August 21, 2015

How Not to Be a Leader

https://medium.com/bad-words/how-not-to-be-a-leader-9a74268c4dbd

Whether it’s the rise of the extreme right in Europe, Donald Trump’s ascent in the US, Canada’s stunning plunge into fringe politics, the world is awash in a new political phenomenon: a tsunami of vocal, angry extremism, where once placid waters calmly shimmered. Not extreme enough for you? In one of the world’s most advanced societies, unemployed kids, of which there are too many, are going to have to go…not to school, college, or even community service…but to boot camp.

WTF?

In this short essay, I want to offer a lens through which to see this phenomenon. A few years ago, there was a huge leadership deficit in the world. No one, it seemed, was steering the ship. And perhaps you thought things couldn’t get worse. But today things are different: there’s not a deficit of leadership anymore. There is a surplus of bad leadership. Too many angry, blind pilots pointing ships…straight into the icebergs. Leadership, it appears, has fallen into a deep abyss. From which it must climb out, if it is to regain its place in the world again.

And before I begin let me note. This isn’t an essay I particularly want to write. But the truth is that there are too few voices speaking too few simple truths about this unsettling — and profoundly self-destructive — phenomenon.

Let us, then, put our prejudices aside, and examine these new leaders. So we may see what they stand for — and whether it is worth believing in. What is striking — and immediately obvious — is that they share four positions in common; and that is what distinguishes them as a phenomenon, a class, a category, a larger movement.

1. Fatalism
   
   
2. Scapegoating
   
   
3. Timidity
   
   
4. Dehumanization

DEVELOPS HIS ARGUMENT AT LINK.

I THINK HE'S OVERLOOKING THE BIGGEST FACTOR IN BAD LEADERSHIP: FRAUD! FRAUD PERVADES THE 1% LIKE MOLD IN AN EMPTY HOUSE.



TROUBLE IS, TOO MANY OF THESE WOULD-BE LEADERS ARE VERY BAD MEN AND WOMEN, AS WELL AS SNAKE-OIL PUSHING FRAUDS.

August 19, 2015

Permaculture and the Myth of Overpopulation

http://permaculturenews.org/2015/08/14/permaculture-and-the-myth-of-overpopulation/

When teaching permaculture I often start out by doing a giant problems mind map. I ask students to brainstorm all of the major “problems” they see in the world to reflect on what brought them to study permaculture. Nine times out of ten the idea of overpopulation as a root “problem” in the world comes up.

Overpopulation describes a situation where there are too many people for the amount of resources available. It puts the blame of the environmental crisis on the sheer number of people on the planet.

Natural scientist and former senior manager of the BBC David Attenborough sums up this sentiment when he said, “We are a plague on the Earth. Either we limit our population growth or the natural world will do it for us[.]”

This cultural narrative, that human beings are the root cause of the environmental cri-sis is everywhere, especially among environmentalists. We also see this belief within permaculture design. The third ethic of permaculture reads:

Setting limits to population and consumption: By governing our own needs we can set resources aside to the above principles.

Not only is this idea of overpopulation oversimplified and inaccurate, it upholds a de-generative paradigm of scarcity, fear and competition that goes against the core teachings of permaculture. It also perpetuates problematic thinking that leads to ineffective and unjust public policies and global solutions. As permaculturalists, it is important that we contradict this notion that simply more people on the planet equals less resources and more pollution. We need to engage in dialog around the true roots of environmental, social and economic degradation. In this way, we can begin to shift mental models and design more effective and just solutions that take into account the real root causes of degradation and injustice.

In his book Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability, David Holmgren reframed the third ethic as “fair share” or “redistribute the surplus.” He points out the paradox of permaculture’s core belief of abundance and this ethic. He states that, “Except in extreme famine and other natural disasters, scarcity is a culturally mediated reality; it is largely created by industrial economics and power, rather than actual physical limits to growth...

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August 18, 2015

STOCK MARKET WATCH--Adding Tuesday to Monday

In lieu of a new thread, I've been posting to yesterday's

http://www.democraticunderground.com/111670592

Demeter

August 16, 2015

Glitch that canceled more than 400 U.S. flights is fixed - FAA

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/08/15/us-usa-washington-airports-idUSKCN0QK0L020150815?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews

Disrupted air travel along the heavily populated U.S. East Coast was resuming normal operations on Saturday after the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said it had fixed an automation problem at an air traffic center that led to hundreds of flight cancellations.

The FAA said an air traffic center in Leesburg, Virginia was thought to be the cause of the issue which canceled more than 440 flights for hours and caused hundreds of other flights to be delayed during the busy August travel season.

The FAA said it was working with carriers to resume normal service and that the problem "has nothing to do with an accident or hacking."...More than 440 flights were canceled at airports along the U.S. East Coast on Saturday, according to flightaware.com, a service that tracks global air service...

"The FAA is continuing its root cause analysis to determine what caused the problem and is working closely with the airlines to minimize impacts to travelers," it said in a statement.

THERE CANNOT BE TOO MANY REASONS FOR THIS FAILURE...AND THEY ARE ALL OF HUMAN AGENCY. I'M GETTING OUT MY TINFOIL....

1. BAD SOFTWARE UPGRADE
2. HACKER (DESPITE DENIAL)
3. WORKER SABOTAGE (PERHAPS INADVERTENT)

IN HYPOTHESIS #1, IF IT WORKED FINE FOR YEARS, WHY WAS IT CHANGED? SO THEY COULD FIRE A HUMAN OR TWO?

August 16, 2015

The Phrase (It's a Free Country!")

http://afreecountry.blogspot.com/2007/11/how-often-do-you-hear-it.html

We've all heard the phrase before, at least most of us who are over the age of 25. In fact, those of us over the age of 25 used to hear it all the time. I can personally vouch for that. What phrase am I talking about? One that I used to hear frequently and randomly dropped as a remark or comeback in a conversation: "It's a Free Country!" I remember people used to say it all the time. It was the standard response when someone would make a remark about something that they refused to tolerate, forgetting what country they lived in...the USA.

Ever notice that you seldom hear it now? I've noticed.

I don't remember the last time I actually heard someone use that term as a response. Frankly, I think that means something. I think there's a reason why we seldom hear people say it and I don't think it's because the phrase was just a fad since long faded out. It's easy to assume that perhaps I am worrying about nothing. But if you live in the USA, take a good look around you. Take a good look at what the evening news shows us every night. Take a good look at what the newspapers say. Take a good look at what's on the Internet. Take a good look at our Constitution and the limited federal government it designs. And for those of you living outside of the USA, take a look yourself because the same fate is heading your way, if it's not already there.

We're losing freedoms left and right, by the Left and Right. If our federal government isn't squashing our economic freedoms one by one, their trying to obliterate our social freedoms. And they have no business doing either. Such things are to be left to the states. When left to the states, we have exactly (by today's standards) 50 possible variations of government to choose from. But that can't happen when the federal government controls too much, which is why the Constitution limits its power. Back when the states could provide us with more freedom of choice, we could easily say "It's a free country", because if you didn't like the way things were in one state, you could always carry your ass to a different one and live the way you wanted to live there. But if the federal government controls too much, it doesn't matter what state you live in because too much power at the federal level makes all of the states nearly the same.

I never hear "It's a free country" anymore. I think that's because we are heading in the direction of no longer being a free country of united states. Sure, sometimes we take a few steps forward, but we always end up taking a few steps back....


THIS ESSAY IS FROM 2007

IF I WERE THE EDITOR, I WOULD UPDATE IT TO MENTION THE CORPORATE CONTROL OF FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, BANKSTERS, AND THE ECONOMIC WARFARE WAGED AT HOME AND ABROAD...

BUT THE PHRASE STILL ISN'T HEARD IN THE LAND ANYMORE....

August 16, 2015

The Philosopher of Surveillance: ARE YOU THE SOCRATES of the National Security Agency?

https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/08/11/surveillance-philosopher-nsa/

That was the question the NSA asked its workforce in a memo soliciting applications for an in-house ethicist who would write a philosophically minded column about signals intelligence. The column, which would be posted on a classified network at the NSA, should be absorbing and original, the memo said, asking applicants to submit a sample to show they had what it takes to be the “Socrates of SIGINT.”

In 2012, the column was given to an analyst in the Signals Intelligence Directorate who wrote that initially he opposed the government watching everyone but came around to total surveillance after a polygraph exam did not go well. In a turn of events that was half-Sartre and half-Blade Runner, he explained that he was sure he failed the polygraph because the examiner did not know enough about his life to understand why at times the needle jumped.

“One of the many thoughts that continually went through my mind was that if I had to reveal part of my personal life to my employer, I’d really rather reveal all of it,” he wrote. “Partial revelation, such as the fact that answering question X made my pulse quicken, led to misunderstandings.”

He was fully aware of his statement’s implications.

“I found myself wishing that my life would be constantly and completely monitored,” he continued. “It might seem odd that a self-professed libertarian would wish an Orwellian dystopia on himself, but here was my rationale: If people knew a few things about me, I might seem suspicious. But if people knew everything about me, they’d see they had nothing to fear. This is the attitude I have brought to SIGINT work since then.”

SO, ONE DELUSIONAL AND NEUROTIC SUFFERER OF PSTD GIVES GREEN LIGHT TO THE ALL-SEEING, ALL-FORGIVING, ALL-UNDERSTANDING NANNY STATE?

DOESN'T HE UNDERSTAND THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE THEORY OF AN ALL-SEEING GOD, BENEVOLENT, WISE AND FORGIVING, AND THE MAFIA-ORGANIZED NATION STATES OF TODAY?

August 16, 2015

Bitcoin’s Dark Side Could Get Darker

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/540151/bitcoins-dark-side-could-get-darker/

Some of the earliest adopters of the digital currency Bitcoin were criminals, who have found it invaluable in online marketplaces for contraband and as payment extorted through lucrative “ransomware” that holds personal data hostage. A new Bitcoin-inspired technology that some investors believe will be much more useful and powerful may be set to unlock a new wave of criminal innovation. That technology is known as smart contracts—small computer programs that can do things like execute financial trades or notarize documents in a legal agreement. Intended to take the place of third-party human administrators such as lawyers, which are required in many deals and agreements, they can verify information and hold or use funds using similar cryptography to that which underpins Bitcoin.

TAKE THE PLACE OF LAWYERS! WHAT AN INNOVATION!

Some companies think smart contracts could make financial markets more efficient, or simplify complex transactions such as property deals (see “The Startup Meant to Reinvent What Bitcoin Can Do”). Ari Juels, a cryptographer and professor at the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute at Cornell Tech, believes they will also be useful for illegal activity–and, with two collaborators, he has demonstrated how. “In some ways this is the perfect vehicle for criminal acts, because it’s meant to create trust in situations where otherwise it’s difficult to achieve,” says Juels. In a paper to be released today, Juels, fellow Cornell professor Elaine Shi, and University of Maryland researcher Ahmed Kosba present several examples of what they call “criminal contracts.” They wrote them to work on the recently launched smart-contract platform Ethereum.

One example is a contract offering a cryptocurrency reward for hacking a particular website. Ethereum’s programming language makes it possible for the contract to control the promised funds. It will release them only to someone who provides proof of having carried out the job, in the form of a cryptographically verifiable string added to the defaced site. Contracts with a similar design could be used to commission many kinds of crime, say the researchers. Most provocatively, they outline a version designed to arrange the assassination of a public figure. A person wishing to claim the bounty would have to send information such as the time and place of the killing in advance. The contract would pay out after verifying that those details had appeared in several trusted news sources, such as news wires. A similar approach could be used for lesser physical crimes, such as high-profile vandalism.

“It was a bit of a surprise to me that these types of crimes in the physical world could be enabled by a digital system,” says Juels. He and his coauthors say they are trying to publicize the potential for such activity to get technologists and policy makers thinking about how to make sure the positives of smart contracts outweigh the negatives. “We are optimistic about their beneficial applications, but crime is something that is going to have to be dealt with in an effective way if those benefits are to bear fruit,” says Shi.

Nicolas Christin, an assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon University who has studied criminal uses of Bitcoin, agrees there is potential for smart contracts to be embraced by the underground. “It will not be surprising,” he says. “Fringe businesses tend to be the first adopters of new technologies, because they don’t have anything to lose.” Indeed, some criminals have made significant gains from Bitcoin. The way it can make digital payments more anonymous has aided the rise of malicious “ransomware” (see “Holding Data Hostage: The Perfect Internet Crime?”). And Christin published a paper this week tracing the evolution of online marketplaces for contraband that have been partly enabled by Bitcoin. It shows that although the most notorious, Silk Road, was taken down by U.S. law enforcement in 2013, others rose in its place and together make sales estimated at around $400,000 a day. Still, Christin notes that the scale of criminal activity made possible by Bitcoin today, and perhaps by smart contracts in the future, is tiny compared with more traditional, cash-based physical crimes. Smart contracts are also more complex to use than Bitcoin transactions, he adds. Writing a smart contract or properly understanding the terms of one takes specialized programming skills. WELL, THAT'S A RELIEF, I'M SURE.

Gavin Wood, chief technology officer at Ethereum, notes that legitimate businesses are already planning to make use of his technology—for example, to provide a digitally transferable proof of ownership of gold, and to power a lottery system. However, Wood acknowledges it is likely that Ethereum will be used in ways that break the law—and even says that is part of what makes the technology interesting. Just as file sharing found widespread unauthorized use and forced changes in the entertainment and tech industries, illicit activity enabled by Ethereum could change the world, he says. “The potential for Ethereum to alter aspects of society is of significant magnitude,” says Wood. “This is something that would provide a technical basis for all sorts of social changes and I find that exciting.” TIME TO CUT BACK ON THE DRUGS, GAVIN

For example, Wood says that Ethereum’s software could be used to create a decentralized version of a service such as Uber, connecting people wanting to go somewhere with someone willing to take them, and handling the payments without the need for a company in the middle. Regulators like those harrying Uber in many places around the world would be left with nothing to target. “You can implement any Web service without there being a legal entity behind it,” he says. “The idea of making certain things impossible to legislate against is really interesting.”

SOUNDS AN AWFUL LOT LIKE SKYNET, TO ME--DEMETER

August 16, 2015

A mathematician may have uncovered widespread election fraud, and Kansas is trying to silence her

http://americablog.com/2015/08/mathematician-actual-voter-fraud-kansas-republicans.html



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Kansas loves them some voter fraud hysteria. From going to the Supreme Court to try and make doubly-sure that non-citizens can’t vote in their elections to setting up a voter fraud website where citizens can report every kind of voter fraud except the kinds that have actually happened in the state, Kansas is on the forefront of voter fraud readiness and protection.

Except, perhaps, when it comes to the machines they use to record their votes.

According to the Wichita Eagle, Wichita State mathematician Beth Clarkson has found irregularities in election returns from Sedgwick County, along with other counties throughout the United States, but has faced stiff opposition from the state in trying to confirm whether the irregularities are fraud or other, less-nefarious anomalies.

Analyzing election returns at a precinct level, Clarkson found that candidate support was correlated, to a statistically significant degree, with the size of the precinct. In Republican primaries, the bias has been toward the establishment candidates over tea partiers. In general elections, it has favored Republican candidates over Democrats, even when the demographics of the precincts in question suggested that the opposite should have been true...

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August 15, 2015

Sorry, but there's no world dictatorship

And nobody but the self-appointed, would-be dictators even want one...

Dictatorship leads to war, war leads to degradation of the environment, the society, the individual people, and costs more to the planet than any other human endeavor.

Work for global peace and equal prosperity, and then you have a recipe for sustainable humanity. Because if you can get those two, you can get everything else.

And if you really mean it, you must break the backs of global multi-national corporations, because THEY are the would-be dictators, as witness the TPP, TiPP, TISA, etc.

August 14, 2015

Diane Rehm needs a keeper

Friday's roundup, and she's slandering Bernie, AGAIN, attributing to him other people's faux pas...and then issuing a quiet little apology after the break, saying she "misspoke".

Once is an accident, twice could be senility....but she's right up into Dirty Tricks territory!

Gratitude to whoever called her on it...and getting it so fast!