Let's Get Honest! Absolutely Uncommon Analysis of Family & Conciliation Courts' Operations, Practices, & History

Published July 13, 2019, minor revs. July 14, (including correcting the typo in the title which called my 2019 updates my 2018 updates!).  Post title, with my update year now corrected: CENIC!! (Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California). And National LambdaRail + the New Owner of the Los Angeles Times: My 2019 {{~~ CENIC Notes and Updates.  (case-sensitive short-link still ends “-aed”) (about 10,600 words)

As dramatic in scope and scale of operations as the subject matter here is, writing it up or developing the full plot outline and sequence is not my main priority this season, or on this blog. If I do write or reorganize more, it’s in the process of getting answers I myself would like about collective the bottom lines for customers of CENIC and similar networks which universities and research institutions already depend upon, including hospitals, and what it means for the future, including the future envisioned by some of the controlling personalities with whom CENIC has had to deal over the years. Otherwise I’d wait and finish major revisions, or a follow-up post.

Parts of this situation caught my attention a few years ago when I looked up an unknown (to me) browser name, discovered it was tied to a nonprofit tied to statewide, high-bandwidth, high-capacity communications — something every university, research scientist (in almost any field) and, as it turns out here, doctor with a patented potential cure for cancer, might want, and does.  (Point-of Delivery genetically individually targeted assessment and treatments).

People with actual leisure time and a mind (and the ability) to investigate could write it up in the style of (for example), Edward Jay Epstein’s “The Diamond Invention” (<~on-line book: 22 chapters, prologue and endnotes; I’ve read it and posted on it in the context of the history of the Rhodes scholars/trust; chronology of Namibia, and too-close-for-comfort parallels between the administration of South African apartheid and intentions and policies in the current ‘Welfare Reform’ and Social Services scenarios today.) pulling the narrative together to show agents, actors, promoters, and of course time and place, further illuminating national and global governments in action until this day as pertains to the key subject matter.  Even in The Diamond Invention’s prologue paragraphs, I see parallels to the situation here, although diamonds aren’t drugs.

It’s a short prologue, he’s a good writer — check it out! ).  From that prologue:

In Japan, the matrimonial custom had survived feudal revolutions, world wars, industrialization and even the American occupation …. The ceremony was then consummated, according to Shinto law, by the bride and groom both drinking rice wine from the same wooden bowl. This simple arrangement had persisted for more than a millennium. There was no tradition for romance, courtship, seduction and prenuptial love in Japan; and no tradition that required the gift of a diamond engagement ring.

Then, in 1967, halfway around the world, a South African diamond company decided to change the Japanese courtship ritual. It retained J. Walter Thompson, the largest advertising agency in the world, to embark on a campaign to popularize diamond engagement rings in Japan. It was not an easy task. Even the quartering of millions of American soldiers in Japan for a decade had not resulted in any substantial Japanese interest in giving diamonds as a token of love.

The diamond company already had the product. It perceived an untapped mass market and getting there first, then maintaining control and value indefinitely, which required major persuasion of the popular mindset (at the consumer end), when as it says, quartering millions of American soldiers in Japan for a decade hadn’t.

After a few paragraphs describing the vastly successful results, the prologue assesses the accomplishment:

..The diamond invention was an ingenious scheme for sustaining the value of diamonds in an uncertain world. To begin with, it involved gaining control over the production of all the important diamond mines in the world. Next, a system was devised for allocating this controlled supply of gems to a select number of diamond cutters who all agreed to abide by certain rules intended to assure that the quantity of finished diamonds available at any given time never exceeded the public’s demand for them. Finally, a set of subtle, but effective, incentives were devised for regulating the behavior of all the people who served and ultimately profited from the system.

This example came to mind after writing this post and the most recent lookups (not all posted here yet), some are referenced though. I hadn’t realized at first that both originated, in different ways, in South Africa and with the vision of just a few dominant men intent on success as measured by their personal visions and willing to do whatever it took to get to that point, and maintain it.

HOW MUCH and WHAT ASPECTS of both Africa, Europe, and the USA today has been impacted by diamonds as signs of engagement and true love, whether or not they be ‘blood diamonds’ and regardless of what happened to the people in the mines?  Will we ever acknowledge that this was a scheme, or undue its effects? Has it just maybe affected politics and national economies?

The invention had a wide array of diverse parts: these included a huge stockpile of uncut diamonds in a vault in London; a billion-dollar cash hoard deposited in banks in Europe; and private intelligence network operating out of Antwerp, Tel Aviv, Johannesburg and London; a global network of advertising agencies, brokers and distributors; corporate fronts in Africa for concealing massive diamond purchases; and private treaties with nations establishing quotas for annual production.

The invention is far more than merely a monopoly for fixing diamond prices…

Different times, different products and infrastructure development, but still mega profits, and what seems to me, clear intent to monopolize them.  Here, it’s about research advances, and especially cures for cancer. Billions have already been made with a few proprietary drugs; those billions being invested to developing more AND keeping the money coming in through control of a high-speed, high-capacity (dark fibre?) network where others have failed.

Success builds upon success: here we can see intents to build health hubs in specific cities, a literal internet paradise metropolis (with multiple interlocking nonprofits by founders to keep taxes down).   As the timing here was leading up to 2010, I can only assume there was anticipation that the Affordable Health Care Act might contribute to the coffers.  However, even without it, control of the conduits and access to them guarantees ongoing revenues.

So I think this story could be written equally well as a nonfiction novel, covering about a 50 to 70-year timespan.  The events in this novel are occurring now, but who’s reading the screenplay?

CENIC Network overview (@2019July2). If the map looks unfamiliar (see state outlines), it may because California here is horizontal; in an upright (N/S) alignment it covers a good deal of the USA’s Pacific Coast. Guess it fit the blog page better horizontally! (Notice San Francisco left, Los Angeles, San Diego further right).//LGH

Post Title: CENIC!! (Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California). And National LambdaRail + the New Owner of the Los Angeles Times. My 2019<~~ CENIC Notes and Updates. (shortlink ends “-aed”).  About 9,500 words on publishing.  Might be shortened post-publication with a spin-off post, but as the top of this one says, that also just might not be my calling at the moment.   (Post was originally published with a typo.  Said updates (additions) were as of this week ending Saturday July 13,  2019, not 2018!//LGH).

2011 Businesswire: Change of CENIC leadership.  Current CEO, Louis Fox, took the helm in 2012, succeeding a Jim Dolgonas (running CENIC since 2002), per this Dec, 2011 BusinessWire.  Think “Fibre-optic wire” (then, 3,000 miles, now closer to 8,000 miles):

New CEO for CENIC, California’s High-Performance Research and Education Network Corporation (Dec. 16, 2011, La Mirada, California).  Louis Fox to Lead Non-profit Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California (CENIC) Serving Virtually All of the Golden State’s Public Education System

CENIC designs, implements, and operates CalREN, the California Research and Education Network, a high-bandwidth, high-capacity Internet network specially designed to meet the unique requirements of these communities. CalREN consists of a [then!-] 3,000-mile fiber-optic CENIC-operated backbone to which schools and other institutions in all 58 of California’s counties connect via leased circuits obtained from telecom carriers or via CENIC owned fiber-optic cable.

(There are many Louis Fox’s around; The CENIC CEO Louis Fox’s LinkedIn (#9716404) shows he’d spent about 23 years at the University of Washington in a variety of positions (increasingly more responsible), has a B.A. from Kenyon (Kenyon College is in Ohio) and  notations about (WU and) “Harvard” on the LinkedIn, but in what, not shown… (J. Ronald Fox at Harvard Business School) (<~just kidding, maybe a relative?)(probably much more current Louis Fox photo, at IeBroadband.com (apparently Oct. 2018, or upload that date). Even Bloomberg.com, (person profile #17502032), quite clear on his last three jobs, with big headings for “Career” “Education,” and “About” (CENIC, brief statement), lists the same three (well, one college and two universities) but the whole “Degrees” column is blank.

I don’t see any “Dr.” address throughout, so I’m going to assume that the highest level of graduate education Mr. (Louis) Fox MIGHT have reached would be a masters’ degree.  I hope that working 23 years in increasingly responsible positions (so it seems) at  major university in Seattle might require at least some proof of academia beyond a 4-year bachelor’s degree with no specific major (i.e., B.A. not B.S. or such)…

Right before CENIC he was simultaneously on PacificNorthwest GigaPOP (also a nonprofit, doesn’t post its financials), clearly international, and simultaneously (Mr. Fox was working for) what sounds like a US-based “JPA” | WICHE (Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, a trans-state governmental higher-education authority, like ‘WestEd’ I’ve blogged (this blog) earlier, particularly because its CAFRs are basically, hidden (if there are any being produced). WICHE operates as a nonprofit, lists is HQ as in Boulder, Colorado, includes both states and territories, has been around since 1953 (administering an education compact of the 1950s), and like the others, doesn’t post its financials, or any clear link to them, on a very informative and busy, brightly-formatted (black, white and blue mostly) website. It started at first in Eugene Oregon:

…WICHE began operations in 1953 in Eugene, OR, moving to its present location in Boulder, CO, in 1955. WICHE is governed by three gubernatorially appointed commissioners from each member. Under terms of the compact, each member commits to support WICHE’s basic operations through annual dues established by the full commission.

WICHE’s members include 15 Western states and member U.S. Pacific Territories and Freely Associated States (which currently include the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and Guam).

(Next three images pertain to LinkedIn Louis Fox,  but not WICHE I was also interested to see among PacificNorthwestGigaPOP’s Members, top of the list was EDUCAUSE which (I kid you not) was on my “To-Do” list, some of which is reflected on which windows I choose to keep open (see image gallery, showing some of my (alpha arranged by default) open browser windows, although none of the “NOYB” sort…).

CalREN is the product, CENIC operates it.  CENIC is California only, what about interstate and international? What about networks in other states?  There’s a definite story line here.

I’ve been cleaning up blog formats, and in the process, saw a full post of material on CENIC published, but submerged, as a sort of footnote to a Table of Contents page.  It seemed like its own topic, and “CENIC!!” a natural title.   A look through my saved files on this situation shows the interest went back to about January 2017, getting more serious in Sept. 2017, although it was obviously not the primary topic of this blog.

The bottom half (approximate) of this post, except any footnote, is what I understood on an initial drill-down, as originally published on my 2017 Table of Contents post (completed in early 2018), still one of the top sticky posts on the blog. (There are nine total: It’s ninth from the top, 2017 Table of Contents Continues Themes From 2016. (case-sensitive short-link ending “-5qz”. Until I publish again, it’s the one right above this post on “Current Posts” page.)

The top half (approximate) here holds my updates made while moving the earlier material.  It’s a fascinating topic. I decided to share it (and take a break from blog administrative cleanup). There’s some repetition between top and bottom halves of the post and I’ve not re-arranged it as one piece with a timeline of news articles and key events by key players, though while reading I keep the general timeframe as attached to individual or entities A, B, or C in mind (a good practice in any reading; wish more people did this when it came to problem-solving the family courts, domestic violence and child abuse issues and causes).

re: ‘TWO HELPFUL LINKS’ — Image from TopRightSidebar, ‘GO TO POSTS’ widget, shows TOC 2019 & 2018 + ‘Key Posts 2012-2017’ (LGH, @ Sept. 1, 2019)

(2019 TOC Is now through October 31, 2019, as shown on the link (not the image) and about to be updated through Nov.  The blog right sidebar will show most recent version of TOC 2019, post with shortlink ending “-ayV”)

CENIC had captured my attention back then as:

(1) a private nonprofit providing critical communications infrastructure for all levels (K-12 and universities, including some private and all? public ones in the state) and

(2) holding a strategically powerful position (“Connecting California to the World..” and interconnectivity among research institutions and universities within California: this state has several of famous ones, AND the public school systems K-12).

(3) I’d looked at the tax returns and, it being a California entity, its Charitable Registry annual filings, and quickly noticed failure to follow basic instructions and what appeared to be jacking up the access prices.

It’s obvious that when public institutions pay membership/access fees, the public is footing the bill, but probably unaware how unless actually involved.  CENIC as a nonprofit controlled access to the network and its tax returns (see below) entailed some subsidiary (reported “Schedule-R” related organizations) one of which was “National LambdaRail” whether as an LLC or in acronym (NLR).  etc.

As part of the communications infrastructure, it’s also part of the economic infrastructure of the country (and global communications).  For CENIC’s “CalREN” (Research Education Network) no doubt there are others.  (membership of “NLR” shows in its Wiki, below). The history of the fibre-optics network and “the need for speed” (and high-capacity info-crunching) comes with an economic corporate history also, and is an essential part of the 21st and last half of the 20th century.

[Considered explaining this further; decided “not here.”  “Stay tuned…”]

Meanwhile men and women like myself have at times struggled to even retain access to slow-speed internet access, and at times, even a functional telephone or cell phone (and by “like myself” I mean those whose income depletion stretches over a decade or more in the family courts, especially those dealing with prior or current domestic violence (or should I call it “coercive control” and not violence or abuse?) issues, including stalking). Read the rest of this entry »