Open Access (OA) to scientific publications could provide more effective dissemination of research and thus increase its impact.
The costs and benefits of different models of providing OA to publications need to be considered if a comprehensive shift to OA is to be financially sustainable.
OA to research data could enable others to validate findings and re-use data to advance knowledge and promote innovation.
Sharing data openly requires effective data management and archiving. It also presents challenges relating to protecting intellectual property and privacy.
Expanding access to scientific information requires researchers, librarians, higher education institutions, funding agencies and publishers, to continue to work together.
While press attention on developments in Russia focused on the disputed parliamentary elections and the following protests, which seemed to revive political activism in Moscow and other urban centers, there have been some military developments that deserve some attention. One such theme is an old topic, sixth generation warfare and its impact upon the nuclear threshold – do advanced conventional systems, which approach nuclear effects, blur the line on nuclear deterrence? The Russian press has had several recent articles that suggest this issue is becoming more acute.
In the aftermath of Desert Storm in 1991, the late Major-General Vladimir Slipchenko coined the phrase “sixth generation warfare” to refer to the “informatization” of conventional warfare and the development of precision strike systems which could make the massing of forces in the conventional sense an invitation to disaster and demand the development of the means to mass effects through depth to fight systems versus systems warfare. Slipchenko looked back at Ogarkov’s “revolution in military affairs” with “weapons based on new physical principles” and saw “Desert Storm” as a first indication of the appearance of such capabilities. He did not believe that sixth generation warfare had yet manifested its full implications (Vladimir Slipchenko, Voina budushchego. Moscow: Moskovskii Obshchestvennyi Nauchnyi Fond, 1999).
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However, Slipchenko did believe that sixth generation warfare would replace fifth generation warfare, which he identified as thermonuclear war, and had evolved into a strategic stalemate, making nuclear first use an inevitable road to destruction (from the end of the Soviet Union until his death in 2005, he had analyzed combat experience abroad to further refine his conception until he began to speak of the emergence of “no-contact warfare” as the optimal form for sixth generation warfare; Vladimir Slipchenko, Beskontaktnye voiny. Moscow: Izdatel’skii dom: Gran-Press,” 2001). In his final volume, Slipchenko redefined sixth generation warfare as involving the capacity to conduct distant, no-contact operations and suggested that such conflict would demand major military reforms. Slipchenko made a compelling case for the enhanced role of C4ISR in conducting such operations (Vladimir Slipchenko,Voina novogo pokoleniia: Distantsionnye i beskontaktaktnye, Moscow: OLMA-Press, 2004).
“Powerful solar disturbances over the last 24-hours indicate a period of strong seismic events in the coming days’ with the livelihood of a 7.2 magnitude earthquake during this watch. You are now looking at Cactus which is a digital presentation of coronal mass ejection release from the solar corona. Now yesterday a full coronal mass ejection is earthbound and earth directed and this implies January 22nd or January 23 we may receive severe impact on the Earth’s magnetic field which could cause a major rise in solar wind speed and also a seismic shock which may indicate a potential for a strong earthquake during this timeline.”
A disturbing report prepared by the Schmidt Institute of Physics of the Earth (IPE) in Moscow that is circulating in the Kremlin today warns that the 6.2 magnitude earthquake that struck the Chiapas region of Mexico yesterday is a ‘potential precursor’ to a ‘megaquake’ of at least 7.5-8.3 expected to hit the US-Mexican Pacific coastline within the next fortnight (+/- 7 days).
According to this IPE report, concerns were raised about this region after a 4.1 magnitude earthquake hit the Mexican Baja California peninsula on 18 January and emitted in the “4.433–4.498 micrometre range”“extreme” atmospheric temperature variations normally not associated with such a quake and that was verified yesterday as occurring again in Chiapas.
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Important to note about this region, this IPE report says, fears were heightened after a 7.2 magnitude earthquake that hit on 4 April 2010 and was the first big earthquake to occur on this particular fault system since 1892, links Mexico’s seismic zone to California’s massive fault system, and points to a “reawakening” of this areas potential for catastrophic seismic/volcanic occurrences.
Sign the Pledge! Volunteer to “Die Off” for the Good of Humanity
Eagle: Ron Paul an Intellectual Revolution? Who Cares? said: “The way we live, work and play–all soon to be extinct, buried in the ground never to be seen again unless humans die off and just a few of us are left to start over.”
That's about the most idiotic argument I've ever heard. Humanity can only survive if most of us die? That's literal nihilism. Anyone who could make that kind of statement has completely run out of ideas and has no business telling anyone how to make the world a better place—–because they've already given up. It makes the kind of “doublethink” in the novel 1984 seem like profound wisdom by comparison. If humanity wants to survive we all need to die? Even the brainwashed citizens of Oceania wouldn't fall for that one; which makes me wonder why Eagle seems to have accepted it as a self-evident truth.
That argument not only accepts a dismal prophecy as an absolute certainty—–based on nothing more than an assertion—–it implies that we shouldn't even try to avoid our own extinction. We should embrace it! I wonder if the poster realizes what that statement reveals about his/her psychology? First, since most people want to keep living, Eagle is either suicidal or a blatant misanthrope who sees his fellow human beings as obstacles to a brighter future.
This is an irrational notion that many people subscribe to, at least subconsciously, in one way or another, but usually not to such an absurd degree. Democrats dream of that “great day” when Republicans magically disappear. Republicans dream of that “great day” when Democrats magically disappear. The Nazis dreamed of that “great day” when Jews would magically disappear. But just in case it didn't happen naturally, they though they would help it along a little.
I would like to know if Eagle is planning to sacrifice his/her life so that the remaining “few” can live? Of course it doesn't really matter. If humankind has gotten to the point where we would be happier if most of us died, then humanity is already doomed. If that's the extent to which we care about out fellow human beings, then perhaps we don't deserve to survive as a species.
Wishing that the majority of humanity would just die off, to me, is genocide by default. It's like saying to our fellow human inhabitants of the earth: “We don't care where you go, but you can't stay here.” If we all had that mindset, saving humanity would be impossible. It's what is known as a self-fulfilling prophecy. And since the prophecy is human extinction, forgive me if I don't bow down and worship the prophet.
I have a sneaky suspicion that this absurd mindset is somehow related to anarchy. If so, anarchists are not only bereft of workable solutions, they've mentally excluded them as even remote possibilities! If the best they can offer humanity is extinction, who needs them? I would be the first to stand aside and allow them to sign the pledge to commit suicide for the sake of the rest of humanity.
An economic model that seeks to include the cost of negative externalities into the pricing of goods and services. Supporters of this type of economic system feel products and activities that direct or indirectly cause harmful consequences to living beings and/or the environment should be accordingly taxed to reflect the somewhat hidden costs.
Although Global Trends 2030 will not be released by the US secret intelligence community until after the November 2012 election, minutes of the 22-24 May 2011 meeting are available and provide a useful panorama of what the group is and is not considering.
2. They are so beholden to status quo science they actually consider the exploitation of shale gas and oil to be a serious positive–lacking a strategic analytic model, it does not occur to them to examine the true cost of such initiatives, e.g. water, environmental degradation, etcetera. They do not “get” the fragmentation of knowledge as being among the chief obstacles to creating strategic intelligence.
3. They are oblivious to the “eight tribes“* while creeping up on government-business collaboration (and clearly also oblivious to the fact that this is actually plutocracy and corporate capture, not collaboration).
* Academia, Civil Society [inclusive of labor and religion], Commerce, Government [all levels], Law Enforcement, Media, Military, Non-Governmental / Non-Profit.
