Michael May had everything. Happy marriage, great family, successful business. He was even a world-class athlete. What kind of a man would upset such a perfect life by doing something as crazy as trying to get his sight back?

Into the Light | Esquire, May 2005

From a briefing by John Nagl, author of Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife:

"How many Americans, out of 500,000, were only defending each other, writing memos to each other, and how many were actually making a positive contribution to the future security of Vietnam? It would make an interesting Ph.D. thesis for a maverick Lieutenant Colonel who is not seeking promotion..."

– Sir Robert Thompson, Make for the Hills

An Interesting PhD thesis for a maverick Lieutenant Colonel

PDF also available. You should check out the ToC for this issue, as it features a whole series of "Perspectives on the Long War."

The result is a change in relative advantage at the individual level played out, for example, in the increasing role of suicide attacks in warfare. In today’s social and political context, it is not enough to focus on military organizational and doctrinal changes like networking and swarming. In the long run, the "swarming" that really counts is the wide-scale mobilization of the global public.

Can I get an Amen?

Will the United States recognize the significance of connectivity and its implications for conflict? It is hard to say.

To win, we must all become super-empowered individuals. Get happy, get angry, whatever; just get going.

I liked that phrase, "the significance of connectivity", and wanted to see who else was using it, and how. It seems most common in a neurobiological context. But I ran across this article from a member of the faculty at Ankara University:

In an age in which the problems that the citizens face exceed local, and even national boundaries, the significance of connectivity on a global scale gains an unprecedented importance.

Remember that guy, "Tom", who used to write openly accessible op-ed articles?

Because globalization has brought down many of the walls that limited the movement and reach of people, and because it has simultaneously wired the world into networks, it gives more power to individuals to influence both markets and nation-states than at any other time in history. Globalization can be an incredible force-multiplier for individuals. Individuals can increasingly act on the world stage directly, unmediated by a state.

So you have today not only a superpower, not only Supermarkets, but also what I call "super-empowered individuals." Some of these super-empowered individuals are quite angry, some of them quite wonderful -- but all of them are now able to act much more directly and much more powerfully on the world stage.

("You don't strike me as super-empowered!")

The New Levée en Masse | PARAMETERS, Summer 2006

A California appeals court ruled Friday that online reporters are protected by the same confidentiality laws that protect traditional journalists.

First Amendment Applies to Internet, Appeals Court Rules

a passionate debate over the ethics of high altitude climbing, particularly in what is called the death zone, where conditions, temperatures and the lack of oxygen combine to mean that rescuers may forfeit their own lives in trying to save a sick or incapacitated climber.

'Dead' Climber's Survival Impugns Mount Everest Ethics

True, this.

I liked your alarm feature, so I kept you bedside. I'd check you late at night. I'd check you first thing in the morning. Sometimes I'd even check you on Sundays, and often regretted it.

But you gave me something to do in idle moments, while I was standing in line or waiting for a train. With you, there was no dead time. It seemed great for a while.

Living without you, though, there's more time to think.

The idea percolator works better with fewer distractions.

Here's a thought. What if they cooled it just for a week? Wouldn't that leave more time to puzzle through what-ifs and how-abouts, the kind of questions that help us keep a step ahead of the competition?

Feeling All Thumbed Out

Mr. Ahmadinejad is pursuing a risky strategy that could offer him a shot at long-term influence over the direction of the country — or ruin. He appears motivated at least in part by a recognition that relying on clerics to serve as the public face of the government has undermined the credibility of both.

"Unfortunately, whenever there is talk of social corruption, fingers are pointed at women," Mr. Ahmadinejad said, in comments that for a leader in this society were groundbreaking. "Shouldn't men be blamed for the problems, too?"

Iran Chief Eclipses Power of Clerics

Page 1 is not the Holy Grail.

Other Voices | Letters to NYT

For fans of public apologies, May has been a good month.

The public apology has established itself as a staple of our national discourse, a required ritual to be endured by anyone caught saying or doing something inappropriate.

Mistakes Were Made

The big picture has been bumped by spot news. Strategic intelligence is the power to know your enemies' intentions. Spot news is what happened last night in Waziristan. Drowned by demands from the White House and the Pentagon for instant information, "intelligence analysts end up being the Wikipedia of Washington," John McLaughlin, the deputy director and acting director of central intelligence from October 2000 to September 2004, said in an interview.

Langley, We Have a Problem