{"id":30320,"date":"2013-12-21T02:59:10","date_gmt":"2013-12-21T02:59:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zenpundit.com\/?p=30320"},"modified":"2013-12-24T05:58:33","modified_gmt":"2013-12-24T05:58:33","slug":"recommended-reading-131","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/?p=30320","title":{"rendered":"Recommended Reading"},"content":{"rendered":"

[by Mark Safranski,<\/strong> a.k.a. “zen<\/strong>“]<\/p>\n

Top billing! Adam Elkus<\/strong> – Is Failure an Option? (I)<\/a>,\u00a0\u00a0Is Failure an Option? (II)<\/a>,\u00a0\u00a0Is Failure an Option? (III)<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

….The idea of implementing a massive and complex venture rapidly and decisively (with little room for error) is essentially just a rephrasing of the familiar the\u00a0pre-World War I fear<\/a>\u00a0of losing a mobilization race. Under some circumstances, a nuclear balance could also degenerate into a \u201cuse them or lose them\u201d dilemma in which a state risks the entire annihilation of its strategic forces and decision nodes in one murderous enemy salvo.\u00a0There also seems to be \u2014 from Niccolo Machiavelli to Nathan Bedford Forrest \u2013 a general competitive heuristic that if you are to crush your enemies, you must strike as powerfully as you can and as quickly as you can. The heuristic is even repeated in the animal kingdom: queen bees\u00a0famously kill their rivals<\/a>\u00a0upon emergence. But as the Germans discovered after the Schlieffen Plan and\u00a0The Wire<\/em>\u2018s\u00a0Omar taunted<\/a>, rapid execution and massive risk\u00a0only pays off when it pays off<\/em>. Fail and you run the risk of embroiling yourself in a quagmire that might have been avoided with more gradual and less rigidly planned execution<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

SWJ El Centro – Sullivan, Bunker & Bunker\u00a0Film Review: Narco Cultura \u2013 A Tale of Three Cities<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Narcocultura<\/em><\/a>\u00a0is on the ascendency.\u00a0Narcocorridos<\/em><\/a>\u00a0are not new.\u00a0 This genre of music has its roots in folk music and\u00a0norte\u00f1o<\/em>\u00a0ballads.\u00a0 Like Pancho Villa, who was venerated in song during the revolution, these ballads extol the virtues of those who rebel against the corrupt state.\u00a0 The poor and powerless look for symbols of power and rebellion.\u00a0 Yet the\u00a0narcocorrido<\/em>\u00a0is more than Hip Hop or gangster rap south of the border.\u00a0 It is not only a form of cross-border musical social commentary; it is a means of cartel information operations and a vehicle of social-environmental modification. In this film, we see bands and singers in the orbit of Sinaloa (El Komander<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0BuKnas de Culic\u00e1n<\/a>). Their songs are a form of information operations for the Sinaloa Federation. The\u00a0Movimiento Alterado<\/em>\u00a0(altered movement) is the business name of the\u00a0narcocorrido<\/em>\u00a0or\u00a0corridos alterados<\/em><\/a>\u00a0movement in Los Angeles.\u00a0 The movement and songs are\u00a0sanctioned<\/a>\u00a0by the Sinaloa Cartel.\u00a0 The\u00a0narcocorridos<\/em>\u00a0are banned in parts of Mexico so they are produced in Los Angeles, home to a large immigrant community and numerous gangs.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

John Hagel – The Dark side of Technology<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

….But here\u2019s the kicker.\u00a0 This digital technology infrastructure is not stabilizing.\u00a0\u00a0We\u2019ve had plenty of technology disruptions throughout history \u2013 the steam engine, electricity, the telephone, just to name some.\u00a0 But, asCarlotta Perez<\/a>\u00a0has shown, all of these disruptions followed a common pattern.\u00a0 They began with a burst of innovation at the technology level, but then quickly stabilized with only incremental performance improvements afterwards.\u00a0 That in turn led to a burst of innovation at the infrastructure level, figuring out how to most effectively organize and deliver the value of this technology to business and society. But then that too rapidly stabilized so we could then figure out how to most effectively harness this technology.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Our digital technology infrastructure is unprecedented in human history.\u00a0 It\u2019s not stabilizing.\u00a0 The core technology components \u2013 computing, storage and bandwidth \u2013 are continuing to improve in price\/performance at accelerating rates and the best scientists and technologists suggest that this exponential pace will not slow down in the foreseeable future.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

RUSI<\/em> –\u00a0Afghanistan after 2014: What Roles for China and India?<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Scholar’s Stage – Things those Chinese Think ( + What we think Back)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

War on the Rocks – Japan’s New Defense Strategy<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Dan Drezner<\/strong> has left the building<\/a><\/p>\n

Slightly East of New –Vandergriff: Selfless vs. Selfish Service<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

CORRECTION<\/span> Fred Leland’s LESC blog \u00a0( by Louis Hayes <\/a>)\u00a0The Doctor in SWAT School (and What His Performance Says About Police Culture)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Aeon<\/em> – Endless Fun<\/a><\/strong> and Creepypasta<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

DemocracyJournal<\/em> – Paine and Burke Now<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

That’s it<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[by Mark Safranski, a.k.a. “zen“] Top billing! Adam Elkus – Is Failure an Option? (I),\u00a0\u00a0Is Failure an Option? (II),\u00a0\u00a0Is Failure an Option? (III)\u00a0 ….The idea of implementing a massive and complex venture rapidly and decisively (with little room for error) is essentially just a rephrasing of the familiar the\u00a0pre-World War I fear\u00a0of losing a mobilization […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-recommended-reading"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30320"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30320\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30357,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30320\/revisions\/30357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}