Thirsty Thursday

FROM THE DESK OF CLEARANCEJOBS.COM

Finding the perfect job. Editor Lindy Kyzer writes, “Many veterans try to take every military skill and list it on their resume. What they’re failing to do is decide what career path they’d actually love. When you start with work you’d enjoy, your application process, and eventually your work day, will be that much better. Here are a few tips for helping you refine your resume and tap into a career you’d love. . . .”

High demand, high salary: STEM. Contributor Peter Suciu reports, “From 2000 to 2015 there was a jump from 10 million to 18 million positions, while the number of STEM employees is expected to increase 55 percent faster than non-STEM jobs over the next 10 years. According to a data from CNN based on a PayScale report, one of the highest in-demand and highest paid positions is in the field of cybersecurity.”

THE FORCE AND THE FIGHT

Peshmerga offensive. Reuters’ Isabel Coles reports, “Backed by U.S. air strikes, Kurdish forces said they captured several villages in an offensive on Thursday to retake the Iraqi town of Sinjar from Islamic State militants who overran it more than a year ago. . . . Operation Free Sinjar aims to cordon off the town, take control of Islamic State supply routes and establish a buffer zone to protect the town from artillery . . . .” See also, “Kurds launch offensive.”

Vets: peace at home. Christian Science Monitor contributor Nissa Rhee reports, “Every Saturday for 16 weeks, 36 teens and 12 veteran mentors work through a structured curriculum that teaches them strategies for coping with trauma and loss. They talk about experiences in their respective ‘combat zones,’ bond over games, and take field trips to places like the Pritzker Military Museum in Chicago. . . . While the primary goal of Urban Warriors is to help the mentees, many of the veterans have found it beneficial as well. As combat veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan, some of the mentors are struggling with traumatic pasts while searching for a sense of purpose as civilians.”

Soldier’s story. Vice News’ Taylor Lambert tells the tale: “Raised in rural southern Ontario by a single mother attending university, John Robert — as he was called as a boy — displayed intellectual gifts from an early age. He loved science, reading informational children’s books about dinosaurs and hanging a poster of the periodic table on his wall. He wanted to be a physicist and spent his childhood summers reading high school physics textbooks. John Robert joined the air cadets in elementary school and expressed an interest in becoming a military officer around age 12. By the time he was in high school, he called himself J.R. and wanted to be an infantryman.”

CONTRACT WATCH

Air Force C-130J orders.  Military & Aerospace Electronics Editor John Keller reports, “The U.S Air Force is buying 17 new Lockheed Martin C-130J four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft with digital avionics under terms of a $968.7 million contract modification . . . . The C-130J-30 is a stretched version of the standard C-130J that is 15 feet longer than the standard aircraft. The HC-130J is an extended-range search-and-rescue version of the Super Hercules, while the MC-130J is a special operations version of the plane. The KC-130J, meanwhile, is a aerial refueling aircraft.”

Pentagon’s Better Buying Power. Government Executive’s Charles S. Clark reports, “Five years after the Defense Department launched its series of Better Buying Power initiatives, its evolving, multi-component reform plan for weapons acquisition has proven to be the best available approach, a business group said . . . . The plan launched by Ash Carter well before he became Defense secretary is described as a ‘novel attempt at improving the productivity and efficiency of a deeply entrenched system’ . . . .”

TECH, PRIVACY, & SECRECY

Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) spy game. Homeland Security News Wire reports, “BND, Germany’s intelligence service, spied on the FBI, French foreign minister Laurent Fabius, UNICEF — the UN Children’s Fund, the International Court of Justice in The Hague, and the World Health Organization, among many other targets. What may upset many Germans is the fact that the list of BND surveillance targets also included German citizens. Germany has strict privacy laws and German citizens are not allowed to be spied on without a thorough review by the courts.”

China’s stealth stuff. Defense One’s Patrick Tucker reports, “A group of scientists from China may have created a stealth material that could make future fighter jets very difficult to detect by some of today’s most cutting-edge anti-stealth radar. The researchers developed a new material they say can defeat microwave radar at ultrahigh frequencies, or UHF.”

MIT’s LineFORM. Fast Company’s John Brownlee reports, “It’s called the LineFORM, a shape-changing interface that they think opens up ‘new possibilities for display, interaction, and body constraint.’ Like everything the Tangible Media Group does, it’s a thought experiment on the future of UI. And that future, according to MIT, isn’t going to be about poking at screens. It’s going to be about bending lines.”

Darwin learns. Nextgov contributor Mike Murphy reports, “There are so many precious moments in a newborn’s life that parents love to capture on film: The first time their child sits up on her own, the first time she stands, her first cautious steps. Igor Mordatch, a robotics post-doctorate student at the University of California, Berkeley, has been doing similarly for a humanoid robot, called Darwin, which he programed to learn just like a human child might.”

POTOMAC TWO-STEP

Nice job. Not. “Congressional approval has hit its record low for 2015, with just 11 percent of those surveyed giving the legislative branch a positive rating, a new Gallup poll shows. Republicans were more likely to disapprove than their counterparts across the aisle. Ninety-two percent of Republicans gave the legislative branch a negative rating, 3 percent higher than Democrats and 5 percent high than independents. The polling organization attributed the slip in numbers to frustration over party leadership and a lack of achieving several key legislative goals.”

Gitmo gallop. “Congress would ‘go to court’ if President Obama tries to close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, by executive action, Senate Armed Services Chairman John McCain said Tuesday. The Arizona Republican said closing the prison without submitting a plan to Congress for approval would be outlawed by legislation senators sent to the president Tuesday, which White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the president would sign. But the White House has been hinting for days that Obama may act on his own to close the prison if Congress does not approve its proposal. McCain said that would be unacceptable.”

OPINIONS EVERYONE HAS

Germany’s BND Scandal Puts Snowden Leaks in Context.” World Politics Review contributor Michael A. Cohen argues, “The world might be more connected and cooperative than ever before. Allies might share intelligence on a regular basis. But countries still seek advantages where they can find them. They always will. And they won’t always be honest about it.”

The Secret to Defeating the ISIS ‘Caliphate’ Might Just Be in Islam Itself.” Defense One contributor Haroon Moghul argues, “There has never been a more urgent need for religious renewal. The demise of the caliphate in 1924 left a gaping hole at the heart of Sunni Islam (the denomination to which I belong).”

America Isn’t Losing the War of Ideas to ISIS.” Also from Defense One, contributor J. M. Berger argues, “[L]ike Nazism and Soviet communism, ISIS’s brand of jihadism will not be vanquished by ideas alone. ISIS will continue to pose an ideological threat for as long as it holds territory and exists as a cohesive entity. The most decisive defeat of its ideas will almost certainly coincide with its defeat on the battlefield.”

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Ed Ledford enjoys the most challenging, complex, and high stakes communications requirements. His portfolio includes everything from policy and strategy to poetry. A native of Asheville, N.C., and retired Army Aviator, Ed’s currently writing speeches in D.C. and working other writing projects from his office in Rockville, MD. He loves baseball and enjoys hiking, camping, and exploring anything. Follow Ed on Twitter @ECLedford.