Joe Justice is the ideator of Team Wikspeed: a team of volunteers distributed around the world who recently created a prototype car that is open source, modular and ultra-efficient in just three mo… …YES, in just three months compared with the years it takes traditional car manufacturers to bring out a new model.
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This is an extremely interesting interview with Joe Justice … it gives the gist of where the manufacturing revolution is going.
Phi Beta Iota: Achieving an Open Source Everything world is a three part process:
1. Creation of Open Source Alternatives.
2. Creation of Integrated infrastructure–pieces need to intersect.
3. Abolishment of political parties and governments that try to micro-impose safety standards (e.g. air bags) and other onorous measures whose sole real purpose is to make competition unaffordable for the Open Source Everything movement, while blackmailing commerce into contributing to Political Action Campaigns.
As angry citizens around the world are becoming aware of how broken the global economic and political systems are, their desperation for real change has resulted in dramatic shifts in political majorities in the Western world.In March of this year, voters in Australia miffed by Gilliard’s reversal on her pledge not to introduce carbon taxes, nearly wiped out her Labor party in Queensland.The majority Labor party went from holding 51 seats to just 7 in what operatives called “devastating” and a “stunning reversal” in the nation’s political party power.
Just last week, U.K.’s prime minister David Cameron had to apologize for terrible election losses where hundreds of his fellow Conservative councillors lost their seats “against a difficult national backdrop.” Pundits called it “embarrassing.”
Cameron blamed voter sentiment on his “difficult decisions to deal with the debt, the deficit and the broken economy that we inherited,” decisions which he vowed to “go on making” with or without public support.This weekend saw two more European powerhouses take big hits. France’s president Nicolas Sarkozy lost his re-election bid, while Angela Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) party in Germany took a nose dive in state elections spelling trouble for her re-election next year.
Also over the weekend, a major power shift happened in Greece as furious voters delivered a “humiliating defeat” to the “bank bailout and austerity” parties that previously held majority rule.What does this wave of anti-incumbent sentiment mean for Obama and the Democrats in U.S. elections this fall? And, will replacing one party with another actually solve anything?The mounting anger manifesting as the Tea Party and the Occupy Wall Street movements does not bode well for incumbents in the United States. If these recent elections in Europe and Australia are any indication, Obama may be heading for the same fate.
Tracking polling shows that Obama is neck-and-neck with either GOP front-runner Mitt Romney or GOP hopeful Ron Paul. With the general election still half-a-year away and economic conditions worsening for most Americans, it seems Obama could face defeat in November.
To the question of whether these “radical” shifts in power will actually mean anything; many view it as just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. And they’re likely correct.
Voters may believe that by voting for candidates who oppose bank bailouts and austerity, somehow the iceberg of debt owed to criminal bankers will vanish. Perhaps if newly elected leaders follow the Iceland model of debt forgiveness and real monetary reform, these countries may stand chance.
Without that, however, playing musical chairs in the false left-right paradigm will likely do no good.
Europe: For the record. German Chancellor Merkel and the European Council have changed in the last 48 hours from emphasizing austerity and the importance of adhering to agreements and goals to focusing on growth.
The two economic ideas are not mutually exclusive. Nevertheless, the growth has not been discussed in connection with south European sovereign debt. The rise of the socialists in France and the rejectionists in Greece seems to jolted the European bankers to consider potentially more innovative ideas about continental economic health besides “pay what you owe” policies.
The window of innovation will not last long because the debt exceeds the capacity to pay it down. The demographics of up to 50% unemployment among the most able cohorts of the work forces in Mediterranean European states defeat growth without statism. This is the threat.
Next week I will be attending my official graduation from The Fletcher School to receive my PhD diploma. It is—in a word—surreal. I've been working on my PhD for almost as long as I've known my good friend and colleague Chris Albon, which is to say, a long time. Chris is also a newly minted political science PhD and recently joined the FrontlineSMS team as the director of their Governance Project. Needless to say, our paths have crossed on many occasions over the years and we've had many long conversations about the scholar-practitioner path that we've taken. With graduation just a few days away, we thought we'd write-up this joint post to share our pearls of wisdom with future PhDs.
First: blog, blog, blog! The blog is the new CV. If you don't exist dynamically online, then you're not indexable on the web. And if you're not indexable, then you're not searchable or discoverable. You don't exist! Blog-ergo-sum, simple as that. Chris and I have been blogging for years and this has enabled us to further our knowledge and credibility, not to mention our of network of contacts. The blog allows you to build your own independent brand, not your advisor’s and not your program’s. This is critical. We've received consulting gigs and keynote invitations based on blog posts that we've published over the years. Do not underestimate the power of blogging for your professional (and yes, academic) career. In many ways, blogging is about getting credit for your ideas and to signal to others what you know and what your interests are.
Second: get on Twitter! Malcolm Gladwell is wrong: social media can build strong-tie bonds. Heck, social media is how I originally met Chris. If the blog is the new CV, then consider your Twitter account the new business card. Use Twitter to meet everyone, everywhere. Let people know you'll be in London for a conference and don't underestimate the synergies and serendipity that is the twittersphere. Chris currently follows around 1,200 people on Twitter, and he estimates that over the years he has met around half of them in person. That is a lot of contacts and, frankly, potential employers. Moreover, like blogging, tweeting enables you to connect to others and stay abreast of interesting new developments. Once upon a time, people used to email you interesting articles, conferences, etc. I personally got on Twitter several years ago when I realized that said emails were no longer making it to my inbox. This information was now being shared via Twitter instead. Like the blog, Twitter allows you to create and manage your own personal brand.
I've read Durant's declaration over and over, and one phrase stands out.
” . . . bonded in the fellowship of danger . . . “
Each time I read it, those words went under my radar. But I think I finally got it.
The danger he's talking about is uncertainty: the eternal existential dilemma.
Even if humans were the most loving and cooperative species in the entire universe, it wouldn't relive our existential uncertainty, because all of our collective truths could still fall short of providing the big picture necessary for our survival.
I think that's what he meant by “bonded in the fellowship of danger.”
Even in the best of circumstances, humans are eternally vulnerable to forces far greater than us. And if we were smart, we would cling together so that we could face those forces with all our collective potential and creative ingenuity.
Mitt Romney will be the Republican to face President Obama in the fall. Tuesday night was the clincher, as the Mormon zealot won in Wisconsin, Maryland and Washington DC. He may stumble on, but the Catholic zealot Rick Santorum is finished.
It’s hard to detect any alluring feature in Romney’s psychic or political make-up, and I’m none too sure about Ann Romney, who at this stage of the game is filling the role played by the late Elizabeth Edwards in the Edwards campaign on its upward trajectory back in early 2008.
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Santorum got roughed up for actually espousing conservative Roman Catholic positions. For some reason Romney is being given a pass as a Mormon, as though his religion is of no consequence, as inconsequential a piece of ideological baggage as Bill Clinton’s Baptist label. Columnists evidently feel it’s poor taste to suggest that a candidate’s religion might have some bearing on his conduct and that the candidate should be properly grilled on the matter.
No doubt in the upcoming campaign Romney will attack Obama for his associations with radicals, the lunatic idea — most recently promoted by the late Andrew Breitbart — being that ex-Weatherfolk Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn imparted to the eager Obama the left’s secret plan to take over the United States and put everyone in slave labor camps, have abortions and engage in unmentionable sexual practices.
Alas, the left never did have a plan – secret or overt — to take over the United States. Abortions and unmentionable sexual practices were a different matter. Ayers’ and Dohrn’s actual role was obviously to help hook up the eager Obama with big Democratic Jewish money in Chicago, directing the attention of the latter to this well-mannered Harvard-educated black politician as someone to watch and assist.
The left never had a secret plan or much discipline. But the Mormons really do have secrets and a lot of discipline. Does Romney espouse Mormon doctrines about gays or not? About obedience to the Prophet or not? If not, then isn’t he a fake Mormon, without a shred of principle. Why should be believe him about anything? If yes, then where does that put his loyalties and priorities as someone hoping to be President of the United States and supposed upholder of the Constitution? (Of course Obama has shredded substantial portions of the Constitution without even the excuse of being a Mormon.)
What about Romney’s associations? He is no ordinary Mormon. By lineage, upbringing and personal decision he’s about as dedicated a Mormon as you can be – which is very dedicated indeed. I urge you to check out the piece by a former Mormon in our current newsletter, which delves into Mormon practices and points out that Romney attends a Mormon temple. Temples are only open to those members who adhere completely to the strict standards of Mormonism, including unwavering loyalty to the president of the church.
