Category: Uncategorized | Page 10

February 22, 2014

No Matter What We Do, Floods Must Hit All Coasts Due to Pine Island Glacier Thaw

Antarctic Ice Thaw To Flood For Decades Even Without Global Warming

Global warming does not account for the Antarctic’s Pine Island Glacier thaw dumping water into the ocean for the foreseeable decades or longer, whether or not global warming persists and whether or not human societies change their energy consumption patterns. It happened at least once before, according to glacier scientists, and it is happening again right now. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/20/us-climate-antarctica-idUSBREA1J1V620140220

The consequences of the big thaw cannot be overstated. They include rising coastal shores across every continent, meaning evacuation of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of homes; relocation of flood refugees to higher ground; and likely tensions as refugee numbers mount in places where available land remains scarce. http://www.climatecodered.org/2010/01/pine-island-glacier-loss-must-force.html

That’s just the tip of the consequences, however. With the net increase in ocean water, the capacity of the planet to store energy increases, meaning weather patterns will shift, first along coasts, but soon, that is, within a few decades, across plains, along the mountain ranges, and in every jungle, desert, and steppe region there is. http://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/v4/n2/full/nclimate2094.html

Here at http://HamiltonFinanceServices.com historically we have joined with other organizations to promote awareness of global warming trends, accepting the predominant sentiment that if societies could change their energy consumption patterns, effects of warming might be delayed, minimized, or better, controlled. http://www.nrdc.org/globalwarming/fcons/fcons4.asp With the latest reports of Antarctic thawing on Pine Island, however, a new priority has emerged. We, meaning all of humanity, must move away from coastal shores en masse…NOW.

That’s the view in our corner, but what do you think?

hamilton.jerry

February 22, 2014

Was Edward Snowden Justified Disclosing Illegal US Government Spy Conduct?

Edward Snowden, while employed by a contractor working for a US government agency, disclosed through various means information considered classified by the US government about that government’s unlawful spy activities worldwide and within the US. Was he justified?

The fallout from Snowden’s disclosures persist through today. http://www.democracynow.org/2014/2/18/julian_assange_on_being_placed_on

The attorney for Snowden this week suffered interrogation by British authorities, presumeably simply because of serving as Snowden’s legal counsel.http://www.democracynow.org/2014/2/18/attorney_for_edward_snowden_interrogated_at

Here at HamiltonFinanceServices.com we hold the following opinion: Edward Snowden was faced with a moral dilemma of historic proportions when he became aware through his employment of classified information about US government spy activities worldwide and within the US, and Mr. Snowden chose to act in accordance with his conscience to violate the laws of the US. That choice has already caused many changes in US and international conduct, and we expect continual changes to unfold for the foreseeable future and beyond. http://www.thenation.com/article/178467/what-snowden-leaked-was-nothing-compared-what-he-didnt

The thought that US government spies watched the Internet activities of millions without consent or notice chills free speech and privacy to unparalleled levels. http://www.theguardian.com/world/edward-snowden

Here at http://HamiltonFinanceServices.com we feel embarrassed by recent actions of the US government disclosed through Edward Snowden’s actions.

What do you think?

February 22, 2014

China Sees Mental Illness in Too Much Time Online

Internet Addiction: A New Chinese Clinical Disorder?

People who spend inordinate amounts of time online doing…anything online too much…are labeled and treated for a clinical disorder, at least in China. http://webjunkiemovie.com/ More than 400 treatment facilities dot the Asian landscape in order to therapize those poor addicts of the Internet. http://sciencefriday.com/blogs/02/19/2014/the-internet-s-dark-side-exposed-in-three-new-films.html?series=20&utm_source=Science+Friday+Mailing+List&utm_campaign=fbc0523937-Newsletter_February+21_2014_Final&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_10d8eab927-fbc0523937-53813845

So the Orwellian horror-mare has come to bite us. Now big brother, in the form of the Chinese government, sees you when you’re sleeping and sees you when you’re online. If you are addicted, as judged by standards somewhat hard to comprehend for some westerners, you must be compelled into addiction therapy for your own and for society’s health and safety. http://www.helpguide.org/mental/internet_cybersex_addiction.htm

Some take the addiction painfully seriously. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_addiction_disorder

From the perspective of analysts at http://HamiltonFinanceServices.com, a budding new type of psychotherapy may be the dark side of the Internet of things. What do you think?

hamilton.jerry

February 21, 2014

WhatsApp Low Tech Good Facebook Long Strategy

Still Pondering the WhatsApp Deal by Facebook

Looking into Facebook’s giant payment for WhatsApp continues to occupy my attention, and maybe I understand it a little more today than yesterday. http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2014/02/21/whatsapp-ceo-on-facebook-deal-its-about-staying-independent/?KEYWORDS=whatsapp

Surveying the leading message services across the planet, many have added a few bells & whistles such as games, shopping, or extra communication functions. But not WhatsApp! Instead, WhatsApp offers very simple text messaging for the low price of $1.00 per year. As a result, it has attracted nearly half a billion users in the developing economies of Asia, South America, and to a limited degree Africa. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/21/us-whatsapp-facebook-idUSBREA1K0U120140221

That brings into focus the reason for the $19B price to be paid by Facebook. Who would FB want to prevent from future competition? The obvious candidates: Google, Apple, and maybe Amazon and Microsoft. By essentially buying half a billion customers in the largest market on earth, Facebook has strategically placed itself in the emerging markets on the bet that half a billion will turn into three or five billion within a decade. That means Facebook will grow into a dominant, if not the dominant, player in the social net business of the next decade. http://www.forbes.com/sites/hollymagister/2014/02/21/whatsapp-19-billion-secret-formula/

Too forward looking? Too strategic? Maybe, but it fits the present data to explain why the huge price tag for a rather ho-hum text messaging service. http://www.afp.com/en/node/1277993

That’s the view from analysts at http://HamiltonFinanceServices.com, but what do you think?

hamilton.jerry

February 20, 2014

FB To Buy WhatsApp for $19B, But Why?

Communication, Content and Cyber Society

Facebook’s focus on the content of light verbal bursts and replies coupled more recently with images of common themes will expand to include more concentrated text exchanges, if the WhatsApp acquisition by Facebook announced today for $19 B comes to pass. Who really knows how FB might expand? The huge price implies big changes should be expected all the same. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/19/us-whatsapp-facebook-idUSBREA1I26B20140219

A subtext runs with this latest business deal, once you pass the sticker shock of multi-billions paid for texting tech. What could possibly be worth mega bucks to Facebook? Apparently a robust market segment vehemently declines participation in the FB fashion of trivial talk, preferring instead mobile texting as the primary method of content exchange, and that’s what FB seeks to include in its social net. The attraction for users: Avoidance of carrier fees to send text. The attraction for FB: More users. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/20/us-whatsapp-facebook-idUSBREA1I26B20140220

Still, the persistent question runs beneath the surface of tech and money: Why do people FB in the first place? Or why do they blog? Why do they text? Why do they bother sending almost meaningless trillions of words and images to each other if they really have almost nothing to say? What is it about the human species that needs to show images of kittens and babies, food and sex, or sunsets and ocean waves to each other? Why do people jabber on and on about how babies smile, lovers hug, and party people drink or smoke so much? http://www.fastcompany.com/3021749/work-smart/10-surprising-social-media-statistics-that-will-make-you-rethink-your-social-stra

Sure, FB tracks the jabber, sells stuff based on the inane exchanges, and calls it good on the bottom line when beans are tallied. That justifies the big ticket for WhatsApp, perhaps, although it remains to be proven with actual returns on such an investment. But why do people act as they do with either FB or WhatsApp? What’s the appeal? http://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.com/2011/07/google-facebook-twitter-and-blogs-when.html

Maybe some humans beings feel connected and therefore more secure when they friend, tweet, or poke another human being, or maybe they fill so much time with reading and replying or writing and reading and…replying because they’re fundamentally bored and disconnected. Analysts at http://HamiltonFinanceServices.com hope this blog entry will rise slightly above the shallow chaos to pose a meta-query about the big picture. What is the point of all this chatter? What do you think?

From HamiltonFinanceServices.com, this is hamilton.jerry

February 19, 2014

Google Official Blog Confirms Fiber Plans for US Cities

Fiber Frenzy Across US

With an announcement on Google’s official blog about expansion of its fiber optics systems today, a frenzy of related blogs has coalesced.

Here’s the official Google blog site: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2014/02/exploring-new-cities-for-google-fiber.html

And here’s the list of new cities currently in the running for Google Fiber: https://fiber.google.com/newcities/

But Google is not the only game in towns. Comcast, planning to become the biggest cable company in the world if the merger with Time Warner passes inspection by US antitrust regulators, already feels threatened by Google Fiber push. AT&T also has aggressive intentions, if cities will give it deals such as those extended to Google. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/19/us-google-fiber-idUSBREA1I1ZT20140219

So is this the future? Will the fiber infrastructure expand across America? Has any other nation-state already built such a network of fiber optic cables? What experience does any other large economy have with these expensive systems? Is there something even better out there?

If you have information or answers implicitly raised by the Google Fiber frenzy, please let us know at http://HamiltonFinanceServices.com or directly by email.

hamilton.jerry

February 19, 2014

No Weather Excuses, Please

Weather Excuses Nothing in Economies

Business owners who complain that weather caused slumping sales, fewer homes being built, low stock prices, or decreased consumer confidence sound like a school kid claiming the dog ate his homework. When I hear such lame excuses, I know something else is going on. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/19/us-usa-weather-corporate-warnings-idUSBREA1I09120140219

So looking behind the complaints about cold or hot fronts, not looking at them, will explain why the economies of the US and Europe, and by extension the rest of the world economies, seem so anemic. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/19/us-usa-housing-builders-analysis-idUSBREA1I03Y20140219

In the home-building industry, a glut of unsold homes, both new and older, explains more than ice-bound roads. Add to that, jobs lost in the Great Recession of 2008 rose to 8.2 M, of which about 2.3 M were in construction. Skilled construction workers simply have moved on and moved out of the building business. Some have retired, some have retrained, some have settled for less. And the confidence of builders has dropped for the same reasons. http://www.forbes.com/sites/erincarlyle/2014/02/18/builder-confidence-drops-in-february-nahbwells-fargo-housing-market-index-shows/

Major economic indicators http://www.bls.gov/bls/newsrels.htm#major tell serious economic analysts that weather explains nothing, but troublesome reports about too much heat or too much cold symbolize deeper challenges, according to analysts at http://HamiltonFinanceServices.com. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-04/don-t-buy-carmakers-bad-weather-excuses.html

The future of regional economies depends on larger world economies, and the big picture tells us that major restructuring will take time. A few winners and many more losers will populate news reports as our world shifts from established patterns to a new and less certain order. At least that’s my view, but what do you think?

Jerry Hamilton

February 18, 2014

Oliver Stone Rant Seems Nearly Right

O Stone Almost All Good

Oliver Stone, known as a Hollywood movie maker, speaks up about libertarian politics. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Stone That’s nothing new for him, but he lulled me into head nodding ninety percent through…until he blew it, in my view. http://nation.foxnews.com/2014/02/17/oliver-stone-rails-against-obama-and-his-msnbc-defenders

Hatred for Republican disestablishment-ism sounds right, Chavez truly started something big in Venezuela that left frustrated and bitter opponents, Ron Paul really mesmerizes me too, Obama has disappointed many former followers, government surveillance seems intolerable, and Hillary as a hawk makes sense. I nod my head with sympathy. http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2014/02/18/oliver-stone-calls-obama-weak-man/ and http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2014/02/17/oliver_stone_rails_against_weak_obama_msnbc_defenders.html

But when asked to look more closely at Chavez’ effects on free speech and assembly, he missed a beat, as I heard it. Any of us with opinions about life after six or seven decades of serious study and thought can be lulled into thinking we have studied all we need to. That’s a trap. We never understand reality fully, and study offers the single best way for mere mortals to push beyond our innately primitive tendencies.

“Of course I will study more; we all need more research,” should have been Oliver’s reply, not “I have done my research,” like a petulant child. The research should never be done among any seeker of truth.

Not that study actually produces much knowledge and wisdom, because it seems less than likely that human beings are fully capable, without inspiration from outside ourselves, of real wisdom. That was the central meaning of accounts of Old Testament Abram who became Abraham to give birth to nations of souls willing to listen to God because otherwise humanity must spiral into cycles of self-destruction. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Abraham

As Vladamir Putin put it in the context of Russia’s loss to the US hockey team after having a point disallowed by a referee, even referees make mistakes. http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/olympics-fourth-place-medal/vladimir-putin-is-totally-not-upset-about-disallowed-russia-goal-vs–usa-hockey–casually-shames-team-065517190.html Oliver Stone made a mistake, but his point of view still thrills my soul.

That’s just me, of course. What do you think?

Jerry Hamilton at http://HamiltonFinanceServices.com

February 17, 2014

UN Rattles Human Rights Sabers Against N. Korea’s Kim Jong-un

Supreme Leader Kim to Face Justice?

United Nations human rights investigators whom N. Korean invited, after lengthy negotiations, to look into human rights reports have issued a blistering 372-page brief alleging international crimes. http://www.afp.com/en/node/1274705 and http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/17/korea-north-un-excerpts-idUSL6N0LL0CO20140217 Some of the same UN investigators now say N. Korean leaders, possibly including Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un, may face international justice as a result. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/17/us-korea-north-un-idUSBREA1G0O720140217

One wonders how a ‘Supreme Leader’ may be subjected to human rights laws of the international community. Is any nation’s Supreme Leader, Emperor, King of Kings, or similar exalted leader the subject of any other authority? Or, on the other hand, can any nation-state (since about 1780 with Jeremy Bentham’s coinage of the term “nation” the idea of ‘states’ and ‘nations’ has been muddled, http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k93974k/f40.image.r=.langEN) agree with other nation-states to criminalize the conduct of either another nation-state or its leaders?

You and I might not feel comfortable with lofty notions of international justice without at least some review of what the terms mean. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_law and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Customary_international_law

However, our news today across the globe includes the most powerful, or super powerful, nation leading a charge against the leader in a nation steeped in civil war, Syria, where most legal scholars whisper that the US has no legal authority under international law. http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/un-suggests-american-attack-syria-would-be At the same time, Israel builds and tears down West Bank houses and offices while the rest of the world appears to say it has no right to do so, despite its 1967 victory. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_law_and_Israeli_settlements Today the most bellicose little nuclear power in the world, North Korea, is being called a criminal by the UN. Is the true rule of international law, He who carries the biggest stick rules?

International law hits our streets not only with daily news but perhaps with calls on young soldiers to fight a distant battle for reasons based on muddled international law. To me, the rules by which nation-states play once seemed clear as I came away from the 1973 withdrawal of US forces in Saigon. Yet, today those rules, or lack of agreement on those rules, seems at the heart of wars and rumors of wars. The UN investigators claiming Kim Jong-un criminality have not helped, from this perspective.

What do you think?

Jerry Hamilton from http://HamiltonFinanceServices.com

February 15, 2014

One Tax Dollar Paid Equals One Vote, Says Tom Perkins

Tom Perkins Prefers Only Taxpayers Vote

He’s definitely NOT running for public office! A San Francisco-based investor, Tom Perkins is a member of the top 1% of the wealthiest Americans. He offers his opinions freely about who should vote and how taxes should work. He says that for each tax dollar paid, the payer should be entitled to a vote. Further, he says, progressive taxes, inherently unfair to the wealthiest like Perkins, should be changed. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/14/us-venture-perkins-taxes-idUSBREA1D1N620140214

No one takes Perkins seriously, but maybe they should. His recommendations for votes or taxes will not likely interest even a handful of political influencers. Nonetheless, if he and just a few others from the 1% voice opinions broadly enough, something like a French revolution might be encouraged among a growing collection of publicly minded progressives. Economic inequality now occupies the attention of many serious thinkers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_inequality

The divide between rich and poor, both in the US and worldwide, has not been larger for over a century. http://articles.latimes.com/2013/sep/11/nation/la-na-nn-income-inequality-20130910 A question on many minds today concerns whether the government should do more to create economic equality. http://www.economist.com/economist-asks/should_government_do_more_close_gap_between_rich_and_poor

Perkins cannot be serious about his simplistic ideas, but someone out there might not realize he intends merely to promote a conversation about voting, taxes, and the future of his nation-state, the USA. From the perspective of http://HamiltonFinanceServices.com, this type of conversation requires constant renewal to sustain any large, modern society. What do you think?