Jim Dean: Asian Boomerang — China Calls for Security Alliance with Iran and Russia — Changes Dynamics for Afghanistan, Middle East, North Africa

02 China, 05 Iran, 06 Russia, 08 Wild Cards, Ethics, Government, Military, Peace Intelligence
Jim W. Dean
Jim W. Dean

China Calls for Security Alliance with Iran, Russia

Editor's Note: Well, it looks like Obama the Peacemaker image took another hit today. China, which has no overseas military bases and no carrier battle groups sailing the seas to defend its customers, considers itself a target and not a threat. Imagine that!

The US “divide and conquer” ploy with the Asia Pivot is turning into Obama's Asia Boomerang. The land of freedom and democracy has turned into the major stimulus on the planet for forming defensive military alliances.

It seems they don't want to buy one of our “Sanctions-R-US” franchises. The Founding Fathers are turning over in their graves.

Maybe it's all a trick. Maybe “they” want to divert China and Russia's capital investment away from peaceful business endeavors and whiz it out the window, following the example of the $2 trillion we blew on the military industrial complex over the last decade with no credible threats on the planet.

Good gosh, what group in America would want to do that when our bridges are falling down and the highway trust fund is almost empty… the list goes on and on. Take a look at the companies that the Bush (43) thugs are all involved with, before and after. They seem to have done well.

Don't be surprised to hear brain dead Congressional candidates screaming about how we must rearm American to protect ourselves from the yellow horde building unsinkable inner tubes to float millions of Chinese secret DNA commandos across the Pacific to invade America. 

The think tanks are sharpening their pens and swords to scare Americans into putting what money they have left into their various coffers by going on their Asian Jihad. Americans need to form a security alliance of their own here at home to defend ourselves against “you know who”… Jim W. Dean ]

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Jean Lievens: Stephen Downes on Mass Collaboration

Advanced Cyber/IO
Jean Lievens
Jean Lievens

Workshop on Mass Collaboration – Day One

Introduction to the Workshop – Ulrike Cress

Why a workshop in mass collaboration? Recent mass phenomena: Wikipedia, tagging, blogging, Scratch, massive open online courses and connectivism, citizen science, maker-space

Who is creating these? Nature article on massively collaborative mathematics (see the wiki PolyMath).

How do we describe these phenomena? Is it just aggregation? What role does coordination play? Is it a mass phenomena? Is it an emergent phenomena? Is it collective intelligence? And what are the processes behind this?

Stephen Downes
Stephen Downes

In science we need new methods for this. Previously, we would passively observe – but now we want people interacting. We have to try and find what these methods can do.

Can we design mass collaboration? Is it just something that self-starts, or can we create this?

CSCL 2013, we brought together people to talk about this. This led to the larger workshop we are hosting today.

Learn more.

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Sepp Hasslberger: German Renewable Energy Success Drops European Energy Prices … Again

05 Energy
Sepp Hasslberger
Sepp Hasslberger

The Germans are serious about getting off the fossil fuel addiction. They are showing the world that renewable energy can be done…

Electricity Prices Fall In Europe As German Renewable Energy Increases

For the fifth consecutive month, electricity prices in have decreased in Western Europe, due in part to increased solar and wind generation in Germany.

Germany currently gets about 25 percent of its electricity from renewable energy, and the goal is to increase that number to at least 80 percent by 2050.

German wind and solar output for the first three months of 2014 increased by 40 percent — or 6.5 terawatt-hours — compared with last year, according to the Platts data. Wind power increased 31 percent from the first quarter of 2013, while solar power increased 74 percent from more than a year earlier.

Germany’s combined wind and solar portfolio is more than 70 gigawatts, making them the country’s largest sources of power when measured by installed capacity.

See Also:

Sepp Hasslberger @ Phi Beta Iota

Robin Good: Six Key Content Curation Insights Emerging from the Leaked NY Times Executive Summary

Advanced Cyber/IO, Media
Robin Good
Robin Good

Six Key Content Curation Insights Emerging from the Leaked NY Times Executive Summary

The leaked New York Times memo of less than a week ago is making the round on the Internet, as it touches upon many of the key issues and opportunities any news journalism operation is facing today.

From my personal viewpoint the most interesting aspect of this lengthy 97-page memo is how much curation, news and content curation specifically, are part of the future view being described in it.

Since, even trying read the in-depth curated version of the leaked NY report done by the excellent Nieman Lab it may take you in excess of 30 minutes, I have extracted and highlighted here below only the points that are specifically relevant to curators and to anyone researching the future of content curation within the context of news and journalism.

Here, six key points to pay strong attention to:

  1. …resurfacing archival content. The report cites this passage: ““We can be both a daily newsletter and a library — offering news every day, as well as providing context, relevance and timeless works of journalism.”
  2. …restructuring arts and culture stories that remain relevant long after they are initially published into guides for readers.
  3. …consider tools to make it easier for journalists, and maybe even readers, to create collections and repackage the content.
  4. allow readers to easily follow certain topics or columnists.
  5. better tagging of the info and content being published.
  6. focus on the less glamorous work of creating tools, templates and permanent fixes that cumulatively can have a bigger impact by saving our digital journalists time and elevating the whole report.

Nieman Lab curated report of the NY leaked Executive Summary document:

Original leaked copy of NY report: 97-pages

Berto Jongman: CYBER – 10 Ways to Kill the Internet — and Information-Sharing Analysis Centers (ISAC)

Advanced Cyber/IO, IO Deeds of War, IO Impotency
Berto Jongman
Berto Jongman

The bad with the good.

The Plan to Kill the Internet Uncovered

10 ways web freedom is being butchered worldwide.

LIST ONLY:

Click on Image to Enlarge
Click on Image to Enlarge

1) The Death of Net Neutrality
2) Intelligence Agencies are Manipulating the Internet With Deliberate Disinformation
3) Governments are Paying Trolls to Sway Public Opinion
4) Mainstream News Websites are Killing Comment Sections
5) The Obama Administration’s “Cognitive Infiltration” of the Internet
6) False Flag Cybersecurity Attacks as a Pretext to Increase Web Regulation
7) Fairness Doctrine for the Internet
8) Homeland Security’s Internet Kill Switch
9) New Taxes and Regulations Set to Stifle Communication & Sales on the Web
10) SOPA, CISPA & The FBI’s Internet Backdoor

Read full article with elaboration and links.

ISACs: Let the Sharing Begin

A while back, I wrote about the value of information sharing, and the role of ISACs (Information Sharing and Analysis Centers) – see “The Bad Guys Are Winning: Information Sharing And Asymmetric Advantage.” I’m a huge fan of this model for sharing information about cyber threats.

A shining example of an effective ISAC is the Financial Services ISAC (FS-ISAC), but one of the lurking questions about their work is whether they are violating any anti-trust regulations in the US. Having worked with them, it was my opinion that they weren’t doing anything that felt like anti-trust, but I’m not a legal expert.  By the way – the ICS-ISAC, which deals with Industrial Control Systems, recently showed its value in an attack on the US Utility Control System infrastructure.

 

Read full article.

Chuck Spinney: George Hishmeh – Pope Francis Confronting Zion in Courageous Brilliant Manner

Cultural Intelligence, Peace Intelligence
Chuck Spinney
Chuck Spinney C

My new friend George Hishmeh has written a very interesting opinion piece for the Gulf News on the Pope’s upcoming visit to the holy land (attached beneath this introduction).

Assuming George's reporting is accurate, it is clear Pope Francis is raising the stakes by using something like a Motherhood and Mismatch (M&M) Strategy [1] to place Israel on the horns of moral dilemma: by refusing protection of an armored car and making it easy for Israeli extremists in the settler movement to kill him, he is forcing Netanyahu to clamp down on security by sealing Francis off from the people via the expedient of turning the Old City of Jerusalem into a ghost town, setting up cordons and a strict permit regime to keep the people, including Christian Arabs, far from the Pope.  At the same time the Palestinian Authority is opening up the streets of Bethlehem and providing the Pope with an open car.  The fact that the Pope will be accompanied by a group of Muslim and Jewish leaders ices the cake.

Click on Image to Enlarge
Click on Image to Enlarge

If some Israeli fanatic kills or tries to kill the Pope, Israel loses.  But if not, the conflicting pictures of the Pope’s visit to an Old City and Bethlehem will flood the world, and Israel loses.  One set of photos will show the Old City, the holiest part of Jerusalem for all three religions, under a military lockdown; and that set of pictures will be compared to a second set showing Palestinians joyously celebrating the openness of Pope's visit to Bethlehem.  If Israel tries to dodge the bullet launching another of its false flag operations like the infamous Lavon Affair — in this case, trying to attack or discredit the Pope by making the offensive action appear to have come from the Palestinians, the truth will come out, and Israel loses big time.

So, If the Pope can pull this off, Israel hoists itself on top of a petard by creating a welter of mismatches bringing Israel’s own moral legitimacy into question — i.e., by exhibiting behaviour that drives wedge after wedge into the legs of its own moral triangle (depicted in abstract terms from the Pope’s point of view, with Israel as the competitive adversary by this figure):

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Penguin: Obama and Vets — Neglect & Hyposcricy

07 Health, 07 Other Atrocities, 11 Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Ineptitude, Officers Call
Who, Me?
Who, Me?

Politics at its worst — zero credibility.

Obama: ‘I Will Not Stand For' Misconduct At Veterans Affairs Hospitals

Phi Beta Iota: There is no lack of substantive information about what needs to be done, nor is there a lack of integrity among those who actually believe our veterans should receive the best of which America the Beautiful is capable. What we lack in Washington is the integrity to spend on behalf of the humans in our system instead of the financial system commoditizing and disrespecting our humans.

Republicans for Obama Memorandum to the Campaign (August 2008)

Soldiers: Back in the Day (1980's)

noble gold