Commerce – Page 248 – Public Intelligence Blog

2013/01/212013/01/21

Yoda: There Is No Publishing Industry [This Has HUGE Implications for Education, Intelligence & Research]

In the tar pit, the mammoths are.

All models are wrong, some models are useful – statistician George Box

The mental model we share of this thing we call the publishing industry is no longer useful. Most of us think of the publishing industry’s product as “books”. That’s like thinking that Amazon sells two products, bits and cardboard boxes. Amazon ships stuff in cardboard boxes. It’s what’s inside the box that you are buying. Likewise, it’s the information contained in the bits that you are buying when you buy a digital product from Amazon.

Physical books were never really the publishing industry’s product. It was always the stories, ideas, and information contained in the books. Now that there are competing digital containers for almost everything that has traditionally been delivered via physical books, it is imperative that we take a hard look at the different industries which were hidden from view by our once-useful model of the publishing industry. Because these industries are moving to the digital world at vastly different rates and to very different digital containers: ebooks, apps, and the web. In my terminology, an app is a digital container that promotes user interaction with content rather than linear reading; an ebook is a self-contained reading unit mostly without external links; and the defining feature of the web is external linking. To understand the future of publishing, we have to let go of the idea of “the publishing industry” and look at its products based on the needs they fulfill.

The first [of four] industry to begin disappearing from the print world was the database packaging industry. Directories, encyclopedias, and dictionaries are well on their way to extinction in the print world. The mass-market products in this industry have moved almost entirely to the web. A few of the higher-end products have moved to specialized apps. Because this industry was always peripheral to the main business, many folks in publishing didn’t fully comprehend the implications of this change: some products that were previously only available as physical books had a natural affinity to a different form and business model.

Continue reading “Yoda: There Is No Publishing Industry [This Has HUGE Implications for Education, Intelligence & Research]”

2013/01/212013/01/21

Chuck Spinney: Obama is NOT a Liberal — Peggy Noonan’s Big Idea — Break Up the Banks

Commerce, Corruption, Ethics, Government

The Legacy of Timothy Geithner

By SIMON JOHNSON

New York Times, 17 January 2013

Simon Johnson, former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, is the Ronald A. Kurtz Professor of Entrepreneurship at the M.I.T. Sloan School of Management and co-author of White House Burning: The Founding Fathers, Our National Debt, and Why It Matters to You.

“Too big to fail is too big to continue. The megabanks have too much power in Washington and too much weight within the financial system.” Who said this and when?

The answer is Peggy Noonan, the prominent conservative commentator, writing recently in The Wall Street Journal.

. . . . . . . .

As Ms. Noonan puts it bluntly: “People think the G.O.P. is for the bankers. The G.O.P. should upend this assumption.”

This is a significant opportunity for anyone with clear thinking on the right – someone looking for a Teddy Roosevelt trustbusting or Nixon-goes-to-China moment. Again, Ms. Noonan gets it right: “In this case good policy is good politics. If you are a conservative you’re supposed to be for just treatment of the individual over the demands of concentrated elites.”

Recall that some grass roots conservatives are already there: House Republicans initially voted down TARP, the former presidential candidate Jon Huntsman’s plan to end too big to fail received widespread applause from many Republicans and a number of influential commentators, including George Will and Ms. Noonan, have advocated ending too big to fail.

This would play well in the Republican presidential primaries – and even better in the general election. Watch PBS “Frontline” on Jan. 22 for an articulate presentation of why serious potential financial crimes were not prosecuted during the first Obama administration, and think about how to turn these facts into political messages.

A smart candidate could even mobilize plenty of financial-sector support in favor of breaking up or otherwise restricting the too-big-to-fail financial entities. The megabanks have very few genuine friends.

The lasting legacy of Timothy Geithner is to create the perfect electoral issue for Republicans. Will they seize it?

Continue reading “Chuck Spinney: Obama is NOT a Liberal — Peggy Noonan's Big Idea — Break Up the Banks”

2013/01/212013/01/21

Eagle: Heal America, Tax Wall Street 1%

Civil Society, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Corruption, Ethics, Government

300 Million Talons... — 300 Million Talons…

1% Wall Street sales tax solution to stablize US federal budget: This would work!!

In the midst of the current haggling over the US federal budget, the main fact is being ignored: the fiscal shortfall of the US government over decades is largely due to Wall Street’s rigging of the tax code so that the main money center banks pay little or nothing in the way of taxes.

Like the haughty nobility in France before the Revolution of 1789, the Wall Street banks are practically exempt from taxation, and the burden of paying for the government is shifted to the middle class. Anybody who is serious about reducing the power of Wall Street bankers in US politics must now mobilize to educate public opinion about the situation and its main remedy – the 1% Wall Street Sales Tax.

Read full post.

United Front Against Austerity

Nationalize the Federal Reserve

1% Wall Stree Staff
0% Interest for Infrastructure and Production
Public Control of Money and Credit
Stop Predatory Financial Speculation

Webster Tarpley: Political Report to the United Front Against Austerity

See Also:

We the People Reform Coalition

2013/01/202013/01/20

SchwartzReport: Genetically Modified Food = Dead Bees No Pollination & Human Cancers in Throat, Kidneys, and Liver — Oh, We Almost Forgot — Infertility by the Third Generation of Eaters

Commerce, Corruption, Government

Common Pesticides Threaten Bees, E.U. Watchdog Warns
TANIA RABESANDRATANA – Science

In spite of all the money being spent by Monsanto, Syngenta, and Bayer Crop Science and others to buy off governments the truth about the connection between neonicotinoids and the collapse of the bees is finally breaking through.

Read full article.

The Great Experiment: Genetically Modified Organisms, Scientific Integrity, and National Wellness
STEPHAN A. SCHWARTZ, Columnist – Explore: The Journal of Science and Healing

EXTRACT:

As time went on, however, Surov and his team ‘noticed quite a serious effect when we selected new pairs’ from the previous generation's cubs. They ‘continued to feed them as before. These pairs' growth rate was slower and reached their sexual maturity slowly.' By the third generation, the hamsters were infertile.”

. . . . . . . . . .

But infertility was almost the least of the strange pathologies observed. The GM diet hamsters developed hair growing in recessed pouches inside their mouths.

. . . . . . . . . .

Jeffrey M. Smith of the Center for Global Research, describes what happened: ‘Within just 10 days, the animals developed potentially pre-cancerous cell growth, smaller brains, livers and testicles, partially atrophied livers, and damaged immune systems. Moreover, the cause was almost certainly side effects from the process of genetic engineering itself. In other words, the GM foods on the market, which are created from the same process, might have similar affects on humans.”

Read full article with active endnotes.

Continue reading “SchwartzReport: Genetically Modified Food = Dead Bees No Pollination & Human Cancers in Throat, Kidneys, and Liver — Oh, We Almost Forgot — Infertility by the Third Generation of Eaters”

2013/01/192016/03/26

Reflections on the Inability of Washington to Think with Integrity

All Reflections & Story Boards, Commerce, Corruption, Government, Idiocy, Ineptitude, Military, Non-Governmental

Power corrupts, no doubt about it. What most people miss is that it is not just about financial corruption that explicitly mis-directs scarce resources to benefit the few over the many (with Congress taking its standard 5% kick-back for delivering earmarks). Power also corrupts intellect. People forget how to think. They begin talking among themselves, shutting out external views, creating an incestuous cycle of circular citation. Col Mike Pheneger, then J-2 at the US Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) discovered this with respect to the Cuban Order of Battle (OOB), and I have found this myself on many occasions over the years.

Recently I have observed two deeply dysfunctional conversations in Washington. The first deals with intelligence and information overload, the second with the force structure requirements for the U.S. military beyond 2014.

Blithering Blobs of Blogdom

The intelligence discussion is best represented by SASA/INSA and The New America Foundation. The first fronts for the intelligence-industrial complex and the second for a mix of benefactors, none of whom appear actually interested in creating a government that works for all. Indeed, it can be said that the secret intelligence world and the “non-profit” think tank world share the same motivation: do whatever it takes to keep the money (inputs) moving, never mind the outputs or the outcomes.

Continue reading “Reflections on the Inability of Washington to Think with Integrity”

2013/01/19

SchwartzReport: Criminal Insanity in America – TSA, Monsanto, Scientologists

Commerce, Corruption, Government, Law Enforcement

TSA to Remove Controversial X-ray Scanners
JOSHUA FREED , Business Writer – The Associated Press

We spent several billion dollars on this this ill-conceived program, and it has come to this.

Monsanto Versus the People
CHARLOTTE SILVER – Aljazeera (Qatar)

Prop 37 went down in California thanks to a million dollar a day ad campaign funded by the pro-GMO corporate interests. But the fight against GMOs has not ended. Here is the latest on this trend.

15 Scientology Revelations From Lawrence Wright’s ‘Going Clear’
The Daily Beast

Scientology is such a bizarre organization, and so obviously the creation of a man with serious mental health issues, that it has always been hard to understand how some very competent people get involved — I had several scientist friends who got completely embroiled in it, much to my consternation. Lawrence Wright who is a meticulous journalist has searched out the truth about Scientology ! and produced an extraordinary non-fiction work of investigative reporting, Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief.

2013/01/172013/01/17

Warren Edward Pollock: Ann Barnhardt on the Record — SENTINEL & Other Frauds Stealing Your Future

03 Economy, 09 Justice, 10 Transnational Crime, 11 Society, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Corruption, Government, Law Enforcement

Published on Jan 16, 2013

Ann Barnhardt – August 14, 2012 – reposted by request

This was the 2007 pre-fraud, with full complicity from the US Government which “did not understand” and therefore “went ahead and signed off.” As Ann calls it, “evil incompetence” combined with malicious auditing and malicious litigation used to silence critics. Customer segregated funds no longer off limits, allows banks to use customer funds as collateral to fund proprietary bank speculation.

Phi Beta Iota: This is a video that should go viral. Bottom line: the US legal system is corrupt to the bone and no longer represents “Justice.”