The truth at any cost lowers all other costs — curated by former US spy Robert David Steele.
Who says the web is dead? Drupal and WordPress
The Internet matures
Social media, ugh.
Facebook, The Social Network, my newfound respect for Zuckerberg.
It’s the stupid economy
Obama under attack
Rethinking journalism
Wikileaks raises questions about transparency.
At Peter Thiel’s invitation-only “Breakthrough Philanthropy” event in San Francisco on December 7, which brought together Silicon Valley’s top entrepreneurs with eight of the most visionary non-profits, Patri Friedman, grandson of legendary economist Milton Friedman, presented one of the most radical, imaginative concepts I’ve heard in some time. Here’s the text of his four-minute talk (video below — other Breakthrough Philanthropy speaker videos here). — A. Angelica
Every year, our phones get smarter, our cars safer, and our medical treatments more advanced. We all benefit from startups and established companies competing through constant innovation. So why is it that in one of the most advanced countries in the world, we’re still using the legal technology … of 1787? I mean, if you drove a car from 1787, it would be a horse!
See rest of article and if desired view video….
Phi Beta Iota: There is a germ of a good idea here, that of creating viable alternatives for governance and sustenance as a model for others–the spike theory of change. It is however also remarkably utopian given the fact that between Bush Junior and Obama we have gone from 25 to 175 failed states and rising. Imagine Waterworld Somalian style. Ralph Peter nailed it long ago when he pointed out that the only path to wine, women, and wealth for the bulk of the population in failed states was at the point of a gun. Utopians simply do not get the reality that we live in a Whole System and until we can create a World that Works for All, these lovely ideas are nothing more than liberal speculative fancies. This web site and everyone associated with it are in the aggregate commited to restoring America the Beautiful, a Republic with liberty and justice for all. Seasteading–and geodesic domes–are great ideas that will only be beneficial if we can create a prosperous world at peace.
This week's Book post, Infinite Wealth for All, set the stage for this week's Politics post, which focuses on The New Craft of Cyber-Intelligence–a blending of advanced public intelligence and advanced Information Operations (IO). Let's start with a great Mashable piece, 4 Predictions for the Future of Politics and Social Media, from which I have remixed the graphic showing the two-party tyranny sniffing at social media.
Continue reading “Reference: Cyber-Intelligence–Restore the Republic Of, By, and For…”
TruthDig Posted on Dec 28, 2010
By Robert Scheer
Two years into the Obama presidency and the economic data is still looking grim. Don’t be fooled by the gyrations of the stock market, where optimism is mostly a reflection of the ability of financial corporations—thanks to massive government largesse—to survive the mess they created. The basics are dismal: Unemployment is unacceptably high, the December consumer confidence index is down and housing prices have fallen for four months in a row. The number of Americans living in poverty has never been higher, and a majority in a Washington Post poll said they were worried about making their next mortgage or rent payment.
In a parallel universe lives Peter Orszag, President Barack Obama’s former budget director and key adviser, who even faster than his mentor, Robert Rubin, has passed through that revolving platinum door linking the White House with Wall Street. The goal is to use your government position to advance the interests of your future employer, and Orszag and Rubin’s actions in the government and then at Citigroup provide stunning examples of the synergy between big government and high finance.
David Albright, Paul Brannan, and Christina Walrond
22 December 2010, Preliminary Assessment
Did Stuxnet Take Out 1,000 Centrifuges at the Natanz Enrichment Plant?
10 pages
Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS)
Phi Beta Iota: US Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) computer systems are still on the Internet and still very vulnerable to internal and external interference, as well as the standard 50% “errors and omissions” that come with sloppy computer work so characteristic of US vendors. Many sounded the alarm in 1990 (Winn Schwartau, Peter Black) through 1994 (Robert Steele, various field grade officers at the Air War College) but no one wanted to listen. The US is as close to a complex melt-down (political-legal, socio-economic, ideo-cultural, techno-demographic, natural-geographic) as we have witnessed in our lifetime.
1998 TAKEDOWN: Targets, Tools, & Technocracy
1995 Military Perspective on Information Warfare: Apocalypse Now
Although other papers have been written since then, the three “originals” in the author's view are Major Gerald R. Hust, “Taking Down Telecommunications”, School of Advanced Airpower Studies, 1993); Major Thomas E. Griffith, Jr., “Strategic Attack of National Electrical Systems”, School of Advanced Airpower Studies, 1994; and H. D. Arnold, J. Hukill, and A. Cameron of the Department of the Air Force, “Targeting Financial Systems as Centers of Gravity: ‘Low Intensity' to ‘No Intensity' Conflict”, in Defense Analysis (Volume 10 Number 2, pages 181-208), 1994.
I received this email from a close friend, a Republican of the old school:
“When 50+ years ago Engine Charlie Wilson said what's good for General Motors is good for America, he was mostly right. Now corporations have turned that aphorism on its head.”
Tuesday, Dec 28, 2010 08:03 ET
Where are the jobs? Overseas, of course
American consumers have little to do with the big profits many top American corporations are now racking up
By PALLAVI GOGOI, Associated Press
Corporate profits are up. Stock prices are up. So why isn't anyone hiring?
Actually, many American companies are — just maybe not in your town. They're hiring overseas, where sales are surging and the pipeline of orders is fat.
EXTRACT: Harvard Business School Dean Nitin Nohria worries that the trend could be dangerous. In an article in the November issue of the Harvard Business Review, he says that if U.S. businesses keep prospering while Americans are struggling, business leaders will lose legitimacy in society. He exhorted business leaders to find a way to link growth with job creation at home.
Other economists, like Columbia University's Sachs, say multinational corporations have no choice, especially now that the quality of the global work force has improved. Sachs points out that the U.S. is falling in most global rankings for higher education while others are rising.
“We are not fulfilling the educational needs of our young people,” says Sachs. “In a globalized world, there are serious consequences to that.”
Read complete article at Salon.com….
See Also:
Army invited attention to following article in this morning's daily “Stand-To” e-mail.
Special forces wary of ‘don't ask, don't tell' repeal
By Rowan Scarborough
The Washington Times
6:39 p.m., Monday, December 27, 2010
EXTRACT: The working group's report contained this observation: “These survey results reveal to us a misperception that a gay man does not ‘fit' the image of a good warfighter – a misperception that is almost completely erased when a gay service member is allowed to prove himself alongside fellow warfighters.
“Anecdotally, we heard much the same. As one special-operations force warfighter told us, ‘We have a gay guy [in the unit]. He's big, he's mean, and he kills lots of bad guys. No one cared that he was gay.' ”
Said Adm. Worthington: “It just depends on how they comport themselves. If they start breaking out the bows and the earrings in the barracks, that might cause a little trouble. That becomes a good order and discipline sort of thing. The services are going to have to tighten up on regulations.”
