Infopolicy: This is a primer on some fundamental concepts of economics: property, sale, goods, services. In the discussions around sharing of culture and knowledge, many words are thrown around that make no sense in the context of the discussion. Therefore, this is a reference article to use and link to in such discussions.
Our economy is a market economy. That means each and every person, over and above governmental welfare programs, is responsible for finding their own paycheck. This happens in one way, and one way only: a person makes a sale.
The news that the CIA has admitted that it helped overthrow Iran’s democratically elected president in 1953 has gone viral.
In reality, the CIA admitted that a long time ago. Indeed, the bigger story is that the CIA admitted that it hired Iranians in the 1950′s to pose as Communists and stage bombings in Iran in order to turn the country against its democratically-elected prime minister.
Indeed, governments from around the world admit they carry out this sort of subterfuge:
I have been writing about willful ignorance for almost a decade, beginning when I first saw this trend blossom like a noxious plant in a garden. It has been growing year by year, and has reached a level where it is a serious threat to our wellbeing. I did a story yesterday about Louisiana Republicans who hold President Obama responsible for the Katrina response, even though it was ! three years before he was President. But that was just a taste of the truth, it is much bigger than that, as this essay describes.
Welcome to the Age of Denial ADAM FRANK, Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Rochester – The New York Times
EXTRACT:
Today, however, it is politically effective, and socially acceptable, to deny scientific fact. Narrowly defined, ‘creationism” was a minor current in American thinking for much of the 20th century. But in the years since I was a student, a well-funded effort has skillfully rebranded that ideology as ‘creation science” and pushed it into classrooms across the country. Though transparently unscientific, denying evolution has become a litmus test for some conservative politicians, even at the highest levels.
NPR's Sean Carberry was at today's game; he filed this report for our Newscast unit:
“Thousands of fans, and hundreds of security forces, packed into the small stadium in Kabul. After a slow start, the Afghan team scored, and then never let Pakistan back into the game.
“Abdullah is a street vendor who paid about three dollars for his ticket.
“‘Afghans have suffered 30 years of war,' he says in Dari, ‘so we need this kind of entertainment.'
“But Mohammad Yousef Kargar, the coach of the Afghan team, says the game was about more than entertainment.
“‘So, one of the prime objectives of this match was to bring two nations together,' he says.
As Sean reports, the 3-0 win certainly united the Afghans. The game is the first in a scheduled home-and-home series between the two nations. It also served as revenge of a sort, as Afghanistan's victory came one day after its national under-23 team in cricket.
When a little birdie dropped the End Game memo through my window, its content was so explosive, so sick and plain evil, I just couldn't believe it.
The Memo confirmed every conspiracy freak's fantasy: that in the late 1990s, the top US Treasury officials secretly conspired with a small cabal of banker big-shots to rip apart financial regulation across the planet. When you see 26.3% unemployment in Spain, desperation and hunger in Greece, riots in Indonesia and Detroit in bankruptcy, go back to this End Game memo, the genesis of the blood and tears.
The Treasury official playing the bankers' secret End Game was Larry Summers. Today, Summers is Barack Obama's leading choice for Chairman of the US Federal Reserve, the world's central bank. If the confidential memo is authentic, then Summers shouldn't be serving on the Fed, he should be serving hard time in some dungeon reserved for the criminally insane of the finance world.
Click on Image to Enlarge
The memo is authentic.
To get that confirmation, I would have to fly to Geneva and wangle a meeting with the Secretary General of the World Trade Organization, Pascal Lamy. I did. Lamy, the Generalissimo of Globalization, told me,
“The WTO was not created as some dark cabal of multinationals secretly cooking plots against the people…. We don't have cigar-smoking, rich, crazy bankers negotiating.”
Then I showed him the memo.
It begins with Summers’ flunky, Timothy Geithner, reminding his boss to call the then most powerful CEOs on the planet and get them to order their lobbyist armies to march:
“As we enter the end-game of the WTO financial services negotiations, I believe it would be a good idea for you to touch base with the CEOs….”
To avoid Summers having to call his office to get the phone numbers (which, under US law, would have to appear on public logs), Geithner listed their private lines. And here they are:
Please join the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) Society for the presentation of the William J. Donovan Award® to Admiral William H. McRaven USN, Commander, U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), in Washington, DC, on October 26, 2013. Prior to assuming command of USSOCOM in August 2011, Admiral McRaven served as commander of the Joint Special Operations Command and Special Operations Command Europe. He led Operation Neptune Spear, the special operations raid that resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden.
In addition to honoring Admiral McRaven, we will also honor veterans of OSS and members of its successor organizations: the Central Intelligence Agency and USSOCOM.
We will have a special musical tribute to Hollywood legend Marlene Dietrich who served the OSS by recording songs that were used by its Morale Operations Branch. Maria Riva, Marlene Dietrich's daughter, will offer a toast to her mother.
We will also commemorate the liberation of the Hotel Ritz in Paris in 1944 by Ernest Hemingway, Col. David Bruce, and members of the French Resistance. When they arrived at the Hotel Ritz shorty after the Nazis had fled the hotel, the manager asked Hemingway if there was anything he could do for them. Hemingway said: “How about 75 dry martinis?”
Google Earth offers unprecedented public access to satellite material that was once the exclusive preserve of the state. One obvious if unintended consequence of this service, writes Nicholas Kaempffer, is that insurgents and extremists now use satellite imagery to plot and better coordinate their activities.
By Nicholas Kaempffer for Canadian Military Journal (CMJ)
EXTRACT
Take 3rd World Ideology, Add 2nd World Weaponry, Plus 1st World Technology, Equals…
Within the tragic tale of the long-established Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it is clear that Israel has held the dominating position of military supremacy via technology and surveillance for several decades. This balance of power is slowly starting to shift, and one element in this ever-changing equation is the introduction and utilization of Google Earth by Palestinian militants to more accurately strike Israel with rockets.[15] Striking distant targets with indirect fire (munitions fired beyond line-of-sight) is extremely difficult, as numerous variables are required to predict the necessary point of aim. Imagery from Google Earth allows the collection of distance, altitude, and target identification, allowing militants the ability to both fixate (figure out where they are) and orient (what way they need to point) rocket positions, to strike Israeli positions using firing tables. In layman’s terms, Google Earth allows Palestinian militant groups, such as the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, to more accurately strike specific locations within Israel, by giving them a better picture of real-world intelligence on the ground.[16] This cartographic knowledge was once almost exclusively held by the Israelis, and Google Earth is, in essence, ‘levelling the playing field’ between the two combatants. Khaled Jaabari, a commander for the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, stated: “We [al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade] obtain the details from Google Earth and check them against our maps of the city centre and sensitive areas.”[17] Thus, Google Earth is narrowing the technical divide between two historically mismatched opponents. Ten years ago, militants such as Khaled Jaabari simply could not match the surveillance and cartographic capabilities of the Israelis, who spent millions, if not billions of dollars to maintain such superiority. Now, groups like the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade are receiving high quality geographic information, for free. While this cost is easy for them to bear, it is certainly the opposite for the Israelis, and efforts have been undertaken to have imagery purposely censored or lowered in resolution to make targeting more difficult. Following the next case study of Google Earth and the ‘War on Terror,’ further discussion will deal with state responses and security issues regarding Google Earth.
Lieutenant Nicholas Kaempffer, an artillery officer,has a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) degree in Geography from Queen’s University. He is a Troop Commander at the Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery School (RCAS).
