Topics (All Other) – Page 218 – Public Intelligence Blog

Friday, August 6, 2010

FedBiz

Fairfax County looking for intelligence analysts

Fairfax County is seeking bidders for a new contract that injects private sector intelligence analysts into regional law enforcement and homeland security efforts.

The county began working with intelligence analysts five years ago, and the existing contract with Fairfax-based ManTech International Corp. is set to expire at the end of the year.

Under the agreement, the defense contractor has provided eight analysts who work to identify terrorist threats in the national capital region and also provide support for more bread-and-butter police work.

Continue reading “Journal: Fairfax County Intelligence Up for Bid”

2010/08/082010/08/08

Free Republic: US Grand Strategy? List of 11 No-Nos

Articles & Chapters, Methods & Process, Officers Call, Strategy

Phi Beta Iota: Free Republic came to our attention today, as a good example of the common sense of We the People. We have added them to Righteous Sites. Below found there on Grand Strategy.

FPRI-Temple University Consortium on Grand Strategy • The Telegram No. 3

Can the United States Do Grand Strategy?

April 2010

By Walter A. McDougall

Excerpt: Angelo Codevilla, who says that what passes for strategy in the U.S. government is mostly wishful or sloppy thinking, made the same point in operational terms. “Because doing the right thing is important to Americans as to no other people, American politics is like politics nowhere else…. Basing statecraft on the American people’s penchant for trying to do the right thing, as did Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt, brings forth awesome energy…. But using the American people’s righteousness as a propellant for private dreams, as did [Woodrow] Wilson, or as cover for tergiversation, as did George W. Bush, is ruinous.”

Related piece same title, with bibliography, by McDougall in Orbis, Journal of World Affairs:

Excerpt: “So whatever buzz words become the shorthand for a new American strategy, I expect the most we can hope for is that our national security agencies and their consulting firms just post on their walls the business strategist Richard Rumelt’s list of ten strategic blunders and meditate on them every day.[32] They are:

Continue reading “Free Republic: US Grand Strategy? List of 11 No-Nos”

2010/08/062010/08/06

Twitter & SMS Used to Help Election in Kenya

07 Other Atrocities, Civil Society, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Geospatial, Mobile, Peace Intelligence, Technologies

source article

How Twitter saved Kenya's election

Thu Aug 5, 2010

New York – Once again, social media has played a central role in a national election. During Kenya's recent ballot initiative to adopt a new constitution, citizens used Twitter, along with Facebook and a new breed of monitoring technology, to help eliminate the voter intimidation, bombings, and deadly violence that marred the struggling African country's disastrous 2008 election. Here, a quick guide:

How was social media used to monitor the election?
Voters reported any intimidation issues at the polls by posting Twitter messages with the hashtag #uchaguzi (the Kiswahili word for “election”), or sending SMS messages to a specially designated number. A group of volunteers tracked the messages and alerted local officials when necessary.

Besides Twitter, what other technologies were used?
A Kenyan-developed platform called Uchaguzi helped aggregate all reported problems, documenting incidents by location and type (security issues, hate speech, ballot issues) so that anyone with Internet access could get a quick overview on the Uchaguzi site. It's very new for Kenyans, Uchaguzi's Charles Kithika tells The Christian Science Monitor, to see that problems are being reported and investigated, effectively “discouraging” troublemakers.

Continue reading “Twitter & SMS Used to Help Election in Kenya”

2010/08/06

President’s Cancer Panel Report, Pharma Trace Contamination of Freshwater Supplies

03 Environmental Degradation, 07 Health, 12 Water, Corporations, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests

This year's report focuses primarily on environmental factors that contribute to cancer risk. According to the report, pharmaceutical drugs are a serious environmental pollutant, particularly in the way they continue to contaminate waterways across the country.

2008–2009 Annual Report from the President’s Cancer Panel
REDUCING ENVIRONMENTAL CANCER RISK: What We Can Do Now (240 pages)

According to a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) study conducted back in 2002, antidepressants, blood pressure and diabetes medications, anticonvulsants, oral contraceptives, hormone replacement therapy drugs, chemotherapy drugs, antibiotics, heart medications and even codeine are all showing up in the water supplies of American cities. This study was the first national-scale evaluation of pharmaceutical drug contamination in streams, and roughly 80 percent of the streams tested were found to be contaminated as well.

Continue reading “President's Cancer Panel Report, Pharma Trace Contamination of Freshwater Supplies”

2010/08/06

“The Plain Truth” (video clip)

04 Inter-State Conflict, Corruption, Ethics, Journalism/Free-Press/Censorship, Misinformation & Propaganda, Open Government, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy, Videos/Movies/Documentaries

“The government needs to be exposed because it cannot be trusted to expose itself, the light of day and the light of truth are the best disinfectants for the government”

Freedom Watch: on Wikileaks and it's importance.

2010/08/052010/08/05

Event: 3-5 Nov 2010, Barcelona Spain, Drumbeat Festival 2010: Learning, freedom and the web

04 Education, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Open Government, Technologies

The web is changing how we learn. It surrounds us with a massive and remixable tapestry of perspectives, facts and data. It gives us the freedom to learn whatever we want at our own speed and in our own way. It lets us become our own teachers. Fundamentally: the free and open nature of the internet is revolutionizing learning.

Who among us has not fallen into a long journey across the web on a surprising topic? Or learned a new skill by making, building or creating something online? Or, for that matter, found a new mentor or apprentice in a forum or on a social network? More and more, this is how we learn.

The open technology and culture of the internet are at the heart of this revolution. They give us raw material to take control of our own learning. Teachers and learners around the world are experimenting, inventing, creating, exploring and building in wonderful ways with this raw material. Mozilla's 2010 Drumbeat Festival is a gathering of these people.

Continue reading “Event: 3-5 Nov 2010, Barcelona Spain, Drumbeat Festival 2010: Learning, freedom and the web”

2010/08/052010/08/05

Event: 7-30 Sept 2010, San Diego CA, World Resources Simulation Center Demo

04 Education, 05 Energy, 12 Water, Augmented Reality, Earth Intelligence, Geospatial, info-graphics/data-visualization, Technologies, Videos/Movies/Documentaries

The philosophical foundation for The WRSC is in its founding premise stated as a question posed in R. Buckminster Fuller's World Game™ simulation:

“How do we make the world
work for 100% of humanity
in the shortest possible time
through spontaneous
cooperation without
ecological damage or
disadvantage to anyone?”

The World Resources Simulation Center (WRSC) will be a non-profit visualization facility where you can literally “see” the critical trends of global and regional issues, the relationships between issues, and the consequences of different strategies. For detailed information, begin by downloading the proposal documents to learn more about the specifics of the project. Next, explore several quick demonstrations of new technologies and how data and mapping information can be utilized in powerful new ways. (videos follow, continue with post) Continue reading “Event: 7-30 Sept 2010, San Diego CA, World Resources Simulation Center Demo”