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Education Reading

Latest Read: Fentanyl, Inc.

Fentanyl, Inc.: How Rogue Chemists Created the Deadliest Wave of the Opioid Epidemic by Ben Westhoff. Ben is an investigative journalist, speaker, and filmmaker. focused on drugs, culture, and poverty.

Fentanyl, Inc.: How Rogue Chemists Created the Deadliest Wave of the Opioid Epidemic by Ben Westhoff

In addition, Ben is published in The New York Times, the Library of Congress, The Atlantic, The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, NPR, Rolling Stone, Daily Beast, New York, Forbes, and Vice among others.

This is the third book of five that I chose to read to understand the crisis. Since publication, Ben is advising government officials including from the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, Senate and House members, the staff of America’s embassy in Beijing, and the State Department. As a result, Ben is a featured speaker today at conferences around the country regarding the opioid crisis.

Just when you begin to understand the early days of the opioid crisis, you soon discovery Fentanyl has killed more Americans annually than any other drug in history.

Yet, compared to everyday opioids (including heroine) fentanyl is a synthetic drug — first developed in a European chemistry lab in the late 1950s. While this may surprise many, rogue chemists are playing with molecules creating designer strains in huge amounts. In fact, China is the leading supplier of synthetic fentanyl.

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Artificial Intelligence Education Reading

Latest Read: AI Superpowers

AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order
by Kai-Fu Lee. He developed an advanced continuous speech recognition system during his Ph.D. work at Carnegie Mellon University in the early 1980s. He landed at Apple in 1990 for a decade, then went to SGI.

AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order by Kai-Fu Lee

Since 2000 Kai-Fu served as the founding director of Microsoft Research Asia, then president of Google China, He departed to launch Sinovation Ventures, a venture capital firm in Beijing.

This book weaves in and out of AI technology developments. It is both surprising and disappointing. Many have certainly noted this is more or less propaganda for China. By the fourth chapter, I began wondering if Kai-Fu is considering a run for Chinese President.

Kai-Fu addresses in chapter 5, the four waves of AI: Internet AI, Business AI, Perception AI, and Autonomous AI. Elements of each wave appear even today, a bit far fetched for a democracy. However within a state controlled economy, China can force changes described across all four. With the US Population at 331 million compared to China’s 1.4 million, statements that China produces more data for AI system is certainly not a watershed thought. Certainly China will produce more data for AI systems than many country populations combined.

The AI shopping cart?

The idea of an AI enhanced shopping cart with a built-in LCD display and recognizes your shopping history upon touch, as you enter any Chinese local Yonghui superstore referenced in “Where every shopping cart knows your name” seems to still be a foreign concept across America’s grocery stores. Too many privacy concerns for the West. In addition, this was published prior to COVID. Today this idea certainly will be replaced by AI-enhanced mobile apps, or Internet AI as Kai-Fu is referencing above.

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Cyberinfrastructure Education Network Ransomware Reading Technology

HBO’s The Perfect Weapon

In 2020 HBO released the documentary The Perfect Weapon based upon the best-selling book by David Sanger a New York Times national security correspondent. The book was a fantastic review of cyber attacks conducted by Russia, China and other countries deemed hostile to the US and the West. Accordingly, this documentary reveals how cyber war began. This is certainly the primary strategy today for nation state attacks. This documentary is also available on Amazon Prime.

Stuxnet, known as the cyber attack “Olympic Games” was an original US/Israel joint cyber attack. The concern was understanding the risk to a nuclear war in the Middle East in supporting Israel’s defense. The Bush Administration chose to invoke a new type of warfare.

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Education Globalization Reading Vietnam War

Latest read: Embers of War

Fredrick Logevall won the 2013 Pulitzer for Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America’s Vietnam. This book is an amazing read. Today America continues to hold a quiet, deep divide when looking inward to find the truth regarding our long nightmare in Vietnam.

Logevall traces America’s involvement to Paris at the end of World War I. A young Nguyen Ai Quoc sought support at the June 1919 Paris Peace Conference from US President Wilson. Quoc carried a declaration addressing a free Vietnam. He never met with Wilson. At the conclusion of the conference Nguyen Ai Quoc, translated to mean “He Who Loves his Country” changed his name to Ho Chi Minh.

Embers of War

Astounding that in 1919 a young revolutionary could patiently wait 50 years for his opportunity to bring independence to Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh would become (much to our regret) one of the most famous revolutionaries in history.

He led his country to defeat two western powers in a devastating war that lasted over 30 years. His cause was a war of independence against the French and then the Americans.

Interesting to learn how well Ho Chi Minh understood America. He lived in Boston and New York City. He worked as a cook, a baker and later a production line manager for General Motors before returning to Europe.

Embers of War beautifully illustrates how the US State Department shifted policy from President Franklin D. Roosevelt to Harry S. Truman. It was only strengthened under Eisenhower. It is still difficult to imagine the level of initial support in men, money and weapons we gave to support Ho Chi Minh and the Viet Minh against French colonial rule after World War II. It is a stark wake up to read how CIA advisors met with Ho Chi Minh and our US Army units training his troops.

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Education Reading Vietnam War

Dong Xoai and the required US shift in Vietnam

Moyar’s final chapter in Triumph Forsaken reveals his deep understanding of the 1965 Vietcong attack at Dong Xoai and the aftermath – yet another change in Saigon’s leadership. This closing chapter illustrates for Moyar the aggressive communist attacks taken throughout the central highlands as a synopsis for the war.

triumph forsakenWhat will surprise many unfamiliar with Vietnam’s countryside, the battle was just 100km (or 62 miles) from Saigon. One of the spoils of military victory is writing history. The NVA claims to have killed over 4,500 South Vietnamese and 77 Americans at the Dong Xoai battlefield. (via Google Maps)

Today this would shock Americans to think a massive Vietcong battle was fought less than a two hour drive to Saigon. As reference, the distance is shorter between Milwaukee and Chicago.

Cannot help but wonder about Moyar’s theme: South Vietnam was destined to collapse by 1965. Yes Johnson’s remark to historian Henry Graff “The worst mistake we ever made was getting rid of Diem” rings true. Regardless of Moyar’s short timeline American interests never groomed a worthy successor to Diem. Despite a series of aggressive communist attacks in the central highlands in early 1965 the role of the US military was still restricted by the White House at 72,000 Americans in country. At Dong Xoai a US Special Forces camp assigned only 20 Americans to support 400 local soldiers from two militia companies.