Eideard

Sigmar Gabriel, Social Democrats + Joachim Gauck + Angela Merkel, Christian Democrats
Daylife/Reuters Pictures used by permission

Germany’s government and the two major opposition parties have said they will jointly nominate Joachim Gauck, a human rights activist originally from East Germany, to be the country’s next president.

Angela Merkel said her coalition government, and the centre-left opposition had rallied behind Gauck, 72, who was initially proposed by the opposition Social Democrats and Greens.

He is not a member of a political party.

“What moves me the most, is that a man who was still born during the gloomy, dark war, who grew up and lived 50 years in a dictatorship … is now called to become the head of state,” Gauck said. “This is of course a very special day in my life.”

Christian Wulff, 52, resigned as president on Friday after two months of allegations about receiving loans on favourable terms and hotel stays from friends when he was state governor of Lower Saxony. He was Merkel’s candidate when elected less than two years ago…

When Wulff resigned, Merkel immediately said she would work with the Social Democrats and Greens to find a consensus candidate to succeed him…

The chancellor said that clergymen such as Gauck – a former Lutheran priest – were at the forefront of the protests that eventually brought down the east German regime.

Claudia Roth, the Greens’ leader, said “Gauck will restore the respect for the office, will restore dignity,” to the presidency, which had become tainted by Wulff’s actions.

Isn’t it interesting how a nation which parallels so many of our circumstances in the United States figures out how to take different directions, grow and even prosper in hard times.

Anyone even imagine this happening in the United States with the clown show we have in Congress?

One World Trade Center rises over the skyline of Lower Manhattan at sunset in New York, February 7, 2012

I hadn’t quite realized how far along the replacement for the Twin Towers had come. A stunning building, a structure worthy of replacing those lost in the cataclysm of 9/11.

An annual survey of the rule of law around the world…sees weak protections for fundamental rights in China, “serious deficiencies” in Russia, and problems with discrimination in the United States.

Sweden and Norway scored highest on the World Justice Project Rule of Law Index, which ranks countries on such key areas as whether the government is held accountable, there is access to justice, rights are protected and crime and corruption is prevented.

“Achieving the rule of law is a constant challenge and a work in progress in all countries,” said Hongsia Liu, the executive director of the project, which was funded by a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation…

In the case of China, the report noted that the Asian giant had made “major improvements” in the quality, effectiveness and accountability of its legal institutions.

It came in second after Brazil among the so-called BRIC group of emerging powers — Brazil, Russia, India and China…

On India, the report found strong free speech protections, an independent judiciary, and a relatively open government with functioning checks and balances. “However, the unsatisfactory performance of public administrative bodies keeps generating a negative impact on the rule of law…”

Of the BRIC countries, Russia fared the worst in the rankings.

“The country shows serious deficiencies in checks and balances among the different branches of government…leading to an institutional environment characterized by corruption, impunity, and political interference,” it said…

The rule of law was also found wanting in countries like Iran, long at odds with the international community over its nuclear program and which ranked last in the world on protection of fundamental rights…

In Latin America, Venezuela was rated “the worst performer in the world in accountability and effective checks on the executive power…

Western Europe was the top performing region of the world with most countries, except Italy, getting high marks in most categories.

The United States had decent marks for what was promised by our legal system. Delivery was more often than not limited to those who could afford good legal services. Questions of discrimination haven’t especially diminished in terms of public perception – and legislative practices which frequently lead to passing unconstitutional laws to satisfy political pressures, in turn requiring long legal challenges wasting taxpayer and citizen funds, continue to be a constant negative part of American law.

You can download the full report over here – [3.1mb .pdf].

 
The article that brought me to this TED washing machine and Hans Rosling was in the NY TIMES the other day. Now, you would have to subscribe to their digital edition to read that article; so – as I did the last time the TIMES farted around with a paywall – I found a newspaper that pays even more than you or me to reprint their articles.

Read the article after you watch the video. It discusses many of the ways that Hans Rosling and his Gapminder website work very hard to make data very easy to understand.

If you’re reading my blog on an iPad, the video link up top may not work. Here’s a link directly to the video at TED.

Democrats introduce bill to repeal DOMA. Republicans stick with homophobia

More than half of Americans say it should be legal for gays and lesbians to marry, a first in nearly a decade of polls by ABC News and The Washington Post.

This milestone result caps a dramatic, long-term shift in public attitudes. From a low of 32 percent in a 2004 survey of registered voters, support for gay marriage has grown to 53 percent today. Forty-four percent are opposed, down 18 points from that 2004 survey.

The issue remains divisive; as many adults “strongly” oppose gay marriage as strongly support it, and opposition rises to more than 2-1 among Republicans and conservatives and 3-1 among evangelical white Protestants, a core conservative group. But opposition to gay marriage has weakened in these groups from its levels a few years ago, and support has grown sharply among others – notably, among Catholics, political moderates, people in their 30s and 40s and men.

The results reflect a changing albeit still polarized climate. Gay marriage has been legalized in five states and the District of Columbia, by court ruling or legislative action, since 2003, while many other states prohibit it. The Obama administration late last month said it would no longer defend the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act, a 1996 law banning federal recognition of gay marriages…

Adults 50 and older remain more skeptical, but even that’s seen change. Most notably, 33 percent of seniors now say gay marriage should be legal, up from 18 percent five years ago…

Support is up by a striking 23 points among white Catholics, often a swing group and one that’s been ready, in many cases, to disregard church positions on political or social issues. But they have company: Fifty-seven percent of non-evangelical white Protestants now also support gay marriage, up 16 points from its level five years ago. Evangelicals, as noted, remain very broadly opposed. But even in their ranks, support for gay marriage is up by a double-digit margin.

Overdue.

Yes, they can make it seem like a well-reasoned historic choice – when they hammer down on differences used to condemn any minority to one or another inequity. The fact remains that religious or cultural excuses for limiting the opportunities of any portion of our society who enjoy the full rights of citizenship – is an historic crime. And should be treated as such.

Abboud al-Zumar went to jail 30 years ago for his role in killing Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. Now a free man, he believes democracy will prevent Islamists from ever again taking up the gun against the state.

Zumar was a prisoner for as long as Sadat’s successor, Hosni Mubarak, was president.

His release with other leading Islamists jailed for militancy is a sign of dramatic change in Egypt in the five weeks since Mubarak was swept from power by mass protests.

Zumar, 64, was a founding member of the Islamic Jihad group which gunned down Sadat during a military parade in 1981. He was released along with his cousin, Tarek al-Zumar, who had also spent three decades in jail on similar charges.

“The revolution created a new mechanism: the mechanism of strong, peaceful protests,” said Zumar, released on March 12 and one of the political prisoners who owes his freedom to the peaceful revolt against Mubarak.

“Public squares around the Arab world are ready to receive millions who can stop any ruler and expose him,” added Zumar in an interview in his home village of Nahia on the rural outskirts of Cairo.

I hope, I wonder if western governments will have learned the same lesson. Will they continue to support despots in the name of profit and industry – or will they finally admit that a nation with mechanisms in place for all sides of discourse to meet the public, a nation, with an honest chance at success offers a better, safer future for all?

To many Egyptians, Zumar’s name evokes a violent chapter in the history of a country that has been an incubator for Islamist militancy.

His release has alarmed those concerned by the Islamists’ move to the heart of public life in the new Egypt, where groups including the Muslim Brotherhood are making the most of new freedoms to organize and speak out…

“The climate for armed action is finished and the main reason is the atmosphere of freedom we are now establishing,” said Tarek al-Zumar, this week – still a leading figure in the Gama’a al-Islamiya…

“Our concern in this period is to anchor the basis of a just political system which guarantees freedoms and the state of law,” said Tarek al-Zumar, who studied for a law doctorate while in prison.

“The project of establishing the Islamic state as a political model will be determined by the ballot box … and the thing that will determine its continuation in power is the choice of the people,” he said.

RTFA. A piece of history ignored by the West. A product of the time when nothing was more important than protecting the safe flow of oil to American and European industry.

That’s changed. Uh, hasn’t it?

Five years ago, Bill Gates made an extraordinary offer: he invited the world’s scientists to submit ideas for tackling the biggest problems in global health, including the lack of vaccines for AIDS and malaria, the fact that most vaccines must be kept refrigerated and be delivered by needles, the fact that many tropical crops like cassavas and bananas had little nutrition, and so on.

No idea was too radical, he said, and what he called the Grand Challenges in Global Health would pursue paths that the National Institutes of Health and other grant makers could not.

About 1,600 proposals came in, and the top 43 were so promising that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation made $450 million in five-year grants — more than double what he originally planned to give.

Now the five years are up, and the foundation recently brought all the scientists to Seattle to assess the results and decide who will get further funding.

In an interview, Mr. Gates sounded somewhat chastened, saying several times, “We were naïve when we began…”

He underestimated, he said, how long it takes to get a new product from the lab to clinical trials to low-cost manufacturing to acceptance in third-world countries…

That little won’t buy a breakthrough, but it lets scientists “moonlight” by adding new goals to their existing grants, which saves the foundation a lot of winnowing. “And,” he added, “a scientist in a developing country can do a lot with $100,000.”

Over all, he said: “On drawing attention to ways that lives might be saved through scientific advances, I’d give us an A.

“But I thought some would be saving lives by now, and it’ll be more like in 10 years from now.”

RTFA. A case study – series of studies – in developing philanthropy. Above all else, give the Gates’ credit for their commitment and dedication. It ain’t even easy to try to give money away to help people.

Daylife/Getty Images used by permission

Companies in the U.S. expanded in January at the fastest pace in more than four years as orders and employment increased.

The Institute for Supply Management-Chicago Inc. said today its business barometer climbed to 61.5, the highest level since November 2005, from 58.7 last month. Readings greater than 50 signal expansion.

Government stimulus has spurred gains in demand here and abroad that are reducing inventories, paving the way for manufacturers to step up output. Ford Motor Co. is among companies that are beginning to hire again, setting the stage for stronger spending in coming months…

The group’s gauge of orders climbed to 66.4 from 64.4 the prior month and its measure of employment jumped to 59.8, the highest level since April 2005, from 47.6…

Economists watch the Chicago index for an early reading on the outlook for overall U.S. manufacturing, which makes up about 12 percent of the economy. Its membership includes both manufacturers and service providers, making the gauge a measure of overall growth…

The world’s largest economy expanded at a 5.7 percent pace from October through December, its fastest growth in six years, the Commerce Department reported today. Economists surveyed this month forecast the world’s largest economy will grow 2.7 percent this year.

This sort of information grows and changes endlessly at sources like Bloomberg. Everything from planning to investing, economics to traffic management decisions depends on accurate information, useful forecasting.

From Shanghai to San Jose, Milan to Birmingham, people actually building commerce are a couple of days ahead of this post – and your Congressman, your governor, might just skim a 1-paragraph condensation 4 to 8 weeks from now.

Click image for briefing

“The data begin to tell a worrisome story,” said Kei Koizumi, assistant director for federal research and development (R&D)in the President’s Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). Calling SEI 2010 a “State of the Union on science, technology, engineering and mathematics,” he noted that quot;U.S. dominance has eroded significantly…”

Over the past decade, R&D intensity–how much of a country’s economic activity or gross domestic product is expended on R&D–has grown considerably in Asia, while remaining steady in the U.S. Annual growth of R&D expenditures in the U.S. averaged 5 to 6 percent while in Asia, it has skyrocketed. In some Asian countries, R&D growth rate is two, three, even four, times that of the U.S…

NSB SEI 2010 Committee Member Jose-Marie Griffiths discussed another key indicator: intellectual research outputs. “While the U.S. continues to lead the world in research publications, China has become the second most prolific contributor.” China’s rapidly developing science base now produces 8 percent of the world’s research publications, up from its just 2 percent of the world’s share in 1995, when it ranked 14th…

The Digest contains these and other key indicators, such as the globalization of capability; funding, performance and portfolio of U.S. R&D trends; and the composition of the U.S. S&E workforce. What’s more, the Digest is electronically linked with detailed data tables and discussions in the main volumes of SEI. It can also be downloaded to laptops, iPods or other devices. “This makes the data much more accessible and digestable to policymakers, as well as to members of the general public who may wish to read about and understand the data that describe the state of their economy,” said Lanzerotti.

Arden Bement characterized this year’s report as a guide to the future. “It is not just where we stand; it’s about where we’re heading,” he said, quoting 19th century British scientist Lord Kelvin, “‘If you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it.’”

You might hope that after 8 years of prayer and pap from the lobbyists’ White House, Americans might be encouraged to fight for change. Or have they decided to follow the usual do-nothing ethic – leaving it in the smelly hands of Congress? Twelve months of the White House correcting executive orders is about all Obama can do – with no backup.

Production version of the GM/Chevy Volt

Almost 90 days after coming out of bankruptcy, General Motors is showing signs of getting healthy and moving closer to getting back in the black.

And there’s no doubt, the “new” GM is doing far better than the old GM:

All encouraging signs. But critics will point out some other troubling signs at GM.

GM lost $261 Million before special charges

All of which brings up the question: How much has really changed at GM?

Actually, quite a bit.

So what should we take away from GM’s third quarter financial results?

This company is definitely in better shape than it was before bankruptcy and is better position to get back in the black as auto sales pick up. In other words, it’s steady progress. Not spectacular, but steady.

Beancounters are happy – I’m happy. Doesn’t mean I’ll stop offering advice; but, who listens to me, eh?