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AN EPOCH OF PUNCTUATED EQUILIBRIUM

We are like a big fish that has been pulled from the water and is flopping wildly to find its way back in. In such a condition the fish never asks where the next flip or flop will bring it. It senses only that its present position is intolerable and that something else must be tried.

- Anonymous Chinese saying, quoted by Perry Link in China in Transformation, Daedalus (Spring 1993).

When Technology and ideology don't smoothly mix, the economic magna fluxes. Tectonic plates are violently thrust into each other - volcanoes erupt, earthquakes shatter the earth's crust, mountains rise, valleys fall. What has been a top-of-the-food-chain, survival-of-the-fittest species madly flips and flops its way into extinction trying to get back into a stream that is no longer there. The banks of the river move; water flows in new directions. A period of punctuated equilibrium comes into existence.

The economic surface of the earth, the distribution of income and wealth, is now being fundamentally remade. The economic losers are spewed out in a social volcano called religious fundamentalism. An economic earthquake shatters the Mexican economy. China's economy rises; Japan's economy falls. World growth slows dramatically. Real wages fall for most Americans. Europe cannot create jobs for its young. Old successful business strategies (focused on the wants of the middle class), fail. No one knows what the consumer is going to want to buy, and not buy, using electronic shopping. Chief executive officers of major corporations lose their jobs at rates never before seen. A period of economic punctuated equilibrium comes into existence.

A brand-new world with brand-new opportunities has arrived. While the economic plates cannot be pushed back to re-create the old environment, their irresistible movements can be understood , and our actions and institutions modified to allow us to thrive.

This book is an attempt to understand the movement of the economic plates that lie below the visible surface of our economic earth so that it will be possible for those who understand what is happening to them to chart a new direction that enables them to survive and thrive. Periods of punctuated equilibrium offer many new, as yet unexplored territories. They are exciting times. In normal times, when almost everything that can be explored has been explored, the topology is not so interesting.

Perhaps the best way to think of what lies ahead is to imagine that you are Columbus. There is a fortune to be made in the East Indies and you believe that you have a new, better way to get there - by sailing west rather than walking east. Like Columbus, you have a map but like his, half the territory on it is marked "terra incognita." The world to the west is to a substantial extent unknown, but a ship still has to be built to survive storms of unknown ferocity; equipped with sails that will speed it to its not so clear destination, and provisioned with the right amounts of water and food for a journey of unknown length.

What will be the dynamics of the new world into which we are about to sail?

All of the above excerpted from:

Chapter 1 - New Game, New Rules, New Strategies P 19

THE FUTURE OF CAPITALISM

How Today's Economic Forces Shape Tomorrow's World

Penguin Books

Lester C. Thurow Copyright © Lester C. Thurow, 1996 All rights Reserved.

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Peroxide

This was written by Becky Ransey of Indiana "I would like to tell you of the benefits of that plain little old bottle of 3% peroxide you can get for about $1.00 at any drug store. My husband has been in the medical field for over 36 years, and most doctors don't tell you about peroxide, or they would lose thousands of dollars." 1. Take one capful (the little white cap that comes with the bottle) and hold in your mouth for 10 minutes daily, then spit it out. (I do it when I bathe) No more canker sores and your teeth will be whiter without expensive pastes. Use it instead of mouthwash. (Small print says mouth wash and gargle right on the bottle) 2. Let your toothbrushes soak in a cup of "Peroxide" to keep them free of germs. 3. Clean your counters, table tops with peroxide to kill germs and leave a fresh smell. Simply put a little on your dishcloth when you wipe, or spray it on the counters. 4. After rinsing off your wooden cutting board, pour peroxide on it to kill salmonella and other bacteria. 5. I had fungus on my feet; I sprayed a 50/50 mixture of peroxide and water on them (especially the toes) every night and let dry to totally kill the fungus. 6. Soak any infections or cuts in 3% peroxide for five to ten minutes several times a day. My husband has seen gangrene that would not heal with any medicine, but was healed by soaking in peroxide. 7. Fill a spray bottle with a 50/50 mixture of peroxide and water and keep it in every bathroom to disinfect without harming your septic system like bleach or most other disinfectants will. 8. Tilt your head back and spray into nostrils with your 50/50 mixture whenever you have a cold, or plugged sinuses. It will bubble and help to kill the bacteria. Hold for a few minutes then blow your nose into a tissue. 9. If you have a terrible toothache and cannot get to a dentist right away, put a capful of 3% peroxide into your mouth and hold it for ten minutes several times a day. The pain will lessen greatly. 10. And of course, if you like a natural look to your hair, spray the 50/50 solution on your wet hair after a shower and comb it through. You will not have the peroxide burnt blonde hair like the hair dye packages, but more natural highlights if your hair is a light brown, reddish, or dirty blonde. It also lightens gradually so it's not a drastic change. 11. Put half a bottle of peroxide in your bath to help rid boils, fungus, or other skin infections. 12. You can also add a cup of peroxide instead of bleach to a load of whites in your laundry to whiten them. If there is blood on clothing, pour directly on the soiled spot. Let it sit for a minute, then rub it and rinse with cold water. Repeat if necessary. 13. I use peroxide to clean my mirrors. There is no smearing, which is why I love it so much. I could go on and on. It is a little brown bottle no home should be without! With prices of most necessities rising, I'm glad there's a way to save money in such a simple, healthy manner.

German police foil plot to unleash 'massive' attack on US military base

By Tony Paterson in Berlin
Published: 06 September 2007

Germany said yesterday it had arrested three Islamic militants suspected of planning "imminent" and "massive" bomb attacks on Frankfurt's international airport and a nearby US military base, preventing what would have been the most devastating terrorist attack on an American target since 11 September 2001. continue...

Invisible arms race: The internet balance of power

Claims that China has been hacking into the West's military computers have led to concern that future global conflicts may be fought in cyberspace. Clifford Coonan investigates
Published: 06 September 2007

Somewhere here in Guangzhou, the balmy capital of the booming southern province of Guangdong, a shadowy group of computer scientists is said to be hard at work under the supervision of the People's Liberation Army, waging cyber warfare on Western military and industrial targets. continue...

Untangling the web: Japan experts publish map of the net

Navigating the internet can be bamboozling. Rebecca Armstrong and Simon Usborne look at which websites made it onto the map of the net
Published: 05 September 2007

Map of the web
Provided by Information Architects Japan

Mapping the great network that is the internet was never going to be an easy task. There would have to be as many connections as there are in the human brain. But for a group of web architects based in Japan, it is worth a go.
Modelled on the fiendishly complex Tokyo Metro map, the latest Web Trend Map (the 2007/V2 version) organises some of cyberspace's movers and shakers into an easy-to-read chart. Plotted by the Japanese firm Information Architects (IA), each line on the map represents a theme, be it news (green), tools (pink) or the brown Chinese line, which IA calls the "second internet", after the country's efforts to censor much of the content freely available in the West. continue...

Apple unveils new iPod that has wi-fi and touch screen

By Amol Rajan
Published: 06 September 2007

After a week of feverish speculation, Apple released its new iPod last night, confirming rumours that the sixth generation of the digital music player will have a 3.5in touch-screen and integrated wi-fi connection, allowing users to connect to the internet from an iPod for the first time.

The new iPod will play video downloaded direct from the internet, as well as video games, both with widescreen view. Users will still be able to transfer music on to the player direct from iTunes, Apple's music provider. continue...

Strange goings-on here in Lebanon ...

Published: 01 September 2007

Stories that just don't seem to make it into print.

Did you know that the Hizbollah "Party of God" has installed its own private communications network in the south of Lebanon, stretching from the village of Zawter Sharqiya all the way to Beirut? And why, I wonder, would it be doing that? Well, to safeguard its phones in the event that the Israelis immobilise the public mobile system in the next war. Next war? Well, if there's not going to be another war in Lebanon, why is Hizbollah building new roads north of the Litani river, new bunkers, new logistics far outside the area of operations of the Nato-led UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon? continue...

Even I question the 'truth' about 9/11

Published: 25 August 2007

Each time I lecture abroad on the Middle East, there is always someone in the audience – just one – whom I call the "raver". Apologies here to all the men and women who come to my talks with bright and pertinent questions – often quite humbling ones for me as a journalist – and which show that they understand the Middle East tragedy a lot better than the journalists who report it. But the "raver" is real. He has turned up in corporeal form in Stockholm and in Oxford, in Sao Paulo and in Yerevan, in Cairo, in Los Angeles and, in female form, in Barcelona. No matter the country, there will always be a "raver". continue...

Lebanon cries victory, but is it too soon?

Robert Fisk: Lebanon cries victory, but is it too soon?
Published: 06 September 2007

The victory of the Lebanese army at the Nahr el-Bared refugee camp – the killing of up to 100 al-Qa'ida-type insurgents at the cost of 163 Lebanese soldiers and 42 civilians – is being greeted in the country with "trumpetings" and "hootings" worthy of the country's greatest poet, Khalil Gibran.

For three days now, the newspapers have devoted their front pages to photographs of Lebanese troops astride their ageing US-made personnel carriers, giving "V" signs, firing in the air and succumbing to the traditional warriors' reward of rice and rose-water. continue...

Bollywood Takes On Hollywood

Anay Mann / Photoink-Contact for Newsweek
No Bluster: Screwvala (right) at work

Bigger Than Bollywood
Meet the man who is changing India's film industry—and gunning for Hollywood, USA.

By Jason Overdorf

Newsweek International

Sept. 10, 2007 issue - Ronnie Screwvala is the front runner in the race to become Bollywood's Jack Warner—the man who began the transformation of parochial U.S. cinema into its modern global form. Yet Screwvala is rarely picked out of a crowd in India, let alone in the United States. But Hollywood insiders know him well, for producing the "The Namesake," the groundbreaking hit about Indian immigrants, and for coproducing a Chris Rock comedy ("I Think I Love My Wife"). Now he is coproducing "The Happening," a new sci-fi thriller starring Mark Wahlberg and directed by M. Night Shyamalan ("The Sixth Sense") that seems destined to vault him into the big leagues. With a budget of $57 million, it will cost as much as 10 Indian blockbusters, setting a new bar for Bollywood. "Our ambition is to be a global Indian entertainment company—there's no reason we can't make big-budget Hollywood movies, too," says Screwvala. continue...

A model immigrant, betrayed by Britain

By Robert Verkaik, Law Editor
Published: 05 September 2007

When Damilola Ajagbonna first sat down in a British classroom eight years ago his thick Nigerian accent earned him the nickname "fresh off the boat", while in the playground he was shunned because he didn't own a tennis racket.

But Mr Ajagbonna, now 19, was determined to succeed, and last year he was offered a place at Cambridge University to study social and political science.

Today Mr Ajagbonna, described by a judge as a "remarkable" young man, faces being forcibly removed to Nigeria because he was six weeks late claiming British citizenship under immigration rules for children.

continue...

The greatest boom the world has ever seen

Published: 05 September 2007

Beijing: China's pre-Olympics economic boom has ratcheted up a few clicks. With less than a year to run, it is not just the main stadium site that is humming; the entire city is a great building site. Not only is it rushing to complete new hotels and other facilities ahead of the games, it is also sprucing itself up: fixing pavements, repainting shopfronts, opening restaurants.

You can measure the China boom in the statistics – growth running at more than 11 per cent in the first half of this year – but nothing can prepare the visitor for the actuality. This is not just the greatest boom on earth at the moment – it is the greatest boom the world has ever known. In 2005, China passed the UK to become the world's fourth-largest economy; either this year or next, it will pass Germany to become the world's third largest. It is hard not to see it passing Japan to become the second largest within about a decade, and then it is at least plausible that within a generation it will pass the United States to become the biggest.

http://comment.independent.co.uk/columnists_m_z/hamish_mcrae/article2927068.ece

Hawk on Roosevelt Island?

Video Clip of a hawk, osprey or falcon, who visited Roosevelt Island over the weekend.(LaborDay 2007)

Sales Prices: How Right Digits Affect Perception of Discounts

Science Daily

The amount of the discount may be less important than the numerical value of the farthest right digit, explains a new study from the Journal of Consumer Research. Keith S. Coulter (Clark University) and Robin A. Coulter (University of Connecticut) are the first to identify a visual distortion effect that may influence how consumers look at sale prices. continue...

One Winning Ticket for $314M Powerball

Associated Press 08.26.07, 8:38 PM ET

RICHMOND, Ind. -
The only winning ticket for a $314.3 million Powerball lottery prize was sold in this city on the Indiana-Ohio state line, lottery officials said Sunday.

Lottery officials won't know who holds that ticket until someone comes forward, said Mark Sirkin, a spokesman for the Hoosier Lottery. continue...

Most Searched New York Times Words and Phrases

http://www.nytimes.com/gst/mostsearched.html

The Record of Your Life as a Digital Archive

By ERIC A. TAUB

Published: August 16, 2007

WHEN Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, Karen Duncan was ordered to leave her uptown neighborhood. continue...