Planetary Annihilation: Kickstarter Blows Up Planets, The Game

Every would-be world conqueror gets their start playing tactical video games; some classic examples are Civilization, Age of Empires, and StarCraft.  A new contender is being added to the list of great strategy games, Planetary Annihilation.  This latest real-time strategy vision pioneers a new trail; rather than just a single map being the battle field whole solar systems are up for grabs.

Space, the final frontier … of warfare

The loose premise for Planetary Annihilation is robot armies are fighting each other for galactic control.  Fun, right? The real focus of the game is in revolutionary global combat.   Most games have square maps which cut off suddenly to prevent flanking armies from falling into the void.  In Planetary Annihilation the battlefields are spherical planets.  Troops march and fly around the world, doing combat in all three hundred and sixty degrees.

More complex maps add a solar system of battlefields.  Moons can be mined.  Asteroid can be turned into continental sized missiles.  Gas giants fill up the screen as multiple lunar battles take place across space.  It is hinted that whole planets can be thrown at unsuspecting opponents.

Already Uber Entertainment, the producers of this strategic and hilarious game, has surpassed their initial goal for Planetary Annihilation.  With a whopping $900,000 in pledged funds production has already.  Yet as more funds were pledged new ideas were birthed for each new threshold.

Upon passing the $1.1 million dollar barrier water worlds, complete with a whole new variety of aquatic robots, were added to Planetary Annihilation.  Two hundred thousand dollars later orbital units were added and gas giants entered the warzone.  The next threshold of $1.5 million will add strange new worlds coated with lava and cloaked in metal.  The $1.8 million dollar threshold seems to be the most interesting to me; it activates the galactic campaign.  By doubling their initial goal battlefields Uber Entertainment will make the whole galaxy open for combat.

The rewards for aiding Planetary Annihilation are both novel and far-flung.  $20 will garner you a copy of the game, alongside over 12,000 backers.  For $50 you will get a unique commander exclusively to fundraisers, but for $1000 you can get a unique commander made exclusively for you.  My favorite option allows you name planets within the game; I think naming a planet after myself might just be worth $150.

I support intergalactic warfare; click here to support Planetary Annihilation!

Kickstart(er) Solar: Small Panels, Big Dreams

I believe that passionate and invested inventors are the best innovators. Now it is time to add Alex Hornstein and Shawn Frayne to the ranks of the Wright Brothers and Alexander Fleming.  Our two new revolutionaries are pushing the boundaries of solar energy.  They are not pushing them upwards for large panels, instead they invested in small hyper efficient solar panels which can power every small object in any home.

Micro Solar Panels, A Plethora of Opportunities

Small solar plates are increasingly becoming an integral part of the world’s solar supply.  In the past, only devices like throwaway calculators and a few outdoorsy tools were powered by small solar panels.  Today, there are already niche solar markets arising; everything from cell phone chargers to glow in the dark bricks are powered by the sun.

Most small solar panels are produced in a slow and inefficient manner.  There are whole factories dedicated to outdated and time-consuming.  Panels are hand glued together; as many as one in five are discarded due to workmanship faults.  The annual output of one factory is around a 300,000 units.     These  panels will last approximately two years, under the best conditions.

Currently, our two new inventors are gathering funds to finalize their invention, the Solar Pocket Factory.  Just one of these table-top factories can produce a whopping 2,103,793 panels in a year; a panel can be produced every fifteen seconds.  These durable have a ten-year guarantee.  The factory can fit in a pickup and run anywhere in the world or even on the go.

This project is currently a favorite on Kickstarter.  This grass-roots site connects inventors, innovators, and artists with people who want to support their causes (and get nifty prizes).  For instance if you give our lauded innovators a scant $35 they will ship you everything you need to build a few small solar devices with their patented plates.  Big spenders can select the $10,000 option; with this prize our inventors bring their micro factory to your hometown and crank out hundreds, if not thousands, of plates and products.  A whole town could be powered by one little trip.  The future looks sunny.

Wanna help the cause?  Their Kickstarter Project continues until September 14, 2012.  Click here to green up your home!

The Iran – Israel Crisis: Part 1, The Stakes

How long till war?

All eyes are on Iran and its nuclear program.  The Iranian government has stated that it pursues only peaceful ends in its new-found interest in uranium enrichment.  Israel and the United States have accused Iran of building nuclear WMDs.  In this article, Part 1, we will review how Israel and Iran are igniting the next world war and how conventional methods of defusing this situation have failed.  In Part 2, we will examine the diplomatic failures which have allowed this situation to persist and worsen.  In Part 3 we will review unlikely alternatives which might be able to prevent the United States from being dragged into a 21^st century Vietnam.

Why are Iran and Israel Moving Towards War?

Iran and Israel have the keys to peace or war in the Middle East; they both choose war. we can see the rational explanation behind this absurd decision by looking into game theory and the Prisoners’ Dilemma. Both sides have the option of backing down; however, if either side took enacted peaceful measures it would open itself for attack from the opposition.  Without mutual trust or a shared allied superpower to help negotiate a thawing of relations these nations are locked onto the war path.

How Will the War Begin on Our Current Course?

Israel has talked openly about a preemptive strike.  With a surprise attack Israeli fighter jets plan to cripple the Iranian nuclear program beyond repair.  Iran will doubtlessly strike back; igniting a regional war against Israel.  The United States will most likely be dragged into the conflict with the inevitable Iranian retaliations.  In an American military war-game codenamed Internal Look, which played out many possible scenarios following an Israeli preemptive strike,  United States ships were attacked by Iranian planes attempting to intercept the retreating Israel fighters.  This is one of dozens of possibilities which could throw American into a pan-Arabian war in one of the world’s most volatile and important regions,

Why is It Important to Prevent War?

Life and energy.

It is of primary importance to maintain peace to prevent wholesale slaughter on a scale not seen since the end of World War Two.  Iran uses human waves of millions of loyalists to crush enemies while Israel decimates invaders with overwhelming air power and possibly nuclear.  A conflict would kill thousands; if there is an alternative, it must be pursued

Second, oil is something critical to the Middle Oil flow will slow to a trickle if war explodes across the Persian Gulf; either blockades of the Straits of Hormuz or wholesale destruction of regional oil tankers could cut off the world’s energy supply.  International blackouts would cause unprecedented chaos.

The question becomes that if war would be so disastrous why would the powers that be allowed it to deteriorate to this strained point?  Find the answer in Part 2; it will be up tomorrow.

All comments are appreciated and will be answered promptly.

Made in China (For Now): Manufacturing’s Slow Return to America, Case Study

Made in China (for now)

Outsourcing is the bane of American manufacturing… except for in a little town in Michigan named Saginaw.  The great wrecks of the rest belt dot the town.  Meanwhile one Nexteer Automotive is adding jobs by the dozens.

Who is injecting money into the American economy?  If you were to follow the money trail your answer would be “China.”

In 2010 the national Chinese firm Aviation Industry Corporation bought the factory from General Motors.  The previous owners had been determined to sell the plant or demolish it.  The Chinese are determined to make a profit.  I believe the Chinese are correct in this case, otherwise they would not be investing in new machinery, technology, and above all workers at the same plant that General Motors had given up on.

The lynch pin in the success of the factory under its new leadership has been a stellar relationship with the factory’s union. Careful and respectful negotiations were made concerning wages.  Bloated union contracts were watered down; however, the terms were still generous for the plant’s union.  New employees are paid less than half of what they would have been paid ten years ago.  This matters little to the workers whom are just happy to be employed.  Over 600 hundred jobs have been added to the factory in the last two years.  More are on the way.

Many workers had apprehensions about the foreign acquisition of Nexteer Automotive.  Some worried the firm would be liquidated.  Others were concerned the experience and technological knowledge of the employees would be sponged from the plant and the factory itself would be leveled.  These fears have been unfounded.  Rather than taking away from the plant the Chinese have pledged to invest over 15 billion over the next couple of years.  Nexteer Automotive is quickly putting in cutting edge systems to secure the factory’s future.  The only criticism Aviation Industry Corporation has of Nexteer Automotive is the factory is not expanding fast enough.

While General Motors, the previous owner of the Nexteer Automotive, had seem only a money pit Aviation Industry Corporation found a gem.  The American worker is second to none; it is a proven fact that on average Americans work more diligently and with greater output than any other country in the world.  The Chinese are simply cashing in on this hard-won fact.  In addition, the highly developed infrastructure throughout American and the sunk costs of existing factories means that future developers will also invest in America.  We are the best and most economic choice. In virtually every industry American leads the way with a culture of intrepid determination, it is only right manufacturing is coming back to America.

Profile: Hamid Karzai, President of Afghanistan

Hamid Karzai

Meet President Hamid Karzai, the first elected president of the Islamic State of Afghanistan.  After 2014 his government will be responsible for protecting the country which thousands of Americans, Afghans, and international troops have died to sustain.  It is in debate if he is up to the task.

In order to answer this question we must analyze who Hamid Karzai is

Karzai was always going to be a politician.  He first made a name for himself in the ranks of the Mujahedeen, freedom fighters resisting the Russian annexation of Afghanistan.  He gained notoriety fundraising for the Mujahedeen in Pakistan and fame by leading negotiations uniting conflicting factions and directing mass defections of domestic opposition.  In 1992 he served as the Deputy Foreign Minister in the Afghanistan government.  The Taliban’s growing influence hedged him out of the country.  It was not until the 1999 assassination of his father, by the Taliban, that Karzai began his crusade to end the radical regime.  It was not until the events of September 11, 2001 that Karzai got his opportunity.

During Operation Enduring Freedom, the NATO invasion of Afghanistan in response to the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, Karzai fought with his tribe to bring a new government to Afghanistan.  He met stiff resistance from the Taliban, who were specifically targeted him to deny Afghanistan of one of his finest negotiators.  Friendly fire, from American missiles, hit his troops and seriously injured Karzai.  He became the chairman of the transitional government and was essential to the negotiations which brought about a unified government in Afghanistan.

2004 was the peak of Karzai’s career.  He was elected the President of Afghanistan with 55.4% of the vote.  Numerous obstructions marred his presidency and public opinion depreciated.  Systematic corruption eroded public faith in the government.  Isolated and accidental killings of civilians by Afghan and NATO forces turned distrust into anger.   The Taliban was still at large in the southeastern parts of Afghanistan.  Illegal poppy fields remained the cash crop for the insurgency and the Afghan government could not cull the fields.  Karzai fiercely insisted to not use chemical herbicides against the poppy growers, due to fears of a much more volatile civil war, have stifled progress against the drugs.  IED’s, suicide bombers, and ambushes have only spread anger and dissention.

In  2009 Karzai won the reelection with only with just over fifty percent of the popular vote.  Accusations of ballot stuffing, voter intimidation, and a key opponent mysteriously dropping out just before the runoff election have left Karzai’s government under heavy suspicion.  It took over a year for him to place all of his advisors because the Afghan Parliament rejected many due to the candidate’s ties with warlords and inability to perform.

Criticisms are multiplying.  International activists have denounced his administration as one of the most corrupt in the world.  Millions of dollars of international aid have simply disappeared.  Widespread desertion is common in the Afghan military and discipline in the ranks is nonexistence.  Deserters often turn up in the ranks of the Taliban.

Karzai will be the President of Afghanistan until 2014, at which time international forces will complete their withdrawal from Afghanistan.  It is my opinion that Karzai is not up to challenge.  He has failed to rejuvenates a country which desperately needs strong leadership.  He is probably one of the best men in Afghanistan to mediate fair negotiations.  However, that is not the role of the President:  presidents must act, and Karzai does not seem to be reforming in a hurry.

Source: BBC, New York Times, Biography.com, Wikipedia

Germany: Nuclear Switch-Off Spurns Green Explosion

Nuclear Power Plants: A Dying Breed?

The radiation tormenting Fukushima struck a chord in Germany; amidst widespread protesting the government shut down the seven oldest nuclear reactors in Germany to placate the public.  While the general population was captivated by the celebrations of the protesters, apprehension filled the halls of government, and a window of opportunity was presented to green energy firms.  Nuclear power plants are an essential player in producing German electricity.  Unless the German’s would favor being dependent on Russian oil pipelines the only viable path left to them is a rapid adoption of green energy.

Germany needs a silver-bullet solution to answer the energy vacuum left behind by the absentee nuclear plants and the declarations that the ten remaining nuclear reactors would be shut down ahead of schedule.  It’s solution is as ambitious as it is green. By 2030 Germany plans to take a third of its power from green sources.  By 2050 Germany plans be on eighty percent green power the 205o.  the government will spearhead incentives in every field: biogas, biomass, solar, wind, and hydro.  In addition, the country is abandoning the production of new nuclear plants and is pledging to decommission those that remain in operation ahead of schedule.

This is nothing short of a dangerous gamble.  Germany will become the flagship for alternative energy production of the world, if they succeed.  If they fail, the rest of Europe will  have to sell power to the Germans to keep the country lit up.  The German people are coming to a hard ceiling; either they break through and prosper or they fail tragically and suffer a decline with cumbersome and unreliable energy fees.  When it comes to heating homes and power industry their is only a small margin of error for Germany.

It will be interesting to see what Germany will look like in thirty years: will it be a green paradise or a darkening backwater?

Lightbulbs Will Never Be the Same

Second Generation Lighting Finding a Home in Your Home

The average lightbulb lasts for two thousand hours before going *pop*.  In ten years yours lightbulbs will last fifty thousand hours [article].  How is this possible: LED Lightbulbs.  This next generation of lighting, distinguished by their use exciting electrons to create light with maximize efficiency, are poised to replace the incandescent lightbulbs which have remained  mechanically the same since the days of Edison.  They are set to change the world; over the next ten years the LED lightbulbs are projected to take over sixty percent of the world’s markets [article].  The future will be a little bit brighter.

LED lightbulbs are vastly superior to antique incandescent lightbulbs.  They have no filaments which can burn out, nor do they have toxic mercury.  In addition, LED lightbulbs produce almost heat.  This is a drastic improvement over current lightbulbs which are often too how to touch [article].  LED’s currently are not quite as bright as traditional bulbs; however innovators are pushing the envelope to close the gap and surpass incandescent lightbulbs.  Finally, the pricing difference is extraordinary.

One the surface, incandescent lightbulbs seem cheaper.  One traditional lightbulbs costs a mere $1.25 while LED’s are projected to cost $30 dollars.  With a deeper look we see that LED’s are twenty-five times more effective than incandescent lightbulbs.  With every LED lightbulbs you will save a $1.25, twenty-five lightbulb exchanges, and preventing incalculable amounts of damage to the environment from the toxic chemicals of the traditional lightbulbs.  This decision is a no-brainer.

General Electric began with building  incandescent lightbulbs; today, they are once again preparing to revolutionize the world of lighting.  Alongside Sylvania [lightbulbs] and Phillips [lightbulbs] these three American companies are preparing for the next generation of LED lighting.  These three companies will not only save consumers billions on lighting they will also secure a cutting edge market for the United States.

Chicago is ground zero for these three companies blooming LED bulb markets.  A recent think tank report claimed that the cities trifecta of engineering colleges, government support, and concentration of lightbulb manufactures has position this city to oversee an explosion of new lighting across the world [report].  This is one market for that the American economy has in the bag for the economic future.

State of the Union: Afghanistan Edition

A Look at Afghanistan

With the looming 2014 deadline for NATO forces withdrawal from Afghanistan many officials are anxious about the state of affairs in the nation.  Two intertwined issues endanger the unstable fledgling state: drug crops and a president Taliban.  Hamid Karzai, president of Afghanistan and the Obama administration are working jointly to solve these problems and attempt to bring peace to the war-torn nation.

The economic lynch pin of the Afghanistan economy is the humble poppy.  Poppy’s are the plant which produces opium, an addictive drug which had killed millions.  Approximately forty percent [article] of the world’s opium production is grown in the mountains of Afghanistan.  In 2008 a British spearheaded campaign drove the Taliban and poppy sharecroppers out of prime growing land.  Ongoing campaigns to educate farmers, plant wheat and cotton, and enforcing security have reduced the poppy output signficantly.  However, these reforms are suffering from diminishing returns.  The Taliban and their poppy-sharecroppers have established new havens in semi-arable deserts and are reestablishing a profitable trade.  Corrupt officials are additionally undermining the efficiency the reform efforts by protecting drug growers for kick backs.  The food zone’s in Afghanistan are currently are largely secured; however, the drug problem is certainly not eradicated.

The Taliban are still a major player in Afghanistan and pose a threat to the unstable sovereign government.  Every year since the abrupt destruction of their government after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 the Taliban have been rebuilding more ruggedized networks and orchestrating the assassinations of more Allied troops.  Explosive suicide bombers, rouge gunman, and improvised explosive devices are the chief killers of the near 2800 allied casualties [article].  Countermeasures against this terrorism have been slow to mitigate the killings.  Peak levels of Allied casualties were suffered over the summer of 2010 and current levels of casualties are still nearly double what they were five years previously [article].  Many locals believe once the international forces leave then the killings and disruption will make a resurgence.

There are many different programs attempting to defeat this persistent enemy.  The Afghan military is focusing on building up its own air force to replace the American warplanes after 2014 [article].  These ambitious goals of this program are to have approximately 165 active aircraft online by 2016.  Just as importantly, the government is training in total 8,000 personal to keep these aircraft in fighting condition.  These planes will be able to supply isolated outposts, decimate Taliban patrols, and assure the Afghan people who their government can enforce the national security.  In addition, the Obama Administration is taking innovative steps to freeze this possibility and stabilize the region.  The American and Afghani governments have jointly begun to open dialogue with the Taliban [article].  While initial communications are still classified multiple officials have expressed optimistic first impressions.  Peace is a viable possibility.

I personally believe this silver-or-lead policy will stabilize Afghanistan.  Government supporters will be able to farm wheat and common in peace.  The firepower of the Afghan army and the dialogue will corner the Taliban into consenting to peace.  The country will doubtlessly be plagued by isolated extremists for at least the rest of the decade; however, peace will become de facto in Afghanistan.

FED to Publish Market Predictions (and Save the Economy)

Ben Bernanke Makes Big Decisions About Economy

What is the Fed Doing?

The FED has announced their insider market predictions for the world’s markets would be published on January 25,2012 and periodically afterwards.  This landmark act would put the FED’s view on every field, from property sales to stock options, in the hands of the investors.  These projections are some of the most reliable in the world.  This publicizing of information is designed to prepare firms for future turns of the market and inject faith in the financial sector into the capricious investors.  Hopefully, this will kick-start a financial boom.

Why is the FED publishing its reports?

The Federal Reserve is hedging against financial busts.  Busts in the stock market rapidly dissolve trillions of dollars in just days.  The Federal Reserve System, the central banking for the United States, is designed to prevent such catastrophes.  In recent years they have been successful in mitigating busts; however, they have never been able to prevent them.  The FED is attempting to build a new, innovative barrier against sell offs with by posting their predictions: trust.

Why does trust matter?

Trust is essential.  Investor’s careers revolve around moving money.  They buy up capital, which is anything from stocks to beach condos, and sell it once it reaches peak value.  Then they repeat the process.  This simple cycle is the basis of Wall Street.  When inventors do not have faith in the market problems multiply.

Nervous investors sell off in droves at the least opportune times.  This can create market failure, instantly obliterating massive quantities of capital.  By selling off hastily these investors are wasting value and are actually hurting the value of their capital.  Investors that trust the market do not sell off capital until the time is right.  This builds up the market and has allowed the financial sector to prosper.

Through publishing its own facts and figures the FED is injecting trust into Wall Street.  By predicting the trends across the market the FED is allowing investors can acclimate to bends and dips in their projections before they arrive.  Before, capacious investors would be sent into widespread sell-offs at the slightest worry.  The FED hopes that their own figures will calm fears in tumultuous times and weaken the gravity of these sell offs.  The FED is coaxing the investors into a much more reliable rise-decline market cycle which is greatly preferable to the destructive boom-bust cycle we have at present.

Why has the Fed not published it’s predictions before?

They were afraid they could be wrong.

Predictions are never perfect.  Even in the best of times the finest analysts in the world can only make guesses about the state of the market in the near future.  The further out projections plan the less reliable they are.

Previous FED officials were concerned that unforeseeable fallacies in their predictions would disrupt the markets.  Black swans, events which are both highly unpredictable and highly destructive, could tear asunder all predictions and undermine the credibility of the FED.  A loss of trust in the FED, perhaps the single largest force in the world of investing, would result in financial armageddon.

Will this action jumpstart the economy?

Yes.

The finicky investors need this trust to be prosperous.  Before the 2007-2008 Recession the market moved gracefully, positive trends of perhaps a few points per day provided good steady investments for everyone.  Today, it is unsurprising for the DOW to jump over a hundred points in any direction.  This is bad; it jeopardizes the market because with this capricious behavior no investment is safe.  Investors are damaging the market with short sell offs and ragged growth rather than cultivating it.

The FED is pushing the markets back towards the stable growth with their predictions.  Investors will have a baseline prediction to affirm their own predictions.  In addition, the projections of the FED will become self-fulfilling prophecies.  If investors are told the markets will get better they will prepare their own assets for just that eventuality, in doing so they will prepare the market for the FED’s plan of growth.  This move will propel the economy in the right direction.

An (Indomitable) Argument for Protectionism

Protectionism helps us at home and our friends abroad

The expired Multi-Fiber Arrangement left thirty million people across the world unemployed.  These workers were unfortunate victims of globalized free trade.  Free trade leads us to believe that goods should always be produced by the firms competing under pure capitalist conditions.  This idea is not wrong; it is only the dangers of free trade should be mitigated in emerging markets around the globe to give them the opportunity to succeed.  Protectionism, the antagonist of free trade, is the solution to best prepare infant industries and emerging economies anywhere in the world; this policy employees more denizens, produces stronger industries, and cultivates stronger markets than free trade ever could.

Inefficiency creates more jobs.  If the entire world can exploit a market then only those countries with the most efficient industries will be able to sell.  Protectionism erects a wall of tariffs that prevents foreign goods from ever contaminating domestic markets by driving prices up to an inclusive level for domestic products.  Under protectionism, small industries gain a foothold, bloom, and employ more denizens in every country across the world.  There are minor concessions; on a global level less of goods are produced and the cost is driven up slightly as well.  These negligible effects diffused throughout the consumer markets means the world to the now employed workers who can support their families.  Protectionism is more humane than free trade.

Stronger industries are built under the shield of protectionism.  Behind a wall of tariffs the United States built mighty firms of  industry that dominated the world for the second half of the twentieth century.  Preceding the Americans, the British had done the same when the pioneered the Industrial Revolution and built an empire upon which the sun never set.  Since the 1970’s China used numerous protectionist policies, notably keeping its currency artificially low.  It is predicted to have the world’s largest GDP by 2020.  Examples of booming economies that got their start in free trade are scare.  Columbus and Admiral Perry opened up trade to the Americas and East Asia respectively.  In both countries widespread exploitation of natives and complete sterilization of domestic industries ensued following the introduction of cheap free trade imports.  Free trade is a tool of the strong to stay in power and collect wealth; for weaker nations and industries free trade is a poison which cripples.

Stronger markets evolve under protectionism.  Protectionist policies protect infant industries and prevent exploitation of weak economies.  In an international market of free trade monopolies are certain to emerge.  Monopolies are established when there is not industrial competition.  This problem hurts everyone.  Consumers suffer from an inferior product; without the Darwinian survival of the fittest threat the producers have no incentive to innovate.  Marginal producers are harmed.  Any attempts to breach the market are squelched under the monopoly.  The monopoly hurts itself through stagnation.  Protectionism is the best means in a globalized economy to give marginal producers and infant industries the time to create a profitable industries despite the monopolies.  Consumers and marginal producers benefit from better products and pay checks while potential monopolies are broken out of self-defeating cycles of stagnation.  Protectionism helps everyone.

Protectionist protects countries.  It harbors citizens and gives them jobs.  It cultivates infant industries under a cocoon of tariffs.  Better products and firms are brought to market thanks to protectionism.  It seems almost silly to even think about introducing globalized free trade to emerging economies; it corrupts infant industries and kills jobs.  If it were not for multinational corporations, who preach fallacious free trade to all for a better profit margin, protectionism would indisputably hold in its rightful place as protector of firms, consumes, and employees.