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Mini-Me: REPLAY Future of the USA in 3 Parts

Advanced Cyber/IO, Collective Intelligence, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Government, Hacking, Military, Office of Management and Budget, Officers Call, Policies, Threats
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Who? Mini-Me?

Huh?

The future of the USA – 2012-2016: An insolvent and ungovernable United States (first part)

Thus, according to LEAP/E2020, the 2012 election year, which opens against the backdrop of economic and social depression, complete paralysis of the federal system (3), strong rejection of the traditional two-party system and a growing questioning of the relevance of the Constitution, inaugurates a crucial period in the history of the United States. Over the next four years, the country will be subjected to political, economic, financial and social upheaval such as it has not known since the end of the Civil War which, by an accident of history, started exactly 150 years ago in 1861. During this period, the US will be simultaneously insolvent and ungovernable, turning that which was the “flagship” of the world in recent decades into a “drunken boat”.

To make the complexity of the current process understandable, our team has chosen to organize its anticipations around three key areas:

1. US institutional deadlock and the break-up of the traditional two-party system
2. The unstoppable spiral of recession/depression/inflation
3. The breakdown of the US socio-political fabric

Read rest of analysis.

Below the line: the other two parts of the series.

Continue reading “Mini-Me: REPLAY Future of the USA in 3 Parts”

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Michael Bauwens: P2P Foundation Open Ontology

Advanced Cyber/IO, Collective Intelligence, Earth Intelligence
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Michel Bauwens

Open Ontology, by Paola Di Maio

While different definitions for ontology exist, it can be said that Ontologies are conceptual and semantic frameworks representing models of the world, as well as explicit and complete knowledge representations of a model of reality, expressed using different formalisms and artifacts. When trying to understand what makes up an ontology, different authors have different views. Mike Uschold et al. say that an ontology may take a variety of forms, but it will necessarily include a vocabulary of terms and some specification of their meaning, such as definitions and an indication of how concepts are interrelated, which collectively impose a structure on the domain and constrain the possible interpretations of terms. Particularly in Web based environments, an ontology delimits the boundary of the system's knowledge and functional domain, and serves as conceptual and semantic reference for software development. In practical terms, entities and attributes, classes, objects and properties, as well as data models, data schemas, metadata and vocabularies and their extensions, when ‘normalized' all contain information that models a view of the world, for the purpose of a given system, and constitute the representation of such domain, in short, an ontology.

The expression ‘open ontology' is not new, and it is used generically to reference ontologies which are in the public domain, and sometimes to ontologies that have been developed using collaborative processes.

In our work, we have come across the need to define and qualify, at least to some extent the degree of ontology ‘openness':

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David Jimenez: Visual Understanding Environment – Open Source, Tufts, Digital Education and Research

04 Education, Academia, Advanced Cyber/IO, Collective Intelligence
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David Jimenez

The Visual Understanding Environment (VUE) is an Open Source project based at Tufts University. The VUE project is focused on creating flexible tools for managing and integrating digital resources in support of teaching, learning and research. VUE provides a flexible visual environment for structuring, presenting, and sharing digital information.

03.08.12 – Release of VUE 3.1.2 Read More

03.15.11 – Release of VUE 3.1.1 Read More

02.03.10 – Announcing the release of VUE 3.0. Read more.

Learn more, see graphics, free download.

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Michel Bauwens: Worker-Owned Cooperatives

03 Economy, 09 Justice, 11 Society, Civil Society, Commerce, Ethics
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Michel Bauwens

Worker-Owned Cooperatives Offer A Vision Of A Different Kind Of Capitalism

A new documentary, Shift Change, explores a kind of company where the workers are also the owners, which results in a quite different economic model than we’re used to.

In an era when income disparities and anger with financial institutions in the U.S. are generating powerful social movements, it’s not surprising that people are starting to look towards alternative business models. Shift Change, a new movie from filmmakers Melissa Young and Mark Dworkin, looks at the world of worker cooperatives, where reasonable salaries, job security, and general work satisfaction prevail.

Nowhere are the benefits of this model more obvious than in the Mondragon Corporation, a giant federation of worker cooperatives in the Basque region of Spain (there’s nothing about dragons involved, it was founded in a town called Mondragon) that works in finance, retail operations, production of consumer goods and industrial components, and more. Co.Exist spoke with Young about her experiences making the film, and visiting the notoriously closed-off Mondragon Corporation.

Read full article.

Phi Beta Iota:  Worker-owned cooperatives do not out-source jobs and do focus on community equities.

See Also:

Worth a Look: Book Review Lists (Positive)

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Chuck Spinney: Thinking About Gaza

Civil Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, IO Deeds of War, Military, Peace Intelligence
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Chuck Spinney

Patrick Seale reviews an important new book – Histoire de Gaza – by Professer Jean-Pierre Filiu of the Institute for Political Science in Paris.

The Need to Defuse the Gaza Time-Bomb

by Patrick Seale

Agence Global, 18 Oct 2012

One of the most urgent tasks for the international community in 2013 must surely be to lift Israel’s cruel siege of Gaza — now entering its sixth year — and end the misguided boycott of its Hamas government. There is hardly a more flagrant example of injustice in the world today than the situation of the 1.6 million inhabitants of this hugely over-crowded Strip — many of them refugees driven out of Palestine by the new Israeli state in 1947-48. They must be allowed to live a normal life — to travel, to manufacture, to trade, to educate their children — free from the constant danger of Israeli air strikes.

French scholar Jean-Pierre Filiu, a professor at the prestigious Institute of Political Science in Paris, has published an important 400-page history of Gaza, from ancient times to the disturbed present. His Histoire de Gaza (Editions Fayard, Paris, 2012) is the most comprehensive ever written and should be required reading for all those concerned with the long agony of the Palestinians in their struggle for statehood.

It is impossible in a short article to do justice to Filiu’s sweeping narrative, meticulous research and detailed findings, but it is perhaps worth pointing out that he lays blame for the as yet unresolved and indeed worsening crisis on three main actors:

  • first and foremost on Israel, concerned only with its own security and brutally indifferent to Palestinian life;
  • secondly, on Fatah and Hamas, those old rivals, still locked in a fratricidal struggle as if unaware that their national cause is slipping away before their eyes;
  • and thirdly, on the humanitarian aid provided by the international community which has kept Gaza’s population alive but has also, paradoxically, prevented Gaza’s economic development and its efforts at self-sufficiency.

Read full article.

Phi Beta Iota:  Gaza is the worst of 5,000 distinct geo-cultural communities under seige.  It represents the complete absence of ethics in Western “diplomacy.”

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Berto Jongman: Emergence of Heart Intelligence YouTube (5:40)

Collective Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence, Earth Intelligence, Gift Intelligence, Peace Intelligence
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Berto Jongman

The heart is the first organ to develop, and the prime regulator of the rest of the body's chemistry and function.  From the provided description:

For over 22 years, Gregg Braden has searched high mountain villages, remote monasteries and forgotten texts to uncover their timeless secrets. Combining his discoveries with the best science of today, his original research crosses the traditional boundaries of science, history, and religion offering fresh insights into ancient mysteries.

The Institute of HeartMath is an internationally recognized nonprofit research and education organization dedicated to helping people reduce stress, self-regulate emotions and build energy and resilience for healthy, happy lives. Personal coherence, also known as psychophysiological coherence, refers to the synchronization of our physical, mental and emotional systems. It can be measured by our heart-rhythm patterns: The more balanced and smooth they are, the more in sync, or coherent, we are.

Personal coherence, also known as psychophysiological coherence, refers to the synchronization of our physical, mental and emotional systems. It can be measured by our heart-rhythm patterns: The more balanced and smooth they are, the more in sync, or coherent, we are.

Global coherence refers to the mental, physical, emotional and spiritual well-being of the greater community of human beings, while acting in concert with their own hearts, each other and nation to nation in harmony with our living planet. HeartMath believes coherence on a grand scale is highly achievable when large numbers of people focus their heart intelligence on a common goal.

http://www.heartmath.org   .   www.greggbraden.com

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Berto Jongman: Top 10 Whistle Blowers

09 Justice, 11 Society, Civil Society, Ethics, Government, IO Deeds of Peace, Military, Officers Call
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Berto Jongman

Top 10 Most Influential Whistleblowers

The subject of insiders — or “whistleblowers” — is somewhat tricky; anyone on the inside is often presumed to be compromised by their former allegiance. Nonetheless, the nature of government work is rooted in compartmentalization. So, perhaps the best indication as to whether whistleblowers have something valid to say is the level of persecution they have endured.

The following whistleblowers have endured a varying degree of pushback from the system, but are still around to reveal key points of information that make us all question what we are being told by our government and the corporate media.

List Only, In Order Presented:

01 Jesslyn Radack, Department of Justice
02 Thomas Drake, National Security Agency
03 William Binney, National Security Agency
04 Matt Klein, AT&T for the National Security Agency
05 Sibel Edmonds, Federal Bureau of Investigation
06 Susan Linauer, Central Intelligence Agency and Department of Justice
07 Anthony Shaffer, Department of Defense
08 Joe Banister, Internal Revenue Service
09 Bradley Manning, Departments of Defense and State
10 Julian Assange, WikiLeaks

Read snapshots and watch individual videos.