Isn’t bin Laden dead?

There are many references to the escape of Usama bin Laden from the mountainous Tora Bora region of Afghanistan in 2001. A Senate committee is currently reviewing this alleged escape and conveniently finding who to blame.

How much confidence do we really have that he escaped? Why has the world not seen him since? Why hasn’t there been more convincing communications from him save for the poor quality audio recordings?

Global Cyber-warfare in process

This latest report, Vast Spy System Loots Computers in 103 Countries, from the NYT, provides an update on the progress of the next world war: a war that will focus on information.

Note that the information targeted includes email communications: the researchers documented systematic searching and pilfering of email contents. Note that the use of the stolen communications are applied to counteract other information or shape decision-making of allies or enemies.

Consider this:

“… after an e-mail invitation was sent by the Dalai Lama’s office to a foreign diplomat, the Chinese government made a call to the diplomat discouraging a visit. And a woman working for a group making Internet contacts between Tibetan exiles and Chinese citizens was stopped by Chinese intelligence officers on her way back to Tibet, shown transcripts of her online conversations and warned to stop her political activities.” [NYT, same article noted above]

It is interesting to see that the reporter and several persons quoted in the article, noting that this particular operation apparently originated in China, “cautioned against concluding that China’s government was involved.”

Who is kidding whom, here?

Is Google becoming the virtual Borg?

I perceive a growing resemblance between the Google franchise and that intriguing construct of the Star Trek TV and film archive, the BORG.

You know the Borg, the group of cyborgs (or entities with natural and machine originated features and components) originally introduced in the Star Trek TV series. Now commonly used as a metaphor for any large group or organization that dominates its environment and appears impervious to change, negotiation, or destruction.

A primary process of the Borg is its absorption, or assimilation, of any potentially valuable attribute or feature found in other creatures into its collective assets. The source creatures are also added to the Borg and enhanced with attributes and capabilities acquired from others; thus, the assimilated creatures become part of the collective and are controlled and directed for the good of the whole.

A significant focus of the Borg is the use of information technology to support real-time communications and data processing as it sucks up data from the environments of its millions of drone creatures and sensors and, conversely, communicates instructions and directions back to them; this process of collective intelligence enables the parts to act as a coordinated whole.

John Markoff’s article ( 29-Nov-2008 ) in The New York Times online, “You’re Leaving a Digital Trail. What About Privacy?” has distinct references to the growing use of information technologies that resemble a world of virtual Borgs, of which Google is the industry leader.  He notes that,

… a vast sea of digital information [is] being recorded by an ever thicker web of sensors, from phones to GPS units to the tags in office ID badges, that capture our movements and interactions. Coupled with information already gathered from sources like Web surfing and credit cards … [forms] the basis for an emerging field called collective intelligence. [italics are mine]

Markoff goes on to state:

“GOOGLE and its vast farm of more than a million search engine servers spread around the globe remain the best example of the power and wealth-building potential of collective intelligence.

Google recently developed a process that would identify flu outbreaks based on its data collections. Markoff’s article introduces an activist support organization called MobileActive which plans to utilize collective intelligence to direct individual activists to action in support of their causes. Will Google’s command of their hoard of data allow them to communicate and direct us drones to act as Google wants?  Can we trust Google to always act for the collective good? Is what is good for Google good for us?

Maine lobster market derailed by bank failures in Iceland

This is a true story: the Maine lobster industry is reeling from a collapse in demand, and subsequent collapse in the market prices, for the deep-sea crustacean.  While supplies are adequate, Canadian seafood processors, who usually grab a significant portion of each day’s catch, have stopped ordering and buying lobsters because their credit lines with Icelandic banks have been frozen (no North Atlantic pun intended).

The crisis in Maine is tied directly to the collapse of Icelandic banks which were key lenders to processors in Canada, according to Dane Somers, executive director of the Maine Lobster Promotion Council. Without ready credit from those banks, Canadian processors don’t have the cash to purchase lobster from Maine, Somers said. [Bangor Daily News]

Lobsters were at $4.99/lb at Augusta Seafood earlier this week.  Lobsters off the boat are barely fetching $2.0/lb at some ports. For the typical consumer, lobsters at $4.99/lb. is a tremendous difference from the $12-13 per pound rates earlier in the summer and should make lobster lovers rejoice.

However, lobstermen and women can’t make any money at these low prices.  Fewer and fewer boats will be departing for the lobster fisheries in the coming weeks; supplies will constrict quickly and prices will rise. The length of this crisis could determine how many lobster boats stay in the business.

Not entirely innocent, are we?

While government leaders debate a Wall St. bail-out and everyone else decries the greedy bankers, some of the basis of this “crisis” can be discovered by looking in the mirror: see Hanson’s article in RCP.