Black Holes/From Small to Humongous :)

Size does matter. Wasting time does also. Happy New Year. from BRT. :)

Capturing the Moment

Red Tail Hawks are notoriously shy. Normally, one cannot get close to them, especially when they're hunting, something not the case when this short clip was shot. Enjoy.

2016 ... Preposterous is it not?

This sums up 2016 save for the successes of NASA, the US fubars in foreign policy, the advancement of solar and the passing of creatives like David Bowie, Prince, Carrie and Debbie Fisher, George Michael and Leonard Cohen. among significant others. RIP.

Black Mirror writ large.

Cue nightmarish dystopian news footage,” Brooker said on his 2016 Wipe program, which aired Thursday night in his home country. From there, he hit viewers with the type of scene that would seem almost too preposterous if he put it in a Black Mirror episode: The USA Freedom Kids, who sang proudly, “President Donald Trump knows how to make America great, deal from strength or get crushed every time!”

Running through a montage of all the things that should have made Trump completely “unelectable,” Brooker marveled that more traditional Republican candidates were ultimately beaten by a man who resembles “a cling-filmed parcel of frankfurter meat that’s been kicked through a yellow cobweb.”

“At first, the media seemed to find all of this wryly amusing,” Brooker added, “smirking through Trump’s ascent like they were watching an adorable toddler playing with a power tool, without apparently considering that he might just learn how to switch it on.”

He has.

The 1st

Trial of Socrates

Amendment 1

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

The most important Amendment there is, is now under threat, thanks to Obama signing H.R 5181 aka The "Countering Disinformation and Propaganda Act"

To whit: 

Long before the "fake news" meme became a daily topic of extensive conversation on such discredited mainstream portals as CNN and WaPo, H.R. 5181 would task the Secretary of State with coordinating the Secretary of Defense, the Director of National Intelligence, and the Broadcasting Board of Governors to “establish a Center for Information Analysis and Response,” which will pinpoint sources of disinformation, analyze data, and — in true dystopic manner — ‘develop and disseminate’ “fact-based narratives” to counter effrontery propaganda.

In short, long before "fake news" became a major media topic, the US government was already planning its legally-backed crackdown on anything it would eventually label "fake news."

Fast forward to December 8, when the "Countering Disinformation and Propaganda Act" passed in the Senate, quietly inserted inside the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) Conference Report.

And now, following Friday's Obama signing of the NDAA on Friday evening, the Countering Disinformation and Propaganda Act is now law.

Why the 1st is so important as seen thru the lens of history. 

Socrates

Socrates was killed in 399 BC for “failing to acknowledge the gods that the [government] acknowledges”.

Using the Printing Press

Before the invention of the movable type printing press by Gutenberg, the church controlled the production of books.

Gutenberg’s invention allowed cheap production of books. This challenged the monopoly on books by the church, and thus allowed different viewpoints to be heard.

For example, when Martin Luther posted his “95 Theses” on a church door in Germany criticizing the corrupt Catholic practice of selling “indulgences” – paying the church in return for a reduction of your time in purgatory – the printing press spread his writings throughout all of Germany in 2 weeks, and throughout “all of Christendom” within a month.   This launched the Protestant Reformation, and challenged the power of the Catholic church.

So Pope Alexander VI issued an edict against unlicensed printing in  1501.

And in 1535, Francis I of France prohibited – under penalty of death – the printing of any books.

Read the rest of the Washington's Blog blurb. Chilling says it all.

Mintrue looms.

1984 Big Brother is watching you

>2100 & ... Cassini Yet Again :)

Words not needed here. Stunning says it all while sailing past no. 2100, not bad, not bad @ all. :)

The Designer

Sounds like the incoming administration does it not?

Voiceover/Face 2Face ... Fake News writ large

Voiceover takes on a whole new meaning with this upcoming app where fake speech becomes just an afterthought using code as powerful as this.

When recording voiceovers, dialogue, and narration, wouldn’t you love the option to edit or insert a few words without the hassle of recreating the recording environment or bringing the voiceover artist in for another session? #VoCo allows you to change words in a voiceover simply by typing new words. Have to hear it to believe it? Check out a live demo (above) using a recording of co-host Jordan Peele’s voice.

Now, combine Voiceover with Face2 Face. Now, the Fake News fun really begins, don't you think?

We present a novel approach for real-time facial reenactment of a monocular target video sequence (e.g., Youtube video). The source sequence is also a monocular video stream, captured live with a commodity webcam. Our goal is to animate the facial expressions of the target video by a source actor and re-render the manipulated output video in a photo-realistic fashion. To this end, we first address the under-constrained problem of facial identity recovery from monocular video by non-rigid model-based bundling. At run time, we track facial expressions of both source and target video using a dense photometric consistency measure. Reenactment is then achieved by fast and efficient deformation transfer between source and target. The mouth interior that best matches the re-targeted expression is retrieved from the target sequence and warped to produce an accurate fit. Finally, we convincingly re-render the synthesized target face on top of the corresponding video stream such that it seamlessly blends with the real-world illumination. We demonstrate our method in a live setup, where Youtube videos are reenacted in real time.

Minitrue anyone?

Polishing a Turd

Polishing a Turd aka the F 35, the plane that will never be ready for combat. To whit ...

Michael Gilmore’s latest memorandum is damning. The F-35 program has derailed to the point where it “is actually not on a path toward success, but instead on a path toward failing to deliver the full Block 3F capabilities for which the Department is paying almost $400 billion.”

The 16-page memo, first reported by Tony Capaccio at Bloomberg and then by others, details just how troubled this program is — years behind schedule and failing to deliver even the most basic capabilities taxpayers, and the men and women who will entrust their lives to it, have been told to expect.

The Pentagon’s top testing office warns that the F-35 is in no way ready for combat since it is “not effective and not suitable across the required mission areas and against currently fielded threats.”

As it stands now, the F-35 would need to run away from combat and have other planes come to its rescue, since it “will need support to locate and avoid modern threats, acquire targets, and engage formations of enemy fighter aircraft due to outstanding performance deficiencies and limited weapons carriage available (i.e., two bombs and two air-to-air missiles).”

The great Kelly Johnson must be rolling over in his grave regarding this fubar.

Click here to see the actual Air Force memo.

Interesting stats

The Donald stated he won in a landslide and that the mandate he got was "huge" but facts don't lie. 

Trump’s Electoral College Victory

Ranks 46th in 58 Elections

Regarding the popular vote ...

Mr. Trump trails in the popular vote by over 2.5 million votes as states continue to report final results. His deficit gives him the third-worst vote margin among winning candidates since 1824.

As for the mandate ...

Reflecting Mr. Trump’s loss in the popular vote, only 29 percent of Americans say that Mr. Trump has a mandate for the agenda he offered during his campaign, according to a Washington Post-Schar School of Policy and Government poll.

Interesting stats indeed.

XMAS 2016

Had to put this clip in to show the joy and insanity of XMAS 2016. Enjoy & ... HAPPY NEW YEAR! :)

The Water Thief beckons

Everything has a cost, especially when corporations and private equity firms team up to take over public services like water with the prime intent of maximizing profit, much to the detriment of the users of said services, an increasingly common practice described in great detail in an excellent NY Times piece titled In American Towns, Private Profits From Public Works.

Even as Wall Street deals like the one with Bayonne help financially desperate municipalities to make much-needed repairs, they can come with a hefty price tag — not just to pay for new pipes, but also to help the investors earn a nice return, a New York Times analysis has found. Often, these contracts guarantee a specific amount of revenue, The Times found, which can send water bills soaring.

Water rates in Bayonne have risen nearly 28 percent since Kohlberg Kravis Roberts — one of Wall Street’s most storied private equity firms — teamed up with another company to manage the city’s water system, the Times analysis shows. City officials also promised residents a four-year rate freeze that never materialized.

In one measure of residents’ distress, people are falling so far behind on their bills that the city is placing more liens against their homes, which can eventually lead to foreclosures.

In the typical private equity water deal, higher rates help the firms earn returns of anywhere from 8 to 18 percent, more than what a regular for-profit water company may expect. And to accelerate their returns, two of the firms have applied a common strategy from the private equity playbook: quickly flipping their investment to another firm. This includes K.K.R., which is said to be shopping its 90 percent stake in the Bayonne venture, a partnership with the water company Suez.

To add fuel to the fire, two books, Matt Taibbi's Griftopia and Nicholas Soutter's The Water Thief, are must reads to see what happens when corporations own everything, something that could very well happen under the aegis of The Donald.

"The only real check against corruption is vigilance. That was the death of republics: they thought the system was enough to protect them, that they didn't need to be involved. Citizens let go of the rope, nobody voted, nobody got educated on the complexities of governing. And the corporations moved in." - Nicholas Soutter

The Arctic is unraveling

The Arctic is unraveling. Click here to view the full report.  

Evocative... to the max

Remind you of anything? We know so little but New Horizons continues to make a difference.

50 - just the beginning

Temperatures in the Arctic are predicted to soar nearly 50 degrees above normal on Thursday in a pre-Christmas heat wave that will bring the frozen tundra scarily close to the melting point.

It’s the second year in a row the North Pole ― now in perpetual darkness after saying goodbye to the sun in late October ― has seen abnormally high temperatures around the Christmas holiday. It’s also the second time this year. In November, temperatures in the region skyrocketed 36 degrees above normal.

The weather forecast adds to a string of climate change-related indicators setting off serious warning bells in 2016. Polar sea ice is at record lows, and during last month’s heat wave, the region lost 19,000 square miles of it in just five days. The National Snow and Ice Data Center called the melt an “almost unprecedented occurrence.”

The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive. - Donald J. Trump

Am I missing something here?

Merry XMAS to One & All :)

Merry Merry Everyone :)

Shadow Lines

A very interesting interactive map showing how big a deal NYC building shadows truly are is on tap with this very cool NY Times piece as the availability of light has tremendous impact on how man lives. Check it out, informative without question.

The Onset of Winter

This short clip shows how winter slowly enters the scene in CT. Enjoy.

Hong Kong Speeded Up :)

This is the amazing ending for the Cities part of Planet Earth II, courtesy BBC Earth. Enjoy

FYI - Toothaches

When one cannot get to a dentist in timely fashion, these homemade remedies will help deal with the pain. They work as yours truly has done the drill with some of these recommendations in time of need. :)

Addendum: 

Cloves also work and ... The Red Cross Toothache First Aid Kit does wonders dealing with the pain as well. Note, this kit is available at all drug stores, not just Wallgreens.

Now it gets interesting

Jargon laden and incredibly optimistic, this clip is worth watching to see how the 4th revolution differs from the 3rd in ways that truly boggle the mind. The only thing missing in this documentary is the cost factor of implementing all this tech, something we ignore at our peril as we move further into the 21st century. Check it out. especially when looking at the fossil fuel addicted acolytes of the Donald, fearful of the future and what it portends for mankind.

Had to add another NASA gem :)

A new statistical study of planets found by a technique called gravitational microlensing suggests that Neptune-mass worlds are likely the most common type of planet to form in the icy outer realms of planetary systems. The study provides the first indication of the types of planets waiting to be found far from a host star, where scientists suspect planets form most efficiently. Contrary to some theoretical predictions, the most numerous cold exoplanets have masses similar to Neptune, and there doesn't seem to be the expected increase in number at lower masses. Lead scientist Daisuke Suzuki, a post-doctoral researcher at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, infer this from current detections. The team concludes that Neptune-mass planets in outer orbits are about 10 times more common than Jupiter-mass planets in Jupiter-like orbits. Gravitational microlensing takes advantage of the light-bending effects of massive objects predicted by Einstein's general theory of relativity.

Read on, it's well worth the effort. :)

CO2 Travelogue

Carbon dioxide plays a significant role in trapping heat in Earth's atmosphere. The gas is released from human activities like burning fossil fuels, and the concentration of carbon dioxide moves and changes through the seasons. Using observations from NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO-2) satellite, scientists developed a model of the behavior of carbon in the atmosphere from Sept. 1, 2014, to Aug. 31, 2015. Scientists can use models like this one to better understand and predict where concentrations of carbon dioxide could be especially high or low, based on activity on the ground.

NASA strikes yet again with this amazing 3D video showing how CO2 travels around the globe.

Question, why does the Donald want to eliminate the earth sciences part of NASA as this research looks pretty important to yours truly without question.

Debt Relief 101

Two years after legalizing the use of marijuana in the state, Colorado’s cannabis shops hit a new milestone. In the first 10 months of 2016, weed stores in the state have reached $1 billion in legal, regulated sales of the drug.

According to the October data from the Colorado’s Department of Revenue, the state, which was the first in the country to have legalized cannabis use, has sold nearly $1.1 billion worth of marijuana and marijuana-related products.

Debt Relief 101 don't you think?

Update, MA just pull the legalize trigger on weed so, how about it CT, don't you think it's a good idea to get out of debt while making us rubes a little bit more mellow? :)

Despicable Me

Despicable Me is a delightful comedy with a bad guy, aided and abetted by minions, becoming good after adopting 3 little girls who melt his steely heart after a career of doing nefarious things like stealing the moon. Funny, insightful and pretty damn cool, it's an animation that works but, as per BRT, this blurb isn't about Gru but rather about the Russians and their alleged effort to give the election to Trump by compromising the election process, Needless to say, this is serious business that needs full disclosure now before disaster strikes in the way of diplomatic relations with an extremely powerful adversary. As prelude, here is a rant by yours truly regarding this rather amazing story.

He said, they said. Where is the conclusive proof.? Is it a leak or a hack? A very big difference as to what these two concepts mean, something the mainline "press" and brain dead politicians conveniently have not defined. 

To whit. 

A leak is where someone physically takes data and distributes to outside parties. Think Snowden and a thumb drive. 

A hack is a remote controlled process requiring breaking into networks and servers. Phishing is a really good way to do that. 

Question, if it was a hack, the NSA would know who did it and how it was done. With a leak, it's an inside job. Thus far, no arrests, nothing in terms of definitive evidence of Russian government involvement in trying to game the US election.

We Need the Real Evidence, Right Now

It must be stated plainly: The U.S. intelligence community must make its evidence against Russia public if they want us to believe their claims. The integrity of our presidential elections is vital to the country’s survival; blind trust in the CIA is not. A governmental disclosure like this is also not entirely without precedent: In 2014, the Department of Justice produced a 56-page indictment detailing their exact evidence against a team of Chinese hackers working for the People’s Liberation Army, accused of stealing American trade secrets; each member was accused by name. The 2014 trade secret theft was a crime of much lower magnitude than election meddling, but what the DOJ furnished is what we should demand today from our country’s spies.

If the CIA does show its hand, we should demand to see the evidence that matters (which, according to Edward Snowden, the government probably has, if it exists). I asked Jeffrey Carr what he would consider undeniable evidence of Russian governmental involvement: “Captured communications between a Russian government employee and the hackers,” adding that attribution “should solely be handled by government agencies because they have the legal authorization to do what it takes to get hard evidence.”

It's time to put this to bed and now, before it's too late.

Had to add this bon bon. Phishing anyone?

And so it goes. - K. Vonnegut

Addendum - The betting pool favors a leak as seen by guys who know the intel drill from the get go.

As for the comments to the media as to what the CIA believes, the reality is that CIA is almost totally dependent on NSA for ground truth in the communications arena. Thus, it remains something of a mystery why the media is being fed strange stories about hacking that have no basis in fact. In sum, given what we know of NSA’s existing capabilities, it beggars belief that NSA would be unable to identify anyone – Russian or not – attempting to interfere in a U.S. election by hacking.

For the Steering Group, Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS)

William Binney, former Technical Director, World Geopolitical & Military Analysis, NSA; co-founder, SIGINT Automation Research Center (ret.)

Mike Gravel, former Adjutant, top secret control officer, Communications Intelligence Service; special agent of the Counter Intelligence Corps and former United States Senator

Larry Johnson, former CIA Intelligence Officer & former State Department Counter-Terrorism Official

Ray McGovern, former US Army infantry/intelligence officer & CIA analyst (ret.)

Elizabeth Murray, Deputy National Intelligence Officer for Middle East, CIA (ret.)

Kirk Wiebe, former Senior Analyst, SIGINT Automation Research Center, NSA (ret.)

Triad

NYC @ a distance

Glissando

Dark Star/Dark Moon

The Dark Moon

The Dark Moon resides in both background and foreground in this short clip showing the environs of Greenwich, CT and various other haunts residing in Fairfield County and near LI Sound. Sadly,  December's DM is the last of 2016's super moon triad, an event that will not happen again until Jan 2, 2018. Enjoy.

Chatter

James Clapper - Director, NSA

Chatter - Chatter is a signals intelligence term, referring to the volume (quantity) of intercepted communications. Intelligence officials, not having better metrics, monitor the volume of communication, to or from suspected parties such as terrorists or spies, to determine whether there is cause for alarm. They refer to the electronic communication as "chatter".[1]

Yours truly is not a fan of James Clapper due to his insistence the NSA does not spy on us citizens but aside from that, the guy knows intel just as William Binney does so, to get to the bottom of the endless bloviating about the "Ruskies" and their alleged hacking into the election from hell, the august Electoral College members have sent an open letter to Clapper asking for the definitive answer as to who hacked the election and did the hacking in question favor Trump. To whit ...

Open Letter to Director of National Intelligence James Clapper:

We are Electors who were selected by the voters of our states to represent them in the Electoral College on December 19, 2016. We intend to discharge our duties as Electors by ensuring that we select a candidate for president who, as our Founding Fathers envisioned, would be “endowed with the requisite qualifications.” As Electors, we also believe that deliberation is at the heart of democracy itself, not an empty or formalistic task. We do not understand our sole function to be to convene in mid-December, several weeks after Election Day, and summarily cast our votes. To the contrary, the Constitution envisions the Electoral College as a deliberative body that plays a critical role in our system of government — ensuring that the American people elect a president who is constitutionally qualified and fit to serve. Accordingly, to fulfill our role as Electors, we seek an informed and unrestrained opportunity to fulfill our constitutional role leading up to December 19th — that is, the ability to investigate, discuss, and deliberate with our colleagues about whom to vote for in the Electoral College.

The Electors require to know from the intelligence community whether there are ongoing investigations into ties between Donald Trump, his campaign or associates, and Russian government interference in the election, the scope of those investigations, how far those investigations may have reached, and who was involved in those investigations. We further require a briefing on all investigative findings, as these matters directly impact the core factors in our deliberations of whether Mr. Trump is fit to serve as President of the United States.

This is why the EC's open letter makes such sense.

In one of his last appearances on Capitol Hill, Clapper defended the administration’s response to allegations that intelligence officials at the U.S. Central Command, which oversees the Middle East, pressured analysts to discard information that reflected poorly on the war effort in Iraq and Syria.

He also predicted that the information warfare that Russia has conducted since the Soviet era would likely continue beyond the U.S. election cycle.

Hacked emails from Democratic Party officials were released by the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks during the presidential campaign, revealing details embarrassing to Democrat Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

Clapper and the Department of Homeland Security said in October that based on the “scope and sensitivity” of the hacking efforts, only Russia’s “senior-most officials” could have authorized the hacking. Russia has denied involvement.

“After the issuance of the statement and the communication that I know took place between our government and Russian government, it seemed to have curtailed the cyberactivity that the Russians were previously engaged in,” Clapper said.

He said he was specifically referring to the “cyber-reconnaissance” that had been observed prior to the statement. “That sort of activity seemed to have curtailed,” he said.

He said intelligence agencies don’t have good insight on when or how Wikileaks obtained the hacked emails.

The Electoral College letter speaks truth to power. Let's hope Clapper's agency defines what "is " is to us rubes before Dec 19, the day the EC gives the election to Trump.

Recommendation ...

HERE ARE TWO of political history’s great constants: first, countries meddling in the internal affairs of others (both enemies and “friends”); and, second, bogus charges from a faction in one country that foreigners are meddling in its internal affairs to help another faction.

Both are poison for any country that wishes to rule itself.

So if we’re serious about being a self-governing republic, we have to demand that President Obama declassify as much intelligence as possible that Russia may have intervened in the 2016 presidential election.

Taking Donald Trump’s position — that we should just ignore the question of Russian hacking and “move on” — would be a disaster.

Relying on a hazy war of leaks from the CIA, FBI, various politicians, and their staff is an equally terrible idea.

Yet another take from intel pros who know the drill on hacking vs. leaks.

We have gone through the various claims about hacking. For us, it is child’s play to dismiss them. The email disclosures in question are the result of a leak, not a hack. Here’s the difference between leaking and hacking:

Leak: When someone physically takes data out of an organization and gives it to some other person or organization, as Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning did.

Hack: When someone in a remote location electronically penetrates operating systems, firewalls or any other cyber-protection system and then extracts data.

All signs point to leaking, not hacking. If hacking were involved, the National Security Agency would know it – and know both sender and recipient.

In short, since leaking requires physically removing data – on a thumb drive, for example – the only way such data can be copied and removed, with no electronic trace of what has left the server, is via a physical storage device.

Evidence, not innuendo, bloviation and name calling is in order here but knowing the sorry state of our so called leaders and mainline nooze, this is too much to ask, without question.

3 Agencies of Government ...

Dumb & Dumber, n'est pas?

President-elect Donald Trump may nominate former Texas Gov. Rick Perry to lead the Department of Energy—the agency Perry wanted to abolish but infamously forgot to name during a 2011 presidential debate.

“It’s three agencies of government, when I get there, that are gone—Commerce, Education and the, um, what’s the third one there? Let’s see,” Perry said during a Republican presidential debate in November 2011.

As Perry stumbled to think of the answer, Mitt Romney chimed in to suggest the Environmental Protection Agency, while Ron Paul suggested he actually meant to cut five agencies.

“But you can’t name the third one?” CNBC moderator John Harwood asked.

“The third agency of government I would do away with—the education, uh, the, uh, commerce and let’s see. I can’t—the third one. Sorry. Oops,” Perry said.

He later identified the Department of Energy as the agency he had been trying to name.

“From time to time, you may forget about an agency that you are gonna zero out,” Perry said in an interview following the debate, according to ABC News. “Everybody tomorrow will understand the Energy Department is one of those that needs to be done away with.”

Am I missing something here?

Idiocracy - Prescient to a fault

Idiocracy, it's already here.

Eight years ago, with the publication of Susan Jacoby’s The Age of American Unreason, our country had a debate about whether its citizens were becoming less intelligent. This year, we had a debate about how big Donald Trump’s penis is. While we have not resolved the latter, we have answered the former. Former means first, and latter means second.

Two years before Jacoby’s book came out, Mike Judge set his sci-fi comedy Idiocracy 500 years in the future, when President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho, a former champion professional wrestler, peppers his speeches with curses. Trump, who is in the World Wrestling Entertainment Hall of Fame, has used a curse or two when a facial expression could not fully convey his policy points. He has also used his candidacy to hawk products with his name far more effectively than Camacho did with Mountain Dew.

Nearly everything predicted in Idiocracy has come true, and more

Prescient to a fault.

Witch Hunt/Phase 1

This picture is painful to see, an emaciated polar bear dying because of the loss of sea ice, the absolute necessity for these magnificent creatures to survive, something Trump seems not to understand in picking cabinet heads hostile to climate change, the 900 lb gorilla facing mankind if we do nothing about it. To this end, a witch hunt seems to be starting regarding the energy department and the people who work there. To whit 

President-elect Donald Trump's Energy Department transition team sent the agency a memo this week asking for the names of people who have worked on climate change and the professional society memberships of lab workers, alarming employees and advisors.

The memo sent to the Energy Department on Tuesday and seen by Reuters on Friday, contains 74 questions including a request for a list of all department employees and contractors who attended the annual global climate talks hosted by the United Nations within the last five years.

It asked for a list of all department employees or contractors who have attended any meetings on the social cost of carbon, a measurement that federal agencies use to weigh the costs and benefits of new energy and environment regulations. It also asked for all publications written by employees at the department's 17 national laboratories for the past three years.

"This feels like the first draft of an eventual political enemies list," said a Department of Energy employee, who asked not to be identified because he feared a reprisal by the Trump transition team.

"When Donald Trump said he wanted to drain the swamp it apparently was just to make room for witch hunts and it's starting here at the DOE and our 17 national labs," the employee said.

Any questions?

Click here to see the transition document.

Pushback - Congrats to ED for saying NO!!!

Energy Department spokesman Eben Burnham-Snyder said Tuesday the department will not comply.

"Our career workforce, including our contractors and employees at our labs, comprise the backbone of (the Energy Department) and the important work our department does to benefit the American people," Burnham-Snyder said.

"We are going to respect the professional and scientific integrity and independence of our employees at our labs and across our department," he added. "We will be forthcoming with all publicly available information with the transition team. We will not be providing any individual names to the transition team."

He added that the request "left many in our workforce unsettled."

Awesome.

Recent Pix :)

Fungi on the march

1/2 Moon

Xmas @ Nite :)

The Mushroom Theory of Power

The Mushroom theory of power: keep the people in the dark and feed them manure., something the Pentagon has been doing for years but to what degree has been a mystery, until now.

The Pentagon has buried an internal study that exposed $125 billion in administrative waste in its business operations amid fears Congress would use the findings as an excuse to slash the defense budget, according to interviews and confidential memos obtained by The Washington Post.

Pentagon leaders had requested the study to help make their enormous back-office bureaucracy more efficient and reinvest any savings in combat power. But after the project documented far more wasteful spending than expected, senior defense officials moved swiftly to kill it by discrediting and suppressing the results.

The report, issued in January 2015, identified “a clear path” for the Defense Department to save $125 billion over five years. The plan would not have required layoffs of civil servants or reductions in military personnel. Instead, it would have streamlined the bureaucracy through attrition and early retirements, curtailed high-priced contractors and made better use of information technology.

The study was produced last year by the Defense Business Board, a federal advisory panel of corporate executives, and consultants from McKinsey and Company. Based on reams of personnel and cost data, their report revealed for the first time that the Pentagon was spending almost a quarter of its $580 billion budget on overhead and core business operations such as accounting, human resources, logistics and property management.

It gets better.

The data showed that the Defense Department was paying a staggering number of people — 1,014,000 contractors, civilians and uniformed personnel — to fill back-office jobs far from the front lines. That workforce supports 1.3 million troops on active duty, the fewest since 1940.

So the plan was killed. The Pentagon imposed secrecy restrictions on the data making up the study, which ensured no one could replicate the findings. A 77-page summary report that had been made public was removed from a Pentagon website.

In a confidential August 2014 memo, McKinsey noted that while the Defense Department was “the world’s largest corporate enterprise,” it had never “rigorously measured” the “cost-effectiveness, speed, agility or quality” of its business operations.

Nor did the Pentagon have even a remotely accurate idea of what it was paying for those operations, which McKinsey divided into five categories: human resources; health-care management; supply chain and logistics; acquisition and procurement; and financial-flow management.

McKinsey hazarded a guess: anywhere between $75 billion and $100 billion a year, or between 15 and 20 percent of the Pentagon’s annual expenses. “No one REALLY knows,” the memo added.

Now if The Donald really is a business man, he would do something about this atrocious inefficiency and corruption and do it now and save money doing it because this is just the tip of the iceberg IMHO, regarding the Pentagon and it's shoddy way of doing business. F 35 anyone? Click here to view the report. Interesting without question.

And so it goes. K. Vonnegut