Dear Amazon.com Customer,
We've noticed that customers who have purchased or rated "Masters of War: Military Dissent and Politics in the Vietnam Era" by Robert Buzzanco have also purchased "Snuggly Bunny (Little Scholastic)" by Jill Ackerman. For this reason, you might like to know that "Snuggly Bunny (Little Scholastic)" will be released on February 1, 2009. You can pre-order yours by following the link below.
Showing posts with label hypertoobz. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hypertoobz. Show all posts
Best email I've got from Amazon yet
Amazon sends me lots of emails that recommend various books based on other books I've bought or rated on Amazon. Here is the best one so far:
The Meme of Seven
I have been tagged by Eddie and Peter in a meme.
The Rules:
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
The Rules:
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
1. This is the second time I am writing this post because blogger crapped out yesterday and ate the post.
2. Tomorrow, while my fiance will be working her tail off taking the boards exams, I will be relaxing watching Netherlands vs. Russia in the Euro2008 quarterfinal, and hoping to see my dad on TV (he has tickets and will be at the game!).
3. I think blog memes are a cool way of tracing networks of blogs.
4. I haven't updated my blog in a long time because of internet problems at home - it's not that I lost interest...
5. Everyone should go read/listen to my sister's interview of a big fancy-pants (literally - they wear fancy pants) music star, Stephen Connolly of the King's Singers.
6. I asked my fiance for a random fact about me and she said "you like soccer."
7. I am tagging Pat 7 times because he hasn't updated his blog in nine months.
Abu Muqawama
It's old news now that Abu Muqawama, A.K.A. Andrew Exum, has retired from blogging (temporarily I'm sure). What I hadn't noticed, due to reading Abu Muqawama via Google Reader, was that the Abu Muqawama comment section may be in the process of jumping the shark. A couple months ago you had great comment threads like this one. Now you have a 90 comment thread where anonymous trolls yell "defeatocrat" at each other. "I RED DUG FEITHS BOOK AND HE SEZ UR WRONG!@!!!1" I imagine the blog's remaining authors are too busy with their actual jobs to monitor the comment threads, although Dr. iRack smacks a few fools down in that last link.
Jumble of stuff
Below the cut are a bunch of cool stuff I've come across, most of which I would dedicate full posts to if I had the time.
Here is something that really ticks me off. People in the media, like Cokie Roberts in this video, and David Brooks in the New York Times, justify asking candidates stupid and inane questions because, according to Cokie, "these are the kinds of questions that will come up in the general election." Notice the use of the passive voice there. Do the questions ask themselves? Will a bush burst into flames and a booming voice ask Senator Obama "WHERE IS YOUR FLAG LAPEL PIN?" Cokie Roberts uses the passive voice to hide the fact that the media is the one that decides the questions will arise in the general campaign. If she was honest, what she would say is "we are justified in asking dumb questions in the primary, because we plan on asking dumb questions in the general election too." Paul Waldman makes the same point at the Prospect.
Some guy in prison in Texas is going to be on the ballot in Idaho's Democratic presidential primary, just by paying $1000 and taking advantage of stupid officials.
Here are some awesome pictures courtesy of the EPA's photo contest for Earth Day.
Via Kevin Drum, apparently there is a newer new left, made up of:
This Congressional Quarterly story by Jeff Stein is, according to Google News, literally THE ONLY story on the ongoing Italian trial of twenty-six American CIA agents for kidnapping (here's the Wikipedia article on it). The only thing more amazing than the story itself is the total lack of interest from the American press.
Andrew Exum writes in the Guardian on the difference between McCain, Clinton and Obama on defense, and specifically on how they view counterinsurgency. More Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have contributed to Obama than either McCain or Hillary.
This is a ten minute video, courtesy of Ghosts of Alexander, that perfectly highlights what Kalyvas calls the core/periphery cleavage in civil war. Two villages are on opposite sides of the Taliban/Government split, not necessarily because of ideology, but because they've had a historic rivalry. The microfoundations of conflict.
Here is something that really ticks me off. People in the media, like Cokie Roberts in this video, and David Brooks in the New York Times, justify asking candidates stupid and inane questions because, according to Cokie, "these are the kinds of questions that will come up in the general election." Notice the use of the passive voice there. Do the questions ask themselves? Will a bush burst into flames and a booming voice ask Senator Obama "WHERE IS YOUR FLAG LAPEL PIN?" Cokie Roberts uses the passive voice to hide the fact that the media is the one that decides the questions will arise in the general campaign. If she was honest, what she would say is "we are justified in asking dumb questions in the primary, because we plan on asking dumb questions in the general election too." Paul Waldman makes the same point at the Prospect.
Some guy in prison in Texas is going to be on the ballot in Idaho's Democratic presidential primary, just by paying $1000 and taking advantage of stupid officials.
Here are some awesome pictures courtesy of the EPA's photo contest for Earth Day.
Via Kevin Drum, apparently there is a newer new left, made up of:
...about a new breed of liberal writers who have emerged on the web—a network of writers who are bringing together reformism and idealism in a way we haven't seen in many years. I'm thinking of people like Joshua Micah Marshall (the man behind Talking Points Memo); Eric Alterman, the Nation columnist, author of many books, and blogger for Media Matters for America; Ezra Klein (The American Prospect); Kevin Drum (the Washington Monthly); Glenn Greenwald (Salon); Matthew Yglesias (the Atlantic); Bob Somerby (the Daily Howler); Rick Perlstein (the Campaign for America's Future); and the writer who goes by the name of Digby who blogs for her own website, digbysblog.
This Congressional Quarterly story by Jeff Stein is, according to Google News, literally THE ONLY story on the ongoing Italian trial of twenty-six American CIA agents for kidnapping (here's the Wikipedia article on it). The only thing more amazing than the story itself is the total lack of interest from the American press.
Andrew Exum writes in the Guardian on the difference between McCain, Clinton and Obama on defense, and specifically on how they view counterinsurgency. More Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have contributed to Obama than either McCain or Hillary.
This is a ten minute video, courtesy of Ghosts of Alexander, that perfectly highlights what Kalyvas calls the core/periphery cleavage in civil war. Two villages are on opposite sides of the Taliban/Government split, not necessarily because of ideology, but because they've had a historic rivalry. The microfoundations of conflict.
Updating the blogroll
I've added a few new blogs to the blogroll - here are some good posts you should check out if you have time.
Some guy "Rob" has a new blog Rob's Arabic Media Shack. Rob highlights interesting bits and provides summaries for the non-Arabic speakers among us, especially things that aren't covered in the U.S. press. Any blog that disses American media's foreign coverage as much as his does, I'm sure to like. He has good posts like:
Ghosts of Alexander is billed as Afghanistanica's replacement (which has unfortunately shut down). It's also new, with only three posts so far. It's first post is very good: A Strategic Communication Plan for Afghanistan.
Paul McCleary is a reporter for the Columbia Journalism Review and is currently reporting from Iraq on his blog War, the military, COIN and stuff. His posts are in depth and very good, for instance, this post The Sunni and the Shia are like the Tigris and the Euphrates, looking at how American soldiers are stuck trying to make sure the Iraqi Police, the Iraqi Army, and their new allies in the Sunni Awakening don't all kill each other.
Some guy "Rob" has a new blog Rob's Arabic Media Shack. Rob highlights interesting bits and provides summaries for the non-Arabic speakers among us, especially things that aren't covered in the U.S. press. Any blog that disses American media's foreign coverage as much as his does, I'm sure to like. He has good posts like:
Israel-Hezbullah II (wouldn't it be III?)The Insurgency Research Group blog is also new and so far has highlighted interesting COIN-related stuff from around the web. It's written by a couple academics in King's College, London.
Zawahiri vs. Sayyid Imam
US-Muslim Brotherhood Rapprochement?
Funding for Middle East Related Think Tanks
Ghosts of Alexander is billed as Afghanistanica's replacement (which has unfortunately shut down). It's also new, with only three posts so far. It's first post is very good: A Strategic Communication Plan for Afghanistan.
Paul McCleary is a reporter for the Columbia Journalism Review and is currently reporting from Iraq on his blog War, the military, COIN and stuff. His posts are in depth and very good, for instance, this post The Sunni and the Shia are like the Tigris and the Euphrates, looking at how American soldiers are stuck trying to make sure the Iraqi Police, the Iraqi Army, and their new allies in the Sunni Awakening don't all kill each other.
Aftermath of winter break
Classes start up tomorrow, so I'll be posting again as I desperately try to procrastinate (like Calvin said, it's only work if somebody makes you do it). I'll be writing my thesis (see this related request for information) and taking classes on conventional weapons technology and human intelligence operations.
I have stacks of books from Christmas as well - I'm currently reading T. E. Lawrence's Seven Pillars of Wisdom. The other books on my reading stack are Eric Hoffer's The True Believer, Ian Buruma's Murder in Amsterdam, Thomas Power's Intelligence Wars, Kenneth Macksey's The Hitler Options, Tip O'Neill's All Politics is Local, Dave Grossman's On Killing, Fawaz Gerges' The Far Enemy, Andrew Bacevich's The New American Militarism. As well as Ben Franklin's On the Choice of a Mistress, given to me by my apparently tolerant fiance.
Also, on an admin note, I just added some stuff to the blog's sidebar, including a list of highlighted posts (copying MountainRunner's and TDAXP's idea from their sites). I did this to make it easier for me to keep track of the posts that I put effort into, and in the hope that if potential employers stumble across this site, they'll look at those posts before my posts of silly cat pictures.
I have stacks of books from Christmas as well - I'm currently reading T. E. Lawrence's Seven Pillars of Wisdom. The other books on my reading stack are Eric Hoffer's The True Believer, Ian Buruma's Murder in Amsterdam, Thomas Power's Intelligence Wars, Kenneth Macksey's The Hitler Options, Tip O'Neill's All Politics is Local, Dave Grossman's On Killing, Fawaz Gerges' The Far Enemy, Andrew Bacevich's The New American Militarism. As well as Ben Franklin's On the Choice of a Mistress, given to me by my apparently tolerant fiance.
Also, on an admin note, I just added some stuff to the blog's sidebar, including a list of highlighted posts (copying MountainRunner's and TDAXP's idea from their sites). I did this to make it easier for me to keep track of the posts that I put effort into, and in the hope that if potential employers stumble across this site, they'll look at those posts before my posts of silly cat pictures.
Funny videos
Previous to seeing the "Nigeria is very complex" video from the Onion News Network, I had no idea the Onion News Network even existed. Here are a couple more excellent videos, about two minutes each. The first is "Al Qaeda Also Fed Up With Ground Zero Construction Delays" and the second is "Country Music Stars Challenge Al-Qaeda With Patriotic New Song ‘Bomb New York.’"
Al Qaeda Also Fed Up With Ground Zero Construction Delays
Country Music Stars Challenge Al-Qaeda With Patriotic New Song �Bomb New York�
Al Qaeda Also Fed Up With Ground Zero Construction Delays
Country Music Stars Challenge Al-Qaeda With Patriotic New Song �Bomb New York�
Challenging the new COIN doctrine
LtC Gian Gentile (who I mentioned earlier here) has an article challenging FM 3-24, also known as General Petraeus' counterinsurgency doctrine. It's started some spirited discussion, in which LtC Gian Gentile has taken part, at the Small Wars Journal forum. I found the thread when I noticed a bunch of hits all coming from a referral at SWJ. Apparently my two earlier posts mentioning LtC Gian Gentile are number two and three on Google. No idea how that happened.
Knowledge is everywhere...
...and that's scary!
Can Open Source be giving comfort to the enemy? At Chris Anderson's The Long Tail, found via Slashdot.
Chris Anderson is conflicted - he runs a website for makers of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to share their experiences and knowledge. UAVs have clear military applications (like the US's Predator drone), but Chris figured that since the "bad guys" already UAVs, what's the harm in sharing amateur knowledge? And then:
Amir is only 17 years old, reads Chris Anderson's website, and posted his own comment. Here's Amir's website. Most of his posts are in Farsi, but there are some English posts and also some pictures of his homemade UAV (very impressive). I tried to post a comment on Amir's post about the incident, but given that his site is in Farsi I don't really know whether I was successful.
Along the same kind of lines, Steven Levitt describes how he would attack the United States if he was a terrorist. He also wants to hear your ideas on how to create terror attacks:
Can Open Source be giving comfort to the enemy? At Chris Anderson's The Long Tail, found via Slashdot.
Chris Anderson is conflicted - he runs a website for makers of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to share their experiences and knowledge. UAVs have clear military applications (like the US's Predator drone), but Chris figured that since the "bad guys" already UAVs, what's the harm in sharing amateur knowledge? And then:
But all that came to a head today when I read the main UAV newsgroup, and saw that Amir Aalipour, an Iranian in Tehran, had posted some pictures of his swing-wing UAV (shown), proudly bedecked with the colors of the Iranian flag. He's been following the discussion in these forums for some time and now wanted to come forward with his own impressive work.An interesting question. Some websites/software have the "check here if you are a terrorist" box, and don't let you use the software if you are dumb enough to check that box. But on an open-source site like Chris' there's no real way to tell what people are using the technology for unless they tell you. Chris only got uneasy after seeing Amir's UAV painted with the Iranian flag - had Amir not painted his UAV, no problems for Chris.
...what should I do if Amir or someone like him from a country associated with Bad Stuff posts on our own forums looking for technical advice?
Amir is only 17 years old, reads Chris Anderson's website, and posted his own comment. Here's Amir's website. Most of his posts are in Farsi, but there are some English posts and also some pictures of his homemade UAV (very impressive). I tried to post a comment on Amir's post about the incident, but given that his site is in Farsi I don't really know whether I was successful.
Along the same kind of lines, Steven Levitt describes how he would attack the United States if he was a terrorist. He also wants to hear your ideas on how to create terror attacks:
Consider that posting them could be a form of public service: I presume that a lot more folks who oppose and fight terror read this blog than actual terrorists. So by getting these ideas out in the open, it gives terror fighters a chance to consider and plan for these scenarios before they occur.Usually red-teaming is not so public...
Signal Boosting
Please Define America's Grand Strategy
Hoyapolitik is "A Blog from Alumni, Students, and Faculty of Georgetown's Security Studies Program." It's relatively new but should prove to be interesting (I will be put up a post there once I have something relevant to post about).
My comment:
Hoyapolitik is "A Blog from Alumni, Students, and Faculty of Georgetown's Security Studies Program." It's relatively new but should prove to be interesting (I will be put up a post there once I have something relevant to post about).
My comment:
...I think one key part of strategy is prioritizing. In that, all of the recent Foreign Affairs essays by the presidential candidates are pathetic - “our key allies are all of western europe, all of eastern europe, india, china, japan, korea, and russia, plus south america too, and of course israel, and by the way africa is very important too.”
My strategy would be a more indirect approach to the rest of the world. My 1st priority would be reorganizing American security structures - the intel community, military, etc., away from the Cold War legacy and towards new, more relevant structures. That would have to be priority #1 because of the amount of political capital it would take. My 2nd priority would be similar to yours, trying to influence and manage the process of globalization. My 3rd, related, priority would be spreading liberal constitutionalism, primarily through supporting private individuals and NGOs who are already doing that type of work.
Back from Vacation
I'll post something when I get caught up on stuff and get back in the blogging groooooove.
Email subscription
As you can see on the right-hand side of the page, I am taking advantage of Feedburner's free email subscription service for feeds. So, you can just enter your email address, type the letters on the screen, and you will get an email whenever I update my blog.
Pageflakes
Thanks to New Yorker in DC, I stumbled across Pageflakes.com. It's a fun tool and a great way to procrastinate. I created my own Pageflakes and made it public - still a work in progress and I'll be updating it periodically. There's a link to it on the side of this page.
I have been tagged
I was tagged by Soob:
Politics & Soccer - was tagged by:
Soob - was tagged by (etc. etc.):
Zenpundit
Progressive Historians
Dr. History
Another History Blog
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub
Laelaps
A Blog Around the Clock
RevolutionHealth
Musings of a Distractible Mind
scan man
Failure is the key to success
Savvyology
Lord Matt
Virus Head
Grateful Bear
Chip's Quips
The Kat House
At this point I got tired of clicking. See random fact number 8.
------------------------
1. I chose my European History major because it meant I would be able to drop 3rd year German, in which all we did for the 5 weeks I remained in the class was read Communist texts from East Germany (this was 2004!).
2. I have 46 gigabytes of music on my computer, in addition to a few hundred CDs - jazz, rock, hip-hop, techno, reggae, bluegrass, blues, gaelic, gregorian chant and pre-gregorian chant, romantic, baroque (organ stuff), electronica, "ethnic" or "world music" (checking these categories makes me realize how inadequate these categories are), funk, folk, latin, R&B, and many that iTunes labels "other."
3. I only got in to Brown University because I was recruited for fencing (tip to parents - if you want your kids to go to good schools, start them fencing).
4. I live on top of a doctor's office.
5. Seven out of twelve pieces of furniture in my apartment come from Ikea. The rest were here when I moved in.
6. I get daily emails from I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER?.
7. I'm a rather picky eater, but I love bul goki, Anna's Tacqueria in Porter Square, and East Side Pockets on Thayer Street. I have yet to find a favorite restaurant in DC.
8. When I was in high school I considered going to Berklee and trying to become a professional musician, but decided I didn't have the discipline. I probably made the right choice.
I shall tag the following eight people: Current Conductor, Angry Guy Who Doesn't Know Much, Nanette (maybe it will force her to update her blog), this guy on summer vacation, Blue Blooded Journo, Catholicgauze, K and sithigh.
Players start with 8 random facts about themselves.I'm always curious as to how these things develop, so I traced it back a bit.
Those who are tagged should post these rules and their 8 random facts.
Players should tag 8 other people and notify them they have been tagged.
Politics & Soccer - was tagged by:
Soob - was tagged by (etc. etc.):
Zenpundit
Progressive Historians
Dr. History
Another History Blog
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub
Laelaps
A Blog Around the Clock
RevolutionHealth
Musings of a Distractible Mind
scan man
Failure is the key to success
Savvyology
Lord Matt
Virus Head
Grateful Bear
Chip's Quips
The Kat House
At this point I got tired of clicking. See random fact number 8.
------------------------
1. I chose my European History major because it meant I would be able to drop 3rd year German, in which all we did for the 5 weeks I remained in the class was read Communist texts from East Germany (this was 2004!).
2. I have 46 gigabytes of music on my computer, in addition to a few hundred CDs - jazz, rock, hip-hop, techno, reggae, bluegrass, blues, gaelic, gregorian chant and pre-gregorian chant, romantic, baroque (organ stuff), electronica, "ethnic" or "world music" (checking these categories makes me realize how inadequate these categories are), funk, folk, latin, R&B, and many that iTunes labels "other."
3. I only got in to Brown University because I was recruited for fencing (tip to parents - if you want your kids to go to good schools, start them fencing).
4. I live on top of a doctor's office.
5. Seven out of twelve pieces of furniture in my apartment come from Ikea. The rest were here when I moved in.
6. I get daily emails from I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER?.
7. I'm a rather picky eater, but I love bul goki, Anna's Tacqueria in Porter Square, and East Side Pockets on Thayer Street. I have yet to find a favorite restaurant in DC.
8. When I was in high school I considered going to Berklee and trying to become a professional musician, but decided I didn't have the discipline. I probably made the right choice.
I shall tag the following eight people: Current Conductor, Angry Guy Who Doesn't Know Much, Nanette (maybe it will force her to update her blog), this guy on summer vacation, Blue Blooded Journo, Catholicgauze, K and sithigh.
Who reads my blog?
I added "Clustrmaps" to my blog back on May 9th, because I'm a sucker for any free stuff that has even marginal usefulness. In the almost two months since I added Clustrmaps, I've had 1009 hits from 866 different addresses, including a few international visitors. So I'd like to take the time to say hello to my international visitors.
Salaam to you in Tehran, Iran, Qatar (or someplace near Qatar in the Persian Gulf - the map is too small to see clearly), and Jiddah.
Konnichi wa to you in Japan.
Magandang tanghali po to you in the Philippines.
Ahn nyeong to you in South Korea.
Pree-vyet to you in St. Petersburg (or maybe in Estonia, but I will assume St. Petersburg because I don't know how to say hello in Estonian).
Merhaba to you in Ankara, Turkey.
G'day to you in Australia.
I am still waiting for my first visitor from South America or Africa.
Salaam to you in Tehran, Iran, Qatar (or someplace near Qatar in the Persian Gulf - the map is too small to see clearly), and Jiddah.
Konnichi wa to you in Japan.
Magandang tanghali po to you in the Philippines.
Ahn nyeong to you in South Korea.
Pree-vyet to you in St. Petersburg (or maybe in Estonia, but I will assume St. Petersburg because I don't know how to say hello in Estonian).
Merhaba to you in Ankara, Turkey.
G'day to you in Australia.
I am still waiting for my first visitor from South America or Africa.
Blogroll
On the right side of the blog, I made a blogroll. It should go without saying that I don't agree with every crazy thing these people say, so in thirty years when I'm facing Senate confirmation, don't ask me to defend them!
I figured I would create a blogroll after Michael Tanji added me to his. To my knowledge it's the only one I'm on, but quality over quantity!
A post about blogs is an excuse to post an XKCD comic:
I figured I would create a blogroll after Michael Tanji added me to his. To my knowledge it's the only one I'm on, but quality over quantity!
A post about blogs is an excuse to post an XKCD comic:
Steve Gilliard
Steve Gilliard, of The News Blog, recently passed away. He was fighting some sort of heart disease for a while, and finally it got him. He was one of the first blogs I read at his old site and at DailyKos. He'd write a lot about politics, but also about random stuff like cooking and soccer. I was going to do an actual post today, as it is crummy outside, but then I saw that I had 99 posts published, and I figured it would be fitting to honor one of the guys who inspired me to blog with this blog's 100th post.
RIP.
RIP.
Weather Intelligence
Apparently there is actually an abbreviation for weather intelligence - "Wx."
One of the things I love about blogging is the level playing field. I get to engage life-long professionals in politics and national security as, if not equals, at least something like possible-future-equals. I get a bit of a thrill when an established blogger notices me (the weakness of the human ego). One example of this that is the first-ever comment on my blog (which is still quite young) was from Nicholas Gvosdev, the editor of the National Interest. More recently, the intelligence blog "Kent's Imperative" (a riff on Kant's Imperative and Sherman Kent) noticed my post on the National Intelligence Estimate on Climate Change. Woo, validation! Kent's Imperative categorizes the climate change NIE as weather intelligence.
Probably the most fascinating example of weather intelligence is during the Normandy landings. The weather patterns in the Atlantic and Western Europe were generally unfavorable to landings, because the Allies needed the light of the full moon as well as clear skies in order for their aircraft to find their drop zones, as well as for the tide to be at its highest possible point. This confluence was rare. The weather patterns in that region meant that weather moved from the Atlantic eastwards to France. Allied domination of the seas meant that they would have advance warning of the weather, compared to the Germans who didn't know what was beyond the horizon from the French coastline.
The days before the June landings were cloudy and unfavorable for an amphibious assault in France. The Germans assumed that this weather would continue for the next several days, and thus the Germans assumed that the Allies would be unable to attack for several days and lowered their readiness. Rommel took the occasion to visit his wife in Germany for her birthday, and many division commanders, etc were also away. The Allies, however, knew that there was a gap in the clouds that would arrive on June 6, and thus they executed their attack on June 6. The Allies' superiority in Wx gave them a direct decision advantage over the Germans that they were able to leverage by achieving total surprise (or as close as they could have achieved in the broader picture).
It seems to me that weather intelligence is not easily classified into HUMINT, GEOINT, MASINT, OSINT, or any of the other stovepipes. If Wx was collected by individuals on the ground ("Brr I'm cold"), it would be HUMINT. If Wx was collected via satellite, it might be GEOINT, if it was collected by measuring barometric pressure, it might be MASINT, or if it was collected by reading the newspaper's weather forecasts, it would be open source intelligence. Given these requirements, as well as that Wx would only really be useful to a limited set of consumers (soldiers on the ground, pilots, or people trying to predict environmental disasters) Wx must be a massive headache to manage. The IC apparently decided it would fit in the Air Force, in the Air Force Weather Agency, although that agency is only ten years old.
That's another great thing about blogs (and the interblag in general) - it can get me off on tangents, and I end up learning by accident.
One of the things I love about blogging is the level playing field. I get to engage life-long professionals in politics and national security as, if not equals, at least something like possible-future-equals. I get a bit of a thrill when an established blogger notices me (the weakness of the human ego). One example of this that is the first-ever comment on my blog (which is still quite young) was from Nicholas Gvosdev, the editor of the National Interest. More recently, the intelligence blog "Kent's Imperative" (a riff on Kant's Imperative and Sherman Kent) noticed my post on the National Intelligence Estimate on Climate Change. Woo, validation! Kent's Imperative categorizes the climate change NIE as weather intelligence.
Probably the most fascinating example of weather intelligence is during the Normandy landings. The weather patterns in the Atlantic and Western Europe were generally unfavorable to landings, because the Allies needed the light of the full moon as well as clear skies in order for their aircraft to find their drop zones, as well as for the tide to be at its highest possible point. This confluence was rare. The weather patterns in that region meant that weather moved from the Atlantic eastwards to France. Allied domination of the seas meant that they would have advance warning of the weather, compared to the Germans who didn't know what was beyond the horizon from the French coastline.
The days before the June landings were cloudy and unfavorable for an amphibious assault in France. The Germans assumed that this weather would continue for the next several days, and thus the Germans assumed that the Allies would be unable to attack for several days and lowered their readiness. Rommel took the occasion to visit his wife in Germany for her birthday, and many division commanders, etc were also away. The Allies, however, knew that there was a gap in the clouds that would arrive on June 6, and thus they executed their attack on June 6. The Allies' superiority in Wx gave them a direct decision advantage over the Germans that they were able to leverage by achieving total surprise (or as close as they could have achieved in the broader picture).
It seems to me that weather intelligence is not easily classified into HUMINT, GEOINT, MASINT, OSINT, or any of the other stovepipes. If Wx was collected by individuals on the ground ("Brr I'm cold"), it would be HUMINT. If Wx was collected via satellite, it might be GEOINT, if it was collected by measuring barometric pressure, it might be MASINT, or if it was collected by reading the newspaper's weather forecasts, it would be open source intelligence. Given these requirements, as well as that Wx would only really be useful to a limited set of consumers (soldiers on the ground, pilots, or people trying to predict environmental disasters) Wx must be a massive headache to manage. The IC apparently decided it would fit in the Air Force, in the Air Force Weather Agency, although that agency is only ten years old.
That's another great thing about blogs (and the interblag in general) - it can get me off on tangents, and I end up learning by accident.
New era in politics
Ed Markey posts the first ever Youtube video filmed from the perspective of the chairman of a Congressional Committee.
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