The World Is Flat 3.0 - A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

Third World America by Arianna Huffington, Current Affairs Book - Middle Class USA Economic Meltdown

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

Arianna Huffington, founder and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post, the sixth most popular online news source, details the state of the nation's middle class. Her new book is entitled, "Third World America: How Our Politicians are Abandoning the Middle Class and Betraying the American Dream." Read her perspective and see if you agree.

Third World America presents in five sections, where Chapter One echoes the book's title. It's replete with stories and statistics highlighting the decline of America's middle class. How do you define "middle class?" It resorts to self-definition says Huffington. "If you consider yourself middle class, you are middle class."

The nation's vanishing industrial base, eroding educational system and decaying infrastructure, are decline contributors; as is high unemployment, where one in six Americans is either out of work or underemployed. Meet Dean B., who, at age 35, was laid off from his IT job in February 2009 and is still jobless. Kimberly B. sold her wedding ring on Craigslist to pay her family's utility bills.

Huffington further explores the plight of the middle class, citing fear as a predominant emotion. Obliterated 401(k) s, dwindling pensions, prolific foreclosures, and hints of future Social Security collapse; feed the anxieties. Many now believe that achieving middle class is luck of the draw, not unlike a prize on a scratch-off lottery ticket.

America's infrastructure is unraveling, Huffington declares, with insufficient remedial state and federal funding. Highways, electrical grids, waterways, railroads, and bridges, are a few of the casualties. Some water pipes, originally laid during the Civil War, are perilously operating.

Think August 2007, when the Interstate 35W steel truss bridge over the Mississippi River, in downtown Minneapolis collapsed; killing 13 people and injuring 145. Previous patchwork repairs proved insufficient.

The nation's school system is anemic, where the US ranks twenty-fifth in math and twenty-first in science among thirty developed countries; as ranked by the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development. In 2009, America's broadband connection ranked fifteenth among industrialized countries.

Middle class America's downslide has been decades in the making. In the late 1980s, technology, outsourcing, and the loss of manufacturing jobs initiated a sputtering middle class economy with stagnant wages.

Ronald Regan's election saw the proliferation of free market beliefs: less governmental intervention could best determine society's winners and losers. Regan also ushered in the era of great divide between wealthy Americans and the middle class; which continues today.

Huffington says that an unregulated free market is sooner or later corrupted by fraud and excess. Witness the bank bailouts and Wall Street debacle of 2008.

American politics is broken, as powerful lobbyists and corporate America rule Washington. In 2010, three examples of regulatory failures due to corporate coddling, were the explosion at the Upper Branch mine in West Virginia; the BP oil blowout in the Gulf of Mexico; and the ongoing aftershock of the financial collapse, including fraud charges against Goldman Sachs. The voice of the middle class is but an echo in the Capitol chambers.

Huffington writes animated analogies to make her points. When discussing influential lobbyists, she says, "And like a swarm of termites reducing a house to sawdust, moneyed interests and their lobbyists are making a meal out of the foundations of our democracy."

Each chapter concludes with a profile of a once successful middle class American, who is now economically struggling. Their stories offer gems of twenty-first century insight, including "Stability is long gone, so you better be doing something you love!"

Third World America's title is extreme, Huffington admits, used to emphasize our nation's possible future, without serious reform. She concludes optimistically, that our descent into a Third World nation "isn't a done deal."

Americans are known for being positive, forward-looking people with a can-do attitude. Stopping the descent to a Third World nation won't be easy. It will take daring initiatives from the private and public sectors and personal responsibility. Now, more than ever, we must mine the most underutilized leadership resource available to us: ourselves. We'll still need the raw power that only big government and appropriations can deliver.

Ultimately, change happens on a local and personal level. Today it's up to us to help each other and ourselves. She advocates breaking up with your big bank. Executives took the governmental bailout, paid themselves record bonuses; yet are unsympathetic to those Americans facing foreclosure. Work instead with community banks and credit unions. The greatest antidote to despair is action; and resiliency is key to survive and thrive in the twenty-first century.

Huffington mirrors Robert B. Reich's message, told in his concurrently released book, Aftershock: The NextEconomy And America's Future. Reich, former Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration, also endorses Third World America.

One book, presents one voice. Although some will argue Huffington's perspective, Third World America is a thought-provoking read on the present and future state of the nation.

To stay updated on Huffington's Third World America viewpoint, visit, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/third-world-america/

Timothy Zaun is a blogger, speaker and freelance writer. Visit him online at http://timzaun.com/.

Review - All You Can Eat: How Hungry Is America?

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

All You Can Eat: How Hungry is America?, Joel Berg, 2008, ISBN 9781583228548

This book looks at the current state of hunger in America. Written by an anti-hunger activist, and former government official, it is not a pretty picture.

If food insecurity (the new euphemism for "hunger") is such a huge problem, then why are there so many obese African-Americans? Doesn't it show that they are getting more than enough food? What it really shows is that those whose food insecurity situation is bad, but not totally desperate, have to rely on cheaper high-calorie food that is full of chemicals and preservatives.

Why don't inner-city residents buy more vegetables, even organic vegetables? Most inner-city neighborhoods don't have a supermarket, so the people have to rely on convenience stores, that will carry cheaper pre-processed foods, instead of organic vegetables. Also, if you are given a certain amount of money, and have to make it last an entire week, vegetables are rare, and expensive organic vegetables are simply not a possibility. Find out what your state gives food stamp recipients each week to live on, and see if you can do it.

Another problem for inner-city residents is that the various government programs are administered by different agencies, which physically are nowhere near each other. It requires taking time off work, or finding child care, and getting on several buses, in order to go through several different sets of bureaucratic nonsense.

Everyone knows someone who says they have seen a food stamp recipient buying lobster or caviar or something else very expensive with food stamps. That is highly unlikely, because the average inner-city recipient has no access to such items, and benefits are distributed on what look like regular debit cards, to reduce the stigma.

What to do? Among other things, the author advocates putting all hunger programs together into one giant program. He also advocates making free school breakfasts available for all children, to reduce the stigma for children, and making healthy food much more available in the inner city.

This book is a large eye-opener. It is full of practical solutions, and is very easy to read (even with the charts and graphs). It is very highly recommended.

Paul Lappen is a freelance book reviewer whose blog, http://www.deadtreesreview.blogspot.com/, emphasizes small press and self-published books.

A Must Read Guide for Anyone Who Does Marketing

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

When it comes to non fiction, I can't think of any topic that I prefer to read about than marketing. Marketing and business are two things that drive the world. Although marketing may not seem like a calling, it's really no different than teaching, ministry, government service, or a whole host of other occupations I could name. The name of the game in any occupation though is in helping people.

Personally, I prefer to educate my customers. I want to share valuable information with them. However, it's not really enough to educate your customer. You have to inspire them to feel the same passion you do about whatever you are marketing. Reach their emotions, and you have them.

In a rare glimpse at some of the most successful marketing campaigns in history, journalist David Kupelian takes you on a journey to show you how these campaigns succeeded.

I have to say that I'm impressed. The groups who constructed these campaigns were selling everything from "gay rights" to abortion, not topics that we in the mainstream marketing world would consider creating campaigns for. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Even better, Kupelian backs up his credentials with plenty of facts and figures that will really get you thinking. If you're a marketer reading this book, it will really get you thinking about how better to connect with your customers and reach them at their emotions, something an effective marketer will do. If you're a customer, this book will really get you thinking about whether or not you have been hypnotized by those who are trying to sell to you.

I won't lie to you. The information contained in this book is controversial because it will upset those who don't agree. That's why I didn't reveal any of the information about specific campaigns. You will just have to see for yourself. What I will say is that the material is not only well documented but well explained and the writing is very engaging. This book really was hard for me to put down.

It's funny how sometimes we feel better and superior to others when we've read something this educational and controversial and generally reinforces our belief system. I didn't feel that way. I walked away from this book knowing that I wasn't crazy. Not only has marketing changed, and so have the ways we have learned to do it, but the whole world has changed.

If you're looking for a different perspective on marketing, then I highly recommend reading this book. Similar to case studies, you'll have plenty to study, and you'll understand marketing in ways that it's not normally taught. In fact, this book is recommended for anyone who really wants to educate themselves on how powerful marketing really is.

On a scale of one to 10, this book rates an 11. It's definitely worth reading.

The Marketing of Evil

How Radicals, Elitists, and Pseudo-Experts Sell Us Corruption Disguised as Freedom

David Kupelian

Like this review? Then check out my internet marketing blog Internet Marketing for Free, and my personal blog [http://blog.101christian.com] 101 Christian and the Science of Getting Rich. You'll get 1000s of dollars in free marketing ebooks, as well as a free copy of "The Science of Getting Rich."

The Long Descent: A User's Guide to the End of the Industrial Age

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

The Long Descent: A User's Guide to the End of the Industrial Age
By John Michael Greer
New Society Publishers, 2008, paper, 260 pages, $18.95

Civilizations rise and fall - the Roman Empire, the Mayans, the British colonial empire - and now it's our turn. Consider the author's blunt term, "a post-industrial society." Yes, he means life after our vaunted high-tech industries grind to a halt for a lack of oil.

Petroleum geologist M. King Hubbert developed a formula for projecting when an oil field or a country would reach its maximum production, a point now referred to as Hubbert's peak. In 1956 Mr. Hubbert predicted that the U.S. would hit its oil peak around 1970. He nailed the date exactly and despite continuing exploration, offshore drilling, oil tar sands, etcetera, it has been downhill ever since.

In 1970 Hubbert then applied his formula to global output and his forecast pointed to the year 2000. Recent, more accurate analyses peg the apex between 2005 and 2010. Greer estimates world oil production maxed in 2005 and we are already descending the back side of Hubbert's peak.

It turns out there is a science of fin de siecle for civilizations and Greer displays the formulas and equations used by specialists in the field (fiends de siecle?). But they are unnecessary for the lay reader. The bottom line is that the world is inexorably running out of oil, upon which our society is so utterly dependent, and we are already way behind in preparing for the aftermath.

In fact, those who shout "Drill, baby, drill!" actually sabotage the public interest, making the inevitable transition more difficult, more abrupt and economically traumatic. The author states that to achieve a relatively painless transition to a post-oil economy we should have begun serious long-range planning decades ago, perhaps around the time President Carter installed solar panels on the roof of the White House.

The Long Descent presents our dilemma in such clear, concise terms, and Greer's research is so comprehensive, that the reader is left with no doubt as to the impending crisis. Like a mouse in a glass jar one's mind scratches in vain to find the flaw in his presentation. The metaphor he uses to explain our denial, our refusal to accept the impending collapse of our high-tech lifestyle, is the Asian monkey trap. The monkey can save himself by releasing the food he has gripped in the gourd trap - but he doesn't, and is doomed. Likewise, we cannot let go of our dependence upon oil. If we could, we'd have a chance to save our economy, at least some of our comfortable lifestyle -- but we don't.

The eye-opening analogy Greer provides for the decline of the oil-depletion curve states that life on the downside will approximate life an equal number of years before the peak. Example: around 1905, one hundred years before 2005, transportation was primarily by horse-drawn buggies and coal-fired locomotives. Thus it will be in 2105.

In Chapter 5, "Tool for the Transition," Greer offers suggestions on how to prepare for the long descent and life in an oil-less society. (Think of craft skills like blacksmithing and beer brewing.) This penetrating, disturbing wake-up call should be required reading for every high school and college student today. Forewarned is forearmed.

Reviewed by John C. Stickler. What was it like in the years after Hiroshima, for a student in the United States growing up in the shadow of the mushroom cloud? One young man, who graduated from high school in 1955, captured those youthful fears eloquently in a series of poems collected now in a 50-page volume. Growing Up Afraid: Poems of the Atomic Age 1953-1963 by John C. Stickler is available here: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=John+Stickler&x=21&y=26

Everyday Justice

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

I hope you're not drinking a cup of coffee right now. If you are, it may not taste as good by the end of this paragraph. Did you know that most coffee sells for a much lower price than the cost of production? If that fact has an impersonal, financial ring to it, here's what it looks like in reality: Tatu Maseyni, a mother in Tanzania with six children, made $15 for her entire yearly crop of coffee. In the book, Everyday Justice, Julie Clawson explores how our daily decisions affect people like Tatu Maseyni. Everyday Justice gives a basic overview of topics like oil consumption, sweatshops, eating ethically, and modern day slavery.

After waking up, most of us get dressed, eat something, drive somewhere, and at some point during the day, we throw something away. These are things we typically have to do, but Julie Clawson helps us examine how we do them. She explains the global consequences of our daily actions. In a conversational and matter of fact tone, she reveals the connection between chocolate and slavery, refugees from Bangladesh and filling our car with gas, tomatoes and abused workers in Florida. While Clawson exposes overwhelming injustices, she doesn't leave her reader in a hopelessly shocked state. She breaks down the issues by explaining the causes, which often involve a brief history lesson in some sort of international economic policy. She then gives a biblical basis for why we should car about each specific issue and continues with ideas on how we can make the most loving, ethical decisions.

I appreciate the accessible tone of the book. I think it would be appropriate and enjoyable reading for students in high school too. Clawson gives a broad overview of each topic and makes it personal. She shows us that we don't have to be extremists to be a part of reversing these injustices. We can simply choose to make choices each day with an awareness of others, like Tatu Maseyni. When we purchase fair trade coffee, a pretty simple decision made in the grocery store aisle, we are choosing to give farmers a fair price for their work, instead of saving ourselves two dollars. If you look really hard, you may even be able to find a couple dollars in your sofa cushions, but that would be 13% of Tatu's yearly income.

To read more ways to live out social justice in your daily life, check out http://www.dosmallthings.com.

Julia Phillips blogs regularly about social justice issues and parenting at [http://www.dosmallthings.com].

Review - Poisoned for Profit

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

Poisoned for Profit: How Toxins are Making Our Children Chronically Ill, Philip and Alice Shabecoff, 2010, ISBN 9781603582568

Have you wondered why there seems to be an epidemic of serious childhood illnesses, like cancer, asthma and birth defects, in America? It has a lot to do with the huge increase, over the past 50 years, of toxic chemicals dumped into the environment. This book gives the details.

There are a number of towns all over the country, ranging from Dickson, Tennessee, to Pittsfield, Massachusetts, to Toms River, New Jersey, suffering much higher than normal numbers of severe childhood illnesses. Each town just happens to also contain a large industrial plant that handles lots of toxic chemicals. Are the illnesses all "isolated instances" or "just one of those things?"

The authors say that the CEOs of the major chemical companies are not evil people who deliberately want to poison innocent children, but profit is most important. It is very hard to prove, absolutely, that a particular case of asthma or cancer, for instance, was caused by chemicals from a particular industrial plant, though the circumstantial evidence is pretty strong. The chemical companies use that uncertainty to delay the paying of any fines or cleanup costs.

Scientists-for-pay are willing to say what the chemical companies want them to say. The evidence is not conclusive and more study (read: delay) is needed. Washington is no help. Through lobbyists and campaign contributions, it has been made clear to members of Congress that bills to add new regulations are to be watered down or defeated. Only a few of the thousands of chemicals in the environment have been tested at all. Those tests have been very short-term, and have looked at adult exposure to chemicals. The level of toxicity for children and fetuses is much lower.

What can a parent do? If you plan on having children in the future, adopt a healthy lifestyle. Get proper amounts of vitamins and minerals, starting today (men and women). If you already have children, let them play outside and open the windows in your house for at least a few minutes a day (to let out any built-up toxins). Stay away from pesticides and dry cleaning, buy organic food as much as possible, buy furniture and flooring made from solid wood instead of particleboard, which is treated with formaldehyde. There are also plenty of websites to visit with safer alternatives to everyday items.

This book easily reaches the level of Wow. It is very easy to read, and is quite an eye-opener for all parents and parents-to-be. This is highly recommended.

Paul Lappen is a freelance book reviewer whose blog, http://www.deadtreesreview.blogspot.com/, emphasizes small press and self-published books.

This Time Is Different - Eight Centuries of Financial Folly

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

Book Review: This Time Is Different - Eight centuries of financial folly by Carmen M. Reinhart

The authors of the book Rogoff and Reinhart were perplexed by what they were perceiving years before this book was written so therefore they were the ones who saw the crisis coming. This book is about the financial crisis that has plagued the centuries of human history.

Unlike other books which gives the readers only instances about how bad the situation was, this book gives a more detailed look into the causes that brought along the crisis and what the future implications of it are. In some sense the book is soothing in that we have been here before. On the other hand, this particular crisis is one of only two that were truly global. He calls this one "The Second Great Contraction" (the first, of course, referring to the great depression.)

The authors of the book draw their data from rather unconventional and abstract sources. They are able to reveal to us that whatever the world is facing at the moment, it has actually already occurred in the past including all the bailouts, currency pressures, sovereign stresses, and contagion. They state that the usual causes of such crisis are common but the domestic ones where the people are conned by their own country men are rare and are also known as domestic defaults. They hint that the cost of such defaults will be revealed in small parts as the bailouts and in large part in the lost revenues.

This book will serve as a great guide and a very useful source of data and information to the society. The readers may be disappointed by the lack of exaggeration and the large amount of data given in the text. The authors have found it of no use to spend words on who was the bigger "idiot" for the crisis but they rather stress their criticism on the conclusion.

The book will serve as a fine reference for those students who are interested in the current global monetary crisis.

This Time Is Different - Eight centuries of financial folly exposes centuries of financial mistakes and our lack of power to stop them from recurring.

If you would like to read a chapter of this explosive book click here

For your chance to get a free iPad or amazon kindle do check out http://powerfulreviews.com/ thanks.

Review of Too Big to Fail by Andrew Sorkin

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

You have heard this mandate countless times, but this time it is for real: If you read one book this year, read Too Big to Fail by Andrew R. Sorkin. A New York Times journalist, Mr. Sorkin documents most of 2008. He begins with the collapse of Bear-Stearns and he ends with the U. S. Congress passing the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) and the financial apparatus accepting the program.

Mr. Sorkin makes little attempt to analyze the events; instead he documents them, and herein resides the strength of his effort. The book indicates just how close to a complete global economic collapse we came. Even careful observers during the crisis might not know the reasons Lehman failed or why AIG was rescued. Mr. Sorkin delivers a valuable record of behavior surrounding these actions.

Additionally, Mr. Sorkin provides detailed biographical information about the primary protagonists that humanizes them and delineates their intertwined careers. Actually, because he relies heavily on quoted conversations between the protagonists, listening to the audio book is recommended. The admirable narrator, William Hughes, delivers a compelling performance. The particulars of the pacing and inflections might not be completely accurate, but Mr. Hughes likely comes pretty close. Listening to the panic in the Wall Street Wizards' voices is priceless and knowing that Secretary Paulson was prone to vomiting during the height of stress thrills the soul.

The author's massive tome is less than comprehensive because the commodity bubble, Presidential campaign, and the international CDO trade are barely mentioned. Indeed, no single book could document and analyze the American descent, let alone the global implications. Other accounts of the same period will be illuminating, such as Secretary Paulson's On the Brink or Joseph Tibman's The Murder of Lehman Brothers, in order to see confirmation, denial, or reassessment of Mr. Sorkin's data.

A. Wilson is a budding entrepreneur who enjoys fishing and football.

Review - You Are Still Being Lied To

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

You Are Still Being Lied To, Russ Kick (ed.), 2009, ISBN 9781934708071

This is a remixed version of a previously published book, containing articles on a wide variety of topics that will not be covered in the mainstream media. There is something here to upset or offend nearly everyone.

Howard Zinn talks about the real Christopher Columbus. Alex Jones talks about the coming North American Union. There is a piece on John McCain and his attempts to cover up the POW issue from the Vietnam War. R. Crumb contributes a graphic novel piece on the religious experience of science fiction writer Philip K. Dick. Jim Marrs explores the reasons behind the attempts by the Iraqi Government to ban Blackwater. There is a piece on getting high by licking toads, along with a piece on the unconscious roots of the Drug War. Other contributions in this book reassess the "official" version of the Oklahoma City bombing, along with the cover-up of the murder of former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

The titles of some of these articles are pretty self-explanatory. For instance, there is AA Lies (all about Alcoholics Anonymous); Amnesia in America; The Information Arms Race; The Truth About Corporations; Cheap, Crappy Food = A Fat Population; Chemicals Are Killing You; Drug War Mythology; We Were Silenced by the Drums of War; NutraFear and NutraLoathing in Augusta, Georgia; Pharmaceutical Crimes and Misdemeanors; The Martin Luther King You Don't See on TV and Fear and Lying in 2012-Land.

Like I said, there is something here for everyone. It does a really good job at exposing the reader to a number of different subjects. For anyone who wants to get past the mass media version of how the world works, and get the "real" story, start right here. It is highly recommended.

Paul Lappen is a freelance book reviewer whose blog, http://www.deadtreesreview.blogspot.com/, emphasizes small press and self-published books.

Getting Through An Affair - Be Cautious Exactly Who You Actually Notify

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

In figuring out the way to survive an affair, among the list of elements which will make a world of distinction with regard to recovering will be getting that support crew there for you. It could be that many or perhaps everyone in this particular team have experienced exactly what you're feeling now for this reason you will have a very attentive audience that can and often will provide you with a little bit of important guidance or even an excellent spot to port the rage to people that will listen closely.

The last point at this stage is arguably the most important. At the moment you're probably not ready to listen to what you should plus need not do. Getting your emotions out there on view can achieve a whole lot of beneficial. In many ways this operates just like an internal cleansing. Giving voice to your worries along with other feelings which as of this point are most likely in a wild state of flux can lay the cornerstone for moving forward with your life. Keeping it within is without a doubt your own right but it can be a tremendous barrier to healing.

But there is another obstacle when it comes to getting over a marital affair. Friends and family are often the support community many people prefer to survive through very difficult moments. It is common to seek out folks close to you as opposed to trying to find people that have had a similar experience however are for the most part completely unfamiliar to you.

Yet even though loved ones often have your concern in mind they quite often will make the problem significantly worse especially when you are thinking about reconciling with your cheating spouse.

For sure a number of them have dealt with precisely the same predicament in their own life or perhaps have been close to anyone who has. It doesn't imply you must immediately go to these people to get assistance and suggestions.

Family and also friends that are by your side tend to make stuff more difficult by pulling you exactly where you don't wish to proceed or pouring fuel on your currently erratic feelings. They will explain to you for example that they didn't respect or trust your philandering mate. From the beginning they just had the wrong feeling about this particular person yet wanted to keep it to themselves for your sake.

Now because the marital affair ended up being discovered absolutely no such hindrances are present so they let it fly with all the venom and pent-up thoughts they can muster. After awhile the denunciations get stronger and louder. You buy into it since it looks like they were right from the beginning with regards to the spouse.

It's not too long afterwards your buddy and/or relative brings in their own support crew. These people are not necessarily present to provide you with comfort as they are to support exactly what your friend or relative is saying to you. They also had a bad feeling regarding your significant other right off the bat. And it goes on right up until mending your marriage becomes the farthest thing from your thought process. All you're interested in is how fast you can get the actual divorce process initiated.

This can likewise go the other way. Your social circle likes your cheating spouse. From time to time you have the feeling Your group likes them more than they do you. Any time you seek to express what is happening your crew refuses to believe it.

Truth to tell they will switch stuff all around and make you the villain. Your partner had infidelities which means you did or said something wrong and if you can not get your act together you will definitely lose them for good. You actually visited your people just for help and they basically made you feel worse just by placing all the blame on your own front porch.

When it comes to the best way through an extramarital affair it is necessary to choose carefully whom you are going to confer with. Certainly not all people in your community group needs to find out what is occurring with your marriage.

Even with the persons you do believe in sufficiently to talk about all the personal aspects be certain that it is actually upon your terms and conditions. Make a decision what exactly you need out of your help community before you decide to explain to them what is going on. Take their particular opinions however remain in charge regarding what you should and definitely will not necessarily allow. The main objective has to be your recovering together with exactly what your circle can provide to get you to that destination. Whatever strays from that route will never be good for you.

For more information on coping with a marital affair check out after infidelity.

Can't Prove Your Partner Is Cheating on You? Catch That Cheater Instantly!

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

You believe your lover is having an affair, however, you cannot prove it. It is making you completely NUTS, since you understand there's something fishy about their loyalty, however, you cannot pinpoint it, and also you aren't able to find any kind of proof.

So how do you capture a spouse in their game, and just how are you able to show that they're disloyal in the first place? Continue reading to discover the mental technique which will make your lover reveal every thing without them actually realizing it....

The Easy Cheater Exposing Technique: Create A Phony Friend Request

Just about everyone nowadays is using some soft of social media website. Since Facebook is one of the most widely used social networking websites at this time, we'll use it for example, however this instance may be used for other social media websites too, such as MySpace, Hi5, Bebo, Yahoo and so on...

What you need to do, is actually create a phony user profile and include nice looking pictures of somebody who's exactly the same sex as you are, from a stock picture web site.

I would recommend using stock pictures, since it will not be as simple for your partner to determine, whereas should you just take them from Search engines, you have the opportunity that your partner might effortlessly figure it out its phony.

After you have found a few pictures, add them as a buddy or deliver them a note such as this:

"Hey, I noticed your user profile, and believed you're truly adorable looking."

Your lover may look at this, and will really feel flattered. When they are having an affair, or simply are disloyal, they most clearly will answer this, just because a cheater can't avoid the excitement of some thing unexpected or something surprising.

As this is shocking and new to them, the cheater may react to it, and your task is always to carry on in the flirty manner, to be able to lastly capture your partner in the process.

Don't let them know it's just you, but take it so far as you are able to. Try to encourage them to agree to setup a meeting, and find out the things they say about their own relationship status too. If you're able to encourage them to agree to setup a meeting, try meeting them in the real world.

When they request a telephone number, nevertheless, to text you or contact, get a buddy to help you out. Ask your buddy to borrow his/her telephone and voice to trap your lover in the act, or in the event that option is not available, buy an inexpensive "pay as you go" telephone to use.

You will need to bring this to a point where your lover concurs to meet the individual, so you are aware without a doubt he/she is actually sneaking around your back, and in the end you'll be sure that he/she has been lying to your face all along.

90% of the common and average people will leave this page without taking advantage of the awesome offer below.

If you're not one of them, take advantage of our Free Secret 10 Question Quiz To See If He's Cheating On You (100% Works) (no hidden costs, no annoying offers) - CLICK HERE

Instant download - have it on your hard drive in 30 seconds!

Literature Post Printing Press

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota
Get notified by email when new articles are added to this category or written by this author. Subscribe to New Article Alerts:

Current Affairs Article Feed

Book Review: Andrew Fowler's Biography of Julian Assange

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

Julian Assange's rise to global notoriety has been lightning quick. His whistleblower website Wikileaks began merely as an inspired idea written on a piece of paper and placed in his Carlton bedroom in the inner city suburb of Melbourne. Early on Assange assumed that leaking government secrets would set the world on fire. This did not happen. The world, it appears, did not share Assange's moral outrage. All of that would change when Wikileaks released a video in April 2010 the site labelled 'Collateral Murder', a classified US military video showing the killing of over a dozen people - including two Reuters news staff.

The theory behind Wikileaks is that complex and powerful bureaucracies rely on secrecy, and that once their ability to communicate in this clandestine manner is removed it makes it more difficult for them to exist. Therefore powerful institutions can be crippled by exposing (or rather leaking) their secrets. Basically taking away an organisation's ability to harbour secrets is like taking away its oxygen, according to Assange's political philosophy. It reduces the powerful organisation's ability to communicate within itself; it makes it dysfunctional.

As Assange writes:

"The more secretive or unjust an organisation is, the more leaks induce fear and paranoia in its leadership and planning coterie.... Since unjust systems, by their nature, induce opponents, and in many places barely have the upper hand, mass leaking leaves them exquisitely vulnerable to those who seek to replace them with more open forms of governance."

Julian Assange, Electronic Media and the Threat to the Status Quo

The Most Dangerous Man in the World explores three main themes: the character of Assange; the old print and new electronic media; and how powerful political systems react to the threat of having their secrets exposed. Andrew Fowler, a journalist with the ABC, has written a well-considered and thoughtful book about the whole Wikileaks phenomenon, and the mercurial character of Julian Assange. Usually these types of books are quickly knocked up, and are little more than cut-and-paste jobs that lazily skim the surface. As a globetrotting journalist immersed in international politics and media, Fowler brings a refreshing range and subtlety of analysis to his subject. He has also interviewed Assange, for the ABC's Foreign Correspondent program.

The question that most often comes to mind when assessing the cultural significance of Julian Assange is whether he is a freedom warrior, a scourge of despots the world over, or an over hyped computer nerd living in a world of instant media fame.

In Fowler's portrait, Assange comes across as a bit of an international hobo, travelling the world and staying wherever friends will put him up, but with no fixed address of his own. His essential character is as hard to pin down as his fixed address. Obviously highly intelligent and also creative, he has jokingly described himself as a bit autistic. He also has a tendency to flip friendships into disgruntled enemies with alarming alacrity.

From all the information that Fowler puts forward on Assange, it's hard to take him seriously as a Messiah of the Internet age. Information technology, with its inexorable march towards complete openness, always made Wikileaks seem like a child predestined to be born. An early supporter of Assange, the Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, has said he identifies more with Bradley Manning, the 22 year old soldier who leaked the mammoth cache of classified documents to Wikileaks, than with Assange himself. Assange, afterall, is publisher of leaked documents, not the actual leaker. Manning faces life in jail, whereas whether Assange will ever be given a prison sentence seems unlikely.

What The Most Dangerous Man in the World really highlights is the intersection between the work of journalism and the free-for-all world of Internet publishing, where there is no editor, only individuals self-publishing and Google's mysterious algorithm, which ranks search engine queries as a sort of machine-editor. In the end it was Assange who approached various media outlets to seek advice on how to sort through the material from the leaked US cables. On his own, as a rogue publisher, he made serious editorial mistakes by not redacting names from the Afghanistan war logs, thereby potentially putting lives at risk. Maybe this is Fowler's journalistic bias coming through in the text, but it seems that editors and journalists are still more important than the absolute freedom of information. Information still needs to be assessed and sorted; individuals need to have their privacy protected from leaks that may endanger their lives, careers or reputations.

Whether Assange's reputation as a freedom fighter and enlightenment figure will grow with time, it is still too early to tell. Andrew Fowler's biography of Julian Assange persuades that the Wikileaks founder is more of an old style journalist than anything else, making public what vested interests would like to keep secret.

The Most Dangerous Man in the World, by Andrew Fowler. Published by Melbourne University Press. ISBN: 978-0-522-85866-2

Chris Saliba is a book reviewer from Melbourne, Australia.

His other book reviews can be read at: http://chrissalibabookreviews.blogspot.com/

Aftershock: The Next Economy And America's Future by Robert B Reich - Current Affairs Book Review

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

America's economic Crash of 2008 was directed almost universally at Wall Street. In his September release, entitled, Aftershock: The Next Economy And America's Future, Robert B. Reich argues differently. He believes the real problem is structural: There's an increasing concentration of wealth at the top, while middle class Americans struggle to maintain a decent standard of living.

Reich served in three national administrations, most recently as Secretary of Labor under President Clinton. He's written numerous books, and is a university professor of public policy.

Three stages of modern American capitalism substantiate Reich's message. The first stage (1870-1929) was one of increasing concentration of income and wealth. Stage two (1947-1975), featured more broadly shared prosperity; and stage three (1980-2010) is one of increasing wealth concentration. Reich says it's vital for our future to begin a fourth stage where broad-based prosperity reigns.

Reich profiles Marriner Eccles, a business tycoon during the Great Depression. Largely forgotten today, Reich believes Eccle's analysis of the underlying economic stresses of the Great Depression are relevant to the Crash of 2008. His assumption of a quick national recovery proved wrong, as we know today. President Roosevelt summoned him to Washington DC to share his financial acumen which was based on logic and experience.

Eccles chaired the Federal Reserve Board from 1934 to 1948 (the Eccles Building on Constitution Avenue in Washington DC is his memoriam). History repeats itself today, as there's a vast accumulation of income among the nation's wealthiest people. The result is everyone else experiences reduced purchasing power.

The basic bargain gave workers a proportionate share of the fruits of economic growth. Average workers had enough purchasing power to buy what they produced.

The Great Prosperity years (1947-1975), found America as a whole, implementing the basic bargain. Almost everyone who wanted a job could find one with good wages or at least wages that were trending upward. The US government created the conditions for the middle class to fully share in the nation's prosperity.

Americans developed three coping mechanisms Reich says, to combat the growing concentration of wealth, which today are ineffective. They are:

Women move into paid work. Starting in the late 1970's, women began working to supplement family incomes and offset stagnant or declining male- earned wages. Today, the point of diminishing returns exists, as the cost of hiring outside help or childcare exceeds the apparent benefits of the additional income.Everyone works longer hours. A growing number of people took on two or three jobs, each demanding 20 or more hours. Now, even if they can find more work, they can find no more time.We draw down savings and borrow to the hilt. During the Great Prosperity, the American middle class saved about 9 percent of their after-tax income. In 2008, it slid to 2.6 percent. By 2008, the typical American household owed 138 percent of its after-tax income. Middle class consumers took on huge amounts of debt as a last resort. Median wages had stopped growing and the proportion of total income going to the middle class shrank.

The Great Recession officially began in December 2007. The biggest difference between it and the Great Depression is what happened next after the bubbles burst. The Great Depression inspired government policies that led to new economic order. Social insurance, improvements in the nation's infrastructure, schools, public universities, and other initiatives, created a more secure, prosperous and productive America. The Great Recession has produced no new economic order.

"Technically, the Great Recession has ended," says Reich, "But its aftershock has only begun." Reich says jobs will return over time, however they'll provide lower wages than Americans are accustomed to.

Globalization and outsourcing of American jobs overseas are often blamed for the nation's high unemployment rate. But, Reich reminds us, those factors don't tell the whole story. Automation is key too, as many service jobs including bank tellers and telephone operators are now extinct.

Based on current national conditions, Reich forecasts Election 2020. The platform of the Independent Party could triumph, with its "clear and uncompromising message." Included are zero tolerance of illegal immigration, increased tariffs on all imports and abolishment of The Federal Reserve Board. Its extreme agenda would be detrimental to US interests home and abroad.

Americans will become increasingly outraged if the US economic system appears outrigged to favor the rich. Among their concerns are Wall Street bailouts, hefty political campaign contributions by the wealthy to protect their interests, and elite educational opportunities for privileged children.

Reich proffers nine primary solutions to help restore the basic bargain to middle class Americans. He admits that some of his proposals are initially costly, but, over time, the benefits outweigh financials. Three highlights include:

A reemployment system vs. an unemployment system. Today, most job losers never get their jobs back, and long-term unemployment is high. Implement wage insurance. Here, any job loser who accepts employment that pays less than his or her former position would be eligible for 90 percent of the difference for up to two years. By then, many workers would have acquired additional skills, rendering the reward of similar past pay.Public goods. Sizably increase public goods such as public transportation, museums, libraries and recreational facilities. Keep them free vs. the trend in "user fees." Public goods improve quality of life and help partly compensate for stagnant or declining wages.Money out of politics. As inequality has widened, large corporations, Wall Street, and their executives and traders have distorted political decisions with their hefty donations. Recent Supreme Court decisions protecting campaign contributions as forms of free speech need to be reversed. In the meantime, all political donations should go through a "blind trust," so that no candidate ever know who contributed what.

These are challenging times for our nation indeed, as we adjust to the growing pains of globalization. Despite housing foreclosures, continued high unemployment, lower earnings, less economic security, widening inequality and soaring pay on Wall Street, Reich concludes on a voice of optimism.

He emphasizes that America, when faced with a depression, an enveloping war and other moral urgencies, has always risen to the occasion. "We will choose reform, I believe, because we are a sensible nation, and reform is the only sensible option we have."

To learn more about Reich's perspective on restoring the basic bargain to save middle class America, visit his blog at http://robertreich.org.

Timothy Zaun is a blogger, speaker and freelance writer. Visit him online at http://timzaun.com/.

Stay Updated With The Week

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

When it comes to some serious news THE WEEK magazine is definitely the one you can rely on. Established in 1995 in United Kingdom, this British magazine opened up branches in USA and Australia in 2001 and 2008 respectively. The editors-in-chief of THE WEEK magazine in these three countries are:

United Kingdom: Jeremy O'GardyUSA: William FolkAustralia: David Salter

The content of the magazine focuses on hard news with weekly reporting of the socially and politically stimulating local issues, commentary on the global trends in politics and economics, business, fashion, science and arts. THE WEEK keeps one abreast with the latest issues through its compact 35 pages of editorial content. The several sections of the magazine can be listed as:

UK news/USA news/ Australia news: Covering all domestic news from across the countryWorld news: Thorough coverage of international affairsCity and Business: Scouring the business pages to highlight the most important stories in the fieldThe Arts: Compact presentation of important gallery openings, plays, film and books and reviewsTravel and Leisure: For offering best consumer recommendations in the area

One can subscribe to THE WEEK online bagging six free issues with no compulsion t continue subscriptions. If one decides to continue the subscription rate is at ?22.49 every 13 issues. The other online subscription offers are:

26 issues for ?62.00. Payment accepted on credit card51 issues for ?107.00. Payment accepted by credit card

This apart THE WEEK offers gift subscriptions for your friends and relatives wherein the rates of the subscriptions are same as the above mentioned ones. There are several other facilities provided with THE WEEK subscriptions:

Savings: Per copy of THE WEEK costs ?2.50 from the newsagent while on subscription it costs ?1.54 every weekMoney back guarantee: If the subscription has to be discontinued the balance amount will be refunded on writing to the concerned bodyDoor step delivery On subscribing to the magazine the copy will be delivered at your door step every weekContinuing subscriptions: If one is traveling or shifting to a different location the subscription can follow once intimatedTake you pick: You can choose form the varied range of offers in subscription and choose the one that suits you best.

If you want to stay updated with all the happenings around the world, a weekly subscription of The Week is all you need as your weekly dose of news entertainment.

For any help on the week magazine [http://www.magazine-group.co.uk/magazine/news-current-affairs/news-magazines/the-week], check out the info available online; these will help you learn to find subscribe to the week [http://www.magazine-group.co.uk/magazine/news-current-affairs/news-magazines/the-week]

Journal Review in Current Events and World Affairs

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

It is difficult to stay up on all the current events in world affairs, as there is always some conflict going on or some negotiation between nations. And then there are the rogue nations, and the United Nations, and groups trying to get together to figure out a solution which is fair for all concerned, that won't lead to problems of unintended consequences. This is easier than it sounds, and it's easy to get lost in the political international rhetoric.

Yes the United States is involved in that rhetoric just as much as any other nation and each nation tries to serve its own self interests, or the interests of their leaders. One way to stay up on all the current events and happenings is to take a professional journal which discusses these topics, where the editors pour through articles which appear in all sorts of other publications, and they pick the best ones out for you to read. There is such a journal which I'd like to recommend to you. It's one that I often read through, as there are quite a few good articles. The name of the Journal is;

"Current - Required Reading Recommended by Leading Opinion Makers," published by Routledge - Taylor and Francis publishing in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. ISSN: 0011 - 3131.

Let me give you some for instances, in the October 2010 issue; number 526 there were several great articles. One was "Too Bad Not to Fail," by William J Quirk, which questions the CDO markets and the derivative markets. And the rest of the journal focused on China, which has been in the news quite a bit lately one article took us looking pretty far ahead to the year 2020 with an article titled "The Gathering Storm - America in China in 2020" by Ian Bremmer.

The next article was "China Turns on the Charm" by Helle C Dale. Both of these articles also appeared in world affairs magazine in the July August issue of 2010. You see, it's not easy to go and read all the various magazines, and writings from all the top universities on such topics, but it is even better to see that someone else has gone through all the articles and picked out the best ones for us to read. There is a lot of value in that, especially for someone who runs a think tank like I do. Thus, I would like to recommend this particular journal to you, if these topics are of interest. Please consider all this.

Lance Winslow is the Founder of the Online Think Tank, a diverse group of achievers, experts, innovators, entrepreneurs, thinkers, futurists, academics, dreamers, leaders, and general all around brilliant minds. Lance Winslow hopes you've enjoyed today's discussion and topic. http://www.worldthinktank.net/ - Have an important subject to discuss, contact Lance Winslow.

Poisoned Profits

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

Poisoned Profits is the newest combined work from authors Philipe and Alice Shabecoff which comes with the sub title, The Toxic Assault on Our Children which sums up this book perfectly.

The couple works to show the deteriorating environmental picture for children in the United States with a focus on the problems that these environmental factors can cause.

As a father to be myself this was truly a disturbing read, I hadn't thought that since our children are so much closer to the floor and ground that they ingest at least three times as many pollutants as adults. This is exacerbated even more by the fact that children drink and eat infinitely more fruits and vegetables than the average adult. Additionally they lay out the ways that both chemical companies and large corporations work to craft scientific studies which are anything but scientific and show results which are more conducive to their aims. This is much the same route that tobacco companies fought against the dangers of second hand smoke for almost forty years before public opinion finally turned against them in the last few decades.

Of course, any parent fears that their child will be negatively affected by their environment either in terms of their mental development or development before being born.

If you're generally interested in the environment, or have ever bough a piece of organic produce, a Prius or even a cleaner without bleach out of concern for your children (and yourself!) this is an interesting read which will take your understanding of environmental issues to the next level. Most importantly the book ends with a specific action plan including both other resources as well as environmentally friendly companies which deserve our support.

Want more wine information? Want to join a real wine club that is interested in more then just taking your money for their real business? Use promo code EZine at Uncorked Ventures to take 10% off your first wine club order just for reading this article!

Wine Clubs

Wine of the Month Club

Super Freakonomics by Steven B Levitt and Stephen J Dubner

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

This is billed as the "explosive" follow-up to Freakonomics," and is subtitled: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance.

Apparently the world can't get enough of this team who keep questioning our assumptions about how the world works, and how we should be evaluating the statistics the media bombards us with.

They open with something that's not intuitively obvious -- according to the statistics (and if you accept their assumption that people walk as much drunk as they drive), it's far safer for the drunk person to drive drunk than to walk drunk.

It's far safer for other drivers for drunks to walk, but for the drunk, it's safer to drive -- so they don't lie down in the middle of the street and pass out, fall in front of a car, cross a street without looking, or the other dangerous things drunk pedestrians do. They didn't even include the real possibility (in some neighborhoods) of being robbed.

It ends with descriptions of how a research scientist taught monkeys to value coins -- they even discovered prostitution.

Along the way, they take a close look at the economics of (human) prostitute, comparing what it was many years ago to today.

Even more potentially controversial is the chapter on global warming, which highlights a company headed by a former Microsoft employee who is leading other geniuses to find cost-effective ways to make money by solving the world's problems.

These scientists seem to generally believe the world is gradually warming, but are well-aware that the current models are not sophisticated enough, putting them outside the rabid environmental camp.

The authors touch on how the current environmental movement seems much like a religion that is attempting to limit carbon dioxide not just as a method to reduce global warming, but to deliberately destroy civilization as we know of. They allude to this, and seem aware of the threat, but don't go deeply into the motivations of the fanatical environmentalists or explore what are their true goals.

Rather they take "reducing global warming" as the goal, and then let the scientists discuss how it could be accomplished at little cost.

As someone who doesn't pretend to be a climate scientist, I'm an agnostic on global warming.

But as someone who sees the proposed "solutions" for the alleged threat of global warming as a threat to humanity's freedom and economic development, I wish they'd gone further in exposing the radical environmentalists who are using climate change as a means, not an end.

They even re-open the infamous Kitty Genovese case, though apparently have not read Robert Cialdini's explanation that the neighbors who did witness the attack or her murder believed someone else had called the police. They discovered that someone did call the police, who apparently were slow to react, since nobody knew how seriously she was wounded.

I personally enjoy this form of using facts to debunk myths. Lord knows we need a lot more facts and context and a lot fewer media lies and distortions.

Discover the main health, fitness, weight, wellness and anti-aging benefiting of eating balance protein bars and getting on the Zone diet New York.

The Unthinkable - Who Survives When Disaster Strikes - And Why by Amanda Ripley

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

I picked this up thinking it was probably a knockoff of The Survivor's Club by Ben Sherwood. However, I quickly realized The Unthinkable by Amanda Ripley is an excellent, well-researched book in its own right. There's is some overlap between them, but she focuses on disasters -- by definition involving many people at once -- whereas he focuses on survival of individuals, sometimes in disastrous circumstances and sometimes by themselves.

She also uses a lot of case studies, though dividing them up and spreading them out to make her points, which is sometimes confusing. She explores many areas without making a concentrated attempt to make a point.

One thing she does say, repeatedly though not as much as I would have liked, is how most people respond as constructively as possible to disasters, and they could respond even better if given the proper training and instruction.

According to her, and she makes a lot of sense, in too many cases the government and other relevant authorities fail to trust the ability of people to learn.

She brings out the lessons of September 11 from several angles. The first is a woman whose reaction and that of her co-workers was typical. They dithered. They wasted time talking about what to do and in gathering up their belongings. When they finally got started going down the stairwell, they went too slowly.

Despite the usual assumptions, they didn't panic. Almost the reverse. They were polite and helpful to each other. The woman was in denial and suffered some sensory shock -- blindness at the street level -- and had to be helped outside.

She examines a situation where Columbian guerrillas attacked a diplomatic party and took the U.S. ambassador hostage. She gets interesting material both from the ambassador and the leader of the guerrillas who is now a politician in Columbia. Both of them report changes in their perceptions. Time slowed down for the ambassador. Commandante Uno shot at his own reflection in a mirror, mistaking it for an armed opponent, not recognizing himself.

She references some airline crashes. She doesn't go into the detail Sherwood did -- one chapter of his book is practically a textbook on how to survive them -- but does repeat the same basic advice. Read the instruction cards, listen to the safety demonstrations and make note of where the nearest exits are. She mentions a crash where the only people who survived were those who had paid attention to the preflight demonstration and read those little cards.

She also interviewed a lot of scientists who study things such as the fear paralysis animals demonstrate, and panic, and how we learn how to respond. She also goes into depth on the physics of being in dense crowds, and the times when people are killed in Saudi Arabia, crushed by other Muslims while on haj. It has to do with the extraordinary density and size of the processions, not religious behavior.

I highly recommend both books. This one makes a better case for authorities educating and empowering ordinary people to help themselves. But in the end, it's all up to us. The Unthinkable contains some of the tools and concepts we can use to better prepare ourselves for emergencies.

Richard Stooker is a writer with a long time interest in fitness, health, anti-aging and nutrition. He also recommends keeping freeze dried foods stored in your home and car in case of emergencies, and have an emergency preparedness plan.

The World Without Us

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

The World Without Us is the most recent work by famed environmentalist and futurist Alan Weisman. Set in what amounts to a fairly familiar situation now, the world after humanity is wiped out (he makes no guess what causes it, just assumes that it has happened) Weisman goes through a number of different aspects of civilization and how they will change without human intervention.

One aspect of Weisman's writing and conclusions which I enjoyed was that he didn't take the easy answers. He didn't simply say that nature would improve and that everything would go smoothly once humans stopped existing. Far from it, in fact. He talks at some length about what happens to plastic when it is does not end up in landfills. We've all seen plastic bags floating on the water at the beach, or blowing in the wind, but what happens when that plastic is broken down by ocean currents over many years? Weisman estimates (no one can know for sure, plastic hasn't been around long enough for anyone to know, even in a laboratory setting) that the plastic simply is literally pounded into microscopic parts and those parts are going to be digested by small, incredibly small organisms. Will they be able to use them for food, or will this additional plastic reek havoc with the entire ecosystem? Again, no one knows but Wesiman isn't all doom and gloom on the subject, even suggesting that he feels an animal will eventually evolve with the ability to digest these plastic particles as food.

Any novel on this topic wouldn't be complete without a chapter on our current domesticated animals, Weisman's work is no different here. Clearly, as many of us would expect animals like cows and even the family dog are so adapted to humans taking care of them that they don't have much hope in a world without humans. The family cat is another story though as it has never totally surrendered to human control, as evidenced by the fact that the average house cat will still hunt even when well fed.

If you're looking for a novel about the future, even one without us, The World Without Us makes for an enjoyable read and I believe finds a nice middle ground between favoring human intervention and natural selection in the wider world around us.

Futurecast by Robert Shapiro

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

Futurecast

Over the past few years a number of books have been released which attempt to predict future events in one way or another. Perhaps it is the coming of the Mayan prediction of the end of the world in 2012, or simply a tumultuous time in human history, but Futurecast by Robert Shapiro is written in that vein and looks at the world from a political and economic point of view.

Shapiro's work is generally written and grouped in a few broad categories. The overarching theme is that the world over the next one hundred years will continue to be dominated both economically and militarily by the United States. While the United States faces challenges, specifically when it comes to immigration and the cost of health care, the country's leaders are already working to combat these issues as best as they can. Other countries face more difficult transitions, such as China which faces a serious demographic crisis in that the three hundred million people living in the eastern portion of the country around Shanghai and Beijing are incredibly wealthy when compared to the other portions of the country in which many people have more in common with Sub Saharan African than New York, London or Tokyo. Shapiro goes so far as to predict the fragmentation of China within the next twenty years as the government in Beijing struggles to find balance between competing goals in separate parts of the country.

I found the most interesting part of the novel to be about demographics and the challenges these struggling demographics will pose for countries as time goes forward. It's interesting to note that Russia will be losing at least fifty million young men from the workforce over the next forty years and will not be able to have a military and police force the same size that they do currently.

Overall Futurecase is an interesting look at how one man views the future. It's not altogether positive, but it does provide a nice read and look into some of the serious issues of our time including health care, the environment and globalization.

Want more wine information? Want to join a real wine club that is interested in more then just taking your money for their real business? Use promo code EZine at Uncorked Ventures to take 10% off your first wine club order just for reading this article!

Wine Clubs

Wine of the Month Club

Oaxaca, Mexico and the Global Economy - No Word For Welcome Book Review

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

The Isthmus of Tehuantepec is a 120 mile strip of land between the Pacific and the Gulf of Mexico, almost entirely in the southern Mexico state of Oaxaca. It's been inhabited by indigenous groups with different languages and customs for millennia. Since colonial times it's attracted both national and international attention because of its important geographical location and richness of resources.

In No Word for Welcome: The Mexican Village Faces the Global Economy (University of Nebraska Press, 2011), author Wendy Call, a self - described grassroots organizer and researcher, makes an impassioned plea; if not for halting the invasion of the global economy into Oaxaca's Isthmus of Tehuantepec, then for proceeding only after critical evaluation of environmental and cultural impact studies. Ms. Call spent two consecutive years living and working on the Isthmus, from 2000 to 2002, in addition to shorter visits totaling a further year.

The federal government proceeded with its Trans-Isthmus Megaproject by commencing the construction of a four-lane highway through the region, in some cases as a bypass around small Oaxacan towns and villages otherwise connected by potholed two lane roads. It became part of former president Vicente Fox's Plan Puebla Panama, an initiative to extend Mexico's main, relatively new highway system from the US border through to Central America.

The scope of the Megaproject initially included 150 proposed projects including oil refineries, plantations, industrial parks, commercial shrimp farms and a highway - rail network to carry products to national and international markets. The project would inevitably alter both the environmental and cultural landscape. Townspeople opposed development of the region mainly out of fear of the unknown due to a lack of information and consultation. Government and commercial interests were intent upon forging forward.

Call's steadfast contention is that development will result in wholesale irreversible adverse impact to the natural environment, and to inhabitants by altering their means of eking out an economic existence, while at the same time destroying other cultural indicia such as traditions and language. The book centers upon objection to construction of the highway system and the proposed replacement of small fishing operations with large industrial shrimp farms.

In addition to her own personal experiences, in No Word for Welcome Call chronicles family histories and livelihoods as well as opposing individual points of view. This is accomplished by providing detailed examinations of the lives of individuals she came to know intimately in the course of living in the Isthmus for three years, and to a lesser extent through interviewing civil servants and other proponents of the project.

Call's novel-like use of colorful, detailed description draws you in. She holds your interest by weaving together the stories of her subjects (i.e. the activists, the fishermen, the uneducated schoolteacher); otherwise often dry archival evidence of the historical importance of the Isthmus (referencing for example the reign of dictator Porfirio D?az, the US attempt to buy the Isthmus in the 19th century, and the early 20th century foreign consulates in port city Salina Cruz); the sometimes violent and destructive manifestations of opposing positions (fishermen burning government trucks and dredging machinery and running workers out of town; gesturing with a machete while threatening "if the government doesn't respect the people..."); and her own viewpoint.

You cannot help but become extremely opinionated, either by jumping on Call's bandwagon or being critical of how her political point of view affects the presentation of her thesis. She approaches her chapter centering upon Huatulco, the Pacific resort town created by FONATUR (Mexico's national tourism development agency), with disdain, though she does note positive impressions of its Mexican residents. She seems to mock the government when she writes that the FONATUR office "felt more like a travel agency than a government agency, with overstuffed furniture, brochures filled with beaches and bikinis, and the hollow air of a place with more infrastructure than activity." How else does one attempt to sell tourism, sun, sand and surf?

But it's Call's style of writing, inevitable as a consequence of her very reason for being on the Isthmus, which contributes to keeping the reader at the edge of his seat, either cheering for the cause and hoping that "the people" prevail, or cringing at naivety - the arrival of the global economy in the Isthmus is inevitable and could have been foreshadowed since the 1500s, perhaps earlier.

The description of the lives and hardships of fishermen and their environs is rich and compelling. Yes, perhaps industrial shrimp farms will destroy the mangroves and might have a short lifespan, leaving a swath of destruction. But we're given little in the way of alternatives for the area and its industry.

Both industrialization and the residents themselves have played a part in marginalizing existence and requiring government intervention. But there appears to be a lack of understanding on the part of residents of the complexity of the issue and the part they have played in creating the current conundrum; Call's job is not to educate in this regard. A fisherman surmises that his people have been harvesting shrimp, fish and crabs for over a thousand years, so asks why he should pay attention to some mestizo government regulation banning the use of large rectangular nets. He seems to deny any direct role as a contributor to the problem and states that you cannot trust a government whose solution would create a bigger problem (industrial shrimp farms).

The area has become overfished. Fishermen were not forced to begin using motorboats. They discarded their smaller nets, each of which took a year of spare time to make, in favor of buying the large $100 USD Japanese machine-made ones, and proceeded to trap their catch by extending these new nets across the river's mouth. The result was that small shrimp and other marine species could not get through the nets and into the mangroves to reproduce. The government had to ban the use of these nets in order to protect the industry. The fisherman is adamant that he needs to harvest that much fish to survive.

Many in the fisherman's position opt to head to the US. Call notes emigration in passing from time to time but it's not fully addressed in her book, perhaps because it is not consistent with Call?s thesis. One rarely finds an anthropological writing of this nature which does not deal with emigration head on. But Call is not an anthropologist, and in fact is critical of social scientists, for some reason lumping them together with others working in the Isthmus: "I tried not to act like so many of the journalists, anthropologists, folklorists, and sociologists I'd encountered while living on the Isthmus. They tended to come for just a few hours, days, or weeks, blurting out questions before their bodies had warmed a chair." Perhaps anthropological fieldwork has changed dramatically since my days in graduate school.

The superhighway and a network of smaller roads and rail does result in physically dividing populations, and yes can adversely impacts indigenous culture. Relocating populations into neighborhoods with street names such as Poblado One, Two, etc. rather than retaining names of heroes of The Revolution or pre - Hispanic gods and royalty impacts a pride in one's society and heritage. But globalization is inevitable, for the benefit of not only a few rich Mexicans and foreigners seeking to capitalize on NAFTA, as is submitted in the book, but for the residents of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec.

Of course, as Call suggests, cultural and environmental impact studies are crucial for minimizing destruction of peoples and their lands. And yes, they are sometimes not done or are ignored and politics and power often govern. What I found missing were propositions regarding the least detrimental alternative, which in these circumstances I would suggest, is the best one could hope to achieve, rather than a wholesale halt to all. When subcomandante Marcos' caravan was en route to Mexico City in 2001, and he assured that he would take President Fox the message that "the Isthmus is not for sale," perhaps someone should have suggested a rental agreement with terms maximizing the benefit for the istme?os.

No Word for Welcome is a well - written book, holding the reader's interest from start to finish. I recommend it for prospective visitors to southern Mexico because its descriptions of life in that part of Mexico are extremely accurate, from the workings of local politics, antics, strategies and sometimes destructive forces used to make a point, to the richness of detail, to the lesson in history. The expat living in Mexico will find Call's experiences familiar and reaffirming on many levels (a department store employee is indeed often taken aback when you ask how much a refrigerator costs for cash not credit).

For those interested in the global economy and industrialization or wanting to understand how competing interests are addressed and resolved in Southern Mexico in particular, No Word For Welcome is a must. It's written with a strong bias, and as such it stirs emotion. The reader is anxious to learn how it all turned out, and to some extent is told. Ms. Call's final chapter includes her impressions from her 2008 visit.

Alvin Starkman is a paid contributing writer for Mexico Today, a program for Marca Pa?s - Imagen de M?xico. Alvin enjoys taking visitors to Oaxaca to explore more off the beaten track sights, and encourages them to enjoy a diversity of experiences in addition to "the usual." Alvin has written over 200 articles about life and cultural traditions in Oaxaca, consults to documentary film companies, and with his wife operates Casa Machaya Oaxaca Bed & Breakfast ( http://www.casamachaya.com/ ).

Blessed Unrest - Insight Number One

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

Published in 2007, Blessed Unrest by Paul Hawken has not only maintained relevance over time, but has actually increased in importance as the world now struggles to deal with tough issues of hunger, poverty, social justice, warfare, climate change and economic crisis

The message of the book is two-fold. It details a set of initiatives that need continued and increased involvement from citizens of the world, and it also describes the miraculous movement that developed in support of those initiatives. Separate topics indeed, yet inseparable when we strive to understand the vital need for changing/saving the world.

Introduction

Paul Hawken, who also wrote The Ecology of Commerce, is a bestselling author, self-proclaimed environmentalist, entrepreneur, and journalist. As stated on the book's opening page, he has given nearly one thousand talks about the environment over the past fifteen years and has traveled the world in his quest to raise awareness of the human and environmental issues that plague this planet.

The two-fold message referred to above is best expressed on the inside of the book's dust jacket:

"The dawn of the twenty-first century has witnessed two remarkable developments in our history: the appearance of systemic problems that are genuinely global in scope, and the growth of a worldwide movement that is determined to heal the wounds of the earth with the force of passion, dedication, and collective intelligence and wisdom."

In the first chapter Mr. Hawken discusses his numerous encounters with hundreds of individuals and organizations who are working on a multitude of local, regional and global issues. Coming from all walks of life, and not realizing they were part of a much larger movement, they collectively provided him with countless bits of knowledge that, after a time, coalesced into the foundation of the book's premise.

As Mr. Hawken considered these encounters, and mentally connected the dots, it became apparent that there was a powerful movement of sorts underway, though not one that could easily be recognized as such. Wanting to understand the phenomena more deeply, he began counting the number of organizations, large and small, that were working on similar social projects. His conclusion is that there are well over a million such organizations, and what also became apparent was the direct connection between issues related to society and those involving the environment.

Insight #1

"A Native American taught me that the division between ecology and human rights was an artificial one, that the environmental and social justice movements addressed two sides of a single larger dilemma."

"The way we harm the earth affects all people, and how we treat one another is reflected in how we treat the earth."

These two quotes, which lay the groundwork for much of Blessed Unrest, resonated with me as cornerstones to the philosophy of Global Patriot, as our dedication to the planet, and our ultimate need to defend the planet, is fundamentally based on how we should treat each other, and how we should treat the earth. This interplay, that we can more easily see on a local level (assuming we pay attention) has been happening on a global scale.

The realization that technology - transportation, computers, communication - has bridged the gap between continents and cultures begins to illustrate how connected we all are. The fact that this blog can be read by anyone with access to a computer and a browser, regardless of location, is profound. There's no incremental cost, and (in most cases) no corporate or government filter in the way. And it is just this shift in technology that has allowed the worldwide movement described in Blessed Unrest to develop and flourish.

Blogs provide global access to information and opinion while email allows for instant communication with anyone, anywhere. And if you're on Twitter (twitter.com/globalpatriot.com) you know how rapid the flow of information can be, as news is broadcast long before the news media has heard about it.

In subsequent posts I will continue with highlights of Blessed Unrest and further Global Patriot commentary. I invite your comments and questions, especially from those who have read the book, and encourage those who haven't to do so soon.

Are you participating in a social movement dedicated to improving the world?

Mark Lovett is focused on promoting the belief that everyone deserves to live on a healthy planet, in peace and prosperity, using sustainability, compassion and respect as our guiding principles. Please visit the Global Patriot Blog and leave comments as a way to foster intelligent conversation on important topics. You can also join the Global Patriot Foundation on Facebook.

2012 Contact Review - Is the Book Worth It?

This 2012 Contact review will reveal whether things are real or not and whether it's worth it to buy this book or not. You should read on if you care for your loved ones and after you are done this review of the book is either going to save you or lead you right into the path of death.
Most of you have heard about the theory that the world is going to end on December 21, 2012.
I began to look for as much info as I could and turned to the internet as there is much to be found there. The internet is full of information on this topic however there are not many true facts available. I have no problem digging as I am a researcher.
It was just recent that I came across a 2012 Contact review. I only read this e-book as there was a risk free offer. This is a good thing because without the risk-free offer, I would have dismissed the book as nothing more than the product of a clever sales pitch. I'm glad I did not. This e-book however differs from many others as it gives you tips on surviving Doomsday. This e-book is a resource that tells what to expect, what's going to happen and more.
This e-book is going to help get the word out and can help you live through this calamity. There are many other sources out there that are not supported with facts on this disaster making it hard to know the facts from the lies. There are 2 volumes of this e-book and the first volume is called 'The Build' and the second one is called 'The Survival Guide'. This book explains how the Mayans have predicted the end of the world and this is when their calendar stops. Not only are survival tips included for surviving the event but also before and after.
There are many resources that claim a true 2012 Contact review which makes it hard to believe what they all say. Try to dig and dig for information to help better prepare you.
Chris Mallory is a writer and researcher on 2012 Contact Review. You can save time and money by getting a FREE in depth review of this product and many others including discounts and best prices at Chris' blog: polarshift2012.net