Journal ISSN 1078-1935 – Page 1651 – Public Intelligence Blog

Yale on Free Expression: A Quote to Note

Years ago I gave a lecture at Yale. My subject was Google. I ran through the basic points in The Google Legacy and Google Version 2.0. The audience reacted as if I had dissected a dead frog. I received a smattering of polite applause and headed out for a talk in New York City. So much for Yale and the idea that Google was more than a Web search company.

I just read “Yale Students Made a Better Version of Their Course Catalogue. Then Yale Shut It Down.” A couple of students put up a Web page that allowed students to pinpoint classes and compare student ratings of professors. Sounds like an app to me.

Information? Who said it was supposed to be free? Image source: http://1.usa.gov/1dFIhW9

But Yale perceived the Web page differently. Here’s the quote:

‘Yale’s policy on free expression and free speech entitles no one to appropriate a Yale resource and use it as their [sic] own ,’ the statement read. It further stated its main priority at this time was supporting its own resources, ‘not others created independently and without the university’s cooperation or permission,’ and that ‘all the information on the website remains available to students on the Yale site.’

I assume the Washington Post is semi-accurate, just like an Amazon recommendation.

What did the future bonesmen learn? A nuance of academic freedom in Yale Land has been broadcast in an analogue transmission.

Will these two free thinkers demonstrate digital initiative in the future? Is Yale turning out well-trained online researchers for the next-generation information highway?

Stephen E Arnold, January 18, 2014

2014/01/19

SchwartzReport: West Virginia Atrocity Spill Shows Zero Safety Oversight in 20 Years

12 Water, Commerce, Corruption, Government, Ineptitude

Here is a very important essay about the lessons to be learned from the West Virginia spill, a story that has gotten remarkably little in-depth coverage by the corporate media. I read today that the supposedly safe water trucks that have been bringing water to the people in fact having been filling from the same river downstream from where the leak occurred.

This disaster, like the Texas explosion that destroyed a town a few months back, occurred because there had been no regulatory oversight of this facility in over two decades. It is a Goebbels' Big Lie to say we have too much regulation in this country. The problem is exactly the opposite.

West Virginia’s Message to the Nation
ALAN FARAGO, President of Friends of the Everglades – Counter Punch

2014/01/18

Berto Jongman: Global Risks 2014 (1% View)

Commercial Intelligence, Earth Intelligence

Interesting — and a useful counterpoint to the top ten threats identified by the UN in 2004.* A single word, corruption, would seem to cover all ten.

Table 1: Ten Global Risks of Highest Concern in 2014

No.	Global Risk
1	Fiscal crises in key economies
2	Structurally high unemployment/underemployment
3	Water crises
4	Severe income disparity
5	Failure of climate change mitigation and adaptation
6	Greater incidence of extreme weather events (e.g. floods, storms, fires)
7	Global governance failure
8	Food crises
9	Failure of a major financial mechanism/institution
10	Profound political and social instability

World Economic Forum Global Risks 2014

* Poverty, Infectious Disease, Environmental Degradation, Inter-State Conflict, Civil War, Genocide, Other Atrocities, Proliferation, Terrorism, Transnational Crime

2014/01/182014/01/18

Worth a Look: Reforming Intelligence Obstacles to Democratic Control and Effectiveness

5 Star, Civil Society, Intelligence (Government/Secret), Politics, Worth A Look

Thomas Bruneau and Steven Boraz (eds.)

These days, it's rare to pick up a newspaper and not see a story related to intelligence. From the investigations of the 9/11 commission, to accusations of illegal wiretapping, to debates on whether it's acceptable to torture prisoners for information, intelligence—both accurate and not—is driving domestic and foreign policy. And yet, in part because of its inherently secretive nature, intelligence has received very little scholarly study. Into this void comes Reforming Intelligence, a timely collection of case studies written by intelligence experts, and sponsored by the Center for Civil-Military Relations (CCMR) at the Naval Postgraduate School, that collectively outline the best practices for intelligence services in the United States and other democratic states.

Continue reading “Worth a Look: Reforming Intelligence Obstacles to Democratic Control and Effectiveness”

2014/01/182014/01/18

Berto Jongman: British Amateur Whistleblower Exposes Fraud Among American Psychologists

Academia, Commercial Intelligence, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Ineptitude

Interesting bit:

“The answer,” says Brown when I meet him in a north London cafe, “is because that's how it always happens. Look at whistleblower culture. If you want to be a whistleblower you have to be prepared to lose your job. I'm able to do what I'm doing here because I'm nobody. I don't have to keep any academics happy. I don't have to think about the possible consequences of my actions for people I might admire personally who may have based their work on this and they end up looking silly. There are 160,000 psychologists in America and they've got mortgages. I've got the necessary degree of total independence.”

The British amateur who debunked the mathematics of happiness

The astonishing story of Nick Brown, the British man who began a part-time psychology course in his 50s – and ended up taking on America's academic establishment

Andrew Anthony

The Observer, Saturday 18 January 2014

Read full account.

2014/01/182014/01/18