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Vatican, Ethics, & Truth II (Full Text Online for Google Translate)

Full Text: Note on financial reform from the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace 2011-10-24 Vatican Radio Please find, below, an unofficial translation of the Note on the reform of the international financial and monetary systems in the context of global public authority, released Monday by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. ****************** Pontifical …

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Review: World on the Edge – How to Prevent Environmental and Economic Collapse

Lester Brown 4.0 out of 5 stars The One Book to Buy of Brown’s–By No Means the Whole Picture, September 10, 2011 I’ve read and reviewed a number of books by Lester Brown and his advocacy agency, and have especially appreciated the State of the World series, and his Plan B Series that keeps getting …

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Paul Fernhout: How Security Clearance Process Harms National Security by Eradicating Cognitive Diversity

This essay discusses how the USA’s security clearance process (mainly related to ensuring secrecy) may have a counter-productive negative effect on the USA’s national security by reducing “cognitive diversity” among security professionals. Background refs: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security_clearance#United_States http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secrecy Scott Page wrote an insightful book about the value of “cognitive diversity” in making effective groups, called The Difference: …

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Paul Fernhout: Open Letter to the Intelligence Advanced Programs Research Agency (IARPA)

EDIT 4 Sep 2011: Link and misc. fixed. Dear IARPA staff- The greatest threat facing the USA is the irony inherent in our current defense posture, like for example planning to use nuclear energy embodied in missiles to fight over oil fields that nuclear energy could replace. This irony arises in part because the USA’s …

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Review: The Philanthropy of George Soros – Building Open Societies

UPDATE 30 June to add link to Notes on, and Video of George Soros and Aryeh Neier discussing the theme.  See also his full essay online with comment: George Soros Nails It: Intelligence with Integrity Chuck Sudetic 6 Star Special–Soros Out-Grows Broken System, June 24, 2011 On its own merits, without the Foreword from George …

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Review: Planning with Complexity – An Introduction to Collaborative Rationality for Public Policy

Judith Innes, David Booher Excellent but Not Perfect, June 25, 2011 The authors claim to be addressing a new theory of collaborative rationality. The Native Americans called this “seventh generation thinking.” It is neither new nor rational alone, but rather holistic. I bought and read this book along with Democracy as Problem Solving: Civic Capacity …

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