SchwartzReport: Water Shut-Offs = Real-Estate Collapse – Entire Communities Out of Water

03 Economy, 12 Water
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Stephan A. Schwartz
Stephan A. Schwartz

It seems I am not the only person talking about a real estate collapse because of drought. Although it is a bit flippant, I agree with most of this essay, and believe this is going to be a huge issue within the next five years.

California property values collapse as water shut-offs begin… wealthy community to go dry in days… real estate implosion now inevitable

EXTRACT

And just like that, the property values of millions of dollars worth of homes belonging to 15,000 residents nosedives toward zero.

NATO Crowd-Sourcing Future

Crowd-Sourcing, NATO Civ-Mil Ctr
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Click on Image to Enlarge
Click on Image to Enlarge

Seriously. NATO Transformation Command, based in Norfolk, Virginia and previously known as Supreme Allied Command, Atlantic, wants to crowd-source the future. They have a strategic foresight initiative that is hot right now, and anyone can sign up to have an account and express their views on Economics, Environment, Technology, and more. These are serious people with good intentions. Got brain? Take it for a drive at the Innovation Hub. Right now. This stage CLOSES on 23 June. Contributors get to join in the video discussion 24-26 June 2015. The possibility of personal thank you letters is being discussed. Do this.  Now.  Please. http://innovationhub-act.org/

Typer Neylon: Elsevier Loses Its Mind – Seeks to Embargo Knowledge for Four Years

Access, Data, Knowledge
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Typer Neylon
Typer Neylon

Defend the Right to Share Your Work

Academic publisher Elsevier recently changed their rules on how authors may share their work. Authors were previously allowed to share their manuscripts through repositories immediately upon publication; now they may have to wait up to 4 years before doing so. The Confederation of Open Access Repositories (COAR), a group dedicated to open access to publicly-funded work, has put together a statement where individuals and institutions can collectively ask Elsevier to reconsider this action. Please add your name and help raise awareness of the struggle to keep knowledge freely available to all. Learn more.

Graham Fuller: USA Dangerous in Decline

Peace Intelligence
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Graham Fuller
Graham Fuller

Dangers of a Declining Global Power

EXTRACT

The decline of US power abroad cannot be separated from many domestic failings: deadlocked governance, bloated military budgets and their huge opportunity costs, the rise of the military-industrial-security state and its massive cash infusions into Congress; an impoverished political spectrum that begins on the moderate right of center (Obama) and caroms on over into various degrees of crazy right. There is virtually no left of center—indeed the very word “left” borders on the obscene in the American political lexicon. And we have the intellectual isolation and distortion inherent in America’s vision of the rest of the world. A “mainstream” corporate-dominated media that shields the population from distasteful global realities. The belief that America itself represents “reality.” The security-state mentality that promotes paranoia and fear. The belief that the American imperium is ageless, on an eternal mission without bounds, fundamentally benign, and a universal good.

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SchwartzReport: Teenagers Losing Confidence in America

Civil Society, Cultural Intelligence
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Stephan A. Schwartz
Stephan A. Schwartz

Whatever lies we tell ourselves about how we love our children by almost any objective social outcome measure it is screamingly obvious that while, at least in some cases, we may love our particular child children as a generality are not loved much at all. Compared to other advanced technological societies the state of children in the U.S. is an untold scandal. Is it surprising then, that the young are losing confidence in their country? Here is some real data. What becomes of a country whose young have abandoned their nation's motivating dream?

Teenagers Are Losing Confidence in the American Dream

Tomasz Tunguz: The Disruptive Effect of Open Source Startups

#OSE Open Source Everything, Software
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Tomasz Tunguz
Tomasz Tunguz

The Disruptive Effect of Open Source Startups

Open source is a disruptive distribution strategy. It allows potential users and buyers of a software to try it, evaluate it, and understand exactly how it works because the source code is freely available. Open source companies market to developers exactly how developers would like to be marketed to – with code.

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