July 2011 - P2P-Foundation - lists.ourproject.org

Fwd: Update on Biodiversity
by Michel Bauwens 31 Jul '11

31 Jul '11

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Timothy Wilken, MD <timothy.wilken(a)gmail.com> Date: Sun, Jul 31, 2011 at 5:54 AM Subject: Update on Biodiversity To: Timothy Wilken <timothy.wilken(a)gmail.com> Hey Thinkers, I came across the following article today. Worth my time. Timothy Wilken, MD From: *MARINE ECOLOGY PROGRESS SERIES*, July 28, 2011 *Ongoing global biodiversity loss and the need to move beyond protected areas: a review of the technical and practical shortcomings of protected areas on land and sea* Camilo Mora1, 3,*, Peter F. Sale2 1Department of Biology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia B3H 4J1, Canada 2Institute for Water, Environment and Health, United Nations University, Port Carling, Ontario P0B 1J0, Canada 3Present address: Department of Geography, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822, USA ABSTRACT: A leading strategy in international efforts to reverse ongoing losses in biodiversity is the use of *p*rotected *a*reas. We use a broad range of data and a review of the literature to show that the effectiveness of existing, and the current pace of the establishment of new, *p*rotected * a*reas will not be able to overcome current trends of loss of marine and terrestrial biodiversity. Despite local successes of well-designed and well-managed *p*rotected *a*reas proving effective in stemming biodiversity loss, there are significant shortcomings in the usual process of implementation of *p*rotected *a*reas that preclude relying on them as a global solution to this problem. The shortcomings include technical problems associated with large gaps in the coverage of critical ecological processes related to individual home ranges and propagule dispersal, and the overall failure of such areas to protect against the broad range of threats affecting ecosystems. Practical issues include budget constraints, conflicts with human development, and a growing human population that will increase not only the extent of anthropogenic stressors but the difficulty in successfully enforcing protected areas. While efforts towards improving and increasing the number and/or size of *p*rotected *a*reas must continue, there is a clear and urgent need for the development of additional solutions for biodiversity loss, particularly ones that stabilize the size of the world’s human population and our ecological demands on biodiversity. < SNIP > [image: http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/divers_charts.jpg] Conclusion: THE WAY FORWARD The causes of biodiversity loss are varied and some are unlikely to be regulated as part of the management of a Protected Area (PA). Developing actions to address those other threats requires increased research and attention, but that is not addressed here (see Mora et al. 2009, Butchart et al. 2010). It is clear from the on - going loss of biodiversity that current conservation efforts, whether through PAs alone or in combination with other approaches, are not coping with the challenge. The data also indicate that the likelihood of success is small unless the conservation community radically rethinks the strategies needed. One could safely argue that biodiversity threats are ultimately determined by the size of the world’s human population and its consumption of natural resources. The explosive growth in the world’s human population in the last century has led to an increasing demand on the Earth’s ecological resources and a rapid decline in biodiversity. According to recent estimates, about 1.2 Earths would be required to support the different demands of the 5.9 billion people living on the planet in 1999. This ‘excess’ use of the Earth’s resources or ‘overshoot’ is possible because resources can be harvested faster than they can be replaced and because waste can accumulate (e.g. atmospheric CO2). The cumulative overshoot from the mid-1980s to 2002 resulted in an ‘ecological debt’ that would require 2.5 planet Earths to pay (Kitzes et al. 2008). In a business-as-usual scenario, our demands on planet Earth could mount to the productivity of 27 planets Earth by 2050. Exceeding ecological demand beyond regenerative levels leads to the degradation of ecological capital (Kitzes et al. 2008), which is evident in the ongoing declining trend in biodiversity. Recognizing that biodiversity loss is intrinsically related to our high demand for ecological resources suggests to us that global initiatives need to address our demand for resources more directly if preservation of biodiversity is to be achieved. While we can limit human use of natural resources locally through the effective implementation of PAs, this will only address some causes of biodiversity loss, and, as shown in this review, there are numerous challenges to implement this strategy adequately across the world. As long as our demand for ecological goods and services continues to grow so will the extent of those challenges and the difficulty of using PAs to reduce biodiversity loss. Therefore, alternative solutions targeting human demand for ecological goods and services, while ensuring human welfare should be prioritized and brought to the forefront of the international conservation agenda. In our view, the only scenario to achieve sustainability and to resolve the ongoing loss of biodiversity and its underlying causes will require a concerted effort to reduce human population growth and consumption and simultaneously increase the Earth’s biocapacity through the transference of technology to increase agricultural and aquacultural productivity (Kitzes et al. 2008). The fact that human population growth may also lead to economic e.g. high competition for and/or shortages of jobs; Becker et al. 1999) and societal (e.g. shortages of food 261 Mar Ecol Prog Ser 434: 251–266, 2011 and water, lack of universal primary education, in - crease in communicable disease, etc.; Campbell et al. 2007) problems suggests that targeting human population growth directly would be worthwhile and could become more effective if advocated simultaneously from social, economic and ecological perspectives. The need for a merging of ecology and economics has been recognized for the last 25 yr, ever since Vitousek et al. (1986) pointed out the high rate of co - option of primary production by our species and the lack of capacity in the biosphere to continue to provide for an increasing human population. There has been significant progress (e.g. Arrow et al. 1995, Costanza 1996, O’Neill 1996), and an explicit call for a restructuring of world views to bring them into line with a world of finite resources has been made (Beddoe et al. 2009). Apart from continuous growth being ecologically untenable, the negative economic effects of population growth need greater recognition. Independent of whether the human use of natural resources is the ultimate driver of biodiversity loss, it is clear that the range, and growing seriousness, of human threats is too great to be addressed through creation of more PAs. The inexorable and steep loss of biodiversity and the fact that it is leading to the irreversible loss of many species suggest that we cannot afford much delay before choosing the right solution to this problem. See Attached PDF for the full article More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/30/richness-of-life-on-earth_n_913958… -- P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss: http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens; http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens

1 0

Fwd: Don't Fall for the GOP (and Obama) Lie...by Robert Reich with an introductory reflection by Rabbi Lerner
by Michel Bauwens 31 Jul '11

31 Jul '11

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Rabbi Michael Lerner, Network of Spiritual Progressives < rabbilerner(a)tikkun.org> Date: Sun, Jul 31, 2011 at 12:54 PM Subject: Don't Fall for the GOP (and Obama) Lie...by Robert Reich with an introductory reflection by Rabbi Lerner To: Michelsub2004(a)gmail.com Tikkun<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=dCaEs4xIpb5fc2ZpSmzE…> to heal, repair and transform the world *A note from Rabbi Michael Lerner** * Join or Donate Now!<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=1Hl%2Fz0xkBXlNYqlQ09…> We at Tikkun have been saying for the past 3 years what former Sec. of Labor and economist Robert Reich says below and what Paul Krugman has been saying for the past 2 years: there is no serious budget crisis. Instead, we have an employment and housing crisis. It is true, as Robert Reich says below, that the Republicans have been running with this lie for the past several years in order to prevent the Democrats, when they had the majority in both houses of Congress, and the presidency, 2009-2010, from doing what the country needed: a massive Work Progress Administration (WPA) employment program coupled with a freeze on mortgage foreclosures and a law requiring the banks to renegotiate mortgage interests to what it was when the mortgage was first offered to the buyers. But Reich plays down the huge culpability of Obama and his economic advisors (who could have been Reich and Krugman, and no Republican forced Obama to go with the pro-corporate advisors he actually chose form the start). Obama accepted the framing of the problems that the right-wing had developed, and has for 3 years been mis-educating people about the nature of the problem we face. No wonder, then, that he boxed himself in to the current situation in which he may now have few options left. Had he spent the past years educating people to the true situation, he would have had much greater flexibility to stand up to the Republicans in Congress. Even now, he continues to waffle. He has offered, and pushed Senate Democrats to offer, a "deal" that is 3/4 of what the Republicans want and zero what working people and poor people need, just so he could get a lifting of the national debt ceiling, something he has the power to do in other ways (the 14th amendment provides such a route, though it has never been used before). Instead of being such a wimp, Obama could even now simply announce the following plan for what will happen if the debt limit isn't reached: he will pay the social security, medicare and other benefits to those Congressional districts whose representatives voted to raise the debt limit and not to those which did not. And similarly all other federal services. Military installations in the Congressional districts whose representatives did not vote for the raising of the limit will be immediately shut, and all military personnel outside the U.S., starting with Iraq and Afghanistan, will be ordered to return to the U.S. They play hardball, so could a progressive Democrat, if we happened to have one in office, which we don't. If the Supreme Court ordered him to not follow this path, he could tell them to enforce it on their own, because he has the Constitutional responsibility to defend the U.S., and this is the best way to do so. So lets understand, that all of this comes down to Obama's capitulations to the Right, on almost every level (except for glbt rights, important and to be commended, but not enough to build a presidency on). We'll talk more about Obama in the next issue of Tikkun (yes, there will be a print issue in the Fall for anyone who is a current subscriber or NSP member (or anyone who joins NSP or subscribes now), but there won't be Tikkun at the newsstands anymore. You want it? Then: subscribe please<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=eZmQYcwqzuIJOnNO7SJo…>. https://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/525/t/3999/shop/custom.jsp?donate_pag… Warm regards, RabbiLerner(a)Tikkun.org [image: www.readersupport/479189E1.jpg] Portrait, Robert Reich, 08/16/09. (photo: Perian Flaherty) [image: www.readersupport/0E1C5389.jpg]<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=BCbjiur4VaO7Hrw%2FTA…> *Don't Fall for the GOP Lie* By Robert Reich, Robert Reich's Blog 29 July 11 *Don't fall for the GOP lie: There is no budget crisis. There's a job and growth crisis.* friend who's been watching the absurd machinations in Congress asked me "what happens if we don't solve the budget crisis and we run out of money to pay the nation's bills?" It was only then I realized how effective Republicans lies have been. That we're calling it a "budget crisis" and worrying that if we don't "solve" it we can't pay our nation's bills is testament to how successful Republicans have been distorting the truth. The federal budget deficit has no economic relationship to the debt limit. Republicans have linked the two, and the Administration has played along, but they are entirely separate. Republicans are using what would otherwise be a routine, legally technical vote to raise the debt limit as a means of holding the nation hostage to their own political goal of shrinking the size of the federal government. In economic terms, we will not "run out of money" next week. We're still the richest nation in the world, and the Federal Reserve has unlimited capacity to print money. Nor is there any economic imperative to reach an agreement on how to fix the budget deficit by Tuesday. It's not even clear the federal budget needs that much fixing anyway. Yes, the ratio of the national debt to the total economy is high relative to what it's been. But it's not nearly as high as it was after World War II - when it reached 120 percent of the economy's total output. If and when the economy begins to grow faster - if more Americans get jobs, and we move toward a full recovery - the debt/GDP ratio will fall, as it did in the 1950s, and as it does in every solid recovery. Revenues will pour into the Treasury, and much of the current "budget crisis" will be evaporate. Get it? We're really in a "jobs and growth" crisis - not a budget crisis. And the best way to get jobs and growth back is for the federal government to spend more right now, not less - for example, by exempting the first $20,000 of income from payroll taxes this year and next, recreating a WPA and Civilian Conservation Corps, creating an infrastructure bank, providing tax incentives for small businesses to hire, expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit, and so on. But what happens next week if Congress can't or won't deliver the President a bill to raise the debt ceiling? Remember: This is all politics, mixed in with legal technicalities. Economics has nothing to do with it. One possibility, therefore, is for the Treasury to keep paying the nation's bills regardless. It would continue to issue Treasury bills, which are our nation's IOUs. When those IOUs are cashed at the Federal Reserve Board, the Fed would do what it has always done: Honor them. How long could this go on without the debt ceiling being lifted? That's a legal question. Republicans in Congress could mount a legal challenge, but no court in its right mind would stop the Fed from honoring the full faith and credit of the United States. The wild card is what the three big credit-rating agencies will do. As long as the Fed keeps honoring the nation's IOUs, America's credit should be deemed sound. We're not Greece or Portugal, after all. We'll still be the richest nation in the world, whose currency is the basis for most business transactions in the world. Standard & Poor's has warned it will downgrade the nation's debt from a triple-A to a double-A rating if we don't tend to the long-term deficit. But, as I've noted, S&P has no business meddling in American politics - especially since its own non-feasance was partly responsible for the current size of the federal debt (had it done its job the debt and housing bubbles wouldn't have precipitated the terrible recession, and the federal outlays it required). As long as we pay our debts on time, our global creditors should be satisfied. And if they're satisfied, S&P, Moody's, and Fitch should be, too. Repeat after me: The federal deficit is not the nation's biggest problem. The anemic recovery, huge unemployment, falling wages, and declining home prices are bigger problems. We don't have a budget crisis. We have a jobs and growth crisis. The GOP has manufactured a budget crisis out of the Republicans' extortionate demands over raising the debt limit. They have succeeded in hoodwinking the public, including my friend. ------------------------------ *Robert Reich is Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley. He has served in three national administrations, most recently as secretary of labor under President Bill Clinton. He has written thirteen books, including "The Work of Nations," "Locked in the Cabinet," "Supercapitalism" and his latest book, "**AFTERSHOCK: The Next Economy and America's Future*<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=P5otm0BzI%2FxEzmbOBS…> *." His 'Marketplace' commentaries can be found on* *publicradio.com*<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=9O%2BNP2mrDqXSfOW7NN…> * and iTunes.*e ------------------------------ web: www.tikkun.org<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=kSK1QA1kltBbvCst%2BX…> email: info(a)spiritualprogressives.org Click here to stop receiving future emails<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=foS5RTtczmW30vDboXTQ…> ------------------------------ Copyright © 2009 Tikkun® / Network of Spiritual Progressives®. 2342 Shattuck Avenue, #1200 Berkeley, CA 94704 510-644-1200 Fax 510-644-1255 [image: empowered by Salsa] <http://www.salsalabs.com/?email> ** -- P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss: http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens; http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens

1 0

An Invitation.................................
by robert searle 30 Jul '11

30 Jul '11

I would like to invite people from this discussion group to another one concerned with monetary reform, and global justice. It is run by the Global Justice Movement.net. http://www.globaljusticemovement.net/ Their discussion group link is as follows.... http://globaljusticemovement.net/pipermail/discussion_globaljusticemovement…

1 0

millenials in office in michigan
by Michel Bauwens 30 Jul '11

30 Jul '11

Sam Rose, are you familiar with this House member in Michigan? she might be a good contact for your p2p political work there, see http://blog.lifecourse.com/2010/12/millennials-in-office/ -- P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss: http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens; http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens

1 0

community-based lending
by Michel Bauwens 30 Jul '11

30 Jul '11

Dear Sepp, can you also have a look at online community-based lending, see http://p2pfoundation.net/Community-Based_Lending many thanks! -- P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss: http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens; http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens

1 0

Accountability_Based_Influence
by Michel Bauwens 30 Jul '11

30 Jul '11

http://p2pfoundation.net/Accountability_Based_Influence Hi Sepp, I wonder if you could look into these new types of reputation metrics, designed to evolve into exchangeable currencies, Michel -- P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss: http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens; http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens

1 0

Fwd: To introduce author and recommend book "No More Secrets"
by Michel Bauwens 30 Jul '11

30 Jul '11

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Robert Steele <robert.david.steele.vivas(a)gmail.com> Date: Sat, Jul 30, 2011 at 9:26 AM Subject: To introduce author and recommend book "No More Secrets" To: Hamilton Bean <hamiltonbean9(a)hotmail.com> To one and all: This email is to introduce you to a new book, a new author, and two reviews of the new book: No More Secrets: Open Source Information and the Reshaping of U.S. Intelligence <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0313391556/ossnet-20> Hamilton Bean surprised the hell out of me. Based on his earlier article in the International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence, and my riposte that had the benefit of being reviewed in draft by Bill Studeman and Joe Markowitz, I was expecting the book to be "Doug Naquin's Excellent Adventure. 2007 IJIC 20/2 The DNI’s Open Source Center<http://www.phibetaiota.net/2007/07/2007-ijic-202-the-dnis-open-source-cente…> 2008 IJIC 21/3 The Open Source Program: Missing in Action<http://www.phibetaiota.net/2008/09/2603/> Not so at all. This is an extraordinary contribution, and both Retired Reader (Richard Wright retired from NSA) and I have posted reviews. I commend the book to your attention for purchase and sharing with others, and the two reviews for a distillation of why this book matters. I have also posted an updated reference to the Open Source Agency. I am in the process of getting three people with direct access to Hillary Clinton to present the idea to her, assured that OMB has pre-approved it and that it will dramatically enhance decision-making in Washington. I am also taking steps to suggest hearings and the Smart Nation Act for introduction in the House of Representatives where Congressman Rob Simmons (R-CT-02) did all the heavy lifting when he was there and the true champion of opne source intelligence. Reference: Open Source Agency (OSA)<http://www.phibetaiota.net/2011/07/reference-open-source-agency-osa-part-ii/> Round Two Begins now. I shamelessly solicit your votes at Amazon for the two reviews, Richard's is vastly more elegant and strategic, for the public, mine is more specific and for the professionals who care about this subject. Semper Fidelis, Robert -- P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss: http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens; http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens

1 0

transforming human culture and the ideosphere through collective intellectuality
by Michel Bauwens 29 Jul '11

29 Jul '11

This relates to our discussion on the collective individual in Empyre this week. One of the ways I have conceived of the p2p foundation platform is through a process of 'opportunistic updating' using the whole web as a source. In other words, I'm presupposing that there is a collective wisdom out there, but that it is insufficiently connected or aware of each other, and that bringing this together in a platform as a curator, can create more of a collective self-awareness, a recognition of commonality, mutuality and complementarity, and hence, an increased mutual alignment where non necessiraly existed before. This assumes that there is no center that 'knows the truth'. I find this idea well expressed by Kimura here below. I found this today and know nothing else of this (Japanese?) thinker, but it resonates with my own efforts: Yasuhiko Genku Kimura: "For the locus of thinking is within the individual. It is not the collective but the individual composing the collective that alone can think and generate ideas. The ideospheric transformation of the kind I speak is a synergetic phenomenon that emerges when individuals in sufficient numbers become authentic, independent thinkers, that is, originators of ideas, producers of dialogues, and contributors to the network of conversations that comprises the world." The configuration of the ideosphere throughout history has remained concentric with external authorities at the center surrounded by circles of believers and followers, where an authority did the thinking for its followers. Even today, in the scientifically and technologically advanced Western world, our educational system is, for the most part, designed to produce well informed, intellectually-adept, and professionally-marketable non-thinking adults. Thus the philosopher Martin Heidegger states: 'The most thought-provoking thing in this most thought provoking time is that we are still not thinking.' For, authentic thinking requires self authorship, which in turn requires authentic self-knowledge about which our education is utterly silent." In following the evolutionary thrust for optimization that is driving our collective transformation toward an unprecedented height of culture and civilization, the ideospheric configuration we require for the 21st century is omnicentric, having independent yet interconnected centers within the intellectually and spiritually sovereign individuals, living and working as self-authorities in the matter of thinking, knowing, and acting. Then, the thinking, knowing, and acting of these authentic individuals will synergetically co-develop throughout the omnicentric configuration of the evolving ideosphere. The Information Revolution that is underway with the omnipresent Internet is simultaneously the manifestation of, and the apparatus for, this new omnicentric configuration of the ideosphere." Thus, the transformation of the ideosphere does not mean the propagation of any particular set of ideas. Rather, it is the transformation of the configuration of the ideosphere itself from concentricity to omnicentricity in which every individual will engage in authentic, independent thinking in synergy with others." We human beings are at our best not when we are engaged in abstract solitary reflection or on our individual transformation for its own sake but when we are engaged together in the act of transforming the world. The act of idea-generation through authentic thinking and the sustained engagement in the conversation of humankind, if conducted in the context of pursuit of truth, beauty, and goodness, will lead to powerful moral action that will engender a New World. To engage in such moral action and to become a co-creator of a New World is to become a world-weaver in the act of weaving the world and a history-maker in the act of making history." There is no complete individual transformation apart from real world transformation. For the individual is the whole world; for the individual is the whole of humanity." ( http://wakeupdream.blogspot.com/2011/07/kosmic-alignment-principal-of-globa…) -- P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss: http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens; http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens

3 4

Will 3D printing revolutionise manufacturing?
by Michel Bauwens 29 Jul '11

29 Jul '11

Topic: [tt] Will 3D printing revolutionise manufacturing?<http://groups.google.com/group/openmanufacturing/t/81cc40dd0e70cb0b> Bryan Bishop <kanzure(a)gmail.com> Jul 28 11:16AM -0500 ^<?ui=2&view=bsp&ver=ohhl4rw8mbn4#13175bfba2d00d65_digest_top> ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Eugen Leitl <eugen(a)leitl.org> Date: Thu, Jul 28, 2011 at 8:16 AM Subject: [tt] Will 3D printing revolutionise manufacturing? To: tt(a)postbiota.org http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14282091 Will 3D printing revolutionise manufacturing? Peter Day By Peter Day Presenter, In Business 3D Printer Loughborough University's machines can even print larger structures such as building materials With the creation of many products - including building materials - now possible at the touch of a button, will 3D printing sound the death knell for mass production? In a way there is nothing new about 3D printing. For several decades it has been called "rapid prototyping": a quick way of making one-off items from fused plastic or metal powder, using expensive computer-controlled lasers that are at the heart of the "printers". But now 3D printing is coming into its own, and is being taken seriously as a manufacturing process by very big corporations. For 100 years, the manufacturing industry has been dominated by the idea of mass production. That was devised by Henry Ford in Detroit in the early 1900s to tackle a severe shortage of skilled labour when he wanted to start making the revolutionary Model T automobiles. Ford's factories melted iron ore, stamped out car bodies, used interchangeable parts to turn out millions of cars in, as the famous phrase has it, "any colour so long as it's black". “Start Quote Ian Risk, Innovation Works EADS It's a new way of looking at manufacturing... We could change things significantly, and save money” Ian Risk Innovation Works, EADS In pictures: 3D printing in action The moving production line came to be the emblem of the new manufacturing era, generating torrents of products and foods for a new mass market of consumers. But now 3D printing is beginning to change the mass production model that so dominated the 20th century. It is now called additive manufacturing, to distinguish it from old-fashioned subtractive manufacturing, that is the shaving away or moulding blocks of raw metal to make engineered components. You might have laughed if 100 years ago In Business had come back from Detroit convinced that Ford had successfully combined the idea of interchangeable parts from the American small arms industry with the moving line from the slaughterhouses of Chicago meat packers to create a revolutionary system of mass production that would be adopted almost everywhere else in business. But what Henry Ford started was no joke, and nor is 3D printing today. You get some sense of the potential from the pioneers at Loughborough University. 'Cost effective' Neil Hopkinson is senior lecturer in the Rapid Manufacturing Research Group. His lab is full of impressive 3D printing machines, decked out with samples of the work they are trying out. 3D printing plus crowd sourcing can make product design an accessible reality >From demonstrating trial components, it does not take long before he is talking about the huge impact the process could have on the way businesses work. "It could make off-shore manufacturing half way round the world far less cost effective than doing it at home, if users can get the part they need printed off just round the corner at a 3D print shop on the high street. "Rather than stockpile spare parts and components in locations all over the world," he argues, "the designs could be costlessly stored in virtual computer warehouses waiting to be printed locally when required." Just across the Loughborough campus at the Civil and Building Engineering Department is Neil's colleague Richard Buswell, who shows me an extraordinary three-storey rig designed to "print" buildings. It squirts concrete out of a nozzle controlled by a computer, using the concrete just like a conventional printer would use ink, but in three dimensions, building up a structure layer by layer. The construction industry is rather conservative; many building sites still look much as they did in Roman times. 3D Printer Loughborough University's machines can even print larger structures such as building materials If Richard and his colleagues can prove it works at Loughborough - and convince potential users - additive manufacturing could change the industry. One potentially big change, in construction as in other activities, is to place designers right at the centre of activity. "Rapid manufacturing is all about putting the power of making things back in the hands of the architects," says Richard Buswell. "Young architects currently training are the ones who will take the techniques through into mainstream architecture." The EADS aircraft plant near Bristol is already exploiting this technology, and announced earlier this year that it had used additive layer manufacturing to produce a bike. When I was there I saw machines turning out complex satellite parts which are lighter in weight and cheaper to make than conventionally-machined components. 'Disruptive' potential "It's new materials, it's new design processes, it's a new way of looking at manufacturing," says Ian Risk, head of Innovation Works at EADS in the UK. "We have had the processes of subtractive manufacturing built into our ways of working, the way we think about components from the outset. We could change things significantly, and save money." But first entrenched companies will have to wake up to the potential of the process. That may be an uncomfortable experience for most business people, trained and practiced in the mass production way of doing things. Bench created through 3D printing 3D printing puts the designer at the centre of the process when creating items like this bench Engineer Will Sillar is a partner at the Legerwood management consultancy which advises companies on 3D printing, something he believes has all sorts of disruptive potential: "Up to 50 percent of the working capital of a business is currently tied up in stock and working capital," he says. "Eliminate that, and the finance director is going to be the happiest man in the world." But introducing disruptive change is not an easy thing to do, warns Stuart Jackson, UK manager of the German company EOS, a leading maker of 3D manufacturing machines. "If you've spent years in your career to establish a manufacturing process, and then something comes along that could throw it out of the window, it's not necessarily attractive. "It needs to be an open mind to actually take it on board." 3D printing may have reached that vital threshold. Now it needs companies and people who are open-minded enough to turn upside down the traditional ways of making things and, eventually, of running businesses. In Business is on BBC Radio 4 on Thursday 28 July at 2030 BST and Sunday 31 July at 2130 BST. You can also listen via the BBC iPlayer or the podcast. ______________________________ _________________ -- P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss: http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens; http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens

1 0

Fw: The Problem With Money and Why It is Obsolete.
by robert searle 29 Jul '11

29 Jul '11

--- On Thu, 21/7/11, robert searle <dharao4(a)yahoo.co.uk> wrote: From: robert searle <dharao4(a)yahoo.co.uk> Subject: The Problem With Money and Why It is Obsolete. To: michelsub2004(a)gmail.com Date: Thursday, 21 July, 2011, 13:38 The Problem With Money and Why It is Obsolete. by Vic Jasin. Money is designed to be distributed on a “value of output” basis. Somewhere along the way money lost value and meaning. Money is creating more problems than it solves. Rationalising exploitive windfall profiteering as being “The American Way”, rewards the greedy more than the ambitious. My ambition is to inspire others with new pragmatic ambitions to make contributions to a society and it’s needs. When we think of hero’s and inspiring leaders through the ages, we don’t usually think about the bank account balance as what defines them. Maybe Andrew Carnegie and a few others of the “Think and Grow Rich” mindset who epitomise(d), “greed rationalised” = Capitalism and The American Way. Are athletes worthy $5+mil/yr ? Is ANYONE worth $5+mil/yr??? How do you determine they are worth that money? Because they bring in even MORE money they rationalise that value. Criminals can accumulate wealth and power because of MONEY. Why would you accumulate a lot of anything if you can’t get money for it or trade it for something you don’t have? Money, not ability, not intellect, not morality, not religion, not politics is the source of control and power over others who don’t have it. MONEY!!!! Are people such indoctrinated Capitalists that they can’t see that there is no place for opulent wealth or even accumulation of wealth. You don’t need CAPITAL to do a project. You don’t need money to find, extract, process and deliver all the resources on this planet. You need RESOURCES. People or equipment (automation) are resources. Money is as money does. Financial Forest Gump wisdom. Money IS corruption prone as much as Heroin is addiction prone. A WAR ON MONEY, would eliminate the need to have a war on drugs. You eliminate money and you eliminate the entire purpose of the drug chains and cartels. They aren’t concerned for or devoted to the welfare of others. I plan to write more about how money will disappear in the very near future. Those who aren’t even willing to entertain the idea are those who are uninformed at the possibility and probability of such events occurring. How well do you understand economics and finance? Scarcity can be financially controlled and manipulated and might have nothing to do with the actual presence and access to resources or raw materials. That’s nuts people. We have folks starving and the nuvo rich and uber rich don’t seem to feel a need to divest themselves of anything because capitalism and monetary controlled economics says it’s ok and it’s the American Way. It’s the American way if you want to admit to being unaware of why money is bad and how money can be eliminated. Yes CAPITALISM given the existing and future conditions is an absurd system to maintain. Where do I begin? Maybe after reading this some of you can call me names and tell me why I’m utopian or insane and I’ll ask you to be specific as to what makes me insane and utopian and hopefully somewhere in there, we can clear some of your objections. And yes I will be the first to admit flaw or error when such are found and presented in a rational manner. Right now there is NOTHING saner than Transfinancial Economics by Robert Searle for what can be done NOW until the moneyless society conditions come into being when technological displacement of employment and professions starts approaching 50% of the population. What then? Welfare state? Socialism? All those are based on monetary economics. Stop thinking about how that would work with what exists today and your current circumstances. TFE is NOW. Resource Based Economics, or RBE is tomorrow. If you don’t know what these things are, you have no business criticising. Read it or keep it to yourself as I don’t’ appreciate those who bitch before they understand what they are bitching about. Read it and weep, life will never be the same. Get used to it. The sooner you do, the sooner you can enjoy the future. V. Jasin ( who has also recently set up a website called SENVI http://www.senvi.org/ ) Transfinancial Economics (non-academic paper): http://www.p2pfoundation.net/Transfinancial_Economics Resource Based Economics: http://p2pfoundation.net/Resource-based_Economy You should remove the politics and personalities when reviewing the items below. Understand that what they suggest their ideas will result in is “their” view, not the ONLY way or method. The Zeitgest Movement, the Venus Project,and Jacque Fresco are taking a lot of heat and are the source of a lot of controversy. There is a lot of partisan agenda between the lines so put on your bullshit filter. I find a lot of good in MOST of their content minus the personalities and politics.

1 0