Brave New War

I have been following John Robb's Blog for about a year now and he always has a lot of great insight into issues of national security, especially terrorism, insurgency, and infrastructure protection. He recently completed a new book, titled Brave New War. I have not read it yet but it apparently relates to a lot of what he writes about on his blog. Wired has a great two part series on John Robb's new book:

Part 1

Part 2

This book focuses on fourth generation warfare and how conflict is moving towards insurgent type attacks (Iraq, Lebanon, etc.) instead of state-on-state conflict. I think it is very interesting that Hugo Chavez is studying the tactics of Iraqi insurgents.

Two key items I took from this:
1) Robb's emphasis on culture and language training is great to see and we all know what happens with a lack of this--Iraq.

2) The current Federal bureaucracy is based on an outdated system (maybe this is too much credit to say it was once 'dated') that is not flexible enough to adapt to these new threats. I could post pages and pages on this but probably won't until I have time to reflect on working in it the past 4 years.

Robb also has a great post on the latest conflict between Russia and Estonia, or what he deems the new 21st century state on state conflict--cyber war.

Chairman Gates

Great article in Wired today on how Bill Gates is the new Mao in China. He has apparently become the new idol of youths across China. I thought this was very interesting:

"During his recent tour of China, Gates predicted the next global leader might be born here: "There was a survey done in the U.S. that asked where the next Bill Gates will come from," he said. "Sixty percent of the U.S. said the next stunning success would come from Asia.""

Will report back...

The rise of Jonathan Coulton

I have been following Jonathan Coulton for a few months now after hearing about him on Merlin Mann's (43 Folders) new podcast. Impressive to see him featured in NY Times Magazine and the quasi "poster child" now for independent musicians trying to make it on their own through the use of the Internet. Coulton sells most of his music through his website and iTunes without the middleman record label.

He quit his day job as a programmer back in 2005 to pursue his online music career. His popularity rose out of his "thing a week" series where he would write a new song, some becoming very popular, each week for I believe a whole year.

Although I had heard of Coulton previously, one thing really struck a cord with me--his fan base. The article recalls countless stories of fans helping Coulton with everything from graphic design to song lyrics. He receives hundreds of emails a day and countless myspace friend requests. But why? People love a good story. His popularity is largely based on the exciting idea of a fledgling musician trying to make it on the Internet--no less with a girlfriend and kid to support. Who doesn't like the idea of someone sticking it to the man by quiting the day job and sticking it to the music industry by going out on his own. No royalties to the big labels here. And throughout history we keep falling for this same great tale.

We all love this story and cheer for Coulton because we are all living vicariously through him. Who doesn't want to quit the day job and be a musician or artist? Although Coulton will argue that it is not that simple and I could only imagine so but still, lets keep it simple, he is the underdog that we all want to see succeed. A modern day seabiscuit or the current Golden State Warriors

The Internet is clearly a major force in leveling the playing field and changing the way we can access art, music, news, and information. Call it Music 2.0, Art 2.0, or whatever, either way it changes the game. This honesty and transparency is awesome and we are seeing it more from governments to major corporations. I can only hope to have the same results as we continue to push forward with our efforts in bringing our crazy idea to the masses.

BK Video -- Finally

Threw this together last fall when BK left DC, enjoy.