Hasta La Gadget!

WASHINGTON — The fifth time appears to be the charm for Jeb Bush.

The former Florida governor said Thursday that, if he were president, he would not have invaded Iraq had he known that Saddam Hussein did not possess weapons of mass destruction.

“Knowing what we know now, I would have not engaged. I would have not gone into Iraq,” Bush said Thursday at an event in Arizona.

The comments cap off a rocky week for the likely 2016 presidential contender, which began when some conservatives sharply criticized Bush for saying that he would have authorized the Iraq invasion even if he knew then what is now known about the situation. The governor claimed that he misheard the question, posed by Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly last weekend, and that he simply didn’t know because it was a “hypothetical.” Bush used that same reason to decline several questions about his position on Iraq on the campaign trail. Asked once more, he then said that addressing the issue would prove to be “a disservice” to fallen troops.

While Bush was forced to grapple with an uncomfortable situation — whether to repudiate his brother’s legacy and risk offending establishment donors and activists who remain loyal to the former president — other declared and likely GOP presidential candidates were only too happy to pile on. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas), Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.) and Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.) all said this week that going to war in Iraq with today’s knowledge would be a mistake.

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If you skim through any of the glossies or browse beauty websites, chances are you’ll find an article or two on “beauty sleep.” The reason? All-nighter-induced puffy, bloodshot eyes, dark circles and lackluster skin provide a good reason to reach for the arsenal of serums, lotions and potions that serve as a quick fix. But by focusing on sleep’s role on “beauty,” this information dismisses the critical role that sleep plays on the function of our largest organ — the skin.

Our skin acts as the interface between our bodies and the environment. It has to be expertly equipped to deal with nature’s patterns, fine-tuning itself to changes in temperature, UV, light and humidity, while preventing pathogens from entering and moisture from evaporating. It can only do this if it has a sense of “time,” however, and this is the key to the skin’s own rhythmic patterns. But does the skin really keep time?

Tick tock, tick tock

Biological clocks that sync an organism with the earth’s rotation around its axis are pretty universal; you can find a time-keeping system in organisms from cyanobacteria to to fungi to vertebrates like us. You might have heard that we have a “master clock” in the brain that controls our circadian rhythms. This master clock is actually a group of nerve cells located in the suprachiasmatic nucleus, an area of the brain just above where the optic nerves cross. But this is where it gets wild — recent scientific discoveries have uncovered peripheral clocks in the body, including a separate clock mechanism in skin cells.

The oscillators found in various skin cells, as in the pigment-producing melanocytes, the collagen-producing fibroblasts and even skin stem cells, coordinate with each other and the brain’s central clock to drive rhythmic functions in the skin. Circadian variations affect virtually all skin functions, from barrier recovery and sebum secretion to hydration levels and cell renewal.

Night and day

During the day, your skin is is busy warding off intruders and protecting the body from UV damage and oxidation (pollution). At night, while you sleep, the skin (just like the brain) goes into repair-mode, growing new skin cells, deleting damaged ones, and bringing fresh blood to the surface for cycling oxygen and nutrients (this is likely the best time to apply those collagen-enhancing retinoids). Sebum (oil) production peaks in the afternoon — take a look at your T-Zone right after lunch and you may see anything from an extra sheen to a downright oil spill. Trans-epidermal water loss (think: dehydration) peaks at night, so it’s best to layer on an extra level of protection to keep your skin from drying out while you sleep, especially in low humidity climates and during the fall/winter. Then there’s melatonin: Apart from making you sleepy, it is also a powerful antioxidant, especially effective at preventing UV-induced damage. A recent study demonstrated that mice exposed to UV radiation in the morning showed an increased incidence of skin cancer, as opposed to mice exposed in the afternoon. Since we humans have the opposite circadian cycle as the nocturnal mice, these results suggest our skin is most susceptible to the afternoon UV radiation — so be sure to wear sunscreen in the afternoon, when our skin’s DNA-protecting defenses are down.

Sleep deprivation, skin deprivation

A lack of sleep is linked to a host of issues throughout the mind and body. On the skin, it’s reflected as an impaired barrier, more inflammation and, yes, premature aging. Stress, jet lag and other factors that reduce sleep can result in a suppressed immune response and altered inflammatory molecules, which can then trigger or worsen acne and other inflammatory conditions.

Several studies have determined that travel across times zones alters hormonal patterns linked to circadian rhythm, such as diurnal rhythms of melatonin and cortisol, even resulting in deficits in learning and memory — no wonder we don’t perform up to par after a long restless flight! For any frequent traveler, the takeaway is: Get enough sleep on the ground, wear sunscreen to protect skin from UV radiation (window-seat lovers and pilots, beware), and stay hydrated.

And remember, the skin’s time-keeping machinery is synced with daylight and your sleep/wake cycle. When you mess with the circadian rhythm, you mess with all the cellular functions of the body — and that could have devastating effects on our bodies. With all the new science regarding the impact of sleep on skin function, I think it’s safe to say that the term “beauty sleep” is far more important that it implies.

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For more on the brain-skin connection, stay tuned for Dr. Claudia‘s upcoming TED talk at TEDxUCLA. If you have trouble sleeping then practising mindfulness meditation can help. Download the Headspace app for free and try our Take10 series today.

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It goes without saying that in this day and age, there are many devices out there that rely on a touchscreen, and if we were to be presented with two devices to choose from – one with a touchscreen, and the other full of physical buttons, chances are we would settle for the former simply because we are all so used to a touchscreen user interface. Having said that, how about turning just about everything around you into a touchpad? This is no superhero or mutant power, but rather, it boils down to the Makey Makey Go.

The Makey Makey Go will cost just $19 over on Kickstarter, where it is currently a project that is in need of funds to become reality. Its predecessor happened to be made of a circuit board where one could hook up to seven alligator clips and half a dozen connectors. From there, the board will be connected to a computer via a USB cable, where the alligator clips and wires will create a circuit between yourself and whatever object you would like to see function as an input device.

The maker, Silver, explains, “The computer just thinks Makey Makey is a regular keyboard or mouse.” Makey Makey Go offers progression from the past, where it works in pretty much the same way, albeit on a far smaller scale, where you get just one alligator clip that can hook up to a single object. Any takers?

Makey Makey Go Turns Just About Everything Into A Touchpad , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

(above) A SIGN OF THE TIMES

Literary type — Tramodol came in. He looks good in a suit. He handed me a copy of Don DeLillo’s, White Noise. Read it, he said, strongly. What are the side effects of reading this? I wondered. On another occasion, old OZ, with a screwdriver in his hand and a conservative haircut, handed me the greatest hits of the Marquis de Sade. Read it in the bathtub, he said, while mangling a straw with his chubby digits.

Fantasy Sports — Note the stone face. He could be Big Brother from 1984. His tyranny is sports. From his stool, his gaze fixes on the TV, mind control. Some boring baseball game. He repeats the same sentences over and over again. Something about the San Francisco Giants. I ask him what else he likes besides sports? Sometimes I watch Star Trek, he says. His liver is a black hole. I think of Bones — He’s dead, Jim.

Stella, this guy shouts, Ste–lla! Trust me, he’s not the image Tennesee Williams had in mind for Kowalski. What do you think this is? I bark. The Actor’s Studio? I pour him PBR instead. I hate to see good lager wasted on amateurs. Call it — the method.

Juke Box Selection — past Last Call on a dead Tuesday night, one guy left, he’s at the juke box. Bohemian Rhapsody. Scaramouche. Scaramouche. It ends. And comes on again. He played it twice. At closing time. For himself, no friends. I’m just a poor boy nobody loves me. He’s at the juke box again. I arrive in time.

Are you going to play Bohemian Rhapsody again? I ask.
I thought about it, he says.
Freddie is dead, I say, turning off the box.
And he leaves, quite sad.
Another One Bites the Dust.

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Image Source: HO AFP/Getty Images

Amid a recent flurry of announced investments in the booming Mexican auto sector (totaling no less than $3.5 billion USD between Ford and Toyota), a cold hard fact is increasingly impossible to ignore: overall foreign direct investment (FDI) in Mexico has been nothing short of mediocre in recent years even despite the country’s post-crisis hype. In 2014, FDI in Mexico reached $22.6 billion, a seemingly impressive figure until it is compared with Brazil, which despite finding itself in the economic doldrums and lambasted for its red tape, high taxes, rigid labor market, and protectionist tendencies, has managed over $60 bn annually since 2011. Even more astonishing is Chile, an economy barely one-fifth the size of Mexico’s but which received $23.3 bn in 2014. As a share of GDP, Mexico’s FDI intake was barely 1.8% in 2014 which not only is the lowest among the major Latin American economies that aren’t international economic pariahs (i.e. Venezuela) but lower that some regional trouble spots like Honduras (over 5%!).

What explains this performance?

One factor that explains why Mexico has had such a poor showing with regards to FDI over the past few years is that it lacks an attractive commodities sector which in other countries has been one of the major recipients of FDI as a result of the commodity super-cycle. The share of mining FDI in Chile, for example, has averaged over 40% of the total in the last five years compared to less than 10% in Mexico. Mexico’s only major exportable commodity is oil, but the sector has been a public monopoly and is only gradually opening itself to foreign participation as a result of the 2013 energy reform.

Other sectors that could potentially be high FDI recipients have seen little foreign interest due to market characteristics or competition conditions. The telecommunications sector, for example, is a tight duopoly (with Carlos Slim’s Telmex/América Movil as the major player) that makes even big multinationals think twice before challenging. Retail already has one large and dominant foreign firm, Walmart, and a few strong local players like Chedraui and Soriana. Banking is another sector that in many countries receives a particularly large share of FDI, but the Mexican financial system is already almost entirely foreign-owned: around three-quarter of assets and the loan portfolio are held by Citigroup, BBVA, HSBC, Santander and Scotiabank. Notably, Santander actually divested some of its assets back in 2012 to raise capital for its struggling Spanish business, bringing down total FDI to its lowest level relative to GDP since before NAFTA. Lastly, there is tourism but high drug-related crime in many resort towns is not conducive for high inflows.

This leaves manufacturing as the only true star performer with regards to FDI: it accounted for $12.9 bn in 2014, which represents a massive 57% of the total.

Source: Economist Intelligence Unit (from IMF or national source), for latest available year

The reforms haven’t helped (yet)

The idea that the structural reforms would unleash a flood of FDI has not yet materialized and two disappointing tenders have raised concerns that the reality of “Mexico’s Moment” has yet to meet expectations. The first was the tender for a bullet train between Mexico City and Queretaro, which would have been Latin America’s first. In the event, the tender received just one bid, from a consortium led by China Railway Construction Corp (CRCC) in partnership with a pair of local construction firms. Worse yet was the fact that the bid was subsequently cancelled due to concerns that the single bid was too suspicious: one of the local partners in the consortium was Grupo Higa, a firm with close ties to the president, Enrique Peña Nieto, and that has been at the center of the corruption scandals involving the first lady and the finance minister. Plans for a re-launch of the tender were scuttled as a result of recent budget cuts announced early in the year but the government still has to foot a hefty compensation bill to CRCC y, as well as deal with the souring of its economic relationship with the Asian giant.

The second tender was one of the centerpieces of the vaunted telecommunications reform, and was to result in two new television networks that could hopefully challenge the Televisa/TV Azteca duopoly. It was hoped that some foreign TV networks would participate in the tender but in the event, not a single one did. Only two bids were received, by a local radio group (Grupo Radio Centro) and another local conglomerate that owns just one TV channel (Cadena Tres) but then disaster struck: Grupo Radio Centro failed to raise the necessary capital to pay the deposit on its bid, resulting in an automatic cancellation when the deadline expired. There is still no word on whether another tender will take place for the additional network but as it is, neither Televisa or TV Azteca are likely to be breaking a sweat over their new competitor, which has neither the experience on a national level or the financial muscle to challenge them, something that would have only been possible if it had partnered with a major foreign player.

Going forward, all eyes will be on the energy reform and the ongoing Round 1 of bids where mostly onshore and shallow water sites will be auctioned off. Further rounds will involve the more lucrative (but more costly to extract) deep-water and shale sites but already the government has announced that some of them will be delayed until oil prices recover, anticipating a lack of interest. The government will take a huge hit to its credibility if the reform underwhelms, especially considering its political cost.

It’s the domestic economy, stupid

With the above in mind, the main reason for Mexico’s disappointing performance on the FDI front compared to a nominally less attractive Brazil should become patently obvious: liberal and open economic policies do not compensate for an uncompetitive domestic market that remains captured by oligopolies. While the government will boast of the few mega-investments in the manufacturing sector (which typically only amount to one or two a year), a larger number of much smaller inflows into the consumer-oriented service sector are what have pushed Brazilian FDI beyond the $60 bn mark consistently this decade (around half of FDI has been received by services in 2011-13). Much of this has been driven by the rise in purchasing power by the Brazilian middle class during the pre-crisis boom years thanks to a reduction of poverty and inequality. Mexico, meanwhile, has seen negligible improvements on the social front during this time and the fact that the country’s “wage competitiveness” has worked against it in terms of its attractiveness for FDI outside of manufacturing is an irony that should not go unnoticed.

If Mexico wants to raise its FDI/GDP ratio to a more respectable level of around 3-4% (commensurate with a more mature but still dynamic developing economy) it cannot bank on the manufacturing sector alone. Given that future energy investments may fall short of expectations due to the oil price slump, the country’s best bet for FDI is to develop a competitive domestic economy, bring down its shamefully high poverty levels (45.5% in 2012) and to raise the purchasing power of its fragile working and middle classes.

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