One percent see it as the top problem today, down from 46% in 2001
PRINCETON, NJ — Nine years after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, 1% of Americans mention terrorism as the most important problem facing the country, down from 46% just after the attacks.
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Still, Americans rated economic issues such as the economy, jobs, and federal spending, as well as corruption in government and healthcare, even higher. They rated terrorism as more important than immigration, Afghanistan, and the environment.
I suggest to you that this article is a keeper, that David Woods gets it. While it focuses on the Army, I think it's applicable in significant part to the other
David Wood Biography
DoD military Services, particularly to the Marine Corps, and to one or two non-DoD Federal agencies have been close partners in the national security effort.
V/R,
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In the 10th Year of War, a Harder Army, a More Distant America
The U.S. Army now begins its 10th continuous year in combat, the first time in its history the United States has excused the vast majority of its citizens from service and engaged in a major, decade-long conflict instead with an Army manned entirely by professional warriors.
This is an Army that, under the pressure of combat, has turned inward, leaving civilian America behind, reduced to the role of a well-wishing but impatient spectator. A decade of fighting has hardened soldiers in ways that civilians can't share. America respects its warriors, but from a distance.
“A lot of us are here because society has no further use for us,” he said. “The Army has become home for a lot of restless souls who can never really go back.
EXTRACT: Enough pieces have come together for Alroy to speculate on his findings’ implication for the future, given that Earth is now experiencing another mass extinction. Starting with extinctions of large land animals more than 50,000 years ago that continued as modern humans proliferated around the globe, and picking up pace in the Agricultural and Industrial ages, current extinction rates are far beyond levels capable of unraveling entire food webs in coming centuries. Ecologists estimate that between 50 and 90 percent of all species are doomed without profound changes in human resource use.
EXTRACT: Also exceeded are limits for species loss, which the scientists set at 10 per year per million species, and nitrogen use, pegged at 35 million tons per year. The current extinction rate is ten times higher than advised, ostensibly compromising the ability of ecosystems to process nutrients. The use of nitrogen — which is needed for fertilizer, but causes oxygen-choking algae blooms — is nearly four times higher than recommended.
This could be the next number one hit country song. It is written by a High School assistant football coach. Apparently the guy was fired over the song because some parents complained. Shameful if true. If you like it, help it go “viral” by passing it along to everyone you know.
This is a provoking and entertaining presentation.
After the short video called “Pixels” prior to the presentation, Jesse Schell starts off with what if life becomes, not Orwellian, but Huxleyan (Brave New World) where pleasure achieved through technology grips the whole lives of citizens. Imagine sensors attached to commercial products from toothbrush to television (and electric tattoos linked to Facebook) collecting data + wi-fi connections uploading behavior data to the Web. People can earn “points” like in a gaming environment depending on their behavior and habits and these points can be used for coupons, deals, and other corporate profit-pursuing conceptions.
Soon the presentation gets into prediction and if the more one practices at predicting the future, the better one can become. Other parts of the presentation:
The upward trend of mobile gaming application sales versus console gaming systems, and how micro-transactions of money (Zynga, Playdom, Playfish, Bigpoint) in connection with social networking will be like peanut butter + chocolate.
Dream states (REM sleep) as un-tapped territory that most likely advertisers will reach first.
Virtual money such as “Farm cash,” and World of Warcraft gold was mentioned to attract product attention.
A stat was shown of commercial ads on television rising from 13% in 1950 to 36% today.
“Battlefield of the 21st century” as how you spend your day and carving up those percentages to target your behaviors
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. asked the U.S. Supreme Court to block female employees from suing on behalf of as many as 1.5 million women in what would be the largest gender-bias suit against a private employer in U.S. history.
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The company agreed in 2008 to pay as much as $640 million to settle 63 federal and state class actions claiming the company cheated hourly workers and forced them to work through breaks.
