What is the value of a university? The building and land have value. The resources and materials for research are often expensive and even priceless. The trade and product of a university is the talent and intellectual capital that is…
Assessing the information onslaught of protests and terrorist attacks via social media
When the terrorist attacks occurred in Mumbai local media was able to report extensively as it occurred. Social media pundits were able to analyze and evaluate the different channels of communication. Social media tools like Twitter with near real time…
How to wage cyber warfare: The relationship between cyber and kinetics, Part 7
There is a certain amount of misunderstanding about the Internet and the global communications grid. On the one hand we have a mythos that has risen stating that the Internet was created to allow communication in the advent of nuclear…
Lift 2007: Sugata Mitra shows how kids teach themselves
Sugata Mitra from India using a window in a wall tests with extensive rigor the idea of whether children can teach themselves with educational technology. This strikes at the heart of our standard thoughts on how education, pedagogy and learning…
The 2009 High-density Garden Blog – Week 3
After a great start we have seen one set back. The zucchini has died. We are not sure why, but it is definitely gone. We are planning a post mortem to determine the cause.
TED: Liz Coleman’s call to reinvent liberal arts education
This is an interesting if dry discussion on the current state of higher education and how liberal arts have devolved from generalized concepts to ultra specialization. At Purdue University Calumet a group of professors have tried to bring civic minded…
Review: How to talk about books you haven’t read by Pierre Bayard
Sometimes a book comes along that just by the title you have to read. In a rather thin book you find between the hard covers a discussion of the love of reading. The different ideas of how to read. Though…
Review: The Paideia Proposal by Mortimer Adler
This book as part of the movement that doesn’t appear to have gotten off the ground is an influential to me short story of what education could become. The book is fairly old so we can see how little effect…
Review: Blackfoot is missing by William Owen
This book is a work of fiction looking at the special operations forces working in Northern Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos near the end of the war. The author provides and excellent view into the fictional world of these actors with…
Computers Freedom & Privacy conference at George Washington University
I don’t get invited to cool conferences to speak. I don’t live in Washington D.C. More importantly I’m a relative nobody and that empowers me. I have nothing to lose and I can be forthright in what I say. Heck…
How to wage cyber warfare: Operationalizing the network, Part 6
So, first thing is what do we mean by operationalize? This is a big word for the principle of taking over the adversaries systems. As a key factor to conflict the desired state is to control the ability of the…
Review: Securing SCADA systems by Ronald Krutz
The author Ronald Krutz takes the reader through the various elements of cyber security as it is applied to SCADA systems. Documenting the various protocols and issues in depth the author mentions some very specific threats to cyber security that…
How to wage cyber warfare: Reconnaissance and surveillance, Part 5
Reconnaissance is often considered synonymous with footprinting of systems. The idea is to get as much knowledge about the target network as possible. One way of doing that is simple observation. One lesson we can take from the military at…
Review: Cyberpower and National Security edited by Franklin Kramer et. al.
“Cyberpower and National Security” edited by Fraklin D. Kramer, Stuart H. Starr, and Larry K. Wentz is a deep dive book into the substantive literature and ideas of the interaction between cyberspace, conflict, people, politics, and the diplomacy of deciding…
The 2009 High-density Garden Blog – Week 2
Our first update has lots of new developments! This is one of my favorites parts of growing a garden. We have sprouts, blooms and even a tomato!