Sherman’s News and Editorials

I recently read a superb book called ‘The Sovereign Individual’.
I wanted to read it because Robert Kiysaki had listed it as an influential or important book in one of his own books. One of the writers of this book is Lord Reese-Mogg, who specializes in global long range investments and thus makes predictions accordingly
that can impact how one should invest. One of his principal points is that there is a big shift about every five hundred years in Western civilization which has major repurcussions the world over.
Just as in the 1492 marks the official beginning of the industrial age, 1992, the year the world wide web went truly wide, is the official start of the information age.
According to Mogg, this transistion will be much more pronounced even than the shift to the agrarian or industrial age since microprocessing will have a more world-altering impact on human society over time. He also states that by the year 2040  world will look radically different than
it does now as many industrial age institutions change drastically out of necessity, much as the church did at the start of the industrial age. All in all,  Mogg says huge changes are inevitable. Just like changes made from the invention of the printing press during the industrial age could not really be halted once they got going,
so too will the shifts from microprocessing be. He and his co-writer aslo made the insightful point that, during the early stages of these types of these epic transitions, those on the edge rarely realize how severe the changes will be.
At the time the first printing press was invented, for instance, the church had a total monopoly on the making of books such as the Bible. It was time-consuming work that required a high degree of skill. Not many people actually understood then the full ramifications that this seemingly benign invention would have. The Church quickly declined in power. Very soon manuals could be reproduced in many different localities.  A factory which produced an industrial product in Britain could quickly be duplicated in Italy, the U.S. or Germany. Instruction manuals could be easily made universal across the continents. Very soon the standard of living of the advanced nations went up massively. Low skill workers could now move to urban areas and earn a wage far above their usual pittance. The Feudal era was dominated by different town guilds in which a few skilled individuals dominated certain crafts such as hat-making shoemaking and
commanded large incomes. But quickly the unskilled workers could go to a factory and earn a wage well above the subsistence level.
Now we are at the beginning of a similar transistion…….. The changes of this shift will indeed be huge, particularly as the cost of wireless networks continues to go down. I suggest that you brace your self because it will be a roller coaster ride for sure. Some folks will gain from it, others that cling to outdated ideas will lose status, unfortunately.

In general, folks who cling to or relay on industrial era benefits such as a lifetime pension or medicare will suffer the most. Many will drop out of the middle class over time, it would seem.
Entrepreneurs such as Bill Gates, however will get richer at an ever younger age.  It will be a wild time in that respect, according to Mogg.
Is there anything to be wary of in this new information driven economy? Well we have to be beware of mega-mergers perhaps more than ever. If we get to a point where, say, ninety percent of all purchases are made online, and the big search portals then merge, it
will be easier than ever for the big companies to monopolize the marketplace, since most people tend to find things via a handful of search engines now. What can you do to prepare. You may consider an information age home based business like Freelife International or something similiar instead of clinging to deceptive job security.

In an AP story from new York as reported by yahoo news it was announced
that the Apple Corporation will permit 3rd-party applications on the iPhone, according to CEO Steve Jobs.
Jobs made this announcement on the company website today.
In a decision which marks a very decisive about-face from the firm’s past wish of controlling the applications that the users have on their handheld device’s,
Jobs stated that they want to release a software
 development kit in several months which will permit individuals outside the firm to create iPhone as well as iPod touch applications.
he was quoted as saying: “We are excited about creating a vibrant third-party developer community around the iPhone and enabling hundreds of new applications for our users,”
Designers have already constructed many iPhone applications which run their Safari Web browser since they did notoriginally open the iPhone directly to 3rd-party software development.
The iPhone, which combines a cellular telephone and wireless web access all together ina  single hand held device, was released some towmonths ago with much hype and high expectations.
 To date, the firm has sold more than one million iPhones.
The CEO stated today that it will take a few months to release the kit since the firm wishes to give developers an open platform while at the same time protecting users from various viruses and malware, etc.
That sounds reasonable enouph to me…
He was quoted as saying: “There have been serious viruses on other mobile phones already, including some that silently spread from phone to phone over the cell network,” he wrote.
It was also recently repiorted by the AP that many cell
 phone and PDA users have been reporting that they sometimes feel odd vibrations when there are none.
This rather odd phenomenon is often referred to as ‘Phantom Vibrations’ and no one seems to know exactly what is causing it.

According to top Associated Press journalist Seth Borenstein,
a number of of scientists from around the globe are attempting to create life from nothing and they re getting closer,
or so it appears, at least. They said to anticipate some kind of announcement within 3-10 years or so from an individual in the somewhat esoteric area of study known as “wet artificial life.”
In fact, some researchers think that man-made life forms will eventually offer the possibility of solving a number of different problems, such as fighting diseases and locking up greenhouse gases so as to consume toxic waste.
As Borenstein points out, a top man in the field, Jack Szostak, states that as early as the next 5 months or so, researchers will report evidence that the initial phase — making an actual cell membrane — is “not a big issue.” The researchers are basically
 using fatty acids in this particular effort. He is likewise positive about the next step — getting nucleotides (building blocks of DNA) to form a working genetic system.
The idea is that once the container is constructed, if researchers add nucleotides in the correct amounts, then Darwinian evolution may essentially go from there.
In the meantime Steve Benner at the Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution is addressing this issue by going outside of natural genetics. Regular DNA is composed of some 4 bases which are specific molecules
 that spell out the genetic code in couples. He is trying to add 8 new bases to the genetic alphabet.
He also stated that there are valid concerns about producing life which could go awry but there are certain methods of addressing it, and it will be a long time before this is an issue.

Have any of you ever suffered from Blogging burnout? If you run several weblogs, as I do, you likely have experienced this occurance at one time or another, It is very disconcerting when this happens, and at least with me, it is normally triggered when some error happens with Wordpress or if I somehow manage to accidentally lose all of my work, It really sucks when that happens, it is demoralizing as hell. This phenomenom happened to me recently when I tried to achive a very ambitious self imposed deadline for writing fresh cont3ent for all of my blogs….but I went to the gym and got out of the house for a while and now I feel a lot better. In fact I am fairly fresh now…..so it is back to work for me, writing, writing and more writing!