The truth at any cost lowers all other costs — curated by former US spy Robert David Steele.
UN-SPIDER aims at providing universal access to all types of space-based information and services relevant to disaster management by being a gateway to space information for disaster management support; serving as a bridge to connect the disaster management and space communities; and being a facilitator of capacity-building and institutional strengthening.
Tip of the hat to Chris Nicholas.
Found at iRevolution by Patrick Philippe Meier
Speaking at the Clinton Global Initiative Conference, Matt Damon announced:
Water.org commits to bringing safe dinking water and sanitation to a minimum of 50,000 people in Haiti overthe next three years. It will enhance awareness of good hygiene practices among local communities, and focus on integrating sustainable water resources management into community practices. Water.org co-founders Matt Damon and Gary White joined Presdent Clinton on-stage to announce the commitment.
View their website by clicking on the photograph of a well being dug in Ethiopia.
Parag Khanna, author of The Second World: Empires and Influence in the New Global Order has been honored with an invitation to TED 2009 and here is the 18 minute presentation that he gave on “Invisible Maps,” along with our notes.
Core point, very much simplified: most borders are artificial and underlying realities such as infrastructure (pipelines, access to the sea) and demogrpahics are better indicators of where we could be going. Artificial borders are a major cause of conflict and a major perpetuator of the arms industry.
Eastern Russia today has 6 million Russians, has become, with global warming, a potential breadbasket, and has attracted a huge influx of Chinese migrating north and north east.
China is the anchor for the Eastern Hemisphere, which also has more “global hubs” than the West.
The author's solution for both Kurdistan and Palestine is infrastructure, respecting the Kurds need for independence by acknowledging their grip on the pipelines, and giving the Palestinians the secure route between Gaza and the West Bank.
In the author's words, pipelines equal silk roads and counter the Great Game efforts to control and compete for control.
Charity Navigator has been on our list of Righteous Sites from the beginning. Today we want to highlight their listing and ratings of 129 “think tanks” or Research and Public Policy Institutes ostensibly committed to the Public Benefit.
Of course we all know that most of these are driven by either ideology or corporate funding to achieve pre-conceived ends, but that does not lessen their value. What lessens the value of the whole is that there is no public intelligence capability for aggreagating all that these “think tanks” produce, so that citizens can “make sense” out of the aggregate, have an appreciative inquiry and deliberative dialog, and then reach a sustainable (i.e. affordable) consensus on the entire spectrum of issues affectiing the public.
As Europe contemplates the creation of a Mutlinational Information-Sharing and Sense-Making Network, and Singapore and South Africa among others think about expanding the over-the-horizon and continent-wide networks, only one major power remains deliberately deaf, dumb, and blind to the 80% or more of the information that cannot be stolen but can be acquired freely from open sources in 183 languages we do not speak: the United STATES of America.
As Members begin thinking about how they are going to deal with the virulently angry public between now and 2010, there are two legislative proposals that have been on the table for over a decade–some would say two decades, both eminently sensible, eminently patriotic, and perhaps–if executed inelligently–the only thing that might fireproof those Members who now fear they will not be re-elected.
The books and articles on the failure of Congress to honor Article 1 of the Constitution, and the failure of Members to honor their constituencies by eschewing “party line” voting, are now legion. Congress has been tarred and feathered; Independents are now 43% of the eligible voters and rising; and the 70% that did not vote for this Administration in 2008 is likely to come back to the polls in 2010 with an “anything but” mind-set.
Time to think really big thoughts, strategic thoughts, thoughts that benefit the public which is the heart and soul of the Republic and has been living with a stake in its heart all these years, a dysfunctional dishonest electoral system.
This act, eight measures, four for 2010 and the other four for 2012, restores the Republic.
Restoring the primacy of the public and the legitimacy of the electoral system is not enough. America is coming off fifty years of mortal failure across all its paradigms, and only the creation of a Smart Nation – Safe Nation that connects the public to all possible information and Congress to both the public and all possible information, will restore the survivability and prosperity of the Republic. The second act, created in service to Congressman Rob Simmons (R-CT-02), now running for the Senate, does that.
Hewlett-Packard is building collaboration software with video, application-sharing and 3-D graphics support into several of its workstation models, giving the high-definition conferencing market an option well below the cost and scale of telepresence.
SkyRoom is available worldwide as a free, preinstalled feature of HP Z800, Z600, Z400 and xw4600 workstations. Some premium business PCs and laptops coming from HP in the next few months will offer the software on a 90-day trial basis.
The software is also available for purchase for an estimated U.S. street price of US$149 and can be used on workstations and PCs from Dell, Lenovo and Sun, HP said. In addition to the Core 2 Duo or equivalent processor, those systems will need at least 2GB of RAM, a webcam and XP or Vista. HP is also offering the HP SkyRoom Accessory Kit, which includes a high-resolution webcam and headphones or speakers, for $119.
With a tip of the hat to Intelligence Online, we recommend One World Research as being worth a look. IO highlighted them as being part of the open source intelligence support to litigation against CIA for renditioin and torture.
One World Research is a research, investigation, and consulting firm that provides high-quality services to clients involved in promoting public interest causes. Our clients include law firms, universities, governmental agencies, non-governmental organizations, advocacy groups, journalists, and filmmakers.
Utilizing a network of experienced investigators, attorneys, public policy analysts, and human rights experts, One World Research provides a broad scope of services in the United States and throughout the world, including litigation and advocacy assistance, investigative services, research, and consulting.
