From the Office of the Director of National Intelligence

http://www.dni.gov/

Food for thought. The PDF is huge. Just a warning before downloading.

I seem unable to get the site to open.

Might make for interesting reading.

I have only been able to get on once today. I haven't been able to go to the site since then. I tried it at work, since they have a T1 line, and still I couldn't get on.

Here are some summaries of the report. The actual report is about 121 pages.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27835353/

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/elections/2008/11/21/report-dominance-influence-predicted-fade/

Mirror of the PDF

http://drop.io/siytmmg

33MB file - 121 color pages.

Weekend reading

Can anyone come back with a synopsis for me? I'm not up to that much reading right now.

Here's page for the report:

http://www.dni.gov/nic/NIC_2025_project.html

1. Move inland now. Like at least 50 miles from any ocean, bay or tidal basin.
2. Learn to grow your own food & collect drinking water. Especially water.
3. Make sure you live in a place where you don't have to drive to work, ever.
4. Become Indian or Chinese and/or a member of an international crime cartel.
5. Make sure you have plenty of sunscreen.
6. Don't expect to have much in the way of money, free time or job stability. The "Middle Class" you knew from 1950 to 1980 is never coming back.
7. Stop having so many children. They eat too much and use too much fuel.
8. Avoid turnips.

OK, I made #8 up, but I read all 121 pages of the report and that pretty much nails it pretty well. And I hate turnips.

LOL! Well, I'm good on 6 of 8.

Though FWIW my wife does a carrot-turnip casserole that is bloody excellent. Apparently it is a family recipe, and everyone demands it at Thanksgiving and Christmas. For reasons obscure to me it calls for a dollop of Velveeta, which (I assume) is what DOW uses to scrub the pipes between batches. But that's 100% heresay.

Mmm, Velveeta.

OK, I made #8 up, but I read all 121 pages of the report and that pretty much nails it pretty well. And I hate turnips.

Now, you're talking!

You missed a few of the biggies:
- By 2025, the international system will be a global multipolar one, ie. multiple strong regional powers.

- The United States’ relative strength—even in the military realm—will decline and US leverage will become more constrained.

- The transfer of global wealth and economic power now under way—roughly from West to East—is without precedent in modern history (note, they missed out on something here - Canada will increase its production of oil to 15% of the world supply and will probably be 50-60% of the total energy supply for the US up from 30%.)

- Middle East will continue to be a source of instability, possibly more so.

- Increased likelihood of terrorism.

- Climate change is likely to exacerbate resource scarcities, particularly water scarcities. (And put countries with lots of fresh water into a position of power. ie. Canada)

- Regional fears about a nuclear-armed Iran trigger an arms race and greater militarization.

- We remain optimistic about the long-term prospects for greater democratization, even though advances are likely to be slow and globalization is subjecting many recently democratized countries to increasing social and economic pressures with the potential to undermine liberal institutions.

- Asia, Africa, and Latin America will account for virtually all population growth over the next 20 years but the US, Canada and Australia will lead in immigrant growth.

- The World Bank estimates that demand for food will rise by 50 percent by 2030.

- Despite recent inflows into dollar assets and the appreciation of the dollar, the dollar could lose its status as an unparalleled global reserve currency by 2025.

- Economic and political empowerment of women could transform the global landscape over the next 20 years.

- The arctic will open up and be developed.

- A Two-Tier Muslim World? Although the Western paradigm separating religious and secular authority may still be less compelling to Muslim publics, a greater emphasis on economics and, most importantly, greater participation of women in the work force may spur new forms of progressive Islam.

- Potential Emergence of a Global Pandemic