See Mercury at Sunset

By Dr. Tony Phillips, NASA

Feb. 8, 2013: NASA has recently discovered a very strange planet. Its days are twice as long as its years. It has a tail like a comet. It is hot enough to melt lead, yet capped by deposits of ice. And to top it all off ... it appears to be pink.

The planet is Mercury.

Of course, astronomers have known about Mercury for thousands of years, but since NASA's MESSENGER probe went into orbit around Mercury in 2011, researchers feel like they've been discovering the innermost planet all over again. One finding after another has confirmed the alien character of this speedy little world, which you can see this week with your own eyes.
　
Mercury is emerging from the glare of the sun for a beautiful two-week apparition during the month of February 2013. The show begins about a half hour after sunset. Scan the horizon where the sun's glow is strongest and, if the sky is clear, Mercury should pop out of the twilight, a bright pink pinprick of light. Mercury itself is not actually pink, but it is often colored so by the rosy hues of the setting sun.

If you're looking on the evenings of February 8th and 9th, scan the sky around Mercury with binoculars. A second planet is there, too. Glowing faintly red, Mars is barely a degree from Mercury. In binocular optics, Mercury and Mars form a charming little double-planet.

As February unfolds, Mercury will rise higher in the sunset sky, brightening as it ascends. From February 11th through 21st, the "pink planet" will be visible for as much as an hour after sunset. February 11th is a date of special interest: a slender crescent Moon will appear straight above Mercury, providing guidance for novice sky watchers.

Mercury circles the sun about three times closer than Earth does, rotating just three times on its axis every two Mercury-years. This slow-spin under the solar inferno bakes Mercury's surface bone-dry and raises its daytime temperature to 425 degrees Celsius, hot enough to melt lead. This would seem an unlikely place to find deposits of ice, yet that is what the MESSENGER probe recently confirmed: Mercury has enough ice at its poles to encase Washington DC with a layer of frozen water two miles thick.

Ice on Mercury is possible because the tilt of planet's spin axis is almost zero -- less than one degree -- so there are pockets at the planet's poles that never see sunlight. Shadowed areas at each end of the heavily-cratered planet turn out to be cold enough to freeze and hold water.

MESSENGER found something else: Much of Mercury's ice is coated with a mysterious dark substance. Researchers don't know exactly what it is, but they suspect it is a mix of complex organic compounds delivered to Mercury by the impacts of asteroids and comets.

In some ways, Mercury itself resembles a comet with a long tail. NASA's twin STEREO probes, on a mission to observe the sun, spotted Mercury's tail in 2008. The MESSENGER probe has since flown through it. The tail appears to be made of material blown off Mercury's surface by exposure to solar flares and the solar wind at point-blank range. The pressure of sunlight pushes the tail in the anti-sunward direction, just like the tail of a comet.

With the sun currently approaching the maximum of its 11-year activity cycle, Mercury is getting hit by the stormiest space weather in years. This is a great time for MESSENGER to study the processes that turn Mercury into a "comet-planet."

Mercury is a strange planet, indeed. When the sun goes down tonight, step outside and see for yourself.

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2013/08feb_pinkplanet/

Obama Cripples Due Process

Glenn Greenwald at the UK Guardian has written a blistering piece about Eric Holder’s Justice Department and its recent legal memo announcing that the President can call for the assassination o US citizens before any trial.

There are six main points Greenwald makes about this power-grabbing finding:

1. A government accusation is equated with guilt
2. The legal opinion creates a ceiling but not a floor
3. The finding relies on the Bush/Cheney theory of a global battlefield
4. The concept of "imminent" attack is expanded beyond recognition
5. Obama subordinates effectively become secret courts
6. The legal opinion makes a mockery of due process

The entire article is online at:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/feb/05/obama-kill-list-doj-memo

Artificial Tears

Artificial tears are lubricant eye drops used to treat the dryness and irritation associated with deficient tear production in keratoconjunctivigis sicca (dry eyes). They are also used to moisten contact lenses and in eye examinations

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Artificial tears are available over-the-counter. Artificial tears are supplemented with other treatments in moderate to severe forms of dry eyes.

Chemistry
Preparations contain carboxymethyl cellulose, hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (a.k.a. HPMC or hypromellose), hydroxypropyl cellulose and hyaluronic acid (a.k.a. hyaluronan, HA). They contain water, salts and polymers but lack the proteins found in natural tears. Patients who use them more frequently than once every three hours should choose a brand without preservatives or one with special non-irritating preservatives.

Effects
Application of artificial tears every few hours can provide temporary relief from the symptoms of dry eyes. Hydroxypropyl cellulose stabilizes and thickens the precorneal tear film, and prolongs the tear film breakup time.

Usage
Artificial tears usually are the first line of treatment for dry eyes. While mild cases require application of lubricant drops four times a day, severe cases require more aggressive treatment, such as ten to twelve times a day. Thicker artificial tears can be used in severe cases, although these may temporarily blur vision.
Precautions
Drops for red eyes can make the eyes even drier. If wearing contact lenses, rewetting or lubricating drops specifically for contact lenses should be used. Other types of drops may contain ingredients that damage the lens.
　
Adverse Effects
Possible adverse effects of carboxymethyl cellulose and other similar lubricants include eye pain, irritation, continued redness, or vision changes. Use should be discontinued if any of them occur. Those of hydroxypropyl cellulose include hyperaemia, photophobia, stickiness of eyelashes, discomfort, and irritation. Long term use of preservatives present in some artificial tears may harm the eye.

Artificial tears have no reported interactions. A documented contraindication of artificial tears is hypersensitivity.

Veterinary Uses
Artificial tears are a part of the topical therapy for keratoconjunctivitis sicca for animals such as dogs, cats and horses.
　
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_tears

DNA Digital Storage

DNA digital data storage refers to any scheme to store digital data in the base sequence of DNA. This technology uses artificial DNA made using commercially available oligoncleotide sythesis machines for storage and DNA sequencing machines for retrieval. This type of storage system is more compact than current magnetic tape or hard drive storage systems due to the data density of the DNA. It also has the capability for longevity, as long as the DNA is held in cold, dry and dark conditions, as is shown by the study of wooly mammoth DNA from up to 60,000 years ago, and for resistance to obsolescence, as DNA is a universal and fundamental data storage mechanism in biology. These features have led to researchers involved in their development to call this method of data storage "apocalypse-proof" because "after a hypothetical global disaster, future generations might eventually find the stores and be able to read them." It is, however, a slow process, as the DNA needs to be sequenced in order to retrieve the data, and so the method is intended for uses with a low access rate such as long-term archival of large amounts of scientific data.

Proofs of Principle
On August 16, 2012, the journal Science published research by George Church and colleagues at Harvard University, in which DNA was encoded with digital information that included an HTML draft of a 53,400 word book written by the lead researcher, eleven JPG images and one JavaScript program. Multiple copies for redundancy were added and 5.5 petabits can be stored in each cubic millimeter of DNA. The researchers used a simple code where bits were mapped one-to-one with bases, which had the shortcoming that it led to long runs of the same base, the sequencing of which is error-prone. This research result showed that besides its other functions, DNA can also be another type of storage medium such as hard drives and magnetic tapes.

An improved system was reported in the journal Nature in January 2013, in an article lead by researchers from the European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI) and submitted at around the same time as the paper of Church and colleagues. Over five million bits of data, appearing as a speck of dust to researchers, and consisting of text files and audio files, were successfully stored and then perfectly retrieved and reproduced. Encoded information consisted of all 154 of Shakespeare's sonnets, a twenty-six-second audio clip of the "I Have a Dream" speech by Martin Luther King, the well known paper on the structure of DNA by James Watson and Francis Crick, a photograph of EBI headquarters in Hinxton, United Kingdom, and a file describing the methods behind converting the data. All the DNA files reproduced the information between 99.99% and 100% accuracy. The main innovations in this research were the use of an error-correcting encoding scheme to ensure the extremely low data-loss rate, as well as the idea of encoding the data in a series of overlapping short oligonucleotides identifiable through a sequence-based indexing scheme. Also, the sequences of the individual strands of DNA overlapped in such a way that each region of data was repeated four times to avoid errors. Two of these four strands were constructed backwards, also with the goal of eliminating errors. The per-megabyte costs were estimated at $12,400 to encode data and $220 for retrieval. However, it was noted that the exponential decrease in DNA synthesis and sequencing costs, if it continues into the future, should make the technology cost-effective for long-term data storage within about ten years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_digital_data_storage

Limerence versus Love

Limerence is an involuntary state of mind which results from a romantic attraction to another person combined with an overwhelming, obsessive need to have one's feelings reciprocated. The term limerence was coined c. 1977 by the psychologist Dorothy Tennov. The concept grew out of Tennov's mid-1960s work, when she interviewed over 500 people on the topic of love, and was first published in her 1979 book Love and Limerence: The Experience of Being in Love.

Though there are no established preconditions for limerence, there is a high rate of coincidence between limerence, depersonalization/ derealization disorders, and dysfunctional attachment environments in childhood. This might suggest that sustained exposure to a psychologically unstable environment in childhood, or unhealthy/ incomplete attachment between a child and their caretakers in early life, may make an individual more susceptible to limerence. There is also a statistically significant correlation between limerence and post traumatic stress disorder.

                                  Psyche revived by Cupid's kiss

Attachment theory emphasises that "many of the most intense emotions arise during the formation, the maintenance, the disruption, and the renewal of attachment relationships". It has been suggested that "the state of limerence is the conscious experience of sexual incentive motivation" during attachment formation: "a kind of subjective experience of sexual incentive motivation" during the "intensive...pair-forming stage" of human affectional bonding.

Characteristics
The concept "of 'limerence' provides a particular carving up of the semantic domain of love", and is an attempt at a scientific study into the nature of love. Limerence is considered as a cognitive and emotional state of being emotionally attached or even obsessed with another person, typically experienced involuntarily and characterized by a strong desire for reciprocation of one's feelings - a near-obsessive form of romantic love. For Tennov, 'sexual attraction is an essential component of limerence...the limerent is a potential sex partner'.

Limerence is sometimes also interpreted as infatuation, or what is colloquially known as a crush
; but in common speech, infatuation includes aspects of immaturity and extrapolation from insufficient information, and is usually short-lived. 'Tennov notes how limerence may dissolve soon after its initiation, as in an early teenage buzz-centered crush', but is more concerned with the point when 'limerent bonds are characterized by "entropy" crystallization as described by Stendhal in his 1821 treatise On Love, where a new love infatuation perceptually begins to transform...attractive characteristics are exaggerated and unattractive characteristics are given little or no attention...[creating] a limerent object '.
According to Tennov, there are at least two types of love: a) limerence, which she describes as (inter alia) "loving attachment"; and b) "loving affection," the bond that exists between an individual and his or her parents and children. She notes however that one form may evolve into the other: 'those whose limerence was replaced by affectional bonding with the same partner might say..."We were very much in love when we married; today we love each other very much"'. The distinction is comparable to that drawn by ethnologists 'between the pair-forming and pair-maintaining functions of sexual activity', just as 'the attachment of the attachment theorists is very similar to the emotional reciprocation longed for in Tennov's limerence, and each is linked to sexuality'.

Limerence is characterized by intrusive thinking and pronounced sensitivity to external events that reflect the disposition of the limerent object towards the individual, and can be experienced as intense joy or as extreme despair, depending on whether the feelings are reciprocated. Basically, it is the state of being completely carried away by unreasoned passion or love, even to the point of addictive-type behavior. Usually, one is inspired with an intense passion or admiration for someone.

Limerence can be difficult to understand for those who have never experienced it, and it is thus often dismissed by nonlimerents as ridiculous fantasy or a construct of romantic fiction.

Tennov differentiates between limerence and other emotions by asserting that love involves concern for the other person's welfare and feeling.

While limerence does not require it, those concerns may certainly be incorporated. Affection and fondness exist only as a disposition towards another person, irrespective of whether those feelings are reciprocated, whereas limerence deeply desires return, but it remains unaltered whether it's returned or not. Physical contact with the object is neither essential nor sufficient to an individual experiencing limerence, unlike one experiencing sexual attraction. Where early, unhealthy attachment patterns or trauma influence limerence, the limerent object may be constructed as an idealization of the figure(s) involved in the original unhealthy attachment or trauma. Lack of reciprocation may, in such instances, actually serve to reinforce lessons learned in earlier, unhealthy bonding experiences, and hence to strengthen the limerence.

Components
Limerence involves intrusive thinking about the limerent object. Other characteristics include acute longing for reciprocation, fear of rejection, and unsettling shyness in the limerent object's presence. In cases of unrequited limerence, transient relief may be found by vividly imagining reciprocation from the limerent object. Tennov suggests that feelings of limerence can be intensified through adversity, obstacles, or distance - 'Intensification through Adversity'. A limerent person may have acute sensitivity to any act, thought, or condition that can be interpreted favorably. This may include a tendency to devise, fabricate, or invent "reasonable" explanations for why neutral actions are a sign of hidden passion in the limerent object.

A person experiencing limerence has a general intensity of feeling that leaves other concerns in the background. In their thoughts, a limerent person tends to emphasize what is admirable in the limerent object and to avoid any negative or problematic attributes.

• Intrusive Thinking and Fantasy
• Fear of Rejection
• Hope
• Physical Effects
• Sexuality

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limerance

Resentment, the Emotional Tyrant King

Resentment (also called ranklement or bitterness) is the experience of a negative emotion (anger or hatred for instance) felt as a result of a real or imagined wrong done.

Etymologically, the word originates from French "ressentir", re-, intensive prefix, and sentir "to feel"; from the Latin "sentire". The English word has become synonymous with anger and spite.

Robert C. Solomon, a professor of continental philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin, places resentment on the same line-continuum with contmpt and anger. According to him, the differences between the three emotions are as follows: resentment is directed towards higher-status individuals, anger is directed towards equal-status individuals and contempt is directed towards lower-status individuals.

Resentment can be triggered by an emotionally disturbing experience felt again or relived in the mind. When the person feeling resentment is directing the emotion at themself it appears as remorse.

Psychology
Causes

Resentment can result from a variety of situations, involving a perceived wrongdoing from an individual, and often are sparked by expressions of injustice or humiliation. Common sources of resentment include publicly humiliating incidents such as accepting negative treatment without voicing any protest, an object of regular discrimiunatuion or prejudice, envy/jealousy, feeling used or taken advantage of by others, and having achievements go unrecognized, while others succeed without working as hard. Resentment can also be generated by dyadic interactions, such as emotional rejection or denial by another person, deliberate embarrassment or belittling by another person, or ignorance, putting down, or scorn by another person.

Signs
Unlike many emotions, resentment does not have physical tags exclusively related to it that telegraph when a person is feeling this emotion. However, physical expressions associated with related emotions such as anger and envy may be exhibited, such as furrowed brows or bared teeth.


Resentment can be self-diagnosed by looking for signs such as the need for emotional regulation, such as faking happiness while with a person to cover true feelings toward him or speaking in a sarcastic or demeaning way to or about the person. It can also be diagnosed through the appearance of agitation- or dejection-related emotions, such as feeling inexplicably depressed or despondent, becoming angry for no apparent reason, or having nightmares or disturbing daydreams about a person.

Effects

Resentment is most powerful when it is felt toward someone whom the individual is close to or intimate with. To have an injury resulting in resentful feelings inflicted by a friend or loved one leaves the individual feeling betrayed as well as resentful, and these feelings can have deep effects.

Resentment is an emotionally debilitating condition that, when unresolved, can have a variety of negative results on the person experiencing it, including touchiness or edginess when thinking of the person resented, denial of anger or hatred against this person, and provocation or anger arousal when this person is recognized positively. It can also have more long-term effects, such as the development of a hostile, cynical, sarcastic attitude that may become a barrier against other healthy relationships, lack of personal and emotional growth, difficulty in self-disclosure, trouble trusting others, loss of self-confidence, and overcompensation. By contrast, resentment does not have any direct negative effects on the person resented, save for the deterioration of the relationship involved.

To further compound these negative effects, resentment often functions in a downward spiral.

Resentful feelings cut off communication between the resentful person and the person he or she feels committed the wrong, and can result in future miscommunications and the development of further resentful feelings. Because of the consequences they carry, resentful feelings are dangerous to live with and need to be dealt with. Resentment is an obstacle to the restoration of equal moral relations among persons, and must be handled and expunged via introspection and forgiveness.

Psychologist James J. Messina recommends five steps to facing and resolving resentful feelings. (1)
Identify the source of the resentful feelings and what it is the person did to evoke these feelings, (2) develop a new way of looking at past, present and future life, including how resentment has affected life and how letting go of resentment can improve the future, (3) write a letter to the source of the resentment, listing offenses and explaining the circumstances, then forgive and let go of the offenses (but do not send the letter), (4) visualize a future without the negative impact of resentment, and (5) if resentful feelings still linger, return to Step 1 and begin again.

Comparison with Other Emotions

Resentment is considered to be synonymous with anger, spite, and other similar emotions; however, while it may incorporate elements of these emotions, resentment is distinct from these emotions in several ways. Aside from sharing similar facial expressions, resentment and anger differ primarily in the way they are externally expressed. Anger results in aggressive behavior, used to avert or deal with a threat, while resentment occurs once the injury has been dealt and is not expressed as aggressively or as openly.

Resentment and spite also differ primarily in the way they are expressed. Resentment is unique in that it is almost exclusively internalized, where it can do further emotional and psychological damage but does not strongly impact the person resented. By contrast, spite is exclusively externalized, involving vindictive actions against a (perceived or actual) source of wrong. Spiteful actions can stem from resentful feelings, however.

Academic Perspectives

Philosopher Robert C. Solomon wrote extensively on the emotion of resentment and its negative effects on those who experience it. Solomon describes resentment as the means by which man clings to his self-respect. He wrote that it is in this moment when humanity is at its lowest ebb.


Modern Culture

The Alcoholics Anonymous organization cites resentment as the number one offender, and one of the greatest threats to an alcoholic. Several of the Twelve Steps of AA involve identifying and dealing with resentment as part of the path toward recovery, including acknowledging one's own role in resentment and praying for the resentment to be taken away.


Resentment can also play a role in racial and ethnic conflicts, both in the United States and abroad. Resentment is cited as having infected the structure of social value, and is thus a regular catalyst in conflicts sparked by inequality. It can also be one of the emotions experienced during class conflict, particularly by the oppressed social class.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resentment

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Note from the Blog Author:Resentment Is the Genuine American Religion

Americans are raised to enhance and demonstrate resentment at all possible occasions. School sports and awards ceremonies are designed to enflame and magnify resentment. Televised award ceremonies entirely count on a jealous, resentful audience. Television itself is a megaphone for displaying products and services that assuage the resentment of the audience, which is allowed to escape back into the fictional programming for a while before new resentment bulletins (called "commercials") are aired.

Hilariously, there are contests in which the loser is trained to be delighted by the results, embracing and glowingly congratulating the winner. This is the standard approach for beauty pageants. The remorse of losing is disguised as delight for the other party. The irony and humor of the situation is heightened by the insignificance of the qualities that caused the judges to pick a winner.

Remorse over losing is generally papered over so that it doesn’t look like what it really is – pouting. Whether disguised or not, it is a dreadfully poor substitute for humility.

In business and military matters, however, phony humility is invariably used by the winners to minimize the resentment of the public as well as dampen any fury felt by rivals and subordinates. Individuals who have ruthlessly plotted their way to the top for decades will coyly adapt an "aw shucks" approach to winning, thanking those who helped them and granting themselves no spotlight for their ability to focus and pursue their goals with a grim determination that utterly lacks any self-pity.

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Endnote: Robert Solomon’s book The Passions includes a brief and comprehensive treatment of resentment. This should be read carefully and memorized by those at a university or working for a large organization.

Positive Quiddity -- David M. Walker

David M. Walker (born October 2, 1951) served as United States Comptroller General from 1998 to 2008, and is Founder and CEO of the Comeback America Initiative. He was considered a potential contender for the Connecticut U.S. Senate seat that Joe Lieberman left in 2012, but chose not to run, and said he would maintain his status as an independent. Similarly, he had been promoted as a potential candidate for President, through Americans Elect, before that organization's decision to not field a candidate in the 2012 election. Walker endorsed Mitt Romney for President on October 29, 2012 in an op-ed in the Washington Times. In 2013, Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.) voted for Walker for Speaker of the House.

Career as Comptroller General
Walker served as Comptroller General of the United States and head of the Government
Accountability Office (GAO) from 1998 to 2008. Appointed by President Bill Clinton, his tenure as the federal government's chief auditor spanned both Democratic and Republican administrations. While at the GAO, Walker embarked on a Fiscal Wake-up Tour, partnering with the Brookings Institution, the Concord Coalition, and the Heritage Foundation to alert Americans to the country's long-term fiscal imbalance. Walker left the GAO to head the Peterson Foundation on March 12, 2008. Labor-management relations became fractious during Walker's nine-year tenure as comptroller general. On September 19, 2007, GAO analysts voted by a margin of two to one (897–445), in a 75% turnout, to establish the first union in GAO's 86-year history.

Peter G. Peterson Foundation
In 2008, Walker was personally recruited by Peter G. Peterson, co-founder of the Blackstone Group, and former Secretary of Commerce under Richard Nixon, to lead his new foundation. The Foundation distributed the documentary film, I.O.U.S.A., which follows Walker and Robert Bixby, director of the Concord Coalition, around the nation, as they engage Americans in town-hall style meetings, along with luminaries such as Warren Buffett, Alan Greenspan, Paul Volcker and Robert Rubin.

Peterson was cited by the The New York Times as one of the foremost "philanthropists whose foundations are spending increasing amounts and raising their voices to influence public policy." In philanthropy, Walker has advocated a more action-based approach to the traditional foundation: "I do believe, however, that foundations have been very cautious and somewhat conservative about whether and to what extent they want to get involved in advocacy." David Walker stepped down as President and CEO of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation on October 15, 2010 to establish his own venture, the Comeback America Initiative.

Campaign for fiscal responsibility
Walker has compared the present-day United States to the Roman Empire in its decline, saying the U.S. government is on a "burning platform" of unsustainable policies and practices with fiscal deficits, expensive overcommitments to government provided health care, swelling Medicare and Social Security costs, the enormous expense of a prospective universal health care system, and overseas military commitments threatening a crisis if action is not taken soon.


Walker has also taken the position that there will be no technological change that will mitigate health care and social security problems into 2050 despite ongoing discoveries.

In the national press, Walker has been a vocal critic of profligate spending at the federal level. In Fortune magazine, he recently warned that "from Washington, we'll need leadership rather than laggardship."; in another op-ed in the Financial Times, he argued that the credit crunch could portend a far greater fiscal crisis; and on CNN, he said that the United States is "underwater to the tune of $50 trillion" in long-term obligations.

He favorably compares the thrift of Revolutionary-era Americans, who, if excessively in debt, would "merit time in debtors’ prison", with modern times, where "we now have something closer to debtors' pardons, and that's not good."


In the fall of 2012, the Comeback America Initiative led a campaign called the $10 Million a Minute Bus Tour. The tour stopped at universities, technical colleges, businesses and more in over a dozen states. The tour’s goal was to bring national attention to the economic and fiscal challenges that face our nation.

Other Responsibilities
Prior to his appointment to the GAO, Walker served as a partner and global managing director of Arthur Amdersen LLP and in several government leadership positions, including as a Public Trustee for Social Security and Medicare from 1990 to 1995 and as Assistant Secretary of Labor for Pension and Welfare Benefit Programs during the Reagan administration. Before his time at Arthur Andersen, Walker worked for Source Finance, a personnel agency, and before that was in Human Resources at accounting firm Coopers & Lybrand.

Walker serves on various boards and advisory groups, including as Chairman of the United Nations Independent Audit Advisory Committee from 2007 to 2011, as a member of the Boards for the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, and the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress, as well as a member of Advisory Committees for The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, and the Peterson Foundation. He is also a member of the Trilateral Commission. He is currently serving as Chair of a Postal Reform Panel for National Academy of Public Administration, as Chair of the Government Transformation Initiative Coalition, and as Co-Chair of the Institute of Medicine’s End of Life Panel.

He has authored three books, with the latest one entitled Comeback America: Turning the Country Around and Restoring Fiscal Responsibility (2010), which is national bestseller. He is a frequent writer and commentator, and is one of the main subjects of the critically acclaimed documentary I.O.U.S.A.. Critic Roger Ebert named I.O.U.S.A. one of the Top five Documentaries of 2008.

Personal details
Walker was born in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1951. He holds a B.S. in accounting from Jacksonville University, a Senior Management in Government Certificate in public policy from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, his first honorary degree from Bryant University, and several other honorary doctorate degrees. He is also a Certified Public Accountant. He and his wife Mary live in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and have two children and three grandchildren. Walker was a Democrat from 1969 to 1976, a Republican from 1977 to 1996, and has been a political Independent since 1997. Walker is a frequent speaker, Congressional witness, writer, and media commentator.

For his work at the GAO and at the Peterson Foundation, Walker was awarded the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants’ highest award, the Gold Medal Award of Distinction on October 19, 2008.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_M._Walker_(U.S._Comptroller_General)