Cattle rancher, lyricist for the Grateful Dead and internet pioneer who became a digital rights activist
John Perry Barlow, writer and activist, born 3 October 1947; died 6 February 2018.
Continue reading “Jack Schofield: John Perry Barlow Obituary”
Berto Jongman: US Should Spend on Peacekeeping Not Warmaking
Peace Intelligence
U.S. Spending on U.N. Peacekeeping More Cost-Effective Than Trump's Blueprint
It would be eight times more cost-effective for the United States to support a U.N. peacekeeping mission than it would be to send in its Armed Forces, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) wrote in a recent report. This report follows an expected 2019 federal budget that would earmark $716 billion in defense spending—a 7 percent increase from the previous year.
CounterPunch: Living with Truth Decay
Cultural Intelligence“Once a policy has been adopted and implemented, all subsequent activity becomes an effort to justify it” — Barbara Tuchman, The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam (1984. p. 245).
Diderot’s definition: You can divide facts into three types: the divine, the natural and man-made. The first belongs to theology; the second to philosophy and the third to history. All are equally open to question.
Stephen E. Arnold: CIA Seeks Universal Text Translator [Robert Steele: CIA Remains Stupid, Has Not Learned a Damn Thing Since 1986]
Corruption, Government, Idiocy, Ineptitude
Universal Text Translation Is the Next Milestone for AI
As the globe gets smaller, individuals are in more contact with people who don’t speak their language. Or, we are reading information written in a foreign language. Programs like Google Translate are flawed at best and it is clear this is a niche waiting to be filled. With the increase of AI, it looks like that is about to happen, according to a recent GCN article, “IARPA Contracts for Universal Text Translator.”
Yoda: A Cosmic Apology by Geoff Byrd
Cultural IntelligenceMongoose: Tom Steyer, Democratic Deep State Billionaire, Hires 50 Political Operatives to “Remove Trump from Power”
Civil Society, Commerce, Corruption, Idiocy
Billionaire hires impeachment ‘army' to ‘remove Trump from power'
Liberal billionaire Tom Steyer, a friend and donor to Obama and Clinton, is hiring an army of more than 50 political operatives in a major campaign to help Democrats get control of the U.S. House this year and “remove Trump from power.”
“Need to Impeach” Founder Steyer, 60, announced Thursday that he is hiring a team of 50 political and communications strategists to coordinate his campaign. While Steyer launched his $20 million campaign to impeach Trump last year, he has now promised to double that amount and also spend $30 million on 2018 House races through his super PAC, NextGen America.
Koko: US Supplies Head & Body Parts to the World
07 Other Atrocities
Exporting Americans: Body brokers supply the world with American heads, limbs and torsos
MedCure sells or leases about 10,000 body parts from US donors annually, shipping about 20 percent of them overseas, internal corporate and manifest records show. In addition to bulk cargo shipments to the Netherlands, where MedCure operates a distribution hub, the Oregon company has exported body parts to at least 22 other countries by plane or truck, the records show.
As a Reuters series last year revealed, the body donation industry is so lightly regulated in the United States that almost anyone can legally buy, sell or lease body parts.
