Some random items of interest:
- Avatar. Kunstler (spoiler) As the end-credits rolled for James Cameron's new movie, Avatar, the audience burst into rowdy applause. It seemed to me that they were applauding the sheer computerized dazzlement of the show -- but in the story itself they had just watched the US suffer a humiliating defeat on a distant planet. In the final frames, American soldiers and the corporate executives they had failed to protect were shown lined up as prisoners-of-war about to embark on a death march.
- India. It appears that the Naxal's adoption of open source organization and systems disruption for its insurgency has even produced positive body count ratios vs. government forces (unlike the other insurgencies operating in the country): In Naxal affected States, the number of the number of Civilians and Security Forces personnel killed upto Oct.31, 2009 was 742 while it was 721 in 2008. However, the number of Naxalites killed during the same time is 170 (till Oct.31, 2009), which stood at 199 in 2008. The same ratio is true with Nigeria's MEND. In short, system disruption is vastly superior, as a method of warfare, to a traditional insurgency that measures its success through attacks on government forces.
- Infotopia: How many minds produce knowledge. This book on group decision making (with some emphasis on the massively parallel level) looks interesting. Basically, it uses experimental data and studies of group behavior to build a set of recommendations on how to improve group decision making and avoid blunders.
- Nigeria. MEND damaged a Shell oil pipeline as a warning to the Nigerian gov't to continue to negotiate in good faith. Good luck with that. The gov't is denying the attack to continue to the illusion that the conflict is over. Factions in the government are also hiring, in an attempt to route around MEND's reconciliation negotiations with Nigeria's President, former MEND commanders to build an open source counter-insurgency.
- Thanks so much to all of the wonderful supporters for their donations to the TIP JAR!
- Seattle and Washington State moving towards legalizing pot and selling it in state liquor stores. Another sign of the trend towards decentralization.
- Due process suspended in the US. More.
- Sorkin on the financial crisis: Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and GE were all about to go bankrupt.