Journal ISSN 1078-1935 – Page 1820 – Public Intelligence Blog

Next Generation Content Processing: Tail Fins and Big Data

Posted: 18 Aug 2013 03:11 PM PDT

Note: I wrote this for Homeland Security Today. It will appear when the site works out its production problems. As background, check out “The Defense Department Thinks Troves of Personal Data Pose a National Security Threat.” If the Big Data systems worked as marketers said, the next generation systems would these success stories provide ample evidence of the value of these Big Data systems?]

Next-generation content processing seems, like wine, to improve with age. Over the last four years, smart software has been enhanced by design. What is your impression of the eye-popping interfaces from high-profile vendors like Algilex, Cybertap, Digital Reasoning, IBM i2, Palantir, Recorded Future, and similar firms? ((A useful list is available from Carahsoft at http://goo.gl/v853TK.)

For me, I am reminded of the design trends for tail fins and chrome for US automobiles in the 1950s and 1960s. Technology advances in these two decades moved forward, but soaring fins and chrome bright work advanced more quickly. The basics of the automobile remained unchanged. Even today’s most advanced models perform the same functions as the Kings of Chrome of an earlier era. Eye candy has been enhanced with creature comforts. But the basics of today’s automobile would be recognized and easily used by a driver from Chubby Checker’s era. The refrain “Let’s twist again like we did last summer” applies to most of the advanced software used by law enforcement and the intelligence community.

clip_image001 The tailfin of a 1959 Cadillac. Although bold, the tailfins of the 1959 Plymouth Fury and the limited production Superbird and Dodge Daytona dwarfed GM’s excesses. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cadillac1001.jpg

Try this simple test. Here are screenshots from five next-generation content processing systems. Can you match the graphics with the vendor?

Here are the companies whose visual outputs appear below. Easy enough, just like one of those primary school exercises, simply match the interface with the company

The vendors represented are:

Continue reading “Stephen E. Arnold: Content Processing SUCKS”

2013/08/192013/08/19

SchwartzReport: South America Rising + New World Order II Meta-RECAP

01 Brazil, 02 Diplomacy, 03 Economy, 07 Health, 07 Venezuela, 08 Immigration, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, 11 Society, Cultural Intelligence, Peace Intelligence

The America media, like a long chain of administrations, never really seems to understand the South American psyché, in all of its national complexity, nor what is going on there. So there is very little coverage or attention, and what there is trades in stereotypes and shallow commentary. In contrast I think the nations of our Southern Hemisphere, are undergoing an extraordinary transition, which constitutes one of the most interesting geopolitical developments going on. As you read this keep in mind Uruguay's recent legalization of marijuana.

Ecuador’s President Denounces Chevron As ‘Enemy of Our Country’
Agence France-Presse (France)

Continue reading “SchwartzReport: South America Rising + New World Order II Meta-RECAP”

2013/08/18

Jean Lievens: Leadership in a Networked World — Doing the Right Thing Instead of Doing the Wrong things Right

Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Officers Call

What type of leadership will be required to succeed in this new business world, created by the Networked Society? This society will see new market spaces, where cross-industry companies will compete. Because of its openness, its technology based on mobility, cloud and performing networks, because of globalization, free trade and capital movement; the Networked Society will transform and reshape businesses and industries.

Will the Networked Society require a new type of leadership?

Sami Dob

EXTRACT:

Thousands of books have been written about leadership and leaders, and many theories have been developed in the fields of management and psychology. To mention one, Austrian-born American management consultant, educator, and author Peter Drucker stated that “management does things right; leadership does the right things.”

This post is an extrapolation of a previous post by my colleague Peter Linder, who discussed what type of talents will be required in the Networked Society. He mentioned the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) talents. In this post, I will discuss the type of leadership that will be needed in the Networked Society.

Read full post with many links.

2013/08/18

Jean Lievens: YouTube ( 1:57:54) ‘State Of Mind – the Psychology of Control’ – full length movie

07 Other Atrocities, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, IO Deeds of War, YouTube

Are we controlled? To what extent and by whom? What does it mean for humanity's future? The enormous implications of these questions deter most of us who must deal with the daily consequences of the answers. STATE OF MIND digs deeply into the sources to reveal that much of that which we believe to be truth has been deception, deliberately implanted in our consciousness to erect a “tyranny over the minds of men”. From cradle to grave our parents, peers, institutions and society inform our values and behaviors. But this process has been hijacked. STATE OF MIND examines the science that has evolved over generations to keep us firmly in place and maintain the status quo so that dictators, power brokers and corporate puppeteers may profit from our ignorance and slavery. From the anvil of compulsory schooling to media and entertainment, we are kept in perpetual bondage to the ideas that shape our actions. STATE OF MIND delves into the abyss to bring to light the manipulation and shocking and suppressed examples that reveal the true agendas at work. From the ancient roots of the control of human behavior to its maturity in the mind control experiments of intelligence agencies and other organs of manipulation, STATE OF MIND reveals a plan for the future that drives home the dreadful price of our ignorance. We are prepared for a new paradigm. Will we choose our own paths or have one selected for us? STATE OF MIND unveils the answers that may decide whether humankind will fulfill its destiny or be forever shackled to its own creation.

2013/08/18

Berto Jongman: Pentagon Admits Chemical Weapons Use at Fallujah

03 Environmental Degradation, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Proliferation

Pentagon Reverses Position and Admits U.S. Troops Used White Phosphorus Against Iraqis in Fallujah

The U.S. government has now admitted its troops used white phosphorus as an incendiary weapon against Iraqis during the assault on Fallujah a year ago. Chemical weapons experts say such attacks are in violation of international law banning the use of chemical weapons. We speak with columnist George Monbiot and the news director of RAI TV, the Italian TV network that produced the film “Fallujah: The Hidden Massacre.” [includes rush transcript]

Read full article.

2013/08/182013/08/18

Penguin: Human Terrain System — A Critical View

Cultural Intelligence, IO Impotency

When Eggheads Go to War

EXTRACT:

The Human Terrain System had been sold to the Army as a means of providing cultural knowledge to battlefield commanders. But as I watched the trainees interview residents near the Kansas-Missouri border, it became clear that whatever information they would be providing did not stem from any special knowledge of Iraqi or Afghan culture. Instead of offering cultural expertise, the Human Terrain System was training recruits to parachute into places they’d never been, gather information as quickly as possible, and translate it into something that might be useful to a military commander. One of the few Human Terrain social scientists I met with relevant experience, a Ph.D. candidate in anthropology who had done his dissertation fieldwork in Afghanistan, would describe his Human Terrain work as “windshield ethnography.”

Read full article.

Continue reading “Penguin: Human Terrain System — A Critical View”

2013/08/18

Berto Jongman: Al Jazeera on Deadly Contagions Across Arabia for Lack of Infrastructure — Could This Be Part of “The Plan”?

07 Health, 08 Wild Cards, Government, Ineptitude

Arab revolutions: Ignoring a potential catastrophe

As infrastructure deteriorates throughout the region, deadly contagions are a new cause for concern, writes scientist.

Peter Hotez, MD, PhD, is Dean, National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, President, Sabin Vaccine Institute and Texas Children's Hospital Center for Vaccine Development, and Fellow in Disease and Poverty, James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University.

Recent conflicts in Egypt, Iraq, Libya, Pakistan, Syria, Tunisia, Yemen, and elsewhere in the Middle East may have sufficiently destabilised national and international public health control measures to a point where several tropical diseases have either emerged and are sickening large populations in the region.

The most dramatic example is currently happening in Syria, where cutaneous leishmaniasis, a disfiguring parasitic skin disease transmitted by sandflies and also known as “Aleppo Evil”, is now affecting tens of thousands of innocent civilians both within the country and among refugees fleeing across the border to Lebanon or Turkey. But this disease is also flourishing in Afghanistan, Algeria, and Iraq where breakdowns in public health have allowed sandflies to breed and transmit disease.

Several mosquito-transmitted virus infections have also become important public health problems in the region. According to recent estimates 6 million cases of dengue fever occurred in Egypt in 2010 – more than 7 percent of that country’s population, while almost 14 million cases occurred that year in Pakistan. Dengue has also emerged in Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Yemen, while in both Saudi Arabia and Yemen, Rift valley fever has also appeared – the first time this mosquito-transmitted viral infection has been seen outside of Africa. There is concern that such viral infections could affect pilgrims entering Saudi Arabia during the Hajj this coming fall, as could the new MERS coronavirus, or the recently discovered Alkhurma hemorrhagic virus. Both viruses were first discovered in Saudi Arabia.

Read full article.