August 2010 – Page 14 – Public Intelligence Blog

editor spinney time — Chuck Spinney Recommends

My good friend Marshall Auerbach has one answer — can you “refudiate” it?

Which Party Poses the Real Risk to Social Security’s Future?

NewDeal2.0.org, Monday, 08/16/2010 – 5:02 pm by Marshall Auerback

Hint: it’s not Republicans.

Social Security remains one of the greatest achievements of the Democratic Party since its creation 75 years ago. Although Republicans have historically fulminated against the program (Ronald Reagan once likened it as something akin to “socialism”), they have actually made little headway in touching this sacred “third rail” in American politics. President Bush pushed for partial privatization of the program in 2005, but the proposal gained no policy traction (even within his own party) because Social Security continues to be hugely popular with American voters. It’s a universal program that benefits all Americans, not a government handout to a few privileged corporations.

Which is why it’s odd that Democrats seem almost embarrassed to continue to champion the legacy of FDR. The party frets about long-term deficits and the corresponding need to “save” Social Security from imminent bankruptcy and, in doing so, opens the gate to radical cuts in entitlements that will do nothing but further destroy incomes and perpetuate our current economic malaise.

FULL STORY ONLINE

Continue reading “Journal: Social Security Being Set Up for a Fall”

2010/08/162011/10/22

Worth a Look: Strong Signal–Anger in the Heartland

Cultural Intelligence, Worth A Look

Marcus-Aurelius-150x150 — Marcus Aurelius Recommends

Phi Beta Iota: America is divided into Nine Nations culturally and geographically, 50 States that comprise the United STATES of America, many now considering nullification and some considering secession, and two parties that shut out one third or more of the electorate and electoral candidates. Sadly, Americans agree on 80% of the issues but spend all of their time in conflict on the 20% that are ideologically rooted, while also refusing to see that the only thing America needs to get back on track is Electoral Reform–restoring the integrity of the connection between citizens, their taxes, and how their government spends those taxes. Below, from Marcus Aurelius, is a “strong signal” representing anger in the heartland.

Signs Northbound on I-5 near Chehalis, WA (88 miles south of Seattle )

Click on the Image to see the other eleven.

2010/08/162010/08/17

Journal: State of Defense…

Uncategorized

(COMMENT: SECDEF may be approaching culmination….)

Gates Has a Ton of Work Before He Leaves Pentagon

Andrea Stone Senior Washington Correspondent

AOL News

WASHINGTON (Aug. 16) — Robert Gates has a lot on his to-do list: Wind down two wars. Trim a bloated budget. Push through a nuclear treaty. End the ban on openly gay service members. And convince himself that this time he really will retire.
FULL STORY ONLINE

Foreign Policy Interview in Full Continue reading “Journal: State of Defense…”

2010/08/162010/08/16

Project Masiluleke: The Mobile Phone as Life-Saving Device Against HIV/AIDS in South Africa

01 Poverty, 02 Infectious Disease, 07 Health, Geospatial, Mobile, Technologies

Project Masiluleke is a South African project that aims to find solutions for the country's growing AIDS pandemic. The project is unique in that it enjoys the collaboration of a group of leading South African and international partners in the clinical, technical, philanthropic, development and design arena's. The project was unveiled globally at the annual Pop!Tech Conference in Camden, USA in October 2008 and will be officially launched in South Africa in 2009.

Intended Impact

In a country where less than 5% of the adult population knows their HIV-status and more than 24% is HIV positive (close to 40% in provinces like Kwazulu Natal), Project Masiluleke has the potential to:

Bring large numbers of people into testing without spending millions on expensive and often unsuccessful awareness campaigns,
Empower people to know their HIV status by testing privately and accurate for the disease, in the privacy of their own homes,
Involve adherent ARV patients as role-models and mobile support agents, through the virtual call centres,
Keep patients on treatment and increase treatment effectiveness, through regular doctor's visits and clinical support.

Project brief (pdf)

Worth a Look: Clay Shirky on Cognitive Surplus & Crisis Mapping

Augmented Reality, Collaboration Zones, Collective Intelligence, Communities of Practice, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, info-graphics/data-visualization, InfoOps (IO), International Aid, IO Sense-Making, Journalism/Free-Press/Censorship, Maps, Methods & Process, Policies, Tools, Worth A Look

About this talk

Clay Shirky looks at “cognitive surplus” — the shared, online work we do with our spare brain cycles. While we're busy editing Wikipedia, posting to Ushahidi (and yes, making LOLcats), we're building a better, more cooperative world. TED Video of Talk.

About Clay Sharpey

Clay Shirky believes that new technologies enabling loose collaboration — and taking advantage of “spare” brainpower — will change the way society works. Learn more.

Core Point: Over a trillion hours a year in cognitive surplus–Internet and media tools are shifting all of us from consumption to production. We like to create; we like to share. Now we can.

Recommended by Dr. Kent Myers. His additional commentary:

This talk gets at something that could go into the proposal for Virtual Systemic Inquiry (VSI). I need to emphasize that the VSI products have civic value. That motivates participation, but we also need to make it a little more obvious and easy how to participate, in order that generosity can flow more readily from more people. That's what I was trying to get at by making projects more standardized and quick. Software can let that flow, as Shirky says. The process and products should probably be pretty in some way too, like IDEO (also LOL cats).

2010/08/15

Search: davies j-kurve

About the Idea, Searches

Spelling matters. <davies j-curve> produces a number of hits, here is the top one:

Search: davies j 1969 curve

The core point made by Davies with his J-Curve is that people do not revolt when they are oppressed beyond belief; they revolt when they see the light at the end of the tunnel and then are pushed back. The Internet and cell phones have shone a light on the world like no other. Between RapidSMS, flash mobs, Twitter real-time intelligence, and all else, the revolution has begun.

2010/08/152010/08/17

Journal: Spinney Sends Sense on Sinners

Corruption

Chuck Spinney Recommends

Incompetence, Corruption or Both

How the Defense Industry is Hosing Obama and the Taxpayer … Again

By FRANKLIN C. SPINNEY

Counterpunch

Monastir, Tunisa

On 3 March 2010, CounterPunch carried my critique of the Pentagon’s 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR), which was released in February. QDRs have a long history of producing rubbish, and President Obama’s first attempt was no exception. Indeed, notwithstanding the expenditure of tens of thousands of man hours and over a year of preparation, Mr. Obama’s QDR set a new low for ducking the hard decisions needed to fix the real problems afflicting the military, and by extension, the taxpayers who pay the bill. Recent events, however, show why it would be a mistake to consign the 2010 QDR to the dustbin of history. The QDR serves a useful purpose for the gamesters inhabiting the hall of mirrors that is Versailles on the Potomac.

The players in the Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex (MICC) regard hogwash like that produced in the QDR as essential weapons for waging their unremitting budget war to extract money from the American people. Sun Tzu would have recognized the QDR for what it is: a Cheng (a dazzle) to set up a Ch’i (a stroke). When I worked in the Pentagon, we had a more prosaic name for Master Sun’s timeless principle of using a distraction to set up a decisive maneuver: The QDR is part of a cape job to set up a phony debate over the need for ever rising defense budgets while putting the rest of the government on a diet (in a recession).

FULL STORY ONLINE