Too Many Secrets, the Greatest Math Discovery, and More
The Wikileaks publication of tens of thousands of classified U.S. military records last week is inevitably prompting a review of information security practices to identify remedial steps. I have been arguing that one of those steps ought to be a rethinking of classification policy. “The reform that may be needed more urgently than any other is a careful reduction in the size of the secrecy system.” See “Afghan Leaks: Is the U.S. Keeping Too Many Secrets?” by Alex Altman, Time, July 30.
The Department of Defense has updated its doctrine on “foreign internal defense,” which refers to actions taken to support a foreign government’s efforts to combat domestic subversion, insurgency or terrorism. See Joint Publication 3-22, “Foreign Internal Defense,” July 12, 2010.
“The Army in Multinational Operations” is the subject of a newly updated U.S. Army Field Manual, FM 3-16, May 2010.
Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592), whose essays transformed Western consciousness and literature, was not capable of solving basic arithmetic problems. And most other people would not be able to do so either, if not for the invention of decimal notation by an unknown mathematician in India 1500 years ago. That is the contention of a neat little essay recently published by the Department of Energy (based in part on a book by Georges Ifrah). See “The Greatest Mathematical Discovery?” by David H. Bailey and Jonathan M. Borwein, May 12, 2010.
What if low trust was not a given? Or, said another way: what if we had the power to improve trust in government – what would that world look like?
“One in three Americans report being personally affected by extreme weather in just the past two years – illustrating that extreme weather has become extremely common,” said Dr. Hannah Safford.
Datasets and variables that do not align with Administration priorities, or might reflect poorly on Administration policy impacts, seem to be especially in the cross-hairs.
One month of a government shutdown is in the books, but how many more months will (or can) it go? Congress is paralyzed, but there are a few spasms of activity around healthcare and the prospects of a continuing resolution to punt this fight out until January or later.