51 slides, provocative.
10 Trends in Strategic Foresight for Defense and Security
Theophillis Goodyear: The Machines Grinds Us Up….
Cultural Intelligence
The Machine Grinds All of Us Up and Spits All of Us Out, No Exceptions
I keep returning to the idea that our collectives have come to rule us all, even those who seem to be captains at the wheel. If that's what they believe, they are wrong. The captain is the blind collective. And the blind collective is the sum of all the parts. They are just a part like the rest of us, albeit a part with more control that the rest of us have.
In that sense we have all become servants to the greater wholes: the blind collectives that drive us and that all of us serve. They are like giant machines.
One aspect of that machinery is cognitive and includes ideas as ancient as Aristotle. Yes, Aristotle's ideas have become part of the greater machine that drives us, as have other ideas that are thousands of years old, such as the idea that men should run everything.
And the machine requires us to play roles. It may seem like we invent our roles, but we don't. We select them from a limited number of stock of characters that are approved by the grand machine. We perform a function within that machine. And as soon as we no longer serve a purpose in the machine, we are ejected. Then we have to find a new machine-approved role. The blindness is contained within the roles. It's part of our wardrobe. It's contained within our lines and within the character traits of the role we are expected to inhabit. We are forced to follow the script. Very few ad libs are allowed.
Continue reading “Theophillis Goodyear: The Machines Grinds Us Up….”
John Robb: Natural Gas Leaks — Be Very Concerned
03 Economy, 05 Energy, 07 Health, 11 Society
Natural Gas leaks
Now this is disturbing. The natural gas pipeline system that supplies 65 million customers in the US is not only old, it's poorly maintained. Some of the pipes in the Boston area are over a century old and made with cast iron or (even) wood. The problem is that a financially strapped US simply doesn't invest in infrastructure anymore.
How badly are these pipes leaking? A recent study by Boston University found 3,000 leaks at the street level in the Boston area. A handful of these leaks were large enough to be explosive.
There are even some civil suits underway against gas companies for the damage natural gas leaks have caused to trees/vegetation (there's $133 million in property damage a year from leaks). Regardless, I'm sure this can't be healthy for the people living there.
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Schwartz Report: Iceland Rules, and State Push-Back on Feds Re Marijuana
03 Economy, 09 Justice, 11 Society
Dolphin: YARC YARC Navy Dolphin Alert
Earth Intelligence
US Navy dolphins to be reassigned
Herald.ie, 2 December 2012
Some dolphins used by the Navy to track down mines will soon lose their jobs to robots – but they will be reassigned, not retired.
Starting in 2017, 24 of the Navy's 80 military-trained dolphins will be replaced by a 12-foot unmanned torpedo-shaped vehicle, according to the newspaper UT San Diego.
The military said the machines can do some of the same mine-hunting duties as the sea creatures. And they can be manufactured quickly, unlike the seven years it takes to train a dolphin.
But the dolphins will not be relieved of duty. They will be used along with sea lions for port security and retrieving objects from the sea floor, the newspaper reported.
The Navy's 28 million US dollar marine-mammal program dates back to the late 1950s and once included killer whales and sharks. Based in San Diego, it currently uses 80 bottle-nosed dolphins and 40 California sea lions.
In recent years, dolphins have been deployed to Iraq and Bahrain to patrol for enemy divers and mark the locations of mines.
Using their innate sonar, the mammals find and mark mines in shallow water, in deep water when tethers are used, and on the bottom where sediment cover and plant growth can hide the devices.
Dolphins are carried aboard Navy ships in large movable pools, about 20 feet in diameter. Dolphins travelled on the amphibious ship Gunston Hall in 2003 for the Iraq war.
Most of the Navy's dolphins and sea lions are housed at Point Loma Naval Base, in pools sectioned off from the bay. Others guard Navy submarine bases in Georgia and Washington state, according to UT San Diego.
The military is responsible for the mammals' care throughout their lives, even after they are retired from active duty. Sometimes Navy dolphins are loaned to animal parks, such as Sea World, later in life.
Eagle: One Planet Ten Principles
Commercial Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence, Earth Intelligence
We the People should be for this!
The ten principles
The ten One Planet principles provide a framework that allows us to examine the sustainability challenges we face and develop action plans to live and work within a fair share of the earth’s resources.
Mini-Me: DIA Sending Hundreds More Spies Overseas – Long Phi Beta Iota Editorial + Meta-RECAP 1.1
IO Impotency, Military
Huh?
DIA sending hundreds more spies overseas
By Greg Miller
Washington Post, Saturday, December 1, 2012
The Pentagon will send hundreds of additional spies overseas as part of an ambitious plan to assemble an espionage network that rivals the CIA in size, U.S. officials said.
The project is aimed at transforming the Defense Intelligence Agency, which has been dominated for the past decade by the demands of two wars, into a spy service focused on emerging threats and more closely aligned with the CIA and elite military commando units.
When the expansion is complete, the DIA is expected to have as many as 1,600 “collectors” in positions around the world, an unprecedented total for an agency whose presence abroad numbered in the triple digits in recent years.
The total includes military attachés and others who do not work undercover. But U.S. officials said the growth will be driven over a five-year period by the deployment of a new generation of clandestine operatives. They will be trained by the CIA and often work with the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command, but they will get their spying assignments from the Department of Defense.
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Former senior Defense Department officials said that the DIA now has about 500 “case officers,” the term for clandestine Pentagon and CIA operatives, and that the number is expected to reach between 800 and 1,000 by 2018.
Pentagon and DIA officials declined to discuss specifics. A senior U.S. defense official said the changes will affect thousands of DIA employees, as analysts, logistics specialists and others are reassigned to support additional spies.
The plan still faces some hurdles, including the challenge of creating “cover” arrangements for hundreds of additional spies. U.S. embassies typically have a set number of slots for intelligence operatives posing as diplomats, most of which are taken by the CIA.
