Neil Armstrong urges return to the Moon

Before US takes another holiday vacation to the Moon, how does Obama
plan to pay for it? By credit card installments? and adding to their
$15 trillion (=15,000,000,000,000) debt?

Neil Armstrong urges return to the Moon
Posted: 25 August 2011 0904 hrs

SYDNEY: Astronaut Neil Armstrong has urged a return to the Moon to
train for missions to Mars as the United States contemplates the
future of its space programme following the end of the shuttle era.

The first man to walk on the Moon is due to address the US Congress on
new directions for NASA in coming weeks.

He has previously criticised US President Barack Obama for being
"poorly advised" on space matters and said it was "well known to all
that the American space programme is in some chaos at the present
time, some disarray".

"There are multiple opinions on which goals should be the most
important and the most pressing," he told a function in Sydney late on
Wednesday.

The US shuttle programme came to an end last month with the Atlantis
cruising home for a final time, 42 years after Armstrong became the
first person to set foot on the Moon as part of the Apollo 11 mission.

Critics have assailed NASA for lacking focus, with no next-generation
human spaceflight mission to replace the shuttle programme.

Now 81, Armstrong said the agency had become a "shuttlecock" for the
"war of words" between the executive, legislative and congressional
arms of US government.

"It's my belief given time and careful thought and reasoning we will
eventually reach the right goal, I just hope we do it fairly quickly,"
he said.

The normally private and reserved space veteran said Mars should be
the next frontier for exploration but urged more missions to the Moon
as the vital next step.

"I do favour going to Mars but I believe it is both too difficult and
too expensive with the technology we have available at the current
time," he said.

"I favour returning to the Moon. We made six landings there and
explored areas as small as a city lot and perhaps as large as a small
town. That leaves us some 14 million square miles that we have not
explored."

Armstrong said working on the Moon would allow scientists to practise
"a lot of the things that you need to do when you are going further
out in the solar system" while maintaining relatively close contact
with Mission Control.

Communication is the major problem for trips to Mars, he said, with
the relay of a message between Earth and the red planet delayed by
about 20 minutes, compared with 1.5 seconds between here and the Moon.

Travel time is also a major concern, with a journey time of two months
when Mars was closest to Earth, but also at its most rapidly spinning
trajectory, requiring massive amounts of fuel to land.

- AFP/ck

Consumer Debt Forgiveness May Be Needed: Roach

This one is a must vote for the "Stupidest Thing I've heard this Year"....

American consumers have too much debt, not enough savings and are afraid they will lose their jobs—if they haven't lost them already.

It might be time for something that hasn't been done since the 1930s to get Americans spending again: national debt forgiveness, Stephen Roach told CNBC Monday.

A stronger dollar or higher interest rates would encourage consumption and saving, Roach said, but he prefers the more "direct approach" of coming up with "ways to forgive the excesses of mortgage, installment and revolving credit, as what was done in the 1930s, that will help consumers get through the pain of deleveraging sooner rather than later."

The nonexecutive chairman at Morgan Stanley Asia and senior fellow at Yale's Jackson Institute said the American consumer makes up 71 percent of gross domestic product, but growth is up only 0.2 percent over the last 14 months.

"The American consumer...is going nowhere," he said. It's a Japanese style balance sheet correction. If we don't address that, all the public policy aimed at the fiscal and monetary stimuluses are going to be pushing on a string."

Debt forgiveness may hurt lenders, Roach said, but "they're the ones who wrote the bad loans and they're the ones who had the free ride. There's no gain without some pain and we have to decide who in society has to bear the brunt of that."

At the same time, "politicians don't want to inflict pain on any constituency," Roach said. "We have a leadership deficit. People are unwilling to take the tough choices and say, 'This is going to be painful for a while, but we're going to come out the other side.' " 

S'poreans have to choose the kind of politics they want, says ESM Goh

Dear Mr Goh, the people have already chosen. A hawker wants to tell SMRT how to run trains, a student tells govt how to pay its ministers, a parent tells MOE how to teach kids, a couple tells govt how to charge for pubic housing.

When too many people want to tell the chef how to cook and how they want their meal done, you get burnt charcoal.



S'poreans have to choose the kind of politics they want, says ESM Goh
By Hetty Musfirah Abdul Khamid | Posted: 13 August 2011 2227 hrs

SINGAPORE: Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong said Singaporeans will have to choose the kind of politics best suited for the country.

Speaking at the National Day dinner in his Marine Parade constituency on Saturday evening, Mr Goh expressed concern about the whipping up of resentment by those who opposed the government, especially over the internet, in the recent General Election.

He hoped it is not an early sign of the type of politics in future.

Mr Goh Chok Tong said Singapore is in transition, with a new and younger team of leaders. And together with the people, they will have to decide what their goals are for Singapore and how to achieve them.

They will have to make "hard choices" to solve problems - in the economic, social and political spheres.

On politics, the recent general election saw many giving their views on various issues, especially through the internet. And he said those born after independence will increasingly decide Singapore's political future.

Mr Goh said: "Singaporeans generally, not just the young, now want to have more say in their future and have their diverse interests reflected in a pluralistic parliament. It is much easier to agitate and criticise than to come up with alternative, sound policies that will solve problems for the majority.

"Will Singaporeans choose constructive politics and debate policies rationally in the future, or choose confrontational and divisive politics based on stoking envy and resentment?"

On the economy, Mr Goh said Singapore has depended on importing foreign workers to help grow the country. So reducing the dependence on foreign workers and talent, while ensuring high economic growth, will not be an easy choice.

He said: "Many services may be affected due to the lack of Singaporean workers; for example, we are short of bus drivers, service staff in food establishments, cleaners, nurses and hospital attendants. We can try and make up by improving our productivity sharply but it will not be easy."

Mr Goh added that addressing the widening income gap will also be difficult.

Socially, he cautioned about the challenges of an ageing population. Mr Goh said many young Singaporeans want more time for themselves and find raising children costly and time-consuming. But the true cost for them and the country will come in the future.

Mr Goh said the choice is enjoy today and worry about being old later or worry today about raising children and enjoy the warmth of family later. He said whatever choice they make, will have a national impact.

He said the younger team of leaders will have to rally Singaporeans, with a new vision grounded in reality.

-CNA/ac

Constitution 'doesn't say President must be dumb'

The trouble is not that the President is dumb, but the President shoots from his asshole. No prizes for the candidate I think talks with the Voices from the Peoples' Asses.




Aug 6, 2011
Constitution 'doesn't say President must be dumb'
By Tessa Wong

Mr Tan Kin Lian, 63, former chief executive, NTUC Income who will be contesting in the upcoming Presidential Election to be held on 27 August 2011. -- ST PHOTO: SAMUEL HE

PRESIDENTIAL hopeful Mr Tan Kin Lian said on Saturday that he has looked at the Constitution and has not found the requirement that 'the President must be dumb' and cannot speak out.

He was responding to remarks made by Law Minister Mr K Shanmugam at a forum on Friday on the roles and responsibilities of the President.

Mr Tan said that he agreed with Mr Shanmugam that the duties of the President should be those stated in the Constitution. He said if elected he would abide and carry out those duties.

However, he said, he did not agree with Mr Shanmugam's views 'that the President cannot speak on anything else without the approval of the Government', saying that the Law Minister's interpretation of the laws on this issue was 'too narrow'.

'It seems the President has less freedom of speech than ordinary citizens,' said Mr Tan.

He was addressing supporters on Saturday morning at his campaign headquarters at Anson Road, in a meeting open to media coverage. The event also saw the launch of his campaign slogan, 'Voice of The People'.

Sell-Off Was Another 'Flash Crash': Barton Biggs

This is the first time for 15 years of investing since leaving the
'buy and hold' philosophy that I am actually pleased with myself for a
few things:
1. I am 100% cash
2. A further fall will not make me money, but will improve my fund's
performance against the market
3. I am totally at ease with the sell off

That's for moving to the dark side.

Sell-Off Was Another 'Flash Crash': Barton Biggs
Published: Friday, 5 Aug 2011 | 12:35 PM ET Text Size
By: Katie Little
Special to CNBC

Barton Biggs, a managing director with Traxis Partners, dismissed
Thursday's sell-off as "another Wall Street flash crash panic" and
said that, despite the recent spate of weak data, he still believes
the U.S. economy could show real growth over the next couple of
quarters.

"I'm sorry I can't get bearish here," Biggs told CNBC Friday. "There's
too much fear and too much panic selling. There's too much
momentum-oriented selling, and I don't think the global economy's
going to collapse.

Tight stop-loss limits and high frequency trading contributed to the
selling once the market started to cascade downward, Biggs said.

"This another Wall Street flash crash panic, and I think it's
overdone," he said. "Any long-term investor ought to be buying stock."

Art Cashin, director of floor operations for USB Financial Services,
has also called the market's steep drop "a classical technical
breakdown" and said high frequency trading was contributing to the
decline.

Biggs said he remains optimistic about the U.S. economy going forward,
citing a pick-up in retail spending in certain areas, good news in
Friday's employment numbers, and the rise of real incomes due to low
inflation as evidence that the economy could exhibit growth during the
next few quarters.

He added that he thinks the market could rally 5 to 7 percent in the
relatively short-term, and if the economic data is more encouraging,
the market could increase even further.

Not everyone is as optimistic about the global economy as Biggs is. In
an interview with CNBC, Mark Faber, editor and publisher of Boom, Doom
and Gloom Report, said investors should see any market bounce as a
selling opportunity.