Category: News

UPI. The US has a backlog of more than 1/2 million security clearances!! This is total BS. Frankly, the whole system is wrong-headed. First, secrecy is a burden. Our current levels of secrecy makes it virtually impossible to hire the talent we need. It also prevents the levels of information sharing we need to be… Continue reading UPI

President Bush Announces Blatant Lie. Reuters reports the following in an article entitled, Bush Says No Payroll Tax Hike for Social Security: President Bush ruled out raising payroll taxes to help pay for Social Security reform on Thursday, leaving him few options other than a sharp increase in government borrowing to bankroll transition costs estimated… Continue reading President Bush Announces Blatant Lie

Canada and the USA PATRIOT Act. The Information & Privacy Commissioner for the Province of British Columbia, Canada, has just published an extensive report titled “Privacy and the USA Patriot Act – Implications for British Columbia Public Sector Outsourcing.” It's an interesting trend. It's one thing for countries to complain about U.S. counterterrorism policies, but… Continue reading Canada and the USA PATRIOT Act

The Digital Person. Last week, I stayed at the St. Regis hotel in Washington, DC. It was my first visit, and the management gave me a questionnaire, asking me things like my birthday, my spouse's name and birthday, my anniversary, and my favorite fruits, drinks, and sweets. The purpose was clear; the hotel wanted to… Continue reading The Digital Person

Scots pupils excel in international learning league. Scottish school pupils are outperforming their counterparts in countries such as the United States, Spain and Italy, according to research published yesterday. [The Scotsman]

Soldiers headed to Iraq grill Rumsfeld. WASHINGTON — US soldiers in Kuwait who are headed to Iraq put Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on the defensive yesterday, grilling him about extended tours of duty and the continued lack of armor to protect vehicles from roadside bombs. [Boston Globe — Front Page]

Support builds for minimum wage hike. Union leaders and advocates for the poor are uniting behind an effort to raise the state's $6.75-an-hour minimum wage for the first time since 2001 and to tie future increases to the inflation rate, a move that would make Massachusetts only the fourth state in the nation to establish… Continue reading Support builds for minimum wage hike

Samarra. Guerrillas looted an armory at a police station and then blew it up. This shows the difficult position the US in re: Iraqi forces. They need to be armed with the right weapons in order to defend themselves (which would boost morale). However, we won't give them the weapons they need because we are… Continue reading Samarra. Guerrillas looted an armory at a police station and then blew
it up. This shows the difficult position the US in re: Iraqi forces.
They need to be armed with the right weapons in order to defend
themselves (which would boost morale). However, we won't give them the
weapons they need because we are worried they will end up in the hands
of the guerrillas. [John Robb's Weblog

Dann does a redux of my 1996 research report (which was the “idea of the year” report at Forrester Research and the topic of their 1996 conference) called Personal Broadcast Networks. It was years ahead of P2P networks, RSS, xml-rpc, Grid, etc. Each of these tech innovations deliver and/or demonstrate parts of the vision in… Continue reading Dann

FT. Economic blowback from the GWOT (global war on terror). Major oil producers have dropped the first shoe on the dollar (the second shoe is China). They have reduced dollar exposure from 75% to 61.5% since 9/11. The trend is accelerating due to fears that assets will be frozen as part of the war on… Continue reading FT