Private Vs. Public Space
Space Pragmatism’s Dan discusses whether the space industry should revolve around NASA or go private and reaches the conclusion “both” – how he gets there is more interesting than the result –
To sum up, NASA is not the devil. Private Space is not the Savors. NASA is not the savor, Private space is not geeks who have read too many comic books. I think as we move forward to a privatized space industry, NASA must be a part. However, NASA cannot continue as it has in the past if it is to open new frontiers. It must give up smaller kingdoms to expand humanities place in the universe.
I want to see NASA pump energy into the “space ecosystem” rather than itself.
Pinning The Blame On Culture
Mitch Townsend of Chicago Boyz tries hard to get to this Robb brief (which is bizarre seeing as GGs is on the blogroll) but gets stuck in some cultural muck and misses the mark:
Democracy, as defined by free and fair elections, has been established, yet the situation is clearly not improving. There is a cultural problem in the Middle East that democracy cannot cure.
He goes on to blame ingrained cultural tribalism as the cause of a lack of “mutual trust in Iraq”. Cultural context is not the cause of the Iraq expedition failing.
Secret Service Pulls Out Of Nigeria
ABC –
Despite massive counterfeiting of U.S. currency and checks in Nigeria, the American law enforcement agency with principal jurisdiction, the Secret Service, has closed its office in Lagos, Nigeria.
Nigerian officials said the decision has hurt efforts to crack down on criminal rings that produce the counterfeit currency and cheat thousands of Americans with online scams.
Even with the agents moved to “nearby” Pretoria, South Africa this is a weird development.
Finance 2.0
Microloans (Like Kiva) are good and all, but the charity bent of the current generation of peer to peer microloans limits the groundbreaking role the idea can play in the world.
Where is the network where individuals can invest small sums in start up companies?
Here’s how it could look: Keep the 1:1 ratio. Micro venture capitalists would emerge in a competitive environment for the benefit in reputation of seeding a working company. Think of it as platform for circumventing the current nearly obsolete VC model, building resumes and bringing about a new breed of entrepreneurs building lean firms for more ROI in a flattening world.
Update: Rajesh is thinking along the same lines but advocates an entrepreneurial stock exchange.
Illicit Economy Targeting IT Grads
BBC –
“Traditional criminals have the ability to move funds and use all of the background they have,” he said, “but they don’t have the technical expertise.”
As the number of criminal gangs looking to move into cyber crime expanded, it got harder to recruit skilled hackers, said Mr Day. This has led criminals to target university students all around the world.
Remember the illicit economy has a GDP somewhere around $11 Trillion. Its a whole viable alternative operating system and is arguably more efficient than the white system.