Journal ISSN 1078-1935 – Page 2588 – Public Intelligence Blog

2011/04/152011/04/15

US Government Bails Out and Pardons Wall Street, Sends Barry Bonds to Jail–What’s the Difference?

03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 11 Society, Civil Society, Commerce, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, IO Impotency, Money, Banks & Concentrated Wealth, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests

Barry Bonds Faces Jail Time While Wall Street Execs Sit Pretty

What’s the difference between Barry Bonds and Goldman Sachs executives? The later was fortunate enough to be questioned by incompetent lawmakers while Bonds ended up in a courthouse with an actual jury and prosecutors.

. . . . . .

“The Goldman guys may have worse batting average than Barry Bonds but they were better educated by their lawyers about they should shouldn’t say. They also had the benefit of being questioned by incompetent people who had no idea about the financial nomenclature at the heart of their allegations,” Singer says.

For more on why and how Wall Street has avoided criminal charges and jail time check out today’s story in the New York Times about how regulators have, in some cases, willingly protected banks and their executives.

Of course, Matt Taibbi’s Why Isn’t Wall Street In Jail? is also a must-read.

2011/04/15

Worth a Look: Strategic News Service

Worth A Look

In their own words:

The Strategic News Service^® is the most accurate predictive newsletter covering the computing and communications industries. It is read by top management and financial analysts in these industries worldwide.

This service is intended for strategic thinkers who depend upon business technology planning. The SNS charter is to provide managers with information that is not available in the press about critical computer and telecommunications issues, trends and events.

Visit their Home Page

2011/04/15

Harvard “Boys” Crash, Burn, No Apology

04 Education, 07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 10 Security, 11 Society, Academia, Commercial Intelligence, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, InfoOps (IO), IO Impotency

economicprincipals.com

March 27, 2011, David Warsh, Proprietor

A Recent Exercise in Nation-Building by Some Harvard Boys

It was worth a smile at breakfast that morning in February 2006, a scrap of social currency to take out into the world. Michael Porter, the Harvard Business School management guru, had grown famous offering competitive strategies to firms, regions, whole nations. Earlier he had taken on the problems of inner cities, health care and climate change. Now he was about to tackle perhaps the hardest problem of all (that is, after the United States’ wars in Afghanistan and Iraq).

He had become adviser to Moammar Gadhafi’s Libya.

Phi Beta Iota: Harvard is now the poster child for all that is wrong with education–no intelligence, no ethics, and grotesquely expensive. Yale can now claim the mantle in the East.

Read full original….

Safety copy below the line.

Continue reading “Harvard “Boys” Crash, Burn, No Apology”

2011/04/15

Seth Godin on Education Bubble & Alternative

04 Education, Academia, Advanced Cyber/IO, Civil Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence

Buying an education or buying a brand?

It's reported that student debt in the USA is approaching a trillion dollars, five times what it was ten years ago.

Are those in debt buying more education or are they seeking better branding in the form of coveted diplomas?

Does a $40,000 a year education that comes with an elite degree deliver ten times the education of a cheaper but no less rigorous self-generated approach assembled from less famous institutions and free or inexpensive resources?

If not, then the money is actually being spent on the value of the degree, on the doors it will open and the jobs it will snag. If this marketing strategy works big, it pays for itself in no time.

A marketing tactic might move the dial, but that doesn't mean it's always worth the money.

The question is whether a trillion dollars is the right amount for individuals to spend marketing themselves. What would happen if people spent it building up a work history instead? On becoming smarter, more flexible, more self-sufficient and yes, able to take more risk because they owe less money…

There's no doubt that we need smarter and more motivated people in our organizations. I'm not sure we need them to be better labeled or more accredited.

Phi Beta Iota: This is why we feel very strongly that a Vice President for Education, Intelligence, & Research is needed; the corollary of this is that Cyber/IO should be about EDUCATION, not about corporate vapor-ware pretending to do attack and defend of systems that are in the proverbial Stone Age.

2011/04/14

USA Has Become Deaf, Dumb, and Blind

04 Education, 07 Other Atrocities, Advanced Cyber/IO, Budgets & Funding, Communities of Practice, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, InfoOps (IO), Methods & Process, Misinformation & Propaganda, Money, Banks & Concentrated Wealth, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests, Waste (materials, food, etc)

Published on Monday, April 11, 2011 by TruthDig.com

Why the United States Is Destroying Its Education System

by Chris Hedges

Note: Truthdig server overwhelmed. This is the Common Dreams reprint.

A nation that destroys its systems of education, degrades its public information, guts its public libraries and turns its airwaves into vehicles for cheap, mindless amusement becomes deaf, dumb and blind. It prizes test scores above critical thinking and literacy. It celebrates rote vocational training and the singular, amoral skill of making money. It churns out stunted human products, lacking the capacity and vocabulary to challenge the assumptions and structures of the corporate state. It funnels them into a caste system of drones and systems managers. It transforms a democratic state into a feudal system of corporate masters and serfs.

Finish reading at CommonDreams

2010: Human Intelligence (HUMINT) Trilogy Updated

2009 Perhaps We Should Have Shouted: A Twenty-Year Restrospective

1995 GIQ 13/2 Creating a Smart Nation: Strategy, Policy, Intelligence, and Information

1992 E3i: Ethics, Ecology, Evolution, & intelligence (An Alternative Paradigm)

Complete Safety Copy Below the Line

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2011/04/142011/04/14

Seth Godin: Chicken Movies for Better Chicken

IO Sense-Making

Seth Godin Home

Why you might choose to be in favor of transparency

Thousands of doctors have signed up for a service that, among other things, they can use to try to prohibit patients from posting reviews. You can read a bit about it here.

In Iowa, in a surprisingly similar move, the state government is moving ahead with a law that will make it a crime to take or possess videotapes of factory farming that might harm the commercial interests of the farmer.

In both cases, an organization is trying to maintain power by hiding information from the public. Can you imagine being arrested for possession of a photo of a pig?

It's easy to argue that from the public's point of view, laws like this are a bad idea. The public certainly benefits from the outing of bad doctors and from the improved hygeine of factory farms. In that sense, it's unethical for doctors and legislators to subvert their responsibilities by ordering the unempowered to shut up.

I think it's interesting to think about from the doc's point of view (and the chicken farmer), as well. The temptation is for those in charge to defend the status quo by fighting transparency. This ignores a simple truth:

When book reviews are posted, book sales go up.

Yes, the argument of fairness matters. The patients have no choice, the chickens certainly have no choice and the consumers don't have much choice either. There's an argument that goes beyond choice, though… it turns out that transparency increases profitability.

If every chicken coop has a video camera in it, quality will obviously go up. Confidence in the product will go up. Employee behavior will improve as well, because it's hard to torture a chicken if you know you're going to get caught.

Continue reading “Seth Godin: Chicken Movies for Better Chicken”

2011/04/14

Veterans Hosed Upon to Return to USA

03 Economy, 07 Health, 07 Other Atrocities, 11 Society, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Military

One has to wonder how General Eric Ken Shinseki, USA (Ret) is faring as the 7th Secretary of Veterans Affairs.

Out of War, Out of Luck: For Veterans, Skills Learned In Service Don't Translate To Employment

Laura Bassett, 13 April 2010

Huffington Post

WASHINGTON — When Eric Smith, 26, returned home after his second tour in Iraq serving as a Navy medic, he didn't expect to have a difficult time finding work.

While on tour, Smith had worked as a physician's assistant in the intensive care unit (ICU), caring for patients undergoing everything from cancer to recent brain surgery. At times, he served on the front lines treating infections. He never thought the expertise he had developed in the field wouldn’t amount to a job back home — but when he returned he found that he couldn't get a job in medicine without the right certifications.

Read full article….

Seth Godin Home Why you might choose to be in favor of transparency

Seth Godin Home

Why you might choose to be in favor of transparency