Yoda: The Intertia of Large States – View from Quebec

Quebecois, he is.  Author’s translation, this is. States and the inertia With the commission Charbonneau, now we know what leads the inertia of the state. René Marcel Sauve Free forum Vigil Sunday, November 11, 2012 The State’s force of inertia. Concerning the imminent economic and political catastrophe awaiting the United States, I tend to agree …

Berto Jongman: Free Online Education Revolution

Do online courses spell the end for the traditional university? Carole Cadwalladr The Observer, Saturday 10 November 2012 Publishing, music, shopping, journalism – all revolutionised by the internet. Next in line? Education. Now US academics are offering world-class tuition – free – to anyone who can log on, anywhere in the world, is this the …

Eagle: Rolling Jubillee People’s bailout: A social innovation you won’t have heard about before…

If this can actually be done, i.e. the Credit Bureau records wiped clean, this is a vast socio-economic revolution in the making. People’s bailout: A social innovation you won’t have heard about before… http://rollingjubilee.org/ #peoplesbailout Occupy Wall Street. Remember them? Well, in that well worn cliched phrase: They haven’t gone away you know! One of the …

Marcus Aurelius: Pararescuemen Rule

Pararescuemen walk line between fierce warrior, caring savior Laura Rauch Stars and Stripes, 29 October 2012 While their core function is combat rescue and the personnel recovery of downed aircraft, Air Force pararescue teams also fly throughout Afghanistan augmenting the Army medevac mission. Though medevac and pararescue overlap in terms of pulling the wounded from …

Robert Steele: How Obama’s Team Melded Big Data to Raise Money & Win Votes, Defeating the “Nine Ways” and “Twelve Amigos”

TIME has provided an utterly spectacular story on how the Obama team melded big data.  As I finished the article, I could not help but wonder how much more useful the secret intelligence world would be, to so many more people, if it could do this for the rest of the world — with the …

John Robb: Resilience from Natural Gas Generators Plus Rain Capture Systems & Water Storage Bladders

How to Avoid Fragility and Failure By John Robb Sandy knocked out power for 8.5 million people, mostly in New York and New Jersey.  Wow.  What’s worse? A week later, nearly a million people were still without power. Now, a Nor’easter — a freezing cold version of a tropical storm that plagues New England during …