NOW HIRING: NYPD Any Street Corner Anywhere

Offbeat Fun
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Bloomberg Ties Terror Plot to Lex Luther

By David Swanson

The Smirking Chimp, 21 November 2011

In a hastily thrown together press conference Sunday afternoon, several months in the planning, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said his efforts to spread freedom beyond New York City had included the deployment of 1,000 NYPD officers to Schenectady, where they have just apprehended a young man inspired by Al Qaeda and Occupy Wall Street propaganda provided to him by the NYPD on a regular basis since September.

The arrest could not await an opportunity to persuade the FBI of the seriousness or sanity of the matter, Bloomberg said, as the evildoer had apparently packed a marijuana bong with Christmas lights and was prepared to attempt unspeakable acts imminently. Although the materials were intentionally defective, having been provided to the terrorist on Saturday by the NYPD, a careful analysis identified a greater than one percent likelihood of an attack on a local Home Depot store with which the terrorist had previously quarreled over malfunctioning plumbing materials and staff he accused of “not knowing their elbow pipes from their assigned aisles.”

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BrowGate: Ron Paul’s Eyebrows Hold – Comments

Offbeat Fun
BrowGate

BrowGate Update:  Ron Paul's eyebrows stayed put tonight, but the comments across the country have expanded to include his senatorial son's toupee from hell, and are posted here to satisfy all those searching for Ron Paul's eyebrows (pun).  And then no more — BrowGate is over.

Campaign Comment for the Record:

Jesse Benton, a campaign spokesman, insisted that Mr. Paul had been the victim of the elements, namely a heavy pollen season in New Hampshire, and called accusations that he’d been artificially enhancing “stupid” and “insulting.”

“Dr. Paul’s allergies acted up a touch,” Mr. Benton said in an explanation that might raise some, you know, questions.

Not that Mr. Paul would be blamed for trying to keep up with bushy brows like Rick Perry’s, whose upper-eye area is full, or Mitt Romney, whose orbital outliers are sometimes speckled with gray.

National Comments (Selected):

Allergies? What? That doesn't even make sense. I have allergies, they make me cough and sniffle. They don't make my eyebrows fall off.

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Uhm, his allergies acted up so his eyebrows fell off? Is that what the spokesman is implying? And isn't spring allergy season?

You know, if you don't have anything remotely intelligent to say, just say you don't have a clue.

Now I can't wait for Michelle Bachmann's head to fall off and have some alien looking creature crawl out of her.

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You think you know someone, and then something like this happens!

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Howard Rheingold: 30 Sep to 11 Nov Online & Live Course on Literacy of Cooperation

04 Education, 11 Society, Academia, Advanced Cyber/IO, Blog Wisdom, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence, Earth Intelligence, Ethics, Gift Intelligence, Hacking, InfoOps (IO), Methods & Process, Non-Governmental, Offbeat Fun, Peace Intelligence
Howard Rheingold

Announcing a new Rheingold U course: Toward a New Literacy of Cooperation

For the past ten years, I've worked with Institute for the Future to track the emergence of a new story about how humans get things done together. The old story of survival of the fittest, competition, rational self-interest is changing as new knowledge comes to light about cooperative arrangements and complex interdependencies in cells, ecosystems, economies, and humans. In 2005, I delivered a TED talk about this subject; the video has been viewed more than 182,000 times. In the same year, I co-taught a seminar at Stanford with Andrea Saveri of Institute for the Future, “Toward a Literacy of Cooperation.” This six week Rheingold U course builds on the texts, videos, and other materials developed over the past ten years. Under my direction, co-learners will inquire, collaborate, discuss, co-construct knowledge about the building blocks and conceptual frames of a new literacy of cooperation. The course will run September 30 – November 11

The syllabus
The schedule of live meetings

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Marcus Aurelius: 22 SEAL Team Six & Others Die in Old Slow Chopper, Because US DoD Never Cared About Training, Equipping, & Organizing for High-Altitude Mountain Warfare

04 Inter-State Conflict, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, Budgets & Funding, Corruption, IO Deeds of War, Military, Offbeat Fun, Peace Intelligence, Politics of Science & Science of Politics, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy, Standards, Strategy
Marcus Aurelius

British press report, unusually thorough, but miss the core point: why so many sent into combat in a single very old, very slow transport helicopter.

Special forces helicopter shot down in Afghanistan was on a mission to rescue U.S. Army Rangers

Daily Mail, 7 August 2011

  • Chopper brought down in rocket attack was on its way to aid other elite troops fighting militants
  • Names of American victims begin to be released
  • Twenty-two of the dead soldiers were from elite Seal Team Six
  • At 30 deaths in total, it's highest number of U.S. casualties in one incident
  • Seven Afghan soldiers die in the crash
  • President Obama mourns this ‘extraordinary sacrifice'
  • Afghan president sends condolences to Obama

Read more–includes video and map.

Phi Beta Iota:  DoD has not had a global engagement strategy nor a mature joint/multinational acquisition strategy that we know of….the Services have refused to work together and fought for budget share rather than for capabilities relevant to reality and to the safety of the individuals actually going into combat (4% of the force that gets 80% of the casualties and 1% of the budget).  In a word, DoD lacks integrity at the policy and acquisition levels such that no degree of operational excellence can overcome.  The top speed of the Chinook is 185 mph but that is when it is empty, flying below 6,000 feet, and on a delightfully warm not humid day.  These people were sent to their death because DoD does not have the integrity to plan for combat helicopters capable above 6,000 feet.  Sending them into combat like that is the equivalent of sending a SWAT team into a gang fight aboard a train of golf carts.  SHAME!

See Also:

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