Some random items of interest:
- "Border Zones and Insecurity in the Americas" by Adam Elkus and John P. Sullivan.
- Suarez International, the combat training company that's always at the bleeding edge of practicable tactical innovation, has a very interesting course coming up: "guerrilla sniper."
- Wired. Software + webcam = 3d scanner.
- Some great posts on how to generate innovative synthetic thinking in technology/science at Eric Drexler's Metamodern blog. My finding: Great analysts are a dime a dozen, great synthetic thinkers are rare.
- Comrade Simba. I like how he writes. This post reads like near term fiction.
- 17.5% unemployment in the US. This is near depression 1.0 levels -- some argue that it already much worse if you track them according the stage of the event).
- A law-enforcement reader submitted an short but excellent "five rings" map for analyzing the systemic structure of domestic violence cases (Download DV Systems Map). This approach is useful in analyzing avenues of attack for social disruption targeting corporations/organizations.
- The excellent blog, The Coming Anarchy (despite the name, it's very establishment), has a good post on how the Theban general Epaminondas neutralized Sparta through the creation of competitive cities rather than outright conquest (in the modern context, resilient communities and TAZs do the same to nation-states). It also takes the strategist B.H. Liddell Hart to task (a little harshly I think).
- Sterling. Growing small plot medical marijuana for income? Interestingly, this might be how home gardens get going again, pot income subsidizes the costs of setting it up and forces the development of the required skills.... Also, an ode to the UK surveillance state.
- Lt. Col. Dave Grossman. Killology.