Christmas is a time of great joy and an occasion for deep reflection

Hopefully my last post of 2012 . . .

A Time for Christians to Engage with the World

This is the article Pope Benedict XVI had published in the Financial Times of London a few days ago.

The invitation to a reigning Pontiff and the publication itself are quite exceptional. 

 The text was also made available by the Holy See Press Office for wider distribution.

 The Holy Father's message of financiers, buisness-people, et al:

"Render unto Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God," was the response of Jesus when asked about paying taxes. His questioners, of course, were laying a trap for him. They wanted to force him to take sides in the highly-charged political debate about Roman rule in the land of Israel. Yet there was more at stake here: if Jesus really was the long-awaited Messiah, then surely he would oppose the Roman overlords. So the question was calculated to expose him either as a threat to the regime, or a fraud.

Jesus’ answer deftly moves the argument to a higher plane, gently cautioning against both the politicization of religion and the deification of temporal power, along with the relentless pursuit of wealth. His audience needed to be reminded that the Messiah was not Caesar, and Caesar was not God. The kingdom that Jesus came to establish was of an altogether higher order. As he told Pontius Pilate, "My kingship is not of this world."

The Christmas stories in the New Testament are intended to convey a similar message. Jesus was born during a "census of the whole world" taken by Caesar Augustus, the Emperor renowned for bringing the Pax Romana to all the lands under Roman rule. Yet this infant, born in an obscure and far-flung corner of the Empire, was to offer the world a far greater peace, truly universal in scope and transcending all limitations of space and time.

Jesus is presented to us as King David’s heir, but the liberation he brought to his people was not about holding hostile armies at bay; it was about conquering sin and death forever.

The birth of Christ challenges us to reassess our priorities, our values, our very way of life. While Christmas is undoubtedly a time of great joy, it is also an occasion for deep reflection, even an examination of conscience. At the end of a year that has meant economic hardship for many, what can we learn from the humility, the poverty, the simplicity of the crib scene?

Christmas can be the time in which we learn to read the Gospel, to get to know Jesus not only as the Child in the manger, but as the one in whom we recognize God made Man.

It is in the Gospel that Christians find inspiration for their daily lives and their involvement in worldly affairs – be it in the Houses of Parliament or the Stock Exchange. Christians shouldn’t shun the world; they should engage with it. But their involvement in politics and economics should transcend every form of ideology.

  

Christians fight poverty out of a recognition of the supreme dignity of every human being, created in God’s image and destined for eternal life. Christians work for more equitable sharing of the earth’s resources out of a belief that, as stewards of God’s creation, we have a duty to care for the weakest and most vulnerable. Christians oppose greed and exploitation out of a conviction that generosity and selfless love, as taught and lived by Jesus of Nazareth, are the way that leads to fullness of life. Christian belief in the transcendent destiny of every human being gives urgency to the task of promoting peace and justice for all.

Because these goals are shared by so many, much fruitful cooperation is possible between Christians and others. Yet Christians render to Caesar only what belongs to Caesar, not what belongs to God. Christians have at times throughout history been unable to comply with demands made by Caesar. From the Emperor cult of ancient Rome to the totalitarian regimes of the last century, Caesar has tried to take the place of God. When Christians refuse to bow down before the false gods proposed today, it is not because of an antiquated world-view. Rather, it is because they are free from the constraints of ideology and inspired by such a noble vision of human destiny that they cannot collude with anything that undermines it. *

In Italy, many crib scenes feature the ruins of ancient Roman buildings in the background. This shows that the birth of the child Jesus marks the end of the old order, the pagan world, in which Caesar’s claims went virtually unchallenged. Now there is a new king, who relies not on the force of arms, but on the power of love. He brings hope to all those who, like himself, live on the margins of society. He brings hope to all who are vulnerable to the changing fortunes of a precarious world. From the manger, Christ calls us to live as citizens of his heavenly kingdom, a kingdom that all people of good will can help to build here on earth.

Friday, December 21, 2012

The writer is the Bishop of Rome and author of ‘Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives’

*my underline

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/099d055e-4937-11e2-9225-00144feab49a.html#axzz2FrPsNTnG

Intelligence Agencies Move Towards Single Super-Cloud

December 17, 2012

By Henry Kenyon
AOL Government

The intelligence community is developing a single cloud computing network to allow all its analysts to access and rapidly sift through massive volumes of data. When fully complete, this effort will create a pan-agency cloud, with organizations sharing many of the same computing resources and information. More importantly, the hope is the system will break down existing boundaries between agencies and change their insular cultures.

ICAM Still Faces Bumpy Road For Government Smart Card RolloutAs in the rest of the federal government, lower costs and higher efficiency are the primary reasons for the intelligence world's shift to cloud computing, said Charles Allen, formerly Under Secretary of Homeland Security for intelligence and analysis, currently a principal with the Chertoff Group, in an interview with AOL Defense, an affiliate of AOL Government.

Now in its eighth month, the goal of the effort is to connect the CIA's existing cloud to a new cloud run by the National Security Agency. This NSA-run network consists of five other intelligence agencies and the FBI. Both of these clouds can interoperate, but the CIA has its own unique needs because it must work with human intelligence, which necessitates keeping its cloud slightly separate, he said.

...

Continue reading at AOL Government

 

 

CONFIDENTIAL National Security Study Memorandum. NSSM 200. Implications of Worldwide Population Growth.

Read:
http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PCAAB500.pdf

Who was targeted? Those countries are: India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nigeria, Mexico, Indonesia, Brazil, the Philippines, Thailand, Egypt, Turkey, Ethiopia and Columbia.

Together, they accounted for 47 percent of the world's population increase (in the 70s)

DO NOT BE DISTRACTED BY other website on the subject,

READ for yourself and draw your own conclusion...

Merry ChrisTmas..

 

World Conference on International Telecommunications of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU)

The U.S. and dominant global Internet companies fear regulation because it will adversely affect their control over the communication realm

A lot of global attention right now is focussed on the World Conference on International Telecommunications of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) which will get under way in Dubai next week. This meeting is taking up a review of International Telecommunication Regulations (ITRs).

 

When the ITRs were last reviewed in 1988, the Internet was not commonplace and, therefore, did not find mention. In 2012, it is difficult to think of global communication without the Internet. The key question today is whether the remit of the ITU should extend to the Internet or not, and if indeed it should, to what parts and aspects of the Internet, and in what manner.       

Full story ...on link

   http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/hyping-one-threat-to-hide-another/article4140922.ece

 

The Most Anti-Catholic President in the History of the Union

 

http://orbiscatholicussecundus.blogspot.ca/2012/11/the-most-anti-catholic-president-in.html

 

A Comprehensive List Of Obama’s Worst Executive Orders

A Comprehensive List Of Obama’s Worst Executive Orders 

 http://www.westernjournalism.com/a-comprehensive-list-of-obamas-worst-executive-orders/

Petraeus and Serdyukov: Cupids or Stupids?

Petraeus and Serdyukov: Cupids or Stupids?    
letter, found in the wastebasket at the World Bank yesterday??
CLIK HERE 4 page letter    http://www.theglobalist.com/storyid.aspx?storyid=9812

Since the mainstream media has decided Petraeus-gate is more important than the U.S. fiscal cliff, the Greek collapse, or the brewing Sino-Japanese war, we thought we should let readers take a look at this Since the mainstream media has decided Petraeus-gate is more important than the U.S. fiscal cliff, the Greek collapse, or the brewing Sino-Japanese war, we thought we should let readers take a look at this letter, which our contributor David Apgar claims he found in the wastebasket of his mysterious Uzbek officemate at the World Bank yesterday. of his mysterious Uzbek officemate at the World Bank yesterday.

What We Don't Know About the Petraeus Scandal: Questions for the FBI

 Questions for the FBI    

 

The David Petraeus scandal has moved on to General John R. Allen, commander of U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan and sender of 20,000 to 30,000 pages of apparently questionable emails to Jill Kelley, the second woman, along with Paula Broadwell, at the center of this crazy story. I am stuck, though, on how this whole investigation got started and how it proceeded. Questions for the FBI:

1) Why did Jill Kelley's complaint launch an investigation in the first place? She got a half-dozen or so anonymous emails that everyone is calling "harassing." But from what we know so far, the messages don't sound alarming or threatening. From a Daily Beast source: "More like, 'Who do you think you are? … You parade around the base … You need to take it down a notch.'" From the Wall Street Journal: "One asked if Ms. Kelley's husband was aware of her actions, according to officials. In another, the anonymous writer claimed to have watched Ms. Kelley touching 'him' provocatively underneath a table, the officials said."

That was seriously enough to get the FBI involved? My reporting on cyberbullying tells me that if Kelley had gone to the cops in any decent-sized city, they'd have told her politely not to worry about it. And that's as it should be: Without anything like an explicit threat—and without any direct reference whatsoever to Petraeus or anyone else in a sensitive position of power—why should law enforcement pry with so little reason to think a crime has been committed? Stalking and harassment are broad charges, sure, and that can cause problems. But those statutes shouldn't trigger an investigation based on so little evidence. We now know, of course, that the FBI agent Kelley complained to has been accused of sending shirtless photos of himself to her. He's now himself under investigation. If he got this all rolling to show off to Kelley or to court her, then that is the real scandal. Even if you don't know much J. Edgar Hoover history, you can see that this is not what the power of the FBI is for. Maybe there is more to justify the FBI's entry: I'd like to know what persuaded the cybercrimes unit Mr. Shirtless informed to take the next step.

2) Did the government get a warrant to search Paula Broadwell's email account? Conflicting reports on this one, as Julian Sanchez has noted. The Wall Street Journal says yes but Reuters says no: "The FBI investigation into the emails was fairly straightforward and did not require obtaining court orders to monitor the email accounts of those involved, including the personal email account of Petraeus." What? Yes, the FBI can read the emails Kelley turned over to them without a warrant. But to go snooping further, shouldn't investigators have to get one? This is not a legal nicety. Warrants are the basic constitutional check on the power of law enforcement and prosecutors to search and seize.

3) Once the FBI established that neither Broadwell nor Petraeus had committed a crime, why did they tell Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and the White House? This question comes from law professor Orin Kerr at The Volokh Conspiracy. I get that once the FBI found sexually explicit emails between Broadwell and Petraeus (given the potential for blackmailing the head of the CIA), the investigators had to press on. And when Broadwell gave them her computer and they found classified material on it, they had to determine whether it came from Petraeus. But then the Department of Justice reportedly concluded that no crime had been committed. And yet, as Orin writes.....    FOLLOW THE LINK FOR MORE    http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2012/11/13/fbi_investigation_of_david_petraeus_and_john_allen_did_the_fbi_have_a_good.html

Gen. David Petraeus CIA director

Gen. Petraeus    

Best interview about the book http://video.wttw.com/video/2191815578/

 

 

Another interview just after the book..

JUST IN :
       CIA director David Petraeus resigns      http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/11/09/paula-broadwell-david-petraeus-affair-2012/

Why good policy now matters

OUR Canada 20?? ... policy... Policy ...POLICY!

 
 http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/economy-lab/canada-in-2060-why-good-policy-now-matters/article5150559/  
      
  OECD REPORT  2060 
 http://www.oecd.org/newsroom/balanceofeconomicpowerwillshiftdramaticallyoverthenext50yearssaysoecd.htm

19 Signs That America Is Being Systematically Transformed Into A Giant Surveillance Grid

19 Signs That America Is Being Systematically Transformed Into A Giant Surveillance Grid 
         http://theintelhub.com/2012/09/25/19-signs-that-america-is-being-systematically-transformed-into-a-giant-surveillance-grid/

  
note (sorry this article is rather long)

By Michael SnyderSept 25, 2012
You are being watched.  The control freaks that hold power in the United States have become absolutely obsessed with surveillance.
They are constantly attempting to convince the American people that we are all “safer” when virtually everything that we do is watched, monitored, tracked and recorded.
Our country is being systematically transformed into a giant surveillance grid far more comprehensive than anything George Orwell ever dreamed of.
If you still believe that there is such a thing as “privacy” in this day and age, you are being delusional.  Every single piece of electronic communication is monitored and stored.
In fact, they know that you are reading this article right now.  But even if you got rid of all of your electronic devices, you would still be constantly monitored.
As you will read about below, a rapidly growing nationwide network of facial recognition cameras, “pre-crime” surveillance devices, voice recorders, mobile backscatter vans, aerial drones and automated license plate readers are constantly feeding data about us back to the government.
In addition, private companies involved in “data mining” are gathering literally trillions upon trillions of data points about individual Americans each year.
So there is no escape from this surveillance grid.  In fact, it has become just about impossible to keep it from growing.  The surveillance grid is expanding in thousands of different ways, so even if you stopped one form of surveillance you would hardly make a dent in the astounding growth of this system.
What we desperately need is a fundamental cultural awakening to the importance of liberty, freedom and privacy.  Without such an awakening, the United States (along with the rest of the planet) is going to head into a world that will make “1984″ by George Orwell look like a cheery story about a Sunday picnic.
The following are 19 signs that America is being systematically transformed into a giant surveillance grid….
#1 New Software That Will Store And Analyze Millions Of Our Voices
Did you know that there is software that can positively identify you using your voice in just a matter of seconds?
Law enforcement authorities all over the U.S. are very eager to begin using new Russian software that will enable them to store and analyze millions of voices….
‘Voice Grid Nation’ is a system that uses advanced algorithms to match identities to voices. Brought to the US by Russia’s Speech Technology Center, it claims to be capable of allowing police, federal agencies and other law enforcement personnel to build up a huge database containing up to several million voices.
When authorities intercept a call they’ve deemed ‘hinky’, the recording is entered into the VoiceGrid program, which (probably) buzzes and whirrs and spits out a match. In five seconds, the program can scan through 10,000 voices, and it only needs 3 seconds for speech analysis. All that, combined with 100 simultaneous searches and the storage capacity of 2 million samples, gives SpeechPro, as the company is known in the US, the right to claim a 90% success rate.
#2 Unmanned Aerial Drones Will Be Used Inside

TO CONTINUE READING  clik the link at top of article

U.S. Leaders Cite Partnership as Key to Cybersecurity

U.S. Leaders Cite Partnership as Key to Cybersecurity

http://www.dni.gov/index.php/newsroom/ic-in-the-news/187-ic-in-the-news-2012/732-u-s-leaders-cite-partnership-as-key-to-cybersecurity

• 

October. 2, 2012

By Cheryl Pellerin
American Forces Press Service

As the cyber threat intensifies over time from exploitation to disruption to destruction, responsible U.S. agencies and industries can fight back using cooperation and transparency, the commander of U.S. Cyber Command said here yesterday.

Army Gen. Keith B. Alexander, who also serves as director of the National Security Agency, was part of a panel on cybersecurity at the Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars.

“For the last 10 years, what we’ve seen on our networks has been essentially exploitation, [such as] theft of intellectual property and crime,” the general said. “Over the last few weeks, we’ve seen distributed denial-of-service attacks, so we’re seeing the threat grow from exploitation to … disruption, and my concern is it’s going to go from exploitation and disruption to destruction.”

He defined destruction as physical harm to computer devices on a network that would cause the networks to fail, or the loss of a significant amount of data that would impair the ability of a company -- a stock exchange or a power grid -- to operate.

“I believe that’s coming our way,” Alexander said. “We have to be out in front of this for a whole host of reasons. The Defense Department’s reason is that we depend on critical infrastructure to do our jobs. We depend on the power grid, [and] we depend on the Internet to operate.”

...

Read the full article at Defense.gov.

Summary of the Reengagement of Detainees Formerly Held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba

Summary of the Reengagement of Detainees Formerly Held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba     

Detainees Formerly Held at GTMO.pdf

Unions Series "Rand Formula" review NOW!

Here is an article "MustRead"  to help understanding UNIONS

Much more to come on this subject....

http://www.zionismontheweb.org/academic_boycott/canadian_academic_boycott_of_israel/Ottawa_needs_to_proscribe_CUPEs_anti-Israel_agenda.htm


It's also about Yours & Mine and Lots of it...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVyNlJUKgug

U.S. Intelligence Agencies Seek A Private Cloud OS.... and ....20 Photos of High Tech Novelties

U.S. Intelligence Agencies Seek A Private Cloud OS     http://www.informationweek.com/government/security/us-intelligence-agencies-seek-a-private/240006451  

This chip wants to be a Brain

See 20 Photos of the future is here ....link  below    http://www.informationweek.com/government/security/military-transformers-20-innovative-defe/240000339?pgno=1

Issue#1 ..Let’s have the abortion debate....once and for all.

Let’s have the abortion debate ..   http://www.ottawacitizen.com/opinion/op-ed/have+abortion+debate/7135511/story.html

Let’s have the abortion debate

 

By Margaret Somerville, Ottawa CitizenAugust 23, 2012

 

Chris Wattie/REUTERS  Photograph by: CHRIS WATTIE, REUTERS  

Pro-choice advocates have passionately opposed MP Stephen Woodworth’s private member’s motion to set up a parliamentary committee to examine the definition of “human being” in the Criminal Code, arguing “there is nothing to discuss.” This definition provides that “a child becomes a human being” only at birth. They fear a discussion could result in some legal recognition of unborn children and the enactment of some law governing abortion.

The Canadian Medical Association has just adopted a resolution also recommending that parliamentarians should vote against such a discussion. They, too, are concerned that parliamentarians might agree that some law is needed and physicians would then run the risk of becoming criminals and going to jail. Obviously, they must not believe that their members would obey the law.

Pro-life advocates want the debate.
So what are the issues?
First, let’s be clear that scientifically, biologically and genetically each new, unique human life begins at conception, not at birth. Everything that the new human life will become is present at the moment of conception. The law could adopt a “legal fiction” that life begins at birth, or even some time after birth as some “post-birth abortion” (legalized infanticide) advocates urge, but it would be a fiction “for the purposes of the law.”

So, how does the law, in general, view the unborn child?
The common law of successions (the law of wills and estates) speaks of the child “en ventre sa mere”— the child in its mother’s womb. Provided a child was conceived before its grandparent’s death, that child, after it is born alive and viable, can inherit property left “to all my grandchildren.” Likewise, a child negligently injured while in utero, once born alive and viable, can sue for damages in tort. So the fetus exists for the law and is recognized by it.

What can the Criminal Code tell us about the law’s approach to unborn children? Codes are meant to be comprehensive in legally governing an area and their provisions should be interpreted both individually and within the context of the code as a whole.
In codifying the common law of crime, the Criminal Code enacted a comprehensive scheme to implement respect for human life from conception to death and even beyond. It prohibited abortion (except to save the life of the mother or, as of 1969, also to avoid a serious risk to her health); made it a crime to kill a child in the act of birth; from birth onward to natural death, the homicide offences — murder, manslaughter and infanticide — were applicable; and after death the offence of “desecration of the sepulchre”, showing disrespect for human remains, was pertinent.

The Supreme Court of Canada in the Morgentaler case created a break in this chain of protection when it held that the then-current law on abortion was constitutionally invalid because, for an abortion to be legal, it had to be approved by a “therapeutic abortion committee.” The court found that not all women in Canada had access to such a committee, so a woman who needed an abortion to save her life or avoid a serious risk to her health might not be able to obtain a legal abortion. This, the majority held, constituted a breach of a woman’s constitutionally protected right under section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to “security of the person.”

The pro-choice lobby has used that case to argue there must be no legal limits on a woman’s choice of abortion. But the court, except for Madame Justice Bertha Wilson, did not base its ruling on a woman’s section 7 ”liberty right” or on “choice”, but on her right to “security of the person”, and even Justice Wilson accepted there were valid limits on liberty.

The court made clear that Parliament could legislate on abortion, provided the legislation complied with the Charter, and it anticipated that Parliament would do so. However, despite several attempts, no such legislation has been enacted.
In the light of this history, let’s look at section 223(1) of the Criminal Code, the section that would be discussed by a parliamentary committee, if the Woodworth’s private member’s motion were passed.

Section 223(1) provides:

A child becomes a human being within the meaning of this Act when it has completely proceeded, in a living state, from the body of its mother, whether or not (a) it has breathed; (b) it has an independent circulation; or (c) the navel string is severed.
This section was intended to protect the child as soon as it was born. The definition of “human being” in the section is meant to extend back to the first moment of full birth, the protections of human life from which we all benefit. It was not intended to limit or eliminate any legal protection of the unborn child (which was provided by the abortion offence), as pro-choice advocates are currently arguing it does. Because the culpable homicide offences — murder, manslaughter and infanticide — all involve killing a “human being”, as defined in section 223(1), an unborn child, who is never born alive, is excluded from being the victim of a homicide offence. In the past, reasons for that exclusion included that proof of causation was very difficult and conviction resulted in capital punishment.

Section 223 speaks primarily of the fetus (unborn child) as “a child” — “a child becomes a human being.” That’s to recognize it as human, because only humans have and are children: cats have kittens, dogs have puppies and hens have chickens. So, the unborn child is a “human being”, just not “within the meaning of” that term in the homicide provisions in the Criminal Code.

In short, in the scheme adopted in the Criminal Code, until the Morgentaler case, the abortion provision gave legal protection to the child up to birth and the homicide provisions immediately after birth, in an unbroken chain of protection of its life.

Section 223(2) also merits noting. It provides:

A person commits homicide when he causes injury to a child before or during its birth as a result of which the child dies after becoming a human being.
Consequently, abortionists try to ensure a child is dead before it is delivered. If it is delivered alive, injuries inflicted on it before birth that cause its death can constitute culpable homicide.

So, the issue now requiring discussion is what legal protections unborn children should be given. At present, they have none in Canadian law, although the CMA in its own guidelines recognizes that at least abortion-on-demand after 20 weeks gestation — the time at which they place the viability of the unborn child (it has some chance of survival if born) — is ethically wrong.

There are a multitude of other ethical issues in this context that also need discussion. For instance, an increasing number of jurisdictions have banned abortion after 20 weeks gestation because research shows that the fetus suffers pain as it is dismembered and its skull crushed in order to deliver it dead. When we face up to such facts and what’s involved in abortion, we may decide that the current state of the law is not ethically acceptable.

The pro-choice lobby might be right to be worried about a debate taking place for yet another reason. New research on decision-making about ethics shows that we use a range of human ways of knowing in determining what is ethically right or wrong. What do human memory (history), human imagination, moral intuition, and our “examined emotions” tell us about the ethics of abortion? Engaging in a debate could give us more access to these ways of knowing.

Abortion is not just a private decision; it has major societal impact. This becomes obvious if we consider the cumulative effects of sex-selection abortion or on the basis of conditions such as Down’s syndrome, or the future impact of a rapidly increasing number of genetic tests. And although individual choice is the priority value of many pro-choice advocates, even they recognize that sometimes choice should be restricted to protect society and its values.

(An interesting example is the proposal of the leader of the Parti Québécois, Pauline Marois, in the current Quebec provincial election campaign, that French-speaking young adults should not be allowed to attend English CEGEPs, but must study in French language ones for the good of preserving a French-speaking society.)

The CMA also says that recognizing a fetus as a human being or granting human rights to a fetus could severely restrict the rights of pregnant women, even without regard to abortion. But countries with which Canada commonly compares itself all have laws governing abortion, without prosecuting women for their conduct or doctors. (Only North Korea and China have no law governing abortion.) Does the pro-choice lobby believe that all these countries are failing to respect women, as they allege enacting a Canadian law on abortion would entail?

More than 100,000 abortions are performed in Canada each year. I suggest that we need to recover our sense of amazement, wonder and awe at the creation of new human life and that an in depth discussion about what our law on abortion should be might help us in this regard.

(note: my emphasis)
Margaret Somerville is director of the McGill Centre for Medicine, Ethics and Law.

© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen

U.S. intelligence tests crowd-sourcing against its experts

Note: Subscribe if you will ...... do not miss out on a timely article ....as I do not publish daily or weekly...

U.S. intelligence tests crowd-sourcing against its experts

August 21, 2012
by Ken Dilanian
Los AngelesTimes
WASHINGTON — Nine years ago, Congress blocked a Pentagon agency from setting up a website that would have allowed anyone with a credit card to bet on the likelihood of foreign assassinations, coups and terrorist attacks.

The idea was to take advantage of the "wisdom of crowds," a social science maxim that contends the average of a group of forecasters, under certain circumstances, tends to be more accurate than even the most knowledgeable single forecaster.

But lawmakers worried the proposed predictions market could allow terrorists to profit from their own misdeeds. Congress forced the Defense Advanced Reseaerch Projects Agency — the military's cutting-edge research arm, known as DARPA — to scuttle the program.

Now terrorism futures are back.
DARPA's sister agency — the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity, which funds experimental projects for the U.S. intelligence community — is running a four-year, $50-million program that pays people willing to predict major world events, including wars and terrorist strikes.

Now in its second year, the so-called crowd-sourcing project involves competing corporate and university teams, including UC Irvine. Each team includes more than a dozen social scientists and as many as 2,000 participants, who can answer hundreds of questions each if they want.

The study, known as Aggregative Contingent Estimation, is designed to see whether the 17 agencies in the U.S. intelligence community can aggregate the judgment of its thousands of analysts — rather than rely on the expertise of just a few — to issue more accurate warnings to policy makers before and during major global events.

Continue reading at Latimes.com.
links
http://www.dni.gov/index.php/newsroom/ic-in-the-news/187-ic-in-the-news-2012/702-u-s-intelligence-tests-crowd-sourcing-against-its-experts?tmpl=component&format=pdf   

 U.S. intelligence tests crowd-sourcing against its experts 

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-cia-crowds-20120821,0,6743396.story

Amnesty International Continues Pushing Abortion Worldwide

Amnesty International Continues Pushing Abortion Worldwide
Amnesty International Continues Pushing Abortion Worldwide
Amnesty International Continues Pushing Abortion Worldwide

I'll never say it often enough...WAKE -UP Christians...
Amnesty International Continues Pushing Abortion Worldwide

http://www.lifenews.com/2012/08/09/amnesty-international-continues-pushing-abortion-worldwide/

New York, NY (CFAM/LifeNews) — Amnesty International, a human rights organization that used to be abortion neutral, is now using the problem of maternal mortality to advocate for abortion. In a new report, ostensibly on medical care for maternal health, Amnesty calls on governments to repeal abortion laws and conscience protection for medical workers who may object. They also call for public health systems to train and equip health care providers to perform abortions.

I CALL on YOU to stop funding Amnesia International ..sorry Amnesty(your name is a lie)International...ASAP plenty of other articles at www.lsn.ca ..search Amnesty International

TODAY SOCIAL MEDIA

US seeks to mine social media to predict future

www.federalnewsradio.com/?nid=615&sid=2744919




DANCING Helps Understanding

Just a litle break from more serious issues ....to pass A message of Hope...Peace...Love...and Understanding...

RARILY SEEKED and READ DOCUMENTS on GLOBAL TRENDS (Luke/8-17)

This is my FirstPost here....July 24,2012    

Citizens in an Interconnected and Polycentric World

                    

http://www.iss.europa.eu/uploads/media/ESPAS_report_01.pdf

And while you are interested see ...The National Intelligence Council's    http://www.dni.gov/nic/NIC_whatsnew.html  http://www.iss.europa.eu/uploads/media/ESPAS_report_01.pdf