On Disconnectedness
Chirol has a great post up on the reality of the “disconnected” gap –
The key point is that Gap isn’t just a lack of “Core” properties. It isn’t the opposite, it’s simply a member of another group inside the same network.
He is right, it is a conflict between alternative networks. Think about it with this context:
What we confused for the Unipolar Moment was actually the conversation moving beyond nation states as a result of the lost generation of warfare. What had been placed on the backburner in the utterly nation-state moment we know as the Cold War came roaring to the top of the threat list. The Unipolar Moment never happened, instead white globalization and black globalization began facing off. We did not catch it because we were too busy looking for legacy (nation state) problems.
Types of Phishers
Ha.ckers – Interesting enough overview of how the phisher community breaks down –
Geographic dispersion is loose, as you might guess, but they are sort of basically chopped up into three groups of people, the Romanians/Eastern Europeans, the Chinese/Asians, and the Nigerians/North West Africans. Each have their own ways of attacking applications and phishing.
American Narcotics: $10 Billion In Mexico
BG – How much neighboring countries black economies are benefiting off of American narcotics sales-
In one study, the Drug Enforcement Administration tried to figure out just how much Mexican traffickers were making off of U.S. narcotics sales. Analysts started with the amount of U.S. dollars present in Mexico and then subtracted all legitimate uses, such as money sent home by Mexican migrants in America. What remained were billions of U.S. dollars with no reason to be south of the border except as dope proceeds. The amount of “excess U.S. dollars” they found: at least $9.2 billion in 2003 and $10.2 billion in 2004.
Surprisingly, Canadian traffickers are making a similar killing – by supplying Americans with marijuana and MDMA. Again, the analysts took estimates of how much pot and ecstasy Canadians unloaded in the United States, and multiplied it by the going wholesale prices. The result: between $5.2 billion to $21.2 billion in drug revenues each year.
Private Intelligence
Interesting example of how private intelligence firm Diligence conducts its business.
P2P News Distribution Via Texts
CNet – Cool workaround for when the government monitoring everything else –
A radio station hounded out of the country by Zimbabwean strongman President Robert Mugabe has found its e-mails are monitored and shortwave broadcasts are blocked by Chinese-built jamming devices, the station manager said at a press freedom conference here on Friday.
But, said SW Radio Africa founder Gerry Jackson, the censors haven’t caught on yet to text messaging. It’s a challenge to compress “the complexity of Zimbabwe’s news into 160 characters including spaces,” Jackson said. “That’s what I do every day.”