Things, especially things about numbers, and especially things about big numbers, are often very hard to both explain and comprehend. Pictures help a lot. Along those lines, this is the best illustration I’ve seen yet on what the U.S. debt…
Moment of Truth in Iraq – book review
Moment of Truth in Iraq by Michael Yon My rating: 3 of 5 stars A good compilation of Mr. Yon’s blog posts plus some original material from the relevant period of his war reporting in Iraq. The story is worthy,…
Political Destiny
Demographics is destiny. — Arthur Kemp The political destiny of the U.S. for the next 25 years is sealed. Here’s how: In the United States, the proportion of the population aged >65 years is projected to increase from 12.4% in…
How to Reduce Taxes by 40%
There’s a lot of heated political rhetoric about taxes these days, particularly U.S. federal taxes. Some people want to abolish federal taxes. Just about everybody would like to pay less federal taxes. I think it’s safe to say that everyone…
Complexity, its burdens and its risks
I read a good article on the radical re-making of the advertising market today: http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/151/mayhem-on-madison-avenue.html The article referenced a classic post by Clay Shirky that I’d read before, but was worth revisiting: http://www.shirky.com/weblog/2010/04/the-collapse-of-complex-business-models/ Clay, in turn, referenced a book by Joseph…
Comments on Six Lessons
I had an interesting exchange of Facebook comments with my friend Lee Wochner regarding the post Six Lessons. Since I keep my Facebook world pretty cloistered, I thought I’d share the comments with the wider world here on Autopsis. 10/16/2010 Lee Wochner commented on…
Six Lessons
(This post available as a PDF document here: http://www.hackneys.com/docs/6lessons.pdf ) I learned six lessons today. The lessons came from over the bridge. (click on photos for larger image)
Facing the Future
I compiled my thoughts on the primary challenges the United States faces in the coming decade, and ways to overcome them, here: http://www.hackneys.com/docs/facingthefuture.pdf The primary focus in this collection is on domestic challenges, although some geopolitical issues are addressed. .
Intro to Geopolitics – Public Opinion
Following is a good overview of a current geopolitical situation from Stratfor, a public domain intelligence analysis firm. If you are interested in the particular issue and region at hand, Israel / Palestinians / rising Turkey / etc., you will probably find it…
Circles in Circles
Much of the story of humans and groups of humans, as well as the challenges that face America, can be told with circles. The core of the story is an individual. The first unit of human organization is the…