Public Intelligence Blog – Page 3753 – The truth at any cost lowers all other costs — curated by former US spy Robert David Steele.

0Shares

Copenhagen summit urged to take climate change action

The arguments made by climate change sceptics

Phi Beta Iota: BBC reporting on Copenhagen and Climate Change has been consistently dishonest. We have urgent questions about how BBC is funded and how it does quality assurance. The core failing of Copenhagen, apart from its being based on fraudulent politicized science that is beneath contempt, is the fact that there is no Strategic Analytic Model and there is no attention being paid to the much wiser and more useful findings of the High Level Panel on Threats, Challenge, & Change. Poverty causes more environmental damange than corporations–poverty and infectious disease are both more important than Environmental Degradation BUT Envrionmental Degradation in ALL its forms is more important than everything else. It's time for a massive audit of the BBC, they are not serving the British or global public as well as they could or should.

2009/12/072009/12/07

Journal: Local Governments Harness Citizen Minds

Uncategorized

0Shares

SAN FRANCISCO — A big pile of city crime reports is not all that useful. But what if you could combine that data with information on bars, sidewalks and subway stations to find the safest route home after a night out? . . .

“It will change the way citizens and government interact, but perhaps most important, it’s going to change the way elected officials and civil servants deliver programs, services and promises,” said Gavin Newsom, the mayor of San Francisco, which is one of the cities leading the way in releasing government data to Web developers. “I can’t wait until it challenges and infuriates the bureaucracy.”

Advocates of these open-data efforts say they can help citizens figure out what is going on in their backyards and judge how their government is performing.

Phi Beta Iota: Alvin Toffler called it first, in PowerShift. Governments are now “dumb” in the face of complexity and ambiguity, but the least dumb are figuring out that creating Smart Communities starts with Open Everythiing and makes self-governance smart again. This is consistent with the rise of “Home Rule” across many counties, where corporations chartered by the public are bieng required to waive their inappropriately garnered “personality” if they wish to do business with the people.

2009/12/07

PACOM Week in Review Ending 6 Dec 09

Uncategorized

0Shares

Hot Topics

AA: Australia in 82 billion dollar LNG deal with Japan 12/06/09

AA: India downplays China's grouse 12/05/09

AA: Uighurs flee China, seek asylum in Cambodia – exile group 12/06/09

BD: Arrest of wanted terrorist in Bangladesh to be verified 12/01/09

CN: China police chief warns of unrest; Internet testing control 12/01/09

IN: GM and Chinese partner join forces in India 12/04/09

KP: N Korea to face questions on abductions 12/05/09

KR: Raytheon Awarded $17 Million To Upgrade South Korea's Patriot Systems 12/01/09

KS: Indian Kashmir group for probe into mystery graves 12/02/09

LK: Sri Lanka to freeze 600 LTTE bank accounts 12/04/09

NP: 16 arrested for protesting outside Indian embassy in Nepal 12/02/09

PH: Philippine Muslim leader acquitted of rebellion 12/02/09

PH: Imelda Marcos Opens Run for Philippine Congress 12/02/09

PH: Martial law administrator has a mind of his own 12/05/09

RU: Russia mourns nightclub fire deaths 12/05/09

TH: Thais worried by health of King and country 12/04/09

Below the Fold: Instability, Special Operations, Security Forces, Foreign Affairs, Crime

Continue reading “PACOM Week in Review Ending 6 Dec 09”

2009/12/072009/12/07

Journal: US Navy Right Idea Wrong Level

Collective Intelligence, Communities of Practice, Earth Intelligence, Key Players, Peace Intelligence

0Shares

The U.S. Navy Builds An MMOG

December 6, 2009: The U.S. Navy is looking for a game development company to bid on a project to help create a multiplayer game for training and brainstorming. What they want initially is a feasibility study on the creation of a ” Massive Multiplayer Online War Game Leveraging the Internet (MMOWGLI).” The proposals are due by December 28th.

Phi Beta Iota: This is exactly the right idea but at the wrong level. This should be sponsored by the Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence (USDI) in full partnership with the Director of Intelligence (DNI) and the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). It should be multinational and multifunctional in design from day one, with a multinational board of advisors including at a minimum Brazil, China, Indonesia, Russia, Malaysia, South Africa, and Turkey. Earth Intelligence Network knows how to do this for only $4 million a year, but of course the contract will be awarded to a beltway bandit whose sole priority will be to create a close proprietary system that locks the client in and shuts out everyone else.

2009/12/072009/12/07

Journal: DARPA & MIT Discover “Share the Wealth”

Uncategorized

0Shares

On Saturday, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency set out to learn how quickly people could use online social networks to solve a problem of national scope.

The answer: 8 hours 56 minutes, at least when said problem involves $40,000 and a bunch of red balloons.

The winning team was spearheaded by Riley Crane, a postdoctoral research fellow at MIT's Media Lab.

Crane says that the team's decision to spread the wealth was instrumental to its success, as it gave people an incentive to share good information, and a feeling of investment in the process.

Phi Beta Iota: Trust the Washington Post to screw up the headline. This is the OPPOSITE of “Spy vs. Spy” and the reason that “Open Everything” is the only possible answer for resilience in the face of complexity that hierarchical organizations cannot comprehend. Kudos to the MIT student that organized this–there were three parts to his success: 1) sharing the wealth; 2) spreading the word; and 3) near-real-time sensemaking. The secret world is incapable of all three. We still need spies and secrecy, but they should not be blocking the emergence of national intelligence writ large and open.

Full Story Below the Fold

Continue reading “Journal: DARPA & MIT Discover “Share the Wealth””

2009/12/07

Journal: US Public on Auditing the Fed

03 Economy, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Commercial Intelligence, Government

0Shares

Eight of Ten Americans Want to Audit the Fed

Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke on Thursday voiced his opposition to legislation calling for regular audits of the Fed’s monetary policies, but 79% of Americans think auditing the Fed is a good idea.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that just seven percent (7%) of adults oppose auditing the Federal Reserve and making those results available to the public. Fourteen percent (14%) are not sure.

Continue reading “Journal: US Public on Auditing the Fed”

2009/12/072009/12/07

Journal: ClimateGate Monday 7 Dec 09

Uncategorized

0Shares

Big three networks highlight own irrelevance by ignoring Climategate email scandal

By ignoring the story, ABC, CBS and NBC are highlighting the failures of themselves and much of the mainstream media. Perhaps more importantly they are contributing to their own demise and irrelevance.

Saudi Arabia calls for ‘climategate' investigation

“We believe this scandal — or what has been referred to as the ‘climategate’ scandal — we think this is definitely going to affect the nature of what could be trusted in our deliberations,” the Saudi Arabian negotiator said.

‘Climategate' shakes trust in scientists: Saudi

The Saudi negotiator rejected IPCC chairman Rajendra Pachauri's defense of the integrity of the panel's findings — delivered earlier in the plenary session — as “general statements.” “In light of recent information… the scientific scandal has assumed huge proportion,” al-Sabban said.

Climategate: the loonies are out of the asylum

Truth to left-liberals is like garlic to vampires, so I suppose it’s no wonder the world’s watermelons (green on the outside, red on the inside) have been reacting so badly to Climategate. A few days ago we had the hugely entertaining spectacle of climate activist Ed Begley Jr losing the plot completely on Fox news. (aka Tofu-crazed Vegan Goes Postal).

Is Google Censoring Climategate? Google Says No.

Overall, there’s no doubt that Climategate is a popular topic, no doubt. However, those who want to demonstrate how popular would be better advised to use Google Trends, rather than the far less dependable web search results counts.

Q&A: ‘Climategate' explained

Phi Beta Iota: CNN is not a news service and does no investigative journalism. It is 24/7 info-tainment for those who cannot or think for themselves. This particular piece is remarkably pathetic.