FROM THE DESK OF CLEARANCEJOBS.COM
1. Lessons Learned – the Nuke Scandals. Contributor Jillian Hamilton explains, “Hiring is a team effort. It is critical that management and recruiters work together to find quality employees. Recruiters may make the initial promises, but management has to deliver with a workplace that encourages innovation and promotes integrity.”
2. Lessons Learned – Keeping the Faith. Also from Jillian Hamilton, keeping faith with employees: “At your next all-hands meeting or awards ceremony, make sure your communication to your employees is consistent with the company’s actions. If a leader wants employees to put in long hours, s/he better be burning the midnight oil too. If the company talks about the need to volunteer in the community, the leaders need to be the first ones there with their sleeves rolled up. Leadership is about walking the walk before talking the talk.”
THE FORCE AND THE FIGHT
1. Chechens’ slugfest in Afghanistan. ABC News’ James Gordon Meeks reports, “For the last 12 years, U.S. Special Operations forces have repeatedly engaged in fierce combat in Afghanistan against ruthless Taliban allies from Chechnya. . . . Chechens joining the Taliban and al Qaeda-aligned militias stood out for their ferocity and refusal to surrender, operators with considerable experience in eastern Afghanistan revealed in recent interviews.” Also, SecDef keeping the pressure on Karzai re the Bilateral Security Agreement.
2. Ukraine violence continues amid shaky settlement. Reuters’ Pavel Polityuk and Natalia Zinets report from Kiev, “Violence flared again in Kiev on Friday as Ukraine’s opposition politicians pondered a draft deal with Russian-backed President Viktor Yanukovich which EU foreign ministers brokered to resolve the country’s political crisis.” AP reports, “Ukraine’s presidency said Friday that it has negotiated an international deal intended to end battles between police and protesters that have killed scores and injured hundreds. It was unclear whether the deal would appease protesters, and shots rang out Friday morning in central Kiev.” And Time adds, “European officials warned that the overnight deal was still fragile.” DefenseOne.Com asks, “Will Ukraine Become a Proxy War Between U.S. and Russia?”
3. Mortars kill more in Iraq. Aljazeera.Com reports, “A mortar attack has struck a busy area in a mainly Shia town south of Iraq’s capital, killing at least 22 people and wounding more than 50 . . . . Mussayab, about 60km south of Baghdad, is in an area that holds a mix of Sunnis and Shias and has been a flashpoint for some of the worst sectarian violence in recent years.”
4. China to POTUS – stay away from Dalai Lama. Reuters’ Sui-Lee Wee and Roberta Rampton report, “China urged the United States on Friday to scrap plans for President Barack Obama to meet exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama later in the day, warning it would ‘seriously damage’ ties between the two countries. The White House National Security Council said Obama would meet the Dalai Lama, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, at the White House on Friday in a show of concern about China’s human rights practices.” DalaiLama.Com [seriously] reports [seriously], “Happiness, Free Enterprise and Human Flourishing in Washington DC.”
CONTRACT WATCH
1. BAE bounces with Saudi budget. DefenseNews.Com’s Andrew Chuter reports, “BAE Systems is forecasting a significant near-term decline in its US defense and security businesses but has been able to point to sizable deals with Saudi Arabia to help underpin its international order book in 2013 . . . . The US government is targeting defense spending reductions of $450 billion over a 10-year period, but BAE warned the defense industrial base is likely to be disproportionately affected because some areas of the budget, such as military personnel accounts, were being protected.”
2. GSA’s multi-billion dollar award. FederalTimes.Com’s Andy Medici reports, “The General Services Administration plans to award the small business portion of its much anticipated, 10-year, multibillion dollar OASIS contract by the end of February . . . . GSA will award the unrestricted portions of the contract by the end of March, according to the agency. The program will offer professional services, such as financial management and engineering, scientific and logistics services, and has separate contracts for small businesses and larger firms.”
TECH, PRIVACY, & SECRECY
1. Lockheed lasers on the verge. AviationWeek.Com reports, “Lockheed Martin has demonstrated that electric fiber lasers can be spectrally combined to produce a high-power, weapon-grade beam. Fiber lasers are used in communications and manufacturing, and component technology is being driven by commercial markets. What the aerospace industry has to do is find a way to take them to higher, lethal power levels. With the most power yet achieved with high electrical efficiency and beam quality, Lockheed says its 30-kw fiber laser is a key step toward tactical high-energy weapons.”
2. Crowdsource Prediction – guessing the future. DefenseOne.Com’s Patrick Tucker reports, “The SciCast site, which researchers at George Mason University launched in December, allows users from around the world to make predictions and pose questions in order to forecast possible future events and technological breakthroughs. And it’s funded by the Director of National Intelligence’s Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity, or IARPA.”
3. The 70s are back. Let’s get it on. VentureBeat.Com’s Pranav Dixit reports, “The Tranquility Pod — which looks like a mashup between a Henrik Thor-Larsen chair and a giant Mentos candy — is more than just another piece of pricey retro-futuristic furniture. Crawl through that inviting opening, and you’ll find yourself floating atop a six-foot-wide octagonal waterbed, encircled by soft LED mood lighting, and engulfed by sound waves from an 80-watt audio system. Once inside, you may never want to leave.” Accessory 21st century lava lamp: “The Philips Hue Connected light bulbs put 16 million colors right at your fingertips. A simple app lets you change the brightness and the color of each LED bulb to virtually anything you can think of — even when you’re away from your home. Yes, they’re pricey, but each will last up to 15 years.”
POTOMAC TWO-STEP
1. Cat Scratch Fever: “Sen. Rand Paul says Ted Nugent should apologize after the rocker called President Barack Obama a ‘subhuman mongrel’ in an interview with Guns.com last week. ‘Ted Nugent’s derogatory description of President Obama is offensive and has no place in politics. He should apologize,’ the Kentucky Republican tweeted Thursday night. . . . Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) told CNN he disagreed with Nugent’s language but also didn’t rule out campaigning with him in the future.” Remember this?
2. Dogs and Cats Sleeping Together: “Matt Bevin, the Republican vying to knock off Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) in a primary, suggested Wednesday that legalizing same-sex marriages could lead to marriages between a parent and child. Bevin, a businessman who has criticized McConnell as a Washington insider lacking conservative bona fides, said the problem with gay marriage is that it changes the definition of marriage. ‘If it’s all right to have same-sex marriages, why not define a marriage — because at the end of the day a lot of this ends up being taxes and who can visit who in the hospital and there’s other repressions and things that come with it — so a person may want to define themselves as being married to one of their children so that they can then in fact pass on certain things to that child financially and otherwise,’ Bevin said on ‘The Janet Mefferd Show,’ a conservative talk-radio show.”
OPINIONS EVERYONE HAS
1. “For Moscow, Ukraine is always ‘Little Russia.’” Reuters contributor Nina Khrushcheva argues, “To free itself from Russia’s control, Ukraine’s only option may be for Yanukovich to resign. Then the Russian president may back off — since he won’t have a state ally to defend. Even if Yanukovich resigns, however, Putin may still share in that sinister KGB skill to come out on top. Ukraine’s split may likely be assisted by Moscow, which is eager for its eastern territory — just as Abkhazia and South Ossetia were absorbed during the 2008 war with Georgia.”
2. “Ukraine Needs Change to Come From Within.” USNews.Com contributor Matthew Rojansky argues, “The dilemma for Ukraine is not only how to put an end to the current violence, but how to restore a sense of hope to those on both sides of the barricades that the future can be better. Ukrainians themselves seem to have run out of answers, and the outside powers whom some accuse of pulling strings in Ukraine — Russia, Europe and the United States — have little leverage to compel the government and opposition leaders to reach a compromise, much less persuade the combatants on the street to lay down their arms.”
3. “Is rape inevitable in war?” Aljazeera.Com contributor Elisabeth Wood argues, “Policy makers can learn valuable lessons by studying the groups that do not rape. Recent research indicates that in war, the threat of discipline may not be enough to prevent some combatants from engaging in rape as a practice. But groups that combine discipline with ongoing indoctrination emphasising respect for all civilians including women can effectively prohibit rape.”
THE FUNNIES
1. Snoozer sport.
2. Not so fast.
3. Backdrop burning.
