Back to the Noosphere

Media ecology, feeding frenzy, and the inevitable self-serving self-examination. Why yesss... we did slip up a little on that one cuz... and protecting our freedoms ( the advertiser ) and our way of life. A tweet from the corner drunk becomes a major breaking news story in a matter of hours.( and you can find more opinions on the reporter's Facebook page with explosive up-to-the-minute suppositions) Be right back after this message. (cue the John Williams break theme and bring up the chattering daisy wheel printer sample a bit) Not to denigrate a show business supplied noosphere, but I felt better informed when I was cut off from the blather and froth during fleet week. I'd like to vote for the freedom from mendacity. On to my slightly neglected link-dump.

The first bit is about the press, as you may have guessed. First a story that caught fire, with more and more revelations (My God, we coulda been blowed up) When a cooler head says wait, this doesn't make a lick of sense, the story magically transmogrifies. A report on a report of allegations, made by a book that you can buy for $27.95.DEFEND YOUR RIGHT TO KNOW, BUY IT FROM OUR SPONSER. The second link could profitably be interpereted as a knee-jerk turf defense. The third is political, NYT is tring to position itself as a bit more blue colar without loosing its base on the Upper East. It's hard to effect change with the same people, the same policies, and the same ownership, behind the same closed doors.

• Shelton Story Bogus: The device is a critical link in our system of command and control, is handled by a military aide, and if it were missing, I am certain it would have been noticed -- immediately, not months later. So, what was actually lost? Shelton may have a story to tell here, but so far, it does not hold together.
• Head Start on Smear: The US major papers of record have yet to fill their opinion pages with supposition, slander and rumor concerning Wikileaks and its most visible representative, Julian Assange. That’s for the week to come. But the New York Times has already gotten a head start in its news pages.
• Change we used to believe in: Well, yes! Obama couldn’t have said it more eloquently himself. But with all due respect to Secretary Donovan’s blogging finesse, he wasn’t promising action. He was just stroking the liberal base while the administration once again punted. In our new banking scandal, as in those before it, attorneys general in the states, where many pension funds were decimated by Wall Street Ponzi schemes, are pursuing the crimes Washington has not.

Yes kids, I'm old enough to remember when Rocky and Bullwinkle was a new show, with new episodes. Yikes! Here is the creator's obit.

• R.I.P. Alexander Anderson: ...but few were more obscure, or more important, than Alexander Anderson, who died Friday at 90 in Carmel, Cal. Anderson created the characters Rocky the Flying Squirrel, Bullwinkle Moose and Dudley Do-Right, and the vaudeville-style format, for the 1959 animated program Rocky and His Friends and its 1961 spinoff The Bullwinkle Show, known collectively as Rocky and Bullwinkle.

The next is a bit of security related computer tomfoolery. This one raises a more basic question. A program is a series of yes or no voltage pulses sent to the tick of a controlling clock. Once it's on your machine, it can be decompiled. When a program is in widespread use killing people, the people in question will find a way to get a copy. If you think a remote controlled weapon can't eventually be turned on its user, I've got a great bridge to sell you. The second story is about making-do effectively with the things at hand.

• Predator Drones sued: Intelligent Integration Systems (IISi), a small Boston-based software development firm, alleges that their Geospatial Toolkit and Extended SQL Toolkit were pirated by Massachusetts-based Netezza for use by a government client. Subsequent evidence and court proceedings revealed that the "government client" seeking assistance with Predator drones was none other than the Central Intelligence Agency.
• Wheelbarrow Launchers: It shouldn’t be so surprising, considering that lots of Iraqi insurgents came out of Iraq’s huge Saddam-era military, or that some had help from elite Iranian agents. But here’s an overview of some of the more ingenious, lesser-known innovations in asymmetric warfare that insurgents developed during the Iraq war to neutralize the U.S.’s conventional advantages.

Here are some of the more questionable policy shenanigans the folks in the back room have been up to. The third one comes under the - what the heck did you expect - rubric.

• Saudi Arms Sales: And look, it's preferable to starting a war with Iran, but the trajectory of America's relationships with the countries that had the most direct role in incubating and fomenting the terrorism that slaughtered thousands of Americans and continues to threaten the West is an enduring curiosity. To put it mildly.
• Insider Trading inside the Beltway: What’s wrong with this picture? Nothing, according to the law. Nor would it be illegal for him to tip someone else, say, his largest campaign contributor.
• That's Our Job: The U.S. said Iran shouldn’t interfere with Afghanistan’s internal affairs following a report that an Iranian official gave an aide of President Hamid Karzai a bag filled with packets of euro bills.

Yes, It can happen here.

• A Rationalization of Evil: A doctor quoted in the article notes the irony that this occurred at the same time that the United States was prosecuting Nazi medical experimenters for crimes against humanity at Nuremberg.