Journal: Baffling Patterns Form in Scientific Sandbox

Academia, Analysis, Earth Intelligence, Media, Methods & Process

Full Story Online
Full Story Online

Brandon Keim

October 28, 2009

NOTE: Brandon Keim’s Twitter stream and reportorial outtakes; Wired Science on Twitter. Brandon is currently working on a book about ecosystem and planetary tipping points.

With nothing more than beads in a glass box, physicists have revealed yet another mysterious property of granular solids, now recognized by scientists as a unique state of matter, like solids or gases.

When the box was filled to the brim and rotated, the beads moved in patterns known from convection clouds — another system whose basic physical dynamics are only dimly understood.

The experiment, displayed in a video posted Monday to arXiv, was a variation on one performed 70 years ago by Japanese physicist Yositsi Oyama, who observed that beads of different sizes placed in a rotating circular drum would eventually self-sort by size.

That intriguing result set in motion the study of granular solids, which behave in ways that can’t be predicted with known physical laws. And though research has accelerated in the last decade, scientific understanding of granularity is roughly akin to that of fluid dynamics in the 18th century.

Worth a Look: Journal of Future Studies

Academia, Methods & Process, Worth A Look

Journal Web Site
Journal Web Site

Journal of Futures Studies
Epistemology, Methods, Applied and Alternative Futures

The Journal of Futures Studies (JFS) is published by the Graduate Institute of Futures Studies, Tamkang University, Tamsui, Taipei, Taiwan. The editors invite contributors in the areas of foresight, forecasting, long-range planning, visioning and other related areas.

The Journal's approach is:

Continue reading “Worth a Look: Journal of Future Studies”

Journal: Black Spots–Ongoing Research

08 Wild Cards, 09 Terrorism, 10 Security, Academia, Peace Intelligence
Black Spot Program
Black Spot Program

To date we have identified over 80 and mapped 50 such Black Spots and begun to assess the types of interactions going on in these areas as well as the various kinds of insecurity that they are exporting and the directions in which it is or may be going. We continually scan the globe for other areas where conditions seem right for the presence of a Black Spot. Using published materials, news-scanning software, formal and informal interviews, and, where feasible, visits to the areas, we piece together a picture of the Global Black Spots, their nature, and their interactions with the outside world.

Continue reading “Journal: Black Spots–Ongoing Research”

Worth a Look: Medard Gabel, EarthGame and More

Academia, Commerce, Earth Intelligence, Peace Intelligence, Policies, Threats, Topics (All Other), True Cost, Worth A Look
Professor Medard Gabel
Professor Medard Gabel

Medard Gabel was for many years #2 to Buckminister Fuller, and a co-creator of the analog World Game.  As a founding director of Earth Intelligence Network, a 501c3 Public Charity, he created–and retains ownership of–the EarthGame.

Earth Tools = Serious Structured Games
Earth Tools = Serious Structured Games

Below are four specific modules that can be used NOW to excite both students and executives about the importance of sustainable design, strategic analysis, and the unity of knowledge–what E. O. Wilson calls Consilience.

Advise the President
of the United States in the
Presidential Advisor Game
learn more …

Save the World
from climate disaster in the
Climate Change Game

learn more …

Green Your Campus
in the
Campus GreenGame

learn more …

Bring Peace to the World
in the
World PeaceGame

learn more …

Other BigPictureSmallWorld programs and simulations include the LeadershipGame, The FutureGame and our week-long summer program at the United Nations and Chestnut Hill College—the Design Science Lab.

Phi Beta Iota strongly recommends anything and everything that Medard Gabel has created and offers.Give him a call to see how one of his programs will fit into your program today at 610.566.0156!

NOTE:  We *will* create the World Brain and the EarthGame, it is only a matter of when, not if.  Get started now by engaging Medard Gabel to show you how you can make sense, make strategy, and advance the common good while achieving your own worthy goals.

Journal: Human Terrain Team (HTT) Project Now Dabbling in Propaganda

Academia, Military, Peace Intelligence
Full Story Online
Full Story Online

The Numbers

A Run at the Latest Data from ABC's Poobah of Polling, Gary Langer

. . . . . . .

One of these polls was released Aug. 9 by an outfit called Glevum Associates, which appears from its website to be a military contractor engaged in producing psychological operations data as part of a U.S. Army counterinsurgency program, the Human Terrain System. The New York Times identified its poll as “financed by the United States government,” with no details; AP and Reuters did similarly.

Glevum did not return our repeated calls and e-mails for details, both methodological and in terms of the survey’s sponsorship, at the time of its release. Its methodological statement sounds satisfactory, but leaves some questions unanswered. Its poll was done July 8-17, more than a month before the election. Its full questionnaire, essential in discerning bias, was not released (rather, we got a PowerPoint summary).

. . . . . . . .

Phi Beta Iota:

Read the full story online to get a sense of how Human Terrain Team (HTT) Psychological Operations (PSYOP) is blowing back into US media, something specifically prohibited by legislation.

Continue reading “Journal: Human Terrain Team (HTT) Project Now Dabbling in Propaganda”

Academic Archive on Public Intelligence (1992-2006)

Academia
Archive 1992-2006
Archive 1992-2006

2003

US

Academic Andregg State of the Academic Tribe (Slides)

2003

US

Academic Andregg State of the Academic Tribe (Text)

2003

US

Academic Pak & Zadanowicz Estimate of Lost Tax Revenues (Text)

2003

US

Academic Pak & Zadanowicz Transfer Pricing Import-Export Tax Avoidance Fraud ($50B/Year in US)

1999

US

Academic Lepingwell Center for Nonproliferation Studies, MIIS (Briefing Slides)

1999

UK

Academic Ostle et al Oxford Analytica Contact Information of Special Study on Islam

1998

FR

Academic Baumard Learned Nations & Knowledge Strategies

1998

FR

Academic Bonthous Culture: The Missing Intelligence Variable

1997

GE

Academic Mayer-Kress The World Brain

1995

US

Academic Bender The Information Highway: Will Librarians Be Left by the Side of the Road?

1995`

US

Academic Heibel Research and Intelligence Analyst Program (RIAP) at Mercyhurst College

1994

US

Academic Kahin New Laws for Government & Business Operations in Cyberspace

1994

US

Academic Liddy An Intelligent Digital Librarian

1993

US

Academic Etheredge National Knowledge Strategies  in the IC and the Library of the Future

1993

US

Academic Jacso A Proposal for Database ‘Nutrition and Ingredient' Labeling

1993

US

Academic Toffler Keynote Address to OSS ’93 (Transcript)