Journal ISSN 1078-1935 – Page 1664 – Public Intelligence Blog

2014/01/092014/01/09

4th Media: Wave of US Municipal Bankruptcies Caused by Wall Street Predatory Interest Rates, NOT Pensions

03 Economy, 11 Society, Commerce, Corruption, Government

Wave of US Municipal Bankruptcies Caused by Wall Street Predatory Interest Rates, NOT Pensions

The political establishment and the media have relentlessly promoted the myth that the crisis in Detroit and in cities across the US is a product of overgenerous spending on social services and benefits, with public employee pension liabilities cited as the main culprit.

In reality, the driving force behind the Detroit bankruptcy has been a predatory interest rate swap foisted on the city by Wall Street bankers, which was signed by former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick in 2005.

Continue reading “4th Media: Wave of US Municipal Bankruptcies Caused by Wall Street Predatory Interest Rates, NOT Pensions”

2014/01/092014/01/10

Robin Good: Beyond Google Evil Lie Individual Human Curators

Advanced Cyber/IO, Civil Society, Commerce, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, IO Impotency

The future of search may not just be about Google and Bing. In the future of search, believe it or not, there are going to be a lot of people like you and me who will be providing much more helpful information guidance to specific requests than Google could ever do. I know this sounds probably unrealistic to you, but I think there are now many good indications that this likely going to happen much sooner than you expect. One of the key reasons why, human beings will start to reclaim this highly valuable search territory, is the fact that in the last few years we have slowly but deeply surrendered our ability to evaluate, decide and select what is “real” to Google's own algorithms, in ways that can only be detrimental to us.

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2014/01/09

Neal Rauhauser: Eastern Mediterranean Gas Fields & Pipelines

05 Energy

Eastern Mediterranean Gas Fields & Pipelines

The eastern Mediterranean has natural gas resources but with the exception of Egyptian production this is rarely mentioned, almost never in the geopolitical press and only rarely in the energy specific trade press. The Oil Drum offers an excellent series of detailed articles tagged with ‘Israel’, but the style is dense and high context – you have to know the business to be able to interpret the content.

EXTRACT:

We find in the Wikipedia article an example of what The Oil Drum would call “above ground issues”:

The Egyptian pipeline carrying natural gas to Israel and Jordan, has been attacked 15 times since the start of the uprising in early 2011 and 21 July 2012. On November 13, Jordan Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour said that “In the past 18 months of the Arab Spring, Jordan has lost between $4-5 billion at least as a result of oil stoppage, especially the Egyptian gas supplies”.

Read full post with three graphics.

2014/01/092014/01/09

Marcus Aurelius: Congress Favors Corrupt Weapons Systems Over Honorable People…Again — What Role for DIA? Plus Comments

Corruption, Government, Ineptitude, Military

Nonpartisan my ass!

CBO suggests tough defense spending cuts

By Patricia Kime
Staff writer

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has proposed six ways to reduce defense spending ranging from deep cuts to the military services to controversial reductions in pay and benefits.

In a presentation Tuesday before a group of retired and current government personnel and federal budget experts, CBO senior analyst Carla Tighe Murray delivered options for defense savings that would total between $10 billion and $495 billion through 2023.

Continue reading “Marcus Aurelius: Congress Favors Corrupt Weapons Systems Over Honorable People…Again — What Role for DIA? Plus Comments”

2014/01/092014/01/09

Stephen E. Arnold: Google & Open Source

Advanced Cyber/IO, Commerce, Software

Google Head of Open Source Opens Up

Google and open source have worked together since the search engine’s inception and it has contributed to its success. Tech Radar hosts an interview with Google’s head of open source Chris DiBona about how Google uses open source, how it has shaped the company, and how Google has changed the face of open source: “How Open Source Changed Google-And How Google Changed Open Source.”

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2014/01/092014/01/09

Tom Atlee: On Power

Cultural Intelligence

Power

Power is energy that gets things done — or has obvious potential to do so.

Our most common conceptions of power — especially social power — involve our ability to cause things to happen that we want to have happen.

While this is definitely a major facet of power, a holistic, co-intelligence perspective suggests that there's more to power than that.

What does power look like when we are working not just for what we want but for what others want as well — or when we join the power of the whole to satisfy the needs and aspirations of the whole?

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2014/01/09

Owl: “Smart Grid” is NSA on Steroids, Expensive, Instrusive, & A Major Health Hazard

05 Energy, 07 Health, Commerce, Corruption, Government, Idiocy

Worse than NSA, plus Hazardous to Health & Home (Causes House Fires)

This is one of the 2-3 most important and perhaps alarming articles (and well documented) I've referred to on this site in the last twelve months. An absolute must-read for anyone living in the US and all other western countries and owns a house or lives in a dwelling with smart meters. The dangers this technology poses to freedom and health cannot be overstated.

Excerpts:

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