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 Sunday, January 11, 2004
Daily Outrage: Forget 'Bush-Hitler'. Where's the solemn indignation at Dean-Goebbels comparisons--at Democrats labeled Nazis? [The Nation Weblogs]
Hypocrites. Why are so many political leaders EXACTLY that? And they no longer even try to hide it. The shear arroagnce pisses me off. 2:29:04 PM 
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The Tyler case
. The Texas cyanide bomb case made today's edition of the Los Angeles Times:
Case Yields Chilling Signs of Domestic Terror Plot
You'll note that I was interviewed for this piece, though the reporter only quotes the blog. (A truncated version without my qu [Orcinus]
I read the article in the Seattle Times and was floored that the author of this blog was used in the story. First time have read of a blogger in this sort of context in an article that was not describing blogs in general. 12:24:57 AM
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Doc. New Economy Hack: Turning Consumers into Producers. Want to see results? Check out Bush in 30 Seconds, by MoveOn.org, the left-wing, grass-roots issue advocacy organization. These are first-rate TV ads produced mostly by amateurs, in a short period of time. Regardless of your politics, you have to agree that they're equal in quality to anything put out by a high-priced agency or production house. [John Robb's Weblog]
This is exactly right. We now have technologies that are in the hands of 'average' people that allow them to directly compete with pros. These ads are very good for the type. But they are the harbringers of a whole new way to exchange ideas. 12:22:28 AM
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If you want to bend your mind around what it meant to be a man in a different age. I recommend the Horatio Hornblower series.. I also recommend the Sharpes series. The books are probably better but the Brit video series are excellent (discount special effects and look more for exceedingly strong character development). Flashman, that rogue and liar is still only in print. [John Robb's Weblog]
These all 3 great series, although Flashman has the lead for me. Combining nice satire of he style with well researched history makes this a great series. The conceit (the a British Upperclass rogue was present at every single British - and quite a few other -adventure of the late 1800s is simply wonderful. Must reading. Unfortunately, the weakens of the lot, Royla Flash, is the only one that has made it to film, starring Malcolm McDowell and Oliver reed, it only weakly captured the skein of the novels. But the author George McDonald fraser, wrote the scripts for the Three and The Four Musketeers (also starring Oliver reed) where his historical accuracy, coupled with farce, can easily be seen. 12:20:23 AM
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Parameters. Ralph Peters: "The New Warrior Class." The soldiers of the United States Army are brilliantly prepared to defeat other soldiers. Unfortunately, the enemies we are likely to face through the rest of this decade and beyond will not be "soldiers," with the disciplined modernity that term conveys in Euro-America, but "warriors"--erratic primitives of shifting allegiance, habituated to violence, with no stake in civil order. Unlike soldiers, warriors do not play by our rules, do not respect treaties, and do not obey orders they do not like. Warriors have always been around, but with the rise of professional soldieries their importance was eclipsed. Now, thanks to a unique confluence of breaking empire, overcultivated Western consciences, and a worldwide cultural crisis, the warrior is back, as brutal as ever and distinctly better-armed. [John Robb's Weblog]
The US War College Journal always makes good reading. This is from 1994 but seems awfully relevant. 12:15:31 AM
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Why can't Homeland Security tell the difference between Al Quaeda and small children?. Schneier's op-ed for Salon explains why our "security" measures are taking away our liberties without foiling terrorists.
In the months and years after 9/11, the U.S. government has tried to address the problem by demanding (and largely receiving) more data. Over the New Year's weekend, for example, federal agents collected the names of 260,000 people staying in Las Vegas hotels. This broad vacuuming of data is expensive, and completely misses the point. The problem isn't obtaining data, it's deciding which data is worth analyzing and then interpreting it. So much data is collected that intelligence organizations can't possibly analyze it all. Deciding what to look at can be an impossible task, so substantial amounts of good intelligence go unread and unanalyzed. Data collection is easy; analysis is difficult.
Link [Boing Boing Blog]
This is the preeminant conundrum of our times. How to extract useful knowledge from the huge amount of information being generated. Normally, openess and transparency help. Humans are uniquely designed to find patterns, to extract knowledge to make decisions, to solve complex problems, by using their social networks. It is why open source works. This approach leverages new technologies and is the only way I know of for dealing with information overload. Someone looks at the data, gets a gut feeling and begins the conversation with the group. Other intuitions, mixed with experience and diverse approaches to solving problems usually arrives at a workable solution.
The the huge amount of data being generated by Homeland Security cannot be open. It is ket closed and opaque, preventing the sorts of solutions needed. I find it hard to believe that this data will actually be found useful. Knowledge in this areas will come from the standard methods, using information gathering approaches that we have used for centuries, rather than the new ones that technology is providing.. 12:01:54 AM
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