Category: Reading

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Education Globalization Milwaukee Reading Technology

Latest read: Lexus and the Olive Tree

lexus and the olive treeTom Friedman’s book The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization has great chapters including The Electronic Herd as one that fits right into how web2.0 entrepreneurs have been able to move social networks into powerful forces.

Although Lexus and the Olive Tree’s immediate focus was finance, its easy to see how MySpace impacts social networks.

The rapid change in today’s world has made a large leap within the last three years.

The strength of the herd continues to have more impact with even the youngest of the internet generation like…say…Digg.

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Education Reading Vietnam War

Latest read: Secrets A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers

Daniel Ellsberg‘s Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers is about his direct experience in Vietnam and more importantly his role in leaking The Pentagon Papers.  Daniel’s lessons in both academic research and military battlefields helped me learn more about the times he lived in and how it ultimately caused him to steal and publish top secret files regarding the war in Vietnam.

Secrets A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon PapersThe Pentagon Papers showed world the surprising role of US involvement in Vietnam dating back to Harry Truman through the Nixon Administration.  His influence is not to be under estimated. I was impressed to learn of his work with President Kennedy in David Halberstam’s The Best and the Brightest. There was more to Ellsberg than meets the eye.

His background: undergraduate studies at Harvard and post graduate Woodrow Wilson fellowship at Cambridge in England. Daniel returned to apply for Marine officer candidates courses but had to wait a year — so he went to grad school at Harvard (during the Korean War) where he was expected to serve. In the beginning Ellsberg was a political hawk regarding communist expansion in the world especially Soviet aggressiveness in Czechoslovakia and Poland.

A week after getting his PhD he was in the military training to be a lieutenant. He would command a rifle unit in the second Marine division. As his tour was ending his first son was born. He was awarded a three year junior fellowship back at Harvard, but asked the Marine commandant to extend his tour as war in the Middle East appeared imminent. Daniel drafted secret plans against Egypt and Israel. As a research fellow back at Harvard in economic and decision theory he attracted attention of the Rand Corporation and in ’58 accepted an economic position with RAND in California. The Soviet Union launched Sputnik during this time-frame.  The cold war was beginning to really heat up.

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Reading

Latest read: Chain of Command

One lesson: Abu Ghraib and Photography…just don’t mix. Seymour Hersh has provided the details and background to this scandal in great depth in the pages of Chain of Command: The Road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib.
chain of commandAs one who learned about this breakdown from traditional news sources Hersh provides criticism for the Bush Administration and Donald Rumsfeld with a new insider view of the breakdown of command and control.

Clearly the treatment depicted in photographs now famous only harms future American interests and the war on Al Qaeda.

Acceptable Torture? Hersh has stated our actions (photos) have given the green light to our current and future enemies: a ready-made excuse to ignore Geneva Conventions. Don’t like where this goes…for our futures.

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Education Reading

Latest read: Against All Enemies

For some reason I picked up Richard Clarke’s book Against All Enemies: Inside America’s War on Terror and left it on my shelf. Once I started it was difficult to put down.
Against All EnemiesI decided to read Woodward’s Bush at War instead. Then for some reason I moved to a very lengthy book by Stephen Ambrose about Richard Nixon. Regardless after a couple of months it was time to read this book.

As Clarke reveals American intelligence, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush knew so much about Bin Laden & Al Qaeda before 9/11!  Clarke was unable to address terrorism threats to the Bush Administration (requested in January 2001) until September 4th.

I simply cannot explain how upset I became as more of Richard Clarke’s words were revealed…and could not put this book down either. I can only suggest others who have read this book state: everyone should read this book.

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Education Reading Vietnam War

Latest read: 1968 The year that rocked the world

1968: The Year That Rocked the World. What a strange year…even from an American point of view. What do you remember? — I was two years old.

For most Americans 1968 was this series of events: The assassinations of MLK and RFK, The Prague Spring, USS Pueblo, Tet, The My Lai massacre, Civil Rights Act, Student protests, Apollo 6 & The death of Yuri Gagarin. The political election of Nixon, Wallace, McCarthy, Humphrey, Rockefeller, Reagan, Romney, McGovern and even Pigasus.

On a “smaller” scale: Onassis marries Kennedy, Saddam Hussein’s coup d’etat brings the Ba’tathists into power, US Army Deputy Operations officer Colin Powell wrote denials of initial reports regarding the My Lai massacre.
–Even Hypertext (aka – the web) was publicly demonstrated by Doug Englebart in 1968.

Clearly 1968 changed the world…
After finishing Mark Kurlansky’s book I realize the biggest global ‘event’ was the student protest movement. From France, Poland, Mexico, Greece, Czechoslovakia to America. –Where have all student protest gone forty years later?

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