Public Intelligence Blog – Page 2550 – The truth at any cost lowers all other costs — curated by former US spy Robert David Steele.

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Power corrupts, no doubt about it. What most people miss is that it is not just about financial corruption that explicitly mis-directs scarce resources to benefit the few over the many (with Congress taking its standard 5% kick-back for delivering earmarks). Power also corrupts intellect. People forget how to think. They begin talking among themselves, shutting out external views, creating an incestuous cycle of circular citation. Col Mike Pheneger, then J-2 at the US Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) discovered this with respect to the Cuban Order of Battle (OOB), and I have found this myself on many occasions over the years.

Recently I have observed two deeply dysfunctional conversations in Washington. The first deals with intelligence and information overload, the second with the force structure requirements for the U.S. military beyond 2014.

Blithering Blobs of Blogdom

The intelligence discussion is best represented by SASA/INSA and The New America Foundation. The first fronts for the intelligence-industrial complex and the second for a mix of benefactors, none of whom appear actually interested in creating a government that works for all. Indeed, it can be said that the secret intelligence world and the “non-profit” think tank world share the same motivation: do whatever it takes to keep the money (inputs) moving, never mind the outputs or the outcomes.

Continue reading “Reflections on the Inability of Washington to Think with Integrity”

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Yoda: Functional Beauty and User Experience

Architecture

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Beautiful, force is.

Functional Beauty and User Experience

Catalina Butnaru

Beauty is one of the oldest and most powerful concepts in human history—inspiring artists and lighting up cultural movements, philosophical debates, and, in modern times, curious scientific interest. Beauty is a desirable feature of the products we buy, with the power to shape consumer choices and preferences.

While the nature of beauty is still a mystery, the nature of design is unquestionably linked to the beautification of crafts throughout human history.

Designers purposely create beautiful solutions so people can enjoy solving problems, working, or pursuing goals. In recent years, concepts like visual design, aesthetics, information architecture, and usability have helped designers create more ways for people to enjoy using technology. However, when it comes to interaction design, functional beauty outweighs aesthetics—here’s why:

Understanding Functional Beauty . Creating Functional Beauty . Usability . Ingenuity . Aesthetics . Rhythm . Personality

Read full article.

Catalina Butnaru

Catalina is a self-taught designer and the co-host of the podcast BrightLounge. She studied Psychology and Marketing, before combining her passions and becoming and interaction designer at Velora Studios. In 2011 she started traveling the world, filming and co-hosting BrightLounge, a podcast featuring interviews with designers and entrepreneurs from around the world. Her motto is “Stay creative, grow curious”.

2013/01/192013/01/19

Graphic: Functional Beauty – Five Properties

Architecture

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Source

2013/01/192013/01/19

Marcus Aurelius: Military Seeks to Disarm Unstable Soldiers — But Only When They Are At Home

Corruption, Government, Law Enforcement, Military

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As much as I admire GEN(R) Chiarelli, I disagree profoundly with his position. It ((IS)) about Second Amendment. Admission of possession can be a form of registration. And registration can lead to confiscation. It is also about personal privacy. Except for cases where privately owned weapons are stored on military installations in either married quarters or unit arms rooms, DoD has zero need to know whether or not a Service member owns firearms. Suicide prevention concerns, while heartwrenching, must absolutely yield to personal privacy and Second Amendment's right to keep and bear arms.

U.S. military worries about guns, too

Stephanie Gaskell

Politico, 17 January 2013

One provision in President Barack Obama’s gun-control plan already has played well in Congress and with the National Rifle Association: being able to ask people with mental health issues if they have access to guns.

Last month, Congress passed a little-noticed provision in the National Defense Authorization Act that allows commanders and ranking officers to ask troops who are struggling with mental health issues if they have access to firearms.

The NRA, a big supporter of the military, did not try to block the provision. But it was not immediately available for comment Thursday.

Read full article.

Continue reading “Marcus Aurelius: Military Seeks to Disarm Unstable Soldiers — But Only When They Are At Home”

2013/01/19

Howard Rheingold: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes – Lessons in Mindfulness and Creativity from the Great Detective

Innovation, Knowledge

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How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes: Lessons in Mindfulness and Creativity from the Great Detective

by Maria Popova

“A man’s brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose.”

“The habit of mind which leads to a search for relationships between facts,” wrote James Webb Young in his famous 1939 5-step technique for creative problem-solving, “becomes of the highest importance in the production of ideas.”But just how does one acquire those vital cognitive customs? That’s precisely what science writer Maria Konnikova explores inMastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes (UK; public library) — an effort to reverse-engineer Holmes’s methodology into actionable insights that help develop “habits of thought that will allow you to engage mindfully with yourself and your world as a matter of course.”

Phi Beta Iota: Clarity, Diversity, Integrity.

THE OPEN SOURCE EVERYTHING MANIFESTO: Transparency, Truth, & Trust

INTELLIGENCE for EARTH: Clarity, Diversity, Integrity, & Sustainability

2013/01/19

Journal of #SOCMINT: Inteligencia Colaborativa: Un Recurso para la Innovación Abierta

Architecture, Crowd-Sourcing, Knowledge

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#SOCMINT Use Google Translate at top of middle column.

Si yo sé algo que tú no sabes sobre lo que tú estás trabajando y tú sabes algo que yo no sé, lo lógico sería colaborar. Pero, si yo te lo cuento existe el riesgo de que tú se lo cuentes a otros, impidiendo o reduciendo el beneficio que yo pudiera obtener por ello, o que revelándote una parte, me des las gracias y completes el resto por tu cuenta. Este es uno de los argumentos que el premio Nobel de Economía de 1972, John Kenneth Arrow, daba para explicar que en la actividad inventiva existe un fallo de mercado y justifica la intervención de los poderes públicos para que no se produzca una escasez de recursos en ella. El modelo de innovación de la “Factoría de Inventos” de Edison, donde todo se cocía internamente, incluso el carácter individualista y la fama de jugador duro atribuidos a éste, responden a un planteamiento cerrado de la innovación, una traducción del dilema presentado por Arrow.

Sin embargo, este planteamiento resulta contradictorio con la naturaleza creativa propia de la innovación. Crear es fundamentalmente asociar, conectar, explorar, cuestionar y relacionarse. Quizá por eso cada día aparecen más innovaciones y nuevas empresas fruto de procesos colaborativos y asociaciones no siempre evidentes, como pueden ser los casos de BMW y Peugeot-Citröen que están desarrollando un nuevo concepto de vehículo híbrido conjuntamente, Lego, que obtiene propuestas de nuevos diseños de sus clientes más acérrimos y finalmente fabrica los que tienen mayor demanda, o ESMT, una escuela de negocios de Berlín fundada por los propios negocios[1].

¿POR QUE NO DEBEMOS RENUNCIAR A LA INNOVACIÓN ABIERTA?

Continue reading “Journal of #SOCMINT: Inteligencia Colaborativa: Un Recurso para la Innovación Abierta”

2013/01/19

SchwartzReport: Criminal Insanity in America – TSA, Monsanto, Scientologists

Commerce, Corruption, Government, Law Enforcement

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TSA to Remove Controversial X-ray Scanners
JOSHUA FREED , Business Writer – The Associated Press

We spent several billion dollars on this this ill-conceived program, and it has come to this.

Monsanto Versus the People
CHARLOTTE SILVER – Aljazeera (Qatar)

Prop 37 went down in California thanks to a million dollar a day ad campaign funded by the pro-GMO corporate interests. But the fight against GMOs has not ended. Here is the latest on this trend.

15 Scientology Revelations From Lawrence Wright’s ‘Going Clear’
The Daily Beast

Scientology is such a bizarre organization, and so obviously the creation of a man with serious mental health issues, that it has always been hard to understand how some very competent people get involved — I had several scientist friends who got completely embroiled in it, much to my consternation. Lawrence Wright who is a meticulous journalist has searched out the truth about Scientology ! and produced an extraordinary non-fiction work of investigative reporting, Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief.