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Daily Archives: January 18, 2015

DoD Nuclear Weapon System Safety Program Manual

“a. Nuclear weapon systems require special consideration because of their political and military importance, their destructive power, and the potential consequences of an accident or unauthorized act. Assured nuclear weapons and nuclear weapon systems safety, security, and control remains of paramount importance. Nuclear command and control safety and security also remain of paramount importance as stated in DoDD S-5210.81 (Reference (d))
b. Standards, plans, procedures, and other positive measures will be developed and maintained to ensure the DoD can accomplish its nuclear mission in a safe, secure, and reliable manner. Four DoD nuclear weapon system surety standards provide positive measures to
(1) Prevent nuclear weapons involved in accidents or incidents, or jettisoned weapons, from producing a nuclear yield.
(2) Prevent deliberate pre-arming, arming, launching, or releasing of nuclear weapons, except upon execution of emergency war orders or when directed by competent authority.
(3) Prevent inadvertent pre-arming, arming, launching, or releasing of nuclear weapons in all normal and credible abnormal environments.
(4) Ensure adequate security of nuclear weapons, as governed by DoDD O-5210.41(Reference (e)).
c. Nuclear weapon system safety, security, and control are interrelated. Decisions concerning one will not be made without consideration of the effect of those decisions on others…”

Reading the Mind in the Eyes or Reading between the Lines?

Engel D, Woolley AW, Jing LX, Chabris CF, Malone TW (2014) Reading the Mind in the Eyes or Reading between the Lines? Theory of Mind Predicts Collective Intelligence Equally Well Online and Face-To-Face. PLoS ONE 9(12): e115212. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0115212 “Recent research with face-to-face groups found that a measure of general group effectiveness (called “collective intelligence”) predicted… Continue Reading

The Digital Arms Race: NSA Preps America for Future Battle

Spiegel Online – The NSA’s mass surveillance is just the beginning. Documents from Edward Snowden show that the intelligence agency is arming America for future digital wars — a struggle for control of the Internet that is already well underway, by Jacob Appelbaum, Aaron Gibson, Claudio Guarnieri, Andy Müller-Maguhn, Laura Poitras, Marcel Rosenbach, Leif Ryge,… Continue Reading

Immunologist argues that the world is making us sick

The chemicals in our everyday lives are, argues immunologist Claudia Miller, by Jill Neimark “Claudia Miller has spent 30 years hammering out a theory to explain the contemporary surge in perplexing, multi-symptom illnesses—from autism to Gulf War Syndrome—which represent a Kuhnian shift in medicine. She calls her theory “TILT,” short for Toxicant Induced Loss of… Continue Reading

Deep Misalignment Between Corporate Economic Performance, Shareholder Return And Executive Compensation

IRRC Institute and Organizational Capital Partners – November 17, 2014 – “For the vast majority of S&P 1500 companies, there is a major disconnect between corporate operating performance, shareholder value and incentive plans for executives. New research details how an over-reliance on traditional short-term accounting metrics and total shareholder return obscures a line of sight… Continue Reading

Network Brokerage: brokerage and closure

“This is the first of a two-part review of the way in which certain network structures create advantage. I focus on replicated research results (occasionally presenting new results that link replicated results) concerning the two core principles about network advantage: brokerage and closure. This first part is about brokerage. The argument is that information and… Continue Reading

Obama’s State of the Union address includes tax relief for middle class

White House FACT SHEET: A Simpler, Fairer Tax Code That Responsibly Invests in Middle Class Families “Middle class families today bear too much of the tax burden because of unfair loopholes that are only available to the wealthy and big corporations. In his State of the Union address, the President will outline his plan to… Continue Reading

NISO Recommended Practice on Metadata Indicators for Accessibility – Licensing of E-Content

“The National Information Standards Organization (NISO) has published a new Recommended Practice on Access License and Indicators (NISO RP-22-2015) that defines metadata to be used to indicate free-to-read content and a link to license terms for the use/re-use of that content. Developed by the NISO Working Group on Access License and Indicators (formerly Open Access… Continue Reading