Wall Street Hijacks Court, Crushes Transparency
Despite propping up each of these failing, morally corrupt institutions, with billions of his own cash, heaven forbid Average Joe try and see what’s going on behind the firewall.
Ruling in favor of Bank of America Corp’s Merrill Lynch unit, Barclays Plc and Morgan Stanley, U.S. District Judge Denise Cote said Theflyonthewall.com engaged in “systematic misappropriation,” essentially getting a “free ride” from its quick publication of upgrades and downgrades that can move stocks higher and lower.
Cote issued a permanent injunction requiring the Summit, New Jersey-based company to wait until 10 a.m. to report research from the three banks that was issued before the market opens, and at least two hours for research issued thereafter. The bulk of research is typically issued before the open.
Idea: LEDs as Dark Mesh Networks
Nice. This is cool because it can empower teams to share information, securely, in any room where they can control the lighting. And, since LED pucks are extremely mobile, you can do this on an ad hoc basis.
By contrast [ to radio ], visible-frequency wireless has all the bandwidth one could want. The signal would be generated in a room by slightly flickering all the lights in unison. No one would be bothered by this because the rate of modulation would be millions of times faster than a human eye can see. Since visible light can’t go through walls like radio, there would be no unwanted interference from stray signals and less worry of outside hackers.
The Human Mesh Network
Researchers have found a way to transmit at 10mbps through the human arm. This simply turns humans into wires with the ultimate USB connector at the end. This means you can easily plug your powerful handheld device into any interface that can tap into your hand- though the software stack would have to understand it.
The real nut, of course, is unlocking turning humans into nodes on a mesh network rather than edges.
IED Market in Afghanistan Vs. Iraq
Structure:
Bomb networks in Afghanistan differ somewhat from those in Iraq. Iraqi IED cells were largely funded by Saddam Hussein loyalists and sympathetic Sunnis in the Arab Gulf states. Bomb emplacers were the disenfranchised and the unemployed and most bombs were randomly placed. As an intelligence officer in Baghdad once told me, an emplacer would simply walk out his front door and drop a bomb onto the highway.
In Afghanistan, the networks have “almost a military-style organizational structure,” with top level direction of IED placement. Bomb emplacers follow directives from the “chain of command,” and the emplacers are usually trained fighters. “There’s a direction for where they should be emplaced, and the order is given and they’re emplaced,” he said.
Technology:
This cruder, more “homemade,” aspect is the big difference between IEDs in Afghanistan and those encountered in Iraq. Iraqi IEDs typically used military grade explosives and insurgents there widely used the explosively formed penetrator (EFP) shaped charge device. Afghan IEDs are much cruder devices, using commercially available fertilizer, potassium chlorate and ammonium nitrate, as accelerants. Triggering is typically rudimentary, mostly pressure plate or trip wires, with a few remotely detonated.
While Taliban IEDs are less sophisticated, because most roads are dirt, the insurgents are able to deep bury very large bombs that can destroy the most heavily armored vehicles with huge underbelly blasts. The lack of metallic components in those IEDs also makes them more difficult to detect. The military has been outfitting more vehicles with the simple, yet effective, mine roller.
Perpetual overwatch:
One solution JIEDDO is trying out, is to set up telescoping poles with cameras on top to establish “persistent surveillance” on the more heavily trafficked dirty roads. The major obstacle to that effort is transportation, Oates said, getting the gear into Afghanistan and maintaining it. He said cameras mounted on blimps will also be used, as they were in Baghdad.
CSI:
Oates is trying to beef up forensics inspection of the bombs themselves so as to track them back to specific bomb makers, an approach that proved effective in Iraq.