Policies – Page 599 – Public Intelligence Blog

The post Search: errors that resulted in great ideas and especially the comment on need to fully integrate women and minorities reminded me of Ellen Swallow Richards. She was one of the first publicly acknowledged female heavy-weights in intellect and values in the USA, in my opinion. See especially her later books, The Cost of Food, The Cost of Shelter, The Art of Right Living, The Cost of Cleanness, Sanitation in Daily Life (1907), and Euthenics, the Science of Controllable Environment (1910). I had forgotten that she was also responsible for introducing the word “ecology” into the English language.

Wikipedia/Ellen Swallow Richards

Ellen Henrietta Swallow Richards (December 3, 1842 – March 30, 1911) was the foremost female industrial and environmental chemist in the United States in the 19th century, pioneering the field of home economics. Richards graduated from Westford Academy (2nd oldest secondary school in Westford, MA). She was the first woman admitted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and its first female instructor, the first woman in America accepted to any school of science and technology, and the first American woman to earn a degree in chemistry.

What Presidents Don’t Know About Education Plus RECAP of 6 Star Plus Books Relevant to Creating a Smart Nation with a Strategic Narrative that WORKS

04 Education, Academia, Civil Society, Cultural Intelligence, IO Sense-Making

How to Get a Real Education

Forget art history and calculus. Most students need to learn how to run a business, says Scott Adams (Creator of Dilbert)

Wall Street Journal, 9 April 2011

I understand why the top students in America study physics, chemistry, calculus and classic literature. The kids in this brainy group are the future professors, scientists, thinkers and engineers who will propel civilization forward. But why do we make B students sit through these same classes? That's like trying to train your cat to do your taxes—a waste of time and money. Wouldn't it make more sense to teach B students something useful, like entrepreneurship?

“Why do we make B students sit through the same classes as their brainy peers? That's like trying to train your cat to do your taxes—a waste of time and money. Wouldn't it make sense to teach them something useful instead?”

. . . . . .

By the time I graduated, I had mastered the strange art of transforming nothing into something. Every good thing that has happened to me as an adult can be traced back to that training. Several years later, I finished my MBA at Berkeley's Haas School of Business. That was the fine-tuning I needed to see the world through an entrepreneur's eyes.

If you're having a hard time imagining what an education in entrepreneurship should include, allow me to prime the pump with some lessons I've learned along the way.

Combine Skills .. Fail Forward .. Find the Action .. Attract Luck .. Conquer Fear .. Write Simply .. Learn Persuasion

. . . . . .

That's my starter list for the sort of classes that would serve B students well. The list is not meant to be complete. Obviously an entrepreneur would benefit from classes in finance, management and more.

Remember, children are our future, and the majority of them are B students. If that doesn't scare you, it probably should.

Read expansion on the Seven Methods and complete article….

Continue reading “What Presidents Don't Know About Education Plus RECAP of 6 Star Plus Books Relevant to Creating a Smart Nation with a Strategic Narrative that WORKS”

2011/04/09

New Institutions as Bulwark Against the Corporate-Political State

Advanced Cyber/IO, Communities of Practice, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Methods & Process, Policies

New Institutions as the Bulwark Against the Corporate-Political State from Kevin Rollins on Vimeo.

Michael Ostrolenk and Kevin Rollins discuss the role of new media, both social media like facebook and twitter, as well as niche magazines. Ostrolenk says that such forums help new ideas because they “remove barriers to entry and support [new idea] generation.

Five minute video

2011/04/092011/04/09

Complex Societies Collapse When Commodity Prices Go UP and Financial Speculation Returns Go DOWN

Analysis, Communities of Practice, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, InfoOps (IO), Intelligence (government), IO Sense-Making, Key Players, Policies, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests, Threats

JOURNAL: Oil >$100 Crunch time ahead (again)?

The last time the price of oil topped $100 a barrel for an extended period, we ended up in a global financial meltdown. Is this time any different?

Not much.

All of the excessively financial leverage and fraudelent derivative wealth we had during the last melt down is still in place. Total debt to GDP levels in the US are about the same (370% of GDP or so). No reforms were made on Wall Street. Nobody at fault for the fraud that led to the last melt down went to jail, so behaviors haven't changed.

We're worse off than before. Read rest of article…

This is classic Tainter (the excellent anthropoligist/historian). He posited that complex societies only collapse when the costs of basic inputs increase at the same time the returns on investments in complex institutions/etc. turn negative. So, with oil going up again, we are seeing basic input costs rise. It's also clear that our twin overheads Government and Global Finance are well past the point they delivered positive returns for additional complexity. Worse, they are colluding, via cronyism, to prevent any meaningful changes.

Complexity & Catastrophe (103)
Complexity & Resilience (119)

2011/04/082011/04/08

Arabian Revolt & Inequality in the USA

01 Poverty, 03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 09 Justice, 11 Society, Analysis, Communities of Practice, Corporations, Corruption, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cultural Intelligence, InfoOps (IO), IO Sense-Making, Methods & Process, Money, Banks & Concentrated Wealth, Officers Call, Policy, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests, Reform, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy, Waste (materials, food, etc)

editor spinney time — Chuck Spinney Recommends...

Below are two opinion pieces.

The first is “A revolution against neoliberalism” by Abu Atris, it appeared in Al Jazeera on 24 Feb. The second is “Of the 1%, by the 1%, and for the 1%” by Joseph Stiglitz. One is about the Arab Revolt in Egypt and the other is about income inequality in the United States … they raise stunningly similar — and very disturbing — themes when compared to each other. I urge readers to read each carefully and think about the likenesses and differences between them.

EXHIBIT A

A revolution against neoliberalism?

If rebellion results in a retrenchment of neoliberalism, millions will feel cheated.

‘Abu Atris,’ Aljazeera, 24 February 2011

EXHIBIT B

Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%

Americans have been watching protests against oppressive regimes that concentrate massive wealth in the hands of an elite few. Yet in our own democracy, 1 percent of the people take nearly a quarter of the nation’s income—an inequality even the wealthy will come to regret.

By Joseph E. Stiglitz, Vanity Fair, May 2011

2011/04/05

Historical Backgrounder on Libya

05 Energy, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, Civil Society, Cultural Intelligence, Government, IO Sense-Making, Military, Peace Intelligence

The author of this long but very useful historical analysis on the history of Libya is also the author of Violent Politics: A History of Insurgency, Terrorism, and Guerrilla War, from the American Revolution to Iraq, one of the very best books I have ever read on the subject of guerrilla warfare.

Whence Libya? Why Libya? Whither Libya?

William R. Polk, March 31, 2011

Since the Libyan regime was established by a coup d’état in 1969, Americans and Europeans — with a three-year intermission from 1986 to 1988 — found it acceptable enough to recognize it, sell it arms and buy its petroleum. In that one interval, on April 15, 1986, the American government under President Ronald Reagan attempted to kill Colonel Muammar Qaddafi by bombing his residence and did wound his wife and kill about 75 Libyans including his adopted daughter. Two years later, Qaddafi retaliated by bombing an American airliner. That attack killed 270 people including 190 Americans among whom were at least four intelligence officers. These were just the major events; there were many others. Of course, Americans and Libyans took very different views of them. But both sides eventually smoothed over their angers, and relations again became profitable and “correct” on both sides, as they remained until early this year.

So, what is the basis of those attitudes and the causes of those actions? Who are the Libyans anyway? And what is the position of Qaddafi among them? What motivates the Libyans? What governs their action? And what is likely to be the outcome of the revolt, the regime’s resistance to it and the Western intervention?

With the prejudice of a historian, I find that seeking answers to these questions requires at least a glance at the past. That is the aim of this essay.

Read the essay….

2011/04/042011/04/04

US Diplomats Lighting Electronic Insurgency Fire

02 Diplomacy, Advanced Cyber/IO, Cultural Intelligence, Government

Interesting…..what are the potential ramifications, electronic
insurgencies?

Hillary Clinton's Senior Tech Advisor Talks “Radical” Global Citizenship

BY Gregory Ferenstein, 4 April 2011

Alec Ross on subversive technologies, Libya, Wikileaks, and the future of digital diplomacy.”We're willing to make mistakes of commission,” he tells Fast Company, “rather than omission.”

In the turbulent center of the Venn diagram involving President Obama's multilateral foreign policy, open government mandates, and Middle-East unrest is Alec Ross, the Senior Advisor for Innovation to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. From asking Twitter to delay down-time maintenance during the 2009 student uprising to courting programmers for Africa, Ross's office has been tasked with coordinating the monumental logistics of a new philosophy that embraces global interdependence. Ross spoke with Fast Company about the meaning of the highly controversial “global citizenship” concept, the diplomatic difficulties in supporting subversive technologies, and the future of transparency.

Read complete article….

Continue reading “US Diplomats Lighting Electronic Insurgency Fire”

Category: Policies

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