Journal ISSN 1078-1935 – Page 1545 – Public Intelligence Blog

Unethical, energy policies are. Repressed, possibilities are.

Ultracapacitors Made of Carbon Nanotubes and Graphene are High-Functioning, yet Cheap

Using two one-atom-thick materials, scientists have created a high-functioning yet cheap ultracapacitor. The creation of the ultracapacitor was made possible after mixing graphene flakes with single-walled carbon nanotubes. This groundbreaking device is actually an energy storage device well capable of creating surges by rapidly releasing the power.

The ultracapacitors can play a significant role in boosting devices like electric vehicles, handled electronics, audio systems and more. What all is needed to be done for this is to combine the power of the energy-density of batteries and the high power-density of capacitors, an American Institute of Physics news release reported.

Read full article.

Continue reading “Yoda: Super-Capacitors to Store and Release Energy”

2014/04/232014/04/23

David Isenberg: Interview on Private Military Corporations (PMC)

Commerce, Military

The following interview with David Isenberg [1] was carried out in Washington D.C., on January 15, 2014 by Patrick Renz and Frauke Heidemann. The main focus of the interview was on the definition of Private Military Companies (PMC), governmental oversight, the cases of Afghanistan and Iraq, the role of small arms in unstable states and the impacts of private contractors. All footnotes are remarks by Patrick Renz and Frauke Heidemann, aimed at giving some additional background knowledge and especially giving the links to the cited documents so that the reader can follow up on these issues easily.

QUESTIONS ONLY:

What type of PMC would you see as most important right now and in the future?

When you talk about the PMC operating in those situations, where do you see the challenges for governmental oversight? Will governments continue to employ PMC?

In Afghanistan, with the discussion about a ban of PMC, many local implementers or mining companies said they would leave Afghanistan if they felt no longer protected. Do you think one could argue that PMC are enabling investment and aid projects in unstable states or is that a false assumption?

From your experience with SIGIR, how did the protection of the oil pipelines and facilities in Iraq work in the post-conflict situation?

How do you see the link between PMC and the proliferation of small arms and light weapons, especially when looking at local PMCs?

What are the prime reasons for unstable states to allow for PMC to operate?

If PMCs hire locals, do you see a risk of taking away qualified people from the local police force or military?

What do you see as the biggest risk from having PMC operate in unstable areas?

Read answers.

2014/04/232014/04/23

Stephen E. Arnold: Google Glass as Goose Poop

IO Impotency

Glass: Looking through the Obvious

I read “How Google Screwed Up Google Glass.” The capitalist tool does not have its heart in the analysis. Here’s the tip off: “It really is a great idea.”

What exactly is great about a virtual reality headset? As I wrote in Information Today, I have two or three devices that connect on my shelves. What became of them? Not too much.

In my view, Glass is less about wearing crazy eye glasses and more about dragging red herrings across real journalists’ paths, than a different play. I a report I prepared for an investment bank, I focused on the technology which is used to create the headgear and the contact lens demonstration.

The key figure in this technology is a fellow named Dr. Amir Parviz (aka Babak Parvis, Babak Parviz, Babak Amirparviz, and other variations). He studied at the elbow of Dr. George Whitesides at Harvard. This dynamic duo has demonstrated some chemistry in their research and patents. The contact lens work has roots which reach back to Dr. Parviz’s days at the University of Washington and its research group.

I am not going to rehash the information presented in the Information Today article and the financial institution’s report. Suffice it to say that Glass is less about wearing wonky headgear and more about nanoengineering. Is this self assembly work related to robots. By the way, yummy photos of Google’s X Lab at http://read.bi/1hkHTKl do not include the biomedical facilities. Slight oversight or Loon misdirection?

Seeing through Glass is important. There are strong personal motivations for Google’s top dogs behind the biological engineering research. Maybe running a query on Glass will sharpen the focus?

Stephen E Arnold, April 22, 2014

2014/04/232014/04/23

SchwartzReport: Bill Moyers and Michael Winship on Government as a Protection Racket for the 1%

Commerce, Corruption, Government, Law Enforcement

A democracy cannot long survive when its citizens perceive the government to be against their best interests

Government = Protection Racket for the 1 Percent
BILL MOYERS and MICHAEL WINSHIP – Bill Moyers.com

EXTRACT

PewOur now infamous one percent own more than 35 percent of the nation’s wealth. Meanwhile, the bottom 40 percent of the country is in debt. Just this past Tuesday, the 15th of April – Tax Day – the AFL-CIO reported that last year the chief executive officers of 350 top American corporations were paid 331 times more money than the average US worker. Those executives made an average of $11.7 million dollars compared to the average worker who earned $35,239 dollars.

As that analysis circulated on Tax Day, the economic analyst Robert Reich reminded us that in addition to getting the largest percent of total national income in nearly a century, many in the one percent are paying a lower federal tax rate than a lot of people in the middle class. You may remember that an obliging Congress, of both parties, allows high rollers of finance the privilege of ‘carried interest,” a tax rate below that of their secretaries and clerks.

And at state and local levels, while the poorest fifth of Americans pay an average tax rate of over 11 percent, the richest one percent of the country pay – are you ready for this? – half that rate. Now, neither Nature nor Nature’s God drew up our tax codes; that’s the work of legislators – politicians – and it’s one way they have, as Chief Justice John Roberts might put it, of expressing gratitude to their donors: ‘Oh, Mr. Adelson, we so appreciate your generosity that we cut your estate taxes so you can give $8 billion as a tax-free payment to your heirs, even though down the road the public will have to put up $2.8 billion to compensate for the loss in tax revenue.”

2014/04/222014/04/22

Worth a Look: Stone Garden Economics

Cultural Intelligence, Peace Intelligence

Featuring the work of Jurgen Brauer, pioneer of Peace Economics

Articles, Books, Data, Lectures, Photography, Teaching

“Perhaps the essence of the Liberal outlook could be summed up in a new decalogue, not intended to replace the old one but only to supplement it. The Ten Commandments that, as a teacher, I should wish to promulgate, might be set forth as follows:

1. Do not feel absolutely certain of anything.
2. Do not think it worth while to proceed by concealing evidence, for the evidence is sure to come to light.
3. Never try to discourage thinking for you are sure to succeed.
4. When you meet with opposition, even if it should be from your husband or your children, endeavor to overcome it by argument and not by authority, for a victory dependent upon authority is unreal and illusory.
5. Have no respect for the authority of others, for there are always contrary authorities to be found.
6. Do not use power to suppress opinions you think pernicious, for if you do the opinions will suppress you.
7. Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.
8. Find more pleasure in intelligent dissent than in passive agreement, for, if you value intelligence as you should, the former implies a deeper agreement than the latter.
9. Be scrupulously truthful, even if the truth is inconvenient, for it is more inconvenient when you try to conceal it.
10. Do not feel envious of the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise, for only a fool will think that it is happiness.”

Excerpt from Bertrand Russell, “The Best Answer to Fanaticism: Liberalism.” New York Times Magazine, 16 December 1951.

2014/04/222014/04/22

Worth a Look: The Economics of Peace & Security Journal

Cultural Intelligence, Peace Intelligence

The Economics of Peace and Security Journal

Welcome to The Economics of Peace and Security Journal (EPSJ), a publication of Economists for Peace and Security (EPS). Issues are published in April and October. Click the About item in the menu bar to learn more about EPSJ, including our scholarly scope & aims and our history. Please Subscribe to read the two most recent issues of EPSJ. Subscriptions fees are US$25 for EPS members, US$50 for non-member individuals, and US$150 for institutions. All articles and issues become open-access 12 months after initial publication. To enjoy open-access reading, readers nonetheless are required to Register. Registration assists us with documenting the use of the journal. For reproduction and reprint permissions, please contact us at managingeditor@epsjournal.org.uk. EPSJ is indexed with the Journal of Economic Literature (JEL), Research Papers in Economics (RePEc), and is listed in Cabell's Directories. From 2006 to 2013, RePEc alone shows 26,000 abstract views and 7,000 article downloads. All articles are peer-reviewed.

J Brauer & J P Dunne
Editors, EPSJ

2014/04/222014/04/22

Berto Jongman: 5 Short Videos – Big Data, ICTs and New Media in Times of Crisis

Advanced Cyber/IO

Big Data, ICTs and New Media in Times of Crisis

On March 28, the ISN hosted a Roundtable Discussion on “Big Data, ICTs and Social Media in Times of Crisis,” which featured Mr Sanjana Hattotuwa, who is both a TED Fellow and a Special Advisor to the ICT4Peace Foundation. Our purpose today is to share Mr Hattotuwa’s lively presentation, which among other things focuses on how web- and mobile-based media have enhanced our ability to respond to complex emergencies, and to participate in ‘organic’ political processes. The presentation is then augmented by the question and answer session that followed in its wake.

In our first video, Sanjana Hattotuwa outlines how Big Data, as disseminated by ICTs and social media, is increasingly functioning as the “nervous system of the world.”

In the next video, Mr Hattotuwa performs two tasks – he elaborates on the links between Big Data and traditional media reporting, and then details how data derived from ICTs has been increasingly used to cope with natural disasters and other complex emergencies.

Continue reading “Berto Jongman: 5 Short Videos – Big Data, ICTs and New Media in Times of Crisis”