Ethics – Page 144 – Public Intelligence Blog

2015/02/09

SchwartzReport: Norway Dumps Fossil Investments

03 Economy, 05 Energy, 07 Health, 08 Wild Cards, 11 Society, Ethics, Government

This is very positive news. The evolution of non-carbon energy into not one but several alternatives that are both non-polluting and cheaper coupled with the divestiture movement is proceeding change faster than anyone foresaw. Both trends represent the success that is possible by taking the most compassionate and life-affirming option of those available. This is also a story illustrating how a small group of individuals without official position, power, or personal wealth can create life-affirming social change. Norway holds particular interest in all this for me because it is an entire country pursuing a wellness-oriented social order. It has made Norweigan culture one of the most impressive in the world, and it is reasonable to ask: why aren't other nations following suit?

First Country in the World Dumps Fossil Fuels As Divestment Movement Heats Up

2015/02/06

Sepp Hasslberger: Essential Natural Oils Better than Anti-Biotics?

01 Agriculture, 07 Health, Earth Intelligence, Ethics

Are essential oils just as good and less damaging than antibiotics used widely in animals? Maybe here is a solution…

Essential Oils Might Be the New Antibiotics

Researchers have directly compared the effects of commonly used antibiotics with those of various essential oils. One such study, from the March 2012 issue of the Journal of Animal Science, found that rosemary and oregano oils resulted in the same amount of growth in chickens as the antibiotic avilamycin, and that the oils killed bacteria, too. Additional findings have shown that essential oils help reduce salmonella in chickens, and another study found that a blend of several oils can limit the spread of salmonella among animals.

2015/02/04

Robin Good: Future Journalism – Curation & Trust

Ethics, Media

Valuable insight for those interested in seeing how news curation and editor's choice approaches in journalism can benefit both the publisher and its audience a lot more than simply picking and aggregating interesting stories from other sites. One key relevant difference between aggregating news stories from other sources and editorially curated content is the role of the curator, a tangible person with specific value and ethics who readers come to respect, identify with and ultimately trust for his / her choices in what they should be paying attention to. Curation and trust may indeed form the basis of a new symbiotic [HUMAN] relationship between information seekers and subject-matter expert curators that will gradually displace the value of traditional algorithmic search.

The Future of News Journalism Will Be Built Around Curation and Trust

2015/02/022015/02/02

Seeking Eagle Scout Candidates in Fairfax

03 Environmental Degradation, Civil Society, Earth Intelligence, Ethics

Click on Image to Enlarge

Trailkeepers is a new program being piloted by a new non-profit (StreamTrails.org) in Fairfax County. It brings together Scouts, hikers, cyclists, and horseback riders to elevate the stream trails, now a neglected asset, to co-equal status with the more formal trails where taxpayer dollars fund manpower, equipment, and improvement. The core concept is simple: those using the stream trails nominate needed bridges, obstacles, heavy litter (rubber tires, for example); Scouts (and others) do the volunteer work; and the Park Authority, which is in the middle of a Needs Assessment, changes its policies to respect citizen needs while providing the necessary oversight for insurance, legal, and safety in the public interest (under the old policies, footbridges built by citizens are an encroachment subject to destruction at taxpayer expense).

Continue reading “Seeking Eagle Scout Candidates in Fairfax”

2015/01/282015/01/28

Yoda: End of Servers III – BitTorrent Maelstrom — Open Power Beginning to Rock!

Advanced Cyber/IO, Civil Society, Ethics

BitTorrent Tests Websites Hosted in the Crowd, Not the Cloud

An experimental browser shows how peer-to-peer technology can serve up entire websites, not just individual files.

An experimental new Web browser makes it possible for sites to be hosted not on a company’s servers but, instead, by a shifting crowd of individuals on their personal computers. That turns the usual approach to serving up websites on its head and could provide a more effective and reliable way to disseminate bulky media files or distribute vital information in the event of natural disaster.

Continue reading “Yoda: End of Servers III – BitTorrent Maelstrom — Open Power Beginning to Rock!”

2015/01/282015/01/28

Martin Petersen: Lessons Learned Doing Intelligence Analysis for Makers of US Foreign Policy

Advanced Cyber/IO, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Government, IO Impotency

What I Learned in 40 Years of Doing Intelligence Analysis for US Foreign Policymakers

Martin Petersen, Studies in Intelligence, 2011

PDF (8 Pages): Petersen-What I Learned-20Apr2011

Policymakers do not always see how we can help them.

Continue reading “Martin Petersen: Lessons Learned Doing Intelligence Analysis for Makers of US Foreign Policy”

2015/01/24

Sepp Hasslberger: End of Servers II – Future of the Internet

Advanced Cyber/IO, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics

They have been working on it for years and it seems ready to go now. I believe that the SAFE network could be our chance of re-making the internet from the bottom up, using our own resources instead of centralised servers for our data and our communications.

Project SAFE (Secure Access For Everyone) aims to create a decentralized and secure Internet 2.0 (here is a whitepaper). The SAFE Network is a secure and fully decentralized data management service. The network is made up from the unused computer resources provided by the network users.

Continue reading “Sepp Hasslberger: End of Servers II – Future of the Internet”