David Brin on the effects of Gerry Mander-ing. This immoral practice has become so rampant, perpetrated by both parties, that it will take a later, wiser generation to finally deal with it. Alas, even those who complain about gerrymandering focus mostly upon how it affects the raw numbers of seats won by each party in each state. Seldom does anybody talk about other aspects that are - in the long run - far more debilitating of American political life. One major effect has been to empower radical elements in both parties. Within safe districts, even the very worst indignation junky (see Part One) can start with a militant power base, leverage it with cash, seize a Congressional seat and then do whatever he likes until Judgement Day. No amount of graft or scandal or outright maniacal looniness will ever suffice to budge him. (more)

Arnold Kling on the implications of Robert Fogel's belief that the US economy will be increasingly focused on Education Healthcare And Leisure. Therefore, the focus of the free-market agenda should be on limiting government's encroachments into those areas. The encroachment comes from public education (Public Schools), government spending on health care, and government management of RetirementSavings (Pension, Social Security).

Andy Oram, reporting from Strata Rx conf, notes: Here’s what we all know: that a data-rich HealthCare future is coming our way. And what it will look like, in large outlines. Health care reformers have learned that no single practice will improve the system. All of the following, which were discussed at OReilly’s recent Strata Rx conference, must fall in place. (EHealth)

<http://www.objs.com/survey/Componentware Glossary.htm> (more)

William Lind on the institutional Corruption of the MarineCorps. A friend of mine who holds a senior position in the Pentagon gives a briefing around the building in which one slide says, "The Pentagon now controls the world's largest Planned Economy." No one blinks.

Winslow Wheeler: With 2,966 examples costing about $11.1 billion, the Pork Barrel in the 2006 Department Of Defense Appropriations Bill, now law, is not hard to find. (more)

Winslow T. Wheeler is the Director of the Straus Military Reform Project of the Project On Government Oversight in the Washington, D.C. area.[1] He has authored two books: The Wastrels Of Defense: How Congress Sabotages National Security (US Naval Institute Press) and Military Reform: An Uneven History and an Uncertain Future (Stanford University Press). He is also the editor of two anthologies, The Pentagon Labyrinth: 10 Short Essays to Help You Through It and America’s Defense Meltdown: Military Reform for President Obama and the New Congress. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winslow_T._Wheeler

Executive Director: The Constructivist Consortium (more)

Jim Stogdill on the Two Cultures gap between the Enterprise and the Net-Head (web) guys. (more)

CWrightMills wrote "On Intellectual Craftsmanship" for aspiring academics, imparting the value of a “file” to serve as a huge repository for notes on all subjects, trivial, personal, and professional. This file would keep work moving in productive directions and can help organize thinking. (Thinking Space)

The New King of Trash Publishing: Meet the Man Who Revolutionized Lowbrow. Jeremie Ruby-Strauss, an editor at Simon & Schuster...The title that made his career was Tucker Max’s I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell. (more)

Organization for training future Software Developer-s, Lean Startup people by building tools like on the Collaboration Roadmap. Make the products Open Source for public benefit. (more)

one of the less-attractive parts of New Jersey

Hierarchal Structure presentation for a book.

Supporting Civilization without Big Government; a Route Around; one component of Society Design (more)

see Profession

Germany has a Suburb called Vau Ban which pushes towards avoiding use of the AutoMobile with an Urban Village design. Vauban, home to 5,500 residents within a rectangular square mile, may be the most advanced experiment in low-car suburban life... In the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is promoting "CarReduced" communities, and legislators are starting to act, if cautiously. Many experts expect public transport serving suburbs to play a much larger role in a new six-year federal transportation bill (Highway Bill) to be approved this year, Mr. Goldberg said. In previous bills, 80 percent of appropriations have by law gone to highways and only 20 percent to other transport... In California, the Hayward Area Planning Association is developing a Vauban-like community called Quarry Village on the outskirts of Oak Land, accessible without a car to the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system and to the California State University's campus in Hayward... But the current system is still stacked against the project, he said, noting that mortgage lenders worry about resale value of half-million-dollar homes that have no place for cars, and most Zoning laws in the United States still require two parking spaces per residential unit. Quarry Village has obtained an exception from Hayward... Most residents, like Ms. Walter, have carts that they haul behind bicycles for shopping trips or children's play dates... For trips to stores like IKEA or the ski slopes, families buy cars together or use communal cars rented out by Vauban's Car Sharing club... The original buildings have long since been torn down. The stylish row houses that replaced them are buildings of four or five stories, designed to reduce heat loss and maximize energy efficiency, and trimmed with exotic woods and elaborate balconies; free-standing homes are forbidden.

Cory Doctorow on EBook-s, DRM, and Business Models For Information. (more)

Bottom-Up spreading (Sharing) of a thought (more)

Twitter's Creation Myth needs updating to include NoahGlass (and others). veryone agrees that original inkling for Twitter sprang from Jack Dorsey's mind. Dorsey even has drawings of something that looks like Twitter that he made years before he joined Odeo. And Jack was obviously central to the Twitter team. But all of the early employees and Odeo investors we talked to also agree that no one at Odeo was more passionate about Twitter in the early days than Odeo's cofounder, NoahGlass. (more)