a quite different study about shannon's information theory. the qubit hasn't made it yet into the intelligence game. they are still operating on a macro- and not on a micro-level, says ben-israel. his paper raises a lot of questions if you read it in hindsight of the so called "air campaign" in lebanon in july as 2003 israel had already a different strategy in place. how the government decision should be seen of is still a debate in the public domain. some explain it with the just-2month-in-place-government and with a defence minister who - "the first time in israel history - had no background at all in defence." - well, as bbc tells:

...After an injury forced him out of the army, he entered local politics to become the mayor of Sderot, where he still lives. He was elected to parliament as a Labour candidate in 1988, but was in and out of the party, with his breakaway faction, One Nation, until this year. He is a member of Peace Now, the Israeli pacifist organisation that campaigns for a Palestinian state, and supported Israel's withdrawal from Gaza.| bbc

"israel spends some 9% of its gdp on security" (8$billion+2,5$billion funding from the us) and "exports more defense systems than it buys internally (export: 3-4$billion/per year)" said isaac ben-israel in berlin.

For the fiscal year 2007 defense budget, the United States has allocated $439.3 billion (3.2 percent of GDP) for the Department of Defense—an increase of 7 percent from FY 2006. This sum dwarfs the respective defense budgets of fellow NATO members: United Kingdom $65.25 billion (2.7 percent of GDP); France $45 billion (2.6 percent); Germany $30 billion (1.2 percent); Italy $28.2 billion (1.8 percent); Spain $9.9 billion (1.2 percent). | nato

others say it was time for israel to show its military strength again; those of its air force. but as bildt concludes ...

So much for the talk over everything just being a question of some air strikes. | bildt

there was one guy who stood up and said: we always forget to talk about the human factor. i was surprised. but listening to him going on it turned out that he meant by humans exclusively soldiers: who can't be forced to go to afghanistan, kongo, lebanon, ... and won't join the army if they don't know that they can fullfill their task with good material (budget complain) and can't be sure to return home ...

kinetic typography: typorganism; not updated anymore, though. also a lot of dead links at the sociable media group; still enough to get an impression.

computational information design, ben fry.

infographics collection and not to forget marumushi from marcos weskamp, who has new work out there (best known for his newsmap). recalled by gary woodill in his brandon hall report ermerging e-learning (thanks becki!)

“I had the privilege of spending nearly a week in Engelbart’s lab, and stole many great NLS ideas for FRESS” that always seemed to lead back to Bush.

before fress was 'hes' (hypertext editing system, 1967,'68) dam working together with ted nelson and then went on with his students to build "the first hypertext system on commercial hardware, in 1969" (fress)

anyhow. one important part of this new kind of interacting also was achieved by "interdisciplinary centers for material research", 12 very big programs sponsored by arpa, charles herzfeld recalls. it changed teaching at universities as it made hardware cheaper and effortable.

herzfeld_labs (foo/bar, 346 KB)

materials research laboratories: reviewing the first twentyfive years: material labs (application/pdf, 329 KB)

darpa programm 2005 also includes some equal programs, trying to "get titanium down to the cost of aluminum"; anthony tether at a hearing before the committee on science house of representatives, may, 2005.

herzfeld_metallurgy (foo/bar, 276 KB) : "nobody cares enough to kill it, so it will probably happen."

anthony j. tether is nowadays the director of darpa, charles herzfeld was it between 1965 and 1967 (even he worked there earlier on). i am not sure if they still don't cover representation costs, but as herzfeld tells - even there is more to it - one reason he left, even he liked it though, was simply a financial one ...

herzfeld_arpa (foo/bar, 798 KB)