Akkam’s Razor

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• All of Inflation’s Little Parts - The New York Times
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• Who Will Tell the People? - New York Times
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In two separate venues, one academic, the other personal, I’ve discussed how many of the decisions have focused not on technological solutions, but instead have centered on the social or psychological impact of technological interventions.  More appropriately, the conversations revolve around our worldview and how we think things are and should be - basically a philosphical conversation.  What is the nature of man?

I was surprised to see that today’s most emailed article at the New York Times (via Open Culture) was an article saying just that - not surprised that philosophy is becoming increasingly important, but surprised to see that many others feel the same way.

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• REPUBLICAN OFFENDERS
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• Op-Chart: Making Money Hand Over Fist - The New York Times
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• Unqualified Reservations: A straightforward explanation of the present financial crisis (part 1)
  First, finance is not a science. Secondly, finance is not intrinsically complicated. And third, unless you are a physicist, your life will be pretty much the same whether you understand relativity or not.
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• Scientific American: How Stereotyping Yourself Contributes to Your Success (or Failure)
  People’s performance on intellectual and athletic tasks is shaped by awareness of stereotypes about the groups to which they belong. New research explains why— and how we can break free from the expectations of others
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I’ve wanted to write something about John Yoo and the torture memos, but it’s depressing and secondly I don’t like to write things that the more well-read political junkies already know, and I’m not sure how to sum up the intricacies of the entirety of Yoo, Bush, and the law in a way that will challenge any of the uninformed, misinformed, or Bush cheerleaders.  Regardless, I’m tackling it anyway.

John Yoo, an Ivy League educated scholar, American Enterprise Institute scholar and fellow, current professor at UC Berkley, and former clerk for two Supreme Court Justices, has been a central figure in many of the central rethinking controversies of President Bush’s administration, including (via ThinkProgress):

Presidents are incredibly tight-lipped about the contents of their PDBs, or Presidential Daily Briefings.  Very few of them have ever seen the light of day via FOIA request and subsequent declassification, with very few exceptions.  The most recent and notorious example was that of President Bush's August 6, 2001 PDB, pre-9/11, which was titled "Bin Laden determined to strike US", detailing various avenues and methods of attack.  In Scooter Libby's obstruction case, the defense attempted to gain access to PDB-related documents, hoping to use a greymail defense - one that was only partially effective .

The Nixon library just released a bundle of documents, as reported by the Federation of American Scientists at the Secrecy News blog , including some that shed insight on the PDB process, specifically indicating that PDB's are often contain 'intelligence' from newspapers and other journalistic resources. 

As for the selection process that determines what to include in the PDB, Mr. Marshall wrote in his Top Secret Codeword report, "It is derived… to a large extent, I believe, from a sense of what's timely as judged from the New York Times, press, and wire service coverage."

This is particularly troubling, given allegations of partisanship and declining journalistic standards, and especially as there are no safeguards in place to prevent a bad-actor from planting a story to advance the agenda of a group, nation, corporation, or individual.  Who can tell if the same processes are in place today?  We've heard that 'chatter' from blogs has even made it to the PDBs.  And it's not as though this administration has ever indicated that they wouldn't just pay for the news they want.

As a hypothetical, Dick Cheney was the firewall to George W. Bush in the lead-up to the Iraq war.  The neocons are well connected through the press and various think tanks - for example, Judith Miller stenography towards advancing their goals.  When biased reporting, originating from neocon corners and con-men, get laundered in the newspapers, and then get legitimized as actionable intelligence by our government, the consequences are much more dear than journalistic integrity. 

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• Brain scans of swing voters end up on the opinion pages of the New York Times. - By Daniel Engber - Slate Magazine
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