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| There are great benefits to connectedness, but we haven't wrapped our minds around the costs. |
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Give Thanks for Immigrants |
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| Topic: Education |
4:20 pm EST, Nov 26, 2004 |
Enjoy this holiday message from Rupert Murdoch. Our modern public school systems simply are not producing the talent the American economy needs to compete in the future. And it often seems that it is our immigrants who are holding the whole thing up. 60% of the top science students, and 65% of the top math students, are children of immigrants. More than half of engineers -- and 45% of math and computer scientists -- with PhDs now working in the US are foreign born. Asian Marines, Arab Marines, Latino Marines, all united in the mission of protecting the rest of us. Give Thanks for Immigrants |
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| Topic: War on Terrorism |
4:10 pm EST, Nov 26, 2004 |
Mark Bowden wrote this op-ed for the November 12 edition of the LA Times. We should not be surprised if, even after the offensive is over, the roadside bombings, kidnappings and murders continue. Does that mean that retaking Falluja accomplishes nothing? No. The target isn't just the terrorists, it's that vast middle ground of Iraqis. Why We Must Take Falluja |
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Two, Three, Many Fallujas |
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| Topic: War on Terrorism |
4:05 pm EST, Nov 26, 2004 |
Media accounts also routinely describe the fighting outside Falluja as a "rebel counteroffensive" that surprised the US military, implying that the reduction of Falluja merely created more insurgents. But the view conveyed by these headlines is myopic. The rebels can attack on a broad front for a while, but they will not be able to keep it up for long. What is going on in the Sunni Triangle is not so much a "rebel counteroffensive" as it is the last desperate gasp of a group running out of time and space. Drawing on lessons from World War II, this writer disputes the implication of my "Slog" poem. Two, Three, Many Fallujas |
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| Topic: Politics and Law |
4:02 pm EST, Nov 26, 2004 |
Bush knows the CIA needs dramatic reform, that the American people will welcome such reform, and even that they expect him to do it and to do it quickly. And he knows that those inside the CIA opposed to Goss's reforms will fight hard and will fight dirty. The improvements at the CIA must be both quantitative and qualitative. The CIA, and in particular its clandestine service, exists to penetrate enemies and collect their secrets. In recent years, it has signally failed in this task. George Friedman is saying similar things, although absent the partisan haggling over Michael Scheuer. Basically, the DO needs this shakeup, but Goss's methods are having a rather detrimental effect on morale. However, I can't imagine getting it done quickly without ruffling lots of feathers in the process. And we don't have time to wait. I haven't found any non-partisan analysis of the "shakeup". The truth is somewhere in between the Weekly Standard and the New York Times, but it seems no one is reporting from that trench. Regime Change at the CIA |
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| Topic: Military |
3:49 pm EST, Nov 26, 2004 |
We have become used to having a high-quality military filled by dedicated young women and men willing to put their lives on the line for less money than Donald Trump hands out in tips every week. It is worth remembering how extraordinary and unusual our service members really are -- and how much we owe them this Thanksgiving. In their post-Vietnam agony, all the services had trouble attracting recruits, and those who signed up tended to come from the bottom of the barrel. By the 1991 Gulf War, those problems had evaporated and the first-rate military we know today had been created. Anybody who has spent any time around today's soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines cannot help but be awed by their dedication, courage, and professionalism. Thanking Our Troops |
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Among the Hostage-Takers | Mark Bowden | Atlantic Monthly, December 2004 |
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| Topic: History |
3:07 pm EST, Nov 26, 2004 |
Twenty-five years ago in Tehran a group of Iranian students stormed the US embassy and took hostage the entire American diplomatic mission -- igniting a fifteen-month international crisis whose impact is reverberating still. Now, for the first time, many of the leading hostage-takers speak candidly about their actions -- which a surprising number deeply regret. Among the Hostage-Takers | Mark Bowden | Atlantic Monthly, December 2004 |
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organic information design |
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| Topic: Technology |
1:08 am EST, Nov 26, 2004 |
Design techniques for static information are well understood, their descriptions and discourse thorough and well-evolved. But these techniques fail when dynamic information is considered. There is a space of highly complex systems for which we lack deep understanding because few techniques exist for visualization of data whose structure and content are continually changing. To approach these problems, this thesis introduces a visualization process titled Organic Information Design. The resulting systems employ simulated organic properties in an interactive, visually refined environment to glean qualitative facts from large bodies of quantitative data generated by dynamic information sources. organic information design |
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| Topic: Futurism |
8:56 pm EST, Nov 25, 2004 |
Someone predicts that Microsoft will invent MemeStreams in 2008 and then it will be replaced by Google/Amazon in 2010. I especially liked the part where "the New York Times becomes a print-only newsletter for the elite and the elderly." EPIC 2014 |
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Long Way Round : Chasing Shadows Across the World |
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| Topic: Society |
8:04 pm EST, Nov 25, 2004 |
Actors Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman left London by motorbike in April 2004, heading east. They traveled across Europe and Asia, flew over the Pacific and continued across North America to New York, all in four months. Eastern Europe and Asia -- the Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Siberia -- were a moment-by-moment challenge, even with the authors riding top-of-the-line BMW cycles. Long Way Round : Chasing Shadows Across the World |
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| Topic: Intellectual Property |
8:03 pm EST, Nov 25, 2004 |
Technology people across the country are terrified by the idea. But there is a silver lining. If Congress passes this bill, on what principled basis can it then refuse to hold gun manufacturers responsible for the crimes committed with their technologies? The parallels are unavoidable. This op-ed by Larry Lessig was published in Wednesday's Washington Post. Bytes and Bullets |
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