Steve Aftergood: CIA’s Mind-Set of Misadventure & Impunity

The CIA “Family Jewels,” Then and Now EXTRACT: In 1973, the Director of Central Intelligence ordered CIA officials to prepare a descriptive account of all CIA activities that were “outside the legislative charter of this Agency,” which is to say unauthorized or illegal.  The purpose of the exercise was to identify operations that had “flap …

Stephen E. Arnold: Tables and News — or Tables and Decision-Support?

Tablets and Periodicals October 19, 2013 Are tablets the salvation of the newspaper industry? Google’s chief economist thinks they may be. In a speech he recently gave in Milan, Hal Varian points to the ways consumers’ usage of tablets differs from that of other devices. Writer Will Conley summarizes: “Varian said tablets are the most …

Matt Asay: Is Facebook The World’s Largest Open Source Company?

Is Facebook The World’s Largest Open Source Company? Red Hat used to wear the open source crown. Then Google. But Facebook and other web giants now contribute the most to open source. Matt Asay ReadWrite, October 17, 2013 Quick question: which is the largest open source company on Earth? That’s easy, right? It’s clearly Red …

Marcus Aurelius: Shots Fired at Capital (Secret Service versus Capitol Police, Unarmed Woman in Car Killed)

The end of the beginning, the beginning of the end for these corrupt treasonous individuals in Congress and at the White House? Shots fired at Capitol A car chase that began when a driver tried to breach a White House security barrier ended near the U.S. Capitol, with a confrontation that included shots fired and …

Steve Aftergood: To Fix US Intelligence, Shrink It

TO FIX U.S. INTELLIGENCE, SHRINK IT? Criticism of U.S. intelligence takes many forms:  Intelligence agencies are too secretive, or they are too leaky.  They over-collect, or they under-perform.  Or all of these, and more besides. Many of the criticisms can be reduced to a single argument: The U.S. intelligence community has become too large to …

4th Media: EXPOSED – Thai “Independent” Newspaper Funded by US Government [Good Intentions, Rotten Incoherent Conops]

EXPOSED: Indy “Newspaper” Funded by US Government Deep network uncovered as fake “indy” rag is forced to disclose funding. Note: A copy of Prachatai’s recent disclosure can be found here. Editor’s Addition: A conflict of interest occurs “when an individual or organization is involved in multiple interests, one of which could possibly corrupt the motivation for …

Berto Jongman: BRICS Creating Own Internet — Routing Around the US-UK

The BRICS “Independent Internet” Cable. In Defiance of the “US-Centric Internet” The President of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff announces publicly the creation of a world internet system INDEPENDENT from US and Britain ( the “US-centric internet”). Not many understand that, while the immediate trigger for the decision (coupled with the cancellation of a summit with the …