Ash Heap Of History

Our Legacy Systems: Dysfunctional, Unreformable

"Real reform would mean powerful constituencies would have to take real reductions in staffing, power, benefits and in their share of the national income. Rather than reveal this double-bind--reform is impossible but the Status Quo is unsustainable--the legacy system deploys its gargantuan resources to laying down a smoke-screen of bogus reforms and ginned-up statistics. America's legacy systems are like stars about to go super-nova. They have increased in size to the point where their stupendous mass guarantees that once their energy source (as measured in fossil fuels and money) falls below a certain threshold, the institution will collapse inward on itself." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingOur Legacy Systems: Dysfunctional, Unreformable

Our Legacy Systems: Dysfunctional, Unreformable

"Real reform would mean powerful constituencies would have to take real reductions in staffing, power, benefits and in their share of the national income. Rather than reveal this double-bind--reform is impossible but the Status Quo is unsustainable--the legacy system deploys its gargantuan resources to laying down a smoke-screen of bogus reforms and ginned-up statistics. America's legacy systems are like stars about to go super-nova. They have increased in size to the point where their stupendous mass guarantees that once their energy source (as measured in fossil fuels and money) falls below a certain threshold, the institution will collapse inward on itself." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingOur Legacy Systems: Dysfunctional, Unreformable

Innovation in legal highs leaves governments in the dust

"An explosion of hundreds of new 'legal highs' in recent years has left governments around the world in the dust as lawmakers struggle to keep prohibition laws updated as more and more never-before-seen drugs flood the black market. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said Wednesday that more than 251 new psychoactive substances were available on the black market by mid-2012, a growth of more than 50 percent over 2009. The number of new psychoactive substances available on the black market today exceeds the number of controlled psychoactive substances currently prohibited by governments around the world." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingInnovation in legal highs leaves governments in the dust

Bitcoin Black Market Competition Heats Up, With Pro Marketing And Millions At Stake

"Watch the cheery video ad for the latest dark-web drug marketplace today, and you’d be forgiven for thinking it was selling a service as mainstream as online dating or car insurance. Atlantis, which launched in March, is poised to take on the Silk Road, which remains by far the biggest drug sales site, with close to 60,000 unique visitors a day by one researcher’s rough measure and $22 million annual sales according to a study last year. Both run on the anonymity service Tor to hide the location of their servers and the identities of any visitors to their sites, and both accept Bitcoin to avoid having their transactions tracked through bank records." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBitcoin Black Market Competition Heats Up, With Pro Marketing And Millions At Stake

U.S. Conference of Mayors asks Obama for flexibility on marijuana

"The United States Conference of Mayors unanimously passed a historic, bipartisan resolution calling on the Obama administration to stop interfering with state and local efforts to deal with the problems caused by marijuana prohibition. 'This resolution will amplify the voices of local officials and voters who are sick and tired of President Obama’s administration doing the exact opposite of what candidate Obama said he was going to do, which was respect state marijuana laws,' a spokesperson for drug reform advocacy group Marijuana Majority said. The resolution, co-sponsored by mayors from 18 cities, lays out a long list of grievances against marijuana prohibition." Continue reading →

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Marijuana: Will It Ever Be Legal? States Lead the Charge as Opinion Shifts

"Colorado and Washington entered an uncharted territory when state leaders decided to take what has been an underground system since marijuana was declared illegal 75 years ago and turn it into a regulated and taxed commercial enterprise. No other places in the world have such liberal marijuana laws. Alcohol prohibition was a federal policy implemented by the individual states, similar to today’s situation with marijuana. When New York decided not to enforce alcohol prohibition anymore, it set the tone for what was to come as other states followed suit. Eventually the federal government decided that it was not going to commit the resources needed to enforce the law." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingMarijuana: Will It Ever Be Legal? States Lead the Charge as Opinion Shifts

Edward Snowden And The Disruption Of Government

"What I want to focus on in this post is not Snowden himself, but what he represents, and what this may mean for governments and peoples over the next few decades. I believe we are in the midst of a centuries-long shift of power from state entities to the people those states have traditionally governed. What exactly the result of this evolution will be I don’t know, but I believe 'the State' as we know it has a limited lifespan and what replaces it, while perhaps imperfect, will be an improvement in terms of peace and prosperity. It can be explained in part by examining the research and teachings of noted icons of the business world Clayton Christensen, John Boyd, and Sun Tzu." Continue reading →

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Sears Plans To Retrofit 2,500 “Ghostbox” Stores As Data Centers

"There are over a billion square feet of vacant commercial space in the US right now, most of it in the form of big box stores. This month, Sears announced the formation of a stand-alone company—the ominously-named Ubiquity Critical Environments LLC—to handle to conversion of thousands of Sears and KMart stores into data centers. Ultimately, the structural skeletons of these stores will house servers, chillers, and generators, as well as roof-mounted antennas. In a crushingly ironic twist, the centers will target medium-sized e-commerce retailers—the very companies helping to put department stores out of business." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingSears Plans To Retrofit 2,500 “Ghostbox” Stores As Data Centers

Microsoft alum promises to ‘mint millionaires’ with future U.S.-Mexico marijuana trade

"His company, Diego Pellicer, plans to produce, market and distribute a high-potency strain of marijuana and establish itself as the industry’s first true 'brand.' Shivley and his business partners were even featured on the local news the night Washington’s marijuana legalization law took effect, in video featuring Shivley ringing a bell to celebrate 'the beginning of the end of prohibition.' Since trying marijuana for the first time just last year, Shively says that he’s been fully converted by the controversial herb. 'I’ve just fallen in love with the plant. Especially in the medical realm I’ve gone from entrepreneur to advocate to activist, seriously.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingMicrosoft alum promises to ‘mint millionaires’ with future U.S.-Mexico marijuana trade

Documentary Film Investigates the (Alleged) Death of Books

"Who killed the printed book—or at least hastened its demise? That’s the question posed in an absorbing new documentary, Out of Print, by director Vivienne Roumani. The primary suspects are e-readers, cell phones, and other gadgets, Amazon (AMZN), Google (GOOG), sluggishly evolving publishers, Facebook (FB)-addicted teenagers, people who pirate books, and perhaps even the susceptibility of the human brain to various distractions. Out of Print frames one of the central cultural questions of our time: If books are the foundation of society, how does their gradual evolution change the world of ideas—and how does it change us?" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingDocumentary Film Investigates the (Alleged) Death of Books