Collaboration Zones – Page 990 – Public Intelligence Blog

2013/07/212013/07/21

Gordon Duff: Israel Hit Hard by EU Sanctions Linked to 1949, Not 1967, Borders, and Lack of Israeli Integrity in Dealing with Palestinian Issue

Israel Hit with EU War Crimes Sanctions

EU sanctions keep Israel guessing

In a surprise last minute move, the European Union set forth a strong set of economic sanctions against Israel, leaving that nation both surprised and reeling.

The sanctions, stimulated by what the EU refers to as “Israeli intransigence” regarding peace talks with the Palestinians, cover all financial dealings, loans, awards, transfer of “instruments” and severely limiting economic cooperation between Israel and all EU member nations starting in 2014.

The sanctions are against any Israeli “economic activity,” not just within what has been referred to as the “occupied territories” but broad areas of Israel that had been designated for the establishment of an “Arab State” in 1949.

Read full article.

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2013/07/192013/07/19

John Maguire: Russia Goes to Full Strategic Combat Readiness (Troops & Bombers) Exercise in Eastern District (Furthest from Middle East)

Civil Society, Corruption, Government, Idiocy, Media, Military, Peace Intelligence

While everyone is distracted by the Trayvon Martin case….two stories.

From 14 July 2013:

WW3 Brews As Nation Distracted By Trayvon Martin Case

EXTRACT

Now enter new reports surfacing from the Russian Defense Ministry on orders of Vladimir Putin that the largest military ‘state of full combat readiness’ drill is taking place with around 160,000 troops ordered to report from all corners of the military. Specifically, the translated reports detail how Putin is calling together not just Armed Forces of Russia troops, but all forms of long-range aircraft, 70 naval ships, bomber and fighter aircraft, and so on.

According to a syndicated Russian announcement:

“On Friday, during a meeting with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu Russian, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an unexpected military drill, urging all forces to enter a state of full combat readiness on the night of July 13.”

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2013/07/192013/07/20

Jean Lievens: New Study War Does NOT Have Deep Evolutionary Roots — Robert Steele Comments 1.1

Cultural Intelligence, Peace Intelligence

New Study of Foragers Undermines Claim That War Has Deep Evolutionary Roots

One of the most insidious modern memes holds that war is innate, an adaptation bred into our ancestors by natural selection. This hypothesis—let’s call it the “Deep Roots Theory of War”–has been promoted by such intellectual heavyweights as Steven Pinker, Edward Wilson, Jared Diamond, Richard Wrangham, Francis Fukuyama and David Brooks.

The Deep Roots Theory addresses not just violent human aggression in general but a particular manifestation of it, involving attacks by one group against another. Deep Rooters often contend that–as warlike as we are today–we were much more warlike before the advent of civilization.

Pinker claims in his bestseller Better Angels of Our Nature that “chronic raiding and feuding characterize life in a state of nature.” In The Social Conquest of the Earth, Wilson calls warfare “humanity’s hereditary curse.” The Deep Roots Theory has become extraordinarily popular, especially considering that the evidence for it is extraordinarily flimsy (see “Further Reading” below).

A study published today in Science, ”Lethal Aggression in Mobile Forager Bands and Implications for the Origins of War,” provides more counter-evidence to the Deep Roots Theory. The study’s authors, anthropologists Douglas Fry and Patrik Soderberg of Abo Akademi University in Finland, say their findings “contradict recent assertions that [mobile foragers] regularly engage in coalitionary war against other groups.”

Read full article with links to recommended reading.

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2013/07/192013/07/19

SmartPlanet: Biomimicry as Meta-Design Inspiration

Design, Earth Intelligence

Look to nature for lessons in building resiliency

Mary Catherine O'Connor | July 18, 2013

The Earth is changing at a climatic level, and we humans, in the wake of a growing list of extreme weather events and years-long trends, are scrambling to react. Within the built environment (which includes everything from utility grids to residential homes), designers and architects are turning the focus toward what is emerging as a buzzword: resiliency.

New York Mayor Bloomberg last month announced that the city will spend $20 billion on a program to make its infrastructure more capable of surviving Sandy-like superstorms in the future, which could cost the city upwards of $90 billion by 2050, as sea levels continue an upward march. One research group says the global “climate adaptation services” industry is already worth $2 billion. The U.S. Green Building Council is also considering a plan to give builders Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) points for constructing weather- and natural disaster-resilient buildings, because a green building is one that doesn’t need to be rebuilt when disaster hits.

This begs the question: how do we make the built environment more resilient?

For the architecture and engineering firm HOK, the pathway is found in nature. HOK formed an alliance in 2007 with Biomimicry 3.8, a non-profit that helps organizations and educators find design inspiration in biology, and it has been integrating biomimetic principles into projects such as a Haitian orphanage.

Full story below the line.

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2013/07/162013/07/16

Anthony Judge: Can NATO Learn to Think for Itself?

Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Government, Non-Governmental, Peace Intelligence

I have been mulling over your post, 2013 Robert Steele Reflections on NATO 4.0 — Key Challenges AND Solutions [Written for NATO ACT Innovation Hub].

My sense, for myself, is that we have moved into a new cognitive space in which issues of comprehensibility, credibility and deliverability become fundamental in a context in which attention time is limited.

I no longer think that rational articulations can be either comprehended or delivered — other than use of missiles, if that is to be framed as rational.

Little attention is given to the decision-making dynamics and what to do with those who disagree — other than to design them out

Also of relevance is how to design in that which others perceive as having been designed out.

I think the scope for dialogue on such matters is now very limited. It is interesting to note the messy range of comments on any proposed scheme in a newspaper article. There is no scope or suggestion to map those in any meaningful way. The assumption is that some are “wrong” and some are “right” — with each variously labeling the other. No use is made of argument mapping techniques. Why is the interesting question.

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2013/07/162013/07/16

SmartPlanet: Africa Boom Held Back by Infrastructure Gap — China Investing, Rail Could Be Next Thing

03 Economy, 08 Wild Cards, Earth Intelligence

Africa is the world’s fastest growing continent

The number of Africans living below the poverty line has fallen dramatically and the business climate is good. So what's holding back the fastest growing continent in the world?

With a projected average growth rate of 6 percent from 2013-2015 and one-third of African countries with economic growth rates currently above 6 percent, the African Development Bank says that Africa is now the fastest growing continent in the world.

In a new report, the African Development Bank Group says that 350 million Africans now earn between $2 and $20 a day as the share of the population living below the poverty line has fallen from 51 percent to 39 percent.

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2013/07/162013/07/16

Neal Rauhauser: Visualizing the Global Terrorism Database

Cultural Intelligence, Government, Ineptitude, Military, Peace Intelligence

Visualizing the Global Terrorism Database

I received a cryptic note from a colleague earlier tonight:

“This one has time AND location data.”

The email contained a link to the Global Terrorism Database, which is maintained at the University of Maryland at College Park, which is an easy walk from a green line stop on the D.C. Metro. I poked around the site a bit and discovered that everything from 1970 through 2011 is available for download if you just fill out a form.

The total content is large so I pulled out the 5,066 events from 2011. There are an amazing 127 attributes for each event, but it’s a sparse row setup, very easy to process. I unrolled just a few key items – city, country, and region. This resulted in over 15,000 lines indexed with their twelve digit event IDs. The first rough visualization I did was immediately exciting in terms of what was visible.

Read full article with additional graphics.

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