03 Economy – Page 116 – Public Intelligence Blog

There is no lack of public intelligence — only a lack of public integrity.

100 Miles Per Gallon – Making It Reality

So the Wikispeed car design is ultralight and runs with a Honda F1 racing engine (internal combustion). The car weighs under 1500 pounds right now but doesn't have all the interior amenities we have all come to know and love.

Therefore, in order to add 1 more feature to the car that will increase the gas mileage even further, I plan to add a vapor fuel system first designed in the 1970's by Tom Ogle. See the documentary GASHOLE to get a complete picture of how the oil companies have been manipulating the auto industry to maximize profits. Don't even get me started on the wars we have fought to protect their profits.

Watch this video to see how people are doing this now.

2013/03/282013/03/29

Rickard Falkvinge: Swarm Economy and BitCoin, Plus Pirate (People’s) Parties Rising in Iceland & Croatia

03 Economy, Commercial Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence, Money, P2P / Panarchy

Why Expensify Endorsing Bitcoin Is A Really Big Deal: Social Virality

Swarm Economy: Yesterday, news broke that the Expensify service has enabled bitcoin payments. With the rapidly expanding number of businesses accepting bitcoin as payment method, one could think that this was merely another player in the pool of bitcoin’s expanding economy (which just broke the one-billion-USD barrier, by the way). But Expensify is something much more than that.

Let’s first discuss the concept of expense reports to understand Expensify’s important role in the subsurface payments ecosystem. On all companies I’ve worked for lately, you don’t ask the company to buy something you need for your work – it’s just too much paperwork, too much red tape to make it happen. Instead, you get a small budget for discretionary stuff you need to do your job, and you just buy stuff as you need it with your private credit card, send in the receipts to your employer, and get reimbursed on the next paycheck, which arrives before the credit card bill is due.

This system is pervasive and ubiquitous. Sending in receipts for payment like this is known as submitting an expense report. It’s still bureaucracy and red tape and it still sucks, but it sucks considerably less than asking for approval in advance.

Enter Expensify, a service that markets itself straightforwardly as “Expense reports that don’t suck”. I’ve been using Expensify through its development for the past couple of years and have also contributed my use case (frequent travel outside of internet coverage), which led them to implement important new features – meaning, they’re a responsive bunch, too.

Read full article.

2013/03/282013/03/29

SchwartzReport: Environmental & Food Intelligence CIA Will Never Compute

01 Agriculture, 03 Economy, 03 Environmental Degradation, 07 Health, 07 Other Atrocities, 11 Society, Civil Society, Commerce, Corruption, Earth Intelligence, Government, Ineptitude

More evidence of the degradation of the marine environment. In 20 years natural seafood may be a memory.

Acidic Ocean Hits Pacific Northwest
ERIC NIILER – Chemical & Engineering News

Yet more evidence of environmental degradation. We simply cannot seem to achieve the political will to save the world in which we live, and on which our own wellbeing depends.

Most U.S. Rivers and Streams in Poor Biological Condition
ZACH RAUSNITZ – Fierce Government

The best law money can buy. And you aren't even going to be able to seek redress when your health is damaged.

‘Monsanto Protection Act' Slips Silently Through US Congress
RT (Russia)

2013/03/272021/01/27

21 Graphic Depictions of US Health Costs Compared to Other Nations + Health Fraud RECAP

03 Economy, 06 Family, 07 Health, 11 Society, Commerce, Corruption, Government

21 graphs that show America’s health-care prices are ludicrous

Every year, the International Federation of Health Plans — a global insurance trade association that includes more than 100 insurers in 25 countries — releases survey data showing the prices that insurers are actually paying for different drugs, devices, and medical services in different countries. And every year, the data is shocking.

The IFHP just released the data for 2012. And yes, once again, the numbers are shocking.

See other 20 Graphics.

Continue reading “21 Graphic Depictions of US Health Costs Compared to Other Nations + Health Fraud RECAP”

2013/03/252013/03/26

SchwartzReport: Good and Bad Farm News, Lab Organs, Telecommuting Congress

01 Agriculture, 03 Economy, 11 Society

This is some wonderful good news; it offers an alternative to the chemical and poison driven agriculture model that dominates our world now. It also offers an answer to the vast youth unemployment problem we have in our inner cities, as well as eliminating a great deal of pollution arising from trucking food across the country. It is not an entire solution to the poison model, of course, but it could go a long way toward! s ameliorating the toxic web in which we are now trapped.

The article has one major flaw: it's assessment of costs, does not include any of what I have mentioned above and, therefore should be disregarded as a criticism.

Chicago Now Home to Nation’s Largest Vertical Farm
ERIC W. DOLAN – The Raw Story

In this report we see the convergence of two major trends: Water as destiny, and climate change. This is also another argument for the today's lead story, and why the new urban farming model should be pursued.

The Drought That Ravaged US Crops Is Only Going to Get Worse
SUZANNE GOLDENBERG – Mother Jones

This is excellent news. I have been covering this trend for about eight years now, and am heartened by its growing success. This trend will eliminate the rejection issues transplant patients now face, and will allow people who are profoundly disfigured, or who would otherwise die, to survive. It will also eliminate the grey world of body parts suppliers.

Science Fiction Comes Alive as Researchers Grow Organs in Lab
GAUTAM NAIK – Wall Street Journal

I think this is what the future holds but, unlike this report, I see the main importance of this trend to a virtual Congress to be part of the Great Schism trend, in which power devolves to the states, and regional arrangements between the states, with the Federal government overseeing foreign affairs, defense and similar national issues.

The West Coast states, and the Northeastern states increasingly have less and less in common with the Southern states and some of the central states, and the quality of life in the West and Northeast is growing increasingly different than the self-inflicted ignorance, obesity, and poverty of the South. (See Social Values, Social Wellness: Can We Know What Works?)

GOP Lawmaker Seeks ‘Virtual Congress' with telecommuting Plan
JENNIFER MARTINEZ – The Hill

2013/03/242013/03/26

Charles Faddis: The United States of Common Sense

03 Economy, 11 Society, Commerce, Ethics, Government

TODAY's INTERVIEW: Elena Panaritis on Cyprus

Elena Panaritis is an institutional economist, property rights expert, and social entrepreneur. In more than a decade as an economist at the World Bank, Panaritis spearheaded several institutional reforms, particularly property rights reform in Peru. Her book Prosperity Unbound: Building Property Markets with Trust recounts her experience and expounds on her methodology- “Reality Check Analysis”, which is considered one of the best practical applications of institutional economics to property rights issues. She is the founder of Panel Group, a triple-bottom-line advisory group that invests in undervalued property and provides counsel to governments and private sector participants on transforming illiquid real estate and related public policy. She has served as an MP and a special advisor to the Papandreou government in Greece on efforts for public sector reform and reduction in informality. She was elected President of COMSUD (the Commission of Parliamentarians of the Mediterranean countries) in late 2009. Panaritis has taught economic development, housing finance and property markets reform courses at the Wharton Business School, University of Pennsylvania, INSEAD, and the Johns Hopkins University – School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). She is fluent in Spanish, English, French, Italian, and has basic knowledge of German.

INTERVIEW ARCHIVES

2013/03/232013/03/26

SchwartzReport: Supreme Court vs. Monsanto, Autisim, Obesity, & Premature Puberty All Because of Corrupt Food Practices

01 Agriculture, 03 Economy, 04 Education, 06 Family, 07 Health, 09 Justice, 11 Society, Commerce, Corruption, Government

Like a car careening down a mountain road, we seem unable as a people and as a nation to gain control of our government and to make it serve national wellness instead of profit. Day after day these stories track the degradation of our quality of life.

Only mass demonstrations and mass voting is going to change this, and we seem to lack the political will as citizens to do either. We hate Congress, but most love their Congressperson, seeing no contradiction.

Monsanto's Death Grip on Your Food
FRITZ KREISS – Nation of Change

Our children are obese because of the “foods” they eat. They have diabetes because of the high fructose corn syrup. We have girls experiencing menarche at 9, and breast development at 10 because of the hormones they unwittingly absorb because of industrial animal husbandry. And now we are discovering a growing number of them are autistic. The list goes on an on, all resulting from a society that is structur! ed for maximum profit for the few.

CDC: One in 50 U.S. School Kids Has Autism
ABBY OHLHEISER – Slate

Continue reading “SchwartzReport: Supreme Court vs. Monsanto, Autisim, Obesity, & Premature Puberty All Because of Corrupt Food Practices”

Category: 03 Economy

Jean Lievens: 100 Miles Per Gallon – Making It Reality