Dolphin: Intelligence Reform? Not Here, Not Now…
Government, Ineptitude
Some odds and ends, quick reads.
2013 Incomplete Intelligence Reform: Why the US Intelligence Community Needs an Empowered DNI Michael Rettig in Diplomatic Courier (12 February 2013)
Bottom line: DNI has been neutered from day one — no budget authority, no operational authority, a staff of over a thousand promoted beyond their abilities.
2012 The Next Four Years: Intelligence Community Reform – Refining not Rebooting Frank B. Strickland in IBM Business of Government Blog (18 October 2012)
2012 A Personal Perspective The Evolution of Intelligence Reform, 2002–2004 Phillip Zelikow in Studies in Intelligence (17 October 2012)
Amid all the particular issues, what stood out was the emphasis both Rice and Hadley placed—with support from others—on integrating intelligence, on a fusion of information available to all.
Claims the reforms have improved management, bridged the fault line between foreign and domestic, improved the integration of major analytic assessments, and made the National Counterterrorism Center an important innovation.
2012 Reforming Intelligence vs.Intelligent Reforms Zenpundit (5 December 2012)
Worth reading. First comment by J. Scott Shippman: The IC should consider themselves in good company, as no one in DC is held accountable, and adults seem to be an endangered species.
Continue reading “Dolphin: Intelligence Reform? Not Here, Not Now…”
Round-Up: Global Trends 2030 at PBI/PBI
Director of National Intelligence et al (IC), Earth Intelligence, Government, Ineptitude
2011 Robert Steele: Global Trends 2030 – Gaps + RECAP
Graphic: Global Trends 2030 Elements of Country Power
Graphic: Global Trends 2030 US GDP Comparative Collapse
Graphic: Global Trends 2030 Water Stress
NIGHTWATCH: Restrospective Review of Global Trends 2010
Review: Global Trends 2030 – Alternative Worlds [Paperback, Well Priced]
21 Graphic Depictions of US Health Costs Compared to Other Nations + Health Fraud RECAP
03 Economy, 06 Family, 07 Health, 11 Society, Commerce, Corruption, Government21 graphs that show America’s health-care prices are ludicrous
Every year, the International Federation of Health Plans — a global insurance trade association that includes more than 100 insurers in 25 countries — releases survey data showing the prices that insurers are actually paying for different drugs, devices, and medical services in different countries. And every year, the data is shocking.
The IFHP just released the data for 2012. And yes, once again, the numbers are shocking.
Chuck Spinney: BIll Moyer on Incestuous Amplification
Corruption, Government, Idiocy, IO Deeds of War, Media, Military
Inside the Decider's Head II
For a case study in incestuous amplification and a detailed description of how it infects an entire culture, watch this video, which first aired in 2007.
Continue reading “Chuck Spinney: BIll Moyer on Incestuous Amplification”
Winslow Wheeler: Marine Corps and the F-35 — Outright Lies, Deception, and a Total Lack of Intelligence with Integrity
Corruption, Idiocy, Military
Marine F-35 Jump-Jet PR: Caveataxpayer Emptor
By Winslow Wheeler March 27, 2013
The Marines issued a flashy press release last week: “first operational F-35B conducts initial Vertical Landing.” It was an amateurish, somewhat slimy piece of hype.In one important way, the press release contradicted itself, and in another it inadvertently revealed one of the many reasons why the Marines' Short Take-Off and Vertical Landing (STOVL) version of the F-35 – that's the F-35B – will never be the battlefield-based close-combat support bomber the Marines like to advertise it as.
The corps' headquarters' release repeatedly described the “operational” nature of “the first STOVL flight for an F-35B outside of the test environment.” It also characterized the event as “another milestone” toward “revolutionizing expeditionary Marines air-ground combat power,” that perhaps-the press released tried hard to imply-would be available for combat use as soon as “late 2013.”
The press release, which was formatted as if it were some sort of news article, inadvertently cued alert readers to the fact that this “first” “operational” “STOVL flight for an F-35B outside of the test environment” was flown by a test pilot.
Note Special Pad, Cannot Land on Normal Surfaces
His name is Maj. Richard Rusnok, as the press release says, and as a different Marine Corps press exercise reveals, he has been flying for 13 years.
In the world of F-35-double-talk, it is apparently reasonable to announce flights as operational when they are flown by test pilots.
The term “operational” was stretched even further in a second respect in the press release, which featured the photograph above showing the F-35B landing vertically with its lift fan doors open and its flaps deflected. Note the area below the aircraft; note that same area in the later stages of a video at YouTube also released by the Marines' PR team.
Berto Jongman: Big Data for Fire Risk Now Pro-Active
Advanced Cyber/IO, Ethics, Government
This is a very big step from the past, when insurance companies charged premiums based on big data risk, but nothing was done on the front line — among the fire fighters – because they did not have the same access to such tool. Another excellent useful story from BBC.
