Commerce – Page 307 – Public Intelligence Blog

2011/07/302011/10/22

Tom Atlee: Citizens Panel Cuts 2.2 Trillion in One Hour

Advanced Cyber/IO, Analysis, Budgets & Funding, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Commerce, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Government, IO Deeds of Peace, Methods & Process, Military, Policies

Dear friends,

The 160-person British Columbian Citizens Assembly on Electoral Reform took every other weekend for a year to research and reach consensus on the best method for their province's election process.

The fourteen citizens in a Danish Consensus Conference take several weekends over several months to learn about their assigned technical issue and come up with shared recommendations for Parliament and the public.

A 24-person Citizen Initiative Review of the kind now institutionalized in Oregon takes a week to figure out how to best advise voters on a given ballot initiative.

Similar Citizens Juries on all kinds of subjects also take about a week.

The dozen citizens selected for MACLEAN'S magazine's 1991 “People's Verdict” deliberations took just three days to come up with a lengthy vision for Canada's future direction.

A Wisdom Council often takes just two days to come up with a consensus statement sharing their concerns and dreams for their community.

Hundreds or thousands of people in a 21st Century Town Meeting take one day to make decisions on the issue that they have been assigned.

And now ABC News gave five citizens of diverse political beliefs one hour to solve the deficit crisis that Washington can't seem to resolve in months. This small group's success is the special feature of this e-mailing, so check out ABC's very short video (2:43) about it

Continue reading “Tom Atlee: Citizens Panel Cuts 2.2 Trillion in One Hour”

2011/07/30

Chuck Spinney: Robert Bryce on Wind Power Falsehoods

Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Corruption, Earth Intelligence, Government

My good friend Robert Bryce carpet bombs the wind industry and highlights some very important issues in the process. He is author of several energy-related books, including the released book: Power Hungry: The Myths of ‘Green’ Energy and the Real Fuels of the Future (PublicAffairs, April 27, 2010), which is an excellent description of the of some show stopping limitations of the current menu non-nuclear green technologies.

Weekend Edition
July 29 – 31, 2011

The Global Backlash Against Wind Energy

T. Boone's Windy Misadventure

By ROBERT BRYCE, Counterpunch

Phi Beta Iota: There is no lack of open source information necessary to create public intelligence in the public interest. There is only a lack of integrity among all concerned–from government to corporations to parasitic think tanks and non-profits whose existence is rooted in pleasing masters with money rather serving the public interest. Particularly troubling is the US Governments refusal to be honest about either the carbon costs or the ecological costs (thousands of birds and bats being wiped out), and refusing to carry out its Congressionally-mandated duties with respect to protecting the environment from corporate predators.

2011/07/29

John Robb: Failure of the Global System Soon?

Blog Wisdom, Civil Society, Commerce, Corruption, Earth Intelligence, Key Players, Policies

JOURNAL: Early Failure of the Global System

It's impossible to fully measure the impact of disruptive attack on a complex system until it actually plays out. Why? There might be hidden negative or positive feedback loops in the system that either dampen or accelerate the initial damage of the disruptive attack. That's the problem with the fight in the US Congress over the debt ceiling. The system that is being upset is soooo complex that we don't have a clue what the damage will be or how much damage has already been done until it plays out.

What we do know is that the financial and economic system that is being disrupted is extremely leveraged. Further, the entire global economy is entirely dependent on massive deficit spending just to avoid another collapse. Which means that nearly any disruption can result in damage far in excess of the original attack. It is also tightly coupled on a global level. This means that any event in Washington can quickly spread to the rest of world in seconds. The best analogy I can think of at the moment is a pilot of an F-16 trying to rewire his cockpit's instrumentation while in a high G turn to evade a bogey on his six. Needless to say, it's unlikely to end well.

The only silver lining I can take from this is that all of the factors causing a slow unwind of the current system have the potential of being accelerated. That's good? Yes, if only for one reason. We're not as bad off as we would be in a couple of years if this current trajectory continued. The problems would only be worse and our ability to recover from them less.

Regardless, take this opportunity to really think about how you can make a living and protect your family in a full blown global economic depression with all of its negative consequences. A six month stockpile of canned/freeze dried goods and two dozen boxes of ammo won't get you through it. You need a real game plan.

2011/07/262011/07/26

John Steiner: Christopher Schaefer on Wealth

03 Economy, 11 Society, Advanced Cyber/IO, Articles & Chapters, Blog Wisdom, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence, Earth Intelligence, Ethics, Government

Christopher Schaefer (PhD), gives us both a short essay below recommending two books, and at the link, a five-page essay, “Mind the Gap: Wealth Disparities, the Deficit, and our Economic Future.”

CREATING COMMON WEALTH

Christopher Schaefer

It is now clear that the present global economic crisis is also a political and moral crisis raising fundamental questions about the nature of market capitalism in the West, in particular in the United States and England. Old arguments from the Right and the Left about more government involvement in society or less are often deemed irrelevant as the system is perceived as being corrupt and manipulated by economic and political elites. A recent Pew Research Poll found that over 92 percent of Americans viewed the economy as bad, over 70 percent say they have suffered job related or financial hardship as a result of the great recession, 25 percent say they have difficulty paying their mortgage and 24 percent in paying their medical bills. Meanwhile 65 percent see government in a negative light and large banks and large corporations as corrupt, ( 67 and 64 percent respectively ). Or as David Korten states in Agenda for a New Economy, (Berrett Koehler) “conservatives and liberals share a sense that the dominant culture and institutions of the contemporary world are morally and spiritually bankrupt, unresponsive to human needs and values , and destructive of the strong families and communities we crave and our children desperately need.(1)

Korten's book is an excellent beginning in rethinking how our economy should be organized and should function. He makes a strong case for a 12 point agenda in achieving independence from Wall Street and and in creating a more local and sustainable economic future. The 12 point Agenda includes:

Continue reading “John Steiner: Christopher Schaefer on Wealth”

2011/07/24

John Robb: Economy Cashes, Farm Crime Skyrockets

01 Agriculture, 09 Justice, 11 Society, Civil Society, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Law Enforcement

Farm thefts in California. From copper to iron to avocados to bees to solar panels. Combo of economic depression/financial collapse (a loss of legitimacy) that continues to ravage CA and legal decay (budgets to protect against this are down by 50% in three years

EXTRACT

Like many lawmen in vast agricultural areas, Sheriff Anderson said a major challenge was the remoteness of farms and the lack of witnesses. “It’s not like breaking into the neighbor’s house and the dog barking,” he said. “These things are just sitting out here in the middle of nowhere.”

Phi Beta Iota: This one quote is gripping, because it describes the insanity of what the US Government is trying to do with Homeland Security: “It’s difficult to lock up 1,400-plus acres,” he said. “The value of the fences would be worth more than I’m worth.”

2011/07/222011/07/24

Koko: Hospitals Riskier than Flying…

07 Health, 07 Other Atrocities, 11 Society, Articles & Chapters, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Corruption, IO Impotency

Gorilla Kitten on Top — Koko the Reflexive

Hospital stays are riskier than flying, says WHO

CTV News.ca Staff

Date: Friday Jul. 22, 2011 12

EXTRACT

According to Sir Liam Donaldson, the WHO's newly-appointed Envoy for Patient Safety, the chances of dying from a medical error in a hospital anywhere in the world is about 1 in 300. That compares with the risk of dying in a plane crash, of about 1 in 10 million passengers.

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Phi Beta Iota: this story encapsulates much of what is wrong with modern society, from fog facts (knowns that are not known by most) to corruption. When combined with the documentation on 50% of every health dollar being waste, and the larger challenge of incoherent uniniformed policy across all ten threats and all twelve core policy domains.

See Also:

Graphic: Information Pathologies

Graphic: Intelligence Maturity Scale

2011/07/222011/07/22

Venessa Miemis: Share or Die–Find Your Tribe and Do

03 Economy, 11 Society, Advanced Cyber/IO, Blog Wisdom, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Commerce, Ethics, Gift Intelligence

This post is a contribution i made to Shareable magazine’s new ebook – Share or Die. hope you enjoy my story.

Share or Die

It’s October 2010, and I’m reclined in an all expenses paid seat in business class on a flight to Berlin. I’m going there for two weeks to collaborate on a video project with a couple of artists I met online, then flying to Amsterdam to present the video to a room full of bankers at the largest financial services conference on the planet. I’m not a media producer, nor do I work in the financial industry. All I can think to myself is “How the hell did I get here?”

. . . . . . .

Now I see this life as an Epic Adventure, with each of us in control of being the hero of our own personal mission. Here are three big insights I’ve had these past few years that make me confident in this belief:

Your community already exists, and is waiting for you.

Your vision already exists – it is a shared one.

The tools of empowerment already exist, and are ready to be wielded.

The pieces you need really are there, they’re just often hard to recognize. I went through a long phase of utter despair and hopelessness, and had no idea how to move forward. Only after putting myself out there with authenticity and a beginner’s mind did I see I was surrounded by a community of change agents with the heart, the vision, and the capacity to act.

As we all move forward in building the kind of society we want to see and the lives we want to lead, we realize more and more that everything is interconnected and we can go further by connecting, collaborating, and amplifying each other’s efforts than by stubbornly trying to reinvent the wheel.

We’re all in this together. Find your tribe and go change the world.

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