Some items of interest:
- Militia formation in Naxalite territory. Cobra gangs (similar to Colombia's AUC).
- Afghan cash amnesty/training program for Talib's ramping up. Wrong approach. What does work (at great long term cost): Exploit divisions and form/rent militias on local primary loyalties. In short, an open source counter-insurgency.
- A senior IEA (the International Energy Agency) official turns whistleblower. He 'claims it (the agency) has been deliberately underplaying a looming shortage for fear of triggering panic buying.'
- Anatomy of an economic parasitic. The Times talks with the gray men of Goldman Sachs. Remember: When the loyalty of the USSR's elites (the bureaucracy or nomenklatura) shifted to local interests that directly interacted with global markets (using the remains of the state as tradable commodities), the Soviet Union collapsed (it wasn't due to US defense spending, LOL).
- Systempunkt in Brazil/Paraguay. The Itaipu hydroelectric plant. Flow restrictions on base load power plants = cascades of failure.
- Lind on Fort Hood shooting.
- Xerox, silver ink, and DIY 'printed' circuit boards.
- Anyone have a copy of Taleb's newest paper: "Common Errors in the Interpretation of the Ideas of The Black Swan and Associated Papers" All I can find is a citation (restricted academic journals are a form of societal damage). UPDATE: Got it, thanks much.
- The UK is moving quickly to the China model of capitalism. No legitimacy necessary.