Category: Journal ISSN 1078-1935

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Stephen E. Arnold: Does Amazon Lack Integrity? Where is Due Diligence on Authorship (Including Kindle Spam Fraud Books from Pakistan and India)?

Commerce, Corruption, Ineptitude, IO Impotency
Stephen E. Arnold
Stephen E. Arnold

Amazon: Not Right for Some Authors

I wanted to call this write up Godforsaken ID. But you might plug in the letter “C” or you might not. I suggest you track down a dead tree edition of the still dog paddling New York Times. Check out the business section and look for the Google pleasing headline “Prominent Editor’s Exit a Setback for Amazon Publishing Unit.” I quite like the juxtaposition of prominent, setback, and everyone’s favorite online WalMart.” You may be able to view a version of the story at this link, but I make no promises in this money oriented era.)

The write up has a great quote or two.

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Berto Jongman: It’s Official — US an Oligarchy Controlled by 42 People

01 Poverty, 03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, 10 Transnational Crime, 11 Society, Civil Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government
Berto Jongman
Berto Jongman

Six related headlines.

Princeton Study: U.S. No Longer An Actual Democracy (TalkingPointsMemo)

Using data drawn from over 1,800 different policy initiatives from 1981 to 2002, the two conclude that rich, well-connected individuals on the political scene now steer the direction of the country, regardless of or even against the will of the majority of voters.

Russia Declares US An Oligarchy, Warns Constitutional Republic Is Dead (WhatDoesItMean)

What this past week’s US election shows, however, the MoFA in this report says, are that all of the Republican and Democratic Party candidates for office (Federal and State) were funded by just forty-two people who were responsible for nearly a third of Super PAC monies raised, and only 666,773 wealthy individuals out of a nation having a population of over 319 million.

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Stefan Molyneux: Bitcoin vs. Political Power – The Cryptocurrency Revolution — To Limit Money Is To Limit Political Power!

Civil Society, Commerce, Corruption, Ethics, Government

When governments can print money,
they do not have to ask the people to make choices.

Tip of the Hat to Tom Miller of Unlimited You Education.

Phi Beta Iota: The Automated Payment Transaction (APT) Tax that remains central to Robert Steele's vision for an honest balanced government in the USA, is an alternative to BitCoin. The APT tax rate is set by national, state, and local ballot. This means that the government must have a balanced budget and bottom line need that is validated by the people, and it also means that the government cannot fund wars, bank bail-outs, and other atrocities without first getting the public to agree to raise the rate.

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Jean Lievens: Copenhagen Crowd-Sourcing Sustainabilty Sanity

Cultural Intelligence, Earth Intelligence
Jean Lievens
Jean Lievens

Why Copenhagen Can Become Europe’s Crowd Capital

The city of Copenhagen is making a public call to citizens, companies and government to make the transition to the new, connected and inclusive economy. With many great cities in the running, it is no mean feat that Copenhagen nabbed the top spot, for two years in a row, as Fast Company’s most innovative city in Europe. According to The Global Innovation Index 2014, Denmark remains one of the world’s top 10 most innovative countries. There is a deliberate attempt all around to model behavior, mindsets and infrastructure for a more efficient, resource -sharing, low impact lifestyle while maintaining a high standard of living which brings me to the question — are efficient cities more crowd dependent or cooperative? Or are crowd supportive cities smarter and more innovative? This isn’t a chicken-egg question but the result of a positive feedback loop underscoring the notion that collaboration breeds inventiveness.

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Stephen E. Arnold: Is Amazon the New Enron?

Commercial Intelligence
Stephen E. Arnold
Stephen E. Arnold

The Amazon Cloud: From Objects to an “Incredible Figure”

I suppose rural Kentucky is no bellwether for the economic micro climates in which Amazon, Google, eBay, Facebook, and a handful of other companies operate. The big news in Kentucky is General Electric’s rumored sale of the sprawling Appliance Park. The “park” is a misnomer or one of those business euphemisms for acres of concrete and low cost industrial structures popular in the Rust Belt for many years.

I read “Amazon’s Cloud Is One of the Fastest-Growing Software Businesses in History.” I though about euphemisms because when my team and I wrote an analysis of the issues Amazon faced by using certain parts of infrastructure as a way to reduce the costs of online infrastructure, Amazon did not provide verifiable financial data. I had to look at fuzzies like “objects.”

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Berto Jongman: ICANN Creates Controlling Council for the Internet

IO Impotency
Berto Jongman
Berto Jongman

ICANN creates ‘UN Security Council for the internet', installs itself as a permanent member

In the same week that the United Nations finally gave up trying to grab control of the internet, a group of three organizations led by domain-name overseer ICANN have launched an effort to become the internet's UN.

Attendees to the launch immediately started questioning the structure, with some asking why a council was needed at all, others asking who would decide on the other members, and all reacting badly to the creation of five permanent members, which the organizers thereafter referred to as “anchor seats”.

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