If Every U.S. State Declared War Against the Others, Which Would Win?

Slate, Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2012

This question originally appeared on Quora. It was taken from Quora's “hypothetical battles” topic, where readers “can ask questions and get answer on fighting that wouldn't likely or ever happen in real life.”

Answer by Jon Davis, veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom, sergeant in the U.S. Marine Corps:

These are the accounts of the Second American Civil War, also known as the Wars of Reunification and the American Warring States Period.

After the breakup, many wondered which states would come out in control of the power void created by the dissolution of the United States. There were many with little chance against several of the larger more powerful states. The states in possession of a large population, predisposition for military (i.e.) military bases, and a population open to the idea of warfare fared the best. In the long term, we would look to states with self-sufficiency and long term military capabilities.

Here are the states that held the greatest strategic value from day one. They have the ability to be self-sufficient, economic strength, military strength, the will to fight, and the population to support a powerful war machine.

California
Texas
New York

Read full article with graphic maps

2012/06/162012/06/16

Gordon Duff: US Government & extraterrestrial Technology

07 Other Atrocities, Augmented Reality, Corruption, DoD, Government, Intelligence (government), IO Deeds of War, Knowledge, Military, Misinformation & Propaganda, Politics, Politics of Science & Science of Politics, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy, Technologies

The Strange Case of Phil Schneider

I don't have the time needed or deserved so I will publish a series of youtube lectures, many are available by Phil Schneider.

Forgotten “Accidented” UFO WhistleBlower Touches Too Close

By Gordon Duff, Senior Editor

EXTRACT:

This is where the issue of Phil Schneider comes in. He is a UFO whistleblower who spent his short life saying what was, when he said it, seemed outlandish. We are now putting so many of his 30 year old technologies into use, so many are now public or at least to the advanced defense community that more and more of us accept all of it.

Article and Seven YouTube Videos

2012/04/14

Berto Jongman: Deena Metzger– Seeing through Indigenous Eyes, Weaving Community Dreams, Stories and Spirit

Augmented Reality, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics

Indigenous “intelligence” appears to be making a comeback in public consciousness.

Deena Metzger– Seeing through Indigenous Eyes, Weaving Community Dreams, Stories and Spirit

Deena Metzger's Bio

Deena Metzger is a poet, novelist, essayist, storyteller, teacher, healer and medicine woman who has taught and counseled for over forty years, in the process of which she has developed therapies (Healing Stories) which creatively address life threatening diseases, spiritual and emotional crises, as well as community, political and environmental disintegration.

She has spent a lifetime investigating Story as a form of knowing and healing. As a writer, she asks: Who do we have to become to find the forms and sacred language with which to meet these times?

She conducts training groups on the spiritual, creative, political and ethical aspects of healing and peacemaking, individual, community and global, drawing deeply on alliance with spirit, indigenous teachings and the many wisdom traditions. One focus is on uniting Western medical ways with indigenous medicine traditions.

With her husband, writer/healer Michael Ortiz Hill, she has introduced the concept of Daré, meaning Council, to North America. The Topanga Daré relies on Council, alliance with Spirit and the natural world, ancestor work, indigenous and wisdom traditions and teachings, music healing, dream telling, divination, kinship, and story telling to achieve personal transformation, community healing and social change.

She is the author of many books, including most recently, the novels La Negra y Blanca and Feral; Ruin and Beauty: New and Selected Poems; From Grief Into Vision: A Council; Doors: A fiction for Jazz Horn; Entering the Ghost River: Meditations on the Theory and Practice of Healing; The Other Hand; Tree: Essays and Pieces, A Sabbath Among the Ruins, Looking for the Faces of God andWriting For Your Life.

Very VERY rough interview notes

Continue reading “Berto Jongman: Deena Metzger– Seeing through Indigenous Eyes, Weaving Community Dreams, Stories and Spirit”

2011/10/31

Tom Atlee: #Occupy Weekly Sparks = We Can Do It All

Advanced Cyber/IO, Analysis, Augmented Reality, Blog Wisdom, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Hacking, InfoOps (IO), IO Deeds of Peace, Methods & Process, Policies, Policy, Reform, Strategy, Threats

Random Communications from an Evolutionary Edge

#Occupy Weekly Sparks = We Can Do It All

Much has been said about the Occupy movement's lack of demands and vision. Some say it will have no impact unless it makes demands and organizes to make sure those demands are met.

Others respond that the People should just take charge of their democracy rather than petitioning official powers-that-be to do this and that. Still others say that any list of demands – any effort to focus OWS more narrowly and explicitly – could weaken the movement because Occupy Together is a broadly inclusive initiative that's about (a) changing whole systems and/or (b) creating microcosms of a better society in the occupation zones and/or (c) stimulating transformational conversations out in society at large and/or (d) passionately building and forcefully demonstrating the Power of the People to resist illegitimate, corrupt authority.

Others note that the disturbing lack of demands spreads OWS' surprising impact through a “blank slate effect” – OWS becomes a mystery or a mirror into which diverse individuals and groups project their various desires, hopes, frustrations, and agendas. Furthermore, that mystery helps by enhancing the movement's uncommon anarchic power that makes it so hard for authorities and others to figure out how to control, undermine or use it. Others insist that a shared vision – articulating what the 99% actually want – would be much more powerful than focusing on a laundry list of demands that many 99%ers might well disagree with. Simultaneously, many Occupiers are chronically frustrated with all this talk and want Action!! Their more thoughtful colleagues reply that pulling so many diverse people together in consensus requires taking the time to hear each other and generate collective wisdom.

Read balance of very deep and provocative commentary.

2011/09/272011/09/27

Tom Atlee: Whole System Conversations – Voice of the Whole

Advanced Cyber/IO, Analysis, Augmented Reality, Blog Wisdom, Collaboration Zones, Collective Intelligence, Communities of Practice, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Ethics, InfoOps (IO), IO Sense-Making, Key Players, Methods & Process, Open Government, Policies, Strategy, Threats

Whole System Conversations – and the Voice of the Whole

WHO PARTICIPATES IN “WHOLE SYSTEM” CONVERSATIONS? – PARTISANS, STAKEHOLDERS, DOMAINS, AND CITIZENS

by Tom Atlee

Consciously convened conversations have many functions. Many seek simply to get people talking with each other. Others try to bring together what they call “the whole system” to address that system's collective issues or dreams. Who is involved in these “whole system” conversations?

A “whole system”, in this case, involves all the parties who play – or could play – roles in some social unit or situation. The social unit could be a family or relationship, a group or organization, a community or a whole society. A situation might be, on the one hand, an issue, a problem, or a conflict – or, on the other hand, an inquiry, an opportunity, a shift, or simply a periodic reflection about what's happening. We can convene conversations around any of these things.

So how do we decide who the parties or players are? How do we “cut the pie” of the whole system? And, if we're ambitious, how do we elicit a “voice of the whole”?

I see four different approaches to defining who “a whole system” includes. Each approach has its own rationale and appropriate usages. They are not mutually exclusive, but are usually used more or less separately. Perhaps being aware of them and building synergies between them would enhance the power and wisdom of our conversations. These approaches include:

Read full essay.

Phi Beta Iota: Tom Atlee is in our view the living founding father of Epoch B–there have been others before him, and there are other now, but for us, he is the spiritual center of gravity for doing the right thing now, here, in America. Please support his work on behalf of all of us.

Tom Atlee, The Co-Intelligence Institute, POB 493, Eugene, OR 97440
http://www.co-intelligence.org / http://tom-atlee.posterous.com
Read THE TAO OF DEMOCRACY – http://www.taoofdemocracy.com and
REFLECTIONS ON EVOLUTIONARY ACTIVISM – http://evolutionaryactivism.com
Please support our work. Your donations are fully tax-deductible.

2011/08/15

Koko: IBM Smart City and Portland OR Interactive Plan

Advanced Cyber/IO, Augmented Reality, Budgets & Funding, Geospatial, Government, info-graphics/data-visualization, InfoOps (IO), Intelligence (government), Methods & Process, Policies, Technologies

How does a city work? Interactive model gives Portland answers.

Rutrell Yasin

Government Computer News, 9 August 2011

How does public transportation affect education? What impact does population density have on public health? Is there a connection between CO2 levels and obesity?

Officials in the City of Portland, Ore., have collaborated with IBM to find answers to those and other questions, developing an interactive model that connects the relationships between the city’s core systems that handle the economy, housing, education, public safety, transportation and health care.

Event: 15-16 Oct NYC Singularity Summit

Academia, Advanced Cyber/IO, Augmented Reality, Commerce, Cultural Intelligence, Politics of Science & Science of Politics, Technologies

SINGULARITY SUMMIT 2011 IN NEW YORK CITY 15-16 OCTOBER 2011

The Singularity Summit 2011 will be a TED-style two-day event at the historic 92nd Street Y in New York City. The confirmed speakers include futurist Ray Kurzweil, neuroscientist Christof Koch, PayPal founder Peter Thiel, MIT cosmologist Max Tegmark, AI researcher Eliezer Yudkowsky, MIT polymath Alexander Wissner-Gross, DARPA challenge winner Riley Crane, Skype founder Jaan Tallinn, Jeopardy! champion Ken Jennings, economist Tyler Cowen, television personalities Jason Silva and Casey Pieretti, and robotics professors James McLurnkin and Robin Murphy.

To stay informed about the coming Summit, you can subscribe to the Singularity newsletter on their website.

SINGULARITY AT PHI BETA IOTA:

Review: Radical Evolution–The Promise and Peril of Enhancing Our Minds, Our Bodies — and What It Means to Be Human (Hardcover)

Review: The Singularity Is Near–When Humans Transcend Biology (Hardcover)

Worth a Look: Singularity Summit & Building a Brain

Worth a Look: Singularity University

Worth a Look: Book Reviews on the War on Science