Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Social Networking the New Intelligence Technique

From Jenna Orkin

Headlines
Chinese Submarines, Destroyers, Spotted in High Seas Near Okinawa
China offered oil for sanctions deal over Iran
World oil demand to hit record high this year: IEA
Ahmadinejad urges UN to investigate 9/11, Middle East conflicts
Lieberman: US Should Attack Iran's Nuclear Program If All Else Fails
Fury As Russia Sells Its Missile System to Iran
Iranian Spy for CIA: "Weak West' Will Cause War with Iran

Economy
Speculative bubble now at May 2000 levels
Hedge funds net short 10-year Treasurys
Is the world's second-largest economy on the ropes?
U.S. bank chief mobbed by angry borrowers
Food stamps for Ivy Leaguers
Lehman Channeled Risks Through ‘Alter Ego' Firm
"Banking System Still Quietly Insolvent" ; Larry Summers' Imagination Reaches Escape Velocity Should Hedge Funds Be Able to Take Over Failed Banks?
As the financial crisis causes more banks to fail, the cash-strapped FDIC may be forced to back away from its longstanding policy of preventing hedge funds from buying banks.
Trade Deficit in U.S. Widens More Than Anticipated as Import Demand Grows
Ask Warren Buffett 2010: Download the Complete CNBC Transcript
The Two Huge Reasons Small Businesses Are Disappointed By The Recovery
10 Big Surprises for 2010
House sellers flood back
Boom in vendors raises fears of another property market crash.
America's New Kinder, Gentler Militia (big on survival training) - from Rice Farmer
Hypselotimophobia - Fear of High Prices

Quote of the day:

"...people don't understand risk. They look at the past and use it to measure the future. What they don't realize is that risk in financial markets is not like rainfall or earthquakes.

Earthquakes are completely indifferent to what we think about them. But the financial markets are more sensitive than a poet."

Terror/Intelligence/Big Brother
Al-Qaida 'Scammed' in Its Quest for Nukes?
“Sometimes they’re criminal gangs that have information that some material had come out from the, let’s say, the area of the former Soviet Union or some stockpiles and they will try to provide that material to other groups to sell,” he said. “As I said, a lot of it is scam, you know, red mercury, whatever else.”
Georgia 'foiled plot to sell uranium'
President Saakashvili tells nuclear summit of attempted weapons sting as Obama calls on rest of world to act
'Hungary has Turned into a Grubby Hive of Nationalism'
Media commentators in Germany are alarmed at the emergence of the far-right Jobbik party as the third-strongest force in the Hungarian parliament.
Is Army losing war on suicide?
Scrubbing IDs Out of Medical Records for Genetic Studies
Invisible RFID Ink Safe for Cattle and Humans, Company Says
Twitter could act as early warning system for epidemics: experts
Compare the above link to this, from an article about Regina Dugan, the new director of DARPA: "In marking the 40th anniversary of the connecting of the first four nodes of the Internet in 1969, the agency offered a $40,000 prize to the first team of volunteers able to locate 10 large red balloons hidden around the country.

The task only sounds frivolous. It was actually something that experts agreed was impossible using traditional intelligence techniques. The challenge was designed to test new methods, involving the use of social networks."

Environment/Resources
Monsanto's minders
"Reuters investigates whether U.S. regulators are dropping the ball."
Why does that sound familiar? Because of the SEC or the EPA? The FDA or HUD?...
Factbox: Global area planted to biocrops
Gene engineered crops profit farmers
Tibetan plateau quake kills at least 23: report
Protests against power outages spread

And...
Argentina criminals 'evade capture by dressing up as sheep'

15 comments:

Pandabonium said...

Jenna - re: Sinking of South Korean warship: The Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources in South Korea said that at the time of the incident, a soundwave in the air equivalent to 260 kilograms of TNT exploding was detected.

The amount equals the explosive power of a middle-size torpedo carried by North Korea's Sango-class submarine.

more - http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201004130425.html

grayfox said...

For those of you who want to own your own home, perhaps with some acreage where you can grow food, but you can’t afford the price or don’t want a mortgage, look into tax default auctions in the area where you want to live if it’s a place where real estate is taxed. When property taxes haven’t been paid for five years, the property gets auctioned off by the County tax collectors office for a minimum bid of what’s owed in back taxes - a fraction of what the land would normally sell for. If that seems too heartless to you (benefitting from someone else’s loss), then contact the owner and offer to pay the back taxes in exchange for becoming a land partner.

If you find that’s still too much money for you to come up with (you virtually have to have cash in hand to buy property at a tax default auction), then get some friends or family together to go in on it with you. To find out more, contact the tax collectors office in the county, parish, or shire where you wish to live.

A peon said...

Recent environmental developments:

Quake in western China kills 400, buries more

Cyclone kills 89 people in eastern India

Is it just me,or is it the more people that die,the more headlines show up claiming peoples'growing confidence in the economic "recovery"?

Reports show more Americans feel economic recovery

Bernanke confident on recovery;warns on deficit

businessman said...

It's interesting for me to see how the media has been willing to attack the Pope this time around in the child molestation scandal. The Catholic Church has an unbelievable depth of things that have happened throughout their history, which if exposed in detail within the mainstream media, would shake the Church immeasurably.

The Church has great value to the people who run the world, because Church leaders can control so many millions of people worldwide by telling them what to do.

A few years ago the Pope said something similar to "We need to surrender ourselves to the people who really know how to pull us out of these difficult economic times", which at the time I found to be quite interesting.

The fact that the media is now attacking the leader of the Church in ways I've never seen before, makes me wonder if the Pope has now drawn the line with "the powers that be" in terms of how much more he'll continue to do their bidding for them.

After the media keeps turning the heat up on him for awhile, assuming that what I'm suggesting may be true, he may change his mind.

F.Kamilov said...

It seems odd. Two powerful earthquakes were listed here on the blog headlines only a few days ago. Then came Ahmadinejad's warning about the necessity of shifting 5 million Tehran residents to safer places, so that post-earthquake disaster management could be simplified. The very same day, Pakistani newspapers published a front page notice from the government emergencies department and a German NGO, detailing simple steps to take in the event of an earthquake. And today a strong earthquake struck China again, killing 400. Just a few weeks back, another temblor killed about 50 in eastern Turkey.

Synchronicities?

Or is it really that "odd"?

"For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: AND THERE SHALL BE EARTHQUAKES IN DIVERSE PLACES, and there shall be famines and troubles: THESE ARE THE BEGINNINGS OF SORROWS." (Mark 13:4-8)

Seems to be a "harmonious convergence" of agreement here, does it not? Conceited modern man proposes, but 'God' disposes cyclically.

gamedog said...

Remember this guy?

British nuclear expert's 17th floor UN death plunge 'was not suicide'

"He had been working for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organisation (CTBTO) at the UN building.

CTBTO staff monitor tremors in countries worldwide to uncover illegal nuclear tests."

There was a letter posted at Goerge Ure's site from one of this guy's friends just after the "suicide". It explained he was one of a few in the world expert at differentiating between nuclear blasts and earthquakes.

Just sayin.

Weaseldog said...

Earthquakes are not that unusual.

What has changed is that more people fill the world and communication is better.

If a similar earthquake occurred in China in 1930 and killed 4 people, it's likely very few in states would've heard about it in that year.

Weaseldog said...

"Then came Ahmadinejad's warning about the necessity of shifting 5 million Tehran residents to safer places, so that post-earthquake disaster management could be simplified."

Wouldn't this plan also be useful, if he thought that the USA was going to nuke Tehran?

Is he evacuating them upwind?

mastabingus said...

U see this one:

http://www.inteldaily.com/2010/04/gold-manipulation/

SteveDucey said...

Uh oh. Did anyone else see this?

http://www.inteldaily.com/2010/04/gold-manipulation/

Anonymous said...

Mr. Kamilov:

I have also found it strange the sudden increase in earthquakes. A reader on another blog posted a list of patents applied for in the last 10 years. One of them was for technology capable of causing earthquakes. Another was technology for altering the weather. If I can find the postings I will copy the links for you.

Zhyppers said...

@ F.Kamilov
Supposedly there isn't any increase in earthquakes. From the approximately 100 years of data collecting, there is only an average of one 8 point earthquake every year and 7 pointers are about 14 to 16 a year. USGS says the increase of earthquakes in the news have something to do with the increase of stations to detect earthquakes.

I can't disagree with the correlation though. The message does seem to ring in my head also.

toner deeski said...

There HAS been a sudden increase in earthquakes, and I don't find it strange given the times, just deeply disturbing....

gamedog said...

Zhyppers: There is some increased earthquake activity, more noticeable on a graph when only 6+ are graphed. This is however normal during solar minima - the sun has been in an unusually extended minima for some time.

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2009/01apr_deepsolarminimum/

http://www.springerlink.com/content/buvw2tq081013210/

F.Kamilov said...

There has undoubtedly been increased earthquake activity - both in the past century, and over the past two decades. I refer you, especially weaseldog, and cj, to this link:

http://www.icr.org/research/index/researchp_sa_r06/

Undoubtedly, Weaseldog, what you say is right. But the exponential increase in seismic activity is another thing. Even to an observant layman. And yes, it could work both ways regarding evacuating Tehran, although it is unlikely that Tehran will be the first target of the attackers' choice...