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Welcome to the Monday Morning News Kick Off post from got geoint? As always, we hope you had a restful weekend. Perhaps you all enjoyed some pre-Valentine’s Day celebration this past weekend? Or watched Justin Bieber get stumped at the Grammys? Either way, it’s Monday and time to get back into the game. And what better way to do this that by reading our MMNKO post. So, as we always say…fire up that second cup of coffee and read on!

Northrop CEO Says Export Controls Should be Eased
The government needs to launch new programs and ease export controls to ensure defense contractors remain capable and viable, said Wes Bush, chief executive and president of Northrop Grumman, in a speech to the region’s technology community last week. Bush — known as a young executive rapidly remaking one of the largest of the country’s military contracting businesses — acknowledged the federal government’s budget difficulties, but he said policymakers must find a way to preserve incentives to innovate. Read the full Washington Post article here.

Defense Budget Dreaming: Sensors, Audits, and Wal-Marts
The $553 billion budget that the Pentagon will unveil today puts us in mind of a Radiohead song: no alarms and no surprises. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen already revealed much of its content during his “efficiencies initiative” briefing last month: no more swimming tank for the Marines, no more awesomely-named SLAMRAMM air defense system for the Army, a new long-range bomber for the Air Force, an arrested rate of growth in defense spending down the road. Gates and Mullen will fill in the details this afternoon. But inevitably, a lot of good ideas are going to be left on the table, either because of politics, lack of imagination or general inertia. Some of the most left-field suggestions that you’re unlikely to see in the fiscal year 2012 defense budget? Flooding infantry squads with sensors or drones. Auditing the Pentagon. And shutting down the military’s faux Wal-Marts. Read the full Wired Danger Room post here.

4-Star General, 5-Star Grace
Graciousness can pay priceless dividends. And it doesn’t cost a thing. You may have heard the story about what happened between White House adviser Valerie Jarrett and Four-star Army Gen. Peter Chiarelli at a recent Washington dinner. As reported by the website Daily Caller, Jarrett, a longtime Chicago friend of President Obama, was seated at the dinner when a general — later identified as Chiarelli, the No. 2-ranking general in the U.S. Army hierarchy, who was also a guest at the gathering — walked behind her. Chiarelli was in full dress uniform. Jarrett, apparently only seeing Chiarelli’s striped uniform pants, thought that he was a waiter. She asked him to get her a glass of wine. Read the full CNN article here.

Revenge of the Valentine’s Day Map
A year ago I fired off a quick post with a world map in the Werner projection, which of course we all know is heart-shaped and the ultimate expression of love. In the hopes of establishing a stupid annual tradition, I wanted to do another map this year, and after concluding that simply projecting or arranging maps into heart shapes has been played out, I decided to work for it this time. Let’s cut to the chase. I traveled a path around town in the shape of a heart as best I could. It was 10.44 miles (that’s 9,872 smoots in the local system of measurement), and the reason it’s awesome is that part of it was on a boat. Check out more from the Cartogrammar Blog here.

Valentine’s Day in Google Earth
Although we dedicated our most recent Friday’s Food for Thought post to all things GEOINT and Valentine’s Day. We came across this video from Google Earth that shows all of the heart-shaped forms on our lovely planet. We hope you enjoy and happy Monday!

Tags: Army Gen. Peter Chiarelli, GEOINT, Google Earth and Valentin'e Day, got geoint?, Northrop Grumman, Pentagon Budget, USGIF