A orígem da "guerra contra drogas"

Anthony Gregory explica: "... Indeed it was in California that the war on drugs began. The 1875 Opium Dens Ordinance, mostly targeting Chinese immigrants, forever marked San Francisco as a pioneer among prohibitionist municipalities. A state-level law in 1891 mandated warning labels for opium. In 1907 California required prescriptions for opium sales and the drug and paraphernalia were banned statewide in 1909. The same year the U.S. sent Hamilton Wright to the Opium Commission in Shanghai to contemplate a global ban.
On a national level, the United States was a radically free country, as far as drugs were concerned, until the early 20^th century. A 1906 federal law involved small interventions into the drug market but it wasn’t until 1914, in the middle of the horrible Wilson administration, that the Harrison Narcotics Act was signed, signifying the beginning of the end for American drug freedom and so many other liberties that have fallen as collateral damage. For almost a century it’s been a nearly uninterrupted avalanche of prohibitionist nonsense and despotism.
The 1914 Act regulated opium and cocaine and banned heroin outright. Before that, even a child could walk into a pharmacy and buy heroin in measured doses, and there was virtually no associated societal problem to speak of. The next drug nationally prohibited was alcohol, which was constitutionally possible thanks to the 18^th Amendment, after many decades of agitation by social reformers, progressives, puritans, and others who incredibly believed they could eliminate sin through the state’s salvation. Throughout the 1920s the Noble Experiment only proved that neither human nature nor economic law could be overturned by federal legislation. Violent crime skyrocketed. The prison population doubled. Almost half the law enforcement apparatus became dedicated to stamping out liquor. Police departments became even more corrupt than usual. Hundreds of federal officials were fired over bribery and misconduct. By the end of the decade even some former abolitionists saw that prohibition was destroying the country and worked to end it through the 21^st Amendment. 
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Economia da inovação

    

Os mitos da inovação

In this new paperback edition of the classic bestseller, you'll be taken on a hilarious, fast-paced ride through the history of ideas. Author Scott Berkun will show you how to transcend the false stories that many business experts, scientists, and much of pop culture foolishly use to guide their thinking about how ideas change the world. With four new chapters on putting the ideas in the book to work, updated references and over 50 corrections and improvements, now is the time to get past the myths, and change the world.
You'll have fun while you learn:
* Where ideas come from
* The true history of history
* Why most people don't like ideas
* How great managers make ideas thrive
* The importance of problem finding
* The simple plan (new for paperback)
Since its initial publication, this classic bestseller has been discussed on NPR, MSNBC, CNBC, and at Yale University, MIT, Carnegie Mellon University, Microsoft, Apple, Intel, Google, Amazon.com, and other major media, corporations, and universities around the world. It has changed the way thousands of leaders and creators understand the world. Now in an updated and expanded paperback edition, it's a fantastic time to explore or rediscover this powerful view of the world of ideas.

"Small, simple, powerful: an innovative book about innovation." -Don Norman, author of Design of Everyday Things
"Insightful, inspiring, evocative, and just plain fun to read... It's totally great." -John Seely Brown, Former Director, Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC)
"Methodically and entertainingly dismantling the cliches that surround the process of innovation." -Scott Rosenberg, author of Dreaming in Code; cofounder of Salon.com
"Will inspire you to come up with breakthrough ideas of your own." -Alan Cooper, Father of Visual Basic and author of The Inmates are Running the Asylum
"Brimming with insights and historical examples, Berkun's book not only debunks widely held myths about innovation, it also points the ways toward making your new ideas stick." -Tom Kelley, GM, IDEO; author of The Ten Faces of Innovation

Historia natural da inovação

From Publishers Weekly

Johnson--writer, Web guru, and bestselling author of Everything Bad Is Good for You--delivers a sweeping look at innovation spanning nearly the whole of human history. What sparks our great ideas? Johnson breaks down the cultural, biological, and environmental fuel into seven broad "patterns," each packed with diverse, at times almost disjointed anecdotes that Johnson synthesizes into a recipe for success. A section on "slow hunches" captivates, taking readers from the FBI's work on 9/11 to Google's development of Google News. A section on error takes us through a litany of accidental innovations, including the one that eventually led to the invention of the computer. "Being right keeps you in place," Johnson reminds us. "eing wrong forces us to explore." It's eye-opening stuff--although it does require an investment from the reader. But as fans of the author's previous work know, an investment in Johnson pays off, and those who stick with the author as he meanders through an occasional intellectual digression will come away enlightened and entertained, and with something perhaps even more useful--how to recognize the conditions that could spark their own creativity and innovation. Another mind-opening work from the author of Mind Wide Open. (Oct.) (c)
Copyright © PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

The figure of the lone genius may captivate us, but we intuit that such geniuses’ creations don’t materialize in a vacuum. Johnson supported the intuition in his biography of eighteenth-century scientist Joseph Priestly (The Invention of Air, 2009) and here explores it from different angles using sets of anecdotes from science and art that underscore some social or informational interaction by an inventor or artist. Assuring readers that he is not engaged in “intellectual tourism,” Johnson recurs to the real-world effects of individuals and organizations operating in a fertile information environment. Citing the development of the Internet and its profusion of applications such as Twitter, the author ascribes its success to “exaptation” and “stacked platforms.” By which he means that curious people used extant stuff or ideas to produce a new bricolage and did so because of their immersion in open networks. With his own lively application of stories about Darwin’s theory of atolls, the failure to thwart 9/11, and musician Miles Davis, Johnson connects with readers promoting hunches and serendipity in themselves and their organizations. --Gilbert Taylor

Novo (2011): Política da inovação dos Estados Unidos

"Concerned about the U.S. losing its innovative edge? Read Hage's book. He offers a new paradigm that is non-static, evolutionary, and sector focused---the meso level that places innovation processes squarely at the center of analysis. Densely packed with rich examples, this book offers practical, proactive managerial and policy remedies."—Connie K. N. Chang, former Chief of Staff and Research Director to the Under Secretary for Technology, U.S. Department of Commerce

"Restoring the Innovative Edge presents a novel contribution to our understanding of how to create innovative organizations within a fiercely competitive international environment. This book will influence the debate on how to upgrade national competitiveness."—Steven Casper, Henry E. Riggs Professor of Management, Keck Graduate Institute of Applied Life Sciences

"Hage has written a masterful and unique book. He has taken on an incredibly important topic—national and firm competitiveness—and has created a volume that is at once rigorous, creative, and relevant. Hage suggests that sustained competitive advantage is rooted in radical product and process innovation and that these outcomes are nurtured by heterogeneous research teams and contexts. But also, these processes can be shaped by actions that span the firm, its sector, and public policy. Sustained innovation is clearly difficult and requires systematic diagnosis and action. Given its potential as a beacon on this challenging path, Restoring the Innovative Edge belongs on academics desks, in corporate board rooms, on policy makers' agenda, as well as in the managers' office."—Michael Tushman, Paul R. Lawrence, Class of 1942 Professor at the Harvard Business School

"Jerry Hage presents thorough and insightful descriptions of the organizational elements that promote scientific discovery and innovation. Of particular interests are the clear outlines of practical steps for building an organization for innovation; specific examples of highly effective innovative teams; and details on how private-public partnerships can be pro-competitive in rapidly changing technology sectors. Jerry Hage also makes it clear throughout the book that more relevant and timely metrics are necessary inputs into the innovation process."—Kaye Husbands Fealing, Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota and founding Program Director of the Science of Science and Innovation Policy, National Science Foundation

Product Description

Considerable evidence indicates that the U.S. is falling behind when it comes to innovation. In part, this shift stems from the globalization of research and the advancement of other nations. But, it also arises from a widespread failure to adapt to the competitive environment generated by the evolution of science and technology.

The objective of this book is to provide possible remedies for eight key obstacles that the U.S. faces in restoring its innovative edge. Understanding that these remedies are complex, each chapter also discusses the dilemmas and impediments that make change a challenge. Unlike other books that suggest simple fixes to the U.S. innovation crisis, this book argues that the management of innovation requires multiple interventions at four different levels: in research teams, organizations, economic and non-economic sectors, and society at large.

Restoring the Innovative Edge offers specific recommendations for new forms of data collection, fresh ideas about cooperation between the public and the private sectors in manufacturing research, and a policy evaluation model that measures technical progress—and obstacles to it—in real time. Moreover, the book's multi-level perspective allows for the integration of a number of specialties within Sociology and Management around the theme of a new socio-economic paradigm, built on ideas of evolution and failed evolution.

Novo (2011): A ciência da política da ciência

Basic scientific research and technological development have had an enormous impact on innovation, economic growth, and social well-being. Yet science policy debates have long been dominated by advocates for particular scientific fields or missions. In the absence of a deeper understanding of the changing framework in which innovation occurs, policymakers cannot predict how best to make and manage investments to exploit our most promising and important opportunities.

Since 2005, a science of science policy has developed rapidly in response to policymakers' increased demands for better tools and the social sciences' capacity to provide them. The Science of Science Policy: A Handbook brings together some of the best and brightest minds working in science policy to explore the foundations of an evidence-based platform for the field.

The contributions in this book provide an overview of the current state of the science of science policy from three angles: theoretical, empirical, and policy in practice. They offer perspectives from the broader social science, behavioral science, and policy communities on the fascinating challenges and prospects in this evolving arena. Drawing on domestic and international experiences, the text delivers insights about the critical questions that create a demand for a science of science policy.

A "ciência" ambiental sob investigação

British author James Delingpole tells the shocking story of how an unholy mix of junk science, green hype, corporate greed and political opportunism led to the biggest - and most expensive - outbreak of mass hysteria in history.
In Watermelons, Delingpole explains the Climategate scandal, the cast of characters involved, their motives and methods. He delves into the background of the organizations and individuals who have sought to push global warming to the top of the political agenda, showing that beneath their cloak of green lurks a heart of red.
Watermelons shows how the scientific method has been sacrificed on the altar of climate alarmism. Delingpole mocks the green movement's pathetic record of apocalyptic predictions, from the "population bomb" to global cooling, which failed to materialize. He reveals the fundamental misanthropy of green ideology, "rooted in hatred of the human species, hell bent on destroying almost everything man has achieved".
Delingpole gives a refreshing voice to widespread public skepticism over global warming, emphasising that the "crisis" has been engineered by people seeking to control our lives by imposing new taxes and regulations. "Your taxes will be raised, your liberties curtailed and your money squandered to deal with this 'crisis'", he writes.
At its very roots, argues Delingpole, climate change is an ideological battle, not a scientific one. Green on the outside, red on the inside, the liberty-loathing, humanity-hating "watermelons" of the modern environmental movement do not want to save the world. They want to rule it.

Intercâmbio internacional

Intercâmbio - 09/08/2011 Confira os detalhes do programa Ciência sem Fronteiras Governo Federal prevê a concessão de até 75 mil bolsas em quatro anos para alunos de graduação e de pós

O Programa Ciência sem Fronteiras, lançado em 26 de julho de 2011, é um programa do Governo Federal que busca promover a consolidação, expansão e internacionalização da ciência e tecnologia, da inovação e da competitividade brasileira por meio do intercâmbio de alunos de graduação e pós-graduação e da mobilidade internacional.

O projeto prevê a concessão de até 75 mil bolsas em quatro anos. A iniciativa é fruto de esforço conjunto dos Ministérios da Ciência e Tecnologia (MCT) e do Ministério da Educação (MEC), por meio de suas respectivas instituições de fomento – CNPq e Capes –, e Secretarias de Ensino Superior e de Ensino Tecnológico do MEC.

Leia todos os detalhes do programa aqui.

Medicina e ciência

Blood Loss From Hospital Tests May Cause Anemia in Patients, Study Finds

By Oliver Renick

Patients who enter hospitals due to heart attacks may be leaving with anemia caused by laboratory tests that draw too much blood, raising their risk of declining health and death, a study found...
“The amount of blood we take from patients is a major risk factor” for anemia, Kosiborod said. “If they have other medical problems their body can’t regenerate blood cells fast enough.”
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Elite africana: arquitetos da pobreza

In his insightful bestseller, Architects of Poverty, Moeletsi Mbeki examined why Africans comprise the majority of the world’s bottom billion, illustrating how Africa’s political elite are to blame. Not content with articulating only the problems, in Advocates for Change Mbeki brings together experts from across the continent who believe there are solutions to the challenges that Africa faces. In these pages you will hear from L. Amédée Darga on Mauritius; David Everatt on class formation and inequality; Mike Herrington on entrepreneurship; Jonathan D. Jansen on education; Paul Jourdan on mineral resources; Gilbert M. Khadiagala on elections; Thandika Mkandawire on re-industrialisation; Seeraj Mohamed on the economy; Sindiso Ndema Ngwenya on regional integration; Mandivamba Rukuni on traditional agriculture; and Francois Venter and Helen Rees on health.This accessible, highly informative collection covers diverse fields to reveal in thought-provoking chapters how Africa can once more be set on the road to development.

Além da boa governança

Além da boa governança

por Antony Mueller , segunda-feira, 8 de agosto de 2011

A crise da dívida soberana na Europa e a contenda nos Estados Unidos sobre o teto da dívida do governo federal têm um significado que transcende a política atual. Esses acontecimentos denotam o fim de uma era. A crise financeira da atualidade assinala o fim da época do estado intervencionista de bem-estar social. Segundo sua própria natureza, este sistema é insustentável porque depende de um endividamento perpétuo do setor público. O fim do estado intervencionista de bem-estar social está marcado pela falência financeira do estado.
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Textos 2011

Além da boa governaça

03 de Agosto de 2011 - por Antony Mueller A crise da dívida soberana na Europa e a disputa nos Estados Unidos sobre o teto da dívida do governo federal têm um significado que transcende a política atual. Esses acontecimentos denotam o fim de uma era. A crise financeira da atualidade assinala o fim da época do estado intervencionista de bem-estar social. Segundo sua própria natureza, este sistema é insustentável porque depende de um endividamento perpétuo do setor público. O fim do estado intervencionista de bem-estar social está marcado pela falência financeira do estado. 

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Euro: que moeda é essa?

05 de Julho de 2011 - por Antony Mueller

A moeda comum europeia - o euro - está nas manchetes. O leitor da imprensa pode ter a impressão de que o acordo cambial comum do euro de 17 das 27 nações que formam a União Europeia está prestes a desmoronar. Não poucos artigos insinuam que quase toda a Europa está à beira do colapso devido à crise da dívida na Grécia e de alguns outros países que formam a zona euro.

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Deflação pode ser uma coisa boa?

07 de Junho de 2011 - por Antony Mueller Tags:   inflação   banco central   deflação

Atualmente existe quase um consenso entre os banqueiros centrais de que a deflação deve ser evitada a todo custo. No entanto, quando um indivíduo aleatoriamente escolhido é perguntado se prefere os preços mais altos ou mais baixos para as coisas que compra, certamente responderá que os preços baixos são preferíveis.

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Inflação: causas e consequências

10 de Maio de 2011 - por Antony Mueller Tags:   preços   inflação   deflação

O termo "inflação" é impreciso. O significado comum de "inflação" hoje em dia é um aumento geral do nível de preços. Neste contexto, o oposto da inflação seria "deflação", enquanto "estabilidade dos preços" significa uma situação em que o nível de preços não se move. Nenhum desses termos é um conceito exato. "Inflação", "deflação" e "estabilidade dos preços" são construções estatísticas e, como tais, sofrem de imprecisão e estão sujeitas a várias técnicas de apresentação.

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O papel do empreendedor no desenvolvimento econômico

13 de Abril de 2011 - por Antony Mueller Tags:   liberalismo   empreendedorismo   Desenvolvimento econômico

A grande maioria dos livros didáticos de macroeconomia moderna trata as questões do crescimento econômico e do desenvolvimento como um problema da acumulação de capital e do progresso tecnológico. Mas essa limitação é deficiente, pois deixa de fora o papel do empreendedor como o principal agente da promoção do progresso econômico.

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Investimentos: bons e ruins

15 de Março de 2011 - por Antony Mueller Tags: microeconomia macroeconomia competição agregados econômicos

Uma característica da macroeconomia quantitativa moderna é o alto nível da agregação das variáveis de modelo. Para John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946) e os seus discípulos, é comum modelar investimentos como um aumento do estoque de capital. Nessa tradição, se reduz o complexo desafio de acertar o investimento justo a uma simples adição aritmética – nem o investimento nem o capital possuem uma estrutura interna.

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Praxeologia versus positivismo

17 de Fevereiro de 2011 - por Antony Mueller Tags: praxeologia positivismo behaviorismo Ação humana

Parece que o paradigma predominante da metodologia científica nas ciências sociais tem pouco a ver com a realidade da nossa vida social, a prática política e a administração pública. Parece que os próprios universitários, políticos e administradores não se dão conta dessa conexão. Mas na verdade o uso do certo modelo epistemológico mostra-se crucial para os resultados gerados por uma pesquisa, bem como para a maneira como se pratica política e para a forma da administração pública.

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A teoria do valor e ideologia política

19 de Janeiro de 2011 - por Antony Mueller Tags: teoria do valor

A teoria do valor pode aparecer como algo esotérico, que é melhor deixarmos para livros didáticos e na sala de aula. No entanto, essa opinião é bem errada. A teoria do valor é uma das determinantes mais fortes quando se pensa sobre a economia, a sociedade e a política.

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O que está por trás da guerra cambial?

por Antony Mueller , quinta-feira, 24 de fevereiro de 2011 

Em setembro de 2010, pouco antes da conferência financeira internacional realizada pela cúpula do Grupo dos Vinte (G20) na Coréia do Sul, o ministro da fazenda Guido Mantega declarou que o mundo está vivenciando uma "guerra cambial", em que "desvalorizar as moedas artificialmente tornou-se uma estratégia global". 

A orígem das instituições

"Human beings living in communities frequently 'stumble upon establishments which are indeed the result of human action but not the execution of any human design.'"

— Adam Ferguson

A era da desconfiança

What happens when citizens lose faith in government?

Aug 5, 2011 10:32 EDT

• albert o. hirschman | ivan krastev | richard edelman

Tolstoy thought unhappy families were unique in their unhappiness.
But when it comes to countries, these days the world’s gloomy ones have a lot in common. From Fukushima to Athens, and from Washington to Wenzhou, China, the collective refrain is that government doesn’t work.
“2011 will be the year of distrust in government,” said Richard Edelman, president and chief executive of Edelman, the world’s largest independent public relations firm.
For the past decade, Mr. Edelman has conducted a global survey of which institutions we have confidence in and which ones are in the doghouse. In 2010, the villains were in the private sector — from BP, to Toyota, to Goldman Sachs, corporations and their executives were the ones behaving badly.
But this year, Mr. Edelman said, we are losing faith in the state: “From the sovereign debt crisis in Europe, to the government’s response to the earthquake in Japan, from the high-speed rail crash in China, to the debt ceiling fight in Washington, people around the world are losing faith in their governments.” -- 
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Desde a antiguidade até hoje

"Vulgus vult decepi."

"Copyright"

Lady Gaga accused of copying "Judas"

Reuters, Aug 5, 2011 6:46 pm PDT

Lady Gaga on Friday was slapped with a lawsuit claiming her hit song "Judas" on the new album "Born This Way" was copied from a similar tune by a Chicago-based singer and songwriter. Rebecca Francescatti, who filed the suit in U.S. District Court in Illinois on Wednesday, alleges "Judas" infringes upon the copyright of her song "Juda," which she recorded in 1999.
The Chicago musician claims that "substantial original portions" of "Judas" were lifted from the song that she re-recorded in 2005 for her album, "It's All About You."
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Center for the Study of Innovative Freedom

The Center for the Study of Innovative Freedom (C4SIF) is dedicated to building public awareness of the manner in which laws and policies impede innovation, creativity, communication, learning, knowledge, emulation, and information sharing. We are for property rights, free markets, competition, commerce, cooperation, and the voluntary sharing of knowledge, and oppose laws that systematically impede or hamper innovation, especially those enforced in the name of defending "intellectual property," such as patent andcopyright; these should be radically reformed or entirely abolished.
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II Conferência do Desenvolvimento (Code)

Ipea recebe propostas de trabalhos para a II Code

Interessados podem enviar artigos até 18 de setembro. Acesse o hotsite e saiba mais sobre a chamada

Professores, pesquisadores e estudantes têm até o dia 18 de setembro para enviar propostas de trabalhos para a II Conferência do Desenvolvimento (Code), que será realizada na Esplanada dos Ministérios, em Brasília (DF), entre os dias 23 e 25 de novembro. Os trabalhos devem ter relação com uma das 11 áreas temáticas, definidas pelo Instituto de Pesquisa Econômica Aplicada (Ipea) em parceria com as associações brasileiras de pós-graduação da área de humanidade.

A Code é uma conferência que reúne os mais diversos setores da sociedade, autoridades públicas e grandes especialistas para debater temas ligados ao desenvolvimento brasileiro. “O Ipea quer fomentar um debate sobre o desenvolvimento com caráter multidisciplinar, produzindo estudos variados podemos melhor assessorar o Estado em suas políticas públicas”, afirmou Aristides Monteiro, assessor-chefe de Planejamento do Ipea, durante a solenidade de lançamento da chamada de trabalhos.
Serão escolhidos de 200 a 300 artigos para a Conferência. As comissões avaliadoras em cada área temática são compostas por membros das respectivas associações de pós-graduação e técnicos do Ipea. Cada autor poderá enviar apenas um trabalho e a seleção será feita pelo sistema blind review, preservando-se o anonimato da proposta. Detalhes sobre o formato de envio dos trabalhos e informações sobre as áreas temáticas podem ser consultadas no hotsite da chamada de trabalhos (www.ipea.gov.br/code/chamada2011).

Áreas Temáticas para envio das publicações

1. Desenvolvimento: Desafios e perspectivas antropológicas

2. O Serviço Social e o Desenvolvimento

3. Educação e Desenvolvimento

4. Desenvolvimento Econômico

5. Ciências Sociais e Desenvolvimento

6. Historiografia Brasileira e a (des) Construção da Nação

7. Desenvolvimento e Espaço: ações, escalas e recursos

8. Direito e Desenvolvimento

9. Comunicação e Desenvolvimento

10. Democracia e Desenvolvimento Econômico

11. Desenvolvimento e Sociologia 

Mais informações 

O mito do inventor solitário

A new paper on "The Myth of the Sole Inventor" by Mark Lemley, a professor of law at Stanford, reinforces Mr Sanchez's point.

  [S]urveys of hundreds of significant new technologies show that almost all of them are invented simultaneously or nearly simultaneously by two or more teams working independently of each other. Invention appears in significant part to be a social, not an individual, phenomenon. Inventors build on the work of those who came before, and new ideas are often "in the air," or result from changes in market demand or the availability of new or cheaper starting materials. ...
The result is a real problem for classic theories of patent law. If we are supposed to be encouraging only inventions that others in the field couldn’t have made, we should be paying a lot more attention than we currently do to simultaneous invention. We should be issuing very few patents – surely not the 200,000 per year we do today. And we should be denying patents on the vast majority of the most important inventions, since most seem to involve near-simultaneous invention.

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Um disfuncional sistema de patentes atrapalha prosperidade

The Economist lamenta:

Intellectual property Patents against prosperity 

At a time when our future affluence depends so heavily on innovation, we have drifted toward a patent regime that not only fails to fulfil its justifying function, to incentivise innovation, but actively impedes innovation. We rarely directly confront the effects of this immense waste of resources and brainpower and the attendant retardation of the pace of discovery, but it affect us all the same. It makes us all poorer and helps keep us stuck in the great stagnation...
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6 de Agosto de 1945

Ralph Raico lembra: "... The most spectacular episode of Truman's presidency will never be forgotten, but will be forever linked to his name: the atomic bombings of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and of Nagasaki three days later. Probably around two hundred thousand persons were killed in the attacks and through radiation poisoning; the vast majority were civilians, including several thousand Korean workers. Twelve U.S. Navy fliers incarcerated in a Hiroshima jail were also among the dead..."
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Indústria de guerra - a cooperação de IG Farben com o regime hitleriano

British journalist Jeffreys (Aspirin: The Remarkable Story of a Wonder Drug) pre-sents a compelling account of the comprehensive collaboration of Germany's major chemical conglomerate with Adolf Hitler's genocidal dictatorship. The fourth largest industrial concern in the world, IG Farben was a key element of German foreign policy. Its employees were well treated. Its scientists won Nobel prizes. Its administrators created an international network controlling the production and sale of everything from plastics to camera film—and poison gas. Jeffreys tells the story from the rise of Germany's chemical industry in the 19th century to its support of the Nazis' ascent to power starting in 1932. National Socialism was good for business. The increasingly lucrative contracts came with a price: first accommodation, then collaboration, as one compromise after another enmeshed the cartel ever deeper in the Nazi system. Eventually, from Farben's perspective, Auschwitz was no more than a source of labor for producing the synthetic rubber and oil that kept the war machine operating. Ignominiously dissolved in the early '50s, IG Farben remains a monument to willful and unapologetic moral blindness.

Habilitação é necessário?

National Motorists Association Blog

---

The Driver License: Is It Necessary?

Do we really need one?
Opinions vary widely. In recent years, there have been two legislative efforts to convert the ubiquitous state driver license into a national ID card, making it the essential “show us your papers” document in order to navigate in, around, and through our society.
At the other end of the spectrum, a current movement to do away with the driver license altogether may seem impractical, but it is gathering momentum in regions around the U.S.
Which should it be – a federally-mandated document that uniquely identifies its holder and is necessary to provide the right to drive, to fly, and to participate in various governmental programs, or an extraneous card that serves no useful purpose in a society where individuals have the right to travel without restrictions?
Let’s examine these two diametrically opposed positions: ...
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Commentário: Vale observar o terrorismo diário nas estradas em muitas partes do mundo para duvidar o valor de habilitação. No Brasil, por exemplo, um extraterrestre chegaria à conclusão que a faixa de pedestres é pura decoração.

 

O mito de Hiroshima

The Hiroshima Myth

by John V. DensonEvery year during the first two weeks of August the mass news media and many politicians at the national level trot out the "patriotic" political myth that the dropping of the two atomic bombs on Japan in August of 1945 caused them to surrender, and thereby saved the lives of anywhere from five hundred thousand to one million American soldiers, who did not have to invade the islands. Opinion polls over the last fifty years show that American citizens overwhelmingly (between 80 and 90%) believe this false history which, of course, makes them feel better about killing hundreds of thousands of Japanese civilians (mostly women and children) and saving American lives to accomplish the ending of the war.
The best book, in my opinion, to explode this myth is The Decision to Use the Bomb by Gar Alperovitz, because it not only explains the real reasons the bombs were dropped, but also gives a detailed history of how and why the myth was created that this slaughter of innocent civilians was justified, and therefore morally acceptable. The essential problem starts with President Franklin Roosevelt’s policy of unconditional surrender, which was reluctantly adopted by Churchill and Stalin, and which President Truman decided to adopt when he succeeded Roosevelt in April of 1945. Hanson Baldwin was the principal writer for The New York Times who covered World War II and he wrote an important book immediately after the war entitled Great Mistakes of the War. Baldwin concludes that the unconditional surrender policy ". . . was perhaps the biggest political mistake of the war . . . . Unconditional surrender was an open invitation to unconditional resistance; it discouraged opposition to Hitler, probably lengthened the war, costs us lives, and helped to lead to the present aborted peace." 
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Medicina paradoxial

Living to 100 May Take Genes, Not Lifestyle

By Oliver Renick - Aug 3, 2011

People who live 95 years or more are as likely as the rest of the population to smoke, drink and eat an unhealthy diet, suggesting their survival to that ripe age is based on genetics and not lifestyle, researchers found....
The elderly group showed higher rates of daily alcohol consumption and fattier diets than 3,000 people who died earlier and were interviewed at an average of 70, studied in a previous report. About the same percentage of people in each group were smokers or overweight, according to the study.
Among long-living men, 24 percent consumed alcohol daily, compared with 22 percent of the 70-year-olds, and 43 percent regularly exercised, compared with 57 percent of the younger men. Of elderly women, 35 percent attempted a low-fat diet, compared with 39 percent of the 70-year-old group...
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Além da boa governança

Além da boa governaça

03 de Agosto de 2011 - por Antony Mueller

A crise da dívida soberana na Europa e a disputa nos Estados Unidos sobre o teto da dívida do governo federal têm um significado que transcende a política atual. Esses acontecimentos denotam o fim de uma era. A crise financeira da atualidade assinala o fim da época do estado intervencionista de bem-estar. Segundo sua própria natureza, este sistema é insustentável porque depende de um endividamento perpétuo do setor público. O fim do estado intervencionista de bem-estar está marcado pela falência financeira do estado.
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A verdadeira religião americana segundo Altucher

The 10 Commandments of the American Religion

• Posted by James Altucher
• on August 2nd, 2011

If I stand in the center of Times Square New York City and said something like “Moses didn’t part the Red Sea” or “Jesus never existed” everyone would just keep walking around me, ignoring what I said, etc. Whatever, they would be thinking, I have things to do, very important things that have to get done. And this guy is clearly crazy so not worth my time.
But if I stood there and said, “going to college is the worst sin you can force your kids to commit”, or “you should never vote again” or “World War II was not a holy war” or “never own a home again”, I would probably be lynched on the spot.
The American Religion is a fickle and false religion. Used to replace the ideologies we (a country of immigrants) escaped from with tenets that don’t withstand the test of time. With random high priests lurking all over the Internet, ready to pounce. Below are some of the tenets of the American Religion. If you think there are more, list them in the comments...
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Perspectivas relativas sobre a guerra

Anthony Gregory quota McNamara e lamenta "Killing fifty to ninety percent of the people in 67 Japanese cities and then bombing them with two nuclear bombs is not proportional – in the minds of some people – to the objectives we were trying to achieve," McNamara casually says. Indeed, this was clearly murderous, and Americans are probably the most resistant of all peoples to the truths of their government’s historical atrocities. It doesn’t hurt that the U.S. government has suppressed for years evidence such as film footage shot after the Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Yet even based on what has long been uncontroversial historical fact, we should all be disgusted and horrified by what the U.S. government did. How would it have been if all those Germans and Japanese, instead of being burned to death from the sky, were corralled into camps and shot or gassed? Materially, it would have been the same. But Americans refuse to think of bombings as even in the same ballpark as other technologically expedient ways of exterminating people by the tens and hundreds of thousands. Why? Because the U.S. government has essentially monopolized terror bombing for nearly a century. No one wants to confront the reality of America’s crimes against humanity.
It would be one thing if Americans were in wide agreement that their government, like that of the Axis governments of World War II, had acted in a completely indefensible manner. But they’re not. The Allies were the white hats. Ignore the fact that the biggest belligerent on America’s side was Stalin’s Russia, whom the FDR and Truman administrations helped round up a million or two refugees to enslave and murder in the notorious undertaking known as Operation Keelhaul. We’re not supposed to think about that. World War II began with Pearl Harbor and it ended with D-Day and American sailors returning home to kiss their sweethearts who had kept America strong by working on assembly lines....
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Apresentação de livro

Como fazer uma grande data show para ficar lembrado

http://www.jamesaltucher.com/2011/06/11-unusual-methods-for-being-a-great-public-speaker/