Marcus Aurelius: SECDEF on Furloughs — and No Answer to Question Why Not Contractors First….

Latest info from SECDEF on furloughs: a.  BLUF:  11 days, 1 day per week, starting 08 Jul and continuing through end FY13. b.  Appeared to waffle by providing non-answer to employee’s question as to whether mandated savings could be obtained by cutting contractors rather than direct-hire civil servants. c.  Never pinned blame where it belongs:  …

Penguin: General James “Mad Dog” Mattis, USMC, on Why “Too Busy to Read” Is a Moron’s Cop-Out on Leadership Responsibility

A model for all of us. General James ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis Email About Being ‘Too Busy To Read’ Is A Must-Read Geoffrey Ingersoll In the run up to Marine Gen. James Mattis‘ deployment to Iraq in 2004, a colleague wrote to him asking about the “importance of reading and military history for officers,” many of whom …

John Steiner: Fukushima Update — Worse, Uglier, Worry More…. + Fukushima & US Nuclear RECAP

Subject: Fukushima update http://www.change.org/petitions/west-coast-senators-investigate-the-ongoing-danger-from-the-fukushima-nuclear-reactors Dear Friends, Bad news continues to pour out of Fukushima-Daiichi.  The first article below discusses the impact of F-D radiation on Canadian flora and fauna.  The second details the involvement of the Japanese Mafia, the Yakuza, in the containment/cleanup process.  The third describes TEPCO’s mounting financial losses, as they struggle to …

Stephen E. Arnold: A Fresh Look at Big Data & Big Data (-) Human Factor (+) Transformation (+) RECAP

A Fresh Look at Big Data May 8, 2013 Next week I am doing an invited talk in London. My subject is search and Big Data. I will be digging into this notion in this month’s Honk newsletter and adding some business intelligence related comments at an Information Today conference in New York later this …

Search: how much humint is clandestine — Response by Robert Steele + Clandestine Meta-RECAP

ROBERT STEELE:  I have been watching with growing concern as Phi Beta Iota has posted a string of relatively radical posts on the Boston bombing and Texas fertilizer explosion.  As most know, I lean toward transparency, truth, and trust, and the last thing I would want to do is marginalize these voices for truth and …