World

World Futures: Money, Trade, Value and Time Part 7

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ANDY ANDREWS
Los Alamos World
Futures Institute

Last week we explored the Federal Reserve System and how money is added to a country’s financial system through the granting of loans for doing or making something of value.

The money growth occurs because value is produced, or should be. As a result of effort expended, paid for with money, a product of value enters the market place and people consume it. In return, the consumers “earn” the product of value by producing something of value, be it a product or service. Essentially, money is a freeform accounting system based on trust or perceived value Read More

Quantum Dots Amplify Light With Electrical Pumping

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A collage showing a transmission electron microscopy image of the improved quantum dot and its representation, left, the schematic of the device, which nicely illustrates “current-focusing” idea, center, and the device under operation at right. Courtesy photo

LANL News:

Los Alamos achieves light amplification with electrically stimulated quantum dots, critical step towards solution-processible laser diodes

In a breakthrough development, Los Alamos scientists have shown that they can successfully amplify light using electrically excited films of the chemically synthesized Read More

World Futures: Money, Trade, Value And Time (Part Six)

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ANDY ANDREWS
Los Alamos World
Futures Institute

Last week we looked at the banking system in the United States and the emergence of the Federal Reserve System (The Fed) and its 12 Federal Reserve Banks. At the end of the article, we examined a current dollar bill (paper), noting that it says “Federal Reserve Note.” In the United States, this is legal tender, meaning that it is valid for meeting a financial obligation. But as in most countries, it has no backing by precious metals or other commodities and has value only by fiat (per Merriam-Webster, “an authoritative or arbitrary order”). So how is Read More

Heinrich Statement On DHS Decision To Accept DACA Applications Delayed By Postal Service

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U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich
 
U.S. SENATE News:
 
WASHINGTON, D.C. ― U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) released the following statement regarding the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) decision to allow those rejected because of mail delays to resubmit their renewals for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). Senator Heinrich led a group of Democratic Senators in sending a letter to DHS calling on the department to take immediate action. 
 
“I’m pleased that Dreamers whose applications were rejected
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Recent Talks At Rotary Club Of Los Alamos

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At the Nov. 14 Los Alamos Rotary Club meeting, Christine Glidden of the Rotary Club of Rio Rancho describes her Rotary International Grant and the inspiration behind founding the non-profit ‘Women To Be’ that provides reusable feminine hygiene products for young and adult women in Nepal. The project will expand to Zambia in 2018. Glidden is seen here, center, with UNM student Kristin Joe, Rotary President Laura Loy, Andrew Chapuma – emissary to the King of Zambia, Bemba Tribe and International Service Chair Jean Gindreau. Photo by Rob Metcalf

Diane Kessel Knight, an accomplished Read More

New Mexico Dinosaurs Draw Big Crowds In Japan

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Opening day of the ‘A Great Journey of Dinosaurs’ exhibit at the Fukui Prefectural Dinosaur Museum, Fukui, Japan, July 7, 2016, in front of the animatronics Bistahieversor sealeyi, a tyrannosaur dinosaur known only from New Mexico. Photo by Thomas Williamson
 
NMMNHS News:
 
ALBUQUERQUE ― New Mexico dinosaurs and other extinct reptiles drew huge crowds in Japan, during a yearlong three-city tour of the nation. During a collective 218 days on exhibition at three venues, the exhibition drew more than 588,000 visitors.
 
“The Japanese we worked
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LANL: Scalable Clusters Make HPC R&D Easy As Raspberry Pi

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The BitScope Pi Cluster Modules system creates an affordable, scalable, highly parallel testbed for high-performance-computing system-software developers. The system comprises five rack-mounted BitScope Pi Cluster Modules consisting of 3,000 cores using Raspberry Pi ARM processor boards, fully integrated with network switching infrastructure. Image: Bitscope. Courtesy/LANL

 

LANL News:

  • System with thousands of nodes brings affordable testbed to supercomputing system-software developers

A quest to help the systems software community work on very large supercomputers Read More

Reporters Without Borders: After Lack Of Medical Care In Prison, Chinese Blogger Dies

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RSF News:
 
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is saddened to learn that the dissident Chinese writer and blogger Yang Tongyan died this week as a result of inadequate medical care while imprisoned for nearly 12 years by the Chinese state, suffering the same fate as Nobel peace laureate Liu Xiaobo.
 
Aged 56, Yang Tongyan died Nov. 7 after being “released on medical grounds” in August from Nanjing prison in the southeastern province of Jiangsu and undergoing an operation to remove a brain tumour.
 
A well-know member of the pro-democracy opposition who wrote under
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