Category: Analysis

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Koko: List of Toxic US States

03 Environmental Degradation, 05 Energy, 07 Health, 07 Other Atrocities, Analysis, Commerce, Corporations, Corruption, Government, IO Impotency, Media Reports
Koko the Reflexive

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Press contact: Suzanne Struglinski, NRDC, 202-289-2387 or sstruglinski@nrdc.org

If you are not a member of the press, please write to us at nrdcinfo@nrdc.org or see our contact page

Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida Lead List of “Toxic 20” States with Most Toxic Air Pollution from Power Plants

Worst States: OH, PA, FL, KY, MD, IN, MI, WV, GA, NC, SC, AL, TX, VA, TN, MO, IL, WI, NH, IA
WASHINGTON (July 20, 2011) — Residents of Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida live in states with the most toxic air pollution from coal- and oil-fired power plants, according to an analysis by the Natural Resources Defense Council.

The study used publicly-available data in the Environmental Protection Agency’s Toxics Release Inventory (TRI). The analysis, entitled “Toxic Power: How Power Plants Contaminate Our Air and States” was jointly released today by NRDC and Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR).

Among the key findings:

  • Nearly half of all the toxic air pollution reported from industrial sources in the United States comes from coal- and oil-fired power plants.
  • Power plants are the single largest industrial source of toxic air pollution in 28 states and the District of Columbia.

Read full statement….

Koko Observes (in American Sign Language):  The above is an excellent example of isolated concern that is going nowhere–never mind the blatant corruption of Congress.  If it were combined with a 360 degree toxicity survey showing food poisoning, toxic chemicals in everyday materials, and so on, this would be a great deal more useful.  If all of that were integrated into a true cost global game (or in this case, national game), there would be a compellingly useful basis for public outrage one district at a time.

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OECD Serial Global Shocks Demand “Think Long”

Advanced Cyber/IO, Analysis, Communities of Practice, Earth Intelligence, Ethics, Key Players, Methods & Process, Policies, Real Time, Strategy, Threats
Michel Bauwens

Analysis: Serial shocks forcing world to “think long”

By Mike Dolan

LONDON, Jun | Wed Jun 29, 2011 9:44am EDT

(Reuters) – Thrown by a mounting series of extreme events over the past four years, global policymakers and investors are being urged to think long and prepare more systematically for the worst.

. . . . . . .

Part of the problem today is that the latest wave of globalization was led solely by transnational corporations and their interwoven supply chains and by financial markets' 24/7 worldwide blizzard of electronic transactions.

While this greatly facilitated the transmission of shocks worldwide, it was not matched by countervailing global governance and regulation to keep this activity in check or mitigate its most socially- or systemically-threatening aspects.

Read full article….

OECD Launch of Future Global Shocks

More information on the OECD’s Future Global Shocks project is available at: www.oecd.org/futures, including case studies on cyber attacks, pandemics, geomagnetic storms, social unrest and financial crises.

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Twitter Volunteers Helping NATO Bomb Libya…

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, Advanced Cyber/IO, Analysis, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Collective Intelligence, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cultural Intelligence, IO Sense-Making, Methods & Process, Military
Who, Me?

Believe it or not….NATO appears to be attentive to and leveraging the “intellectual capital” outside the confines of its Member state intelligence services.

How social media users are helping NATO fight Gadhafi in Libya

GRAEME SMITH

Globe and Mail, Tuesday, Jun. 14, 2011

EXTRACT:

Robert Rowley, 48, supervisor of a Dairy Queen in Arizona, said he has already seen results from his Twitter activism. He was among the first to notice fuel tankers slipping past NATO warships and docking at ports controlled by Col. Gadhafi, which led to NATO interdictions.

He also wonders whether his tweets might be connected to the bombing of a Gadhafi communications centre in Tripoli. Combing through satellite images, he noticed that a property listed as a commercial warehouse had a yard containing what appeared to be military vehicles. He published his observations; 10 hours later, the spot was hit by a NATO air strike.

“I’m 5,000 miles away,” he said, in an interview before his shift at the ice-cream parlour. “It’s a very weird feeling.”

Read full article….

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Non-Geek Digerati Anti-Intellectualism

Academia, Advanced Cyber/IO, Analysis, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Collective Intelligence, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, History, info-graphics/data-visualization, IO Impotency, Key Players, Methods & Process, Misinformation & Propaganda, Policies, Policy, Politics of Science & Science of Politics, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests, Reform, Research resources, Serious Games, Standards, Threats, Tools, Waste (materials, food, etc)
Larry Sanger

Is there a new geek anti-intellectualism?

Is there a new anti-intellectualism?  I mean one that is advocated by Internet geeks and some of the digerati.  I think so: more and more mavens of the Internet are coming out firmly against academic knowledge in all its forms.  This might sound outrageous to say, but it is sadly true.

Read lengthy post with links…

Robert David STEELE Vivas

 

Robert David STEELE Vivas: Digerati are not geeks.  They are adept at social media, a process, rather than the substance of any discipline.  Their scorn for the mandarins of knowledge would not be possible if academia had not lost its soul, sanctioned massive intellectual corruption, and fragmented itself to the point of irrelevance.  The serious educational literature (not something the digerati read) is clear: inspiration and innovation

Click on Image to Enlarge

emerge faster, better, and cheaper from minds that are prepared, to include a foundation of memorization and a deep familiarity with the thinking of those who have come before.  The digerati point of view half-right and is embodied in Smart Mobs, Wisdom of the Crowd, Everything is Miscellaneous, and Maria Popova's latest thought, that “information curation is the new authorship.”  The digerati approach splits the roles of originator of an idea and connector of an idea down, and assumes that “the collective” can replicate and even surpass the individual human brain, without recognizing that the whole is only as good as the sum of the part foundation plus whatever the collective adds.  My own finding re Wikipedia is that the mob destroys intellectuals.  My own efforts to enhance the Open Source Intelligence page there were destroyed by idiots that “assumed” that because I pointed to oss.net so much (to many of the 800 people whose work is there including the 144 that received Golden Candle Awards) I was “self-promoting.” The digerati are fragile and very shallow, and by Larry Sanger's very interesting account, a new form of neo-Luddite.  The academy is corrupt and fragmented–we are in an era where all forms of organization have lost their soul and whatever semblance of philosophical context they may once have possessed.  We are suffering from the Paradigms of Failure that I discussed in the pre-amble to ELECTION 2008: Lipstick on the Pig (EIN, 2008).  There is only one option leading to stabilization & reconstruction:  INTEGRITY.  The digerati aren't–as a general rule–very appreciative of holistic thinking or in-depth expertise–they are a spoiled generation badly in need of some personal suffering and exposure to global reality–IMHO.

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In “borderless” cyberspace, nation states struggle — M4IS2 Anyone?

Advanced Cyber/IO, Analysis, Augmented Reality, Budgets & Funding, Collective Intelligence, Communities of Practice, Computer/online security, Corporations, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cultural Intelligence, Earth Intelligence, Ethics, Geospatial, History, info-graphics/data-visualization, InfoOps (IO), Intelligence (government), Journalism/Free-Press/Censorship, Key Players, Methods & Process, Officers Call, Peace Intelligence, Policies, Policy, Politics of Science & Science of Politics, Real Time, Reform, Research resources, Serious Games, Standards, Strategy, Technologies, Threats, Tools, Whole Earth Review
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Analysis: In “borderless” cyberspace, nation states struggle

By Peter Apps, Political Risk Correspondent

Reuters LONDON | Thu Jun 9, 2011

EXTRACT:

“The nature of cyberspace is borderless and anonymous,” R. Chandrasekhara, secretary of India's telecommunications department, told a cyber security conference in London last week organised by a U.S.-based think tank, the EastWest Institute. “Governments, countries and law — all are linked to territory. There is a fundamental contradiction.”

Read full article….

Tip of the Hat to Chris Pallaris at LinkedIn.

Phi Beta Iota: The national secret intelligence communities mean well, but they are cognitively and culturally incapacitated  in relation to both the global threats and the global infomation sharing and sense-making possibilities.  It may just be that the solution has to come from a private sector service of common concern that can provide the integrity now lacking in governments and most corporation.  Scary thought.  M4IS2 is inevitable….delay is costing trillions.

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US Borders are NOT Secure–Just Dangerous

08 Wild Cards, Analysis, Civil Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, InfoOps (IO), Intelligence (government), IO Impotency, Law Enforcement, Misinformation & Propaganda, Officers Call, Policies, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests, Threats
Marcus Aurelius Recommends

Tip of the iceberg, no doubt….

Authorities take gunfire on border with MexicoAn

Phi Beta Iota: The President's declaration that the border is “safe” has inspired a sense of disbelief and even scorn among those who know that it simply is not so.  This level of “cognitive dissonance” now characterizes informed public reactions to most of what the President says on any issue.  There is only one cure:  he needs intelligence with integrity. Or not.

See Also:

Border Global Incidents Scroll and Map

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USA: Thirteen Big Lies — Needed Counter-Narrative

07 Other Atrocities, Advanced Cyber/IO, Analysis, Budgets & Funding, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Corporations, Corruption, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, History, info-graphics/data-visualization, InfoOps (IO), Intelligence (government), IO Impotency, Journalism/Free-Press/Censorship, Methods & Process, Misinformation & Propaganda, Money, Banks & Concentrated Wealth, Officers Call, Policies, Politics of Science & Science of Politics, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests, Reform, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy, Standards, Strategy, Technologies, Waste (materials, food, etc)
Jock Gill

Here are a few of the BIG lies used to support the status quo.  What we need, rather urgently, is a counter-narrative

LIE 1. The earth is an open system with infinite supplies and sinks;

POSSIBLE TRUTH:  Earth is a closed system, changes that used to take 10,000 years now take three, humanity is “peaking” the entire system.

LIE 2. Everything must be monetized;

POSSIBLE TRUTH:  Money is an exchange unit and an information unit; in the absence of holistic analytics and “true cost” transparency, mony is actually a toxic means of concentrating wealth and depriving communities of their own resources (e.g. land).

LIE 3. The extreme unregulated free market is the only option for a modern economy;

POSSIBLE TRUTH:  Information asymmetries and “rule by secrecy” have been clearly documented–the free market is neither free nor fair.  A modern economy needs to be transparent, resilient, and hence rooted in the local.

Continue reading “USA: Thirteen Big Lies — Needed Counter-Narrative”