Author Archives: Jeff Porten

When this is published in Foreign Policy, it’s time to take notice: “The Disruptors would accept violence as part of the equation. I don’t foresee set-piece battles between great armies, but I think they understand the strategy would involve persistent conflict that kills hundreds or even thousands on the way to achieving its aims. If they can get away with it with minimal bloodshed, great; if not, “so be it.”” Some thoughts on how we might get from where we’re at now to a Second Civil War

Attention Pennfolk near Philly with flexible Monday schedules: Richard Branson speaking at Zellerbach on Monday afternoon, alumni can register. Free admission, but registration is required and seating is first come, first served. Authors@Wharton: Sir Richard Branson | McNulty Leadership Program

That’s it, now I’m CERTAIN that 2017 is an alternate reality designed as a psychological experiment to test our credulity. The Columbia Lions Are The Best Football Team In NYC

The thing is, it would be pretty trivial to set up a geofencing system that would sent emergency alerts only to people in an affected area. It’s likely that several Silicon Valley companies have the capability to do so now for large swaths of the population.

But that would require a trustworthy government, one that never used access to location information for any other reason, and one that never pushed messages for anything but life-saving purposes. The distance between that government and the one we have is perhaps something to keep in mind.

Emergency alerts get scrutiny after deadly wildfires

Trump’s threat to abandon Puerto Rico presupposes that he hasn’t done so already. 1/3 without drinking water; perhaps 1/2 without adequate food; upwards of 3/4 without power. Puerto Rico: US officials privately acknowledge serious food shortage

Not mentioned: how batshit crazy it is for the free market to regard itself as twenty percent more valuable in less than a year. Opinion | Stock markets aren’t a good measure of presidential success. But even if they were, it’s not clear Trump would look great.

Apparently it’s not just me. Gay Producer Harvey Fierstein Is Getting A Ton Of Abuse From People Who Have The Wrong Harvey

Holy shit. Fucking moron does not begin to cover it. This is how you go down the path of eradicating humanity. Trump wanted dramatic increase in nuclear arsenal in military meeting

I may have said positive things about FEMA recently. I retract them. FEMA director: ‘We filtered out’ San Juan mayor ‘a long time ago’

?PSA: Knowing that you will tell any man to shove this sideways up his ass makes you wife material in my book.? chris on Twitter

?“Hi, I’m a Congressman, and I want All The Credit for nibbling around the edges of the actual problem in a telegenic fashion.”? David Cicilline on Twitter

You have got to be shitting me, part #17,382 Equifax blames hack on state actors, but breach followed spat with security contractor

The excellent RadioLab podcast is kicking off this week with a discussion of the trolley problem, Patrick Matthews. Podplayer – Podcast Addict web player