Public Intelligence Blog – Page 2714 – The truth at any cost lowers all other costs — curated by former US spy Robert David Steele.

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Frans Johansson

5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect Gift for Unemployed Smart People,August 31, 2012

I am a 60-year old unemployed smart person with no pensions, and received this book as a gift. It came to me as I am in the middle of writing what I hope will be a seminal work on the future of public governance, and to my enormous surprise, not only has the book been a “pick me up” of a read for me as the unemployed smart guy, it has also been relevant to my new book.

The author's core message is: the world is random, embrace that, seek out as much random as you can handle, be alert for “aha” moments, and act instantly to take advantage when such moments occur.

At the very end of the book the author says that one should use randomness to one's statistical advantage, which is to say, embrace the random, chase the random, respect the random, and your chances of “scoring” in some way will be better.

I am loading an image above that includes the word diversity, in part to highlight why I connected immediately to the author's story of how innovation is inspired by diversity, what some CEO's who have a hard time understanding Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) programs can instantly get: a side door for insights that do not occur to white, well-fed, preening males.

The author discusses very ably how “old world” is about rules and norms, this is a world where 10,000 hours of practice at anything will indeed make you a world champion, because the parameters are fixed and the rules don't change. In today's world, on the other hand, where a woman's slap can trigger a revolution in Tunesia and the downfall of Libya's dictator, not only are the “expedrts” wrong most of the time, but open platforms change everything–there are no binding rules (to which I would add, governments are so screwed up and ineffective that three fifths or more of the global economy now routes around government).

Continue reading “Review: The Click Moment – Seizing Opportunity in An Unpredictable World”

2012/08/312012/08/31

Mini-Me: Marine Officer on 9/11 – The Anomalies Continue to Surface

07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, Commerce, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Knowledge, Law Enforcement, Media, Military, Politics

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Huh?

Phi Beta Iota: As President Barack Obama faces what David Gergen calls one of three “choice” or turning point elections in modern US history, one has to wonder where he stands on the subject of the truth. Below the line is a methodical review with many links from retired Marine Corps officer Jim Fetzer, who focuses on the Cheney-dominated US Government at the time. Equally troubling facts can be asserted on the New York end by focusing on Larry Silverstein and Rudy Guliani. If ever a sitting President had a ready-made opportunity for eradicating an opposing political party by enabling the truth to be told about a major event in modern US history, Barack Obama is that President. We do not favor a traditional justice approach here, but rather a Truth & Reconciliation Commission. If Barack Obama were to sponsor The Smart Nation Act, the Electoral Reform Act of 2012, a Truth & Reconciliation Commission on 9/11, and the immediate decriminalization of marijuana and then of all other drugs [with a jobs program equal to the challenge of existing unemployment and emptied prisons with restored voting rights], it would be game over. Then instead of having to fight for credibility and traction every day, he might actually be able to govern in 2013-2016. On the other hand, if President Barack Obama and the Democratic Party are intent on demonstrating there is no substantive difference between the two parties that control the electoral process and the disbursement of the public treasury, they should continue to do precisely what they are doing now.

Continue reading “Mini-Me: Marine Officer on 9/11 – The Anomalies Continue to Surface”

2012/08/31

SmartPlanet: Internet Mimics How Ants Communicate

SmartPlanet

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The “anternet” discovered! How ants mimic Internet protocol

In a sign that nature still has an awful lot to teach us, a Stanford biologist and computer scientist have discovered that harvester ants hunt for food the same way Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) operates to determine and manage network congestion. That’s right. The foundation of the Internet is based on an algorithm that ants have used for millions of years.

The way ants use the networking process is by measuring the rate of return by hunters seeking food, and using that data to vary the number of individuals sent out to help with the effort. In other words, when early ant seekers return quickly after leaving the nest to find food, more ants are directed to help gather the spoils. However, when it takes longer for the first ants to return, that means that food is scarce, and more ants can stay home rather than following their brethren into the wild.

The Internet works in a similar way using TCP. If packets of data are acknowledged quickly by a receiver node, then the sender knows it can speed up the delivery rate. However, if acknowledged receipts are slower, then the sender knows the network is congested, and that it should slow down transmission accordingly.

Given that ants have been testing and engineering their own behavioral algorithms for millions of years, there’s likely still a lot that they can teach us about creating efficient networked systems. Maybe we should update that old parable about the ant and the grasshopper. If only the grasshopper had spent less time idling away the summer months, and more time designing simple and scalable algorithms…

Via Complexity Digest

Phi Beta Iota: When the human mind melds with the cosmic (extra-terrestial) and the Earth (intra-terrestial) minds, Utopia is possible.

See Also:

DuckDuckGo Biomimicry

2012/08/302012/08/30

Chuck Spinney: Secession of the Rich–Abandoning the State and Its People

07 Other Atrocities

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Attached is a withering critique of UnAmerican Plutocracy in the American Conservative, written by my close friend and colleague, Mike Lofgren. Readers wanting to learn more about Mike's argument should read his new book, The Party Is Over: How Republicans Went Crazy, Democrats Became Useless, and the Middle Class Got Shafted. This book ought to be must reading for anyone trying to understand the real pathologies of political power in the United States, and why post-truth liers like Paul Ryan are merely the freak-show clowns distracting the masses from thinking about the real causes of their growing insecurity. But as Lofgren shows in his aptly named book, the fact-free Ryans on the far right are reinforced by the only slightly less disgusting enabler Democrats posing as members of the left.

Kudos for the American Conservative letting the sun shine in on modern “conservatism.”

Chuck Spinney

Gaeta, Italia

Revolt of the Rich

Our financial elites are the new secessionists.

By MIKE LOFGREN, American Conservative, August 27, 2012

It was 1993, during congressional debate over the North American Free Trade Agreement. I was having lunch with a staffer for one of the rare Republican congressmen who opposed the policy of so-called free trade. To this day, I remember something my colleague said: “The rich elites of this country have far more in common with their counterparts in London, Paris, and Tokyo than with their fellow American citizens.”

That was only the beginning of the period when the realities of outsourced manufacturing, financialization of the economy, and growing income disparity started to seep into the public consciousness, so at the time it seemed like a striking and novel statement.

Continue reading “Chuck Spinney: Secession of the Rich–Abandoning the State and Its People”

2012/08/30

Pierre Levy: Etienne Chouard on A True Democracy

Cultural Intelligence, Politics

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For all, this 55 year old teacher reveals that “our misfortunes” (ecological catastrophy, destruction of civil services in public administration, work slavery, the reign of money…) have been made possible “because of our incapacity to resist”. He indicates “I will do like Hippocrates did. I try to find the root of the causes. It is vain to fight against consequences.” He believes that this “impotency to resist”, this “infantilization”, is “programmed in the Constitution”. Since “those who write the Constitutions first think of how to preserve their own interests”, to “change things” and put in place “a real democracy”, he sees only one way forward: to randomly draw citizens who will write by themselves a new Constitution.

YouTube (1:08:55)

Phi Beta Iota: In French (verbal) with superbly executed English sub-titles. As soon as the film starts, roll the cursor over the second red button in lower right of the YouTube screen (has small white CC inside the red box) and click, this turns on the subtitles.

More by the same speaker, seven-part series on “Is Democracy a Trap?”

2012/08/302012/08/30

Chuck Spinney: James Fallows on Paul Ryan’s Lie-Filled Convention Speech

Civil Society, Corruption, Government, Media

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Paul Ryan and the Post-Truth Convention Speech

By James Fallows

The Atlantic, Aug 30 2012, 11:43 AM ET

Paul Ryan's speech was well-written, well- delivered, and well-received. All of that was evident to anyone watching on TV. It had a number of nice smilingly vicious hit lines — starting with the masterful “staring up at the faded Obama posters” riff — plus a note of encouraging uplift at the end.

It was also profoundly dishonest in ways large and small.

Small: telling the sad story of the closing of the Janesville GM plant, and clearly implying that this was one more casualty of the Obama-unemployment era. Whereas of course the plant was shuttered before Obama even took office.

Medium: telling that story on the assumption that no one would say, “Wait a minute: wasn't Obama the guy who was pushing the big auto-industry bailout, which your nominee and your party opposed? So wouldn't there have been a lot more closed plants if you'd had your way?”

Large: blasting Obama for not enacting the outlook of the Simpson-Bowles commission, without noting that Ryan himself was on the commission and voted against its recommendations because they included tax increases as well as revenue cuts.

Large: blasting Obama for proposed cuts in Medicare without noting that Ryan has proposed those same cuts and much more.

Continue reading “Chuck Spinney: James Fallows on Paul Ryan's Lie-Filled Convention Speech”

2012/08/302012/08/30

Steven Aftergood: 3,103 Classification Guides Now 2,234 – Volumn of Classification Continues

Government, Ineptitude, Military

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FUNDAMENTAL REVIEW LEADS TO SOME REDUCTIONS IN SECRECY

The classification guides that function as the framework for national security secrecy underwent a substantial overhaul during the past two years. As a result of the Fundamental Classification Guidance Review, a large fraction of existing classification guidance has been eliminated, and at least some existing categories of classified information have been declassified.

Out of 3,103 classification guides, or compilations of classification instructions, that were reviewed by national security agencies, 869 were either cancelled or consolidated, the National Archives announced in a news release today.

The purpose of the Fundamental Classification Guidance Review, mandated by President Obama's executive order 13526 (section 1.9), was “to ensure the guidance reflects current circumstances and to identify classified information that no longer requires protection and can be declassified.”

The newly revised guidance should provide increased clarity and specificity about what is to be classified, along with greater traceability in identifying the justification for classification.

But it is less clear that the Review will result in a diminished volume of classified information.

Continue reading “Steven Aftergood: 3,103 Classification Guides Now 2,234 – Volumn of Classification Continues”