Weekly Mind Food aims to show you what TTPers without a regular column, but with deep expertise in key fields, are paying attention to. We call ourselves TTP's Team B. Note the "Weekly Mind Food" category in the left side-bar now, which will have all our issues. They're Free Access, as are all the linked articles, so feel free to read them at your leisure - and mail the article's URL to your friends!

Paul (internet tech, privacy, economics). Citizen K (hydrocarbon industry), and "devry" (security, economics, Personal Plan B) are aboard. We also congratulate TTPers bobbear, hardcharger, kramer, and mrapp, for freelance link suggestions that met the test - and calgarydave, who deserves credit from last week.

Over The Hump: Good News This Week

Doc Talk: The Greatest Superhero Movie of the Summer Is a Documentary (Movies.com, July 25/12). Ai Weiwei is China's most famous international artist, and its most outspoken domestic critic. Ai WeiWei: Never Sorry is inspirational, and instructive for us all in these times.

Polis

• jkatzman: Yes, Ted Cruz for Texas (National Review, July 30/12).
  His subsequent win is one small step for a man, one giant step for constitutional conservatism. citizenk says that Dewhurst's crony energy record alone should have done him in, and hopes Cruz will be better.



• citizenk: The Story Is That Obama's New Orleans Trip Yesterday Was A Fizzle (The Hayride, July 26/12).
  JK: Off Citizen K's normal topic here, but it's an excellent snapshot of the political fundraising game, and what actually happens.



• jkatzman: Four Little Words: Why the Obama campaign is suddenly so worried. (WSJ, July 26/12)
  "You didn't build that" - the very words and argument that his cronies and the liberal media wanted him to use. Perfect. Keep hammering.



• jkatzman: Romney must win over Asian voters (Washington Examiner, July 28/12).
  It's a very winnable demographic, as some Republicans are demonstrating. And how do you think all those Chinese and Indian business owners will take "you didn't build that"?

Techne Logos

• prosenberg: Facebook Scanning Chats (Mashable, July 12/12).
  Big Brother is inside of Facebook, monitoring all the perps... umm... users. Yeah, it's that bad, and almost certainly worse - it's not like Facebook wants people to know about these things.



• devry: Microsoft in hot water over Skype spying allegations (Global Post, July 24/12).
  The moment Microsoft bought Skype, they announced a backdoor. Skype's "security by obscurity" crypto has been cracked for some time - takes about 6 minutes to start logging. Skype's a joke - always has been.



• kramer: This Cute Chat Site Could Save Your Life and Help Overthrow Your Government (WIRED Threat Level, July 27/12).
  Cryptocat is browser-based encrypted chat, developed by a Canadian from Lebanon. Beta software, but way safer than Skype, and much easier than ZRTP. I tried a dry run... fairly unstable but they should have the second version out by late this year.



• devry: How To Get Anything Through TSA Nude Body Scanners (YouTube, March 6/12).
  The TSA's a joke and a sad statement regarding the decision of Americans to trade their freedom for the illusion of security. As Franklin said, Americans will deserve neither...



• mrapp: Printing Weapons at Home for Fun and Mayhem (John Robb's Global Guerillas, July 26/12).
  "Additive manufacturing" is a growing trend, and under consideration for F-35 fighter parts. But I wonder what our controllers will think when they find out about "printable" guns?

JK: Our controllers? Imagine China's. Printable weapons is the equivalent of computers to the Soviet Union - the future China doesn't dare touch, but can't possibly ignore. If additive manufacturing can easily make guns, they have to control it extremely tightly. That will crimp access, training, experimentation, and innovation. If we don't make the same mistake, its spread and innovations could take very big chunks out of "Made in China". Pick your poison, comrades.

Economos

Michael Krieger interview, (Future Money Trends, Freedom Fest 2012) "...the main message I try to convey is that "awake" people must not live in fear. The system owns you emotionally when you live in fear.... life is short. You can and must enjoy life while fighting these criminals, otherwise they win. Give yourself to love, compassion and truth."

• devry: Fed Eyes Limiting Money-Market Fund Withdrawls (NASDAQ, July 19/12).
  As the US is forced to hold down government bond rates via Federal Reserve programs like Operation Twist and (coming soon) QE3, savers face another challenge: the money market accounts tied to your checking and savings accounts run the risk of bankruptcy as they can't provide returns above expenses. In another attack on savers, the Fed is now discussing limitations on money market withdrawals to prevent a run on money market accounts. Soon, limitations on how much of your money you can access will be the norm in the US.



• bobbear: Cuba to end Soviet-style economy and will implement market friendly policies (Mercopress, July 27/12).
  "We win, you lose" - Ronald Reagan. JK: Progress, but it's more of a shift from communism to state capitalist fascism, like China.



• hardcharger: HSBC takes $2 billion hit for U.S., UK scandals (Reuters, July 30/12).
  I said last week to watch for this one. Interesting, too, how people in the hierarchy of financial institutions in trouble seem to meet "untimely" deaths.



• prosenberg: HSBC linked to drug lords and terrorists, Senate report alleges (LA Times, July 17/12).
  This is not the first time, you understand. Wachovia laundered $378 Billion for the Mexican narcos. Behind the headlines (written by compliant editors), drug profits are a major force in securities markets and political campaigns world-wide.



• citizenk: China's proposed $15 billion Nexen oil acquisition in Canada... Any news article is likely at least partially erroneous, all that I've seen so far are that way. IBD is so unreliable on facts. Nexen is mostly invested in fields as a partner with others in Gulf of Mexico, Yemen, Columbia, Nigeria, North Sea and Canada. Nexen's "Tar Sands" holdings are around Long Lake and are produced by steam flooding and pumping rather than strip mining. It holds a percentage.



• jkatzman: 5 Signs of the Chinese Economic Apocalypse: From hog ratios to growing coal stockpiles, the Chinese economy is blinking red (Foreign Policy, July 2/12).



• hardcharger: China prepares vast stimulus as slump threatens Asia (The Telegraph, July 30/12).

Stratiootika

This week's focus is on China's underpinnings. We'll have more links next week focused on its military, cyber-warfare, and how it's affecting its key neighbors.

• jkatzman: China's Corporate Leninism (The American Interest, May/June 2012).
  The internal character of a regime is a big influence on its external behavior. Why China won't - indeed, can't - "play by the rules" in global trade.



• jkatzman: Chris Alden - "China in Africa: A new neo-colonialism? (Cambridge U. International Development, Oct 20/10).
  MP3 audio file, 40 min. He also offers a link to a library of SAIIA documents on China and Africa.



• jkatzman: China's Stresses, Goals, Military Buildups... and Futures (Winds of Change, April 19/05).
  Written 7 years ago as a quickie collection of links and pointers into some of the larger trends influencing China. If I did it again I'd change its organization, and add more emphasis on the food/water dimension, but I'd keep most of its points.