Monday, September 20, 2010

Rumsfeld's New Book: Press STILL too Stupid to Understand

In the early days after 9/11/01 Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was excorciated in the press for the explaining the difference between types of things we know, the things we do not know, and the things we do not know we know. Now his new book is about to come out and is titled "Known and Unknown" and the clueless AP continues to wallow in its ignorance. From the Washington Examiner's Version:

"Known and Unknown" refers to a widely quoted explanation — praised by some as philosophy, criticized by others as double-talk — Rumsfeld offered in 2002 about the lack of evidence that Iraq was supplying terrorists with weapons of mass destruction.
"Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because, as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know that we know," he said. "There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we now know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we do not know we don't know."

Philosophy? Double-talk? How about long-used definitions in Risk, Project, and Program Managment disciplines?
Perhaps the media's cluelessness concerning such concepts is understandable. After all, this way of determining where one has gaps in knowledge and the nature of those gaps is a tool used by people who, y'know, actually do something instead of just talking and writing about it.

Which come to think of it, probably also explains why the Media and the Left tried to hold President Bush accountable for 'mistakes' that were merely outcomes that could not be reliably predicted: they never heard of Thucidides' Imponderables either.

Saturday, September 11, 2010

History Revealing Itself?

Updated: 9/15/10
Don't know if a story that is developing out in the wilds is a (complete) hoax or not, but if it is real, it will be really something. I'll talk to friends and family offline in detail but for now, ponder what these things just might have in common:
1. Vichy French
2. FW-200
3. Me-109
4. Kai Do Maru (sp?)
5. Showa/Nakajima L2D
6. Japanese Naval Attache Marines/Paratroopers
NEW:
7. Sorta "Fake" IJN Attache Case: Real but 'Planted'