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Journal: US IC Re-Discovers the Davies J-Curve

Government
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15,000 Affected By Intelligence Community Server Shutdown

Atlantic POLITICS

Oct 8 2009, 9:53 am

Marc Ambinder

EXTRACT: A CIA analyst who works on open source projects with state and local law enforcement officials said that uGov provided the only secure way to provide them with critical homeland security information.

Several Defense Intelligence Agency employees wrote that the e-mail offered them cover for their intelligence gathering work — using uGov at an internet cafe in a foreign city wouldn't be a problem because, being an innocuous-sounding domain, did not reveal which agency they worked or what they did.

“I can't imagine doing my job as effectively without it,” an ODNI employee wrote.

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Journal: Nobel Peace Prize Implodes (Update 5)

Peace Intelligence
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Alternative Perspective

Original Announcement: Oct. 9 (Bloomberg) — President Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples,” the Nobel Committee said.

“The Nobel Committee has in particular looked at Obama’s vision and work toward a world without atomic weapons,” Thorbjoern Jagland, chairman of the five-member Nobel committee said in an interview broadcast on Norway’s TV2 today. “Obama has as president created a new climate in international politics.”

Washington Post's Last Word: Only two other sitting presidents have won the Nobel peace prize, and they both won it for actual achievements. Theodore Roosevelt won in 1906 for his role in ending the Russo-Japanese war and Woodrow Wilson won in 1919 for founding the League of Nations and helping frame the post-World War I peace.

An aspirational Nobel is designed to promote a cause, and sometimes it backfires spectacularly.

Martin LeFevre: Obama’s Foreboding Nobel (new)

Obama still has time to reconsider accepting peace prize (new)

Obama and the Nobel Prize: When War becomes Peace, When the Lie becomes the Truth (new)

Norwegian Draws Fire over Nobel Choice

Another Fine Mess: Comics Whack Obama

Balance of Opinion: The impact of the prize

Obama's Nobel Is Unconstitutional

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Journal: State of the Ummah (Muslims)

01 Poverty, 03 India, 04 Indonesia, 05 Iran, 11 Society, Civil Society, Cultural Intelligence
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Muslim Distribution
Muslim Distribution

The State of the Ummah is both a re-mixed Internet film for which a non-US citizen has been held at Guantanamo for years, and a concept of community that explicitly includes Jews and pagans.

Wiki Simplified View
Wiki Simplified View

The main graphic shows relative distribution.  This smaller graphic to the right shows the “divide” between East and West in starker terms.

Text reports are available–an Executive Summary and a Full Report.  What they do not properly address are three facts:

1.  Sunnis everywhere, Shi'ites in the minority and severely persecuted to the point of genocide.  Note: the rough estimate of Shi'ites is 10-13% of the total, the bulk of them in Iran and southern Iraq.

2.  Vulernability of Southeast Asia (Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and Myanmar) to encroachment.

3.  The lack of religious counterintelligence and security campaign plans in any country, not just in relation to Muslims, but also dual Israeli citizens, Opus Dei, Mormons, etcetera.  As states fail, so do loyalties.  In our view, the terrorist-criminal nexus will be followed by the religious-criminal nexus.    This makes poverty in predominantly Muslim areas the number one flash point for the future of global stability, in our view.

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Review: COOL IT–The Skeptical Environmentalist’s Guide to Global Warming

5 Star, Economics, Environment (Problems), Environment (Solutions), Peace, Poverty, & Middle Class, Science & Politics of Science, Water, Energy, Oil, Scarcity
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5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent for the General Reader, Nicely Slams the Hystericals
October 8, 2009
Bjorn Lomborg
I must acknowledge that I appreciated this book all the more for first having read Global Crises, Global Solutions as edited by Lomborg (37 contributors), but I do NOT recommend the latter book–read my summary review instead. This book I most definitely recommend for anyone of any age. By the author of The Skeptical Environmentalist: Measuring the Real State of the World, this is now the most current and fluid means of coming up to speed on the relative importance of climate change versus other global crises such as infectious disease and a lack of access to clean water.It is the best available critique of why cutting carbon emissions is NOT the best focus for remediation of global crises, and most certainly not the best way to spend our money. The cost benefit is simply NOT THERE.

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Review: Global Crises, Global Solutions

4 Star, Disease & Health, Economics, Environment (Problems), Environment (Solutions), Values, Ethics, Sustainable Evolution, Water, Energy, Oil, Scarcity
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4.0 out of 5 stars NOT for the General Reader, Get Cool It Instead

October 8, 2009
Bjorn Lomborg (Editor)
I was among those who considered Lomborg discredited when he produced The Skeptical Environmentalist: Measuring the Real State of the World, and I now retract two thirds of my rejection in light of The Resilient Earth: Science, Global Warming and the Fate of Humanity and Lomberg's work in creating the Copenhagen Consensus as reported on in this book–37 serious people considering alternative perspectives and ranking remediation options in relation to real cost-benefit analysis, something Al Gore and other hysterics do not do.

This book is NOT recommended for the general reader–it is way too heavy, too many charts, not enough of a flow, a lot of this stuff has to be taken on faith. Instead, I recommend Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming (Vintage) for the general reader, and probably How to Spend $50 Billion to Make the World a Better Place which I may order in a few minutes.

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CENTCOM Week in Review Ending 8 Oct 09

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Hot Topics

AA: Hamas denies return of Abbas troops to Gaza under Egyptian-brokered deal 10/03/09

AA: Iraq releases Iranian dissidents 10/07/09

AA: Central Asia: Developing Armies Of The Underprivileged? 10/04/09

AA: Engaging the Arab World on the Iran Nuclear Crisis 10/05/09

EG: EGYPT: Cleric calls for ‘Friday of anger' against Al Aqsa violations 10/06/09

EG: Egyptian guard dies on Israeli border 10/04/09

IR: Iran names new militia commander who UN sanctioned 10/05/09

IR: ‘Iran's military gains not a threat to neighbours' 10/06/09

JO: Jordan wants to limit Temple Mount access 10/06/09

PK: Minister vows Pakistan committed to terror war 10/06/09

PK: Pakistan's Foreign Minister Says Taliban in Disarray 10/08/09

TJ: Tajikistan to get Central Asia's largest mosque 10/05/09

YE: High on qat, Yemeni troops battle Shiite rebels 10/06/09

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

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Journal: India, Demography, & the Future

03 India, Legislation, Mobile, Policies, Policy, Reform, Strategy
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India’s Demographic Moment

With the right conditions in place — education, entrepreneurialism, and environmental awareness among them — a young, eager, educated workforce can be the key to prosperity.

by Nandan Nilekani August 27, 2009

Harvard Business Review

When conditions are right, large numbers of young workers can drive a nation’s growth to remarkable levels. This theory is known as the “demographic dividend,” a phrase coined by demographer David Bloom. He proposes that when young working-age adults comprise a disproportionate percentage of a country’s population, the national economy is affected in positive ways.

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