This [ten-page] paper started as a note to myself as I sought to explore the disparity between my home here in Maine, the forest, lake, and loons…and the rushing maelstrom of the world about me that showed up in the instant on my computer screen.
Call it anxiety adjustment, therapy, or just an attempt to make some sense out of thing.
Perhaps it should have remained in that personal, private compartment, but I also felt the need to share, and so I have. You have to decide the wisdom of that decision.
(1) To present evidence that the U.S. government’s official investigation into the events of September 11, 2001, as pursued by various government and government-appointed agencies, is seriously flawed and has failed to describe and account for the 9/11 events.
(2) To single out the most weighty evidence of the inadequacy of the U.S. government’s investigation; to organize and classify that evidence; to preserve that evidence; to make that evidence widely known to the public and to governmental, non-governmental and inter-governmental organizations.
(3) To submit a record and a summary of the Hearings, together with signed Statutory Declarations by witnesses, to relevant governments, groups and international agencies with the request that a full and impartial investigation be launched into the events of September 11, 2001, which have been used to initiate military invasions and to restrict the rights of citizens.
(4) To engage the attention of the public, the international community and the media through witness testimony as well as through media events broadcasted via the Internet during the four day event.
“An Ivy League Education for less than $20 a month. Why not?”
At the time there were only a smattering of course materials online. That's changing. It's coming. Here's an example of a class that signed up 56,000 people in two weeks.
Another example of a highly scalable education product: Codecademy
The way to repair and revitalize modern civilization is on the horizon. It follows a simple dictum:
Localize production. Virtualize everything else.
With the above, we see the virtualization of formal education (books were the first wave).
Some other thoughts on this:
It can drop costs by 3 orders of magnitude. $20 a year instead of $20,000.
It means that the best instructors teach almost everyone. Why not the best?
Phi Beta Iota: There is actually a much larger variant of free online education, and that it the YouTube 2-5 minute micro-class revolution, in which citizen experts create concise lectures on single specific micro-knowledge, for example, a type of algebra problem, or mixing hydoponic solutions, etcetera.
Last week, China quietly launched the aircraft carrier Varyag from the port of Dalian. The ship is expected to be deployed to Hainan province in close proximity to the strategic regions of Taiwan and the South China Sea. Amidst an atmosphere of existential gloom triggered by the debt-ceiling debacle and the deeper economic crisis, the reaction in the United States was dominated by the fear of a rising, militarist China challenging America’s global superiority. What few in the United States bothered to mention, however, is that the new Chinese carrier was built from an unfinished Ukrainian hull purchased in 1998 – and is the first and only aircraft carrier China has ever had. The United States, meanwhile, has eleven.
The real problem with the U.S. response was not, however, that it exaggerated the Chinese threat. It is that it greatly overestimates the benefits, to America, of the country’s continuing quest for global supremacy – politically, economically and militarily.
. . . . . .
Six numbers tell the story of empire’s price in stark terms: federal deficits, gross debt, military spending, infrastructure investment, income inequality and now endemic joblessness:
. . . . . .
From Brazil to Indonesia, Turkey to South Africa, the rising pivotal powers are not looking to replace U.S. hegemony with Chinese dependency. In fact, as they focus on strategies of inclusive growth that sustain accountability and legitimacy, the mobile networked younger generations of these countries will continue to look to America as a model in many respects. A new partnership with a right-sized America disciplined by limitations and constraints is there to be forged – if only U.S. political leaders are willing to rethink the value of empire.
In an Archipelago World defined by the fragmentation of power, capital and ideas where the winners will be those states able to vertically integrate public and private interests, America’s present global posture is more a curse than a blessing.
WASHINGTON — In what amounts to a fight over who gets to write the history of the Sept. 11 attacks and their aftermath, the Central Intelligence Agency is demanding extensive cuts from the memoir of a former F.B.I. agent who spent years near the center of the battle against Al Qaeda.
. . . . . .
Starting in May, F.B.I. officials reviewed Mr. Soufan’s 600-page manuscript, asking the author for evidence that dozens of names and facts were not classified. Mr. Soufan and Mr. Freedman agreed to change wording or substitute aliases for some names, and on July 12 the bureau told Mr. Soufan its review was complete.
In the meantime, however, the bureau had given the book to the C.I.A. Its reviewers responded this month with 78-page and 103-page faxes listing their cuts.
Nouriel “Dr. Doom” Roubini is slamming the run up in the gold market: it's the new subprime bubble only worse. It's leveraged 25-40x not just 5-10x. It's just another example of the global market's central planning directorate in action. Another massive/bad investment by those with all the decision making power. It may also be a good indicator that gold is part and parcel of the old broken economy and not something that should be welcome in the new one we're building.
Phi Beta Iota: George Soros has this exactly right and has pulled out. What can be understood from open sources in addition to the above is that the gold market is chock full of fraud, including gold certificates issued without gold to back them up; and very likely gold diluted with titanium by the Bank of New York under Tim Geithner. There is also the residual matter of the Black Lily covert gold fund, of the gold to be confiscated from Libya before the rebels figure out they're dupes in a major theft, and finally–the wild card–there are rumors circulating in the gold community that a new methods has been found that will more rapidly discover all remaining gold deposits around the earth.
Phi Beta Iota: Act I was 1988-1993. Act II was 1993-2011. Act III began with the publication of NO MORE SECRETS with a Foreword by Senator Gary Hart (D-CO).
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