Communities of Practice – Page 1362 – Public Intelligence Blog

Phi Beta Iota: We now know that no one briefed the White House on the fact that Iraq was deeply divided between Sunnis in power and Shi-ites under repression. We have to ask ourselves if anyone has figured out that Azerbaijan is the other Shi'ite majority nation.

Iran starts to introduce visa-free regime with Azerbaijan on February 1 – Head of the press service of the Iranian Embassy

Earlier Iranian Ambassador to Azerbaijan Mohammad Bagir Behrami said that any Azerbaijani citizen can travel to Iran without a visa and stay for one month.

The ambassador expressed hope that the Azerbaijani side will take a similar step.

ACNIS criticizes Azerbaijani president’s renewed threats of war

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian Center for National and International Studies (ACNIS) Director Richard Giragosian issued a statement today criticizing Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s renewed “threats of war.

Azerbaijani citizen arrested in Afghanistan on suspected link to al Qaeda

Baku. Elmin Ibrahimov-APA. Afghanistan National Security Directorate (NSD) has announced that a member of the al-Qaida network was arrested in the country’s eastern province of Khost.

Turkey urges Armenia to resolve problems with Azerbaijan

“Normalization of relations between Turkey and Armenia is not enough,” Turkish foreign ministry spokesman Burak Özügergin told a press briefing on Wednesday. “If Armenia does not resolve Upper Karabakh dispute with Azerbaijan, stability in the Caucasus can not be established. This is quite clear.”

Continue reading “Journal: Strong Signals–Azerbaijan in Play”

2010/01/022010/01/02

Journal: Rural; Cooperative; Wind; Fast–Any Questions?

05 Energy, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence, Earth Intelligence

Full Story Online

Rural Electric Cooperative Completes $240 Million Wind Farm in 4 Months

A North Dakota rural electric cooperative made history on New Year’s Eve, in completing the nation’s largest wind project to be entirely owned by a consumer cooperative.

The $240 million, 115.5 MW wind farm was begun in August and completed a mere four months later; three and a half hours before midnight on the last night of 2009. GE supplied the 77 1.5 MW turbines.

. . . . . . .

By the end of 2010 the cooperative hopes that it will produce 20% of its electricity from wind power for its 2.8 million rural consumers in parts of rural Colorado, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming.

. . . . . . .

1. Rural empty states are where the wind is.
2. Rural empty states are where electricity cooperatives are.
3. Rural empty state’s cooperatives are beating national averages in bringing the most renewable energy online the fastest.

Renewable capacity among rural electricity cooperatives grew 65% in 2008. The rest of us: 25%

2010/01/022010/01/02

Worth a Look: Economic Intelligence for the Public

Collaboration Zones, Communities of Practice, Ethics, Key Players, Policies, Worth A Look

Chris Martinsen's Free Crash Course on Economics

#	Chapter	Duration	Translations
—	Introduction (on this page, above)	1:47	Español, Français
1	Three Beliefs	1:46	Español, Français
2	The Three “E”s	1:38	Español, Français
3	Exponential Growth	6:20	Español, Français
4	Compounding is the Problem	3:06	Español, Français
5	Growth vs. Prosperity	3:40	Español, Français
6	What is Money?	5:55	Español, Français
7	Money Creation	4:19	Español, Français
8	The Fed – Money Creation	7:13	Español, Français
9	A Brief History of US Money	7:14	Español, Français
10	Inflation	11:48	Español, Français
11	How Much Is A Trillion?	3:28	Español, Français
12	Debt	12:32	Español, Français
13	A National Failure To Save	12:06	Español, Français
14	Assets & Demographics	13:41	Español, Français
15	Bubbles	14:10	Español, Français
16	Fuzzy Numbers	15:52	Español, Français
17a	Part A: Peak Oil	17:52	Español, Français
17b	Part B: Energy Budgeting	12:15	Español, Français
17c	Part C: Energy And The Economy	7:05	Español, Français
18	Environmental Data	16:22	Español, Français
19	Future Shock	8:02	Español, Français
20	What Should I Do?	19:48	Español, Français

Tip of the Hat to pinecarr, who provided this comment at Book: INTELLIGENCE FOR EARTH–Chapter 7 Loaded.

Retired Reader states “Identifying what he [Robert D. Steele] conceives as the ten major threats to humanity as the bases for designing a global intelligence system is exactly the way to begin.” I couldn’t agree more.

Given that, and as someone who greatly admires your ability to digest huge amounts of information in your pursuit of truth, I would like to bring “The Crash Course”, by Dr. Chris Martenson, to your attention. It is available free on-line..

I think Chris’s 5 year search for the truth -relating to interacting problems in the economy, energy, and environment- complements your search for larger truths, just starting from a different perspective. I also think the knowledge he conveys may contribute additional insights for your assessment of the top threats to humanity.

For an independent review of the Crash Course by the Huffington Post, see “The Perfect Crash Course on the Economy”.

EXTRACT from Huffington Post (a great review) on the author's three core points:

“The first is that the next twenty years are going to be completely unlike the last twenty years. Second, I believe that its possible that the pace and/or scope of change could overwhelm the ability of our key social and support institutions to adapt. Third, I believe we do not lack any technology or understanding necessary to build ourselves a better future.”

2010/01/022010/01/02

Journal: Financial Intelligence for the Public

03 Economy, 11 Society, Commercial Intelligence, Communities of Practice, Ethics

Stiglitz’s 5 Lessons from 2009

Thursday, 12/31/2009 – 12:01 pm by Joseph Stiglitz

New Deal 2.0

Roosevelt Institute Braintruster and Nobel laureate Joe Stiglitz identifies five lessons we can take away from the financial crisis.

The best that can be said for 2009 is that it could have been worse, that we pulled back from the precipice on which we seemed to be perched in late 2008, and that 2010 will almost surely be better for most countries around the world. The world has also learned some valuable lessons, though at great cost both to current and future prosperity — costs that were unnecessarily high given that we should already have learned them.

The first lesson is that markets are not self-correcting. Indeed, without adequate regulation, they are prone to excess. In 2009, we again saw why Adam Smith’s invisible hand often appeared invisible: it is not there. The bankers’ pursuit of self-interest (greed) did not lead to the well-being of society; it did not even serve their shareholders and bondholders well. It certainly did not serve homeowners who are losing their homes, workers who have lost their jobs, retirees who have seen their retirement funds vanish, or taxpayers who paid hundreds of billions of dollars to bail out the banks.

Continue reading “Journal: Financial Intelligence for the Public”

2010/01/01

Journal: What Is Your Organization’s Mission?

Communities of Practice, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Policies

Full Story Online

Peggy Noonan

Look Ahead With Stoicism—and Optimism

While so many of our institutions have failed, we can repair them. The first step is to take personal responsibility.

Maybe the most worrying trend the past 10 years can be found in this phrase: “They forgot the mission.” So many great American institutions—institutions that every day help hold us together—acted as if they had forgotten their mission, forgotten what they were about, what their role and purpose was, what they existed to do. You, as you read, can probably think of an institution that has forgotten its reason for being. Maybe it's the one you're part of.

Phi Beta Iota: The Op-Ed reads like Paradigms of Failure, and this ia good thing. The American public is awake now, and moderate right to mdoerate left, 43% of the eligible voters now Independent and most very angry with the failure of all of our institutions and most especially the two-party tyranny–if President Barack Obama does not break from his partisan colleagues and sponsor Electoral Reform in time for 2010, the Second American Revolution may just show itself in a massive housecleaning, a “pox” on both houses, both parties.

2010/01/012010/01/01

Worth a Look: Israeli Connections to USS Cole & 9-11

04 Inter-State Conflict, 08 Wild Cards, 9-11 articles, Ethics, Government, Military, Peace Intelligence, Worth A Look

photo israel and 9-11 — Israel, USS Cole, 9-11

Phi Beta Iota: This is worth a look rather than a reference because we have not had time to evaluate it properly. It most certainly is worth a look. Israel is known to have attacked the USS Liberty, and similar to the USA being responsible for Abu Ghraib, such a crime against humanity cannot be forgotten.

We are especially troubled by the USS Cole allegation with respect to the Israeli's using a cruise missile. Unfortunately, the US Government has a track record of covering up “friendly” attacks (USS Liberty) as well as “enemy” attacks (USS Scorpion) so the bottom line is that we have no reliable source of information on any of this.

photo cb — Christopher Bollyn, Independent Journalist "Without Frontier"

This material furthers our deep interest in strategic public counterintelligence. It is a certainty that no one is defending the USA from “white collar” domestic enemies, and we are generally doing more to incite foreign enemies than to contain them. We are increasingly seeing the discipline of counter-intelligence as one that demands that we know ourselves–that we look deeply into our soul, and that we find and eradicate all those commiting treason against the Republic, including those who collaborate in the murder of Americans for “higher purposes.”

Separately Christopher Boyllyn, a self-described journalist “without frontier” who has standing with Prison Planet and Mike Ruppert, former LAPD who wrote Crossing the Rubicon, has posted a number of items also worth a look.

To that end, we respectfully post these two links for public consideration.

2010/01/012010/01/01

Journal: CIA Morphing into Paramilitary Organization

08 Wild Cards, Government

A few more details about the loss of those 7 CIA officers and a lot more questions about tradecraft. Such as in country like Afghanistan where the rocks have eyes should a penetration agent be brought to a major CIA base prior to being rcruited for a mission?

C.I.A. Takes On Bigger and Riskier Role on Front Lines

By MARK MAZZETTI

December 31, 2009

WASHINGTON — The deaths of seven Central Intelligence Agency operatives at a remote base in the mountains of Afghanistan are a pointed example of the civilian spy agency’s transformation in recent years into a paramilitary organization at the vanguard of America’s far-flung wars.