The truth at any cost lowers all other costs — curated by former US spy Robert David Steele.
Phi Beta Iota: Our most trusted alter ego flagged this for attention, and we love it. We have ordered the book on Visual Language and hoping the author will soon publish on Information Mapping. This is sheer genius, not least for its human sensitivity and its grasp of the brain-eye-hand-touch loop. We are blown away by this, it buries the visual design phenoms of the past, while clearly being relevant to Collective Intelligence and Conscious Evolution.
Not New, But Improved
Allison Arieff
Meet Stella.
At first glance, this little yellow giraffe looks like a lot of other kids’ bath toys. But Stella is made from Renuva, a little-known material that could change for the better the way hundreds of things, from upholstery to airplane wings, are made.
The story of how Stella came to be made from this material, a soy-based alternative to polyurethane (which is typically petroleum-based), provides a model for how stuff can be better designed in the future.
Phi Beta Iota: While folks focus on the Al Gore show and the important but isolated challenge of reducing our carbon footprint, the avant guarde is way down the road with sustainable design, green chemistry, zero waste, and so on. It's all connected, we need to get truth on the table, and we need to do the right things righter. Stella is a poster child for a new paradigm of ecological economics, natural capitalism, and conscious evolution. Learn more about Renuva from Dow below.
Boston Globe
By H.D.S. Greenway
November 3, 2009
PRESIDENT OBAMA is doing the arithmetic of fighting in Afghanistan and figuring the odds of Pakistan pulling through. He must not only add up the numbers of soldiers he wants to hand over to his generals, but must also measure what is achievable against what his country has to spend in money and blood. General Stanley McChrystal?s requests echo those of Marshal Akhromeyev, who begged the Soviet Politburo for more soldiers for his war 20 years ago.
Continue reading “Journal: Afghanistan–The Arithmetic of the Frontier”
The Detritus of Katrina and the Paralysis of Fear:
A Metaphor for Contemporary Politics
The vast Mississippi Delta in Louisiana is sinking as sea water from the Gulf of Mexico seeps in to destroy its fresh water marshlands. The Army's Corps of Engineers says it can not protect New Orleans from the inevitable storm surges caused by hurricanes (see the Guardian report attached below).
Some may dismiss this warning as alarmist hype, and the Army's Corps of Engineers certainly does not have an enviable track record in this regard. That said, the Corps' warning does make evident the political-economic detritus left over from Hurricane Katrina. Inferentially, the warning also highlights the hollowness in the scare tactics used by global warming advocates to raise money for their far more costly ambitions, not to mention the paralyzing political-economic consequences posed by the politics of fear practiced by the Pentagon.
The reality of the Delta thus becomes a metaphor for the larger emptiness that now pervades American politics.
Below the Fold: Balance of Spinney Comment, Full Article with Highlight, Books
Continue reading “Journal: Chuck Spinney Sends–Katrina & Fear”
Newsday Columnist Quits Over Paywall, Wants To Be Read
One of the reasons why the NY Times eventually did away with its old “paywall” was that its big name columnists started complaining that fewer and fewer people were reading them.
The NY Times is reporting that Newsday columnist Saul Friedman quit and did so while publishing an open letter on why paywalls are a bad idea, while also telling the NY Times that he knew his column was popular with people outside of Newsday's footprint, and he was upset that those people would not be able to read his column and that he wouldn't be able to send out links to his columns.
Oh, one other thing? Mr. Friedman is 80 years old and worked for newspapers for over 50 years. In other words, he's not just some “young kid who thinks everything online should be free” as we're so often told is the real problem.
I am a Professor of Technological Innovation in the MIT Sloan School of Management, and am also a Professor in MIT's Engineering Systems Division. I specialize in research related to the nature and economics of distributed and open innovation. I also develop and teach about practical methods that individuals, open user communities, and firms can apply to improve their product and service development processes.
Democratizing Innovation (2005)
The Sources of Innovation (1988)
Phi Beta Iota: Innovation, like intelligence, is not federal, not secret, and not expensive. We recommend this author and his righteous offer.
WASHINGTON — A new book detailing the political contributions and practices of nearly 5,000 companies goes on sale today, providing consumers with a powerful tool in helping them vote with their wallets.
New to The Blue Pages, Second Edition is the reporting of federal lobbying expenditures, which in 2008 totaled $3.3 billion. Additionally, the new edition expands listings with environmental policies and practices of the companies tracked. Each sector overview opens with commentary from an expert in the field.
Examples:
• AT&T — Total contributions to Republican Party: $2,875,123; Total contributions to Democratic Party: $2,531,482; Lobby Spending: $32,214,784;
• ExxonMobil — Total contributions to Republican Party: $1,085,223; Total contributions to Democratic Party: $333,799; Lobby Spending: $45,940,000;
