Defining Small Arms
Heard an interesting statistic today: 99% of weapons used in modern warfare are small arms.
Not sure, but gut says the percentage is probably very much near there. Unfortunately, we are going to have to redefine that term. .. the rate of additions to the category are accelerating along Moore’s curve.
Schneier on Food Security
Excellent column. Covers a paper including all known food system attacks and just how rare and unlikely that variant is.
Ideological History of the Supreme Court, 1937-2007
Alex Lundry has the infographic.
Open Source Counterinsurgency In Cincinnati
This story does parallel the trajectory most governance platforms follow when facing such a threat:
First, the overreach (think the Surge).
Two high-profile shootings in Cincinnati in April 2006 created the perception that crime was out of control in the city. The police believed that many of the killings involved gangs and were related to the drug trade. That summer, the Cincinnati police force implemented a “zero tolerance” policy, arresting more than twenty-six hundred people. The policy reduced street crime but had little effect on the city’s murder count, which continued to rise.
Then open source counterinsurgency took hold. (Think the Awakening or Salwa Judum.)
Kennedy explained that, in Cincinnati, the police would identify gang members who were on parole or probation and compel them to attend a meeting. There, the cops would demand that the shootings end, and promise that, if they did not, the punishment would be swift and severe and target the entire gang. The city would also make life coaching and job counseling available to those who wanted out of the thug life. The police were initially skeptical about the program, but in 2007, they began implementing Ceasefire with a team that included social workers and academics.
(Full story’s behind a paywall.)
Infopollen
Jon Lukens has some interesting stuff to say. Added to the reader.