flakes of nuisance » empires flux http://mcneillfamily.com paying attention to distractions since 1958 Sat, 19 May 2012 17:09:20 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.2 An INTENSE moment of TRUTH with MAINSTREAM Media – YouTubehttp://mcneillfamily.com/2011/10/16/an-intense-moment-of-truth-with-mainstream-media-youtube/ http://mcneillfamily.com/2011/10/16/an-intense-moment-of-truth-with-mainstream-media-youtube/#comments Sun, 16 Oct 2011 11:41:20 +0000 admin http://mcneillfamily.com/?p=6649

An INTENSE moment of TRUTH with MAINSTREAM Media – YouTube.

]]> http://mcneillfamily.com/2011/10/16/an-intense-moment-of-truth-with-mainstream-media-youtube/feed/ 0 Google Engineer: “Google+ is a Prime Example of Our Complete Failure to Understand Platforms”http://mcneillfamily.com/2011/10/15/google-engineer-%e2%80%9cgoogle-is-a-prime-example-of-our-complete-failure-to-understand-platforms%e2%80%9d/ http://mcneillfamily.com/2011/10/15/google-engineer-%e2%80%9cgoogle-is-a-prime-example-of-our-complete-failure-to-understand-platforms%e2%80%9d/#comments Sat, 15 Oct 2011 13:51:15 +0000 admin http://mcneillfamily.com/?p=6647 Last night, high-profile Google engineer Steve Yegge mistakenly posted a long rant about working at Amazon and Google’s own issues with creating platforms on Google+. Apparently, he only wanted to share it internally with everybody at Google, but mistaken shared it publicly. For the most part, Yegge’s post focusses on the horrors of working at Amazon, a company that is notorious for its political infighting. The most interesting part to me, though, is Yegge’s blunt assessment of what he perceives to be Google’s inability to understand platforms and how this could endanger the company in the long run.

Google Engineer: [

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]]]> http://mcneillfamily.com/2011/10/15/google-engineer-%e2%80%9cgoogle-is-a-prime-example-of-our-complete-failure-to-understand-platforms%e2%80%9d/feed/ 0 change is already herehttp://mcneillfamily.com/2011/10/15/change-is-already-here/ http://mcneillfamily.com/2011/10/15/change-is-already-here/#comments Sat, 15 Oct 2011 13:45:43 +0000 admin http://mcneillfamily.com/?p=6645

]]> http://mcneillfamily.com/2011/10/15/change-is-already-here/feed/ 0 those islands near to Europe explainedhttp://mcneillfamily.com/2011/03/08/those-islands-near-to-europe-explained/ http://mcneillfamily.com/2011/03/08/those-islands-near-to-europe-explained/#comments Tue, 08 Mar 2011 11:44:38 +0000 admin http://mcneillfamily.com/?p=6547

The United Kingdom Explained from C. G. P. Grey on Vimeo.

Have some problems with this – not least being Northern Ireland coloured orange

]]> http://mcneillfamily.com/2011/03/08/those-islands-near-to-europe-explained/feed/ 0 Forgotten Bird of Paradise – undercover West Papua documentary (full version)http://mcneillfamily.com/2011/03/05/forgotten-bird-of-paradise-undercover-west-papua-documentary-full-version/ http://mcneillfamily.com/2011/03/05/forgotten-bird-of-paradise-undercover-west-papua-documentary-full-version/#comments Sat, 05 Mar 2011 17:43:39 +0000 admin http://mcneillfamily.com/?p=6541

]]> http://mcneillfamily.com/2011/03/05/forgotten-bird-of-paradise-undercover-west-papua-documentary-full-version/feed/ 0 change is difficulthttp://mcneillfamily.com/2011/02/09/change-is-difficult/ http://mcneillfamily.com/2011/02/09/change-is-difficult/#comments Wed, 09 Feb 2011 12:52:16 +0000 admin http://mcneillfamily.com/?p=6503

]]> http://mcneillfamily.com/2011/02/09/change-is-difficult/feed/ 0 Egypt’s Revolution: Coming to an Economy Near Youhttp://mcneillfamily.com/2011/02/03/egypts-revolution-coming-to-an-economy-near-you/ http://mcneillfamily.com/2011/02/03/egypts-revolution-coming-to-an-economy-near-you/#comments Thu, 03 Feb 2011 16:02:11 +0000 admin http://mcneillfamily.com/?p=6491 All of which brings me back to Egypt as the canary in a very large coal mine. It’s hard to overstate just how unexpected a transformation is occurring in Egypt. Death, taxes, and Hosni Mubarak — they were the three great certainties in modern Egyptian life.

But just underneath the surface, the tectonic pressure of dumb growth was steadily mounting. Bogus prosperity’s like magma, filling the volcanic chamber of a society: you can bottle it up for only so long before it erupts, and spectacularly. Today, the world’s gaze is fixed on the pyroclastic flow: never-ending demonstrations, protests, people [

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]]]> http://mcneillfamily.com/2011/02/03/egypts-revolution-coming-to-an-economy-near-you/feed/ 0 Social Media spells it out (not Misr?)http://mcneillfamily.com/2011/02/02/social-media-spells-it-out-not-misr/ http://mcneillfamily.com/2011/02/02/social-media-spells-it-out-not-misr/#comments Wed, 02 Feb 2011 14:58:12 +0000 admin http://mcneillfamily.com/?p=6489

]]> http://mcneillfamily.com/2011/02/02/social-media-spells-it-out-not-misr/feed/ 0 CAN AN OPEN SOURCE REVOLT TOPPLE EGYPT?http://mcneillfamily.com/2011/01/26/can-an-open-source-revolt-topple-egypt/ http://mcneillfamily.com/2011/01/26/can-an-open-source-revolt-topple-egypt/#comments Wed, 26 Jan 2011 14:21:42 +0000 admin http://mcneillfamily.com/?p=6472 Is is possible to replicate what happened in Tunisia in other countries, like Egypt?

Global guerrillas in Egypt are working on it. Here’s what is going on:

Numerous attempts at self-immoliation. Six in Egypt. These attempts at martyrdom are meant to symbolically spark revolution. Protests are being organized online. This one, called “day of revolt” and organized via Facebook, generated 16k supporters (although I suspect most of them are from people outside the country who are immune from retribution). The protest it sparked in Cairo resulted in three deaths and numerous clashes with Police. The Egyptian government is [

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]]]> http://mcneillfamily.com/2011/01/26/can-an-open-source-revolt-topple-egypt/feed/ 0 TUNISIA and OPEN SOURCE REVOLThttp://mcneillfamily.com/2011/01/21/tunisia-and-open-source-revolt/ http://mcneillfamily.com/2011/01/21/tunisia-and-open-source-revolt/#comments Fri, 21 Jan 2011 14:15:29 +0000 admin http://mcneillfamily.com/?p=6462 DK Matai has a great little outline on how the open source revolt spread in Tunisia.

It was very open much open source warfare (OSW, the dominant form of warfare in the 21st Century), but with a rapidly evolving protest/revolt twist (OSW + flashmobs). Thing is, the conditions within which the revolt spread are becoming pretty common. Here they are:

Extreme price shocks in basic commodities. Food and energy. Extreme corruption. A globally connected elite appropriating everything. Extreme connectivity. Cell phones and other social media.

Given that the global system is highly unstable (extreme leverage, concentration, tight coupling, [

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