Conferences Books

If then, a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit. What is true for individual men is also true for the organizations that lead them. Hazlitt makes the sound case that the IMF is the root cause for world inflation. Henry Hazlitt, a man who was one of the greatest thinkers of our time, assembled in this book a series of editorials that he wrote while working at the New York Times when the Bretton Woods agreements were being constructed in 1944 and 1945.

Hazlitt's recurring criticism of the IMF was that it put too much pressure on the US Dollar as the world reserve currency. Under Bretton Woods, currency exchange rates were fixed as opposed to today where rates are deciphered and freely set by the market. No requirements were put on borrowing governments to keep their financial house in order. Governments could irresponsibly print currency and the US would have to buy that foreign fiat at the previously agreed fixed rate which was ultimately much higher than a free market would have paid. Now you know how the gold supply in this country went bye-bye. Hazlitt specifically cites the subsidizing of the French Franc at levels far above what a free market would tolerate, as being the reason the US was drained of most of its gold. Nixon doesn't get all the blame here folks. As stated on page 19 in the book, "The world dollar-exchange system was inherently brittle, and it broke."

Hazlitt also pointed out that The World Bank could lend prudently to counties that needed to rebuild after the war and that the IMF wasn't really needed. He also mentions different financial organizations that expressed the same thinking. Their sound reasoning was ignored. When Lord Keynes (the lead author of Bretton Woods) appeared before the House of Lords in England to promote his economic theory, he proudly stated that it was the exact opposite of a gold standard. Lord Keynes; as Hazlitt so aptly described him, as a man confused by the triangular exchange through the medium of money; ignored the necessity of production in favor of an orderly devaluation of currency. Talk about a blind guide. Opposite indeed!

Hazlitt urged the return to the gold standard as the only way to save the world's economic system. If a government is on a gold standard, they have to be fiscally responsible. And if every government is being responsible monetarily, then exchange rates will stabilize themselves. Henry offered a solution to the United States. Announce the return to a gold standard in a few years time. Meanwhile, balance your budget for the few years leading up to that return. Only then, will confidence be restored in the currency. That advice was given twenty-three years ago and fell on deaf ears. If you're counting, that's two out of three monkeys. I suppose the modern solution would be to enact a permanent pay-go law that the government had to stick to. And that interest rates shouldn't be suppressed to an unnaturally low level. Even Milton Friedman observed that the Fed has an "obsession" with interest rates. If you look up the dictionary definition for obsession, you'll see it to be an accurate description of the situation.

Every time the Fed meets, they report inflation as if it were some economic constant being tamed by current financial engineering. The truth is that inflation is an economic consequence that cannot be controlled. The bad monetary decision making on government's part has to stop for it to be eradicated. The fact that almost every government reports inflation as a constant, in and of itself, proves Hazlitt's point. Unfortunately, since most people have lived with it being reported all their lives, they too view it as a fact of life. It's no wonder Marc Faber recently described all fiat currency as confetti.

Things are different in the world now. The governments around the world have the ability to produce as opposed to the chaos after WWII, when everyone but the US was bombed to ashes. Currency has a free market and different national groups won't be so quick to listen to the IMF. Today individuals can own gold themselves, so they can be their own central banker in a sense, and preserve their current purchasing power. It's almost a joke now when the IMF comes out and states what currency values should be, as they have done in the last few days. No one remembers Bretton Woods, nor do they care to have some abstract organization dictate how much purchasing power they should have. Unfortunately, it's the holders of US currency that will now suffer the most as the reasons for the IMF have faded, but their consequences remain. Every time the price of gold establishes a new higher base, it is a worldwide vote of no confidence in the US Dollar. The same is true to a smaller extent for the rest of the world's currency, since gold is the only recognized form of money that is not an instrument of debt. People don't believe the US Treasury Secretary when he says that a strong dollar is in the best interest of the United States. The public recognizes that it's his job to speak no evil. He's become the third monkey.

Hans Frauenfelder is a legend who has inspired generations of young scientists. This latest treatise explores the cosmology of intergalactic gastronomical disturbances. Definitely highly recommended both as interesting, high class science and as entertainment. It is proof that science and humour belong together. A must buy.

The Fuehrer Conferences are necessary reading for any historian of naval affairs or World War II. In these documents, Hitler outlines his strategy for preventing food and munitions from being shipped from the neutral countries, predominantly the United States, to Great Britain. The decision on how far to push the United States was a crucial one, as it had helped push the Western giant over the edge in World War I, and Hitler could not afford another powerful enemy. Yet, as Germany's chance of successfully invading Great Britain waned, the need to stop shipments of supplies from neutral countries waxed urgent. There is gripping drama in the documents themselves, and a chance to peer into Hitler's own diplomatic and strategic processes. A wonderful resource and good entertainment.

The Laser technology is the gate of the future success on electronic technilogy. It is the bryillian raw technlogy. It is the basic infrastructure of all electrnic technologies.

The COFE Proceedings that Tom Valone has published reads like a Who's Who among some of the world's top professional researchers in the exciting field of New Energy. Anyone interested in life and energy beyond the era of fossil fuels will find this material compelling and fascinating. The First International Conference on Future Energy (COFE) brought together some of the brightest minds from around the world in an effort to share their vision of the promise of cutting-edge technologies that could have profound effects on how and where our future energy is produced. The success of the industrialized world's transition from limited, polluting fossil fuels to clean and possibly unlimited energy systems is relying on research which pushes the boundaries of contemporary physics.

Among the scientists included in the COFE Proceedings presenting the latest in New Energy research, which goes well beyond more familiar renewable technologies like wind and solar power, was Ken Shoulders, famous for his work with electron charge clusters. Ken and his son Steve have obtained U.S. Patents for their innovative research with this technology that yields excess energy and produces low-energy nuclear reactions. The process appears to have significant potential as an energy source, but there are still serious engineering obstacles to be overcome. Nuclear scientist Dr. Paul Brown was at COFE to describe his company's efforts to commercialize a process that remediates radioactive nuclear waste into harmless isotopes using photofission. This technology has great potential for the United States, which utilizes 114 nuclear reactors for electricity generation and has 34,000 tons of dangerous high-level radioactive waste in temporary storage sites around the country.
One of the current drawbacks with current biomass waste-to-energy technology is that commercial facilities that generate electricity by burning municipal solid waste or landfill gas are still causing air pollution by burning fossil fuels for start-up and fuel stabilization. Researchers Wil Dammann and W. David Wallman have developed a new and unique biomass gasification process that efficiently converts organic feedstock solutions into a clean-burning hydrogen gas. Their direct current (DC) carbon-arc gasification process is a carbon-neutral system and the gas has potential applications in fuel cells as well as remote site power generation. Another father and son team whose work is featured in the COFE Proceedings is Dr. Peter and Neal Graneau who have been experimenting with the liberation of solar energy from ordinary water by means of an arc discharge. Similar to the spark that releases chemical combustion energy in an engine's air-fuel mixture, an electric discharge in water releases a large amount of stored chemical bond energy.
Although the COFE symposium ran into trouble with several federal agencies, David B. Hamilton from the U.S. Department of Energy showed up to explain that the DOE was very concerned about fossil fuel depletion and the health costs from air pollution which the agency estimates costs about $50 billion a year. Hamilton stated "if industry is going to drive the price of hydrogen fuel cell powered electric vehicles down to where consumers will buy them, then the integration of power electronics are key to the enabling of technology." Another leader in energy research at COFE is Bruce Perreault, a principal investigator into the early 20th century discoveries of radiant energy power generation by T. Henry Moray. Perreault presented his Radiant Energy Generator and explained the principles behind the technology. The device utilizes a pumping effect to siphon electrons from the earth to be stored in high voltage capacitors; a second stage converts the high voltage charge into usable power at any frequency. Perreault's innovative invention is a closed system, has zero emissions, makes no noise and emits no toxic by-products.

Pushing the boundaries of the terrestrial experience at COFE was Dr. Steven Greer, founder and International Director of the Center for the Study of Extraterrestrial Intelligence (CSETI). Dr. Greer, an emergency physician, is widely regarded as the world's foremost authority on the subject of extraterrestrial intelligence who has consulted with senior members of the U.S. government and briefed military and intelligence operations. In his presentation, Dr. Greer reviewed recently declassified UFO documents dating as far back as the 1930s and 1940s. Tom Valone, physicist, author, and former college instructor, is an expert in the field of zero-point energy, which is the "sea of energy that pervades all of space." Valone credits T. Henry Moray for opening one of the doors to unlimited free energy in his excellent presentation entitled "Understanding Zero-Point Energy."
Cold fusion experts Dr. Edmund Storms and Dr. Eugene Mallove have contributed significantly to the subject of low energy and chemically assisted nuclear reactions. Both scientists have written extensively about the cold fusion phenomenon and testified before various government committees regarding the validity of the process. Storms argues that, "new demonstrations of the claims have appeared, reproducibility has been achieved using several methods, and a relationship between heat production and appearance of a nuclear product has been determined." Skeptics demanded these results before validation of the process could be achieved.
The Conference on Future Energy succeeded in offering a forum for innovative technologists and engineers who are working hard to improve the lives of all mankind. Tom Valone is to be commended for publishing the proceedings of this one-of-a-kind conference. (...)

Futures that Work presents the search conference - a practical way to bring together groups of people who want to make positive change happen for their organization or community. The search offers a collective way for all the members of an organization to view the "whole elephant" so that they can gain a mutual understanding of the issue at hand. Since the preparation for the search is critical to its success, the authors give the reader a full description of how to plan for a search conference, design tips, and glimpses into searches from around the world. People or organizations involved with systemic change efforts will find a highly readable and useful guide to a dynamic planning tool which leads to clear and measurable results in a world filled with conflicting goals and agendas.

Rabbi Orkand, and his wife, Joyce, an elementary school teacher, write on a level that will be enjoyed, and understood by children. Generations should share this book.

The authors and illustrators have put together a visual feast for the eyes. The illustrations in this child's siddur are captivating. The easy to read hebrew,english, and transliteration is great for the beginning student of Jewish prayer. The book is arranged in a style that is easy to follow, with the front of the book for beginners and graduating to the advanced prayers in the latter part of the book. The modern and easy to understand translation of the traditional Jewish prayers, make explantion to young children very easy and enjoyable. I have really enjoyed using this book with my daughter. She looks forward to our prayer time using this book. There are even traditional songs in the back of the book to refresh your memory. All in all I really enjoy this siddur and highly recommend it to any Jewish parents looking for a good beginning to intermediate guide to teaching traditional prayers to their child.

This is one of the classics of Jewish thought that I have glanced at or through more than one time. This year, G-d willing, I hope to have a more serious look at the work. I will do this now at Rosh Hoshanah- Yom Kippur time which is the time we are to think about our past actions, try to understand where and how we must correct them. In this one traditional teaching comes to mind, the teaching of my own holy teacher David Herzberg of blessed memory, who taught that it is never too late, that we can always begin again, that we can always do Teshuvah.
It may be through only one sentence, through one thought but this book hopefully will bring its readers back in repentance, closer to G-d.

This book is exactly what we were looking for. It is excellent condition and the price was very reasonable and was delivered on a timely basis.