Month: February 2008

How Putin’s Crackdown Holds Russia Back

Foreign Affairs – The Myth of the Authoritarian Model – Michael McFaul and Kathryn Stoner-Weiss

The Kremlin talks about creating the next China, but Russia’s path is more likely to be something like that of Angola — an oil-dependent state that is growing now because of high oil prices but has floundered in the past when oil prices were low and whose leaders seem more intent on maintaining themselves in office to control oil revenues and other rents than on providing public goods and services to a beleaguered population. Unfortunately, as Angola’s president, José Eduardo dos Santos, has demonstrated by his three decades in power, even poorly performing autocracies can last a long, long time.

Identifying China as a model — instead of the United States, Germany, or even Portugal — already sets the development bar much lower than it was just a decade ago. China remains an agrarian-based economy with per capita GDP below $2,000 (about a third of Russia’s and a 15th of Germany’s). But the China analogy is also problematic because sustained high growth under autocracy is the exception, not the rule, around the world. For every China, there is an autocratic developmental disaster such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo; for every authoritarian success such as Singapore, there is a resounding failure such as Myanmar; for every South Korea, a North Korea. In the economic-growth race in the developing world, autocracies are both the hares and the snails, whereas democracies are the tortoises — slower but steadier. On average, autocracies and democracies in the developing world have grown at the same rate for the last several decades.

Air America’s Black Helicopter

Air America’s Black Helicopter
In the last dark nights of the Vietnam War, however, a secret government organization did use a helicopter for a single, sneaky mission. But it was no ordinary aircraft. The helicopter, a limited-edition model from the Aircraft Division of Hughes Tool Company, was modified to be stealthy. It was called the Quiet One—also known as the Hughes 500P, the “P” standing for Penetrator.

World’s Most Romantic Restaurants in Romantic

World’s Most Romantic Restaurants in Romantic on Concierge.com
Our 12 restaurant picks from around the world have all the right elements—a seductive view, an unhurried atmosphere, terrific food—but never veer into sentimentality. Because style mixed with subtlety is a more potent aphrodisiac than straight saccharine. Picture of Sugar Mill Hotel in Tortola, British Virgin Islands.

Coming Climate Conflicts Avoidable?

Foreign Policy: The New Myth About Climate Change
Environmental refugees will in turn spark political violence in receiving areas, and countries in the “global North” will erect ever higher barriers to keep culturally unwelcome—and hungry—foreigners out.

The number of failed states, meanwhile, will increase as governments collapse in the face of resource wars and weakened state capabilities, and transnational terrorists and criminal networks will move in. International wars over depleted water and energy supplies will also intensify. The basic need for survival will supplant nationalism, religion, or ideology as the fundamental root of conflict.

Dire scenarios like these may sound convincing, but they are misleading. Even worse, they are irresponsible, for they shift liability for wars and human rights abuses away from oppressive, corrupt governments. Additionally, focusing on climate change as a security threat that requires a military response diverts attention away from prudent adaptation mechanisms and new technologies that can prevent the worst catastrophes. Continue reading “Coming Climate Conflicts Avoidable?”

Can Sugar Substitutes Make You Fat?

Can Sugar Substitutes Make You Fat? – TIME
Like Pavlov’s dog, trained to salivate at the sound of a bell, animals are similarly trained to anticipate lots of calories when they taste something sweet — in nature, sweet foods are usually loaded with calories. When an animal eats a saccharin-flavored food with no calories, however — disrupting the sweetness and calorie link — the animal tends to eat more and gain more weight, the new study shows.

The sugar-fed rats, for example, showed the expected uptick in core body temperature at mealtime, corresponding to their anticipation of a bolus of calories that they would need to start burning off — a sort of metabolic revving of the energy engines. The saccharin-fed animals, on the other hand, showed no such rise in temperature. “The animals that had the artificial sweetener appear to have a different anticipatory response,” says Susan Swithers, a professor of psychological sciences at Purdue University and a co-author of the study. “They don’t anticipate as many calories arriving.” The net result is a more sluggish metabolism that stores, rather than burns, incoming excess calories.

Though it’s premature to generalize based on animal results that the same phenomena would hold true in people, Swithers says, she notes that other human studies have already shown a similar effect. A University of Texas Health Science Center survey in 2005 found that people who drink diet soft drinks may actually gain weight; in that study, for every can of diet soda people consumed each day, there was a 41% increased risk of being overweight.

Mafia Can Still Muscle NYC

Gambino-linked mob thugs build profit with taxpayers’ dollars
The mob family busted in the FBI’s massive crackdown is involved in millions of dollars worth of contracts on some of the biggest public and private projects in the city, a Daily News investigation reveals.

The Gambino family’s tentacles reach far and wide, from the massive Manhattan water tunnel project to replacing lights across some of New York’s most heavily trafficked bridges, a review of the 170 pages of charges filed against it last week shows.

The revelations in Thursday’s bombshell indictments are even more shocking as they come years after officials declared the mob had been flushed from the city’s construction trades. Thacher said although the lock the mob had on industries like concrete production and window installation in the 1970s and ’80s has loosened, it’s been replaced by a different disease, control of trucking firms essential to smooth operation at any construction site.

Poll: Encouraging Change of Public Opinion in Pakistan

Poll: Dramatic Change of Public Opinion in the Muslim World
In the first poll in Pakistan since the earthquake of October 8, 2005, Pakistanis now hold a more favorable opinion of the United States than at any time since 9/11, while support for Al Qaeda in its home base has dropped to its lowest level since then. The direct cause for this dramatic shift in Muslim opinion is clear: American humanitarian assistance for Pakistani earthquake victims.

The findings from Terror Free Tomorrow’s survey demonstrate the most significant shift in Pakistani, indeed Muslim, public opinion since 9/11.

The poll follows similar findings from two previous Terror Free Tomorrow public opinion surveys in Indonesia and the Palestinian Territories. 65% of Indonesians had a more favorable opinion of the United States because of American tsunami relief. Similarly, a strong majority of Palestinians want the United States to become more involved in resolving the Palestinian/Israeli conflict.

These public opinion surveys, in three distinct regions of the Muslim world, demonstrate for the first time that American policies based on humanitarian interventions result in substantial, favorable changes in Muslim opinion, while the declared US “war on terror,” for the most part, does not. Sidenote – Sen. McCain is a member of this group.