Showing posts with label education. Show all posts
Showing posts with label education. Show all posts

Monday, August 9, 2021

TTP - Thousand Talents Scam - Qiming

21-12-23 How China's Biggest Spies were CAUGHT in 2021 - serpentza > .
23-8-27 [Qiming is new name for TTP intellectual poaching plan] - Update > .
23-4-16 R-U Hybrid Warfare: P00paganda, cyber, hybrid methods - Perun > .
22-11-19 G20 '22 Biden-Xi meeting = "start of a new Cold War" - Times > .
22-9-21 Western scholars debate decoupling; Xi plots tech dominance - Digging > .
22-3-24 Chinese Influence Over Australian Universities | JoAnd > . full > .

TTP - Thousand Talents Scam ..

In response to widespread Western negative reaction and pushback, Xina has attempted to duck beneath the radar by relabeling its scheme to poach intellectuals and steal intellectual property. The current iteration of the program is called Qiming, administered by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Qiming Venture Partners (啟明創投; Qǐmíng chuàngtóu) is a Xina based Venture capital firm. It primarily invests in Technology, Internet and Healthcare related companies across Xina. It is headquartered in Shanghai with offices in Beijing, Suzhou, Shenzhen and Hong Kong. It mainly focuses on investments in China. Investors include Princeton University, Duke University and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. In 2017, it set up its American branch, Qiming Venture Partners (USA). The branch is headquartered in Seattle, Washington with offices in Cambridge, Massachusetts and San Francisco, California.

The Thousand Talents Plan or Thousand Talents Program (TTP), or Overseas High-Level Talent Recruitment Programs was established in 2008 by the central government of China to recognize and recruit leading international experts in scientific research, innovation, and entrepreneurship. Both the United States and Canada have warned that China intends to use scientists who are involved with this plan to gain access to new technology for economic and military advantage.


The success of the program in recruiting U.S.-trained scientists back to China has been viewed with concern from the U.S., with a June 2018 report from the National Intelligence Council declaring an underlying motivation of the program to be “to facilitate the legal and illicit transfer of US technology, intellectual property and know-how” to China

In January 2020, the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested Charles M. Lieber, the chair of Harvard University's Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, for lying about his ties to the program

In May 2020, the FBI arrested a former researcher at the Cleveland Clinic for failing to disclose ties to the Thousand Talents Program. 

In June 2020, it was reported that the National Institutes of Health had investigations into the behavior of 189 scientists. In November 2020, Song Guo Zheng, a TTP participant, pled guilty to making false claims to the FBI about his ties to the Chinese government during his employment at Ohio State University.

In November 2019, the US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations and Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs held an open hearing on the China's Talent Recruitment Plans, including the TTP, and called the programs a threat to national security. The report from the hearing cited TTP contracts as violating research values, TTP members willfully failing to disclose their membership to their home institutions, and cited numerous cases against TTP members for theft of intellectual property and fraud. One TTP member stole proprietary defense information on U.S. military jet engines. The report indicated that "TTP targets U.S.-based researchers and scientists, regardless of ethnicity or citizenship, who focus on or have access to cutting-edge research and technology."

In August 2020Canadian Security Intelligence Service warned both Canadian universities and Canadian research institutions of the TTP, saying that it recruited researchers and scientists around the world to persuade them to share their research and technology — either willingly or by coercion.

The program grew out of the "Talent Superpower Strategy" of the 17th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party in 2007. The Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party and State Council of the People's Republic of China elevated the program in 2010 to become the top-level award given through China's National Talent Development Plan to strengthen innovation and international competitiveness within China. In 2019, the program was re-branded as the "National High-end Foreign Experts Recruitment Plan." The United Front Work Department's Western Returned Scholars Association is the official representative body for program participants.

1000 Talent Plan professorship is the highest academic honor awarded by the State Council, analogous to the top-level award given by the Ministry of Education. The program includes two mechanisms: resources for permanent recruitment into Chinese academia, and resources for short-term appointments that typically target international experts who have full-time employment at a leading international university or research laboratory.

The program has three categories:
  • Innovative 1000 Talents plan (Long term / Short term) – for Chinese scholars below 55 years of age
  • Foreign 1000 Talents plan (Long term / Short term) – for foreigners only below 55 years of age
  • Young scholar 1000 Talents plan or Overseas Young Talents Project of China — for those below 40 years of age
The program has been praised for recruiting top international talent to China, but also criticized for being ineffective at retaining the talent.

Conflict of interest and fraud concerns: Although the program has successfully attracted top international talent to China, its efficacy in retaining these talented individuals has been questioned, with many of the most talented scientists willing to spend short periods in China but unwilling to abandon their tenured positions at major Western universities. Additionally, some Thousand Talents Plan Professors have reported fraud in the program including misappropriated grant funding, poor accommodations, and violations of research ethicsDismissals due to undisclosed connections to the TTP have taken place. Individuals who receive either of China's two top academic awards, the Thousand Talents Professorship and the Changjiang (Yangtze River) Scholar award, have become targets for recruitment by China's wealthiest universities so frequently that the Ministry of Education issued notices in both 2013 and 2017 discouraging Chinese universities from recruiting away top talent from one another [poaching].

Monday, July 26, 2021

CCP Crackdown

21-7-25 Why China Is Crashing Its Own Stock Market - Outlook > .
24-2-19 Book of Lord Shang: Ancient Path to Power; Ongoing Suffering - Digging > .
23-10-25 Understanding NoXious World (Dis)Order - Kotkin | Hoover > .
23-10-15 [NoXious Suppression of Autocratic Regime's Fodder] - serpentza > .
23-9-25 Xi's Transforming Xina [for the worse] - Xina's Changing Trajectory - Dig > .
23-9-16 "Belt & Road to Death" - [XiXiP targeted corrupt governments] - Obs > .
23-8-2 Xi's Anti-Corruption Purge of PLA Rocket Force | PLA structure - Digging > .
23-4-16 Logan Wright Grasping Shadows X-Ec 1 - Update > . 2 > .
23-1-23 Xina’s Two-Year Tech Crackdown Winds Up | WSJ > .
23-1-20 Xi's Biggest Errors - Kevin Rudd | Update > .
22-11-27 Dragon's Claw: Xina's Next 10 Years - Kamome > . skip > .
22-11-1 "Overreach" | Susan Shirk, Kevin Rudd | Asia Society > .
22-10-27 Xina is "Pretty Much Screwed" - laowhy86 > .
22-10-25 Xina's Q3 details - Update > .
22-10-18 Xi absolute power through Party Constitution and XXP princelings - Lei > .
22-8-25 Xi vs Li: Xina’s dual-leadership after the 20th Party Congress? - Lei > .
22-8-3 Housing Crisis Pulls Down China’s Huge Steel Industry | Pelosi | Update > .
22-3-28 China's Economic Rise—End of the Road - cfr > .

CCP Amplifies Control-Freakery 
CCP Crackdown on Business ..
CCP Expansionism ..

Commenter: [dubious] "As a Chinese, I know the main motivation of this process of adjustment is to meet the challenges of the USA decoupling, which makes the government realize that many industry sectors are already in danger. That key strategy is to reduce the importance of real estate and financial assets, Internet and virtual economy, in order to improve the weakening manufactures and consumer sectors. It has been on the top list for years, and the US challenges just happen to accelerate its implementation."

China says crackdown on business to go on for years:

The Chinese government has unveiled a five-year plan outlining [even] tighter regulation of much of its economy. It says new rules will be introduced covering areas including national security, technology and monopolies in the world's second largest economy. The plan comes soon after Beijing started targeting the technology and education industries.

The 10-point plan, which runs to the end of 2025, was released jointly late on 21-8-11 by China's State Council and the Communist Party's Central Committee. It said laws will be strengthened for "important fields" such as science and technological innovation, culture and education. The plan also said the Chinese government aims to tackle monopolies and "foreign-related rule of law".

Regulations relating to China's digital economy, including "internet finance, artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing etc." will also be reviewed. The announcement raised fresh concerns that Beijing's crackdown on technology and private education companies is set to continue and expand in years to come. Shares in many Chinese companies listed in the US, Hong Kong and mainland China have fallen sharply this year as investors' concerns grow over the crackdown.

21-12-28 From economic miracle to mirage – will China’s GDP ever overtake the US?: Analysis: issues of governance, rising debt, COVID and property market turmoil will delay Beijing’s quest to become the global economy’s No 1.

Saturday, October 24, 2020

Eleanor Roosevelt

."World's" First Lady - Eleanor Roosevelt - WW2 > .

Anna Eleanor Roosevelt (October 11, 1884 – November 7, 1962) was an American political figure, diplomat and activist. She served as the First Lady of the United States from March 4, 1933, to April 12, 1945, during her husband President Franklin D. Roosevelt's four terms in office, making her the longest-serving First Lady of the United States. Roosevelt served as United States Delegate to the United Nations General Assembly from 1945 to 1952. President Harry S. Truman later called her the "First Lady of the World" in tribute to her human rights achievements.

Roosevelt was a member of the prominent American Roosevelt and Livingston families and a niece of President Theodore Roosevelt. She had an unhappy childhood, having suffered the deaths of both parents and one of her brothers at a young age. At 15, she attended Allenswood Boarding Academy in London and was deeply influenced by its headmistress Marie Souvestre. Returning to the U.S., she married her fifth cousin once removed, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, in 1905. The Roosevelts' marriage was complicated from the beginning by Franklin's controlling mother, Sara, and after Eleanor discovered her husband's affair with Lucy Mercer in 1918, she resolved to seek fulfillment in leading a public life of her own. She persuaded Franklin to stay in politics after he was stricken with a paralytic illness in 1921, which cost him the normal use of his legs, and began giving speeches and appearing at campaign events in his place. Following Franklin's election as Governor of New York in 1928, and throughout the remainder of Franklin's public career in government, Roosevelt regularly made public appearances on his behalf; and as First Lady, while her husband served as president, she significantly reshaped and redefined the role of First Lady.

Though widely respected in her later years, Roosevelt was a controversial First Lady at the time for her outspokenness, particularly on civil rights for African-Americans. She was the first presidential spouse to hold regular press conferences, write a daily newspaper column, write a monthly magazine column, host a weekly radio show, and speak at a national party convention. On a few occasions, she publicly disagreed with her husband's policies. She launched an experimental community at Arthurdale, West Virginia, for the families of unemployed miners, later widely regarded as a failure. She advocated for expanded roles for women in the workplace, the civil rights of African Americans and Asian Americans, and the rights of WW2 refugees. Following her husband's death in 1945, Roosevelt remained active in politics for the remaining 17 years of her life. She pressed the United States to join and support the United Nations and became its first delegate. She served as the first chair of the UN Commission on Human Rights and oversaw the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Later, she chaired the John F. Kennedy administration's Presidential Commission on the Status of Women. By the time of her death, Roosevelt was regarded as "one of the most esteemed women in the world"; The New York Times called her "the object of almost universal respect" in an obituary.

In 1999, she was ranked ninth in the top ten of Gallup's List of Most Widely Admired People of the 20th Century.

Friday, July 24, 2020

Evacuation Plans for Civil Service

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>> Homefront WW2 >>>

In the late 1930s, as war loomed, government planners contemplated the effects of a massive and sustained air attack on London – effects that were expected to be as bad as later envisaged from an attack with atomic weapons. The effects would be widespread. As well as the immediate loss of life and damage to buildings would be the general disruption caused by for example the loss of communications, infrastructure, and the inability of people to travel. As well as the immediate effects on the civil population which were met by Air Raid Precaution measures the government had to ensure that its operations which were then firmly based on central London could continue. These activities termed “continuity of government” or “the machinery of government in war” could cover many levels of the governmental and administrative machine. At the top is the decision making apparatus centred on the War Cabinet with the heads of the armed forces and advisors. Below them, at national level would be the various layers of the civil service together with quasi-governmental bodies like the BBC, General Post Office, British Railways, etc who would implement and add to those decisions. Consideration would also need to be given to the continued operation of the monarchy and Parliament. Probably around 150,000 people fell into these categories and this number would rise steadily during the war. 

The initial plan was to relocate the machinery of government to the suburbs of north and northwest London. A bombproof citadel known as PADDOCK was built at Dollis Hill for the War Cabinet with supporting bunkers at Cricklewood and Harrow. The bulk of the civil servants would be accommodated in neighbouring schools and colleges left empty by evacuation.

The plan was however changed. Now, the seat of government was to remain in London for as long as possible and protected accommodation were developed. The most famous was the bunker under the New Public Buildings (also known as George Street) which was partly occupied by the Cabinet War Room

War Rooms .. 
The Cabinet War Rooms (now an historic underground complex) housed a British government command centre throughout WW2, being abandoned in August 1945 after the surrender of Japan. 

Other citadels were developed, notably the Admiralty Citadel which was in fact built illegally on part of St James’s Park and the “Rotundas” which were built off Horseferry Road in the massive holes originally dug in the previous century for gas holders. As well as these citadels a series of reinforced “steel framed buildings” were constructed in central London.

Although the upper levels of government would remain in London to act as a “nucleus” the plan was to evacuate the majority of civil servants, mainly to seaside resorts that would have empty hotel accommodation. In this way for example the Ministry of Food (created separately from the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries) established a major presence at Colwyn Bay (near Llandudno, North Wales). 

The UK entered the war well prepared for the maintenance of supplies of food but with less than 40% of the country's needs produced at home. The Ministry of Food was formed on 8 September and William Morrison appointed Minister. The Ministry of Food became the sole buyer and importer of food and regulated prices, guaranteeing farmers prices and markets for their produce. The Marketing Boards, except for milk and hops, were suspended.

Recruiting began for the Women's Land Army and in 1940, food rationing was introduced. Lord Woolton succeeded William Morrison as Minister for Food. In 1941, the US Lend-Lease act was passed under which food, agricultural machinery and equipment was sent from the US to the UK.

The Ministry of Food relocated to Colwyn Bay in 1939 following the outbreak of WW2. From their base on the Welsh Coast, the relocated civil servants (under Lord Woolton, Minister of Food from April '40 until '43) not only set about the enormous task of organising the distribution and rationing of food, they also initiated a massive propaganda effort directed at the people of Great Britain to educate them to feed themselves. It was from Colwyn Bay that initiatives such as “Dig for Victory” were set out.

This was the “yellow move”, but a last ditch “black move” was also planned should London become unusable or threatened by invasion. Under this plan the nucleus would relocate to planned accommodation in the west midlands eg the War Cabinet would move to Hindlip House near Worcester and Parliament to Stratford-upon-Avon.

The “black move” was not implemented but it was reconsidered in 1943 in the face of bombardment from what would become the V-weapons. By this time there was sufficient citadel and steel framed building accommodation to accommodate around 10,000 key personnel in central London under what were called “Crossbow conditions”. If the bombardment became severe and prolonged non-essential workers would be stood down whilst the nucleus would live and work in the citadels and basements. The Cabinet War Room would still be the hub. Accommodating around 400 its main function was to collect and process information about all aspects of the national and world situation, to brief the decision-makers and then disseminate those decisions. However it was realised that the bunker was not bomb proof and the Horseferry Road Rotundas, code named ANSON, were developed for Churchill, his family and the War Cabinet. ANSON could accommodate up to 2,000 people under a concrete slab twelve feet thick. Supporting the various citadels was a series of communications tunnels dug under Whitehall to carry the vital telephone and telegraph cables linking them to each other and the outside world.

21st

Comment
Every US Embassy has an RSO (Regional Security Officer) whose job it is to prepare contingency evacuation plans in the event that US citizens and key host nation personnel need to be evacuated. On the surface it may seem fairly simple in evacuating the Embassy personnel. There are USAID contractors, US humanitarian organizations, US citizens with dual passports, and expatriates living in the country. They are scattered all over the country, including in remote locations. The RSO works in very close coordination with the military through the attaches. The attaches are responsible for collecting much of the on the ground intelligence about the capacity of bridges, fuel storage and fuel connectors at airports, available rural landing strips, the condition of roads needed for evacuation, and the kind of security forces that may be necessary. ....

Taiwan has some 80,000 plus to evacuate. The good news is that it's a small island and helicopters can do a lot of the work as long as they are not in danger. But you have to put 80,000 people somewhere which is usually aboard ship because the transit distances for cargo aircraft are too long. And if Taiwan is under attack, that probably means our Naval forces are under attack as well. My point is that with my experience dealing with both Embassy RSO's and the military, no matter what plan they come up with, it ain't going to pretty and lots lives will be lost in the process if Taiwan is under attack. True, we may some advanced warning of a Chinese attack on Taiwan, but not enough time to evacuate all 80'000 plus Americans or dual passport holders. Many thousands will be left behind just like we left thousands of US citizens behind in Afghanistan, which the MSM ignored in order to protect incompetent Biden. After Biden left them all behind, only private organizations of US veterans were able to smuggle thousands of them out without the help of our military and State Department. It was a very dark day for the USA. I'll tell you what my plan would be. Create enormous caves in the mountains for the evacuees to go to with at least a years worth of provisions and accommodations where they would be safe until the US and other nations could evacuate them in small groups. In an evacuation of US citizens, their safety is paramount until there are sufficient resources to evacuate them. Unfortunately, I think Taiwan is so strategic to the US, Japan, the Philippines, Vietnam, the Malacca Striates, Indonesia, and even India and Australia that any attempt by China to invade Taiwan would be one hell of a bloody mess. God only know who would prevail.

Sunday, October 6, 2019

WVS - Women's Voluntary Service for Civil Defence

WVS > .

1938-5-16 Women's Voluntary Services (WVS) from 1938 to 1966 ⇒ Women's Royal Voluntary Service (WRVS) from 1966 to 2004 ⇒ WRVS from 2004 to 2013 ⇒ Royal Voluntary Service.

On 16 May 1938, the British government set out the objectives of the Women's Voluntary Service for Civil Defence or Women’s Voluntary Services for Air Raid Precautions:

It was seen “as the enrolment of women for Air Raid Precaution Services of Local Authorities, to help to bring home to every household what air attack may mean, and to make known to every household [in the country] what it can do to protect itself and the community.”

In the words of Home Secretary Sir Samuel Hoare, "as regards their civil defence functions, the Minister regards the Women's Voluntary Service as occupying ... much the same relationship as that of the women's auxiliary services for the armed forces of the Crown."

Hidden army - WVS .
Hidden army video - WVS .

The Women's Voluntary Services was founded in 1938 by Stella Isaacs, Marchioness of Reading, as a British women's organisation to recruit women into the Air Raid Precautions (ARP) services to help in the event of War.

The WVS/WRVS was a voluntary organisation, and it was Lady Reading's vision that there would be no ranks. It was perhaps the only organisation where you could find a Duchess and a char lady working side by side. While many members of the WVS mucked in on pretty much all tasks, the idea of an organisation without a hierarchy would not have worked and so while there were no ranks, there were titles. Women were recruited for specific tasks, whether that was to drive ambulances, to be a member of a knitting work party or collect National Savings. Inevitably those women who signed up for one thing often ended up being co-opted for other work, especially if they showed aptitude.

The WVS was split into 12 Regions (using the same boundaries as Civil Defence) which started with 1 in the NE of England and moved clockwise down the country and back up. London was Region 12 and Scotland Region 11. Each Region had a Regional Administrator who was paid for by the Home Office. Under this each County had a County Organiser and 'staff' and below that were the Centres. During and after the Second World War, there were almost 2,000 WVS centres around Great Britain (as well as Northern Ireland during the war) each at the sharp end of providing help to their communities. Each was prominently positioned within a town or village and was run by a Centre Organiser appointed by Headquarters in London. Each Centre Organiser had a team of members who were responsible for different aspect of WVS work e.g. evacuation, Training, Food or Clothing. Under their direction were the 'ordinary' members.

The WVS played a key part in the evacuation of civilians from urban areas. The WVS had been asked to pinpoint areas of safety and billeting for evacuated children. Moving children out of the cities proved reasonably easy. Getting them to a known area of safety proved a lot more difficult as trains did not always arrive at an expected destination or would turn up at a reception point unexpectedly. The WVS is credited with helping to move 1.5 million people (the majority were children) out of cities in the early days of September 1939.

The WVS also played a major role in the collection of clothing required for the needy. In October 1939, Lady Reading broadcast to the United States about the need for clothing in the UK. The broadcast led to large quantities of clothing (known as "Bundles for Britain") being sent over to the United Kingdom by the American Red Cross. These were distributed from WVS Emergency Clothing Stores.

When troops returned to ports after the evacuation at Dunkirk, members of the WVS were there to greet them and hand out food, drink and warm clothing. The WVS base at the railway station in Headcorn, Kent was an especially busy place for feeding returning soldiers before they dispersed—a spit was installed so that meat could be roasted there and then. The WVS also played a vital part during the Blitz of London and other cities.

By the time of the Blitz, women in the WVS were adept at providing food and drink around the clock. While ARP wardens and firemen fought the fires, women in the WVS set up mobile canteens to keep them refreshed, thus placing themselves in serious physical danger with collapsing buildings a constant threat. When the raids ended, the WVS also played a part in looking after those who were injured and had lost their homes. Records indicate that the WVS dealt with and helped over 10,000 people every night of the Blitz.

As the Blitz lasted for 57 nights, the WVS helped in total a vast number of people who went to their rest centres. Some people stayed just for a night—many stayed for much longer and stretched the resources of the WVS to the limit. In Barnes, one WVS member fed 1,200 bomb victims in just one day, cooking in her own kitchen.

It would be difficult to overstate the importance of the work done by the WVS during the Blitz: the rest centres provided shelter, food, and importantly, sanitation. But working so near to the centre of the bombing inevitably led to casualties. 241 members of the WVS were killed during the Blitz and many more were wounded. 25 WVS offices were destroyed.

The WVS began running IIPs (Incident Inquiry Points), places where people came to find out about their loved ones who were in an area that had been bombed in order to free the ARP to work with the fire brigade. The WVS also helped with the Queen's Messenger Food Convoys which took food to areas in need after a bombing raid. The people who survived the bombing of Coventry received help from one of the convoys with 14,000 meals being served.

By 1941, one million women belonged to the WVS. Their work did not slacken after the end of the Luftwaffe's bombing raids. The Battle of the Atlantic and the devastating toll of merchant ships sunk by U-boats led to shortages in Great Britain. The WVS did all that it could to assist in the collection of required material for the war effort and also to educate people not to waste what they had.

Each WVS centre had its own Salvage Officer and Food Leader. The Food Leader did whatever was required at a local level to assist the authorities in the complicated task of food rationing. Educational pamphlets were produced and lectures held. The WVS organised campaigns such as 'Salute the Soldier', 'Wings for Victory', 'Spitfire Funds' and Warship Week.

In the buildup to D-Day, the expertise the WVS had in catering was put to use again. The skills learned during the Blitz were again put to good use when the V1 and V2 rockets fell on London. Once again, the WVS played a key role in evacuation. With the success of D-Day, the WVS moved into Europe to support troops there. The first WVS abroad had landed in Italy with the success of the invasion there.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Voluntary_Service .

Women's Voluntary Service: 'The army Hitler forgot' .
https://www.royalvoluntaryservice.org.uk/about-us/our-history .
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1419318354/hidden-histories-of-a-million-wartime-women .
https://www.royalvoluntaryservice.org.uk/about-us/our-history/timeline-list .
https://www.mylearning.org/stories/women-at-war-the-role-of-women-during-ww2/480 .
https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/categories/c54954/ .
http://www.caringonthehomefront.org.uk/search-the-library/volunteering/ .
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/timeline/factfiles/nonflash/a6651894.shtml .
https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/71/a3384371.shtml .

44-12-3 Home Guard Stands Down ..
Voluntary Organisations ..
Women's Institute .. 
Women's Voluntary Service .. 

Wednesday, August 14, 2019

Operations Research

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Operational Research 'ORigin Story' - OR Society > .



Operations research, or operational research (OR) in British usage, is a discipline that deals with the application of advanced analytical methods to help make better decisions. Further, the term operational analysis is used in the British (and some British Commonwealth) military as an intrinsic part of capability development, management and assurance. In particular, operational analysis forms part of the Combined Operational Effectiveness and Investment Appraisals, which support British defense capability acquisition decision-making.

It is often considered to be a sub-field of applied mathematics.The terms management science and decision science are sometimes used as synonyms.

Employing techniques from other mathematical sciences, such as mathematical modeling, statistical analysis, and mathematical optimization, operations research arrives at optimal or near-optimal solutions to complex decision-making problems. Because of its emphasis on human-technology interaction and because of its focus on practical applications, operations research has overlap with other disciplines, notably industrial engineering and operations management, and draws on psychology and organization science. Operations research is often concerned with determining the extreme values of some real-world objective: the maximum (of profit, performance, or yield) or minimum (of loss, risk, or cost). Originating in military efforts before World War II, its techniques have grown to concern problems in a variety of industries.
....
Beginning in the 20th century, study of inventory management could be considered the origin of modern operations research with economic order quantity developed by Ford W. Harris in 1913. Operational research may have originated in the efforts of military planners during World War I (convoy theory and Lanchester's laws). Percy Bridgman brought operational research to bear on problems in physics in the 1920s and would later attempt to extend these to the social sciences.

Modern operational research originated at the Bawdsey Research Station in the UK in 1937 and was the result of an initiative of the station's superintendent, A. P. Rowe. Rowe conceived the idea as a means to analyse and improve the working of the UK's early warning radar system, Chain Home (CH). Initially, he analysed the operating of the radar equipment and its communication networks, expanding later to include the operating personnel's behaviour. This revealed unappreciated limitations of the CH network and allowed remedial action to be taken.
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In the World War II era, operational research was defined as "a scientific method of providing executive departments with a quantitative basis for decisions regarding the operations under their control". Other names for it included operational analysis (UK Ministry of Defence from 1962) and quantitative management.

During the Second World War close to 1,000 men and women in Britain were engaged in operational research. About 200 operational research scientists worked for the British Army.

Patrick Blackett worked for several different organizations during the war. Early in the war while working for the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) he set up a team known as the "Circus" which helped to reduce the number of anti-aircraft artillery rounds needed to shoot down an enemy aircraft from an average of over 20,000 at the start of the Battle of Britain to 4,000 in 1941.

In 1941, Blackett moved from the RAE to the Navy, after first working with RAF Coastal Command, in 1941 and then early in 1942 to the Admiralty

Blackett's team at Coastal Command's Operational Research Section (CC-ORS) included two future Nobel prize winners and many other people who went on to be pre-eminent in their fields. They undertook a number of crucial analyses that aided the war effort. Britain introduced the convoy system to reduce shipping losses, but while the principle of using warships to accompany merchant ships was generally accepted, it was unclear whether it was better for convoys to be small or large. Convoys travel at the speed of the slowest member, so small convoys can travel faster. It was also argued that small convoys would be harder for German U-boats to detect. On the other hand, large convoys could deploy more warships against an attacker. Blackett's staff showed that the losses suffered by convoys depended largely on the number of escort vessels present, rather than the size of the convoy. Their conclusion was that a few large convoys are more defensible than many small ones.

While performing an analysis of the methods used by RAF Coastal Command to hunt and destroy submarines, one of the analysts asked what colour the aircraft were. As most of them were from Bomber Command they were painted black for night-time operations. At the suggestion of CC-ORS a test was run to see if that was the best colour to camouflage the aircraft for daytime operations in the grey North Atlantic skies. Tests showed that aircraft painted white were on average not spotted until they were 20% closer than those painted black. This change indicated that 30% more submarines would be attacked and sunk for the same number of sightings. As a result of these findings Coastal Command changed their aircraft to using white undersurfaces.

Other work by the CC-ORS indicated that on average if the trigger depth of aerial-delivered depth charges (DCs) were changed from 100 feet to 25 feet, the kill ratios would go up. The reason was that if a U-boat saw an aircraft only shortly before it arrived over the target then at 100 feet the charges would do no damage (because the U-boat wouldn't have had time to descend as far as 100 feet), and if it saw the aircraft a long way from the target it had time to alter course under water so the chances of it being within the 20-foot kill zone of the charges was small. It was more efficient to attack those submarines close to the surface when the targets' locations were better known than to attempt their destruction at greater depths when their positions could only be guessed. Before the change of settings from 100 feet to 25 feet, 1% of submerged U-boats were sunk and 14% damaged. After the change, 7% were sunk and 11% damaged. (If submarines were caught on the surface, even if attacked shortly after submerging, the numbers rose to 11% sunk and 15% damaged). Blackett observed "there can be few cases where such a great operational gain had been obtained by such a small and simple change of tactics".


Bomber Command's Operational Research Section (BC-ORS), analyzed a report of a survey carried out by RAF Bomber Command. For the survey, Bomber Command inspected all bombers returning from bombing raids over Germany over a particular period. All damage inflicted by German air defences was noted and the recommendation was given that armour be added in the most heavily damaged areas. This recommendation was not adopted because the fact that the aircraft returned with these areas damaged indicated these areas were not vital, and adding armour to non-vital areas where damage is acceptable negatively affects aircraft performance. Their suggestion to remove some of the crew so that an aircraft loss would result in fewer personnel losses, was also rejected by RAF command. Blackett's team made the logical recommendation that the armour be placed in the areas which were completely untouched by damage in the bombers which returned. They reasoned that the survey was biased, since it only included aircraft that returned to Britain. The untouched areas of returning aircraft were probably vital areas, which, if hit, would result in the loss of the aircraft. This story has been disputed, with a similar damage assessment study completed in the US by the Statistical Research Group at Columbia University and was the result of work done by Abraham Wald.

When Germany organized its air defences into the Kammhuber Line, it was realized by the British that if the RAF bombers were to fly in a bomber stream they could overwhelm the night fighters who flew in individual cells directed to their targets by ground controllers. It was then a matter of calculating the statistical loss from collisions against the statistical loss from night fighters to calculate how close the bombers should fly to minimize RAF losses.

The "exchange rate" ratio of output to input was a characteristic feature of operational research. By comparing the number of flying hours put in by Allied aircraft to the number of U-boat sightings in a given area, it was possible to redistribute aircraft to more productive patrol areas. Comparison of exchange rates established "effectiveness ratios" useful in planning. The ratio of 60 mines laid per ship sunk was common to several campaigns: German mines in British ports, British mines on German routes, and United States mines in Japanese routes.

Operational research doubled the on-target bomb rate of B-29s bombing Japan from the Marianas Islands by increasing the training ratio from 4 to 10 percent of flying hours; revealed that wolf-packs of three United States submarines were the most effective number to enable all members of the pack to engage targets discovered on their individual patrol stations; revealed that glossy enamel paint was more effective camouflage for night fighters than traditional dull camouflage paint finish, and the smooth paint finish increased airspeed by reducing skin friction.

On land, the operational research sections of the Army Operational Research Group (AORG) of the Ministry of Supply (MoS) were landed in Normandy in 1944, and they followed British forces in the advance across Europe. They analyzed, among other topics, the effectiveness of artillery, aerial bombing and anti-tank shooting.

Thursday, July 18, 2019

Komsomol, post-WW2

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21-4-11 Pioneer Movement in USSR - How Young Soviets Were Raised  - Setarko > .
22-3-13 Tsar Vlad's Юнармия (Yunarmiya) preps Russian Cannon Fodder - VisPol > .
History of the Cold War: Every Month - Dec '45 to Dec '91 > .Berlin Wall: Escaping for Freedom and Love - Geographics > .

Thirty years after the collapse of the USSR, the martial rhetoric and other trappings of the "strong men" of the totalitarian era are making a comeback. Why? The film's director Ivo Briedis and the journalist Rita Ruduša were both born in the Soviet Union. Together, they embark on a journey to explore the phenomenon of Homo sovieticus. They want to know if a totalitarian mindset can still be found in countries that were formerly part of the Soviet Union. The thinker Alexander Zinoviev defined as Homo sovieticus as a person who is, at their core, an opportunist. They [RWAs] do not rebel against their [SDO] leadership, and want to take as little individual responsibility as possible. Did these characteristics develop specifically as a result of growing up in the Soviet Union, or can they develop in any society? To find out, they speak with people who lived under the Soviet regime, as well as with members of the first post-Soviet generation.

Soviet Youth Organizations - Cold War ..

The All-Union Leninist Young Communist League, usually known as Komsomol, a syllabic abbreviation of the Russian Коммунистический Союз Молодёжи (Kommunisticheskiy Soyuz Molodyozhi), was a political youth organization in the Soviet Union. It is sometimes described as the youth division of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), although it was officially independent and referred to as "the helper and the reserve of the CPSU".

The Komsomol in its earliest form was established in urban areas in 1918. During the early years, it was a Russian organization, known as the Russian Young Communist League, or RKSM. During 1922, with the unification of the USSR, it was reformed into an all-union agency, the youth division of the All-Union Communist Party.

It was the final stage of three youth organizations with members up to age 28, graduated at 14 from the Young Pioneers, and at nine from the Little Octobrists.

Active members received privileges and preferences in promotion. For example, Yuri Andropov, CPSU General Secretary (1982–1984), achieved notice through work with the Komsomol organization of Karelia in 1940–1944. At its largest, during the 1970s, the Komsomol had tens of millions of members.


During the early phases of perestroika in the mid-1980s, when the Soviet authorities began cautiously introducing private enterprise, the Komsomol received privileges with respect to initiating businesses, with the motivation of giving youth a better chance. The government, unions and the Komsomol jointly introduced Centers for Scientific and Technical Creativity for Youth (1987). At the same time, many Komsomol managers joined and directed the Russian Regional and State Anti-Monopoly Committees. Folklore quickly coined a motto: "The Komsomol is a school of Capitalism", hinting at Vladimir Lenin's "Trade unions are a school of Communism".

The reforms of Mikhail Gorbachevperestroika and glasnost, finally revealed that the quality of Komsomol management was bad. The Komsomol, long associated with conservatism and bureaucracy, had always largely lacked political power. The radical Twentieth Congress of the Komsomol (April 1987) altered the rules of the organization to represent a market orientation. However, the reforms of the Twentieth Congress eventually destroyed the Komsomol, with lack of purpose and the waning of interest, membership, and quality of membership. At the Twenty-second Congress of the Komsomol in September 1991, the organization was disbanded. The Komsomol's newspaper, Komsomolskaya Pravda, outlived the organization and is still published (as of 2019).

A number of youth organizations of successor parties to the CPSU continue to use the name Komsomol, as does the youth organization of Ukrainian communistsKomsomol of Ukraine.

Wednesday, July 17, 2019

Land Settlement Association

Dreams Come True 1944 > .

Land Settlement Association

The Land Settlement Association was a UK Government scheme set up in 1934, with help from the charities the Plunkett Foundation and the Carnegie Trust, to re-settle unemployed workers from depressed industrial areas, particularly from North-East England and Wales. Between 1934 and 1939 1,100 small-holdings were established within 26 settlements.

Settlements were set up in rural areas where each successful applicant’s family would be given a small-holding of approximately 5 acres (0.020 km2), livestock and a newly built cottage. Small-holdings were grouped in communities which were expected to run agricultural production as cooperative market gardens, with materials bought and produce sold exclusively through the Association. Applicants were vetted and given agricultural training before being assigned a property.

The allocation of settlements to the unemployed was suspended at the outbreak of the Second World War through the necessity of increasing food production; favour was given to those already with horticultural skills. After the war the Association was incorporated within a County Council scheme for statutory provision of smallholdings designed as a first step for those going into agricultural production. The scheme was wound-up and all the properties privatised in 1983, by which time it was producing roughly 40% of English home grown salad crops. The residual assets of the scheme were constituted as the LSA Charitable Trust, for the benefit of former tenants and to promote horticultural education.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_Settlement_Association
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Programmes_of_the_Government_of_the_United_Kingdom
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Agriculture_in_the_United_Kingdom
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Agricultural_Executive_Committee
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_Land_Army
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_front_during_World_War_II
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Land_management_in_the_United_Kingdom
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Rural_society_in_the_United_Kingdom
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_Emergency_Corps . 

Saturday, July 6, 2019

WarAg - Farming in Britain During WW2

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24-8-25 British War Agriculture - Farming Explained > .

WW2 Farming in Britain During the Second World War

WAEC - War Agricultural Executive Committees ..

The farming industry in Britain during the Second World War underwent a complete upheaval. It was necessary for the government to control what farmers grew or what livestock they kept to ensure maximum productivity from the land. ...

DORA - Defence of the Realm Act, 1914 .. 
Emergency Powers (Defence) Act 1939 ..

Under the Defence of The Realm Act (DORA, 1914) which was passed just before the outbreak of hostilities, the Ministry of Agriculture had the power to: Preserve and maintain agricultural land solely for the production of food, to control by order, the cultivation, management and use of land in order to secure maximum production of food from the farms; to terminate any tenancy of agricultural land where it is considered that the land is being neglected or badly cultivated; to introduce special measures for the determination of birds, rabbits, deer, vermin and pests

The Ministry now had much more power to meet the demands of a hungry populace that would soon have to rely on food that was largely home produced, as was forecast, quite accurately that importation of food would decline. Many of the farmers who had to produce this food had to change their methods of farming. They had to produce in greater quantities food that was rich in carbohydrates such as potatoes, or foodstuffs that were too bulky or fragile that would not take up valuable shipping space, so as not to rely too heavily on importation.

Emergency Powers (Defence) Act 1939 ..

With reference to the title of this Special Study, like the Great War the Second World War was a time of affluence for many farmers, particularly in the arable districts of England. For example, prices of wheat in 1939 per cwt for England and Wales were 5 shillings, by 1945 this had almost tripled to 14s 5d. Barley in the same period rose from 8s 10d to 24s 5d, and oats rose from 6s 11d to 16s 5d. farmers were heavily subsidised by the Ministry of Food, who bought goods from farmers at higher rates, whilst selling them to the public at lower rates, the shortfall being made up by the Treasury. Crops such as wheat however, were acquired by the government cheaper than in times of peace. This system was , on 26th November 1940 confirmed to stay in place whilst hostilities were taking place and for one year after they ended.

Government policy was critical in ensuring an increase in productivity. Like the First World War, War Agricultural Executive Committees There were eventually sixty-one committees established in England and Wales, which came to be known as ‘War Ags’. The members of the War Ags included local farmers, members of the Women’s Institute and had the power to take farms away from farmers who were considered to be farming inefficiently. They also had to ensure the government policy of ploughing up more land was implemented. The War Ags had the power to tell people which fields were cultivated and had a pool of labour and machinery to work the land themselves. They also encouraged more modernisation, which resulted in more efficiency and greater production.

Livestock

The importation of feedstuffs was reduced by problems in shipping. This did not prevent the encouragement of higher yields in dairy cows. More small scale farmers began to produce milk, premium payments were given to the first 1514 litres of milk produced per month. Other small scale production of livestock was encouraged with the introduction of Pig Clubs and Poultry Clubs. Domestic poultry keepers did not have restrictions placed upon them like large-scale producers, who faced rationing controls. The Small Pig Keepers Council, an organisation founded by the Ministry of Agriculture encouraged anyone with space to keep a pig and feed it on household waste. There is little evidence to suggest that these smallholders and people in towns were ever an economic threat to full-time farmers, but whilst the war was taking place, helped to supplement a diet that was rationed.

Hill farmers were dealt with separately for the first time. In 1940 subsidies were paid at the equivalent of 12.5p per head per hill ewe, by 1942 this had risen to 40p. A committee was formed in 1941-1942 for England and Wales to review the long term future of hill farming, a minimum of four hundred ewes was required for full-time status.


Farm Workers

The government had the foresight to ensure that farmworkers were not as scarce as they had been in the First World War. This was achieved by farming being declared a reserved occupation, if any male farm worker wanted to join the forces or have an alternative occupation, i.e. construction, a replacement had to be found before he was allowed to leave his job on the farm. This came under the Restrictions of Engagements order in June 1940. Martin claims that anyone who wanted to leave agriculture for the forces or another occupation would have done so, as the war was nine months old when this order became effective. Howkins states that an estimated fifty thousand farm workers were lost to the armed forces prior to the Restrictions of Engagements Order. The total number of farm workers in 1939 (seasonal, part and full-time) were six hundred and seven thousand (607,00) in England and Wales, for 1940 the number had risen to six hundred and eight thousand (608,000).By 1945 the number had increased to seven hundred and seventy thousand (770,000). This was due to the recruitment campaign by the government to organisations such as the Women’s Land Army. This had varied success, in England some encountered sexism, and many were appalled at the conditions they were expected to work and live in. Sackville West, cited in The People's War states that women nearly equalled the abilities of their male counterparts in tasks such as milking, turning hay and lifting peas, but other more demanding tasks it required three women to take the place of two men.

The unemployed from the towns and cities were also put to work on farms, as were conscientious objectors. Prisoners-of-War also took part, by 1945 there were 57,763 working on farms in England and Wales, the obvious advantage being that they did not need paying, the incentive to them being a healthier and more stimulating environment than being stuck behind the barbed wire for the duration of the war.

Wages, always an issue with farmworkers, were increased as the value of farm work was recognised by the government as being essential to the war effort, a good wage being an incentive to stay on farms. Estimated wages in 1940/1941 for the basic wage of an adult male were 48sh 5d per week in England and Wales, by 1944/1945 this had increased to over 67 shillings. Due to the security felt by farmworkers because of the shortage of skilled manpower, union membership of the National Union of Farmworkers rose to 100,000, triple what it had been prior to the war.

Machinery

More tractors and modern implements were as essential to the increased productivity of the land as the farmworkers mentioned above. The horse began to fall out of favour as there was more land cultivation to be undertaken, but the decline was not rapid, there being over six hundred thousand (>600,000) in the whole of Great Britian in 1938. In 1946 this had fallen to just over five hundred thousand (>500,000). The tractor, faster than the horse and becoming more reliable was still outnumbered by the horse, there being around one hundred thousand in England and Wales in 1940 (100,000). This was a considerable increase considering there were only around fifty six thousand in Great Britain in 1939 (56,000). Many farmers were saved the cost of buying a tractor because of the help offered by the War Agricultural Executive Committees mentioned previously. Farmers had priority in the allocation of machinery, this would not have happened if it had not been for the war, the provision of machinery was a great help in modernising farming in England.
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To conclude, the Second World War was a turning point in English agriculture. Through government intervention of the way farmers cultivated their land and subsidised pricing, agriculture became more productive. The agricultural industry was also fortunate to receive a priority in machinery allocation, a godsend for farmers wishing to modernise. This was essential due to the threat to merchant shipping during the Battle of the Atlantic, shipping space also being in short supply. Farmworkers benefited enormously, their efforts being recognised as valuable to the well being of the country. Government policy worked with notable success, the Women’s Land Army making a significant contribution, as did Prisoners-of-War. Without the preparations for increased production, the country would have been, without doubt, short of food. Also like the First World War, farmers were able to make a comfortable living in most cases, and although rationing was in place for most of the war, farmers were able to access food much more easily than people living in urban England.

http://oldecuriosity.blogspot.ca/2015/02/ww2-farming-in-britain-during-second.html .

Compost, chickens, soil, vermiculture - tb >> .

Agriculture ..
WarAg - Farming in Britain During WW2 ..

Wartime Farm ..
Wartime Farm '39 ..
Wartime Farm '40 ..
Wartime Farm '41 ..
Wartime Farm '42 ..
Wartime Farm '43 ..
Wartime Farm '44 ..
Wartime Farm '45 ..

sī vīs pācem, parā bellum

igitur quī dēsīderat pācem praeparet bellum    therefore, he who desires peace, let him prepare for war sī vīs pācem, parā bellum if you wan...