All my life since has been a learning experience. Now I want to pass on five lessons I have learned during 10 years as secretary general of the United Nations that I believe the community of nations needs to learn as it confronts the challenges of the 21st century.

These seem true but obvious, although history has borne out the cost of learning these lessons one at a time (and time and time, again).

Kofi Annan - What I've Learned

There are a few nuggets of amusement here..

The Dallas "Conspiracy Museam" is temporarly shutting down..

"Basically," says Tom Bowden, the museum's president, "they're putting a Quizno's here."

Hardly the skepticism expected from a man who's made The Conspiracy Museum a tourist landmark since opening in 1993 two blocks from where Kennedy was killed.

This man is not doing his job! There is _obviously_ some conspiracy behind this. If I'm right about the basic tenets of conspiracy theory, and I'm sure I am.. There is a conspiracy behind _everything_.

Bowden plans to reopen the museum in a new building closer to Dealey Plaza on April 4, which, not coincidentally, is the 39th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

He said the new space will double the size of the museum to almost 3,600 square feet and include a bookstore and Internet cafe. The museum also plans to add exhibits on the September 11, 2001, attacks to its slate of theories on the assassinations of Kennedy, King and Abraham Lincoln.

A conspiracy Internet cafe... Perfect! I just got a new location on my list of places to spend an afternoon.

And now, the best part..

He's made up the difference by lending his time and research to Kennedy documentaries and other films, like one on the idea of cloning Jesus from the Shroud of Turin.

Cloning Jesus from the Shroud of Turin. I _completely_ support any effort to do this. There is no possible outcome that would not somehow amuse the hell out of me.

"People have called us lunatics," Bowden said. "That's all right. I get more turnout because of that."

I'm getting a real pro-conspiracy vibe here. Being a part of the great conspiracy, I approve. Two thumbs up!

The Quizno's Conspiracy

You could provide universal health care but you'd have to radically re-align the system so that stakeholders compete based upon outcomes (ie results) instead of treating based upon episode and billing fee for service. This would not provide a system where every citizen would get the same "level" of health care service, but it would provide that every citizen would get quality affordable service based upon a tiering of cost per outcome. So the poor would get results, but the rich would get them faster, with more bells and whistles, and more conveniently at a higher price. Much like any other product or service you procure today.

Flynn23 provides some interesting insight into tackling the problems with our health care system.

Universal Health Care: Realign the shareholder interests

THE SPECTRE of a nuclear race in the Middle East was raised yesterday when six Arab states announced that they were embarking on programmes to master atomic technology.

The countries involved were named by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as Algeria, Egypt, Morocco and Saudi Arabia. Tunisia and the UAE have also shown interest.

“Some Middle East states, including Egypt, Morocco, Algeria and Saudi Arabia, have shown initial interest [in using] nuclear power primarily for desalination purposes,” Tomihiro Taniguch, the deputy director-general of the IAEA, told the business weekly Middle East Economic Digest. He said that they had held preliminary discussions with the governments and that the IAEA’s technical advisory programme would be offered to them to help with studies into creating power plants.

I continue to wonder when the Doomsday Clock is going to be advanced...

Their most recent statement doesn't even mention Iran. Strange...

Six Arab states join rush to go nuclear

Youngsters in a suburban Fort Worth school district are being taught not to sit there like good boys and girls with their hands folded if a gunman invades the classroom, but to rush him and hit him with everything they got - books, pencils, legs and arms.

"Getting under desks and praying for rescue from professionals is not a recipe for success," said Robin Browne, a major in the British Army reserve and an instructor for Response Options, the company providing the training to the Burleson schools.

Browne recommends students and teachers "react immediately to the sight of a gun by picking up anything and everything and throwing it at the head and body of the attacker and making as much noise as possible. Go toward him as fast as we can and bring them down."

Don't mess with Texas!

Texas School Tells Classes to Fight Back

It's seven minutes to midnight

The Doomsday Clock has been at it's current setting since 2002. I wonder if the North Korean nuclear test is going to prompt them to bump it up a notch or two..

Doomsday Clock: Current Time

When [Bush] uses that "those of us who love freedom" line its hard to take him seriously or conceive that he has a plan. These people don't want to kill Americans because we love freedom. They want to kill Americans because we're the most prominent political power center for people who don't practice their religion. Maybe what Bush really wants to say is "those of us who love jesus" but, of course, that would be extremely divisive, so he says "freedom," knowing that his constituency sees "freedom" and "jesus" as interchangable concepts.

Every global conflict centers around a battle of ideas. We are not on top of our information warfare game. To prove that point, I only need to reference at any given speech President Bush gives.

Why our national rethoric is broken -OR- Why we are loosing the War on Terror

The Army is considering a proposal to allow a private developer to build a military-themed park that would include Cobra Gunship rides and bars including a "1st Division Lounge."

"You can command the latest M-1 tank, feel the rush of a paratrooper freefall, fly a Cobra Gunship or defend your B-17 as a waist gunner," according to the proposal, which was obtained by The Washington Post.

County officials have no authority over the Army's decision because the site is federal property. County Supervisor T. Dana Kauffman said he thought the entertainment concept died last year and said he had no interest in turning a military museum into "Disney on Rolling Road."

Sounds like a blast.

CNN.com - C'mon kids, let's go to Army World! - Aug 8, 2006

We were sitting in a Manhattan living room on a spring afternoon, and Warren Buffett had a Cherry Coke in his hand as usual. But this unremarkable scene was about to take a surprising turn.

"Brace yourself," Buffett warned with a grin. He then described a momentous change in his thinking. Within months, he said, he would begin to give away his Berkshire Hathaway fortune, then and now worth well over $40 billion.

This news was indeed stunning. Buffett, 75, has for decades said his wealth would go to philanthropy but has just as steadily indicated the handoff would be made at his death. Now he was revising the timetable.

Buffett has pledged to gradually give 85% of his Berkshire stock to five foundations. A dominant five-sixths of the shares will go to the world's largest philanthropic organization, the $30 billion Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, whose principals are close friends of Buffett's (a connection that began in 1991, when a mutual friend introduced Buffett and Bill Gates).

FORTUNE Magazine: Warren Buffett gives away his fortune - Jun. 25, 2006

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