineering, as many assumed at the time, including veteran radio presenter Dave Lee Travis upon playing the song on BBC Radio 1. McCluskey stated: "I was very positive about the subject. People didn't listen to the lyrics...I think they automatically assumed it would be anti."[2]

Charting at number 20 on the UK Singles Chart, "Genetic Engineering" ended the band's run of four consecutive Top 10 hits in the UK. It was also a Top 20 hit in several European territories, and peaked at number 5 in Spain. It missed the United States Billboard Hot 100 but made number 32 on the Mainstream Rock chart. US critic Ned Raggett retrospectively lauded the "soaring", "enjoyable" single in a positive review of Dazzle Ships for AllMusic, asserting: "Why it wasn't a hit remains a mystery."[3]

Critics in prominent music publications have suggested that the first 45 seconds of the song were a direct influence on Radiohead's "Fitter Happier", which appears on that band's 1997 album OK Computer.[3][4][5] Theon Weber in Stylus argued that the Radiohead track is "deeply indebted" to "Genetic Engineering".[4] The synthesized speech featured on the track is taken from a Speak & Spell, an educational electronic toy developed by Texas Instruments in the 1970s intended to teach children with spelling.

Side one

Side two

Side one

Side two

"Genetic Engineering" was covered by indie rock band Eggs and released as a single in 1994.[10]

It was also covered by Another Sunny Day as a limited edition single in 1989 and as an extra track on the re-release of on their 'London Weekend' album.

Optiganally Yours recorded a cover for a "very low-key tribute compilation".[11]

More recently, it has been covered by the indie rock band Oxford Collapse as part of the Hann-Byrd EP released in 2008.

Read more from the original source:

Genetic Engineering (song) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Libertarianism – The Advocates for Self-Government

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What is Libertarianism?

Libertarians see the individual as the basic, most essential element of society. The word roughly means believer in liberty. Libertarians believe that each individual owns his or her own life and property and has the right to make his own choices about how to live his life as long as he respects the rights of others to do the same.

Liberty is one of the central lessons of world history. Virtually all the progress the human race has enjoyed during the past few centuries is due to the increasing acceptance of free markets, civil liberties and self-ownership.

Libertarianism is thus the combination of liberty (the freedom to live your life in any peaceful way you choose), responsibility (the prohibition against the use of force against others, except in defense) and tolerance (honoring and respecting the peaceful choices of others).

Click here to view some definitions of libertarianism.

Libertarians are not left or right or a combination of the two. Libertarians believe that on every issue you have the right to decide for yourself whats best for you and to act on that belief, so long as you simply respect the right of other people to do the same.

How does this compare with the left and right? Todays liberals tend to value personal liberty, but want significant government control of the economy. Todays conservatives tend to favor economic freedom, but want to use the government to uphold traditional values. Libertarians, in contrast, support both personal and economic liberty.

Libertarianism is the only political movement that consistently advocates a high degree of both personal and economic liberty.

Thomas Jefferson

Modern libertarianism has multiple roots, but perhaps the most important one is the minimal-government republicanism of Americas founding revolutionaries like Thomas Jefferson and the Anti-Federalists. The core ideals of libertarianism that all men are created equal and are endowed with the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness can be seen in the Declaration of Independence and in the limited government established in the Constitution.

Adam Smith and John Stuart Mill are among the most famous of the 18th and 19th centuries classical liberals that developed theories on the invisible hand of free markets. More recently, libertarian philosophy has been explored and defined through Ayn Rands ethical egoism and the Austrian School of free-market economics.

Libertarians want to unleash the positive creative powers of the individual and to create a peaceful, prosperous world. Libertarians understand that static, monolithic bureaucracies generally serve to enrich the current elite structures, damages individuals with unintended consequences and fails to live up to their grand promises more often than not.

History has shown that tyrannical governments ultimately result in suffering and poverty. Libertarians want to empower individuals to take control over their own lives not simply because it is the moral thing to do, but additionally because it results in the most dynamic, prosperous, peaceful societies possible.

Libertarians use a caring, people-centered approach to politics. Politicians too frequently forget that their laws and regulations affect real human beings. Libertarians never lose sight of the fact that each individual is unique and has great potential. Libertarians want a system which encourages us all to discover the best within ourselves, and to make the most of it.

In dealing with political issues, libertarians ask, Is anyone violating anothers rights? If the answer is yes if someone is committing murder, rape, robbery, theft, fraud, arson, trespass, etc. then it is proper to call on the government. If no one is being harmed, the government should not get involved.

Libertarians want to replace as much government as they practically can with private, voluntary alternatives. Some libertarians are minarchists who favor stripping government of most of its accumulated power to meddle, leaving only structures like the police, courts and military to defend our rights and borders. Others are anarcho-capitalists who believe limited government is a contradiction and the free market can provide better law, order and security than any government monopoly.

Libertarians want to break the chains of poverty

As the level of government spending in this country has risen, so has poverty. Government bureaucracies have no incentive to lift people from dependency and every incentive to increase their budgets and power. Libertarians want to break the chains of poverty and help the disabled. By allowing people to keep what they earn, wealth goes directly into the private sector, businesses create more jobs and charitable giving increases.

The current system allows the rich to collude with the government to take your property through eminent domain and taxation. A strong government always becomes an instrument of privilege. The rich can exploit their resources to influence the government to squash competition and receive special favors. Regulations, permits, licensing, zoning and labor laws make it nearly impossible to pull yourself up by the bootstraps.

Stronger property rights and a weaker government would weaken the elite and benefit minorities, small businesses and the poor.

National defense is one of the few legitimate roles of the government, but that defense should be limited to protecting Americans in America. A military force focused on defending America, rather than policing the globe, would reduce the manpower and resource needs that currently stretch and endanger our defense. A non-interventionist military would, over time, acquire fewer enemies and further reduce the need for a massive defense industry and budget.

Absolutely not. You dont have to believe that everyone will be good for freedom to work. Americas Founding Fathers understood that most people were guided by greed, ambition, and the pursuit of their own happiness. That is why they built structures with limited powers, checks and balances, and other limiting factors on the darker sides of human nature. If people are generally not good, the last thing you should want is a powerful government staffed by those evil folks.

Most people, most of the time, deal with each other on the libertarian premise of respect for the rights of others. The absolute majority of people do not steal, or cheat or murder others. A strong respect for property rights and civil liberties gives authority to limited government structures to punish those few who violate the law and provide restitution for those harmed.

The best way to act on liberty is to think about freedom and act on your thoughts. Read libertarian books and publications, and share them with your friends.

Start a libertarian student group. Identify and recruit new libertarians with Operation Politically Homeless. Give a speech or write a letter to the editor. Use the words libertarian and libertarianism in your daily life so more people are exposed to it.

Join a libertarian organization or campaign. Support them with your donations and time. Give to private charities. Run for office. Oppose government expansion at every opportunity. Start your own business, create wealth and support voluntary cooperation.

Join tens of thousands of readers by subscribing to our free biweekly newsletter, the Liberator Online. Each issue has information on libertarian ideas, the liberty movement, current events, useful resources, and the very best ways to help others understand and accept libertarianism.

Visit our Liberty Movement page and explore the various organizations that fight for libertarianism on a daily basis.

Take the Worlds Smallest Political Quiz. See where you fit on the new political map and how your beliefs compare to other political philosophies.

Contact us for more information about libertarianism and the best ways to advance it.

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Libertarianism - The Advocates for Self-Government

Libertarianism

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(NOTE: You must read only those linked materials that are preceded by the capitalized word READ.) Overview of The Problem of Freedom

On the definition of freedom and suggested links: READ: http://www.philosophypages.com/dy/f9.htm#free

For those of you who believe that you are free and have a free will and can make free decisions, here are some interesting definitions and presentations of the basic issues

FREE WILL -Definition http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/freewill/

Definition: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06259a.htm

Human beings are free to choose amongst alternatives available and must be respected as such. This freedom is to be acknowledged and promoted. The believers in free will attempt to argue for their case against those that believe that all human actions are determined by previous events and the laws of the physical universe.

Below are several arguments in support of the Libertarian position.

The libertarians would ask that we consider the DATA of experience:

1. Experience of deliberation

a. I deliberate only about MY behavior

b. I deliberate only about future things

c. I cannot deliberate about what I shall do, if I already know what I am going to do.

d. I cannot deliberate unless I believe that it is "up to me."

2. Experience that it is "up to me" what to do.

They hold that there is no necessity governing human behavior. There is no causal or logical necessity. (Logical Necessity, e.g. principle of non-contradiction) (Causal necessity - physical law, e.g. gravity)

Suggested Reading: John Hospers, The Meaning of Freedom

http://www.vix.com/objectivism/Writing/TiborMachan/DefenseOfFreeWill.html

Richard Taylor is a modern American philosopher who has taught at the University of Rochester and at Hartwick College. Taylor proposes the following method for finding out whether or not determinism is true: We try to see whether it is consistent with certain data, that is, by seeing whether or not it squares with certain things that everyone knows, or believes himself to know, or with things everyone is at least more sure about than the answer to the question at issue. (Metaphysics, 4th ed., Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1992, p. 38)

The following is from http://www.citruscollege.com/ace/Call/PHIL106-1/notes/Taylor.asp 2001.

Taylors data

(1) I sometimes deliberate, with the view to making a decision; a decision, namely, to do this thing or that.

(2) Whether or not I deliberate about what to do, it is sometimes up to me what I do.

By deliberation Taylor means the experience of weighing something in ones mind, of trying out various options in ones mind. There are certain presuppositions of deliberation, namely,

(1) I can deliberate only about my own behavior and never about the behavior of another.

(2) I can deliberate only about future things, never about things past or present.

(3) I cant deliberate about what Im going to do if I already know what Im going to do.

(4) I cant deliberate about what to do, even though I may not know what Im going to do, unless I believe that it is up to me what Im going to do. (pp. 39-40)

These data are not consistent with the thesis of determinism. If determinism is true, then it is an illusion that I ever genuinely deliberate about anything or that anything is ever really up to me. If these data are true, then determinism is false. Taylor argues that it doesnt make any difference whether we are talking about a forthright, hard determinism, like that of Holbach, or a compatibilist, soft determinism, like that of Hume. According to soft determinism, an action is free just so long as it is caused by an internal state of the agent himself or herself. Against this, he proposes the counterexample of an ingenious physiologist who can induce in a subject any volition he pleases, so that, simply by pushing a button, he can cause the subject to have an internal state which the subject will experience as the desire to do a certain thing. If the subject then does that thing, unimpeded by any external obstacle, that action meets the criterion of being a free action, in accordance with the thesis of soft determinism. That is, the action is due to an internal state of the agent and is not opposed by any external factor. However, we see at once that this action is not free, because it was due to the subjects being in a certain internal state over which he or she had no control. Then Taylor points out that the supposition of the work of the ingenious physiologist isn't necessary to reach the same conclusion. As long as there is any cause of the internal state that was not under the control of the person whose internal state it is, the resulting action is not free.

There is a real choice that is not to be evaded, then, between accepting determinism and rejecting the data with which we began, on the one hand, or holding fast to our data and rejecting the thesis which is inconsistent with them. Taylor points out, however, that simply rejecting determinism and embracing the thesis of simple indeterminism, which says that some events are uncaused, brings us no closer to a theory explaining free actions that is consistent with our data. He asks the reader to imagine a case in which his or her right arm is free, according to this conception. That is, it just moves one way or another, without any cause whatever. Plainly, if the agent is not the cause for the arm movements, then those movements are not free, voluntary actions of the agent.

Accordingly, Taylor develops a theory of agency with the following elements:

(1) An action that is free must be caused by the agent who performs it, and it must be such that no other set of antecedent conditions was sufficient for the occurrence of just that action.

(2) An agent is a self or person, and not merely a collection of things or events, but a self-moving being. (pp. 51-52)

Taylor recognizes that this involves a metaphysical commitment to a special kind of causation, and he suggests that perhaps causation is not the best language to use to describe it. He proposes that we might want to say instead that an agent originates, initiates, or simply, performs an action. All other cases of causation we conceive of as a relation between events. One event or set of events is a sufficient, or necessary, or sufficient and necessary condition for the occurrence of another. However, an agent is not an event, and we certainly wouldnt say the mere existence of the agent is ever a sufficient condition for the occurrence of one of his or her free actions. Rather, it is only the free action of the agent that is the cause or the origination of the action. Since Taylor can offer no further explanation of how it that this occurs, he admits that it is possible that the data that this theory was developed to explain might be an illusion after all, and his essay ends on an inconclusive note.

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Richard Taylor: A Contemporary Defense of Free Will

The idea of freedom operative in this view is one in which there is no obstacle or impediment that prevents behavior, no constraints, for it is constraints that force behavior. Freedom of the human agent is free activity that is unimpeded and unconstrained. So, there is the Theory of Agency in which there exist self-determining beings: free and rational. There exists the self or person, a substance and self-moving being. The libertarians believe that this theory is consistent with the data of human consciousness. But that DATA may be illusion!!

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Summary of Taylor's view by Omonia Vinieris (QCC, 2002)

In his work, A Contemporary Defense of Free Will, Taylor refutes the theories held by compatibilism (soft determinism) and simple indeterminism to illustrate their implausibility. He further goes on to affirm his theory of agency to articulate his libertarian standpoint.

Taylor clarifies the concept of deliberation as it is fundamentally the act of considering or assessing something in ones mind. According to Taylor, deliberation encompasses the following premises: One can deliberate solely about ones own conduct and by no means about that of another due to the simple fact that each person makes up ones own mind and never the mind of a different person. There is only deliberation of future actions and never of precedent ones because one can not deliberate about or consider an action that has already transpired. Deliberation is a conditional state that is unconfirmed because it entails the action before it takes place and therefore if one knows or confirms a future action, deliberation is invalid. Altogether, deliberation itself does not exist or ensue if one does not even believe that it is ever ones own consideration that accounts for ones decision to do anything because that is essentially the principle that deliberation embraces.

In his critique of soft determinism, Taylor explains primarily what line of reasoning it maintains and then pinpoints its incongruity to negate its veracity. Compatibilism is a position whose advocates renounce hard determinist thought. Hard determinist position asserts that we are not morally responsible for our own actions because we are not liable for anything we do. Yet, soft determinists say that freedom and determinism are compatible. Determinism is plausibly coherent with freedom as an agent is a carrier of volition and acts appropriately to his or her desires and wishes. On occasion it may be that ones actions are the product of ones deliberation or conditional forethought. Still, if compatibilism holds true it must simultaneously maintain the determinist idea that ones choices are preordained by prenatal events. If this is so, then how can it be possibly up to anyone to do anything?

Simple indeterminism is the denial of determinism. These indeterminists affirm that free agents are morally responsible for their actions which are tamed and controlled. If actions originate from noncausal events as indeterminists claim, then they are chaotic and untamed. Thus, Taylor considers it a contradiction to suggest that ones actions originate from uncaused events because neither is one really a free agent nor morally responsible for his or her actions. These actions are uncontrollable and irresponsible.

Taylors theory of agency proclaims that all events are caused, but unlike determinist theory, some changes or actions have beginnings. A free action is triggered by the agent itself. An agent, in this case, is described as a human, a self-moving body, capable of being the first cause of motion in a causal sequence. It is important that no series of foregoing conditions is adequate for the actual happening of the action, otherwise it would not be free. He further specifies that we should not speak of causation in terms of his free agency. The agent, rather, initiates an action through its performance. An agent, he asserts, is not a set of events that executes causation and therefore it is the free action of the agent that is the cause of the action that occurred.

In the case of an action that is free, it must be such that it is caused by the agent who performs it, but such that no antecedent conditions were sufficient for his performing just that action.

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The Freewill Problem:

Searles Solution to the Freewill Problem:

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There are no greater defenders or representatives of the position that humans have free will than the existentialists.They may not offer strict philosophical proof but they do present some strong language in defense of freedom. The next section presents the existentialist view.

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Libertarianism

libertarianism (moral philosophy) – About.com Agnosticism/Atheism

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libertarianism (moral philosophy)

In philosophy, libertarianism is a position which stands opposite of determinism. According to libertarianism, humans have free will and their actions are not determined by prior physical states. According to libertarians, human freedom is not possible if the universe is wholly deterministic - some amount of indeterminism in human choices and actions must exist, otherwise human freedom is an illusion.

A range of beliefs exists under the label "libertarianism." The most extreme viewpoint holds that human actions aren't determined by anything at all, not even by a person's character, beliefs, or values. Even some libertarians reject this position, arguing that without some strong connection to a person's character and values, it would be difficult to conclude that a person is responsible for their actions.

If indeterministic chance were the complete and sole explanation for all our actions, then we would be free but we would not be responsible - which, ironically, is exactly what libertarians typically fight against. According to them, if our decisions have been determined, then we cannot be held responsible for them - our actions are just the product of physical forces beyond our control.

This means that some amount of determinism must exist so that we can take responsibility and be responsible - especially when it comes to ethical and moral issues.

In moral philosophy, the concept of libertarianism refers to the idea that human free will is a necessary precondition of moral responsibility and, in fact, humans do have this free will. According to the standard libertarian position, human acts cannot be wholly determined by prior states or natural laws.

It is granted that such states and laws may have an influence upon human decisions, but nevertheless those decisions are, in principle, not predictable by reference to those states and laws. Thus, determinism (or at least "hard" determinism) is not true and humans have moral responsibility for their actions.

Traditionally, most forms of libertarianism have been promoted by theists who advocate mind/body dualism. Renee Descartes is a famous advocate of this position.

First, the existence of a non-physical mind means that the locus of decision-making is removed from the realm of physical causality and determinism. Second, they argue that the free will which the mind or spirit possessed is a gift from God. At the same time, though, these theists have also often believed that their god has sufficient knowledge of the future to know what everyone's "free will" decisions will be - so, somehow, human decisions are entirely free yet unalterable.

Non-religious and non-theistic advocates of libertarianism have offered different explanations for how free will and free choice can exist in the context of a physical, causal universe. One common explanation is that not all events are completely determined, or at least completely pre-determined. They are still caused, but causation and determinism are not the same thing. A particular event might, for example, only be statistically likely.

Such a situation is often referred to as "soft causality" and if the brain is a system which can be described in such a way, then brain states are not pre-determined. If the mind is simply the overall state of the brain when it is alive, then the mind is also not pre-determined and, therefore, some degree of free will exists because our choices, decisions, and actions are not pre-determined. There is no need for any god or soul to provide any explanations here.

A third position that is sometimes adopted is to claim that causality simply doesn't apply to human decisions. According to advocates of this position, our decisions may be influenced by "reasons" and "values" and "desires," but none of these things are causes of our actions or decisions. A reason or desire can only influence, not cause, which means that our actions are not determined.

Granted, our reasons and desires might themselves be caused and perhaps even determined, depending on what one thinks of the relationship between the physical brain and the mind, but the final decisions which we make have been removed from that problem. Once again, there is no need for any god or soul to explain anything here - it's a completely naturalistic explanation which does not necessarily exclude belief in any gods or disprove any gods, but gods just aren't relevant.

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Common Misspellings: none

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What are Ethics and Morality? Ethics is the formal study of moral standards and conduct. For this reason, the study of ethics is also often called "moral philosophy." What is good? What is evil? How should I behave - and why? How should I balance my needs against the needs of others?

What is Philosophy? What is philosophy? Is there any point in studying philosophy, or is it a useless subject? What are the different branches of philosophy - what's the difference between aestheitcs and ethics? What's the difference between metaphysics and epistemology?

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libertarianism (moral philosophy) - About.com Agnosticism/Atheism