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Source: "Thinking for a living: Knowledge workers need a new kind of organisation", The Economist, Survey: The Company, January 19th 2006.
Once about Knowledge and knowledge systems, especially knowledge applied to economic development, but since I retired branching into politics, music and whatever catches my attention.
Einstein was fascinated by Mozart and sensed an affinity between their creative processes, as well as their histories."Einstein once said that while Beethoven created his music, Mozart's "was so pure that it seemed to have been ever-present in the universe, waiting to be discovered by the master." Einstein believed much the same of physics, that beyond observations and theory lay the music of the spheres -- which, he wrote, revealed a "pre-established harmony" exhibiting stunning symmetries. The laws of nature, such as those of relativity theory, were waiting to be plucked out of the cosmos by someone with a sympathetic ear."
Students on average are at the 28th percentile in reading and math on national standardized tests when they enter KIPP. The first five KIPP schools in the country show students rising to the 74th percentile by the end of eighth grade, according to figures supplied by the San Francisco-based KIPP Foundation.
Graduating KIPP eighth-graders are placed in private schools or high-achieving public schools so they won't lose their academic edge.
(KIPP has) fashioned a system of nine-hour school days with extra pay for teachers, an emphasis on character, behavior and students' future in college, and Saturday classes. The program included teacher visits to student homes, mandatory summer school, a requirement for students to call teachers at night if they had homework questions and an elaborate system of student sanctions and rewards, including a year-end trip to some other part of the country.
More than 80 percent of the students in the 47 KIPP schools in 15 states and the District are from low-income families, and 95 percent are black or Hispanic. Almost all schools show significant gains in test scores, but there are some exceptions, such as drops last year in reading score percentiles for sixth-graders at schools in Los Angeles, Atlanta and Chicago.
It will be some time, experts say, before anyone can be sure that KIPP is as good as it seems. The original schools in Houston and New York City are doing well after more than 10 years, and KIPP founders Mike Feinberg, 37, and Dave Levin, 35, are supervising new schools in those cities with impressive initial results. But other highly praised education programs have lost steam over time, and some KIPP critics wonder whether the 320-student middle schools can influence the general low performance of big-city systems.
Looking at four KIPP schools, Columbia University Teachers College researchers Richard Rothstein and Rebecca Jacobsen concluded that students starting the program in fifth grade had more motivated parents and better test scores than their community averages. KIPP officials said their data showed no significant difference in academic skills between their entering students and other nearby children.
Danilovich, a smooth-talking manager with long-standing Republican connections, is described by colleagues as much more decisive than Applegarth. But unlike his predecessor, Danilovich came to the job with no experience in development assistance. Although he can rely on his staff -- the agency has about 200 employees -- many of them are not development experts, either. With notable exceptions, they tend to come from the private sector, the diplomatic corps or Capitol Hill.
Although parents everywhere face some risk of having a child with a defect, the risk is much greater in poor and middle-income countries. Reasons include inadequate maternal health and prenatal care, more intermarriage, and a higher frequency of some disease-causing genes.
The experience in rich countries over the past quarter-century, however, suggests that 70 percent of these defects can be prevented or lessened.
Interventions proven to work include genetic counseling for sickle cell anemia, prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome, supplementing folic acid in the diet to reduce the risk of neural tube defects, newborn screening for some rare metabolic disorders such as phenylketonuria, and surgical repair of heart defects. Most of those strategies are unavailable in low-income countries.
There are about 7,000 known defects caused by genetic errors. The researchers estimated that in 2001, about one-quarter of the defects were of five common types -- heart malformations, defects of the neural tube that develops into the brain and spinal cord, disorders of hemoglobin, the oxygen-carrying protein in blood, Down syndrome, and an enzyme disorder called G6PD deficiency.
The rate of defects per 1,000 births ranges from 82 in Sudan and 81 in Saudi Arabia at the high end, to 40 in France and 42 in Austria. The United States has the 20th-lowest rate, with 48.
Affluence is a big determinant of the risk. In low-income countries, the average rate is 64; in middle-income countries, 56; and in rich countries, 47.
A regional increase above present levels of 2.7 degrees Centegrade may be a threshold that triggers melting of the Greenland ice-cap, while an increase in global temperatures of about one degree Centegrade is likely to lead to extensive coral bleaching. In general, surveys of the literature suggest increasing damage if the globe warms about 1 to 3 degrees Centegrade above current levels. Serious risk of large scale, irreversible system disruption, such as reversal of the land carbon sink and possible destabilisation of the Antarctic ice sheets is more likely above 3 degrees Centegrade. Such levels are well within the range of climate change projections for the century. While a clear temperature threshold has not been identified for shutdown of the Atlantic thermohaline circulation, studies were presented suggesting that a shutdown becomes more likely with increasing temperature. In this context, some felt that it would be useful to agree upon a set of critical thresholds that we should aim not to cross. Others noted it would be difficult to objectively choose such a level.
The impacts of climate change are already being observed in a variety of sectors. Ecosystems are already showing the effects of climate change. Changes to polar ice and glaciers and rainfall regimes have already occurred. While consistent with model projections the links to anthropogenic climate change need to be investigated further.
Many climate impacts, particularly the most damaging ones, will be associated with an increased frequency or intensity of extreme events. This is an important area for further work since many studies do not explicitly take into account the effects of extremes, although it is known that such extremes pose significant risks to human well being. The heat-wave that affected Europe in 2003 is a prime example.
The impacts of climate change are already being observed in a variety of sectors. Ecosystems are already showing the effects of climate change. Changes to polar ice and glaciers and rainfall regimes have already occurred. While consistent with model projections the links to anthropogenic climate change need to be investigated further.
Many climate impacts, particularly the most damaging ones, will be associated with an increased frequency or intensity of extreme events. This is an important area for further work since many studies do not explicitly take into account the effects of extremes, although it is known that such extremes pose significant risks to human well being. The heat-wave that affected Europe in 2003 is a prime example.
Emory University psychologist Drew Westen put self-identified Democratic and Republican partisans in brain scanners and asked them to evaluate negative information about various candidates. Both groups were quick to spot inconsistency and hypocrisy -- but only in candidates they opposed.2.
When presented with negative information about the candidates they liked, partisans of all stripes found ways to discount it, Westen said. When the unpalatable information was rejected, furthermore, the brain scans showed that volunteers gave themselves feel-good pats -- the scans showed that "reward centers" in volunteers' brains were activated.
Another study presented at the conference, which was in Palm Springs, Calif., explored relationships between racial bias and political affiliation by analyzing self-reported beliefs, voting patterns and the results of psychological tests that measure implicit attitudes -- subtle stereotypes people hold about various groups.3.
That study found that supporters of President Bush and other conservatives had stronger self-admitted and implicit biases against blacks than liberals did.
Vincent Hutchings, a political scientist at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, said the results matched his own findings in a study he conducted ahead of the 2000 presidential election: Volunteers shown visual images of blacks in contexts that implied they were getting welfare benefits were far more receptive to Republican political ads decrying government waste than volunteers shown ads with the same message but without images of black people.Here we are getting at a difference between "information" and "knowledge". The same "information" is presented to different people, filtered through their biases, and is internalized as different "knowledge" in those different people.
China has played a major role in helping Asia overtake Europe in research and development spending, according to a report released last month (December 2005) by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).The story is echoed in "China challenging US and Europe in scientific research" (China Educational and Research Network, 2006-01-23).
It says that from 1997 to 2002, Asian funding from public and private sources rose by four per cent, enabling Asia to account for 32 per cent of global research spending.
In those five years, China's share of global spending more than doubled, from four to nine per cent.
Meanwhile, the Latin America and the Caribbean region's share of the global total fell from 3.1 per cent to 2.6 per cent.
"Three countries — Brazil, Mexico and Argentina — account for 85 per cent of the region's [research spending], leaving the remainder with average expenditures of no more than 0.1 per cent of GDP — with the small but notable exception of Cuba, at 0.6 per cent," says the report.
Arab countries in the Middle East and North Africa contributed just 0.1 per cent of the global total.
Tail fins and chrome grilles were once the symbols of a superpower. Now, with 36,000 jobs cut in a week and foreign vehicles filling the highways, Paul Harris in New York surveys the collapse of an industry.Harris' article illustrates a point that has been bothering me. Clearly Ford and General Motors are having grave business problems, while Chrysler is just holding its own after drops in market share from 1998 to 2002. But look at the total vehicle sales in the United States, (see figure below). While the rise in gas prices after Katrina hit vehicle sales, the long term trend is upward. I don't know, but I would suppose that since cars are better built these days and can last longer, the total stock of autos in the United States may be increasing.
This tipping point debate has stirred controversy within the administration; Hansen said senior political appointees are trying to block him from sharing his views publicly.Who do you believe, the scientist or the political appointee from the Bush Administration?
When Hansen posted data on the Internet in the fall suggesting that 2005 could be the warmest year on record, NASA officials ordered Hansen (James E. Hansen, who directs NASA's Goddard Institute of Space Studies) to withdraw the information because he had not had it screened by the administration in advance, according to a Goddard scientist who spoke on the condition of anonymity. More recently, NASA officials tried to discourage a reporter from interviewing Hansen for this article and later insisted he could speak on the record only if an agency spokeswoman listened in on the conversation.
"They're trying to control what's getting out to the public," Hansen said, adding that many of his colleagues are afraid to talk about the issue. "They're not willing to say much, because they've been pressured and they're afraid they'll get into trouble."
But Mary L. Cleave, deputy associate administrator for NASA's Office of Earth Science, said the agency insists on monitoring interviews with scientists to ensure they are not misquoted.
* Oil Price Shock – price spike above US$ 80-100/bl
* Influenza pandemic
* Terrorism
* Climate Change
The geopolitical risk landscape is still dominated by the risk (real and perceived) of terrorism.
The economies of what used to be called the “third world” are regaining their ancient pre-eminence
The growing clout of emerging economies is in fact returning them to the position they held for most of history. Before the steam engine and the power loom gave Britain its industrial lead, today's emerging economies dominated world output. Estimates by Angus Maddison, an economic historian, suggest that in the 18 centuries until 1820 they produced, on average, around 80% of the total. But they were then left behind by Europe's technological revolution. By the early 20th century their share had fallen to 40%.(see chart above)
There had already been unexpectedly strong growth in western Europe in the five years following the end of the war, such that the large real income gaps which existed among most countries in 1945 had been reduced to their pre-war levels by 1950. On this criterion, 1950 can be said to mark the end of reconstruction and the start of a new era in western European economic history. But the real income gap vis-à-vis the United States, the technological leader, was very large in 1950, amounting, on average, to some 55 per cent (table 5.3.2). This gap indicates the large potential for technological catch-up growth which existed at that time. Real GDP per capita in western Europe rose by some 4 per cent per annum between 1950 and 1973. In contrast, it rose by only 2.4 per cent a year in the United States, while in Japan the average annual increase was some 8 per cent.I also want to quote from one of the many papers on whether the incomes of nations are converging or diverging: "Growing apart: global divergence characterising the evolution of cross-country incomes" by David Mayer-Foulkes:
The discussion of convergence has occupied a prominent place in the study of economic growth across countries for over a decade. The finding of a significant, negative 'convergence coefficient' has been one of the most robust in cross-country growth regressions......Evans (1995) confirms convergence in a large group of medium- to high-income countries, at least to parallel growth paths.He summarizes his results as follows:
the sample of non-mainly-petroleum-exporting countries having market economies during the period 1960-1997 is divided into five clusters of countries by a regression clustering algorithm according to the levels and rates of change of income and life expectancy. The five clusters correspond to advanced countries, especially fast growing countries, and three tiers of less developed countries with qualitatively different development paths.......the five-club convergence model is much more significant than the one-club model, and the distributions of countryspecific convergence regression coefficients are significantly different across groups of countries.The US still has the largest and most technologically powerful economy in the world, with a per capita GDP of $41,800; in 2004 (using World Bank figures) its GDP was more than 28 percent of the world's total. However, at the end of World War II, the United States held an unprecedented economic position; its GDP exceeded that of the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Austria, the USSR and Japan combined (source). The post-war period, which has been described as "club convergence" saw the developed nations regain economic power, as compared with the United States. The current rapid economic growth of India and China, and the earlier growth of the various Tigers, suggests the club is growing.
Al Gore, Sundance's Leading Man: 'An Inconvenient Truth' Documents His Efforts To Raise Alarm on Effects of Global WarmingGlobal Climate Change is a topic worth discussing in the context of K4D. Conservatives (as opposed to conservationists -- isn't language strange) have in the past challenged the evidence that climate change is occurring. President Bush, the most prominent of the conservatives, has acknowledged that global warming is taking place. Indeed, he has promised to devote resources to research on the topic, to monitoring, and even to reduction of green house gas emissions. However, the Bush Administration has refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol and its participation in the United Nations climate change conference (held from November 28 to December 9, 2005 in Montreal) was less than I had hoped. Even the huge price increase in gasoline and heating oil, and the dismal prospects for increasing world oil supplies, have not resulted in efforts by this Administration to encourage automotive fuel economy.
The role of the IPCC is to assess on a comprehensive, objective, open and transparent basis the scientific, technical and socio-economic information relevant to understanding the scientific basis of risk of human-induced climate change, its potential impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation.In its Climate Change 2001: Synthesis Report, the IPCC stated:
The Earth’s climate system has demonstrably changed on both global and regional scales since the pre-industrial era, with some of these changes attributable to human activities.A NASA study finds last year, 2005, was the warmest worldwide on record. The Precautionary Priciple suggests that we not wait for more complete knowledge, but act forcefully now to reduce the anthropogenic aspects of global warming, as well as to help ameliorate the social and economic impacts of the climate change that seems sure to come.
Whither UNESCO? Science, Poverty, and Peace
Friday, February 17, 2006, 8:30 AM - 10:00 AM
Science and the End of Poverty
Friday, February 17, 2006, 8:30 AM - 11:30 AM
Research on Global Desertification and the Reclamation of Arid Lands
Friday, February 17, 2006, 1:45 PM - 4:45 PM
Mobilizing Science To End Poverty in the Developing World
Friday, February 17, 2006, 1:45 PM - 4:45 PM
Climate Change, Risk Management, and the Next 100 Years
Sunday, February 19, 2006, 8:30 AM - 10:00 AM
Management and Leadership of Multi-Institutional and Interdisciplinary Research Collaborations
Sunday, February 19, 2006, 1:45 PM - 3:15 PM
Agricultural Biotechnology in the Public Sector: Overcoming Challenges To Reach Developing Country Markets
Sunday, February 19, 2006, 1:45 PM - 4:45 PM
Disasters and Development: Natural Disaster Mitigation and Developing Countries
Sunday, February 19, 2006, 3:30 PM - 5:00 PM
Science and Technology for Economic and Social Development: What Works, and How Do We Know It?
Monday, February 20, 2006, 9:45 AM - 12:45 PM
Microbial Resistance: A Threat to Global Health
Monday, February 20, 2006, 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM
Evaluating the Evaluators: A Critical Self-Assessment of R&D Evaluation Practices
Friday, February 17, 2006, 8:30 AM - 10:00 AM
Scientists, the Public, and Policy-Makers in Dialogue: Principles and Applications
Friday, February 17, 2006, 10:30 AM - 12:00 Noon
Stem Cells and Society: Assessing a Grand Challenge
Friday, February 17, 2006, 1:45 PM - 4:45 PM
Radical Innovation in Science and Technology: Management and Measures
Friday, February 17, 2006, 3:30 PM - 5:00 PM
Constitutional Principles and Legal Strategies in the Creation and Evolution Debates
Saturday, February 18, 2006, 9:45 AM - 11:15 AM
Challenges from Risk-Risk Trade-Offs
Saturday, February 18, 2006, 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM
Shaping Public Policy: A Case Study on Stem Cell Legislation
Saturday, February 18, 2006, 3:45 PM - 5:15 PM
The Dichotomy of Intellectual Property as Both an Incentive and an Impediment to Innovation: Are There Better Alternatives?
Sunday, February 19, 2006, 8:30 AM - 10:00 AM
Risk and Society
Sunday, February 19, 2006, 10:30 AM - 12:00 Noon
Particles, Policy, and Public Health
Sunday, February 19, 2006, 1:45 PM - 4:45 PM
How Basic Research in the Social Sciences Improves Public Policy
Monday, February 20, 2006, 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM
A decision to reorganise the US Agency for International Development (USAID) — and to appoint the former head of a major pharmaceutical company as its new administrator — could boost the role of science and technology in the agency's efforts.
The exercise is already beginning to cast light on some emerging trends. Countries such as Argentina and Brazil, for instance, have increasingly cleared forests to grow soybean, a legume that has never been a traditional crop of Latin America. Scientists say the surge in soybean production there has a lot to do with the booming demand for soy all the way at the other end of the world - in China. Meanwhile, Monfreda notes, long-time soybean farmers in the U.S. - the world's top soybean producer - are growing increasingly insecure about their place in the global market.
he (Abramoff) had made substantial campaign contributions to both major parties.And:
Several stories, including one on June 3 by Jeffrey H. Birnbaum, a Post business reporter, have mentioned that a number of Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) and Sen. Byron Dorgan (N.D.), have gotten Abramoff campaign money.On Sunday, January 22, 2006, her column stated:
I wrote that he gave campaign money to both parties and their members of Congress. He didn't. I should have said he directed his client Indian tribes to make campaign contributions to members of Congress from both parties.On Saturday, January 21, 2006, Paul Farhi wrote in the Washington Post
Howell wrote in a column published Sunday that disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff "had made substantial campaign contributions to both major parties." That is incorrect.His article was in fact titled, "Deluge Shuts Down Post Blog:
The newspaper company has temporarily shut down Post.blog -- a section of Washingtonpost.com that invites reader comments -- after receiving hundreds of posts, many using profane or sexist language, responding to columns by The Post's ombudsman, Deborah Howell......readers had begun flooding Post.blog with comments, most of them criticizing Howell. Many of them used language unsuitable for a public forum. Unable to keep up with a stream of more than 1,500 postings, editors of the Web site decided to close it down until order could be restored.The same story was apparently spread by Bill O'Reilly on Fox News. According to Media Matters:
On the January 23 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, host Bill O'Reilly modified a false claim he made three days before that former lobbyist Jack Abramoff donated money to both Democrats and Republicans, saying: "His personal donations were to Republicans." In modifying his claim, however, O'Reilly made no admission of his previous error, nor did he apologize for having berated a caller to his nationally syndicated radio show for correctly noting that Democrats received no money directly from Abramoff.That an error published by the Washington Post is comparable to that of the Fox News is surprising! In an earlier post on this blog today, an anonymous comment questioned the relative merits of The Financial Times (UK) versus the Washington Post -- and not to the advantage of the WaPo. Not long ago, following the Judy Miller affair, the Jayson Blair affair, and the Times coverage of Wen Ho Lee, some observers suggested that the Washington Post had now replaced the New York Times as the most trustworthy paper in the United States. Perhaps that was too early a judgment. I would further note that the stories on why the Washington Post blog was shut down seemed different to me in the broadcase of the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer (Tuesday, January 24, 2006) and that published by the WaPo.
"that staffers had grown too 'comfortable' with the laxness of the Institutional Integrity Department, which he said had been run with 'very puzzling negligence' until Folsom took over as its acting director in October. Although he emphasized that the overwhelming majority of bank staffers are honest, he said, 'I'm aware of a particularly serious set of allegations' involving a senior bank official."The article further states:
Wolfowitz declined to name the individual under suspicion, because the investigation is continuing. But internal bank documents obtained by The Washington Post show that the watchdog unit is investigating Mohamed Muhsin, who retired three months ago as the bank's chief information technology officer. Sources familiar with the investigation said it involves alleged improprieties in the bank's procurement of technology services.
Muhsin's attorney, Joshua Hochberg, said Muhsin "is shocked, as are his colleagues, that unfounded rumors have circulated at the end of his 17 years of dedicated service during which his integrity was never questioned." He added that Muhsin expects "full exoneration."
Elements of the U.S.-funded program include a street-cleaning campaign, distributing free food and water to Palestinians at border crossings, donating computers to community centers and sponsoring a national youth soccer tournament....Plans called for roughly 40 small projects or events, ranging in cost from $5,000 to $50,000 each, that would benefit the Palestinian Authority. No USAID logos would be used......The point man in Abbas's office was his chief of staff, Husseini, a member of a prominent Jerusalem family. In an interview last week, Husseini said U.S. officials told him they had about $2 million to spend on 30 or so projects before the elections. He said his office provided them with "names of people who could do this best."
Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations (FAO),
Hong Kong Government,
World Health Organization (WHO) and
European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC)
* Ensure that foreign assistance is used as effectively as possible to meet our broad foreign policy objectives
* More fully align the foreign assistance activities carried out by the Department of State and USAID
* Demonstrate that we are responsible stewards of taxpayer dollars.
the Director will also provide overall leadership to foreign assistance that is delivered through other agencies and entities of the U.S. Government. He will coordinate our development efforts, for example, with the Office of Global AIDS Coordinator and with the Millennium Challenge Corporation which operates under unique, conditions-based standards for assistance.The White House concurrently announced the nomination of Amb. Randall L. Tobias as USAID Administrator.
Rice took the unusual step of holding a town-hall-style meeting with hundreds of USAID employees after announcing the creation of a high-level State Department position to oversee all foreign aid programs. Rice said the position -- director of foreign assistance -- is intended to bring greater coherence and efficiency to a broad patchwork of often overlapping assistance programs that now total about $19 billion. Randall L. Tobias, a former pharmaceuticals industry executive who has headed the administration's global AIDS program for the past 2 1/2 years, was named to fill the position and also to serve as the new USAID administrator......Several longtime USAID officials who heard Rice said in brief interviews afterward that her decision to hold the meeting was itself a significant gesture, but they also made clear that they will be withholding final judgment about the revamped management structure.....The choice of Tobias drew some criticism. He has little experience in development issues other than the anti-AIDS effort, and some activists have faulted him for placing less emphasis on condom use than on abstinence to reduce the spread of AIDS, and for moving too slowly to promote inexpensive generic drugs.
Colonel, U.S. Army (Retired) Larry Wilkerson joined General Colin L. Powell in March 1989 at the U.S. Army’s Forces Command in Atlanta, Georgia as his Deputy Executive Officer. He followed the General to his next position as Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, serving as his special assistant. Upon Powell's retirement from active service in 1993, Colonel Wilkerson served as the Deputy Director and Director of the U.S. Marine Corps War College at Quantico, Virginia. Upon Wilkerson’s retirement from active service in 1997, he began working for General Powell in a private capacity as a consultant and advisor. In December 2000, Secretary of State-designate Powell asked Wilkerson to join him in the Transition Office at the U.S. State Department and, later, upon his confirmation as Secretary of State, Secretary Powell moved Wilkerson to his Policy Planning Staff with responsibilities for East Asia and the Pacific, and legislative and political-military affairs. In June of 2002, the Director for Policy Planning, Ambassador Richard Haass, made Wilkerson the associate director. In August of 2002, Secretary Powell moved Wilkerson to the position of Chief of Staff of the Department.He is quoted in the Post profile as stating:
Wilkerson is a veteran of the Vietnam war as well as a U.S. Army 'Pacific hand,' having served in Korea, Japan, and Hawaii and participated in military exercises throughout the Pacific. Moreover, Wilkerson was Executive Assistant to US Navy Admiral Stewart A. Ring, Director for Strategy and Policy (J5) USCINCPAC, from 1984-87. Wilkerson also served on the faculty of the U.S. Naval War College at Newport, RI and holds two advanced degrees, one in International Relations and the other in National Security Studies. He has written extensively on military and national security affairs–especially for college-level curricula--and been published in a number of professional journals, including the Naval Institute’s Proceedings, The Naval War College Review, Military Review, and Joint Force Quarterly (JFQ).
As a teacher who's studied every administration since 1945, I think this is probably the worst ineptitude in governance, decision-making and leadership I've seen in 50-plus years. You've got to go back and think about that. That includes the Bay of Pigs, that includes -- oh my God, Vietnam. That includes Iran-contra, Watergate."Wilkerson says he may write an academic text about presidential decision-making. This month he began supplementing his retirement with part-time teaching jobs at George Washington University and the College of William & Mary."
He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. That ideas should freely spread from one to another over the globe, for the moral and mutual instruction of man, and improvement of his condition, seems to have been peculiarly and benevolently designed by nature, when she made them, like fire, expansible over all space, without lessening their density in any point, and like the air in which we breathe, move, and have our physical being, incapable of confinement or exclusive appropriation. Inventions then cannot, in nature, be a subject of property. Society may give an exclusive right to the profits arising from them, as an encouragement to men to pursue ideas which may produce utility, but this may or may not be done, according to the will and convenience of the society, without claim or complaint from anybody...(letter to Isaac McPherson, 1813 as cited in Kock & Peden, 1972).
Russia is one of the few middle-income countries in the world where life expectancy is falling. Life expectancy in Russia is 12 years less than it is in the US, a startling gap for a fellow-member of the G-8. Between 1992 and 2003, the Russian population declined by 6 million people to an estimated 143 million. If current low fertility and high mortality trends continue, the Russian Federation will lose approximately 18 million people by 2025.
Russian men are particularly at risk, they live16 years less on average than men in Western Europe and 14 years less than Russian women. The large difference by sex suggests that specific behavioral factors are implicated, rather than factors related to the external environment or adequacy of health care. If current ill health and disability continue, the healthy life expectancy of Russian males will fall to 53 years. According to Dying Too Young, since the late 1990s, the burden of chronic illness on families is estimated to have contributed to an annual loss of 5.6% of per capita income per year negatively affecting household incomes.