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Now that everyone has shaken off the tryptophan side-effects from eating too much Thanksgiving turkey, we are ready to get focused and back to work. What better way to dive into the challenging work world than to read up on the latest news and headlines — beyond the Tiger Woods car crash (although it does seem a bit shady) — that impacts you. Today, we have compiled a number of stories that cover both domestic and international topics; news about Japan and India’s expanded space/satellite power, as well as a sobering post about the U.S. losing its dominance. As we always say, fire up that second cup of coffee and read on.

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Right about now, most of our readers are gathered with family and loved ones getting ready to enjoy a Thanksgiving feast. The editorial staff of got geoint? would like to wish everyone a healthy and happy Thanksgiving. For your reading pleasure, we found an article from our friends at Washington Technology that highlights “7 Government IT Turkeys,” projects that were essentially doomed. As the article states, “some of these projects have been unmitigated disasters, abandoned before the pop-up thermometer ever popped up, after years of work and millions, or even billions, of dollars. Others scuffled along for years — frustrating department heads, Congress and regular users while keeping inspectors general and the Government Accountability Office fully employed – before coughing up some results.” So, if you are in the need of some holiday-time schadenfreude, check out the full article here. Enjoy and Happy Thanksgiving!

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As many of our readers know, Leon Panetta has had a fairly rough go at being the somewhat-new Director of the CIA. Many CIA veterans questioned his lack of formal intel experience, and when he failed to protect the agency from the political backlash over its Bush-era detention and interrogation practices, many felt that he may not be the best man for the job. Recently, however, Panetta has made major strides in overcoming these doubts — especially for successfully defending the agency’s turf from Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair. This week, Time Magazine ran an indepth story about his turnaround, which you can read here. Also, check out this “2 minute bio” from Time as well here.

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Recruiting and human capital management has always been a priority for the Intelligence Community. The ongoing need for finding the right talent to meet the ever growing demands that come with securing our nation will continue to be an ongoing priority. Federal News Radio recently attended the Federal Symposium on Human Capital Management and broadcasted the presentation of ODNI Chief Human Capital Officer Ron Sanders, who discussed how half of the IC workforce has been hired since 9/11, creating a “trough” of workers between the employees with less than eight years of service, and those with more than 20 years. He also discussed emerging trends on a global and technological scale. Check out the audio of his presentation here.

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Former GEOINT keynote speaker Gen. Robert Kehler, U.S. Air Force, Commander, Air Force Space Command, recently sat down with Defense Systems magazine to discuss the challenges of defending cyberspace, Global Positioning System capabilities and space assets. As many of our reader know, he oversees Air Force network and cyberspace operations; manages a global network of satellite command-and-control, communications, missile warning and launch facilities; ensures the combat readiness of the United States’ intercontinental ballistic missile force; and is responsible for space system development and acquisition. He leads more than 43,000 personnel who are assigned to 86 locations worldwide. Check out the full Q&A here.

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Since the beginning of the American Republic, science and national security have had a long history of interplay. While the nature of their interaction has evolved over the centuries, the premise that strength in science is key to strong national security has long been broadly accepted. Traditional formulations of this premise have often focused on the role scientific advances and science-based technological progress played in supporting warriors with superior weapons and weapons platforms. However, science has also long played a role expanding military capabilities in what experts call “intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance” technologies, or ISR. Interested in reading more? Check out the rest of this article penned by USGIF board member Chris Tucker on the Science Progress blog here.

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Welcome to the Monday Morning News Kick Off post officially on got geoint? As we do each week, we have compiled a number of GEOINT/Intelligence/Defense-related stories that we consider “actionable” news — news you need to kick off the work week in the right foot. This week’s installment has a mixture of international news (Iran is planning to launch a communications satellite in 2011) to stock-related news regarding TomTom (yes, the stock is down – not a surprise). So, as we always say, fire up that second cup of coffee and read on. Happy

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Welcome once again to our Friday’s Food for Thought post. Since we have been doing posts lately about the mapping of human behaviors (i.e., sins and corruption), we decided to make this week’s FFT post all about the mapping of human activity and the concept of the collective unconscious. We spend a considerable amount of time focusing on mapping and imagery of our globe for various GEOINT purposes. Perhaps it is time to use the same analytical thinking to map what makes us tick as human beings? Pretty heady stuff for sure, but it is Friday after all. Hope you enjoy.

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Our reader may recall that we did a post a while back on the mapping of America’s sins. And, as expected, our nation was full of sinners. Now, we have come across study from Transparency International who has created a corruption index and map for gauging the corruption level of every nation. The big surprise is that the U.S. did not fare as well as other first world nations including Canada, Germany, Switzerland, Australia and Ireland. According to Wired Magazines coverage of this index, the U.S. rated below these countries because of the influence of lobbying on our lawmaking and the ongoing controversy over how we’ve prosecuted the war on terror. You can read the Wired article here, as well as see the actual index here.

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We all know that GEOINT 2009 was a world-class event this year. The caliber of speakers, the technology in the exhibition hall and the caliber of networking were unparalleled. It’s also exciting to gain the perspective of other media outlets that attended and covered the event. Art Kalinski attended GEOINT 2009 and penned an editorial in GPS World about how there is agreement in the geospatial community that GEOINT is the place to be. Of course, we could not agree more. And, the article highlights how, despite the weak economy, “the over-arching opinion of all attendees was that the intelligence business will continue to grow regardless of world politics. By its nature, this conference really had many more “chiefs” than “Indians,” and many exhibitors spared no expense at the conference, knowing that they were reaching key decision makers.” We recommend you read the full article here.

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