The Situated Technologies Pamphlet series explores the implications of ubiquitous computing for architecture and urbanism: How is our experience of the city and the choices we make in it affected by mobile communications, pervasive media, ambient informatics, and other “situated” technologies? How will the ability to design increasingly responsive environments alter the way architects conceive of space? What do architects need to know about urban computing and what do technologists need to know about cities? Situated Technologies Pamphlets will be published in nine issues and will be edited by a rotating list of leading researchers and practitioners from architecture, art, philosophy of technology, comparative media study, performance studies, and engineering.

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Urban Computing and its Discontents

Organizational Transformation: Implementing Chief Operating Officer/Chief Management Officer Positions in Federal Agencies, by David M. Walker, comptroller general of the United States, before the Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce, and the District of Columbia, Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. GAO-08-322T, December 13.

Organizational Transformation: Implementing Chief Operating Officer/Chief Management Officer Positions in Federal Agencies

On Wednesday, December 5, The Jamestown Foundation and the Institute for Gulf Affairs co-hosted a conference entitled “The al-Qaeda Triangle: Pakistan, Iraq and Saudi Arabia,” featuring a keynote address by Ahmed Rashid. The event brought together some of the world’s preeminent terrorism analysts—including numerous best-selling authors and political advisors—for a discussion on al-Qaeda’s ideology, logistics and future as a threat vis-à-vis the West, and was attended by nearly 400 policymakers, intelligence officials, academics and other interested individuals. Speakers at the conference included Peter Bergen (pictured), Bruce Hoffman, Daniel Benjamin, Special Advisor to the Iraqi Vice President Zuhair Humadi, Michael Scheuer, Stephen Ulph, Laith Kubba, Hassan Abbas, Marc Sageman, Ali Ibrahim, Brynjar Lia, Ali al-Ahmed and Reidar Visser. Ahmed Rashid delivered the keynote address, entitled “The Crucial Nexus: Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Tribal Areas,” which assessed the current situation on the ground as well as the viability of current Western policies there. Multiple media outlets—including Voice of America—were present at the event, and streaming video will be made available soon under the “Events” tab of the Jamestown website.

The Jamestown Foundation Hosts Al-Qaeda Conference

Now playing in Nashville ... (and numerous other US locations)

As the front man of the Clash from 1977 onwards, Joe Strummer changed people's lives forever. Four years after his death, his influence reaches out around the world, more strongly now than ever before. In "The Future Is Unwritten", from British film director Julien Temple, Joe Strummer is revealed not just as a legend or musician, but as a true communicator of our times. Drawing on both a shared punk history and the close personal friendship which developed over the last years of Joe's life, Julien Temple's film is a celebration of Joe Strummer - before, during and after the Clash.

People seem to like it.

Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten

Doc Searls - The User is the platform of the future

Pregnant women do not tip over, and researchers say an evolutionary curve has a lot to do with the reason why.

Why Pregnant Women Don’t Tip Over

Marshall McLuhan's advice on how to choose books:

Turn to page 69 of any book and read it. If you like that page, buy the book.

The Page 69 Test

A short video explaining OpenID

OpenID According to Dave

Foreign spies and the theft of military and industrial secrets were real threats during the 1930s as the United States faced the impending war. The nation's lack of security on those fronts was also a problem. Enter J. Edgar Hoover and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Raymond J. Batvinis, former FBI special agent, presents an early history of the FBI in a lecture at the Library of Congress.

Batvinis discussed his new book, "The Origins of FBI Counterintelligence," in a program hosted by the Center for the Book and co-sponsored by the Manuscript Division, which Batvinis consulted extensively in his research about the FBI's response to the world crises of the 1930s and 1940s.

Batvinis also draws on newly declassified documents and interviews with former FBI agents in his reconstruction and analysis of how the FBI, before World War II, grew from a small law enforcement unit into America's first organized counterespionage and counterintelligence service.

The Origins of FBI Counterintelligence

Utilizing loan-level data, we analyze the quality of subprime loans by adjusting their performance for differences in borrower characteristics, loan characteristics, and economic circumstances. We find that during the explosive growth of the subprime market in 2001-2006 the quality of loans monotonically deteriorated and underwriting criteria loosened. In this respect, the rise and fall of the subprime market resembles a classic lending boom-bust scenario, in which unsustainable growth leads to the collapse of the market. We show that the problems in the subprime market were imminent long before the crisis in 2007, securitizers were to some extent aware of it, but a high house price appreciation in 2003-2005 masked the true riskiness of subprime mortgages.

Understanding the Subprime Mortgage Crisis