The attached essay describes the natural gas bonanza in the Eastern Mediterranean is packed with facts, and it will give you a headache reading it, but it is very important and I recommend it to your attention.
Istanbul is rioting, Syria is enflamed, and the Palestinians still do not have a state, but it may be that the real catalyst for action in the Mediterranean is coming from miles under the sea. Based on discoveries made in the last five years, Israel, Cyprus, and other states in the region are now flush in natural gas, and enamored by the possibility of finding more. A new energy bonanza is taking place, with a new game of pipeline politics quick on its heels, and disturbingly, strange and horrific wars as well.
This is not the time for cliché or sound bite, but to paraphrase Tony Blair, I feel the hand of history (or the all-seeing electronic eye) just to the right of this keyboard. And your keyboard actually. And your webcam. Oh, and your telephone. Indeed, if your toaster has acquired the ability to engage in two-way communications, the all-seeing electronic eye probably knows how you like your toast. And your crumpets. It has probably told its all-seeing master (or mistress). And they have made a micro-judgment about the fact that your toast is underdone (an unsound choice unless matched with slightly underdone bacon) and that your crumpets are ever so slightly rubbery.
If outed by a former contractor with an overdeveloped sense of global citizenry and a keenness to stop enjoying the liberties of a free man, the all-seeing electronic eye’s master (or mistress) would tell you that you had nothing to worry about if you are merely going about your business in a law abiding way. Afterall, a small detail about your toast (and crumpets) going to the all-seeing electronic eye is a small price to pay for all this security you are enjoying. And you are enjoying it, right? And you might hopefully respond to the representative of the all-seeing electronic eye that they were talking total rot. Because this is only in small part about being law-abiding, it’s mostly about creating and enforcing obedience and compliance.
It is the beigest political paint that dries the quickest, and Prism is set for maximum beige.
What they're not saying is that it looks like we're going to have a teeny-weeny Army with little if any money to do anything except hang around home station doing low-level local stuff.
Army of Preparation
What is it?
Today, the U.S. Army stands at a historical inflection point. After fighting two major wars over the last 12 years, the Army has learned much about the dramatically changing world and the way it approaches conflict. The Army must now review these hard-won lessons, but with an eye toward an increasingly complex and dangerous future. In essence, the Army must begin the transition from an Army of Execution to an Army of Preparation.
Featured Speaker: Dr. Walter Dorn, professor of defence studies at the Royal Military College of Canada and the Canadian Forces College.
Moderator: Sarah Williamson, managing director, Protect the People
As U.N. peace operations are asked and expected to do more in increasingly complex and dangerous environments, this discussion with Dr. Dorn will explore the challenges and opportunities of leveraging a broad spectrum of technologies to enable U.N. peace operations to more effectively and safely protect civilians.
Dr. Walter Dorn has also taught at the Pearson Centre and as a visiting professional in the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. He has served with the United Nations Mission in East Timor, the United Nations in Ethiopia, at U.N. headquarters as a training adviser and as a consultant with the U.N. Department of Peacekeeping Operations. His book “Keeping Watch: Monitoring, Technology, and Innovation in UN Peace Operations” was published in 2011 by U.N. University Press. Copies of his book will be available for purchase and signing.
For more information, contact Aditi Gorur at agorur@stimson.org or 202-478-3445.
Pirate Parties: This week, the end of May 2013, the European Elections are exactly one year out, and as things stand today, Pirate representation in the European Parliament can be expected to triple. This would follow a Swedish re-election, a German entry, and a Finnish entry following Peter Sunde’s candidacy. While the Pirate movement is still nascent, tripling representation would obviously advance the movement.
One year from the European Elections, we can take a quick look at the lay of the land, country by country for the Pirate Party.
In Sweden, it is reasonable that the Pirate Party defends (at least) one seat of its current two. Seeing that Sweden has twenty seats in the European Parliament, you theoretically need 5% of the vote total per seat in Parliament. (Here, we can also observe that the Swedish Pirate Party’s two seats for 7.13% was a rounding error working heavily in the party’s favor – hence, with a repeated result of 7%, one seat can be expected. In fact, anywhere between 4% and 8% will probably yield one seat.)
In Germany, the Piratenpartei is currently polling at between 3% and 4%. It’s possible that this is enough to get to 5% on September 22 of this year, when Germany has its national election, which would be a huge boost to the movement. But even without such a success, 3%-4% is enough for four German seats in the European Parliament (out of Germany’s 99) in the elections in May 2014.
In Finland, it has been announced that Peter Sunde is running for the European Parliament on a Pirate Party ticket, and his fame could quite probably carry his candidacy all the way.
So the Pirate representation in the European Parliament can be expected to triple in two ways – both in terms of countries represented (one to three) and in terms of Members of the European Parliament (two to six).
Additionally, seeing that there are Pirate Parties in 70 countries and counting, there are a number of dark horses that could break through between now and then, particularly among the Pirate Parties in Eastern Europe.
People get into it for the money, but they stay with it for love.
Most people who share, do it because they want to make the world a better place, according to a new national survey commissioned by AirBnb.
The sharing economy has an estimated $26 billion value, including online platforms that make it easy to do everything from renting out spare rooms in your home (AirBnb) to carsharing (Zipcar), clothing swaps (ThredUP), even sharing extra portions from homecooked meals ( Shareyourmeal, of course).
A report for business decision makers interested in abolishing traditional corporate training functions, creating instead vibrant modern collaborative cultures. Why? The corporate learning field is in dire need of bravery, insight, creativity and boldness. It has been stuck in an antiquated rut for too long. Full classrooms and smile-sheet summaries only indicate employees can successfully sit through training, not that these strategies demonstrate value or engender growth in competitive organizations. With a nod toward early twentieth-century innovations, moving the art world toward natural forms, the corporate education function should aim to become learning nouveau. The people responsible for fostering education throughout organizations ought to consider becoming artists. Here's how. [Additional information at http://www.marciaconner.com/learning-nouveau/]
