John Steiner: US State Department Clueless on Tar Sands

03 Economy, 05 Energy, 08 Wild Cards, 12 Water, Civil Society, Commerce, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Earth Intelligence, Government, IO Impotency, Misinformation & Propaganda
John Steiner

Canada-U.S. Oil Pipeline Poses Few Environmental Risks — State Dept.

EXTRACT:

Sierra Club executive director Michael Brune slammed the department's review as “an insult to anyone who expects government to work for the interests of the American people.”

U.S. Offers Key Support to Canadian Pipeline

Phi Beta Iota:  Neither the Department of State, nor any other branch of government nor even the environmentalists themselves, are doing holistic analytics.  At root this project is wrong for two reasons: it uses water we cannot afford to waste to flush the tar, and it creates a third rate oil follow-on ecology–doing the wrong thing writer as Russell Ackoff would say.   The US Government lacks the ability to do holistic analytics, and therefore it is incapable of rendering sound decisions in a complex world.

See Also:

John Steiner: Save Water from Big Oil, Get Arrested in DC

Harrison Owen: August Morning Reflection & Invitation…

11 Society, Advanced Cyber/IO, Blog Wisdom, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence, Earth Intelligence, Ethics, Methods & Process
Harrison Owen

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.

Ho.

Harrison

 

August Morning: A time for Reflection and an Invitation…

Event: 8-11 Sep Toronto World Hearings on 9/11 + RECAP

07 Other Atrocities, 09 Terrorism, 11 Society, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Government, Military

International Hearings on the Events of September 11, 2001

Sponsored by The International Center for 9/11 Studies

Objectives of the Hearings:

(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.

See Also: (RECAP):

Continue reading “Event: 8-11 Sep Toronto World Hearings on 9/11 + RECAP”

John Robb: Free Online Open Source Education + RECAP

04 Education, Academia, Advanced Cyber/IO, Blog Wisdom, Book Lists, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Gift Intelligence, InfoOps (IO), Methods & Process
John Robb

JOURNAL: Open Source Education

A couple of years back I asked (in the article “Industrial Education” which is worth a read):

“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.

Free Online Class on Artificial Intelligence

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.

Free Online & RECAP Links Below the Line

Continue reading “John Robb: Free Online Open Source Education + RECAP”

(Video) Human Resources: Social Engineering in the 20th Century

Academia, Civil Society, Commerce, Corruption, Government, Media, Military, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy, Technologies, Videos/Movies/Documentaries
Watch the movie online here for free


This has been added to a new “mega-list” of documentaries worth seeing that is in development.

Also see:

“The Century of the Self”: Must-See Documentary on Psychology, Advertising, Consumerism and Control


 

John Robb: Gold Bubble–Gold Not Welcome in New Era

03 Economy, 08 Wild Cards, Blog Wisdom, Civil Society, Commerce, Corruption, Earth Intelligence
John Robb

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.

See Also:

Continue reading “John Robb: Gold Bubble–Gold Not Welcome in New Era”