Third Person

State of the World 2012

• #173: Jon Lebkowsky (jonl) Sun 15 Jan 12 17:56
  Re the Arab Spring: it's not hard to believe that your social media conversations and your ability to instigate flash mobs the grow and become somewhat organized and persistent is meaningful, relevant, and somehow related to a concept called "democracy." Democracy may mean a governance that's more participatory or a broader distribution o […]
• #172: Jon Lebkowsky (jonl) Sun 15 Jan 12 17:21
  Iran's fantasy of the world may well collide with the world's fantasy of Iran; I'd personally like to hang out with those folks, experience their culture, forget the madness of power and celebrate the lives of ordinary human beings. Check this out: http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2012/01/a-view-inside-iran/100219/ [Read entire topic] […]
• #171: Bruce Sterling (bruces) Sun 15 Jan 12 08:51
  Following this logic, I'd guess that the ten-year-future of "Arab Spring" will be "state-sponsored Arab Springs."Here's an interesting example: female rent-a-mobs in Central Asia who pursue state opponents in the streets. They're like phoney, micro Arab Springs run by local godfathers and moguls.http://iwpr.net/report-news/ […]
• #170: Bruce Sterling (bruces) Sun 15 Jan 12 08:27
  When I read that Foreign Policy article, about Mossad guys posing as Americans -- they probably ARE former Americans, or at least they spent a lot of time there -- I immediately wondered how far we are from "false flag drone strikes."Imagine this headline: "So-and-so was hit from the air with an apparent Predator missile. No state-sponsored co […]
• #169: Bruce Sterling (bruces) Sun 15 Jan 12 08:15
  *Well, here's one interesting PART of the "real story" in Iran. Dead Iranians, killed by offshore Iranians, bribed by Israeli Mossad, posing as CIA.http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/01/13/false_flagIf American nuclear engineers were being bombed inside the USA because somebody didn't like Three Mile Island (or whatever), that wou […]
• #168: From Toby Scales (captward) Sun 15 Jan 12 00:51
  Toby Scales, via e-mail:Bruce/Jon,I notice no one's asked about the alarming escalation in Iran the past week-- what's the (real) story there? Is it just more chicken or will the US actually be drawn into it and forced to act? If that's too near a timeframe for comfortable speculation, where do you see this Arab Spring business in 10 years, vi […]
• #167: Brian Slesinsky (bslesins) Sat 14 Jan 12 19:29
  Hmm, or perhaps the occupiers could get some of this gear comped if they promise to wear it while some of those TV-wielding drones are watching. [Read entire topic] […]
• #166: From George Mokray via email (jonl) Sat 14 Jan 12 16:17
  "People don't go into Occupy camps so as to live in tents; they go there to annoy and harass one-percenters. Pursuing a tent-based lifestyle is not some brand-new design problem."People didn't go into Occupy camps to build libraries either but they did and such libraries became important foci of their communities. So much so, that they ar […]
• #165: Bruce Sterling (bruces) Sat 14 Jan 12 06:49
  Of course, if you're REALLY geeked-out circa 2012, you've got your own Chaos Computer Club hacker satellite overhead instead of a mere covert drone.http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16367042 [Read entire topic] […]
• #164: Bruce Sterling (bruces) Sat 14 Jan 12 06:39
  Imagine roaming the world with nothing but credit-cards, a ScottEVest, police cargo pants, *and a re-purposed pet police drone.* Maybe with a lethal covert-strike capacity!Man, you'd be hell on wheels. Angle it right, and you wouldn't even need the wheels. [Read entire topic] […]