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Submission + - Weaponized Narrative Is the New Battlespace

Submitted by Rocky Mudbutt
Rocky Mudbutt writes: Weaponized Narrative Is the New Battlespace and the U.S. is in the unaccustomed position of being seriously behind its adversaries.

An article from defenseone makes the point that we are shifting to a post-factual world.

Far from being simply a U.S. or U.K. phenomenon, shifts to âoepost-factualismâ can be seen in Poland, Hungary, Turkey, France, and the Philippines, among other democracies. Russia, whose own political culture is deeply post-factual and indeed post-modern, is now ably constructing ironic, highly cynical, weaponized narratives that were effective in the Ukrainian invasion, and are now destabilizing the Baltic states and the U.S. election process.

This comes from:

  • Brad Allenby Co-director of The Weaponized Narrative Initiative
  • Joel Garreau Co-director of The Weaponized Narrative Initiative

Comment Never attribute ... (Score 1) 101

Here is a textbook case of applying the Capability Immaturity Model. My suspicion is the US Marshals Service is Level 0, but for the paranoid among us, Level -2 seems reasonable.
According to CMU-SEI data, over 70% of all software organizations are at Level 1 (Chaotic) of the Capability Maturity Model. In reality many may lie below the merely chaotic, but no lower levels exist in the CMM.

This article defines and describes lower maturity levels and their associated Kounter Productive Attitudes (KPAs). Of course in the SEI's CMM, KPA stands for Key Process Area.

The 4 levels of Immaturity:
  • Level 0: Negligent (Indifference) - Failure to allow successful development process to succeed. All problems are perceived to be technical problems. Managerial and quality assurance activities are deemed to be overhead and superfluous to the task of the software development process.
  • Level -1: Obstructive (Counter Productive) - Counter productive processes are imposed. Processes are rigidly defined and adherence to the form is stressed. Ritualistic ceremonies abound. Collective management precludes assigning responsibility. Status quo "über alles" (more important than anything else).
  • Level -2: Contemptuous (Arrogance) - Disregard for good software engineering institutionalized. Complete schism between software development activities and software process improvement activities. Complete lack of a training program.
  • Level -3: Undermining (Sabotage) - Total neglect of own charter, conscious discrediting of peer organization's software process improvement efforts. Rewarding failure and poor performance.

Submission + - Physicists create model solar system with Trojan A

Submitted by Rocky Mudbutt
Rocky Mudbutt writes: Physorg.com reports that graduate students at Rice University have created a Rydberg atom with a comma shaped wave function that mimics the Trojan asteroids associated with Jupiter. Using a linearly polarized sinusoidal electric field whose period slowly increased, the electron wave function was coerced into an orbit approximately the size of a period. Measuring this has shown that Bohr's prediction is correct, the classical and quantum descriptions of the orbiting electron wave packets match.

For the paper see Creating and Transporting Trojan Wave Packets.
Microsoft

Submission + - Nokia Numbers Show Microsoft's Mobile Madness (informationweek.com)

Submitted by
gManZboy
gManZboy writes: "Nokia said it "sold" 1 million Lumia devices in the fourth quarter (in quotations because there is no easy way to tell how many units actually made it to consumers or are simply idling in channel inventories). That means every Windows Phone 7 device Nokia shipped in Q4 cost Microsoft $250, minus the royalty. That's for phones, like the Lumia 710, that can be bought for $50 or less with a standard carrier contract.

Ordinarily, this would be madness. Even a kid with a lemonade stand knows you're supposed to sell stuff for more than it costs to make. But these are not normal times at Redmond. Microsoft's willingness to extend what is basically a billion-dollar bribe to Nokia, still the world's biggest handset maker by volume, to ditch Symbian and use Windows Phone as its default OS shows how desperate the software maker is to get back into the mobile race, where it badly trails Apple and Google."

Submission + - Italian scientists demonstrate cold fusion

Submitted by Rocky Mudbutt
Rocky Mudbutt writes: Here we go again. Using a nickel/hydrogen process, Italian scientists Andrea Rossi and Sergio Focardi of the University of Bologna generated steam producing more energy than input.
  An eyewitness report (pdf) confirms the production of steam greater than the energy supplied with no chemical process involving hydrogen. A paper (pdf) gives details on their incomplete understanding of the process.
Businesses

Submission + - EU bans sock-puppet blogs

Submitted by PhilipMarlowe9000
PhilipMarlowe9000 writes: Businesses which write fake blog entries or create whole wesbites purporting to be from customers will fall foul of a European directive banning them from "falsely representing oneself as a consumer".

        From December 31, when the change becomes law in the UK, they can be named and shamed by trading standards or taken to court.

        The Times has learnt that the new regulations also will apply to authors who praise their own books under a fake identity on websites such as Amazon.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/art icle1361968.ece
XBox (Games)

Submission + - Ex-Box: The Death of Microsoft's Xbox

Submitted by
Tyler Treat
Tyler Treat writes: "I think it's safe to say that the Xbox has officially passed away (it's no longer being manufactured). It had a decent run, and gave Sony's PlayStation 2 a run for its money. However, instead of letting it fade away into the grave of lost consoles, let's look back at the good times. (Full Story | Digg)"
Nintendo

Submission + - Nintendo Rewards Southwest's Frequent Fliers

Submitted by
njkid1
njkid1 writes: "Nintendo and Southwest Airlines announced today a special collaboration. Fifty of Southwest's Rapid Rewards Members have been mailed a DS Lite and a copy of Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day, apparently marking the first time Southwest has teamed with an outside company for such a reward. These Rapid Rewards Members have, in total, flown more than 79.2 million miles and spent more than 132,854 hours in the air. http://biz.gamedaily.com/industry/news/?id=15183&n cid=AOLGAM000500000000007"

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